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brutal Hitorigoto review, i can't wrap my head around when i see people praising that show.

bakemonogatari (2) is insane

You're the first person I've met with Kiki as a favorite. She's so underrated, even though she's the one I love the most. 🥺

Chainsaw Man bored me out of my mind and Tatsuki Fujimoto's art is ugly as sin. The Simpsons is the same as any other sitcom to me, being undeniably funny on occasion. I will say I've watched a decent amount of it, but not in order. I stopped after fully watching season 20, around when it started airing in widescreen. My favorite episode is probably Marge Be Not Proud, the one about Bart stealing a video game. The ending of that one is surprisingly heartwarming for the show. I remember some other episodes being fairly endearing, but the writing and toilet humor just aren't something I enjoy.

You're much nicer than I am. Honestly, the forums are a cesspit of people who might as well be watching anime as background noise. Even in the dub there's a clear connection between Kurisu and "Christina" (I want to say she even says "drop the -tina" but I won't waste my time checking or trying to figure out what that guy was really thinking).

NHK was great. Not to "powerlevel" too much as they put it, but I did have a very short period where I was doing completely nothing with my life, so I could also relate to Satou. Honestly, it was surprising that he could keep such a lifestyle up for 4 years. I genuinely felt like I was going insane after 3 months. Don't drop out of uni, kids. I loved how nonchalantly he "fixed" his life. No grand shounen-style "I won't be a NEET anymore!" monologue, no cheesy moment where he slowly fills out a job application form - nothing. He just realised he had to work to survive. Nobody saved him but himself. Misaki's efforts meant literally nothing.

And come on, just over a month is still mostly fine. I've heard campfire tales of there being MAL denizens with a year logged, maybe even more...

It's even funnier when they TRY to talk about writing and you realize they don't understand a word they're saying and are just repeating what they've heard in video essays. But yeah, their appreciation never goes beyond surface level. I get told "it's not that deep bro" pretty often when I point out something that isn't immediately noticeable on the screen.

Well, if something can be both then why not? I consider things like Naruto and Violet Evergarden to be both, as personal examples. I also didn't really define the latter pile enough, I guess. I think there's another category to be made for something that is a little sloppy but not harmful (86 is the best example I could come up with right now). What I've seen of what you listed would fit both, with the exception of Chainsaw Man and The Simpsons. I can't say I got anything good out of either. And yeah, there's nothing wrong with poor quality media existing. Poor quality doesn't equal something that is morally detestable, which a lot of anime are.

Yep, you have it down to a T there. They are gullible, and extremely so. They don't even try to understand anything. They can watch a video essay so someone else does all the thinking for them. I didn't think that was real, but a LOT of zoomers actually watch anime in 2x speed without a hint of self-awareness. Then they go on and make forum threads for the dumbest questions. One of my favourites was when some dimwit had a little eureka moment over realising that the nickname Christina in Steins;Gate came from adding -tina to Kurisu as if that wasn't blatantly obvious. I'm so fucking glad I have a screenshot of that:


Anime is the medium in which I have the most problems with suspending my disbelief. Arguably the biggest problem with anime (apart from lolicons) is that human characters are far too often not written as people. Even in a lot of modern series that pretend to be smart, the characters are JUST plot devices that lack even the slightest hint of natural human behavior. And whenever that is brought up it gets handwaved by people whose brains have been set to airplane mode "bro that is just how this character acts bro you are looking into it too deep bro".

I'll bring up Clannad as an example: Tomoya might as well be the only suitable man in the entire universe with how every woman just cannot help loving him. So much that miraculously none of the other female characters end up in relationships of their own by After Story and even his wife's mother somehow wants to be a trophy in his harem. If it were just a silly harem I wouldn't care or even watch it, but After Story wants to be taken as a serious drama about growing up and creating a family of your own, so I will judge it based on that.

Or for broken suspension of disbelief that doesn't have to do with characters, I could bring up Violet Evergarden, a show I actually love, and point out the absurdity of how the most commonly-shown meals are fish with rice prepared in a very Japanese way or Chinese takeout with chopsticks (as the only utensil, mind you) in what is supposed to be based on 1940s Europe. But I guess it's fiction and anything goes, so all logic flies out of the window the moment that word is mentioned. It may seem insignificant which it is, but it takes me out of an otherwise beautiful world.

I could really go on. It happens in shows I love and in shows I don't. Very rarely do I find an anime that I can stay fully immersed in throughout, and I feel like one of maybe 5 people in the world who actually notices these immersion-breaking aspects. They're heavily criticized in cinema and literature, so why is anime an exception?

Of course, anyone is allowed to like anything. My point was more meant to say that what an anime fan likes tells a lot about what kind of person they are. Someone who has nothing but battle shounens, harems and isekais in their favorites probably isn't as intelligent or media literate as the pretentious snob who has NGE, Lain and LotGH in theirs.

NHK is pretty good so far. I have to say, Satou is depressing to watch. He's a complete loser. Made me sad to see his downwards spiral when Yamazaki gave him the visual novels. He's very much written as a person with basically zero willpower, at least when it comes to helping himself. I've known a few people just like that in chatrooms, but they were beyond saving. Satou sort of skirts that line, but he's also pretty close to being beyond saving. I mean, he did try to creep on high schoolers... But I don't expect this to be a "poor little NEET gets saved by waifu" kind of show. I really like the little glimpses into Satou's disturbed mind, like his insane imaginary scenarios or when his home appliances begin to speak to him. The scene where he embarrasses himself in the vocational school was great, too.

As far as the other characters go, Yamazaki is kind of an unintentional villain dragging Satou down with himself, but it's surprisingly heartwarming to see Satou have a friend, Misaki is a bit too moe, but she clearly knows more about Satou than she's letting on. And Senpai - I already cannot stand her. She seems like a complete snake. Definitely up to no good, so I'm very interested to see where the plot goes with her.

Looks like I wrote another essay. Sorry about that lol

That's what I mean. It feels like talking to a zombie. I have acquaintances like this and it's exhausting to talk to them. It goes like this every damn time:
"I didn't like this seasonal slop"
"How can you not like that? It's so peak! What is wrong with you?"
I don't deny that art is subjective, but I think there is a distinction to be made between art that's, you know, art and "art" that is made to validate someone's fetishes, exploit a particular theme and/or maximize profits. Unfortunately, the vast majority of anime and manga made nowadays falls into the latter. It will only get worse before it gets better, but I really doubt we'll go back to the 2000s quality-wise. Weebs have always been idiotic, but intelligent discussion about anime is harder to come by now than it has ever been. And weebs will just become dumber by the day.

Growing out of anime, yeah... I'm not sure myself. I haven't seen a lot of the best yet (haven't seen Eva, Lain or NHK) so I can't say I plan to stop watching anime anytime soon, but I'm with you there. The popular anime of the current day are an affront to everything I had liked from the medium and I really don't fit in with anime fans because I hate everything they enjoy. I can't say I hate the entire medium, it certainly has some of the best stories I've ever seen, but it's also full of the worst stories I've ever seen - and those are the stories that the majority of anime fans seem to like.

The visuals were certainly appealing to me when I first started watching anime and I can't pretend I don't want shows to look good. It's really low on my list of what makes an anime good, though. I don't care for fights and fancy animation if the moral message the story tries to convey is repugnant or the writing is terrible. I like anime because it used to have really well written characters and relationships. As someone who loves romance, I'd say the Japanese can write it the best. When it's not meant as incel waifu bait, of course. Makoto Shinkai's films and Steins;Gate are pretty good examples, albeit the latter suffers from dating sim tropes. Aside from romance, the Japanese can do thrillers really well. Almost as well as Koreans do, which is a big compliment if you're at all familiar with Korean cinema. Fate Zero and Death Note are great.

Well-written and complex characters are not made anymore because they're hard to sell figurines of, they do not get the viewer off enough and they do not entirely fulfill the viewer's wishes of having a hot anime waifu. Nuance in character writing also seems to be as good as dead, which is why we now have characters like Maomao who can just do anything ever despite all logic going against that. Not like male characters are safe from terrible writing either. There are series that pretend pedophiles can be redeemed as long as they get waifus.

For a lot of modern fans - I believe it's both a lack of media literacy as well as terrible preferences. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but let's not pretend it is a concept completely free of objectivity.

No problem. I enjoy reading them and it's comforting to know this godforsaken site still has some sense left in it.

Amazing reviews that get the point across perfectly. Lately, media literacy has been on a steady decline in anime and games in particular. Not to say zoomers don't just eat up the "new slop" whenever it comes out in cinema or that "booktok" isn't actively harming literature, but the more nerdy mediums have been affected quite destructively by a severe decline in intelligence, both logical and emotional.

Complete drivel is put up on a pedestal as if it were something pretentious (the good kind) nowadays. I've never felt such a disconnect prior to 2020. I literally know people who consider that Kokoro Yabai shit "the greatest romance story ever made" and would get into arguments about it. I'm not particularly a fan of Shakespeare, but to act like some incel waifu nonsense is even remotely on the same wavelength as Romeo and Juliet is retarded. It's not even on the same wavelength as the average trashy shoujo.

That MaoMao review was so funny and well written that I HAD to read it all, despite its impressive size. I'm calling it a MaoMao review since most of it was about her and I can't blame you for not liking the show if you had so much to hate about the main protagonist. I also had some gripes with this one, mainly romance, which is like only thing that I would say was abysmal. By the end, I was hoping they would just drop the romantic subplot and focus more on her family drama. Lakan’s backstory, in particular, was the one moment in the show that actually felt emotionally impactful.

Another thing: the reveal that her father is high ranking officer and the biggest strategist in China made the whole story feel like fan-fiction. It's this Chosen One nonsense when the underdog turns out to have connection to the biggest figures in the world.

"I'm too gorgeous so I have to cover my flawless face with ugly juice" is stupid shit that reminded me that I'm not the target audience.

Is MaoMao a Mary Sue? I wouldn't say so. While she does come across as highly capable, she isn’t always the smartest person in the room. Her father, for instance, is portrayed as more skilled in deduction and pharmacy, despite his age. Her “victory” over Lakan: she wasn’t actually good at the game, she won simply by knocking him out. There are characters with abilities that MaoMao doesn’t possess. The real issue is that in order for her to shine as a poison expert and detective, the palace staff that would normally take care of that issues had to be incompetent fools. I can't deny that she is extremely smart, which might be a little over the top for some. Her being smart and that obssesion with trying out new poison, along with all of her quirks, were deliberately added to appeal to a specific audience. It's not peak writting but the show certainly knows who it’s targeting, and that’s exactly what the score reflects.

The show was not doo doo for me, I wouldn't finish it if it was, but reading your criticisms, I noticed some of the show's flaws that I ignored. Still, I enjoyed watching the character in a unique setting, which felt different from most other shows. And there were some moments that I would say were great - like this thing with Lakan. Sure, I got annoyed by some stupid elements in this story, but overall, it was a relaxing to watch. The biggest flaw a show can have is being boring, and for me The Apothecary Diaries wasn’t boring. The most popular movies aren't always the ones with the best storytelling or artistic value. They’re often the ones that are just plain fun, like the MCU or Fast and Furious franchises. The high ratings for this show come from its entertainment value, which is often how audiences judge things, as opposed to critics. On Rotten Tomatoes this difference is clear as day.

Hey man dropped by to tell you on your great review on The Apothecary Diaries. I honestly was dumb founded on the success of that horrible show and I felt the same way about the show. Even in the first arc the Imperial Dr didn't know about the dangers of the powder and some servant girl from brothel knew? After the death of the prince and the truth coming out many people would have been executed, but the doctor kept his job and his head, and this 2 episodes in. Great job man and very informative.

Nice TTGL review. I'm not exaggerating when I say that its one of the most insufferable pieces of media I've watched.

your review of bakemono was a great read and i agree with some of the points you brought up

Hey man, very nice and sometimes funny reviews!
Bless you

rodenthuman dork list XD

bread

Now that's a Walter White quote