Anime - Do you Understannnnnnndu?

[majestic]

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sakura, Kero, and the Mysterious Teacher.

There have been a number times where I have gotten full-body chills while watching this show. Isn't that so incredibly bizarre how a show like this could do that, while stuff that is deliberately trying to elicit that reaction could never even dream of doing the same to me? Yet another measure of how much I'm into the show. Anyways, that happened again during the pre-intro for this, when Sakura was having her premonition again for the umpteenth time...but for some reason, it felt different than all the other times, and then boom, suddenly a third person(?) appeared. Somehow, the show clued me in to expect something different this time and then delivered.

You'd think the premonitions going on for a while would get stale, but they don't, and there's always just enough new to keep your interest piqued. Plus they're really creepy. Granted, they'd be creepier if Dream had not shown Sakura her future self telling her that everything will be definitely all right, but I guess a few concessions here and there to the actual target audience is fine. Not that you'd expect something terrible to happen from the anime anyway, at least as an adult, but as a kid? Yeah, possibly.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

...I couldn't help but notice that Sakura and Tomoyo didn't pick up on a certain undercurrent in Kero's words. Also, weird and creepy: when Kero said "I feel the moon's presence", the subtitle hung around for an abnormally long amount of time as it cut away to Yukito silently doing his archery stuff. It was there for just over an entire minute, until the exact moment Yukito finally fired his arrow. And then Ms. Mizuki appeared right after... Hmm.

 

 

Spoiler

Kero already mentioned a certain wrinkle in the card capturing business, I think. It's two episodes before the end of the arc now, he must have. I binged through that part so I'm having a hard time assigning that to a certain episode, but I don't think it was right before the end, as it came up twice. Or does that actually come up in this one?

Ah, Yue.

By the way, since you mentioned this getting strangely Utena here with Sakura's princely appearance, try going back to episode 14 now that you've seen Utena.

Does that remind you of something?

 

[Sarex]

@KP the meanie zucchini Are you reading Frieren at the Funeral by any chance?

[InsaneCommander]

I had some free time and ended up watching the two Violet Evergarden movies.

Big spoilers below:

Spoiler

The first one had a good story, but it looked too happy and I expected one of the girls would die before they could meet again. Don't blame me, you know this anime has plenty of sad moments. That didn't happen but they didn't meet anyway. Still, it was implied that they would one day.

As for the second one, I agree with @Sarex,
 

Spoiler

it was too long. It was one hour and fourteen minutes in when they reached Gilbert and the movie is over two hours, so I noticed they would be overextending that until the end.

Btw, it was the same Russian version mentioned in this thread and it had several moments with audio issues. I would have waited for a better version, except that when I noticed it I had already seem the scene with Gilbert alive.

I thought he had amnesia, but he actually wanted to be considered dead. Mostly because he felt guilty, I imagine, but still a horrible thing to do. He could have visited his mother again before she passed away and as for Violet, he didn't seem the least bit surprised by how she still depended on him.

They made references to episode 10 (clearly because of how good that episode was), not only with Ann's granddaughter but with another similar situation, this time with the boy leaving letters for his family.

Violet Evergarden is a great anime. To think somebody would do this (from imdb):

Quote

The film was originally slated for January 10, 2020 before being delayed following the deadly arson fire at Kyoto Animation studio. The film was set for an April release but delayed again due to COVID-19.

@majestic

Spoiler

I understand your criticism, but maybe you are taking things too seriously and we are supposed to assume that she had a better relationship with him later.

 

[HoonDing]

[majestic]

33 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Spoiler

I understand your criticism, but maybe you are taking things too seriously and we are supposed to assume that she had a better relationship with him later.

 

 

Spoiler

I don't begrudge any of you liking her / them movies happy ending. I just think Gilbert being alive cheapens her struggles in series, much like Baby!Yoda in the Mandalorian took a huge retroactive dump on his training with Luke. Who is the wrinkly old guy to talk about being strong in the force when he was literally born into the world being a Jedi master powerful enough to lift rampaging wooly rhinos like nobody's business?

Yeah. That's the sort of thing that actually annoys me. I can't help it.

It also feels like a bit of a soap opera cop out*. Sure, I know, nobody's dead without a corpse, but that sort of flies in the face of the otherwise grounded base series. It works better in the light novel because that's more outlandish from the start, as Violet isn't just a inhumanly strong soldier, she also wields an impossible to handle large axe and cleaves enemy platoons asunder. As such, Gilbert being alive is less of a bother. The anime on the other hand opted to not include that stuff. Eh. Well.

*Would have been even worse if he really suffered from memory loss.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

@KP the meanie zucchini Are you reading Frieren at the Funeral by any chance?

No, but it's on my list of things to read when I can. I'm behind on manga lately because I got involved in a tabletop game of Pathfinder 2e that takes up some time to prepare for. Which will only get more complicated when Summoners come out in two weeks and everyone gets STANDO POWAH!

Edited August 10, 2021 by KP the meanie zucchini

[Sarex]

3 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

No, but it's on my list of things to read when I can. I'm behind on manga lately because I got involved in a tabletop game of Pathfinder 2e that takes up some time to prepare for. Which will only get more complicated when Summoners come out in two weeks and everyone gets STANDO POWAH!

Much recommend. I was thinking of recommending it to to @Bartimaeus, but my heart couldn't take the harsh critic.

[majestic]

Vampire Princess Miyu, otherwise known as Guess That Voice Actor!

It's incredible how versatile Megumi Ogata is. I almost didn't recognize her. Well, scratch that, I definitely did not recognize Reiha as Megumi Ogata at first. That creepy doll of hers gave it away though, and eventually you can hear her in Reiha too. Impressive, really.

I wonder if we'll get a complete Sailor Moon reunion tour, so now that's Mimet as Miyu's creepy pet demon-bunny, Sailor Mizuki as one off character in the first episode and now Sailor Uranus (otherwise also known as Shinji or Yukito ). I'm guessing Reiha will be back, right? That didn't seem like a one time occurance there.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I don't begrudge any of you liking her / them movies happy ending. I just think Gilbert being alive cheapens her struggles in series, much like Baby!Yoda in the Mandalorian took a huge retroactive dump on his training with Luke. Who is the wrinkly old guy to talk about being strong in the force when he was literally born into the world being a Jedi master powerful enough to lift rampaging wooly rhinos like nobody's business?

Yeah. That's the sort of thing that actually annoys me. I can't help it.

It also feels like a bit of a soap opera cop out*. Sure, I know, nobody's dead without a corpse, but that sort of flies in the face of the otherwise grounded base series. It works better in the light novel because that's more outlandish from the start, as Violet isn't just a inhumanly strong soldier, she also wields an impossible to handle large axe and cleaves enemy platoons asunder. As such, Gilbert being alive is less of a bother. The anime on the other hand opted to not include that stuff. Eh. Well.

*Would have been even worse if he really suffered from memory loss.

 

Um, oops, I accidentally and mindlessly read the first couple sentences in your Evergarden spoiler here, and since I've actually watched the first episode, I know whom that is...

Spoiler

I one hundred percent assumed he was dead immediately from the first episode I watched. The framing of the scenes in which he's mentioned all but stated it. So that's kind of weird.

 

18 minutes ago, majestic said:

I'm guessing Reiha will be back, right? That didn't seem like a one time occurance there.

Her and her psychotic doll, too, .

CCS stuff:

Spoiler

9 hours ago, majestic said:

Does that remind you of something?

Assuming we're thinking of the same scene, that was one of my least favorite scenes because of how utterly fraudulent it felt, and then everything after that went to absolute nonsense, so I suppose I do remember, .

12 hours ago, majestic said:

I'll comment on the other things soon(ish). I'm guessing you figured out who Yue is then?

Has to be her mom, it's the only thing I can think of. I thought it might've been Yukito at one point, but that would just be too out of left field for me. Plus, if she was absorbed by/into the moon or something, that would explain her "death" or whatever. Plus-plus, if she's magical, it at least loosely explains why Sakura is also magical and why their family had a magic set of cards to begin with and...probably other stuff.

9 hours ago, majestic said:

Kero already mentioned a certain wrinkle in the card capturing business, I think. It's two episodes before the end of the arc now, he must have. I binged through that part so I'm having a hard time assigning that to a certain episode, but I don't think it was right before the end, as it came up twice. Or does that actually come up in this one?

If it did, I'm not sure that I caught it beyond the fact that there's some kind of "final judgement" and Mizuki is involved in some manner.

 

[majestic]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Um, oops, I accidentally and mindlessly read the first couple sentences in your Evergarden spoiler here, and since I've actually watched the first episode, I know whom that is...

  Hide contents

I one hundred percent assumed he was dead immediately from the first episode I watched. The framing of the scenes in which he's mentioned all but stated it. So that's kind of weird.

Well, since the cat's out of the bag anyway, more movie spoilers, but be careful just in case you might still want to watch - if you do just don't click and, uhm, yeah... consider it me ranting :

Spoiler

He is, until the movie miraculously reveals that he's been alive and well, just hiding on a remote island and of course Violet chases after him. He tells her that he doesn't want to see her because all he did was cause misery, and Violet actually accepts that and leaves (at this point that might have been salvagable yet), but then he has a change of heart, runs to the shore, she actually jumps down from the ship she already boarded to run towards him on the beach. Cue hug and happily ever after.

Recounting that makes me want to barf. I'm kind of surprised they didn't switch the voice actors to Meg Ryan and Ben Stiller in the middle of that.

Not only does that feel as if the otherwise quite grounded exploration of her character (not counting her arms and her inhuman ability to fight better than Chuck Norris ever did, but that's not what the anime is about, not really at least) is cheapened by turning everything into a Mexican telenovela, it's also Usagi and Mamoru turned up to infinity. If you thought they were a bad couple, holy crap, this just takes the cake.

The worst part is that it could have been a nice closure for everything, if she had just sailed into the sunset.

And that's not even getting into the morality of the situation. Gilbert was her surrogate father for years. I get why they wanted a happy ending, but this was really, really, REALLY not the place. Woops. I'll just stop. I guess IC was right, I am taking this too seriously, am I?

 

21 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Her and her psychotic doll, too, .

Well that's actually not bad. I wondered if this would be 26 standalone episodes, but that kind of indicates that there'll be a bit more than that.

CCS:

23 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Assuming we're thinking of the same scene, that was one of my least favorite scenes because of how utterly fraudulent it felt, and then everything after that went to absolute nonsense, so I suppose I do remember, .

 

 

Spoiler

I fell down another rabbit hole today, post about it incoming.

 

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Has to be her mom, it's the only thing I can think of. I thought it might've been Yukito at one point, but that would just be too out of left field for me. Plus, if she was absorbed by/into the moon or something, that would explain her "death" or whatever. Plus-plus, if she's magical, it at least loosely explains why Sakura is also magical and why their family had a magic set of cards to begin with and...probably other stuff.

 

 

Spoiler

Can't say anything more than I already have, without otherwise stating it outright. But hey, you're like 20 minutes away from the reveal anyway.

 

27 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

If it did, I'm not sure that I caught it beyond the fact that there's some kind of "final judgement" and Mizuki is involved in some manner.

 

 

Spoiler

Yes, that. The final judgement. I'm perfectly certain that Kero mentioned some sort of calamity as a possible outcome in one of the episodes before. I don't know in which one, though. 42, probably, because Light and Dark specifically tell Sakura that they want her to become their new master.

 

[Bartimaeus]

lmao wtf, that Evergarden stuff sounds like a hilariously terrible trainwreck, everything about that sounds wrong. Character, plot, theme, scene framing stuff matters, guys! You can't just ignore that stuff! I mean, I've only seen the first episode, but dang.

6 minutes ago, majestic said:

Well that's actually not bad. I wondered if this would be 26 standalone episodes, but that kind of indicates that there'll be a bit more than that.

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Just now, Bartimaeus said:

lmao wtf, that Evergarden stuff sounds like a hilariously terrible trainwreck, everything about that sounds wrong. I mean, I've only seen the first episode, but dang.

That's me being super unfair to it. I think. The others seem to disagree, at least.

[Bartimaeus]

43 minutes ago, majestic said:

That's me being super unfair to it. I think. The others seem to disagree, at least.

I edited this in to the previous post:

44 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Character, plot, theme, scene framing stuff matters, guys! You can't just ignore that stuff!

I consider myself someone that's pretty sensitive to framing. If a character is having an emotional moment and then suddenly you unnecessarily cut down to her chest, congratulations, you've ruined the scene as well was whatever was going on with her, I simply no longer care just as the show obviously doesn't care if it's going to pull that crap. If two characters are supposed to be in love, but never freaking show it and instead they just tell you it over and over instead, I'm not going to buy it. If a character is a child (either literally or even just personality-wise) and starts getting involved with someone that should really clearly be a parent figure but instead inexplicably takes on a creepy sort of adult love interest, you better either avert that somehow or I'm probably going to barf.

And...(Evergarden movie spoilers)

Spoiler

...if your main character has a tragic backstory that has been a focal point to how the character has behaved up to this point, deflating said backstory by going "oh whoopsie, we just forgot to mention that it wasn't as tragic as we previously and clearly stated, teehee!" at the eleventh hour is not my idea of a good time. No thank you, framing is important.

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

And now for something completely different.

As we talked about liking silly girly stuff yesterday, I went back to browse through the Wikipedia pages of the very thing that ended up reviving this thread: Sailor Moon. Since trying out more of Mr. Ikuhara's work is currently a little off the table (or potentially permanently, unless it comes recommended) I have noticed that Ikuko Itoh, one of the animation directors, chief and key animators and character designers involved with Sailor Moon has a anime creation credit to her name, in other words, an idea she came up with and designed.

So, I figured, what could possibly go wrong? Well, nothing... and everything. How can that be? Well, that's what this post is for.

My current working theory is that either working on Sailor Moon made people lose touch with reality, or everyone had to be out of step with reality to become a part of the Sailor Moon team. Either way works, and there is plenty of evidence in the form of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which I recently finished - that also featured heavy involvement of part of the Sailor Moon creative team. Including writers and of course the director, Kunihiko Ikuhara.

Well, without further ado, I tried Princess Tutu, which quite clearly proves that Ms. Itoh also has a few loose marbles rattling around. Or she secretly came up with that idea when out binge drinking with Ikuhara. Who knows.

First, with a name like that, if you expect this to be about girls and ballet, then you're in luck. It kind of is, just not in the way you would think. The protagonist of the anime is Ahiru, which is the Japanese word for duck.

Time to reveal what character designs she came up with.

This is Ahiru. Remember, before looking, her name literally means duck.

Wait, what in the what now?

Yes, so this is Ahiru. Ahiru is a duck minding her own business, at least until she meets Prince Mytho and immediately falls in love with his sad expression, and wants to help him. A not at all creepy character shows up and asks her if she actually has the resolve to follow through with her wish to help him.

This quite clearly is a face you can trust, right?

Mr. Not-at-all-creepy gives Ahiru the duck the magical power to turn herself into Ahiru the ballet student, with the added issue that whenever she does something ducky, she will transform back into a duck. She can only transform back into human form in water (at least so far), and she doesn't wear any clothes when she does (that makes sense, ducks don't wear clothing, do they?). Which she at first doesn't even notice until another not at all creepy character shows up to help her on her quest.

Hello, I am Edel and I talk in riddles.

This is how Ahiru looks when she's a ballet student:

Actually that doesn't look so bad, does it?

What is this about, then?

Glad you asked. Essentially, Mr. Not-At-All-Creepy wrote stories. His final one was about a dashing prince fighting a demonic raven. However, he died without finishing it, and eventually bored of their neverending fight, the raven and the prince left the story. The prince tried to seal the raven, but in the process his heart shattered into several pieces, pieces that fell into a city and joined with the hearts of the people there, merging dreams with reality.

This is told in a storyboard intro that... kind of reminds me of Revolutionary Girl Utena. In fact, that's so similar in style that, even though it has a different story that it tells, I wonder if Ikuhara gets royalties every time this airs somewhere.

So who is Princess Tutu then?

Princess Tutu is Ahiru the ballet student after she uses her magic gem to transform into ballet dance goddess Princess Tutu. She does this when her gem indicates that a piece of Mytho's heart is near. She then dances with whoever has the shard to free them of it, and gives it back to Mytho. So yes, we're talking anime ballet dance battles.

When Mytho falls out of the window in the first epsiode, Princess Tutu saves him by dancing up a large bed of flowers. Yes, really.

Anything else?

Yes, for some reason, some of the characters are anthropomorphized animals.

This is Neko-sensei, Ahiru's ballet instructor.

And she is called Anteaterina, and really wants to dance with Mytho. Alas, Ant-Eaters and ballet, well, that's not the most fruitful combination, is it?

Should I watch this?

How the hell would I know, I've watched three out of the 26 episodes now. It certainly is weird. Ahiru and her friends are also kind of endearing, so that makes everyone infinitely more likable than the characters of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which weren't meant to be that likeable. The rest is about as weird, but at least this is really honest about it being a fairy tale that somehow seeped into reality.

Edited August 10, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

12 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

I consider myself someone that's pretty sensitive to framing. If a character is having an emotional moment and then suddenly you unnecessarily cut down to her chest, congratulations, you've ruined the scene as well was whatever was going on with her, I simply no longer care just as the show obviously doesn't care if it's going to pull that crap. If two characters are supposed to be in love, but never freaking show it and instead they just tell you it over and over instead, I'm not going to buy it. If a character is a child (either literally or even just personality-wise) and starts getting involved with someone that should really clearly be a parent figure but instead inexplicably takes on a creepy sort of adult love interest, you better either avert that somehow or I'm probably going to barf.

And if your main character has a tragic backstory that has been a focal point to how the character has behaved up to this point, deflating said backstory by going "oh whoopsie, we just forgot to mention that it wasn't as tragic as we previously and clearly stated, teehee!" at the eleventh hour is not my idea of a good time. No thank you, framing is important.

 

Lucky you then, in case you find yourself watching the anime, just don't watch the movie. Or...

Spoiler

Turn it off after Violet boards the ship. That would have worked. I mean, in spite of the soap opera twist.

 

Also you should perhaps put that into spoiler tags, because KP hasn't seen the film yet. Granted, the "reveal" is already in the trailer, so it's a bit of a non-starter, but hey, fair is fair.

[Bartimaeus]

Oops, good call, I spoilered the Evergarden-specific stuff.

I'd come across Princess Tutu before - I had to check my browsing history, because I couldn't clearly remember what I'd seen about it or why it hadn't made my list of bookmarks. Then I saw the screenshots, and I was like, oh yeah, because it looks really weird and uncomfortable! I think I'd probably be correct in assuming that I would not enjoy it?

[majestic]

20 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Oops, good call, I spoilered the Evergarden-specific stuff.

I'd come across Princess Tutu before - I had to check my browsing history, because I couldn't clearly remember what I'd seen about it or why it hadn't made my list of bookmarks. Then I saw the screenshots, and I was like, oh yeah, because it looks really weird and uncomfortable! I think I'd probably be correct in assuming that I would not enjoy it?

It's a bit too early to tell for sure, but currently that's a bit of a no, I'm afraid. I had to laugh a good bit whenver Ahiru accidentially turns herself into a duck, or she gets completely flustered when talking to Mytho and just starts saying whatever comes into her mind. Her Japanese voice actor does a good job of sounding the part too.

It is set in a surreal dreamscape that is creepily close to Utena's setting, complete with an academy for ballet and dormitories, and several people vying for the affection and attention of Prince Mytho (who, bereft of his heart, has none to give, obviously). The episodes so far tell a fairy tale for each emotional fragment Ahiru finds, although I suspect that's not going to be all of the 26 episodes - there are two seasons with 13 episodes each, and finding all the heart shards seems like a decent ending point for the first season.

The episodes so far have been good. The anthropomorphized (what a word, really) animals are really strange, and Tutu's transformation sequence is a little more detailed than usual for shows of this type (in other words, Ms. Itoh thought it necessary for Ahiru to have nipples... I don't really care, but it sure is weird given the usual barbie doll anatomy standards). Drosselmeyer (the creepy guy) looks really unsettling, but all of that isn't even the biggest issue, I think.

It's so far too focused on themes and storytelling and not enough on character interactions - or even characters. That might yet change once the setup part is over, but as it stands right now, alas, no, I don't think this is something that you would really enjoy.

Edited August 10, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

5 hours ago, Sarex said:

Much recommend. I was thinking of recommending it to to @Bartimaeus, but my heart couldn't take the harsh critic.

Bartimaeus sits above us in his throne, passing cruel judgment on our treasured manga and anime we dare bring before his wrathful gaze.

35 minutes ago, majestic said:

Should I watch this?

How the hell would I know, I've watched three out of the 26 episodes now. It certainly is weird. Ahiru and her friends are also kind of endearing, so that makes everyone infinitely more likable than the characters of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which weren't meant to be that likeable. The rest is about as weird, but at least this is really honest about it being a fairy tale that somehow seeped into reality.

Sounds weird. Anyways you should totally watch Beastars, where a Panda doctor who dopes on bamboo beats the **** out of carnivores who get meat addictions.

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Bartimaeus sits above us in his throne, passing cruel judgment on our treasured manga and anime we dare bring before his wrathful gaze.

I really do. I took one look at that manga and thought to myself...

...But then I read the premise and was like "ok, actually, at least this sounds like a neat premise...but boy do I hate high fantasy anime stuff, and doggone me if this ain't the ugliest manga I ever seen". Not that I've seen many mangas, but still.

4 hours ago, majestic said:

It's so far too focused on themes and storytelling and not enough on character interactions - or even characters. That might yet change once the setup part is over, but as it stands right now, alas, no, I don't think this is something that you would really enjoy.

Roger that, keep me updated, it looks and sounds kind of interesting, but so did Utena.

I'm now 30 episodes (out of 51) into Eriko. At this point, it'd be difficult not to recommend that to specifically you as well, especially given your background of having watched shows like Heidi and this really kind of feeling like a moderately more adult, interesting, and dynamic take on something from that era. I feel fairly certainly you'd at least like it. But maybe something to check out sometime in the future when your plate isn't nearly so full, . Even worse news yet: I've been strong-armed into watching Gainax's Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water next, probably starting next week. Pray for me. Maybe not, more on this later...

Edited August 11, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not that I've seen many mangas, but still.

You will now!

The art doesn't look that bad to me, but I did read superhero comics then some Avatar Press comics so I guess maybe I just have bad taste or high tolerance. I mean if you can stick with Jacen Burrows illustrating a script featuring a fishman raping a woman in order to impregnate her with Cthullu, then you can deal with most things. Thanks Alan Moore.

The storyline is interesting, I mean in terms of lore elves in the RPG games people itt have played are basically OP immortals so a series dealing with that concept seriously sounds cool.

[Malcador]

Huh, that scene with Spike falling took place a lot earlier than I expected

[Sarex]

6 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Bartimaeus sits above us in his throne, passing cruel judgment on our treasured manga and anime we dare bring before his wrathful gaze.

He strikes again!

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I really do. I took one look at that manga and thought to myself...

...But then I read the premise and was like "ok, actually, at least this sounds like a neat premise...but boy do I hate high fantasy anime stuff, and doggone me if this ain't the ugliest manga I ever seen". Not that I've seen many mangas, but still.

It's a great story. As for the art, I mean that's really subjective, but I really don't see the ugly there. What bothers you about it? Then again this is some of the manga I read...

 

[majestic]

Suddenly I don't feel so bad about not having any talent for drawing any more.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

He strikes again!

It's a great story. As for the art, I mean that's really subjective, but I really don't see the ugly there. What bothers you about it? Then again this is some of the manga I read...

 

It's certainly not about level of detail, because I literally like the style of this better than the style of the manga you suggested. No, this is not a good or even okay style by any means (not even for something drawn up in literally 10-15 minutes like this quite probably was, it's really bad - it would look a lot better if it got even more minimalistic than it already is and the artist started focusing purely on making better shapes and cleaning up their linework), but somehow, it doesn't offend the very core of my being like the other one. So if that doesn't tell you how drastically different of a perspective I have in my approach to cartoons and art styles, and how utterly alien my and your perspectives must be to each other, I don't know what will!

It's a good reminder that I come from an extremely anti-anime background, and it's only within the past couple of years that I have become even kind of open to anime. I grew up my entire life actively hating all things anime...MODERN anime, that is, because I'd never really seen anything older because, well, yeah, modern popular stuff takes up all the air in the room, and I was never exposed to anything earlier than the late 90s at best. Until I accidentally chanced across a poster of Nausicaa a couple of years back...

...and felt such an instant swell of "holy crap, that looks INCREDIBLE, I need to watch that!". So I did, and then I started investigating anime and its different eras and styles more, watched the other Ghibli movies, saw a few Satoshi Kon movies that I had chanced across (starting with Perfect Blue, ye gods what a first non-Ghibli anime film that was, and to watch it without doing any investigation at all just because I *also* adored the poster I saw of it*), eventually saw clips of the original Sailor Moon and realized I liked that too and started watching it (it's what lead to us resurrecting this thread, the original of which was created back in like...2014 before I started watching Sailor Moon and talking about it on here, leading to multiple of us watching it at the same time!). I could go into at least some of the specifics of what I dislike so much about that style (though there's probably more that I would fail to be able to put into words because I am by no means an artist with any kind of art training/knowledge to be able to understand everything that I'm seeing), but what would be the point? As you said, it's all subjective anyways, so no point getting worked up about it, . Suffice to say, I very much stay away from more modern stuff - virtually none of it works for me as a medium, it really just doesn't, and that's that.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I cannot understate how insanely particular and specific my sensibilities about...well, really, most everything are. It's what makes almost everyone unable to successfully recommend anything to me. I really truly am just that much of an absolute heartless, mercurial, and nebulous bastard, and for that, I apologize to everyone basically ever...but also, I'm almost definitely not ever going to change. I will try to at least keep apologizing for it when appropriate, though, .

*I mean, how do you see this poster and not immediately go "holy ****ing ****"? Because that was my reaction.

Spoiler

There's an unconscious language to art and animation, and this and the Nausicaa poster immediately and completely blew me away so badly I had to watch them immediately even after a life-time of hating anime. That's the power of something like this for me.

Alternative:

(...Yes, I have multiple.)

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

I find it really interesting how mirrored that is for me, because I grew up absolutely hating most Western animation* - even before it turned into what it is today, which is even more loathesome. Most of that came from a time before I even knew where these animated shows on TV came from, but I always tuned in for Bismarck, Captain Future or Queen Millennia, along with the other ones I've mentioned, like Heidi or Dog of Flanders or Anne of Green Gables (later Sailor Moon, obviously). While inversely, the cartoons that were really popular with the other kids at school, like Beetlejuice? Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. Keep that crap. 

There were some exceptions, like Ghost Busters, but even there only the original first series, not any of the horrenduous follow ups. I also liked Galaxy Rangers, but that one cheated, because it was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, just written by Americans (and that actually shows, when I tried rewatching it as an adult... that's something that did not age well at all).

There still is that massive bias even today, and I doubt I'll ever shake it. It takes active badgering to check something out, or recommendations from trustworthy sources, and even then... yeah. Even then I'm sitting here, watching BoJack Horseman and thinking: Hey guys, maybe spend a little less on A-lister voice talent and a wee bit more on your animation and art team, please? Give this some artistry, maybe? Or just do both, like Castlevania.

Then you read critical receptions that gush over how great the lighting effects were in BoJack's underwater episode, and I realize: Nah, that's never going to happen.

*Exceptions for old animation, like the original Tom & Jerry, and the occassional older Disney movie. Talking purely about aesthetics here, of course. Let's not get into discussions about the often times questionable content and horrible working conditions of the animators.

  

55 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

(it's what lead to us resurrecting this thread, the original of which was created back in like...2014 before I started watching Sailor Moon and talking about it on here, leading to multiple of us watching it at the same time!)

Actually, at the time, that was all of us here, not counting people who come here to post every now and then, like HoonDing, Oner, Malc and Lexx.   Made for a fun experience.

Edited August 11, 2021 by majestic