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[Karnewarrior]

I've never met an anime fan in-person that had good taste. I theorize that all anime fans with good taste, even myself, are just sentient AIs.

Me and Sprin tend to have the same taste. The only thing we disagree on is DFC.

Of course this mostly just means we fight over waifus. I can't tell you how many waifus I've lose to Sprin's itchy dibs finger.

[Max™]

Speaking of magic and girls, LWA apparently had an episode done by Gurrendude, so I gotta watch it now.

[Furtuka]

Two new Gundam Build Fighters productions announced last night. The first one is the long awaited OVA featuring the production crew and original cast of the first Gundam Build Fighters, which is said to take place 3 years after the end of the first show and is titled Gundam Build Fighters: GMs Counterattack. And yes based on the gunpla kits revealed at the accompanying expo, it is going to feature many GMs. The other one is called Gundam Build Fighters: Battleogue, which is currently lacking details but will be directed by Masami Obari and based on some promotional silhouettes will feature a new variant of the Reborns Gundam and a Zaku.

[Tack]

So I got 'back into anime' one night when I blew through +stic neesan (which was funny weird) and inugami-san to nekogama-san (which was yuri-weird)


Finally found somewhere I can get Grimgar episodes from and started watching that. I knew I would be super impressed, but yeah, has lived up to expectations basically.
Is probably one of the only anime I've seen where they handle loss in a way which is both understandable and not overstated. Most anime I watch I either get really upset at the characters going full Shinji, or enjoy way too much the single psychopath character who has anything close to a muted reaction.

Pretty late to the party, but there's my thoughts.

[Neonivek]

Yeah anime in general handles mental health a lot like Shakespeare did, it is very easy to make someone go completely unhinged.

Unfortunately Shinji in his less "Crazy for co-co puffs" moments actually was a bit closer to realistic, but it went a bit too far (I mean I understand, in many ways he is a deconstruction. He is someone whose troubled past and whose heaped on responsibility is actually destroying him mentally, but who is too important to be rightfully removed from that responsibility) in the "Ok, please stop!" department. Not that I'll give Evangeleon a free pass, I just thought it was an interesting example of it "going wrong".

Is probably one of the only anime I've seen where they handle loss in a way which is both understandable and not overstated

I personally think it is their love for melodrama that sort of gets in the way of this. While I do think Western animation could up the emotion when appropriate and actually flip their lids if it calls for it. There is a subtlety that often doesn't make it into anime... and heck I love melodrama and the whole serious all the time mentality became an issue in western media that has only now started to crack.

But there is sometimes Nuance. One anime I liked actually dealt with the main character who actually liked, or loved in some respect, a great villain and the guilt she felt for caring for someone. (The anime concluded that he never showed her his bad face and that someone should mourn his loss)

But the best example IRL I can think of for just the sort of sense of loss... Would probably be when you somehow forget you lost someone and you go to meet them, start to call them, or call out to them and they aren't there.

[Ghazkull]

Hmm, so has anyone seen Gin no Guardian? Is it any good?

[Reelya]

@Neo, a big part of it is in fact the difference in format between anime and western cartoons. The vast majority of western cartoons are episodic, so the emotions are contained in one episode. Something terrible could happen to a side character but by the next episode everyone's literally bounced back 100%

Anime often being serials, it's more like a feature film in it's writing, and you see similar levels of melodrama in western feature-length films. So it's not always a case of different east/west storytelling, it's often that the medium itself is different. A "TV show" can mean a whole lot of different things. If "Lost" had been an anime rather than a western live action show then we'd be sitting here talking about all the typically anime bullshit things that happen in Lost. Because those things are in fact part and parcel of the serial / adventure / drama format.

~~~

Watching some more random shows from this season.

- Kabukibu! is about a guy at school who wants to form a Kabuki club at school because he was close to his grandpa who liked Kabuki. It clearly only exists because Rakugo was a critical success. Meh.

- Hinako Note - cliched cute moe girls anime. A country girl has moved to the city in hopes of becoming more social and achieving her dreams. She has the chickens come home to roost whenever difficult situations happen (and that's not figurative, baby chickens literally come home to roost on her head).

Sakura Quest - this one is the opposite of Hinako Note. A female college graduate from Tokyo ends up finding a job with the tourism board of a bumfuck hickville town, typical "city folk deals with the crazy hillbilly types" sort of show.

- Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine - another shoujo one, this is about a chibi teacher who has to teach 4 unruly princes in a medieval setting. Typical "cute rich boys really have troubled souls" stuff you get from shoujo manga.

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records - still better than Mahouka. Failed/aging prodigy magician gets roped into teaching at a magical school. Much sexy slapstick times ensues. Girls uniform makes them looks like strippers. Still better than Mahouka.

Sagrada Reset - probably the best of the bunch i just checked out. It's a drama series about some students in a town where low-key supernatural abilities are common, but they're not the "action" type of abilities, they're about manipulating time, information and reality. Looks like it's going to focus on solving mysteries. Don't go into this expecting action and magic. Comparisons could be things like Hyouka, Beatiful Bones, Flying Witch, Ishukan Friends, or Kokoro Connect.

[Neonivek]

Well I was including Live Action too. Since I've seen both Japanese Live Action and Anime.

They have a particular affinity for television that wouldn't fly in the west, which is too bad because I absolutely adore their ability to just poke fun at themselves from time to time as well as the ability to go for more out there premises then "Lost on a mysterious island".

If "Lost" had been an anime rather than a western live action show then we'd be sitting here talking about all the typically anime bullshit things that happen in Lost.

Meh, not really... Assuming you mean "If it was suddenly an anime and absolutely nothing changed except the animation and art direction". Then again I pay much more significant attention to how anime does its storytelling, tropes, and concepts then most people. As well as the general opinions and ideas behind them.

Because those things are in fact part and parcel of the serial / adventure / drama format.

Well a ton of characters don't die on the last episode (to my knowledge) so already it isn't an anime of is type

I dunno it carries itself differently and shows its tropes differently as well... almost like it was a completely different show that wouldn't change just because you changed the art and language.

@Neo, a big part of it is in fact the difference in format between anime and western cartoons. The vast majority of western cartoons are episodic, so the emotions are contained in one episode. Something terrible could happen to a side character but by the next episode everyone's literally bounced back 100%

Anime often being serials, it's more like a feature film in it's writing, and you see similar levels of melodrama in western feature-length films. So it's not always a case of different east/west storytelling, it's often that the medium itself is different. A "TV show" can mean a whole lot of different things. If "Lost" had been an anime rather than a western live action show then we'd be sitting here talking about all the typically anime bullshit things that happen in Lost. Because those things are in fact part and parcel of the serial / adventure / drama format.

I am not talking about how often they show up. I mean WHEN they show up. In fact you can even compare dubbing!

Compare say... Tokyo Mewmew's death scene... to its dub.

The Japanese Voice Actress? She is scream freeken bloody murder! Western Dub? "Nooooo! I am mildly miiiiiffed abooouuut thiiiiis!"

It kind of made me realize how much of our acting is... well... Hollywood acting (Wood being a pretty apt word). Actually freeking out over a dead body, or the dead body of a loved one? 9/10 times not going to happen in the west.

Not that I should give ALL the credit to the Japanese scenes, because sometimes "SCREEEECH!" replaces genuine emotions. I am just saying there is sort of a difference in emotion here.

---

Will still give credit to the Sailormoon Nephrite scene. Sure it has a "Nooooooo!" but a very effective one.

[Reelya]

Well a ton of characters don't die on the last episode (to my knowledge) so already it isn't an anime of is type

Uh without spoiling too much of Lost

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They turn out to have been ghosts most of the time and in the last episode they all go off to heaven together.

Most animes that I've seen that have deaths in the last episode have been limited to a few of the main cast. Or they kill of most people quite a few episodes before the last episode, to whittle down the cast for the final confrontation. How are you meant to pine for all your dead comrades if they kill them off in the last episode? Never happens, basically.

Classic modern example is Akame ga Kill, the show that basically does kill off most of the cast. There was no "final episode massacre" even in that, there are a steady stream of death all through that show. I'm not sure what exact show you're even talking about that does the final episode massacre, it would seem to be a strawman.

[Reelya]

btw really enjoyed the new season of Ai Mai Mi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4zanztk3O4&t=70

[Neonivek]

Ai Mai Mi? Goodness that name reminds me of Strawberry Eggs.

---

Ok HILLARIOUSLY incompetent bit from an otherwise decent series.

So it is a MMO Anime (about an actual non-VR MMO controlled by mouse and keyboard) and it does the typical scene of a character with an unflinching face staring intently at the screen as their fingers mash at buttons in rapid succession! Ohh my he must be doing something AMAZING!

Pan up to the screen... He is actually just taking one step after another hobbling side to side, essentially walking very slowly (or perhaps doing a Russian dance).

Now... I am PRETTY sure this MMO doesn't have you control each character's individual limbs... Sorry did I say limbs? I meant joints.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to hack Bay12 using only the home row!

[Reelya]

Started watching another show completely blind - Seikaisuru Kado so far it seems to be about a couple low-ranking civil servants who have to negotiate land zoning developments / disputes. A this stage (episode 00) it appears to be just that, a workplace drama / slice of life series with the more subdued artstyle that's common in more "mature" targeted animes.

However ... the actual premise is that these interdimensional superbeings arrive and want to "advance" humanity, and the characters mentioned above have to try and accommodate them. So far the set-up is brilliant in portraying the "normal" people before this happened (not a hint that this is anything other than a serious drama story). It's sort of seems like GATE but in reverse, and with a more realistic/mature angle, rather than the battleharem, otakuness and military fanboism of GATE. I'm guessing Seikaisuru Kado would appeal more to people who like stuff like Spice and Wolf or Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, rather than to the people who liked Gate and Overlord.

[Max™]

That mmo anime (I assume it is Ai Mai Mi? didn't see another name there) sounds like Toribash, which has the somewhat dubious honor of a steeper learning curve than DF arguably. Having a fortress fall because you don't know how to brew or farm is one thing. Trying to punch someone and accidentally pulling your own head off before flailing around spastically in mid-air when you somehow do a 360 backflip onto your neckstump is another entirely. A Toribash mmo would just be heaps of people flopping around near the save points/starting areas and five or six advanced players doing parkour off in the background or some shit.

Sounds like a funny anime premise actually.

Also, those Lost spoilers are hilarious to someone who only knows it from occasional meme exposure.

In other news: Shingeki no Kyojin blueballed everyone this week, and I expect Berserk will do the same next week or the one after, depending on how fast the troll guts (guts as in innards, not Guts as in the black swordsman, though he is involved in the troll guts, but by involved I mostly mean immersed) stuff is resolved.

[Reelya]

The mmo anime (don't know which one) Neonivek was mentioning is unrelated to Ai Mai Mi.

Ai Mai Mi is a short-length episode parody of those "cute girls x things" shows, except way weirder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEM5D13hBZY&t=186

Here's a good review:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2016/09/11/feature-cruising-the-crunchy-catalog-ai-mai-mi

[Neonivek]

Started watching another show completely blind - Seikaisuru Kado so far it seems to be about a couple low-ranking civil servants who have to negotiate land zoning developments / disputes. A this stage (episode 00) it appears to be just that, a workplace drama / slice of life series with the more subdued artstyle that's common in more "mature" targeted animes.

However ... the actual premise is that these interdimensional superbeings arrive and want to "advance" humanity, and the characters mentioned above have to try and accommodate them. So far the set-up is brilliant in portraying the "normal" people before this happened (not a hint that this is anything other than a serious drama story). It's sort of seems like GATE but in reverse, and with a more realistic/mature angle, rather than the battleharem, otakuness and military fanboism of GATE. I'm guessing Seikaisuru Kado would appeal more to people who like stuff like Spice and Wolf or Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, rather than to the people who liked Gate and Overlord.

Yeah! I spoke about this far earlier. I just gave absolutely no information because honestly leaving everything as a surprise is far better!

Right now in the current episode I love the shift of dynamics. I won't explain what it is, but suffice it to say the show is more complex than it lets on.