Seto Kaiba

HIGHSPEED Etoile is still a very strong contender not only for most skippable series of the Spring 2024 lineup, but of the last year and CY2024 as well. A dumbarse protagonist can work in a shounen adventure series where their only concern in the world is being strong enough to beat up the next bad guy. It's less believable or excusable if the protagonist is in a profession with an extremely high skill floor and they're forced to operate in a professional context. Like Ep1, Ep3 feels like a waste of an entire episode because... There's a limit to how much idiocy you can excuse in a protagonist... and when Rin Rindo not only doesn't know the rules of the sport she's debuting as a professional in but also doesn't know who the people she's competing against even are, it strains believability too much. An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride was good again this week. They're trying to build some tension in the story, but all it really feels like is the author showing that they at least looked up the list of demons in the Lesser Key of Solomon on Wikipedia. There's some good character moments though. Vampire Dormitory is feeling increasingly like one of my standouts for the season. It's surprisingly good fun with Mito and Ruka having some good banter and some nice moments together. It's very reminiscent of Ouran High School Host Club in some ways, with Mito being very similiar to Ouran's Haruhi. As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World is still pursuing its unconventional approach to the isekai genre, and I'm happy to see it. It's not quite as exciting as the other titles that made names for themselves by subverting the genre's expectations (e.g. Overlord, KonoSuba, Yojo Senki, Re:Zero, and Shield Hero) but it's still very engaging character drama right now and it's undeniably satisfying watching the classist but not unreasonable Lord Raven repeatedly eat crow as his son Ars brings him various incredible talents that he can't bring himself to reject. Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers is not really developing in any new, interesting, or unconventional directions. It's very much a form letter "overpowered protagonist" isekai fantasy, though it's at least a little less lazy about it than many of the other entries in that category like Isekai Cheat Magician. It's watchable, but thus far the series hasn't brought anything to the table we haven't seen other shows do before and do better. It mostly seems to be veering into the obligatory harem part of the mandatory tropes, with the main love interest Rys spending most of the episode chasing away other girls she thinks are trying to capture her "husband's" attention romantically. I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability is also not developing in any new, interesting, or unconventional directions. It too is more form letter isekai-style power fantasy and unlike Chillin' in Another World it's INCREDIBLY LAZY about the fact. The story has no stakes because nothing in it can do more than to harmlessly amuse the incredibly overpowered protagonist Prince Lloyd. It's just boring. It feels like if you were to cut out all the scenes of people ranting about how amazing or impossible the things Lloyd is doing are, the show would probably be only about a quarter of its total runtime (and a good chunk of that would be the OP, ED, eyecatches, and the omakes). Re:Monster still has yet to do anything to really distinguish itself as an isekai series, with the last several episodes having been devoted almost entirely to a standard isekai binge acquisition of new Skills in the inexplicably game-ified fantasy world. Nothing about it really feels original or interesting, and the only thing it's really doing differently from other titles with essentially the same premise like So I'm a Spider, So What? and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is that the protagonist has a harem who seemingly all love him simply because he's not a standard-issue rape-y j-fantasy goblin. Otherwise, it's pretty much pure form letter isekai power fantasy writing so it's incredibly dull with little-to-no sense of direction or purpose to the story. There's some hilariously bad copy-pasted animation in this latest episode though, with all of the summoned skeleton warriors using exactly the same looped animation. The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases could only politely be described as incredibly tedious. It's never moved beyond being one of those isekai-adjacent titles that has an obligatory overpowered protagonist with cheat powers from the gods in a j-fantasy world with unexplained game mechanics. It doesn't even do anything with its one halfway original idea about the Power of the Hero leading to the Hero inevitably being as hated and feared as the dark lord they've been created to destroy. Eminently skippable. Tadaima, Okaeri is one I'm starting this week. It was billed as a more straightforward story about a gay couple raising a child together and dealing with discrimination because of their orientation... and that description turned out to be more than a bit wide of the mark. A more accurate description of the setting reads more like a prompt for an mpreg fetish writer than anything, so I'm not surprised they didn't mention that... It's not lewd in any way, thank goodness, but the bait-and-switch premise makes the story a lot less topical, interesting, or impactful. It honestly feels like kind of a wasted premise and a weak effort to dodge a potentially controversial topic in the laziest way possible that inadvertantly makes the story unnecessarily complicated to no useful end. I'm actually rather disappointed by this one, as there've been a number of shows recently that've tackled similarly thorny topics without resorting to such cheap cop-out moves and done them justice.

And it's exactly the nonevent anyone familiar with the franchise already knew it would be from the outset. Yaaaaay... 🥱 A final pointless chapter in a stakeless side story set in the Nonevent Saga where all the main characters are Saved By Canon because it's an interquel and the villain's just a disposable expy of a popular antagonist from the TV series. Otherwise, it's pretty much the usual form letter writing you see in Robotech comics. We get the obligatory reminder that the story is set between the two sagas the fans actually care about: the Macross Saga and the Sentinels. There's the occasional reminder that the Army of the Southern Cross is canonically useless, some halfhearted fanservice in the form of unnecessary cameos by established characters and incidental fanfic-level stuff like naming ships after dead characters that breaks the flow of the story, a character who isn't canonically infantry goes full Rambo for some reason, a fair amount of horribly stilted banter between enemies, and they take the mandatory cheap shot at Minmei based on how she was flanderized in Sentinels too just to put the cherry on top of this sundae of mediocrity. It's a mess... but it's a mess in all the usual and expected ways that licensed Robotech works are a mess. That horribly dated writing is 100% on-brand for Robotech, though. It's a product of the editorial process of the TV series. They were trying to take three shows that were written with a high school-aged audience in mind and dumb them down for a primary school audience. All that exposition dumping was to make sure the audience could still follow the story. (The same reason other kids shows do the same thing where the villian monologues and explains their entire plan.) That's also not exactly a small part of why projects like Shadow Chronicles got mercilessly dragged by fans and non-fans alike when they put them up on public display. They're still writing like their audience are kids from the 80's and not the older teens and twenty-somethings they were trying to attract in the 2000s or the adults that've made up most of the fanbase since the late 90's. That's just how Robotech has always treated him since Robotech II: the Sentinels. Never mind that Breetai was one of the most senior commanders in the Zentradi forces in the Macross Saga or that he's hands-down the most experienced fleet commander the Earth Forces have by an enormous margin thereafter, he's made into one of Rick and Lisa's loyal sidekicks and assigned to the segregated all-Zentradi unit aboard the SDF-3. He even gets killed off in an undignified manner after leading a dwindling force of Zentradi grunts for decades in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. The disrespect is real... but then, in Robotech, Humanity is canonically xenophobic as all get-out. It's certainly a far cry from the respect he got in Macross, where he became commander of the Spacy's flagship after the war and Chief of Staff of the Spacy a few years after that when General Global retired, with his service being commemorated by naming a Macross-class ship after him.

A Condition Called Love is definitely one of the creepier romance stories I've seen. That Hotaru is basically romantically tone deaf is about the only thing keeping Hananoi in the game, because this guy is constantly engaging in stalker-tier behavior. It's actually kind of weird nobody has called him on it and that word hasn't gotten around his school considering how many acrimonious exes he supposedly has. A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics is definitely keeping things fresh and unusual with its changes in perspective from the princess working as a detective to the homeless lady knight. It's a comedy, but it gets weirdly frank about several hard-hitting topics like homelessness, illegal immigration, and now the predatory behavior of cults in Japan.

Watched Mysterious Disappearances Ep2 today. Honestly, I can't even muster up the enthusiasm to review it properly. It's as bad as the first episode, and yeah it still feels like a vaguely horror-themed contrivance used to excuse shots of the protagonist's massive rack.

For some reason, Southern Cross's writers and the design team "Ammonite" seem to have had it in for the Logan. Despite already having a bunch of secondary fighter designs that were specifically and explicitly made to be destroyed onscreen, the Logan's the one they saddled with the rep of being replaced because it was ineffective on the battlefield. That the Logan's a bad fighter in-universe is one of the few consistently mentioned details about it. Even the show's promotional materials get in on it at points. (That Marie Angel's hangs on for as long as it did is apparently more an indicator that the "Cosmo Amazon" just that good.)

Gave Mysterious Disappearances a whirl last night, and first impressions were frankly terrible. It's usually not a great sign if a show's OP has multiple shots of clearly-intended-for-fanservice nudity in it. Mysterious Disappearances seems to be hoping its audience will be too entranced by the "tracts of land" on display to notice the writing is hot garbage. Don't get me wrong, I adore bad horror movies... but Mysterious Disappearances' first episode is bad on a level that's less "so bad it's funny" and more "flies clean off the end of the critical spectrum into the cloying void of dispassionate loathing" bad. It almost feels like what you'd get if you asked Bing's version of ChatGPT to write a j-horror short story. The characters seem to be on a mission to react in the least believable way at all times.

Unnamed Memory is definitely a bit of an odd one for a fantasy series... Not really sure what to make of this one yet. Oscar and Tinasha seem to have pretty good chemistry right off the bat, though it's almost hard to say what the genre here is meant to be. It starts out feeling like fantasy/adventure but seems to course correct into a romance/drama partway into the first episode.

I've had an unusual amount of time to watch today, since it's "annual mandatory training" season and those things are always so easy you'd have to be blind drunk and suffering a severe concussion to actually get those questions wrong. 🤣 I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability feels like a show worth skipping. It's one of those isekai adjacent titles where the world's a fantasy one that runs on RPG logic and the protagonist is basically just pure power fantasy. This one's a hard pass if you actually want an engaging story. Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a more literal application of isekai tropes with the only real twist being that the main guy was already living in a fantasy RPG world and got isekai'd to a subtly-different one. All I can describe this one as is "eminently skippable so far".

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio is a rather unusual little drama/comedy about two high school students who, on being cast on a radio series, each discover that the other is ALSO a high schooler who's been moonlighting as a professional voice actor. I'm definitely gonna keep following this one... it's a ways outside of the usual, and it seems like it'll offer some good character development. As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World seems to be shaping up to be one of the few new isekai titles to offer a reasonably original take on the premise. Instead of the reincarnatee being stupidly overpowered, he seems on course to rise to power by being a superhumanly good judge of character and bringing out the true potential in others by leveraging their hidden or unrealized talents. This is definitely one to follow this season. It keeps going to interesting and unconventional places.

Crunchyroll's 2024 Spring lineup is providing a veritable bumper crop of unusual shows... I've added The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, Yatagarasu: the Raven Does Not Choose Its Master, Mysterious Disappearances, Unnamed Memory, KonoSuba 3, and a few other titles to my watchlist. I'm up to 27 this season. First up on my lunchtime watchlist is Vampire Dormitory Ep2. I missed, last episode, that this is a commemorative work for the 70th anniversary of Nakayoshi magazine. After a rough first episode, Vampire Dormitory's made some massive improvements and this new episode is quite a bit of fun. In no small part because Ruka is just such a dork. He and the protagonist Mito have surprisingly good chemistry that I wish had been more visible in the first episode.

Astro Note continues to be a weird throwback of a series. As goofy as it is, Astro Note continues to be a delight to watch for both the visuals and the story. The reactions these characters have are over the top in a wonderfully old school way.

After some research, it seems that this practice was Not Quite Dead as recently as the early 2010s. Funimation apparently occasionally/rarely indulged by recording English versions of OPs or EDs for a few titles including Ouran High School Host Club (2006), Fruits Basket (2001), and Free! (2013). I'd thought the practice had died out back in the 90's, as the last case I could recall that wasn't 4Kids replacing songs outright was Tenchi Universe back in '97.

When it first came out, Discovery was only a CBS All Access exclusive in the US and Canada. It was on Netflix everywhere else. Netflix actually put up the entire production budget in exchange for the international streaming rights. The first season went so far over budget and did so poorly on Netflix that Netflix tried to have the series cancelled. The only reason it kept going was that CBS threatened to sue Netflix for breach of contract if they didn't continue production. Netflix reportedly tried to cancel the series again after a similarly dismal showing from season two. They finally escaped it after season three, having struck an agreement to terminate their contract and sell the international rights back to the post-merger ViacomCBS for an undisclosed sum. Discovery did so poorly on Netflix that Netflix tried to cancel it twice and then willingly took an L and sold the rights back just to be rid of it and their obligations to it. ... and this is the one CBS/ViacomCBS/Paramount thinks is the future of Star Trek. 🤣

Well, you know me... I'm a wordy bastard. 😛🤣 It is actually available in a few other places, including the YouTube/Google Play digital library if that's your thing. Lower Decks had a bit of a rough start because of what an arsehole its protagonist is, but it hit its stride surprisingly quickly. It's a lot of fun to watch and like Strange New Worlds it has that sense of adventure and optimism that are missing in the other new Trek titles.

For what it's worth, the whole "five year mission" concept isn't even a thing outside of TOS and the other 23rd century titles (TAS, DSC, SNW). Five year missions were only really a thing for the big deep space explorers like the Constitution-class and Excelsior-class in the 23rd century. Starfleet seems to have gone away from the idea after the 23rd century given that the concept vanished from Trek entirely with TNG and wasn't mentioned again until DSC and SNW. Even if they still did that kind of thing, the USS Cerritos isn't one of the big multi-mission deep space explorers that gets sent on that kind of mission. She's a rear-echelon utility ship of a type that both TOS-era (and PIC era) material classifies as a tugboat. Star Trek: the Next Generation cut the idea out entirely. The opening narration changed from: to: Star Trek: the Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager all adopted the premise that one season equalled one year of in-universe time. TNG's seven seasons span seven years from 2364 to 2370 with the movie being set one year later in 2371. DS9's seven seasons span seven years from 2369 to 2375. VOY's seven seasons span seven years from 2371-2378. Star Trek: Enterprise followed the same basic approach too, with its four seasons spread between April 2151 to January 2155. Star Trek: Discovery seems to follow the same approach was well, with its two 23rd century seasons spanning 2256-2258 and its two completed 32nd century seasons spanning 3188-3190. Star Trek: Picard breaks the pattern a bit with its first season set in 2399, its second and third seasons both taking place in the first half of 2401, though that still averages out to 3 years in-universe time = 3 seasons. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a bit more of a pattern-breaker as it's indicated that seasons one and two both take place in 2259. Star Trek: Lower Decks's four seasons currently span a two-year period from 2380 to 2381. So, you're right for the wrong reason... it is like 2-2.5 year story but the whole five year mission isn't a thing at the time the series is set.