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[UXLZ]

I thought people did go bonkers en masse.

[Frumple]

Yeah, pretty much. Bit over 1/3rd (~3.8 thousand) of the 10k populace in the first bit died, and a lot of that was to explicit suicide or suicidal insanity. Lotta' people went bugnuts, though from what I understand it didn't get too terribly much screen time.

[Xvareon]

A friend of mine recently introduced me to Fairy Tail. Within the first few episodes I have been exposed to a Lawful Good sweet girl and avid reader who for some reason fights with a spade-tailed whip; a spiky-haired dude with the most badass longcoat I've ever seen who also happens to be a compulsive stripper; and my personal favorite, a black guy in sunglasses who slices 'n dices with scissors and greatly enjoys emasculating his foes by snipping off their glorious beards mid-battle.

These things are related.

[Neonivek]

I love Fairy Tail Good luck!

I warn you the anime does get REALLY bad and generic during the tournament arc but good news! it recovers!

It oddly fails at Tournament arcs >_>

[Frumple]

... y'know, I've changed my mind on the god of highschool being shoddy. It's not just shoddy, it's a good shoddy. All over the gorram place in a lot of ways, but somewhere around half way through it became more engaging. Don't ask me to pinpoint exactly why (Maybe it's the stand knockoffs?), but it actually gets kinda' nice as things go along.

I... still probably wouldn't recommend it. But as second-string stuff goes, it's pretty alright, and the style's pretty nice, if somewhat inconsistently so.

Also, after a point the eyes start becoming amusing. Like, half the cast has funky eyes. Still not sure what the hell's going on with the MC's.

[JoshuaFH]

I always was convinced that so many animes take place in Highschool was because your ordinary Japanese citizen living in one of their tightly packed Can-of-sardines cities lives a daily life of unfulfilling frustration and stress, and the last time they experienced genuine happiness was in the rose-tinted halcyon days of their youth in Highschool. So they just "write what you know" or at the very least perceive that they know.

[Neonivek]

I always was convinced that so many animes take place in Highschool was because your ordinary Japanese citizen living in one of their tightly packed Can-of-sardines cities lives a daily life of unfulfilling frustration and stress, and the last time they experienced genuine happiness was in the rose-tinted halcyon days of their youth in Highschool. So they just "write what you know" or at the very least perceive that they know.

To me it has to do with just the structure of highschool being basically perfect.

[quinnr]

So I'm still catching up on Charlotte. I...don't know how I feel about it yet.

Spoiler: very minor Charlotte spoilers (click to show/hide)

On one hand, the basic plot I have a few issues with. I can accept them doing what they did in the first episode and inviting students to their school. On the other hand, every student that agrees to just stop using their power forever because they've basically been threatened and beaten up...I can't see that happening. Like, they knock the guy with flight out of the air, tell him he should never use his power again, and then he just...agrees? The end?

It's a pretty different boat than Angel Beats, though. No tears here. Although...both of them do have a plot that is linked to supernatural things happening that end when you graduate high school, so there's that similarity.

Spoiler: More discussion on Charlotte, ep 7 big spoilers (click to show/hide)

Welp, I should have known. Anime can never just be happy, you always have to pay the price.

[Orange Wizard]

Spoiler: More discussion on Charlotte, ep 7 big spoilers (click to show/hide)

Welp, I should have known. Anime can never just be happy, you always have to pay the price.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I remain hopeful! We never saw a body, after all...

...

In other news, School-Live most certainly is not the moe schoolgirl shenanigans I was expecting. Kinda glad I went into it without knowing anything.

[quinnr]

Spoiler: More discussion on Charlotte, ep 7 big spoilers (click to show/hide)

Welp, I should have known. Anime can never just be happy, you always have to pay the price.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I remain hopeful! We never saw a body, after all...

...

In other news, School-Live most certainly is not the moe schoolgirl shenanigans I was expecting. Kinda glad I went into it without knowing anything.

Spoiler: Charlotte (click to show/hide)

I wrote that post before I got to the end of the episode...they sure wrapped that emotional response into a one-episode package and tied it with a bow. I don't think that we'll see Yuu again, at least as a living human being. However, I do think she'll show up somehow...the obsession with stars combined with the weird dreams both of them have been having points to something larger than life. That and the opening.

[Reelya]

I always was convinced that so many animes take place in Highschool was because your ordinary Japanese citizen living in one of their tightly packed Can-of-sardines cities lives a daily life of unfulfilling frustration and stress, and the last time they experienced genuine happiness was in the rose-tinted halcyon days of their youth in Highschool. So they just "write what you know" or at the very least perceive that they know.

Don't overestimate how widespread the popularity of anime is in Japan. A few thousand dvds is considered good sales of an anime DVD volume, compared to mainstream live action films which will be watched by millions of people. Almost all this stuff we're talking about is incredibly niche, and the majority of Japanese people are definitely less familiar with the whole range of available titles than us in this thread, so it's not really possible to draw conclusions about Japanese people as a whole from this.

Also, the school setting is far more prevalent in shonen and shoujo, which are created specifically for younger audiences, than they are in anything created for an adult audience, so that kind of puts into question whether nostalgia is the main thing, or whether they're creating a lot of teen material that is in fact aimed at teens.

Anyway, whether or not nostalgia is at play, your analysis of Japanese high school seems totally off. Japanese highschool is not fun and games, so I doubt that the vast bulk of Japanese people had a carefree highschool life which they look back on with fondness in their grim adult life. I'm betting that adult life gives you a lot more freedom: In highschool you had exams, parents pressuring you to do well, cram school etc. And they have to do entrance exams every 3 years to get into the next school. Once you're an adult you can drink and have sex, live on your own etc. Much better.

Also you're overestimating how crowded Japan is. It has less population density than Holland, Belgium or Israel, and I doubt you consider any of those crowded places.

[Neonivek]

In all fairness the differences between what makes it as a anime and what makes it as a manga can make sense.

Since well.. Action isn't very exciting in manga form (unless you like the cliff notes of battles) but can look awesome in Anime form.

But if you want to see what happens to an anime when it uses the fight from a manga move for move... watch Saint Saiya and the Lost Canvas with its "Turn based RPG battle"

[itisnotlogical]

High school is a good source of BAD BOYZ WHO DON'T PLAY BY THE RULEZ shounen archetype characters. If you're out of school, it's improbable (besides hikikomori) that you're unemployed or a troublemaker, at least from what little I understand of Japanese culture (never been there, just read a little bit).

Besides, high school is a convenient place that every character has to be, as well as a source of new characters. Need to force two characters together that wouldn't normally meet? They pass eachother in the hallway! Need a new character? New student!

[Orange Wizard]

BTW, Japanese people don't have rose-colored highschool lives. They have cram school and huge exam pressure.

And they have school on Saturdays. You can't possibly be happy in life if you go to school on Saturdays.

[Neonivek]

High school is a good source of BAD BOYZ WHO DON'T PLAY BY THE RULEZ shounen archetype characters. If you're out of school, it's improbable (besides hikikomori) that you're unemployed or a troublemaker, at least from what little I understand of Japanese culture (never been there, just read a little bit).

Well that and the context is different.

The "Bad boy who don't play by the rules" in a job setting isn't a good guy, he is very much a bad guy. The kind of guy who if he was still hired you wish he wasn't. Why? Because he doesn't do his work thus you have to pick up the slash.

A bad boy who doesn't play by the rules in a school setting doesn't really affect you, your grades, or your life really.

---

Ewww... Watching Food Wars and this woman cut up cow meat and showed that the meat was extremely marbled.

And I was like "Ewww! Do you know what they have to do to make a cow give meat like that?"

At least it is finally an anime that knows how to draw meat and make it look tasty...

Though the woman also starts cooking with butter and JUST the smell of butter alone is enough to make people fawn over her dish. Its freeken butter! There is nothing special about it. Dear goodness I know food shows exaggerate to hell and back about how dang good their food is, but these people keel over the most mundane stuff.