Daily Anime Thoughts

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VIBE CHECK
​
I really didn't expect Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie to be the show that surprised me the most this season, if anything I expected that from Summer Time Rendering. And yes, while that does have some shocking moments and is kind of a more modern Higurashi in mostly the right ways, I think that it still is full of anime tropes that it doesn't really do anything with.

The two aren't comparable in terms of plot or goals but there's something to be said for the value of playing with tropes in a medium where so often things are exactly what they seem. The girl character is a girl with the personality of girl, there are like three types and every character is one of them. It gets old.

Shikimori's premise is like a SOL romance role reversal which on its own doesn't really demand a lot of respect from me. Like, okay sure you reversed the roles. Now the guy in the relationship is a blushing maiden and the girl is the cool one. Now what?

But Shikimori is a lot more than that. It kind of plays with the audience's expectations a little, for it to just be a gimmick where every story beat moment typical of a romcom anime is spiced up slightly by the boy being in the girl's place and vice versa- with them instead developing the two characters to be more nuanced versions of those tropes. They don't exactly fit into an archetype.
Even though yes, the shikimori is athletic and competitive and wants to impress the boy, and is naturally protective she also is a romantic and has a lot of varied interests, and is continually impressed by her boyfriend, and feels safe around him, also pressuring herself to be more girly because her upbringing was one of trying to be more like her brother and mom who were very into sports and excelling at them, so she kind of fights against that part of her nature with her current goals and natural desire to just be... an anime girl. but of course at some point, settles into somewhere in between those archetypes because it's a combination of all those traits that makes Izumi so fond of her, not just her "coolness".

Meanwhile, Izumi is the clumsy helpless one and also very feminine, but at the same time he'll be sticking up for Shikimori, and ends up impressing her with his own sort of manliness, but he never settles into one or the other either. He isn't defined by his clumsiness, really, and even though that's usually the hook of the show's stories, it hits harder during the moments where it explores the points of view of their friends around them and how they see each other, providing a much more nuanced look at each character.
Their character designs also play into this. While at first glance they DO look genericly like role swapped romance characters, that alone is kind of intriguing, and they use that as a kind of distraction from the people they really are while their characterizations are slowly built up over the course of the show. The reasons for how they look, and what they do, and all that are more complex than they seem. The only unrealistic part really is izumi being so accident prone that he's basically cursed by a demon and shikimori having godlike reflexes to save him from death. But every anime needs one thing to elevate it to fictional status in my eyes, otherwise it might as well be a live action sitcom.

And even while balancing SOL comfiness, romance, and a little comedy, they never really manage to fall into melodrama... there's a little bit of drama of course and i think the reason it's rated so low is that there isn't enough, for people... like first of all the characters are already in a relationship, neither of them are abusive or creepy, they're both good people and so are all their friends even though they all do have their flaws, they both genuinely care about each other in an unselfish way, there's no love triangles, and there's no toxicity because everyone is honest with each other... it's really just unproblematic. So people are probably like... what's the point of watching it then?

Well if you want to see a trope reversal that when you dive just a bit below the gimmicky surface is actually a comfy show about two relatable genuine humans who actually trust and care about each other, then I'd recommend this one highly.

I think this is pretty high praise coming from someone who usually hates romance. You can have realistic characters without having them be total pieces of shit.
 
Gens said:
DAT:

https://twitter.com/SugoiLITE/status/1543614855172788226

Heeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy........... @BrainBlow, are we just winning at everything or what right now this year? TOMBOY SUPREMACY BABY!

FUCK YEAH, once again completed manga getting adaptations everywhere you look.
Click to expand...
HOW! WHAT!
I genuinely could not have expected this after it ended! It seems my aura was triggered when the series got new attention from the masses due to someone essentially doing (pretty good) coloring of most of the manga on their own free time. I'm particularly flabbergasted since the manga ended 3 years ago, and Twi 4 is not exactly a huge magazine.
Oh shit, now I'm even getting hopeful about Mousou Telepathy from the same magazine!
And man, the teaser pics actually genuinely look good!

What's next, is an adaptation for 100-Girlfriends finally gonna be announced next or something?
 
BrainBlow said:
HOW! WHAT!
I genuinely could not have expected this after it ended! It seems my aura was triggered when the series got new attention from the masses due to someone essentially doing (pretty good) coloring of most of the manga on their own free time. I'm particularly flabbergasted since the manga ended 3 years ago, and Twi 4 is not exactly a huge magazine.
Oh shit, now I'm even getting hopeful about Mousou Telepathy from the same magazine!
And man, the teaser pics actually genuinely look good!

What's next, is an adaptation for 100-Girlfriends finally gonna be announced next or something?
Click to expand...

Also apparently they're getting Rie Takahashi to voice Tomo. I always thought she was a bit underutilized as a voice actor with her talent so seeing her stretching those tomboy chops is pretty fucking niiiiiiiiiiiiceeeee to me.
 
Gens said:
DAT:

https://twitter.com/SugoiLITE/status/1543614855172788226

Heeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy........... @BrainBlow, are we just winning at everything or what right now this year? TOMBOY SUPREMACY BABY!

FUCK YEAH, once again completed manga getting adaptations everywhere you look.
Click to expand...
Oh, sick! I think I saw this manga in a bookstore a couple of years ago. At the time, I thought it looked like something I'd enjoy, but I didn't end up buying it, and I forgot all about it until I saw this announcement. I'm thankful for the reminder.

Yeah, this is definitely something that I'm interested in checking out.
 
Rascal said:
I really didn't expect Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie to be the show that surprised me the most this season, if anything I expected that from Summer Time Rendering. And yes, while that does have some shocking moments and is kind of a more modern Higurashi in mostly the right ways, I think that it still is full of anime tropes that it doesn't really do anything with.​

The two aren't comparable in terms of plot or goals but there's something to be said for the value of playing with tropes in a medium where so often things are exactly what they seem. The girl character is a girl with the personality of girl, there are like three types and every character is one of them. It gets old.

Shikimori's premise is like a SOL romance role reversal which on its own doesn't really demand a lot of respect from me. Like, okay sure you reversed the roles. Now the guy in the relationship is a blushing maiden and the girl is the cool one. Now what?

But Shikimori is a lot more than that. It kind of plays with the audience's expectations a little, for it to just be a gimmick where every story beat moment typical of a romcom anime is spiced up slightly by the boy being in the girl's place and vice versa- with them instead developing the two characters to be more nuanced versions of those tropes. They don't exactly fit into an archetype.
Even though yes, the shikimori is athletic and competitive and wants to impress the boy, and is naturally protective she also is a romantic and has a lot of varied interests, and is continually impressed by her boyfriend, and feels safe around him, also pressuring herself to be more girly because her upbringing was one of trying to be more like her brother and mom who were very into sports and excelling at them, so she kind of fights against that part of her nature with her current goals and natural desire to just be... an anime girl. but of course at some point, settles into somewhere in between those archetypes because it's a combination of all those traits that makes Izumi so fond of her, not just her "coolness".

Meanwhile, Izumi is the clumsy helpless one and also very feminine, but at the same time he'll be sticking up for Shikimori, and ends up impressing her with his own sort of manliness, but he never settles into one or the other either. He isn't defined by his clumsiness, really, and even though that's usually the hook of the show's stories, it hits harder during the moments where it explores the points of view of their friends around them and how they see each other, providing a much more nuanced look at each character.
Their character designs also play into this. While at first glance they DO look genericly like role swapped romance characters, that alone is kind of intriguing, and they use that as a kind of distraction from the people they really are while their characterizations are slowly built up over the course of the show. The reasons for how they look, and what they do, and all that are more complex than they seem. The only unrealistic part really is izumi being so accident prone that he's basically cursed by a demon and shikimori having godlike reflexes to save him from death. But every anime needs one thing to elevate it to fictional status in my eyes, otherwise it might as well be a live action sitcom.

And even while balancing SOL comfiness, romance, and a little comedy, they never really manage to fall into melodrama... there's a little bit of drama of course and i think the reason it's rated so low is that there isn't enough, for people... like first of all the characters are already in a relationship, neither of them are abusive or creepy, they're both good people and so are all their friends even though they all do have their flaws, they both genuinely care about each other in an unselfish way, there's no love triangles, and there's no toxicity because everyone is honest with each other... it's really just unproblematic. So people are probably like... what's the point of watching it then?

Well if you want to see a trope reversal that when you dive just a bit below the gimmicky surface is actually a comfy show about two relatable genuine humans who actually trust and care about each other, then I'd recommend this one highly.

I think this is pretty high praise coming from someone who usually hates romance. You can have realistic characters without having them be total pieces of shit.
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Welp, congrats, this was the push I needed to start watching this show. I oftentimes do really enjoy these kinds of comfy shows, but typically I just need to hear a good word or two from someone I know before I give them a shot. Just watched the first episode though, I enjoyed it a lot, and I trust that it's only going to get better from there. Cheers!
 
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I finished the second YGO anime, I'm amazed at how well this garbage show is able to hold my attention, how much over the top the show always gets given it's a silly children's card game is wild. In one arc, it's revealed that in the past they sent a card to space, and the card got super powers while in space that when it came back it mind-controlled a bunch of people and sent the entire school island to a different dimension where it gained the power of gods, and then, and then it mind controlled the main character into becoming a super villain dark lord, which after that was resolved, he uses a fusion card to send both of them to space and merge together. It's absolutely bonkers I love it.
 
DAT: Most places on the internet I just skip out on fan discussions most of the time when a series presents an ethical dilemma on how justice and/or repentance should be done. Turns out that certain abhorrent and reductive ideas of justice and moral nuance are universal across the entire political spectrum---
--if you're American.
Genuinely makes my day worse to see all the murderous and sadistic hot takes online, particularly when the subject is a story openly aimed at children. Maybe I'm just too nordic.
 
BrainBlow said:
DAT: Most places on the internet I just skip out on fan discussions most of the time when a series presents an ethical dilemma on how justice and/or repentance should be done. Turns out that certain abhorrent and reductive ideas of justice and moral nuance are universal across the entire political spectrum---
--if you're American.
Genuinely makes my day worse to see all the murderous and sadistic hot takes online, particularly when the subject is a story openly aimed at children. Maybe I'm just too nordic.
Click to expand...
Is it in reference to a specific series?

I feel like I might be missing context, but overall I agree about ethical dilemma discussions. I'm someone who likes flawed characters and I see pretty reductionist takes on characters even making mistakes too, which gets into repetitive discourse.

BrainBlow said:
HOW! WHAT!
I genuinely could not have expected this after it ended! It seems my aura was triggered when the series got new attention from the masses due to someone essentially doing (pretty good) coloring of most of the manga on their own free time. I'm particularly flabbergasted since the manga ended 3 years ago, and Twi 4 is not exactly a huge magazine.
Oh shit, now I'm even getting hopeful about Mousou Telepathy from the same magazine!
And man, the teaser pics actually genuinely look good!

What's next, is an adaptation for 100-Girlfriends finally gonna be announced next or something?
Click to expand...

I know nothing but this male MC is cute, eyebrow supremacy

Jet said:
It's a peculiar coincidence that my finally hitting 3dangos on this year's challenge happened along with me hitting my 1500th watched anime! lol

But it sure is nice to be alive! So many anime we could only dream about watching decades ago actually get translated these days! Like, omg, Cedie actually came out in full. I remember craving to watch that one back in 2006 and there was zero hope. Same as with 100500 other series. And what about Karate baka ichidai? It finally came out in English as well! I started watching it in the same 2006. And I recall watching the first eps of Rascal the racoon then too. Another legendary piece that was called the best WMT and one of the best anime overall. It blew me away and I'd kept checking on it for a decade to come. Until finally giving up all hope some years ago. But holy hell, it actually got picked up now! Along with Lucy of the Southern Rainbow. Heck, even Kabocha Wine is getting translated again! xD.

All those cult classics that got forever stalled decades ago are on their way back to amaze us with their grandeur all of a sudden. I'm still confused why Ganbare Genki doesn't get picked up. Seemed better than both Joe and Ippo when I tried watching it in MJN's version in mid 00s. But that's just me being greedy at this point as all Adachi got finished with Hiatari Ryoko's complete version coming out. And Konpeki no Kantai getting quite far in eps now. Such a great time to come back to anime. Who knows why the whole world is going crazy these days when we finally get all those legendary titles to watch. I even had the chance to check out on a couple of finished 50eps long ninja series from the 60s. The epoch that used to be obscure as hell for us somehow. Unthinkable, but I'm under impression that we are finally reaching the time when almost everything would become available for an average joe to watch!
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Yeah, Cedie is also one where I was hoping and wishing for FOREVER for it to get subbed so I'm glad... I'm going to binge it soon. I remember I've been wishing for that one since the early 2000s myself!

i'm glad you're bringing some series to my attention that even I missed getting subs.

Every year more older anime get subbed, and since official services are translating most new anime there isn't really a 'backlog' being created, just older shows that still need subs. It's exciting to think even really obscure series I've thought may never get subbed may one day be totally subbed...
 
Zed said:
I finished the second YGO anime, I'm amazed at how well this garbage show is able to hold my attention, how much over the top the show always gets given it's a silly children's card game is wild. In one arc, it's revealed that in the past they sent a card to space, and the card got super powers while in space that when it came back it mind-controlled a bunch of people and sent the entire school island to a different dimension where it gained the power of gods, and then, and then it mind controlled the main character into becoming a super villain dark lord, which after that was resolved, he uses a fusion card to send both of them to space and merge together. It's absolutely bonkers I love it.
Click to expand...
If I wasnt a YGO trash, I would have asked what the fuck are you on about, but then Kaiba boi exists. Wait til 5Ds, it goes even further and beyond in terms of story.
Main theme of the next season (you will find out ep1 anyway):
Literally discussing racism but card game version.
 
Hayane said:
If I wasnt a YGO trash, I would have asked what the fuck are you on about, but then Kaiba boi exists. Wait til 5Ds, it goes even further and beyond in terms of story.
Main theme of the next season (you will find out ep1 anyway):
Literally discussing racism but card game version.
Click to expand...
I'll be honest I'm perfectly fine being racist against Drytron and Eldlich users so the show will have a hard time convincing me otherwise.
 
All these years later sequel announcements. Does that mean there's yet hope for Kaiji season 3? I'd like a second season of Akagi, too. Ooooh, how about more One Outs?

Maybe I just want Madhouse to start making seinen stuff again. They hit a real sweet spot there in the mid-00s.
 
I can't wait for Solo Leveling's anime to come out. All the people who saw the hype for it and the promotional material yet didn't actually look at the synopsis, and are really sick of generic isekai power fantasies at this point, are finally gonna see it and be like
62d.gif


I have no earthly idea how something like that gets popular
 
Nicknames said:
I'm positive it won't be a cafe this time

...it'll be a themed restaurant
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Well in that case I'd apply as a chef there so they can eat my whole ass.

ZetsubouKaiji said:
All these years later sequel announcements. Does that mean there's yet hope for Kaiji season 3? I'd like a second season of Akagi, too. Ooooh, how about more One Outs?

Maybe I just want Madhouse to start making seinen stuff again. They hit a real sweet spot there in the mid-00s.
Click to expand...
That and Haruhi S3. Not impossible at all, no. I bet it's more of a rights issue tbh.
I think the main problem with Kaiji's case is that the last arc of S2 really dragged on and had a lot less nuance due to the main antagonist basically being literally just a machine.

And then a hypothetical third season would end up in the Mahjong arc, which both drags and is extremely dense for anyone not intimately familiar with the rules. It has great character drama, but an entire cour or more being spent on a single game again would be hard to swallow for many which is a shame since especially the stuff that comes after is some of the best thriller manga I have ever read.
 
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