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WoodyAlien3rd from Persimmon Land (Italy) Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: Omelette du fromage~
#226: Sep 9th 2022 at 10:06:04 AM

I'm enjoying Uncle From Another World so far, I like the humor about the isekai protagonist being as much of a reject and a loser in the fantasy world as he is in his home country, the fact that he uses his immense powers to do the most mundane of tasks, and the fact that he's much more worried about Sega being irrelevant than all the stuff he had to endure in the other dimension.

However I have not read the manga so I hope it does not boil down to "Uncle is too dense to understand he has a harem" and "Uncle says/does something badass and it turns out he was talking about Sega games", because, while funny, it could start to get repetitive.

(As a side note, personally I think Fujimiya is much cuter and sexier than the supposedly gorgeous girls from Uncle's harem. No idea if it's a result of the anime's chara designs as a conscious choice or if it's a problem inherent in Informed Attractiveness.)

"Effective Altruism" is just another bunch of horsesh*t.
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#227: Sep 9th 2022 at 10:13:33 AM

[up][up] Phillip only learning now is a hilarious, hilarious thing.

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#228: Sep 9th 2022 at 10:19:06 AM

Human relationships and interactions weren't his strong point.

Wake me up at your own risk.
KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#229: Sep 9th 2022 at 4:16:35 PM

[up] Given the two posts immediately above you I honestly can't tell if you're talking about Phillip or Oji-san [lol]

Lyendith Since: Mar, 2011
#230: Sep 9th 2022 at 4:40:56 PM

Currently halfway through LycoReco. It is really damn good. I expected to find Chisato annoying, but she just has the right mix of silliness and professionalism, I like her. Slightly less fond of Takina, but I enjoy watching her be slowly infected by her partner’s genkiness. Their banter in general is great.

But man, the Lycoris system is all sorts of fucked up.

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#231: Sep 9th 2022 at 4:45:50 PM

That has its own thread! Although, more spoilers there.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#232: Sep 9th 2022 at 6:59:49 PM

[up][up]It's a fantastic show. Really looking forward to how the last few episodes will hurt me.

It's been fun.
fillerdude Since: Jul, 2010
#233: Sep 9th 2022 at 8:55:04 PM

Re: Isekai Ojisan I think Fujimiya is supposed to be a beaut, going by episode 7. Even Takafumi, being dense and his perception colored by gross child!Fujimiya, thinks she is very cute.

Re: LycoReco I think I’ve mentioned it before but it’s easily top three non-sequels of the cour, and maybe even makes top five if you include sequels. Setting could have used a little more construction but Chisato and Takina are immensely likable.

Re: Fuuto PI Philip is precious. A bit uncomfortable seeing the “eww, no homo” gag, though….

Fang kicked major Meganeura ass though, that was swell.

Edited by fillerdude on Sep 9th 2022 at 8:57:06 AM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#234: Sep 9th 2022 at 10:01:36 PM

Oh, if you don't have plans to watch Double, here's a fun tidbit about all the little robots. When it came down to it, Shotaro defeated the big bad without transforming, and just using the devices and a hat. Bad guy defeated, plot foiled. Transforming into the super mode with Phillip was only needed to finish the guy off.

As for LycoReco: I dunno, I think more setting detail would get in the way. It's really a character-focused thing, setting has enough detail for that. Focus on background info would detract from what actually matters. [lol]

GabrieltheThird Anvilicious Since: Apr, 2012
Anvilicious
#235: Sep 10th 2022 at 5:16:19 AM

[up]Dunno, for me the setting is one of the things that's really getting in the way for me to enjoy Lycoris. I've been trying to watch it but a few things about it rub me the wrong way so haven't gotten past episode 5 yet. The setting just feels like it both is twisting itself in pretzels to justify a very specific world state that just does not flow logically and a way for the creators to get at a very specific kink of schoolgirls shooting people. "Look at this fascist nationalist utopia we've created and the cute action girls who populate it!" is what I hear the show constantly shouting at me.

I'll admit though, it's easy to see how for others this might be a genuinely good selling point about the show. It just depends on how much credit you're willing to extend, how much you trust the shows creators. I could see myself being really interested of the show if I had any trust that they went anywhere interesting when exploring the setting they created. Sadly, my trust in most creators has bled dry over the years and I expect they'll just use it to animate neat set piece battles and draw cute girls in cute clothes. Which are nice things to have, but the older I get, the more I require good writing to back them so I have some emotional investment in those cool set pieces.

Hope they prove me wrong. Let me know if they do and I'll work harder to get through it.

Edit, because this got me to thinking of another show airing this season: Hataraku Maou-sama

For me this show coming back after a 10 year hiatus really underlines how much the world has moved on and I and my tastes have grown. I remember watching the show thinking it was OK, though very of its time show with decent production values the over the top/fanservicey/a bit trashy writing that was endemic of the past few years. I wasn't the greatest fan of it but I enjoyed it. It was a good simple watch.

The season airing right now feels like the relic of those times. It's interesting how that kind of writing grates me pretty hard now and how I keep thinking while watching that I'm happy that we're seeing less of element X nowadays. To me this show drives home the point that while anime has developed new problems it's dealing with, it has also come a long way in some basic ways and everything is a bit better than it was ten years ago. Also that I'm a curmudgeony bastard who's watched/read way too much fiction in way too many decades so that my media literacy is getting in the way of me enjoying stuff I did back when I understood less about what I was consuming.

Way further edit because I don't think I was clear on how my rambling about Maou-sama ties to my lack of trust in Lycoris: Maou-sama exemplifies the trashy/in the moment writing that made me less likely to approach a new series with the mindset that it'll deliver on the promise it's setup made, because it and its ilk never did. It never really explored why it's Maou is a good guy here and a bad guy there in any interesting way. Just offered surface level explanations that justified the story moving forward.

Edited by GabrieltheThird on Sep 10th 2022 at 4:01:19 PM

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#236: Sep 10th 2022 at 5:42:00 AM

While that's entirely valid, I think we'll have to see how the series wraps itself up before we can decide what the message is. So far it seems pretty likely that the organization doing the whole assassin thing will see its worldview fall apart about as hard as the main villain's.

It's been fun.
fillerdude Since: Jul, 2010
#237: Sep 10th 2022 at 7:28:24 AM

While I did say I wanted more worldbuilding in LycoReco, I would not expect the premise to make logical sense under close scrutiny. It’s a Girls with Guns anime and you have to buy into its core axiom. I would say however that DA does need a bit more fleshing out.

As for Hataraku Maou-sama, I guess one of the problems is that the anime hasn’t covered most of the light novels, so it’s still lacking with regards to stuff like Maou’s backstory. That, and season 2 does seem like it will overall be a step down from season one.

Also interesting point: for me my increased media literacy has only gotten me more invested in fiction. I love picking stories apart.

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#238: Sep 10th 2022 at 8:11:30 AM

I wouldn't expect an anime that's running for one cour to put a lot of time into justifying its very premise. Yeah, there could be more information about DA or the situation as a whole, but there's only a limited time budget to work with, and it doesn't seem like a good use of said time to go off on tangents explaining and justifying the why of the situation. It just is. You're not going to get an in-depth study of why the world is like this and how it came to be, because that's not the story it's telling. Now, looking at some of the obvious FLAWS of this is part of the story, but most of it is the sort of thing where answering it would waste time.

Reminds me of one of the things in Symphogear that never got too much notice over all five seasons—it's actually set in the near future (S1 is mostly in 2043 for instance). Plenty of time could be spent on explaining this and other setting details and not having them in website keywords and supplementary info, but that leaves less time for story.

Edited by RainehDaze on Sep 10th 2022 at 4:14:17 PM

GabrieltheThird Anvilicious Since: Apr, 2012
Anvilicious
#239: Sep 10th 2022 at 11:18:03 AM

[up] Since I'm thinking about the past, I can remember myself making basically the same argument about Darker than Black, back in... 2007. tongue Basically that while we got some answers about the world, the story wasn't about the world, but rather about the characters and those got fleshed out just fine. I still stand by that, so I do have sympathy for your argument.

But I do feel like the case there was a bit different from what it is with Lycoris. In Darker than Black the world was the same as ours, more or less, and then it changed because, you know, super powers showed up and that twisted the world in all kinds of minor and major ways.

With Lycoris there was some random bit of terrorism and now Japan is suddenly a fascist state with murderous secret police running around and being cute about it. It lacks that through line that lets it make instinctive sense. So it keeps being this lacking step you stumble upon constantly. Relatively easy fix for this would be to make it not a version of our Japan but rather a nation X in a world Y. Remove it from a reality a bit, which makes it flow a bit smoother.

Also I suppose in five episodes I haven't enough good character writing to justify a character first view on the show and I'll admit that I'm pretty much past being able to get invested on stuff happening just because it's cute girls doing it. Especially when the cuteness of those girls does feel a bit like it's been distilled in a lab after studying the cute girl trends of the last 20 years.

But really, I'm not that down on Lycoris. It's pretty similar to Spy X Family for me, though the latter had a bit more interesting writing now and then and I got through it a lot easier. Really super well made and animated show with a good bit of flash and bang that has nothing much interesting to say. Which is something I totally would have watched 10 years ago.

[up][up] Heh yeah. I love picking apart stories too. It's not that my better media literacy has made me lose interest in media in general, I love a lot of stuff still. Like I'm very happily watching Ao Ashi right now because it's simple but well written.

It's just that I find that I have less patience of truly mediocre stuff that does nothing interesting. I find it easier to watch something actively bad, because then I have things to focus on. Like I'm kinda enjoying Classroom of the Elite this season because it's completely failing at writing smart characters. So these badly written "smart" characters end up acting like how teenage brats with no emotional intelligence think smart characters would act, so it ends up working. It's actually interesting when the show somehow fail upwards.

Edited by GabrieltheThird on Sep 10th 2022 at 9:19:11 PM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#240: Sep 10th 2022 at 2:02:02 PM

I heavily, heavily disagree with the idea that you could improve anything by going "actually it's not in our world but different it's in a Suspiciously Similar Substitute just because". That would be an easy way to make it worse—if you kept everything else the same, it would still be so obviously Japan that it would get weird. The story doesn't gain anything by being set in a fictional world, it doesn't rely on being able to have some big political drama (like Spy x Family does, wanting a potential continental war in a vague 50's setting), but it can use cultural symbolism. And, you know, actual landmarks to establish "this is just a little bit into the future, but the setting and culture is familiar".

It's a piece of spy fiction with the premise 'what if Japan had a group of extrajudicial special agents that happened to be cute girls'. Obviously the last part is kind of ridiculous, but that's the genre and any attempt to seriously justify it gets ridiculous fast. The first part... not so much. Internally, it's not established as a thing as a reaction to the terrorism—even in episode 1, it's said Chisato was involved in said terrorist incident, they obviously predate it. Just that the current peace is maintained by it. And 'after a massive terrorist incident that wrecked the Tokyo Skytree, said agency got much more proactive about the killing' is plenty sufficient to give background and context—there's a few bits more as the story's gone on from there, but it's not really been a story about the agency.

Even by episode 5, it's got the main plot threads established—Chisato and how the Alan Institute comes into that; the gun deal and what they're for; and then Majima's whole terrorism schtick and targeting the Lycoris. None of these would really have been served by taking an episode out to give background info or cramming in more of an infodump just to establish how this group came into being. I feel it's important to reiterate that they only have a single cour to work with, here, and the pacing of the overall story reflects it—the LN spinoff might have more, it would certainly fit that format better. And it's already started to get in on 'this system is a bad one', which is definitely more of a running theme as the plot strands have come together, but it was already starting to be evident then—that's half the point of episode 4.

It would be nice to have more info on DA and parts of the setting than what's been supplied as it's been relevant. I just don't see any timing in the story that would have really facilitated it or how it would have benefited to get bogged down on the foundation of 'when did this Japan develop murderous secret police'. And the story is then very much focused on a peace then maintained by trained assassins being very bad.

Just, you know, the cute girls are kind of the genre it's going with. That part's always going to be weird. [lol]

GabrieltheThird Anvilicious Since: Apr, 2012
Anvilicious
#241: Sep 10th 2022 at 2:49:44 PM

[up]

I just don't see any timing in the story that would have really facilitated it or how it would have benefited to get bogged down on the foundation of 'when did this Japan develop murderous secret police'. And the story is then very much focused on a peace then maintained by trained assassins being very bad.

Just, you know, the cute girls are kind of the genre it's going with. That part's always going to be weird. [lol]

The disjunction of these two elements is exactly the reason why I'm opposed to handling it like Lycoris does. Because I'm of the opinion that if you want to have fashy urban goverment assassins as a backdrop for your cute girls doing cute things, you have to justify it. You can't just handwave it. Contrasted to the Darker than Black example I used earlier, where suddenly one day people just had superpowers. That is something you can handwave and then examine the outcome, because the context is different.

It's the same problem a lot of isekai series stumble into. You have the happy go lucky adventures of your hyperpowered protagonist growing their harem and, for some reason, preaching the superiority of Japanese cuisine and then they glimpse a slave crossing the road. And that's a problem. Because now your happy go lucky fantasy world has slavery and you have to somehow deal with that fact. Because if you don't, it casts your godlike main character in a rather awkward light if they move on with their happy go-lucky-life.

Fascism is similar in many respects. You can't just carelessly use it as a backdrop or your fanbase will skew very heavily in a specific direction. So, to have the setting Lycoris has, it has to deal with it and justify it. How it came to be and what they're going to do about it. If the show is good, it can rise up to that challenge. I sincerely hope it does. It's just that having watched the episodes I did, almost half of the show, it seems to skew very hard towards the cute antics of cute (and very marketablenote ) girls. That's why every episode I watch, I lose a bit more faith in the show paying off its premise.

It's also the reason why I suggested removing the show a bit from the present and current time a bit might help. Like slavery in an isekai is one thing, but imagine the jarring effect of introducing a slavery plotline in a show set in current day Japan. Fascism is the same. It just hits too close to home.

But yeah, I've only seen 5 episodes so it's very much possible I'm wrong when it comes to this show and am using it as an example in a way that it ultimately doesn't deserve. I just find discussing issues like these very interesting. Thanks for taking part. smile

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#242: Sep 10th 2022 at 3:06:20 PM

I mean, it does explain it somewhat: the reason for them being cute girls (there's an offhand mention of male equivalents at some point, but none of them have showed up yet, if they even will in the last few episodes—just a mention of being scary) is that A) it's much easier to have orphans disappear and single-mindedly train them (not a novel concept, but yeah), and B) in most situations, high-school girls can go around without attracting attention. They are, in uniform, innately unobtrusive in an urban environment. How and why this system specifically developed, when it came to be in the specifics etc.—not touched on, and not, I would say, actually important; I know in one of the later episodes it touches on DA having roots going back a long time, but that sort of background exploration detracts from the story.

Hm, see, I think the show actually has pretty good pacing for the idea. The first episode is mostly introduction, but it and the other three do a good job of moving the plot along and (because they're focused on Takina's problems) showing how this is bad for the people involved. Episode 5 is more about Chisato and acting as a bridge to what's been one of the two dominant plots of the other broadcast half of the anime. And the other main plot is "and this is how a system like this can and will go very wrong as a way of keeping the peace", which sounds like it's wound up going where you want, albeit paced out over the season. Although can't say how it's going to end quite yet.

As much as you can whilst writing something with an optimistic tone rather than going all drama and tragedy, there's enough of those already.

It's also the reason why I suggested removing the show a bit from the present and current time a bit might help. Like slavery in an isekai is one thing, but imagine the jarring effect of introducing a slavery plotline in a show set in current day Japan. Fascism is the same. It just hits too close to home.

That sounds like a strong argument for always setting such things in our world, not a vague analogue, actually. If you want it to have meaning, letting people distance it is the exact wrong option.

Edited by RainehDaze on Sep 10th 2022 at 11:09:17 AM

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#243: Sep 10th 2022 at 6:21:21 PM

We're getting to the point now where the system starts to show its strain and fall apart in-universe, possibly, after all.

It's been fun.
thuse from see timezone Since: Oct, 2020 Relationship Status: Whoa, they're bisexual! I didn't know that!
#244: Sep 12th 2022 at 8:39:42 AM

Final Reactions: Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life
A pretty fun watch even if it was mainly a Yuuji festival with lots of slimes. Of all the scenes, my favorite would definitely be Yuuji ascending to heaven with food! If there will be more, I can't wait to see it!

Iaculus Pronounced YAK-you-luss from England Since: May, 2010
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
#245: Sep 12th 2022 at 10:52:23 AM

The main thing is that LR is an alternate history where the government established multiple cults of child assassins during the Meiji Restoration to keep the peace, which managed to survive and become ever more deeply entwined in the country's institutions. Which, well, fair enough. That was a deeply weird political period with some deeply weird political legacies extending well into modern Japan.

What's precedent ever done for us?
Nachtwandler Since: Dec, 2014
#246: Sep 12th 2022 at 3:18:14 PM

BTW. Sekai no Owari ni Shiba Inu to is a grwat series desite its motion-comic stilee. It is short and they manage to cramp a bunch of gret jokes in a couple of minutes and do not run out of the new ones. Haru-san best harem lead of the season!

Also, I watched the Odd Taxi movie. People are raging that it got very little actual new content and that remaining plotline took like 1 minute to resolve, but I liked the whole style used for recap and most of the new bits really improved some weaker plot points. So it is a good addition to the seties IMHO.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is technically still a Summer series. Watched a couple of eposodes so far. All in all it is your typical Trigger when Imiashi is at helm. I liked the main heroine and overall art direction, though, the plot is pretty strightfirward.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Sep 13th 2022 at 10:09:40 AM

thuse from see timezone Since: Oct, 2020 Relationship Status: Whoa, they're bisexual! I didn't know that!
#247: Sep 15th 2022 at 7:52:56 AM

Netflix Reactions: Bastard!! 2nd cour
One whole cour, and it's mostly dealing with this bastard Abigail... I swear the amount of fake-outs here is way exhausting! Nevertheless, it was action upon action (on top of the trademark stuff I refuse to talk about). Can't wait to see how it will continue!

Envyus Since: Jun, 2011
#248: Sep 16th 2022 at 10:53:20 PM

I still find it funny that Liches are called Eddies in Bastard, and the Eddie we meet is called Lich.

SKJAM Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Baby don't hurt me!
#249: Sep 17th 2022 at 7:42:01 AM

Hanabi-chan continues to be amusing fluff.

Nachtwandler Since: Dec, 2014
#250: Sep 17th 2022 at 11:21:44 PM

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was great. Some people complained it was a bit two fast-paced but I was fine with it. It was Trigger/Imaishi as its best: gory and stylish action, interesting but a bit nuts characters, bittersweet ending. The story was pretty straightforward but they wrapped up all plotlines nicely.

I actually got interested in game now but: a) I have not played The Witcher yet b) My laptop will not handle it and I left my PC at home.

What's up with Tomoyo Kurosawa playing appealing character in cyberpunk anime again and abruptly dying second to last?

Edited by Nachtwandler on Sep 18th 2022 at 9:18:12 AM


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