The State of Anime Today

[pochercoaster]

Who else is watching Mob Psycho 100? I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Also, the art style of it is unique and refreshing and has a lot of personality. I could probably watch it just for the superb animation.

The last two episodes of Berserk felt a lot more coherent than the first three. As someone who hasn't read the manga (yet) I feel like I can finally follow what's happening.

I tried to watch Re:Zero and was bored to tears and utterly unmoved by the characters in it halfway through the first episode. It just seemed like an incredibly generic teenage boy fantasy. :/

[Sithdarth]

Originally Posted by pochercoaster

I tried to watch Re:Zero and was bored to tears and utterly unmoved by the characters in it halfway through the first episode. It just seemed like an incredibly generic teenage boy fantasy. :/

From what I hear it is a fairly faithful adaptation of a light novel which means the pacing is pretty slow for awhile. If you don't have the patience for the slow pacing you'll probably not really enjoy it. It does get better but it will also unapologetically rip out your heart and stomp on it. So if you're also adverse to shows that just make you feel really sad (even in a good way) you might want to skip it as well. The only other thing I can say is that the entire premise seems to be the deconstruction of the genre and it's tropes. Which combined with the slow pacing means a considerable amount of time is spent setting things up to get deconstructed.

Also Mob Pyshco is pretty great but I expected as much from the creator of One Punch Man.

[pochercoaster]

Originally Posted by Sithdarth

From what I hear it is a fairly faithful adaptation of a light novel which means the pacing is pretty slow for awhile. If you don't have the patience for the slow pacing you'll probably not really enjoy it. It does get better but it will also unapologetically rip out your heart and stomp on it. So if you're also adverse to shows that just make you feel really sad (even in a good way) you might want to skip it as well. The only other thing I can say is that the entire premise seems to be the deconstruction of the genre and it's tropes. Which combined with the slow pacing means a considerable amount of time is spent setting things up to get deconstructed.

Also Mob Pyshco is pretty great but I expected as much from the creator of One Punch Man.

That makes sense, because any time I've tried to watch something adapted from a light novel (like Slayers) I couldn't really care for it.

My favourite shows are sad ones, but I don't want to invest in ones with that kind of pacing, I guess. Unless they are really really amazing towards the end. Like, they stand out among their own genre amazing.

[Gregness]

Originally Posted by pochercoaster

That makes sense, because any time I've tried to watch something adapted from a light novel (like Slayers) I couldn't really care for it.

My favourite shows are sad ones, but I don't want to invest in ones with that kind of pacing, I guess. Unless they are really really amazing towards the end. Like, they stand out among their own genre amazing.

Did you ever watch Steins;Gate? It's kind of similar in the way it slow-rolls a lot of its drama.

[pochercoaster]

No, but I've been meaning to get around to it.

[Solid Snake]

Steins;Gate is a phenomenal take on a tragic version of a time-traveling story. Kurisu is one of my favorite characters and Okabe's great, too, though be forewarned you have to kind of slog through some immature hijinks with him before you really understand why he acts the way he acts around his friends.

I'd strongly recommend you watch it Poch if only because I'm intrigued with how the anime might hold up (1) for people who don't play the visual novel first and (2) for women audiences, because as great as the story is it definitely has a few awkward moments with its women characters and it's clearly written for a predominantly male audience who's supposed to identify with Okabe and who's supposed to laugh alongside him and his friend Daru when they behave in ways that skirt the boundaries of human decency. Like, it's never outright brazenly misogynistic (and given how terrible anime for boys can be with its brazen misogyny, I actually give Steins;Gate some credit there) but there were moments I was able to forgive because of the combination of my privilege blinders and that general sensibility of "99% of the plot and the characterizations are just so damn good I'll just pretend the last five seconds didn't happen there", and I imagine you'll hold it more accountable.

On a related note I'm also curious as to what women critics would think of Okabe, because he's almost a universally beloved character among the predominantly male anime critics out there but...he's definitely not entirely normal in the head? Like, it's easy as a guy to want to believe in the timeless beauty of his budding romance, but I wonder if a woman watching Steins;Gate would have a similar reaction of strained disbelief as a guy watching Twilight.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by pochercoaster

The last two episodes of Berserk felt a lot more coherent than the first three. As someone who hasn't read the manga (yet) I feel like I can finally follow what's happening.

I wanted to watch the latest episode to be sure, but work and butts (the butts are work) have prevented me until now. The first three episodes were taking things from the first volume and things from after the part that has been animated twice (but not directly after, we skipped stuff) and blending it into its own thing. Four and five have been a proper adaptation of the Tower of God arc without skipping around, so they get to lean on Miura's story telling, finally. This is the part I've read most, so I guess it's my favorite. It's got all the violence and blasphemy you could hope for, though the monster killing from the OP (which has already happened) won't (for the most part) be repeated until later.

And then it's moe moe kyun family adventures, which are also good, but very different and which won't be animated until aliens demand an animated account of the extinct human manga culture.

[BB]

This week's Love Live, I finally felt it again- that undefinable feeling the original series/SIF gave me right back at the start, when I started enjoying it more than I expected to. It just all felt right this week, like a true continuation of the series rather than the Similar Product it had been feeling like before. I don't know how to explain it, but it hit all the right notes. I'm so, so glad Yoshiko isn't as one-note as she's seemed to be, too.

Also:

[Gregness]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

...but there were moments I was able to forgive because of the combination of my privilege blinders and that general sensibility of "99% of the plot and the characterizations are just so damn good I'll just pretend the last five seconds didn't happen there", and I imagine you'll hold it more accountable.
...

Man, it's okay to just like something even if it isn't perfect. ;p

Also, goddamn, you need to bring a hankie to this episode of Re:ZERO.

Also, also, any of you watching the Tales of Zestiria anime? I've been liking it so far, and from what I've heard people say they've improved the pacing immensely from the game (I haven't played it).

[pochercoaster]

Well, two episodes of Steins;Gate in and nothing satisfying has really happened yet. I'll give it a few more episodes to see if it goes anywhere, though. For now I don't really get the hype.

If anime has taught me anything, it's that you need a fuckload of gears, analog clocks, and hourglasses to time travel.

Edit: so from what I've googled the show starts to get good at ep 12. UGH. I hope I get into it before then because otherwise I think I'd rather do something else.

Time travel themed anime/media that I've enjoyed had much stronger characters. Hopefully the characters in steins gate get more likable because otherwise why would I care about a time travel plot.