#but we are gonna get season 4 (first cour) next year already so !!!

[courtesanofdeath]

October 5th. On this day in the Stone World, Taiju wakes up and sees Senku after 3,700 years.

[muthaz-rapapa]

They announced Precure 2021!!

Tropical Rouge! Precure. It will be a tropical/ocean theme and I believe it will have either a 4 team cures (pink, blue, yellow/orange and teal) or a duo with a red cure as a sixth ranger. What are your opinions/theories?

Oh shit, it is that time again, isn’t it? I totally forgot with how screwy year this year has been. ANN didn’t even mention anything. (@_@ ;;)

Well, anyways, since the trademark is out, speculation is all fair game until December or whenever we get the next messy quality leaks at the soonest.

Before that though, I just want to comment about the HealPre movie poster:

I really like the kimono design integrated into the magical girl outfit. Seriously, I wished they could’ve saved this idea for a full-cour season instead of using it as a movie-exclusive form. That would’ve been awesome~ && imagine the crazy hair but decorated with kanzashi. *sigh* <33 ...only in my dreams, I guess. T_T

Other than that, I am also psyched for the (random) return of the Yes 5 girls. I have no idea what they’re doing here but hey, the Maho girls saved the KiraPre movie for me with their cameos so I’m totally cool with Yes 5 dropping in all badass if HealPre’s movie ends up being just so-so.

Alright, now that that’s out of the way...

Precure 2021, otherwise known as

TROPICAL ROUGE! PRECURE

...admittedly, it’s not the weirdest title we’ve ever gotten but still, Toei at it again with its obsession over weird 3-4ish syllable salads. Ah, how I miss the times when we can just attach one simple word before “Pretty Cure” and that would’ve been enough. :P

Also, how the hell are we going to shorten this? TroPre? TropicPre? ToRuPre? PikaRuPre? Too long! Why must you make the little things so difficult, you bastards?!?! (ꐦ ಠ皿ಠ )

*cough*

Judging by the title, we’re probably all correct in guessing one of its motifs will concern the ocean and when most of us think “tropical” mixed in with Precure, the first image that pops up would be Aloha Precure:

[ Hey girls, how you doin’? ^^ ]

But for me? My first thought was this:

SHUT UP.

LET ME HAVE MY BEVERAGE-BASED MAGICAL ISLAND IDOL TRIO REALITY AND LET ME DIE HAPPY THERE!

I LOVE YOU TEA DRINKYUN, SODA DRINKYUN, JUICE DRINKYUN!!!!!

xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

But in all seriousness, we’re likely not going to have these two as the protagonists because

1) They’re not Japanese or Japan-based.

2) They’re from a different Precure season altogether.

3) This is Toei we’re talking about. Looking at how one-shot Sunset and Wave were, do you really think they would go ahead on a tropics theme with any interest in anything outside just the aesthetics/marketing appeal of it? Uh, sadly, NO.

So sorry to dash your hopes if you had any but even if we are lucky enough to get a main Cure who is of Polynesian descent, we probably won’t be spending parts of the season actually exploring their ethnic background.

Though I’d still hold on to the possibility of Aloha Precure maybe getting a cameo. And more importantly, getting another dark-skinned Cure who isn’t just tan from staying out in the sun too long because I really, really, really want that, too! (>.<)

Ok, ok, back to motifs and themes.

So ocean. And there’s a seashell symbol in the logo so when we think of those things, we think of mermaids (and therefore, Cure Mermaid).

[...y’know, I’m starting to believe they’re just basing all the new seasons on the Go!Pri cast like StarPre for Twinkle. Heartcatch, however, pre-existed Flora so I don’t know where that stands but all that’s left would be Scarlet so I guess Precure 2022′s either going to take place in Hell or somewhere freezing like a mountain YES, WE’RE GONNA FIGHT ELSA! >:D or the north/south poles]

Chances of one of the Cures being a mermaid then? Maybe even the midseason one? Pretty damn high.

Chances of the magical items having something to do with pearls? Feels a little like Mermaid Melody but as long as they don’t throw any blatant idol tendencies in my face, I’m good.

Chances of TroPre (name pending) actually focusing on the nature of the ocean and taking time to explain in depth its sealife, ecosystems and the man-imposed problems that exist within it? *BIG SIGH*

Honestly, as much as I would love for Precure 2021 to branch out from what HealPre started with its health/environment approach (which was quite the disappointing cop-out but that’s a discussion for another place and time), I doubt we’re going to get that no thanks to the commercialization aspect of it.

And I don’t blame the writers (entirely), I blame their higher-ups who probably meddle with the story and demand for more cutesy, pointless fillers instead because y’know, toy sales first, unfortunately. :P

But ok, even if I don’t get the science side of it, that doesn’t mean it won’t be enjoyable. But with only just a logo to go off on atm, it’s hard to predict what we’re really in for next year.

Except for the fact that we can already tell how many starter Cures we’ll be getting.

[Sorry it took so long to get to this part, anon]

Pink is a no brainer, there can’t be a Precure season without a Pink lead (bah).

And look at how solid the azure/blue and teal/green is. Those are locked in for sure (HURRAH! ANOTHER GREEN CURE~! xD).

Now yellow...or is that orange? Personally, I think it’d be great if they dropped the Yellow Cure this year and gave it to the Pink Cure as a sub-color instead because unlike the blue and teal katakana, the pink/yellow/orange ombre of the bottom line is not as distinct from one another as the former are. But I doubt it because when you say “tropic” you think of “sun” too so can’t be without the yellow Cure, after all. Ugh.

Finally, there’s that striking red at the end of “Rouge” that looks like what would happen if an exclamation mark and a sea slug had a baby together and put an obnoxious bow on it. :S

With “rouge” in the title [sorry, not you Rin-chan but hey, Rin-chan~! :D], it seems we’re pretty much guaranteed a red Cure as well. I just hope she gets a more creative name than just a synonym of the color red because while “Cure Crimson” cue JoJo jokes I don’t understand sounds cool, it’s lazy.  (-_- ;;)

So in total, a maximum of 5 Cures. No, I will not be leaving room open for a possible 6th one cuz that is just one too many Cures and we don’t need that. WE. DON’T.

As for anon’s theory on a duo team with the Red Cure as the sixth (you actually meant third, right?) ranger...really, I’d much prefer a smaller team. I love the idea of starting the season with just a pair of Cures like the good old days. I love the idea of both of them having two theme colors (pink/yellow and blue/green) each instead of one. I’d look forward to a midseason Cure this time because the chemistry would actually be more manageable to work with and develop when it’s not such a huge crowd. So that the new girl doesn’t have to go through all her members like required shifts instead of having more organic interactions with them.

...but that’s just my hope. I know as much as the next person on what Precure 2021′s gonna be like which is pretty much “nothing at all”. *shrug*

We’ll see.

[amisbro]

If UtaPri had/gets a 5th season...

What would it look like? So this is a question I have thought about for a while because of the fact that I think a lot of people (Myself included) believe there is more of a story to tell in the world of UtaPri.  I think with enough time we could get a very interesting idea for a season and honestly I think WHATEVER this project we got coming up actually IS could be an interesting testing ground for something. Let me explain

So if we think about how Season 4 ended it seemed rather definitive.  Like the way that message was wrote made you believe ,to a degree, that the series had ended as far as an Anime project.  Then we got the end card AFTER that and that kind of made things turn on its head cos no one knew what that was supposed to be until 6th stage happened right? One thing that always stands out to me is the fact that Season 4 was a bit of a mess and I say that in the most objective and neutral way possible because...when you have an Anime that is based on a Manga we typically get a story based around that in some fashion.  It might not be panel for panel and word for word but we get one and that is always fun to see how certain scenes get animated for sure.  When you do an Anime based on an Otome game you almost always do whomever is considered the “true route” or just leave it open ended so people will want to play the games (which is what I think DiaLovers did when it had its run). UtaPri has a very interesting situation because the series DOES have an idol component (and the Anime made sure to really focus on that mostly) but it is also an Otome game so the studio (A-1 Pictures) had that to work off of for the most part.  The problem is that when they were done with the material they DID USE it created a problem because Season 4 was a mess if I am being as objective as possible about it. So here was the problem You had 3 groups in play here STARISH QUARTET NIGHT HEAVENS Forget whom your group was for a second...this was going to be a problem because 2 of the 3 groups had content that was used in the first 3 seasons but Season 4 was going to be a problem.  How this would have been remedied I have no fucking idea!  Like if Broccoli knew they were going to do this season they needed to get something out BEFORE IT so people would have had something to go off of for HEAVENS so we could have had 7 episodes that made sense instead of episodes where it felt like they didn’t know how to have the HEAVENS member that was being featured in it not look like a complete ass!  If we are honest this is what happened and its frustrating to remember One of the biggest issues with the season was that you had a group that HAD been Antags during Season 2.  I said HAD because I genuinely believe that the marching orders for A-1 was to write a season where STARISH was still THE focus but HEAVENS could be rehabbed into a group that was more “likable/marketable” so when the time came to sell CDs and merch that they would fly off the shelves and could be a contender to at least QN if not both them and STARISH.  As we saw during the Oricon charts it was a puzzling time because the duet CDs sold like garbage in the sense that only TWO our the 7 actually charted in the top 10 Ren/Van - Lovely Eyes Syo/Yamato - Justice Impulse This was the most puzzling thing I ever dealt with because I tried to figure out WHY and to this day the best thing I could come up with is the fact that the CD releases were slated to come 10 days after the episode aired which seemed like the dumbest thing to do (IMHO) because when I looked at Season 3 all of the releases charted in the top 10 and a big reason for that was the gap between CD/Episode was only 4 days...well we got to QN and HEAVENS’ CDs they did VERY WELL in Season 4 and its because of how close they released them (I think) to the episodes...funny how that works! What was really weird also was during the “Duet Project” episodes the writers didn’t know WHO to make the focus of the episodes and that was weird BUT ,looking back on it, this whole season was gonna be weird because of how quickly the season was coming in the turnaround vs. its normal time for a season.  Typically a UtaPri season gets a 2 year window and this time they were going under that...about a year and 4 months so this was going to cause a crunch and also a mess of a message as to what the writers wanted to do!  I personally believe that the writers wanted to make HEAVENS all the more sympathetic and they were able to get SOME of the backstories in that they could for certain characters but a few others (Nagi and Eiichi for example) “kind of” tried to show you the “why they were acting the way they were” but it felt (at least Internationally) that the episodes didn’t register or if they did not as well as they hoped.  I do wonder if a big reason that the content is as out of sorts in terms of balance for HEAVENS vs. the other two groups is because of how jacked up that season got.  I genuinely wish I could sit down and discuss that season with someone that was in the room when they were given the orders on how that season was supposed to go vs. what actually happened after the fact! So this brings me back to the “What would a 5th Season look like if we got/get one in the future?” The weird thing is I think A-1 already knows but they have to get the reference materials FIRST before they start writing it.  I genuinely think they saw/heard about what happened Internationally when it came to the “NEXT DOOR” saga and they didn’t want to see that happen again so NOW they want to work on these projects to get the idea other there right now that all the groups are separated as first we have STARISH and then no doubt QN but the big question of course is HEAVENS...can they do a concert with them at some point with hopefully more songs under their belt OR will Broccoli start to really consider them a lost cause and that the fandom just doesn’t want them.  You can only go with the “Round peg/Square Hole” philosophy so much before people get mad and don’t want to deal with the series (or at the very least HEAVENS) anymore. The other big issue is HEAVENS’ role in Dolce Vita because, As of this writing, we still don’t know ANYTHING about that game...like we don’t know if its a straight up VN or is there going to be something similar to the original La Corda back in the day which ,fun fact time, had Kishou and Mamo in it.  Like if anyone would know how a game like that worked it would be them (And they ARE in the new game “Starlight Orchestra” btw) so they HAVE to have had given some input about how the mechanics worked and all that...right?! (Oh and unrelated but Kishou’s original character in Len Tsukimori is a special character in that game.  He was unlocked through a campaign we had in that fandom a bit ago) So again...what would Season 5 look like? Well my guess is that it would have to be a STARISH/HEAVENS season again but with new duets unlike last time.  The other possibility (And I think they were teasing this at the end of Season 4) is that it would somehow be a HEAVENS/QN season which could be interesting especially if they did something like how Season 2 was probably supposed to go...and in a way didn’t because of how the story worked. The thing is its been almost 5 years since we had a proper season...FIVE! Let’s assume that the “Anime Project” as we know it is over alright?  STARISH and QN’s brand is already established so what do you use to help HEAVENS’ get on the same level?  That’s a big reason why I don’t think they could/should end the “Anime Proper” because to do that you literally would be cutting off a way to properly market a group that actually needs it vs. the groups that clearly don’t.  I won’t go so far as to say that the STARISH/QN Animated concerts are going to be “Vanity Projects” because they aren’t.  They are clearly something that Broccoli believed in as far as a project to do for the series BUT I will say that having 7th Stage so close to this project is a bit...weird?! Like okay to be fair this probably was planned well in advance and the Pandemic fucked everything up because it was supposed to be announced at 7th stage in 2020...okay cool fine but let’s say it was right?  What stopped them from revealing it at 10th Anniversary when it would have been a bigger “Holy Shit” moment?  What was really so important that they had to do EVERYTHING ELSE and not that?  Just seemed weird to me. But anyways HOLY SHIT did we go around the block here...I need to stop If you were going to script out a proper 5th season when would you do it and how?  The thing to remember is we have a 3 group scenario and now HEAVENS is trying to become an even better group to finally beat STARISH and QN so do you have QN and HEAVENS do a thing together or do you do a 3 cour season where each is dedicated to a particular group? Love to hear your answers on this and take care

[untapanimedraw]

Ok, lets talk the Winter 2021 anime season

Dear god, there are so many shows airing. A ton of sequels, and a decent amount of new shows. I think I’ll actually break down what I’m interested in watching into two parts, sequels and new. Lets get started. 

Watching:

Sequels 

Jujutsu Kaisen - This is technically a continuation rather than a sequel, but the spirit is the same. This was my choice for favorite anime of the season fall 2020 so this continuation has me pretty hyped. 

Black Clover - Still continuing. The manga had a 6 month time skip and the anime did some anime only stories with the author’s direction to cover that time period and now it’s caught up to that time skip. Shit is about to go down and I am stoked. 

Attack On Titan: Final Season - So this started airing in December which makes for a strange airing schedule, but it’s technically continuing from the fall season into the winter season. Anyway, it is fucking fantastic and this week’s episode left us on a major cliff-hanger for 2 weeks. 

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime S2P1 - Ok, so first... HOLY FUCK I’M SO EXCITED FOR THIS SEASON, IT’S GOING TO BE AMAZING. Second, yes this is part 1. Thanks to covid there are some longer running seasons that are being split up to accommodate the production schedule. So this part 1 is airing in winter, then in the spring the 4-koma comedy re-telling is airing, and then in summer part 2 of this season 2 will air. it’s annoying, but 3 continuous season of slime is a welcome thing. 

Re:Zero S2P2 - Alright, so this is the second half of summer 2020′s season 2 part 1. I have high expectations considering what we’ve already been given. 

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars (S2) - HOLY FUCK I’M SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THIS SHOW, I LOVED THE FIRST SEASON AND AM READING THE MANGA AND OMG I CANNOT WAIT FOR MORE.

The Promised Neverland S2 - More of the promised neverland. I’ve heard that this season will go even harder than the first season and Emma will prove even more why she’s best girl, so bring it on. 

The Quintessential Quintuplets S2 - A second season of a decent harem show? Bring it on. 

Log Horizon S3 - So I didn’t watch this when the first 2 seasons aired years ago, 6 I think actually. That said it’s always been on my PTW list and when I heard season 3 was going to air I decided that now was the time to catch up; and wow am I glad I did. I binged the first 2 seasons over the last 3 weeks and I am so fucking invested now. I cannot wait for this next season. 

Higurashi GOU - this is continuing from last season and I’ll keep watching it, though I’m still not quite sure how to evaluate it. 

Yuru Camp S2 - WOOHOO!!!!! This was the chillest of chill shows that aired winter 2018 and I absolutely loved it. I’m so excited for this next season for more camping and adorable girls being chill. 

World Trigger S2 - So I was under the impression that there were already 2 seasons of this show, I watched most of it I think but it’s been so long I don’t really remember much. But this is being called season 2... so either this is retconning the previous season 2 or that was really just 1 big season despite the notation on some websites. Also a S3 has already been announced so I need to hurry up and rewatch this before the new season airs. But with 73 episodes that might take a bit of time. 

Armor Shop for Ladies and Gentlemen S2 - This is a sequel to the short anime of the same name. If you like it, you like it. 

New

Cells at Work S2 - Ok, technically this is a sequel, but I’m including it here because of something cool that’s happening with the next title. 

Cells at Work: Black - Why yes, this is a different Cells at Work title. This is based on the spin-off manga of the same title that gender swaps the cells from the main series and covers their work inside an extremely unhealthy body. This is going to be a grittier, bloodier, and bleaker show than the main one and in a fun airing scheduling event, they will be airing back to back. I’m quite excited for the both of these. 

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - OMG I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS GETTING AN ADAPTATION! SADLY IT’S A SPLIT COUR SO THIS IS THE FIRST HALF OF SEASON 1 AND THE SECOND HALF WILL AIR LATER PROBABLY IN THE SUMMER. BUT THAT’S OK BECAUSE EVERYTHING I HAVE SEEN ABOUT THIS SO FAR TELLS ME THIS WILL BE A PRETTY DAMN FAITHFUL ADAPTATION AND IT IS GOING TO BE FANTASTIC. 

Horimiya - I’ve heard many good things about this romance show and am looking forward to it. 

Redo of Healer - Ok, here we go. This is going to be the outrage anime of the season. That is, if it is actually watched by people. It’s also getting 3 different levels of censoring so uh, I’ll have to check for the proper versions when it airs. 

So I’m a Spider, So What? - Ok, so funny story. I’d been hearing about this manga for a while so I decided to dive into it a few months back. As I read it, I thought it was pretty funny but I wondered if the anime adaptation would be great for a comedy manga about a reincarnated girl into a spider’s body. Then about 3 weeks ago, I realized I was reading the comedy spin-off instead of the main story. That said I’m still quite excited to see this adapted and I’ll get the manga after then anime is done. 

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter - Hella ecchi, actually pretty fun manga. I’m looking forward to this adaptation. 

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies moved to a started town - Hopefully this will be as fun as the manga was. Here’s a better synopsis than the Livechart one - Lloyd is the weakest person in his remote village but his dream is to become a soldier in the big city. So he moves to the city and strives to make his dream come true. However in a twist, it turns out that the remote village Lloyd came from is the retirement town for all the world’s strongest heroes and they are all massively overpowered, so when he gets to the city he’s stupidly OP but it doesn’t quite click for him. Shenanigans ensue. It’s fun and I’m looking forward to this adaptation. 

Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki - This is supposed to be not quite as good a romance as Horimiya this season, but still decent. If that is the comedy romance this is the drama romance show and hopefully it’ll be good. 

Kemono Jihen - Mystery, supernatural, Yokai. I’m intrigued in this show and hope it’s decent. 

Otherside Picnic - Shoujo Ai, Sci-Fi, I’m sold. 

Hortensia SAGA - This is based on a game, but I’ve heard that the story and scope are actually quite good and the PV actually looks quite good so I’m definitely gonna check this one out. 

SK8 the Infinity - Ok, so my first impression of this was nah, I’ll pass. But then I saw the PV and saw it was being animated by BONES and my impression changed to Ok I have to at least give it a couple episodes. 

2.43 Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team - So this is supposed to be Haikyuu except lots more drama and less gameplay. It will really have to pull me in in order to get me to not think boring Haikyuu when I watch it. I’ll give it a couple episodes. 

Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- - Doctor heals people from Yokai or something like that. The tags look interesting as do the character designs. I’ll check it out.

Back Arrow - Fantasy setting but BOOM... Mecha! That premise at least demands a couple episodes of my attention. 

Heaven’s Design Team - Here’s my chill comedy SOL show of the season. The premise is Heaven has a design team that creates/created all the animals. I’m very excited to see the shenanigans. 

Gekidol - Idols and stage acting. After watching the new Love Live last season I’m in the mood for some idol stuff. But most interesting to me is the next show on this list. 

Alice in Deadly School - It’s not currently known whether this will be a full series or an OVA or some other thing, but this is an anime of the stage play that is being put on in Gekidol. The same VAs in Gekidol that play the characters in this play are voicing the characters for this anime production. And I just think this whole setup is neat and am very interested to see it play out (pun fully intended). 

Idoly Pride - This seems to be a more straight-forward idol show which I’m going to check out. 

Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san - Girl doesn’t quite cut it to do the thing she and her friend came to do, but she found that she can cook so uses her cooking for support her friends. SOL, lets go. 

Wave!! Surfing Yappe!! - Surfing show, the animation will make or break this show so we will see how it turns out. 

Wow, that is a lot of shows, lets add them up. 

13 sequels and continuations

22 new shows

35 total. I kinda hope some of these suck cause HOT DAMN, that’s a lot of shows. 

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld episode 1

It’s here, it’s finally here. I should just start off by saying it was pretty interesting. There’s been something of a timeskip following the events of Alicization, and Kirito’s effectively comatose due to a combination of his fluctlight getting fucked up when the military raided and I’m assuming PTSD from those final events as well. I mean the dude lost his own arm, it’s still gone obviously, and Eugeo died in his arms as well, after Cardinal and her spider friend died too. Eugeo specifically Kirito had spent like, 3 or 4 years with at that point, I believe? That’s longer than he was with Asuna when she “died” in Aincrad, and also Kirito genuinely spent those entire however many years with Eugeo, whereas Asuna wasn’t even with him for those entire 2 years in Aincrad, and never even mind that she came back super shortly after, whereas Eugeo is like, legit dead. I’m spending a lot of time on this point I just think it’s worth driving home that Kirito’s kinda fucked right now.

And with Kirito being fucked, Alice actually kinda takes on the role of the main character this episode. In a thankfully quite short exposition scene we learn that all of the old Integrity Knights, which based on the OP are looking to be pretty prominent this season (Bercouli is in the OP for longer than Kirito is), kinda learned that Administrator was a bit of a dick and also the world’s fucked, so they’ve been banding together to stop the Dark Territory from fucking up the world. Because some people are still pissed that Kirito stood up against the Axiom Church though, Alice ditches with comatose Kirito and hides out near Rulid in order to protect them. This is a pretty interesting setup, and I appreciate that this episode both manages to have a slower pace since it’s mostly just an insight into what Alice and Kirito’s current life is like, but also it’s not a double length episode again and it’s mostly not even just exposition either, like we’re not just spending half of the episode talking about the plot, the plot’s actually happening. The episode does end with what looks like a Dark Territory attack though so we’ll see how that plays out next episode.

I know I didn’t say a lot here, but I’m happy SAO’s back again, and curious about where this arc will go. Alice as a main character is an interesting idea, who knows how long Kirito will be comatose likewise. The PVs and shit made me think he wouldn’t be like this for even a full episode, so already I’m surprised. We know Asuna’s gonna pop up presumably in Underworld at some point, and I feel like that might be how Kirito’s woken up, maybe she’ll do some shit IRL to get his fluctlight in working order. The question is when though because no time is spent on the real world this episode so we’ve not really got an update on the state of that military raid or how Asuna’s doing. Asuna’s a cool character so I’m looking forward to seeing her show up in Underworld, but with some hints that Alice could have feelings for Kirito I’m really fucking worried we’ll see that type of relationship drama bullshit between the two, hell even if it’s comedy and not drama I still don’t want it. Cautiously optimistic for this arc.

Also I’ve got no idea what I’ll be naming the show in these episode reviews, like I mostly would just be like “Alicization episode X” for the first season of it, so like for here should I be saying “War of Underworld episode X”? “Alicization WoU episode X”? I’ll figure out later I guess. Also MAL actually has this slated for 12 episodes, and the fourth and final cour of Alicization will start in April of next year. They’re really making us wait, huh? Nah that’s fine though, as long as it looks good I’m fine letting them take all the time they need.

That’s all I’ve got.

[stylinbreeze60]

My “WIPs”

Thanks @sugaandyams. I don't get tagged too often, so thank you!

“The Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.”

Oh my goodness. I had stuffed saved in all different places. I’ll start with the folders that contained fics that are incomplete. Welp, here I go!

Great Galactic War - this folder is the dump for my Haikyuu space/war AU, one of three or four fics I may focus on writing in the near future (first chapter is already published); the folder has very little atm, but I have about two dozen different scenes on my phone that aren't saved on PC

Kenma Project - the dump for my actively ongoing Haikyuu next gen captain war AU. I have a file in here further titled Ennoshita chapter. I wonder what that’s about? ;)

Three Kings - the dump for my Haikyuu samurai AU starring Hinata and Noya, the second possible fic I may commit to writing (first 2 chapters already published); there’s a chapter outline (which is dated because I’ve updated it in my head so much), and there are notes and many chapter tidbits on my phone too

Vice - the dump for a canonverse Haikyuu fic that was borne from a desire to write more Nekoma, so I subjected them to debilitating angst. There’s a rough chapter outline in here, and there are a couple of chapter drafts saved as emails on my phone. It’s the third fic that I might commit my time to (first 2 chapters, starring poor Inuoka, already published)

March of Justice - this folder was the dump for my aborted One Piece/My Hero Academia crossover, in which a couple of One Piece villains travel to the BnHA universe to conquer it

And here’s the rest I found. Some of these are just notes on fanciful ideas I had for a day and then never revisited. Others were never intended to see the light of day whatsoever

Abe dake ga Inai Machi - Oofuri-Erased - oh goodness. I had to stare at that title for a while to figure out what was wrong with it. An Oofuri/Big Windup fanfic that I didn’t play with for very long, but I was surprised to find I actually wrote the first chapter. Like Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (Erased), there’s a murder and then Abe finds himself transported back to the start of the Oofuri series, 10 months earlier. I reread some of this first chapter, and by my standards, it’s awful

Ace of Diamond - scandal fanfic - one of the ones never intended to see the light of day. It’s just notes. Basically Seidou pulls off its own Black Sox scandal and gets nailed, with some drama over whether Eijun is actually guilty

Ace of Iron / Ace of Swords - a Diamond no Ace samurai AU, mostly notes but also including drafts of a first chapter. It grew so huge there was no chance I could ever write it as a fanfic, so I actually converted it into an original story idea that I may do something with some day

Big Windup - cheating ploy disaster - this one is just notes and also never intended to see the light of day. An Oofuri idea in which Nishiura’s defeated rivals suspect them of cheating and kidnap the club boys to force them to confess. It goes even more downhill. (I’m very glad that, since discovering Haikyuu, I now conceive fanfics I actually want to write.)

Day of the Countercoup - I had to dig to find this one cos I knew it existed, but it wasn't a file. It was a tab in an Excel doc I used for my Haikyuu political AU, Coup d’Etat. It’s notes for an aborted sequel (Coup d’Etat’s original title was “Night of the Coup,” hence this contrasting title) that I scrapped soon after starting work on it. So glad too! Coup d’Etat got its due, and that AUverse shall be left to itself now

Haikyu - Gospel of Shouyou - oh goodness. I’m not gonna explain this one. Me experimenting, not intended to see the light of day

Haikyu - Nightmare from Heaven - this one may be the fourth candidate for continuation as a long-term fic but is currently unpublished. A war/occupation fic in which Miyagi Prefecture is conquered during a contemporary World War III, and the Karasuno boys must now live under foreign military occupation. The first chapter and part of the second were written, and I've got several notes on my phone and PC about subsequent chapters. Thank goodness tensions in that part of the world have simmered down since I devised it

Life Hereafter - Chapter 6.5 alternate ending - oh no. Life Hereafter is my darkest and most sensitive fic, published only on FFN, written to process a RL tragedy I was distantly affected by. I struggled with the ending of Chapter 6, which covered Tsukki and Yamaguchi’s coping with the canonverse tragedy. One draft (called “6.5″ in case I ever wanted to publish it, but I likely never will) featured Tsukki, seeking solace and desperately wanting to console Yamaguchi, giving in to poor judgment and kissing him. Only to then learn Yamaguchi doesn't have the same feelings back. Topping off their hurt with this was far too cruel and painful, and even before I started typing it, I knew I wouldn’t actually publish it. Rereading the draft even now made me feel uncomfortable which is why I kept it because it’s perhaps the best friendship-ruining moment I’ve ever written

Oofuri fanfic - Sakura Conspiracy - I thought I wrote a chapter 1 draft too, but this is an outline for a WWII Oofuri AU in which Nishiura, after winning Koshien in the late 20s or early 30s, moves on to military and political careers, one of their former teammates dies under suspicious circumstances, and Mihashi fears one of his old teammates may be responsible. The story stretches from 1937 to 1945

I'm actually surprised I found no notes on my Haikyuu mafia AU idea. I guess I never actually transcribed any, even though the plot is substantially complete in my head!

These four are all notes for gigantic crossovers:

Periods of World fanfic - This was an experiment, in which each century from 2000 BC to 2000 AD was listed out, a different part of the world selected for each century, and then a different anime or manga assigned to each part of the world. The idea was to write a chapter set in that century in that area starring those characters. The last chapter, for the new millennium, would have covered all parts of the world. The file is dated 2013. It never became more than this list

Periods of World fanfic 2 - and so it seems I tried again! This file is dated 2014 and shows just a teeny bit more dedication, with the 20th century further subdivided into decades, then every year from 2000-2009, and then every six months for 2010-2014. There are some different anime choices than the 2013 version. Never went anywhere with it, never gonna

Reborn epic crossover anime tribute layout - yes, that’s the literal filename. This is from my days as a Katekyo Hitman Reborn fan, and I don't even recognize most of the character names anymore. Apparently the villains of Reborn travel to seven other anime universes to kidnap major characters to sacrifice them as part of some weird magic scheme that I can’t properly decipher now

Random multi-anime WWII fanfic plan - yes, that’s also the literal filename. This is an outline for a 50-chapter crossover set before and during World War II, where the main characters of Naruto are Russian, One Piece are British, Bleach are French, Katekyo Hitman Reborn are German, Blue Exorcist are Italian, Fairy Tail are Japanese, and Ed and Al from FMA are American. The plot is emotionally devastating, doesn’t pull the punches on all sorts of WWII-related triggers, and frequently and cruelly denies catharsis.

To be perfectly honest though, rereading it, I swear this is the best story I have ever invented! It has a heartrending blend of tragedy, poignant poetic justice, subplot causality, and social commentary and contains few of the traps I sometimes fall into like cheap shock and subplots going nowhere. I really wish I could do something with this narrative now

And I’ll count the hefty handful of TV scripts I’ve written in an effort to practice and hone my scriptwriting skills. All but the last one of these are hypothetical new seasons of real anime:

Blue Exorcist s2 - 1 episode. My attempt to write the Impure King arc, years before they actually produced the Impure King arc. This was not my best work

Noragami: God’s Secret - 2 episodes for a manga-based Season 3. These were pretty decent imo

Oofuri/Big Windup: The Coming of Fall - 17 episodes. I got really into this one. A speculative season 3 assuming three cours (imo we probably won’t be blessed with that many episodes if season 3 comes), covering everything up until the end of the fall tournament. The first 13 episodes covered the story up to chapter 84 minus the Kasukabe match, followed by an OVA (ep 13.5), and then I was working on the Kasukabe match told in hindsight before planning to continue with the big game of the fall prelims. The third cour would have covered the fall tournament itself

Mekakucity Actors XX - 4 episodes. My own idea for a season 2/alternate ending. Because I was very conflicted with how the anime ended

School Babysitters - this was an original episode idea for Gakuen Babysitters that I enjoyed writing very much but turned out too long (40 pages) and features the babies turning into insects. I wouldn't mind publishing it somewhere actually!

I am going to tag @wire-pudding and @kemoiunder! Anyone else who reads this and wants to explore the abyss that is non-started WIPs, be my guest too!

[kansetsukiss]

Winter 2018: First Impressions

The new year always comes with a bout of unwarranted confidence and energy, and what better way to spend it, I thought, than by keeping entirely up to date with the new anime season. (I say “entirely,” though I have clearly omitted several shounen / fantasy shows out of respectful disinterest, and Citrus, for reasons that may evolve into their own post.) Here are the first impressions of the season’s first episodes. I’ll be checking back in halfway through and at the end of the season to chart each show’s progress. Saa, hajimaruzamasu yo!

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san

Though they’ve since been deleted, the first episode of Koizumi-san encouraged two extremely negative reviews to surface on MAL. Why anyone would submit a formal review after one episode is beyond me (get a tumblr blog, you herbs), but why this of all shows should warrant such backlash also confounds me. Yes, it’s silly - it follows goofy lesbian Oosawa Yuu as she follows her crush, the enigmatic Koizumi, from one ramen eatery to another, while Koizumi rebuffs her flirtations and educates her on various ramen cooking styles. It should be pretty fucking clear from this set-up that we’re not in for a thematically dense thrill-ride - why is this Cute Girls Doing Cute Things show apparently that much worse than others with equally pointless premises? All this said, I’m certainly wondering if the show can expand on its small roster of characters and settings to fill a full cour. Stranger things have happened. I’ll be following along, if only to hear more of Ayaneru’s darling voice acting, dreamy sigh.

Yuru Camp∆

(Don’t forget that delta!) This season’s iyashikei delivers exactly what was promised on the package, resulting in not much to say about it at all. I’m not sure the ambience here is quite luscious enough to warrant this many slow shots (cf. Studio Ghibli, Mushishi), but I was never bored, and it looks like we’ll be heading to more slice-of-life settings soon enough anyways. It’s quiet, thoroughly nice, even somewhat educational. Healing as it may be, it’s also definitely a Cute Girls show, and yes, the girls so far are very good. Fingers crossed we get some yuri with that yuru…

Sanrio Danshi

Ahh, a familiar conflict: a mega-corporation creates / sponsors art that supports progressive politics, but is also using the medium to shamelessly promote their products - cf. Pepsi, Heineken, etc. This time it’s Sanrio fighting restrictive gender stereotypes: why can’t boys be into cute animal mascots too? It’s a sweet message, but the irony of it coming directly from the merchandiser is hefty. Sanrio Boys makes an inoffensive first impression - the titular boys are entirely generic in design and expression, distinguished mostly by their mascot kyara of choice (disappointingly, my lovely Cinnamaroll has been claimed by a boofy-looking doofus). It’s shallow and ironically enjoyable, as most teen-girl-oriented media inevitably is, alas. Here lies another mystifying contradiction: a clearly low-effort show featuring an ensemble cast of five handsome but emotionally vulnerable boys is so clearly aimed at girls, so how is their boys-can-have-feelings-too message even going to land with its supposed target audience? Are the boys themselves just another marketable Sanrio product for girls?? Christ.

Violet Evergarden

Speaking of mega-corporations, Netflix is still on track to subsume all art and artists by 2020 - but hey, they’re putting out some good stuff. Violet Evergarden is a decisive question mark. I’m partial to both its main tropes of “post-war melancholy” and “emotionless person learns to feel again,” but they can intersect respectively with “leaning heavy on the Feels” and “literal objectification of women.” Violet’s emptiness doesn’t make for a compelling main character - it’s strange to see KyoAni’s unparalleled expressivity lavished upon an unexpressive character - and it’s hard to say whether her traumatic past will justify this, or just fall flat. I’m cautiously optimistic for now, and if it all does go south, I’ll always have Sora no Woto to give me the good stuff. (Special shout-out to both all-too-brief timelapse shots. KyoAni, you magnificent bastards.)

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho

I think it’s understandable that I would enter into this with trepidation - it seemed somewhere between a sports anime and a Cute Girls Etc., both of which can stretch to ridiculous settings. But it seems, in a weird way, fairly grounded. Well, I mean, for a show about high school girls travelling to Antarctica. I’m really hoping they’re not just on their way by episode 2 - Shirase’s struggle with the depressive realism of her ludicrous dream is ripe for exploring in itself. Both the main characters are wonderful; Shirase’s design indicated another taciturn raven-haired maiden (cf. Kousaka Reina), but she’s wonderfully expressive, and I’m always happy to hear Kana Hanazawa doing any voice other than Default Kana Hanazawa. Overall, it’s very nicely animated and paced, quietly comic, and almost definitely going to trip over its absurd premise by the time I next check up on it, but I suspect it will still be a fun, if silly, ride.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

OH MY GOD. I’ve only been living in a post-Sakura world for about 2 years, and this was still a quasi-religious experience; I can’t imagine how this would feel to the fans who grew up on the show. Everything about this is fucking fantastic. I’m losing the ability to criticise. I’m dangerously close to “I can’t even”-ing. The production is perfect, the sakura petals are abundant, there’s a fucking oboe solo stripped-back rendition of Platinum when Syaoran appears, the fucking ED is so beautifully animated. I’m sorry, I’m doki-doki-ing all over the place. This is the by far my favourite of the season so far. Not even Meilin’s absence can sour this for me. (Okay, maybe a little, if I really think about it :c)

Pop Team Epic

Hmmm. This was preceded by its reputation, evenly regarded by my Twitter feed as “a shitpost in anime form” and “excellent lesbian representation.” Given how dense my watchlist already is, I’m pleased to say I absolutely don’t care about this. It conveys the same humour as short-form absurdities like Teekyuu or Plastic Nee-san, but mostly leans on shallow pop-culture references and crudeness. The face that it’s a full-length show - let alone the fact that the first episode is the same half-length episode played twice - is exasperating. As a fan of Wonder Showzen and the Eric Andre Show, I see the appeal of the style, but it definitely falls short of both such marks. (And though I know this is unfair, it’s a little hard to get into something so well-received by 4chan dipshits.)

Darling in the FranXX

There’s a sexual harassment joke roughly 4 minutes into the first episode - nowhere near Bakemonogatari’s record, and not damning in and of itself, but it unfortunately does reflect the overall tone. This feels like a weird teenage rebellion by Studio Trigger, defying their parent by making their own Evangelion, with blackjack!, and hookers!, and absolutely none of the subtlety or character exploration that made Eva great. Zero Two is a deafening klaxon of fanservice masquerading as a sexually autonomous character - I wanted to believe otherwise, but her fucking robot has nice boobs, and even gets its own panty shot. The robot, which is powered by making out, mind you. I’m not one to hold low-brow shows to higher standards - I will call a fanservice-y spade a spade - but I expected more out of Trigger at this point, especially on the heels of extremely wholesome Little Witch Academia series. Even the mediocre Kiznaiver had loftier goals. I’ll keep tabs on this one - if nothing else, Trigger’s animation style and an excellent OST will sweeten a bitter pill. 

Mitchiri Neko

Hard pass. If you’re gonna watch a banal, cutesy, 3-minute runtime cat show - like, if you really need that - watch Bananya.

[xtremedespair3d]

Anime Spring 2019 Final Impressions + Plans for Summer

My favorite anime season, Summer, is almost here! As for this Spring season, it feels like this was the most shallow season yet in terms of how many shows I watch. I usually watch over 10 shows total, with one or two every day, but now I only had Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to watch anime.

It’s more like I’m going back to the good old days where I watched one or two shows before I started watching like a crapton of shows since around 2016.

Regardless, this season still packed a couple of good titles (and one I really wasn’t fond of) that I can’t wait to talk about!

Before I rank all the anime I watched this season, I’m gonna address something:

In my previous Anime Winter 2019 post, after Kemurikusa 12.1′s release, I added this sentence: “ I don’t know how long this is going to be but I’m sure it could be a weekly release,” which I was hoping to see more of what happens next, well, lately I’ve been obsessed with wanting to see 12.2 because there was no way this was going to be just a one-off short given the cliffhanger, but a little while ago as of the writing/publishing of this post, I noticed this tweet from Tatsuki which I had it in my history, I reread the tweet and I just noticed that “there may not be 12.2″... WHICH I’VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH WANTING TO SEE 12.2 FOR NOTHING, I MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS TWEET OR I’VE NEVER USED GOOGLE TRANSLATE OTHER THAN THE MICROSOFT TRANSLATION FROM TWITTER... Oh well, I guess Kemurikusa 12.1 really is going to be a one-off short, I wanted to see more Wakaba interacting with Ryou, Ryoku and Riku, oh well, looks like we’re going back in full circle with Kemono Friends 12.1. I had to address this so I wouldn’t constantly update the previous post and nobody would have read it anyways (just like every post I make).

Anyways, sorry for making a long speech that drags the purpose of this post, so let’s get right to my rankings! Starting with my brand new tier list, then I’m going to explain what do their rankings mean:

1.- Kimetsu no Yaiba: This is it. This is the GOAT of the season. I have become quite the Ufotable fan since the Fate specials with Emiya-san chi no Kyou no Gohan and FGO x Himuro no Tenchi, and now it was the perfect time to keep up with their recent projects, and I did not expect their next big TV project would happen to be a Shonen Jump series.

Not only I would expect the good old exact same animation from Ufotable from Fate, Tales or even Touken Ranbu, but they have delivered something MORE than that, they delivered like really wild new additions to their style, like the water splashes from Tanjiro’s attacks and stuff. They even started doing CG on the characters when they’re like really far from the camera, which it’s a first for Ufotable and I’m VERY impressed, I’m so impressed to the point where I’d really love to see a Ufotable anime with their inhouse CG 100%, I don’t care if it would look good or bad, I just want that to happen.

I was initially disappointed that they didn’t deliver this face (pictured) like I wanted, but later episodes are really bringing the hilarious faces from the manga (I really haven’t read much, but I did see an image in 4chan which compiles the hilarious faces in one image. I read the first three chapters and then chapter 26 just so I can see when does Inosuke’s face reveal happen).

It’s even better that this is a two-cour series, I’m always really looking forward to watch Kimetsu no Yaiba every Saturday!

Ufotable continues to be the GOAT! I don’t give a shit about tax fraud and stuff, they just keep going!

10/10 - Rank: S++ - 100%

2.- Bungou Stray Dogs season 3: After seeing the film, Dead Apple, I was so ready to watch season 3 if this great series. And surprisingly this season only lasted for one-cour compared to the previous seasons (I always thought it was just like one season but with two-cour episodes and they just called it season 1 and season 2).

Anyways, I hope Bones will continue making more Bungou Stray Dogs seasons. Cheers to another great season of Bungou Stray Dogs!

9.5/10 - Rank: S++ - 97%

3.- Isekai Quartet: This is the perfect isekai crossover I had hoped for, and thank god there’s a second season happening. Now, who are the new characters going to be introduced in that season as teased in the first season finale...? 🤔

9.5/10 - Rank: S+ - 95%

4.- Watanuki-san Chi No: To be honest, I really liked this one a lot than Virtual-san wa Miteiru. There’s just something about the production values(?) that makes this stand out and become way better than Virtual-san wa Miteiru, it’s doesn’t include much over-the-top craziness and stuff like that. Unlike Virtual-san wa Miteiru, this one’s classified as a “drama” (or dorama even) and it’s hard for me to classify this as an anime like Virtual-san wa Miteiru.

Why do I keep bringing Virtual-san wa Miteiru a lot? Well, I think we’ve come to the point where anime with Virtual Youtubers such as this and Watanuki-san Chi No is becoming part of the animation industry’s future. Instead of handdrawing the VTubers (which I would definitely prefer for a VTuber anime 100%), how about just using Unity?

Anyways, let’s go to the topic of Watanuki-san Chi No because I’m dragging this with all the Virtual-san wa Miteiru talk. Though, to be honest, there isn’t much to discuss here. It’s a slice-of-life show with three sisters (Played by Tokino Sora, Sarugakuchou Futaba and Hibiki Ao) and all kinds of random situations happen, that’s about it.

...You know, I think I should rewatch Virtual-san wa Miteiru. I don’t want to disservice how poorly made and wonky it can be, they’re trying to be really wacky as possible (but there are moments that did cringe me out but whatever), this and Watanuki-san Chi No could be one of my Top anime of the year.

By the way, there’s something I forgot to address on Watanuki-san Chi No. Yes, there are torrents, but surprisingly no one has done any subtitles for them and Crunchyroll or any other streaming platform has picked up this series (yet). And everytime I watch an episode of Watanuki-san Chi No, I want to subtitle the series myself.

8.5/10 - Rank: A- - 87%

5.- Attack on Titan season 3 part 2: Seems like the wait was quite worth it, this second part of the third season really delivered some really good plotlines, twists and everything. And season 4 is indeed coming out... and it’s going to be the last.

The planned release for season 4 is, get this, Fall 2020. It’s long ages away and I can’t even process how would WIT Studio be able to adapt the manga’s ending if it’s possible, because Fall 2020 sounds like a good time for the manga to have ended since, depending on when will it be.

I really hope this fourth season could be two-cour, or maybe even more if they can, they’ve come a long way from the long delay for the second part of season 3 only for season 4 to be one-cour to adapt little material, it would be a huge waste if that were to happen. And I really hope we won’t get an anime original ending or something.

Maybe it could be like a Tokyo Ghoul:re situation, where they started doing the anime adaptations when the manga was about to finish (or has already ended?), then the second season came and it adapted the finale. That could defintely work for Attack on Titan, except WIT would definitely adapt the manga properly, unlike Pierrot because they had no idea what to do.

Anyways, we’ve come a really long way to see Attack on Titan end, especially the anime. With the manga and the anime ended, what will it be for the future of Attack on Titan, or even Hajime Isayama himself?

8.5/10 - Rank: A+ - 86%

6.- Fruits Basket 2019: This remake of Fruits Basket, even without reading the manga or seeing the original anime, is definitely quite solid.

Speaking of the original, I started to feel like I wanted to the original just for comparison, but I don’t really feel like watching the original as much as like I did with Kemurikusa. Besides, there are some changes that I’m not too comfortable with in the original, such as minor details like character appearances, and a big one I recently found was Akito’s gender (she’s female in the manga, the original anime made her male), so I don’t need to watch the original and just stick with this one, instead.

Like Kimetsu no Yaiba, this one is going to be two-cours (or seasons?) too, so I’m looking forward to see the ending of the series adapted.

8/10 - Rank: B+ - 82%

7.- Miru Tights: This is one of the shows I legit have mixed feelings on but I don’t know why. I’m trying to find some logical reasons why I shouldn’t make a disservice for this show. Like, this series is supposed to be targeted for Yom and tights fans, which it’s fine, but I’m kind of too biased on stockings than tights, and secondly, there isn’t much of a story that’s supposed to have, all we can do is just watch tights, that’s all. The animation is really quite solid for a newly founded studio and for a 3 minute short series, and they made a pretty good job on recreating Yom’s art style really well.

If what I mentioned sound positive, then why do I feel mixed on Miru Tights? ...I honestly don’t know. 😂 

Maybe I’m on the same field as Virtual-san wa Miteiru, this is not for the faint of heart for normal people and such (I searched on YouTube and there was one akidearest video where, even from the title and description, I can tell that she’s confused. I’m not gonna watch the actual video, so I’ll let you watch and interpret from what you saw).

I’ve been expecting someone to ever say this, and it breaks my heart to say this myself, but... Yom, you’re better off doing only illustrations and never do an anime like this ever again.

At least the one thing I can highlight is that it can be viewed on YouTube with English captions and... uh... I just noticed that episodes 2 to 7 are... Privatized... (As of the publishing of this post, the series is up to episode 8)

Okay, I’ve always been feeling mixed on Miru Tights for a while now, but now I have found an actual reason to HATE Miru Tights! Way to waste accessibility for Western viewers, TRUSS.

Some people say that it could be for the Blu-Ray release, I don't fucking believe it because they have uploaded these episodes and I already witnessed them all, how come they could privatize these videos for the BD release? And I can't even bother to care to support TRUSS at all.

Anyways, the other and BETTER highlights are that they actually made the Twitter accounts of two of the main characters featured in one episode. Yua’s account, Ren’s account. This is the kind of meta easter eggs I love to see. Things from in-universe that are in real life.

One last thing, TRUSS...

6/10 - Rank: C - 64%

It definitely deserves these scores!

UPDATE - July 27th:

Now that the series has ended (and a 13th special episode is underway), my impressions on the series remains but I might have slightly changed a bit: This is the most boring anime I’ve ever watched in my life and I can’t stress enough on how TRUSS wasted their YouTube accessibility by privatizing... every episode...

WELL, I’LL BE DAMNED!

Okay, forget about the whole thing about TRUSS privatizing every episode as a new one comes every week, problem solved! 👍

However, my impressions on Miru Tights still remains, it sucks. Not only I’m not the biggest tights person (as I’m mainly biased to stockings), the anime overall is very boring. It has some decent moments here and there and the animation is great too, but the series didn’t impress me and give me high hopes like I wanted to.

I wish I wasn’t this negative on the series but for some reason I feel conflicted about it.

One last thing to say: Getsuyoubi no Tawawa is way better than this.

UPDATE - July 30th:

I randomly checked TRUSS’ channel and... episodes 2 to 11 are gone once again. Jesus christ, this is unbelieveable...

Literally as soon as episode 12 went live, all of the episodes were available, but now you just privatized the rest of the series again? I fucking hate you guys so much.

End of update.

And finally...

8.- One-Punch Man season 2: One-Punch Man 2 was destined to be my worst anime of the season, if not of the year, two seasons in a row (Kemono Friends 2 was my worst of Winter), and boy, it really delivered. The moment I heard that they were changing studios from Madhouse to J.C Staff, I always knew things weren’t going to be right and indeed happen.

There’s a lot to talk about what’s wrong with OPM2 and I can’t even process, let me get straight to the point.

For starters, the story of the season is relatively faithful to the manga. The next arc after the Boros starts with King casually walking, finds a monster and then King runs away freaking out that he’s not a real hero and stuff, that’s the first thing I caught on. I really can’t remember what I read from the manga for a long time, other than the Metal Bat vs Garou and, of course, the Miss Blizzard vs Do-S fights, but still, my point remains that story is faithful.

The story being close to the manga should be one of the things why season 2 shouldn’t be bad, but you’re wrong, let’s talk about the most important thing I’ve been looking forward to find out if it turned out to be good or bad: The ANIMATION.

The animation, well, the animation is not My Sister, My Writer-tier, or worse, Marchen Madchen-tier god awful, let’s get that out of the way. But it just doesn’t go in par with season 1′s visual style and everything. Let’s start with the metal textures because, look at this!

The metal textures just look AWFUL, even worse when they’re in motion, they just don’t blend with everything else. Maybe they tried to emulate Murata’s style with the metal, but they failed miserably.

There are also a couple of moments that had some action but they’re ruined by motion blur, I wouldn’t like to judge their decision on why they’re doing this, I mean, dimming the screen down is one thing, but motion blur? That shit can get really confusing, and the first season never had these kinds of blurs, it’s always been more smear.

There was this one episode from the Metal Bat vs Garou fights that had a giant centipede monster that was fully CGI. Seeing CG in OPM is something I never knew I needed, but it actually looks really well animated and well blended with the background and visuals, this was one of the few decently animated moments from this entire season. (Here’s a GIF of it)

The later episodes definitely have some sakuga, but even so, they couldn’t even come close to redeem myself on being optimistic with this entire season, I just can’t forgive its existence in general.

One last thing to talk about the animation, THE MOST INCRIMINATING THING EVER, was to show this flashback from the first season and LOOK HOW THEY KEPT THE SEASON 1 VISUALS AND STUFF!

Everytime I’m seeing clips of the first season, it’s always so painful to see how awesome they were and then look at season 2, what a big downgrade.

Voice performances and music are the highlights of this season. Though, in terms of the music... JAM Project’s opening for this season is SO DISAPPOINTING. I seriously expected something to top THE HERO!! or be around the same level of awesomeness as THE HERO!! and the Genos character song, Burning Blue ～蒼炎のソルジャー～ , but no, this opening is just boring. While at times it was stuck in my head, but it shouldn’t be somewhat catchy, I wouldn’t like to judge their direction too much, but come on...

And I think that’s pretty much everything I needed to discuss. Overall, I’m not really hoping for a third season of One-Punch Man, or maybe I do want it but with, you know, Madhouse? Just what kind of excuse was for the change of studio from Madhouse to JC Staff? All Shingo Natsume and Madhouse did recently was the new Boogiepop anime with mediocre character designs. But then there’s also the fact that this Monsters Association arc in the manga is taking forever to finish, so we might not see a third season in like another 4 or 5 years.

For some reason One-Punch Man 2 is still praised by Japanese viewers, I saw a screenshot of a NicoNico stream with over 80% of “I really liked it”, even ONE and Yusuke Murata still praise, which I don’t really mind if they like it, but we, Westerners, hate it to death because it’s just not the same at least in terms of animation. The story is mostly fine but it just cannot be told properly with poor animation. Season 1 may not be a perfect adaptation, as there are some things that doesn’t do the manga justice, especialy this, but it did have heart and some really clean animation that season 2 completely lacks.

At least the good thing to spawn from season 2 is more Miss Blizzard fan arts and started to give Do-S fan arts and cosplay. (I’m a simple person, don’t judge me.)

Another weird thing that this second season spawned is... a video game. Like, really? Why a video game of all things now? Not to mention that it has Boros on it, and this game would most likely cover the first season, which it’s been like 3 and a half years (I wish I could say 4 years but not without doing the math) and we’re already into season 2, which is what Bandai Namco is trying to capitalize.

Anyways, let’s settle this:

Ups:

+1: Story faithful to the manga, performances, soundtrack, etc.

+1: Few moments with decent animation.

Downs:

-98: The god awful animation and tryhard sakuga moments, even some action scenes ruined by motion blur.

Overall:

2/10 - Rank: D - 22%

At least One-Punch Man 2 deserves a bit of high score unlike Kemono Friends 2 which I gave it a perfect 0.

Let’s move on to the hottest titles I’m looking forward this Summer!

(Get it? Hottest, because... it’s Summer... and... it’s really hot... uh...)

1.- Girls’ Frontline short anime - Late July: I really want to watch this so bad and yes, it was supposed to be slated for a Spring release but nothing came of it, and I’m angry, but now we definitely have some more information that it’ll come out in Late July... As for Late July when ,exactly? As of the writing/publishing of this, there’s still no info about this series, hopefully they won’t delay it again until the Fall season with a definitive air date or something. (although, if they were, please make sure it’s going to be on October 4th)

Another interesting thing I just discovered was that I saw a random Japanese person tweet this GIF which kinda looks suspicious... I asked them where did they find it and they gave me the Imgur link, which happened to be posted on... JULY 16TH, 2018. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!

I don’t know how long this anime has been in development, but for a scene to be leaked as a GIF in Imgur last year is quite something. A scene happened to be leaked but nobody has ever even talked about it, and with how long this has been in the making, only to be announced to Chinese and Japanese streams now really boggles my mind.

Anyways, I really hope I get to watch this Girls’ Frontline anime at long last, at least the one with the story characters like the AR Team and 404, the other one... speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve ever heard about that one either. What if that one is going to be this short series instead of the one with the AR Team and 404? Whatever it ends up being, just give me this Girls’ Frontline short anime series, please. I’ve been waiting so long not to watch it... or if it could ever get downright cancelled.

2.- Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - July 6th: Episode 0 from the Fate New Year in December 2018/January 2019 was relatively solid and I’m definitely looking forward to watch this series. The one thing that’s kind of holding back the interest is that, first off, this is going to be a two-cour series, which it’s cool, but the first cour is going to be entirely anime original, and then the second cour is going to adapt the first volume (or first couple? I can’t remember), like... isn’t that troublesome, especially for the Type-Moon community. At least the author, Makoto Sanda, is supervising the series, but is it really necessary to make an entirely anime original first cour and then the second cour to adapt the volumes? Was there some sort of proper communication or Makoto Sanda really wanted this?

I feel like there’s definitely some Fate anime fatigue going on, people might be getting burned out on these adaptations recently, Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Extra: Last Encore, neither of which were kind of well-received. I really wouldn’t like to rely too much on opinions from the people I trust or I think way too highly of them, but if that’s what they feel, then I wish to stop talking to them in my entire life.

The thing is, I definitely started to have quite the hatred for fandoms and stuff, not only they could be annoying but I always picture them as hardcore elitists, extremists, etc. (Yes, I have that kind of an outlandish imagination), because I always feel like if I say something like I didn’t have problems with an adaptation, or that I really enjoyed it, I stan it, etc., I feel like I’m gonna get my ass contradicted and I hate when people do that to me. You should learn to respect other people’s opinions and let them have the right to enjoy things you don’t like. That’s why I want to be independent, I want to be alone and have all my interests to myself, instead of being in communities, because people tend to be really hateful on things I don’t care, I don’t have problems with or things I outright love. (I’m very sensitive about my tastes, okay?)

Anyways, I’m still going to watch Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, and then the Fate/Grand Order Babylonia series on Fall and so on. I just love watching Fate anime adaptations regardless of what people think of Apocrypha and Extra: Last Encore (Especially the latter because I have indeed played the original Fate/Extra game, while it did kind of freaked me out with the changes in a negative way, I’ve come to really like Last Encore, I might go so far that it’s an underrated masterpiece for the Fate/Extra players like me, who has high positive opinions on the games, unlike UQXveva sebz ECT Fvgr)

3.- Danmachi season 2 - July 12th: I wish I had seen the film before I start watching season 2. Hell, the film was even on Mexico, but I had to choose John Wick 3 over the Danmachi film.

UPDATE - August 9th:

Long after started watching the season, around the premier day, I had watched the movie which thankfully it got torrented, I thought I had to wait forever for the subs because movies tend to take so long to release, but now I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

End of update.

4.- Okaa-san wa Suki desu ka? - July 12th: I plan on watching this mainly for one thing: Recreating Iida Pochi’s art style faithfully, and from what I’ve seen in the trailers, JC Staff did a very good job, it looks solid. (At least this is one thing I forgive JC Staff for, unlike that piece of shit that is One Punch Man season 2)

So, with this isekai mom series, will we get an Ane Naru Mono adaptation some day?

5.- Fire Force - July 5th: I have never watched Soul Eater but this series is by the same person who did Soul Eater, with David Production doing the adaptation, from what I’ve seen and given that it’s David Production, this is legit giving me Cells at Work! vibes, this is like Cells at Work! but with fire fighters.

(Speaking of Cells at Work!, season 2 babyyy)

6.- Granbelm - July 5th: This little original project seems interesting. Well, probably the main selling point for me is the Re:Zero artist doing the character designs. Since this is an original anime with mecha, I hope the outcomes and everything turns well, because original mecha anime tend to be controversial. Look at Evangelion and even Franxx.

Watching the trailers, for some reason this kind of gives me Princess Principal vibes, but it’s not really like Princess Principal, unless I’m talking about interesting looking original anime with character designs by well-known illustrators. (Speaking of Princess Principal, when will we get updates from the 6 films and who’s going to be the new voice of Ange?)

7.- Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? - July 3rd: I can already feel pain and regret from watching this because I recently decided to quit going to the gym because I was getting bored. 😂

8.- Tejina Senpai/Magical Sempai - July 2nd: I’ve seen some crossover/mash-up fan arts of the heroine and Hotaru Shidare from Dagashi Kashi and I believe that’s quite a lovely selling point. I was feeling 50/50 before but now I’m definitely feeling like doing it.

Why would the English title be called “Magical Sempai”, with Senpai being an M?

Thanks for reading this post, what is your anticipated anime of the season? And make sure you’re well hydrated because the world is fucking burning and I can’t stand a moment without having the AC on.

---

Carrd.

I can’t dividers on Tumblr anymore?! THAT SUCKS!!!

[rieshon]

Summer 2018 Preview

I haven't been keeping up on anime news too well lately so I have almost no idea about anything that's airing next season. This might not be a very good preview.

1 Yama no Susume Third Season: Fuck yes. One of the best cute girls doing cute things series of the past decade is back and it's going to be amazing. I just hope the pattern holds and we get four cours worth.

2 Sunoharasou no Kanrininsan: Cute girl 4koma anime from Oonuma Shin? It's a masterpiece. Girls all look adorable and there's definitely something here for everyone, but holy shit Ayaneru as a lewd brown gyaru? Anime of the year right here.

3 Asobi Asobase: I read some of the manga of this when it was free on eBookJapan and let me tell you, you have no idea what you're getting into here. It's supposed to be about "cute girls playing cute games" but it's actually insane. This anime is going to be great.

4 Jashin-chan Dropkick: I've been hype for this one for a while. Cute monster girls get into shenanigans. The PV gives nothing away, but I've seen some of the original manga and it's pretty funny.

5 Chuukan Kanri Roku Tonegawa: Everyone's favorite middle manager is back! We may well never get a third season of Kaiji proper, but man, just seeing that Madhouse FKMT art style again is getting me misty-eyed. Don't know a whole lot about the manga but I'm sure it will be godlike.

6 Harukana Receive: I swear guys I only watch it for the volleyball... Another all girls sports anime, but this one looks like it's going all in on the lewd beach bods. It doesn't look it, but this is actually a Kirara anime (albeit one from Forward) so I'm definitely optimistic about it.

7 Yuragisou no Yuuna-san: If you know me you know how much I love cute ghost girls, so you should be able to guess how excited I am for this anime. I've actually read some of the manga (cause cute ghost girls) and it's a pretty good if standard lewd romantic comedy, with the added bonus of CUTE GHOST GIRL WOO WOO. She even has the head triangle which is the most important part.

8 Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro: Why do I get Hinamatsuri vibes from this? It's not just cause that one guy looks like Nitta either. I think I remember seeing the trailer for this a while back and it looks bonkers. This'll also be the first time in a long while I've heard Omigawa Chiaki in a major role... interested to see if she's improved in the intervening years.

9 Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight: It's like an idol anime but they're doing musicals instead. At least it's something different. If it's anything like all-female theater in real life it'll be gay as hell, and some of the girls look great.

10 Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu: The title is... what it is, but this actually looks like a pretty decent shinshi anime. Character designs are lewd, animation looks great... sign me the fuck up. Finally some good fucking Blade Dance anime.

11 ISLAND: This is animated by based feel so I'll definitely still watch it, but I'm super bitter about them removing Rieshon from the leading role because the director didn't get along with her. This would have been a great Rieshon girl goddamnit. Eroge adaptations are sadly vanishing from the Earth but this is coming out of Front Wing so hopefully it'll still have that same aesthetic.

12 Hataraku Saibou: So I can't watch the trailer for this because Youtube, but holy shit it's Japanese Osmosis Jones. Definitely a concept for an anime I haven't seen before (besides, you know, Osmosis Jones) so I'm looking forward to it for the novelty if nothing else. Red blood cell looks cute!! I bet this is going to be full of all kind of blood type bullshit though, because Japan.

13 HaneBad!: Badminton club with sometimes badminton? The girl with the glasses looks super cute. Not a whole lot else to say about a sports anime, I think we all know what we're getting into here.

14 Back Street Girls: Back street's back alright! Come on guys you can't just make an idol anime and call it this. Apparently this is about yakuza idols, which sounds like it could be amazing, but I guess it's more of a goofy thing than a scathing indictment of the corruption of the idol industry.

15 High Score Girl: It's funny to think that a couple years ago this series was on the verge of death because of unlicensed use of Sega trademarks in the manga, and now it's getting an anime full of actual game footage and shit. They even lampshade this in the trailer for it. The CG looks pretty garbo, but a lot of people like the manga so hopefully it'll be amusing.

16 Ongaku Shoujo: For a second I thought this was that light novel series where famous composers are cute little girls, but nope, just another generic-ass looking idol anime. If the character designs weren't so fucking amazing I would already have checked out, but damn, these grils.

17 Planet With: I can't tell if this is supposed to be a kid's anime of if it's just meant to look like one. Regardless, a kiddy robot anime might be fun, and it's got J.C. production values.

18 Aru Zombie Shoujo no Sainan: Can't believe they're making Zombiko into an anime. This honestly looks kind of terrible but Hayamin and Chanyui is a powerful combo so I guess. Just really not digging the character designs, and it looks like one of those anime that's too dark (tonally) for its own good.

19 Satsuriku no Tenshi: Be careful not to cut yourself on all the sharp edges on this one. It's got bloody lolis, maniacally laughing men who love murder, death games... This looks like one of those "drop halfway through the first episode" shows. The loli does look real cute though! Real good blondenblu.

20 Happy Sugar Life: With a title like this you would expect the cutest anime ever, so of course it's actually some edgy bullshit with girls with butcher's knives and tasers. Why you gotta do this to me anime? Is it so wrong to just want some cute girls cuting? I just wanna see cute Za-san girl adopt a cute loli damnit.

21 Tenrou Sirius the Jaeger: It looks like they're going really hard on trying to capture the Western audience with this one (the PV even has hilariously bad English subtitles) which immediately gives me pause, but the production values do look pretty high and there's a couple pretty hot girls in it. Not expecting to actually watch this one through though.

22 Lord of Vermillion Guren no Ou: I thought the title of this sounded familiar, and I guess it's based on a card game. I really like the look of that Ao-chan girl but that's pretty much the only thing here I like the look of. WIXOSS will always have the best cute girl card game anime.

23 Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyrja: Boy that is a title. While our other LN adaptation with an embarassing title this season looks pretty good, this one definitely looks like a bottom-of-the-barrel reject. When the art in your key visual doesn't even really look good, you know you're gonna have problems.

24 Shichisei no Subaru: This looks extremely generic even by generic fantasy light novel standards... Not a single thing about it stands out, other than the fact that a couple of my favorite up-and-coming seiyuu are in it. I guess I'll watch an episode, maybe it'll surprise me.

25 Phantom in the Twilight: This is based on a game from Happy Elements, the same company behind Last Period, which immediately gives me expectations that are way too high, even if it's unfair. This one's not even a comedy and looks like some kind of edgy otome game. Actually I'm not even going to watch this, I just wanted to say how fucking good Last Period was.

[httpskihyun]

22 november 2017

dear kihyun,

my baby!! my angel!! my entire world!! i miss you so so much you don’t even know i’m literally rotting in my seat as i’m typing i’m so anxious and slightly sad but at the same time so in LOVE because of YOU! hhh this is the most informal piece of shit i’ve probably ever gonna write so i might as well make it cringy too 1!!1! firstly i’m incredibly anxious because i go on fucking school camp/hike tomorrow where i’ll spend 5 days climbing mountains with a 20kg+ pack and endless walking each day (apparently the total length is gonna be 60km fml) but whatever :’)) then i’m so sad because i miss your birthday and so many other things i won’t be able to see ur face smiling laughing enjoying your time with everyone else it feels like i’m being stabbed in the heart but i can always watch it when i get back right …

so now let’s take a quick road trip back in time and i’ll try my best to recount how exactly you suddenly became my ult huhuhu … so i started getting into monsta x after newton but i knew you since debut bc my friend is a massive fan of yours so she made me watch some of your stuff haha :D my first bias was hyungwon and i still love him to bits of course! then i had a little existential crisis and practically stanned 4 people at once (at least i’m not ashamed of admitting it /coughs) and most recently before you it was hoseok! i still love him too but i reckon it was rewatching all the music videos and hearing your gorgeous gorgeous voice soothe my mind and my heart … you kinda just dragged me into a never ending pit of Kihyun but i feel kinda proud i fell into your trap before dramarama like everyone else did hahaha :’’’)) alternatively it was your pink hair because i’m a sucker for you being all cute :(( or actually it could’ve been when i discovered the cure to my entire life aka kiho i’m actually trash but ur just so pERFECT NEXT TO HIM HOW

i wish you knew how many times i’ve dozed off in class thinking about you Would You Stop Doing That Please! i’m kidding i think i’m at the point where i’m willing to sacrifice my grades for you HAHA don’t tell my parents but i love you so much? this is crazy?? i’m going crazy??? also this is random but i forgot to talk about your lisp i’m listening to one more step and i keep hearing your lisp and eeee you are the Cutest your lisp is so perfect please don’t look down on yourself for having one because it’s beautiful and it just makes me love you so much more Mister Yoo (i cringed writing that give me a break). you look unbelievably good like a 3 cours- no a 6 course meal i can’t believe i only have like 300 pictures of you on my laptop/phone i must expand my collection vastly hopefully it’ll come with time (also rip my laptop is already out of storage 24/7 the fuck do i do) i gotta say although your pink hair was a killer i love your natural hair colours too especially black and brown and blonde can we just taLK ABOUT STUCK ERA FOR A SECOND i changed my mind i think watching stuck is what transformed me into who i am today who the fuck let you style your hair like that every time i see pictures of That Hair i bust a colossal nut you also know you looked good why was your aim to kill everyone who looked at you??

let’s not forget you cooking oh dear miss emily here has ascended to heaven just thinking about your cooking vlives just you rolling up your sleeve is enough to send my soul into self-destruct mode who the heck let you ever enter the kitchen in the first place i don’t even truST YOU WITH KNIVES you obvious don’t know what you’re doing but you’re so damn cute doing it anyways so i just have to love you god damnit!!! your actually the cutest and so funny too you told everyone to not wear white shirts when cooking but guess what you wore a white shirt in each of your cooking vlives i’ve never wanted to punch you that badly in my entire life jesus christ pLEASE. also never again let minhyuk cook with you a whole onion just doesn’t belong in the spaghetti you assholes.

right so another reason why i look up to you is how you love all the other members! i don’t want to label you as the “mother” of monsta x i mean i see it but at the same time i slightly disagree with it but you just spread so much love every time you smile or hug the other members their faces light up they know you love them and they love you back you’re just so sweet!!! you care for them so much and i’m so grateful i don’t think monsta x would be monsta x without you so thank you for bringing your personality and your unique qualities into the group. don’t change because other people want you to and stay true to who you are because you are wonderful.

one of my biggest regrets is not making the effort to go to kcon aus. i probably could’ve gone … but i didn’t think it would be worth it and in the end it would’ve been hard to find friends who could go anyways. you looked so good that weekend i sincerely hope you had a great time in australia and even consider coming back for a concert if you’re planning any tours in the upcoming years! i swear to god just hearing concert experiences from friends makes me cry on the inside they all tell me you’re tiny irl and i’m tiny too but i can’t imagine you being too small but again you always seem to prove me wrong so i guess the only way to find out and fulfil my curiosity would be to see you in real life and i would definitely attend any concert you’re in man i wish i were lying when i say i would work every bit of my body off to pay for vip tickets and whatever else just so i can see you in real life. i already know my new years resolution for 2018 and that’s gonna be to get a fucking job, see monsta x live in concert and lasting continuing loving you until my heart explodes :)) your smile is so so beautiful my heart flutters every single time i see it it’s always the highlight of my day please continue to throw back your head and laugh it means so much that you’re happy! just the way your flash your teeth all the time and it’s so perfect and your tiny nose scrunch is the cuteST YOU’RE A BABY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

i hope you get treated like the prince you are on your birthday and get lots of gifts and love because you deserve the most!! i’m so proud of you baby!!! when you go through hard times be optimistic even though it’s hard, but the end result will be worth it! please continue to love yourself and take care of yourself, your health and happiness is most important to me so please keep it up! you’re never gonna read this but if you ever come across kihyun antis kindly tell them to Back The Fuck Off or i will go over there myself and season their eyelids with salt and pepper ((: stay true to yourself, never give up (i know you won’t) and keep spreading your beautiful kindness! you’re the best man i’ve ever come across in my life and it’s honestly no longer a joke i love the shit out of you you occasionally rip my heart into pieces but that’s totally okay because in the end you manage to mend the pieces back together again <3 thank you so so much for existing it’s cheesy i know but my future just became so so brighter with you in it i won’t ever leave you i promise!! i’ll be here to support you whether the matter be small or enormous i love you my head is spinning i’m going to meet you i can feel it i’m gonna pour all my love onto you when i do and you’re going to be like What The Fuck who is this creep but i really hope it at least puts a smile on your face. i love you i love you i love you i hope you have the most wonderful birthday and i’m still punching myself because i’m the worst person ever because i’m missing it. i’ll be thinking of you on the 22nd, please be safe and stay lovely until then, i love you so much.