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el dorito posted:I resolve to give the 3 episode test to each one of the shows in my crunchyroll backlog. sign me up for this again and I will try to find a good way to report progress but not make a million posts in this thread about it
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Feb 10, 2020 00:53
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el dorito posted:sign me up for this again and I will try to find a good way to report progress but not make a million posts in this thread about it  imo
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Feb 10, 2020 01:04
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el dorito posted:sign me up for this again and I will try to find a good way to report progress but not make a million posts in this thread about it Make a new year's resolution to bring this thread to page 50
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Feb 10, 2020 01:16
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Argona posted:I haven't done this before but I figured why not this year. e:actually i'll take it down a notch and include my original goal I'm very good at completely misjudging the amount of time it takes to do things (but i'm not changing my resolution this time). Muv Luv Extra has been completed.
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Feb 10, 2020 20:30
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AnoHito posted:
This
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Feb 10, 2020 22:12
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dogsicle posted:i have some shows i want to watch going all January without so much as touching anime...i suppose it's pretty bad huh? well i binged one show in just under a week in some sick idea of compensation Otogizoushi - named after a collection of classic japanese short stories/literature from like 18th? century, this show mostly runs with reinterpreting myths centered around minamoto no raikou and his retainers/conflicts with oni. the main notable twist being the actions of raikou are performed instead by his younger sister in disguise, as he is bed-ridden. the conflicts with various oni and the tsuchigumo are folded into an overarching plot of obtaining magatama to bring prosperity to the capitol. the folklore vibe is strong, you get some fantastical visuals and plot events that are often more poetic/emotional than sensical, with a cast that is more archetype than character. i don't really mind any of that, though the fast and deep romance that twisted into a final conflict between "raikou" and abe no seimei was a bit tiresome. surprise surprise though, the magatama hunt was ultimately a vehicle for onmyouji to instead inflict crisis upon the capitol and our cast are killed or blasted by the feng shui magic and sent... into modern tokyo! at the time of airing this was certainly a twist, though it seems now you're pretty likely to stumble upon the fact that this two cour show has very disparate arcs with differing sensibilities. the modern arc essentially retreads the magatama hunt as a sort of paranormal investigation series with our previous cast. "raikou" is the teenage landlady of her various retainers in their modern twentysomething incarnations, as her brother has mysteriously disappeared. following his breadcrumb trail of strange photographs, raikou and co stumble across and resolve issues relating to the chi flow of modern tokyo (heat waves, spontaneous combustion, mysterious groundwater, nonfunctioning technology etc) before this all culminates in resolving a time-chi paradox set in motion at the end of the first arc. the remaining episodes are part of a "special arc" that explores some of the underused characters in the tokyo arc, urabe and mansairaku. i'd say the heian arc is by far the stronger narrative part of this show, with more opportunity to show off its often impressive action animation and painted backgrounds/high-contrast shading. the straightforwardness and near-constant momentum of the story are easy to get into and follow regardless of its simplicity. the tokyo arc meanwhile...it certainly feels lacking something. however, there's a charm in its about its struggle to have a modern story while still grappling with these thin characters and aimless storyline. kenji kawai's soundtrack also feels more at home in tokyo arc, and it gets away with an absolutely stellar op theme/animation. while i'm ambivalent about whether this show is worth a recommendation to most people, i do think the op is absolutely essential, so watch it. 7/10 https://files.catbox.moe/sy5q8v.webm
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Feb 15, 2020 02:51
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Tales of Woe posted:i'll watch the following dozen shows. only season 1 required for the ones with multiple seasons 2 month update, i've decided to add the season 2's since i'm 99% sure i'll want to watch them anyway Baccano! - 13/13, complete Gankutsuou - 0/24 Hyouge Mono - 0/39 Katanagatari - 0/12 Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea - 0/26 Noein: To Your Other Self - 0/24 Shiki - 22/22, complete Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju - 0/13, 0/12 Silver Spoon - 0/11, 0/11 Turn A Gundam - 35/50 Witch Craft Works - 12/12, complete Wixoss - 0/12, 0/12 overall 82/293 episodes Shiki was the thing on this list I was least sure if i'd like since i'm not much of a horror person but i was really into it, it's got a surprising amount of momentum to it for such a slow paced series and the ending is perfect. definitely my favorite so far. Baccano was very good but i kinda expected that based on its reputation. i like the fragmented narrative style a lot. Witch Craft Works was silly and i'm guessing it's going to be my least favorite of this dozen but i'm still glad i watched it.
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Mar 1, 2020 17:44
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I got busy playing FFXIV and working through p much all of January, but I started Shield Hero and spent the last month watching it. I have to preface this by saying I didn't really know much about Shield Hero going into this aside from the fact it was very controversial, but also it had like an 81% on MAL for some reason and everyone wants to gently caress the raccoon girl (Raphtalia). Having now watched the show, I have to say... this show sucks, but like... it's not consistently bad it's moreso lovely and then it's boring and then it's rarely lovely again with the occasional good thing. The general premise of the show is Naofumi Iwatani is some dude who gets transported into the fantasy kingdom of Melromarc and has to fight alongside 3 other dudes who are all designated heroes. He gets framed for raping the princess (Malty) and begins to distrust everyone and goes on a path of revenge. It's a basic premise, but uh... the show is surprisingly very into the kingdom of Melromarc? Like, I was not expecting so much of the show to be about Naofumi's struggle against the kingdom itself, but you get to know a lot about the royals, religions, values, and politics of Melromarc. It's actually one of the cooler aspects of the show, because at least in my experience isekai never really informs you that significantly on the world the character is in unless it is immediately relevant to whatever they are doing. Now despite saying that, I think the biggest disservice the show does itself on a narrative scope is making the King and Malty the central antagonists. Because the general conflict of the show is that the world is protected through the four heroes fighting off the waves of monsters that come, but this conflicts with the story being so focused on Naofumi being kept down by Melromarc's monarchy. It's especially ridiculous because it makes the show feel aimless and like there's no real endgame to anything it's doing? How does Naofumi plan to overcome the monarchy and clear his name? Pfft, idk he's just gonna keep doing his thing I guess. How are we gonna save the world and defeat the waves? By fighting them... constantly and never really explaining what they actually are. So much of the latter feels like it exists to never interact that significantly with the former it ends up making the narrative feel fragmented, but also it just supplements how idiotic most of the cast is. So the characters in Shield Hero who aren't Naofumi or allied with Naofumi in some way are all just loving idiots. The King makes his life hell despite the fact he's supposed to help save all of them and multiple other kingdoms actually will run up and attack the kingdom for how he's being treated, Malty will outright lie and be deceptive towards people in broad daylight and NO ONE will notice or acknowledge this unless they are Naofumi, the other three heroes are all lacking in brain cells because they just do whatever the gently caress they want and realize their actions have consequences only when Naofumi says something, and this is to say nothing of the various royals and citizens of Melromarc who are either hideously corrupt to an unreasonable point or are just intensely gullible. It makes it really hard to enjoy the show because every scenario plays out in such a way where Naofumi is always the one in the right and the person opposing him is never not unreasonable. It does seem acknowledge it has really stupid characters, but it seems kind of self aggrandizing rather than self aware. The characters outside of Naofumi's group kind of loving suck, excepting maybe the Spear Hero (Motoyasu) who is so dumb it becomes endearing at points. He has a spinoff manga where he sets out to save Naofumi from being falsely implicated and is apparently insane and obsessed with Naofumi and they have a girl party member who thinks they're loving. Speaking of Naofumi and his party, they are mostly pretty bland and one-dimensional. Naofumi starts the first episode as some loser college student and as the episode goes on develops into an rear end in a top hat who conscripts a slave Raphtalia so he has someone to fight for him, but also hopes she gets hurt because he wants to pretend she's Malty when that happens. It's hosed up, but then the next episode happens and he just becomes a decent dude from that point on and treats Raphtalia with a ton of respect and never really gets to that dark place ever again. He's sort of just grump but a super nice dude from then on. I'm not gonna ask for my protagonist to be an irredeemable piece of poo poo to enjoy the story, but it feels like there's something there to at least grip on if you want to make a story around Naofumi learning to appreciate others and trust them again from the really sour person he is. Instead he just flips the dial and he's suddenly cool now. Raphtalia is really loving simple. She is sad she is a slave, but Naofumi treats her well and she is no longer sad and it's not anymore because she's cool with him. After the slavery crest is forcibly removed from her she gets it reapplied as a symbol of their relationship but like... why not just leave it off and have a relationship as mutuals? I don't get why that's necessary to display their trust it just makes it come off kinda stockholmy. This is to say nothing about how much she has scenes where she is absolutely trying to get in a relationship with Naofumi and the show never has him acknowledge this. She's hugging up on him as close as she can and trying to sleep in the same bed and he's just like "THE BED ISN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US RAPHTALIA, BE PRACTICAL!" It would be funny if the show genuinely acknowledged it, but even the ending treats this like it's a fated relationship or some poo poo. Filo is the little bird girl, she's hyperactive and stupid and punches things hard there really is not much to say about her. One of the better characters is Malty's little sister Melty who like has a very funny way of understanding the politics of her own kingdom, but also demands to be taken seriously despite being an actual child, she's precious. Before I wrap this up, I wanna talk about Malty because she is uhhh... a problem. So idk why this character exists the way she does other than to have a one-dimensional villain for the audience to hate. Malty is allowed to get away with so much poo poo for such a long time before anything is done about her, but it's worse because it's implied she's always been like this since before Naofumi even got there. So why the absolute gently caress did the Queen put up with her or allow her any status whatsoever? She's not gonna inherit the throne, but she still has power as a royal and free reign to go about and do whatever the hell she wants, why? Why does anyone listen to her or take her seriously when it's been known she is a pathological liar and sociopath? EVEN AMONG THE CITIZENS! Why does this character get tortured on screen for a solid 10 minutes while the camera lingers on her tits for parts of it for this Naofumi poo poo? Apparently she gets it even worse in the web novel as the story goes on too. I really just wish I understood what Malty is supposed to bring to the Shield Hero story because it feels like the character is just an annoyance for Naofumi after the inciting incident and she also attempts to kill her sister, but no one really takes it that seriously which is also so loving weird. This show is predicated upon idiots putting up all of the roadblock so loving much it's annoying to watch. In summation, the show just sucks and is bad. Outside of the first episode and the stockholm poo poo with Raphtalia it really just feels kind of simple and boring isekai drama with lameass fights in it. The general cast isn't very compelling outside of like Melty who is occasionally pretty fun. The story is very aimless and changes in bizarre ways later that only beget more questions. I found myself feeling sleepy a lot in the latter half too when it becomes more fight heavy and Naofumi just has the waves to deal with from that point on. In some other world I can see myself enjoying this show more, but I live on Earth and it is hell. Anyways, thanks Namtab for the recommendation but unfortunately I could not enjoy your favorite show as much as you did.
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Mar 3, 2020 02:42
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Finished the back half of BBB&B tonight  I watched the first half when it aired so it's hard to judge precisely since it's been so long, but overall s2 > s1 imo. The finale was really good. also I watched a chunk of Garo off my bonus list because I forgot it wasn't on the main list lol
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Mar 12, 2020 03:27
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Captain Baal posted:Anyways, thanks Namtab for the recommendation but unfortunately I could not enjoy your favorite show as much as you did. mods rename this guy to captain libel
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Mar 12, 2020 21:11
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Namtab posted:mods rename this guy to captain libel 
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Mar 12, 2020 21:13
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Wark Say posted:I mean, different strokes for different blokes, 'tabster. If it's your fave anime, there's no shame in admitting as much. Ok libel say
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Mar 12, 2020 21:32
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two and a half month update, I have watched one episode of katanagatari
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Mar 12, 2020 21:36
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Pre-emptive  I rewatched s1 and 2 of Teekyu a couple of weeks ago, and have two more episodes of Flip Flappers to ultimately determine how I feel about this very uneven show as a whole. I'll probably do a write-up tonight or tomorrow depending on how I'm feeling.
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Mar 12, 2020 21:43
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Namtab posted:Ok libel say
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Mar 12, 2020 22:23
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You can’t say libel dumbass
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Mar 12, 2020 23:21
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Lol
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Mar 12, 2020 23:51
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Harukana Receive finished, was a pretty fun show of only-beach-episodes. Big yuri energy. Just nice and relaxed. Next, time to finish off Dororo.
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Mar 13, 2020 00:21
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I finished Flip Flappers a few days ago, but took some time to digest the show as a whole. While I did enjoy the art-style, and a couple of the worlds the characters traveled through, on the whole I would have to describe the show as less than the sum of its parts. To be clear, I actually liked the main theme of the show, about making your own decisions in life, having the courage to risk danger and failing, and learning from those mistakes, but the overarching plot really doesn't make a lot of cohesive sense and the explanations for a lot of things at the end felt like retroactive rear end-pulls. There's also a large gap in the backstory that's never answered, which is kind of crucial since it's what links Mimi's backstory to the current conflict, but it never truly justifies why things played out the way it did, and it's a thread that as you unravel you realize less and less of the story as a whole really made sense or worked. There were some good character moments between Cocona and Yayaka (my favorite parts of the show) and Dr. Salt with Mimi at the end, but the amorphous children felt mostly pointless, especially Nyunyu who is completely extraneous plot wise, and the dumb pervy robot. It would be pretty hard for me to recommend this show to somebody unless they just want an off-beat magical girl show or to watch something with the kind of main theme in mind. Overall I don't regret watching it, but I felt it dragged on far too long in a lot of ways- it takes too long for the main conflict to really come into focus, and even once it does, instead of filling in more gaps in the backstory, it felt like the show was content with stalling via goofy interludes of unimportant characters or extended fight scenes. Sometimes a show being flawed can give it a color that makes it more interesting, but I didn't feel like that really applied to my experience with the show, which more than anything else to me just felt messy due to haphazard plotting and the disjointed nature of the earlier episodic episodes.
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Mar 17, 2020 00:12
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Julias posted:I finished Flip Flappers a few days ago, but took some time to digest the show as a whole. While I did enjoy the art-style, and a couple of the worlds the characters traveled through, on the whole I would have to describe the show as less than the sum of its parts. I can't figure out which anime I shrugged harder after the ending... this one or Humanity has Declined. Such a weird "meh" feeling. Same feeling I got after watching Rise of Skywalker. Just happy that it ended. Not really the kind of relief that animes want to evoke. Contrast with the 2nd OVA for YKK, it was a slow, comforting ride that left me with a feeling of contentment.
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Mar 17, 2020 09:18
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i finished NagiAsu, that was pretty good though maybe a bit unbalanced with the midseason turn being much more exciting/surprising than anything else that happened. enjoyed it but not on the same level as Hanasaku Iroha which is still my favorite of the handful of Okada originals i've seen also finished Turn A Gundam which was excellent all around, not really much else to say
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Mar 17, 2020 14:06
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Toxx Status 1/12  Next one is gonna be the Enact, a cheap European clone of the greatest mobile suit ever designed. I better pick up the pace here.
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Mar 22, 2020 23:37
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Did a good binge the last few days, and finished off both Planet With and Hinamatsuri. I also revisited both Sarazanmai, rewatching it with a friend, and Flip Flappers, watching the first couple of eps and rereading the old thread here on it. I feel like I was overly critical of both of them in hindsight, letting my hangups and frustrations with both series outweighing the good aspects that both had to offer. Sarazanmai definitely benefits from having the full perspective of every character's issues and having given it more time to digest the ending makes more sense with the ultimate message about continuing to make connections no matter how painful they may be. I'm still not a fan of the lame reuse of choreography during the Kappa zombie scenes though. And Flip Flappers has more care put into the first few episodes than I noticed at first, with foreshadowing and excellent animation cuts, though the pacing of the show as a whole still feels off, and my main complaint about the plot unraveling when you pull on the thread still stands. However, as an off-kilter magical girl show, it is at the very least entertaining and creative. Planet With was a show I was excited for since it was first announced, but then for whatever reason I never got around to properly watching past the first episode. Having finally gotten back to it, I realized that it shared the straightforward simplicity that makes Satoshi Mizukami's manga work. Characters that are surprisingly simple, but that play off of each other nicely to drive them to action, and a story with enough quirkiness to set ot apart from the crowd, with a sense of misdirection based on the initial premise. What starts off as essentially a revenge story shifts into a story about forgiveness, one about love and forgiveness overcoming 'justice'. A lot of people mentioned how it feels like 2-3 shows crammed into one, and I can definitely see that with how quickly events unfold in the show, allowing for 3 distinct arcs of conflict to be set up and resolved. The show doesn't have any particular strengths that make it stand out beyond it's core message, but it doesn't have any particularly awful aspects that drag it down either, so it serves as a good vehicle to deliver its message. I know some people said it was forgettable for them, but for me the main message is pretty powerful, even if the show doesn't do the best job of selling that message, and it'll stick with me for some time. In that way, even though I think shows like Sarazanmai and Flip Flappers have more of an interesting bent and are superior in certain technical aspects, Planet With came together in a more whole way for me, and my biases actually leave me putting it higher than either of those series on my personal list of good anime. Hinamatsuri I binged in 2 days, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I mostly remembered the show being sold as a very funny comedy with some heartwarming moments, but I didn't truly laugh much outside of some great facial reactions a couple of the side characters gave. Infact, I really didn't care for the main characters, Niita and Hina, all that much. Instead, I was primarily invested in the stories of the two side characters. Anzu, another psychic who goes from bring a delinquent and thief to a homeless girl who learned lessons of hard work, comraderie, and sympathy, to finding a new family to call her own and get a start at a new life. Hitomi, a middle school classmate of Hina's, winds up accidentally getting herself wrapped up in the bar scene, becoming a bartender by night, which she has a natural talent for. Through various connections with patrons there and misunderstandings from her family, she einds up moving out on her own and takes on all sorts of odd-jobs and temp-work, resulting in her becoming a very successful and talented...middle schooler. I might check out the manga at some point, if only to see where these characters continue to go. Now all that's left for my toxx is to finish watching Teekyu!
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Mar 28, 2020 19:19
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Finished off Dororo. Dip in quality around the middle, but the last few episodes were really really good in my opinion. Good sword fights, at the very least. Up next, hmm. Might start Haikyuu!
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Apr 2, 2020 18:22
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Normally, I save my toxx show impressions for the end of the year and leave everything up to the test of time for my write-ups. But Starmyu ended up stealing my heart and I wanted to gush a tiny bit first.Strange Quark posted:Starmyu (S1 and 2) | Started: 03-29 | Finished: 04-04   Starmyu had all of my favorite kinds of boys: dumb, gay, and crying Shunsuke Takeuchi Rating:  quote:The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls | Started: 01-01 | Finished: 01-01 I watched Cinderella Girls for the first time as part of the New Year's idolw@tch marathon. Season 1 had my favorite individual eps, but the character arcs and development were solid in season 2. Admittedly, I would probably struggle to remember any number of individual scenes because of the binge though. Shunsuke Takeuchi Rating: Watashi confirmed!  quote:Tsukipro The Animation | Started: 01-17 | Finished: 01-23 Tsukipro had some decent character scenes but the way it jumped from one band to the next every ep didn't really help you connect with them. The fan impressions I read also implied that a lot of anime scenes were for existing fans that expanded upon background material that a casual viewer wouldn't understand. A bit dull overall. Shunsuke Takeuchi Rating: I thought he used watashi at first, but then it turned out to only be for a song.  quote:Working Buddies | Started: 01-26 | Finished: 01-26 Erg told me to watch this and it was decently funny to entertain me for 30 minutes. A passing grade for a short. Shunsuke Takeuchi Rating: Uh, he was some strict elephant guy. No watashi here. quote:Yu Yu Hakusho | Baal | Started: 02-02 | Finished: 03-26 I read Yu Yu Hakusho when I was 15 or so up to around the finals of the Dark Tournament arc. Or at least I'm pretty sure I did, because watching the show I realized I had almost no memory of anything that happened between Yusuke dying and the Dark Tournament. Though those arcs didn't really catch my interest, and even the much praised Dark Tournament arc just seemed all right. It felt a little too bog standard shounen for what I've come to expect from Togashi nowadays. I guess I ended up kind of opposite the popular opinion, because the arcs after the Dark Tournament were definitely the high point for me, and honestly I found the ending hilarious.
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Apr 5, 2020 07:58
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Keijo!!!!!! I finally finished this awful garbage show that I hate. It wasn't funny, it was incredibly skeevy (and I'm saying that), the inherent ridiculousness of the sport made all the serious drama fall flat and the pacing was really weird at times (transitioning from one arc to the next halfway through the episode). In fairness the animation was fine, if not exceptional, and I'll admit I'm not super familiar with the kind of sports show Keijo is parodying, so if it did something amazingly clever in that sense it flew over my head. I intended to make a longer post but to be honest I don't want to spend any more time on this show than I already have, here's hoping the next show will be better.
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Apr 15, 2020 12:08
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Argona posted:I haven't done this before but I figured why not this year. e:actually i'll take it down a notch and include my original goal So i finished watching Garden of Sinners today. I had tried to watched them a long time ago, but fell off of it, so I decided to start from the beginning again. I ended up thinking of the first five as a set, and the ones after 5 as another set. I definitely liked the first set of five much more than the second set. 5 in particular really worked for me as climax to the set. The second set is still mostly good but has a pretty weak episode in 8, which is entirely a loredump episode. Overall stilll worth watching, and the animation really plays to ufotables strengths. I can see why they were picked for all the Fate stuff afterwards. Shiki's theme owns a lot. 7 makes it very clear that Nasu didn't know anything about weed. 
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Apr 19, 2020 00:20
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I'm of the theory that Nasu is just a lightweight. Like he tried weed, once, probably after finishing Utena or a reread of Devilman and was like "WHOA! gently caress gently caress FUCKITTY FUCKSHIT! This is horrible! The worst!" and was all like "Who would do this to themselves?", and thus "x times stronger than weed" was born. Also  wrt to the first half being very strong and part 2, while still fun + good, kinda suffers from having that not quite but sorta post-script feel. Like how after you finish a game, a bunch of stuff opens for you to but it's not quite as good. I mean usually.
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Apr 19, 2020 01:54
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OK so where I'm at is I've been redeployed due to coronavirus, meaning i currently have to spend quite a lit of my week living out of a hotel so that i can work long shifts at an inpatient unit outsode of my home county. I also have no idea how long the change to my working pattern will last. With this in mind I'm going to be amending my toxx in order to accou nt for this change in life balance, hopefully maintaining the challenge but adjusting the specifics. With higurashi I'm going to be aiming to complete the first four arcs as opposed to the entire series (alternatively, depending on Droyer's wishes because he's talking about it with me in discord sometimes - I will read the 8 arcs from the LP instead) I will also be playing the VN raging loop instead of the nonary games, this is because raging loop is on my switch and I can take it with me. I realise that this seems like a bit of a copout, but this is a bit of an unprecedented situation and frankly i can't devote a ton of effort to hobbies.
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Apr 28, 2020 22:01
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Good luck Namtab, stay safe
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Apr 28, 2020 22:11
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Namtab posted:OK so where I'm at is I've been redeployed due to coronavirus, meaning i currently have to spend quite a lit of my week living out of a hotel so that i can work long shifts at an inpatient unit outsode of my home county. I also have no idea how long the change to my working pattern will last. Eh, it's fine with me. Your health and your job are way more important, and given your job and the ongoing health crises, it's understandable.
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Apr 28, 2020 22:32
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Everything Burrito posted:Good luck Namtab, stay safe
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Apr 28, 2020 23:18
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Ibblebibble posted:From last year's toxx that having a job dashed any hopes of finishing that I'll try to get done this year: So uh. I bingewatched all 3.5 seasons of Haikyuu and the OVAs. Good lord I can't wait for part 2 of season 4. Will probably do my Hanebado rewatch next to round off the triple H sports shounens.
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May 13, 2020 16:32
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Strange Quark posted:Ace of the Diamond: Act II | 52 eps | Started: 05-12 | Finished: 05-17  It might not be totally above board to count the third season of a series I already know I enjoy for this challenge, but Takeuchi only gets a recurring character here, so I think it follows the spirit well enough. The last season left off with our team qualifying for the spring Koushien, so I was full expecting this season to just be 50 episodes of tournament play going in. That's fine and all, but for me, the games aren't normally the most compelling element of the series. So I was quite surprised that they end up losing, and losing very early on at that. This loss segues to the heart of what Act II is about : the team, one year older. My favorite part of Ace of the Diamond is the story of how the team gets better, how the characters grow as players. Act II capitalizes on this growth. It's very satisfying to see our main character go from struggling so much in the first two seasons as a first-year to being able to carry the team through tough situations. His part in playing a mentor role for the new first-years also serves to reinforce that growth and is itself a delight to watch. Act II does a lot to emphasize the goals of everyone on the team, from the pitchers competing for the ace number to first-years trying to prove themselves to second-years who still haven't gotten a chance to shine to third-years who have their last shot at making it on the roster. Not everyone reaches what they desire, but that's a part of why the drama elements are so successful. There aren't many tournament games in this season, but what they choose to focus on make the best use of their screen time. After 126 episodes from the last two seasons, we know how good our team can play, but the games still feel tense because, wouldn't you guess it, every one of their rivals have grown as well. The inter-team chemistry is pretty fun too. We see more characters needling players on the opposing team after a match for their LINE or contact info, and many eps later you get to see them texting each other during breathers. There's a short arc where players across various Tokyo teams are gathered to play against an American team, who speak entirely in English, so you get a really interesting dynamic where fierce rivals get to play together, and sometimes in positions they've never played in before. I didn't remember what a squeeze play was until a few days ago, but Ace of the Diamond does a fantastic job at convincing me that I love baseball, which is perhaps the greatest mark of success a sports anime can boast. Shunsuke Takeuchi Rating: Takeuchi's character doesn't talk much, but I did have a chuckle at how his helmet goes askew every time he swings. 
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May 18, 2020 09:18
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alright, I watched all of Cross Ange in like 4 days, so finally time to check that off theklapman posted:1. Air Gear oh
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May 18, 2020 11:43
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guess i'll update while the thread's bumpedTales of Woe posted:
have watched the first season of Rakugo already as well. plus like 20 shows that aren't on this list thanks to uh current events Katanagatari was pretty much what i expected from the author and premise. the 2nd episode was my favorite, the fight at the end perfectly pays off the entire episode's worth of dialogue in like 60 seconds, great writing. the rest was good too but that's the one that really sold me on it. Wixoss was cool and joins the big pile of okada series I've enjoyed about equally. good art direction and sound design
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May 18, 2020 14:50
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Strange Quark posted:Kaiba | 12 eps | Draxion | Started: 04-28 | Finished: 05-24 I've bounced off Yuasa stuff I tried in the past, so I went into Kaiba with fairly low expectations. It took a bit for me to get into the show, but I ended up a lot more invested in its characters than I expected. I did enjoy the question of identity angle best, even if Kaiba doesn't hit quite as hard as I would've liked. Definitely came off as more of an "anti-binge" show. With every episode I finished, I was left feeling like I should let the show rest for a while in my head, to mull things over subconsciously. The last show on my toxx list now is LoGH, which I'll probably avoid for a while out of fear.
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May 25, 2020 06:48
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Finished Given. I liked it, consistently funny show and the main romance was cute. The pacing was a bit weird though where it felt like they had the climax two episodes before the end and started the second art of the manga in the remaining eps. There were also some plot threads established that don't really go anywhere but I suppose that comes with being an incomplete adaptation of a long-running manga.
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May 25, 2020 19:17
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There's a movie in the works as well, so perhaps that covers the rest of the arc.
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May 25, 2020 19:32
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I'm finally back to this and I finished Hanebado. The show is about, Ayano Kanesaki, a girl who idolizes her badminton mom until one day she gets sick, loses a tournament because of it and has her mom walk out on her. Ayano grows depressed and out of love with the sport until she is roped into her high school's badminton team by the coach of said team and her best friend. I'm gonna start by saying I really enjoyed Hanebado but I am not surprised because competition and rivalries are some of my favorite poo poo in fiction. Hanebado is largely a story about Ayano, but there is another girl named Nagisa who the narrative starts from the perspective of as she loses to Ayano. It sets an interesting mood as it chooses to portray the protagonist here and as an empty Badminton machine as she beats Nagisa, which is also foreshadowing for later when Ayano becomes the antagonist. A lot of the story is about Ayano's abandonment issues and learning to love playing Badminton again as she comes to terms with what the sport means to her. Nagisa is the other protagonist and while the narrative doesn't weave her into everything like it does with Ayano, she is just as important of a character in showing that passion and hard-work can push a person beyond their limits to succeed. It's a very simple story about competition that has themes about failure, abandonment, and rekindling lost passion. It's something I think anyone who has ever competed in anything can appreciate even if the story is pretty simple at its core and not breaking the mold. The Badminton scenes are all very well animated with intense back and get that sound of the racket hitting the shuttle perfectly. It's a got a very good sense of humor in itself knowing when to drop it appropriately for its more dramatic scenes without feeling like there's any tonal whiplash. One of the show's strongest points is probably its soundtrack that stands out very emotionally among several scenes where characters are either playing or talking about their problems, especially the main theme of the show Love-All Play! That guitar is nice. Ayano and Nagisa are also strong protagonists with Ayano being shown to be very moody and brash, but seeing her return to her former glory in such a way that makes you excited to see her on top again. Until you reach the latter half of the show and realize Ayano is a much more cynical and spiteful person than she initially lets on and she becomes the show's antagonist leading to Nagisa and Ayano's rematch. Nagisa herself is a brash and power-based player who doesn't think through a lot of the stuff she does leading her to injuring herself or thinking worse of herself and a good part of the show is watching her regain her self esteem as she attempts to overcome the person she was and become a better player. If I have any complaints about this show it's that a lot of the side characters feel very one-note or simple. There are several points where I'm genuinely invested in the two protagonists and I don't care about any of the problems of the rest of the team because they either end up resolved in very dull ways or they just aren't particularly interesting. Aside from the two protagonists I enjoyed Ayano's friend, their coach, and Ebina, another player on the Badminton team. There is another episode in the backhalf of the show which is dedicated to one of Nagisa's opponents which was really good too. Overall I really enjoyed the show, it's energy and simplicity add a lot to how fun the show is to watch and it really picks up its narrative as it progresses in a fantastic way when it culminates in the final game between Nagisa and Ayano which takes the better part of three episodes and is excellent all the way through. Now for Detroit Metal City
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Jun 7, 2020 09:55
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