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I see. What say we start with the Lain - RD comparison. I personally rate them 10 and 7 each (but not literally full 10/10 or 7.00/10) as i see goodness in both of them. You?

Thoughts on Cowboy Bebop? I just finished it and thought it was good. Can't fault the style. The message of dealing with our past is okay. Some of the characters are cool, while the ending, though offering a sense of closure, is kind of meh. The standalone episodes made for nice relaxing watches, though I personally favor overarching plots rather than minute glimpses (2nd GIG vs S.A.C, to give another example). Overall, it's a respectable show.

Hi there, great to hear from you again and sincerely hope you are doing well :)

Of course, it can never be too late to catch up on some anime haha; although I'm genuinely kinda surprised you still remembered my rec from so long ago! That being said, thank you for the detailed response to the film you have written.


Addressing your thoughts on the possibility of a reunion for them in adulthood, my personal opinion on the characters is that as they have grown older, the thoughts of a relationship together has simply grown too distant. It's just as you said, by the time the two have reached adulthood, they would've grown into people so different from their childhood selves that whether or not they are still a good match with each other is undecided.

Gradually, their communications decreased in both frequency and intensity as they began to prioritise their lives in the present. They unspokenly choose to distance themselves from one another as to not risk ruining the cherishable childhood memories of each other that they hold close in their hearts. In the final chapter, the girl reaches a stage where she can only "hope" for the guy's happiness from somewhere far away, accepting the reality that she herself will not be the one to facillitate it. For her, being able to think back and feel nostalgic happiness was enough. Their relationship has gradually become one which could only exist in a fictional realm which neither of them could encroach.

A really shitty example but say that there was a tree in your primary school which you loved climbing and playing on. What if you were to return to your primary 15 years after graduation and realise that the tree has since been cut down and the surrounding area completely remodelled with new buildings where your childhood classroom used to stand? Will this have any negative impact on your fond childhood memories of the place?


I personally love the way the film depicts how people face different challenges in different phases of their lives. The violent snowstorm, the frustratingly long train ride that kept getting delayed, and the gust of wind sweeping away the letter all signify a lack of control over the situation - their main challenge as children. However, when the two meet at the station, the atmosphere is one of comfort. Their time with each other was more than sufficient to ease all of their anxieties. The night they shared in the freezing shack huddled under a piece of rug is imaginably uncomfortable - yet, nothing else in the world seemed to have the power to deter them that night.

Adults on the other hand, face different types of troubles; be it the difficulty of maintaining financial stability, the monotony of working a job you have no passion for or the social pressure of marriage. The question is whether or not the same remedy applies here - will being with your dream partner really be enough to ease your mind of all the stresses of adulthood?

This is me being cynical, but I feel like as people age their standards for a partner only decreases with time. The same idea also applies for how long-lasting relationships can grow stale and bitter past the honeymoon phase. Within the chaotic 'adult' world, it seems impossible to feel for someone as feverishly as you would when you were children. What you expect from your partner also changes as you mature. As kids, it's simply a matter of enjoying the time being spent together; but as adults, most people expect their partner to be able to contribute financially, be proficient with house work etc.. I agree that adult relationships require more effort to sustain, but is the reward for it necessarily superior? I hope this can prompt further consideration for some of the points you listed in your final paragraph.

The 1995 version now has a fansub project underway (https://gentlemenofthehan.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/announcing-romance-of-the-three-kingdoms-1994-episodes-1-23-english-subtitle-release/), if you're interested. I agree with you on the music.

It was a mixed bag just at certain times, like some minor moments. Nothing too systematic.

By the way, which Romance of the Three Kingdoms are you watching?

Depends. The pacing fluctuates, emotions and characterization can be lacking, the overall themes can be either grand or trivial depending on who you talk to, and the world-building is possibly too rooted in the past in my opinion. There's also this weird cult subplot that is one of the worst things about the show, and the brilliance of the battles is hotly contested. I've heard the novels are better and more focused.

Sorry, I misread. I thought you were gonna start watching it. My bad.

Haha, I hope you will have a good time watching it. It took me a few months with a long break in between to finish it.

Thank you for your insightful response. I must say that I agree with many of your points. The show's approach in unraveling its message is definitely something to be admired, and the ambiguity about Tylor's character is, too, a highlight. I also noticed how it goes against the space opera genre (with some commentators I've seen insisting it is a satire of the entire genre) due to some of the points you've mentioned plus some sly references to Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I haven't watched Planetes, so I cannot comment on how it compares to this show. Overall, this show was definitely interesting for me, despite being a mixed bag at times.

Having just completed Irresponsible Captain Tylor, I'm interested in your thoughts on the show.

I haven't read the entire thread so I can't say I agree or disagree, but you're making reasonable points, and jal90 and epidemia78 are not. I just wanted to pitch in some moral support for whatever that's worth.

"Something something ToXiC, RepReSENtaTIon, ChALLenGinG GenDEr RolES, something something FeMAle SeXuALitY something", ok Karen, you convinced me with your deep arguments.

And thanks for responding though I'm not even "worth it", "Recyclon". Contradicting yourself in your first post ist even stupid for SJW's, lol.

Dude, your review on Utena was pure cancer. Pls just delete yourself, Soyjack.

I think that Konaka is simply more interested in characterizing the problems than offering solutions. Most likely he doesn't believe he's capable of offering solutions, which I think is a rather reasonable position to take, though of course viewers want answers, too. I guess basically I would say that Konaka is probably not trying to do what you want to see more of in his series. Which to me is ok. I think it is fine to write stories about characters who do not WANT to become "well-adjusted" or have normal lives or success or what have you, and it's fine to not be moralizing or uplifting or inspiring as a writer. If society is sick/unethical, why adjust to it? To me Texnolyze is a tragedy and that was the plan for the story. In a tragedy the catharsis comes from observing the pain of the characters, not from their redemption. The tragedy unfolds because there is an irresolvable conflict between the hero/characters and their social environment. The hero doesn't want to acclimate, and s/he cannot change things on their own.

With Lain and Texhnolyze I think the glimpses of hope are small, but the minor breakthroughs are moving precisely because so much is put toward showing exactly how immense the alienation is the characters feel. It wouldn't make sense to me to show Arisu and Lain's relationship in the light you're talking about because part of Lain's problem is that she is willfully isolating herself despite being lonely. That's not unusual for a depressed person, but Lain is also not a "normal" human and perhaps not human at all. We actually don't know how the Lain we see is connected to these other fragments of her personality that we see much less of. However, she is also not merely shy around Arisu, she distrusts her and is even mean to her at times, or spies on her. The thing that makes Arisu special is she's the only person in Lain's social environment who seems to show concern for other humans at all, and it's because we see the world of SEL and the alienation it causes from so many different angles that we can appreciate that Arisu is different. In the end they don't even really get to BE friends, because Lain chooses to disappear; but the world itself still has a chance to be ok because Arisu, and perhaps other people like her, continue to exist.

And in Texnholyze, I think Ichise is responding the only way he can given the situation. The other choice in the face of having no certain values (and given that he frequently has no choice but to fight or die) would be to do exactly what Doc does.. He has opportunities for friendship throughout the series, but everyone else betrays him and/or dies following their value system. He could join the Class or Lacan but he doesn't. He could give up like Doc or the Theonormals or Ran's followers, but he doesn't. He follows Onishi until Onishi is killed. So he ends up with no friends, and no apparently functional system of values (because all of them seem to fail). Yet he still struggles to live. Continuing to look for a reason to live despite not currently knowing why or what it means to be a good person, is the reason to live in and of itself. The problem in these series is that the characters don't need to change per se, society needs to change. I think it is fine to show people struggling and failing to make a difference. I can understand not really being interested in this, but I think it is valuable for these types of stories to exist. I wouldn't try to convince others to like them, but I like them XD

The majority factor is the universe itself, the way the story unfolds. So far, of the 21 episodes I've seen, it's been amazing. The only downside is that it is an anime to watch only a few episodes at a time. I couldn't marathon it.