×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
The Spring 2021 Preview Guide


Goto page Previous    Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:08 am Reply with quote
Eragonnogare wrote:
I generally agree with most of the sentiments put forth in the artical (post?) discussing Killing Slimes, but there was a single critiquing line that I would like to comment on.

"Why does someone who died at twenty-seven from workplace abuse have absolutely no friends, family, hobbies, or personal goals that she will miss in this new world?"

This one line made me feel that that person kinda missed the point. The whole idea is that because she worked at one of Japan's infamous" black companies" she was worked, quite literally, to her death. This didn't *allow* for her to have time to make friends, spend time on hobbies, or think about personal goals. Family not being around isn't even hard, that's just not particularly hard to believe for any random person. If she had time and energy to spend making friends and enjoying hobbies that would have meant she wasn't working at a black company that was working her hard enough that it would result in her death.

If that was the case, wouldn't she have been able to pick up some friend/family/hobby after 300 (!) year of not working at a tough company? I get what the show is trying to say, but that makes it seem like the problem is her, not the company culture. I've heard more than my share of complain from people about how incredibly hard their job/schoolng is when in reality they actually have a really easy one and they're just terrible at it or are constantly slacking off and so have to work overtime to cover.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:19 am Reply with quote
I guess the main thing we've learned from Killing Slimes Isekai so far is that Americans still have trouble understanding what iyashikei anime are for even when they beat you over the head with it. Calling it "cynical capitalism" is particularly ironic (you did watch the first 30 seconds, right?)

To the other main complaint, "generic fantasy worlds" have, at this point, gone way past overused and become an ordinary setting that we all more or less understand. As long as they don't act like they're breaking new ground by having magic and dragons, and the story isn't overly focused on things we already know about, I don't think it's a big deal. Nobody took issue with Konusuba's typical fantasy setting, even though it wasn't strictly necessary since it's a sitcom.

meiam wrote:
I get what the show is trying to say, but that makes it seem like the problem is her, not the company culture.

The effects of overwork and workaholism are not merely physical, but also psychological. And, come to think of it, the other issue here is that Americans have a similar excessive-working culture to Japan... except we have yet to even begin to recognize it as a problem.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ScruffyKiwi



Joined: 25 Oct 2010
Posts: 672
Location: New Zealand
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 3:04 am Reply with quote
Akukame wrote:
Quote:
The thing 86 EIGHTY SIX (sidenote: why is it named that? Does this actually take place in the year 8686?) most reminds me of is the now somewhat faded trend of dystopian Young Adult novels.


If anyone else is confused by this, the title is in reference to the slang term "to 86 someone", which means to kick out / refuse service to them. Its probably just written and spelled both ways to make it actually searchable.


It’s called 86 because the pilots of the Juggernauts are all from the 86th district of the Republic of San Magnolia although if you were paying attention to the newscaster she mentions there is only 85 districts. This should all become clear in the next couple of episodes.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 6:23 am Reply with quote
So yeah, Nagatoro is a pretty straight adaptation, and as mean as I remembered. As said in a previous post, for those who are on the fence and rightfully have a bone to pick with Nagatoro spoiler[she will mellow out A LOT in about half an episode, never letting things escalate nearly as much (although the "kimoi" will never stop). And while senpai still gets flustered by her approaches and suggestions, he isn't really bothered anymore. It just comes across as two kids goofing around (with many admittedly ugly words) as they help each other out.] Whether that makes things better or worse is up to each individual.
And int he end, this is something to watch mainly for Nagatoro's extremely silly and distorted faces.

Rebecca Silverman wrote:
Despite its obvious love for Honda scooters, Super Cub doesn't appear to be in the same boat as Wish Upon the Pleiades, the Subaru-sponsored magical girl show from 2015.

OMG someone remembers that show! That anime was magical and it's funny that its advertising qualities started and ended with the girls' brooms (or should I say vrooms?) and the protagonist's name.
It's nothing short of a miracle that a series like that could be born from Gainax post-exodus, knowing what we do now about the company's (mis)operations, so it's a shame that it went under everyone's radar, much like Granbelm.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pikabot



Joined: 19 Nov 2014
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 7:48 am Reply with quote
Yttrbio wrote:

As one of those who couldn't see the positive take on Takagi, I found Nagataro a lot more watchable, because it does frame the bullying as bullying, rather than a cute expression of affection. What was so off-putting for me on Takagi was how the actual content of her behavior was classic bullying (driving him to paranoia and a sense of powerless and that fear and frustration preventing him from enjoying school, at least in the first episode, which is where I dropped it) but the show presented it in an "aww, how cute" kind of way.


This is a genuinely bizarre take on Takagi-san, a show where the supposed 'victim' always does it to himself. She doesn't 'drive him to paranoia', he drives himself to paranoia trying to humiliate her. 90% of the time she doesn't even really do anything; she just doesn't react the way he expects and then he overthinks things and defeats himself. Like, the thing that he's 'not enjoying' about school in that first episode is that his attempts to get one over on Takagi got turned around on him. That's not exactly classic bullying.

Like I guess if you wanted to invent a backstory for their relationship you could imagine that she mercilessly bullied him in the past and now he's trying to get back at her as some kind of coping mechanism...but that's not in the show's text or subtext. That would be something entirely projected into the show from the outside.

Anyway, Nagotoro is just Takagi-san but way hornier and with none of the charm. If that sounds like your thing...go for it, I guess? Chase your bliss. But I've always found its manga unbearable.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
spegasaur



Joined: 01 Mar 2020
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 8:26 am Reply with quote
A question on 86: Why are the Republican soldiers fighting for the republic? Why aren't they mutinying, or at least just standing to one side whilst the other guys slaughter all the people from the other 85 regions? Are the people from the other 85 districts all moustache-twirling bad guys, or can we expect some vaguely-sympathetic characters at some point (apart from the protagonist, natch)?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
OtherSideofSky





PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:14 am Reply with quote
Mami-kouga wrote:
OtherSideofSky wrote:
Rebecca Silverman wrote:
and the title does suggest a link to Edogawa Ranpo's group of boys who worked with Akechi Kogoro.

The title of every novel in the series is also a parody of an Edogawa Ranpo story. The name of the first case is playing off "暗黒星" ("The Dark Star"). There's some other Ranpo-related wordplay to come as well. That said, the stories themselves mostly don't so much riff on Ranpo as take his titles as writing prompts. (For example, taking Ranpo's "D. Zaka," an abbreviation of "Dangozaka" in Tokyo, and inventing a series of four hills labeled A through D. How little it takes these references seriously is probably part of the joke.)

If you want mystery and detection, however, you will be disappointed. Bishounen Tanteidan flies in the face of any notion of fair-play mystery to such an exaggerated extent that it has to be part of the joke. The real star of the show (and more particularly, the novels) is the wordplay, a lot of which is unfortunately lost in English. The limitations of subtitles don't lend themselves to translating wordplay at the best of times, and this series piles on so much of it that a lot falls through the cracks. Lines like ”あいにく、 僕 には 学 が なく てね ─ ─ 僕 に ある のは、 美学 だけ だ” (which is basically Manabu's catchphrase) aren't even puns in the subtitles.

You are also losing something in the translation to animation, though. Mayumi's narration is a big part of the appeal of the books for me.


Well that's unfortunate. Are the novel translations better in that regard at least? I might buy it later

I haven't read the novel translations, but they're from Vertical, so I'd guess they're about as good as you can expect to get. The anime translation seems to be matching them for titles and some other things. There are still a couple puns that I have absolutely no idea how anyone would ever render in English, though.
Back to top
Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18138
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:59 am Reply with quote
spegasaur wrote:
A question on 86: Why are the Republican soldiers fighting for the republic? Why aren't they mutinying, or at least just standing to one side whilst the other guys slaughter all the people from the other 85 regions?

The first episode doesn't explain anything about the backstory, so it may be coming in episode 2. Because of that, I'll put this in spoiler tags.

Clarification note: the silver-haired, silver-eyed people are called Alba.

spoiler[The enemy isn't human or even organic, and this is known fact. This is a The Terminator-type situation, only with an even uglier twist. Since the 86s are still getting all of their provisions from the Republic, and a vast region controlled by the Legion cuts them off from all other countries (and no one's even sure if the other countries still exist, since there's been no contact), the 86s just standing by and letting the Alba get killed off would effectively mean committing mass suicide. ]

Quote:
Are the people from the other 85 districts all moustache-twirling bad guys, or can we expect some vaguely-sympathetic characters at some point (apart from the protagonist, natch)?


This may also be explained next episode, but this part is less spoilerish so I won't tag it.

You'll see very little for sympathetic Alba beyond Lena. The Republic's leadership is basically taking its cues from Hitler: unite the predominant race by blaming every problem on minorities, then use propaganda to convince the Alba that any other race is sub-human - i.e., a pig. As Lena says in an intro quote in the first novel, if you can regard a group of people as pigs, you can deny them human rights, and thus justify any cruelty against them. (Since this is the home country of the Alba, the leadership probably preyed on long-standing suspicions about immigrants from other countries, though the source novel doesn't state that explicitly, IIRC.)

If this isn't obvious from the first episode, racism is a major (and arguably predominant) theme of the part of the story that will get animated, especially how one's identity can get defined in terms of that racism. I cannot think of another anime title which has explored this as heavily and thoroughly as 86 will.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
spegasaur



Joined: 01 Mar 2020
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 10:38 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
spegasaur wrote:
A question on 86: Why are the Republican soldiers fighting for the republic? Why aren't they mutinying, or at least just standing to one side whilst the other guys slaughter all the people from the other 85 regions?

The first episode doesn't explain anything about the backstory, so it may be coming in episode 2. Because of that, I'll put this in spoiler tags.

Clarification note: the silver-haired, silver-eyed people are called Alba.


Thanks Key, sounds a bit depressing - I think this'll go on my "maybe binge at the end of season if reviews sound good" list.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
trilaan



Joined: 17 Jan 2009
Posts: 1053
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 11:06 am Reply with quote
So far it looks like I should stick with the humorous, fun, ridiculous original Battle Athletes OVAs and TV series instead of checking out this new series. Maybe when the season's done I'll give it a whirl.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 11:18 am Reply with quote
kotomikun wrote:

meiam wrote:
I get what the show is trying to say, but that makes it seem like the problem is her, not the company culture.

The effects of overwork and workaholism are not merely physical, but also psychological. And, come to think of it, the other issue here is that Americans have a similar excessive-working culture to Japan... except we have yet to even begin to recognize it as a problem.

Sh worked at that company for, like what 10 year? She was in the magical world 300 year. She'd struggle to even remember the company after the first 100, yet still never got around to getting friend/hobby in the next 200. She's the problem.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 1:10 pm Reply with quote
I dunno, 86 is kinda making me nervous, and I think it’s all the militaristic trappings that’s doing it. I’ve heard enough through the grapevine to know that this series’ main thrust is about racism, but color me skeptical. I don’t know that I expect this to really go much beyond most fantasy racism*, though I guess it’s a step in the right direction? Also I know we don’t have any say in it, but from the Preview guides alone, I’d be intrigued to see Richard cut his teeth on this. Laughing

*Fantasy racism being racism that’s explored just enough in-universe to be a compelling plot point, but typically with not enough depth or nuance to connect or relate back to real-life racism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 308
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 1:43 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
I dunno, 86 is kinda making me nervous, and I think it’s all the militaristic trappings that’s doing it. I’ve heard enough through the grapevine to know that this series’ main thrust is about racism, but color me skeptical. I don’t know that I expect this to really go much beyond most fantasy racism*, though I guess it’s a step in the right direction? Also I know we don’t have any say in it, but from the Preview guides alone, I’d be intrigued to see Richard cut his teeth on this. Laughing

*Fantasy racism being racism that’s explored just enough in-universe to be a compelling plot point, but typically with not enough depth or nuance to connect or relate back to real-life racism.


I definitely feel a similar way about the show, apprehensive but hopeful that it will take a deep cut. I want it to focus on the ethnic cleansing and racism and hope it doesn't get bogged down with conspiratorial plot twists or military glorification. The fact that we know literally nothing about the "enemy" means it could go in several branching directions. Still worth the watch from what I've seen, and from the preview I agree I'd like to see Richard review it.

What's really upsetting to me is the people I've seen on other forums nonchalantly saying "This is where humanity will be in 20 years, mark my words" as though the entire premise of this show isn't meant to confront institutionalized racism.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pikrodafni



Joined: 11 Apr 2015
Posts: 125
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:13 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
I dunno, 86 is kinda making me nervous, and I think it’s all the militaristic trappings that’s doing it. I’ve heard enough through the grapevine to know that this series’ main thrust is about racism, but color me skeptical. I don’t know that I expect this to really go much beyond most fantasy racism*, though I guess it’s a step in the right direction? Also I know we don’t have any say in it, but from the Preview guides alone, I’d be intrigued to see Richard cut his teeth on this. Laughing

*Fantasy racism being racism that’s explored just enough in-universe to be a compelling plot point, but typically with not enough depth or nuance to connect or relate back to real-life racism.


While I agree that fantasy racism is a common problem,I don't think this holds up here since the show doesn't include some otherworldy race (elf,orcs,goblins etc) into it's setting to marginalise.It opts to marginalises a group of people because of their hair/skin color and because it's convenient for the people in power in-universe instead of trying to find magical/fantastical reasons as to why they are persecuted and I found that works much better than the usual.


Last edited by pikrodafni on Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:14 pm Reply with quote
There is more to the 86, than just an essay on racism.

There is the central mystery of the enemy itself. Which can be heartbreaking in of itself.

This is going to be a sad military style anime, with the ethnic cleansing by the Alba and the machinations of the enemy. With both the Alba and the enemy, physically and emotionally crushing the people of the 86.

I will be watching it to the end.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 20 of 25

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group