Anime Discussion Thread

[Fabulously Olivier]

40 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

That was pretty much my thought on it (though I haven't seen Netflix' Dragon's Dogma; I didn't like the game's story in the first place). Apparently one reason the bear was CG was a stylistic choice to make it more unnerving. I'd say it succeeded, though not on the way they intended given how a lot of people reacted to it.

Anyway, what do you think of the show's opening?

 

Good but not like top tier or anything. The only OP's I've seen recently that I thought were noteworthy were Dr. Stone and some of the MHA ones. But then, I prioritize music choice.

[vanguard333]

20 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Good but not like top tier or anything. The only OP's I've seen recently that I thought were noteworthy were Dr. Stone and some of the MHA ones. But then, I prioritize music choice.

Interesting. ...Now I feel a little awkward about saying that it's quickly become one of my favourite anime openings, both for its visuals and its music.

By the way, sorry if I've been asking one question after another or anything like that; this is my first time being able to talk about this show with someone who has actually seen it.

[Fabulously Olivier]

13 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Interesting. ...Now I feel a little awkward about saying that it's quickly become one of my favourite anime openings, both for its visuals and its music.

By the way, sorry if I've been asking one question after another or anything like that; this is my first time being able to talk about this show with someone who has actually seen it.

I'm really not qualified to analyze OP's. That's something for youtubers like Mother's Basement, not really very casual viewers like myself.

[vanguard333]

4 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I'm really not qualified to analyze OP's. That's something for youtubers like Mother's Basement, not really very casual viewers like myself.

Okay. I wasn't trying to ask for an analysis of it anyway; just your opinion on it, and you answered that.

By the way, you remember that one character in the show who leads some of the tattooed criminals that are after the gold? The guy who wields a katana? Would it surprise you to learn that he's actually a historical domain character: Hijikata Toshizou: former vice-captain of the shinsengumi (an order of peace-keeping samurai in the last days of the shogunate). The story takes only one major liberty with him; namely him still being alive at the dawn of the 20th century. The real Hijikata was killed in battle against the Meiji restoration in 1869. That's the reason that characters in the show are surprised to learn that he's alive.

[joevar]

any recommendation for Anime-movie thats released within these 5 years? a singular movie thats not a spin off of ongoing is preferable (certainly not OP movie, MHA movie, etc).

 

maybe im just burnt out or something. but almost none of new seasonal anime within 1 year that got me thinking "oh, i must watch this". even though there was a time where i watch no less than 4 titles within a season, with completed series in my external HD waiting for binge'd. now even 1 series within a season is already enough.

[vanguard333]

13 minutes ago, joevar said:

maybe im just burnt out or something. but almost none of new seasonal anime within 1 year that got me thinking "oh, i must watch this". even though there was a time where i watch no less than 4 titles within a season, with completed series in my external HD waiting for binge'd. now even 1 series within a season is already enough.

Have you looked at the anime 86 EIGHTY-SIX? It's really good and it recently finished the second half of its first season.

[joevar]

3 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Have you looked at the anime 86 EIGHTY-SIX? It's really good and it recently finished the second half of its first season.

bruh. we already talked about it like one week ago.

[ciphertul]

Speaking of finishing anime, I really need to go back and finish Horizon in the middle of nowhere. On episode 4 it had such a massive turn in tone that I was pretty dumbfounded by.

[vanguard333]

9 hours ago, joevar said:

bruh. we already talked about it like one week ago.

Right; I forgot that it was you that I spoke to about it (I need to remember to double-check that stuff).

[joevar]

40 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Right; I forgot that it was you that I spoke to about it (I need to remember to double-check that stuff).

i mean, as a fire emblem enthusiast that likes war stories sprinkled with interpersonal drama, 86 pretty easily fall into one of few exception anime that i actually watch while its still ongoing. but usually my genre a bit more wide than that.

since you talked about OP above, my opinion is OP affect greatly to my overall enjoyment of a series. usually its music a little bit more over visual when rating it. and if its a banger, i dont skip it every episode

[vanguard333]

10 hours ago, joevar said:

since you talked about OP above, my opinion is OP affect greatly to my overall enjoyment of a series. usually its music a little bit more over visual when rating it. and if its a banger, i don't skip it every episode

I see.

For me, my opinion of a show won't worsen because of a bad OP, but a good OP definitely helps a show.

Incidentally, for every show with more than two OPs, there is only one that I can think of where I enjoyed every single one: Black Clover. Thirteen OPs so far, and not a single one that made me want to skip it. That said, there are other anime that have come close: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: five OPs, and I enjoyed four of them (I didn't enjoy OP2).

Edited April 8, 2022 by vanguard333

[ciphertul]

I watched the 1st episodes of "Love after World Domination", "Skeleton Knight in another World" and "Spy X Family". Love is gearing up to be a cheesy power ranger love romp, I have mixed feelings about Skelly Knight I'll have to see how it continues but Spy had a great start the only downside is Yor isn't in the 1st episode.

[vanguard333]

Just watched the first episode of Spy x Family. I said before that I watched Love of Kill because its premise was so bizarre that I couldn't tell, even after watching the first episode, whether it was taking itself seriously or not. Spy x Family, by contrast, immediately establishes that it's not serious; it's very clearly parody right from the start.

Easily the best part of the show so far is the little telepathic girl, Anya. She's an adorable and hilarious character, and her reading the spy's mind is the source of many a good joke.

One thing I wasn't necessarily a fan of in the first episode though was a bit of an overreliance on, for back of a better word, "Not what it sounds like" humour: when a character says something and the crowd or another person hears it out of context and immediately comes to bad conclusions about the person the line was said to, and it's all played for laughs. When it was briefly done near the beginning of the episode when the spy reads his new mission while in a train and reacts to it out loud, it was funny. When Anya reads his mind later on and begs him not to take her back to the orphanage,, it wasn't funny.

Overall, I enjoyed the first episode and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Edited April 10, 2022 by vanguard333

[ciphertul]

1 minute ago, vanguard333 said:

Just watched the first episode of Spy x Family. I said before that I watched Love of Kill because its premise was so bizarre that I couldn't tell, even after watching the first episode, whether it was taking itself seriously or not. Spy x Family, by contrast, immediately establishes that it's not serious; it's very clearly parody right from the start.

Easily the best part of the show so far is the little telepathic girl, Anya. She's an adorable and hilarious character, and her reading the spy's mind is the source of many a good joke.

One thing I wasn't necessarily a fan of in the first episode though was a bit of an overreliance on, for back of a better word, "Not what it sounds like" humour: when a character says something and the crowd or another person hears it out of context and immediately comes to bad conclusions about the person the line was said to. When it was briefly done near the beginning of the episode when the spy reads his new mission while in a train and reacts to it out loud, it was funny. When Anya reads his mind later on and begs him not to take her back to the orphanage,, it wasn't funny.

Overall, I enjoyed the first episode and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Something to remember is this is more or less set in cold war era, It will be shown more in episode 2 but the fear is real in a lot of characters.

[vanguard333]

14 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

Something to remember is this is more or less set in cold war era, It will be shown more in episode 2 but the fear is real in a lot of characters.

That's one of the reasons I didn't find that scene that I mentioned funny; Anya has a very real and very understandable fear of having to go back to that orphanage, so her crying and begging suddenly after reading the spy's mind, while onlookers call the spy a bad dad and the spy has no idea where the begging suddenly came from, is not funny, even though it was framed with intent for the audience to laugh.

[ciphertul]

3 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

That's one of the reasons I didn't find that scene that I mentioned funny; Anya has a very real and very understandable fear of having to go back to that orphanage, so her crying and begging suddenly after reading the spy's mind, while onlookers call the spy a bad dad and the spy has no idea where the begging suddenly came from, is not funny, even though it was framed with intent for the audience to laugh.

You might have misinterpret it, it wasn't meant for laughs. It's the start of growth for Loid. It was a serious moment, that is why Loid does what he does at the end of the episode.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, ciphertul said:

You might have misinterpret it, it wasn't meant for laughs. It's the start of growth for Loid. It was a serious moment, that is why Loid does what he does at the end of the episode.

I see. I guess I interpreted it as being meant to be funny because it was born from her reading his mind and getting the wrong idea.

Anyway, this isn't a criticism, but why would an elite school have a "both parents must attend the interview; absolutely no exceptions" rule? What if the one parent is a widow/widower? Would they have to bring the spouse's ashes to the interview? I get that it's supposed to be a prestigious school, and I get that the main point of it is to make the spy find someone willing to pretend to be his wife, but it still seems weird that a school wouldn't accept something like "the other parent passed away" as a reason for only one parent attending the interview.

[ciphertul]

3 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I see. I guess I interpreted it as being meant to be funny because it was born from her reading his mind and getting the wrong idea.

Anyway, this isn't a criticism, but why would an elite school have a "both parents must attend the interview; absolutely no exceptions" rule? What if the one parent is a widow/widower? Would they have to bring the spouse's ashes to the interview? I get that it's supposed to be a prestigious school, and I get that the main point of it is to make the spy find someone willing to pretend to be his wife, but it still seems weird that a school wouldn't accept something like "the other parent passed away" as a reason for only one parent attending the interview.

It has to do with 2 points, 1 being that they believe in a certain tradition that a child with only one parent isn't gonna be as useful as one with both. They see a motherless child as one without a good home life.

Second is more touch upon in episode so I'll put it in spoilers.

Spoiler

A single parent or a single person is treated as if they are a spy, as everyone is paranoid it's "It's super suspicious that they don't have a lover."

 

[vanguard333]

45 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

It has to do with 2 points, 1 being that they believe in a certain tradition that a child with only one parent isn't gonna be as useful as one with both. They see a motherless child as one without a good home life.

Second is more touch upon in episode so I'll put it in spoilers.

  Reveal hidden contents

A single parent or a single person is treated as if they are a spy, as everyone is paranoid it's "It's super suspicious that they don't have a lover."

 

I see. That makes sense.

 

Anyway, I just heard about what was revealed in the most recent chapter of My Hero Academia:

Spoiler

Why couldn't just one thing be unrelated to All for One?! Why does All for One have to somehow magically be the orchestrator of literally every character's woes?! At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the author really does write it that Deku had a quirk and All for One stole it, as implausible and stupid an idea as that is! No; worse: the author will go full Star Wars and have All for One reveal, "No, Izuku Midoriya: I am your father"; that he planned to sire a kid with a more powerful version of All for One only for the child to be born quirkless instead. 

Having All for One be part of Toya becoming Dabi negates literally everything about it; it pretty much absolves the Todoroki family of any guilt whatsoever; it's just stupid! It ruins the entire emotional conflict that Dabi was a villain essentially made by Endeavor.

Oh, and there is no way that this was planned; this explains how Toya survived, but that could've been explained a million different, better ways. This was just an attempt to make All for One even more of a grand manipulator even though I bet that half of My Hero Academia's audience is absolutely sick of All for One and just wants to see Shigaraki come into his own as an antagonist.

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

19 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I see. That makes sense.

 

Anyway, I just heard about what was revealed in the most recent chapter of My Hero Academia:

  Hide contents

Why couldn't just one thing be unrelated to All for One?! Why does All for One have to somehow magically be the orchestrator of literally every character's woes?! At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the author really does write it that Deku had a quirk and All for One stole it, as implausible and stupid an idea as that is! No; worse: the author will go full Star Wars and have All for One reveal, "No, Izuku Midoriya: I am your father"; that he planned to sire a kid with a more powerful version of All for One only for the child to be born quirkless instead. 

Having All for One be part of Toya becoming Dabi negates literally everything about it; it pretty much absolves the Todoroki family of any guilt whatsoever; it's just stupid! It ruins the entire emotional conflict that Dabi was a villain essentially made by Endeavor.

Oh, and there is no way that this was planned; this explains how Toya survived, but that could've been explained a million different, better ways. This was just an attempt to make All for One even more of a grand manipulator even though I bet that half of My Hero Academia's audience is absolutely sick of All for One and just wants to see Shigaraki come into his own as an antagonist.

 

Spoiler

It isn't at all stupid or inconceivable that Deku could have had a stolen quirk. In fact, it's pretty well set up.

 

His doctor was the same one currently working with AFO & Shigaraki, for one.

 

And we know that Aoyama's quirk, navel lazer, is a bad fit for his body, and was artificially given to him. Navel Lazer was someone's quirk. Why couldn't it have been Deku's original quirk?

 

[vanguard333]

9 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

  Reveal hidden contents

It isn't at all stupid or inconceivable that Deku could have had a stolen quirk. In fact, it's pretty well set up.

 

His doctor was the same one currently working with AFO & Shigaraki, for one.

 

And we know that Aoyama's quirk, navel lazer, is a bad fit for his body, and was artificially given to him. Navel Lazer was someone's quirk. Why couldn't it have been Deku's original quirk?

 

Spoiler

How is it well set up? The point of Deku is that he wanted to be a hero, but he originally didn't have a chance to be one because of his lack of a quirk until All Might came along. Plus, All for One does not have to be responsible for everything; that would be just plain dumb.

It has not been confirmed to be the same doctor; they look very similar, but the name of Deku's doctor is not one of the All for One doctor's known aliases, so it's unconfirmed.

Deku's mom moves small objects and Deku's dad breathes fire; naval laser is unrelated to either of those and those who receive quirks completely unlike their parents receive exceptional quirks like Decay and Rewind.

 

Honestly, at this point, I'm sick and tired of All for One. I really hope the next chapter is Spinner using a quirk-erasing bullet on All for One and stabbing him to death before asking the heroes to free Shigaraki from All for One. No more All for One. He served his purpose back in season 3; everything involving him since then has just undermined the story.

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

26 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

  Hide contents

How is it well set up? The point of Deku is that he wanted to be a hero, but he originally didn't have a chance to be one because of his lack of a quirk until All Might came along. Plus, All for One does not have to be responsible for everything; that would be just plain dumb.

It has not been confirmed to be the same doctor; they look very similar, but the name of Deku's doctor is not one of the All for One doctor's known aliases, so it's unconfirmed.

Deku's mom moves small objects and Deku's dad breathes fire; naval laser is unrelated to either of those and those who receive quirks completely unlike their parents receive exceptional quirks like Decay and Rewind.

 

Honestly, at this point, I'm sick and tired of All for One. I really hope the next chapter is Spinner using a quirk-erasing bullet on All for One and stabbing him to death before asking the heroes to free Shigaraki from All for One. No more All for One. He served his purpose back in season 3; everything involving him since then has just undermined the story.

 

Spoiler

Idk, man. I think there is something poetic about essentially creating one's own undoing. If AFO did steal Deku's quirk, he would have essentially have made his own worst enemy. It's been established at this point that OFA is so powerful that it would react violently with existing quirks, meaning that only a quirkless individual will be able to handle it from this point forward. If All Might, not knowing this, had passed it to one of the students as was originally intended, the line may have ended and AFO would have won.

 

[vanguard333]

On 4/11/2022 at 11:17 AM, Fabulously Olivier said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Idk, man. I think there is something poetic about essentially creating one's own undoing. If AFO did steal Deku's quirk, he would have essentially have made his own worst enemy. It's been established at this point that OFA is so powerful that it would react violently with existing quirks, meaning that only a quirkless individual will be able to handle it from this point forward. If All Might, not knowing this, had passed it to one of the students as was originally intended, the line may have ended and AFO would have won.

 

Spoiler

Okay. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about this.

Do you at least agree that All for One being partially responsible for Toya becoming Dabi was unnecessary?

By the way, speaking of quirkless, apparently the original plan for the story was for Deku to remain quirkless but the author scrapped that idea after realizing it wouldn't be feasible. I agree that Deku remaining quirkless wouldn't have been feasible, but I think it would've been neat if he had recycled that original idea by introducing a quirkless character who remains quirkless. My original thought was that such a character should've been someone who tries and fails to be a hero, but, after seeing season 5, I'm now thinking that it would've been neat to see a quirkless villain; specifically a quirkless member of the league of villains. I don't know; I just think that the systemic bias against the quirkless that we saw when Deku was quirkless really went underutilized.

 

Anyway, I recently saw the second episode of Spy x Family, with this episode being the one to introduce the mother in the fake family: Yor Briar. Honestly, I think Loid and Anya's dynamic was already good enough to potentially carry a story, but Yor slots in pretty much perfectly and adds a lot to the story and the comedy; her dynamic with Loid in this episode was great and I'm looking forward to seeing her interact with Anya as well. Plus, Loid using a grenade pin to propose to Yor is easily one of those moments that can be used to perfectly sum up the series.

 

@joevar I did it; I finally watched the last three episodes of 86 Eighty-Six! Ugh, they were so good!

Edited April 24, 2022 by vanguard333

[Fabulously Olivier]

So in addition to Spy x Family and Love After World Domination, I'm slowly watching One Piece. It got easier to get over my One Piece bias (I hate its artstyle so, so much) when I learned to treat it as less of an anime and more of an action comedy western-style cartoon.

 

I'm also watching Assassination Classroom (wtf even is this, and why can't I stop watching) and Tokyo Ghoul.

[vanguard333]

In addition to Spy x Family, I've been watching a romcom called Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie.

I normally am not a fan of romcoms; in fact, for a long time, I really disliked the romance genre as a whole, because pretty much every example I had seen of it had been absolutely terrible. However, about a year ago, I watched an anime romcom called TONIKAWA: Over the Moon for You, which took everything I dislike about most examples of the genre and threw them all in the garbage, and it instead had an actually rather wholesome story about two people who get married in episode 1 and spend the show navigating their relationship. So, I became more willing to watch romcoms so much as they have a unique premise and try to tell an actually creative story.

Shikimori would be an example of that: it's about two people who are already dating before the show begins, and their dynamic is that the guy is extremely unlucky and accident-prone while the girl tries to protect him. It's a very funny and wholesome show.