I have my doubts that you can read. Instagram. Also of course my Account wasnt banned, I got just banned from seeing her account at all. I didnt even say that it totally sucks or anything like that - just that people imagined something else and not an netflix anime advertisement and that the crazy editing doesn't exactly help it. Someone even commented my post and agreed. The whole thing was a real disappointment. Gibhli? Who?
Just watched Kengan Ashura's first episode. Its pretty bad. Really strange looking faces on the CG models, bad subtitle timing and quite a bit of personality cut from characters. Oh well, at least someone out there will like it.
The Crunchyroll previews on youtube make Given look like something I should at least try out.
I have been watching trashy old anime on streaming, and still watching good shows on the blu rays I bought on that Sentai sale, so I haven't been watching any new stuff lately.
I just looked up that Kumiko character. I see she's from a show called SoundEuphonium. Do people generally think it's a good show or do they just find her character endearing? I see it's on Crunchyroll
Phew after a marathon month I blew through Dragon Ball Super! Here are some of my impressions
Question though, I was always confused about Pilaf and co being turned into children. When does this happen? It's not in the original manga (and I don't remember if it happened in the original anime).
First of all, RIP Hiromi Tsuru - thank you for all the good memories - your talents will sorely be missed.
As a bit of background I intentionally waited to start the series until it was well deep into it and I'd had a chance to re-read the manga for the original series - which I did right before starting. And as a piece of commentary it boggles my mind that in 2019 there still isn't a decent translation - every single one from the official Viz to the myriad scanlations are flawed in completely unacceptable ways - but I digress.
Overall, I really dug it, but do think it's not quite up to the same level as the original series. You can feel Toriyama's presence, but at the same time it does feel different too. Some of the arcs (so far?) come close - in particular, the Future Trunks arc was fantastic and on par with (if not better) some of the original (Buu arc comes to mind). Also, having an entire series as a Budokai worked out far better than I thought it would and even managed to have a pretty compelling plot and even character development. The first three arcs were just serviceable though and felt like they were just background to set up the series for what came after it. For all the new upgrades and power levels, the various new SSJ stuff was cool, but not nearly as impactful as the first time Goku goes SSJ during the Namek arc. Also, it sorta recons the SSJ color to being golden to yellow as they go through the subtractive primary color palette which I wasn't the biggest fan of. That being said Migatte no goku'i was pretty awesome. I did think it was cool that they introduced other Saiya-jin, but it's lazy that they have no tails nor did they address it other than mentioning it. Of all the new characters Whis and Beerus were fantastic and I think all the alcohol related buns were great. Zamasu and Black were also fantastic villains and easily as good as Cell. For the old characters I thought it was great how they were actually able to evolve most of them and not relegate them to companion has-beens - particularly, Vegeta who really got a ton of development.
A few gripes:
Goku.... Well, he's still the ultimate hero, but what I wasn't so fond of is the way they made him so frankly negligent in this series. It's like they took all of those non-sense fan theories and interpretations about him and played up on them. Now there characters invariable are different in the anime v manga and it's been almost 20 years since I first watched the original anime, but in the original manga he really isn't that negligent (you could make an argument that maybe he is in the Buu arc, but even then barely) and doesn't come across as having the selfish motivation to constantly fight stronger and stronger dudes to the harm of others like he does in this series. But he's old so maybe he's getting dementia... I wouldn't put it past Toriyama....
Gohan... He's so week through the vast majority of it, and then doesn't even seem as strong as he did when fighting Buu at the end of the original series. Also, in the manga he straight up says he "doesn't want to be a scholar". Also, he's way to old for where the story seems to take place and the age difference between him and Goten doesn't make sense. Either he needs to come across as younger or Goten as older. Still, I can tell that this is Toriyama's clear intention for this character. And in a way it makes a ton of sense because being a scholar is virtuous and he is a Chikyuu-jin like the rest of us so in terms of being a heroic character in a literary sense he represents the realistic best we can do. Also, I think it's awesome how extremely polite and respectful he is. So I guess I dig it even if it's not what I'd personally want for the character.
The animation..... The animation in Dragon Ball has never been good. And that's OK. Hell, Toriyama's drawings aren't even that good. But the animation in the first couple of arcs were pretty bad. Far too much low quality CGI particle effects and bad textures. Also, with digital animation the scaling of vectors was far too thick too often. However, by the Future Trunks stuff it started to look "good" which carried well into the rest of the series. All the fight choreography was really on point the whole time though.
Overall though - still really awesome and I look forward to see what happens after their hiatus however long that is.
I just looked up that Kumiko character. I see she's from a show called SoundEuphonium. Do people generally think it's a good show or do they just find her character endearing? I see it's on Crunchyroll
I just looked up that Kumiko character. I see she's from a show called SoundEuphonium. Do people generally think it's a good show or do they just find her character endearing? I see it's on Crunchyroll
Cop Craft's premise appeals to me - I'm a sucker for the kind of buddy cop cliches it's drawing from. The anime seems too haphazardly constructed to be worthwhile, unfortunately, with its dodgy direction and mediocre to incompetent art and animation. Renge Murata simply can't get his designs adapted well in animated form.
If the novels get published in English I'd consider buying them.
Thanks for the scoop! I just checked their wiki and I've actually only seen the Fullmetal Panic shows they did back in the day so I have basically no exposure to their modern stuff. I've added it to my queue.. will give it a shot one of these days.
Vinland Saga 5
After just four episodes, it feels somewhat strange how much the tenor of the show has changed now that Thorfinn is on his own. And while his personal story might fall in line with some archetypal shounen traits, there is a great deal of care to more thoroughly characterize many of his decisions in ways that complement the historical nature of Vinland Saga.
For those who aren't entirely aware, Vinland Saga is VERY loosely based on the real-life story of Thorfinn Karlsefni, a lesser known explorer who tried to establish a more permanent hold on the lands discovered by Leif Eriksson in what is present-day Newfoundland, Canada. I was initially skeptical before the series began as to how much both the setting and historical figures would resonate as more than mere window dressing, especially as I'm more familiar with Viking culture thanks to my own family history as well as the cultural history surrounding where I grew up. But I give a lot of credit to Vinland Saga, because it does a lot of work to marry the format of shounen stories with a historical perspective that feels remarkably realistic and believable in its scale while consequently humanizing Thorfinn's struggles.
While a lot of shounen protagonists suffer some indignity and/or loss, having to build themselves up in comparison, it's rare to see ones who lose quite as much as Thorfinn has and must struggle to build themselves up from nothing, not only for revenge but just to survive. For those not really cognizant, Thorfinn is alone in a country he's never been to before filled with people who don't speak his language (apart from the pirates he arrived with) and with only his wits and talent to keep him alive. But it is not an easy task, and this episode is not afraid to showcase just how much Thorfinn suffers before he makes some simple strides to go from eking out an existence to making due on his own, though at some great personal cost. There's no one to comfort him the first time he truly experiences a life-and-death fight (this time with a wild animal), and I feel that the lack of his father's guiding wisdom in that regard is going to lead him to develop a cruel, efficient disposition in battle (one not that dissimilar to the one Thors used to have).
I appreciated the short aside to show Helga and Ylva dealing with the grief of losing both Thors and Thorfinn. The desire to keep moving so as to not let the anguish take hold is something that seems very fitting for Ylva, and while I don't know for sure how much of Vinland Saga may focus on them in the future, seeing the family's different attempts at dealing with Thors' loss highlights a schism that might have some damaging repercussions for them if they ever reunite in the future.
Overall, there's a lot of measured character work in this episode that lets actions speak louder than words, and this gives me hope for how things develop in the future now that Thorfinn is alone. There was a lot of ways this revenge story consuming the mind of a child could be handled badly (and there have been copious examples in shounen of that - just compare Thorfinn's struggles to better himself while surviving to Kimetsu no Yaiba's early training arc; the difference in tone and execution is night and day), so I'm pleased at how level-headed the approach has been so far in Vinland Saga. May this be an indication of what's to come.
Cop Craft 5
There is a discussion to be had regarding horror media as to the proper use of light and shadow to create mood, but there's also a fine line between something that is disorienting because the creative team purposefully crafted it to create that sensation and one that feels that way through sloppiness of editing and composition. This episode of Cop Craft doesn't suffer from abstraction of episode three's fight sequences, but in attempting to mix horror and action, they instead created a climatic showdown that lacked any impact because, to put it mildly, I couldn't see shit.
That's kind of a shame, because while I complained last week that the situation that lead to the revival of the vampire was incredibly stupid and felt insulting to both the audience's intelligence as well as that of the characters, the vampire herself was easily the most compelling part of this episode. An ancient warrior that was quick enough to grasp the basics of her situation, she's probably the most interesting of the blending of worlds present in the series so far. The story also does some interesting stuff with her, as in a lot of stories like this the vampire is an overwhelming force that simply slaughters people by the dozen before being put down by someone's OP methodology. But here, she's shown to be well out of her depth up against modern technology, and often seems like a wounded animal that occasionally lashes out, somewhat fruitlessly, to try and prolong her existence. It's an unconventional take in vampire fiction, which makes her personality all the more interesting.
I think that's what makes a lot of the fights in this episode as the tables start to turn so disappointing, because I was actually invested in this episode's narrative. But some of the decisions, whether they were on the creative level or due to production issues, simply created visually messy sequences that made it almost impossible to tell what was going on. Unlike in episode three, where the fight sequences didn't even bother with background detail, there was an attempt at creating a setting for each of these fights and a continuity of space that had effects on the fights (for example, characters being knocked off ledges or having to work around a subway track), but because both the frames themselves are often darkly lit and characters are often fighting in areas mostly covered in shadows with a faint light source often off-screen, it's impossible sometimes to pick out the necessary details to get any good impression of what the hell is happening. I honestly couldn't tell you what exactly transpired in the final fight that lead to the vampire's defeat; the editing feels like its cutting so frequently to make up for non-existent storyboards and what is there is so badly lit (either too dark or too bright) that the resolution of the fight just feels cheap, which is a shame since the narrative does such a good job of setting it up.
So yeah, the script continues to be the best part of Cop Craft, and at this point it's kind of the only thing holding it up at all right now. But even I have my limits for what I'm willing to put up with, and I continue to wonder how long I'll be willing to give this a pass.
How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? 6
Dumbbells seemed like it took a page out of Kaguya-sama this episode with the more radical departures from its usual style and mindgame upon mindgame that made up the "conflicts" at heart, though in this case it's more that Zina simply hasn't resigned herself to the idea that Hibiki is capable of superhuman feats when given enough selfish motivation to do so. Still, a lot of the directorial flourishes taking advantage of battle manga imagery the likes of which you'd find in Baki or Kengan Ashura and lampooning it against such a low-stakes tournament between high school girls leads to some of the show's best moments to date.
Again, I feel bad that I find myself without too much to say about Dumbbells each week, because it is very good at what it does: mixing comedy and educational content in an attractive and thoroughly enjoyable package. But without an extensive fitness background, I can't really comment on the educational side, and the comedy more or less speaks for itself, even if it's well executed. Unless the latter half of the show falls apart in some serious ways, I do expect this won't be the only time I'm talking about the show, and hopefully I'll have come up with something more interesting to say about it than I am right now.
Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia - Initium Iter
Interesting, very interesting. I'm surprised but pleased we got a taste of what to expect from the upcoming Babylonia anime. As a long-time player of Fate/Grand Order, I'm actually well aware of the details that make up this story arc (as it came out last December in the English-language version of the game), so I was curious what material would make up this introductory episode considering they would have to skip over so much of the game's content to tell this tale. But the answer is perhaps more fascinating than I had anticipated.
So, as anyone who's played both Babylonia and Solomon knows, the vast majority of material covered by this episode actually doesn't have much to do with Babylonia's core plot at all. In fact, almost all the pertinent story details, especially in regards to Romani, aren't revealed until Solomon. In fact, there's only one detail they crucially left out of this episode (you know the one), but I believe the entire point of this episode zero was to reinforce that although this is labelled as an adaptation of Babylonia, it will also adapt Solomon by the end of its run. After all, why bother to set up so many details about Romani's life that seem pointless until the truth about him is revealed, or harp on so much about Mash's desire to be freed from the cage that is Chaldea, even metaphorically, which doesn't happen until Solomon? I suppose it's possible that they could save Solomon for a movie or an OVA or something, but despite its length, I'm not convinced Babylonia would comfortably fit into two cours by itself without dragging in some places. But this episode does convince me SolomonWILL get adapted somehow, whether during the series or in material that comes afterwards, but there's no way they spend this much time on details that become important there and then don't do anything with them by stopping once Babylonia is over.
Speaking from a production standpoint, I have a much better grasp on what I feel I can expect from Babylonia now. I'd imagined a large percentage of the team responsible for Fate/Apocrypha was also likely working on this even after the A-1 Pictures / Cloverworks restructuring, though the creative leads didn't inspire the most confidence given their past work. However, I feel like a vast majority of my concerns for the show were put to rest thanks to this episode. Without spoiling much, while the content isn't particularly new, the framing of the bulk of this episode's story is new, as many of these scenes have incredibly barebones context in the game. The creative freedom to tie these two disparate stories together to work in concert for this episode's bridge between First Order and Babylonia leads to some really striking direction in a few sequences. It's not perhaps stellar throughout, but it's more creative than First Order ever was, and falls in line with some of the stronger material in Apocrypha.
I feel more confident now that this will be a good follow up to Apocrypha, one that hopefully learned some lessons about how to best adapt some of the more difficult stretches of material where there's just so much exposition to parse. But Babylonia is a better story than Apocrypha by far, and if they manage to nail its best moments, this could be a real winner among Fate adaptations. If only I could Rayshift to October.
I just looked up that Kumiko character. I see she's from a show called SoundEuphonium. Do people generally think it's a good show or do they just find her character endearing? I see it's on Crunchyroll
phew you had me scared there for a minute Okada, when it seemed like your characters might actually quickly talk their way out of idiotic misunderstanding.
My fault for doubting the master. This NTR comedy drama train rides is leaving the station at full speed.
I really like Given...even went ahead and read the manga. So if anyone is hesitant of the usual sexual assaultyness of BL shows, rest easy there's little to none of it. The story is kind of heartwarming.
Sooooo Try Knights....saw the first episode , is this queerbaiting going somewhere or what? For a sports anime it's not very detailed in it's animation. Mildly dissapointed so far.
Hensuki is really dumb...but I also can't stop watching it. Is it because I need something to watch on Mondays? Maybe. I don't know. It's growing on me.
This is my favorite episode yet. The battle manga parody that was this whole episode was actually funny and well done. The serious, detailed art style shifts add a lot to it. The new rival character actually isn't annoying and is also a lot of fun, with the final twist being the cherry on top. I like how this episode intricately looped in exercise discussion with the plot.
I just really don't need those naked girls posing on a bed while the narrator is explaining something about fitness. It's more distracting than not, but at least those segments don't consume the entire show.
Hensuki is really dumb...but I also can't stop watching it. Is it because I need something to watch on Mondays? Maybe. I don't know. It's growing on me.
Is there more anime like Evangelion? Watched, EoE, the Rebirth movies and I'm craving more y'all. I also need something to satisfy my action anime itch.
Is there more anime like Evangelion? Watched, EoE, the Rebirth movies and I'm craving more y'all. I also need something to satisfy my action anime itch.
Is there more anime like Evangelion? Watched, EoE, the Rebirth movies and I'm craving more y'all. I also need something to satisfy my action anime itch.
Is there more anime like Evangelion? Watched, EoE, the Rebirth movies and I'm craving more y'all. I also need something to satisfy my action anime itch.
Is there more anime like Evangelion? Watched, EoE, the Rebirth movies and I'm craving more y'all. I also need something to satisfy my action anime itch.
Just watched Kengan Ashura's first episode. Its pretty bad. Really strange looking faces on the CG models, bad subtitle timing and quite a bit of personality cut from characters. Oh well, at least someone out there will like it.
Sound Eupho 4
Still very good so far. I think Taki is a pretty good teacher so far but running and then playing an instrument is pretty rude haha. Kumiko is still a lot of fun. It's clear that Reina might be a little obsessed with her teacher. I've heard at least one of the characters will have a crush on him. Couple that with this series well-known yuri baiting and I'm fairly cautious at this point. I want to see if for myself but knowing KyoAni's other works the baiting is going to be just that: baiting.
