Anime and Manga - ゴゴゴゴ

[majestic]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

P.S. I added one more thing to the previous post, but it hardly matters.

I'll.. I... actually... you know, I'd... dammit.

I might have done something sufficiently stupid in terms of watching anime, but as I'm not supposed to talk about it, you can only guess what.

[Bartimaeus]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

I'll.. I... actually... you know, I'd... dammit.

I might have done something sufficiently stupid in terms of watching anime, but as I'm not supposed to talk about it, you can only guess what.

If this has relation to what you were quoting, I can't figure out how. All I can assume is you finally bit the bullet and watched an episode of Pretty Cure, .

[majestic]

8 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

If this has relation to what you were quoting, I can't figure out how. All I can assume is you finally bit the bullet and watched an episode of Pretty Cure, .

More like seven... but no, no relation to the part I quoted now that I think about it, that was a jump too far. I wanted to quote "all in all not a good day for anime".

Pisardo is like the Jadeite of Pretty Cure. Doesn't last as long though.

All I can say for now is I wonder if Toei has to pay royalties for the show to both CLAMP and Naoko Takeuchi because this liberally borrows elements from both. Not very unexpectedly, all in all. Episode seven was the first I'd call pretty good though, I just hope someone's going to ROAD ROLLER DA the two magical girl companion animals because dammit these things are annoying.

[Bartimaeus]

Just now, majestic said:

More like seven... but no, no relation to the part I quoted now that I think about it, that was a jump too far. I wanted to quote "all in all not a good day for anime".

Pisardo is like the Jadeite of Pretty Cure. Doesn't last as long though.

All I can say for now is I wonder if Toei has to pay royalties for the show to both CLAMP and Naoko Takeuchi because this liberally borrows elements from both. Not very unexpectedly, all in all. Episode seven was the first I'd call pretty good though, I just hope someone's going to ROAD ROLLER DA the two magical girl companion animals because dammit these things are annoying.

Ah, that's why you're not supposed to talk about it - not until the end of the season, I think I suggested. It's probably for the best for all of us, because it also means you can power through it a lot quicker than if you're making an hour long post about every episode, . It also now makes sense why you were showing this guy in the last page, as I previously had no idea whom he was.

I've gotten through 20 minutes of the first Gall Force film (Gall Force: Eternal Story). I expected silly girl shenanigans in space, but instead I've gotten twenty minutes of pretty serious planning and manuevering, as they're all fighting for their lives because the movie started with them literally in the middle of a battle that they were losing before making an escape with their ruined ship. I'll let you know how that goes when I finish it.

[majestic]

5 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ah, that's why you're not supposed to talk about it - not until the end of the season, I think I suggested. It's probably for the best for all of us, because it also means you can power through it a lot quicker than if you're making an hour long post about every episode, . It also now makes sense why you were showing this guy in the last page, as I previously had no idea whom he was.

That was a tentative attempt at seeing if someone recgonizes the character, and if not, maybe does a search for who he is. It's harder than I thought to not post an hour about each episode, although to be honest it's easier with Pretty Cure than the other series I've watched so far. It's nice enough, there's nothing bad to say about it except the voice acting of the animal characters (Mipple and Mepple) who are pretty shrill and constantly add "mipo" and "mepo" to the end of each sentence.

The animation is pretty typical Toei cashgrab, but it doesn't look bad for something drawn in 2004, except the DUSK ZONE* (no, really, that's where the bad guys are from) and the EVIL KING* who looks a bit like the terrible CGI satan in the 90ies Spawn movie (in terms of quality, not in terms of, uhm, actual looks).

Can you guess that I'm EVIL? Yes? No?

It's about as neurotic as Sailor Moon so far in terms of sticking to the formula, which borrows a bit from SuperS, Nagisa and Honoka can only transform and fight together - but not just because their animations are linked, but because everything they do, from magic spells to transformations, they need to, uhm, do together. They transform by slotting magic cards through devices that look like mobile phones but aren't (they also have magic cards to feed their pets and make them sleep, etc.).

Enemies are looking for PRISM STONES that'll help the EVIL KING to cover the entire universe in ETERNAL DARKNESS and become IMMORTAL. Yeah, that's about as interesting as it sounds.

The setup isn't exactly creative, but so far it's occassionally fun, the character interactions are nice and the writing is... except for one situation where Pisardo already has the girls beaten and then just returns their transformation gear because he wants to prove he's strongerer the writing is okay (even that is maybe a comment on shounen stupidity, but who knows). It's not as funny and the characters are, so far, at least, not as good as in Sailor Moon, and the writing is not as strong as the writing in Cardcaptor Sakura, but you know what it isn't?

F*cking offensive, and that's the primary reason I went ahead and tried it after that Nanoha disaster. 

There's some meta fun too like when they learn a new spell and just blurt out the incantation for no reasons they'll look into the camera and go "Wait, I've said something weird again!".

25 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I've gotten through 20 minutes of the first Gall Force film (Gall Force: Eternal Story). I expected silly girl shenanigans in space, but instead I've gotten twenty minutes of pretty serious planning and manuevering, as they're all fighting for their lives because the movie started with them literally in the middle of a battle that they were losing before making an escape with their ruined ship. I'll let you know how that goes when I finish it.

That does also sound pretty good. I think that belongs on the list. *adds* Unless it becomes fanservice hentai later.

*Actual literal names when translated, I think the English dub officially made them DARK ZONE and DARK KING.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Apocalypse of Devilman (2000). The third and final part of the original Devilman OVA series. It's kind of crazy how much Devilman Crybaby took from these OVAs - it's not quite a 1:1 recreation, but...it's probably like 75% the same plot, and a number of scenes in Devilman Crybaby are obviously direct recreations of scenes in these OVAs. Anyways, just like the first two, it was O.K. - it starts with the part where Asuka gets on TV to basically set off mass hysteria and Miki loses her head, and things get much worse from there.

I haven't seen that OVA, but Crybaby does follow the general outline of the manga.

Anyways.....Aggretsuko s3. Wow, these 15 min episodes go by quick. So this season was about an underground idol group but instead of "cute" stuff it involved a creepy stalker and the group trying to leave their day jobs. Good, cute anthromorphic animal idols is decidedly not my jam. The microtransaction unicorn disappeared after a couple of episodes and there was some other stuff that is either spoiler or not very interesting. Fun show.

[Bartimaeus]

Gall Force: Eternal Story (1986). It was...pretty good, but not really what I expected - kind of feels like a very odd blend of Star Wars and Alien...and something else. It at least ranks as one of the better non-Ghibli 80s things I've seen, so there's that...albeit it's still very 80s (I mean, who wouldn't want a cheesy sad music montage after someone died - that's just what you do when you're in the 80s!). I'll also forgive a little unnecessary although not particularly offensive fan service (7 girls working together on a spaceship not always particularly caring about how they're dressed makes a sort of sense, I guess). I'll be curious to see how the next part continues on from this one (there are three parts to this particular story of Gall Force)...especially, uh, considering how this one ended.

5 hours ago, majestic said:

The setup isn't exactly creative, but so far it's occassionally fun, the character interactions are nice and the writing is... except for one situation where Pisardo already has the girls beaten and then just returns their transformation gear because he wants to prove he's strongerer the writing is okay

Lmao. Villain's a bit of a shonen brat, is he?

5 hours ago, majestic said:

F*cking offensive, and that's the primary reason I went ahead and tried it after that Nanoha disaster.

Well, no, but you seem to forget...neither was Nanoha - in the early to mid 2000s. The 2010s Nanoha, on the other hand? Oh yes, very offensive, very brain-peeling. Now, I can't help but notice that Precure starts around the same time Nanoha did...and continues all the way up to present day. How odd! Well, for your sake, I hope history doesn't repeat itself - 2010s magical girl shows haven't exactly gone well for you so far, have they? Good thing it's only...873 episodes and 30 movies!

P.S. I've been catching up on Cardcaptor Sakura episodes on Netflix (I forgot to "watch" the last 25 episodes or so), and I usually let the intro music of the third season run before I mute it. Yes, it does appear that I have been fully brainwashed. Also, it autoplays the English dub and I just heard English!Tomoyo and I nearly melted from the terribleness.

4 hours ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

I haven't seen that OVA, but Crybaby does follow the general outline of the manga.

Anyways.....Aggretsuko s3. Wow, these 15 min episodes go by quick. So this season was about an underground idol group but instead of "cute" stuff it involved a creepy stalker and the group trying to leave their day jobs. Good, cute anthromorphic animal idols is decidedly not my jam. The microtransaction unicorn disappeared after a couple of episodes and there was some other stuff that is either spoiler or not very interesting. Fun show.

I did try a couple of episodes of that show a few days ago, and I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it yet. I'll have to try a few more.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Bartimaeus
finished part of post I forgot about

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

17 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I did try a couple of episodes of that show a few days ago, and I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it yet. I'll have to try a few more.

I like it, but it's hard to describe.

[Gorth]

Finally got started on JoJo's Bizarre Adventures... truly bizarre indeed

 

Not sure how to describe it really (only 5 episodes in btw, still 19 to go of this part of the story). Sometimes it really is an animated Manga (literally) and sometimes you get more exposition in the moment before a fist hits a face than a full novel

 

Interesting enough so far to keep me going though. Need to find out more about that stone mask that turns people into vampires and Dio needs some kind of horrible, final death too...

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

23 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Not sure how to describe it really (only 5 episodes in btw, still 19 to go of this part of the story).

I have watched every episode and read the manga, and I have no idea how to describe it. Every arc somehow manages to be weirder and no one stops yelling. Truly an indescribable story that you start because of the memes and stay because it's actually good.

[majestic]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Lmao. Villain's a bit of a shonen brat, is he?

Yeah, and the writing was fine if that was the intention. He's overhearing how his "colleagues" from the DARK ZONE think of him as ridiculous and weak because he keeps messing up against the two girls and he goes off to mess everything up because he underestimates two young girls he already had beaten in an attempt to show strength. I mean... I found that part stupid, but it does make sense from a certain point of view.

Spoiler

I also liked how that directly lead to his defeat where the two just blast him with their trademark PRETTY CURE MARBLE SCREW attack - yeah, the attack naming is about as silly as it is in Sailor Moon - and he's blasted apart. Honoka and Nagisa look confused for a moment, then are pretty down becaues they apparently killed someone, unlike a certain MURDER DEATH KILL Usagi from the manga who is like "ok, cool" after blasting apart enemies.

The annoying animal companions then tell her that one can't actually kill DARK ZONE denizens, so they shouldn't worry. I'm not sure if that was a lie to make them feel better or not, because the DARK KING threatened to kill Pisardo a couple of times before and he's pretty much gone now.

Then there's something else:

Spoiler

Watched episode 8. Honoka and Nagisa are pretty different. Honoka looks a bit like Tomoyo at times and she certainly talks that way (although she's voiced by Meiling) but is also a good student and Nagisa is pretty much a Sakura type, and in episode 8 they get into a fight over their differences when Honoka notices that Nagisa likes her childhood friend Fujipi (well, nickname) and just goes ahead and introduces the two with "you wanted to talk to him, right Nagisa?" completely oblivious to how embarrassed Nagisa ends up being.

Unlike Sakura and Tomoyo they didn't start out as friends and everyone in their respective families are talking about how their new friend is different than the usual (Honoka's grandmother is particularily pleased that she made such a nice friend) friends they have.

Nagisa talks with her mother about the fight. Yeah, the girls have families and all that.

I quite like it so far, and I can see how it got popular enough to last this long, changing cast or no, but that'll pretty much depend on how well this follows up on its premises. I just wish someone would turn off Mipple and Mepple. Ugh.

 

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, no, but you seem to forget...neither was Nanoha - in the early to mid 2000s. The 2010s Nanoha, on the other hand? Oh yes, very offensive, very brain-peeling. Now, I can't help but notice that Precure starts around the same time Nanoha did...and continues all the way up to present day. How odd! Well, for your sake, I hope history doesn't repeat itself - 2010s magical girl shows haven't exactly gone well for you so far, have they? Good thing it's only...873 episodes and 30 movies!

Nanoha had the fanservice stuff right from the start with the the transformations and was offensive enough in a certain early episode, but you're not wrong - the brain peeling terribleness in terms of writing quality, animation (that's something I have no doubt will continually get worse with each season) and sexual assault crept into the franchise later. At least for PreCure I'm almost sure sexual assault isn't going to be a main entry and the fanservice elements are so far limited to girls in skirts, which barely counts considering Japanese school uniforms really ARE like that.

Whether or not the other series will hold up, that's something I'll just have to see. If they don't, I figure it's not going to be the worst problem. Most Pretty Cure teams don't get more than a season. I can stop whenever I want to, considering that each season is a new storyline with new characters (I mean, so far it worked for Love Live!'s spin-offs that I have no desire to watch at all).

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

P.S. I've been catching up on Cardcaptor Sakura episodes on Netflix (I forgot to "watch" the last 25 episodes or so), and I usually let the intro music of the third season run before I mute it. Yes, it does appear that I have been fully brainwashed. Also, it autoplays the English dub and I just heard English!Tomoyo and I nearly melted from the terribleness.

Yeah, no, I don't like that intro song no matter how often I try it, but that's fine. On the other hand, how can you not be brainwashed by Junko Iwao, she does know what she's doing. Also that English dub on Netflix, while certainly better than the original one, isn't the best either... so yeah.

 

[Bartimaeus]

CLAMP's Clover (1999). Uh...I think I should stop watching anime. Or at least the weird stuff - I could certainly do a little more research before I try something out of the blue like this. It was basically a really weird 7 minute or so...music video-esque thing. Apparently, CLAMP's Clover is an unfinished manga that "takes place in a dystopian, futuristic world where children known as 'Clovers' have special powers". I guess I kinda got that, but it sort of felt like I was watching a Lincoln Park music video (but without the high energy angsty music).

Rilakkuma and Kaoru: A short stop-motion show (thirteen 11-minute episodes) from Netflix about a single woman and her teddy bears. It's slow and sombre, and seems to primarily focus on how disappointing and sad life is...but also, you should try to make the best of it when and where you can. The last episode I watched was about them having a power outage during a storm and suddenly being host to a dead girl that had been run over and killed by a bus right in front of her first boyfriend. Seeing her boyfriend get comforted by another girl nearby while quickly forgetting about her made her spirit upset enough to turn her into a ghost...and more of a sad ghost than one doing any actual haunting. Yeah, that's fair.

17 hours ago, majestic said:

I can stop whenever I want to, considering that each season is a new storyline with new characters (I mean, so far it worked for Love Live!'s spin-offs that I have no desire to watch at all).

Spoiler

...But if you start a new season at some point and find that you don't like it, won't you be forced to finish the rest of that season...and then immediately wonder "well, hey, the next season is totally new and different, I should try it out to see if it got any better...oh no, no it didn't, and now I have to finish this season...but hey, this next season looks promising..."?

 

17 hours ago, majestic said:

Yeah, no, I don't like that intro song no matter how often I try it, but that's fine.

Did you listen to it at least 50 times? Because I do believe that's the key here, so if you haven't done that yet, you really ought to. It's just the right thing to do.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

  Hide contents

...But if you start a new season at some point and find that you don't like it, won't you be forced to finish the rest of that season...and then immediately wonder "well, hey, the next season is totally new and different, I should try it out to see if it got any better...oh no, no it didn't, and now I have to finish this season...but hey, this next season looks promising..."?

 

 

Spoiler

Well, yes, there's the distinct possibility that I'll just keep watching because it used to be good and now isn't any more, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. That depends a whole lot on how the early seasons turn out to be.

So far (9 episodes in) it's been fairly enjoyable, it's perfectly fine to watch, except for the animal companions, but meh, perhaps they'll get toned down as the season progresses a bit, very early Usagi was noticably different from post-Jadeite Usagi too. It's sometimes funny, sometimes cute, but still overall a bit setup-y. It sticks to the forumla, which I expect it will throughout the entire season, so the episodes are two thirds school/character schenanigans, one third "action" - like Sailor Moon was.

Can't say the ideas are bad, in episode nine there's an animated and possed anatomic doll that falls apart when the team accidentially makes it run into a row of lockers. The doll was creepy, the falling apart was funny and then it comes back as giant enemy that accidentially steps on the actual villain and saves the day. 

The current villain is a dumb brute type, and he also ends up with one of the transformation devices, but Nagisa can convince him to give it back. Because the animal companions are linked to them and one of them is sick, and the EVIL KING told the dumb guy to bring the things back ALIVE. He's all like "hey you tricked me" after they transform. Nagisa keeps fighting with her companion too, and she's pretty loud when talking to it, so her family thinks she's really weird for talking (more like yelling) to herself all the time.

If there's a downside then it's that everything in it reminds me of Sailor Moon and/or Cardcaptor Sakura, and both animes were... well, better in some ways. That's not to say that Futari wa Pretty Cure is bad so far, but if you so blatantly take from great shows, it's hard not to make (potentially unfair) comparisons. It's pretty much the same feeling that the first season of Nanoha left me with - the question of "why should you watch this" boils down to "you want to watch more magical girl stuff" more than anything else.

Although in terms of character setup and actual slice of life elements this beats Nanoha by a longshot, but that's not really been the true appeal of Nanoha anyway. Nanoha, for the most part, was serious business, this is lighthearted and goofy, and to be fair, after nine episodes it's unfair to make comparisons to Sailor Moon as a whole. The first 13 or so Sailor Moon episodes weren't the best either.

 

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Did you listen to it at least 50 times? Because I do believe that's the key here, so if you haven't done that yet, you really ought to. It's just the right thing to do.

No, and I won't, really.

5 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

CLAMP's Clover (1999). Uh...I think I should stop watching anime. Or at least the weird stuff - I could certainly do a little more research before I try something out of the blue like this. It was basically a really weird 7 minute or so...music video-esque thing. Apparently, CLAMP's Clover is an unfinished manga that "takes place in a dystopian, futuristic world where children known as 'Clovers' have special powers". I guess I kinda got that, but it sort of felt like I was watching a Lincoln Park music video (but without the high energy angsty music).

Rilakkuma and Kaoru: A short stop-motion show (thirteen 11-minute episodes) from Netflix about a single woman and her teddy bears. It's slow and sombre, and seems to primarily focus on how disappointing and sad life is...but also, you should try to make the best of it when and where you can. The last episode I watched was about them having a power outage during a storm and suddenly being host to a dead girl that had been run over and killed by a bus right in front of her first boyfriend. Seeing her boyfriend get comforted by another girl nearby while quickly forgetting about her made her spirit upset enough to turn her into a ghost...and more of a sad ghost than one doing any actual haunting. Yeah, that's fair.

Huh, okay. Might take a look at Rilakkuma and Kaoru, but I think I'll pass on the Linkin' Park music video. 7 minutes isn't much of an investment though.

[majestic]

Well, erm, okay. A bit of PreCure talk:

Episode 10 was weird.

Spoiler

It begins with Honoka's parents coming back from their business trip to spend time with her on her birthday. Then work calls and Honoka is a very Japanese girl and says it's okay, so they all go to a jewelry store. While her parents are negotiating, a group of robbers show up. They lock themselves in, then Honoka comes and talks to them, giving them a hard and moralizing lesson about robbing not being a very honorable Japanese pursuit in life and everyone should try their best and all that.

Then of course Mr. Dumb-As-Rocks from the DARK ZONE shows up, the robbers actually want to defend Honoka and get beaten up for it, Honoka confuses the guy, then alerts Nagisa to come to them by telling Mipple to get filmed in the window (that was actually a nice idea) after the police and the TV crew shows up. Nagisa appears, overhears the police talking about a vent access to the building that's to small for adults to get through. It's large enough for her.

They defeat Mr. Dumb-As-Rocks, then Nagisa leaves and the three robbers turn themselves in, having found resolve in Honoka's words to once gain become productive members of the Japanese society.

None of that was really bad, but it sure was strange to see the show suddenly drop into Japanese Moralizing For Kids 101 mode: Be nice to your parents, don't be selfish and always do your best!

Nagisa gives Honoka a heartfelt, self-made present to round it off.

Yeah, so that one goes into the "not so good" pile.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Aggretsuko s4 1-8

There's a new boss and he's up to something bad. It's not as wacky fun as previous seasons but is still fun enough to keep going. 

[majestic]

1 hour ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

Aggretsuko s4 1-8

There's a new boss and he's up to something bad. It's not as wacky fun as previous seasons but is still fun enough to keep going. 

I'm confused, didn't you say something about season two dropping, and now it's up to season four?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

I'm confused, didn't you say something about season two dropping, and now it's up to season four?

I meant to say s4 did and that got me to watch it again. I'm probably just bad at communication.

Aggretsuko s4 9-10

Retsuko does a mayushi slap.

[majestic]

  Oh, right, one thing I forgot to mention:

Spoiler

Pretty Cure doesn't do the Clark Kenting stuff. The villains pretty much know who the girls are and keep attacking them by tracking them down. Shoulderpads with Mullet even goes to school once and poses as a new student teacher (teacher interns). Episode 11 was pretty good, and the second villain is also gone now. I wonder how that's going to keep up, there are only three left now of the original group. Either they'll last longer or there'll be some others too, later.

 

[Sarex]

Orbital Children, or a better title should be Evangelion Children. The story is convoluted almost to the level of Evangelion, but I liked it. Especially because it's only 6 episodes long, so it's very to the point.

[majestic]

Netflix is trying really hard to make me watch that too...

[Sarex]

Just now, majestic said:

Netflix is trying really hard to make me watch that too...

Yeah... I have been seeing it for two weeks now and the short trailer didn't seem bad so I gave it a go.

[InsaneCommander]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:40 PM, Gorth said:

Interesting enough so far to keep me going though. Need to find out more about that stone mask that turns people into vampires and Dio needs some kind of horrible, final death too...

[Bartimaeus]

You're Under Arrest (1994), a nice little 4-episode OVA about two policewomen becoming partners and friends...that I was certain was going to be bad (top three tags: "action", "comedy", "police"...also, the name is terrible, why did I even try this again?), but which inexplicably wasn't. The two main characters were both distinct and immediately likeable (Miyuki, the gentle but serious veteran with a passion for all things mechanical; Natsumi, the impudent but driven rookie who always does the right thing, even if it's not necessarily by the rules...or particularly wise). I thought this was going to be some dumb fast-paced action comedy with our mains doing patently ridiculous stunts leading to arrests of baddies...but instead it was usually a slow-paced, low-stakes show primarily about and driven by our cast of characters with a pretty equal comedic/sincere split...which I guess is just how I like 'em if "comedy" is going to be a thing. Bizarrely, literally nobody was ever arrested on-screen, and there wasn't even a single shootout (heck, I don't think a single gun was fired at all)...a few short car-chases, but that's it. Our big "action finale" was making sure that a marathon ran smoothly after somebody's motorcycle accidentally caught fire while our characters used teamwork to deal with it. Why in the world was this called "You're Under Arrest" again?

Apparently, they ended up making a longer TV sequel/reboot of it a couple of years later, so I still have to check that out. I'm assuming that that one will be dumber because sequels that are longer than the original usually are (why make something that accurately captures the spirit of the original show which is presumably what made people like it in the first place when you can just...make it a lot dumber way easier instead?), but who knows, I could be surprised.

(e): Out of curiosity, I decided to try an episode of the second series. Maybe it'd pick up right where it left off and I could actually recommend this to @majestic given his OCD for needing to finish a series, and...oh my gosh, this is so utterly terrible - why do they do this to me? First five minutes was a litany of gay jokes, nosebleeds, immediate and terrible flanderization of established side-characters, women in their underwear, up-close shots of women's chests, people shooting guns, bad animation... It's like they deliberately made this to be the complete opposite of what the original OVA was like (and it's also "coincidentally" everything that I hate) while (nominally) using the same characters, setting, and universe. This is what I expected when I read about the original OVA and hesitantly tried it out, but which I oh so mercifully did not receive - just shoot me in the face. I guess this is probably what also would've happened to Carried by the Wind if it had ever become a full TV show. Let's just...not, okay?

Edited February 5, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): Out of curiosity, I decided to try an episode of the second series. Maybe it'd pick up right where it left off and I could actually recommend this to @majestic given his OCD for needing to finish a series, and...oh my gosh, this is so utterly terrible - why do they do this to me? First five minutes was a litany of gay jokes, nosebleeds, immediate and terrible flanderization of established side-characters, women in their underwear, up-close shots of women's chests, people shooting guns, bad animation... It's like they deliberately made this to be the complete opposite of what the original OVA was like (and it's also "coincidentally" everything that I hate) while (nominally) using the same characters, setting, and universe. This is what I expected when I read about the original OVA and hesitantly tried it out, but which I oh so mercifully did not receive - just shoot me in the face. I guess this is probably what also would've happened to Carried by the Wind if it had ever become a full TV show. Let's just...not, okay?

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

even if it's not necessarily by the rules...or particularly wise

I'll just focus out this, because I usually don't like any sort of crime serials or police shows, but the OVA really does sound interesting. There is one live action police serial I like where the main character is like that too. He's doing a hell of a lot of things that are questionable or downright illegal in order to do the right thing, and the depiction is intentionally ambiguous, down to earth and for lack of a better term, decidely unheroic without falling into the trap of depicting a cool anti-hero.

It consists of ten 90 minute episodes and in one of them they're investigating the murder of a trafficker, and eventually find him in the form of the father of a now dead, trafficked girl who was tricked and forced into prostitution. When he finds the murder weapon (a gun), he ends up cleaning it and tricking the head of the trafficking ring into touching it during interrogation because he can find nothing else that'll stick to the guy, letting the real murderer of the hook and landing the arguably much worse guy in jail for crime he really didn't commit.

Consists mostly of dialogues and very low-key police work, no flashy nonsense.

 

Eh... didn't get to watch anything yesterday. I'll need to make up my PreCure watch schedule of wanting to get through three episodes a day so I'll be done with the series in less than a year if it really comes to it by watching like six today. So far the series has been surprisingly enjoyable, but it's not really that bingeworthy.

[Bartimaeus]

30 minutes ago, majestic said:

How disappointing

I feel like Nathan Fillion every time this happens.

How can you take everything about the original show that was good/enjoyable/different compared to the endless waves of trash that were your contemporaries...and immediately turn around and make it just like them? Is it deliberate - do you want to just make a quick buck off of an existing property...or is it just because you're a talentless hack that doesn't know how to make anything but generic trash? Directors, writers, and producers all changed between the OVA and the TV show, so I guess it could very well be either one.

30 minutes ago, majestic said:

I'll just focus out this, because I usually don't like any sort of crime serials or police shows, but the OVA really does sound interesting. There is one live action police serial I like where the main character is like that too. He's doing a hell of a lot of things that are questionable or downright illegal in order to do the right thing, and the depiction is intentionally ambiguous, down to earth and for lack of a better term, decidely unheroic without falling into the trap of depicting a cool anti-hero.

The show is pretty low-stakes in terms of action, so nothing like that ever really comes up. We're talking some minor traffic violations, getting a pregnant cat to a veterinarian during a typhoon*, and one actually semi-serious car-chase with some psychopath that tried to drive our ladies off the road for no good reason (which actually legitimately made me mad because of how insane that dude was being - that was probably the most outrageous thing that happened during the entire show). Otherwise, most of the show's serious moments were reserved for some nice dialogue between our characters.

*Whoever made this show must've liked cats, because at least one cat appeared in every episode, and the episode about the pregnant cat having birthing issues was probably the most serious episode out of them all - they were decidedly very intent on getting that cat to the vet.

30 minutes ago, majestic said:

It consists of ten 90 minute episodes and in one of them they're investigating the murder of a trafficker, and eventually find him in the form of the father of a now dead, trafficked girl who was tricked and forced into prostitution. When he finds the murder weapon (a gun), he ends up cleaning it and tricking the head of the trafficking ring into touching it during interrogation because he can find nothing else that'll stick to the guy, letting the real murderer of the hook and landing the arguably much worse guy in jail for crime he really didn't commit.

Consists mostly of dialogues and very low-key police work, no flashy nonsense.

Sounds like a pretty decent show. It's funny how *not* trying to impose that your morally ambiguous character be the "cool antihero" that somehow magically always does the correct/perfect thing with it always inexplicably working out...is actually the key part in what makes them a properly interesting and grounded antihero. An antihero doesn't need to always be perfectly justified in what they do (though their actions/behavior should at least make a sort of sense empathizable sense), and they certainly shouldn't always be supported by framing and/or the other characters.

30 minutes ago, majestic said:

Eh... didn't get to watch anything yesterday. I'll need to make up my PreCure watch schedule of wanting to get through three episodes a day so I'll be done with the series in less than a year if it really comes to it by watching like six today. So far the series has been surprisingly enjoyable, but it's not really that bingeworthy.

A magical girl show...that is "surprisingly enjoyable"...that isn't binge-worthy...for majestic? Does not compute, .

Edited February 5, 2022 by Bartimaeus
pretty -> surprisingly, whoops