[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 25 May 2021 - 09:52 PM, said:

D, on 25 May 2021 - 08:18 PM, said:

Hell yes, Shirobako movie fiiiinally has a good release. I know what I'm doing first thing tonight!

let us know how it goes.

Cried in the first half. Cheered in the second half.

It's not as perfectly-scripted as the TV series was, there's a few scenes in particular that really stick out in a weird way and they add a new character who has no purpose at all. Doesn't seem to have as much of the "meta" elements, either. But it's still a very fun time.

I thought it was going to be about the gang finally making that anime they invented in high school that they said they wanted to someday make professionally, but it's not that kind of "climactic final arc" vibe at all - more of a "same shit, different day" kinda vibe where they are tackling relatively similar production problems as the TV show. Or maybe that's just because there are a lot of callbacks to the original series.

[Maark Abbott]

Where did you watch it? I want in on this.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 26 May 2021 - 07:37 AM, said:

Where did you watch it? I want in on this.

I was a filthy pirate. I couldn't wait for the official release... who knows when that will happen. I'll watch it again and pay for it whenever it finally comes out for real.

[Maark Abbott]

D, on 26 May 2021 - 01:14 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 26 May 2021 - 07:37 AM, said:

Where did you watch it? I want in on this.

I was a filthy pirate. I couldn't wait for the official release... who knows when that will happen. I'll watch it again and pay for it whenever it finally comes out for real.

Yar har fiddledee dee.

[Maark Abbott]

Man, Vivy is great. I love how it covers something like 100 years as well. Ramping up towards the end now. I'll be sad to see it end.

[Maark Abbott]

Whilst Mashiro is disappointing now in terms of story and doesn't really live up to that first episode at all, the shamisen performance in this week's episode was absolutely fire.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 02 June 2021 - 07:49 AM, said:

Whilst Mashiro is disappointing now in terms of story and doesn't really live up to that first episode at all, the shamisen performance in this week's episode was absolutely fire.

The group tournament one? Yeah, the music was good. Wish they hadn't cut away to so many flashbacks/audience reactions and just kept it as a single whole performance though.

[Maark Abbott]

Now I crave an anime about erhu playing, not stepping back from Takao and the legacy of the Seediq.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 03 June 2021 - 07:45 AM, said:

Now I crave an anime about erhu playing, not stepping back from Takao and the legacy of the Seediq.

Legend of Saiyuki's main character plays the erhu in it, but it's not about erhu playing. I can't think of any other examples of erhu in anime. I'd love to get a cool anime specifically about erhu playing that has big featured performances like (the first episodes of) Mashiro... but I guess that'd be more likely as a Chinese cartoon than a Japanese one, ya?

[Maark Abbott]

D, on 03 June 2021 - 01:56 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 03 June 2021 - 07:45 AM, said:

Now I crave an anime about erhu playing, not stepping back from Takao and the legacy of the Seediq.

Legend of Saiyuki's main character plays the erhu in it, but it's not about erhu playing. I can't think of any other examples of erhu in anime. I'd love to get a cool anime specifically about erhu playing that has big featured performances like (the first episodes of) Mashiro... but I guess that'd be more likely as a Chinese cartoon than a Japanese one, ya?

Or a Taiwanese one perhaps, the main place I know erhu from is Chthonic who use it pretty extensively (also their singer is in the Taiwanese parliament which is pretty neat).

[LinearPhilosopher]

Maark Abbott, on 03 June 2021 - 07:45 AM, said:

Now I crave an anime about erhu playing, not stepping back from Takao and the legacy of the Seediq.

https://youtu.be/AbZJurW65bc

[D'rek]

Gaaaaaaaaaaah Oddtaxi is so freaking good.

Spoiler

Dobu facing the camera and name-dropping the show, and then Odokawa being "what? Is that supposed to sound cool? That's lame" had me in stitches

Looks like I'll have a good chunk of free time this weekend so I'm gonna binge my way up to present on Vivy and To Your Eternity.


I've kept up with Slime Witch (comfy and fun, but definitely not wow'ing me, nor is it trying to) and 86 (still dumb). Got caught back up on Spider Isekai yesterday for shits and giggles and oh man the latest episode is a Berserk-level (in the bad way) CGI meltdown, a total trainwreck.

[Maark Abbott]

I genuinely don't grasp the criticism around 86. It does exactly what it sets out to, which is indict racism and supremacism.

Slime Taoshite is still my show of the season, Vivy a close second (86 is in the third slot). Been keeping up with everything else, the other highlights would be Fruits Basket, Higehiro, Nagatoro and Shadows House.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 09 June 2021 - 11:43 AM, said:

I genuinely don't grasp the criticism around 86. It does exactly what it sets out to, which is indict racism and supremacism.

Sure, it does have a message that racism is bad, but it does it with such a bizarrely unrealistic setup ("What if suddenly EVERYBODY joined the KKK overnight except for this one sexy 15 year old girl?") that it's hard to take seriously or feel immersed about that.

[Maark Abbott]

The fact that America exists makes it much less difficult to believe to be honest... You could also draw a comparison to Germany back in the '30s. Especially with how the western world is swinging so hard to the right wing again lately, it hit pretty hard.

[D'rek]

The Netflix marketing team strikes again

[D'rek]

Speaking of possible west-washing: ‘Lord of the Rings’ Anime Feature Will Depict Bloody Saga of ‘The War of the Rohirrim’

Newline Cinema and looks like all U.S. producers, the "studio" they list - Sola Entertainment - isn't an animation studio, it seems to be a small head-honcho production/contracting office sort of thing. So at first glance seems like they are just calling it "anime" based off of the director, Kenji Kamiyama, alone, but some tweets say the actual animation will be done in Japan... I guess either a studio hired but not given primary credit or else all freelance artists.

[LinearPhilosopher]

https://gizmodo.com/...jdRtHM0mV1rXygE

Pretty exciting

[Maark Abbott]

Oh, Mugen Train became available to watch but I somehow missed it. Need to catch that at some stage.

End of season blues starting to kick in a little.

[Maark Abbott]

A few end of season thoughts:

Slime Diaries - filler, but comfortable filler. Like wrapping yourself in the kotatsu.

Saint's Magic Power - same as above really, a comfortable little romance, didn't take many chances but was a nice relaxing watch.

Jouran - Well, the ending was a bit weird. Predicted what would happen but the execution wasn't great at the end. Shame as it had some pretty cool moments.

86 - Expected there to be an ep 12 considering how the LN finishes but this does mean that volume 1 hasn't been entirely covered. I assume that the epilogue will form the start of season 2, or possibly a second cour.

Combatants - basically sci-fi konosuba but with dirtier jokes. It was aight.

Koikimo - predictable, sort of fluffy romance. Not bad overall.




Next season shaping up rather nicely.