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There's a lot of anime that isn't seasonal, and this is the thread to talk about the shows you watched that you enjoyed most this year! Also feel free to post about a favorite tokusatsu show or drama or whatever, there's more than just anime that fits in this subforum, and I know I watched stuff like that this year!
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Dec 26, 2021 19:07
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I finally watched Amagi Brilliant Park this year, and it was a gorgeous looking show (thanks Kyo-ani) with a lot of fun humor in a rather unique premise. It dragged in a couple of parts, and the ending could have been better, but overall an enjoyable, comfy experience. Dirty Pair Project Eden was an amazing film to watch, from the great, stylistic visuals to the fun animation. It's not a deep story or anything, but the film just oozes style with it's great OST, the well detailed space scenes, The villain professor Wattsman, and the more artsy bits like the OP song. I also watched the first season on Non-non Biyori. It was a lovely slice of life anime, that could pivot very well from comedic stories to more serious emotional explorations of the characters like the episode where Renge makes a new friend over the summer. It's a good show, I cam highly recommend it. And death to the "non-non biyori is boring" memes. Rewatched Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still, and this time I had a much greater appreciation for just how amazing the animation is across the 7 OVA episodes, as well as learning the backstory of how the show was conceived and how it's a hodgepodge of a bunch of the mangaka Mitsuteru Yokoyama's other works and characters to get around copyright involving the live action adaptations of Giant Robo. Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai was a great look into Oshii's formative years as a director, and is a rather unique concept, basically being a 6 act absurdist stage play, with the characters, camera framing, and presentation acting as such, but taking advantage of the fact that it is animated. You'll get newspapers shattering like glass with the accompanying sound effects, characters will freeze in frame while another character is giving a monologue, except you'll see them twitching and struggling to stay still like actors irl, there's musical numbers, and the characters will talk about the nature of stories in a metatexual way. My only real complaint is that the last episode deviates from the previous five, and it's kind of a "love it or hate it" type of ending, with it leaving me more cold personally, since it's basically Oshii being Oshii at his maximum, musing about the nature of stories and reality. But i still really enjoyed what came before, and would highly recommend checking it out.
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Dec 26, 2021 20:04
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Highschool of the Dead: this had all a good horror should have. plenty of gore and plenty of tits. however in the end its fairly mediocre, can't think of any better zombie anime though The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: exceedingly uninspired follow-up to 765, with (too many) girls that are a lot worse, storylines that are dramatic but dull and a lack of good comedy. my only laughs were at how overtly blatant the fanservice is Drifters: great fun low budget seinen fair. good op, good frank portrayal of war without shying away from the unpleasant stuff, only problem is that the typical kouta hirano comedy moments don't work. oh and the anime is obviously unfinished as hirano has the working pace of a snail Gleipnir: didn't deliver enough on either of the important horror fronts At this point i noticed this thread said best anime which drastically cut down the amount of anime i could write about EXCEPT Aria: Il faut tentre de vivre. A subject I've extensively discussed before is that what separates the good slice of life from the bad only meant to sell masturbation fodder to the lonely is how well its world is realized. The shallow series could take place anywhere, anytime as their world's have no depths. Anything besides the main girls (and I, like the art critic ignores the caricature artist on the street, or the cat ignores the command, or film buff ignores marvel movies, etc etc, ignore SOL about boys, they are obviously not worth considering) might as well not exist, they are generally devoid of that what makes a life worth living. They have no place in their universe, nothing that binds them to their world. It's generally impossible to imagine these characters actually living their daily lives as the shows do not portray any actual lives. This, is something very few SOL actually succeed at. A prominent example I discussed last year as Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, in which the area the main cast lives in is well realized in every aspect. You get to know its neighbourhoods shopkeepers, their classmates, teachers, friends, family and so on. You can practically walk through their entire neighbourhood solely based on what you learn in the series without losing your way. Aria does this for an entire city. Every episode goes through painstaking effort to showcase more of Neo-Venezia, even replacing the traditional OP, a tremendous vehicle for sales for most shows, with scenes showcasing more of the daily life in the city. There is also throughout its multiple seasons a confident pacing in what it shows. The first season is mostly focused on the basic introduction. Not only showcasing to the viewer what Neo-Venezia is, but also how it came to be and contrasting it to the (grim) rest of the anime's universe. In its second season the series showcases the hidden depths of its world. It shows not only the dangers of its world, but also the wonders hidden for those who dare to take a look. Its final season focuses largely on showing the city from a more mature viewpoint. While earlier the girls as students had the time to explore and dive into the city, by now they have grown into adults with responsibilities and get to deal with that world. There is no longer time for engaging with aliens, murderous ghosts or back alley secrets, these are the experiences left behind, as they can only truly be engaged with by the young. In return of course they get new worries and wonders that come with adulthood. I would like to take the time to engage in somewhat more depth with something mentioned last paragraph: 'murderous ghosts'. Most SOL are entirely unthreatening. The simulacrum of life they portray is one where nothing changes. A life where nothing changes is one where characters do not grow, but its also one where they have no real threats. Aria does away with both these limitations, as the girls encounter a variety of life threatening situations. In one episode for example they dive too deep into a hidden part of the city only inhabited by the series cat like creatures. In this episode they find themselves unable to move forward, caught in a non euclidean part of the city as they endlessly loop through the same few streets despite moving forward. In another episode, a god whisks one of the girls away. In another, they get caught up in the whims of a feline Casanova. These events serve to remind us of how insignificant our lives are, and how mortal we are when confronted with forces greater then ourselves. Of course, a SOL is nothing without its characters. Whereas most SOL fall into trusted tropes (the ditz, the tsundere, the glasses girl etc) the girls in Aria, who at first appear to be easily classified as some of these tropes are decidedly deeper characters. The series long running time gives them the chance to grow into multi dimensional characters. It should also not be underestimated the tremendous benefit the fact that the creator is a woman has for its characters. While most female characters, not just in the SOL genre, fall into copies of earlier anime girls made by those with little interaction with the fairer sex, Aria obviously does not fall into this trap. Alice in particular is a successful portrayal of the growth from reclusive child, to bright teen and finally to confident adult. The characters are thankfully saved from the usual SOL shtick of being pure Madonna's as they're even allowed to fall in love, wow! That said the anime does scrap some of those storylines, perhaps as the move from a Shoujo audience for its manga to a more adult male audience for its anime made those a harder sell. Only Aika keeps all of those storylines intact. Besides writing for any anime the presentation is also an important part. While Aria suffers a bit from starting in the 00s and the Japanese BD being upscaled butcheries (get the new western BD releases), the visuals are generally gorgeous. Incredibly gentle portrayals of life with beautiful water. Not much can be said about this that can't better understood by just watching the series. The soundtrack as well is largely great, although I found a few of the vocal tracks grating, with wonderful ED's by artists such as Round Table ft Nino and a bunch of great insert songs. As a final note, I have not seen the 2 new movies but since they are from this year (the anime franchise has been active since 2005 and this month got its probable last part) they would not qualify for this thread anyway
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Dec 27, 2021 01:00
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Dav has no appreciation for the power of smile
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Dec 27, 2021 03:28
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Davincie posted:At this point i noticed this thread said best anime which drastically cut down the amount of anime i could write about same
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Dec 27, 2021 08:08
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.hack//sign is often treated as a meme slow anime that doesn't get mmos, and what people fail to realize, is that .hack//sign is just an mmo anime that does not care about making mmos look cool at all and is way more interested in examining how people use mmos as an outlet for personal expression and as such every time the show is not digging into the haunted mmo plot it's just people standing around making dumb mmo jokes at each other and saying completely inanely stupid poo poo. very fun time aura battler dunbine is one of the slowest and most tedious anime tomino's ever directed. i found it draining in the moment but in retrospect i respect it a lot because it did in fact reflect the experience the show wanted to depict of a group of people tossed into a freakishly unstoppable war with stubborn idiots that drags on so long that everyone begins to slowly lose their mind. neo dunbine holds up a lot worse but i can't blame tomino for that one cause he didn't direct it, so it having an incredibly awful seizure-inducing ending wasn't his call. garzey's wing is still garzey's wing but i will go to bat for wings of rean, it's a nigh-incoherent mess but it's got a very breakneck pace and is never anything less than entertaining and surreal. heavy metal l-gaim is one of the weirdest tomino anime cause it shifts gears like three times from one of his most off the wall and goofy space adventure shows, to a really mediocre war mecha anime held up by weird characters and cool visuals, to a really unexpectedly deep dig at how often women are mistreated and thrown away by men where the role of the main character arguably shifts away from daba to one of the "villains" purely because full flat actively gets more emotional weight ascribed to her and does more on camera to contribute to the climax of the story. full metal soldier is a weird, sort of a mess of an ova that makes no sense in the context of the show or of itself but it has a really funny one-off bad guy who controls his robot by playing a piano.
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Dec 27, 2021 08:11
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here's my best picks gurazeni: it's pretty alright. i think it's weird how each ep basically sets up a situation where you're expecting things to go wrong, but they never do. prince of tennis: awful rear end 2001 fansubs and heavy reuse of footage aside, it's very hammy and cheesy in a way few sports anime are like. i like the character beats like one guy who in one ep repeatedly called the team captain to give him updates on a teammate meeting up with a girl as he secretly followed him around, and the captain immediately hanged up each time. im very excited to watch the insanely ugly cg movie from this year someday. hanasakeru seishounen: this had an epic revenge plot where a guy cucked himself by stealing the sperm from his comatose brother to inseminate his wife in order to get back at his mom. the story kinda dragged when it moved to fake brunei (which is in southeast asia and NOT THE MIDDLE EAST) but i'm game to blame that on the deteriorating subs. here's the thematic summary: https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1401458725332783106/pu/vid/1280x720/60m4iXOHh3uofFja.mp4 Strange Quark fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Dec 27, 2021 |
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Dec 27, 2021 08:16
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tbh i dont think most sol anime would be improved by having a two second bit in the very last episode that goes 'also they got married to dudes who are barely characters' also i watched majestic prince this year. its a sooomewhat generic mecha thing and the characters are very clearly defined tropes but its got really engaging banter and a pretty steady pace, and top shelf cg even if it had come out this year. 7/10.
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Dec 27, 2021 08:34
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I'm guessing this is the Arcane bait thread. Usually watch the winner of AOTY. I think last year was A Place Further than the Universe.
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Dec 27, 2021 11:10
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I watched Magic Knight Rayearth and Bubblegum Crisis this year, of the two I liked Rayearth the most because of its strong first half even though it lost me in the second. BGC is one of the best looking shows I've ever seen but its episode-to-episode plot was completely out to lunch more often than not.
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Dec 27, 2021 13:34
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Nate RFB posted:I watched Magic Knight Rayearth and Bubblegum Crisis this year, of the two I liked Rayearth the most because of its strong first half even though it lost me in the second. BGC is one of the best looking shows I've ever seen but its episode-to-episode plot was completely out to lunch more often than not. Bubblegum Crisis suffers a lot from being an OAV in that show runners weren't sure if they get to produce future episodes so they'd like cram in a full cour's worth of plot into 1 or 2 episodes but it almost doesn't matter cause the setting and the music rock and can hide almost all of the cracks. Rewatched Selector Infected/Spread Wixoss TV and movie this year and it's still the best post Madoka series in terms of providing a different answer to what it means to sacrifice and have a wish granted. Too bad every series since this has been bad
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Dec 27, 2021 19:42
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I went back to finish Granbelm after watching the first episode and then just sort of forgetting about it, and it made me sorry I didn't watch it while it aired. Everything about the show and its characters clicked for me, and it didn't hurt at all its animation looked amazing.
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Dec 27, 2021 19:58
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i watched a lot of good stuff off my backlog this year but the biggest surprise was Zvezda, such a clever and funny and goodhearted little show. easily makes it into my all-time favs
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Dec 27, 2021 20:11
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my non-2021 anime of the year is Maze: The Mega-Burst Space
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Dec 27, 2021 20:20
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Elephant Parade posted:my non-2021 anime of the year is Maze: The Mega-Burst Space Nice! What did you like it about it? Tell me more about this Maze: the Mega-Burst space
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Dec 27, 2021 20:52
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It doesn't have to be just the best anime. Just whatever you liked. Notixing some people getting hung up on this offsite
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Dec 27, 2021 20:55
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Idolish7 did not start this year, so I will count it. Characters have issues that improve or are slow burns but are not instantly resolved in arcs that then effectively remove them as characters which other shows can often fall into, the relationship web is pretty interconnected even with an expanding cast, new additions in later seasons fit in great without overshadowing the others, and the songs are generally good even if they're not always to my taste (not a fan of the summer song in particular). It's a good show even if it spends more time on the losers in i7 rather than the true kings, Trigger.
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Dec 27, 2021 21:00
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for non 2021 anime, I watched the first season of Kimetsu no Yaiba and I watched the full Code Geass of those two, I'm giving it to Code Geass, since it was actually finished even if some parts of the ending were not very good (mostly the dad/mom stuff).
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Dec 27, 2021 21:02
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i also watched rayearth. season 1 of rayearth is a decent fantasy adventure story i'd recommend for the visuals alone, s2 i think has a big dip in the middle but the beginning is fun and the ending is pretty satisfying. it's got lots of cool design work since the different kingdoms let it add more variety on top of its existing fantasy aesthetic, and while a lot of the romance elements i think are pretty unnecessary and weak, the stuff with umi is so bizarrely out of focus and barely acknowledged that it's easy to ignore it and lantis and eagle have a fun dynamic so i didn't mind their introduction in the end.
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Dec 27, 2021 21:14
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GorfZaplen posted:Nice! What did you like it about it? Tell me more about this Maze: the Mega-Burst space Unfortunately, the show rapidly drops off past that point as it introduces new members of the main cast every 1-2 episodes, who steal screentime from the established cast without contributing to the core dynamic or getting any particularly interesting development. As Maze grows to accept her powers, plotting increasingly suffers from an overreliance on taking them away: in one arc, a villain slaps an antimagic choker on her in the first episode; in the next, she inhales 'antimagic gas'. The last arc is jarringly insane: a magical accident sends the party to the Mazes' world, where it's revealed that they're a pair of Japanese siblings with the family name Mei (hence them being known as "the Meis"—if you don't get it yet, say it aloud). Also, they're incestuous lovers and world-hopping quasi-gods descended from the main villains. There are some good standalone episodes here and there, particularly in the last arc, but on the whole it drops from 'solid' to 'subpar' and never really recovers. Still, with the exception of Gundam '79, which I haven't finished yet, it's the most memorable non-2021 show I've seen this year. And it has the best OP and ED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtNrzrCRTb0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtNrzrCRTb0 The show, which was adapted from an LN series of the same name, also received an OVA pilot with one very good joke, a truly atrocious DVD-exclusive bonus episode with another very good joke, and a lost movie.
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Dec 27, 2021 21:56
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Shoujo Commando Izumi: What the..!? this isn't an anime!? No, this was an 80s drama about a girl experimented on by a secret government program, who has now escaped and must adapt to being a normal school girl! Originally envisioned as the fourth entry in the Sukeban Deka series, it was retooled and given a much smaller episode count of 15 episodes. The entire soundtrack was composed by the rock band AJARI, who did a very fine job. I still find myself listening to the ending track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SZaNSeg9L0 The show was so full of AJARI that there's even unreleased tracks of theirs in the show, which is a shame as I think they're quite good! It also has an entire episode dedicated to the band where criminals kidnap their manager, and the band performs all their singles for half the show. Speaking of, the show itself is also very good! The action is very top notch, having good choreography and decent gunplay. The characters are fun caricatures (the corrupt cop is an all timer and gets the best focus ep) and the main character undergoes believable character growth, never becoming an entirely outgoing girl but quietly acclimating to having friends. The fact that it's packed into 15 episodes means it doesn't overstay it's welcome but doesn't end too soon either. I recommend this heartily to anyone who enjoys the genre of deadly teenage girls or tokusatsu/drama fans. Thus Spake Kishibe Rohan: Hirohiko Araki continues to indulge his hobby of stealing from shoujo manga with this spinoff series that presents classic shoujo horror to a male audience that otherwise finds horror emasculating. All jokes aside this is great tense stuff, my favorite episodes were the body double one and I think about the episode about the crazy gymcel treadmill death race every time I talk about the gym. Sadamitsu the Destroyer is a classic of early-00s low budget nonsense about a delinquent who finds a dying alien policeman and decides to take it into his own hands to capture 1000000 alien criminals that have escaped a prison ship and are landing on earth. Directed by the legendary Koichi Ohata of M.D. Geist and Genocyber fame, like all 00s seinen adaptations it has minimal animation and is quite frankly only a step or two above Musashi Gundoh. But it's great! It totally ignores the plot of the manga (which is also very good and has top notch art, I eagerly await for scans to continue someday) while keeping the characters the same. The resulting story is a lot more coherent than the manga which drops some game changing bomb every other chapter or so, instead focusing on classic monster of the week scenarios with fun twists, for example one episode the alien isn't a bad guy at all but is just a motorcycle alien that wants to go really fast, or in another episode a pair of symbiotic aliens steal panties at school and blame it on Sadamitsu. Although the animation is honestly terrible the crazy alien designs are still done justice and I believe are all original to the anime, making me think the mangaka just has a huge sketchpad full of aliens, something every artist should aspire to. If you can stomach the animation I say watch this show, it just has a great energy that makes me enjoy it despite its numerous visual errors and slideshows. It also has an excellent Taku Iwasaki soundtrack that takes inspiration from spaghetti westerns for some reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec_Vp8OhyVM I rewatched FLCL, still great! My favorite episode (episode 4) gave me chills, still excellent stuff. I had a greater appreciation for the craft and for the historical moment it was made in this time, and it simply enriched my enjoyment of it. I still love how well it nails millenial medium-small industrial town blues. Makaryuudo Demon Hunter: This is definitely a criminally overlooked OVA. A demon fighting OVA in the devilman mode about a fallen angel who protects us from the demons that would devour all humanity even against her angelic orders. It is a very visually striking anime and one of the few by the director, who mysteriously vanished from the business in the mid 90s. One of the few horror themed OVAs to have decent horror scenes (still far less than it should) and the characters have pleasing designs. The manga it's based on is a single volume long and untranslated but raws are easily available so here's hoping someone picks it up! It looks fairly different from this OVA. Space Knight Tekkaman Blade II: I'll be honest, the original show of Tekkaman Blade destroyed my faith in the mecha genre because it was so disappointed. Not even bad, but just failed to measure up meaningfully on all the good ideas it set up in the first half of the show and wasted its run time with wack rear end pacing. This disappointment carried over to Tekkaman Blade II which I now see is basically the show I wanted the first to be. This is shoujo melodrama at its finest with some of the best animated space battles of the 90s. At first it seems like it's taking from Gunbuster but quickly changes to something entirely different when it introduces its real villain, a goth homosexual from Serbia. Doamiger D: This Kyoto candy propaganda pays loving homage to 70s mecha and makes a semi-heartfelt statement about the personal nature of handcrafted foods. The bad guy being a racist 70s stereotypical american with a huge nose is hilarious. It takes 15 minutes to watch so if you enjoy well-done 70s homage and want to learn about the handcrafted candies of Kyoto and maybe just learn a thing or two about fatherhood, give this show a shot. Houkago Teibou Nisshi aka Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater: I don't watch a lot of slice of life shows because frankly I think they're for perverts. While this show also plays into a recent trend of slice of life being surrogate hobby introductions for people who don't have friends to have hobbies with, it won me over with its constant tension between our protagonist's utter disgust with the sea and her desperate attempts at taming it, an ancient literary tradition that it happily continues. It also gives lots of good fishing advice and doesn't shy away from the fish gore that all fishermen must go through to snack upon their catches. I also enjoy the characters, especially the club prez because old man girl is a great archetype. This is also notable as a show that brought the illustrious Yasuhiro Imagawa back to the anime industry to script a few episodes. I hope for season 2 some day! Akai Kiba: Blue Sonnet: Adaptation of a long 24 volume (5 volume for original run, 19 for the sequel) esper shoujo directed by Takeyuki Kanda of 08th MS Team, Vifam, Mellowlink etc whose influence can be felt by the many tank scenes in this ova. This functions as a nice thematic parallel to the show I started the year with, Shoujo Commando Izumi, as both are about young women trained to kill discovering how nice it is to have friends. The action scenes are well directed and it is surprisingly gory. The soundtrack is very good and the old fashioned artstyle feels like somewhat of a throwback even for the 80s but it works out to create the impression of a series you'd see snatches of on late night tv which is a pleasurable experience for me. The ending is extremelt abrupt and I would have been happy to have more but maybe it's for the best that this is what we got, as it ends before it becomes too grating. It has an absolutely bonkers mid series twist and an unforeseeable endgame plotline. In the end it probably jams a little too much in but it becomes so breathlessly insane for the last two episodes that you just get swept along in the spectacle, and against all odds you find you actually do give a poo poo about these characters you've only spent a few episodes with, which is quite an accomplishment. Like all the other series here hope that someday someone picks up the manga! Cowboy Bebop: I finished this literally today, while discourse around this show is often about how overrated it is I think it is in the end a very good show. No need to talk about the premise here as we all know what it is. There's an immaculate level of craft that is hardly seen in modern anime, even the prestige productions. There's a surprising amount of digital animation in this and it's all done extremely well, some of the best I've seen. It's vision of an analog future, as dystopian as it is, feels like a lost future now so it's no surprise this show has gained traction among vaporwave types. I thought the ending felt sudden and a little forced but it was well done enough. My man Jet got screwed with all the worst episodes but even in those the craft shines through. If I had to pick my favorite episodes it is of course Cowboy Andy with its Ted Kaczynski cameo, but the most interesting episode to me was the cult one, which felt like a much larger idea jammed into a smaller episode. VR headsets for cult brainwashing, he monologue about how we let tv distort our view of reality hit hard, and I think it's interesting how the protagonists reject this message, which makes sense as Cowboy Bebop is a show about pastiche. Very complicated episode, thematically! Still a lot to think about there. With an attitude toward pastiche and television like that perhaps it was inevitable for the live action show to be the way it was. Anyway, I think the fact that the ending stretch of the show is so strong contributes a lot to its reputation, it smartly places the weaker episodes between good ones and largely in the middle of the show (the part everyone forgets about). Looking forward to the movie which I hear is gorgeous production wise. In the end despite feeling largely down about anime this year from getting stuck within mediocre shows for months due to work and school obligations, I watched more anime I enjoyed than I didn't like, and even then a lot of the shows I felt down on had enough good to them that I enjoyed them on some level. I already posted about Violinist of Hamelin in the chat thread so that doesn't need reposting here, same with Tekkaman Blade. And of course all the movies I watched in the movie thread, which you can easily read as I am one of three posters there. I look forward to starting next year with FLAG, Ryosuke Takahashi and Tooru Nozaki's spiritual followup to 2020s old anime of the year, Gasaraki.
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Dec 28, 2021 01:44
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Justin_Brett posted:I went back to finish Granbelm after watching the first episode and then just sort of forgetting about it, and it made me sorry I didn't watch it while it aired. Everything about the show and its characters clicked for me, and it didn't hurt at all its animation looked amazing. yeah granbelm owns. i really like how ambiguous the ending is and the little quiet moments between characters. my only real complaint is the mirror girl (i forget her name) is a bit bland
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Dec 28, 2021 01:48
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I briefly considered watching more of Miami Guns (very good series 4 eps in, best recap ep I’ve ever seen) at a La Quinta in Slidell, LA. I would not recommend staying at any La Quinta in Louisiana at this point as they have been universally gross and featured the sound of distant crying babies. This is unfortunate as La Quinta is a beloved hotel chain that allows you to bring your pets with you. Louisiana apparently has an epidemic of misbehaving dogs who’s only trick consists of smoking a pack a day in these non smoking rooms. This scourge must be stopped to preserve La Quinta’s good name Anyways it’s been hard to go back to Miami Guns after reaching the promised gay men ep but I appreciate that they were participating in a foreign military conscription scheme instead of being awful perverts/rapists. Miami guns can’t be faulted for creativity!!
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Dec 28, 2021 01:59
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I watched all of Higurashi in preparation to binge Sotsu (which I never got around to), and while I felt that the ending went into silly territory, its ability to re-contextualize prior information was superbly-delivered in Shion's arc. For that alone it goes onto my that-poo poo-was-good list. The Castle of Cagliostro is hands-down the most visually splendid anime from the 70s. You can really see Miyazaki's influence here. And the plot is easily accessible for someone who never watched any Lupin III before. Even if yes, it does kinda mischaracterize the main character in comparison to every other entry. I finally watched Mushi-shi this year, and I'll echo Dav's sentiment that good slice-of-life anime build a fully-realized world to immerse yourself in alongside the characters. Mushi-shi does this in spades: imagine that every local legend, every folktale, every superstition was actually just a commoner's tip-of-the-iceberg understanding of a complex supernatural ecosystem. One that is both wondrous and terrifying. The main character, Ginko, is equal parts a dedicated field doctor, curious medical researcher, and wary shaman. Wandering about in the hinterlands of an (alternate?) Edo Japan, he is one of the few who have the knowledge necessary to avoid tragedy when the titular Mushi lifeforms get involved. And he is one of the fewer-still who understand the delicate awareness needed when tampering with Nature. It's rare to see an anime that nails the atmosphere it is aiming for this well. Sombre, pensive, reverent, with the occasional moments of whimsical silliness, romantic undercurrents, or abject terror. Firmly episodic, Ginko will see a new patient each episode, never staying in one place for long. Often, he'll succeed in saving them. Sometimes, he won't. Maybe the victims of the Mushi bring it upon themselves with their own greed and foolishness. Other times, they'll simply be caught in the currents of seismic supernatural shifts they had no way of knowing about. And rarely, they won't even need saving -- they'll find their own stable-enough position within the supernatural food chain. But even though only a few characters appear more than once, the world they live in will slowly unfold before you. A world where fast letter delivery mandates that you rely on lethal worms that bore holes in the fabric of the universe. A world where there exist apocalyptic spirits guaranteed to awaken, and the answer to salvation will not be found in a single lifetime. One where a misstep off the beaten path will take you to secretive banquets held in the deepest woods, or to a pool where your own reflection will try to kill you. Where mad "wizards" carry themselves with pride as spiritual exterminators, without understanding the disastrous consequences of their prey's extermination. Where wicked druids stalk the dark of the mountain, reveling in their domination over life itself. A world where, on occasion, a demigod will trap you in a mountainous maze to get a taste of the drat good liquor you're carrying. Mushi-shi is not a fighting anime. Very little, if any, of the problems encountered will be solved with violence. Oh, you can try! Others definitely have tried. You can even exploit your knowledge of the world-beyond for profit or self-gain. But you had better be aware of the consequences. And the anime itself only hints at the larger conflicts in play, content to serve as a brief portrait of a mythological Japan.
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Dec 28, 2021 08:09
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I just now realized that Yuko's VA for xxxHolic is Beatrice from Umineko, and so much suddenly makes sense now
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Dec 29, 2021 21:00
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My Osamu Dezaki deep dive took me this year to Dear Brother, the early 90's shojo melodrama. It's clear to see how Ikuhara, Igarashi and others were influenced by a director and team so masterful at telling stories thru ridiculously aggressive application of VIBES. One of the most VIBES shows I've seen right here. So much of the modern day high school stuff that leans into hammering the aesthetic buttons to emphasize the shattering importance of every event of adolescence has seeds going back to stuff like this. Great cast, even the protag who is a bit passive and slow to get things moving for my tastes now, but she's a thoughtful kind of passive who digests things internally and actively, growing from inward as well as through adversity. Haven't finished yet, took a break bc I was just blowing thru episodes.
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Jan 1, 2022 03:44
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In roughly the order I finished them this year. Enjoy random screenshots and gifs I dug from when I was watching that I have forgotten the context for. Log Horizon S1 & 2 the Just Doing Things of this really connected with me. Love love love how silly it gets while always feeling grounded and logical for why things are happening. Even the dreaded raiding of S2 didn't really slow me down much. Had zero interest in trying S3 after seeing the official subs but my faith in Commie taking it up is waning.   Prince of Tennis Squark gave it a better review upthread but I can't overstate how much this lives on having some amazing gags and comedy eps for me. The date ep and Kaidou's no good very bad day being some stand outs for me. The matches themselves are good and even some of the stock footage (like echizen sliding across the court on his rear end) becomes beloved. Special shout out to every time Trans Arts found a new Windows Movie Maker effect to use Etotama some of the best CG I've seen in a weekly show. I'd really rec it almost on that alone as a "if you're giving me CG this is what I want" bar setting. Plenty of good comedy and running gags with the girls. Rooster is the best btw. I think the larger lore they got in to towards the end lost me a bit and I didn't care for some of the characters but over 2/3 of the cast was great.  Hanasakeru Seishounen Another show I think Squark gave a more comprehensive review of. The pace wanes a little once we settle in to fake asian country but 80s shoujo seems unmatched in the amount of poo poo it chucks in to a storyline. I love the fact that anytime you need to move a story along you can toss in a gun and reliably have some excitement. There's also an ep where they change directors for the rest of the show and I managed to call the shift in one of the chars without realizing it, which is probably a top 3 anime nerd moment.  Bunny Girl Senpai Watched this because it has the Peggies and was called budget Monogatari. That's exactly what I got and loved it. Ended up binging it over 3 days and enjoyed every second of it.  Ace of Diamond Part 1 Pure sports show distilled. Has the balls to let the team fail sometimes which keeps up tension. In contrast to Prince of Tennis this feels pretty hyper focused on baseball, you're not really seeing much of people's lives outside of flashbacks happening during the games. I'd call this a negative if I didn't think the games were so dang well done. I enjoy the pace that it moves at where sometimes you've got a kid stuck in a rut for multiple games because that's how life is. Priconne Re:Dive really goofy and heartwarming. Does a fantastic job of being a comedy with very few truly irredeemably awful people which is hard. I've said before my favorite genre is "Idiots and Assholes" and this manages to deliver on that without having anyone really in the latter category. Fave gag is probably Kokkoro's :x face.  ID: Invaded the genre of "stupid smart show" is hideously underserved so I appreciate this new entry. I would have liked the episodic stuff to last maybe an extra ep or two since my memory is basically the whole second half is concerned with one arc. Really inventive worlds and setups though and the "great detective" framing for how the whole thing works is entertaining.  D4DJ good comfort food anime. This feels like a pretty rough CG show with plenty of 2D characters they deemed not worth CG models but there's a lot of really expressive CG work for the MCs to compensate. The stakes are some of the lowest I've seen which made me way more willing to engage with it compared to some idol anime like Love Live where we have to have the school being in danger of closing or something. This just being four girls that enjoy hanging out and wanting to make good music is a relief. I'm ambivalent on some of the songs but the focus on everything being part of in an universe DJ setlist was a welcome change for the music. 
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Jan 1, 2022 06:10
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Wandering Witch from 2020 and I even got hooked onto the light novels And also the first two seasons of Log Horizon
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Jan 1, 2022 15:57
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I read Oyasumi Punpun 
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Jan 1, 2022 23:11
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just noticed drama is included; I watched Guardian which is an adaption of another Priest novel that came out in 2018. I haven't quite finished watching it since I took a break on it but I'm in the final stretch toward the finale and have a feeling the end is going to make me sad but have avoided spoilers so far. It's a really fun show although watching it requires being able to enjoy or at least look past some really hokey sfx and other low budget shenanigans like everything taking place on the same couple of sets. Would definitely recommend it if you watched and enjoyed Word of Honor though because clearly you can handle that lol. It similarly has great characters that really carry the show. Shen Wei is the coolest 
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Jan 2, 2022 01:35
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#1: Irresponsible Captain Tylor (1993) - watched it one ep a week with friends and had a good time. everyone's an idiot, good and evil. llleeeettt's go! #2: Ascendance of a Bookworm s2 (2020): a couple of mis-steps in this season but still very charming. excited for the church's library to be filled up with dr who fanfiction in s3 #3: toilet bound hanako-kun (2020): even though they only had $5 to animate it, the style is so gorgeous that it ends up working. leans a bit too hard on "i can be your angle or your devil" with the evil twin, but another one where everyone's an idiot, which I enjoy #4: talentless nana (2020): neat, thrilling even, but they should have just written an anime-only ending, ending it on that weird cliffhanger sucks and then in the manga they add this lovely yandere sidekick and leave the island, presumably so the manga can never end. no thanks and then I watched... 3 eps of Akudama Drive, I will go back to this, it's dumb fun 2 eps of Deca-Dence, I'm undecided because the twist is fun but also just very different 2 eps of Millionaire Detective, kind of dumb fun but dunno if I'll go back to it 2 eps of Healin' Good Precure, will probably go back to it 2 eps of ID: Invaded, undecided. the gimmick of getting amnesia every time he detectives seems like it will get old fast 3 eps of Bofuri: I will probably go back to this, it's light and relaxing 4 eps of Sleeping Princess: won't go back to this. disappointed in this compared to Nozaki-kun 4 eps of How to Keep a Mummy: dunno. it's ok, it's cute but a bit too empty 4 eps of Planet With: will go back to it when I'm in the mood for it 4 eps of Eizouken: will definitely go back to it 4 eps of Hitoribochi: maybe I'll watch more of it if I am hit with the do my best beam and just 1 ep of: Granbelm, Great Pretender, Dragon Pilot, Moriarty the Patriot, Assault Lily Bouquet, Double Decker, Joker Game, Honda-san, Mitsuboshi Colors The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Jan 2, 2022 |
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Jan 2, 2022 19:52
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The 7th Guest posted:4 eps of Sleeping Princess: won't go back to this. disappointed in this compared to Nozaki-kun Boooooooooooooooooo!
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Jan 2, 2022 20:37
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Okay, so, before this year, I considered anime behind me. Not that I had grown out of it or anything, or didn't like the aesthetics anymore: I still play a mountain of anime video games every year. I just wasn't that into TV in general, and anime fell off especially hard because reading subtitles means I have to devote my full attention to it instead of multitasking. This changed when forums poster Metis of the Hallways (who I believe will be posting in this thread later as well) linked this in a discord we're both in, last January: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDOp-Ylg_nk I liked it well enough, but not enough to start a long rambly post about it. But then it infected my youtube recommendations. For about a week straight, I binged revue starlight music. As a sort of cynically-started franchise intended to sell a new idol group, it has a lot of songs. And I liked them enough, that on one fateful day, I asked Metis what the best way to get into Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight was, vaguely aware that it was a multimedia franchise.  I watched the entire anime over the course of three days. Then I binged the live performances of the anime songs (which all have really good choreography). I watched the stage plays--my opinion of them is, everything but the script (the music, the choreography, the stage effects, the performances) was amazing. I absorbed every bit of Revue Starlight content I could as the months passed (except the gacha, which is too dire of a game even for me). It isn't an exaggeration to call it the single most important piece of media I saw this year, by a significant margin. Because it's so important to me, I want to try to sell it, for any of you readers who haven't watched it. It's a story about 9 young actresses-in-training in a performing arts high school, who get summoned to a strange, supernatural, ritualized contest where they compete to attain stardom. Although I don't think the show resembles Utena very much at its core, the aesthetics have serious Utena vibes throughout, with the core of most episodes being a ritualized swordfight set to kickass music full of over-the-top setpieces. It's no surprise when you learn that the director was the protege of the Utena director. In the end though, I think the closest comparison to it I have in other anime I've watched is Madoka--it feels, to me, like if you took Madoka, cut out the depressing parts and replaced them with a more light-hearted tone, and layered Utena aesthetics on top of it. If that doesn't sell it to you, I don't know what else I can say. Of course, watching this and being entranced made me think "oh, maybe I watch anime again now," and I asked around for recommendations. I bounced off of Kaguya-sama (sorry). I watched some of pokemon Sun and Moon while doing grindy things in final fantasy xiv, but stopped as soon as the grind was done with no desire to continue. So maybe Revue was just a fluke.  And then Metis slides into my DMs again with "I just watched this show, 'Yuuki Yuuna is a hero', and I really liked it. I think you'll like it too." And thus 2021 became, to me, the year of the sad magical girl--a bit of a misnomer, because sadness isn't the dominant emotion of Revue Starlight or some of the shows I watched later, but there's enough of it I'm sticking with the name. YuYuYu (for YUuki YUuna wa YUusha de aru) has a kind of boring first half, but then kicks off into high-octane Emotions in the second half. It's been a long time since a piece of media has successfully made me as angry as YuYuYu did (on the characters' behalf, as an imparted emotion of the show--not mad cause the show is enragingly bad or whatever). And season two is just incredible. They really leaned hard on the fact that we already knew the characters to cut out the cruft and just deliver a series of savage spikes straight into your heart. If you can get past the kind of boring first half of the first season of YuYuYu, and you're in the mood to feel sad, and angry, and hurt--I cannot recommend the first two seasons enough. Metis and I did watch the third season together as it aired just a few months ago, making it a 2021 anime and technically out of the purview of this thread, but it's very boring and very bad. Don't bother with it. It's not worth your time.  Next on my journey of sad magical girls was Revolutionary Girl Utena, a show I was always vaguely aware I would probably like, but never got around to until this year. Not recommended by Metis, but fervently co-signed by her, as my anime guardian angel. And, in a review that will perhaps make people angry: on average, Utena was average. It has thrilling, dazzling heights in the final arc, but the middle section is so goddamn dull and the beginning is only alright. I'm glad I endured the first two thirds to see the amazing spectacle of the final third, though. Akio is one of the most effective villains I experienced this year. The movie was good too, though I'm still not sure what the hell happened in it. With Metis out of recommendations, I sought some out from other people I knew, and got told to watch Symphogear. It was, not was I was looking for--at least not season one. It felt like the "real" story was the laser explosion punch story, and the far more interesting interpersonal conflicts all got wrapped up one by one to make room for it. If you're somehow still reading this wall of text, and want to tell me that season two doesn't have that problem, go ahead and I'll gladly watch it. No gif cause I couldn't find one I liked from season one, which is what I actually watched. https://i.imgur.com/KTPlyKa.mp4 After video game Blue Reflection: Second Light was inexplicably the best game I played all year, I went back to the anime, which aired in 2021 so in theory doesn't belong here but whatever. It's an integral part of the year of sad magical girls, and entirely by coincidence, because nobody who knew I was on this kick told me about it. It was entirely people in the Games forum who had no idea that I had been watching a bunch of similar anime all year long. While still a ways worse than the transcendent, dazzling brilliance of Revue Starlight, Blue Reflection: Ray was the second best show I watched this year. It fits perfectly into what I've been watching: almost entirely about emotions and interpersonal relationships, but with just enough fantastic and action-y elements to keep me on the edge of my seat and excited in the bare facts of the narrative. The completely unexpected revival of Blue Reflection from being a very weird and pretty mediocre game to suddenly having an amazing anime and amazing sequel is one of my favorite bits of this year. And then, also coming out in 2021, was the Revue Starlight movie. The subs are very fresh so I won't say much more than, it's very good. Please watch it if you watched the show. Not sure exactly where I'm going next year. Will probably keep up the theme of emotional shows with an undercurrent of action, but there's no reason that has to be magical girls. I bet there's plenty of mech or even sports animes that meet that description. If you somehow made it through this wall of text and have ideas, please tell me.
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Jan 4, 2022 00:14
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Selector Infected Wixoss and its sequel, Selector Spread Wixoss seem like the logical next choices given the shows you listed. It's based around a real trading card game but never actually goes into the details, it's all about the character drama I haven't seen it myself but Granbelm is a show beloved by people that enjoy the shows you watched as well! It might be a good place to jump into mecha from!
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Jan 4, 2022 01:20
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cheetah7071 posted:With Metis out of recommendations, I sought some out from other people I knew, and got told to watch Symphogear. It was, not was I was looking for--at least not season one. It felt like the "real" story was the laser explosion punch story, and the far more interesting interpersonal conflicts all got wrapped up one by one to make room for it. If you're somehow still reading this wall of text, and want to tell me that season two doesn't have that problem, go ahead and I'll gladly watch it. No gif cause I couldn't find one I liked from season one, which is what I actually watched. The later seasons lean more into the action side of things, but S2 introduces a fairly sympathetic and interesting rival group and plays them off the protagonists well, with varying motivations between them and some interpersonal conflict in the rival faction, plus more character moments that pick up on threads from S1, so you might enjoy it. S3-S5 are mostly action focused, though, the shift to that kind of story is pretty complete by that point. Endorph fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Jan 4, 2022 |
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Jan 4, 2022 01:26
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GorfZaplen posted:Selector Infected Wixoss and its sequel, Selector Spread Wixoss seem like the logical next choices given the shows you listed. It's based around a real trading card game but never actually goes into the details, it's all about the character drama If you enjoyed Revue Starlight, you might also enjoy Kageki Shoujo, another acting show without any veneer of magical girl stuff, so it doesn't really meet the action criteria, but when it really delves into the acting it uses a lot of shonen style trappings. It has sort of a dull middle portion where the characters are on break and there's very little focus on acting, but the start and end are strong. Though it's based on an ongoing manga so the ending is more of an 'and their acting continues' type thing. Birdy the Mighty Decode season 1 is average at best, but Birdy Decode season 2 is insanely good and probably the exact kind of thing you want, what with the strong emotions mixed with some action angle. You can theoretically skip Season 1 but I'd recommend watching it unless you try it and find it like completely interminable, but like I said, it's alright, just outshined by the sequel.
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Jan 4, 2022 01:31
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grinning evilly: watch all 100 episodes of aikatsu stars, a show entirely about exploring the theme of rivals in sports/shonen/idol/magical girl/etc anime and how being the 'rival' to an anime protagonist would actually make someone feel when they realize they cant keep up and are fated to lose over and over. it is for 4 year old girls and reuses the exact same terrible cg dance sequence about 25 times.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQwW64upFhc
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Jan 4, 2022 01:34
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no one can complain about terrible cg dance until theyve seen the first five eps of og aikatsu
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Jan 4, 2022 01:36
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GorfZaplen posted:Selector Infected Wixoss and its sequel, Selector Spread Wixoss seem like the logical next choices given the shows you listed. It's based around a real trading card game but never actually goes into the details, it's all about the character drama Endorph posted:I would also recommend the first two seasons of Wixoss, as well as Granbelm. Akanesasu Shoujo is also a pretty good sort of magical girl thing, though it leans pretty hard into comedy at parts. thank you both, I will look into those Endorph posted:I think this is a slight misread on Season 1. It's not that the show 'wrapped up' or 'pushed the character conflicts to the side,' it's about Hibiki pushing through them. It's a show about two hopeful, earnest people (Hibiki, Genjuro) plopped into a dark and gritty magical girl anime and how they reach out to the people around them and do their best to make the entire narrative and world around them change. It isn't like, an unearned or sudden shift, it's the narrative arc of the show. Hibiki reaches out her hand, over and over, until Tsubasa and Chris finally take it (with assists from Genjuro and Miku), and that leads to a finale that is entirely uplifting action shonen that is entirely separated from the stuff that came before it. Hibiki's earnest attempts to connect with other people worked so hard they completely changed the tone of the show. That makes sense, and while it didn't work for me at all as I was watching it, it makes me feel better about the show after the fact. Thanks for posting. Endorph posted:grinning evilly: Ah I see, an entire 100 episodes about Saijou Claudine.
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Jan 4, 2022 01:38
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Strange Quark posted:no one can complain about terrible cg dance until theyve seen the first five eps of og aikatsu
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Jan 4, 2022 01:39
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