March 4th, 2020
Scoring reference
Anime Relations: Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Air/Magokoro wo, Kimi ni, Akira, FLCL, Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World, Mind Game, Ihatov Gensou: Kenji no Haru
Here's a quick reference for my scoring principles, which may or may not answer your questions if you see me adjusting the scores of the titles I'd watched/read much earlier, or wonder how I can give something a glowing review but rate it a 8.
10
The cream of the 9s, the small handful of all-time greats that have managed to forge an unbreakable connection with me. Titles that have stood the test of time and multiple rewatches/rereads each. Something so profound it manages to evoke strong emotions every time, and actually becoming stronger on subsequent viewing. Outstanding in most aspects. Deeply cathartic experiences. My current 10s are listed in the relations.
9
Titles I have deeply enjoyed and ones that changed my perception of their respective genre or challenged my worldview in some way. Some of the best and most outstanding works with emotional impact heavy enough to leave me craving for more and making me eager to explore the metaphors and references hidden therein and the circumstances behind their creation. Sometimes a title from the 8s ends up here due to outstanding artistic merits.
8
Something I have deeply enjoyed and/or felt an emotional connection with. Titles that I'm eager to reread/rewatch with a friend or a loved one, or on my own after some time.
7
A competent work that made me invested, one that I felt was worth the time. Entertaining and above-average in most aspects but nothing groundbreaking. Not something I would necessarily rewatch/reread, but firmly above the point where I would consider dropping.
6
Mostly average but usually not boring, at least not most of the time. Usually contains some major flaws in writing or execution, such as having a strong start but gradually falling off towards the ending. Not something I would recommend to others, and probably not something I would read/watch if I could choose to experience it again for the first time. This is still above the point where I start dropping things, unless it's an anime adaptation of a manga that I've already read, and it's not a great one.
5
Boring and mediocre. Stories either bogged down by trite genre cliches, or stalled without progressing the plot, or fallen victim to idiotic writing decisions. I often drop a series if my perception of it reaches this point. Sometimes series from the high 6s or even 7s end up here when they start out acceptable but embrace complete and utter mediocrity after one or two unfortunate plot twists (e.g. Shamo).
4
Poor in most aspects. Incompetent in writing and/or presentation, cringy, a genuine bad time. Sometimes I finish these as a sort of a hate-watch/hate-read, but most of the time it's a drop.
2–3
Much like above, but offensively bad to even higher degrees. I usually drop these very quickly or don't read/watch them at all in the first place, so there aren't many of them on my lists.
1
Reserved for items so egregiously offensive that they are a net negative value to the world as I see it. If 5 to 2 were at least neutral in terms of value, just having 1s exist makes the world a worse place to be.
10
The cream of the 9s, the small handful of all-time greats that have managed to forge an unbreakable connection with me. Titles that have stood the test of time and multiple rewatches/rereads each. Something so profound it manages to evoke strong emotions every time, and actually becoming stronger on subsequent viewing. Outstanding in most aspects. Deeply cathartic experiences. My current 10s are listed in the relations.
9
Titles I have deeply enjoyed and ones that changed my perception of their respective genre or challenged my worldview in some way. Some of the best and most outstanding works with emotional impact heavy enough to leave me craving for more and making me eager to explore the metaphors and references hidden therein and the circumstances behind their creation. Sometimes a title from the 8s ends up here due to outstanding artistic merits.
8
Something I have deeply enjoyed and/or felt an emotional connection with. Titles that I'm eager to reread/rewatch with a friend or a loved one, or on my own after some time.
7
A competent work that made me invested, one that I felt was worth the time. Entertaining and above-average in most aspects but nothing groundbreaking. Not something I would necessarily rewatch/reread, but firmly above the point where I would consider dropping.
6
Mostly average but usually not boring, at least not most of the time. Usually contains some major flaws in writing or execution, such as having a strong start but gradually falling off towards the ending. Not something I would recommend to others, and probably not something I would read/watch if I could choose to experience it again for the first time. This is still above the point where I start dropping things, unless it's an anime adaptation of a manga that I've already read, and it's not a great one.
5
Boring and mediocre. Stories either bogged down by trite genre cliches, or stalled without progressing the plot, or fallen victim to idiotic writing decisions. I often drop a series if my perception of it reaches this point. Sometimes series from the high 6s or even 7s end up here when they start out acceptable but embrace complete and utter mediocrity after one or two unfortunate plot twists (e.g. Shamo).
4
Poor in most aspects. Incompetent in writing and/or presentation, cringy, a genuine bad time. Sometimes I finish these as a sort of a hate-watch/hate-read, but most of the time it's a drop.
2–3
Much like above, but offensively bad to even higher degrees. I usually drop these very quickly or don't read/watch them at all in the first place, so there aren't many of them on my lists.
1
Reserved for items so egregiously offensive that they are a net negative value to the world as I see it. If 5 to 2 were at least neutral in terms of value, just having 1s exist makes the world a worse place to be.
Posted by moozooh | Mar 4, 2020 12:17 PM | 0 comments
December 24th, 2016
How to quickly recognize a potentially good or bad anime on MAL
Anime Relations: Gantz, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Gintama, Uchuu Kyoudai, Hajime no Ippo: Rising, Gakkougurashi!, Berserk
Despite the popular argument that MAL scores and reviews are useless, there is a functional way to use them to rather accurately form an outlook on an anime, typically in just a few minutes. You just need to know what to look for.
This is a general methodology that I'm using; feel free to tweak the variables to your taste if needed. Mine are reasonably lax for things that suit my taste, and are very much on the conservative side for anything I am not likely to enjoy.
Step 1: Filter by rating.
Find an anime that is not a sequel/continuation/side-story. Make sure the average rating is ≥6.6 for ones that premiered before 2009, and ≥6.9 for everything afterwards. Don't bother with anything below, let alone significantly so, unless you feel really adventurous or want to explore some avant-garde short films or music videos. The reason is that in 2009 the anime fandom skyrocketed thanks to the proliferation of simulcasts and exported TV airings, provoking a considerable influx of younger users for every year since. A significant portion of these users tend to only use 7–10 for shows they finish and prefer watching ongoing shows, not engaging strongly with older content, leading to a massive skew in average score towards newer content.
Read the synopsis and genre/theme list. Increase the score targets by 1.5 points (so ≥8.1 and ≥8.4 respectively) if they definitely fall outside your main area of interest; e.g. if you dislike or aren't interested in sports, magical girls, shounen ai, high school romcoms, etc. This is to ensure that if you don't like the show after all, it's not because it was incompetent in its presentation. Anything with a score higher than 8.4 that is not a sequel or a side-story should be a safe watch in terms of not being badly made.
Ignore the ratings of sequels, continuations, and side-stories entirely. More often than not they have higher rating because people who dislike the original story would not watch the sequel in the first place; the higher the overall audience drop-off, the higher proportion of the core audience remains with the show, and the core audience is obviously more inclined to rate it higher because it's invested more strongly.
Step 2: Look at the criticism among the reviews.
Find one or two longest reviews with an overall rating of 8 or below. Read them entirely unless it's explicitly stated that they contain spoilers; read the opening and closing paragraphs otherwise; if the review is good (which is something you want), those will be the places where the author summarizes their biggest grievances. See if the criticism exposes aspects that are deal-breakers to you. If it doesn't, proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Compare to the source material.
Check out if the show is based on a manga and what the manga's rating is. Sometimes the adaptations are better, but more often they're worse, even catastrophically worse. If the manga is rated significantly higher than its anime adaptation, this is a strong indicator that the adaptation isn't that good. Some notable examples are Berserk and Gantz. If reviews for the anime aren't convincing, you can also see if reviews for the manga are any better in this regard.
See if the adaptation is complete: one volume of manga is typically adapted into roughly 50–100 minutes of screentime. Anything less is a strong indicator of content cuts or an incomplete adaptation, anything more suggests poor pacing or presence of filler episodes. This is not necessarily an indictment, but in many cases it means you should pay more attention to the manga instead, or at least understand the differences if possible. Some series like Hajime no Ippo or Space Brothers are only adapted halfway or so.
Step 4: Wet your toes.
If you can't form a conclusive opinion based on the previous steps, or if there aren't any decent reviews, watch the first episode or two and see if they hook you. Any director worth their salt will try to put their best foot forward as soon as possible to ensure the audience keeps watching, so a couple episodes are well enough to gauge your interest and the show's quality in general (don't believe anyone who says otherwise), at least if you understand what you're looking at. In fact, you rarely ever need more than one—it's just that some shows deliberately try to confuse you with their first episode (Haruhi Suzumiya, Gakkougurashi and so on).
Occasionally, the first episode will be off-putting, but the fans will claim that it gets better afterwards and urge you to continue. While very rarely this is indeed the case, such as when the first episode is anime-original (see: Gintama), any glaring problems seen in the first episode almost always betray the lack of skill or experience of the chief director, and when we're talking about the shorter series (chief directors are rarely changed or fired after a few episodes), it's an indication that the general problems coming from director's shortcomings will persist even if the content itself gets better. Not every good show's first episode is strong, but almost none of them are weak.
That's it, have fun.
This is a general methodology that I'm using; feel free to tweak the variables to your taste if needed. Mine are reasonably lax for things that suit my taste, and are very much on the conservative side for anything I am not likely to enjoy.
Step 1: Filter by rating.
Find an anime that is not a sequel/continuation/side-story. Make sure the average rating is ≥6.6 for ones that premiered before 2009, and ≥6.9 for everything afterwards. Don't bother with anything below, let alone significantly so, unless you feel really adventurous or want to explore some avant-garde short films or music videos. The reason is that in 2009 the anime fandom skyrocketed thanks to the proliferation of simulcasts and exported TV airings, provoking a considerable influx of younger users for every year since. A significant portion of these users tend to only use 7–10 for shows they finish and prefer watching ongoing shows, not engaging strongly with older content, leading to a massive skew in average score towards newer content.
Read the synopsis and genre/theme list. Increase the score targets by 1.5 points (so ≥8.1 and ≥8.4 respectively) if they definitely fall outside your main area of interest; e.g. if you dislike or aren't interested in sports, magical girls, shounen ai, high school romcoms, etc. This is to ensure that if you don't like the show after all, it's not because it was incompetent in its presentation. Anything with a score higher than 8.4 that is not a sequel or a side-story should be a safe watch in terms of not being badly made.
Ignore the ratings of sequels, continuations, and side-stories entirely. More often than not they have higher rating because people who dislike the original story would not watch the sequel in the first place; the higher the overall audience drop-off, the higher proportion of the core audience remains with the show, and the core audience is obviously more inclined to rate it higher because it's invested more strongly.
Step 2: Look at the criticism among the reviews.
Find one or two longest reviews with an overall rating of 8 or below. Read them entirely unless it's explicitly stated that they contain spoilers; read the opening and closing paragraphs otherwise; if the review is good (which is something you want), those will be the places where the author summarizes their biggest grievances. See if the criticism exposes aspects that are deal-breakers to you. If it doesn't, proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Compare to the source material.
Check out if the show is based on a manga and what the manga's rating is. Sometimes the adaptations are better, but more often they're worse, even catastrophically worse. If the manga is rated significantly higher than its anime adaptation, this is a strong indicator that the adaptation isn't that good. Some notable examples are Berserk and Gantz. If reviews for the anime aren't convincing, you can also see if reviews for the manga are any better in this regard.
See if the adaptation is complete: one volume of manga is typically adapted into roughly 50–100 minutes of screentime. Anything less is a strong indicator of content cuts or an incomplete adaptation, anything more suggests poor pacing or presence of filler episodes. This is not necessarily an indictment, but in many cases it means you should pay more attention to the manga instead, or at least understand the differences if possible. Some series like Hajime no Ippo or Space Brothers are only adapted halfway or so.
Step 4: Wet your toes.
If you can't form a conclusive opinion based on the previous steps, or if there aren't any decent reviews, watch the first episode or two and see if they hook you. Any director worth their salt will try to put their best foot forward as soon as possible to ensure the audience keeps watching, so a couple episodes are well enough to gauge your interest and the show's quality in general (don't believe anyone who says otherwise), at least if you understand what you're looking at. In fact, you rarely ever need more than one—it's just that some shows deliberately try to confuse you with their first episode (Haruhi Suzumiya, Gakkougurashi and so on).
Occasionally, the first episode will be off-putting, but the fans will claim that it gets better afterwards and urge you to continue. While very rarely this is indeed the case, such as when the first episode is anime-original (see: Gintama), any glaring problems seen in the first episode almost always betray the lack of skill or experience of the chief director, and when we're talking about the shorter series (chief directors are rarely changed or fired after a few episodes), it's an indication that the general problems coming from director's shortcomings will persist even if the content itself gets better. Not every good show's first episode is strong, but almost none of them are weak.
That's it, have fun.
Posted by moozooh | Dec 24, 2016 2:55 PM | 0 comments
May 30th, 2016
350 done.
Anime Relations: Great Teacher Onizuka, Ihatov Gensou: Kenji no Haru, NHK ni Youkoso!, Masuda Kousuke Gekijou: Gag Manga Biyori 2, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai., Usagi Drop, Mawaru Penguindrum, Psycho-Pass, Mushishi Zoku Shou, Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Bakemono no Ko, Gintama°, One Punch Man
It's been a little over half a year since the last large milestone. During this time I've been mainly preoccupied with ongoing stuff (I think the last time I tried that prior to 2015 was back in 2012 or so) and some of the popular series I have missed in the recent-ish years.
So, on to the highlights of the recent 50.
Mushishi 2nd season
As good as the first season, if not even better. A well-deserved 9.
Welcome to the NHK!
Yes, I took my sweet time with this. I'm actually glad that I did because that helped it affect me in a way deeper level than it would have otherwise. It's a show that you need certain life experience to truly get. And I have—either personally or within close enough distance—experienced the facets of life that make the principal cast of characters who they are. This made me connect with them way better than they would have some 5-6 years ago. There's a Russian saying that goes, "those who served in the military never laugh in the circus". Similarly, I had little to no desire to actually laugh at the characters and situations depicted in NHK, even though it's nominally a "comedy". Behind the funny facade it's actually a really, really grim show that manages to cynically subvert one's expectations, which is something not every director has the courage and skill to do. And the ending, though conclusive, if you take care to think about it in detail, isn't happy—it's merely not too bad. A very different show.
Gag Manga Biyori 2
Yes, the last 5 episodes have finally been translated. Holy crap it's been a while. :v
AnoHana
Yes, a forced tearjerker—I can't even remember anything that tried harder. Yes, dubious character motivations. Still managed to get me, so I guess it did try hard enough. :v
The Boy and the Beast
Miyazaki is a wonderful director whose particular approach to moviemaking has spawned a whole roster of talented people who can now do just as well, if not even better, now that the master has retired. Mamoru Hosoda is probably the person most fit to carry that banner. His latest movie The Boy and the Beast, despite having no connection to Ghibli, is a bona fide Ghibli movie at its core: kind, colorful, heartfelt, and full of magic. I'd say the final act is a bit lacking in substance, which marred my impressions of it all, but that's also how it typically goes with Ghibli movies after all.
Gintama°
Perhaps the best season yet, easily on par with Gintama'. Lots of great comedy and two well-done drama arcs. Nice to see Gintama is getting better at the drama aspect; the previous such arcs were extremely corny and failed to connect because no characters we cared about were at stake.
Great Teacher Onizuka
Something that feels kinda dated and corny at first, but by the time you breeze through the last episodes you don't want it to end.
Psycho-Pass
Was nice. It's not easy to set up a dystopian future action drama, but this managed to make it very plausible and didn't insult the viewer's intelligence too much. It's no Ghost in the Shell, but it's about as close as it can be without actually being Ghost in the Shell. The movie is kinda meh though.
Usagi Drop
I didn't quite get why people were frothing at the mouth singing praise to this series, but hey, it's still really good. I guess the reason I wasn't all that impressed is that realistically this show had a very simple cast and premise with a very simple task to reach by the end and very straightforward tools to do it. It just had to not fuck it up in execution, and it didn't—not even once. It would probably be worse off if it attempted anything more. And it's clear that it's done with love. Hard to ask more from a slice-of-life.
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
A sleeper hit of the winter'16 season. Amazing voice acting, subtle animation, very plausible adult-oriented story. The last episode looks very compressed, but with the relatable characters it has set up so far I have high hopes for season 2.
Parasyte
A surprisingly enjoyable show that can be described as the campy version of The Thing. Decent action, compelling story, and mostly non-shitty cast of characters (which is rather surprising for something as campy as this). It has some nice ideas about humanity and its role on Earth under the hood; the problem is those ideas have already been presented so many times in so many different ways in others shows/movies/books, etc. that I can't really care at this point. But hey, at least it wasn't stupid about it.
The Tatami Galaxy
Masaaki Yuasa is one of those visionary directors that never fail to put a fresh spin on a familiar concept. Personally, I prefer his more recent Ping Pong in terms of execution, but Tatami Galaxy has all the marks of a future classic: clever script, good acting, unique presentation, the right ideas, and, perhaps most important of all, the soul behind it all. Also, god fucking damn is the ending stylish.
One-Punch Man
Good music and animation, but I was a little disappointed at how the comedic timing of the manga was handled. The episode pacing in general was all over the place as well. Well, let's hope the 2nd season alleviates these concerns, especially considering its main story arc is going to be way, way more engaging, and there are several excellent characters that are going to appear regularly in it.
Mawaru Penguindrum
This is, in my opinion, the main highlight of this list. I went in with no particular expectations (other than the usual "it has a very high rating, so it's probably worth watching") as I haven't watched the previous acclaimed work of this director, Utena, but this show managed to impress me in a very different way than usual. It wasn't the story or the characters or the jokes or anything else like that; it was the way the complete package was presented. It's almost as if one took Tarantino's postmodernist fervor and flashiness, smeared it with Lynchian mystery and dipped into Takashi Miike's surrealist mixture of reality and metaphor with the visual artistry of Wong Kar-wai. I can't honestly say it was all executed perfectly, but the sheer ambition of making an anime series into an honest-to-god work of art is deserving of any praise it can get. Good art is never literal, and MP is certainly far on the indirect end of the spectrum (and gets a lot of undeserved flak for it), but what differentiates it from shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion is that all the symbols used here actually serve an easily identifiable purpose and subtly point to actual events or concepts (either in the show or in real life) with enough redundancy for an attentive viewer to establish a strong connection without dismissing them as random imagery. Think of it this way: where Evangelion was a relatively simple coming-of-age story in the complex canvas of mecha sci-fi and religious imagery, Penguindrum is a story about family love and associated values in the canvas of cute penguins and flashy transformation sequences. In a way, Penguindrum and Usagi Drop I mentioned above share the same major themes: what is a family, the familial responsibility between the elder and the younger, the personal growth under these responsibilities, and what it means to sacrifice yourself for the sake of your family. Both of them successfully teach us about these values, but one is being extremely literal about it, and the other takes the roundabout way. That's all there is to it.
Also, a shoutout to Spring and Chaos for finally making it to my faves as I decided to promote it to 10 upon a recent rewatch. It's so fucking good after all.
So, on to the highlights of the recent 50.
Mushishi 2nd season
As good as the first season, if not even better. A well-deserved 9.
Welcome to the NHK!
Yes, I took my sweet time with this. I'm actually glad that I did because that helped it affect me in a way deeper level than it would have otherwise. It's a show that you need certain life experience to truly get. And I have—either personally or within close enough distance—experienced the facets of life that make the principal cast of characters who they are. This made me connect with them way better than they would have some 5-6 years ago. There's a Russian saying that goes, "those who served in the military never laugh in the circus". Similarly, I had little to no desire to actually laugh at the characters and situations depicted in NHK, even though it's nominally a "comedy". Behind the funny facade it's actually a really, really grim show that manages to cynically subvert one's expectations, which is something not every director has the courage and skill to do. And the ending, though conclusive, if you take care to think about it in detail, isn't happy—it's merely not too bad. A very different show.
Gag Manga Biyori 2
Yes, the last 5 episodes have finally been translated. Holy crap it's been a while. :v
AnoHana
Yes, a forced tearjerker—I can't even remember anything that tried harder. Yes, dubious character motivations. Still managed to get me, so I guess it did try hard enough. :v
The Boy and the Beast
Miyazaki is a wonderful director whose particular approach to moviemaking has spawned a whole roster of talented people who can now do just as well, if not even better, now that the master has retired. Mamoru Hosoda is probably the person most fit to carry that banner. His latest movie The Boy and the Beast, despite having no connection to Ghibli, is a bona fide Ghibli movie at its core: kind, colorful, heartfelt, and full of magic. I'd say the final act is a bit lacking in substance, which marred my impressions of it all, but that's also how it typically goes with Ghibli movies after all.
Gintama°
Perhaps the best season yet, easily on par with Gintama'. Lots of great comedy and two well-done drama arcs. Nice to see Gintama is getting better at the drama aspect; the previous such arcs were extremely corny and failed to connect because no characters we cared about were at stake.
Great Teacher Onizuka
Something that feels kinda dated and corny at first, but by the time you breeze through the last episodes you don't want it to end.
Psycho-Pass
Was nice. It's not easy to set up a dystopian future action drama, but this managed to make it very plausible and didn't insult the viewer's intelligence too much. It's no Ghost in the Shell, but it's about as close as it can be without actually being Ghost in the Shell. The movie is kinda meh though.
Usagi Drop
I didn't quite get why people were frothing at the mouth singing praise to this series, but hey, it's still really good. I guess the reason I wasn't all that impressed is that realistically this show had a very simple cast and premise with a very simple task to reach by the end and very straightforward tools to do it. It just had to not fuck it up in execution, and it didn't—not even once. It would probably be worse off if it attempted anything more. And it's clear that it's done with love. Hard to ask more from a slice-of-life.
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
A sleeper hit of the winter'16 season. Amazing voice acting, subtle animation, very plausible adult-oriented story. The last episode looks very compressed, but with the relatable characters it has set up so far I have high hopes for season 2.
Parasyte
A surprisingly enjoyable show that can be described as the campy version of The Thing. Decent action, compelling story, and mostly non-shitty cast of characters (which is rather surprising for something as campy as this). It has some nice ideas about humanity and its role on Earth under the hood; the problem is those ideas have already been presented so many times in so many different ways in others shows/movies/books, etc. that I can't really care at this point. But hey, at least it wasn't stupid about it.
The Tatami Galaxy
Masaaki Yuasa is one of those visionary directors that never fail to put a fresh spin on a familiar concept. Personally, I prefer his more recent Ping Pong in terms of execution, but Tatami Galaxy has all the marks of a future classic: clever script, good acting, unique presentation, the right ideas, and, perhaps most important of all, the soul behind it all. Also, god fucking damn is the ending stylish.
One-Punch Man
Good music and animation, but I was a little disappointed at how the comedic timing of the manga was handled. The episode pacing in general was all over the place as well. Well, let's hope the 2nd season alleviates these concerns, especially considering its main story arc is going to be way, way more engaging, and there are several excellent characters that are going to appear regularly in it.
Mawaru Penguindrum
This is, in my opinion, the main highlight of this list. I went in with no particular expectations (other than the usual "it has a very high rating, so it's probably worth watching") as I haven't watched the previous acclaimed work of this director, Utena, but this show managed to impress me in a very different way than usual. It wasn't the story or the characters or the jokes or anything else like that; it was the way the complete package was presented. It's almost as if one took Tarantino's postmodernist fervor and flashiness, smeared it with Lynchian mystery and dipped into Takashi Miike's surrealist mixture of reality and metaphor with the visual artistry of Wong Kar-wai. I can't honestly say it was all executed perfectly, but the sheer ambition of making an anime series into an honest-to-god work of art is deserving of any praise it can get. Good art is never literal, and MP is certainly far on the indirect end of the spectrum (and gets a lot of undeserved flak for it), but what differentiates it from shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion is that all the symbols used here actually serve an easily identifiable purpose and subtly point to actual events or concepts (either in the show or in real life) with enough redundancy for an attentive viewer to establish a strong connection without dismissing them as random imagery. Think of it this way: where Evangelion was a relatively simple coming-of-age story in the complex canvas of mecha sci-fi and religious imagery, Penguindrum is a story about family love and associated values in the canvas of cute penguins and flashy transformation sequences. In a way, Penguindrum and Usagi Drop I mentioned above share the same major themes: what is a family, the familial responsibility between the elder and the younger, the personal growth under these responsibilities, and what it means to sacrifice yourself for the sake of your family. Both of them successfully teach us about these values, but one is being extremely literal about it, and the other takes the roundabout way. That's all there is to it.
Also, a shoutout to Spring and Chaos for finally making it to my faves as I decided to promote it to 10 upon a recent rewatch. It's so fucking good after all.
Posted by moozooh | May 30, 2016 6:04 AM | 0 comments
November 26th, 2015
300 done.
Anime Relations: Mushishi, Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki
Well, that was relatively quick. I hit 200 in 2009 and 250 five years later. This time it only took me a year to do 50 more.
The two most recently completed titles were both brilliant in their own way: Mushishi and Wolf Children. Can't believe I put them off for so long, especially the former. And nice to see that Mamoru Hosoda is at the top of his game. I didn't care too much for Summer Wars, but The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and this movie were both excellent and only a sliver off of a perfect mark in my opinion. I wonder if his latest movie is up to this level...
While I'm making a blog entry (and that happens all too often these days), I would like to express my profound lack of interest at what's going on in anime land these days. It's not that the quality of series or movies got worse, no—far from it, actually. The problem seems to be that the industry, much like Hollywood in its time, has absolutely gone into a "deep maturity" state. Which means that, while the amount of products released and the revenues are at an all-time high, and in terms of choice literally anyone can find a hefty serving of stuff that pander (yes, exactly pander) to their particular tastes, there are two figures going down year after year: the quality of innovation and the percentage of directors with a vision.
Companies that run the anime business are gobbling up each other in mergers and acquisitions so that they can become stronger and pour more resources into the next Generic High School Comedy #19782; they don't feel the need to innovate because the market is before their very eyes and they can tailor the outcome to the most prevalent audiences. Lesser studios can't exactly afford being the noble rebels here, because if they don't have enough audience retention/DVD sales numbers, it's all over for them. Yes, they can do what Trigger did with Little Witch Academia 2, but that business model is extremely unpredictable—you can't just do that with every title you come out with. So no matter what you do, in order to survive, you need to throw a bone to the masses of the people who actually prefer their anime to consist of the genre cliche-ridden, poorly directed, fanservice-laden drivel. I've seen once-promising series degrade into that, it was disappointing, to say the least.
With all that said, I've created a club that, hopefully, helps me (and others?) collect innovative, genre-advancing titles that would serve as the defining list of answers to a question like, "Hey, I'm not into anime but I know you've seen a bunch... Care to recommend something good in genre XYZ?"
The two most recently completed titles were both brilliant in their own way: Mushishi and Wolf Children. Can't believe I put them off for so long, especially the former. And nice to see that Mamoru Hosoda is at the top of his game. I didn't care too much for Summer Wars, but The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and this movie were both excellent and only a sliver off of a perfect mark in my opinion. I wonder if his latest movie is up to this level...
While I'm making a blog entry (and that happens all too often these days), I would like to express my profound lack of interest at what's going on in anime land these days. It's not that the quality of series or movies got worse, no—far from it, actually. The problem seems to be that the industry, much like Hollywood in its time, has absolutely gone into a "deep maturity" state. Which means that, while the amount of products released and the revenues are at an all-time high, and in terms of choice literally anyone can find a hefty serving of stuff that pander (yes, exactly pander) to their particular tastes, there are two figures going down year after year: the quality of innovation and the percentage of directors with a vision.
Companies that run the anime business are gobbling up each other in mergers and acquisitions so that they can become stronger and pour more resources into the next Generic High School Comedy #19782; they don't feel the need to innovate because the market is before their very eyes and they can tailor the outcome to the most prevalent audiences. Lesser studios can't exactly afford being the noble rebels here, because if they don't have enough audience retention/DVD sales numbers, it's all over for them. Yes, they can do what Trigger did with Little Witch Academia 2, but that business model is extremely unpredictable—you can't just do that with every title you come out with. So no matter what you do, in order to survive, you need to throw a bone to the masses of the people who actually prefer their anime to consist of the genre cliche-ridden, poorly directed, fanservice-laden drivel. I've seen once-promising series degrade into that, it was disappointing, to say the least.
With all that said, I've created a club that, hopefully, helps me (and others?) collect innovative, genre-advancing titles that would serve as the defining list of answers to a question like, "Hey, I'm not into anime but I know you've seen a bunch... Care to recommend something good in genre XYZ?"
Posted by moozooh | Nov 26, 2015 9:21 PM | 0 comments
October 20th, 2015
Tags
A self-reminder mostly.
!!
Emotionally impactful.
:D
Funny.
:D!
Very funny!
o_0
Notably weird/unexpected things going on. By that I mean something that is notably weird or unexpected even by anime standards.
boobfest
Gratuitous fanservice/objectification of females/other instances of typically non-classy depictions or hinting at female (semi-)nudity. Includes melon breasts, pantyshots/crotchshots, and all similar stuff that is typically neither aesthetically pleasing nor necessary. Includes satirical purposes.
MANLINESS
A loosely gender-swapped version of the above: overstated musculature, loud voices, bold proclamations like "I WILL PROTECT EVERYONE", "I WOULD DIE FOR MY FRIENDS", and other macho bullshit played straight or otherwise.
music
Has unexpectedly good and/or memorable soundtrack apart from the OP/ED.
xd-humor
Unintentional, "so bad it's good", weird, and otherwise unorthodox sense of comedy.
eye candy
Very pleasing in terms of art and/or animation quality.
obnoxious characters
Contains character that are super annoying, horribly designed, horribly voiced, or otherwise incorrigible.
no plot
Either doesn't contain an overarching plotline, or there's too little of it, or it's so pathetically executed it may as well not exist at all.
too long
Contains too much filler or takes far too long to advance the story in a meaningful manner.
too short
The inverse of the above: a show that cuts the important parts of the story to fit the time budget, or makes it too condensed for proper pacing, or doesn't adapt enough of the source material at a time. Note to self: I should probably put this on more titles.
wp
Short for wasted potential. Applicable to botched adaptations, failure to expand on a good premise, failures in pacing or other aspects of execution, or taking a very wrong turn with the storyline and losing the emotional and/or intellectual connection as a result. Note to self: I should probably put this on more titles.
clever
Refrains from holding one's hand through the narrative (particularly characters' intentions), poses interesting questions (not necessarily in open text) without dumbing them down, or contains multiple historic or cultural references important for understanding the context, and generally treats the viewer's intelligence with respect.
gore
Gratuitous amounts of blood or otherwise graphic violence. Can be ubiquitous as in the older ninja anime, or concentrated in short but gruesome patches as in LoGH or works by Yoshiyuki Tomino.
abrupt ending
Ends without a proper conclusion to the story arc (think some Ghibli/Makoto Shinkai movies) or wraps things up way too quickly, typically creating a huge inconsistency in pacing.
CONVENIENCE
Stories that rely on contrived developments to work: deus ex machinae, characters behaving in ways that advance the plot rather than what would be natural in their circumstances, etc.
bad adaptation
Botches up the source material badly, often in multiple ways. Happens to good manga more often than you'd want.
cat surrealism
Using (typically anthropomorphic) cats as characters in stories with a surreal premise and/or imagery. This seems like a very specific tag, but this happens more often than one would expect. Some of these are actually good, too.
my childhood
Something that I have (at least partially) watched in the 90s as a kid, on TV or VHS.
dobreau
A faux transcription of "dobro", the Russian word for kindness, to indicate a notably feel-good vibe.
bullshit
Either the story or its execution contains too many stupid or superfluous elements or ass-pulls to the point where they become insulting to intelligence.
boring
Something that is so boring I either end up dropping or fast-forwarding through it.
educational
Contains a lot of factual information, such as history lessons, cooking/manufacturing know-how, etc. Think Bartender or Shokugeki no Souma.
cringe
Contains something offensively stupid or otherwise insulting to intelligence. Refer to the companion tags.
almost sbig
Short for "almost so bad it's good". Reserved for shows that consciously or unconsciously pushed for that impression but never quite got there.
shyamalan'd
Contains a (typically idiotic) plot twist in the style of M. Night Shyamalan (succinct example).
!!
Emotionally impactful.
:D
Funny.
:D!
Very funny!
o_0
Notably weird/unexpected things going on. By that I mean something that is notably weird or unexpected even by anime standards.
boobfest
Gratuitous fanservice/objectification of females/other instances of typically non-classy depictions or hinting at female (semi-)nudity. Includes melon breasts, pantyshots/crotchshots, and all similar stuff that is typically neither aesthetically pleasing nor necessary. Includes satirical purposes.
MANLINESS
A loosely gender-swapped version of the above: overstated musculature, loud voices, bold proclamations like "I WILL PROTECT EVERYONE", "I WOULD DIE FOR MY FRIENDS", and other macho bullshit played straight or otherwise.
music
Has unexpectedly good and/or memorable soundtrack apart from the OP/ED.
xd-humor
Unintentional, "so bad it's good", weird, and otherwise unorthodox sense of comedy.
eye candy
Very pleasing in terms of art and/or animation quality.
obnoxious characters
Contains character that are super annoying, horribly designed, horribly voiced, or otherwise incorrigible.
no plot
Either doesn't contain an overarching plotline, or there's too little of it, or it's so pathetically executed it may as well not exist at all.
too long
Contains too much filler or takes far too long to advance the story in a meaningful manner.
too short
The inverse of the above: a show that cuts the important parts of the story to fit the time budget, or makes it too condensed for proper pacing, or doesn't adapt enough of the source material at a time. Note to self: I should probably put this on more titles.
wp
Short for wasted potential. Applicable to botched adaptations, failure to expand on a good premise, failures in pacing or other aspects of execution, or taking a very wrong turn with the storyline and losing the emotional and/or intellectual connection as a result. Note to self: I should probably put this on more titles.
clever
Refrains from holding one's hand through the narrative (particularly characters' intentions), poses interesting questions (not necessarily in open text) without dumbing them down, or contains multiple historic or cultural references important for understanding the context, and generally treats the viewer's intelligence with respect.
gore
Gratuitous amounts of blood or otherwise graphic violence. Can be ubiquitous as in the older ninja anime, or concentrated in short but gruesome patches as in LoGH or works by Yoshiyuki Tomino.
abrupt ending
Ends without a proper conclusion to the story arc (think some Ghibli/Makoto Shinkai movies) or wraps things up way too quickly, typically creating a huge inconsistency in pacing.
CONVENIENCE
Stories that rely on contrived developments to work: deus ex machinae, characters behaving in ways that advance the plot rather than what would be natural in their circumstances, etc.
bad adaptation
Botches up the source material badly, often in multiple ways. Happens to good manga more often than you'd want.
cat surrealism
Using (typically anthropomorphic) cats as characters in stories with a surreal premise and/or imagery. This seems like a very specific tag, but this happens more often than one would expect. Some of these are actually good, too.
my childhood
Something that I have (at least partially) watched in the 90s as a kid, on TV or VHS.
dobreau
A faux transcription of "dobro", the Russian word for kindness, to indicate a notably feel-good vibe.
bullshit
Either the story or its execution contains too many stupid or superfluous elements or ass-pulls to the point where they become insulting to intelligence.
boring
Something that is so boring I either end up dropping or fast-forwarding through it.
educational
Contains a lot of factual information, such as history lessons, cooking/manufacturing know-how, etc. Think Bartender or Shokugeki no Souma.
cringe
Contains something offensively stupid or otherwise insulting to intelligence. Refer to the companion tags.
almost sbig
Short for "almost so bad it's good". Reserved for shows that consciously or unconsciously pushed for that impression but never quite got there.
shyamalan'd
Contains a (typically idiotic) plot twist in the style of M. Night Shyamalan (succinct example).
Posted by moozooh | Oct 20, 2015 5:59 PM | 0 comments
October 13th, 2015
My problem with LotGH
Anime Relations: Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These - Kaikou
Never has a show so deserving of a perfect 10 missed it so nearly, so... annoyingly. It's not even about something major, it's the comparatively little things that all creep up and make you feel it should've been different. That annoyance, that sense of incompleteness is what makes it miss the perfect mark. But I want to elaborate, even if only for myself (not like anyone else would read this). In any case, *spoiler alert*.
1. It should have been longer. Surprisingly, despite the already slow pace, by the end of it I felt like it didn't have enough time to flesh out some of the events and relationships. For instance, Julian and Karin's relationship is treated very matter-of-factly. I know on-screen romantic chemistry isn't necessarily anime's forte, but compared to Hilda and Frederica, who, in contrast, have at least spent hours of onscreen time together with their respective husbands-to-be, we are to take these young people's feelings for each other almost for granted. That's not the only example, of course (the entire last quarter of the anime seems rushed and in-your-face compared to the rest), but it's probably the most jarring one.
2. The ending feels like a running-out-of-ideas wrap-up. The most obvious proof of that is the last ~15 episodes or so every single character whom the audience had been led to perceive as an antagonistic or unlikable is killed off promptly. Rubinsky? Brain tumor out of nowhere. Oberstein? Voluntary terrorist attack bait. Lang? Executed for treason, or whatever the official reason was. Trunicht? Straight-up killed because Reuenthal decided so. De Villier? Died in an attack he didn't even have to partake in. It's kind of annoying that pretty much every character you've grown to dislike is disposed of in such a short time frame and in most of these cases without any kind of a emotionally satisfying setup. And that's also considering how many protagonists from both sides die in this time frame as well! What is this, Victory Gundam or something? Another example of this is that the Trunicht/Terraists setup never pays off. It is never investigated, never bears on-screen consequence, and in the end either party is disposed of separately.
3. The religious order angle was executed shoddily. Really, LotGH is almost as far from cartoony as a cartoon gets, but the way Terraists are portrayed is extremely shallow, a caricature in an otherwise very serious work that takes itself as such. I understand that when you have two major sides to the story's main conflict and both of those are effectively portrayed as protagonists—characters that you care for, ones that go through an arc, and have the audience connect with them—it's going to be hard to deal with the lack of a strong permanent antagonist presence. But the way Terraists are presented is borderline insulting—not just to the viewer, but to the rest of the work and its characters.
4. The whole "Reinhard succumbs to illness and dies" idea reeks of plot convenience. It was rather aggravating to see Reinhard's character treated this way. Moreover, it was also a disservice towards the Iserlohn forces' opportunity to show their tactical brilliance. The accomplishment of their victory over Reinhard in the decisive battle is undermined by the fact that the man wasn't at his full capacity to resist them. The illness itself is never set up in any meaningful way, either; all we get is a bullshit after-the-fact statement to the extent of, "well, he burned through his body's resources to fuel his ambition yap yap yadda yadda". I should say, Reinhard's character is actually treated very poorly in the series. Consider that he had always wanted to defeat his enemies in battle, and virtually all of them he actually cared about—Kaiser Friedrich, Yang Wen-li, Reuenthal—were defeated by somebody else. Feelsbadman.
5. Pacing is generally inconsistent. I understand the genre of space opera and how it is expected to depict time spans of years and sometimes even decades. What I don't understand is how in LotGH, the story tends to take its time showing us inconsequential things (such as an episode devoted entirely to marquise Beenemünde who has zero relevance afterwards) then proceeds skipping months at a time, again, treating everything that happens very matter-of-factly. Oh, there's a terrorist attack. Oh, there's a rebellion. Oh, there's this stuff. What have you been doing these months? If it's important, why? What lead to this event? Why does it take so much time to dispose of Terraists, who have been known as a very dangerous terrorist organization for years, and then it's over in like two days? That's seriously bullshit.
6. Many characters are killed off when it's convenient for the plot, before the audience has any chance to emotionally connect with them. Examples of deaths that were handled more-or-less well in this regard: Ivan Konev, Schönkopf, Reuenthal, Bewcock, Yang, Kircheis. We knew and cared about these characters, and their demise carried a clear emotional impact. Examples of deaths that didn't make much sense: Silberberch, Friedrich IV, Trunicht, Lapp (fixed in the movie), Jessica Edwards (partly fixed in the movie). Of these, Lapp and Silverberch had had barely 10 minutes of screen time before their death; why should we care? Kaiser Friedrich died offscreen before Reinhard could execute a coup. We never truly understand Jessica's importance to Yang and are instead lead to believe she just has been.
Hopefully the upcoming series will fix some of these problems, because I would very much like to give LotGH a 10 in some form.
1. It should have been longer. Surprisingly, despite the already slow pace, by the end of it I felt like it didn't have enough time to flesh out some of the events and relationships. For instance, Julian and Karin's relationship is treated very matter-of-factly. I know on-screen romantic chemistry isn't necessarily anime's forte, but compared to Hilda and Frederica, who, in contrast, have at least spent hours of onscreen time together with their respective husbands-to-be, we are to take these young people's feelings for each other almost for granted. That's not the only example, of course (the entire last quarter of the anime seems rushed and in-your-face compared to the rest), but it's probably the most jarring one.
2. The ending feels like a running-out-of-ideas wrap-up. The most obvious proof of that is the last ~15 episodes or so every single character whom the audience had been led to perceive as an antagonistic or unlikable is killed off promptly. Rubinsky? Brain tumor out of nowhere. Oberstein? Voluntary terrorist attack bait. Lang? Executed for treason, or whatever the official reason was. Trunicht? Straight-up killed because Reuenthal decided so. De Villier? Died in an attack he didn't even have to partake in. It's kind of annoying that pretty much every character you've grown to dislike is disposed of in such a short time frame and in most of these cases without any kind of a emotionally satisfying setup. And that's also considering how many protagonists from both sides die in this time frame as well! What is this, Victory Gundam or something? Another example of this is that the Trunicht/Terraists setup never pays off. It is never investigated, never bears on-screen consequence, and in the end either party is disposed of separately.
3. The religious order angle was executed shoddily. Really, LotGH is almost as far from cartoony as a cartoon gets, but the way Terraists are portrayed is extremely shallow, a caricature in an otherwise very serious work that takes itself as such. I understand that when you have two major sides to the story's main conflict and both of those are effectively portrayed as protagonists—characters that you care for, ones that go through an arc, and have the audience connect with them—it's going to be hard to deal with the lack of a strong permanent antagonist presence. But the way Terraists are presented is borderline insulting—not just to the viewer, but to the rest of the work and its characters.
4. The whole "Reinhard succumbs to illness and dies" idea reeks of plot convenience. It was rather aggravating to see Reinhard's character treated this way. Moreover, it was also a disservice towards the Iserlohn forces' opportunity to show their tactical brilliance. The accomplishment of their victory over Reinhard in the decisive battle is undermined by the fact that the man wasn't at his full capacity to resist them. The illness itself is never set up in any meaningful way, either; all we get is a bullshit after-the-fact statement to the extent of, "well, he burned through his body's resources to fuel his ambition yap yap yadda yadda". I should say, Reinhard's character is actually treated very poorly in the series. Consider that he had always wanted to defeat his enemies in battle, and virtually all of them he actually cared about—Kaiser Friedrich, Yang Wen-li, Reuenthal—were defeated by somebody else. Feelsbadman.
5. Pacing is generally inconsistent. I understand the genre of space opera and how it is expected to depict time spans of years and sometimes even decades. What I don't understand is how in LotGH, the story tends to take its time showing us inconsequential things (such as an episode devoted entirely to marquise Beenemünde who has zero relevance afterwards) then proceeds skipping months at a time, again, treating everything that happens very matter-of-factly. Oh, there's a terrorist attack. Oh, there's a rebellion. Oh, there's this stuff. What have you been doing these months? If it's important, why? What lead to this event? Why does it take so much time to dispose of Terraists, who have been known as a very dangerous terrorist organization for years, and then it's over in like two days? That's seriously bullshit.
6. Many characters are killed off when it's convenient for the plot, before the audience has any chance to emotionally connect with them. Examples of deaths that were handled more-or-less well in this regard: Ivan Konev, Schönkopf, Reuenthal, Bewcock, Yang, Kircheis. We knew and cared about these characters, and their demise carried a clear emotional impact. Examples of deaths that didn't make much sense: Silberberch, Friedrich IV, Trunicht, Lapp (fixed in the movie), Jessica Edwards (partly fixed in the movie). Of these, Lapp and Silverberch had had barely 10 minutes of screen time before their death; why should we care? Kaiser Friedrich died offscreen before Reinhard could execute a coup. We never truly understand Jessica's importance to Yang and are instead lead to believe she just has been.
Hopefully the upcoming series will fix some of these problems, because I would very much like to give LotGH a 10 in some form.
Posted by moozooh | Oct 13, 2015 5:33 AM | 0 comments