General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

[LaZodiac]

It's the same reason why two ****ty visual novel parodies came out in under the span of a week. It's a trend to make fun of that sort of thing at the moment.

Isekai's are weird since .hack is the only one I can remember that does anything actually interesting with the premise until Log Horizon comes out, and otherwise nothing of actual relevance has happened. A friend is trying to argue to me that Dr Stone is an isekai but it's not, it's an apocalypse survival series which is DIFFERENT.

[GloatingSwine]

Now, the better question is, why is everything isekai? And why are there like twenty different versions of the "I am the female villain of an otome game" premise, all of them pretending that "Aren't otome games really stupid, guys" is some really fresh material at this point?

Ironically, I think it's impossible to answer that on this board because it violates the no politics rule....

Mother's Basement has a good video on it though.

(Also a lot of VN publishers trawl what is basically the Japanese equivalent of Archive of Our Own to pick up cheap licenses and a lot of what's on there is cookie cutter derivative isekai ****e)

[ellenate]

Anime and manga are made for Japanese people, by Japanese people. Their appeal to the West isn't even an afterthought for most creators.

Japanese culture is dangerously sexually repressed, which leads by multiple conspiring factors to things like the abundance of fanservice.

I always thought japan got a bad rep for that... who's media isn't oversexed?

[John Cribati]

I always thought japan got a bad rep for that... who's media isn't oversexed?

My gripe is not that sexy happenings in media exists. It's how said media tends to use them. Yes, just about everything not explicitly for kids has a sex scene every couple episodes. But those are sex scenes. An isolated part of the narrative that's dedicated to two or more people doing the do. But anime is about the only medium that wants to throw unnecessary sexy images at me in the middle of whatever.

Like, I'm sure if Law and Order had a random nake woman just show up in the middle of an investigation, she'd be connected to the investigation in some way. But more often than not, a random naked woman showing up in an anime (or, more likely, a woman being randomly made naked) would just there for the sake of a gag and be entirely irrelevant to the goings on (again, the exception I'm deliberately making is for sex comedies, where once it has been established, one can assume I'm watching for random ecchi shenanigans).

[Silfir]

Crap, I was almost certain we had managed to move away from that topic.

Quick, let's discuss another manga. I felt Ao no Flag was kind of amazing while I was catching up with it, but now that I'm reading it one capter per month it feels like a massive drag. I'm almost certain that's not just the transition away from binge mode - it's the storyline itself. It went from feeling serious and real to ... just unhappy. No one's happy, and the people who probably should be talking to each other to figure things out, won't.

I recently read the entirety of Kengan Asura. That was some good fun. One big and fun martial arts tournament story with some great characters. The cast is massive. Some of the more fun characters didn't nearly get enough screentime though. At the very least, now I understand all the references in Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru.

[LaZodiac]

I recently read all 69 (nice) chapters of Hell's Paradise: Jikukuroko or whatever it's spelt.

This series is really really weird in a mostly bad way. Yin-yang duality means gay/lesbian people are inherently stronger than straight people because they're more in touch with both gender in the male/female binary and thus are closer to approaching perfection is a... weird thing to put in your series. Especially when you proceed to push the "woman = weakness" mentality as well.

[Reddish Mage]

I recently read all 69 (nice) chapters of Hell's Paradise: Jikukuroko or whatever it's spelt.

This series is really really weird in a mostly bad way. Yin-yang duality means gay/lesbian people are inherently stronger than straight people because they're more in touch with both gender in the male/female binary and thus are closer to approaching perfection is a... weird thing to put in your series. Especially when you proceed to push the "woman = weakness" mentality as well.

Gender essentialism in the form of Yin = Woman = Weakness (= more things like darkness, emptiness, void etc) is rather inherent in the whole Yin/Yang business. On the other hand, since Yin/Yang aren’t absolutes with each containing a core or kernel of the other. Weakness can become ultimate strength and vice versa. I imagine a series like this would lean into these transitions but nevertheless may appear to be ultimately be reinforcing this eastern sort of essentialism.

That would likely be what its doing even as its redefining what it means to be gay within that system. What I would like to know is how actual physical women of the comic fit or undermine the gender stereotypes.

[LaZodiac]

Gender essentialism in the form of Yin = Woman = Weakness (= more things like darkness, emptiness, void etc) is rather inherent in the whole Yin/Yang business. On the other hand, since Yin/Yang aren’t absolutes with each containing a core or kernel of the other. Weakness can become ultimate strength and vice versa. I imagine a series like this would lean into these transitions but nevertheless may appear to be ultimately be reinforcing this eastern sort of essentialism.

That would likely be what its doing even as its redefining what it means to be gay within that system. What I would like to know is how actual physical women of the comic fit or undermine the gender stereotypes.

They do deal with that, to a degree. The character who teaches our protagonists about Tao (as an energy source) mentions that "Strength Fuels Weak, Weak Seeds Strength". So they do mostly know what they're talking about, it just feels so weird to have them... shonen anime it into a power source where "oh, yes, embrace woman style weakness and man style strength to master the Middle-Way and become undefeatable" because phrasing it like that makes you sound kinda ****ty.

The way it's treated female characters is... interesting, in that there are exactly four female characters who matter. One is the stereotypical sexy ninja girl, with the caveat that the artist does not actually have the capability of drawing anything other than a sorta average looking woman (which makes one of the character's blatent staring at her ass scene funny as hell because it's not even that interesting an ass) who uses seduction to kill people and is a total Han Solo character, as in a scummy person who wants to cut and run but also doesn't.

Then we have Mai, who is barely able to talk and is just a macguffin, she teaches the heroes how to use Tao and her backstory is taht she's one of the flower-human hybrids, but she never manifested a male half so her siblings/other selves decided she'd be a rape toy for their soldiers so they can do the final "training" needed to become a master of the middle-way, lying with someone of the opposite sex.

Then we have the main character's wife, who is considered a walking womb by her father (his shinobi master) and was scarred across her face with fire to remind her she'll never have a "normal" life (though it's not even that bad a scar it's honestly insulting) and her entire reason to exist plot wise is that she's the main character's woman weakness source, because she took him out of the depths of falling totally and entirely into violence.

Then we have the secondary protagonist, Sagiri, who is the main character's executioner who is afraid of killing people since it makes her feel bad. She eventually embraces the middle-way by getting insulted by a dying guy saying she doesn't deserve to fight because she's a woman, and we're told to feel bad about that character's death. The main character, Gabimaru, makes a better case for her; he can tell just by kinda looking at her that she is stronger than he could ever be, she just needs the push to get there. There's some minor hints that she might be a lesbian and that's partly what makes her stronger.

Also, correction while typing: there is a fifth female character, she has a scene where she strips in front of the guy she likes and it's a "haha she's a girl in secret surprise" scene, which already sucks, but especially sucks now that I've watched Astra, but also the fact that she's a girl never ever gets brought up the entire rest of the series (to date) and everyone just refers to her as a man and the person who knows she's a girl hasn't corrected anyone about it so she kinda doesn't count?

There are other side character ladies but they either don't exist long enough to matter, are too new to get a good read on, or is the second strongest executioner in the samurai execution squad and sister to the guy who we are supposed to feel bad about dying who said that women are inherently inferior to men.

[Reddish Mage]

Sounds like the women are a mix bag of stereotypes with Sagiri the only interesting one.

Likely she’s just a strong woman secondary protagonist, there primarily to assist the main male and get maybe a side arc. Despite being overall strong and cool she lacks his special spark.

I have a pet peeve about calling girls MacGuffins. Yes, half the time it appears everyone is after some girl for the plot but MacGuffin has a specific original meaning: an item that everyone is after to motivate the plot (often added that it is insignificant except as a plot device). A woman (usually young and pretty) can (often) be MacGuffin-like but not a MacGuffin. Also, there’s far more detail to offer: she can be a pure damsel-in-distress (usually the case) or it could be used (less accurate in description) for a woman who has some agency but for some reason everyone is chasing, or maybe only the hero wants to chase her for personal reasons, or maybe she’s even a bland romantic interest.

The idea that the characters have both feminine and masculine sides (online someone said they were gender transforming) is interesting enough to check it out as an anime and its enough to put it above a lot of shounen...but still sounds pretty meh.

[LaZodiac]

Sounds like the women are a mix bag of stereotypes with Sagiri the only interesting one.

Likely she’s just a strong woman secondary protagonist, there primarily to assist the main male and get maybe a side arc. Despite being overall strong and cool she lacks his special spark.

I have a pet peeve about calling girls MacGuffins. Yes, half the time it appears everyone is after some girl for the plot but MacGuffin has a specific original meaning: an item that everyone is after to motivate the plot (often added that it is insignificant except as a plot device). A woman (usually young and pretty) can (often) be MacGuffin-like but not a MacGuffin. Also, there’s far more detail to offer: she can be a pure damsel-in-distress (usually the case) or it could be used (less accurate in description) for a woman who has some agency but for some reason everyone is chasing, or maybe only the hero wants to chase her for personal reasons, or maybe she’s even a bland romantic interest.

The idea that the characters have both feminine and masculine sides (online someone said they were gender transforming) is interesting enough to check it out as an anime and its enough to put it above a lot of shounen...but still sounds pretty meh.

Sagiri is actually a primary protagonist. We know about as much about her history as Gabimaru, and Gabimaru has said repeatedly she's stronger than him. She's the first person of our heroes to actually succeed in using Tao, chapters before anyone even knows what it is, and given the current fight going on Gabimaru's gonna be out for a lot of the series so she'll probably get at least two fights.

You're right about girls not explicitly being macguffins and just macguffin-like people, but Mai is as close to "literally a macguffin-item" as you can get without her being inanimate. A big part of her character is that she wants some agency (given her siblings/other selves want to use her as a literal sex object for training) but so far all she's done is say "I want to leave this island" and save Gabimaru twice by running real good.

I'm the one online who said the Seven Sages are gender-shifting. Since they're a perfect union of male and female they are constantly, semi-intentionally, between male and female. Their ultimate forms are giant flower monsters with male and humanoid parts, each making a full human (though the male pieces are black and female are white). It's cool art, as an aside. And sadly none of the Seven Sages are all that interesting. There's the two who are constantly having sex as part of their attempts to find immortality through pleasure. There's two who are almost never female due to their training of Immortality Via Martial Training ad Immortality Via Ascetism, and the other two are scientists who shift regularly.

So yeah, "still sounds pretty meh" is correct. The art is amazing, sadly feels wasted.

[Reddish Mage]

I notice there was only six of the Seven Sages accounted for up there.

[LaZodiac]

I notice there was only six of the Seven Sages accounted for up there.

Yup. That I did.

Mai's supposed to be the 7th but again, she's a failure because she's only a woman.

Incorrect, there is a seventh sage that I don't recall what does who dies oops. Mai is just an extra eight one.

[Gray Mage]

I recently read the entirety of Kengan Asura. That was some good fun. One big and fun martial arts tournament story with some great characters. The cast is massive. Some of the more fun characters didn't nearly get enough screentime though. At the very least, now I understand all the references in Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru.

Kengan Asura is a barrel of fun with plenty of memorable characters. I like that most fighters behave very amicably and professionally even though they're in the middle of a death tournament.

Sadly, I've heard the anime is a travesty, but the manga sequel (Kengan Omega) is being pretty fun in the same vein.

[Reddish Mage]

Kengan Asura is a barrel of fun with plenty of memorable characters. I like that most fighters behave very amicably and professionally even though they're in the middle of a death tournament.

Sadly, I've heard the anime is a travesty, but the manga sequel (Kengan Omega) is being pretty fun in the same vein.

I feel anime in general is being degraded by a bare-bones cost cutting, ouput-heavy approach. So many things just get one season at the height of the manga’s popularity but they do a few episodes and then just stop, while the manga continues its run.

That’s going to produce a lot of bad writing and direction by people who don’t really care to understand what the manga was trying to do different. In the end, they’re going to replace the characters with stereotypes.

[Gray Mage]

I feel anime in general is being degraded by a bare-bones cost cutting, ouput-heavy approach. So many things just get one season at the height of the manga’s popularity but they do a few episodes and then just stop, while the manga continues its run.

That’s going to produce a lot of bad writing and direction by people who don’t really care to understand what the manga was trying to do different. In the end, they’re going to replace the characters with stereotypes.

Yeah. The sad thing is that the art is very well done, the moves and hits are very expressive and clean, but they chose to go with an awful CGI style completely opposite the original designs.

I also heard you've cut the things that happened between matches (which showed a lot of character not only from the main characters) and cut the fight short.

[Silfir]

Man, it's been a while since I came out of a season with this many shows that I just loved unconditionally. I think my nonexistant vote for the Anime of the Season accolade goes to Maidens of the Savage Season, which landed its ending just about perfectly, but in my heart of hearts I enjoy Machikado Mazoku even more. I just have a thing for magical girls as well as yuri, so give gay magical girls and I couldn't be happier. Kanata no Astra probably would have gotten if I hadn't read the manga first, though. Such a great adaptation.

I'll refrain from doing a full retrospective just now, since a couple of lovely shows are still awaiting their conclusion, even if they aren't necessarily Anime of the Season material. Cop Craft just doesn't have the production values and is ultimately just a silly buddy cop drama, and Takagi-san would have to come up with an anime-original ending to really blow my socks off, even if you could cut the chemistry with a knife. The manga seems to be going strong, so I have my doubts they'd actually do that.

And even aside from all the shows I personally love that I know might be acquired taste... Vinland Saga is getting a really well done adaptation. Thorkell is here, and he's glorious. We're being spoiled. And if I remember right, next season ought to be just as great.

[Rodin]

I've been in nostalgia city, as I decided to re-watch Inuyasha the whole way through as a prelude to finally getting around to The Final Act. It's actually better than I remembered for much longer than I remembered. I always had it in my mind that the show got boring after the first 20 episodes or so, but it stays good for much longer than that. Having better knowledge of Japanese mythology certainly helps.

...And then there's the episodes that introduce Koga.

Good LORD, I had forgotten how ridiculous the premise of this love triangle is. Let's just gloss over how we already have a quite interesting love triangle going on with Kikyo and Kagome and get right to what a horrible, horrible person Koga is.

In his first couple episodes, we get to see him and his pack:

Slaughter a village of humans for food, with every indication that they will do so again given the opportunity.
Hunt down and partially devour a little girl (Rin's fatal wounds are not apparent in the anime, but those wolves weren't hunting her for sport).
Koga offers to spare a guy if he hands over a jewel fragment, then kills him anyway.
Try to kill our band of heroes (to be fair, so does everybody else so can't hold this against them really).
Kidnaps Kagome.
Koga tries to feed Shippo to his wolves, and only stops because Kagome threatens to refuse to help.
Koga declares that Kagome is his property, with every intention of using force to keep her by his side.

And yet, despite all of that it's clear by the end of the epsiode that Kagome has some level of feelings for him. Just...WHY? Stockholm syndrome?

[Rynjin]

Because it's meant to evoke that manipulative "I can change him!" stereotype for the pre-teen/teen girls that were the series' target demographic.

[Pendulous]

With a few show done, yet a few far behind due to simuldubs (AHEM DanMachi), I guess it's close enough time to do some reviews:

Dr. Stone (6/10): I spend about 80% of each episode bored, and then there's "oh, that was cool". The way the plot is progressing is just...ugh. It's super slow, like painfully so. Senku's catch phrase is annoying. Our other two main characters have vanished in terms of screentime. All these new people are whatever. I...like Kohaku at least? Oh Suika is amusing. Willing to give this one hope.

Fire Force (6/10): Another show that just erases its main characters from the dialogue, and sticks you with the ones I don't care about. The fights are fun. Surprisingly so, given everyone has the same element. The show became like 90% Shinra. More balance please.

Astra Lost in Space (7/10): I like the story so far. Really gave this a shot on a whim. Sometimes picking a show based on the cast works out. Not done yet, trying like hell to avoid spoilers. Lotta twist and turns. Maybe a bit worried there are too many, but we'll see how it all wraps up.

O Maidens (6/10): Last episode today saved it. Wrapped up pretty well, but I don't like the Tsuki ga Kirei ending. I guess I'm just too old to be entertained by teenage sexual angst. I watch romance shows to connect with the characters, not be disinterested in them.

DanMachi season 2 (5/10): God I'm trying so hard to enjoy it more. It's far behind with the dub, so maybe it'll get better. But so far, we got a complete lack of Loki Familia. We got no actual dungeon diving. And we got rehashed plot over and over, with apparently every familiar wanting to jump on Bell's bones. We also got a show that suddenly got super serious. Season 1 and Oratoria were much more light hearted.

How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? (6/10): Came for Doga Kobo show about cute girls working out. Got tired of the constant cutaways trying to "educate". At least TRY to flow it in with the show, like Are You Lost did, or like Yuru Camp did. It can be funny, but man, it spent too much time trying to be more informative than entertaining.

Demon Girl Next Door (5/10): Talk about another show that seems to move too slowly. Are we friends? Are we enemies? Depends on which line of dialogue is next. Make up your mind. Like Dumbbells, it can be funny, but too often I'm just waiting for some form of progression. Also, I'm really not one to judge Japanese voice acting. But holy crap, it's bad. Momo and Shamiko are often way too monotonous, and it's hard to follow along because of it.

Cop Craft (7/10): Another show I only tried due to the cast, and it turned out well. I really like "fish out of water" type scenarios, and that makes what would be a typical buddy cop cliched show into something that regularly entertains. I like that the show doesn't try hard to generate some form of super involved plot, and has gone mostly into episodic stuff. Which makes me a bit sad, since I would like to see more of it.

Are You Lost? (6/10): Turned out better than I expected, but still not all that great. I think it couldn't decide what kind of tone it wanted to set. Very rarely funny, but it seemed to want to come off as a comedy. Characters were pretty one-note, if they had a note at all, outside of Homare. Seeing that the manga is still going sort of leaves a bad taste with the ending too.

Magical Senpai (5/10): Occasionally funny, but repetitive skit comedy gets boring. Show got better when they threw in the science girl, but too little too late.

Demon Lord, Retry/Arifureta (5/10): As this thread title shows, I enjoy some isekai power trash. But man both these shows are just really boring, so much that each episode feels completely disjointed from the others, even though there actually is some semblance of a plot. Edgy guy doesn't really work in Arifureta, since the characters around him are extremely meh. Demon Lord Retry, like Are You Lost, can't decide if it's a comedy or not. It should be, because it would help, but it doens't do it.

Fruits Basket (8/10): Don't get me wrong. I looked forward to every episode, and thoroughly enjoyed most of them. But man. I think if this show was "Tooru and her two friends and the bonds they share" for 25 episodes, I would probably enjoy it more. Then you'd just have Kyo and Yuki and a couple other show up and be whatever. I love Tooru, and I love how she positively influences everyone she comes into contact with. But it's one of those shows where I want her on screen 100% of the time. The drama between the Sohma family I could do without. Still, looking forward to the rest next year.

Would you Love a Pervert as Long as She's Cute? (8/10): I see this show is lowly rated, and people probably pass it off as more harem trash. But man. The dub makes this show sooo much funnier than it probably has any right to be. Calling it now, Clifford Chapin's best role this year, no matter what Lord Explosion Prick does next season. Kinda hard to pick a best girl, since they're all pretty nutso. Sayuki is my pick though, at least for now.

[Aotrs Commander]

Arbitrary See If Bleakbane Can Stand More Than Two Episodes Anime Theatre:

Angel Beats

Because I just happened to check, and there is an English dub now. I swore blind there wasn't before, and I even checked back in this very thread and when it came on Netflix UK it DIDN'T, just the Japanese and German.

...

Do I have to keep checking every anime that's not got a dub to see if they've snuck one in...?

Anyway:

Spoiler: Epsiodes 1 and 2

Show

Episode 1

Oh, there's a girl playing piano. Ohhhh, the "beats" part is, like, musical, not in like, "getting beat up" or something, which is not what I was expecting; huh, I could have sworn the thumbnail showed someone with firearms and - oh, wait, there we go!

Okay, out protagonist is a bit of a dumbass, don't argue with the girl with the assault rifle. Even if she says "we're all dead," doubly-especially if you have amenisia.

Oh, the piano-playing-girl is the titular Angel, and she's the bad guy, er, girl. Well, that changes the perspective a bit.

Captain Dumbass ignores the nice girl with the MG (Yurippe? I'm sorry, I am having to look these up on wiki. I'd say that it was that I'm terrible with catching Japanese names, but I think it's more real Japanese names (I never struggled with Naruto particularly) abnd, to be fair, that might be a weird extension of our family's trait of Being Terrible with names. (My paternal granfather apparently used to have about four which he assigned to people.) In my case, oddly, this only applies to real human names, since it's not like I ever have trouble with, say Pokémon or dinosaurs or something. All that SAID, they do dump a LOT of characters on you at once. When I started Naruto, I came in on the start of the Forest of Death, but having everyone in packets of three did help a lot with that, since they were all more visuall distinct. Whereas all the characters into introduced here all have school uniforms, which doesn't render them indistinguishable, but doesn't exactly help. But I digress.)

Where was I? Oh yeah, Captain Dumbass (Otonashi) ignores the nice girl with the MG goes down to Angel and says is all "there's these crazy folk with guns and I can't remember anything I need to go to the hospital," "what hospital, no-one can die here," "prove it." And she straight up ganks him with a magical sword. Yep, no, mate, you literally asked for that.

Also, I like this show already.

Dumbass wakes up in- hey, you said no hospitals (ohhh, it's the medoical room) - and it like "it was all a drea-ohsnap, my shirts covered in blood." Then one of Yurippe's mates comes in and kills him again with a full-on fighting-game 100-hit combo attack with a halbard, because he didn't listen (ha!) And then Otonashi wanders around looking for a teacher and finds the prinicpal's office and gets smashed out the window by a giant swinging mallet.

I love this show already, it's so stupid.

He wakes up back in the office, where Yurippe tries again to recruit him - turns out this office is there headquarters. He eventually agrees, somewhat reluctantly.

We get a bit more exposition. Apparently, this group are really the only PCs and opposed to everyone else, who Yurippe actively calls NPCs (Otonashi even asks if they'll repeat themselves if he talks to them). Angel apparently doesn't murder you unless you grossly break the rules, and only then after a verbal warning. Otonashi asks if she's even sentient (since she alone has no emotions). That's actually a good point - there is a point where you have to remember there is a BIG difference between a person and something that isn't one, but looks and acts like one. NPCs, for example. Garrus out of Mass Effect, for example, acts like a person and engages your emotional responses like a person within the confines of your interaction with him, but it's all pre-programmed. This sort of thing gets VERY hard to tell if its more advanced than that and it takes advanced necromancy (of the soul-studing sort) to be able to differentiate between the really-a-person-robot and the only-acts-like-a-person robot. (To dip into ME again, between aI and VI.)

Getting oblitaerated is Bad, since the crowd beleives that it means they would re-incarnate into potentially any species, not merely humans (like barnacles or something). Fair enough...

Otonashi asks Yurippe about god, and she replies she believes in him, not that she's seem him around (which was a bit of a surprise, since the password to enter the HQ is "there is no god, buddha or angels.")

They make Otonashi go on their next operation, a plan to steal the NPC's meals tickets. This apparently involves a concert (ok...kay..., ther'es the "beats" I guess...) and shooting Angel with firearms as a distraction (hah! she has shields!) until at the ehight of said concert, part of the group turns on some big fans and literally blows said literal mean-tickets out the window to be collected, so the [Whatever they're Calling it Now] Battle Front can have a nice dinner.

*wince* That... doesn't carry any disturbing implications at all...

We end with Otonashi saying he's just biding his time until his memory returns.



Epsiode 2

The Battle Front needs to go get new supplies - and a gun for Otonashi - from the Guild, who apparently live below the High School and make all the weapons... MAKE ALL THE WEAPONS?!

It's guarded by lots of traps, which Yurippe has them disarm in readiness.

Noda - the halbard guy - is missing though (yay, I caught his name! Still had to correct it with the wiki, though!). As the group enters the secret entrance, he leaps out, saying he's not accepted Otonashi. But before he can start a brawl he's uncerimously offed into the wall mid posture by one of the giant mallet traps! Yurippe surmises Angel must have located the Guld and made them re-arm their traps. She says they should proceed anyway.

Oh my Lichemaster, this si going to be one of those "they all get killed off one-by-one" isn't it?

It is! IT IS! Ahahahahahahahaha! It's so mpriceless, the because they all give no fraclks! We even have a moment where they are all danging over a cliff (because giant pit trap) and Otonashi is the one on the bottom and has to climb up and the dude above him is making suggestive remarks (despite saying ealier he's not gay) and Otonnashi saying "stop reading into this!" and then he's all "but where do I pit my hands" to Yurippe, who is like "suck it up, solider." Cue uncomfortable moment of embarrassment, but without the usual perversion (nice), followed immediately as Otonashi climbs out Yurippe's voice floating out of the pit "how dare you touch me there" followed a respounding slap and disappearing yell! (Id the dude just a pansexual pervert, maybe? I mean, not judging but...!) The even do the laser trap out of Resident Evil the movie, I think it was! It culminates with the gruff ninja girl Shiina spotting a clockwork dog in a cardboard box floating towards them and I'm "oh, she's going to heroically sacrifice herself," but no, she thinks it's real dog because that's her crippling weakness and oh, man, it's so damn funny.

Then we have an ABRUPT tonal shift, because Yurippe and Otonashi are the only ones left and this point and Yurippe is NOT taking this as inconsequential, saying if they really could die, this would have been a disaster. She expouinds on her backstory, wherein she was the eldest of four and one day, some burglars broke in while the parents were out and couldn't find anything to steal. so they told Yurippe (who looked liek she couldn't be more than nine or ten (why wasn't there a babgysitte,r not that it woul have mattered) that if she didn't bring something, they were going to shoot one of her siblings every ten minutes.

UNHOLY FRACKING CRAP.

She desparately searched, and found a vase, which was really heavy, and then she fell down the stairs. It's not xclear whether she was out of time or the burglars thought she was already dead, but when the police arrived half-an-hour later, she was the only one left alive.

She believe in god, because she wants to ask him (and not politely) how something so cruel could have happened.

WOW.

I mean.

WOW.

Yeah, no [excrement] she was the first one to fight back. She feels she has something to prove.

Otonashi asks her how she died and she responds with "I didn't commit suicide! No-one here committed suicide!" That's a... strangely specific denial.

Anyway, they reach the Guild, which is a FREAKING MASSIVE CAVERN full of machinery. Like a veritable CITY down there, with more technicians in it tha the entire Battle Front! How did... But... I don't...

Angel is still coming, so Yurippe considers for a moment and says "blow it up, the important thing is your skills and memories." DAMN. And this older guy - the oldest chap we've seen, with like a beard any everything is like "she's right, we'll go to the old guild and build everything again!"

Then Yurippe and Otonashi go to fight Angel to buy time for them to lay explosives, culimnating in a high-speed knife fight with Angel and Yurippe, that Otonashi has to Tackle Attack into to save the latter. Then they shoot a giant cannon and her and then blow stuff and leg it.



This show hilariously stupid, but also not afraid to slam on the tonal whiplash when it wants to be serious, which is fantastic.

Arbitrary See If Bleakbane Can Stand More Than Two Episodes Anime Theatre: Angel Beats: VERY VERY PASS!

Spoiler: Episode 3

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Yurippe wants to break into Angel's lair and hack her computer - a second attempt after the first one failed; this time they have a new character, Takeyama. This means that the diversion group, the rock band Grils Dead Monster, needs to have a big open concert to draw Angel off. The head singer Iwasawa's ne ballad is not going to work, Yuri decides, since it's not loud or catchy enough. Iwasawa is like "'kay," like a good soldier. We get her backstory as she chats to Otonashi which is "not as bad a Yuri's memores," oh, well, I mean it'd be hard to-

Abuisive parents, only escaped through music, concussion caused by domestic violence from oe or other parent gave her a massive stroke from which is seems she never recovered, paralysing her and cutting her promising music career short.

...

Okay, TECHNICALLY, I think that might be marginally "not as bad" in the sense that being disemboweled with a blunt rusty spoon is "not as bad" as being disemvowled by a sharp knife, but FRACK!

Otonashi also runs into the girl putting up the posters, Yui, so is the Designated Pink Haired Manic Girl for this series (so she's cool).

The NPCs really like Girls Dead Monster, and beg Angel to lat this pass. Angel takes a poster and walks away going "it's like I'm the bad guy." Er... That... Has some disturbing connotations, doesn't it?

Anyway, the pulbically advertised concert goes ahead, with the rest break into Angel's lair (it is, of course, her bedroom, which is not unexpected, but still hilarious). The concert is going well, until the NPC staff arrives to break it up. When one threatens to take away Iwasawa's gitaur (the one she found and did all her singing on) she breaks out and manages to sing out that ballad, which causes everyone to pause (and Yiu to cry). Iwasaws thinks as she plays this is what she was meant to do, to sing out and reach someone like someone reached her.

And then the guitar clatters to the ground, 'cos she has disappeared. Oh dear, this ALSO has some very bad connoctations - this is definiately purgatory, isn't it, and they're all stuck here because of some hang-ups they can't let go of and Angel is just trying to help or something, in that bizarre "I do not understand your human emotions" way isn't it?

Yurippe is also deeply disturbed by the information on the HDD they hacked that Angel's powers appear to be "made the same way ours are" (technologically?) and not, in fact, that she's like, a cleric or something.

Yeah, this is going to be keeping going; actually, this is in danger of being upgaded from Cleaning The Room Telly to Proper Telly.

[Ibrinar]

Angel beats is entertaining while it stays silly, its serious parts are okay but not great, imo.

[gomipile]

The dub for Angel Beats isn't new, but it went unlicensed for most of the past decade, while the anime itself remained available for streaming subtitled.

[Rodin]

Because it's meant to evoke that manipulative "I can change him!" stereotype for the pre-teen/teen girls that were the series' target demographic.

I was going to question why a man-eating wolf demon would be an attractive mate for even teenage girls, but then I remembered Twilight is a thing.

Rumiko Takahashi: Twilighting it up a decade before Twilight was a thing!

I suppose I should be thankful at least one of the love interests was a decent human being half-demon dog person.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Love seeing people check out Angel Beats. I'm a bit of a sap, so it's right in my wheelhouse. Episode 3 rocked my boat with the introduction of Iwasawa.

[Pendulous]

Speaking of unlicensed dubs, a minor pet peeve of mine is people calling it "the Sentai dub of K-on". They didn't dub it, BangZoom did. They just having the license for it now. You can tell, 2009, if that was a Sentai dub at the time, it'd be hit or miss, but it's a fantastic dub. ... Except... I don't know why they changed yen to dollars in the dialogue, and in one scene, changed kilograms to pounds.

Angel Beats was ok, dub was pretty typical of a new dub. I would have rathered see more story behind the past lives of the characters, instead of all that weird stuff they added for no reason.

[Zalabim]

Ah. Angel Beats. It's definitely one of the shows I love. I could go on a monologue about it (after you're done, of course) but what I usually say beforehand is it's a fast-paced roller-coaster of a show. I personally think the super-dark backstories are part of the silliness, especially as it's made clearer and clearer they aren't just in The Purgatory. They're in a purgatory generally shaped to their specific needs. The purgatory for the Japanese dead who had unhappy childhoods. Literally everyone who comes through there has a sad childhood story, so having a sad childhood story is just as normal to their existence as not being able to die.

[ellenate]

Speaking of unlicensed dubs, a minor pet peeve of mine is people calling it "the Sentai dub of K-on". They didn't dub it, BangZoom did. They just having the license for it now. You can tell, 2009, if that was a Sentai dub at the time, it'd be hit or miss, but it's a fantastic dub. ... Except... I don't know why they changed yen to dollars in the dialogue, and in one scene, changed kilograms to pounds.

Angel Beats was ok, dub was pretty typical of a new dub. I would have rathered see more story behind the past lives of the characters, instead of all that weird stuff they added for no reason.

I like it better when they convert the money, it give better context. There's an arc in gto where it plays a big role and i was just nodding my head the whole time like "i guess that's a lot".

Because it's meant to evoke that manipulative "I can change him!" stereotype for the pre-teen/teen girls that were the series' target demographic.

I never liked inuyasha and kagome's relationship; inuyasha's flip flopping was defendable but still felt in bad taste for me. So i was happy when she got a side piece... it was only fair, lol.

[Spacewolf]

Angel beats is one of my favs so I hope you enjoy, make sure you stick around in the final episode for the after credits scene. (There's actually two depending on which run you watch, although I consider both cannon anyway.)

[Lethologica]

Angel beats is entertaining while it stays silly, its serious parts are okay but not great, imo.

Obligatory mention: to see Angel Beats without the entertaining silly stuff, but doing the serious parts really well, watch Haibane Renmei.

[Lord Raziere]

Kimetsu No Yaiba:
I'm only on episode 4 and I love it. this what I come to anime for, not just the awesome fight parts, but the displays of humanity and terror at the same time. however the fight parts are good in this for how a lot of it seems to be about awareness, reaction time and concentration rather than pure strength. it also seem to be good at foreshadowing this or that without saying things outright because there are details that I picked up on that became important later and loved it when I was right about them. also for some reason:

Spoiler

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Tanjiro seems to be able to communicate with the dead. which even the oni slayers seem to have no idea about. seems helpful so far

also I like that Tanjiro's real superpower seems to be his sense of smell. it tells him everything.