#it's always such a slog when the manga gets to that part where like almost every chapter has him in them

[xbuster]

Urusei Yatsura 2022 season 2 had better adapt Deranged Marriage or I'm giving it a 0/10

#making the second episode entirely fujinami-focused was torture #i love ryu but god her father is so annoying that i could do with them adapting LESS chapters that focus on him #it's always such a slog when the manga gets to that part where like almost every chapter has him in them

[opbackgrounds]

So I finished the live action and have taken a little time to get my thoughts together, and I'm very much of two minds about this show. I don't seem to be quite as high on it as some other people and the parts I didn't like I *really* didn't like, but I think the bones of the show are good and that the problems I had could be improved upon in future seasons.

More detailed thoughts under the cut

I've said all along that the live action will need to carve out its own identity if it wants to survive, that it needed not to copy the source material, but rhyme with it.

I feel like the first four episodes do that best. There was a lot to cover in the East Blue, and the more disconnected, episodic nature of the manga wasn't going to work. The solution was to combine and condense the manga content, and then add a significant B plot with the marines to help tie everything together.

The problem I have is that the addition of the marines takes away too much time from the Straw Hats without adding enough to make it worth it in the end. While backstories and story arcs were rushed to hell for our main crew, everything with Garp slogged, with the final payoff being nonsensical and poorly executed. I get what they were trying to do with Garp, shifting from childish temper tantrums to laughing maniacally, but it just doesn't work. Garp just doesn't work. Which is a shame, because I think that the growth for Koby and Helmeppo had a lot of potential and the actors exceeded my expectations. The material they had to work with just wasn't good enough.

Syrup Villiage worked best for me, because of all the arcs in the manga it was the most dragged out and poorly executed. It benefits from being condensed and leaning into the horror vibe over the generic shonen battle of the original was inspired. Plus, it validated my head canon of Kuro poisoning Kaya, which is always a nice feeling.

But even here, there's a knock-on effect of what came before it. Because Shells Town and Orange Town were cut down so drastically, Zoro's backstory and some of Nami's development were kicked on down the line, making Usopp more of a bystander in the arc where he should have shined the brightest. Later on the Baratie, Sanji's inner turmoil and struggle to follow his dream is reduced down to a "hey, the chore boy offered me a job, I'm gonna bounce".

And for what? So we can spend a painfully long scene of Garp eating a fucking steak?

The show needed its original ten episodes of runtime to let the characters just breathe. The chemistry amongst the crew is great, there are cinematic moments that took my breath away, the soundtrack is fire, the fights were enjoyable, and the set design is fantastic, but the depth of the manga is flattened. In the East Blue, every villain--even the shitty ones--acted as double foils. For example, Captain Morgan's narcissism contrasted with Zoro's willingness to throw away his good name in order to follow his dream, where his more villainous nature foiled Koby's heroism. In the show, Morgan barely counts as a villain, with his more disturbing and evocative acts such as telling his subordinates to shoot themselves (and more chillingly, them willing to do it) are cut out entirely, and it makes Garp's decision to later tie him up to the same post as Zoro seem almost insane.

Of all the arcs, Arlong Park left the worst taste in my mouth, which is so frustrating when it's supposed to be the crown jewel of the season. The changes they made to Nojiko are baffling and the one time I honestly don't understand why a change was made. Nami's backstory, the most powerful in the East Blue, was chopped into pieces and condensed so much that I felt nothing when Bellemere died. Luffy's decision to actually listen to Nami's backstory, while it made sense for this version of the character, went so against the spirit of the original that it took me out of the moment, as well as removing one of the aspects that makes Luffy such a unique character in the first place.

And for what, so the season had time to end with Luffy fighting Garp in a hopeless fight, only for Garp to let him go because "it was all a test"? Bullshit. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. The whole point of the East Blue is to establish the Straw Hat Pirates. They shouldn't be playing second fiddle to anyone, let alone this deranged, poorly written version of Garp.

I said that the bones of the show are good, and I stand by that. The Straw Hats are the Straw Hats. The One Piece world is the One Piece world. I do remain hopeful for improvements should there be a season two, because the marine B plot with Smoker is already in the manga, and the overarching story of Alabasta gives the writers the ability to be more flexible with the limited time that they have. I have to believe that it's easier doing one big story over the course of a season than it is trying to shove 5 origin stories into 8 episodes, but I'm not a TV person so I might be wrong.

However, my concern is that in some ways season one benefited from the pandemic. The series was in pre-production for like 7 years, and all the interviews I've read have credited the extra time the series had in the developmental oven for my favorite aspects of the show--particularly the sets. That's not going to necessarily the case going forward, and my worry is if future seasons aren't given the time to get it right that it's all going to fall apart. At the same time they can't wait too long, because that's not how live action works.

The live action isn't a bad show, but it isn't a good show, either. I'm glad that it exists, even if it's only to point back to the original. I wouldn't be devistated if it were cancelled, but would certainly check out season two should it get renewed.

Just, please. No more Garp. I'm begging Matt Owens and Oda himself, please. Just let the man do cool stuff off screen for a couple seasons, and when he's reintroduced pretend all this never happened. Your show will be better for it, I promise.

#opbackgrounds #opla #live action one piece #sarc talks

[ac-liveblogs]

BNHA "I'm Almost There!" Catchup

I'm allllmost up to date on My Hero Academia (Bakugou just died) and it's... hmm.

(I decided to catch up once it started trending every other week due to Certain Plot Developments, watching the anime before switching into the manga.)

This is an... interesting series to think about.

BNHA spent a lot of time being a mid-to-okay series that didn't really dip in quality, but had a hard time excelling after the sports festival. It got to a really bad point where the most exciting thing happening was the Hawks/Endeavour storyline and it was struggling to keep Deku (let alone anyone else) relevant to the narrative (burdens of being chained to a high school).

None of the League of Villains were particularly fun or memorable characters for the longest time. It was really hard to care or get invested in them outside of the potential of what Dabi's arc might bring. I was pretty surprised when Shigaraki kept popping up. But while the series wasn't particularly... exciting, it became a real slog in seasons 3 to 5. It was meticulously setting up a lot of plot threads to all pay off later, but that didn't make watching them get laid out very fun.

The end of season 5 really changed things though. The LoV's picked a fight with the Meta Liberation Army and like, suddenly, Shigaraki, Toga and especially Twice were interesting characters. Man, I cannot believe it took 5 whole seasons for me to like Shigaraki. I should have always liked Shigaraki. He just... abruptly decided to start being cool at the end of season 5. And then AFO decided to be the main villain again. Screw this guy.

Season 6 was really good. All the plot threads that got laid out suddenly started paying off. Didn't especially matter that there was a lot more focus on the pros, because I'd never gotten super attached to Class 1-A anyway. I'm particularly impressed with the way Bakugou and Deku's arc has started paying off; there's a lot of very intentional symbolism and parallels in play with them that I expect will continue to stack up over time.

BNHA is a very meticulously planned series - unlike something like One Piece, where I'm pretty sure Oda just leaves himself loose plot threads that he can choose to pick up later if he wants - but. Hmm. I kinda feel that for as well as the plot is planned out, the characters end up missing out in exchange.

Deku & Shigaraki are foiled as All Might/OFA and AFO's successors respectively, both learning to be the ultimate "hero" and "villain" over the course of the story. Because of that, Shigaraki largely failed to have a strong impact on the story until right before the final handful of arcs. This is also why it's kind of disappointing that AFO refuses to properly leave the story and let Shigaraki take center stage - choosing to focus on OFA vs AFO rather than Deku and Shigaraki as the "next generation" severely kneecapped Deku's Main Antagonist and any dynamic he might have with him.

While I think Bakugou and Deku's relationship has been developed quite nicely, Bakugou never... actually got any fights that make me think he kept pace with Deku prior to the War Arc. Or is even as Hot Shit as he's supposed to be. Because Shigaraki/AFO seem to be a shared nemesis for them and Bakugou's storyline is mostly internal growth, he never got anything equivalent to Deku's fights with Stain, Overhaul or Chisaki. Part of Bakugou's arc is accepting he wants to catch up with Deku but man, my guy needed to achieve a little more before that becomes believable. I mean, there were the movies, but. Come on. (todoroki and uraraka have the same issues)

While Deku inheriting the powers of the previous users makes thematic sense when paralleled against AFO if you consider Deku the culmination of their ongoing war against him, that aspect of his power came out so late in the game that it feels unwarranted and unearned. It's also disappointing, given that "being creative with what you have" is part of what made the limitations quirks have interesting, and Deku as a protagonist seemed explicitly designed to do exactly that.

Class 1A is so underutilised that the idea of them being the Next Generation of heroes feels like a bad joke. MHA takes them being kids in training pretty seriously... until it's time for the war and suddenly Deku, Bakugou and Todoroki are incredibly strong combatants capable of keeping pace with OP terrorists. Tokoyami as Hawks' mentee is cute, but Tokoyami is never as relevant as Hawks is, and he certainly isn't keeping pace with The Important 1A Students. Also, Kirishima... yeah. Despite being billed pretty strongly, I think he's Done now, which, narratively, is pretty uneven.

It doesn't really feel like Todoroki Shouto matters. He's the springboard for the Endeavour and Dabi storyline, but as soon as MHA shifts gears to focus on that it never really stops - so now it feels weird Endeavour isn't the one fighting Dabi and the Final Conclusion of the Todoroki storyline feels like a fight between strangers. I like Endeavour and find him very interesting, but him becoming a sympathetic character removed him as Todoroki's personal antagonist and Todoroki just... never recovered from that.

Despite Shouto feeling like he doesn't matter, only the storyline he's connected to, he's completely superseded Uraraka in terms of screentime. There's been a lot of opportunities to include Uraraka that have been ignored since the Sports Festival, so the idea that Toga is her Personal Nemesis She's Going To Beat In A Fight is a bit... lol, especially given how much of that revolves around Deku. I was grateful to see them gain an extra dimension to their relationship right up until the fight between them actually started. It really does not help that the Deku/Uraraka storyline always plays, like, third fiddle to Deku+Bakugou in major and Deku+Todoroki in minor.

...etc., etc. MHA has a pretty tightly planned story, but since every arc leads directly into the planned finale and allowances haven't been made to make much use of the. uh. hero academia students, i ended up in the weird position of enjoying the war arc but not really caring about most of the pieces at play in it. Maybe if MHA had had more disconnected arcs against random enemies that didn't really go anywhere but allowed the characters time to grow and level up it wouldn't feel like the final arc arrived before the principal cast was ready to be in it. Most of them not really being very combat oriented doesn't help. I understand this is all meant to be a "trial by fire" early initiation, but the gap is still hilariously large.

Anyway, Bakugou is dead, and I'm aware that he'll Be Back Soonish, so I'll be curious to see how any of this sticks the landing. I get the horrible feeling Horikoshi will be forced to construct relationships between designated hero/villain pairs during the final climactic showdowns which... sigh.

Also, I don't like most of BNHA's OP/EDs, but the background OST is so damn good. It's really really good. Seriously

#my hero academia

[animebw]

So this is probably where I admit my most grievous sin: I don’t really care about Rohan Kishibe.

Like, he’s fine? He’s a relatively strong character from one of Jojo’s most varied and interesting cast lineups? But outside his nifty Stand powers, I don’t really get what makes him such a breakout heartthrob. So the idea of centering an entire OVA series doesn’t really make sense to me. And if I thought it didn’t make sense before watching Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, then holy shit did it make even less sense after I was done.

See, here’s the thing: Jojo’s, as a franchise, is not adaptable. Sure, every Jojo’s part is a different genre, but at the same time, they’re really all the same genre: Jojo’s. Stardust Crusaders doesn’t transform Jojo’s into an Around The World in Eighty Days-esque globetrotting adventure, it transforms an Around The World in Eighty Days-esque globetrotting adventure into Jojo’s. Diamond is Unbreakable doesn’t rewrite Jojo’s as a small town murder mystery, it takes a small town murder mystery and pushes it through a Jojo’s=patterned printing press. Stone Ocean doesn’t reshape the franchise into a prison break story, it takes a prison break story and slots it into this franchise’s established artistic formula. No matter what form Jojo’s takes over the years or how much it evolves, it is always, unmistakably, Jojo’s. Araki’s quirks as a creator are too extreme and specific to make sense outside the very narrow niche he’s carved out for himself. It’s what makes this franchise so unique: no matter how many manga and anime take inspiration from Jojo’s, there will never be anything that operates quite on the same wavelength. But it also means that moreso than most long-running stories, it’s bound to its specific niche to an almost unprecedented degree. Jojo’s is such a singular creation that it just does not make sense outside the confines of Jojo’s. Any attempt to force it outside that box is only going to lead to disaster, like a tropical bird suddenly forced to migrate to a polar climate leading to death because it’s incapable of adapting to such an extreme shift in environment.

And unfortunately, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan is no exception. This is Jojo’s trying to actually shed its formula and become a kind of Mononoke-esque traveling detective series with Rohan getting mixed up in other people’s supernatural problems. But the results only highlight just how much this franchise does not work outside its established parameters. Without the context of absurd glam-rock ghost-based chess matches to justify Araki’s garish aesthetics, the characters and world feel like a freakish art-deco grunge nightmare. Without the sheer over-the-top nonsense plotting to tonally compliment Araki’s bonkers storytelling swerves, his character writing is utterly meaningless. And most damningly of all, without the kinetic thrill of watching a capital-J Jojo’s(tm) anime play out, all this chaos is just... boring. Watching this franchise try to be Detective Waver is like watching a wrestling star try to act straight-faced in an Agatha Christie play; it sucks all the fun out of something that only worked because it was so ridiculous in the first place. It’s only in the few moments where it starts to feel like classic Jojo’s again- the treadmill race, the popcorn-tossing competition- that I felt anything more positive than apathy. And that’s not when it’s being appallingly sexist on top of that. Seriously, Araki, why did that one woman have to spend half an episode in her underwear while she’s trying to hide a body? What’s the rationale there?

I dunno, I’m probably being too harsh. But after Stone Ocean proved just how damn great this franchise is capable of being, this nothing of an OVA left me feeling like I wasted my time. Call it a 3.5/10 just because it’s too short to really devolve into a true slog, and let’s keep praying for a Steel Ball Run adaptation before too long, yeah?

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #thus spoke kishibe rohan #kishibe rohan wa ugokanai #2017 aniwatch

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - 2019 Long Shows

Dear Lord. This is where all the good shows went.

2019 was absolutely awful on a season-by-season basis (except for Summer, anyway), but that’s mostly because most of the best shows ran longer than what has become the industry norm of a single season. And indeed, heading into the new decade, we seem to be seeing a major renaissance for two- or split-cour shows, given the massive success seen by shows like My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and Haikyuu!!..particularly in comparison to the new perpetual-runners Black Clover (which, despite running for over two straight years now, is still not the most popular show of Fall 2017 by viewer count on MAL, and sits at a ‘meh’ 7.2), and even worse, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which is faring even worse on both counts even though it premiered two whole seasons earlier and the fact that it is the sequel to Naruto.

As a reminder of my rules, the shows on this list may or may not have premiered in 2019, but they finished airing this year. The split-cour rule (stating that I judge any show that “finishes” and then premieres a “new season” within six months) didn’t come into play for any 2018 shows, but it will for Ascendance of a Bookworm and Food Wars this year, at the very least.

With that being said! 25 shows running longer than thirteen episodes finished airing this year after being simulcast, and of those…

I skipped 6:

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part V: Golden Wind, Fairy Tail Final Series, A Certain Magical Index III, Ace Attorney Season 2 and Cardfight Vanguard (2018) because I either dropped or have not finished their previous (also long-running) seasons.

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS because the simulcast started late and also it was bad.

I Dropped 8:

Worst Long Show of 2019: The Rising of the Shield Hero

It’s always fun to see that a show you hated from its first episode only gets more and more distasteful afterwards, but it’s less fun when a service you have to promote because they’re the legal option is forced to shove it down your throat because they had a hand in making it and it became a massive hit that your friends don’t see any issue with because the author wrote a story that justifies its hero’s patronage of the slave industry. This is my punishment for watching the whole first season of The Asterisk War before I knew better.

YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world

A confusing mess from the word go, this ill-fated adaptation of a visual novel from the nineties seems like it was mostly made to cash in on the popularity of the Science Adventure series, but failed to present itself in a way that made an ounce of sense or looked remotely interesting.

Fairy Gone

Am I really the only one that saw potential here? I mean yes, it ended up a boring slog that didn’t care to move its plot in a meaningful direction, but the first episode was at least cool. I guess Izetta: The Last Witch should have taught me better.

We Never Learn

I know that I’m in the minority in terms of the male demographic for shows like this, but honestly, how are bland harem shows still this easy to market? A copy-pasted protagonist with copy-pasted waifus drag down what could be an interesting setup for a story. 

Karakuri Circus

The first episode of this one had me excited, the second and third left me bored to tears and wondering if it would continue to look uglier by the minute. I haven’t seen a three-cour show look this janky since Knight in the Area.

Radiant

Having heard good things about this show from my cohorts, I do feel bad for saying I’ll probably never return to Radiant, but when you have a show that’s notably written by a European author...and it turns out to be a frustratingly standard shounen affair with middling production values, well, you can see my earlier annoyance with Cannon Busters.

Ensemble Stars

This one still gets to me. It almost looked like a male-idol show I would finally be able to get behind, what with its rebellious attitude and oddball setting...that is, until the setting got to be too unbelievable and the show began drowning its audience in side-characters because they had to squeeze every husbando from the mobile game into the story, and it all began to resemble UtaPri a little too much...but without the production value.

Boogiepop and Others

This was a hard drop, honestly. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I felt four episodes in, before concluding that I was bored and not particularly invested, two things that should never describe the experience of watching a Madhouse show. The fact that this was the project responsible for ruining One Punch Man only made it worse. There’s a slow burn, and then there’s walking away without turning the stove on.

And I Finished 11 (holy crap that’s like three hundred episodes just on their own).

That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime (5/10 & 1/10)

I’ll be honest, I had forgotten just how livid I was with the ending (and especially the sad excuse of a recap episode) of Slimesekai, and reading back through my write-up of it, it’s certainly coming back to me. While this year had bigger demons to fight (Shield Hero), the bad taste that Slime left me with hasn’t really faded, and the wasted premise bugs me to this day.

Hinomaru Sumo (7/10)

What Hinomaru lacked in production value, it happily made up for in good execution and earnest heart. I can’t believe this came from the same studio as Conception, Try Knights and 7Seeds, but if they can only get out one good show a year, I’m glad that we got one bringing attention to a sport that many will joke about but few understand, respect and appreciate.

Kono Oto Tomare (7/10)

Speaking of giving love to traditional Japanese culture, here’s a decent-if-unoriginal show about a local high school koto club down on their luck, and the troubled teens coming together under a scrappy protagonist to bring it back to life. Kono Oto Tomare doesn’t have much that you haven’t seen before, but a decently-executed club drama with Your Lie In April-inspired musical performances is more than enough to keep me interested, and since Forest of Piano kinda crashed and burned under the weight of its own self-importance this year, it was nice to have an alternative.

MIX: Meisei Story (8/10)

It’s hard to judge MIX next to the other shows on this list because it’s almost too old-school for its own good, revelling in an eighties storytelling style that didn’t end up jiving with a wide audience this year. But at the same time, its fun character dynamics (and a very good dub from Funimation, despite them saying they’d never touch sports anime again) were very entertaining to watch, even if it didn’t focus as much on the sport it was supposedly about as much as I’d have liked.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (8/10)

I fully admit that I’m very salty about the fact that this won Show of the Decade in Funimation’s poll while it was still on and I thought there were hundreds of more deserving shows, but I can’t deny that Demon Slayer was a very enjoyable experience, albeit one that I had notable problems with. That’s not gonna stop me from getting mad when it sweeps the Anime Awards in a few weeks, though.

Fire Force (8/10)

I was very afraid that David Productions wouldn’t be able to match the energy of Studio Bones’ adaptation of Ohkubo’s previous work, Soul Eater, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Even if the last few episodes contained a bit too much infodumping, it was all sandwiched between jaw-dropping fight scenes that proved that the people who make Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure can still handle the reins of a more traditional action show.

Fruits Basket 1st Season (8/10)

I know that my score for this one is a bit lower than others, but I think that Fruits Basket did pretty well in its first season, considering that it was largely spent setting up future storylines and adapting the part of the manga we’d all seen before, but with much higher production value. I’ve been familiar with this part of the story for over a decade, and the scene with Tohru and Kyo (you know the one) still made me cry. Now, we get the real plot going.

Dr Stone (9/10)

A great start to a totally new spin on shounen, Dr Stone gives me hope for survival in the post-Shokugeki world in which we’ll soon live, as a show that wears its research on its sleeve. A complex plot weaving interesting characters in and out of a narrative surrounding a philosophical battle where both sides actually do have fair points (even if one of them is going about it in a pretty cruel manner). More please.

Vinland Saga (9/10)

Once again, a great start to what will hopefully be years of quality storytelling, Vinland Saga made it seem like it was dragging in the middle only to reveal just what its slow burn had been leading up to, with twist-heavy storytelling and a fantastic cast to match the high visual quality of its brutal battles.

Run With the Wind (9/10)

It’s not often that Production I.G. gets to make a complete, fully-realized show anymore, and this one was a glorious reminder of the potential of the studio in the TV space, and a great rebound for the director of Joker Game. It’s gorgeous to look at, the cast is wonderful, and the story is both realistic and idealistic in a satisfying balance. It’s a miserable process to get to the finish line in real life, but sitting back and watching this was nothing but a treat. At least, until a minor fumble at the end.

Best Long Show of 2019: Dororo (9/10)

Speaking of complete stories, Tezuka Productions and MAPPA teamed up for a breathtaking adaptation of an underappreciated Tezuka classic that expands upon the story in exactly the right way to create a thrilling, savage, beautiful masterpiece that focuses a laser-sharp eye into the relationship between two characters in their journey to, literally and figuratively, become complete people. Also, that opening was killer.

And that’s it! That’s the fun list. Next comes the painful one. Stay tuned for the trash heap.

#final thoughts #year end anime list #long 2019 #dororo #demon slayer #Fruits Basket #vinland saga #run with the wind #Dr Stone #rising of the shield hero #fire force #kono oto tomare! #mix meisei story #hinomaru sumo #hinomaru zumou #that time i got reincarnated as a slime #tensura

[hallucxnating]

Ah sorry should've clarified, this is my way of seeing if I actually wanna get back into it or not, sorry to make you answer these. So, he acts younger and he was manipulated? That's why it's okay? Really sorry if I'm sounding rude, again, I don't mean to. It's just he's lived a thousand years and she's lived 16, that's real bad, the author could've made her a collage student, so she wasn't a teenager but? Aang was frozen, didn't age or mature, real different than living.

It's alright :)

Please let me elaborate more on this. (It's gonna be long sorry not sorry)

First of all, you're actually right about that last part regarding Aang. The example I used didn't really apply here after thinking about it.

Still,

Despite the fact that the gods are hundreds or maybe even thousands of years old, none of them show that maturity per se. Yato behaves as a rambunctious teen most of the time. Bishamon has the maturity of someone in her twenties. Kofuku literally behaves like a young teenage girl. Tenjin is the only one who shows some maturity but it's mostly because he was human before becoming god and died when he was old. The time they've existed absolutely does NOT reflect upon their psyche, simply because I believe they choose not to. Yato does not 'act' immature. Yato IS immature. He wasn't brought up properly by his father and then he pretty much alienated every shinki uptil Yukine.

The other gods have had the pleasure of having their shinki raise them up if something untoward happened to them (eg: Takemikazuchi and Ebisu) and they'd have a parental figure to guide them to a state of maturity.

So therefore, biologically and mentally Yato couldn't be older than an 18-20 year old. Despite the fact that he's been alive for hundreds of years.

I genuinely believe that immortality does not equate to wisdom beyond the years. Especially if someone is stuck at a certain bodily age. Because their mind sort of locks at that age too? I hope I'm making sense. Sure they might collect memories, but if life is a slog of just godly duties, there isn't much there to make the god grow as a person, right?

Meeting Hiyori was the start of a shifting worldview for Yato, and getting Yukine was the start of Yato accepting even an inkling of responsibility.

If you've read the manga, you can see how Yato was in the first chapter. In my opinion he was essentially just a man child parading around as if he was much more important than he actually was. He'd actively throw tantrums at people if they said something he didn't like. All his actions in hindsight just showed how he was still fixated with what happened to Sakura even after several hundred years.

Probably because he CHOSE to keep that secret burning inside him. He couldn't tell his shinki because that would kill them and he didn't have anyone else to tell that.

So when Hiyori accidentally found out about that incident, it was probably the first time he "told" anyone about that AND have them empathise with him.

Hiyori's beauty is that she's the first person to treat Yato with empathy. Not sympathy and certainly not scorn. (Kazuma had come dangerously close but that's another essay I can write)

And the fact that she's so empathetic to him is what draws them both to each other.

Unlike how it is in the anime (because of how Studio Bones decided to frame some scenes to make Yato a MUCH more likable character than he initially was in the manga) Hiyori actually has much more agency. If Yato was being a bitch boy she'd be like fuck it I'm gonna do that thing on my own and MOSTLY succeed.

Unlike so many shows where the female character keeps getting into trouble from which the guy has to save her (*cough* jshk *cough*), Hiyori actively saved Yato AND Yukine's life when Yukine had blighted Yato to almost death.

If it weren't for Hiyori we wouldn't have had Yato.

People give a lot of importance to numbers. Which are most CERTAINLY important because you can individually analyse every case. But Hiyori being sixteen rarely affects her doings with the far world. Hiyori is the main character of this story, and she's a girl with so much love and empathy to give that she's almost wiser for her age. I wouldn't ship yatori at their initial phase. Hiyori has suffered through stuff and being with yato has exposed her to death and so many more dark topics. They've both helped each other grow and also comforted each other. Yato adds adventure to Hiyoris mundane life, something she'd been craving since forever. Hiyori is Yato's rock. She's his support and always there for him to come back whenever he might go too far. Gods don't have a sense of moral, so Yato decided that it will be Hiyori and Yukine who he will follow to do godly duties with justice.

And frankly speaking it's that kind of co-dependence that makes their relationship very beautiful. And it is the appreciation for THAT aspect of their relationship that makes me ship them. Not because "meh meh girl and guy could I make it more obvious"

Since you're an anime only I highly suggest you read the manga. Because it is SO much better.

Here's the one who manifested my thoughts into words because I do be kinda illiterate on my own. Thank you Nani

#yatori #noragami #if you read the whole thing congratulations #here's the actual thesis #anonymous #hallu asks

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

It’s been a long while since I’ve talked about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure; the last time I talked about it was when I reviewed Phantom Blood, which makes this review even weirder. How on earth could I skip over Battle Tedency?! Well, the thing with Battle Tendency is that that part is almost universally loved, especially in the West, and at the moment I feel like I can’t say much more about it than “Yeah this was a good part of the show.” But Stardust Crusaders? There’s a lot to unpack with this chapter of the Joestar’s saga.

Stardust Crusaders has had a divisive reputation in America as opposed to its status as generally beloved that it has in Japan. Some people really enjoy this part, and others really don’t like it much at all. I think a lot of the ire this part draws comes down to character focus and the overall story and how it flows, though I do think overexposure may have at least some part in it, as this was one of the few parts widely known in the West back when the franchise was a cult classic. To be frank, I find the divisiveness a bit unwarranted, though at the same time I do think that this part of the series does have some issues with it that I do think need to be addressed.

Probably the biggest point of contention is how the story progresses. The story is a very simple one: Jotaro and a ragtag team of misfit Stand users travel to Egypt to kill Dio once and for all, and they have to fight through an army of Stand users to get to him, with all of their foes in the first half of the series have Stands named after tarot cards and then all the Stand users in Egypt having Stands named after Egyptian gods. It’s your standard “monster of the week” anime, for better and for worse. While I do like how fun and creative most of the Stand battles are, the issue is that a lot of the enemy Stand users are entirely forgettable, especially the tarot Stand users, who tended to be rather boring, with Arabia Fats being the worst on the merit that he’s only ever seen after being knocked unconscious. 

Most of the others don’t really rise above being mediocre, with a few exceptions. The best of all the tarot Stands is, without a doubt, Hol Horse, the gunslinging cowboy Stand user whose Emperor allows him to control the trajectory of the bullets from his Stand gun… and yet, he never once is able to hit anyone other than himself. He’s the sort of bumbling idiot villain I love to see, and the fact that he also frequently mentions how he respects women and also has no qualms about kidnapping oracular children makes him even funnier. He’s definitely a standout of the first half of the series, and Stardust Crusaders as a whole. Aside from him, the Geils tend to be the better Stand users of the first half, as well as Forever and Mannish Boy if only for the weird factor.

Egypt, however, is where the show picks up the pace, with every single Egyptian Stand user being an absolute blast. Mariah, Alessi, N’Doul, Anubis, the D’Arby brothers… all of the Stand users encountered in the latter half of the show are wildly entertaining and have some truly creative fight scenes. Perhaps the most memorable of all of them was the sadistic hawk, Pet Shop, who gave Iggy an excellent battle right before the steps towards the finale. But special mention also needs to go to the utterly hilarious Oingo Boingo brothers, perhaps the greatest moron team in all of anime, or even cartoons in general. They’re so amusing they even get their own special end credits (and Hol Horse gets to join in when he teams up with Boingo.

Now, while I do love all of the Stand users in Egypt, I have to admit that the old 90s OVA did have a pretty good idea in trimming the fat and only keeping the most plot relevant Stand users while cutting out the more unneeded ones. Forever, Hol Horse, J. Geil, and Enya are the only tarot Stand users fought, and only Daniel J. D’Arby, N. Doul, and Vanilla Ice are the only Stand users in Egypt fought. While I am generally a bit iffy about cutting out a lot of the more fun stuff – the lack of Pet Shop and Oingo Boingo bros is really depressing – the general idea of trimming some of the fat to get to where they need to be sooner probably would have helped this a lot. It really feels like a slog to get through this, even though there’s plenty of fun to be had, mostly because things start to get exhausting right around the time they actually get to Egypt. By then, you’re so fatigued by watching all of the enemy Stand fights that you really just want to see them pulverize Dio. 

So frankly I do think the OVA had the right idea, I just think it cut too much of the fun stuff. A lot of the reason Egypt was such a good part of the arc is because the Stand users danced the line of being fun and being serious, with all the pervert and blowjob jokes in the Mariah episode and the juvenile and child endangerment jokes of Alessi’s episode; if there could have been a way to get to that sooner or at least change up the first half to make it more fun would have really helped. We really don’t need to see Captain Tenille or Devo or Rubber Soul or whoever, as they are mostly plot irrelevant and serve only as the obstacle of the day. 

Of course, the OVA also cut a lot of the fun and lighthearted battles, leaving mainly the most intense ones, and part of what makes Stardust Crusaders good is that it swerves into darkness after comedy. The way the OVA is set up makes the whole thing dark and bleak, which is just not the case. I do think there’s a balance between the two, but it’s definitely not achieved in the anime and it’s easy to see how anyone could become fatigued by some random Stand user of the week showing up and then never being referenced again, only serving as an obstacle to hinder a hasty arrival to Dio’s lair. I think cutting out a good chunk of the tarot Stand users would have really helped the flow of the arc.

Now, onto the characters; one of the most contentious parts is the Jojo of this journey, Jotaro Kujo. Jotaro is a stoic stone-cold badass, one who uses his Stand Star Platinum in numerous ridiculous ways to achieve victory over his opponents. Some see him as a boring, invincible hero, but I don’t find this to be the case. He’s really no more invincible than any other shonen anime protagonist, and he gets beaten down even if he always comes ahead in the end. And yes, while I will admit that Star Platinum does have a tendency of pulling new powers out of nowhere, I don’t see it as much different than, say, Yugi drawing exactly the card he needs to win the duel in Yu-Gi-Oh. It’s just part of being a shonen series, I suppose. That sort of writing off of Jotaro also ignores that most of his victories are won through his decisive wit and quick thinking rather than just Star Platinum punches; that’s usually the finisher after Jotaro pulls off a flawless plan. One of his best victories, in the poker game against D’Arby, doesn’t even feature any ORAORA-ing at all.

As for the stoicism and his unflappable demeanor, as well as his rude and arrogant attitude towards the start of the series, the whole of the show shows Jotaro growing out of this and developing real bonds with his companions, to the point that his rage at the harming of his friends drives him to fight with every ounce of his power against Dio. Jotaro is a very cool and worthy protagonist when it comes right down to it, and Matt Mercer’s voice definitely helps Jotaro ooze eve more cool than he does on his own. While even I’ll admit he has some less impressive moments, the fact of the matter is that he does develop quite a bit as a character, certainly more than the bland hero figure of someone like Jonathan.

Polnareff tends to draw a bit of ire as well, mainly due to people wondering if he deserves all of the screentime and development he gets. The short answer, from my perspective anyway, is yes. The long answer is yes, but at the same time there is a lot with him that could have been done better. He’s easily one of my favorite Jojo companions out of any of the first three parts, but I feel like after his original motivation – finding the killer of his sister – is concluded only a few episodes after he’s introduced, he almost feels superfluous and he really gets shafted by being reduced to the butt of a lot of jokes, though all that being said it’s clear that Polnareff is a man driven by honor as well as vengeance even from the start, so the fact he’d stay on to help in the fight against Dio is completely unsurprising. And while I love Polnareff, I do wish that any of the other characters got as much screentime as he did.

One of the big issues is that a lot of the other characters get pushed to the side, with the story heavily leaning towards developing Polnareff and Jotaro at the expense of every other character. This isn’t much of a problem for Joseph, as by this point any viewer is likely to know that character quite well from the previous season, but Iggy, Avdol, and Kakyoin especially get hit pretty hard with irrelevancy, especially later on. Avdol is one of the more interesting cases, as he “dies” halfway through the tarot Stand user arc, only to be revealed as having survived a few episodes before the gang reaches Egypt, where he then proceeds to do very little until he is killed for real. This is interesting because Avdol has far more of an excuse than the other two, as Araki originally was going to have his first death in the manga be permanent; it’s clear Araki had no idea what to do with the poor guy after he came back, but regardless, it’s still sad he feels all wasted.

Iggy only ever gets one major solo fight before he’s killed, though it’s one of the best in the season and it gives us some insight into who Iggy is. Still, Iggy just ends up feeling like a sacrifice to tug at your heartstrings, one that works of course but one that feels at least a little cheap and needlessly cruel, especially after all the other cruel dog deaths in the season. Kakyoin is perhaps the most depressing, as he ends up getting sidelined for almost the entirety of the Egypt arc before returning in time to go fight Dio and then getting brutally killed by the vampire. It’s even worse because he’s portrayed by Kyle Hebert, who you may know as Ryu of Street Fighter fame; his performance in Kakyoin’s final moments is so genuine, powerful, and heartfelt that you really wish Hebert got more time to shine and Kakyoin got more to do.

These issues aside, though… I really do love this arc. This is mostly because this here is the part where you can see things come together to form the series we all know and love. Up until this point, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has been fantastical but not too out there; sure there were cyborg Nazis, ancient Aztec vampires, and a man name Robert E. O. Speedwagon, but all of that seems a bit grounded, even when it got more fantastical. Even with the introduction of Stands, it’s not really anything too out there, they’re physical manifestations of the wielder’s fighting spirit.

And then you come to the porn addicted orangutan who has sapience and whose Stand takes the form of an ocean liner, and all bets are off.

Forever really marks the point where these adventures truly became bizarre, and set the precedent for all arcs to come, eve Egypt to some extent. Notice how most of the tarot Stands have rather simple abilities, even ones like Star Platinum and Hierophant Green which., while versatile in what they can do, have obvious areas they excel at. Strength, Forever’s Stand, is really a standout with how out there it is, a feat that wouldn’t be matched until the Egypt Stand users came on the scene with their wackier powersets. Nothing reaches the insanity levels of something like, say, Heavy Weather, Bohemian Rhapsody, or Dirty Deeds quite yet, but this was the transitional period between the more narrow-usaged Hamon and Stands, so it makes sense that the waters would be tested with simpler yet still creative abilities at first. Stardust Crusaders really does a good job of easing people in to a series that eventually has hand-collecting serial killers who get boners from the Mona Lisa and a United States president who wants to collect the pieces of Jesus Christ’s corpse to make America invincible, and let’s not even get into the whole situation with Gappy’s testicles. All I’m saying is that if you want to get people to accept a turtle with an interdimensional hotel room inside it… you gotta start with an orangutan.

This is also where all the musical references kick into high gear. Obviously they were there before; Dio, Wag Chung, Speedwagon, Whammu, Kars, and Eisidisi did not escape my notice, after  all. But here they became far more pronounced, with characters like Oingo & Boingo, Enya, J. Geils, Captain Tenille, Pet Shop, and perhaps most ridiculous of all, Vanilla Ice and his Stand, Cream. Vanilla Ice actually, ahem, stands out as being the first example of what would become the standard naming convention for all Stands to follow, that is to say, named after a song or band. Ironically, this makes him stand out in the very arc he appears in.

While in general the Stands were a bit less wacky than later Stands would be, there was a lot of creativity in the battles for what limited powersets they had. J. Geils and Hanged Man, Forever and Strength, Mannish Boy and Death 13, and Midler and High Priestess stand out among the tarot Stand users, while just about every single one of the Stand users with Stands named after Egyptian gods stand out as creative and exciting battles. Daniel D’Arby’s battle in particular is one of the best in the entire arc, as there is not a punch thrown and instead the entire thing boils down to an intense poker match. And, of course, I’d be remiss to not mention the multi-episode final duel against Dio and his Stand, The World, which is so utterly epic and filled with badass moments (as well as Matt Mercer getting to say “It’s high noon”) that it’s impossible not to love it.

Stardust Crusaders is definitely an arc with some serious flaws. It’s incredibly long, its format is a bit unrefined, it has a lot of filler characters, it doesn’t evenly distribute screentime, and a lot of it reeks of growing pains and early installment lack of direction. Considering the point in the series the anime is based on, it was kind of destined to be this way. And yet, despite the flaws, it’s still an incredibly fun, exciting, and funny adventure. Even if underutilized or overexposed, all of the main cast is enjoyable and likable; even if there are far too many to the point of exhaustion, most of the enemy Stand users are fun; and even if the arc drags on to the point where it gets frustrating and tedious, things always eventually swoop around and the show becomes as absorbing as it ever was.

While Stardust Crusaders is definitely not the best arc of the franchise, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and it’s easy to see why this part in particular is so popular and influential. A 2010s anime based on an 80s manga series has no right to feel so fresh and exciting, and yet here we are. It likely manages to work so well despite its shortcomings because, frankly, most other series like this have kind of vanished in this day and age, which helps the show stand out more despite the manga it’s based on helping define its genre back in the day. It’s basically a case of it being the right thing at the right time. Sure it’s not perfect, but it doesn’t need to be, so long as it can suck in and inspire new generations of fans the way the original manga did. It’s a great watch, though honestly, there are quite a few episodes you could skip over if you want to have a faster, cleaner viewing experience, namely most of the tarot Stands.

Whatever the case may be, I think all of us can agree on one thing:

This arc is WAY better than Phantom Blood.

#Michael in the Mainstream #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #Stardust Crusaders #anime #review #tv show review #anime review

[murasaki-murasame]

Episode 23 of :re continues to be a really solid adaptation, even if it’s of some very flawed material. And this final arc at least feels a bit less exhausting and overdone than it did in the manga, so that’s neat.

Anyway, detailed thoughts under the cut, and spoilers for the whole manga.

As I expected, this episode covers the first half of volume 16. Like, literally half of it. The volume is roughly 320 pages long, and this episode adapted the first 160 pages, lol. And as I also expected, it worked out just fine, pacing-wise. Barely anything actually got cut. A few scenes got made a bit more concise, and Takizawa didn’t watch Donato and Amon fight, but that’s about it.

At least in terms of the stuff specifically from this part of the manga alone. I think it’s worth noting that they bring Ayato back into the story in this episode, but they don’t really talk much about what he was up to, and it looks like they’re completely cutting out the detail of him bringing back some feral children that lived underground.

I think I like this change a fair bit, even though I can tell it’s gonna annoy a lot of people. I always really disliked how Ishida handled the entire plot point of Ayato finding that underground city and the corpse of the old dragon, so I can certainly live with how the anime is removing a lot of the focus on it. The time spent setting it up in the manga just made it all the more disappointing when absolutely nothing of value came of it, so at least in the anime it’s upfront about how much of a background detail it is.

On the topic of things I didn’t like from around this part of the manga, I’m vaguely disappointed that the anime kept the stuff with Eto being brought back at the last minute, but I can’t really blame them for just being faithful to the manga. I still think that the anime is at it’s best when it’s actively going against the execution of the manga, and this is something where I think they could have easily just cut it out. I have a feeling it’s also going to be something where anime-only people wind up understandably assuming that the manga must SURELY have done more with this plot point, and taken even the SLIGHTEST effort to actually explain why the fuck it’s happening, but yeah no lol. The way that Ishida brought her back out of absolutely nowhere and then almost immediately kills her off was so awfully handled that most of the fandom genuinely hates it and wishes it never happened. There’s a lot of things where I’m in the minority for disliking some parts of the writing, but trust me when I say that nearly everyone hates what Ishida did with Eto here. I honestly still don’t fully grasp what he was even trying to achieve with this, other than him trying to bring the Owl back for the final arc just to . . . make some last-minute parallels to the end of the first series? Who even knows.

That’s actually my only real complaint about this episode, though. Everything else was very solid and well-executed. They didn’t really add anything or flesh anything out beyond what happened in the manga, but they just adapted what happened in the manga in a really solid, satisfying enough way.

I remember disliking how the Donato-Amon and Yomo-Uta fights were handled in the manga, but I think that was mostly a pacing issue. The manga devoted several chapters exclusively to those fight scenes, which just felt unnecessarily drawn-out. It feels a fair bit more natural in the anime, partly because both of those fights are a bit more concise than they were originally, and partly because I think the anime cuts between them a bit more than the manga did, which makes it feel less like you’re following one fight for a weirdly long time. I’d have to reread this part of the manga to remind myself exactly how I feel about it, but I also think that the resolution between Yomo and Uta felt more satisfying and less underwhelming than it did originally.

Also, I can’t really remember if an anime-only person would know about Amon’s history with Donato by this point. I never got around to watching Root A, so I genuinely have no idea if that season talked about their backstory. I know that it hasn’t come up in the :re anime, but even in the :re manga there’s barely any references to Amon’s childhood. So maybe that whole scene was something that wouldn’t work at all for anime-only people, but I can’t tell.

I still have a lot of complicated feelings about Amon’s entire place in :re’s story. It ultimately just feels really unnecessary, like he was mostly brought back just so he could wind up dating Akira and have a happy ending. There’s not really much that the story actually does in :re to substantially develop him or explore his character. On it’s own his whole confrontation with Donato is very nice and bittersweet, and it’s good to see him acknowledging that he’s a part of the warped world he lives in, and that he can’t avoid taking responsibility for that, but overall it feels particularly odd to have his big final moment as a character be focused on his relationship with Donato, given how little screen-time that plot point gets, especially in :re. It feels more logical for the story to focus on how conflict with Kaneki, but that whole thing just gets kinda . . . brushed under the rug in a really unsatisfying way.

I’ll at least say that the disappointing aspects of how Amon is handled as a character are much less obnoxious and jarring as they were in the manga, if only just because the anime has been covering like two thirds of :re in twelve episodes. It’s more reasonable for Amon to not have THAT much focus or development in a 24-episode anime than it was for his moments to be so few and far between across 180 chapters of a manga that ran for like three years. It’s still not the most satisfying thing ever, but at least people watching the anime didn’t have to spend literal YEARS watching basically nothing happen with his character, lol.

Oh right, I just remembered that V exists, and that I guess they’re another part of the episode I disliked. I mean, they’re involved with the whole Eto thing, but my reasons for disliking them are entirely separate. They’re another whole plot point that I think Ishida handled terribly, and there’s not much the anime can do to improve that. They’ve always just been this really lame, cliche shadow organization with murky goals, and nothing much ever gets done with them. I can’t blame any anime-only people for thinking that they’re really boring and under-utilized and unexplored, but the manga doesn’t do much more with them. To be blunt, the fact that I completely forgot about them right after the episode ended kinda says everything you need to know about how badly they’re handled even though they’re kind of sort of the Big Bads [tm] of the entire series, lmao.

I said before that this episode didn’t necessarily add anything new to what was originally in the manga, but after going back through my copy of volume 16 [I donated my English TG manga collection to my local library last week but I still own the last three volumes of :re in Japanese], it looks like that short scene with Mutsuki getting protected by Urie and Akira was anime-original. Which is a bit surprising since it was a fairly minor scene that didn’t impact much. I really liked it though. It’s just a neat detail to show Mutsuki’s friends and colleagues protecting him, and there’s something really bittersweet about how it comes across like he was willing to accept his fate and let himself be killed by the fake Owl, and was surprised to find himself being protected. It helps really hammer in the character growth and reconciliation that’s been going on with him and those around him lately, and it just works really nicely. It continues to be really interesting to me that almost all of the most major changes/cuts/additions in the anime thus far relate to Mutsuki’s character, and in general improving upon how Ishida handled him originally. I really appreciate it, but I’ve already talked about that a lot so I don’t need to go back over it.

Getting to the final part of the episode, the whole scene with Kaneki confronting Furuta wasn’t substantially different to the manga in how it plays out, and what sort of a note the episode ends on, but it’s interesting that the anime is portraying him in a more serious and genuinely threatening light, whereas this bit from the manga really played up his joke-y attitude. I think I prefer it this way, but it’s not the biggest change ever. In general I really like the note this episode ended on. I think the fact that they cut out one or two instances of Kaneki cracking his fingers previously in :re helped make this moment feel more important and surprising, so that’s cool.

Now that we’re halfway into the final volume of the manga, that just leaves the final half of it to adapt in the final episode, which should be totally fine. There’s a lot of scenes that can go by REALLY fast in the anime. Especially the epilogue, since a huge chunk of that can probably just be handled as a montage while the ending theme or whatever plays, rather than how we had to slog through so many pages of so many pointless narrative exposition boxes in the manga. Some of the final scenes between Kaneki, Furuta, and then Rize also felt almost comically drawn out in the manga, which always felt a bit weird given how rushed the overall ending felt, and how tight of a schedule Ishida was working on. You could really tell that he tried and failed to get the ending extended by an additional three chapters.

We don’t know what the final episode will be called yet, but they’ll probably have that sorta info up in the next day or two. I’m kinda excited to see what they call it, since the final episode of :re s1 ditched the naming scheme of the rest of the episode names to give it something more unique. So it’ll be neat to see what they do for the final episode.

I’m of course gonna hold back on giving my final thoughts on the :re anime until it all ends in the next episode, but I think we’re close enough to the end that my feelings on it won’t really change much, so I just wanna reiterate that I genuinely really love it, in spite of it’s flaws. I would have preferred something more . . . ‘transformative’, if that makes sense, but as an adaptation that takes the existing story and just tells it in a better way, I think the anime works surprisingly well. This final season in particular has been a big step up from the manga.

All in all I just have a lot of affection for it and what it’s been trying to achieve [especially with how they’ve done so much to improve the endless list of issues with how badly Ishida handled Mutsuki as a character], and I don’t think that goodwill could be tarnished at this point with just one episode left. I’ve jokingly said before that even though there’s more objectively good options, this is probably one of my favourite anime of this year, but I think I genuinely stand by that. There’s been some REALLY great stuff this year, even in terms of just stuff I’ve fully watched [like Devilman Crybaby, Revue Starlight, Planet With, etc etc], but I just feel really strongly about the :re anime. Also there’s some recency bias going on, lol. It’s been so long since I watched Devilman Crybaby. This year was a goddamn decade long.

#murasaki rambles #tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul :re #I just *clenches fist* like this anime a lot you guys

[duhragonball]

Vento Aureo Reread, JJBA Ch. 448-456

One of the things that frustrated me about reading JJBA in manga format was that the volumes never lined up with the story arcs.  For example, this arc, where Giorno meets Bruno’s superior in the gang for his initiation, is broken up across volumes 2 and 3.   Sometimes the volumes manage to break a story up on a decent cliffhanger.  In this case, volume 2 ends with Giorno defeating Black Sabbath, but still wondering if he’ll pass his initiation into the gang.  Most of the time, though, it just feels like the editors are only looking for a certain page count, regardless of where the story leaves off.

With that in mind, I decided to break this up into story arcs, now that I can do that without spoiling myself on the story.  The first time I read Part 5, it felt like this continuous slog, with no real break in the action, but now that I’ve looked it over more carefully, and dispensed with the volume numbers, I can break it down pretty well.  

At first, I tried to sort it all by location.    Coming up soon is a mission on Capri Island, followed by an assignment in Pompeii, but once I actually looked at a map of Italy, I found those are all pretty close to Naples, which is where the story starts.  So I can lump the first section of Vento Aureo as the “Naples” part, which is then followed by a section set in Venice, then Sardinia, and finally Rome.  It just helps me keep everything straight.    I suppose I needed the same kind of clarity with Part 3 and Part 7, but my knowledge of U.S. and Asian geography is a lot better than anything I know about Italy. 

In this arc we meet Polpo, the Passione Operative who runs things in Naples.  Passione is the name of the gang.   There’s 756 members, including Stand Users like Bruno Bucellati, and guys without Stands, like Leaky-Eyed Luca.   Giorno soon realizes that Polpo has a Stand when he visits him in prison and he starts eating his own fingers. 

One of the things that always bugged me about Polpo is how he seems to have completely different abilities in his cell, as opposed to the ones we see when his Stand is formally introduced to the story.   Polpo isn’t just morbidly obese; his head is bigger than Giorno’s entire body, and he seems to barely fit in his cell, prompting Giorno to wonder how he ever got through the door.   Also, he has all these hidden compartments in the cell, and he can somehow hide his enormous body from plain sight. 

I finally got a clue when I noticed a couple of things on the reread.  First, Polpo’s fingers don’t just reappear at random.   When Giorno sees Polpo’s bloody stumps, a cuckoo clock goes off, causing him to look over to it, and when he looks back, Polpo’s fingers are back, now holding a lighter.   As we see later, Polpo’s Stand, Black Sabbath, travels through shadows, so I think it’s reasonable to assume Polpo was actually reaching into a shadow to retrieve the lighter.   He uses similar tricks to hide himself and other objects in his cell, and he can probably leave the prison altogether just as easily.   Bruno hinted as much when he led Giorno to the prison, but, as Giorno deduces, Polpo is probably safer in jail, and Polpo seems content to live out his sentence and run his gang business from inside. 

Of course, that doesn’t explain the blood we see on Polpo’s “stumps”.  This may simply be wine he surreptitiously spilled on his hand to confuse Giorno, or maybe he really does bleed whenever he moves his body into the shadow dimension his Stand uses.  Or maybe he’s got real blood stashed with the lighter, but that seems kind of extreme.

Anyway, Giorno’s initiation test is to take Polpo’s lighter and keep it lit for twenty-four hours straight.  He almost whizzes it twice.  First, he has to be searched before he can leave the prison.   Since he can’t hide the lighter, he uses his own Stand, Gold Experience, to transform it into a flower.   It does not, however, transform the flame. 

Next, Koichi breaks into his dorm room to steal back his passport.   Giorno hides, but worries that Koichi will snuff the lighter if he happens to notice it.   So he turns the wiring into a snake, which bites into the loaf of bread he put the lighter in, and tugs on the cord to lift the whole thing out of Koichi’s sight.  

I’m trying to keep track of Giorno’s powers as the story winds on.    So far, I’ve got the following:

Gold Experience can transform inanimate objects into living things, and back again.

If these creations are attacked in any way, the attack will be reflected back upon the aggressor.

At first, Giorno claims that his creations have wills off their own, but he seems to have at least some influence over their actions, or perhaps he simply has an intuitive understanding of what they’ll do.

When Gold Experience strikes a living being, their perceptions are accelerated, causing them to think the world around them has slowed down.   They also become extremely sensitive to pain.

What we see here is Gold Experience transforming inanimate objects only partway.   The lighter becomes a flower, but there’s enough of the lighter left unchanged to keep the flame lit.   The cord becomes a snake, but only on the end Giorno needs to grab the bread.    The other end of the cord remains a cord.

Despite Giorno’s best efforts, the lighter goes out anyway, and a friendly janitor relights it.   Giorno had assumed this was impossible, since there would be no point in the test if the lighter could simply be re-lit.   As it turns out, this is precisely the point, as re-igniting the lighter summons Polpo’s Stand, Black Sabbath.  Black Sabbath’s only function in this situation is to yank out the soul of its targets and stab their souls with the arrow in its mouth.   This is the same kind of arrow as the ones from Part 4, which either kill on contact, or activate latent Stand abilities.   Black Sabbath’s targets are anyone who re-ignites the lighter, and anyone who witnessed the lighter being re-lit.  The janitor dies to the arrow, while Giorno is injured by it, not once...

Not twice...

But three times, when the arrow pierces Gold Experience.  I find this conspicuous, now that I know how the story ends, but I’ll worry about that later.

Basically, Polpo’s initiation is rigged.   Of course, if an applicant actually managed to keep the lighter lit for the full 24 hours, he would pass the test and be accepted into the gang, since Polpo admires trustworthiness.   However, the real idea is that the initiate will succumb to the temptation to relight the flame, at which point Black Sabbath will either kill them or give them a Stand power.  We can infer from this that this is how Bruno got his own Stand, Sticky Fingers.  It’s also plausible that Leaky Eye Luca actually kept the flame lit for the full 24 hours, which fits his stubborn personality.   Or maybe Luca passed some other test. 

What Polpo’s test never seems to take into account is that the initiate might already have a Stand.  Black Sabbath is essentially automated in this fight, so it doesn’t know that it’s fighting Stand Users here.   It’s just trying to stab Gold Experience (and Echoes, when Koichi jumps in to help), just like it stabbed the Janitor’s soul to kill him.    Presumably, this means Polpo is willing to kill Stand Users unaffiliated with the gang, perhaps because he sees them as potential threats.   What he wants are kids like Bruno, who only get a Stand by joining Passione. 

Ultimately, Giorno defeats Black Sabbath by using his own body as bait.   While B.S. wrestles with him, hampered by Echoes’ 3-Freeze ability, Giorno manages to accelerate the life of a nearby tree, causing it to wither and die within seconds.   So chalk that up as another application of Gold Experience.   The tree was the only thing protecting Black Sabbath from the sunlight, so it faded away to return to its master. 

At first, Giorno thinks the presence of Black Sabbath means that Polpo has discovered his failure of the test.   He also thinks that defeating Black Sabbath killed Polpo, until Koichi explains how remote, long range Stands work.   And that was the other half of the puzzle for me.    I couldn’t figure out how Black Sabbath’s demonstrated powers would explain Polpo’s abilities in his cell, but they don’t have to be consistent.   When Koichi explains Black Sabbath’s ability, he’s comaring it to his own experience battling Yoshikage Kira’s Killer Queen in Part 4.   But Killer Queen had multiple modes.    The one Koichi fought was Sheer Heart Attack, which could attack foes at long distances based on very specific parameters.   But when Kira wasn’t using that mode, he could use Killer Queen more creatively than that. 

I think it’s reasonable to assume that Black Sabbath works the same way.   In person, Black Sabbath allows Polpo to move from shadow to shadow, and he can store objects for safe keeping, like the lighter and the arrow, or even portions of his own body.   But he can also reconfigure B.S. for an automated mode that hides inside the ligher, with the arrow hidden inside its mouth.    That version works like Sheer Heart Attack.   We could call this “Paranoid” or “War Pigs”, for the sake of argument. 

Anyway, Koichi wants to contact his friends immediately, now that he knows there’s a Stand Arrow in Naples, but Giorno convinces him to keep it to himself, since the enemy is an organization, and he can’t afford anyone leaking his plans.  We never see Koichi again after this scene, and while he appears to accept Giorno as a righteous person, we never actually hear him agree to Giorno’s request.   For all we know, he returned to Japan and blabbed his head off to Jotaro and everyone in Morioh.   Once again, there’s ambiguity over whether Giorno is to be trusted, and ambiguity over how the other heroes feel about him.   We’re left to wonder if Koichi vouched for Giorno, or if he raised an army to oppose him. 

When Giorno return the lighter to Polpo he somehow turns one of Polpo’s guns into a banana, which fires when Polpo tries to eat it.   I still can’t figure out how Giorno did this, since the gun was on the far wall off the cell, which looks to be out of Gold Experience’s range.   Assuming it was in G.E.’s range, then it’s no problem.   Giorno could have moved it through the walls and touched the gun without Polpo seeing it, and then it would just be a matter of moving the gun into the refrigerator with the rest of the bananas.  

I’m also not sure how the gun went off.   Giorno has some control over his creations, but bananas can’t move on their own, and I don’t buy that Polpo just happened to have his thumb where the trigger would be as it changed back into a gun.  For a second, I thought maybe this was a case of what happened to Luca.   Polpo bites down on the banana, and the “attack” is reflected back upon him.    But if that were the case, he would have a big bite mark on his head, not a gunshot wound.  In any event, Giorno arranged this trap to avenge the old janitor, whose needless death offends Giorno’s sense of honor.

Then Giorno goes with Bruno to meet the rest of their team, and he drinks pee.  OR DOES HE?

The better translation made this scene a lot clearer, in that Giorno was visibly aware that Abbachio had filled his cup with urine, and the others knew that Giorno knew it.  So it wasn’t a thing where Giorno was pretending to play along.   Abbachio was trying to trap him into either getting mad at his new teammates, or actually drinking pee and looking like a dope.  Giorno used his Stand to create a third option that would impress them all, which I suppose is worth touching pee with your lips. 

I don’t quite understand how Giorno can get his tooth back, though.  Does he have to extrude the jellyfish first?   Maybe it’s best not to think about that.

I remember being so irritated about all these new guys being introduced at the same time.    I still have trouble remembering the names of Part 4 characters.   But in color, it’s pretty easy to keep track.   Doily Hat, Dick Helmet, Baby Idiot, and Dressed in the Dark.  But I’ll have more to say about them later.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #vento aureo #spoilers #vento aureo reread #naples #giorno giovanna #polpo #urine luck

[bicth-and-in-that-order]

This is pretty long

Part 1: The Steven Universe side

In execution, Steven is definitely boring, nice boys who are kinda quirky can only take you so far from a narrative stand point. By definition, he’s a catalyst hero, what that means is while a character acts heroically they don’t change themselves, they help change others and while that’s a good role for a mentor figure that’s not for your main character. From episode 1 to 101, all the biggest, most important choices he’s made have always been to help others (more often than not going against the gem’s wishes) or in the name of what he believes what’s right on his own beliefs, and that most likely is in helping a gem. Steven sparks a change in characters such as Lapis, Peridot, Connie, Pearl, Amethyst, Lars, etc…And yet he never changes for himself. Well scratch that, he changes from showing realistic human emotion in s1 then says “nah” to that after s1.

Part 2: The Hunter x Hunter side

I’d like to introduce another character very similar to Steven who is a catalyst hero, but also a very willing hero (willing hero is someone excited and active for adventure). And that character is the main character from the manga/anime “Hunter x Hunter” Throughout the story, Gon is consistently characterized as a happy go lucky kid who loves making friends, going on adventures, doing risky things for the sake of his own goal, and never misses a chance to help people. A typical shounen hero no doubt. Along the way, he makes friends with Kurapika, Leorio and Killua (there are others but I won’t spoil) who all change in some way, shape, or form because of him. Sometimes that change is for the better others for the worse. The change is especially evident with Killua, which speaking of, keep him in mind because I’m going to talk about him in a second.

Anyways, back to Gon, one of the traits I like the most in him, is his relative pacifism and his ability to forgive easily. Characters will break his fucking arm or beat him until he’s bloody and he forgives them anyways. The main villain of the greed island arc killed a lot of people and when he was given a chance to kill him, he didn’t do it and let him live. Things like that which built his character up to be a nice kid on the moral high ground certainly made a huge impact on Killua, but I think one of them most smartest and surprising things the creator, Yoshishiro Togashi, did for Gon was for him to deconstruct his own personality and make him an anti-hero in the Chimera ant arc.

Part 2.5: Me fangirling over the chimera ant arc and HxH in general (mild spoilers, but nothing big)

I’ll try not to spoil much, but the Chimera ant arc is absolutely a gorgeous arc and although a slog to get through sometimes, when the pacing is on track, it’s some of the most emotional, thought provoking stuff I’ve seen in a long time. It’s basically a big zombie movie, but the zombies have emotions and memories from when they were humans (like nobodies) and that’s where the conflict comes from. It’s about the worst of humanity and the sacrifices we as people make for ourselves, to others, and as a society. Do the lives of one very important person outweigh the lives of a group of regulars? How far will we go to harm others and is it justified? That’s the Chimera ant arc.

One of the big points in this arc is the switch in the character dynamic and characterization of Gon and Killua. Gon is the dumb nice kid who listens to Killua, the much smarter, but much more aggressive, blood thirsty kid (yeah he comes from a family of assassins), during the third arc of the arc, it’s turned on its head and Gon is now calling the shots. This only happened because someone near and dear to him, named Kite was killed by one of the Chimera ants, when that happens, an important flaw of him is revealed. Gon is selfish and has a one track mind, he’s more than willing to put his needs first if he deems it as beneficial to him. Gon killed the person who killed Kite, Gon was willing to kill people that got in the way of killing the person who killed Kite, and was find if he died in the pursuit of killing the killer. That’s how much Kite meant to Gon and when Killua sees how much Gon has changed, it generally scares and worries him. Regardless of how destructive he was to himself and others, he still thought what he was doing was right and in the name of justice because he was killing bad people and didn’t care that he was becoming a killer as long as it meant that bad person was gone and they wouldn’t hurt any more people. (Much like Death Note) This is a very similar situation to Kurapika who at any other time was calm, but would not hesitate to kill the phantom troupe who killed his entire family. He thought what he was doing was justice and he was right, if he didn’t kill them, they would and do just kill more people.

Both of them put their own beliefs on the back burner for doing what was necessary even if it wasn’t the “right” thing. While Kurapika was more righteous, and Gon more selfish, in pursing their goals to the point of obsession they pushed away their friends and stepped off the moral high ground for the betterment of society, themselves, and their loved ones.

Part 3: How this all ties together

Steven and Gon are very similar characters who opt for the moral high ground and don’t really want to hurt others unless necessary. However Gon, threw away being a “good person” because someone close to him died. I believe such a drastic change happened because for all his life, he’s been good and has been good to other people. Something awful happened to him and at that moment, he broke and was unforgiving to the world when he was previously so forgiving. He’s also like 12 or something.

Compare this to Steven, who has also had awful things happen to him. Like Homeworld stealing his dad, but do you know what happened after he got his dad back? He ran away, didn’t think twice about those humans trapped in that utopia and the next episode did nothing. He’s not actively against Homeworld, he’s not trying to make himself get stronger so he can do something to stop his dad getting stolen again in the future. When Kite died, Gon trained to get stronger to make sure nothing like that would happen again. Homeworld stole his dad, could’ve done a lot worse to him and Steven did NOTHING. All the gems who actively try to kill him and his loved ones, Connie almost drowned and Greg got his leg broke because of Lapis, Jasper imprisoned him and everyone as well as damaged his home, his friends Peridot tried to kill him and talked shit about his mom, etc… they just keep hurting him and he does NOTHING. He harbors no hatred towards them, no animosity, there’s no want for him to get stronger or learn more about gem history and his own powers to protect his friends. Gon was like this too, but he dropped that act because Kite died, now Lars died for Steven (though he brought him back) and instead of feeling an ounce of rage or anger or anything he drinks a glass of tap water??? Are you serious? We’re at this point where Steven is disgusted at thought of his mom killing PD, knowing they were in a war, knowing friends of hers died repeatedly, knowing she was a leader, knowing she was in an oppressive society, and yet because she supposedly did a bad thing and didn’t talk it out she’s the worst thing ever and Steven is ashamed. Huh?

Part 4: V for Verdict

I’m not saying Steven should be exactly like Gon and murder people, I just use him as comparison because they’re very close in age and have near identical personalities and hero archetypes. I’m saying for him to be realistic and not act like he’s dead inside. Let Steven get upset like he used to in s1, let there be emotional turmoil of all the shit homeworld has done to them. All the turmoil we’ve gotten from Steven is him feeling bad about himself or his mom. That’s it. Oh and that 1 time Steven got mad at Peridot for 2 seconds but not after she said that shit about Rose, Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, and pushed Greg off the roof, but because she betrayed Steven. Though, I have high hopes that changes as the stakes get higher and Steven finally starts to actually, kinda sorta dislike homeworld.

#su critical #su criticism #long post #hunter x hunter #analysis

[thenichibro]

Winter 2017 Anime First Impressions

The first season we’re really feeling the effects of more anime simulcast services. Yellow subs, torrents not being under the CR/Funi umbrella - dark times. Due to the fact I can only DDL at college, I am choosing not to watch LWA or Onihei because I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. I’m definitely going back to LWA after the season’s over though. Regardless, this season has the usual ups and downs, but initially I’m seeing a lot of ups - Maidragon is fantastic, Demi-chan and Urara are cute as hell, and Scum’s Wish is almost emotionally draining to watch, it’s so enthralling. Here’s what I’m watching, with MAL links: Fuuka (MAL) Starting off, we have an ecchi almost-harem manga that I didn't like. Great. Fuuka has the original plot elements of a shut-in guy that popular on the internet, who also has a super-popular girl as his childhood friend and soon gets to know another cute girl. Also his three sisters never wear clothes. Cool. Fuuka wasn't really that shit until the truck-to-the-face level plot twist that occurred in the manga, which I hope they will reach in the anime just for the reactions to how bullshit it is. Other than that, Fuuka is a less-than-stellar sort of harem about a whiny, bland main character. Fuuka even falls on the MC twice in the first episode for good measure. Oh, I guess also the plot involves playing music, but that's basically just a way for more random good things to happen to an unlikable character. OP and ED are nothing special, either. If anything, Diomedia's art style is usually good. Otherwise, avoid. Masamune-kun no Revenge (MAL) A story of a fat kid who got ripped and now wants to get revenge on his former crush. It's something new, for sure. The completely worthless perfect-in-everything trope is now supplied by both the female AND male leads. What a show. At the very least, Masamune-kun tempers the trope by giving both mains embarrassing reasons to keep up airs. The girls we've met aren't half bad, and I for one support a peppy class rep rather than the standard strict, megane type. The princess-complex is so tiring every time it happens, so lets hope that the show moves more toward Makabe/Aki in their real selves rather than putting on airs. Masamune-kun's plot actually strikes me as similar to Last Game, if anyone's read that manga. While I doubt this show will carry far enough into the future to deal with marriage, the story of a guy trying to ruin/outdo a girl and falling for her is definitely there. I have no strong feelings one way or another about this show, at least not yet. That will probably depend on how much princess Aki vs. normal Aki we see. Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu (MAL) I thought Long Riders was last season? Anyway, here we have a slice of life about a girl in a biking club. Relaxing enough premise, for sure. First impressions are that this show takes it pretty slow, judging from the fact that it takes 14 minutes before the main characters get to school at all. That is not a complaint, just an observation. Another is how different the landscape art is from the character art. The show opens with some amazing nature stills, while the character art is, for lack of a better term, "old." As in, it almost has the feel of an earlier 2000s show. I did wonder how much into biking the show would get, like Long Riders did, and the end of episode 1 answered that for me. The last two minutes or so are a live action segment where two of the seiyuu learn about getting into biking by talking to a guy running a bike shop. While the super serious stuff is what kind of made Long Riders fall flat for me, maybe it won't be as serious. We’ll see. Nyanko Days (MAL) I guess since I can't get my Teekyuu fix, I'll have to find a different two-minute show. Nyanko Days is about Tomoko, a girl who has three personified cats. For a two-minute show, that's about how far episode 1 got. She was depressed about being lonely, but cheers up upon arriving home to her three cats, Maa, Shii, and Rou. For a show this short the animation is surprisingly clean, and the 30sec ED was suitably full of "nya" and various words combined with it. It's cute, and it's two minutes long, so why not? Seiren (MAL) I came into this show knowing little more than it was a school romantic comedy, and overall I think it benefited my first impressions. The show focuses on three main girls and their relations with the male MC, and dedicates a few episodes to each of them out of the 12-episode cour. I'm immediately wary of this, only because it gives me flashbacks (read: PTSD) to Photokano, where they focused on a different girl each few episodes and then reset time the next section. I do enjoy the lack of the transfer student trope, at least for the MC. The first moments successfully give you the sense that there is already a school community, something I prefer over having to sort out relationships individually following a transfer. Overall, the MC is pretty standard and the current girl has a tiring personality. As long as this show stays far from resembling trash like Photokano, I think this show will be defined by the personality of the current girl, whether you like that or not. Chaos;Child (MAL) Because we needed more of the Chaos;Head storyline. I don't remember much about Chaos;Head, other than the incredibly shit voice of the main character and the incredibly shit everything else. I watched the first episode in a 1-hour combination with "Episode 0," which is a recap of Head. If you get the HorribleSubs release, that's what the file will be. Anyway, Child itself takes place six years after Head, in which the main character of that show causes some event or something. The recap doesn't help at all. Child follows a school's newspaper club investigating murders similar in strangeness to those during Head. Initially, Takuru seems like a person interested in the depravity and bizaare level of the murders, but that personality gets completely dropped when he tries investigating the newest murder - he completely loses all cool after seeing a body. While that otherwise may be a fairly normal reaction, it goes at odds with the Takuru that had looked at pictures of previous murders and called them "juicy" and interesting. He also regains the first personality after the event is over. Just seems way too abrupt. I will say Itou Kanako returns as she does for everything semi-colon related, and her voice is as good as ever in the OP/ED. I'm thankful for the lack of the otaku protag, but otherwise this seems just as nonsensical as Chaos;Head but with better art. Not looking forward to more. One Room (MAL) The second short show of the season, from famed artist Kantoku. That's the only reason I'm watching this, anyway. This show makes the initially strange choice of being shot in POV, with a voiceless male protagonist. The first episode sees him meet his new high-school girl neighbor, then grow close enough to her that she asks him to help her study. The show is billed as series of shorts focusing on three girls, so I would expect something like four episodes for each one. The most noticeable part of the show is the art, and damn does it look good. Closeups of the girl, fluttering cherry petals, everything is beautiful as a still and smooth when in motion. The POV part is less of a problem for me as I see it as similar to a visual novel, and with the girls being cute and the art being great, this will be an enjoyable watch each week. Kemono Friends (MAL) An all-CG mobile-game show, and a full 24 minutes at that. Why am I watching this? One of the things that stood out immediately was the grating sound of the first two characters's voices. Kemono Friends involves Japari Park, in which anthropomorphized animal girls live and have to deal with aliens called Ceruleans. While the show is clearly projecting a light-hearted tone, it was strange to hear heavy techno during a battle with a big Cerulean. This show looks like no more than a walk around the different areas to see different animal girls. I'd be satisfied with that if it wasn’t just so boring. The OP is suitably bouncy, but even if this show doesn’t get serious, 24 minutes of bad animation is a serious slog. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon (MAL) Ah Kyoani, the true saviors of anime. Kyoto Animation's production budget meets the artstyle and writing of Danna ga Nani's creator. I'm on board. A working adult who drunkenly invites a dragon-girl to be her maid. A unique premise, to be sure. Right off the bat, the contrast between the Tohru's unfazed optimism and Kobayashi being done with her shit all the time made me laugh my ass off. The sequence with Tohru getting more scared of humans when Kobayashi and Takiya are drunk was also top-tier. Art-wise the show looks great, animation is smooth, and Tohru is cute as hell. Always a plus. In addition, I think Kobayashi is a grounded character with a few weird tastes, which is somewhat more relatable than a totally “normal” person, if I'm being honest. Regarding the OP/ED, I will do anything for more fhana, and Maidragon's OP does not disappoint. No ED in episode 1. Overall, I was surprised at how much I liked a show with such an ostensibly strange premise, but I am wholeheartedly excited for the next episode. Kuzu no Honkai (MAL) I was immediately drawn in by the brutally emotional premise of Kuzu no Honkai, or Scum's Wish. Two students dating, only using the other as a physical replacement for an impossible emotional love. Wow. I was almost shocked when the episode ended, because I had been enthralled the entire time. Even through the intimate scenes, there was a heavy air, one punctuated by wells of emotion that kept me breathless. Something has to be said for the sound design too - the crescendos of music match Hana's emotional ups and downs to a T. Flawless. Likewise, the art throughout, especially with the black watercolors clouding white paper, the choices of camera angles during the intimate scene - it brings out the regretful and simultaneously indulgent feelings that the scene evokes. The fact that sexual encounters in anime are almost always moments for comedy rather than real emotion just makes Kuzu no Honkai's scenes more unique. Just the very idea of feelings so strong that two lonely people would come together to physically try to stave them off is both depressing and greatly intriguing at the same time. Even the general atmosphere of episode 1 enriched the painful introspective Hana was going through, culminating in the titular wish. With the courage to take a darker look at high-school romance, I want to see more. Watch this show. Demi-chan wa Kataritai (MAL) I didn't think I had a thing for something as specific as "blonde vampires," but there you go. Man, does this show make me feel good. A world where racism towards demi-humans has calmed down to the point where it's a normal part of life. No serious, overbearing issues, just a fun, light-hearted look at the concept of a demi-human living a modern life. I think I find the epitome of that in Takahashi, who doesn't really want much more than to just know more about demi-humans - he has a genuine desire to get to know the subtleties of their lives. Soft-spoken and laid back, he is the perfect foil for the quirky, bubbly Hikari, the aforementioned blonde vampire. Funny exchanges with a few heartwarming moments combine to form one hell of a great first episode. The ED fits the relatively calm tone perfectly, but I'm partial to the OP by TrySail after they caught my eye doing Classroom Crisis' OP. Give it a listen. While there are some noticeably harem-esque undertones, if this show stays relatively away from Monster Musume ecchi and carves its own niche, I will enjoy it to the fullest. Urara Meirochou (MAL) [To get this out of the way first, FUCK Anime Network - who the hell thinks yellow subs, and hardsubs at that, still look fine? At least with the CR/Funi deal I would think we would have some consistency for once, damn.] I saved this for last because it looked like the most healing show this season. That, and midriffs. I'm a sucker for the traditional Japanese style (Mushishi, Katanagatari, Uchouten Kazoku), and Meirochou's art and architecture do not disappoint. Thus far, this is a heartwarming tale of four girls working to find themselves through their style of fortune-telling. The four girls are quite cute, even if Nono's voice is pitched just a bit too high. Also, midriffs. I hope that stays. I also like Chiya's wild-person-new-to-society personality, and I think it meshes interestingly with three other girls that, while adjusted to society outside of Meirochou, are otherwise just as new. Overall, this is a show that takes an interesting setting and premise and aims to tell a story through four cute girls. What's not to love?

#fuuka #masamune-kun no revenge #minami kamakura koukou joshi jitensha-bu #nyanko days #seiren #chaos;child #one room #kemono friends #kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #kuzu no honkai #demi-chan wa kataritai #urara meirochou #winter 2017 anime #my anime reviews

[monkey-network]

Mini Stuff of Good: 2019 2nd Quarter

We’re doing a lightning round of anything up to this point, no holds barred! 3. 2.. 1...

One Punch Man 2

The story certainly made up the utter downgrade of its animation. If anything, I’d seriously stick with the manga if we’re talking good spectacle. (Grade: C+)

Care Bears: Unlock the Magic

I can say this is Turner’s answer to Hasbro’s My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic. The look of it is a plus and the episodes are on the same level of quality as MLP, but I had my doubts that this would get the same level of traction, especially since it’s Boomerang. It’s not bad, just not much to write home about. (Grade: C)

Uglydolls

An upbeat movie that I say didn’t deserve the disdain it received. Like yeah, it’s pretty by the numbers, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t entertaining in the slightest, and surprisingly heavy in its racial undertones if you’d believe me. (Grade: B-)

Avengers Endgame

Was certainly conclusive and fun, but inferior compared to Infinity War, especially when it unfortunately has to undo everything that happened in that movie. Not as many good memes from this as the interchangeable Thanos snap meme. (Grade: B)

Tuca & Bertie

Honestly a fun series that makes its cancellation just depressing to hear. The duo themselves made every episode enjoyable and while I wish certain plot points could’ve been better, the overall story arc with our MC’s friendship was very investing. In the least, the season ended on a good, optimistic note. (Grade: A-)

Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart

Essentially the Adventures of Puss in Boots, anime edition. Not to say that’s a bad thing, because there are plenty of differences, but come on, the similarities between the two leads and the premise are eeriely similar. As such, it gets the same grade (Grade: B+)

Shazam

A DC comic book movie that actually tries to be a comic book movie. Bonus points for the director being one that mostly made horror movies. (Grade: A-)

Scooby Doo and Guess Who?

Scooby Doo and self humor doesn’t sit well with me since the fun came in taking its campy nature straightfaced while having some good sitcom laughs, i.e. Monsters Unleashed, Mystery Incorporated, or Be Cool, Scooby Doo. The celebrity guests are almost always a highlight, but they also admittedly take away from the characters we’re meant to see. (Grade: B-)

Archer 1999

Finally, a season of Archer that has everyone together doing space adventures, and it’s not the final season! (Grade: B+)

Dick Pikachu

Lovely to look at, not so much in remembering it. It has the same grade I gave the game it’s based on. (Grade: C+)

Gokushufudou: The Way of the House Husband

The most perfect yakuza based slice of life comic around. (Grade: S)

Burning Effect

I honestly haven’t seen a webcomic that went this hard before. It’s like Bakugo from My Hero Academia went into every character design and impacting visual, with a story and premise that gradually makes sense the more you carry on and a female lead that is a upcoming warrior in every sense. (Grade: A)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

There’s a Youtube channel that reviews this show episode by episode and I found them more insightful and entertaining than this series. A shame since I like the original She-Ra and I was hoping for a good series about princesses fighting. But this series was slog to get through and it doesn’t help that my attachment to most of the characters has fizzled out. Season 3 certainly picked things up, but it shouldn’t have took this long to pick things up. (Grade: C+)

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Just as good as the first one, if not better, which I bet many who reviewed this will probably say otherwise. The scene near the end is honestly cemented in my mind, it just worked. (Grade: B-)

SMG4, The Anime Arc

This definitely fun. A middling 1st half, but things definitely pick up in the 2nd half. There are some contrivances and conveniences, but man was that the most engaged I’ve ever been with this Youtube series overall. (Grade: B+)

Aladdin (2019)

Oh wow, another remake that pales in comparison to the original. A takeaway from all this is Disney needs to hire directors that aren’t boring. (Grade: D+)

MIB: International

Oh wow, it’s Jurassic World: Men In Black edition with two great actors that are heavily underutilized in it. Where’s Taika when you need him? (Grade: C-)

Lion King (2019)

Oh wow, a remake that doesn’t understand why the original worked. This here was honestly the final straw for me as I am distancing myself from these remakes because unless one actually looks and feels appealing, my sensible bias towards them will never change. I feel annoyed that I DON’T know what people see in these. (Grade: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!)

DC Super Hero Girls

Honestly what I wanted Nu She-Ra to be, better animated, better characterized, and reminds me of the new Ninja Turtles series with how it is setting things up. As a DC fan, I am more than impressed. (Grade: A)

X-Men, Dark Phoenix

They honestly weren’t trying and this movie resulted in me getting Ligma. (Grade: D+)

Our Cartoon President

We had our laughs a couple years ago, but let’s be real. Trump is a dried up meme and there was no reason for a 2nd season of this. (Grade: F+)

Final Space

Season 2 has its hits and misses but I am very much enjoying this series still. The latest episode deep down made me wish it didn’t try to make things drama heavy for the previous episodes, like it’s trying to recapture the sharp turn that was season one’s episode six. Needless to say, they’re certainly keeping the momentum going for this series and I’m all for it. (Grade: B+)

Aero (Comic series)

Imagine if Nejire from My Hero Academia was a Marvel superhero. The dialogue and writing is generic and simple, but you not only get a nice grasp of our heroine but this is one of the first anime looking Marvel comics that looks incredible. This really stood out at my comic shop and I am very intrigued to see more of this character and this artwork. (Grade: B)

Infinity Train

Very compelling, nicely visualized, and the 10 episode work to a good strength of pacing. Though I will be honest, One-One wasn’t a character that stood out to me, I dunno, I felt distant towards him compared to the other characters. But I enjoyed this no doubt and I’m glad there is more to come. (Grade: ???)

Twelve Forever

This is one of those rare shows where I’ll gladly say it’s good but not entertaining. As much as I enjoy randomness every now and then, I felt bored watching it. The Butt Witch was the saving grace, immediately being my favorite character, but she wasn’t enough to make me keep going. I’ll give it a good grade tho with the effort they put into everything. (Grade: B)

Rocko’s Modern Life, Static Cling

I already reviewed this before, but I honestly considered this a great comeback to a very nostalgic and influential show. (Grade: A)

Meta Runner

A new series with surprisingly good pacing and a empathetically great main character. The dialogue can be give and take, with a villain that’s honestly too evil for his own good, but I can’t help but say that this is an engaging series. And it’s youtube sooo bonus. (Grade: B+)

Amphibia

A series that definitely got better as it went along. I like the episodes that had good ties to the season’s climax, the main four are especially the highlight with their personalities, and the character growth felt natural if on the nose sometimes. I’m stoked for part 2,,, hopefully they schedule it better. (Grade: A-)

Angry Birds 2

It was fun. Probably forgettable to many, but I won’t deny that it’s one of the better popcorn flics of the Summer (Grade: B+)

Toy Story 4

I grown tired of people questioning whether or not this movie was pointless, so I’ll come out the gate to say that this is the best movie of the Summer so far. It was a more solemn movie that was organically thoughtful with itself, there were plenty of laughs, I loved Bo Peep, and the way they handled the antagonist is something that rocked the franchise’s themes to the core sensibly. This film makes for one of the few times a fourth sequel can actually come out great. (Grade: A)

T I M E’S U P ! ! ! ! ! !

Welp, looks like the spring and summer have indeed strengthened itself for the better. Can the latter half of 2019 keep the momentum as we reach the new decade? Stay tuned.

#cartoons #movies #anime #critical #reviews #Good Stuff #long post

[sorayahigashikata]

Table of Contents

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 9/18/17

Akashic Records of Bastard Magica Instructor, Vol. 1 | By Hitsuji Tarou, Tsunemi Aosa and Kurone Mishima | Seven Seas – Combining a magical academy story with the ‘eccentric guy who ends up being a good teacher’ story that manga likes so much isn’t a bad idea, and Akashic Records does a decent job of it, though it gets off to a sluggish start. Frankly, Glenn is far too irritating to bear, and this one of the rare times where you are 100% behind the angry tsundere from the start. Of course, what he really needed was something to snap him out of his funk, and once he decides to actually turn on his brain and start teaching, things get exponentially better. It’s still a standard light novel adaptation, but I’m interested in seeing where it goes next. – Sean Gaffney

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 4 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – A good deal of this volume is devoted to a flashback showing us how the band In No Hurry came to be, and while a lot of the narrative points I was expecting were absent (why were they all hospitalized long-term?), the emotional beats were there. Certainly it was more entertaining than the love triangle we’re getting here. Not that it’s not well-written—in fact, the reverse may be the case. I’d rather go back to the standard shoujo cliche of having one person have it all together while the others flail. Seeing all three characters do stupid things and then immediately castigate themselves can be exhausting. On the bright side, we get more of Nino screaming, which remains the book’s high point. – Sean Gaffney

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 4 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | VIZ Media – I think I may only enjoy this series when Nino is performing, because the best moment in this volume is the brief one in which she accompanies herself on Momo’s guitar. The rest of it involves romantic angst from the two boys who have appropriated Nino’s voice as their personal property, unsuccessful attempts at comedy, and some (vague and improbable) backstory about how the band came to be. I did appreciate that Nino comes to see herself as a caretaker of her bandmates’ dream, and the parallel that while Nino has been hoping that her singing would bring Momo back to her, Yuzu has been hoping that his music would do the same with her. While this volume was a little on the meh side, I do look forward to the rock festival performance coming up in volume five. – Michelle Smith

Bloom Into You, Vol. 3 | By Nakatani Nio | Seven Seas – The first half of this volume is far more light-hearted than the rest of the series to date, which is fun but may be to its detriment. When it’s relaxing and showing the characters being happy, Bloom into You is like any other yuri series. But when Touko is being so aggressively forward that you want to slug her, or when Yuu is once again reminding us that she may very well be asexual (though that does not stop her from being lonely, as someone else pointedly notes), the series takes it to the next level, albeit a very uncomfortable one. There’s also another pairing casually introduced here that startled me, but I suspect the reason for it was more to have more adult ‘mentors’ the kids can ask for advice. Good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Complex Age, Vol. 6 | By Yui Sakuma | Kodansha Comics – Complex Age has been pretty upsetting at times, so I confess that I totally looked at the last page to make sure Nagisa looked happy before I committed to reading this final volume. Its pace is somewhat accelerated, covering about a year after Nagisa’s meeting with her mother’s loli-loving friend as she tries to figure out what it is she loves best about cosplay and what kind of new shape it might become in her life. True, her conclusion is somewhat bittersweet, but it’s hopeful too, and I think that’s just the right combination for this series. If you were put off by the rough going in the middle volumes, take heart that this final installment remains realistic, but isn’t gloomy. I’ve really enjoyed this series. – Michelle Smith

Demon King Daimaou, Vol. 2 | By Shoutaro Mizuki and Souichi Itou | J-Novel Club – It’s finally happened: I’ve come across a light novel with so little to say about it that it’s only getting a brief. The light novel world is not exactly littered with deep, meaningful stories, but even among the fluff Demon King Daimaou is still pretty throwaway. That said, it’s not actively bad, and reads quickly—I don’t feel a need to drop it, I just feel no need to worry about what happens next. It’s at its best when at its least serious, such as Akuto’s constant desire to not seem like a villain, and the fact that he always does. (He’s desecrating hundreds of hero’s graves… but for good reasons!) As for the girls, we get a new one here, whose first scene amused me, but they’re as forgettable as anything. Only if you really liked the anime. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 6 | By Izumi Miyazono | VIZ Media – This series is in somewhat of a holding pattern, despite a few changes. Asuka keeps coming into contact with Kamiya, who keeps trying to wear her down on marrying him despite the fact that she’s told him in no uncertain terms to back off and that she isn’t interested, and Ryu continues to be troubled by this. There are a few new elements in this volume with the introduction of Asuka’s protective 18-year-old brother Kanade and the fact that she and Ryu officially move in together, but since a) Kanade puts forth Kamiya as an alternate candidate and b) oopsies, they moved into Kamiya’s building, it’s really just more of the same. Everyone’s Getting Married is still fairly entertaining, but it’s not at all surprising or exciting, even with the possibility that Ryu will be transferred overseas. – Michelle Smith

Golden Time, Vol. 8 | By Yuyuko Takemiya and Umechazuke | Seven Seas – Linda returns in this volume… though it’s more about Banri returning, as he goes with her to a class reunion. The reunion itself goes off fairly well, and doesn’t really bring back too much. Unfortunately, he does have a bit of a breakdown later on in the middle of a festival dance, which leads to disaster. (And holy crap, that festival guy yelling at the cast was appalling. I really really hated him.) As for Banri and Kouko, it seems they’re doing very well, though I suspect both are trying just a little too hard—I have a nasty suspicion the next volume will be even more dramatic, especially after the medication discovery. Golden Time is heavy-duty romantic drama, but worth the slog. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 15 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Answering the cliffhanger from last volume, we get a few chapters showing us who Karasuno will be facing in the semifinals. The actual winner is not a surprise, but the author does a good job at keeping things tense anyway. As for the main event, it’s what you’d expect from a sports manga. Our heroes have shown off that they’re not the team they were before, but their opponent also has a few tricks up their sleeves, and so things could go either way. I like the constant emphasis on how important momentum is to a game. And of course things end with Yamaguchi, on the sidelines, desperate to make up for his earlier play. Classic Jump sports manga, and you should be reading it. – Sean Gaffney

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 27 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – Credit to Pin, he is doing his best to make sure the ship with Ayano does not get further—something Ayano is tearfully aware of as well, though at least she’s started to openly admit her feelings. That said, Pin is up against the author here, and so I’m not sure how things will go. I’m not… TOTALLY against the ship, but I want it to wait till he’s not her teacher in any case. The other big news is that Kazehaya finally confronts his father, and the two learn a lot more about their similarities. They both communicate poorly, though Kazehaya has gotten better now that he’s dating Sawako. As for Sawako, after a long sweet date she admits she’s applying to the educational university, and he can how happily cheer her on. Sweet stuff. – Sean Gaffney

No Game No Life, Please!, Vol. 2 | By Kazuya Yuizaki and Yuu Kamiya | Yen Press – This is pretty much exactly what hardcore NGNL fans would want out of a spinoff manga, which means about half of it is not my cup of tea, because heavy fanservice and fetishes just don’t do much for me. I’m also not fond of the suggestion that Fi and Chlammy is a yuri pairing, and this book really loves to suggest it in unsubtle ways. It’s at its best when developing the characters, be it Steph thinking on her feet (or with her bladder) to escape a dungeon that Jibril has created, or Izuna continuing to learn from the masters—our sibling heroes—on how to both improve her gaming skills and also have more fun. Lacking a proper manga version, this is a decent alternative for those who want pictures. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 12 | By ONE and Yusuke Marata | Viz Media – The tournament is perhaps the least interesting part of this volume. In that, it’s not dissimilar to many other tournament battle manga, though those lack the deadpan blaseness of our hero. Fortunately, there’s also a slew of monsters and villains attacking outside the arena, which allows Genos to remind us he’s still really tough despite being Saitama’s self-appointed lackey. The best scenes, though, involved Blizzard and her sister Tornado, whose family issues certainly seem to be deeply seated—Blizzard’s almost jaded “don’t worry, she’ll be coming to save me anyway” is well done, and you really sympathize with her here, especially with Tornado at her most arrogant. Essential, despite the tournament. – Sean Gaffney

By: Michelle Smith

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