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embossross · 2 years ago

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2022 in Anime

i give ratings out of 10 stars based on a rubric that considers the following:

2 points / ambition of what the anime is trying to achieve 3 points / effectiveness of the anime in achieving its aims 4 points / my personal, subjective enjoyment 1 point / pacing +1/-1 miscellaneous

so with that said... ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (2 anime)

Ping Pong The Animation - believe the hype. incredible.

Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 - honestly if this show sticks the landing, it may become my favorite anime of all time. it's just the best week to week viewing experience. my jaw lives on the floor. and i spend at least half an hour after every episode debating ethics with my friends. amazing.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6 anime)

samurai champloo - music! animation! episodic storytelling! STYLE! this anime just has style

ranking of kings - most loveable anime characters of all time. classic fantasy setting. stripped down for honest and charming character storytelling. hilling is best girl of the season FIGHT ME

Golden Kamuy - slow start and then POW. perfect shonen story in an atypical setting. juggles a large cast of characters with competing motivations expertly so you can never predict the twists and turns. criminally underrated

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song - managed to make me - a known hater of ai/robot stories - glue my eyes to the screen for 3 days. tons of heart and fun storytelling.

Odd Taxi - this is a novel come to life. some of the best dialogue in anime history.

Kotaro Lives Alone - cutest anime child of all time must be protected

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6 anime)

princess jellyfish - kind of the pinnacle of a generation of shoujo for me

yona of the dawn - tbh i can't remember if i watched this last year or in 2022 but anyway it's great. gripping stuff. the lack of season 2 is criminal and i'm gonna have to collect the manga smh

kaguya-sama love is war season 3 - continued great direction, gimmicks, and jokes

ya boy, kongming! - the shock of the season. somehow this is actually funny and the rap parts are genuinely powerful. i didn't know anime could do music this well tbh

the devil is a part-timer season 1 - had fun watching but nothing sticks with me

parasyte - truly ambitious, gripping sci-fi that doesn't spoonfeed you answers but examines a dilemma from every angle

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 anime)

banana fish - high stakes international thriller with a diverse cast and a gary stu at the helm

darling in the franxx - the not quite as good cousin of evangelion, interested in pubescent sexuality in big robots. major points for bonkers ambition. i was stunned with what it was trying to do.

spy x family - that little girl really is cute

space patrol luluco - studio trigger on speed with 7 min episodes

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (8 anime)

the tatami galaxy - smart, stylish, creative use of the medium.

made in abyss season 1 - a classic hero's journey to confront the unknown and come back forever changed

btooom! - prisoners' dilemma with explosions

demon slayer season 2 - i liked that guy with a bunch of wives and the bad guys

black lagoon - peak 90s anime

moriarty the patriot season 1 - no one told me moriarty is a righteous socialist antihero. it's fun.

theatre of darkness: yamishibai - horror vignettes in 5 minutes for halloween

ascendance of a bookworm season 1 - slow, dull isekai about learning to make a book (not write a book. make a book) until it suddenly gets political in the last couple episodes. can't decide if it's worth continuing tbh

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 anime)

seraph of the end - 'has-to-learn-the-same-lesson-500-times-protagonist'

my dress up darling - i watched the first two episodes in a dark room with strangers and it felt like a soft core porn showing but for kids ??

mushoku tensei: jobless reincarnation season 1 - damn this for having good animation and actually decent pacing because this was gross and i wanted to give it a garbage rating

horimiya - cute romance but i forgot everything about it

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (1 anime)

no game no life season 1 - confused that this was such a phenomenon when it came out. it's fine i guess.

⭐⭐⭐ (5 anime)

that time i got reincarnated as a slime season 1 - when given a name for the 1st time, male goblins evolve into 'hobgoblins' and female goblins evolve into...wait for it...'goblinas.' i died laughing + that's this show's legacy to me

danganropa - edgy and strange and not altogether convincing but it has its moments

my teen romantic comedy snafu - 🤷

call of the night -pretty colors! boring anime¡

death parade - philosophy for dummies the anime

⭐⭐ (1 anime)

k-on season 1 - i know it's a classic & i'm so sorry i was just so bored. cute girls doing cute things is not for me! maybe if it was a movie, but a whole 24 episode show!?!?

⭐ (1 anime)

overlord - overpowered isekai fantasies for men are something. i'll leave it at that.

& then ongoing shows that i'm not going to rank until i finish them (but actually all are pretty good so far) - chainsaw man, blue lock, mob psycho season 3, to your eternity, ao ashi, made in abyss season 2, dororo

#embossross's 2022 in review

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unbound-shade · 3 years ago

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Sometimes I wonder if folks realize they can move on from interests and hobbies. We do a lot of that already without really thinking about it with the lesser interests, but even primary interests, neurodivergent special interests, the works. There are a lot of people taking up space in fandom who don’t realize that their investment in the topic has diminished. It’s not that every new addition to the body of work is bad. Media consumption is far too subjective for such a broad statement to ever be true. It can tie to the golden age fallacy as well. The nostalgia for the interest as it was replaces a genuine investment in the interest itself and the only result without a change in mindset is further dissatisfaction. For a practical example, I spent ages 13-19 as a huuuuuuge weeb. But in my early 20s, it got harder and harder to sit through shows, I wasn’t into a lot of recent releases, even in my fave franchises. It was fun to watch stuff with friends, but I had less and less drive to watch it on my own. I’d actually started to drift back to my childhood love of comics and when I realized I was kind of migrating interests, I realized I’d just... sort of retired from weebdom. And it wasn’t like it was kid’s stuff I grew out of or anything that condescending. I wasn’t as into it anymore; maybe market trends made the stuff I enjoyed harder to find as more and more anime and manga titles began seeing US release. Whatever it was, I just moved on. It would be ridiculous to assert that every anime since I stopped paying much attention is inferior to the sort of sacred favorites I keep in my own head. It’s literally impossible for that to be true, but I remember plenty of weebs who sort of cherry picked their pinnacle and clung to it, while growing more disinterested and bitter about everything they found less appealing (in that particular moment in time, they were blaming everything wrong with anime on the emerging dominance of moe). I don’t even think that’s good for the individual, much less the people around them in the fandom. All I’m really saying, I suppose, is that if you’re not happy with the stuff you’re into anymore, try out some new stuff! Even if, like me, the stuff you really love can be hard to parse from your sense of core identity (for example: I am a 90′s X-Kid; it formed not just my tastes but my personality in my childhood) you can still change it! And, who knows? Maybe you’re just a little burnt out on that thing you used to really love and time away is just what you need. Like my return to comics in my 20s, it can be like reconnecting with an old friend; they’ll have changed and so will you! Getting to know them all over again can be amazing.

#fandom #media literacy #mindful media consumption #bowser thoughts

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polar-stars · 5 years ago

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What would you've done differently for Le Dessert 3? I thought it was fine for an own ending (not that it couldn't have be avoided thanks to the cancelation). One thing I would've done was to explicitly confirm that Senzaemon's plan worked: Erina managed to remain healthy in her mid 20s and her palate hasn't destroyed her, something that he failed to do with Mana. The Soerina confirmation was only just another cherry on top for my tbh.

1. I would have added Zenji Marui into it and not rip him from existence

2. I think I would have made it longer overall to let things sink and and possibly explore the futures of the characters a tad bit more. I also felt a lot of them weren’t really the pinnacle of creativity (I mean all of the 3rd Year Senpais just opened well-visited restaurants if I remember correctly and that was all that was said about them). Poor Ryo was made a literal butler, which….kinda sucks greatly. And I am also not really into the idea of Hisako being Erina’s secretary for all of eternity. But well.

3. Okay but aside from Zenji missing, I’d also add Subaru, Daigo & Shoji, Miyoko and Nao tbh. AND KOJIRO.

3.1. Remove Asahi from it. Pls.

4. I think at this point I am asking for too much, but I think a look onto Totsuki and how things have developed over there since everyone graduated might have been nice? We barely got any insight on how Erina actually ran Totsuki, so it would have been nice to get at least a little peak on what changes she made within the system and such. It would have also been cute to see Polar Star possibly blooming due to the Jewel’s influence and that Fumio has a lot more children to nurse nowadays. MAYBE even show the Don RS to have become a really big RS or something, idk.

5. Let ! The ! Characters ! More ! Interact!! Most interactions within the epilogue was done between Erina and Soma it feels. The rest just kinda showed up in the end and had their futures revealed in a slideshow. But we didn’t get much of the other cast actually interacting with each other. I am bringing this up because the chemistry between the characters has always been one of Shokugeki’s strongest points and it would have been heartwarming and nostalgic seeing the banter between the Jewels that we know so well.

About the ships. This is another unpopular opinion of mine, but I am actually more than fine with the fact that no ship became end game in the end. I know a lot of people wanted to see that, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t actually wish for the romance to be open-ended (and the price I had to pay for that wish to be fulfilled was my favorite character being erased from existence). I absolutely love shipping as much as the next guy but honestly, with Shokugeki, it would have just been a quick Snapshot getting-together and pairing-up for the sake of it. Due to Tsukuda abandoning 90% of the cast towards the end of the manga, I feel romance was not really able to actually develop between the characters. Except for So//rina maybe, but if you want me to be brutally honest….I think So//rina was terribly handled in canon and….actually became sorta problematic in my eyes. I still do like the ship, just not what’s been done with it in the storyline.

#Gofer answering to stuffz

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alexswak · 6 years ago

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Notes on Animation Quality in Anime

I had a rare chance in 2017 to meet Hiromi Matsushita, one of Minky Momo’s most prominent animators. Matsushita is still active in the industry, and when I entered the room he was focused on drawing a scene, which he finished in around 10 minutes. I think he didn't lose his skills yet. I asked him for a drawing, of Momo of course, a request he found too hard even with the help of an image of Momo from google. More than 10 minutes passed, a lot of drawing and redrawing on the same paper, he handed me the illustration saying: “I’m sorry, this isn’t the real Momo.”

Now, I’m not saying he couldn’t draw her correctly because he got used to the radically different anime drawings of today, it may be because he just forgot how to draw Momo, or any other reason for all I know. Whatever the reason was, anime drawings and character designs had changed radically, evolved if you will, through recent Japanese animation history. The common answer to the reason behind this change always seemed funny to me, which is “because technology.” It’s not enough to just deny this claim, so I’d like to elaborate more on why and how anime drawings change over time. This is obviously a big topic, so what I’ll say here would be more of my (personal) perspective on the matter. Take it however you like.

I should start with defining what I mean with drawings. I’m not talking here about coloring, effects or the like, I mean the bare drawings themselves. This is literally the key drawings (frames), and to a lesser degree the in-betweens. Character designs are their own thing as well. This means that advancements in image quality and related technologies don’t count, since remastering a movie from the ‘70s in HD doesn’t mean the drawings themselves changed at all, forget about improved. Another point is the difference between the drawings on their own and how they move, i.e. the difference between animating and drawing, still there’s a direct influence between these two I’d like to talk about as well.

Sometimes, I feel like people look at the animation industry the same way they look at the gaming industry in this regard, not helped by the fact that mainstream high-budget animation productions in the US adopted the same technology for animating (CG). As for the Japanese industry though, it’s and has always been the pencil and paper. I’m not denying all the technological advancements that happened, but they weren’t fundamental changes that improved the quality of a drawing on paper. Even then, there were mostly only two new major technologies used introduced in anime production in the last decade: Digital coloring in the late ‘90s, and Xerography in the late ‘60s.

Xerography is basically a technique to copy drawings from normal paper to cels for coloring. Cels obviously can’t be drawn on due to their fragile nature, I believe. I rarely saw anyone talk about this technology before (in anime) so I’ll try to do a simple and short introduction. It was first introduced to Japanese companies through Disney’s Delmants 101, which caught the attention of Toei Douga (Toei Animation now). Toei took the device and modified it, most importantly adding an extra camera used for tracking perspective. Mainly to make drawings larger/smaller as they moved towards/away from the horizon. This device first saw use in Toei’s “Ken and Wolves” TV show early ‘60s. It wasn’t cheap nor easy, so Toei sought a better alternative, one of which was a device called “Trace Machine - ツレースマシン”, first used in “Sasuke” late ‘60s. It’s hard for me to point out how these two devices differed, but one advantage of the Trace Machine was conveying the original delicacy and feeling of the traced drawings better, something Disney’s machine didn’t manage to do quite well. Sasuke was praised for capturing the original soul of the manga, and it wasn’t Sasuke alone, Gekiga adaptations saw a rise in that era due to this machine making capturing the roughness of Gekiga drawings possible. Just look at Tiger Mask or Samurai Giants. I’m not sure here, but it seems like Xerography didn’t saw mainstream use until later in the ‘80s, probably because of costs. Anyway, here’s a Japanese article for more info.

As well-known it may be, we need a quick review: Astro Boy. Toei was aiming for a “Disney of the east” status, and really the idea of periodically producing anime was so strange back then, in Japan at least. The ~2 hours movies of the time needed years, so 20 minutes weekly was just insane. And insanely different were those TV productions from the quality movies of the time. You may have heard this before, but really watching clips of Astro Boy is the only way to understand how primitive it was. Nonetheless, it succeeded in becoming the standard for TV anime, and TV anime becoming the standard for anime in general later on even for movies. All the downgrade in quality of animation and everything.

This is where most people would start bashing the TV industry, yet I have a different perspective on the matter. The huge output of the Japanese industry is the main reason it reached its current international success and behind Japan’s status as the animation capital of the world. TV in America may have had a catastrophic effect on the industry, and wasn’t without negatives in Japan, but the way TV was handled and evolved is vastly different between the two countries and in turn the two vastly different outcomes we have now. TV in Japan presented a steady stream of relatively quick and flexible projects for Japanese creators to learn and experiment, a stream that only grew further increasing the variety of works and styles, the best thing the Japanese industry is known for now. Almost all well-known Japanese creators today had their start learning and experimenting in TV.

The huge amount of works produced was pretty useful for training creators in an environment that relies on learning by doing and still, to this day, mostly lacks any effective prior training system. Look no further than Tomonori Kogawa, who had a degree in fine arts, to see the important addition for properly studying and learning art. Kogawa kinda reminds me of Akino Sugino, not that their styles are similar or anything, it’s just that both care a lot about drawings quality. Ashita no Joe, which he supervised, had probably the best drawings quality of its decade.

When it comes to animation though, Toei Douga movies followed a similar realistic approach to Disney in treating characters as if they are actors on a stage. After TV anime emerged the principle remained the same, so creators just tried to replicate life in a working condition much more limited and restrained than that of Toei. Quality improved generally after some adapting and experimenting in this new landscape, but the focus mainly wasn’t on animation quality anyway. It was stories and direction that counted, Tomino and Gundam as a prime example. Even the “anime boom”, initiated by Yamato’s movie in ‘76, didn’t change that. The real change in that regard only came after treating animation in a more free way, free from the obligation of imitating real life I mean, which was the way Yoshinori Kanada treated it.

I won’t get into Kanada and his style, sources on him are enough anyway, what we need here is just the result of his wild popularity in the early ‘80s: Changing people’s view to anime. Before Kanada came, the only industry celebrities were directors, while animators stayed unknown. Not anymore. Kanada was maybe, for a time at least, number one in the industry, and this just goes to show the change in mindset: Animation is at the forefront now. And how did Kanada animate? Pretty unrealistically.

Let me detour a bit to talk about realism first. I remember some saying that Akira ushered in the age of realism in anime, a claim certainly far from the truth. Akira is rather the pinnacle of this long going approach. Pinpointing a start isn’t of much use in this discussion anyhow, and if not for my appreciation of documenting such info I wouldn’t have brought this up at all, but my argument is that the start of realism in animation is the start of animation itself.

Yet an important question must be addressed here: What realism are we talking about? If you think of it as just replicating life, then you’re oversimplifying animation as a whole. There’s only one way for things to move in real life, restrained by physics and all, but animation offers a multitude of approaches to represent movement, ways that imply realism nonetheless. And different approaches were popular at different times throughout anime history.

Take Utsunomiya for example, who wasn’t sure about joining the industry at first. He knew how the situation was, and how hard it would be to create anime in the same or similar to Disney and early Toei movies’ style that he so admired. I personally always found it weird how people held Utsunomiya’s style for realistic. His style is maybe considered as the epitome of what Toei’s theatrical realism aspired to achieve, and the main characteristics of that are exaggerated acting and theatrical movements, which is maybe not strictly realistic or natural. Nonetheless, as for weight and spacing, there’s no denying his accuracy and fine execution. Akira, and to a lesser extent Gosenzosama-banbanzai, are the embodiment of his and Takashi Nakamura’s approach in animating.

See this scene from Utsunomiya

I don’t know much about 70’s and 60’s realism, but the main description I read at least was, again, the theatrical realism influenced by Disney. The Kanada “revolution” was more of an abnormality, since realism returned to be the dominant style of anime after a while, and its evolution didn’t stop anyway. A lot of the pioneers of the next realism wave started or matured under the Kanada age, such as Takashi Nakamura or Utsunomiya.

There are different aspects to realism as well. One of Takashi Nakamura’s famous scenes, his scene in Gold Lightan, is considered to be a very realistic depiction of debris and stones in his time at least. Others depict effects and liquids realistically and so on. I feel like this is just a matter of approach and perspective. Utsunomiya for example saw the characters as actors on a stage, Ohira saw them a lot of times as gelatinous almost liquidy shapes, but all those approaches and depictions induce a realistic feeling in a sense, and are finely (and realistically) timed and weighed in their movement.

See this scene from Takashi Nakamrua. Notice hand and mouth movement.

Of course not all animators can do realistic movement well. Miyazaki and others complained about every other animator in the early 80s’ being a Kanada knock-off, a bad knock-offs in a lot of cases, yet Kanada’s style wasn’t hard to imitate, maybe not perfectly but definitely to a “good enough” degree. Realism on the other hand is hard, even harder in shows that lack talents such as Utsunomiya or time and budget. It was obvious after Akira, or even a while before Akira, which style the industry (or the audience) will prefer. And at that point the industry took a different approach to realism, not the realistic movement approach seen in Akira and movies that established this style in Japan to begin with, but an approach that gives the feel of realism in different ways, first being character designs and increasing the lines and details in drawings generally.

If we go back to the ‘60s and some of the ‘70s we can see many shows with designs rich in lines or styles close to realism, but it was mainly the exception and didn’t represent the main trend, some of which being caused by things like Gekiga or personal styles such as Sugino’s or Osamu Dezaki’s. Late ‘70s and early ‘80s mainly had simplistic designs which really helped Kanada’s style grow and spread. Simplicity contradicts realism by nature, and adding more lines or details to a drawing makes it harder to draw/animate. Straightforward, and this is just what happened after the demise of Kanada’s style, more realistic designs that barely move. Just look at any OVA from that period and compare it to any OVA from the Kanada wave. Amazing what 5 years could do!

Vampire Sensou in 1990. Interesting character designs, not much movement though.

Difficulty of drawing isn’t the sole problem here. Kanada’s style, despite its energetic nature, doesn’t require a lot of frames, actually the low number of frames is one of its strong characteristics. It’s a style born from the constraints of the Japanese industry to begin with, and if you think about it probably no other industry would have given born to such a style but the Japanese one. While you need a substantial number of frames to achieve a convincingly real movement. Maybe I’m over exaggerating here, but the Japanese TV industry tried two decades to achieve realism in an environment not suited for it and found Kanada’s style that embodied the sole of this industry, just to abandon it for an unconvincing realism.

Kanada’s OVA “Birth” in 1984 is probably the important turning point. Maybe you could say that the story of OVAs is also the story of Japanese anime, as OVAs reflected the state of the industry in general in each period. Maybe because OVAs were the direct way to reach the audience without the need for a TV channel or a distributor or even a high budget, in turn being a demonstration of the audience’s preference. It was definitely the free expression window for creators, young independent ones especially, free from any obligations for any big company. Obviously big companies were there, even more so in the late ‘80s after OVAs matured, but all in all it was the will of the creators that shined through. OVAs also played a decisive role in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when anime (TV especially) was facing a hard time due to different reason beyond the scope of this article. This led to OVAs influencing the development of the industry in interesting ways, hard to imagine if you look at the state of OVAs now.

The Japanese industry relied heavily on TV since pretty early on, so any problem facing TV anime is a problem for the industry as a whole. Middle/Late ‘80s wasn’t the best time for TV, a long story with multiple causes such as the change in demographics and emergence of video games, but our concern here is the paradigm shift that happened. For the most part and up to that point anime revenue came from games or manga or something else, a separate product. Not the show itself, meaning that its quality wasn’t a concern as long as it supported the primary product well. This obviously didn’t hold Ichiro Itano back from doing his wonderful circus scenes, or Tomino from executing his different depiction of mecha anime, but those again were creative acts on the personal level not the project as a whole, and in the end it wasn’t Tomino’s direction and vision that saved Gundam, it was the Gunpla.

It’s a fine system as long as the audience keeps on buying your primary product, something a lot of companies struggled with later on, reaching the OVA system where you just sell the show itself rather than a separate product. A similar system to movies, but simpler, safer and with less parties involved. We take internet for granted today, but in the ‘80s OVAs were the only choice for creators wanting to self-publish something weird or radically different, something that obviously won’t be backed by big companies.

Anyway, selling the show itself is completely different approach with completely different focus points. Quality comes first now, and first of all is drawings and animation quality, since anime is a visual medium after all. Without constraints or demands from distributors or any tight schedules, and with making less episodes, you’re able to raise quality considerably, the main selling point of OVAs. Patlabor, Gunbuster or Gundam 0083 all had high quality and were big successes, not only setting the standards for visual quality in anime, but also showing how important visual quality in anime is, both for companies and audiences. After this model matured, attempts to replicate this success in TV anime started, where the potential is much bigger due to the wider reach, which led to the contemporary late-night model we have now, maybe the most successful anime model till quite recently. Evangelion is considered to have played an active role in establishing this model, and in increasing visual quality in TV anime generally, and Ryusuke Hikawa claims that what he calls the “Quality Revolution” in the anime industry started in the ‘90s. I also think that Evangelion played no small part in establishing the production committee system we have now in every show, but I’m not quite sure.

Before I end this I want to link two nice resources for further reading. The mecha history research and an article that came in Akira’s Animation Archive, both by Ryusuke Hikawa.

#anime #anime history #animation #Yoshinori Kanada #Satoru Utsunomiya #Takashi Nakamura #Akira #Realism

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traceofexistence · 3 years ago

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May I take over luv?

Just to be clear anon, I’m a 3D animator, that’s my daily job. Do you know anything about animation? You don’t seem to.

but anyway, I’ll take over just to put this thing to rest because trashing animators is like trashing me. I take offense, and I know you are not an animator because you would never do that if you actually knew the amount of hours it takes.

“Sailor Moon Crystal had various amateur artist who didn't know how to make the manga feel alive in this series adaptation. There is too much focus on trying to make every shot look detailed, and drawing out manga panels looks more like an ugly slide show than it does a decent animation. There is also no heart to how this series relies on the manga to tell the story.”

that’s the first thing you sent to Tiny,

you claim that it had amateur artists, where do you base this? Because Toei being trash, had Crystal made in countries with cheaper labour. that doesn’t mean the animators are not professionals. We are not all privileged to live and work in the US of A, so our labour doesn’t cost the same amount, that doesn’t makes us less professional. There was also an animator here on tumblr that crystal antis went and bully the person calling them all short of names, when they explained that Toei was sending the finalized versions of episodes 3 days before the launch, and the animators had to work over time, underpaid, to get it done.

The manga through crystal felt very much alive to me, and others, in fact, I was able to cry watching crystal 1-2 while SMC3 that had even deeper scenes emotionally couldn’t make me cry, because the only thing that doesn’t show emotion is the moe BS style that has plagued anime the past decade or so.

The only reason you think Crystal looks like a slide show, is because you paused every 5 frames to catch a distorted limp.

say you don’t like that Naoko had agency over her work, and move anon. because saying that it has no heart because it’s based on the manga, it’s literally just that. You hate Naoko’s work. which is fine by me, you are allowed to not like something, just don’t pretend that you care about sailor moon, you don’t, you care about an adaptation that failed to adapt anything beyond the core element. Which is fine by me. I like adaptations of works as well, I just don’t pretend that they are not, and I don’t go and trash the original work.

as an animator I can assure you that the animation had a flow, which means the animators invested in all 24 frames per second. And because of the details their work was harder and took a lot more time. The fighting sequences are gorgeously done, detailed, there was not a single copy paste element in the fighting scenes. but yeah keep on frothing at the mouth because that one scene with the moon rod was poorly animated, possibly due to poor scheduling(which is on Toei and not the animators). just because the characters do not jump around, have huge mouths, and liquified when they move like in the 90s, it doesn’t make it badly animated.

youtube

this includes the single attack of each that was copy paste in SMC3 you exchanged so many attack styles for one. Now if you think those are poorly animated, I don’t know what to tell you anon.

you can hate the style as much as you want but that doesn’t make it badly animated and the animators amateurs, YOUR taste is not the pinnacle of taste.

it is your choice to torn the animation apart frame by frame just to find things you think are bad. if you could watch it like a normal person, without pausing every millisecond you would be surprised to realize that:

- the worst episode of all is episode 3, which was fixed in the Bluray version

- while there were some noticeable mistakes here and there(meaning you can see them without pausing), beyond episode 8 the animation became flawless, season 2 was the best animation quality sailor moon has ever seen, in all its years. (s2 got TV money)

- many of the supposed screenshots all those anti-blogs were using to trash crystal 1-2, were manipulated to further a point that wasn’t there. example is the giant hair one, I even went frame by frame and guess what, it’s not there.

SMC3 now, oh boy, the animation was WORST than Crystal 2. but you don’t know that anon because you are not an animator, and your fav anti-blogs didn’t torn it apart. The simplified moe helped cover the mistakes, also having copy paste attacks gave the impression that it was better, lol

if you really wanna talk about quality, first you have to stop calling animators amateurs, or lazy, or whatever else you think animators are other than hardworking underpaid individuals.

I don't like that you only listen to what people say about Sailor Moon Crystal only when it is blindfully praise how ugly it is. You turn don't my criticism and didn't even want to have an open discussion with me less you think what I am saying personally hurts your feelings.

Everything you just said have been said before for the past 7 years.

It’s nothing new.

People have said that Crystal look like a slide show of the manga while saying the animators ( who doesn’t get paid that much I might add) need to go and take college courses on “How to Draw anime 101.” with no heart.

What you want me to do??

Write a whole essay on Crystal and argue if each of your points??

It’s not new criticism of Crystal.

Heard it all before.

Go to Reddit if you want to have a open discussion about it. They love having discussions about Crystal being the worst thing.

Write Toei a letter about it.

Im at work and really don’t be on here as much anymore so me even taking the time to answer this on my break ( even tho I have many more I honestly should answer) and previous post which I should have honestly deleted to give you five seconds of post time should be enough.

Like what’s the point anymore?

It’s been discussed over and over again to the point it’s a broken record.

I mean you are in my inbox saying you don’t like the fact I don’t feel like discussing something that’s been discussed a million times over?

What’s the point of me defending Crystal when you and others are dead set on proving that Crystal is a slide show piece of shit for the past seven years?

I’m fucking tired.

I’m getting old.

Good day.

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dlamp-dictator · 7 years ago

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Allen’s Rambling about Tokyo Ghoul (Again)

Alright, it’s time I stopped lazing around, I really should finish giving my final thoughts on Tokyo Ghoul. I finished the manga last month and... well, my job kind of got in the way of me giving my closing thoughts on the series. Originally, I had every intention of just ripping this manga apart, letting out all my rage against it, saying how bad it was to read, how stupid some of the plot points were, how empty the last few chapters felt, and just tear into how much of a waste of time this manga was.

However... at the time of me wanting to do that I had a bad work week and wanted to take my anger out on something since working the holidays is kind of a pain. I’ve calmed down since then, and a step back, rethought things, and... well.

I don’t hate Tokyo Ghoul, but I don’t like it either.

A few months back I made a post call the Seinen Adventure, where I talked about some of the seinen manga I bought/read and initial gave my thoughts on them. I talked about a manga called Tsugumomo and how it felt like a shounen manga forcing in seinen elements for the sake of seeming mature, but only being seen as even more childish and just downright perverted. I consider Tokyo Ghoul to be the reverse, a seinen manga adding shounen elements to seem more engaging, but coming off badly written due to... well, most shounen manga being badly written. It would explain some of my main issues with the series. The bloated cast, interesting female characters being pushed aside, the slow presence of power creep, Kaneki’s... issues as a character. They’re all elements and flaws of shounen, but when put into a manga made for a more mature audience these issues become so damning. Not to say I expect the pinnacle of storytelling in my Seinen manga, but I do expect not see the issues of most shounen pop up then... blantantly. I can forgive shounen for this because I’m no longer in the age group where shounen would appeal to me, and nowadays I mostly read shounen for the action and spectacle. With Tokyo Ghoul, a seinen manga (or at least more mature one) , I was reading for its story as well as the action, and that story had many issues that irked me as a reader.

A quick list of my issues would be Kaneki’s growth as a character, the cast growing to the point of feeling bloated, new characters getting more attention and spotlight than older ones I was more invested in, the world building dragging the manga’s pacing at times, and so on. Some of the issues got fixed near the end, namely the world building and pacing (at least by my standards), but most of my issues involving the characters still remained.

Much like when I talked about Persona 5 for a second time, I don’t think my opinions have changed much after finishing this manga, but I do want to talk a little (or a lot) about some of the characters of Tokyo Ghoul. The ones that made a decent impression on me anyway.

Kaneki

I... don’t know how to feel about Kaneki. I don’t know if he’s a bad character, or just a badly written one. I think my main issue is how he has no main goal throughout the series. The closest thing I can think of to a goal of his is to get enough strength to protect his friends and those close to him, but... that’s an ambiguous goal. I’ve said it before, but Kaneki’s actions feel like the actions of a 13-year-old shounen anime protagonist, but Kaneki is roughly 18 or 19, so him having these vague goals for someone his age feels annoyingly childish to me. Hell, Touka even calls him out on this, and she’s a few years younger than him. The fact that someone younger than him has a better grounding of reality just... makes Kaneki seem all the weaker as a character. And even then, many shounen protagonists around that pre-teen age have solid, definable goals. Naruto wants to become Hokage, Luffy wants to find One Piece, Rokuro from Twin Star Exorcists wants to eliminate all Kegare, Negi from Negima wants to find his dad, the list goes on, but you see my point. All of these characters have a drive to protect their loved ones, but also a clear goal that guides them through the story. And even then, manga series like A Certain Scientific Railgun and Tokyo ESP had a sort of “Threat of the Arc” situation going on, where our main character is just dealing with the craziness of whatever big thing is happening in their vicinity. I think that was were Tokyo Ghoul was heading up until Kaneki’s kidnapping, and I could argue that’s still the kind of story being told, but... I don’t know, something about it feels off to me an-

Ah shoot, sorry. Went on a tangent there.

To get back on topic, I think a good comparison of characters like Kaneki would be Durarara’s Mikado Ryugamine, and High Rise Invasion’s Yuri Honjo. Now, the plot of both these manga are convoluted and I could honestly spend this whole post just explaining them, but I’ll skip to what’s important.

Mikado, like Kaneki, was a shy and reclusive person, but through surfing the net and messing around on some forums he had accidentally created his own street gang in Ikebukuro that worked as a sort of anti-crime/community service force in the area. While things were going well at first, they slowly started to spiral out of his control, and while he didn’t ask for things to get as wild as they had gotten, he made due with what had happened, took charge, and tried to fix his mistake. Kaneki is in a similar situation where he’s forced into becoming a ghoul without consent, and while he does accept his ghoul half during and after his kidnapping, he regresses every now and again when the pressure’s on him.

I mean... it makes sense, I’ll admit that much. The life of a man-eating cannibal is probably not a fun one, even if you’ve accepted it. However, as a reader, his flip-flopping between accepting that half of him and regretting it is annoying, especially as he chooses to go deeper into the shadier side of the ghoul life. Again, most of my annoyance with this comes from the fact that his goal of getting strength to protect is so vague. I know at the end of the day he just wants to know why he was turned into a ghoul and why everyone and their grandma want a piece of him, but... until he understands that’s what he wants and makes efforts to figuring those things out, I just... ugh...

Moving to the second character, Yuri Honjo was a normal (if a tad co-dependent) high school girl thrown into a world of towering buildings and mask-wearing superhumans trying to kill her. At first she was understandably terrified by this, but soon manned up and took charge almost instantly, and moved along her own plot as things got crazier and crazier. Kaneki, again, does indeed make due with his own situation, but his back pedaling, while realistic and understandable, is very annoying to read through.

Okay, I’m getting angrier the more I talk about Kaneki, so I’m moving onto Hide now.

Hide

I wanted to see more of Hide in this manga. I’m serious, for as important as Hide is to the plot, we didn’t see enough of him. I know so little about him and that’s so irritating. I know that he’s cheerful, upbeat, but is a lot smarter than he leads on. I know he’s the kind of person to put an obsessive amount of time and energy into something when he’s invested into something. These two points alone are probably why Hide isn’t too present in the manga, he’s smart enough to figure out how to solve just about every problem Kaneki is in. He’s also bright and optimistic, which would make him a breath of fresh air compared to all the... angst of Kaneki’s character arc. I wish Kaneki just brushed off Touka’s threat and told Hide was a ghoul so he’d have a decent balance between Touka’s realism and Hide’s optimism guiding him.

As a character, Hide needed to have a solid presence in this story, and the lack of him makes all of Kaneki’s angst and rash decisions so annoying when there’s a smarter, nicer, and (frankly) prettier character that could move him in a better direction. I like the idea of Hide working in the CCG, slowly figuring out Kaneki’s movements, steering investigators in just the wrong the direction to seem competent and trustworthy, but fallible, seeing him play every side just for Kaneki’s sake, to be that perfect friend Kaneki needs. I just... want more of Hide, if only so I don’t have to deal with Kaneki’s bullshit. He has points that should make him a character to look out for every damn time he’s in a panel, but... he doesn’t, not to the extent I wished for anyway, and I’m livid about this.

I had often thought to myself before reading this manga that Hide was just around to be Kaneki’s potential romance to attract Yaoi shippers. The anime basically confirmed that, but, oh Lord, how I wanted to be wrong when reading the manga. I wanted to see more Hide outside of when he needed to make eyes at Kaneki or remind us that he existed and was (maybe) important, but... I didn’t see enough of him to feel safe in saying that. Hide has potential to really shake up the plot, but... he doesn’t, and that saddens and enrages me.

Touka

I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Touka Kirishima is Best Girl. She is literally 90% of what I look for in my female characters. She’s tomboyish, she’s a fighter, she doesn’t take Kaneki’s crap, she’s got a cute hairstyle, she’s got a soft side behind her rash exterior, her flaws are noticeable but not forced, she just... feels human. It’s such a shame that she doesn’t get the spotlight after Kaneki’s rescue. I said it before, I understand why she basically got shafted in the second half. The plot was moving away from Anteiku and more toward the CCG and Aogiri, but... damn was it a shame. I wish she would had split from Anteiku as well to become some kind of Ghoul Avenger/Batman after all that stuff went down. She could had went off trying to truly avenge Hinami’s mother, and any ghoul that she saw was wronged, becoming one hell of a wildcard in the powerplays that were happening. I mean really I just want a manga starring Touka like how Akame Ga Kill!Zero actually focuses on Akame, but

Moving on, like I said when talking about Hide, I think Touka makes for a good realist to balance out Hide’s optimism in terms of dealing with Kaneki. She’s cold, but not without meaning or reason. She’s rash, but that’s because she has her own baggage. And... well, her brother is one of the leading members in Aogiri, so I was hoping they’d bring their relationship into more light, maybe having her duke it out with Ayato again and winning to prove his beliefs and ideals wrong. Speaking of, Ayato was really underused as well considering how big of a threat Aogiri seemed. Aogiri as a whole sort of took a backseat after Kaneki’s rescue... eh, another plot point dismissed that irks me, but... whatever.

Another thing that Touka does for the story of Tokyo Ghoul is give us an idea of what a “typical” ghoul is. Touka is basically the same as Kaneki in terms of social status, only a ghoul. As such, through we get to see how a normal ghoul behaves in the human world. They’re no different than humans really outside of getting into the occasional fight in turf wars, being a bit more violent than humans, and hunting for food every now and then. I could go on about why I like Touka, but I’ve got other characters to discuss.

Amon

I honestly didn’t think I’d like Amon as much as I do now. I would consider Amon something of a foil to Kaneki, or at least in a similar place mentally. After his run in with Kaneki he starts to wonder about ghouls having a human sense of morality, especially after learning that Kaneki was once a human. I’m not going to go too in-depth with his character (hopefully), but I like him at the end. I think he’s a nice addition to the CCG cast. He’s tough, but he’s got his flaws. He’s too professional and stoic with his team mates for his own good at times, he has the goofiest ways of trying to make amends for things, and holy shit that Arata Armor was the hypest thing in the manga oh my god. I let out an audible gasp at that panel, I lost it. I’ve said it before when I made my first essay, but if there’s anything I like about this manga, it’s the badass, cool as shit action shots. It’s the main reason I wish this manga was more action focused.

But anyway, Amon is a good man, he’s a good man that I’m glad we get to see throughout the series, as it really humanizes the CCG as something more than ghoul killer with weapon-fetishes. Him and Shinohara both do this really well.

Other Characters

Okay, just going to do a quick little lightning round of my thoughts on some of the other characters that made an impression on me for the sake of time and my own personal interest in the what I consider the secondary cast waning.

Juzo

I have never cared much for the resident psychopath in any series, and Juzo is no exception. He was written a little better than some and his backstory explains his actions well. but... I’m still apathetic to him. If anything, it looks like he’s going to be in for some character development in :Re.

Ayato

I already talked about him when talking about Touka, but I still wish he had more presence in the manga as a main villain and foil for Touka.

Tsukiyama

I also wish Tsukiyami remained a villain instead of teaming up with Kaneki. He represent the depravity that ghouls could have in terms of morals. I know some people like the more gentlemanly side of him, but I love seeing him go crazy and just chew the scenery while screaming foreign words.

Renji

Just another character I wish had more screen presence since it looks like he has a lot of connections to other characters.

In the End

At the end of it all, I’m... honestly not going to bother with :Re, I hate the fact that is manga left so many open ends and didn’t bother answering some of the bigger questions. Like, when and how did Hide learn Kaneki was a ghoul? What’s the deal with Rize? Who the hell is this Insane Clown Posse that keeps popping up at the end of arcs to say that they’ll get the last laugh? And most important, who the hell is Eto really? The back of the manga may say this is the last volume, but it clearly isn’t. Even Naruto answered most of the bigger questions of Part 1 before moving onto Shippuden, and when Naruto does something better... that says a lot.

The Insane Clown Posse (and other Issues)

Okay, I lied, I need to bitch about this real quick before I end this essay. Seriously, who the hell are these damn clowns? Why make Eto/Taktsuki the One-Eyed King and not explain that further? When exactly did Hide put two and two together? The fact that all of these are just carrots being dangled in front of me to buy :Re infuriates me.

Look, I’m no fool, I know that there are scans of the :Re out that I can read for free, but I really do prefer to paid for my manga and read official translations, plus I read enough off this computer screen, my eyes need a break from that at times. I know that :Re doesn’t fix a lot of the issues I have with this series, I remember seeing people post :Re stuffl nonstop a few months after the anime ended. The cast only gets more bloated with more characters, Hide is still only utilized for shipping and as something to dangle in front of the fandom, Haise is basically just a way of narrative-ly resetting Kaneki’s character because it was so shot by the end of volume 14, and if what I’ve seen of Dragon!Kaneki is true, that issue of small power creep I had will be skyrocketing to Dragonball Z proportions very soon.

I know... I haven’t really been saying nice things about this manga, and I really don’t hate it, but... this manga isn’t for me, not me personally. I like shounen action, cute girls in cute outfits, ninjas, and fancy strategies being used to outsmart powerful enemiesenemies. Tokyo Ghoul has... 3 of those things. If the fandom wants to at least explain to me the Insane Clown Posse and Eto, I’d appreciate it as a semi-causal fan of this series, but... I’m done, for now. Maybe I’ll check out the :Re anime, but nothing further than that.

In any case, I like that idea of Touka become Ghoul Avenger, so maybe I’ll write a fanfic about it. Until then folks, feel free to give me your thoughts on this series and opinions about my opinions. I’m... gonna’ go do some laundry and then play some Darkest Dungeon the my PS4.

#tokyo ghoul #your dictator is speaking

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spicynbachili1 · 6 years ago

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Looking back on a year of Super Mario Odyssey updates

Mario retains on frolicking by way of Odyssey, regardless of Sakurai killing him

Rising up with a passionate interest is bizarre. In my childhood, I had on a regular basis on the earth to replay Tremendous Mario Sunshine time and again. As an grownup, I squeezed in sufficient time and power to 100% full Tremendous Mario Odyssey as soon as, and whereas I caught round for some time after, I since moved on to the handfuls of different video games in my still-growing backlog. Earlier than I even began a second playthrough, I spotted that Odyssey is already a 12 months previous! And but even Nintendo’s not executed with Odyssey in any case this time, having drip-fed it free updates virtually that complete 12 months.

It struck me as a shock that it acquired this a lot free DLC, albeit a pleasing one, as a result of Odyssey is a recreation that by no means wanted DLC of any type. Properly, there was one nitpick I might argue its first patch severely helped, however Odyssey was nonetheless an entire and fulfilling package deal even earlier than then. I feel it’s that in any case of those years of accelerating skepticism in direction of DLC practices, seeing a recreation as enormous as Odyssey obtain a lot extra content material with out having to pay a dime is… refreshing? A minimum of, “refreshing” is the vibe I’ve gotten from Nintendo’s DLC practices in 90% of their video games that use it, together with those with paid DLC. The remaining 10% is Hearth Emblem usually and Smash permitting season move preorders earlier than a lot of the move’s fighters are introduced (although a minimum of we now have Sakurai’s disclaimer to not preorder the move until you REALLY assume it is value it, which is a step most season passes by no means take), however that’s not what I’m right here to speak about at this time.

A great recreation changing into higher at all times felt like the perfect for DLC implementation, and Odyssey’s post-launch help embodies that very best. It’s an instance I hope each different single participant recreation with heavy post-launch help takes one thing away from, even when not carried out precisely like this. That is what I am right here to speak about at this time.

Its first replace in February was simply its greatest, introducing Luigi’s Balloon World as an asynchronous aggressive mode. I already wrote about how this mode enhances Odyssey’s present content material, so to keep away from redundancy, I received’t retread a lot floor right here. The CliffsNotes model is that this mode supplied a rewarding incentive to additional grasp its mechanics, giving its most devoted gamers a way more pleasant time in unlocking extra costumes than earlier than.

How becoming that this replace additionally added a number of extra costumes! One in all Odyssey’s most fun options is the chance to decorate up Mario in dozens of outfits we now have or haven’t seen him in earlier than, and constructing upon that with a fair greater wardrobe is straight away welcome. Since then, we’ve since seen roughly one new outfit each month.

A couple of of those ensembles are based mostly on Odyssey’s new antagonists, the Broodals. These guys is perhaps its most divisive addition to Mario’s world (personally, I dig these guys), however so far as their get-ups go, I feel they’re a pleasant mixture of snazziness and bizarreness. Each different DLC costume runs the gamut of kinds, from a Sunshine throwback to a humble racer go well with to an precise zombie. Every of those stands out even within the sea of outfits already accessible, broadening Mario’s visible choices in a recreation already gushing with visible type.

The February replace and this month’s additionally added yet another further, a few new snapshot mode filters. Most gamers take into account these the smallest addition — I by no means used snapshot mode myself — however I’ve to confess these are nice instruments for screenshot fans to play with! These new filters put spins on the fundamentals of pictures, framing it in fully new visible results (reminiscent of Coin, Tile, and Kaleidoscope) or new aesthetics that drastically change how a photographer perceives the linework surrounding their image (like Manga and Neon). The preliminary snapshot filters are helpful, however their results aren’t fairly this drastic, making the brand new ones a helpful addition for postcardsmiths in every single place.

There’s one different factor Nintendo has recurrently executed, which is so minor that almost all gamers don’t even take into account it an addition, however it’s a related piece of Odyssey’s post-launch help. Now and again, Nintendo will submit a chunk of Trace Artwork to their social media, and for those who go to the situation of that Trace Artwork, you’ll seize a bunch of cash. A pleasant bonus to have, however the reward itself is out of date given how rapidly Balloon World rakes in rather more money.

Trace Artwork is a straightforward solution to introduce new challenges into present ranges by asking gamers to revisit earlier worlds and take a look at them by way of one other lens. I take into account these a pleasant factor to have, as somebody who loved fixing trace artwork by way of my playthrough, however I usually see extra exasperation than applaud the few instances they’re introduced up in dialog. And I would not say they’re something greater than a “good factor to have”. They’re simply… there, and that’s okay! However I am not shocked that these Trace Artwork updates depart many gamers wanting one thing extra formidable as in the event that they have been appetizers for a second meal, although they’re framed extra like an after-dinner mint.

Many individuals really feel related in direction of considered one of Nintendo’s different platformers, Kirby Star Allies, and its personal post-launch help. That recreation’s DLC focuses purely on including extra playable characters, paying service to Kirby’s historical past by bringing again a plethora of characters, every with a totally fledged transfer set. This gives better incentive to replay Star Allies from the start, particularly with the little variations every character has in Visitor Star mode. All of this additionally free of charge, and it’s arguably extra thrilling than Odyssey’s DLC since these characters’ skills can significantly change the way you method a complete playthrough. But each remark part relating to those updates at all times speculates about paid DLC for ranges and new modes, eager for extra to do with the prevailing characters.

I’d positive get excited for degree DLC in Odyssey, however it would not make sense for Nintendo to disclose any such plans after a complete 12 months of post-launch help. Different big-hitters from Nintendo, like Mario Kart eight and Splatoon 2, confirmed their palms no later than 10 months after their premieres. The optimist in me needs to maintain speculating, however the realist in me wants to try the chilly, exhausting information and consider this DLC at face worth. And I consider it as being a reasonably darn good solution to lengthen the lifespan of a recreation that’s already fairly vigorous!

Why wouldn’t Nintendo need to preserve Odyssey within the highlight? It’s the unanimously acclaimed pinnacle of Mario’s historical past and a leap in direction of his future. It’s the Change’s finest promoting recreation. It’s the largest system vendor for Nintendo’s already explosively profitable console, and retaining it topical is a strong technique to encourage late adopters to hop aboard the hype prepare. Drip-feeding little additions and tidbits like these is their approach of guaranteeing it should keep on the forefront of social media timelines and retailer cabinets.

At any time when I see information touting new DLC out of, say, Digital Arts’s Mass Impact Andromeda, I’m extra prone to simply roll my eyes and ignore it. I do know that’s beating a lifeless horse to make that distinction, however that horse is lifeless for a purpose. Persons are exhausted from doubtful DLC practices to that time that the acronym has a stigma that does not match its technical definition. I can speak about Tremendous Mario Odyssey’s DLC with a lot enthusiasm as a result of it feels prefer it’s earned that enthusiasm. This can be a recreation I’m glad to get much more of. This can be a recreation I need to have a good time. This can be a recreation whose DLC practices I need to placed on a pedestal. And given how correct the information mined leaks have been up to now, it appears fairly seemingly we’ll nonetheless get a minimum of just a little bit extra within the close to future. If that’s the tip of Odyssey’s post-launch help, I feel it’s already greater than sufficient.

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holdharmonysacred · 8 years ago

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My opinion of the dragon maid anime so far:

It’s still blatant moe otakubait, but like, on the Great Scale of Garbage Otakubait Anime, it’s like. It’s like Sora no Woto. It’s REALLY REALLY TAME compared to other, similar animes in spite of its moebait nature, and the fact that it has actual chill when it comes to the creepy fanservice elements makes it INFINITELY more tolerable than most recent animes. Like I know we’re all afraid it’s another porderline creepy porno show like Monster Musume but it really isn’t, it has actual CHILL. There’s the occasional pervy joke still but it’s really not as bad as it could be, and I would know, I’ve seen some BAD shit.

And even in spite of being otakubait it still gets some stuff right. The main character is a girl, who is stuck with a gay dragon in her house, and while so far it’s ONE-SIDED gay it’s still GAY. We’re not stuck with the Forced Hetero that really WOULD dump this anime in the garbage bin. It also treats the little kid character, Kanna, as, you know, a FUCKING CHILD, and not as some sort of fanservice sex object like other creepy anime. Like even though Kanna is very blatantly a dragon, the anime still outright says “Okay, she may be a dragon, but she is a fucking kid, and we’re not gonna play these ‘Oh but she’s actually 100-years-old’ games”, and it actually treats her as a little kid and lets her keep her innocence. Like it’s still not QUITE there yet but dear GOD treating the small child character as an actual fucking CHILD is SUCH a HUGE step forward for an anime like this, THANK YOU dragon maid anime for not being creepy about your tiny children characters.

Unfortunately there’s some, ah, genderbending stuff apparently coming up based on manga spoilers that I’m REALLY not looking forward to that’s gonna drag the gay part back a little bit, but while I’m gonna cringe when that happens I’m not surprised. The series may be taking some steps forward considering the type of series it is (IE moe otakubait), but it’s STILL moe otakubait, so we can’t have everything.

Overall it’s still got issues but like. It’s TOLERABLE. Like it’s not utterly, irredeemably creepy garbage like 90% of anime these days, it’s just a chillass anime about cute dragon people and drunk computer programmers. I’m not gonna consider it The Pinnacle Of Anime but like, if you need just a fun show that’s the anime equivalent of junk food the dragon anime works.

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takenews-blog1 · 7 years ago

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20 Largest Film Letdowns of 2017: From ‘Life’ to ‘Justice League’ (Pictures)

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/20-largest-film-letdowns-of-2017-from-life-to-justice-league-pictures/

20 Largest Film Letdowns of 2017: From ‘Life’ to ‘Justice League’ (Pictures)

Whereas there have been big hits, 2017 additionally gave us large gambles that didn’t repay, franchise movies that appear like they’ve diminishing returns, and would-be franchises which might be unlikely to see a sequel. Listed here are the 20 greatest film letdowns of the yr.

“The Darkish Tower”:Stephen King Followers waited for a decade to see the theatrical adaptation of his hottest non-horror property and as a substitute bought a 90 minute incomprehensible mess that did not do the unique novels justice.

“Valerian and the Metropolis of a Thousand Planets Filmmaker”: Luc Besson waited 20 years to lastly make his favourite comedian. The movie is honest however overstuffed, visually attractive however dramatically clunky, and it represents a singular imaginative and prescient whereas concurrently that includes two wildly miscast actors within the lead roles.

“The Nice Wall”:USA At this time referred to the movie as “an entire trainwreck.” An try and please each side of the Pacific missed the mark with a weak plot and underdeveloped characters. The whitewashing controversy with star Matt Damon did not assist both.

“Vehicles three”:The animated Pixar movie by no means fairly lived as much as what got here earlier than it and the script tended to be pretty unremarkable, with numerous by-the-numbers character growth and extra terrible jokes for Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Man).

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Useless Man Inform No Tales”: For a collection that had already walked the plank with scurvy sequels, this fifth entry within the “Pirates” collection was incoherent and critically maligned.

“Transformers: The Final Knight”: Michael Bay’s fifth installment of the “Transformers” collection permits Mark Wahlberg to play one more character who’s each the Chosen One and all the time proper about every little thing — leading to a movie that’s loud, disjointed, and complicated.

“Baywatch”: Torn between being a hard-R comedy, a coming-of-age story or a straight-up reboot, this movie fails in any respect three. Turning a dopey previous TV motion present right into a comedy is far simpler stated than carried out. Even in case you put Dwayne Johnson in trunks.

“Energy Rangers”: The movie primarily based on the youngsters’ TV present did not be the “Energy Rangers” film followers clamored for, and the poor field workplace and combined vital response means followers will not get a sequel that includes the Inexperienced Ranger.

“Ghost within the Shell”: American variations of Japanese manga and anime merely do not work, particularly when the principle roles are whitewashed by non-Asian actors. Together with not respecting the supply materials, a convoluted plot would not assist both.

“King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword:” A film made up of three completely different “King Arthur” screenplays that Warner Bros. purchased mashed into one might be not a great way to spend $175 million.

“Alien Covenant”: Director Ridley Scott made an interstellar model of “Friday the 13th,” with a decent ensemble of actors because the camp counselors and varied fanged slimeballs filling in for Jason Voorhees. Audiences weren’t having any of it.

“The Mummy”:The inaugural entry in Common’s multi-film gamble that may flip their legendary horror characters (Frankenstein, Dracula, et. al.) into an “Avengers”-like cross-pollinated saga known as Darkish Universe, is an out-of-the-gate stumble that doesn’t even have the sense to sport its personal so-bad-it’s-fun character.

“mom!”: Darren Aronofsky’s divisive gonzo film is the bottom wide-release opening of star Jennifer Lawrence’s profession, and the movie was punished with an “F” CinemaScore rating from exiting viewers members.

“Suburbicon”:Matt Damon didn’t have an excellent 2017 at film theaters. Even with George Clooney directing, and a script by the Coen Bros., the movie was an enormous bust on the field workplace making solely $9 million off a $25 million funds.

“Life”:Regardless of killing off Ryan Reynolds within the first 30 minutes, the movie was an excessive amount of of an “Alien” clone that did not carry something new to desk. The C+ CinemaScore from audiences did not assist both.

“Fifty Shades Darker”: Anastasia Steele and Christian Gray got here again in a film that resembles an un-asked-for collaboration between the Hallmark and Playboy Channels.

“The Circle”: Tom Hanks and Emma Watson are caught in a Dave Eggers adaptation striving for relevance however by no means discovering realism. An over-the-top and implausible story that tries to be “well timed” and “related” however primarily hits us over the pinnacle with absurd conditions.

“The Emoji Film”:OMG, this animated characteristic is a POS with no LOLs. It’s a soul-crushing catastrophe as a result of it lacks humor, wit, concepts, visible model, compelling performances, a perspective or every other distinguishing attribute that may make it something however an entire waste of your time, to not point out that of the diligent animators who introduced this disaster into being.

“The Home”:This suburbanite on line casino comedy flirts with relevance and wit however principally spins its (roulette) wheels. The uninteresting and unfunny comedy turned Will Ferrell’s worst box-office opening in 18 years.

“Justice League”:The most important letdown of 2017 is DC’s try at a Marvel model “Avengers” film with all of the DC heroes which under-delivered and had a lackluster villain. Field workplace smart, “Justice League” will not even outgross the primary entry in collection, 2013’s “Man of Metal.”

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