[Cause]

I'm finally finishing Naruto and the closer to the ending I get the more I am certain the Pain arc was the pinnacle of Naruto. The final 100 episodes of endless war and battle actually have none of the clever twists or tactics that made watching Naruto defeating arrogant opponents so satisfying and the constant power ups feel unearned only hinted at in flashbacks that break up the action or pulled out from nowehere. Before wathing Naruto master a new jutsu after spending ten episodes trying and failing to master it, it felt like he deserved it. Now its just watching two ninjas fight until one can reach a higher lvl of super saiyan than the other.

Its rather disappointing.

[Maark Abbott]

I mean, Naruto is basic shonen. It kinda comes with the territory.

[Maark Abbott]

Picked up "For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord" (or something like that).

Surprisingly wholesome fantasy adoptive father / daughter bonding.

[D'rek]

Oh wow, there's a Doctor Stone anime now? I remember that getting a ton of marketing as being the next big Shonen Jump title and all a while ago. I guess it was inevitable. I'll have to check it out.

[D'rek]

Your guess is as good as mine, there's too many Gundams to remember what's what!


I checked out the first Dr Stone episode. It seems well made and I'm sure it's adapting things faithfully, it'll probably be pretty popular, but the show so far kinda irks me. It's full of dialogue (sometimes internal) that doesn't really need to be there - like I don't need the main character shouting his girlfriend's name in his head over and over to know that he's thinking about her, obviously. And the brains/brawn dyanmic of the two main characters is too far for my taste, like with the brawns character literally saying "I'm just the muscle, I don't need to think about things" ... no, that's dumb, why would you not want to learn how to survive in a desperate situation. The premise is super hokey too, but I'll give that the benefit of the doubt for now since it's just 1 episode.

[LinearPhilosopher]

BfuckinK, on 07 July 2019 - 03:41 PM, said:

Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin Advent of the Red Comet began on TOON last night. Will try it out. Not sure if this is “new” or not.

Its a new gundam show that takes place in the UC timeline.

Specifically, its the origin of one of the antagonists

[Maark Abbott]

Yeah, I've picked up Dr Stone ep1 and the titular character's smarmy smugness is kind of irritating already.

[Maark Abbott]

DanMachi season 2 comes, so obviously picked that up.

Filling my spaces with trashy harem / imouto animes just now.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 08 July 2019 - 07:20 AM, said:

Filling my spaces with trashy harem / imouto animes just now.

As is tradition

Tried out the first episode of Are We Lost? - definitely very pandery, but it was funny too. I'll give it a couple more episodes.

Also tried out Granbelm, which looks to essentially be a fairly by-the-numbers magical girl deathmatch show (there's been a few of those in recent years, though I haven't seen any of them), except they pilot magic mecha. First episode was alright but nothing too great or surprising. Preview for the second episode has the characters all meeting in the real world where they can't fight, so I'll wait for that and see if it grows on me.

[QuickTidal]

In case anyone missed it over the weekend. The first footage from EVA 3.0+1.0 is finally up...and my gods...



Like we needed more proof that the Rebuild films are sequels and not retellings (they are not, nor have ever masqueraded as retellings no matter how many times people watched the first one and claimed that was the case)...the whole Near 3rd Impact in 2.0 turning large portions of the earth into Angel/Eva material meaning everyone has to wear plug suits everywhere, including Ritsuko and Misato...

Anyways, I need this to get here already so I can re-watch 1.0 and 2.0 and then head right into this.

[D'rek]

So is this *actually* going to be the last one? The last rebuild movie and the last Evangelion anything? Is Anno actually finally happy with an ending and willing to stop? Somehow I've staunchly avoided seeing or really knowing much of anything about any of the rebuild movies so far, with the sort of plan of watching them all back-to-back when they're all out, maybe with a rewatch of Evangelion before it, too.

[QuickTidal]

D, on 08 July 2019 - 02:49 PM, said:

So is this *actually* going to be the last one? The last rebuild movie and the last Evangelion anything? Is Anno actually finally happy with an ending and willing to stop? Somehow I've staunchly avoided seeing or really knowing much of anything about any of the rebuild movies so far, with the sort of plan of watching them all back-to-back when they're all out, maybe with a rewatch of Evangelion before it, too.

Yes, the 4th of the planned Rebuild films. And yes as far as I can tell it's the end of the story Anno wanted to tell...and I mean he's WAY way past the suicidal guy who initially began to write it, so it would be a good time to end it.

Just re-watch END OF EVA before you watch these, I doubt you need to rematch the series itself. The Rebuild films are clearly what happens after that ending (after Shinji reboots reality for "another try"), even though they seem to re-tread the same things, the detritus of the "series/Rebirth/EoE" reality can be seen in the backdrop of this one (blood on the moon, ect.), so you really only need to know the EoE ending going into this one. And whatever you THINK you know going in...goes completely off the rails in 3.0 (the last film) so much that 3.0+1.0 (aka 4) would look utterly alien to you.

[D'rek]

BfuckinK, on 08 July 2019 - 10:41 PM, said:

What is Neon Genesis Evangelion? Any good?

Oh boy, here we go...

So Neon Genesis Evangelion (or Evangelion for short, or just Eva for even shorter) was this super duper wildly popular show from the mid-90s. The surface premise of it is that it's a near-future sci-fi mecha show where a teenage boy named Shinji is suddenly called upon by his estranged father to pilot a giant robot against "angels", an increasingly bizarre lineup of giant alien creatures that wreak havoc whereever they tread. Around the time of Shinji's birth there was an apocalyptic event that left the Earth struggling to survive, and it seems if the angels ever reach the basement of Shinji's dad's headquarters another calamity will occur and destroy the Earth for good... maybe.

That's your basic premise, but then the adults around Shinji keep talking about a ton of terms they never much explain to him, the first apocalypse gets called the second, Shinji's giant robot goes berserk on him, there's a shadowy council of computers that the heads of the organization report to, and also a separate room of disembodied voices that they also report to, and much more. Meanwhile, Shinji hates his father, is depressed as hell, is frustratedly horny as hell, and his two fellow pilots are equally depressed and mentally unstable in different ways, and the whole enterprise could probably come crashing down at any moment once one or more of them snaps or finally falls apart.

The show was directed by Hideaki Anno (hence the dark psychological elements - the teenage characters are basically based on his own experiences with clinical depression) and made at Gainax so of course it basically ran out of money/schedule before it reached its proper end, leading to an even more "what the fuck" ending than they'd initially planned. But it was SO popular with the adult audiences that they got convinced to fix the ending, so they made a whole movie that straight up replaces the last two episodes (and in-between there's Evangelion:Death and Evangelion:Rebirth which I don't even know what those are). AND THEN Anno still wasn't satisfied I guess so he went and made his own studio separate from Gainax' perpetual debt/bankruptcy and decided to make a whole modern Evangelion movie quadrilogy that is a quasi-remake-but-actually-sequel... thing.

The reason you're even asking is probably because it popped up on American Netflix recently, and that's a whole other can of worms. There was an English dub for the series when it first aired, but Netflix just recently bought the outside-Japan rights to the show and made their own new dub (and sub?) of the show, which of course has upset a bunch of fans of the original (there are at least *some* differences apparently, but I have no idea what the extent of the differences are).

So yeah, the combination of the show being hugely popular when it aired, its "what the fuck" ending that kept people talking about it for years, then the follow-up projects, then the "rebuild" movies more recently, and plus the show inspired a ton of successor shows and characters has given it this huge place in the anime cultural history. It's probably the one show that fits "every anime fan needs to watch this at some point" more than any other show/movie.

[QuickTidal]

BfuckinK, on 08 July 2019 - 10:41 PM, said:

What is Neon Genesis Evangelion? Any good?

Drek explained it better than I could have.

It’s my fave anime of all time. Ever.

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 08 July 2019 - 11:56 PM, said:

BfuckinK, on 08 July 2019 - 10:41 PM, said:

What is Neon Genesis Evangelion? Any good?

Oh boy, here we go...

So Neon Genesis Evangelion (or Evangelion for short, or just Eva for even shorter) was this super duper wildly popular show from the mid-90s. The surface premise of it is that it's a near-future sci-fi mecha show where a teenage boy named Shinji is suddenly called upon by his estranged father to pilot a giant robot against "angels", an increasingly bizarre lineup of giant alien creatures that wreak havoc whereever they tread. Around the time of Shinji's birth there was an apocalyptic event that left the Earth struggling to survive, and it seems if the angels ever reach the basement of Shinji's dad's headquarters another calamity will occur and destroy the Earth for good... maybe.

That's your basic premise, but then the adults around Shinji keep talking about a ton of terms they never much explain to him, the first apocalypse gets called the second, Shinji's giant robot goes berserk on him, there's a shadowy council of computers that the heads of the organization report to, and also a separate room of disembodied voices that they also report to, and much more. Meanwhile, Shinji hates his father, is depressed as hell, is frustratedly horny as hell, and his two fellow pilots are equally depressed and mentally unstable in different ways, and the whole enterprise could probably come crashing down at any moment once one or more of them snaps or finally falls apart.

The show was directed by Hideaki Anno (hence the dark psychological elements - the teenage characters are basically based on his own experiences with clinical depression) and made at Gainax so of course it basically ran out of money/schedule before it reached its proper end, leading to an even more "what the fuck" ending than they'd initially planned. But it was SO popular with the adult audiences that they got convinced to fix the ending, so they made a whole movie that straight up replaces the last two episodes (and in-between there's Evangelion:Death and Evangelion:Rebirth which I don't even know what those are). AND THEN Anno still wasn't satisfied I guess so he went and made his own studio separate from Gainax' perpetual debt/bankruptcy and decided to make a whole modern Evangelion movie quadrilogy that is a quasi-remake-but-actually-sequel... thing.

The reason you're even asking is probably because it popped up on American Netflix recently, and that's a whole other can of worms. There was an English dub for the series when it first aired, but Netflix just recently bought the outside-Japan rights to the show and made their own new dub (and sub?) of the show, which of course has upset a bunch of fans of the original (there are at least *some* differences apparently, but I have no idea what the extent of the differences are).

So yeah, the combination of the show being hugely popular when it aired, its "what the fuck" ending that kept people talking about it for years, then the follow-up projects, then the "rebuild" movies more recently, and plus the show inspired a ton of successor shows and characters has given it this huge place in the anime cultural history. It's probably the one show that fits "every anime fan needs to watch this at some point" more than any other show/movie.

The only things i<d like to tack onto this is a good part of "getting" EVA comes less from actual plot analysis and more the overarching themes. The guy in the video below is far more articulate than I will ever be, while also being far more well read than I will ever but a key point in the eva is the Meta nature of the show and how it is a direct commentary on those who watch anime. Specifically the ending of the show deals with depression and how one needs to go out in the world and actually interact with it. Rather than being fixated on idealized forms of people that are ultimately just empty vessels. (basically don't be weab trash) .It's not out of lack of budget in the ending you see pictures of all the fan mail they received, he's making commentary on his fans (which he unsurprisingly dislikes)

The rebuild movies further continue on this theme what with many of the characters not aging despite the fact in universe there was a time skip.

[Maark Abbott]

Evangelion is great, but if you're watching dub, go for the original. Fuck Netflix for trying to re-paint a classic that didn't need it.

Death and Rebirth I own on BHS (still!). It's basically a recap of the entire season up until Episode 24, I think it covers some of End of Evangelion too.

Anyway, I just picked up the most BASED anime every to grace mankind.

How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift?

SIDE CHEST

[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 09 July 2019 - 02:11 AM, said:

The only things i<d like to tack onto this is a good part of "getting" EVA comes less from actual plot analysis and more the overarching themes. The guy in the video below is far more articulate than I will ever be, while also being far more well read than I will ever but a key point in the eva is the Meta nature of the show and how it is a direct commentary on those who watch anime. Specifically the ending of the show deals with depression and how one needs to go out in the world and actually interact with it. Rather than being fixated on idealized forms of people that are ultimately just empty vessels. (basically don't be weab trash) .It's not out of lack of budget in the ending you see pictures of all the fan mail they received, he's making commentary on his fans (which he unsurprisingly dislikes)

The rebuild movies further continue on this theme what with many of the characters not aging despite the fact in universe there was a time skip.

Personally, I think the whole "it's a meta commentary about anime fans wasting their lives and needing to engage with the world more" or whatever is mostly a bunch of hokey over-analysis spawned from people latching onto a couple off-hand comments made by Anno and the other creators in a few interviews. Kinda like all the Christian imagery and symbolism in the show, which people for years made tons of analytical essays about... but the creators admitted they used just because it looked and sounded cool And the ending is definitely at least 50% because of budget/logistic woes. Gainax' scheduling and cash flow issues are well-known (there were a bunch of bad business events and lay-offs right before Eva, and the company president got arrested for tax fraud a couple years after Eva).

[D'rek]

Anyways, I watched the first episode of Cop Craft last night and it was awesome. The premise is like Bright (that Will Smith movie from a year or two ago) - a buddy-cop duo where one is the jaded old human detective and the other is some sort of ass-kicking elf girl, taking down drug gangs together.

[QuickTidal]

BK, to elaborate on what Mark said above...the order of watching is:

Evangelion Series Episode 1-24 (IMPORTANT: SKIP Episode 25 and 26!)
then find the first movie DEATH & REBIRTH. It is a boiled down version of the series but allows you a more introspective look at the overall themes (as Linear mentioned).
Then you do the second film END OF EVANGELION which is a fucking MIND-TRIP in the best way, as IT properly ends the series (episodes 25-26 of the Series kind of pulled the punches and showed you none of the actual things that happened and instead firmly insert you into Shinji's mind instead, which was fucking whack). End of Eva is a transcendent flick.

THEN you can board the Rebuild train after that, there are three movies out so far (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, with 3.0+1.0 [aka 4] coming soonish)

The best thing about Eva is that the more you think about it afterwards, the more the philosophical, religious, social, and other aspects of it really rear their heads. There is SO much meat.

[D'rek]

I disagree with skip episode 25 and 26. Otherwise you're leaving yourself out all the context of how it actually/first ended in the mid-90s and why people were so "what the fuck?" 'd about it. Then again I've never watched Death/Rebirth so I'm clearly not a real fan