#and introducing new charas when i already have established ones is hard

[vampiricsheep]

.

[autumn-foxfire]

Im sorry ill be adding onto ur ask box but u talking about bnha again made me think of bnha again and ughhhghgg

Latest chapters have been BORING. We know Star wont defeat afo cuz of course so its really annoying that so many chapters are being dedicated to the fight. We dont know shit about Star and afo has rapidly been losing my intrest so its just like watching two action figures clash while also knowing how this is inventibly going to end cuz it would make no sense for a newly introduced chara to defeat the big bad. If this was a half a chapter to chapter it would have been fine but its been several chapters so far n its so annoying to read something u give so little fucks about cuz ur hoping characters u DO care about will eventually show up again. This just seems like hori binged a bunch of marvel movies or smtng

Adding on to that....isnt Stars intro v similar to Lady Nagants? Like we randomlyget introduced to these two female characters we havent heard a thing about up until that exact moment, who seem to have a significant connection to an already estsblished character but it turns out that connection is flimsy at best. They fight an already established character, lose and are nuked off probably never to be mentioned again.

Like

I get that Hori is trying to show that afo is an international threat now but wasnt there a better way, couldnt he have established star sooner? Like all mights bedn doing fuck all how hard would it have been to throw in a scene of him talking to her on the phone here n there? Just so we can know she Exists before her big finale lmao

Idk...u here about big shonen manga crashing n burning at their end but its sad to see it happen n bnha is sadly inching towards being completely unenjoyable with each chapter. By now im almost hoping Hori will put it out of his misery fast if this is all we can hope for quality wise feom incoming chapters

Don't apologise for speaking to me Lucy T-T I love our chats and I've missed them since I've been afk (or would it be aft because it's more tumblr I've been taking a break from XD)

I can't believe the drop in quality in the manga. Stars and Stripe was a bigger mistake than Lady Nagant at this point and now that I've seen from the new leaks, I'm left hating this character more and more. Stars and Stripes wasn't needed.

There has been no reason for this battle whatsoever and yes, I'm taking into account the new leaks which, if you haven't seen them yet, I'll put them below a readmore:

She dies but her spirit seems to live on in the vestiges realm and we see her attacking AFO in there.

My question is why Hori had to introduce a random character we have not attachment to do this. Surely, if he wanted this grand moment where someone lives on beyond death and shakes AFO, it would be a member of the ESTABLISHED CAST that we have grown to love, not some random woman from America he introduced 4 CHAPTERS AGO.

You're right Hori could have shown AFO as being an internation threat and one of the simplist ways would have been AFO having a villain uprising in multiple countries. You know, he's said to have an underground empire, nothing says Japan will be on it's own when you have other countries fighting tooth and nail to keep villains in control in their nations and can't spare any help to Japan. There you go. Done. It was as simple as that and wouldn't have wasted 4 fucking chapters on a character we do not give a single shit about.

BNHA is crashing and burning and I'm watching this flaming wreckage hoping that I'll be able to salvage my favourites at the end.

[quarterette]

Utawarerumono: The False Faces ep 13-25 Liveblog

Gonna just straight up do individual episode comments, since the second half is gonna be denser in content. As with the first half, this is a rewatch and will have spoilers for the games.

Opening Comments: Man there’s not much movement in the animation but its beautiful all the same.

Ep 13:

- *spit take* why are they sending Rulu? IDK if it was because the directors weren’t informed about the whole “baby of the family” detail because I can’t imagine Shis letting this happen

- Interesting how instead being of a secret force that Oshtoru sent, Haku and gang are now the accompanying force to Rulu and Atuy.

- I’ll be pleasantly surprised if Entua makes more sense in the anime than in the games

- oh wow Dekopompo is even worse in the anime, straight-up running off on his own.

Ep 14:

- I like how instead of Atuy catching the arrow the twins have a force field. Granted, it make Atuy even more of a non-entity

- the extreme long shots of the CGI soldiers are really nice. I don’t feel like we see the loss of formations as they come into contact with each other often in war anime

- why are the twins running like that - imo that way too much movement for dainty girls (maybe I’ve watched too much anime)

- wow they totally recontextualized retrieving Shinonon and cut down a lot of potential runtime.

- did they seriously remove Atuy’s bloodlust

- you know open-eyed Ougi is growing on me, him and Nosuri have such lovely eye color

- poor Maroro

Ep 15:

- I’m relieved that the adaptation art makes Raiko look less like Lelouch. Always seemed like lazy design to me, him and Mikazuchi look nothing alike.

- did they introduce the telepaths in MoD? I can’t remember.

- that triple-take of Zeguni dying was just silly. If it were one slice x3 it would have been fine but this... Oshtoru be flexing with that mountain.

- I never really felt calling Witsu an Eva was quite right but with the Akuruturuka.... yeah I see it.

- truly we are in the war arc proper now.

- Heh wouldn’t it have been interesting to have the proxies’ subservience kick in instead of having the twins shield Haku. Oh well missed opportunities. IMO it would have worked well with the accelerated timeline the anime needed to achieve.

- what is with the triple takes this episode

- ah haku wasn’t even able to save them gg

- post episode revisiting the VN comments:

they hint at the telepaths, and as I thought the Vurai razing the city wasn’t in the VN. It was a good showpiece and works with Vurai’s characterization, but messes with Haku’s as a cost - the VN suggests that Haku inherently can be ruthless (he suggests scapegoating Moznu for Anju’s kidnapping, which the anime totally skips over), while it looks like the anime is gonna use this mass destruction as the reason for steeling his heart. I can’t say I hate that the writers chose to have the main characters in the fray, but it definitely requires more suspension of disbelief that everyone got out okay compared to the VN.

- Interestingly we don’t see Oshtoru’s mech form at all. I do like the increased bro scenes between Mikazuchi and Oshtoru

Ep 16:

- Yeah we immediately feel the ripples of that last episode changing Haku’s trajectory... its a logical trajectory but... ugh. I’m not sure how I feel about such a contrary Haku. It wasn’t really a thing in the VN? So frustrating augh. Utawarerumono was never a story big on moralizing about war... and the anime writers aren’t doing a great job adding it in.

- I’m 99% sure they pulled some of Ukon’s lines for comforting Haku here from a conversation they had in the VN waaaayyy back around the gigiri fight, making the scene all the more frustrating. The concepts of powerlessness and loss of life is something that Haku had been introduced to the moment he woke up and had already been working on dealing with. I can’t say its an invalid take that he’d be shook over mass destruction (I mean, most people would) but it’s a sharp deviation from the VN.

- Oh wow they’re totally gonna retool the banquet to deal with haku’s trauma instead of him dealing with his memories of being the LAST OF HIS KIND aren’t they.

- yeah they did

- oh god don’t say the word seduce haku, rulu’s gonna die from blood loss

- lol i don’t remember the twins being tied up

- rulu is dead

- and now haku is dead too. I think only Ougi and Yakutowaruto escaped unscathed.

- this did give me the bro bonding that I had been missing in the show thus far. Not enough drinking scenes! like literally the VN is literally just baths and booze between the action lol

Ep 17:

- ah finally the flashback episode. lol all the crunchyroll comments are like “watch the first season”.

- haku calling his new buddies family... oof mito’s knowing gaze makes it all the much sadder

- Haku:”did you need to go that far” Mito: “lemme do it again with Tuskuru”

- hah “reposition your camera” nice, easy way to not show his face

- heh stares at your sister-in-law’s butt, that’s actually a pretty subtle hint without adapting any of the monologue from the VN that he kinda had feelings for her

- damn this is probably the most complete vision of the future we get in any medium

- hey to be fair the ameterasu blast was mutsumi and not exactly a product of mankind fighting each other - but it does go to show just how little Mito knew about what was actually going down

- to continue with my frustration, we see that haku is called out by his bro that he has a habit of “conceal don’t feel” so it makes his emo bit last episode even more jarring - though in hindsight I guess his depression comes less out of the blue for his friends now - its just that the reason is misattributed

- oof “make up for lost time”

- ooh I like the final scene with Woshis as the delegate to Tuskuru. The VN did fine without it but man what a cliffie for those watching the first time.

Ep 18:

- oof we’re not going to have any shinonon/kiwru antics are we

- man I can’t wait to see Benawi - he was my favorite chara in Uta1 after Touka

- wow they really did just ignore the fact that Kiwru is the prince of Ennakamuy and cut him out of the party

- dugh never mind I don’t like ougi’s open eyes here

- speaking of ougi they totally glossed over his role as reconnaissance

- and have they even mentioned that nosuri is trying to retake their clan’s name?

- cocopo still best bird

Ep 19:

- of course you’ll be sweaty haku, boro boro only wears that brown undershirt in tuskur smh

- i love how all of the dads we see dote on their daughters so much

- of course only now do they mention the fact that atuy and haku are drinking buddies and we just have to take it at face value

- actually seeing those sailor uniforms in action make atuy’s regret that much funnier, the stills don’t quite do it justice (though really, it’s the sound effects carrying the team)

- lol the background soyankekur antics are great

- cocopooooo noooo damn this romance with mukkur is great

Ep 20:

- huhu woshis was allowed down to the underground garden huh

- benawiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

- dang they didn’t use the hot air balloon ;-; so disappointing like if they do it this way they won’t even get to retake the supplies ;-;

- i guess its a good way to hint at kuon’s identity

- something is wrong with kurou’s face

- also where the fuck is nosuri - i know kiwru is a lost cause for this show but nosuri too? they really are trying to wipe out the tactics seen in the VN

- i do think the line about kurou’s line to kuon about “ripping the country in half” is nice - can’t remember if it was in the VN but at this point most of the good lines seem to be coming out of the VN

- ugh the twins are such a cop out, still think they should have went with the hot air balloon strategy

- we hardly knew ye mito

Ep 21:

- dang I’m pleasantly surprised by these CG soldiers

- bye bye munechika, still salty you can’t turn into a mech

- oof “I’m sure my mom was someone like you” this show lives and breathes on dramatic irony

- bye bye anju, what was the point of actually having oshtoru there when the tea was delivered? makes him seem more incompetent than he is, though entua was nowhere to be seen - imo for the best

- oshtoru, an honorable man through and through, giving up your mask, lowkey too honorable for your own good

- okay one of my favorite things is how regularly dekopompo is ignored during the generals’ council meetings; overlapping voices isn’t really a thing in the VNs due to its nature as a written medium first and foremost

- oh interesting Oshtoru’s men are coming to defend him that’s new

- oh no torture time ;-;

- post episode VN notes: ugh they also dropped the Woshis power grab of locking Dekopompo and Raiko outside of the gates

Ep 22:

- Yes go be a dad Yakuto and stop Nekone from doing stupid shit please oh please oh please

- Man they are seriously retooling oshtoru’s downfall aren’t they - wish it didn’t come off so crudely planned. Like, y’all know Oshtoru is loved by the people, did the generals not think some sort of rioting would happen if you let that info go public? Granted the original plot of having Entua sneak the info out is pretty contrived... but at least it better preserves the perceived competency of the generals by forcing a smaller timeframe in which everything goes down.

- man people watching this will be so confused next season when they realize Kiwru is a prince

- wut Kuon you should know you probably won’t be able to get info to the princesses once y’all leave. Good that Shinonon is going on ahead to Ennakamuy though.

- eh are they’re gonna try leaving by sea this time? even though Ennakamuy is in the mountains?

- secret tunnel ~ ♫

- aw no Evenkuruga reveal for Nosuri and Ougi. Though, I guess the anime never established that their base was in the Hakuorokaku basement...

- you know, since they just generalized the jamming barrier it’s kinda nice to see that the gang had to sneak in the hard way. IMO that’s one of the “game design justifies the plot” moments - the VN tries to keep everyone together so you can have all your unit options when fighting, but let’s be honest smaller strike teams work at times.

- oh hi Honoka, you’re not arrested here? guess not.

- oh god have they been translating Atuy’s “onii-san”s as “mister” this whole time? I can’t say that “love” was a better translation but that’s just tragic

- I wish we got more hints that haku actually has been doing some training (aka the SRPG parts of the game) rather than these random moments of competency and knocking out the guards.

- good god oshtoru your honorableness is gonna be the death of you. how can you trust Vurai. Seriously idk how it’s gonna turn out here, but Vurai literally wants to see Anju dead in the VN.

- ok i lie splitting the party was a terrible idea. they are taking way too long to convince oshtoru to take a stand. these men are way too stubborn. jk its fine

- whelp there goes the boat

- aw yeh Yakutowaruto lets go

Ep 23:

- Yakutowaruto continues to be a badass

- ugh and of course Oshtoru gets hurt, and he’s not gonna tell anyone

- ok I’m enjoying how acrobatic these twins are

- the plot change ripples continue to be seen; there’s no distractions at the gates since dekopompo is inside the gates. Raiko’s strategy stuff does make for good tension tho.

- ugh the fact that Soyankekuru is in the capital is gonna complicate things. The moment Atuy is seen to defect he’s screwed. That’s gonna change the timeframe of things second half.

- lol Kuon god powers time, hope there weren’t too many casualties. Poor Nosuri now has two sacks of people to deal with...

- ok I feel like I’m seeing more poor art quality this episode

- wow it seems that everyone’s on board for some arson today

- bruh don’t take him through the sewers Oshtoru’s wound’s gonna get infected

- oh god who thought it was a good idea to give Rulu a blade.

- Cocopo best bird. Period. MVP.

- Soyankekuru, what a guy.

Ep 24:

- ooh mech fight in the city? oh nvm its just a sword fight. a sword fight between two beasts. thank god vurai ain’t that dumb

- wait they said there was a barrier in the palace, but i don’t think there was a barrier for the outer walls? why the frick didn’t the twins just teleport out for the last bit? they were pretty close to the gates... unless they needed the gates open anyways?

- vurai? not dumb? scratch that, good god do y’all not care about the safety of the people? guess not cuz it’s MECH FIGHT TIME (ok, if we’re honest oshtoru’s the one who initiated so yes he’s equally dumb)

- water vs fire, groudon vs kyogre, this is what animation is all about YASSS

- the twins’ shield is too OP

- haku please stop indulging Nekone

- will the twins actually be able to seal Vurai? they were kind of trash at doing their job in the VN (though they did have the good excuse of being exhausted for this particular instance)

- ok that nekone running sequence is jank

- damn haku blocked that punch? oh no he’s on fire

- looking like nekone’s “it was my fault” is gonna be part of a cascade of setbacks rather than the final blow. I’m kinda glad - the VN’s take was probably the most exasperating part of the whole story - gutwrenching but also made me want to punch her. I’m up for arguing whether or not taking that away was a good thing

- oh no the salt. no. how could you put it at the post-credits scene.

- vurai’s confirmed dead? that could be a problem next season.

Ep 25:

- dang what an opener giving us no info just kuon looking sad. we had emo haku now get ready for emo kuon i guess

- nuedori is probably my favorite song after kimi ga tame, such a good song to overlay the time skip over

- man anime viewers must be so confused. like they saw Haku and Oshtoru get out of town but only Oshtoru show up. man this is so effed up.

- no not the fan noooo augh  brokoro in the kokoro

- sad nekone really sells it doesn’t it

- dang I knew Ennakamuy was surrounded by mountains but I guess the anime went and interpreted that as a CRATER

- at least kuon didn’t leave until later in the night?

-i know the twins did a spell in the VN as well but seeing the visual change between haku and oshtoru is a bit silly

- what’s with the flower field that’s so cheesy

- i can see why someone said laughed rather than cried during this particular use of kimi ga tame - the alternating shots to his saltification is just silly, there’s so many prettier shots for showing people dissolving - like the VN gave you a very serviceable “standing on a cliff as the sun rises and you fade into dust” why didn’t you take it

- side note in the VN i was imagining it something like this scene from CCS but different lighting (sorry I could only find the english dub on short notice, timestamp at 1:13:24):

- also how could you get everyone off model during such an important part

- you know what I’m just gonna pretend that there was some really bad production crunch so they had to do a rush job smh

- i do like this orchestration tho

- oh god the cheese never ends, now it’s raining

- that said it’s not terrible, but definitely missing something compared to the VN

- haha with some of your decisions next season you might just end up in Denebokshir Haku. jk we all know how it ends

- boro boro ;-; yes go hug your kid she needs all the comfort she can get

[heero-yuy]

What if Keith was never really supposed to have love interest? DOTU and VF kinda made Keith the default main chara by making him leader and giving him a love story. I read a meta that says Keith having a romantic arc doesnt help in his chara devt bc his thing is about opening himself to many people not zeroing in his focus on just one person. What if they're making Keith a symbol of ace representation?

Well, this is my interpretation of course..

But I feel like Keith already starts the show with having a love interest haha

I dunno if anyone noticed, but atleast until the half of season 3 it is just him zeroing his focus on one person..

Like this is why I was complaining so much about his extreme reaction to Shiro being gone. Because suddenly everything you thought Keith cared about (besides Shiro) flies out of the window and it all narrows down to just one thing - Shiro.

Keith going “screw everyone and everything I just want Shiro back (months or close to a year after Shiro’s disappearance too) is a pretty big deal. You can’t just ignore something like that, specially considering the big focus it got in the show and how it contrasts Pidge looking for Matt (which is done very quietly and without much drama, besides at the beginning when she didn’t even care about team voltron or Allura’s mission).

Also season 3 kinda went even further with it by making parallels between Keith and Zarkon, like you don’t just put parallels between Keith’s feelings for Shiro and Zarkon’s feelings for Honerva, and call one a romance and the other platonic.

I mean you can... And many people do, and this is how it usually goes in every show where you have two guys with really strong feelings for one another haha.

But like if you say Keith’s feelings for Shiro are platonic then you might aswell say Zarkon’s feelings for Honerva are that also. Because whatever that feeling is, it seems like it’s the same ( the ”I will screw over everyone in the universe for you”.) Feelings that extreme and intense (specially between people who are not blood related) are usually used in stories to show romantic love.

And all of Shiro and Keith’s scenes in the show have two very strong feelings about them: intimacy and intensity, and these things dun usually say “platonic”.

Another thing is that the relationship seems to get some of the past Voltron shows romance plotlines

Like why does Sven falls for Romelle in DotU? Because at his lowest and weakest points she was the one who supported him and made him believe in himself. A job that Keith seems to be doing for Shiro this time..

And their relationship seems to be kinda similar to Akira and Fala. (the most developed and believable instance of Kal/lura, that doesn't end up being a thing actually, but unlike the other shallow Kal//lura instances, actually should have!)

So you see, it’s very hard for me to ignore these things and say… yeah those all were kinda romantic plot lines but when it happens between Keith and Shiro it’s all just platonic haha

I mean if Keith or Shiro were a girl I dun think there would be many people who would not see this as a romance.

But something I agree with is that Keith’s character cannot center around Shiro so much. And honestly I wouldn't want it to center around Shiro so much. People complain if a girl character in a love story is all about her feelings for the guy, so it shouldn’t be different here. Keith needs to get some character development that is not Shiro related.

So bad news I guess, but logic says that getting rid of Shiro or separating them  in some way is step one for Keith having any kind of growth.

And I thought this was gonna happen while Shiro was gone, but then he came back so fast and Keith did nothing but cry over him for the period he was gone (besides that one week he took his job seriously). So Keith didn’t really have alot of growth on his own, and didn’t really connect with any other characters much, his character never stopped centering around Shiro from like the minute he was introduced.

So my feeling is that something has to happen that will break this fixation Keith has on him and will let Keith grow as a person and open up more to other people too. 

But also I feel like Shiro and Keith’s character development usually revolves around each other, like they’re intertwined and evolve together, so who knows, maybe it won’t be necessary. 

But again, establishing such strong relationships at the start of the story usually ends in one of the characters death, the characters going against eachother, and sometimes it’s a friends to lovers with many obstacles on the way kind of thing. But usually alot of conflict and pain is a guarantee haha.

So I dunno, Keith having no romantic plot line doesn’t makes sense to me personally, because I feel like he’s already in one since he saved Shiro from the Garrison people haha

But who knows how it’s going to play out and if he’ll ever be brave enough to confess or even admit he has these feelings to himself.

Based on all the previous versions of Keith, I always got the impression he was either aro/ace or gay deep inside tho and just living a lie there with Allura haha

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen’s Rambling XXVII: When the Movie was Better than the Book (Magical Girl Raising Project)

I’m shocked that I marathoned Magical Girl Raising Project in just three days. When I made my Anime Update saying I’d re-watch the series I thought it’d at least take a week or longer. Rewatching Vivid Strike took me two weeks I believe, so the fact that I rewatched this series this quickly just… shocks me. But hey, that’s a testament to how much I liked it ,I suppose.

But I digress…

Anyway… Magical Girl Raising Project, or MagiPro as I’m going to be calling it from this point on because Christ, these light novels and their overly long titles. I watched the anime when it was airing in the fall, and later bought and read the first volume of light novel of this series. The anime just had me that curious about the world of MagiPro after I finished it, curious enough to buy the source material, something that no light novel-based anime has done for me. Hell, few manga-based anime get me to do this, but these series hits a lot of my personal interests, being a darker take on the Magical Girl genre and all.

Believe it or not, I’m actually a huge fan of Magical Girl anime. Magical Girls was what got me into anime in the first place in fact. I got up early every morning to watch Sailor Moon before school when I was a little kid, I first got into Crunchyroll thanks to Shugo Chara, and one of the first anime I watched from start to finish was the Japanese version of Magical Doremi back when I didn’t understand the whole fansubs issue, three seasons of it (what can I say, those theme songs were catchy). I don’t know… maybe it was because I was mostly around women and had a rather shy and feminine personally when I was a kid, but I loved a lot of shows that screamed “girl power”. Much like La Pucelle, I’m quite the fan of these anime and manga despite being a boy (and 23-year-old one at that). However, as of recent years I’ve found myself watching more and more dark takes on the Magical Girl genre throughout the years. Madoka Magica was the start for me, really dissecting the genre and ripping it a new one, and since then I’ve just been captivated by similar shows. Yuki Yuna is a Hero, Day Break Illusion, I even bought a DVD of Revolutionary Girl Utena since I heard this is a sort of darker magical show by 90s standards.

Ah, but I’m getting off topic. Like I said, I just finished watching then anime, and I’ve read original light novel. After experiencing both versions I have to say I think the anime of MagiPro surpasses the book in terms of entertainment. How so exactly? Well, the short version is the show took advantage of being animation and made a lot of interaction more interesting to watch rather than read, but there are a few more reasons.

But before I get to that…

Making Amends

Much like when I talked about Persona 5, I realize I made some harsh judgements about MagiPro a little too quickly when I first finished it. Upon second viewing and reading the light novel I’d like to take a few things I said about this show back.

I originally said that Snow White was an underused character that was trying to be an innocent Madoka-esque victim despite never even attempting to solve the issue of being in a killing game, but I think I only thought that because I was watching the show at a weekly rate. Upon a second watch, I can say for certain that Snow White definitely earns her main character spot. The point of her character is to show that being nonviolent and wanting to do the right thing without shedding blood is how a magical girl is supposed to behave. Where everyone else is forming alliances, and trying to ensure their own safety, Snow White is trying to save and help everyone around without care for what benefit she gets from it. She’s the paragon of this story, like Superman and Batman, except a cute girl instead a young man (an improvement already in my opinion). Huh… actually, she basically goes from being a Superman-style Paragon of Magical Girls to Batman-style Vigilante by the time you start reading the books… interesting.

Another thing I said was that I felt Ripple took a lot of screen time away from Snow White. Again, while marathoning this series I feel the opposite. We see a bit more Snow White than Ripple, it’s just that Ripple was more in the action that Snow White was with her match with Calamity Mary and Swim Swim. Actually, the book give her more screen time than the anime if anything.

And lastly, I take back what I said about the ending being shallow. It wasn’t shallow, but I feel they didn’t need to introduce the idea of the Land of Magic being an omnipotent presence felt a little bit like sequel-baiting by adding that bit last minute, but… I’ll say no more on that.

Okay, amends made, now then, the real reason you’re all reading this.

What the Anime Did Better

Backstories

The book didn’t really give every character a solid backstory, not to my memory anyway. You knew a bit about Snow White, Ripple, Ruler, and Cranberry’s background, but little else. The anime decided to give every character a decent solid backstory that explained their motivations and how they became magical girls, something I appreciate even if seeing said backstory it was a death flag. I understand the book couldn’t really break everyone down since it was focusing one just a handful of characters, but I’m glad the anime took advantage of this by giving everyone at least a few minutes of flashback to explain themselves.

Fight Scenes

I’m so glad these fight scenes looked as good as they did in anime. Hand-to-hand combat can only be done justice in animated or comic form, because trying to have that same energy in books is… difficult to say the least. Just something about seeing the action makes it more engaging. Ripple vs. Swim Swim and Alice vs. Calamity Mary were my favorites, and Ripple throwing Calamity Mary with a hurricanrana was just… yes. Speaking of fight scenes, I’m glad Cranberry vs. La Pucelle got animated as well. It’d really suck if we didn’t get context for the aftermath of that fight. The book cutting out that fact felt a little… cheap to me, and I’m glad the anime gave La Pucelle a bit more development.

The Overall Look

I talked about this in the Update before, but the character designs of the magical girls just look a lot better in the anime compared to the book. It’s just easier to keep track of everyone given how big the cast is. Most of the descriptions given in the book really didn’t do the designs justice as compared to the anime in my opinion as well. To the point where an artist did redesigns based on how the characters were described in the book (very good redesigns in my opinion, but my point stands). Also, I love how some of the details were worked in, like Nemurin’s clouds emoting, or seeing Top Speed’s broom transform into a motorbike-broom hybrid, stuff like that.

A Few Other Things

The entire Musica Magica album. It was just cool to listen to. Betrayal and Destruction are my favorites. It’s not an anime-specific thing, but it was a product of the anime, so…

Again, Ripple doing a hurricanrana was just… perfection.

Cranberry was a more believable villain in anime, as opposed to a mysterious and powerful figure in the background since we saw more of her and her actions and her actively trying to kill other magical girls.

Alice was a much creepier character in her intro in the anime compared to the book. The animation team really played with her zombie-esque appearance.

How the anime weaved in scenes in Episodes was just perfect. It really helped set up a lot of things, especially Swim Swim’s betrayal. You’d have a completely difficult opinion of Swim Swim if you didn’t understand what made her want to betray Ruler in the first place.

What the Book Did Better

This one’s going to be a bit shorter since I really have a hard time thinking of where the book was better outside of continuing. That’s not to say the book is bad, and the series gets exponentially be in later volumes, but… y’know.

The book was a bit better at establishing Ripple as a main/central character, and helped us understand how the world of MagiPro worked with her intro.

World-building was done a bit better, or at least I didn’t have many questions by the time I finished the epilogue as compared to the anime.

The book series is still ongoing, where the anime isn’t likely to get a season 2.

Powers and items are explained a little better in the book, especially characters like Calamity Mary and Snow White, who’s powers a bit vague.

I think that’s about it in terms of nitpicks and my overall feelings. Like I said, I still like the book, and I’ll be reading it more as the series continues, but if a season 2 happens and we get to see Restart animated I will watch that in a heartbeat. A Gundam fights a giant Kaiju in Restart, what’s not to love? Anyway, that’ll be it for me. I’m going back to story writing now.