I don't accept random friend requests without a reason.
Eh, usually. Feel free to talk if you'd like!
...even if I'm slow to respond.
Jesus loves you!
Hi! I make comics, working towards a ridiculous lifelong goal of completing the best anime, video games, and manga!
And I guess we all love anime, don't we? Now we got something in common!
I'm looking for the best stories. I know that it's different for everybody, and every thing.
Send me a recommendation if you think it's something special! I'll be happy!
I'm bias for surreal and experimental anime that tries to capture emotion and metaphorical concepts.
Also anything retro, so I guess there's that.
Oatmeal is the best! You can put things like garlic powder and parmesan cheese or soy sauce in it! That oatmeal, my friend, is the best oatmeal. I'd argue it's better savory than sweet! I would never lie about this.
Thanks for readin', champ!
5x5'ꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡɪɴɢʟʏ ᴡᴀꜱᴛᴇᴅ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ Video Games
Row 1- Mother 3, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, The 25th Ward, The House in Fata Morgana
Row 2- Killer7, Faith: The Unholy Trinity, Moonlight Syndrome, Flower, Sun, and Rain, Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2
Row 3- Chrono Cross, Xenogears, The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, Chaos;Head NoAH, NieR: Automata
Row 4- We Happy Few, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Disco Elysium, Silent Hill 2, Who's Lila?
Row 5- Paper Mario, Psychonauts, moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Final Fantasy VII
ᴛᴏᴘ ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ
This is, to me, the pinnacle of all my years of looking for the best. This is the best recommendations I got for ya! So, enjoy, I guess?
All game titles are linked with a full game playthrough on Youtube. :D
1. The 25th Ward: The Silver Case (Visual Novel) by Suda51 (2005)
2. The World is Mine (Manga) by Hideki Arai (1997)
3. Trigun Maximum (Manga) by Ysuhiro Nightow (1997)
4. NANA (Manga) by Ai Yazawa (2000)
5. Mother 3 (Video Game) by Shigesato Itoi (2006)
I would consider anything on my list with a score of 8 or more on here or on Backloggd as essential for existence.
ɢᴏᴀʟꜱ
Art Projects:
RPG Script
VN Script
Miscellaneous Goals:
Customize MAL Page
2025 Anime Goals List
List Re-Scoring
Finish Anime Continuations
ʀᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ ʀᴀᴍʙʟɪɴɢꜱ
I guess I write a lot of notes about random things to myself and I figured I would put them here? Hey, if I'm gonna waste time, might as well show it to everyone.
Feel free to not read this.
I noticed a lot of shounen manga have characters dominantly fill small panels. Small panels are usually used for faster paced action, and displaying snippets of movement close to each other to give the eye a clear and animated progression through the page. (This usually creates more vertical panels, where its width is shortened) These panels are indeed great for fast movement, but they remove emotion from the page! Well, besides the character's expression themself. But if you're trying to create an emotional panel, making the panel wide is ALWAYS how authors do this. Having horizontal space on the side of characters suddenly makes them feel very alone. Also, drawing characters very small on the page or from behind usually makes their expressions harder to read. Ironically, since the brain is searching for identification of their expression, it usually goes towards the most dramatic route when determining this, taking all of the emotional and sad context of the story surrounding this panel and applying it. Again, subtlety strikes again! Now suddenly a faceless character is the saddest thing on the planet Earth.
Mangas with great usage of negative space in artwork: "Trigun Maximum", "Veil", "Berserk", "Houseki no Kuni", "Vagabond", "FLCL"
Narratively, this tactic applies too. Over the years, the phrase "Short but Sweet" has really hit for me, because I keep realizing how absolutely unneeded it is to dwell on things. If it takes a single sentence to explain a concept, continuing to flesh it out, even if it may add further depth to the topic with even new points being made about it, gives the readers a psychological feeling of being overwhelmed even if they comprehend it perfectly. Rather, a sentence that gives the audience all the information they have to know truly is a superior route. Even leaving some things about the sentence unexplained gives audiences enough intrigue to continue to think about the statement by themselves, and gives them a personal connection to the topic being stated since they have to come up with its meaning themselves. I think the subtly of dialogue is essential for good writing. Of course, I hope the translators don't leave the audience without context in trying to achieve this effect. Sometimes sentences are so short that they literally say nothing important, so that's worse than over explaining!
Mangas with great usage of negative space in dialogue: "Aku no Hana", "Houseki no Kuni", "Nana", "Oyasumi Punpun", "Chainsaw Man", "Annarasumanara"
This is both a review and comparison of the anime and visual novel of Phantom of the Inferno.
Great story that deals with very human ways of thinking- No pseudo-deep ramblings or anime-esque bullcrap reasonings. Just a straight up good story! My only complaint is that it will talk about something rather thought provoking only to a degree, without really getting extensive into it. I'm sure this was for the purpose of not ranting about a singular subject or line of reasoning for too long, but I was actually pretty intrigued by some of the ramblings in it and would have liked to see more. I think that Gen is a great writer and could have squeezed a bit more content into it without sounding pretentious. As it stands, the VN seems to lack a bit of depth that I think could have easily been managed.
The anime adaptation is definitely more refined in practically every regard, and even offers that extra layer of depth that I felt like this VN was missing. Great watch! Absolutely an 8 or 9 out of 10! When writing the script, I can tell the scriptwriter took this VN word for word, understood its messages perfectly, boiled down every thought to its bare essential point, making it very concise, and even added answers to moments where the VN left thoughts open ended. Very few changes were made in its translation besides consolidating/ combining scenes to make it faster while still preserving the story's messages perfectly so that essentially no content was left out, and having to pick a route for each character that best represented them. They did a masterful job.
If I were to compare, I think my almost sole criticism of the show, that I felt like the VN did better at handling, was Claudia's character. Yes, it's not that important but I wanted to mention it. Claudia isn't shown very frequently in the anime, but when she is, you can practically boil her role down to "evil" in every scene where her character is present. Not very many times is she portrayed with softness or longing, but the VN makes these aspects of her very clear alongside her terrible actions. While she almost solely is a bad person in the anime, she is sympathetic towards Reiji in the VN, and you can tell her kind soul hasn't completely vanished yet, although it is very close to disappearing completely. To give the show credit, I understand entirely that they had to essentially "choose a route" and stick with it in order to make the story not be partial in its decisions, so they made her "evil", choosing the VN's tragic route for her, where she continues to commit terrible deeds until she is at the top with no satisfaction, chasing her (or her brother's) goals of prosperity blindly without considering if SHE wants that goal. This characterization still reads well, but I feel as if adding in her moments of sympathy towards Reiji from the VN would have greatly benefited her character to be more interesting and likable. I did enjoy, however, some added scenes featuring her brother in the anime. It gave her more of a reason to chase his dreams, being able to experience her suffering, lack of reason to live after he died, and thus her motivations for being so.. evil. Taking the information about her from both adaptations of this story, her character is one of the most interesting amongst all the characters, and it feels more represented in the visual novel than in the anime due to its branching paths where she reveals these pieces of information about herself under the drastic story differences. So good job VN for that!
I think the VN's weakest link was its handling of Cal. When everything else in the story was tackled with realism, striving not to be anime, I feel like Cal was the VN gutter trash to root this VN back into anime world. From the character portrait to the endless banter, I cannot view Cal in the VN as anything but an anime bullcrappery vessel. And that's fine. The way the anime completely rips this away, instead making her and Reiji's relationship as one like a parent and child is much more tender and meaningful. I don't even know what I would call the VN's relationship between the two. You know, I think I was kind of mean just now. Oh.. And I actually do have one good point about the VN that I think is substantial enough to bring up, ironically about the very character I was just complaining about: I think the anime does a fantastic job at condensing its messages into much more tightly written and rewarding words, but the VN added very much needed depth to Cal's character, giving her the slightest bit more of a reason why she heavily treasures Reiji so much, and wants to follow him as an assassin. I also think that her potential for darkness is brought out a bit more in the VN, since the anime paints her more innocently, like a child. Maybe even including a sentence hinting at bloodlust in her in the anime would have benefited this, but I say "benefit" because I don't feel like it's entirely missing, either. This is more like a preference thing, because I still think it reads well. It just does fully encapsulate every aspect that we were shown in Cal's various routes in the VN.
As a standalone piece, I think Phantom of Inferno is fantastic, even if it is missing some depth to its ideas. The Phantom: Requiem for a Phantom anime is better in basically all regards with the exception of the VN better adding depth to Claudia and Cal.. But you wouldn't be missing out if you never get to see it either, being so minor.
I would not recommend this visual novel since the anime is the most condensed and masterful rendition of this story. Watch that, and if you can find Phantom of Inferno, play Claudia's routes!
You know, I'm kind of a big fan of stories. But what ends up affecting my final score feels a little skewed. How are you supposed to assign a number on an experience offering so many different factors, and whose effectiveness is so subjective that someone's mood before even witnessing an anime or TV show can potentially entirely dictate whether they enjoy the experience or not? Besides, each person's scoring scale is scaled differently. For me, I give anything average below a 2, then incremental differences dictating whether a series get a 3 versus a 9. I think most people assign things somewhere between 7-9. Worst of all, a mistake can be made at any time under all of these categories. The notion of scoring is so flawed in so many ways, that it should be considered something entirely futile. And I guess that's true. Yet I am participating because there is some truth in it as well. It's undefinable, which is neat.
I guess I'm going with my ‘scoring 1-2 = average and scoring 3-9 = good with incremental differences’ route precisely because I feel like most people consider 90% of anime being between the 7-9 because you can say "yeah, it was good enough”. There’s barely room for telling your favorite anime apart with a scale of 4 numbers! If a 5 is average, are you really telling me that everything you score 6-9 was above that average and is so meaningful to you? I think a watchable show should be the least of what a piece of media has to offer. If it can't achieve that, its a score of 1 or 2 for you, baby! (2 being a piece of flaming garbage with at least 1 very profound thought communicated successfully to the audience.) I guess 3 then is watchable with very little relatable human experience to speak of, and 10 being significantly and masterfully thought out in every regard? Geez, I did it. I wasn't going to, but I did it anyway. I just talked about my scoring system. SHAME ON ME!
People who listen to video game OSTs are aware of an entirely new world of music versus people who do not. Obviously, the only reason they do not is because they never tried it out. It is truly a whole other art form in itself though. The music has to be empty enough to allow for the player to read dialogue, catchy enough not to be boring when looped infinitely, and abide to the console's limitations if made with limiting hardware. Well, I'm gonna talk about limited hardware now.
Limited hardware is the BEST. Seriously. I think that freedom without limitations destroyed something so genuine in music. The compression of the instruments makes it sound simultaneously artificial and familiar, creating this comfortable, absolutely new sound. Usually "new" means alien and alienating to people, but the fact that the instrument resembles a recognizable real life instrument makes this weird artifical-trying-to-be-that-real-instrument just sound more pathetic than intimidating. And that pathetic-ness is what is so likable about it! Don't we all feel that way? I think it might be part of the comfort in listening to it. But yes, these instruments are also capable of sounding entirely alien as well, creating some pretty cool sounds! I never felt like artificial-ness of limited hardware instruments ever struck my like intimidating. They always have a comfort to them, which is beautiful.
Anyway, what makes these compositions feel so emotional is the sheer joy that is injected into them. Seriously! You think that a sad sounding track would kill ya, but it's always the unexpected ones. Specifically Nintendo is our biggest culprit here. If you listen to one of their older OSTs, (I listed some good ones in the bottom of this rambling. If you've played those games before, listen to them again! They miss you!), notably the happier tracks, they will throw in some sad and melancholic notes at the end of the music patterns. It creates intrigue to the listener by changing the expected mood and acting as sort of "brain food" for the listener to notice and continue to listen to since the song hints that it might not be entirely as it seems. But it also paints this happy tune into one that is more complicated. I guess whenever I hear sad notes thrown into celebratory music, it makes me feel like that happiness does not come without sad times, or those happy times are from a time in the past, and not accessible now. However, the songs always resolve these negative notes with a happy ditty by the end of the full pattern, swooping back into the happy mode. It starts and ends happy with some sad in the middle. Actually, there's always very little sad in the songs, I guess I'm just focusing a lot on it right now haha.
But overall it creates these unforgettable, joyful compositions with some bitter sweetness mixed in to masterfully perfect it. Honestly, I can imagine songs being quite dull without these aspects in it. Having this sad in my happy makes me happier! Such is life, I guess? Oh, and by both starting and ending songs to be happy, the songs don't feel draining to listen to over long periods of time! I'd say the ratio of happy to sad is probably around 94% happy and 6% sad? Generally? I guess? Hey, this is called the rambling section for a reason.
OSTs that destroy my white boy soul every time: "Mother 3", "Paper Mario", "Moon: Remix RPG", "Final Fantasy VII", "Super Mario World", "Wii Play", "Pokemon Diamond & Pearl", "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time", Wii System OST
That's for sure, their next game is probably going to be Persona 6 hopefully! I can't wait for more announcements.
Though Marvel comics can also feel outdated thematically since many of them are from decades ago. I know they've removed or reworked some things that could be considered offensive. For example I remember James Gunn completely changed Mantis' character and personality, even though Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the more recent comics. In the original comics, Mantis was described as a stereotypical "Vietnamese prostitute" so they obviously had to make major changes for the movies.
I read a lot of comics that were written in my language, especially when I was younger. Many of them are really good and became quite popular outside of France and Belgium like Tintin for example (especially thanks to Spielberg). I’ve read and own all the comics, I love that series. I also really like The Smurfs, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Blake and Mortimer, and some funny ones like Gaston and Titeuf. One of the first fantasy works I read was this comic series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legendaries I used to love it though I haven’t reread it in years so I’m not sure if I’d still feel the same now. I know some of these are fully available in English since they’re famous worldwide especially The Smurfs, Asterix, and Tintin.
I honestly can’t even answer your question because I used to watch most of the seasonals that way so I’ve seen nearly every type of theme and genre through the one episode per week format ahaha. If I try to make a rough estimate of how many anime I’ve watched like this since I started it would probably be between 500 and 800.
No idea if you’d like Blend S or No Game No Life but when it comes to Overlord I think its charm comes especially from its color grading it’s one of the only anime I can think of that feels unique mainly because of that (at least in my opinion). I think it’s the mix of its fantasy world, amazing character design and bright colors but I don’t know it just feels really special to me. Also it’s satisfying to watch a character who’s extremely OP in a video game world like that.
For me the biggest issue with popular anime is that I haven’t watched many of them simply because of their length. For example I’d love to watch Naruto but I just can’t bring myself to watch 720 episodes of the same show nowadays... Even without the fillers it’s still way too long. Same for other similar series. With how slowly I watch shows nowadays, anything over 100 episodes would take me months to get through even if I focus only on that one show.
As for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas I think it also lacked originality for me. Your Name and A Silent Voice are comparable but they bring something more, for example A Silent Voice has the deaf main character and the complex relationship due to the bullying and Your Name has the body-switching aspect. Whereas in I Want to Eat Your Pancreas it’s just about falling in love with a sick girl, I’m sure there are already tons of live-action films with similar themes.
The issue is that sometimes no matter how bad an anime is it’s just boring, not even funny. I think “so bad it’s good” animes only work when they try to be original or take risks with the plot but fail miserably. That reminds me of one of my anime traditions: once a month with a friend I watch an anime that has under 10k members on MAL, It’s fun to collect random obscure anime like that but yeah most of them are obviously terrible ahaha. I'll link the names of all of what we've seen since the beginning (since 2019 or 2020 I think):
kokoro toshokan (studio deen)
nanaka 6/17 (JC staff)
Yume Tsukai (madhouse)
Jinki:Extend (feel.)
lovely idol (AIC ASTA)
abarenbou (toei)
yugo negotiator (artland)
battle athletess (AIC)
Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto (madhouse)
Shichinin no Nana (ACGT)
Rocket Girls (mook DLE)
Hi no Tori (tesuka productions)
shinsengumi (picture magic)
PetoPeto-san (XEBEC M2)
Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo (JC staff)
Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge (radix)
Tide-Line Blue (telecom animation film)
Maou Dante (magic bus)
Master of Epic: The Animation Age (gonzo)
Dokkoida (ufotable)
Wandaba Style (TNK)
Majuu Sensen: The Apocalypse (magic bus)
Ningen Kousaten (ACGT)
Kita e.: Diamond Dust Drops (studio deen)
Narue no Sekai (studio live)
Najica Dengeki Sakusen (studio fantasia)
Potemayo (JC staff)
Pachislo Kizoku Gin (A line)
Chance: Triangle Session (madhouse)
Aa Harimanada (E&G films)
Haunted Junction (studio deen)
Giniro no Olynsis: TOKITO (toei)
Cinderella Boy (magic bus)
Wow okay I get it for FLCL Alternate at least the "alternate" in the title is accurate but what even is this? I mean what's the point if it barely has anything to do with FLCL at all? I guess they got the rights to use the FLCL name so they had to throw in some similar elements but if the rest of the show is totally different it's probably just a way to make money with a slice of life series that wouldn't do well with the audience if it didn’t have FLCL in the title...
Ahah thanks! The goal was just to re-create the song without adding any "YTP" elements, since the original source is basically just some fake sample and robotic voices so it makes sense to keep it like that. I think it’s easier to make it sound smooth when it’s a fake sample so I didn’t really have to process the audio much I just added a few effects. Actually the bass is the same one used by Nintendo in Mario Party DS lol.
Absolutely, and in my case I’m just bad at cooking and don’t really enjoy it xD so I wish I had access to more prepared meals ahaha.
Well I should mention the pay is obviously low since it’s just small tasks but it’s mainly interesting for the experience. It’s like the kind of internship you have to do in middle school, no idea if it’s the same in the States but here we have to do a one-week internship during 9th grade and recently they added one for 10th grade too.
Ahah it’s perfect then, here it’s not hot but it’s sunny basically around 50°F with a bright blue sky so I’m not complaining. Also I’m visiting the USA this summer for the first time, I’ll mostly stay in tourist cities like NY and LA but do you have any underrated places to visit or recommendations in general? I’m also curious about which stores or restaurant chains I should try!
Also sorry I feel like I'm writing too much I hope it's not too long and annoying to reply due to the length.
I definitely want to get around to the Zaregoto anime adaptation eventually, and actually, I want to watch every Shaft anime ever made at some point. I was on a massive binge but unfortunately, stopped at Maria Holic because I thought it was terrible. I was planning to watch the Zaregoto OVAs after I finished the novels but unfortunately, the quality of the translations after volume 3 fall off a cliff IMO since they aren't official, and it was hard for me to continue forward.
It's kind of funny, because there was a phase when I was in my later teens where I was a complete elitist and just discounted any shonen, but I've come around to them again. A lot of shonen are just a super enjoyable time, are easy to get invested in, and have a lot of heart. I want to give One Piece another chance in particular, because it's something I used to be really dismissive of. I focused more on the "plot holes" and "conveniences" more than meeting it where it was at and engaging with it on a thematic level, and retrospectively, I feel that's an incredible flawed way of looking at art.
Oh yes the Eva manga is great, it does have some differences yeah. It's been a while since I read it so I'm sure I don't remember everything, but I do remember that it roughly follows to plot of the original anime and then follows the EoE ending, with a good few more notable changes during that part. I really enjoy it, not only for the different content but because I love the art style too. I definitely recommend it if you're and Eva fan, I should probably re-read sometime as well for that matter since I remember so little.
I see what you mean now about Big O, yeah when it's framed that way I do feel a bit more positively about the mecha fights in that show. It's definitely a series I should rewatch at some point, because I feel like it has so much good going for it, and there's a chance I could like it more the second time around as well.
I agree that Sonny Boy felt very deliberately symbolistic, that's one of things like about it for sure. I really loved the ending, and a good few of the characters too.
Hope you enjoy Alternative as well, I've heard great things about it so I'm excited to see how much I like it.
Thanks for accepting my friend request, and sure I could do that! I really liked Unlimited in particular because I feel like it does a great job of going into more depth with the characters we already know Extra by putting them in a much different situation, but mirroring similar struggles that they went through back then. So while can definitely understand feeling underwhelmed by Extra, I think Unlimited is a very gratifying experience in that way. It sort of feels like when you're in the second half of like a school rom-com anime or something, and you know the characters really well now and are beginning to see how their strengths and flaws are going to shape the rest of the story, there's something very comforting about that point in a story to me I guess. Aside from that, I just think it a fun cast of characters that bounce off each other well, and following the progression of characters like Takeru and Meiya have been very enjoyable to me. I only recently started Alternative as well, so I guess we'll see what our thoughts are on it in the near future! (Or somewhat near at least, it is a very long VN.)
I also just saw that you're a fan of Sonny Boy and Big O as well, I love Sonny Boy, it's one of my favorite things I've recently watched. Big O was good too but I wish I liked it a bit more, it had lots of things I loved about it but it was little hard for me to get behind the "every episode has to end in a mecha fight" thing it had going. I know that's just kind of how episodic show were back then though. I still love the the vibe it has, well for both of those shows actually. I'd love to hear why you like those shows as well!
Life has been great as of late, I'll tell you about the new developments in Discord!!!
Nah, I dont think its superficial or anything negative to seek out obscure media. It's like going mining and once in a while you find a diamond in the rough, because as you say most of the forgotten media usually is just that for a reason, but now and then you find that marble and you are like "how is no one talking about this". That was my reaction with shows like Gankutsuou and Sonny Boy, even though nowadays they're highly regarded and somewhat known, still nische sure, but not obscure anymore. I got that feeling when I stumbled on The Shell franchise recently though! Did you play Saya no Uta? If you did PLEASE tell me what you think of it because I absolutely LOVE it. Yeah, tell me about it, the last couple of years I've been terrible at consuming media, I remember from 2019-2022 I was a consumer fiend and from then to now I've barely watched a 10th of what I used to do, lol...
At the end of the day we're consuming entertainment, and if we're not entertained whats the point? It definitely should be the most important factor otherwise you're missing the point. Although, there's this "separation" when I view a show from a critical lens and a show purely out of enjoyment. Most of the times, these are intertwined, but that's not always the case. Shows like BTOOOM!, Erased, Tomodachi Game, Charlotte were really enjoyable, but when viewed from a critical lens I could tear these shows apart to shreds. Also, vice versa there have been shows that I though was too "perfect" critically that I couldnt really derive any meaningful enjoyment out of, even though I appreciate what it does. It goes both ways. I just love Gurren Lagann man, it's so much in your face fun, doesnt take itself too seriously but is HELLAAAAA profound and leaves an everlasting impression on you and motivates you to lift an airplane, all the while being subtle in its theming and having quiet character moments that speaks equally as loud as the big ass drills during the epic scenes.
Umineko is incredibly wrong, ever since I met Kajsa (I'll talk about it more on DC) I havent done anything anime-related so I'm still on a halt when it comes to Umineko at chapter 7, but man it's INCREEEEEDIBLY long, and yeah I agree. They mull over everything, which can be a double-edged sword. I remember much of episode 4 feeling slow, to the point of being dragged out, although when the climax of that episode in particular came I understood why the build up was necessary in retrospect but it was hard to get through, especially when I binged it day in and day out at that point. Oh god, I dont even want to think about how long Umineko took to even plan out... Ryukushi07 is a madman for even conceptualizing it, writing it and I dont even want to know how many times he had to proof-read everything for it to contain such few plot-holes and inconsistencies as it does. It's truly maddening in the best way possible.
If I were to describe the Pretty Series, I'd say it's just a super holistic examination of how art functions and helps us express ourselves, especially in the face of oppression. This is especially true for Pripara, which is where I would suggest starting if you were to get into it. The depth in which it covers these aforementioned themes is really impressive IMO, especially for an anime which is marketed towards children.
In regards to Zaregoto, the anime only covers the first volume of a quite lengthy light novel series, and I think that compared to some of the other volumes, it is on the weaker side due to simply being an introduction (Not that it is bad by any means; in fact, I think volume 1 of Zaregoto is great myself). I haven't seen the anime or really talked to anyone who has both read and watched it, so I can't really comment on whether there is cut content or not; however, some of the nuance within NISIOISIN's works are deftly tied to his wordplay and prose, so I think it isn't FULLY possible to capture that in an animated format.
Fun fact: Naruto's manga was one of the first I ever read back when I was 10-11, so I, without a doubt, have some nostalgia for it. I think the first half in particular is a really fun time to this day, though, and you will never find me hating on it. Have a good time! The Chuunin exams in particular is something I remember very fondly :)
Yes it's surprising coming from Atlus but there's more than just a classic fantasy world, you discover it right at the beginning but it also evolves through the story and there's some reveals at the end, I will not say more because I don't want to spoil it, but of course Atlus wouldn't just make it simple ahah.
I think the MCU is just in a transition between the end of Avengers 4 and the next one, so they have to hurry and introduce some new characters since most of these characters appeared in the series but they know a lot of people only watch the movies, it's just sad that they have to keep the same characters even though they're not supposed to be here anymore like Captain America, I wouldn't be surprised if we ever get a new Iron Man even though it's not Tony Stark inside the suit lol.
Keeping up with anime as they come out make them feel special to me, especially when you watch each episode directly when they're released, it makes the anime memorable even if it's bad, the only issue is that doing that takes time and you have to force yourself when you're lazy or want to do something else, that's why I stopped but sometimes I want to keep doing it just for this feeling.
And after that I actually did the same for some anime ahah (like for example Blend S due to all the memes when it was airing). That's why sometimes I really want to rewatch Re:Zero S1 but I'm afraid that I won't get the same feeling as when I discovered anime for the first time, it was also the same with Overlord and No Game No Life for example, I still really like Overlord I think it's one of the best "trapped in a video game" kind of anime.
Sadly yes, that's why I won't really try any isekai unless they have a high rating, if they're rated 8+ for example sure I'll give it a try, but otherwise that's a no.
My memory isn't fresh regarding I want to eat your pancreas since it's been years so I can't say exactly what were the flaws for me but I just think it felt way too forced and it tried so hard to be a tearjerker but didn't work for this reason and I just couldn't feel anything because I hated the main female's personality I think she was just annoying, it felt too aimed at teenagers to me even if I was younger when I saw it.
I didn't like Magica Record or Psycho Pass S2 and S3 as well but to be fair I didn't really like the S1 too, I think I would need to rewatch it though because once again I was probably too young to enjoy it when I saw it.
But I agree, when a show is SO bad it often ends up enjoyable for this reason, there are some really terrible anime I watched when they aired that I keep good memories about only for this reason like https://myanimelist.net/anime/37744/Isekai_Cheat_Magician or https://myanimelist.net/anime/38297/Maou-sama_Retry sometimes I also think about this one https://myanimelist.net/anime/38814/Nobunaga-sensei_no_Osanazuma because it was SOOOOO bad that it ends up being hilarious.
Why was FLCL Alternative so bad though? I only watched the original FLCL and didn't watch the other ones because I knew they were not worth it lol.
Ahah thanks, well there's this one I made that I think is pretty fun with the 3D visuals even if you don't get the initial joke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ta50e_EzcI and I especially like the original theme of Super Mario Kart so it was fun to make, I probably wouldn't be able to explain the joke in English though lol but if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhMxC02B134 it's basically from a random scam bot comment who said he bought an iPhone 11 Pro for 2€ and the formulation of the sentence is hilarious but it's sounds like a parody of a bot.
And now I definitely miss some of these foods especially the konbini ones ahaha, I wish we had pre-heated dishes like that here, it was so convenient and tastier than you would expect at first. I hope that you'll like tagine then!
Here it got surprisingly warmer in the recent days, it's been 6 days in a row that we have a sunny bright sky and approximately 16° which is good when it's sunny at the same time, though they say it will not last after this week.
It's awesome then! You're welcome I'm happy to hear it, I don't know how it works in your country regarding the small jobs you can get, here we have directly a system that give you one week~ remunerated small tasks like that so it helps knowing what you actually want to do later and what you also dislike or got the wrong opinion about. But anyway you already have some hints so it will be easy I'm sure and it just comes with time.
Have a great week (and sunnier hopefully lol) as well!!
I plan to mod my Wii, but I haven’t actually gotten around to it yet. I’m honestly not super sure how to do it, so I feel a little hesitant at the risk of that kind of experimentation; because I don’t want to accidentally brick it. Maybe you can help walk me through it, because it seems like you’re quite adept in this regard… I did download Dolphin on my Mac though, so I can install mods that would allow me to play online with my friends and stuff.
That’s so sick that you’re making a VN OMG, especially given how distinct your artstyle is, I think it’s gonna turn out really cool. Lmk when you finish it so I can play it! As for what I’m watching/reading right now, I’m trying to make my way through the Pretty Series and am on Idoltime Pripara right now. I’m also reading A sister is all you need, which is a really cool novel series about light novel writers contrary to what the title might imply LOL. I also picked up Little Busters, but the start has been kind of boring so far so I’m considering putting it on the back burner…. How about you, Enivlens?
I'm doing alright right now, I'm sort of in a weird transition period right now in regards to life in general; I graduated from my undergrad in December, and am looking to go for my Master's to ultimately become a librarian! But rn, I basically just work part time and dedicate my ample free time to otaku related media and Mario Kart Wii hehe. How are you doing?
Gurl, that's awesome! I haven't played any version of the game yet, I'm undecided whether to risk the original for ps1/saturn or the remake for ps2/wii. And since I haven't played it yet, I can't say how faithful the manga is, but hey, I liked it lol One of the things that most catches my attention in Baroque is its dark universe and heavy atmosphere, and I think the manga managed to convey this very well :]
THANKS GUUUURL! Well, there was no cake, but I went out for ramen with some friends and my brother, then we bought some apple and banana hand pies at an italian restaurant :] And sorry I haven't replied to your last message yet, I've been pretty busy recently <:'U
All Comments (453) Comments
That's for sure, their next game is probably going to be Persona 6 hopefully! I can't wait for more announcements.
Though Marvel comics can also feel outdated thematically since many of them are from decades ago. I know they've removed or reworked some things that could be considered offensive. For example I remember James Gunn completely changed Mantis' character and personality, even though Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the more recent comics. In the original comics, Mantis was described as a stereotypical "Vietnamese prostitute" so they obviously had to make major changes for the movies.
I read a lot of comics that were written in my language, especially when I was younger. Many of them are really good and became quite popular outside of France and Belgium like Tintin for example (especially thanks to Spielberg). I’ve read and own all the comics, I love that series. I also really like The Smurfs, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Blake and Mortimer, and some funny ones like Gaston and Titeuf. One of the first fantasy works I read was this comic series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legendaries I used to love it though I haven’t reread it in years so I’m not sure if I’d still feel the same now. I know some of these are fully available in English since they’re famous worldwide especially The Smurfs, Asterix, and Tintin.
I honestly can’t even answer your question because I used to watch most of the seasonals that way so I’ve seen nearly every type of theme and genre through the one episode per week format ahaha. If I try to make a rough estimate of how many anime I’ve watched like this since I started it would probably be between 500 and 800.
No idea if you’d like Blend S or No Game No Life but when it comes to Overlord I think its charm comes especially from its color grading it’s one of the only anime I can think of that feels unique mainly because of that (at least in my opinion). I think it’s the mix of its fantasy world, amazing character design and bright colors but I don’t know it just feels really special to me. Also it’s satisfying to watch a character who’s extremely OP in a video game world like that.
For me the biggest issue with popular anime is that I haven’t watched many of them simply because of their length. For example I’d love to watch Naruto but I just can’t bring myself to watch 720 episodes of the same show nowadays... Even without the fillers it’s still way too long. Same for other similar series. With how slowly I watch shows nowadays, anything over 100 episodes would take me months to get through even if I focus only on that one show.
As for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas I think it also lacked originality for me. Your Name and A Silent Voice are comparable but they bring something more, for example A Silent Voice has the deaf main character and the complex relationship due to the bullying and Your Name has the body-switching aspect. Whereas in I Want to Eat Your Pancreas it’s just about falling in love with a sick girl, I’m sure there are already tons of live-action films with similar themes.
The issue is that sometimes no matter how bad an anime is it’s just boring, not even funny. I think “so bad it’s good” animes only work when they try to be original or take risks with the plot but fail miserably. That reminds me of one of my anime traditions: once a month with a friend I watch an anime that has under 10k members on MAL, It’s fun to collect random obscure anime like that but yeah most of them are obviously terrible ahaha. I'll link the names of all of what we've seen since the beginning (since 2019 or 2020 I think):
Wow okay I get it for FLCL Alternate at least the "alternate" in the title is accurate but what even is this? I mean what's the point if it barely has anything to do with FLCL at all? I guess they got the rights to use the FLCL name so they had to throw in some similar elements but if the rest of the show is totally different it's probably just a way to make money with a slice of life series that wouldn't do well with the audience if it didn’t have FLCL in the title...
Ahah thanks! The goal was just to re-create the song without adding any "YTP" elements, since the original source is basically just some fake sample and robotic voices so it makes sense to keep it like that. I think it’s easier to make it sound smooth when it’s a fake sample so I didn’t really have to process the audio much I just added a few effects. Actually the bass is the same one used by Nintendo in Mario Party DS lol.
Absolutely, and in my case I’m just bad at cooking and don’t really enjoy it xD so I wish I had access to more prepared meals ahaha.
Well I should mention the pay is obviously low since it’s just small tasks but it’s mainly interesting for the experience. It’s like the kind of internship you have to do in middle school, no idea if it’s the same in the States but here we have to do a one-week internship during 9th grade and recently they added one for 10th grade too.
Ahah it’s perfect then, here it’s not hot but it’s sunny basically around 50°F with a bright blue sky so I’m not complaining. Also I’m visiting the USA this summer for the first time, I’ll mostly stay in tourist cities like NY and LA but do you have any underrated places to visit or recommendations in general? I’m also curious about which stores or restaurant chains I should try!
Also sorry I feel like I'm writing too much I hope it's not too long and annoying to reply due to the length.
It's kind of funny, because there was a phase when I was in my later teens where I was a complete elitist and just discounted any shonen, but I've come around to them again. A lot of shonen are just a super enjoyable time, are easy to get invested in, and have a lot of heart. I want to give One Piece another chance in particular, because it's something I used to be really dismissive of. I focused more on the "plot holes" and "conveniences" more than meeting it where it was at and engaging with it on a thematic level, and retrospectively, I feel that's an incredible flawed way of looking at art.
I agree that Sonny Boy felt very deliberately symbolistic, that's one of things like about it for sure. I really loved the ending, and a good few of the characters too.
Hope you enjoy Alternative as well, I've heard great things about it so I'm excited to see how much I like it.
I also just saw that you're a fan of Sonny Boy and Big O as well, I love Sonny Boy, it's one of my favorite things I've recently watched. Big O was good too but I wish I liked it a bit more, it had lots of things I loved about it but it was little hard for me to get behind the "every episode has to end in a mecha fight" thing it had going. I know that's just kind of how episodic show were back then though. I still love the the vibe it has, well for both of those shows actually. I'd love to hear why you like those shows as well!
Nah, I dont think its superficial or anything negative to seek out obscure media. It's like going mining and once in a while you find a diamond in the rough, because as you say most of the forgotten media usually is just that for a reason, but now and then you find that marble and you are like "how is no one talking about this". That was my reaction with shows like Gankutsuou and Sonny Boy, even though nowadays they're highly regarded and somewhat known, still nische sure, but not obscure anymore. I got that feeling when I stumbled on The Shell franchise recently though! Did you play Saya no Uta? If you did PLEASE tell me what you think of it because I absolutely LOVE it. Yeah, tell me about it, the last couple of years I've been terrible at consuming media, I remember from 2019-2022 I was a consumer fiend and from then to now I've barely watched a 10th of what I used to do, lol...
At the end of the day we're consuming entertainment, and if we're not entertained whats the point? It definitely should be the most important factor otherwise you're missing the point. Although, there's this "separation" when I view a show from a critical lens and a show purely out of enjoyment. Most of the times, these are intertwined, but that's not always the case. Shows like BTOOOM!, Erased, Tomodachi Game, Charlotte were really enjoyable, but when viewed from a critical lens I could tear these shows apart to shreds. Also, vice versa there have been shows that I though was too "perfect" critically that I couldnt really derive any meaningful enjoyment out of, even though I appreciate what it does. It goes both ways. I just love Gurren Lagann man, it's so much in your face fun, doesnt take itself too seriously but is HELLAAAAA profound and leaves an everlasting impression on you and motivates you to lift an airplane, all the while being subtle in its theming and having quiet character moments that speaks equally as loud as the big ass drills during the epic scenes.
Umineko is incredibly wrong, ever since I met Kajsa (I'll talk about it more on DC) I havent done anything anime-related so I'm still on a halt when it comes to Umineko at chapter 7, but man it's INCREEEEEDIBLY long, and yeah I agree. They mull over everything, which can be a double-edged sword. I remember much of episode 4 feeling slow, to the point of being dragged out, although when the climax of that episode in particular came I understood why the build up was necessary in retrospect but it was hard to get through, especially when I binged it day in and day out at that point. Oh god, I dont even want to think about how long Umineko took to even plan out... Ryukushi07 is a madman for even conceptualizing it, writing it and I dont even want to know how many times he had to proof-read everything for it to contain such few plot-holes and inconsistencies as it does. It's truly maddening in the best way possible.
Have a great one! :D
If I were to describe the Pretty Series, I'd say it's just a super holistic examination of how art functions and helps us express ourselves, especially in the face of oppression. This is especially true for Pripara, which is where I would suggest starting if you were to get into it. The depth in which it covers these aforementioned themes is really impressive IMO, especially for an anime which is marketed towards children.
In regards to Zaregoto, the anime only covers the first volume of a quite lengthy light novel series, and I think that compared to some of the other volumes, it is on the weaker side due to simply being an introduction (Not that it is bad by any means; in fact, I think volume 1 of Zaregoto is great myself). I haven't seen the anime or really talked to anyone who has both read and watched it, so I can't really comment on whether there is cut content or not; however, some of the nuance within NISIOISIN's works are deftly tied to his wordplay and prose, so I think it isn't FULLY possible to capture that in an animated format.
Fun fact: Naruto's manga was one of the first I ever read back when I was 10-11, so I, without a doubt, have some nostalgia for it. I think the first half in particular is a really fun time to this day, though, and you will never find me hating on it. Have a good time! The Chuunin exams in particular is something I remember very fondly :)
Yes it's surprising coming from Atlus but there's more than just a classic fantasy world, you discover it right at the beginning but it also evolves through the story and there's some reveals at the end, I will not say more because I don't want to spoil it, but of course Atlus wouldn't just make it simple ahah.
I think the MCU is just in a transition between the end of Avengers 4 and the next one, so they have to hurry and introduce some new characters since most of these characters appeared in the series but they know a lot of people only watch the movies, it's just sad that they have to keep the same characters even though they're not supposed to be here anymore like Captain America, I wouldn't be surprised if we ever get a new Iron Man even though it's not Tony Stark inside the suit lol.
Keeping up with anime as they come out make them feel special to me, especially when you watch each episode directly when they're released, it makes the anime memorable even if it's bad, the only issue is that doing that takes time and you have to force yourself when you're lazy or want to do something else, that's why I stopped but sometimes I want to keep doing it just for this feeling.
And after that I actually did the same for some anime ahah (like for example Blend S due to all the memes when it was airing). That's why sometimes I really want to rewatch Re:Zero S1 but I'm afraid that I won't get the same feeling as when I discovered anime for the first time, it was also the same with Overlord and No Game No Life for example, I still really like Overlord I think it's one of the best "trapped in a video game" kind of anime.
Sadly yes, that's why I won't really try any isekai unless they have a high rating, if they're rated 8+ for example sure I'll give it a try, but otherwise that's a no.
My memory isn't fresh regarding I want to eat your pancreas since it's been years so I can't say exactly what were the flaws for me but I just think it felt way too forced and it tried so hard to be a tearjerker but didn't work for this reason and I just couldn't feel anything because I hated the main female's personality I think she was just annoying, it felt too aimed at teenagers to me even if I was younger when I saw it.
I didn't like Magica Record or Psycho Pass S2 and S3 as well but to be fair I didn't really like the S1 too, I think I would need to rewatch it though because once again I was probably too young to enjoy it when I saw it.
But I agree, when a show is SO bad it often ends up enjoyable for this reason, there are some really terrible anime I watched when they aired that I keep good memories about only for this reason like https://myanimelist.net/anime/37744/Isekai_Cheat_Magician or https://myanimelist.net/anime/38297/Maou-sama_Retry sometimes I also think about this one https://myanimelist.net/anime/38814/Nobunaga-sensei_no_Osanazuma because it was SOOOOO bad that it ends up being hilarious.
Why was FLCL Alternative so bad though? I only watched the original FLCL and didn't watch the other ones because I knew they were not worth it lol.
Ahah thanks, well there's this one I made that I think is pretty fun with the 3D visuals even if you don't get the initial joke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ta50e_EzcI and I especially like the original theme of Super Mario Kart so it was fun to make, I probably wouldn't be able to explain the joke in English though lol but if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhMxC02B134 it's basically from a random scam bot comment who said he bought an iPhone 11 Pro for 2€ and the formulation of the sentence is hilarious but it's sounds like a parody of a bot.
And now I definitely miss some of these foods especially the konbini ones ahaha, I wish we had pre-heated dishes like that here, it was so convenient and tastier than you would expect at first. I hope that you'll like tagine then!
Here it got surprisingly warmer in the recent days, it's been 6 days in a row that we have a sunny bright sky and approximately 16° which is good when it's sunny at the same time, though they say it will not last after this week.
It's awesome then! You're welcome I'm happy to hear it, I don't know how it works in your country regarding the small jobs you can get, here we have directly a system that give you one week~ remunerated small tasks like that so it helps knowing what you actually want to do later and what you also dislike or got the wrong opinion about. But anyway you already have some hints so it will be easy I'm sure and it just comes with time.
Have a great week (and sunnier hopefully lol) as well!!
That’s so sick that you’re making a VN OMG, especially given how distinct your artstyle is, I think it’s gonna turn out really cool. Lmk when you finish it so I can play it! As for what I’m watching/reading right now, I’m trying to make my way through the Pretty Series and am on Idoltime Pripara right now. I’m also reading A sister is all you need, which is a really cool novel series about light novel writers contrary to what the title might imply LOL. I also picked up Little Busters, but the start has been kind of boring so far so I’m considering putting it on the back burner…. How about you, Enivlens?
I'm doing alright right now, I'm sort of in a weird transition period right now in regards to life in general; I graduated from my undergrad in December, and am looking to go for my Master's to ultimately become a librarian! But rn, I basically just work part time and dedicate my ample free time to otaku related media and Mario Kart Wii hehe. How are you doing?