Anime and Manga - I won’t allow your bones to stay on this planet. I will banish your evil soul.

[Sarex]

12 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sorry, I didn't hear what you said, I had to go clean up my dog's turds using my Princess Mononoke™ Giant Wolf Pooper Scooper, now what was it that we were talking about again?

[majestic]

Made in Abyss, season 1.

Well, finished the part that's currently on Netflix here, which is the 13 episodes of the first season. The last episode is twice as long, so technically it has the runtime of a 14 episode show with 25 minute episodes. Not that it changes much. The pacing is all over the place, which is less of an issue than it might seem.

Over the course of the first season, Reg's penis is talked about on three separate occasions. Once after Riko examines him, once after a grown up looks at it in curiosity and once more when Riko and Reg go skinny dipping in the Abyss, which has a very obvious consequence that Riko comments on by basically asking him: "What's going on with your willy?" Riko, on the other hand, hangs naked from the ceiling, gets undressed after some distress because Reg wants to 'check' her for any injuries, gets undressed after a serious injury, and of course while bathing (where she can't do it herself due to the aforementioned injury).

She also, on three separate occasions, soils herself. While it does make sense that she would do that under extreme duress (once unconscious while poisoned, once while in terrible pain), the reason why it was necessary to comment and in one case show it is not entirely within the grasp of my understanding. The third one was an 'accident' at night because she was afraid to go to the loo. Well, all in all, it could have been worse, I suppose. Riko is, at least according to the subtitles, 12 years old, and the nudity doesn't carry funny undertones or is sexually charged, skinny dipping commentary aside, perhaps.

As far as random cruelty against children goes, we have the naked hanging from the ceiling punishment that is not only popular in the orphanage, and the group of people who research and explore the Abyss who randomly scoop up unwanted children from all over the world to use them in disfiguring to lethal experiments. Because why not.

That said, back to the pacing. Soft spoilers from here on out - but they should be safe for @Bartimaeus and his patented spoiler reading technique.

Spoiler

The first three episodes are a prelude of sorts to the descent into the Abyss by Reg and Riko, and that also immediately reveals a major flaw in the show's structure. It is unlikely that either of the two would be killed off before the end of the season, and as such, all the dangerous situations they find themselves in are devoid of tension. The show also discards all the other characters at the orphanage they've just spent three episodes to introduce, with the exception of one minor scene back at the orphanage that may or may not be significant later in the series.

The two then proceed with the descent at pace, until they get subjected to a survival course by the mentor of Riko's mother, then descent some more, then everything slows to a standstill of exposition and pseudo-emotionally charged flashbacks to cruel experiments on children when Riko is heavily injured and Reg meets two of the victims of these experiments, Mitty and Nanachi. Nanachi helps Reg to save Riko.  In turn, Reg kills Mitty, a disfigured but immortal child that once was Nanachi's friend, and is now little more than a pet incapable of any higher functions. Nanachi decides to accompany Reg and Riko, and that is where the first season ends.

Now that all reads rather negatively, and the question then becomes, why binge it? Because, surprisingly, while the emotional part of the series did not work for me at all, the mystery part does. Like I alwas maintain, give me a decent mystery to look at, and I'm game. The Abyss serves that function wonderfully, and the exploration part of the series is really nice. It is also, ah, a prelude to a disappointing ending, I suppose, if such an ending comes. Can't recall a decent mystery series where the mystery didn't end up being a letdown, or unexplained. But never mind that, the second season is only ongoing, and who knows if it even finishes the storyline.

At the risk of sounding like @Bartimaeus after watching Madoka, if you want me to care about the abject terror that characters experience, make me care about them first.

Spoiler

Riko, Reg and Nanachi don't really do that. Mitty's situation was terrifying, but even so, she had like three minutes of screen time as an actual child. Not enough. Mitty and Nanachi could have worked, had they been given enough screentime. Alas, such screentime is basically wasted on the middle section of the series which is survival training and what amounts to Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon finding out that there's always a bigger predator around the corner.

With the characters not really working for my Darth Vader, I suppose, they're not really going to work for @Bartimaeus' Palpatine. I do forgive much more easily, after all.

Edited July 31, 2022 by majestic

[Amentep]

SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA the 1980s US pilot. 

An attempt was made to sell the 1979 Cobra series to the US market. Like other anime at the time, significant changes were made to try to make the show saleable to early 80s tv stations as a kids adventure series.

Americanizing Cobra, he becomes a key figure of the rebellion against the Darkside Pirate Guild which has taken over the galactic government. Using the idea from the pilot that Cobra has changed his face and become a galactic Salary man named Johnson. Lazy and incompetent, Johnson is sent by his company to look into the theft of a gold shipment.  But instead he gets his robotic butler to detour to a casino which happens to be where the gold is being held. His butler is revealed to be hiding Galaxina (Lady) like in the Japanese show and Cobra fights the theif (in a sequence taken from Episide 13: Roulette of Death).

Lots of animation is reused, but recontextualized. A lot of death, but everyone is robots (which leads to a horrific lingering shot of a burning robot boy, which is part of new animation made for the pilot).

If it'd been a syndicated series when I was a kid, I'd have watched it.

[Sarex]

@majestic I agree with you that the mystery is the biggest pull of the story.

[Bartimaeus]

19 hours ago, majestic said:

Made in Abyss, season 1.

Yeah, doesn't really sound like a show I'd appreciate unless the characters magically grab me without actually making the effort to do so (which...is not impossible, but is definitely pretty rare). I'm also not known for caring about mystery stuff for the mystery in of itself (now as a vehicle to propel characters forward a la Steven Universe, heck yes...but otherwise, not really), . I'll try an episode, but if I don't take a liking to it within that, I'm not gonna sweat it.

18 hours ago, Amentep said:

SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA the 1980s US pilot. 

An attempt was made to sell the 1979 Cobra series to the US market. Like other anime at the time, significant changes were made to try to make the show saleable to early 80s tv stations as a kids adventure series.

Americanizing Cobra, he becomes a key figure of the rebellion against the Darkside Pirate Guild which has taken over the galactic government. Using the idea from the pilot that Cobra has changed his face and become a galactic Salary man named Johnson. Lazy and incompetent, Johnson is sent by his company to look into the theft of a gold shipment.  But instead he gets his robotic butler to detour to a casino which happens to be where the gold is being held. His butler is revealed to be hiding Galaxina (Lady) like in the Japanese show and Cobra fights the theif (in a sequence taken from Episide 13: Roulette of Death).

Lots of animation is reused, but recontextualized. A lot of death, but everyone is robots (which leads to a horrific lingering shot of a burning robot boy, which is part of new animation made for the pilot).

If it'd been a syndicated series when I was a kid, I'd have watched it.

Doesn't sound nearly as horrific as the U.S. Sailor Moon pilot - how unfortunate.

American TV animation was almost as skilled and detailed as Japan in the 90s.

[majestic]

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul

Well, that escalated quickly. I liked Bondrewd, but everything else in this movie felt like watching Rebuild, and the story lost whatever preciously little grounding it had. I had a laugh out moment when Reg suddenly turned into the void creature that lurks inside the shell of the knight from Hollow Knight, although, assuming that this is in the manga too, it probably predates the game. Riko keeps being grating, and I switched to the English dub for a bit where her grating whine suddenly turned into a wailing shriek that pierced my eardrums and left me bleeding.

Not sure what the voice direction for these scenes where she's crying was, but the result isn't very convincing, neither in the original, nor in the English dub.

Decided to hop onto YouTube and look for a sample, but I found several short clips from season two, where scenes are depicted that - combined with the titles - are REALLY making me looking forwad to it. One was Riko makes a poo and another one is Riko has a tentacle fetish with something going into her mouth in the thumbnail. Highlight of the movie was when Prushka - a girl introduced in the film - was talking with Riko about Reg's penis and the errection he gets when he sees boobs or touches Nanachi. Prushka doesn't know the word penis, but after Riko doodles one, she calls it a papa pole. Papa is what she calls Bondrewd, the ever polite villain of the film. I better not think about the implication of why she would call that doodle a papa pole and pretend it was just the subtitles that were translated funnily.

Also, here's an image of experiments done on Reg. Please take detailed note of the suction tube attached to his penis. The series is positively obsessed.

Scenes like this one makes me glad for Riko's butthole examination yielding no appreciable results because Reg's sphincter broke all probes.

Yeah, well...

Edited August 2, 2022 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

36 minutes ago, majestic said:

Please take detailed note of the suction tube attached to his penis.

I would like to capture this in the sig, but I fear it may cause mod issues.

[Bartimaeus]

39 minutes ago, majestic said:

Riko keeps being grating, and I switched to the English dub for a bit where her grating whine suddenly turned into a wailing shriek that pierced my eardrums and left me bleeding.

Yeah, the English dub was unbearable from the ~10 seconds or so I tried of it in the first episode. Not that I particularly liked the direction of the Japanese* either, but I don't know why so many modern English dubs go with the over-the-top false/artificial style for their direction when you could just...like, not? There's something there that I clearly just don't get.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[InsaneCommander]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

 

Scenes like this one makes me glad for Riko's butthole examination yielding no appreciable results because Reg's sphincter broke all probes.

 

[Bartimaeus]

Yawara, episode 8.

This show is pretty dumb, but...I continue to watch it.

[HoonDing]

The scene where she drops that loser she eventually marries was copied many times in 90s animes, including City Hunter.

I miss these aesthetics tbh

[Bartimaeus]

58 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

I miss these aesthetics tbh

I've come to understand that it's more than just that for me, because it's not only the visuals/aesthetic (although that can be a big part of it): there's also something to be said for how even just characters are presented and communicate. Even when a lot of the old stuff (e.g. @Amentep's Space Adventure Cobra or your City Hunter) is not particularly interesting to me, I still find it way more...like, I feel as though I understand what they're trying to do, and it's not an active assault on my senses even when I don't care for it. With new stuff, I almost always feel like I've been rudely deposited into an alien hellscape where I don't understand why anything is the way it is, how anyone could possibly prefer things to be this way - like they're two different mediums with completely divorced styles of communicating to the viewer, and I just fundamentally don't get the new style. If this show, Yawara, was re-made now with the intent to be functionally faithful to both the story and characters, I would undoubtedly find it completely unwatchable. For just characters: how they look (faces and how eyes/lips in particular are used, bone structure, hair styles/colors, clothing, movement, ...), how they express themselves, the voice-acting casts, the particular direction in tones/cadence/word choice, how characters are written and framed and what's normal/accepted within that, et cetera. That's just on the subject of characters, and there's a lot more than that that goes into the style of a show than just its characters (even if I would personally say that's the most important). Plus, the more questionable elements of this show that I don't care for would surely be magnified a dozen-fold because that's what modern audiences apparently prefer. Well, I don't think any of these things are ever going to go back to how they used to be...which is probably good for me in a way, because it means I have very little new that I need to ever investigate or try, but I hate it at the same time too.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Uncle From Another World 3: How The Uncle Becomes An Aunt And Gets A Larger YouTube Audience

Not as funny as last week, but still pretty funny.

EDIT: Also finished s1 of Spy x Family

It was fun, but I wish there would be more focus on Yor, whose assassinations have taken the back seat to Loid's spywork and Anya's school escapades. I think we've had more screentime of the monocle teacher saying elegant than we've had of Yor's double life.

Edited August 3, 2022 by KP wants Blue Velvet

[Sarex]

57 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

It was fun, but I wish there would be more focus on Yor, whose assassinations have taken the back seat to Loid's spywork and Anya's school escapades. I think we've had more screentime of the monocle teacher saying elegant than we've had of Yor's double life.

That is coming in S2 I'm pretty sure. She gets her own stories in the manga. Was there a mission on a cruise ship in s1?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, Sarex said:

That is coming in S2 I'm pretty sure. She gets her own stories in the manga. Was there a mission on a cruise ship in s1?

I think so too, right now though it seems like she just teaches Anya how to beat people up. Too bad Anya can't remember anything.

I don't think the cruise ship happened in s1, it ended with a trip to the aquarium.

[Sarex]

Welcome to the forum KP from another world. Did truck-kun get you?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Welcome to the forum KP from another world. Did truck-kun get you?

Yes

[InsaneCommander]

7 hours ago, KP From Another World said:

Uncle From Another World 3: How The Uncle Becomes An Aunt And Gets A Larger YouTube Audience

Not as funny as last week, but still pretty funny.

The memories from the other world were hilarious as usual.

Spoiler

But I was disappointed the elf didn't come for real.

 

7 hours ago, KP From Another World said:

EDIT: Also finished s1 of Spy x Family

It was fun, but I wish there would be more focus on Yor, whose assassinations have taken the back seat to Loid's spywork and Anya's school escapades. I think we've had more screentime of the monocle teacher saying elegant than we've had of Yor's double life.

Yes, we definitely needed more Yor.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

5 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

The memories from the other world were hilarious as usual.

  Reveal hidden contents

But I was disappointed the elf didn't come for real.

 

Yes, we definitely needed more Yor.

SUPER ULTRA ELLLLLLLLLLLEGAAAAAAANTO

[InsaneCommander]

Well, now I can post Spy x Family memes and someone will understand.

 

[Bartimaeus]

SpyxFamily, episode 1. Very silly, but mostly enjoyable and certainly not too shabby for a first episode. My least favorite part so far is probably the overly excessive amount of internal monologuing, but...maybe the most basic of those will calm down a bit later. Bonus points: the animation doesn't make me want to throw up.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

SpyxFamily, episode 2. Yor...seems to be a little bit of a smorgasbord of anime cliches, but they're at least not the worst ones that they could be, and it's still early, so there's time to get past that. My impression of Anya so far is that she's great...but I don't know why whatshisname keeps monologuing over his own dialogue (like, literally directly over it, with both sets of dialogue and subtitles playing at the same time) to tell us really obvious things that we already know. Overall, I seem to be enjoying it though.

Spoiler

These "parents" would have to be extremely dense for them not to realize that the other is a spy/assassin, but whatever, it doesn't matter, .

[InsaneCommander]

11 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

 

  Hide contents

These "parents" would have to be extremely dense for them not to realize that the other is a spy/assassin, but whatever, it doesn't matter, .

It doesn't make sense, but I guess it's the premise of the anime.

Spoiler

Funny that Anya is the only one to know. They don't really need telepathy to notice each other's career.

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by InsaneCommander

[InsaneCommander]

Uncle From Another World 4:

More memories and plenty of awkward situations. We still don't know everything that happened on the other world. I wonder for how long can Takafumi and Fujimiya stand his uncle's behavior.

 

Overlord 4.5

Ainz goes to the Dwarven Kingdom on a diplomatic mission, but the truth is simply that he doesn’t want Albedo and Demiurge to discover he has no idea what a vassal state is. Shalltear taking notes and learning from Ainz was adorable. You can almost forget what she is like when she blood rages.

 

Overlord 4.6

Ainz helps the dwarves and for once he is the one outsmarted.

 

Spoiler

The enemy destroys a bridge to kill two death knights, giving the impression that they have someone extremely powerful on their side.

The Darven council agrees to send all their runesmiths to the Sorcery Kingdom in exchange for recovering their capital and some booze.

 

 

[uuuhhii]

how does that ridiculously boring light novel get 4 season of adaptation

might as well rewatch endless august

or watch any anime adaptation of game made by august