Anime and Manga - It's time for you to finish what you've started and watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I finished Space Dandy, baby. It may have been my rona fogged mind (which may have also smashed it together with Twin Peaks and the Banshees of Inisherin), but I remember it as amazing.

[majestic]

25 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

The vocalist is fine, it's the style of music that's the problem!  

Absolutely secondary to the ear bleeding, but not wrong either. #notmystyleofmetal

[Bartimaeus]

On 1/2/2023 at 9:43 AM, majestic said:

For something close to two years now Neflix has tried to get me to watch 天気の子.

I think I completely skipped reading this post because I read this when I was too tired to search what the hell you had watched and just said "forget it" as soon as I saw the Japanese text, and then I forgot to go back and read the rest later. Japanese has its price, my friend, .

On 1/2/2023 at 9:43 AM, majestic said:

Oh, right, the film. I do not entirely understand why all the character models in modern anime films are looking so similar to each other.

In all fairness, if the choice was between letting the anime industry currently do what it's already doing with regards to them (i.e. a hot mess combination of terrible designs that make me immediately go "no" to watching a show or repeatedly using very similar ones...and often both at the same time) versus forcing all of them to use just the specific ones I like, I'd definitely choose the latter. Probably - actually, definitely. Probably.

On 1/2/2023 at 9:43 AM, majestic said:

At least now I'm fairly certain that I don't want to watch Your Name. After all, Weathering With You was criticized for being too similar. Probably not with the plot, but themes and whatnot. 

Your Name got an incredible 6.5/10 from me. That sounds like sarcasm, but that is kind of amazing given what kind of film it is and having zero appeal to me. I don't know how Weather Girl compares really, especially given the relatively bare-bones description, but I guess at least the ending does sound pretty similar, except for...

Spoiler

Your Name doesn't get the silly happy ending, and also the plot wasn't...dependent on a character having magical superpowers which could cause or prevent some kind of disaster or anything like that, as the events were really just incidental...and I can say from your description, that was almost certainly for the best.

 

On 1/2/2023 at 9:43 AM, majestic said:

Do you even care? Do you want to find out?

Nope!

55 minutes ago, Space KP, Baby said:

I finished Space Dandy, baby. It may have been my rona fogged mind (which may have also smashed it together with Twin Peaks and the Banshees of Inisherin), but I remember it as amazing.

I was recommended by someone else to watch Banshees, still unsure. Sorry, not going to check out Space Dandy, I am the big fat meanie zucchini, .

Edited January 11, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I think I completely skipped reading this post because I read this when I was too tired to search what the hell you had watched and just said "forget it" as soon as I saw the Japanese text, and then I forgot to go back and read the rest later. Japanese has its price, my friend, .

The English title Weathering With You is like literally in the next sentence, but I'll place it more prominently next time.

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

In all fairness, if the choice was between letting the anime industry currently do what it's already doing with regards to them (i.e. a hot mess combination of terrible designs that make me immediately go "no" to watching a show or repeatedly using very similar ones...and often both at the same time) versus forcing all of them to use just the specific ones I like, I'd definitely choose the latter. Probably - actually, definitely. Probably.

I can get behind that.

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Your Name got an incredible 6.5/10 from me. That sounds like sarcasm, but that is kind of amazing given what kind of film it is and having zero appeal to me. I don't know how Weather Girl compares really, especially given the relatively bare-bones description, but I guess at least the ending does sound pretty similar, except for...

  Hide contents

Your Name doesn't get the silly happy ending, and also the plot wasn't...dependent on a character having magical superpowers which could cause or prevent some kind of disaster or anything like that, as the events were really just incidental...and I can say from your description, that was almost certainly for the best.

I guess I should put Your Name back on the watch list then.

Spoiler

Her super power is making the sun shine in a limited area for a short amount of time. She goes around Tokyo and does that for various people, sometimes for money, and sometimes just for the people. She accepts like a handful of yen from a child. It's not really about the super power per se, as she only got it because she wished for sunshine while her mother was at the hospital, and the spirits granted her request, but it comes with her having to sacrifice herself to fix the weather in Tokyo, which she actually does, and then Hodoka comes running and prevents it.

The story part of the film is less than half of it. The rest is mostly character building and interactions, which should be great, but somehow was not. It wasn't bad by any means, and I've certainly seen worse, but for every good moment there's something stupid.

Spoiler

Like when Hina gives Hodoka a free Big Mac because he just keeps eating soup at the McDonald's she's working at (how very Japanese for McD's to have soup there, assuming that is actually true ), that is a nice scene. Later we see Hodoka stumbling into Hina wanting to take up a job in a night club with sleazy owners, figures out they're trying to coerce her (which they don't, even if they are trying to take advantage of her desperate situation) and gets himself involved without thinking, which then leads to him using the gun he found.

Hina freaks out and leaves, and then just comes back, because knights in shining armors with loaded guns are hard to come by, or something.

Then there are some moments of bizarre fanservice where Hodoka just stares at one of the female character's breasts until it is pointed out to him. It's sillier than usual because it's way, way out of place. Not that fanservice like that is every necessary in my opinion, but there's a time and place for it, and this film certainly is not. Much like the stupid boobery in Tamako Love Story, but at least Tamako Love Story tried to make it a story point - an unnecessary one, but a point at least. Here it's just random.

Edit: The description was pretty barebones because there's not much to the film's plot, and descriptions of all the character interactions would have been really superflous. There's just not much more to say about it. It is perhaps the films biggest achievement, to never really be boring with so little going on. Well, little. There's Hodoka's friend and his attempts to gain custody of her daughter, which never really gets resolved properly other than a throw-away montage at the end, the friend's niece who works with Hodoka who is looking for a job but never finds one, uhm... yeah. It would be my kind of nothing happens if that nothing was more interesting.

Edited January 12, 2023 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I was recommended by someone else to watch Banshees, still unsure. Sorry, not going to check out Space Dandy, I am the big fat meanie zucchini, .

First of all, you naughty [insert image of cenobite grinning or gaping maw of an eldritch abomination]

Secondly.....I don't know if I'd reccomend it to you. It's a beautiful film and ranks among the best things from 2022 for me but in your case.....one of the major characters is explicitly unlikeable and the development of Farrell's Padraic may turn you off. Maybe if you're in the mood for a tragedy.

[InsaneCommander]

Midjourney AI creates a live-action JoJo movie:

Imagine what it will do in ten or more years.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

41 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Imagine what it will do in ten or more years.

Make hands that aren't ****ed?

[Lexx]

Are you telling me Joseph Joestar did not have 6 fingers?

[Bartimaeus]

19 hours ago, majestic said:

The English title Weathering With You is like literally in the next sentence, but I'll place it more prominently next time.

But the thing is, I was really tired. So you see, that's your fault, .

19 hours ago, majestic said:

Then there are some moments of bizarre fanservice where Hodoka just stares at one of the female character's breasts until it is pointed out to him. It's sillier than usual because it's way, way out of place. Not that fanservice like that is every necessary in my opinion, but there's a time and place for it, and this film certainly is not. Much like the stupid boobery in Tamako Love Story, but at least Tamako Love Story tried to make it a story point - an unnecessary one, but a point at least. Here it's just random.

IIRC, there's only one fan service-y moment in Your Name, and it's kind of similar: the main character feels herself up pretty much right at the very beginning, to which her little sister goes "WTF?" when she sees her doing it, but it turns out there is an explanation for it that is reasonable even if it still feels like something that would only ever happen in anime. Other mediums would generally have the good sense to restrain themselves. It's not as groan-worthy as what I remember you showing for Tamako Love Story, though...I think.

19 hours ago, majestic said:

Edit: The description was pretty barebones because there's not much to the film's plot, and descriptions of all the character interactions would have been really superflous. There's just not much more to say about it. It is perhaps the films biggest achievement, to never really be boring with so little going on. Well, little. There's Hodoka's friend and his attempts to gain custody of her daughter, which never really gets resolved properly other than a throw-away montage at the end, the friend's niece who works with Hodoka who is looking for a job but never finds one, uhm... yeah. It would be my kind of nothing happens if that nothing was more interesting.

Yeah, which is fine, 'cause I ain't ever watching Weathertop. Sounds like a largely OK-ish film without being too offensive to the brain.

These posters come out of the same glue factory, or what?

[Lexx]

Your Name was great, but I didn't really like Weathering With You. Can't really remember why now, since it's been a few years. Guess the story was uninteresting to me / I got bored and checked out inbetween and then wasn't able to get back into it anymore. Or maybe because the story just kinda went along and then the movie just ended... idk.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Lexx

[InsaneCommander]

5 hours ago, Space KP, Baby said:

Make hands that aren't ****ed?

Spoiler

 

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

But the thing is, I was really tired. So you see, that's your fault, .

I can live with that.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

IIRC, there's only one fan service-y moment in Your Name, and it's kind of similar: the main character feels herself up pretty much right at the very beginning, to which her little sister goes "WTF?" when she sees her doing it, but it turns out there is an explanation for it that is reasonable even if it still feels like something that would only ever happen in anime.

 

Spoiler

I already read that the film is about a body switch, so I'm guessing it's boy wakes up in girl body and has nothing better to do than doing what the average 14 year old says they'd do if they'd switch body with a girl. Play with their boobs all day long. *sigh*

That is... unfortunate.

 

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Other mediums would generally have the good sense to restrain themselves. It's not as groan-worthy as what I remember you showing for Tamako Love Story, though...I think.

Probably not. It is hard to explain how groan-worthy the really terrible parts of Tamao Love Story were without the context of the series and the rest of the movie. The worst part about them was that the film was actually pretty great. I liked the characters, the 'plot' (surprisingly, it's a love story, who would have thought), it was thematically great in the way it was in juxtaposition to the events of the series when it comes to depicting Tamako's life as ever the same and suddenly there's a rush of change that she simply never truly perceived. The film is also really, really, really good with its scene composition.

And then... then it goes and tries to tell the audience that Tamako is still completely oblivious, by telling her guy-best-friend who she is in love with but doesn't realize it yet (i.e. the entire plot of the film, then and there) that she ran into giant breats at the bath (complete with saying BOING when she does) and wondering if boobie shaped mochis would be a good idea and by grabbing her gal-best-friend's butt to feel if it would make a good shape for mochi rice cakes.

Tamako's autistic friend (a character you'd probably love ) even narrates the latter by talking directly at the camera about how we can see the perverted mochi girl going for some fine ass. Well, not entirely in these words, but perverted was definitely a part of it. 

The breast part at least I could have lived with, to be honest. It's still strange to talk to Mochizō about it rather than to Midori, but if the aim is to show that Tamako is still not thinking about romantic and/or sexual topics in general, which is a huge stretch at her age in the film, but not impossible, then that would have worked. Touching Midori inappropriately in the light of Midori's unrequited love for Tamako is not only degrading to the character, it's downright hurtful for no good reason, and nothing really comes of it either.

Overall I enjoyed the film, probably too much in light of that scene. It is such a stain on an otherwise great work. It made me like a romantic comedy, and that takes a lot. Sigh.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

These posters come out of the same glue factory, or what?

The film's character models and designs came out of the same factoy as well.

[InsaneCommander]

Space Dandy 14: Space Dandy in the Multiverse of Dandies.

Scarlet “fires” the crew after they try to pass a cow as a rare alien.

And it’s the end of Boobies!

We get all kinds of Dandies: competent Dandy, Bear Brick Dandy, Emo Dandy, She-Dandy, Space Ninja Dandy, Space Inspector Dandy, Trucker Dandy, Mascot Dandy… and alternate versions of QT, Meow and Honey.

I’m glad they were just joking about changing the series to Emo Dandy. That trio is disturbing.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

22 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I walked right into that one.

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

And it’s the end of Boobies!

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I’m glad they were just joking about changing the series to Emo Dandy. That trio is disturbing.

I thought Helmet Meow was supposed to be scary at first.

[Bartimaeus]

Mai Mai Miracle (2009). A film set in the 50s about a small town young girl who likes to imagine herself back a thousand years into the past, who makes a new friend at school that she brings with on her adventures. Well, more like the main character stalked her home after school and then invited herself into her house, but at that age, there's not much difference.

And after accidentally drinking a few shots of whiskey together and her new friend drunkenly cackling about her mom having died, they're best of friends. No, really. Little chocolates filled with booze that a child might accidentally eat perhaps shouldn't be left around where said child might find them.

I would have liked to have watched the movie in Japanese, but the two main characters are voiced by clearly too old voice actresses that have very annoying speaking cadences. They're supposed to be like 8 or 9, but it's more like they're 16 and it really doesn't sound right...I guess I should actually look it up. Okay, yes, 15 and 16 when the film released. To think I once complained about the Japanese voice actresses in CCS not sounding young enough...hmph, at least they could figure out how to do somewhat child-like sounding cadences. But the English is fine-ish, and overall, though the film kind of...wanders off a bit towards the end in a number of ways that I can't really explain without spoiling the entire thing, I did enjoy it.

Oh, it's the same director who made This Corner of the World. Apparently, I have another one of his movies that I haven't gotten around to either as well, Princess Arete. Some other time.

[majestic]

51 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

o think I once complained about the Japanese voice actresses in CCS not sounding young enough...

CCS' voice acting has a way of really growing on you while watching. Once I had watched Perfect Blue Tomoyo was distracting for a while, and Sakura was kind of annoying at first - until at some point during the episode where she trashes her father's work, it just clicked, and I guess Tomoyo's singing tided me over.

Still have to chuckle when I think back to the post about the episode where Tomoyo breaks her initial camcorder and I made the text and spoilers read like the show killed a main character off for real. Could feel the death glare through the screen. Good times.

56 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Oh, it's the same director who made This Corner of the World.

Seems like a decent enough director then, but my watchlist way too long already.

58 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

And after accidentally drinking a few shots of whiskey together and her new friend drunkenly cackling about her mom having died, they're best of friends. No, really. Little chocolates filled with booze that a child might accidentally eat perhaps shouldn't be left around where said child might find them.

Random tangent: my maternal grandmother and her mother once started culling their chickens because they thought they got sick, until they realized that they were just drunk out of their minds from the alcohol-preserved sour cherries they threw on the compost heap. The chickens actually ate them.

So, yeah, keep foodstuffs containing alcohol away from children and small animals. 

[Bartimaeus]

Cowbop Bebop, episode 5. Spike goes and talks to a lady from his past hitherto unmentioned, Faye is stupid and rushes on ahead of everyone else and gets caught, Spike has a non-Mexican standoff with a man from his past hitherto unmentioned who keeps some kind of crow-like bird on his shoulder and uses a katana. It didn't feel well setup and Vicious the crow-katana man was super lame, so I'd put it down as the worst episode so far. Trying to have some kind of character-driven plot isn't a bad idea, but c'mon, let's tighten it up, that just wasn't very good - Faye being a moron was the episode's only saving grace.

On 1/13/2023 at 5:17 PM, majestic said:

CCS' voice acting has a way of really growing on you while watching. Once I had watched Perfect Blue Tomoyo was distracting for a while, and Sakura was kind of annoying at first - until at some point during the episode where she trashes her father's work, it just clicked, and I guess Tomoyo's singing tided me over.

Still have to chuckle when I think back to the post about the episode where Tomoyo breaks her initial camcorder and I made the text and spoilers read like the show killed a main character off for real. Could feel the death glare through the screen. Good times.

That camcorder was my favorite character.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Monster - episodes 1 to 5.

I like it, but it's dark and bleak already with appearances of going further down that route.

[InsaneCommander]

Space Dandy 15

Dandy wins a food prize, but he can’t collect it because he went to visit space Capybaras.

More space surfing, this time in the Nexus.

[majestic]

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Cowbop Bebop, episode 5. Spike goes and talks to a lady from his past hitherto unmentioned, Faye is stupid and rushes on ahead of everyone else and gets caught, Spike has a non-Mexican standoff with a man from his past hitherto unmentioned who keeps some kind of crow-like bird on his shoulder and uses a katana. It didn't feel well setup and Vicious the crow-katana man was super lame, so I'd put it down as the worst episode so far. Trying to have some kind of character-driven plot isn't a bad idea, but c'mon, let's tighten it up, that just wasn't very good - Faye being a moron was the episode's only saving grace.

From what I remember I found that episode to be fantastic because it had character-driven elements for a change. I desperately wanted the series to continue like that, but it's back to episodic stuff until the midpoint of the series. However, I have to say, that shootout in the cathedral was amongst the best looking animation I've seen. Everyone on the creative team sure knew how to set a scene and write more interesting takes on the characters, the question is, why didn't they do that more often?

Spoiler

I feel like KP is going to end up shooting us both

 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

From what I remember I found that episode to be fantastic because it had character-driven elements for a change. I desperately wanted the series to continue like that, but it's back to episodic stuff until the midpoint of the series. However, I have to say, that shootout in the cathedral was amongst the best looking animation I've seen. Everyone on the creative team sure knew how to set a scene and write more interesting takes on the characters, the question is, why didn't they do that more often?

  Hide contents

I feel like KP is going to end up shooting us both

 

As I said, the idea seemed good to me...in theory, but the execution felt rushed and kind of lousy - maybe if they had spent the last episode actually setting it up, or made it a two-parter, or...something. Something besides all our characters being grumpy at each other, a rapid-fire series of new characters being introduced, and long/drawn-out exposition dumps about stuff not previously mentioned or...really even on my radar as something to be of any interest at all. Heh, I nearly declared it "Noir-esque", but a ten second reflection later made me realize how much of an imbecile I'd have to be to say that. If Noir's handling of its character and story elements was a 2/10, then this episode score probably around a 5 for me, which is...yeah, it wasn't there, but Noir it is not.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I feel like KP is going to end up shooting us both

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Heh, I nearly declared it "Noir-esque", but a ten second reflection later made me realize how much of an imbecile I'd have to be to say that.

After, like, the first four or five episodes of Noir, I thought Noir was rather like that episode from Cowboy Bebop too, particularily when they get to the church/catacombs early on, but Noir turned out to be a little on the, uhm, let's be kind and say underwhelming side.

(am I really fixed?.) ".".." "move " "(dir c:\\windows");

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

As I said, the idea seemed good to me...in theory, but the execution felt rushed and kind of lousy - maybe if they had spent the last episode actually setting it up, or made it a two-parter, or...something. Something besides all our characters being grumpy at each other, a rapid-fire series of new characters being introduced, and long/drawn-out exposition dumps about stuff not previously mentioned or...really even on my radar as something to be of any interest at all.

True, but then - I feel like I enjoyed the first few standalone episodes less than you did. That episode was such a nice contrast to the... boredom of the rest.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

After, like, the first four or five episodes of Noir, I thought Noir was rather like that episode from Cowboy Bebop too, particularily when they get to the church/catacombs early on, but Noir turned out to be a little on the, uhm, let's be kind and say underwhelming side.

(am I really fixed?.) ".".." "move " "(dir c:\\windows");

True, but then - I feel like I enjoyed the first few standalone episodes less than you did. That episode was such a nice contrast to the... boredom of the rest.

It's been kind of up and down. Faye helped a lot for episodes 3 and 4, in direct contrast to my expectations. Most of my favorite animes (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Vampire Princess Miyu, Tsukikage Ran) have been primarily episodic in nature, so I don't really have an issue with that for its own sake.

[majestic]

43 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's been kind of up and down. Faye helped a lot for episodes 3 and 4, in direct contrast to my expectations. Most of my favorite animes (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Vampire Princess Miyu, Tsukikage Ran) have been primarily episodic in nature, so I don't really have an issue with that for its own sake.

Some of my favorite TV shows were anthologies (Outer Limits) and mostly episodic (X-Files, Andromeda was sort of a hybrid where the episodic content contained a clue or two or a storyline beat in between) in addition to the animes, that's fine. I just didn't really enjoy the episodic parts of Cowboy Bebop all that much, with or without Faye.

Oh, you don't even have the annoying kid the other character on the  crew yet, do you?

I hope you keep watching to at least the episode with the space monster, because I'd like your opinion on that one. I'd rank it amongst the worst episodes of anything I've ever been subjected to.

Edited January 18, 2023 by majestic