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  1. - Top - End - #211
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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Y'all are spoiled by the streaming era. Mob does the episodic plot with loosely connected elements leading up to a climactic mytharc segment that ties things together, which was a completely ordinary shonen action structure until, what, five years ago? When everyone realized that the unit of streaming was the season instead of the week.
    Last edited by Lethologica; 2019-08-09 at 12:22 PM.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Lethologica View Post
    Y'all are spoiled by the streaming era. Mob does the episodic plot with loosely connected elements leading up to a climactic mytharc segment that ties things together, which was a completely ordinary shonen action structure until, what, five years ago? When everyone realized that the unit of streaming was the season instead of the week.

    Learning the structure of anime seasons has definitely made me more critical.


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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Lethologica View Post
    Y'all are spoiled by the streaming era. Mob does the episodic plot with loosely connected elements leading up to a climactic mytharc segment that ties things together, which was a completely ordinary anime structure until, what, five years ago?
    Its not that specifically

    its how its executed really. the content and the structure is fine. as you said it is structure thats used before and not THAT strange its....how to say it....

    well here is the thing: during the first seasons climax, it was all about Mob not having to do this because his powers are not what define him and thus empowering his teacher to do it, then second seasons climax is all about him having to do face the villain because he is the only one who can.

    and the slice of life episodes are all about him not wanting to do this. while the shonen episodes are all about him having to do this and his power being something terrifying.

    and I think its trying to say "you don't have to do this alone, but sometimes there is only something you can do to help that isn't necessarily they thing you want to do, and you have to do it even through you'd rather do something else"? which is a complex and nuanced message, which I get its trying to get across, but I'm not sure if its executing it properly. and then there is the fact that everyone around Mob reacts to get their powers more realistically and actually using them for their own gain

    because on some level, I'm not sure if using the powers for ones own benefit is inherently bad. like sure the show says its cheating and cheating is bad, but realistically if you have an advantage in life, you have to use it in order to get anywhere. not leveraging it out of some sense of doing everything by basics is like not using a phone or a computer or a car. because sure its better exercise to walk or jog, but if you need to get somewhere you get in and drive a car. like sure, you shouldn't use these powers to other peoples detriment that is definitely bad. but as long as you use them honestly, whats the harm? he can still jog as a hobby to keep up physical fitness, thats a good thing to do, but I'm pretty sure he can monetize his powers much better than dispelling ghosts at the behest of the worlds most caring con-man. the entire point of monetizing his powers is that other people need him to do stuff for their purposes even if he has no use for them, after all.

    The show is nuanced for what it does, but it can be more nuanced in my mind, and yeah sure the format is known, and it can be done well, but I don't it has been done well enough to properly translate it to anime form if its structure is webcomic like. don't get me wrong is still heads and shoulders above a lot of stuff, but there is some quirks to it that could need more polishing. I don't know, the show is weird to me, because I know its high quality, I know I like it, but I wouldn't say its a favorite. and could be just because some of the actions of the people within it don't entirely make sense to me, even though the overall thing is good. and its always a little hard to pin down what the flaws of what something really well done is and why I don't absolutely love it, because it its know its well done and I can intellectually appreciate what its doing and why, so what is holding it back to me is hard to find or define because its subtle, because any good work makes sure its flaws are subtle and hard to find (having no flaws is impossible).
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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Lethologica View Post
    Y'all are spoiled by the streaming era. Mob does the episodic plot with loosely connected elements leading up to a climactic mytharc segment that ties things together, which was a completely ordinary shonen action structure until, what, five years ago? When everyone realized that the unit of streaming was the season instead of the week.
    I've appreciated serial stories in TV shows for a long time. I liked the story arc episodes in the X-Files more than most of the monster of the week episodes. I started liking Star Trek DS9 more after they shifted to the serialized Dominion War arcs. I liked the overarching story episodes in Babylon 5 more than most of the episodic stories. Serial arcs were a big part of why I liked The Sopranos so much.

    That's not to say that I don't like episodic stories, too. Star Trek TNG is still a favorite of mine, and I like both the serial and episodic parts of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica 2004, Stargate SG-1, etc.

    As far as anime, some of my favorite classic anime were quite serial, like Escaflowne.
    Quote Originally Posted by Harnel View Post
    where is the atropal? and does it have a listed LA?

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by gomipile View Post
    I've appreciated serial stories in TV shows for a long time. I liked the story arc episodes in the X-Files more than most of the monster of the week episodes. I started liking Star Trek DS9 more after they shifted to the serialized Dominion War arcs. I liked the overarching story episodes in Babylon 5 more than most of the episodic stories. Serial arcs were a big part of why I liked The Sopranos so much.

    That's not to say that I don't like episodic stories, too. Star Trek TNG is still a favorite of mine, and I like both the serial and episodic parts of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica 2004, Stargate SG-1, etc.

    As far as anime, some of my favorite classic anime were quite serial, like Escaflowne.
    You like serialized shows, and didn't say anything in the conversation before now...so I'm not sure why you feel that comment was aimed at you and chose to defend yourself like this? Did you share that opinion about Mob's structure? Is there something you'd like to say about it?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    Its not that specifically

    its how its executed really. the content and the structure is fine. as you said it is structure thats used before and not THAT strange its....how to say it....

    well here is the thing: during the first seasons climax, it was all about Mob not having to do this because his powers are not what define him and thus empowering his teacher to do it, then second seasons climax is all about him having to do face the villain because he is the only one who can.

    and the slice of life episodes are all about him not wanting to do this. while the shonen episodes are all about him having to do this and his power being something terrifying.

    and I think its trying to say "you don't have to do this alone, but sometimes there is only something you can do to help that isn't necessarily they thing you want to do, and you have to do it even through you'd rather do something else"? which is a complex and nuanced message, which I get its trying to get across, but I'm not sure if its executing it properly. and then there is the fact that everyone around Mob reacts to get their powers more realistically and actually using them for their own gain

    because on some level, I'm not sure if using the powers for ones own benefit is inherently bad. like sure the show says its cheating and cheating is bad, but realistically if you have an advantage in life, you have to use it in order to get anywhere. not leveraging it out of some sense of doing everything by basics is like not using a phone or a computer or a car. because sure its better exercise to walk or jog, but if you need to get somewhere you get in and drive a car. like sure, you shouldn't use these powers to other peoples detriment that is definitely bad. but as long as you use them honestly, whats the harm? he can still jog as a hobby to keep up physical fitness, thats a good thing to do, but I'm pretty sure he can monetize his powers much better than dispelling ghosts at the behest of the worlds most caring con-man. the entire point of monetizing his powers is that other people need him to do stuff for their purposes even if he has no use for them, after all.

    The show is nuanced for what it does, but it can be more nuanced in my mind, and yeah sure the format is known, and it can be done well, but I don't it has been done well enough to properly translate it to anime form if its structure is webcomic like. don't get me wrong is still heads and shoulders above a lot of stuff, but there is some quirks to it that could need more polishing. I don't know, the show is weird to me, because I know its high quality, I know I like it, but I wouldn't say its a favorite. and could be just because some of the actions of the people within it don't entirely make sense to me, even though the overall thing is good. and its always a little hard to pin down what the flaws of what something really well done is and why I don't absolutely love it, because it its know its well done and I can intellectually appreciate what its doing and why, so what is holding it back to me is hard to find or define because its subtle, because any good work makes sure its flaws are subtle and hard to find (having no flaws is impossible).
    I think the message is fairly straightforward in Season 2, right through the finale, even if it's less radically expressed than in the Season 1 finale. It's not about the use of powers. It's about the self-absorbed worldview that leads someone to focus on how their individual abilities make them special and different. Using powers for one's own benefit is a symptom, not the disease, and it's not bad in all cases. The show does not inveigle against, say, using one's powers to avoid starving, even though that is indisputably a case of using powers for one's own benefit. But that's not the context in which Mob receives Reigen's advice. There's further conversation to be had about how this message evolves between seasons, which would necessitate that I rewatch the show, but this much is pretty consistent throughout.

  6. - Top - End - #216
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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    I think Mobs view on powers should be taken with a grain of salt since the fundamental reason he is so hesitant to use them is probably his childhood trauma not some philosophical view on having super powers
    Spoiler
    Show
    see the webcomic ending and how his brother describes how he changed after the incident, also the whole talk with his power.


    Edit: Hmm I am not sure how far did the second anime season go, was the childhood stuff with his brother in there? To be honest I forget when it was first mentioned in the webcomic too.
    Last edited by Ibrinar; 2019-08-10 at 10:44 AM.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Ibrinar View Post
    I think Mobs view on powers should be taken with a grain of salt since the fundamental reason he is so hesitant to use them is probably his childhood trauma not some philosophical view on having super powers
    Spoiler
    Show
    see the webcomic ending and how his brother describes how he changed after the incident, also the whole talk with his power.


    Edit: Hmm I am not sure how far did the second anime season go, was the childhood stuff with his brother in there? To be honest I forget when it was first mentioned in the webcomic too.
    Spoiler
    Show

    It was season 1 where we learn that Mob hurt some kids to protect Ritsu.

    This didn't make him not want to use his powers though. It made him emotionally withdraw himself because of his powers. A big part of season 1 was learning it's okay to emote, okay to feel feelings, and that it's okay to be scared and run away. That it's okay to be able to do what he can, and still run.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Ibrinar View Post
    I think Mobs view on powers should be taken with a grain of salt since the fundamental reason he is so hesitant to use them is probably his childhood trauma not some philosophical view on having super powers
    Spoiler
    Show
    see the webcomic ending and how his brother describes how he changed after the incident, also the whole talk with his power.


    Edit: Hmm I am not sure how far did the second anime season go, was the childhood stuff with his brother in there? To be honest I forget when it was first mentioned in the webcomic too.

    yeah it felt more like trauma than some deeply held view.


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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Well, the story isn't over yet (in the anime, at least). After his trauma, Mob managed to find a way to keep his own powers and emotions in check, but it's far from being a perfect balance. I think that's why the story never commits to portraying it as a fully good thing or a fully bad thing.

    Also, a big theme of Season 2 is that Mob is growing up. That's why him dealing with the villain on his own is portrayed as the right thing, this time. Had the Boss shown up at the end of Season 1, Mob wouldn't have been able to deal with him and the intense emotions he felt during the fight without exploding and going 100%. In Season 1 Mob was a kid, and it was the right thing for him to delegate adult things (like serious fights in which people get hurt) to adults. At the end of Season 2, he's... well, not an adult, but not a kid anymore either, so he can start handling "big powers cause big responsibilities" things.

    (Mob Psycho 100 is my favorite anime of these latest years, so my view is probably a bit skewed in its favor )

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Lethologica View Post
    You like serialized shows, and didn't say anything in the conversation before now...so I'm not sure why you feel that comment was aimed at you and chose to defend yourself like this? Did you share that opinion about Mob's structure? Is there something you'd like to say about it?

    I'm not sure why you think I feel that comment was aimed at me. I wasn't defending myself.

    I was just providing an additional perspective.

    Also, I do still enjoy some episodic shows, including episodic anime. Lately, that's mostly been gag anime like Saiki K., Dropkick on my Devil, Magical Senpai, and such.

    Oh, and some slice of life anime I enjoy are quite episodic, as well. Yuru Camp and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid come to mind.

    I've watched all of those and others since the streaming boom started. Maybe streaming has affected my taste, but there's still a healthy balance between episodic and serialized series I like.
    Quote Originally Posted by Harnel View Post
    where is the atropal? and does it have a listed LA?

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by gomipile View Post
    I'm not sure why you think I feel that comment was aimed at me. I wasn't defending myself.
    Er...because you don't really offer an additional perspective on Mob. You only explained your background tastes, which exist in the conversation purely as a contingent element to the discussion about Mob. It's like if I said, "Golf courses suck because they waste water," and you say, "Well, *I* don't waste water," and all I can think to reply with is, "Okay...so...what, exactly, are you getting at?"

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Lethologica View Post
    Er...because you don't really offer an additional perspective on Mob. You only explained your background tastes, which exist in the conversation purely as a contingent element to the discussion about Mob. It's like if I said, "Golf courses suck because they waste water," and you say, "Well, *I* don't waste water," and all I can think to reply with is, "Okay...so...what, exactly, are you getting at?"
    I was responding to your assertion that people are spoiled by the streaming era.
    Quote Originally Posted by Harnel View Post
    where is the atropal? and does it have a listed LA?

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by gomipile View Post
    I was responding to your assertion that people are spoiled by the streaming era.
    {Scrubbed}
    Last edited by jdizzlean; 2019-11-27 at 10:48 PM. Reason: clean up

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    There's a saying in Jamaica. Two actually. Translated, they go "The hit dog is thebone that hollers" and "I threw the corn, but I didnt call the chickens."

    They both mean that, in general, if you respond to something that's directed at a certain group, your response eetroactively places as a part of said group

    That isn't always the case, but it's easy to see how it can be interpreted that way, yes?

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    So, I've been watching one of the new anime this season, Fire Force, and here are my thoughts as it nears the mid season.

    This series has a LOT of potential and it appears to have no interest in actually using it, or at least making a LOT of use of it. It's got ideas, and clearly has lots of interesting and unique ideas, but it's just not cultivating them properly. It's good, and I'd say you should watch it, but I really hope it starts growing the proverbial vine better.

    Also, Arthur is literally the dumbest mother****er on the planet. He is one of the worst characters I've experienced in anime. He pulled a "I'm not left handed" ON HIMSELF, because he's tired today and forgot how to wield his sword properly.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Speaking of Arthur, I actually quite enjoyed Million Arthur. It's dumb fun with a great cast, and served as a great way to sooth me from Your Lie in April.

    Fire Force so far has been pretty forgettable. I like Maki, but it seems like she's done nothing the past couple episodes. Given it's 24 episodes, plus I've heard even more beyond that, I can understand it moving slowly. But I do not get the hype.

    O Maidens has not gripped me as well as it has others. Each week I go to a new episode having completely forgotten everything that had happened, which is bad given all the different relationships it jumps around to.

    Lost in Space and Cop Craft have both been interesting, taking sort of generic western tropes and making it anime. Both doing well with it so far.

    Story-wise, Hensuki has been about as annoying as it could be. But the English cast has been making it much funnier than it probably would otherwise be. Cliford Chapin is brilliant.

    Everything else has been rather boring. Black Clover has ramped up the hype recently though. Only two episodes into DanMachi so far, but I'm not digging this season's arc so far.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    SFDebris is reviewing Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha!

    Oh FRACK yes!

    Oooh, I can't wait to see what he thinks about it! ('S one of my favourites.)



    (Well, I can and shall wait until later, but I don't really want to.)



    Edit: And we're out of sensible options for Cleaning the Room telly, so time for Arbitatary See If Bleakbane Can Stand More Than Two Episodes Anime Theatre:

    Knight of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya

    Wish me luck...

    Spoiler: Knight of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya
    Show
    Okay, it's CGI, which I did NOT get from the title image.

    Mmm. First episode. A few promising moments, a fat load of clumsy exposition (it feels a bit rushed), but... Main character Seiya is not unlikable. I have to give him soem props form using "get bent" and "fricking" a fair bit, which is not what I was expecting out of the show - also, people actually beign shot (albiet bloodlessly) with actual bullets and such.

    Howevrer, show, callign your magic power "cosmo" is just... No. I can't take it seriously, especially when your utter th phrase "you have cosmo inside you," which is frankly not something you want to hear unless directed at Wanda, caught in flagranti delicto...

    (This is going to a case of Pokémon XY's "giant rock" a name so stupid it actively undermines the seriousness of what it is, isn't it?)

    And we're just going to gloss over that at the end of the episode, he straight-up kills a dude by blowing his apache up, are we?

    It's not... Terrible? It might be a little banal, but we'll see how it plays out. It seems to have some potential, it just is a little... Clumsy, I think is the best way to describe it.


    Last edited by Aotrs Commander; 2019-08-13 at 07:38 AM.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Pendulous View Post
    Speaking of Arthur, I actually quite enjoyed Million Arthur. It's dumb fun with a great cast, and served as a great way to sooth me from Your Lie in April.

    Fire Force so far has been pretty forgettable. I like Maki, but it seems like she's done nothing the past couple episodes. Given it's 24 episodes, plus I've heard even more beyond that, I can understand it moving slowly. But I do not get the hype.

    O Maidens has not gripped me as well as it has others. Each week I go to a new episode having completely forgotten everything that had happened, which is bad given all the different relationships it jumps around to.

    Lost in Space and Cop Craft have both been interesting, taking sort of generic western tropes and making it anime. Both doing well with it so far.

    Story-wise, Hensuki has been about as annoying as it could be. But the English cast has been making it much funnier than it probably would otherwise be. Cliford Chapin is brilliant.

    Everything else has been rather boring. Black Clover has ramped up the hype recently though. Only two episodes into DanMachi so far, but I'm not digging this season's arc so far.
    Yo excuse me Fire Force is a 24 episode season?

    What the hell??? That feels so weird.

    Astra Lost In Space is so, so very good. That and Fire Force is the only series I'm really watching now that Jojo is over for the year. Me and a friend gave Cop Craft a try and it was... to put it mildly, "I'm mad this has interesting ideas because it was awful".

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    SFDebris is reviewing Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha!

    Oh FRACK yes!

    Oooh, I can't wait to see what he thinks about it! ('S one of my favourites.)

    Edit: And we're out of sensible options for Cleaning the Room telly, so time for Arbitatary See If Bleakbane Can Stand More Than Two Episodes Anime Theatre:

    Knight of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya

    Wish me luck...

    Spoiler: Knight of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya
    Show
    Okay, it's CGI, which I did NOT get from the title image.

    Mmm. First episode. A few promising moments, a fat load of clumsy exposition (it feels a bit rushed), but... Main character Seiya is not unlikable. I have to give him soem props form using "get bent" and "fricking" a fair bit, which is not what I was expecting out of the show - also, people actually beign shot (albiet bloodlessly) with actual bullets and such.

    Howevrer, show, callign your magic power "cosmo" is just... No. I can't take it seriously, especially when your utter th phrase "you have cosmo inside you," which is frankly not something you want to hear unless directed at Wanda, caught in flagranti delicto...

    (This is going to a case of Pokémon XY's "giant rock" a name so stupid it actively undermines the seriousness of what it is, isn't it?)

    And we're just going to gloss over that at the end of the episode, he straight-up kills a dude by blowing his apache up, are we?

    It's not... Terrible? It might be a little banal, but we'll see how it plays out. It seems to have some potential, it just is a little... Clumsy, I think is the best way to describe it.


    I hope Chuck doesn't get black listed for Nanoha because while it is probably a good show overall, the first season is pretty grossly fanservice-y. Which is bad when your protagonist is sub 12 years old, but not unexpected when your protagonist is from a bonus disc from an Eroge game. Also, truth be told... there's a lot of good stuff in season 1 of Nanoha, but it kinda ****ing sucked. If that makes sense. It was GOOD, but badly.

    Are you watching the CG version of Saint Seiya or the animated one?

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    Yo excuse me Fire Force is a 24 episode season?

    What the hell??? That feels so weird.

    Astra Lost In Space is so, so very good. That and Fire Force is the only series I'm really watching now that Jojo is over for the year. Me and a friend gave Cop Craft a try and it was... to put it mildly, "I'm mad this has interesting ideas because it was awful".



    I hope Chuck doesn't get black listed for Nanoha because while it is probably a good show overall, the first season is pretty grossly fanservice-y. Which is bad when your protagonist is sub 12 years old, but not unexpected when your protagonist is from a bonus disc from an Eroge game. Also, truth be told... there's a lot of good stuff in season 1 of Nanoha, but it kinda ****ing sucked. If that makes sense. It was GOOD, but badly.

    Are you watching the CG version of Saint Seiya or the animated one?
    CG, apparently (see edit...!)


    Spoiler: Speaking of...
    Show
    Okay, so any potential that it had in epsidoe one?

    Gone by episode two.

    PACING!

    It has none.


    So, in order to explain this, I need to step back a moment, and talk about episode one a bit.

    Starts out with a Seiya and his sister getting their house broken into by armed soldiers who want to kidnap her and come within a hairs breadth of shootign Seiya straight dead in the head until some dude in gold armour comes along, knobbles themn, blows of a helicopter and then sods off with the sister.

    Cut to presumably some time later (no dialogue or text to say when) and Seiya is skating down the street, breaks up a street gang mugging a guy, gets mugged himself and then Shows Superpowers all over the internet. He goes home to the orphanage. We hear, but do not see, the other kids at the orphan (through a door) saying how frightened they are that Seiya lives with them (so the gang guy has totally doxxed Seiya). Sieua is pre-empatorily kidnapped and chloroformed.

    He wakes up in nthe room of a dude and his grandaughter and we get a big long exposition dump. Basically war between Athena and Posiden and one of the other gods ever few centuris for some reason, esposition dude and Bad Guy found a dying knight carrying a baby, exposition dude wanted to protect baby and armour, Bad guiy wants to use it to fight the gods himseklf and take theit power but doesn't believe in knights (despite being show this telepathically) and the dying knight was hiding the baby from Sanctuary which is like the knight people or something because we're not really told why (but from the opening exposition dump narration it because Bad Prophecy) and he tells Seiya he's the pegasus to go train on some island to become kinight because that was the klast place his sister was seen before being taken to Sanctuary the secret place.

    Bad guy then attacks and grandaughter and Seiya and her body gautd Do A Cahse sequence that ends with Seiya actvating his powrr and blowin' up the aforemention helicopter adn then seeing granddaughter and body guard vanishing behind a waterfall and leaving him behind. End episod with bad guy telling his minions to find the pegasus.



    Okay.

    So none of this is utterly disjointed, but the warning signs are there.

    Episode two opens with Sieya apparently just being at this island. Two knight dudes have grabbed him and demand to know what he's doing there (their security must be amazing, as he's like, right in the middle of the village or something). He says he wants to be a knight, and they say he'll never survive the training, so they'll beat him to death so save him the effort. Our... Heroes...? Then a lady in a metal mask without eye holes and who has the exact same colour hair and hair style as Seiya's )older) sister comes by and is prepared to let them do it until she hears him say his name, whereupon she agrees to train him.

    Next scene, a claditorial arena and a dude going "Seiya, you and this mook have beaten 998 other competitors to claim this armour."

    Wait, that FRACK? Um, did we skip an episode or several in the middle of this episode?

    Seriously, no "several months later" or anything, Seiya doesn't look any different apart he's wearing different clothes. Seiya beats this guy after some boringly cliché dialogue (any of the minor wit from episode one has gone) - with flashbacks to not-the-sister spiutong off trainign nonsense - and this fracks off mook's teacher so much that she plans to kill Seiya pretty much as soo n as they have left the arena.

    I should take a moment to point out that both this character and the clearly-not-the-sister are the only aduly females we have seen, and both of them are wearing what I can only describe as... boob bosses, which is like a metal shield boss on their otherwise apparently leather (?) armour. No, i am not an expertm but that strikes me as... Both weird and probably remarkably uncomfortable.

    The fight sequences are kind of naff as well, relying too much on stock footage. (Also, everyone's hair is made of plastic. Dragon Race to the Edge this is not. (Hell , this isn't even The Deep...))

    Seiya shouts "you've always hated me, other teacher!" She HAS? Well, perhaps maybe, I dunno, SHOW of of this? Any of this?

    So he beats her because, she goes off swearing revenge, Not-the-sister says he won't find his sister at Sanctuary (I mean, DUH), but sends him to fight in an unsanctioned tornament. And says one day his sister will find him. Uhuh.

    Next scene, Seiya is waloinjg through the desert and finds a storm drain beneath which the tornament is taking place.

    Again no transition, no nothing jsut boom, we're there.

    Turns out the tornament was organised by exposition man, grandaughter. Which we know because Seiya look at this older girl and says "you're the granddaughter, you ditched me when I was twelve!"

    Uh... Wut.

    So he was twelve then, and so isn't now, which would imply a time skip of sort ;longer than one might have expoected since he LITERALLY HASN'T CHANGED AT ALL from his purportedly twelve-year-old-model aside from the change of clothes. Naruto Shippuden this is not.

    The rest of the episode is the start of the tornament arc, ending with some guy called Signum Magnus leaping to kill granddaughter on the behest of Santuary.

    And I am done. For a show with such a lot of tell and not show, it's still clear as fracking mud what's going on. Are the knights associated with Sanctuary? If so, why doens no-one know where sanctuary is? Does this mean there are, like, three sets of bad guys?

    The total lack of any transitions though makes it clear the shpow has NO FRACKING CLUE about pacing. It is tearing along at a fair rate, yes, but where it is going is not impressive.

    We know FRACK ALL about the characters of anyone we see, not even a lot about Seiya himself, other than he is a Good-ish Boy who picks up his litter. Not ecven a training montage, but a scene skip for a big timeskip that clearly had some importance. Does he knoiw ahny of the other knights in this tornament? Did he make no friends during his off-screen training? We have no idea.

    The show seems hell-bent on getting to "The Good Bit" (which isn't even good) at the expense of utterly everything else, but that means nothing has any importance because there's no reason to care, because we are only told in the moment "this person is important now."



    In conclusion: Arbitatary See If Bleakbane Can Stand More Than Two Episodes Anime Theatre: Knight of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya: Fail.

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    In defense of Saint Seiya as like, a franchise; the CG anime they did for Netflix is ****ing garbage. The original series is good! It's just old!

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    I hope Chuck doesn't get black listed for Nanoha because while it is probably a good show overall, the first season is pretty grossly fanservice-y. Which is bad when your protagonist is sub 12 years old, but not unexpected when your protagonist is from a bonus disc from an Eroge game. Also, truth be told... there's a lot of good stuff in season 1 of Nanoha, but it kinda ****ing sucked. If that makes sense. It was GOOD, but badly.
    More specifically, the first four episodes are kind of bad.

    Amazon appears to have lost their copies of all the Nanoha stuff, which is annoying because they had the only legit way to watch StrikerS in English, and it all used to be on Prime.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    In defense of Saint Seiya as like, a franchise; the CG anime they did for Netflix is ****ing garbage. The original series is good! It's just old!
    Clearly.



    Chuck actually managed to cut around the review without anything... Dodgy?

    And his reactions to a) Yuuno and b) said transformations were fricking priceless.



    Quote Originally Posted by GloatingSwine View Post
    More specifically, the first four episodes are kind of bad.

    Amazon appears to have lost their copies of all the Nanoha stuff, which is annoying because they had the only legit way to watch StrikerS in English, and it all used to be on Prime.
    There was an English StrikerS dub?

    FRAGDAMMIT!

    (Edit, nah, it appears it was subbed on Amazon - still, dammit, though.)



    (Nanoha was one of very few anime I watched in Sub first (on the net) and then I got the DVDs in English for the first two series. It remains stuck in my craw that I have not been able to find StrikerS on DVD (or otherwise), pretty much period.)
    Last edited by Aotrs Commander; 2019-08-13 at 09:47 AM.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    There was an English StrikerS dub?
    No, sub only, but they did have the DVD version of StrikerS (there are minor animation upgrades in the DVD version) which has as far as I am aware never been officially available in any form ouside of Japan otherwise.

    They had Vivid and Vivid Strike as well.

    It still all shows up if you do a search (Prime is terrible for finding stuff, there's loads of things they have but you'd never know it if you don't know to search for it), it just isn't available to watch any more.

    I'm p. sure they had redone subs on the first series as well, because the ones on the DVD I have are quite bad (they originally used the fansub name for Raising Heart and swapped to the real one 2/3 of the way through the series without going back and correcting the first two discs).
    Last edited by GloatingSwine; 2019-08-13 at 09:50 AM.

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    Default Re: General Anime/Manga Discussion 16: In Another Thread With My Smartphone

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    Chuck actually managed to cut around the review without anything... Dodgy?

    And his reactions to a) Yuuno and b) said transformations were fricking priceless.
    Given he cut his anime teeth on Mahoromatic and absolute garbage moon priest mecha show, I'm not surprised at him being skilled at that.

    I should watch the video when I get home, I liked Nanoha despite every attempt at it to not be likable.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    Astra Lost In Space is so, so very good. That and Fire Force is the only series I'm really watching now that Jojo is over for the year. Me and a friend gave Cop Craft a try and it was... to put it mildly, "I'm mad this has interesting ideas because it was awful".
    Weird, I find myself being the other way around on Astra and Cop Craft. I can see what's attractive in Astra, but the science is just so frequently terrible and the pacing seems all wrong. Then the only interesting plot point...
    Spoiler: Astra: Lost in Space
    Show
    ...that one of them is a traitor is just pushed aside for more questionable science of development of characters I find myself not really caring about.


    Cop Craft may just tick all the right boxes for my. Fish out of water, buddy cop, bad cop worse cop (seriously Telarna is a hilariously terrible law enforcer), that I'm willing to give it a pass on shaky animation and weird pacing. Maybe I was just never expecting it to be better than Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon so it didn't disappoint me.

    Watched a few episodes of Demon Slayer, ended up hating it. Like, does the main character ever get any agency? If he does, does it get immediately ret-conned away again?

    In catching up on old anime, I watched Kill la Kill. I'm not really sure what that was, but I think I enjoyed it.
    Last edited by Excession; 2019-08-13 at 04:35 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excession View Post
    Weird, I find myself being the other way around on Astra and Cop Craft. I can see what's attractive in Astra, but the science is just so frequently terrible and the pacing seems all wrong. Then the only interesting plot point...
    Spoiler: Astra: Lost in Space
    Show
    ...that one of them is a traitor is just pushed aside for more questionable science of development of characters I find myself not really caring about.


    Cop Craft may just tick all the right boxes for my. Fish out of water, buddy cop, bad cop worse cop (seriously Telarna is a hilariously terrible law enforcer), that I'm willing to give it a pass on shaky animation and weird pacing.

    And don't get me started on Demon Slayer. Like, does the main character ever get any agency? If he does, does it get immediately ret-conned away again?
    What about the science in Astra is bad? It... doesn't seem incorrect at all beyond having the occasional "hey this is a super high tech future setting" moment? And you not liking the characters is fine, but the entire point of the series is getting to learn about and like the characters since that's kind of literally the premise. That's less a failing on the show and more of a "it's not a show you'll enjoy" thing. As for that spoiler...;
    Spoiler
    Show
    I haven't read the manga, but I know that plot point is always relevant since it's a hanging guillotine over the entire crew. Who of these characters that we'll learn to like is secretly the saboteur? I think it's really neat!


    Cop Craft leans on the "yeah I can't stand this" side of things. It tries to be interesting, but just... isn't quite there. Still better than Bright.

    Nope. Not ever. Still more agency than his non-character sister. I hate Demon Slayer so god damn much I read like 70 chapters of it (the entire anime currently out) and it's so ****ing boring what the hell why is it so well liked when it's just this banal and lifeless? Can't even say it's the anime's fault for being beautifully animated because it was a thing way after the manga got super popular for no conceivable reason found.

    Kill la Kill is a great series on the caveat that you have to endure a lot of awful stuff that may ruin the message it would otherwise have.
    Last edited by LaZodiac; 2019-08-13 at 04:37 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    What about the science in Astra is bad? It... doesn't seem incorrect at all beyond having the occasional "hey this is a super high tech future setting" moment? And you not liking the characters is fine, but the entire point of the series is getting to learn about and like the characters since that's kind of literally the premise. That's less a failing on the show and more of a "it's not a show you'll enjoy" thing.
    First episode: they have a winch, right? Why did they need the human chain when they could just reel that in again and throw them a line? It's like the winch just disappeared between one scene and the next.

    Then there's the topic of food. Sticking anything from an alien biosphere in your mouth is terminally stupid. It could be using arsenic rather than phosphorus for just one example, let alone the very high chance of completely incompatible proteins that will be either indigestible or outright poisonous, or the 50/50 chance of getting the wrong isomer of just about everything. Alien pathogens may be less of a problem because they're not evolved to attack human life at all, but amoebic meningitis isn't caused by something that wants to infect humans either. Sure, they make a device that tests for all this, but they do that after eating some of it.

    Maybe I should forgive the single-biome worlds, but I this point I feel like being picky.
    Last edited by Excession; 2019-08-13 at 04:58 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excession View Post
    First episode: they have a winch, right? Why did they need the human chain when they could just reel that in again and throw them a line? It's like the winch just disappeared between one scene and the next.

    Then there's the topic of food. Sticking anything from an alien biosphere in your mouth is terminally stupid. It could be using arsenic rather than phosphorus for just one example, let alone the very high chance of completely incompatible proteins that will be either indigestible or outright poisonous, or the 50/50 chance of getting the wrong isomer of just about everything. Alien pathogens may be less of a problem because they're not evolved to attack human life at all, but amoebic meningitis isn't caused by something that wants to infect humans either. Sure, they make a device that tests for all this, but they do that after eating some of it.

    Maybe I should forgive the single-biome worlds, but I this point I feel like being picky.
    Regarding the winch, they would have had to reel that entire thing back in. It'd also be sort of impossible to throw it out to them given how space works, but with the human chain and their boosters to assist, they can maneuver to get to Kanata and Aries. Also it's symbolic and dramatic, so I like it. Also not to be nitpicky myself but when I heard "science complaints" I didn't think "they could have used a winch cable instead of anything else". That feels... very low science to me

    To be fair their teenagers. They're actually just stupid. That's allowed to be a plot point; they got lucky with the food on their first planet and Zack made his food taster to help them scan for stuff so they don't get their asses killed. And for what it's worth they do encounter problems like this and are like "hm we should be smarter about this" because basically almost all of them die in the latest episode because they forgot other planets can be hostile in subtle ways.

    I'd argue they only appear to be single-biome worlds because they land in the most habital place their scanners say to.
    Last edited by LaZodiac; 2019-08-13 at 05:06 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    Regarding the winch, they would have had to reel that entire thing back in. It'd also be sort of impossible to throw it out to them given how space works, but with the human chain and their boosters to assist, they can maneuver to get to Kanata and Aries. Also it's symbolic and dramatic, so I like it. Also not to be nitpicky myself but when I heard "science complaints" I didn't think "they could have used a winch cable instead of anything else". That feels... very low science to me
    Physics is still science, or maybe it's an engineering problem. I could accept that moving the winch line would be really hard, but why not even mention that?

    Like why they didn't just move the ship, or re-fuel one of the suits, or why they're all conveniently out of fuel anyway when they don't need to constantly accelerate to cross the few hundred metres to the ship. Yeah, it's symbolic and dramatic, but it felt to me like whole scene was railroaded into that purpose and that solution, rather than having it emerge as a natural consequence.

    Quote Originally Posted by LaZodiac View Post
    And for what it's worth they do encounter problems like this and are like "hm we should be smarter about this" because basically almost all of them die in the latest episode because they forgot other planets can be hostile in subtle ways.
    Why does a toxin that evolved for an alien biosphere even affect humans though? And in exactly the way it's designed to work on the native life? If they'd even mentioned that they were going to the only planets where surveys had shown a compatible biosphere I would be happier about all this.
    Last edited by Excession; 2019-08-13 at 05:35 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excession View Post
    Physics is still science, or maybe it's an engineering problem. I could accept that moving the winch line would be really hard, but why not even mention that?

    Like why they didn't just move the ship, or re-fuel one of the suits, or why they're all conveniently out of fuel anyway when they don't need to constantly accelerate to cross the few hundred metres to the ship. Yeah, it's symbolic and dramatic, but it felt to me like whole scene was railroaded into that purpose and that solution, rather than having it emerge as a natural consequence.


    Why does a toxin that evolved for an alien biosphere even affect humans though? And in exactly the way it's designed to work on the native life? If they'd even mentioned that they were going to the only planets where surveys had shown a compatible biosphere I would be happier about all this.
    It's more an engineering problem, but also it's important to note that given Kanata's positioning, just throwing out a singular line would be too risky. He might miss it. By having a far more controllable human chain, it's easier to ensure he gets caught. Also the suit's likely use internal oxygen vents to propel themselves, given the effect that happens when tehy use them, so the suits having fuel makes sense.

    The ship was not currently functioning or ready for movement just yet, so they couldn't have moved it. Everyone still on the ship had thruster fuel left, but they couldn't very well go out and try to grab him themselves. Taht's one single person trying to hit one single person in space, like two meteorites crashing. It'd be more effective to create a sort of aware "arm" that can manouver with thrusters to go grab him once he's within range, which you know when and where will happen due to space math. Which is what they did.

    I do definitely understand what you mean, I just don't think it's bad science.

    As for the planet's alien toxins ****ing with people... here's the thing. It's REALLY unclear just how uncharted these planets even are, given they have names. So, ignoring the in game explanation Zack gives for a moment, I want to make a note of how, assuming life on these planets is carbon based like ours, even if the viruses ARE uniquely evolved due to the different environment, they'd still affect us as normal because we're both carbon-based life and thus can interact. It's actually a thing where moon rocks and Mars rocks are treated carefully since they COULD have ancient germs fossilized in them that could revive and **** us all up. IT's not impossible for the alien evironment to hurt us.

    But, let's back up a bit to what Zack said. Which... is EXACTLY what you said you wish he said. Zack plotted a route through all of space and they found the ONLY planets within range of each other that have livable by humans biomes, and are beelineing straight to them after getting enough food at bare minimum to make it. So yeah, they are definitely actually doing that exact thing, explicitly.

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