Mindset 2018: Not "Why is it shit?" but rather "Why isn't it good?"
"No one is entitled to their opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant." - Harlan Ellison
"Realize that your perspective is a very narrow one; talk to older people. Talk to your grandparents, talk to random people on the street. Maybe, even get yourself a girlfriend and see how that changes your perspective." - Shinchiro Watanabe, Madfes 2017 (Paraphrased)
"For Shit Airing anime, I swear there is a hotline to make them decent, or at least watchable, and for some reason, it's always Sawano Hiroyuki answering the phone." - henriiez, 2014
"If you hate what's in your head, the fuck would you speak your mind?" - crash by EDEN
Favourite Genre: I would normally say "doesn't exist" but to get to an answer for a question, I'd have to say Slice-of-Life because screw a 1-dimensional genre-type answer. I love seeing character driven works and the different types of interactions that can occur between a certain group of people in a certain type of situation. I don't look at anime and manga as a way of escapism so I have always loved Slice-of-Life type anime with one of my first loves being Toradora, which I related to quite a lot, and is the only one I watched back in the day that I still think is good enough to gush over anytime I hear about it nowadays.
One of My Favourite Anime: Mushishi, because of how beautifully the story is presented, sounds and is unique to every episode the series has. The whole series is an extremely atmospheric forcing you into their world, but doesn't rush straight into anything nor does anything really have to happen, where it dwells in realism whilst exploring the unknown. This series is able to let things slow down and there is not a need for an event to be happening every second, and things simply fall into place.
One of My Favourite Anime: Usagi Drop, because of how lovable Rin is; matured with respects from table manners to diligence with almost anything since does but the innocent she brings with her young age which is shown with the concept of death and many other things that appear throughout the anime. A combination of Daichiki and Rin as they tackle their new profound lifestyle presented in a light-hearted manner, soundtrack to fit, enjoyment is the only thing that follows when watching this anime.
One of My Favourite Anime: Baccano, because of the brilliant use of writing to input information without having strong enough connections at the forefront to put together a well-developed whole picture only to put the pieces together at the very end flawlessly. The characters are undoubtedly the most unique and fun cast of characters in anime's history rather than one or two strong leads, they have almost everything to get into (even if you always look for a character to relate to, you'd still love this series, you just have to finish it for those that haven't).
One of My Favourite Manga: Yotsubato!, because of how lovable Yotsuba is. That's it. Honestly, it's how Yotsuba tackles concepts or interacts with any of the other characters, especially her Dad, that make the manga and absolute pleasure to read. The characters feel alive and genuine through their actions and the interactions which make the series more alive even with the ever so curious Yotsuba.
One of My Favourite Manga: One Punch-Man, because the series is a good take on a deconstruction of the shounen genre with it's ridiculously overpowered protagonist, however is extremely plain on appearance. Saitama does not get his attention from his appearance but genuinely from his immense power that easily far-surpasses anyone else's. He has already gone through the excruciating training to get him to that point so we no longer have to see him train and want to get stronger; he just wants a worthy opponent to fight against now.
When I started watching anime seriously: September 9, 2011 – It was the holidays and I had absolutely nothing better to do and the AMV below made me wanted to watch One Piece. There were almost 500 episodes at the time and since I had time to spend, I decided it would be watch all of One Piece to the current episode, which took me a month (ran one week into school). I later went to a family friends house, who introduced me to the site I'm using now to watch anime and I have been ever since, and here I am now.
Yea I only went into a little bit of detail with the premise of Dororo and I guess with the Isekai one. The other ones are just trivial informations that don't tell you anything about the story.
But I get what you mean.
I always try to go into a series as blind as possible. I'll start reading the first few sentences of a synopsis and check out the key visual. If it looks, and sounds interesting I'll watch it.
Yea I've been watching Slime too. Currently up to date, but I always find myself falling behind a few episodes then catching up again. It doesn't do much for me story-wise. I must say that I do like the characters in an honest one-dimensional way (I don't know if that is the right word to use in this case), none of the characters are complex but that's not really what the show is trying to be. It's one of the few animes that actually made me laugh. I remember that one specific scene where the prince of the lizardmen Gabiru fought Gobata, and the crew of Gabiru cheered him on. The way his underlings viewed him as this mighty warrior that will soon be the king of the Lizardman only then to get completely clapped by this random little goblin named Gobata in front of his guards. I loved that scene. I mean Gabiru in general is a fine character to me. He's a proud warrior that deeply cares for his fellow lizardmen. He made a risky decision by imprisoning his father the king, and taking the lead of the battlefield, it's a character with weaknesses, and a character that makes mistakes. His struggle against the overwhelming Orc General in episode 13 was a good fight. I also like the aspect of Rimuru bringing races together and building a village with them. But yeah so far the anime didn't show anything extraordinarily good. It's a good watch and definitely a show that I will finish, but nothing that blows me away.
Mob looks incredibly strong so far. I loved the first episode so much. I literally couldn't stop smiling while watching. I appreciate that they focused more on characterization with Mob instead of an all out action episode. The story was very lovely, and I felt bad for mob when the girl told him that it was only for a dare that she asked him out. But she doesn't seem like a bad girl. I think her "friends" are very unhealthy people for her. But I hope she cuts ties with them now that Mob interfered and opened her eyes. The animation is as good as ever, so much character animation and it seems to only get better in the next few episodes. The opening and the ending song are both bangers. Very much looking forward to the next episode tomorrow!
And about Dororo. The things I love about it so far are story, the samurai era, the dark atmosphere, the rough line art of the characters, the oldschool fashioned background art and the character designs, especially for the main character. The music and the voice acting are pretty strong too. I think it's something you should try out in the future when you wanna watch some "high end" stuff. Well I can't say for sure if its a very good anime, but the potential is definitely there. Everything depends on how good this adaptation is going to be. I hope they can deliver with quality animation, directing and healthy pacing.
Yea I'm currently watching a lot of seasonal shows. More than I ever did.
So far after everyone released their first episodes, my favorites are ranked like this.
Mob Psycho 2
Dororo 2019
Promised Neverland
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019)
Mob was an absolute banger. Loved every single second of it. But I see you already watched Mob.
I really really like the premise, the art and the character designs of Dororo 2019. It takes place in the Samurai Era. It's about a child whose father made a deal with demons to obtain dominance on the battlefield. In exchange he said the demons can take whatever they want. And what they took from him are his newly born son's organs, limbs and even things like his hearing etc. However he manages to survive and goes on a hunt for the demons who took everything he has. I just love the atmosphere of this show. It's only been 1 episode so far but I see myself really really enjoying this anime unless they fuck it up.
Promised Neverland. I'm sure you already heard of it. It's a must-watch for everbody that likes Mystery and Horror. The first episode definitely caught my attention. I heard the manga is a huge huge success and it looks like that will be the same for the anime.
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari. This one is an isekai anime. The first episode wasn't anything that made me think "Oh yeah I can't wait for the next episode, I wanna binge this right now" But the show has an interesting twist to it. It's something different than what we usually get in an Isekai where the main protagonist is loved by everyone and where he is the strongest of all. It's the exact opposite. I can see myself liking this anime in the future, but it probably doesn't have masterpiece potential like the ones I mentioned above.
Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019). Hmm yeah. This is the weakest one so far for me. But it might be interesting for you, depending on if you like non-linear story telling. The directing is pretty weird. And honestly after watching the 3 episodes that are out right now, I couldn't even really tell you what this show is all about, that's how weird it is.
Hey, long time no talk :) I saw that you're currently watching the second season of Seven Deadly Sins and I was wondering what your thoughts about it are.
I watched season 1 a few months ago but I wasn't really a big fan of it. Biggest issue for me were the characters, especially Elizabeth. Story was alright I guess nothing crazy. Would you say that season 2 is an improvement compared to season 1?
First of all your question is missing a crucial component which is personal taste. You can't assume that higher rated or critically acclaimed will always be preferred by people. Finding Masterpieces or Favortes is gonna depend on what you enjoy in the first place, so without taking into account your preferences in terms of genres or style or just general types of shows it's a bad idea to get hung up on critically acclaimed shows with a high score.
The medium isn't an open book, you can't always predict how much you'll like something before you watch it and that kind of exploring element is just part of it. That's why no matter what point of time it is I always feel like I can discover more masterpieces out there. So that problem never really materialized for me, even tho I also gravitated towards the more well known and high ranking shows in my first years. The long-term stamina plays out more in terms of exploring new genres and broadening your taste rather than based on score and acclaim, at least for me.
That being said as a long-term fan I do like to have at least a few titles in reserve that I feel I'm very likely to enjoy a lot. For a rainy day or a slump. But those don't have to be acclaimed shows, they can also just be stuff from my favorite genre or other personal biases.
I don't think one should ever really seek out bad anime except for morbud curiosity, but I do recommend people to check out middling or even lower rated shows of their favorite genres before they check out highly rated shows of genres they have no real interest in. As long as you don't get bored of the types of shows you're watching, no need to switch it up. That way you'll have more to explore later on if you do eventually get tired of them.
What I've personally found to be the main 'timefiller' between classical, critically acclaimed shows are simply seasonals. Keeping up with any that interest you, or binging them as soon as they finish, will slow down the pace in which you explore the rest of the medium so you're sure to not run out of classics or older hidden gems anytime soon. And if you pick them up from the start you can only pick based on synopsis but not on reception so inevitable you'll encounter various levels of quality to serve as a frame of reference, unless you're super picky.
Yea that's the big difference between us when it comes to anime. I don't look that deep into everything. I just don't think about these types of things as much. For me as a person that likes these types of genres, supernatural, drama, action. It was a very enjoyable ride. It had a very solid production as expected from Madhouse, and the soundtrack was also nice. I liked shinichi as a character. He became very cold emotion wise, but the bond he had build with migi was very cool in my opinion. The idea of alien like parasites invading earth, disguised as humans is just awesome to me. I could mention a few more things i liked but i don't feel like thats necessary.
You are very smart, you are good at explaining things and you are very good with words. It's like a supernatural power. With your writing skills you could basically make any anime look bad or good. Not saying that you did in this case but you could easily do that.
I had similar things in my head when I thought about Erased. I definitely remembered that something was off with the ending, but I completely forgot facts like that they never explained the power of time traveling.
Shinsekai Yori got better and better the further the show progressed. The start was a little boring and weird for me. The last few episodes were one of the best i have ever seen. And the plot twist at the end about the queerats was just sad and mindblowing at the same time.
I can honestly not wait for Made in Abyss, Mob Psycho and One Punch Man. I hope OPM will be able to deliver. They changed the studio and the staff, i just hope they had enough time to work on this anime. They said they wanna atleast get on the same level as season 1's production. Sounds all way too good for me since season 1 was a fucking masterpiece of animation. But we will see in future PV's or in April when the anime comes out.
It's still crazy to me how some people have watched so many animes. I don't get how that's possible. Either you live anime and do pretty much nothing else, or you have been watching for a loooong long time. I mean you with your 670+109 anime count is already crazy, but i've seen people with 2500+ animes, these people need help!
Ohh my bad I thought you were talking about my favorite shows that I mentioned, my bad. Yea I enjoyed all of the shows you listed, some more than others. I liked kiseijuu a lot, those kinds of concepts are really fun to me. I found the ending to be rather bad but the rest of the series was good in my opinion.
I don't know about Erased anymore to be honest. It would probably be a really good idea to re-watch that show. I thought it was good back in the day, but there's a good chance that my opinion on that anime will change. All I remember is that I really liked the mystery and the concept of time traveling. It's a short show so I might as well start with that.
One thing i hate is when people say "ohh yea the animation was so trash they probably ran out of budget" What people don't know is that good animation comes from a good work schedule. Of course getting the right staff and a very good director is mandatory for good animation. But the most important thing is a good healthy schedule. Most of the times animators work under constant time pressure, so it's only natural that the animation won't be as good.
Nono it is all good. I don't force myself to reply or anything! This is fun. You already taught me a few things about english and anime in general so I'm only thankful :)
Are there any animes that you are looking forward to in the future?
Yea i might consider rewatching something soon. I'm actually interested to see if my perspective about the anime would change. I will give it a try, who knows I might end up enjoying rewatching things.
What i meant by watching everything in english is: Anime in english sub. TV Shows/Movies in english with subtitles to assist.
Sorry for not pointing it out clearly.
Yea you're right, most reasons for bullying a very shallow, this was the case here as well but I'm just talking about how everything was executed in the end. I wasn't a big fan of it, i can definitely understand where you're coming from though. I noticed that you are very very analytical and i can't really discuss with you head to head because I'm not nearly on the same level as you. I will try to improve!
You said "I didn't like any of these series nearly as much as you" But you rated Ippo 9 so that should mean that you liked it a lot or not? I mean there is a big difference between liking an anime and having the anime as a favorite but still.
Hmm, i never thought about it like that, you always hear the words "character development" being thrown around. I just adapted and thought everytime a character changes/developes its character development.
I can't really go into details about Onizuka since I don't remember much of the episode with the vice principal. The things you said sound logical and I guess you are right.
What i meant by "animation fetish" Is that I'm really into animation, i follow the sakuga scene a lot and i pretty much know everything about how anime is made.I don't know if you know AnimeAjay but I love his videos. He breaks down the animation of dragon ball and sometimes other animes too, very interesting in my opinion. I also know about "The Canipa Effect" i watched a few videos of him.
I guess you thought that I have no idea about animation at all since you explained me the different types of Art/Animation.
Sorry if i made it sound weird but I thought it would be clear what I meant with fetish lol.
I appreciate the help in english! I heard that learning japanese is kind of though, but to me it is one of the most beautiful languages out there.
I guess you have a point there. For some shows you really have to be in a certain mindset. Im sure if I would rewatch for example Monster or Cowboy Bebop I would rank them a little higher. But the problem is that I never really rewatched any shows except like old shows that I have watched as a kid. I don't see much enjoyment in rewatching something where you know a lot stuff, for example the ending and some key plot points of the story. While I definitely agree with you that rewatching would most likely end up in changing my opinion and the overall thought about certain animes, I don't know if I will ever find the enjoyment in rewatching something.
Yea that's exactly the point. I've been trying to be more objective in the past about animes. What did I like? What did i not like as much? What could have been done differently? I asked myself these question a lot in the past. Maybe I didn't do it enough or well enough, maybe I should pay more attention and review each episode a little more. This way I would probably have a better understanding as to what I really liked and what not so much about the show.
The problem I remember of Monster's animation were a ton of still-frames and I often noticed that (while that is something not so uncommon in anime since they animate the mouth first and voice over it after) i noticed a lot of unsync mouth movements, sometimes their mouth's were still moving even though the voice line was already over. It was particularly severe in Monster, it just stuck out to me. The art-style and background's were all perfectly fine nothing wrong with that. The points you mentioned are very good and that is exactly what I liked about Monster, the psychological aspect of the characters mindset's. I watched Monster like 1 or 2 years ago, I remember that it took me a long time to finish it because I had a few breaks in-between. The start of the series was absolutely phenomenal, what a perfect layout this was. But for me the show slowed down a lot in the 20's. Which sometimes left me feel a little bored.
Onizuka is in my eye's a really good character too. Just the problem that I had with this show was the lack of character development and the side characters as a whole. I expected the class problem's we had at the start of the show to be more fledged out. I thought after hearing "However, strict administrators and a class of ruthless delinquents stand between Onizuka and his goal and they will use any means, however illegal or low, to drive the new teacher away." that the show will be based more on drama between Onizuka and his student's, but most of these problem's were already fixed after 1/4 of the show. That left us with a lot of slice of life with random things happening. Not that I found that bad, like I said I still think that this is a good show. But it just wasn't as expected and the few times we had drama moments, it was underwhelming. I remember one specific example that I can give here. I don't remember her name but there was this one female student that bullied Yoshikawa and almost made him kill himself (if Onizuka hadn't saved him). When we got to know the reason why she became such a piece of crap, who abuses and bullies other students up to the point where they wanna kill themselves. It was because her mother didn't pay enough attention to her and because her mother doesn't know her all that well. She kind of went into the victim state and started crying. I couldn't take that serious. Another problem I mentioned above is the lack of character development of side characters. We barely got to know any of them except Kunio, Urumi, Tomoko (worst character ever) and maybe i remember correctly the vice president of the school. What about Kikuchi? He was my favorite side character at the start of the show, but he quickly became someone irrelevant who we didn't know anything about, no background nothing. There was this one episode where Onizuka (I don't remember the specific details) saved the vice president because he was running around naked in the streets and his daughter almost caught him naked, i believe she was with her boyfriend or something. That would have been tragic and Onizuka saved him. He showed his gratitude to Onizuka and it seemed as if his attitude towards Onizuka would change. 2 Episodes later he was already back to his old self and started hating Onizuka again. I thought that would have been a turning point for his character but I guess not.
I wasn't bothered by Onizuka's animation at all. I have a little animation fetish, I love good animation but I don't go into anime's like these, especially when they are a little older with high expectations, so im not bothered at all. The backgrounds and the art was perfectly fine. Also good animation alone doesn't do anything for me, it's a very very good tool to amplify the heat of the moment and it can elevate a scene by a lot, but if the story and the characters or even the music is bad it's useless.
Meh, then I guess we can talk about "How many layers must something possess for it to function well?" since it comes across like we have differing viewpoints on that, or at least that's what I take away from it based on how you articulated yourself there.
I'm not really a proponent of the idea that a good character needs to be shrouded in complexity with their motivations and interactions. Some things function better while being more basic and ascribing too many layers to a character can actually be a detriment in some cases, I feel like. Think a lot of harem/ecchi or CGDCT shows where idealization is a major aspect towards their appeal and what causes people to enjoy them, and as such the interactions and dynamics between the cast itself generally will function better in a more simplistic manner than in a layered, complicated, more gray manner. There is little need for a thematic, psychological exploration of what makes a character attracted to another in a romcom, maybe in a subversion but that subversion would take it more into psychological exploration territory over romcom in the first place I'd argue. Something like Nagasarete Airantou does not need as much to be a better series in terms of what its identity is, it functions well as an episodic harem/ecchi romcom with the premise being "guy trapped on an island populated entirely by females."
This is kind of what can irk me about these ideals, it can change the identity of a series and as a result they don't tend to be constructive or useful on an objective level and instead just come across closer to objectifying what's never possible to amount to more than a personal distaste for common tropes and elements found within a certain sect of entertainment. So I'd treat a hypothetical criticism towards Nagasarete Airantou that would go along the lines of "It could've focused more on fleshing out the island and how the island's society adapted to survive in the absence of males and blah blah blah but instead it focused on ecchi jokes and romcom stuff" with absolute scorn because that isn't necessarily needed to make the series better at what it is, it's making it into something else more suitable to their palette all together. It's biased and non-helpful and it's pretty much the equivalent of someone like me saying "Gee, I sure wish (x series) sexualized its female cast more. They've got such attractive designs, so it's such a waste." That wouldn't be a useful criticism to a series that has different priorities than attractive female characters and focuses itself entirely elsewhere at all now, would it? What's the difference between the two? One sounds nicer on a superficial level because it comes across like it's demanding depth and quality whereas it's much easier to dismiss sexualization as basic and vapid, but that's about it. It's still neglecting everything about the series in question in favor of wishful thinking and impressing personal desires for its identity onto it, which is fine for shitbanter discussions or not so-serious conversations about a series but isn't fine at all in the context of a review or a legit attempt at interpreting its quality. I really do believe that the reason people like Digibro can dismiss people who push for these things in reviews and serious discussion as "trying to project an image of refined taste onto themselves" is because these sorts of sayings often come from a place that's neglecting the priorities and identity of a series and just impressing their own desires onto it. It lacks a solid foundation past as much and there's a difference between trying to be subjective and trying to be objective - the difference being how "X is bad and would be better with this" and "I would've liked it more if X focused on this more" are two entirely separate claims in regards to what one is expressing.
And don't get me wrong, I think that idea Digi expressed in his "the most boring 3x3" video a while back is a crock of shite, but it's easy to see why people would come to that conclusion if you've been around reviews and discussions around anime enough for the reasons I outlined above. That doesn't mean that it isn't totally unfair to reach that conclusion and begin making those accusatory claims of intent on broad, sweeping levels to why these certain people like these certain shows like people who say shit like that often end up doing, but I see why ideas like that take root at the very least and they seem more reactionary to poorly founded, neglectful criticisms towards certain types of shows than anything else.
That's also why I treat the statement of "Shokugeki is how to make a good ecchi" with such scorn. The ecchi elements start off kind of present and then mitigate into nothingness the longer the series goes on. The identity of Shokugeki has always been as a battle shounen with a cooking-twist since the beginning and the fanservice has been sparse at best, yet people see this thing that can more likely appeal to them and notices that it has fanservice every now and again and wish to make every ecchi this way. It's just not useful towards ecchi itself when the underlying idea is, well, "the way to make ecchi better is to have it just be something else entirely and then pop a couple of fanservice scenes in throughout its whole runtime." It's a joke.
There are certain tones and identities that benefit from those layers to characterization and identity as well, though, so I'm not diametrically opposed to these sorts of things in the slightest. At the end of the day, what's relevant to making something better and what isn't is entirely reliant on being able to substantiate an interpretation of a series' identity and priorities with evidence from the text and extending criticism that can be additive rather than reductive. The failure to establish the most basic foundation and treating "thematic explorations" and "layered characterization" as an inherent good is why so many reviews on this site seem haphazard and superficial to me.
Then again, there's also people who treat Trigger like they can write characters with loads of personality whenever the personality of those characters is often pretty superficial and reliant on Trigger's sense of spectacle permeating them to create an illusion of individual personality more than anything, so I also kind of think that none of this will be relevant to a lot of people and if you just give them something that's loud and distinct they will immediately ignore all else and treat it like it's the total package.
It's kind of hard to explain how I rate things on a broad level whenever I don't have any broad consistency and takes things on a more series by series level. One of the main things I look for in a series is how much I can get into the flow of it, how much the rest of the world around me melts away because I get so into it - and "I just got so into it" is so vague that it can be achieved in a number of ways. So some scores are relative to me and very personally oriented, some aren't and relate to qualities I think it has somehow, which tends to function within the confines of either just that series or maybe the field if there's enough shows cut from the same cloth that I've seen, it's just...very, very hard to define because there's no consistency and the reason there's no consistency is because I keep it very subjective and relative to how I felt as an audience member.
I don't think that's a bad thing, mind you, mostly because I keep my list for myself and not meant to guide people or anything. Discourse and trying to mitigate biases has its place in interpretive discussion and constructive critique, but I've never actually been a critic in of itself as much as just some dipshit on the forums, so when people come to my profile and ask me about scores it's kind of awkward because it's just...my thing, not really meant to be helpful.
That's kind of my philosophy when it comes to consuming anime, not just rating it but things like deciding what I want to watch too. "I just do whatever I want to." No use keeping a little list of do's and do-not's that I look at when assigning a rating to any given show, no use planning out my "what I'm watching next" hundreds of anime into the future. Literally just do what I feel like I should score/watch at any given moment.
Probably a disappointing answer but that's how it is xP Never been a critic at heart, couldn't even speak English that well a couple of years ago and the only reason I amount to anything in my posts is because I got irritated that it felt like people were really unfair about things like fanservice and ecchi and tried to get better at talking about them so I could actually defend them without being a little mongoloid who dropped off little one sentence posts and whatnot. Just happened to bleed into other areas as well because I actually am interested in more than just ecchi, even though ecchi is still now and forever my #1. I'm not perfect but I try at least, so I can say that with pride.
Tho I do the second thing a lot and there's been series that have trickled down for me quite a bit. Could give a series a 10 and completely love it in the moment then months later be like "lol wut is this series doing here I don't even remember it that well" and move it down.
And no, I wouldn't, I'd only do that if I decided to do so myself. I'm too much of a stubborn bastard to not have a fight about panty shots in AD every couple of days, I'm not exactly going to begin worrying of what people think of how I do things. And even if, hypothetically, they articulated their arguments better than me, it doesn't necessarily make their thought or ideas as to why better than my own, just more well-expressed. What I've sort of taken to doing whenever somebody "beats" me in an argument is that I just go back to the drawing board and try to flesh out and understand my own thoughts or feelings on something rather than just outright admitting they're right. If I come to the conclusion they're right then hey, I probably would, but that would still because I reached the conclusion they were right and not just because I was challenged or even beaten in an argument over it.
I would be unconcerned moving from the PM inboxes to general comments section as a form of reply. It actually does its job to navigate quickly or refer to messages immediately without messing up. You could easily track what topic you've left and successively reply to the person on the other end. My only concern is that it may seem easy commenting on profile but what about interference you could get from others as they will be able to read since it is publicly posted on here? I don't really mind but my commentaries usually range from objectively rating based on substance to empirical knowledge based solely on experiences, what I've noticed, believed, felt, hoped, knew, imagined, sensed, remembered etc. and thus somehow represent.
I wasn't surprised that you numerously encountered shounen not because it targeted mainly the demographic, it is also easy to say it is near to youth. But anime doesn't seem to be stuck in just particular age but carried on on all age levels. It's like you cannot easily do away from Hiruma Youichi of Deimon Devil Bats even if you're at 56. I understand my brother being particularly drawn into tokustasu, action loaded and adventure-filled anime in which I could personally relate to him. You have named some conventional classics in your previous message and we're also up to it. Last time I checked on him, he's been watching Magi. Unlikely, I got more diverse set when it comes to anime preference.
I see this conversation is getting into somewhere. If I'm to slack I'd shitpost particularly on tumblr. I wasn't too long on reddit but I shityounot the site's at the very least keeping the internet from its ultimatum...well only with some subbreddits, ofcourse.
It has. Accounting, huh? Some of my family members are accountants. It's not for me but they appreciate it. Is that what you ultimately want to do or maybe you want to do something else? Awesome, link me the channel when you get rolling with it. I'd like to see it. As for my birthday, I forgot about it myself! It wasn't until my parents reminded me that I thought about it. I guess that's what happens when people get a bit older.
I've been doing well. There's a lot of of work for my grad program, especially since I'm in the middle of midterms. It's going well and I did a bang up job on my presentation if I do say so myself! Got into an internship for next year. Yay! I'll be working with teenagers with behavioral difficulties. Abuse, neglect, etc. It's certainly going to be a different and difficult experience and I'll be learning a lot. It's going to help me become a better psychologist and I'm looking forward to help teens cope.
It's getting warmer and the sun's out for longer where I'm at, which is quite, quite, quite nice. I grew vines + some herbs like basil, rosemary, and parsley. I bought some posters for my room to add some color. Some video game ones, and some Mucha ones. Some christmas lights too. Other than that I got to see my parents and brother this weekend so that was fantastic. A much needed breather from work and school.
I've been listening to some audiobooks and I really enjoyed The Trial by Franz Kafka. Good stuff. Not sure what I want to listen to next.
As usual, I get my anime discussion from the Uber club, Anime World Order, AAA podcast, and The Cart Driver. It looks like The Cart Driver isn't going to last with one blogger leaving, and another writing for MAL now. I've been following them for quite a while and so we'll see what happens. Nothing definitive yet but I'll be sad when they go. Maybe I'm looking for a new blog to follow like them with a lot of humor and silliness? I've been looking for some other sites for discussion. Any suggestions?
Also, I've been thinking of how I enjoy anime and if I want to change anything. I share my thoughts as I watch different shows and it's fun to hear what others think. I'm liking where I'm at though. In college I joined an anime club and that was fun. Not sure if I want to do that again but I do love face to face discussion more than anything. I had the opportunity to go to some conventions but I passed them up for whatever reason. I'm debating on going to Anime Boston but idk. I'm slightly curious to see what it's all about. I was debating on writing a blog but I'm terrible at writing, I'm inconsistent in posting, and I'm pretty lazy! :) How do you enjoy anime besides watching it?
I've been looking for some sites for video game discussion as well. I listen to Kinda Funny now and I really enjoy them, even if I don't agree with everything they say. I was looking at neogaf but I'm not sure. I also follow a few people on Twitch like Dans Gaming and some people I met while playing Dark Souls. I do enjoy backloggery but I'm not sure how to engage in discussion there. Any suggestions for video game discussion that has a solid community?
Some video games I've been playing are on my profile. They're Firewatch, Life is Strange, and Persona 4 Golden. All great. To The Moon and Undertale are probably going to be next. I've been pumped for Uncharted 4 from the trailers and gameplay. Looks fantastic. I need to start from the series beginning though before I touch 4! Dark Souls 3 looks like more Dark Souls, which is totally fine with me. I won't be able to play it bc no PS4 access. Any games you've been enjoying? What are you looking forward to?
Lastly, and to actually answer your question, for animoo I've been taking it very easy. Just watching Erased right now. Rakugo is up next. That's all I want to watch from the current season I think. I took a break from everything else. Anyway, there's shows I want to finish and series I'm excited for the future. Any series that you're enjoying now or looking forward to?
In general it was well designed and animated. The audio was pretty good overall and the voice acting was surprisingly good for what was ostensibly a simple highschool romantic comedy. The problem - which ironically was also one of the better aspects of the series - was the "mystery" about Eru's uncle.
The bit with "Ice Cream" was really well done, but the whole scenario seemed to have been crowbarred in to the main storyline and it actually felt quite shallow because the focus kept shifting from one thing to another without resolving the more interesting plot elements.
All Comments (300) Comments
But I get what you mean.
I always try to go into a series as blind as possible. I'll start reading the first few sentences of a synopsis and check out the key visual. If it looks, and sounds interesting I'll watch it.
Yea I've been watching Slime too. Currently up to date, but I always find myself falling behind a few episodes then catching up again. It doesn't do much for me story-wise. I must say that I do like the characters in an honest one-dimensional way (I don't know if that is the right word to use in this case), none of the characters are complex but that's not really what the show is trying to be. It's one of the few animes that actually made me laugh. I remember that one specific scene where the prince of the lizardmen Gabiru fought Gobata, and the crew of Gabiru cheered him on. The way his underlings viewed him as this mighty warrior that will soon be the king of the Lizardman only then to get completely clapped by this random little goblin named Gobata in front of his guards. I loved that scene. I mean Gabiru in general is a fine character to me. He's a proud warrior that deeply cares for his fellow lizardmen. He made a risky decision by imprisoning his father the king, and taking the lead of the battlefield, it's a character with weaknesses, and a character that makes mistakes. His struggle against the overwhelming Orc General in episode 13 was a good fight. I also like the aspect of Rimuru bringing races together and building a village with them. But yeah so far the anime didn't show anything extraordinarily good. It's a good watch and definitely a show that I will finish, but nothing that blows me away.
Mob looks incredibly strong so far. I loved the first episode so much. I literally couldn't stop smiling while watching. I appreciate that they focused more on characterization with Mob instead of an all out action episode. The story was very lovely, and I felt bad for mob when the girl told him that it was only for a dare that she asked him out. But she doesn't seem like a bad girl. I think her "friends" are very unhealthy people for her. But I hope she cuts ties with them now that Mob interfered and opened her eyes. The animation is as good as ever, so much character animation and it seems to only get better in the next few episodes. The opening and the ending song are both bangers. Very much looking forward to the next episode tomorrow!
And about Dororo. The things I love about it so far are story, the samurai era, the dark atmosphere, the rough line art of the characters, the oldschool fashioned background art and the character designs, especially for the main character. The music and the voice acting are pretty strong too. I think it's something you should try out in the future when you wanna watch some "high end" stuff. Well I can't say for sure if its a very good anime, but the potential is definitely there. Everything depends on how good this adaptation is going to be. I hope they can deliver with quality animation, directing and healthy pacing.
Yea I'm currently watching a lot of seasonal shows. More than I ever did.
So far after everyone released their first episodes, my favorites are ranked like this.
Mob Psycho 2
Dororo 2019
Promised Neverland
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019)
Mob was an absolute banger. Loved every single second of it. But I see you already watched Mob.
I really really like the premise, the art and the character designs of Dororo 2019. It takes place in the Samurai Era. It's about a child whose father made a deal with demons to obtain dominance on the battlefield. In exchange he said the demons can take whatever they want. And what they took from him are his newly born son's organs, limbs and even things like his hearing etc. However he manages to survive and goes on a hunt for the demons who took everything he has. I just love the atmosphere of this show. It's only been 1 episode so far but I see myself really really enjoying this anime unless they fuck it up.
Promised Neverland. I'm sure you already heard of it. It's a must-watch for everbody that likes Mystery and Horror. The first episode definitely caught my attention. I heard the manga is a huge huge success and it looks like that will be the same for the anime.
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari. This one is an isekai anime. The first episode wasn't anything that made me think "Oh yeah I can't wait for the next episode, I wanna binge this right now" But the show has an interesting twist to it. It's something different than what we usually get in an Isekai where the main protagonist is loved by everyone and where he is the strongest of all. It's the exact opposite. I can see myself liking this anime in the future, but it probably doesn't have masterpiece potential like the ones I mentioned above.
Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019). Hmm yeah. This is the weakest one so far for me. But it might be interesting for you, depending on if you like non-linear story telling. The directing is pretty weird. And honestly after watching the 3 episodes that are out right now, I couldn't even really tell you what this show is all about, that's how weird it is.
I watched season 1 a few months ago but I wasn't really a big fan of it. Biggest issue for me were the characters, especially Elizabeth. Story was alright I guess nothing crazy. Would you say that season 2 is an improvement compared to season 1?
The medium isn't an open book, you can't always predict how much you'll like something before you watch it and that kind of exploring element is just part of it. That's why no matter what point of time it is I always feel like I can discover more masterpieces out there. So that problem never really materialized for me, even tho I also gravitated towards the more well known and high ranking shows in my first years. The long-term stamina plays out more in terms of exploring new genres and broadening your taste rather than based on score and acclaim, at least for me.
That being said as a long-term fan I do like to have at least a few titles in reserve that I feel I'm very likely to enjoy a lot. For a rainy day or a slump. But those don't have to be acclaimed shows, they can also just be stuff from my favorite genre or other personal biases.
I don't think one should ever really seek out bad anime except for morbud curiosity, but I do recommend people to check out middling or even lower rated shows of their favorite genres before they check out highly rated shows of genres they have no real interest in. As long as you don't get bored of the types of shows you're watching, no need to switch it up. That way you'll have more to explore later on if you do eventually get tired of them.
What I've personally found to be the main 'timefiller' between classical, critically acclaimed shows are simply seasonals. Keeping up with any that interest you, or binging them as soon as they finish, will slow down the pace in which you explore the rest of the medium so you're sure to not run out of classics or older hidden gems anytime soon. And if you pick them up from the start you can only pick based on synopsis but not on reception so inevitable you'll encounter various levels of quality to serve as a frame of reference, unless you're super picky.
You are very smart, you are good at explaining things and you are very good with words. It's like a supernatural power. With your writing skills you could basically make any anime look bad or good. Not saying that you did in this case but you could easily do that.
I had similar things in my head when I thought about Erased. I definitely remembered that something was off with the ending, but I completely forgot facts like that they never explained the power of time traveling.
Shinsekai Yori got better and better the further the show progressed. The start was a little boring and weird for me. The last few episodes were one of the best i have ever seen. And the plot twist at the end about the queerats was just sad and mindblowing at the same time.
I can honestly not wait for Made in Abyss, Mob Psycho and One Punch Man. I hope OPM will be able to deliver. They changed the studio and the staff, i just hope they had enough time to work on this anime. They said they wanna atleast get on the same level as season 1's production. Sounds all way too good for me since season 1 was a fucking masterpiece of animation. But we will see in future PV's or in April when the anime comes out.
Ohh my bad I thought you were talking about my favorite shows that I mentioned, my bad. Yea I enjoyed all of the shows you listed, some more than others. I liked kiseijuu a lot, those kinds of concepts are really fun to me. I found the ending to be rather bad but the rest of the series was good in my opinion.
I don't know about Erased anymore to be honest. It would probably be a really good idea to re-watch that show. I thought it was good back in the day, but there's a good chance that my opinion on that anime will change. All I remember is that I really liked the mystery and the concept of time traveling. It's a short show so I might as well start with that.
One thing i hate is when people say "ohh yea the animation was so trash they probably ran out of budget" What people don't know is that good animation comes from a good work schedule. Of course getting the right staff and a very good director is mandatory for good animation. But the most important thing is a good healthy schedule. Most of the times animators work under constant time pressure, so it's only natural that the animation won't be as good.
Nono it is all good. I don't force myself to reply or anything! This is fun. You already taught me a few things about english and anime in general so I'm only thankful :)
Are there any animes that you are looking forward to in the future?
What i meant by watching everything in english is: Anime in english sub. TV Shows/Movies in english with subtitles to assist.
Sorry for not pointing it out clearly.
Yea you're right, most reasons for bullying a very shallow, this was the case here as well but I'm just talking about how everything was executed in the end. I wasn't a big fan of it, i can definitely understand where you're coming from though. I noticed that you are very very analytical and i can't really discuss with you head to head because I'm not nearly on the same level as you. I will try to improve!
You said "I didn't like any of these series nearly as much as you" But you rated Ippo 9 so that should mean that you liked it a lot or not? I mean there is a big difference between liking an anime and having the anime as a favorite but still.
Hmm, i never thought about it like that, you always hear the words "character development" being thrown around. I just adapted and thought everytime a character changes/developes its character development.
I can't really go into details about Onizuka since I don't remember much of the episode with the vice principal. The things you said sound logical and I guess you are right.
What i meant by "animation fetish" Is that I'm really into animation, i follow the sakuga scene a lot and i pretty much know everything about how anime is made.I don't know if you know AnimeAjay but I love his videos. He breaks down the animation of dragon ball and sometimes other animes too, very interesting in my opinion. I also know about "The Canipa Effect" i watched a few videos of him.
I guess you thought that I have no idea about animation at all since you explained me the different types of Art/Animation.
Sorry if i made it sound weird but I thought it would be clear what I meant with fetish lol.
I guess you have a point there. For some shows you really have to be in a certain mindset. Im sure if I would rewatch for example Monster or Cowboy Bebop I would rank them a little higher. But the problem is that I never really rewatched any shows except like old shows that I have watched as a kid. I don't see much enjoyment in rewatching something where you know a lot stuff, for example the ending and some key plot points of the story. While I definitely agree with you that rewatching would most likely end up in changing my opinion and the overall thought about certain animes, I don't know if I will ever find the enjoyment in rewatching something.
Yea that's exactly the point. I've been trying to be more objective in the past about animes. What did I like? What did i not like as much? What could have been done differently? I asked myself these question a lot in the past. Maybe I didn't do it enough or well enough, maybe I should pay more attention and review each episode a little more. This way I would probably have a better understanding as to what I really liked and what not so much about the show.
The problem I remember of Monster's animation were a ton of still-frames and I often noticed that (while that is something not so uncommon in anime since they animate the mouth first and voice over it after) i noticed a lot of unsync mouth movements, sometimes their mouth's were still moving even though the voice line was already over. It was particularly severe in Monster, it just stuck out to me. The art-style and background's were all perfectly fine nothing wrong with that. The points you mentioned are very good and that is exactly what I liked about Monster, the psychological aspect of the characters mindset's. I watched Monster like 1 or 2 years ago, I remember that it took me a long time to finish it because I had a few breaks in-between. The start of the series was absolutely phenomenal, what a perfect layout this was. But for me the show slowed down a lot in the 20's. Which sometimes left me feel a little bored.
Onizuka is in my eye's a really good character too. Just the problem that I had with this show was the lack of character development and the side characters as a whole. I expected the class problem's we had at the start of the show to be more fledged out. I thought after hearing "However, strict administrators and a class of ruthless delinquents stand between Onizuka and his goal and they will use any means, however illegal or low, to drive the new teacher away." that the show will be based more on drama between Onizuka and his student's, but most of these problem's were already fixed after 1/4 of the show. That left us with a lot of slice of life with random things happening. Not that I found that bad, like I said I still think that this is a good show. But it just wasn't as expected and the few times we had drama moments, it was underwhelming. I remember one specific example that I can give here. I don't remember her name but there was this one female student that bullied Yoshikawa and almost made him kill himself (if Onizuka hadn't saved him). When we got to know the reason why she became such a piece of crap, who abuses and bullies other students up to the point where they wanna kill themselves. It was because her mother didn't pay enough attention to her and because her mother doesn't know her all that well. She kind of went into the victim state and started crying. I couldn't take that serious. Another problem I mentioned above is the lack of character development of side characters. We barely got to know any of them except Kunio, Urumi, Tomoko (worst character ever) and maybe i remember correctly the vice president of the school. What about Kikuchi? He was my favorite side character at the start of the show, but he quickly became someone irrelevant who we didn't know anything about, no background nothing. There was this one episode where Onizuka (I don't remember the specific details) saved the vice president because he was running around naked in the streets and his daughter almost caught him naked, i believe she was with her boyfriend or something. That would have been tragic and Onizuka saved him. He showed his gratitude to Onizuka and it seemed as if his attitude towards Onizuka would change. 2 Episodes later he was already back to his old self and started hating Onizuka again. I thought that would have been a turning point for his character but I guess not.
I wasn't bothered by Onizuka's animation at all. I have a little animation fetish, I love good animation but I don't go into anime's like these, especially when they are a little older with high expectations, so im not bothered at all. The backgrounds and the art was perfectly fine. Also good animation alone doesn't do anything for me, it's a very very good tool to amplify the heat of the moment and it can elevate a scene by a lot, but if the story and the characters or even the music is bad it's useless.
I'm not really a proponent of the idea that a good character needs to be shrouded in complexity with their motivations and interactions. Some things function better while being more basic and ascribing too many layers to a character can actually be a detriment in some cases, I feel like. Think a lot of harem/ecchi or CGDCT shows where idealization is a major aspect towards their appeal and what causes people to enjoy them, and as such the interactions and dynamics between the cast itself generally will function better in a more simplistic manner than in a layered, complicated, more gray manner. There is little need for a thematic, psychological exploration of what makes a character attracted to another in a romcom, maybe in a subversion but that subversion would take it more into psychological exploration territory over romcom in the first place I'd argue. Something like Nagasarete Airantou does not need as much to be a better series in terms of what its identity is, it functions well as an episodic harem/ecchi romcom with the premise being "guy trapped on an island populated entirely by females."
This is kind of what can irk me about these ideals, it can change the identity of a series and as a result they don't tend to be constructive or useful on an objective level and instead just come across closer to objectifying what's never possible to amount to more than a personal distaste for common tropes and elements found within a certain sect of entertainment. So I'd treat a hypothetical criticism towards Nagasarete Airantou that would go along the lines of "It could've focused more on fleshing out the island and how the island's society adapted to survive in the absence of males and blah blah blah but instead it focused on ecchi jokes and romcom stuff" with absolute scorn because that isn't necessarily needed to make the series better at what it is, it's making it into something else more suitable to their palette all together. It's biased and non-helpful and it's pretty much the equivalent of someone like me saying "Gee, I sure wish (x series) sexualized its female cast more. They've got such attractive designs, so it's such a waste." That wouldn't be a useful criticism to a series that has different priorities than attractive female characters and focuses itself entirely elsewhere at all now, would it? What's the difference between the two? One sounds nicer on a superficial level because it comes across like it's demanding depth and quality whereas it's much easier to dismiss sexualization as basic and vapid, but that's about it. It's still neglecting everything about the series in question in favor of wishful thinking and impressing personal desires for its identity onto it, which is fine for shitbanter discussions or not so-serious conversations about a series but isn't fine at all in the context of a review or a legit attempt at interpreting its quality. I really do believe that the reason people like Digibro can dismiss people who push for these things in reviews and serious discussion as "trying to project an image of refined taste onto themselves" is because these sorts of sayings often come from a place that's neglecting the priorities and identity of a series and just impressing their own desires onto it. It lacks a solid foundation past as much and there's a difference between trying to be subjective and trying to be objective - the difference being how "X is bad and would be better with this" and "I would've liked it more if X focused on this more" are two entirely separate claims in regards to what one is expressing.
And don't get me wrong, I think that idea Digi expressed in his "the most boring 3x3" video a while back is a crock of shite, but it's easy to see why people would come to that conclusion if you've been around reviews and discussions around anime enough for the reasons I outlined above. That doesn't mean that it isn't totally unfair to reach that conclusion and begin making those accusatory claims of intent on broad, sweeping levels to why these certain people like these certain shows like people who say shit like that often end up doing, but I see why ideas like that take root at the very least and they seem more reactionary to poorly founded, neglectful criticisms towards certain types of shows than anything else.
That's also why I treat the statement of "Shokugeki is how to make a good ecchi" with such scorn. The ecchi elements start off kind of present and then mitigate into nothingness the longer the series goes on. The identity of Shokugeki has always been as a battle shounen with a cooking-twist since the beginning and the fanservice has been sparse at best, yet people see this thing that can more likely appeal to them and notices that it has fanservice every now and again and wish to make every ecchi this way. It's just not useful towards ecchi itself when the underlying idea is, well, "the way to make ecchi better is to have it just be something else entirely and then pop a couple of fanservice scenes in throughout its whole runtime." It's a joke.
There are certain tones and identities that benefit from those layers to characterization and identity as well, though, so I'm not diametrically opposed to these sorts of things in the slightest. At the end of the day, what's relevant to making something better and what isn't is entirely reliant on being able to substantiate an interpretation of a series' identity and priorities with evidence from the text and extending criticism that can be additive rather than reductive. The failure to establish the most basic foundation and treating "thematic explorations" and "layered characterization" as an inherent good is why so many reviews on this site seem haphazard and superficial to me.
Then again, there's also people who treat Trigger like they can write characters with loads of personality whenever the personality of those characters is often pretty superficial and reliant on Trigger's sense of spectacle permeating them to create an illusion of individual personality more than anything, so I also kind of think that none of this will be relevant to a lot of people and if you just give them something that's loud and distinct they will immediately ignore all else and treat it like it's the total package.
I don't think that's a bad thing, mind you, mostly because I keep my list for myself and not meant to guide people or anything. Discourse and trying to mitigate biases has its place in interpretive discussion and constructive critique, but I've never actually been a critic in of itself as much as just some dipshit on the forums, so when people come to my profile and ask me about scores it's kind of awkward because it's just...my thing, not really meant to be helpful.
That's kind of my philosophy when it comes to consuming anime, not just rating it but things like deciding what I want to watch too. "I just do whatever I want to." No use keeping a little list of do's and do-not's that I look at when assigning a rating to any given show, no use planning out my "what I'm watching next" hundreds of anime into the future. Literally just do what I feel like I should score/watch at any given moment.
Probably a disappointing answer but that's how it is xP Never been a critic at heart, couldn't even speak English that well a couple of years ago and the only reason I amount to anything in my posts is because I got irritated that it felt like people were really unfair about things like fanservice and ecchi and tried to get better at talking about them so I could actually defend them without being a little mongoloid who dropped off little one sentence posts and whatnot. Just happened to bleed into other areas as well because I actually am interested in more than just ecchi, even though ecchi is still now and forever my #1. I'm not perfect but I try at least, so I can say that with pride.
Tho I do the second thing a lot and there's been series that have trickled down for me quite a bit. Could give a series a 10 and completely love it in the moment then months later be like "lol wut is this series doing here I don't even remember it that well" and move it down.
And no, I wouldn't, I'd only do that if I decided to do so myself. I'm too much of a stubborn bastard to not have a fight about panty shots in AD every couple of days, I'm not exactly going to begin worrying of what people think of how I do things. And even if, hypothetically, they articulated their arguments better than me, it doesn't necessarily make their thought or ideas as to why better than my own, just more well-expressed. What I've sort of taken to doing whenever somebody "beats" me in an argument is that I just go back to the drawing board and try to flesh out and understand my own thoughts or feelings on something rather than just outright admitting they're right. If I come to the conclusion they're right then hey, I probably would, but that would still because I reached the conclusion they were right and not just because I was challenged or even beaten in an argument over it.
I wasn't surprised that you numerously encountered shounen not because it targeted mainly the demographic, it is also easy to say it is near to youth. But anime doesn't seem to be stuck in just particular age but carried on on all age levels. It's like you cannot easily do away from Hiruma Youichi of Deimon Devil Bats even if you're at 56. I understand my brother being particularly drawn into tokustasu, action loaded and adventure-filled anime in which I could personally relate to him. You have named some conventional classics in your previous message and we're also up to it. Last time I checked on him, he's been watching Magi. Unlikely, I got more diverse set when it comes to anime preference.
I see this conversation is getting into somewhere. If I'm to slack I'd shitpost particularly on tumblr. I wasn't too long on reddit but I shityounot the site's at the very least keeping the internet from its ultimatum...well only with some subbreddits, ofcourse.
I've been doing well. There's a lot of of work for my grad program, especially since I'm in the middle of midterms. It's going well and I did a bang up job on my presentation if I do say so myself! Got into an internship for next year. Yay! I'll be working with teenagers with behavioral difficulties. Abuse, neglect, etc. It's certainly going to be a different and difficult experience and I'll be learning a lot. It's going to help me become a better psychologist and I'm looking forward to help teens cope.
It's getting warmer and the sun's out for longer where I'm at, which is quite, quite, quite nice. I grew vines + some herbs like basil, rosemary, and parsley. I bought some posters for my room to add some color. Some video game ones, and some Mucha ones. Some christmas lights too. Other than that I got to see my parents and brother this weekend so that was fantastic. A much needed breather from work and school.
I've been listening to some audiobooks and I really enjoyed The Trial by Franz Kafka. Good stuff. Not sure what I want to listen to next.
As usual, I get my anime discussion from the Uber club, Anime World Order, AAA podcast, and The Cart Driver. It looks like The Cart Driver isn't going to last with one blogger leaving, and another writing for MAL now. I've been following them for quite a while and so we'll see what happens. Nothing definitive yet but I'll be sad when they go. Maybe I'm looking for a new blog to follow like them with a lot of humor and silliness? I've been looking for some other sites for discussion. Any suggestions?
Also, I've been thinking of how I enjoy anime and if I want to change anything. I share my thoughts as I watch different shows and it's fun to hear what others think. I'm liking where I'm at though. In college I joined an anime club and that was fun. Not sure if I want to do that again but I do love face to face discussion more than anything. I had the opportunity to go to some conventions but I passed them up for whatever reason. I'm debating on going to Anime Boston but idk. I'm slightly curious to see what it's all about. I was debating on writing a blog but I'm terrible at writing, I'm inconsistent in posting, and I'm pretty lazy! :) How do you enjoy anime besides watching it?
I've been looking for some sites for video game discussion as well. I listen to Kinda Funny now and I really enjoy them, even if I don't agree with everything they say. I was looking at neogaf but I'm not sure. I also follow a few people on Twitch like Dans Gaming and some people I met while playing Dark Souls. I do enjoy backloggery but I'm not sure how to engage in discussion there. Any suggestions for video game discussion that has a solid community?
Some video games I've been playing are on my profile. They're Firewatch, Life is Strange, and Persona 4 Golden. All great. To The Moon and Undertale are probably going to be next. I've been pumped for Uncharted 4 from the trailers and gameplay. Looks fantastic. I need to start from the series beginning though before I touch 4! Dark Souls 3 looks like more Dark Souls, which is totally fine with me. I won't be able to play it bc no PS4 access. Any games you've been enjoying? What are you looking forward to?
Lastly, and to actually answer your question, for animoo I've been taking it very easy. Just watching Erased right now. Rakugo is up next. That's all I want to watch from the current season I think. I took a break from everything else. Anyway, there's shows I want to finish and series I'm excited for the future. Any series that you're enjoying now or looking forward to?
In general it was well designed and animated. The audio was pretty good overall and the voice acting was surprisingly good for what was ostensibly a simple highschool romantic comedy. The problem - which ironically was also one of the better aspects of the series - was the "mystery" about Eru's uncle.
The bit with "Ice Cream" was really well done, but the whole scenario seemed to have been crowbarred in to the main storyline and it actually felt quite shallow because the focus kept shifting from one thing to another without resolving the more interesting plot elements.
Hope that helps.
I like your style, keep it up :)