Lurker > Robazoid

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.

Hey if we're doing mid-season rankings, you know I'm always up for that! Was particularly interested in your thoughts on Wind Breaker because it slid down in my ranking a lot with this tournament arc. I just haven't been able to get into it like I did with the earlier stuff.

My current ranking of the season is depressing because so many shows have slid so far down from where they started. The only one that's really improved is Salad Bowl, it just keeps getting better and better. Homeless knight lady is amazing, but even the parts with the princess Sara are getting way cuter and funnier. My top three favorites are mostly just staying consistently amazing, not really getting better but I guess they don't need to. While I'm not enjoying Laid-Back Camp S3 as much as prior seasons, it's still one of the top six balancing out the worse parts of the Spring season.

Tonari no Yokai-san I'm really hoping isn't going a certain direction, otherwise it'll fall super far in my ranking too. Spoilers for a potential plot point please don't have a romance between the centuries-old bird man and a literal child. They can't have a romance, not even when she's an adult someday, without it feeling like grooming. Why can't they just have a father/daughter dynamic, that would make so much more sense given the two characters. Train to the End of the World has gone so far off the lolrandom deep end that I kind of hate it now, with the latest episode being a perfect example of unfunny nonsense. Voice Actor Radio turned into really poorly written melodrama, the end of the last episode especially was one of the stupidest anime sequences I've ever seen. Astro Note and below are just really bad anime that anyone smarter than me would drop.

AMAZING
A Condition Called Love
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
Tonbo!
Laid-Back Camp S3
Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master
Mission: Yozakura Family

GREAT/GOOD
Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf
The Duke of Death and His Maid S3
A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics
Whisper Me a Love Song
Girls Band Cry
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill etc

FINE I GUESS
Tonari no Yokai-san
Wind Breaker
Mysterious Disappearances
Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included
Go Go Loser Ranger
Kaiju No. 8

BAD OR WORSE
Train to the End of the World
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
Astro Note
Gods' Games We Play
Grandma and Grandpa Turn Young Again
Highspeed Etoile
Oblivion Battery

DROPPED
Unnamed Memory

I'm continuing to clear my backlog. Not even counting that big project of 100 anime from different seasons, I still have four more unfinished shows. Man, did I ever let my backlog get out of control.

Today I finished Blue Drop, which was half a yuri highschool romance, half a really weird sci-fi action story. The way it tried to merge these two halves was intriguing at the start. However, the more I learned about what was really going on, the more I realized that these two halves didn't mesh at all. I vastly preferred the yuri romance half, but it was often impossible to get invested in it when there was serious sci-fi drama stuff happening at the same time that should've been way more important. Yeah it's cute that you girls are blushing, I'd love to focus on that, but oh my god go and deal with the sci-fi stuff, it's getting out of control. This anime had some of the most jarring editing I've ever seen. Happy school festival, cut to dark sci-fi action, cut back to happy school festival, cut back to dark sci-fi action. It was like watching two completely different anime, and they were both made worse by the presence of other.

Despite all of that though, I liked Blue Drop. Even with the two halves of the story not coming together at all, the big climax still kind of got to me. I liked most of the characters. The romance half in particular had some dumb melodrama at times, but overall it was a solid story. The sci-fi half... well, usually I'm a fan of sci-fi stories like this, but it didn't work for me at all. At least it wasn't as bad as it could've been. I'm still glad I watched Blue Drop. It just had a lot of conceptual problems, in my opinion.

Frieren 12

So today Crunchyroll got some sort of "Episode 0" for a show called Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction. That's the kind of eye-catching title basically demanding people watch it. However, the reviews on Crunchyroll are warning new viewers not to watch Episode 0 because apparently it spoils a bunch of stuff from later in the series??? I don't know what the deal with this anime is, apparently it'll be some sort of extended version of some movies that came out a few months ago, but releasing it like this is a stupid idea if people aren't supposed to actually start watching it here.

Frieren 11

Frieren 10

Frieren 9

SockoressKnight posted...

Tried watching Ascendance of a Bookworm, but bounced off it halfway through episode 2. Between the 5-year-olds blushing at each other (though the MC is actually a woman in her 20s(?)), the way characters don't question how a 5-year-old just invented shampoo, and my irrational hatred for the MC's relationship with doors, I don't think this show is for me.

I enjoyed Bookworm more once it got past the early bits. Felt like an educational program at times where she taught the viewer all the different ways to make paper. Eventually, though, she more or less stopped creating books entirely and it became a decent fantasy anime with good worldbuilding. Still not for everyone, though.

I finished Undead Unluck. I really enjoyed it! There aren't many other anime with this many creative ideas. I loved all the interesting abilities and how they were used in all those crazy situations. The characters were great too. Andy and Fuuko were my favorites of course, but even a lot of the smaller side characters were memorable or cool. Lots of aspects in the story really appealed to me too, but most of them are spoilers so I can't talk about them much.

My only real complaint is that there was a lot of padding in certain scenes. Lots of flashbacks, lots of unneeded explanations, and really long recaps at the start of every episode that cut into the runtime. One fight near the end had annoying narration the entire time recapping everything that led up to it, and it's just... I don't need this. I saw those episodes, I get it. It would've been way cooler seeing all those things come together if the narration hadn't felt the need to recap it for some reason.

Still, compared to how much I loved the story overall, any problems with the adaptation are pretty minor. Solid 9/10 anime, I hope it gets another season someday.

Trading my last nom for Sonon

I don't know how many noms it usually takes to get in, but I'll only be able to get Sonon to 6 and that's looking dicey! I just wanted to say that any noms people might throw his way would be appreciated. I'm going to main Yuffie this year, and he'd be the perfect secondary for a fun Team Wutai run. I'm not sure how many people have even played FFVII Intergrade, but Sonon is great in it.