Anime, Manga, VN, JRPG, Related Things Discussion Topic CIII

Nukitashi anime is bizarre. It's got people on screen having sex like 75% of the time, but there is NO nudity, not even nipples. Why does this exist? Who is this for? It's not even like stuff is blurred, people just have clothes on and angle themselves away from the camera. There's no way it's getting anything but the highest age rating anyway. They also censor the dialogue AND the subtitles but only for manko (pussy) and not anything else. I'm just confused on why this is the way it is.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5d5Vehnvg3c

Holy shit guys. The final episode of to be hero X was absolute cinema. That might be the coolest fight scene of all time. X is actually the GOAT. The story was also fantastic. The show is really good about introducing a brand new character, getting you to love them, then tying their story into the overall story. The way events collide into the ruins incident, the way everything comes full circle in the final episodes, the fights, the schemes, the lore, the fucking animation, the music. 10/10 show. While the story isn't over, it's a fine place to stop the season. My pick for anime of the year.

Sometimes I feel like I'm getting too jaded and then something like this comes along. Peak. Go watch it.

oh yeah @YoukaiSlayer "large-scale DLC" announced for dynasty warriors origins for january, looking like it might have a focus on zhang jiao with lu bu being an ally in the trailer. let me +99 rank 8 weapons already damnit

https://youtu.be/yL69vFOt_lM?t=40

Ah hell yeah. I've always like zhang jiao and lu bu is the goat.

I'm surprised we got so many shows ending this early. Finished to be hero X yesterday and today finished up clevatess. Clevatess was pretty good. Had an edgy oldschool anime vibe. I'd give like an 8/10, it was definitely worth the watch.

I almost feel bad to have watched it's final episode after to be hero X's because the fight scene seems pathetic in comparison even though it was a perfectly fine fight. Show kinda makes me want to play a fire emblem game.

Mikadono sisters also ended. It was a very pleasant series. I still hope they release the OST eventually so I can hear that one track by itself. This season had 3 shows that served as a great pick-me-up and this was one of em (the others being won't be your lover, and grand blue S2).

getting close to next season... let's check out the isekai

campfire cooking's always welcome
May I Ask for One Final Thing?.... I know I read this one, but all that comes to mind was it starts off in the villainess engagement cancellation situation
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's - read it, can't remember which of the multiple assassin>hero manga it is I've read
Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator - good but very self indulgent with how overpowered their entire family is. the anime's probably gonna just be bad
A Wild Last Boss Appeared! - definitely in my top 5 isekai. does multiple pretty neat things for the genre, like the main character is isekai'd into the web novelization of an MMO he played the heel in, but it's very much not the game itself
9999 Gacha - absolute slop. i fucking love how shameless it is. it's revenge porn like redo of healer but without.... some of its more controversial aspects. it's going to be bad. the full title actually breaks the jnovel app because of the length
The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest- this is ACTUALLY the same exact premise I've read at least 3 other times (and one got an anime a few seasons ago), but I don't think I've read this one

every other isekai I have absolutely no idea about as a rabid isekai consumer

may gnosia save this godforsaken season (go play it if you haven't it's cheap and short-ish)

Cool to see campfire cooking S2. I feel like I heard the source material after season one goes off the rails with almost exclusively cooking for a ton of chapters and people seemed down on it at the time but season 1 was great and frankly I feel like I'd be down for minimal plot and maximum cooking.

I'll keep an eye out on last boss (although who am I kidding, I'm going to try every fantasty and isekai).

For non fantasy we get kingdom S6 fuck yeah! Kingdom is GOATed. Still so sad that season 1 has berserk 2016 levels of cgi for half of it so it's impossible to get anyone to watch the anime even though the anime production becomes quite good from season 3 onward. As a result I know literally no one that watches it but it's so good. It's one of those bizarre successes where for no reason at all, theres no imitators, like death note or code geass. I want more shows where a giant battle takes 20 fucking episodes with no filler.

I see one yuri anime but I'm skeptical about it. The premise is some girl is tasty to monsters so a mermaid snatches up so that she can mature into a better tasting meal. It's also a drama without a comedy tag. I suspect I won't like this but it's yuri so of course I'm going to give it a shot. I expect massive disappointment compared to this seasons GOATed no way i'll be your lover, a rare yuri where some of the girls actually exhibit sexual attraction to other girls instead of just light romance.

Ugh, the top review for the source confirms my suspicions "This Monster Wants to Eat Me is not a romance or girls love story, it has the genre labeled on it yet that is as deep as it goes.
The relationship present in the story that is meant to be the driving force for this label, just simply is not romantical or sexual."

Let's Play is something is remember hearing about ages ago so it's cool to see it finally get an anime. I'm somewhat hopeful I'll enjoy that being a hobbyist game developer and watcher of gaming related streamers/youtubers.

Of course happy to watch new spy x family and one punch man. I'm interested in how OPM's production values will be. They got rightfully clowned on in S2 when jc staff took over for bones (who did season 1) and the animation just was not up to par. Granted, S2 animation wasn't like hideous, it just looked like an average seasonal show. I'm hopeful they took the criticism to heart and put more budget/talent/time whatever into S3 so it'll look good.

Overall not super excited for the new season but it doesn't look awful either. Expecting a fairly average season and I'm still watching these borderline eternal donghua like battle through the heavens and swallowed star so I'll always have at least some cool fights to watch every season.

Finished up both dandadan S2 and new story. Dandadan continued to be great but I find myself enjoying the non fighting parts more. The action is so rule of cool that nothing holds any weight. Momo can get punched so hard she flies 20 feet into a wall without using her powers at all and just get up and keep fighting as if she isn't a squishy human outside of her powers. Regardless, it IS very cool.

New story was perfectly adequate. A straight C student kinda isekai. The animation wasn't good but it wasn't the worst. The story was interesting enough to wanna know what's gonna happen down the line but not any better than that. The one thing that is truly bad is the fact that Kyle never tells anyone else he is from the future. He has so much proof to at least prove it to his mom and his party but honestly he knows enough to probably prove it everybody. If I just pretend he has a curse or something that prevents him from telling people the story is fine but he doesn't and so it's annoying.

Keep waiting for Dandadan to be watchable and then they keep making more, so I'll keep waiting for it. Watching an ecchi show from last season and going to probably watch another one after. Would've watched them earlier if I'd realized they were half episode shows. I like it when shows have ecchi parts, but when the whole premise is set around ecchi, they're usually mediocre or worse.

Picked up Nexomon: Extinction the other day when it was on sale for a buck and shockingly actually wound up playing it (as opposed to everything else I keep meaning to get around to). Really like the amount of freedom the game gives you, as well as the humor. However, the combat system seems a lot more shallow than the Pokemon games and I have mixed feelings about the starters being so readily available in the wild (a fact I only realized when looking at the Dinja I'd caught and recalling that might've been the normal starter) -- well, it took a whole bunch of encounters to find some of them, but Dinja seems shockingly common.

Finished up dress up darling S2 and no way I'll be your lover.

Dress up darling S2 was pretty good. Nothing of importance really happened but I'm fine with that. The very end of the season was a bit lame and apparently deviated from the source. Lame if true.

There's no freaking way I'll be your lover...unless is god tier yuri. One of the best yuri anime to ever do it which sadly is not a high bar cause we get a lot of shitty yuri but this one was fantastic. Lots of girl kissing and beyond, lots of yuri feelings and interactions, some decent humor, and good characters. There better be a season 2 and I hope it goes the harem route which seems very possible. Last minute or so of the season was hilarious and great.

Huh, no way I'll be your lover had a movie announced instead of a S2. Why? Just give me another 12 episodes.

I feel your pain with Kimetsu no Yaiba. Just had the first of a trilogy for the latest arc. Wonder how long I'm going to have to wait to watch the infinity castle arc.

Yeah I was excited to watch the demon slayer movie until I learned it'd be a trilogy. My already fading hype will be fully faded out by the time the last one releases. Exactly what happened to attack on titan that I never did end up finishing.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Huh, no way I'll be your lover had a movie announced instead of a S2. Why? Just give me another 12 episodes.

apparently the movie is episodes 13-17 and they'll release it on tv and/or streaming later

weird way to do it but I guess maybe it's an arc that fits the movie format

that's what demon slayer does so it's not that weird

Do alternate dimensions count as isekais?

it's arguable depending on the execution, but probably, yeah

one of the more interesting "is it an isekai" questions is Super Dimension Century Orguss, where (early spoilers) it appears it's an isekai but in actually it's earth after a timeskip with a bunch of OTHER realities' earths (where dinos survived and evolved, etc) smashed into it, due to a bomb in the intro screwing up spacetime. it's still probably an isekai even if everything is still taking place on earth prime, where the main character is from

whether it feels like an isekai depends on how "otherworldly"" it appears, I guess. isekai's more of a vibe than a hard rule these days

Yeah I mean theres quite a few shows that are technically time travel but might as well be isekai, like inuyasha or that one isekai with the 3D tractor. I personally feel like as long as it's clearly separate from the time and place they came from, it might as well count. For instance, a lot of reincarnator isekai aren't really that different from when they originally lived, but some are, even though in these cases it's the same planet and everything, just later.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Yeah I mean theres quite a few shows that are technically time travel but might as well be isekai, like inuyasha or that one isekai with the 3D tractor. I personally feel like as long as it's clearly separate from the time and place they came from, it might as well count. For instance, a lot of reincarnator isekai aren't really that different from when they originally lived, but some are, even though in these cases it's the same planet and everything, just later.

Would it be an isekai if there's time travel but for some reason some of the characters personalities change from the original timeline?

it still bugs me that sword art online is considered an isekai even though it's not.

the characters are still in their world, they're just playing a video game

clear separation between the original world and the new world is one of the core aspects of an isekai, and kabaya functionally forced it. creating an isekai was basically his explicit goal, and he succeeded in creating an artificial one

now alicization is a different can of worms

Revelation34 posted...

Would it be an isekai if there's time travel but for some reason some of the characters personalities change from the original timeline?

To me it would depend on how different the new timeline actually is, but probably not. If the only thing thats different are some characters and maybe which businesses are successful, I wouldn't consider it an isekai. Something like an alternate history version of the present like where the other side won WW2 or aliens invaded or something like that would probably be enough for me to count it, but it really is a vibes thing to some degree.

It's kind of interesting how almost every genre/theme descriptor heads down this path. Originally it's strict, but as time goes on things merely similar get lumped in and the definition softens and becomes vibes based, potentially morphing into something entirely different. Like RPGs which at this point are only tangentially related to playing a role with continual agency in a story. Can blame JRPGs for the start of that shift.

Huh, I guess an episode leaked early but technically the next anime season has now started for me. Classless hero is bad generic fantasy slop but I kind of like it. The swordfighting is some of the worst I've ever seen despite being at least moderately animated. Everybody hits and blocks with the wrong part of the sword, every attack seems tailor designed to attack the weapon and not the person, the swords sound like crowbars when they hit each other which is every swing, at no point do they utilize footwork to move in and out of measure, of course nothing advanced like chambering, of course we have western style longswords with no pommel. of course the guards are way too thick, of course they use the bind incorrectly, of course no one even considers using a false edge cut or deflection despite using double edged swords, even the edge alignment is wrong. It's honestly impressive in it's complete and thorough wrongness, no detail left accidentally correct.

DLC for Dynasty Warriors Origins is nice.

But not as nice as Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete Remastered .

The big question: Will they keep the original English dub for funsies?

I_Abibde posted...

The big question: Will they keep the original English dub for funsies?

I feel like the cool answer is to redub it but have original audio as a toggle in some menu like how you can switch old and new graphics in halo remastered.

Is there anymore DLC planned for origins? Would kinda prefer to come back when everything is out and finish it from there.

Gah it's happened again. Damn you japanese composers, put your damn OSTs out there. Trying to find an insert song in water magician that just ended and theres nothing. Just let me listen to the good music you bastards. Show was pretty good btw. It was kind of interesting the MC wasn't really that important to most events. Like side characters did stuff all on their own even when he was relatively nearby. He was probably only involved in like half the total events in the show. Animation while not godlike was definitely above average for a seasonal isekai. I hope it gets a season 2.

EDIT: Nevermind I found covers of it on youtube under "main theme". Life is good again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS8oqncpPt4

EDIT2: I even found a (poor quality) cover of the song from mikadono sisters I had looked for. Still no official name or OST release for either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlLLsCW2GHE

I've been searching for years for a different version of "Philosophy in a Tea Cup" from Trigun.

https://youtu.be/ntL9HjgOHjY

The version they use in the anime doesn't have the drums in the intro, and has a much more relaxing feel because of it.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

To me it would depend on how different the new timeline actually is, but probably not. If the only thing thats different are some characters and maybe which businesses are successful, I wouldn't consider it an isekai. Something like an alternate history version of the present like where the other side won WW2 or aliens invaded or something like that would probably be enough for me to count it, but it really is a vibes thing to some degree.

It's kind of interesting how almost every genre/theme descriptor heads down this path. Originally it's strict, but as time goes on things merely similar get lumped in and the definition softens and becomes vibes based, potentially morphing into something entirely different. Like RPGs which at this point are only tangentially related to playing a role with continual agency in a story. Can blame JRPGs for the start of that shift.

I meant like somebody going from being normal to insane or something like that.

I finally gave Dan Da Dan a chance. It's alright. The characters and overall plot are interesting enough to keep me curious what's next.

dandadan is excellent

s2 got vastly better when the goat kinta arrived

Been playing Atelier Resleriana. It's good! Feels like a sister game to Sophie 2. The crafting seems absolutely braindead easy at first with little meaningful input, but once catalysts get involved, it takes a lot more planning. I like that you seem to be encouraged to do shorter crafts, rather than where in Ryza or Yumia you had to loop as many morphs as possible. Midgame janky synthesis feels easier to get up to an acceptable level once you unlock the equivalent of the forging or rebuilding; you can slap multiple useful traits onto an item even if you mostly botched the original creation of it, or just pump up item quality/uses further if it's already fine.

Every character has a niche that you're actually encouraged to make use of (unlike Ryza and Yumia again, where you just wanted to overpower everything). Both characters and items feel very strong this time, but you have to use all your characters and everyone has to be packing items for item mix combos. The economy is basically nonexistent- there's a store mechanic and nearly everything in the game will just automatically make bank with duplication. Gear's gated so you can't just do a Ryza 3 and have endgame gear before leaving the tutorial, at least.

Lots of old Atelier characters are present, not as much as Nelke since the game is less blatantly fanservicey but there's at least one person from pretty much every mainline game here, even Mana Khemia. Especially Mana Khemia, really, because the protagonist of 2 is an early party member. There's tons of characters who are shown to fight but aren't actually playable, which is sort of a shame but 6 party members (+2 DLC in a few months) is about all you can really expect from these games. It's a nice spread but I feel like they're milking Sophie a little too much.

Story's alright, difficulty's better than Yumia at least. It's not quite as good of a game as Shallie or Lydie&Suelle but it's in their style and has got a ton of quality of life the older games lacked. Also it's got Totori tossing Chims as nukes. Good game.

One day I will get an Atelier game. It's one of those series I've been interested in with no idea where to start.

dragon504 posted...

One day I will get an Atelier game. It's one of those series I've been interested in with no idea where to start.

Ryza 1, yumia, or resleriana probably. They do a kind of weird thing where they will make a series of 3 games all staring the same protag, and then make a new series with a new protag. Each of these series is pretty standalone kind of like final fantasy. The odd thing here is they often have 2 of these series going at a time. Like, we've only had 1 yumia game but we also have 1 resleriana. Also some of the older games have time limits so keep that in mind if those are a big deal to you (they are to me).

I hate time limits, made Persona 5a little anxiety inducing, despite being fairly generous.

Resleriana is still a lil too heavy on the nostalgia for me to recommend to a first timer, if you want more classic atelier I'd still recommend sophie 1. Firis is weird (first attempt at an open world) but Lydie&Suelle is peak

Finished up grand blue S2. What an amazing series. I think it's my favorite comedy. Azusa best girl. Also super happy it concluded with season 3 announcement.

Been watching a few lesser known anime youtuber video essays and damn do I disagree with a lot of people. It feels impossible to find a channel I even kind of agree with.