Anime Thread - 2012

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Upotte!! is just weird, but not weird enough to actually make me want to watch more.

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The first episode of Upotte was too much creepy, not enough action or funny, but you should give it another chance; ep. 2 should have a lot more action in it, and more of a focus on the girls than on the boring teacher guy. I didn't like ep. 1 much either, but don't give up because of that.

Yurumates 3D - 3 minute series based on a 4koma manga. I've read a few chapters of the manga, and this is very similar, except, well, animated. It's generic but amusing stuff, a decent 3 minute entertainment. In this episode, our heroine arrives at her new home. Poor her...

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Mysterious Girlfriend X 1 - I haven't read this manga, and based on this anime's description I did not have high hopes to say the least.

However, I gave it a try, in part because of the good reviews it'd gotten here, and... yeah, it was actually good. Weird, but good. It was entertaining, the MC and girl were weird but likeable... (seriously, he tasted her drool? That makes him weird.) it was good. The plot doesn't make much sense of course, but that's the whole idea. This episode was strange, but good.

Oh, the art's pretty simple; it works, but it's not exactly the most detailed stuff. It's good enough I guess. Overall, this could be decently good for a ridiculous, fanservicey anime. At least it has a somewhat unique concept, it's not just entirely by the book generic. And yeah, it was entertaining in part because of that.


Tasogare Otome x Amnesia 1 - After all of the poor reviews I was somewhat worried for this, because I like the manga, but it did end up being good. The art is indeed not as good as the manga's, sadly; the manga backgrounds are particularly high quality, but here they're not above average. It's too bad, and does hurt the series some.

Apart from that, though, the episode was good. This episode introduces us to the four main characters; most of them don't have much introduction yet, apart from Yuuko the ghost of course, but as I've read the manga I had no problem. I would think that someone who hasn't would be okay too, though; it says enough to get the basics, like that Yuuko is a ghost, the guy can see ghosts, and that the other girl can't see ghosts, and the other characters (the other living girl, most notably) will be introduced more later.

So, this episode starts in the clubroom, then goes to investigate an incident with a mysterious dumbwaiter, and then finishes with a search on a nearby hillside for a gravestone supposedly of Yuuko's. It's all solid stuff, and amusing. The series hasn't really gotten to much of the serious side of the plot yet, but it is a series that mixes serious and comic elements, so that's okay; it'll get to the serious side eventually, for sure.

Oh, and the beginning, where first you see it as the "can't see ghosts" girl would see it, and then with Yuuko in view, was pretty funny. Her antics as she tried, and failed, to get her to be noticed was amusing stuff. :)

So yeah, overall, Tasogare was good. It's not great, and could have been better for sure, but it was okay to good, at least.

[Great Rumbler]

After all of the poor reviews I was somewhat worried for this

People were bashing Otome x Amnesia? I honestly can't imagine why, it has a great sense of humor and an air of mystery that serves to pull the viewer in to see where things go in the next episode.

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Yeah, a lot of people on animegaf don't like the first episode much. I do think the manga's probably better, but the anime's definitely good too.

Medaka Box 1 - Very much like the manga, which means it's going to be a moderately amusing comedy series for a while, before it turns into a generic shonen action series. I'll probably stop watching at some point, but this episode wasn't too bad. This episode was a decently average action/comedy series episode, where the main characters are introduced and then deal with the problems in the kendo club.

[Great Rumbler]

Medaka Box was such a funny series, loved how over-the-top and exuberant it was. Then it went full-on shounen action and I gave up on it.

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Jormungand 01 - The animation wasn't all that great and, yeah, maybe the action scenes could have been better, but you know what? It was still fun and Koko is awesome, so I enjoyed this episode and look forward to more.

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Medaka Box 2 - This is indeed a solid conversion of the manga. I thought the manga was okay to good comedy, until the genre change, and okay but tediously generic shonen action, after it, but yeah, this is a good animated version of it. Poor Medaka, animals are nice! (Okay, not all of them, I really dislike dogs myself, but I love cats...)

Also, yeah, Shiranui is pretty awesome.


Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 1 - This is a full-scale anime based on the flash anime of a little while ago. I thought the flash series (Haiyaru! Nyaruani) was silly and amusing but pointless, but this is better all around. It's just such an insanely ridiculous series, but it REALLY knows it, and they have a lot of fun with it. I don't know if Nyarlothotep (Nyaruko-san) even knows about the existence of the fourth wall... maybe, but she regularly ignores it. The results are silly.

Now, of course, the concept of moe Lovecraft monsters is an abomination onto the original work if there's ever been one, but ... it works so well! It's funny, it IS actually full of Lovecraft references (they don't just ignore the source material), it's completely ridiculous, and, above all else, it's very, VERY anime. This is about as anime as it gets, it really is... moe girls, a harem of sorts (not yet, but eventually; I don't know if it'll be a harem show, though, harem setting but not actual harem seems quite plausible), cuteness, insanity, ridiculous antics, otaku-baiting... it's all here.

So yeah, the concept is that the Lovecraftian gods are space aliens, and not really evil either. So, Nyaru here is here to protect the MC from monsters that are trying to kill him, and also to consume as much anime and manga culture (anime, anime goods, adult comic books, etc.) as she can find, because it's super-popular and restricted stuff galaxy-wide. Yeah. But hey, why not? That's as good a plot as any, right? :p

Nyaru claims that she could appear in her tentacled horror form, but it'd drive the MC insane, so she won't. I'll take her at her word. She does drive him partway insane during the fight scenes where the brutally kills the monsters, though... she quite enjoys ripping them apart with things like rocks and tire irons. Aww. :) (Oh, and he isn't a complete pushover either -- like in the first series, he can, and will, defend himself with a fork against her unwanted actions.)

So yeah, it's awful, ridiculous, funny stuff, and it's about as anime, and as far from the source material (while not completely ignoring it) as you can get. Good work, this was even better than I expected. :lol

[Great Rumbler]

Spring 2012 Anime Ranking [So Far]:

1. Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine
2. Space Brothers
3. Tsuritama
4. Mysterious Girlfriend X
5. Jormungand
6. Kids on the Slope
7. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
8. Zetman
9. Accel World
10. Sankarea
11. Ozuma
...
...
...
...
12. Upotte!!

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1. Saki Achiga-hen: Episode of Side-A
2. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
3. Mysterious Girlfriend X
4. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
5. Medaka Box
6. Naruto SD: Rock Lee's Adventures
7. Yurumates 3D
8. Upotte!

Have not yet tried but will: Lupin III: Fujiko Mine, Hyakko (hasn't started yet)
May or may not try, not sure: Space Brothers, Ozuma, Sankarea, Jormungand

Also, I expect Upotte to get better soon, and not to stay in last past episode one. I also have hopes that Tasogare will end up better than Mysterious Girlfriend X.

[A Black Falcon]

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Saw this on GAF... and isn't it true.

[Great Rumbler]

There really isn't anything that Japan can't turn into a cute girl.

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[Great Rumbler]

I don't entirely agree with your assessment that Tsubaki [from Mysterious Girlfriend X] is just a generic romance/harem lead, he is actually actively trying to advance his relationship with Urabe, which would at least put him out of the running for harem lead.

[A Black Falcon]

So you'd call him a super-generic romance anime lead, then? That'd fit, I think.

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Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 2 - Hmm, decent episode. Definitely very formulaic stuff for this franchise, but sure, it was done plenty well.

So...

On the one hand, poor Cthuga (if I'm getting her name right?). All she wants is to have her love returned, but Nyaruko's stuck on some guy instead... :(

On the other hand, poor Nyaruko. She loves this guy, but all she gets in return for her devotion is to be stabbed with a fork. :( Why did you have to pick such a violently tsundere guy, (or is he just sanely scared of superpowered yandere girls? Either way, the results are the same.) Nyaruko? But I guess she sort of likes that side of him, considering how happy she was to see that dere moment of his. Until he stabs her with a fork, of course, she doesn't seem to like that.

So yeah, it's unfortunate for both of them that they have the feelings they do. Apart from that, Mahiro's a jerk, you go to the great theme park, and don't even want to go on any of the rides? Party pooper...

Oh, and as for the plot, hah, he thought it was over! As if Nyaruko-san will let you get away so easily... :)

So yeah, overall, the episode had its good and bad parts. I guess it was good overall, but not as good as episode 1. The theme park was good stuff, though, all those Lovecraftian monsters having fun at the fair... :lol

Finally, mr. villain, I think their reaction was borderline going too far, but it IS wrong to try to kidnap people you know. If you want to make that movie, come up with a way to convince (or con) Mahiro into agreeing to.

[A Black Falcon]

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New ranking.

1. Saki Achiga-hen: Episode of Side-A
2. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
3. Natsuiro Kiseki
4. Mysterious Girlfriend X
5. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
6. Upotte!
7. Yurumates 3D
8. Medaka Box
9. Naruto SD: Rock Lee's Adventures

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[Great Rumbler]

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is focusing way too much on harem antics and not enough on the supernatural stuff.

[A Black Falcon]

[Great Rumbler]

... Too much harem antics? I'm not sure what you mean, there aren't that much harem antics really... heck, do the other girls even actually love him?

Are we watching the same show here? Momoe is obsessed with Teiichi and Kirie is always flustered around him and gets upset with the way Yuuko clings to him. At best it's borderline harem. But, fine, if you don't like that, I'll complain about how it focuses too much on school hijinks and fanservice and not enough on supernatural stuff.

[A Black Falcon]

I agree it's a harem setting -- there's one guy and multiple girls, after all -- but I don't think it's really a harem show. If the other two girls do have feelings for him, they're not going anywhere with them, and he doesn't know about them either.

As for school hyjinks vs. serious drama, the show's supposed to be about both, pretty much. Both sides are major elements of the show. The drama part probably is the better part, but eh, I think some of the school hyjinks stuff is amusing...

[Great Rumbler]

EVERY show has school hijinks, no need to retread that ground again when the series has something more compelling going on.

[A Black Falcon]

If it was only about the serious drama side, though, it could be really bleak... I think the comedy's good, helps lighten the mood.

Also, it is a real part of Yuuko's character... I mean, she avoids having to deal with the truth through comedy, mostly.

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This isn't an anime review, but it is anime-related.


Something that annoys me a lot about anime and manga (and videogames) is their incoherent world design. You see, what I really want to see, but often don't, is internal consistency. That is, for the story to make sense within its own universe. And yes, anime and manga ignore this most of the time, to my frequent frustration. Of course as you said later (also quoted below) this is hardly only a Japanese issue, but it is very common in their stuff certainly.

One of the most obvious places where I see this is in Japanese fantasy stories in anime and manga. While Western fantasy has its ridiculousnesses, like chainmail bikinis and such, anime fantasy is so so so much worse... they basically usually do zero historical research, and have no clue about what time period or kind of place the thing's actually set in, so instead you get a lot of random stuff. Many of these elements have become expected over time, so by now the generic anime fantasy world has elements from ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, the 16th-19th centuries, the modern Western world, traditional Japan, and modern Japan, all at the same time. It's so, so bizarre. I could go on for a long time about how many things Japanese fantasy gets ludicrously wrong from any standpoint, historical or consistency-based, but I'll try to avoid the temptation. There are too many things to list. Let's just say that anime fantasy has just about nothing at all to do with the actual Middle Ages, and anime fantasy worlds generally make absolutely no internal sense either.

So why is that? Part of the reason for the first of those issues is that Japan is of course not Western, so they don't have the same amount of historical context we would for our own history. This makes sense, and as supporting evidence anime/manga series set in ancient Japan or China have a much higher likelihood of being at least vaguely plausible than ones set in fantasy European settings are. Of course there are plenty that are ridiculous, but at least by looking at the other stuff, you can tell that they know that stuff's wrong, they just want to make this thing silly. I don't usually get that sense from fantasy stuff; there's no inkling that they have any idea how absurdly stupid their settings are. I mean, I'm sure they know that they're not historical, but do they really get the degree? I would imagine the answer in many cases is no. As for the other side, Western stuff set in ancient Asian settings isn't as far wrong as Japanese stuff set in Europe is, but it certainly is usually missing a lot of the details an Asian setting would have.

For the second issue, internal sense, this is really the main problem. I mean, if you're making up this world that's a mishmash of stuff from throughout history, okay, go ahead. We've done it too -- some of the games that helped inspire the JRPG genre, like Wizardry and Ultima, have sci-fi/fantasy mixtures for plots. That stuff can't have been a good influence. :p The problem is when it makes absolutely no sense when you think about it. And in fantasy anime/manga, that's usually exactly how it is. From small details to large, nothing is anything like a plausible world. This is a problem Western stuff definitely shares sometimes -- I absolutely agree, Firehawk, about Stargate SG-1's major flaws in its "conspiracy" plotline, it's really a big problem and absolutely hurt the show a lot for me as well -- but it's probably even worse in fantasy anime and manga.

Like, I was reading this one fantasy manga recently, and it actually pointed out that peasants in this world don't have meat very often, to the great frustration of the spoiled prince traveling the world. Good, accurate point there, and something almost never seen in fantasy series; usually they have modern-day-style restaurants, complete with menus (as if their clientele can read! :lol), with modern silverware and dishes (which didn't exist in the middle ages), etc, and then paste in a "medieval" setting that is clearly just paper-thin. And costumes... oh man, anime fantasy costumes. Where do they get that modern cloth, those plastic-based fabrics like modern bathing suits or elastics, zippers, etc, from? Certainly not from the placid, medieval towns you often see in those worlds! Need I even continue? :lol Even town designs and landscapes are absurd. Look at the cities in the Slayers anime for instance (overhead shots particularly which show the towns), all those houses spaced out nice and neatly... it's quite comical really. And for one you commonly see in fantasy from both regions, but maybe even more so from Japan, do I even need to comment on how stupid it is to see all these industrial, or early-industrial, worlds with their factories, and giant airships, and what have you, where everyone still fights with swords? I know the reason -- Japan likes swords -- but it's obviously silly. Some kinds of swords and pikes were common in European warfare until the early 1800s, but as the period from 1450 to 1850 progressed, guns became the dominant weapon in more and more fields. I mean, I've got nothing at all against medieval weapons, they just should go in medieval SETTINGS darnit, not these silly pseudo-Victorinan/21st century Japan hybrid settings that often pass for fantasy anime... (and yeah, I won't get into it, but both the West and Japan seem to have strong Victorian-period-love going on... but in Western stuff Victorian periods aren't fantasy ones, they're quite different (Steampunk, more likely), while Japan randomly mixes in plenty of stuff from that era into its fantasy. You can't mix that many elements without, at some point, completely breaking any possible hopes for a world that makes any kind of logical sense at all. And indeed, anime fantasy worlds usually aren't, with their modern stores and modern values co-existing with people fighting with swords and supposedly feudal politics (when they don't randomly have guns from that random lost civilization or techno-empire which has modern weapons while everyone else is fighting with sticks, as if technology can improve that fast... no, that's not how it works! And yes, I love Escaflowne. But that element of its plot is complete nonsense, Newton or no.).

Now, sure, as I said, if you can come up with reasons for why your world isn't like the real one, I have no problem with differences. Like, magic's fine; there are ways to explain such things in a fantasy world, certainly. Similarly, I imagine excuses for at least some of the elements of fantasy costuming could maybe be explained away if one tried, though they'd probably be weak. The problem is, this stuff rarely even CONSIDERS such issues. Not a single thought to proving internal consistency. Look at Soul Calibur for like a million and ten examples of such things, and the ridiculous costumes are only the most obvious of the issues -- the deeper problems of things like why the Greek characters are apparently all pagans, when the ancient pagan Greek religion had ceased to exist by, oh, about 1000-1200 years before the series is set, for only one example. Her costume's out of date by over a millennium, and her religious values are equally impossible. Nobody in 16th or 17th century Greece was wearing Ancient Greek robes like Sophitia's SC3-5 costumes are. No one, and they hadn't been for a very long time.

Of course Soul Calibur costumes are virtually never in any way accurate, and fail every fantasy-costumes test I mentioned in that last post, but that time differential is even bigger than putting modern costumes in a game like that; modern costumes are only ~450 years out of date, after all, ancient Greek ones are more than twice as far off. So in both beliefs and in looks, she's not a plausible character. They should have just invented some fantasy world from the series, trying to set it in the real world, mentioning bits of actual history here and there, and then completely ignoring it the rest of the time doesn't make any sense.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned how much longer it'd take to travel around the world back then than these games suggest, when in one game you start in Japan and end up in Europe and then go back and forth several times and the game acts like almost no time passes... :lol I know, videogame logic, but the issue is that they set it in something that's supposedly the "real world", and then take off in random, nonsense directions without ever actually trying to give any kind of explanation for things. I know that's not the way anime fantasy does things, and that's not always how western fantasy does things either, but while I can enjoy things that ignore those things -- I do like the Soul Calibur series, for instance -- this stuff bugs me for sure.

What's the excuse for this stuff? "That's how anime fantasy works, and we're just going by the book" is the general excuse, and it's not the worst excuse -- indeed, that is what the market wants to see, so I can understand following the usual conventions because they're what people want to see. I like some of that stuff too... I mean, I do love fantasy settings. But for accuracy, the place to go is Western fantasy books. Not TV shows, those are often off... books are the best. And there are a LOT of very accurate Western fantasy books. Now I don't know if Japan has anything similar, in light novels or full novels or what have you, but if it does, it doesn't make very many showings in manga or anime, that's for sure (though more in manga than anime probably).


In conclusion, yes, I'm a history major, and fantasy is my favorite genre. And that's why I hate anime and manga fantasy settings almost as much as I love them.

[Great Rumbler]

Repeat to yourself "It's just a show, I should really just relax."

[A Black Falcon]

But it matters, it does...

(Also, I have been watching some anime in the past few weeks. I've just been lazy and haven't written any reviews.)

[Great Rumbler]

Nobody wants to write about the "real" Medieval era, because the real medieval era was dirty, depressing, and dull. Nobody went on epic adventures [except maybe to die in some faraway land during the Crusades], most everyone lived in absolutely squalor with no sanitation and minimal healthcare, plagues and epidemics were common occurrence, serfdom was barely a step up from slavery, and illiteracy was the norm. Yeah, sounds like the makings of a wonderful, lighthearted romp!

[A Black Falcon]

Nobody wants to write about the "real" Medieval era, because the real medieval era was dirty, depressing, and dull.

The Middle Ages, still negatively stereotyped over 500 years after they ended...

Nobody went on epic adventures [except maybe to die in some faraway land during the Crusades],

There were plenty of wars and such between European nations, if that's what you mean. Of course there weren't real monsters to fight, but I never asked for reality. If you think that's what I said, you didn't read it. I said that I want internal consistency, not reality. I mean, I would love to see more accurate medieval stuff, but fantasy medieval's fine too. What I want is the world within the story to actually make sense and be plausible, and anime fantasy almost never is.

most everyone lived in absolutely squalor with no sanitation and minimal healthcare,

That was true in any historical period, medieval or no.

plagues and epidemics were common occurrence,

Lots of people died of common diseases, particularly in childhood, certainly. However, massive plagues weren't a common occurance through most of the Middle Ages. There were a series of major plagues from 550 to about 750AD, and then again in the 1300s through 1600s, both almost certainly from strains of the Bubonic Plague (ie, the Black Death plague), and coming in waves, worst the first few times but recurring for centuries in each case (the last Bubonic Plague wave was indeed in the 1600s), and killing over half of Europe's population both times...

But in between? In between there were six centuries without any major epidemic diseases, and with solid, steady population growth. Indeed, it took Europe a good while to get back to the population level it'd reached before the plague hit in the 1300s. So that's only partially true. Everyone remembers the Black Death, of course, but not the 600 years that preceded it...

serfdom was barely a step up from slavery,

True. But of course, not EVERYONE was tied to their land forever. There were merchants (they were considered the lowest order of people, even below peasants, but they did exist), nobles, etc. And some nations had peasants instead of serfs, it varied from place to place.

and illiteracy was the norm.

In the Dark Ages -- that is, the 500s through 900s -- indeed, only a very, very few people, mostly at monestaries, were literate, but in the later Middle Ages, literacy did start to spread. By the high middle ages, a fair number of nobles knew how to read at least some.

Oh, and on that note, the Dark Ages really are the forgotten age. There are almost no records from that period, so there isn't good history of it, and because of the low-tech nature of Europe at that time, the minimal literacy, etc, it's often "Justinian, then Charlemagne, then the Vikings, now we move on to the more important second half of the Middle Ages, the Middle Ages proper..." And as for games, animes, what have you? Yeah, they're almost never set in the dark ages, Western or Eastern. There are some Western fantasy books set in that period, but that's about it.

Yeah, sounds like the makings of a wonderful, lighthearted romp!

Bah, the Middle Ages aren't that bad. They always were my favorite historical period, ever since I was a little kid (I always loved "castle times"... :) ), and they still are, probably... yeah, I know that there was a general decline of civilization versus the periods before or after it, but the middle ages have been somewhat misunderstood in the past 500 years. Basically, once the Renaisance and Reformation got underway, people decided that humanity had gotten off track for a thousand years, and the Middle Ages in between should be sort of forgotten. But while there certainly are things to dislike about the period, it's not THAT bad, and it has been misunderstood in some ways. The High and Late Middle Ages, particularly, had quite a bit going on.

For one minor example, there's this stereotype that "medieval people didn't bathe", but they did. It was the 1500s through mid 1800s that saw the low point for bathing in Europe and the growth of a belief that bathing was actually bad for your health. In the Middle Ages, people would, in general, at least once ever few months, anyway.

And on another note, as I said earlier, in the later Middle Ages, there was increasing amounts of literacy. A good bit of literature written in the high and late Middle Ages survives.

[etoven]

This whole show sounds like the famous Scottish game found in pubs, I think it's called penis, vagina, or dead person. :D

[A Black Falcon]

Warning: This image is likely to scar your brain.


(No, I'm not watching Shining Whatever: The Bread of Life. But this... wow. )

[Great Rumbler]

Glancing through the first episode was enough to know this show most definitely was not for me.

[etoven]

Warning: This image is likely to scar your brain.


(No, I'm not watching Shining Whatever: The Bread of Life. But this... wow. )

I only assume the girl on the left gets her amazing ninja powers from her ginormous ta-ta's :)

[A Black Falcon]