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]

Monster. So Tenma did more wandering around chasing after clues, which lead to him stumbling into a plot by nazis to make the main villain the next Hitler and burn down a city to kill the Turks, which the main villain has no interest in because.....well I guess next Hitler isn't a great gig for an anime villain in a mystery drama. There is also a dwarf nazi who is a homage to The Man From Another Place in Twin Peaks, which means that watching this show to unwind from how weird Twin Peaks is (Twin Peaks: The Return is perhaps the best television I've seen, but it is heavy and dense at parts) just hit a brick wall. Still going to keep with it, because I like mysteries and the show is good, Dr. Tenma should have shot the Nazis though.

 

[InsaneCommander]

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I've watched all these clips, and it makes me appreciate some things in which I largely took for granted in Spy x Family, like Anya's voice not being that of a shrill harpy's, slightly more unique character designs, the art style not being neon puke, characters talking with just a little more normal tones and inflections, and not resorting to the most generic of simplified anime expressions (...although Spy x Family has its own problems with being meme-y about its own face expressions, of course). It's the littlest things that shift a show from "watchable" to "unwatchable" for me with modern anime, . Well, really, everything, but especially modern anime.

The series is funny, but by episode 4 you can see all those differences from Spy x Family. Besides what you say, there is also the better developed personalities of the main characters and the main plot, which gives you something to look forward to (instead of just wondering what Miri will destroy next).

 

Kaina of the Great Snow Sea 3-4

Kaina and Ririha reach the Snow Sea, just to find Valghian soldiers waiting for them. It takes 30 days to go down the orbital tree and I don't wanna know what they were drinking during that time...

[majestic]

Well, look at episode 20 of PGSM. Usagi figures out that Mamoru is engaged in the worst possible way. The writers are really milking that set up for as long as it lasts, and the foregone conclusion that is hovering over all of this makes it kind of feel superflous and wasted. There are some really significant deviations from the source material(s) in this series, but not enough to make anyone ever believe that the romantic core of this series could have any other outcome than the canonical one. This version of their relationship might be the best yet, though. Mamoru isn't a weird creep and Usagi is, while childish at times, a lot less immature and co-dependent than her anime counterpart. With this being a live action series involving actual minors, I also doubt we'll be treated to an implied sex scene where Mamoru has nothing better to do than jumping on Usagi after she calls him a pedophile. Yes, that's in Crystal, in case any of you forgot or, uhm, didn't read my posts.

Motoki continues to be an idiot, but now that Makoto has actually talked to him and gave him a scarf for Valentine's day, things are progressing there, although they'll only conclude in a post-series special. I just hope Motoki isn't going to bring his turtle to the wedding. Ami is abudcted by Kunzite, finally starting her path down to DARK SAILOR MERCURY after being the Ensign Mayweather* of PGSM for the past couple episodes. Minako figures out that Mamoru is Tuxedo Mask, while psycho-killer Rei is trying to figure out what Minako's deal is. Mamoru and Usagi take the creepy kids out for what creepy girl calls a double date, only to have Usagi's hopes cruelly dashed by the creepy boy telling her that Mamoru and Hina are engaged.

The series seems to have some pacing issues, after a while of not much happening too much happens all at once and way too quickly.

*Character on Star Trek: Enterprise who, if he was lucky, got a single line to say per episode, because the writers had no idea what to do with his character.

Edited February 4, 2023 by majestic

[Raithe]

Ran into this on youtube which hit alll the nostalgia buttons and was quirkily interesting.

Cyber City Oedo 808 being one of the first animes I watched as a teenager back in the early 90's.

 

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[HoonDing]

[Gorth]

While in Melbourne, I stayed at a place that had Amazon prime. Watched a number of episodes of something called Vox Machina. Wasn't bad. Was actually quite nice at times. Too much profanity and too little nudity though (I would say, obviously more for a US than a Japanese audience )

[Sarex]

17 minutes ago, Gorth said:

While in Melbourne, I stayed at a place that had Amazon prime. Watched a number of episodes of something called Vox Machina. Wasn't bad. Was actually quite nice at times. Too much profanity and too little nudity though (I would say, obviously more for a US than a Japanese audience )

That is based on live D&D session from twitch streamers called critical role.

[majestic]

Not having watched any of Spy x Family and not being familiar with anything but Anya's character design and apparently quirky Japanese (which is, giving this the benefit of the doubt, hopefully where those spelling mistakes come from), am I going to regret asking what Anya and the salmon have to do with a Kitsune-dance?

Edited February 5, 2023 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

36 minutes ago, majestic said:

Not having watched any of Spy x Family and not being familiar with anything but Anya's character design and apparently quirky Japanese (which is, giving this the benefit of the doubt, hopefully where those spelling mistakes come from), am I going to regret asking what Anya and the salmon have to do with a Kitsune-dance?

Yes.

[InsaneCommander]

Buddy Daddies 5

Kazuki and Rei finally start to receive jobs again, but the daycare is closed because of a virus and they have to take care of Miri while doing the jobs.

The "Anya faces" in this anime are another aspect worse than in Spy x Family.

Spoiler

 

[Bartimaeus]

On 2/4/2023 at 5:12 PM, Raithe said:

Ran into this on youtube which hit alll the nostalgia buttons and was quirkily interesting.

Cyber City Oedo 808 being one of the first animes I watched as a teenager back in the early 90's.

 

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Coincidentally, a (real) blu-ray of the show very recently released for the first time. I say "real" because another blu-ray had already existed for a number of years before, but it was just an awful fake upscale.

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[uuuhhii]

anyone remember the name of a show come out 15 to 19 years ago with a middle age main character with superpower to destroy things by using camera to take a picture

the first episode also involve someone running through street naked while holding a lot of cash

edit found it

2005 speed grapher

Edited February 9, 2023 by uuuhhii

[Bartimaeus]

@Amentep Did you ever get around to watching Giant Robo at all? Have a friend that recently bought the BDs from Discotek, and gotta say, some of the screen caps they sent me make it look like something I might be interested in.

[Amentep]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

@Amentep Did you ever get around to watching Giant Robo at all? Have a friend that recently bought the BDs from Discotek, and gotta say, some of the screen caps they sent me make it look like something I might be interested in.

GIANT ROBO "The Day the Earth Stood Still", Yasuhiro Imagawa's celebration of the works of Mitsuteru Yokoyama is a fantastic OAV series, IMO. I watched them on VHS when they originally came out; the wait for that last OAV was excruciating...

I then watched the DVDs a few years later. Have the Blurays, but not watched them yet. 90S animation + classic 60s character designs + good story, imo. There are some great moments that I still think about from time to time even though it's been a few years since my last watch.

There's an unfortunate issue that the production company ended the OAVs early, so the end sets up the antagonist for the next story arc that didn't happen, but you get a satisfying end to this story arc, I think even if the setup for the next arc is left hanging.

I've not seen all the Ginrei specials (made between OAVs by the team using the Robo cast), though. Have them, just never sat and watched them yet (wanted to do it with my next rewatch of the OAVs).

[InsaneCommander]

Buddy Daddies 6

More Spy x Family moments. This time it was Kazuki imagining his daughter breaking bad (like Yor did a few weeks ago) and Jesus Miri:

 

[majestic]

Usagi's mother in PGSM is an absolute whackjob. That's pretty much all for now. 

On 2/4/2023 at 4:07 PM, majestic said:

Minako figures out that Mamoru is Tuxedo Mask

That wasn't Minako, it was Makoto. I'm not entirely sure why I wrote Minako. She beats Tuxedo Mask up for flirting with Usagi while being engaged. Yeah, that's more like it. Within the series, it makes sense for Makoto to do that, not only has he hurt Usagi, but this Tuxedo Mask is a jewelry thief like in the manga, and Makoto really doesn't like criminals. On the flipside, it makes more sense for everyone but Usagi to distrust him with this setup than it does in the original anime, where he's always just a helpful guy throwing roses.

Before basically being relegated to tertiary character by Ikuhara.

Edited February 10, 2023 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Man, I wish we'd gotten to see Makoto beat up Mamoru in the original show. Feel like I've been robbed a little.

@InsaneCommander Jesus Miri? Are you sure she isn't just shroomed out of her mind?

[InsaneCommander]

On 2/10/2023 at 9:43 PM, Bartimaeus said:

Man, I wish we'd gotten to see Makoto beat up Mamoru in the original show. Feel like I've been robbed a little.

@InsaneCommander Jesus Miri? Are you sure she isn't just shroomed out of her mind?

Well, she was being really nice to the boy who kept bullying her, a kind of a turn the other cheek situation in a way. But truth be told, she is always shroomed out of her mind.

[InsaneCommander]

Buddy Daddies 7

Kazuki gets tired of doing all the chores while Rei plays video games all day.

Truck kun makes an appearance and comes really close to turning this into Is It Wrong to Throw a Tantrum in a Dungeon?

[Bartimaeus]

Whisper of the Heart (1995). The nieces are home for spring break, and they wanted to see the "prequel" to The Cat Returns. I actually tried to have them watch it once in the past probably like a year ago, but I didn't really expect them to care for it because it's not the silly fantastical adventure that The Cat Returns is, and they kind of lost interest like 20 minutes in. But for some reason, they were in the mood today and unlike last time, it kept their attention the entire duration and they loved it even with some of the sillier awkward teenage stuff that they find embarrassing, so watching it with them was positively magical. Still my favorite movie of all time, I had to hide tears from my nieces at several junctures.

(e): Also, oh my gosh this movie is so gorgeous, even my older niece commented a few times on how insane some of the artwork was, which, of course, made me launch into a short spiel about everything being hand-drawn compared to the computer animation of today, which only seemed to break her brain even more. Hurts my soul we'll never see its kind again, but I can be thankful at least it exists.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Whisper of the Heart is, besides fantastic, a film that manages the seemingly impossible. It is an interesting tale of a young girl figuring her life out, it is romantic, often fun, and... absolutely soul crushing for an adult viewer like me.

Spoiler

I felt worse after watching it than after Grave of the Fireflies, and that takes some doing.

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, unlike Fireflies and other outwardly deliberate tug-at-the-heart-strings affairs, it doesn't really seem to be intended to destroy the viewer, but because it does so for at least me while also going through a very full spectrum of different feelings (both positive and negative) for many different angles regarding life, it feels so much more encompassing, personal, and powerful than practically anything else I can think of. Throw in almost every other element being chef's kiss, and it's as close to both objective and subjective perfection as I've ever experienced. Some things just feel like they must be some kind of miracle for them to exist exactly as they were made - for all the different parts to have come together so perfectly at precisely the only time they could have been made with no issues of anything about it ever being problematic, unnecessary, or otherwise negative to even slightly weigh the overall experience down. Whisper of the Heart is it, and I simply do not see any kind of opportunity for anything else to even have the remote possibility of being able to out-do it with regards to my ever so particular tastes. But that's okay, because it deserves its place at the top for me.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

19 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

my older niece commented a few times on how insane some of the artwork was, which, of course, made me launch into a short spiel about everything being hand-drawn compared to the computer animation of today, which only seemed to break her brain even more

This is hilarious. Not the fact that hand-drawn is going away from most anime, that's very sad. But the mental image of you doing a short rant about anime becoming trash because of the god damn cgi to your niece(s) tickles my funny bones. It's also something I would do, which is usually not a good sign.

It's been a very long time since I've watched an anime feature, maybe I'll watch Whisper of the Heart this weekend as a double feature with Occult Bolshevism (2018).

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, Fire Walk with KP said:

This is hilarious. Not the fact that hand-drawn is going away from most anime, that's very sad. But the mental image of you doing a short rant about anime becoming trash because of the god damn cgi to your niece(s) tickles my funny bones. It's also something I would do, which is usually not a good sign.

It's been a very long time since I've watched an anime feature, maybe I'll watch Whisper of the Heart this weekend as a double feature with Occult Bolshevism (2018).

Now, to be fair, I said "spiel" and not "rant". There's a difference. The difference is...that I tried to imply that I didn't sound completely unhinged, but, well, you know me: of course I sounded utterly deranged.

Okay, but for real: I actually didn't limit my talk about it to anime at all. My nieces have grown up with both Disney and Studio Ghibli films and the like, so they don't really understand that there's a difference between Western animation and anime, at least not such as we would understand it. The issue of hand-drawn animation vs. computer animation is even worse for Western 3D animation, so it wouldn't make much sense to criticize just anime for that. There was a particular scene in the movie that was particularly impressive in terms of art and motion, and I mentioned to my older niece something along the lines of "can you imagine drawing each frame of this scene over and over, with all the little moving details, so that it looks like everything is in motion like this?". She responded by saying, wow, it must've taken months to draw this entire film. Yup. Definitely months. Hey, a hundred artists and animators taking a few dozen months to finish a film is still technically months, .

Speaking of anime features, did you ever get around to the other two parts of Memories?

Edited February 22, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Fire Walk with KP said:

It's been a very long time since I've watched an anime feature, maybe I'll watch Whisper of the Heart this weekend as a double feature with Occult Bolshevism (2018).

Yes, maybe we can finally move towards the apocalypse.