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[JoshuaFH]

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[Reelya]

I'm watching Mysterious Cities of Gold now, that's another series off my bucket list, that I have vague childhood memories of. I never did catch the whole thing. It's holding up pretty good, considering its age. Has good plot-progression from episode to episode rather than feeling episodic "fake plot". I'm looking at you, Avatar: when most episodes follow a formula, then that's fake-plot. A few early episodes of the copy of Mysterious Cities I have were out of order, and it made the show really hard to follow until I fixed up the order. For Avatar, you could mix up the order of 80% of episodes and probably never notice. Legend of Korra improved that however, moving away from the "adventure of the week" formula.

One thing is that this show has a little 'educational' bit at the end of it about the real Incas / New World discovery time period. That was actually a broadcast requirement in the USA back in the 1980s / early 1990s, I recall the same kinds of bits were on the end of Inspector Gadget, and were added to Sailor Moon episodes:
https://sailormoondub.fandom.com/wiki/Sailor_Says

Sailor Says were exclusive segment produced for the North American Dub of Sailor Moon. They were modeled after Public Service Announcements and were added to the end of several episodes on account of broadcast regulations set by the FCC, who wanted educational segments included at the end of shows aimed at children.

That's a good argument to watch the subbed version of Sailor Moon right there: less educational.

I'm not sure these were part of the original Franco-Japanese production of Mysterious Cities or tacked on the end to appease the American censors. The educational bit uses live-action stock footage.

[Culise]

I'm not sure these were part of the original Franco-Japanese production of Mysterious Cities or tacked on the end to appease the American censors. The educational bit uses live-action stock footage.

I'm pretty sure those were part of the original.  It's been a long time for me, but I'm also pretty sure some of them wouldn't have made it past American censors even today, much less in the 80s.  Then again, back when I was young, we couldn't afford cable, so I didn't see it as aired in the US.

[Reelya]

Here, they aired on ABC (Australia) which like BBC or PBS type stuff. The good thing is that ABC doesn't have commercials, so you get every show uninterrupted. That makes it really good for digital recording too owo, and they've actually started to air some decent animes recently, last year I recall them airing Kamisama Hajimemashta and K-On. Not stuff the commericial channels would air - Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh type stuff are about the most up to date animes they air on those, whereas I recall first seeing Death Note on free to air ABC.

[heydude6]

I'm watching Mysterious Cities of Gold now, that's another series off my bucket list, that I have vague childhood memories of. I never did catch the whole thing. It's holding up pretty good, considering its age. Has good plot-progression from episode to episode rather than feeling episodic "fake plot". I'm looking at you, Avatar: when most episodes follow a formula, then that's fake-plot. A few early episodes of the copy of Mysterious Cities I have were out of order, and it made the show really hard to follow until I fixed up the order. For Avatar, you could mix up the order of 80% of episodes and probably never notice. Legend of Korra improved that however, moving away from the "adventure of the week" formula.

Being episodic is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a different approach to long-form serialized storytelling. As long as the individual episodes are good, then I don't really have a problem with it (eg. the Ghost Stories dub, episodes 4-14 of Dororo). I think a large reason why most episodic series fail is simply due to time constraints. It's hard to tell a satisfying and complete story in 20 minutes.

[Reelya]

I fully agree, it's not a bad thing in itself. However, there's a trade off between self-contained episodes and overarching plot. For Avatar, I think there was a fair bit of executive meddling: the network(s) preferred a show you can just jump in at any episode and follow along. But as the show became successful the creators were able to break those constraints down, to the point that Korra had a unified narrative across the 13 episodes of each season. Avatar was already a pretty good show, it just could have been even better if they didn't have to adhere to the episodic formula of traditional broadcast kid's shows.

[Cruxador]

I fully agree, it's not a bad thing in itself. However, there's a trade off between self-contained episodes and overarching plot. For Avatar, I think there was a fair bit of executive meddling: the network(s) preferred a show you can just jump in at any episode and follow along. But as the show became successful the creators were able to break those constraints down, to the point that Korra had a unified narrative across the 13 episodes of each season. Avatar was already a pretty good show, it just could have been even better if they didn't have to adhere to the episodic formula of traditional broadcast kid's shows.

I agree with all the component parts of this post but taken as a whole you seem to be implying that Legend of Korra is better than The Last Airbender and that sure is a hot take to just throw in there as justification for another point.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Just finished Fullmetal Alchemist. Nice.

Starting FMA: Brotherhood now!

[scriver]

I fully agree, it's not a bad thing in itself. However, there's a trade off between self-contained episodes and overarching plot. For Avatar, I think there was a fair bit of executive meddling: the network(s) preferred a show you can just jump in at any episode and follow along. But as the show became successful the creators were able to break those constraints down, to the point that Korra had a unified narrative across the 13 episodes of each season. Avatar was already a pretty good show, it just could have been even better if they didn't have to adhere to the episodic formula of traditional broadcast kid's shows.

I agree with all the component parts of this post but taken as a whole you seem to be implying that Legend of Korra is better than The Last Airbender and that sure is a hot take to just throw in there as justification for another point.

Particularly since the episodic-but-with-a-clear-direction nature if the show is one if the things it made better than Korra's design

[pikachu17]

I fully agree, it's not a bad thing in itself. However, there's a trade off between self-contained episodes and overarching plot. For Avatar, I think there was a fair bit of executive meddling: the network(s) preferred a show you can just jump in at any episode and follow along. But as the show became successful the creators were able to break those constraints down, to the point that Korra had a unified narrative across the 13 episodes of each season. Avatar was already a pretty good show, it just could have been even better if they didn't have to adhere to the episodic formula of traditional broadcast kid's shows.

I agree with all the component parts of this post but taken as a whole you seem to be implying that Legend of Korra is better than The Last Airbender and that sure is a hot take to just throw in there as justification for another point.

Particularly since the episodic-but-with-a-clear-direction nature if the show is one if the things it made better than Korra's design

Especially since it only has a few filler episodes. Pretty much every episode is important for some reason or another, even if it is a little episodic.

[Zangi]

Just finished Fullmetal Alchemist. Nice.

Starting FMA: Brotherhood now!

Good stuff.

[scriver]

See Zangi zignature

[itisnotlogical]

Backstreet Girls on Netflix is pretty good. It's the typical "cute anime girls have wacky misunderstandings" setup. Except the main characters are all male yakuza who, as punishment, were forced to undergo sex changes and form a pop idol group.

It's a minefield of possible transphobic jokes, but I've found that (except for one or two instances) it generally shies away from that into more typical "side character doesn't know the secret, hilarity ensues" bits. Full disclosure, A) I'm not trans and B) I haven't finished the series, but I'd recommend only watching it if you're okay with that kind of humor.

I generally prefer subs to dubs for a number of reasons, but Backstreet Girls is the first dub I've seen that I would say is actually bad. A lot of times the actors' emotion doesn't match what's happening on screen. When a character yells, the actor "yells" in a weirdly restrained way, as if they're trying not to disturb people in other rooms. They can pull off the typical anime dub voices just fine, so I'm thinking maybe poor direction?

It's a mixed bag but funny enough to pass the time. The formula gets a bit old, but that just happens with this kind of "quirky misunderstanding" sitcom setup (is there a name for this?)

[Reelya]

Pretty nice season of anime, with Kaguya Love is War season 2, and Oregai season 3 airing, plus more Shokugeki no Soma.

BTW I just clicked on notifications in MAL and it says there's an Aria movie coming out. I rarely get that stoked about new animes, however this is one of the exceptions.

Right now I'm not watching as many different seasonal animes, but I'm doing catch up and rewatch on the earlier stuff of airings ones, including all the series I mentioned above. I'm watching Food Wars / Shokugeki no Soma from the start and should be up to date once the new season finishes airing.

Recently, got around to finishing Violet Evergarden. Checked, and I mentioned I'd seen the first episode here almost exactly 2 years ago I was very nice and I have the movie (plus another future movie) to look forward to.

Also, rewatching Amanchu!, season 1, and have season 2 for that one as well. Amanchu is by the same author as Aria, and is in the ultra-chillax slice of life category. It's about scuba diving.

The future queue at the moment:
March Comes like a Lion
Nodame Cantabile
Chihayafuru S1 - S3
Natsume Yuujinchu S1 - S6
All seasons of Sayanara Zetsubou Sensei
All of Symphogear

Once I'm done with all that, will probably rewatch all of Aria. By then the movie should be out.

[Cruxador]

For people with other kinds of taste, I'll add two series to which stand out: Houkago Teibou Nisshi is Doga Kobo at their best, it looks like it's mostly the team from New Game! and it definitely captures the cheerful but relaxed feel you'd want from an anime about kids sitting on a breakwater fishing.

Brand New Animal is a Trigger original, so if you like Trigger originals, give it a shot. And since this matters a lot for Trigger stuff: It was directed by Yoh Yoshinari, the LWA guy.