Finished the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen. I still think the power system and the worldbuilding are terribly lacking, but the characters and the animation really make up for it. Plus points that it has actual good female characters for once.
That's the problem with most action Shounen anime. It's why I rarely ever bother with it anymore. All I can say is thank Christ I'm all variety person. I prefer my anime shorter anyway.JJK is easy to boil down:
Con:
Worldbuilding is a mess and everything that make it unique have long ago been abandoned.
Power level is all over the place, with the MC going from weak to 2nd most powerful in a matter of weeks.
Plus:
Character.
MAPA
Now it's mostly a "turn your brain off" show that I just watch for the animation, not bad but I doubt I'll remember it in 1 year.
Odd taxi was great, if anyone like more grounded show with some mystery it seems promising. Liked super cub, but it was a bit strange how quickly she went from depressed moping to happy go lucky just cause she got a moped, it's like she literally had never tried getting a hobby before.New season, folks, anything catch the eye?
Looking at Joran, Princess of Snow & Blood, and Super Cub of all things (and it's premise and setting is just screaming for a crossover with Yuru Camp. -_-
Relationships with obscene power imbalances are an irritatingly common trope in anime, catering to the fetish of having someone you can fuck but also control. It's not impossible to make work, but you have to get away from the fetish thing. I thought The Ancient Magus Bride was rather good because there was a general focus on the female lead's perspective and the throughline was about her turning from someone dependent into someone independent, and the male lead is properly weird and inhuman and the whole thing runs on English folk story rules, all of which keep it away from "hey this is meant to turn you on" territory....the fact that you could say that and I don't know which shows you're talking about probably counts as a problem, you know?
Like, shouldn't there be some notoriety attached to that?
I can see it... perhaps she's had hobbies before and they've been unfulfilling. And certain people do get temporary highs from trying stuff out for the first time and really enjoying it (whether it sticks or not is another matter). But the show handles it fairly well as reality hits when she makes a rookie mistake. Use of the colour palette was good, too.Odd taxi was great, if anyone like more grounded show with some mystery it seems promising. Liked super cub, but it was a bit strange how quickly she went from depressed moping to happy go lucky just cause she got a moped, it's like she literally had never tried getting a hobby before.
I recommend you go for some old school stuff. If you have not watched it, please watch Dirty Pair OVA. You won't regret it. Some good old style 80s anime, action-comedy buddy cop stuff. And then move on to two the movies I mentioned earlier in my post. You can skip Dirty Pair Flash though. I'm not necessary dark and edgy reboot that misses the point.I started watching Mushoku Tensei. Utter isekai trash with one or two hints of maturity. We have characters actually being sexually active, and two scenes where we see someone masturbating and it isn't necessarily played off for laughs, and even a full blown 'no means no' scene where a father educates his son after an incident that involved a girl protesting to the son's behaviour. Nothing new in the realm of storytelling, but for anime it feels like quite a positive step forward.
This however is gets nulified by it still being the most icky, male focused, fanservice slop, with panty shots, boob grabs, and the ever delightful 'woman getting gropped in her sleep', which all ofcourse gets played for laughs. Because hey, the girl gets to punch the guy afterwards, so we're all even now, right? All in good fun, boys will be boys, right?
Yeah, I dropped it.
Last season was really over the top with isekai trash, between this and redo the healer it's like the studio are trying to prove the bad stereotype right.I started watching Mushoku Tensei. Utter isekai trash with one or two hints of maturity. We have characters actually being sexually active, and two scenes where we see someone masturbating and it isn't necessarily played off for laughs, and even a full blown 'no means no' scene where a father educates his son after an incident that involved a girl protesting to the son's behaviour. Nothing new in the realm of storytelling, but for anime it feels like quite a positive step forward.
This however is gets nulified by it still being the most icky, male focused, fanservice slop, with panty shots, boob grabs, and the ever delightful 'woman getting gropped in her sleep', which all ofcourse gets played for laughs. Because hey, the girl gets to punch the guy afterwards, so we're all even now, right? All in good fun, boys will be boys, right?
Yeah, I dropped it.
Are we nearing the end of the Isekai trend? I really haven't seen any that I liked very much. I'd kind of like to see anime move on to whatever the next big thing will be. I'm kind of in the mood for something a: centered on adult characters, not high or middle school teens. And B: something where romance is a tertiary plot at best. Mostly as a contrast, a new acquaintance has me about halfway through Toradora right now. And I'm not hating it, its fine. Even funny at times. But I'm craving some contrast.Last season was really over the top with isekai trash, between this and redo the healer it's like the studio are trying to prove the bad stereotype right.
I actually used to own a bunch of episodes of Dirty Pair Flash on VHS. It was fun enough, but those were my early days when I was still discovering the medium and VHS allowing for very little choice.I recommend you go for some old school stuff. If you have not watched it, please watch Dirty Pair OVA. You won't regret it. Some good old style 80s anime, action-comedy buddy cop stuff. And then move on to two the movies I mentioned earlier in my post. You can skip Dirty Pair Flash though. I'm not necessary dark and edgy reboot that misses the point.
I highly recommend you watch the ova. It is much better and does great action and comedy. Kei and Yuri are a great pair. They are technically the reason characters like Panty and Stocking exist, but they're not that big of a jackass. They have their soft, vulnerable and caring moments. Flash was never good. It's an in name only reboot. The characters are so different, that it might as well be another show. They're drawn completely differently from the original versions as well. They might as well not called it dirty pair and called it something else and gave them different names.I actually used to own a bunch of episodes of Dirty Pair Flash on VHS. It was fun enough, but those were my early days when I was still discovering the medium and VHS allowing for very little choice.
And that shit is why I generally stick to iyashikei series. I watch anime to chill, not to get pissed off with a cast I need to stick around with.Yeah, I dropped it.
Exactly why I like the series. It shows some restraint. So as a series get high in production, the fan service does get more noticeable, but it's not distracting.The Dirty Pair TV show is pretty great too. 24 episodes, never had a US release but you can get the physical discs from Right Stuf.
Nozomi Entertainment has the first two episodes on youtube
EDIT: Don't mind the age restriction. Despite having some actual nudity, it's less much horny than a good chunk of broadcast anime these days.