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[Reelya]

Mahouka new episode. Spoilered for length. I've avoided giving away any real plot details. Like it has a plot.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

magicians will truly be released from their fate was weaponized humans. The Gravity Control-type Magic thermonuclear fusion reactor will go a long way towards achieving that...

...

Oh, really? Let me get this straight: magicians don't want to be seen as walking weapons. So the logical solution is to develop the ability to fire magical nukes out of your fingers.  That's strategy is really working out for Iran to be seen as peaceful, isn't it?

The future is so hip, that they label all keyboards keys the same:
http://i.imgur.com/WEyRLKH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PxHixjt.jpg

I spoke too soon before about the new terrorist mooks not targetting highschoolers this time. They're trying to hack the systems with the kid's debating team documents! Typical terrorists. Yet again, it's ridiculous how few of the bad guys have any magic themselves. Maybe that goes a good way to explaining why Mahouka's action is so one-sided and boring. Magicians battling other magicians would have been much more exciting and left room for knife-edge battles. But this author just can't bear anything really bad happen to his little lambs, so he sends softball mooks up against them.

New dialogue: "So it's not targeting a single student, but multiple students and/or instructors".

Dude, what fucking instructors? After 20 episodes we have not seen or heard the name of any one of these mythical "instructors". Except for this useless sexy student counselor who has a thing for Tatsuya.... this is a less fleshed-out magical school set-up than even the one in Familiar or Zero! So much for Mahouka's touted "world-building" that the LN fans talk about. An encyclopedia of technobabble is not world-building in my book.

===

Bakemonogatari is "Like Buffy"? No, it isn't. It really couldn't be any further from a Buffy-type supernatural show, nor is it anything like Higurashi.

[Neonivek]

I'd pay more attention to it Reelya.

Also fine I'll consider it if you can answer one question: Is there any Bath, Pool, Or Beach scene in it?... heck any scene where water is prominent, even if it is a fountain.

[Reelya]

I don't recall any hot springs, pool or beach eps or anything of that nature in Bakemonogatari. It really doesn't have those sorts of scenarios.

Most scenes are 1-1 conversations between the MC and another character, or between him, his mentor and one of the girls. You can't really describe it using tropes from a typical harem.

And though many characters are highschool-aged, it also doesn't have any typical "school" scenes or scenarios.

[Neonivek]

You can't really describe it using tropes from a typical harem

Center of the universe main character who is the key to the emotional, physical, or mental problems of all the girls who will eventually be solved through him or initiate the solving of the problem through him (or in reverse)... at which he is either the point of view or their view on him is important? As well as a focus on the relationship between him and the other girls, him being the only competing male, and there being an increasing amount of art for the show (Official art) showing the women in sexiness?

I should state that I'd probably say the 10th doctor's reign would easily qualify as a harem series if the women were in play longer (instead of one at a time, if they all were in play at once it would instantly qualify)

Heck I'd probably qualify Steven Universe as a Harem even though he is a young child and the girls he surrounds himself with are all essentially his foster mother, sister, and mentor. Yet it counts since he is the center of the universe as is the solution to everyone's problems.

Harem to me is less a genre and more a statement of the structure of the relationships and framing within the show.

My other definition for harem is "Person with a ton of people there just for him to potentially fall inlove with EVEN if there really is only one real choice or no real choice"... but honestly that is a small percent of harems anyhow.

[Reelya]

The female characters in Bakemonogatari are in "one at a time" too. He has a full-time girlfriend in the series, and each novel deals with a different person's problem. Though aspects of his relationship with his girlfriend develop across the arcs, too.

There is a definite "competing male": his mentor who is also young, and a way cooler and smarter dude than the hero, as well as the series' expert on the supernatural. His mentor is the go-to guy for solving the actual problems, though he's lazy and uses the MC as a helper. The MC is thus a point of view character, but by no means a mary-sue who can magically fix everyone's problems by himself.

There is a definite lack of scenes where a gaggle of girls are hanging out with the MC, it just doesn't happen.

[Mattk50]

just watched the  first two and a half episodes of blassreiter. I havent watched a show with such stupid characters in a long time. Every single interaction was pathetically shallow and lacked any basic semblence of logic. It was like they wanted me to like the dude with the red hair because he kept making these surprised exasperated gestures, similar to mine, as a reaction to the other characters idiocy, except then he was being stupid in the same way moments later. I cant even name a good example because of how constant it was.

Which is funny, because i noticed the show on the MAL page of aldnoah zero, a show where they've made sure all characters (and writers) have a functional brain. Sure people get tricked and aren't brilliant but at least they act like people. So far that show has been awesome, by the way.

[Neonivek]

A competing male needs to be invested in the other female characters to the extent where he can shift focus away from the protagonist.

Given that the female characters are "One at a time" as in none of the female characters exist while there is another one on screen does negate both my definitions of harem.

[Sirus]

Sweet, I finished PMMM. That was...a much more positive ending than I anticipated. Not exactly happy, but not the "everyone dies, GG" I half-expected.

[Furtuka]

and now you have to go watch the third movie.

[Sirus]

They don't seem to have it on Crunchyroll. Hell, Crunchyroll doesn't seem to have a lot of movies. I still haven't been able to watch the one for TTGL.

[Bauglir]

To the best of my knowledge, your options are to import the Blu-Ray for an exorbitant fee, or piracy.

[Sirus]

Well, since I don't even HAVE a Blu-Ray player...

[Darvi]

On that note, I heard there's a third PMMM spin-off manga currently going on.

[Bauglir]

Hm, Gargantia wasn't bad, beach episode and belly dancing episode aside. They were really relentless with the fanservice in the middle there, but otherwise it was a decent enough show. No surprises, but competently put together and -

>Written By: Gen Urobuchi

goddamn it it happened again

[Neonivek]

Beach episodes are really common in anime but honestly given Japan is a Mediterranean country it pretty much is a given it is a big part of their culture along with fish (I can't think of ONE Mediterranean region where fish isn't one of their primary foods... except possibly a polluted wasteland)

It just TENDS to boil down to two things
1) Lets see the girls in skimpy outfits (for fanservice for men)
and
2) Lets see the girls in really good looking outfits (For fanservice for women)

Sometimes both!

I think Beaches might be considered romantic or something in Japan... because there seems to be an expectation for something romantic to happen on a beach.

Unlike Western where beaches are mostly considered primarily fun.

Still my favorite Beach episode in anime will still probably be forever part of the Mermaid Melody anime... It was just funny seeing people taking volleyball WAY too seriously.

Though my favorite "Comedy episode" in a non-comedy (or side comedy) anime probably will be forever Rozen Maiden. If there is anything out there that beats it... I'd love to see it because it is RARE that anything can actually get me to laugh (Yeah I am pretty joyless)