at age six i was born without a face

Weekly Anime Ramblings: My Youthful Anime Watching Life is Wrong, as Expected

lia-nikiforov

What no, of course I’m not gonna try to cram 3 weeks of shit into a single post ahahahahahahaha

Between a few unexpected schedule changes and my computer recently punking out on me, I fell behind on a lot of shit orz. Buckle up friends, this is gonna be a long post.

For starters, I dropped both Legend of the Galactic Heroes and SAO Alternative, both out of boredom. I don’t really have a whole lot to say about either. Moving on..

The plot in Card Captor Sakura thickens. It seems all but confirmed that Kaito is somehow manipulating Akiko for some unknown purposes. This batch of episodes had some ups like overall Meiling’s presence, which is a lot to say since I found her insufferable in the original anime.

Here though, I feel Meiling is the first person to remind Sakura of her powerful magic words. I really enjoyed how the two of them interacted and I already miss Meiling. Though the Struggle card was kind of a heavyhanded way to make them “bond” in supposed imitation of The Twin, when the card itself resembled The Fight much more, and Sakura had previously been able to defeat Fight on her own -although with the Power card-

Then we also had this very beautiful screenshot.

And then we had this episode which troubles me in many ways.

I know I previously complained about how Syaoran was being so thoroughly sidelined, but I never meant that I wanted him to be the problem solver supreme. From what I’ve heard, the original dub of CCS that arrived to the US was actually a super edited version that tried to make Syaoran the protagonist because the Murricans didn’t think a show with a girl protagonist would be popular. And this episode felt like it was made by those Murricans. How is it possible that Sakura -the most powerful magician in the world by Eriol’s words- can’t subdue the Fire card, but Syaoran can? There better be a very convincing explanation for this, because it upset me a lot.

Besides, in the original series, catching the Firey card was one of the most memorable moments because it was the first time Sakua was able to use two elemental cards at the same time. She had to combine Windy and Watery to defeat Firey. So why would she not attempt that this time? It boggles the mind that it didn’t occur to her, since she is now aware of how similar the Clear cards are to her original cards.

Oh, Darling, Darling

STAAAAND

BYYY MEEEE

Sorry, it’s 5 am and I hate this show a lot.

Anyway Women Must Be Making Babies: The Anime has reached new lows in its last batch of episodes, but first I wanna give Zorome’s seiyuu a slow clap for telling it like it is:

Thank you Tamura-san, you deserve to be in a better show.

Anyway Save The Oppressed Heterosexuals: The Anime has laid some of its cards on the table, and boy are those some garbage cards.

So, okay, let me get this straight (HA) this is a dystopian society whose evil, creepy characteristic is repressing sexuality as it relates to procreation, and rejecting the notion of gender altogether??? And now the internet nazis are rejoicing on how Animu is trying to warn us about how the Gender Ideology Dictatorship is leading us to our destruction??? And squealing about how BRAVE Kokoro is for wanting to have heterosexual sex???????????????

I’m not even mad because I don’t think the showrunners are even smart enough to be attempting to spread this cisheterosexist message on purpose. The whole problem with this shitshow is they never put more than a moment’s thought into coming up with this concepts and ideas, which is why the themes are all so half-baked 17 episodes in. Probably the only purposefully harmful message is “homosexuality is actually just a phase that can be cured by inserting your penis in a vagina” (the Mitsuru/Kokoro plot is so far the most disgusting part of it all, but I haven’t watched 18 yet and from what I gather We Put a Lesbian In There And Don’t Know What to do With Her: The Anime just keeps getting worse)

It’s hard to say a lot about Hozuki no Reitetsu, it just maintains the same quality standard that has made it into one of the top comedies of this decade. But I just wanted to give it a shoutout for this extremely direct reference to Basilisk (How’s that sequel doing? Is anyone actually watching it???) And also for throwing me random Nobunaga references :D

Meanwhile Mahou Shoujo Ore… sure is a thing, huh? I like the skeleton of its absurdist humor, but there are parts in which the execution isn’t the best -like the eternally dragged joke with Saki and Mohiro in the hot bath. Or the weirdass interlude episode that was taking a huge dump at Studio Pierrot. Which, by the way, I thought had a very clever start with its riff at Osomatsu-san

Persona 5 is a bit all over the place. I think there are interesting aspects to the story, but the plot feels like it’s dragging quite a bit. However, I really liked this empowering moment they gave Ann in confronting the rapist teacher and forcing him to own up to his crime instead of trying to get away with “I had a tragic backstory so pls understand me”.I really like Ann.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori is another unexpectedly weird show? Like it can have THE BEST ANIME EPISODE EVER MADE (see picture below)

(i’m still screaming)

And then another episode about the guys teaching a buly dude that it’s okay to like “girly” things, so much that the dude ends up getting a fantasy of being a young girl getting spirited away by the boys into a Victorian butler fantasy bizarro nonsense. It was great. Magnificent even. But also weird as fuck. But also thanks cute dudes shows for being the harbingers of feminism and tearing down toxic masculinity.

I’d completely forgotten about the redux of the Baizel Fighting Festival in NanaTai. I honestly just wanted to bring attention to how much joy Ban’s reunions with Meliodas bring to my life

Moving on, I gotta say I’m pretty mad at how Yowapeda handled this. We’d been in doom and gloom land for what? forever? And finally there was a light at the end of the tunnel but it was immediately shut down when Onoda was denied his chance to race against Manami. It was effective -storytelling-wise- because they built up to it so much with Toudou being there and Onoda requesting to get the chance to do it, and although I suppose I *get* why it happened, doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it. A part of me was holding out hope that it would be like Makishima and Toudou in the previous Interhigh, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I hope they do get their chance in the third day of the race, because seeing their heartbroken faces when they realized they couldn’t do it here was very sad for me ): I just want these boys to be happy ):

I don’t really have anything in particular to say about Libra of Nil or whatever this show is called, but I just really like the opening and this shot. There’s something about this particular frame that feels very empowering for out lead girl and I like it a lot. That’s it, that’s all I have to say :D

Steins;Gate 0 has got to be the best surprise of the season in that I 1000% expected it to be terrible, but it has managed a degree of nuance I never thought I could get given how bad every other work of the semi-colon franchise has been. There are a few things, specially the introduction of Kagiri, that feel a bit awkward -if she was so important to Suzuha, why did she never mention her in the original series?- but overall it’s been a surprisingly clever and very well-written thriller that does live up to the reputation of its predecessor.

Not a lot of people are watching Piano no Mori because it’s in Netflix jail and that’s a shame because it’s a fantastic show. Questionable CGI aside, the character writing for Kai is very effective. I particularly liked this scene:

It’s very common for anime to use the “my mom is a prostitute” as the tragic backstory of the villain, the woman’s boundless sexuality leaving a traumatic mark on the neglected male child, so it’s incredibly refreshing to see an anime protagonist that loves and respects his mother and that gives a positive representation of sex workers, even going so far as to reject the idea that Kai would be better off away from his mother. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite shows of the season for sure

I… don’t know what to make about Hisone to Masotan. On one hand, Hisone is adorable as all fuck, as are the other D-Pilots and their dragons. OTOH, as I’ve mentioned before, it feels unsettlingly like military propaganda. And to make things worse, there seems to be an escalating conflict between the male regular soldiers and the female D-Pilots that at best gets treated like a joke, at worst normalized. The above frame is from one of the male soldiers, after getting rebuffed by one of the D-Pilots, decides to literally crush her spirit in order to get her to have sex with him. The guy is never held accountable for such a toxic, entitled notion of his relations with women, and not only does he succeed in defeating her in combat, when she still rejects him, he’s treated like jokey loser rather than the dangerous harrasser he is.

(why you calling me out like this Hanako)

Lastly, although Wotakoi remains one of my favorite shows of the season, I gotta say I felt very uncomfortable about how they handled the big fight between Hanako and Kabakura. She’s drunk, yes, but in that state of inebriation she opens her heart and spills all of her insecurities regarding her appearance and their relationship. I thought this was going to lead into a sweet moment in which he reassures her, but instead he insults her some more (”in a jokey way”) and… that’s it? You know he has this line “of course I could get a cuter girl who also had big boobs..” and you’re expecting him to say something like “but i chose you” or “but you’re the one that’s right for me” or some other whatever romantic cliché but instead he never completes that and she just starts crying and…???? He was extremely rude to her and he got off without even the smalles compromise, he couldn’t even say one thing he did like about her???? I like them as a couple, but I really hated that sketch

HOLY SHIT I FINISHED

Sorry, I’m all out of words now. Hopefully I can go back to my regular schedule for next week.

knightofbalance-13 knightofbalance-13

Anyway Women Must Be Making Babies: The Anime has reached new lows in its last batch of episodes, but first I wanna give Zorome’s seiyuu a slow clap for telling it like it is:
Thank you Tamura-san, you deserve to be in a better show.

Five bucks says you insert politics that don’t belong into this just to be outraged.

nyway Save The Oppressed Heterosexuals: The Anime has laid some of its cards on the table, and boy are those some garbage cards.
So, okay, let me get this straight (HA) this is a dystopian society whose evil, creepy characteristic is repressing sexuality as it relates to procreation, and rejecting the notion of gender altogether??? And now the internet nazis are rejoicing on how Animu is trying to warn us about how the Gender Ideology Dictatorship is leading us to our destruction??? And squealing about how BRAVE Kokoro is for wanting to have heterosexual sex???????????????

*gets handed five bucks*

Yeah see the thing is: A. It’s Kokoro’s choice to want that and it’s not as though she can change what she is (Gee, sounds familiar). B. Nine Alpha is literally spewing just what he was taught by things that are all but said NOT to be human (Oh gee, a group of people being told how to live and that they’re evil for not living life this one way by another group who quite frankly have no say in the matter because it doesn’t affect them. Gee, doesn’t THAT sound familiar?) And C. Other LGBT people have spoken against you with this. Guess that makes them Nazies then. Wow, you sound homophobic.

I’m not even mad because I don’t think the showrunners are even smart enough to be attempting to spread this cisheterosexist message on purpose. The whole problem with this shitshow is they never put more than a moment’s thought into coming up with this concepts and ideas, which is why the themes are all so half-baked 17 episodes in. Probably the only purposefully harmful message is “homosexuality is actually just a phase that can be cured by inserting your penis in a vagina” (the Mitsuru/Kokoro plot is so far the most disgusting part of it all, but I haven’t watched 18 yet and from what I gather We Put a Lesbian In There And Don’t Know What to do With Her: The Anime just keeps getting worse)

*gets handed fifteen dollars*

Thanks, I can buy all the CTB DLC now.

A. Japan’s politics regarding this is NOWHERE NEAR the same as what ours is. Stop shoving western values into an EASTERN show.

B. Ikuno outright CALLS THEM OUT. The LESBIAN calls them out while the heteros do nothing. Great message of cisheterosexism, the lesban woman does all the leg work.

C. You’re the half baked one, considering you didn’t even think about this for more than two seconds.

D. Let me guess: “The B in LGBT stands for Bacon!” Yeah, BISEXUALS EXIST.

E. You mean the episode where the Lesbian shows that she respects and love Ichigo more than she does her own feelings, showing a true case of love that also mirror Ichigo’s feelings for Hiro which just validates her/ AKA The episode that basically makes you look like a jackass?

More That One Anime I Don’t Like But I Have To Make Political Because I’m So Pathetic I Have To Make Everything I Don’t Like Offense: The Anime.

lifeofcynch

@knightofbalance-13 THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE I WAS ABOUT TO GET REAL MAD AT OP FOR BASHING ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOWS-

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

hi i fucking need this,

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Weekly Anime Ramblings: My Youthful Anime Watching Life is Wrong, as Expected