Anime - Kono Dio Da!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

Probably for the best, no point in forcing yourself.

Yeah, I don't outright hate it but I'm just not gripped by it.

Which means that I'll be putting my sunglasses on and hoping nothing will be wrong by watching Steins;Gate then JOOOOOOOOOJO or the 90s Berserk. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 minutes ago, majestic said:

Sometimes I think my posts come across as if I don't like action in TV or films, or any action in particular, or any shows or films that are light on character development and interactions. That's not really true, because I liked Dark Matter a lot and was really bummed out by it being cancelled. I also enjoy B-movie trash every now and then.

Not really. More like you don't enjoy

Shonen anime and manga, and as such beats similar to it that appear in Shojo.

You thought this would be Mari, didn't you?

[Sarex]

18 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Yeah, I don't outright hate it but I'm just not gripped by it.

Which means that I'll be putting my sunglasses on and hoping nothing will be wrong by watching Steins;Gate then JOOOOOOOOOJO or the 90s Berserk. 

It's a great anime, very unique, Steins;Gate I mean.

[majestic]

32 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

You thought this would be Mari, didn't you?

I'm still waiting for that Mari-With-DIO's-Head.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

The biggest issue is that by decoupling her ability to fly from her staff that now means she can fly and do magic at the same time, which is a prime recipe for disaster. Sailor Moon Crystal liberally did that by making the Guardians fight monsters on the ground while they could have just flown around all the time, neatly removing any tension from the action. Before the change, she could either fly or affect what's happening, not both at the same time.

That's true, but the action is generally the weakest and least interesting part of the show anyways (not that it's usually BAD or anything, mind you), so I don't care *that* much. I'm at the point where I fully believe Sakura - everything is going to be okay, .

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I have read through that spoiler and have no idea what's going on. The bleedthrough was for "isn't hated by @Bartimaeus" and "anime that isn't terrible, but majestic doesn't like", which is probably confirmed by Lady Asuka already.

If there is ever any actual bleedthrough between "Bartimaeus likes this" and "majestic doesn't like this" then we'd have a problem like in Dogma where all of existence would suddenly stop because you just can't contradict cosmic law like that without repercussions.

Yeah, it's definitely next level stuff to be testing, . And I totally get "no idea what's going on". If you ain't met the characters in question yet, then it can be really difficult to have any kind of grasp over what's happening to them or what they're doing, even if someone spends many, many posts explaining exactly that... I've had a lot of "who the heck is that again" for characters you've mentioned many times but which don't stink in my brain because I haven't seen them, .

1 hour ago, majestic said:

How about avoiding Princess Tutu some more by making it the next watch project after Nadia.

Nadia and Princess Tutu are kind of separate from other shows like e.g. Sakura, Devil Lady, etc., because they aren't really watched in the same "time slot"/manner as a result of watching them with someone else, . So really, you should be asking me to stop watching Devil Lady instead...but man, I'm intrigued and am just trying to really figure out whether I actually like this show or not. I THINK I do, but I'm still not a hundred percent sure, . If nothing else, it's pretty short...

1 hour ago, majestic said:

at this point it would have been more interesting to really make her a guy and give her a homosexual romance with André, instead of... a sort of hetero-bromance that's been going on there.

lmao

1 hour ago, majestic said:

*Sometimes I think my posts come across as if I don't like action in TV or films, or any action in particular, or any shows or films that are light on character development and interactions. That's not really true, because I liked Dark Matter a lot and was really bummed out by it being cancelled. I also enjoy B-movie trash every now and then.

I'm sure I must come across the same way. Action really needs to be appropriately used for me to at least get (or even like) it, and some shows/movies totally do it right for me and others numb my brain. It's especially bad for me when it's in something long, something highly dramatic/serious, and yet I just don't care. If it's something stupid and silly like "80s" trash or such, it can be a totally different experience even if the action is dumb. It just depends.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 minutes ago, Sarex said:

It's a great anime, very unique, Steins;Gate I mean.

I've already seen the other two and I'd say the same about them. Berserk isn't as good as the manga, but it is a very good adaptation of the Golden Age and next to Madoka probably has one of the most misleading intros. And JoJo is just JoJo, I'm pretty sure if I tried describing it to someone honestly they'd think I was lying. 

Anyways @InsaneCommander seems to like Steins;Gate so I'll give that a go.

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

I'm still waiting for that Mari-With-DIO's-Head.

I'm working on it but

DIO's head already has a host

Have this in the meantime

[majestic]

31 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

That's true, but the action is generally the weakest and least interesting part of the show anyways, so I don't care *that* much. I'm at the point where I fully believe Sakura - everything is going to be okay, .

It's not much of a spoiler to say that indeed, zettai daijoubu da yo.

38 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, it's definitely next level stuff to be testing, .

Scary stuff too. I wonder what that could possibly be, in terms of anime, I mean, and overall impression of the show. Finding something where the art bothers me isn't that hard. Music too. I mean, the music in K-On! isn't bad, but... it is what it is.

Found a clip of the show proper Rice Is A Side Dish from the school show. Doesn't embed. It's probably the best song of the show. I also have to admit that the animation started to grow on me after a while, it's... still not exactly my cup of tea (ho ho ho, what a fun reference - the girls go mostly nothing but drink tea in the show), but it could be worse.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Nadia and Princess Tutu are kind of separate from other shows like e.g. Sakura, Devil Lady, etc., because they aren't really watched in the same "time slot"/manner as a result of watching them with someone else, . So really, you should be asking me to stop watching Devil Lady instead...but man, I'm intrigued and am just trying to really figure out whether I actually like this show or not. I THINK I do, but I'm still not a hundred percent sure, . If nothing else, it's pretty short...

Did you quote the wrong part, because that part just suggested that you badger your watch-partner into watching K-On!. The other one was a joke. It's not like Iris could convince Asterix to become a wild boar either. Eh... kind of drifting off topic here.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

lmao

Lady Asuka is funny considering the lyrics of the German opening song, they're about how she's a champion of justice and can fight like a man, but is still a lady. Except it really doesn't show at the moment. Who knows, maybe that'll change. She'll probably fall in love with someone that isn't André so there can be some drama and unrequited love.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm sure I must come across the same way. Action really needs to be appropriately used for me to at least get (or even like) it, and some shows/movies totally do it right for me and others numb my brain. It's especially bad for me when it's in something long, something highly dramatic/serious, and yet I just don't care. If it's something stupid and silly like "80s" trash or such, it can be a totally different experience even if the action is dumb. It just depends.

I often can't even tell where the line is. Dark Matter is an example like that. It's got the most hackneyed setup imaginable: Six people wake up on a space ship without their memories and try to find out what's going on. While first episode had a really nice twist, the characters are all walking stereotypes. Leader guy always doing the right thing, tough action lady, gruff mercenary with a hidden soft side, Japanese samurai who brings katanas to sci-fi gunfights (he even turns out to be a prince in exile), innocent nice stoaway girl and big silent black guy.

It's mostly breakneck paced action from one episode to the next, has almost no room to breath, nothing about it should work but I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the best sci-fi series I've seen, and it ends on a stupid cliffhanger. Argh.

Couldn't tell you why I enjoyed it that much. It just clicked.

 

Speaking of things that work in their context that really should not, currently watching the K-On! movie. The girls want to go on a trip and can't decide between going to Dubai, Hawaii, London, a Hot Spring or Europe (the last one is obviously Yui's suggestion). They end up letting their pet turtle decide who swims into both London and Europe, which leads to the obvious joke of the set up, Yui learning that London is in Europe:

This shouldn't be funny, but somehow it really is.

 

[majestic]

Man, this movie. Girls randomly stumble into a sushi bar after their flight and the owner expects a Japanese band he hired for some promotion. Yui just says yes to everything the owner asks, and they end up playing.

Reminds me a little of that time when Usagi compared general relativity to a pudding, and Mamoru's English speaking friends thought it was something profound.

Edited September 19, 2021 by majestic
Spellink bad brain bad

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Steins;Gate 1

They microwaved bananas. This show is gonna be something else. 

[Bartimaeus]

17 hours ago, majestic said:

Did you quote the wrong part, because that part just suggested that you badger your watch-partner into watching K-On!

Guess I misinterpreted - I was more interpreting it (and the other one) to mean "watch this next" rather than "watch this one with someone else next", . If I ever do try K-On, nobody will know. Nobody...

...I'm really tempted to contradict myself and be like "okay, in unrelated news, episode 1 of K-On, here we go..." right in this exact spot, but sadly, your hopes and dreams have been foiled by my lack of not already having it, . ...I mean, it would take me literally about maybe 60-120 seconds to get it, but that's a lot of time and effort I can't afford right now, .

17 hours ago, majestic said:

Found a clip of the show proper Rice Is A Side Dish from the school show. Doesn't embed. It's probably the best song of the show. I also have to admit that the animation started to grow on me after a while, it's... still not exactly my cup of tea (ho ho ho, what a fun reference - the girls go mostly nothing but drink tea in the show), but it could be worse.

It's a whole lot better than Love Live!'s.

Spoiler

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Song was...uh, well, it wasn't death, so there you go. Seems like something that's more easily appreciated when you know the characters and their singing, .

8 hours ago, majestic said:

Man, this movie. Girls randomly stumble into a sushi bar after their flight and the owner expects a Japanese band he hired for some promotion. Yui just says yes to everything the owner asks, and they end up playing.

The thought of this made me laugh. Whoops, can't be having that, that [2009] is still right there. Bad Bartimaeus, bad!

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Guess I misinterpreted - I was more interpreting it (and the other one) to mean "watch this next" rather than "watch this one with someone else next", . If I ever do try K-On, nobody will know. Nobody...

...I'm really tempted to contradict myself and be like "okay, in unrelated news, episode 1 of K-On, here we go..." right in this exact spot, but sadly, your hopes and dreams have been foiled by my lack of not already having it, . ...I mean, it would take me literally about maybe 60-120 seconds to get it, but that's a lot of time and effort I can't afford right now, .

Sure, steal Mio's strawberry, will you.

KOTOR 2 sound effects of course not present in the original.

The second season is definitely a lot better than the first, but the first one has really funny moments too. Just some of those "What the hell?" things that seem to have originated in the manga.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's a whole lot better than Love Live!'s.

  Reveal hidden contents

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Song was...uh, well, it wasn't death, so there you go. Seems like something that's more easily appreciated when you know the characters and their singing, .

It fits the band. The song, I mean, it's... kind of perfect in that way. The best parts are the ones that are missing from the video... the banter in between the music. The actual music is fine, mostly. Didn't make me want to pierce my eardrums at least. Oh, and yeah, Love Live! looks pretty bad, and it has a lot more CGI too. CGI dancing, plus pop idol songs and fanservice = a taaaaad off-putting.

Now that I'm done with K-On!, what should I continue with? Reservoir Chronicle, Magic User's Club or Love Live!?

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

The thought of this made me laugh. Whoops, can't be having that, that [2009] is still right there. Bad Bartimaeus, bad!

As a whole, the film didn't have as many funny moments per runtime as some of the regular episodes had, but it was a really nice film. It also wasn't meant to be watched in chronological order. While it begins some time after episode 22 or something the end runs parallel to episode 24.

[Bartimaeus]

42 minutes ago, majestic said:

Now that I'm done with K-On!, what should I continue with? Reservoir Chronicle, Magic User's Club or Love Live!?

You never watched Magic User's Club, so not that, Reservoir Chronicle does not and will not ever exist, and I'm pretty sure Love Live! was merely a fever dream. Why don't you try watching a real man's anime, such as...

Spoiler

 

46 minutes ago, majestic said:

Love Live! CGI dancing

From the clips you've posted of it, watching that in particular makes *me* feel creepy, even knowing that I hate it. It's a gross and unclean feeling.

 

[InsaneCommander]

5 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Steins;Gate 1

They microwaved bananas. This show is gonna be something else. 

It takes some time to gets to its best. But it is well worth it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Now that I'm done with K-On!, what should I continue with?

 

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Bad Bartimaeus, bad!

you naughty  but ma- [insert barrage of sanity destroying nonsense]

18 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

It takes some time to gets to its best. But it is well worth it.

I'm going to give it at least five episodes. It is very weird so far.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

You never watched Magic User's Club, so not that, Reservoir Chronicle does not and will not ever exist, and I'm pretty sure Love Live! was merely a fever dream. Why don't you try watching a real man's anime, such as...

Okay, why not, so some random seinen anime it is then. Let's see... time to watch kemurikusa., episode 1!

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

From the clips you've posted of it, watching that in particular makes *me* feel creepy, even knowing that I hate it. It's a gross and unclean feeling.

I really don't know what you could possibly mean.
 

Spoiler

Wiggle wiggle woo!

Payback for Mari!  

Lady Asuka episode eight:

André is sentenced to death following Marie Antoinette's riding accident. Because he's the stable hand. Seems reasonable. Oscar barges in and demands a fair trial in front of everyone from the king. If you need to kill someone, kill me! Hans Axel von Fersen agrees and offers his life too, then Marie Antoinette comes in - being all recovered from having spent the time since the accident unconscious, and begs the king for mercy.

Uhm. Sure, that's what the aristocracy does when the king unfairly picks on a serf. Right!

Hans Axel von Fersen also learns that Oscar is actually a woman. Yeah, man, hard to tell with her, huh?

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2021 by majestic
wanted to write Marie Antoinette's horse, then typed up Marie Antoinette's riding accident. Great!

[majestic]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Let's see... time to watch kemurikusa., episode 1!

Well that's certainly... something.

From left to right: Rina, Rin and Ritsu, Wakaba in the back...

There are three girls with magenta hair. Rin, Ritsu and Rina, but Rina is in reality split into six separate but identically looking girls called Rinaji, Rinayo, Rinacchi, Rinamu, Rinazo and Rinako. There's a weird battle with black robots with glowing red designs on them, and Rinako dies, which bothers Ritsu and Rin, but not Rinaji, Rinayo, Rinacchi, Rinamu, because Rinazo died before the first episode.

A boy called Wakaba shows up, who is voiced by Sailor Moon Crystal/Eternal's Mamoru. Rina can eat scrap metal and they're all consuming leaves from a nearby apparently at least semi-conscious plant called Midori that gives them superpowers to fight off the robot bugs. Ritu has cat ears for no real reason, but she can detach them and let them travel along Midori's roots to listen and talk to the other girls when they're out and about.

Talk to the hand... erm, ears.

They're all properly confused by Wakaba who they think is a robot bug too, but can't destroy with their usual plant power attacks. Rin develops a slight crush on Wakaba after he helps rescue one of the remaining Rinas. Which one? Beats me.

Plot? Plot... yeah, dunno. They're on an island looking for water. They are or aren't human. They're certainly not human in the sense that Wakaba is.

I have no idea what's going on, but I'm sure happy this is only twelve episodes long.

Edited September 19, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

[Bartimaeus]

Ghost in the Shell Producer Confirms How Much the 1995 Anime Film Cost to Make

Just about three million USD flat in 1995, 5.4 million today. Interesting. Consensus seems to be that the only way it could've been possibly made so cheaply is through borderline slave wages and huge amounts of unpaid overtime (that, and the movie has relatively little motion for much of it which surely helped reduce production costs). Sounds about right.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ghost in the Shell Producer Confirms How Much the 1995 Anime Film Cost to Make

Just about three million USD flat in 1995, 5.4 million today. Interesting. Consensus seems to be that the only way it could've been possibly made so cheaply is through borderline slave wages and huge amounts of unpaid overtime (that, and the movie has relatively little motion for much of it which surely helped reduce production costs). Sounds about right.

Indeed. Working conditions and pay in animation are notoriously bad, with some exceptions (e.g. Kyoto Animation).

I wonder if that is true for any entertainment industry. It certainly is for video games, and for movies, film crews probably have a similar issue, and where they don't, production gets outsourced someplace where they do. Just look at NZ and The Hobbit.

[majestic]

Some talk about K-On!

Now that I'm done with it, let's talk a bit about K-On!. As far as slice of life comedies with no other focus points go, this one was pretty good. It was fairly effective in being funny and had likeable characters with some good interactions. Out of the five, Ritsu, Yui and Mio were easily the best. Mugi and Azusa were more like support characters whose focus episodes tended to fall a little flat, or at least weren't nearly as funny.

That's partially the writing, partially the comedic focus and partially by design. If I were to compare to Sailor Moon, which also had five girls plus supporting cast, and fighting bad guys instead of playing in a school club band, the characters in Sailor Moon were all better, at least outside of Sailor Moon SuperS. The question, of course... is that even a fair comparison?

There are, counting OVAs and specials, 41 episodes of K-On! in total, plus a movie. Sailor Moon's original first season had 46 episodes. The question is, then, how do the characters compare to first season Sailor Moon?

I think even then, with the exception of Minako who is late to the party and doesn't do much in the 13 episodes she's in, other than having a really somber focus episode about her past in England with unrequited love as a major theme, Sailor Moon... ends up being on a less inequal footing, but still very much ahead. I'n the middle of the second season of K-On!, I wondered if having a storyline to follow, a sort of connecting thread between episodes, wouldn't have been a good idea. 

The best episodes of K-On! aren't just funny, they're also have the girls deal with something else. Like the episode where Yui finds out just how much she takes for granted and comes up with lyrics for her sister. They're still sort of silly (Yui thanks the club room for always putting up with them), but not just that. There aren't enough of those. The episode where they're playing their final school festival show is a great episode, but it's also preceeded by a stage play episode where Ritsu and Mio are forced to work through some of their issues and the girls spending the night at school to get some last minute practice in because they've been slacking off the entire time. It's a culmination of some build up, and it works wonderfully.

So where was I going with this?

Some questions:

1. Can you really compete with Sailor Moon based on 41 episodes compared to the ~140 to 150 of really good episodes in Sailor Moon?
2. As much as we complained about the storyline of Sailor Moon as its weakest link outside the filler arcs, is having a red line to follow not a good thing or character growth? I'm sure it could be done without it, but it would be much harder without an external party involved in providing challenges for the girls to overcome.
3. Can you ever get your characters to a level like in Sailor Moon if they never face any outside adversity together, or if that simply is never much of the focus?
4. Should I even compare these two? Isn't that unfair to either of them?

In conclusion: K-On! was great, but it could have been better with some regular character drama added. The movie adds a fake band fight over the creative direction that they've been taking that the girls are staging just to scare Azusa. It's funny. It also left me wondering if some conflict wouldn't have been a decent idea. Either internal or external.

Maybe the difference is that Sailor Moon just happened to be a superhero team magical girl anime where there was a good deal of comedy, whereas K-On! was a slice of life comedy anime that happened to have some episodes with a different focus in between.

Hell, I really don't know. What I do know is that K-On! was pretty good. Which is good enough, really.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

I wonder if that is true for any entertainment industry.

Yes.

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

As much as we complained about the storyline of Sailor Moon as its weakest link outside the filler arcs, is having a red line to follow not a good thing or character growth? I'm sure it could be done without it, but it would be much harder without an external party involved in providing challenges for the girls to overcome.

Sure. It just should've been at least somewhat better, .

3 hours ago, majestic said:

Can you really compete with Sailor Moon based on 41 episodes compared to the ~140 to 150 of really good episodes in Sailor Moon?

Yes, because Minako wasn't even Minako in the first 41 episodes. So you know, maybe K-On wasn't able to do it, but the opportunity is there, .

3 hours ago, majestic said:

Can you ever get your characters to a level like in Sailor Moon if they never face any outside adversity together, or if that simply is never much of the focus?

Enduring horror and trauma together does seem to tend to give individual characters their own moments on top of building greater bonds between them themselves as well as the viewer. However, for both of those, at least for me, the greatest and most memorable of them were in the smaller and more grounded challenges they overcame, not the big bad terrors. The same way Pearl's tragedy is one of the biggest focal points in Steven Universe for me, and that story is actually pretty simple in concept and a bit besides the point in regards to the overall main story. You could take out that entire character arc from the show and while it would be much less rich for it, the show would still ultimately work. I think having a good mix of individual and common challenges and adversaries (and of all kinds, both simple and grounded but also crazy and fantastic when warranted) is probably the best mix for generalized story-telling. At least for me, .

[majestic]

37 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sure. It just should've been at least somewhat better, .

Well, of course. One could argue that it was pretty good, considering the source material. But is that really a merit, to be not as bad as it could have been? Look at Sailor Moon Crystal and tell me honestly that it isn't. The more I see or read of the original Sailor Moon storyline, the more I like the adaptation.

39 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yes, because Minako wasn't even Minako in the first 41 episodes. So you know, maybe K-On wasn't able to do it, but the opportunity is there, .

I mentioned Minako for a reason, but what I mean is, when I look at the 200 episodes of Sailor Moon as a whole, much of the character stuff that I really liked and want to see again with different characters or in a different context (i.e. a different show) was the culmination of two full seasons worth of groundwork. Not that there weren't any great moments in the Sailor Moon or R, quite on the contrary.

Ami, Rei and Makoto and Usagi still beat the K-On! girls in the same amount of epsiodes. In terms of characters and interactions, that is, not in terms of being funny. K-On! was really effective as comedy, most of the time, and that's high praise coming from Mr. Comedy Hater here...

52 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Enduring horror and trauma together does seem to tend to give individual characters their own moments on top of building greater bonds between them themselves as well as the viewer. However, for both of those, at least for me, the greatest and most memorable of them were in the smaller and more grounded challenges they overcame, not the big bad terrors.

I'm not necessarily talking about the endgame episodes here. There are always episodes in the middle that were more story focused but pushed the characters forward in some ways. Like Nephrite dying while protecting Naru, the Specter Sisters redemption episodes or - even if the episode as a whole wasn't that great - Usagi and Haruka being chained together and learning to appreciate each other a bit more. It's the small things, and every now and then K-On! did that too, just not... enough. Yeah, why am I so picky about this? I liked K-On!.

There's something else. K-On! has an almost boy-less setup. It's an all girls school, apparently, and outside of Ritsu's brother and a few grown ups, the girls never interact with boys. There's no same sex romance either, outside of some really minute hints that Mugi might be interested in girls. I don't really need romance in my anime (thanks for staying away so much Mamo-chan!), but Makoto wouldn't have been nearly as effective - and funny - without her bad luck in love.

Actually, none of her growth in R and S would have come about if not for the throwaway line about her getting dumped by her senpai in the manga. Heh. A whole character growing out of a failed romantic interest, compared to a setting where no such thing was even attempted.

55 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

The same way Pearl's tragedy is one of the biggest focal points in Steven Universe for me, and that story is actually pretty simple in concept and a bit besides the point in regards to the overall main story.

Pearl is simply the best, so that's just natural.

I tend to agree, but the comparison within itself is a little unfair, I guess. Pearl got all the attention she needed, while others (and I can't believe I'm saying this) like Lars or the much better Lapis were shafted by Cartoon Network, just like the rushed conclusion of the main storyline.

58 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

You could take out that entire character arc from the show and while it would be much less rich for it, the show would still ultimately work. I think having a good mix of individual and common challenges and adversaries (and of all kinds, both simple and grounded but also crazy and fantastic when warranted) is probably the best mix for generalized story-telling. At least for me, .

I guess I'll just rewatch Sailor Moon. Or a personalized best of, perhaps. 200 episodes is a bit much of any sort of regular rewatching. Well, wrong, there are only 161 episodes of Sailor Moon. Too bad all the copies and tapes of the rumored fourth season were lost, now we'll never know...

 

[InsaneCommander]

23 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I'm going to give it at least five episodes. It is very weird so far.

Give it 11 episodes. Trust me.

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

But is that really a merit, to be not as bad as it could have been?

If only I had read the manga before watching the show - the show would've looked utterly brilliant in every way in comparison. Or wait, if I had read all of the manga first, that would've required that I liked the manga and how it handled everything, and therefore I would've thought the show did everything wrong. Alternatively, if I had stuck with the manga while not liking it, then I probably would've never tried the show to begin with! What a catch-22, . But yes, some retroactive appreciation...

4 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm not necessarily talking about the endgame episodes here. There are always episodes in the middle that were more story focused but pushed the characters forward in some ways. Like Nephrite dying while protecting Naru, the Specter Sisters redemption episodes or - even if the episode as a whole wasn't that great - Usagi and Haruka being chained together and learning to appreciate each other a bit more. It's the small things, and every now and then K-On! did that too, just not... enough. Yeah, why am I so picky about this? I liked K-On!.

It's tough to balance between character comedy and character drama*, isn't it? So often, shows go too hard one way without enough of the other...and that's assuming they do either well from the get-go. Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Steven Universe...these are the ones that did it right for me by and large. Steven Universe and Sailor Moon have their warts, of course, but they got the key balance that made them work and forgive whatever flaws they had. That's why they're special! (...To me.)

4 hours ago, majestic said:

There's something else. K-On! has an almost boy-less setup. It's an all girls school, apparently, and outside of Ritsu's brother and a few grown ups, the girls never interact with boys. There's no same sex romance either, outside of some really minute hints that Mugi might be interested in girls. I don't really need romance in my anime (thanks for staying away so much Mamo-chan!), but Makoto wouldn't have been nearly as effective - and funny - without her bad luck in love.

Romance isn't the end of the world...um, if it's done right and not completely annoyingly or stupidly or fanservice-ingly... Yeah, I guess that's the problem, isn't it?

4 hours ago, majestic said:

I tend to agree, but the comparison within itself is a little unfair, I guess. Pearl got all the attention she needed, while others (and I can't believe I'm saying this) like Lars or the much better Lapis were shafted by Cartoon Network, just like the rushed conclusion of the main storyline.

Not just the attention, but also the time. They let that entire thing wax and wane and fester and heal over five entire seasons. That was some serious planning that not a lot of shows can afford to take a chance on...and well, what happened with Lars and Lapis is literally exactly why. Sigh. I mean, not that I ever loved Lars to begin with, but I had literally just finally truly fallen in love with Lapis with her appearance on the moon after having struggled a bit with her the entire show and then the entire thing just...cosmically farts out of existence. SIGH.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Bartimaeus