#tabw q+a

[animebw]

For those of us living under a rock, what's going on with the oshi no ko manga?

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

#anime #tabw #the anime binge watcher #oshi no ko #more context and visual proof in the replies to that tweet #tabw q+a

[animebw]

Remember that fire that killed 36 people at Kyoto Animation?

Well the Japanese courts have sentenced the arsonist to death

Source 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68090388

Source 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/world/japan-kyoto-animation-arson-death-penalty.html

Opinions?

Geez, of all the things to wake up to on vacation...

Look, I am nowhere near informed enough on the Japanese justice system to discuss all its nuances and issues without making a fool of myself. But I will say this: Kyoto Animation is still my favorite anime studio, I respect their work so much, I still remember the horror of learning about this attack through social media in real time, watching the casualty numbers tick up, the awful gut-wrenching realization of just how bad this was, the culprit is human scum who deserves to spend the rest of their life in prison...

But he shouldn't be put to death.

Flat out, governments shouldn't be in the business of killing criminals. Even monsters like him. It's too much power and way too easy to abuse. And it's easy enough to say "Well, boo hoo, he deserves it after what he did," but what happens when the next person sentenced to death was wrongfully convicted, or might have been able to repair the damage they did or turn their life around? Or, god forbid, if a government grows so corrupt that it starts using that power to exterminate anyone it deems undesirable?

If we accept capital punishment as necessary, we're saying that there's a certain group of people that don't deserve the right to live. And no matter how you try to control the borders of that group- "Oh it's just for mass murderers/rapists/treasonists/etc!"- you cannot guarantee that the system will only ever judge fairly. You cannot guarantee that innocent people won't be put to death because of some oversight or intentional misuse. Do you know how many people in the US alone have been executed only to have their names cleared after death? And knowing how intense Japan's legal system is, I can't imagine their track record is spotless either.

Bottom line: the death penalty isn't a power governments should have, no matter how gruesome the crime. I won't mourn this bastard's death, but I won't celebrate it either.

#anime #tabw #the anime binge watcher #tabw q+a

[animebw]

I think it says a lot that the G-Witch ending had me so emotional over it that not only did it make me cry (like ACTUALLY CRY, something that no piece of media has ever done), but I was so busy screaming about his good it was I forget to send you an ask gushing about it! So let me rectify that:

THEY SURVIVED!!!!!! THEY'RE MARRIED!!!!!!! THEY STUCK THE LANDING!!!!! AND JUST THIS ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVED!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Yeah, for all the nitpicks I have about the series' pacing in the back half, it cannot be overstated that in a country where gay marriage still isn't legal for the most part, one of its most storied, iconic franchises made a queer love story the heart of its latest mainline entry- with a disabled lesbian of color as the protagonist, no less- and not only did it give them the happy ending they deserved, it resulted in one of Gundam's most profitable years of all time. That, folks, is what a sea change looks like.

#anime #tabw q+a #tabw #the anime binge-watcher #gundam witch from mercury #gundam witch #mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury #g-witch

[animebw]

Watching Love Live and thinking anyone in it is straight is like going into a clothes store and thinking they sell soup.

"WHY ARE YOU BUYING HETEROSEXUALITY AT THE YURI STORE?!"

"FUCK YOU!!!!!!"

#anime #tabw #the anime binge watcher #tabw q+a #love live! sunshine!! #love live #love live! #2013 aniwatch

[animebw]

Your review of ONK made me wonder: If a show tries to convey a message and the viewer fails to get it, how much blame can be placed on the author and how much on the people? A person may try to explain something as clearly as possible, but there will always be someone who won't understand, so who can be blamed?

I want to clarify that this is not an attempt at a last minute defense of Aka or the series, but a genuine question that has been on my mind since reading the review.

And I apologize if the question is unclear, I'm not a native English speaker.

Oh, it's a very valid question. And not one exclusive to anime; Fight Club is a perfect example of that question. So many of its fans see it as an aspirational tale of Manly Men Rejecting Modern Society And Embracing The Masculine Tradition Of Violence, but the movie's whole point is that its characters are a bunch of loser incels turning to violence and terrorism to cope with their emasculation complex and the whole masculine glorification of violence is Bad, Actually. Is it th4e audience's fault for missing the message so profoundly because it conflicted with their preconceptions and biases? Or did the movie just not do a good enough job communicating that message and accidentally made the concept of fight club itself seem way cooler than it meant to? Genuinely hard to say.

That said, one bit of analysis I've always found really handy comes from Lindsay Ellis' video series on the Transformers movies: "Framing and aesthetics supercede the rest of the text, always, always, always." When you're working with a visual medium, what's communicated visually will always register more strongly than what's simply part of the story and dialogue (hence why "show don't tell" is such a big rule). In the case of Fight Club, you could argue that the cinematography and editing do such a good job selling the illusion of fight club as something cool and fun and desirable that the intended subversion where the movie then goes "Psych! These people are all losers" in the final act doesn't register as strongly. In the case of anime, it's why your standard fanservice package does such a disservice to female characters; no matter how well written or interesting they might be, if they're constantly framed tits and ass first, that's how the audience will primarily remember them.

And don't get me started on Attack on Titan, which is basically Fight Club's issue stretched across almost a hundred episodes. You spend the first half of the series basically force-fed in-universe fascist propaganda that gives you a biased perspective on what's really going on, only for the curtain to pull back in the second half and force you to confront the grim reality the first half purposefully hid from you. It puts you in the same place as the characters, forced to re-evaluate everything you though you knew and realize just how easily you were taken in by lies and genocidal rhetoric spread by this world's version of the Nazis. But because the first half of the series was so effective at selling you on that rhetoric with its orgasmically violent action and rousing speeches set to epic music, a bunch of fans never grew out of it and continued beating the drums of fascism even as the series turned around and started ripping apart the very ideals it was once holding up. Which is how you end up with a bunch of unironic Eren Yeager stans cheering for him to literally destroy the world because they think he's some kind of based uberchad instead of a fundamentally broken shell of a man running on hate-fueled exhaust fumes until he burns himself down to nothing in his inability to escape the cycle of violence he's become ensnared in. Because that was the story they were trained to expect, and they refused to budge when the other shoes started dropping.

Now, that doesn't really apply to Oshi no Ko since its issues are all primarily text-based, not visual-based. But it's a useful bit of critical thinking that informs a lot of the way I look at media. In a visual medium, visuals always hit harder and leave a stronger impact than words alone, for better or worse.

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #oshi no ko

[animebw]

If the finals of the queer anime ships tournament comes down to SuleMio vs. Utena x Anthy, I'm gonna laugh.

Space Utena vs OG Utena lets goooooo

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge-watcher #revolutionary girl utena #gundam witch from mercury #utenanthy #sulemio #let's be real we all win in that scenario

[animebw]

Whatever is the relationship between those girls from pop team epic I don't think it can be explained with our simple mortal words. It is something else, something beyond our understanding.

I don't see what's so confusing about Pipimi and Popuko. They're lovers. They're exes. They're best friends. They're mortal enemies. They're rival CEOs. They're eldritch gods locked in a neverending battle. They're amateur playwrights. They have seen the face of Satan and suggested he change what kind of deoderant he uses. They are Just Some Little Creachers. They are eternal. They are infinite. They know you better than you know yourself. One of them just shat her pants and the other is Instagramming it for maximum virality. They are the alpha and omage and probably the sigma as well. What's so hard to understand about that?

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #tabw q+a #pop team epic #pte #poputepipikku

[animebw]

Hello! Just found your blog through your analysis on Oshi no Ko and I just wanted to say that Im sooooo relieved to read it. You touch on all the points that bother me about it - about how it monologues about how dark the industry is while portraying the opposite - and it’s like a weight off my shoulders. No one seems to see that when I try to talk about the series, and I start to think I’m going crazy. You also write super well and it’s a delight to read, I’m looking forward to going through your list and reading your analysis on my favorites (and unfavourites)

Thank you so much! I'm always glad when my contrarian opinions strike a chord with someone; there's power in finding you're not alone in disagreeing with the majority. Hope you enjoy your time here!

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #oshi no ko

[animebw]

hold on a sec do you have a source on that interview where the creator refers to miorine and suletta as the main couple because i need it immediately if so

Right here!

So I was slightly mistaken in that it wasn't the creators of G-Witch themselves, it was longtime Gundam manga artist Koichi Tokita who praised the show for having their couple get together in the first episode. But still, you gotta figure this is a guy who knows what he's talking about and wouldn't refer to Suletta and Miorine as a couple if it wasn't, like, official.

Also worth remembering: this is Gundam Utena. And while Utena is rightly remembered as a queer masterpiece, it spent a lot of time on Utena dealing with unsatisfying romantic situations with boys as a way of running from her queerness before finally accepting her feelings for Anthy. It wasn't just "Utena and Anthy get engaged and now they're happy gay babies together," it was a long and painful process for both of them to realize they loved each other. G-Witch doesn't have quite the same angle- queerness is fully accepted in this world- but it definitely seems to be leaning into that structure of the protagonist working her way through multiple boys before fully committing to her female partner. Which honestly makes some degree of sense even outside the Utena parallels? Remember, Suletta's a country bumpkin who literally just found out that gay marriage is a thing, it's probably gonna take her some time to take that thought to the next step of "Hey, that means I can get gay married too if I want!"

Anyway, point is, be prepared for Suletta and Miorine's journey not to be a straight line to marital bliss. But always remember: this show is deliberately following in Utena's footsteps. And there is no way to copy Utena's homework so thoroughly without also copying the queerness at its core.

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #tabw q+a #gundam witch from mercury #gundam witch #mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury #g-witch

[animebw]

There is sexim in Zom 100?

In the first episode, yes. Akira's workplace crush is being harassed and coerced into sex by his boss in a clear abuse of power, but the show doesn't seem to realize it? Akira's all "who cares if she's someone's side chick" when he goes to confess to her, but we clearly hear her trying to resist the boss' advances when he comes onto her! This is sexual abuse and the show only cares about how sad it makes Akira feel that his crush is being NTR'd by an ugly bastard! It's horrible!

Now that being said, episode 2 introduces a much better female character who's treated much more respectfully by the narrative and has an actual complex interplay with Akira with both of them learning from each other (fanservice-y outfit aside), so things are definitely looking up on that front. Hopefully that continues to be the case.

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #zom 100: bucket list of the dead #zom 100: zombie ni naru made ni shitai 100 no koto #zom100

[animebw]

SYMPHOGEAR MOVIE ANNOUNCED!!!

LET'S

FUCKING

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

#tabw #anime #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #symphogear #senki zesshou symphogear

[animebw]

Re: oshi no ko fans,

What'd they do?

Yeah, I guess I should probably give some context to that statement.

So, for those not keeping up with Oshi no Ko, last week's episode featured a plotline where a character on a reality dating show is swarmed with cyberbullying after a minor dust-up, and it escalates so badly that she tries to commit suicide. It's a brutally effective episode that really captures the horror of online abuse, the almost addictive masochism of scrolling through comment after comment calling for your death and dragging your name through the mud. It's easily the best Oshi no Ko has been, and I will stand by that opinion despite how messy things are going to get in the rest of this post.

See, this plotline doesn't just a wholly fictional exploration of online abuse; it has a very direct real life inspiration. Shortly after the manga started publishing, Japanese wrestler Hana Kimura committed suicide following a chain of events very much like this. She was on a reality show, she had a minor altercation with a fellow contender, and she was bombarded with online abuse until she took her own life. It's likely Akasaka already had the general idea for this plotline sketched out before this event, but the connections are so specific that it's pretty clear this real-life event influenced how it played out in the story. And in the anime at least, some of the mean comments the character gets are lifted wholesale from comments Kimura received during her harassment. So clearly, Oshi no Ko is pulling on this real life tragedy to further its themes of darkness in the entertainment industry and how it affects people.

The problem is, Kimura's mom isn't happy about it.

See, apparently no one- nobody working on the manga or the anime- thought to ask Kimura's family if it was okay to use their tragic circumstances as part of their narrative. Nobody bothered to check if it maybe might be a little insensitive to drag out the corpse of a dead girl for an edgy reincarnation revenge idol drama without asking that girl's parents if they were okay with it. So the mom did an interview where she expressed her anger at the whole thing, and how her daughter was essentially being used as "free source material," which, yeah, seriously, how the fuck did nobody check with her before this went to air? I don't care how good your intentions are or how excellent the finished product turned out, you do not use the real words and comments that drove a girl to suicide without getting the go-ahead from her family first. She even mentioned that a friend of hers watched the episode without knowing its content beforehand and it basically triggered all those traumatic memories all over again. It's just really fucking ugly all around.

Now, the whole point of the episode in question is about how terrible online harassment is and how you should never toss mean words around online so thoughtlessly, because you could be hurting people in ways you can't possibly understand. So you'd think that Oshi no Ko fans, being faced with this very understandable anger from someone with more stake in this mess than any of them either well, would take the situation with grace and try to reach an understanding. You'd think they'd try to have the kind of compassion in discussing this difficult subject that Kimura and the character inspired by her never got.

If only.

Now, to be clear, it's not like the entire Oshi no Ko fanbase ganged up on Kimura's mother. Plenty of people took the situation in stride and treated it fairly. But even just on the English speaking side of the internet, I've already seen way too many people becoming exactly the kind of mindless hate mob the show portrayed in that critical episode. And while I can't speak for the Japanese side, people who keep up with Japanese online spaces have confirmed there's harassment going on over there too. People saying she's only doing this for attention (gee it's almost like HER DAUGHTER'S DEATH IS BEING USED WITHOUT HER CONSENT), she shouldn't complain because it's raising awareness about cyberbullying (which totally justifies cyberbullying her in response, naturally), even claiming the arc totally wasn't inspired by Kimura's circumstances and it was just a coincidence the storyline released around the same time. Which is funny, because I distinctly remember when the episode first came out I saw tons of people praising how it took inspiration from Kimura's circumstances and how it was totally speaking to real life events so you had to take it seriously. But now Kimura's mother comes out saying she's upset with how it was handled, and suddenly those same people are going "Uuuuuuh actually it's just a coincidence, if you think it's intentional you're stupid."

I mean, if I didn't know better, I'd say it's almost like they never actually cared about the message. Like they only wanted to use the shiny coat of real-life tragedy to massage their own egos for liking Good(tm), Serious(tm) works of fiction that talk about Real(tm) Issues(tm), only to discard that talking point when it no longer suited their narrative. I might even call them a bunch of worthless cunts who care about protecting themselves from even the mildest emotional discomfort and moral uncertainty more than they give a damn about anyone else's genuine struggles with actual issues far beyond what any of these fuckweasels will ever have to face. Hell, if I was feeling particularly spicy, I might even connect this bullshittery to my criticisms of Oshi no Ko as a whole and point out how despite its thin veneer of deep societal criticism, this show really is the kind of vapid, pandering edge-masquerading-as-depth spectacle that presents just enough illusion of substance for people to feel smart for watching it without actually challenging them to leave their comfort zone of an "edgy" male antihero saving the day and making all the cute girls fall for him, thus attracting the exact same kind of insincere, cowardly fanbase that reacts to the slightest real challenge to their sense of self-righteousness by become the exact kind of monster the story they supposedly adore was trying to warn them against.

But that's probably unfair to all the normal, perfectly well-adjusted Oshi no Ko fans who don't deserve to be lumped in with this vocal minority of losers. So I'll call it a day here. Bottom line, ask before you use a real person's misery for Content(tm), don't be a dick when people criticize the fiction you enjoy, and online harassers can go suck on an exhaust pipe.

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #oshi no ko #cw: suicide #cw: cyberbullying

[animebw]

What are your thoughts of the recent Reigen related shenanigans?

(from this tweet)

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #tabw q+a #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #undertale #sans undertale

[animebw]

This week's G-Witch has me fucking FERAL. Like, I was screaming so loud my mom told me to quiet down, and her room is both on a different floor AND different side of the house then mine. But anyway, SULEMIO REUNION! SULETTA IS HOLDER AGAIN! CALIBARN HASN'T KILLED SULETTA YET!!! SHOWDOWN VS. PROSPERA AND ERICHT!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

WE WERE FED SO GOOD THIS WEEK

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #gundam witch from mercury #gundam witch #mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury #g-witch #also guel just fuckin #giving up his holder status in the most roundabout way possible #I lost my SHIT when they pulled out the fencing swords

[animebw]

I am voting for love life, not because I want you to be sucked into idol hell, but because the franchise is going through something very funny right now in their mobile game side of things, so even if you end up not liking the show we can still send you memes about that.

(I mean, I do hope you will enjoy the show. I aways hope you will enjoy whatever show l wins any of the polls, but I am a fake anime fan and the only other thing I recognized on that list was free, which was a whole thing when it aired so it's like an important mark in the anime community history, but I can't seem to recall you ever super enjoying hot anime guys so I think there's a bigger chance you wont enjoy it as much?)

"can't seem to recall me enjoying hot anime guys" Sasaki and Miyano, SK8 the Infinity, Yuri on Ice, Banana Fish...

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #that said love live is probably gonna win #i've escaped it many times in the past #but no more it seems

[animebw]

Sending this on anon bc I am afraid of the avarage Shonen fan coming after my ass for speaking the truth, but I feel like you would get it

Demon slayer author was a coward for not making mitsuri buff as fuck. "Her gimmick is having denser muscles so she doesn't need to have big muscles" yeah and then she joined the corps where she is being accepted fully for who she is, and she reached the rank of hashira, I'll give them her being thin in the flashbacks, but present time she should have at least the same abs as tanjiro. (Also she is allegedly looking for a man that will accept her, and then you tell me she is in a place where everyone is accepting her and she still doesn't have a boyfriend? Sir/Ma'am that is a lesbian that just has not figured it out yet)

Shonen manga/anime be normal about women challenge: difficulty level impossible

#anime #tabw #tabw q+a #the anime binge watcher #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #at least JJK had the courage to make Nobara absolutely bonkers #'hey you're not ladylike enough to survive in this sexist world you gotta adapt' #'fuck you imma be a feral bitch AND enjoy feminine hobbies. skill issue.'