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Kwyndig posted:People actually watched vlad love after that first episode? I wanted to see if it'd get better since I really wanted to like the first Oshii anime to come out in over a decade. So I gave it more of a chance than I would most shows. But alas.
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Mar 31, 2021 02:02
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Vlad Love jokes really didn't land in the second half and I really need that in my comedy to like it. Also the relationship between Mai and Mitsugu need some actual development especially since it was marketed as a yuri comedy.
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Mar 31, 2021 03:58
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tbh i don't think it being a yuri comedy 100% necessitates having tons of deep development threaded throughout the story. kill me baby basically pulls the same thing
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Mar 31, 2021 04:01
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between the two alt-history supernatural shows that dropped today, i'd probably give the edge to Mars Red as others have already said. there are aspects to its style i'm not a huge fan of (some uses of/avoidance of shading, choppy action as it tries to convey vampire speed) but they otherwise really went for it with nice backgrounds, interesting angles, and some choices that reference the series origin as a stage play. it didn't set a big hook for the rest of the series, but as a well-executed setup to a couple of the characters it has me invested. looking into it a bit and i noticed the director has worked on several Kenji Nakamura shows in the past, so i'd also like to follow the show from that angle. on the other hand, Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood has a pretty standard but appealing style. the linework is heavy to begin with but goes even further, as to evoke brushstrokes, for its transformation/battle scenes. they aren't getting particularly wild with the direction but the animation is solid even if the banked transformation sequence is the high point. very pulpy vibe as you have agents running around with bulletproof parasol crossbows and super-heated cane swords while the mysterious resource discovered & hoarded by the Shogunate is also being used by a mad scientist who seeks to overthrow it with animal-human hybrids. toss in Yukimura's thirst for revenge and an ep1 cliffhanger and you're golden. the fun aspects of this (Shogunate agents, little girl living with Yukimura) and pleasant style have me on board for now, but i have some misgivings about how serious Yukimura and her aspects of the show seem to be (really harshes the vibe).
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Mar 31, 2021 05:01
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Yeah Mars Red had a really strong start and I'm curious about where it goes from here. If it's an episodic series about weird, broken vampires and they're all as compelling as the first it could be great.
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Mar 31, 2021 05:15
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One last update- Spring thread is 90% done, but I'm tired and starting to make mistakes, plus gotta get up in 4 hours for work. So the thread will be posted tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for your patience.
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Mar 31, 2021 05:54
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Wark Say posted:Same. You could say I'm just not a big fan of this slime. Spider, so what was probably my least-favorite adaptation of a series ever*, but that's coming from a manga reader - I absolutely do not give a gently caress about non-spider isekai'd people, and the show's direction seemed dedicated to ruining every comedy beat and good design (although I understand it's closer to the LN designs, aka worse) Jobless Reincarnation was a solid adaptation from what I read of the manga, Gotoubun S2 has become a total farce more entertaining than the first season, and I watch Re:Zero to see Subaru suffer so this was a p great season.  *okay, fine, it's above Aku no Hana, but that's because watching anything rotoscoped literally makes me sick
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Mar 31, 2021 05:54
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dogsicle posted:between the two alt-history supernatural shows that dropped today, i'd probably give the edge to Mars Red as others have already said. there are aspects to its style i'm not a huge fan of (some uses of/avoidance of shading, choppy action as it tries to convey vampire speed) but they otherwise really went for it with nice backgrounds, interesting angles, and some choices that reference the series origin as a stage play. it didn't set a big hook for the rest of the series, but as a well-executed setup to a couple of the characters it has me invested. looking into it a bit and i noticed the director has worked on several Kenji Nakamura shows in the past, so i'd also like to follow the show from that angle. It's subjective but there were some very cool bits of direction. Like the shock on the MC's face occupying the foreground, and when he turns you only just realize the vampire lady has suddenly shifted to a different position. Or the sudden cuts making the vampire seem like they have moved on top of you in the blink of an eye, it's understated horror.
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Mar 31, 2021 06:46
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With the season wrapping up now's a good time to chime in, since there's a fair chance that I won't have much room to talk about them in the AOTY thread. --Highly Enjoyed-- Attack on Titan: Final Season -- I'd already read the manga, so I more-or-less knew what to expect. But Attack on Titan is the me-shaped-hole in the mountain. It nails absolutely everything I wished for in an action anime, without undercutting itself via bizarre tonal whiplash that seems to plague most others. Seeing how things work on the other side of the sea is not only interesting, it's what the story had secretly been building up to for a long time. If I had to come up with a criticism, I would grumble about the copious use of CG, but even then it is still an improvement compared to most other CG anime. However, this probably will NOT make it into my final AOTY list, simply by virtue of the fact that it is very much the first half of a two-part puzzle. Heck, I'd actually say the second half is where the pieces scattered through entire series comes together, but we'll wait until the adaptation arrives before casting those words into stone. Re: Zero Part 2 -- And while I didn't include Re: Zero on my AOTY list last year for the above reason, there's a good chance it'll end up in my top 5 this year. Taken as a whole, the second installment of Re: Zero had some absolutely amazing episodes. Subaru's parents, the final witches' tea party, Subaru vs Emilia were all 10/10 episodes by themselves. And how many shows could get away with skipping the OP/ED this much in favor of more animation without collapsing entirely? Few. However, this latest "part two" also had some flaws that I suspect were induced by a strained-behind-the-scenes production. Characters stand around talking to each other in situations where they ought to be running / fighting for their life, tearful goodbyes get stretched out far too long -- Emilia was the biggest offender -- and menacing enemies glare menacingly while the character in the spotlight says their bit. These are all traits that either weren't present in the first season that aired in 2016, or were toned down enough to not be noticeable. I still really enjoyed seeing Subaru overcome the impossible odds, and I hope it gets a season 3, I just hope that they are given the time they need to make it without resorting to these kinds of measures. -- It Was Interesting -- Heaven's Design Team -- It wavered between "this is funny" and "this is interesting", but did so often enough that I found myself looking forward to the days when this came out. The characters are mostly just there to do their bit, and make it work, but aren't that memorable either. I enjoyed it, and I probably won't think about it much after this season is done. Wonder Egg Priority -- Sigh. I had enormous hopes for this one. The passion its core team had is clearly exercised every episode. It was the best animated anime of Winter 2021 (though SK8 comes close from what I've seen). However, it looks like they flew too close to the sun. There was no room in this show for a recap episode, but a recap episode the production needed. Further compounding those problems were some absolutely bizarre writing choices. A killer robot who possesses people through their dreams? Cool idea, would be a good plot for an anime *if it were hinted at early on.* Instead, we get a heartfelt anime about people trying to find the meaning in their friends' suicides jarringly morphing into the above sci-fi thriller at episode 11-out-of-12. I'm sure that out of some infinite realities, there is a show that does precisely that concept, but well, but it probably isn't this one. I do appreciate their unwillingness to rush an ending out, so hopefully we get that extra episode at some point. Who knows, maybe they turn things around in the span of two episodes? But more likely, this will sit alongside Gatchaman Crowds as an anime that had Big Ideas but not enough time to do them justice and also their ideas are wrong. -- It Was Not That Interesting -- Otherside Picnic -- It actually wasn't that bad, but the mediocre production values, crappy CG monsters, copious Engrish, and lackadaisical attitude towards the Other Side meant I knew that it would never jive with me. Maybe I'll check out the source, since many posters here have mentioned that it excels at the creepy atmosphere the anime lacked. Cells at Work: Code Black -- Eh. I liked it a bit more the Cells At Work, but at the end of the day I found the germ designs uninspired generic Bad Guy™ and the story wasn't really going anywhere so I think I'll sit this one out. Vlad Love -- Watched the first episode, found the characters off-putting, and the jokes weren't funny enough to make up for that. I did enjoy reading all you guys' posts about whatever the hell this thing was, though. Malsangoroth fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Mar 31, 2021 |
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Mar 31, 2021 07:52
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AmiYumi posted:Actually, since we're talking about it, did no one else find the progression of this season hosed-up to the point of almost dropping it? MC's progression has gone from "standard isekai protagonist" to "just a total piece of poo poo, but the show isn't self-aware enough to realize it" He visibly didn't care about any of the goblins or orcs in the village dying, but as soon as he learned a big-titty woman was one of the victims he's ready to murder thousands of people. What a hero. i didn't think that rimuru didn't care about all the other casualties, he just got madder when it was one of his closest friends/lieutenants. also the church/falmuth literally tried to wipe out a peaceful city cause they're not humans, it's hard to find sympathy
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Mar 31, 2021 07:54
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It's the year of 10th anniversaries, with a new (recap with extra scenes) movie for Mawaru Penguindrum https://mobile.twitter.com/penguindrum/status/1377199742262767616
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Mar 31, 2021 13:33
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Hope it's 10 years since you INSTALLED LINUX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4FlL1FCbvA
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Mar 31, 2021 14:30
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sinky posted:Hope it's 10 years since you INSTALLED LINUX Maybe you shouldn't be linking to a video where the uploader calls youtube "jewtube" in the description. -edit lol, no need to get defensive, I'm just pointing out the uploader is lovely, and you shouldn't be linking his stuff. IShallRiseAgain fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Mar 31, 2021 |
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Mar 31, 2021 14:39
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Maybe I didn't read the description
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Mar 31, 2021 14:41
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AmiYumi posted:Actually, since we're talking about it, did no one else find the progression of this season hosed-up to the point of almost dropping it? MC's progression has gone from "standard isekai protagonist" to "just a total piece of poo poo, but the show isn't self-aware enough to realize it" He visibly didn't care about any of the goblins or orcs in the village dying, but as soon as he learned a big-titty woman was one of the victims he's ready to murder thousands of people. What a hero. thats what we call prioritization. I totally get where that slimes coming fro m
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Mar 31, 2021 16:36
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dudermcbrohan posted:i didn't think that rimuru didn't care about all the other casualties, he just got madder when it was one of his closest friends/lieutenants. also the church/falmuth literally tried to wipe out a peaceful city cause they're not humans, it's hard to find sympathy This. The anime has been pretty good, but they still have been trimming if not cutting out a lot of stuff including world building. The scene with the dead goblins made him angry and full of self-loathing since it was on him. Finding Shion and Gobzo dead just made him angrier. They also trimmed some of the stuff on the politics of the justification for attacking Tempest. The anime has been iffy in how they convey a lot of things and its been an issue since S1.
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Mar 31, 2021 16:46
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ehh, i think it's pretty easy to get why the church would try and wipe a peaceful monster town off the map. i've seen a few JRPGs before
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Mar 31, 2021 16:51
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dudermcbrohan posted:ehh, i think it's pretty easy to get why the church would try and wipe a peaceful monster town off the map. i've seen a few JRPGs before Got skipped, but they also ignore summons for aid unless you worship THEIR God or allow worship of other gods.
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Mar 31, 2021 17:49
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Spiritus Nox posted:So I'm A Spider, So What? - So it's got a lot of production jank in odd places - the CG is obviously hit or miss but there were frankly a lot of action scenes where I struggled to parse what the audio editing was even going for - and a cast of human characters that feel almost entirely vestigial and undefined after a full cour, so what? It's also got Aoi Yuuki narrating her way through a particularly harsh Isekai scenario with all the bombast of your favorite vtuber, and that's entertainment enough IMO. it's a 2season deal so i wonder if now that she's out of that one hole poo poo will start moving i, too, liked it enough for what it was, but she coulda gotten through that a couple eps earlier and nothing would be lost imo
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Mar 31, 2021 18:00
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Julias posted:One last update- Spring thread is 90% done, but I'm tired and starting to make mistakes, plus gotta get up in 4 hours for work. So the thread will be posted tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for your patience. Just so long as it has a funny subtitle. 
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Mar 31, 2021 19:19
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doomrider7 posted:This. The anime has been pretty good, but they still have been trimming if not cutting out a lot of stuff including world building. The scene with the dead goblins made him angry and full of self-loathing since it was on him. Finding Shion and Gobzo dead just made him angrier. They also trimmed some of the stuff on the politics of the justification for attacking Tempest. The anime has been iffy in how they convey a lot of things and its been an issue since S1. Which is totally cool, mind - I like watching a villain protagonist wreck shop, like in your Hellsings and Overlords, but you've gotta be aware that's what you're doing and direct appropriately. Namtab posted:thats what we call prioritization. I totally get where that slimes coming fro m 
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Mar 31, 2021 19:58
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AmiYumi posted:Ah, makes sense - that was poorly conveyed as an anime-only watcher. It was like he went from "oh dead greenskins, sucks but whattya gonna do" to "THEY KILLED MOMMY MILKERS?!? I WILL GENOCIDE THEIR CIVILIZATION, THEN ATTACK AND DETHRONE GOD". Yeah the LN and Manga felt a lot deeper since one of the Goblin Elders tearfully asks him if they did anything wrong since they showed all the courtesy like he said which made him remember that one of the big rules he made was to be nice to humans which in turn makes him feel like absolute poo poo about what happened. The way it's described in the LN it sounds like he's having a full blown panic attack along with surges of rage...then he sees Shion and Gobzo and how they died puts him over the edge and he loses control and needs to put on the mask. That and the meeting where he opens up and admits about his human past where two scenes where the Anime kind of flubbed it since he's thinking that he doesn't deserve to be accepted or forgiven for what happened and contemplates self-exile. There were more scenes and material that got left on the cutting room floor as well that delves into the world building and Rimuru's thoughts about his life and what it all means and where it's going.
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Mar 31, 2021 20:19
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Mars Red started with one of those "this is a work of fiction" disclaimers, and then was about draculas.
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Apr 1, 2021 00:16
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Brutal Garcon posted:Mars Red started with one of those "this is a work of fiction" disclaimers, and then was about draculas. It's also about what looks like early 20th century Japan, which can be a touchy subject.
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Apr 1, 2021 00:20
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Just saw the first episode of JORAN THE PRINCESS OF SNOW AND BLOOD (seriously, that's how it's written, at least on Crunchyroll). It's entertainingly over-the-top, but also sort of convoluted. So our heroine is a spy/assassin working for the shogun, and she's undergone some kind of magic/superscience operation that lets her turn into a part-animal with blue blood. The shogun stays in power due to his monopoly on some sort of resource (possibly the resource is involved in making animal-people?). The shogunate is vaguely authoritarian and unpopular (in addition to, you know, having teams of unaccountable assassins), but they're also apparently proactive in trying to fight epidemics, and the people trying to overthrow them are also vaguely coded as bad guys, so maybe we're meant to see them as a "necessary evil"? Anyway, our heroine's cover identity is apparently some kind of rare books dealer, and she lives with her younger sister, but apparently the sibling connection is fake as part of her cover? The ending implies that the younger sister is about to kill her, but that's an obvious fake-out. Apparently our heroine used to have an older brother, who was also an animal-person (judging by all the blue blood), but he was killed by another animal-person, and our heroine is trying to get revenge on...whoever the other animal-person was working for, I guess. Anti-shogunate rebels? Alongside the other shogunate assassins (the guy with the sword and the prostitute with the crossbow), she was on a mission against people who were smuggling exotic animals into the country in order to make more animal-people to fight the shogunate. The sword and some of the assassins' other gadgets seem to be mysteriously illuminated, so I guess they're powered by the resource the shogun controls? She ends up fighting an animal-person working for the smugglers/rebels, who turns out to be someone she knew as a customer at her bookstore; apparently they are both surprised by this, so this is a coincidence rather than either spying on the other. She kills him but is badly injured in the process (mostly because she was so surprised he was someone she knew). Then we see her in her room with her sister seemingly about to kill her with a knife, but we know that's a fake-out because surely her sister is the one who must have treated her wounds? Also, a bunch of other animal-people are on the move for some reason, and they're interested in her because she's listed in some sort of book? Actually, maybe it's not all that convoluted; it just felt that way due to the in medias res opening. I didn't misunderstand anything important there, did I?
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Apr 1, 2021 00:33
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Brutal Garcon posted:Mars Red started with one of those "this is a work of fiction" disclaimers, and then was about draculas. You saying Dracula isn't real?
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Apr 1, 2021 01:05
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Silver2195 posted:Actually, maybe it's not all that convoluted; it just felt that way due to the in medias res opening. I didn't misunderstand anything important there, did I? I agree the weirdest part is that both the rebels and government seem to be pretty evil. Maybe it's just going to be a very dark series.
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Apr 1, 2021 01:07
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Sindai posted:Nah that's pretty much what I got out of it. I mean, the Tokugawa shogunate is not fondly remembered in Japan, and the Meiji Restoration led to... unfortunate consequences (particularly in the era this show is set in), so if the rebels are Japanese imperialists, it makes a great deal of sense that both sides are poo poo. I assume that the good guys, if such things exist, will be the ordinary citizens caught in the middle and the yokai that both sides are weaponising. Maybe some Taisho democrats, too.
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Apr 1, 2021 01:17
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Sindai posted:Nah that's pretty much what I got out of it.
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Apr 1, 2021 03:00
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Coming in a season late to yell at everyone to watch Akudama Drive. drat, I wish it had a dedicated thread.
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Apr 1, 2021 05:09
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Maera Sior posted:Coming in a season late to yell at everyone to watch Akudama Drive. drat, I wish it had a dedicated thread. You can make a dedicated thread at any time. You could even make one right now, advocating for people to go watch it and post their thoughts are reactions to it.
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Apr 1, 2021 05:54
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i don't remember if it had a thread but it was definitely well liked on here
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Apr 1, 2021 06:00
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akudama was my favorite anime of 2020, which was fortunate because if i hadn't watched it my opinion of kodaka after watching danganronpa 3 afterwards would've been a lot lower
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Apr 1, 2021 06:10
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Tales of Woe posted:i don't remember if it had a thread but it was definitely well liked on here It did not. A lot of people here jumped onboard after it finished, hearing how fun it was and that it stuck the landing.
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Apr 1, 2021 06:26
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Also the spring season thread is finally up: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3963856 Remind me next time to get an early head start on these.
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Apr 1, 2021 06:27
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Silver2195 posted:Just saw the first episode of JORAN THE PRINCESS OF SNOW AND BLOOD (seriously, that's how it's written, at least on Crunchyroll). It's entertainingly over-the-top, but also sort of convoluted. This, plus there's some weird involvement of the French, who have alot of influence over Kyushu. Which is an interesting bit of history, because the French were a huge contributor to the post-Perry Meiji restoration. And the Kyushu daimyo were the ones who spearheaded the overthrow of the Tokugawa.I don't fault this style of storytelling that lets the visuals do the worldbuilding, but as is it's rather sparse. So it could be intellectually interesting. But at the same time, I have a bit of a bone to pick with this show. Primarily, this is a show filled with an unbelievable amount of seinen edge. The characters are completely unlikeable and unpleasant and think nothing of killing and mistreating people weaker than them. The MC is supposed to be justified about this due to a cliched trauma. The only likeable character is that poor jerk who applied for a job and was monsterified for his trouble.
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Apr 1, 2021 07:17
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Phobophilia posted:This, plus there's some weird involvement of the French, who have alot of influence over Kyushu. Which is an interesting bit of history, because the French were a huge contributor to the post-Perry Meiji restoration. And the Kyushu daimyo were the ones who spearheaded the overthrow of the Tokugawa.I don't fault this style of storytelling that lets the visuals do the worldbuilding, but as is it's rather sparse. So it could be intellectually interesting. The MC's coworkers are enforcers for one of the most notoriously repressive regimes in history (who don't seem to be getting particularly positive treatment in the show, either). I'm not sure they're meant to be sympathetic, or that our protagonist will be sticking with them for the duration. She's obviously not super keen on her work.
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Apr 1, 2021 10:57
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Tokugawa Japan's repression lay primarily on the daimyo and samurai classes who could threaten Tokugawa rule, otherwise they were in the same ballpark as Bismarck Germany or Habsburg Austria-Hungary or Romanov Russia. If anything it took until Showa Japan before state capacity for repression could increase to the extent where it filtered down to the masses. And from a cursory glance at Japanese pop culture depictions, I don't get the impression that Tokugawa Japan was viewed as any particular nadir of history, not like say late Qing China. It's just a setting, a thing that happened, at worse it's just a more backwards and corrupt version of Japan where human rights aren't respected. Shoguns aren't any kind of symbol of decay. Heck, the bakumetsu were outright heroes in some stories even in the Heisei. Now, in this show? This 1930s Tokugawa is depicted as worse than 1930s Showa, but it'd have to be in order for that kind of absolutism to still exist in this kind of modern state. But the protagonist's team being a bunch of unlikable shits seems less like it's something for the protagonist to eventually rebel against, and more like the basic standard of morality within the show.
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Apr 1, 2021 13:55
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Sindai posted:Weirdly, I love NNB but find Yuru Camp unwatchably boring. I guess because NNB is more of a comedy. I liked Yurucamp enough but I didn't think it was the amazing experience that a lot of people made it out to be. I can definitely see how boring it would be if you weren't already interested in the subject matter or looking at pretty scenery and dopey girls.
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Apr 1, 2021 19:55
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Coxswain Balls posted:I liked Yurucamp enough but I didn't think it was the amazing experience that a lot of people made it out to be. I can definitely see how boring it would be if you weren't already interested in the subject matter or looking at pretty scenery and dopey girls. The big thing about Yurucamp is a lot of people went camping as kids and never had kids of their own, so they haven't gone camping since they became adults. It hits the nostalgia button at the same time as encouraging people to pick up that old hobby from childhood again.
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Apr 1, 2021 20:16
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