The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition

[Chimpzy]

Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 12)

Season 1, Episode 13: NOT EQUAL

This episode takes a break from jerking off J.D. Salinger. Instead we’re doing Patty Hearst. The heiress to a big cybernetics company, Eka Tokura, is kidnapped by a terrorist group opposed to cyberisation. When she next resurfaces sixteen years later on a decommissioned radiation scrubber, she has seemingly joined the terrorists and has also oddly not aged. The details differ, but the parallels to Hearts are pretty obvious. The big twist is that the stockholm syndrome is replaced by a switcheroo. The young ‘Eka’ is actually the daughter (or possibly clone) of the real Eka, who has prematurely aged (unreasonably much), presumably because of the stress of the horrible treatment she received, since it can mindbreak anyone who gets a peek.

I don’t have much to say about this one. The most interesting aspect is that there are anti-cyber extremists. Because of course there are, we live in a world where people don’t believe the world is round and have made distrusting vaccines their entire identity, why wouldn’t some violently lose their shit over cyberisation? Or maybe that the company leader used his own daughter as a living ad for his products, but again, I’ve seen both worse and much stupider ways to shill.

Other than that it’s a pretty action packed episode. I’ll admit it’s pretty satisfying to see all of Section 9 in action, a group of elite cyborg badasses using superior skill and positioning to just tear through heaps of mooks, though I assume they would eventually be overwhelmed by numbers. I also quite enjoyed the setting. Scavengers in a rusty shanty market plying their high tech spoils is so muy cyberpunk. Hey, I’m half-way through the first season. Baller. Just 39 more to go.

 

[meiam]

I don't remember much about that one except that the location was really cool. Probably impractical (delivering enough food would be a massive pain), but w/e, its just a cool action episode.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I'm dying, I love this show

 

[Chimpzy]

ChuChu PunChu

 

[thebobmaster]

Finished Season 3 of Rebels. Show continues to improve, Thrawn is possibly the best villain in any Star Wars story ever.

 

[Chimpzy]

Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 13)

Season 1, Episode 14: ¥€$

Today’s episode has comments on late stage capitalism. I think. It revolves around Section 9 trying to prevent the assassination of a mathematician who wrote an algorithm to game the stock market, making him enormously wealthy, and using that wealth to buy up tons of gold to hoard for himself. The assassin is a communist with a penchant for quoting Marx who kills her victims with a shotgun built into her arm that fires stacks of coins. The Major successfully captures the assassin after battling some robot maids, but the target was already dead, and had been for months, unnoticed because his automated financial program kept trading.

Yeah, it’s kind of on the nose, especially the money buckshot part. It also feels a little quaint in hindsight to talk about whether it’s moral for one person to amass so much money when there are Bezos’ and Musks’ around. Or that a lot of stock trading is now done by, well, algorithms. Kind of bemusing, and also a little disconcerting, that when you ignore the cyborgs and robots, the passage of time has made this particular bit of sci-fi oftentimes look neither sci nor fi.

But the most interesting part is that after Togusa returns home and he and his wife had their chat about her playing the stock exchange, the computer turns on seemingly by itself and buys Serrano Genomics stock i.e. the company from the Laughing Man incident. Is the Serrano angle a hint that Laughing Man is involved? Though that’s a longshot, because while they’ve met and he knows Togusa is a stand-up guy, his disdain for corporate phonies is obvious. Likely it’s connected to the mathematician. Who never cyberised, so his ghost couldn’t be uploaded to the net. Was it his algorithm ‘rewarding’ Togusa for giving the dude a coin to ‘pay the ferryman’. Another clue that artificial minds can develop real ghosts? Sadly, afaik, this will never be answered.

 

[gorfias]

After 4.7 billion seasons, the Simpsons Tree House of Horror still impresses:
The horror....

Spoiler

 

[Asita]

Finished Season 3 of Rebels. Show continues to improve, Thrawn is possibly the best villain in any Star Wars story ever.

And that leitmotif...mmm.

Strings come in for tension, then we get a delicate tune chiming in. Simple, hesitant even...and then a harp starts playing as those chimes start asserting a stronger melody...the strings pick up again and build anticipation...and it's all a feint because then the organ kicks in and dominates the piece.


It just feels so perfect for Thrawn.

 

[Chimpzy]

Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 14)

Season 1, Episode 15: MACHINES DÉSIRANTES

We got another Tachikoma episode, this time revolving around the Major’s concerns about their behavior and their safety and suitability as weapons platforms, as their AI is stated as having developed too fast. The Tachikoma are vaguely aware of this and hatch a scheme to dissuade the Major by pretending to be robots in a childlike way. However, it’s to no avail, and Batou is ordered to disarm them and ship them back to the lab for analysis.

On one hand I do like the whole parent and child thing they have going, with the Major and Batou as the parents, and the Tachikomas as the kids. Their childlike antics are kind of cute, and Batou’s slack jawed expression as they ask him existential questions like “what is god?”, “What is death?” and “What it’s like to have a soul” are very entertaining to watch. But maybe it’s just being overly cautious, maybe she just knows her 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the Major does have a point about the Tachikoma’s development representing a potential danger.

The Tachikomas have been shown as ignorant of concepts like death or pain, somewhat callous with the wellbeing of living creatures, and also capricious and concerned with their own self-preservation. There’s also the bit about the AI sniping assist module that interfered with the sniper, Saito, because it felt Saito was an unwanted factor in the equation and tried to eliminate it. Now imagine your armed autonomous AI weapon suddenly deciding it doesn’t want to fire, or valuing itself more than its user. That’s not good. You want your weapon to reliably perform as expected, and as leader of Section 9, the wellbeing of the team is the Major’s responsibility. So from that angle her decision makes perfect sense.

 

[Gordon_4]

Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 14)

Season 1, Episode 15: MACHINES DÉSIRANTES

We got another Tachikoma episode, this time revolving around the Major’s concerns about their behavior and their safety and suitability as weapons platforms, as their AI is stated as having developed too fast. The Tachikoma are vaguely aware of this and hatch a scheme to dissuade the Major by pretending to be robots in a childlike way. However, it’s to no avail, and Batou is ordered to disarm them and ship them back to the lab for analysis.

On one hand I do like the whole parent and child thing they have going, with the Major and Batou as the parents, and the Tachikomas as the kids. Their childlike antics are kind of cute, and Batou’s slack jawed expression as they ask him existential questions like “what is god?”, “What is death?” and “What it’s like to have a soul” are very entertaining to watch. But maybe it’s just being overly cautious, maybe she just knows her 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the Major does have a point about the Tachikoma’s development representing a potential danger.

The Tachikomas have been shown as ignorant of concepts like death or pain, somewhat callous with the wellbeing of living creatures, and also capricious and concerned with their own self-preservation. There’s also the bit about the AI sniping assist module that interfered with the sniper, Saito, because it felt Saito was an unwanted factor in the equation and tried to eliminate it. Now imagine your armed autonomous AI weapon suddenly deciding it doesn’t want to fire, or valuing itself more than its user. That’s not good. You want your weapon to reliably perform as expected, and as leader of Section 9, the wellbeing of the team is the Major’s responsibility. So from that angle her decision makes perfect sense.

Well what I like about that is that instead of panicking and trying to blow them up, I recall the Major and Batou explain what’s going on to them AND the Tachikoma aren’t disassembled but simply redeployed; I think one of them ends up serving tea in a nursing home.

 

[meiam]

A common theme in sci fi is to have to reboot Ai every once in awhile to avoid them changing too much. I wonder if we'll see that happen irl. Like maybe the image generating Ai will start to, in some arcane kind of way, develop a favourite style and always produce work like it.

 

[Chimpzy]

Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 15)

Season 1, Episode 16: Ag2O

Batou goes undercover in a military base to search out a spy. The primary suspect is a former Paralympic boxing silver medalist turned combat instructor named Zaitsev, and a personal idol of Batou’s. He spars against Zaitsev and loses. But it’s a close fight and Batou gushes over the dude, so they become chummy, meet the wife, little bromance. Of course, Zaitsev is the spy, so Batou arrests him by beating him at boxing, and loses what little respect remains when Zaitsev confesses being motivated by the need to feel relevant again after his loss in the Paralympic ended his career. Never meet your heroes, I guess.

Batou character development is always welcome. He’s imo the best character in the show, a full body cyborg like the Major, yet still so emotional and human, even more so than the almost completely biological Togusa. Full of little character traits and flaws that make him interesting and endearing, like the hero worship he showed here, his dad/big bro role to the Tachikoma, and his secret crush on the Major. It didn’t escape me that the “family picture” he had as part of his cover had Kusanagi as the wife. Zaitsev had the right of it, methinks out big tough guy secretly wants to settle down and be a family man.

I also like the title of this episode. Ag2O, or silver oxide, aka what makes silver become tarnished, like for instance a silver medal. Anyone around here know much about professional boxing though? Because it’s made out that Zaitsev was undefeated until losing in the Paralympic finals, losing all his sponsors and support because of that loss. Is it a common thing? For a single high profile loss to just end a career? Might just be ignorance, but it stands out to me as a bit extreme. Dude got olympic silver, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Higurashi: When They Cry

One of those folksy small town horror/mystery series set in a tiny japanese village in the 80's, taking kind of a timeloop approach, following a group of teenagers for the same few days leading up to a summer festival and the mysterious murders connected to it. Higurashi is adapted from a visual as an anime series of two seasons, and around 50 episodes overall, to do justice to the material. Now, I haven't read the source material but the series feels nothing if not comprehensive.

The fact that it doesn't rush its plot and dedicates multiple episodes to each of its individual timeloops is arguably its greatest strength, justifying what is on paper a pretty ridiculous story of local mythology, institutional conspiracy and supernatural absurdity by fleshing each individual element out to a point that even the more far fetched story beats feel justified. Mind you, that's no small feat, considering between its two seasons, named "Questions Arc" and "Answers Arc" there is a fairly severe tonal shift from a paranoid horror thriller to a story of teenagers fighting a conspiracy that frankly, often veers into the goofy.

What adds to that goofyness is that the shows production values can, even in the most generous terms, only really be described as "utilitarian". The character designs look extremely rough until you get used to them, bits of lively animation are few and far apart and the cinematography, an effective shot here or there nonwithstanding, is overall quite bland. It doesn't quite look comically cheap but it's certainly on the lower end of animation.

All of this means that, at the end of the day, Higurashi has little going for it aside from the strength of its storytelling. And I wouldn't have watched the entirety of it if that storytelling hadn't been genuinely engaging. While repeating its routine of going from light hearted slice of life comedy to violent psychological thriller just a bit too often for the effect not to wear off eventually, the way Higurashi explores and resolves its central mystery is actually very well done. It really is all a matter of pacing. It could have had all the same plot beats overall, if the reveals hadn't been placed as carefully and the questions been set up as effectively, what the entire shows actually ends up being about would have fallen flat on its face. But the way it introduces the viewer to the mysteries of Hinamizawa Village through the eyes of a couple of kids who all have their personal secrets, it manages to build up the viewers sympathy for these characters and curiosity for what causes the violent incidents that befall them, and how they'll eventually be able to break free of them.

What I'm saying is, Higurashi is rough around the edges in both its plot and its technical execution, but it also stands as an example of how to make the most out of a limited budget and some unwieldy narrative tropes that could have easily felt like cliche's. Its big strength really is its novellistic approach to writing that makes and effort to give enough backstory to each of its more worn out plotpoints to make them feel natural. It's all set up so painstakingly that none of it feels forced, which you really gotta respect.

I wouldn't exactly call Higurashi great, the actual presentation is just a bit too uninspired and not matter how well it executes most of its plotpoints, I've seen a lot of them before. I would definitely call it quite good, though. It's a very engaging watch, it manages to maintain interest in where its going, handles its ensemble cast very well and, hey, some of the more brutal scenes actually hit pretty hard. I'm not sure how well it adapts the visual novel it's based on, or whether I'm missing out not having read it, but generally speaking, I would recommend the anime.

 

[meiam]

Chimpzy watches Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex (Part 15)

Season 1, Episode 16: Ag2O

Batou goes undercover in a military base to search out a spy. The primary suspect is a former Paralympic boxing silver medalist turned combat instructor named Zaitsev, and a personal idol of Batou’s. He spars against Zaitsev and loses. But it’s a close fight and Batou gushes over the dude, so they become chummy, meet the wife, little bromance. Of course, Zaitsev is the spy, so Batou arrests him by beating him at boxing, and loses what little respect remains when Zaitsev confesses being motivated by the need to feel relevant again after his loss in the Paralympic ended his career. Never meet your heroes, I guess.

Batou character development is always welcome. He’s imo the best character in the show, a full body cyborg like the Major, yet still so emotional and human, even more so than the almost completely biological Togusa. Full of little character traits and flaws that make him interesting and endearing, like the hero worship he showed here, his dad/big bro role to the Tachikoma, and his secret crush on the Major. It didn’t escape me that the “family picture” he had as part of his cover had Kusanagi as the wife. Zaitsev had the right of it, methinks out big tough guy secretly wants to settle down and be a family man.

I also like the title of this episode. Ag2O, or silver oxide, aka what makes silver become tarnished, like for instance a silver medal. Anyone around here know much about professional boxing though? Because it’s made out that Zaitsev was undefeated until losing in the Paralympic finals, losing all his sponsors and support because of that loss. Is it a common thing? For a single high profile loss to just end a career? Might just be ignorance, but it stands out to me as a bit extreme. Dude got olympic silver, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Baitou was always the pseudo main character of the show/movie/manga, he's actually literally the main character in the movie sequel.

I don't think you can lose everything from one loss, but that can start a downward spiral that you never recover from.

Higurashi: When They Cry

One of those folksy small town horror/mystery series set in a tiny japanese village in the 80's, taking kind of a timeloop approach, following a group of teenagers for the same few days leading up to a summer festival and the mysterious murders connected to it. Higurashi is adapted from a visual as an anime series of two seasons, and around 50 episodes overall, to do justice to the material. Now, I haven't read the source material but the series feels nothing if not comprehensive.

The fact that it doesn't rush its plot and dedicates multiple episodes to each of its individual timeloops is arguably its greatest strength, justifying what is on paper a pretty ridiculous story of local mythology, institutional conspiracy and supernatural absurdity by fleshing each individual element out to a point that even the more far fetched story beats feel justified. Mind you, that's no small feat, considering between its two seasons, named "Questions Arc" and "Answers Arc" there is a fairly severe tonal shift from a paranoid horror thriller to a story of teenagers fighting a conspiracy that frankly, often veers into the goofy.

What adds to that goofyness is that the shows production values can, even in the most generous terms, only really be described as "utilitarian". The character designs look extremely rough until you get used to them, bits of lively animation are few and far apart and the cinematography, an effective shot here or there nonwithstanding, is overall quite bland. It doesn't quite look comically cheap but it's certainly on the lower end of animation.

All of this means that, at the end of the day, Higurashi has little going for it aside from the strength of its storytelling. And I wouldn't have watched the entirety of it if that storytelling hadn't been genuinely engaging. While repeating its routine of going from light hearted slice of life comedy to violent psychological thriller just a bit too often for the effect not to wear off eventually, the way Higurashi explores and resolves its central mystery is actually very well done. It really is all a matter of pacing. It could have had all the same plot beats overall, if the reveals hadn't been placed as carefully and the questions been set up as effectively, what the entire shows actually ends up being about would have fallen flat on its face. But the way it introduces the viewer to the mysteries of Hinamizawa Village through the eyes of a couple of kids who all have their personal secrets, it manages to build up the viewers sympathy for these characters and curiosity for what causes the violent incidents that befall them, and how they'll eventually be able to break free of them.

What I'm saying is, Higurashi is rough around the edges in both its plot and its technical execution, but it also stands as an example of how to make the most out of a limited budget and some unwieldy narrative tropes that could have easily felt like cliche's. Its big strength really is its novellistic approach to writing that makes and effort to give enough backstory to each of its more worn out plotpoints to make them feel natural. It's all set up so painstakingly that none of it feels forced, which you really gotta respect.

I wouldn't exactly call Higurashi great, the actual presentation is just a bit too uninspired and not matter how well it executes most of its plotpoints, I've seen a lot of them before. I would definitely call it quite good, though. It's a very engaging watch, it manages to maintain interest in where its going, handles its ensemble cast very well and, hey, some of the more brutal scenes actually hit pretty hard. I'm not sure how well it adapts the visual novel it's based on, or whether I'm missing out not having read it, but generally speaking, I would recommend the anime.

I watched the first season decades ago, it was fun at first but once the pattern got established I didn't really feel the need to keep watching and never did the sequel. I guess once you know its coming it feel like you just watch the episode waiting for the shoe to drop and it going hyper violent.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Higurashi: When They Cry

One of those folksy small town horror/mystery series set in a tiny japanese village in the 80's, taking kind of a timeloop approach, following a group of teenagers for the same few days leading up to a summer festival and the mysterious murders connected to it. Higurashi is adapted from a visual as an anime series of two seasons, and around 50 episodes overall, to do justice to the material. Now, I haven't read the source material but the series feels nothing if not comprehensive.

The fact that it doesn't rush its plot and dedicates multiple episodes to each of its individual timeloops is arguably its greatest strength, justifying what is on paper a pretty ridiculous story of local mythology, institutional conspiracy and supernatural absurdity by fleshing each individual element out to a point that even the more far fetched story beats feel justified. Mind you, that's no small feat, considering between its two seasons, named "Questions Arc" and "Answers Arc" there is a fairly severe tonal shift from a paranoid horror thriller to a story of teenagers fighting a conspiracy that frankly, often veers into the goofy.

What adds to that goofyness is that the shows production values can, even in the most generous terms, only really be described as "utilitarian". The character designs look extremely rough until you get used to them, bits of lively animation are few and far apart and the cinematography, an effective shot here or there nonwithstanding, is overall quite bland. It doesn't quite look comically cheap but it's certainly on the lower end of animation.

All of this means that, at the end of the day, Higurashi has little going for it aside from the strength of its storytelling. And I wouldn't have watched the entirety of it if that storytelling hadn't been genuinely engaging. While repeating its routine of going from light hearted slice of life comedy to violent psychological thriller just a bit too often for the effect not to wear off eventually, the way Higurashi explores and resolves its central mystery is actually very well done. It really is all a matter of pacing. It could have had all the same plot beats overall, if the reveals hadn't been placed as carefully and the questions been set up as effectively, what the entire shows actually ends up being about would have fallen flat on its face. But the way it introduces the viewer to the mysteries of Hinamizawa Village through the eyes of a couple of kids who all have their personal secrets, it manages to build up the viewers sympathy for these characters and curiosity for what causes the violent incidents that befall them, and how they'll eventually be able to break free of them.

What I'm saying is, Higurashi is rough around the edges in both its plot and its technical execution, but it also stands as an example of how to make the most out of a limited budget and some unwieldy narrative tropes that could have easily felt like cliche's. Its big strength really is its novellistic approach to writing that makes and effort to give enough backstory to each of its more worn out plotpoints to make them feel natural. It's all set up so painstakingly that none of it feels forced, which you really gotta respect.

I wouldn't exactly call Higurashi great, the actual presentation is just a bit too uninspired and not matter how well it executes most of its plotpoints, I've seen a lot of them before. I would definitely call it quite good, though. It's a very engaging watch, it manages to maintain interest in where its going, handles its ensemble cast very well and, hey, some of the more brutal scenes actually hit pretty hard. I'm not sure how well it adapts the visual novel it's based on, or whether I'm missing out not having read it, but generally speaking, I would recommend the anime.

I liked Higurashi a lot. I watched about 4 episodes of the dub in high-school and hated it. But then about 10 years later I suddenly remembered the show and gave it another chance in Japanese. I thought it was a great mystery with a fantastic resolution.

I watched the first season decades ago, it was fun at first but once the pattern got established I didn't really feel the need to keep watching and never did the sequel. I guess once you know its coming it feel like you just watch the episode waiting for the shoe to drop and it going hyper violent.

Stopping after watching the first season is a mistake. The second season is significantly different and is where all the questions start being answered and the mysteries all begin to come together.

 

[Piscian]

So for anyone holding out, Chainsaw Man is amazing. The animation is big budget. Wouldn't surprise me if it plays in theaters in Japan as it reminds me of more high-class full motion picture anime, and I know the book is wildly popular. I've read only a bit of the Manga maybe 10-15 chapters. While it's pretty nifty, the dialog, at least english translated is extremely stilted and at times nonsensical, far more so than average. I get the impression the ideas are there, but dialog is the authors weak point. By contrast the dialog in the anime, while true to the book, is improved by the fluid animation and emoting of the characters so it all fits nicely. There's a certain empathy for these characters that's expressed more so in the anime than the book. I don't foresee CSM making it up there with the greats, but I suspect it's going to be listed in the 10-20 of the last ten years, just based on the few episodes we've gotten.

On the note of anime I wanted to callout I just noticed "tubi" has ton of classic anime for free right now. A ton of stuff from the 80-90s. Just started Ai Yori Aoshi which I had a soft spot for as a kid.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Didn't write about Witch From Mercury for a couple weeks because it seemed like episodes 5 and 6 were more heavily connected than normal and boy howdy, were they. Genius couple of episodes. This week they're on break, so now's a good time to get into it. Would been fun to compare reactions from people who watched the prologue vs people who didn't. They've also officially translated the novelette that goes between the prologue and the main series

Mobile Suit Gundam THE WITCH FROM MERCURY Official Site

All episodes are currently streaming through the official Gundam YouTube channel GUNDAM.INFO!

en.gundam.info

Honestly, you could only get this level of trauma from something that is the love child of Gundam and Utena. Juicy juicy stuff: some brilliant mech battles, Suletta connects with her family, Elan has a birthday, Miorine is totally not jealous, and Guel goes camping.

The romance bit is a slow burn, but it's been a while since I've seen a subtle tsundere and Miorine is being hilarious about it. Earth kids continue to be a treat too

Next series hit the 3 episode mark: Arknights: Prelude to Dawn. Gorgeously animated, hugely atmospheric, wide aspect ratio makes it look unique. Good retelling of the opening chapters of the Arknights game, with necessary changes because it's not a visual novel. Lot of exposition, but Terra is a very odd place and a lot of core concepts border on esoteric, *but* it need to be explained because a lot of the world doesn't look particularly outlandish. Like, smartphones, drones, magic, and crossbows coexist, but petrol engines and gunpowder don't. Due to (most likely) Chinese censorship laws regarding things like violence, a fair bit is implied instead of shown, but it's still very pretty. (Frankly, it wasn't technically shown in the visual novel presentation in game either, so...)

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Just finished rewatching Samurai Champloo.

It's good, but the entire time I was watching it I just kept thinking how much better Cowboy Beboop is.

 

[BrawlMan]

Just finished rewatching Samurai Champloo.

It's good, but the entire time I was watching it I just kept thinking how much better Cowboy Beboop is.

Everyone was expecting Champloo to be just as good or better than Bebop. An impossibly tall order. Even as a teenager, I knew people were having too much expectations for the show. I love Champloo, but even it has some episodes I do not enjoy, and a viewer can skip some of them, missing nothing. The music though? Hip-Hop aging like fine wine, and inspiring the Lo-Fi genre for a long time.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

So for anyone holding out, Chainsaw Man is amazing. The animation is big budget. Wouldn't surprise me if it plays in theaters in Japan as it reminds me of more high-class full motion picture anime, and I know the book is wildly popular. I've read only a bit of the Manga maybe 10-15 chapters. While it's pretty nifty, the dialog, at least english translated is extremely stilted and at times nonsensical, far more so than average. I get the impression the ideas are there, but dialog is the authors weak point. By contrast the dialog in the anime, while true to the book, is improved by the fluid animation and emoting of the characters so it all fits nicely. There's a certain empathy for these characters that's expressed more so in the anime than the book. I don't foresee CSM making it up there with the greats, but I suspect it's going to be listed in the 10-20 of the last ten years, just based on the few episodes we've gotten.

On the note of anime I wanted to callout I just noticed "tubi" has ton of classic anime for free right now. A ton of stuff from the 80-90s. Just started Ai Yori Aoshi which I had a soft spot for as a kid.

It is an indeed a very beautiful anime, as it seems is par for the course for Mappa.

Although just like with Jujutsu Kaisen, I do feel that the animation is doing some heavy, heavy lifting. Well, that and the as always great voice acting My biggest criticism is the main character. I imagine his motivation being touching tits is something that will change over time (hopefully drastically), but right now it's grating.

Honestly the whole setup feels ridiculously similar to Jujutsu Kaisen, even visually. I hope this universe has much better world building than JJK, which is what I think drags down the latter.