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I just find the idea of anime reviews slightly strange, when I first was getting into anime I put more weight into them to find shows to watch, but now I very rarely give them much attention. I know what I like now and sometimes that's the opposite of what other people would find "good" in a show, plus I find a lot of reviews struggle to sell the show well. If something looks interesting to me I'll at least put it on my backlog, don't really go out of my way to look up reviews of the series. Will say that stuff like super eyepatch wolf's video on Baki got me interested in checking out the series, but it's the rare exception.

I have similar problems with recommendations, a lot of people are really lazy when giving them out to people. When someone asks me for recommendations I don't just give them my favorite anime, I ask them questions to narrow down what I think they'd enjoy the most. It's both annoying when someone asks for show recommendations while giving zero details as to what they like and the people that just ignore those details to recommend a show that doesn't fit.
 
Moguro Fukuzou said:
I just find the idea of anime reviews slightly strange, when I first was getting into anime I put more weight into them to find shows to watch, but now I very rarely give them much attention. I know what I like now and sometimes that's the opposite of what other people would find "good" in a show, plus I find a lot of reviews struggle to sell the show well.
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It's funny, too, because at least MAL gives a guideline of what to touch on when giving a review, which is actually the format JesuOtaku followed in her reviews for a while. So it's formulaic and repetitive and rather out-dated, I guess, but each show is unique enough that you will typically find new things to say about the technicalities like the artwork, narrative flow, and sound design. Unfortunately, reviewers just tend to go with their "gut" rather than personal knowledge about stuff like that, so that's why you'll get polarizing reviews even on critically-acclaimed series. Which is fine, everyone has their own opinions and have the right to give them, and if you're charismatic enough you can make your negative review of a popular show engaging, but then it almost feels like the reviewer is trying to change your mind and assimilate you into their way of thinking.

I doubt we'll ever get a Roger Ebert for anime--if we did, they're long gone now--but anime fans tend to not think much deeper than the visuals they see on the screen. It's why Your Name has gone on to be as popular and well-loved as it is because the visual eye candy and eargasmic soundtrack are stunning that it distracts viewers from the actual mess that is the plot and character arcs. Also 5 Centimeters Per Second is Shinkai's magnum opus which Your Name tried to capitalize on by fixing its "problems", fight me.

I have similar problems with recommendations, a lot of people are really lazy when giving them out to people. When someone asks me for recommendations I don't just give them my favorite anime, I ask them questions to narrow down what I think they'd enjoy the most. It's both annoying when someone asks for show recommendations while giving zero details as to what they like and the people that just ignore those details to recommend a show that doesn't fit.
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The way I narrow my recommendations down is by asking for the person's favorite settings/genres, and then move on from there. Most of my recommendations, oddly enough, tend to be of shows I've yet to see but have shown up on my own personal recommendations from some anime I liked. Lately, I told a friend (who's been getting into anime) that based on his tastes he'd be at home with the '80s and '90s era, particularly with the schlocky OVAs because he had enjoyed Apocalypse Zero more than the average person might, but earlier that week he had finished up Show By Rock!!, a cutesy anime isekai about cyber bands and virtual fursonas. He's into dystopians and cyberpunk, but he's not afraid to expand out to the cute stuff if something about it interests him and I think that's a good mindset to have to broaden your interests. This is important for newcomers, which is why the "right" gateway show tends to be a safe choice, but it wouldn't hurt to go outside of the norm for outsiders looking in. I think my friend stands out from that crowd in that his gateway series aren't typically as epic or ground-breaking as you might think, but the niche of that particular show is interesting to him and piques his curiosity since it's really not something you get in Western media, if at all.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
The way I narrow my recommendations down is by asking for the person's favorite settings/genres, and then move on from there. Most of my recommendations, oddly enough, tend to be of shows I've yet to see but have shown up on my own personal recommendations from some anime I liked. Lately, I told a friend (who's been getting into anime) that based on his tastes he'd be at home with the '80s and '90s era, particularly with the schlocky OVAs because he had enjoyed Apocalypse Zero more than the average person might, but earlier that week he had finished up Show By Rock!!, a cutesy anime isekai about cyber bands and virtual fursonas. He's into dystopians and cyberpunk, but he's not afraid to expand out to the cute stuff if something about it interests him and I think that's a good mindset to have to broaden your interests. This is important for newcomers, which is why the "right" gateway show tends to be a safe choice, but it wouldn't hurt to go outside of the norm for outsiders looking in. I think my friend stands out from that crowd in that his gateway series aren't typically as epic or ground-breaking as you might think, but the niche of that particular show is interesting to him and piques his curiosity since it's really not something you get in Western media, if at all.
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I think I've just become frustrated with how often people will recommend AoT because of the later seasons and not given any reason as to why besides "it's epic" or something vague like that. The shows that I would recommend for gateway shows are all out of date with what's currently popular anyway, it's all series that I remember watching when I first started out, now I see mainly mha/other popular shounen title and AoT. My opinion is colored by my personal dislike for those shows and their characters, but I just don't think they're very good shows to start out with.

I'd still go with shows like Ouran or FMA:B when people ask for a good first show. Shows somewhat based on western properties like Romeo X Juliet, a very underrated show imo, are also great as first shows because you can sell it as "You know Romeo and Juliet? It's basically that but in a fantasy world!" to people that you want to ease very slowly into anime. It's still heavily dependent on who I'm talking to though, but for first shows I have a pool that I pick from based on their tastes and if they want sub/dub/don't care.
 
Moguro Fukuzou said:
I think I've just become frustrated with how often people will recommend AoT because of the later seasons and not given any reason as to why besides "it's epic" or something vague like that.
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The 2010s recommendations are... something, alright. At least with AoT, I can get its universal appeal in that anyone can get into it if they can stomach it; The Walking Dead's popularity I'm sure helped immensely. But the other recommendations people make fall into niche geek culture that, although in the mainstream conscious thanks to movies like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, doesn't appeal to everyone for various reasons. It's actually much harder to guarantee modern shows will be a gateway series unless you're already into that niche genre of those shows. JoJo seems to be the exception given how "oldie" it feels because it is an old series, so it kinda reminds people of DBZ or action movies, but the anime has been adapted nicely in modern days. Given that it tends to be the more bizarre of modern anime, I think it's quite amazing people can get into that series so easily across generations.

Yeah, anime back in the day were still niche in nature, but they tended to be more episodic, have fantastical elements that capture imagination, or just had giant robots involved (or all of the above) and who doesn't love giant robots? Also you had some anime adapting classic novels that are nostalgic in nature, or can "trick" the viewer into thinking it's a Western cartoon, so there were a wide variety to choose from. Plot-driven shows (with arcs, especially) need you to start from the beginning, episodic means you can hop in at any time and not feel like you're missing out on much. Although there's some exceptions like how Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Bleach brought people in late if they caught a later arc.

But there's kind of a reason "gateway" lists exist, because they do work, even though I think it's luck of the draw in most cases.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
The 2010s recommendations are... something, alright. At least with AoT, I can get its universal appeal in that anyone can get into it if they can stomach it; The Walking Dead's popularity I'm sure helped immensely. But the other recommendations people make fall into niche geek culture that, although in the mainstream conscious thanks to movies like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, doesn't appeal to everyone for various reasons. It's actually much harder to guarantee modern shows will be a gateway series unless you're already into that niche genre of those shows. JoJo seems to be the exception given how "oldie" it feels because it is an old series, so it kinda reminds people of DBZ or action movies, but the anime has been adapted nicely in modern days. Given that it tends to be the more bizarre of modern anime, I think it's quite amazing people can get into that series so easily across generations.

Yeah, anime back in the day were still niche in nature, but they tended to be more episodic, have fantastical elements that capture imagination, or just had giant robots involved (or all of the above) and who doesn't love giant robots? Also you had some anime adapting classic novels that are nostalgic in nature, or can "trick" the viewer into thinking it's a Western cartoon, so there were a wide variety to choose from. Plot-driven shows (with arcs, especially) need you to start from the beginning, episodic means you can hop in at any time and not feel like you're missing out on much. Although there's some exceptions like how Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Bleach brought people in late if they caught a later arc.

But there's kind of a reason "gateway" lists exist, because they do work, even though I think it's luck of the draw in most cases.
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I think another thing that might have helped with earlier anime was its more limited nature when compared to the rapid access of today. You had some stuff that aired on tv which later went on to become many peoples gateway shows or, personally for me, whatever was available at the local library. What I could watch was limited to whatever they carried and it was almost always the popular titles of the 90s-00s along with some weirder stuff. It sort of created an almost artificial scarcity of titles that people had access to and was the reason why gateway lists of the time were fairly samey between people that got into anime around that time. You basically took what you could get. I have no idea how similar the experience was for people getting into anime even earlier, but they probably faced similar problems with scarcity of titles.
 
Marissa Moira said:
Gelipnier's primary fetish group it's catering towards is foot fetishists. It's not really vore because she enters from the back and wears the actual suit.
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Really? Because the fleshy wet inside of the suit just screamed “this is someone’s big fetish” to me.
 
SteelPlatedHeart said:
Really? Because the fleshy wet inside of the suit just screamed “this is someone’s big fetish” to me.
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Hardcore foot fetish videos usually involve stepping on raw meat, and letting the flesh squish between the toes. They're fucking degenerates, unable to get off on watching normal food like bread get stepped on.
 
Recently got into an older title from Karou Shintani, the creator of Area 88 and various other titles, Desert Rose. It's an action series with a sort of shoujo aesthetic for a seinen series, an interesting meld. It's sort of obscure but there are people who do enjoy it and recommend it.

What it's about is an all-female mercenary counterterrorism group, led by Marie Rosebank, who became committed to taking on terrorists after the loss of her husband and son in an airport bombing, leaving her with a rose-shaped scar on her chest - in particular she keeps her eyes out for Gryphon, the mastermind behind it. In the 1990s there was a one-shot OVA because it was that time period when all sorts of series had animated adaptions that were for in more than on case just one shot.


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Commander X said:
Recently got into an older title from Karou Shintani, the creator of Area 88 and various other titles, Desert Rose. It's an action series with a sort of shoujo aesthetic for a seinen series, an interesting meld. It's sort of obscure but there are people who do enjoy it and recommend it.

What it's about is an all-female mercenary counterterrorism group, led by Marie Rosebank, who became committed to taking on terrorists after the loss of her husband and son in an airport bombing, leaving her with a rose-shaped scar on her chest - in particular she keeps her eyes out for Gryphon, the mastermind behind it. In the 1990s there was a one-shot OVA because it was that time period when all sorts of series had animated adaptions that were for in more than on case just one shot.
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Aw shit, I remember this. Honestly is a shame it was just the one OVA, I thought it had potential. I like the character designs, too, something about it makes the women look their actual age that you don't see much else anymore, even with their long necks. Is the entire manga translated, or is that a no-go because of course it would be?
 
A bit more Tenchi related info:

There were plans for a 4th Tenchi movie

tenchiforum.tumblr.com/post/106289996249/hiroshi-negishi-takes-to-twitter-inoue-made?is_related_post=1


With Ai Tenchi Muyo’s finale airing today, Director Hiroshi Negishi (Tenchi Universe/in Love/in Love 2) spent considerable time interacting with Japanese fans via Twitter. On top of thanking fans for watching the first Tenchi project he’s worked on for 15 years, he let a few small interesting tidbits out. Fans will most likely be interested in his tweet relating to a particular Tenchi project that almost began back in 2009:

“About 5 years ago, Inoue (Hiroaki Inoue, one of the main producers on the Tenchi series) had begun to make plans for a (Tenchi) in Love 3. Later on, Miura (Toru Miura, president of AIC) proposed a plan for a Tenchi series consisting of 100 episodes that were 90 seconds long. This was eventually changed to the 5 minute episode framework.

It was absurd to even think about reviving "Tenchi Muyo!” in the first place. And I was determined to undertake the project.“

On speaking with AIC President Miura:

"President Miura, now that Ai Tenchi is over, could you introduce me to Kajishima? I have yet to meet him ever since I started work on the TV show back in 1995.”

When further questioned on his thoughts about Kajishima, and if he found the man mysterious, he responded:

“I don’t know, since we haven’t met before. Though I do think he is very talented.”

He’d also mentioned that his favorite episode from the Tenchi OVA was “Hello Baby!” from OVA2.

It’s quite interesting to get a little bit of background info from what’s been going on with Tenchi as a series. When he was asked about the possibility of coming back for another show, OVA or Movie, Negishi simply remarked, “It all depends on the reaction (to Ai).”
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For my anime list, I use the Ublock element blocker to block all reviews, discussion and scores. I literally do not a single fuck about whatever these overly sensitive little bitches thinks. Now I just read the premise and go for it.
 
Kill all whales said:
A new anime project involving Jun Maeda (script writer for CLANNAD, Kanon, Air) will be announced on May 10th
twitter.com

A.I.R (Anime Intelligence (and) Research) on Twitter

“A new anime project involving Jun Maeda (script writer for CLANNAD, Kanon, Air) will be announced on May 10th https://t.co/Ni9M32lIy5”
twitter.com twitter.com
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Third time's the charm, Jun. If you can't get a fucking two-cour to stick, I'm going to be wholly convinced you cannot write a TV anime to save your life, and when you get yourself another Charlotte fiasco on your hands, you should just stick to visual novels or just stop entirely. Like isn't the Angel Beats! visual novel supposed to be being worked on?
 
Kari Kamiya said:
Third time's the charm, Jun. If you can't get a fucking two-cour to stick, I'm going to be wholly convinced you cannot write a TV anime to save your life, and when you get yourself another Charlotte fiasco on your hands, you should just stick to visual novels or just stop entirely. Like isn't the Angel Beats! visual novel supposed to be being worked on?
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Oh wow I forgot about Charlotte, I didn't hate it but it felt like the stitching of two different VNs. The first 5 episodes are the usual fair of slice of life to get the VN viewer know the cast, then 5 episodes of more plot related elements and finally two episodes that were a completely different genre.
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
Oh wow I forgot about Charlotte, I didn't hate it but it felt like the stitching of two different VNs. The first 5 episodes are the usual fair of slice of life to get the VN viewer know the cast, then 5 episodes of more plot related elements and finally two episodes that were a completely different genre.
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The final episodes were a goddamn mess. They were condensing an entire season's worth of plot and details/world-building into a pinch of episodes, some plot-points came out of nowhere because of lack of proper build-up, and of course the "emotional hits" at the halfway point were so contrived because of how quickly it got resolved in the next episode/episode-and-a-half, as well as the "you can save her" bullshit which started the entire mess of the endgame because heaven forbid you can kill a character off for reals. I can put up with a genre shift if done well, but Charlotte is a perfect example of how not to do it. Apparently the Japanese viewers were outraged over it, but I can't find the source to prove it.

Angel Beats! gets a pass at times because people cried and it was coming off the heels of the CLANNAD/Little Busters! anime adaptations, but that was apparently meant to be a two-cour before they slashed it in half mid-production. It's why it felt rushed and underdeveloped, and supposedly the visual novel's going to fix that.
 
Atomsk said:
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So like, how did this happen to MyAnimeList? I keep seeing more and more reviews like this and I get that there's a tumblrization of the internet that's been going on for a while now but MAL was more or less a channer website just a couple years ago.
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What are you on about? MAL has been like this since 2016.
 
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