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I'm surprised people are so into G-Witch, its so mediocre to me. Maybe its because I'm not normally into Gundam stuff, I'm only watching because when it first started people were comparing it to Utena a lot. Which was valid since the premise is aping it a ton but it's all in a very shallow way. I just hate the MC and her one character trait of :Nervous Stutter:. The mech fights aren't that interesting, and I feel like there's too many characters that the show wants me to like remember, but almost none of them are fleshed out at all so why do I care? I'm 3 eps behind so maybe something amazing happens, but I'm doubting it.
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Jan 1, 2023 08:11
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she has plenty of character traits besides nervous stuttering tbh
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Jan 1, 2023 08:14
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Kwyndig posted:It's just Nen, OP. It's a spiritual resource that people cultivate and develop into various powers based on your innate profile. They just call it Curse Energy. If you mean the specific powers used in that fight I can't help you because I'm way behind on the manga. I don't think it was the best idea to have two related but different concepts be named Reverse Cursed Technique and Cursed Technique Reversal. Another example that comes to mind is, mainly for flavor reasons, they introduce Hollow Wicker Basket as a thing despite it being functionally the same as already-established Simple Domain. But yeah it does have the Nen problem of I sorta need to remember these generic power terms in case they show up (In, En, Ryu, Ko etc) in addition to all the individualistic details of the actual powers in the fight. Sometimes the stuff flows and other times it extremely does not. 
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Jan 1, 2023 08:16
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Epi Lepi posted:I'm surprised people are so into G-Witch, its so mediocre to me. Maybe its because I'm not normally into Gundam stuff, I'm only watching because when it first started people were comparing it to Utena a lot. Which was valid since the premise is aping it a ton but it's all in a very shallow way. The Utena comparisons were absolutely shallow and just due to some base setting elements and Okouchi's involvement with both series. Though I think even if you're back at episode 8 or so, you've seen that Suletta can have more to her despite how often she can also feel like an annoyance or drag on the show's momentum. There's enough in the show that sometimes another character or expansion of what we know about the setting is enough to carry an episode despite her anyway. Even if it were finishing this year or season I doubt it would've made it on a list for me, but I have enjoyed it and think it has been improving the past couple weeks.
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Jan 1, 2023 08:30
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g witch rules
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Jan 1, 2023 08:35
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the first episode was a very direct utena homage but that's all it's really done there
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Jan 1, 2023 09:49
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theres a few other callbacks/similarities (guel is extremely similar to saionji for instance) but i wouldnt really describe it as utena-like.
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Jan 1, 2023 10:20
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galagazombie posted:The anime flubbed the ball kicking contest and that is unforgivable. I had high hopes they would play "What a Wonderful World" over that scene but I realize there was little chance they would do that. I just think that scene got rushed because they had to cram in some "til next season, folks" scenes for this pseudo season-ending episode. Willsun fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Jan 1, 2023 |
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Jan 1, 2023 10:46
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Epi Lepi posted:I'm surprised people are so into G-Witch, its so mediocre to me. Maybe its because I'm not normally into Gundam stuff, I'm only watching because when it first started people were comparing it to Utena a lot. Which was valid since the premise is aping it a ton but it's all in a very shallow way. Everything else you've said is wrong as well but it also has some of the best mecha fights I can think of so you should just stop probably
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Jan 1, 2023 10:49
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i was a little worried suletta was going to be one note after the first episode but instead shes been incredibly well written and great since episode 2. the fights rock. g witch rules.
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Jan 1, 2023 11:00
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Nephthys posted:Next most disappointing was Machikado Mazoku S2. I honestly have no idea why but it just didn't click with me and I loved the first season. I was trying to figure this out too. I binged the manga after S1 and it became one of my favorites. S2 adapts a pretty good arc ("Shamiko gets a job") and an okay one ("Mikan is troubled"), so it's not like the source material is bad or anything. I think the timing just ended up being off. Jokes that could've landed took too long, were breezed over, or interrupted (there's an unnecessary henshin in one of the later eps that just kills the pacing, for example), so it just doesn't quite work. I still liked S2 but it was disappointing.
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Jan 1, 2023 18:03
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For me some of the "muted" CSM response comes from a struggle between fidelity and style. MAPPA went incredibly hard on visual fidelity with CSM but, purposefully as far as I've read, didn't imbue much style into it. The director wanted it to look like live action. Visual fidelity is impressive but can easily fail at evoking emotions. I want to see those emotions in the animation and, outside of a few scenes, CSM wasn't great at doing that. It was great at looking good. Conversely Bocchi and DIY are also very well animated but you can feel the voice and intent of the creators in every frame, you can see where the animators decided to have some fun. Given that Fujimoto's work in the CSM manga is so good at this, I think a lot of manga readers were just disappointed that CSM felt sterile comparatively. Unrelated, G-Witch slaps and has the best start of any non-UC Gundam and I like everyone. Suletta is a rare MC in a Gundam who is just as good as the characters around her.
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Jan 1, 2023 20:08
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i didnt watch the csm anime cause i thought the manga seemed cooler and i wanted to use it for practicing reading in jp. now i'm sad cause i'm almost through the first volume and i can't find any easy ways to get the later ones in japanese without just ordering physical copies i guess. there's a torrent on nyaa for the full manga but it's the color version and i don't like the coloring in that. that's my chainsaw man story my story about my feelings on chainsaw man as a story from what i've read are, i feel like some shonen fall into using the opening as kind of a bland "here's all the guys. here's what the guys' powers are. here are what they can do with the powers" in between any of the more interesting character or world stuff and they can also tend to fall into using some pretty boring and inauthentic-feeling character archetypes and dynamics. i don't feel like chainsaw man does that at all, i put it alongside yuyu hakusho as one of my favorite shonen openings for how much of it is just characters interacting in weird and interesting ways that tell you about them and the world they live in The Colonel fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Jan 1, 2023 |
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Jan 1, 2023 20:51
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haypliss posted:I don't think it was the best idea to have two related but different concepts be named Reverse Cursed Technique and Cursed Technique Reversal. Another example that comes to mind is, mainly for flavor reasons, they introduce Hollow Wicker Basket as a thing despite it being functionally the same as already-established Simple Domain. But yeah it does have the Nen problem of I sorta need to remember these generic power terms in case they show up (In, En, Ryu, Ko etc) in addition to all the individualistic details of the actual powers in the fight. Hollow Wicker Basket is stated as being the predecessor to Simple Domain so they are basically the same thing.
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Jan 1, 2023 22:32
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Sakurazuka posted:Everything else you've said is wrong as well but it also has some of the best mecha fights I can think of so you should just stop probably I would, but I've been watching with a friend who's much more invested so I'm stuck watching it. Just wild to me that people are so into it.
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Jan 2, 2023 00:10
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New seasonal thread is finally up https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4020987
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Jan 2, 2023 00:20
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Also AOTY thread is up: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4020988
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Jan 2, 2023 00:38
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MonsterEnvy posted:Hollow Wicker Basket is stated as being the predecessor to Simple Domain so they are basically the same thing. This is what I mean by flavor, it's a redundant power that was added to the comic well after Simple Domain to supplement the reincarnated characters and give a Domain-related history lesson that probably doesn't matter? The saving grace is probably will not come up to be confusing in the future.
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Jan 2, 2023 03:07
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imo chainsaw man's highest points are when it embraces the awkwardness and weirdness of the human condition and how people are just hosed up little weirdos. thats true of every character in csm, even the characters who are meant to be like, buttoned up and proper, like aki. the anime outright cuts a lot of the little gags and its framing and pacing either under or overemphasizes the weird little asides. it makes the characters and their circumstances come across too polished sometimes. i dont dislike the csm anime, i think its fine, and its pretty much what i expected it to be, its just a shame it couldnt get an adaptation that fully embraced every aspect of the source material and focused on bringing it out and elevating it, like bocchi did. it could have been something generational instead of just a slick shonen anime.
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Jan 2, 2023 04:22
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I've only watched the first episode of CSM (and haven't read the manga, though I'm familiar with its art style) and it looks great, but also it's just a little too... glossy, lacking better descriptors. Also this is neither here nor there but I keep getting intrigued and want to read it when people talk about how rich the story is... until they inevitably feel the need to talk up how many characters bite it. I find it really offputting on multiple levels. Arist fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 04:32
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The only remaining path is to ignore them, because anything so large will attract enough people that some are just vocal and weird.
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Jan 2, 2023 04:35
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It's not that I'm trying to spite the people who are talking about the show in a way I find silly by not watching it, that would be absurd. It's more that it creates a sense of doubt in me that I'd actually like the series at all if all the death is that central to their enjoyment.
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Jan 2, 2023 04:37
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Yeah I don't think that lens of enjoyment is particularly worthwhile or something the series itself revels in, which is what I mean by encouraging dismissal of those particular pitches of the series.
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Jan 2, 2023 04:41
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Epi Lepi posted:I'm surprised people are so into G-Witch, its so mediocre to me. Maybe its because I'm not normally into Gundam stuff, I'm only watching because when it first started people were comparing it to Utena a lot. Which was valid since the premise is aping it a ton but it's all in a very shallow way. Do you think Bocchi is also a one note stutter, if yes that's totally fine
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Jan 2, 2023 04:45
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Arist posted:It's not that I'm trying to spite the people who are talking about the show in a way I find silly by not watching it, that would be absurd. It's more that it creates a sense of doubt in me that I'd actually like the series at all if all the death is that central to their enjoyment.
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Jan 2, 2023 05:06
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Tae posted:Do you think Bocchi is also a one note stutter, if yes that's totally fine I haven't watched Bocchi yet but I want to.
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Jan 2, 2023 05:20
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Endorph posted:it isnt central to the enjoyment at all and the series isnt at all that kind of thing yeah like, every named death i can recall is either dramatic, symbolic, or both. it's not a slaughterhouse for the thrill of it and anyone who advocates that primarily is stupid
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Jan 2, 2023 05:23
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the thing i'd say is its appeal is its endearingly weird but understandable characters. the early stuff with denji and aki/power is fun cause you're just watching these people who immediately hate each other because they're all kind of too similar to each other but come to different weird understandings
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Jan 2, 2023 05:24
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Arist posted:It's not that I'm trying to spite the people who are talking about the show in a way I find silly by not watching it, that would be absurd. It's more that it creates a sense of doubt in me that I'd actually like the series at all if all the death is that central to their enjoyment. I don't think death is central in and of itself (although Chainsaw Man does a lot with death and how people respond) but it's used as a shorthand for one of the things that was most notable about Chainsaw Man when it was initially releasing. It's a manga that makes sense, but where you can almost never guess what's going to happen. Death, in fiction and especially in shonen, tends to happen at set points. You can guess who's going to live and who won't, and even where it'll probably happen. (Hmm. This astronaut is named Doctor Ryan Stone, and this one is named Matt Kowalski. I wonder who'll live to see the credits?) It's all the more common in shonen action manga, where the protagonists are often said to be working dangerous jobs where anyone could die at any time, followed by 100 plus chapters where even bit players are miraculously snatched from the jaws of death a time or five, or gets brought back with ease, or something on those lines. Chainsaw Man is far from that, in that the world is allowed to play by the same rules it tells the readers about, and with the main characters mostly playing by the same rules as random extras. It makes the world feel more like a real place and less like a set, and adds more relief when things go well, since it always feels possible that they won't.
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Jan 2, 2023 05:35
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It definitely feels very strange to hype up the deaths in CSM as a main draw. Plenty of people die, sure, but it's not like this is some revolutionary thing about this series. You have some number of people who you know either aren't going to die or are only going to die at super major moments, you have some number of B-Listers whose life expectancies are lower and have a good chance of being snuffed out to spike the stakes of any individual arc, and you have some number of other characters who are fodder here to job and die. Nothing here reinvents the wheel in that respect, either for Shounen battle stories or for action stories in general and hyping this series about how the deaths are all realistically unpredictable or visceral or whatever. Maybe it sounds weird coming from the person who keeps saying "it's alright I guess", but one of the strengths of Chainsaw Man is that it absolutely knows how and when to kill people. You don't just randomly slaughter people, to have an impact you have to tie it to the story and make it big and CSM does that.
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Jan 2, 2023 05:50
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csm has it about the same way as any other shonen its just that csm is 100 chapters long and not 1000
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Jan 2, 2023 05:52
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There's weird people out there on the internet who love talking about things "not playing by the rules" or subverting expectations" as a reason why they're good or special but rest assured with Chainsaw Man the real reason why those people actually love it isn't any of that stuff (even if some are probably convinced it is) its because its genuinely really well crafted with a lot of thought and care being put into characters and their development. The story and the cast have a lot of heart, the gang all seem wacky but the way they interact and develop is really endearing and feels meaningful and like 'true' in a way a lot of comics don't really get at. If there's anyone on the fence about trying the manga give it a shot, it's really good and the anime stopped just before a stretch of fantastic arcs so you'll be right into some great stuff.
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Jan 2, 2023 05:54
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alright here i'll settle it. what sets chainsaw man apart from other shonen is that its sex jokes are actually funny sometimes
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Jan 2, 2023 05:57
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Endorph posted:csm has it about the same way as any other shonen its just that csm is 100 chapters long and not 1000 yeah it being so concise with very little if any meandering makes it very easy to read in a single day. it's dope
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Jan 2, 2023 06:00
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The Colonel posted:alright here i'll settle it. what sets chainsaw man apart from other shonen is that its sex jokes are actually funny sometimes
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Jan 2, 2023 06:10
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I was being a CSM hater earlier but I don't think Denji ever actually creeps on a girl against their will which puts him far above the bar set.
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Jan 2, 2023 06:15
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As someone who didn't read the manga I almost really really like chainsaw man's visuals. It's a little hard for me to explain but there's this awkwardness or sluggishness in the animation that often keeps it from feeling as visceral, frenetic, or satisfying as it clearly wants to be and very nearly is. The best way I can put it is I think the aesthetic style is good, and the cinematography is good, and the animation fluidity is good, but the animation direction doesn't feel nearly as competent as the constituent parts. There's an alternate universe with a csm anime that's like 95% exactly the same and in that universe I'm loving gaga over its visuals. Instead though, the actual punch throwing parts of the fight scenes (the parts I'd generally be predisposed to enjoy the most) fall really flat. And I find that extremely disappointing. But the real problem with csm is the story seems to be built primarily around the main character being groomed and while I get how unsettling that is is the point, its execution doesn't have the tact it needs to not feel like it's actually just the author's poorly disguised fetish with a story built around that to justify it. The part where denji starts getting groomed by a second adult woman was the part that really made me go "ehhhh I don't think I can keep giving this the benefit of the doubt" ninjewtsu fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 06:42
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The Colonel posted:alright here i'll settle it. what sets chainsaw man apart from other shonen is that its sex jokes are actually funny sometimes  No, but seriously, Chainsaw Man is horny in a way that feels, I'm not sure how to put this other than "real". Japanese media is no stranger to sleazeball perverts (gently caress you grape kid) constantly chasing fanservice, but Denji stands apart because he is grounded in that regard. He's not a constant vector for groping and upskirt shots, he's a socially maladjusted horndog. Funnily enough the fact that he's not a deplorable one note piece of poo poo and instead just a kind of perverted dude means that he actually comes across as genuinely way more horny than the average Shounen sexual harasser.
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Jan 2, 2023 07:17
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i dont think that many shonen in 2022 have comedy perverts tbh. like jjk has that guy who just talks about how much he loves BBWs but i dont think he ever actually does anything
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Jan 2, 2023 07:22
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Endorph posted:i dont think that many shonen in 2022 have comedy perverts tbh. like jjk has that guy who just talks about how much he loves BBWs but i dont think he ever actually does anything There's a guy in JJK who loves BBWs? I thought that series just had the idol guy.
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