Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 298: Anime is Saved

(+) Yeah! (+)

LNs generally have a better/more complete story, but the quality of the prose is usually not great, so if you're used to reading actual books it can be a struggle.

Near the end, getting through Bang Dream S1 has unfortunately gotten pretty tough after what seemed like a strong start, but 20 seconds of O-Tae's mother on screen being even more of a cryptid than her daughter has revitalized me.

I feel like you can take Rimi out of this show and nothing changes.

Some LNs get a really good manga adaptation for whatever reason. Not sure how that ends up happening, but it's cool that it does. For Eminence in Shadow, for example, the manga is generally considered the best version of the series!

Mentioned it before, but even this season, Voice Actor Radio manga adaptation of the LN is much better than the anime.

Book -> Manga adaptations are tough. Due to limited panel real estate space, stories with a heavy focus on dialogue and introspection translate poorly. Cuts will need to be made, and liberties will need to be taken. Sometimes that works out fine, but it's tricky and requires a specific kind of writing skillset.

Source: someone whose work is currently being adapted to a comic format, and failed at properly condensing a scene when given the opportunity to try my hand at it.

I swear that Kasumi's vocals in this song are from that last original Bleach OP.

Finished Season 1

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/92aa5e83.jpg

Definitely not a bad show or anything, but not really my jam. Thought the first few episodes were fun but it dragged a lot the rest of the way through for me. O-Tae was by far the highlight, but she's an alien so that doesn't really count? Saaya was the best human band member.

Maybe I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I didn't start with MyGO and already have a taste of that higher caliber (to me) of show. Still, I'll definitely be continuing! Hoping that the band who the hung out with in the OVA is prominent moving forward? Wanna see more of Diet-Yohane.

"Feels wierd to have a fanservicey beach episode for a show like this" I say to myself after watching the OVA, having been talking to a friend in Discord 2 hours ago about if Taki and Anon made out which one would bite the other first, comfortable in my own hypocrisy.

OK I was not prepared for there to suddenly be a dub for S2. Does not seem like the type of show to get a dub!

Probably should just keep it consistent I suppose.

On the topic of LN pricing. I'm not sure if it's an apt comparison, but it is a strange feeling that you get the entire Lord of the Rings + Hobbit box set for the price of like 2 LNs.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I swear that Kasumi's vocals in this song are from that last original Bleach OP.

Ya don't say....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMeIVbTItQ

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I feel like you can take Rimi out of this show and nothing changes.

But then they wouldn't have a bassist.

WhiteLens posted...

On the topic of LN pricing. I'm not sure if it's an apt comparison, but it is a strange feeling that you get the entire Lord of the Rings + Hobbit box set for the price of like 2 LNs.

The cost of one anime Blu-Ray set would pay for a kid's college fund.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Thought the first few episodes were fun but it dragged a lot the rest of the way through for me.

I figured you'd like the end of BanG Dream S1 more than the beginning! You talked about enjoying how Kasumi wasn't instantly great at guitar, that whole final arc is her struggling with the fact that she's holding the others back.

I hope you don't get instantly turned off by all the new characters in S2. I'm genuinely curious what a MyGO fan would think of the big dramatic arc later in the season. I hated it, but I wasn't a big MyGO fan either so hey. Also curious what a MyGO fan thinks of Hello Happy World. There's a good reason they were the only band not to get a cameo in MyGO, Kokoro would've cut through that drama like a knife through butter...

Also don't talk bad about Rimi! She's my fourth favorite BanG Dream character (Kasumi > Arisa > Rokka > Rimi).

KamikazePotato posted...

The cost of one anime Blu-Ray set would pay for a kid's college fund.

It's so arbitrary, which is what I hate.

You can buy a full 52 episode box of one show for $10 on Sentai sometimes, but then Aniplex will want $150 for a 4 episode 1 of 3 Blu-ray that just the Asian release with the English subs.

And almost every one of those $150 sets has a full series $30 version in the UK, that may or may not work on a US PS5 for reasons I can't determine. I had to return my Region B Baccano BRD because it didn't work, but the Region B Love Live Sunshine Movie I just got works just fine. Shrug!!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

OK I was not prepared for there to suddenly be a dub for S2. Does not seem like the type of show to get a dub!

Probably should just keep it consistent I suppose.

It's the only season of BanG Dream to get a dub! Definitely a weird decision made.

Mobilezoid posted...

I figured you'd like the end of BanG Dream S1 more than the beginning! You talked about enjoying how Kasumi wasn't instantly great at guitar, that whole final arc is her struggling with the fact that she's holding the others back.

There was only one way it was gonna go, though, so it really just didn't excite me much. I was never invested in the solution because you can already tell what it is before the conflict even starts to happen! MyGO kept me on my toes in a way this never could.

I did still appreciate that Kasumi was still bad, and that you could actually tell they weren't very good. Even the successful audition, it was obvious they weren't great.

Best episodes were definitely the Saaya ones, even if they dragged a little. Them cutting directly from Saaya running down the sidewalk in absolutte terror to the happy poppy opening theme was very funny, though.

WhiteLens posted...

Ya don't say....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMeIVbTItQ

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4963fe6e.png

Mobilezoid posted...

Also curious what a MyGO fan thinks of Hello Happy World

I'll give you that one for free, they're pretty bad. I really disliked their songs and their episode in S2 was ostensibly about making people smile but mostly seemed to be about how it's easy to look impressive when you're loaded. I'll give you it was funny in its absurdity though.

I want to rewatch Darker Than Black, but I'm not going to pay hundreds for it. Fucking Aniplex.

WhiteLens posted...

It's the only season of BanG Dream to get a dub! Definitely a weird decision made.

This is like the 3rd of 4th weird fumble with this franchise I've seen so far, but somehow it sounds like it's still less of a fumble than whatever the hell they're doing with Idolmaster in the west.

This CG seems totally serviceable, but this aired in 2019 which was definitely still the timeframe where anime fans were being the most insufferable about CG even existing at all, so I'm sure it must have been put through the ringer. Still a few months to go before Beastars would air.

Kasumi's hair looks way less dumb in CG than it did in traditional.

Sceptilesolar posted...

I'll give you that one for free, they're pretty bad.

But one of them is a girl in a bear costume!

SPOTTED THEM

Afterglow, that's who I was looking for earlier. I'm sure it said it somewhere in MyGO but I must have missed it. They seem important enough that I would hope they get some play.

Why is there a marching band with a dog

Episode 1 of S2, yeah I'm feeling the vibes. That Poppin Party song had some of the worst lyrics I've ever heard (seen?), but it was still their best song so far lol (the other 3 in the episode were better though sorry).

All of Poppin Party and Afterglow are at the same schools, but all the other bands are split up (except Morfonica but they don't exist yet)

Yeah literally the next scene I saw one of the girls was in a different uniform lol.

The wording in the subs made it sound like everyone else in Roselia was at the same school.

OK....what are we doing here in episode 4. It's not like I need to be completely grounded in reality but this is taking me all the way the fuck out lol. It's like a whole different show.

ALSO THAT'S NOT A BEAR IT'S A DOG

UshiromiyaEva posted...

OK....what are we doing here in episode 4. It's not like I need to be completely grounded in reality but this is taking me all the way the fuck out lol. It's like a whole different show.

It's the magic of Happy! Lucky! Smile! Yay!

Somewhere in the timeline you're in with S2, Crychic is forming......but that's suppose to be later.

So Hello Happy World have been my least favorite band both music and character-wise (aside from Misaki and Kanon, I like them both a lot)....but they serve their purpose well.

In-universe, they're the group that appeals to kids, and with all the seriousness that happens with the other bands, it nice to have one that's over-the-top silly. There's a joke that all of Sakiko's problems could have been solved if she just ran into Kokoro.

Going to assume O-Tae dies at some point and that she becomes The Legendary Yamada Tae. Zombieland Saga was actually a sequel to this the whole time.

WhiteLens posted...

So Hello Happy World have been my least favorite band both music and character-wise (aside from Misaki and Kanon, I like them both a lot)....but they serve their purpose well.

I'm usually not a huge fan of HHW originals, but there covers can be surprisingly good. Afterglow is still the best band for music imho.

But yeah, it's nice to have one group that's immune to drama (at least most of the time). Kokoro can leap out of a third-story window and then cartwheel the landing and that's all I need from them.

I watched Shangri-La Frontier. Pretty disappointing show, all in all. The premise is moderately interesting (guy who plays lots of bad games uses his skills to be good at a good game), but it really doesn't make any sense. How does being good at taking advantage of glitches and adjusting to bad systems make you good at a good game? Why is no one who's been playing this good game for a year any good at it? It feels like there's lots of contrivances just because the author wants the MC to be the best ever. I think it would've been more interesting to just have him play trash games for the whole show. The other characters are more enjoyable, particularly Arthur who's a lot of fun, but they don't get that much focus. The show felt pretty slow paced too, with oodles of bad exposition and repetitive dialogue. The main highlight is the action. It's consistently well animated and every single fight looks good. It doesn't have standout sequences that blew me away, but damn I wish some shows with stories/characters I liked had animation this good.

I wanna punt Chuu2 like a football.

Finished Hokkaido Gals today.

Pretty chill and low stakes. All the characters were enjoyable (Akino > Reina > Minami personally), and Shiki was enough of a good guy to bypass the "dorky kid gets hit on by all the girls for no reason" problem. The show had a tendency to veer off into stuff about nothing, or even "advertising snacks and the Hokkaido travel guide for dummies", but it worked well enough to be a good fun time.

And like I said a few days ago, the OP and ED both slap hard.

Season 2 finished.

Definitely better than the first. Didn't take long to start liking with the new animation outside of a few stuff scenes, even if it's not all the way there yet.

Had the opposite reaction to S1 where this season started meh but ended up getting better and better as it went.

Still vibe with Afterglow's look, but at least in this season Roselia stole the show. Fire Bird was the best song here.

Only took Popping Party 2 whole seasons to get a good song lol, but Returner is definitely solid.

The Pastel episode was super weird. I get that they only had a single episode to devote to them, but a lip synching incident for their debut seems like it should be.....a much bigger deal than it was? It was treated like "yikes, don't remind me!", when you could do an entire seasons of a show about recovering and coming back from such a thing.

Still barely see Rimi as a character, but I'm thinking I just don't have a lot of respect for this character archetype, so it's probably my fault. Hanayo and Ruby were faraway the worst, most whatever characters in their Love Live seasons, and I feel like she's another one of those.

Also, Rock spent a majority of the season being a straight up Poochie, god I hope they do something more meaningful with her in this last season.

The Pastel Pallettes lip-synching incident was a huge deal for them, though sadly only covered in the mobile game. Their appearances in the anime always felt like obligatory cameos to me, even moreso than the Afterglow and HHW focused episodes.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Also, Rock spent a majority of the season being a straight up Poochie, god I hope they do something more meaningful with her in this last season.

I like Rokka because she's a Kasumi mega-fan, just like me!

Shame because Pastel Palettes are probably the best band.

Roselia best

By the way, the two that these 3 seasons and 4 movies have to beat here are Haruhikage for best song (frankly the show didn't do ENOUGH to hype it up) and Super Bond for best performance to watch (it's been less than a week and I've already rewatched that performance over a dozen times and haven't made it through without crying once).

These are....VERY steep mountains, it's going to take something REALLLLLY special.

When rewatching both versions of Haruhikage back to back, I realized that Saki runs out of the room in episode 7 at the exact same time the song ends in episode 3. OOOOOOF.

I need to listen to some of these Bang Dreams songs more, but I do know Pastel Palettes did Luminous Once More which is amazing. I'd heard that one prior to watching any Bang Dream. MyGo is my favorite band though since I immediately downloaded the first album after finishing the anime.

A lot of my favorite BanG Dream songs are covers. My absolute favorite is Afterglow's cover for "Asu no Yozora Shoukaihan", but they all have a few hits in their catalogue.

I'm easy to please, though. I skimmed through S2 again the other night and I was vibing to Happy Happy Party lol

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Still vibe with Afterglow's look, but at least in this season Roselia stole the show. Fire Bird was the best song here.

The Pastel episode was super weird. I get that they only had a single episode to devote to them, but a lip synching incident for their debut seems like it should be.....a much bigger deal than it was? It was treated like "yikes, don't remind me!", when you could do an entire seasons of a show about recovering and coming back from such a thing.

Also, Rock spent a majority of the season being a straight up Poochie, god I hope they do something more meaningful with her in this last season.

You can get more Pastel Palettes from the Pastel Life shorts

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi6JjODFVq335_9JscXhiyPZvlV2PIjg6

You need to turn on CC for subs though.

Like Roba said, their beginning story involved them faking their instrument playing, so they probably didn't want to retread an old storyline too much. Besides you can only cram so much to a 13-episode season that's mainly about the setup of forming another band. I actually remember being surprised that Rokka didn't even join a band by the end of Season 2.

And Roselia: A very serious band
The lyrics: "Lala lalala lala lalala Lala lalala lala lalala"

But they're genuinely my favorite band.

I actually did like Pastel so I'll look into those. I liked the episode itself, too! Again it didn't surprise me they didn't go hard into it given what the season was about, but know there's way more going on other media for it makes sense.

I do REALLLLLY hate the outfits though, worst swag in all of Bang Dream so far lol.

Went to Amazon to try and find that MyGO Album Scep mentioned and oh NOOOOOOO

https://a.co/d/6e5RCZ0

HNNNNNG NO I CAN'T AHHHHHHHHH

You should buy it! You can never have too much merch to support your favorite characters. (Pictured, my three Kasumi figures)

https://imgur.com/ySSNHMz

Well they've certainly nabbed me into season 3 quick! Already addressing some issues. Only problem I have....well, it's not really a problem, but this time they seem to have gone with traditionally animating the side characters alongside the 3D animated main characters. It's usually fine due to the art style for the 3D, but it's noticable in some season. Overall it looks better than season 2.

Oh, also sucks that I actually really like all the members of RAS, except Chu2 who is the worst Bang Dream character.

Watched the new GBC as well, definitely doesn't seem like my worries about the group dynamic getting messed with the new girls is going to be a problem. Also a funny coincidence that I watched this and the first BDS3 episode back to back and both ended up having the same exact goal reveal of the Budokan. I suppose it must be common in shows like this.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Oh, also sucks that I actually really like all the members of RAS, except Chu2 who is the worst Bang Dream character.

WhiteLens posted...

S3.....puts a lot of focus on who's quite possibly my least favorite character in the whole franchise

You came up with the same thought I had.

But I actually do like her parts in RAS songs, so she at least has that going for her.

Chu2, even at her absolute worst, still wasn't as bad as Layer. Then of course Rui and Rana are even worse than that.

I actually kind of like Chu2. She can be a fun little gremlin.

Wait, what's wrong with Layer! She's great.

If it's something that happens later don't tell me lol.

Rana I understand even if I strongly disagree.

I don't think I even know who Rui is yet. She LOOKS like a character I would like just from googling , but looks aren't everything.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Wait, what's wrong with Layer! She's great.

If it's something that happens later don't tell me lol.

S2 spoilers only I hated how she tried to steal Tae from Popipa. Layer acted like a friend but then she didn't care that Tae was stressed about something, and then it ruined Popipa's show. At least Chu2 was open in her desire to steal Tae. Layer was nefarious about it.

Ehhhh I don't know if I really saw it that way. Layer wanted to play with her close childhood friend, and she took her at her word that she could do both for now. Yes, she clearly wanted Tae to come for good, but she didn't really have any reason to believe Tae was as close to Poppin as she was to her all those years ago.

When Tae quit the band, Layer didn't push back at all, just talked with her out by the pool, gave her that fistbump on stage. When Chuu2 and Not Ibuki Mioda went to try and pull Tae back in, Layer wasn't aware, and got mad at her for doing so.

Now, I do think Layer should have realized Tae had issues with the encore, but that really felt like a heat of the moment thing.