Witch Watch Episode 14 Discussion

So many fake anime in this season
We're The Tsukiyono ♡ Company〜
Möbius Ring of Reincarnation
And now Uron Mirage

And I kinda want all of these titles to be a real anime

Had to skip ahead to confirm I was watching the correct anime. 8 minutes for a sub-story; I feel like we're going to see it to the end.

I'm super glad to see at least one other person shares this opinion. It would've been great if it lasted only a fraction of the time. Like have something completely out of pocket happen right after the UM opening and then quick panel back to the group. I just feel like I was robbed of an actual interesting story that could've happened in the time used for a fake anime intentionally made to be as basic as possible.

The otaku story was cute, though. I'm excited to see what kind of story they'll make, if we ever get to.

Why did they just troll us like that with no warning, i nearly spent half an hour searching for the right episode😭🙏🏻

Wow, a show in a show. It's a pretty cool concept on paper, although it feels somewhat flat, and I would have liked to see a lot more of the main character. However, if it's the teacher and manga author dynamics, it's pretty good. Additionally, I believe the first part is intended to be boring, as it serves as a parody of shounen manga as a whole. However, I still felt that the parody could have been improved.

I feel like the odd one out in saying I never really liked these chapters, at least in how out of place they seem in a series that has literal magic going on. Shinohara clearly has a lot to say about the creative process and such, Makuwa and Kukumi really are his method to channel those feelings in a way that at least kind of works within the manga, even if it also feels as random as the Uron Mirage stuff.

That's not to say there aren't other chapters that can become super draining, Keigo droning on about something, or even Morihito in the jeans chapters (IYKYK), can be pretty boring, reading or viewing.

I always love these chapters even though I'm not the slightest bit interested in jeans. Moi's passion and by extension Shinohara's is infectious. Today's manga chapter is yet another hobbyist parody.

@Lucifrost It is nice and interesting in hindsight, sure, but the consumption is like this episode with Makuwa's rambling, which has passion, but I feel like dubbing this into English would be a nightmare to match the timing (not the mouthflaps, just the frame timing, iirc). Not sure if I really retain anything from the jeans chapters or much of anything from Morihito's niche fashion interests, even when he brought up how Nico's dress from her grandmother was really cool in spite of looking "plain"

@phantomfandom It's almost purposefully vague and cliched in Uron Mirage's case, I think we've heard something to that effect in the manga from Makuwa at some point, or another fan. You'd almost have a volume and then some if you compiled all the Uron Mirage chapters and the Makuwa/Kuku centered ones

I think the only series I can think of that got a modified full release that was a reference within another series is Kujibiki Unbalance from Genshiken. I know because 1) I watched Genshiken and even the 2 episodes from the in universe KujiAn, but then there was a reimagining that took some elements, but also went its own way in 2006, only a few years from the original one being featured. I kind of liked some of the characters in the original from what we saw, like the girl who has an encyclopedic knowledge of mushrooms

I'm super glad to see at least one other person shares this opinion. It would've been great if it lasted only a fraction of the time. Like have something completely out of pocket happen right after the UM opening and then quick panel back to the group. I just feel like I was robbed of an actual interesting story that could've happened in the time used for a fake anime intentionally made to be as basic as possible.

The otaku story was cute, though. I'm excited to see what kind of story they'll make, if we ever get to.

@holdingnothing i also watched genshiken but i just want to focus on anime-within-anime for this season only.

With that said, i hope genshiken has season 3, i feel like recent otaku culture has lost its way and genshiken can be a good guidance to lead it back on track.

The idea of a spoof anime trolling the viewer is within the creative flex that this defines this show from the start.

But the problem with this Uron Mirage segment other than the effort put into it is that its purpose feels unclear. Regular eps are great because they take some fun set ups and push them as beyond boundaries of reasonable outcome, like Doraemon gadgets on crack (and in the prior ep, actual crack?). This here needed to be an extreme spoof that's in line with the ridiculous universe of Witch Watch but it's bland like a third rate JJK or Demon Slayer.

If you're gonna spoof something you better go all out, should've had completely idiotic and incoherent characters babbling incoherently and doing utterly stupid stuff beyond the boundaries of regular battle shonen, and somehow our real characters take it very seriously. Instead it's just bland, which is a waste of viewers time.