The Anime Thread

[Lettow77]

Autumn 2015

Like mono, I thought i'd mention what I planned on following and why.

Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru

A mystery involving an ojousama who likes bones. It sounds like it might be a more offbeat Hyouka or less pandering Gosick. Either way it looks promising.
Sequels:

Yuru Yuri San☆Hai!


Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??

Both moe with yuri elements. Yuru Yuri is more comedic, and usagi is more yukkuri. They are both good for you and i'm looking forward to more.

[Eddie Teach]

They are both good for you

So they're the cartoon equivalent of eating your vegetables? 

[Lettow77]

I believe it may lower blood pressure and be good for your heart, if nothing else.

[Monoriu]

Charlotte, from Key Animation, the same folks who brought us Angel Beats, Clannad, Air, Kanon, and Little Busters.  It is as if their mission statement contains the words "we aim to make people cry."  In this world, some teenagers are blessed/cursed with various superpowers, but they all seem to have serious weaknesses.  The protagonist can take over somebody else's body, but only for 5 seconds.  Other special powers include invisibility (but only toward one specific individual at a time; everybody else can see you), super speed (but without brakes), letting your long dead sister take over your body (but only the dead person can control when she wants to appear) etc.  There exists a school that specialises in taking in these teenagers.  The mission of the student council and the protagonists is to convince other teenagers with special powers to join the school, or they risk being found by authorities eager to experiment on them. 

The warm-up period of this show is particularly long.  A lot of people give up after watching the first few episodes, which seem to consist of fillers.  The story does take multiple radical turns mid-way that drastically alter the story and the perspective.  It is well-worth watching till the end, and most important of all, it fulfills its stated mission as an emotional roller-coaster ride and a tearjerker.  I particularly like how one episode deals with how the living cope with the loss of a loved one.  The light episodes made me laugh, the serious episodes glued me to the screen. 

The not-so-good.  This isn't the first show that changes the tone and perspective of the story mid-way.  Steins Gate and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are both like that.  But the way Charlotte handles the transition is a little too abrupt, almost as if there are two separate stories in there.  It could do a better job in foreshadowing the appearance of antagonists and other plot twists.  There are too many moments when I thought "this came out of nowhere."  The explanation of how the superpowers came to be was outright lame.

The show successfully pulled my heartstrings, but the script isn't as tight as it should be.  In terms of Key shows, I'd put it behind Air and about on par with Kanon.  Definitely not as good as Angel Beats or Clannad, but it is better than Little Busters and is well-worth watching.   

[jimmy olsen]

Cowboy Bebop.  Humanity has colonized the solar system in the future.  An ex-policeman and an ex-criminal team up on the spaceship Bebop to make a living as bounty hunters.  A female fatale, a child genius computer hacker and a data dog join them along the way.  They face their pasts, dangerous criminals and interesting people along their journey.  Widely regarded as one of the best anime shows ever made.  I agree wholeheartedly.

It is almost as if it is made for a western audience.  The show is essentially cowboys in space.  It avoids most otaku anime tropes, like a highschool setting, teenage protagonists, harems, incest subtext, transforming mechas, cute girls with huge eyes etc.  Everything in it feels western, especially the music which is jazz style.

The show is largely episodic, with the main plot only covering 5 episodes out of 26.  Yet most of the single episodes leave an impression.  The reason can be a unique and memorable villain, hilarious moments, a signature scene of the protagonist remembering his past while falling down from a church window, homages to famous western/Hong Kong action movies, famous last words, crazy badass antics by the leads etc.  Many minor, enemy-of-the-week type characters stay in fans' memory long after some main heroes of lesser shows have been forgotten.  There is almost always something that makes each episode unique. 

The production values are excellent.  For a 90s show, the visuals have stood the test of time and still compares very well with the average show in the 2010s.  It is impossible to discuss this show without mentioning the music.  This is easily the magnum opus of Yoko Kanno, one of the most respected anime/video game music composers in Japan.  I think the soundtracks of this 26-episode and single movie series easily fill at least 4 CDs, and they are still being sold today. 

Am I the only one here who hasn't seen it until now?

It's an amazing series and should absolutely be shown to any westerner if you want to introduce them to anime.

Check out the movie as well Mono and the series Samurai Champloo.

[Monoriu]

It's an amazing series and should absolutely be shown to any westerner if you want to introduce them to anime.

Check out the movie as well Mono and the series Samurai Champloo.

I have already watched the Cowboy Bebop movie  The series doesn't seem to be that popular in East Asia or Japan though.  It is still highly regarded, but nowhere near as popular as other series. 

Champloo is on my to-do list, as is Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal. 

[Monoriu]

Overlord.  An ordinary salaryman has formed a guild of undead and other non-human races in a massive online RPG game.  The guild went on to become extremely successful.  They built a dungeon, which became the target of more "normal" players, and created NPCs to help protect the place.  Over time, the guild players left one-by-one.  Until one day, only the guildmaster was left, and the game itself was scheduled for closure.  He logged on for the last time to witness the end of the game, only to find that the NPCs and the entire world came alive before him. 

The "trapped in a game world" premise has been done to death.  This anime does a remarkable job in creating a refreshing perspective that makes the show an excellent watching experience.  The protagonist is a skeleton and an evil overlord.  All his companions are NPCs hardwired to worship him and obey him without question, as he is their last creator left.  One of the highlights of the show is his internal struggles.  He maybe scared, emotional, struggling and screaming on the inside, but he always maintain his powerful, chessmaster persona in front of the NPCs.  And they always interpret everything he says as divine, no matter how silly they really are.  This is very different from typical anime adventure series where the relationship among the protagonist party is either based on trust and friendship, or harem love.  In this anime, they also have a base of operations from the start, something they need to defend, instead of the wandering party setup. 

Another strength of the show is the very detailed world settings, as well as the battle sequences.  There are numerous factions and loads and loads of characters.  There seem to be detailed rules about battles, HPs, MPs, potions, magic, armour, guild ranks, classes etc.  Battles aren't just decided by having the most tragic backstories or the most potent willpower, but there are strategies and schemes involved, with detailed explanations.  The only complaint I really have is that the protagonist is way overpowered and doesn't really face much challenge along the way. 

[Monoriu]

School live. I normally consider anything in the first episode of a show fair game to discuss without worrying about spoilers, but I'll make an exception for this one.  Don't read ahead if you want to go in blind.

Four cute junior high school girls have decided that it is a good idea to live in their school.  The teacher is nice, they are nice to each other, they have electricity, showering facilities, lots of supplies etc.  All this happens in the head of the protagonist only.  In reality, they live in a zombie apocalypse.  Apparently they are the only survivors in the entire city.  They are besieged by countless zombies, and they have barricaded themselves inside the school.  The protagonist has subconsciously decided to ignore all the broken windows, blood stains on the walls, etc to live in her own illusionary world.  Her friends play along both because they don't want to break her emotionally, and because her cheerful personality provides emotional support for them as well in the bleak times. 

This is one of the most talked-about shows in the summer 2015 season.  It is one of a kind, and the contrast between the slice of life, cute art style and characters, and the horrible reality they face leaves a lasting impression.   Because the show is told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, the audience is constantly challenged with the question, how much of what is shown is real and how much is her imagination.  It is difficult to balance the cute things that they are doing, and their emotional trauma.  The anime works to a reasonable extent without breaking immersion.  But only to an extent, because I think 80% of the time, the cute things are dominant.  It is a mix of two genres, but not a dark deconstruction.  If anything, I think the middle arc is too relaxed, slow and filler-ish, but fortunately the ending regains focus. 

[Monoriu]

Carnival Phantasm.  This is produced by Type-Moon, the same company behind Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime.  Carnival Phantasm assumes familiarity with both series.  There is no attempt to make even the most basic character or world introductions.  It throws the audience into the ocean to sink or swim.  In fact, I think it assumes that the viewers are familiar with the source visual novels.  I have watched every anime episode in the Fate and Tsukihime franchises, yet there are still 10-15% of the characters that I have not seen before. 

This is official fan fiction and affectionate self-parody.  Forget trivial things like plots, coherence, continuity, etc.  All those go out the window.  The only purpose of the show is to have some casual fun, using the characters of both Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime.  One episode features them in a Formula One style race trying to destroy each other.  Another episode asks the audience to visit a website to vote if they want to see the two male protagonists date every heroine at once, or only date the main girl (I vaguely suspect that the website and voting are real).  The "dating every heroine at once" option won, so the show really animated the two of them trying to date all their girlfriends on the same day (one of them has a 3-member harem; the other has a 5-member one) with tricks like leaving one of their girlfriends in a cinema, the other in a buffet etc.  Then the last episode showed what would have happened under the dating only the main heroine option (and pissing off the rest of the harem).  You get the idea.

This is a "turn your brain off; just laugh" kind of show.  It is very charming to those of us who have done the homework to watch the pre-requisite shows.  Both Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime are somewhat dark and tragic, so it is heartwarming to see everybody who are supposed to be dead coming back to life doing silly antics.  Despite the crazy premise, the production values are good, loaded with easter eggs, call backs, insider jokes, and catchy songs.  But the show is really only for Type-Moon fans.

[Lettow77]

 I will now, officially and without any bias or subjective slant, rank the Type-Moon ladies from worst to best.

For simplicity's sake, only such ladies as had the prestige to make it into the Type Moon cover will receive attention. (a moment of silence for Caster and Rider, two worthies robbed of their day in the lists.) Spoilers may exist.


#10- Tohsaka

Tohsaka plays the dishonest-with-herself aggressive, competitive and unfriendly tsundere to a fault. She is little more than a bag of tsundere tropes; insomuch as she rises above them, it is to be an overachieving rich girl with arrogance issues. Unappealing and unpleasant. Her zettai ryouiki is the best part of her character, and that's not a character trait so much as a wardrobe choice.


#9- Ciel

As a member of Tea Ceremony club and a calm young lady with glasses, Ciel had every reason to hope for a higher placement. Unfortunately, her secretive background and personality quickly run away with her. "Church Assassin who is secretly a centuries old French vampire" will get you laughed out of anywhere. Besides this, she does little to endear her as a lady; her most compelling features as a straight-laced and collected Tea Ceremony Aesthete being essentially a lie. Unfortunate hair.

#8- Taiga

Something of a joke character, Taiga is immature for her age, horrible at cooking, unwilling to clean, and has a boyish haircut. In her favor is that she has a cheerful disposition and..is good at Kendo? At her best she could be called a teasing older sister type. It is to her credit that she managed to make it this high on the list.


#7- Akiha
A refined and secluded girl. Her personality is standoffish, suspicious and cold. She is a younger sister who wishes she was an older sister. She has two maids at her beck and call, and insomuch as this is a personality feature it serves her in good stead. Unfortunately, she trends too heavily toward the unpleasant and negative. Unless you enjoyed being the recipient of her incestuous longings, it is hard to see much in favor of Akiha.

#6-  Arcueid
A whimsical and sheltered centuries old vampire, who doesn't heed social cues and is basically laid back and friendly. Reminiscent of a cat. There's not much to say against her, but she doesn't have any of the poise, culture or elegance we might hope for from a proper lady. "Elegance" sounds too close to an antonym of her character to merit her placing much higher despite a basically agreeable personality.

#5- Illya

the creepy lolicon option denied a route in the eleventh hour. The story takes pains to indicate that she is eighteen. The story protests too much. Illya is playful, mischevious, possessive and friendly. She also has a cute outfit, and a pleasant disposition. She has an interesting juxtaposition of kindness and callousness, and a manor to reside in. However, at final judgement, anyone the story has deliberately frozen into the body of a young girl and then presented for your romantic consideration is off-putting. This is the sort of thing that makes the foreigners talk, Japan.

#4- Hisui

Hisui is an emotionless maid. Later we are convinced she was merely suppressing her natural kindness for obscure reasons, but the impression lasts. Emotionless maids that carry out their master's every order certainly have a place in the world, but she could stand to be more interesting. In particular, it's hard to believe she managed to get a route, but Illya did not. Crucially, she is the younger sister to Kohaku, and younger sisters are generally inferior. Who longs in their heart for an emotionless girl?

#3- Saber

Nasu was not done with his idea of the beautiful blonde foreigner who is out of step with proper social cues, and so Saber became the leading heroine after Arcueid. It is natural to compare the two, and the comparison is favorable for Saber. She is very polite, composed, and fond of tea. Her sense of loyalty and duty are excellent, where Arcuieid is too capricious. A likeable character.

#2- Sakura

Sakura is initially presented to us as a collection of idealized housewife tropes. We learn that she is perfect at cooking, diligent with cleaning, and that her life orbits the object of her affection, who she naturally puts in a position elevated to her own. That's all well and good. As the story progresses, though, it becomes clear she has had a terrible upbringing, and through no fault of her own has constant lustful urges. She is completely ashamed, and this is key. Her shame and desperate attempt to resist her wantonness, as well her supernatural plausible deniability, manage to remove the dark stain of female sexuality and render her lasciviousness an unheard-of positive. A consummately desirable character.


#1- Kohaku

The first thing to say about Kohaku is that her outfit is a hybrid maid dress/kimono, the apotheosis of submissive feminine attire, never to be eclipsed. She is a maid of clumsiness, easy smiles and constant friendliness, with a traditional bent that inclines her to favor things like tea, growing herbs, and so on. Like with Hisui, we learn that her personality is a facade, but it is a more believable and enjoyable one; rather than an expressionless drone, she has a friendly exterior that masks her resentments and plotting against her Manor, which has dealt her a long list of wrongs. She has a more complex character than most on this list, and is utterly charming. Of note, she acts as a conduit for her mistress's incestuous desires, and has an indecent connection with the mistress herself. Well, alright.

As a friendly onee-san type with a cute outfit, a pretty name, and intriguing character depths, she is the easy favorite.

[Monoriu]

Does your definition of Type-Moon girls cover Ryogi Shiki from Kara no Kyoukai? 

[Lettow77]

  Insomuch as she wasn't on the Carnival Phantasm cover, it didn't. But I don't have a very high opinion of her at all.

[Monoriu]

I've only watched the anime, so I am unaware of the backstories of Hisui or Kohaku, and my knowledge of Sakura's story is quite limited.  I can say for certain that, out of your list, Saber is my favourite, and Akiha comes last.  Saber is the perfect ally and warrior, loyal, upright, well-meaning.  Akiha is possessive, incestuous, and imposes draconian rules on her brother (no electronics, no exiting the house after a certain time etc). 

Sakura is tough for me to rank.  I know her route isn't really covered in the animes, but I know that she had a horrible upbringing from watching Fate/Zero.  Otherwise, she seems the best wife out of all the girls.  Nice, smiles all the time, good cooking.  Hisui appeasr emotionless but is clearly nice and kind inside. 

[Monoriu]

I have given more thought to this.  Here is my ranking of the 12 (yes I am going to include Rider and Caster anyway  ) girls.

12. Akiha.  Undoubtedly my least favourite.  There is a huge gap between 11 and 12.  She is someone I don't want to have anything to do with.  Tyrannical and lying bitch. 

11. Caster.  The latest Unlimited Blade Works anime casts a better light on her.  But I still find it difficult to like her for her torture of Saber.  She has her reasons but she is too ruthless. 

10. Kohaku.  I have only watched the anime, so I really don't know her well.  What strikes me is her ability to tell outright lies while keeping up her innocent and cheerful appearance.  That's a big negative.  The gap between 9 and 10 is quite big.

9. Rider.  I think she plays a bigger role in the Heaven's Feel route, which hasn't really been adapted in the animes.  She is an adversary in most adaptations so far.  Her disgust with her master is obvious, and I applaud her efforts to help Sakura in Canival Phantasm.  She may appear evil but she seems to be hostile only when she is under orders. 

8. Illya.  The loli of the series.  The few times I see her in Fate Stay Night, she attempts to kill the protagonists.  Granted, they are on different sides in a survival game, but that's still too much for my taste.

7. Tohsaka.  She is the ultimate tsundere.  While she is an ally most of the time, she is also a scheming cheater.  The one thing I won't forgive her is her attempted murder of Shirou early on in the series.  On the plus side, I don't really mind her tsundere antics.  We also need someone who is capable of coming up with good battle plans and willing to bend the rules.  Saber is nice, but her tendency to seek a fair, open fight may not be the most productive thing to do. 

6. Taiga.  Nothing particularly wrong with her.  She is the cool, cheerful big sister.  I just place her somewhere around the middle as sort of a yardstick.  Girls above her are good. Girls ranked lower than her have some problematic traits.

5. Ciel.  Somehow I get the feeling that the anime hasn't explained her story and her personalities enough.  She is the ally you don't know you have.  She has a tragic background but her heart is in the right place.

4. Sakura.  She appears to be the ultimate embodiment of the Japanese housewife archtype.  She is nice, kind, friendly.  But it is also obvious that she has one of the worst upbringings in the cast, even considering that it is a foregone conclusion that everybody has a tragic backstory.  The negative about her is that she is like a timebomb that may go off. 

3. Hisui.  Appears emotionless but fundamentally a nice person. 

2. Arcueid.  She is a close second, and probably more human and pleasant to have around than Saber.  But she is still a vampire that has an obvious problem with blood. 

1. Saber.  She maybe too standoff-ish some of the time, but she is the ultimate dependable friend. 

[Josquius]

I have no idea what you are talking about