Anime and Manga - < To Be Continued I \ I /

[Bartimaeus]

19 minutes ago, uuuhhii said:

how old was ranma

did rurouni kenshin came out near that time

maybe try that blood c movie

couldn't remember much about those early stuff

Ranma is 1989, probably the earliest thing I listed specifically (and from what I've seen, Ranma got uglier and simpler the longer it went on).

I vastly prefer this over anything post-2000 that isn't Millennium Actress (which was traditionally animated despite being made in 2001, and it apparently has the distinction of being the last major anime film to be so). Rurouni Kenshin came out 7 years later after Ranma in 1996, and is very mid to late 90s-looking (and also looks to be a shonen if the few screenshots I saw were any indication...). I actually did watch an episode of Blood-C, which I thought was bad but not terrible-looking - doesn't hold a candle to what I like most, but it's also not eye-searing like most other series from the 2010s.

8 hours ago, majestic said:

Maybe there are better sources, I was just looking for a quick way to make screencaps because strangely enough, there aren't many to find. Well, usable ones, at least. I thought the button was hilarious, and the caption with the spelling mistake is just gold. As for looking underwater, two of them are, and one is in a steamy bathing area, so it's not entirely wrong, but clicking through the rest of this, it looks like a VHS transfer blown up to 480p. It supposedly comes from a DVD though. Who knows. Maybe there's a Laserdisc original somewhere.

No LaserDisc as far as I can see, but the DVD versions I looked at quickly looked at least a little less terrible than yours, e.g.:

8 hours ago, majestic said:

creepy vibe of sexualized playfulness

You mean sexual assault that bizarrely isn't treated like it because anime apparently doesn't believe sexual assault is real? Pretty sure that's what you mean, . Yes, something that distinguishes itself as being about adult characters for adult viewers without the strongly untoward elements endemic to ecchi is inherently less insulting and gross than...I don't know, having male characters "randomly" assault teenaged girls and young woman or just having them experience "wardrobe malfunctions" because it's supposed to be funny and/or gratifying someway somehow. Still, not exactly my cup of tea, especially with how extreme Plastic Little in particular was right off the bat.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

30 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Everyone has their own preferences. Amentep apparently loves the 70s and early 80s (e.g. Conan...which I like the backgrounds of, but am merely "okay" with the character designs - I certainly prefer it over 99.9% of modern stuff!), I personally prefer a number of styles between the late 80s and late 90s*, Lexx likes very modern stuff, majestic is probably all over the place at this point... I watched Airbender as a kid on live TV - great show, hard to believe it came out 16 years ago, hope majestic one day tries it out. Didn't care quite as much for the sequel series, but it has its fans. Its art style is obviously meant to be anime-esque, though...even if it isn't exactly quite like any anime in particular.

*Although I'm finicky enough that there are still plenty of styles even within that time period that I do not care for - the original Sailor Moon, early Ranma 1/2, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Perfect Blue/Millennium Actress, various 70s-90s Ghibli movies are all some examples of my favorite anime styles...and I have my eye on a number of other things that I haven't yet watched like Gall Force, Cowboy Bebop, Gunsmith Cats, Bubblegum Crisis, Gunbuster, and number of other smaller series I can't recall off the top of my head on the basis of looking appealing to me.

I hate to ask what you think about my preferences lmao.

Insomnia struck last night so I watched Aggretsuko s2. It's sort of slice of life with elements of Office Space that features anthromorphic animals and death metal karaoke.

[uuuhhii]

1 minute ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ranma is 1989, probably the earliest thing I listed specifically (and from what I've seen, Ranma got uglier and simpler the longer it went on).

I vastly prefer this over anything post-2000 that isn't Millennium Actress (which was traditionally animated despite being made in 2001, and apparently has the distinction of being the last major anime film to be so). I actually did watch an episode of Blood-C, which I thought was bad but not terrible-looking - doesn't hold a candle to what I like most, but it's also not eye-searing like most other series from the 2010s. Rurouni Kenshin came out 7 years later, and is very mid to late 90s-looking.

No LaserDisc as far as I can see, but the DVD versions I looked at quickly looked at least a little less terrible than yours, e.g.:

You mean sexual assault that bizarrely isn't treated like it because anime apparently doesn't believe sexual assault is real? Pretty sure that's what you mean, . Yes, something that distinguishes itself as being about adult characters for adult viewers without the strongly untoward elements endemic to ecchi is inherently less insulting and gross than...I don't know, having male characters "randomly" assault teenaged girls and young woman or just having them experience "wardrobe malfunctions" because it's supposed to be funny and/or gratifying someway somehow. Still, not exactly my cup of tea, especially with how extreme Plastic Little in particular was right off the bat.

blood c have one movie before the show and one movie after

older movie was made by a different studio so very different style

before 2000 means no to haruhi dai tenshi dragon tower fullmetal alchemist

maybe some older precure

not sure those are old enough

[Bartimaeus]

7 hours ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

I hate to ask what you think about my preferences lmao.

Insomnia struck last night so I watched Aggretsuko s2. It's sort of slice of life with elements of Office Space that features anthromorphic animals and death metal karaoke.

I don't think you much have any? As far as I can recall, you have previously expressed that you don't really care that much about art style (except that the CGI IS BAD), even if you can in theory understand why it can make or break a series for some of us. If you have preferences, they are probably not so clearly defined as compared to the rest of us. Sarex probably has a preference for newer stuff but isn't necessarily against older stuff either so it's not really that strong of a preference, while my impression is that InsaneCommander seems to generally stay with 80s-90s stuff but that might just be a function of what he's mentioned in here and/or what I remember him mentioning in here.

I've been meaning to watch Aggretsuko for ages. I'll eventually get around to it.

@uuuhhii I am unable to find a movie that released before the show. The show started airing on 2011 July 8th, a film concluding the series released in 2012, and there are two live-action prequel thingies that released in 2017 and 2018. Both the movie and the show were animated by Production I.G.; there is also the Blood (2000) movie and Blood+ (2005) TV series that share the same universe as Blood-C, but both of those were still animated by the same studio, so I am unable to figure out what film you're speaking of.

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

Weirdly Ranma's first 18 episodes were all 1989 but wasn't a big hit, so they the revamped series which ran 1989-1992.  In Japan, the second series was called Ranma 1/2 Enthusiasm and I can't help but think that Bartimaeus' enthusiasm dropped with Ranma 1/2 Enthusiasm...!

My first anime movie was Alkazam the Great! (the US adaption Tesuka's Boku no Son Gokū aka Son-Goku the Monkey)*, my first anime TV show was Star Blazers (the US adaption of Matsumoto, Yamamoto and Nishizaki's Uchū Senkan Yamato aka Space Battleship Yamato).  This probably explains why I probably skew older in anime preferences here (and have an interest in Matsumoto adaptions).  I sorta dropped out of watching anime by 2000.  But I'm not against watching newer stuff provided it doesn't have as many episodes as One Piece.

Uuuhhii may be lumping Blood the Last Vampire as the earlier series (I think it goes Blood the Last Vampire movie, Blood+ series, Blood-C series, then Blood-C anime movie)?

*There's a slight possibility that Jack and the Witch (the US adaption of Shōnen Jakku to Mahōtsukai aka The Boy Jack and the Witch) or The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (the US adaption of Nagagutsu o Haita Neko aka Cat Who Wore Boots) as they all aired the same holiday week when I was a kid.

[uuuhhii]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I don't think you much have any? As far as I can recall, you have previously expressed that you don't really care that much about art style (except that the CGI IS BAD), even if you can in theory understand why it can make or break a series for some of us. If you have preferences, they are probably not so clearly defined as compared to the rest of us. Sarex probably has a preference for newer stuff but isn't necessarily against older stuff either so it's not really that strong of a preference, while my impression is that InsaneCommander seems to generally stay with 80s-90s stuff but that might just be a function of what he's mentioned in here and/or what I remember him mentioning in here. He's been pretty quiet as of late.

I've been meaning to watch Aggretsuko for ages. I'll eventually get around to it.

@uuuhhii I am unable to find a movie that released before the show. The show started airing on 2011 July 8th, a film concluding the series released in 2012, and there are two live-action prequel thingies that released in 2017 and 2018. Both the movie and the show were animated by Production I.G.; there is also the Blood (2000) movie and Blood+ (2005) TV series that share the same universe as Blood-C, but both of those were still animated by the same studio, so I am unable to figure out what film you're speaking of.

 

right the movie before didn't have c in the title

pretty sure actually watched blood + but didn't even remember it exist now

[Bartimaeus]

28 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Weirdly Ranma's first 18 episodes were all 1989 but wasn't a big hit, so they the revamped series which ran 1989-1992.  In Japan, the second series was called Ranma 1/2 Enthusiasm and I can't help but think that Bartimaeus' enthusiasm dropped with Ranma 1/2 Enthusiasm...!

IMO, it fell off a cliff immediately after the first 18 + 3 episodes...and I don't mean art-wise (although the art did get worse, it was still good enough for me). Why 18 + 3? Three episodes in the "revamped series" were made for the original series and though they were haphazardly placed in the middle of the "revamped series", they were immediately and noticeably way better than the rest of it. The real problem with the revamped series is that all the major characters immediately became pants - the character dynamics that the first season had been carefully building up were immediately and violently dashed in favor of everyone constantly screaming and yelling at each other over nothing, and side-characters that originally had meaningful dialogue and parts instead become pointless flanderizations of their past selves, while all the nice little character-driven stuff disappeared in favor of "wAcKY" premise-driven nonsense. It went from feeling like a shoujo-shonen hybrid that had comedy to pure comedic shonen stupidity - what a dirty stinking rotten deal that "reboot" was. I actually almost got majestic to watch a shonen (inconceivable for him!) because of how much I liked the first season...and then it was all swept right up into the garbage bin once I got to the second season. In fact, I'm still tempted to try to keep watching Ranma 1/2 purely on the strength of that first season, but then I remember how bad and stupid the second season was...

(e): Speaking of Ranma, I actually recently started reading the original manga for it. The bits I've read so far have been much more like the first season, so I'm hopeful that it will continue with that instead of the second season.

21 minutes ago, Amentep said:

My first anime movie was Alkazam the Great! (the US adaption Tesuka's Boku no Son Gokū aka Son-Goku the Monkey)*, my first anime TV show was Star Blazers (the US adaption of Matsumoto, Yamamoto and Nishizaki's Uchū Senkan Yamato aka Space Battleship Yamato).  This probably explains why I probably skew older in anime preferences here (and have an interest in Matsumoto adaptions).  I sorta dropped out of watching anime by 2000.  But I'm not against watching newer stuff provided it doesn't have as many episodes as One Piece.

Wish I had an explanation for why I vastly prefer older stuff myself - I seem to generally dislike anything and everything new, which makes zero sense for how old I am. Most of my favorite non-animated movies are older than I am, and certainly almost all of my favorite animated stuff is (and the stuff that isn't is real close). I certainly didn't watch any of it as a kid to explain it - old in heart but not in body, I guess.

@uuuhhii Blood almost certainly looks very different from Blood-C by function of being released 11 years earlier. I'm looking at screenshots now, and it is an interesting art style...I might actually try that at some point. Blood+ is hot shonen garbage which I already tried (and expected to dislike right off the bat, which I did), but this looks significantly more promising to my eyes.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[uuuhhii]

21 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

IMO, it fell off a cliff immediately after the first 18 + 3 episodes...and I don't mean art-wise (although the art did get worse, it was still good enough for me). Why 18 + 3? Three episodes in the "revamped series" were made for the original series and though they were haphazardly placed in the middle of the "revamped series", they were immediately and noticeably way better than the rest of it. The real problem with the revamped series is that all the major characters immediately became pants - the character dynamics that the first season had been carefully building up were immediately and violently dashed in favor of everyone constantly screaming and yelling at each other over nothing, and side-characters that originally had meaningful dialogue and parts instead become pointless flanderizations of their past selves, while all the nice little character-driven stuff disappeared in favor of "wAcKY" premise-driven nonsense. It went from feeling like a shoujo-shonen hybrid that had comedy to pure comedic shonen stupidity - what a dirty stinking rotten deal that "reboot" was. I actually almost got majestic to watch a shonen (inconceivable for him!) because of how much I liked the first season...and then it was all swept right up into the garbage bin once I got to the second season. In fact, I'm still tempted to try to keep watching Ranma 1/2 purely on the strength of that first season, but then I remember how bad and stupid the second season was...

(e): Speaking of Ranma, I actually recently started reading the original manga for it. The bits I've read so far have been much more like the first season, so I'm hopeful that it will continue with that instead of the second season.

Wish I had an explanation for why I vastly prefer older stuff myself - I seem to generally dislike anything and everything new, which makes zero sense for how old I am. Most of my favorite non-animated movies are older than I am, and certainly almost all of my favorite animated stuff is (and the stuff that isn't is real close). I certainly didn't watch any of it as a kid to explain it - old in heart but not in body, I guess.

@uuuhhii Blood almost certainly looks very different from Blood-C by function of being released 11 years earlier. I'm looking at screenshots now, and it is an interesting art style...I might actually try that at some point. Blood+ is hot shonen garbage which I already tried (and expected to dislike right off the bat, which I did), but this looks significantly more promising to my eyes.

was in the rent everything and watch as much as possible phase when watching ranma

but that show was going nowhere for so many episode

finally give up at some weird japan chess episode

heard manga suffered the same repetitive problem

jump doesn't want it to end

[Bartimaeus]

19 minutes ago, uuuhhii said:

was in the rent everything and watch as much as possible phase when watching ranma

but that show was going nowhere for so many episode

finally give up at some weird japan chess episode

heard manga suffered the same repetitive problem

jump doesn't want it to end

That's not promising. I liked the first season because it was very character-driven, particularly (but not only) Ranma and Akane, who seemed like they were actually developing as characters in of themselves but also towards each other. Then I get into the second season and it's like nothing they went through or said to each other in the first season ever happened and they were right back to yelling and screaming at each other like it had been at the start of season 1...and worse, nothing more ever *would* happen, because the show inexplicably doesn't care about developing them (or anyone else) any more and was more concerned with repeatedly forcing them into wacky situations they had to get out of over and over. As far as I'm concerned, the show ended with the ice-skating three-parter where Ranma decided to learn how to skate with Akane and got assaulted by some chauvinistic boy-skater while in girl form. The two of them learned to trust and depend upon each other in order to selflessly and sweetly protect their better halves, and it seemed very clear that they would eventually work out as a couple given a little time to get older and become more mature. Bonus points that Ranma had been shown over the course of the first season to be slowly getting more comfortable with being half-girl (as opposed to hating and feeling embarrassed by it like he did early on)...the end.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

Up until I stopped reading, the story certainly recycled story types (usually regarding Ranma encountering someone with a special talent, like figure skating and having to defeat them in a martial-arts-figure-skating-contest and then next story it'd be gymnastics or something) but still felt like it had forward momentum for the characters (as often the competitions were really there to force the characters to deal with something or someone they didn't want to - like pushing Ranma to have to deal with one of his many paramours or his dad).  

That said I have heard that as time goes on they increase the level of side wacky characters, too.  But I think Rumiko Takahashi can probably make it work.

[Bartimaeus]

35 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Up until I stopped reading, the story certainly recycled story types (usually regarding Ranma encountering someone with a special talent, like figure skating and having to defeat them in a martial-arts-figure-skating-contest and then next story it'd be gymnastics or something) but still felt like it had forward momentum for the characters (as often the competitions were really there to force the characters to deal with something or someone they didn't want to - like pushing Ranma to have to deal with one of his many paramours or his dad).

Yeah, the figure-skating bit you just mentioned is the same ice-skating thing I just mentioned as being "the end of the show" (because it was the final thing from the original season). I thought that, as well as the preceding gymnastics "tournament" arc with the lovely (...and completely insane, ) Black Rose Kodachi...

...were both great. It's unfortunately after these two little arcs that the original show ends and the "reboot" starts...I can't remember exactly what happens, I wrote down episode synopses in one of these threads a long while back, but it was very dumb and made me the big mad. Characters were just not acting like their previously established selves. Ranma said stupid stuff like he would never willingly turn into a girl even if it was necessary to help someone he cared about (...???, the last two arcs were all about him doing exactly that, PLUS he had literally decided to turn into a girl several times for non-important reasons in situations where he realized he was actually comfortable with it, like when he wanted to learn how to ice-skate with Akane). I remember being especially offended with what they did to Ranma's father, speaking of, because they essentially turned him into a really stupid meme that lacked any common sense or values for the sake of some really poorly set up jokes...his father is an established character, please do not attempt to ruin him with terrible gags that don't make any sense for who he is. All the episodes became one-off wacky forced premises that didn't feel like they had anything to do with each other, and it didn't feel like the show was attempting to do much anything besides be crazy and comedic (especially because those wacky premises were necessitating that characters not act like their natural selves so much of the time). Objectively, the second season wasn't terrible...but it subjectively felt terrible and very frustrating after such a good first season. I was pretty wounded that the original show somehow failed but the reboot was apparently a smashing success.

(e): Turns out, I'm still pretty burnt up about this, .

Edited January 26, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

  

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

majestic is probably all over the place at this point...

I sort of am, but if given the choice I'd still either take the rather neutral children's anime/world masterpiece theater style of the late 70ies/early 80ies (Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, Dog of Flanders, etc.) or late 80ies to late 90ies anime style over the alternatives. I have a soft spot for certain 60ies character designs from liking Attack No. 1, but that's as far as I would go. There are certain modern animes that grew on me after a fashion, like Violet Evergarden (outside of some of the CGI used) and especially K-On! which... honestly isn't something I would have thought I'd ever enjoy, aesthetic wise, but somehow ended up doing.

For K-On! at least, I think it's something like form following function, I suppose. The art style works perfectly fine for what it is.

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

hope majestic one day tries it out.

I will, eventually.

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

You mean sexual assault that bizarrely isn't treated like it because anime apparently doesn't believe sexual assault is real? Pretty sure that's what you mean, . Yes, something that distinguishes itself as being about adult characters for adult viewers without the strongly untoward elements endemic to ecchi is inherently less insulting and gross than...I don't know, having male characters "randomly" assault teenaged girls and young woman or just having them experience "wardrobe malfunctions" because it's supposed to be funny and/or gratifying someway somehow. Still, not exactly my cup of tea, especially with how extreme Plastic Little in particular was right off the bat.

"Fun" fact, almost all the sexual assault I've seen in anime recently was girl on girl (I don't now if that is supposed to lessen its impact or increase it's appeal*, or both), but yes, that's pretty much what I was talking about, in addition to putting the characters in embarrassing and revealing situations for no real reason. I mean, there's no way Plastic Little wasn't made with the male gaze in mind, but it was noticably more mature about it than ecchi elements in general tend to be.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I actually almost got majestic to watch a shonen (inconceivable for him!) because of how much I liked the first season...and then it was all swept right up into the garbage bin once I got to the second season.

I have, to this date, watched four shounen shows. Two at a time when they were on TV and I just watched anything that was on TV, and two that were an adaptation of the same manga, that last one based on the recommendation of friend a couple of years ago, in between the time from finishing Sailor Moon's original run and reviving my interest in anime - in one of life's little and strange coincidences by rewatching Sailor Moon.

The first two are Bismark and Robin Hood, the latter of which lessend the impact of the shounen dolting there is (and that isn't entirely a whole lot, but that's filtered through nostalgic memories from a long while ago) by placing it into medieval Europe where some of it makes more sense, what with the feudal system at the time, but I've talked about Robin Hood at length. Bismark is fun 80ies sci-fi trash, atlhough it does feature an initially fairly stupid shonen dolt frenemyship between the lead character and an American called Bill that may only have been a part of the dub. Not sure, the series was apparently changed a good deal in dialogue. There's every chance I'd actually hate the original. Still looks pretty good though, but follows the anime sci-fi trash formula of having mech fights until the main characters just whoop out the main cannon and obliterate the enemy in one blast to the T.

Ever since I was a kid I've wondered what stops these people from simply employing their enemy one-shot mechanism immediately - if all your dramatic mech combat momentum hinges on an unexplained contrivance, you're bound to lose me, and indeed, the mech fights are the least interesting parts of this. Really, that makes no sense at all. As did the change in the dub that the enemies they kill don't stay dead, but just get teleported back to their home dimension, leaving me to wonder how they'll ever be defeated.

The other two are Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and while I liked them well enough in spite of what they are, I'm generally "that guy" when it comes to preferences. I like the slow burn of the original adaptation more, but prefer Brotherhood's less metaphysical ending. Needless to say I watched it more for Al and Winny than caring about Ed... overall not a complete loss, but I certainly don't understand how this won every "most bestest favoritest anime of the year" awards during its original run.

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I certainly didn't watch any of it as a kid to explain it - old in heart but not in body, I guess.

No, that's not it, because people who are young in body and old in heart generally are either fanatic Christian young earth flerfers or young poster boy conservatives that swallowed Ayn Rand's nonsense hook, line and sinker, and you don't strike me as either. You're just a person of taste, and entertainment's gone down the crapper in recent years.  

4 hours ago, Amentep said:

My first anime movie was Alkazam the Great! (the US adaption Tesuka's Boku no Son Gokū aka Son-Goku the Monkey)*, my first anime TV show was Star Blazers (the US adaption of Matsumoto, Yamamoto and Nishizaki's Uchū Senkan Yamato aka Space Battleship Yamato).  This probably explains why I probably skew older in anime preferences here (and have an interest in Matsumoto adaptions).  I sorta dropped out of watching anime by 2000.  But I'm not against watching newer stuff provided it doesn't have as many episodes as One Piece.

The first TV show I can't answer because it's one of those that were on TV, and I really don't remember what the first one was. There were always at least four or five animes running. As for movies, that's a tough nut, for all the anime I've watched, there weren't a whole lot of anime films on TV and unless we count OVAs like Legend of Lemnear or Plastic Little (which we should not, I think) then the answer to that is actually MD Geist. I was going to say it was the Sailor Moon R movie, but it wasn't. MD Geist and Akira were before that...

Can fully recommend MD Geist for every fan of 80ies sci-fi trash, but keep in mind, it pretty much is trash.

 

*This is what Miyazaki talked about, in part. People in the anime industry not observing the real world in any meaningful way, and ending up making scenes like that. There's a pervasive schism between the depiction (and acceptence, actually) of lesbians in entertainment (adult or otherwise) and the real world, and it's especially bad in anime and in, well, adult entertainment. In my experience, so that's just an anecdote, heterosexual men in particular seem to react with a certain amount of disappointment and disdain when real life lesbians don't turn out to be like the ones they like to watch in films.

Which is like all the time. *sigh*

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I sort of am, but if given the choice I'd still either take the rather neutral children's anime/world masterpiece theater style of the late 70ies/early 80ies (Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, Dog of Flanders, etc.) or late 80ies to late 90ies anime style over the alternatives. I have a soft spot for certain 60ies character designs from liking Attack No. 1, but that's as far as I would go. There are certain modern animes that grew on me after a fashion, like Violet Evergarden (outside of some of the CGI used) and especially K-On! which... honestly isn't something I would have thought I'd ever enjoy, aesthetic wise, but somehow ended up doing.

For K-On! at least, I think it's something like form following function, I suppose. The art style works perfectly fine for what it is.

Sounds like one of those "it forces you to like it because you like what it's used in and it's used appropriately" situations I've talked about in the past, e.g. with Samurai Champloo's intro music, .

I'm trying to think of what my very specific favorite aesthetic is, but I'm not entirely certain. Oh, wait, no, now I am since I thought about it: the childhood sections of Only Yesterday (which are slightly distinct from the adulthood sections - they have a more surreal and hazy memory-like look to them and it seemed like everyone's faces and body shapes are a little softer and more cartoony than the adulthood sections of the movie...even for the adults of her childhood, like her parents). I still use this silly dance/exercise gif (which is also coincidentally recreated twice in Steven Universe - once in season 1, and once in SU:F) as my avatar in some other places:

It was also a nightmare to make it just how I wanted it, and I still didn't quite get there due to size limitations, but it was pretty close. So that receives my vote for favorite aesthetic...uh, whatever that is, . Elicits a very..."memories of a life I didn't and couldn't have ever had" feeling, . You can also probably thank Only Yesterday for me being open to Sailor Moon's art style, because Sailor Moon season 1 has that same sort of odd, indistinct surrealism while also sharing a similar color palette and style of backgrounds to Only Yesterday's childhood sections (albeit much more simple - the style is what's important to me, not necessarily the level of detail!).

1 hour ago, majestic said:

"Fun" fact, almost all the sexual assault I've seen in anime recently was girl on girl (I don't now if that is supposed to lessen its impact or increase it's appeal*, or both)

I'm trying to think of all the gay characters that I've seen in anime shows/movies I've watched. Haruka and Michiru in Sailor Moon... Maya was implied to be in Neon Genesis Evangelion, I guess, but that's a little bit of a stretch. There's also Tomoyo in Cardcaptor Sakura, but she's like thirteen and that's a whole different thing. Um... One of the main characters in Tokyo Godfathers...uh, I think. It's a little confusing, because they're also transgender... Maybe there's someone else I'm forgetting? All in all, not like your typical obnoxious or unrealistic ones that you typically see in anime.

(e): Also, possibly Shinji. Hey, don't blame me he willingly got into a bathtub with Kaworu while ignoring Asuka - it's not my fault!

Spoiler

Although given what we know of Shinji, him being willing to do that would imply he's NOT, I think...more likely he was just really confused altogether by Kaworu, but I probably shouldn't say that too loudly lest I be cancelled. Folks, Steven Universe is my favorite show, I should be able to cast at least mild doubt on whether someone was gay or not without being immediately cancelled!

 

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Ever since I was a kid I've wondered what stops these people from simply employing their enemy one-shot mechanism immediately - if all your dramatic mech combat momentum hinges on an unexplained contrivance, you're bound to lose me, and indeed, the mech fights are the least interesting parts of this. Really, that makes no sense at all. As did the change in the dub that the enemies they kill don't stay dead, but just get teleported back to their home dimension, leaving me to wonder how they'll ever be defeated.

Well, then the show would be over awfully quick and without any fuss or muss, wouldn't it? ...Oh, now I remember why I don't like it when a whole bunch of pointless and repetitive action is horribly drawn out and framed as if it were important! Can't help but notice that shoujo has a tendency to do the opposite and underframe with its action...except for Utena and Lady Asuka, I guess.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

No, that's not it, because people who are young in body and old in heart generally are either fanatic Christian young earth flerfers or young poster boy conservatives that swallowed Ayn Rand's nonsense hook, line and sinker, and you don't strike me as either. You're just a person of taste, and entertainment's gone down the crapper in recent years.

Have you ever heard Weird Al's "Talk Soup"? There's a couple parts of the song that go something like "I'm just an anorexic, co-dependent, bingo-addict stripper born without a chin", but you should definitely replace that with something like "I'm just an anti-vaxx, Bible-thumping, Libertarian, Trump-loving flat-earther shell of a man" for me, because that's totally accurate, .

Think I'll skip MD Geist. If I'm going to watch 80s trash, at least give me a half-decent relunctant action lady instead of boring macho hero action man, .

1 hour ago, majestic said:

The other two are Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and while I liked them well enough in spite of what they are, I'm generally "that guy" when it comes to preferences. I like the slow burn of the original adaptation more, but prefer Brotherhood's less metaphysical ending. Needless to say I watched it more for Al and Winny than caring about Ed... overall not a complete loss, but I certainly don't understand how this won every "most bestest favoritest anime of the year" awards during its original run.

My sister loved Fullmetal Alchemist...and she also loved Naruto. Terrible person as far as I'm concerned, . She once tried to get me into Fullmetal Alchemist, and I made it approximately five minutes before some shonen starting shonening the whole place up, and I had to call it quits.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Wrapping up things: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection

I've left this off when Hayata starts battling the transformers, and luckily that's done now. The transformers kick her ass something fierce, but sister girl from the intro comes to save her, then picks up the now damaged transformer's gatling gun and transforms it into an even biggerer, awesomerer triple gatling gun and shoots everything. There's still an hour of runtime left. An hour. Holy hell, I don't think I can do that. Ugh.

Time to listen to Cage of Mirrors again. Take me back the way I came, I don't want to see...

Kyrie's sister for some reason knows Hayate's, Fate's and Nanoha's name. I have no idea how or why. The movie should dispense with the silly action stuff and get to the point:

Says majestic, posting this picture a few seconds from the transformation sequence he was talking about actually happening in the film. I do have a nice sense of timing sometimes, don't I? There's some incredible irony here insofar as that transformation sequence is the least, and really, I mean that, the least explicit (substitute offensive if you will) transformation sequence in the entirety of the franchise so far. There's barely a shot of the breasts he was talking about and the girl in question doesn't even get the full undress treatment everyone else got so far (including the nine year olds from the first season ).

Anyway, back to the actual film, the new arrivales analyzed the fighting style and strengths and weaknesses of their opponents and are doing pretty well against them. This idea isn't half bad, but it's still so much time spent on action that could be better spent on what StrikerS did. Giving the action meaning by properly introducing the characters first, hm? As per usual, there's absolutely no visceral feeling to the action sequences, and they drag on forever.

Regardless of having "analyzed" their opponents, it's also a little ridiculous given how this plays after A's where Nanoha, Fate and Hayata obliterated a world ending all-powerful god mode entity, and now they're stopped cold by construction vehicle decepticons. Is there any particular reason Nanoha doesn't Starlight Breaker her enemy into submission? That thing worked each and every time so far and none of the others can defend against it (at best, Fate can fight her to a draw).

Uhm, and where's the Belkan Cartridge system gone? Hey girls, add some mana batteries? Hello, is this still the same franchise? I get it, every enemy needs to be biggerer and badderer and bad-asserer than the ones before, but you know what was pretty nice about StrikerS? They weren't. When the attack happens, they fight them off pretty neatly in one on one situations but still lose because the enemy has superior coordination abilities and a phase walker girl that takes out the Space Cop's CIC.

Signum and Vita show up, and they have new weapons too, but at least Signum has mana batteries. Right, now I think I remember that the Tiddies guys said the movies are spin-offs set in their own continuity. Great, now I care even less about this. After reinforcements arrive and Kyrie is apparently beaten, she does the usual sci-fi trash thing and starts her enrage mode, beating everyone handily. Well, everyone but her sister. The characters have on and off tried to talk Kyrie into just stopping her attacks and find some course of action to help her, but Kyrie doesn't really want to listen. Yeah, writers, we've done this before. Twice. When you made StrikerS, you had the good sense to not pull it off again.

Time to call it quits again. I can only take this in small chunks apparently. I'm also stuck in a time dilation field, because every time I check the progress bar, there's still one hour left. That can't be right...

[Bartimaeus]

1 minute ago, majestic said:

Says majestic, posting this picture a few seconds from the transformation sequence he was talking about actually happening in the film. I do have a nice sense of timing sometimes, don't I? There's some incredible irony here insofar as that transformation sequence is the least, and really, I mean that, the least explicit (substitute offensive if you will) transformation sequence in the entirety of the franchise so far. There's barely a shot of the breasts he was talking about and the girl in question doesn't even get the full undress treatment everyone else got so far (including the nine year olds from the first season ).

Maybe you've been doing this guy an injustice, as he was actually being ironic when he said it, and it was in fact a deep-cut satire of the people he purports to speak for?

Spoiler

Zero percent chance of that.

 

4 minutes ago, majestic said:

Right, now I think I remember that the Tiddies guys said the movies are spin-offs set in their own continuity.

Oh, screw that, that's even worse! Is even anime no longer sacred? No more multiple timelines, people - all it means is bad storytelling and obvious retconning. Stop it!

[Gorth]

6 hours ago, Amentep said:

My first anime movie was Alkazam the Great! (the US adaption Tesuka's Boku no Son Gokū aka Son-Goku the Monkey)*, my first anime TV show was Star Blazers (the US adaption of Matsumoto, Yamamoto and Nishizaki's Uchū Senkan Yamato aka Space Battleship Yamato).

I don't have that much of a history... my first two movies were (IIRC) Akira and Ghost in the Shell and the first show was Macross. Not that I knew they were "Anime" mind you (it would be another 20 years before I heard that term, as well as "Manga"). The latter showed on TV back when European countries first started getting access to satellite TV (mid to late 80's I think) and for me it was just another cartoon, with space travel and giant robots involved.

 

I think I'm going to check out JoJo's bizarre stuff next (no release dates for Mieruko-chan s2 nor Fire Force s3)....

[Bartimaeus]

3 minutes ago, Gorth said:

JoJo's bizarre stuff

That sounds...vaguely inappropriate. Well, it should at least make KP happy.

 

[majestic]

21 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sounds like one of those "it forces you to like it because you like what it's used in and it's used appropriately" situations I've talked about in the past, e.g. with Samurai Champloo's intro music, .

Something about K-On!! (well, the second season, silly naming scheme) just struck a chord. Ha ha. Struck a chord. That wasn't even intentional. I think I'll go to sleep now.

25 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm trying to think of what my very specific favorite aesthetic is, but I'm not entirely certain. Oh, wait, no, now I am since I thought about it: the childhood sections of Only Yesterday (which are slightly distinct from the adulthood sections - they have a more surreal and hazy memory-like look to them and it seemed like everyone's faces and body shapes are a little softer and more cartoony than the adulthood sections of the movie...even for the adults of her childhood, like her parents). I still use this silly dance/exercise gif (which is also coincidentally recreated twice in Steven Universe - once in season 1, and once in SU:F) as my avatar in some other places:

It was also a nightmare to make it just how I wanted it, and I still didn't quite get there due to size limitations, but it was pretty close. So that receives my vote for favorite aesthetic...uh, whatever that is, . Elicits a very..."memories of a life I didn't and couldn't have ever had" feeling, . You can also probably thank Only Yesterday for me being open to Sailor Moon's art style, because Sailor Moon season 1 has that same sort of odd, indistinct surrealism while also sharing similar a color palette and style of backgrounds to Only Yesterday's childhood sections (albeit much more simple - the style is what's important to me, not necessarily the level of detail!).

I think I'll watch Only Yesterday sometime soon. I looked at some pictures, but the adult parts don't really appeal to me, or at least, they don't look like other Ghibli films that I found had a more pleasing art style. Not sure without seeing it all in motion, of course. I hope this doesn't end up being as emotionally draining as Whisper of the Heart was. Fat chance of that considering the director, huh?

Sailor Moon looked really, really good for how little time and money they had to do it. Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R are probably my favorites in terms of looks. As contrived as the plotline was with Usagi's break up, that shot where she walks down the road only to sit down in a telephone booth is nothing short of fantastic. In fact that entire sequence, from her arriving at Mamoru's place to that is absolutely stunning.

Walking down this reduced, minimalistic, impossibly empty, surreal street somewhere in Tokyo. Eh...

 

42 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm trying to think of all the gay characters that I've seen in anime shows/movies I've watched. Haruka and Michiru in Sailor Moon... Maya was implied to be in Neon Genesis Evangelion, I guess, but that's a little bit of a stretch. There's also Tomoyo in Cardcaptor Sakura, but she's like thirteen and that's a whole different thing. Um... One of the main characters in Tokyo Godfathers...uh, I think. It's a little confusing, because they're also transgender... Maybe there's someone else I'm forgetting? All in all, not like your typical obnoxious or unrealistic ones that you typically see in anime.

(e): Also, possibly Shinji. Hey, don't blame me he willingly got into a bathtub with Kaworu while ignoring Asuka - it's not my fault!

  Hide contents

Although given what we know of Shinji, him being willing to do that would imply he's NOT, I think...more likely he was just really confused altogether by Kaworu, but I probably shouldn't say that too loudly lest I be cancelled. Folks, Steven Universe is my favorite show, I should be able to cast at least mild doubt on whether someone was gay or not without being immediately cancelled!

Technically, on my end I can add Nanoha and Fate in StrikerS to the list, it's all but stated directly but waffles a bit too much with its commitment for my liking. Haven't watched Tokyo Godfathers though. Shinji is just way too confused about everything to really make sense of what his preferences are, but assuming for a moment he's bisexual, he still shows a strong preference for women. So, no, I don't think Shinji is gay at all. Cancel me internet, I don't really care.

I don't think I've watched a whole lot of anime with the unrealistic sort of gay characters either, because all the girl-on-girl assaults were mostly committed by characters in shows that barely have any romance at all. Which is why I think they're just there purely for male entertainment and adding to the unrealistic expectations some men have regarding the topic. *sigh*

Yeah, also... you have the good sense to stop when it gets bad and I don't...

55 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Have you ever heard Weird Al's "Talk Soup"? There's a couple parts of the song that go something like "I'm just an anorexic, co-dependent, bingo-addict stripper born without a chin", but you should definitely replace that with something like "I'm just an anti-vaxx, Bible-thumping, Libertarian, Trump-loving flat-earther shell of a man" for me, because that's totally accurate, .

*nods sagely* *secret handshake*

Spoiler

MAGA! LOCK HER UP!

 

56 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Think I'll skip MD Geist. If I'm going to watch 80s trash, at least give me a half-decent relunctant action lady instead of boring macho hero action man, .

Ey, you already tried MD Geist II and very surprisingly dropped it after a minute.

56 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

My sister loved Fullmetal Alchemist...and she also loved Naruto. Terrible person as far as I'm concerned, . She once tried to get me into Fullmetal Alchemist, and I made it approximately five minutes before some shonen starting shonening the whole place up, and I had to call it quits.

Gotta ask, which one? It's been a while and both shows fused into a weird amalgamation where I can't even tell the storylines apart from binging it. It's all really confusing.

[Bartimaeus]

4 minutes ago, majestic said:

Ey, you already tried MD Geist II and very surprisingly dropped it after a minute.

I did? The name did sound vaguely familiar, but more in a "I found this online and immediately left the page because it looks like unappealing trash" kind of way than "I actually found a copy of this and watched it for sixty seconds before never watching it again".

6 minutes ago, majestic said:

Gotta ask, which one? It's been a while and both shows fused into a weird amalgamation where I can't even tell the storylines apart from binging it. It's all really confusing.

It's been about a decade, so I'm not certain. ...Of course, the second show was released just slightly over a decade ago - naturally.

9 minutes ago, majestic said:

I think I'll watch Only Yesterday sometime soon. I looked at some pictures, but the adult parts don't really appeal to me, or at least, they don't look like other Ghibli films that I found had a more pleasing art style. Not sure without seeing it all in motion, of course. I hope this doesn't end up being as emotionally draining as Whisper of the Heart was. Fat chance of that considering the director, huh?

Nah, of course not.

Spoiler

Uh...maybe. Different people have different reactions to it. Some people think it's horribly boring and preachy! I also keep forgetting that you haven't watched it already. I should probably stop talking about it.

I always forget how extreme that scene was. Even Chibi-Usa preceding it looked pretty shook, and she hated Usagi at that point. Yeah, they did well with how little they had to work with, .

And then Crystal also did the absolute best with all the resources it was given, except kind of the exact opposite of that. History repeats itself!

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

Which is why I think they're just there purely for male entertainment and adding to the unrealistic expectations some men have regarding the topic. *sigh*

They absolutely are - no need to think about it. ...I was about to ask whether a single girl watched any of those shows, but then I realized my own sister watched Naruto, and I guess I have to reconsider. I guess there was probably at least one girl...statistically speaking, it's likely at least...

[majestic]

5 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I did? The name did sound vaguely familiar, but more in a "I found this online and immediately left the page because it looks like unappealing trash" kind of way than "I actually found a copy of this and watched it for sixty seconds before never watching it again".

Quick reply, clock just struck 0300, more later... but yeah, you had a run of particularily bad films and asked if anyone wanted to suggest something bad too, and I went for MD Geist II because that's actually even worse than the first one. I still love it, don't get me wrong, but it's... bad.

Looks like I lied, it was two minutes.

[Bartimaeus]

6 minutes ago, majestic said:

Quick reply, clock just struck 0300, more later... but yeah, you had a run of particularily bad films and asked if anyone wanted to suggest something bad too, and I went for MD Geist II because that's actually even worse than the first one. I still love it, don't get me wrong, but it's... bad.

Looks like I lied, it was two minutes.

I'm so sorry, but I actually recall this now, and I'm afraid that I did not ever actually watch even two minutes of it. My answer was a literal response to your rhetorical question, i.e. "what could go wrong if you watched this". That's exactly what *could* go wrong...but it didn't, because I didn't even try it. Once again, I am so sorry. Sort of, .

Don't let my terrible betrayal affect your sleep!

P.S. My old posts are disasters due to me habitually removing all my Dropbox links. Context becomes much harder to understand without all the linked images...

Edited January 27, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I don't think you much have any? As far as I can recall, you have previously expressed that you don't really care that much about art style (except that the CGI IS BAD), even if you can in theory understand why it can make or break a series for some of us. If you have preferences, they are probably not so clearly defined as compared to the rest of us.

Most of what I recommend to you wasn't received well, so I was joking about you eviscerating my taste lmao. I don't have a preference in regards to art style beyond CGI IS BAD (IT IS), but in terms of content I tend to gravitate towards some weird ****.

Aggretsuko is sometimes light to enjoy but not get terribly invested in. That's not saying it's not good, more in that its strength is more in how low-stakes it is.

2 hours ago, Gorth said:

I think I'm going to check out JoJo's bizarre stuff next

Another one down, soon this whole thread will be JoJo fans.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

That sounds...vaguely inappropriate. Well, it should at least make KP happy.

 

Because it sounds vaguely inappropriate or because someone else will watch JoJo. Both work tbh.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm trying to think of all the gay characters that I've seen in anime shows/movies I've watched

Maybe it's because you watched it at 2x speed, but several characters in Devilman Crybaby were.

With Shinji, I'd say that he is more craving affection than anything. What makes the Kaworu relationship is that he is the only person in the series to show Shinji affection without any ulterior motives. The sexual elements, and they are definitely there, are ultimately secondary to that. I can certainly believe that Shinji is gay or bi though.

Oh yeah, and DIO seduces a priest in between luring in women to feed on and ****, so there is another.

[Bartimaeus]

57 minutes ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

Maybe it's because you watched it at 2x speed, but several characters in Devilman Crybaby were.

I straight up forgot I watched it altogether, to be honest. It doesn't help that on my normal site that I use to rate stuff, I didn't rate it at all because...well, I guess it didn't feel right to do so. As a consequence of that, though, I don't see it in my list of watched shows and I don't remember it exists.

57 minutes ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

Most of what I recommend to you wasn't received well, so I was joking about you eviscerating my taste lmao. I don't have a preference in regards to art style beyond CGI IS BAD (IT IS), but in terms of content I tend to gravitate towards some weird ****.

Aggretsuko is sometimes light to enjoy but not get terribly invested in. That's not saying it's not good, more in that its strength is more in how low-stakes it is.

It probably doesn't help that our tastes in shows mostly doesn't align. The chance of anybody finding anything that I like is pretty low, but it's especially low if we don't like hardly any of the same things to begin with. At least you correctly guessed that I'd like Memories' Magnetic Rose! I don't really begrudge anyone their tastes - what we all like is completely arbitrary. Why do I only like older stuff while Lexx only likes newer stuff? Even when we can come up with specific little things that bother or appeal to us, there's not much reason to any of it beyond that we just do, and that's that. I just wish I was more flexible and didn't so often feel so extremely about all of it, but I do for some dumb reason.

I'll get around to trying Aggretsuko sometime. Right now, I'm watching Samurai Jack and Gilmore Girls, which are basically polar opposites of each other (girly girl show for girls vs. manly man show for men ) but I like both of them.

Shinji: Yeah, you're dead on, I think. In a world where you were already incapable of seeing yourself as being worth anything beyond your objective uses and everyone else is constantly feeding into that even when they're not trying to, someone that just accepts and treats you well only because of you being you would be a godsend.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

What I remember from Ranma 1/2 french version is that at the end panda granddad screwed him over, putting something on him making him weak and he left like a coward.

Edited January 27, 2022 by HoonDing

[majestic]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm so sorry, but I actually recall this now, and I'm afraid that I did not ever actually watch even two minutes of it. My answer was a literal response to your rhetorical question, i.e. "what could go wrong if you watched this". That's exactly what *could* go wrong...but it didn't, because I didn't even try it. Once again, I am so sorry. Sort of, .

Don't let my terrible betrayal affect your sleep!

P.S. My old posts are disasters due to me habitually removing all my Dropbox links. Context becomes much harder to understand without all the linked images...

Huh?

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I always forget how extreme that scene was. Even Chibi-Usa preceding it looked pretty shook, and she hated Usagi at that point. Yeah, they did well with how little they had to work with, .

I was pretty down on the more pants part of the R storyline until I watched Crystal. Mamoru's fake breakup ends up hurting Usagi and is based on this super stupid closed time loop, but it's... a damned sight better than Usagi showing up, spewing an almost hateful tirade at Mamoru for wanting Chibi-Usa* as a woman more than her, him being annoyed by being called Pegasus, and ending Usagi's hissy fit of jealousy by, well, showing her just how much he really wants her as a woman (oh dear god), turning his first volume/first crystal season creepiness (stalking her, watching her transform, etc.) up to eleven by (ab)using Usagi's exceptionally distrought emotional state, to, and I'm sorry to retort to this level of language but nothing else is appropriate, get his d1ck wet.

To make things even worse, it caps all of that off by making Usagi being all right with Chibi-Usa being around the next day in the morning, because nothing turns off ridiculous female hysteria faster than getting laid properly. We've been over this though, and how the manga was made essentialy excuses a whole lot of these things in some manner, but not all of it.

*Usagi is generally pretty crappy to Chibi-Usa in Crystal/manga. The anime handled this much better by using Usagi's relative immaturity to make their "rivalry" a little less stupid and more relatable.

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

And then Crystal also did the absolute best with all the resources it was given, except kind of the exact opposite of that. History repeats itself!

Yeah. You should really watch Crystal at some point. It's eye-opening.