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If there was one thing I learned this year, it was that we finally live in the future we were promised by S. Morgenstern. But that's not very anime related. If I learned one thing that's actually on topic for this thread, it's that there's a world of shows out there, and that if you look long enough, you'll probably find something that does what you want, and even does it well. There might only be one show like Tatami Galaxy, but Tatami Galaxy exists, and if you keep trying new things you'll find other things almost as distinct and interesting. Unfortunately, I also was reminded that old shows, like modern ones, are mostly crap. And that I'm bad at listening to warnings, as shown by my returns to Gundam SEED. What I'm saying is, most of the bad shows and OVAs I watched this year don't qualify for this thread. What does, though, is... Deca-Dence Like with some of my "winners" from past years, it's not a horrible show. Honestly, it might even technically be above average. It looks nice, fights included, you don't hate the characters most of the time, the twists seem like they could be exciting... But none of it goes anywhere. Where something like Gridman or Attack on Titan drops major plot twists early in the show because it knows it has even better cards to play down the line, Deca-Dence does its big reveals in episode 2 and is done. We get Kabu dying over and over to establish stakes because he's a mentor, but then we get him back because he's the lead. We get Natsume being cute and almost contributing, but she's unaware of any of the real enemies, so what she does means nothing. We get supporting cast intros like when Attack on Titan wants to kill a bunch of people, but nobody dies, making it easy to wonder what the point was of even having the characters. The ending's terrible too, with all the problems solved by killing the big monster. It's like if the reveals in Attack on Titan were the same, but killing the Colossal was enough to fix everything in the world... somehow. Also, they killed the cute mascot animal for no good reason. Not the worst show I saw this year, but the worst current one I watched to completion. chiasaur11 fucked around with this message at 12:07 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 08:10
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 12:07 |
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Willo567 posted:Sorry, but I've been thinking about it more, and I thought of another reason why Yashahime is so loving frustrating: the show loves to poo poo on Moroha. For those who don't want to watch it, Moroha is essentially homeless, and has to pretty much rely on bounties in order to even eat. One of the running gags in the show is that they always end up killing the demon the girls go after, meaning that Moroha can't cash in her bounty. In one of the few times they actually get said bounty, Moroha says she's happy she won't have to starve, and the show hints that she's so desperate that she sometimes ends up having to steal food. All of this is played for laughs, and it's probably one of the most mean spirited jokes on a character I've seen; it's like if in Chainsaw Man, Denji having to dig out of the trash for food is treated as one big joke. I mean, it is a joke in Chainsaw Man. It's just it being a joke doesn't prevent it from also being portrayed as tragic. Denji's got a weird thing where his horrible, horrible life is both a sympathetic and grounded emotional anchor to the series and the source for a lot of the humor in the series. Of course, it's important there that most characters who became aware of his circumstances were sympathetic and shocked. Denji's poverty wasn't funny because a child suffered. Denji's poverty was funny because of how he responded to it, and his escape from it was one of the most cathartic moments in the early manga. This feels more like it was meant to be the Bebop crew perpetually being stuck eating ramen, but it misses a few key points. First, that Spike is always getting by. He wants something better than instant noodles, but it's rare for the crew to be out of food. Similarly, he and Faye are the ones grousing about being out of money, which is usually due to their own handling of the situation. Here, meanwhile, Trowa and Setsuna are often the cause of the debt, but they can just ditch and get food and supplies from their families. It's a common gag, but the gag is seemingly copied without understanding what makes it work, while Chainsaw Man puts a lot of thought into balancing Denji's suffering to let it be funny when it's meant to be funny, tragic when it's meant to be tragic, and both at once more often than you'd expect before reading it.
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Jan 3, 2021 03:47
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