Lurker > Robazoid

Finished the Summer 1985 anime in my seasonal project. 3/120 done, aw yeah.

Dirty Pair was good. It's a sci-fi anime about two women who get hired to take care of various jobs (investigating murders, taking down criminal organizations, etc). It's extremely episodic, which I appreciated. While some of the episodes sucked super hard, like one where a group of literal children took over a military base somehow, they were all still creative short stories. Quite a few of the episodes were really enjoyable, too!

This anime has some shortcomings. I would've preferred it if the main duo were more skilled. My favorite episodes were the ones where they saw everything coming and prepared for it, which let them pull off some impressive feats against their enemies. Sadly, it was far more common for them to be genuinely surprised and just... be fine, because of plot armor. It was crazy how many times they were caught in an ambush and survived hails of gunfire from all sides. One time they blundered into a building rigged to explode and then just climbed out of the rubble, uninjured. This is primarily a comedy, but stuff like that still really killed the tension.

Thankfully, Dirty Pair had something else to make it enjoyable! I really loved the main characters, Kei and Yuri. They had a great friendship, the kind where they talk shit about each other constantly but only because of how close they are. It was funny seeing the sheer levels of collateral damage they managed to cause on their missions. These girls have accidentally destroyed planets. I was also a big fan of how sex-positive they were. I feel like it's rare for anime to have women so blatantly cruising for hunks and being so open about wanting to get laid. I also liked how they still had standards. Sometimes they'd find a guy attractive, then he'd get too forward or creepy and immediately get a boot to the face.

One other thing I wanted to mention, one episode had probably the most positive trans representation I've ever seen in an anime. For something that's (sadly) still a hot-button issue nearly forty years later, it was great seeing this anime from 1985 handle a trans character so well.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

lol the Yokohama Animatiom Labs anime with the cool trailer was delayed to next year, I KNEW this was gonna be trouble.

Damn, that brings me down to 16 shows next season. That was one of the cooler looking ones, too

I thought I would finish Dirty Pair tonight, but it turns out there's an entire second season, two hour-long OVAs, and a full-length movie that aren't on Crunchyroll. Man, why are older anime always so long? I've downloaded the rest of Dirty Pair now... well, except for a reboot series from the 90s because apparently it sucks. It'll just be a few days before I finish this 1985 anime, the earliest entry in my seasonal watch project.

Speaking of that project, I expanded it into a few more seasons. Now it has 120 anime between 1985 and 2023, which is a nice even number so I doubt I'll add any more. I'm just going to list the new ones in case anyone wants to warn me away from any of them. These all feel super obscure though. I've never heard of them before.

-His and Her Circumstances (Fall 1998)
-Serial Experiments Lain (Summer 1998)
-All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (Winter 1998)
-Vampire Princess Miyu (Fall 1997)
-Flames of Recca (Summer 1997)
-Eat-Man (Winter 1997)
-Martian Successor Nadesico (Fall 1996)
-The Irresponsible Captain Tylor (Winter 1993)

WhiteLens posted...

This is how I would look at it. If you were to experience something related to Suicide Squad for the first time, would you rather it be through this or the game that came out earlier this year?

I'd definitely choose an anime over that live service game that got meme'd on for being awful. I'd probably choose the one good Suicide Squad movie over either of those though (it was made by the same guy who did GotG I think? That's one of the only two Marvel movies I've seen and it was pretty good).

Damn, I was going to watch Utena for my seasonal watch project. Nothing else is jumping out at me from Spring 1997 either, guess I'll have to download it.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Was Harukana Receive....Yuri volleyball?

I loved Harukana Receive but it was pretty much "cute girls play volleyball" with the tiniest amounts of drama along the way. Some yuri-baiting I guess but nothing serious. Hanebado was the serious sports anime that season.

Banana Fish is one of my few drops too! The current me, older and wiser, would've also dropped Hanebado after a few episodes instead of finishing it like the younger, dumber me did.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Revue time.

Really not sure how I managed to skip right past this one when it came out...must have just not had HiDive at the time.

I had vivid memories of your reaction to at least the first episode of Revue Starlight, so checked the archive website and sure enough. Unless you weren't LapisLazuli I guess, but in that case I've had you confused for someone else for years now!

LapisLazuli
07/14/2018 02:32:50 PM
#87
I did not know what Revue Starlight was supposed to be for the first 80% and then it got RADICAL. The last 5 minutes alone almost make me wanna put it in first for the season, holy shit.

I demand a Terra-length write-up for Mjrn

Shadow is the absolute worst for sure. So is Edge from FFIV. I was afraid I had some kind of prejudice against FF ninjas until I met Yuffie.

Lopen posted...

Also btw I disagree Locke/Celes is meant to be romantic at all.

I mean it definitely isn't a good romance, but if you don't think it was meant to be a romance then lol

Terra is my favorite character in VI. She learns how to love (and I was glad it wasn't romantic love because VI proved with Locke/Celes it didn't know how to write that). The stuff with the orphans was the best part about her, that was her big moment where she took initiative! She found people who made her feel love and wanted to protect them. Pre-character development Terra wouldn't have cared about those kids at all.

So now my first save will be Yuffie/Cloud, the two undisputed lead characters of the Remake trilogy content.

Ashe
Mog IX

Trading for Mog IX auto

Yuffie
Eiko

The worst part about Terra going out it you guys being so insufferable about it.

I'm sad Terra went out, but I'm hopeful that she'll come back with a vengeance in two years! There's recent precedent to it, after all. Auron came back from his boot for 3rd, Yuna came back from her boot for 5th. Even Kain came back for a respectable 19th.

Plus Yuffie is winning this year after her boot.

Ritz

Mog IX is safe but you can get Cyan and I can get Ritz if you want

Mog IX

Still auto-trading for Mog IX, a cute little moogle who needs someone's help to survive

Trading for Mog IX auto

Yuffie
Eiko

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I don't even know who you're calling a terrible person here??

Jellyfish spoilers, sorry for the wall of spoiler tags everyone

The Kano flashback stuff was fine. Probably shouldn't have punched the girl, but I get it. Everything was her abusive mother's fault anyway. The only thing Kano has done wrong is not yelling at Yoru even more. Worst part of the episode was when Kano felt bad for what she said to Yoru at the end. She deserved it! Don't feel bad!

Yoru, though... man, what an awful way for her character to go. After the end of last episode, I was hopeful that she would care enough about Kano to handle the offer delicately. This is her good friend (maybe more, though now I hope not). Even if Yoru doesn't have all the details, she knows Kano has a complicated relationship with her mother and hang-ups about the Sundolls. That should've been enough for her to tread lightly. When she finally got around to mentioning it to Kano, Yoru said "I don't want to hear about it on the phone, but you can tell me about your past in person if you want". Then, the very next time they meet in person, she's already accepted the deal without even giving Kano a chance. Strike one against Yoru for choosing the abusive mother over her friend.

The even worse part was how she said it to Kano, though. This is where I feel like her character development reversed and she became a terrible person. Earlier parts of the season showed that Yoru was beginning to love her art because of Kano. Now she wants to take this big project so she can find a way love her art? Fuck Kano, I guess. So much for drawing for her sake. Strike two for Yoru. Then she framed the offer as the big stage where she can really challenge herself and grow... as opposed to JELEE, which I guess is small-time unchallenging grunt work where she'll never grow at all? That was an awful thing to say, especially to someone like Kano who is living her dream through JELEE. Yoru threw all of her friends and everything they've accomplished together under the bus. Strike three against Yoru. She's out.

I honestly don't care anymore what BS they pull later in the season to overcome this drama. Yoru doesn't deserve forgiveness, so any method they use will feel forced and unsatisfying.

I don't like this kind of drama, no. The best drama is when everyone is doing their best but the situation is irreconcilable and someone is going to end up sad. Jellyfish is just drama for drama's sake. It's reversing character development and turning them into terrible people in order to force it.

Man, what is with the anime this season pretty much all steadily getting worse over time. The only ones that haven't slid precipitously in my opinion of them are Tonbo, Yatagarasu, and A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics. First A Condition Called Love's animation quality goes to shit to the point where even I can't look past it. Now Jellyfish just goes to shit in general.

I guess Tonbo is my anime of the season solely because it has stayed consistently good. Winner by default!

Damn, that strikes it from my list then. I don't like shorts.

Ah, that does make more sense! I tried googling "cheating cat" and all that came up was outdoor cats going to different houses in the neighborhood to get more food lol. I'd never heard of thieving cat either. I'm glad you could explain it because it was bugging me. Thanks!

I wouldn't mind a harem. At least then I'd understand what the anime even is. I mean look at the MAL description, what is this. If this is a joke, then I don't get it.

"Nukumizu-kun. There are two types of girls: childhood friends or cheating cats."
"I see. Well, that's a bold statement."

The animation in that video is pretty good, though. Definitely looking forward to seeing what the show is about.

Xeybozn posted...

It does? Sounds interesting, maybe I'll finally get around to watching it.

I guess I should clarify, I'm not talking the level of sadness and betrayal that anime like Kumamiko or Fluffy Paradise reached. Everyone in Manabi Straight just became really callous and dismissive in ways I personally didn't enjoy. I knew going in that it was one of Mac's favorites, though, so it works for other people! (As opposed to something like, again, Kumamiko, which I think is pretty universally hated)

I decided not to go strictly in order for my seasonal watch project, mostly because a lot of the earlier ones are super long. It's nice sometimes to knock out an anime in one night. Today I finished the one for Winter 2007. 2/110 complete!

Manabi Straight... well, it started okay. I was loving it for almost the entire first half, and I figured it'd easily sail into my top 100. The girls were all super cute, their antics were hilarious, and the story was simultaneously fun and profound. Basically it's about an energetic girl named Manabi who transfers into a declining school. Then she takes over as student council president with the goal of rejuvenating everyone's love for the place. It did a great job with all the main characters, they had their quirks as well as some good development and relationships with each other. I was really enjoying watching Manabi bring everyone together... for the first half.

Then the second half plunged into the depths of sadness. I wound up hating it. I readily accept that this might be my fault. I feel like I can't rate this anime objectively just because of the mood it put me in. The sudden swerve into depression wasn't what I wanted today. There was a reason why I chose an anime which MAL tagged with "comedy" and "CGDCT" and not one with "drama" or, I dunno, "heartbreaking" (which isn't a tag but if it was you could apply it to this). The main characters were still good, but they were trapped in a futile struggle against some dark tides.

Almost every single side character turned into a shitbag for pretty flimsy reasons. It turned out that Manabi hadn't actually accomplished anything in the first half. No one cared. The biggest betrayal, in my opinion, was Manabi's brother who she was living with. At one point someone even asked him "hey, does it bother you that your sister's heart is being torn apart?" and he essentially replied "nah, I have a hot girlfriend, I'm too busy getting laid". There were also some writing decisions that were, frankly, baffling. One event had a lot of buildup and then they more or less skipped it. I'm exaggerating a bit to avoid outright spoilers, but basically Manabi was stuck in an empty room talking about how sad she was to miss the event and everyone else told her to get over it. What a letdown that was.

I'm sad because Manabi Straight made me sad, but I'm also sad because I thought I'd really like it, for awhile I really did, then in the end I really didn't.

Project Zomboid

Yuffie
Eiko

The new era brought in characters like Umaro and Strago and finally Gogo. Old era VI wasn't strong enough to get them in!

I'm already glad I decided to do my seasonal anime project. It's getting me to watch stuff I probably never would have otherwise! The 1985 anime, Dirty Pair, is great so far. It's about two women who get hired to take care of sci-fi problems both big and small. They're competent in a lot of ways, but they inevitably cause hilarious amounts of collateral damage. They're also both such terrible people that it's a lot of fun to watch. I'll never get tired of them nonchalantly zooming through red lights and causing huge traffic accidents, meanwhile Kei and Yuri are just bitching at each other over something else entirely. This anime does a great job with their banter. Plus, with absolutely no explanation whatsoever, they have an intelligent cat the size of a grizzly bear.

I also forgot to mention before, the next async will likely be June 15th.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

okay now for the harder part

...who wants to help get four viera past the soft boots...

Sorry, I'll be too busy helping moogles (Yuffie wear a moogle disguise in Intermission, plus Mog IX)

The secret Sonon fans are preparing even as we speak

I still feel bad for abandoning Sonon, but let the record show that right now Yuffie would be at 7 noms and right on the cusp of not getting in if I hadn't switched to her

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing made it into my project because, as far as I can tell, it's in it's own timeline like Witch from Mercury. A lot of those are from the original timeline. It'd be neat to watch all the original Gundam stuff someday though

Totodile/Articuno
Slowking/Honchkrow
Skarmory/Wailord
Xerneas/Pinsir

I resent having to vote for Slowking just because I love Honchkrow

Xeybozn posted...

Do you actually want to watch all of Dragon Ball, even without this project? Because there are definitely other anime worth watching from 1986 that aren't such a massive timesink.

Dragon Ball is something I'd like to watch someday, but I'm in no rush. What else would you recommend? I considered Saint Seiya but I got too lazy to figure out the six different anime that came up when I searched for it on Crunchyroll. Other than that, Maison Ikkoku was the only one that caught my eye.

Remember that project I posted about a bit ago where I wanted to watch an anime from every season? I expanded it a bit further into the past and wanted to post it again, because why not. I downloaded Brigadoon for Summer 2000, so now the only gaps between 1999 and 2023 are the two 2018 seasons where I've already watched everything... I mean, I could watch Sanrio Boys or undrop Beatless, but I don't want to.

For 1998 to 1985, there was such little choice per season that I just tried to find one anime per year. The only gaps in that are 1991 and 1986. I'm considering Dragon Ball for 1986 but just not sure I want to commit to that whole series (doesn't help that the ideal version of DBZ, Kai, isn't available in Canada). As for 1991, the only real option is something called Dear Brother. Mac has watched that, even rated it 9/10, but the description is basically "a girl goes to a new school and gets bullied relentlessly". Even with the Girls Love tag on MAL, I just don't know if I want to watch that for 39 episodes. It sounds miserable. I'm sad that another anime called Reporter Blues apparently doesn't exist in English, that sounds more my style.

Anyway, here's the link again. I posted this too soon a few weeks ago given the sorry state of my backlog, but I'm finally going to start focusing on this project. I'm done 1/110 so far!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t_nYA59DR6AsZJvCk8l1AiuPRnF9jE0l6IWUqzAdatA/edit?usp=sharing

Dedf1sh posted...

Higher seed avoiding an upset by 1 vote is star of the day?

Look, there are only eight possible choices and a lot of these matches are blowouts or, on some days, sometimes have the exact same vote margins. I'm picking the best I can!

I'm sad no one else here is watching Yatagarasu (as far as I know) because it just keeps getting crazier with the court scheming. Now there's a murder mystery and I legit have no clue who the culprit might be because there are so many options and all of them would make sense. All I know is that something is going on behind the scenes. Even with the central conflict between the two princes, I'm still not 100% sure where either one of them stand in the grand scheme of things. But, like, in a good way, if that makes sense. There's lots of depth to these characters and the political situations.

I kind of regret watching it as it airs. I really want to binge it and see what happens next.

Castelia Division
(45) Nidoking/Ninetales v. Dugtrio/Grimer (4)
(41) Togekiss/Kilowattrel v. Chinchou/Cradily (8)
(36) Murkrow/Roserade v. Grookey/Bibarel (13)
(25) Rhydon/Tauros v. Koffing/Emolga (24)

Star of the Day: Rhydon/Tauros
Things looked dicey for most of the match, but these two managed to win in the end even if only by one vote!

Dud of the Day: Dugtrio/Grimer
For a day with three Gen 1 duos, these two were by far the weakest.

Well it doesn't look like I'll get the Wutai miracle with Sonon, so I think I'm going to just guarantee Yuffie doesn't get screwed by the rising nom requirements. If any of the people I traded with (GenesisSaga, PlasmaKappa, MartinFF7, FFDragon) see this, you can drop Sonon and nom Yuffie as well, but I think what I'm about to do will be enough so I'm not going to tag anyone or anything. It's fine if you don't want to switch.

DROP: my Sonon double-nom entirely
CHANGE: my Yuffie regular nom into a double-nom

Yuffie Kisaragi
Gogo

andylt posted...

still trading for Gogo

For Yuffie, please

Congrats to Frieren! I only started helping after 7th Time Loop went out, but I'm glad it won. For such a recent anime to do this well, I guess it truly has earned that dominant #1 spot on the myanimelist ranking.