Real world: I'm in my 40s50s and born and living in my northern German state's capital, doing IT related stuff for which I've formal higher education. Male, single, meeting more nerd clichés than I like to at times. Dealing with sensitive data for ages I grew cautious about privacy. So please don't ask for random personal details. Once warmed up with a group or person, change will come and I'll become more trusting.
Anime: My anime exposure divides into three distinct phases. First, in the 1970s when I was exposed to a lot of dubbed kids' anime on TV. Second, in the 1990s, after the Akira bug had bitten. From there on I've included anime movies in my regular diet of movies (I'm a movie buff). This way I watched many 1990/2000s anime movies at release time. And finally now. I return to anime to finally embrace TV anime.
Taste: My taste leans towards well written, heady and dark, with sprinkles of feel good, slice-of-life, and iyashikei. In movies I love dark comedy, sci-fi and fantasy, and arthouse; in music I'm in jazz-funk, indie rock and some hip-hop. But I'm fairly open minded. While prefering quality and art over trash and fast food, I'm not do-or-die at it. A regular dose of trash is something I can enjoy the doki-doki hack out of. The other way around, not every pretentious arthouse labeled thing is good. The genre is just like any other and just being obscure is not sufficient to be good or even art.
Genres and Picks: Favorite genres according to MALgraph are seinen, mystery, supernatural, and dementia/psychology,. I'm again no purist, CGDCT is just so typical for anime (and enertaining too, sometimes), that it makes no sense to ignore and hate it. My plan-to-watch hasn't popcorn level anime in it, but seasonal and spontaneous watches should ensure enough supply of that. However, life is too short to build a history of popcorn anime retrospectively. This in return means I focus on old shows more than on seasonal anime.
Rating and Friends: I'm invested into rating using the full range of MAL grades and Gaussian distribution over them. This is relevant for friend requests, I'm grooming my friend list to be a comparison tool by adding people I know to follow a similar approach. If you care about fair full-range rating, I'd love to be your friend. I don't consider friends a facebook style "nice guys" list.
Growing up in the 1970s there were shows on TV which at that time had no association with Japan or anime. Unaware of their true nature I watched and loved Jungle Taitei (1965), Chiisana Viking Vickie (1974), Alps no Shoujo Heidi (1974), Mitsubachi Maya no Bouken (1975), Pinocchio yori Piccolino no Bouken (1976), Arabian Nights: Sindbad no Bouken (1976), Captain Future (1978), and Nils no Fushigi na Tabi (1980) as a kid. These got buried deep inside of my unconciousness, only to resurface much later.
Along with my first DVD player, rather accidentally, I bought a bargain priced copy of Akira (1988) for testing purposes. And was impressed, this was not the kid stuff. I've been a fan of anime movies ever since and watched many of Ghibli's and Satoshi Kon's creations when they were released. The cinematic masterpieces, that are Mononoke Hime (1997) and Perfect Blue (1998), were the most influential.
Still a cinematic snob for most of the 2000s, I refused to watch any TV series in a long time. The opening up happened when the golden age of TV series took off in mainstream, with Battlestar Galactica (2003) being the gateway drug. Later on this also opened my eyes for adult audience animation series, with Archer (2009) serving as the starting point.
Finally, in 2019 I decided to expand my horizon into the quirky world of 'Chinese cartoons'. For much of my life I had exposure to anime, but never completely embraced it as an independent art form. Until now. I came for the boobs of Shinmai Maou no Testament (2015), got hooked by the suspense of Death Note (2007) and stayed for the art that is Mushishi (2006).
My approach is rather systematic, almost archaeological. I'm trying to broadly cover periods, genres, and classics quickly, while at the same time witnessing the evolution of current seasonal anime culture. Speaking of which: Holo best waifu and Monogatari best franchise. Fight me.This is how far I got by now.
Categories: I'm aiming to use the full rating range and have an approximately Gaussian distribution over it.
10 - Perfect: Given infinite resources, I couldn't realistically suggest changes to improve this anime. It's a 9 which resonates with me in a special way. Kami.
9 - I love it: God-tier anime transcending it's genre and style. Watch it even if you hate the genre, which it probably innovated or perfected. Aishiteru.
8 - I recommend it: Anime I'd recommend to be watched by everybody. Skip only if you really hate the genre. Sugoi.
7 - I like it: Outstanding material within it's genre and style. Daisuki.
6 - Above Average: Entertaining and well-rounded, with minor flaws you can't fully ignore. May be a 7 of a genre I hate or a 5 of one I love. Ii.
5 - Average: Run out of the mill mainstream anime you will not regret watching, but forget later on. Maa maa.
4 - Boring: Still worth watching, but major flaws become visible. Don't fall asleep. Lowest I'd watch as a fan of it's genre, except for campy stuff. Omoshirokunai.
3 - Painful: Serious flaws in more than one of the compartments characters, animation, plot, sound, or enjoyment. Tried to be average and failed at that, or is exceptionally well-done camp material. Hidoi.
2 - Trash and Camp: Trash and camp material that at least tries to be a real anime. Only die hard genre fans can enjoy this. Kuso.
1 - Seek Medical Help: Gives you eye cancer, requires mind bleach, or makes you want to clean your toilet instead. Saitei.
Fine Tuning: Anybody's anime rating is influenced by her world view, genre preference, runtime, and the media format. I am not trying too hard to hide those advantages and disadvantages a particular movie or series has. However, I'm really trying hard to resist impulses such as fanboy upvote and genre/format/plot subject/SJW-ing downvote punishment. Nevertheless, formats such as short and genres such as ecchi by their very nature have it harder to deliver complex plot and character development. So it's hard for them to break the grade 7 ("fun") glass ceiling. Movies typically have higher per frame production values than TV and OVA, and this shows as well. Longer series have an advantage over short ones at plot complexity, but it's also harder for them to maintain top-tier quality over the full runtime.
Examples: The examples are picked to ease comparison to your own preferences in each format. Given I'm a completionist and can compare all seasons of the Monogatari Series, many of those were included to showcase quality differences within a single francise. For TV shows I've tried to pick widely known examples, with a bias on controversial ones to showcase my ideosyncratics. A feature film length movie is included where available to cover that format as well.
When possible I've included shorts, which are usually easy to find on youtube or vimeo. Those are underlined for quick reference, just look them up and judge by yourself. See the section on my profile page for direct links for those available on youtube.
10: Monster (TV), Monogatari Series: Second Season (TV), Nana (TV), Mononoke Hime (movie)
9: Mushishi (TV), Bakemonogatari (TV), Steins;Gate (TV), Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (movie)
8: Made in Abyss (TV), Nisemonogatari (TV), Kanamewo (short), Akira (movie)
7: KonuSuba (TV), Tsukimonogatari (TV), Daicon Opening Animations (short), Kimi no Na wa. (movie)
6: No Game No Life (TV), Nekomonogatari: Kuro (TV), Furiko (short), Mimi wo Sumaseba (movie)
5: Angel Beats! (TV), Rain Town (short), Koyomimonogatari (TV), Gake no Ue no Ponyo (movie)
4: DanMachi (TV), Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? (TV), Inferno Cop (TV), Shelter (short)
3: Bikini Warriors (TV), Eromanga-sensei (TV), Violence Jack II (OVA), Cipher (short)
2: Corpse Party: Tortured Souls (OVA), Sleeping with Hinako (OVA), Tenshi no Drop (short), Ame-iro Cocoa (TV)
1: Shinmai Maou no Testament Specials (OVA), Nami (short), Pupa (TV), Hametsu no Mars (OVA)
My Monogatari Series: Beginner's Video Guide moved to it's MAL fan-club. These videos are a good starting points for the journey. Wish me luck, and godspeed yourself!
Top 20 TV anime songs of all time, according to inim's ever evolving opinion. Only one song per show to keep it compact. No movie OST pieces. Listed shows tend to contain some more good music because of either other songs by the same composer, or because the production just put higher emphasis on the music. Your mileage surely will differ, I'm no big fan of hyperactive shounen anthems, mainstream j-rock, or of drowning mediocracy in violin sauce. Sorry, Attack On Titan and Sword Art Online.
The single, highly subjective criterion is that songs are good compositions, independent of style or function in it's show. A catchy funk bass line helps as does a sweet voice. I'd be willing to put this list on my heavy rotation playlist without getting tired of it.
Neon Genesis Evangelion「Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis」(1995, Yoko Takahashi) ▶ 📺
No Game No Life「This Game」(2014, Konomi Suzuki) ▶ 📺
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu「Kadokawa」(2006, Aya Hirano) ▶
Captain Future「 Auf Wiedersehen, Captain Future」(1978, Christian Bruhn) ▶
Paniponi Dash!「Roulette☆Roulette」(2005, Momotsuki Gakuen Ichinen C Gumi) ▶ 📺
Random good music from Japan in no particular order. Just one song per artist, except for a few favorite anime song live performances not related to anime.
Hey! I recently found out that Akiyuki Shinbou once gave out an interview talking about his favorite movies and directors, all live-action, and it's been leading me to some really interesting places I thought you might have some interest in, especially with how you were the guy who recommended me Requiem from the Darkness (and they are very much in that vein).
His main influence seems to have been the 1977 italian movie Suspiria, and it's actually just the closest I could find so far in live-action to Shinbou's style. The use of color seems to match Shinbou's philosphy in The Soultaker or Polymar (my favorite of his ovas) really closely, with a lot of red and blue and yellow in quite a good percentage of the scenes, which look phenomenal, and there's a similar predilection for symmetry and reflections, a couple of tricks that only show up there once but that Shinbou incorporates quite a lot in his series. I'm obsessed enough with Shinbou that I would watch the whole thing no matter what it was, and it's very goofy in terms of horror, but I'd actually recommend it over the great majority of anime arthouse and horror movies/ovas. Shinbou's words were, "Everything I want to do is contained in this movie", though my source is actually an amazon review which goes over the interview, while I don't have access to the book itself (The Supreme Movies Chosen by Anime Creators, which also features Imaishi, Yuasa, Kenji Nakamura -- I'm seriously considering trying to find it).
He also mentions The Evil Dead, The Thing, The Exorcist, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator, I Know What You Did Last Summer, but, way more interestingly, the Japanese movies Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight and Kaneto Shindo's The Iron Crown, plus Akio Jissoji and Ichikawa Kon as directors who influenced him. I was familiar with Kaneto Shindo because of Kuroneko (another simple horror movie with very strong cinematography), Akio Jissoji for being to Kamen Rider what Chiaki J Konaka is to Digimon Tamers, plus having directed the movie adaptation of the first Kyougokudou novel (the second is Mouryou no Hako, which I believe you watched the anime for), and Ichikawa Kon as the director of The Inugami Family, though I didn't like that movie at all nor did I find anything Shinbouy in it.
Well, I mostly just wanted to recommend Suspiria to you, but do you happen to have any movie recommendations yourself, or even maybe an imdb or letterboxd I could check? I've been getting way more into live-action as of late, Twin Peaks was cool, though it never quite reached the heights again of the first red room scene in episode 3 to me, neither did Mulholland or Blue Velvet, and I even watched Rashoumon, though I also currently prefer Kurosawa's more methodical, plot-oriented works for now (Seven Samurai and Yojimbo are my favorites, and I want to check out the Yojimbo anime one of these days). Some other movies I liked were Hideaki Anno's Shiki-jitsu, 12 Angry Men, Masculine Feminine, My Dinner With Andre, I didn't like Tarkovsky and Kubrick, I liked Sion Sono, Alfred Hitchcock. I'll take any arthouse or anything else, really, with how high our affinities are in this website, and I'm very new to the medium, so chances are I won't have heard of them.
Wow, sounds like you had a number of reasons to connect with Monster. Glad to hear that the historical aspects are on point.
I'll have to add both of those to my ptw. With both Monster and Made in Abyss easily among my favorites, it seems like a foregone conclusion that I'll be getting to more of his work. Thanks for these!
Just read your initial review of LotGH back when you finished it in November 2019 and you said in your review 'this can't be a 10/10 for me for many reason', I'm genuinely intrigued, what changed your mind and caused you to retrospectively up your score from 8-10/10?
In terms of the politics, which seem to have initially rubbed you the wrong way, I quite liked the way that autocracy can be shown to be an effective and just form of rule, in the right hands, but the issue of future accountability and corruption are also explored (there was an episode towards the end when the Imperial councillors and count are discussing this very issue after it's announced that Hilda will become Kaierin and whether she should be able to hold power in her own right, or she just a ornate bauble to sit at Reinhard's side, questions that were asked by the English parliament hundreds of years ago when Elizabeth 1st came to power, and more recently when queen Victoria became queen as the Victorians didn't think a woman capable, despite eveidence in our own national history to the contrary) and even at the very end Reinhard says that the best candidate should succeed him and if his son, Prince Alex, doesn't have the right qualities then his dynasty will end.
And then you have some very apt depictions of the worst aspects of democracy ("best of a bad bunch" Churchill is famous for saying about how democracy is the 'least worst' from a bad pool of choices), which I found quite topical given the situation in many countries like the USA where the right wing have gone nuts and the country elected Trump, but then the British elected in favour of Brexit (and we're now paying for it, I did my dissertation on European Intergrattion and believed at the time that one day we'd have a United States of Europe, oh how naive I was, lol) and even chose Boris idiot Johnson as prime minister.
You also mentioned in your review that you didn't feel emotionally invested in any specific character, and I'd have to agree with that. There isn't one character that I really related or identified with, but the show made me cry out of sadness, pity and joy on more than one occasion, and even laugh a few times.
It was a pretty damn good ending. It was pretty damn good from start to finish and feel like I've just finished the best story out there, well in terms of grand space opera.
Schon sehr eigenartig, das Ganze ;-) Die müssen irgendwann das System umgestellt haben oder so, früher hab' ich auf der anderen Seite mit Leuten schon 89%+ geschafft, da stand dann je nachdem auch noch explizit "Compatibility: High, Very High, Low, Very Low" etc. mit drauf...
Glad you had a good break. Walks along a white chalk coast, seems like our south coast (Devon all the way to Kent), which if I'm not mistaken used to all be connected to the continent at one point. Doesn't look like we'll be able to afford a holiday this year as we've been getting bits for the house since we moved in. If we still had our boat we'd go on that as it's fairly cheap, but alas fair Andante is no more.
My guess is that Frederica Hill Yang and Julian will become venging angels for republicanism at some point soon. There's been lots of foreshadowing of Reinhard's death so expecting him to pop off at some time soon. He's waiting for an answer to his marriage proposal from Fraulein Mariendorf and just left for Heinessen, so wouldn't be surprised if he dies before he gets his answer. There's so many little things i love about this show, like for instance Mittemeyer and Reuenthal and their buddy relationship despite being completely different like chalk and cheese.
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His main influence seems to have been the 1977 italian movie Suspiria, and it's actually just the closest I could find so far in live-action to Shinbou's style. The use of color seems to match Shinbou's philosphy in The Soultaker or Polymar (my favorite of his ovas) really closely, with a lot of red and blue and yellow in quite a good percentage of the scenes, which look phenomenal, and there's a similar predilection for symmetry and reflections, a couple of tricks that only show up there once but that Shinbou incorporates quite a lot in his series. I'm obsessed enough with Shinbou that I would watch the whole thing no matter what it was, and it's very goofy in terms of horror, but I'd actually recommend it over the great majority of anime arthouse and horror movies/ovas. Shinbou's words were, "Everything I want to do is contained in this movie", though my source is actually an amazon review which goes over the interview, while I don't have access to the book itself (The Supreme Movies Chosen by Anime Creators, which also features Imaishi, Yuasa, Kenji Nakamura -- I'm seriously considering trying to find it).
He also mentions The Evil Dead, The Thing, The Exorcist, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator, I Know What You Did Last Summer, but, way more interestingly, the Japanese movies Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight and Kaneto Shindo's The Iron Crown, plus Akio Jissoji and Ichikawa Kon as directors who influenced him. I was familiar with Kaneto Shindo because of Kuroneko (another simple horror movie with very strong cinematography), Akio Jissoji for being to Kamen Rider what Chiaki J Konaka is to Digimon Tamers, plus having directed the movie adaptation of the first Kyougokudou novel (the second is Mouryou no Hako, which I believe you watched the anime for), and Ichikawa Kon as the director of The Inugami Family, though I didn't like that movie at all nor did I find anything Shinbouy in it.
Well, I mostly just wanted to recommend Suspiria to you, but do you happen to have any movie recommendations yourself, or even maybe an imdb or letterboxd I could check? I've been getting way more into live-action as of late, Twin Peaks was cool, though it never quite reached the heights again of the first red room scene in episode 3 to me, neither did Mulholland or Blue Velvet, and I even watched Rashoumon, though I also currently prefer Kurosawa's more methodical, plot-oriented works for now (Seven Samurai and Yojimbo are my favorites, and I want to check out the Yojimbo anime one of these days). Some other movies I liked were Hideaki Anno's Shiki-jitsu, 12 Angry Men, Masculine Feminine, My Dinner With Andre, I didn't like Tarkovsky and Kubrick, I liked Sion Sono, Alfred Hitchcock. I'll take any arthouse or anything else, really, with how high our affinities are in this website, and I'm very new to the medium, so chances are I won't have heard of them.
I'll have to add both of those to my ptw. With both Monster and Made in Abyss easily among my favorites, it seems like a foregone conclusion that I'll be getting to more of his work. Thanks for these!
In terms of the politics, which seem to have initially rubbed you the wrong way, I quite liked the way that autocracy can be shown to be an effective and just form of rule, in the right hands, but the issue of future accountability and corruption are also explored (there was an episode towards the end when the Imperial councillors and count are discussing this very issue after it's announced that Hilda will become Kaierin and whether she should be able to hold power in her own right, or she just a ornate bauble to sit at Reinhard's side, questions that were asked by the English parliament hundreds of years ago when Elizabeth 1st came to power, and more recently when queen Victoria became queen as the Victorians didn't think a woman capable, despite eveidence in our own national history to the contrary) and even at the very end Reinhard says that the best candidate should succeed him and if his son, Prince Alex, doesn't have the right qualities then his dynasty will end.
And then you have some very apt depictions of the worst aspects of democracy ("best of a bad bunch" Churchill is famous for saying about how democracy is the 'least worst' from a bad pool of choices), which I found quite topical given the situation in many countries like the USA where the right wing have gone nuts and the country elected Trump, but then the British elected in favour of Brexit (and we're now paying for it, I did my dissertation on European Intergrattion and believed at the time that one day we'd have a United States of Europe, oh how naive I was, lol) and even chose Boris idiot Johnson as prime minister.
You also mentioned in your review that you didn't feel emotionally invested in any specific character, and I'd have to agree with that. There isn't one character that I really related or identified with, but the show made me cry out of sadness, pity and joy on more than one occasion, and even laugh a few times.
Hier ist noch ein Deutscher, der ebenfalls in der EDV tätig ist. Die ganzen "Kinderserien" vom ZDF kenne ich auch noch.
P. S.: Toller Monty Python-Avatar. Niemand erwartet die spanische Inquisition. :-D
My guess is that Frederica Hill Yang and Julian will become venging angels for republicanism at some point soon. There's been lots of foreshadowing of Reinhard's death so expecting him to pop off at some time soon. He's waiting for an answer to his marriage proposal from Fraulein Mariendorf and just left for Heinessen, so wouldn't be surprised if he dies before he gets his answer. There's so many little things i love about this show, like for instance Mittemeyer and Reuenthal and their buddy relationship despite being completely different like chalk and cheese.