The difference is in the sincerity, I'm having a fantastic time
The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition
- Thread starter TheMysteriousGX
- Start date
Best breakdown of Witch from Mercury I've seen so far
Ep 1: Oh, it's Utena
Ep 2: Oh, it's Gundam
Ep 3: Oh fuck, it's the Bachelorette!
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak HIgh School
From its humble beginnings as an adventure game about teenagers locked in a high school by an evil teddy bear to participate in a death game, the Danganronpa series, brainchild of Kazutaka Kodaka, evolved into a vast multimedia franchise whose numbered entries now consist of two games, one book and an anime series to serve as its finale. Well, and one more game after that, but let's leave that aside for now.
It's a series that practically lives on the famous thin line between clever and stupid, but it's hard not to respect just how hard it commits to the bit. Kodaka coined the term "Psycho Pop" for the series style, something that to some extent also carries over to his standalone anime production Akudama Drive. Much like his former colleague Suda51, Kodaka takes pop culture, only to inject it with a good amount of venom to throw it right back into the face of the society that created it.
From the very beginning, the Danganronpa series contrasted its gritty premise of high schoolers being forced to kill each other in secret with its larger than life characters, mean spirited sense of humour and acid trip presentation. Somehow, this premise of a death game in a prestiguous boarding school evolved into a post apocalyptic battle between the metaphysical forces of Hope and Despair that involves virtual realities, robots, brainwashing, human experimentation, AI's and the sinister schemes of a psychopathic supermodel . All of those still centered around aforementioned boarding school and its students and faculty, like some punk rock cousin of the Harry Potter franchise.
Bear with me, it's some highly concentrated nonsense, seasoned with generous helpings of bare skin, (neon pink) blood, dirty language and cultural references. For what it's worth though, it's also absolutely my shit. Where the DR series presents itself as some dionysian excess of vulgarity and madness, somewhere inside that excess is some surprisingly insightful commentary on the ideology of violence, paranoia and manipulation. I swear, this isn't just me trying to be one of those hip "vulgar auteurists", Kodaka might just have the firmest grasp of pop iconography in the industry outside of Suda and, with all due respect to Suda, has been a whole lot more productive as a director for the past decade.
The anime series Danganronpa 3 is, in true DR fashion, a pretty audacious project. Consisting of two seperate 12 episode series, one a sequel, the other one a prequel to the games, with the episodes meant to be watched in an alternating order, it makes an effort to conclude the series in a suitably spectacular way. I's probably best described as "sprawling". The aptly named "Future Arc", that follows up after the games, deals with yet another death game, this time an out and out battle royale between the survivors of the first game and an ensemble cast of new characters, almost all of whom have their one minor or major story arc.
Meanwhile the "Despair Arc" not only follows the events leading up to both games, but also expands on the Future Arc's new character and chronicles the series main villain's rise to power. The series throws in just about everything one could think of when imagining a sequel, or prequel, to the franchise. Some of it cool and suprising. Some of it feels obligatory. Some of it downright indulgent. For a moment I was tempted to write "It's practically the Twin Peaks: The Return of the DR series", but I can't do that with a straight face.
If there's anything it proves, it's just how far this series has come in developing its own world, cast and visual and thematic language. I consider the anime overall succesful in expanding on all of those. Where the medium by nature dictates a greater focus on action and a somewhat lesser focus on conversation, both new and returning characters are mostly treated well and most hanging plotlines concluded satisfyingly. If there's one place DR3 falters, its with its actual ending. It's not that it's bad, it's that for a series that's as insane, twisty and unpredictable als Danganronpa, it feels dissapointingly clean and almost saccharine. Other installments in the DR franchise, notably DR V3, the actual finale of the series, show quite clearly that Kodaka and his staff are not afraid to challenge the audience, so I take it that ending DR3 on such an unambiguously happy note was a sincere decision, rather than one resulting from a fear of backlash, but I found it much less compelling than everything leading up to it.
I'm not gonna try to "sell" anyone on Danganronpa in general, or on this anime in particular. I admire this series for managing to communicate some pretty thought provoking ideas in a way that's understandable and relatable, even to a younger audience, as well as coming up with a unique and compelling iconography to dress them up with. In some ways DR3 serves as a fairly good representation for the series as a whole. A tonally and narratively eclectic rollercoaster ride with pretty high peaks and pretty low valleys. Bad tastes exists right next to nuanced characterization, exists right next to annoying tropes, exists right next to hard hitting drama exists right next to tone deaf humor exists right next to surprisingly well articulated philosophical and ideological talking points.
What I'm saying is, it's a mixed bag, but there is an audience for it, and I am in it. As of right now I'm absolutely on board with Kodaka as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary video game and anime writing, and I'm eagerly awaiting his upcoming project "Rain Code". He is clearly a man with a unique artistic vision that I'm excited to see more of.
From its humble beginnings as an adventure game about teenagers locked in a high school by an evil teddy bear to participate in a death game, the Danganronpa series, brainchild of Kazutaka Kodaka, evolved into a vast multimedia franchise whose numbered entries now consist of two games, one book and an anime series to serve as its finale. Well, and one more game after that, but let's leave that aside for now.
It's a series that practically lives on the famous thin line between clever and stupid, but it's hard not to respect just how hard it commits to the bit. Kodaka coined the term "Psycho Pop" for the series style, something that to some extent also carries over to his standalone anime production Akudama Drive. Much like his former colleague Suda51, Kodaka takes pop culture, only to inject it with a good amount of venom to throw it right back into the face of the society that created it.
From the very beginning, the Danganronpa series contrasted its gritty premise of high schoolers being forced to kill each other in secret with its larger than life characters, mean spirited sense of humour and acid trip presentation. Somehow, this premise of a death game in a prestiguous boarding school evolved into a post apocalyptic battle between the metaphysical forces of Hope and Despair that involves virtual realities, robots, brainwashing, human experimentation, AI's and the sinister schemes of a psychopathic supermodel . All of those still centered around aforementioned boarding school and its students and faculty, like some punk rock cousin of the Harry Potter franchise.
Bear with me, it's some highly concentrated nonsense, seasoned with generous helpings of bare skin, (neon pink) blood, dirty language and cultural references. For what it's worth though, it's also absolutely my shit. Where the DR series presents itself as some dionysian excess of vulgarity and madness, somewhere inside that excess is some surprisingly insightful commentary on the ideology of violence, paranoia and manipulation. I swear, this isn't just me trying to be one of those hip "vulgar auteurists", Kodaka might just have the firmest grasp of pop iconography in the industry outside of Suda and, with all due respect to Suda, has been a whole lot more productive as a director for the past decade.
The anime series Danganronpa 3 is, in true DR fashion, a pretty audacious project. Consisting of two seperate 12 episode series, one a sequel, the other one a prequel to the games, with the episodes meant to be watched in an alternating order, it makes an effort to conclude the series in a suitably spectacular way. I's probably best described as "sprawling". The aptly named "Future Arc", that follows up after the games, deals with yet another death game, this time an out and out battle royale between the survivors of the first game and an ensemble cast of new characters, almost all of whom have their one minor or major story arc.
Meanwhile the "Despair Arc" not only follows the events leading up to both games, but also expands on the Future Arc's new character and chronicles the series main villain's rise to power. The series throws in just about everything one could think of when imagining a sequel, or prequel, to the franchise. Some of it cool and suprising. Some of it feels obligatory. Some of it downright indulgent. For a moment I was tempted to write "It's practically the Twin Peaks: The Return of the DR series", but I can't do that with a straight face.
If there's anything it proves, it's just how far this series has come in developing its own world, cast and visual and thematic language. I consider the anime overall succesful in expanding on all of those. Where the medium by nature dictates a greater focus on action and a somewhat lesser focus on conversation, both new and returning characters are mostly treated well and most hanging plotlines concluded satisfyingly. If there's one place DR3 falters, its with its actual ending. It's not that it's bad, it's that for a series that's as insane, twisty and unpredictable als Danganronpa, it feels dissapointingly clean and almost saccharine. Other installments in the DR franchise, notably DR V3, the actual finale of the series, show quite clearly that Kodaka and his staff are not afraid to challenge the audience, so I take it that ending DR3 on such an unambiguously happy note was a sincere decision, rather than one resulting from a fear of backlash, but I found it much less compelling than everything leading up to it.
I'm not gonna try to "sell" anyone on Danganronpa in general, or on this anime in particular. I admire this series for managing to communicate some pretty thought provoking ideas in a way that's understandable and relatable, even to a younger audience, as well as coming up with a unique and compelling iconography to dress them up with. In some ways DR3 serves as a fairly good representation for the series as a whole. A tonally and narratively eclectic rollercoaster ride with pretty high peaks and pretty low valleys. Bad tastes exists right next to nuanced characterization, exists right next to annoying tropes, exists right next to hard hitting drama exists right next to tone deaf humor exists right next to surprisingly well articulated philosophical and ideological talking points.
What I'm saying is, it's a mixed bag, but there is an audience for it, and I am in it. As of right now I'm absolutely on board with Kodaka as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary video game and anime writing, and I'm eagerly awaiting his upcoming project "Rain Code". He is clearly a man with a unique artistic vision that I'm excited to see more of.
Funny enough, I did the exact opposite. I watched all of the "Despair Arc" first, and the then watched all of the "Future Arc" second. I did not know about the alternation until afterward, but I was still able to understand everything fine. Aside from me not liking the plot twist and making a certain character supposed to be seen as sympathetic, unintentionally sympathetic. I admit it is not the worst, but I sure did not feel like watching any of it again. I do give major props to all of the dub voice actors. They killed it.
Save that one for the general movie and tv thread. Someone already posted the dumbass's statement in the anti-woke thread.
I don't know whether it makes a great difference if you watch the two series seperately or in alternating order, honestly. Probably not in terms of being able to follow it, but I guess the way some plot points and twists are paced out, the alternating order might give them some greater impact. But I was told that that's the intended viewing order, so I went with it.
I didn't actually watch too much of the English dub. I started off watching it in English, but I was a bit put off because so many of the games voice actors I was used to had been changed. And then there's that ridiculous valley girl accent they gave Junko, which I first thought was one of the bits she does to amuse herself, but somehow that was her default way of speaking.
Yeah, Funimation couldn't afford to fly everyone who dubbed the games over to Texas to do the anime dub, so they could only afford bring Makoto and Nagito dub actor (who does the voice for both characters in the games and anime). That, and he was actually closest to the dubbing studio at the time.
I actually like both versions of Junko, but I can see how you prefer the game dub version. I admit that like the dubbing anime version of Junko, because the same voice actress is using her Panty voice from Panty & Stocking. The only difference being what if Panty were sadistic and full-on evil sociopath.
So I'm totally not into anime and whatever... but lately have been dipping my toe ever so slowly due to Arcane and Edgerunners.
This past weekend I watched Studio Ghibli movies Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. They were delightful.
Then I started the Netflix Castlevania series because like everybody loves it? I don't remember the old games anyway. It's ok I guess? I mean, certainly better than anything based on an old Nintendo game has any right to be, but it's a bit too dragged out talky boring for me too much of the time.
I'm at episode 3 of the second season, does it get better or is this basically it? I mean, it's fine, I'm not complaining, just not sure I like it enough to watch 4 seasons.
This past weekend I watched Studio Ghibli movies Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. They were delightful.
Then I started the Netflix Castlevania series because like everybody loves it? I don't remember the old games anyway. It's ok I guess? I mean, certainly better than anything based on an old Nintendo game has any right to be, but it's a bit too dragged out talky boring for me too much of the time.
I'm at episode 3 of the second season, does it get better or is this basically it? I mean, it's fine, I'm not complaining, just not sure I like it enough to watch 4 seasons.
Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 10)
Season 1, Episode 11: PORTRAITZ
Some secret government documents were hacked and stolen. Togusa goes undercover at the source of the hack: a special facility for children with Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome, a disorder whose symptoms include impaired social and communication skills, but also intense interests and repetitive behavior. It’s more or less kids with a form of severe cyber autism, isolated for their own safety, and being put to work as hackers and barrier coders. There’s a strong undercurrent of these children being exploited for their talents, but the kids seem quite happy to do it (and the inmates were probably running the asylum all along, but in a very literal sense).
Togusa gets a bit chummy (no, not in that way, you sicko) with a group of kids, one of whom is a deaf-mute in a wheelchair who really loves his catcher’s mitt, and they’re all really excited for when the “Chief” will visit again. Hmmm, yeah, they’re laying the J.D. Salinger on extra thicc this episode. Anyway, Togusa gets caught and knocked out. Wheelchair kid is revealed to be the “Chief”, but is gone by the time Batou and the Major arrive, wiping all evidence of his existence. Only Togusa remembers him, but when he’s asked to draw a portrait, the only thing he can draw is the Laughing Man logo. Prosecuting criminally inclined top-rate hackers must be a *****, the way they can just rewrite witnesses' memories. The potential for shenanigans is honestly immense.
Guess we’re jumping back into the Laughing Man storyline, jumpstarting things with a big identity reveal. I didn’t spot them way back when I first watched the series, but I enjoyed catching all the callbacks, like how one of the kids is the moderator from the chat room episode, and of course the many references to Salinger’s The Laughing Man and Catcher In The Rye, as well as Rainman and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (I mean, tell me the facility director is not Nurse Ratched). Also, while I don't mind the stand-alone episode, they're good stuff, about time we returned to the main course.
Season 1, Episode 11: PORTRAITZ
Some secret government documents were hacked and stolen. Togusa goes undercover at the source of the hack: a special facility for children with Cyberbrain Closed Shell Syndrome, a disorder whose symptoms include impaired social and communication skills, but also intense interests and repetitive behavior. It’s more or less kids with a form of severe cyber autism, isolated for their own safety, and being put to work as hackers and barrier coders. There’s a strong undercurrent of these children being exploited for their talents, but the kids seem quite happy to do it (and the inmates were probably running the asylum all along, but in a very literal sense).
Togusa gets a bit chummy (no, not in that way, you sicko) with a group of kids, one of whom is a deaf-mute in a wheelchair who really loves his catcher’s mitt, and they’re all really excited for when the “Chief” will visit again. Hmmm, yeah, they’re laying the J.D. Salinger on extra thicc this episode. Anyway, Togusa gets caught and knocked out. Wheelchair kid is revealed to be the “Chief”, but is gone by the time Batou and the Major arrive, wiping all evidence of his existence. Only Togusa remembers him, but when he’s asked to draw a portrait, the only thing he can draw is the Laughing Man logo. Prosecuting criminally inclined top-rate hackers must be a *****, the way they can just rewrite witnesses' memories. The potential for shenanigans is honestly immense.
Guess we’re jumping back into the Laughing Man storyline, jumpstarting things with a big identity reveal. I didn’t spot them way back when I first watched the series, but I enjoyed catching all the callbacks, like how one of the kids is the moderator from the chat room episode, and of course the many references to Salinger’s The Laughing Man and Catcher In The Rye, as well as Rainman and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (I mean, tell me the facility director is not Nurse Ratched). Also, while I don't mind the stand-alone episode, they're good stuff, about time we returned to the main course.
It gets slightly worse than season 3 (I won't spoil it, but I hate how that season ends), but season 4 more than makes up for it. It helps that all four seasons are out now. Then we got a new Castlevania sequel series coming out later next year focusing on Richter Belmont. I am hyped.
Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 11)
Season 1, Episode 12: ESCAPE FROM
Hello, filled episode. Ok, that’s perhaps too harsh. What we have here is two short stories, one of a Tachikoma striking out on its own and helping a little girl find her missing dog, the other of a cyberbrain recovered from a bazaar containing a virtual cinema showing a movie so gripping no one wants to leave. Pretty different setups, but both stores share a common theme of escape. And more J.D. Salinger references, of course, because at this point in the series that shit is starting to come off kind of obsessive.
The girl is escaping from the harshness of reality and the loss of innocence, which is foreshadowed by the girls sharing a story called The Secret Goldfish, referencing Catcher in the Rye again, cuz that man loved those themes. But yes, her dog is dead, which she knew all along, but pretended not to to avoid coming to grips with her grief, and I guess so her parents wouldn’t worry about her, though I’m sure they would be thrilled by the idea that their daughter was instead hanging out with a warmachine.
Similarly, the cyberbrain later on contains the ghost of a movie director so avant garde and adamant on artistic integrity he never actually got a movie made because no one would work with him. Disillusioned with this state of affairs, he flees into his own brain to craft his perfect movie, turning himself into a virtual theater. This movie is apparently so perfect (even the Major sheds tears), that the people who see find it impossible to leave, preferring its comfort to reality. I noticed a Bananafish poster in the background, and there are some parallels, both that short story and this featuring a character unable to live in proper society after having seen its ugly side.
But of course neither is a particularly healthy way of coping. It’s not like I don’t understand wanting to get away from one’s sorrows, but as the Major points out, such escapism is just a transitory diversion, and sooner or later you have to actually deal. The girl comes to understand this, but the director, not so much. Though you could ask if she did the other moviegoers in the virtual theater a service when she unplugged them, seeing as its implied a significant amount may have passed since the director retreated into his mind palace.
Lastly, in the Tachikoma’s case, escape is pretty literal, kind of like a runaway kid. So here’s an armed robot tank going around town with a little girl, and it just strikes me as odd that no one seems really concerned by the autonomous tank with the maturity of a kindergartner with no understanding of social mores being loose, including Section 9. That just seems insanely dangerous. A couple of cops just assume it’s the girl’s pet. It clearly has guns in its arms and a cannon in its face, and is the size of a minivan. But yeah, obvious pet. Are robots like these so ubiquitous that no one pays them any mind? Ok, the Major was keeping tabs all along (foreshadowing her ability to control different bodies), but still, maybe more than a slap on the wrist was warranted.
Maybe that’s just how AI is treated. Like children. Which does make some sense, they are supposed to be learning machines, and frequently make remarks about gaining experience points.There’s also various hints throughout the runtime that the Tachikoma may understand things like sadness, or good and bad, better than it realizes, if far from perfectly, ostensibly caused by the natural oil Batou gave it in an early episode causing its AI to develop differently than the rest of the units.
Also, poor Batou. So thirsty.
Season 1, Episode 12: ESCAPE FROM
Hello, filled episode. Ok, that’s perhaps too harsh. What we have here is two short stories, one of a Tachikoma striking out on its own and helping a little girl find her missing dog, the other of a cyberbrain recovered from a bazaar containing a virtual cinema showing a movie so gripping no one wants to leave. Pretty different setups, but both stores share a common theme of escape. And more J.D. Salinger references, of course, because at this point in the series that shit is starting to come off kind of obsessive.
The girl is escaping from the harshness of reality and the loss of innocence, which is foreshadowed by the girls sharing a story called The Secret Goldfish, referencing Catcher in the Rye again, cuz that man loved those themes. But yes, her dog is dead, which she knew all along, but pretended not to to avoid coming to grips with her grief, and I guess so her parents wouldn’t worry about her, though I’m sure they would be thrilled by the idea that their daughter was instead hanging out with a warmachine.
Similarly, the cyberbrain later on contains the ghost of a movie director so avant garde and adamant on artistic integrity he never actually got a movie made because no one would work with him. Disillusioned with this state of affairs, he flees into his own brain to craft his perfect movie, turning himself into a virtual theater. This movie is apparently so perfect (even the Major sheds tears), that the people who see find it impossible to leave, preferring its comfort to reality. I noticed a Bananafish poster in the background, and there are some parallels, both that short story and this featuring a character unable to live in proper society after having seen its ugly side.
But of course neither is a particularly healthy way of coping. It’s not like I don’t understand wanting to get away from one’s sorrows, but as the Major points out, such escapism is just a transitory diversion, and sooner or later you have to actually deal. The girl comes to understand this, but the director, not so much. Though you could ask if she did the other moviegoers in the virtual theater a service when she unplugged them, seeing as its implied a significant amount may have passed since the director retreated into his mind palace.
Lastly, in the Tachikoma’s case, escape is pretty literal, kind of like a runaway kid. So here’s an armed robot tank going around town with a little girl, and it just strikes me as odd that no one seems really concerned by the autonomous tank with the maturity of a kindergartner with no understanding of social mores being loose, including Section 9. That just seems insanely dangerous. A couple of cops just assume it’s the girl’s pet. It clearly has guns in its arms and a cannon in its face, and is the size of a minivan. But yeah, obvious pet. Are robots like these so ubiquitous that no one pays them any mind? Ok, the Major was keeping tabs all along (foreshadowing her ability to control different bodies), but still, maybe more than a slap on the wrist was warranted.
Maybe that’s just how AI is treated. Like children. Which does make some sense, they are supposed to be learning machines, and frequently make remarks about gaining experience points.There’s also various hints throughout the runtime that the Tachikoma may understand things like sadness, or good and bad, better than it realizes, if far from perfectly, ostensibly caused by the natural oil Batou gave it in an early episode causing its AI to develop differently than the rest of the units.
Also, poor Batou. So thirsty.
The brain movie thing is a bit silly, but it does raise the idea that if society got really good at interacting directly with the brain, we'd probably be able to just have an "happiness" switch that could be turn on at anytime and make people feel intensely happy, which would probably not be a super good thing for society.
I mean, that's basically what some drugs already do, and plenty of those have rather unpleasant long term effects, even without going into the more direct physical health issues.
I think the Tachikoma understands more about social nuance than it lets on, although its unintentional mistreatment of the animal shows some obvious gaps - it understands how to interact with people, not animals though. And don’t forget the police that eventually do show concern and try to take the girl away back off when the ‘Koma imitates Aramaki’s voice and flat out bullshits that he is in fact the child’s grandparent in a robot body.
Also I mean if my kid was missing I’d have gone nuts but as chance travelling companions go, I’d feel a lot better about the AI combat tank than almost anyone or anything else.
Drug are pretty blunt way to do it and some of the mental long term effect may be due to the drug itself.
Episode 4 of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is out! We learn some very cute things, some very concerning things, some very worldly things, and who has the best haymaker in anime. We also get our first school hijink!
Lots of good and cute character interactions, continue to highly recommend.
Also caught up on season two of Pop Team Epic, which is fantastically weird as always. You love it or you don't
The school in particular is very strange from a modern, somewhat compassionate perspective. It reconfirms what we saw in episode 3 that there's basically no such thing as cheating. If somebody just has better stuff, has personnel to run interference, can afford bribes, or is just sabotaging your shit, then it's *your fault* that you weren't able to detect or defeat those issues and they are the true winner. Pure hyper-capitalist zero-regulation meritocracy, with all the toxicity and value of profit over humanity that entails.
It's a very effective school for what it's trying to teach. People with empathy or sympathy have a rough time existing, either shedding that from themselves, bonding with like minded people, or washing out altogether.
There also don't appear to be, like, *dorms*. Miorine is living out of her dad's old, slightly refurbished office, the Earthian kids have a shitty, rundown, somehow rusting warehouse in a district full of much bigger, much cleaner warehouses, Suletta is basically homeless. That scene last episode where she called her mom was probably whatever storage unit her stuff got stashed in when she went to prison. *Most likely*, whatever corporation set up a student's enrollment is also responsible for their accommodations. Would fit with the general vibe.
It's a very effective school for what it's trying to teach. People with empathy or sympathy have a rough time existing, either shedding that from themselves, bonding with like minded people, or washing out altogether.
There also don't appear to be, like, *dorms*. Miorine is living out of her dad's old, slightly refurbished office, the Earthian kids have a shitty, rundown, somehow rusting warehouse in a district full of much bigger, much cleaner warehouses, Suletta is basically homeless. That scene last episode where she called her mom was probably whatever storage unit her stuff got stashed in when she went to prison. *Most likely*, whatever corporation set up a student's enrollment is also responsible for their accommodations. Would fit with the general vibe.
Lots of good and cute character interactions, continue to highly recommend.
Also caught up on season two of Pop Team Epic, which is fantastically weird as always. You love it or you don't
Batman and Superman Battle of the Super Sons
Really thought this would be unbearable considering it stars two kids, but the voice actors knocked it out of the park. Still believably childish, but not annoyingly so. The animation, while 3D, at the very least plays to the strengths of being 3D. Still not as great as a traditional animation in my opinion, but the little things like a more dynamic camera and actual detailed hair were nice.
Could be a little cheesy at times, but hey look at the title. Should be a pretty clear indicator of how much cheese you can expect. They even went a little darker at times than I thought.
I know this was meant as more of a one off, but man I hope the main DCAU gets a Damian even half as likeable as this one.
Really thought this would be unbearable considering it stars two kids, but the voice actors knocked it out of the park. Still believably childish, but not annoyingly so. The animation, while 3D, at the very least plays to the strengths of being 3D. Still not as great as a traditional animation in my opinion, but the little things like a more dynamic camera and actual detailed hair were nice.
Could be a little cheesy at times, but hey look at the title. Should be a pretty clear indicator of how much cheese you can expect. They even went a little darker at times than I thought.
I know this was meant as more of a one off, but man I hope the main DCAU gets a Damian even half as likeable as this one.