#I know it was a design originally from manga so animation didn't factor in but still why would you animate a character with a tail

[andrasandreas]

tail wigglies

[brucebocchi]

Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 3: #10-6

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here and part 2 here.

I didn't mean to drag this out quite so much, but I ended up writing a TON for the top 10, so for the sake of everyone's attention spans (and so I can buy some time to finish my top two) I broke it up into two more posts.

​ALSO! I've embedded a link to each show's OP in the title of each entry. I wanted to give more of a visual element to each show outside of the header images, plus there have been some incredible OPs this year. I've gone back and edited them into the prior posts as well.

10. Trigun Stampede

It’s funny, I had fond memories of watching Trigun on Adult Swim in my adolescence, to the point where I used to count it among my all-time favorite anime for a while, but I didn't realize until this year that I hadn't actually sat down and watched it from beginning to end. It’s honestly a very uneven watch, and it’s clearly split into two parts: The first, a dieselpunk western revolving around a mysterious goofball with a big-ass gun and a bounty on his head, and the second a slightly more somber revenge quest as he is forced to survive his way past a rogues gallery while vowing not to take any lives. Still, it was a hit among western anime fans for a reason, and it was formative to me even back when I thought anime was kinda cringe.

Trigun Stampede is far from a faithful reinterpretation of Yasuhiro Nightow’s manga nor of the original Madhouse production. Meryl Stryfe is no longer a jaded veteran insurance adjuster but a much younger muckraking journalist. She’s no longer tailed by the gentle giantess Milly Thompson, but rather following her senpai, the gruff, bleary-eyed Roberto De Niro (the names in Trigun have always rocked). Nicholas D. Wolfwood isn’t an affable priest with a dark past; he’s all dark past now. And Vash the Stampede, now rocking a fuckboy undercut, is less of a mercurial wisecracker with a soft side and more of a reluctant gunman freaking it in a sensitive style. 

Stampede wastes no time differentiating itself from any previous version of Trigun. Vash’s history is no longer a mystery waiting to be uncovered; it’s a driving factor of the plot as his brother Knives seeks revenge on humankind for their use and exploitation of “plants,” an alien race to which the two seem to be connected, as an energy source. This was always an element of the original anime that I felt went unexplored, so it was fascinating to see Stampede dive right in. It’s a great introduction to the story for people who haven’t seen the original, and full of unexpected turns for existing fans. It’s still built on the bones of Trigun as we know it, but it is very much its own thing. 

People made a lot of hay about Vash’s new appearance, but I think it works. The huge pleather trench coat, spiky flat-top, and tiny glasses remain an iconic 90s design, but I believe the 90s is where it belongs. This take on Vash is just as capable but much more self-effacing, tortured, and averse to violence. This is a younger Vash, and it’s clear that his history with Knives is a much fresher wound, rather than the dull, nagging ache in the original. This is a gentler (but no less talented) Vash, so I think the softboy look suits him this time around.

I also spent most of the season quietly insisting to myself that the original version of Meryl is much better (and cuter) than the Stampede variant, and I still stand by that, but the updated version definitely grew on me. I mean, just look at that hat. But it’s clear from the jump that Stampede’s first season is very early in this version of the Trigun story (you may notice that the bounty on Vash’s head is much, much less than the famous 60 billion double-dollars), and Meryl has some growing to do (and presumably a whole lot of professional frustration) before she becomes something like the one we knew and loved around the turn of the 21st Century.

I’m still yet to watch Beastars, but it’s immediately apparent why Studio Orange was entrusted with the Trigun IP. This show looks incredible. This is some of the best CG animation I’ve ever seen outside of a Pixar or Spider-Verse movie. Characters are amazingly expressive and oscillate between naturalistic, weighty movement and cartoony flailing. Action scenes are inventive and dynamic and stand up to even the wildest sakuga. And yet, it still looks like an anime. It still retains the classic 24fps look and even occasionally trades in the CGI for hand-drawn animation for effect. We are long past the botched Berserk revival: This is what CGI anime should look like.

It’s plainly obvious that Trigun has always carried influences from landmark western media like Mad Max and Dune (not to mention Fist of the North Star, but that one always wore its Mad Max influence on its sleeve), so it’s been an unexpected delight to see those influences take a new shape now that both franchises have seen major updates since the last iteration of Trigun went off the air. For all of the alien technology and technicolor glowing lights, Trigun takes place entirely in a desert setting, and it’s impossible to see these chase scenes and not immediately think of Fury Road, or halfway expect to see Villanueve’s take on the Fremen popping out of the dust clouds. 

Stampede is a very welcome entry to a franchise long believed to be well and truly over, and the more eyeballs on Trigun, the better. It’s evident by the end of this season that this take on the story is only just beginning, and it has already taken unexpected departures from the story as we already knew it. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here, but that’s mostly because we have confirmation that Milly will be in the next season. It can’t get here quickly enough.

9. Insomniacs After School

I watched and read a frankly absurd amount of romance-centric anime and manga this year, especially of the slice-of-life variety, to the point where even by the early summer I thought I'd had my fill. I'm overjoyed to say that Insomniacs After School proved me dead wrong.

What a treat this was. It's a simple enough premise: A boy with insomnia is sent on an errand to his high school’s abandoned observatory, where he finds a classmate sleeping because she suffers from insomnia as well. They quickly find out that the observatory is a perfectly quiet environment for the both of them, and that they actually get restful sleep around one another. In order to get away with making use of the area, they resurrect the school’s astronomy club and find a genuine love for astrophotography and, you guessed it, one another.

You couldn’t have picked a more apt studio to adapt this work than Liden Films. Call of the Night made a splash last year for its saturated, vibey nightscapes, and Insomniacs’ gorgeous astral visuals carry that mantle. The nighttime backdrops of the quiet suburbs, wide-open beaches, and lush countryside are nothing short of stunning, and Isaki’s adolescent wonder at the world’s hidden beauties reminded me, and I do not say this lightly, of something Miyazaki would’ve animated.

On a couple of occasions this year, I’ve been able to step back from an anime, take a breath, and simply say “That was beautiful.” Insomniacs gave me one such occasion. Even putting the visuals aside, the story itself is lovely and would have made this the feel-good anime of the year, if not for the next entry on this ranking. I would have more to say, but Insomniacs After School speaks for itself. Give it a shot.

8. Skip and Loafer

There are so many standalone adjectives I could use to describe this one, and most of them are ones that would normally make me want to impulsively run the other way like “comfy,” “feel-good,” “wholesome,” what have you, but I think the most comprehensively I can boil it down to a single word is “lovely.” Everything about it just gives you the warm fuzzies, and almost makes me think that the “I want more stories with no conflict” dorks might actually be onto something.

It’s a simple one: Mitsumi, a dorky teenage go-getter with her entire life planned out, moves to Tokyo from her no-horse beach town to attend one of the country’s best prep schools, but much like everyone who played the first two hours of Persona 5, she quickly gets lost in Shibuya’s subway station on the first day of school. She runs into Sousuke Shima, a laid-back boy from the same school who’s also running late, because that’s, like, what he does, and manages to wrangle him into running to school with her.

Mitsumi quickly draws attention from her classmates, not only from delivering a speech as the incoming class representative (and subsequently barfing all over her teacher), but because she inadvertently made fast friends with the hottest, most popular first-year in the school. This attracts the attention of social climbers and jealous hangers-on, but Mitsumi hardly notices. She’s used to knowing everyone in her school back home, so she wastes no time reaching out and seeing what’s up with anyone who’ll give her the time of day.

A lot of Skip and Loafer revolves around the roles for which we think we’re destined in a controlled social environment like high school, and how easily the preconceptions you have of other people can be shattered if you just get to, like, talk to them for 20 seconds. Mitsumi’s friend group quickly fills itself out with people who wouldn’t give each other so much as a passing glance at first, but come together so naturally that you almost can’t believe they weren’t friends already.

Shima, for his part, also struggles with those preconceptions; for as laid-back as he seems on the surface, he’s a habitual people pleaser and is constantly playing a role. He’s so caught up in the performance that he doesn’t quite know what’s going on half the time or how he really feels about most things. Mitsumi is so naturally magnetic, though, that he does seem to genuinely enjoy his time with her, and vice versa. You can see where this is headed, if the gorgeously-animated dances they do together in the OP weren’t enough of a tell.

Everything about Skip and Loafer is just downright pleasant. Character models are simple and sketchy, the color palette is awash in pastels and neutral tones, and the soundtrack is peppy and whimsical. It’s a warm hug of a series, and at no point does it feel cloying or manipulative. High school slice-of-life is pretty bloated as a genre, and I watched a ton of those this year, but there’s just something so charming and magnetic about Skip and Loafer that instills in me a sort of false nostalgia for the ideal high school experience I never had.

Also: Nao-chan. Exceptional trans representation. We do not get enough of that in anime and she is a breath of fresh fucking air. I would die for her.

7. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

And now for something much less wholesome.

I really don’t seek out harem anime. Tenchi Muyo was formative to me as a tween, and a rewatch last year ended up being a major catalyst in getting me back into anime, but despite it being widely considered the second-ever harem anime, it hasn’t left much of a legacy in the ones that followed. Harem anime from the 00s onward has largely been formulaic wish-fulfillment slop that runs itself in circles as a perpetual money-making machine rather than developing any sort of plot (see: Hina, Love and Girlfriend, Rent-a-). I know I covered Girlfriend Girlfriend earlier, and while that’s nothing like Tenchi either, it does scratch an ever-present itch for stupid, madcap, relentless anime bullshit.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, [...] Really Love You, meanwhile, sees that itch and takes a fucking chainsaw to it. To say everything about it is over-the-top would be an understatement: The top is Hyakkano’s floor. This show gives you everything you could ever want in a harem comedy, but to the extreme: It is your dad making you smoke the whole carton. It is Hell’s donut machine, and you are Homer Simpson. Satire is often at its best when it pushes the boundaries of absurdity, and 100 Girlfriends revels in that push like a horny bulldozer. This is not genre subversion, it’s genre explosion.

The headcount isn’t the only wildly outsized element of this series; every single member of the titular harem, each a tick on the checklist of every -dere archetype you can imagine, pushes the slider of each of their character tropes so far to the right it’s breaking the track. The deredere is a ball of deranged horniness, the tsundere betrays her intentions so compulsively that she’s functionally incapable of lying, and the kuudere is so robotically devoted to pure efficiency that it’s salient to mention that her name is literally pronounced “Nano A.I.” If you can think of an anime girl archetype, she is in this (or will be in future seasons), and she is the apotheosis.

And yet, this show still bothers to make each one of them an actual character. Harem anime has such a low bar to clear on that front, yet most entries in the genre still bang their dicks against it. Hyakkano's titular girlfriends, at least the ones introduced in the first season, are actual characters with actual backgrounds, actual motivations, actual growth, and actual reasons to like the protagonist beside the premise. They’re all founded on stock anime tropes, to be sure, but the original manga’s author actually put in the work to give them, you know, personalities. And above almost all else, they actually like each other too! This isn’t exactly a full-on polycule (though two of the girls are prone to making out with each other on occasion), but for as deeply weird as this family unit is on paper, they actually come across as a group of people who love and care for each other rather than everyone cattily jockeying for the same position. 

And not for nothing, but Rentaro is easily one of the best harem protagonists I’ve ever seen, and again, this is coming from a Tenchi Muyo fan. I do enjoy Naoya’s over-the-top earnestness in Girlfriend Girlfriend, but Rentaro is the gigachad version. He is exceedingly patient, kind, and understanding of each of these girls’ unique quirks and qualities and quickly grows to learn to manage them in conflict and help them work through their insecurities, and he loves them back in kind and puts in the work to make equal time for each of them. He doesn’t want to “fix” these girls; he sees them for who they are and proactively does everything in his power to accommodate them. He's like if Tadano from Komi Can’t Communicate actually got the harem he deserved. Putting aside the fact that he’s, y’know, 100-timing his girlfriends, he comes across as just a really good partner.

I also want to be clear: For its rampant, fanservice-laden anime bullshit, this show is genuinely hilarious. It’s not some kind of “how did this shit even get made” trainwreck; it is a comedy first and foremost, and the comedy hits exactly as intended. The comic pacing is buckwild, the visual gags are so rampant that they’re almost difficult to keep up with, and the translators, at least in the version I watched, did an outstanding job of localizing the constant wordplay. It’s also so unapologetic in its horniness that you can’t help but admire it a bit; 100 Girlfriends knows exactly what it’s about, and it dares you to say something.

There’s a very good chance this won’t be for you. 100 Girlfriends is constantly pushing the boundaries of good taste, but never in an offensive way and never truly at its characters’ expense. Geoff Thew calls it the “most 'harem' harem anime,” but I'd argue that it’s the most "anime" anime: It is every trope you’ve ever seen in romcom anime cranked up to a thousand and smushed up against your nose. This shit hits like Panera lemonade. It is peak trash. If you have a tolerance for anime bullshit, this show may very well test that, but I still cannot recommend it enough.

6. Heavenly Delusion

Didn’t think I’d be getting into more than one post-apocalyptic anime this year, but I’d seen this one recommended so many times that I felt this list would be incomplete if I didn’t watch it. Don’t ask me about Pluto.

Heavenly Delusion (Hulu lists it under its Japanese title, Tengoku Daimakyo, for some reason) splits its runtime between two different stories: The first, a pair of young travelers making their way across a ruined Japan in search of nebulous goals neither is sure even exist; the second surrounding a group of adolescents in an unnervingly idyllic walled garden in some sort of school setting. The narrative flips between these two sporadically, rarely ever showing its hand in how they are even remotely connected.

On the post-apocalypse side, we follow Maru and his bodyguard-for-hire, Kiruko, as they trek across the country to deliver Maru to someplace called “Heaven,” while at the same time, Kiruko is in search of a pair of men from their youth. They are often beset by bandits, cults, and most crucially, horrifying monsters called “Man-Eaters,” which Maru has the unique ability to kill. On the school side, we see a group of gender-ambiguous kids in an enclosed space, constantly monitored and kept in a very controlled environment. Everything feels… wrong. Nobody seems entirely human. There is a lingering and seemingly taboo curiosity about what lies outside the walls. I hesitate to say any more.

There is phenomenal human drama in here, and sparks so many conversations about transhumanism and human nature, gender, trauma, community, all things I’m not smart enough to really dive into. But to even address these topics here is to give the game away, and Heavenly Delusion is a story better left unspoiled, even if, a full season in, I’m still not 100% sure what’s going on.

This show is gorgeous in ways I’m still struggling to articulate. The character designs, animation, lighting, and cinematography are so immaculate that I repeatedly had to remind myself that I wasn't watching a movie. Heavenly Delusion looks like a grungy Shinkai film: Character models are immaculately realized and fluidly animated, the light and shadow effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen in TV animation, and action sequences are visceral and unpredictable. Maybe all I needed to say is that it was made by much of the same Production IG staff in charge of Psycho-Pass.

I want to say as little about what happens as possible, because the mystery is the main draw of Heavenly Delusion, but I feel the need to warn that there is a very dark and sour turn near the end of the season in the form of some strongly implied sexual violence. It was thematically unnecessary, and once that side of things is resolved, everyone just kinda… moves past it. It doesn’t ruin the show, I still recommend it heartily, but be forewarned. I found it upsetting, but more in the “did this REALLY need to be in there?” sense. The mounting tension and slowly-unfolding existential horror in this series are otherwise expertly woven into the narrative, and this part landed with a wet thud.

This is a much longer story than most of the season would have you believe, and it ends with far more questions than answers. One side of the story leaves off with an open end, and the other with a massive cliffhanger, which left me a little cold but with interest piqued for the next season. For what it is right now, though, Heavenly Delusion is a nearly perfect, endlessly thought-provoking mystery and one of the most gorgeously ugly things I’ve seen this year.

[highdio]

concernedstick-love replied to your post: "DIO and the Plan for Heaven..."

Excellent post, but if you allow me, i am very curious about what one of my main problems is with the Over Heaven Stand. Like, from what i am reading, it doesn't seem like something Araki would write. I don't have the game, so maybe you can clear me out, but it seems like it has poorly constructed powers. Unlike Araki, who tightly explains and displays them. So, i hope you don't mind if i personally prefer at least an ambiguous result to what that game gave into. (Like, did Dio had to punch EVERYONE on Earth to conquer it? Punch the ground and it became a shockwave of brainwashing? It feels wishy washy and not what Araki would have done)

Just so we're on the same page, some facts: according to CC2's Hiroshi Matsuyama, Araki supervised Story Mode in Eyes of Heaven, and it wasn't just a case of him signing off on what CC2's staff came up with. Instead Araki was very involved. Like very. Not only did Araki edit and reorganize their original story script but he suggested DIO as the final boss. Araki supervised Heaven DIO's design in every detail - skin color, hairstyle, etc - and paid particular attention to his expressions and attack techniques.

Even though it was a collaborative effort, Araki definitely did "write" Heaven DIO and his stand powers.

Re: what you're pointing out, I think The World Over Heaven isn't a stand power Araki would write for a manga's main antagonist; it's written for a story mode boss. Heaven DIO's short in-game screentime limits how well you can develop the character. As it stands, Heaven DIO's abilities expand on OG DIO's powers: he's got time stop and he punches stuff, it's just that punching stuff rewrites reality and erases people from existence.

When I say I like heaven-ascended Dio's powers in EoH better as a realization of the Heaven Plan had DIO been the one to carry it out than I do Made in Heaven's universal reset, I mean this from the standpoint that the universal reset doesn't feel like a thing Dio would want (fully explained). But I do agree that the ideal realization of "heaven" by Dio himself would best be written by Araki not for the sake of a story mode bad guy but in longer manga form. Had Araki written a version of Heaven Dio for his manga, he would have developed Dio's storyline and abilities differently and more fully. This leads back to the unknowability factor: we don't know what form Dio's own heaven ability would have taken had Dio lived on to carry out the formula himself because Araki didn't take the canon in this direction. However, the existence of The World Over Heaven (which I'm not suggesting is canon) shows a different realization for the heaven formula's potentiality, and that fact alone creates room to think that Dio's own "heaven" really would have looked radically different than the one that Pucci enacted.

Back to the game, The World Over Heaven may be flawed (and easily defeated by plot armor) but I still love it. The fact that we got a new version of DIO with a new design, updated stand, new animations, dialog, voice acting, and he's purple and he teleports, manifests lightning and punches stuff out of existence? Love it.

[themattress]

A solid video on how the case in Chapter 3 of Trigger Happy Havoc let Celeste down and how the stage version did a better job in all but her execution. Three stray thoughts:

1.) The actress playing Celeste in the stage show did a fantastic job conveying what the game only hinted at and the manga confirmed: the money motive in of itself didn't turn Celeste toward villainy, it was hitting her breaking point and losing all hope that did it. In the original story it was due to the Alter Ego situation, whereas here it's because of a tragic misunderstanding: she sees Sakura dying of poison and thinks that she's committing suicide because she has lost all hope of escaping the Killing Game. And if the strongest one among them has given up, then why should any of them keep going? It makes her snap, and the actress' depiction of her breakdown is chilling: not just screaming, but giggling insanely and sobbing with grief in turns. And it's shown that she knows this could cost her her life if she is either voted correctly as the culprit or votes for herself and it turns out that Sakura died from the poison (which is what happens), but she doesn't care, because she'd rather die that stay in this Killing Game. She truly is a tragic figure straight out of a Gothic novel and I love her.

2.) The stupid Robo Justice plot was actually done way better in the anime adaptation, which Kodaka supervised and used to smooth a few things out. While certain things were retained like Hifumi's incompetence in designing the suit that Celeste nevertheless allowed and her trying super hard to direct the flow of events during the murder scheme and scare everyone into believing what she wants them to believe is happening, those things honestly make perfect sense character-wise. It's the unjustified things like her making her verbal slip-up so loud and attention-worthy (here she says it quietly and Makoto only lucks out in remembering it under duress, with no input from Byakuya), acting ridiculously out-of-character during the trial by insisting on a certain outcome and behaving antagonistic toward anyone deviating from it, and trying way too hard to keep up her already broken character before her execution that she says stupidly on-the-nose things that people can misinterpret as true like how she feels nothing. We also don't get a needless recap of what happened in the case that makes it super obvious what the solution is and who the culprits are, or "wacky music" playing when Celeste reveals her dream (since all things considered her dream is more sad than funny.)

3.) I think a lot of the issues Celeste ran into in Chapter 3 is because she was actually a composite of two characters during development: she is primarily the Gothic Lolita character who existed from the start, but later Kodaka axed a male Ultimate Gambler and gave his talent to said Gothic Lolita instead. While this made her more interesting, it ended up working against her in Chapter 3 because her whole murder plot and execution is tailor-made for the Gothic Lolita, not the Gambler. Beyond what the video mentioned, did you notice how Celeste's execution is perfect for her character but has nothing to do with her talent unlike literally every other execution of an Ultimate student? There is no gambling factor involved in her execution whatsoever. Want proof that the execution was conceived before her gambling talent was given to her? Look at what she carries with her in the concept art:

And now look what's at the top of the scaffolding in her execution:

That's why I like to headcanon that she went so willingly to her execution because she made that into a gamble, and her luck caused her to miraculously survive the firetruck crash...

......albeit not in one piece. Hey, gotta suffer for your crimes if you're not gonna die for 'em!

[omegasmileyface]

HEY ITS ME although I am obviously super invested in Astro Boy I still want to ask questions out of evil intent. So I wanna know !! What are your favourite versions of Bem and Atlas ?? Which adaptation do you think handled their characters best / most interestingly ?

>:3c

hmm... the only versions of Bem i can think of are the 60s one and the 2001 one (though i do see a bit of em in tima metropolis) and i actually haven't seen the 2001 movie hehe ,, so i don't think i can pass judgement here BUT. 60s bem is perhaps my favorite astro boy character Period, and the 2001 version would have a hard (but not impossible) time beating the original with regards to their weird alien magic, their apathy in response to catastrophe, their grace in self-sacrifice, whatever the FUCK they were doing with gender, and their relationship to atom. ough. i want to find a method to save them at the last minute and then adopt them and let them enjoy human hobbies forever. here have this bem i doodled last night

[ID: a cartoony red pencil doodle of Bem from Astro Boy. Their humanoid part (a robot which looks like a preteen human, with hair shaped like bird wings) is floating casually above their non-humanoid part (a box like a minifridge), wearing a chef's outfit and giving a peace sign. End ID.]

now what would you do if i said 50s atlas. huh ?

[ID: a picture from a black and white manga panel. It shows a robot who looks like a teenage boy. He's not wearing clothes, and the tube of his torso extends down past his pelvis and works as a rocket propeller, giving him the look of a torpedo with limbs. His solid, black "hair" has several tubes jutting up from it. End ID.]

actually in the process of getting that screenshot i reread The Entire Atlas Story. not as silly as i remember! he serves as sort of an introduction to the capability of robots to do evil on purpose. he's capable of evil thought because of the Omega Factor (not to be confused with the Omega Radar, which atom and cobalt use to find each other), which his creator also wants to put in atom, so that they can help him get revenge on colonial/imperialist society (one of tezuka's semi-successful attempts at commenting on systemic racism). its implied that atlas is capable of good, too, he just hasn't been introduced to it. he gets fucking disintegrated btw.

that serves as a very good intro ramp before the Blue Knight Saga and its approaches to good amd evil, and tezuka's preferred order puts it shortly before, likely for that reason. I'm not sure how to feel about the idea that atom isn't capable of evil, and what that might say abt how "advanced" he is- i like to think he's capable of evil, and actively chooses to be good, but whatever. also im just gonna say it this design is ugly as fuck lol

80s was fun. kinda fused atlas and blue knight into the same character? ive never gotten the chance to see the anime episode with small atlas, so i only know his lore from the 80s comics, which i bet is different and siller. he's like atom, except he needed a special 8th power, and his creator decided that would be pissing on things to blow them up? "Like a cicada"? ok . he drank ink once. i love him. hes like jetter mars to me. anyway. as an adult in the anime he did surprisingly well as a long-term antagonist for astro. it's hard to take that damn show stylishly, but i did cry in the finale when atlas declared himself atoms brother. i liked the idea that they were going for, where the two have a lot in common both physically and mentally, and this omega radar ties them to each other unendingly, but atlas will always have a grudge against humans and atom will always love them? that's great. but i feel like they didn't explore it much, and a lot of it was just Come Fight Me I Fucking Dare You (maybe also to mix in Pluto with atlas and bk? saving on voice actors lmao). and i don't even know what was going on with Livian. shrug. congrats to atlas for having a third boob added though!

now 2003. OUGH 2003 did so nicely as an addition of previous atlases. they kind of departed a little bit from previous versions by having him be, for instance, a creation of tenma, but i don't dislike how they used that change. the way they took the "im just like you" thread that they started on with 80s and amped it up by making atlas not only the second robot ever to be made with the same heart/adaptability as atom, but also to be ANOTHER desperate failed father's attempt at fixing his mistakes, resulting in a new person coming out of the ghost of his neglected son?? he's not just atom's foil to the viewer, he's atom's foil to tenma. he leads up perfectly as the step before Pluto (before Shadow) and before Blue Knight in introducing robots capable of evil to society, in introducing robots who don't want to be nice to atom, and in developing tenma's obsession with evolving atom to greater lengths. here's a vengeful robot with the memories of a vengeful son. here's a robot too powerful for atom to fight without, somehow, growing. here's a victim of the growing anti-AI tide. here's someone who's just like you, here to warn you that something bigger is coming.

also he looks cool as hell. shoutout to 03 atlas

[anjumbai]

Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 2: Thoughts

MAL Rating: 8.77

Studio: MAPPA

Personal rating: 7.5/10

Well I've had my share of finishing the manga right after season 3 part 2. I was like everybody else, not blown away by the ending. But it didn't matter a lot to me. I appreciated the show for its jaw dropping sequences, story telling, and the mysterious world it offered us.

But yeah, I did get uninterested with the anime of Attack on titan after I finished the manga. I just couldn't get myself to watch it while it released anymore because the excitement of what happens next just wasn't there anymore. Yet after a year of not watching anime in general, I find myself back at it. So here are some thoughts I'd share on this season.

Studio change: Well one of the biggest demotivating factors of the fourth season was the studio change from WIT to MAPPA. While I think both the studios offer amazing animation to us viewers, MAPPA just did not have the time or schedule to fit my needs I guess. Studio WIT provided us with jaw dropping ODM gear blasting, smooth visuals, you could just tell they put the time and work for it. THEY GAVE US HAND DRAWN TITANS BRO. Of course the common opinion on "Mappas dark and gritty style suits the tone shift of season 4" is also something I agree on; the actual kick you got from the amazing ODM gear and titan on titan action was missing from this season. That being said, MAPPA's character design is phenomenal and some of the monologue driven scenes hit way harder.

Eren and Reiner: I have to say- I'm still astounded by these two. From Eren beginning the season with telling Reiner that he and Reiner were the same to Eren doing everything that you couldn't even think of Reiner doing. I love the duality of these two and it did make the whole show a lot more enjoyable.

Voice acting: Is it a surprise that the voice actors make Attack on Titan way more intense?

Writing: Hajime Isayama did something truly remarkable when he started Attack on titan. It wasn't a long straight road trip, but a truly intense puzzle where each piece of the puzzle is in the hands of Isayama and he knows exactly when and where he can fit it in. The story didn't feel like it was come up on the spot but rather thought out from the very beginning: each mystery reveal, character intentions make you surprised yet you don't think "this doesn't make sense" cause of course it does he set it al up.

Well in the end this final season sums up all of the show. It hasn't ended yet and I think they are planning for an anime original ending. I do think MAPPA would've done something phenomenal if they were given enough time. Cause season 4 part 3 hits the spot and they had time for it. This season lacks a lot but by no means was it a bad season. Maybe I'm just riding on the fact that no season can top season 3 part 2. But it's good to see Eren again. This character is built up from episode 1 and truly a remarkable journey to be on. I'll be keeping up with the next hour long episode and I guess we'll witness the end of Attack on titan.

My anime list:

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/PPman101

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2022 Summer Anime Reviews

Man this season has felt like an eternity. Even though there were a couple solid series nothing has really stuck. Maybe since 90% of them are sequels (which have become the bane of my existence).

Made in Abyss - Season 2 - 12 Episodes This has been a long awaited sequel. I only recently watched the first season a few weeks before this aired so I don't have the long term hype of some fans but I found I was still kind of disappointed. The story was cool and the art of course was amazing but I just found that the adventure aspect from the first season was missing this time round. Likely since the whole story was around the village and didn't progress deeper into the abyss. It made it feel like this was more of a detour than part of the original story and I wasn't really a fan. I also felt that they really tried to hard with the gore in the second half and a lot of it felt unnecessary. This season just wasn't it for me, but then again, I never felt like I would drop it either. 7.5/10 - Good+

Call of the Night - 13 Episodes This series had a lot of hype from the manga readers. And I just don't get it. The animations were pretty and there were some solid vibes but in the end I felt that the plot wasn't enough for me and I wasn't really attached to any of the characters. Maybe the manga has a different appeal but the anime wasn't for me. 6.5/10 - Fine+

Lycoris Recoil - 13 Episodes It feels like a special treat when we actually get a new concept for a show. I really loved Chisato's personality and the action was always interesting. While I don't feel that this show stood out a whole lot, I still genuinely enjoyed watching it especially as the stakes started rising in the latter half. Also - If you're curious about the animation studio that'll be in charge of Solo Leveling, this is a good show to reference the quality of their recent works. (A-1 Pictures) 8/10 - Great

Links for the top series of the season: Summer Time Render Aoashi

The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting - 12 Episodes This show was honestly so wholesome. I love the character designs with all my heart and I wish we had more content for this series. 8/10 - Great

Isekai Pharmacy - 12 Episodes I actually didn't start this series until all the episodes were out but I was honestly surprised. It's actually a really decent isekai. The focus is much more about medicine and patient care than the isekai factor. I enjoyed the scenarios that happened in each episode and the series ended up being a super easy going watch. 7.5/10 - Good+ Vermeil In Gold - 12 Episodes This series wasn't half bad. I liked the general idea and the characters. I just really don't understand why they couldn't make Alto, idk, not a child??? It really wouldn't be that hard... Just very uncomfy with his age.. 6/10 - Fine Shadows House - Season 2 - 12 Epsiodes It's been a while since we had a decent "horror" or dark series and I think its a really nice change of pace from other series airing this season. Not sure what it is about second seasons though, it doesn't have the same appeal and it doesn't feel like there's a significant amount of progression this season. Still a decent show and concept but nothing that stood out too much. Also ended on a really weird note. 6/10 - Fine

Orient - Cour 2 - Final 12 of 24 Episodes The first half of this series wasn't great. Really didn't stand out at all, but I did feel that this half has been more interesting. That being said, I still put off watching it and wasn't really invested. (That being said, I really enjoyed the last episode.) 6.5/10 - Fine+ Danmachi S4 (Is it Wrong to Try To Pick up Girls in a Dungeon) - 11 Episodes This is somewhat of a guilty pleasure show for me. I know it's really not all that great but I can't help but feel invested in the characters, even now that's it's completely moved away from the whole greek god familes concept. In the end though, this was yet another sequel season that felt that it didn't really progress the story very much. They're still on the same floor and it ended with a massive cliffhanger but I felt that I'd be ok leaving the show where it is and not watching another season if it continues. 6/10 - Fine

Couple of Cuckoos - 24 Episodes I can't believe I even watched as much as I did for this show. I had such high hopes for the first episodes, literally until the last 3 minutes where it became a sis-con harem and my faith in romance series was shattered again. That kinda stuff just isn't my vibe and I'm getting real sick of it. That's 2 for this season alone. I watched 17/24 episodes. It's just not that great. Unfortunately everything else this season was also mid so I kept watching this but with the new Winter anime season coming, I'm giving up on this so I don't burn out. 5/10 - Average Uncle from Another World I had a hard time with this show. I liked the initial idea of using isekai powers in the real world but it started turning to just looking at how the Uncle constantly fucked up and struggled in the isekai world. It ended up being pretty cringe and the story didn't really evolve past the initial appeal - I made it 7 episodes in and it doesn't look like it's ending until the winter season so I'm dropping it. 4/10 - Bad Black Summoner - 12 Episodes I dropped this after episode 2 when the cgi came into play. I'm just not a fan. Continued it after all the other shows ended. Story was mid, animations were standard isekai. Never got attached to any of the characters but for some reason the battle music went hard. 4/10 - Bad

This season had a lot of brutal shows on it too that I didn't end up completing. Here's the list and a quick reason: My Isekai Life - Nothing special, just another standard isekai My Stepmom's Daughter is my Ex - Just not into that kinda thing When Will Ayumu Make his move - Watched 4 episodes and got bored. The Maid I hired Recently is Mysterious - Real yikes... that's it Classroom of the Elite S2 - I wasn't a huge fan of the first season and didn't make it past 1 episode of the second. Devil as a Part-Timer S2 - I enjoyed the first season but found the animation quality and the overall story really deteriorated in the second. Made it 4 episodes in. Link to the Fall 2022 Watch List

[nerdby]

Oh, I think I know what this was about, but I was only 10 years old at the time so keep that in mind. So, basically, interactive toys like Furby's back in the 90s and 2000s ended up being a massive flop. Kids were terrified of them because the Furby's, mainly the Baby Furby's, would wake up and start speaking gibberish in the middle of night. You could also teach them how to swear. My brother had one that would just randomly scream the word, "F*CK!"

Not only that but interactive toys had all the same problems as early animatronics, including that they looked absolutely terrifying whenever they moved. This was because the Furby's design was inspired by Gizmo the mogwai from the 1980s teen horror movie, Gremlins. The problem with Tickle-Me-Elmo is that the real Elmo was a Muppet. Which is just a hand puppet with more working parts, so that people don't see the ventriloquists on screen. So they had to figure out how to transfer a Muppets' on-screen movements to a robot.

I'm not convinced they ever did or will be able, too. Like this was back in like 2007 or 2008, but my sister got a Tickle-Me-Elmo DX or whatever it was -- it was the newer version -- when she was like three and as soon as thing started to move, she just started screaming. I don't think I've ever seen a kid look so terrified in my life.

Oh, and a big contributing factor was that people were convinced that Furby's could be used to infiltrate government technology and were even banned by the FAA in 1999.

Heads up, the Mental Floss article features a possibly seizure-inducing Japanese Furby commercial and yes, that type of thing has happened. The episode of the original 1990s Pokemon anime featuring Porygon was never aired outside of Japan because the flashing graphics resulted in about 30,000 children having seizures. So you probably wanna skip that if you have any type of sensitivity to flashing lights.

Really, though, it was just a design flaw and technophobia that likely resulted in the interactive Pokemon dolls not being released back then. It's also likely that they were released in Japan, but didn't sell very well -- that sort of thing happens with anime and manga all the time. If a manga stops selling well in Japan because of a plot twist or controversy with the mangaka, you either never find another hardcopy on store shelves or you have to wait 10 years until you do. Believe or not, releasing the toy would have been a bad marketing move on Hasbro's part.

Sorry for oversharing btw.

More Information Concerning Interactive Pikachu

Not long after finding the info from the Furby website about Interactive Meowth and Interactive Pikachu in 2021, I found a document talking about Argos and Hasbro that mentions the Pikachu toy. However, I was very confused at the time, thinking, “Is this really talking about the unreleased toy, or is this about something else because Interactive Pikachu was never released?” This was why I didn’t share it earlier. 

But, the document is talking about the unreleased Pikachu toy. Also, I recently found a transcript two days ago, for a court case between Argos and Hasbro UK, concerning the same matter the document talks about.

Some copy and paste work because I can’t be bothered retyping everything:

28/8/2022

Here are mentions of Interactive Pikachu in a document concerning agreements between Hasbro UK and Argos. I have NOT read much of the document, but the document talks about how the price of the toy was changed by Argos and Littlewoods from £23.99 to £23.75. Here’s another important bit of info: “The Interactive Pikachu toy was priced at £23.75 in the A/W 2000 catalogues of both Argos and Littlewoods. This is significant because it is not the original RRP nor a natural price point (such as £23.99), but the price which both Argos and Littlewoods arrived at by communication through Hasbro.” I think the image of the Ocean Ripples Furby on a purple background (that’s currently on the wiki) is from the Autumn/Winter catalogue. The Ocean Ripples Furby image I posted earlier came from the same catalogue that the Interactive Pikachu is in. Interactive Meowth is not mentioned in the documents I found, so Idk if it is in the catalogue.

While I still don’t know Hasbro’s reason for not releasing it, the fact that it appeared in an Argos catalogue for 2000 seems to imply that Argos was planning to sell it at some point that year. As for the Ocean Ripples Furby, I don’t know why it’s there but maybe Hasbro was planning to release the generation 10 Furbys that year but didn’t do it. There’s also speculation that the image may have just been used as a placeholder, which is possible.

Another thing:

This post is talking about an unreleased interactive version of Pikachu that, unlike I Choose You Pikachu, can move its eyes and tail, speak to Furbys, has voice recognition, and battle with Interactive Meowth.

Like Interactive Pikachu, I Choose You Pikachu has blushing cheeks, a moving mouth, and moving ears, but it lacks the other features I mentioned.

Links

View the document here (archived version)

Click here for a transcript of a court case also mentioning Interactive Pikachu (archived version)