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Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!

conchobhar

What's Shenmue?
I'm with Wisteria here. What's the point of a faithful remake when the original is already a classic of the medium? It's just redundant. In a situation like that, I much prefer remakes, reboots and re-adaptations to do something new and put them own spin on things instead of lavishly recreating the first one. I'm not actually particularly impressed by the new Trigun, and I doubt I'll watch it, but I'm glad that it's actually trying to do something with the franchise instead of coasting on nostalgia.

I'm also with Wisteria that who cares about the Trigun reboot, we should all be talking about Tatami Time Machine Blues instead. It's so good!
 
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JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
TT: arguing about whether Trigun or Tatami is the more important revival.

Me: "Why is no one talking about Pui Pui Molcar season 2!?"
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
This season has continuity. And an overarching plot!

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Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Anyways, if y'all aren't about that piracy/vpn life, and are just waiting until you can get legal access: the date to remember is November 9th, and the place to remember is Disney+

Huh, well I do have Disney at the moment. Would it be a good time if I haven’t actually watched Tatami Galaxy? (I know the answer you want to give is “watch Tatami Galaxy, fool”, but you know, lots on the plate.)
 

conchobhar

What's Shenmue?
Huh, well I do have Disney at the moment. Would it be a good time if I haven’t actually watched Tatami Galaxy? (I know the answer you want to give is “watch Tatami Galaxy, fool”, but you know, lots on the plate.)
Afraid not. Time Machine Blues assumes familiarity with Galaxy; it basically picks up where that one left off, and spends no time reacquainting the viewer with any of the returning cast. Let this be a motivator to finally watch Tatami Galaxy! ;)
 
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Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Soon you too will be able to watch the greatest anime of all time. Genuinely a landmark moment because despite its vast influence and popularity, no incarnation of Aim for the Ace! has ever seen publication in English until now through official channels, as far as I'm aware. Find out what people were talking about fifty years ago!
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
no incarnation of Aim for the Ace! has ever seen publication in English until now through official channels, as far as I'm aware.
Let’s hear it for TechnoGirls. The ol’ club got a lot of great shoujo fansubs from them back in the day.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
Mob Psycho 100‘s final season is going places I wasn’t ready for. Dimple going back to fulfill his old dream of godhood after all the tribulations Mob and him have been through hurts. Dimple rescued him from Mogami’s nightmare world, and kept Mob sane when he thought his family had burned to death! Damn!

On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, Chainsaw Man seems like what would happen if Mark Millar drew manga. Why did this show get talked up for so many months? I don’t see it.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Chainsaw Man

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The Premise

A poor kid drowning in inherited debt makes ends meet by killing devils with the help of his chainsaw dog demon. However, eventually the criminals he owe throws him under the bus to be killed by a demon. When both are near death, his pet decides to merge them together into some sort of… devil man. Made of chainsaws. He kills the gangster, realizes he is free from debt and after meeting an officially sanctioned devil hunter, decides to become one himself.

It Gud?

I like it so far. I’ve been hearing people have been over the moon for it but it feels mostly like a nastier shounen series. Which I don’t mind because I often like the formula when done well and I think they do a great job with this initial “boy and his dog” story. I’m a little late waiting for the other shows I’m covering to have episodes to talking about so I’ve seen the other two and I’ll say with the boy and his dog story removed, it’s a little less exciting but I do like a lot of its humour, especially a fight were our protagonist goes ONLY for nut shots. And blames it on a nut devil. I’ll say the following two feels like it is working on making the new cast coalesce. Power seems like she’ll be a fun character, especially since (based on the OP) it seems like they are building up a relationship similar to Itadori and Kugisaki’s in Jujutsu Kaisen; rather than making the main boy and most prominent girl an item they will be buds and partners in being annoying to a third member.

Also, a lot of those episodes are revolving around the main character, unsure what he wants now that he has what he wants, deciding the next thing he wants is to feel tits and it’s a bit I don’t like as much. I get why this is the decision beyond the “gag” because I think it’s part of this guy’s story figuring out what he really wants beyond freedom and trying some things and it’s not nearly as sex pesty as most anime would play it but in the end it’s still a guy hoping to get a quid quo pro boob touch as a motivator.

Otherwise, I really do like this show and am looking forward to its direction. I’m not as over the moon as most but also not as aghast by it by some other tyrants. And as usual, Mappa is killing it.

Urusei Yatsura

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The Premise

Ataru is the world’s unluckiest boy… which would be more tragic if he wasn’t a little creep who constantly leers at and hits on women. But sure enough his bad luck tips over when he’s randomly chosen to save the Earth from oni alien invaders. Ataru has a week to catch the aliens’ strongest soldier the beautiful Lum in a game of tag. Ataru keeps losing and with time running out, a girl he likes promises to marry him if he wins. And he manages to use his wits to win while raving about getting married. He’s the hero… until Lum mistakenly thinks Ataru was proposing to her… and she will not take no for an answer.

It Gud?

This is a weird one. Back in the day, I was really into Ranma ½ but Urusei Yatsura was something I only caught occasionally and I enjoyed it OK but I don’t have much emotional connection to it. It’s one that is riding a tricky line in it’s return as it is one of the many properties from that era where the protagonist’s defining feature is goddamned sex pest. So I was a little wary going in.

I don’t know if I’m going to follow up on this simply due to my ambivalence to the source material but holy shit is this an amazing looking show. David Production already made their bones on a Jojo adaptation that generally got better looking each season and I think this cements them as the company to go to for realizing older manga. It’s goddamned gorgeous. It’s opening credits are perfect thematically as our womanizing protagonist has the tables turned on him by a possessive alien.

The interesting thing is that while, yeah, sex pest protag is kind of done (and when it isn’t, that’s a bad sign for your show) but I think the show does the best it can. I think it helps that by the metrics of the era, this isn’t nearly as bad as Ryo Saeba from City Hunter or similar characters. But also, it is a show we don’t see too much anymore; all the characters are shits. And that’s the actual selling point. I feel like we are in an era were it can be a harder sell, Rick and Morty and Always Sunny notwithstanding, to have leads who are plain bad people but I think the show knows it and is having fun with these jerks making each other life terrible. Even the parents break anime tradition of smiling, accepting non-entities into straight up fucking hating their teenage son and telling him repeatedly they wish he was never born. It should feel more mean-spirited but I think it works.

I might come back but seeing it’s not on Crunchyroll, I’m not excited. But it’s definitely one of the best productions of the year in a very good year of quality animation.

Management of a Novice Alchemist

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The Premise

A young girl goes to an academy for alchemy and manages to focus on her studies and pass with high honors thanks to an experienced tutor. However, her success came at the cost of not making any friends. She’s eventually provided with her own shop in the middle of nowhere… almost.

It Gud?

Um… I think? I watched this forever ago and I can vaguely remember plot points. And I didn’t dislike it. But I also had no desire to stick with it. Like, no objections, but I just wasn’t left with a desire to stick with it.

Pui Pui Molcar Driving School

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the Premise

The Ratmobiles go to school.

It Gud!

If you don’t know my answer, you just… don’t get me, man.

Arknights: Prelude to Dawn

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The Premise

A man wakes up to discover he’s lost his memory… and he’s the last hope in a world where a group of disease victims has turned to terrorism and a superstorm looms over the horizon. The man is a “doctor” and must remember how to fight his way to lead a counterinsurgency group to victory.

It Gud

No. It’s not awful and it has a promising start. I thought this might be a isekai at first but then I was thinking “if it is, then it is throwing us into a much more tense scenario than usual where even in the edgelordy ones characters usually are given breathing room to flex a cool muscle or learn to be badass”. This felt different… but then when I realized what its hand is, I was less impressed. The series is heavy on worldbuilding and I’m glad they don’t take too much time to exposition at us but then I realized this is based on a tactical JRPG gacha mobile game with the animal people being among the creature girls you can with win by luck, I was less impressive. The main character’s muteness became less “mysterious” and more “player insert.” The first adventure became less tense and more “tutorial mission with fake sense of tension.” And it’s not even that it is bad but when it showed it’s hand, the world building it was working on felt less engaging. This isn’t a comment on the Arknight game. Maybe it's good and fun. But it’s hard to make a tie-in exciting for me and this could have been far worse but I’m just not excited about the drab fantasy world of this series.

Play It Cool, Guys

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The Premise

They look cool and sexy. But even cool, sexy boys can be complete hot messes. And accident prone. And cringy.

It Gud?

At first, I thought it was sort of an inverse version of the comedy Haven’t You Heard, I’m Sakamoto. That show is about a cool dude who is unflappable to a ridiculous degree. I thought this might be about cool dudes trying to hide being flapped. And it kind of is but they end up exposing their flaps… but their vulnerabilities clearly are making them cuter to the women they encounter, who find their errors adorable. At least, that’s the case for the first lead but this is an ensemble so remains to be seen for the other characters.

But one episode in, it’s pretty charming. It also helps that the episodes are only about 12 minutes. There are a lot of anime I probably would have kept with if they didn’t go full length and I appreciate that it won’t overstay its welcome, at least episode to episode. It seems to be a sweet little something and am hoping it keeps up its low key charms.

Eternal Boys

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The Premise

A salaryman struggling to find work accidentally stumbles onto a new job opportunity… a idol group made of 40 year old men.

It Gud?

I feel like I’ve hit a certain issue with the idol shows I try; they are best when they aren’t idol shows. I like Zombieland Saga but the show was best in the wacky first episode, unpredictable weird and funny. It’s still fun and sweet afterward and goes some surprising places but it never gets better. I liked the first episode of Heroines Run the Show but then it gets into the weird, kind-of-toxic issues with idols and reinforces ideas like “they shouldn’t be allowed to date because all the ladies need to dream about them” or some shit. Phantom of the Idol starts fun but the last episode is a nearly insufferable full on performance (the show also thinks the fan characters are far funnier than they are.

But all the same, I want to try this. It’s got a pretty decent and sweet first episode and AGAIN, we have a 12-minute show. This helps a lot for watchability and not outstaying its welcome. More 12 minute shows please.



Romantic Killer

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The Premise

A high school girl doesn’t have time for romance. There’s too many video games to play, chocolate to eat and cats to snuggle. But a meddling wizard takes those away in an attempt to force her into a romantic life and line its own pockets in the process. She’s doesn’t like this turn and rather work toward romance to get them back, she decides to fight against romance, hoping the wizard will get frustrated and quit. But can the plan work when the wizard already has a hot dude lined up for her?

It Gud?

I… mostly like it. It’s swinging for the fences in being wacky but it’s a hit or miss when it pays off. The misses aren’t cringey but it’s a thing where I feel like it treats the yelling as funny enough and it doesn’t always work. But there are a lot of good gags. The episode begins with a parody otome game in 3D that looks intentionally ugly and off and the sexy boy looks hilariously off. That stuff hits really good. And I do kind of appreciate an element we haven’t seen in a while; an ending theme sung by a character (I guess Saiki K. had those but that’s the last one that comes to mind). It definitely a romance but it is unabashedly silly. In many ways, the mascot character sidekick as antagonist feels like wacky, comedy-centric update of older fantasy shoujo like Hime no Ribbon, Tonde Burin or Full Moon o Shigashite where a young girl has magical assistance to improve her life, except here, it is completely against her will and the mascot sucks.

I’m curious how it’s going to go. I don’t think I’ll be happy if the message is “drop your favourite stuff to find love” but the fact that the shitty wizard makes me think it might not go there. I’m actually hoping the direction is the lead deflects her suitors and inadvertently helps other boys find love and ironically does the wizard’s job better. But I don’t think it’s quite shown it’s hand in this department yet so I’ll go in cautiously optimistic for an interesting take. So far it’s promising.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I binged Samurai Flamenco over the last three or four days. Just couldn't stop. I'm not sure if it's good (you could probably easily argue that it isn't), but it was one of the wildest rides I have been on, in terms of Anime.

In case anyone wants to watch it, don't stop with episode 7. Give it at least a few more episodes. Saying more would spoil things, and even this feels a bit spoiler-y, but it seems like a lot of people stop at this point. I get why, but it's a shame. Don't demand anything from the show, embrace it.

Again, not liking it, or stopping, is fine. I just hope people will give it a chance.

As an introduction, it starts as a deconstruction of superheroes in Japan (Tokusatsu, I think - think Power Rangers, or more fittingly Kamen Rider), with a guy trying to be a hero. He simply starts out by telling people not to litter, or stealing umbrellas. He also befriends a cop from the neighbourhood, who knows his identity. This is all episode one stuff, and the basic setup.

Also, I tried watching Romantic Killer, but the basic premise felt painful. Yeah, wasting your life away with video games and chocolate is problematic, but the problem here is not that romance is missing. I just really hate this idea, that someone wants to force romance onto someone else, even if it's just a comedy, and the point is that the obnoxious jerk is wrong. Certainly not for me.

I also couldn't stop thinking about what he did with the cat. Is it dead? Is it living in kitty-heaven? Just show me the adventures of this cat in limbo (while being just a regular cat), that would be an instant watch for me. Like, Alice in Wonderland, but with a cat who doesn't give a fuck, who just eats and rolls around on her back.

Great, now I want that show to happen.
 
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Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I also couldn't stop thinking about what he did with the cat. Is it dead? Is it living in kitty-heaven? Just show me the adventures of this cat in limbo (while being just a regular cat), that would be an instant watch for me.
It's actually very clear where the cat went. In the first episode, she's downstairs when her parents announce leaving and the cat is on the air conditioner, out of reach. Basically, the cat is still around and in the house but like pretty much anything Tantalus wants, it is keeping itself forever out of reach.
 
Akiba Maid War is the hard boiled crime drama about maid cafes in 1999 I didn't know I needed.

So maybe not fully hard boiled. Soft boiled maybe? Either way, I knew this was the show for me when the first episode has one maid shoot another right in the forhead and blood them came gushing like a hose. It's a horrible, horrible black comedy joke that made me laugh way too hard.
 

Hilene

Loves "Friendly Girls"
(She/Her)
It's actually very clear where the cat went. In the first episode, she's downstairs when her parents announce leaving and the cat is on the air conditioner, out of reach. Basically, the cat is still around and in the house but like pretty much anything Tantalus wants, it is keeping itself forever out of reach.
The parents take the cat with them overseas.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
I binged Samurai Flamenco over the last three or four days. Just couldn't stop. I'm not sure if it's good (you could probably easily argue that it isn't), but it was one of the wildest rides I have been on, in terms of Anime.

In case anyone wants to watch it, don't stop with episode 7. Give it at least a few more episodes. Saying more would spoil things, and even this feels a bit spoiler-y, but it seems like a lot of people stop at this point. I get why, but it's a shame. Don't demand anything from the show, embrace it.

I’m pretty sure I watched all of Samurai Flamenco quite a while ago, and interestingly off the top of my head I remember almost *nothing* about what actually happened in it, other than the fact that it had some really serious left turns in its plot and tone. I do think I enjoyed it in the end though.
 

Hilene

Loves "Friendly Girls"
(She/Her)
Anyway, I wanted some time to think about it, and I really don't like Romantic Killer. And me explaining this is probably going to be a bit unfair, because it's not so much something that the show did, so much as it's something that the trailer did.

I don't think I need to explain more than what's already been said up-thread. A lot of those are reasons enough on their own to be down on the story. But what actually got me is that the trailers made it seem like a much different idea. Like I said, maybe this is on me but the trailers gave me an impression of the protag being, like. Aggressively aromantic. That all this would be forces on her to be in a relationship and she would have none of it. Instead, we see that the Potato Wizard's schemes are working. Taking these things out of her life actually did work to get her thinking about love and relationships. And I don't like this! It feels bad to me!

Otherwise, the show is actually pretty entertaining from the two episodes I have seen so far. It just... Ugh. Misses my mark kinda hard.
 
From what you've articulated to us, you're more hung up on the character designs than anything else, which is a pretty discrete aspect of the show and doesn't actually have a lot to do with the quality or techincal prowess of the animation.
 
The new Gundam show is trucking along and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. It's on Crunchyroll this season and not on Gundam.Info YouTube channel like the last several Gundam shows have been, so it's hard to gauge how many eyeballs this show is hitting. versus other recent-ish Gundams. But just annecdotally, fan engagement seems to be up. A lot. There's been a big uptick in fanart for Gundam stuff regarding this show and I'm all here for it.

m3p4pyidj41a1.jpg

Every passing week it just becomes genuinely more and more hilarious that Bandai spent ACTUAL, MULTIPLE DECADES pathetically quivering in fear of the mere idea of having a Gundam show with a female main character... out of fear that all the dudes who buy plastic models would somehow stop buying plastic models if they had to start rooting for a girl. Like breh, have these old, stodgey execs ever met an otaku before? (Don't answer that question.)
 

BEAT

LOUDSKULL
(DUDE/BRO)
From what you've articulated to us, you're more hung up on the character designs than anything else, which is a pretty discrete aspect of the show and doesn't actually have a lot to do with the quality or techincal prowess of the animation.

I was more referring to everything on display looking like a gutted bastardization of something I love but fuck it I'll happily tack "It looks like a fucking PS3 cutscene" onto my list of grievances sure why not.
 
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That's an extremely uncharitable and pretty easy to disprove accusation, but I get this is an emotional topic for you.

They screened the first episode of this show during conventions already, and the annecodes I've read so far seem to all think that while it looks different, but the vibe and spirit are all intensely Trigun. Guess we'll find out and be able to judge for ourselves in a couple of months.
 
What I watched:
Something something, maxed out my defenses

What I expected:
Moe giant dad

What I got:
Incompetent moeblob Moes herself to be invincible due to even more incompetent game designers, programmers and testers who moed themselves from having a soon to fail mmovrrpg to something that may hopefully live on as fanart fodder

The show in general is entertaining and cute but her continually moeing her way to more and more means of Invicibility says both about the character writing and fake games design they live in. In short: how is she the first person to make this broken build and by accident to boot. Either this game was destined to fail in a matter of months or I just need to dial my suspension of disbelief to broken Tier levels and try to enjoy season 2.

It may just be my Jojo brain taking over but creative uses of just the poison dragon stand she has can effectively do most if not all the roles of her other powers do, but then she cannot be a robot angel demon monster eldritch abomination zombie ghost alien disaster.

However it is the most I've enjoyed out of CGDCT in a while... until

What I watched:
Adachi and Shimamura

What I expected:
Cute girls doing cute things, no magic, no supernatural, no otherworldly bullshit like that except for anime's expected poor handling of the shows subject matter

What I got:
Who knew gay disaster could be so entertaining and so wholesome and with minimal bullshit. I don't think I've enjoyed watching people do what is effectively nothing for hours since K-On! Movie.

And of course the biggest disaster relating to the show is this will never get a second season.
 
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q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
Akiba Maid War is the anime of all time. It's seriously impressive how well it nails both comedic and dramatic timing, often at the exact same time. Ten Birdie Wings out of ten.

The Little Lies We All Tell was my other surprise favorite of this past season. It made me laugh out loud more than probably any other anime I've seen this year, and while it has a similar chaotic energy to a lot of other series that can get pretty mean spirited in their humor (Asobi Asobase, Sabagebu) it's actually very wholesome. At its core it's about four people who are generally well-meaning and genuinely good friends, but also colossal idiots who get entangled in ridiculous schemes both fantastical and mundane.

Raven of the Inner Palace also feels underappreciated, a solid fantasy drama about court politics and supernatural mysteries in what I think is a setting loosely based on Chinese history. It can get very melancholy, with the protagonist's main gig being to identify ghosts and help them move on peacefully, but its overall trajectory is uplifting. The ending is somewhat inconclusive, but the novels it's based on have been licensed and I'm looking forward to them.
 
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