Anime - Do you Understannnnnnndu?

[majestic]

23 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

When I was real young and didn't have cable, I would watch DBZ early in the morning and Digimon on Saturdays. I didn't think of them as anime until I was around 12 or 13, come to think of it I didn't really think about movies and TV in terms of genre back then. Weird.

 

You're like a decade younger than I am, what we got on TV was a whole lot of Isao Takahata anime. That might not be as scary as accidentially running into Vampire Hunter D at a young age, but it sure crushes your soul properly.

Although, to be honest, our traditional children's entertainment isn't happy either. It was supposed to teach us lessons in a humorously tragic way. Like the boy who would not eat his parent's food and starved to death, or the little girl that played with matches and burned herself to a little pile of ash while her cats mourned her passing. The most "lighthearted" one of that particular collection was a group of three boys mocking a person of color, and someone ended up painting them all black with ink as punishment.

Eh. And that's without getting into fairy tales.

Edited August 1, 2021 by majestic

[Sarex]

24 minutes ago, majestic said:

I watched a lot of anime as a kid without knowing it was anime - just really anything that was on TV. Which, as it turns out, was actually quite a lot. Took a very long break after Sailor Moon (not Sailor Moon's fault). Only just recently started again with the Sailor Moon rewatch.

Regarding comics, I also barely had any exposure, unless you want to count me browsing through my father's Disney comic collection (there's a fairly long running series of German comics based on licensed Disney works from all around Europe). All of which I did before going to school at all. Come to think of it, I have no idea where those books are. Some of them were in fairly good condition, they should be worth something at least.

I watched a ton of anime as a kid too, but when I started watching Bleach and finishing all the anime that was available at the time my impatience led me to the manga and it kind of spiraled from there. As time went on I read more and more manga and watched less and less anime, it was simply boring to watch an anime I already read in the manga.

17 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I'm trying to read more manga, but sometimes you get really into one and the translations just stop so yeah. At least it's consistent with anime just stopping when they outpace the manga lmao.

Physical media or online?

3 minutes ago, majestic said:

That might not be as scary as accidentially running into Vampire Hunter D at a young age, but it sure crushes your soul properly.

Was just thinking about it when reading Bartimaeus's post. I never did find it that scary, although I don't remember how young I was when I first watched it.

[majestic]

I'm currently watching the first episode of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. I couldn't help myself and jumped right in.

I don't know where this is going yet, but Toya just called Shaoran a brat, and Sakura complained about it. Now Yukito just showed up.

But everything is wrong. Everyone has different voice actors and this was animated by a different studio.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Physical media or online?

Online. Physical media is way behind and I tend to get impatient.

24 minutes ago, majestic said:

 

You're like a decade younger than I am, what we got on TV was a whole lot of Isao Takahata anime. That might not be as scary as accidentially running into Vampire Hunter D at a young age, but it sure crushes your soul properly.

Although, to be honest, our traditional children's entertainment isn't happy either. It was supposed to teach us lessons in a humorously tragic way. Like the boy who would not eat his parent's food and starved to death, or the little girl that played with matched and burned herself to a little pile of ash while her cats mourned her passing. The most "lighthearted" one of that particular collection was a group of three boys mocking a person of color, and someone ended up painting them all black with ink as punishment.

Eh. And that's without getting into fairy tales.

I wasn't really scared of Vampire Hunter D, I was used to horror movies at that point and I don't think it ever went too out of bonds compared to that. Berserk on the other hand.....the Eclipse is still probably one of the most disturbing events I've seen in fiction.

The children's entertainment in my childhood was not good except for memes, like A Cruel Arthur's Thesis.

Now a days kids can see stuff like Steven Universe but have to take that with Uncle Grandpa.

[Bartimaeus]

More Eriko, bad things continue to be bad get worse, actually:

Spoiler

Eriko is on a trip to another country to film her first commercial, it's nighttime and she's about to go to bed and gets tricked to leave her hotel room by someone claiming to be a close friend of hers that should not possibly be in this country (I reiterate: Eriko is not the sharpest tool in the shed and has trouble listening to the advice given to her when it contradicts her need to make sure her loved ones and friends are happy with her), gets ambushed and semi-assaulted by goons sent by her uncle, misleading and compromising photos get taken and sent to the tabloids to embarrass her further on top of the trauma itself, she starts getting hounded by paparazzi and being called a whore by her classmates. She's fourteen years old. Might as well just have no friends and see literally nobody but maybe direct family* and your manager** when you're an idol. Really starting to think her parents had the right idea in keeping her out of the business - this hasn't been a fun, lighthearted, or magical adventure at all.

*Well, in her case, no, because her uncle is the biggest scumbag and will seemingly do literally anything to embarrass or hurt her, even kill her if that's what it takes.

**Thankfully, they didn't go for maximum realism here, since her manager isn't a scumbag, although he is sadly a little incompetent.

 

4 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm currently watching the first episode of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. I couldn't help myself and jumped right in.

I don't know where this is going yet, but Toya just called Shaoran a brat, and Sakura complained about it. Now Yukito just showed up.

But everything is wrong. Everyone has different voice actors and this was animated by a different studio.

Different voice actors means I'm out already, . Feel free to spoil everything! (...Unless it spoils something in the real Sakura, that is!)

Edited August 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

5 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

When I was real young and didn't have cable, I would watch DBZ early in the morning and Digimon on Saturdays. I didn't think of them as anime until I was around 12 or 13, come to think of it I didn't really think about movies and TV in terms of genre back then. Weird.

I think when you're a kid you don't think about the origin of stuff.

I remember watching the movies Alakazam the Great (Saiyūki -1960) and Jack and the Witch (Shōnen Jakku to Mahōtsukai - 1967) and the tv shows Battle of the Planets (Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman - 1972) and Star Blazers (Uchū Senkan Yamato 1974) and didn't really think about their origin until years later when Robotech started getting popular and I was older.

The big difference to me as a kid was the serialized storytelling, unlike the US cartoons that were self contained stories with no real continuity. 

[Sarex]

9 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm currently watching the first episode of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. I couldn't help myself and jumped right in.

I don't know where this is going yet, but Toya just called Shaoran a brat, and Sakura complained about it. Now Yukito just showed up.

But everything is wrong. Everyone has different voice actors and this was animated by a different studio.

Now there is a name I haven't heard in a long time... This is also paired with XXXHOLIC, they go side by side. This was such a weird story, I can't remember if it got the axe or just never got finished.

9 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Online. Physical media is way behind and I tend to get impatient.

What did you read that got dropped? It's really rare that a translator drops a series and no one picks it up.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Sarex

[majestic]

One of Shaoran's companions is voiced by Ira Gamagoori. That just adds to the overall feeling of confusion. Well, and it's a little hilarious.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Different voice actors means I'm out already, . Feel free to spoil everything! (...Unless it spoils something in the real Sakura, that is!)

I don't see how it could. This is basically Sliders with Shaoran and Sakura. Sakura loses her memories and they're scattered throughout several different "worlds". Instead of a dimensional gateway they have this white fluffy creature you posted an image of a while ago that transports them between alternate realities. Shaoran is accompained by Gamagoori and someone named Fai D. Flowright, and with that name he's probably related to Kaito D. Whatshisface from Clear Card in some fashion.

So... kinda expecting him to be a (or the) hidden villain.

It's possible that the "real" Sakura makes a cameo at some point. Seems kinda logical that they'd do that.

Tomoyo showed up too, she's a princess in a still feudal variant of Japan and banished Kurogane Gamagoori to a different dimension. Oh, right, and Shaoran has a weird fire based Pokemon that looks a bit like a fox that comes to help him after the dimensional vortex bunny dumped them in the middle of a gang war.

There is one connection (outside of the characters): Shaoran's price for buying the dimensional vortext bunny is really similar to a plot point from the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. Really similar as in totally rehashed. 

Here is one YUUUUUUUUUUUUGE spoiler (not really!)

Spoiler

The first two episodes were better than most of Clear Card, even though this really is shonen, rather than shojo. King Toya already fought off some extradimensional cyber ninjas to have High Priest Yukito the Prophet of Clow Kingdom send Shaoran and Sakura off (no, don't worry, Yukito is neither a high priest nor does he run around with Clow Reed's staff in Cardcaptor Sakura, and he's also not a seer... Toya isn't a warrior king either, eh? ) and Shaoran stumbled into a gang war trying to find one of Sakura's memories. It sure is a whole lot more actiony than Cardcaptor Sakura was, but at the same time it's really... slow. Not bad slow, but really slow in its pacing.

 

4 hours ago, Sarex said:

Now there is a name I haven't heard in a long time... This is also paired with XXXHOLIC, they go side by side. This was such a weird story, I can't remember if it got the axe or just never got finished.

I don't know, but weird seems right, so far.

Edited August 1, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

5 hours ago, Sarex said:

What did you read that got dropped? It's really rare that a translator drops a series and no one picks it up.

I was going to say Devilman Saga, but that got updated like 3 weeks ago after not being updated since August 2018. Huh.

[majestic]

Girls' Last Tour, episode two. Warning, this post contains unmarked "spoilers"!

Chi and Yuu drive some more through the wasteland. There's a snowstorm, and they come across an old, albeit apparently still somewhat functional, power plant (guess that means they're not the last two people on the planet) where they puncture a pipe carrying hot water, then take a bath. They weather the storm inside where Chi gets mad at Yuu for using one of her books to keep their bonfire going, then the weather changes and they spend the rest of the episode at the city's water drainage washing their clothes in the snowmelt, then find a fish that they grill and eat.

And that's actually all that happens. Plus dialogue, of course.

I take it all back. If nothing else would happen in this anime I'd still be good. Now I'm kind of afraid it will change for the worse.

Still don't like the character design, but what can you do.

[Sarex]

59 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I was going to say Devilman Saga, but that got updated like 3 weeks ago after not being updated since August 2018. Huh.

Damn, he dumped 3 volumes. Must have had a backlog.

@majesticGlad you like it.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Girls' Last Tour, episode two. Warning, this post contains unmarked "spoilers"!

Chi and Yuu drive some more through the wasteland. There's a snowstorm, and they come across an old, albeit apparently still somewhat functional, power plant (guess that means they're not the last two people on the planet) where they puncture a pipe carrying hot water, then take a bath. They weather the storm inside where Chi gets mad at Yuu for using one of her books to keep their bonfire going, then the weather changes and they spend the rest of the episode at the city's water drainage washing their clothes in the snowmelt, then find a fish that they grill and eat.

And that's actually all that happens. Plus dialogue, of course.

I take it all back. If nothing else would happen in this anime I'd still be good. Now I'm kind of afraid it will change for the worse.

Still don't like the character design, but what can you do.

lmao I just saw the two(?) main characters, and they're so bad, they're almost good - it's like the designers just said screw it and gave up entirely. ...Almost good, but not quite - some tweaking to make them look a little more tooney, and I think they could've gotten there, . Maybe head shapes that didn't look like watermelons would've been a good place to start...

Edited August 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

lmao I just saw the two(?) main characters, and they're so bad, they're almost good - it's like the designers just said screw it and gave up entirely. ...Almost good, but not quite - some tweaking to make them look a little more tooney, and I think they could've gotten there, . Maybe head shapes that didn't look like watermelons would've been a good place to start...

The design comes straight from the manga by the looks of it.

It's funny and kind of, hard to describe, fun to listen to, at least with the original Japanese voice acting. I'm having a hard time describing it, really. The way they talk is almost as if someone's talking really slowly and deliberately to a foreigner, and their speech patterns are noticably different from regular Japanese, so that's either a dialect or - more likely, I guess - to show that they didn't have much interaction with adults and simply retained their child-like speech.

They meet another character in the third episode where this becomes readily apparent - they're saying the same words, just differently.

Not that I have any idea how old they're supposed to be. Chi can drive a military half-track motorcycle that looks a bit like the ones used by the Germans in World War 2, and Yuu can haul large stones around and shoot her rifle with quite an astonishing degree of accuracy (Yuu also appears to be the more brawny, less brainy of the two, but then can be surprisingly perceptive).

Then there's the absurdity of the two pondering life's existential issues in the wasteland in their special way.

The third episode begins with Chi asking Yuu what she thinks the meaning of life might be, and Yuu just whacks her over the head with her rifle. Chi asks what that was for and Yuu says: "I thought you went cazy!", and silly stuff like that happens right after they both wonder if they have died long ago and are just trucking through the afterlife, only to later conclude that the afterlife surely wouldn't be this cold.

 

[Sarex]

It's simply how the manga is.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Sarex

[Bartimaeus]

Vaguely reminds me of a post-nuclear war webcomic I read a decade+ ago about two guys wandering through wastelands and war zones while pondering what they're doing and why and whom they're fighting in the first place, .

[Bartimaeus]

More Miyu: this show so far is functionally basically a not-as-good (in either senses of the word) horror version of Cardcaptor Sakura...but a horror version of Sakura is still pretty interesting.

Spoiler

Finding and sealing away different kinds of demons that are wreaking havoc (with stuff that sadly can't be reversed), they even had a mirror demon that doppelganged Miyu so they could eat her best friend and do the whole Spiderman pointing meme thing. I'm still enjoying it, it's nice to have a lower-key horror setting that doesn't feel like artificial or gross garbage (plus, again, I like the main character), but it's not like amazing or anything - just solid. If you're in the mood for that sort of thing, there it is.

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

19 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

More Miyu: this show so far is functionally basically a not-as-good (in either senses of the word) horror version of Cardcaptor Sakura...but a horror version of Sakura is still pretty interesting.

Well, that's it, this is going to be next after Girls' Last Tour, Stardust Crusaders and Ts... a screw that title, that other show with Sakura and Shaoran.

[Bartimaeus]

In the event that it may help you, this is how I would rate a number of anime/cartoon shows I've seen thus far, movies included where applicable (...and using notes from the site where I rate stuff):

Spoiler

Cardcaptor Sakura: 9.5
Steven Universe: 9*
Sailor Moon: 8.5
Avatar, The Last Airbender: 8.5
Hilda: 8
Paranoia Agent: 7.5
Ranma 1/2 (original season only): 7.5
Samurai Jack: 7.5
Infinity Train: 7.5
Neon Genesis Evangelion: 7
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (original OVA): 7
Adventure Time: 6.5
Heidi, Girl of the Alps: 6.5
Speed Racer: 6
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (prequel OVA): 6
The Legend of Korra: 6
Utena: 5.5

Legendary Idol Eriko is currently teetering between a 7 and a 7.5, I think; the OVA Miyu was a 6.5, this anti-magical girl TV show Miyu is sitting at about a 7 as well six episodes in. A 6/10 is "fair", 7/10 "good", an 8/10 "great", and a 9/10 "fantastic"; I've never given out a 10/10. On my movie site, it says I have rated 324 movies with an average rating of 61%, so being a 7/10 is actually legitimately supposed to be "good". Anyways, hopefully this provides some greater context for how I feel about the shows I'm seeing/have seen, .

*NOTE: My ratings are...I'd estimate roughly 75% subjective, 25% objective; I'm not about to give a show or film that was objectively well-made but very unappealing to me a 1/10 just because of that, and the inverse is true as well; so just because I place Cardcaptor Sakura higher does not necessarily mean it is my all-time favorite show over Steven Universe...just that its objective qualities are so good on top of being subjectively fantastic.

On 7/31/2021 at 3:56 PM, majestic said:

May or may not post more on Revolutionary Girl Utena too. The last two episodes and the movie sort of saved the preceeding episodes for me, even though it's still a horrible mess of bad pacing and needlessly opaque allegory, metaphor and imagery. That's not going to excuse the way it is set up, but it really becomes better in hindsight. Although, I wonder how many viewers those last two arcs lost while it was airing.

Meant to reply to this at some point, but forgot. Well, first of all...it was the opposite for me, everything felt even dumber and more fraudulent because of both of those, but whatever, more importantly...

Spoiler

Apparently, Nanami is only in the manga in a single family picture with Touga. Ergo, she was really only conceived for the show as comic relief, and completely unnecessary for the narrative like I suspected when she did not show up in the movie. Also, I watched an interview with the English VA for Nanami (both the English and Japanese VAs for her are hilarious, IMO), and apparently she actually demanded an explanation for why she was supposed to voice a cow version of herself, and was given a massive shrug and "I don't know" in response. Then I heard from other fans who apparently consider Word of God that it was there specifically just to annoy Nanami fans. If that's the case, Mr. Ikuhara, shame on you firstly...but also, it was the opposite for me: her legend and likeability only grew as a result, .

 

[majestic]

Quick post because I really need to go to bed, otherwise tomorrow (well, today) will be bloody hell, but...

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

*NOTE: My ratings are...I'd estimate roughly 75% subjective, 25% objective; I'm not about to give a show or film that was objectively well-made but very unappealing to me a 1/10 just because of that, and the inverse is true as well; so just because I place Cardcaptor Sakura higher does not necessarily mean it is my all-time favorite show over Steven Universe...just that its objective qualities are so good on top of being subjectively fantastic.

I get that. CCS is so ludicrously well made - for the most part - that you can't help put place it above other shows that might have had more impact or meaning if you had to give out a number.

Funny how you haven't even seen the episodes I would consider the absolute best of the series yet. Except 16, of course.

[Bartimaeus]

More Miyu. Last episode opened with Miyu's best friend Chisato asking Miyu if she could stay over night at Miyu's place, and Miyu not being able to accept because she's homeless and usually waits out her nights under the moon at the top of an unspecified shrine. Cut to nighttime and her doing exactly that while discussing with her pet demon their choice of locale...cue some woman screaming far off into the distance, Miyu tensing up and trying to spot the cause...and then seeing some guy killing himself by jumping off from a balcony many floors up in an apartment complex. Miyu looks slightly disappointed, then smiles - all is right in the world, .

That's the kind of show this is, . ...Also, probably my two favorite episodes so far were the last two - moving on up towards a 7.5 if it keeps it up, .

Edited August 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

In the event that it may help you, this is how I would rate a number of anime/cartoon shows I've seen thus far, movies included where applicable (...and using notes from the site where I rate stuff):

  Reveal hidden contents

Cardcaptor Sakura: 9.5
Steven Universe: 9*
Sailor Moon: 8.5
Avatar, The Last Airbender: 8.5
Hilda: 8
Paranoia Agent: 7.5
Ranma 1/2 (original season only): 7.5
Samurai Jack: 7.5
Infinity Train: 7.5
Neon Genesis Evangelion: 7
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (original OVA): 7
Adventure Time: 6.5
Heidi, Girl of the Alps: 6.5
Speed Racer: 6
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (prequel OVA): 6
The Legend of Korra: 6
Utena: 5.5

Legendary Idol Eriko is currently teetering between a 7 and a 7.5, I think; the OVA Miyu was a 6.5, this anti-magical girl TV show Miyu is sitting at about a 7 as well six episodes in. A 6/10 is "fair", 7/10 "good", an 8/10 "great", and a 9/10 "fantastic"; I've never given out a 10/10. On my movie site, it says I have rated 324 movies with an average rating of 61%, so being a 7/10 is actually legitimately supposed to be "good". Anyways, hopefully this provides some greater context for how I feel about the shows I'm seeing/have seen, .

I barely ever rate anything. For movies, if I rated something, I'd even have a "horseshoe" rating system where the points are given out on a scale that correlates with enjoyment the further away the points get from 5. 5/10 would be the worst thing, totally forgettable and perfeclty average. That's because I really enjoy watching films that show up on Best of the Worst.
 

Spoiler

Most ratings I ever had to give out was during our Music Club on Ashford City (and later G3's). It's such a damn shame AC's database died and the hoster had no backups - well, yeah, you get what you pay for, I guess, and hosting was free. Music isn't horseshoey though, of course. The moment something drops below 7/10 I'm not listening to that again, but that's me and my... well, you know, musical preferences.

AC was a bit like this thread, a fun spinoff after Interplay died where the, well, better posters went. The more pretentious ones ended up being regulars at Winterwind (I was at both, obviously), which is also gone now after Gorth killed it with a remark that the administrator misunderstood. tarna (stupid cancer! ) made his own politics spinoff where we actually had civilized debates, a feat only tarna could ever manage, and everyone else left Interplay before and went to a happy go lucky internet place where everyone joined hands and sang Kumbaya (remnants of these posters are still around here, sometimes).

Music Club was where we shared artists we liked and everyone listened to them and gave their thoughts. Actually had a wide range of interests there, a couple of metalheads with highly varying preferences, two posters that regularily introduced classical, a prog rock and jazz fan and a lover of, uhm, electronic music. It eventually died because the time commitment to go through one hour of music per introduction and round killed participation. Ain't nobody got time for that.

However, if I had to rate what I've watched since the Sailor Moon rewatch, it would look a bit like this, films and shows combined... well, in the spirit of the post, as it were:
 

Spoiler

Whisper of the Heart, Cardcaptor Sakura and Violet Evergarden would sit at the top of the ratings, with a score of 9 or above, and yeah, that's with not really liking the ending of the movie. Sailor Moon would come close behind, but with points lacking because the story episodes were mostly just average. It would most likely share a rating with Steven Universe which was exactly the other way around - great episodes brought down by average filler.

I'd probably put Madoka up there too. Not as good an overall score, but hey, I really enjoyed the different takes on the common tropes. NGE would sit above but close to that, mostly because of the ending.

Let's see. I've seen only one arc of JoJo's yet, so that would go around that point too, mostly because I had to force myself through Phantom Blood. It sure picked up afterwards, and if Stardust Crusaders can keep its stride in the second half, it'll get up there too, based purely on the inanity of it all. Can't really take it seriously. Kill la Kill, oh boy, no idea. That one is a solid 10/10 in terms of ideas, and a 7/10 in terms of execution, so that averages out to who the hell knows.

I recently rewatched Akira and still don't like it, which is probably something that, uhm, I should not mention anywhere, lest I get crucifixed.

I'm not going to rate Girls' Last Tour yet, I'm not even halfway through and it's only twelve episodes, and while it's been a blast so far there's still the classfication as seinen anime, and that has to come from somewhere. The city still has power and water at certain places, so I'm guessing robots, giant mechs or GIANT ROBOT MECHS, or all of the above.

Funnily enough, Love Live! would be a 7/10 for now, while Clear Card was... a 5/10, and that only because Meiling was in it for four episodes.

Utena... Utena. Utena, phew, that's horribly hard. I said it saved itself at the end there, but it dipped really low, so that's 6.5/10 at best. The ending making everything that comes before make sense is one thing, the pacing issues remain.

Did I watch anything else? Devilman Crybaby happened before, as it Castlevania. Both were solid. Castlevania was close to being really good but then went on too long for its own good. Devilman Crybaby's ending I hated so much it really dragged everything else down.

Spoiler

God damned literal biblical God pressing the reset button, are you kidding me?

That's no list, I know. I'm bad at this. I did my best, really!

Right, how could I forget Eden? Haha. Eden was kind of, I don't know. It wasn't bad, but nothing special either. 5.5/10?

 

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I've never given out a 10/10.

That's only because you're procrastinating and not getting to Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie 2.

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Meant to reply to this at some point, but forgot. Well, first of all...it was the opposite for me, everything felt even dumber and more fraudulent because of both of those, but whatever, more importantly...

  Hide contents

Apparently, Nanami is only in the manga in a single family picture with Touga. Ergo, she was really only conceived for the show as comic relief, and completely unnecessary for the narrative like I suspected when she did not show up in the movie. Also, I watched an interview with the English VA for Nanami (both the English and Japanese VAs for her are hilarious, IMO), and apparently she actually demanded an explanation for why she was supposed to voice a cow version of herself, and was given a massive shrug and "I don't know" in response. Then I heard from other fans who apparently consider Word of God that it was there specifically just to annoy Nanami fans. If that's the case, Mr. Ikuhara, shame on you firstly...but also, it was the opposite for me: her legend and likeability only grew as a result, .

I'm not entirely mooosprised by that. Sure seems like something Ikuhara would do.

I'm fully aware of how ridiculous that sounds, but Utena opening that casked with Himemiya inside and later turning into a car to drive off with her explained so much it all started to click together, as long as you sift through all that white noise that was probably just there to pad out the runtime. Which comes back to the bad pacing. A little less white noise, perhaps, and this could have been legitimately, dare I say it, good.

That might be lingering trauma from school. My poor mind was tortured with Kafka by my teachers. I can fully recommend The Metamorphosis!

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Miyu tensing up and trying to spot the cause...and then seeing some guy killing himself by jumping off from a balcony many floors up in an apartment complex. Miyu looks slightly disappointed, then smiles - all is right in the world, .

Can't say no to food when it so readily presents itself, hm?

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I barely ever rate anything. For movies, if I rated something, I'd even have a "horseshoe" rating system where the points are given out on a scale that correlates with enjoyment the further away the points get from 5. 5/10 would be the worst thing, totally forgettable and perfeclty average. That's because I really enjoy watching films that show up on Best of the Worst.

I noticed you didn't include Sailor Moon Crystal in your list of ratings. Care to revise your statement that nothing could really be worse than a 5/10 here?

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I recently rewatched Akira and still don't like it, which is probably something that, uhm, I should not mention anywhere, lest I get crucifixed.

Don't expect to like Akira either, though I'll eventually try it just to try it because of how apparently important and great it is. Doesn't really seem like it'll appeal to me in any way. All your other ratings make sense to me. I didn't think to include movies, but that list would be a whole 'nother thing, especially if I were to include Ghibli movies.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Most ratings I ever had to give out was during our Music Club on Ashford City (and later G3's). It's such a damn shame AC's database died and the hoster had no backups - well, yeah, you get what you pay for, I guess, and hosting was free. Music isn't horseshoey though, of course. The moment something drops below 7/10 I'm not listening to that again, but that's me and my... well, you know, musical preferences.

I wouldn't mind having a similar rating/time-keeping mechanism for both music and video games, but it's a lot of work to get started and keep up with...especially for music, where I have a ton of music and tastes are more subject to change over time than most other stuff.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Can't say no to food when it so readily presents itself, hm?

She's not really the type to suck the blood of randos, especially because her bloodsucking effectively ends her victims' lives by permanently placing them into a kind of catatonic zombified state, which she uses somewhat liberally to mercy-kill those whom she deems too hurt or damaged by the demons she hunts. Not a hundred percent sure why it works like that, but it's been the case in both the OVA and show.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I recently rewatched Akira and still don't like it, which is probably something that, uhm, I should not mention anywhere, lest I get crucifixed.

 

55 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Don't expect to like Akira either, though I'll eventually try it just to try it because of how apparently important and great it is. Doesn't really seem like it'll appeal to me in any way. All your other ratings make sense to me. I didn't think to include movies, but that list would be a whole 'nother thing, especially if I were to include Ghibli movies.

The thing with Akira is like with many other old stories. When you look at it today, after already having read and watched a bunch of sci fi, it's nothing special, but you have to understand that back then there was nothing like that really and it was an inspiration for so many of the things that are popular today.

[majestic]

59 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I noticed you didn't include Sailor Moon Crystal in your list of ratings. Care to revise your statement that nothing could really be worse than a 5/10 here?

Oh dear, I need a separate category for that, where it can rot together with American Pie and ever movie Adam Sandler ever "starred" in. -1/10?

Funny, I had the feeling I was missing something from the "list", now I know what it was. I guess that's a genuine case of repressed ratings.
 

Spoiler

I'm not entirely sure in which order to place the top three, ratings wise. I mean they would also make strong contenders for an overall top three list, but relative to each other is a little difficult. In the end, Cardcaptor Sakura would probably only come in as the third, not because it wouldn't be the best of the bunch in terms of execution, especially when you compare a 70 episodes anime to the much more concise Violet Evergarden at 13 episodes or even a feature film.

Should probably create three seperate categories for that. Films, miniseries and series. Because over 70 episodes, being so well planned out and put together as Cardcaptor Sakura is, well, that deserves some special consideration. Like a special award for outstanding writing.

In terms of pure subjective enjoyment they're of course still below Sailor Moon, but that's... I don't think anything ever will. There are experiences that are transformative, and that does transcend any dips in quality, weird hand animations, Pegasus or even Navi the fairy.

 

13 minutes ago, Sarex said:

The thing with Akira is like with many other old stories. When you look at it today, after already having read and watched a bunch of sci fi, it's nothing special, but you have to understand that back then there was nothing like that really and it was an inspiration for so many of the things that are popular today.

That's not it. I didn't like Akira all too much when it was new and shiny either. That's why I said the rewatch did not improve my opinion. I stumbled upon it on Netflix, seems to have been added to our library recently.

That also does not mean I can't regonize its importance.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I have a hard times rating stuff on a numerical scale. Like, what does 8/10 actually mean when put on a subjective scale? That you loved 80% of it and hated 20%? I prefer to just say whether I like it or not and talk about why, because I figure that's more helpful for recommending something to others than tossing numbers at them to see if they'll get it. Admittedly I'm a weird guy and don't think of anything as favorite.

Anyways, I've been watching TOS lately and haven't watched anime in a few days. I think I'll end up watching the Violet Evergarden special next but wait until the movie isn't the bootleg edition with soda slurping to see that.