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shushiyuii · 3 years

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Ok I really been wanting to see Giant dream and Tiny Tommy vore fluff. Just some fluff and noms. Ans Maybe another where it is Giant Dream and Tiny SBI Fluff and noms also. It is wired I am sorry. Saw you asking for requests.

I did the first one! (Also sorry for the lack of uploads today, been really busy.)

Warnings: Soft vore, mention of rough past, slight dehumanization?

Words: 1.4K+

The god and The Strange Boy

The temperature of the room was almost unimaginable, he had no idea how he had coped with it for so long within that prison, the now outside fresh air feeling foreign, cold. It was a strange sensation, but a welcome one.

He wondered how everybody was doing, how things had changed within his time within the prison. In his opinion it was an unfair sentence, it wasn’t his fault how things had changed within the SMP, it wasn’t him that should’ve been held responsible.

It should’ve been them.

He remembered how he’d get visited by him in the prison, he was almost scared. Asking for advice on what to do, he wanted so badly to hold him close to his chest and comfort him, but the prison’s containment prevented him from doing so.

At first, the exile. He hated him, wanted to kill him. But, in his exile he came to understand the boy and his beginnings, the boy had opened up to him, so he comforted him and even opened up himself.

Dream didn’t have a good past, he was known as a monster back in the day, he’d changed when he met Sapnap and George but reverted to his old ways somewhat when the whole L’manburg started happening.

But this boy. Tommy. He thought the boy acted on selfish decisions, was arrogant or worse but that wasn’t the actual Tommy. To some extent, yes but if you really knew him as Ranboo or Tubbo did. He was definitely someone else.

Whenever you see this side of Tommy, it’s mainly a defence mechanism. Because the boy had a rough past himself. One that neither found family knew of, Tubbo and Ranboo only knew parts of this past. But to say the boy had it rough, he really did.

He wasn’t sure why Tommy ran away from exile; he was there for the boy. He thought maybe he scared him. Or the loneliness? Whatever it was he didn’t know but in the meantime, he wanted L’manburg gone. So he teamed up with two others are known as Philza and Technoblade to destroy it.

In the remains of L’manburg, that’s where he saw the boy again. Looking betrayed but all of them. When in reality, all they wanted to do was protect him. Dream, as much as this ancient god didn’t want to admit but, he saw this kid as his own.

Afterwards, Techno and Phil returned to their home in the Antarctic, being the blood god and the angel of death. They had similar titles as Dream. But as for Dream, he was punished by other’s, held in prison to what many saw as home.

He hated the place but put up with it with the visits of Tommy, he had apologised for running and began to talk to Dream how he used to.

Tommy was in no way a god, he was mortal. Small compared to many others. He was a mortal adopted by the gods, taken in to be one of their own.

When in reality, he was left to survive as a plaything for these gods.

Dream saw him as no such thing, and as much as Techno and Phil hated to admit it they cared for the boy as well. Despite not being there as much for him as Dream. They had a reputation to maintain.

Now, with his newfound freedom, he was looking for his brother. It had been a while since his last visit, and he had no clue where the boy had gone.

He looked and looked, no one had a clue as to where Tommy’s current location was. It was just known he wasn’t at his dirt hole as much as he once was.

He questioned everyone he came across; he didn’t find anything suspicious until…

Until he ran into the God of bees and the God of portals. Ranboo and Tubbo.

When asked, they acted suspiciously different, as if they were trying to hide something from them.

And he was correct, when followed he found that these gods had founded a new place to call home, one off the knowledge of others. Much like the Antarctic. It was called Snowchester.

The three had founded a mortal son that they wished to hide. And with it, Tommy was there. He found him.

Tommy pulled on leaves about twice his size, trying to uproot what seemed to be potatoes in the cold winter snow. “Tommy?”, he asked whilst standing beside a nearby tree.

The boy jumped out of his mind for a moment before turning to Dream, “DREAMM! MY MANN! Wassup?!”. He said enthusiastically but Dream could see that he had frightened him.

He laughed and smiled, then approaching the boy. “I’m good, out of prison now. I’ve seen you’ve been doing good with yourself”. Dream then held out his hand to the floor, allowing Tommy to stand on as he sat down near the tree.

“Yeah, been working where I can and stuff, sorry bout not visiting”, “It’s fine Tommy”. “How’d you even find me anyways?”. “Followed Tubbo and stuff”.

“They’re gonna be pissed!”. Tommy laughed, “They won’t be, not when they realise, I mean no harm”. “That may be the case with Ranboo, not so much Tubbo, he’s not only the God of Bees y’know”.

Dream nodded in understanding. And then there was a moment of peace between the two, “It’s weird honestly?”, Tommy looked up at Dream. “How we both get along? Don’t you find it odd?”.

“Well Dream, I’m pretty sure it’s because of how great I am! I am Tommyinnit after all!”. Dream smirked from under his mask and put a fingertip to Tommy’s hair and ruffled it playfully.

Tommy’s expression turned from happy to silent grief as he looked away from Dream, “Hey Dream?”, “Yes, Tommy?”, “Am I ever going to be able to go home?”.

A thing about the god realm is that if humans were to cross the barrier, they’d never be able to return. They’d be at the mercy of the gods.

Dream looked down at Tommy and moved his finger to gently rub the boy’s back, making the answer clear. He’d been told it many a time, but he knew the boy couldn’t help but cling onto hope of going home. He couldn’t blame him.

The two sat in the comforting silence for a while longer, until the cold winds started to pick up, it didn’t affect himself, but it did affect Tommy. The boy was shivering now with no shelter for him nearby. He’d freeze soon enough.

Tommy looked up to Dream, seeming to know the plan already. Dream moved Tommy to his lap as he used his hands to unclip his mask, when the mask was removed it revealed a scarred face with his eyes black with glowing green pupils. A sight nobody usually saw.

He then picked up Tommy and brought the boy closer towards his face, where he breathed and covered the boy in warmth, Tommy clung to him. He opened his mouth to reveal a multitude of sharp fangs.

But that didn’t stop Tommy from stepping in himself, Dream using his tongue to make sure the boy didn’t trip or anything, once Tommy was safely in his mouth, he closed it. And moved his tongue to taste at Tommy.

He purred slightly as he felt the taste of Strawberries and a mix of other things, Tommy laughing every time he and the tongue crossed paths.

Once he deemed the boy ready for decent, he titled his head back and swallowed.

He traced the boy’s descent with his finger, and slowly felt Tommy drop into his stomach, safely tucked away. He rubbed there for a moment, feeling Tommy move and shift into a comfortable position.

He signed in relief when he felt the boy tiredly put his hands to rub at the stomach walls and fall asleep. He must’ve been tired from all the work he’d be doing.

He began the journey of finding a place for the night but was stopped when he heard the yell of his name. “DREAM!”.

He turned and saw the god of Explosives, Tubbo. Who seemed ready to explode and a slightly angry Ranboo, he seemed conflicted about something? He drew out his sword for a fight.

Later, they were all sitting by the fireplace, covered in injuries. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”, Tubbo spoke in a sassy way as he sipped on his tea. Dream had a hand covering his stomach as he looked to Tubbo, “Well, it doesn’t matter now. You all are now under my protection.”.

#mcyt g/t #mcytg/t #dsmp g/t #tw vore #giant!dream #giant!ranboo #giant!phil #giant!techno #giant!tubbo #tiny!tommy #shushi's writings

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mononohke-archive · 7 years

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Anime Roundup - Winter 2017 [Spoilers]

As always, this season flew by despite how disappointing it was (for anime that started airing during it, not leftovers from Fall 2016). Well, maybe it was also because near the end I started playing video games and fell behind on my normal watching schedule. Either way, it didn’t feel like a whole 3 months. I’m a little late, as usual, and I didn’t write as much this time around. (Chalk it up to laziness and distraction by the aforementioned video games.)

Overall: I think this season qualifies as the worst I’ve seen yet. So many disappointments but only one or two highs.

Featured Anime: Ao no Exorcist S2, Gintama., Rakugo Shinjuu S2, 3-gatsu no Lion, ACCA, All Out!!, ClassicaLoid, Nanbaka + S2, Onihei, Trickster

Total: 10 | Average Score: 6.8 | Word Count: 4,581

~ (DIRECT) SEQUELS ~

Ao No Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc [5/10]

Let me be blunt, the only thing I actually give a crap about in Ao no Exorcist is Yukio. Specifically, Yukio as a character and his brother complex for Rin. That is really what carried me through the first season of AnE and made me feel like it deserved more than a 5. In season one, the whole dynamic between them, Yukio’s complicated feelings for Rin, and their rivalry was the main theme of a significant part of the show. But in this season and arc, Yukio is barely there at all. The shift focuses more to Suguro, his family, and the Impure King. While I don’t dislike Suguro (Nakai Kazuya being his voice helps), I really don’t care enough to watch a whole cour about him and his family. There’s a lot of Rin too, of course, but he’s the main character and that’s obviously unavoidable.

Well, at least there a little bit of Yukio, however. He’s there for a few episodes and there’s like half an episode dedicated to his and Rin’s relationship, but that’s a pittance compared to the last season. For those reasons, AnE has dropped one point and just went into boring/average territory. If Yukio is a major part of next season or some future season, the score will go up to 6 again, but this one will stay at 5.

To give some credit though, I’m really grateful that they brought back all the original cast for this long awaited sequel. Unlike D.Gray-man last year, I never felt like something was wrong because all the voice actors and art style were different. It is unfortunate that they couldn’t get Keiji Fujiwara to reprise his role as Rin and Yukio’s father, but still 99% of the cast is the same.

Gintama. [8/10]

It is with a heavy heart that I have to give a title in the Gintama series less than a 10 (only applies to the main show and not movies/specials/OVAs). Unfortunately, the recent change in Gintama’s pace is tiring and got boring rather quickly. This problem was beginning to show in the previous season, but at least that had enough episodes and arcs to have more change.

This season honestly didn’t have a bad start... it was really great seeing the Joui4 together again especially Sakamoto (since he appearances are normally so limited) but then it went into Kamui and Umibozu’s backstory arc. To be clear, I like Umibozu, don’t care about Kamui, and love Kagura, but this whole arc was mostly about Kamui, Umibozu, and Kouka (Kagura and Kamui’s dead mother). Kagura herself felt like an afterthought in this arc. This was more about explaining Kamui’s issues with his dad and how Umibozu met Kouka.

Now, aside from my general disinterest in Kamui, the problem is not really with the backstory itself. It’s the fact that Gintama had turned into a battle shounen. I really dislike the pacing in battle shounens, especially if they are done badly *coughsNanbakacoughs*, and the worst part is that Gintama normally does these bits right in previous drama arcs. In this one though, it was boring... maybe not unbearable, but I found myself tuning out a lot more than I would watching Gintama - y’know, one of my all time favorite anime.

Personally, I think the comedy in Gintama has always been stronger than the drama. The drama, when done in arcs between a lot of comedy, is really when it’s at its best because that is when the show brings a necessary change of pace and adds more depth to the characters. When it’s just one drama arc after the other, the battle shounen portions tend to take over. Plus, I just really miss the humor. It always gelled with me and that’s why I loved the show so much from the beginning. I miss laughing my ass off every episode, but in season I only chuckled a few times.

There is one silver lining though and that is Utsuro, who is becoming more and more interesting. While it is kind of cliche that he came back from the dead and turned out to be immortal, I think the way it’s presented is really good, and I can’t wait to see more of him. The last episode giving his backstory definitely pulled me in for the next season. I just hope it lightens up a little more because the comedy is where Gintama always shined the best.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Descending Stories [9/10]

This show... how am I supposed to talk about it? I want to do a proper review that does it justice, but obviously that review would be spoiler free. In this post though, I think I’ll just quickly summarize my overall feelings.

First, let me say that Rakugo has totally met my expectations in S2. It expanded on the story pretty much just as perfectly as it needed to. There was one little thing that ruined it just a teeny bit near the end, but honestly it was otherwise masterful. For me to articulate exactly how I feel, I really need to rewatch both seasons. Sorry, I’m gonna skip actually putting effort into this lol, but I will try my best to get out a proper review on MAL later. Maybe one day I’ll even attempt an analysis, but that’s far off.

~ INDIRECT SEQUELS & NON-SEQUELS~

3-gatsu no Lion [9/10]

3-gatsu no Lion is easily one of the best and most emotional anime that I’ve seen recently. I’m actually surprised that it is a Shaft production (most famous for the Monogatari series and Madoka Magica), but it has Shaft all over it with Akiyuki Shinbo at the helm. I know some people have mixed or negative feelings on his style of direction, but I like it in all the other Shaft shows I watched and I especially like it here. It’s the first time I’ve seen Shaft do an anime like 3-gatsu, which has no fanservice, no harem (elements), no strong humor, nor any fantasy or supernatural elements.

In my opinion, they did an excellent job. If 3-gatsu was not presented in the way it is, it might not have been as interesting as it is. It would’ve been so easy to make this a dry and boring adaptation, but Shaft brings it to life with such incredible bold, imagery. And it pulls off mood whiplash (sudden mood changes) a lot better than most anime I’ve seen. Normally, I think they clash with the overall tone, but when 3-gatsu does it, it feels like an exaggerated version of what happens in real life, where tone does not stay consistent between moments.

Then there’s Rei, the main character. He really skirts the line between being relatable or not. On the one hand, he is a Shogi genius and makes his own living at age 17. On the other hand, he has a complicated past, depression, and is a very down to earth and nice person. The whole series really rests on Rei’s shoulders, as he is the narrator and everything revolves around him. But I think he’s excellent written and relatable despite being essentially a child prodigy.

Speaking of the shogi, I was also worried that it would be hard to understand the series because I don’t know shogi very well. Thankfully, that’s not the case. While there is a significant amount of focus on the shogi, the real focus on the characters. I’m sure for people who are familiar with shogi, it gives an extra layer to the narrative, but even for those who aren’t, it’s not so focused on the games that there’s nothing left. At least shogi has similarities to chess, which most westerners have a passing knowledge of. Still, even if you know fuck all about shogi and chess, I think the great depth of characters and the wonderful visuals carry the show and make it incredibly watchable.

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka [7/10]

I... liked ACCA. Don’t love it, but liked it well enough. It has a uniqueness to it that you don’t see often in anime. For example the cast are all adults and most of them are government bureaucrats, the plot revolves around a conspiracy, and the anime is fairly slow paced and is very light on action. More than half the series is spent on world-building, with very little romance or other cliches. I could probably go on.

The color palette and art style is also a highlight with lots of bright, pastel colors. ACCA is just a neat little package of an anime that I appreciated watching for being something a little different. Have to say though, I’m not sure how much this will stick to me in the long run. Some of the world, maybe, and definitely the art style/colors, but not really the characters or plot.

All Out!! [6/10]

What initially drew me to All Out!! is a) rugby, never seen that sport before in an anime and b) incredible diversity in body types with a very wide variation in height, muscularity (although most are muscular guys), and weight (never seen so many chubby guys in an anime). So, while All Out!! does have some things that set it apart, unfortunately in literally every other way, it’s pretty much exactly the same as other sports anime. The protagonist is, OF COURSE, a newbie who joins the sport for the first time as a high school freshman. He’s overly energetic and most of the rest of the team thinks he’s annoying, but he’s super motivated and improves at an incredible rate. And he has another freshman friend who is a lot more experienced and naturally talented at the sport who serves a foil (especially since they have opposite personalities). The captain is an extremely motivated guy who’s tough on his team, but he’s also incredibly protective of them ie. team dad, and so on. The cliches just don’t stop...

That doesn’t mean AO is unenjoyable, just that the unique elements in the beginning wore off rather quickly and I was left with another run-of-the-mill sports anime (especially since this show is 25 episodes and not 12). My ratings for sports anime thus far have worked on a different scale than most other anime simply because sports is such an unusual genre with its own strict conventions that I have no choice but to rate them compared only to others in the genre. That means if sports anime were judged relative to the rest of anime I’ve seen, they would be rated lower (by between .5-1 points) because 95% of them have the exact same plot and many of the exact same characters.

I mention this because as I’ve watched more and more sports anime, my standards have steadily been getting higher and are finally starting to match the rest of my rating scale. If this was one of the first sports anime I ever watched, it would easily be an 8/10. Now, as the dozenth sports anime I’ve seen, it’s only a 6/10. I am finally getting really tired of the old sports anime cliches and want more unique experiences. That’s why I praised Baby Steps so much for being different when I recently saw it. Looking back, I may have to re-rate some of the other sports anime I’ve seen, especially more recently like Days of the Summer/Fall seasons last year.

So, do I regret watching All Out!!? No, it has some good and fun stuff in there. Will I watch if there’s another season of it? Probably (even though I don’t necessarily want to) because I only avoid sequels if I give the first series a 5/10 or less... even then sometimes I’ll keep watching for the sake of keeping up (fcking K). Would I recommend AO in the end? Nah, unless you’re really interested in rugby.

ClassicaLoid [8/10]

I... feel almost ashamed to give this show such a high rating. Looking at MAL, my score is a whole 1.53 points higher than the standard deviation, and one of the most incongruous scores I’ve ever given - in the positive direction. In the negative direction, I happen to have some highly unpopular opinions on anime like Erased, Sword Art Online, and Mirai Nikki.

For a long while, I just couldn’t decide on a score. Normally, I know pretty early on what score I’m going to give an anime, give or take a point in either direction (or two if the anime pulls something towards the end). By the end of a show’s airing, I usually pretty much know exactly what I want to give it. (This doesn’t apply so much to my precise ratings, but rather the broad score I give on MAL.)

For ClassicaLoid, I didn’t know whether I wanted to give this show a “guilty pleasure, I know this show is bad but I enjoyed it a lot” 6/10 rating, a “fuck it, because I loved this show that much 8/10 rating”, or a 7/10 as the balanced alternative. As you can see, I ultimately decided on an 8 (more specifically a low 8, but an 8 nonetheless) in the end. Yes, I really do love this show, and I did find it just that enjoyable and hilarious. It’s one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen recently and definitely my favorite comedy of 2016 (over the likes of Sakamoto Desu Ga? and Handa-kun).

The thing about ClassicaLoid is that if I didn’t love the characters so much and find it funny, it would be a pretty bad show. It seems pretty polarizing because a lot of people think this show is stupid and hate it for that reason. In my opinion, it is stupid, but it has some self-awareness and never takes itself seriously. The other thing is the humor. If the humor does not gel with you, you will hate this show, and that’s also highly subjective and polarizing. I think the humor is spot on most of the time, with great comedic timing and gags. There’s also, I guess, the “gimmick” of the show which is arguably the whole point - the remixes of classical music in the vocaloid style.

Tbh, I’m not at all familiar with vocaloids and even so, I found the remixes to be mostly average or even a bit cringeworthy. They were the weakest part for me, but that only applies to the songs themselves. The actual visuals that accompanied the almost once-an-episode sequences? They were not bad. Sometimes they were even funny or resulted in hilarious things (Schubert’s fish adventure comes to mind), but most of the time they were a pretty mindless distraction.

One of the real strengths is the characters. I seriously either love the characters* or I like them. They bring life to the show with their varied personalities. It’s kind of amazing because many of them skirt the line between being one-note quirky archetypes and actually being kind of deep. My favorites include (in no particular order):

- Kanae, who is mostly the straight man character, but plays beautifully off the rest of the cast because she has to put up with so much shit, but has her own silly and selfish sides. (Also, she’s one terrible idol.)

- Schubert, definitely my favorite classicaloid of the bunch. I was kind of surprised because he was introduced a little later than the rest, but Schu is so genuine... so weird, yet so underappreciated in-universe that I think is the opposite irl. His unpopularity is what makes him popular in the first place because aside from being a catty bitch to Mozart (who deserves it, btw), he tries really hard to be a good person.

- Liszt, who is amazing, I love that she’s badass and reliable (the only one who pays rent) but also a sucker for love. And she’s basically a trans women, isn’t she? She’s not the only originally-male-irl classicaloid to be given a female body, but she’s the only one who completely embraces it.

- Chopin, who in my opinion is a little underused, although that’s partially justified because he’s always hiding. He’s definitely the most relateable, being a shut-in who just on the computer all day playing games or watching stuff (sounds familiar), but he’s also blunt af and has such witty lines.

- Beethoven, I initially had mixed feelings on him, but came to love him over time. See, he may be voiced by my favorite voice actor (Tomokazu Sugita), but at first all his jokes revolved around GYOZA!!! and being a gigantic fucking ham. It got old kind of fast, but thankfully he gets more jokes and depth over time. I especially love his dynamic with Kanae and Schubert.

*The sole exception is Mozart. Here is where I rant about Mozart because thaT FUCKING PUNK BITCH IS THE WORST, AND IT SUCKS THAT HE’S A MAIN CHARACTER WHO GETS SO MUCH SCREEN TIME AND EPISODES DEDICATED TO HIM. ... Okay, I’m gonna calm down. I’ll stop shouting now and explain why I hate this pos. Here we go: He. Is. Not. Funny. Or. Likable. In fact, the only one who is not funny or likable. He’s always annoying, unhelpful, sexually harassing Kanae, and genuinely a terrible person except when it benefits him. Actually, the problem is not even that he’s terrible, but rather that he’s terrible and gets away with it.

Compare him to someone like Sousuke, who’s a little similar in some ways, except... hey, get this, there are consequences (funny consequences) when he’s being a douche. Sousuke, along with Schubert, are the butt monkeys of the ensemble. Sousuke is even referred to as “tool” by Liszt and mostly everyone else. If Mozart was also a butt monkey, he would be a lot more tolerable, except he’s not. Mozart behaves like an annoying dick 98% of the time and the anime has the fucking audacity to try and make him sympathetic.

I also have to bring up his voice actor, Yuki Kaji, who is easily my least favorite voice actor, so maybe I do have some inherent bias against him. See, if Mozart were played by someone who’s not annoying as shit, then maybe he would’ve been more likable, but Yuki Kaji has the range of a triangle (he’s one-note). Compare him to Beethoven, who could easily be so fucking obnoxious, except he’s played by the exceptionally talented and charismatic Tomokazu Sugita. /sighs. Well, I think I’m done ranting now.

Finally, I want to cover the jokes. It’s true, at first they appear to be of the very “lol random xD” type humor, but I think they are deceptively well constructed. There were many episodes where I was laughing out loud and some episodes where I spent the entire time laughing my ass off (again, I bring up the Schubert fish incident). With a few exceptions, I don’t think the humor or gags ever got old because the anime keeps doing more and more with the characters, throwing them into crazy situations. The absurdity of it all is hilarious and the likableness of most of the characters supports it.

I’m probably one of 10 people in the west who is very excited and happy that there’s a season 2. Only two more seasons left until it’s back :D.

Nanbaka [6/10] / Season 2 [4/10]

I’m put in kind of an awkward position by this show... At first, it was going to be published with the Fall 2016 Roundup until I realized that there was going to be a second season. So then I delayed it for Winter 2017 except the quality of the show has gone down significantly between the first and second season. I wrote most of my thoughts for the first season already, so I’m just gonna talk about season one first by itself and then compare it to season two. Here are my thoughts on S1:

At first glance, yes, the character designs are incredibly silly… an anime podcast I listen to described them as “deviantart ocs”, (which is not too inaccurate), and everything sparkles like a shoujo manga for some mysterious reason. But aside from the strange design choices, the humor was pretty solid and characters are pretty likable. Not just the main 4 characters, but Hajime (my favorite) and the other prison wardens, and their fellow prisoners all have a charm to them.

The first half of the show is pretty damn funny, definitely a solid 7/10, but then the New Years competition arc starts and the pacing screeches to a halt. There are four whole episodes dedicated to this arc and they actually introduce a plot, drama, and some intense action near the end. It comes out of nowhere. The problems don’t stop there, unfortunately. I can forgive the terrible pacing somewhat if they kept up the laughs, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the genre switches and suddenly becomes a drama with a whole conspiracy plot about some of the main characters. Insofar, the only comedy anime I’ve seen pull off dramatic arcs is Gintama (but as I’ve said even that gets tiring after a while). Nanbaka is simply not as well-written as Gintama in either way, and the actual “plot” was a total let down compared to the humor which I genuinely liked.

This plot continues for another few episodes and it takes a little while to get back to the laughs. Humor and characters are the only thing this anime kind of nails. When the author attempts drama, it turns into another generic shounen anime. What a shame. If this anime stuck to being a pure comedy, I definitely would’ve rated it higher.

Ohhhhh boy, now onto season two. My worst fears for the anime basically happened. Imagine the New Years Competition arc I just complained about. Now, slow down the pacing another 500%, take out all the humor from the first season, and chuck in some boring ass cliche shounen crap. That is what S2 is in its entirety. It’s like they sucked out all the fun and hilarity of the first season just to “advance” the plot. I put advance in quotes because the pacing is seriously glacial. It rotates between plot exposition/backstory and “action” comparable to a Naruto filler arc for the entire run time.

For example, my favorite character Hajime gets locked in a jail cell early on. Then some of the jail mates (including Jyugo, the main character) decide to break him out a little while later in the show. Guess when they reach Hajime? If you guessed the very last episode, you’d be correct! Inbetween is just pointless, boring fight after pointless, boring fight and fucking endless exposition! Either the character talks for minutes on end about their powers or the strategy of their enemies or about some thing in the past or there’s a flashback/backstory explaining the characters (by the way, a whole bunch of new characters are introduced except without the humor, they’re all shit) or the plot, it’s just UGH.

Halfway through, I came to dread Nanbaka. Most of the time, I would put on the show and zone out as much as possible, although in reality, I spent a lot of time bitterly remembering how funny the first season is and how it actually had characters I liked in them doing funny shit and being likable. If the first season was a lot of fun but was bogged down by the action/drama, then the second season is the bog. Watching it is liking wading through a swamp about waist high. It won’t kill you and it’s doable, but it’s unpleasant, tedious, and you rather wished you just walked around it.

If you really want to enjoy the show, just watch season one. Even then I only recommend the first half and the last couple of episodes. AVOID SEASON TWO AT ALL COSTS. I am certain there’s going to be a season three later this year or next year, but hopefully I’ll resist the temptation to watch it just because I watched the first two seasons.

God, it makes so angry how this show could’ve been a fairly pleasant humorous affair but ruins it completely and chucks it in the fucking garbage disposal. Way to waste your potential, Nanbaka.

Onihei [6/10]

Onihei is... unremarkable, but not a hard watch either. It’s just... alright? Very very middle of the road, but I can kind of appreciate that because it didn’t require much effort on me to watch, and I could just enjoy it without thinking too much about it. It helps that I’m already into samurai, but I admit I was hoping for more initially. Once I accepted that it was just going to be a simple collection of samurai/pre-modern japanese stories, then I began to enjoy it more.

My biggest complaint is that there were too many episodes not focused on Heizo (aka Onihei, the main character). Heizo really was the best part of the show, and I liked it most when they focused on him and his backstory, but about a quarter of the show is about other characters that I just didn’t really care for aside from two or three of them. It’s fine that this show is mostly episodic, but because it frequently shifts focus, it is quite inconsistent because some episodes are better than others.

There’s also the fact the show looks very cheaply made, especially in those creepy ass CGI people in background shots. It has almost a B-movie feel, but not as much of the B-movie charm as I’d like. Still, it’s not really bad at all. It’s a good thing I like historical anime and that the main character is great because that is what pushes it up from a 5 to a solid 6.

Trickster [5/10]

First, let me just say that Trickster baited me - and baited me successfully with the promise of attractive boys and homoerotic subtext. At least it delivered and pretty much met my expectations 100%, but unfortunately, it did not surprise me by being better than I thought it would be. It’s kind of a pity because Trickster actually has pretty good production values, but it falters in more important places: the characters and plot. Both of those elements are pretty clumsily handled. If not that, then they feel cliche, like I’ve already seen [x type] character and [y] trope countless times.

The characters in particular I feel like could’ve made up for the plot, but the anime chooses to focus on the least interesting ones (yes, I know this is a book adaptation). The main character, Kobayashi, is unlikable from the start and even when you unlock his tragic backstory late in the anime, it feels too little too late and it’s another overused trope. Hanasaki, the character who probably gets the most screen time is... actually alright. He’s annoying at first too, but his character development is not handled that badly either. The best characters are probably Inoue and Akechi; the former barely gets any attention at all, and the latter’s subplot is so fragmented by the rest of the characters and their own plots that it gets lost.

In fact, what I just said may just sum up the biggest problem I have with this anime. The whole thing feels fractured, like the writer wanted to give all the main characters (except poor Inoue) their dues, but didn’t know how to tie their separate plots together elegantly or didn’t know how to give all of them development/depth in one flowing plot. With tighter focus, I’m sure it would’ve turned out better, but the cliches and their rather bland execution still drag it all down.

The production values do deserve some praise though. The voice acting is great as always and the animation is overall good, but the music and direction had some standout moments that really elevated certain parts of the show. Unfortunately, the overall mediocreness of Trickster put it at a 5/10.

#*#anime roundup #anime roundup: winter 2017 #winter 2017 #writing*

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