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Fuck it, anime thread

Started by The Mollusk, September 02, 2020, 07:00:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

buzby

#180
Well, Super Cub final episode more than made up for the mis-step in the previous one, with the trio taking a road trip to the southern tip of Japan to chase the cherry blossoms (they must have had iron backsides by the time they got back - 1500km in each direction). More nice little interactions between them (Koguma noticing that Shii needed a bathroom break, Reiko's arm across Koguma while they are asleep in the net cafe, Koguma's surprise at Reiko taking a picture of her at the seafood market and the following selfie of Shii's showing Koguma grabbing Reiko by the lapels of her overalls in the background). There was also the recurring 'put some clothes on' gag, which I'm sure by now is the anime team having a playful pop at the manga.

It all wrapped up rather neatly with Shii now having her own Little Cub (the small-wheel version, as she's too short to ride a standard one - a lot of people were speculating she was going to get the broken one from the earlier episode and fix it up, but she wouldn't have been able to touch the ground on it) and looking forwards to their final year in high school. I live in hope it will get another season. As they start their third year the manga suddenly introduces another character, seemingly out of nowhere, who is a bit of an oddball and who Koguma takes a bit of a shine to. I'd like to see how they get animated.

Koguma and Reiko's voice actresses are going from this gentle, wholesome slice of life story to a absolutely rancid looking age gap harem ecchi (my three most hated genres in one - you know it's bad when they are pre-announcing there will be three cuts for each episode with different levels of censorship) 'comedy' called Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun (Mother of the Goddess' Dormitory), about a 12 year old homeless boy who gets taken in by a girl who llives in a women's college dorm and who then gets asked to take the job as the 'house mother'. I suppose it pays the bills. Speaking of Yuki Yomichi, as part of the publcity for the series she did a photoshoot where she cosplayed as Koguma around various locations in Hokuto that appear in the show. It's a shame they couldn't find a Cub that was the right colour, and the pilot goggles they gave her probably cost more than Koguma's Cub.

Mashiro no Oto/Those Snow White Notes Also came to an wend this week, in a bit of an anticlimax. The ending correlates with the end of the first arc in the manga, which sees Setsu almost back at where he was at the start of the story after incurring the wrath of both of his estranged parents after his performance in the shamisen tournament (he tried to please everybody and ended up disappointing everyone, including himself). I don't think the producers are confident on getting a second series though as apparently the anime cut out the introduction of a character who plays a major role in the next arc. It's left me feeling a bit disappointed at the ending. to be honest.

Elsewhere, I've also just started on Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless, which I'm enjoying as a nice gentle gag-based show.

buzby

Quote from: Kenkun on June 18, 2021, 11:50:04 AM
I've been watching Higehiro after reading the manga (which isn't as far along in the story).  By the end of Episode 11, it seems like they're subverting the expected manga/anime ending by having them realise that their relationship is familial not romantic, despite how confusing it may have been to live together and rely on each other.   I just hope that the anime doesn't end the same way that the light novels presumably do.
It's finished now, so what did you think? There was only a small bit of dialogue that was left out of the post-timeskip scene in the anime, which I can only assume was to try to aid the pretence of it being an 'open' ending (though the author has pretty much nixed that with his statements on twitter).

I did watch the last two episodes and the writing had got even worse from where I left it, from the panto villain mother (she is fleshed out slightly more in the books, but not much), Yoshida's terrible internal monologue at the dinner table while everyone else sits there statically (there's a reason they tend to get cut out in book to screen adapations - it doesn't really work),
Spoiler alert
the mother suddenly realising she should care for her daughter thanks to Yoshida's God-like pearls of wisdom, the bedroom scene before Yoshida leaves showing Sayu hasn't learned anything or progressed as a person over the time she spent with him and her brother literally saying 'Age is just a number, dude!' to him before he left.
[close]

The online reaction has been split, rather predictably, between people disappointed ithat it decided to go the
Spoiler alert
Usagi Drop route, even though it bottled out of commiting to it fully at the last minute
[close]
and fans still persisting in calling it 'wholesome' and praising Yoshida for being a 'chad'
Spoiler alert
for resisting the urge to have sex with a minor until she'# legal and finally getting his reward, but being disappointed that they didn;t get to see them get physical and hoping it's in an OVA
[close]
. There have been some pretty insightful reviews posted on the likes of myanimelist since the last episode ended that go into some of the fundamental problems of the story and characters.

Anyway, I'm still enjoying Tanaka-kun (it's like the antidote to the Higehiro), but at the weekend I binge-watched another series that came to my attention in one of those youtube clip compilations, Tsuki ga Kirei (As The Moon, So Beautiful). It's a really well told romance drama between two awkward 3rd year middle schoolers - Kotaro, a quiet, aspiring author and president of the school's literature club, and Akane, a shy but studious girl with anxiety issues who is the top female sprinter on the school's track team. They meet by chance when they are assigned to the same team as helpers for the school's sports festival, and their relationship slowly develops from there. As well as working out how they feel about each other and their aspirations for the future, they have to deal with the reactions of their classmates and parents and cope with the repercussions of events that are outside of their control.

It's quite rare as it's an original story (not based an existing manga or novel) and as such, it actually has an ending, rather than acting as an advert to follow the story in some other media at the end of the series. For the most part (other than some dodgy CGI) it looks really nice too, with an art style that looks ike it was inspired by Makoto Shinkai's stuff. It was produced by Studio Feel, who did a very good job visually with the second and third series of Oregairu (leaving aside the adaptation issues). This struck me as quite relevant, as on thinking about it it afterwards, the story and characters seemed to have a lot of similarities with Oregairu (the thing that kicked that off for me in particular was Kotaro quoting Dazai in his internal monolgues, something Hachiman does quite often, in the LNs at least). It was produced and aired in 2017 though, in the gap before the last three novels were written where Watari was off working on his other unsuccessful attempts at creating franchises. I wonder if he saw this during that period though as some events are very similar to what eventually came out in the last 3 volumes.

Kenkun

I've not watched the finale yet, but have been meaning to comment after watching Ep 11 of Higehiro, which was absolutely bonkers.  As you say, the writing fell off a cliff, and the least said about the evil mother, the better.  The way they talked about having to raise Sayu as if she was 5 year's old was really weird in the context of everything that has happened. 

You always learn something about Japanese culture in the poorest of anime, though.  In a Western story, the lesson learned in this episode would be that although Sayu and Yoshida weren't blood relatives they were 'real family' because they'd found each other. Not in Japan, where Yoshida wishes he could look after her, but isn't able too because it's just not his responsibility.

There was an interesting video on the series by That Japanese Man Yuta, which outlines a lot of negative reactions in Japan to the series.  A lot of the comments focused on the illegality of Sayu living with Yoshida, which is technically kidnapping, but the police would only ever take action if someone complains about it (confusing, but sort of explains some of the reactions by characters in the series) - the age gap stuff seems less of an issue, and it isn't illegal to have a relationship with a high school girl.

I've not read your spoilered bits yet, so I'll be back when I've seen the final episode.

The ending of Super Cub was great, and it's all the little details of how the girls interact that make it feel so rich.  Even the 'put your clothes on' gag feels genuine, given their personalities (and not done in a fan-servicey way).  I read the first few chapters of the manga and was utterly baffled by the grim mundanity of the Kogama 'fan service'.  Clearly the nudity is there to titillate, but it's done in a way where you just feel like you're reading a bleak kitchen-sink drama.  It did put me off reading further, though, even though there's charm in the rest of the strip.

Kenkun

So I watched Higehiro Ep 12 a couple of days ago and been trying to decide what to write since.  The online reactions I've read is depressingly polarised between "what a lovely, wholesome story" and "Yoshida is paedo because he didn't sleep with someone who is actually over the age of consent". So, to try and avoid getting bogged down in socio-political analysis that I'm not qualified to carry out, do I think the ending succeeded on its own merits? No.

It felt like so many endings to manga (and I assume LN's) where the author keeps a number of balls in the air to keep people invested and then has one chapter/volume to end it all and they just jump on the easy answer, whether it makes sense or not.  And, even within the realms of the pulpy, serialised schlock that this is, it makes no sense to dump everything that's happened so far and just have them get together (even if the anime shied away from outright stating it).  Even if you're someone who wanted them to get together, how can this ending be in any way satisfying when there is no growth for either character (if anything there's actual regression).

Ending aside, there was enough going on (maybe more in the manga, the two have merged in my mind) in terms of exploring this very odd situation to keep me interested, and I think the relationship between Sayu and Yoshida was relatively complex given the medium; the characters who found out about Sayu may have had a staggeringly neutral reaction to what is technically kidnapping, but I think it was always clear that Yoshida knew his motivations for helping Sayu were at least as much for his own benefit as hers.  This is not to say that I think it was great, or anything. It wasn't.

However, it does join my new list of anime with title sequences/theme music that massively misrepresent the series - the opening for Higehiro somehow promises a wacky romcom.  It's almost as baffling as the twee end credits of Wonder Egg Priority.

buzby

#184
Quote from: Kenkun on June 29, 2021, 12:24:59 PM
There was an interesting video on the series by That Japanese Man Yuta, which outlines a lot of negative reactions in Japan to the series.  A lot of the comments focused on the illegality of Sayu living with Yoshida, which is technically kidnapping, but the police would only ever take action if someone complains about it (confusing, but sort of explains some of the reactions by characters in the series) - the age gap stuff seems less of an issue, and it isn't illegal to have a relationship with a high school girl.
Yes, that video of Yuta's came up in my recommendations too (probably because I like watching his videos about the language and dialects used by certain anime characters). As I said in my earlier post, age difference relationships aren't really seen as a concern in Japan, which is why the controversy there centred around the kidnapping of a minor (an offence that was brought in specifically to try and prevent situations like Sayu's). Japan has a  tradition of teenage girls marrying older men (the minimum marriage age for girls is 16, but it's 18 for boys). I saw a comment from an Asian poster ijn a discussion about Koikomo saying that most Asian mothers would be happy if their teenage daughter was to marry a rich, handsome, experienced older man (in fact that would have been an obvious alternative to leaving Sayu with the Wicked Witch of Hokkaido, but Yoshida presumably only decided he loved her enough to wait for her for two Years when she jumped into his bed again on the last night...)

Quote from: Kenkun on July 01, 2021, 02:32:50 PM
It felt like so many endings to manga (and I assume LN's) where the author keeps a number of balls in the air to keep people invested and then has one chapter/volume to end it all and they just jump on the easy answer, whether it makes sense or not.  And, even within the realms of the pulpy, serialised schlock that this is, it makes no sense to dump everything that's happened so far and just have them get together (even if the anime shied away from outright stating it).  Even if you're someone who wanted them to get together, how can this ending be in any way satisfying when there is no growth for either character (if anything there's actual regression).

Ending aside, there was enough going on (maybe more in the manga, the two have merged in my mind) in terms of exploring this very odd situation to keep me interested, and I think the relationship between Sayu and Yoshida was relatively complex given the medium; the characters who found out about Sayu may have had a staggeringly neutral reaction to what is technically kidnapping, but I think it was always clear that Yoshida knew his motivations for helping Sayu were at least as much for his own benefit as hers.  This is not to say that I think it was great, or anything. It wasn't.
I think you are probably a bit more charitable towards it than I am. I dropped it after a few episodes for three reasons.

Firstly, it became obvious that despite the controversial social issue dressing, underneath it was a standard Shounen harem story with a bland self-insert male lead and nondescript harem tropes for female characters (the flirtatious loli, the busty 'ara ara' sempai, the cute, foxy kouhai and although she was cut from the anime, the childhood friend). Once that became clear, it was obvious that following the genre rules the endpoint was always going to be Sayu (the cute, sexy schoolgirl who is a perfect housewife, has no agency, is totally reliant on the male lead and most importantly, is always up for it), and a father-daughter/sibling relationship was not on the cards (the books/manga/anime are aimed at teenage boys and young men, after all). Once you view it as a harem, the 'keeping all the balls in play until the last minute' nature of the story also fits. as it's standard practice for harem series (though in most harem anime adaptations there's usually no resolution as they are adverts to sell the manga or novels to see who 'wins'). Maintaining a 'waifu war' is what keeps the lewd merchandise selling - just ask Wataru Watari.

Secondly, I found the fanservice totally offputting given what we knew of Sayu's backstory even at that early point in the story. Again, this is totally consistent with the target audience the story was being aimed at. As it related to the story, it was another pointer that despite Yoshida's protestations, from his POV he was seeing Sayu in a sexual way.

Thirdly, the quality of the writing was bad, and clearly only got worse as the story went on. An example that didn't even make it into the anime being the whole Ao subplot  - what are the chances the girl Yoshida hasn't seen since high school (and who took his virginity) worked for the same company, and just happened to be transferred to his office at that point in time, to make the love quadrangle become a pentangle?

There is obviously a decent story that can be made out of this situation, but I'm not sure Shimesaba had the imagination or writing chops to tell it, and even if he did the chances of it surviving unmolested to publication are slim (we'll never know how much influence his editor or publisher had on how it ended up).  He's apparently writing two side novels about Gotou and Mishima set in the two year timeskip, but I'm not sure what the point of those will be as Mishima had already been rejected before Sayu left, and the timeskip montage at the end strongly implied that Gotou eventually confessed yo Yoshida and was rejected. It will be something to extract cash from their fans I suppose (and we are back to Watari and Oregairu again).

Quote
However, it does join my new list of anime with title sequences/theme music that massively misrepresent the series - the opening for Higehiro somehow promises a wacky romcom.  It's almost as baffling as the twee end credits of Wonder Egg Priority.
See also Asobi Asobase for a prime example of a 'bait and switch' intro sequence, and also Welcome To The NHK.

Kenkun

Quote from: buzby on July 01, 2021, 09:43:34 PM
I think you are probably a bit more charitable towards it than I am. I dropped it after a few episodes for three reasons.

I'm definitely more charitable towards it than you are, and I thank you for being charitable towards me in your phrasing of it! I'm really not very good at dissecting fiction or adequately explaining my opinions on it, which is one of the reasons I'm generally a lurker on these boards.  I can't disagree with anything from your analysis, and, if I'd come into the anime cold, I think there's a good chance I would have given up too based on the reasons you've stated - particularly those instances where Sayu is undressed for no reason, and so totally undermining anything the story is trying to do.  But I've been reading the manga, so that probably made me more likely to stick around.

Is the manga substantially different? Does it address all the problems you've highlighted? No, of course not.

I'm struggling at this point to work out how to explain my attitudes toward certain manga - I'm struggling, to be honest, to even write this sentence.  The 'Japaneseness' of the medium is a blessing and a curse; I'm equally attracted by the strange choices and despairing that they can't stop with some of the tropes that drag down otherwise great (good) stories.






samadriel

Has anyone here watched Beastars on Netflix? I'm a few episodes in and really enjoying it. It's a high-school action/drama in a world where everyone is an animal-person, with tensions simmering between herbivores and carnivores (both eat vegan diets in the mess hall). The lead character is a wolf who is having trouble controlling his instincts, after he reflexively attacks a rabbit-girl one night. I like the lead, he's awkward and introspective without being a complete fucking Shinji, and the show isn't as sedentary as you might think from it being a high-school drama; they really make the most of the animal personalities (I love the tiny mouse newspaper editor with a chip on his shoulder, and the posh red deer is interesting.) Thoughts?

Consignia


bgmnts

Baki season 4 should hopefully be coming soon. Won't lie, I'm excited for it.

buzby

As there was nothing else new catchng my eye, I decided look at some series from the recent past.

First up was finishing off Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless. Really enjoyed this, it's basically a 'sketch' series with gentle comedy mixed with soem character development with the only real arc being the
Spoiler alert
glacial-paced (entirely fitting for Tanaka) romance plot between Tanaka and Shiraishi
[close]
. It has a decent ensemble cast of characters who all get their chances to shine (beside the main pair of Tanaka and Ohta, I really liked the dynamic between Myaano and Echizen, and Tanaka's brocon little sister who was introduced right near the end). I liked it enough to read the manga to completion (the arc referred to above does get some form of resolution, but it felt like the manga was cancelled unexpectedly and tacked on.

Next up was Hinamatsuri, a comedy where Nitta, a mid-level Yakuza who prefers negotiation to violence and wants nothing but to indulge his passion for collecting antique porcelain, decides to adopt Hina, a young girl who is teleported into his apartment one evening inside an egg-shaped capsule. Hina reveals nothing about herself other than her name, that she is hungry (which  becomes her catchphrase) and demonstrates she has incredible telekinetic powers. Some extremely funny hi-jinks then take place, mostly not even involving Hina herself, as again the show has a great ensemble cast like Nitta's boss aand fellow Yakuza, the long-suffering Hitomi, Hina's friend/carer from school and Anzu, a fellow young Esper who is teleported in to eliminate Hina but ends up being taken in by the homeless community from the local park and taught how to fend for herself. Anzu in particular almost steals the show, being everything Hina isn't - hard-working, smart, conscientious and cheerful, in spite of her hardships. Amidst the comedy (for some bits of it I hadn't laughed as much since Asobi Asobase) there are some really heart-wrenching parts too, particularly in Anzu's story. My only complaint is that it really needed a second series - the series covers the first arc of the manga after which there is a 3-year timeskip where Hina and her friends are in high school and another major character gets introduced. Recommended of you want a wholesome father/adopted daughter story with a lot of laughs to wash away the foul taste of Higehiro.

Another comedy (well, officially it's a rom com but the 'rom' again runs at glacial pace) I really enjoyed was Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou, or The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behaviour. This centres around Usa, a boy who is just starting high school who rather than following his parents when they move because of a job transfer, asks to stay in their home town to complete his education and hopefully re-invent himself for a quiet, uneventful high school life afterr a troubled middle school experience. His parents organise accomodation for him, but rather than a batchelor pad apartment they book him into an tradiitional boarding house with a group of oddball residents. His room-mate is Shirosaki, a novelist with writer's block who also happens to be a maochistic pervert who is well known to the local police. In the female wing there is Mayumi, the stereotypical 'christmas cake' office lady who drowns her sorrows every night over her bad luck with men (which is mostly due to her awful personality), the sly and manipulative college student Misaka, and most importantly to the story the shy, standoffish bookworm Ritsu, the owner's daughter who turns out to be an upperclassman Usa's new school and who he falls for at first sight.

Again I found this a really funny ensemble comedy (it reminded me a bit of Working!), and it uses changes in the art style to add to the humour. It also really needed at least a second series - by the end of the first
Spoiler alert
Usa gets as far as exchanging LINE IDs with Ritsu - I said it was slow burning
[close]
. It did get me hooked enough to read the manga to the end to find out how it played out, and unlike Tanaka-kun there did seem to be a planned ending at least, and there were some nice bonus epilogue chapters that showed what the characters were up to a year later.

Kankurette

I loved the Dream manga arc of Sailor Moon. Is Eternal any cop?

Spiteface

New Trailer for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean has come out

https://youtu.be/EeCX8Y0a278

Jojo was one of the things I got into during lockdown last year, so I'm looking forward to this, seeing Jotaro come back (the "Jojo" this time being his daughter, Jolyne Cujoh), and seeing how they fuck with the openings later on, according to plot points (Parts 3-5 did this brilliantly), what music Hirohiko Araki was listening to at the time, how they butcher the Stand names in localisation...

bgmnts

Baki season 4 is on the horizon I have read. Very excited for it.

Consignia

I'm looking at the new Baki with trepidation. I really liked the beginning of the first one with all murders descending on Baki and pals, but then all random characters from the canon popping out of nowhere and finishing the story off felt very unsatisfying to me. Then we started with that boring tournament in the next one, but it went up a bit with Mohammed Ali Jr story but that completely fizzled out. So yeah, I'm sure that I'll find something to enjoy in the new series but it might have some bullshit as well.

bgmnts

That's fair. I actually enjoy the bullshit. I don't think i'm a serious anime fan so things like Baki which are batshit insane are right up my alley.

But yeah, I feel like the death row prison arc was the best of it but I quite liked the tournament.

But then I was introduced to Baki through Netflix and didnt watch the first Bakis or read the manga. Knowing some of the characters that exist in the manga could make the next season even more silly.

Consignia

To be honest, I love the batshit too. Nothing brings me more joy than seeing a bunch of meatheads taking an American convict to a funfair which they enjoy the rides then knock 7 bells out of each other. It's just the set up of the convicts arc brought about 4 key players on Baki's side, and but few of them actually finshed the job.

I also have a long running hatred of tournament arcs as well. They are manga staple and feel way contrived. That's just me though.

Like I said, Baki is worth the lows to me, the highs are just great and I've read there's some pretty bonkers stuff which I'm looking forward to.

Quote from: Spiteface on August 08, 2021, 10:53:13 AM
New Trailer for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean has come out

It looks great! I'm not a huge fan of part 6, but I'd have said the same about part 5 and think I now prefer the series to the manga version.

Definitely looking forward to
Spoiler alert
Made in Heaven
[close]
breaking the opening titles.

Quotehow they butcher the Stand names in localisation...

I was excited about it being on Netflix and easily available and then saw "Weather Forecast" and instantly deflated.

And I have no idea how they're going to handle the IP minefield of
Spoiler alert
Bohemian Rhapsody.
[close]

Looks like it's back to https://twitter.com/thebabysubs again!

elliszeroed

Rebuild of Evangelion 4/ Q Thrice Upon A Time is now available on Amazon Prime/ other places.

Looking forward to watching it this weekend.

Spiteface

Going to watch the previous 3 on the weekend, then the last one.

My initial reaction to the first 2 was that I liked them more than the original series. Having revisited that when it hit Netflix, I'd like to rewatch the rebuilds and see if that opinion has changed.

Spiteface

I did what I set out to do last weekend, and did in fact watch the entirety of the rebuilds.

I feel like starting a whole new thread for it, but i will say, part of the ending felt like a deliberate plot to piss off multiple groups of shippers at once, and for that I applaud it.

Consignia

Was going to make a thread on rebuild, or 3.0+1.0 at least. All I'll say for now, it was a very satisfying ending for me going against the nihilistic earlier installments. Pretty sure most of it wasn't planned but I'll be happy if that's the last of evangelion.

letsgobrian

Highly recommend the currently airing Sonny Boy if you are in the market for a brain twister of an anime. No theme tune or opening credits, throws you in at the deep end every single episode. This week's episode had
Spoiler alert
Dr. Strangelove
[close]
appear within the first 30 seconds, which really threw me for a loop.

buzby

I chanced upon the first episode of the currently-airing Realist Hero the other day. Despite having no fondness for isekai, it interested me as it seemed to be concentrating more on poltics and economics than the usual isekai fare, and the male lead was at least semi-likable. Not following my usual MO of going off to research the source material first for red flags, I watched up to episode 5 when the inevitable harem/polygamy aspect was parachurted in out of nowhere (and by a character who is engaged to the male lead and up to that point had reacted with jealousy whenever he even looked at another woman). It just seemed so out of tone with the rest of the show (an opinion it seems I share with a lot of online reviewers, even those that like the show), but I guess everything has to be a harem nowadays, no matter how detrimental it is to the plot

Fans of the show handwave it being all part of forming political alliances, but it's very convenient that there's no trace of jealousy between his wives, and real-life examples of harem kingdoms through the ages have always ended up descending into succession chaos, backstabbing and factionalism.

Having since looked it up, the male lead is currently up to
Spoiler alert
7 wives
[close]
in the light novel source, including
Spoiler alert
a girl who has known since she was 13, but it's ok as he did a Higehiro and waited until she was 18 to marry her via a timeskip
[close]
. It also seems that as the story progresses, the harem aspect ends up taking a bigger role. Dropped.

buzby

#203
Tiem for another roll-up of series I've watched, of interest to nobody in particular.

Just Because!  - another original story like Tsuki ga Kirei, this time centred around the end of the third year in high school. Eita Izumi's father moves around a lot for work, and as a result his family are moving back to the town Eita went to middle school in, a few weeks before he's due to graduate from high school. As well as reuniting with some of his old group of friends, it also stirs up unresolved feelings amongst them at a critical point before they go their separate ways. It's a very low key, somehat realistic SoL/romance drama like Tsuki ga Kirei with a decently fleshed out small cast of characters and pretty decent art and animation for the most part (though apparently there were some horrendous production difficulties with the release of episodes being delayed and the director taking to Twitter to berate his staff).

At the time it was broadcast it took a lot of flak from the 'waifu wars' dickheads about how it ended, bemoaning that their 'best girl' didn't 'win'. I'm not sure why. as while watching the show it was clear that the pairing they were hoping for was a massively one-sided crush (buzby mentiones Oregairu again...actually, Eita reminded me a lot of Hikigaya, to be honest - deadpan, dead eyes, introverted). I really enjoyed it, and had no problems with how it ended.

3d Kanojo Real Girl - a sort of romance/comedy/drama about Hikaru Tsutsui, a quiet, introverted otaku who rejects '3D' relationships. One day after an altercation he's assigned to clean the school pool as punishment with Iroha Igarashi, a beautiful but sharp-tongued girl who has a reputation amongst her peers as a man-stealer and 'bitch' (japanese meaning of the word). She accidentally knocks Tsutsui into the pool, but later on defends him and his only friend, fellow otaku Ito from being bullied by a group of girls. A few days later, Tsutsui steps in when he sees Iroha being assaulted by another boy for not reciprocating his advances and gets badly beaten for his efforts. Iroha then decides to ask him out, but he rejects her due to his distrust of '3D girls'. Eventually he changes his mind and asks her to go out with him and she accepts, but says it can only be for 6 months as she is transferring schools.

I really liked this, despite the animation crumbling to dogshit at points over it's two series. A lot of people really hated the first series due to Tsutsui having so little sense of self-worth that he constantly questions why Iroha is going out with him and is willing to give her up rather than fight or work things out whenever an obstacle comes their way. I thought that it was very on-point for his character though, as he sees himself as a worthless otaku. Iroha does her best to try and instill some self-worth in him, but even she gets frustrated with him at times. The second season is better in this regard, but it does 'speed run' a bit so it can get to the conclusion of the story, which comes in the form of a satisfying epilogue after a time skip in the last couple of episodes.

ReLIFE - a high school SoL series about Arata Kaizaki, a 27 year old university graduate who has been bouncing round part-time jobs after quitting the job he got after graduation after only 3 months, which then becomes a black mark on his resume. At the start of the story he's working in a convenience store and attends a school reunion dressed in his old business suit, pretending that he's still a salaryman. Walking home under the influence, he is approached by the mysterious Ryou Yoake, a representative of the ReLife Research Institute, who offers him the chance to take part in an experiment where by taking a pill he will revert to looking 17 again and be enrolled as a transfer student in a local school to relive his last year in high school. Relife will pay his rent and give him an allowance, and If he makes it through the year they will organise job opportunities for him. The only catch is he can't tell anybody about the experiment, and at the end of it everybody who he interacted with will forget he existed.

This is a really good series about how trivial high school drama can seem when viewed though adult eyes, but also how those same dramas can go on to affect you long after you leave school. Despite the temptations on offer (which his observer knowingly brings up a few times) there's no creepy stuff or fanservice. Kaizaki is genuinely a good guy and has his own mental scars from his past to deal with, which is why he was selected for the experiment in the first place. There's lots of fun to be had with his 'old man' interactions with the teenagers, but also lots of heartwarmnig stuff too where he brings his bit of extra life experience into play when he feels they need advice, and when he starts to confront his own past. The series ended about half-way through the manga's run, but they did produce an OVA series that really speed-runs though the remaining material in 4 episodes to get to the conclusion. They do feel very rushed, and the animation is obviously done on the cheap (the main characters are OK but the backgound characters are mostly just shadows) but the ending is well worth it.

There's a series airing currently called Bokutachi no Remake/Remake Our Life that has basically stolen ReLIFE's premise, welded it to the awful How To Make A Boring Girlfriend (including the harem shenanigans) and added Quantum Leap's time travel to the mix. I've seen bits of it and read some bits of the manga and LN synopsis to see what it was going to be like before I started and it didn't interest me at all.


surreal

Wasn't sure whether to put it here or start a thread in the Movies forum but it seems Ghost in the Shell has a limited IMAX re-release, I'm going to my local Cineworld (Bham) this weekend.  Never seen it (but I have seen the live action version with Scarlett) so what am I in for?  I saw Akira this way last year and it was mindblowing - thoughts?  Doesn't say that it is a remaster or anything.

Could just be Cineworld putting some random stuff out, but they also have the 4k re-master of Clockwork Orange this weekend so who knows

buzby

Quote from: surreal on September 16, 2021, 04:40:55 PM
Wasn't sure whether to put it here or start a thread in the Movies forum but it seems Ghost in the Shell has a limited IMAX re-release, I'm going to my local Cineworld (Bham) this weekend.  Never seen it (but I have seen the live action version with Scarlett) so what am I in for?  I saw Akira this way last year and it was mindblowing - thoughts?  Doesn't say that it is a remaster or anything.

Could just be Cineworld putting some random stuff out, but they also have the 4k re-master of Clockwork Orange this weekend so who knows
You might have got a quicker response in the Movies subforum, but if you have never seen the original animated version you are in for a treat. I think it's far more visually impressive than the live action film. It's easily up there alongside Akira as one of the best anime movies and was also a massive influence (i.e. heavily ripped off) for The Matric by the Wachoskis. It should look stunning in 4K IMAX so enjoy it.

The 4K IMAX remaster is the first IMAX worldwide simultaneous release, starting tmorrow.

letsgobrian

Quote from: buzby on September 16, 2021, 10:01:41 PM
It's easily up there alongside Akira as one of the best anime movies and was also a massive influence (i.e. heavily ripped off) for The Matric by the Wachoskis.

Though if you really want to see a 90s anime with the same plot as The Matrix, you need to watch Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie. If you wanted a bit of VALIS in your Xmas cash-in kids anime movie, Yoji Enokido had you covered that year.

surreal

Quote from: buzby on September 16, 2021, 10:01:41 PM
You might have got a quicker response in the Movies subforum, but if you have never seen the original animated version you are in for a treat. I think it's far more visually impressive than the live action film. It's easily up there alongside Akira as one of the best anime movies and was also a massive influence (i.e. heavily ripped off) for The Matric by the Wachoskis. It should look stunning in 4K IMAX so enjoy it.

The 4K IMAX remaster is the first IMAX worldwide simultaneous release, starting tmorrow.

Ah terrific, thanks - I did quite enjoy the live action one having no frame of reference, so I am looking forward to this.  I have GitS 2:Innocence on dvd somewhere but not sure if I've ever got round to watching it

surreal

Well that was fantastic, really great restoration and the soundtrack was incredible.  Would have been even better if the projector hadn't broken down twice so they had to roll the movie back 10 minutes...

Chedney Honks

Thank fuck I read this thread on a whim. That's my Sunday afternoon sorted. Awesome. I have the 4K BD release but I can't miss seeing it on the big screen.