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Just watched that first ep on a whim, I like it. I have no clue where it's going but I'm intrigued as hell.

 

The ED is freakin cool, too.

 

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that nobody cares when boobs are shown on Game of Thrones, Sopranos or Orange is the New Black, but draw some tits and all of a sudden it's weird and wrong.

 

It definitely bothers people when it's clearly done to get some boobs on the screen - Game of Thrones got a lot of flak for its 'sexposition' in the first season, which it stopped doing in later seasons, and its willingness to exploit sex for shocks still gets tongues wagging. Orange is the New Black definitely had people complaining in the most recent season about a character who got her kit off on screen, it seemed, primarily to have an attractive woman naked on screen and not for a good narrative reason. The ongoing relationship between Piper and Alex, which is sexually explicit, doesn't seem to bother people much because that narrative is part of the story for those characters, and if you removed it, it'd make the show worse.

 

Anime doesn't traffic in the same genres as premium drama - a sober show about a middle-aged mobster would feel like a waste of the medium - and for most of those genres, explicit sexuality rarely enhances the narrative.

 

There's probably also a little culture shock going on - America is more progressive in terms of gender roles than Japan is (though not as much as the West likes to think it is). In addition, anime has, as an industry, doubled down on sleaze in recent years, so people are going to be less charitable about any individual show because of the way the industry as a whole acts. (HBO also has this problem - the immediate assumption was that the boobs in Game of Thrones were HBO's fault.)

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Perfect insider? More like Pretentious insider. 

 

I kid, I think this show will be good, but nothing happened in the first episode that was at all interesting. It's based off a novel that's won awards, and it's in the NoitaminA slot, so my hopes are high!

 

 

I also checked out Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, and it's pretty good. Hilariously it reminded me a lot of Dallos. Crappy mechs and a colony of poor people on mars, with the hoity-toity princess coming to see what it's like for the little poor 'uns. Good stuff! I want to actually watch this Gundam series.

 

 

Orange is the New Black definitely had people complaining in the most recent season about a character who got her kit off on screen, it seemed, primarily to have an attractive woman naked on screen and not for a good narrative reason. The ongoing relationship between Piper and Alex, which is sexually explicit, doesn't seem to bother people much because that narrative is part of the story for those characters, and if you removed it, it'd make the show worse.

 

I don't think I've gotten to that point yet, and yeah, Vause and Piper's relationship is part of the cause.

 

 

(HBO also has this problem - the immediate assumption was that the boobs in Game of Thrones were HBO's fault.)

It wasn't? I don't know much about this, tbh.

 

I don't think the sleaze has doubled down. There's certainly more, but it's just that the type of preferred sleaze has changed taste over the years? Gone are the days of crazy explicit monster girl things like WitchBlade and other Gonzo titles. Also art production has gone up too. Idk. It's certainly hard to defend it when I've just had a conversation with my colleague about The Testament of the Little Sister Devil. Ugh. -_-;

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It's hard for me to know if the sleaze has gone up, or we're just exposed to more of it. Certainly if I compare the worst of the Old Days and the worst of Today, they're fairly similar, except the quality (ymmv) of sleaze has gone up today, because the quality (ymmv) of everything has gone up these days. There's a whole hell of a lot more fidelity to the animation in today's stuff that just wasn't present in old stuff.

 

Speaking of sleaze. I watched more Food Wars.

 

It got temporarily better with naked dude, but then got way worse again with JIGGLING TITS OH LOOK AT THAT NICE DETAILED JIGGLE of meat girl, who has an entire scene dedicated to what kind of bikini top she's going to wear.

 

I don't think I will ever be able to believe people again when they tell me it's "equal opportunity fanservice". I like lookin' at sexy dudes just as much as I like lookin' at sexy ladies, and let me tell you, there is not as much sexy dude action as there is sexy lady action. This shit is egregious.

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My wife likes War in the Pocket a lot.

Although, she's specifically stated that it's the only Gundam movie she's seen that she got anything out of at all, since mecha qua mecha doesn't really do anything for her. So I suspect her tastes are pretty much diametrically opposed to that of most Gundam fans.

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My wife likes War in the Pocket a lot.

Although, she's specifically stated that it's the only Gundam movie she's seen that she got anything out of at all, since mecha qua mecha doesn't really do anything for her. So I suspect her tastes are pretty much diametrically opposed to that of most Gundam fans.

 

Most gundam fans are in it for the toys.  Story telling of Tomino's originals are rather 'awkward' to put it kindly (watch first episode of Unicorn, it's basically that kind of grand pointless (because there are no details to be filled in) gesturing spanning for entire series), some of them like G-Gundam are so off the beat from rest of the franchise that it's pointless to even use them as franchise measuring stick, and others (Wing, SEED, 00) that try to mimic Tomino's originals in thematic (some general anti-war stuff with disgust for politics that drive people into war) tends to constantly fall into this weird gap where characters are spouting anti war stuff, but all the actions shown on the screen are essentially war-porn because hey, Gundam has to look cool so that the toys sell.

 

So Gundam as a franchise exists to sell toys about fantastical sci fi war machines.  If you keep that context in mind, 0080 War in the Pocket becomes even more amazing.

 

BobbyBesar if you haven't watched it give it a try with that in mind, I highly recommend it.

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Hello I am truly back. Haven't watched much stuff for a couple weeks. What's good in the anime hood so far?

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Yep one punch man is the best.

 

You might also get a kick out of Osomatsu-san. It's been a quiet favourite of mine so far this season.

 

EDIT: Welcome Back Blambo! :D

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I'm a little unsure about how One Punch Man is shaping up.

I'm still really enjoying it but it's pacing is a little strange, is doesn't seem to have the energy of a pure comedy, and there isn't really any drama to drag it along. It just sorta of ambles along, which i suppose it's actually quite fitting considering the apathy the MC feels towards his work.

It sorta reminds me of Samurai Flamenco a few seasons back, a series which i never finished but threw multiple weird changes of tone and pacing at me without a plot or compelling characters to drag me through them.

I think OPM does do a better job of staying entertaining and does look amazing but i don't really feel compelled to watch the next episode like i do with some series.

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I watched Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Overall, I liked it, but it definitely had weaknesses, most of them connected to its status as part of a mecha franchise. I enjoyed getting a brief but detailed look inside the Gundam universe, but I was frustrated by the apparent flatness of morality therein. The Zeon are obviously arrogant, misguided, and evil, leaving the show's efforts to humanize its soldiers somewhat weakened. I also enjoyed having a child's perspective of war, which was mostly well-executed, but I also felt that the show takes multiple opportunities to make Al look stupid and childish in a way that alienates me from the emotions that he's experiencing. Then again, the show occasionally allows its message to collapse down into a flat statement that War Is Bad, Someday We'll All Stop Fighting, so lesser tonal slips seem in keeping.

 

I did find it very attractive for 1989, even the giant robots, the design of which is ugly to me but still interesting to watch in motion. I mostly just wish I'd watched some other Gundam show from the "Universal Century" continuity to get a feeling for it first, even if I didn't like it, because just having the context would probably have improved my enjoyment of War in the Pocket immensely. I am going to recommend it as a spotlight for our podcast, either it or Macross: Do You Remember Love?, if only because its eyecatches would be so good for a thumbnail icon:

 

gundam0088-1.jpggundam-0080-eyecatch-2.jpg

 

Now I'm watching Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigatteiru, probably better known to Anglophone fans as My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, on the repeated recommendation of anime blogger OgiueMANIAX. There, it was presented as part of the fairly typical sub-genre of anime: a misanthropic loner dude is co-opted into a silly club full of difficult women, where he ends up helping people and winning hearts with his unique perspective on life, the universe, and everything... only, apparently, SNAFU mixes things up by giving hints that the protagonist is unhappy as a loner, by playing the eventual love triangle very close to the chest, by demurring from showing the protagonist's "victories" in a positive light, and by showing him slowly changing with the help of the people around him, even as he helps them more overtly.

 

So far... Well, I see all of the above and I can't say that it's wrong. In practice, the show comes off as a mix of Haganai (setting and characters), Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (themes and hook), and Medaka Box (overall structure). These are all good shows (well, Haganai is actually terrible, at least for me, but it's fine on paper, so whatever) but they all carry their flaws into SNAFU. Like Medaka BoxSNAFU starts out episodic, with different episodes devoted to helping different individuals with their (often stupid) problems, and allows the accumulation of characters and knowledge of characters to push the plot gradually towards a shift in pacing and focus. The problem is, while the shift in Medaka Box is to over-the-top shounen action, the shift in SNAFU is to flashback-heavy teen drama, which wrecks the brisk pace of the early episodes and bogs the show down badly before it's even half over. Similarly, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei uses the perspective of negative or unpleasant individuals to disrupt audience expectations, like SNAFU, but the former does it in the name of absurdist commentary and the latter does it to build out characters and drive the plot. As for Haganai... maybe just imagine a version of Haganai where all of the characters are not just superficially selfish and cruel, but in fact are selfish and cruel all the way through, because Haganai wants its audience to work to find the good in Kodaka and Yozora while SNAFU just wants them to understand fully the personal cost of bad personality traits, whatever good they do to others. None of the above kills the appeal of SNAFU entirely, but they are missteps that punish critical viewing with an ever-increasing awareness of shortcomings.

 

Honestly, I'm still enjoying myself, which is a surprise when I both perceive all the show's faults intellectually and dislike most of its characters emotionally. Part of it is just the pleasure of seeing the protagonist, Hikigaya, fail to be valorized for the great anime virtue of "getting things done" and "fixing problems," because his solutions are blunt and often hurtful. The argument that means, not just ends, matter when it comes to dealing with other human beings is an argument rarely taken with this kind of show, but here it is practically the central thesis. People argue against results and I like that. I also enjoy the subtlety of the love triangle, which has barely been expressed out loud by any of the three parties involved, but maybe that's just because I don't like any of them and am not in any great need to see them happily in love. Finally, some of the secondary characters are great. Hikigaya's little sister and Yukinoshita's older sister are both sources of keen energy, which the show is otherwise missing, and Hikigaya's friend Totsuka is interesting for the latent homosexual attraction that Hikigaya regularly expresses to him, without judgment from the other characters or the show itself.

 

Sadly, though, I don't think that My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is going to turn out to be the diamond in the rough that I hoped it was going to be. It's better than average, for sure, but the average isn't much about which to crow when it comes to loser-makes-friends anime. Maybe the second season, when Hikigaya truly begins to turn his life around, will reveal to me that the writers really know what they're doing, rather than having just stumbled into a slightly better version of an accepted formula...

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It's interesting to see another (partial) recommendation for War in the Pocket I'm going to have to take the time to give it a go at some point.

That whole franchise seems a big party of the culture surrounding anime but I tried watching the current iteration Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and gave up on episode three.

Which reminds me is there anywhere legit to watch the drama about Anno you linked a few pages back Gorm?

The other series you talk about remind me that at some point i need to steel myself and get around to watching the rest of Watamote despite how painful it feels to rubber neck at the car crash that is it's protagonists life.

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Which reminds me is there anywhere legit to watch the drama about Anno you linked a few pages back Gorm?

 

Sadly, no. It's been picked up by no streaming services. Not even the manga it's based on has had an official translation (for that matter, it hasn't even been scanlated). It's definitely a niche series outside of Over-Time's fansubbing job.

 

Honestly, looking at how ridiculously that ADV had to spin Yasuhiro Takeda's Notenki Memoirs as this crazy Japanese adventure, too far out for real life, in order to sell an extremely straightforward and unambitious account of fan subcultures in 1980s Japan, I doubt there will ever be a market for something like Aoi Honoo/Blue Blazes to get licensed here, even though it is actually crazy and a little far out.

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Will have to see if i can track it down by other means then.

I've been watching a couple of kemonozume episodes tonight, i think I'm enjoying it more this time round than than when i first caught the series a few years back.

It's still uneven as all heck but the characters are actually far more fully formed than i remember them and it's got a great sense of the absurd.

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I watched Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. Overall, I liked it, but it definitely had weaknesses, most of them connected to its status as part of a mecha franchise. I enjoyed getting a brief but detailed look inside the Gundam universe, but I was frustrated by the apparent flatness of morality therein. The Zeon are obviously arrogant, misguided, and evil, leaving the show's efforts to humanize its soldiers somewhat weakened. I also enjoyed having a child's perspective of war, which was mostly well-executed, but I also felt that the show takes multiple opportunities to make Al look stupid and childish in a way that alienates me from the emotions that he's experiencing. Then again, the show occasionally allows its message to collapse down into a flat statement that War Is Bad, Someday We'll All Stop Fighting, so lesser tonal slips seem in keeping.

 

I did find it very attractive for 1989, even the giant robots, the design of which is ugly to me but still interesting to watch in motion. I mostly just wish I'd watched some other Gundam show from the "Universal Century" continuity to get a feeling for it first, even if I didn't like it, because just having the context would probably have improved my enjoyment of War in the Pocket immensely. I am going to recommend it as a spotlight for our podcast, either it or Macross: Do You Remember Love?, if only because its eyecatches would be so good for a thumbnail icon:

 

I suppose it is partially my fault for pushing this one at its lonesome too hard to you who I presume don't have much experience with mecha genre, especially Gundam franchise as a context.  But it would also be weird for me to recommend people to watch ton of somewhat below average works to fully appreciate one OVA.  Well at least you still came out leaning favorably.

 

The context is that despite all the 'war is bad' theme of various Gundam series, the franchise as a whole exists to sell toys so anime doesn't shy away from glorifying violence and the weapons which execute said violence (which is why IMO, most Gundam anime are below average).  That's why 0080 is so beautiful for me because my entire childhood was consuming these mecha genre (Gundam was mostly consumed through toys (with story context on the manual like how Tamiya models would have historical factoid about the model) more than actual anime itself) at their marketing face value, which is, these are cool toys.  And that's how bulk of the fandom is.  So 0080 is like this superb deconstruction of that culture of consuming war toys (fictional war, but they are clearly marketed as cool weapons) that just resonates so strongly with me.

 

Like IDK if you noticed but... none of the mecha does anything particularly 'cool' in 0080.  They all move little clumsy, and when they take hits, it just looks very fragile.  Compare that to say, these

 

https://youtu.be/2DLY-xw4nKQ?t=15m8s

 

Last one isn't UC but I think it embodies the problem of Gundam franchise very, very well.

 

I'm not really good with writing so this review sums it up best for me

 

http://thecartdriver.com/secret-santa-review-gundam-0080-war-in-the-pocket/

 

Also this is the anime that taught me seasons are different based on which side of the equator you are on lol

 

It's interesting to see another (partial) recommendation for War in the Pocket I'm going to have to take the time to give it a go at some point.

That whole franchise seems a big party of the culture surrounding anime but I tried watching the current iteration Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and gave up on episode three.

 

Yes, please do try it~~~

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I still won't watch gundam and you can't make me!

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That whole franchise seems a big party of the culture surrounding anime but I tried watching the current iteration Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and gave up on episode three.

 

Oh. I'm really enjoying this series. ._.

 

What didn't you like?

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I've been watching One Punch Man and really enjoying it! I don't usually watch anime as it airs (this is sorta the first time) and it's a novel experience.

 

I'm a little unsure about how One Punch Man is shaping up.
I'm still really enjoying it but it's pacing is a little strange, is doesn't seem to have the energy of a pure comedy, and there isn't really any drama to drag it along. It just sorta of ambles along, which i suppose it's actually quite fitting considering the apathy the MC feels towards his work.

 

I feel a little bit of this. Specifically: whenever Saitama is not in a scene I struggle to care at all about what's happening. Saitama is gold, but without him the show feels like it's treading water, setting up uncompelling pieces until Saitama enters and makes the show interesting again. I guess that's ~kinda~ why it works? And at least it looks really good while it's doing it.

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Oh. I'm really enjoying this series. ._.

 

What didn't you like?

I think the thing is, i feel if you are going to make a show about children fighting, one of four things had to happen for me to keep watching

It takes it subject utterly seriously and it's almost unrelenting in its nastiness

It's takes its subject utterly unseriously and makes it clear from the get go it had no pretensions to be anything more than entertainment

Its actually about something entirely unrelated

It just had amazingly written characters whos relationships are interesting regardless of where the plots going or how contrived the world is.

Iron Blooded Orphans seems to want to be entertainment but also for us to care about the unfortunate plight of its plucky casy of paper thin characters including:

The clumsy rich girl who really cares for the less fortune, she sure doesn't know how to cook but boy does she try hard!

The cocky leader & the quite kid who is the only one who can pilot the special mech!

Seriously It's like gurren laggan never happened they seem to have no sense of how tired and overused those tropes have become.

I'm probably being over harsh on it but there you go :P

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Fair enough! I'm not well versed in mech tropes, so maybe I'm just not used to it? I did notice just how similar some of the beats were to Dallos though, amusingly.

 

Also on a different matter, Leeds hosts an international film festival every year, and they also have a fanime day, where they have a screening of 4-5 anime films. This year's is particularly exceptional because they're all shit I've never heard of. If anyone reading this lives near/in Yorkshire, you should totally make the trip to check it out. It's an awesome day,

 

Here's what's on this year

Japanese animation has a day all to itself at LIFF and this year’s line-up features five new and original features. The Case of Hana and Alice is a charming comedy from Japanese auteur Shunji Iwai. Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise is the new anime feature from the director of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Empire of Corpses is the first film in an anime trilogy based on the award-winning science fiction novels of the late Japanese author Project Itoh. Miss Hokusai is the new award-winning anime from Keiichi Hara, the director of Colourful. Plus, the brand new Ghost in the Shell feature.

 

 

More details see this link: http://www.leedsfilm.com/films/anime-day-2015/

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Fair enough! I'm not well versed in mech tropes, so maybe I'm just not used to it? I did notice just how similar some of the beats were to Dallos though, amusingly.

 

Yeah Dallos and it are weirdly similar, except no giant lazer face!!!!

 

What i was reacting less to Mech tropes in particular and more just but just general character tropes.

The clumsy rich girl in particular is just so overused that when it pops up without any sort of subversion to it i don't have much patience for it. I think thtas true of all anime for me after watching for over 10 years. 

 

It's so frustrating seeing the same things again and again that when something interesting is done with a trope it immediately bumps my interest in that series.

I mean Yamada from working is technically a clumsy rich girl, but unlike the traditional version she's basically unrepentant about her ineptitude for the job! and its great :D

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I said this in the Overrated Classics thread but it seems more appropriate here:

 

Howl's Moving Castle is a piece of shit. Fantastic animation, imaginatively crafted world, all wasted on an infuriatingly dumb and uneven story, and the blandest fucking characters. I'm not even kidding, I enjoyed Tales From Earthsea more because at least that didn't piss me off with its utterly misused potential.

 

DISCUSS.

 

Also, while searching for something related I found this list, which is really really good and sums up a lot of my misgivings with some well-loved Ghiblis (I would've put Nausicaa higher, though).

 

http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/studio-ghibli-movies-ranked.php

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