▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Interview #215 - @CodeBlazeFate ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬  The Mediocre Amateur Pseudo-critic is Memorable?! "Hey, I ain't afraid of being wrong. People call me that all the time." Interview conducted and reviewed by: @Skittles Could you tell us more about yourself? I go by many names: Francisco, Francis, CBF, Code, Blaze (for some reason), Fate (someone actually called me that?), any many more. Born in Ecuador, came to the States not long after, and have effectively become a Hispanic who spent his whole life in America while effectively being displaced from all cultures. I'm also a fledgling writer, so at least these MAL writings have been building up to something for this bastard and his autismo powers. How did you choose your username? My favorite three franchises back in the day were Code Geass, Blazblue, and the Fate series. Nowadays, the last in that list has long since stopped being a mainstay favorite of mine, even though I still thoroughly enjoy Fate/Zero, Carnival Phantasm, and a few other installments. The first season of Code Geass is still GOAT doe and I haven't played Blazblue in a hot minute. Don't watch the anime for that one, it sucks balls. Could you give us a brief history of your time on MAL? Well, I had casually observed MAL since late 2015, but only really made an account one-third of the way into 2016. Sometime after being invited to the club called 'The Infernal Palace' (which I was active on for a few years and still sometimes interact with today) I decided "Hey, I've written reviews in my free time, why not make better ones here?". Most of my earlier work prior to September 2017 had to be overhauled cuz I wasn't exactly great (some may argue I'm still not that good), and I had so many proofreading errors and whatnot that I can barely read some of them. Met some friends along the way, and got close with bigger reviewers after stuff like my '1/10' Mahouka piece and 50-day, 9400-word rant-fest on Hand Shakers solidified me as a meme. Had a few beefs with some guys over stuff like my FLCL review, though they've since become friendos. Eventually, despite some gems I saw in 2017, I had to take a break from non-Gundam anime cuz so many awful shows burnt me out and prompted to doing reviews in multiple sessions, something which rarely happened in the past. Joined some servers and clubs like Critics & Connoisseurs and Metacritic for Anime (which is basically dead now) that year, which I'll get to in a moment. This was also the year I was most active on the forums, arguing with people and storming garbage threads with my friends. Most of us retired from that hellhole. Even I don't visit them often anymore, but man, fun times. That year, I also ran into @Johan and @CSKaori, the founding members of what I like to call The Ironically Named Anti-Elitist Brigade (or TINAEB for short cuz a shitty corrupt bunch that actively remains a toxic force in this community deserves a shit acronym). Late to early 2018 saw me overhauling my review process and improving as a writer. I finally started producing things that I look back on fondly now and not feel having to completely rewrite. After the MALpocalypse, I made an Anilist account, and I became almost as active there as I am on MAL. I even found someone who volunteered to proofread for me starting late 2018; we worked together until the end of 2019 when he decided to retire. Was a fun ride where I produced several of my most viewed and liked reviews to date. The ongoing war between me and my friends versus TINAEB had gone through several phases, blocks, conversations, and down periods where they weren't doing anything. I also joined MAL Chads & Stacy's where most of my other friends not part of MFA (barring a few who are in both servers) and whom TINAEB beefed with were residing. Now, I'm in the 'MAL Top 50 Reviewers' list for whatever that's worth. Any users you like/dislike? Why? @Skittles, you poor, poor soul. I have an ensemble cast, the likes of which rival those in shounen anime. I'll list the clubs and members by chronological order, so if someone is in multiple clubs or sections, I'll mention them in the one I saw them in first. I won't exactly cover everyone, though. I'll... TRY to keep descriptions concise. Like The Infernal Palace @Shayon - The one who found me. The original master of the Berserker class CBF. Pretty chill to have convos and debates with and one of the first to greet me to the paradise-slash-hellhole that is this site. @Inferno792 - The club creator. Also kinda chill and has done a good job keeping the club relatively active for so long, even if a few of our activity ideas fell through after not too long. The reviews section has been dead for years at this point. @TheMageKiller - Another chill guy I've had many discussions with. He's one of the guys I talked to most and still chat with on the club server. Forum Comrades @Mei-o_Scarlett - Mei is fekken gei and the reason I use more internet speak like 'pls' or 'plz' on Discord than I used to. He's pretty chill and meme-y, and one of the guys I talk to the most about Fate shit nowadays. He's also in The Infernal Palace, but I believe I encountered him on the forums first. @Wasshio - She was most active back in the forum days, such as shit like in the Hand Shakers series discussion board where we confronted... a lot of people. She's a pretty reasonable debater and one of the first people I would turn to when I wanted to invade a bad thread. Retired now. We still sometimes talk about anime and seasonal stuff. Darek - Pretty much abandoned MAL and went to Anilist, but he's one of the guys I've known the longest back during the forum days. Dude made the custom status menu thing I used to wear (where tf is it?), so I'm thankful. Dude's pretty chill too and another voice of reason on the forums back then. Also retired. @bmoore07 - A review colleague of mine who is pretty cool and has also gotten an interview. Honestly, I swear the dude's reviews just really started knocking it out of the park as of 2019, though he's less active on that front than he used to be. His dissection of what makes Piccolo his favorite character was a pretty compelling read, and so are other diatribes he's made. Retired from the forums. @Manaban - Ah yes, the one who gets banned all day everyday and has actively embraced being a combative entity on the forums. We've had some arguments here and there (I mean, it's to be expected when you love Mahouka and I hate it), but overall, Mana's pretty chill with me. There's also the fact that he exposed Papsoshea as a plagiarist by creating a swiftly-expunged thread detailing some of his plagiarism exploits dating back to 2014. I and some others who shall be known as 'Askelchadd's Wingmen' may have had a hand in providing evidence and reporting the reviews before the dude performed scorched-earth tactics on his MAL profile and other accounts like on Reddit. This makes Mana literally a war vet—a vindictive one who has gleefully taken on the role of a heel on the forums, but a veteran nonetheless. @moondragon84 - I still talk with him on MAL and Anilist sometimes. Sometimes on the forums, sometimes through reviews. Met him after my Mahouka review. This is gonna become a trend. Metacritic for Anime Oh God, where do I start? We're gonna need subsections for the subsection. Love Live Degen Gang @LIQfilms - The horniest member who has embraced his completely degenerate character. Retired reviewer who made many detailed pieces like his Ping Pong review. Met him around the time of my Mahouka review after he made his to trash the show. @Werty800 - A more sarcastic but chill enough former reviewer whom I sometime see being active on the forums. Met him when I made a poll of some kind that I don't remember. @RoryBurrows - Easily the least active of the group, but still an amusing person nonetheless. He made very few reviews and hasn't made any since I believe 2018. Everyone Else, Fuck my Life, This Was a Mistake @ZephSilver - Retired from MAL cuz it's a hellhole. A divisive figure who makes no secret on who and what he likes or dislikes. His reviews are some of the most detailed, scathing, purple-prosey of the bunch, which no doubt made him one of the most controversial reviewers on the site. He pulls no punches with whatever he covers, which can be seen from his Kabaneri or Re:Zero reviews. Also a fun film and music guy to talk with, even if his sardonic attitude can lead to brutal arguments or moments (like whenever he would dismantle my review). Still, he was also helpful by teaching me how to make my writing better. @NothingReally - Similarly outspoken to the point where he has been labeled snobbish for some of his stances. Loves artistic things about as much as he loves cute and fun things like Spongebob and Ojamajo Doremi. He, @ZephSilver, and I have had fun music sessions where I got introduced to some great artists. He's often the one who plans them out, either on his own or with others. He has also influenced some of my internet speak cuz saying funno is funno. @Lonecrit - My fellow overenthusiastic autist. He's the one most likely to embed Kamen Rider, Blazing Transfer Student (and Kazuhiko Shimamoto's stuff in general), and Dr. Who into your psyche for all of eternity. One of the first guys I talked about Tylor with and an active seeker of voice chatting. @Fleure - Da GOAT, able to make some of the most vivid and evocative positive reviews I've ever seen. Perhaps the chillest member in the entire server. The gold standard for anime reviewers, though she only reviews like once or twice a year now. Pizzer - The one who likes putting pineapples on pizza like a true heathen. Someone I've had arguments with and who introduced me to a few nice anime shorts. He also showed me a few things for the computer that I now regularly use. He's also one of the reviewers who had the quickest transformations I've seen in terms of escalating quality. @AndoCommando - The chad. The original combatant in the war instigated by TINAEB and one of the few good reviewers left on MAL who does anything remotely consistently. Met him after my Mahouka review given our mutual hatred for the damn thing. @KyoumaZ - He did a kickass Cowboy Bebop review and has barely done much since. I don't think he has been reviewing since early 2019. He is one of the least active members on the club, but was still chill. @sterl1 - Another reviewer who barely did anything after one big review, that being his piece on Fate/Apocrypha. Still cool to talk with every now and then. @NFMaster - Chill manga and Baki enthusiast who I've had neat discussions with. One of the guys on the Metacritic server most notable for never getting into any beefs online as far as I'm aware. @Taz_ - The big gei, even more so than Mei or LIQ. Infamous for his One Punch Man review, spreading the gospel of the Hajimete no Gal dub, and getting his April Fools 2019 review taken down by none other than my dear interviewer. @Skittles - The only mod I really talk to and rely on. He makes the best MALoween rooms... and takes down Taz's April Fools shit. @AltoRoark - Pretty chill reviewer who doesn't really do much anymore, but I like his FranXX review and his Bloom Into You review. @Artrill - Like the man with the Kiki avatar, likes art, no longer really likes anime much, and is more of a film and music guy. We've had many debates, but he's still pretty chill outside of his outspoken reviews. @RebelPanda - Not very active in the Metacritic server, but very active in the MAL review sphere (or what's left of it as it tries to recover from the hell that was 2018-2019). Didn't care for some of the more abrasive reviews he made that propelled him to MAL stardom, but he's generally a pretty entertaining writer who does not hold back. Plus, I need all the good Hispanic representation I can get. Fun fact: he also likes pandas. Who would have guessed? @AestheticOnion - The man who loves Lain. A fellow memelord I have aided once or twice, and he has the newest Daughters record in his top five albums. Pretty goat-ed, if you ask me. @Assthette - Catchy a.k.a the bluntest man on the Metacritic server. Not afraid to lay in on character or argument flaws, even moreso than Zeph or anyone here. We've had some vitriolic banter, but also some fun talks about stuff like his D&D escapades with Werty, who gets pestered by his Brazilian memes. @Yuni - Papa Yuni, another one who has seemingly never had a conflict. Unlike the virgin Love Live Degen gang, he's a chad Idolm@ster fan, though I need to have more actual convos with him. @Yasaal - We've had notable disagreements on opinions (you don't like my favorite anime REEEEEEEEEEE), but he's also a pretty cool guy to chat with about anime and whatnot. I'm gonna stop now cuz fuck, this is getting way too long for anyone and I need to move on. Just know if you on the Metacritic server and I didn't mention you, you still cool. Hear that, @Ado42, @Lythelus, @Tebls, @Konakana, @Buo, @FrozenRoy, @Sapphire, @Icarus_Prime, @zenmodeman, and others? Y'all still cool. Critics & Connoisseurs @Lightfellow - The one basically taking the reins of the club for the past few years. Sardonic fuck, but an earnest one. The one who plans out the majority of club activities on Discord, as well as other things that unfortunately fell through after a while like 'C&C Weekly.' Also the most willing to talk about actual life stuff. @Lindle - Papybara (if you know, you know, as the great King Push once said), dick master, and effectively a former member now, but perhaps the most fun one to talk to. He planned Cards Against Humanity sessions and our yearly awards where he has to make graphics and GIFs. My speaking style on Discord is also partially influenced by him, and he is the main reason I started watching The Eric Andre Show, a golden gem that allows us to have the same energy. He's also one of the few reviewers of the bunch. @Unowen - Whenever we actually agree on anything, we realized what we agree on is either good or bad. Amusing, but somehow I do not know what else to say, as if it wasn't obvious enough with a lot of friends here. His reviews are also concise but nice. @Nanaca - Turn A Nanac, Nanac, Nanaco, Nanac0neesan. The boomer and resident isekai connoisseur of C&C goes by many names. At this point, we have more running gags and in-jokes with her than with anyone else there. Somehow I don't have too much to say about most friends here or in the next category, so I'll just say @HiroM has the best tags and emote game since @ZephSilver; @Extect has the most similar taste to me regarding his favorites; @TruePein has held the longest and most rewarding debates I have ever been part of; @ailululululurus got me into at least one math rock group I really enjoy (Lightning Bolt) and made for neat voice chat sessions; @ladyxzus is one of the most positive and laid-back members we have; @East is the cute tsun of the group and helped me with my RYM submissions for Gundam Thunderbolt; and @Suna is also a fun guy there plus we share the same birthday. If I missed anyone I even remotely interact with here, my bad, but you know who you are (@Gundroog, @Kriika, @DerMond, @SaroArsten, and @ArakakiLaurant). Fuck it, I was typing this all on Discord and the C&C section was 2000 characters exactly, reaching the limit with none to spare. I'm murdering myself by listing like 100 of you fuckers cuz I missed a lot of guys last time I did one of these. MAL Chads & Stacy's Most of these guys also have Anilist accounts, and this club is perhaps the one I'm most comfortable in when it comes to sharing my opinions on anime (not music ones doe cuz I'm a maverick when it comes to them, I guess). @NickDen - Fun jazz guy who made some pretty decent reviews and is the founder of the server. One of the first guys in the club that had to find themselves attacked by a certain TINAEB member I'll talk about in the dislikes section. @Arimias - Fun Haibane Renmei guy who made some pretty decent reviews and also felt the wrath of TINAEB. One of the more active members. @tingoo - Another chill dude, and we actually met when I was dealing with TINAEB. He also organizes the lists we do on this server. @VelvetPhos - The s-n-o-b of the server with several memes on his music taste and post-2000s anime opinions. Also pretty chill. @Aslt - Memelord from the post-2017 forum days when I was barely active in that hellhole anymore. I like his FranXX review and man, did he make fun of that sack of shit. @WeeabooColin - Bish likes FranXX and other garby shows. He has infected my vocabulary to the point where I use 'based' and 'chad' more than I would have ever thought. Fun drunk voice chat man and group-watch planner who makes us watch or nominate unspeakable evils such as Kotoura-san and Dark Cat. @DiscoMilf - We share an immense hatred for Arifureta and its visual presentation while having a penchant towards longer reviews. @Peregrine - My now retired proofreader whom I've had many meme-y convos with and sessions where we tore apart the visuals of 2019 JC Staff shows and other things. I thank him for straightening up my reviews for over a year as some of them became my best pieces yet, such as my Vinland Saga, One Punch Man 2, and Arifureta reviews. Captain - Perhaps the most welcoming and supportive Discord person I know when it comes to anything I write. Also pretty chill. Uh, @HeadlessHorseman is a chill dude I talked about Gundam and Tylor with; @Honey_Flash is one of the most understanding members of the server as well as the only one who even associates with any member of TINAEB (apart from @Literaturenerd who I am still getting to know beyond small chatters on reviews); @Stumonster, @TheDerpMan, @Cyber_Icarus, @Warriors_of_God, @Remix, @Oterino (left the server, which sucks but good luck to her on her endeavors), @Pemulis, and @YuiGoggles are also chill people to talk and meme with on the server. There are more of you guys, I know, but I'm mainly doing the ones I know the most and who have been really active. Oh God, I think I'm growing delirious. Miscellaneous @PridefulMaster - I talked with him about Gundam, Devil May Cry, our mutual hatred of FranXX, reviews, any many more. Really fun to talk with. @SunlitSonata - Perhaps one of my longest-standing MAL friendships. We talked about a lot of anime and games and whatnot. Also one of the few reviewers I still keep up with. @MozillaFennekin - The memelord himself. Comedic gold as a reviewer and his channel is underrated. Support the PokeBastard and Mayushii fan who loves Big Order and Hand Shakers, probably both ironically and unironically at this point as they're so ingrained in his identity of comedy. Obviously another reviewer I keep up with. @Goukeban - Another verbose reviewer from back in the halcyon days of 2017 who still periodically shows up on MAL. We bonded over Balsa from Moribito. There's also Nick and Wyatt who don't have MAL anymore. We beefed about things like FLCL, blocked each other, became friends again, talked about things and bickered (though with some semblance of intellect). I watched the second half of Evangelion and all of End of Evangelion with Nick and had convos about it that made for some of the best experiences I've had with anime and anime discussion. Been a long journey from 2016 to now. I just wanna get this shit over with so apologies for not giving real descriptions to the variety of cool peeps I'm about to name, some of whom are recent: @Stark700, @inim, @Ericonator, @TamakiJoker, @AdolZeppeli, @SuperRed, @Rei_III, @A_Painting, @Greyleaf, @XHellLytherX, @Sinankooesa, @OmegaWaffles, @gabrielrroiz, @Cynthesizer, @PoeticJustice, @Karhu (I'll actually get to him later), @Libaaan, @Grex11, @BlazingYukine, @-Lofn-, @Fellener, @KaiserShounen07 (only know on Discord and AL, but just learned he has a MAL), @AngryAlchemist, and @MisterRational. There are more out there, but fuck it, we need to move onto dislikes! Dislikes Let's split this up into three sections. Not gonna talk about random forum pricks I hated cuz they're just miserable and awful. Just ones I have issues with nowadays or don't have issues with anymore. Used to Dislike (But Now Cool With) Momo - It's amazing how we went from pretty cordial with each other back in the early days of Metacritic to hating each other so much she told me I actively make her want to kill herself. Now, we're pretty chill with each other and talk about video games and albums regularly on other servers. It's an epic roller coaster where things started pretty alright, but then she hated me and my content so much after a while that it just led to lots of fights between us. After a while, she just dipped before reconciling like nothing ever happened. Proof that I don't have to feel resentment towards everyone who cusses me out or hurt me. Now she hosts stuff like Metacritic score predictions for games with review embargos and whatnot on other servers. @Karhu - If anyone remembers early 2018 for MAL reviews, you definitely remember how everyone was uploading their "finished" reviews two to 12 hours before a seasonal anime ended by exploiting a glaring loophole in the site's review system. I can't say there was someone spearheading it, but @Karhu did this more frequently than anyone else and became super popular for it. His reviews in general were often were unclear as to whether or not they were genuine opinions or him just fucking around. He and others like him were a problem, but eventually, we talked and came to an understanding. We even read some of each other's stuff sometimes (not that I read everything, just stuff like the Gundam Origin or FLCL Alternative review), so yeah. He also slowly stopped really bothering with it, so eh. @Johan - Ah yes, the original "anti-elitist" crusader. Yes, he's absolutely toxic for this community and someone who can be rather belligerent and closed-minded about people's opinions and assessments of certain anime as he believes he's a true measurer of objective, undeniable quality of any given work. He has almost every problem these "anti-elitists" have. However, unlike the others I'll be mentioning soon, he's someone I can and have actually had genuine conversations with that didn't always boil down to "muh elitism" or him being antagonistic. That said, his penchant for starting up fights with people simply because of their taste and any negative comments made on a popular show he considers good is definitely problematic. @-Lamp- - Ah yes, the anti-Evangelion man himself. Funny enough, we share mutual friends, and until a very sudden and recent turn of events where he ended up joining a Discord server I was in, we had several quarrels and even blocked each other at one point. With the racist insults, attacks on my friends, and copypasta negative reviews of FranXX which was assumed to be some conspiracy orchestrated by a ringleader who totally ain't me cuz he needed to be morally superior for preferring FranXX over NGE (wtf), I was prepared to make this one big piece about why he and I would likely never get along despite me seeing obvious potential for him to be cordial. Thanks to the aforementioned server, we finally got the chance to interact outside of this whole beef. I long knew we were capable of this when I initially posted civil disagreements with his long since taken down NGE review. So all of the stuff I got onto him for is basically water under the bridge now. I no longer feel like detailing specifics since I don't want to damage the good we've suddenly built with each other, and since I know that for better or worse, he's certainly passionate about what he likes and dislikes. The Ironically Named Anti-Elitist Brigade (TINAEB) I've given this name for @Johan, @-Lamp-, and those who follow their "fuck everyone who expresses a less-than-positive viewpoint on great mainstream shows I love" because they demean everyone who likes so-called "elitist starter pack" shows while disliking or not giving a '7/10' or higher to shows like ERASED, Re:Zero, Clannad: After Story, and Violet Evergarden. They generally go out of their way to attack anyone just minding their own business if they happen to fulfill this criteria. To them, reviews MUST be 100% objective and agreeable in accordance with their warped standards. Somehow through the power of Discord, I've managed to come to decent enough terms with @Johan and @-Lamp- despite continuing to disagree with their expressed mindset and behavior. Still, there's one person I want to touch one that I still have bad blood with. @CSKaori - If you've seen her posts on the forums or the top of her profile (which is about why anime is a mistake due to people criticizing Stars Align) then you've gotten but a taste of how she acts. She also seems to take stock in judging people's reviews, popping in the profile of others to say "great review of X" or "horrible review of Y" or stuff like that. Nothing genuinely constructive, either. What's worse is her attempts to actively de-platform @AndoCommando for "sophistry" (i.e reviews she disagrees with). Even beyond the back and forth she had with him, @Captain220 (sup?), and others, she tried to get him banned for petty reasons. If you read any of his reviews, you should know they're written in a pretty calm manner, not often in an angry or scathing way like a lot of mine, RebelPanda's, Artrill's, or Zeph's are. They're not written purely out of bad faith, either. It's honestly pathetic. I get that she's apparently around my age and she's probably been through a lot to make her so defensive and terrible about her fandom and her shows, but that doesn't justify her terrible behavior. Apparently, she made her own review of Hibike Euphonium that doesn't solely exist to dunk on "dem haters," so good for her. She also seems to have taken a break, which is honestly good as she definitely needs time away from the internet. She needs to reflect and grow that way and not make MAL a worse place. Maybe some of us have been rather combative, calling her out or laughing at her attempts to sound rude or authoritative, but still. Perhaps part of this is my fault for getting onto her when she just attacked my friends for no good reason, but it's hard to feel sympathy for those who act as toxic as possible and actively try to fight and get rid of people due to not liking what they write. She's also the only user who still has me blocked to my knowledge, so there's that. This TINAEB mindset is not limited to just them, as I've seen this kind of vindictive, hateful, and hypocritical behavior several times on the forums and reviews, but again, she's the only prominent figure I have left as an example. I just cannot stress enough just how hateful this kind of mindset allows someone to be, as that makes up a lot of their interactions on this site, such as @Johan wishing death on some of my friends and lashing out due to spite. I know they can sometimes be civil with those they disagree with, but this mindset is still what I take umbrage with as it actively makes MAL a worse and more hostile place than it needs to be. Most reviewers like us just want to chill. Specific Reviewers I Take Umbrage With I could just mention every reviewer I know who makes incredibly shallow or subpar content, as well as everyone following the "let's post our reviews right before the show actually finishes so we can get easy clicks" bandwagon. I could also name random vindictive jerkoffs who write out of spite, but I'm not gonna do that. Instead, I'll just mention two reviewers whose content just really gets under my skin. @AstralBread and @Mythologically - These two users make me think that @Johan might have a point about certain people being contrarian for the sake of it. A lot of their negative reviews rely on hyperbole and nitpicking without much substantiation or elaboration as to why the work gets a '1' or '2' (or—if they're feeling really audacious—a '5'). They mainly write negative reviews for shows that are critically acclaimed by the anime community like Vinland Saga or Sarazanmai (you know, things that someone somewhere can look and go "ugh, this is so overrated!"). Meanwhile, a lot of their positive reviews give overwhelmingly positive scores to things under the radar like Sounan Desu ka and Goblin Slayer, but rarely go beyond a detailed summary of the show. The scores feel reactionary rather than congruent based on the tone of their reviews. Their positive reviews often feel really detached and monotone while their negative ones are in bad faith. Their Vinland Saga and Sarazanmai reviews are the worst examples, especially the latter which was obviously influenced by his rage from seeing the top four reviews for the show being positive. Their restriction of profile comments to friends only and the general attitude they give off also rub me the wrong way. I feel like they're stuck in some sort of echo chamber, lacking any willingness to listen to or understand opposing viewpoints. How did you get into anime/manga? Ever since I was four, I've been infatuated with space-related science-fiction. Some of my favorites franchises were Star Wars and Robotech, the latter of which introduced me to my first three anime titles (Macross, Southern Cross, and MOSPEADA). Ever since then, I had seen both tons of times, and there would always be this commercial of "anime is..." from Anime News Network if I remember correctly. This is where my journey began, for better or worse. It took like seven years before I understood what anime was, with titles like Sword Art Online and Dragon Ball Z Kai being my early watches. Here I am now, complaining about anime like it's my job or something while making overly dramatic write-ups and purple prose for everything I like. Could you recommend us three of your favorite anime/manga? Code Geass is fucking goated, I don't care what anyone says. Man, I know R1's script is kinda rickety, but it's just way too much fun. There's a level of hype and bombast that oozes throughout R1 in particular, going all-in on whatever it does 100% of the time. R2 is not quite on the level of R1 despite some amazing moments, so I only count R1 as my favorite. If you can't get behind the soundtrack, the mecha battles (which sometimes involve the mechs doing 'breakdance' combat), the relatively small episode length compared to other giant robot shows, or just Lelouch in general, I don't know how you live. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is a two-season tale of sorrow, regret, tragedy, heartbreak, and the struggles different people face while following their passions throughout their entire lives. It's frankly poetic in its presentation, with some of the emotional moments in season two being absolutely heart-rending or soul-melting. I can't remember the last time the end of a show had me grinning for hours on end. It's not often a show is this consistently well-directed across two seasons. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. You might wanna watch the original 0079 Gundam or the movie trilogy to feel the full effect of this six-episode OVA that adapts the backstory of the remake manga. It sheds so much light into the Zeon characters in particular while further cementing Char as one of the coolest, most charismatic bastards in the medium. Its wonderful cinematic presentation somehow combines a sense of whimsy, grandiosity, and evocativeness that makes cinema so rewarding and charming. There are a few stumbles in the fourth episode, but there's far too much for me to gush about here. I've done reviews for all of these shows, if anyone wants expanded thoughts on them. What are your hobbies outside of anime/manga and MAL? Well, I've gotten more into video games with the likes of the Megaman Zero series, DOOM (2016) (fuck this quarantine, I wanna play DOOM Eternal), and the Devil May Cry series. I adore fast-paced, adrenaline pumping games with some teeth to them and a lot of options for you to choose from. These games embody that quality, so they're just a blast to play. I also dabble in Yu-Gi-Oh!, which has seen its fair share of controversy thanks to stuff like the Link mechanic. I'm mostly a Blue-Eyes player cuz I love being able to summon big monsters with cards that feed into each other and provide different options as to what I want to summon or which approach to take. However, I like being able to do it without having to go into a series of convoluted steps to get like a million monsters and negates. I should invest in a Red Dragon Archfiend deck at some point as I heard it has a similar playstyle. I also deal with Odd-Eyes and Elemental Heroes. Summoning a Rainbow Neos, buffing its attack from an already beefy 4500 to 7500, using it to blow away an opponent's entire back row or front row, and then BTFO-ing them to either 500 or game is hype beyond belief. I sometimes write stuff like poetry, which I've gotten more into during the past year or so. It's fun being able to get my creative juices flowing outside of reviews, so I can experiment more with rhymes, emotions, subject matter, and evocative diction. How do you feel about how the site is run? Especially in regards to moderators and admins. Well, you're pretty reliable @Skittles, though I don't talk much with the other mods. I feel like the preliminary reviews system has more cons than pros. There are a lot of shitty writers who just dump their stuff onto a "completed" review once the show finishes airing or the terrible 'finished airing' loophole kicks in. I don't get why they don't fix that. There are also times where a show has already finished airing, but aren't marked as so for up to entire hours or days. AniList has a system that actually works to prevent that. I also don't like how they change the database titles to Japanese (even if I sorta like the current format with the main title first and the alternate title right beneath it). Who tf calls Berserk "Kenpuu Denki Berserk" or Ghost in the Shell "Koukaku Kidoutai" or whatever happened with Eureka Seven or FMA? This is especially weird given that MAL is a primarily English site and that they have options for alternate titles in the left column. They also take a long time to deal with problems regarding reported reviews, loophole abuses, problematic members of the community, and score botting. That last one was a real issue with Chihayafuru 3, which the mods did absolutely nothing about. They admitted they did nothing because the show's mistreatment on the site could be used as ammo for future implementations, which came conveniently after Ishuzoku Reviewers got score botted upwards. I get that mods deal with a lot of shit and things can get rather hectic, but sometimes I have to question their decision-making. Someone should also fix MAL's coding given how often it gets hit or goes down. What would you say influences or inspires your poetry? from @bmoore07 Huh... Honestly, I feel like I have three influences, sorta. I remember when I was trying out with villanelle, I looked up Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" to make sure I had the structure right. It's also a very evocative poem in general. Then, I came across Elizabeth Bishop with her poem "One Art," which seems strangely whimsical and playful with the subject of loss before revealing itself to be extremely sorrowful. I feel this poem had the most influence on me in terms of writing villanelle in particular. Probably the author who influenced me the most. Eventually, Chloe Honum showed up at my college one day, had a session in my poetry class where we did poetry exercises, and listened to her talk about what brought her to where she is as a poet. Later that day, she hosted a reading of several pieces from her two published poetry books and an upcoming one. I actually own a copy of both, which led me to thinking of making my own poetry book about confessional topics of my life, including self-loathing and heartbreak. I feel like what seemed to be disconnected confessional pieces are now starting to turn into potential, intertwining themes. I hope to release a book on the caliber of her first book, The Tulip Flame, which combines confessional pieces from the effects of her mother's suicide with her own story of her heartbreak during her ballerina days. I wouldn't call him a direct influence just yet, but I went to a poetry workshop hosted by Terrance Hayes who taught me about the lyric moment. This is when a poem that had one subject or theme seemingly cuts to something completely different, underscoring the core of the piece itself before coming back to its initial point. After drafting and editing a piece I made during his workshop, I felt like I was getting more ideas for a poetry book, giving a potential sense of added direction and progression I hope to capitalize on. What were your most memorable moments during your active time in Infernal Palace? Oh God, it's been a while, but I remember the reviews page we used to have where everyone could send their reviews and offer feedback. It was fun even if it died before too long. I also remember some fun moments like in the "ban the user above" server or my weird RP-like posts. This was also the first club I became an admin in, although I haven't done much lately. Seeing that you major in Creative Writing, care to share with us some of your work? Sure, if you don't mind checking out my website where I post my poetry. I made it cuz my pieces got rejected by my school's yearly literary magazine, so I decided to host my work there. I haven't updated it in a while since classes amidst this pandemic made me lose motivation for a while. A lot of these tie into a few central themes for a book I'm planning on piecing together. Not everything I write will be put here, though. For those who don't feel like clicking the link, I'll directly share the piece "Eve of Several Ends" to give a taste of the kind of things I write (usually dark or melancholic, often confessional and rhyming, so this is an exception). And there you stood The love of my life As bright as what lit behind you While you gazed with eyes bereft of said light. Oh how you were like the sunset Majestic, gorgeous yet ever so melancholic, Seeing you at the eve of several ends was all so worrying How I should have known– The sun never thinks about what it’s leaving behind Neither did you as you descended alongside it Your hair having curved along its outline And you plummeted towards the bottom of the red sphere before me. Here I stand four anniversaries later in this darkness Chilled by my foolishness and your grim departure At the twilight of this night and year I declare This rope will bind us together again just as the ring once did. What are some advantages that AniList’s review system has over that of MAL? Well, for one, it allows you to give a '0' rating. You also get to pick out a quote to represent your review, though I wish they allowed it to be a little longer cuz sometimes the line that best encapsulates everything is too much for 120 characters. There's less tolerance for blatantly spiteful or low effort reviews with only one or two paragraphs. I do wish they had a character minimum that was just a little smaller, but it's still way more acceptable than MAL's, which can be bypassed easily by writing a five-sentence paragraph or so cuz it has like... 250 characters as the minimum. Your biggest pet peeve with most reviews on MAL? I have no respect for those who write out of spite. There's a reason I brought up that aforementioned Sarazanmai review, which was written out of anger towards the top four reviews being generally positive (including mine). If you have a take that goes against the grain and you really wanna get it out there, just fucking do it without any pretense of "proving I'm right cuz the masses are wrong/incapable of critical thought/pissing me off." I did my Mob Psycho 2 review mainly because I didn't see a single piece of writing that remotely reflects my perception of that season, so why can't others post their contrary takes in a reasonable and organic manner? Oh wait, it's cuz "I gotta balance out the ignoramuses so I must artificially inflate/deflate my score and/or put others down." Right. Oh, and before you cry "no u" to me and my friends cuz of our middling to negative reviews on certain popular anime and my positive reviews of shows with less than a '7' on MAL, try rereading this paragraph. Also, consider searching for an ounce of self-awareness first. Of course, people who just inflate their reviews cuz "wtf they really asking for long reviews out here" in a system with only a 150 or 250 characters minimum makes me groan. Learn what a fucking review is before you write 2-4 sentences and call it a day. Here's a hint—they're not meant to be glorified forum posts. Also, I loathe when people have paragraphs stacked on top of one another without any spaces between them. It's garbage formatting and I find it so annoying to read that it's an automatic turnoff for me. It's easily fixable, so if that's a constant problem in your reviews, maybe put in the effort to hit the spacebar when you copy-paste your WordPress documents or write from scratch when you start a new paragraph and see that it's not practically touching the one before. If you were to become a Review Moderator, what is one change you would like to propose to MAL’s review system? Well, I'd want an increased character count, so you actually have to write more than one paragraph (I'd say 500 or so characters, not AniList's 1200 or 2200). Reviews are meant to have thought put into them when it comes to expressing your opinion and why you feel something's worth or not worth watching. Of course, I'd want there to be a better system for tracking shows that finished airing, so we don't have the 12-hour loophole or end up waiting several hours after a show has finished for MAL to count it. Use whatever AniList has with an actual timer. Sure, that won't 100% eradicate the rat race problem considering it's here to stay and the site's so big that there's no chance of that going away, but it will at least be beneficial. Do you believe ‘anti-elitism’ has grown to be as bad as ‘elitism’ or even worse? Oh, absolutely. I wasn't there when the whole thing about anime elitism over "elite shows" was really prevalent, which many claim was only a thing in the 2000s when the anime community was growing via fansubs and online websites. Unless someone is like "u like Sword Art Online/Fairy Tail smh," I don't see it here. Sure, I see this kind of mindset in the gaming and film communities, but the only time I see something like this in the anime market outside of the aforementioned example is—ironically enough—when an "anti-elitist" is trying to put someone down for disliking "muh Darling in the FranXX or muh Re:Zero." Why do you think I put the phrase in quotation marks? Frankly, putting others down and trying to come off as superior for the shows you like just makes you look like a little bitch, plain and simple. You're watching stigmatized weeb culture, nerd. You don't get to sit in your imaginary ivory towers over this shit, let alone hypocritically fight people who like or dislike certain shows because you can't handle people posting opposing opinions in public spaces cuz you feel that they must be 100% objective in that they line up with your assessments of an anime (which is a delusional metric of measuring objectivity, but leave it to TINAEB to do this). You also don't get to claim moral superiority for liking mainstream or non-mainstream anime, no matter how many times some loser try to harass you for liking SAO when its hate train was at the height of popularity. It's just an excuse for spite and revenge, and us reviewers tend to be the most common targets for this form of venting. As a fan of Gundam, how would you convince a non-mecha fan to get into the franchise? Can't say I'd succeed in doing this, but I'd say that if you've watched Code Geass, especially R2, then you've basically seen a Gundam show. Many real robot shows contain the same themes about anti-war, revenge, and introducing at least one fancy new robot every 1-3 episodes. I'd say start with 0079 Gundam (TV or recap movies) as it's the intended starting point for the main timeline a.k.a the UC timeline, or start with Gundam Thunderbolt to get a quick and modernized introduction to everything Gundam is about. One might say to start at an alt universe timeline show like 00, IBO, or SEED. However, I'd rather start you on something that's genuinely worth watching in my eyes. Still, basically, find someone who has seen Code Geass and let them know that they've basically seen a Gundam cuz they're similar. If they don't find Gundam as a franchise too impenetrable, or if they're not too closed-minded about mecha, then this should work... hopefully. Have you ever built your own Gundam model figurine? Which Gundam model is your favorite? I've built the High Grade Unicorn Destroy Mode (it's a plastic hand grenade so nothing's fucking stable with that piece of shit) and the High Grade Gundam Atlas (an actually good and sturdy model that can be posed). I really like both as designs, but my favorites would probably be the Zeta Gundam or Nu Gundam. If I had more space, I'd definitely get some form of the SEED Astray. Which aspect of Code Geass do you think is most often overlooked? Either Suzaku's journey from a stubborn and idiotic hypocrite to a more jaded person accepting of all his faults, or how the table masturbation scene is the most striking set-up of Nina's lustful devolution into insanity over Euphemia, the latter of which sets up a rule of thirds scenario of set-up, reminder, and payoff over the course of S1's latter half. The former is often ignored for the belief that "Suzaku's a bad character and a hypocrite so the show is worse" and the latter is often ignored for just "it's pointless filler/shock value." You could argue that maybe 2-3 seconds could be cut from it when we see Nina's borderline silhouetted face in that scene, but even still, it's not that big a deal. The scene gets the point across without lingering or going overboard for an extended period of time. Why do you think Anime Discussion has degraded in terms of quality? People often don't care about actually having civilized discussion. They just wanna be morally and factually correct and express their outrage. Why else do you believe "anti-elitism" has grown so rampant on MAL these past four years? Why else do you think the Goblin Slayer or Shield Hero controversies happened? Neither of them actually revealed anything about the qualities of either show. Instead, they just threw the community into a civil war where neither side is right or tolerable. Do you see yourself leaving MAL in the near future? In spite of my issues, no. MAL is still my main hub for reviewing, and I do still communicate with way too many here for me to ever consider leaving, either. Maybe if I was just some angry forum poster who didn't write reviews or anything, and I was equally if not more weary over the current state of MAL, I'd consider leaving. However, I'm still not migrating platforms. Instead, I'm doing cross-platform promotion to extend my reach to the stars above. If you get that last joke, good. Any feedback on the interview format? Not really, aside from how I like that there are multiple ways to go about it. Maybe I should not have went the Discord route lol. Can you recommend three members who we can choose from to interview next, and briefly explain why you would like to read their interviews? Uhhhhh.... @inim would make for an interesting read given that he's certainly more of an 'oldtaku' than most on the site. I'd like to hear his experiences with other mediums and how that affected his transition into this one. I don't believe @SunlitSonata has one. If so, he's overdue as a relatively decent reviewer who has been on the site for around four years at this point. @RebelPanda also doesn't have one, which is odd because he's easily one of the biggest and most consistently decent reviewers on the site. This marks the end of the interview. Thank you for your participation! |
SkittlesMay 15, 2020 1:53 PM
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ADDENDUM A few things happened since the writing of this interview, and there are things I want to clarify so no one gets the wrong idea about anything I've said. 1. bmoore has just initiated an interview with RebelPanda so I got my wish before asking 2. Lamp and I have apologized for our contributions to our little feud and have made up so please do not go up to him or anyone I mentioned in the dislike or used to dislike portions. I need to make it clear that I have no bad blood with anyone in the used to dislike section as I'm either cool with or friends with them now. I was just detailing some rocky history that all parties negatively contributed to, and have since had fun and engaging conversations with Lamp recently. If I had enough space where I was writing to detail more of the positive things about Lamp and Momo and others, I would as they tend to be fun enough people with engaging convos about anime and video games respectively. 3. Those in the actual dislikes section aren't ones I dislike as people per se. I know those with the mindset I have vilified are often people struggling on a deeper level and that just bashing them for the actions made as a result doesn't help. In fact, Johan was part of the reason I was able to sympathize with them more than I would have despite our mindsets conflicting. I also don't know the reviewers I negatively described here personally so it's not like I'm out for blood regarding anyone in the dislikes section. No one go after anyone's profiles, ok? 4. Let us give a requiem to the fallen, those friends who have left MAL: ZephSilver, themegamancave, Nick (BustaRhymes, MrBattlestar10, etc.), Wyatt. Fellas, cheers to whatever you're doing. |
CodeBlazeFateMay 12, 2020 9:32 AM
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
| Very lengthy and very interesting read. thanks for keeping my image alive of being a degenerate now let me suck your Hispanic dick pls |
LIQfilms said: yw bby and my dick is being repaired after cooming too hard to RedLetterMedia videosVery lengthy and very interesting read. thanks for keeping my image alive of being a degenerate now let me suck your Hispanic dick pls |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
| Very cool have an updoot :blobreach: |
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| sankyuu Papa Yuni :blobreach: |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
| Thanks CBF, didn't even expect to get mentioned. Very interesting interview, review community is among the ones I interact the least with. P.S. I skipped going through Gundam section of the interview to avoid the PTSD caused by [redacted], but just looked at it accidentally and the mention is here. |
SaroArsten said: yw bbehThanks CBF, didn't even expect to get mentioned. Very interesting interview, review community is among the ones I interact the least with. P.S. I skipped going through Gundam section of the interview to avoid the PTSD caused by [redacted], but just looked at it accidentally and the mention is here. lul [redacted] is the Nena to your Louise |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
| This oughta be the longest interview in history. :monkagiga: |
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Lythelus said: lul funny enough, I know one that's longer *cough* Manaban *cough*This oughta be the longest interview in history. :monkagiga: Libaaan said: Thanks man, ans yw for the shoutout.Pretty cool. Liked the little poem and questions asked. Glad I got a mention! |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
Lightfellow said: lul organizing club lists is still something The one who plans out the majority of club activities on Discord Bold of you to assume I actually plan anything. Wasshio said: Man, 2017 was a better time before AD was juet a dour cesspool with nothing worth raiding. Good luck reading the rest and getting some sleep. Lockdown fucked my sleep schedule.Man being mentioned as "Forum Comrades" really takes me back from the old days lol. I'm not as active anymore here because I just ain't using this site as much (I use twitter and discord to interact nowadays) but it's still fun seeing some pretty iffy stuff once in a while. I do need to read the rest of this since I just saw this when I was sleep deprived xD hehe. |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
Wasshio said: True tho sometimes a forum was so bait worthy that it needed to be raided with memes. Just depended on if the OP was a tool or someone in there was.CodeBlazeFate said: lul organizing club lists is still something Man, 2017 was a better time before AD was juet a dour cesspool with nothing worth raiding. Good luck reading the rest and getting some sleep. Lockdown fucked my sleep schedule. I wasn't less going on a raid and more just going at a forum and checking what's up and then if I disagreed with something I'd give my two pieces. But ye. Also. GO TO SLEEP! ;; I just woke up after a good 8-hour rest lul |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
Wasshio said: It really just depended on the forum but back then it was actually kinda worth arguing with people on some level.CodeBlazeFate said: True tho sometimes a forum was so bait worthy that it needed to be raided with memes. Just depended on if the OP was a tool or someone in there was. I just woke up after a good 8-hour rest lul I didn't went on them with the intention to raid lol but sometimes the threads were interestingly funny. In a somehow weird way I guess. Oh shit! well good for you, uh... as for me I might need to go to sleep myself. Sleep deprivation can kill. oof good luck then. schleeeeeeeeep |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
FlowersInTheRain said: Honestly, people should just make their stuff legible, earnest, and capable of some form of elaboration to back up their points beyond "this character is X, this show had awful 90s CG, ignore one element and focus on the other". It ain't hard and you can go in any real direction and lend any real voice from there. No need for bile towards people who like or dislike a show, no need for fancy purple prose unless that's your thing. I don't exactly know where you got "why should people go about expressing their creativity in the same way" from "don't scrunch paragraphs together cuz that makes me stumble over paragraphs and makes for a really awkward read" and "don't make reviews blatantly lifeless, hateful, reactionary, or like it's a glorified forum post" shouldn't really be seen as a limitation unless you have nothing to say that's over 100 words and not purely a knee-jerk reaction to a show's reception. I do definitely take it more seriously than most here given that it's a favorite pastime of mine when I'm in the mood for it, but there are enough stylistic differences between reviewers I like such as AndoCommando, RebelPanda, A_Painting, ZephSilver, and Fleure for me to feel as if what I'm saying isn't exactly limiting to most people. It just requires effort so that readers get something out of what you make.I had no idea that people took reviews this seriously. To me a review is simply, “Hey guys I tried out this thing and this is what I think of it.” Simple stuff. The reviewer is free to express their opinion in any way that they like. There shouldn’t be any rules about it. People are creative why should everyone go about expressing their creativity in the same way? |
CodeBlazeFateMay 15, 2020 5:21 AM
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
FlowersInTheRain said: Honestly, people just get onto reviewers in general when they give a well-liked show less than a 7 and those kinds of people really should not be taken seriously. They're bitter weebs with knee-jerk reactions to an opinion they disagree with rather than people who find legitimate logical and factual errors in the review or points they disagree with and want to share a counter perspective on. Fuck 'em.I see. Well to me a review is a review. I had an argument not long ago in AD. I said that the Clannad girls looks like aliens and that the show sucks and it’s after story. I linked my review. Then people started telling me that it was a bad review because I didn’t do x,y and z. I said it doesn’t matter. All that matters is: 1. I wrote the review and I’m happy with it (grammatical errors and all) 2. Someone somewhere found it helpful. Nothing else really matters. They told me it wasn’t long enough. I said minimalism is a thing. They told me it was full of errors and that I didn’t proof read it. I said I have read it over several times and kept the errors because I liked the rawness. They listed a bunch of other stuff aswell and talk about how I could improve. I said I wasn’t seeking advice to improve anything lol. It’s fine as is. I don’t expect anybody to hang on to my every word. People are free to check it out for themselves. I didn’t like the show I don’t like many overhyped and overrated shows that people told me were good but wasn’t good for me. I don’t know why people take it so personally when someone has a different opinion. Some even said my review should be deleted. Smh these are the people who follow celebs and what not. I just don’t my own thing. No fucks given. If someone likes my shit then good I guess. If they don’t like it then okay I guess. However, people with actual critiques of a review and those who want to debate it reasonably should probably at least be taken into consideration. I don't see how there's any rawness in grammatical, formatting, or proofreading errors as oversights aren't exactly a style unless there's a point to them that you're trying to weaponize, and I don't see how that could work in a review. There's also a difference between a somewhat minimalist and concise review and one that just states generalizations without backing them up one bit. 1-2 lines of text about a point is just saying something really broad and that's it, and that's not the same as making concise arguments with backed up reasoning. It's certainly fine to have a style that's more to the point and that you're gonna keep doing your own thing because you like what you do and it's still a hobby at the end of the day, but it's also a craft and trying new things to sharpen said craft or otherwise take your writing in a new and interesting direction that might be entertaining for both you and whoever reads it is certainly something I encourage. |
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FlowersInTheRain said: I don't think "a bad show deserves a review with less effort" is a particularly good mindset to have when trying to convey to other people why a show sucks or why you didn't particularly care for it. Things also need to be backed up so that people know why you think a show sucks, even if your reasoning is something they disagree with. They'll at least be able to see why you have the perspective you do, which is infinitely more valuable to both yourself and especially to others than a review with 1 or 2 statements per section and nothing else. Otherwise, the most your review serves is as a quick bit of opinion validation for people who hate whatever show you gave a negative review to, and not even a detailed one they can agree on, just a bit of "yeah this show sucks, I don't like X or y" for people who also don't like the show or these specific things about it. A thorough negative review can deter a few people away from a show you find awful, and a detailed positive review can bring more people to watch a show compared to a positive or negative review with points and nothing substantiating them.Fair enough. All I will say is that yes you are correct but to me having those errors in the review reflects my feelings towards the show. Shit show deserves a half assed review. That’s what I meant about the rawness. I wanted to put in less effort than was required by the standards set by MAL for a review. I also wanted to make a review just so that people know how disgusted I was about wasting my time watching the entire show. And again yes I didn’t back up a lot of stuff. But I say to that why does anything need to be backed up? I say that it is enough to say I think it’s garbage without elaborating further. Even if I go into details about every tiny thing I didn’t like it doesn’t change anything. Because the next person who watches it will have their own view on the show anyway. In the end we are all individuals with different tastes. I take reviews on physical products more seriously. Say for example I am buying something on Amazon. I will read the reviews. But I’m not reading the review to make up my mind about whether or not I want the item. I already know I want the item my mind is made up. I’m reading the reviews to get an idea of how reliable the item is. If it will be delivered on time and if it will work as intended. So to me the volume of reviews is more important than any single or specific review. I think it is better to have a lot of people share their opinion on something rather than just have a small sample of people to go on. The people who liked Clannad are mainly of a certain demographic and from a certain background and have a certain amount of life experience. I don’t fall into that so I didn’t enjoy the show the way that they did. So my review has value because it falls outside of the mainstream opinion. It is good to know that other opinions exist. So this is why I don’t care how a person expresses their opinion. The review could be as simple as 10/10 it’s amazing! Or 1/10 it’s shit. I think all reviews are valid. So, do you think reviews that solely or primarily exist to antagonize people are valid? Sure, anyone can present any kind of idea or score they want. I don't think anyone here is arguing for reviews to only be a certain style or based on a certain opinion. However, soon as they try to be an asshole to people in their reviews, they lose all respect from me as someone in this field, and if people can't substantiate their points, what use is their review to anyone but themselves and those looking for a quick bit of hollow opinion validation? If you're not willing to put much effort into a review and its only purpose it to show your disdain with the show in 20 sentences or less, I don't think there's much anyone will get out of it, so it serves your self-indulgence more than it serves anyone looking for validation or for a different opinion they can understand. |
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| I stand by everything I've said on here over the years because I know my heart is in the right place. I legitimately care about this artform and would never degrade myself to writing out unmitigated rants over the newest anime without mentioning anything about intent or the care and effort animators have put into their work. @Johan may sometimes get heated or abusive but it is always in favor of the anime. Because of that I praise his efforts wholeheartedly. |
CSKaori said: Suit yourself, I suppose. Just don't be a dick about it by attacking others just expressing genuine and elaborate critique regarding the medium's works. Just know that none of us are in it to take the experiences of a work away from anyone when we write. Anyone who actually wants to take away what a work means to people instead of just expressing genuine negative or critical sentiments is a hateful buffoon trying to do the impossible, and absolutely none of us (not even the people you rally against) actually stand for it given how much we care about art and entertainment media in general. Keep that in mind next time you want to go at Ando about "blindly hating the next mainstream anime for the sake of it" while he gives Prison School, Wolf Children, Steins;Gate, and Vinland Saga glowing reviews.I stand by everything I've said on here over the years because I know my heart is in the right place. I legitimately care about this artform and would never degrade myself to writing out unmitigated rants over the newest anime without mentioning anything about intent or the care and effort animators have put into their work. @Johan may sometimes get heated or abusive but it is always in favor of the anime. Because of that I praise his efforts wholeheartedly. |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
CSKaori said: I stand by everything I've said on here over the years because I know my heart is in the right place. I legitimately care about this artform and would never degrade myself to writing out unmitigated rants over the newest anime without mentioning anything about intent or the care and effort animators have put into their work. @Johan may sometimes get heated or abusive but it is always in favor of the anime. Because of that I praise his efforts wholeheartedly. Thanks Kaori <3 Miss you and hope youre doing OK. I do Love how much of this interview cycles to me tho ;] Just want to say the Legacy of Anti-Elitism will continue to course through my veins as long as blood does. Cheers Jimmykudo3000 / Johan |
 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
| I'm not sure if this is more interview or MAL yearbook with such an exhausting list of mentions. Interesting points about your take on poetry and your influences. It's something I've considered dabbling in before, and what you included was nice - I'll browse a few more on your site. Gundam does seem daunting, but if I do end up loving Geass, I guess I know where to start. But nah, in all seriousness, Kimi no Na wa. a 4? Time for a new hobby chief, this ain't it. |
   |
Kwanthemaster said: lul ye connections aplentyI'm not sure if this is more interview or MAL yearbook with such an exhausting list of mentions. Interesting points about your take on poetry and your influences. It's something I've considered dabbling in before, and what you included was nice - I'll browse a few more on your site. Gundam does seem daunting, but if I do end up loving Geass, I guess I know where to start. But nah, in all seriousness, Kimi no Na wa. a 4? Time for a new hobby chief, this ain't it. Glad to see more people be interested in my poetry discussion and influences. Thanks, and hope you enjoy aome of the other stuff I wrote. LMAO CBF BTFO |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
| Shut up Florence, your interview is too long |
 |
| How is dude gonna ping everyone and get 11 unique people turn up :skull: |
| wtf why do people keep showing up now lmao |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
CodeBlazeFate said: wtf why do people keep showing up now lmao Johan / Jimmykudo3000 tax. It's cause i bumped it |
If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
Johan said: bruh lmao whyyy this thing be old as dirtCodeBlazeFate said: wtf why do people keep showing up now lmao Johan / Jimmykudo3000 tax. It's cause i bumped it |
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
CodeBlazeFate said: bruh lmao whyyy this thing be old as dirt LOL its not even 24 months old. I've been on MAL for 144 months now. So its still a baby to me :) Plus i didnt get to read it at the time. |
If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
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