Anime, the eternal Jettokōsutā

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wonder how realistic it would be for a nation to be able to genocide itself down to 1/8th of its original population...

A nation....in space!

Realistically genocide (including population control and cultural erasure) would be a very intensive process in terms of manpower and resources. You'd pretty much need a massive efficiency booster (like robots, automation, etc.) along with the active participation of the people not being targeted (yet) to pull it off. It's realistic in the sense as most sci-fi stuff can be, but similarly unlikely to happen.

[InsaneCommander]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wonder how realistic it would be for a nation to be able to genocide itself down to 1/8th of its original population...

 

1 hour ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

A nation....in space!

Realistically genocide (including population control and cultural erasure) would be a very intensive process in terms of manpower and resources. You'd pretty much need a massive efficiency booster (like robots, automation, etc.) along with the active participation of the people not being targeted (yet) to pull it off. It's realistic in the sense as most sci-fi stuff can be, but similarly unlikely to happen.

Yes, not realistic. Even the most enthusiastic people about it would eventually get tired of doing it. Unless they had some way to drug everyone or poison the atmosphere, I guess.

[Bartimaeus]

Cardcaptor Sakura, Episode 38, Sakura's Fun Strawberry Picking Adventure!

One thing I've noticed with watching something subbed like this is that it's a bit more work to watch than something dubbed. I didn't have as much of a problem with it in JoJo's because...there's not really all that much dialogue and much of the dialogue that's in it doesn't matter too much, but for a show like Cardcaptor Sakura where my eyes and brain have to be a hundred percent glued to it, it's a bit of a different matter, .

Spoiler

The whole gang of girls is talking about being able to pick strawberries and how exciting that is...and then there's an immediate cut to Sakura dreaming about Yukito eating the strawberries she picked for him. What is it about this show that such a simple cut away to something so dumb and predictable makes me burst out a laugh and subsequently facepalm? It must be out of some love for show and its characters (as well as art style - Yukito's constantly dumb smiling face is practically a running joke in of itself at this point, and that's exactly how Sakura imagined him when it suddenly cut away to him), but how does it specifically do it where so many other shows could never dream of getting that kind of reaction out of me? ...And can we please get other shows to copy it?! ...No? Okay, .

I love episodes like these that make use of the other classroom students, especially Chiharu and Takashi. Even if the premise itself is not necessarily the strongest, it becomes even more fun than usual because they're so great as funny and adorable supporting characters. I also like that it's not just Sakura getting fooled by Takashi's lies...Xiaolang, .

One other thing I'd like to say for Meiling is that her voice actress puts in some work. Between her incredibly bizarre laughing that I'm not sure I've ever quite heard something like before, her occasional bloodcurdling scream, her constant yelling and just the general outrage in her voice, groaning and moaning about practically everything that happens, she puts on a bit of a performance. Possibly part of her good job in doing so that makes the character more likeable than perhaps one would expect.

Cutting to this frame right after Sakura nearly fell to her demise (interestingly, Tomoyo was shown to have turned away and closed her eyes rather than watch) got an audible gasp out of me. This lady has always given me the creeps, and she continues to do so!

May not have been the strongest premise, but what matters most is what you do with it, and that was a great episode, .

 

[majestic]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

...And can we please get other shows to copy it?! ...No? Okay, .

Can’t do a longer reply at the moment because typing on the phone is horrible but that’s a great question. One that the creative team also could not answer I guess, because that’s exactly what is missing from Clear Card. There is a certain magic to some entertainment that sometimes strikes gold for me an CCS sits very high on that list. Very, very high. 

It’s episodes also do that with much higher consistency than Sailor Moon or X-Files did, although both ran more than twice as long, so there was of course more potential for misses, but CCS still has 70 episodes, and most of them are really really REALLY good.

Funny how, for me, Meiling went from “can you please write her out of the show” to someone whose mere presence made Clear Card better, and her voice actor is really a big part of this too. There is an upcoming episode where Sakura’s class is doing a Sleeping Beauty play and Meiling is the evil witch who curses the princess. It’s like her VA was born for that role.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by majestic
Fixed the silly phone layout. Good grief.

[majestic]

I found myself free of distractions by my computer over the weekend, and in the vicinity of a smart TV, so I... forced myself to binge-finish Kill la Kill.

That sounds like I didn't like it, but that's not the case. Kill la Kill was great, but it's an unabating assault on one's senses. The show alone is enough to give you sensory overload, and couple that with having to read subtitles for characters that talk with what feels like a thousand words per minute (especially Mako when she gets going) it becomes quite tiring to watch. It's something similar that makes my going through JoJo's bizarre adventure quite slow. I enjoy watching it and laugh like an idiot at the shenanigans.

Spoiler

Unless Avdol dies for freaking PoRnareffU. Bah.

However, more than one or two episodes a day is kind of hard to do. For JoJo's, that's not sensory overload, but the same thing that happened to me when I watched Way of the Househusband. There's something about the combination of overly dramatic Japanese, reading subtitles and the a mix of barely animated, almost still parts and over the top action pieces, that makes me weary while watching, regardless of of much I like the content.

When you find yourself writing... anything, I guess, be it TV, film or animation scripts, music, lyrics or novels, you can do many things within the genre you've picked. Play the established tropes straight, like many do, subvert them, create a deconstruction, or you can do a parody. Sometimes works contain elements from more than one of these, and often, I've noticed, the fandumb and critics alike use the terminology wrong. Kill la Kill, interestingly enough, completes a final element within anime that I haven't seen yet - namely the latter.

Although, in all fairness, when you look at anime that plays tropes straight, like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, that only has limited applicability when you are the very shows that establish the tropes, in the case of modern Maho Shojo (and Kill la Kill is, at the end of the day, a Maho Shojo anime, the main protagonist and antagonist and the secondary ones - they're all magical girls, some of which have transformation sequences, coupled with a fighting anime).

The difference between subversions and deconstructions isn't an actually easy one. A deconstruction of mecha anime, for instance, would be Neon Genesis Evangelion insofar as it seeks to shine a light on what would happen if you applied this storytelling device or convention to real life. The mech piloting is still there. The mechs are there, even if they get a tinge of a subversion later by turning out to be grown from a giant alien entity, rather than constructed, but that's only a minor element.

A deconstruction, by its nature, doesn't do anything to acknowledge prior works with the same tropes, it is a type of reading in the work itself.

When you contrast this with Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Kyubey, this does nothing of the sort. It doesn't explore the question of what would happen if magical, wish granting and power giving animals were real, it takes the benevolent magical animal companion trope (like Luna, Artemis and Kero) and subverts the expectations (as loaded as that term nowadays is) of the viewers by not being what is expected of it. Kyubey is cute and fuzzy, but not nice.

Not that Madoka doesn't have deconstructive elements too, it's just that the subversion is a much stronger element in it (Mami is the most clearly deconstructive element, I'd say - accepting the fact that nobody would care for an orphan, but that's an entirely different rabbit hole to go down).

Kill la Kill, on the other hand, is a parody by way of turning tropes to OVER NINE THOUSAND so they become a ridiculous mockery of themselves, and that former Gainax members are part of it really shows, too.

Spoiler

Particularily near the end when it is revealed that the life fibers from which all the magical power giving uniforms are made are extraterrestrial in origin, and hidden in a secret facilty underneath the Kiryuin Manor. Yeah, immediate Lilith flashbacks there. When the Original Life Fiber awakens, it wants to transform all of humanity into clothing to cover the Earth. Yeah. That's... the secret plot of the show, by the way.

The Life Fiber also accelerated human evolution. At the end, when the Life Fibers awaken, it's the clothing that begins wearing the people as energy source. If that sounds totally awesome, then  that is because... it really is.

It all begins with Ryuko, a girl looking for the murderer of her father. The only clue she has is her only possession. Half a scissor she uses to fight. Through some shenanigans she ends up finding her late father's final piece of work, a school uniform with magical powers that consumed Ryuko's blood in exchange for power. Right from the start this shows how the parody through crassness works. Her transformation ends with her wearing a ridiculous stripper outfit that barely covers anything, which makes Mako, a girl in the family she stays with, call her an exhibitionist all the time, with Ryuko saying that she isn't.

She ends up at the academy that Satsuki runs with an iron fist. A vertiable fascist paradise where the unwashed masses are ruled over by people who have had life fibers (special threads granting magical powers) worked into their school uniforms. Regular students have normal school uniforms, the others have ranked power levels. One star uniforms are worn by the unnamed and faceless masses of the party (sort of, they're just better students here) that lord over students with no stars. Two star uniforms are for the leaders of club activities and finally there are the three star uniforms worn by the student council. They effectively run the school - that itself is making a mockery of the absurdely powerful student council trope that many animes playing at school employ.

In time, Ryuko realizes that there's more going on, and that her teacher who claims to be working for an organisation called Nudist Beach actually meant that, and isn't just a creep that undresses at every opportunity (though of course, he is that too). There's a resistance against the life fiber clothing - and it's of course people who go skinny dipping. What else?

There are 25 episodes. Well, 24 plus an OVA, but Netflix lists that as the 25th episode. Pretty much worth a watch if you like parodies. One of the biggest laughs was when Ryuko and Satsuki talked to each other while fighting. There's this massive whirlwind of fighting chaos in the middle of the screen, with the faces of the two on each sides, just talking as if nothing else was going on:

Time coded. Obvious spoiler warning.

Hidden underneath all that are actually certain themes, talk about fashion, individuality vs. collectivism and a number of other things.

Spoiler

And in the end, true to form, the good guys win through the power of friendship, but not before a secret battleship called the SS Naked Sun is transformed into the GREAT NAKED DAGGER and propelled into the heart of the Original Life Fiber by the Nudist Beach activists running in one of its turbines, using it as a hamster wheel of a sort because the ship's generators were damaged by an attack.

Phew, that's enough for now.

Edited July 11, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

@majestic

Kill la Kill sure was a ride wasn't it? I remember watching it a few years ago and thinking that it was really good or borderline perv, and now I think it's both.

At least PORANARUFU got to laugh with HAULO HORSE and finally killed J Greil with a coin.

[majestic]

14 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Kill la Kill sure was a ride wasn't it? I remember watching it a few years ago and thinking that it was really good or borderline perv, and now I think it's both.

 

Spoiler

I could have done without Ragyo sexually abusing her daugther to be honest, but otherwise that was more fun parody of ecchi than actually (borderline) perverted. That was just... really disturbing.

 

The Engrish in JoJo's is really hilarious at times.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

31 minutes ago, majestic said:

The Engrish in JoJo's is really hilarious at times.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

[majestic]

There we go, after only 4 episodes, Clear Card is writing out Meiling. I guess it would have been impractical for her to stay over at Sakura's place the entire time, but hey, why does she have to go back to Hong Kong so soon?

Anyway, the episode has two cards but was still not so bad. Too much time wasted on actiony-things, however, Sakura and Meiling spent some great time together.

MTS #3's butler was finally revealed to be a magic user (not that there was any doubt, like ever), and he can turn back time. He does so to fix a mistake he made while talking to MTS #3. That makes the setup three for three too, with him apparently being similar to... (warning, name spoilers)

Spoiler

Yue and Ruby Moon.

Considering that he's manipulating time to prevent MTS #3 finding out he knows more than he lets on, at least Sakura isn't the only person being douchewaffled by people she trusts.

Time manipulation is also, well, yay, I guess at least it is a way to explain the continuity differences. Nothing about this storyline is engaging, unlike with the other arcs (and Clow Card is better than Sakura Card in terms of story).

I guess the similarity to the setup with the other arcs was really meant to evoke nostalgia, which obviously cannot work for me. It could have, had we ever gotten Cardcaptor Sakura along with Sailor Moon, but we didn't. So there.

Kero also got an action cam from Tomoyo to be able to capture more Sakura footage. He slept through the second card capturing in this episode, and is all downtrodden about it. Sakura assumes it was because that was actually a fairly close call for her and Meiling, but Kero is just fretting about how he's going to break the news to Tomoyo that he didn't record anything. The poor bugger is terrified of Sakura's stalker.

You know what, that joke would have been fun in the Sakura Card arc. Here it just... wasn't.

Edited July 11, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

On 7/11/2021 at 2:46 AM, majestic said:

Funny how, for me, Meiling went from “can you please write her out of the show” to someone whose mere presence made Clear Card better, and her voice actor is really a big part of this too. There is an upcoming episode where Sakura’s class is doing a Sleeping Beauty play and Meiling is the evil witch who curses the princess. It’s like her VA was born for that role.

I never felt that negatively about her, but her first impression certainly was not a positive one. But I genuinely believe that you have the right (voice) actor/actress playing the right character, you can somehow make a character that probably shouldn't work be great.

Didn't realize Kill la Kill was that short - that makes it a little more appealing to me...buuut I still haven't really seen (or read) anything from it that would make me think I'd actually enjoy watching it, so yeah, probably not, . Glad you were finally able to finish something for the first time in a while, .

15 hours ago, majestic said:

There we go, after only 4 episodes, Clear Card is writing out Meiling. I guess it would have been impractical for her to stay over at Sakura's place the entire time, but hey, why does she have to go back to Hong Kong so soon?

Why? Just inexplicably let her stay with no explanation if it makes the show better!

(e): I tried out She and Her Cat. I made it just about 3 minutes before it cemented that it was another one of those faux dramatic animes where characters just stand around and look wistfully/aimlessly at nothing while soft piano music plays over somebody monologuing. There really needs to be like a subgenre of anime for this sort of thing, because I've run into it a handful of times now and I have exactly zero patience for it. Straight into the garbage with no chance of redemption it goes! Sorry, movie, but sometimes when you know, you just know...and boy, do I know.

(e): lmao, and then I tried 5 Centimeters Per Second, and the first five minutes is literally exactly the same except even more extreme. This is me right now with these movies:

Why do I even try new things? ...Because sometimes you get a Perfect Blue, Sailor Moon, Sakura, or (first season) Ranma, that's why.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

13 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I never felt that negatively about her, but her first impression certainly was not a positive one. But I genuinely believe that you have the right (voice) actor/actress playing the right character, you can somehow make a character that probably shouldn't work be great.

Not to spoil too much, but her arc was well planned enough, so even with a less engaging (and engaged) VA she would have worked on some level. It would not have been as good, obviously, with someone who didn't nail her voice that well. I mean, and that's with not understanding any of the words. 

I felt just as negatively about Shaoran at first. I should have figured out by the time Meiling arrived that she'd be a fine addition, because really, that anime can do no wrong, but I still didn't like her hyperactiveness and abrasive behaviour.

But then the anime kept making her the butt of the episode, and...

13 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Didn't realize Kill la Kill was that short - that makes it a little more appealing to me...buuut I still haven't really seen (or read) anything from it that would make me think I'd actually enjoy watching it, so yeah, probably not, . Glad you were finally able to finish something for the first time in a while, .

I finished the original Cardcaptor Sakura easily.  

Would you enjoy Kill la Kill? I'm going to lean strongly in the direction of no. It is really funny, makes fun of everything you dislike about (modern, but not only - the ridiculous combat sections with the talking were clearly inspired by the likes of DBZ) anime, but is that enough? I also found it super hard to watch because it simply is massive sensory overkill, I can't overstate that enough. It sometimes rivals the insanity going on in the Transformers movies.

The goal of the anime is clearly to accept that and just roll with it, which would be fine if I didn't have to read the subtitles. I'd suggest trying the English dub, I read that it does feature Rei and Usagi for certain characters, so the talent is there, you'd just need to check if the voice direction doesn't bother you. There's every chance it could, because of course it is overdramatic in the original, to the point of being ridiculous. Like everything else in this.

Except that one part where it dipped into really dark, creepy territory for what seemed like no reason at all. 

I don't know if its available on Netflix in the US, but firing up the first two or three episodes should be enough to see if you can stand the assault on your senses - before trying to see if you find it funny enough to continue. 

13 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Why? Just inexplicably let her stay with no explanation if it makes the show better!

Reasons.

13 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Why do I even try new things? ...Because sometimes you get a Perfect Blue, Sailor Moon, Sakura, or (first season) Ranma, that's why.

Indeed. I never thought I'd like Cardcaptor Sakura as much as I did. I just really tried it on Netflix because it came as recommendation to watch regarding the origins of modern maho shojo, next to Sailor Moon, and that from someone who thought the original Sailor Moon anime had great story episodes. Hey, well... turned out great. 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I'd suggest trying the English dub, I read that it does feature Rei and Usagi for certain characters, so the talent is there, you'd just need to check if the voice direction doesn't bother you. There's every chance it could, because of course it is overdramatic in the original, to the point of being ridiculous. Like everything else in this.

That one English trailer you linked some time back made the English dub sound pretty awful if I'm remembering correctly - not quite Madoka English dub levels of bad, but still not really tolerable. Let's see...

Yeah, no, screw that. Everyone in this seems to have went to that one infamous Academy for Overacting English Anime VAs Who Don't Voice Act Good.

Speaking of voice actors/actresses improving or even outright making characters, something else almost as equally important is the voice direction they're given in the first place! The VA for Rei in Sailor Moon is great for her, has a wide range of natural-sounding tones while still possessing a definite consistency that you couldn't ever mistake for anyone else, specific voice mannerisms and little vocal expressions that add to her character, and she sounds like a relatively normal person even with her unique voice which is appropriate given the type of character she's portraying - difficult to ask for more, really. The same lady playing Homura in Madoka sounds one-note and emotionally stunted while having gone to that same aforementioned ill-reputed academy. Part of it is the character she's portraying, part of it is the general voice direction given to everyone (Homura was probably the most pleasant out of everyone in the English dub of that show - Madoka herself was screwdrivers in my ears...and apparently she VA-ed Hotaru in Sailor Moon, which once again tells me that Madoka's issue is a totally a direction problem, and so I am grateful that whoever was handling the VAing in Viz's Sailor Moon knew what the hell they were doing so that I could love so many different VAs in that show, even for smaller characters).

Okay, I just watched the first episode, and it was...actually alright and significantly less terrible than I expected! I tried the English at first and it was predictably horrific, so I quickly switched to the Japanese, where I quickly learned that multiple characters speaking at once (or somebody speaking + kanji characters in the background), which has already happened a few times, basically results in entire lines being cut from the subtitles because some lines go by in literally a second or less, and I basically can't even see what's going on visually because of it. The good news is that the ridiculous 3D panning makes me motion sick anyways, so it's not like I really want to see that anyways. ...At least this is an actual show instead of (bad) visual novels disguised as shows like the other two things I tried to watch earlier.

Not sure what to think of the "fan service"(?) yet, it's so over-the-top that it feels like a mockery of fan-service that no longer really even feels like fan service. I like that I didn't get smashed with plot/premise crap that probably won't even matter and instead it just jumped straight into what the show's about with barely an introduction - that was a good choice for a show like this.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, no, screw that. Everyone in this seems to have went to that one infamous Academy for Overacting English Anime VAs Who Don't Voice Act Good.

Mhm, there's something about Japanese that makes this sort of overacting much easier to bear, or perhaps that's because it is mostly unintelligible. That trailer was bad. Why are all of Kill la Kill's trailers made to make the show look like its serious business?

I get why Shaft made the Madoka promotional material in the most trollish way possible, but trailers like that one just hurt the impression.

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Speaking of voice actors/actresses improving or even outright making characters, something else almost as equally important is the voice direction they're given in the first place! The VA for Rei in Sailor Moon is great for her, has a wide range of natural-sounding tones while still possessing a definite consistency that you couldn't ever mistake for anyone else, specific voice mannerisms and little vocal expressions that add to her character, and she sounds like a relatively normal person even with her unique voice which is appropriate given the type of character she's portraying - difficult to ask for more, really. The same lady playing Homura in Madoka sounds one-note and emotionally stunted while having gone to that same aforementioned ill-reputed academy. Part of it is the character she's portraying, part of it is the general voice direction given to everyone (Homura was probably the most pleasant out of everyone in the English dub of that show - Madoka herself was screwdrivers in my ears...and apparently she VA-ed Hotaru in Sailor Moon, which once again tells me that Madoka's issue is a totally a direction problem, and so I am grateful that whoever was handling the VAing in Viz's Sailor Moon knew what the hell they were doing so that I could love so many different VAs in that show, even for smaller characters).

Wait, Madoka was Hotaru? Holy crap. I watched one of the movies with the English dub, and Madoka's voice was... yeah, not really... her Japanese seiyu was bad enough, but the English VA took the cake and ran away with it. I guess I should apologize to Mima for being overly sqeaky in Clear Card.

I guess its also a little easier to make the girls from Sailor Moon sound more natural and like real characters/real people. Outside of being magical girls they mostly are, and that's a huge part of the charm of the show (obviously). In Madoka all the characters are tropes distilled into either deconstructions or subversions. I thought it worked well enough. It's not my most favorite VA work ever, regardless of which version, but it was servicable, except for Madoka being really annoyingly high pitched at times.

It was the rest that made it great, from the toying with expectations, to the insanity of the labyrinths, to... uhm... the soundtrack itself. But yeah, enough talk about Madoka.

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Okay, I just watched the first episode, and it was...actually alright and significantly less terrible than I expected! I tried the English at first and it was predictably horrific, so I quickly switched to the Japanese, where I quickly learned that multiple characters speaking at once (or somebody speaking + kanji characters in the background), which has already happened a few times, basically results in entire lines being cut from the subtitles because some lines go by in literally a second or less, and I basically can't even see what's going on visually because of it. The good news is that the ridiculous 3D panning makes me motion sick anyways, so it's not like I really want to see that anyways. ...At least this is an actual show instead of (bad) visual novels disguised as shows like the other two things I tried to watch earlier.

Luckily the really noticable 3D panning in Kill la Kill is somewhat limited, as it is usually used to make the academy seem more "impressive" than it is, but you already saw what I meant then. Sometimes the screen's just full of everything and trying to take everything in becomes extremely tiring. All right and significantly less terrible than expected is pretty high praise.

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not sure what to think of the "fan service"(?) yet, it's so over-the-top that it feels like a mockery of fan-service that no longer really even feels like fan service. I like that I didn't get smashed with plot/premise crap that probably won't even matter and instead it just jumped straight into what the show's about with barely an introduction - that was a good choice for a show like this.

It is a mockery of fan serivce, assuming you'll get to the fourth episode, you'll see that was clearly intentional and not just a happy accident.

You're right about the premise and the plot not really mattering. There's almost nothing of it for the largest of time, unless you count Ryuko and her quest for revenge (well, information on her father's murderer). The actual plot starts two thirds into the show with a really heavily telegraphed plot "twist" and proceeds to immediately fly off the handle in a way so you just can't take it seriously. I thought it made fun of NGE at some level, but that might have been just me. I'm kind of afraid to google and see, because that invariably leads to fandumb posts.

Edited July 12, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Not on topic, but kind of relevant regardless:

I'm finally done with this s... stuff. I was going to say stuff.

 

[Bartimaeus]

Are you sure?

[majestic]

1 minute ago, Bartimaeus said:

Are you sure?

Mostly, yes.

[majestic]

Clear Card...

There's a two minute scene between Sakura and Rika with a new voice actor. She's doing a fine job, but it's... not really the same.

This episode re-treads one of the not so great Clow Card episodes where the Sweet card caused problems while the girls were making cakes, and it's turning out to be a giant animated roll cake trying to eat Sakura this time. Yeah, while that does sound fun on paper, this is Clear Card, so it isn't.

The episode confirmed that Momo, MTS #3's bunny pet, is actually really just like Kero (something the new intro spoiled four episodes ago, not that there was ever any doubt, because if there's one thing this anime can't do, is make something a mystery, and the old one knew that and didn't even try except for one or two episodes in the Sakura Card arc, which was quickly discared as a the terrible idea it was)

Spoiler

(and MTS #2's equally Kero-like magical pet)

- this isn't much of a spoiler, it's like in the first episode of Sakura Card, but I'll mark it nonetheless -  except that she's not aware it's actually a being instead of a toy. Momo complains about having to be inanimate all the time, MTS #3's butler and Yukito-style crush thanks her for her service.

This is... another thing. MTS #3's butler was modeled after Yukito, except he can into magic and uses it to creepily manipulate a 13 year old girl with a crush on him. Yukito is nice, but this guy probably only seems nice and he, just like Shaoran and MTS #2, seems to subscribe to the idea that you need to keep the dumb young girls in the dark.

Honestly, what the hell, Clear Card. How is this written by the same writers? Not only is it not really original to create a similar - if not the same - set of characters for a third time, it's also creepier, dumberer,  less fun, and is condecending to both main characters of the arc to boot. It's infuriating.

Well, at least I only have five episodes left. I said before that I hope this won't end in a cliffhanger because it apparently is a bit open ended, but at this point I wouldn't really care if it did. That takes some doing, huh?

I also think that this focus on Akiho and Sakura is really detrimental to the show. They're way too similar, actually, so similar that Meiling gets a good laugh out of learning that Sakura's and Akiho's last names are really similar (Kinomoto vs. Shinomoto) while pointing out that they're essentially the same character.

Dear god, I hope that isn't the case. Please don't let Akiho be some mirror universe Sakura, or some crap like that. Also, writers, lampshading bad creative decisions can be fun, but here it's just shining a spotlight on something that is standing out already.

I think I'll go spoil myself what's going to happen now, just in case this really is some time travel nonsense and Akiho is maybe Sakura's great grand niece from a different timeline. Ugh.

edit - spoilered myself, spoiler alert!:

Spoiler

Well, good news and bad news. The good news is that Akiho isn't a time travelling alternate reality version of Sakura, or a daughter, or something similar. The bad news is that what's going on is dumbererer than that. Creepy butler is actually the bad guy (what a twist, not!) and the book Akiho is reading contains some super powerful taboo magic that he really wants. Her and Sakura's mother knew each other in the past and spent some time together with Mr. Butler.

Yeah, sure. Why not.

edit 2:

The thing Sharoan and MTS #2 are douchewaffling Sakura about is that she's the one causing the new "Cards" to appear with her uncontrolled magical abilities. That was already hinted at a bit in the show so far, what with the cards representing concepts that Sakura just learned, or more recently, she wondered why the cards contained kanji she just learned about.

So that means... there's actually no real explanation for the continuity differences. Meh.

edit 3:

This really has all the hallmarks of something added 20 years later just to add something, or dare I say it, get some cash out of a long dormant IP. Honestly... Sonomi is raving mad about Sakura's father taking up all of Nadeshiko's time from the moment she turned 16 and old enough to marry, and then she suddenly spent enough time in the past with two hitherto unknown characters, who just happen to be a powerful magic users?

Really?

Have you been sniffing too much of George Lucas' prequel writing glue?

Final edit, because time to sleep:

The original anime was wonderful in its simplicity, and this just adds unnecessary layers of complexity and makes the mistake of trying to tell a convoluted story, apparently, for no good reason. Why? The original anime was about Sakura capturing cards and in the second arc, about

Spoiler

turning them into her own cards, hence the name, Sakura Card arc.

...

The basic idea isn't that bad, actually. Just drop Akiho, Kaito and Momo from the show entirely and make it all about Sakura needing to learn how to control her growing magical powers. That could even serve as a metaphor for puberty, now that she's 13 or maybe even 14. Make Shaoran a support pillar for her instead of a douchewaffle, and have Kero do something else than sleep and eat all the time.

*sigh*

Edited July 12, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

...So would this be a bad time to tell you that those semi-hack fraud CLAMP people made a spin-off series where Sakura and Xiaolang are apparently the main characters in some kind of weird alternative crossover universe or something, called Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle? No, I am not making this up, I accidentally stumbled across it a while ago and my brain nearly broke and I pretended it didn't exist. Because I feel like it might be a bad time to mention this, given your OCD need to complete everything in a series and all.

Here's an interesting screenshot I saw from it with zero context because I don't know anything about it:

Spoiler

Sure looks like something I've seen before...

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Violet Evergarden episode 1. Pretty good, but I can't help but hear Hodgins as DIO and expect him to reject his humanity or ask some old lady what it means to live.

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

...So would this be a bad time to tell you that those semi-hack fraud CLAMP people made a spin-off series where Sakura and Xiaolang are apparently the main characters in some kind of weird alternative crossover universe or something, called Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle? No, I am not making this up, I accidentally stumbled across it a while ago and my brain nearly broke and I pretended it didn't exist. Because I feel like it might be a bad time to mention this, given your OCD need to complete everything in a series and all.

No, it's not a bad time, because... following from Madoka, I checked out other works by Yuki Kajiura who composed the soundtrack, and that lead me to Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle just when I was starting to watch an episode or two of Cardcaptor Sakura here and there.

And indeed it does feature Sakura, Princess of the Clow Kingdom, and I think Shaoran is questing to get her lost memory back, or some such thing. This is, by the way, a CLAMP thing - many, if not most of their works are set in a shared universe of a sort. There's also something called xxxHolic that is related to Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, but with that name and, uhm, actually being shonen/seinen, I... am uncertain.

Prior to watching Clear Card I would probably have given them the benefit of the doubt, but now, I don't know. I do plan on watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle eventually, so if that turns out good enough then sure.

Who am I kidding, if that's a tie in that semi-related to CCS in the barest of ways by using shared characters, of course I'm going to watch it at some point. Sigh.

Spoiler

My Hollow Knight achievement completion is now 83%, by the way.

 

  

7 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Violet Evergarden episode 1. Pretty good, but I can't help but hear Hodgins as DIO and expect him to reject his humanity or ask some old lady what it means to live.

Lt. Col. DIO is much nicer than the actual DIO, and he's not pretending to be a feminist like Utena's DIO does.

But yeah, after watching JoJo's, that voice does become a distraction in whatever he is doing.

Edited July 13, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Well, good luck with that - that's one bridge too many for me to ever cross, . Speaking of Utena, coincidentally watched the first two episodes of that yesterday. Seems pretty solid and interesting, if kind of bizarre and full of symbology I'm probably not ever gonna get. Already noticed a few distinct Steven Universe influences within just those first two episodes too.

[majestic]

41 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, good luck with that - that's one bridge too many for me to ever cross, . Speaking of Utena, coincidentally watched the first two episodes of that yesterday. Seems pretty solid and interesting, if kind of bizarre and full of symbology I'm probably not ever gonna get. Already noticed a few distinct Steven Universe influences within just those first two episodes too.

Maybe I should get back to watching the first few episodes of Utena again. I'm only at episode nine anyway, so that wouldn't be too much of a commitment, however, no real surprise there. Revolutionary Girl Utena was the other maho shojo anime Rebecca Sugar was really into (according to an interview I've read).

It's true that it is really heavy on the symbolism and metaphors. When it's not downright whacky, at least. Try as I might, I can't come up with anything that exploring curry, surfing elephants or boxing kangaroos can reasonably be interpreted as.

edit:

CLAMP is an all female writing group, so I'm kind of willing to assume in their favor that any shonen or seinen stuff made by them will not be too heavy on the fan service. However, I expect to be disappointed. Heh. Maybe these two will come through where Love Live! sort of failed.

Edited July 13, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

The second episode of the second Love Live! season begins with the girls going on a camping trip. At least they call it a camping trip, but they'll be staying at a holiday home of one of their members (whose parents aren't just rich doctors but own and operate their own private hospital).

They get off the train and end up thinking they're missing something. Cut to Usagi Honoka sleeping on the train.

Okay, so that was totally expected, entirely not original and is a really overdone joke, but... it still was really funny. If Clear Card would have tried to pull one of these I'd be groaning, but here it's fine. Look at that. I think I really like this more than Clear Card, even if Clear Card is objectively the better show of the two. Falling distance matters. CCS fell from the loftiest of mountains down to sea level, while this never went above it.

edit:

Honoka just called a ceiling fan "that thing you often see in rich people's homes", and I just lost it. This is way funnier than anything Clear Card had so far.

edit 2:

Well that was... a really, really, really good episode. Even Nico had something useful to contribute, and she's usually just the joke character that gets ignored all the time (everyone else thinks of her as their mascot).

Edited July 13, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

But yeah, after watching JoJo's, that voice does become a distraction in whatever he is doing.

I know! This guy is supposed to be nice, but you just expect something like this:

instead of him being nice to his dead friend's.... whatever Violet was to him.

[majestic]

18 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

instead of him being nice to his dead friend's.... whatever Violet was to him.

That's a pretty big plot point, obviously...

There are two OVAs and a film by the way. The first OVA called Surely, Someday You Will Understand "Love" should be watched after episode 4 to fill in the gaps for five. It's not necessary, but it fits wonderfully in there and beats watching it after the fact like I did. The second one goes after the final episode and is called Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll - both should be available on Netflix too, Netflix likes to call them "specials" so the first one's the shorter and the second one is feature length.

Episodes seven and eight have no title on purpose, that should become pretty unerstandable once you get there.

Eh, there's a movie after Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll. It clocks in at an impressive 140 minutes runtime, although I am uncertain how or if that can be watched in the US at the moment. It's been playing on and off at a small theatre that shows mostly art, indie and cult film classics here.

Assuming you like it enough to watch everything.