Anime and Manga - I respect the first human to have eaten a mushroom

[majestic]

56 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Gurren Lagann. It was good for the kind of show it is.

How would you rate and compare it to Kill la Kill?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

43 minutes ago, majestic said:

How would you rate and compare it to Kill la Kill?

Well I'm posting from my phone, so forgive me if I stop in the middle after getting frustrated with the mobile UI.

In general, I think that Kill la Kill is more deconstructive while Gurren Lagann is more played straight and has mechas. They're very similar in terms of beats and style, down to the fanservice shots (and boy howdy there are a lot of them) and the mid season plot twist. The art is similar enough that, barring different setting and characters and the no mecha rule in one anime, you could probably confuse the two visually if watching them back to back.

In my opinion I preferred Kill la Kill, but I think that Gurren Lagann should be checked out by those who did like Kill la Kill. It's definitely much more in line with some shonen shows but overall I think it works well enough for what it is.

And of course the software ate my post. WRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

[Sarex]

@KP wants Blue Velvet Any thoughts on the music?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

8 hours ago, Sarex said:

@KP wants Blue Velvet Any thoughts on the music?

Not really. The op didn't wow me, but I've been spoiled with the JoJo ops which are surprisingly good. The score was kinda hard to keep up with given all the yelling and sound effects from the giant mecha battles.

[Sarex]

One of my favorite OPs. I was watching another anime where some band in it was covering this song and I tracked it down to the anime.

[Bartimaeus]

A Letter to Momo (2011). It's one of those films - teen girl with an absent father that she told off right before he was tragically killed, but don't worry, she found a letter addressed to her that he intended to give to her...except that he was only able to write the address and none of the actual contents. Whoops. Well, time for her and her mom to go move back with the grandparents in a small town on an island, and...cue the flat expressions and piano music! Eh, except the movie actually doesn't lay it on too thick, and in fact, most of the movie is scoreless and fairly lighthearted...and also, for some reason some creatures from Spirited Away start to harass her.

All in all, not too shabby as far as 2011 anime films go. It did enough to make me watch the entire thing, anyways.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Bartimaeus
deadbeat -> absent

[majestic]

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, time for her and her mom to go move back with the grandparents in a small town on an island, and...cue the flat expressions and piano music! Eh, except the movie[...]

Are you growing soft?

[Bartimaeus]

5 hours ago, majestic said:

Are you growing soft?

No, it's just a little less annoying and heavy-handed than the other two hundred anime films that follow this particular formula. Guys, I don't know if you know this or not, but we don't need to start out every film with a barrage of flat expressions and piano music - I'm telling you, there's more to slice of life films than that! If Grave of the Fireflies could figure out how to do it, I'm sure the rest of you can as well.

[majestic]

Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (2005) - S01E03 - The Sword that destroys Evil

It's been a while since I started this, and with a whole lot still open, this is as good a place as any to start. It sure feels extremely weird to see Shaoran, Sakura, Arashi, Sorata (these two are from -X-) and Kaito (Clear Card) in some other anime where they play similar characters. Generally, I'm not sure what to think of these shared universes, however in this particular case it was just a bad idea. I'm sorry, but using Sakura and Shaoran in anything but Cardcaptor Sakura is just a bad idea. Clear Card was a bad idea, and that was a sequel.

Anyway, what else can I say about this. It's not terrible, but it's also not very ineresting. Yet, I hope, at least. One thing that is great is the music.

This is part of a concert that's also available on YouTube, and part of the encore. They all just disappear at the regular end of the setlist, then and come back in their band-shirts instead of wearing their normal stage clothes. I don't know why, for some reason this never fails to entertain me. 

Although there's quite frankly nothing less I expect from a Yuki Kajiura soundtrack. It's also really great to see Fiction Junction performing on stage without it being equal parts hilarious and making you feel ashamed for liking anime. Unlike, let's say, a certain amount of other performances. If you think I'm going to link one of those now, then you're right! Alas, my go-to one has disappeared, probably got copyright struck from YouTube.

A pity, but this will serve as a decent replacement. Actually, an even worse one. Frighteningly worse. Oh dear.

When something makes you want the "Dancing stars on me" video back, then that's saying a lot, huh?

There's a nice flashback in the episode with the scene where Tomoyo banishes one of the characters of the show for being a total shounen moron who says he doesn't care who lives or dies, he just wants to become more powerful. On the one hand, that's great, on the other, we're now stuck with him in the party, and even though he continuously grumbles about not wanting to be part of the team and leaving at the first chance, I'm afraid we'll not be rid of him that easily, huh?

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

Weiss Kreuz, episode 1. This is probably the worst anime I've ever enjoyed watching the entire first episode of. Not in terms of art/animation, although the animation is quite poor on top of the DVD being a pretty bad scan as well...and it has one of the worst intro songs/videos I've heard. It starts off with some guys in a van being attacked intercut with our main character, one computer programmer Michiru, and her boyfriend having a short conversation... You know what, why don't I just post the clip?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/0nvsf4ugqivymf3/mpc-hc64_uxY2RkGOZe.mp4

Okay, the unintentional comedy of that aside, Michiru absentmindedly picks up a data disk from the scene of the accident, and since it's the only thing she has to go off of, decides she has to figure out what's on it. But first, she has to spend some time being depressed about the death of her boyfriend, and visits a flower shop with her friend that is also a girl. The flower shop is run by...a group of four hotshot boys that a ton of other teenage girls are fangirling about? Huh, what's going on here? This is really weird. Oh, oh no...

Tags: adventure, drama, shoujo, bishounen

It gets better...the premise:

Quote

Four young men consisting of Omi Tsukiyono, Ken Hidaka, Youji Kudou, and Aya Fujimiya, are members of a group of assassins called "Weiß." They cover their operations by working at a flower shop during the day and solving/fighting crimes during the night. This is no ordinary group: they kill the murderers, big businessmen, and other assassins that the law cannot touch. Each one is fighting for their own reasons, whether it is for revenge or to help the people that they care about. But they soon realize that there are connections between some of their cases and try to find out what is really going on. They use whatever they can to complete their missions and kill the people that are targeted by Weiß's leader.

So, from what I gather, this show seems like it's going to introduce a new main character that happens to be a girl each episode, a girl that this silly group of flower "assassins" will just happen to meet or be around so that she can rescued by them from perilous circumstances! I feel embarrassed for watching this to begin with, but I feel even more embarrassed that I actually enjoyed the episode.

@majestic You really should've reversed those videos. I didn't like the first song, but then I started watching the second and I thought "actually, the previous one was a masterpiece". Also, I'm never going to watch that show, .

Edited April 28, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

This show is really bad, but hilarious because of strange animation/writing/scene timing decisions. I should not be laughing at people being horrifically maimed or straight up killed, but I've done it two episodes in a row now (heck, I did it several times in this second episode alone!). A little blind girl named Miyu lost her parents in an accident, and all she has left is her older brother...only, he's mysteriously stopped coming to visit her at the hospital as of late, and it's been distressing/depressing her. Meanwhile, one of the flower boys is at the same hospital because his younger sister was just crippled in a hit and run, and he happens to run into little Miyu while she's wandering around the hospital with only the feeling of the walls to guide her.

Spoiler

Turns out, the missing brother tried to get money to pay off her medical bills, but couldn't pay them back and got forced into some underworld pit-fighting arena.

Spoiler

We see him fighting another pit-fighter that's more vicious than him, but he manages to hold his own against the guy. Well, until the other guy pulls out a gun halfway through the fight and just shoots him to death, and the masters of the arena just go "meh, I guess it's not against the rules to do that". RIP your big brother, little Miyu.

Feels like we kind of lost sight of the forest for the trees with this one, what with him being brutally murdered just halfway through the episode. Also, with the little girl being named Miyu, I couldn't help but think of that one Miyu episode where the two orphan kids bite it after the older brother gets frozen and hilariously shatters into a million pieces right in front of his little sister, leading Miyu to soul-suck and mercy-kill the sister - sort of the same energy here...except the flower boys never let little Miyu know that her brother's dead, and in fact, fool her by sending her flowers in his name, lmao. How the hell is that going to work out, guys, especially seeing as she doesn't have any direct family remaining? Strange creative decisions abound in this show.

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Tags: adventure, drama, shoujo, bishounen

Just in case: Bishounen is a tag for the aesthetics of the male characters, not necessarily the target demographic. It just means pretty boy (bishoujo meaning pretty girl). I mean, yeah, literally it means pretty youth because technically shounen means something like "few of years" or "little years", but it at some point came to refer to boys instead of being gender neutral. *shrug*

Yue from CCS is the most bishounen character ever, probably.

edit: Might as well post a picture for everyone who hasn't (and never will) watch the show.

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

@majestic You really should've reversed those videos. I didn't like the first song, but then I started watching the second and I thought "actually, the previous one was a masterpiece". Also, I'm never going to watch that show, .

Blasphemy, how could you not like a song performed by not one but four really good vocal... eh, okay. That answers that.

Okay, in all fairness, it's probably not the strongest of the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles songs, but I really like the live performance. Definitely a case where seeing them on stage having fun enhances the experience a good deal. Unlike, uhm, that µ's thing that just gets worse when being subjected to the video instead of just the audio.

Edited April 28, 2022 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

bishounen

I read this as bioshounen. Which would be a bit weird.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Just in case: Bishounen is a tag for the aesthetics of the male characters, not necessarily the target demographic. It just means pretty boy (bishoujo meaning pretty girl). I mean, yeah, literally it means pretty youth because technically shounen means something like "few of years" or "little years", but it at some point came to refer to boys instead of being gender neutral. *shrug*

Yue from CCS is the most bishounen character ever, probably.

edit: Might as well post a picture for everyone who hasn't (and never will) watch the show.

Yeah, I took the presence of the tag to more mean "there are pretty boys in this show that are supposed to appeal to teenage girls". Combine it with the show putting the flower boys in DANGEROUS SITUATIONS where they have to RESCUE STRONG BUT VULNERABLE DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, and I do believe that is the idea, . Whereas in CCS, that's obviously not really the intent or situation...although it arguably kind of is to a degree in Escaflowne. I'll watch at least a couple more episodes to see if it continues to be inexplicably enjoyable to me.

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Blasphemy, how could you not like a song performed by not one but four really good vocal... eh, okay. That answers that.

No, actually, it's just the style of music. I don't know how to explain it exactly because this is not really an area of forte for me since I've never liked it, but a whole lot of electric guitar-driven rock has a tendency to make my brain go numb - it sounds ear-thrashingly flat and dissonant to me. I weirdly don't have this particular instrumental issue with metal (although I don't like the vast majority of metal for other reasons), and I can jam out to Chuck Berry about as well as anybody, but more modern stuff just never really goes down well with me, I guess.

2 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

bioshounen

We are all bioshounen on this blessed day.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

39 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

We are all bioshounen on this blessed day

Speak for yourself, I'm mechashounen.

[majestic]

5 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I took the presence of the tag to more mean "there are pretty boys in this show that are supposed to appeal to teenage girls". Combine it with the show putting the flower boys in DANGEROUS SITUATIONS where they have to RESCUE STRONG BUT VULNERABLE DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, and I do believe that is the idea, . Whereas in CCS, that's obviously not really the intent or situation...although it arguably kind of is to a degree in Escaflowne. I'll watch at least a couple more episodes to see if it continues to be inexplicably enjoyable to me.

It's probably pretty hilarious too with the voice actor gang consisting of DIO, Toya, Allen and Prince Dios. That seems like a dream combination for just that sort of nonsense. Also, yeah, okay, I wasn't sure with the tag.

6 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

No, actually, it's just the style of music. I don't know how to explain it exactly because this is not really an area of forte for me since I've never liked it, but a whole lot of electric guitar-driven rock has a tendency to make my brain go numb - it sounds ear-thrashingly flat and dissonant to me. I weirdly don't have this particular instrumental issue with metal (although I don't like the vast majority of metal for other reasons), and I can jam out to Chuck Berry about as well as anybody, but more modern stuff just never really goes down well with me, I guess.

I can't even disagree in general. It's not just your brain*, there really is a whole lot of flat guitar playing in a lot of music, some even to the point of me not being actively able to make out the guitar track in the music, even though it's there - why else have a guitarist around. They surely don't pay a guitarist to pretend to play, I mean, that would be weird. I get paying people to sing lip sync like what was that, Milli Vanilli, but yeah, mockup guitarists would be weird.

In this case though, well, dunno, it's probably too easy to win me over with good singing - or rather singing I would consider to be good, that's not really entirely objective. Well, there are objective ways to measure singing quality based on technique and breath support, but that's something else. As such I don't have any issues listening to Evanescence, even though the band is just, let's say terrible. I would not turn off Creed when it's on, but I would actively attempt to get rid of Metallica, and anyone noticing that would spell an instant loss of all metal credibility.

*For me that's by far and large saxophones and (short form, by far and large) trumpets. The former makes me tune out, and the latter actually makes me irascible. I also really, really don't like it when music feels like it's everyone doing their own thing and there's a distinct lack of melody and harmony - or in other words, that's a whole lot of deliberate breaks where there should be none in terms of pattern prediction. It's doubly bad when this brain dissonance is caused by vocals. That pretty much kills all of jazz, with very, very few exceptions.

That's not to say everything needs to be perfectly melodical or easy listening. Some groups I enjoy listening to employ quick timing switches from a base 6/8 time signature to an irregular 5/8 and 7/8 and it doesn't feel wrong. Hard to describe. A decent example is Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me. Ugh. Can't cope. Impossible.

[Sarex]

Bubble. It's bad, don't watch it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

17 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Bubble. It's bad, don't watch it.

How bad are we talking?

[Sarex]

20 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

How bad are we talking?

Bad enough that, I started skipping 15 minutes in and then quit around the half way mark. It starts with such painfully obvious exposition, that is done with a sledgehammer. The characters are tropy and bland. The animation quality is like they had a budget but wanted great animation, so they splurged on a couple of scenes (probably enough to make a trailer). I think Bartimaeus and majestic would have a seizure watching this (I would laugh my ass off if they ended up liking it).

[majestic]

32 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Bad enough that, I started skipping 15 minutes in and then quit around the half way mark. It starts with such painfully obvious exposition, that is done with a sledgehammer. The characters are tropy and bland. The animation quality is like they had a budget but wanted great animation, so they splurged on a couple of scenes (probably enough to make a trailer). I think Bartimaeus and majestic would have a seizure watching this (I would laugh my ass off if they ended up liking it).

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

Bad enough that, I started skipping 15 minutes in and then quit around the half way mark. It starts with such painfully obvious exposition, that is done with a sledgehammer. The characters are tropy and bland. The animation quality is like they had a budget but wanted great animation, so they splurged on a couple of scenes (probably enough to make a trailer). I think Bartimaeus and majestic would have a seizure watching this (I would laugh my ass off if they ended up liking it).

Sounds awful. That's a pass.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

 

 

Majestic within a week:

[Calax]

Been working my way through Gundams, Finished Seed, just started 00. I know why Seed is disliked, I still like the mech designs and the fight between the Strike and Aegis is honestly one of the best done I've ever seen. Honestly this is the first time I've seen 00 with the dub. I saw it originally with the subs so, it'll be unique.

 

As to the worst and most bonkers anime I've tried to watch, Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Stone. It's... unique.

[InsaneCommander]

Rising of Shield Hero Season 2, episodes 1-4

Very different feeling this season since

Spoiler

Nobody seems to hate him anymore.

The other heroes are still a******* though.

Also: Naofumi and his friends enter a giant monster through its rear and Raphtalia can't stand the discussion of what might come through it.

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by InsaneCommander

[Bartimaeus]

Like the Clouds, Like the Wind (1990). A cute and fun albeit pretty ridiculous film about the death of Japan's China's emperor and the women fated to become the new emperor's wives. Hmm. My only real complaint was that it was too short at about an hour fifteen - it could've easily been half an hour to an entire hour longer to really flesh out the story and more of the colorful characters (especially considering the final act, which just suddenly arrives and takes a...different turn from the rest of the film). Recommended well enough to @majestic, I enjoyed it.

Episode 3 of stupid dumb Weiss Kreuz: the first six or seven minutes of this episode were a "masterclass" in storytelling.

Spoiler

The first 30 seconds of the episode are a sudden cut to a woman screaming for help while a dude laughs maniacally and revs up a chainsaw and it is implied that he's going to dismember her before we cut away (oh gosh, gory pun not intended). The flower boys then get some debriefing that explains this organization as sex trafficking young women and little girls and I feel a little bad for having laughed at the previous scene. Immediately follow that up with one of the flower boys, who just received the debriefing about the poor exploited women, waking up in bed with two half-naked women draped on him while tearing off his fake mustache and sneaking out. Then we're suddenly treated to mission impossible music as he tears off his loose robe and is now in a stealth bodysuit that he could not have possibly concealed under the robe. He accidentally stumbles across a shackled and gagged woman, who asks that he help her escape...and he says no, he has a mission to complete, so then she screams for help - you know, in a building full of the people that imprisoned and probably did worse to her, and right after she just got done saying that even the local police are in on it. This show boggles the brain.

  

On 4/29/2022 at 6:46 PM, Calax said:

Been working my way through Gundams, Finished Seed, just started 00. I know why Seed is disliked, I still like the mech designs and the fight between the Strike and Aegis is honestly one of the best done I've ever seen. Honestly this is the first time I've seen 00 with the dub. I saw it originally with the subs so, it'll be unique.

I've debated trying both Gundams and Macross, but every time I really start to consider it, I can't help but feel that it will be totally boring to me given that I need certain kinds of characters to be able to watch long shows that the 80s just don't typically have.

@Sarex All the screenshots I see for this look like this:

How obnoxious! That, or the people posting screenshots of it are obnoxious by trying to wow me with stupid particle spam.

@majestic In the past, I have had cases of me thinking that I didn't like a singer because their instrumentals were so bad that I couldn't get a good feel for the singer by themselves. While I may forgive instrumentals I don't love, instrumentals that actually hurt my ears/brain make it so it doesn't really matter, sadly. Also, screw trumpets.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

No. No no no no no no no. No.

No.

Nooooooo! Please no. Dear god why. And why the comments. No. Nooooooo!