The Anime Thread

[viper37]

So there is nowhere to buy it on a non-subscription basis? Bullshit.

Yeah nice rationalization asshole. You fucking steal from the people you are supposedly a fan of you entitled fuck. Go to hell.

Your first sentence.  I have not claimed that I cannot buy it on a non-subscription basis.  That's your interpretation only. 

so you are, indeed, a thief.
Seems CdM was right all along about the Chinese.

[Monoriu]

so you are, indeed, a thief.
Seems CdM was right all along about the Chinese.

Ah, brings back memories.  I got similar reactions when I arrived in Vancouver and openly talked about these things in front of the Canadian locals.  The lesson I learned is that there is no point debating this 

[Monoriu]

I am amazed, and delighted, that a replacement site is already up and running.  They seem to be adding features every few hours that make it look closer to the original site.  It isn't quite there yet but they are getting closer.  So far there are no advertisements.  I don't want to underestimate the revenue of the original site, as it probably got close to 100m visits per day. 

I won't post any links here, but the keywords are nyaa and pantsu.  Nyaa is how the Japanese say meow, and pantsu is underwear 

[Jacob]

Ah, brings back memories.  I got similar reactions when I arrived in Vancouver and openly talked about these things in front of the Canadian locals.  The lesson I learned is that there is no point debating this 

Yet you clearly think there's a point to flaunting it to the people you won't debate with

[Monoriu]

Ah, brings back memories.  I got similar reactions when I arrived in Vancouver and openly talked about these things in front of the Canadian locals.  The lesson I learned is that there is no point debating this 

Yet you clearly think there's a point to flaunting it to the people you won't debate with

I was asked the question.  I feel the need to give a straight answer.  I won't mention it if I wasn't asked 

[Josquius]

Anyone been watching Attack on Titan?

Shark is pretty thoroughly jumped

Think I will switch to the manga after the series is done.

[Monoriu]

Anyone been watching Attack on Titan?

Shark is pretty thoroughly jumped

Think I will switch to the manga after the series is done.

I love it so far.  The last episode was...pretty major, and a bit odd, but I understand that it follows the manga faithfully. 

[Savonarola]

CB and I watched Princess Mononoke this week.  I had first seen it in 1999 when it had a limited theatrical run in the United States.  An anime club from one of the local high schools was there that night.  The students were climbing the walls before the film.  (Literally, not metaphorically; the Maple Theater has walls a few feet in front of the doors in order to block the light from outside if people entered or left during the show and the students were climbing those.)  Then the film started and the students were silent; like art-house movie silent.  So anime can make the world a better place.   

CB really liked it (though I didn't make her watch it in Japanese with subtitles).  It was even better than I remembered; I think that is Hayao Miyazaki best film.

[Monoriu]

CB and I watched Princess Mononoke this week.  I had first seen it in 1999 when it had a limited theatrical run in the United States.  An anime club from one of the local high schools was there that night.  The students were climbing the walls before the film.  (Literally, not metaphorically; the Maple Theater has walls a few feet in front of the doors in order to block the light from outside if people entered or left during the show and the students were climbing those.)  Then the film started and the students were silent; like art-house movie silent.  So anime can make the world a better place.   

CB really liked it (though I didn't make her watch it in Japanese with subtitles).  It was even better than I remembered; I think that is Hayao Miyazaki best film.

I haven't seen it.  I love Miyazaki movies and I watched Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa a zillion times when I was a kid.  I think I skipped this one mainly because it was released in the 90s.  I was in Canada at the time and was absolutely miserable.  Since I missed it at the time of release, I never bothered to go back.  I'll watch it some day for sure.

[frunk]

It was even better than I remembered; I think that is Hayao Miyazaki best film.

I agree.

[Monoriu]

I was intrigued by Lettow's earlier comment, so I decided to try this. 



Kemono Friends, or Animal Friends.  In a huge but deserted safari park, all the animals have turned into "Animal Friends", which are all young girls capable of speech, but they retain some of their former animal habits and appearances.    Kaban is the only human in the park.  She is a lost child who has lost all memories.  Even though it is obvious to the audience that she is a human, she embarks on a grand quest with the assistance of the Animal Friends to go to a library to figure out what kind of animal she is. 

Yes, this is a show that is aimed at the young children market.  Probably kindergarten level.  I was shocked when I discovered that, by some measure, a show with such a childish premise and low production budget became the most popular anime in Japan in the season in which it was aired.  I won't call the animation awful.  It is ok and does its job given the low expectations.  Even the normally impeccable Japanese voice acting suffers a bit here as they hire mostly young and inexperienced talent.  Yet this show possibly defeated formidable competition to become a sleeper hit.

It is a good show, especially seen through the lens that this is a very low budget and low expectation one.  The writing is extremely good, and the show never feels boring.  They meet new Animal Friends almost every episode, and there are sound recordings by real zoo staff to talk about interesting facts of the animals.  I learn something new almost every episode.  Every Animal Friend is kind to a fault.  Everybody is selfless, helpful, and they go out of their way to help Kaban with no strings attached.  There is also an effective overall plot about the origins of Kaban and the Animal Friends, as well as the reason for the present abandoned state of the park.  The setting and premise are childish, but the story-telling certainly isn't.  It is amazing that they can achieve this level of presentation with so few resources available.  I wonder how come studios with much larger budgets and established franchises often produce yawn-inducing work.   

[Lettow77]

I'm glad you also liked Kemono Friends, mono. Its been a big hit with the usual crowd- going into moe goods stores around here you can expect to hear the theme song and see Serval-chan & friends given pride of place behind a glass counter at the entrance.

I haven't liked this season much at all, so I take some solace in the fact that precedent suggests it is thus an excellent season for you. Sakura Quest is a bit too melodramatic for me and has been barely worth keeping up with, while Hinako Note and Shuumatsu Isogashii Desuka? were both dropped two episodes in.

Warau Salesman has been popular in women's circles, but I don't like it much at all- I think I am bothered by the expectation that the protagonist will punish people who break their word or who are in some way "bad", when in fact it is just the adventures of a mean-spirited and mysterious salesman making largely innocent people's lives worse.

The saving grace has been Little Witch Academia, which continues from the last season and has maintained its quality throughout.  The surprise of the season for me has been Alice to Zouroku- It left me very favorably impressed, and is probably my favorite anime of the new season at the moment.

Uchouten Kazoku's sequel is something I look forward to, but I am slowly retracing my way through the original first.

[Savonarola]

When I was younger I took a Japanese course at the local community college.  One day the teacher brought in an exercise to teach us relative adjectives where we had to state where the creature in the picture was in relation to something else.  This led to two questions from the class:

"What's a totoro?"   

"How can all three of those things be totoro? (totoroes? totori? totorodes?) 

CB and I watched "My Neighbor Totoro."  While this has an awful lot of up skirt shots considering the protagonists are 4 and 10; it's still a good film.  While Hayao Miyazaki's other films have more sophisticated stories, this one has a charming depiction of childhood wonder and imagination. 

[Savonarola]

Continuing on with Studio Ghibli CB and I watched "Only Yesterday" which was released in 1991; but Disney wouldn't release it in the United States due to its references to menstruation .  It wasn't until 2016 when GKids acquired the rights that it was released here.

It's an interesting story; one that I think could only come from Japan.  A woman reminisces about the events which happened when she was ten; considers her present situation and decides what she wants to do with her life all told in a cartoon.

[Josquius]

Attack on Titan s2 makes me sad.