General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour

[Morph Bark]

Been watching Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) lately. I'm loving it, the tone is great and the characters work really well. Just wish the main guy wasn't a classic moron sometimes, but he's got a lot of really good moments of cleverness.

[Kato]

Been watching Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) lately. I'm loving it, the tone is great and the characters work really well. Just wish the main guy wasn't a classic moron sometimes, but he's got a lot of really good moments of cleverness.

Mirai Nikki does have some really strong parts about it. It's been a while and I can't remember too many details but e.g. the different phone powers worked really well, and Yuno is just fun to watch. It also has a few weaker parts but overall I agree, it's very enjoyable.



Also, since season one ended... opinions on Tekkadan's first mission?

Spoiler

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I did mostly enjoy the show, really. Many fights were nice, and while not every character left an impression - somewhat hard with the giant cast that is Tekkadan's whole - there were enough to keep me interested. Ironically, not Mika. Well, kind of. His whole demeanor is weird, intentionally, I think, and somewhat understandable from his background but the most interesting part about him... the story actively sets him up to have a mini-harem. And he couldn't care less. (Atra is adorable)
Orga is... kind of interesting, at times. But the whole Tekkadan mentality is.. well, fine for a group of mercenary kids but I somehow expected them to learn a lesson about, you know, the value of life and stuff. (And not just the life of that one guy among you who was the loveable teddy bear)
Kudelia... served her narrative purpose. Not too much else to say. She did fine, but not exceedingly well, I think.
But the villains... my gosh. I really liked McGillis and kind of still do but wow is he a Kira level sociopath. A truly evil char who claims to have some greater good agenda. Heck, if I didn't know better I'd expect him to dramatically eat potato chips.
I expected Gaelio to be some despicable snotty guy and then he turned into maybe the most likeable among the really main characters. And then he gets killed off like that. And Ein had a wonderful arc, that ended a bit disappointingly but oh well. I guess better dead than a walking weapon. Which basically is what Mika is. Ah, I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

The politics and lore were a bit poorly conveyed at times, or I did miss some stuff but it was okay. The small bits of the story were done really well most of the time, even if the overall arc had some failures. And the Gundams this time seemed to hardly play a role, surprisingly. Maybe that'll change next season but I don't think it needs to. They can be just that, somewhat fancy mobile suits to be used by the important bits, the characters.

So, yeah, pretty good first season in my opinion, looking forward to the next.

[Duck999]

Been watching Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) lately. I'm loving it, the tone is great and the characters work really well. Just wish the main guy wasn't a classic moron sometimes, but he's got a lot of really good moments of cleverness.

It is a great anime. I recently got one of my friends to start watching it at a convention and he loved it. His one complaint is that Yuki has to cry before, during, and after doing anything remotely violent. I'm with Kato though, Yuno is a great character to watch, though my favorite characters are probably Murmur and Minene.

Spoiler: Mirai Nikki Spoilers

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I was talking about this with some friends:
Who do you not feel bad for in Mirai Nikki? Third, though we don't know his story. Tenth and Eleventh. But just about everyone else you have to feel bad for.

Spoiler: Other Future Diary spoilers

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Why is Mirai Nikki Thirteenth a google search? Did I forget something, miss something, or is it from another thing related to the show?

[Lethologica]

Spoiler: Mirai Nikki Spoilers

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I was talking about this with some friends:
Who do you not feel bad for in Mirai Nikki? Third, though we don't know his story. Tenth and Eleventh. But just about everyone else you have to feel bad for.

Spoiler

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I didn't feel bad for most anyone in Mirai Nikki after reading the manga, tbh. But my memory's a little hazy, so I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

[tensai_oni]

Also, since season one ended... opinions on Tekkadan's first mission?

IBO is a show that built up a lot of goodwill with its first three, good episodes and then proceeded to spend the rest of the season squandering it.

I'll be honest, I didn't watch it fully, I dropped it halfway. But from reading what happens later I'm glad I did. It's not bad in an amusing way. It's not even bad in a "holy crap I can't believe they did it" way (Cross Ange). It's bad in a boring, predictable way.

[Winthur]

I finished Kono Subarashii and my life is lonely now. Hit me with something really fun to watch. Maybe something like Black Lagoon in format. With like, action and stuff. I don't think anyone in our little watching group has enough brains to stomach another episode of Kamen Rider W.

[Duck999]

Spoiler

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I didn't feel bad for most anyone in Mirai Nikki after reading the manga, tbh. But my memory's a little hazy, so I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

Spoiler

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I didn't read it, but in the anime, there is a reason to feel bad for most characters.

Yuki is dragged in while he just wants to be an observer. His parents divorced and his only dream for the future is to go see the stars with his mom and dad.

Yuno is more complicated, but she has issues beyond her control. She certainly can't control that she loves Yuki, and she is right about most of what she says to him, and he never listens. She really does just want to protect Yuki, but she takes it a little far.

Third is a serial killer, not feeling bad there.

Fourth doesn't want to be god. He just wants to protect people and stop the murderers. He has to die because of this competition.

Fifth is just a child. An evil one. However, his cruelty appears to be caused by bad parenting.

Sixth has her whole backstory in which she was used by her parents, though she was okay with it. Then they died and she was used and abused. She then lost her only memory of her mom, only to find it again right before dying.

Seventh(s) primarily wit to keep both of them alive.

Eighth wants to protect her children, and she knows her death will likely mean theirs.

Ninth has her whole sad backstory which I don't remember perfectly. It was sad though, and it explained why she became a terrorist.

Tenth is just kind of there.

Eleventh is fairly evil. Power hungry. Don't feel bad for him either.

Twelfth actually was fighting for justice. He was blind, but willing to do whatever it took to keep god powers out of the hands of the unrighteous.

@Winthur:
I'm not sure what you've watched, but Baccano and Durarara are both action-packed and fun. So is Gurren Lagann. It also depends on what you mean by fun...

[Winthur]

@Winthur:
I'm not sure what you've watched, but Baccano and Durarara are both action-packed and fun. So is Gurren Lagann. It also depends on what you mean by fun...

Okay, first of all, sorry for writing a bleak post with no content, because yeah, I know those and I liked them. Second of all, I tend to watch animes with two friends and one of them is especially hellbent on animes with an actual, continuing story. Like, the kinda type that wouldn't watch Toradora! or Ouran High and can't get into Samurai Champloo's "a story an episode" format because he's a sad bastard. But we both consider Valvrave the Vibrator to be the greatest anime of our age.

We liked Parasyte (a lot), KonoSuba, Gundam 00, JoJo, Black Lagoon, Space Dandy and GitS, off the top of my head. And we all like the obvious classics like Bebop, Hellsing and such.

I dunno, guns, mechs, swords, pacing, story, intrigue, fun, plot. In any order. We watched Ping Pong and kinda forced ourselves to see its ending, for example.

[Sallera]

Hm, have you watched Zetsuen no Tempest yet? Seems like a pretty good match.

[Winthur]

Hm, have you watched Zetsuen no Tempest yet? Seems like a pretty good match.

Done'n'done, sadly.

[DoctorFaust]

Okay, first of all, sorry for writing a bleak post with no content, because yeah, I know those and I liked them. Second of all, I tend to watch animes with two friends and one of them is especially hellbent on animes with an actual, continuing story. Like, the kinda type that wouldn't watch Toradora! or Ouran High and can't get into Samurai Champloo's "a story an episode" format because he's a sad bastard. But we both consider Valvrave the Vibrator to be the greatest anime of our age.

We liked Parasyte (a lot), KonoSuba, Gundam 00, JoJo, Black Lagoon, Space Dandy and GitS, off the top of my head. And we all like the obvious classics like Bebop, Hellsing and such.

I dunno, guns, mechs, swords, pacing, story, intrigue, fun, plot. In any order. We watched Ping Pong and kinda forced ourselves to see its ending, for example.

Definitely seconding the recommendations for Gurren Lagann and Baccano!, then. Also potentially Kill la Kill, Mobile Suit Gundam:08th MS Team, or the Monogatari series(dependant on your tolerance for fanservice). Oh, and Sword of the Stranger, which is a samurai movie that has what is, in my opinion, one of the best sword fights in all of anime.

[Sallera]

Times like this are when I wish I'd kept a list of stuff I've watched. Doesn't help that that genre is the sort I tend to binge-watch and thus can't easily recall off the top of my head. I know I should be able to come up with more along those lines...

Um... well, there's K. Which I can't in good conscience recommend, per se, as it was collaboratively written by several light novel authors and it really shows. But it has a lot of the things you mentioned, and it is very pretty (to the point you need to be careful about your source, as a low-quality encode ruins it). It's just sort of a matter of your taste and/or tolerance for LN plots.

[Duck999]

And I second Kill la Kill.
Let's see what else I have:
Akame ga Kill and Code Geass are two of my favorites (after Durarara). Mirai Nikki has great story (I think). Fate/Stay Night (Unlimited Blade Works), Fate/Zero, and Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) are fairly good, with the first two having plenty of action. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun lacks the action, guns and mechs, but has plenty of fun. As soon as Space Patrol Luluco comes out, I'd recommend it. It, from the one episode I got to see early (), seems to have plenty of fun, some middle-school love, and maybe some action. It is going to be a series of shorts (about 5 minutes).

[Mx.Silver]

Times like this are when I wish I'd kept a list of stuff I've watched.

That's pretty much the only thing I use MyAnimeList for, and it actually works reasonably well for that.

[Duck999]

That's pretty much the only thing I use MyAnimeList for, and it actually works reasonably well for that.

I personally use Anime Planet. But yeah, those websites are nice. Especially when you are watching 3+ animes at once and need to keep track of episodes.

[Lethologica]

Yeah, I use Hummingbird for the same thing. A friend got me to sign up there and I haven't switched to MAL/AniDB/whatever because of inertia.

Okay, first of all, sorry for writing a bleak post with no content, because yeah, I know those and I liked them. Second of all, I tend to watch animes with two friends and one of them is especially hellbent on animes with an actual, continuing story. Like, the kinda type that wouldn't watch Toradora! or Ouran High and can't get into Samurai Champloo's "a story an episode" format because he's a sad bastard. But we both consider Valvrave the Vibrator to be the greatest anime of our age.

We liked Parasyte (a lot), KonoSuba, Gundam 00, JoJo, Black Lagoon, Space Dandy and GitS, off the top of my head. And we all like the obvious classics like Bebop, Hellsing and such.

I dunno, guns, mechs, swords, pacing, story, intrigue, fun, plot. In any order. We watched Ping Pong and kinda forced ourselves to see its ending, for example.

Hm. Anything I've seen you've probably seen, so honestly I'm just going to pick some things off my plan-to-watch list that might fit your tastes and hope you haven't seen them. Check 'em out, see what catches your eye.
Escaflowne
Dennou Coil
Great Teacher Onizuka
Kaiba
Scrapped Princess
Kyousougiga (2013)
Boogiepop Phantom

[Mx.Silver]

Yeah, I use Hummingbird for the same thing. A friend got me to sign up there and I haven't switched to MAL/AniDB/whatever because of inertia.

I'm not really sure if there's much to be gained by switching from one to the other, tbh, if that's all you're using it for. Which it probably should be, since lord knows you don't want to be using it for reviews (aggregate or otherwise).

[Lethologica]

I'm not really sure if there's much to be gained by switching from one to the other, tbh, if that's all you're using it for. Which it probably should be, since lord knows you don't want to be using it for reviews (aggregate or otherwise).

You mean there's no free aggregator out there whose opinion isn't ****? You're killing me, man.

[Mx.Silver]

You mean there's no free aggregator out there whose opinion isn't ****? You're killing me, man.

Well, aggregate reviews in general are only to be of very limited use at best* - and that's assuming they're drawing on reviews written by people who are at least reasonably decent at criticism(although since all they're taking from is some arbitrary numerical value pretty much everything of worth about the individual reviews is lost anyway). Which if you've ever made the mistake of browsing a page of user reviews you will know is not an accurate assumption in the slightest

Hard to believe, I know, but there it is.


*and even then, mostly just to the unbearable nerds whose main desire from this process is higher number on the thing they like than can be slapped on a thing they don't like

[Eldariel]

Has anyone seen 魔法科高校の劣等性/Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Weak Student of Magic High School or something of the sort)? I saw a clip that somewhat piqued my interest, but it seems like the kind of show that can be really dull outside few good action scenes. How is it - would you recommend watching it?

[HMS Invincible]

It gets into racial superiority at points, but if you like world building, is not bad. They were discussing how to do fusion reactors at some point as an application of magic.

[cobaltstarfire]

We're into the third Chapter of Durarara X2.

I'm not actually sure what was going on in chapter two, but things seem to be settling back into a way where I'm not lost with the start of Chapter 3. So I guess chapter two is basically a bunch of background that will pay off later on in chapter three...

[Drascin]

Has anyone seen 魔法科高校の劣等性/Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Weak Student of Magic High School or something of the sort)? I saw a clip that somewhat piqued my interest, but it seems like the kind of show that can be really dull outside few good action scenes. How is it - would you recommend watching it?

Basically, you know how people sometimes complain about a recent tendency to have shows that are increasingly more blatant and shameless about having marty stu male heroes with "weaknesses" that don't impede them in the slightest and who are always right and never have to even make an effort and get all the powers and all the girls want them?

Well, Mahouka is one of the gold standards of this phenomenon (and the main reason I can't quite say it's the prime example of it is that SAO exists).

To that, add a... highly disquieting, to put it very mildly, attitude towards social dynamics and people's place in society, and straight up biting anti-Chinese racism, and you get a pretty bad package.

[DoctorFaust]

Has anyone seen 魔法科高校の劣等性/Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Weak Student of Magic High School or something of the sort)? I saw a clip that somewhat piqued my interest, but it seems like the kind of show that can be really dull outside few good action scenes. How is it - would you recommend watching it?

Well, it's animated by Madhouse, so it is pretty if nothing else. However, I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless they wanted to watch something to laugh at how stupid it is. The writing's not great, it's incredibly nationalistic to the point of jingoism, Tatsuya is a massive Gary Stu, and I'm pretty sure the supercut of Miyuki saying "onii-sama" is longer than the supercut of Revy swearing in Black Lagoon.

[Eldariel]

It gets into racial superiority at points, but if you like world building, is not bad. They were discussing how to do fusion reactors at some point as an application of magic.

Basically, you know how people sometimes complain about a recent tendency to have shows that are increasingly more blatant and shameless about having marty stu male heroes with "weaknesses" that don't impede them in the slightest and who are always right and never have to even make an effort and get all the powers and all the girls want them?

Well, Mahouka is one of the gold standards of this phenomenon (and the main reason I can't quite say it's the prime example of it is that SAO exists).

To that, add a... highly disquieting, to put it very mildly, attitude towards social dynamics and people's place in society, and straight up biting anti-Chinese racism, and you get a pretty bad package.

Sadly that was the vibe I got from the video too. I was hoping the guy getting beat up was the actual protagonist, and the PoV character was the overwhelming villain. Ah well, the world does sound intriguing but by the sound of it, there are better works to spend my time on. Thanks guys!

[Alent]

Has anyone seen 魔法科高校の劣等性/Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Weak Student of Magic High School or something of the sort)? I saw a clip that somewhat piqued my interest, but it seems like the kind of show that can be really dull outside few good action scenes. How is it - would you recommend watching it?

I would strongly recommend reading the Light Novels, but if you have to watch the anime, watch each "book" in one sitting. The episode titles are nice about being labeled with "book title part X", so it's easy to tell where you are.

The Anime didn't cover the story fast enough, or enough of it, and made some interesting parts boring as sin by not understanding them. The first few story arcs are really world building and character development arcs for the people around Tatsuya, the anime never actually finishes enough of them to get to the real story and the powerful opponents, so he comes off as a boring, overpowered protagonist with no character development or equal.

The anime producer also didn't really seem to understand the story, so they adapted it poorly and focused way too much on some of the character relationships - specifically the otaku fetish ones. There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

[Fri]

Persona is Unbreakable in 3 days, woop woop.

And slightly unrelated, I've been following and really liking this manga for a while, Black Clover, and a comment in its forum amused me

The plot is actually advancing?! I think I'm too used to Bleach and the likes, this feels really fresh.

This manga is like a superdensely concentrated shonen beamed at several times of the speed of light

Because it's true. Here's the thing. The manga's premise is like the most basic of basic shonen premises ever.

It's a world of mages (ninjas) and the mc want to be the sorcery emperor (hokage). That's it. Also he has a rival that is a cool and silent talented genius. Oh wow.

But for me this showcase the best of how it's execution that matters, not the premise. Seriously the manga is really entertaining and never got any filler moment and all the characters are good. For example, the cold and silent rival? He's basically sasuke. Except he's actually just a nice guy that doesn't talk much. And from the beginning he hold the main character in high regard and defend him because eventhough he's considered a genius he knows that the main character have his own strength and can do things that he can't do. FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. That's like what? 20 volume worth of character evolution in more typical shonen manga?

(Also the sorcery emperor isn't like the leader of the kingdom but more like the emperor's personal bodyguard/head of military, which already makes more sense to have the strongest character be one).

[Prime32]

Speaking of generic shonen premises...

Does anyone read Sousei no Onmyouji/Twin Star Exorcists? I find the manga pretty entertaining, and it's receiving an anime next season (though it seems like it might be a pretty loose adaptation). It's something like 70% battle shonen, 30% romantic comedy, with the main couple fighting demons as a team.

[Rodin]

The anime producer also didn't really seem to understand the story, so they adapted it poorly and focused way too much on some of the character relationships - specifically the otaku fetish ones. There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

That's what stopped me from getting past about episode two. I found the crush extremely squicky in a way that even SAO managed to avoid.

The premise looked interesting, glad I wasn't missing out on too much (at least where the anime is concerned).

[HMS Invincible]

I would strongly recommend reading the Light Novels, but if you have to watch the anime, watch each "book" in one sitting. The episode titles are nice about being labeled with "book title part X", so it's easy to tell where you are.

The Anime didn't cover the story fast enough, or enough of it, and made some interesting parts boring as sin by not understanding them. The first few story arcs are really world building and character development arcs for the people around Tatsuya, the anime never actually finishes enough of them to get to the real story and the powerful opponents, so he comes off as a boring, overpowered protagonist with no character development or equal.

The anime producer also didn't really seem to understand the story, so they adapted it poorly and focused way too much on some of the character relationships - specifically the otaku fetish ones. There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

What's the subtle criticism you're referring to?