Board 8 > Anime & Manga Topic 177: Winter is coming... But can we skip to spring?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's about 85% a combination of tongue-in-cheek and people using the word to mean 'best girl'

Then you have the weirdos at places like /a/
---

Reg posted...

It's about 85% a combination of tongue-in-cheek and people using the word to mean 'best girl'

Then you have the weirdos at places like /a/

pretty much nailed it

when it's used here it's usually meant as favorite/best girl ever/of the season/year
---

And I'm probably the weebest dude here so I take no offense to people looking at me weird for liking subs over dubs or knowing names of voice actresses (seiyuu) or following certain bands/singers/composers for anime

I genuinely learned quite a bit of Japanese after watching just anime for a few years. The language sounded like gibberish to me before I put effort into actually listening. Now I can probably watch any slice of life anime and not have to read subs.

Hiragana looks like gibberish to me but I can handle most common kanji and katakana. One of the ways I learn kanji is through the names in the credits at the end of episodes, so it's the reason I always read Japanese names in family name-given name order.
---

I'm sad Anime-Gataris is over because I seem to be the rare person who really enjoyed it the whole way through. For me, it captured the essence of what makes anime so much fun.
---

GranzonEx posted...

I genuinely learned quite a bit of Japanese after watching just anime for a few years. The language sounded like gibberish to me before I put effort into actually listening. Now I can probably watch any slice of life anime and not have to read subs.

The fuck that's impressive as hell. I have picked up phrases and stuff but I can't imagine watching anime unsubbed without years of disciplined learning.
---

In a few more years you'll be able to watch that stuff easily. You'll know you're getting there when you can hear people with accents, sometimes there's people that speak very reserved/formally and younger characters (like students) speak slang or slurred.
---

I'm picking up a few words/phrases (at least I assume I'm getting the meaning right) and sometimes I can tell when a subtitle it way off and try to puzzle out what they were actually saying, but I doubt I'll ever come anywhere near understanding the language. That's mostly because I suck at learning languages, though. I took french for three years in high school and je ne parle pas francais is all I ever truly learned.

I'm watching Squid Girl right now and despite the abundance of awesome squid puns I still haven't managed to pick up the word for squid!
---

I think squid is "ika" in Japanese
---

She also ends sentences with "de geso" which according to Wikipedia translates to "squid tentacles".

Edit: Yes some of the puns are based around "ika" also, but the "de geso" thing stuck in my head more for since reason
---

Can't believe Pop Team Epic is getting an anime. Until recently I didn't even realize it was a legit thing.
---

GranzonEx posted...

In a few more years you'll be able to watch that stuff easily. You'll know you're getting there when you can hear people with accents, sometimes there's people that speak very reserved/formally and younger characters (like students) speak slang or slurred.

I think I can get this already cause I'm pretty analytical and like to spot subtle differences in how people speak and shit.

Still, I can't imagine all the vocab and grammar coming naturally. I also don't watch slice of life very often so the nature of conversation I hear isn't usually that...common.
---

Robazoid posted...

Season Two: My only real complaint is they went too far with 'we're breaking up and it's so sad'. Multiple times they said it was the last time all nine of them would be together and I'm like... you can stay friends, can't you?

That's like one of the few things that bugged me about Season 2, especially when you realize that....they've only been together for like a year.

And I would hardly call that a "tournament arc". I kinda wish they would focus a little more on the Love Live competition, but they really don't. It's just show up, perform, done.

When it comes to the characters, Love Live is a bit of a special case where I won't hold something from the anime against a character if I find it out of character (see Eli and Kotori in Season 1), since I can easily dismiss it as "bad anime writing."

Take someone like swordz, who only knows the characters through the mobile game and hasn't watched the anime yet. Regardless of what he thinks of the characters, he's not gonna encounter any of those 'dramatic' parts without watching the anime. Yet in the game, they all act as they should be.

That said, the anime can help a character in my eyes, which I'd say is more of a case with Sunshine.
Might sound like a double standard, but oh well. It is what it is. \_()_/
---

KommunistKoala posted...

https://twitter.com/pKjd/status/944902941072224258

Persona 5 Animation Trailer. Director did Shinsekai Yori (Masashi Ishihama)

Oh yeah, I now have canon name to use for the P5 Protagonist, Ren Amamiya.
---

Finished up the works of Makoto Shinkai. Here's some small snippets.

Voices of a Distant Star - I read that he basically did everything on his own, which is pretty impressive, but it was really hard to get past the character art. Glad he's improved this. The story itself was solid, but wasn't really fleshed out, which I guess is expected of a 20 minute short film.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days - Didn't like this one. The pacing just felt all over the place, and the story was dull. Still think he was finding himself when it came to story progression.

5 Centimeters Per Second - I initially watched this in high school and enjoyed it a lot. Still liked it, but probably not as much. I think the second part is significantly better than part 1, which was just kind of alright, and part 3, which I forgot most of already.

Children Who Chase Lost Voices - This was so damn boring holy shit.

Garden of Words - Here's where I finally loved one of his works. It's just the right length needed, appropriately showing you who these characters are and why they're drawn to each other. Lovely ending too. Thought I'd enjoy this more than I would Your Name, but yeah...

Your Name - This was just a damn good film. Crisp animation, touching story and characters, beautiful soundtrack, etc. Felt like I was watching something from Hosoda tbqh, which is probably why I loved it so much. It's not my favorite anime film, but it's in the top 10. Maybe even top 5, but I'd have to put some thought into that. Definitely lived up to the hype!
---

MB did a good video on Shinkai, if you're interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_9IFy0_QGA

He pretty much agrees with everything you said though, lol.
---

Garden of Words isdefinitely his best.
---

Time for some Objective Fall 2017 End of Season Write-ups. Just an aside, I'm snubbing Ancient Magus' Bride and Garo, because ranking incomplete shows with complete shows is silly. Also these contain spoilers...

5. Zodiac War
This was quite an annoying show. I didnt really have high hopes for it going in, but the first episode was so damn crazy that I felt compelled to continue. Unfortunately, such continuation made it clear that I had made a mistake. Zodiac War is a show consisting almost entirely of backstories for characters who will receive minimal screentime in the present. This is, of course, because the battle royale itself isnt explored in great detail. You get some fun situations like Usagis necromancy constantly worming into other bouts, but the fights are ultimately short due to how much they want to focus on the characters. But since this is ultimately a show about death and murder, the characters obviously die, usually soon after their backstories are shown. This means that theres no room for further development of the characters, which hurts a show so driven by its characters. It was awesome in the first episode, because you get this blatantly dark, edgy backstory for one of the characters, hyping her up as some evil, powerful combatant, only for her to die immediately after her backstory ends. But when you repeat this for nearly every character, it gets stale, and it becomes clear that the over-the-top nature in its early episodes were actually attempts at being cool. I mean, look at this shit

https://couchcruisin.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/rabbit-poseing.png?w=1400

This is the design of the shows most present threat, Usagi. Its hilarious watching him kill more adjusted murderers, but after a few episodes, they stop presenting him as a sort of joke, and make him the equivalent of a main villain, who should be feared. But when it works the camera to show this man slowly, ominously approaching a helpless character, its impossible for me to take it seriously because he looks so damn stupid.

So because I lost the ability to give the show the benefit of the doubt, writing off the stupid things it does as intentionally for cheese, I end up seeing the show for what it tries to accomplish, all the while failing miserably at doing so. The stories themselves just arent very good. It usually just tells of how their superhuman strength made them outcasts or total badasses or something else silly. The only one I enjoyed unironically was the first Tiger backstory. I feel like alcoholism isnt something thats been handled in anime from a sincere perspective, and while Tigers story is still absurd, she felt real from an emotional standpoint.

The constant theme of the show seemed to be utter pointlessness. All of the backstories felt pointless when the characters die immediately after, and the ending further pushed this, by making the entire thing pointless. If done by design, then it is the greatest troll in fiction. If not, then that title still stands.
---

4. Inuyashiki
This is really hard for me to form an opinion on. It has some really great moments of characterization and the team really know how to create tension. This is headlined by some of the best voicework Ive heard in anime. Seriously, the two leads drop phenomenal performances. In a bubble, there are a multitude of segments that work wonderfully. But on the whole, the convoluted nature of its themes and pacing are hard to ignore, and it all stems from the handling of the secondary main character, Hiro.

I read a bunch of detractors stating that the primary reason for why they think the show is dumb is because Hiros motives make no sense. Thats not really fair, as he clearly states that murdering people is the only way he can feel human. A bit of a copout, yeah, but there are tons of shows with similar rules made clear to the viewer, and sometimes things just need to be accepted. What kills his entire plotline for me isnt his motives, rather, its the way in which his motives are developed. And Im going to spoil the shit out of this show, so sorry.

The first moment we witness him using his new powers is in a household where he murders a family of innocent strangers, including a child. Its a good way to set up a villain who we can truly root against, as opposed to the helpful, caring Inuyashiki. But in the next episode we see him in a blatantly heroic role, protecting his best friend from bullies that had pushed him away from school. This feels really weird, because it feels like the show is wanting us to root for him, after he literally killed a family in the last episode. Of course, this rolls over into him sniping the bullies in front of his friend, and ultimately rolls back to him being a pure villain. My question is: Why not show the bully stuff first? Show how he goes from having a warped mentality against the people who hurt his loved ones, then progressively show how deranged he truly is. Showing the family scene first just makes the bully stuff really odd. The plot continues, and he eventually finds himself as a fugitive, hidden by a girl whos in love with him. She convinces him to stop killing people and to start using his powers to heal, which allows for this new moral conundrum. Should we really be supporting this guy whos killed so many people? Can these sins be forgiven if he starts dedicating his life to curing innocent people? Theyd be harder to answer if the main character hadnt been doing this the entire time, but it starts putting down an intriguing concept. But then it almost immediately fucks it by having the police attempt to kill his girlfriend and her grandma in order to put him under custody. This causes him to come to the conclusion that he just needs to kill everyone in Japan. So what was the point in all of this development? We had an interesting plotline shafted in favor of a mass killing bit, all in order for their to be a clear hero/villain dynamic, which is honestly just lame.

It of course ends pretty poorly. An world ending plot device is introduced at the halfway point or so, and it rears its head at the end in order to act as a redemption for Hiro, but its sloppy and not even sincere, since Hiro only wants to save two people. Honestly, episode 10 wouldve been a wonderful ending. It just had to play into dumb tropes to finish everything off.

I could also talk about the miserable effort put into animation, but Ill avoid spending more time trashing a show I really didnt hate all that much. It had fantastic direction, voice acting, and atmosphere, but the writing and animation really hold it back. Also it has Donald Trump in it.
---

3. Welcome to the Ballroom
So this was a pretty standard show to me, and its not getting much of a write-up, because Im quite neutral towards it. Yeah, it was good, but I probably wont remember much about it in a year. I will say, the animation is the most unfortunate thing about it. In a show about dancing, you would think theyd put some time into animating the beauty and passion that goes into the activity. But the dances are almost always shown in still frames, which is just a disgusting way to present the work. If I were a manga author who drew a manga out of my love for the sport of professional dance, I would be pissed about the show adding literally nothing to my vision. If that makes sense I guess. Its an embarrassment for a show about dance, in an age where sports anime are known for having some of the most fluid and exciting animation, to express a majority of its action in jpeg format. Everything else was fine.

2. Kino's Journey -The Beautiful World
I quite enjoyed this one! Not sure if I liked it more than the original, but Im always iffy about the stuff I watched while in high school. It has an episodic nature, so it was easy to just sit back and enjoy an episode for what it was, rather than in comparison to the whole. Unfortunately, this did create a small amount of inconsistency. I think the show was at its best when it had a full episode dedicated to one story centered around Kino. When the other characters got their time to shine, or when it was split up into sketches, I think the quality dropped. It also has a knack for introducing moral structures within societies, probably designed to make you think theyre flawless, but fall apart if you actually spend half a minute thinking about it (SPOILERS: Most of the twists involve the moral structure falling apart). Yeah, its not the smartest or most surprising show, but it also has a wonderful ability to create atmosphere. Moments that are made to feel oppressive and hopeless are perfectly attributed thanks to excellent art direction and sound design. And the quiet, peaceful moments are equally as perfect. Its a technically impressive show, and truly gives you an example of how great Lerche is. Give them a few more years, and Im sure theyll be in the mix with some of the top dogs in the industry.
---

1. Land of the Lustrous
Im not even sure how it happened. LotL started off so slow and unfocused, but I kept watching because the animation was (and still is) unlike anything Ive seen. I half expected this to get railed for its use of CG, but people quieted on it after a few weeks. The show looks absolutely brilliant, and the animation only accentuates how beautiful it is. The way it creates constant movement in order to keep your eyes adjusted to its style is brilliant. But it was just scraping by for me for the first half or so. Once the winter section hits, everything just comes together. The writing becomes far more focused on Phosphophyllite as a character, and this was the key. Its displayed as an action fantasy for so long, but its really a coming-of-age slice of life. Phos development from a weak slacker to a strong-willed, mature member of the gems is portrayed beautifully. The hopelessness they feel and their perceived need for a shortcut to becoming better feels very real. After the experiences seen in winter, Phos grows stronger in both mind and body at the cost of memories and friendship, and were still skirting around whether it was a change for the better. It opens up so much room for another season, especially considering were still in the dark about the Lunarians. All I know is that it wants me to forget about the encyclopedia thing, but I know Phos is gonna make one about the Lunarians with their newfound pursuit of knowledge. They arent fooling me (Unless this just never continues in anime format, then I guess the jokes on me.).

I hope Orange continues this series and gets the opportunity to create more shows, improving their already wonderful techniques. This was certainly the surprise of the season, and maybe even the year as a whole.
---

I think I might of given Inuyashiki's CG animation a bit more of a pass, but a combination of it's random use, direct competition with an unbeatable foe in the CG department, and MAPPA clearly putting more traditional animation effort into Garo results in something that's hard to describe as anything but messy. They go out of their way to make the 3D rotational shots of lasers look cool, but nothing else matches that.
---

Final ranking of 2017

1. Little Witch Academia
2. Attack on Titan Season 2
3. Scums Wish
4. Land of the Lustrous
5. My Hero Academia 2nd Season
6. KonoSuba: Gods Blessing on This Wonderful World! 2
7. Tsurezure Children
8. Miss Kobayashis Dragon Maid
9. Natsume Yuujinchou Roku
10. Kinos Journey -The Beautiful World-
11. Re:Creators
12. Made in Abyss
13. Welcome to the Ballroom
14. The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star
15. Inuyashiki
16. March Comes in Like a Lion
17. Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul
18. Tales of Zestiria the X 2nd Season
19. Masamunes Revenge
20. Kakegurui
21. Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Arc
22. Zodiac War

I usually shove in dropped shows but that's dumb, so no.
---

tazzyboyishere posted...

1. Land of the Lustrous
Im not even sure how it happened. LotL started off so slow and unfocused, but I kept watching because the animation was (and still is) unlike anything Ive seen. I half expected this to get railed for its use of CG, but people quieted on it after a few weeks. The show looks absolutely brilliant, and the animation only accentuates how beautiful it is. The way it creates constant movement in order to keep your eyes adjusted to its style is brilliant. But it was just scraping by for me for the first half or so. Once the winter section hits, everything just comes together. The writing becomes far more focused on Phosphophyllite as a character, and this was the key. Its displayed as an action fantasy for so long, but its really a coming-of-age slice of life. Phos development from a weak slacker to a strong-willed, mature member of the gems is portrayed beautifully. The hopelessness they feel and their perceived need for a shortcut to becoming better feels very real. After the experiences seen in winter, Phos grows stronger in both mind and body at the cost of memories and friendship, and were still skirting around whether it was a change for the better. It opens up so much room for another season, especially considering were still in the dark about the Lunarians. All I know is that it wants me to forget about the encyclopedia thing, but I know Phos is gonna make one about the Lunarians with their newfound pursuit of knowledge. They arent fooling me (Unless this just never continues in anime format, then I guess the jokes on me.).

I hope Orange continues this series and gets the opportunity to create more shows, improving their already wonderful techniques. This was certainly the surprise of the season, and maybe even the year as a whole.

My worry is that I don't know just how long this show took to make. It's clear a lot of effort went into it, and the original 2D animated PV is 4 years old. It's also the only fully CG anime they've headed, as far as I can tell. I don't know if we can know how much of those 4 years were spent working, and how much of it was on the backburner. Almost all of their work in that time was doing CG work for other studio's anime.

As for Phos' development as a character, I think the most telling blink if you miss it moment is her reaction to Cinnabar "saving" her at the end, thanking her. The old Phos would have pitched a FIT in the same situation.

Also LOVED the shot of her as a young gem adjusting herself in the pond, only for her current body to walk behind her.

All in all, a great (hopefully temporary) finale to an ongoing adaptation, and one of the best anime of the year.

He'll, potentially the best. I'm having a hard time making the call.
---

Also el oh fuckin' el to Zodiac War now and forever.

I've never heard of Graphinica, but this is apparently their only lead on a show after making the Openings for the JoJo games and a bunch of backup shit, and they specialized exclusively in CG.

Guess that explains the extremely out of place and high quality CG moments in the last couple episodes.
---

The show's apparently quite popular in Japan, so at least it has that going for it.
---

Maybe they fix a lot of the animation in the BRDs, but can't fix that shit story structure.

At some points I felt like I was watching an extended version of "Oooh Watcha Say" from SNL.
---

Sorry, I was talking about LotL's hopes for a second season. No idea how Zodiac War is faring in Japan and also don't care.
---

Oh, gotcha. Yeah, seeing a lot of fan reaction to it over there in art, and it's quite clearly the most popular Anime Strike release of the year, save maybe Re:Creators. Can't find any actual sales data yet.

Re:Creators doesn't have the Tumblr backing though, lol.
---

Time to buy

http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/5804/Love_Live_School_Idol_Project_Complete_Series/

@pyresword I believe you skipped the movie?
---

LapisLazuli posted...

Oh, gotcha. Yeah, seeing a lot of fan reaction to it over there in art, and it's quite clearly the most popular Anime Strike release of the year, save maybe Re:Creators. Can't find any actual sales data yet.

Re:Creators doesn't have the Tumblr backing though, lol.

Isn't Made in Abyss their most popular show?
---

I don't know if we've got actual viewer numbers, but as far as social media numbers and such it seems to be Lustrous.

All Anime Strike shows are doomed to subpar popularity at best, though.
---

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you're enjoying the day off.

I saved Konosuba 2 for today :)
---

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

@pyresword I believe you skipped the movie?

Yes, though I admit it's not super high on my priority list of things to watch, especially if it costs money.

Anyways I'm finished with ep. 8 of Land of the Lustrous, and I'm actually a bit less excited about the series than I was a couple episodes ago. It can certainly still turn itself around, but on the current trajectory I think it's in danger of only being (slightly above) average when it could have been really great.

For now I'll just say that I have serious issues with the memory loss mechanic and leave it at that. I'll wait on a more detailed explanation until I see if my problems still remain at the end of the series.

I will say episode 5 was real good though.
---

Had a thing typed up, but no real point in that until you're done I suppose. Would just basically be spoilers.
---

Well the reason I didn't type up a thing myself is because some possible plot directions basically entirely nullify what I would have been complaining about. So yeah I'm also just waiting.
---

Finally a real Franxx PV

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c7k52
---

I watched and finished Land of the Lustrous. I thought it was good the whole way through but it never became my favorite.

I'm sad Cinnabar wasn't more of a character. At first I was excited for the story to be about a slowly growing friendship but Cinnabar really wasn't around at all. Still, they finally started going that direction at the end so if there is another season I hope they start exploring that. Phos was a great character, and a lot of the others were cool too (especially Antarcticite). It was neat watching Phos lose body parts and slowly upgrade at a cost to memory/personality. By the end they were a completely different person... and I'm not sure that's a good thing. Phos cared so much about Cinnabar and by the end couldn't even remember the specifics of the promise. That was a powerful moment.

I guess the main thing that held back my enjoyment, other than Cinnabar's absence, was that I never felt sure about the Lunarians. The slug lady explained a few things in one episode but then Phos forgot it all and they never revisited it again. This is another problem that a second season might solve, I suppose. It was still fun to watch and the animation was beautiful.

Also WTF Amazon how long is it going to take for you to put the subtitles for the last episode of Girls' Last Tour up. I don't care if it's Christmas you get someone into the office to handle that, I want to watch it.
---

I can't argue too hard against said issues when I myself immediately went looking for more.
---

I haven't finished Zodiac yet, but it's pretty interesting how hate bandwagons occur.

Like it's done really nothing terrible by episode 6 yet, and I'm enjoying the structure. Ironically the best stuff (including stylish action) is in the back stories but still.

I guess it could become awful, and it's been disappointing compared to the excellent first episode, but I'm holding out hope that the last and most interesting characters kick it up a notch.
---

Yeah you are RIGHT where the show completely fucking falls apart.

I still had a lot of faith in episode 6 as well.

Also the show is about to run out of money.
---

*gulps*
---

I am quite well known for hate bandwagoning, yes.
---

Finished Land of the Lustrous.

Honestly the only thing I really have to say is that as it stands the story is way too incomplete to even say anything substantial about it. Not even sure I'm going to give this a MAL rating which would definitely be a first.

Overall a pretty good show. The specific issues I alluded to before were more or less addressed. Don't think I can really recommend this to anyone until there is more material though.

I will at least say I am very glad with the direction they seem to be taking Sensei's character, as well as Phos. It's finally going in the direction I'd been hoping for since episode 4/5, though since none of it has actually happened yet I can't really say anything more.
---

Robazoid posted...

The slug lady explained a few things in one episode but then Phos forgot it all and they never revisited it again

Yeah this is one of the problems I had with the memory loss thing. It looks like they're finally starting to pick this issue up again though. So...yay?
---

Spoilers for land of the lustrous

Like I viewed land of the lustrous as kind of a coming of age story with a bunch of other stuff mixed in. IMO its about ideas and character versus like having a set story in place. Pho was willing to do anything to help cinn even if it meant changing herself and in the process kinda lost the part of her who really cared. Like the key parts of where pho has growth is marked by traumatic moments which under normal circumstances would rock someone. the memory loss aspect was implemented extremely well imo. Like I think you can take a lot of things from the overall package of the show (somewhat akin to show like Sunday without god or chaika the coffin Princess) but Im not sure how much was intentional and or how much was a coninidence.
---

Land of the Lustrous

I agree that a coming of age story for Phos is probably the best way to view what we have as a complete story, but:

1. I only view this as chapter 1 of Phos' character arc anyways. I don't see this as being totally conclusive even for just her character, though it is I admit noticeably moreso than just randomly ending somewhere or something.

2. I think there's enough material here making it clear that the story as a whole is about a lot more than just Phos' character

Also just to comment on the memory loss, I don't view character development induced by memory loss as real character development at all. At that point it's just effectively a different character. The only reason I was sort of okay with it by the end is that I was able to convince myself that the memory loss didn't actually have a significant impact on her personality shift. I don't know if that was the intent or not, but it is definitely the interpretation which maximises my enjoyment of the series.
---

Made in Abyss is ok so far.

Not sure I'd put in the same rankings as something like Magus Bride or Owarimonogatari S2.

It has a few more eps to rise up the rankings, not sure if Violent Evergarden counts as 2017 or 2018. Haven't seen it yet, but MAL lists it as 2017.

I didn't even realise Inuyashiki had an anime out.

Only read bits n pieces of the manga, but did they cover the part where what's his name kills all the online trolls? That was roughly when all the crazier shit started to happen.
---

Evergarden is certainly 2018. MAL is dumb.
---

it lists as 2017 because there were like showings at a festival or something, iirc? some sort of small scale thing. not sure if it was the same thing that we're all gonna see this upcoming season, i assume so
---

I'm certainly anticipating that show
---