Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is The Faraway Paladin Worth Watching?
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NeverConvex
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Mushoku's protagonist wasn't literally established as a sex criminal in the anime, but he does show an awful lot of very sexual interest in characters who look like human children, and the "sex criminal" connection is made much more explicit in the source material, from what was said in the very civil, productive, even-keeled discussion threads we had about it. Seems like a silly turn of phrase to complain about.
Anyway, what I reacted to most in this TWIA was this bit: "Turns out, when you take the perv-angle out of Jobless Reincarnation, you're left with a really boring show, as opposed to a boring show with a gross protagonist." I originally gave up on Mushoku about 3-4 episodes in, I think, with similar complaints about the protagonist (and, moreso really, the show's framing of how he acts), but later went back to try it again once the season was over, and was pleasantly surprised. I can't pretend that hasn't recurred at all, and there have been a few moments that have had me close to giving up again, but they've been getting rarer and rarer, and outside of that large caveat, the writing is genuinely engaging (and the production continues to be lovingly gorgeous). Can't say the same for Will's sort of animated D&D slideshow. The protagonist is even more overwhelmingly overpowered here, and with less attempt to at least make us pretend he earned it; the animation is drab and boring; and, I don't know, something about the writing really puts me to sleep. I'm not fond of how well so many of the characters and their roles fit into established D&D archetypes, but I don't think that's what I find so humdrum about the character writing. Can't quite put my finger on it, exactly, though I agree with most of the TWIA criticisms. Something about it just feels weightless, I guess, lacking in depth and heft. All of my criticism would instantly disappear if this line made a showing though: "I-it's not like I want to combat the forces of evil and bring light to a dying continent because I l-like you, baka!" 
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earl.m
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I will do some "both sides" stuff now.
Calling Rudeus a sex criminal is just tongue-in-cheek hyperbole for a very disturbing character. Rudeus' perversions go far beyond the typical anime "likes dirty magazines and fantasies" stuff. Instead, what anime generally winks and nudges at, Rudeus takes to its logical conclusion in the way that Yosuga no Sora does for the "ha ha brocons and siscons are funny" and the destination isn't pretty. The worst part is that Rudeus witnesses the devastating consequences of his behavior both in his prior life - which it plays a role in ending - and his isekai one (Paul's behavior) and he still carries on without a twinge of a second thought. I suppose you can find his audacity entertaining in the same way that you would the murder spree of a villain protagonist like Light Yagami of Death Note and Johan Liebert of Monster, but Yagami and Liebert are still what they are, as is Rudeus. The folks' defending Rudeus as a complex character: well compare him to another legendary anime pervert in Koyomi Aragari of Monogatari. Which one would you rather leave unmonitored with your 12 year old daughter or sister? The answer to that is why their tongue-in-cheek denoting of Rudeus as a sex criminal shouldn't offend his fans. Also, keep in mind that the author of Faraway Paladin had nothing to do with the adaptation. The reviewers here - despite their protestations otherwise this does in fact function as one - were passing judgment on the adaptation that the author had very little to do with and precious little opportunity to influence its quality. So while he might have the position "how disappointing that the #1 anime site in America hates Faraway Paladin" he can't reasonably be expected to have any further comments or emotions, especially since the negative review - again no claiming that it was anything else - made it clear that their main problems were unrelated to the source material that the author is actually responsible for. Now for the other side: look we all know from your repeating it over and over again at every opportunity that if there was a list of things that the current batch of ANN reviewers hate the most, it would include near the very top fanservice (or at least that which depicts conventionally attractive female bodies) and isekai. So when you get pushback from people who like looking at pretty girls, people who like isekai, and people for whom fanservice is a major reason why they like isekai ... just own it. Don't say "I don't hate fanservice! I like ..." and then list one of the most successful and critically acclaimed fanservicy work of all time (like High School DxD whose 5th season is on the way) one so good that it would have still been a huge success without the fanservice. Or to put it away ... if a member of a genre has to be genre-defining excellent for you to like it then you don't like the genre. You merely like that singular work's genre-defining excellence. And saying "I am not anti-isekai because I like The Twelve Kingdoms" ... come on. Not only is it a bona fide classic but being a 20 year old shoujo work about a female protagonist surrounded by bishonens it couldn't be more different from most modern isekai, to the point where you could easily call it "isekai for people who don't like isekai." Listen to someone say "I don't dislike ALL Democrats ... I respect Joe Manchin!" and it is pretty much the same. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1393 |
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I mean, I've written several times about how there are modern isekai series that I enjoy quite a lot. I named Re:Zero S2 one of my favorite series from this past winter, as well as a previous TWIA about the Frozen Bond OVA where I was pretty positive towards both that entry and the first season. I've gone on record enjoying both seasons of My Next Life as a Villainess. While I fell off the second season I quite enjoyed - and again, had at least 1 TWIA on record - that I liked Reincarnated as a Slime, and my reasons for dropping the sequel had nothing to do with it being an isekai story. To bring up the topic of fanservice I've also gone on record enjoying How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, though I don't think I ever wrote anything up for the 2nd season. I don't know if you'd count them as strictly part of the current isekai fervor, but I also liked Grimgar: Ashes & Illusions and Ascendance Of A Bookworm a whole lot. Hell, in this very TWIA I make mention of a lot of the elements and ideas I like in Faraway Paladin, even if I feel this adaptation misses the mark on presenting them. Despite what some folks seem to insist, I'm not "biased" against isekai as a subgenre. Rather I just don't think the majority of the entries in this latest trend/wave have been very good. There's a LOT of them pushed out every season, and for every memorable one there's 2-5 shows that nobody remembers after they're over, and that amount of chaff, combined with the current trend's tendency to reuse the same basic premise and worldbuilding ideas, means it gets pretty fatiguing when there's at least 4 new entries every season. That's not me hating Isekai anymore than me not liking Aquaman is me hating Super Hero movies. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
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See, while everyone is currently livid because I dared to imply that maybe Jobless Reincarnation is gross for having a protag that tried sneaking cameras into his nibling's room and assuming I just blanket-hate things, you actually notice that I found things to like in this show and I can recognize game when the show did good things. I legit like Bagley as a character and Mary's relationship with Mater is legit good writing. It doesn't stop Faraway Paladin from being a boring show that made me yearn for something better to watch. And it weirds me out that people gloss over that and just make sweeping statements on how "I'm wrong". And like... my mans, I didn't write Will having a wet dream over his undead mommy. |
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Amuro1X
Posts: 175 |
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Hey there, just replying here cause I had reached out to Jean-Karlo on Twitter and was blocked. Wasn't trying to harass you or anything so sorry if that came out that way. Saw you had also replied before that. I'm the guy that was saying I'm also named Jean-Karlo irl and how surreal it was to hearing anitubers that were mad about your opinion mispronouncing our name, haha.
To the point of this article, I don't hate Faraway Paladin, but I will say it has a very bog standard adaptation. It pretty much lost me after MC Good Boy left home and met the elf guy. I plan on finishing it at some point but no rush. |
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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People often care more about having their conclusions being validated by the conclusions of others, rather than the specific points that brought them there. It's the reason why written reviews can get dragged by daring to give a low final score, the body of the text be damned. |
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TheVileOne
Posts: 272 Location: Texas |
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https://twitter.com/mouse_inhouse/status/1474174454586437670
For one thing, the article wasn't a private conversation. For another, ANN has interviewed the author of Faraway Paladin before. Not a good look. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 1393 |
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's called a joke, mate. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3448 Location: Finland |
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checks the above link
No need for anyone to 'tattle', the guy knows his English, he would keep tabs on articles such as this. Edit;
If it was supposed to be a funny take, it's not in good taste. You at least take it seriously enough to ban commenters.. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 1393 |
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Neither I or Jean-Karlo have the ability to ban or moderate anybody here. If somebody was banned or had anything deleted in this thread or in relation to this TWIA, that's something to bring up with the moderators. |
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Blanchimont
Posts: 3448 Location: Finland |
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I was referring to the twitter thread TheVileOne linked, not this thread. It should have been obvious from my comment. Of course I may have worded it wrong if you weren't the author of it(perhaps I assumed wrong, based on your reply to the TheVileOne which gave such impression?) Edit; If you want to nitpick, 'blocking' is what I meant. I'll try to be more careful with my wording hereafter... Last edited by Blanchimont on Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 1393 |
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Then I'm even more confused because if we don't have the ability to ban people on the ANN forums we DEFINITELY don't have the ability to ban people on twitter. Unless you meant blocking people, which is a totally different act from, as you said, " banning commenters". The way you said it, it sounded like ANN was banning users fir disagreeing with the column, not one of the writers blocking strangers on a personal social media site. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2945 Location: Email for assistance only |
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Okay, so this is the exact opposite of how I want to spend Christmas, but I want to rein some things in so we can hopefully all go back to enjoying this holiday time.
Except for very specific circumstances, no one here should be attempting to drag what people do on their private social media accounts into the forums at all. That isn't just pertaining to staff, but any poster in general. If you don't like what someone says on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, etc, engage (or don't) on those platforms. Otherwise this can become extremely uncomfortable very quickly with posters looking up other posters online, linking to their accounts, and attempting to "gotcha" them with something. I also wouldn't expect any poster or writer here to be required to tolerate dogpiling (which is what is currently happening on the linked Twitter account due the usual shoutman YouTube rhetoric going on about this column) instead of just blocking random people showing up in their Twitter mentions/Facebook profile comments to tell them how much they suck. I block people on Twitter all the time, it isn't worth anyone's energy to put up with that. It is very easy to dislike what someone has said about something you like, to disagree with their points and opinion, feel that they were exaggerated, or to otherwise not like the tone of a piece of writing. You might even find that you avoid a particular writer if this is a common occurrence. Unfortunately, I've found that it's incredibly common, especially when talking about anime, certain movie genres, and video games that dogpiling is the go-to reaction. I've encountered plenty of people, including very public people like celebrities, who do or say things that I strongly disagree with or even angers me. I have never followed that up by directly sending them hateful messages, calling them names, or disparaging them on their personal accounts. There are some elements of the conversation in this discussion that I think, as its editor, pushed a few buttons unnecessarily and I would be lying if I said I didn't think a negative reaction was possible based on how I know particular audiences react when they think their fav is being made fun of. As the editor, I weighed between toning it down to avoid pissing off a subsection of a fandom (even if I think their reaction is overly sensitive) versus letting the writers be honest with their feelings. I'll be having a conversation about the column in general with the team after the holiday. |
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Cryten
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Why cant the discussion be about what we liked and disliked about faraway paladin? Even if an author did dislike a genre that is no reason to dismiss their input. Only to colour it appropriately with their past opinion, IE they find certain things that I like boring but does that hurt my enjoyment?
I certainly can see how someone who isnt really into DND could find bits of the show boring. Especially given how little organic exploration we have had of Bee and whatshisname the merchant. On the other hand I have found menel, while initially shallow, has been growing their companionship each successive episode. I like that. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
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We did that. We did exactly that. Once you get past the surface-level ribbing, you'll notice that I spend a good amount of time praising Mary and Bagley's characterization or how I appreciated some of the emotional moments like Will helping Menel with the old lady in the village. Doesn't stop me from finding this show largely dull, but I'm honest enough to point out that there was stuff I liked. It was right there in black and white and anyone who actually reads the column and doesn't just take some outrage peddler at their word would see it. I watched all 10 available episodes of Faraway Paladin and I made sure to do it as fairly as I did any other series I cover by underlining the things I like just as much as I underlined the things I didn't like. If you're going to just skip over the times I underline how much Will lamenting his relationship with his old parents works for me or how much I appreciate the moments between him, Mary and Blood, be my guest. But it's telling that we're getting more heat over an off-hand joke about an unrelated show than over the multiple times I joked about Will having a fetish for undead people. I watched the whole 10 episodes, and folks can't even read the whole column? That's on you. Last edited by FinalVentCard on Sat Dec 25, 2021 7:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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