Anime, the eternal Jettokōsutā

[majestic]

38 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

AoT s4: Heel turn and a cliffhanger, the protagonist has completed his metamorphosis into an omega edgelord.

That sounds awesome, maybe I'll really check it out after Love Live!

[Bartimaeus]

49 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

AoT s4: Heel turn and a cliffhanger, the protagonist has completed his metamorphosis into an omega edgelord.

Seriously, does anything good in this show ever happen? If so, you never describe it - you only describe the stupid/annoying stuff, .

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (1993), episode 1 of 6:

Spoiler

Naked lady got her head chopped off by Native Americans(?) within the first few seconds of the show starting. Blood. Lots of blood. Buckets of blood. Bloody blood. "Speed Wagon"...and it's a helicopter. That doesn't seem right.

Listen to this English voice-acting: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/c8cz3mi69e3o28t/GtODYWuCd6.mp4 Oh yeah, you didn't think it was possible, but everyone is just *chef kiss* here.

Dog...that is a stand user...that is addicted to coffee-flavored gum. Well, alright then. I guess this is what I get for watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

"He drowned to death...in the middle of a desert!" This style of dialogue is still never going to click for me, but at least I can follow what's happening, .

This Polnareff looks like the big dumb...and he acts like the big dumb. Guess they're going to be playing "the floor is lava" next episode.

This sick freak did the Hawk Eye lip lick - not cool: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/1mopsx8vnva42e3/BOGrVhfRhP.mp4

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, alright then. I guess this is what I get for watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

From what I gathered from KP, that version even cuts out most of the weirdness. Heh.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Seriously, does anything good in this show ever happen?

Yeah, but it takes forever.

16 minutes ago, majestic said:

From what I gathered from KP, that version even cuts out most of the weirdness. Heh.

It does, but JoJo is weirder than most things even with cuts.

[majestic]

Love Live! School Idol Project, episode 7.

"This is big!" "What is?" "They're going to hold Love Live!" "Great! [beat] Uhm. What's that?"

Honoka really is Usagi, and Love Live! is of course an upcoming contest. Which the girls are only allowed to enter if they don't have any failing grades, which immediately puts Honoka out a bit. She's, uhm, not so great at math. Rin is failing at English, and Nico is holdin a book upside down, so... yeah. This isn't going to go well.

Episode was fun, coming along nicely, until Nozomi, one of the two girls from the student council shows up and grabs Nico's boobs. Yes, that's the same character that already fondled Maki for no reason. She threatens Nico to keep rubbing her boobs until they're sore if she doesn't study harder.

Why? Why is that there. Is that something like nipple twisting amongst boys? I really... doubt that. Nope. That's probably really just there to... ah, hell. *sigh*

edit:

Of course, this happens in front of the six other girls, and nobody mentions it or says anything. Not once. Nothing.

edit 2:

Nozomi is like the creepy grandpa that grabs young women's shoulders and breathes down their necks, and she just rubbed Nico's boobs. Again.

What the hell, show, you had a couple of episodes without that, now it's back and making up for lost time?

edit 3:

I shouldn't post while watching. She's just done it to Rin, Honoka and again to Nico. Yep. Okay, this episode is officially as bad as I thought the entire show would be. Now the beach episode needs to be terrible and I'll be satisfied.

edit 4:

Episode ends with all three getting passing grades in their weak subjects, but it made no difference, the school has already decided to refuse all applications for new students, so it doesn't matter anyway.

*sigh*

Why can't all of this be awful, then this would be a lot easier. Like with Crystal.

edit 5:

Yeah guys, so, you don't mind me not spoiler tagging the spoilers, right? You're not REALLY going to watch this, right?

Edited June 27, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Why can't all of this be awful, then this would be a lot easier. Like with Crystal.

...............But you literally watched all of that, too.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Yeah guys, so, you don't mind me not spoiler tagging the spoilers, right? You're not REALLY going to watch this, right?

Even if I lived to be a million years old, I do not believe I would ever be tempted to watch this show. ...Though a million years is a long time, and they're going to stop being able to make new shows after the nuclear holocaust in 2042, so maybe I shouldn't be so quick to say such things...

[majestic]

  

11 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

...............But you literally watched all of that, too.

Sure, but I'm not talking about having to watch everything. That I'd do regardless.

It would be a lot easier if I just hated all of Love Live!, but I don't. Love Live! has moments in the show where it's actually pretty fun to watch, and for the past few episodes, except for 5 and 7, the moments even began to outweigh the silliness. It's weird writing this, because that's not what I was expecting from what I thought was going to be a stupid musical show that looked something I could watch every now and then and make fun of to get some cheap laughs in this thread, with the occasional like or two, and to satisfy my curiousity about how you could milk several seasons worth of content ouf of a school idol group concept.

Instead it's slowly becoming mildly frustrating to see something that could be much more consistently entertaining if it had not been written and animated by teenage boys*. To answer my question from earlier:

9 hours ago, majestic said:

Begs the question, am I actually liking this? If so, then why?

I don't, really, like the entire show as a whole. I just find Honoka to be somewhat endearing, and I am occassionally entertained by her shenanigans, and her interactions with Umi and Kotori - and that's kind of enough to make the more egregious stuff somewhat annoying while being perfectly fine with the less problematic stuff because it's neither good nor bad enough.

If that makes any sense. It's pretty late and I'm posting again instead of sleeping. Off to bed now!

*Hyperbole, obviously.

[Lexx]

Wait, what cuts? Are there multiple versions of JoJo?

[Bartimaeus]

5 hours ago, Lexx said:

Wait, what cuts? Are there multiple versions of JoJo?

I'm watching the 1993-1994 OVA of Jojo's Adventure (which I think was the first animation for it to ever come out?) that covers some...specific arc(s) or something of the show, not the general anime that covers multiple arcs. KP would know more about the specifics. I'm watching this OVA because I don't really enjoy the general anime and my guy Satoshi Kon was involved in the making of the OVA (the entire thing was co-written by him, and he did some directing and animation).

9 hours ago, majestic said:

  

Sure, but I'm not talking about having to watch everything. That I'd do regardless.

It would be a lot easier if I just hated all of Love Live!, but I don't. Love Live! has moments in the show where it's actually pretty fun to watch, and for the past few episodes, except for 5 and 7, the moments even began to outweigh the silliness. It's weird writing this, because that's not what I was expecting from what I thought was going to be a stupid musical show that looked something I could watch every now and then and make fun of to get some cheap laughs in this thread, with the occasional like or two, and to satisfy my curiousity about how you could milk several seasons worth of content ouf of a school idol group concept.

Instead it's slowly becoming mildly frustrating to see something that could be much more consistently entertaining if it had not been written and animated by teenage boys*. To answer my question from earlier:

I don't, really, like the entire show as a whole. I just find Honoka to be somewhat endearing, and I am occassionally entertained by her shenanigans, and her interactions with Umi and Kotori - and that's kind of enough to make the more egregious stuff somewhat annoying while being perfectly fine with the less problematic stuff because it's neither good nor bad enough.

If that makes any sense. It's pretty late and I'm posting again instead of sleeping. Off to bed now!

*Hyperbole, obviously.

Man, you're way too forgiving - when I see too much of what I dislike in too short of a time period of a show, I automatically start completely forgetting all of the less ungood parts and start getting mad and annoyed at the entire thing, and the show would then have to prove that it's *not* going to keep being bad somehow...which hardly ever happens for whatever period of time I keep trying to stick with it (in regards to anime, My Hero Academia and Madoka Magica are probably the two I stuck with for the longest, and BOY were both of those mistakes for me! ).

[majestic]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Man, you're way too forgiving

I'm just easily entertained, and a little enjoyment is usually enough to drown out a lot of bad - but overall, you're probably right. Guess there's a reason why I have a thousand hours of time played on Master of Orion 3.  

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

when I see too much of what I dislike in too short of a time period of a show, I automatically start completely forgetting all of the less ungood parts and start getting mad and annoyed at the entire thing, and the show would then have to prove that it's *not* going to keep being bad somehow...which hardly ever happens for whatever period of time I keep trying to stick with it (in regards to anime, My Hero Academia and Madoka Magica are probably the two I stuck with for the longest, and BOY were both of those mistakes for me! ).

It's the other way around for me, the good sticks around much longer, for some reason. Plus there's always the chance that later seasons of Love Live! don't up the ante on the silly fanservice and keep it less... ah, who am I kidding. This will only get worse the more episodes they do, won't it? That concept can't last longer than a season... 

Guess I'll see it when I see it. 

There's one exception. When something was really good, and then becomes less so, that is a much worse situation for me. Hence why I keep watching two episodes of Love Live! for each Clear Card episode. Objectively, Clear Card is better than Love Live!, even with all its problems. It's just... it could be so much more.  

edit:

You should have stuck with Madoka, the third movie is really good!  

Spoiler

All joking aside, it doesn't change enough to be worthwhile for you. It does cut back an awful lot on the exposition though. There still is some, but most of the film is visual madness and themes. So much so that fans of the original started complaining about not understanding what's going on.  

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Ranma, episode 11, a short (edit: not so short) synopsis of the episode (along with a few screenshots) in case you're wondering what kind of show this is:

Spoiler

Right off the bat, some new lady is introduced. She appears to be confronting some other high school(?) students who appear to be athletes.

Ranma is a girl today and just recently obtained an ice cream cone, and is out walking while eating it when he notices this unknown girl beating the snot out of three athlete girls from his own school. He intercedes and a short fight ensues, before the lady realizes that Ranma is actually stronger than the usual girls she apparently beats up and decides to escape in a rather maniacal manner - cackling like a madwoman and leaving Ranma (who's still a girl) a black rose before running off and jumping a fence onto the nearest light pole. Okay then. It must be noted that this actually works really well because this new lady has a really good VA that really sells her lines and laughing.

The girls (including Ranma) go visit Akane and apparently this girl and her own school are known for being highly skilled but also cutthroat, and beg Akane (who has a reputation of being strong, athletic, and not to mention headstrong) to join their team to help defeat her and the rival school in a competition next week, and she agrees against her own inclinations. Oddly, Akane lets Ranma (again, still a girl) to join in on their conversation, even going so far as to let him sit right beside her on her bed - unusual indeed, but Akane and Ranma seem to be a bit more agreeable with one another when Ranma's a girl, and Ranma did help fend off the lady attacking them, so it makes sense.

So begins a little training scene where Akane quickly realizes that while athletic she may be, the competition is only a week away and she doesn't have the requisite skills; Ranma is still with her, but is back to being a boy, and starts pointing out her mistakes and how impossible it'd be to learn how to do all of these different things she's supposed to be able to do in time for the competition. Ranma's right and Akane knows it, but she doesn't like to hear it from him - some verbal sparring ensues, but Akane manages to get some help from a third party to help her train, and the day is quickly over. Akane enters her bedroom and is about to go to bed...

...And suddenly notices the same lady that attacked the other girls from earlier hanging from her ceiling with a giant mallet! She apparently caught wind of Akane joining their school's team and has decided to pre-emptively assassinate her in her own home. Yeah, I think those other girls were sliiightly underselling how cutthroat this rival school can apparently be. Akane is overpowered and is about to be dealt the killing blow...when Ranma suddenly enters and accidentally smashes this assassin with the door, not even noticing doing so before quickly exiting. In the confusion, the assassin escapes by jumping out of the window and onto the roof...where she and Ranma accidentally tumble into one another after apparently Ranma had had the same idea for whatever reason. Apparently, Ranma (at least in boy form) is so incredibly gorgeous that she decides on the spot that he is to be hers (while internally monologuing about not having any luck finding any decent boys at her ALL GIRL school), and poisons him with her black flowers, leaving him paralyzed and ready to be...um, well, yeah.

Suddenly, Akane saves *his* butt after having heard some kind of commotion going on directly on the roof above her room before giving this lady a powerful kick in the rear to send her flying off and away. Predictably, Akane doesn't understand that he's paralyzed and runs off in a jealous huff after having seen what was about to ensue - alas, the poor boy cannot even speak to defend himself, and he spends the night paralyzed looking up at the stars.

The end...more or less. That's the show. I genuinely really like this show so far even with the couple of taste differences it has; the aesthetic and animation is great, the dialogue and characters are good and fun, lots of humor, very minimal shonen nonsense...so far. Also, it has a surprisingly solid English voice-cast - much better than e.g. Yu Yu Hakusho's, a hundred times better than e.g. outright bad stuff like the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OVA clip I linked. Surprising for something this old. I remain greatly afeared that the show is going to become much more dumb and annoying once this "first season" is over.

 

5 hours ago, majestic said:

There's one exception. When something was really good, and then becomes less so, that is a much worse situation for me. Hence why I keep watching two episodes of Love Live! for each Clear Card episode. Objectively, Clear Card is better than Love Live!, even with all its problems. It's just... it could be so much more.

Anyone with any kind of sense hates that. The people who don't just convince themselves "it's a little different I guess but I still love it" even though it's objectively waaay worse, . Although doing that is complete nonsense, it's also an ability I'm rather jealous of - would be nice to so easily like and be content with such things!

Yeah, that ship has sailed on Madoka!

Edited June 28, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

15 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ranma, episode 11, a short (edit: not so short) synopsis of the episode (along with a few screenshots) in case you're wondering what kind of show this is:

I think you just sold that to me regardless of how the second season turns out. Which might prove to be an issue if the other episodes are terrible, but I don't know when I will get around to watching it. It sure looks I was wrong to dismiss it out of hand based on the discourse on it. Live and learn, I guess.

16 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, that ship has sailed on Madoka!

A pity, really. The third Madoka movie has an instance of literal foreshadowing!

Spoiler

Homura and Kyoko (everyone's alive in the beginning of the film) are standing in front of a light source, and their combined shadows depict a being that looks suspiciously like someone with wings. The film obviously ends with Homura becoming the devil, the only other possible being strong enough to fulfill her wish from the anime: To be able to protect Madoka.

I know you hated everything about it, but that ties things up really neatly without explaining anything. Except for some stuff by Kyubey about an experiment.

 

23 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Anyone with any kind of sense hates that. The people who don't just convince themselves "it's a little different I guess but I still love it" even though it's objectively waaay worse, . Although doing that is complete nonsense, it's also an ability I'm rather jealous of - would be nice to so easily like and be content with such things!

Sometimes, you know, I think about asking a resident poster who is a history teacher and triathlon buff to watch Sailor Moon, or at least try to get his daughter to watch it. She's the perfect age for that and should be able to appreciate the cousins, but then I get afraid that we'd be getting posts defending SuperS as "silly fun" that's still "all right" to watch. Like his posts about about the new Star Wars films.

Not that I think he'd watch Sailor Moon, anyway.

Spoiler

I wonder if Hurlshot reads the thread every now and then. Like Shady.

I'm two episodes away from the Love Live! beach outing, I'll try to get to that today. Well, today will work for sure (just past midnight here), but I mean, now. I'm kind of dreading the horrors of what creepy grandpa Nozomi is going to do.

Ideally not join them at the beach, but with her, uhm, weighty arguments there's no way in hell the animators are passing up that opportunity to draw them in swimwear.

[Bartimaeus]

51 minutes ago, majestic said:

Like his posts about about the new Star Wars films.

 

Spoiler

Don't remind me - it's his most despicable personality flaw. Probably, . ...Saying that, that's basically the opposite of a back-handed a compliment - a backhanded insult? Where you're insulting them, but the insult is so small that it actually implies pretty good things about the person?

Probably wouldn't be able to get into it, if I had to guess.

 

51 minutes ago, majestic said:

I think you just sold that to me regardless of how the second season turns out. Which might prove to be an issue if the other episodes are terrible, but I don't know when I will get around to watching it. It sure looks I was wrong to dismiss it out of hand based on the discourse on it. Live and learn, I guess.

It's surprisingly fun. Here's the real proof of how much I like the show - this is the intro that has played at the beginning of every episode: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m3x25rf5ivfqetc/94xP8kTeJT.mp4

It's unreasonably long...but I've sat through each one and I can't imagine not doing so in the future unless the intro changes for the (much) worse for the second season or I don't like the second season. Being willing to sit through the intro of every episode is a pretty good measurement of how much I like a show, I think, . Similarly, after watching the intro of every episode of Sailor Moon up until SuperS, I started skipping SuperS's intros after only watching a handful of episodes of it since I was already having significant problems with it...and then I watched the intro of every Sailor Stars episode.

51 minutes ago, majestic said:

I'm two episodes away from the Love Live! beach outing, I'll try to get to that today. Well, today will work for sure (just past midnight here), but I mean, now. I'm kind of dreading the horrors of what creepy grandpa Nozomi is going to do.

Ideally not join them at the beach, but with her, uhm, weighty arguments there's no way in hell the animators are passing up that opportunity to draw them in swimwear.

I'm sure it'll be just great and not at all unnecessary or weird or stupid, .

(e): @majestic

lmao, this twelfth episode, just a little snippet of the plot at the very start of it:

Spoiler

Ranma "dumped" the new girl (not really because he was never with her, but that's how she sees it), and...well, she didn't take it so well:

This is the "villain"...for now. Preeetty sure you don't animate a villain this way unless they're not going to be a villain in the future. Anyways, Ranma explained to her that he already has a fiancee...the girl she tried to kill earlier. Triumphantly, she then declares a contest - Akane and her will battle one another in the school athletic competition, and the winner will take home Ranma! What a silly yet perfect inversion of the usual "win the damsel in distress" nonsense...and I think it's going to be subverted even further from the like 10 seconds preview I saw in the previous episode.

(e): Yep, it got so much better than just that...but I shan't say any more, .

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

15 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's surprisingly fun. Here's the real proof of how much I like the show - this is the intro that has played at the beginning of every episode: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m3x25rf5ivfqetc/94xP8kTeJT.mp4

That looks pretty good.

17 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's unreasonably long...but I've sat through each one and I can't imagine not doing so in the future unless the intro changes for the (much) worse for the second season or I don't like the second season. Being willing to sit through the intro of every episode is a pretty good measurement of how much I like a show, I think, . Similarly, after watching the intro of every episode of Sailor Moon up until SuperS, I started skipping SuperS's intros after only watching a handful of episodes of it since I was already having significant problems with it...and then I watched the intro of every Sailor Stars episode.

I... almost always skip opening credits unless they're unique for each episode. The only instance where I've always sat through all opening and closing credits when I had the chance to skip them (i.e. not while watching Sailor Moon on TV in the 90ies) so far has been Violet Evergarden. Cardcaptor Sakura's second outro I watched every time too, but only that. That was just great, a pity it lasted only a short while - 10 episodes or so, I think. Woops. Spoilers, I guess. Sumimasen!

The outro/closing credits of Violet Evergarden were a great way to wind down, listen to the song that I actually really like and to... let the episode settle in, I guess.

I think I posted that before.

Of course sometimes it cheats and plays the closing credits over the final footage of the episode, and you can't possibly skip it. On the other hand it only does that rarely and to great effect.

The Sailor Stars into I watched every time too. For the new song, and because it felt like the right thing to do with the rewatch coming to an end.

So, no, watching intros or outros isn't really a mark of quality for me. In terms of closing credits it's a mark of impact, I guess. Except for Cardcaptor Sakura... that was just magic. All of it, really.

I definitely posted this one before!

35 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

 

Don't remind me - it's his most despicable personality flaw. Probably, . ...Saying that, that's basically the opposite of a back-handed a compliment - a backhanded insult? Where you're insulting them, but the insult is so small that it actually implies pretty good things about the person?

Probably wouldn't be able to get into it, if I had to guess.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Probably not, no. Backhanded insult is funny though.

 

44 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm sure it'll be just great and not at all unnecessary or weird or stupid, .

Episode 9 of Love Live! was genuinely great. It did have one instance of Nozomi threatening to rub Hitori's, uhm, you know the drill by now, but otherwise that was just really good. Still never really going to like the animation. Nothing of it, really, from the character designs, to the shot composition and the direction, there's really nothing that stands out (except for the fanservice when it does happen and is paid undue attention to), but there are times when I find myself wondering if Honoka was meant to be a deliberate copy of Usagi, just without magic and more butt-wiggling.

Onwards to the beach thing, now. Wish me luck...

[Bartimaeus]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

I definitely posted this one before!

Yeah...I already have the single for this song, among others: https://vgmdb.net/album/24263

Comes with a version that's sung by Sakura herself! I have a serious music collection problem/addiction, .

7 minutes ago, majestic said:

I... almost always skip opening credits unless they're unique for each episode. The only instance where I've always sat through all opening and closing credits when I had the chance to skip them (i.e. not while watching Sailor Moon on TV in the 90ies) so far has been Violet Evergarden. Cardcaptor Sakura's second outro I watched every time too, but only that. That was just great, a pity it lasted only a short while - 10 episodes or so, I think. Woops. Spoilers, I guess. Sumimasen!

Freaking RIP about the song barely lasting, since it's so good. But anyways, it's the opposite for me - listening to the intro song helps me get into the proper mood for shows, it's an important part of setting the stage. ...If I watch two or more episodes in a row, I watch it on the second one just because I like the song and I'm in the mood seeing as I'm already watching the show, I guess. Animes that I like also usually have good outros, so I usually watch those as well - though Sailor Moon was more mixed on that, because some of its outros songs weren't...as good as others.

 

19 minutes ago, majestic said:

Episode 9 of Love Live! was genuinely great. It did have one instance of Nozomi threatening to rub Hitori's, uhm, you know the drill by now, but otherwise that was just really good. Still never really going to like the animation. Nothing of it, really, from the character designs, to the shot composition and the direction, there's really nothing that stands out (except for the fanservice when it does happen and is paid undue attention to), but there are times when I find myself wondering if Honoka was meant to be a deliberate copy of Usagi, just without magic and more butt-wiggling.

Onwards to the beach thing, now. Wish me luck...

Luck, .

[Bartimaeus]

Question: what did the word "meme" mean to Japanese people in the 80s? Because there's a girl in this show that's reading a magazine that just says..."meme".

What does it all mean, Basil?

(e): Never mind, I think it's the name of a specific manga? At least, that's what it seemed like when she showed it off for a moment here. Also, this was unironically the best "martial arts tournament" (big freaking quotation marks there) I've ever seen in a show ever.

Spoiler

No ridiculously long build-up, no trash fights, no terrible time-wasting for no reason, no stupid "I HAVE TO DO THIS MYSELF" shonen nonsense...just hilarious action and dialogue between one of our heroes and the "villain" (who is adorable in a comically evil kind of way) with some good, well-implemented teamwork to help settle the issue, . Seriously, it's going to be so disappointing if season 2 isn't as good.

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

45 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah...I already have the single for this song, among others: https://vgmdb.net/album/24263

Comes with a version that's sung by Sakura herself! I have a serious music collection problem/addiction, .

I have a bit of an issue with throwing things away. It took me a long while to get rid of all the issues of a biweekly computer tech magazine that I've been subsribed to for like 23 years now. Sometimes I think about cancelling the sub, but I can't bring myself to do that. I should at least drop it down to digital only, or drop the e-paper version, either way would shave of a good deal of the costs, but meh. Between inertia and "it's always been like that" and my... other flaws, yep. Nope.

Luckily being a data hoarder isn't among them. I almost never delete anything and always am at the limit of my disks because I don't even uninstall games I've completed and will probably never play again, but I don't hunt down every bit of something. Phew!

45 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Freaking RIP about the song barely lasting, since it's so good. But anyways, it's the opposite for me - listening to the intro song helps me get into the proper mood for shows, it's an important part of setting the stage. ...If I watch two or more episodes in a row, I watch it on the second one just because I like the song and I'm in the mood seeing as I'm already watching the show, I guess. Animes that I like also usually have good outros, so I usually watch those as well - though Sailor Moon was more mixed on that, because some of its outros songs weren't...as good as others.

That's a really good point, but I really just skip most of them. I do make it a point of watching them at least once whenever they're new.

And yep, it's really only for a few episodes. The first time is after the christmas episode, and that was in episode 36, and 46 is the last one, because the Sakura Card arc has a new intro and a new outro. I wonder if the run was cut short because it really seems like a waste to make new intros and new outros for what's considered the "second" season of the first arc, and it then having only two handful of episodes.

It's not just the song, there's something really great about Sakura looking out the window.

33 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): Never mind, I think it's the name of a specific manga? At least, that's what it seemed like when she showed it off for a moment here. Also, this is unironically the best "martial arts" tournament I've ever seen in a show ever.

There's a Nippon Animation anime called "Meme", but that would be written as Miimi or something like it on a cover (and it was original, not based on a manga), not Meme. Therefore, I don't know if that's something official, or just a manga Ranma made up, like the ones Rei has and Usagi keeps reading (unless it's Sailor V).

45 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Luck, .

That worked. Except for one shot of one of the girls pulling on her bikini a little nothing happened. In fact, most of the episode they spent in their pajamas and trying to address each other in less formal ways. I guess the character building pillow fight could be considered borderline fanservice, but it wasn't drawn that way.

The main character development arc of the episode fell a little flat. I'm sure it makes sense for Japanese people to have difficulties to go from respectful speech to informal speech quickly (the oldest group member and president of the student council insists on not using honorifics and all the keigo, in an effort to build more team spirit), but it's not something I can relate to. We do have artifacts of that in our language too, formal ways (pronouns mostly) to address people you don't know well or superiors (and some for judges and priests), but I hate them so much that I carefully craft my sentences in a way that avoids most of them.

Funny how many pronouns one can leave out, and our regional dialgect allows many of them to be simply subsumed in the preceeding verbs.

Edited June 29, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ranma, episode 11, a short (edit: not so short) synopsis of the episode (along with a few screenshots) in case you're wondering what kind of show this is:

I think I'll add Ranma to my list. There is still a long way to get there though.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

20 hours ago, Lexx said:

Wait, what cuts? Are there multiple versions of JoJo?

There's an OVA from the 90's that is a very condensed rendition of Stardust Crusaders. I strongly prefer the anime because you miss a lot of things from just Stardust Crusaders alone. I mean can it really be JoJo if some creepy guy doesn't ask if you understandddddddddddddddddu?

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by KP the meanie zucchini

[Bartimaeus]

11 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

There's an OVA from the 90's that is a very condensed rendition of Stardust Crusaders. I strongly prefer the anime because you miss a lot of things from just Stardust Crusaders alone. I mean can it really be JoJo if some creepy guy doesn't ask if you understandddddddddddddddddu?

 

Heh, this is the type of stuff I'm expressly trying to avoid (not specifically in Jojo's, but in everything, and it definitely applies here), and is why I can enjoy this more toned down OVA at least a little more instead, . While I don't mind a little self-aware humor poking fun of itself every now and then, what I don't care for is stuff that is like...self-knowingly over-absurd or over-dramatic to the point of insincerity, and that's kind of the problem I run into with stuff like this (beyond just not caring for the style, that is). No humans could ever make something like this and NOT think it was all some kind of big silly joke...and when you keep doing it over and over, I get this weird sort of...disconnect where it feels like the work has completely deconstructed itself and the entire thing falls apart in my brain like a house of cards. Gotta walk the fence between sincerity and absurdity closer, otherwise I can no longer invest into characters or care about plots or the setting, and I'd be just watching for empty absurdism-based laughs. A single 2-hour movie I can maybe do that if the humor is at least right for me, tens of hours for an entire television show or video game not so much. I...probably am not going to be able to get into Jojo's as a whole, .

12 hours ago, majestic said:

Luckily being a data hoarder isn't among them. I almost never delete anything and always am at the limit of my disks because I don't even uninstall games I've completed and will probably never play again, but I don't hunt down every bit of something.

That's like literally the total opposite of me. Hunt down everything, discard that which I definitively dislike (unless it's rare with a real possibility of not being obtainable again in the future, in which case it instead goes into cloud storage), eliminate all that which is not archivable. The vast majority of games (particularly anything post-2010, which will be the ones that take up the most space) can be easily redownloaded in the exact same format in which they were prior to being uninstalled - there is no point at all in keeping them unless I'm actually playing them, so they are deleted. A rare album or an album which I have fixed all the tags and/or the album cover to my liking, not so much - archive it.

12 hours ago, majestic said:

That worked. Except for one shot of one of the girls pulling on her bikini a little nothing happened. In fact, most of the episode they spent in their pajamas and trying to address each other in less formal ways. I guess the character building pillow fight could be considered borderline fanservice, but it wasn't drawn that way.

The main character development arc of the episode fell a little flat. I'm sure it makes sense for Japanese people to have difficulties to go from respectful speech to informal speech quickly (the oldest group member and president of the student council insists on not using honorifics and all the keigo, in an effort to build more team spirit), but it's not something I can relate to. We do have artifacts of that in our language too, formal ways (pronouns mostly) to address people you don't know well or superiors (and some for judges and priests), but I hate them so much that I carefully craft my sentences in a way that avoids most of them.

My patience would last approximately two seconds if I were to ever attempt to treat honorifics seriously, .

[Bartimaeus]

Ranma 1/2: It's over! It was pretty great while it lasted...and it got increasingly more and more insane as it went on. Some of the things that happened over such a short time...well, I didn't expect them to go there. But the way the "season" "ended" was very strange and...almost like they must've known they were being cancelled? Can't really understand why it would've ended the way it did otherwise. I'll have to come back to the second season at some point in the future to figure out what's what there. But now...Sakura: The Movie waits. And the next episode of the Jojo OVA too, I guess.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[InsaneCommander]

LOGH 16-25:

 

What is the rule of succession in the Empire?? They say if the emperor doesn’t choose a successor, the next in line for the throne is his grandson or one of his granddaughters. But not one of his two daughters. Why?
 

Spoiler

 

Episode 23: somebody finally thought about recording violence against the citizens to use as propaganda. It took long enough.

In the end both rebellions were just massive wastes of time, lives and resources. The people behind each one just greatly harmed their country. And the military coup in the Alliance did no small thing being worse than the corrupt politicians. Impressive.

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

Okay, so I lied, and I had to try another episode of "new" Ranma. They...got rid of the intro video/song entirely - with nothing to replace it. I repeat: there is no music intro of any kind. Code freaking red, guys. Now, each episode has just a short like 30 second "here's the premise of the show"...and, oh gosh, it's basically "Ranma and Akane hate each other...and Ranma can turn into a girl, and look how lolzy and ridiculous it is!". I cannot understate how bad of a first impression this is - just from that tiny little recap, it's like every character was completely flanderized. Still...I have to actually watch the episode to tell for sure how much they messed it up. Maybe it's just the intro...oh lord please be just the intro! Here we go...

The animation...looks different. Not...necessarily bad different, but definitely different. Very bright and kind of washed out...and exaggerated? I'll wait and see: the more important thing is the writing.

...Well, guys, it seems like Ranma was actually only 18 episodes long. That was not good. The entire episode was constant (and mostly dumb, non-character-driven) action, characters were behaving bizarrely... Ranma's father sold him for literally a fish, then pretended to be a woman to...enter a ramen contest? This is just...it's not how Ranma's father should act... Ranma refused to save Akane on account of it requiring that he turn into a girl - in the original series, he literally turns into a girl just to buy ice cream, he literally already did that multiple times to help other people, both girls AND boys, including people that had been attacking him that he felt a sudden spark of empathy for when he realized their situations were crappy, I... ERGH, WHY DOES EVERYTHING FEEL SO WRONG?! It's like everything that had been happening, all the character development has just been completely reverted, and all the character dynamics screwed up...

And then I read this post on reddit regarding the original series vs. the "new" series..:

"So the original TV series has 18 episodes, and everything after that is the second series, called Nettou-hen. The first series is slower, yes, and honestly that's something I really, really enjoy about it. After that, the show does become quite fast, with most story arcs wrapping up in one or two episodes, three at the most. There are very few new permanent characters introduced (Ukyou being the main one). The animation quality drops considerably, and, as was mentioned elsewhere, there are lots of filler episodes, some of which are really, really bad."

I don't even... Probably explains why a bunch of ongoing plot threads feel like they were just completely dropped in between the original series and this new episode - guess we won't be having any long-running plots and character development anymore, . Gosh, it was going so freaking well, too... I'm legitimately sad about this. And...mad! Really mad, actually!

What an unmitigated disaster. This must be how @majestic feels about Clear Card vs. the original Sakura, except more extreme because it's me. I don't like it, it feels bad! I'm gonna give it two more episodes for it to show at least show a little more promise. I'm not expecting it to help any, especially because all of the enthusiasm I had just a little while ago has completely and utterly evaporated after that clown fiesta, and that's difficult to bring back once it's happened.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

Ranma...six more episodes. I think those are the final episodes I'll watch. One of the episodes, some new character trait of Ranma was suddenly introduced where apparently...

Spoiler

...he was so psychologically traumatized by cats so he turns into one? ...And then then the next one some terrible grandma character was introduced in order to try to force Ranma to marry another girl, and...

Ugh, this just isn't working for me - there are elements of the show that feel similar, but things just feel noticeably off and it's annoying me too much. Before, it was like situations were being organically created and driven by characters and their interactions with one another; these episodes instead feel like it was reversed, with the wacky premises instead determining what stupid stuff characters are going to say and do, filled out with non-stop action, and...yeah, obviously, the other way is better if you care about good, consistent characters.

However, I found out that three episodes in the second season were apparently produced during the original show but never aired, and instead got shuffled later into the new season. I decided to watch those and what do you know, they formed a short little arc by suddenly picking up an old plot thread from the original show and the character dynamics suddenly felt right - it actually almost kind of worked as a sort of finale to the show for me, because...

Spoiler

Ranma and Akane clearly demonstrate that though it may not happen for a while, they absolutely do love and care for each other and will eventually be a proper couple. The arc was like a back-and-forth series of them backing each other up, even providing emotional support for one another. It turns out that for all of Ranma's martial arts training, he cannot ice-skate, leaving him completely dependent on Akane to help him to even be able to just stand. He's terribly embarrassed and decides to take the initiative of deliberately himself turning into a girl (his reasoning being that as a girl, he just doesn't feel as self-conscious about not being good at something like this, which is an interesting observation on his part). While Ranma and Akane continue to practice, they accidentally separate and Ranma collides with an older boy of the "suave scumbag" variety that happens to be a talented pro skater...who helps hold Ranma up but, as Ranma's currently a girl, the boy decides to forcibly kiss him!

Well...that's Ranma's first kiss, and that's obviously not how he wanted that to go down and it proves to be quite traumatic, leaving him very emotionally vulnerable...especially as it's implied that he enjoyed it on some level even while being disgusted with it (and himself) at the same time. Akane tries to comfort him and even offers to let him kiss her, which he...shockingly (and yet not so shockingly!) agrees to. It doesn't quite happen, but it nonetheless creates a very sweet and tender moment in between the two. These episodes feel right, they feel like character motivations and dynamics were all in the right places, and so it's no wonder that they were great where the others I watched weren't - very much felt like a part of the original series.

The end; oh well, c'est la vie.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

On 6/29/2021 at 7:56 AM, Bartimaeus said:

Heh, this is the type of stuff I'm expressly trying to avoid (not specifically in Jojo's, but in everything, and it definitely applies here), and is why I can enjoy this more toned down OVA at least a little more instead, . While I don't mind a little self-aware humor poking fun of itself every now and then, what I don't care for is stuff that is like...self-knowingly over-absurd or over-dramatic to the point of insincerity, and that's kind of the problem I run into with stuff like this (beyond just not caring for the style, that is). No humans could ever make something like this and NOT think it was all some kind of big silly joke...and when you keep doing it over and over, I get this weird sort of...disconnect where it feels like the work has completely deconstructed itself and the entire thing falls apart in my brain like a house of cards. Gotta walk the fence between sincerity and absurdity closer, otherwise I can no longer invest into characters or care about plots or the setting, and I'd be just watching for empty absurdism-based laughs. A single 2-hour movie I can maybe do that if the humor is at least right for me, tens of hours for an entire television show or video game not so much. I...probably am not going to be able to get into Jojo's as a whole, .

I disagree, I like that JoJo is intentionally over the top because it's a nice break from all the anime (and fiction in general if we're being honest) that takes itself completely seriously despite being incredibly stupid. There's only so much techno-babble or fantasy horse**** you can take before getting annoyed, and too many shows are really incapable of assuaging that annoyance. JoJo just says **** it and treats itself as ridiculous as it is, which is just so god damn refreshing over the huge amount of shows that have their heads shoved up their asses high on their own farts.

Edited June 30, 2021 by KP the meanie zucchini