Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted June 29 Posted June 29 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2025-06-28/i-left-my-a-rank-party-tv-anime-gets-2nd-season/.226087 I am surprised that this is getting a 2nd season. Finally, Angel Next door spoils me rotten. update. Got a April 2026 release for season 2. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 2 Posted July 2 The Summer 2025 simulcast season has finally kicked off. Only a few shows have dropped first episodes so far... Rent a Girlfriend S4, Takopi's Original Sin, Detectives These Days Are Crazy!, and Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter. Less than zero interest in Simp Simulator 2K5... er... Rent a Girlfriend S4. Takopi's Original Sin's synopsis doesn't really inspire either. Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter is... well... let's just say the start of the series screams "Excuse plot". All of about two minutes are spent setting up the story's premise - the story's protagonist being a student who failed his government exam to become a sorcerer and is being quietly fobbed off on a nobleman's daughter as a private tutor - before it's off to the races. The promotional key art seems to suggest this will be a harem series, and the protagonist unthinkingly sexually harassing two different young girls in the first seven minutes is not exactly helping. I have a feeling this one is going to be excruciatingly dull. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 2 Posted July 2 Detectives These Days Are Crazy! is... certainly something. It's the story of a down-on-his-luck, chain-smoking, middle-aged private detective who was once hailed as a genius in his high school years who has spent most of his career barely making ends meet thanks to a spectacular case of gifted kid burnout. His rotten luck is changed when an extremely bossy teenage girl barges into his office with a years-old flyer demanding to be taken on as a part-time employee because she dreams of becoming a detective herself... and because his agency is closest to her house, so she won't have to commute as far. It's quite entertaining so far. I'm looking forward to more. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 2 Posted July 2 My favorite almighty Vending machine is back. I like this show for some reason. Quote
azrael Posted July 3 Posted July 3 Something for you to think about as you watch new shows with subs. Crunchyroll Accidentally Reveals They've Been Using ChatGPT for Sub Translations (CBR.com) Quote
Big s Posted July 3 Posted July 3 16 minutes ago, azrael said: Something for you to think about as you watch new shows with subs. Crunchyroll Accidentally Reveals They've Been Using ChatGPT for Sub Translations (CBR.com) Makes you wonder about the dubs Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 3 Posted July 3 The Water Magician started today, It was an interesting 1st episode. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 3 Posted July 3 17 hours ago, azrael said: Something for you to think about as you watch new shows with subs. Crunchyroll Accidentally Reveals They've Been Using ChatGPT for Sub Translations (CBR.com) Is anyone really surprised? Every corporation worth a damn has spent the last year or so frantically trying to find a viable use-case for "AI" tools in their workflow and/or products because it's trendy and they're all terrified of being left behind should a competitor find a way to make the technology useful. Even companies or divisions where "AI" tools have no practical application or pose an enormous risk of leaking proprietary information. Lots of backpedaling going on there too lately. 'course the article's also been updated to say that it was an outside contractor using ChatGPT in violation of their contract. Admittedly, if you told me ChatGPT wrote Classic Stars, I'd absolutely believe it... it reads like AI slop. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 4 Posted July 4 So, I decided to give New Saga a whirl... and it is as painfully generic as its title suggests. In a generic medieval j-fantasy world where Humanity has been at war with the forces of the Demon King for thousands of years, generic j-fantasy protagonist "Kyle" finally slays the Demon King but is fatally wounded in the process. As he lays dying, he touches a jewel guarded by the now-slain Demon King and awakens to find he has been sent back in time to four years before the invasion began. He must use his future knowledge to try to Save The World. Don't fail to miss it. In a world where we're increasingly worried about studios will be using generative AI to churn out poorly-composed, formulaic, derivative slop with no soul or value, there are still a few brave human authors who are unwilling to concede to GenAI tools in the writing quality race to the bottom. 😆 Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 4 Posted July 4 The apothecary diaries ended today. It was good end. Already a sequel has been announced. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 5 Posted July 5 Very happy to see that a third season of The Apothecary Diaries has been announced. Between that and the forthcoming fourth season of Ascendance of a Bookworm, the "weird girl with highly situational knowledge" crowd are going to be eating well indeed. Picked up a couple more of the Summer '25 simulcast offerings. Hopefully they'll have more to offer than the likes of New Saga or Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter. Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant! is yet another one of these isekai-adjacent form letter JRPG fantasy stories about a nice guy protagonist who finds himself being kicked out of The Strongest Adventurer Party because its leader is a cowardly and arrogant slimeball who clearly hasn't thought it through, and despite being a max level utterly broken demigod opts to leave his companions in the slimeball's care and quit adventuring altogether and go live a slow life boonies. Inevitably as the f***ing tides, the slimeball will slowly crash out during the season since he didn't realize how much he needed the protagonist while the protagonist lives his best life. It's nothing we haven't seen fifty times before over the last eight years. Spoiler Indeed, the only things that seem to set it apart from the many other times this premise has been done before are that the protagonist is a massive brick sh*thouse of a man not the usual j-fantasy twink, and that instead of being dismayed he seems positively thrilled to be summarily dismissed. This sort of thing must happen a lot in this world, since he's got a mass-printed guidebook on how to open your own restaurant as an ex-adventurer. First impressions are that Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant! is bland and inoffensive, lacking anything to really make it feel distinct in any sense. The Water Magician defies the trend of being isekai-adjacent j-fantasy in favor of just being a straight isekai story. 20 year old Ryou, a protagonist so generic he might as well have a barcode for a face, falls victim to legendary isekai serial killer Truck-kun and awakens to find himself in a featureless void with a being who professes to be an angel. He learns that he is to be reincarnated in a fantasy world, but not for any particular purpose, so he requests to live a slow life. The angel sets him up with a house in a peaceful area, several months of supplies, and leaves him to it after informing him he's compatible with water magic and leaving him a knife and two books on local flora and fauna. Spoiler After an initial info-dump by the Angel, pretty much the entire episode is just a montage of "slow life" events as Ryo gradually refines his magic powers to the point that they can be used for practical purposes like bathing, cooking, preserving food, and hunting. He trains with a Dullahan, then fights a monster bird. A dragon pops out of nowhere and decides to exposit at him, informing him that the sword the Dullahan gave him is the Sword of the Fairy King. The Angel then reveals that Ryo has a secret ability that he didn't know about, that being Eternal Youth. First impression... The Water Magician is unlikely to develop into anything interesting. The tropes it uses make it feel like its original web novel should be around a decade older than it is... apparently this series is from just five years ago, rather than the fifteen it feels like from how it's written. I was going to start Lord of Mysteries, but I realized after looking up its Wikipedia page that it's another bloody isekai and I'm overdosed on that trope for one night. Apparently this one is a Chinese isekai series instead of a Japanese one, with a fantasy Victorian England-inspired setting full of magic and steampunk instead of standard j-fantasy wilderness. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 5 Posted July 5 Silent Witch started today. I am not sure about this one yet. Quote
Dangard Ace Posted July 5 Posted July 5 Ahhh isekai. I'll start watching Isekai again when they start being like Fushigi Yuugi, Escaflowne, Rayearth, Shurato Inuyasha or Gate. Really tired of the died and reincarnated by a God in another world with OP abilities. Hmmm....think I'll rewatch Gate now. Just binged Macross 7 and Hellsing. Good classics. So for Summer 2025 watchlist: Sono Bisque Doll S2. Dan Da Dan S2. Kaiju No 8 S2. Call of the Night S2. Shield Hero S4. Sakamoto Days S2. Futari Solo Camp S1 Fermat No Ryouri S1 One Piece S ...21? 22? Anne Shirley S2 Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 5 Posted July 5 29 minutes ago, Dangard Ace said: Ahhh isekai. I'll start watching Isekai again when they start being like Fushigi Yuugi, Escaflowne, Rayearth, Shurato Inuyasha or Gate. Really tired of the died and reincarnated by a God in another world with OP abilities. Hmmm....think I'll rewatch Gate now. So, I have good news for you then... https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2025/7/4/gate-2-tides-of-conflict-tv-anime-announced There's a new Gate series coming. Quote
pengbuzz Posted July 5 Posted July 5 *wonders when the next sequel to Record of Lodoss War will be butchered made* Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 5 Posted July 5 Caught the second episode of Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter... and oof, don't fail to miss it. It's developing exactly as I expected, as a low-effort lolicon harem series. Lord of Mysteries is also eminently skippable, as it turns out. The first new episode of My Dress-Up Darling dropped today, so that's some good news at least. 9 hours ago, pengbuzz said: *wonders when the next sequel to Record of Lodoss War will be butchered made* Hm? You mean besides Legend of Crystania, Magical Warrior Louie (localized as Louie the Rune Soldier), and Record of Lodoss War: Next Generation? NGL, I actually rather like Louie for how incredibly irreverent it is as a fantasy series. Spoiler The protagonist, Louie, could perhaps best be described as a wizard who put all of his points into Strength instead of Intelligence... with the end result being a heroic meathead who frequently forgets he can do magic and has to carry around crib notes for his spells. He joins an all-female adventuring party because the war god is a troll and a shipper who seems to enjoy tormenting the party's priestess, and gets up to all manner of shenanigans and solves magical problems by punching things really hard. (The dub is particularly good too... they got Jason Douglas to play Louie, who normally plays suave intellectual characters like Lord Il Palazzo.) Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 6 Posted July 6 (edited) Wow this new season in awesome. Bunny Senpai s2 started and it was great. My Dress up darling s2 started and was awesome. City the Animation started. This is the closest we will get to a Nichijou season 2. I watched the 1st episode of game center girl. It was so cute. There was so much English spoken. Nice to hear normal English. Amaki Sally an American does a great job. I am still waiting for Shield hero to start. On 7/4/2025 at 8:22 PM, Seto Kaiba said: So, I have good news for you then... https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2025/7/4/gate-2-tides-of-conflict-tv-anime-announced There's a new Gate series coming. No Rory Mercury. A new cast. Edited July 6 by Hikaru Ichijo SL Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 7 Posted July 7 A bunch more episodes dropped today... so I'm starting Betrothed to My Sister's Ex over lunch. NGL, my hopes for this one are not high. Crunchyroll's synopsis makes it sound like it's Legally Distinct Anime Cinderella, so the Walt Disney Corporation doesn't sue. Spoiler ... and, as it turns out, that impression is pretty much spot on. The start of the story absolutely reads like Legally Distinct Anime Cinderella. Our protagonist is the youngest daughter of a minor baron in Generic Fantasy Kingdom-land, a beautiful young lady who is forced to live a hard life as a domestic servant in her own family's home because her parents are too poor to afford to hire more servants and too arrogant to live like commoners (and also just don't like her or something?). For bonus points, she seems to believe she is also very ugly despite being all of five minutes quality time with a hairbrush from looking like a princess. While she is moping out in the garden about her birthday being forgotten in the face of her sister's debut, the fashionably late count bumps into her, mistakes her for a maid while asking her for directions to the party, and then the two inexplicably hit it off when she recognizes him (and the style of his clothes) and the two of them start geeking out over the subject of his mother's exotic homeland. OK, I'm gonna admit... they got me. They got me. Those two hitting it off is disgustingly cute. Watching the count do a 180 when he realizes he'd got the two sisters mixed up is quite fun too. Full on human BSoD. (They couldn't resist going for glass shoes though, I see...) I have a feeling I'm going to like this one. It's very cute and funny. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 7 Posted July 7 Grand Blue is back and it is completely ridiculous. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 7 Posted July 7 Giving another series a whirl while I wait for some automation processes to finish at work... The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses. Y'know, I'm feeling optimistic after Betrothed to My Sister's Ex. This series looks like it's going to be cringe-worthy harem fanservice material but maybe it'll have some substance after all. Spoiler ... starting they mean to go on, the opening shot is of the main cast members and... geez... um... how do I put this gently? It is readily apparent that the original mangaka likes his girls with great big"tracts of land". Real big. Bigger than their heads BIG. The kind of character design where the women look like a q-tip with two grapes stapled to it. There's a loli too, which doesn't inspire confidence either for other reasons. 🙃 It's not every day the literal first frame of a series makes me stop dead and say "Oh no...". I guess the official translation of the title is The Stunned Hero and the Assassin Princesses... the hero is a generic goob and the other three members of his party are assassins who all want to murder him for their own reasons. The loli is apparently the Demon Lord's sheltered daughter, the priestess is Great Value brand Revy from Black Lagoon working a paid assassin gig using assault rifles and pistols even though this is a fantasy setting, and the third girl is some kind of professional dominatrix who runs a BDSM dungeon and just wants to screw with him for yuks? What? The protagonist is, as promised, a socially awkward man-moose whose adventuring career hit a snag right out of the gate because he's unintentionally terrifying (though all the guild regulars know he's just shy). I feel like I can sum up the internal monologue of mangaka "Norishiro-chan" thusly: So... there's almost immediately a dustup between the three assassins gunning for "The Hero" that leads to one running off with the still stunned man and the other two giving chase, a bungled use of paralysis potion, a summoned dragon... and the hero One Punch Man-ing its head clean off. Even though his brain immediately taps out again at the slightest female attention, they decide not to kill him while he's locked up like an old iPhone because... because they feel like they owe the guy they're trying to kill for saving them from the dragon that would never have gone on a rampage if not for them getting under each other's feet. All this in the first ten minutes. Most of the humor seems to come from the Hero Toto's imagine spots of what life would be like if he were suave and confident or him locking up at the slightest sign of attention from a woman. Aside from feeling like this series needs a counter for how many times the protagonist passes out standing up (the way Excel Saga did for Hyatt dying)... it really feels like an excuse plot wrapped around some fanservice and some barely-there character cliches. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 8 Posted July 8 Also starting Secrets of the Silent Witch... another series about a protagonist with crippling social anxiety. Is that this season's theme? Spoiler So... that's a new j-fantasy hot take. "Dragons are nuisance wildlife." Our protagonist is a witch named Monica whose crippling social anxiety is so bad that she's learned how to cast spells without saying the words out loud... leading to her being dubbed the "Silent Witch". So shy is she that her own neighbors have no idea that she is the Silent Witch whose adventures they're loudly nattering on about. Apparently she's only 16, but her social anxiety is SO BAD that she decided mastering a magical impossibility was easier than dealing with other people. One of her colleagues finds her living out in the woods in order to enlist her to guard one of the kingdom's princes by going undercover as a student at the same elite boarding school the prince attends to guard him in the guise of a student, because despite her insanely high station and public office she's so shy nobody knows her. ... her cover story is just Cinderella. This one doesn't seem like it's got much going on under the hood. I imagine the jokes about social anxiety are going to get old pretty quickly. Quote
Dangard Ace Posted July 8 Posted July 8 Night of the Living Cats. If they touch you you become one. Yup. The world will be inherited by furballs. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted July 8 Posted July 8 Having finally completed our Blu-ray collection for Attack on Titan earlier this year, and with my wife's having a long weekend due to the holiday, we binge watched the whole thing finishing today, and wow. This is really an impactful series, lushly animated, extremely well-written, and very-well performed by the English voice cast. We'd started watching it years ago when it premiered on Cartoon Network, but we'd missed eps here and there and I believe we only saw it up to S3, so a full watch was in order. Anyway, we were hooked back then and have been wanting to give it a full watch, so I'm glad this weekend provided an opportunity. It definitely did not disappoint. It's one of those rare shows that stays with you mentally and emotionally for some time after you've finished it. I've read that some fans took issue with the ending, but I thought it offered a satisfying and thought-provoking ending that speaks to human nature. My wife and I both served in the military, so the camaraderie between the characters was very relatable. I'm not a big believer in preordination or fate, but IMHO the way those elements were used within the narrative, especially with Eren's story, offered perspective and in flashbacks, really interesting glimpses at characters' reactions and choices that would affect events. Overall, a tour de force of character-building, narrative and plotting, world-building, and social commentary, not to mention the sheer beauty of the artwork and use of music throughout. To say the least, I recommend a watch. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 8 Posted July 8 Summer 2025 seems to have a bumper crop of isekai slop and isekai-adjacent slop. Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer is yet another painfully unoriginal isekai-adjacent series about a generic protagonist who is arbitrarily kicked out of a narcissistic Hero's party and has to make their own way in the world... a premise so overused it's the third one I've watched this season so far. Spoiler There is nothing here... this one jumps straight from the protagonist being told he's fired, to a training montage flashback of them learning magic and then finding out that he's one of The Chosen Ones. It's so badly done that there's no sense of who these characters even are, never mind why they're doing what they're doing. It's like a series of tenuously connected vignettes or an even lazier version of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime's already painfully lazy "and then I got another skill" writing. They completely forgot they're meant to be telling a story... or even that there has to be something between the times the characters say they've learned a new skill or power or whatever. There is just nothing here in terms of a narrative. Our first bit of actual exposition happens more than 16 minutes into the episode, with the reveal that the unseen generic demon lord wiped out the protagonist's home town and someone named Sybil revived the population of the town at the cost of her own life. Who is Sybil and why does this matter? No clue! That wasn't important enough for anyone to get into. All of the actual setup for the story proper is crammed into the last two minutes or so. It seems the one detail that sets this work apart from the other works in the very specific "Fired by the Hero's party" j-fantasy niche is that, despite the Hero being a jerk, there's no evident malice in the protagonist's dismissal. The Hero's party sincerely believes that the protagonist not only isn't pulling his weight but outright isn't doing anything at all. He's a bottom-ranked white mage in a top-ranked party who seemingly never heals the party, and none of them seem to be aware that he's casting stat buffs on them. He never tells them he is, so they think they're just getting stronger over time. So the protagonist spends three days looking for a new party, only to conveniently stumble on a another top-ranked party (of all girls) who are willing to take anybody as long as they're a white mage. On writing quality, this might actually be worse than The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses... a strong contender for this season's worst new anime. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 8 Posted July 8 (edited) Dang. Steins Gate 0 really knows how to hit the emotions. Episode 7 & 8 are the worst. Edited July 8 by Hikaru Ichijo SL Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 9 Posted July 9 Second episode of Detectives These Days Are Crazy! is out... Spoiler ... and their first new client happens to be a classmate of Mashiro's who remarks that she's skipping school a lot. He claims he's being haunted, and that the ghost shows up on a dodgy security camera he bought but always disappears before anyone can check outside. Properly skeptical Keiichiro figures it out right away, but Mashiro spends a solid week waiting for the ghost to appear and then racing outside to try and apprehend it. Spoiler It's just camera trickery on the client's part, switching to back and forth to pre-recorded footage of himself in a ghost costume so that the "ghost" could never be caught by Mashiro. He did it all because he has a crush on her. Medically speaking, there is no accounting for taste, I suppose. Mashiro somehow catches a "ghost" matching the one in the film anyway... The second case starts with... Keiichiro having been arrested on suspicion of stealing women's underwear? Turns out the officer in charge is his partner from his high school detective days, who is no more technically competent than he is. So while he's cooling his heels in the police station, it's up to Mashiro and their ex-yakuza errand boy Nezu to catch the real perpetrator... it almost immediately runs aground on a Fist of the North Star reference. Spoiler Mashiro and Nezu catch the real thief by sheer dumb luck, and he just happens to be someone who looks exactly like Keiichiro except for having big lips, so the whole thing was a case of mistaken identity. 'cept the perpetrator is also now a mad bomber? Who set a bomb in the parking garage? So Mashiro screws around with disarming it, then decides to kick it into an empty baseball stadium, blowing up Nezu in the process. ... that was certainly something. Not sure what, exactly, but it was definitely something. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 9 Posted July 9 Since this season's new offerings have mainly been disappointments, I decided to roll back into my backlog and take a whack at Dan Da Dan. Spoiler ... and that's definitely not a way I've seen a series start before. Not sure it's a great idea, starting a series with a girl getting beaten up by her boyfriend for not giving him money and not putting out. OK... so we have Momo, who is a desperately boy-crazy idiot who believes in ghosts, and Ken, a mentally ill dork who believes in every space alien conspiracy theory. Kinda getting Jujutsu Kaisen vibes here, that one also started with a bunch of paranormal-obsessed nutters finding out that (some of) the legends are true. Hopefully it won't be as badly written as Jujutsu Kaisen was... that was a crash and burn finish with no survivors, a disappointment almost as severe as My Hero Academia's All For Nothing end. 😆 So these two dorks bully each other into trying the other's supernatural obsession. Forget the actual supernatural stuff, just give me a romcom with these two morons and call it a day. That sounds way more fun. ... the ghost's name is "Turbo Granny"? Really? That's quite something. Momo meets some aliens who are right out of GANTZ in terms of uncanny valley presentation... they look like the lovechildren of Kenneth Copeland and a teletubby. Aaand they're rapey. Great. So we get an attempted rape scene that's thankfully interrupted by... Turbo Granny popping out of her cell phone to bite their junk off. Y'know what, I am 1000% OK with that. That was certainly a string of things that happened. Not quite Jojo level weird, but it's up there. 21 hours ago, M'Kyuun said: I've read that some fans took issue with the ending, but I thought it offered a satisfying and thought-provoking ending that speaks to human nature. My wife and I both served in the military, so the camaraderie between the characters was very relatable. I'm not a big believer in preordination or fate, but IMHO the way those elements were used within the narrative, especially with Eren's story, offered perspective and in flashbacks, really interesting glimpses at characters' reactions and choices that would affect events. Overall, a tour de force of character-building, narrative and plotting, world-building, and social commentary, not to mention the sheer beauty of the artwork and use of music throughout. To say the least, I recommend a watch. Lots of people took issue with the series after the timeskip. It became... problematic... in all kinds of ways. Yeah, a lot of folks did take issue with the ending where... Spoiler Eren is more or less treated as not responsible for murdering most of humanity even though he did and the Eldians are still a nation of genocidal dickheads. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 9 Posted July 9 Shield Hero is finally back. I am happy. I love the books. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted July 10 Posted July 10 (edited) On 7/8/2025 at 7:12 PM, Seto Kaiba said: Lots of people took issue with the series after the timeskip. It became... problematic... in all kinds of ways. Yeah, a lot of folks did take issue with the ending where... Hide contents Eren is more or less treated as not responsible for murdering most of humanity even though he did and the Eldians are still a nation of genocidal dickheads. Spoiler Regarding the last points, no argument there. TBH, I thought Eren an unlikely protagonist given his anger and desire for revenge. He wasn't very likeable at the beginning and became less so as he aged. Mikasa's unrelenting devotion to him was understandable to a point when they were very young, as he saved her life, but as they got older, that devotion wasn't returned and Eren became even more of an angry dick. He wasn't nearly as worthy of her attention as Armin, the heart and brains of their little platonic threesome. There was some foreshadowing by virtue of other characters' concern that Mikasa couldn't kill Eren if it was necessary, and TBH, it was a little surprising to see her swoop in there, all a-smiling, and lop off his nugget. Interesting too was the fact that she never manifested any affection towards him until she'd severed his head. A bit ghoulish there, Mikasa, but the only way she was ever going to lock lips with the bastard. Anyway, Eldians' dark history aside, I thought it poignant in the end as we see time move into the bright and cheery future with mankind doing what it does best, self-destruction, until the whole Ymir story is poised to repeat. Ah well, the vast majority of Grimm's fairytales were indeed grim, and this just follows that tradition. It was nice that once Eren was dead and the Founder removed the titan "curse" for lack of a better term, all the former titans got to live out normal life spans, for better or worse. Edited July 10 by M'Kyuun Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 10 Posted July 10 8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said: Hide contents Regarding the last points, no argument there. TBH, I thought Eren an unlikely protagonist given his anger and desire for revenge. He wasn't very likeable at the beginning and became less so as he aged. Mikasa's unrelenting devotion to him was understandable to a point when they were very young, as he saved her life, but as they got older, that devotion wasn't returned and Eren became even more of an angry dick. He wasn't nearly as worthy of her attention as Armin, the heart and brains of their little platonic threesome. There was some foreshadowing by virtue of other characters' concern that Mikasa couldn't kill Eren if it was necessary, and TBH, it was a little surprising to see her swoop in there, all a-smiling, and lop off his nugget. Interesting too was the fact that she never manifested any affection towards him until she'd severed his head. A bit ghoulish there, Mikasa, but the only way she was ever going to lock lips with the bastard. Anyway, Eldians' dark history aside, I thought it poignant in the end as we see time move into the bright and cheery future with mankind doing what it does best, self-destruction, until the whole Ymir story is poised to repeat. Ah well, the vast majority of Grimm's fairytales were indeed grim, and this just follows that tradition. It was nice that once Eren was dead and the Founder removed the titan "curse" for lack of a better term, all the former titans got to live out normal life spans, for better or worse. Spoiler Attack on Titan started out as young adult dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games... what it evolved into after the timeskip is what put so many people off it. The whole post-timeskip arc is shot through with some very blatant and very troubling creative choices with specific historical resonance that make the whole affair feel like it's a racist parable at times. There's a lot of discussion about those points online, whether it's intentional or simply an attempted critique of fascism that didn't stick the landing is left as an exercise for the reader/viewer. The series was always going to have a downer ending, that much was clear from the outset. Isayama went way too far with it, IMO. Not only is everyone in the story a miserable bastard from the outset, the post-timeskip story that reveals the true state of the world outside the walls ultimately does everything it can think of to make Eldians the root of all the world's evils and show that the world's hatred and fear of them is completely justified. At the end, not only has Eren become a complete monster without even questioning his supposed destiny... the Eldians haven't learned a damn thing and are just going to do it all again as soon as someone finds the Founding Titan until an opposing nation finally wipes them out for good. Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant has a new episode and... Spoiler ... it's going for a story with attempted rape as a source of cheap drama. EECH. As satisfying as it is to watch the protagonist brutally beat the would-be rapists near-to-death in a one-sided curbstomp battle and then turn them in, I can't help but feel that this is really incredibly out of place in a lighthearted slice-of-life fantasy anime. Apparently I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince got a new season too? Dear god WHY. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 10 Posted July 10 I watched the 2nd episode of The water Magician and it was good again. I watched the 1st two episodes of the Dealing with Mikadono Sisters Is a Breeze. It was cute. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 11 Posted July 11 Caught the second episode of The Water Magician... and if I had to pick a word to describe it, I would have to pick "bland". Spoiler It's not bad, it's just unremarkable... in every way that a series can be unremarkable. The protagonist, Ryo, is utterly devoid of anything resembling a personality. His expression is a perpetually neutral mask of vacant politeness like a bank teller or a department store clerk. His voice seldom varies from a tone of polite indifference or polite interest. The first time he really seems interested in anything is when he learns dungeons are a thing in the world he's been isekai'd to. The entire episode is basically Ryo and his new castaway friend Abel walking to the nearest outpost of civilization killing monsters along the way... apparently monsters nobody has seen for centuries, but which Ryo dispatches effortlessly for the most part while Abel dispenses the usual "golly you sure are overpowered" dialog. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted July 11 Posted July 11 8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Hide contents Attack on Titan started out as young adult dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games... what it evolved into after the timeskip is what put so many people off it. The whole post-timeskip arc is shot through with some very blatant and very troubling creative choices with specific historical resonance that make the whole affair feel like it's a racist parable at times. There's a lot of discussion about those points online, whether it's intentional or simply an attempted critique of fascism that didn't stick the landing is left as an exercise for the reader/viewer. The series was always going to have a downer ending, that much was clear from the outset. Isayama went way too far with it, IMO. Not only is everyone in the story a miserable bastard from the outset, the post-timeskip story that reveals the true state of the world outside the walls ultimately does everything it can think of to make Eldians the root of all the world's evils and show that the world's hatred and fear of them is completely justified. At the end, not only has Eren become a complete monster without even questioning his supposed destiny... the Eldians haven't learned a damn thing and are just going to do it all again as soon as someone finds the Founding Titan until an opposing nation finally wipes them out for good. Spoiler After the timeskip is when the show really got interesting, IMHO. Sure, I enjoyed the early days of the Scouts zipping around dispatching titans, but you knew there was a deeper story from the outset, and I think the post-timeskip chapters answered many of the questions that were raised by the pre-timeskip. I think the obvious subtext of racism and authoritarianism and other dark leanings on both the Eldian and Marleyan sides just made the story more interesting and, let's face it, realistic. It's a reflection of histories in any number of countries and societies including our own; perhaps some people are sensitive to having those issues raised, especially in their escapist fiction, but I thought those things, especially the hatred and suspicion of Eldians due to their dark history made the tapestry of the story richer as well as providing the primary motivation for Eren to become a callous genocidal bastard. In his mind, he was protecting his island, but despite the Paradis Eldians becoming friends with people in the wider world and paving a road towards cooperation and acceptance, Eren had no interest in entertaining any other avenue but mass genocide, a non-negotiable us-or-them mentality. I didn't necessarily agree with Zeke's plan either. Once Eren was dispatched, we see in the future scenes that at least for a time humanity built itself up, ultimately fell, and at the end, it appears that the whole thing is just going to repeat. So yeah, not the happiest of anime, but I don't mind the dark social commentary informing the story. I found the whole series very satisfying. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 11 Posted July 11 Watched a few more episodes of Dandadan, because the neighbors are still setting off fireworks like 4th of July wasn't a week ago. 🙃 Spoiler Can I please, please, pretty please just have a romcom with these two dorks without all the supernatural baggage? They have great chemistry, which IMO is honestly the best part of the series. The supernatural aspect of it is trying really hard to be weird in a way that feels very reminiscent of One Punch Man, but it's not particularly exciting or interesting. If it were just these two geeking out over the paranormal it could be a top-tier romcom. Instead it's a pretty mediocre shonen anime with a pair of particularly amusing main characters. Watching them agitatedly fuss in class because they want to geek out together is goddamn adorable. 13 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said: Hide contents After the timeskip is when the show really got interesting, IMHO. Sure, I enjoyed the early days of the Scouts zipping around dispatching titans, but you knew there was a deeper story from the outset, and I think the post-timeskip chapters answered many of the questions that were raised by the pre-timeskip. I think the obvious subtext of racism and authoritarianism and other dark leanings on both the Eldian and Marleyan sides just made the story more interesting and, let's face it, realistic. It's a reflection of histories in any number of countries and societies including our own; perhaps some people are sensitive to having those issues raised, especially in their escapist fiction, but I thought those things, especially the hatred and suspicion of Eldians due to their dark history made the tapestry of the story richer as well as providing the primary motivation for Eren to become a callous genocidal bastard. In his mind, he was protecting his island, but despite the Paradis Eldians becoming friends with people in the wider world and paving a road towards cooperation and acceptance, Eren had no interest in entertaining any other avenue but mass genocide, a non-negotiable us-or-them mentality. I didn't necessarily agree with Zeke's plan either. Once Eren was dispatched, we see in the future scenes that at least for a time humanity built itself up, ultimately fell, and at the end, it appears that the whole thing is just going to repeat. So yeah, not the happiest of anime, but I don't mind the dark social commentary informing the story. I found the whole series very satisfying. Spoiler My feeling was the opposite, TBH. I felt the pre-timeskip Attack on Titan was where the story peaked. The oppressive atmosphere of the walls, the apparent hopelessness of the Survey Corps's cause, and the ontological mystery of the physics-defying Titans made for a frankly compelling dystopian narrative. The one-two punch of cheap shots that was the Survey Corps developing a near-foolproof weapon to destroy Titans with almost no risk and then revealing that literally all of the worldbuilding up to that point was a lie was a real narrative copout. WRT the post-timeskip's problematic content... the main problem is that the symbolism there isn't so generic that it applies to a bunch of different countries and societies. It has a bunch of very specific, very blunt references to that time in German history the Germans don't like to be reminded about. Marley is putting on the reich real hard, and not just in their love of zeppelins, battleships, and the pickelhaube. Everything about how they treat the Eldians is ripped right from that nasty part of Germany's history in a very profoundly unsubtle way. The problems come in when the story doesn't stop there and use that as a symbolic way of showing that Marley is capital-E Evil. It reverses it, and presents what Marley does as largely justified because the Eldians really are just THAT ridiculously evil. It's not just that the Eldians had The Most Evil Empire in History that killed several times the entire world's population before it fell. Many Eldians want to restore that evil empire and go back to being genocidal oppressors. There's even a bona fide Eldian deep state which controls Marley from the shadows and is driving its own genocidal expansionist tendencies with the Titans power. The Paradise Eldians launch a coup against their own king, set up a military junta, then have a second coup to install a second military junta because the first one wasn't genocidal enough for their tastes, then attempt to kill literally everyone else in the entire world. It hits peak horrible with the reveal that all three Eldian leaders in the series think genocide is the only answer... the only question being whether they're trying to save the Eldians (Eren) or save the world from the Eldians (Zeke and Willy). That Eren just rolls with the idea that he's predestined to Kill 'Em All is pretty freaking weird on its own. He had a vision and immediately decided to chuck his moral compass in favor of mass murder and even overthrow the government to ensure nobody would stop him. The idea that he's sympathetic because he didn't want to do it but believed he had to is a load of organic bovine fertilizer... and the ending is super awful because not only is he Easily Forgiven by his former friends, the Eldians haven't changed one bit and are still a threat to the rest of humanity. Considering the Eldians are strongly associated with a very real ethnic group that was and is the subject of discrimination because of similar conspiracy theories... well... it all reads in screamingly poor taste. Quote
M'Kyuun Posted July 11 Posted July 11 12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Watched a few more episodes of Dandadan, because the neighbors are still setting off fireworks like 4th of July wasn't a week ago. 🙃 Hide contents Can I please, please, pretty please just have a romcom with these two dorks without all the supernatural baggage? They have great chemistry, which IMO is honestly the best part of the series. The supernatural aspect of it is trying really hard to be weird in a way that feels very reminiscent of One Punch Man, but it's not particularly exciting or interesting. If it were just these two geeking out over the paranormal it could be a top-tier romcom. Instead it's a pretty mediocre shonen anime with a pair of particularly amusing main characters. Watching them agitatedly fuss in class because they want to geek out together is goddamn adorable. Hide contents My feeling was the opposite, TBH. I felt the pre-timeskip Attack on Titan was where the story peaked. The oppressive atmosphere of the walls, the apparent hopelessness of the Survey Corps's cause, and the ontological mystery of the physics-defying Titans made for a frankly compelling dystopian narrative. The one-two punch of cheap shots that was the Survey Corps developing a near-foolproof weapon to destroy Titans with almost no risk and then revealing that literally all of the worldbuilding up to that point was a lie was a real narrative copout. WRT the post-timeskip's problematic content... the main problem is that the symbolism there isn't so generic that it applies to a bunch of different countries and societies. It has a bunch of very specific, very blunt references to that time in German history the Germans don't like to be reminded about. Marley is putting on the reich real hard, and not just in their love of zeppelins, battleships, and the pickelhaube. Everything about how they treat the Eldians is ripped right from that nasty part of Germany's history in a very profoundly unsubtle way. The problems come in when the story doesn't stop there and use that as a symbolic way of showing that Marley is capital-E Evil. It reverses it, and presents what Marley does as largely justified because the Eldians really are just THAT ridiculously evil. It's not just that the Eldians had The Most Evil Empire in History that killed several times the entire world's population before it fell. Many Eldians want to restore that evil empire and go back to being genocidal oppressors. There's even a bona fide Eldian deep state which controls Marley from the shadows and is driving its own genocidal expansionist tendencies with the Titans power. The Paradise Eldians launch a coup against their own king, set up a military junta, then have a second coup to install a second military junta because the first one wasn't genocidal enough for their tastes, then attempt to kill literally everyone else in the entire world. It hits peak horrible with the reveal that all three Eldian leaders in the series think genocide is the only answer... the only question being whether they're trying to save the Eldians (Eren) or save the world from the Eldians (Zeke and Willy). That Eren just rolls with the idea that he's predestined to Kill 'Em All is pretty freaking weird on its own. He had a vision and immediately decided to chuck his moral compass in favor of mass murder and even overthrow the government to ensure nobody would stop him. The idea that he's sympathetic because he didn't want to do it but believed he had to is a load of organic bovine fertilizer... and the ending is super awful because not only is he Easily Forgiven by his former friends, the Eldians haven't changed one bit and are still a threat to the rest of humanity. Considering the Eldians are strongly associated with a very real ethnic group that was and is the subject of discrimination because of similar conspiracy theories... well... it all reads in screamingly poor taste. As always, you make excellent points, and I certainly can't refute the obvious similarities between the Marleyans and their attitudes and treatment of the Eldians as a direct echo of Nazi Germany. I fear that in my focus on Eren and Zeke, I lost sight of Willy Tyber and his importance to the story, a shortcoming in my overview that now seems glaring in retrospect. However, as much as I enjoyed the first part of the story centering around Pardis, I still enjoyed, I think in equal part, the latter part of the story involving Marley and the wider world, as it informed the viewer of what lay behind what's been happening to them the previous five years or so as well as adjacent machinations and goings-on in the present. I don't think the totality of the story would have been as satisfying had they only focused on Paradis, as equal parts fun and depressing it is, without providing some back and adjacent story to answer the whys and whos of what lay behind the sudden titan infestations, who Grisha Jaeger really was, where did Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt come from and why were they there, etc, etc. There was a plethora of questions raised in the first couple chapters and had they just ended the series like that without providing answers, I personally don't feel like it would have been as satisfying overall. I can understand perhaps taking the Nazi similarities a bit too far, but this wasn't exactly a tame show that strayed from harsh realities, and I found the comparison apt. Your mileage obviously varies, as well as that of a larger portion of the fandom, but the obvious parallels didn't bother me. As to Eren being easily forgiven, I agree. He was an a-hole of the first order and deserved to be vilified for the monster that he became. I think Zeke's and Willy's plan, although terrible, too, was at least possibly coming from a place of contrition. It's a shame that Mikasa didn't pop out of her spell and kill Eren when he told her that he'd hated her most of their lives- whether he actually meant it or was just saying it to create distance between himself and her, the bastard had it coming. Alas, it came too late, but I thought it poetic that Mikasa was the one to deliver the coup de grace, even if she STILL felt affection for him. He got off too easy. The show is definitely a study, perhaps a dark caricature, of real history, some of the absolute worst of humanity's capital-E Evil, to borrow your phrase. To my mind, however, we must always be reminded of that evil lest we repeat it, be it in literature or art, and as an artform, I think anime is an apt vehicle, although perhaps it needn't be so blatant. The Japanese have their own demons to bear from WWII and it's notable that they weren't portrayed at all harshly compared to the Marleyans who symbolize the Nazi Regime. Indeed, they were merely portrayed as simply opportunistic money grubbers, with Azumabito showing a little contrition for how her people have acted. Make of that what you will. Quote
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