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

[Kari Kamiya]

Kiznaiver felt like a two-cour series that got slashed during production, kinda like what happened with Angel Beats!. It sucks 'cause I was enjoying it immensely until those last few episodes slowed things down, though I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching it every week. This is a huge problem across the board not just with Trigger, there's still original IPs being made, it's just unfortunately they only ever get 12/13 episodes, and for some odd reason they're not tightly written because there's too many ideas being tossed around at once. I like to point to Comet Lucifer as an example because it had an interesting premise and mecha idea, it just squandered it due to not having the space needed (and possibly relying too heavily on Ghibli-esque elements, from what I've read from others). Meanwhile, Endride was a two-cour, and yet it felt like it didn't accomplish a thing due to some poor execution with the pacing and character development. Someone on those projects did not have full faith in them to let them breathe on their own.

On the other side of the coin, something like Paranoia Agent could've easily been a two-cour series and maybe that was considered, yet Satoshi Kon was talented enough as a writer to condense it, helped that he had that skill because his movies were only like 90 minutes long, so he had the restraint to not go nuts with the extra duration a 13-episode series gave him. He also made sure his episode directors knew what they were doing, because a good director knows how to guide other visionaries without overwriting them.

Actually scratch that, Satoshi Kon may have been a main storyboarder and the director, but that was Seishi Minakami who wrote all but two episodes himself--maybe with direction from Kon, but I would say that was Minakami's baby and he trusted Kon to take care of it. Still, the show had a lot of talent working on it, and they all were on the same page.

Anyhoo, I think what's going on is we have too many people in the industry treating these shows like a check and not as a passion project like what Gainax did back in the day. There's nothing wrong with this, people gotta make a living somehow, but the final product will always show signs of tampering or a struggle if someone in charge doesn't care enough to step in and clean things up or bother to team up with their peers. For instance, this is likely why Yutaka Yamamoto got replaced by Yasuhiro Takemoto during Lucky Star's production, the man is just too up-tight for something like Lucky Star and was holding it back, and he also has "I'm better than you" vibes going on, too. Wake Up, Girls! and Fractale are all you need to know when it comes to how he treats his projects. Much lulz.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

I think Trigger's weakest point that really sells the whole idea of "Style over Substance" is Promare. Promare is a fun visual movie with beautiful animation and character designs. However, Promare feels like a 2 cour anime shoved into a 2 hour movie where it feels extremely rushed that doesn't allow you to get really attached to any characters beyond their designs.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I wish I saw it in theaters, yet I could tell Promare gives off popcorn-flick vibes, and that might've been the point. It's not to the level of Hollywood action films where you just sit back and enjoy the ride, but it knows it's stupid, colorful fun and it just runs with it. Similar to how Redline did it, it knew it was cool and slick as fuck, and that's why people like it and why the animators enjoyed working on it. It sadly bombed, though, I don't think an exact reason was entirely given, and that's why Madhouse struggled for a long time to win back the crowd. They needed to play it safe out of fear of losing any more money.

 

[LightDragonman1]

The whole idea that FranXX’s message is some sort of pro-birth rate and reproduction spiel I find to be a bit misleading, although I certainly couldn’t fault anyone for thinking that, mainly due to how much the whole Mitsuru and Kokoro relationship was overly focused on in the second half. Which only further adds to my feelings that the second half wasn’t nearly as strong. Not even gonna get into the ridiculous alien twist.

But for me, the strong point of it was the relationship between Hiro and Zero Two, and the message there was more of what makes someone human, and how via connection with others, we can be more than what our genes say we are. I especially liked seeing Hiro become a hybrid like Zero Two, as it only added to that whole theme.

Honestly, if it had stayed with that throughout the rest of the show, it would’ve been a lot better. It’s also why the alien twist villains simply don’t work. They are so far removed from the dilemma facing the two leads that it makes the final episodes feel impersonal as a result.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

This season is enjoyable so far. A sleeper hit with two grandparents getting a new lease on (slice of) life, and Spice and Wolf introducing a new generation to things like coinage debasement and merchant trickery wolf girls.

 

[Jormungand]

I think Trigger's weakest point that really sells the whole idea of "Style over Substance" is Promare. Promare is a fun visual movie with beautiful animation and character designs. However, Promare feels like a 2 cour anime shoved into a 2 hour movie where it feels extremely rushed that doesn't allow you to get really attached to any characters beyond their designs.

Oh yeah, visually, Promare looks gorgeous, but the moment you start thinking about the plot, it's fucking terrible.

The poster gives you the idea that we will see a battle between two groups who are at odds, whose ideals will conflict with each other with our large cast of characters, and that they will fight till one wins.
Even at the beginning of the movie, they introduce the characters with giant texts to give you the impression this character will really be critical to the story.

In reality, only three of these characters are the only ones that matter to the plot, and the rest are side characters whose personalities are insanely flat.
Also, they fight against each other only twice in the movie.

Galo is the Kamina rip-off without the depth. He makes big speeches, and while everyone (rightly) calls him an idiot, the film still wants you to treat him like a hero with a point.
Lio is the leader of Burnish, a cult that wants to burn the world... oh wait, I'm sorry, the poor fire mutants whom everyone discriminates against because they burn everything. How tragic.
And then there's Aina, the girl. She has this thing with her sister, and there is really not much to her character.

Anyway, the plot of this film is that humans suddenly gain the power to burn everything to the ground.
These folks would be known as the Burnish.
To respond to this threat, a group of firefighters with robots called Burnish Rescue stops the Burnish from Burning everything.

Think Fire Force but terrible (Hell, both these animes have a song called Inferno.)

Again, at first, you think the film is about Galo and Lio's ideals conflicting with one another, but that quickly resolves when Lio Kidnaps Galo, takes them to his hideout and gives him his sob story.
He tells Galo they need to burn everything to the ground because they're possessed by this alien species called Promare, and it demands that they burn everything.

At first, you made me think, "Oh God, these poor are possessed by alien force against their will." Except for the fact that the film only shows them losing control in the intro, they are in complete control every other time.
Even though the Burnish have destroyed buildings and caused massive property damage to appease the aliens who have possessed them, Lio adds, "Well, we still save people in the burning building." Never mind that the Burnish still destroyed the buildings, which will most likely cost people their jobs and waste so much money on replacing them.

They even have a burnished die to sympathize with them when they are nothing more than Cult-like terrorists controlled by eldritch beings.

So, in case you're wondering if the film refuses to treat the Burnish as the villains, who is the big bad of the movie?
Well, it's this guy, Kray.

He's your typically an "I appear to be a nobleman, but in reality, I'm a douchebag" archetype villain who Galo worships in the beginning because Kray saves his life.
However, Kray never cares about him and only uses him because Galo makes him look good in public. He even makes a big speech about hoping that Galo will die in one of his rescue jobs.

He's as bland as he is stupid, and his whole plan is to leave Earth because the Promare has fuck the core of the planet and make sure you know he's really evil.
He uses the Burnish as a battery for his spaceship.
Also, it's later revealed that he's a Burnish himself, which is a terrible plot twist they would repeat in BNA.

Anyway, Galo and Lio team up using a dead doctor robot.
They fight Kray and finally beat him, and they save the world by burning everything..... yeah somehow, that saves the world and finally pleases the Promare to leave humanity forever.

The film tries to be both a social commentary and an action-packed adventure, but the results are an utter mess.
The only thing going for this film is the animation.

 

[Betonhaus]

The film tries to be both a social commentary and an action-packed adventure, but the results are an utter mess.
The only thing going for this film is the animation

You put a lot of thought in a show where the core conflict is literally that the evil bad guy (that we thought was the super good guy) is literally kidnapping adults and children by the millions to throw them into a machine that literally turns their pain into a power source that will literally destroy the planet, and the good guys save the world from burning up, by literally burning up the world.

 

[WULULULULU]

If Makoto Shinkai is the Japanese equivalent of Jordan Peele (with their priority of social commentary over fictional stories), then Studio TRIGGER is the Jap equivalent of Zack Snyder, what with all their former glory days (Kill la Kill and 300) and their current trainwrecks (Franxx, Rebel Moon and Promare) all a reminder of how much the two are more style over substance (flashy colors and slow-mo moves) with no coherent storytelling.

The whole idea that FranXX’s message is some sort of pro-birth rate and reproduction spiel I find to be a bit misleading, although I certainly couldn’t fault anyone for thinking that, mainly due to how much the whole Mitsuru and Kokoro relationship was overly focused on in the second half. Which only further adds to my feelings that the second half wasn’t nearly as strong. Not even gonna get into the ridiculous alien twist.

But for me, the strong point of it was the relationship between Hiro and Zero Two, and the message there was more of what makes someone human, and how via connection with others, we can be more than what our genes say we are. I especially liked seeing Hiro become a hybrid like Zero Two, as it only added to that whole theme.

Honestly, if it had stayed with that throughout the rest of the show, it would’ve been a lot better. It’s also why the alien twist villains simply don’t work. They are so far removed from the dilemma facing the two leads that it makes the final episodes feel impersonal as a result.

I swear, your posts are almost like @LORD IMPERATOR's sperg posts but with none of the nerd factor, almost like Reddit spiel.

 

[Thiletonomics]

If Makoto Shinkai is the Japanese equivalent of Jordan Peele (with their priority of social commentary over fictional stories), then Studio TRIGGER is the Jap equivalent of Zack Snyder, what with all their former glory days (Kill la Kill and 300) and their current trainwrecks (Franxx, Rebel Moon and Promare) all a reminder of how much the two are more style over substance (flashy colors and slow-mo moves) with no coherent storytelling.

What I want to know, is what the anime studio Seven is the equivalent of, since they're known for making various Slice of Life shorts, a shitty adaptation of King's Game (even though the manga sucked as well), a shitty and unneeded Battle Athletes re-boot, and lots of Hentai.

 

[WULULULULU]

What I want to know, is what the anime studio Seven is the equivalent of, since they're known for making various Slice of Life shorts, a shitty adaptation of King's Game (even though the manga sucked as well), a shitty and unneeded Battle Athletes re-boot, and lots of Hentai.

Would have said Blumhouse but they don't do Slice of Life shorts.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

Most of the new studios are shit, go back to Gainax Madhouse and other 90s studios which knew how to handle lighting and shading properly.

 

[ShitLurker]

Before going into the quotes, going to shill for Dandadan again, the last few chapters were kind of mid but they have been ramping up the last couple of weeks and the last one is peak Dandadan. Serpo and the random cop (in full riot gear) joining the fight was not in my fucking bingo card. What I am expecting is idol studing council president to come into the fray and have been wanting to see her in action for months, so hope that delivers, specially with how the demon is quoting Les Miserables, thinks can very much devolve into a sing off. That and the Kasa-Obake demon having a jet engine mode shooting lasers like nobody's business was metal as fuck.

I usually just search the name of the anime plus the word manga and go with whichever one doesn't have atrocious ads. If they have ads imbedded in the mange I sometimes switch to that one, or find an alternative if the ads are annoying and the source is gone or terrible.

I've had decent luck with coffee manga

Browser helps, Brave has been good to me with keeping adverts minimal, no matter what cesspool of a site I end up with. Though mangafire.to has been good to me.

What happened with Mangadex? I know they were asking for donations a while back, so is this related to that? Could they be shutting down?

My guess is that they started getting very faggy with hosting licensed content. You won't find One Piece in there for example.

btw Promised Neverland is absolute fucking dogshit, keep avoiding it.

Was one of the idiots suckered by the manage when it was all about the orphanage, my god what a nosedive. Stopped reading out of tedium and then flipped through the last couple of chapters and was absolutely flabergasted with the ending they went with.

why are her eyes so far apart? is this what gokudolls was mocking?
View attachment 5942139

The Clannad drawings are grotesque... but the feels are real. Though it was a (very very) long treck, I enjoyed my time with the VN, waiting for Little Busters to go an sale and give it a go as well.

Man, just mentioning that show is enough to get people angered it seems.

Not exactly sure why it and its fanbase are considered to be scourges on the anime landscape, even if it’s an extremely flawed series. It’s not even completely irredeemable, at least in my eyes. Just a shame that it couldn’t nail the second half.

But there’s far worse anime shows out there.

I enjoyed Darling in the Franxx

Franxx was marketed as the second coming of Gurren Lagann. Just like Kill La Kill was marketed as the second coming of Gurren Lagann. And also the savior of anime.
Yeah, none of that panned out. KLK was a mess whose best moments were in self-contained comedy scenarios, and Franxx came off as Japanese soft-power propaganda.

Though I saw it years later with 0 expectations. Has a mecha anime it sucked ass, but I did like the whole "learning to be human again" angle that appears once society collapses was surprisingly compelling. Everything else is meandering and mid, won't deny it, but it entertained me enough. Opening is also a banger. As for Kill La Kill, I had my fun with it, but also, came and went.

You really think it caused that to happen?

The mecha genre had already been in a bit of a lull long before FranXX. And it’s not as though it was a commercial disaster, which generally contributes more when it comes to influence.

If anything, I’d personally blame it on Sunrise being bought out by Bandai Namco, given that after that, they never made another original mecha show for years.

Surprised if Franxx caused that since it just seemed like the fad of the time. I'd blame a lot more stuff like moe and waifu culture on why you can't have proper mecha anymore.

If a literal who nobody studio didn't completely fuck up the Biscuit Hammer adaptation,

Don't fucking remind me... I love that manga, was through the moon knowing it got an adaptation and my jaw dropped after I saw the opening (any Op which is pieces of episode 1 stitched together is a bad sign) and some clips of the show and I instantly knew the series had been done dirty and it was now absolutely fucked.

 

[Jormungand]

If Makoto Shinkai is the Japanese equivalent of Jordan Peele (with their priority of social commentary over fictional stories), then Studio TRIGGER is the Jap equivalent of Zack Snyder, what with all their former glory days (Kill la Kill and 300) and their current trainwrecks (Franxx, Rebel Moon and Promare) all a reminder of how much the two are more style over substance (flashy colors and slow-mo moves) with no coherent storytelling.

That's honestly the best way to describe Studio Trigger.
While Zack is a total edge lord and Trigger is run by a bunch of weebs, they share similar problems.

When they tried to be deep, they fumbled the ball more often than not, resulting in unnecessarily convoluted stories.
Whenever they do an original story, they both overly reference other films or series to the point of plagiarism.
(That becomes very apparent when you watch Rebel Moon and Darling In The Franxx.)

They're mostly known for their over-the-top visuals and style, not their writing ability.

 

[Trollblade69]

64 chapters in, and I'm not having fun with the Frieren manga. I keep having flashbacks to a bunch of aniblogger Mahouka reviews and Digibrony's Asterisk War videos with how all the fighting is written. It's just too goddamn chuuni.
Asking seriously here, to the people in this thread who've watched and enjoyed Frieren: What do you enjoy about it? I don't want a dismissive "LOL normies like bad anime" answer, that's the easy way out.

 

[God of Nothing]

64 chapters in, and I'm not having fun with the Frieren manga. I keep having flashbacks to a bunch of aniblogger Mahouka reviews and Digibrony's Asterisk War videos with how all the fighting is written. It's just too goddamn chuuni.
Asking seriously here, to the people in this thread who've watched and enjoyed Frieren: What do you enjoy about it? I don't want a dismissive "LOL normies like bad anime" answer, that's the easy way out.

It's comfy. The fights and plot are nothing special. It just tells the story of some autistic immortal travelling with a party of normal people well. If it came out ten years ago, it wouldn't really stand out, but media has been saturated with shit lately, so it feels like a breath of fresh air.

 

[ShitLurker]

64 chapters in, and I'm not having fun with the Frieren manga. I keep having flashbacks to a bunch of aniblogger Mahouka reviews and Digibrony's Asterisk War videos with how all the fighting is written. It's just too goddamn chuuni.
Asking seriously here, to the people in this thread who've watched and enjoyed Frieren: What do you enjoy about it? I don't want a dismissive "LOL normies like bad anime" answer, that's the easy way out.

The chill almost slice of life feel to it would say is one of my favorite aspects of it. Gives me a sense of "being on a journey for the sake of it" almost. I'm kind of surprised you find it "too chuuni" when combat is not much of a focus in the series for the most part. It does have it's moments, but outside of that, yeah, Frieren is obscenely powerful and her old and new party are far from slouches. That also isn't a sad and edgy tormented past, just a creature that through all of her years of life has started wondering if she takes too many things for granted or is too aloof and missing out on greater joys, even if fleeting.

I would have expected it to be criticized for being meandering, aimless and having stoic face syndrome.

 

[Involuntary Celebrity]

64 chapters in, and I'm not having fun with the Frieren manga. I keep having flashbacks to a bunch of aniblogger Mahouka reviews and Digibrony's Asterisk War videos with how all the fighting is written. It's just too goddamn chuuni.
Asking seriously here, to the people in this thread who've watched and enjoyed Frieren: What do you enjoy about it? I don't want a dismissive "LOL normies like bad anime" answer, that's the easy way out.

The anime is a bit different, a lot better, and I'd almost say a masterpiece (up until the exam arc) of melancholic stuff that'll probably only land if you're at least in your 30s.
The manga has almost none of that aspect past chapter 1 and is basically just a decent but fairly standard dragon quest manga. I like it fine, but earlier in the thread I recommended waiting for season 2 instead of reading even if you're an anime fan, and if you're starting with the manga I'd say drop it and try the show.

 

[HexFag]

Don't fucking remind me... I love that manga, was through the moon knowing it got an adaptation and my jaw dropped after I saw the opening (any Op which is pieces of episode 1 stitched together is a bad sign) and some clips of the show and I instantly knew the series had been done dirty and it was now absolutely fucked.

The ultimate rub the salt in the shit wound moment of the anime was when they played the pillows song as an insert song with some dogshit animation in the background. It could've been a 10/10 anime if it had come out like 10 years ago with the right people working on it. Sengoku Youko is fortunately in better hands (the bar is so fucking low you'd have to really try to be in worse hands). Hopefully Spirit Circle gets an anime and a really good one.

 

[ZMOT]

Remember the Hatsune Miku character?

She was made up almost 17 years ago.

so almost legal then....
IT'S A FUCKING JOKE

My only complaint about the anime would be the OPs feeling kind of off but I like the second one way more than the first one, even if it sounds like a Spy x Family OP.

first OP was bit weird at first, but gotta admit it grew on me to the point listening to the whole track

Let's not forget that they made the forgettable Star Wars anime

>talking shit about absolute kino

just imagine the absolute brass balls telling nu-disney "fuck physics, fuck your lore, RULE OF COOL CRANKED UP TO 11 THIS IS HOW WE ROLL"

If Makoto Shinkai is the Japanese equivalent of Jordan Peele (with their priority of social commentary over fictional stories)

hey now, I can understand people having issues with shinkai, but that comparison is a bit harsh. for one shinkai's movies just work fine without it, if people even notice any commentary (like what's it in suzume, people leave places, tsunami's and disasters suck?). peele's stuff could be good but he likes to smear his shit all over himself thinking it's something profound telling viewers "white people bad mkay"

 

[Space Police]

The most fucked up part about Darnell in the Bronxx is that despite everyone saying it was an Eva rip-off it was actually and most puzzlingly a Godannar rip-off.

It's actually a Devadasy ripoff because it stole how the mecha are piloted from that OVA. Devadasy itself is an Eva ripoff and Bronxx stole quite a few specific shots from Eva, so it can well and truly be called an Eva ripoff (unlike other psychological/biopunk mecha shows like RahXephon, which is a Raideen ripoff, and Betterman, which is its own thing).

Trigger was always shit, as was Gainax. You niggas need to accept it, you know it's true.

Wings of Honneamise, Yucie, and Houkago no Pleiades are the only Gainax anime that aren't super derivative (as in, bordering on plagiarism) of other stuff. Gunbuster's climax rips off the ending of the Getter Robo G manga shot-for-shot, Nadia rips off Castle in the Sky and adds Yamato/Blue Noah/Macross references, Gurren Lagann is a proud clone of Xabungle and the Getter Robo manga with 2000s Shonen Jump flavouring, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World is a Devilman ripoff with 2000s romcom/ecchi flavouring, and let's not even talk about all the stuff Eva ripped off because we'd be here all day. Otaku no Video, Abenobashi, FLCL, Diebuster, and Panty and Stocking are all "ha ha did you get that dirty joke/anime reference". All their other stuff has been forgettable manga adaptations (except the Appleseed OVA which stands out only for its animation -- I haven't seen Melody of Oblivion, but it admittedly sounds kind of cool). Their spinoff studio is making Grendizer U for July, which will either be really good or an abominable trainwreck -- no in between. The mecha are cool, regardless.

What I want to know, is what the anime studio Seven is the equivalent of, since they're known for making various Slice of Life shorts, a shitty adaptation of King's Game (even though the manga sucked as well), a shitty and unneeded Battle Athletes re-boot, and lots of Hentai.

Radix (the studio behind Webdiver and the Sakura Wars OVAs) since Seven is a spinoff of Radix. Radix's output was similar:
>Crappy reboots of Kikaider and Felix the Cat
>TV reboots of 90s OVAs
>Some slice-of-life harem shorts
>A Cream Lemon OVA
>A toxic shojo OVA
>Hentai VN adaptations
>REALLY low-budget gay vampire shorts

Webdiver and the first Sakura Wars OVA were really good -- they're some of my favourite anime --; the second Sakura Wars OVA is pretty mediocre (it has a bunch of pointless drama, eye-burning digital animation, and ridiculous cartoon physics). Lemon Angel Project was bad (it's a fanservice idol anime; not a shojo anime) except for its theme song and the bus/cell phone designs. I hope Wonder Bebil-kun gets subbed since it's a Shotaro Ishinomori magical pet character, making it the closest thing to a Fushigi Comedy anime. Divergence Eve is an ecchi ripoff of Webdiver (with some actually cool designs like a spaceport and a control room https://setteidreams.net/settei/divergence-eve/).