Anime

[+Slowswift]

On 2/19/2023 at 8:14 AM, Coolmint said:

With bootlegs, there are no missing scenes, but the subtitles… arrrggghhhh!  Sometimes they don't make sense.  I read somewhere that the translations are done from scripts, by people who don't actually watch the booted show.

Dot Hack Sign is a favorite, but it takes multiple viewings (even with the legit version) to 'get' everything going on.  The background and character designs are beautiful, the Japanese voices are fantastic, with some I recognize from other series.  Dot Hack Sign takes place inside an online game that, for some, becomes all too real.  And I do recommend it, but only the legit version.

Oh, of course it would the subtitles. I can imagine the headaches that would cause...

Sounds interesting. I'll add it to the list!

(It's a literal list now, by the way. That spreadsheet I said I should make? Made!)

Edited February 23, 2023 by Slowswift

[Coolmint]

Another one I realllyyyy like: Kabukibu.  High school setting. Cute character design, memorable characters, and of course, kabuki.  Which I love.

[Eluvianii]

Well, Psycho Pass turned out to be a pretty fun watch. It's basically a cyberpunk cop show, with all the archetypes included. The show itself is not favorite material but the protagonist for sure is.

On 27/2/2023 at 5:54 PM, Coolmint said:

Another one I realllyyyy like: Kabukibu.  High school setting. Cute character design, memorable characters, and of course, kabuki.  Which I love.

Just looked this one up. It looks like one of those shows that would make me interested in something I didn't know I could be interested in (I wouldn't know karuta exists, and if I did I wouldn't think of it as something exciting, were it not for Chihayafuru). I will definitely give it a watch.

[Quantus]

On 2/22/2023 at 11:19 PM, Slowswift said:

Oh, of course it would the subtitles. I can imagine the headaches that would cause...

Sounds interesting. I'll add it to the list!

(It's a literal list now, by the way. That spreadsheet I said I should make? Made!)

I dunno, .HACK, it may have gotten better later on, but the first one was tragically built as a tie-in to their actual game (the "genre-challenging" offline MMO style RPG), that never really came together.  I tried so hard to like it when it came out while I was in college, I really did.  Im not sure how much a new translation would be able to plug those holes. 

Add the first arc of Sword Art Online to the list if you haven't seen it. Similar in several respects but far more cohesive.  But then you'll have to watch Sword Art Abridged, which manages to tell a surprisingly good story (and one of the few "abridged" projects that didnt just take their source material and make it more horny).

EDIT: on that front, If you want to want an alternative to Evangelion that is also "Similar in several respects but far more cohesive", it's called RahXephon, and is well worth your time.

What Else?  Everybody should watch Infinite Ryvius at least once but probably never again.  IT can be depressing as hell, because it's one of the better Lord of the Flies stories Ive come across.  A bunch of kids get stuck in the middle of nowhere on a space-ship and have to survive, cycling through a logical progression of organizational/government philosophies, with one gun floating around as the Nuclear option equivalent.  

Edited April 28, 2023 by Quantus

[+Slowswift]

On 4/28/2023 at 8:26 AM, Quantus said:

Add the first arc of Sword Art Online to the list if you haven't seen it. Similar in several respects but far more cohesive.  But then you'll have to watch Sword Art Abridged, which manages to tell a surprisingly good story (and one of the few "abridged" projects that didnt just take their source material and make it more horny).

I keep hearing mixed reviews of SAO, but overall it seems to be considered one of the classics. Noted!

[Quantus]

 

52 minutes ago, Slowswift said:

I keep hearing mixed reviews of SAO, but overall it seems to be considered one of the classics. Noted!

I haven't gotten into any of the more recent stuff that seems to have gone off the rails, but the first three or so arcs are definitely worth it.

[Eluvianii]

54 minutes ago, Slowswift said:

I keep hearing mixed reviews of SAO, but overall it seems to be considered one of the classics. Noted!

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion but I think SAO gets better as it goes.

The first arc is a bit messy because it tries to do too much with too little time, it keeps jumping from one genre to the next every other chapter and then it forces itself to rush the ending. 

Second one has way too many flaws imo but it's needed for continuity. It's at least a pretty enjoyable ride. 

Third arc feels a lot more grounded in what it wants to do. 

Fourth arc is a complete 180 in focus but a good one I think and it's my current favorite. 

Fifth arc I'm still watching (it's longer than the first four out together) but so far it's a lot more promising than any of the previous ones so I'm excited for that. 

So yeah, it doesn't turn into a masterpiece or anything but I do think it has been consistently getting better. 

[Curry]

On 29/05/2023 at 11:37 PM, Slowswift said:

I keep hearing mixed reviews of SAO, but overall it seems to be considered one of the classics. Noted!

Never understand the SAO hate. It was good for what it was. Don't know how the follow up shows fare but the original was good enough.

Log Horizon is great if you're into the concept. It's more economy and kingdom-building-ish than SAO but still great. Definitely one of the best.

Also Grimgar which I liked but your mileage may vary.

[Retsam]

SAO is probably the most inconsistent show I've ever seen: there's parts of it that are phenomenal and parts of it that are awful and they're not always that far apart.  I've sometimes joked that most of the tension in SAO doesn't come from the antagonists but from the writers room.  To the three famous sources of conflict: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Self, I feel like we need to add a fourth: Story vs. Itself.

But seriously, the show is incredibly inconsistent: the rift between the first arc and the second arc is famous, but even within the first arc, it varies pretty widely: the premise is great and there's some great episodes, but there's also a good chunk of not great episodes and a lot of "Kirito collecting his harem like Ash Ketchum collects Pokemon" (something that largely continues even after he has an established love interest).  

And there's just some fairly consistent downsides - for most people the aforementioned harem aspect is one, a lot of people aren't big fans of Kirito as a protagonist (a bit too blank slate) and the show tends to lean on sexual assault a fair bit - both using it to establish villains (which is divisive) but also the show just kinda throws it in sometimes when it's not necessary.  (I'm told part of that last category is the adaptations fault, either adding or exaggerating stuff from the source material, but haven't read the source material myself to check)

There's some really good parts of the show, and overall I enjoyed it more than I disliked it, but you kinda have to deal with some garbage to get to it.  For a lot of people I think it falls into this really awkward "uncanny valley" where it's just good enough that the flaws really bug you.  It'd be better if it were a bit better, but if it were a bit worse nobody would care.

Edited May 31, 2023 by Retsam

[Eluvianii]

There really is a fair amount of sexual assault huh. Call me clueless but I hadn't noticed. Not that many instances but still noticeable when I think about it. I only really remembered that one time it happens during the first season of Alicization, and then only because the author got backlash for it.

Which, speaking of, the author replied to by saying it wasn't a scene he was particularly proud of, and that it being an adaptation, he actually wrote the scene years prior, but that since then he's matured as a writer and doesn't rely on that stuff anymore. So I guess whenever the next arc is animated we can expect something, I guess cleaner? 

[Retsam]

Yeah, and honestly the incident you mention is IMO the most defensible example of it in the series, as at least there it's an important part of a main characters arc: there need to be something highly traumatic.  The other cases in the series it's either just a shortcut to make a villain villainous (second arc, third arc, ... IIRC a minor antagonist in the first arc, too), or worse just... thrown in with tentacle monsters or whatever.  (The last category is the stuff that I've heard some people say were added or exaggerated by the adaptation)

And yeah, the writing has gotten better in some respects: other than a few incidents Alicization really was fairly well written, though I still found the conclusion a bit unsatisfying: it seems like the author is good at coming up with really interesting premises, but not that great at executing or resolving them.