#psycho pass season 2 episode 3

[weareallgonnaliveforawhile]

More questions >:]

1. You said kokomi stays with reigen half the time, do you mean she often stays at his place so she can avoid makoto?

2. What is mobs and kokomis relationship like? Like, are they friends or just acquaintances?

3. You said the story takes place before the mob psycho story, but will it get to it? I mean will we see things that happen like dimple appearing? Or will it all stay before the mp100 story? (Sorry I had no idea how to properly explain what I meant)

4. When in the saiki k story does the au take place?

EEEEE!! MORE QUESTIONS > : D

1. You said Kokomi stays with Reigen half the time, do you mean she often stays at his place so she can avoid Makoto?

It absolutely does, you hit the nail on the head. After Reigen realizes what Makoto is like and the fact that she's financially dependent on him most of the time, he offers to let her stay at his place whenever she wants to avoid Makoto or just wants to get away from that house. This offer is immediately followed by a panicked explanation that Reigen also wouldn't be in the house because he'd never want to make her uncomfortable.

Kokomi ends up taking him up on that offer pretty soon and is at his house the next day. It's smaller than her own, and it's not what she's used to at all. She's tense the entire night and wakes up early.

She ends up wandering into the kitchen to find that Reigen also woke up early. He pours her a cup of tea, and they watched the shitty cartoons that were on at that hour.

After that, she's not really afraid of Reigen anymore.

2. What is Mobs and Kokomi's relationship like? Like, are they friends or just acquaintances?

They started as just acquaintances because Kokomi refused to let him really get close to her. They got closer as time passed and after the 'incident' where Reigen punched Makoto in the face, she let herself get close with him! As of episode 1 of Mob Psycho, she's a bit like an older sister to him. Often times she'll stay after her required hours at Spirits and Stuff to help him study.

They also text a bit out of work because Mob values her (and Reigens) opinion on a lot of teenage-related problems, and because texting him or Reigen helps her relax from the persona that she constantly puts on. (Though, I can not stress enough how suspicious Ritsu is of her)

As the story goes on, they get a lot closer, and they deal with some of the main themes of the AU, like 'What does Power Mean' or 'Is it possible to be normal?'

3. You said the story takes place before the mob psycho story, but will it get to it? I mean will we see things that happen like dimple appearing? Or will it all stay before the mp100 story? (Sorry I had no idea how to properly explain what I meant)

Oh, that's a perfect question because this AU was made to follow along with the Mob Psycho story! It will absolutely get to the main storyline of Mob Psycho, a lot of the stuff I previously mentioned except Reigen and Kokomi's platonic relationship happens in what I consider the past, of sorts.

4. When in the Saiki k story does the au take place?

Kokomi joins Spirits and Stuff a few days after episode 22 (Chapter 107 in the manga) and the main storyline takes place in season 2!

Edit: Okay so ignore this bit below. Turns out that I got confused about how the timeloop worked.

[sunspots-non-sorts]

Psycho-Pass - season 3 - episode 2 - part 1 of 2.

[ecargmura]

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Episode 26 Review + Final Thoughts - A Banger Of A Finale

I guess this is a BANGER of a finale. I wonder if they’ll announce a Season 3 because there’s definitely no way it just ends there without a solid conclusion to defeating the enemies. I hope they do. I mean, that’s the reason why they didn’t make RonToto kiss—they gotta delay it until the grand finale.

Anyways, the episode starts off with Toto telling Tiger Dan about his contradiction. If murdering Jim Gore was a success, then they wouldn’t have needed to kill the people involved, meaning that Jim Gore wasn’t murdered and that he was alive all this time. While he was partially correct, Toto still did a great job deducing it. This means that Ron’s father Eliot made a mistake and that was why he died, which was the reason why Ron lost some of his childhood memories; sometimes, memories of a very painful event can be erased from the mind because the brain does that. However, it turned out that Eliot wasn’t a terrible father as he loved Ron dearly. He married his mother who’s a member of the Holmes family and that’s how Ron is a forbidden child of sorts. Despite that Eliot wanted Ron to live his own life where he’s neither Moriarty or Holmes. Eliot does seem like he was a kind father; if Ron’s mother ever makes an appearance, I hope we get to learn more about Eliot.

It also turns out that the teddy bear belongs to Mylo Moriarty and he’s the leader of the M family. Did you know that the voice that the teddy bear used belongs to Neeko? If you’re not a KHR fan, you might not know this, but the voice that the bear uses belongs to the voice actress of the titular Reborn! First they got Hummingbird voiced by Takahiro Sakurai who voiced Shogo Makishima from Psycho-pass, a work where Amano designed the characters and now they brought in Neeko who was from Amano’s most famous work? What a great way to end the finale and the year. The cutesy voice does make the bear a lot more sinister.

The explosion scene was crazy but it was cool seeing Toto save all the people and then going back for Ron. Man, these last few episodes have been making Toto look super cool. See how he was in the beginning of the first season and compare him to now. His aura definitely changed. It was really nice seeing him going back for Ron because he cares a lot about him. The Spitz ex Machina scene feels surprising, but at the same time, it shouldn’t because Spitz did plant bugs on Toto, so he’s always there whenever he needs to be.

It feels like a waste that the stuff with Tiger Dan and Mylo wasn’t resolved, which means that there definitely will be a third season, but it hasn’t been announced yet. Please announce it soon! What’s the point of not resolving everything with the Moriarty family and not have RonToto kiss if you aren’t going to do a third season? I need more!

Not only that, but this is the first time the group has made direct contact with the M Family, so it only feels right to get a continuation to see where Ron and Toto will head next in their sleuthing misadventures—there’s also a spy who caused Ron’s condition, so we need that resolved too. I just hope it’ll be announced soon! The finale has a good conclusion, but it definitely adds more questions than answers. What do you think?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Season 2 of Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions takes a more serious turn now that the M Family has made themselves known to our duo. While I do miss the wacky misadventures Ron and Toto had while solving mysteries, I do feel like it’s nice that the story did take a bit of a serious turn now that the main antagonists are introduced.

I do feel like the cases have been divided into separate episodes this time around as the previous season did have one-episode cases while none of the episodes in this season did. I do think it was so that they can have enough run-time to squeeze in content until they reached a big arc. I also liked that some cases get a little trickier and that not all the cases are murder ones as Ron and Toto have to solve a kidnapping case as well. What stands out for this season is that some cases do have obvious murderers but the leads have to shake them down and learn of their motives.

Not only that, the major supporting characters also play a bigger role. Spitz is basically Spitz ex Machina with how he saves the day unexpectedly. Mofu is the biggest helper with how  she creates medicine to suppress Ron’s criminal-convincing condition. Amamiya also plays an important role with how she starts gaining more confidence with letting Toto handle cases and not look down on him as much as she did before. Chikori also plays an important factor with how her job as a reporter helps our dynamic duo. Though, I do wonder why Kawasemi is on the poster when his only appearance was by word of mouth by Amamiya. What was the point of having him on there?

Now that the M Family are formally introduced, you can’t help but wonder what will transpire next for them. Their influence in the underground crime world is so vast so it’s probably hard to detect their next move as they show up sporadically. Winter was interesting in that they don’t like Ron at all. Tiger Dan and Mylo were also interesting with how menacing they are. Mylo was definitely the most sinister with how he hides behind a teddy bear doll and even sets off explosives just to kill people. He’s definitely a sociopath. It’s also intriguing how he’s basically the antithesis of Ron in that he’s basically a color palette swapped version of him.

The animation was a bit lacking this season in that the background characters often don’t move or don’t have faces, but for an anime like this, movement isn’t really that important. The music was nice though. Though, the voice casting was definitely the highlight of the show as this anime has a quirky habit of casting prolific voice actors for one-off characters. Starting with the beach case, you get big names like Nobuyuki Hiyama, Takahiro Sakurai, Ami Koshimizu, Reina Ueda and Takehito Koyasu as characters that either die or are involved in a specific case either as the murderer or an important figure. Like, I’m still not over the fact that they casted Neeko as Mylo’s teddy bear. If they ever renew for a third season, just who will be casted as minor characters? Let’s just hope that Kawasemi actually makes an appearance if a Season 3 is announced.

To be honest, I do like this season a tad more than Season 1 now that the characters and story are established and that Toto isn’t a bumbling doofus constantly. He got his cool moments in the bigger arcs like the Shibuya case and the Auberge case. Ron also has cases where he gets vulnerable, showing off that he isn’t perfect all the time. The two feel more balanced this time and I really like that!

I know that I keep rambling for a third season and I still want it! Please announce Season 3 soon! I guess I’m going to have to read the manga now… What are your thoughts on Season 2 as a whole? Let me know!

[shigayokagayama]

Uh Oh I Thought About The Music In The Finale Too Hard And It Started Bothering Me Again

ok so aside from one of my favorite scenes in the entirety of mob psycho getting cut from the last episode, a decision which will haunt and torment me until my dying days, my biggest issue with the last episode was always the music and i think ive been able to finally pin down a coherent explanation as to why

disclaimer: i am not a music expert. i was in choir in middle school and i like listening to people who actually know about music talk about music, but this is not a professional opinion so take it with a grain of salt

so first, 99 playing during reigen running towards mob. my problem with this is less the song choice and more that the anime decided to completely change the tone of the entire scene. like, 99 works perfectly for the hype exciting scene they were trying to create! i just dont think this scene should have been hype and exciting. this isn’t a “music is tonally inconsistent” problem so much as a “tone is inconsistent with events unfolding” problem so im not going to put much focus on it.

what IS tonally inconsistent though is the next track that plays after it (timestamped)

this scene is supposed to be not just the reveal that reigen is okay but the reveal that dimple, a character who we’ve spent the last six episode thinking was dead, is alive! and the music they chose is so... sinister??? wouldn’t something more triumphant or energetic fit here??? i get that it has to segway into a really emotional song next so it can’t be too upbeat but wouldnt something like this maybe fit better??? it’s another song associated with dimple possessing someone who isn’t especially powerful to let them achieve something they normally wouldn’t, it’s pretty dramatic, it’s exciting, it has kind of an emotional through line in the back of it with the violins???

the next song is perfect. no notes. the second i heard it in the mob character trailer before season 3 dropped i was like “oh theyre going to use that for reigen’s confession” and i was 100% right. in fact, this song being so perfect for this scene is what makes the next song choice so confusing.

huh? what? why???? on the elementary school level of “well this is labelled mob’s theme and this is mob’s moment of self acceptance so it has to go here” i can maybe understand but it is the most jarring tonal whiplash i have ever felt watching a television show. this is music that we normally here when mob is fighting an enemy, this is supposed to gear us up for conflict. it does not fit the bittersweet catharsis of mob accepting his whole self at all.

ive seen two different edits with different soundtracks i prefer, one with “Passing my heart, I'm getting bigger” (at least im pretty sure thats what its called?  すれ違う心・大きくなったなぁ?) and one with “Mob’s Kindness”. personally, i feel like mob’s kindness would be the best option. for one, one of them already played at an emotionally climactic moment during the final episode last season so it might be a bit weird to do it a second time. second, for when we last heard “mob’s kindness” it actually fits really well with this scene on a couple different levels.

just the title of the song on its own fits with the scene. it’s the first time mob really extends kindness towards himself rather than trying to repress it or smother it in guilt and self loathing. we also have to consider the last place it was used and how that echos this scene. the first time we hear mob’s kindness is in season 2 episode 1, following the line “i made the decision to consider my feelings more”, a line which fits really well with what the “100% shigeo kageyama” moment is trying to get across. “shigeo kageyama” is mob’s repressed power and, more relevantly, his repressed emotions that he’s been bottling up for years now. “mob” flaking apart and forming “shigeo” also kind of visually echos emi’s novel getting ripped apart and brought together again by mob’s power, so that’s another little mirror between these two scenes. mob putting emi’s novel back together is the first time we see him using his powers for another person, not to save them from any sort of threat, but just as an act of simple kindness. it’s the beginning of a realization he has during the mogami arc, these powers arent just a burden, he can use them to help people. and he doesn’t even need to limit it to that, he can just use them to express himself and have fun because they aren’t just tools that can be used, they’re a part of him.

[haveyouseenthisanime-poll]

There have been 4 successive movies between Season 2 and Season 3. Usually I would count them out, but due to the number of it + they are all sequels from each other I thought it could count as a season. Also it was a bit funny. 4 movies in a row ?? Anyway don't take it too seriously

[canmom]

Last season's anime: Frieren episode 7-10

Shit I guess I'm full on liveblogging this one now.

This time we have episode 7 dir. Naoto Uchida (known for work on Mob Psycho 100), episode 8 dir. Tomoya Kitagawa (who also directed ep. 2), episode 9 dir. Kōki Fujimoto (key animator on a whole buncha stuff, this is his debut as an episode director), and episode 10 dir. Nobihide Kariya (who debuted not so long before as an episode director on Bocchi).

So at the end of the last post about Frieren, I commented that I found the demons underwhelming as antagonists, and hoped they would have their motivations fleshed out some more beyond 'ontologically evil baddies'. Well.

lmao.

So Frieren and the gang are travelling. We get a lot more on the Great Mage Flamme, who is Frieren's mentor figure. At this rate... she's probably gonna turn out to still be alive or some shit.

They roll up in another ridiculously picturesque town. The backgrounds in this show are apparently based heavily on the concept art paintings of Seiko Yoshioka, who gets credited under various roles including 'layout designer' and even 'worldview illustrator'. She did a crazy amount of work to design all the different settings, giving them distinctive cultural motifs and architectures and colour palettes and so on.

Since this town covers a whole four-episode arc, we get a number of different views of it. There's definitely a reasonable amount of historical care put into the design of those city walls - even sketchy and in the distance you can spot the hoardings and appropriately narrow crenellations, as well as the machicolations on the tops of the towers. (Though unfortunatelly some of those details seem to get forgotten in the later episodes.)

The streets in the town seem kinda wide and clean but it fits the austere vibe. The main thing I'm wondering is what exactly they eat in this town - it's triple-walled in hostile territory without much in the way of farmland in sight, or indeed roads that aren't tiny.

I'm pretty sure they built a model of at least parts of this town in 3D, because as well as certain 3D tracking shots (unfortunately hampered by the lack of any parallax mapping on the floor)...

...we also get shots like this one, which feature a crazy 3-point perspective:

I wouldn't say it's impossible to draw this, but it would be a hell of a lot easier to block it out roughly in 3D and then paint in the details.

Mind you, that's not even the wildest perspective we get in this episode. Check this out:

Absolutely bananas. I love it.

But tbh the praise I have for this arc is pretty limited to this kind of technical stuff. Let's get into the story. (Though you can be sure I'll have more to say about the animation!)

At this point the story shifts gears from this fairly low-key exploration of grief and the passing of time, into more standard action anime territory.

Shortly after arriving in this town, our heroes discover that it has been infiltrated by demons in the guise of peace emissaries. Frieren attempts to attack immediately, but she allows herself to be subdued rather than harm the guards, so off she goes to jail.

Luckily, wizard jail still has pretty generous visiting hours, so she's able to explain the deal with demons to the gang. Frieren declares that demons always lie to gain an advantage over humans, illustrated through a flashback in which a young girl demon begged for mercy, only to betray the townspeople a bit later. Having been proven right, Frieren summarily executes the girl.

I think it's worth comparing this storyline to a couple of other similar storylines in other works of fiction.

First of all, in NieR Replicant/Gestalt, there is the story 'The Little Mermaid', which was adapted into a segment in the game in the remake. A postman takes pity on a girl on a shipwreck, not realising that she is a terribly powerful monster who is struggling to maintain her human appearance. The girl starts killing people to try to maintain her connection with the postman. Eventually, the player shows up and discovers what's been going on. Their intervention provokes the girl to revert to monster state and there's a big boss fight. However, at stake in the fight is the girl's identity. Depending on how you play the boss fight, there are two possible endings, and both of them make overt parallels between the monster girl and your party member Kainé, and one portrays the grief of the postman who cannot let go of his affection for the monster.

Secondly, the second episode of last year's Tengoku Daimakyou features a woman who is trying to protect a monster which she believed to have taken on the consciousness of her son after it ate him. The monster has been curiously non-hostile to the woman - she persuades our protagonists to back off, and they agree. Then it abruptly kills her! Oh shit. Fight scene, they kill the monster, etc.

But as they depart, the protagonists are left discussing whether the monster could really have had the son affecting its actions, whether it was just drawn to prey etc. The monster's motivations are left distinctly unclear, and the protagonists conclude there's no way to know the truth. Throughout the rest of the season, the exact nature of the monsters remains an open question.

In both cases, we either know or it is strongly implied that the monsters are fundamentally human, or derived from humans somehow. A certain amount of effort is spared to try and at least raise the question of the monster's subjectivity, and even if a monster has to die, they play it for tragedy.

So, let's return to Frieren. We're introduced to the demon girl. She ate a kid, but she staves off execution by pleading for her mother.

The villagers decide to give her a chance to atone. Before long, she kills the village chief who took pity on her. Frieren's party show up and she does small Shaft head tilt...

She's no longer pretending and talks in a much more level voice. She explains that she wanted to give a replacement daughter to the family of the girl she ate, by removing the village chief, for the sake of living in peace. This goes down about how you'd expect. Frieren goes ahead and kills her. As she's dying, Frieren asks why she called for her mother when demons don't raise kids. The answer she gets:

She is surprisingly forthcoming on this front, and honestly, self-preservation is something like an understandable motivation. The impression you get from this flashback sequence is a being that is amoral, and encountering humans as something alien and, honestly, kinda threatening. Why she killed the girl in the first place is an open question - they explicitly say that the demons don't have to eat humans. Even if she kinda felt like it, you'd think she'd be able to figure out it would be an unwise move.

But as far as the show is concerned, the point of this flashback is to establish one thing: demons are lying liars who lie. Frieren is the only one who knows the truth, which is that you must shoot them on sight.

You might think the show would leave some doubt about whether Frieren is justified in having such a severe attitude towards the demons - is she just prejudiced? But nah we go pretty much straight into the demons saying 'Frieren is right about everything, now let'ss discuss our evil plan'.

Props to this guy (he has some longish German name I can't remember) for making this random bench feel like a throne though. Like on some level he's just soft-voiced evil anime aristocrat guy but he does pull it off.

Anyway, one thing definitely doesn't seem to add up. Frieren says that demons are solitary creatures who speak in a human voice only to deceive, but the demons seem to be pretty happy to natter away to each other when no humans are around and express all sorts of thoughts and even express (fairly reserved) emotions. The boy is arrogant, the girl is protective of her boss, etc. The guy is a smooth liar and manages to wriggle out of being killed by the earl by playing the 'we're the same, let's put an end to this' card. But we're constantly reminded it's fake, he's a lying liar who's ontologically evil.

I think the super-deceptive adversary with no qualms about telling any lie is something that can be done well to create an incredibly paranoid scenario. I can't believe I'm mentioning ratfic again in the space of two posts, but this is something Worth The Candle performed very effectively. Though honestly the fantasy of the perfect manipulator who plays everyone like a fiddle is a recurring device in fantasy.

Here... the acting is strong on our main sussy demon dude. But as a worthy adversary, he's not super convincing. He lets his underling run off and get killed, and his response when the jig is up is to reveal that he's super OP and kill everyone nearby, except the governor, who he tortures. So the manipulation angle seems questionably motivated, like he wants the earl to lower the barrier so the demon army can come in... but you're kind of left wondering why he didn't already just go and kill everyone in the city since nobody who isn't Fern or Frieren can touch him. I guess he's trying to get that low chaos route.

I won't continue the beat-by-beat summary. There is a cool fight scene in Frieren's jail cell though, which has some well-integrated 3D. Frieren totally no-sells the boy's attack and cuts his arms off. Lotta dismemberment in these episodes! The main demon guy has some tasty blood-based powers, lots of monofilament whip slicing imagery (also a thing in Tengoku Daimakyou oddly enough). In general the action scenes in this show continue to be super tight. There is a pretty cute bit where Stark is trying to free the earl and can't cut through the rope holding him to a chair, the earl is going 'leave me', and I was sitting there going like 'why not destroy the chair', and then Stark does. So props for that.

Towards the end of ep 8, we learn that Frieren is actually a suuuuper scary battle mage. She was the one who researched the demon killing spell. OOooooohhh.

Seems our demon guy hasn't changed his style in 80 years lol.

And she did not think it too many.

So we already knew that Frieren was part of the party that killed the demon king, the last living person who knew Flamme, etc. etc., so it's not exactly surprising to see once again that she's kind of a big deal. What we seem to be setting up here - or at least maybe I'm just hoping for something more than 'only our hero is wise enough to know coexistence is impossible and a war of annihilation is the only option' - is to suggest a parallel between Frieren and the demons. They're incredibly long-lived, they love to obsessively study magic, they both have a very cold affect, they're calm under fire. If it turned out that Frieren is a demon that would be a fun angle, but I don't think it really tracks. Rather, the framing is suggesting that, when confronted with demons, Frieren is not so different...

We get a title drop in any case - turns out the anime title is an in-story title for its main character. In Japanese: 葬送のフリーレン Sousou no Frieren. 葬送 is translated by jisho.org as

attending a funeral procession; seeing off the deceased; burial of someone's remains; observing a burial​

The fansub I'm watching translate it (when used for the character) as 'Frieren the Elegy', which has about the right vibe! In the context for the show title, they translate the same phrase as Frieren: An Ageless Elegy which involves a little more interpolation, but I think it works. The official English title is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, which is very direct but not a bad subtitle at all. Then again, maybe the bar is in the floor since 'Delicious in Dungeon'.

Anyway, after all that setup, we finally get the big fight episode. Because you see, in contrast to the earlier story which skipped over decades in a montage, this arc spans a whole four episodes. It's not badly done, but it's definitely feeling much more like a standard fight-driven show at this point.

We also meet Aura, one of the demon generals. She looks like a youngish girl and has a habit of doing the sanpaku eye smirk.

Her schtick is that she has magic scales that let her dominate people. Then she cuts their heads off and walks their corpses around. This is represented by a big army of suits of armour, mostly rendered in CG. They've done some kind of filter to make the linework less even, but the difference in shading style is quite noticeable.

From there it's a lot of 'my gambit vs your gambit' and 'who has more mana'. The fights are, without doubt very nicely animated, although the CG castle set used for the big camera moves feels a bit... lacking in detail compared to the gorgeous painted backgrounds. Anyway, Stark wins his fight by the power of GUTS and DETERMINATION, and Fern wins her fight by being a fast analytical type who can stay cool under fire and also knows Frieren's special demonbuster spell. Though a lot of Fern's fight is just kind of both participants standing still with impassive expressions shooting either blood or big laser beams at each other or zipping all around the castle.

Of course, the major turning points in the fight hinge on flashbacks to moments with mentor figures. This is an anime, and more specifically, it's Frieren.

One thing that is interesting is that the 'point of view' indicated by internal monologue often moves from Fern to the demon guy. We get to see him try to think through how to beat her, unsuccessfully. By contrast Stark's fight takes Stark's POV. I don't think we're expected to sympathise with the demon exactly, it's a way of underlining just how badass Fern has now become thanks to Frieren's levelling up regime.

I admit Frieren has lost me a bit by this point. It's not that it's bad at being a fight anime, it hits us with a whole series of stylishly composed and strongly animated cuts. Not novel necessarily, but absolutely well-executed. But it's not a very interesting direction to take the story! I don't care about this town, we'll be leaving it in an episode or two anyway, and the only named character in it is the earl. I wanna know more about the demons but what we get is kinda just a succession of Guys With Powers. He can make his blood fly around and stab people. She can copy anyone's moveset. He has a monofilament wire. She has a magic scale that mind controls you if she has more mana.

So how does Frieren beat the magic scales? ez. It's kind of spelled out as soon as they introduce the scales, but they spend a whole episode explaining how she's been using a relentless mana retention regimen for the last thousand years to hide her power level so that demons underestimate her. It kinda belabours the point lol. Like it kinda has to because if it doesn't try to make a big deal out of the mana hiding thing, you're just left with 'Frieren wins because her number is bigger'. But... Frieren wins because her number is bigger.

I don't hate fight-driven anime. They can be a ton of fun. But honestly, after the emotional impact of the first few episodes, taking it this way seems like it's wasting the early show's strengths. But, I hear episode 11 sees the return of Keiichirō Saitō as enshutsu, and it's said to be one of the best episodes in the show, so I'm not gonna drop it! It's certainly more than pretty enough to be worth watching through to the end.

There is a good amount of nice stuff in this last episode. The pseudo-Roman town is a cool depiction of a different material culture a thousand years prior to the main story. The 'field of flowers' magic is called back as a specific invention of Flamme - Frieren's whole deal is to kind of go around doing things to commemorate dead people and it turns out the flowers thing lets her do it twice over! We get to set up some parallels - Frieren could intuit that Flamme was a super OP mage, and Himmel could do the same for her.

We also get some worldbuilding stuff about the demons: they have to constantly display their power level to determine their place in the demon pecking order bc they're soooo individualistic. This seems a little dubious to me - like are the demons really so dumb? Is 'hide your power level' such an incomprehensible concept? It seems like it would lead to some kind of Diplomacy-like situation where other demons would team up to take you down.

Honestly, I think what bothers me about all this is like... I don't like the concept of an ontologically evil monster at the best of times, but the demons are obviously not mindlessly malevolent with no inner lives. They talk and scheme and feel things (such as 'proud of their magic'). They have an honour system. But the narrative doesn't quite seem to be able to acknowledge that this is what it's doing. Besides levelling up their magic, we have no idea what the demons want, still, except that it seems to involve killing humans sometimes.

Anyway! kvin has an article about this section, so if you'd like to read about who did which bit and how they worked together resourcefully and where the storyboard creates imagery of separation and so on, there ya go! It sounds from this article like the manga gets a better handle on what it's trying to do with the demons later on, so I'll hold out hope.

[embossross]

2023 in anime

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

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

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

revolutionary girl utena – heavy breathing panting crying what a fucking roller coaster nanami the child you are anty the child you were utena the child you choose to be – just one of the true masterpieces of all anime. took a few episodes to realize that this show understood tone and comedy perfectly and wasn’t just a wonky children’s show and by golly! the nanami in season 3 gutted me unlike anything else

attack on titan: final season (for real this time) – decent conclusion to maybe my favorite anime of all time

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (10 anime)

school rumble – so goddamn funny and i cared about every goddamn character. it’s witchcraft!

trigun – good ole saturday morning cartoons

golden kamuy s3 – how does it keep getting better???!?!

fruits basket – i was a certified hater after s1, but slowly but surely i gave into the melodrama. akito and shigure were EVERYTHING

nana – the most disappointing ending of all time! for one of the greatest anime of all time. manga pls save me!!!

rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai – i’m embarrassed. i cried.

princess tutu – expressionistic, dedicated to storytelling, tremendously kind-hearted. you have to let it move you

blue lock – i’m officially a sports anime girlie

cyberpunk: edgerunners – this was just so slick!

chainsaw man – nothing needs to be said here

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (8 anime)

yamada-kun to lv999 no koi wo suru – adult romance that hasn’t been stripped of all conflict and maintains momentum nearly to the end

oshi no ko – my expectations were non-existent after ep 1 but then it crept up on me. i can’t even fully put my finger on what works so well? but it does! it knows when to take itself seriously and when to be nonsense.

demon slayer s3 – best season of demon slayer to date, i actually cared

durarara!!x2 shou – this is a confession. my inner edgy teen loves durarara. i appreciate huge casts of characters acting in opposition in atmospheric tokyo.

gintama – i finally finished gintama one of my favorites of all time. the end pulls all the threads together but it does so at the expense of the laughs so loses some points

chihayafuru – amazing background anime. just consistently fun and engaging.

perfect blue – i feel stupid and uncultured to not give this a 10

vinland saga – askeladd is so hot wow

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (7 anime)

buddy daddies – funny and sincere in degrees but a truly annoying little girl character

serial experiments lain – god you’ve gotta appreciate the wild swings creatives were taking in the 90s

durarara!!x2 ten

great teacher onizuka – ugh he’s a creep but also heh he’s funny

trigun stampede – they yassified them!

mob psycho 100 s3 - meandered a bit but the characters are forever favorites

to your eternity – the first 3 arcs are extraordinary. march is one of the great child characters of all time. the end drags.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (8 anime)

zom 100 – crazy good first episode that earns its premise and then a slow descent into mediocrity; cool colors though!

terror in resonance – utterly forgettable

dororo – way too long with way too many hit or miss episode arcs

bungou stray dogs s4 – the cracks are showing but the rampo backstory is dope

lycoris recoil – those cute girls shoulda been lesbians

classroom of the elite – is it edgy? yes. are the quotes frustratingly misused? oh yes. is it fun? ugh yeah actually

romantic killer – pretty cute and the edge of danger at the end really sells it

free – solid watch but it left my brain like sand in a sieve

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 anime)

wolf’s rain – what passes as deep when children are your primary audience

hell’s paradise – boring and i liked the manga so.

durarara!!x2 ketsu – the conclusion falls short

land of the lustrous – bold but was too slow for me

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3 anime)

tomo-chan is a girl! – sometimes funny but the conceit does not justify 13 episodes and it loses steam fast

mushishi – some of the vignettes were beautiful but felt repetitive

bleach: thousand-year blood war – sleek, hype, plagued by all the old bleach problems

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

⭐⭐⭐ (5 anime)

kamisama kiss – trite imo

given – god save us from anime about perfect people being perfect with each other – but this time set to music!

tokyo revengers s2 – ��

natsume’s book of friends – i don’t need vibes this cozy

sasaki to miyano – and i really don’t need vibes this cozy

⭐⭐ (0 anime)

⭐ (0 anime)

& then ongoing shows that i’m not going to rank until i finish them (but actually all are pretty good so far) – skip to loafer, heavenly delusion, spy x family s2, apothecary diaries, jujutsu kaisen s2, frieren: beyond journey’s end, vinland saga s2

[aisy15-chan]

Tell me more about your tntduo Danny Phantom au!!

I haven't actually watched it but I'm genuinely curios cause I love your art about it <3

Oh- I'll give you everything about this AU!! I have how many ideas and plots!! But I really remind you all that if you want to watch Danny Phantom, I don't recommend reading discussion about AU is because it will contain spoilers about the series as well as a bit of the latest comic Danny Phantom, which was just released 2 weeks ago!!

If you ask "wait you can make fanfic?!" Well I can but I'm not sure I can execute the story well :( !!! I mostly just conceptualize AU just for fun so if you want to use this idea i allow you- just credit me please.

Plot idea simply:

yo Wilbur is only 16 years old and he is half dead from an accident in the ghost portal. trying to feel alive in a half-ghost state, becoming an impromptu super hero, trying to adjust to the life of ghosts & humans- having internal conflicts with his parents who are hunting for his ghost side as well as conflicts with his younger brother Tommy. Everthing passed then Quackity appeared in his life. Q who is annoyed at her because he & his 'dragon' destroyed his love life & tried to kill Wilbur ghost side, one day they are then forced together in a school project and then learn about each other and start to get close (on the human side only) time passes and Quackity still hunting for Wilbur, a bored Wilbur offers something to Q "How do we become Psycho competitive rivals??? Instead of hunting me how do we fight who can catch and beat more ghosts!" and Q are hesitant at first but he accepts it- they develop more maybe they turn into boyfriend :³???

Fine let me explain. Danny & Wilbur have a lot in common.

Been a sim: ✓ Ever died: ✓ Have a 'twin': ✓ Emotional support sibling: ✓ Have rivals + love interested: ✓ Explode something & lose everything: ✓ Thought to be a bad person but actually depressed: ✓

C!Wilbur & Danny experience the butterfly effect and their lives are inversely proportional because of that, Wilbur loses everything just by losing the election while Danny loses everything by cheating on the C.A.T exam & ends in a bang.

Danny: VLAD! please get rid of the MY ghost side! They must agree too!!

Wilbur: PHIL! kill me! Kill me! They will definitely agree!!

(I kinda forgot how the dialogue was sorry)

Well in the end Wilbur & human side Danny died. Leaving their ghost side… Then they came back to life.

I'm not sure whether to make Dan/Dark Danny in this AU?? It will be a heavy & complex plot, if you don't know Dan is a fusion of ghost Danny & Vlad also the 'evil' & depressed version… In his timeline he destroys the whole world and tries to kill Valerie for getting in his way btw- so in the latest comic he is back and at the end becomes an emo teenager in Danny's clone body that Vlad made.

Let talking about Quackity!!

Quackity plays as Valerie in this AU!!! In the original version, Valerie's life was destroyed by Danny & Cujo (ghost dog) who messed up where Valerie's father worked so that her father was fired and sold their house easily, causing Valerie to hate ghosts, especially Danny & Cujo, got ghost hunting equipment from Vlad Master Valerie became a ghost hunter and exterminated them also tried to kill Danny's ghost side but over time their relationship grew more complex over time especially in the season 2 especially, they even had a date!! It's canon!! But unfortunately they also broke up in the same episode… And since then Valerie was forgotten and only appeared in 3 episodes in the third season…

Quackity's story will be a bit different from Valerie to than the ghost dog what about the ghost dragon?! Well the canon dragon in Danny Phantom with the Amulet of Aragon ghost/human can turn into a ghost dragon when angry or strong emotions— I thought it was great how can include Qsmp, its members & the dragon eggs in this AU ahaha ^^

So the story goes:

Quackity was so happy to be able to ask his boyfriend to go date (I have no idea who) they really love the date but Wilbur & the 'dragon' completely destroy their dating in restaurant, Q has a big fight with his boyfriend and they end up breaking up on the restaurant in middle of all people. Quackity experienced severe stress and started to hate ghosts then someone gave him a gift, a ghost hunting tool. Quackity started his career as a ghost hunter-

Someone: *addresses ElQuckity as Ellie* Me: *remembers what the phandom call Dani as Ellie too, the clone theory oh Dani is a Danny clone too wait…* SHET THIS GENIUS!!! GREAT IDEA EVER!!!

THE IDEA: TECHO AS WILBUR CLONE AND ELQUCKITY AS QUACKITY CLONE!! THAT'S THE COOLEST IDEA SHETT THOUGHT OF EVER!!!

That all i can think- feel free to ask to my ask box hehehe ^^👍

[rye-views]

The Simpsons. 7.6/10

I wouldn't recommend any season to my friends. I would rewatch all these seasons.

Season 1

Ugh The Simpsons are so educational. Brings up so many topics.

I can’t with Smithers’s changing skin tones and Carl’s voice.

I love how this whole season, the family learned to better themselves in some way. I like how Marge and Homer’s relationship stays strong through love despite so many problems. The first episode (Christmas ep) really started it off with a bang. I respect Bart the entire ep of General Bart. Bleeding Gums Murphy is a great character. I like when Bart is in France and rides through art pieces.

Honestly, why is Homer so angry? Wow, how upsetting when the bully steps on Lisa’s cupcakes.

Season 2

What is Karl the secretary’s backstory? What a great guy.

Bart’s so cute as a raven.

I love all the references in this show. e.g. Lou Gehrig’s speech, Vertigo. I love all the karaoke at The Happy Sumo. I like that Bart confides in Otto. I love Carl. Lisa is such a good sister to Bart. I like the post office mural. omg what Flanders has a phd in mixology? cool.

lmao at Lisa’s ergonomic chair in her room. lmao at Bart’s collection of newspaper clippings about himself. Lmao at the whisper of msg. lmaooo at Santa’s little helper passing dog school and the teacher was like you son of a bitch. Lmaoo at Lisa mentioning the children’s rights movement.

The beer bucket at the baseball game is so large??

Season 3

Such good quips this season. LMao at Marge’s reasoning to Mrs. Van Houten for why Bart and Millhouse should stay friends. Lmao at grandpa complaining about having sat down for the video game. The aptitude test being called CAN’T is funny. Wait, lmao at Maggie kissing each Lurleen CD. lmao at Spinal Tap being a real band. Omg the Smithers sperm cells were funny.

I enjoy Marge’s grumbling sound. I enjoyed all of pseudo Michael Jackson’s song. These essay contest submissions are pretty good. I think it’s lovely that Scratchy jumped down the well for Itchy. Willie so committed to saving anyone in the well is beautiful. The yoyo episode gets me because I remember that era of my youth. I liked Homer at the bat. I like the vet. Otto is lovey. Homer and Marge buying Bart a guitar for his aspirations is lovely.

Omg at the kids getting their own hotel room at the free Washington trip episode. Omg at Ralph having Nelson’s voice. Omg the Lincoln squirrel dead?

Why do we only see the Kwik E Mart ever being robbed?

Season 4

Hello, shirtless Ned.

Lisa with Marge’s hairstyle is so funny. Lol at Skinner’s mom being related to Psycho.

I love Bart’s crush on Laura. One of my fav episodes.

Wow, Barney being Plow King is treacherous. The betrayal. But, also omfg at him studying for the SATs. Omg at Scratchy trying to saw off his tongue.

Let’s have Bart and Lisa become musicians.

Season 5

The pandas are cute. Marge’s comment about potatoes being neat is so iconic. I really like it. I love Bart’s class loving Santa’s Little Helper.

LOL at Nelson petting Santa’s Little Helper. LOL at Doris’s okie dokie at greasing up Willie. “ Lmao at Miss Hoover saying I didn’t know we could do that about breaking the law as a teacher.

Someone tell me more about Mr. Burns’s little brother. Someone tell me more about Hans. I want to know more about Skinner in the army. Tell me more about Ned’s parents.

I’m disturbed by Millhouse rubbing ketchup on himself.

Season 6

Lmao at chlorine making Millhouse’s hair white. Lol at Lisa’s hair blowing up the volleyball. Show me what her hair looks like in real life. LOL at the lesbians referring to Homer as a her. This season is interesting but does feel like let’s get random. Wait, lmaoo at Otto having to siphon gas. LOL at the Shelbyville kids with their temporary tattoos. And the line about hey, look somebody’s attractive cousin.

I enjoy Bart’s decision to strut. A pop rocks and soda molotov is good stuff.

When Homer asks why grad students can go to the moon but not make his shoes smell good, it is literally the thing I think about. Let’s work on improving what we have.

Santa’s Little Helper’s family episode is soooo cute.

Season 7

Wow, I want in on the Kwik-e-mart rooftop cinema watching. I like Lisa making her summer friends. Very cute.

The humor is better in this season again. Lol at the Harvard diploma claw machine. The children's uniforms are cute. Same with the Pin Pals uniforms. Lmao at Calcutta tech.

Someone stop the Simpsons from owning their bathroom mat.

Season 8

Lmao at spraying homer with rum so that no one will believe him. LOL at the telegraph connecting to the museum. Lmao at the free sample of gasoline.

Someone tell me more about Kearney.

I like this Lisa and Nelson duo.

Season 9

Lmao at a coin-operated bible. Lmat at Marge doing so poorly on a quiz show. lmao Polly pls.

Dr. Hibbert is lovely. I like how Bart is protective over Lisa.

Omg, the wrecking of the National History Museum is crazy. $15,000 in Christmas donations is crazzyyyy.

Lisa hitting her peak at 8 is relatable.

Honestly, what Homer did with trash in Springfield is terrible.

Season 10

Ew a grease fight is not alright. Oh god, the rat school milk is just like KND’s eye crust.

lmaoo at Nelson impersonating Dr. Hibbert. lmao at being in the garden of eden and people magazine just had the two. Lmao at Jonah. Lol at the cricket poison.

Aw at Apu’s whimpering at the megastore.

Memorable Quotes: “If TV has taught me anything, it’s that miracles always happen to poor kids at Christmas.” “You have been oppressed enough for today. I will clear the dishes.” “Comedy, thy name is Krusty.” “The opportunity to prove yourself a hero is long gone.” “Why is there makeout music on?” “Prayer, the last refuge of a scoundrel.” “A part of this D- belongs to God.” “Get bent.” “Thanks, man.” “Maybe there’s something else to do on this planet.” “‘Is your father stealing bread?’ 'Maybe, I don’t watch him every minute.’” “While I know firsthand how fragile young talent is, I’d love to hear the particulars of how your gift was squashed.” “Don’t learn anything I wouldn’t learn.” “You scavenger of human misery.” “‘Thanks for sticking up for me.’ 'What makes you think I did?’ 'Who else would?’” "Oh, bitch bitch bitch." "My parents won't mind because they won't even know about it." “Are you man enough to test every one of your limits?” “Due to popular demand, we will forgo our national anthem.” “You know, if you lived here, you’d be home by now.”

[umihoshi]

Autumn anime 2023 is so STACKED, it's illigal!

Aside from the obviously amazing continuing shows, there's TOO MANY great new ones.

Based on first episodes, here's my top ranking (may be subject to change cuz Apothecary Diaries isn't out yet. And excluding SpyxFamily, dr. Stone and Tokyo Revengers which are all *chef's kiss*)

1. Kamonohashi Ron: Deranged Detective

you had me at Detective. and then you had me at Deranged. Also, I'm a big fan of Amano Akira's other works, Reborn and eldLIVE (Psycho-Pass not so much, but she only did the character art) Depressed adult who is too curious for his own good, what's not to love?

2. Undead Unluck

I saw the manga before and had been really anticipating the anime. They're such a fun duo and their personalities and abilities compliment one another really well. looks like there'll be a lot of cool unusual superpowers. Reminds me a lot of Blood Lad, just hoping this anime won't end with virtually nothing solved T~T;

3. Kingdom of Ruin

Bit on the over the top side with the amount of tragedy, but the worldbuilding seems very interesting. I'm a slut for witch hunting too. May end up severely traumatized if I continue, but we'll see how it goes.

4. My New Boss Is Goofy

My soul is healed, my crops are growing. Grown men doing stilly stuff is comfort food for the eyes. Looks a bit yaoi baiting, but can't complain if it's cute. Reminds me of Cool Douji Danshi.

5. Migi & Dali

I don't even know what's going on at this point, it's so surreal. Elder couple wants to adopt one child and genius twins thought 'we can work with that'. The silly love children of Johan Liebert and Sakamoto desu ga. (same author as Sakamoto too. it sure shows.)

6. Crash course on Naughtiness

Last season, I was confronted with the pet-peeve of feeble waifu syndrome (I finished My Happy Marriage, but I'm sorry, I could not stand that girl...) And this season around, I realized the formula that breaks the curse of feeble waifus: a batshit crazy counterpart. This man is just bullying her with kindness. plus points for another excelent job done by Sugita Tomokazu.

7. Frieren

As a big fan of DnD, I can't say no to such a DnD-based series. Plus the pressure of having to live such a long live as elves do is very interesting. It's a bit slow to my liking, but the characters are amusing and layered.

8. Yuzuki family's 4 sons

a young man who has to take care of his 3 little brothers after his parents died, give me some napkins Q-Q not a single person looks or acts their age (the youngest has better vocabulary than I do;;) but it's all fun and sweet and trying to find your way in an unusual family-hirarchy

9. I'm in love with the villainess

My eyes hurt from looking at this. But the over the top artstyle works quite well with how silly the story is. I too would like to say 'step on me, mommy' to my favorite villain. Just hope it won't become repetitive in its jokes.

10. Tearmoon Empire

Wow, will you look at that. Another reincarnated villainess. Luckily, this one has no memories of living in a different world or something. Just her future self's diary. Enjoying the concept where she's not suddenly a saintly good girl for a change.

11. Oujo to Banken

This dude is on THIN fucking ice. I commonly enjoy age gaps very much. but in no way what so ever, would I support a relationship between a teenager and the 10 year older guy who basically raised her. Him being her parent figure is where I draw the line. That said, I'm eating up the amount of over-protectiveness and yakuza-logics. It has the amount of spice I had hoped to find in Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting that wasn't there.

12. Ragna Crimson

I'm sorry. just...... you can't make me believe that the ditsy loli-girl is the best dragon killer in the world. stop. The maincharacter is quite interesting, though. I like how it's like... his actual own power that he has for his OP special snowflake thing. Borrowing tomorrow's energy for today.....that's the description of a burn out I read the other day;;; But you do you, boy. good luck dying very early in life.

[toomanyfandomsthings]

Hello, this is just ask for fun....

Favorite female character :

Favorite male character :

Favorite animanga :

Animanga you are currently enjoying :

Animanga that exceeded all your expectations :

Unpopular animanga you really love :

Favorite romance :

Favorite action animanga :

Favorite fantasy :

Favorite sci -fi :

Favorite drama :

Favorite comedy :

Favorite anime movie :

Next in your watch list :

Next in your read list :

Favorite antagonist:

Thanks if you want to answer....

Ooo thank you for the ask! :D Some of these are really hard to narrow down to just one, but I'll do my best!

Favorite female character: Hmmm if I had to pick just one, it would be Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket! <3 She's so sweet and genuinely kind and also so strong willed. She sees the best in everyone and wants them to be happy but also rarely puts herself first, and it's nice to see her grow over the course of the series. <3

Favorite male character: Aki Hayakawa from Chainsaw Man, without question <3 I love him so so much, his whole story arc is so well written and he is so kind and caring and such a sensitive soul and I'll spare you my whole rant about him but he's just the best and my favorite character in literally anything <3

Favorite animanga: Hmmm I'd have to say Tokyo Ghoul! I genuinely think that series is a masterpiece and I read it at a time where I really really needed it, so it has a special place in my heart <3 The characters are wonderful and so well written and the story is so gut-wrenching and heartfelt. Also Ken Kaneki is like...right behind Aki in terms of favorite characters out of all things I've read <3 I love that series a lot, I really need to re-read it sometime.

Animanga you are currently enjoying: Ahh I'm not watching too much recently because grad school work is kicking my butt, but I've been catching a few episodes of A Sign of Affection and I'm really enjoying that! (also helped by the fact that Itsuomi's voice in the dub is also Aki's please don't judge me XD) I've also been watching Bucchigiri?! and I....think I like it? Still figuring out my opinions on that one, but I like Marito Jin and he's kinda the only thing keeping me watching XD

Animanga that exceeded all your expectations: Chainsaw Man! I *hated* Chainsaw Man for a good amount of the time I was reading it, I was kinda only in it for Aki's story for the longest time. And without spoiling the manga, there's a big plot reveal at one point that, when it happens, puts a lot of the story in perspective and I genuinely had a moment where I had to put down my phone and be like "......oh my God.....this series is so smart." So once I re-read it with the whole story in mind, I absolutely loved it <3

Unpopular animanga you really love: Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori! <3 I will sing this show's praises every chance I get! The manga isn't translated in English, so I haven't been able to read it (though I do own up to volume 16) but there is a 12 episode anime on Crunchyroll listed under "Yotsuiro Biyori" and it is one of my comfort shows! It follows four very sweet gentlemen and their cat as they work in a tea shop and help their customers though their problems. It's so so sweet, the characters are so adorable and kind, and it's pretty episodic so you can jump in pretty much anywhere and follow what's going on. Definitely recommend it!

Favorite romance: I don't actually watch a lot of romance anime, so I guess I'll probably have to say A Sign of Affection for right now XD Or Sasaki and Miyano, that series was cute too! :D

Favorite action animanga: Jujutsu Kaisen! The fights in that anime are unmatched <3

Favorite fantasy: Ahhh this one's hard! It's either Yona of the Dawn or The Case Study of Vanitas, but I'm leaning towards Yona purely because I think about it more often! Both of those series are phenomenal! <3

Favorite sci-fi: Psycho-Pass! <3 .....I say having only watched the first 2 seasons and the movie! But the first season of Psycho-Pass IS a masterpiece! And the movie is also really really good! .....We don't talk about season 2 XD

Favorite comedy: Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan XD I love the comedy in that series *so much* XD It does get very dark and pessimistic with it's comedy though, I have very rarely shown it to other people and gotten a reaction other than ".....oh my God" so....be aware of that going in XD

Favorite anime movie: Howl's Moving Castle! <3 I have seen that movie an *unhealthy* amount of times, both in theaters and at home. I....I like that movie a lot haha

Next in your watch list: Metallic Rouge, Ninja Kamui, and Delicious in Dungeon, because friends recommended them to me! :D

Next in your read list: I really wanna catch up with Moriarty the Patriot, I have up to volume 13 and I need to take a day to just catch up with reading it <3 (the anime's great though please watch the anime)

Favorite antagonist: Shogo Makishima from Psycho-Pass <3 I love him so much, what an awful person who also totally makes sense for the world he is living in. He's got such an intimidating presence and also has so much charisma XD VERY good antagonist :D

Thank you so much for asking! :D

[nihonvisual]

2/7 Psycho Pass

Tonight’s class choice was nominated by me and I’m super glad you all voted for it cause this is definitely one of my favorites. As I mentioned in my pitch during the nominations this was one of the animes that Professor Smith had us watch in his Quest course and I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions that revolved around it. Interestingly enough I found it quite difficult to figure out what episodes to assign  since all of them contain so much detail about the world and its characters. Along with not wanting to spoil the season for anyone that hadn’t seen the anime before I chose episodes 1-3 to introduce the world and its characters to everyone and have them start thinking about the repercussions of living in such a world. I chose episode 9 because it furthers the discussion about the cost of living in a utopia and if it truly is even possible.

Talking about themes, probably the most obvious one that comes to mind is security vs. privacy. This show provides a perspective of one of the extremes, a world where privacy doesn’t really exist, and instead everyone is constantly being monitored in order to provide security for all. But in this world the constant monitoring doesn’t have a physical manifestation, but instead is just an unknown entity. No matter where you are, this entity is watching you, causing you to have to follow whatever rules that are set in place all the time. This methodology is referred to as a panopticon often used in prisons with a central watch tower that can look into all prisoner cells but cannot be seen into by the prisoners. The prisoner is not given any blind spots in which a rule can be broken as they never know when they are being watched. This causes them to have to practice self discipline. Another big topic this show touches on is predictive policing. The Sibyl System is an intricate mass security apparatus that uses a computer system to predict a person’s crime coefficient by analyzing their mental state. We quickly see flaws with this system as the victim in episode 1 is nearly killed regardless of being innocent and in need of mental support after just being raped. This leads to the talk about whether a utopia is truly achievable and if so what would we need to do to make it happen. Does it require humans to reach immortality and even if they do, would one want to live forever in a world with the Sibyl System or something like it?

[sunspots-non-sorts]

Psycho-Pass - season 3 - episode 3 - part 2 of 2.

[gloop898]

2023 Media Thread - Master Post

Anime / TV

X - Witch From Mercury Season One

X - Akiba Maid War

X - Bocchi the Rock!

X - Chainsaw Man

X - The Legend of Vox Machina Season One & Two

X - Symphogear

X - Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

X - Yuru Camp

X - Symphogear G

X - Kill la Kill

X - Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister!

X - The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

X - The Muppets Mayhem

X - the muppets. (2015 tv series)

X - Yuri is My Job!

X - Witch From Mercury Season Two

X - Loki

X - Adventure Time

X - Adventure Time: Distant Lands

X - Fionna and Cake Season One

Games

X - Lonely Mountains Downhill

X - Splatoon 3

X - Hi-Fi Rush

X - Tunic

X - Prey (2017)

X - The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

X - Cruelty Squad

X - Kirby’s Dream Land

X - VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

X - Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

X - Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

X - Carrion

X - Metroid Prime Remastered

X - Star Wars: Episode 1 - Racer

X - Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk...

X - Pikmin 4

X - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

X - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

X - Lethal Company

Movies

X - Puss In Boots The Last Wish

X - The Shape of Water

X - Nope

X - The Super Mario Bros. Movie

X - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

X - Get Out

X - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

X - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

X - Sunshine (2007)

X - The Grand Budapest Hotel

X - American Psycho

X - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 + Vol 3

X - Godzilla Minus One

X - Jingle All the Way

Yuri Manga

X - Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister! Ch1-Ch70

X - Eyeshield 21

X - New Game!

X - Futari Escape

X - Slow Start

X - Don’t Become An Otaku, Shinozaki!

X - 2DK, G-pen, Alarm Clock

X - Ohana Holoholo

X - Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon

X - Kami Eshi JK to OL Fujoshi

X - I want to be a cute anime girl Ch1-Ch314

X - Ouji-sama Nante Iranai

X - Sougou Tovarisch

X - Mimi Mix

X - Poor Poor Lips

X - Tonari no Robot

X - Opapagoto

X - A Timid Woman Longing For Her Delivery Girl

X - Let’s Love Girlfriends and Secrets

X - Hana and Hina After School

X - Adachi to Shimamura (2016 Manga)

X - Blue Friend

X - Skip and Loafer Ch1-Ch53

X - YuruYuri Ch1-Ch198

X - Yoru to Umi

X - An Easy Introduction to Love Triangles (To Pass the Exam!)

X - The Witch’s Marriage

X - Hino-san no Baka

X - There’s Weird Voices Coming from the Room Next Door!

X - What Does the Fox Say?

X - Shoujo Manga Protagonist X Rival-San

X - The Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing

X - I Won 300 Million Yen, so I Started Raising a Freeloader Pretty Girl

X - About a College Girl Who Gets Picked Up at a Mixer by an Older Girl

X - Gabriel DropOut Ch1-Ch97

X - Vampeerz

X - Oshi V ga Oshiego de Watashi ga Mama de!?

X - Uta-kata, and Minus Literacy

X - Yume Miru Prima Girl!

X - Yuunagi Marbled, and Ami-chan’s Diary

X - I Wanna Quit Being a Hitman!

X - Love/Death, and Nicochuu

X - Goblin Is Very Strong

X - Soulmate

X - Sakura Trick

X - Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru

X - I Love Amy

X - Senpai, Does It Taste Good?

X - Ms. Vampire Who Lives In my Neighborhood

X - Sekai de Ichiban Oppai ga Suki!

X - Ayaka-chan wa Hiroko-senpai ni Koishiteru

X - The Model & The Plain Manager

X - Haru Tsuzuru, Sakura Saku Kono Heya de

X - Catulus Syndrome

X - The Nuisance Daily Life of Robot-dependent Girl

X - KiLa KiLa, Steps, and Game;

X - Omoino-Kakera, Itoshi Koishi, and An Absurd Relationship

X - Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~

X - Netsuzou Trap - NTR

X - All of Humanity Is Yuri Except for Me

X - Our Teachers are Dating!

X - An Aside Told to You

X - Mononoke Sharing

X - Chasing After Aoi Koshiba

X - Yurigurashi

X - Inside Mari

X - Sexual Education 120%

X - Hana to Hoshi

X - Todo no Tsumari no Uchouten & Ame Demo Hare Demo

X - Holy Girl Paradigm

X - Sorairo Girlfriend

X - Iono the Fanatics

X - The Girls' Arcadia

X - Stella☆Record

X - Bad Thinking Diary

X - Ibara no Namida

X - Fragtime

X - Ghosts of Greywoods

X - Sadistic Beauty: Side Story A

X - Oddman 11

X - Atashi no Senpai

X - Blooming Sequence

X - Girl in the Birdcage

X - The Ends of a Dream

X - Rock it, GiRL!!

X - Kitanai Kimi ga Ichiban Kawaii

X - Shino to Ren

X - Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels

X - Yuri is My Job

Other Manga

X - Chainsaw Man Ch1-Ch97

X - Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya

X - Kimi to Pico-Pico

X - Welcome Back, Alice

X - Dungeon Meshi

X - Himegoto - Juukyuusai no Seifuku

X - So I'm a Spider, So What? Ch1 - Ch66.1

X - Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! Ch1 - Ch85

X - My childhood friend MUST become a girl!

Other

X - Infect Your Friends And Loved Ones

X - I'm Glad My Mom Died

[linkahavocz99]

~PSYCHO-PASS SEASON 2 SPOILERS SERIOUSLY IT’S BRUTAL DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN SEASON 2 EPISODE 4 BEING SO SERIOUS RIGHT NOW~

Psycho-Pass has a real problem with killing off their milfs and dilfs WHAT DO YOU MEAN DIVISION 3 JUST MADE SUGO ELIMINATE AOYANAGI??? THAT WAS HER OWN ENFORCER!!

If I was Akane I’d march right up to Chief Kase can smack her scrap metal head right off her shoulders before playing kickball with it, crime coefficient be damned.

[adelheidvonschicksal]

Another anime rec, Ahiru no sora! They're kinda ugly but you get used to it lol. And the slam dunk movie 😍

While we're talking about recs, got any good animes lol?

Oh, oh; Ahiru reminds me there's another volleyball anime like Haikyuu called Seiin High School Boys’ Volleyball Club. I only watched the first few episodes but the animation is good. Other than that, I mostly watch battle Shounen so I don't know if you care for that but there's:

Inuyasha – a classic

SK8 Infinity: feel good sports anime about skateboarding; season 2 coming soon. You probably already watched it though since you seem like you like sports anime! Air Gear is also an older sports anime.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn – This is an old one I used to watch back in middle/high school. It started as a comedy manga actually, so like yeah the main character runs around in his boxers doing silly things with the other cast for like the first 18 episodes; but after that, it turns into your standard shounen anime. If you don’t like the comedy part, you can watch to like episode 10 (or whenever a character named Fuuta comes in) and skip to episode 20. The art is a little rough in the first season too. It’s a very easygoing shounen, not many people die.

It actually holds a dear place in my heart. I always hear rumors of a remake coming but I’m never sure if they’re true. It’s also made by the same lady who did the art for Psycho-Pass.

Psycho-Pass: Crime thriller with the FINEST men.

D. Gray Man: also, nostalgic choice; it’s a shounen about fighting demons, and the demons are made from people’s tragedies. It has a sort of anthology feel at first with the different stories. I do like that the main female character can carry her own in a fight too (but then she started to get on my nerves a little later lol).

Deadman’s Wonderland: I highly suggest the manga over the anime. The Anime cuts out and skips so much. It’s about a kid who gets put in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, but there’s superpowers and death match for the jail to make money. It’s an extremely violent anime though and has SA, what basically counts as human trafficking, torture, and other triggers like that.

Yu Yu Hakusho: A classic along with Dragon Ball Z. Gege Akutami said the 3rd season villain (Sensui) is one of his favorite villains. You can tell he really based Geto off of him and his fall from grace, along with both their plans to solve their issues. Geto has more romanticization with his reasons though. It does fall off a bit in season 4 though. He’s also the guy who wrote Hunter x Hunter.

Gangsta. : This one is pretty graphic. Has SA, child abuse, prostitution, and mafia type things, but I love the main 3 characters and their relationship with one another. It also has a deaf main character and good diversity if you’re looking for that kind of representation.

K Project: It’s an ecchi, but I really enjoyed the ride trying to figure out who the murderer is. I recommend reading K: Project Red manga first because it makes the context of the anime mean so much more and gives backgrounds to all the characters; it also makes the anime more emotional. The cat girl is annoying to me though lol

Parasyte is a good one I’ve heard.

Summer Wars: a really good anime movie about a family trying to save the country when a Satellite threatens to crash when a virus takes over all internet intelligence.

A Letter to Momo: Another movie; it has a little bit of a Spirited Away feel (although Spirited Away is much better). It’s a coming-of-age story about a girl who moved to an island after her father passed away and island spirits are trying to help her with her problems.

Ranking of Kings: It’s a good one; the story gets dark a bit suddenly. I actually still have to finish it!

The other stuff you probably seen like Saiki K., Jojo, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Ouran High School Host club, Angel Beats, Noragami, Cowboy Bebop, and Samurai Champloo.