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I just watched the first four episodes of Samurai Deeper Kyo. It was not very good. The main characters are all terrible except Kyo. And I mean the demon, Man-Slayer version of Kyo. "Kyoshiro" is just awful. He's a stupid, unfunny pervert who does that really irritating thing I mentioned before where he has two separate versions of himself. "Comedic Kyoshiro" and "Serious Kyoshiro." I don't even remember anyone else's name yet, and anyone who knows me can tell you that I'm GREAT with names. I remember everyone's name in every anime I've watched (Every main character anyway), and even if I have trouble, if another character says "Hey Jokasu!" I can instantly remember which one is "Jokasu." In this show... I'm sure that if one character referred to another by name, I wouldn't even know who they were talking about unless the person being referred to was Kyo himself.

And when I said "everyone sucks except Kyo," don't take that to mean that Kyo himself is a good character. So far he's just been a generic superpowered evil side who never really gets to do anything evil (to anyone who didn't deserve it). This guy murdered 100 people allegedly, and not in a "Soldier who killed 100 enemy soldiers" type way. He's a mass-murdering psychopath, yet he happens to always do morally righteous things! I've seen his archetype done far better in shows from before this came out (Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun) and shows afterwards (Elfen Lied comes to mind).

That's not even mentioning the two most pointless characters, Brock 2.0 and obligatory tsundere girl who acts more badass and useful than she ever actually is. The girl especially checks a lot of tally marks for poor character writing in an anime. Right down to confronting the main character with the objective of defeating him (in this case, for his fairly minuscule bounty) and forgetting about it entirely by the end of episode one. She tied him up at gun point at first, but decided on not only letting him go afterwards, but tagging along with him. Supposedly, this was to get Kyo's bounty, but if so, then this is pure stupidity. The girl can't fight worth crud, was nearly killed by an adversary FAR weaker than Kyo (considering that Kyo killed him with zero effort) and was scared that Kyo would kill her right afterwards, and when he turns back to Kyoshiro, she thinks it's a good idea to wait until he drops his guard and capture him for his bounty!? What planet does she live on!?

That's not even getting into how pointless her character is compared to other (mundane, uninteresting) characters of her era and of a similar archetype. Kaoru from Rurouni Kenshin was useless in a plot-sense, but in terms of Kenshin's character arc, I can admit that she was probably the most essential non-villain character. On the other hand, um... (gotta look up her name) Yuya seems to just exist for the sake of having a single relevant female character. She fails on every level. I don't know if she's meant to appeal to the female demographic or if she's there for fanservice, but her inclusion feels like a committee decision, not a creative one.

I have nothing positive to say about anyone else either. If they're not annoying unfunny, they're just boring. The action fails on almost every level. There is no intense violence, which wouldn't be a problem if the fights themselves were engaging. Sadly, there's practically no fighting in this anime. There's "fighting" in terms of a narrative conflict between multiple characters, but the action on screen is so poorly animated that it makes a sword fight between a mass-murdering swordsman and a snake monster dull.

Now, to avoid being too harsh on this anime, I'd like to bring up the positives. The dub is okay, and for a 2001 anime that no one has heard of, that's basically like saying it's the Citizen Cane of dubs. Dan Green is especially good as the protagonist. The OP song is also fairly catchy (the ending is terrible though).

So, do these minor praises mean that you should watch Samurai Deeper Kyo? Well, let's just say that if someone gave you the DVDs, it isn't even worth watching then. In fact, that person probably hates you. You should punch them in the throat.

Next show I am finishing and not making an actual topic for is Fastest Finger First, with watching the 12th and last episode. Just going to come out and say that I can like some trash, but this the type of thing I don't really care about, the dorky short guy who is pulled into some club activity that he has some hidden skill at. They don't really interest me, and that includes in general with their humour and the like. I don't know if it is for a different gender audience or, or there is this type of immature part I don't gel with.

I am also going to say that it was kind of mean spirited, specifically in how it used the supposedly mean spirited character, Akira. First in how it kind of treats him as weird as apparentlyspoiler[ being a crossdresser, more saying he was a troll than gender fluid]. And really in general how it acted with how he played the game, like how he was doing it was enough for him to be yelled at, threatened to be removed, and in general that he is doing it wrong, which actually made all of them look like douches for. Maybe it is a Japanese thing, that rather than encourage that there are multiple ways to play and perhaps welcoming, it instead said there is this unsaid code of conduct with a specific meta way that quiz bowls are meant to be played, and playing any other way is inherently wrong. Mind games is enough to have everyone think you should be disqualified, and somehow they are surprised by exploits.

There were plenty of other problems in the series too, and probably a bit mean to say it, but the voice actress of the female lead is a wrong choice, this being her third anime role just made her lack of polish kind of stand out as such. It Pretty much every other voice was fine. It kind of forces its a rivalry, with a guy who looks like the rival in all of these shows. Some weird I would say romantic drama with the female characters like it did not have anything else to do. An odd otaku character who kind of felt a little stalker like in why he joined, and had the role of saying otaku things. The club president felt really unexplored that he was more of a prop than a character, before towards the end he is apparently a really big deal. Which goes into that there was all of these longer threads of plot that popped up towards the end which will have not animated resolution. But that might just be that this was just largely an advertisement for the manga.

I give a rating of Not really good (4/10), which maybe gets a bit of extra dislike just for my taste of just not being happy that this was on my list.

louis6578 wrote:

I just watched the first four episodes of Samurai Deeper Kyo. It was not very good.

I remember 15-year-old me liking that show 10 years ago. But I can't remember a thing from it now except that it got weird at the end or something and the opening theme was absolutely AWESOME.

And a double hitter at also finished the half episode length series, Aho-Girl. It is a series not for everyone, but I actually found myself quite humoured by a lot of the jokes. Yoshiko's pretty much superpower stupidity surprisingly opened up to a variety of jokes and could often lead to a surprising scene. Largely funny that usually it meant that she would win because she was always happy with whatever choice she made, making the victims of her stupidity or unwitting ally all the more humorous. Like some sort of Sakamoto-kun, where she is an idiot instead of just being perfect.

It is not like the technical elements were too big of a deal. But the show did do some rather humorous things with its OP where although they were rarely animation intensive, they did have some funny jokes to start the episodes, usually taking me by surprise. This last episode may not have had an op though, but the childhood relationship between A-kun and Yoshiko was fun.

I give it a rating of Decent (6/10), that I think it was worth keeping my attention, which I think comes down to how the half episode length was probably a good fit for keeping my attention and giving me a few good laughs.

I am really starting to spam this thread, but series without their own discussions are ending, and despite not really being worth making an entire thread for me, they are worth some sort of discussion. The next one is Netsuzou Trap -NTR-. Do add this on the trashy pile, alone if you know what "NTR" is, which I did not really until before I heard of this show, it is cheating where I think it is you are supposed to like a good guy boyfriend being cheated on by some bad boy or something.

Really though, it was not too bad, most of the scum comes by a certain horrible character, that the show makes no excuses for. And really the story could be taken as the awakening of a sexually confused girl realising she indeed has feeling for a friend of the same gender, no spoiler there, or at least bi as she seemed to kind of like her first boyfriend, but also got her priorities in place towards the end, maybe becoming more positive. Is not the only way to see the series though, as one could kind of think it was saying the lesbian girl managed to turn her friend and crush into turn lesbian for her, the character in general was kind of self destructive.

They were fairly short episodes, where it would try and fit plot, fanservice, and drama into its length, and was not really elegant. Although not as bad as it could have been, it could still be a little uncomfortable to watch. But I will admit some satisfaction at the main girl spoiler[realising that she does love her friend, able to kind of talk about it with her now then boyfriend, who was pretty understanding, and make a commitment]. I give a rating of So-so (5/10), generally did not grab too much attention.

Finally got around to This Boy Suffers From Crystallization. Pretty similar in style to the other This Boy entries, it's more a motion comic than animation, kinda like Kagewani. Everything is watercolors, so it takes some getting used to, but it's pleasant.

I liked the metaphor of crystalizing under stress, but the most amazing part was that even though it was about a student/teacher relationship, it wasn't rapey and the teacher was responsible enough spoiler[to make sure the kid graduated first]! I won't say he was mature enough, since he was just as dysfunctional as the kid, but that was a refreshing departure from the norm for these things. And they definitely got social anxiety right.

Anyway, it wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't a waste of 25 min either. Smile

Oh, I also finished up Dive! which was kind of a waste of time. It really tried its hardest to not be Free! and it succeeded despite the boys in speedos, since they all had the personalities of pancakes. Coincidentally, they kept doing this really weird thing where I guess the sunlight hitting the pool reflected off parts of their bodies whenever they were near the water, and it looked a lot like they were either growing scales or suffering from crystallization. Smile

Gina Szanboti wrote:

Oh, I also finished up Dive! which was kind of a waste of time.

Glad that I managed to drop at least a show I that I was unlikely to enjoy, while I still had myself watch a couple that were not that great. But also that someone else did watch it. I really thought that I would not care for it looking like the guys were in speedos as a main attraction.

DuskyPredator wrote:

I really thought that I would not care for it looking like the guys were in speedos as a main attraction.

You'd think that would be a main attraction (I'm not a fan of speedos either), but somehow they made them look really unattractive, especially with that blue scale shading thing (see below). And the MC was so lame he lost his girlfriend to his brother. But that was a plus, since she was pretty lame too. Most of the characters seemed pretty cranky all the time, except for the little Rona Barrett wannabe. The secondary lead (Takahiro Sakurai using his Miyuki voice got me through this) was such a doofus he turned down a spot at the Olympics because reasons. No one would do that. The behavior of the selection committee didn't make any sense either.

I didn't know much about diving going into this, but I feel like I know even less now.

Heh, the captcha to upload this was "pool party." Very Happy

Not quite finished yet, although I wanted it to, but I just watched the 12th episode of Chronos Ruler, which I am watching at this point because I made it this far despite not really liking it that much. But I had to talk about something in this episode that was a part of how it plays with its rules so fast and loose to whatever it wants.

It played so loose with its rules that in this episode Kiri spoiler[uses his katana and hits the villains wings which it apparently fails at. The reasoning? apparently his wings are made out of "a dissolving liquid" which can digest any "object and reduce it to nothing", the problem being that the object that is the blade of Kiri's katana is literally water, frozen in time. What kind of liquid dissolves water?] Some reasoning maybe could have been proposed that the explanation was slightly off, and that it was more time related, but the episode kind of threw that away by them spoiler[beating the trick by apparently slowing the objects down really slowly, an then go really fast]. Which I still call really stupid.

Oh, and also, one of the other character's attacks is literally just air, which also makes the problem not make any sense. I found it so stupid that I could not wait for the last episode to mention it.

Next finished is Angel's 3Piece, with me watching the final episode (Episode 12). I mentioned a few weeks back that I was watching this, the musical sibling to sports anime, Ro Kyu Bu, with all of its loli character. I know people have an automatic reaction against that word (loli), and to be perfectly honest I think there are times it could be a bit distasteful, but by the large it was not that bad. It was actually a pretty fun, and would say that it was pretty aware of some perceptions of it. The show gave plenty of attention not just for the young girls, but to the male lead with his problems, the female character around his age (and older sister to the girls), and even to their adoptive father. The worst probably comes down to him having some baths with his clearly clingy tsundere sister, but it is not like there was actually anything between them. And I think was tongue in cheek with other scenes.

Mostly this was cute, I was quite fond of the kind of dopey bits in the episode previews where a character would or would not be repenting to holy Sora. Or even be kind of funny like the girls trying to get teens into the same sleeping bag. It also managed to have a particularly on point emotional episode. And a larger story arc that also worked out pretty well, leading to I would say satisfactory ending. Maybe on the plus side comparing to Ro Kyu BU in that it did less of trying to ship the high school boy with a young girl, even if it did have a pretty G rated date. Largely it just felt like people managing to grow from the influence of other people, that some people who can feel sort of down can feel up by helping others.

I give a rating of Decent (6/10), I certainly did not lose my time watching it. It looked good, it sounded good, perhaps better than the previous season's Anonymous Noise, and it is with taking into consideration the obvious controversy. It might be worth a watch if you can have an open mind and or not be so easily put off.

I have reached another viewing milestone. I watched the finale of New Game!! which made it the 666th TV anime title that I have watched to completion.

*makes the sign of the horns*

Very appropriate title to be the Sign of the Beast since Aoba can be quite devilish in her teasing sometimes.

Progress Report:

That's it. I'm done. I finally finished Ouran Host Club, after over a long and painful year of recapping every single episode. I...I can't believe it. That ending, man. That ending.

Meanwhile, I'm watching HeroAca on Funimation. It's great sh*t. I've noticed a bit of a "daddy issues" theme running, and I heard it's only going to get stronger with future arcs. Is it?

Wonder if there should be at least something separate for short shows. Anyway, next in line is Lights of the Clione (Clione no Akari), its 12th and final episode. Probably worth a post, but not for good reasons, I think the most apt thing to say is that it feels like a passion project, something worked on by a small group or amateurs. The animation generally is not too bad, I don't think was any major problems there for something relatively small, but maybe there is a case that compared to other parts it looks quite good.

What is certainly not good is the writing, and is perhaps some of the most amateur anime writing I have seen in a while, It practically comes across like it was written like by a high school student, and not a senior either, which I guess is middle school in a lot of the world. All dialogue feels really unnatural, like someone does not know how this age group speaks, making it ironic in how it feels like it was written by such a person. Most of it feels like it was written from the point of just "how do I get the point of what I want this scene to be", and not a "what would this character talk about here". Seriously, it makes some of what In Another World with My Smartphone did actually look great in this way, because the writer there thought a little more on what they might actually say. Characters speak beyond what they would say, attempting to try and sound intellectual, but only coming across as faux, something I complained about Sakurada Reset, but even that show did a better job of it than this one.

So far I was talking about problems of writing in terms of characters, but even general scenario there was a problem that stood by itself. Explanations for why the key character of the show is bullied, don't feel well realised, and decisions of how the characters who become her allies act the way they do like pretending to not be her friend like it is for her good, never worked. Some of the worst is decisions of "quick, we have to hide her or run away or she will be bullied", which just felt misinformed, not only for what the characters did but the show's choice.

A spoiler if you managed to not watch this, but that spoiler[key character dies,] maybe you consider that a big move, and maybe you think I will say it made interesting or complain that it was not foreshadowed enough. But really, how it failed is how it was foreshadowed way too much, there was no real subtlety in how it handled the foreshadowing. I did kind of end up a bit surprised, but it ended up kind of thinking that it actually did it after being so obvious. And also came across as mean, I don't mean in the usual tragic way, but that it felt unnecessary, and whether the show actually could allow some happiness. To add onto it, this was placed with actually leaving 3 full episodes left afterwards which could be described as: spoiler[hopelessly look for her], spoiler[flashback that did not explain anything], and spoiler[lets be more sad and admit we are bad people]. It was not fun, it was not thought provoking in any really engaging way, and spread over 3 weeks it kind of lost weight and feels like a drag for what I think was supposed to be a friendship story. It was not even clear what it was trying to say as a conclusion: Either they can spoiler[text to a ghost, she is at peace now, or that heavy handed story the previous episode about how the other two will get together and have a daughter they will probably name after their dead friend].

And I kind of want to stop shitting on it, because when I think it in broader strokes, it actually does draw out an emotion in a positive way. I just wish it was not so mind numbingly boring that I felt compelled to do something else while watching. I said that it felt like a passion project, and I don't want to be mean on that, all the power to the people that managed to put work together to make this, they probably should not have to deal with a bunch of randoms on the internet acting as if they could do so much better, like it is so easy. I see that it was apparently a novel first, and I think that it might be part of the problem in that it was not really well laid out for a TV anime with episodes, where a movie could have afforded a smoother experience, and the last 3 episodes to feeling like it was too much. It felt like there was just no point to having breaks because it just let its air out each time. But I give it points for having a bit of a cute element, not in the purposeful moe way, but that it tried to do its thing, it just kind of felt quite amateur, which now that I think about it might be kind of getting feelings of moe towards the series itself.

Anyway, I give a rating of Weak (3/10), which means I kind of wished I did something else with my time, but I would not say that it actually felt offensive. Frankly it was just kind of boring, and I do feel like giving it a bit of leeway to other shows that clearly have a big budget.

And now I have finished Chronos Rulers with its 13th episode, which I did a little rant about last week. I really do not like this show, and it is for a few core reasons.

It was like in the first episode that I found myself hating one of the main characters, Victor, for being just a shitty person. Despite being the supposed wise character who always turns things around, in just the first episode he screwed up from messing around and got someone killed who they could have saved, and yet he constantly makes fun of the serious Kiri. The things he makes fun of are either him borderline bullying, or things that he has had no luxury of because of Victor himself, because the end of the first episode reveals that spoiler[Victor is his father]. And other characters are not much better, with the likes of Mina who also constantly belittles Kiri, making him to be a nuisance, while offhand saying she is his mother, regardless of what evidence there would be against, and that it would also mean she would have abandoned him. And yet spoiler[the end of the season says that the totally unconvincing claim that she is his mother is actually correct, that she indeed left Kiri to look after his own backwards time turning father who would soon forget raising his son or something], and the first thing she does is tell him to get lost. A far flung from the memories he puts up. It is really ironic that the last arc is about family, when Kiri's is horrible, who would try to claim they are good because they happen to save his life for him putting it in danger because of them.

And the last main character does not get away, with Blaze, who's horrid character trait is that he wants to be a villain, that he would do terrible stuff, yet gets totally convinced by sob stories. The show tries to play it off as cute and stuff, but feels totally unconvincing, have no sympathy for his own supposed backstory, still feels like a terrible person, with a flimsy character base and totally unreliable. Getting a little bit away from characters, but next into the rules of this show, because sometimes it likes to set up little details like Kiri having water on him, but a lot of the times the rules actually feel pretty inconsistent, that it can be pretty bullshit to whatever it wants to make happen, and honestly half as well thought out as it thinks it is. Sets up rules that time control can only be used on objects, and somehow water, air, and explosions count as objects (see what I said about supposed liquid that dissolves any "object"). But maybe worth saying the totally unnecessary theme of Victor, where he uses cards, and puts on the persona of being a gambler, but it is all window dressing and is never like we see him gamble with cards. He just seems to be able to randomly pull cards out of his butt, where he apparently has a stupid amount on him as if that and flirting makes him a super gambler. Or really just so the creator can fit cards into rest of series.

It is like super dumb with terrible character interaction, and tries to act all edgy. I am not even getting into school girl uniform man. Which I think partially contributed this kind of hard understanding the setting with Japanese school girl uniform making a cameo. It does kind of have a nice look to it, but as you look harder it just kind of loses whatever style points it had, except I would say a few times of CG. And nothing really to say about other elements like music, I am just generally really happy to finally be done with this. A rating of Bad (2/10), really not recommended unless you can really turn you brain off and not care about the plot and logic holes, just enjoying the nice looking characters. Although I will make mention now of how stupid I found Victor in how he wears his jacket off his should, it can't be comfortable or for any practical purpose, and kept making me wish I could go in and make him wear it properly.

Just got around to watching SAO Ordinal Scale. I actually liked it a lot, even though, not surprisingly, it didn't make a lick of sense. It was still fun to watch Kirito bumble around, and the main villains weren't face-lickingly evil which was a nice change. I was wondering why they sidelined Asuna for the final battle, but happily she was having none of that and joined in triumphantly.

Probably the biggest plot hole was why they didn't just copy the data instead of transferring it. No one would even have noticed, or cared if they did notice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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