read it, good manga but weird af lol
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Media Anime and Manga Thread MK3 - Beware Spoilers
- Thread starter Martin
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I finished Mushishi and I don't have much more to say about it. Some episodes stuck with me but I think overall it wasn't the sort of show you should be binge-watching. But I also watched the three Mushishi specials and boy did they suck. It's like they took three regular episodes and stretched them out to double run-time, and to be honest, most episodes of Mushishi might work better at 12 minutes to begin with.
I feel like Natsume's Book of Friends is getting better. There are more fleshed out supporting characters, higher stakes, and maybe even a villain in the future? But it's still pretty chill and sometimes just feels good. I'm not all about it yet but I'm optimistic.
I remember a lukewarm reception to Blood-C but holy christ I did not expect it to be this bad. The characters look awful. They're all annoying. What does this have to do with the Blood franchise or vampires? Main character is really good at standing around while people get killed. Truman Show twist could be good in a different anime but it leads to a lot of fridge logic in this one. Very misplaced edginess. Commits greatest sin of anime, being unable to end without a movie tie-in. Speaking of, The Last Dark is marginally better, but dragged down by association and dragged out by a lame subplot about hackers.
I actually binge watched the original Haruhi season in a day because it had been 10 years since I'd seen it. Endless Eight isn't a good watch but I'd rather watch episodes of Endless Eight than Gintama. But even the movie making story arc isn't very good compared to the original series. We didn't need five episodes of backstory to what was once a perfectly obvious single episode (also the movie episode was the best one in the series imo).
Might as well talk about The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya here, given it's the only reason I watched season 2. It's a strange anime movie, being almost three hours long. But it doesn't really stand on its own either. Why wasn't this just season 3? Is it because season 2 bombed so badly? Anyway, this is definitely the best part of Haruhi, and really what ties everything together and makes it worth watching at all. Though I'd have liked it more if it spent longer on the part where Kyon is in the alternate timeline.
This is probably also a better place to talk about the three Kizumonogatari movies. The action is amazingly animated, but as the story is from "part one" of the series, it isn't up to par with "part two". And there really wasn't any reason to make three movies out of it, especially when the final movie has a 10 minute breast fondling sequence.
I'm now caught up My Hero Academia. It's a really good show, probably one of the best things I've been watching. But even though it's mostly consistent it does have its minor ups and downs. Most shonen are really defined by massive story arcs (Chunin Exams, Enies Lobby, Namek, etc) and MHA doesn't have those. So a single season like 3 can flip flop between awesome stuff like the training camp and villain hideout arcs, but then have the pretty okay hero license arc. It's a show that only gets better, but I'm still waiting for it to reach Plus Ultra.
While I said the first season of Rurouni Kenshin was like a weak version of Trigun, I was hopeful that in season 2 a more serialized story would really improve the show. I was disappointed. Instead the shows morphs into a much more typical and very outdated shonen. "How can Kenshin win?" I use my special attack! Followed by talk-no-jutsu. Rinse and repeat at a snail's pace. Damn. Even the soundtrack blows ass. Would I have liked this show if I watched it when I was young? I don't know. But I do know I could have and never made the effort past a handful of episodes here and there.
Of course the real purpose of watching Rurouni Kenshin at all was to watch Trust and Betrayal, which I didn't expect to be so vastly different. You'd barely figure they were in the same universe. Trust and Betrayal is dark and edgy, reminding me of a lot of ninja ovas from the 90s. It doesn't even feature much real backstory, with stuff like his master and the Shinsengumi being minor footnotes. On the other hand, it's probably more interesting a story as a result. I was surprised by the story twist and really this was better made in almost every way, which isn't saying a lot. It's very okay.
Damn man. Why did Fate Prisma Illya actually have to get good? I guess it figures. The only reason I ever watched this show was because of Oath Under Snow and the last season is the only one to tie into it. And it's pretty good. We just abandon three seasons of fucking baggage and shove the main character into a new world with new enemies and only two previous superboss enemies to help her. That's pretty cool. If only there weren't a scene where two 12 year olds make out, but having only one of those in 12 episodes is holding back in comparison to previous seasons. It's still unresolved, there are still questions, and I want to see more. It's not an amazing show and it's too shitty for too long to recommend it, but I guess I think it's the third best Fate show yet.
After I had seen 100 episodes of Gintama I didn't feel the need to say anything new about it. But then I got to season 3. Pretty much everything from episode 129 and on is just rancid garbage. And I feel it would be hard for even Gintama fans to disagree that some of these episodes just suck so much ass. But then we get to the story arc "Yoshiwara in Flames", which is said to be one of people's favorite story arcs. And for the show, it is a new level of trash. I actually liked the somewhat more serious story arcs up until now, but this goes straight past seriousness and into edginess. I mean, if you like almost 10 episodes of women getting violently murdered in your comedy anime, maybe you will disagree. Seems like some exploitation bullshit to me though, and really, it was the last kind of shitty storytelling that Gintama hadn't explored yet. I argued that I probably could never give a show on MAL a 1, because if I gave it a 1, why wouldn't I have dropped it? But this is a 1 right here. In other words, the worst anime show that I haven't dropped. And while I take a long break from it, and even though I'm halfway through it, I'm strongly considering just not coming back.
Finally, I watched Haikyuu: Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa, aka How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Sports Anime: Oops All Good Parts. It's great. I'd like to see more. I'm not so worried about the copious amounts of sports anime I have left to watch now.
I feel like Natsume's Book of Friends is getting better. There are more fleshed out supporting characters, higher stakes, and maybe even a villain in the future? But it's still pretty chill and sometimes just feels good. I'm not all about it yet but I'm optimistic.
I remember a lukewarm reception to Blood-C but holy christ I did not expect it to be this bad. The characters look awful. They're all annoying. What does this have to do with the Blood franchise or vampires? Main character is really good at standing around while people get killed. Truman Show twist could be good in a different anime but it leads to a lot of fridge logic in this one. Very misplaced edginess. Commits greatest sin of anime, being unable to end without a movie tie-in. Speaking of, The Last Dark is marginally better, but dragged down by association and dragged out by a lame subplot about hackers.
I actually binge watched the original Haruhi season in a day because it had been 10 years since I'd seen it. Endless Eight isn't a good watch but I'd rather watch episodes of Endless Eight than Gintama. But even the movie making story arc isn't very good compared to the original series. We didn't need five episodes of backstory to what was once a perfectly obvious single episode (also the movie episode was the best one in the series imo).
Might as well talk about The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya here, given it's the only reason I watched season 2. It's a strange anime movie, being almost three hours long. But it doesn't really stand on its own either. Why wasn't this just season 3? Is it because season 2 bombed so badly? Anyway, this is definitely the best part of Haruhi, and really what ties everything together and makes it worth watching at all. Though I'd have liked it more if it spent longer on the part where Kyon is in the alternate timeline.
This is probably also a better place to talk about the three Kizumonogatari movies. The action is amazingly animated, but as the story is from "part one" of the series, it isn't up to par with "part two". And there really wasn't any reason to make three movies out of it, especially when the final movie has a 10 minute breast fondling sequence.
I'm now caught up My Hero Academia. It's a really good show, probably one of the best things I've been watching. But even though it's mostly consistent it does have its minor ups and downs. Most shonen are really defined by massive story arcs (Chunin Exams, Enies Lobby, Namek, etc) and MHA doesn't have those. So a single season like 3 can flip flop between awesome stuff like the training camp and villain hideout arcs, but then have the pretty okay hero license arc. It's a show that only gets better, but I'm still waiting for it to reach Plus Ultra.
While I said the first season of Rurouni Kenshin was like a weak version of Trigun, I was hopeful that in season 2 a more serialized story would really improve the show. I was disappointed. Instead the shows morphs into a much more typical and very outdated shonen. "How can Kenshin win?" I use my special attack! Followed by talk-no-jutsu. Rinse and repeat at a snail's pace. Damn. Even the soundtrack blows ass. Would I have liked this show if I watched it when I was young? I don't know. But I do know I could have and never made the effort past a handful of episodes here and there.
Of course the real purpose of watching Rurouni Kenshin at all was to watch Trust and Betrayal, which I didn't expect to be so vastly different. You'd barely figure they were in the same universe. Trust and Betrayal is dark and edgy, reminding me of a lot of ninja ovas from the 90s. It doesn't even feature much real backstory, with stuff like his master and the Shinsengumi being minor footnotes. On the other hand, it's probably more interesting a story as a result. I was surprised by the story twist and really this was better made in almost every way, which isn't saying a lot. It's very okay.
Damn man. Why did Fate Prisma Illya actually have to get good? I guess it figures. The only reason I ever watched this show was because of Oath Under Snow and the last season is the only one to tie into it. And it's pretty good. We just abandon three seasons of fucking baggage and shove the main character into a new world with new enemies and only two previous superboss enemies to help her. That's pretty cool. If only there weren't a scene where two 12 year olds make out, but having only one of those in 12 episodes is holding back in comparison to previous seasons. It's still unresolved, there are still questions, and I want to see more. It's not an amazing show and it's too shitty for too long to recommend it, but I guess I think it's the third best Fate show yet.
After I had seen 100 episodes of Gintama I didn't feel the need to say anything new about it. But then I got to season 3. Pretty much everything from episode 129 and on is just rancid garbage. And I feel it would be hard for even Gintama fans to disagree that some of these episodes just suck so much ass. But then we get to the story arc "Yoshiwara in Flames", which is said to be one of people's favorite story arcs. And for the show, it is a new level of trash. I actually liked the somewhat more serious story arcs up until now, but this goes straight past seriousness and into edginess. I mean, if you like almost 10 episodes of women getting violently murdered in your comedy anime, maybe you will disagree. Seems like some exploitation bullshit to me though, and really, it was the last kind of shitty storytelling that Gintama hadn't explored yet. I argued that I probably could never give a show on MAL a 1, because if I gave it a 1, why wouldn't I have dropped it? But this is a 1 right here. In other words, the worst anime show that I haven't dropped. And while I take a long break from it, and even though I'm halfway through it, I'm strongly considering just not coming back.
Finally, I watched Haikyuu: Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa, aka How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Sports Anime: Oops All Good Parts. It's great. I'd like to see more. I'm not so worried about the copious amounts of sports anime I have left to watch now.
Been getting into the habit of buying more of my manga recently. Just bought the Azumanga omnibus and the first 3 volumes of SZS. If anyone has any recs please let me know.
Of course Prillya is good, Shin Oonuma is a genius.
That's nice to hear! Have you seen or do you plan on seeing any other kids shows? Personally, I'm a fan of PriPara and Precure.
Jewelpet sunshine is also pretty fun, but otherwise the over the top sweetness kinda kills similar shows for me. I like cocotama because of how retarded they are and all the nonsense and slapstick that ends up happening (but the parts focused on the humans is really boring), and jewelpet has everyone being huge assholes to each other, so it works out
I can totally understand that, but the extreme sappiness and over-the-top cuteness is actually one of the things I love about shows like PriPara. I think the lack of slapstick is definitely felt sometimes, especially when the show is compared to Milky Holmes for example (hell, plenty of scenes that would be considered tame in any other show are accompanied by a large "don't try this at home" sign) so I might not recommend the show to you knowing that, but I still find the characters' antics incredibly entertaining. As for Jewelpet, I haven't made my foray into the franchise yet but I'll keep your Sunshine recommendation in mind when it comes to prioritizing which seasons to watch. Thanks.
From what friends have told me about jewelpet, its seasons are basically treated as complete reboots, with each one having the same characters but doing different things, with different kinds of writing and style and all sorts of things. So if you don't like sunshine then it might be worth looking at some of the other seasons as well to see if there's one you like.
I can't tell if I'm just really tired of teenage melodrama shows or if... it's actually super boring... seems like it's the latter..
This season has been so... mediocre. Seemed like it would be okay but then we have disappointments like Irozuku and insults like SAO and the bunny girl show where's all the good shit
Irozuku is so fucking dumb and directionless that for the past 4 or so eps I had to check back to make sure I wasn’t missing one because I legit couldn’t tell if anything had happened or not, even the big reveal that she’s from the past has literally no impact on the main cast, it’s the skeleton of a teen drama but with no meat the whole magic of the show is an excuse for the time travel aspect and presented as this whole thematic hook but has so little impact on the world and story that if magic isn’t explicitly being mentioned I forget it’s in the show. The colourblindness drama is dumb too and I can’t remember the name but I’m certain I’ve seen the colours fading from the world plot at least 10 other times it’s such tired and lazy symbolism.
This show pisses me off in the same way phantom world in that it’s a show with obviously high production value that sucks ass but at least phantom world was hilariously shameless and trash irozuku is just boredom and disappointment.
Bunny girl can’t decide whether it’s shit or good but the latest arc was awful with the resolution being “but I do love you” that made me wonder if maeda is on staff. Kaede is a piece of shit and I can almost hearing the writer praising himself for being subversive and writing deep emotional characters while making imoutos and idol trash characters the protoganists.
Watch zombie land saga and hinomaruzumou and if you want moe trash vampire next door, they’re the shows of the season
I mean, Gridman’s okay, once they explained what was up with Akane by use of a random and so far irrelevant character literally just showing up and infodumping you kinda knew almost everything that’s gonna happen. I hope I’m wrong but it hasn’t really been interesting for me since then other than not outwardly being bad and it has okay visuals
i’ve been trying to get people to watch idol shows for literal years and everyone refuses until this random ass zombie idol show appears???
re: bunny girl, I just can’t get over how unrealistic the characters are, not even the whole puberty syndrome thing, that’s fine, but it’s just full of scenes of characters infodumping and explaining their feelings which Makes Sense because teenagers are totally able to analyze themselves and their lives on Deep Emotional Levels that make Perfect Sense to those around!! i’m just reminded of oregairu and cringe every time. I would rather see a show where the girls figure out their own solutions rather than meeting some really boring dude who can perfectly analyze their lives and solve all their problems
I thought puberty syndrome was gonna be another way of exploring the whole chuunibyou idea how teenagers think they’re important and have special powers which could have been interesting but from what I saw it seemed to be quite literal?
double posting if that’s alright
Looks like everything ending this year is over now. What was everybody’s AOTSs? AOTY? Favorite anime they watched this year that didn’t air this year?
I feel like we had some good stuff this year, but nothing really as powerful that stuck around for me as Made in Abyss or Houseki no Kuni did for me, but I want to hear everyone else’s thoughts!
Looks like everything ending this year is over now. What was everybody’s AOTSs? AOTY? Favorite anime they watched this year that didn’t air this year?
I feel like we had some good stuff this year, but nothing really as powerful that stuck around for me as Made in Abyss or Houseki no Kuni did for me, but I want to hear everyone else’s thoughts!
Hataraku Saibou without a doubt, the show lacked polish here and there but the concept of anime cells fighting off disease in shounen battle style is too good to pass up. Crazy levels of scientific accuracy, brilliant metaphors, super entertaining characters and a mad soundtrack come together to make a show that I've already re-watched thrice and I will surely remember as a classic.
I've seen 2-3 anime this year depending on whether you count Mo Dao Zu Shi, so I don't have the most informed opinion, but if I saw a fourth or fifth show, I think the odds are unlikely that they would be better than Devilman Crybaby. It's weird how much weebs have slept on Crybaby in spite of the fact that it's Yuasa. You're supposed to worship the ground he walks on, and he's been on fire all year.
If we're including movies, then AOTY is definitely Maquia and I'm not gonna be convinced otherwise.
If we're including movies, then AOTY is definitely Maquia and I'm not gonna be convinced otherwise.
As a fan of favourites lists I couldn't miss the opportunity to chip in with my personal AOTS picks, so here they are:
Winter: Hugtto Precure
Watch Precure
Spring: Uma Musume Pretty Derby
I was initially harsh on this show, dropping it while it was still airing but upon revisiting it thanks to several recommendations I actually found myself having a lot of fun. This definitely isn't the kind of show I would recommend to everybody but for me to be as emotionally invested as I was in the races and spe-chan's growth as both a racer and a character is, I believe, a testament to the show's quality.
edit: accidentally omitted this since I wrote this post on low sleep but the show also has some fantastic attention to detail which made the world feel actually lived in. glad i picked this one back up.
Summer: Yama no Susume Third Season
In an age full of appallingly low-effort CGDCT shows like Hinako Note and Pan de Peace it's nice to see shows like Yama no Susume that try to convey a meaningful message to the audience (in this case: go outside and make some friends you stupid bitch). It also helps that this is accompanied by some great visual direction from Yuusuke Yamamoto who most of you would probably know from Welcome to the NHK, and all this in bite sized 13 minute episodes full of enough warm and wholesome goodness to melt even the coldest heart.
Fall: SSSS.Gridman
Gridman is pretty badass. I was initially pretty worried about whether I would enjoy the show but ended up being pleasantly surprised. I found out after finishing Gridman that it was written by Keiichi Hasegawa, a prominent screenwriter on both toku and mecha who had also worked under Chiaki Konaka quite a bit so that might have had something to do with my enjoyment. All in all pretty good but I was pretty disappointed to learn that Borr was actually a guy so I'm docking points for that.
Winter: Hugtto Precure
Watch Precure
Spring: Uma Musume Pretty Derby
I was initially harsh on this show, dropping it while it was still airing but upon revisiting it thanks to several recommendations I actually found myself having a lot of fun. This definitely isn't the kind of show I would recommend to everybody but for me to be as emotionally invested as I was in the races and spe-chan's growth as both a racer and a character is, I believe, a testament to the show's quality.
edit: accidentally omitted this since I wrote this post on low sleep but the show also has some fantastic attention to detail which made the world feel actually lived in. glad i picked this one back up.
Summer: Yama no Susume Third Season
In an age full of appallingly low-effort CGDCT shows like Hinako Note and Pan de Peace it's nice to see shows like Yama no Susume that try to convey a meaningful message to the audience (in this case: go outside and make some friends you stupid bitch). It also helps that this is accompanied by some great visual direction from Yuusuke Yamamoto who most of you would probably know from Welcome to the NHK, and all this in bite sized 13 minute episodes full of enough warm and wholesome goodness to melt even the coldest heart.
Fall: SSSS.Gridman
Gridman is pretty badass. I was initially pretty worried about whether I would enjoy the show but ended up being pleasantly surprised. I found out after finishing Gridman that it was written by Keiichi Hasegawa, a prominent screenwriter on both toku and mecha who had also worked under Chiaki Konaka quite a bit so that might have had something to do with my enjoyment. All in all pretty good but I was pretty disappointed to learn that Borr was actually a guy so I'm docking points for that.
I don't like this post. No sir, not at all.
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I've finally finished all of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It's actually a lot like Death Note in that the first half is about two personalities squaring off, the story naturally concludes, and then it meanders on for the same amount of time with no real story goal. But in season 4 we get some really forced conflicts. Terraism is a fucking joke, possibly the most anticlimactic story element in anime.
Is Mo Dao Zu Shi anime? It's on MAL and that's why I watched it, so that's why I'm writing about it. I imagine for a lot of people, watching this was like watching anime for the first time again. It is nuts. People sword fight for no reason. There's a lot of fast action. Lots of characters that all look the same. I was really didn't want to mistake this for being cool just because it was new and weird like I did with Tenchi Muyo when I was a young lad. But nah this show is fucking awesome. It's like they smashed all the most popular American TV shows together with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The downside of this show is that the first season is entirely backstory, and from the looks of it, the backstory isn't even finished yet.
Remember when I said that Gintama episodes should be really short? The Disastrous Life of Saiki K illustrates this perfectly. It's a complete opposite in terms of quality, which is to say that it's delightful. Consistently funny comedy with a lot of energy derived from its fast pace. Even lesser episodes that are just one joke have the dignity to still be only four minutes long.
So I've finished the Monogatari series. Well, until I see the movie that just came out. But I think it's still correct to say I've "finished" the series, as season 3 spent like seven storylines building up to a finale. That got pretty fucking tiring to be honest. Starting with Tsukimonogatari (which doesn't feel like it should be its own show, but them's the perils of adapting this light novel series), then onto Owarimonogatari Part I, which spends like three storylines on this stuff about Sodachi, a girl with no supernatural problems at all, and you're left wondering, what was the fucking point of that? But before you can find out, there's Koyomimonogatari, a slice of life show that at least has the decency to be only 12 minutes per episode. So you can skip that one right? Nah, cause it kills off the main character. Sorry if that's a spoiler, at this point you'd have already seen Hanamonogatari, so you know there's actually no stakes at all and everyone lives happily ever after. Then there's Owarimonogatari Part II... look, I already said this series riffed on the works of Kinoku Nasu and that that's okay because it also adds its own thing most of the time, but my fucking god was I floored by how much the actual series ending rips off the ending to Tsukihime (in case you didn't know, Monogatari also shares the basic premise). When the penultimate episode ended and Koyomi was like "the twist is such and such" I audibly was like motherfucker. So that's Monogatari series. It has a lot of style. The substance is very hit or miss. Good during season two. Kind of a mess otherwise.
Watching these other great shows, I understand just how much I was giving a pass to Natsume's Book of Friendship is Magic. What a lame show. I don't even understand who it's for. It is too laid-back for kids not to be bored by it, but too FRIENDSHIP for adults.
Also weird that I watched three shows in December starring shit-stain Shinji Matou as protagonists.
Is Mo Dao Zu Shi anime? It's on MAL and that's why I watched it, so that's why I'm writing about it. I imagine for a lot of people, watching this was like watching anime for the first time again. It is nuts. People sword fight for no reason. There's a lot of fast action. Lots of characters that all look the same. I was really didn't want to mistake this for being cool just because it was new and weird like I did with Tenchi Muyo when I was a young lad. But nah this show is fucking awesome. It's like they smashed all the most popular American TV shows together with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The downside of this show is that the first season is entirely backstory, and from the looks of it, the backstory isn't even finished yet.
Remember when I said that Gintama episodes should be really short? The Disastrous Life of Saiki K illustrates this perfectly. It's a complete opposite in terms of quality, which is to say that it's delightful. Consistently funny comedy with a lot of energy derived from its fast pace. Even lesser episodes that are just one joke have the dignity to still be only four minutes long.
So I've finished the Monogatari series. Well, until I see the movie that just came out. But I think it's still correct to say I've "finished" the series, as season 3 spent like seven storylines building up to a finale. That got pretty fucking tiring to be honest. Starting with Tsukimonogatari (which doesn't feel like it should be its own show, but them's the perils of adapting this light novel series), then onto Owarimonogatari Part I, which spends like three storylines on this stuff about Sodachi, a girl with no supernatural problems at all, and you're left wondering, what was the fucking point of that? But before you can find out, there's Koyomimonogatari, a slice of life show that at least has the decency to be only 12 minutes per episode. So you can skip that one right? Nah, cause it kills off the main character. Sorry if that's a spoiler, at this point you'd have already seen Hanamonogatari, so you know there's actually no stakes at all and everyone lives happily ever after. Then there's Owarimonogatari Part II... look, I already said this series riffed on the works of Kinoku Nasu and that that's okay because it also adds its own thing most of the time, but my fucking god was I floored by how much the actual series ending rips off the ending to Tsukihime (in case you didn't know, Monogatari also shares the basic premise). When the penultimate episode ended and Koyomi was like "the twist is such and such" I audibly was like motherfucker. So that's Monogatari series. It has a lot of style. The substance is very hit or miss. Good during season two. Kind of a mess otherwise.
Watching these other great shows, I understand just how much I was giving a pass to Natsume's Book of Friendship is Magic. What a lame show. I don't even understand who it's for. It is too laid-back for kids not to be bored by it, but too FRIENDSHIP for adults.
Also weird that I watched three shows in December starring shit-stain Shinji Matou as protagonists.
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Natsume is targeted at young women but it still has a fairly decent male fanbase IIRC. Usually people who dislike it enjoy Mushishi and vice versa I've found.
oh yeah, I forgot about Devilman Crybaby being this year since I mentally sort stuff by which season it aired in and it wasn't seasonal. Definitely one of the best of the year.
it's been a long, long time since I read Tsukihime and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time finding a decent plot summary but I don't remember it being anything like Monogatari outside of the surface level setup (high school guy with harem, supernatural stuff and vampires are heavily involved). In particular the final twist where
is nothing like anything I remember in Tsukihime.
Tsukihime probably does need that remake, but it was announced more than 10 years ago now, and Mahoyo was supposed to be the first of a trilogy, was delayed two years, and now it's been six years since it came out and no word on a sequel...I think Nasu is just content to ride the FGO gravy train at this point.
wait what
it's been a long, long time since I read Tsukihime and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time finding a decent plot summary but I don't remember it being anything like Monogatari outside of the surface level setup (high school guy with harem, supernatural stuff and vampires are heavily involved). In particular the final twist where
the villain is the manifestation of Araragi's inability to move beyond his adolescence
Tsukihime probably does need that remake, but it was announced more than 10 years ago now, and Mahoyo was supposed to be the first of a trilogy, was delayed two years, and now it's been six years since it came out and no word on a sequel...I think Nasu is just content to ride the FGO gravy train at this point.
I was pretty sure this would warrant a follow up, but I wasn't gonna rant or anything.
Disclaimer: I don't think Tsukihime is that good, partly cause I read Fate first, partly cause it rips off Hellsing an awful lot. Monogatari doesn't have the Hellsing stuff unless you count vampires. But it starts with a loner protagonist meeting a special "progenitor" vampire who has just been almost killed and has to form a pact with her to deal with threats that she herself cannot in her current state. Then it ends with exactly what you had in hide tags. And for good measure, it even throws in a lesson at the end "you can't help others without helping yourself first" hmmmmmmmmm
Now between the beginning and the end there's a lot of original stuff and those are the best parts, but the ending was really silly to me.
It also came out in 2006 when urban fantasy was blowing up due to the popularity of FSN (Magical Index is ridiculously blatant in its wholesale theft of the nasuverse as a setting, but that has a bad writer so there you go) and stylistically its somewhat similar to Nasu's writing (arguably better but also definitely too self-obsessed). And while Nasu is heavily inspired by classic literature, Monogatari heavily cribs from arthouse cinema (if you don't believe me, just watch Pierrot le Fou), which is absolutely fine. It just seems like he planned out the beginning and end to Monogatari back in 2006 and probably should have gone with a different ending as the books became their own thing.
EDIT: Somehow I've forgotten the most important critiques
Season 3 of Monogatari has no noteworthy OPs to speak of. I mean really, OPs were 80% of the reason to watch the show
But the biggest thing......... Koyomi and Hitagi NEVER FUCK. Even SAO got that right. You can't have a story where characters talk about sex all the time and the writer is a terrible pervert and then pull this shit where in six months two teenagers never fuck. Like, have it happen off screen, but it's not believable. You usually have this kind of thing where a show is sexualized but the protagonist doesn't get laid because you're indirectly selling sex to a younger audience (which is a shitty trend) but Monogatari seemed much more mature than that. For fuck's sake even Shirou gets laid and he's a sex negative prude who was taught by his bull dike guardian that all men are rapists, but Koyomi gets squeamish holding hands with anyone older than 10 (and then it's not in an innocent way).
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@ aots/y. I didn't really watch seasonals prior to this past one, Fall, and the best way to describe it would be disappointment. Everything I watched that aired and finished I rated a 6 or lower or just straight up dropped. Pretty much every show just went downhill from the start, except for Slime which is incredibly slow but not bad. Bunny Girl could've been salvageable if they didn't give the best girl 1 minute total of airing time after her arc ended, but even then I can only take so much Laplace's Demon and Schrödinger's cat. If I wasn't watching stuff with friends I'd have dropped even more than I did lol
Prior to fall, I watched 4 eps of Violet Evergarden, got bored, didn't feel like watching it again. Might try it again but minimal interest beyond it being pretty. AoT S3 had like, two of the best episodes ever in the series but aside from that it was definitely the worst season so far. Aside from that, only been watching this from years prior. hibike, houseki no kuni, clannad, blend s, higurashi, haruhi, etc. Very satisfied with all of them.
Prior to fall, I watched 4 eps of Violet Evergarden, got bored, didn't feel like watching it again. Might try it again but minimal interest beyond it being pretty. AoT S3 had like, two of the best episodes ever in the series but aside from that it was definitely the worst season so far. Aside from that, only been watching this from years prior. hibike, houseki no kuni, clannad, blend s, higurashi, haruhi, etc. Very satisfied with all of them.
idk what you mean by "season 3" but I really hope you don't mean Monogatari Series: Second Season because it has the two of the best openings in the series and two of my favorite openings ever. Mousou♡Express and Kogarashi Sentiment are absolutely fantastic and are top five in the series. Apparently, r/araragi did a strawpoll for best Monogatari opening two years ago and both are top five. I have no idea what else you could mean by Season 3 unless you're talking about Nekomonogatari in which case there's only one opening.
I've hated on anime for some pretty dumb reasons myself before, but this is so absurd that I'm baffled. I don't know if you simply didn't get it or if you wanted to see it, but it's implied multiple times that they did do it. But I still don't understand how this is a detriment in the first place. Like yeah, the series has a lot of perverted aspects, jokes, talk, etc but did you expect to either see them going at it or see Koyomi to brag to other characters about hitting it? I seriously cannot imagine a scenario where it's spelled out or even implied more than it already is and still fit in the series.
So why in the world would I be talking about Season 2 when I said Season 3? Shaft calls Tsuki-Owari 2 "final season" but it's the season after two, so...
Alright you got me. I forgot about Tsukimonogatari (I've probably forgotten a lot of things from Tsuki-Owari 2 in the month I watched them).
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