The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition

[Casual Shinji]

And as ugly as Angstrom's death is... hasn't Mark already killed a bunch of stuff in battle? And while I understand his fear about becoming the same as his dad, the fear alone should be an indicator that he won't. Does anyone in the audience share the same anxiety as him? I'm sick of his grovelling. You fought a dude that maimed your mom, harmed your baby brother and was actively trying to kill you to the very end. You're morally in the clear. Get the fuck over it.

Yeah, considering the comic I don't see this going anywhere in the show moving forward. The looming threat of the viltramites hangs far heavier over Mark in the comic than him becoming his dad. I guess Season 2 felt the need to end with a reminder of the impactful ending of Season 1. And honestly at this point that whole moment is kinda overstaying its welcome and throwing a shadow over the rest of the story.

 

[Satinavian]

Hm, man, all that sounds terrible. Short question: I didn't watch much anime (or anything) the last... decade or so. Anything to recommendate the last few years?

Well, i actually liked Frieren unlike some others. But super innovative and different it is not.

For example the whole Isekai - "i am now in a game or whatever" example: "Overlord", i think had a great core. The premise that you have "secret knowledge" and can apply your game tactics and your statistics, your unique perception and such while navigating a now political landscape as a "monster", while questioning what is real and what personhood means: Great idea. But we got big/small-boobed harem girls, asspull-powers, slow trodding plot, bullshit power fantasy. (I watched just a few episodes at the start, don't know what and if something changes)

So true. Most are just power fantasies and don't care much for world building or sensible plot. And the harems are annoying.
There are a couple that are closer to what you want (Ascendance of a bookworm, Grimgar of fantasy and ash, several others that only exist as light novel) but writing such is not exactly easy (Realist Hero fails horribly by trying to do political themes and just revealing that the author has no knowledge of it )

Eh, back to the question: Any recommendation for a good, short series/movie the last years which is without the usual shonen-anime shit tainting all the innovative crazy stuff?

Have you tried not doing Shonen ? While some Seinen are just more violent, others actually have more complex plots and themes. And there is Shoujo though that tends to have its own bundle of common themes (and tends to not be particualr complex) and , most important Josei which has a lot to offer in complex themes and stories and is most different from Shonen. But there are a lot of slice-of life shows in that category wgich you also don't seem to like ?

I want to watch something weird, inventive or thought-provoking again. Some nice meaningful action would be nice too.

Bookworm is a fun Isekai which takes its world seriously. But it has a bit slice of life flavor and not the hoghest animationbudget.
Eizoken is slightly weird and innovative. But it also has slice of life qualities and a lot of navel gazing
Ancient Magus Bride has weirdness and some inventiveness but has a somewhat questionable romance and the main character is a bit tropey.
Shadow House has also weirdness and while most ingredients are sommon, the show itself manages to feel a tad different.

But it is surprisingly hard to recommend stuff when i don't really know your taste all that well.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Thanks to my girlfriend, I've watched a bunch of anime.

Yuri on Ice: Gay ice skating. Honestly given the extreme fondness my girlfriend and other female friends have for this show, I kind of expected it to be better. But I am familiar with the circumstances behind the show's production, and you can tell that they're just doing their best with a smaller budget. To the show's credit, it did make me more interested in the world of ice skating and did actually make me look up some real world ice skating. Like any good sports anime should.

A Sign of Affection: Deaf girl meets polyglot guy, romance ensues. I heard that this anime teaches you more about a deaf person's life, but not quite feeling it so far. It's got a great art style though.

Go Go Loser Ranger: The Boys, but Power Rangers. Only two episodes so far, but the show has a fun energy. I was never a big Power Rangers kid, but I watched enough to appreciate the premise.

It's quite nice how... alternative anime viewing sites have features that allow you to have watch parties with others. Sure beats just pressing play at the same time.

 

[meiam]

Thanks to my girlfriend, I've watched a bunch of anime.

Yuri on Ice: Gay ice skating. Honestly given the extreme fondness my girlfriend and other female friends have for this show, I kind of expected it to be better. But I am familiar with the circumstances behind the show's production, and you can tell that they're just doing their best with a smaller budget. To the show's credit, it did make me more interested in the world of ice skating and did actually make me look up some real world ice skating. Like any good sports anime should.

Its a shame how much they overreached and tried to animate every character routine, it was really unnecessary and ended up creating some awkward moment, like when one of the character win his competition while having by far the worse animation for his routine.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Its a shame how much they overreached and tried to animate every character routine, it was really unnecessary and ended up creating some awkward moment, like when one of the character win his competition while having by far the worse animation for his routine.

Yeah, especially when most of them repeat their performances. I mean I appreciate how they tried to get you to care about every single competitor ala Haikyuu, but maybe don't try to do that with only 12 episodes.

 

[Worgen]

just remembered how long 10 years was. Keep Your Hands Off Eizoken is a brilliantly animated show about students making an animation.

They have it with English dubbing on amazon. I need to watch it with the dub since the subtitles make it hard to watch the lovely animation.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finally gotten around to watching Hazbin Hotel. Overall like it and a number of the songs have been stuck in my head for a week now(Me listening to them on youtube doesn't help). I'm getting attached to the characters in general, though I feel like some of them are underultized. The Vees in particular are introduced early and mostly seem to drop out of sight after they get their big musical numbers, such as "Stayed Gone" for Vox and "Respectless" for Velvette, though Valentino keeps popping up probably because he's Angeldust's Boss and a fucking creep to boot. Vox I guess I understand because he quickly got his widescreen ass handed to him by Alastor without Alastor breaking a sweat but Velvette seems a lot smarter and dangerous and just stops really matters after she tells off the other overlords(and as far as I know they didn't have her whacked offscreen).

My big issues fall into 2 main categories:
-The tone in the early episodes is all over the damn place. The flow will be very Saturday morning cartoony with Sex jokes and swearing(like Sir Pentius and his steampunk blimp) but then the music will pop on and emotional moments hit. It evens out a lot around like episode 5 but that's half the runtime of the show. And then you have episode 4, which has a fucking sexual assault warning when it starts(there's a really good reason for that, btw). Suddenly all those sex jokes Angeldust keeps making feel a hell of a lot darker.
-It feels like the episodes are either too short or there aren't enough of them and early on it feels like the show is trying to juggle far too many things to make any of them pay off, though this gets better later on. The show will jump between stuff like the dead angel subplot, trying to make the whole hotel concept work, the worldbuilding that hell is run by backstabbing and competing overlords, developing the characters, charlies's relationship with her dad and her idealism and any number of other plots competing for the 23 min per episode runtime. There's also the whole moved up angelic purge(from a year to 6 months) that's there but suddenly there's a 5 month time skip that seems to have happened offscreen and only takes priority around episode 6 when they appeal to heaven that sinners can be redeemed with enough effort(which almost nobody in heaven wants to even hear).

Beyond that I generally enjoy it. The musical numbers are mostly awesome and there's some great talent there, I just wish the first few episodes didn't feel mostly devoid of real substance when the music wasn't playing.