Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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louis6578
 Posts: 1866 |
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I'm thinking of starting a new thread. "How you would improve an anime." Unlike the one we have now, which is basically asking what anime as a whole can do better, this one would be about specific series with interesting concepts that failed to live up their potential. Fushigi Yuugi and Future Diary are topping my list right now. But on a lesser topic of improvement, I think that in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, they should have at least hinted at stands in Part 2. Maybe have Joseph develop a really weak Hermit Purple then. Or, at the very least, have Joseph use Hamon WAY more often in Part 3. It's incredibly useful, even against stand users. Plus, hamon is shown to be able to manipulate water and keep it from spilling, which would have been interesting to see used in the confrontation with the older D'Arby. It's so awkward to just go from Hamon all the time to Stands and nothing else all the time between the final chapter of one part and the first chapter of the next. It's like reading a totally different manga. Like, even if Araki wanted to abandon hamon entirely, at least have it fade into the background slowly rather than abruptly vanish. Old Joseph is so underutilized because of his weak stand and rare usage of hamon. It's especially jarring when you consider that hamon can be transferred through a stand, so it's not useless against them or anything. And, while super-effective against vampires and Pillar Men, hamon still works well against normal people, as seen when Kars uses hamon against Joseph later on. That, and for DiU, I'd probably have fewer stand confrontations after Kira is introduced. It's way too weird that all these random stand users would come out and become a problem after the main villain is finally revealed. Even if it makes sense plot-wise, it really ruins the pacing of the climax. As for how to improve Fushigi Yuugi... you'd have to pretty much recreate it from scratch, but I can think of several easy ways. First off, remove like... almost all of the Suzaku 7. They're mostly just archetypes with one or two quirks. Keep Noriko, Hotohori, and Tamahome and give them all tangible roles in the narrative unrelated to being in wub with Miaka. Second, COMPLETELY RECREATE MIAKA. Make her less whiny, dependent, and prone to making idiotic decisions like this Brave warrior with noble intentions: Wait here, Lady Miaka! It's dangerous out there. I'll inform you when it's safe. Miaka: >:O LET ME GO TOO! I WANNA GO TOO! I WANNA BE WITH TAMAHOME IN THE BATTLEFIELD OF VIETNAM TOO! LEMME GO TOO! I WANNA GO TOO! BW: -locks Miaka in the closet because it's the only way to keep her safe, since she's more likely to go into imminent danger than Mindy from Animaniacs- Miaka: I need to escape and get to a mind controlled Tamahome who is almost certainly going to murder me when I get close to him! Hotohori doesn't know what he's talking about, trying to keep me here! I can take care of myself! I've shown time and again that I can cry and whine my way out of any danger! Honestly, I think I'd rather have Miaka be a blank archetype like Tenchi or the protagonist of Amnesia. Yeah, that's lazy writing too, but it's also completely inoffensive. But if you ask me, the best character to base her off of would be Duck from Princess Tutu. Duck is the opposite of Miaka. Someone who is nervous and uncertain about everything, but always makes the right decision in the end despite her low confidence because it's the right thing to do. Miaka is someone who is confident to the point of delusion, does LITERALLY THE WORST THING YOU COULD DO in any situation because of her lunacy, and does it out of selfish infatuation. Not love. Make Miaka more tolerable and proactive. Make her think about her situation before acting. And you know what? Have her get injured more often when in the line of danger. Stop having every male character get stabbed and beaten for her because "d'aww... look at that husbando, little girl watching. Don't you just wanna snuggle up with the cute panda bear that protects you at night?" Let us feel like she's in danger. And make her more brave than stupid. "I know I can't do much, but I want to be there for you" rather than "I'm going because Tamahome Tamahome Tamahome..." And while you're at it, give Miaka some sort of special power like the rest have. Nothing big. Just like... healing or telepathy. A minor, non-combat one to make her at least a LITTLE useful (since I guess teaching her actual combat would lower your success with your target demographic. These concerns are what make all anime popular, right? Making the thing that panders to the strongest demographic instead of just making the story you want to make.). Second, give Hotohori more to do. HE'S THE FREAKING EMPEROR! He's underused almost as badly as Mamoru in Sailor Moon (which I know is done to let the girls be the heroes, but come on, you're less promoting gender equality, and more promoting the opposite end of gender superiority  ).
Also, either remove Yui entirely or make her Miaka's unknown rival. Hell, make her a less comical version of Jinnai from El Hazard or a female version of Shinji Matou from Fate/Stay Night. A friend turned rival, but the main character is good-hearted enough to still hold on to their friendship. Don't try (and fail) to make her sympathetic just because she was raped. Yes, rape is horrible. Yes, it is traumatic. Yes, it can mess people up. But while this is an understandable change in her character, it certainly isn't a sympathetic one. Hell, this is less of a change to a villain and more of Yui revealing her true self when put in a stressful situation. Not a sympathetic villain at all. Just a cowardly, horrible person. It doesn't make for a good anti-villain, but it can make for a delightfully evil bitch if used correctly. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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I LOLED BECAUSE IT'S TRUE. "How To Improve Fushigi Yuugi" ="Make it more like Akatsuki No Yona". But actually, a lot of your complaints are somewhat addressed and fixed in Genbu Kaiden. The heroine is not a total idiot who always gets others hurt and SHOCK, the seven warriors aren't even ALL MALE, HUMAN, OR GOOD-LOOKING!? I was really very shocked at this..... but impressed. It was like Watase finally woke up and said "Huh....maybe I should focus on writing a good plot with interesting and original characters that people won't hate, maybe?"
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louis6578
Posts: 1866 |
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After much thought, I gotta say that I completely love Kuwabara's design. One of my biggest gripes about anime is that it makes everyone too attractive. People like Kuwabara, Usopp, Okuyasu, and Choji are nice because they feel like they aren't ugly, but they're not necessarily attractive. It gives the show some variety and I love it. Especially since they're the good guys.
Also, I stopped Fushigi Yuugi to watch some G Gundam. Sadly, while some plots are interesting, it really has gone into cruise control mode since episode 25. I guess I'll be here a while until it gets interesting again. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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This is the last thing in the world I'll complain about. 
But to each their own. 
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23856 |
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I've got the first six episodes of Nadia The Secret of Blue Water under my belt. After the first eppie, I was kind of, "oh-oh, looks like this is going to be a stinker" but it's really improved since then. I'm listening to the dub which means listening to Nathan Parsons atrocious attempt at a French accent as Jean. Normally something like that would have me scurrying for the safety of the subtitles, but I decided to tough it out. Sometimes I just get tired of reading, I guess.
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louis6578
Posts: 1866 |
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Allow me to explain with an example. So... Usagi Tsukino is supposed to be an "average girl" who just wants to find love and be something more in her life. I call BS. She's incredibly attractive. Anime finds a hard time making someone look average without looking particularly unattractive. The few times that they pull it off, fans often complain that the character looks too bland or ugly. But I think that being able to make people see why a character, who is perfectly fine and dandy, might not be able to get a date, is a task that fiction makes difficult because making a movie or TV show with unattractive actors isn't profitable. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Yes, Usagi is a beautiful girl....but when anime/manga synopsis says "average", it's almost never talking about "looks", it means what her lifestyle is like. Like she isn't famous or super-rich nor does she have a great position of power; she has a normal family, lives in a normal neighborhood and attends a normal school and there's nothing that special about her life or her routine. She was always meant to be beautiful since part of that is in the title itself. "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" means "Beautiful Soldier/Warrior Sailor Moon." Aside from this, the characters in the show often show attraction to her or call her "pretty".
True....speaking as someone who likes to draw manga, it can be very hard to draw ugly characters. I think it's more to do with the generic anime style. Large eyes and small nose....that's hard to make ugly because it almost always looks cute.
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1778 Location: South America |
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There is plenty of ugly characters in manga/anime from the 1970's I think that over time the style became more and more distorted and characters started to all look cute. However, if you pay attention you will notice plenty of unattractive characters/plain looking in titles like Spirited Away's Chihiro is supposed to just be a plain looking girl, the male lead in Re-Zero also looks pretty plain (although the female character designs in that show look extremely cute).
I am currently watching the third season of YuruYuri, which I am finding out to be pretty good. Actually I am quite impressed by how psychological it is, its more sophisticated than most other CGDCT shows out there and these characters actually feel quite realistic (except Akari which acts in way that is perhaps a bit too cute to feel human). Good show for those that like K-On!, I wonder that Kyoto Animation has abandoned the genre although they were the Godfathers of Moe. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1866 |
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God damn, you guys! I'm not saying "ugly." I'm saying average to slightly unattractive. Like the way that a lot of us actually look in day to day life. I think Satou from Welcome to the NHK is a close design to what I'm talking about. Usopp from One Piece does it well too.
Anime has plenty of ugly characters, particularly villains and things like that, but it doesn't have many of normal attractiveness. What does a nerd look like? Just as pretty as everyone else, but wearing glasses. What does a loser look like? Just as pretty as everyone else except that they're alone all the time. Delinquent? Just as pretty as everyone else, but with a scowl. I mean, Fushigi Yuugi has that problem too. You could say that Miaka looks average, but that's just... she's cute as hell (physically) but everyone else in the series is made to look even more beautiful. The closest that anime comes to making an average person, ironically enough, is with the protagonists of harem anime. I admit, Subaru from Re:Zero looks like an otaku without looking too overt about it. |
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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Start watching Noragami and so far it's good. Probably need to finish Record of Lodoss War and Golgo 13 during the Holiday season. Noragami reminds me a bit of Yu Yu Hakusho, so that's a good sign for me.
My friends and I watch some bad anime for fun. This is what I competed for our bad anime Marathon. Generation of Chaos - Not sure what to think of this one? The animation was awful, but I felt like there was some effort on a story. The cheap animation and bad story telling are fun to laugh at. This anime felt like it was trying to be like Pokemon and any typical Fantasy theme anime, but badly done. I seen way worst, but see this anime once for laughs. Grade: D Spectral Force - This one is based on a video game series that I never played. This anime is so bad that it was fun. Nothing in this anime made any sense and the animation was so awful that it makes Bible Black look like a Hayao Miyazaki film. There was a lot of random WTF moments to make fun of and the dub is very cheesy. If you want to watch some bad anime with friends, I suggest to check it out. Otherwise, skip it. Grade: D Panzer Dragoon - Another anime that was based on a video game, but at least I knew about the video game series beforehand. This anime was pretty easy to make fun of with the bad animation, terrible voice acting and horrible writing. For a one shot OVA based on a Sega Saturn video game, there's not much to say. The dub did help made this anime more enjoyable. I did feel like that this anime had some level of potential. Only watch it for laughs with friends. Grade: D+ Dog Soldier: Shadows of the Past - This anime was the best out of the other three that I watch with my friends. However it's still not very good. I do have memories of this anime being on VHS at my local Hollywood video back in 1996. I mistaken it for a Rambo knock off, but this anime is inspired by the Rambo movies without a doubt. The story isn't that good, but the action scenes make it up for it. The anime is enjoyable for being pretty cheesy and can be over the top. However the character interactions not very interesting and the anime has way too many flashbacks. Not to mention, the animation is not even that good (Even for 1989 standers). Overall, I was not hoping for much with this anime but it was not awful. I seen way worst and I'm glad that I saw it. If you like action anime from the 80's and 90's with little to no plot then give it a try. If you want a good cheesy action anime from the 80's and 90's, I suggest to watch Riding Bean or Mad Bull 34 instead. Grade: C |
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peter a
 Posts: 45 |
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Noragami !!!
Remember watching that one , which is about a unknown god which does odd jobs to keep himself in the public eye , because gods need to thought about to exist. One day a girl try to save Noragami from being hit by a bus , but get hit by a bus herself , so guess that is the reference to Yu Yu Hakusho. By the way there is a season two and they say a season 3 sometime in the winter 2017, which will be a surprise for most anime never get more than season 2 , if they are lucky. |
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Beltane70
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Nadia definitely starts out quite slow, but really improves quite a bit. Except for the island arc in the third-quarter, the series finishes quite strongly. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23856 |
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Yes, I've heard mention of a rough patch before. Roughly how many episodes are we talking about? Oh and no spoilers, please. I just want to know how many episodes I'll have to slog through.
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louis6578
Posts: 1866 |
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Precisely 10 episodes. They're horrible. It's worse than Naruto fillers, yet despite being far shorter, feels longer. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23856 |
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Ugh, 10 huh? Oh well.
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