#watched a couple of eps of the anime but didn't stick with it'

[ot3]

finishing up fionna and cake... overall it was a fun ride but i really don't think it worked structurally. 6/10 show. i didnt think this was gonna be a long post but apparently i've got some thoughts. sticking below the cut

this last episode is kind of underwhelming... theres a couple of parts in this ep where they just sit and explain to the camera how simon realized betty was constantly sacrificing her own desires for simon and how simon wanted to put on the crown because he thought he didn't deserve to live. and it's not like those are bad realization for the show to come to but the show has very clearly established that it's intended for a more adult audience than the original adventure time, and so this kind of writing just feels really condescending when not directed at literal children. like yeah we could have figured this out from the writing, but. you didn't have to just tell us

i also didn't vibe with scarab as a villain, he felt super arbitrary to me. like they needed Something to be forcing them to move between dimensions, but i feel like scarab was an extremely meh choice for that. he wasn't particularly funny or interesting enough as a character to get to be one of the only people who showed up in every episode. i honestly think it would have been better if the existential threat these characters were facing was more of a force than a character, because it was already running so tight on time anyway it didn't really have the space to develop a good villain.

gary and marshall's screentime was another thing that i felt like is a huge waste of space. them doing their whole meet cute bakery au romance is something that's funny on paper but it's not compelling on its own and the only slight interest it has comes from our pre-existing investment in marceline and bubblegum's much more interesting dynamic. it didn't add anything to the overall arc of the show and took up time that could have been used to deliver more solidly on the core premise.

fionna and cake themselves were really cute but i don't feel like fionna's arc was as strong as it could have been. like ohhh yay shes come to love her normal world with all its imperfections.... obviously thats where it was going the whole time and once again. its not like i mind that ending. i just feel like they didn't do anything interesting with it. her character doesn't get to learn and progress as much as she's just marching down a straight path that we all already knows where it leads. i wish they would have just called the show 'Simon' so i wouldn't have to feel so disappointed in this.

adventure time has always been on the cutting edge of bizarre stuff in animation so the biggest let down overall with this show is how much when you strip away the Adventure Time coating of surrealist visuals on top of it it just feels like any other middling adventure cartoon. it didn't lean enough into the episodic structure to benefit from that the way the original show did, and it was too beholden on the episodic structure to linger on any of the parts that were actually compelling.

overall, the show feels like pandering to the adventure time fanbase, but in kind of a lazy way. Compare this to the distant land specials which I think were pandering in an excellent way. im not anti pandering by any means. The whirlwind tour through universes and characters that lifetime adventure time fans will recognize tries to come off as a love letter to the series, but instead just comes off as the adventure time version of that 'rejected ready player one theme song' video. remember farmworld? remember prismo? remember the vampire king? remember shermy and beth? remember Up a Tree? like. yeah. i do remember. thanks. do you have anything to say about any of this stuff or - oh. no. just showing me. got it.

its not someting i think i'll ever rewatch but at just ten eps definitely worth one watch through. theres some really good fun to be had in it and the art is gorgeous all the way through, it just fails to come together into a successful complete work.

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (30/06/24)

alright with this, this season is offically over for me and it was p good overall despite some worse than they coulda been adaptations

next week starts the next season tho there's not a ton of stuff starting for me right away

blue - finale/completed

Anime

Blue Archive Ep12 (Finale)

Considering how much money BA makes this was pretty disappointing, it could've been so much better. While the op looked good the rest of the show looked weird, like it had some filter over it. I thought maybe it was cause, since there isn't a simulcast, of some weird encoding of the video but then the op would look off too. But anyway, other than that the animation was serviceable but never anything impressive. The music was good ofc but it was just the game's tracks so that's to be expected (with a couple remixes here and there), and the voice cast was also good. The best thing about the anime was all the extra original scenes they had, which were all good and added to the original story.

It's been a week since the finale aired and this post and there hasn't been a S2 announced so that's unfortunate. As much as I like the abydos girls, the arisu story and eden treaty are just waaaaay better than this. I understand that it's an intro to the world and such, and it does a good job of that but I'd like to see those other chapters animated as well. Tho, if they do it, I hope they step up the quality cause they for sure can do it if they want

TL;DR: Good to watch if you're a fan of the game if not just to just the girls animated and the original scenes and it's also a decent enough adaptation for people that are interested but didn't want to play for whatever reason, tho there's some cameos and references that would fly over your head at some points

Girls Band Cry Ep13 (Finale)

well that was a good show. was balancing between an 8 and a 9 but after the finale decided to go with the 8. biggest reason for this is cause I have it in the same headspace as jellyfish so liked it more "so clearly it should have a higher score" but obviously they can both be 8s and I still liked one more, but anyway. Really good, single handedly made me change my mind about CG shows, tho it's an unfair comparison to other people since this was toei and they have experience with Precure and more recently the DBS Hero movie

I won't yap about this one too much like I do sometimes. If you were interested in the show but put off cause it's CG then don't and just check it out. The story is about sticking to your convictions even when "everyone" seems to doubt you, but also to learn to open up and rely on your friends and family cause you're, ultimately, not alone. The whole cast was really fun and had great chemistry, tho I feel like Tomo and Rupa coulda gotten a bit more development if they joined earlier in the season and despite all of Nina's faults that they make sure to portray correctly, she is a nice MC that you want to see succeed and root for. The music was really good, as you'd expect from a music show. A lot of eps ended with a concert performance with a full on MV included, instead of the ED, and they were always pretty cool

I said I wouldn't yap much but starting to do it so TL;DR: Watch it despite being CG, it's a fun show and well worth the watch. Wouldn't mind getting some more in the future but I don't see it happening considering how it ended but oh well

Oh also, I think I mentioned it in the first ep? But anyway, I love nari (the chara designer) so it was great seeing their stuff animated like this. I've followed them for years and years and years so it's cool seeing their progress and participating in a big project. Hoping for more good things for them in the future

Kaiju 8 Ep 12

Well that was sadly pretty disappointing. Now don't get me wrong, I know the series is pretty generic, but the manga is good enough that it elevates it above that. The manga was already very popular long before the anime even got announced so they wanted to make the anime a hit too, which lead them to playing it too safe and trying to appeal to the mainstream audience, making it lack the juice that makes the manga so good. We had little flashes of this through out the show with a couple scenes here and there, ep 9 (the best one), 11 and 12 were very good, and if the whole series had had that level of quality it would've been a much better show but oh well. I said this many times but the decision to have the OP and ED done by generic radio pop western artists was such a huge red flag, that completely showed their intentions, but I still had hope

Like if something like Jujutsu can become such a smash hit, despite the plot being so all over the place, due to the simple fact that they let the anime staff cook and make something different and unique, it should show you that trying to appeal to the most milquetoast anime watcher isn't the way and that's just gonna make your show enjoyable but forgettable to that target audience and serviceable but disappointing to your existing fans. Oh well.. it's a shame but it is what it

Anyway, as expected, they announced S2 shortly after the finale. I'll be looking forward to that and hoping it'll be better but I don't have much hope it won't be just more of the same

Manga

Kyokuto Necromance Ch10

the series hasn't been doing hot in ratings but this chap had the axe vibes all over it so I guess that's enough confirmation. it's unfortunate that this author has another cancelled series on his hands. I thought this one had potential, maybe not to be a hit, but at least to last for a while. And like I understand why people are not vibing with it but it's still a shame, oh well

[rappaccini]

ooooKAY unstructured arcane thoughts

first off, no familiarity with the game this is based on so i can say nothing re how it deals with the lore.

animation gorgeous. that hybrid of computer/hand-drawn we've all been wanting for years now is finally here, and it's wonderful.

you can really tell that every single frame is carefully thought out, and rewatches are gonna be gold.

the art style is a great blend of art nouveau and steampunk. the color pops, the light and shadows are excellent. exactly my trash.

..... i'm not a fan of the ost. all the pop songs feel out of place with the world. i also do Not like how every episode has to stop the plot to give us a music video of characters walking around to one of those songs. there had to be a better way to do that.

and the random bursts of experimental animation are cool, but feel like they're for a music video or opening rather than the show itself. it just distracts.

(not jinx's delusions though. they really captured it so well)

i really respect the plot for having the balls to give us a third of the season as prologue. it's absolutely vital and i think a lesser show might've skipped it.

and the themes are great in how they're implemented. subtlety matters.

and i think the three-act structure is interesting. once again, waiting a week for new episodes is better than binging. this is a textbook case of why: give people time to engage, and to get others on board. give it space, and it'll grow.

the characters are the best part by far. everyone's fully realized, nuanced and complex. no one sticks to their archetype, and all their motivations and actions feel completely earned. we have heroes who are douchelords and villains who are incredibly human.

mel really shines when her mommy issues come out, and viktor levels up when he starts microdosing magic meth.

i like vi and cait individually and as a couple but i don't Love them. refreshingly it’s simply because i find others more interesting and not out of any issues with their writing.

ekko's role as the character who lowkey has all the answers to main plot's conflict is great. i respect the subtlety of his inclusion and would like to see him eventually preside over the story.

silco. goddamn. what a great villain. it'd have been so easy to make him a mustache twirler, but giving him that strong code of ethics, and that connection to jinx, was such a brilliant twist. it'd have been so easy to make him her big bad abusive overlord, but making him a genuinely caring and loyal mentor whose toxicity stems from his own trauma and his misguided attempt to protect her.... brilliant.

and jinx. man. yeah, she's the breakout here and she deserves it. what a great character. watching her unravel into villainy was incredible. (also... jinx just is what margot robbie's desperately trying to get her harley quinn to be)

granted..... these writers really struggle with romance.

vi/cait is good. predictable, but good. i am not particularly passionate about them but i am interested in seeing how they grow from here.

the mel/jayce romance was not good. can't tell if they wanted us to think she's just using him for his tech the whole time, or if at some point it turned genuine, but it just felt ingenuine the whole time.

made worse bc both mel and jayce have more organic chemistry with other people. mel/elora and jayce/viktor felt so much more honest and i hate that it seems accidental.

also viktor/sky........ tf was that. dude never shows her any inch of interest, yet the show acts like it's meant to be. i like how her dusting affects him, what with his guilt, but the crush did not need to be there.

.... so i'm gathering that jinx and ekko are meant to have some kind of romantic vibe, and that the writers really wanted that fight to be 'look at how sad these two former friends trying to kill each other is' but i didn't gather that at ALL in the first three eps. he just seemed like that kid from your neighborhood you wait for the bus for together, not an actual close friend jinx had. if thats the case, they fucked up.

so if jinx/ekko is happening, they have to fix that big gaping hole in their history and actually fill it in with the shit they keep saying is there. if they do, i think it could work, though it’d have to happen in a way that doesn’t strip jinx or her agency.

alright yes i know ~the creators confirmed that jinx and silco are entirely platonic, and she acts that way because she's childish~ but that's bull. you don't have two characters have that kind of consistent interaction without intending some kind of sexual subtext. girl straddles his lap several times, they caress each other's faces, and they keep almost-kissing (not to mention the baptism scene where he literally gets her wet). it really skeeves me out that people keep insisting that jinx behaves that way towards silco because ~she's just so childish~. children don't do that, especially not with parental figures. like.... really? how is that better than two adults having a relationship with an age gap.

the ambiguity of that relationship is what makes it so enthralling, and honestly hearing the story keep saying "DID WE MENTION SHE'S HIS DAUGHTER" just feels like the writers trying to cover up what they made. own it fam: he's not her dad, he's her daddy. their relationship is fucked up, after all. it makes sense that it might cross another line too.

i'm in a rare place where i'm totally content with where the jinx-silco vibe leads them. it feels earned and complete.

speaking of accidental subtext, it really does seem like jinx and vi want to fuck each other. the jealousy jinx has towards her sister's gf is.... So Much. on god if they wrote them as childhood-friends-with-crushes instead of sisters you wouldn't have to change a thing. maybe they should have.

in general.... just about everything fires on all cylinders. the writing, the characterization, the pacing, the editing, the animation. this is how you fucking do it.

the best part i think is that this could have easily been another shitty videogame cashgrab, and instead they took the source material, deepened and improved upon it and did something entirely new. it's one of those shows that gives you faith in the state of storytelling.

uh yeah anyway. show great, easily one of the best animated series ever made and it's just on season 1, and i'm in a rare position where i trust the creators to follow through.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

People are getting mad that the show didn't make Renga canon, as a Free fan all I have to say is 'first time?'

No but seriously, I still don't understand why people thought they were going to be canon, Reki didn't show any signs of being in love

Seeing ppl seriously discussing whether they’re gonna kiss in ep 12 was really funny to me, I can’t even. Maybe they just never seen many animes in general haha.

Well, what can I say at the end. They’re cute and they’re very supportive of each other, which is great, but they also like don’t give you much. My main problem with their fandom is that they’re still desperately trying to put them on a scale with all the “high level” sports animes couples, if you know what I mean, bc they’re mains, but in reality they’re like if Reigisa was the main couple in Free!.

"They have fun skating together” is as deep as it goes. And now after seeing everything, I don’t even think they were supposed to have any huge epic drama/depth in the first place. Everyone just assumed it, since they’re two main characters and everyone automatically thought that they were you know, the couple. But that’s not their point in this anime actually. They’re basically a mean of communication to spread the message “skating is fun” to all the depressed ones, and put on them their pink glasses. 

Like ppl out there trying to make them them the rivals type of ship, when in reality they don’t really challenge each other or push each other to surpass their limits. Adam does it for Langa actually. Then they’re also desperately trying to make them the “opposites attract” kind of ship, but they don’t fit this, too, since they just don’t have such contrast, that’s all.

So I just don’t get why so many ppl are trying to make it into smth it’s not, instead of trying to accept and enjoy it for what it is. I’m personally still not moved by them, bc they don’t have the edge or depth of the couples I like in sports animes, but it’s like to each their own. 

Also like many are mising the point here. Classic Utsumi’s style, everyone in this anime were actually the victims of Tadaai relationships drama and some of them still didn’t get it lol. Like all of this shit was the result of their fall out. Not the aunties, not his dad, freaking Tadashi, who didn’t stand by him, when he needed him the most (not under him, Tadashi!!!!! that’s for bedroom lmao).

He was literally Adam’s only straw that he was desperately grasping to stay sane in this hell of a family, but Tadashi just had to go “I don’t have an opinion on this”, like I get that he was in his own “I’m just a servant” angst, but I was like dude, dude, is you blind? haha 

But what can I say, I love them idiotic.

Also like, no offense to anyone expecting Reki and Langa to kiss, but they still don’t give me the kissing each other vibe like at all. I mean, there’s a reason for their fanarts to not go there and stick to cheek kisses max. I don’t think it’s the fandom puritans fault, they don’t actually affect artists really, it’s just they don’t give off that kind of vibe, that’s all. Their relaitonships level is so pg (emotionally too), that it’d be out of place to me or like watching Mickey and Minnie kiss you know, when you go like...” ehhh, but do they really need that kind of thing? I think not” lmao

I just can’t quite pinpoint what feels so weird to me and don’t click. I mean, they’re in high school, right? Like they weren’t supposed to give off the two kindergarden kids walking holding hands vibe, but they somehow do. That’s also the reason this fandom sees them like that and miss the point that the “oldies” are in fact in their early 20s, bc on the contrast of their behaviors it looks like they’re 35 or smth lmao. And half of the fandom don’t even get, that Tadashi and Ainosuke are like Jungkook’s age.

I’m thinking maybe it was made on purpose, Reki and Langa being like that and all that Langa’s innocence jokes, bc they represent all this “rainbows and roses and kittens and mittens” and try to infuse it all around, but it’s just not for me haha

Maybe it’s cause I’m used to my faves actually not acting their age and being way too mature. Like I of course don’t expect everyone being Todoroki-like at 17, but I also can never get into those “ technically maybe just realistic high schooler” behaving characters, you know.

I’m just sitting there thinking like, but Rin and Haru were also 17 in s1? And I know all people are different, but I mean, why the maturity level difference is so drastic? I’m like did their break up made them emotionally old or smth? lmao