The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition

BrawlMan

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I mean, it's better than Sword Art Online, but only marginally.
As you said, not much of a milestone. .hack is better than SAO, but ironic enough, both came out around the same time in the early 2000s. It's just that SAO remained as light novels (that stayed in Japan) until the early 2010s and got an anime and manga adaption with loads of spin-offs. That said, I rather not go back to the .hack franchise. They all very in quality, and I pretty much stopped once I finished .hack_twlight way back in high school.
 
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Satinavian

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I admit that Log Horizon falls off noticably later. The closer they got to the end of the novels the worse the pacing gets and it loses focus because no one knew where it was headed. But even the latest season is better than any SAO.

.hack/sign is probably the best of the .hack shows. But it really shows its age.

But do all those MMO-themed series really count as Isekai ? Especially those where people are neither reborn nor trapped, only playing the game like Bofuri or Gun Gale Online ?
 

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.hack/sign is probably the best of the .hack shows. But it really shows its age.
Out of all the .hack properties, the first anime has aged the worst.

But do all those MMO-themed series really count as Isekai ? Especially those where people are neither reborn nor trapped, only playing the game like Bofuri or Gun Gale Online ?
I'm no expert on this, but some are and some aren't or can be described as isekai-lite at best. SAO technically counts for its original season. Though they're more so trapped in a video game. The rest you mentioned I have no idea.

Another good isekai from the 90s: the Monster Rancher anime. That also doubles as kid gets sucked/stuck into their video game.
 

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Another good isekai from the 90s: the Monster Rancher anime. That also doubles as kid gets sucked/stuck into their video game.
Oh, yes, i liked that one as child.

Not sure how it holds up though, some series only seem good when remembers through nostalgia googles. Just because it was better than a very limited choice of other children entertainment does not mean it is good.
I recently tried to find it legally for streaming online, but there was no option for my country.
 

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Not sure how it holds up though, some series only seem good when remembers through nostalgia googles. I recently tried to find it legally for streaming online, but there was no option for my country.
It holds up well surprisingly. It's a bit darker than Digimon Adventure, and surprisingly, the Monster Rancher anime got little censorship in the States/West. The anime definitely holds up better than most of 4Kids from the mid and late 2000s.

Legally, it can be watched on Amazon Prime in the States, but like you said, you can't get legally because of some dumb red tape bullshit. That sucks.
 

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It holds up well surprisingly. It's a bit darker than Digimon Adventure, and surprisingly, the Monster Rancher anime got little censorship in the States/West. The anime definitely holds up better than most of 4Kids from the mid and late 2000s.

Legally, it can be watched on Amazon Prime in the States, but like you said, you can't get legally because of some dumb red tape bullshit. That sucks.
I disagree about Monster Rancher. I liked it as a kid, but when I rewatched it as an adult it was kind of bad. Though it was quite a while ago now and I can't remember the details of the show too clearly. I also might have watched the English dub, so that could have been part of the problem. Digimon Adventure is really good, though.
 

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I disagree about Monster Rancher. I liked it as a kid, but when I rewatched it as an adult it was kind of bad. Though it was quite a while ago now and I can't remember the details of the show too clearly. I also might have watched the English dub, so that could have been part of the problem. Digimon Adventure is really good, though.
The anime ain't perfect, don't get me wrong, but I like the characters and how the gang develops. I will say some of the animation in the early episodes don't hold up well, but that was the par at the time, and it still looks good. The last time I saw this was back in 2018-19, but I remember enjoying it good enough. I am sure sub is better subjectively, but the English dub isn't bad.
 

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Lycoris Recoil on Netflix.

Surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Japan is secretly protected by teenage assassins dressed up as schoolgirls called Lycoris. The greatest Lycoris agent quasi-independently operates out of a cafe that she also works for, while taking on odd jobs most would see as below her capabilities.

So basically, cute anime girl gun-kata.

I didn't quite like the overall ending of the main plot, but I enjoyed the individual arcs of characters. Bonus points for ending in a single season, I find myself really appreciating that lately.
 
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RE: Cutie Honey - 3 Episode OVA action magical girl anime. Released in 2004, but did not get a dub until earlier this year. They brought back Honey's original English Dub voice actor again, and she continues to knock it out of the park. You can see a lot of late 2000s Gainax and Studio Trigger DNA in here. The first episode is a dead ringer for how Panty and Stocking looked, while rest is pretty much what would lay the foundation for Kill La Kill. Hideaki Anno was the director, but each episode has its own director, and unique animation style. Anno was more like an overseer that let each director do whatever they want in terms of animation style. I'd still recommend this to you @Gordon_4, since I know you're an Anno fan. For anyone curious, the Cutie Honey franchise is know great and fun action, but they are not afraid to show nudity when action scenes happen. So remember, they are not for the kiddos.

I've started to dip my toes into anime, after how much I enjoyed Arcane and Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

I just caught up with Attack on Titan. I know, this is like saying "hey what's up with video games lemme try this Mario thing" or something but anime is just not something I ever dug before. So for now I'm only interested in stuff that has very cool visuals, epic conflicts, is considered classic, and has a relatively short span of episodes (so One Piece for example is out of the question).

Attack on Titan is so freaking intense, I loved it. It did a great job of hooking me with the premise and visuals, and then slowly shifting the focus of conflict to between human factions in which titans are "just" a tool. Certainly it started getting crazy in season 3 or so when there were like double and triple betrayals but so it goes.

Next I'm gonna check out the beloved Neon Genesis Evangelion which is conveniently on Netflix.
Let me know what you want to see, and I can hook you up. I know a lot of great anime that are either OVAs, movies, or 12-26 episode anime.
 

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Zom 100 - Started watching it a few weeks back. It's ongoing so there's currently only 6 episodes out, but I'm really enjoying it.

A recent college graduate lands a job at a marketing firm, what he thinks is his dream job. After several years working there he's completely burned out due to the extreme overtime and exploitative nature of the job. He's basically a walking zombie who dreads every moment of having to go to work and wants to die. Suddenly the zombie apocalypse starts, and freed from work he can finally focus on doing all the things he's always dreamed of doing.

It's a comedy anime, except the main character is the only one that's in a comedy. Everyone else is experiencing the horror of the zombie apocalypse which creates a fun dynamic.

The presentation and animation is gorgeous, and the team clearly had a lot of fun with it. No idea if it's going to continue at it's current level of quality but it's worth giving it a try even if just for the first 3 episodes.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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Zom 100 - Started watching it a few weeks back. It's ongoing so there's currently only 6 episodes out, but I'm really enjoying it.

A recent college graduate lands a job at a marketing firm, what he thinks is his dream job. After several years working there he's completely burned out due to the extreme overtime and exploitative nature of the job. He's basically a walking zombie who dreads every moment of having to go to work and wants to die. Suddenly the zombie apocalypse starts, and freed from work he can finally focus on doing all the things he's always dreamed of doing.

It's a comedy anime, except the main character is the only one that's in a comedy. Everyone else is experiencing the horror of the zombie apocalypse which creates a fun dynamic.

The presentation and animation is gorgeous, and the team clearly had a lot of fun with it. No idea if it's going to continue at it's current level of quality but it's worth giving it a try even if just for the first 3 episodes.
So far, the show's best episode is still the first. Which isn't uncommon I guess, but I was hoping it would be more or less that level the whole way through. The later episodes aren't bad, and there are some highlights, but there are definitely some cheaped out episodes.
 
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Dalisclock

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Castlevania: Nocturne

Generally enjoyed it. It hits the ground better then Castlevania season 1 did but not quite as well as Seasons 2 and 4 of the OG series. The new cast is growing on me, Annete is a pretty good character and I'm glad she got an entire episode to flesh out her backstory. Richter is fine but not as interesting as Trevor was. He needs more time to bake yet(hopefully we get that in season 2). I do like the whole idea of the night creature making machine, except it doesn't bother grabbing damned souls from hell, it just wipes uses the same souls already in the body before it was changed which feels like a commenatary on the nature of factory production vs handcrafted goods(like the forgemasters in the OG series).

The Priest is a pretty good villian arguably and I understand his POV even if it's incredibly self serving and hypocritical. This leads into the fact the French Revolution is mostly set dressing in this season and doesn't contribute much to the actual narrative. I know it's a complex subject but still, I think it needed more then it got.

Nice to see Elizabeth Bathory getting to be Villian but sadly she's little more developed then she was in Bloodlines(which was pretty much not at all). Yeah, she's intimindating but that's about all we've got for her character so far. I hope she gets further developed in season 2. I think the problem is she's introduced near the end and hyped up a lot and....that's about it. The idea she's the avatar of the Egyption Lion Goddess Sekmet is cool but not really explored at all. The Priest gets a lot more development then that.

Probably the only thing that particularly bugged me is Drolta's spandex catsuit comes across as wierdly out of place, even in this show. Yes, I know shes a literal demon/succubus but that doesn't quite explain it. I don't mind her as a character, it's just....seriously, the catsuit looks like it's meant for fanservice above all else.
 
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BrawlMan

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Nice to see Elizabeth Bathory getting to be Villian but sadly she's little more developed then she was in Bloodlines(which was pretty much not at all). Yeah, she's intimindating but that's about all we've got for her character so far. I hope she gets further developed in season 2. I think the problem is she's introduced near the end and hyped up a lot and....that's about it. The Priest gets a lot more development then that.
I thought she got the time she deserved. I'm sure it'll be plenty more of her in a second season. I do wish they kept the dark green hair though.


Yes, I know shes a literal demon/succubus but that doesn't quite explain it. I don't mind her as a character, it's just....seriously, the catsuit looks like it's meant for fanservice above all else.
The succubus that appears in SOTN, more or less dress is similar to her, so they are pretty much taking from the games. Ironic, as Lenore is an expy of the succubus from Symphony Of The Night.
 

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I thought she got the time she deserved. I'm sure it'll be plenty more of her in a second season. I do wish they kept the dark green hair though.
I do at least appreciate her final(?) form looks kind of like a lion with the Egyptian sun disk behind her head. I guess I just want more backstory on how the whole Sekhmet thing plays into all of this. Like is she the OG Vampire or just one of the oldest vampires? And how did Dracula fit into all of that, since he's usually shown as the most powerful Vampire by virtue of being the most famous?

I'm sure we'll get more Vamp lore in Season 2(now confirmed). It's really a minor gripe.

I didn't know about the SOTN Succubus and I really need to get around to playing SOTN and RoB.
 

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I didn't know about the SOTN Succubus and I really need to get around to playing SOTN and RoB.
RoB is great presentation wise, but doesn't hold up as well gameplay wise compared to some of the Classicvanias. It's not bad, but both CV IV and Bloodlines especially; have better whip mechanics. RoB has the magic item crash mechanic, but Bloodlines already does that better when you have the whip/spear upgraded to flame mode.
 
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I thought the first half of Castlevania Nocturne could have been a lot better. Not feeling the characters, but in particular I thought the animation itself would be better. It's not bad, but it's not as consistently as excellent as the original. What is just as great as the original is the voice cast. The British French people are funny/jarring, but everyone else, great.
 

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RoB is great presentation wise, but doesn't hold up as well gameplay wise compared to some of the Classicvanias. It's not bad, but both CV IV and Bloodlines especially; have better whip mechanics. RoB has the magic item crash mechanic, but Bloodlines already does that better when you have whip/spear upgraded to flame mode.
Speaking of which, I guess some of the CV fans, notably on the r/Castlevania Subreddit are just super salty about Annette of all things. Because she's not the same Damsel in Distress plot coupon she was in Rondo....and apparently also because she's Black now.

To be fair, there's a lot of people who aren't bothered by this change, but man there's a number of really salty fans over there right now bitching about....Annette having a character Arc.

I like her character. She's one of the more interesting characters this season. It probbaly doesn't help that Richter isn't that interesting and his backstory is basically 'Stupid Sexy Vampire killed my mom".
 

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Speaking of which, I guess some of the CV fans, notably on the r/Castlevania Subreddit are just super salty about Annette of all things. Because she's not the same Damsel in Distress plot coupon she was in Rondo....and apparently also because she's Black now.

To be fair, there's a lot of people who aren't bothered by this change, but man there's a number of really salty fans over there right now bitching about....Annette having a character Arc.
  1. It's people on reddit, a majority of their dumb ass opinions don't count for shit.
  2. Those are the insular fans that will acknowledge Kid Dracula, before they will acknowledge the Lords of Shadow Duology.
  3. Not all of them are "true" Castlevania "fans". Many of them are the same parasitic leeches that jump between whatever medium pretending to be fans, because they see something they don't like. The same assholes that used Alita as stepping stone to attack Captain Marvel. The same shit heads that were championing Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) as "anti-woke". That still didn't stop Shapiro and some of his dumb pawns from crying about Peach having a more action focused role. It was nothing new for the character, and shows how full of shit the man and these people are.
  4. Most of them don't care about being "true to the source material". They're just sexist and racist assholes that want their pure, innocent, and white damsel-in-distress waifu. The first TV series, while based off of CV III, wasn't completely true to the source either, and changed many things or added something different. Most people and fans didn't complain, aside from the very few hardcore that has played every single Castlevania game.
I like her character. She's one of the more interesting characters this season. It probbaly doesn't help that Richter isn't that interesting and his backstory is basically 'Stupid Sexy Vampire killed my mom".
I like all the main characters and find them interesting. I do agree that Annette becomes the most interesting character in this show. To be fair with Richter, even in RoB, he doesn't have much of a (tragic) backstory. He's just some guy that is already experienced and slightly older than his anime counterpart. RoB_Richter is already implied to be in his early to mid 20s. Maria has no backstory in the games. We don't even know if she has parents or not. RoB_Annette is just a damsel in distress. So all three of them are given expanded backstories or character development/arcs in some way. Though now all three of them have lost a mother now. So they all share something with each other. Four when you include Alucard, but he doesn't know that his parents came back to life at the end of the first show. Season 2 might reveal he found at some point, but this is me at WMG. Lisa was able to live her full life, but still died at some point due to old age.
 
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Drathnoxis

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A pretty good analysis of Death Note. Pretty much mirror's my thoughts exactly. The show should have ended at L's death, since L and Kira's conflict was the show. If Kira was going to lose L should have been the one to catch him, having some other guys come out of nowhere and finish the job right was extremely unsatisfying.
 

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A pretty good analysis of Death Note. Pretty much mirror's my thoughts exactly. The show should have ended at L's death, since L and Kira's conflict was the show. If Kira was going to lose L should have been the one to catch him, having some other guys come out of nowhere and finish the job right was extremely unsatisfying.
The problem with moving pass L is that the story never really did that, they just got two L minus and just replayed the same beat. The story should have instead moved on and started looking at how society would reorganize around Kira being a thing and how people would start finding way to avoid the system, like hiding their name and such.