I am playing Super Robot Wars 30 (never heard of the game series before and apparently this is the first time it has been released in the West and its on Steam; expensive though).
It seems to include characters and inside mentions of all the Mecha games through the years. I am going to have to watch all the animes now!
I finished Mieruko-Chan, and it was kind of meh. Way way too much of the show is literally just stills of her frozen in fear and talking about how scared she is. The pity is that there are a few sweet moments and a handful of really good jokes, but that slowness sours the whole experience a bit. I know that it’s slice of life-y, but it shines the most when it hits comedy notes of how she can deal with her fear or work around it instead of just standing still. For instance, early on, Miko sees a pretty-boy type guy who’s being haunted by an ex girlfriend. The girlfriend ghost basically attacks everybody who it thinks wants to steal her boyfriend. It sees Miko look at him, and assumes she’s going to flirt with him and lurches over. So, her answer is to search for pictures of pro wrestlers on her phone and loudly talk to herself saying “Boy, I sure do love burly, hairy men. They’re the best.” The ghost sees there’s no competition and moves on. I really wanted more of those kinds of socially awkward situations, but mostly she just freezes and nothing really happens.
I also watched some of Zombie Land Saga, due sort of to a misunderstanding of the premise. I knew it was “zombie idols”, but I guess I kind of assumed that the setting was a zombie apocalypse of some sort, and they were like…trying to perform for other zombies? Or human survivors? Or something? I don’t really know, that’s kind of what I wanted to find out. Anyways, it turns out theyre zombie idols, but the setting is just the normal modern world, and they have to hide the fact that they’re zombies from the world. Which makes sense and works fine, but it’s way less weird than the show I had in my head. They do use the gimmick to have idols from different historical eras, so that’s kind of neat.
That being said, in context it’s a perfectly fine slapstick comedy with the occasional blatant heartstring tugs, but pretty well executed. Also, the Saga in the title refers (in part) to the Saga prefecture, and it has a bunch of apparent “this segment brought to you by the real life Saga Chamber of Commerce”, which I find oddly charming whenever I encounter it. Also requisite little bits of idol culture commentary, like noting that they cant work them to death because they’re already dead. Overall, it’s dumb and shouty, but fairly fun.
I am re-watching Skip Beat which I enjoyed so many years ago. It is a very good anime especially because it is so different from the norm overpowered teens type story. I love watching the main character get overwhelming mad and challenge her naysayers. She also grows in the story where her reasons to enter show biz change from from revenge to the love of acting
The Japanese Voice Actress was awesome as the main character. I wish they had done a second season though the first season did have 25 episodes. I am probably going to read the manga for the rest of the story.
The Tatami Galaxy pseudo-sequel in movie format! wohoo!
Making my way through OG Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time and it is good.
It is glorious. And remember, if you don’t understand why something is happening, all will be explained by the end.
Zylon
6017
Oh that’s just cruel, giving him hope like that.
I always thought that at some meta level, it fits somehow nicely how the angels & myths & third impacts & conspiracies between secret groups and all that are lost in the background, with the limelight focusing instead on the psychological angle of the characters, as if the series it was saying: this is what it really matters, this is the message relevant to the real world we want to transmit, the other stuff is just some scifi bullshit crap at the end of the day. It fits even better because the message of “open up to people and get out” is for obsessive, reclusive otakus especially, the people who just want that escapism fiction.
There is so much going on in this anime. In the episode named after Kierkegaard (16) they change the piano at the end lol.
It’s amazing, except for the deeply rooted misogyny, which gets really obnoxious on the latest episodes and freaking explodes in the movie. It’s really up to “The Prince of Nothing” series and really several notches over even stereotypical fan-servicey anime.
But… it’s really, really, well made and has a lot of very in your face, but coherent, use of thematic development. In a way it’s all theme and no character, taking classic Gundam and pushing it to the extreme. You can see how all the 90s “symbolic” anime comes out straight from it.
I like it a lot, but it has its share of deep, deep issues.
Hmm, I hadn’t really noticed, or at least, it was more of a background thing to me; thanks for calling that out, this sort of thing really does need to be. Part of it I think is Japanese culture; it’s rooted in Bushido code: like in a couple men tend to walk in front of women in single file, because they need to lead the way (and take care of anything that might pop out). I don’t know if it’s any better in America where… women tend to walk in front so the guy can… look at them?
The relationship between Shinji and his dad was more of a major plot beat to me, how it was so estranged and… cruel, even.
But, yeah, I can see the threads you mention.
I don’t know how far you’ve gone into it, but it goes from “standard anime fan service bs” to something else. The End of Evangelion film literally has Shinji masturbating over a naked, comatose Asuka. You could hand wave that as a character moment, etc… but it’s a hard sell (and there’s way more stuff like that in the movie).
Anyway, it’s a really influential, important and well-made anime. I just wished some of the stuff it’s talking about wasn’t there.
I’ve seen two of the new movies and they are way better so far in this regard.
I just finished. Ho-lee-#$*&
Ok, now you can do the step I haven’t done yet. When you get Amazon Prime Video one of these months, there’s four Evangelion movies on there that came out recently. I believe the first two just summarize what you’ve seen so far, and the third and fourth movies provide a new ending.
I’ve only seen the first two so far. The first one follows the series somewhat closely. But it’s too packed (character moments are rushed by, and it loses much of what makes the first 8 episodes so compelling).
The second one starts going off the rails midway, and the ending is already a different continuity. It felt much better, though.
I suspect the third and fourth have nothing to do with what came before.
Uhh have you watched the original movie? Search for End of Evangelion, and watch it before the new Rebuild movies, which are a remake,more or less.
Yes, End of Evangelion is sort of required to get the whole original vision (it was planned before the series ended). It’s also the movie with the very questionable scenes I mentioned above.
But it is very much part of the original story.
The new movies seem to be a very different retelling, for what I can tell (I really need to see the two final ones).
I’m at home now, now I can write a proper explanation.
The original story is the Neon Genesis Evangelion + End of Evangelion film (from 1997 I believe).
Almost a pair of decades later, they decided to do a remake/pseudo-new story in the form of a series of new movies, that’s the Rebuild of Evangelion movies series (4 of them).
Just in case you are wondering how End of Evangelion is related to the two first Rebuild movies you have seen already.
The last one, without too many spoilers, comes with a very satisfying in-universe explanation that makes the ending truly worth it (though I’m not sure if that’s Stockholm Syndrome or not for the time investment required)
