Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Eric Blank]

Sometimes artists just want an excuse to draw the shit they want to draw, the actual excuse comes second.

[Loud Whispers]

Got bored of keeping up with this season's animes. I enjoy my fair share of isekai slops but too many of them this season are near identical protagonists with near identical supporting casts with the exact same plot of levelling up in adventuring guilds with secret cheat powers. Bureaucrat to villainess the only one that's stuck with me. So I decided to just keep slamming a random anime recommendation button until I found something that seemed different. Ended up finding Land of the Lustrous. Felt like finding a hidden gem, which is fitting as the show is all about gems. Each character is a personification of a mineral. Without spoiling anything, the show is absolutely beautiful. Sound design, music, character designs, characterisation is all pretty much flawless. From an art style POV it's also incredible how they managed to combine CGI and 2D animation to make something that looks this good. The story is incredibly original and very well paced, and has this running theme of growing more mature but losing pieces of yourself along the way. I would give it a 10/10 if they didn't end it on a cliffhanger for an anime that has a 0% chance of getting a season 2

[JoshuaFH]

I remember Land of the Lustrous. I didn't watch it, but it was kinda hot for a short time when it first came out.

Right now I'm rewatching Thunderbolt Fantasy, since I learned recently that the final Season dropped when I wasn't looking! I gotta catch back up on it so I can appreciate what these puppets have to offer. I honestly thought Season 3 might have been a cliffhanger ending we'd never see a continuation from, because work on the show was stopped right in the throes of COVID, and I was worried that either some vital members of the crew had gotten sick or that the quarantine forced a reevaluation by the people funding the show and pivoting to instead fund entertainment that could be worked on digitally. As awesome as the puppets are, the fact that the puppet crews need to work very closely together isn't great in a pandemic.

OH LORD I HOPE THE FINAL SEASON IS GREAT! I'VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR IT AND I WANT A SPECTACULAR FINISH TO THE SHOW SO BAD! PLEASE DON'T DISAPPOINT ME!

[Criptfeind]

I've not seen the anime, but I read the land of the lustrous manga. I thought it was pretty good, it gets real weird, probably in a good way, and would recommend it.

[Folly]

I finished watching the first season of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells. At this point I've given up on lamenting the monotony of Power Fantasy Isekais, and now I'm just rolling with it.

This one is about a protagonist dropped into a world where Status Effect magic is disparaged for having an abysmally low efficacy, and when it's discovered that our protagonist specializes in Status Effect magic he is promptly cast out of the party and left to die. But after discovering that he has an OP unique ability which makes his spells 100% effective, the protagonist is able to survive and thrive, and vows revenge against those who spurned him.

I like the fact that despite his unique ability, our protagonist is far from untouchable, being severely limited in his effective range and having virtually no defensive options. This forces him to get creative more often than not in finding ways to lure his opponents in before he can dispatch them, and often rely upon the allies he makes along his journey.

Most of the female cast wear breastplates that show more breast than plate, and our main female lead tends to prance around in sheer panties when she's not fighting. But beyond that the fan service is relatively tame, and does not get in the way of the story.

It is somewhat disappointing however that every antagonist is an extremely shallow, 1-dimensional character who monologue constantly about how much they enjoy raping, torturing and killing helpless women, giving our protagonist convenient justification to kill them outright. Absolutely no depth or variety with the bad guys here.

Still, overall I'm going to call this one watchable. Definitely coming back for the second season, if it happens.

[Loud Whispers]

I remember Land of the Lustrous. I didn't watch it, but it was kinda hot for a short time when it first came out.

Highly recommend!

Right now I'm rewatching Thunderbolt Fantasy, since I learned recently that the final Season dropped when I wasn't looking! I gotta catch back up on it so I can appreciate what these puppets have to offer. I honestly thought Season 3 might have been a cliffhanger ending we'd never see a continuation from, because work on the show was stopped right in the throes of COVID, and I was worried that either some vital members of the crew had gotten sick or that the quarantine forced a reevaluation by the people funding the show and pivoting to instead fund entertainment that could be worked on digitally. As awesome as the puppets are, the fact that the puppet crews need to work very closely together isn't great in a pandemic.

OH LORD I HOPE THE FINAL SEASON IS GREAT! I'VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR IT AND I WANT A SPECTACULAR FINISH TO THE SHOW SO BAD! PLEASE DON'T DISAPPOINT ME!

Urobuchi basically kept it afloat financially as a passion project. I haven't finished the final season but you can definitely feel the crunch - originally they had planned to finish things off with 2 more seasons and 2 more movies, but had to settle for one partial season. Lots of fully kitted out puppets get introduced and die off in 3 episodes & a lot of major characters get "resolved" awfully quick. I still love the show but adjust your expectations when moving from the earlier seasons to the final one

I've not seen the anime, but I read the land of the lustrous manga. I thought it was pretty good, it gets real weird, probably in a good way, and would recommend it.

Anything that takes Buddhist cosmology and turns it into kino like wrath of Asura instantly finds a place in my heart. It also helps that the characterisation is so strong in land of the lustrous. I almost don't want to read it because I hate seeing the MC's hope and optimism slowly fade D;

Good work when it makes you care for the characters

At this point I've given up on lamenting the monotony of Power Fantasy Isekais, and now I'm just rolling with it.

I'll always give every show a shot, since even generic titled isekais sometimes throw out gems (I always liken it to everyone considering the Chronicles of Narnia as masterpieces but what if they were republished in the 21st century under some isekai title like "that time I was reincarnated in a fantasy world ruled by an evil white witch and given OP cheat powers by lion jesus). It's like blind taste testing some food so the presentation / marketing doesn't affect your judgement, and you give it a fair chance to make you feel. Stuff like Maou2077, Lvl1 Demon Lord to one room hero, Banished from the hero's party I lived a quiet life in the countryside, Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers, SSS class suicide hunter e.t.c. where they end up delivering a lot more fun, entertainment, thought or orginality than you'd expect

But then you get seasons like this spring season where there's Bogus Skill Fruitmaster, I'm a Noble on the brink of ruin so may as well master magic, Solo Levelling, Guild Receptionist e.t.c. that are so similar it's hard for my brain to separate one group of plucky young heroes with OP cheat powers, an inner-circle of unquestioningly fawning friends + an inexplicably arrogant wider setting that looks down on their horrifically overpowered power for some reason. I'm not even sure if they're bad, it's just so... Indistinguishable. A bit like how there's the isekai of the middle aged shopper, the isekai of the greatest alchemist of all time, and the isekai of the noble on the brink of ruin so he invents magic. They're not bad, but they all follow the same formula of "bro gets isekai'd, uses OP cheat powers to turn fantasy world into suburban Japan" that they're dangerously close to becoming the same show.

At least the middle aged shopper one actually has the middle aged protagonist to distinguish the show from the others. The character really does act like an exhausted, tired of life middle-aged man. I was surprised when the protagonist gets with a receptionist lady, they have sex after clicking together, but it's clear from the start he has 0 interest in a relationship and she's expecting more. The guy uses her to orientate himself in this new city / world and then sets up his own business + makes new friends, including having sex with a cat girl (following Oglaf rules where the cat men are all animal-like and the cat women are just human women + cat ears & tails). The receptionist's VA actually sells you on how heartbroken they are when they discover another woman's hair on the man's clothes after he disappeared all night, and the difference between the receptionist's forlorn farewell and the protagonist's indifferent departure where he's all politely, but dispassionately "thanks for the help see ya" was a rare moment of drama that had me going "damn." Everything after that doesn't really capture that mood of the guy being a middle aged, burnt out dude just looking to relax in life, turning into a standard kind of fantasy shonen about justice, power, friendship e.t.c. and the receptionist doesn't feature ever again

Red Ranger becomes an adventurer - great isekai this season. Crossover between isekai standard fantasy tropes and freaking power rangers. The isekai fantasy stuff is played straight but the constant talks of friendship and random explosions don't get old for me
From bureaucrat to villainess - dad's been reincarted - probably going to be the best isekai this year. Great writing, great characters, and is a passion project of the creators

I finished watching the first season of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells.

Yooooo I saw this one. "Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest" that came out this season is basically just 1 to 1 the same as Failure Frame

It is somewhat disappointing however that every antagonist is an extremely shallow, 1-dimensional character who monologue constantly about how much they enjoy raping, torturing and killing helpless women, giving our protagonist convenient justification to kill them outright. Absolutely no depth or variety with the bad guys here.

Still, overall I'm going to call this one watchable. Definitely coming back for the second season, if it happens.

Yeah lol most revenge isekai have awful writing. There are good revenge animes, there are good isekai animes, but something about revenge animes with video game mechanics induce the exact same sort of setting where the protagonist is extraordinarily bullied by the entire world, the only characters that have remotely sympathetic motives end up in the protag's party, and they fall in love with the protag at first sight usually over the smallest morsel of politeness and courtesy. Failure frame's CGI animation was disgusting but at least the protagonist has a personality, and the suffering they put him through is cheap but really does at least make a convincing case for his revenge plot 
It's not like redo of healer where the guy goes through more rape, torture and suffering than a russian literature epic. Time travels to before the point of all his suffering. And instead of just avoiding the suffering, willingly goes through the exact same suffering in order to get revenge on the people he could've avoided ???
The Most Notorious Talker Runs the World's Greatest Clan stuck with me for a while, because the party betrays him and he immediately retaliates and fucking sells them into slavery. Having a full on villainous protag is pretty fresh but it does get stale over the chapters because the protag gets surrounded by yes men who stop questioning his morality. It's interesting when he has one trusted friend who genuinely can't stomach selling their mutual friends into slavery, even after being betrayed by them, and it's a shame that after he leaves no character replaces that role of "moral conscience" to bounce off of the protag's corporate manager empathy

I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! is a weird one, though probably for the better. It's in a weird place when you watch it because they have the party treating the protag like shit, but there's no act of betrayal - rather, chronic underappreciation and the protagonist just quits lol. They spend a lot of time focusing on the former party struggling, a bit like the Banished from the Hero's party one, but I'm not sure if it's story relevant? MC doesn't give a shit

The two that stand out to me are Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, and Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World. Though neither of them are isekai, they both fit that whole vibe of starting with the protagonist being kicked out of their adventuring party. They're both amazing for the same reason though. The protagonists don't spend the rest of their lives fantasizing about revenge. They take the clean break, pick their feet up and get on with rebuilding their lives. Banished from the Hero's party does spend some time going over the hero's party falling apart, but it handles the "betrayal" in a fairly nice way, whilst integrating it into a plot about a dude who just wants to be a happy member of the community with his wife and family. Disillusioned Adventurers / Ningen Fushin just takes the standard revenge story and executes it with basic care and it just works. The characters don't instantly fall in love with one another, they just start off with an alliance of convenience, treating their partnership as an entirely profesisonal endeavour where they go their separate ways at the end of the day. The reasons why they get abandoned by others are not just ludicrous scum and villainy - it's a mix of prejudice, unfairness, and even sometimes a bit of their own fault, flaws or painful life choices

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Last one sounds like an actually hilarious premise, because the root of all comedy is human suffering

[Great Order]

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/avatar-last-airbender-seven-havens-animated-series-nickelodeon-1236313495/

New Avatar series is on its way.

[JoshuaFH]

I finished watching Season 4 of Thunderbolt Fantasy... and I liked it, though I can tell how much everything is getting rushed and forcefully pushed towards a tidy conclusion. My enjoyment of it is tainted though when I think of how great it could have been, were it not being forced to wrap up sooner than expected. There's ONE MORE movie, which actually screened today in Japan, but unless I missed it there's no planned date for when it'll be available with English subs on Crunchyroll, or anywhere else. I might be waiting an honest-to-god long time just for my final shot of heartbreak, knowing I might never get to see something like Thunderbolt Fantasy ever again in my life. The Pili Puppets got one good shot, but they couldn't garner the praise and popularity that they rightly deserve.

[Loud Whispers]

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/avatar-last-airbender-seven-havens-animated-series-nickelodeon-1236313495/

New Avatar series is on its way.

Lol it became post-apocalypse

Made sense. Aang had the four nations progressing from feudal to industrial
Korra industrial to giant laser mechas. Where do you go after giant laser mechas?
Stone age

I finished watching Season 4 of Thunderbolt Fantasy... and I liked it, though I can tell how much everything is getting rushed and forcefully pushed towards a tidy conclusion. My enjoyment of it is tainted though when I think of how great it could have been, were it not being forced to wrap up sooner than expected. There's ONE MORE movie, which actually screened today in Japan, but unless I missed it there's no planned date for when it'll be available with English subs on Crunchyroll, or anywhere else. I might be waiting an honest-to-god long time just for my final shot of heartbreak, knowing I might never get to see something like Thunderbolt Fantasy ever again in my life. The Pili Puppets got one good shot, but they couldn't garner the praise and popularity that they rightly deserve.

Man I'm glad they managed to get one more movie in. I won't worry about it's availability too much, since it'll end up on nyaa.si eventually

[Folly]

I really didn't care for the whole leap towards modern technology in Korra's books. Hopefully this shift will serve as a reset, moving the setting back towards that of the original series.

[Great Order]

With the spirit portals open, I'm hoping for a lot more spirit-y stuff, and more in the vein of ATLA than LoK. I like them both, but ATLA definitely had a better vibe to it, and part of that was that the spirits were more mysterious and less "Human-like but SpOoKy"

EDIT: Oh, also the Raava-Vaatu thingymajig. Don't get me wrong, the origins episodes were great for exploring the ancient world of Avatar, but turning the avatar into a bog-standard "Good spirit vs. evil spirit" thing is just... Uninspired. There's so many more interesting ways they could have done the Avatar's origins.

[Loud Whispers]

I really didn't care for the whole leap towards modern technology in Korra's books. Hopefully this shift will serve as a reset, moving the setting back towards that of the original series.

Korra worldbuilding was weak. But then again all of Korra was pretty weak. I heard in the interviews the production guys were only greenlit for 1 season of Korra to start with and they were never sure if they'd get funding for the next season, so each one ended up being stand-alone. But it ended up getting messy very quickly where they had twice the cast of characters, four times the number of villains, but only four seasons to wrap it up. And in terms of IRL deadlines they had to work to shorter deadlines for Korra, whereas Aang they had three seasons to do the whole cast justice. The retcons were kinda ass tho lol, idk why they felt the need to strip away all the philosophy and mysticism from avatar's setting. That's like the best part

I did like Korra's main character though. Aang's whole struggle was he spent 100 years running away from his responsibility because being the avatar meant he'd have to be someone that fights and kills. Earth bending ends up being the element he struggles the most with because he struggles to face his problems head on, whereas stuff like water bending he picks up with ease because he can go with the flow. Korra meanwhile is confident to the point of over-confidence, is so aggressive with her bending you could honestly mistake her for an earth bender and has to learn to try resolving problems without violence & strength. Subsequently she struggles the most with air because she can't imagine not trying to overpower a problem into a solution.

Also the fight choreography tying in each character's philosophies in Aang was just so on point. Team avatar is all about learning balance between all four elements. Sokka masters southern water tribe martial arts, air nation hot balloon warfare, earth nation kyoshi island martial arts and fire nation swordsmanship. Zuko vs Azula and Kitara vs the blood bender were both just peak 10/10 story telling through fighting.

Azula thoughout the show almost always outclasses Zuko in power, aggression and precision. Even in the final fight, her fire is stronger, hotter, blue-flames and her lightning output is insane. But he keeps breathing calmly, using the breathing technique inspired by air benders his uncle taught him (that also saved his life in s1). He redirects Azula's lightning using the fire bending technique inspired by water benders that his uncle, a White Lotus member taught him. Azula is constantly pressing the attack, but Zuko just stands exactly where he is from the start to the end of the fight. He robs her attack of force using the same wall-like motions of an earth bender, or by redirecting her attacks with minimal energy like an air bender. His finishing move is the same move Aang defeated him with in s1, breaking Azula's footing. Azula ends up burning herself out because she had no balance

Kitara vs the blood bending witch has a similar beautiful moment. Where the blood bender attacks kitara with a water attack and instead of redirecting it like a water bender with a kind of tai-chi move, Kitara just breaks apart the entire wall of water by smashing into it like an earth bender. The blood bender, a master water bender with far more experience than Kitara is genuinely shocked when that happens. I remember one of my friends asking me how no one in avatar invented blood bending before or how they don't just kill everyone in avatar, but I think the world building even explains this with no ass-pulls. Benders aren't changing a material thing, they're affecting the qi within things. That's why it's so significant when Toph learns to see the qi in metal or blood bending becomes possible when water/moon is at the peak of its power and the elements are not in balance. It's also why blood benders are so rare. To be a blood bender, one would have to master how to manipulate qi within the body, which only female water benders studied in the northern water tribe, AND master how to manipulate qi within the environment offensively, which only male water benders studied. People like the blood bender or Kitara who had studied southern water bending, both northern water bending techniques, swamp water bending and learned how to manipulate even the finest traces of water qi in a desert or prison are the rare sorts who could discover something like blood bending, lightning bending or metal bending

So it was very bleh for me when Korra made lightning benders as common as electricians, metal benders are just tech bros, earth benders just discover lava bending and there isn't any significance behind how or why they can do the thing. Which ties into the whole good vs evil cosmology Korra went for, departing from Aang which was all about balance and a lot more morally unclear. Zaheer and his crew were a nice exception, the water-bender lady who lost her arms but realised the water was an extension of her arms, the air bender dude achieving airlightenment. That runs into the whole avatar style of telling a story just through the characters' bending. But then you get to the lava benders and this is where I really feel they would've benefited from cutting down the number of recurring side characters and villains by half. Cos you have one lava bender who is stoic, silent, methodical and serious. Then you have another earth bender who is erratic, optimistic, foolish, friendly and full of doubt, and he discovers he is a lava bender by accident. Lava bending is something that only avatars could do but I still can't figure out what it means that either of the earth benders could also lava bend. If they had just spent 4 seasons of Korra vs Zaheer I would've been excited to see what they could cook

With the spirit portals open, I'm hoping for a lot more spirit-y stuff, and more in the vein of ATLA than LoK. I like them both, but ATLA definitely had a better vibe to it, and part of that was that the spirits were more mysterious and less "Human-like but SpOoKy"

EDIT: Oh, also the Raava-Vaatu thingymajig. Don't get me wrong, the origins episodes were great for exploring the ancient world of Avatar, but turning the avatar into a bog-standard "Good spirit vs. evil spirit" thing is just... Uninspired. There's so many more interesting ways they could have done the Avatar's origins.

Lol you ninjad me right b4 my post

[Great Order]

Oh yes, that was the other thing I disliked about LoK: The power creep. I can get metalbending, given that once something is done it's usually easier for the next person to do it (That's progress, baby!) but stuff like lightningbending is mentioned as being specifically difficult because of the internal behaviours and balance needed. Having someone as unbalanced as Mako able to do it is straight up retconning it.

Granted, I'm a bit more forgiving of that because it happens regularly. Seems to just be a thing a lot of people struggle to keep in check, but it's nice when something difficult y'know... stays difficult?

On an Avatar note, having watched Arcane I feel like I'd love something with an Arcane level of adult focus in the Avatarverse. It won't happen, it's aimed at kids, has been and will be, but it feels like the need to appeal to kids hobbles it in a lot of ways.

[Folly]

Korra did get into some mature relationship stuff, although it had to be hidden because of the network. If you read between the lines a bit you realize that Korra had a very awkward sexual experience with her first boyfriend, resulting in them breaking up and Korra subsequently finding a girl to start fooling around with.

The comic books go much deeper into mature themes including sexuality, bigotry, and suicide. So it's clear that the creators want to explore that side of Avatar universe more.

In recent years we've seen a lot of progression with childrens networks allowing more mature themes in their shows, so I would not be surprised if the latest iteration of Avatar pushes things further than we've seen before.