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What are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)


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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 9:06 pm Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:
Been watching Fruits Basket. Overall, a good show but it isn't quite what I expected. Being an over the top slice of life inverted harem comedy. Its shoujo sense of humor does not quite appeal to me that well. But overall good show with memorable characters.


They only animate up to volume 06 of the manga....so if you want the WHOLE story.....you know what you gotta do. lol
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:31 am Reply with quote
And just watched the 10th and last episode of My First Girlfriend is a Gal.
While I would say not a bad ending, and that there was some groundwork here, the series still failed to live up to actually being good, the major flaw felt like this level of misogyny that was in it. Something that could still exist as the male main character was made pretty loser, with a female lead that was usually right and strong in the sense of being open, and other female characters who felt like they could make their own decisions. The male characters just kind of set this awful tone.

Actually might be relevant to this video I watched earlier today by chance, which was about the American TV show, The Big Bang Theory, suffers from something referred to as "adorkable misogyny". Where apparently in some media it could be expected that geeky or nerdy characters could get away with certain actions because how it seems inherently non-threatening, yet we can look back now and realise that movies like Revenge of the Nerds is actually really rapey. The girls by themselves were not bad, but it just felt like how the guys painted the series by their presence made it much worse, and not only be a case of embarrassing themselves, but something that actually felt damaging. There was not the time taken to rally drive it home that he should not just treat her like a object, or even something to be worshipped, but someone equal in the partnership. And other jokes in this show were pretty hard to swallow when it made you kind of feel sick.

Rating of So-so (5/10).
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 5:00 pm Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:

Actually might be relevant to this video I watched earlier today by chance, which was about the American TV show, The Big Bang Theory, suffers from something referred to as "adorkable misogyny". Where apparently in some media it could be expected that geeky or nerdy characters could get away with certain actions because how it seems inherently non-threatening,


I can't speak for Revenge of the Nerds but The Big Bang Theory almost always makes the female characters out to be in the right where the men screw up majorly. I've seen every single episode up to date.

If anything, it's "adorkable misandry" but that's kinda far-fetched too. Each male character has become a better person since he got a girlfriend and learned more social grace and wisdom from being around her.....and the girls also changed for the better.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 5:58 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
I can't speak for Revenge of the Nerds but The Big Bang Theory almost always makes the female characters out to be in the right where the men screw up majorly. I've seen every single episode up to date.

If anything, it's "adorkable misandry" but that's kinda far-fetched too. Each male character has become a better person since he got a girlfriend and learned more social grace and wisdom from being around her.....and the girls also changed for the better.

I am mostly going by what I saw in the video, you should be able to track it down on YouTube if you want to watch it yourself, I promise that it is not just a video that is hating on the show, but more of an analytical essay, which seemed to be getting rather positive comments from women especially.

The point largely came down to characters that can get away with misogynist behaviour because they are "adorkable" or non threatening. Howard was especially sexist and treats women like objects earlier with saying inappropriate comments from them earlier, and then he expects his partner to simply care for him. Raj as a character gets insulted by his feminine traits, and his earlier alcoholism had him be pretty inappropriate with women. Leonard, while kind of the fairest for both sexes and generally good, he may tell characters off for bad comments against women, he rarely does so to the extent he may require and nipping in the bud the behaviour in a way he can be a bit of an enabler, with his winning in the end of the girl with jokes that he wore her down maybe being problematic to some who may be impressed. And Sheldon, while generally insulting everyone in general, when it is towards women it almost always because they are a women, like about their biology, or some sexist saying he is repeating from his father or something. Kind of like that controversy recently of someone in Google sending out a memo that women are biologically less suited for IT than men.

Another comment I read in the comments of that video was the concern that the main women in the series were not introduced as their own character, but rather the girlfriend of the respective male character. Do I believe that The Big Bang Theory simply bad in this field? Not really, while not being the biggest fan of the series (some inaccuracies of geek culture bugged me, and that it seemed kind of set to have smart people act dumb), I do enjoy some good parts in it. Maybe I am not allowed to decide because of just my gender, but one of my favourite parts in the series I saw was when the main female characters hung out and got in princess outfits after fighting over who could be a particular one, and then they did a telephone conference to school girls in encouraging them to go into the sciences. There was the joke of encouraging them to be empowered women, while some might see how they were dressed as somewhat childish, but really that they could go and dress like that because they wanted to, I think should have been empowering.

And this is why I was kind of comparing The Big Bang Theory to My First Girlfriend is a Gal. The girls can actually be pretty fine by themselves, them being Gals is kind of them bucking the social expectations of normal dress instead wearing something that they feel expresses themselves. Good points in both series have the girls kind of face weird expectations of males and instead show themselves as pretty reasonable people rather than alien sex objects (those words went weirdly together), and they can act in ways that benefit them, and I think cross some boundaries. But they are still playing of male main characters who seem somewhat ignorant of that and can assert this kind altered view, even if the narrative still points to the girl being the right party, it can have guys act in pretty creepy ways that can be off-putting without getting quite the continuous telling off that it is not how one should act. Instead it says that even for geeks it is a case of boys will be boys, and maybe even perpetuate the sort of culture that allows guys to act along the lines of complaining about being friend zoned and maybe act a little inappropriate to their female friends.

I don't think My First Girlfriend is a Gal, was being very friendly to its male characters who could act pretty disgustingly, but it still had a number of parts that were hard to sit through.
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Akane the Catgirl



Joined: 09 Oct 2013
Posts: 1091
Location: LA, Baby!
PostPosted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:23 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
DuskyPredator wrote:

Actually might be relevant to this video I watched earlier today by chance, which was about the American TV show, The Big Bang Theory, suffers from something referred to as "adorkable misogyny". Where apparently in some media it could be expected that geeky or nerdy characters could get away with certain actions because how it seems inherently non-threatening,


I can't speak for Revenge of the Nerds but The Big Bang Theory almost always makes the female characters out to be in the right where the men screw up majorly. I've seen every single episode up to date.

If anything, it's "adorkable misandry" but that's kinda far-fetched too. Each male character has become a better person since he got a girlfriend and learned more social grace and wisdom from being around her.....and the girls also changed for the better.


I saw a scene from Revenge of the Nerds a few years ago while my dad and brother were watching it, and that was all it took for me to hate that movie with every fiber of my being. spoiler[To be more specific, there's a scene where the main characters bug the women's dormitories and watch them while they strip their clothes.] Just go watch Animal House instead.

Meanwhile, I've also been watching My Hero Academia on Funimation. Mei Hatsume is my trash wife. FIGHT ME.
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Moguro_Fukuzou



Joined: 14 Sep 2017
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:55 pm Reply with quote
Recently I saw Outlaw Star and the three seasons, plus two OVAs of Slayers. Both show certain similarities, such constrasts between slapstick comedy and heavy subplots. In my opinion, comparing these two animes, I thought Slayers was better for the charisma their characters.

Outlaw begins with a badass protagonist, excellent atmosphere mixing sci-fi and magic, good action sequences pointing to an epic ending. But in the middle of this anime, the story decays. Outlaw Star turns into a mere harem animation, showing a deceptive ending.

On the other hand, Slayers never hides its casuality or nonsense narrative and still presents a good magical universe containing its balance of dark and light forces. The character's drama works as well too. I only thought Naga the Serpent was annoying, sounds like a forced proto-meme (action figure catalogue level 100). She wasn't worth as a comical relief.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 12:04 pm Reply with quote
@Akane: I can't blame you for hating a movie that does that. (I haven't seen it but that's gross)

@Dusky: Yes, a lot of the BBT guys start off as creeps but since the show develops them into better people, I feel it's no longer an issue.


Moguro_Fukuzou wrote:
Outlaw Star turns into a mere harem animation, showing a deceptive ending.


Pardon my French but da faq are you talking about? o____O
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Cam0



Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 4884
PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:09 pm Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
And just watched the 10th and last episode of My First Girlfriend is a Gal
...
Rating of So-so (5/10).


I also just finished it and rated it Not really good 4/10. I just found the show kinda boring. I didn't like many of the characters and I particularly hated those main character's three buddies. I felt like they were a constant hindrance to the story with their stupid advices and other silly things. And there was too much focus on side characters. The focus should have stayed more on Yukana and Junichi instead of building a lame harem.

P.S. I hate Nene's character design. Razz
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Moguro_Fukuzou



Joined: 14 Sep 2017
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 6:26 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
Pardon my French but da faq are you talking about? o____O


Well, Outlaw begins with a cool main character who had his own traumas, stuck into a mediocre planet, also trying to search answers about his life while travelling through space working as a mercenary. His vision is shared by the android girl. A beautiful metaphor about a typical young uncertainty. The tension increases when the mercenary brothers and the chinese space triad appears. You have expectations about gunfights or psychologic tragedies like Trigun, but by the second half of this anime, the quality of the duels decreases. They are not memorable.

To make matters worse, they put the swordswoman and the feline officer just to fill the "harem quota" They do not have a good background. Adds badly casual moments and not too funny episodes between the main search of great space treasure plus commom ending and voilá. We have a mere harem anime. By the starting premise of Outlaw Star, I thought the ending was weak, IMO.
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Spawn29



Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 7:10 pm Reply with quote
I recently finished KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! and I personally really enjoy it. I found the show to be really funny and it has a good cast of characters. The animation was also nicely done and the voice acting was solid. I also found the music in the anime to be pretty good too.

My biggest issue with KonoSuba would probably be there is a lot of scenes that were simply cliche and not a funny twist on the cliche. I also didn't how the show does drag on it's very obvious setups and jokes on. Otherwise, I did had fun watching the show from start to finish.

Overall, KonSuba is a good show and it's worth checking out. Not my favorite comedy series, but I do like it. Rating: 7/10
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Sep 16, 2017 9:06 pm Reply with quote
Next on the list of finished shows is that I watched the 12th and last episode of Hina Logic - from Luck & Logic, the magical girl spinoff Luck & Logic, but perhaps "spinoff" is too strong a word? This does feel more aimed at children, but more than that it kind of stands opposed to the prior series by I would say some pretty significant changes or elements in its world building, the biggest on in how it handled foreigners.

For those not familiar with this series, foreigners were like supernatural alien beings or monsters, and they would walk with the Logicalists and fuse with them, which had some interesting character interaction between the two. This version though, most of the foreigners seemed to be invisible forces that would rarely interact with their partner, making these foreigners just a confusing enigma. There even being an arc where the girls wanted to learn about them, but really had no force to ask except this little dog thing, Belle, who was not really a conversation person/creature. And while the first series was pretty grounded in a normal life like world, this version though was just confusing, with random kingdoms and settings that did not make much sense. I think there was the hint that the main character, Liones, was something like Russian, but her father apparently made a kingdom with the dorkiest king outfit, and her reaction with snow maybe felt off for someone from Russia.

In response maybe I should just be told that this was a different take on the franchise, that it was not from the previous series but a different adaption from the card game which is not connected together. But yet it actually was, characters from the previous series appeared here, girls from the first Luck & Logic series made an appearance beyond just cameo to do a test, except for one notable character, want to guess who? The male main character was not allowed to appear apparently, the only male character I think appeared was Liones' father, creating a no boys allowed anime with yuri elements and stuff, and I really was not a fan of it.

Not that males did not play some element, by which I mean one of the teachers of this series was always complaining about not being able to get a man, I think trying to play her up as pathetic to make jokes. Yet it just felt kind of awkward how this early 20 something character acted. How these worked in the ending credits especially did seem to be told us how to feel through Belle, who while a bit mean spirited in these scenes, was perhaps the best character despite spending most of the time making animal noises as the token mascot character. The series also had its moments expressions of the characters which could be entertaining. And I would also give credit to the OP, which I found was actually pretty creative to look at, which I might recommend at least checking out if able.

I had previously given the original Luck & Logic a rating of Decent, it was not like it was great, yet this kind of walked all over it in a way I was not happy about, so it should get a lower rating. And yet confusion in that it felt like this, in that it felt like it was made for a totally different audience, the first being for those who want an action show with girls and felt like something from a light novel, probably teenage boys. But this felt more shoujo manga like where it could go for young girls, or older men who want to watch those sorts of magical girl shows, which it kind of dawns on me that I might count as, yet it is not like I have that much interest in these type of magical girl shows. And so, I will give a rating of Weak (3/10), I would not say there was quite enough to say I found "not a waste of time" rather than "wishing I did something else". Yet I would also admit that there was not really anything really offensive, except maybe the teacher's man woes, and the princely lesbian character being made a butt of jokes often.
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:47 am Reply with quote
Moguro_Fukuzou wrote:
Chiibi wrote:
Pardon my French but da faq are you talking about? o____O


Well, Outlaw begins with a cool main character who had his own traumas, stuck into a mediocre planet, also trying to search answers about his life while travelling through space working as a mercenary. His vision is shared by the android girl. A beautiful metaphor about a typical young uncertainty. The tension increases when the mercenary brothers and the chinese space triad appears. You have expectations about gunfights or psychologic tragedies like Trigun, but by the second half of this anime, the quality of the duels decreases. They are not memorable.

To make matters worse, they put the swordswoman and the feline officer just to fill the "harem quota" They do not have a good background. Adds badly casual moments and not too funny episodes between the main search of great space treasure plus commom ending and voilá. We have a mere harem anime. By the starting premise of Outlaw Star, I thought the ending was weak, IMO.


I'll admit that quite a bit of this is true. Outlaw Star's initial episodes have way more promise than the show ever builds up to. The primary characters of Gene, Hilda, Jim, and Melfina were archetypal but carried great potential for an awesome space adventure. Hilda's big death scene is probably both the height of the show (for me), and the point that separates the character arc of Gene Starwind from the rest of the anime's episodic nonsense. Shizuka and Aisha are, admittedly, unneeded in the grand scheme. I wouldn't say it becomes a harem just because there are three girls and two boys (one of whom is too young to really factor into things), since Gene only seems attracted to Melfina and neither Aisha nor Shizuka are interested in him either. They don't really seem to develop much of an arc and scenes where the two extra characters risk themselves for Gene feel forced, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Shizuka.

Of course, all these complaints aren't "Outlaw Star is bad because..." but instead "Outlaw Star wasted its potential." I think I rated it a 7/10, and that's a good rating for it. Good, not great. It overstays its welcome by being 26 episodes long, and the characters never really go through an arc after the initial episodes, so it isn't anything profound. The action is better than most of its time, but its in service of a standard plot. I called it "Guardians of the Galaxy: The Anime" a few times, but now I'm starting to feel like I was putting it on a pedestal for no good reason.

A BIG issue with the series is how it shows signs of promise early on. The death of Hilda, who was seemingly a big protagonist, was a dramatic turn that a lot of people who entered the show blind didn't expect. I think that the show needed to have another big moment like that (not necessarily a death, but a big change) instead of space races and mind controlling cacti. Its initial episodes seem to be building up a different show entirely.

I think my complaints about this are kind of like my problem with the Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Ohki continuity. It peaks in the first couple of episodes and never reaches those same heights again. That doesn't make it a bad show, but that does make it a wasted opportunity.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:23 am Reply with quote
@ DuskyPredator - I rated Hina's Logic as Good. Cute girls doing cute things shows are hit and miss with me. Some of them I like and others just bore me. This was one I liked. I agree it's nothing special in any particular department, but I did find myself chuckling with a reasonable degree of frequency and I enjoyed the cast. Yes, a very different take on that world compared to Luck & Logic (which I also enjoyed).
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:38 pm Reply with quote
Next on my list of shows I watched that were not worth their own thread is Battle Girl High School, of which I just watched the 12th and last episode of. I am sure it is pretty easy to guess what this show is like, you have a bunch of young girls with science fiction like fantasy powers, where they are protecting civilization from monsters that periodically attack. Straight off the bat saying this is not original, and in particular I am going to compare this to a series from the season before called Schoolgirl Strikers Animation Channel, a series I did a last episode rating of back on page 972, if you happen to want to read, but largely just for a small reference. And the main thing I want to say in comparison is that Vattle Girl High School felt like it learned all of the wrong lessons from that show.

But first, the most wrong thing with this show, the one thing that made really getting invested in this one, was the cast. You had many of the usual suspects, but what was so difficult here was the size, a whopping 19 school girl characters that although they had various different traits, I found it almost impossible to really build a profile of each of them. I think that there was a main girl and a mysterious girl, but the sheer amount of varied focus it put on its large cast meant that it felt like I could not remember any of their names, and I did not know who I should focus on. That was until the end, where it actually kind of became an okay show in the last few episodes when it focused on two characters of Miki and Misaki, and actually had an interesting turn. Actually, I am going to post the promotional picture of this series, and I want you to imagine trying to understand and remember them as the series constantly shifted focus:


Sure they look different, but the first episode introduces them all one after the other. To use the contrast with Schoolgirl Strikers, that show had a core 5 girl team main cast with easily differentiated characters of which I could identify and use as an anchor when we explored the other teams, which also made a larger cast too. In Battle Girl High School, it felt like only the mysterious girl stood out because she was certainly doing her own thing in the face of a literal class. Possibly made worse by the fact this show was pretty boring. In more of a comparison, I previously pointed out that I felt that Schoolgirl Strikers would have done better to embrace its silly nature more to be interesting, and I can't say that BGHS did any better, or at least it did not feel like it. There was this strange body swap episode, but not really the same thing (the plot had a lesbian girl trying to use her new body the girls would let down their guard for to take pictures).

Yet strangely, when it actually felt like it got good, was when it started to actually take itself seriously. That the serious acting character who had been kind of softening from the fluff, suddenly showed what her deal was, that she spoiler[was the little sister of the other girl from another dimension]. And while I really struggled to care earlier, it kind of made me do so in the end. Maybe even contributed to problem is something I have not mentioned yet, as the setting was just really confusing and did not explain itself, either they returned to the surface after being orbit while some disaster happened. or they were actually in some ship or something, but I was the planet. Maybe they just retreated to containment areas, but it felt really confusing, like whether everyone knew that these 19 high school girls were saving society out of their school under order of their teachers or something.

I can't even say there was any other factors I particularly liked such as an ED or something like in Schoolgirl Striker or in Ange Vierge, another Silver Link anime. It was pretty trashy, the type I wonder how many others but me were watching it on this site, I have rated Ange Vierge as Very good, and I even rated Schoolgirl Strikers as Decent. But for Battle Girl High School, give a rating of Not really good (4/10), where it was probably on its way to being lower, but the last arc saved it from feeling like a total waste of time and that it just did not grab my attention most of the time. But the huge cast was a really big problem. But if you like trash some trash like I do, you might be still okay to watch it.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:36 pm Reply with quote
Today I finally finished Amagi Brilliant Park. It was a thrilling show, seeing Seiya, Isuzu, and many friends working their hardest to make the amusement park a showstopper spoiler[in order to keep Princess Latifah from losing her memory]. Plus, the antics of Moffle, Macron, and Tiramie were utterly hilarious! Very Happy
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