The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition
- Thread starter TheMysteriousGX
- Start date
Star Trek Prodigy Season 1 (eps 1 to 15)
I put this on as background noise while I folded up a few baskets of washing but I was pretty hooked once the show got going. To whit, a bunch of kids - mainly slaves, plus the slaver's daughter - and a worm thing find an experimental Federation Starship, the USS Protostar, buried in the depths of the asteroid their prison is mining. They take the ship and leg it, but oh ho ho, the ship's computer is an AI based Captain Janeway who is somehow bamboozled into thinking the kids are all Starfleet cadets. Hilarity and shenanigans ensue.
I'm actually a little sad I slept on this one, because once the plot gets going and everyone on the Protostar is on the same page, which is like episode 4, the show is actually really great. Especially for something pitched at what I assume is a similar age bracket as Nikelodeon's TMNT cartoon. Its got some good fun lore drops, the starship design is really great and we get some really varied aliens - benefits of animation.
I recommend it, its fun.
I put this on as background noise while I folded up a few baskets of washing but I was pretty hooked once the show got going. To whit, a bunch of kids - mainly slaves, plus the slaver's daughter - and a worm thing find an experimental Federation Starship, the USS Protostar, buried in the depths of the asteroid their prison is mining. They take the ship and leg it, but oh ho ho, the ship's computer is an AI based Captain Janeway who is somehow bamboozled into thinking the kids are all Starfleet cadets. Hilarity and shenanigans ensue.
I'm actually a little sad I slept on this one, because once the plot gets going and everyone on the Protostar is on the same page, which is like episode 4, the show is actually really great. Especially for something pitched at what I assume is a similar age bracket as Nikelodeon's TMNT cartoon. Its got some good fun lore drops, the starship design is really great and we get some really varied aliens - benefits of animation.
I recommend it, its fun.
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I'd say you assumed correctly. It's a kid's show serving as an easy entry into the Star Trek universe, it even airs ( or aired ) on Nickelodeon.
At least you missed the 2023 year of "will it, won't it get canceled".
Okay I finished Star Trek Prodigy.
Firstly its a damn good kids show full stop. Action is great, drama is engaging without getting maudlin or stupid, the characters are varying degrees of streetwise given their upbringings and backgrounds but when faced with some really adult challenges their inexperience shines through. And either they learn on their own, or Janeway helps them. As a good teacher should.
Further to that its also a great Star Trek show with some fun - if obscure - lore drops for grown ups to giggle at but the things that matter are great. Kate Mulgrew slips back into Janeway's pips like an old sweater and has the unique bit of fun by playing the hologram version as more like her Voyager heyday self and the older vice-Admiral she actually is now. Ship design is on point; the USS Protostar looks amazing, and so does the USS Dauntless when it shows up.
What's also cool is the more used future look and feel of everything in the Delta Quadrant, where the majority of the show takes place, which at first blush could be confused for Star Wars, compared to the very slick high tech areas of the Federation.
All in all, I really am excited for season 2 - thank you Netflix - which drops this year.
Firstly its a damn good kids show full stop. Action is great, drama is engaging without getting maudlin or stupid, the characters are varying degrees of streetwise given their upbringings and backgrounds but when faced with some really adult challenges their inexperience shines through. And either they learn on their own, or Janeway helps them. As a good teacher should.
Further to that its also a great Star Trek show with some fun - if obscure - lore drops for grown ups to giggle at but the things that matter are great. Kate Mulgrew slips back into Janeway's pips like an old sweater and has the unique bit of fun by playing the hologram version as more like her Voyager heyday self and the older vice-Admiral she actually is now. Ship design is on point; the USS Protostar looks amazing, and so does the USS Dauntless when it shows up.
What's also cool is the more used future look and feel of everything in the Delta Quadrant, where the majority of the show takes place, which at first blush could be confused for Star Wars, compared to the very slick high tech areas of the Federation.
If I have complaints they are thus; the villain's plan is pretty banal - puts me in the mind of Nero from JJ Trek - but he's consistent with how and why and all that. Also I feel Janeway's hologram should have been able to tell these kids weren't cadets from day one. Most of all though is the big ending setpiece gives the Federation a battle incurring losses it hasn't experienced since Wolf 359 or the invasion of Cardassia but it kind of just gets, glossed over? Kind of weird
All in all, I really am excited for season 2 - thank you Netflix - which drops this year.
Had not heard about this so far. Pretty much all the "New new" Start Trek series clashed with me. Couldn't get into it. I wouldn't even say that i am a "Trekkie" (Trekker is a stupid word), but for example "Picard" Season one managed to get me really angry. A rare feat for piece of media. (And "Discovery" made me really sad)
The only thing which i found fun was the Lower Decks series, which i am catching up on at the moment (Stopped after Season 2, watching season 3 now) this one is fine. Feels like Trek, sometimes a bit silly and out there, sometimes just TOO referential, but overall this series is not ashamed by the old material and comfortable with itself. (And i guess there are at least some people involved who do have a soul)
So maybe i will watch this "Prodigy", even though i am not the target audience. Might clean the "Star Trek"-Disappointment sector of my brain.
Also: I finally watched "Blue Eye Samurai"
Short verdict: Pretty good
I found the last episode to be the worst for some reasons (The writing really falls off at the climax in my opinion), which dampened my opinion a bit. Without the episode this series would rank as "Really great" with me.
Especially the Episodes 4-5-6 with how they play with the premise as established before in the other episodes.
Episode 4 gives us a human problem and great conflict. Showing us the
Episode 5 is especially awesome and unironically "subverts expectations". By giving us new context and filling in some backstory the viewer wasn't aware of, doing some absolutely GREAT character work. This gives us a new perception of the main character and enhances
And than Episode 6 switches up, becomes a solo-dungeoncrawl and goes completely mental in the action department, showing us a lot of "unrealistic, weird stuff" which doesn't seem to fit into the established world so far but is just so entertaining that i didn't mind.
Also: Fowler is (up to the very end of the Season) a great villain. Love him with his monologues and cheese-curds and his switching from total unhinged monstrous barbarian to eloquent totally self-aware, soft-spoken and in-tune plotting mastermind. (Without any real conflict between these sides)
You know a story is can only be as good as it's main villain.
Picard is best described as a show set in Star Trek's universe rather than a Star Trek show. I liked them, but I'm behind on season 3. Strange New Worlds is the current MV-FUCKING-P of Star Trek shows.
I love this fucking show.
Fascinating how Frieren, a show about a character who looks like a child and is perhaps the least horny fantasy anime I have seen in a really long time, has tons of fanart with extra attention given to her lady bits. I don't even go looking for this stuff, it just pops up on my feed, and I am genuinely surprised they seem to be received favorably by most peeps.
She doesn't really look like child, more like a young adult, so there's not much problem with it. And its a popular show, so of course porn will be made of it. To me that seems far less problematic than plenty of other show that get popular with actual sexualized child character.
The difference between a petite woman who doesn't act like a child vs one that does. Wild to see it in action
Anyway: Delicious in Dungeon episodes 2 and 3. Episode 2: Roast Basilisk, Omelet, Kakiage is very much a Dish of the Chapter 3 pack. Focuses on character moments, interactions, and world building. Fantastically executed gags, especially with the mandrakes. Lotta foreshadowing if you're an anime-only watcher and diligently avoid spoilers.
Episode 3: Living Armor is a two chapter episode covering the first multi-part chapter. The animation for our heroes gets looser in exchange for the action and a fantastic looking combat with the living armors themselves. The Armor looks like something out of a good 80s/90s OVA, and it's a bit jarring for me to see the cartoonier people interacting with them. You get some Laios/Falin backstory, lovingly animated for a sequence that was literally 3 panels in the comic. Couldn't recommend it enough. If you were waiting for the 3 episode rule, now's the time.
Lastly, Cygames new robot show, Bang Brave Bang Bravern. Cygames' last animes were Zombieland Saga, a zombie idol anime advertised as a zombie horror anime, and Akiba Maid War, a hyper violent maid gangland show advertised as a slice of life maid cafe show
So Bravern was advertised as a real robot military show with some great Armored Core-esc designs. Fun start
It'll be interesting to see how that shakes out. Hopefully it isn't one note
Anyway: Delicious in Dungeon episodes 2 and 3. Episode 2: Roast Basilisk, Omelet, Kakiage is very much a Dish of the Chapter 3 pack. Focuses on character moments, interactions, and world building. Fantastically executed gags, especially with the mandrakes. Lotta foreshadowing if you're an anime-only watcher and diligently avoid spoilers.
Episode 3: Living Armor is a two chapter episode covering the first multi-part chapter. The animation for our heroes gets looser in exchange for the action and a fantastic looking combat with the living armors themselves. The Armor looks like something out of a good 80s/90s OVA, and it's a bit jarring for me to see the cartoonier people interacting with them. You get some Laios/Falin backstory, lovingly animated for a sequence that was literally 3 panels in the comic. Couldn't recommend it enough. If you were waiting for the 3 episode rule, now's the time.
Lastly, Cygames new robot show, Bang Brave Bang Bravern. Cygames' last animes were Zombieland Saga, a zombie idol anime advertised as a zombie horror anime, and Akiba Maid War, a hyper violent maid gangland show advertised as a slice of life maid cafe show
So Bravern was advertised as a real robot military show with some great Armored Core-esc designs. Fun start
And then aliens show up and this guy saves the day
How good this show is is going to depend on how sincere it manages to be. Like, if the only joke is getting elbowed in the ribs with "haha, you know how gay super robot shows kinda look, what if it was really gay, get it?", it'll flop. If it ends up having had the meat on it's bones that the protagonist does, it could be really good
How good this show is is going to depend on how sincere it manages to be. Like, if the only joke is getting elbowed in the ribs with "haha, you know how gay super robot shows kinda look, what if it was really gay, get it?", it'll flop. If it ends up having had the meat on it's bones that the protagonist does, it could be really good
It'll be interesting to see how that shakes out. Hopefully it isn't one note
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I watched the video in the twitter link. Either they're taking metric tons of piss or they have well and truly, in multiple senses of the phrase, nailed their colours to the mast.
The episode represent everything I hate about mech anime. I like mech as a concept because, unlike fantasy show, mech are a man made "magic" which operate on set rule, anyone can pilot them if they work hard and earn the right. This show start with plenty of nod to that, with comment about how the mech has good performance because its well maintained and such. And then it takes a giant dump on all that, nevermind magic mech shows up and save the day, only the chosen one can ride it, fuck humankind ingenuity in the face of a greater threat. This wouldn't be a problem if this was really a twist, but there's pretty much no anime mech show that doesn't do something like that. Gundam? Most of them have the main character use magic and the mech end up being little more than flying chair for them to use their space magic at each others. So this show big twist is literally only a twist because it happened in the frist episode rather than later.
Pokemon: Concierge
Not really an anime, but it is a piece of Pokemon media, and the only one (whether anime or game... not really played the games, so doesn't count, I suppose) I've really been bothered to watch all the way through. Not entirely sure what to make of it, except that I enjoyed it.
Not really an anime, but it is a piece of Pokemon media, and the only one (whether anime or game... not really played the games, so doesn't count, I suppose) I've really been bothered to watch all the way through. Not entirely sure what to make of it, except that I enjoyed it.
Hey now, most Gundams work on Real Robot rules, occasional psychic powers early on notwithstanding. Even Witch from Mercury was Sufficiently Advanced Technology, and really only at the end.
That said, Real Robot is hard to make for a variety of reasons. Pretty much the same reasons we don't get a lot of Serious Military shows, or aircraft/tank shows, etc. Like, military shows tend to be depressing, with a lot of them shedding secondary characters in their finales like chaff, because that's what happens when war goes off. Or they end up being propaganda, but you can't glorify the JDF too much, because Japanese sensibilities.
That said, it looks like Bravern is going to go the Super Robot hanging out with Real Robots route, if the OP and second episode is any indication. Still super early in the show though, so we'll see how well the secondary characters keep up
The entire UC timeline almost always boil down to newtype space wizard, SEED had the weird seed thing. Some like witch don't directly have space wizard, but they also really don't treat the mech seriously, and also had the whole "chosen one pilot the magic mech" aspect.
I think they could work just fine will still being somewhat grounded, like it wouldn't be hard to take most gundam show and just remove the magic aspect, which really doesn't bring anything to the story.
Not gonna get into a huge discussion about Newtype bullshit in the watch thread, but I'm genuinely curious if there's been any real robot shows that you've liked? I'm not sure if stuff like Patlabor fits the bill
I really liked the patlabor movie, the actual series (or OVA) are pretty good too but they're mostly comedy. I like macross plus, but that's not really mech. Gundam thunderbolt and a couple of the side story, despite being in UC, avoid most of the newtype crap. There's Flag from forever ago, but its not a mech show really.
But really, like I said the problem is there's essentially no real robot show, almost all have either a magic mech, magic power or a chosen one main character. I typed "mech anime" in google and went trough the entire list and the only one I could see was rotom, which I haven't watched in forever (and it was a shitty VHS rip).
I ended up binging all but the last couple episodes of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End on Crunchyroll.
I was surprised both at how poignant, but also mature the series is. For those that haven't heard about it or avoided it due to the recent isekai fantasy oversaturation, FBJE is a drama set at the end of a Hero partys journey having spent 10 years fighting and defeating "The Demon King". It's very intentionally generic because those details don't really matter. I went in expecting some drama-medy slice of life "fuck about" anime, but instead was rewarded with a touching story that focuses on the Elf of the party. Like LOTR, in this story Elves are essentially immortal, living for thousands of years.
This series focuses on the way Elves experience time and relationships with less long-lived species. While the elf enjoyed her time with the party, it's not until 50 years later when all her "friends" are either dead or dying that she starts to realize how emotionally attached she was to them and begins a journey to see if there's an after-life to try and obtain closure. You don't know what you've got til its gone
I have to warn you much of the story is down right depressing. Some of it is funny, but more bittersweet than slapstick. It's not "action heavy", but when it is the animation is downright gorgeous.
I think it rises of above the term slice of life seen in most animes, because there's a very driven narrative. Its always "going somewhere" with a goal in mind, while also weaving in a lot of rumination, on the life of an immortal being. The episodes I've seen take place over the course of a hundred years with flashbacks over a thousand. You see how characters and their families are impacted by heroic deeds over generations. It's not immature or heavy-handed. It all feels very sympathetic and compelling as though the author is genuinely familiar with what it's like to grow up/old and lose people over time. It's quite a tear jerker. So far 10/10
I was surprised both at how poignant, but also mature the series is. For those that haven't heard about it or avoided it due to the recent isekai fantasy oversaturation, FBJE is a drama set at the end of a Hero partys journey having spent 10 years fighting and defeating "The Demon King". It's very intentionally generic because those details don't really matter. I went in expecting some drama-medy slice of life "fuck about" anime, but instead was rewarded with a touching story that focuses on the Elf of the party. Like LOTR, in this story Elves are essentially immortal, living for thousands of years.
This series focuses on the way Elves experience time and relationships with less long-lived species. While the elf enjoyed her time with the party, it's not until 50 years later when all her "friends" are either dead or dying that she starts to realize how emotionally attached she was to them and begins a journey to see if there's an after-life to try and obtain closure. You don't know what you've got til its gone
I have to warn you much of the story is down right depressing. Some of it is funny, but more bittersweet than slapstick. It's not "action heavy", but when it is the animation is downright gorgeous.
I think it rises of above the term slice of life seen in most animes, because there's a very driven narrative. Its always "going somewhere" with a goal in mind, while also weaving in a lot of rumination, on the life of an immortal being. The episodes I've seen take place over the course of a hundred years with flashbacks over a thousand. You see how characters and their families are impacted by heroic deeds over generations. It's not immature or heavy-handed. It all feels very sympathetic and compelling as though the author is genuinely familiar with what it's like to grow up/old and lose people over time. It's quite a tear jerker. So far 10/10
I don't think its depressing at all, at least as far as Frieren experience, she might have lost a party, but she very quickly make a new one without even trying that much. And its not like she did nothing during those 50 year, she, presumably, did things that she enjoyed during that time, every decision you make involve losing a "life path" but gaining another.