Anime/Manga - Discuss Japanese cartoons and comics here; NO CULTURE WAR DOOMPOSTING!

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So I caved in and ordered the first three volumes of Urusei Yatsura. I kinda had a dream last night about it for some weird reason, but even before then I still have been thinking about the series 'cause of how deeply ingrained into the anime culture Lum is, and that I've been considering going ahead to start watching it. I told myself I was going to watch one Rumiko Takahashi series at a time (been slowly watching Maison Ikkoku), but the first OP's been stuck in my head for a while now and I love how charming the animation looks, so I might as well try it out, especially since Beautiful Dreamer keeps showing up everywhere I go and I wanna watch it, but I wanna watch things in order first lol.

Also, Umineko ended and I kinda want another manga series to follow its English release to the end, and when it comes to Pokémon Adventure, I want the boxsets more than the individual volumes, and I don't know when the Black & White boxset's gonna happen. I'm gonna have to figure out where I can put this manga as it continues, though, I'm running out of room on my bookshelf and I don't know when I'm going to get a new one.
 
InsolentGaylord said:

So anime is fucked now, Funimation are allowed to be on production committees for anime. So Anime will be come SJWified very soon.
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Given that they had a seat at the table for trashy schlock like Plunderer, I really gotta doubt that that's going to be the case. They also distribute shit like Goblin Slayer, Isekai Maou, and Citrus which I would really hesitate to call works of feminist art.

The real implications will be for accessibility. It seems like anime licencors like Netflix, Funimation, and Crunchyroll are now in an arms race to see who can procure the most exclusive content, which means to legally have access to airing shows, you'll need to be paying for more and more subscription services. It's the same shit we've been seeing with western TV and movies for a while now, and I can only see it ending poorly in the long run.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
So I caved in and ordered the first three volumes of Urusei Yatsura. I kinda had a dream last night about it for some weird reason, but even before then I still have been thinking about the series 'cause of how deeply ingrained into the anime culture Lum is, and that I've been considering going ahead to start watching it. I told myself I was going to watch one Rumiko Takahashi series at a time (been slowly watching Maison Ikkoku), but the first OP's been stuck in my head for a while now and I love how charming the animation looks, so I might as well try it out, especially since Beautiful Dreamer keeps showing up everywhere I go and I wanna watch it, but I wanna watch things in order first lol.
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It's good to watch the first few volumes to get a feel for the main characters and the setting but Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer is pretty much Mamoru Oshii doing his own thing and is a largely self-contained film where you don't have to watch a hundred episodes to appreciate it. Aside from Lum and Jariten, Beautiful Dreamer's recurring cast is pretty much limited to the human characters (a few of the other alien girls are mentioned by name but aren't present in the movie itself).

It's the sort of show you can watch out of order once the major characters are introduced.


When you say "the first three volumes", are we talking about the old AnimEigo DVD's from going on 20 years ago now? Is there a newer release of the TV series that I don't know about? (I have the first three DVD sets with 15 volumes total, plus a couple of later single releases and most of the movies except for number 4 which I don't think I ever saw at retail. I really wish I had the OVAs, particularly Inaba the Dreamkeeper.)


SwanDive said:
The real implications will be for accessibility. It seems like anime licencors like Netflix, Funimation, and Crunchyroll are now in an arms race to see who can procure the most exclusive content, which means to legally have access to airing shows, you'll need to be paying for more and more subscription services. It's the same shit we've been seeing with western TV and movies for a while now, and I can only see it ending poorly in the long run.
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I'm not bothered by streaming services as long as I can eventually get the series I really like on physical media (without having to import ridiculously expensive Blu-Rays or DVDs from Japan which usually don't have English subtitles).
 
Kari Kamiya said:
No, not the anime, the manga lol. I wasn't aware the TV series did come out here if only for a brief moment.
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It's still worth getting the DVDs of the TV series if you can find them for cheap. I wish Discotek would pick up the rights for the TV show and put dozens of episodes on each Blu-Ray disk which should be possible since it's a standard definition show with monaural audio.
 
Marissa Moira said:
How's Konosuba? I only know of it because of the memes.
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Shady Attorney said:
It makes fun of character archetypes and the isekai setting. You either love it or hate it
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It's also full of JRPG and D&D gags, so if you're into that, that's the show for you. It's a parody and I got the jokes and all that, but the characters were too obnoxious for me no matter how I looked at them, so I just couldn't stand the series, personally. KonoSuba is short, at the very least.
 
I really haven't seen much of KonoSuba beyond "Best of Megumin" type compilations but it seems pretty much like the sort of show that people who enjoyed Slayers in the 1990s (and also the 2000s) would also like.
 
sasazuka said:
I really haven't seen much of KonoSuba beyond "Best of Megumin" type compilations but it seems pretty much like the sort of show that people who enjoyed Slayers in the 1990s (and also the 2000s) would also like.
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I dunnoooo, I haven't wanted to strangle Naga the Serpent like I did for Aqua.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
I dunnoooo, I haven't wanted to strangle Naga the Serpent like I did for Aqua.
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OHOHOHOHO

nabbed the films, ovas, and the complete series last year. I'm watching the films and ovas first after I finish baccano

Does naga not being in the tv show take it out of its element?
 
Kari Kamiya said:
I started watching Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! last night, but the first two episodes were bugging me to the point of frustration. I have this feeling the anime's more of a "tell, don't show" about animation. It will explain how a subset of animation works, but then it doesn't go through with showing the audience exactly (only sometimes), nor does it tell the audience the entire thing, especially since it looks like Kanamori is the audience surrogate who doesn't know jack about how animation works. She just sits there listening in to the two sperging out about animation while thinking about money, but she's not really "getting it". Likewise, I don't think the general audience is getting it, either.

It's also bothering me how the subs never made it clear that when they say "anime", they are really and truly talking about "animation" since the two want to be animators, and a supervisor made a big deal about the already-established Anime Club that the leads can't make when it's a club about researching animation history, so the girls decide it'll be a film club where they'll still make an animated film. I guarantee you the weebs are being fed misinformation thanks to the subs not admitting the girls are talking about cartoons in general. There also seems to be a lot of Miyazaki dick-sucking going on with mentions to Future Boy Conan, but again, that's only in the first two episodes thus far.

I dunno, I hope it'll prove me wrong and it actually shows us how the girls get to making their film and explain to Kanamori how it works while giving us visuals, but I'm starting to think this is something only actual animators/animation geeks will truly get if the regular audience has no plans on looking shit up themselves. Like they didn't namedrop the multiplane camera, they just say it's a "camera stand" and then explain how the contraption works, but it's only shown in action once for one part (the background scroll).

Anyone who's seen it can clarify better on if it gets better, but I'm honestly not all that impressed by it even during the imagine spots.
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It takes off in episode 4 when they start getting their shit together to start working on an actual animation. The whole thing about it being an animation club is confusing because Crunchyroll’s subs are rather dodgy.

Speaking of Crunchyroll it doesn’t help their trailers for the show were very misleading. They made it look more like an action anime instead of an anime about the animation process. Many people went into expecting anime Ed Edd n Eddy hijinks every episode only to get disappointed when that wasn’t the case.
 
sasazuka said:
^ Hmm, I was planning on using Right Stuf to preorder the Non Non Biyori Vacation movie although I was just going to have it shipped to a relative in the Seattle area who would then ship it to Canada which I think would be cheaper than having TRS ship it directly.
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I always use a forwarder because they let me do this:

Amazon.com: Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]: Shintaro Katsu, Various: Movies & TV

Amazon.com: Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]: Shintaro Katsu, Various: Movies & TV
smile.amazon.com
"bluray movie - 1 pc - $5"

In this case, because paypal charges in advance for out of stock items, I paid by card, TRS waited for three weeks, then demanded my govt ID with my billing address and cancelled the order after they couldn't read it, lol. "We're sorry, """"""the system"""""" cancelled your order, but you can always buy again at double the price!".

I'm gonna buy from RACS going forward, they have actual people assembling orders, they can hold preorders on request to qualify for free shipping, etc. The only "disadvantage" is they authorize preorders at order placement (but actually charge at shipment), while TRS doesn't even authorize until the order is ready to ship. And hot animu figures are cheaper at BigBadToyStore: TRS has a shipping surcharge and BBTS has a $4 flat fee.

(I was only going to buy from TRS because Discotek pimped them on twatter.)
 
SnowBall said:
It takes off in episode 4 when they start getting their shit together to start working on an actual animation. The whole thing about it being an animation club is confusing because Crunchyroll’s subs are rather dodgy.
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Saw episode four, am still not impressed. I think it's a huuuuge stretch for us to suspend our disbelief that these high school students who have never once attempted animation before and had to time crunch could make something so mind-blowing to the student body. And then they still ended up critiquing nitpicks over their own work when they're just a bunch of amateurs.

Gag me with a fucking spoon.

I also still think the anime keeps like skipping steps to get from point A to point C. I still seriously believe the general audience doesn't have a clue what they're talking about half the time because they don't always show everything to take advantage of the medium (like the imagine spots I think should be more like storyboards or an animatic than just rough sketchbook sketches/watercolors that all three girls can see through their mind's eye). I know what's going on and it's still making me go "Why'd you skip this part?? Or gloss over this detail?" at times. I think if it wasn't for the fact this was directed by Yuasa Masaaki that it'd get critiqued harder in how it speeds through terminology than it already is. And mind you, I don't think he's a bad director at all, I prefer him over Makoto Shinkai's work any day, but Eizouken is bugging the hell out of me with its "tell, don't show" attitude.
 
Safir said:
I always use a forwarder because they let me do this:

Amazon.com: Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]: Shintaro Katsu, Various: Movies & TV

Amazon.com: Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]: Shintaro Katsu, Various: Movies & TV
smile.amazon.com
"bluray movie - 1 pc - $5"

In this case, because paypal charges in advance for out of stock items, I paid by card, TRS waited for three weeks, then demanded my govt ID with my billing address and cancelled the order after they couldn't read it, lol. "We're sorry, """"""the system"""""" cancelled your order, but you can always buy again at double the price!".
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I think the last time I ordered anything from The Right Stuf was for the Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens DVDs. I don't remember exactly why I ordered it from the United States. I think I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get that one locally even though it was 2009 and anime on physical media was still abundant in brick and mortar stores on this side of the border, both in comic book stores and at HMV (R.I.P. except in Japan and a few other countries where HMV is still around) and, to a lesser extent, Future Shop (also R.I.P. although its owner Best Buy is still around) and Walmart. Perhaps Kannagi was a timed Right Stuf exclusive or something?

Anyway, I don't remember having any issues with those Right Stuf orders and those two volumes were either my last purchases with old fashioned International money order or two of my first purchases with a pre-paid debit card (big rip-offs on their own merits, these days I just use a Visa debit card from my bank for online orders) and don't remember having to prove my identity although I suppose it could be that their policies have changed over the past decade.
 
Marissa Moira said:
How's Konosuba? I only know of it because of the memes.
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Konosuba's main strength in its characters, which may make or break the series if you like them or not.
The characters are (probably coincidentally) a min-max parody. The hero sucks at anything besides luck, the goddess has god tier Int and no Wis, the caster min maxed a single spell that will one hit nearly everything but has mana for a single daily use (and it's suicide to use it anywhere with a roof), and the paladin has god tier Con but minus Agility.
The jokes are mainly around their interactions and being somehow incompetent at the most basic things while stumbling into the situations where they are useful.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
Saw episode four, am still not impressed. I think it's a huuuuge stretch for us to suspend our disbelief that these high school students who have never once attempted animation before and had to time crunch could make something so mind-blowing to the student body. And then they still ended up critiquing nitpicks over their own work when they're just a bunch of amateurs.

Gag me with a fucking spoon.

I also still think the anime keeps like skipping steps to get from point A to point C. I still seriously believe the general audience doesn't have a clue what they're talking about half the time because they don't always show everything to take advantage of the medium (like the imagine spots I think should be more like storyboards or an animatic than just rough sketchbook sketches/watercolors that all three girls can see through their mind's eye). I know what's going on and it's still making me go "Why'd you skip this part?? Or gloss over this detail?" at times. I think if it wasn't for the fact this was directed by Yuasa Masaaki that it'd get critiqued harder in how it speeds through terminology than it already is. And mind you, I don't think he's a bad director at all, I prefer him over Makoto Shinkai's work any day, but Eizouken is bugging the hell out of me with its "tell, don't show" attitude.
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You're probably going to really hate the Manga then, because it's even more of a "Tell, don't show" fest going on (and keep in mind, there's no proper translation for that if you actually try to look for it).

if anything, being animated is probably the best for the series, because the Manga format really doesn't work for something talking about the process of animation. The problem I got with the seires is how it interprets the fantasy aspect of the series like it's no different from the "reality" (which is already screwy with the buildings and archetecture as it is). Episode 4 is probably the worst at conveying it with the trio's short film, but then you got the episode following it
Where the robot club and the film club are both in the "fantasy" world at the same time when talking about the design of the robot and there's no real explination as to just how any of the logic works when it's more than just the three girls (four in the second half) present.

I mean I get the idea they're going for with it, but neither the anime or Manga execute it all that well in the grand scheme of things. So in a sense, they botch it both ways- They over complicate the "Tell" part and make the "show" part extremely mindboggling at the best of times.
 
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