The Anime/Manga/Related Merchandise Thread

I started One Punch Man, and you've just reminded me to carry on. So cheers for that.

I'M CRYING HERE

DR3 Hope Arc Spoilers:

I thought it was pretty meh to be honest.  Without going in to spoilers I'll boil it down to the simplest level: it didn't earn the ending it wanted to have.  

My full thoughts:

To be fair it doesn't help that I watched the absolutely incredible Madoka Magica during the shows run, a show that proved you can only have twelve episodes and have a cast of surprisingly deep characters and a absolutely brilliant and emotionally satisfying ending.  Still that's no excuse.  Ultimately I simply don't believe Danganronpa 3 deserved to have the ending that it gave us.  It could have worked, but between the lack of emotional weight and retrospective lacklustre nature of the series it simply doesn't.  

Spoilers:

Ultimately I can't help but feel this was a chapter that simply lacked the appropriate build-up to give it that weight it needed, and as a result was perhaps even unnecessary.  The completely open-ended ending of Danganronpa 2 may have had room for a sequel to wrap things up, however it also worked perfectly fine with the series themes and provided emotional closure to the survivors.  This ending considering all of that just felt unneeded and perhaps even damaging.


Ah well, the ride was fun if nothing else.  And with that I shall now be moving on to Digimon Adventure.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I started One Punch Man, and you've just reminded me to carry on. So cheers for that.

Heh, I could see that response coming from a mile away.  Mostly because, I'll agree, the ending felt a bit 'out of nowhere' to an extent...  But also because you don't go for the cutesy happy stuff as much as I do.

I don't care.  It was wonderfully happy.  Minimal new people were deus-ex-machina-ed in order to give the series the ending it needed to have.  And it was earned by basically the entire Despair series being horribly depressing.

That's not to say I wouldn't have wanted to have seen...:

I ain't saying your interpretation is wrong - like I said, I could predict it, and can kind of see where you were coming from.  But also where the writers were coming from.  And it made me happy, and I finished the AA6 DLC as well today so I'm double happy, and possibly in need of a mile-long walk or something to work it off.


Incidentally, I... er... didn't care much for 1PM?  I watched the first half-dozen episodes, and because Mr. 1PM is in no danger whatsoever there's no tension at all.  Nor was it funny enough to make me laugh.  Which is sad. Have you looked at the other recent anime by the same chap, can't recall its name, and if so what's that like?

It's about a man who trained so hard he went bald. It is the very best thing ever.

Personally, I found it funny enough to enjoy - not being in danger is true of all superheroes, so I liked seeing that mocked.

Not a fan of super cutesy happy stuff!?  Chunibyo.  Watch.  Now.  Cutest anime ever, and one of my top shows to boot!  

I get what they were going for, I just don't think they did it remotely well.  Plus the bias towards the dr2 cast rankles me, if they want a super duper happy ending then fine, but at least spread it around.  Dr2 ended pretty happy as well, which is also why the ending annoyed me, they got the balance right with that game, this ending completely ruined it.  

Plus

Spoiler:

On the plus side

Spoiler:

And yeah opm is the best. So many glorious pokes at superheroes.

I've had the sudden urge to watch all of Sword art again from scratch while waiting for the new series to come out (like the monster hunter one)
Plus I'm still collecting Ace attorney so I can binge it in one go

I'm saving Ace Attorney for after I've no more cases to play through. Also, I do need to jump back into One Punch Man as I loved the first few episodes... not only that, but I've got a load of Dragon Ball Super to catch up on! Anime binge imminent, I think.

I found Sword Art to be far too rushed. The way it jumped large groups of floors at a time and seemed to just introduce a random new girl to fall in love with Kirito every week was pretty rough and made it kinda hard to care. It was alright though.

Yeah I get that with the girls and how he had to be a big hero but at least he settled down in the end.
And oh yeah I'm a bit behind in Dragon ball super myself, might have to do a catch-up as apparently it's gotten interesting

Any anime with a harem plot-device is going to make me twitch silently.

Also, as-yet-unmentioned excellent bit from DR3 finale:

The thing about sao that rubbed me the wrong way was when the fairy dance arc took the only strong female in the cast, locked her in a actual cage, and tormented her with a rapey villain for the entire arc, leading to her being outright molested in front of Kirito for the "climax" of the arc and at the time series as a whole.  

Seriously f*** that noise.  And I dare anybody to try and justify it with the one escape attempt that ended with her being actually molested by tentacles.  And don't even get me started on the not-incest crush of Kirito's adoptive sister.  Thank heavens for the second series, which ended on a surprisingly well done arc focused around said character.  



On dr3, that entire opening sequence was awesome.  I may gripe about what they did but nothing will change the fact the first six or so minutes of episode Hope was awesome on every level!  


Watching Kill la Kill right now.  Got about halfway through back when it was airing then fell off the wagon, someone I know irl is watching it now so I figured it was the perfect time to restart it!  So far it hasn't disappointed, hilarious action, parodic fanservice, and old school animation that smashes that nostalgia button!  Pretty good music too, but that's kinda agiven when we're dealing with Sawano (or as less informed people may know him "the guy who did Xenoblade X's music", one of mya fav anime ost composers!)  

Absolute blast!  You know a series is great stuff when you've got a great big silly grin plastered on your face for its entire duration!

I really enjoyed Kill La Kill! A girl from work was watching it back when it was on Netflix. It was stylish, funny, ridiculous and mad, and I even managed to get really into the drama of it all. Plus, the music is absolutely bloody amazing.

Finished Kill La Kill last night, binged the last nine episodes in one sitting!

I thought the series couldn't possibly become more ludicrous after the halfway mark.  I was wrong.  

The final enemy identity:

I mean I guess I should'v seen something like that coming given the series own mantra about enslavement to clothes, but I sure didn't!  

Despite the series utterly ridiculous premise and presentation the second half brought some surprisingly well done character development to the table for the two leading ladies and had some surprisingly gripping drama going on.  

Ultimately the series ends as it started: a brilliant, insane, demented cheerful ride and a perfect example calculated stupidity to great comedic effect.  From Satsuki's glorious lines about subjugation being liberation (I still can't believe they turned her opening speech in to something that made actual sense, like I said, calculated stupidity) to Nudist Beach's leader getting nude every time he's on camera (complete with clothes that sloooooly slide off him of their own accord and lurid censor lights over the nipples with the single greatest theme ever ) to action sequences that fluctuate from deliberate low budget to highly detailed over the top choreography and production values, the series is a must-watch.  Yes, even for those who dislike "fanservice"


Does it top its spiritual predecessor Gurren Lagann?  Honestly?  Yes, I really do feel it topped it.  Sometimes it's the small things, like the female cast existing for more than just walking fanservice to the constant optimism to the super over the top background music.  As far as I'm concerned Kill La Kill is an essential watch, and has easily cemented itself among my top five anime.

Athrun888 wrote:

Yes, even for those who dislike "fanservice"

This has been my reason for avoiding it, since the fanservice seems ridiculous and overpowering, and I feel that much 'parody' of fanservice falls foul of Poe's Law. How exactly does KlK subvert this? Especially interested in the passionately feminist Drunka's point of view.

Oh that's because everything is overpowering and demented.  It's the shows thing, being as insane as humanly possible.  The show ramps absolutely everything up to eleven.  Then it finds a way to ram it up several hundred notches past eleven.

-----example-----

The series starts with GIANT WHITE TEXT on a black screen introducing the setting while a downtrodden hunched seedy looking teacher lectures a class on Hitler and fascism, the camera fades in to the teacher before it pans across the class showing a girl asleep at her desk with a comical sleep bubble.  

Suddenly a loud bang emanates from the submarine shaped classroom door and the class falls silent.  The handle starts to turn before something smashes in to it with enough force to half blow it out of the door, suddenly the door is kicked across the room proceeding to impact against the opposite wall window with enough force for the door to smash in to pieces, said shattered door pieces proceed to hurtle in to the middle of the classroom impacting with enough force that the shockwaves send an explosion through the class throwing the entire class, tables, and chairs in to the air.

The teacher proceeds to nervously remark that class is in session before this theme starts playing.  Colourful stars shine in the darkness of the open door before a towering muscular man proceeds to enter the room towering over the teacher as if fifty times his size before bellowing at the top of his lungs like an army Sargent that he is on official business.  Two lines of clone-like students appear before the giant man at attention.  

The giant man slowly turns towards the class, before announcing his name as Ira Gagamoori, chair of the disciplinary committee,
his name and title appearing in the screen in
GIANT RED TEXT

----end example----



As for the fanservice,



it subverts it through four factors.  The first is the aforementioned in your face nature of nudity (sexualised and otherwise), first it shell-shocks you, after that you become completely inoculated.  The second is it touches on themes of shame (and by extension pride) in ones own body, only briefly but at an early enough stage in the show that it makes its point about self-acceptance and pride in oneself well.  Thirdly, where fanservice is typical designed to titillate, pander, and otherwise demean the character at the focus of it, klk somehow manages to feel the exact opposite, and the main cast never feel demeaned or objectified.  

The fourth, final, and second most important reason.  It has a actual reason for being the way it is.  There is nudity, because clothes, and the lack of them, are the root of the overall story.  And despite the absolutely insane presentation the show has it somehow manages to deliver that story (when it puts it centre stage, the early part of the series is about Ryuko and Satsuki's rivalry) sincerely.  It doesn't feel like an excuse for perversion, it feels legitimate.  

Yes, there is a ton of nudity and dirty humour, however it never feels like it's perving on the main characters or there to titillate and objectify.


Be warned however that the show on first viewing does shellshock the viewer and takes three or so episodes to pass.  It's a syringe of distilled insanity.  Glorious insanity.

Athrun covered most of it fairly well. Like Bayonetta, this might be one where Balla and I disagree.

The first few episodes, the T&A did seem crass, and I forced myself to power through because I fancied the girl who recommended it. As it went on, though, it used the nudity to carry some very positive messages, to objectify males and females of various body types, and to do some pretty funny gags. The whole thing, from the visuals, through the animation and the story, feels like it is very deliberately taking everything anime does and turning it all the way up to 11.

The stakes are stupidly high. The action is ludicrously over the top. The text and the presentation felt really cool and Scott Pilgrim-esque. The comedy is delightfully dumb. Among all that, it feels like the skimpy outfits should be up to 11 as well.

Stuff like this bothers me when it's shoehorned in, or undermines the female characters' positions. Here, most of the cast are female and they're all legit characters. And, as Athrun said, clothing is at the heart of the story. I think the name is a pun in Japan, where the words for kill and tailor are similar.

Yeah the crass sexual stuff faded a bit after the first few episodes, around the first Satsuki fight where the concept of shame/pride was introduced with Ryuko overcoming her physical self-esteem issues.  

Thinking about it the show is an anti-deconstruction, rather than the tried and true method of taking apart a subject piece by piece and analysing what it would mean to apply realism to the tropes (WATCH.  MADOKA.) as a deconstruction would it instead chooses to romp the dial on every single one of them to absolute maximum, then engaging an overdrive mode, and showing the absolute chaos and insanity that ensues when you take everything that is already the illogical and demented medium that is anime and, rather than turn them on their head, let them run rampant to expose the absolute absurdity for what it is. That goes especially for the "fanservice", which quickly takes on the same absurd hue everything else has.


Also while I'm here I'm going to be really immature and mention I love the fact there's an organisation in the show called Nudist Beach. All organisations should be called equally brilliant names from now on!

Watch.  Madoka.




There are few series, of anything, from books, to movies, to games, to anime series, that can genuinely strike me at my emotional core.  Especially nowadays.  Madoka has consistently proven to be one of the few, the series being a brilliant, if incredibly dark, deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre.  With plot twists almost every episode and a brilliant journey of its core characters that shows you can in fact create a compelling set of characters in a short 12 episode series it remains a must watch for any anime fan.  


So, with all that in mind today I finally inserted my blu-ray disc of the sequel movie, Madoka Magica Rebellion.  

With how the series ended you would think it impossible to create a sequel that doesn't feel like an absolute cash-in, you would think it impossible to make a logical continuation of characters journey's and development.  After all the original story ended with the TV series.  The characters achieved what was, at the time, their full development.  The story reached its brilliant and completely logical conclusion.  There should be nowhere else to go.  That was where I was, thankfully, proven completely wrong.  

Not only was I completely wrong, the movie somehow managed to be something completely different to what I was expecting.  I won't go in to details because there are many here who have (tragically) yet to watch the series, but suffice to say the ending of the series, when you hear a sequel exists, immediately creates expectations as to the direction said sequel has to go.  After all spoiler did spoiler in the final ending creating spoiler, so spoiler will have to spoiler in the spoiler spoiler to spoiler again with spoiler.  

NOPE!  The genius that permeated the original show is once again on display.  Immediately upon the start expectations are shattered as viewers are greeted by things that should not be.  One is immediately left wondering what in Madoka's name is happening.  Truths are eventually revealed, massive plot twists happen, despair returns, and mind f***s of the highest order are committed, all culminating in a final act that still has me not exactly sure what I think.  My brain matter and emotions are still decorating the wall.  

Despite all that, once again, we reach a conclusion that somehow makes complete sense.  Like poetry.  




TL:DR: Watch Madoka, watch the movie a few weeks later, revel in the absolute brilliance that is one of the absolute pinnacles of the medium.  The movie further cements the series and movie as an absolute must-watch to even those casually interested in the medium, and those that do not watch it are missing out.

Bah, Crunchyroll's got an anime 2016 awards thing going (this thing right here) but the best characters sections are woefully lacking.

Plus I just know I'm going to be gutted when anything other than Kayo's first home cooked meal wins. Say what you will about Erased and its ending but that scene was just the biggest load of feels this side of 2010.

Death Note's getting adapted into a Netflix Original Movie.

It seems as though most of the cast has been transposed into your typical American high school student cast, but the best news is that Willem Dafoe is playing Ryuk. I'm expecting great things from that performance. Thoughts, folks?

They don't even need to use effects; Willem Defoe is Ryuuk.

Overall thoughts, I'm not too bothered. I think Death Note was already brilliant and didn't need any kind of adaptation, but if this captures the original and gets more people to experience the story who otherwise wouldn't, that's smashing.

On Death Note, I started watching it maybe on Saturday and on episode 25 as of writing. I wanted to watch the anime before I see the Netflix Movie, to compare as that was something I didn't do with Ghost in the Shell.

I'm loving the anime and it sort of reminds me of Persona 4/5 and I was thinking it would make a great video game then I saw they're some on DS but I don't know they'd be like.

I think the DS games are meant to be alright, but they're very text-heavy and only in Japanese.

Anyway, I liked Death Note a lot when I read the manga. I've not watched much of the anime as its a very close adaptation and I prefer reading at my own pace. I have watched the three Japanese live action films, though, which are pretty good.

Did anyone else watch that recent Frame Arms Girl anime? it may have given me a very tiny model kit problem

I can stop whenever I want, I swear: