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


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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:30 pm Reply with quote
Watching One Piece's Whole Cake Island Arc animated is... well, it's better than Dressrosa, but if they keep toning down the violence like this, I can't recommend people follow the anime anymore. As if the padding wasn't bad enough, now they're making it so that you can't feel the weight of Luffy's struggles when he's pushing himself to continue forward against impossible odds. If he barely looks hurt, what's the emotional weight of his struggle? There's no gore in the manga or earlier anime episodes, but you can still feel Luffy or Zoro's pain through the amount of blood, the fatigue on their faces, the expressions of pain, etc. I hope this gets less noticeable as the arc goes on. I'm very disappointed though.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:45 pm Reply with quote
Cam0 wrote:
I mean, I don't totally hate the show. Rachelu Gardonar is cute and I found some of her interactions with Zack earlier in the show to be kinda funny. Zack is ok.


Zack and Ray are the only two who matter. This is shared by me and the majority of the fanbase. So you're not alone here. They are the franchise. Lol
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:59 am Reply with quote
My rewatch with friends took me through the Loguetown arc of One Piece, AKA the greatest story to ever come out of any Asian country. This arc is short, and I've heard it referred to as an epilogue to the East Blue Saga and prologue to the story taking place in the Grand Line, which I can appreciate greatly. The return of old villains like Buggy and Alvida shows how far Luffy has come since dealing with those guys, and the new antagonist in Smoker shows us our first truly relevant non-corrupt Marine, as well as the sort of powerful opponents that the crew will need to overcome in the Grand Line, Smoker being the very first logia type user in the series. But first, there's the odd in-between Arlong and Loguetown arc episodes, Luffy's first bounty and Buggy's side arc.

I loved Luffy's first bounty being taken as a show of pride by the crew, even Usopp. The fact that the back of Usopp's head became a sort of bragging right to him was one of the most endearing things about him so far. Not to mention Sanji's adorable response to Usopp's comforting of him. When Sanji is pouting over Usopp's head being in Luffy's wanted poster, while Sanji has no claim to fame, Usopp gives a dismissive "Oh, cheer up. You don't need to be a captain to get a bounty, y'know." To which Sanji, in the most adorable fashion I think we've seen of him in the show so far, smiles at Usopp and says "Really!?" It's just great seeing the crew get along between fighting over dumb things and yelling at Luffy for being stupid.

Of course, the best thing about Luffy's initial bounty was seeing the reactions of the characters he had met throughout the East Blue thus far, including a couple of anime-exclusive ones like Morgan and Kuro. It's pretty obvious that the highlight was Mihawk showing the wanted poster to Shanks. My friend's reaction to Mihawk even being on screen after his introduction was "Oh God no..." but the mere sight of Shanks made this friend smile and laugh at Shanks' pride in Luffy. I felt similarly. The hungover Shanks decides to throw another party to welcome Luffy into the true life of a pirate, even saying "So you've finally made it" with clear happiness, like a father hearing that his son had accomplished some great goal.

To put it simply, the episode was a great payoff to all the progress Luffy and his crew had made, and a necessary step to establishing him in the world at large before he entered the Grand Line.

I don't have much to say about the Buggy Cover Arc anime adaptation except that it endeared me to a character who came across as a one-dimensional villain, and that Richie was adorable.

Finally, the meat of our viewing thus far was revisiting the Loguetown arc. We skipped the fillers about Daddy the Father and Carmen because, while I think they're decent fillers (with Daddy's story having been intended to be in the manga, but left out for the sake of getting to the Grand Line faster), I feel Loguetown works best because it's a 4 or 5 chapter arc. To make it 6 episodes is kinda bloating it a little. Hell, even some of the unavoidable filler that I didn't skip (Luffy meeting some bartender who tells him about Gold Roger, Zoro breaking Tashigi's glasses and working as a janitor for 2 minutes, etc.) wasn't bad, but I wish it weren't there because it felt so unnecessary. To put it into perspective, the Loguetown arc was 5 chapters, and that's the exact length as the next arc, the Laboon arc (or Reverse Mountain if you prefer). While this was adapted in 7 episodes due to filler, and 4-5 episodes if we discount entirely filler episodes (but still include filler scenes from canon episodes), the Laboon arc was adapted in 2 episodes (plus the end half of the Apis filler arc's finale). That's a heavy handful of fillers.

That aside, the Loguetown arc is still a great pitstop in the larger world of One Piece. It strangely works as a great Breather arc after the emotionally heavy, intense action of the Arlong arc, yet also works as a Warm-up/Wake-up call arc for the Grand Line. Weird. If I had to pick out a favorite part from this arc, it would definitely be Luffy's execution.

Our hero is trapped at the execution platform with no opportunity to fight his way out due to Buggy's crew, and Zoro and Sanji can't possibly reach him in time. Buggy is about to decapitate Luffy with a sword, and Luffy realizes that he is definitely going to die. His final words, with a smile, no tears, and zero regrets for how his life turned out, are this: "Zoro! Sanji! Usopp! Nami! Sorry. I'm dead." Teeth-showing grin upon his face as he always had. Of course, miraculous lightning from the storm building up is what saves his life, to which he, crawling out of the wreckage from the scaffold, simply responds with a lighthearted laugh. "Haha! I survived after all!" The same tone of voice you'd use for guessing a Jeopardy answer correctly or remembering an old phone number off the top of your head. Surprised, but not in the way that a survival of mortal peril should indicate.

This scene is one of my favorites in the series to this very day because, in the first episode, and one of the first chapters, Luffy says to Koby that his dream is to become Pirate King, however, if he dies along the way, that's fine too. As long as he died in pursuit of his ambition. Here, he proves it, facing death the way a true king would. I know that by the rule of Shounen Jump Storytelling, we're already supposed to logically conclude that Luffy will be the Pirate King in the same way that Deku will become the greatest hero or Naruto will become Hokage... but this is the scene that truly proves to those present, both in-universe and in the audience, that they are watching the journey of the next King of the Pirates. There should be no doubts among his crew that they picked the right captain to follow.

Not only do I love this scene because of what it represents for Luffy's worldview and destiny, but because of how inevitable his death really feels when viewing and reading it. Discounting the fact that you probably know, if experiencing this for the first time in 2018, that there's tons of story left, in the heat of the moment, there is nothing that could save Luffy in time. In a lesser story, you'd just expect the protagonist to somehow pull an ability out of nowhere to save themselves or do the overplayed "I CAN'T DIE HERE!!!!" power-up that would remove all dramatic tension from future encounters, but here? What saves Luffy is pure luck, and it doesn't feel like an ass pull. Nami says that a HUGE storm is coming and that they need to leave now. You can see the clouds slowly build up and rain begin to fall. In the anime, you can hear thunder getting louder and louder. The bolt lightning that saves Luffy may feel too convenient for some, but it's certainly not like it came from nowhere. What seemed like an ominous foreshadowing of a certain death turned out to mean salvation. Not to mention, I love Zoro and Sanji's exact response to it as Luffy happily laughs off his near death experience.

Sanji: Hey... was that Divine Intervention just now...?
Zoro: Don't be stupid! -quickly changing the subject- We need to head to the ship now!

On that note, I still love that to this very day, 18 years after that arc was first publicized, no one has come closer to ending Straw Hat Luffy's life than weak, starter villain, Buggy the Clown on that day.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 3:07 am Reply with quote
Lu Over the Wall

Not bad. Probably the most accessible thing Science Saru has ever done. Felt like a combination of Ponyo and a 40s Disney film, the latter most notably during the mass dancing scenes. The main problem was that I didn't really like any of the main characters, including Lu (I guess I liked the monk-boy ok). The story itself and the animation did enough work to mostly make up for it. Definitely worth a watch.
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 11:38 am Reply with quote
I watched episode one of the latest (and possibly greatest) edge-lord, secretly dark cutesy show, Happy Sugar Life. Now, it's tough to really say that it's "secretly" dark considering that it shows in the first scene that our protagonist is going to at some point commit a double-suicide with her "lover," who is a small child, but... when you contrast the start of the episode with the end, it shows that this protagonist is far from innocent herself. The beginning of the episode shows that she has a hard life and her only reward at the end of the day is the child in her home always greeting her with a thrilled smile that thaws her icy heart every time. The end of the episode reveals that, not only is this NOT her apartment, but she murdered the true owners of this place, kept their bodies in trash bags (dismembered and all), and Shio isn't so much a lost child as a kidnapped one. Of course, being a little girl taken in by someone who is nice on the surface, she simply accepts her circumstances without thinking about it.

So then, I could compare this to many, many edgy shows like Higurashi, Elfen Lied, Kakegurui, Akame Ga Kill, Magical Girl Site... but I think I'll compare it to Future Diary. Future Diary and Happy Sugar Life both have a yandere girl at the center of the story who obsesses over the other protagonist, however... Satou feels like a far more real and interesting character in EPISODE ONE of this story than Yuno ever did in her entire run. I'm not even sure if I need to explain why. Episode one gives her so many layers to peel away while Yuno is just an obvious psychopath from the start.

I admittedly spoiled a couple of things while researching this for myself, and I don't want to give anything away, but I'll just say that another thing that makes Satou a far better character than Yuno is her backstory and motivations. Yuno's backstory of abuse is over the top, try-hard, and really feels like contrived garbage to make the character insane rather than a human story. Satou's story, which I'll leave vague, happens far too often in the real world and didn't turn her into nearly as overtly destructive of a person as Yuno was. Not to mention, the plot of the story is exactly what I think could benefit the cast of Future Diary. They're not FORCED to kill each other. As such, when a violent thing happens, it's genuinely surprising and shocking, where as Future Diary can't really get a reaction out of any intelligent person after episode 4.

Another thing that I think this show deserves praise for. Even though the sexual misconduct plot point can be argued to have come out of nowhere... because it absolutely did, this show treated female-on-male rape seriously. I know this is a pretty simple thing for a story to do, but for some odd reason, most anime prefer to treat it like it's a joke if a female sexually harasses or assaults a male. I mean, that Mitsuboshi kid was drugged in the closet for like a week! No idea why Satou didn't upload that to YouTube or something. Getting that lady fired should have benefited her more than anything else.

I'll wholeheartedly admit that this show does tons of things that other edgy shows do. But if I had to talk about its quality, I'd say that while this show relishes in being dark and twisted and making its antagonists the worst of humanity, it also makes those antagonists... well, human. Hell, I think the only part I thought was a little over the top was how the manager started pulling off a supervillain monologue about how "THIS MAID CAFE IS MY KINGDOM OF LOVE! ALL OF ITS EMPLOYEES ARE MINE TO COMMAND AND IF I WANT TO PAY THEM LESS FOR NOT LOVING ME ENOUGH, IT'S FINE! BWAHAHAHA!" I mean, that was a little cringe-worthy.
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Doktor haus



Joined: 03 Apr 2018
Posts: 4
Location: AL, USA
PostPosted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:36 am Reply with quote
Started watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the 00's OVA. It's already better-paced than the 90's one which just throws you in without explaining anything. Also hopefully it doesn't have a 4 and 1/2 minute opening. Razz
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Haterater



Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 1727
PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 3:00 pm Reply with quote
Finished watching Gosick and was very hooked on it. I love the mystery and world building of the show. Thought the leading characters made good chemistry and loved it from start to finished. Enjoyed the dub voices for many of the characters, just awesome job all round.
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Akane the Catgirl



Joined: 09 Oct 2013
Posts: 1091
Location: LA, Baby!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 6:05 pm Reply with quote
Progress Report:

I finished watching My Hero Academia's third season today. Let's just say I am STOKED for Season Four. This show is a fresh breath of air in a sea of homogeny and I am ever so thankful for that. See you next April, HeroAca.

Meanwhile, I've come to a decision. Akane Analyzes was nice while it lasted, but it's a relic now. It's nothing more than a reminder of simpler and happier times. I'm proud of the work I did on it, but it's time to let go. I still plan on doing anime reviews, but to do that, I'm going to migrate to WordPress. I feel like I'll have more freedom if I start my own blog over there, you know? I don't know when I'll start, but I hope it'll be soon.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:31 am Reply with quote
I am not quite ready to make a topic on its own, but I want to mention the current airing UzaMaid!, which I think is getting underappreciated. Well, people seemed automatically squeaked from the main female character being a lolicon, that sort of thing making people feel uncomfortable due to proximity of paedophilia, which is just sick to promote, which can only be the assumption it is doing if the main female character is a lolicon. But I think that is kind of sad, because the show has actually been pretty funny and charming. On its concept, there seems like little chance there is going to be any illegal relationships, really the show has mostly played up the absurdity of an adult military woman being smitten with the little girl. The little girl, Sasha, is actually a pretty good character in how she has been strong in saying what she likes and dislike, but also that it feels like she is growing as a character.

Episode 3 had a particularly nice bit where she rightfully spoiler[called her teacher out as an idiot for getting the class hamsters out of control, and then showed thoughtfulness and spunk, as she organised a proper plan with her classmates.] She is not being treated as some helpless thing at the mercy of adult actions, this being after she lost her mother and retreated. But also not isolated in knowing all the answers herself, and internalizing lessons, that are actually good on the side of Tsubame, in letting Misha open up at her pace. Its ending, is probably my favourite of the season so far, I recommend just checking it out if the general description of the series gave a bad first impression, because I think that it shows a much more positive side of the show. For one, for something that people think should be banking on lolicon, it is the super buff Tsubame that is more centre stage, along with the lyrics it does feel of an energy of chemistry between this two where the girl gets more confidence that she can make a difference, being a lot of training. Plus, the song is pretty catchy, and has the cute Ferret, Kumagoro, who I think really gets the better earned attention in terms of being cute.

Really, while much of the talk from the reviewers seemed to be negative, I want to bring up that the show is pretty funny, and I don’t think is nearly as troubling as people have a kneejerk reaction to.
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Haterater



Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 1727
PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Just in love with Recovery of an MMO Junkie. Its very sweet and I love the character interactions so much. Especially the innocent romance that ensues. English voice cast was wonderful and on point with Ian Sinclair doing Koiwai antics just slays me. Laughing I would be alright if this was the only season, as I felt satisfied with how things were at the end. One of the most overall entertainment things I can relate to so much, in and out of their game world.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:08 am Reply with quote
Been watching Hinomaru Sumo and am liking it more than I ever would have expected. The OP is really kick-ass, but it's driving me crazy because it sounds like I've heard it before, or something very like it. Can someone give it a listen and tell me if they know what it's reminding me of?
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:06 pm Reply with quote
Been watch My Sister, My Writer, just seen episode 4, and I think at this point I can say that this is one of the worst anime in the siscon sub-genre anime that I have seen, and I say it with the authority of someone who often has a guilty pleasure with such series, and can often give pretty serious looks at series that. I honestly think this is far worse than series that have had literal twincest, or mostly get by with ecchi.

To focus on one aspect, I think that it totally fails in awareness of itself, despite the fact the source material is a light novel about light novel creators. Eromanga Sensei clearly blows it out of the water. But specifically being about siscon light novel creators, it is completely slaughtered in "awareness" by something like A Sister's All You Need, which I think this series is an insult to in the fact it can even be connected, and ASAYN can practically be the antithesis to this. Many people got turned off that series for the first couple of minutes, because the first couple of minutes was practically making fun of itself, of what is really too far for the genre, an acknowledgment of a line, that really the rest of the series never approaches, because it is actually smart. It really does not even have any incest, in fact a good deal of drama seemed to be from someone making assumptions based on his writings, as well as surface rhetoric.

Where the difference especially lies in ASAYN and MSMW, is something that feels like respect for even its own medium (light novels). Saying something like a siscon genre writer has to totally flirt with his actual sister, the little sister in MSMW writer is beyond a total brocon, and apparently the secret behind her great writing. It has tried to play lip service to writing what you want rather than just what is popular, but arguably it is the one that feels like it is trying to copy other popular works, and its complaints over failed story over things like lifeless characters, feels like it itself does not realize how easily it fits the complaints it levies at some hypothetical story. It has no awareness that it is just as bad as it is criticising, while making all sorts of other mistakes, that makes it clear it is really is using tiered ero jokes to be interesting.

For those who have not seen A Sister's All You Need, because you think the title sounds trashy, I assure you that it is totally not the case, while MSMW is totally that. ASAYN actually handled fantastically the creative process, and showed all the authors as being part of a struggle in keeping their creative juices flowing, or getting other things worked out. Characters can maybe seem one note at first, such as Nayu who comes across as very sexually aggressive that her character may appear just for fanservice, actually seemed to be built around a more complex character who has had to fight certain complexes. The series has seemed to be aware of things can be a bit unhealthy, and the fantasy that the main character faced with her, which is similar to how characters in MSMW are, gets shattered as something that should not be taken advantage of, her being a fan of his work.

But what has made me want to talk about this now, is that the 4th episode of MSMW seems like a big middle finger to good will of the source material medium. Not a big spoiler, as it is part of the main concept of the show, but the main character is pretending to be the writer of the novels that his sister writes, because she asked him to. While he seemed a bit hesitant at first, it seems mostly gone at this point, and what is so bad that happened, was that he did a book signing event, signing the books of the fans, and seemed to not care at all that he was betraying the trust of everyone he was signing the books of. He never seemed to think that these fans were not actually getting the author's signature, his sister even takes part to get his, and I would even say he acts a bit smug when he offers to sign for someone who came later, despite the fact that he really has no right to receive all the praise and looking up to that he gets.

One girl, also a writer, is trying a lot to find his secret so she can also write better, and he is just letting her do what she wants in watching him to help with her own work. He really could just tell her to back off, that her being cute does not give her an excuse to violate his personal space, like she is a crazy stalker. Or he could accept her will to try and interact with her new favourite author, by convincing his sister to let her in on the secret, taking the attention off him, which the sister would want, and maybe actually being some respect to light novel authors' creative work. It honestly makes no sense why the sister is so bent on not letting anyone at all know she is writing, that it would at least be fair for editor and fellow authors that they could help each other, without it actually becoming public. And this all leads, that it feels like a certain level of disrespect to the medium itself, that the author does not understand what is so wrong if this was done to the fans and other people involved. Like really all that matters is little sister panties, and the lip service of good writing, that really it is hopeless at conveying.

A Sister's All You Need, was actually fantastic at showing how much fans of their work can mean to authors. And even if there is a bit of created publicity, such as spoiler[pretending to be really close to your fellow male author to appeal to fujoshi fans], there was still this overall feeling of people being people, the impact the right work can mean for someone is in a hard time, and what growing up can, and doesn't need to be. Maybe that sounds like I am exaggerating for a series that first episode included the line "I wash my face in my sister's bathwater", but I am standing firm that any single character from ASAYN, is better than any in MSMW. The series does seem to be leading towards a light novel turned anime plot, so I am interested how it is going to totally fail in comparison to ASAYN, which did it as a really good story thread in sspoiler[howing the folly of such chances].
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Cam0



Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 4884
PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 1:42 pm Reply with quote
Well, Dusky, you explained quite well why My Sister, My Writer sucks ass. I'm also watching it and holy guacamole is it bad. The animation is friggin' awful, with characters being consistently off-model. And the animation is not the worst part of the show, not by a long shot. The whole thing in episode 4 with the main dude being "a good guy" because he gives his autograph to a fan even though the signing event had ended is ultimately soured by the fact that the dude is not the real author. Of course then the fan happens to be a famous VA and wants to call the main dude "onii-chan".

The show's just dumb. Like episode 2 the red-haired girl (the one who is an author of a popular light novel) wants the dude's autograph. She tells him that she knows he is the author of the award winning novel and then asks for his autograph. And the derpy face dude just says: "Why would you want my autograph?" The girl has to literally say to his face that she is a fan and that's why she wants his autograph. And even then the derp is like: "Why would an author of a popular work want my autograph?" Maybe he is just meant to be really stupid and that's why he doesn't realize how scummy it is to pretend to be the author and lie to the fans, the editor and other people.

If an ANN reviewer has to review this thing once it has aired, I pray for them.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 4:52 pm Reply with quote
Nice to see someone else has similar thoughts as I do on it.
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llunga





PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 10:49 pm Reply with quote
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime
Been following this series since the release and I find myself immersed in Rimuru's world captivated by the characters and events. The concept of living a second-life in an mmo world hasn't exactly been thought of before. Nor has it been thought of to write it from the perspective of a mere little old slime but this is 2018 baby. So far I have enjoyed even the fan service being on the edge of proper hilarity.

Overlord
Near the end of this series and it has channeled my favoritism. The little things in this anime keep me watching it like the subtle hints into the programmed personalities of such lovely character designs. I want to capture the moments between Albedo and Ainz.

One Piece
Thoroughly enjoyed Sky Island and Water 7. May or may not have re-watched episodes but still enjoyed the stories and adventures. Looking forward to the new crew member in Thriller Bark. I remember the beginning episodes and the way Luffy took to him was great. We all know Luffy is a great judge of character,
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