The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition

[Casual Shinji]

Honestly, I find Devil's Blues, and its subject matter discussed, more interesting than whatever the hell is going on in Prison School. I tried to get into the anime once, but I got bored real quick and never looked back.

It's not exactly trying to be interesting I think. It's just this exercise in taking the most lowbrow trash and trying to push it as far into the realm of epic sincerity. It's 'what if Berserk, but Showgirls.' There's no actual depth to it, it's just a giant, oppulent, pristinely painted wink to the audience. And in this case I highly appreciated it. Must be what WWE fans experience when they watch matches; they know how utterly stupid and trashy it is, but they can't help but take it all in with a big silly grin.

 

[BrawlMan]

It's not exactly trying to be interesting I think. It's just this exercise in taking the most lowbrow trash and trying to push it as far into the realm of epic sincerity. It's 'what if Berserk, but Showgirls.' There's no actual depth to it, it's just a giant, oppulent, pristinely painted wink to the audience. And in this case I highly appreciated it. Must be what WWE fans experience when they watch matches; they know how utterly stupid and trashy it is, but they can't help but take it all in with a big silly grin.

I understand what the guy was going for back then, but even knowing this it's still did not interest me. Is this media like that does almost nothing for me, and I don't like Showgirls either. I really don't find it entertaining to watch even on a so bad it's good level. It's a thing that exists. By the way, I stopped watching or caring about WWE since 2008. Occasionally I checked in, but that's because my brother had some pay-per-view events going, and I didn't mind spending the time with him. Is my older brothers and I don't mind spending time with him. We really don't do the pay-per-view events together much anymore. He's still watches wrestling like normal, but it's usually AEW. If I do watch any wrestling events with him, then it's usually that. No joke, last year he was actually able to meet Orange Cassidy at one of the wrestling events and even took photos with him.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I watched a few episodes of Frieren, and while I do love the concept I think the execution is too dull. I understand that the whole vibe is supposed to be mellow and meloncholy, and I'm not asking for action and excitement or anything, but there's just a lack of passion to this show that prevents me from really sinking into it.

How many episodes did you give it? Took me a while honestly, I was confused why there was so much hubbub about it until like I got to episode 4 or 5.

 

[Piscian]

How many episodes did you give it? Took me a while honestly, I was confused why there was so much hubbub about it until like I got to episode 4 or 5.

I could argue that the series picks up steam and does become quite "action packed", but I feel like if they don't enjoy the exploration of loss and the affect that time has on people they'd be overlooking the primary draw of the series. The only kinda twist to the story that comes after the first couple episodes, is that her original party was the first real friends she'd ever had having lost her family at a young age and so the concept and value doesn't weigh in on her until they're gone which then causes her to reflect quite a bit on her relationship with her adopted children.

I adore the series. I'm getting into my older years and I've lost a lot of people. Some I didn't dwell on until years later. It's just very compelling for me, the rumination on how relationships with short lived species would affect such a long lived creature.

That said, as the series progresses it does get increasingly more action packed. I have mixed feelings about that, like am I being "paid off" for sitting through the "dull" stuff? Idk, but I'll take it. I really enjoyed how several characters are setup as cold blooded murderers, only to have the rug pulled out from under you when they turned out to have hearts of gold.

 

[Casual Shinji]

How many episodes did you give it? Took me a while honestly, I was confused why there was so much hubbub about it until like I got to episode 4 or 5.

I think I was at about ep. 4 and 5. They just met the dude with the red hair.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I think I was at about ep. 4 and 5. They just met the dude with the red hair.

Ah, the episode right after that was when I decided I'd keep going. There's a pretty awesome action scene coming up, but the red hair guy was the first character I really enjoyed. He brings out the best in the two ladies as well.

That said, as the series progresses it does get increasingly more action packed. I have mixed feelings about that, like am I being "paid off" for sitting through the "dull" stuff? Idk, but I'll take it. I really enjoyed how several characters are setup as cold blooded murderers, only to have the rug pulled out from under you when they turned out to have hearts of gold.

The action is definitely fun, but personally I keep coming back to enjoy all these random side characters that come out of nowhere and become likeable at almost a snap of a finger. That one bearded character who's become a meme lately is the standout for me. Did not at all expect that from him.

 

[Piscian]

Ah, the episode right after that was when I decided I'd keep going. There's a pretty awesome action scene coming up, but the red hair guy was the first character I really enjoyed. He brings out the best in the two ladies as well.


The action is definitely fun, but personally I keep coming back to enjoy all these random side characters that come out of nowhere and become likeable at almost a snap of a finger. That one bearded character who's become a meme lately is the standout for me. Did not at all expect that from him.

Which one the Dwarf that protects the village, or the Second Class mage maybe?

 

[meiam]

I watched a few episodes of Frieren, and while I do love the concept I think the execution is too dull. I understand that the whole vibe is supposed to be mellow and meloncholy, and I'm not asking for action and excitement or anything, but there's just a lack of passion to this show that prevents me from really sinking into it.

Couldn't disagree more, imo the concept is pretty uninteresting but the show work because the execution is quite a few notches above the typical fantasy anime and is crafted really well.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Which one the Dwarf that protects the village, or the Second Class mage maybe?

Spoiler: Spoilers

Yeah Denken. Was definitely expecting him to be the usual power hungry generic antagonist, but he kept suprising me. First in that he just loved magic in general, second that the man was willing to throw hands.

 

[Piscian]

Spoiler: Spoilers

Yeah Denken. Was definitely expecting him to be the usual power hungry generic antagonist, but he kept suprising me. First in that he just loved magic in general, second that the man was willing to throw hands.

Yeah they pulled a rogues gallery bait and switch with that whole class.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Watched an episode of Blue Eye Samurai. It's neat but I dunno. Feels like I've spent half my life in the Tokugawa Period watching samurai get into fights with people who can't take a hint.

 

[Gergar12]

Based Omega.

 

[meiam]

Couldn't disagree more, imo the concept is pretty uninteresting but the show work because the execution is quite a few notches above the typical fantasy anime and is crafted really well.

Well I might have to eat my word because last episode of Frieren was one of the steepest drop in writing quality I've ever seen.

The show has been slowly expanding on the magic system and now added a new tenet of it, it turn out if you can imagine something you can do it... which is complete nonsense since imagining something is trivial and anybody can do it. You'd think there was some sort of caveat like "you can do it if you can imagine it and have the magic ability to make it happen", but no, they make a point to go against that by having a really weak mage easily defeat much stronger mage because she can imagine it... I can kinda see how it would seem an interesting concept at first glance, but it fall apart with the slightest scrutiny. For example, earlier in the show a demon is un petrified after spending over a century frozen. He was a master at using some sort of magic that could destroy anything, but is defeated because Frieren use magic that was developed since he was petrified that can block his magic. But he would have no notion of that defensive magic and would still be under the impression that his spell would be able to break anything, including the defensive magic, so when he would be casting his spell, he would imagine it breaking through the barrier and so his spell would have broken through it. So it turn out the rule is "if you can imagine it, you can do it, but only if the plot demand it at this specific time".

Second, the show use a clone Frieren as a big last boss of the dungeon. All the character then spend a lot of time devising some plan to fight against her. You'd think the plan would be very obvious, there's 10-15 of them (including the real Frieren), they could easily just blast the clone with all their magic at once and overwhelm it, the clone obviously can't fight against all that at once (even ignoring the dumb "power of imagination" BS). But they decide to not do that and use some sort of clever plan instead. It turn out the plan was too... just attack it with two people at once and have both blast it with all their magic. If they had all done it at once it would have easily worked, but they didn't do that because something, something, plot demand it, something.

Holy crap that drop in quality was harsh, I might drop the show over that.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Delicious in Dungeon episodes 8-10: While Laios gets over some food poisoning, we get some backstory between Marcille and Falin at magic school, a desperate action scene against an undine, a reintroduction to Namari, some practical advice regarding adventuring, and some ominous portents regarding the dungeon itself, the nature of how "resurrection" works, and the potentially dire political situation the island is in

Far as story goes, the next two weeks set the hook, so to speak, with quite possibly *the* most iconic scene in the manga and its aftermath. This is the part of the rollercoaster where the world building and character work start paying off

Finished watching Gundam SEED Destiny, sequel series to terrible mega hit Gundam SEED. It's basically just Gundam SEED again, somehow. At least it's funnier, though it's not trying to be.

Started watching After War Gundam X, which is is a fun late '90s Gundam. The conceit is that the titular Gundam has a dedicated power station on the moon, and when the moon has line of sight it can fire a microwave beam to power up a giant fuck off cannon

It used this power with it's fleet of drones in the 7th Space War and in demonstrating this power, convinced the rebelling space colonies to commence a massive colony drop, killing 10 billion people and wrecking the earth in the process. The actual story picks up 15 years later, when our 14 year old mech-hijacking protagonist gets hired to rescue a Newtype girl, only for his employers to be the bad guys, so they both escape into an abandoned storage facility, find said Gundam, and shenanigans ensue, leading them to finding and allying with the ex-Gundam Protagonist who fired the shot that ended the world. It'll be interesting to see how the story develops. It wasn't popular the first time around, getting cut from 49 episodes to 39, but I'm having a good time so far

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The Apothecary Diaries

A young girl training as an apothecary at a brothel gets kidnapped and sold as a low level servant into the Chinese emperor's palace. She slowly rises through the ranks after solving several mysteries due to her knowledge of medicines and poisons. Also it's a comedy.

I've really enjoyed the (still ongoing) series. I think the first half of the show is more interesting than the second half. It's a bit lower stakes and more "slice of life-esque" with a bit more low level court intrigue. That's not to say that the second half is by any means bad, but I enjoyed the more relaxed manner of the first half of the show.

There's a lot that I appreciate about the show that I think it fairly unique. While the show deals a lot with the topic of prostitution, the "pleasure district," courtesans, etc. there's not really any fan-service to the show. Other shows would use that sort of subject matter as an excuse to add some lewdness, but this show restrains itself pretty well, and treats the topic with a serious matter of factness rather than trying to be lurid. The main character of the show is also autism coded, and I think this is the best I've seen an anime do with a character that's "on the spectrum."

Definitely recommended.

 

[meiam]

The Apothecary Diaries

A young girl training as an apothecary at a brothel gets kidnapped and sold as a low level servant into the Chinese emperor's palace. She slowly rises through the ranks after solving several mysteries due to her knowledge of medicines and poisons. Also it's a comedy.

I've really enjoyed the (still ongoing) series. I think the first half of the show is more interesting than the second half. It's a bit lower stakes and more "slice of life-esque" with a bit more low level court intrigue. That's not to say that the second half is by any means bad, but I enjoyed the more relaxed manner of the first half of the show.

There's a lot that I appreciate about the show that I think it fairly unique. While the show deals a lot with the topic of prostitution, the "pleasure district," courtesans, etc. there's not really any fan-service to the show. Other shows would use that sort of subject matter as an excuse to add some lewdness, but this show restrains itself pretty well, and treats the topic with a serious matter of factness rather than trying to be lurid. The main character of the show is also autism coded, and I think this is the best I've seen an anime do with a character that's "on the spectrum."

Definitely recommended.

I ended up dropping the second half despite quite liking the first half. The love story with the magistrate never did anything for me so the bigger focus on it just felt like a waste of time (that episode long market sequence was so boring). And the whole father aspect was very meh to me, I just dislike when main character have to be special in a bunch of way.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Halfway through Blue Eye Samurai. It's good, well animated, pretty to look at and I like the period porn (not, not that kind).

What I don't like about the show, and this has already happened twice in a row, is how episodes will take forever to build up, then draw out a meticulous set-piece that ends up being ultimately pointless. And to top it off they always end on a cliffhanger relating to that "mission failed successfully".

 

[Bob_McMillan]

What I don't like about the show, and this has already happened twice in a row, is how episodes will take forever to build up, then draw out a meticulous set-piece that ends up being ultimately pointless. And to top it off they always end on a cliffhanger relating to that "mission failed successfully".

I feel like this describes every single Netflix drama ever. All the way back to the first seasons of Daredevil.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I feel like this describes every single Netflix drama ever. All the way back to the first seasons of Daredevil.

It's a cheap way of padding out your show to create content.

Another sign is how every story beat has to be covered from so many different perspectives. We'll get to a point where our lead meets another important character, inevitably sending us back in time to chronicle how that other character got there. Or kick off with a flashforward, then take turns showing how each character got there. Fuck ellipsis.

The Netflix binge model is basically McDonald's - empty calories that make you want to eat more empty calories.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Ninja Kamui introduced CGI shenanigans and honestly my interest in the show has completely dropped. Really did feel like it came out of nowhere.

In other news, without Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, and Dungeon Meshi, I have no anime left to watch. The drought begins.

For Western animation, I've caught up to Bad Batch. This season feels a lot tighter with significantly less filler and more interesting episodes, but it's still not "great".

Thinking I should start on either Invincible S2 Part 2 or that new X-men show.