The last thing we watched, cartoon/animu edition

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,228
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Despite how draining it can be. Monster is more up beat than shows like Black Lagoon, Desert Punk, Now and Than, Here and There, Elfen Lied, and some other depressing anime I can't think of at the moment.
For me, it was the theme of child abuse that most of those other shows don't have(I haven't seen Now and than, Here and There) that made Monster really rough to sit through at times. The whole thing about the 511 Kinderheim was brutal and as others have said, the fact the show is fairly grounded makes it far worse because it feels based in real life atrocities, if not actually based in such.

Black Lagoon had rough spots too but the fact a lot of it is over the top kind of overshadows stuff like "Hansel and Gretel" which is the closest that show gets gets to true bleakness. Elfen Lied all I remember is the infamous Puppy Scene, which felt calculated to make Lucy evil and then justify the murder spree.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
Legacy
Jan 6, 2011
8,681
199
68
A Hermit's Cave
Don't think anything's changed from my last post here, still watching Super Cub as and when episodes come out.

Also watching the last season of Fruits Basket (post-pubescent Momiji is a bit weird, but otherwise it's fine). Can't remember if I commented about Joran, Princess of Snow & Blood, it's... intriguing, though only watched the first couple episodes so far. Watching a couple others but they're not especially noteworthy so far. Jury's still out for Dragon, Ie wo Kau..
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
For me, it was the theme of child abuse that most of those other shows don't have(I haven't seen Now and than, Here and There) that made Monster really rough to sit through at times. The whole thing about the 511 Kinderheim was brutal and as others have said, the fact the show is fairly grounded makes it far worse because it feels based in real life atrocities, if not actually based in such.
Now and Then is so much worse in this regard. Be warned; it ain't pretty. You're dealing with child soldiers and the show is depressing from the second episode onward. 12 episodes of pain and misery with little levity or anything "funny". I saw this show when I was about 14.

Black Lagoon had rough spots too but the fact a lot of it is over the top kind of overshadows stuff like "Hansel and Gretel" which is the closest that show gets gets to true bleakness. Elfen Lied all I remember is the infamous Puppy Scene, which felt calculated to make Lucy evil and then justify the murder spree.
Monster is more optimistic than either of the shows. BL and EL are too far up their own ass with the nihilism and the whole "Human Are Bastard" spiel, with rarely a counter argument. We're supposed to accept that everything is "pointless" and "nothing you do matters!", because reasons! It's stupid, self-indulgent, and boring! If Johan was in Ronpaur, he would fit in just fine, but no one would survive his wrath, other than Hansel and Gretel. He would love to keep the twins company and vice versa. In Elfen Lied, Johan and Lucy would get along swimmingly. No argument there.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
That part's actually not really anachronistic. Oda Nobunaga was in many ways a revolutionary, radically changing the Japanese economic system, how they waged war, and was one of the most integral players in unifying Japan. The guy had a noted and pronounced fascination with Western culture and reportedly eccentric enough to flip typical respect on its head (supposedly speaking warmly with those socially below him and rudely to those above him). In some ways, the guy is the poster child for the power of bucking tradition and welcoming change and innovation. And yes, this includes being fascinated with the historical Yasuke (probably the first black man he'd ever seen, as documents of their encounter report that he'd assumed Yasuke had been covered in black ink), who became one of Nobunaga's retainers and fought with him even in the battle of Honno-ji.

Having not seen the series yet, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that the cliche villain you refer to is Akechi Mitsuhide? Because again, that's not an anachronistic portrayal or even necessarily out of character. It's of questionable historicity, don't get me wrong, but the story goes that after Akechi's forces turned on Nobunaga, Yasuke was captured by Akechi's forces, and the latter spared him explicitly on the racist grounds that as Yasuke was not only not Japanese, but just an animal. The argument allegedly went that because of this, it would be wrong to kill him and Yasuke should therefore be sent to a monestary.

Again, not necessarily accurate. There's a lot of debate about Akechi. That said, it's not exactly a baseless interpretation.
No, I'm not referring to the traditional samurai asshole who doesn't like Yasuke as the anachronistic villains. I'm talking about the giant mechwarrior cyborg, the african tribal shaman that sounds like Red Fox, constantly annoyed with all the kids around him. A female tracker who is wearing a leather outfit that makes me think she belongs in either the Matrix, or a 90s rave, and the "I'm too cool for this" emo/goth chick, that just screams every cliche disinterested teen girl trope. she's even got black makeup, and dark clothes, and does nothing but make sarcastic one liners about how she is sooooo bored with what they are doing. THAT is the anachronistic part that annoys me. As they are the (up to the point I stopped watching) actual villains, along with the catholic priest. Who is also really cliche, like they pulled him straight out of Hellsing's catholic church. And while I will always enjoy any time people portray religion as completely shitty fuckwads, the WAY he's written and acted, is just boring to me.

Like seriously, it feels like an anime that was thought up by the intelligent kid from Boondocks, but then written and directed by his gangsta brother. "And then, we're gonna have this cyborg ************ show up and be like kapow!!" "But that's totally not in keeping with the historical records!" "Shut up! It's cool!"
 

Asita

Answer Hazy, Ask Again Later
Legacy
Jun 15, 2011
3,198
1,038
118
Country
USA
Gender
Male
No, I'm not referring to the traditional samurai asshole who doesn't like Yasuke as the anachronistic villains. I'm talking about the giant mechwarrior cyborg, the african tribal shaman that sounds like Red Fox, constantly annoyed with all the kids around him. A female tracker who is wearing a leather outfit that makes me think she belongs in either the Matrix, or a 90s rave, and the "I'm too cool for this" emo/goth chick, that just screams every cliche disinterested teen girl trope. she's even got black makeup, and dark clothes, and does nothing but make sarcastic one liners about how she is sooooo bored with what they are doing. THAT is the anachronistic part that annoys me. As they are the (up to the point I stopped watching) actual villains, along with the catholic priest. Who is also really cliche, like they pulled him straight out of Hellsing's catholic church. And while I will always enjoy any time people portray religion as completely shitty fuckwads, the WAY he's written and acted, is just boring to me.

Like seriously, it feels like an anime that was thought up by the intelligent kid from Boondocks, but then written and directed by his gangsta brother. "And then, we're gonna have this cyborg ************ show up and be like kapow!!" "But that's totally not in keeping with the historical records!" "Shut up! It's cool!"
Ah, I misunderstood you then. My apologies.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
No, I'm not referring to the traditional samurai asshole who doesn't like Yasuke as the anachronistic villains. I'm talking about the giant mechwarrior cyborg, the african tribal shaman that sounds like Red Fox, constantly annoyed with all the kids around him. A female tracker who is wearing a leather outfit that makes me think she belongs in either the Matrix, or a 90s rave, and the "I'm too cool for this" emo/goth chick, that just screams every cliche disinterested teen girl trope. she's even got black makeup, and dark clothes, and does nothing but make sarcastic one liners about how she is sooooo bored with what they are doing. THAT is the anachronistic part that annoys me. As they are the (up to the point I stopped watching) actual villains, along with the catholic priest. Who is also really cliche, like they pulled him straight out of Hellsing's catholic church. And while I will always enjoy any time people portray religion as completely shitty fuckwads, the WAY he's written and acted, is just boring to me.

Like seriously, it feels like an anime that was thought up by the intelligent kid from Boondocks, but then written and directed by his gangsta brother. "And then, we're gonna have this cyborg ************ show up and be like kapow!!" "But that's totally not in keeping with the historical records!" "Shut up! It's cool!"
I still love the show, but I couldn't help, but laugh at your descriptions. It's funny, because it sounds plausible on how somebody wrote the story.
 
  • Like
Reactions: happyninja42

happyninja42

Elite Member
Legacy
May 13, 2010
8,577
2,981
118
I still love the show, but I couldn't help, but laugh at your descriptions. It's funny, because it sounds plausible on how somebody wrote the story.
Yeah, you can totally see them sitting at a table arguing, with the smart one getting SO mad at his brother,

then Granddad coming in "Boys! What the hell is all this racket?" Huey: "I'm TRYING to write a historical drama, about the legendary black samurai Yasuke, and the struggles he endured in a foreign land, but RILEY here keeps messing it up!" Riley "Man that shit you writin' is gay! Nobody wants to hear 'bout bowin' and shit! It should have giant robots and dudes who can throw arrows and and make a bunch of other arrows magically fly around like kapow!" *throws up finger guns to illustrate* "Oh! And there should be like a big russian bitc* in tight leather pants! And she's running around with an african shaman dude.." Huey: "But why would that guy be there?! And why is the russian woman dressed like an extra in the Matrix!?" Riley: " Because leather pants are hot man! You tellin' me you don't want to see a stacked bitc* in leather pants and big ass titties running around chasing Yo-sake?" Huey: "YASUKE! His name isn't what you would yell out in a Japanese bar when you want a refill on your drink!!" Riley: "Pssh, whatever, you KNOW that shit would be lit!"

Granddad: " ....Huey, what did we talk about including your brother in the things you do?" Huey: "But, Granddad!" Grandad: "Don't make me get the belt!" Huey hangs head in defeat: "You said I should try and make it a bonding experience for us." Granddad: "That's right, now just...work in that robot russian thingy or whatever into your script...I'm going to the strip club." Riley grins at Huey in victory. "Big...tittied...russian bitc*...." Huey sighs. Riley: "In leather hotpants!" *cue credits of episode*
 

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,330
1,645
118
I said in my previous post that I was excited for Season 2 of Promised Neverland, and, I guess I shouldn't have been.

So, I couldn't stream it on my platform of choice, so I had to look elsewhere - which meant that I had to Google it - and this revealed that, well, its not very good.

Literally, page 1 of Google: "What went wrong with The Promised Neverland Season 2?", "I hate The Promised Neverland Season 2", "DO NOT WATCH The Promised Neverland Season 2, Its GARBAGE & DESTROYED THE ENTIRE SERIES!!!", "Why did they ruin this anime? Promised Neverland Season 2 Changes Explained"

So, not exactly a glowing recommendation, then.

The general gist is that Season 1 (which is still excellent, and thankfully feels self-contained) is based on about 4-and-a-half manga volumes, and Season 2 - which is also the final season - is... 15 manga volumes...

What results is a season which has incredibly poor pacing, and supposedly glosses over an incredible amount of important plot points, and character development.

Having not read the manga, I decided to try to watch it anyway, and... yeah, its not great.

Whilst the first season is slow, and tense, and methodical, and full of twists and turns, from what I watched of the second season, there are no stakes, there isn't any tension, and the show blasts through locations and character interactions, on a quest to find clues like an escape room.

I cannot be bothered to see it through to the conclusion.

Its a shame.

But Season 1 is still amazing - and nothing can take that away.
Lol I saw your previous post and was about to go "Nooooo don't get excited about S2, just think of S1 as a stand alone" guess I was too late.
 

laggyteabag

Scrolling through forums, instead of playing games
Legacy
Oct 25, 2009
3,301
982
118
UK
Gender
He/Him
Lol I saw your previous post and was about to go "Nooooo don't get excited about S2, just think of S1 as a stand alone" guess I was too late.
Well, im stubborn.

When I googled it before watching it, I already scrolled past no less than 4 articles/videos telling me that I shouldn't watch it.

And the end of the day, all it really did was pique my curiosity as to "how bad can it really be?"

Turns out, pretty bad.

I still love the first series, though.
 

Sora383

Senior Member
Escapist +
Mar 17, 2010
79
31
23
Alberta the land of snow snow and sometimes sun
Country
Canada
Gender
Male
So lately I’ve been watching I’ve been killing slimes for 300 years, World ends with you, Law of Ueki and the Digimon 2020 remake.

First of all killing slimes for 300 years is just pure adorableness. It’s basically a feel good anime and even though the plot is very generic (reborn in a new world as an immortal witch who’s family grows bigger) the characters are fun and it’s super light hearted.

world ends with you is based off the game of the same name that came out on the ds and the premise was/is the main character plus his partners have to get through something called the reapers game. I got to admit I loved the art style way back in the day and even though some people hated the battle system I really enjoyed it. The anime carries everything over really well and for people who never got a chance to play the game I would highly recommend the anime.

I read Law of Ueki about 20 years ago when I used to work at a bookstore and enjoyed the premise.Teenagers with special powers fight each other and the winner gets a new talent. The anime seems to carry it over really well though I’m only 5 episodes in.

Digimon 2020 is a remake of Digimon the original season and as someone who loves Digimon I enjoy it a lot. It does focus on one of the main characters a bit much for my taste (rather see the whole team grow), but apparently this is originally how the writer wanted to do it back then so I will respect that choice.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,228
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Gravity Falls

Actually a Rewatch, since I've already seen the entire series before. This time I watched it because I wanted to watch something New(Because I can only watch Avatar and the Legend of Korrra so many times before wanting something else) with my 4 year old daughter and figured it's probably appropriate for her. Turns out she loved it(particularly Sus, because he's basically a big kid), even the parts with Bill Cipher. Hell, I was worried about the Wierdmaggeon arc at the end and she was super into it, which maybe I should be slightly worried about(A 4 year old shouldn't be that into the Apocalypse).

As for myself, it was interesting watching the show with foreknowledge of what was going to happen later in the show and it's pretty tight on that front, even if it's still fairly episodic in the first half. It's still a lot of fun regardless and I'm kinda shocked Disney let them get away with show of the scary bits near the end.
 

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,330
1,645
118
Gravity Falls

Actually a Rewatch, since I've already seen the entire series before. This time I watched it because I wanted to watch something New(Because I can only watch Avatar and the Legend of Korrra so many times before wanting something else) with my 4 year old daughter and figured it's probably appropriate for her. Turns out she loved it(particularly Sus, because he's basically a big kid), even the parts with Bill Cipher. Hell, I was worried about the Wierdmaggeon arc at the end and she was super into it, which maybe I should be slightly worried about(A 4 year old shouldn't be that into the Apocalypse).

As for myself, it was interesting watching the show with foreknowledge of what was going to happen later in the show and it's pretty tight on that front, even if it's still fairly episodic in the first half. It's still a lot of fun regardless and I'm kinda shocked Disney let them get away with show of the scary bits near the end.
My friend has been pushing our group to watch it so I've been slowly doing that, maybe half way trough S1 now. It's a fun show and competent in pretty much all respect but at the same time nothing about it is really exceptional and I'm wondering if there's some sort of big change part way trough.

Also it's really weirding me out that Mabel as the exact same voice as Louise Belcher, I usually don't notice share voice actor but for some reason I really notice that one.

Quick anime lighting round:

Super cub: Please just drop the annoying friend she made and re focus on main character.
I'm a spider: Godamn the human side of the story is so freaking boring, thankfully we're getting closer to some very spider focus content so hopefully we'll get less human side.
The saint magic: Dropped, the romance aspect is so boring.
Odd taxi: Still really good, almost certainly will be my show of the season, it's juggling many character and plot thread better than some show can deal with 2-3 character and one plot.
Eternity: Pretty good but it's not achieving the height of the first episode, as much as I like March it's time to move on.
Megalobox: Never liked Joe/orphan so I'm sad the story is re focusing on them, I'll give it another 2-3 episode but I'll probably drop soon.
Shadow house: I see plenty of people talking about that one, but boy is it boring. The setting is interesting but scene draggggggggggggggggg.
Zombieland: Still fun, still couldn't care less about the idol aspect.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,228
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
My friend has been pushing our group to watch it so I've been slowly doing that, maybe half way trough S1 now. It's a fun show and competent in pretty much all respect but at the same time nothing about it is really exceptional and I'm wondering if there's some sort of big change part way trough.

Also it's really weirding me out that Mabel as the exact same voice as Louise Belcher, I usually don't notice share voice actor but for some reason I really notice that one.
S1 is mostly just wierdness of the week stuff. Once S2 hits more plot starts taking hold and the journals start coming back into play as part of that.

Also, same with Mabel VA. I'm catching up on Bob's Burgers now and it's fucking weird at times. It's even worse if you've seen Flight of the Concords where she plays a creepy fan(AKA their ONLY fan).
 

SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
Legacy
Jan 6, 2011
8,681
199
68
A Hermit's Cave
I meant to point this out at the time of watching, but I guess I was laughing a bit too much at it, but you've just got to love the anime industry's attempts, of wildly varying levels of success, at offering facsimiles of quintessentially western (in this case, British) culture!

YuukokuNoMoriarty1.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,228
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
I meant to point this out at the time of watching, but I guess I was laughing a bit too much at it, but you've just got to love the anime industry's attempts, of wildly varying levels of success, at offering facsimiles of quintessentially western (in this case, British) culture!

View attachment 3735
Clearly a newspaper for British Bovines, good sir.

*Adjusts top hat and monocle before sipping some tea*

What I love there is the spelled the far more difficult city names correctly(3 of the 4 have L/Rs in them) and then of course, the infamous "R/L" switcharoo that seems to happen so often in Japanese media. Yes, I know why it happens, but it's also one of those mistakes that feels like it could be fixed by having someone proofread the script before it's finalized.

What's even worse is when you have the narration and the text disagree on this.

For example, in Ace Combat Zero, there's a mission called Operation Broom(as in "Sweeping up" enemy forces) but the VA reading the briefing calls it Operation Bloom while the subtitles call it Operation Broom. Which is really weird because the On-screen text is correct(per context) while the VA's script is wrong.
 
Last edited:

SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
Legacy
Jan 6, 2011
8,681
199
68
A Hermit's Cave
Clearly a newspaper for British Bovines, good sir.

*Adjusts top hat and monocle before sipping some tea*

What I love there is the spelled the far more difficult city names correctly(3 of the 4 have L/Rs in them) and then of course, the infamous "R/L" switcharoo that seems to happen so often in Japanese media. Yes, I know why it happens, but it's also one of those mistakes that feels like it could be fixed by having someone proofread the script before it's finalized.

What's even worse is when you have the narration and the text disagree on this.

For example, in Ace Combat Zero, there's a mission called Operation Broom(as in "Sweeping up" enemy forces) but the VA reading the briefing calls it Operation Bloom while the subtitles call it Operation Broom. Which is really weird because the On-screen text is correct(per context) while the VA's script is wrong.
It's even stranger when you consider that when listing the cities, they spelled "London" correctly, but missed an 'o' in "Londoner" in the newspaper header.

Because it's meant primarily for a Japanese audience (though they must realise by now that a substantial part of their viewership is international), I think production give it a free pass, but also because I don't think studios make a habit of having a fluent English speaker on staff or contracting a freelance one owing to budget and the insane schedule anime production needs to keep to to maintain ratings (while they certainly can contract a proofreader, that either doesn't occur to them given how small the job would be, or they do consider it and just don't think it's worth the cost, considering it'd have to be done very early in production and the mistake can still happen since it's an error in art, not typesetting). Though that said, they could just defer to their research materials to check (if they had any, which in this case, I suspect they didn't because high profile newspapers named after a city is much more of an American thing than British). Still, maybe they were fishing for some cheap laughs/memes for when people spot their mistakes. *shrug*
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
Legacy
Sep 23, 2010
5,433
1,892
118
Just off-screen
Country
Canada
Gender
Male
The first episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. It was really fricking stupid. Everyone must be a complete moron not to realize how evil Dio is within around 5 seconds. Jojo's dad is particularly idiotic. He somehow mistakes the people who are looting him as saving him for no reason and then immediately pledges a life debt before passing out. Then he takes the side of the obvious sociopath over his own good-natured son at every opportunity and turns a blind to all the horrible and brazen crimes. Particularly bad when Jojo and Dio are having their fight and he gives Jojo heck for attacking Dio when he was 'down' when they were about 10 feet apart and Dio was , in fact, standing up and clearly holding a knife.

It's just idiotic, what do people see in this show?
 

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
Legacy
Sep 23, 2010
5,433
1,892
118
Just off-screen
Country
Canada
Gender
Male
Afro Samurai
Hmmm, now I'm suddenly reminded of a user here that used to use something from that show as their avatar. Or at least I always thought it was. I think their name started with an N and they later changed their name and avatar to something to do with Wario or Waluigi or something to match up with some other online persona. Edit: No it was a character from Bleach One Piece and I think it was something like this gif.

Hmm, but I swear there was another user too who used this image.

Darn it, now this is going to bother me all night. Thanks.
 
Last edited:

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,330
1,645
118
The first episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. It was really fricking stupid. Everyone must be a complete moron not to realize how evil Dio is within around 5 seconds. Jojo's dad is particularly idiotic. He somehow mistakes the people who are looting him as saving him for no reason and then immediately pledges a life debt before passing out. Then he takes the side of the obvious sociopath over his own good-natured son at every opportunity and turns a blind to all the horrible and brazen crimes. Particularly bad when Jojo and Dio are having their fight and he gives Jojo heck for attacking Dio when he was 'down' when they were about 10 feet apart and Dio was , in fact, standing up and clearly holding a knife.

It's just idiotic, what do people see in this show?
Every season of Jojo is essentially unrelated and I don't think the first season is what really started it becoming popular. But I'm with you, I tried about half the first season and it felt like a parody that the writer wasn't aware was a parody. I always meant to try the next season but never got around to it.