animaechan

[animaechan]

Oh, The Hypocrisy!

It's that time of year again! hahaha

What do I mean? Well, every 5 - 6 months or so, I seem to reach kind of a boiling point when it comes to idiots online. I end up doing some kind of rant that serves two purposes:

1. Venting, which is good because it helps take the feelings out from inside of yourself and it helps you to process them.

2. Sharing my side of the story. Of course I hear about people trashing me on sites like Reddit, which is lovely for them, since they also deserve to vent when they are frustrated, but this gives me the opportunity to share my side of the story when it comes to idiots like that. Well, they aren't all idiots, but most of them are.

For example, here is a video of me (from 5 months ago) sharing my side of the story after someone went from accusing me of being emotional and defensive to saying they were going to fly to my house and f*ck me up:

In this video I read through the conversation and you will (hopefully) be able to see that the behaviour that I got accused of was the exact behaviour exhibited by the accuser. Of course, this is just my side of the story and I tried my best reading the conversation without adding too much "tone" to it (since you can't really hear the tone of a person via text), but that's not always possible. I didn't, however, call any individual out in the sense that I made anything about them public. Their presence is 100% anonymous - I did not share their Twitter or anything like that so any of my viewers can "flame" them or something like that.

Today, 5 months after the above incident, I feel like there is another particularly hypocritical occurrence that I would like to share my side of the story of. It has to do with a One Piece viewer, so tread carefully if you are not caught up. Although I will do my best not to spoil.

Just in case you don't know me, let me preface this story by letting you know that I react to and review anime on YouTube. I believe my videos are particularly unique (just as any reactor has their own unique aspects) in the sense that the focus of my videos are largely on the reviews. I spend hours and hours talking about anime (in many cases, but not all, of course). The reviews stretch further than the anime and often bleed into real world discussions, since anime (and art in general) is but a reflection of humanity. I understand not everyone cares to view it that way, many watch anime purely as a means of escape from the real world, but that's not me. I feel I have made this very clear in most of my videos.

My arc reviews for One Piece alone can stretch up to 3 hours long (and that's the limit I set for myself, I can talk a lot longer if I had the time). I love talking in depth about characters and events, but also, I love figuring the story out along the way. On many occasions, to the point where I have even gotten tired of saying it so often (because people just continue to do it), I have asked people not to give me hints about things that happen in the future.

Furthermore, I have also asked (on multiple occasions) that if I happen to miss a detail of the anime, I DO NOT want it pointed out to me, for three reasons:

1. I am reading the manga, so I might notice it during my read-through, for which I also do live read-along videos. No one notices everything on their first viewing of an anime, after all. It's exciting to be able to discover new details during a second viewing (or reading).

2. I don't like having things pointed out to me, because even if I missed an early hint/reveal, I might realise it a little later and have a fun "AH HA!" realisation moment, which is also a great reaction that many of my viewers enjoy. Even when I play games, if I'm having trouble with a particular puzzle/level, I do my best to figure it out myself before asking for help (I rarely do this!). See this video for example (it's a long video, but it is linked to a specific time stamp which will show you the moment I mean):

At the beginning (from 2:00:06 in the video) you see me enter a "puzzle" which I have trouble figuring out, but after 6 minutes of running around and trying different things, I finally solved it! The feeling when I pieced together what to do was amazing. I purposefully did not look at the chat, because I knew there would be people giving hints or outright telling me what to do. I felt so happy knowing I solved it on my own and many of the viewers enjoyed to see me try different things, get it wrong, try again and eventually resolve the obstacle. Of course there are viewers who do not want to sit through 6 minutes of someone NOT GETTING something and fumbling to figure it out, but many of my viewers DO love that. The most important part, however, is that I personally love that experience.

Whether it's playing games or reacting to anime, authenticity is key. If I am having fun, others will have fun. My reaction style might not be for everyone, but that is true for every reactor. There are different reactors, because the people who watch reactions enjoy different types of reactions and personalities etc. I've made all of this very clear in many videos -> keep this in mind for later.

3. Last but not least... All my viewers know that I have many hands on/involved mods. I have explained that if I DO miss something that is integral to my understanding of the story, my mods will decide together if it is a good idea to let me know. In fact, I have a very active Discord server where I have told everyone there is a One Piece chatroom. They can chat to my mods or other One Piece fans in that chatroom and even let my mods know privately if they think I should know about something. My mods will, as previously mentioned, discuss among themselves and decide if I really need to know, or is it something that I still have time to figure out on my own. Maybe it's not at all important, and it's something I can pick up for myself during my manga read-through.

The bottom line of all of this is that I have asked many, many times that I do not want hints and spoilers. Not everyone notices every little detail in their first viewing of a show and I like to have the opportunity to figure it out for myself.

Despite this, I have been spoiled a lot on various shows. Since I love One Piece so much, it bothers me a lot to be spoiled on anything from the show. I realised that no matter how many times I ask and ramble on about WHY I I don't like hints and spoilers, the people doing it probably don't take the time to listen to me. I ended up doing the following:

On YouTube I don't read any comments that are not approved by mods first (luckily, the YouTube studio offers a great function for this my mods can use and I haven't been spoiled on YouTube in a very long time).

Sadly, on Patreon I cannot have mods. Well, I can, but I would have to upgrade my account and they would end up taking double from my earnings compared to what they take now. At first it was very difficult to avoid spoilers/hints, because my mods would have to keep an eye on every One Piece post and if they happen to see a spoiler, they need to DM me the name of the person/account and on which post they spoiled, and I would have to go to the post and try to delete the comment without looking (on YouTube, my mods can delete the comments themselves, but it's not possible on Patreon). The problem with this was that if I happen to check my emails before my messages, I would see the spoiler (I get emails of comments, too).

Even though I have explained all this in One Piece videos, I knew the people who spoil/hint wouldn't listen or care, so I made it simple and added the following to all my One Piece posts:

I thought this was easy enough to understand and that people would respect it. Since I have active mods on Discord, it would be easier to chat with anyone on there without fear of being spoiled. Even when it came to new DMs (I didn't know if I could trust the person or not), it was quick and easy to screenshot and forward the message to a mod who would let me know if I can read/respond -> it was quick and easy because it all happened within the Discord server and I didn't have to jump between Patreon, emails, Discord, DMs and so on and so on. Does this sound like A LOT of effort just not to get spoiled? YES, OF COURSE. I want my experience to be as unspoiled as possible, because it keeps my experience fun, which means a better reaction, which means those who like my reactions/style of reacting and reviewing will be happy too.

Still, for the people who don't care about all these little details, I made it easy. I added that simple disclaimer. I really thought it's simple enough for people to respect, since these are my reactions after all, it's my experience. I can't please everyone and this is the way I wanted to go about things.

But, lo and behold, of course even that was not good enough for some. One day I missed a subtle reveal (a lot was happening in the episode). My mod immediately DMd me and said "people are going to try and spoil you on something, but you'll figure it out yourself later so just be careful". I was told to DM one or two comments, and I did, but a day or so later I ended up being spoiled. I was really sad, because it was the identity of a character that I definitely would have noticed on my next One Piece day (when I watched the next episodes). Instead of figuring it out/realising it in a video (with my reaction being recorded), I was told this information by a random commenter and my heart sank. I privately told this person that I was really disappointed, especially since I had talked about enjoying these kind of "ah ha!" on that same day. I watched four episodes that day, and I talked about it in the second reaction. In the fourth reaction, I missed the subtle reveal and despite having just asked people NOT to spoil moments like that for me, this person did and I was not able to avoid the spoiler.

They admitted their fault and apologised to me, saying they would be more careful, and that was that. What more could I do? It's not like they spoiled me deliberately and it wasn't a HUGE spoiler, so I accepted their apology, because it seemed sincere (see below).

I explained in my following reaction that I was spoiled on the identity I had not picked up on before and therefore I will not have a "reaction" for them to see in the video the next time the character shows up (it's not like I am going to fake it or anything and I knew some people were still expecting me to realise who the character was - it's better to be up front about these things). I was of course still annoyed talking about it, because I knew 15 - 20k people watch my One Piece videos on YouTube and many of them would be disappointed not to see a reaction from me when I realise who the character really was, but I explained the situation and moved on.

As you might realise at this point, sharing my reactions/journey with a show publicly is not always the best experience, not only because of spoilers, but because viewing a show for the first time while being watched by people who have seen the show multiple times and often expect you to react in a certain way can be very taxing. It doesn't have to be, I know that. I can just binge watch shows and not talk about it at all, putting out tons of videos and ignoring the comments, but that's just not me. I love being involved in the anime and manga community, because the good outweighs the bad (most of the time). Sometimes, though, you need a break.

This week was one of those weeks. I wanted a break from One Piece - watching it, talking about it, everything. Just one week. So I made a post about it to notify my Patrons since some are subbed only to watch my One Piece reactions. And here is where the actual story of the reason for this post begins...

The post looked like this:

I'm not going to add the long version here, because I've already wrote a lot and it's not relevant to the story. I just needed to take a step back.

One of the comments on the post rubbed me the wrong way, a lo And I knew by the name this was a person I had felt that way about a few times. They continued to tell me that I was awful and unfair for getting angry at people who spoiled the identify of the character for me. They said that "plenty of reactors have that pointed out to them and everyone just enjoys it" and if it were to happen to me again, I should just enjoy it for what it is. "So what if you miss your ahah moment? It's not the end of the world". Honestly, I didn't even want to read past this, because I realised this person doesn't care about my experience, only that I enjoy it the way they want me to and do things their way and what mattered most to this person was their experience. Screw what I prefer and screw the people who were excited to see me figure it out on my own, WHAT THEY WANT matters most and I am awful and unfair to think or feel otherwise.

No thank you, your $3 for 20 One Piece reactions per month is not worth it. I decided to refund them their $3 for that month and block them. Clearly they don't enjoy my style of reacting, and I don't want to cater to what they think my reaction should be and what I should or should not consider a spoiler. Many of my other patrons were disappointed that they would not get to see my reaction to finding out the identity of the character and it is not for this person to decide what anyone can reveal to me and when.

Of course, this is not the end of the story and I haven't even gotten to the part that reveals this person's hypocrisy 🤣

They were unhappy with the refund and block, and took to Twitter to let me know. My mod saw it before me, since they also keep an eye on any mentions (people have tried to spoil me on there too) and responded by explaining the reason for the block. Throughout these interactions, I learned that they were also one of the people who spoiled me on the identity of the character. I wasn't even aware of this fact, since a mod had told me to delete their comment before reading it (this was before I was spoiled). Later, as you know, another commenter spoiled me on the same thing (I saw the comment before a mod could let me know to delete it). When I found out about that, it reaffirmed my belief that this is not the kind of person I want commenting on my videos anymore, since they definitely don't respect my viewing experience and they ignored my request to comment only on the Discord so that I can avoid this exact situation.

The blocked commenter got so frustrated with my mod for not seeing things his way, that he said:

Imagine that, getting frustrated, because things are going around in circles and you keep explaining, but someone doesn't agree with you? Hmm... Sounds kind of like how I have to constantly go around in circles with people like them to explain that I don't want comments that spoil me on things. Whether or not they agree with what I see as a spoiler doesn't matter, because I have made it clear and easy for them to avoid spoiling me. Just chat on the Discord, where my mods can do their job and mod.

So this person thinks it's fine to get frustrated and do something like call my mods dumb, but they called me awful for getting frustrated with people like them who continue to spoil me? hahahha! Oh, the hypocrisy!

To top it all off, they ended up not only blocking my mod, but ME on Twitter! So that we can't continue to reply to them or talk to him.

I literally can't stop laughing when I think about this. Let's look at the facts:

- they got frustrated and angry, because someone didn't agree with them/see things their way

- they called me awful for getting frustrated and angry at commenters who continue to spoil me (because in their opinion, it wasn't a spoiler)

- they didn't like that I blocked them for calling me awful (and commenting spoilers, even though it wasn't their comment who spoiled me, but still it was the same comment and it's just lucky that my mod saw it before me)

- they blocked me, because I didn't see things their way

All I have left to say is... OH, THE HYPOCRISY! 🤣

[animaechan]

MADE IN ABYSS (Thoughts)

Before I begin saying my piece, specifically in response to a comment I received, I'd just like to say that I have watched up to episode 10 of Made in Abyss and I will only be finishing it next week. So, no spoilers, please. I also would like to highlight my scores for each episode of the show so far.

Episode 1: 8.9/10

Episode 2: 8.9/10

Episode 3: 8.3/10

Episode 4: 8.1/10

Episode 5: 7.8/10

Episode 6: 7.7/10

Episode 7: 8.2/10

Episode 8: 7.9/10

Episode 9: 6/10 (I found out afterwards that this episode is mostly filler and that all the things that bothered me about the episode, did not happen in the manga, so that was great to hear)

Episode 10: 9/10

What I have said in my reactions so far that I love most about the show is the world building, visuals and soundtrack. If I were to score the show as a whole at this point, based only on these three categories, it would be a 9/10 overall (at least).

I got the following comment today and I'm sharing it so that I can discuss why I don't like these kinds of comments:

"What makes [Made in Abyss] different, is the fact that the MC is a child. To a child, a world can still seem wondrous, even though it is full of darkness. So, rather than being like other run-of-the-mill Shonen type anime, it is actually interesting. I think one of the key points of this show, is to depict scenarios where (one) MC is trying to deal with a situation that is beyond their ability. Not like some cliched Shonen, where MC has hidden/special powers, makes grand virtuous speeches and other character troupes."

I find myself to be very apprehensive to have a discussion with this kind of person. Their comment solely focuses on bringing down an entire genre in an attempt to highlight why this anime is good. It's not even something they needed to prove to me, since my scores reflect that I do think this anime is good. They continued to say:

"Average shonen means something like Naruto. A great shonen would be something like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon slayer, FMAB. Although they have some cliched themes as well, that is offset by other great qualities.

The whole point of that statement, is that Made in Abyss is a dark fantasy, so judging it by standards of a typical anime does not help. Like trying to imagine the story having an adult (or older) MC kind of takes away the whole point of this story."

I find it interesting how they talk about what is an average shonen VS what is a great shonen, as if it's factual, and they use those "facts" to illustrate their point. Not only that, but they assume that I judge Made in Abyss by the standards of shonen for some reason, which makes no sense to me, as I never mentioned another shonen while watching Made in Abyss. I only ever said that I don't think it's necessary to have an MC which is as young as Riko. She is 12, but the character designs (in my opinion) make all the children look even younger. I mean, there is barely a difference between the features of Riko and Kiwi, who must be around the age of 4.

I'm not sure on Kiwi's age exactly, but there is probably an 8 year difference between these two and yet it barely shows. This is obviously not an objective fact, I am just responding (and expanding on my reasoning) to their argument about "...trying to imagine the story having [an older] MC kind of takes away the whole point of this story."

I don't agree that the "point of the story" needs Riko to look as young as she does. Sure, it will add to the shock value, but if the story solely depends on the shock value of the mutilation of a 12 year old, I don't think that says a lot about the anime... "Dark fantasy is defined as a fantasy sub-genre that is typified by a deliberately ominous tone, reinforcing what is commonly perceived as a gloomy atmosphere. Standard features of fantasy are deliberately intertwined with a sense of terror and dread to create this sinister subcategory of fantasy."

Nothing in the definition of dark fantasy presupposes that the characters must be children. It is definitely not something that is against any rules, by any means, but saying "...trying to imagine the story having [an older] MC kind of takes away the whole point of this story" just because it's a dark fantasy, makes no sense. Berserk is also a dark fantasy, but doesn't rely (solely) on the shock value of harming children to make the story development and characters interesting or unique. The same can be said about Attack on Titan.

Before I finish up, I wanted to respond to one more thought in particular, which was that Riko is unique, because she is "not like some cliched shonen, where the MC has hidden/special powers, makes grand virtuous speeches and other character troupes." Once again, this person relies on bringing down something else in order to make their point about why something in this show is good. I think this is very unfair, however, because although Riko does not have special powers herself, her super strong robot companion comes down to the same thing. There is no way that she would have made it this far into the journey without the special powers of a secondary character. How is that really so much different from shows like Naruto, One Piece or Bleach in which the main character is granted special powers and actually develops their powers themselves over the course of many episodes? This is a shorter show, and it's fine that the main character is given a strong sidekick instead of developing their own power, but I think it is unfair for this person to say that Riko is any less cliched, just because her "special power" (that helps her to make it as far as she does) is not her own.

I just want to emphasise that I don't think Riko is a bad character. My average score for the character category has been a solid 8/10. I am just responding to this set of comments and trying to challenge their view of what it is that makes Made in Abyss good. I never said otherwise (with the exception of episode 9, but that has been explained).

In summary, I think Made in Abyss so far is very good, because of it's beautiful world building and visuals, as well as a unique and stand-out soundtrack. The characters are good too. I like the mystery surrounding Reg's character and Riko is special, because of her inquisitive mind and excitable nature. I still do not think that it is necessary for them to be and appear as young as they do, in fact, I think it actually holds the story back. That, however, is only my opinion before seeing the last three episodes and the movie. Once I finish, I will revisit this opinion and give more in-depth thoughts on it.

[animaechan]

FLCL THOUGHTS (Episode 2)

I recently watched episode 2 of FLCL and I got a message from a friend (Nax) after watching my reaction & review. I think it says a lot in fewer words that I could, so I'd like to share it with you.

I watched this series as a 12 year old who was left to my own devices (your words) so this series really related to me. I was jubilant to hear you connect a major theme of the series to adolescence since I feel the same. In my opinion, after the animation studio was finished working on Eva, they wanted to make another coming of age story using the same basic tools (teen boy, big robots, mystery,) but with a more eccentric tone. I think this series was made as a love letter not to just Eva but to every major accomplishment created by Gainax. I am sure you will notice other nods to works of fiction in the series so I am excited to see you catch them.

Something I really enjoy in the second episode is the line that Naota says in the begging monolouge akin to "I don't know where the truth ends and the lies begin" but by the end of the episode he swaps the words " I don't know where the lies end and the truth begins". This to me signifies that Naota views the world slightly different from where the episode started. I really dig that detail.

I myself. did not notice that little detail of the changed phrase, so I appreciate it being pointed out to me after the episode, since it's not something that I would've noticed later. Maybe during a rewatch, but I don't know when I'll ever have time for that.

I'm surprised I'm only two episodes in and the story (and characters) so far has given me so much to think about.

Time to listen to some music until I can watch episode 3 😎

"Ride on shooting star Searching for you, and in withdrawal syndrome I told a lie

Ride on shooting star With the voice of my heart, like a shotgun I kept on singing"

[animaechan]

Social Justice has devolved into a form of “Oppression Olympics” where people argue about who is the most oppressed.

Unknown  (via ktmattel)

[animaechan]

ATTACK ON TITAN SEASON 3 FINALE [thoughts/theories]

Below is text that I DID NOT WRITE. I got permission from the person who shared these thoughts/theories, so that I can share it here, because I think it’s very interesting and I don’t want to forget what they said + I’d like to do some more research on some of these concepts later. 

I edited some of the text (also with permission) and added a few links to some words for reference.

ZAGRASH: “Through time, all cultures had a reference for the "sacred fluid". In modern times we often talk about the concept of DNA and we all know what that means. In Attack on Titan, it’s SPINAL FLUID. 

In literature from all over the place and time you can find the idea of human intelligence evolving by 1.) standing up 2.) a fluid going up the spine and out of that, human intelligence evolves. The spinal fluid/DNA is the key of living and the functions of the body/mind. This fluid is also known as Semen or Christos (Cerebrospinal Fluid). 

In the East, the  "Chakra, lingam, Vīrya, mádhu" are often used. The term SACRED comes from SECRET and that from SECRETION = the fluid of "god" or the "Christos". Almost all ancient, "secret" teachings are about the raising the "fluid/chakras" to be enlightened, which means to use your full potential (intelligence, not intellect), instead of trying to just survive (like animals). In the BBC video Isayama talks about this - karma. 

In older cultures the words milk or honey are used to describe the fluid. From that perspective, the word "milky way" becomes a completely new meaning. The world tree in norse mythology represent the human body, but also the universe (split in 9 worlds). Our ancestors understood that forms repeat in the cosmos because of the fluid intelligence. Look at this picture of the god Ganesh (Hindu) https://st6.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2804902303?profile=original 

The garden Eden is the paradise in the bible (think of the Island of Paradis, and ONIGASHIMA, also based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%B6rdlingen). 

In the garden eden the snake gives Eve (root race of humans, similar to YMIR in Attack on Titan) an apple from the tree of wisdom (the tree represents the universe/the collective). Today this is known as the original "sin". Why? 

This is the effect of evolution natural hierarchy:  

Bee -> pollinate Plant (semen) -> Fruits (Sugar and Red, naturally addicting. The plant creates a fruit for its own survival (the red fruit distracts predators and will make them addicted to the sugar = they will not eat the plant in the future). But I don't want to go deeper into biology now...

It’s a question about how we use our intelligence - to use this gift (the intelligence that Adam and Eve received) to evolve the world or to do bad things (war, hierarchy, stay animalistic = satanism = devil). 

In Attack on Titan, we have a reference of this, the pact with the devil: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/shingekinokyojin/images/8/8a/Ymir_Fritz_makes_a_deal_with_the_Devil.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180405155408 

We don’t see snakes in Isayama’s story, but we do see Titans. Snake: a reference for the human spine with low intelligence, while the eagle is high intelligence = in the sky, not on the ground). Eagles can be found on many places, like national flags. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Caduceus.svg/1200px-Caduceus.svg.png symbol for medicine, literally everywhere. 

Shiva also always has a snake around his head. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mythology/images/4/4d/Shiva.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130330050033 

Whatever happens in the story, I think this is the core idea of the connection between the subjects of Ymir, the milky way references, spinal fluid, the pact with the devil reference and the flowers and bees, and also all the dreams.” [END] 

I asked Zagrash about why he referred to “karma” (since it wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the BBC video). He replied with: “The part I’mtalking about is from 0:46 to "I think it came from the experience of growing up in a farm. As a child i remember thinking all living creatures must get nutrition from other living creatures. We might call it cruel, but it is actually the norm". For me that is the perfect definition of Karma.” 

[animaechan]

Geehee via https://gifs.com/gif/geehee-KZ07xR

[animaechan]

hahahhahahahahahhahhahahahaekfhaofiaewhfowe

anime_irl