Author Topic: General Anime Talk/Reviews  (Read 44215 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #120 on: October 16, 2020, 10:41:58 PM »
The Tatami Galaxy is a lot of fun for fans of Yuasa. The basic gist of (almost) every episode is the protagonist tries to develop a social life in college by joining a club, but is hampered along the way by a pompous rival, a would-be guru, and a mischievous rabble-rouser named Ozu. Each club leads to his downfall in a different way. It's really interesting to see all these variations on the same premise, no two alike but with certain beats that recur. By the 10th episode it gets totally surreal.

oldkid

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #121 on: October 16, 2020, 10:43:53 PM »
The Tatami Galaxy is a lot of fun for fans of Yuasa. The basic gist of (almost) every episode is the protagonist tries to develop a social life in college by joining a club, but is hampered along the way by a pompous rival, a would-be guru, and a mischievous rabble-rouser named Ozu. Each club leads to his downfall in a different way. It's really interesting to see all these variations on the same premise, no two alike but with certain beats that recur. By the 10th episode it gets totally surreal.

I loved The Night is Short, Walk on Girl.  This sounds wonderful along those lines. (wasn't a huge fan of Mind Game)
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

colonel_mexico

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #122 on: October 17, 2020, 12:45:39 AM »
That Time I Got Resurrected As a Slime

As with many of the new anime that I am reviewing, this one was recommended by my daughter, Ideathy12, who is an anime fiend.  I have to admit, this one is unique.

Our protagonist is a contractor whose employee approaches him to introduce him to his fiancee, when suddenly a person running down the street with a knife attacks them, he stands in front of the fiancee to spare her, and he dies.  While he is dying, his inmost thoughts and regrets are carefully analyzed and translated by a Siri-like entity, which become "spells" in his new, reincarnated (should I say, resurrected, because he remembers all his past life) life.

All these characters and set up are mostly forgotten in the rest of the series.

Our protagonist is resurrec...sorry... reincarnated as a slime in a world that resembles a video game more than anything else.  He first meets a dragon trapped in a cave,  helps a village of goblins being attacked by dire wolves, lizard humans get involved as well as orcs and wizards of all sorts.  What is amazing is that despite all the battles and enemies, everyone remains very friendly and almost all issues eventually get resolved.  If this is a video game, the point is not to finish a particular quest or to kill certain opponents, but to build the new-found world to be the best one can make it   A white-savior fantasy, if the "savior" is a Japanese slime who solves as many problems through manga and community as through spells and wit.

The best part is how the series doesn't take itself seriously.  It glories in its contradictions and references to Japanese pop culture.  They are having so much fun just wandering through the world, interacting with various characters, attempting to develop as many of them as possible beyond their stereotypes. 

I had a lot of fun with this one and can't wait for the second season.

4.5/5

I love this review OK, and I completely agree with everything you shared about this series.  It does not try to get too serious and even pokes fun at itself with silly asides and uncomfortable situations.  I also like as a powerful slime, he tries to be "good" by being fair, but also trying to help out the less fortunate (the monsters).  I get what you mean by a white savior, but I always thought the idea was that they were all monsters, including Rimuru (our slime), and that they shared that bond.  But on further reflection because Rimuru was a human before and now that he's transformed into a monster only he can save the inferior monsters by naming them and guiding them the best he can.  Still, without getting too deep into the symbols, I like the obvious ones of honor and friendship with the enemy, a noble aspiration to honor and befriend a defeated enemy.  There are some male gaze elements, but Rimuru remains pretty androgynous and has some leanings that do hint at a non-binary personality. I love the world building and its just a really fun anime, I'm glad you enjoyed it too. 
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #123 on: November 05, 2020, 10:31:07 AM »
I finished Girl's Last Tour a couple of weeks ago. Due to my sleep problems I'm having a hard time focusing on writing down longer pieces but I'm going to try soon.

In that time I also got through Land of the Lustrous which is a great-looking CGI anime. I will probably try to write thoughts on that one as well.

Started Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku last night and it's pretty hilarious. It's basically a romantic comedy about two childhood friends reuniting as coworkers and having a shared passion for video games. It avoids the cringe geek culture jokes (think Big Bang) and instead relies on social awkwardness and geeky obsessiveness for jokes. It kinda junk food entertainment but that's fine with me right now.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #124 on: November 07, 2020, 11:51:17 PM »
Should I watch and/or read The Promised Neverland?

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #125 on: November 08, 2020, 01:34:30 AM »

FLYmeatwad

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #126 on: November 09, 2020, 08:23:13 PM »
I watched it over the past night and just finished the last two episodes tonight after work. It was a quick watch, and think it does hit atmosphere really well. Do think there are some spots when it's a bit uneven, especially when it goes full on anime with character cackling and reveals, but largely successful as a whole. Seems that Amazon has picked it up for a live action adaptation, but I'm unsure that'll ever come to pass as it has the feel of something that sits in development hell for a while, sort of how Death Note was with the US adaptation. It strikes a good balance between really bright scenes and dark ones, while also crafting a compelling world that made me interested to keep going, as was the case with Beastars earlier this year, which I also blasted through, and, like that one, I feel like I want to just read the manga now to see how the story goes. That said, I'm a bit more confident/excited about Beastars, while this has me apprehensive because this entire first season was all framed around the escape. Which made for a good arc and something to track, but that being the driving force, and the contained atmosphere of the house is what was compelling and intriguing about the show and the world. Taking out of that context, potentially, in further seasons and having the focus be on them finding other humans or training to rescue the remaining kids while working to topple the monster world feels like a sharp turn, if that's the direction it goes.

Suppose we shall see.

oldkid

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #127 on: December 04, 2020, 11:14:34 PM »

Started Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku last night and it's pretty hilarious. It's basically a romantic comedy about two childhood friends reuniting as coworkers and having a shared passion for video games. It avoids the cringe geek culture jokes (think Big Bang) and instead relies on social awkwardness and geeky obsessiveness for jokes. It kinda junk food entertainment but that's fine with me right now.

Just finished this last week.  I couldn't stop thinking of my son in the role of the main male protagonist.  So very adult "high functioning" autistic.  I guess I see a bit of me in him as well.  I love the variety of otaku they explore and how they all approach relationships differently.  So much fun.  I'd love to watch a second season.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #128 on: December 06, 2020, 10:25:10 PM »
Land of the Lustrous (12 Episodes)

One of the downsides of some Anime is you can tell it's an adaptation of a longer Manga. This show is a great high-concept for a world but the characters and plot are fragmented. Lustrous are gemstones that are immortal that defend themselves from angelic creatures called Lunarians who continue to attack their island. Phos is the weakest of the Lustrous and tasked with chronicling all information about their world but quickly has a one-track mind to only discover more about the Lunarians.

The manga is still ongoing and this anime burns through many of the volumes already written. There are lots of characters that pop in and out of the narrative and plot threads that dissipate after an episode or two. More importantly, Phos goes through a radical character transformation about halfway through the series and the show does not do the groundwork to sell the change.

Still, I like the world enough and it's a great example of how 3D animation is fantastic and have a lot of style when done correctly, something many big-budget animated shows and films chasing more photorealistic looks fail to achieve. It's worth a watch if you're interested in a unique fantasy world but it will leave you wanting a lot more and the ending doesn't resolve any of the plot or character threads which might infuriate some viewers.

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku (11 Episodes)

I was in the mood for something light and realized that most of the anime I watch is the more heady stuff. This is a rom-com show with a lot of the trappings of the genre but with the distinct charm of being about otakus, a Japanese term for obsessive nerds. The term kinda has a negative connotation, much like geek and nerd do here, but has mostly been embraced even though it has an intensity to it that I think we'd mostly attribute to the West as fanboy culture.

Narumi gets a boring office job and on the first day bumps into Hirotaka, an old childhood friend she lost contact with as she grew up. She hopes to be seen as a normal person buy Hirotaka risks bringing out her nerdy side as he remembers her days as an otaku. Hanako and Taro are their coworkers and through the show, the four of them hang out and realize they are all otakus of different stripes and experience relationship woes together.

This show is delightful. The humor is usually spot-on, the characters are fun to hang out with, and the animation gives the whole thing a visual playfulness that I think gives what might otherwise be a rather simple looking show a lot of style and flavor. Once again, it's adapted from a manga with a decent number of volumes but I'm not sure how far the show goes into the manga plot. This isn't the kind of thing I'd read as a manga but I would like to know where this all goes. There's one OVA already out and a second one coming in February and I'd like to watch both. This once again left me wanting more and there's certainly a lot of uncertainty in these romantic relationships to keep the story going.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: General Anime Talk/Reviews
« Reply #129 on: December 24, 2020, 03:21:46 AM »
The Promised Neverland
Twisty, disturbing series that could've been just a little more show than tell. There is a lot of sleuthing as the kids of the farm figure out they're delicacies to be enjoyed by a demon people once they hit 12. Lots of figuring out this...BUT this! The deductions, the conclusion, but not always with all that much in the way of action. I think it takes off more in the last third, we get more meaningful flashbacks regarding the Mother, essentially the manager, of the farm, and it adds quite a bit of depth. When we leave the kids, they're still in a fairy precarious position, so I definitely feel a bit of suspense going into the second season. A solid watch, easy to run through in a couple of sittings. First series I've really watch in a long time.
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