The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition

[Ezekiel]

Maison Ikkoku 91/96.

Sadly, the writing has gotten worse and worse. So many misunderstandings and coincidences. I even slammed by bed and muttered "This is so stupid!" at one a few episodes ago. Just how small IS this city for Godai to be seen with one woman and then another by his small circle of friends? Maybe the show should have been shorter to avoid quite so many contrivances.

 

[BrawlMan]

Maison Ikkoku 91/96.

Sadly, the writing has gotten worse and worse. So many misunderstandings and coincidences. I even slammed by bed and muttered "This is so stupid!" at one a few episodes ago. Just how small IS this city for Godai to be seen with one woman and then another by his small circle of friends? Maybe the show should have been shorter to avoid quite so many contrivances.

And that is why Tenchi is still king!

 

[Ezekiel]

And that is why Tenchi is still king!

Does Tenchi deal more with life problems, though? Like going through college and finding an occupation that makes you happy before you can propose to the woman you love? Setting a goal for yourself? Maison Ikkoku has some sweet moments. Was wrong about him graduating college, by the way. I just assumed he already finished college because he wasn't shown in school for the longest time. They did celebrate in the apartment after he graduated, almost at the end of the series. Only three episodes left.

 

[BrawlMan]

Does Tenchi deal more with life problems, though? Like going through college and finding an occupation that makes you happy before you can propose to the woman you love? Setting a goal for yourself?

No, but does have lots of responsibilities placed on him at such a young age. Also, in most versions he either has to clean up his Grandpa's (Yosho) mess, The Kingdom of Jurai's mess, or both. Plus, he has many of his own responsibilities at home since he's a high school student, and aside from the ladies (and before they all show up), it was just him, his father, and grand father. With Tenchi's mother being dead in all versions. Though he has a different mother in each version. Though the same mother that is seen in framed pictures in his home, is the same mother from the Universe version.

Tenchi just wants to live his life and that's it. Some of these questions do come up in Tenchi Forever, but just not in the way you're thinking. Though Forever does finally answer the question that involves his Betty and Veronica issue with Ayeka and Ryoko. I won't spoil it

Was wrong about him graduating college, by the way. I just assumed he already finished college because he wasn't shown in school for the longest time.

Now you're just accusing and assuming. I never looked down upon or said there was something wrong with his goal. Nor did I imply any of that.

They did celebrate in the apartment after he graduated, almost at the end of the series. Only three episodes left.

The show has heartwarming and nothings is wrong with that. So does Tenchi. Enjoy the last three episodes.

 

[Ezekiel]

Now you're just accusing and assuming. I never looked down upon or said there was something wrong with his goal. Nor did I imply any of that.

Huh? What? No. I'm making a correction to what I said here:

He was a college student for most of the show and is now trying to find a good job, so he never had much money. Weirdly, there wasn't any kind of celebration about him finishing college. In fact, his graduation didn't even get a scene, nor was there any acknowledgement. He was teaching high school part-time as part of his school requirements and shortly thereafter started looking for work. Work culture in Japan must be more miserable than I thought.

 

[BrawlMan]

Huh? What? No. I'm making a correction to what I said here:

Okay.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Everything is wrong with the harem genre.

Ranma wasn't wrong, Ranma was hilarious!

 

[BrawlMan]

Nah. Ranma suffered a similar problem like Inuyasha. The only difference being nearly everyone is an obnoxious asshole. I wasn't laughing much and most of the jokes didn't land for me. Didn't matter if I was watching it dubbed or subbed.

Cutey Honey Universe - a 12 episode mini series that's a reboot/alternate continuity of the franchise. I've watched the first four episodes and I'm liking it so far. The action and animation is good of course. It's one of those shows that has a plot, but has a monster of the week type format. It actually works, because they tie so closely together. And surprisingly, they do enough to mix it up and avoid repetition.

I'll finish the rest after I get off work today.

 

[gorfias]

Ron's Gone Wrong (2021) on Disney +.

Shows how hard it is to get distributed. First feature film from Locksmith Animation and has production values on par with pretty much any major animation released in the US over the last 10 years. I didn't know it hit theaters and find it had limited release in the US. It made about $60 million world wide. It's an amusing movie with a kid that is a cross between the kid from Iron Giant and How to Train Your Dragon who is an odd ball without friends getting a damaged friend bot.

Some really fun animated scenes and a few genuine laughs. B.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Belle or The Dragon and The Freckled Princess.

An anime movie which is for some reason inspired by Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It follows Suzu, a girl who used to be able to sing but can no longer due to I guess PTSD. She finally finds her voice in the VR world of U, where her avatar (who basically looks like a vocaloid) Belle becomes a megastar for her beautiful songs.

Well animated, excellently voiced, great music, fuuuuuucking horrible plot. Jesus Christ. No idea what they were goin for. I feel bad that a team of animators slaved away for years to animate such an incoherent story.

 

[BrawlMan]

Nah. Ranma suffered a similar problem like Inuyasha. The only difference being nearly everyone is an obnoxious asshole. I wasn't laughing much and most of the jokes didn't land for me. Didn't matter if I was watching it dubbed or subbed.

Cutey Honey Universe - a 12 episode mini series that's a reboot/alternate continuity of the franchise. I've watched the first four episodes and I'm liking it so far. The action and animation is good of course. It's one of those shows that has a plot, but has a monster of the week type format. It actually works, because they tie so closely together. And surprisingly, they do enough to mix it up and avoid repetition.

I'll finish the rest after I get off work today.

So I finished Cutie Honey Universe earlier this week, and I liked it overall. My only problem with it is that it uses perverted humor between an old man (Danbei) and a child (don't even care to bother to remember his name), and it's not funny. Yeah, them semi-constantly feeling up on Honey gets annoying, and using that to get her out of a depressive funk (in a later episode) is not endearing nor heart warming in any way. From what I heard and seen, they're more perverted here than in the original manga. Considering this OVA is a remake of the manga, why even bother doing that? Danbei is perverted in the New Cutie Honey OVA series from the '90s, but even he had restrained or new one that gets serious. It doesn't happen every single episode, but when it does show up it wastes time on a gag that's not funny. Otherwise, the dubbing is top-notch, they got the original English dub voice actor from the 90 series to reprise her role, and the action is really good. The show is well animated too, but it does that modern anime thing where you can tell the vehicles are CGI and they stick out. Sister Jill is a good and threatening villain throughout the series. She has that right charisma evil where she can be entertaining at some point, but clearly you're supposed to hate her. My only issue is that there is another big bad she's technically working for, but she doesn't show up until the last few minutes of the final fight, as it's a glorified cameo to the original. continuity. Panther Zero is her name, and she's usually Honey's arch nemesis. Due to how active sister Jill is, they might as well had took Panther zero out of there and excised her/adapted her out of that continuity. I do recommend it, as this one does tell a complete story. A story that never outstays its welcome. A show that's only as long as it needs to be.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Been having fun with FaBiNiKu, aka Fantasy Bishojo Juniku Ojisan to, aka Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout, a lighthearted isekai comedy.

Short summery: dull 32 year old office dude who's terrible with the ladies gets dead drunk with his attractive male friend and is overheard lamenting how he'd want to be an attractive girl by a goddess of love looking for people to isekai. They wake up in a fantasy world with the dull guy being transformed into the beautifulest loli with supernaturally charming looks. After the attractive male friend tells off the goddess because this is clearly bullshit, she puts a curse on the two where they find each other attractive, and that will last until the beat the requisite Demon Lord. Que shenanigans

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Dreiko, how'd you log into TheMysteriousGX's account?"

I'm not gonna lie, after watching one episode and reading 90+ chapters of manga, there's plenty of red flags. But, so far, they've managed to play off any fanservice as laughs much more effectively than, say, Konosuba, and they haven't pulled a My Senpai is Annoying by having an adult character actually get flustered over a kid. It's actually doing a good job not using the whole "adult in a child's body" for lewd fanservice.

That said, the writer/artist team has come out and said that they aren't making a BL or TS manga, which means they're putting all those elements in on accident or they're as much in denial as the show's main characters.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Ron's Gone Wrong

I don't like the title. Sounds like something a mid-western dad would say about his son coming out.

 

[bluegate]

Ron's Gone Wrong (2021) on Disney +.

Shows how hard it is to get distributed. First feature film from Locksmith Animation and has production values on par with pretty much any major animation released in the US over the last 10 years. I didn't know it hit theaters and find it had limited release in the US. It made about $60 million world wide. It's an amusing movie with a kid that is a cross between the kid from Iron Giant and How to Train Your Dragon who is an odd ball without friends getting a damaged friend bot.

Some really fun animated scenes and a few genuine laughs. B.

Having only seen promotional images here and there last year, I figured it was some sort of Big Hero 6 rip off and didn't pay further attention to it, but that trailer has made me interested in the movie.

 

[gorfias]

Injustice on HBO MAX.

I had a lot of fun with this one. I never read the comic books but did finish the 1st game. I have and have started the 2nd.

Like Spiderman No Way Home, you have a multi-verse aspect to this. It isn't taking place in the normal DC Universe (though I don't know what the current state is. Used to be Earth 1 and 2, followed by Crisis so there was just one universe and that was what should have been 2 revisions ago).

Thanks to the Loki series, it is established in the MCU that a multi-verse is a bad thing to be ended. I hope they don't. Stuff like this is too much fun. B+

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Hit Monkey on Hulu is pretty great. Really looking forward to a second season.

 

[Bartholen]

I've been watching Cowboy Bebop for the first time one episode at a time, just finished episode 6. Contrary to modern trends, it feels like an anti-binge show. The episodes feel perfect to watch over lunch, and them being completely self-contained leaves me not wanting to rush through them. The show's feel is very relaxed, like you can leave it for a couple of weeks or even months and it won't harm the experience, which is actually very refreshing in this era of bingewatches and endless cliffhangers. It's like hanging out with some friends of friends you like but don't see very often, but don't mind the long pauses of interaction.

Episode 6 raised my interest in the show by a lot. So far the series has been a pretty light-hearted space adventure, but ep 6 is way more serious. It also (kind of) delves into Spike's past in a very engaging way where it's left intentionally vague as to what happened, but you can infer a lot from the way he acts through the episode and the small montage towards the end. I wish more shows did something like that.

 

[gorfias]

Batman: Soul of the Dragon on HBOMax
Well. That was odd and kind of fun. 7/10
Mix Enter the Dragon, Batman and the new Shang Chi movie, have a 1970s vibe, decor, styling and tech and you have this thing. I wonder if it it based upon any run of comics. Silver Saint Cloud has a small part in it so, there's that.

 

[Gergar12]

Get 'em Eren. That's it that's the post.

 

[Fallen Soldier]

Jojo Bizzare adventure on Netflix. I admit it’s pretty good. Only seen Episodes 1-4 though.