Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 283: Zhuge Liang has a waifu too

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've heard a few people call Mieruko a comedy. I've only read the manga, but I feel like it fits there at least - like we're supposed to laugh at Miko's suffering?

Today I watched the other anime on Funimation that'd caught my eye, Taisho Otome Fairy Tale. Sadly, I really didn't like it. When I read the premise there were two ways I could see it going and both of them sounded neat. It's about a girl who was sold off to repay her family's debts, and now she needs to look after and eventually marry an exiled/depressed rich boy. On the one hand it could've been a good romantic drama, one where two broken characters overcome their circumstances and form a satisfying bond. On the other hand, it also could've been nothing more than a cute anime where a manic pixie dream girl livens up a depressed guy's life in increasingly zany ways. I was ready for either! TOFT just wound up falling into the worst of both worlds.

Yuzu was the cute half. The problem was that the dark half was still there, it just wasn't explored at all because she wasn't allowed to not be cute. Sold off to pay debts and forced to marry a depressed edgelord? That's fine! Before leaving, she told her parents to pretend she's dead because she'll never see them again. Except... why not? It's the 1920s, take a train. It's not like the main guy wouldn't let her, she just doesn't want to for some reason because apparently she met this dude and now she's good, she doesn't need anything else. She was such a perfect and dutiful girl who existed only to support her man, and frankly the situation didn't warrant it. I wanted her to be a little bitter at the very least. I wanted these two to fall in love with each other because they connected and formed an actual bond, not because one half waltzed in determined to fall in love no matter what. Every cute moment between the main two felt tainted because Yuzu was all fidgety and blushy right from the get-go when he was still a grumbly loser. I don't know why he felt like he needed to try so hard, she clearly didn't need it.

Then there was the dramatic half, best personified by one of the worst characters ever, Ryo. Robbery, parental abuse, prostitution, causing drama for the sake of drama, this girl had every dark idea possible swirling around her. And none of them were explored! She was just there to cause a bit of chaos and then be forgiven in an instant because Yuzu is a saint. Ugh. You'd think regularly getting the shit beaten out of her by her drunken father would be a problem someone wants to solve, but, nope! Ryo doesn't even have any bruises. There was other pointless dark stuff towards the end but I don't want to whine about this show too much longer.

The best part of TOFT was the voice actress of Arisa from BanG Dream playing an old-timey idol. That was the only unequivocally good part.

I liked the sister a lot. Tall girls are cool, and she had some solid development. Just seemed lots of fun in general.

Other than that I didn't really care for the show at all.

I didn't mind the sister but she wasn't around much

I watched Odd Taxi today. I might make a more detailed post later because it's late. I also feel like I still need to sort out the plot in my head. Man, did that story ever go places. I really enjoyed it though.

Can't wait for the movie to come out over here/get subbed. It's a compilation but it has new scenes, I'm hoping it covers the immediate aftermath of then series.

I actually do have one complaint about OddTaxi now that I've read a bit about it. Apparently there's some sort of companion audio drama that's meant to be listened to alongside the episodes, which would've been nice to know before I watched it. It sounds like the info in there would've solved the only part of the plot that I found confusing. I felt like I was missing something in what the girl was saying in the ending, it would've hit a lot harder if I knew about the pen

The rap in Kaguya this week is glorious

Robazoid posted...

Apparently there's some sort of companion audio drama that's meant to be listened to alongside the episodes, which would've been nice to know before I watched it.

I would think the majority of viewers (especially outside of Japan) did NOT listen them. So I wouldn't think much about not knowing about them.

handsomeboy2012 posted...

The rap in Kaguya this week is glorious

not even as good as the one in Kongming...

I mean, if we wanna get technical here...Kongming is a show ABOUT rap and rap adjacent music.

I'm not sure "not even" is the right term there. That's like saying an anime's fight animation is "not even" as good as Demon Slayer's!

Hey, quite a few people say PriConne S2 ep 4 and Ranking of Kings ep 20 had better animation than anything in Demon Slayer!

Ok I'll talk about Odd Taxi a bit.

First, the good, and there's a lot of good. Odokawa is a great character, and I liked how he interacted with the many plots that were going on without ever feeling shoehorned in. A few relied on some pretty unlikely coincidences, but this is fiction so I understand that, it's the only way a story of this scope would work. I liked all the side characters too, which is impressive for a cast of this size. The two comedians were probably the most extraneous, but I enjoyed them. Who knew complaining about not being seen as funny could be so funny. The plot, and especially the way all the different threads came together, was also superb.

I do have one complaint, which is minor all things considered. I felt the alpaca lady was kind of wasted. She interacted with Odokawa like three short times, initially at the behest of Dobu, and then suddenly she was completely in love with him and willing to admit to everything. I kept expecting another twist with her but no, she completely switched loyalties. I feel like there needed to be way more interactions between them for that to seem earned.

Still, that's more a missed opportunity than a problem I guess. Odd Taxi was great, an easy 9/10. It's in my top 25 anime now.

I agree that it feels like there was 1 or 2 Shirakawa scenes they could have afforded to add, but I don't know where you cut from to do so. The show was so well paced and nothing was wasted, more Shirakawa would have resulted in less of something else. I don't think you can justify it unless you add a full extra episode to the runtime.

Curious to see what they added in the movie though!

I am also comfortable with top 25 for it, somewhere in there.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Hey, quite a few people say PriConne S2 ep 4 and Ranking of Kings ep 20 had better animation than anything in Demon Slayer!

I mean I haven't watched Kongming, so I can't really compare, don't even know there is a rap there last episode

As much as I like Kongming, Aharen-san is still winning at best rap segment of the season imho

Yeah Aharen's rap segment was also awesome. Honestly all three were good.

Finally getting around to Kaguya myself.

Chika swearing up a storm :o

Zombieland still has the best rap in anime.

https://youtu.be/Ok2b0MrpA_0

Just found out that the ED for today's episode was done by Vercreek, one single 18 year old kid from the Phillipines.

https://youtu.be/F84a1ul5wrc

A lot of characters "taking their gloves off" in today's Executioner episode

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Just found out that the ED for today's episode was done by Vercreek, one single 18 year old kid from the Phillipines.

https://youtu.be/F84a1ul5wrc

The ED is great but I cant get over how different everyone looks

They look like Manwha characters.

SockoressKnight posted...

A lot of characters "taking their gloves off" in today's Executioner episode

It was all very exciting. Felt more like a season finale than a halfway point, I'm sure it was just the end of a volume. Not sure what the direction forward here is for Isekai Bleach Madoka.

Heroines episode also feeling like a season finale and not just another episode, lol.

The animation on the performance was nutso good, too.

handsomeboy2012 posted...

The ED is great but I cant get over how different everyone looks

That's the good thing about it

I caught up on all the airing shows today. Executioner really impressed me today! Time loops are my jam, and I like the weird time-transcending relationship Menou and Akari have now

It has climbed to my second favorite of the season, behind Kongming

SEW finally got his Jump 2021 video out, always look forward to this.

https://youtu.be/kNptk8Q70QQ

Not super surprised to see the discussion in the back half of this devoted to One Piece sales slipping after experiencing the pacing of Wano recently.

Earlier I said that I didn't see how Spy X Family could possible have enough to justify starting out with 2 cours and was predicting a worst case scenario of an anime original ending, but it seems the actual way this is going to work is that the show is...covering about as many pages per episode as One Piece.

Unlike that though, the pacing has been totally fine for the show. I think it's more that those early chapters of Spy x Family moved a bit a faster than they should have to begin with.

Also over half of today's episode was anime original, but it was a great addition.

Think I've made a post like this every time it's aired, but Kaguya is very refreshing in a world where most comedies grow stale by like episode 6. I can't think of any specific part that's really blown me away, but the consistency with which it delivers is probably still enough to call it one of the best out there.

One more episode left in the hit anime Amphibia.

pyresword posted...

Think I've made a post like this every time it's aired, but Kaguya is very refreshing in a world where most comedies grow stale by like episode 6. I can't think of any specific part that's really blown me away, but the consistency with which it delivers is probably still enough to call it one of the best out there.

Every few episodes I'm hit with the reminder that "oh this is one of the best shows out there", and then I remember that it's an Aniplex show and season 1 alone is over $100 for a release with no dub and get sad.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/4/AAPUbJAADNFY.jpg

Now we can finally see(this summer) how little Ol'Ash compares to the other champions. Then again, Leon is LITERALLY UNDEFEATED, so....*prepares laugh track*

After One Piece animated chapter 1000 so far they've taken a week off and then did a recap episode of what Zoro and Sanji have done in Wano so far

really making the anime only's wait

wait I take it back the recap episode was just delayed to this week, but we still got a regular episode this week too.

First chapter of Dandadan may be one of my favorite first chapters ever.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/6/4/AAeolZAADNYw.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHQP3J-EcnI

yessssssssssss

I finished the third season of BanG Dream today. I'm a longtime player of the mobile game Girls Band Party, which I initially got into because the first anime season was good and and Kasumi is the best. The second season made me delay the anime for quite awhile, though. There was a bit of drama with Tae that I really didn't like. The third season had bits of drama too, but it focused on RAS so I didn't mind it. After what they did in S2, RAS deserved some drama imho

S3 did kind of turn me around on RAS, though. I went in not caring about Masking and Pareo, and outright hating Layer and Chu2 (well, the game stories have kinda redeemed them all already but going by the anime only I didn't like them). All of them were much improved by having to face adversity rather than causing it. Rokka is still the only one I really like, but all of them are fine now. Apparently there's going to be a Morfonica anime, so now I'm wondering if it'll make me like Rui, who is currently my least favorite!

As for the third season's story, the BanG Dream tournament, it was a lot of fun! I liked the Popipa episodes the most because Popipa is the best. The different strategies to climb the rankings were neat. Overall I'd rank the seasons 1 > 3 > 2, so I'm glad I finally watched this one. Most of my love for the franchise comes from the game stories at this point, but more BanG Dream anime will always be welcome!

what anime is the "who is that hot girl" meme from?

https://myanimelist.net/anime/45613/Kawaii_dake_ja_Nai_Shikimori-san

ty

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/8/AAeolZAADNf2.jpg

all right show is kind of zzz

It sucks yes don't watch it

I dropped a couple in, might check out the manga since it's supposed to be good.

I think I already mentioned it a few pages back in this topic, but male MCs voice is intolerable, couldn't keep going.

I'd watch a show about the short girl though.

most of what I've heard is that the anime's an improvement over the manga

Well more specifically what I've heard is that the manga gets quite good but it takes some time to get there.

No patience for that in anime for lol.

Ever week I tell myself I'm gonna put JJK on hold but every week I still read it. I guess it just hard to put off something that only takes 2 minutes a week.

And yeah it's still...wierd.

It feels like he's trying to crib off some of the weirder HxH types of fights but just not landing it. This one character from this week has had like 3 fights so far and I don't remember his name or when he was even introduced.

i caved and watched the first ep of Spy x Fam

is this what good anime is like

Summertime Rendering 4, best girl hits the scene.

If it was actually coming out on real platforms, this upcoming episode would be a landmark for this anime season.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Well more specifically what I've heard is that the manga gets quite good but it takes some time to get there.

No patience for that in anime for lol.

Oh? I've seen a few manga readers say it gets worse over time.

kateee posted...

i caved and watched the first ep of Spy x Fam

is this what good anime is like

yes

Mac Arrowny posted...

Oh? I've seen a few manga readers say it gets worse over time.

Either way, varying opinions like that are enough to tell me that it changes in general, and is worth checking out to see how it does.

I mean I've seen people say Watamote jumped the shark a long time ago and I could disagree more. Always worth checking out when a manga goes through a huge gear shift. Unless it's Usagi Drop.

Halfway up to date with Dandadan now and I have absolutely no clue how I could have not heard about this manga considering how popular it seems to be getting.

This is absolute fucking gold.