[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 18 December 2016 - 07:45 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 17 December 2016 - 06:47 PM, said:

Weekly roundup:

SNI finale

Spoiler

God, what a ride. I'm glad it ended well, because a shitty ending would have destroyed me. Berkman surviving was a good touch. The very last scene with the wheelchair had me feeling as well. It was a bit rushed overall but still. I am satisfied.

Yeah, I think it ended well enough. Nothing particularly unexpected or atypical for an anime story, but that's alright. It was worth the watch.

LinearPhilosopher, on 18 December 2016 - 01:15 AM, said:

So i started watching yuri.

Yaaaaayyy!!!

LinearPhilosopher, on 18 December 2016 - 01:15 AM, said:

Also i recently found out twby s4 was out.

They need to find a vocalist who can sing properly. Chapter 6, they had the vocalist singing what i assume was supposed to an an operatic number. So bad, 0 technique flat cresencdos, the fact it sounds like pure throat singning.

You're right... but it's not a professional production and I assume you're not paying anything for it. Can't you just enjoy it for what it is?

- - -

Watashi ga Motete Dousunda is still absolutely hilarious.

I also started watching through Gi(a)rlish number. It's sort of like Shirobako, but with voice actors instead of production staff, and a lot less optimism. Kind of weird... it feels like it wants to delve into an in-deptch expose of problems in the industry, but it keeps stopping short. It's good though, the drama is solid.

No i can't my ears prohibit me from enjoying it. Also I'm sure there's tons of youtube singers who wouldn't mind doing a collaborative project with rwby, the exposure top their channel would be huge.

[D'rek]

So just don't watch it then...?

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 18 December 2016 - 09:52 PM, said:

So just don't watch it then...?

i despise one element in a show, therefore i should not watch it? Is that the line of reasoning we're going with?

[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 18 December 2016 - 10:27 PM, said:

D, on 18 December 2016 - 09:52 PM, said:

So just don't watch it then...?

i despise one element in a show, therefore i should not watch it? Is that the line of reasoning we're going with?

If it's causing you this much distress... yes. There's tons, TONS of other super-kids-fight-baddies shows you could watch instead that don't cause your ears to bleed.

[D'rek]

Catching up on Yuri on Ice.

I like that they're showcasing the dramas and struggles of the other skaters. It's a bit of a weird shift in direction, especially with the series being rather short, but I am loving it so far, it adds so much more impact to the performances.

I don't know what to think about the "JJ Style" bit in episode 8 that kinda came out of nowhere... I was falling out of my chair laughing, but at the same time it was seriously impressive. But he's also a total jerkface. Mmrrrrg this is complicated.

AND THIS DOG IS STILL SO CUUUUUTTTEEEEE!!!!!





edit: episode 10/11 - IS THIS REAL? IS THIS HAPPENING? WHAT IS THIS ANIME EVEN OH MY GOD HOW WHAT

[LinearPhilosopher]

im up to ep 9 with yuri

JJ is the best. Montreal rocker and skater, sign me up.

[Maark Abbott]

I've just finished RWBY season 3. It's very enjoyable for what it is. But damn... dem last episode feels.

[LinearPhilosopher]

need a hand with those feels man?

Also yuri, i noticed in ep10, JJ has an upside down can tire logo.

Great show, yuurios and yuurys skating was jaw dropping. Sad that JJ lost cause the pressure got to him.

Alas this canadian wonder was not meant to be for this season.

[D'rek]

Yuri on Ice finale. Gonna have to go full-spoilers mode

Spoiler

Well, there's a LOT to talk about with this show, isn't there. A lot of things happened, and a lot of things decidedly did not happen.

Sure, I know that homosexuality is far more taboo in Japan, especially presenting it in the media (except for caricature forms like Fujoshi stories). And sure, I know that western cultural attitudes lean a lot more towards explicit displays of romance and affection for relationships in media, whereas it's much more common to leave things more implied in eastern media.

Still, though, I think it's a bit too much in Yuri on Ice. I wasn't expecting a wedding or even a big kiss. But to end the series with Victor only ever admitting his love to himself, and Yuri never once acknowledging any sort of romantic feelings... to keep insistingly phrasing things as "being my boyfriend coach" and "this is a engagement good luck ring" ... overall I think it ends up coming off as the show just trying to have its cake and eat it, too, in a cowardly sort of way.

There's really no pretense to be had here. Every person who watches this show knows exactly what's going on, the writer has been explicit in interviews that these aren't just heterosexual skating buddies, even the lyrics of some of the songs are talking very specifically about relationships. So why shy so far away from just admitting in the dialogue itself what's going on? You've really got nothing to lose. The narrative of the show would be all the better for having a final climactic moment where Yuri and Victor do explicitly admit their feelings to each other. The show would be better, social media would explode with acclaim and supportive reactions (more so than it already has), and it would be seen as a big progressive step for Japanese culture's dealing with homosexuality.

Mitsurou Kubo, the original creator of the show and one of the writers, has said in some of her tweets things like "I just want to build a healthy and meaningful relationship" and "No matter what the real world thinks of this work, in the world of this work you will not be discriminated for what you love, I will definitely protect that kind of world."

Well how exactly are you showing a meaningful and healthy relationship on-screen if the audience sees them unable to talk about their feelings and getting engaged without seemingly any displays of romance or affection so far? Good on you for protecting that fictional world, but wouldn't it have been better to make a stand in the last episode in order to help protect all the real people in Japan who don't love in a perfectly-accepting world like Victor and Yuri?

That's my feelings on the whole shebang.


Other than that, it was still a great episode and these last few episodes with all the other skaters' issues, with Yurio's growing to see Yuri as a friendly rival rather than an enemy, Yuri overcoming his tendency to withdraw whenever he hits a setback... all of that was great.

And it's been amazing seeing all the little details pulled from real figure skating events that people in other forums have pointed out. Lots of the costumes are copied from real ones. Actual real-world professional figure skaters as guest stars! One crazy one this episode was that JJ flubbing so much but still scoring higher than Otabek is apparently a reference to how Canadian skater Patrick Chan at one event made a lot of mistakes but was still given higher technical scores than Kazakhstan's Denis Ten.

So, great show full of wonderful animation, fun characters doing addictive antics, tons of detail for a sport that's never been given a proper anime format before and deserved the exposure, and a half-measure of cultural progression, too. For me, that all adds up to a fantastic show that I'll recommend to any anime fan... but the one glaring problem in the execution of the romance means it's just a great show, not a revolutionary show or a masterpiece, in art or in social commentary. Right now, it's extremely memorable, but sooner or later there's going to be some shows that are brave enough to go where Yuri on Ice would not, and *those* are going to be the shows that are remembered for breaking the mold, for advancing cultural attitudes... and then Yuri on Ice will be forgotten.

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 22 December 2016 - 05:30 AM, said:

SAO2 is getting boring as fuccccckkkk. I've watched 3-4 eps in a row of kirito and Sinon sitting and talking in a cave for the whole 22mins damn near.. I want to go back to fairy world. GGO is a slog. Only cool thing is it has a light saber with my fav color blade.

Yeah, GGO gets boring for a while. What episode are you at? Episodes 7-11 are the boring talky ones, I'd say. 12-14 are the finale of the arc. There's definitely still some interesting exposition in episodes 7-11... it's just spread too thinly (gotta make room for all those camera angles of Sinon's butts). If you're not all that invested in it, may want to consider just reading the Wikipedia episode summaries of 7-11 and jumping straight to Ep 12. (And even 12 is mostly talking, but its important to segue into 13.)

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

I really want to see Your Name. Arrive, dammit!

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 22 December 2016 - 04:26 PM, said:

Is there plans for a 3?

There's a movie coming out relatively soon, called Ordinal Scale. Not sure if there is any confirmed plans for anything after that.

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 22 December 2016 - 04:57 AM, said:

Yuri on Ice finale. Gonna have to go full-spoilers mode

Spoiler

Well, there's a LOT to talk about with this show, isn't there. A lot of things happened, and a lot of things decidedly did not happen.

Sure, I know that homosexuality is far more taboo in Japan, especially presenting it in the media (except for caricature forms like Fujoshi stories). And sure, I know that western cultural attitudes lean a lot more towards explicit displays of romance and affection for relationships in media, whereas it's much more common to leave things more implied in eastern media.

Still, though, I think it's a bit too much in Yuri on Ice. I wasn't expecting a wedding or even a big kiss. But to end the series with Victor only ever admitting his love to himself, and Yuri never once acknowledging any sort of romantic feelings... to keep insistingly phrasing things as "being my boyfriend coach" and "this is a engagement good luck ring" ... overall I think it ends up coming off as the show just trying to have its cake and eat it, too, in a cowardly sort of way.

There's really no pretense to be had here. Every person who watches this show knows exactly what's going on, the writer has been explicit in interviews that these aren't just heterosexual skating buddies, even the lyrics of some of the songs are talking very specifically about relationships. So why shy so far away from just admitting in the dialogue itself what's going on? You've really got nothing to lose. The narrative of the show would be all the better for having a final climactic moment where Yuri and Victor do explicitly admit their feelings to each other. The show would be better, social media would explode with acclaim and supportive reactions (more so than it already has), and it would be seen as a big progressive step for Japanese culture's dealing with homosexuality.

Mitsurou Kubo, the original creator of the show and one of the writers, has said in some of her tweets things like "I just want to build a healthy and meaningful relationship" and "No matter what the real world thinks of this work, in the world of this work you will not be discriminated for what you love, I will definitely protect that kind of world."

Well how exactly are you showing a meaningful and healthy relationship on-screen if the audience sees them unable to talk about their feelings and getting engaged without seemingly any displays of romance or affection so far? Good on you for protecting that fictional world, but wouldn't it have been better to make a stand in the last episode in order to help protect all the real people in Japan who don't love in a perfectly-accepting world like Victor and Yuri?

That's my feelings on the whole shebang.


Other than that, it was still a great episode and these last few episodes with all the other skaters' issues, with Yurio's growing to see Yuri as a friendly rival rather than an enemy, Yuri overcoming his tendency to withdraw whenever he hits a setback... all of that was great.

And it's been amazing seeing all the little details pulled from real figure skating events that people in other forums have pointed out. Lots of the costumes are copied from real ones. Actual real-world professional figure skaters as guest stars! One crazy one this episode was that JJ flubbing so much but still scoring higher than Otabek is apparently a reference to how Canadian skater Patrick Chan at one event made a lot of mistakes but was still given higher technical scores than Kazakhstan's Denis Ten.

So, great show full of wonderful animation, fun characters doing addictive antics, tons of detail for a sport that's never been given a proper anime format before and deserved the exposure, and a half-measure of cultural progression, too. For me, that all adds up to a fantastic show that I'll recommend to any anime fan... but the one glaring problem in the execution of the romance means it's just a great show, not a revolutionary show or a masterpiece, in art or in social commentary. Right now, it's extremely memorable, but sooner or later there's going to be some shows that are brave enough to go where Yuri on Ice would not, and *those* are going to be the shows that are remembered for breaking the mold, for advancing cultural attitudes... and then Yuri on Ice will be forgotten.

Spoiler

Someone was clearly heavily invested in the emotional aspect of this show.
I'll be honest, with yuri being who is he, i kinda felt the whole yaoi side of things was played more for laughs than it being something substantive(fanservice) as such their scenes together never had much of a hook.

JJ is love
JJ is life
Animation is amazing.

Thats my take away from the show

[LinearPhilosopher]

just finished legend of the galactic heroes.

the last few episodes were perfect. Could not have asked for a better ending.

This show truly is an anime gem, this show is what space opera is supposed to be like, great stories of great people, but woven into this tapestries are the countless lives and events of those around them. It is an story about the clash of ideas but also of the struggles of man. Not simply a tale of good versus evil, or idealism versus reality but a tale of humanity.

10/10, a masterpiece that i predict will stand the test of time.

This post has been edited by LinearPhilosopher: 23 December 2016 - 05:09 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Final weekly roundup of the year:

JJBApt4e39:

Spoiler

I like the way it wasn't immediately obvious that Kira was dead, and that the episode covered what happened in detail further in. What a way to go. It took a while to get going but JJpt4 ended strongly. Hoping they cover part 5 as well.

Keijo ep12:

Spoiler

of course it was ridiculous but this series ended well, if utterly predictably. It was certainly enjoyable, though. I see the potential for a second series, but I sort of hope they leave it as just the 12-ep run.

[Maark Abbott]

So I watched the first episode of Chain Chronicle yesterday. It seems like a relatively atypical sword and sorcery anime, though the story kicks off with the Big Bad winning and the heroes being resoundingly defeated. I think it'll be worth the watch, and I'll report in as I go further with it.

[D'rek]

Finished up most of last season's shows over the holiday break. Overall thoughts on:

Sound!Euphonium 2 - mostly good, but the drama wasn't as good as the first season. Some interesting parallel stories with Asuka and the sister, but other stories were a bit dumb, and the last episode felt too dramatic with not enough build-up. Overall, was still well worth watching and the animation was still top-notch.

Saiki - Wow, 120 short episodes done, and it stayed funny all the way through. That's awesome. No particular ending though... and apparently they are going to be making even more episodes this year

Kiss Him Not Me - was pretty funny, overall I quite liked it. But as expected there wasn't any big dramatic finish, it was just a funny and appropriate status-quo ending.

Girlish Number - Bad. This show just ended up going in 5 different directions with no overall point to any of it.

Dragon Ball Super is still going. It's just filler right now, apparently the next big arc will start in early February. Baseball episode was great. Hit-vs-Goku episodes dull. Stunt man episode funny, but a painful reminder of how boring Videl has gotten.



New stuff this season:

Little Witch Academia first episode was fantastic, with all the charm of the two OVAs.

Urara Meirochou is adorable.

KonoSuba season 2 looks super derpy. They screwed up the animation a bunch. But the plot and jokes were funny, I think it should be a good sequel if you can look past the animation.

Masamune's Revenge was interesting: I like the characters so far, especially the contrast between the MC's inner reactions and his attempts to be outwardly cool. No idea where this is going, so could turn out great or not at all.



In other news, we've talked about Your Name already and I'm still very much looking forward to finally seeing that...

...but In This Corner of the World (movie that came out in Japan in November) was awarded the Best Film and Best Director award at Japan's Kinema Junpo movie awards. Not Best Animated Picture, but BEST FILM (the last time an animated film won Best Film was My Neighbour Totoro in 1988). And it is a nominee for the same categories at the Blue Ribbon Awards and a ton of categories at the Manichi Awards (those are the top 3 movie awards in Japan, apparently).

So, uh... add that one to the anticipation list!!!

[Maark Abbott]

Chain Chronicle, up to the end of Ep4 at least, has been good. I'll be following this one to the end unless it really screws up.

Saga of Tanya the Evil has proven to be very good fun (I'm 2 eps in). It pulls an Erikson start as well, throwing you into the thick of it and then having you wait for a prologue (think GOTM). I'm quite enamoured of the main character as well. I do so love a good villain protagonist, after all.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Saga of tanya is fantastic, ep2 espcially, never expected it, and i love it all the more for it.

Also your name is coming to canada and the usa in april.

HYPE!!!!!!!!!

[Dolmen 2.0]

I didnt know the english translation for Youjo Senki was the Saga of Tanya the Evil. That title kinda prepares you a bit, pretty cool actually.

I admit I was largely sceptical going in, i'm a bit bothered by Loli characters. Small people with big eyes are a type of demon this side, culturally speaking its always creeped me out, so yeah I've never really trusted moe characters.

in this case though its all out there, hardcore magic, bigotry and zealotous commitment to a cause. It's surprisingly good anime. The war is horrific, out of control, bloody and here's a MC that just thrives in it. I also think its a damn good anime 2 eps in. Really hope it maintains this quality.

This post has been edited by Dolmen 2.0: 19 January 2017 - 04:28 AM