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I saw both Fire Force and Dr. Stone's first episodes.

Fire Force looks very interesting with how spiritual it is and the technical aspects are really great. I really love the pacing and look forward to the later episodes.

Dr. Stone I'm sort of iffy about as the premise is interesting but the start feels like a standard post-apocalypse story and if it goes in that direction I'm worried. Senku looks like a decent protagonist but I feel he's going to basically become the anime equivalent of Rick from Rick & Morty among the fanbase.

I am going to watch the Lord El Melloi case files as I am Fate trash and it stars one of my favorite characters in the Fate series so hopefully it's good.
 
I saw both Fire Force and Dr. Stone's first episodes.

Fire Force looks very interesting with how spiritual it is and the technical aspects are really great. I really love the pacing and look forward to the later episodes.

Dr. Stone I'm sort of iffy about as the premise is interesting but the start feels like a standard post-apocalypse story and if it goes in that direction I'm worried. Senku looks like a decent protagonist but I feel he's going to basically become the anime equivalent of Rick from Rick & Morty among the fanbase.

I am going to watch the Lord El Melloi case files as I am Fate trash and it stars one of my favorite characters in the Fate series so hopefully it's good.
Stone is pretty good. Unlike most P-A stories this one is less about just surviving and more about finding out what happened and how to fix it. The cast is decent and Boichi's art is very distinct (though I dunno how well that transfers to the anime) and the actual science is for the most part accurate enough you can actually learn stuff from reading or watching it.
 
Just watched the first 3 Episodes of Vinland Saga and I have to say, I am thoroughly pleased.
The animation and visuals are great, they got a few really good Voice Actors and it seems like a really faithful adaptation. The only change seems to be that they slightly toned down the violence, which is always a bit of a bother, but overall not much of a problem.

I've been waiting for this for like 10 years, it's finally here and I am sooo happy.
It's hopefully not a disappointment like Blade of the Immortal turned out to be.

i don't now know how this new akira film will live up to the original film.

there aren't that many people alive who can animate and paint backgrounds like that
i have a feeling this new akira anime might be a disappointment, but i've just got to wait and
see.
Well, Redline showed that there's still people who know how to animate if you shovel over enough money.
They could either go with that or go for some really good CGI.
If it turns out like the regular Netflix-style cellshading, it's going to be aweful and Akira is one of these things that just needs to be pushing the envelope when it comes to visuals. Otherwise it will simply not outdo the old movie, even if they give it a better ending closer to the manga.
 
I just rediscovered one of my favorite essays explaining why the fanbase of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Hideaki Anno (its creator) have such a hilariously toxic relationship. It was originally posted by a Tumblr user who has unfortunately deleted their blog, but the post was copied and passed around before that happened. It's an amazing read even if you've never seen Evangelion.

Real talk: if you never actually watched Neon Genesis Evangelion all the way through, everything you know about it is wrong.

Although for that matter, even the people who watched it all the way through are wrong about it.

Let’s talk about the creator: Hideaki Anno, and why he’s happiest when you are angry.

If you like Eva, Hideaki Anno hates you. That’s just how it is. If you can’t wrap your mind around this basic truth you are missing out on a lot of hysterical black irony.

It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t grown up with anime in the 90’s (or at least, don’t make the effort to go back and watch a lot of older anime) just how revolutionary Evangelion was to the industry. There was an expectation—even from people within the studio—that it would be cancelled within the first ten episodes. They were given a hugely limited budget which they famously used up before the finale episodes. It was not only a psychological exploration of what it means to be depressed, but it was a blatant dress-down of mecha and harem anime—i.e. the shit the otaku cult fap to constantly. Psychological breakdowns and meta-commentary are so common in anime, nowadays, people don’t realize that it’s a trend Eva more or less pioneered, along with a bunch of other things.

A large basis for Evangelion—of which Anno has openly owned—is kind of an intensely public therapy session. Anno was said to have a huge disenchantment with the otaku lifestyle, going so far as to say said lifestyle was akin to autism. He fell into a depression. That depression took form in Eva, and basically started tearing apart a lot of what was common at the time.

For example, Eva basically deconstructs mecha and harem archetypes by asking “if fully developed human beings that acted like this existed in real life, and were forced to pilot giant robots, how would this play out?” We’re given a hypothetical scenario of how teenaged pilots would realistically react under the pressures of piloting a mecha at the stakes are SAVING THE WORLD. We’re given common archetypes—the tsundere, the cool onee-san, the kuudere—and have the show go out of its way to show that they’re not walking sex fantasies but actual three-dimensional women: human beings capable of living and operating without your penis to validate them. We’re also given the pressures of society that is placed upon people with depression, giving them little sympathy and instead berating them for not sucking it up.

And then, you know, there was Kaworu, who showed up at the end of the series for one episode and gave the otaku fanbase a huge case of gay panic when Shinji was kind of on board to ride his baloney pony. With all the harem options available, it was kind of a sardonic twist of the knife to have Shinji go with the dude that shows up out of nowhere instead. The promotional pictures of Kaworu and Shinji hanging all over each other in pin-ups similar to Asuka, Rei and Misato just kind of shove that in their faces all the more.

Hell, to show how much people still perceived Eva to be the passionate-shonen romp mecha anime usually they thought it was at the time: Eva was originally aired on a children’s time-slot. When people started to side-eye Anno about the show’s descent into ugly cynicism, he more or less responded saying children should be subjected to how much life sucks as early as possible. (The show was moved to a later and more adult timelot, regardless, but this is still funny)

Basically, Anno was making a hugely sarcastic commentary to people that didn’t actually pick up on sarcasm very well, and as we all know—it backfired big time. It became a moebait titan.

Your thoughts on the TV ending aside, what followed was a vicious backlash. The otaku fanbase lashed out at Anno with multiple death threats (some of which were later featured in the End of Eva movie). They missed the point on a lot of characters, but Rei was probably the one Anno was most furious about, as by trying to breakdown how a emotionally-dependent, submissive fuckdoll would be REALLY CREEPY and NOT OKAY, he only had her end up being an iconic cultural wet dream.

So, Anno responds by creating the theatrical finale of the series, End of Evangelion, and it was just one giant “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooooooooooooooou” to the fanbase. The TV ending was a pretty positive, constructive resolution to Shinji’s plight, but given the backlash, Anno was basically OH, YOU WANT MORE EMOTIONAL TORTURE PORN? I WILL GIVE YOU THE EMOTIONAL TORTURE PORN and he delivers. If you watched EoE without actually watching the series, a lot of that context can go over your head. THAT scene with Shinji in the hospital room with Asuka? That was Anno basically pointing a finger at the otaku fans through the fourth wall and going THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE DOING, YOU’RE THIS FUCKED UP, YOU SICK FREAKS. The irony is a large portion of the fandom DIDN’T GET IT and instead praised that scene to show Shinji was “maturing” and “growing up.”

Basically, End of Eva was one of the most beautifully animated middle-fingers ever to be conceived.

Like, I have no doubt that a lot of the narrative resolutions in EoE were always planned, but I also suspect that EoE was made to be a lot angrier, and with a lot more spite, than was originally intended. Asuka’s last line, the famous “I feel sick” or “how disgusting” (depending on how you want to translate her line), could be interpreted as directed to the fanbase.

And hell, in interviews after the movie he’s also on record as saying he did End of Eva to “bring the fans back to reality” and also compared fan commentary on his work to bathroom graffiti.

He really hates you.

And now the Rebuild movies, which seem to be a continuation more than a retelling. We’re introduced to a new character: Mari, who doesn’t seem to exist beyond providing panty shots and talking about how her breasts are too big, stealing the spotlight from Asuka, and sell a lot of figures.

Anno was apparently on record as saying he put her in the movies to “destroy Eva.” She’s the moebait fantasy the otaku nerds clearly crave, and Anno is sarcastically giving it to them.


And then 3.0 came out, which was a theatrical-length about Shinji’s big gay awakening with Kaworu, among other more emotionally torture porn trolling.

It’s to the point where I’m kind of left delightfully pondering if the fourth Rebuild movie will have an obscenely positive resolution (along the lines of the TV series) or a spiteful miserable one (along the lines of the End of Eva movie). Knowing Anno’s track-record, he’ll go by whatever he thinks the fanbase will rage at the most, and it’s a really hard call because they’re both proven to give his fandom a collective aneurysm.

Evangelion is a franchise that keeps being worked on and continued seemingly out of pure spite. It’s not even a secret. Anno is quoted everywhere as telling everyone that he hates his fans, that he wants to destroy his own franchise, that this is a thing that he is in fact doing. …and he seems to get even more furious when they keep making him a success instead. It’s really funny. All the more so is how tragic this irony is as he’s clearly invested in telling the story he wants to tell as artfully and skillfully as he can: his own commentary on the rise and pitfalls of human nature and what it means to grow as a person.

It’s the ultimate bad romance between a creator and his fanbase and it’s tragic how many people miss out on how amazing this is.

So, here you go, it is explained. This is brought to by the collected conversations between me and Muun as we laugh at Anno’s life. Enjoy.

(Don’t get me wrong, though, Hideaki Anno is clearly a genius artist in his own right and there’s a reason Evangelion has the legacy that it does—it is an absurdly good series that still stands better than a lot of things that is coming out to this day. It is worth the watch and it is highly recommended.

To put it into perspective, Puella Magi Madoka Magica would be the equivalent of today’s Evangelion. The same sort of deconstructed take-down of a genre to reach high critical acclaim and popularity, wildly influencing a new generation of anime fans…. and with the same sort of otaku back-firing.)

EDIT: since I keep seeing some notes on the very last part of this post, the madoka comparison wasn’t in the least implying they are equivalent things! I was trying to find a way to communicate the sort of wide-spread media acclaim of what eva was sort of like back in the 90s.

EDIT 2: those interested in sources can do a wiki-stroll in the Evangelion and Hideaki Anno articles. All of this isn’t news, Anno’s quotes have been all very well documented! Just kind of rehashing everything while adding my own figurative laugh track/commentary and by all means I can be wrong about a lot of my own interpretation, so feel free to go out and research Anno yourself and come to your own conclusions.

832538
 
I just rediscovered one of my favorite essays explaining why the fanbase of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Hideaki Anno (its creator) have such a hilariously toxic relationship. It was originally posted by a Tumblr user who has unfortunately deleted their blog, but the post was copied and passed around before that happened. It's an amazing read even if you've never seen Evangelion.

Real talk: if you never actually watched Neon Genesis Evangelion all the way through, everything you know about it is wrong.

Although for that matter, even the people who watched it all the way through are wrong about it.

Let’s talk about the creator: Hideaki Anno, and why he’s happiest when you are angry.

If you like Eva, Hideaki Anno hates you. That’s just how it is. If you can’t wrap your mind around this basic truth you are missing out on a lot of hysterical black irony.

It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t grown up with anime in the 90’s (or at least, don’t make the effort to go back and watch a lot of older anime) just how revolutionary Evangelion was to the industry. There was an expectation—even from people within the studio—that it would be cancelled within the first ten episodes. They were given a hugely limited budget which they famously used up before the finale episodes. It was not only a psychological exploration of what it means to be depressed, but it was a blatant dress-down of mecha and harem anime—i.e. the shit the otaku cult fap to constantly. Psychological breakdowns and meta-commentary are so common in anime, nowadays, people don’t realize that it’s a trend Eva more or less pioneered, along with a bunch of other things.

A large basis for Evangelion—of which Anno has openly owned—is kind of an intensely public therapy session. Anno was said to have a huge disenchantment with the otaku lifestyle, going so far as to say said lifestyle was akin to autism. He fell into a depression. That depression took form in Eva, and basically started tearing apart a lot of what was common at the time.

For example, Eva basically deconstructs mecha and harem archetypes by asking “if fully developed human beings that acted like this existed in real life, and were forced to pilot giant robots, how would this play out?” We’re given a hypothetical scenario of how teenaged pilots would realistically react under the pressures of piloting a mecha at the stakes are SAVING THE WORLD. We’re given common archetypes—the tsundere, the cool onee-san, the kuudere—and have the show go out of its way to show that they’re not walking sex fantasies but actual three-dimensional women: human beings capable of living and operating without your penis to validate them. We’re also given the pressures of society that is placed upon people with depression, giving them little sympathy and instead berating them for not sucking it up.

And then, you know, there was Kaworu, who showed up at the end of the series for one episode and gave the otaku fanbase a huge case of gay panic when Shinji was kind of on board to ride his baloney pony. With all the harem options available, it was kind of a sardonic twist of the knife to have Shinji go with the dude that shows up out of nowhere instead. The promotional pictures of Kaworu and Shinji hanging all over each other in pin-ups similar to Asuka, Rei and Misato just kind of shove that in their faces all the more.

Hell, to show how much people still perceived Eva to be the passionate-shonen romp mecha anime usually they thought it was at the time: Eva was originally aired on a children’s time-slot. When people started to side-eye Anno about the show’s descent into ugly cynicism, he more or less responded saying children should be subjected to how much life sucks as early as possible. (The show was moved to a later and more adult timelot, regardless, but this is still funny)

Basically, Anno was making a hugely sarcastic commentary to people that didn’t actually pick up on sarcasm very well, and as we all know—it backfired big time. It became a moebait titan.

Your thoughts on the TV ending aside, what followed was a vicious backlash. The otaku fanbase lashed out at Anno with multiple death threats (some of which were later featured in the End of Eva movie). They missed the point on a lot of characters, but Rei was probably the one Anno was most furious about, as by trying to breakdown how a emotionally-dependent, submissive fuckdoll would be REALLY CREEPY and NOT OKAY, he only had her end up being an iconic cultural wet dream.

So, Anno responds by creating the theatrical finale of the series, End of Evangelion, and it was just one giant “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooooooooooooooou” to the fanbase. The TV ending was a pretty positive, constructive resolution to Shinji’s plight, but given the backlash, Anno was basically OH, YOU WANT MORE EMOTIONAL TORTURE PORN? I WILL GIVE YOU THE EMOTIONAL TORTURE PORN and he delivers. If you watched EoE without actually watching the series, a lot of that context can go over your head. THAT scene with Shinji in the hospital room with Asuka? That was Anno basically pointing a finger at the otaku fans through the fourth wall and going THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE DOING, YOU’RE THIS FUCKED UP, YOU SICK FREAKS. The irony is a large portion of the fandom DIDN’T GET IT and instead praised that scene to show Shinji was “maturing” and “growing up.”

Basically, End of Eva was one of the most beautifully animated middle-fingers ever to be conceived.

Like, I have no doubt that a lot of the narrative resolutions in EoE were always planned, but I also suspect that EoE was made to be a lot angrier, and with a lot more spite, than was originally intended. Asuka’s last line, the famous “I feel sick” or “how disgusting” (depending on how you want to translate her line), could be interpreted as directed to the fanbase.

And hell, in interviews after the movie he’s also on record as saying he did End of Eva to “bring the fans back to reality” and also compared fan commentary on his work to bathroom graffiti.

He really hates you.

And now the Rebuild movies, which seem to be a continuation more than a retelling. We’re introduced to a new character: Mari, who doesn’t seem to exist beyond providing panty shots and talking about how her breasts are too big, stealing the spotlight from Asuka, and sell a lot of figures.

Anno was apparently on record as saying he put her in the movies to “destroy Eva.” She’s the moebait fantasy the otaku nerds clearly crave, and Anno is sarcastically giving it to them.


And then 3.0 came out, which was a theatrical-length about Shinji’s big gay awakening with Kaworu, among other more emotionally torture porn trolling.

It’s to the point where I’m kind of left delightfully pondering if the fourth Rebuild movie will have an obscenely positive resolution (along the lines of the TV series) or a spiteful miserable one (along the lines of the End of Eva movie). Knowing Anno’s track-record, he’ll go by whatever he thinks the fanbase will rage at the most, and it’s a really hard call because they’re both proven to give his fandom a collective aneurysm.

Evangelion is a franchise that keeps being worked on and continued seemingly out of pure spite. It’s not even a secret. Anno is quoted everywhere as telling everyone that he hates his fans, that he wants to destroy his own franchise, that this is a thing that he is in fact doing. …and he seems to get even more furious when they keep making him a success instead. It’s really funny. All the more so is how tragic this irony is as he’s clearly invested in telling the story he wants to tell as artfully and skillfully as he can: his own commentary on the rise and pitfalls of human nature and what it means to grow as a person.

It’s the ultimate bad romance between a creator and his fanbase and it’s tragic how many people miss out on how amazing this is.

So, here you go, it is explained. This is brought to by the collected conversations between me and Muun as we laugh at Anno’s life. Enjoy.

(Don’t get me wrong, though, Hideaki Anno is clearly a genius artist in his own right and there’s a reason Evangelion has the legacy that it does—it is an absurdly good series that still stands better than a lot of things that is coming out to this day. It is worth the watch and it is highly recommended.

To put it into perspective, Puella Magi Madoka Magica would be the equivalent of today’s Evangelion. The same sort of deconstructed take-down of a genre to reach high critical acclaim and popularity, wildly influencing a new generation of anime fans…. and with the same sort of otaku back-firing.)

EDIT: since I keep seeing some notes on the very last part of this post, the madoka comparison wasn’t in the least implying they are equivalent things! I was trying to find a way to communicate the sort of wide-spread media acclaim of what eva was sort of like back in the 90s.

EDIT 2: those interested in sources can do a wiki-stroll in the Evangelion and Hideaki Anno articles. All of this isn’t news, Anno’s quotes have been all very well documented! Just kind of rehashing everything while adding my own figurative laugh track/commentary and by all means I can be wrong about a lot of my own interpretation, so feel free to go out and research Anno yourself and come to your own conclusions.

View attachment 832538

It’s like a real life Springtime for Hitler.
 
I just rediscovered one of my favorite essays explaining why the fanbase of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Hideaki Anno (its creator) have such a hilariously toxic relationship. It was originally posted by a Tumblr user who has unfortunately deleted their blog, but the post was copied and passed around before that happened. It's an amazing read even if you've never seen Evangelion.

Real talk: if you never actually watched Neon Genesis Evangelion all the way through, everything you know about it is wrong.

Although for that matter, even the people who watched it all the way through are wrong about it.

Let’s talk about the creator: Hideaki Anno, and why he’s happiest when you are angry.

If you like Eva, Hideaki Anno hates you. That’s just how it is. If you can’t wrap your mind around this basic truth you are missing out on a lot of hysterical black irony.

It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t grown up with anime in the 90’s (or at least, don’t make the effort to go back and watch a lot of older anime) just how revolutionary Evangelion was to the industry. There was an expectation—even from people within the studio—that it would be cancelled within the first ten episodes. They were given a hugely limited budget which they famously used up before the finale episodes. It was not only a psychological exploration of what it means to be depressed, but it was a blatant dress-down of mecha and harem anime—i.e. the shit the otaku cult fap to constantly. Psychological breakdowns and meta-commentary are so common in anime, nowadays, people don’t realize that it’s a trend Eva more or less pioneered, along with a bunch of other things.

A large basis for Evangelion—of which Anno has openly owned—is kind of an intensely public therapy session. Anno was said to have a huge disenchantment with the otaku lifestyle, going so far as to say said lifestyle was akin to autism. He fell into a depression. That depression took form in Eva, and basically started tearing apart a lot of what was common at the time.

For example, Eva basically deconstructs mecha and harem archetypes by asking “if fully developed human beings that acted like this existed in real life, and were forced to pilot giant robots, how would this play out?” We’re given a hypothetical scenario of how teenaged pilots would realistically react under the pressures of piloting a mecha at the stakes are SAVING THE WORLD. We’re given common archetypes—the tsundere, the cool onee-san, the kuudere—and have the show go out of its way to show that they’re not walking sex fantasies but actual three-dimensional women: human beings capable of living and operating without your penis to validate them. We’re also given the pressures of society that is placed upon people with depression, giving them little sympathy and instead berating them for not sucking it up.

And then, you know, there was Kaworu, who showed up at the end of the series for one episode and gave the otaku fanbase a huge case of gay panic when Shinji was kind of on board to ride his baloney pony. With all the harem options available, it was kind of a sardonic twist of the knife to have Shinji go with the dude that shows up out of nowhere instead. The promotional pictures of Kaworu and Shinji hanging all over each other in pin-ups similar to Asuka, Rei and Misato just kind of shove that in their faces all the more.

Hell, to show how much people still perceived Eva to be the passionate-shonen romp mecha anime usually they thought it was at the time: Eva was originally aired on a children’s time-slot. When people started to side-eye Anno about the show’s descent into ugly cynicism, he more or less responded saying children should be subjected to how much life sucks as early as possible. (The show was moved to a later and more adult timelot, regardless, but this is still funny)

Basically, Anno was making a hugely sarcastic commentary to people that didn’t actually pick up on sarcasm very well, and as we all know—it backfired big time. It became a moebait titan.

Your thoughts on the TV ending aside, what followed was a vicious backlash. The otaku fanbase lashed out at Anno with multiple death threats (some of which were later featured in the End of Eva movie). They missed the point on a lot of characters, but Rei was probably the one Anno was most furious about, as by trying to breakdown how a emotionally-dependent, submissive fuckdoll would be REALLY CREEPY and NOT OKAY, he only had her end up being an iconic cultural wet dream.

So, Anno responds by creating the theatrical finale of the series, End of Evangelion, and it was just one giant “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooooooooooooooou” to the fanbase. The TV ending was a pretty positive, constructive resolution to Shinji’s plight, but given the backlash, Anno was basically OH, YOU WANT MORE EMOTIONAL TORTURE PORN? I WILL GIVE YOU THE EMOTIONAL TORTURE PORN and he delivers. If you watched EoE without actually watching the series, a lot of that context can go over your head. THAT scene with Shinji in the hospital room with Asuka? That was Anno basically pointing a finger at the otaku fans through the fourth wall and going THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE DOING, YOU’RE THIS FUCKED UP, YOU SICK FREAKS. The irony is a large portion of the fandom DIDN’T GET IT and instead praised that scene to show Shinji was “maturing” and “growing up.”

Basically, End of Eva was one of the most beautifully animated middle-fingers ever to be conceived.

Like, I have no doubt that a lot of the narrative resolutions in EoE were always planned, but I also suspect that EoE was made to be a lot angrier, and with a lot more spite, than was originally intended. Asuka’s last line, the famous “I feel sick” or “how disgusting” (depending on how you want to translate her line), could be interpreted as directed to the fanbase.

And hell, in interviews after the movie he’s also on record as saying he did End of Eva to “bring the fans back to reality” and also compared fan commentary on his work to bathroom graffiti.

He really hates you.

And now the Rebuild movies, which seem to be a continuation more than a retelling. We’re introduced to a new character: Mari, who doesn’t seem to exist beyond providing panty shots and talking about how her breasts are too big, stealing the spotlight from Asuka, and sell a lot of figures.

Anno was apparently on record as saying he put her in the movies to “destroy Eva.” She’s the moebait fantasy the otaku nerds clearly crave, and Anno is sarcastically giving it to them.


And then 3.0 came out, which was a theatrical-length about Shinji’s big gay awakening with Kaworu, among other more emotionally torture porn trolling.

It’s to the point where I’m kind of left delightfully pondering if the fourth Rebuild movie will have an obscenely positive resolution (along the lines of the TV series) or a spiteful miserable one (along the lines of the End of Eva movie). Knowing Anno’s track-record, he’ll go by whatever he thinks the fanbase will rage at the most, and it’s a really hard call because they’re both proven to give his fandom a collective aneurysm.

Evangelion is a franchise that keeps being worked on and continued seemingly out of pure spite. It’s not even a secret. Anno is quoted everywhere as telling everyone that he hates his fans, that he wants to destroy his own franchise, that this is a thing that he is in fact doing. …and he seems to get even more furious when they keep making him a success instead. It’s really funny. All the more so is how tragic this irony is as he’s clearly invested in telling the story he wants to tell as artfully and skillfully as he can: his own commentary on the rise and pitfalls of human nature and what it means to grow as a person.

It’s the ultimate bad romance between a creator and his fanbase and it’s tragic how many people miss out on how amazing this is.

So, here you go, it is explained. This is brought to by the collected conversations between me and Muun as we laugh at Anno’s life. Enjoy.

(Don’t get me wrong, though, Hideaki Anno is clearly a genius artist in his own right and there’s a reason Evangelion has the legacy that it does—it is an absurdly good series that still stands better than a lot of things that is coming out to this day. It is worth the watch and it is highly recommended.

To put it into perspective, Puella Magi Madoka Magica would be the equivalent of today’s Evangelion. The same sort of deconstructed take-down of a genre to reach high critical acclaim and popularity, wildly influencing a new generation of anime fans…. and with the same sort of otaku back-firing.)

EDIT: since I keep seeing some notes on the very last part of this post, the madoka comparison wasn’t in the least implying they are equivalent things! I was trying to find a way to communicate the sort of wide-spread media acclaim of what eva was sort of like back in the 90s.

EDIT 2: those interested in sources can do a wiki-stroll in the Evangelion and Hideaki Anno articles. All of this isn’t news, Anno’s quotes have been all very well documented! Just kind of rehashing everything while adding my own figurative laugh track/commentary and by all means I can be wrong about a lot of my own interpretation, so feel free to go out and research Anno yourself and come to your own conclusions.

View attachment 832538


Seems like I was pretty on point with my Watchmen comparison, like Eva, Alan Moore was giving the superhero genre a dressing down, but the subtext was lost on a lot of people.

But that is one thing I love about Japanese media is when the creators are willing to take very bold risks like that.

I want to be challenged, I love it when things go in shocking, unexpected directions.

That is why I've always loved Metal Gear Solid 2 for it's bold risks and why I disliked Metal Gear Solid 4 because Kojima played it safe, you could tell his heart wasn't in it.

I think that's what Rian Johnson tried to do with The Last Jedi, but the trouble there is it's just a shitty movie overall, he didn't pull it off.
 
But that is one thing I love about Japanese media is when the creators are willing to take very bold risks like that.

I want to be challenged, I love it when things go in shocking, unexpected directions.

Agreed. In Western media they play it safe, or they go through the shocking route not because it's narratively plausible, but because they just want to shock/make the audience suffer. There are exceptions of course. I was watching the "Dark" tv series in these last weeks, and this is the kind of show that takes for granted that you are smart, you see nuances, you are perfectly able to follow a (very) complex story and you don't need to be told things 1k times. In a lot of American shows I feel like a 3yo because writers make characters rehash the same concept.

On another note, Netflix version of Saint Seiya will air in 10 days. The story looks like shit, and genderbent a character in the name of politcal correctness, incidentally the most gentle, pacific member of the group of heroes. When I heard for the first time that Saint Seiya would have a Netflix version, the first thing I thought was "When tumblrinas will see Shun, they'll probably say 'Shun is a soft transboi uwu'." Now, when they'll learn that the character is canonically male, they will be like "Shun is a fierce transgirl uwu". Sigh.
 
Agreed. In Western media they play it safe, or they go through the shocking route not because it's narratively plausible, but because they just want to shock/make the audience suffer. There are exceptions of course. I was watching the "Dark" tv series in these last weeks, and this is the kind of show that takes for granted that you are smart, you see nuances, you are perfectly able to follow a (very) complex story and you don't need to be told things 1k times. In a lot of American shows I feel like a 3yo because writers make characters rehash the same concept.

On another note, Netflix version of Saint Seiya will air in 10 days. The story looks like shit, and genderbent a character in the name of politcal correctness, incidentally the most gentle, pacific member of the group of heroes. When I heard for the first time that Saint Seiya would have a Netflix version, the first thing I thought was "When tumblrinas will see Shun, they'll probably say 'Shun is a soft transboi uwu'." Now, when they'll learn that the character is canonically male, they will be like "Shun is a fierce transgirl uwu". Sigh.

See "narratively plausible" is exactly what it comes down to when subverted expectations are done well versus done badly.

Let's compare The Last Jedi with Metal Gear Solid 2, it just isn't narratively plausible to say that Luke becomes a burnt out, cynical hermit who wants nothing to do with anything, that's just not true to the character at all that we saw in 3 whole movies.

Meanwhile with MGS2 Solid Snake is still good old Solid Snake, it just turns out we don't get to play as him for the whole game, which subverts expectations and things get pretty wild and crazy, but all it feels narratively plausible within what we know the Metal Gear Solid universe is like, even something like Vamp, as bizarre as the character is, still works because the supernatural was already established to exist in MGS1 with Psycho Mantis (and don't give me any of that "nano machines' backpedaling BS, Vamp is clearly meant to be a supernatural being in 2)

That's how "subverted expectations" are done right.
 
Started rewatching "Seirei no Moribito" and damn, I totally forgot just how rad that show was.
I especially like how they made a Japan-inspired fantasy world instead of a generic western-style fantasy world.
Is there any show that creates a world like this? When I think of fantasy anime, it's either Lodoss, Slayers or Berserk, where the setting is more like something that originates out of LotR or DnD, whereas Seirei no Moribito feels genuinely unique and fresh.

I love it. Doesn't hurt that the plot, characters, animation and voice acting are absolutely stellar, either. It's Production I.G. at its best, I'd say.
 
First ten minutes of phone cam Evangelion 3.0+1.0 footage from some con at Paris.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yoLBNtoS7eI

Looking for better uploads. Anyone speak franch?
Here's a re-upload with English CC subtitles
Additionally, the untranslated inscription at 2:22 means "I'm leaving this in your hands" ("Je vous laisse" literally means "I'm leaving you" but the former feels more fitting in this context)
 
Mod Order: If you haven't checked out the new Fruits Basket anime, do so ASAP. I cannot get enough of this series.
 
Is the Shield Hero anime worth a watch? I've heard very good things despite whores like Hope Chapman throwing a shitfit over....fake rape accusations?
 
Is the Shield Hero anime worth a watch? I've heard very good things despite whores like Hope Chapman throwing a shitfit over....fake rape accusations?

I enjoyed it. And yes, the whole predicament starts out with the hero falsely being accused of a rape. Since its a Matriarchy, he'd be sentenced to death, but instead he gets the worst reputation ever.
 

Philippines Arrests Alleged Manager of Mangamura Piracy Site
posted on 2019-07-09 01:02 EDT by Rafael Antonio Pineda
28-year-old Romi Hoshino arrested at Embassy of Japan's request
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Philippine news service ABS-CBN reported on Tuesday that the Philippine Bureau of Immigration arrested a 28-year-old male named Romi Hoshino, a.k.a. Zakay Romi, the alleged manager of Japanese manga piracy website Mangamura.

The Bureau of Immigration stated that the arrest was made based on a request by the Embassy of Japan to the Philippine government. The authorities have detained Hoshino at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City pending deportation proceedings.

Background
The Mangamura site launched in 2016.
The Japanese government officially asked Internet service providers in Japan to block access to three pirated manga websites including Mangamura in April 2018. Mangamura then became inaccessible on April 17, 2018. However, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on the same day that the site did not shut down due to site-blocking from Internet service providers. According to the newspaper's source from a service provider, Mangamura was voluntarily shut down by its administrators. Asahi Shimbun added that the separate server where the site's images were stored was also inaccessible. According to the paper's source, the action could not have been performed by anyone aside from the site's administrators.

The Japanese government's request asked the providers to voluntarily block access, but the government plans to create new legislation in 2019 to expand the scope of site-blocking. Currently, the site-blocking law is only applicable to child pornography.
Japanese authorities revealed in May 2018 that they were actively investigating Mangamura after Kodansha and three other publishers filed criminal complaints with the police departments in summer through fall 2017.
According to Japan's Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), between September 2017 and February, users accessed Mangamura about 620 million times. The association estimated that this caused 319.2 billion yen (about US$2.92 billion) worth of damage to copyright holders in Japan during that time.
Source: ABS-CBN News Twitter account, Manila Bulletin (Jun Ramirez) via Hachima Kikō

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Wasn't it ruled that Tatsunoko would hold the right once and for all to the original series after 2019? Who fucked who to get this done?

Tatsunoko is Harmony Gold's partner. The former were always in possession of the Rights of International Distribution and Merchandising for SDF Macross (and most of the International Merchandise Rights to Do You Remember Love?). The contention was always the fact that Harmony Gold blocked BigWest from bringing the later Macross sequels outside Japan. However, that is the fault of BigWest for trying to do an end-run around Tatsunoko by granting license to Sunwards to produce SDF Macross toys in direct contravention of their original contract rights. This is what caused Harmony Gold to trademark Macross to block BigWest.

When PGI decided to poke the dragon Harmony Gold, a whole trove of information on the official contracts between BigWest, Tatsunoko and Harmony Gold (as well as HG vs FASA) came to light. Needless to say, a lot of weebs and Battletech fans were categorically wrong about a good many things. As for why Tatsunoko renewed, its simple: Money talks and bullshit walks. Anime fans made themselves quite clear they were never going to give an ounce of money to Harmony Gold (and Tatsunoko by way of license royalties) for anything SDF Macross. This doesn't even begin to cover the less marketplace for Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, and they have shown slightly less than outright contempt for Super Dimension Cavalry: Southern Cross. The arbitration between Tatsunoko and Harmony Gold revealed Tats owed HG somewhere around $1.5mil for the latter coming to the former's aid during the various cases between Tatsunoko and BigWest.

I mean, seriously, put yourselves in Tatsunoko's shoes. You are at a $1.5mil deficit to HG and you have to try and not just recover that money, but make more on 3 series that are fast approaching 40 years of age. On top of that, there is the Sword of Damocles called the Japanese Public Domain which will cause all 3 series to go into the Public Domain starting in 2032 (Macross), 2033 (MOSPEADA) and 2034 (Southern Cross). As it is, assuming the goddamn evil House of Mouse doesn't fuck with Public Domain, even Harmony Gold will get fucked by this in a little over a decade.

I've had numerous arguments on numerous social media sites with dumbasses that repeated 3rd or 4th hand information.

BTW, here's an advert from Sunwards that caused Harmony Gold to go after the trademarks. It was catastrophically fucking stupid for BigWest to do this, not to mention sleazy.

#Sunwards Valkyries.jpg
 

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Tatsunoko is Harmony Gold's partner. The former were always in possession of the Rights of International Distribution and Merchandising for SDF Macross (and most of the International Merchandise Rights to Do You Remember Love?). The contention was always the fact that Harmony Gold blocked BigWest from bringing the later Macross sequels outside Japan. However, that is the fault of BigWest for trying to do an end-run around Tatsunoko by granting license to Sunwards to produce SDF Macross toys in direct contravention of their original contract rights. This is what caused Harmony Gold to trademark Macross to block BigWest.

When PGI decided to poke the dragon Harmony Gold, a whole trove of information on the official contracts between BigWest, Tatsunoko and Harmony Gold (as well as HG vs FASA) came to light. Needless to say, a lot of weebs and Battletech fans were categorically wrong about a good many things. As for why Tatsunoko renewed, its simple: Money talks and bullshit walks. Anime fans made themselves quite clear they were never going to give an ounce of money to Harmony Gold (and Tatsunoko by way of license royalties) for anything SDF Macross. This doesn't even begin to cover the less marketplace for Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, and they have shown slightly less than outright contempt for Super Dimension Cavalry: Southern Cross. The arbitration between Tatsunoko and Harmony Gold revealed Tats owed HG somewhere around $1.5mil for the latter coming to the former's aid during the various cases between Tatsunoko and BigWest.

I mean, seriously, put yourselves in Tatsunoko's shoes. You are at a $1.5mil deficit to HG and you have to try and not just recover that money, but make more on 3 series that are fast approaching 40 years of age. On top of that, there is the Sword of Damocles called the Japanese Public Domain which will cause all 3 series to go into the Public Domain starting in 2032 (Macross), 2033 (MOSPEADA) and 2034 (Southern Cross). As it is, assuming the goddamn evil House of Mouse doesn't fuck with Public Domain, even Harmony Gold will get fucked by this in a little over a decade.

I've had numerous arguments on numerous social media sites with dumbasses that repeated 3rd or 4th hand information.

BTW, here's an advert from Sunwards that caused Harmony Gold to go after the trademarks. It was catastrophically fucking stupid for BigWest to do this, not to mention sleazy.

View attachment 837939

The Japanese public domain law says that cinematographic works are protected for 70 years after publication. Revise those dates to 2052, 2053 and 2054.

(Of course, this could be why Tatsunoko keeps reusing its old characters... for the same reason Disney does.)
 
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