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[Reelya]

They're making another Macross TV series next year. Just hoping they learnt something from making Macross Delta and the next one is better.

~~~

Just saw a youtube video critiquing the anime OVA Amazing Nurse Nanako which the girl bought at an anime store. One thing I think is lost in this is the fact that when people make smutty Direct-to-DVD live action films in America, hardly anyone hears about them. Why should it be any different for a Japanese Direct-to-DVD smutty anime?

But ... think about it. We have Amazing Nurse Nanako stocked in Western DVD stores on the same shelf as Howl's Moving Castle or Akira. So that immediately changes the context here. Highly obscure low-budget things are mixed in with AAA popular things willy-nilly. That would be the logical equivalent of a Japanese store having an "American Movies" shelf which stocks Citizen Kane next to Beach Babes from Beyond, then a Japanese guy picking up the latter and saying "WTF America, people watch this crap?!?" with the assumption that "movie fans" in America would know what that movie was.

~~~

And what's with goddamn light novels about wanting to bang your sister? Fuck light novels honestly. They shouldn't be allowed to get adapted. Here's another new anime from a light novel with the exact same plot as the one from a couple of seasons ago about the light novel author who had the hots for his loli sister, and is friends with other loli light novel writers.

Seriously just adapt Tsun Tsun Shiteta Koakuma Imouto ga Yome ni Naru made Dereta Wake and be done with the whole genre.

[Tack]

Guess what: Incest is mainstream.
I don't know how it happened and I'm weirdly glad now that I don't have sisters, but yeah, the stuff is weridly popular, and I don't just mean in an eastern market.

In other news:
Just finished 'Made in Abyss', which is difficult to compare to other Anime... I'd call it HunterXHunter, but concentrated into 12 ep seasons.

It's tempting to read the below spoiler I know but you're likely gonna want to see the anime first.
Trying to figure out which is the saddest zoomorphism of a human between this anime and FMA.

[Arx]

If anyone has any recs for generally feel-good shows with a scifi or fantasy type genre, I'd appreciate it. Putting the standard bars on harem/loli/incest/etc., and a slightly less standard one on that I really dislike fanservice.

I guess I'd rather it didn't have two thousand episodes, but I don't particularly mind how old it is or such.

If you don't have any, feel free to ignore my attempts to avoid doing any work for myself.

[Reelya]

Sort of off tangent, but I highly recommend Baccano (12 episodes + 4 bonus episodes). It's the Pulp Fiction of anime (all scenes are achronological), but set in 1930s mob-era, but with a few horror / supernatural themes going on too. The basic framework is a train ride from Chicago to New York, but various mob factions / cultists / countless other weirdos all want to fuck with the train ride, for their own various reasons. It varies from black comedy to gruesome horror however, and has a great jazz soundtrack to boot. Also, the English voice action is top notch in this one, getting the gangster-movie vibe down perfectly, so it's a good one to show people in English.

As for sci-fi, I'd recommend checking out some of the classics:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- Yamato (the 1974 version, 26 episodes for full authenticity or the 2012 remake). Has a real classic saturday-morning / space opera vibe. It's one of the most important series in the history of sci-fi anime.

Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Herlock - "Space Pirate Captain Harlock" in English, it's one from a manga by Leiji Matsumoto, the original guy behind Yamato.

- SDF Macross (1982: 39 episodes) aka Robotech (Robotech was shoddily butchered when they "adapted" it however). Macross Zero and Macross Plus are standalone ~ 5 episode series that are tangential to the main plot in Macross and good starting points.

- Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983): adapted into part 3 of Robotech, it's the one with motorcycles which transform into jetpack power-armor. It's worth it just for that. It's pretty fun and straight forward "band of misfits vs the alien mecha" type stuff. It's a fun standalone one that runs 25 episodes.

- Gundam: it's a good staple. I've main stuck to the "Univeral Century" Gundam timeline, the other timelines are standalone spin-offs.
 - Gundam 0079 (1979): the original core series of UC Gundam. If you want the main saga of a couple hundred episodes, you start here.
 - Gundam 0080 : a short story that happens concurrently with the original series
 - Gundam IGLOO: a 2000's CGI series of short films about various characters during the Gundam 0079 war. "Lone warriors dying in glorious battle against humungous mecha" is the theme here. The main thing I like about IGLOO is that it looks at the lives of the soldiers in the humungous mecha war that don't have the security of riding a humungous mecha. This video is a good expression of the vibe in IGLOO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb9L94WRP20

- Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: a glorious space epic. But rather than action, the focus is on politics and military tactics. It's galaxy-scale WWI in space with the UFP (allies) vs the Imperium (Prussian/imperial germany basically), with corrupt bureacracies and incompetent military leaders, with millions killed in pointless battles for centuries. In this vista, two young officers rise through the ranks on both sides to face off as rivals in war. The series covers both their careers, so there's no real good guys and bad guys.

As for more modern stuff (late 1990s to current), these are all reasonable short (no more than two seasons / 26 eps in most all cases, and only a little longer than that at most: 52 episodes):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- Spice and Wolf: medieval, low-magic fantasy setting plus deals with medieval economics. Think traders traveling from citystate to citystate making deals

- Princess Tutu: basically a fantastical series, it uses ballet as combat. It's reknowned for it's stylistic elements and surreal production values.

- Revolutionary Girl Utena: very famous series which a huge amount of critical praise, I never got around to watching it however.

- Kino's Journey: a girl rides on a motorbike from citystate to citystate in some post-apoc wilderness world, each town she visits expresses some different aspect of the "folly of human condition". It's feelgood because of the vibe and the fact that there's no real overarching plot.

- Mushishi - slice of life about a spiritualist who travels around investigating supernatural stuff. Self-contained episodes and the focus is on atmosphere with really beautiful scenery. Each episode focuses on a different mystery to be uncovered, and there's very little "save the day" vibe here, it's observational / really about the human condition.

- Made in Abyss: this is really recent, and probably exactly what you want. Start with this, it's short.

- Last Exile: supposed to be pretty good according to various people.

- Dennou Coil: a really solid little series. It's about augmented reality vs real reality.

- The Big O. Hard to describe The Big O without spoiling it. Suffice to say it's pretty different.

- RideBack: it was short and had cool mecha, decent characters. However the plot seriously goes off the deep end. Still, it packs a lot of events into 12 episodes so that's probably expected. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU1rTET0n5c

- Trigun: basically a western action/comedy in space. The story is basically about a guy called Vash the Stampede whi has a $50 billion bounty on his head for destroying cities except:
[spoiler]he doesn't actually destroy anything, everyone else destroys the cities trying to get him, because of the bounty. He's just slightly accident-prone and it escalated from there.

- Aria: it's just pure feelgood with a sci-fi "fantasyesque" setting. It's more about human interaction than anything else however. The setting is that people left Earth because it turned into a techno hellhole so they terraformed Mars into a water-planet to be nice to live on, and be a haven for people who want a more organic vibe to life. Neo-Venizia is the main city in the story, which is like Venice with canals and the MCs are gondoliers. It's all about the vibe and the artwork / vistas / soundtrack.

- Planetes: like Aria, this is a human drama but in a sci-fi setting. The setting is employees on a space station run by a commercial company that does space junk salvage.

- Sakasama no Patema: this one is a film, it's pretty good. The guy also did a short film called "Pale Cocoon" which you might watch first, it's a related theme to the movie.

- Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann: about as feelgood as you can get, and the series keeps switch it up every few episodes until the absolutely unbelievable finale. Has a little fanservice in that Yoko wears a bikini top, but it doesn't have any harem/smutty plot stuff.

- Cowboy Bebop: basically one of the most renknown 1998s series. Also has one a slutty-dressed female

- Escaflowne: a nice other-word sci-fi fantasy epic, has romance + mecha + magic

- Steins;Gate: by far the best anime about time-travel. Has a very quirky plot, the first half is fun and whimsical, but just about all the "fun and random" stuff that happens ends up being important in the second half which is deadly serious with some good emotional punches thrown.

- Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo: movie about time travel, good slice of life vibe.

- FLCL: the famous "random" weird robot thing, 6 episodes.

- Suisei no Gargantia: has some sexy girl pics, occassionally, but it's a solid series. A mecha pilot from a highly regimented sci-fi empire is marooned on a more laid-back planet and has to learn how to deal with "normal". Varies from slice of life to high-action mecha combat, has good visuals.
[/spoiler]

[Cruxador]

Guess what: Incest is mainstream.
I don't know how it happened and I'm weirdly glad now that I don't have sisters, but yeah, the stuff is weridly popular, and I don't just mean in an eastern market.

Basically, a whole lot of porn is controlled by the same company, and they decided to go into incest. That and Game of Thrones, though I think the porn is the original way.

If anyone has any recs for generally feel-good shows with a scifi or fantasy type genre, I'd appreciate it. Putting the standard bars on harem/loli/incest/etc., and a slightly less standard one on that I really dislike fanservice.

I guess I'd rather it didn't have two thousand episodes, but I don't particularly mind how old it is or such.

If you don't have any, feel free to ignore my attempts to avoid doing any work for myself.

I think Slayers fits your criteria.

- Made in Abyss: this is really recent, and probably exactly what you want. Start with this, it's short.

For Arx? The main character is a loli though. And... It has nudity, which I thought was your main criteria for fanservice. And it is in no way a feel-good show. It's excellent, but it really doesn't fit the guidelines.

Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann: about as feelgood as you can get

I'm not sure you're using this word the way most people do. It's not pure suffering like MiAbyss, but TTGL is definitely not something I'd rate as abnormally high in this criteria.

but it doesn't have any harem/smutty plot stuff.

There is a hot springs episode.

[Reelya]

If you extend feel-good to "nothing bad ever happens to anyone" then that excludes anything except pure slice of life shows. I was including Abyss because of the artwork / atmosphere. Abyss is a short series with a whimsical art style and adventure. Feel-good doesn't have to mean happy-happy-happy all the time. And I wouldn't call them "lolis" the main characters are kids. There's nothing inherently creepy about children. It's the context.

But as you've said before, nudity isn't always fanservice. e.g. the opening to Spice and Wolf has female nudity in it, but because it's done stylishly and expreses the plot it doesn't come across as a sexual thing, enough so that I feel comfortable linking it here so Arx and everyone can check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN_WgwEmRaw

There's only one episode with that sort of thing in TTGL and it was pretty forgettable. It's not the sort of thing that's a deal-breaker. The series is completely upfront about the level of sexuality in the series - what Yoko is wearing in the opening credits isn't any worse than anything in the show. And like you said there was only one swimsuit/spa episode in the middle of ~25 episodes. If it's a deal-breaker then Arx is going to know straight away. He's a big boy, he can look at what the credits looks like and decide for himself. It's not like that one spa episode is worse than the girl in the swimsuit in the credits - there is no complete nudity nor do they do that "sexuality as humor" thing in the show as a rule.

[Cruxador]

Another feel-good anime, though it's big enough that you probably know it: KonoSuba.

I really liked Bodacious Space Pirates, which fits your criteria, though I know a lot of people found the pacing to be slow and the portion that's been adapted ends just after introducing a new arc. And the LNs aren't even translated.

If you extend feel-good to "nothing bad ever happens to anyone" then that excludes anything except pure slice of life shows. I was including Abyss because of the artwork / atmosphere.

There's a pretty wide gap between "nothing bad ever happens" and MiAbyss. Serious gore in about a third of all episodes definitely doesn't count as feel-good to me, even ignoring the emotional suffering which is pervasive throughout the second half.

But as you've said before, nudity isn't always fanservice. e.g. the opening to Spice and Wolf has female nudity in it, but because it's done stylishly and expreses the plot it doesn't come across as a sexual thing.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with it myself, but there is naked bondage in one of the early episodes. Because of the context, not necessarily sexual, but I would consider it far easier to deem sexual than plenty of other things you've called fanservice before.
And although he didn't include this in his list of triggers, forced cross-dressing seems like it could easily fit into the "etc." bit of it.

[Reelya]

Another feel-good anime, though it's big enough that you probably know it: KonoSuba.

I really liked Bodacious Space Pirates, which fits your criteria, though I know a lot of people found the pacing to be slow and the portion that's been adapted ends just after introducing a new arc. And the LNs aren't even translated.

If you extend feel-good to "nothing bad ever happens to anyone" then that excludes anything except pure slice of life shows. I was including Abyss because of the artwork / atmosphere.

There's a pretty wide gap between "nothing bad ever happens" and MiAbyss. Serious gore in about a third of all episodes definitely doesn't count as feel-good to me, even ignoring the emotional suffering which is pervasive throughout the second half.

But as you've said before, nudity isn't always fanservice. e.g. the opening to Spice and Wolf has female nudity in it, but because it's done stylishly and expreses the plot it doesn't come across as a sexual thing.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with it myself, but there is naked bondage in one of the early episodes. Because of the context, not necessarily sexual, but I would consider it far easier to deem sexual than plenty of other things you've called fanservice before.
And although he didn't include this in his list of triggers, forced cross-dressing seems like it could easily fit into the "etc." bit of it.

I do like Bodacious Space Pirates too, however it does frame a lot of shots to show how sexy the girls are in their miniskirts, e.g. panning up a girl's legs to show her short-skirt school uniform, and that regular pirate crew woman with big boobs often has down-cleavage shots to highlight her boobs. The original novel's title was "miniskirt pirates".

but also I find it weird you're recommending Konosuba after slamming fanservice in actually less-problematic series. It's basically has a number of smutty elements as the general backdrop to proceedings, and a harem comedy based character structure. I can do a breakdown of fanservice shots just in the opening credits of Konosuba:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

27 seconds, right after the show's logo, suggestive pose with side boobs / thighs of main girl, the switches to show with her boobs in center frame.
33 seconds, very short skirt shot, lots of thigh, to a long shot of the same
35 seconds - GIANT WOBBLING BOOBS march across the screen, they cropped the girl's head out for this.
36 seconds - there's another big-boob girl with a sexy short skirt dress revealed as the first boob girl passes
38 seconds - pans up a girl in "boob plate" armor.
42 seconds - first short of main girl bending over so you can see buttocks
46 seconds - main girl dances around in her ultra-short miniskirt
69 seconds - fast shot of full "doggy style" pose with giant buttocks slapped into center of screen. Its effectively like a POV porno movie shot.
73 seconds - main girl collapsed in center screen, you can see up her skirt to bare buttocks.
81 seconds - side character girl introduced with a boob-jiggle shot.
82 seconds - it's quick, but there's a girl in full-on Bikini Armor right in the middle of the "side characters" ensemble shot.
83 seconds - a girl in shorts and a boobtube bikini top standing on top of a building.
84 seconds - her and another girl in boobtube bikinis
85 seconds - a shot of 4 barmaids, three of whom have very noticeable huge boobs (the fourth is hidden behind another girl, probably because she has no boobs).
85 seconds - another girl spins around, so they can have her boobs jiggle.
86 seconds - a girls with extremely low-cut top and GIGANTIC KNOCKERS zooms into view, with full boob physics going on.

... And that's before 90 seconds of the first episode has even elapsed, and in compiling that list I skipped over a good couple of dozen other shots which involved tight clothing over boobs or short skirts, but were less notable.

After picking out some infrequent fanservice as making TTGL unrecommendable, you're now suggesting two series with frequent fanservicey vibes as being the deal. And you completely failed to qualify that in any way.

[Cruxador]

but also I find it weird you're recommending Konosuba after slamming fanservice in actually less-problematic series. It's basically has a number of smutty elements as the general backdrop to proceedings, and a harem comedy based character structure.

After picking out some infrequent fanservice as making TTGL unrecommendable, you're now suggesting two series with frequent fanservicey vibes as being the deal. And you completely failed to qualify that in any way.

Well I mean, if something like MiAbyss is fine...

[Reelya]

but also I find it weird you're recommending Konosuba after slamming fanservice in actually less-problematic series. It's basically has a number of smutty elements as the general backdrop to proceedings, and a harem comedy based character structure.

After picking out some infrequent fanservice as making TTGL unrecommendable, you're now suggesting two series with frequent fanservicey vibes as being the deal. And you completely failed to qualify that in any way.

Well I mean, if something like MiAbyss is fine...

Abyss was clearly not played up as sexuality. It's ridiculous that you can use that as an excuse to plug a fanservice heavy series like Konosuba without offering even the slightest context.

I've broken down the shots in merely the first 90 seconds of Konosuba's first episode, and there are a couple dozen shots of deliberately fanservicy poses and outfits, boob jiggle physics and more. Basic common sense would suggest that Konosuba is probably right out when someone specifically said they didn't want fanservice, ecchi, harem type shows. It sounds like you're using the excuse of one-off nudity in another recommended show to plug your favorite without any context, even though it's highly inappropriate to what the person asked for. Similar though not as bad with Miniskirt Pirates. it is a show about sexy space pirate schoolgirls after all.

[Jopax]

I can reccomend Last Exile as a pretty good steampunky airship adventure thing.

And TTGL while not being lighthearted and cheery all the time is one of the best shows when it comes to evoking that special feeling you'd get as a kid as you cheered your favourite hero in a big fight. It's one of those fuck yeah shows that can sweep you up in itself and take you for a damn good ride and it's not totally brainles while doing that.

Seriously, TTGL is one of those shows that's so good at what it sets out to do that it should be on pretty much every to watch list.

With that bit of gushing out of the way, I'd like to reccommend Kuromukuro (or black relic or however the translation works out). It's basically evangelion but with non-shit leads and a generally optimistic (if at times dark) feel to it. The future is uncertain but I'll be damned if I won't face it punching kind of deal.

Also not exactly scifi or fantasy but Nichijou is a goddamn excellent take on the slice of life genre that is just so odd and charming that it melts you while at the same time causing uncontrollable laughter/giggling.

[Arx]

Crikey, guys, I'm capable of assessing anime for myself. I just wanted to put some rough idea of the kind of thing I enjoy out there, you don't have to try to precisely determine my tastes from it (and you certainly don't have to rehash the fanservice argument).

Thank you for the ideas, I'll check them out.

[JoshuaFH]

I've binge watched the first 12  eps of RE:Zero, and I love the premise, and how the tone of the show changes in a heartbeat. What I don't like is that the main character isn't anime Bill Murray. A lot of his dialogue is just cringey af, and nobody points it out, or gets angry, or even notices it. I just don't like it when characters get free license to be spastic shitheads, in a world that is supposedly DOMINATED by social norms and strict etiquette. I mean, those norms and etiquette aren't present in the show, but it's kind of immersion breaking that they aren't.

Like, the premise of the show is that he's in a videogame-inspired fantasy world, but he's allowed to save scum by dying. Yeah, dying is painful, but I was totally expecting him to hard-learn the first boss by throwing his corpse at her dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, until he's memorized her attacks inside and out. But then again, that's like the OBVIOUS joke, so maybe it wouldn't have been worth doing, but what they did instead was basically "He did the correct order of events by accident, so he succeeds!" and that kinda really undercuts the premise. The main character is pretty much a normal person, up against huge badasses he stands no chance against, and his only advantage is patience, observation, memorization, preparation, strategy, and cleverness in conjunction with being able to try and re-try as many times as he needs to. That being said, it's not made explicitly clear what his goal is, with his only real desire being to bang the main heroine, or even what his 'failure condition' is, so he's pretty much invincible and immortal so long as he doesn't go insane from the intense pain of dying over and over.

Also, the MC reminds me SO MUCH of the Konosuba protagonist. Self-proclaimed NEET shut-in Otaku Virgin Loser, but inexplicably fit and strong, socially comfortable and competent, and a real go-getter with no fear of failure... so pretty much the the exact opposite of what is purported at the start. I hate that so much, the show is literally just lying to me, but I guess that's who the target audience is and so want to make him "relatable". It would be arguably be more interesting if he was the fat and out-of-shape loser stereotype that gets nervous even being in public, let alone being thrust into an adventure, cause then we could actually see him grow and change as a person in his new environment.

I just hate shows with such good premises and good starts like this one being blundered by the incompetency of its own author.

[Cruxador]

I've binge watched the first 12  eps of RE:Zero, and I love the premise, and how the tone of the show changes in a heartbeat. What I don't like is that the main character isn't anime Bill Murray. A lot of his dialogue is just cringey af, and nobody points it out, or gets angry, or even notices it. I just don't like it when characters get free license to be spastic shitheads, in a world that is supposedly DOMINATED by social norms and strict etiquette. I mean, those norms and etiquette aren't present in the show, but it's kind of immersion breaking that they aren't.

It's not so much that they don't notice, it's more that they don't show any reaction because, I assume, Japan. But people do get sick of his shit, and it's kind of a major plot point. What's got you bothered now is build-up. Watch literally one more episode.

Like, the premise of the show is that he's in a videogame-inspired fantasy world, but he's allowed to save scum by dying. Yeah, dying is painful, but I was totally expecting him to hard-learn the first boss by throwing his corpse at her dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, until he's memorized her attacks inside and out. But then again, that's like the OBVIOUS joke, so maybe it wouldn't have been worth doing, but what they did instead was basically "He did the correct order of events by accident, so he succeeds!" and that kinda really undercuts the premise. The main character is pretty much a normal person, up against huge badasses he stands no chance against, and his only advantage is patience, observation, memorization, preparation, strategy, and cleverness in conjunction with being able to try and re-try as many times as he needs to. That being said, it's not made explicitly clear what his goal is, with his only real desire being to bang the main heroine, or even what his 'failure condition' is, so he's pretty much invincible and immortal so long as he doesn't go insane from the intense pain of dying over and over.

Well, the show does a pretty good job of selling me on that as a failure condition. It feels a lot more realistically possible than the default "uh he dies I guess" that's the assumed failure condition in a lot of shounen. And, also more realistic than most shounen, is the fact that he does win by keeping on trying and eventually succeeding by more or less random chance. He's brute-forcing that chance, after all, stumbling around until eventually he succeeds. It's a lot more realistic than the characters that are supposedly really hard workers but still end up succeeding largely by chance if you look at the little details, and just keep trying a lot when they're in a fight or whatever (but somehow this never kills them). There are a lot of LNs where the MC is some aspirational smart guy that wins everything by being super smart, I think having a more believable MC

Also, the MC reminds me SO MUCH of the Konosuba protagonist. Self-proclaimed NEET shut-in Otaku Virgin Loser, but inexplicably fit and strong, socially comfortable and competent, and a real go-getter with no fear of failure... so pretty much the the exact opposite of what is purported at the start. I hate that so much, the show is literally just lying to me, but I guess that's who the target audience is and so want to make him "relatable". It would be arguably be more interesting if he was the fat and out-of-shape loser stereotype that gets nervous even being in public, let alone being thrust into an adventure, cause then we could actually see him grow and change as a person in his new environment.

You may have a really low bar for socially competent, and I think there are some clear signs of social discomfort that you're missing. I also think you have weird ideas of what it means to be unemployed and isolated. Having fewer social engagements doesn't make you gain weight, and having more free time doesn't prevent you from getting exercise. What's more, this isn't a character that chose the NEET life like in netojuu no susume. He's unemployed because he can't get a job, not because he retired at thirty. It may be that, as someone who hasn't gone through a blessed life and yet didn't become pathetic in every way imaginable, he is indeed intended to be relatable to the target audience, but I don't think this makes him less of a believable character.
Also, isn't this pretty much the opposite of the complaint you had in the previous paragraph?

I just hate shows with such good premises and good starts like this one being blundered by the incompetency of its own author.

I really don't think this is a matter of authorial competence. If anything, it's that you had an idea of what the show should be, and it didn't align with what it actually was, so you failed to notice what the author was actually doing.

[JoshuaFH]

I've binge watched the first 12  eps of RE:Zero, and I love the premise, and how the tone of the show changes in a heartbeat. What I don't like is that the main character isn't anime Bill Murray. A lot of his dialogue is just cringey af, and nobody points it out, or gets angry, or even notices it. I just don't like it when characters get free license to be spastic shitheads, in a world that is supposedly DOMINATED by social norms and strict etiquette. I mean, those norms and etiquette aren't present in the show, but it's kind of immersion breaking that they aren't.

It's not so much that they don't notice, it's more that they don't show any reaction because, I assume, Japan. But people do get sick of his shit, and it's kind of a major plot point. What's got you bothered now is build-up. Watch literally one more episode.

Like, the premise of the show is that he's in a videogame-inspired fantasy world, but he's allowed to save scum by dying. Yeah, dying is painful, but I was totally expecting him to hard-learn the first boss by throwing his corpse at her dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, until he's memorized her attacks inside and out. But then again, that's like the OBVIOUS joke, so maybe it wouldn't have been worth doing, but what they did instead was basically "He did the correct order of events by accident, so he succeeds!" and that kinda really undercuts the premise. The main character is pretty much a normal person, up against huge badasses he stands no chance against, and his only advantage is patience, observation, memorization, preparation, strategy, and cleverness in conjunction with being able to try and re-try as many times as he needs to. That being said, it's not made explicitly clear what his goal is, with his only real desire being to bang the main heroine, or even what his 'failure condition' is, so he's pretty much invincible and immortal so long as he doesn't go insane from the intense pain of dying over and over.

Well, the show does a pretty good job of selling me on that as a failure condition. It feels a lot more realistically possible than the default "uh he dies I guess" that's the assumed failure condition in a lot of shounen. And, also more realistic than most shounen, is the fact that he does win by keeping on trying and eventually succeeding by more or less random chance. He's brute-forcing that chance, after all, stumbling around until eventually he succeeds. It's a lot more realistic than the characters that are supposedly really hard workers but still end up succeeding largely by chance if you look at the little details, and just keep trying a lot when they're in a fight or whatever (but somehow this never kills them). There are a lot of LNs where the MC is some aspirational smart guy that wins everything by being super smart, I think having a more believable MC

Also, the MC reminds me SO MUCH of the Konosuba protagonist. Self-proclaimed NEET shut-in Otaku Virgin Loser, but inexplicably fit and strong, socially comfortable and competent, and a real go-getter with no fear of failure... so pretty much the the exact opposite of what is purported at the start. I hate that so much, the show is literally just lying to me, but I guess that's who the target audience is and so want to make him "relatable". It would be arguably be more interesting if he was the fat and out-of-shape loser stereotype that gets nervous even being in public, let alone being thrust into an adventure, cause then we could actually see him grow and change as a person in his new environment.

You may have a really low bar for socially competent, and I think there are some clear signs of social discomfort that you're missing. I also think you have weird ideas of what it means to be unemployed and isolated. Having fewer social engagements doesn't make you gain weight, and having more free time doesn't prevent you from getting exercise. What's more, this isn't a character that chose the NEET life like in netojuu no susume. He's unemployed because he can't get a job, not because he retired at thirty. It may be that, as someone who hasn't gone through a blessed life and yet didn't become pathetic in every way imaginable, he is indeed intended to be relatable to the target audience, but I don't think this makes him less of a believable character.
Also, isn't this pretty much the opposite of the complaint you had in the previous paragraph?

I just hate shows with such good premises and good starts like this one being blundered by the incompetency of its own author.

I really don't think this is a matter of authorial competence. If anything, it's that you had an idea of what the show should be, and it didn't align with what it actually was, so you failed to notice what the author was actually doing.

I'm just responding to the bolded section, because I'm going to keep watching and the jury is still out, these are just my initial impressions.

Now, all those things you said are TECHNICALLY true, but not at all believable. People that are shut-in Otaku NEET's typically don't spend all the extra free time they have exercising and getting ripped, they technically could, but typically don't. Placed into a foreign place with no information whatsoever, they technically could throw themselves willy-nilly at every opportunity or ham it up and be a huge flirtatious dork for every cute girl, or they could be paralyzed by fear at the situation they're in, and someone who refuses to intermingle with their normal society that they grew up in, I have an idea of what would be the more natural response. Meeting thugs in an alleyway, an ordinary citizen of a country that is in the "Under 1% Club" for violent crime would probably be pants-pissingly scared, not attack them unhesitatingly with vicious fervor and competency. It's meant to be an escapist fantasy, I know, but it's those kinda things that earmark it as being amateurishly written. But I'll admit that I am perhaps TREMENDOUSLY biased, being a shut-in loser myself for basically my entire life, I atleast believe I can easily tell if someone exhibits the symptoms of that lifestyle or not.

But can I ask what two complaints are opposite each other?  I'm looking hard for it. Was it the 'spastic shithead' and 'socially competent' remark I made? I meant like, we the viewer can tell that he's being stupid, but in the narrative he's still fumbling and bumbling his way forward and succeeding at social interaction, even if realistically he should be getting shut down, hard and often.

I want to add one more complaint though to my original post, in that so far I haven't really learned anything about the MC's life before he got kidnapped into the fantasy world. He seemingly doesn't have any friends or family, because he doesn't talk about or even think about them. Same thing for any other aspect of his life, no nostalgia or reminiscence is paid to it. We learned that he plays videogames enough to be able to recognize gaming tropes offhand only occasionally to his advantage, and that he visits convenience stores and likes snack foods and ramen. Pretty much it, though I didn't read the LN so maybe there was more detail that the anime just skipped over, though I doubt it, as this is obviously all to ensure he's the ideal blank slate for audience projection. Now, there's nothing wrong with a character meant for the audience to project themselves into the shoes of, but in this case I feel it's really obvious and immersion breaking because of it.