Fall 2018 Anime

Im loving all the shows Im watching.

Except Goblin Slayer.

Have you tried not watching it?

It's good MST fuel, if nothing else.

MST?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 aka "the thing were a guy and his robot buddies make fun of shitty movies."

Oh, right. Riffing. Yeah, Goblin Slayer does have potential there.

...you know, I never actually watched Mystery Science Theater. I should give it a try sometime.

Watch the episode where they do Manos: The Hands of Fate

I've had more fun ripping into Goblin Slayer than I have reading it, so I definitely agree there.

I could try not watching it, but I wont

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Nov 19th 2018 at 9:50:21 AM

Not a big fan either, but there's always some time in the week where I am bored enough.

This new season once again shows that anime is really bad with the whole issue of women. I'm catching up on Zombieland Saga now and I'm really hating the producer character. His behavior has all the hallmarks of an abusive relationship: Unpredictable temper, belittling and questioning the girs' worth, forcing them and the whole thing about keeping them in a cell...

Then there's the Slime show with too long a title that has mostly handled women as eye candy and with the main characters last thoughts before dying being that he hadn't taken advantage of enough girls during his life...

The issues of Goblin Slayer have been discussed enough already.

Even in the more wholesome Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru, the girl is there to mostly serve as a reward for the other characters and as a cheerleader. Here you could argue that it's less of an issue since the focus is on the boys, but even then the show did feel that it needed the girl in the first place, when frankly the show could work just as fine without her.

All this is nothing new and there's plenty of examples of it in every new season, but it does make it harder and harder to watch over time, as I feel resentful that it forces me to try to and ignore something this fundamentally wrong to enjoy something. Which naturally leads me to wondering if its right for me to be enjoying it at all.

@Gabriel: While some of those have legitimate issues and some I haven't seen, the abusive manager in Zombieland Saga is meant to be abusive and unlikeable. The show taps deeply into critiques of the idol industry, and the portrayal of him as a mercurial, unpredictable person is absolutely intended, in my opinion. An argument could be made that it's part of the black comedy the show uses, too.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that he is abusive, and I'm sure he'll be given a sympathetic backstory reveal at some point, but the viewer's sympathy is definitely supposed to be with the girls of Franchouchou, not Kotaro, who is actually what I could call the antagonist of the show.

I agree with you on your read on Kotaro, but where he crosses from deconstruction back to offensive for me is that the audience is supposed to find him funny. I think. I don't, so my read on this might be mistaken and maybe the creators are playing on a level one above from me.

Now, a character being both horrible and funny is OK in black comedy. But I feel the show is less a black comedy and more a comedy that is occasionally uncharacteristically dark. In a good black comedy the situation is bleak, yet funny. Zombieland feels like it just wants to be funny and an idol show while occasionally being really bleak.

Anyway, granted, I'm only three episode deep into the show, so my read might be entirely wrong. I'm just not quite sure if I'll stick around to see more.

It's true that it doesn't always fully commit to it, yeah. But there are a few great moments in later episodes, including Kotaro interrupting a heartfelt getting the band back together moment by accidentally running Junko over with the van. I can definitely see where your hesitation is coming from, though, and it's true that the show doesn't 100% commit to making Kotaro a bad guy. That said, for me at least it works on multiple levels - the abusive nature of his mood swings helps the commentary work, and he also works as part of the dynamic of the Cast Full of Dumb. Mileage may vary, of course.

@Red Savant Same with Tensei for me I suppose. Some people will like Shizu and some people won't and has a problems with how the anime treat her especially at a later on I guess.

This weeks Gridman Akane being God in Gridman had her admit this week she created the other humans via her Kaiju.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Nov 24th 2018 at 3:07:46 AM

I guess I'm late to this party but I've been watching some anime with my friends each Saturday. Our list is:

• Uchi no Maid ga Uzasugiru!
  • Incredibly degenerate, but the cat-and-mouse antics between Misha and Tsubame are often pretty funny. Also has some really fluid animation at some points, there's clearly some love going into it at Doga Kobo. I'd never tell my irl friends that I watch this.
• Goblin Slayer
  • Everybody's loving to hate on this, and I dislike it too but for different reasons. Beyond the problems with the premise itself, it's just a really bad adaptation, from the incredibly awkward Goblin Slayer CGI model to outright skipping arcs. Episode 7 had Goblin Slayer seemingly dead and Episode 8 just opens with him being right as rain, while waking up besides a nude Priestess. without explaining any of the circumstances of what happened. It just speaks of poor treatment of a story. At least it's a better thing for Mili to have their names attached to than fucking Bloodivores.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo
  • This is actually my first time watching Jojo, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's very, uh, Jojo.
• Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai
  • I Can't Believe It's Not Bakemonogatari! Seriously though, this show really won me over. Sakuta is a really likable protagonist, and the character interactions between him and the various other characters is both entertaining and endearing. Not a lot of anime truly look at the the culture of Japanese high schools as a whole, especially with regards to bullying. Also Sakuta and Mai are really adorable together.
• Release the Spyce
  • I really am enjoying this; the girls are very cute, the show beats you over the head with Les Yay and the story beats often mix silliness with surprising darkness under the covers, but I can't help but feel like I want this show to push just a little bit farther. I can't help but compare it to Yuki Yuna since they share a writer.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime
  • I didn't expect to like it that much, but while it's nothing amazing, it's certainly entertaining and self-aware of it being a god-mode MC that it doesn't get too obnoxious. Also the previous arc had a surprising amount of emotional torque for this kind of show, which bumped it up quite a bit for me.
• Akanesasu Shoujo (doesn't have a page yet)
  • I haven't seen a lot of discussion of this show here, and that's kind of a shame. The dramatic opening is a lie; this show is positively silly. Episode 4 is when it stops pretending that it's a deep and dramatic show and also when it picks up in enjoyability a lot, and it hasn't really stopped since. It also marked a noticeable increase in Fanservice, although I personally don't dislike that. It seems more Symphogear than Madoka, and that's okay. I would like to create a page for this show but the character page seems like a conceptual nightmare.
• Zombie Land Saga
  • What can I say about this that hasn't already been said? You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to revitalize Saga Prefecture's tourism industry! It did have a weak period with Episodes 3 and 4, but it's since more than made up for it with a batch of extremely strong episodes. Junko is really fluffy and I love her singing voice, so she's my favorite.

Edited by Uninstall on Nov 25th 2018 at 3:58:45 PM

Re: I Can't Believe It's Not Bakemonogatari! They even make a joke about that in episode one, when the protagonist claims nobody would be interested in their own sister. I wonder if episode four will be about some other girl.

I am watching the current Jojo series even though I had never read or watched anything about Jojo before this season. It is surprisingly accessible. (But then now I have marathoned through the first series, and am watching Diamond is Unbreakable after skipping a few things).

I feel fine having dropped Bunny Girl Sempai after episode 3, as that felt like a complete experience to me. The show's attempts to ape Bakemonogatari are transparent and don't really do it any favors, especially since they take too much focus away from what the show does well (character interaction between Sakuta and Mai) and forces it toward what it does horribly (badly misapplied Technobabble and forced "catchphrases" for the characters, like Mai's continual pointing out that Sakuta is younger than her). It would be a stronger show if it stopped trying to be Bakemonogatari starring Kyon and just focused on its own strengths.

Also, about Zombieland Saga: Yeah, Junko is great. Her singing voice is incredible.

Edited by RedSavant on Nov 25th 2018 at 8:05:35 AM

…Which it does? Bunny Girl is all about character interactions, before or after episode 3. The technobabble is a very minor part of it.

Like I said, I think episodes 1-3 were a solid enough experience, but I also felt like the show spent too much time trying to convince us that Mai is the next Senjougahara, office supply abuse aside. With episode 4 establishing the pattern as 'cute girl suffers technobabble monster of the week', I felt like 3 was a good stopping point, since it felt like a complete story already.

(And as for the technobabble, even if the character saying it says she doesn't know if that's how it actually works, the fact remains that it's essentially the author stepping in to explain what's going on, and it is exactly how it works, right down to the cure. Even if Schrodinger's Cat has absolutely nothing to do with Mai's situation, and it absolutely doesn't, it's clear the author thinks it does and has based the storyline around that false understanding.)

I don't mean to jump on you, though. I don't have a horse in this race.

Edited by RedSavant on Nov 25th 2018 at 9:41:46 AM

Eeh, I get where you're coming from. Personally though, I find it easy enough to ignore that it doesn't deter from my enjoyment. Then again, I'm the kind of fan who's very forgiving of plot-related flaws as long as I like the characters − which I do a lot here.

The weird technobabble nonsense is a bit cringey but it's a pretty small part of the overall picture, since the supernatural problems in practice are just an expression of the various girls' insecurities or life problems. Also given the reference in Episode 1 and how similar their respective first arcs are I'd bet money that this LN was inspired directly by Bakemonogatari. Like I've said though, it does a good job of its own in making the character interactions enjoyable.

Also the whole "quantum entanglement" deal in episodes 4-6 being caused by Sakuta and Tomoe kicking each others butts was pretty silly and makes me think that the author is taking the piss at least a little bit.

Edited by Uninstall on Nov 25th 2018 at 12:51:57 PM

Well the show knows the technobabble is Bull, they make fun of it on more than one occasion. The characters themselves are unique enough and as a whole it feels a bit more like Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Come Wa Machigatteiru than Bakemono.

The Snark on Snark combat here is the best though.

Edited by Memers on Nov 25th 2018 at 12:14:10 PM

First drop of the season goes to... Akanesasu Shoujo. It's just kind of average. It's incredibly cheesy, and sometimes goes into "so cheesy it's fun to watch" territory, but at most times it's just kind of undercooked, not-interesting cheesy. So yeah, it's out of the game for me this season.