TheRealist68's Blog

Anime Relations: Imouto sae Ireba Ii.

TheRealist68 made the mistake of mentioning to a friend that he dabbles in a bit of creative writing. Now it is 2:40 am, and TheRealist68 is writing them a theme story because he's back on his writing crunch again. It's shitty because TheRealist68 wrote this on an IPhone (and his half drunk while doing so), but I digress, it might be something you enjoy reading. This one was the backstory of a dnd style assassin character.

"The assassin hails from the slums of Malaysia, with a brother and a sister, facing intense poverty. His mother had recently died from starvation, as she slowly withered away, giving every morsel she brought home to the kids. With his father not in the picture and his brother jailed from stealing a loaf of bread, funds ran out and he and his sister were simultaneously facing starvation and eviction. His sister knew that either one would mean death, so, she planned to sell herself off into slavery to send the assassin to kuala lumpur for college. However, when the assassin found her diary that detailed this plot, he knew he had 4 days to do something. With that, he went to the dark web and searched for simple bounties to save his sister. He found one, a job that would only pay a months rent, killing a retired mafia boss rotting away at a retirement home. Armed with his mother’s old kitchen knife, he faces the boss, who turns out to be an old senile woman with Alzheimer’s.

The old woman seemingly mistakes him as her grandson and offers him a hug. He responds with a stab to the gut, as a lone tear falls down his face.. He loots the room and finds a briefcase with a machete, 5000 usd, and a picture of his mom for some reason. He realizes the implication and throws up... He returns to his sister and prevents her from selling herself, offering her a nice dinner and beautiful necklace instead. When asked where he got the money from, he claimed he "it as an inheritance from a long lost aunt, that's all". He also claimed to have gotten a job, so he sends his sister away to college in Kuala Lumpur. Fast forward 9 years, and he’s the most influential assassin in Asia. His body count recently reached 143, and every time he commits a murder, the same lone tear falls down face.. Now, he takes jobs partially for thrill, and partially to help spoil his sister’s baby boy. The only thing that keeps him sane is their blissful smiles and the weapons he brandishes: his mother’s knife and his grandmother’s machete…
"

Anime Relations: Sousou no Frieren

Might as well store some of these here moving forward.

Winter 2024 Final Ratings

1. Sousou No Frieren: Probably the most complete season of an anime I have ever witnessed. Everything from the story, to the characters, to the animation, to the music was pristine in a way that would be majorly praised as a standalone factor in any lesser anime. It’s a damn shame that I didn’t get the opportunity to write a review for this one, as this was something that I anticipated writing for a while. Quick side note, Frieren’s manga is pretty good, but it is nowhere near the level of excellence as the anime. This is the rare circumstance where the anime is notably better composed than the manga, which is something that I must give this series massive credit for.
Final Rating: 9.8 out of 10

2. Classroom of the Elite Season 3: A pretty standard season of COTE. Ayanokoji is still really cool and is probably the reason you are still watching this series. However, characters such as Ryuuen, Kei, Suzune, Sakaanagi, and Ichinose are becoming developed enough so that you can enjoy the characters in this story past Ayanokoji. While this show is still laughably pretentious, potentially generic with its issues with same face/body type syndrome, and, to some, boring, due to the absolute smorgasbord of dialogue, I still find this show really entertaining and worth a watch if you are already invested in the series.
Final Rating: 7.4 out of 10

3. Undead Unluck: An anime that simply just fell off. I was really invested in the initial arcs, I would say up to the cruise ship arc, but after that, my interest and patience waned to such an extent, that Undead Unluck was the last anime I finished this season, although it was the 2nd to conclude. I don’t really even have some sort of big brained explanation on why I found the latter episodes of Undead Unluck so un-captivating, except for the fact that the anime loses a bit of its charm by becoming more meta and more story focused towards the end of the plot. Although I don’t think I’ll ever consume a great extent of Undead Unluck content after this, I honestly hope to hear of something cool that can give me a bit of closure on this series.
Final Rating: 6.4 out of 10

4. Solo Leveling: All I can say about Solo Leveling is that it definitely didn’t go the way that I expected. I expected a high level action anime with SAO-but-good fantasy elements, at least based on the hype train circling this series. What I got was a decent at best anime that operates like an irony-less Konosuba or Eminence in Shadow. Edgy, self insert garbage with no characters other than the MC that is only enjoyable as a turn-your-brain-off type of action series. Was the action still good? Yeah, I would say so, although not DS or JJK good, but still pretty solid. What this leads to is that Solo Leveling is an anime without much of a positive identity, which led me to see it as pretty disappointing overall.
Final Rating: 4.4 out of 10

5. Mato Seihei no Slave: This anime goes in the box of “bad fanservice show” that fails to excel in either being horny or being compelling outside of fan service. The characters suck (honestly to a lower extent than in Solo Leveling but I digress), the story is underdeveloped, and the power system is stupid. Above all else, this show looks bad. From the fugly CGI to horribly animated fight scenes, this show just looks bad, giving it, unlike Solo Leveling, zero redeeming factors. I didn’t actually expect anything from Mato Seihei no Slave, so I honestly debated putting Solo Leveling in the last place spot, purely based on my disappointment for that series. However, logic won out and gave us the worst anime of the season.
Final Rating: 2.6 out of 10

Anime Relations: Pokemon XY&Z

Pokemon is probably my favorite video game series of all time. I mean, I grew up on that shit, Pokemon XY was the first game that I played with friends, Pokemon content on Youtube was some of the first content that I ever started watching, and it went so far that I actually qualified for Pokemon TCG nationals back in 6th grade, although I didn’t go. Despite my love for this series, I’ll be the first to say that the past 5 years of Pokemon content has been pretty disappointing. SWSH was hot garbage that I forced myself to sink over 180 hours into, BDSP’s trailers were so bad that it was the first game in 8 years that I never picked up (and rightfully so because it's horrible), PLA was the only bright spot, although it needed some more polish, and SV was a buggy mess that I also didn’t buy, and I never completed my gifted copy.

It’s gotten to a point where my confidence in this series has reached a new low. I genuinely think that GameFreak doesn’t give a damn about making quality games anymore, as they can just drop whatever the hell they want, and people will still eat it up. However, with the announcement of Pokemon Legends ZA, a fair bit of my ongoing complaints about the series look to be taken into consideration and improved upon. The hope I have for this game based on a single trailer that showed no gameplay is completely irrational, but to put that hope into words, I made a wishlist of some things that I want Legends ZA to do/be.

Actually release in mid/late 2025: The biggest problem befalling the Pokemon franchise is the yearly release date. Since 2014 or so, Pokemon games have been a yearly tradition, which causes them to be half-baked, uninspired, or just genuinely trash. However, Pokemon ZA is supposed to release in 2025, which suggests a gap year for the series. If this happens, there is a high chance that ZA will actually be half decent.

If open world, actually have things to do in said open world: The problem with open world video games is that so many series create an “open world” which winds up just being an open field with like 2 pois. This is best seen in Pokemon SW, where the wild area was literally just a field of Pokemon with the occasional body of water for water types. There were like 3 pois in the entire area, which made it useless if you weren’t trying to catch something. Make the open world interesting, and we’ll be cooking.

New Mega evolutions/keep the gimmick in the series: Megas are by far the best Pokemon gimmick. If you bring it back, we need at least 20 more. Bonus points if we actually buff Pokemon that need it, create megas that were supposed to happen in gen 6 (I’m looking at you Flygon), and we focus on gen 2 and 4-7.

Something with Battle Bond: Battle Bond was such a cool concept, please bring it back for like 5 different Pokemon in ZA. Give it back to Greninja, but also give it to the rest of the Kalos starters, and then give it to maybe 2 regional variants. Keep the concept alive so people can look forward to more than just megas.

Have difficulty settings: Been asking for this for a while now, but a major issue with Pokemon recently is that they are trying to force everyone to have the exact same experience. Just some simple difficulty options which would change the levels and teams of important trainers would suffice.

Have a decent battling presence: I liked Legends Arceus, but the biggest complaint I have for it is that the battling in it kinda sucks. Have some sort of gym battles, or just any sort of boss battles to balance the Legends catching experience with the standard Pokemon battling experience.

Look good graphically: Recent Pokemon games look horrible, from SWSH’s N64 trees, to SV graphical glitches, to BDSP somehow looking worse than the original. Fix it.

Have a large map: The fact that the game takes place entirely in Lumiose city is a bit concerning, as Lumiose isn’t huge in comparison to the rest of the Pokemon world. Maybe Lumiose has some major sprawl in this game; regardless, make the map large enough where roaming around feels natural.

Closure of AZ’s Floette: The only variant of a Pokemon that has never been released. I don’t want this shit just shoehorned in with an event either, no, I want this to be a special encounter in ZA. After 10+ years, that’s the least they could do.

Zygarde stuff + A legendary: Make Zygarde a real legendary. That’s it. Don’t shove it away in a cave, or give it a dumb fetchaton. Just make it a real legend and make it cool. Bonus points if you introduce a new “A” legendary to counter Zygarde’s Z.

"But Rain Code isn't an anime, why are you writing a review for it on Mal?" you may ask, but trust me, it's here for a perfectly valid reason. Firstly, it's connected to Danganronpa, which has an anime adaptation, so in a weird way, Rain Code is like the second cousin twice removed of the Danganronpa anime, which makes it eligible to be placed on Mal, at least in my eyes. I also will be making a shitload of comparisons to all of the other games in the Danganronpa series, which creates more association or something like that.

Fact of the day, IGN and other video game reviewing outlets don't necessarily write their reviews after playing the entirety of the game at hand. In fact, they usually play like 10 hours before making a review on the content of the entire game, save for a few situations with smaller or more important titles. I've played about 15 hours of Rain Code, which encompassed chapters 0 and 1, and I have a couple of things about this game that I would like to get off of my chest.

Firstly, this shit is practically a Danganronpa asset flip. It's almost like Rain Code copied Danganronpa's homework, but then changed some answers to be objectively worse than what the original copy was. This heavily applies to the mini-games, as nearly every single one of them is some sort of downgrade from their originals.

Reasoning Deathmatch is just a shitty Non-Stop Debate. Since this is all going on in Yuma’s mind, the feeling of debating among classmates & the tension that comes with the more serious sections of debates is completely lost. Sections of Non-Stop Debates where I drove Kaito, Gundam, or Kaede into corners as I progressed were emotionally charged; Reasoning Deathmatch simply doesn't have that same appeal. From a gameplay perspective, moving left, right, up, and down in a closed grid setting is far less engaging than trying to discern various words flying on screen, especially in the highly-honed version of Non-Stop Debate seen in V3. Not to mention, Reasoning Deathmatch is remarkably easier, as often, you only have 1 or 2 truth blades, and 2 things to slash at, while in V3, you might have 5 truth bullets, 10 lines of text to shoot at, and a lie button to consider. Sometimes, you’re flat-out told the answer by Shinigami if you fuck up, unlike in DR.

The barrel minigame is somehow a worse version of EVERY version of Hangman’s Gambit, the worst minigame from every DR game. It’s less engaging, as watching a barrel slowly rotate isn’t nearly as fun as searching for the words yourself, and it somehow feels more unfair, as the hitboxes for the letters on the barrels are weirdly shaped and hard to make consistent contact with, especially if they’re on the “edge” of the barrel.

The PTA/Argument Armament/BTB clone where Shinigami runs to break into the “truth fort” or whatever is also the worst iteration of these concepts, as the gameplay is less enjoyable than the previous rhythm games; it is also far less difficult, less engaging, and less emotionally charged, for reasons similar to those listed above. To expound upon that last point, PTA and the other final arguments used to be a huge moment of tension during each class trial, as the culprit essentially threw out conjecture in some hope of saving themselves. That tension is lost in Rain Code, to an extent where the sequence doesn’t really feel like a conclusion at all, just a falling action to get out of the mystery labyrinth.

The actual mystery labyrinths themselves are a double-edged sword of quality. On one hand, the more “mystery labyrinth” themed minigames, such as the Psyche Taxi clone in the form of riding a minecart, actually serve as a decent replacement for the former mechanic, well adapted into the context of the new game. Also, different mystery labyrinths have minigames specific to the said labyrinth. The best use of that so far was the process of reconstructing the locked rooms inside of the labyrinths.

Still, the mechanic needs work, as there are some less than desirable aspects of it. I wish the labyrinths weren’t as fixed as they are. Essentially, they serve as one big cutscene, with the only time you have direct control over your character being in minigames, “selection events”, where you’re given the choice to down different paths akin to the multiple-choice questions asked in dr games, and glorified loading screens where you run in a straight line while listening to dialogue. I wish the actual concept of mystery labyrinths was explored more. Imagine if each labyrinth was freeroam, allowing for the player to get lost and make mistakes in the labyrinth with actual consequences past losing a minuscule amount of health. I get that this would be a bit past the scope of the game, but I would love this to some extent.

Another issue is the general structure of the story. Let's face it, there isn’t much emotion behind the entire plot anymore. I’m not nearly as close with the other detectives as I was with many classmates in the DR games, even at this early stage of this story. Honestly, they feel less like friends/enemies and more like coworkers. This is a theme that applies to the entire game to some extent. Since this is more of a Phoenix Wright-style game, I have virtually no attachment to the killers or victims, nor the people who witnessed the crimes. This dampens the impact of nearly everything in the mystery labyrinths, especially the plot twists. It’s saying something that when I figured out that there was an imitation nail man, I wasn’t excited to begin hunting for the new culprit or shocked at the sudden turn of events, my emotional state was more akin to how one would feel when their boss assigns them new work at an hourly job.

An example of this is in the conclusion to each labyrinth, which just feels limp and un-impactful when compared to the conclusion to class trials. The comic book minigame where you put together each part of a case loses its impact, as you’re no longer compiling the information required to convince your classmates to execute another, you’re just compiling the information for yourself so Shinigami can kill the culprit offscreen. Speaking of executions, labyrinths don’t have that same “exclamation point” as a conclusion that the executions provided, further demonstrating how emotionless the process feels.

Shinigami is the biggest offender of this trend. Shinigami plays the role of Monokuma, making frequent jokes at the main character’s, victim, or killer's expense. It’s hard for me to make some sort of emotional connection to a character that I barely know, but it’s even harder for me to forge that connection when Shinigami says “lol, just boom-killed the culprit!! Good job master ;)”, after I just saw him keel over like a sack of potatoes instead of being fucking deep-fried like I would see in DR. Her constant, Navi-like presence doesn’t really help things, as I can’t really escape her for a second, even if I wanted to.

Outside of the mystery labyrinths, the game is actually pretty entertaining. The overworld is pretty nice looking with all of the rain and neon signage, although I do have to complain about the game being a “semi-open world”, yet many streets are artificially blocked off and many of the NPCs are just there for flavor as you can literally walk through them. The story is the best part of Rain Code, as I would argue that the “Daily Life” segments of Danganronpa are slightly worse, (well at least some of them), than the overall story of Rain Code. I would also argue that Rain Code has a more polished “detective experience” than DR. Still, Rain Code’s labyrinths essentially don’t have stories, while class trials are the strongest part of Danganronpa stories, which makes Danganronpa’s story slightly edge out Rain Code’s.

Yeah, if you were looking for a credible or high-level review of Rain Code, you definitely didn’t get it here, because this wound up being more of a comparison between DR and Rain Code. Still, I think that these series deserve to be compared to each other purely through the latter’s inception. Rain Code uses V3’s engine to a large extent and reuses a lot of its major voice, animation, and compositional talent. 85% of the people who played Rain Code also played DR and were really hoping for a spiritual successor to that game series. What we get instead is another Danganronpa-style game that doesn’t serve as a successor in any way.

In reality, Rain Code is on the same level as DR1. If I were to compare the mean ratings between people who tried Danganronpa 1 or Rain Code without knowledge of the other, I can almost guarantee they would have very similar ratings. You may argue that the massive negative difference I perceive between Rain Code and DR may be due to the “New Coke” effect, where I dislike something new because it is very similar yet slightly different in a worse way than something I already like. I personally think it’s because of the existence of Danganronpa 2 and V3. I know that Spike Chunsoft can do better, I’ve fucking seen them do it. Because of the ending of V3, they couldn’t just give us another Danganronpa game without retconning the best ending in the series. So, in pure panic, they gave us a slightly different game on the level of DR1, which isn’t bad on paper, but when you consider that DR1 came out 14 years ago for the fucking PSP (and is now playable on my iPhone), it seems a lot worse in reality. To end, I’ll give a tier list of every Danganronpa game + Rain Code.

DRV3: 9.7 out of 10
DR2: 9.3 out of 10
DR1: 8.4 out of 10
Rain Code: 7.9 out of 10
DRUDG: 7.7 out of 10

Thank you for Reading

Anime Relations: Bleach

I understand why this happens: power systems like Bleach's are complicated enough to require an explanation to the audience on how a certain character used spiritual pressure to do a certain thing, but it doesn't make any sense for the characters to divulge this information themselves. I would get it if it was for a taunt; a cocky character like Byakuya Kuchiki tells you exactly how his attack works because he is thoroughly confident that you can't do shit with that information, but in the context of Bleach, that means nearly every character is just some cocky asshole that believes that. For some of the Arrancars, that may be true, but I digress.

It makes even less sense when a battle is particularly close and the main character uses the information given to them to beat whoever they are facing. I especially hate it when that main character is praised like some sort of genius for using the technique that his opponent just divulged in its entirety against them. No, you're not some sort of genius, your opponent is just stupid.

There are two exceptions to this where I believe that this situation is handled nicely. The first is seen in Jujustu Kaisen and other shows like it, where an external person or narrator explains said character's technique. This serves to explain what exactly is going on to the audience without having a character personally divulge the information. This also has the added effect of making it more meaningful when a character divulges the information themselves, as then you can play the cocky asshole card as an occasional character trait that a few people share.

The second exception is Gin's betrayal, where he lies to Ichigo and Aizen about what his Bankai really does. This is cool as hell as a contrast to what the series is hellbent on doing, but it honestly has me wishing that something like this happened at least one more time throughout the series, as it would be cool to have to suspect whether or not the information you are being given is factual on a regular basis.

Anime Relations: Mato Seihei no Slave

I think it is about time that I actually give a methodology on which I base my ratings around, as I don’t think a shitty analogy using different forms of milk really does the job.

My rating scale is 100% subjective. If I find a series enjoyable for any reason, it will receive a high rating and vice versa. Now, that’s not exactly very telling as you have no clue about the different aspects of anime that I subjectively find entertaining, so below, I’m going to provide an ongoing list of things that influence my enjoyment of anime.

Finished Romantic Development: In an industry that rarely sees its romantic development to its conclusion, whenever I see a definite romantic conclusion, it always gives the series in question some brownie points.

Good Opening/Ending: There’s nothing better than starting an episode of anime with a fucking jamming op, or ending an impactful episode with a powerful ed. By positive association, it makes any series that has it better.

Strong Character relationships: doesn’t even have to be romantic, I love the relationship between Rudeus and Cliff in the Mushoku Tensei light novel, or Fern and Frieren in Sousou No Frieren. If an author can convince the reader/viewer that the characters in his story could realistically be friends in real life, it just makes the story that much more enjoyable.

Chekhov’s Gun fulfillment: I love when a series can give me an “ah-ha, so that’s what that was for '' moment, especially in series like Sousou no Frieren, where they come frequently. It feels like it makes me more engaged as a viewer, adding to my enjoyment.

Well-integrated comedy: Funny shit is funny and enjoyable, but it is best when a series can be funny in its own right without having to deviate too heavily from its story. I’m indifferent to “comedy segments” in certain anime, and I feel like if comedy can be sprinkled in naturally, that is where we get the best results.

Strong Plot Twists: I feel like many series struggle with this, but if there is a strong plot twist that is 1. Unexpected for most viewers and 2. Really impactful for the series, regardless if you can anticipate it or not, then that will make the series even better.

Really bad quality in any category: If something is really shit, it can stray into the “it's so bad it's kinda funny" territory, which can be enjoyable in a way. My best example of this is the animation and art in Mato Seihei no Slave, as every time I see a CGI temple-run gorilla sprint across the screen, I can’t help but laugh my ass off at the sheer lunacy of that shit.

Character Development: Seeing a character develop from one place to another, especially when it is a bit subtle (seeing a character start as cartoonishly evil and become a contributing member of society literally does nothing for me).

A strong score: The best example I have for this one is Bleach. Something that has songs that are equally catchy and fitting for the scene.

Good art: I’ve been using good art instead of good animation because in reality, this encompasses the art content of the series when it is stationary and when it is moving. If it looks good, it is good, and I’m happy.