Anime: Emotions on a Rollercoaster

[Amentep]

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3 hours ago, majestic said:

Final thoughts on Puella Magi Madoka Magica the anime (haven't seen any of the films yet). Quick note: I think it is worth watching if you enjoyed at least one other magical girl anime.

 

Kawaii! From left to right, Sayaka, Homura, Madoka (with Kyubey), Mami, Kyoko

Well, doesn't the cast look cute?

Things to keep in mind. I'll mark spoilers. The show itself consists of only 12 episodes, many of which have interesting moments and some that have plot twists. Look up the spoilers at your own peril if you maybe want to  watch it. Should be available on Netflix in the US from what I've read.

To quote myself, from earlier:

[Madoka Magica] follows the tale of Madoka and Sayaka, two best friends from school. Having a successful carreer mother but no special talents of her own, Madoka is plagued by feelings of inadequacy, while Sayaka is secretly in love with a hopeful young musician who suffered a tragic accident that will, so the doctors say, render him forever unable to perform. Their luck seems to change when a disturbingly cute little creature offers them the deal of a lifetime: He will grant them a wish, in exchange for signing a pact, becoming mahō shōjo (literally magical girls) who fight witches secretly threatening the world.

Animation

Is a mixture of 2D and 3D CGI, sometimes used to extremely disturbing ends. As cute as the characters are, outside of the fighting sequences, the world, the artstyle and the atmosphere of this show are extremely somber and... heavy. There is a weight to this world that is absolutely at odds with how adorable everything else looks. This stark contrast is very much deliberate.

Soundtrack

Is actually fantastic. Granted, you might not enjoy the music based on its genre, but it fits and underscores the scenes it is in perfectly - which is the point of a soundtrack anyway, no? Unlike say in Sailor Moon Crystal, where the music isn't so bad as much as it is overused and extremely distracting when it happens.

Plot

Oh boy. Where to start.

You have a really cute little animal that offers two girls a wish in exchange for their help in fighting evil. At roughly the same time, a transfer student named Homura shows up in Madoka's and Sayaka's class. Dark haired and a ominous, she immediately warns Madoka to stay the way she is, if she truly loves her friends and family. And that is really all we can talk about without going into spoiler territory.
 

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Okay, so yeah, seems very similar in setup, style, and tone to the original Dragon Ball. Also seems to have been made around the same time. Guess it makes sense I was moderately entertained by it.

@majestic Takahata: Now that you mention it, most of his stuff does seem to be more grounded and bittersweet if not outright dark and depressing. I think I tend to favor his work over Miyazaki's - I like my fantastical stuff to be a little more low-key and grounded, which he seem to be all too happy to oblige with when he bothers with fantasy at all. Also, it helps that Takahata can write satisfying endings to his works, which I think tends to be Miyazaki's greatest flaw.

That show looks to be *so* not my thing outside of the fact that it's an inversion of the genre, but...you did say it was only 12 episodes, which is nice. I guess I can give it a try!

TL;DR, or: I don't want to be spoiled:

It's worth a watch for the meta commentary on the genre alone.

To close up, when watching, keep Homura's words in mind:

 

 

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Okay, so yeah, seems very similar in setup, style, and tone to the original Dragon Ball. Also seems to have been made around the same time. Guess it makes sense I was moderately entertained by it.

@majestic Takahata: Now that you mention it, most of his stuff does seem to be more grounded and bittersweet if not outright dark and depressing. I think I tend to favor his work over Miyazaki's - I like my fantastical stuff to be a little more low-key and grounded, which he seem to be all too happy to oblige with when he bothers with fantasy at all. Also, it helps that Takahata can write satisfying endings to his works, which I think tends to be Miyazaki's greatest flaw.

That show looks to be *so* not my thing outside of the fact that it's an inversion of the genre, but...you did say it was only 12 episodes, which is nice. I guess I can give it a try!

 

2 hours ago, KaineParker said:

@majesticSince the series itself is only 12 episodes long (not counting movies), how do you think it compares to a season of SMC in terms of pacing and supporting characters?

And is the CGI going to give me uncanny valley vibes like the recent Berserk Anime it High School Girl?

 

 

 

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

@majestic Takahata: Now that you mention it, most of his stuff does seem to be more grounded and bittersweet if not outright dark and depressing. I think I tend to favor his work over Miyazaki's - I like my fantastical stuff to be a little more low-key and grounded, which he seem to be all too happy to oblige with when he bothers with fantasy at all. Also, it helps that Takahata can write satisfying endings to his works, which I think tends to be Miyazaki's greatest flaw.

That show looks to be *so* not my thing outside of the fact that it's an inversion of the genre, but...you did say it was only 12 episodes, which is nice. I guess I can give it a try!

I see, then I might look into some more of this work.

And yes, it is only 12 episodes, has a weird Gainax ending (the anime version of a David Lynch ending, from Neon Genesis Evangelion in case you don't know, which was made by Studio Gainax), so you don't lose a lot of time. Not going to lie, there's every chance you're not going to like it, but it was also not really meant to be liked, I think. I also don't think I will ever watch it again. Much like Grave of the Fireflies (not meant as a comparison, the two obviously have nothing in common except evoking a similar sense of despair).

3 hours ago, KaineParker said:

@majesticSince the series itself is only 12 episodes long (not counting movies), how do you think it compares to a season of SMC in terms of pacing and supporting characters?

And is the CGI going to give me uncanny valley vibes like the recent Berserk Anime it High School Girl?

Caveat: Haven't seen Berserk (any of it). The animation in this show is going to do all sorts of things to you, and all of them intentional. The characters didn't leave me with the same feeling of watching reality bending, shape shifting Reapers that want consume my face like the ones in Crystal did though. They, on the other hand, were mostly designed to be properly cute for maximum contrast. Take a look at Homura Akemi:

If that doesn't give you any vibes, then the characters at least will not. Some sequences do defenitely come across as simply wrong (parts of the opening sequence of the first episode, a dream by Madoka, does very much give you uncanny valley vibes in the way everything is moving in just the slightliest of wrong ways), but that's intentional. It's hard to describe. The dreamlike, surrealist hellscapes the battles take place in are all sorts of wrong. Most of all because they're in super flat 2D that still looks like 3D. Like a horror version of Yoshi's Island 2 on the SNES.

The other question is... less hard to describe, but harder to answer. The scope of this series is different, and so is the aim. The one thing a lot of it is based on, the friendship between Sayaka and Madoka, is properly shown on screen. It takes up a lot of screentime, and the examination of the themes and topics of the anime happen directly from the point of view of that friendship. The motivations of Homura are a different beast, but they do get enough development time. It could have been more, but that would perhaps have distraced from the impact they have (this also works with a lot of hindsight after the reveal episode near the end happend, which casts a different light on what happens in the earlier episodes).

This doesn't tell an epic tale of good vs. evil. It is a minor motivation for some of the characters at best. This is even reflected in the picture of the "main" cast, beacuse Kyoko and Mami are side characters at best in terms of the screen time they get. But even those get more motivation and character development than say a first season Minako in Sailor Moon Crystal.

There are a few other characters I haven't talked about. Madoka's family, the third friend that always hangs out with Madoka and Sayaka, and the teacher of the class. It's not that those don't matter, but they're also really not necessary (Madoka's mother takes the typical male role though, in an inversion - her dad seems to stay at home and cook while it's her mother that goes to work and comes home drunk to cope with the realities of modern worklife).

The short run time isn't problematic in this one precisely because the scope is limited. Events don't proceed at a breakneck pace.  It takes Sayaka and Madoka, arguably the actual main cast outside of Kyubey half and almost the entire run respectively to decide what they want to do. Events don't simply ask you to care for them, you do by the time they happen, and none of the girls simply randomly claim their strong bonds of friendship will prevail over whatever threat there is even though you've seen nothing of it on the screen.

See? Satisfied? Probably not. Hard to answer, as I said. I would argue that 12 episodes are enough for the story it does tell. They were very much not for Crystal (or the manga).

@KaineParker, @Bartimaeus, @InsaneCommander lookie, a new thread!

Edited March 10, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Watched Steven Universe up until (and including) E01S12 - Giant Woman.

Question for @Bartimaeus

Spoiler

So if Pearl and Amethyst can fuse to form Opal and they have four arms afterwards, given her weird color scheme and three eyes, is Garnet actually a long term fusion?

Can Steven fuse with anyone (or everyone) later? Are there any rules? Can fused gems fuse with other gems to create super fusions? Questions over questions!

 

[Bartimaeus]

Do you actually want me to answer those questions?

[InsaneCommander]

Drunk Usagi.

So,
 

Spoiler

 

now that they know each other's secret identities, their relationship will be a lot more interesting. They were very friendly when not transformed.

Btw, I think people not recognizing them despite the nearly identical appearance must be some form of magic that comes with the transformation. When they figure out they don't react with surprise, it simply becomes a fact. So maybe "the spell is broken"?

 

 

[majestic]

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Do you actually want me to answer those questions?

No, not really, I got excited for a bit.

Spoiler

I'm guessing Steven won't be fusing around for a while yet (if at all), unless there's a huge timeskip in between episodes or seasons. That fusion dance had way too much sexual subtext and unless he's secretly Chibi-Usa he seems a tad too young for that. Garnet though, I'm pretty positive I'm onto something here. Why else go out of the way to show that she's stronger than Amethyst and Pearl in the episode before. Never mind the third eye and the fact that she's the only one except for Steven who has mismatching colors on her clothes (or whatever they are, they look like clothes... maybe that's her actual body ).

Anyhow, I'll be more surprised if Garnet doesn't turn out to be two other gems, and her being two separate personalities would also explain why the hell she's sometimes saying or doing things that seem completely out of the left field. Like suddenly wanting Steven to come with them or telling him good job when a stern talking to would be more appropriate given her otherwise serious nature.

(and finally garnet is actually a group of minerals, not one specific type... but that could just be coincidence)

Look at that. 12 episodes in and I'm already overanalyzing. That took Sailor Moon almost a full season (in all fairness, the original set of episodes weren't at all designed to be analyzed except for a somewhat perfunctory criticism of the commercialization and superficiality of teenage girls in a modern capitalist society - that was definitely there, but not really the focus... I think).

Edited March 11, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

8 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Drunk Usagi.

So,
 

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now that they know each other's secret identities, their relationship will be a lot more interesting. They were very friendly when not transformed.

Btw, I think people not recognizing them despite the nearly identical appearance must be some form of magic that comes with the transformation. When they figure out they don't react with surprise, it simply becomes a fact. So maybe "the spell is broken"?

 

 

At the risk of answering yet another rhetorical question - yes, indeed, that is the most commonly accepted "rule" for the Clark Kenting of the Sailor Moon 90ies anime. The spell is only truly broken once you see the actual transformation. Some muggles (lol) are implied to figure it out based on behaviour or names at times, but that's about it.

[majestic]

A note on watching too much anime with subtitles: I randomly followed a Netflix recommendation and have now seen half an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. I have no opinion on the show yet (and won't, for a while, because I'll finish JoJo and Steven Universe first, and then it probably will be Revolutionary Girl Utena first), but I've made some interesting observations.

I'm getting used to hearing Japanese. Instead of everything being one indistinguishable mess of strange sounds I'm actually beginning to pick up commonly repeated phrases like good morning, good evening, hello, yes, no, let's eat, thanks for the food, good bye, bye, welcome home, my name is (although that's the other way around, <surname> <first name> desu), nice to meet you.

And I immediately recognized the voice actors of two characters on Carcaptor Sakura. Sakura's magic animal companion is Ami and the boy she likes is voiced by Haruka... which is a bit weird. This one is particularily interesting because when I started out watching Sailor Moon with subtitles I couldn't even tell the girls apart when they were talking over each other, let alone recognize their voices in some other show.

How long until I turn into a complete weeb?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

How long until I turn into a complete weeb?

It has already begun.

[Bartimaeus]

8 hours ago, majestic said:

No, not really, I got excited for a bit.

  Hide contents

I'm guessing Steven won't be fusing around for a while yet (if at all), unless there's a huge timeskip in between episodes or seasons. That fusion dance had way too much sexual subtext and unless he's secretly Chibi-Usa he seems a tad too young for that. Garnet though, I'm pretty positive I'm onto something here. Why else go out of the way to show that she's stronger than Amethyst and Pearl in the episode before. Never mind the third eye and the fact that she's the only one except for Steven who has mismatching colors on her clothes (or whatever they are, they look like clothes... maybe that's her actual body ).

Anyhow, I'll be more surprised if Garnet doesn't turn out to be two other gems, and her being two separate personalities would also explain why the hell she's sometimes saying or doing things that seem completely out of the left field. Like suddenly wanting Steven to come with them or telling him good job when a stern talking to would be more appropriate given her otherwise serious nature.

(and finally garnet is actually a group of minerals, not one specific type... but that could just be coincidence)

Look at that. 12 episodes in and I'm already overanalyzing. That took Sailor Moon almost a full season (in all fairness, the original set of episodes weren't at all designed to be analyzed except for a somewhat perfunctory criticism of the commercialization and superficiality of teenage girls in a modern capitalist society - that was definitely there, but not really the focus... I think).

All I'll say is that...............I'm glad that I can watch a few more episodes now that you've gotten a little farther in, . Though season 1 is more lowkey as I said, there are definitely details (both direct and subtext) to pay attention to.

[InsaneCommander]

9 hours ago, majestic said:

At the risk of answering yet another rhetorical question - yes, indeed, that is the most commonly accepted "rule" for the Clark Kenting of the Sailor Moon 90ies anime. The spell is only truly broken once you see the actual transformation. Some muggles (lol) are implied to figure it out based on behaviour or names at times, but that's about it.

Yes, I was overanalysing again...

I watched two more episodes and it turns out they were big ones. Where I'm watching SM S there is no preview for the next episode, so I didn't know something big was coming.

And maybe I shouldn't watch the preview at beginning of each episode, since they frequently spoil things.
 

Spoiler

 

I can't even say I predicted it as it was kind of obvious, but of course Michiru had a talisman.

And congratulations to Usagi for being such a nice person and trying to help SU and SN even when they didn't want it.

 

 

[majestic]

10 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Yes, I was overanalysing again...

I watched two more episodes and it turns out they were big ones. Where I'm watching SM S there is no preview for the next episode, so I didn't know something big was coming.

And maybe I shouldn't watch the preview at beginning of each episode, since they frequently spoil things.
 

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I can't even say I predicted it as it was kind of obvious, but of course Michiru had a talisman.

And congratulations to Usagi for being such a nice person and trying to help SU and SN even when they didn't want it.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Of course she does. She might be necessary to blast the monster of the week to bits, but Usagi's actual superpower is love and friendship. 90ies anime Usagi, that is. In Sailor Moon Crystal she's a bloodthirsty maniac who liberally kills people and monsters when they're in her way, unless they sexually assault her first. She falls in love with the first creep she comes across, is mildly annoyed when the second creep who forcably kisses her is destroyed and still wants to be friends above all else with the third creep that kisses her without consent. 

Spoiler

It is Tuxedo Kamen, Prince Demande and Haruka, in that order, by the way.

So how did you like that episode? In terms of pure story episodes that's as good as Sailor Moon will ever get.

 

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

36 minutes ago, majestic said:

 

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Of course she does. She might be necessary to blast the monster of the week to bits, but Usagi's actual superpower is love and friendship. 90ies anime Usagi, that is. In Sailor Moon Crystal she's a bloodthirsty maniac who liberally kills people and monsters when they're in her way, unless they sexually assault her first. She falls in love with the first creep she comes across, is mildly annoyed when the second creep who forcably kisses her is destroyed and still wants to be friends above all else with the third creep that kisses her without consent. 

  Reveal hidden contents

It is Tuxedo Kamen, Prince Demande and Haruka, in that order, by the way.

So how did you like that episode? In terms of pure story episodes that's as good as Sailor Moon will ever get.

 

 

So you're saying SMC Usagi would very much like to be Ernia in the first episode of JoJo?

[majestic]

5 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

 

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So you're saying SMC Usagi would very much like to be Ernia in the first episode of JoJo?

 

 

Spoiler

Guy with a mask that forcibly kisses her? Sure thing. Immediate miracle romance.

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

39 minutes ago, majestic said:

 

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Of course she does. She might be necessary to blast the monster of the week to bits, but Usagi's actual superpower is love and friendship. 90ies anime Usagi, that is. In Sailor Moon Crystal she's a bloodthirsty maniac who liberally kills people and monsters when they're in her way, unless they sexually assault her first. She falls in love with the first creep she comes across, is mildly annoyed when the second creep who forcably kisses her is destroyed and still wants to be friends above all else with the third creep that kisses her without consent. 

  Reveal hidden contents

It is Tuxedo Kamen, Prince Demande and Haruka, in that order, by the way.

So how did you like that episode? In terms of pure story episodes that's as good as Sailor Moon will ever get.

 

 

Spoiler

 

It was good, but SU and SN were saved too easily. Well, not in the same episode at least, so people who watched it in the first run must have felt differently.

My impression is that Sailor Pluto knew what would happen and didn't tell anyone because they needed to go through that experience. If that was the case I can't argue against it. A nice lesson for SU and SN. Maybe now they will take it a little easier?

No, I don't think they will.

 

 

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

All I'll say is that...............I'm glad that I can watch a few more episodes now that you've gotten a little farther in, . Though season 1 is more lowkey as I said, there are definitely details (both direct and subtext) to pay attention to.

 

Spoiler

Well look at episode 13 where Steven makes himself as old as he feels. Huh. Also, what, the lion is still around?

 

[majestic]

By the way, if you need any more convincing to watch Madoka Magica, look at this adorable trailer.

 

Spoiler

Gotta admit, it takes balls of steel to troll your potential audience with a trailer like that.

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

so this is basically doki doki iliterature club but in tv format

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

26 minutes ago, majestic said:

By the way, if you need any more convincing to watch Madoka Magica, look at this adorable trailer.

 

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Gotta admit, it takes balls of steel to troll your potential audience with a trailer like that.

 

As much as you're selling me this, I'm considering dropping Sailor Moon Super S to watch it. Super S is really wearing right now, especially after Fish Eye had his first outing, and is killing my enjoyment for the show to the point I don't know if I'll even finish the series.

Like really, his schemes so far are much more rapey than the others, I thought Pegasus would creep me out but that at least has the pretense of innocence. Fish Eye doesn't, especially after

YOU FEEL FOR IT, FOOL!

THUNDER CROSS SPLIT ATTACK

[majestic]

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

so this is basically doki doki iliterature club but in tv format

Had to look that up, but from what I've read, yeah, seems similar.

28 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

As much as you're selling me this, I'm considering dropping Sailor Moon Super S to watch it. Super S is really wearing right now, especially after Fish Eye had his first outing, and is killing my enjoyment for the show to the point I don't know if I'll even finish the series.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Like really, his schemes so far are much more rapey than the others, I thought Pegasus would creep me out but that at least has the pretense of innocence. Fish Eye doesn't, especially after

 

  Reveal hidden contents

YOU FEEL FOR IT, FOOL!

THUNDER CROSS SPLIT ATTACK

 

 

You'll scare Bartimaeus off here with that talk, man.
 

Spoiler

 

But seriously, the creepy stuff of Sailor Moon SuperS isn't even the actual reason one would potentially drop the show (at least not unless you're severely triggered by stylized sexual assault, but how would that potential watcher have made it through Prince Demand's little stunts in R then?). Sure it gets really bad at times (did you have the mushroom conversation between Hawk-Eye and Tiger's-Eye yet?), but it's the ridiculously formulaic reliance on jokes and interactions that were essentially resolved two seasons ago, and I think it really takes some doing to take a show that is already as neurotically formulaic as Sailor Moon and push it to a level where it begins to bother even the most steadfast of fans.

Spoiler

 

Also goes to show that you haven't seen much of Fish-Eye yet. He seems the most harmless of the three at first.

Spoiler

 

Until he says that he likes little boys for their adorable body proportions.

Spoiler

And wants a 12 year old to score a goal inside him.

Spoiler

Sorry I don't really have a meme here

 

 

 

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

5 minutes ago, majestic said:

Had to look that up, but from what I've read, yeah, seems similar.

You'll scare Bartimaeus off here with that talk, man.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

But seriously, the creepy stuff of Sailor Moon SuperS isn't even the actual reason one would potentially drop the show (at least not unless you're severely triggered by stylized sexual assault, but how would that potential watcher have made it through Prince Demand's little stunts in R then?). Sure it gets really bad at times (did you have the mushroom conversation between Hawk-Eye and Tiger's-Eye yet?), but it's the ridiculously formulaic reliance on jokes and interactions that were essentially resolved two seasons ago, and I think it really takes some doing to take a show that is already as neurotically formulaic as Sailor Moon and push it to a level where it begins to bother even the most steadfast of fans.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Also goes to show that you haven't seen much of Fish-Eye yet. He seems the most harmless of the three at first.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Until he says that he likes little boys for their adorable body proportions.

  Reveal hidden contents

And wants a 12 year old to score a goal inside him.

  Reveal hidden contents

Sorry I don't really have a meme here

 

 

 

 

 

Oh no!

What I've seen of Fish Eye is him pretend to be a fairy and model for a designer. In both it was generally creepier than stuff Hawk and Tiger have gotten up to, but in all cases the rape "sub"text and the repetition have made it unenjoyable. Add in that every episode is Usagi and Chibi-Usa fighting over something only to meet up and do their 1 minute attack and it's like they took the worst parts of Sailor Moon and doubled down.[/quote]

[majestic]

6 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

Oh no!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

What I've seen of Fish Eye is him pretend to be a fairy and model for a designer. In both it was generally creepier than stuff Hawk and Tiger have gotten up to, but in all cases the rape "sub"text and the repetition have made it unenjoyable. Add in that every episode is Usagi and Chibi-Usa fighting over something only to meet up and do their 1 minute attack and it's like they took the worst parts of Sailor Moon and doubled down.[/quote]

 

Spoiler

 

Huh. I don't know, for me Tiger's-Eye was the worst, mostly because of his squealing and the joy he emotes at the dream mirror penetration of his victims, combined with his and Hawk-Eye's constant objectification of their victims, hence why I presumed you were half-joking here (and that meme directed at my trying to sell Madoka Magica to you guys).

Now that I think about it you're right about him actually doing the most creepy stuff. Fish-Eye's shenanigans are much creepier and a lot less light hearted (apply that term lightly) than the ones of Tiger's-Eye (except for his first attempt at Unazuki, that was just plain horrible to see) or Hawk-Eye. The other two at least get rejected in funny ways by Naru or come up with super ridiculous ways to try and seduce their victims, like Hawk-Eye's disguise as the late widow's husband from the Ami-becomes-a-mechanic episode.

Next episode is a somewhat fun Minako outing. She's the target and it's no spoiler to say that she gets assaulted, but she wouldn't be Minako if it wasn't at least a bit insane, yes?

What else can I say? It does get better once the Amazon Trio is gone, but that won't be until episode 22, and there'll still be some Usagi and Chibi-Usa fighting, but it won't be as extreme as before (instead you'll get more of Chibi-Usa's boring friends, but hey, anything's better than the two fighting).

You could skip the episodes until 19 (18 is semi-okay too, but it features Fish-Eye again). 19 is fun and while it still only has Chibi-Usa and Usagi (and Diana and Luna have a really funny dialogue) they at least aren't completely obnoxious IIRC and episode 20 is... that unfortunate incident with Makoto.

You'll not really lose anything of value if you skip the episodes after 14 to 21 where the end of the Trio begins. You don't get to see Ami assaulted, but that's no big loss, that was a waste of an episode, and you'll miss the girls' power up scene, but they get separate episodes for the first time they use their power ups anyway, so that might as well not matter. 19 has some fun parts true, and 20 is... 20 minutes of Makoto torture porn. It stands out a little because there's barely any attempt by the episode to lighten the mood.

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

10 minutes ago, majestic said:

 

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Huh. I don't know, for me Tiger's-Eye was the worst, mostly because of his squealing and the joy he emotes at the dream mirror penetration of his victims, combined with his and Hawk-Eye's constant objectification of their victims, hence why I presumed you were half-joking here (and that meme directed at my trying to sell Madoka Magica to you guys).

Now that I think about it you're right about him actually doing the most creepy stuff. Fish-Eye's shenanigans are much creepier and a lot less light hearted (apply that term lightly) than the ones of Tiger's-Eye (except for his first attempt at Unazuki, that was just plain horrible to see) or Hawk-Eye. The other two at least get rejected in funny ways by Naru or come up with super ridiculous ways to try and seduce their victims, like Hawk-Eye's disguise as the late widow's husband from the Ami-becomes-a-mechanic episode.

Next episode is a somewhat fun Minako outing. She's the target and it's no spoiler to say that she gets assaulted, but she wouldn't be Minako if it wasn't at least a bit insane, yes?

What else can I say? It does get better once the Amazon Trio is gone, but that won't be until episode 22, and there'll still be some Usagi and Chibi-Usa fighting, but it won't be as extreme as before (instead you'll get more of Chibi-Usa's boring friends, but hey, anything's better than the two fighting).

You could skip the episodes until 19 (18 is semi-okay too, but it features Fish-Eye again). 19 is fun and while it still only has Chibi-Usa and Usagi (and Diana and Luna have a really funny dialogue) they at least aren't completely obnoxious IIRC and episode 20 is... that unfortunate incident with Makoto.

You'll not really lose anything of value if you skip the episodes after 14 to 21 where the end of the Trio begins. You don't get to see Ami assaulted, but that's no big loss, that was a waste of an episode, and you'll miss the girls' power up scene, but they get separate episodes for the first time they use their power ups anyway, so that might as well not matter. 19 has some fun parts true, and 20 is... 20 minutes of Makoto torture porn. It stands out a little because there's barely any attempt by the episode to lighten the mood.

 

 

I was joking, it was all to setup the THUNDER CROSS SPLIT ATTACK meme, which you will probably get shortly if you don't already. Really though Super S has been a dull combination of boring and creepy compared to previous episodes. It's a major low point for the series and is wearing on me where I don't look forward to watching it like I did previous seasons. In some ways it feels like going backwards.

And Fish Eye is definitely creepy in what he does, and kind of an **** to boot.

I'm probably going to watch that show next, it looks to be a nice chaser to go after Sailor Moon. Stephen Universe and Attack on Titan are after finishing up the Great Pretender, which I'd recommend for some fun times.

[majestic]

4 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

 

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I was joking, it was all to setup the THUNDER CROSS SPLIT ATTACK meme, which you will probably get shortly if you don't already. Really though Super S has been a dull combination of boring and creepy compared to previous episodes. It's a major low point for the series and is wearing on me where I don't look forward to watching it like I did previous seasons. In some ways it feels like going backwards.

And Fish Eye is definitely creepy in what he does, and kind of an **** to boot.

I'm probably going to watch that show next, it looks to be a nice chaser to go after Sailor Moon. Stephen Universe and Attack on Titan are after finishing up the Great Pretender, which I'd recommend for some fun times.

 

Ah, hell.

I have an excuse, it is almost 3 am here. *cough* *cough*

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 minutes ago, majestic said:

Ah, hell.

I have an excuse, it is almost 3 am here. *cough* *cough*

you funny majestic. but get some sleep? you can't anime from work if you're asleep their