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| about time i drop it i guess twists are too predictable mc don't have an objective, making the plot boring and with no direction side characters aren't interesting enough, not even the main love interest. she feels too stereotypical. and they other characters don't really contribute to the plot. they are the type that the plot can go without, i feel. maybe they'll play a bigger part later on bug so far it's kinda boring to watch. the mc also is boring. his personality is so bland and average i can find like a dozen other anime character with his exact personality. nothing about him makes him special and interesting to watch. |
| Here I am loving both Shield Hero and this show. I watch anime because I actually enjoy it. The horror. Nothing wrong with a wish-fulfillment series that makes you smile from time to time. This is pretty much One Punch Man with magic. It's all about the OMG reactions of the people around him and the catharsis you get when they realize they're no match for him. Seriously though, anime fans today are so toxic. |
Actar said: Here I am loving both Shield Hero and this show. I watch anime because I actually enjoy it. The horror. Nothing wrong with a wish-fulfillment series that makes you smile from time to time. This is pretty much One Punch Man with magic. It's all about the OMG reactions of the people around him and the catharsis you get when they realize they're no match for him. Seriously though, anime fans today are so toxic. Perfectly fine to like a bad show. Doesn't make it any less of a bad show tho, just makes it a bad show you enjoy. I mean I'm also watching it, but just because you can constantly tap the right arrow on the keyboard and not miss anything the show has to offer. As a 5 minute episode show, I can even say it's almost decent. |
AiHikari said: Actar said: Here I am loving both Shield Hero and this show. I watch anime because I actually enjoy it. The horror. Nothing wrong with a wish-fulfillment series that makes you smile from time to time. This is pretty much One Punch Man with magic. It's all about the OMG reactions of the people around him and the catharsis you get when they realize they're no match for him. Seriously though, anime fans today are so toxic. Perfectly fine to like a bad show. Doesn't make it any less of a bad show tho, just makes it a bad show you enjoy. I mean I'm also watching it, but just because you can constantly tap the right arrow on the keyboard and not miss anything the show has to offer. As a 5 minute episode show, I can even say it's almost decent. Er... no. There's no such thing as an objectively bad show (or good show, for that matter). It's your own perception and interpretation of it that makes it bad or good. (If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were being patronizing.) |
ActarApr 19, 2019 7:35 AM
| Second episode confirmed two waifus. Plus, the MC-sama got praised throughout the episode. So this is now watchable. |
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| the ED is good and the pacing is fast |
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ttcchen said: about time i drop it i guess twists are too predictable mc don't have an objective, making the plot boring and with no direction side characters aren't interesting enough, not even the main love interest. she feels too stereotypical. and they other characters don't really contribute to the plot. they are the type that the plot can go without, i feel. maybe they'll play a bigger part later on bug so far it's kinda boring to watch. the mc also is boring. his personality is so bland and average i can find like a dozen other anime character with his exact personality. nothing about him makes him special and interesting to watch. The MC does have an objective. He is told by his grandpa and grandma to go to school to learn the common sense of the world. So learning that is his objective. As for the story and plot itself, things will happen. This isn't a story where the MC is active in doing something from the beginning, but a reactive story, in which the MC reacts to events surrounding him. Marvel Superheroes start like that, too, right ? From zero to hero. People who are nobodies but suddenly start acquiring super powers and must fight villains ( whether they like it or not ). Not all MCs have to have a strong objective from the beginning ( like revenge or something ). |
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
Actar said: AiHikari said: Perfectly fine to like a bad show. Doesn't make it any less of a bad show tho, just makes it a bad show you enjoy. I mean I'm also watching it, but just because you can constantly tap the right arrow on the keyboard and not miss anything the show has to offer. As a 5 minute episode show, I can even say it's almost decent. Er... no. There's no such thing as an objectively bad show (or good show, for that matter). It's your own perception and interpretation of it that makes it bad or good. (If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were being patronizing.) By that logic everything is subjective. Which is not, there's lots of 'objective metrics' you can use to assess if something is good or bad. For an anime, would be an amalgamation of production values, plot and character writing and so on. You'll be really hard pressed to find anything good about the show besides 'I like the premise'. Everything else is extremely average at best. |
Ehurvaks said: it's been said over and over again that he lacks common sense and thats the highlight of the show how the strongest magic user don't have common sense can surely bring about lots of hilarity. But so far i haven't seen anything that shows him lacking common sense to the point of bot being able to integrate into the society. He can converse with people just fine and make his way around the place with strangers and didn't do anything remotely stupid like someone without common sense would do. Not to mention he was an adult b4 he died so even if merlin didn't teachany common sense, if he has previous memories he should also know common sense and how to act like a decent human being.ttcchen said: about time i drop it i guess twists are too predictable mc don't have an objective, making the plot boring and with no direction side characters aren't interesting enough, not even the main love interest. she feels too stereotypical. and they other characters don't really contribute to the plot. they are the type that the plot can go without, i feel. maybe they'll play a bigger part later on bug so far it's kinda boring to watch. the mc also is boring. his personality is so bland and average i can find like a dozen other anime character with his exact personality. nothing about him makes him special and interesting to watch. The MC does have an objective. He is told by his grandpa and grandma to go to school to learn the common sense of the world. So learning that is his objective. As for the story and plot itself, things will happen. This isn't a story where the MC is active in doing something from the beginning, but a reactive story, in which the MC reacts to events surrounding him. Marvel Superheroes start like that, too, right ? From zero to hero. People who are nobodies but suddenly start acquiring super powers and must fight villains ( whether they like it or not ). Not all MCs have to have a strong objective from the beginning ( like revenge or something ). |
ttcchen said: Ehurvaks said: it's been said over and over again that he lacks common sense and thats the highlight of the show how the strongest magic user don't have common sense can surely bring about lots of hilarity. But so far i haven't seen anything that shows him lacking common sense to the point of bot being able to integrate into the society. He can converse with people just fine and make his way around the place with strangers and didn't do anything remotely stupid like someone without common sense would do. Not to mention he was an adult b4 he died so even if merlin didn't teachany common sense, if he has previous memories he should also know common sense and how to act like a decent human being.The MC does have an objective. He is told by his grandpa and grandma to go to school to learn the common sense of the world. So learning that is his objective. As for the story and plot itself, things will happen. This isn't a story where the MC is active in doing something from the beginning, but a reactive story, in which the MC reacts to events surrounding him. Marvel Superheroes start like that, too, right ? From zero to hero. People who are nobodies but suddenly start acquiring super powers and must fight villains ( whether they like it or not ). Not all MCs have to have a strong objective from the beginning ( like revenge or something ). The common sense, as mentioned in the manga and source material, is to learn about the world he lives in, and as you know, the most efficient way to learn about that, is to have direct personal experience, instead of learning only from books. Shin doesn't have any friends of his age nor has he been in a town or city until he was 15, since he lives in the forest where he can get food and water on his own hunting animals with his grandpa. Therefore, to learn more common sense, he was sent to the magic academy to socialize with people. So he is not at the school to learn magic or anything technical ( since he's already good at that ) but to socialize with other people and understand better about the society of the world he lives in via direct personal experience. For example, before he attended the magic academy he doesn't know that most other young ones of his age can only do lame-ass magic that can't do shit to most monsters, but now he knows that the magic power he has is beyond most others' level. |
EhurvaksApr 19, 2019 6:37 PM
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
| Shin is too OP man! He is one of those privileged anime characters, his background is powerful along with his association. The only thing not is his previous life, which wasn't that bad by the way. His powers are on another level than any other students and are considered to be a threat to other nations. My point is I love isekais that make a character work for their achievements, like Youjo senki, Slime, NGNL, Konosuba,shield hero and even sword art online. Even Ains is achieving something in that world even though he's also OP, so my point is I hope it has a good point in overpowering him like that. I also hope we will have a great entertaining journey with him and others, but these two episodes haven't gotten interesting for me. All I got is him being associated with whom and his overblown magic. |
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb --- Dr Strangelove  |
| Ya know when they say the MC lacks common sense, it kinda looks like he doesn't , cocky it what I would describe the MC. |
Kamiyan3991 said: 4kicks said: "Sicily von Claude" became "Sizilien von Klode"... Somebody ought to get fired for that mistake. Cotrary to popular belief, transcribing the names isn't that easy. シシリー -> Sicily -> Sizilien (GER), and "von" is from German. Actually, you never know w/o official transcription. Kanji sucks. Agree to disagree. Even with "official" transcriptions, errors can still occur, especially if they come from the Japanese creators themselves who aren't as fluent other languages besides Japanese. That's why we have "Altria" instead of "Artoria" as it should be in the Fate series, and Shirley "Medison" instead of "Madison" (although CMX did change it for their English release, but I digress) in the manga series by Mori Kaoru--just to name a couple of other titles. Also, there's that incongruity when seeing "Sizilien" on screen when I hear "Sicily/Cicily"...there's no n anywhere there. I can forgive them not using honorifics, particularly when they're being lazy and want to re-use these subs for the dubs/physical DVD/BD discs, but that I cannot get over that incongruity. "Sizilien" is not what she said, period. As for it being German....doesn't matter. If they're doing subs/dubs for the German market, fine...they can do whatever they want. But they're not. They're doing it for the English market, in North America, thus they should have used the English spelling. And finally; "シシリー" is not kanji. |
| Bokutachi benkyou 2: Magical boogaloo. high key did not expect to watch this whole episode with that kirito looking clown, especially how unimpressive ep 1 was. Also, Grandma's "test" of blue hair felt like it could have been really cool in any number of other series but here it felt sort of silly? Like what are you trying to prove? And I didn't really get why protag's use of gates/teleportation magic was supposed to be proof of his lack of common sense? Now there's 2 things that stood out to me in particular. First, the rule that no one is allowed to use their authority or connections and has to rely on their own skills would be a fantastic addition, you could probably explore that to find other kinds of antagonists other than the snobby rich smart kid who looks down on others-so why did that asshole kid become the entire source of conflict for the episode? When he shouldn't have been able to? And why was it the prince who enforced the rule, using his authority as royalty?! Who wrote this shit? The other thing was the attempt to go much more into detail about magic, like looking at how the enchantments are cast, or how protective clothing only protects what it covers, that was kind of interesting So this show has 2 details that could make for a really interesting magical school anime, but one it seems to have forgotten about and the other probably won't be much of a focus. and the entire cast is just a game of trying to figure out which more interesting character they remind me of. I probably won't make it thru ep 3. |
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| Prince August is quite an interesting character. I must say, unlike Smartphone, Death March, Shield Hero, and Hyakuren, Mago has quite the number of male characters that would join the MC's core circle of friends. Slime had male characters, but unlike Mago, they're Rimuru's subordinates and are not equals/friends. |
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
AiHikari said: By that logic everything is subjective. Which is not, there's lots of 'objective metrics' you can use to assess if something is good or bad. For an anime, would be an amalgamation of production values, plot and character writing and so on. You'll be really hard pressed to find anything good about the show besides 'I like the premise'. Everything else is extremely average at best. Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics. |
Ehurvaks said: Common sense is not a term you generally use to describe knowledge of this world. You can know a lot about the world and still not have any common sense. A character who lacks common sense would be far more entertaining to watch than a character who lacks mnowledge about the world he's in. The only way for the latter to be interesting is if u have really good world building and side characters developments and show it well (instead of telling it). But 2 episodes later the world is boring and cliche side characters are bland and stereotypical too and too many exposition is just characters sitting still and explaining it to our face.ttcchen said: it's been said over and over again that he lacks common sense and thats the highlight of the show how the strongest magic user don't have common sense can surely bring about lots of hilarity. But so far i haven't seen anything that shows him lacking common sense to the point of bot being able to integrate into the society. He can converse with people just fine and make his way around the place with strangers and didn't do anything remotely stupid like someone without common sense would do. Not to mention he was an adult b4 he died so even if merlin didn't teachany common sense, if he has previous memories he should also know common sense and how to act like a decent human being. The common sense, as mentioned in the manga and source material, is to learn about the world he lives in, and as you know, the most efficient way to learn about that, is to have direct personal experience, instead of learning only from books. Shin doesn't have any friends of his age nor has he been in a town or city until he was 15, since he lives in the forest where he can get food and water on his own hunting animals with his grandpa. Therefore, to learn more common sense, he was sent to the magic academy to socialize with people. So he is not at the school to learn magic or anything technical ( since he's already good at that ) but to socialize with other people and understand better about the society of the world he lives in via direct personal experience. For example, before he attended the magic academy he doesn't know that most other young ones of his age can only do lame-ass magic that can't do shit to most monsters, but now he knows that the magic power he has is beyond most others' level. |
Actar said: Ok then, give me a positive interpretation of Boku no Pico.AiHikari said: By that logic everything is subjective. Which is not, there's lots of 'objective metrics' you can use to assess if something is good or bad. For an anime, would be an amalgamation of production values, plot and character writing and so on. You'll be really hard pressed to find anything good about the show besides 'I like the premise'. Everything else is extremely average at best. Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics. |
ttcchen said: Ehurvaks said: Common sense is not a term you generally use to describe knowledge of this world. You can know a lot about the world and still not have any common sense. A character who lacks common sense would be far more entertaining to watch than a character who lacks mnowledge about the world he's in. The only way for the latter to be interesting is if u have really good world building and side characters developments and show it well (instead of telling it). But 2 episodes later the world is boring and cliche side characters are bland and stereotypical too and too many exposition is just characters sitting still and explaining it to our face.The common sense, as mentioned in the manga and source material, is to learn about the world he lives in, and as you know, the most efficient way to learn about that, is to have direct personal experience, instead of learning only from books. Shin doesn't have any friends of his age nor has he been in a town or city until he was 15, since he lives in the forest where he can get food and water on his own hunting animals with his grandpa. Therefore, to learn more common sense, he was sent to the magic academy to socialize with people. So he is not at the school to learn magic or anything technical ( since he's already good at that ) but to socialize with other people and understand better about the society of the world he lives in via direct personal experience. For example, before he attended the magic academy he doesn't know that most other young ones of his age can only do lame-ass magic that can't do shit to most monsters, but now he knows that the magic power he has is beyond most others' level. World Building ? Bland Side Characters ? Ummm.... I don't know about you, but the world building so far has been solid, compared to crap like Smartphone or Hyakuren no Haou. Why ? Because there are multiple countries other than Earlshide, which will be covered in later episodes, and at least one of them will play an important part in the story from what I've heard. Remember King Diseum mentioning something about the "Empire" ? Also, the demonoid mentioned of in episode 1, as well as the Empire, are both foreshadowing of what will happen in later episodes. Do you really think such things would be mentioned before as mere exposition and then not play any role later ? Nope, those are foreshadowing what'll happen later. The characters too are fun and full of life, from the teasing bro of Prince August to the Tsukkomi character of Maria. Also, 2 episodes are too little to judge the story with. You...need to be more patient, enjoy the comedy and characters, before the action parts come in later episodes. Trust me, I read high fantasy novels from many Western Authors too, and I had to read through a ton of wall of text of exposition before I get to the juicier parts, and it is worth it. Kenja no Mago.....is a million times better than Smartphone or Death March, both of which had no direction at all in its bland storytelling and nonexistent plot. At least in Mago, MC's group will have a strong purpose. |
EhurvaksApr 20, 2019 12:59 AM
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
Ehurvaks said: in Mago the mc's purpose is to learn the world around him. That's too weak to be an objective the least they could do is make it ebtertaining to watch. The characters are full of life? So far they are just stereotypical cardboard cut out characters that have nothing interesting about them that makes you want to keep watching. Their relationship with the mc is also too forced to be realistic.ttcchen said: Common sense is not a term you generally use to describe knowledge of this world. You can know a lot about the world and still not have any common sense. A character who lacks common sense would be far more entertaining to watch than a character who lacks mnowledge about the world he's in. The only way for the latter to be interesting is if u have really good world building and side characters developments and show it well (instead of telling it). But 2 episodes later the world is boring and cliche side characters are bland and stereotypical too and too many exposition is just characters sitting still and explaining it to our face. World Building ? Bland Side Characters ? Ummm.... I don't know about you, but the world building so far has been solid, compared to crap like Smartphone or Hyakuren no Haou. Why ? Because there are multiple countries other than Earlshide, which will be covered in later episodes, and at least one of them will play an important part in the story from what I've heard. Remember King Diseum mentioning something about the "Empire" ? Also, the demonoid mentioned of in episode 1, as well as the Empire, are both foreshadowing of what will happen in later episodes. Do you really think such things would be mentioned before as mere exposition and then not play any role later ? Nope, those are foreshadowing what'll happen later. The characters too are fun and full of life, from the teasing bro of Prince August to the Tsukkomi character of Maria. Also, 2 episodes are too little to judge the story with. You...need to be more patient, enjoy the comedy and characters, before the action parts come in later episodes. Trust me, I read high fantasy novels from many Western Authors too, and I had to read through a ton of wall of text of exposition before I get to the juicier parts, and it is worth it. Kenja no Mago.....is a million times better than Smartphone or Death March, both of which had no direction at all in its bland storytelling and nonexistent plot. At least in Mago, MC's group will have a strong purpose. Also why compare to the bad isekais and not the good ones? I dislike shield hero but i have to agree even that is better than this. One episode or two is more than enough judge a story. Just a few minutes of shield hero is enough to get me hooked (using shield as a weapon? Whaaa?) i can give this anime the 3 episode rule but i doubt the 3rd eps will be interesting enough for me to keep watching. So far the only character who i like is the blond friend cause he's not the cliche elegant rich good boy but is pretty myschievious and i like that. Even though he's blond, hes not a dumb blond. |
| I think it's .. good trash? Although, trash isn't really the right word for it. Wasn't happy with the first episode, but this one kept me entertained the whole time. It's really cliché, yeah, but at least this show isn't trying to be something it isn't (e.g trying to be deep or edgy). It's enjoyable as a (so far, don't know the source material) light-hearted Isekai/Magic story. Not overly great, but watchable. Also, Sicily is cute. |
  I will show no mercy for you You had no mercy for me The only thing that I ask Love me mercilessly |
Actar said: AiHikari said: By that logic everything is subjective. Which is not, there's lots of 'objective metrics' you can use to assess if something is good or bad. For an anime, would be an amalgamation of production values, plot and character writing and so on. You'll be really hard pressed to find anything good about the show besides 'I like the premise'. Everything else is extremely average at best. Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics. What I understand from that theory is that relies on the art itself as it's own intrinsic value, rather than comparing to other pieces of the same value, which is not something I personally agree with. Yes Kenja no Mago has it's merits if you look at it solely taking it in consideration, but the moment you put side by side to other adventurey fantasy Isekais, it quickly loses any appeal it might hold. |
Raikiri29 said: "Sizilien"... My eyes are bleeding https://youtu.be/oChghut7Gf4 |
| “SAITO! YOU NEED TO EXPLODE! FOR THE WORLD’S SAKE!” |
Oh yeah, my bad. But honorifics suck. Only filthy weebs want them. Just saying. |
| Great concept,cute MC,nice backround...cretin story.This is as popular as it is for oppai,weak and oversexualized female characters and of course hot,generic,powerful MC |
AiHikari said: Actar said: Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics. What I understand from that theory is that relies on the art itself as it's own intrinsic value, rather than comparing to other pieces of the same value, which is not something I personally agree with. Yes Kenja no Mago has it's merits if you look at it solely taking it in consideration, but the moment you put side by side to other adventurey fantasy Isekais, it quickly loses any appeal it might hold. You might like adventurey fantasy Isekais, but once in a while we need a magic school anime where MC and his friends attends school and just fight against enemies, right ? For example, I have watched Tensei Slime and Shield Hero, but I think both are a million times worser than Mago ? Why ? Slime's side characters don't have any personality whatsoever other than being NPCs that praise or obey whatever their boss Rimuru says. But in Mago, August interacts with Shin as equals and even teases or jokes with Shin, so they don't seem like bland characters like Benimaru or Souei ( have you ever seen any of those 2 teasing or joking with Rimuru or offering opinions to Rimuru that differs from Rimuru's own ? ), or just template Onahole-like female characters that don't have any background or individual personality but only exist to act as MC's harem members and brainless cheerleaders of the MC, like Slime's Oppai swordswoman ( forgot her name ) and the Ogre girl who are both too touchy with the MC. At least Maria in Mago seems like a cheerful teenage girl with her own individual personality, as is Sicily. As for Shield Hero, I don't watch it as it is too edgy for my tastes, and MC's comrades are all females, which makes it a harem which I hate. Also, the comedy and gags in Tensei Slime consists more than 70 percent of Rimuru's extremely annoying and unfunny Tsukkomis, but in Mago, not only the MC, but other characters makes their own Tsukkomis and form their own individual thoughts and reactions to something well, which is something that is not felt among Slime's side characters ( like as if Slime's side characters don't have any opinions or personalities of their own ). |
EhurvaksApr 20, 2019 9:54 PM
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
While i disagree heavily with considering this unremarkable potato show anywhere near the other two, I'd like to address some points. Both Shield Hero and Slime are both extremely solid shows. They have solid production values, they have good pacing most of the time, their world building is solid too, nothing spectacular. And while Slime has a lot of tropes, it utilizes them extremely well. I like to compare Slime with Boku no Hero Academia, where they both take tested and tried tropes and just utilize them very well, making the sum of it more than their individual parts. While Kenja no Mago, only talking about the anime adaptation since I'm not familiar with the source material, is extremely shallow. As I said I watched the episodes in about 6~7 minutes each tops and I haven't missed anything. Just by seeing bits and pieces of the Dialogue you know exactly the character's personality, what the dialogue is about and what It will result on. Even if you don't consider it bad writing, it's just a bit too predictable, like following a formula in a recipe without any bit of originality over and over again, it's just boring and bland. Besides the Prince and the Grandma, all the other characters, including the MC, have been shown to be extremely one-dimensional, they're cardboard template of characters that add nothing. They might as well be walking McGuffins As for Slime characters, some of them are definitively extremely one-dimensional as well, but at least they have reason to be so. See the Ogres for example, they lost everything and they had only one mission, Revenge. As soon as their revenge is enacted, that feeling got replaced by gratitude and devotion, so they work on those beats. They have a reason to act the way they do for their characters to function. And let's not even start comparing to Shield Hero's characters, they have some depth behind them that this potato adaptation can't even dream of getting anywhere close in even one character. I'd say the show takes one of the best elements from Index, that is applying science and logic to supernatural things like magic and special powers, except the anime doesn't lean on it at all, could be one of the strongest points. instead it's just lackluster by being extremely rushed. |
AiHikari said: While i disagree heavily with considering this unremarkable potato show anywhere near the other two, I'd like to address some points. Both Shield Hero and Slime are both extremely solid shows. They have solid production values, they have good pacing most of the time, their world building is solid too, nothing spectacular. And while Slime has a lot of tropes, it utilizes them extremely well. I like to compare Slime with Boku no Hero Academia, where they both take tested and tried tropes and just utilize them very well, making the sum of it more than their individual parts. While Kenja no Mago, only talking about the anime adaptation since I'm not familiar with the source material, is extremely shallow. As I said I watched the episodes in about 6~7 minutes each tops and I haven't missed anything. Just by seeing bits and pieces of the Dialogue you know exactly the character's personality, what the dialogue is about and what It will result on. Even if you don't consider it bad writing, it's just a bit too predictable, like following a formula in a recipe without any bit of originality over and over again, it's just boring and bland. Besides the Prince and the Grandma, all the other characters, including the MC, have been shown to be extremely one-dimensional, they're cardboard template of characters that add nothing. They might as well be walking McGuffins As for Slime characters, some of them are definitively extremely one-dimensional as well, but at least they have reason to be so. See the Ogres for example, they lost everything and they had only one mission, Revenge. As soon as their revenge is enacted, that feeling got replaced by gratitude and devotion, so they work on those beats. They have a reason to act the way they do for their characters to function. And let's not even start comparing to Shield Hero's characters, they have some depth behind them that this potato adaptation can't even dream of getting anywhere close in even one character. I'd say the show takes one of the best elements from Index, that is applying science and logic to supernatural things like magic and special powers, except the anime doesn't lean on it at all, could be one of the strongest points. instead it's just lackluster by being extremely rushed. If you say that Mago's characters are shallow, Slime's characters other than Rimuru are all a million times more shallow. For example, can you describe Benimaru's, Shion's, and Souei's individual personalities and motivations other than being cheerleaders of the MC ? They do not interact with Rimuru as equals, but as his subordinates. So you see them as boring one-dimensional characters that don't contribute anything to the story, since Rimuru himself can solve all problems on his own. But the friends of MC in Mago interact with him as equals and classmates, such as Prince August ( he's the most important male character other than the MC and will do lots of stuff in the story later on ) who likes to tease the MC a lot. Maria also has a very interesting personality. |
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
AiHikari said: Actar said: Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics. What I understand from that theory is that relies on the art itself as it's own intrinsic value, rather than comparing to other pieces of the same value, which is not something I personally agree with. Yes Kenja no Mago has it's merits if you look at it solely taking it in consideration, but the moment you put side by side to other adventurey fantasy Isekais, it quickly loses any appeal it might hold. I'm not sure if you fully understood what I said, but as Ehurvaks has shown, even when you compare this series to other Isekais, this series can still come out on top depending on what you value when it comes to anime appreciation. It just so happens that your judging criteria allows you to favor other series over this one. To make this somewhat easier to understand, looking at this on the level of anime genres, if you have a low tolerance for fanservice, would you ever give ecchi shows a high score? What if you like shows that have a lot of action? Would slice-of-life be your cup of tea? I didn’t think so. Already, from the very beginning, some shows have the odds stacked against them if the viewer didn’t already have a liking for the genre conventions. Are they objectively bad if they failed to appeal to you? Of course not. All you have to do is to replace "genre conventions" with "characterization", "plot", "pacing", etc... and you'll start to see what I mean. If a comedy is not necessarily objectively worse than horror, why should a series with simple characters be objectively worse than a series with fleshed-out ones? Just because the character is static or one-note doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t fulfill his or her role in the story nor does it mean that the character is any less entertaining, impactful or heartfelt. It also doesn’t mean that you can’t fall hook, line and sinker for a character, be enthralled by their actions or invested in where they are going or what they are doing. In fact, growth for growth's sake can come across as contrived and painfully unnecessary and clichéd. If you like change because that makes the character interesting to you, that’s perfectly fine and dandy. But recognize that it’s subjective. Same for plot, pacing, so on and so forth. Is it realistic or contrived? Emotionally manipulative or heartfelt? Is it good foreshadowing or painfully predictable? The point that I’m trying to get at is as follows: The problem is with the viewer, not the show. Yes. Frankly, it is your fault if the show appeals or doesn’t appeal to you, not the other way around. People cannot handle that and blame the show for being bad when it doesn’t adhere to their personal schema of what a good, enjoyable show should be. Many reviewers like to establish objectivity simply because they have to. Their whole job is premised on talking from a position of authority. They are afraid that people will no longer listen to them once the people realize that their opinion is just that - an opinion. But that's not true. Reviews should be subjective. The trick is to embrace that subjectivity. Many people find reviewers that reflect their own tastes and preferences to listen to and each reviewer will have his/her own audience. Does this mean that there is no point in studying all these writing techniques? Of course not. However, one has to realize that they are but one of the many different types of criteria used to create and appreciate art. Just because there's no objectivity in art does not take away from the effort that people put into mastering story writing according to one set of judging criteria. To use an analogy, does the existence of other types of swords (rapier, Viking sword, etc...) and forging techniques devalue the katana maker's craft? Absolutely not. Because different swords are valued for different purposes by different users in different contexts. The katana is but one type of sword. If I want cutting power, I go for the katana. If I want stabbing power, I go for the rapier. Having studied literary and media theory as part of my graduate degree, I've come to realize that the meaning in media is for you to decide, not anyone else. If anything, I would have thought that idea of democratizing art appreciation would be empowering. |
ActarApr 21, 2019 9:50 PM
| So much better than the 1st episode was thinking about dropping this after the 1st episode, but I enjoyed this one a lot not as rushed had a chance to understand more about shin and the others I massively enjoyed it compared to the 1st ep. Looking forward to seeing more magic in the next few episodes |
my guilty pleasure isekai trash is here, praise be Mmm.. maybe, it's actually one of the few novels / manga that I follow with that plot basis of my taste at the moment and it was a long time ago a recommendation, the anime adaptation goes well, I do not expect fidelity as long as the enjoyment is entertained the animated scenes that I liked when reading it I will give myself for sadisfecho. Nos leemos |
 |
Since I read the WN and manga version of this arc, I can't help but feel frustrated/annoyed with the missing small details. However, most of those I can brush off. What bothered me this episode was when Shin was changing the enchantments on Sicily's uniform. To be specific, nothing was explained about the enchantments in detail to the other characters. Yes, they speak Japanese because it's a Japanese anime. Yes, we, as viewers, supposedly understand because we're reading the subs and we can use translators to figure what the Japanese characters mean. But, according to this anime's world, only Shin should understand those characters/words. So it's strange how other characters mention how awesome his enchantments are when none of the details were explained to them. Grandma also mentions it's awesome but, as far as this episode was concerned, nothing was explained to her either. Just had to get this ranting out of me... the grandmother is an expert in magic equipment and she is the one that explains that she has, no one else can read the texts uses Shin, well it is assumed that at some point while she taught him how to do it he saw his strange writing. also the kanji only serve to write more in little space, said the clothes have a limit of 20 caratars, note that only using kanjis you can write a whole letter with luxury details in a post on Twitter 280, what I say what they see they are the effect, not the text of the enchantment. Nos leemos |
|
| The magic chanting joke bit was pretty damn funny |
| “I love heroes, but I don't want to be one. Do you even know what a hero is!? For example, you have some meat. Pirates will feast on the meat, but the hero will distribute it among the people! I want to eat the meat!” - Monkey D. Luffy |
| I think I'm gonna drop this. This episode was just the generic isekai OP protaganist making literal plot armour for his friends to protect them from a generic isekai rapey villain. Can someone explain the appeal of this show? |
Actar said: AiHikari said: What I understand from that theory is that relies on the art itself as it's own intrinsic value, rather than comparing to other pieces of the same value, which is not something I personally agree with. Yes Kenja no Mago has it's merits if you look at it solely taking it in consideration, but the moment you put side by side to other adventurey fantasy Isekais, it quickly loses any appeal it might hold. I'm not sure if you fully understood what I said, but as Ehurvaks has shown, even when you compare this series to other Isekais, this series can still come out on top depending on what you value when it comes to anime appreciation. It just so happens that your judging criteria allows you to favor other series over this one. To make this somewhat easier to understand, looking at this on the level of anime genres, if you have a low tolerance for fanservice, would you ever give ecchi shows a high score? What if you like shows that have a lot of action? Would slice-of-life be your cup of tea? I didn’t think so. Already, from the very beginning, some shows have the odds stacked against them if the viewer didn’t already have a liking for the genre conventions. Are they objectively bad if they failed to appeal to you? Of course not. All you have to do is to replace "genre conventions" with "characterization", "plot", "pacing", etc... and you'll start to see what I mean. If a comedy is not necessarily objectively worse than horror, why should a series with simple characters be objectively worse than a series with fleshed-out ones? Just because the character is static or one-note doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t fulfill his or her role in the story nor does it mean that the character is any less entertaining, impactful or heartfelt. It also doesn’t mean that you can’t fall hook, line and sinker for a character, be enthralled by their actions or invested in where they are going or what they are doing. In fact, growth for growth's sake can come across as contrived and painfully unnecessary and clichéd. If you like change because that makes the character interesting to you, that’s perfectly fine and dandy. But recognize that it’s subjective. Same for plot, pacing, so on and so forth. Is it realistic or contrived? Emotionally manipulative or heartfelt? Is it good foreshadowing or painfully predictable? The point that I’m trying to get at is as follows: The problem is with the viewer, not the show. Yes. Frankly, it is your fault if the show appeals or doesn’t appeal to you, not the other way around. People cannot handle that and blame the show for being bad when it doesn’t adhere to their personal schema of what a good, enjoyable show should be. Many reviewers like to establish objectivity simply because they have to. Their whole job is premised on talking from a position of authority. They are afraid that people will no longer listen to them once the people realize that their opinion is just that - an opinion. But that's not true. Reviews should be subjective. The trick is to embrace that subjectivity. Many people find reviewers that reflect their own tastes and preferences to listen to and each reviewer will have his/her own audience. Does this mean that there is no point in studying all these writing techniques? Of course not. However, one has to realize that they are but one of the many different types of criteria used to create and appreciate art. Just because there's no objectivity in art does not take away from the effort that people put into mastering story writing according to one set of judging criteria. To use an analogy, does the existence of other types of swords (rapier, Viking sword, etc...) and forging techniques devalue the katana maker's craft? Absolutely not. Because different swords are valued for different purposes by different users in different contexts. The katana is but one type of sword. If I want cutting power, I go for the katana. If I want stabbing power, I go for the rapier. Having studied literary and media theory as part of my graduate degree, I've come to realize that the meaning in media is for you to decide, not anyone else. If anything, I would have thought that idea of democratizing art appreciation would be empowering. I understand your point. Also saying that 'comes on top' from comparing the only two characters with a personality, that are main characters, to the less developed characters that are secondary characters from another show isn't exactly what I consider 'coming out on top'. I call that 'scrapping the barrel' instead. Also I do understand your point, every viewer has it's bias.The problem is that I'm not comparing Kenja no Mago to completely different things, I can literally compare to the exact same type of show. For example i could compare Kenja no Mago's manga to Mushoku Tensei's manga. They have literally the same premise, dude dies, dude keeps his memories as he's reborn in another world, dude uses his knowledge to become overpowered. yet Mushoku Tensei is much better in any department, has better pacing, has better characters, actually uses it's premise, referencing it time and time again to great effect. It plays out virtually the same at the start, except one is vastly superior to the other, there's really no justification for a show to be this bland. Now to be a perfect comparison we need to wait for Mushoku Tensei's anime adaptation to completely outclass this show, even if they rush that and do a horrible job, it'll still be superior. |
TAS_the_SPAS said: I think I'm gonna drop this. This episode was just the generic isekai OP protaganist making literal plot armour for his friends to protect them from a generic isekai rapey villain. Can someone explain the appeal of this show? Ummmm....that Kurt guy is just a minor villain and not the main antagonist of this show. He's like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter, just a minor villain. If you want to decide on dropping this show, then please withhold that decision until the brown-skinned guy with the silver hair ( as shown on the Key Visual on Kenja no Mago's MAL page ) appears, OK ? |
EhurvaksApr 23, 2019 8:06 AM
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
| Well, this is fun. I'm enjoying it. MC OP and not a pushover. |
| I love the coffee scene part where she says "oh i wish how he looks like" xD The uniform enhancement is very OP but we still haven't seen it working so i can't say but it looks for sure OP xD The blue haired girl is so cute, and the other one too haha August was the MVP of this episode haha, what a funny guy xD |
"There is no such thing as an Anime elitist. You watch Anime, therefore, you are trash by society's standards." |
| I'm really liking the character designs of all the students so far. Also, it's completely ridiculous that in a medieval fantasy world that their school looks like something from the 2000's and it's fucking great. This series is somehow so cliche to the point where I'm really liking it. |
| this is probably my guilty pleasure isekai |
| Stop crying Sicily, u bitch. Bad shows can be fun. The only think I don't like was the generic villain. Very, very evil. |
| BANZAI NIPPON. Nippon is the Land of freedom. Nippon is the Land of Peace. Nippon is the Land of Justice and Prosperity. In Nippon, we trust. We love Nippon, we love Anime. Anime love us, Nippon love us. 日本 |
| Silverlink: How cute you want Sizilien to be? Author: Yes |
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