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I'm genuinely surprised that Mononogatari (careful, NOT part of the monogatari franchise. Very easy mistake to make) got an adaptation. Even more surprised that it appears to be a pretty well-made one at that. I like it. Then again, I already liked the source material and have always been a sucker for distinctive artstyles in anime, so it was more or less to be expected.

Also, Charan... if you're already catching up with stuff, I beg of you, do not forget 86 season 2 (or season 1 part 2? One of those). Please.

Finished 86 a while back -- pretty sure I posted about it. Not bad, not bad. I know it hit you hard, but neither the GF nor I were particularly moved. It was good.

Started LycoReco tonight. 3 eps in and I'm quite impressed. The show made me realise I have a certain...triangle of expectations for a great anime. A holy trinity of sorts.

1. Great production values
2. Great voice cast
3. Great story/characters

If a show has all 3, it is GREAT. If it has any combination of the 2, it's good. If it only has one, it's almost certainly a miss for me. I'll dwell on this some more to see if there are any exceptions, but I can't come up with any right now.

LycoReco is 1 and 3. The seiyuu for it are a bunch of nobodies for the most part, so clearly A-1 spent more on production than anything else. Which is good. Very good. And the core set of characters are really easy to watch -- no annoying tropers, no so-stupid-it-hurts behaviour. All very believable within the world presented. I don't think A-1 expected it to be a hit, else they'd have gotten a bigger cast.

Back to that trinity, some of my favourite anime don't hit all three. Apocrypha, and most of Fate, is 1 and 2. Kenshin is 2 and 3. Bastard!! is 2 and 3. Way of the Househusband is 2 and 3. OG LOGH is 2 and 3. I'm a Spider So What is 2 and 3. Sword Art Online is 1 and 2. Record of Grancrest War is 1 and 3. Hellsing Ultimate is 1 and 2. Gintama is 1 and 3. And so on.

What are some that hit all three then? Jujutsu Kaisen. New LOGH. Psycho Pass. Yona of the Dawn. Vinland Saga. Non-filler Naruto. Princess Connect. Bakemonogatari (post clean-up). FMA: Brotherhood. Eighty-Six. Kaguya-Sama.

And some that hit all three STILL miss with me. Attack on Titan. Kimetsu no Yaiba.

More importantly, here are some from the top 100 from MAL I consider to have only one of the holy trinity's angles: Fruits Basket (2), Kimi no na wa (1), Jojo's (2), Chainsaw Man (1).

And then there's Your Lie In April at 67 with NONE of them.

Not that my top 100 or MAL's would be all that similar, but it's an interesting way of looking at it. MOST of the top 100 have 2 of the 3.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

Finished 86 a while back -- pretty sure I posted about it. Not bad, not bad. I know it hit you hard, but neither the GF nor I were particularly moved. It was good.

You did? Huh, I must have COMPLETELY missed that. Whoopsie. Yeah, it hit me decently hard, but mostly I thought it had an almost perfect ending. That buildup, the flashback, the music, the goddamn animation... it fit together perfectly imo.

Also, BLOODY HELL, Sawano can make a killer drop even in a slow and emotional song? I bet the dude could turn just about anything into an amazing piece of ost with a drop that hits like a truck.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

1. Great production values
2. Great voice cast
3. Great story/characters

If a show has all 3, it is GREAT. If it has any combination of the 2, it's good. If it only has one, it's almost certainly a miss for me. I'll dwell on this some more to see if there are any exceptions, but I can't come up with any right now.

Well, I know that the one I consider to be my favourite anime has all three. Made in Abyss. Also, I won't specify which part of it, everything Made in Abyss we got so far was nothing short of amazing imo. Sure, it's not a series you can recommend to just anybody, but that doesn't have anything to do with the quality.

Speaking of, have you seen the 2nd season? Either my memory is failing me right now or you didn't talk about it here. At least here.

hmm made in abyss s3 is already announced but without any timeframe. So it least it will come. maybe as an anime finish only *shudder*


I also never quite understood the hype about 86. the first cour was okay i a little bit teenagey. The second part was only pathos build on self sacrifice. I would have loved to see the main female lead from s1 flee from their kingdom a lot more than this. But yeah sawano can drop, but this nothing against his RE:creators work imo. Still a good OST through ;)

My favourite Sawano is probably Thunderbolt Fantasy. Urobuchi Gen brings out the best in him, and his vocal collabs with OG Anison Legend TMR aka Nishikawa Takanori -- 'His/Story' and 'Roll the Dice' are two of the best anison, period. For that matter, I think I prefer Sawano's vocal work over his instrumental: 'Binary' from LOGHDNT is a masterpiece worthy of the original series' powerful but understated OPs and EDs.

But this is like comparing one's favourite dishes at a top-end restaurant. Sawano, Kajiura, either Kanno, Iwashiro, Iwasaki, Yokoyama, etc...they're all good, and they're all amazing when given the right project.

Re Made In Abyss, we only did the first season and will likely redo that before the movie and s2. Related to that and the above, I probably mentioned in passing I 'met' Kevin Penkin once long ago. Specifically, I was Community Manager on a game he was slated to do the OST for, before he got big with MIA and Shield Hero, and coordinated an online Q and A between him and the community. That was the first and last time I did anything like that, but it was quite enjoyable. I knew he was going to get big after that, especially when that game project imploded and failed. He was too good for it.

I'm always hella impressed when non-Japanese make it in the anime scene. Be it global sakuga aces pulled in for special projects (or as emergency help, as with Wonder Egg Priority and Revue Starlight), multi-lingual seiyuu, anison singers, or composers -- we need more and more of this to get anime out of the niche where it's made specifically for and by the Japanese market. Not that I am ready to call any old adult-aimed animation 'anime' thank you very much Netflix (fuck off with that please), but I do think it's become enough of a 'style' that non-Japanese can make very excellent anime-style work. BUT I suppose then it becomes a matter of finding a convenient term for that: 'anime-style' and 'animesque' are just too clunky. I guess that's where Netflix just threw their hands in the air and were like fuck it, it's all anime now bitches. Enjoy your Donghua, your Frederator-produced CARTOONS FOR GROWN UPS, your crappy 80s remakes.

Handyman Saitou in another world also got an adaptation this season. And it has no right to be as good as it is. If I had to describe it, I'd say it somewhat feels like a slightly more serious Konosuba. Also more relaxing than funny. Most of the time. With a title and, let's face it, a premise about as generic as it gets, it'd be easy to overlook it. I would still recommend you guys to give it a try, I feel like this is gonna be one of this season's sleeper anime.

So far rock solid animation, voice acting is on point and the characters were adapted amazingly well. Also, each and every single one of them, particularly the side characters, has at LEAST one screw loose. Despite the setting and name being as generic as they can be, the series itself is anything but.

LycoReco sort of faceplanted in the third act. Can't say I am surprised. Was extremely good otherwise.

Already done RoR s2.0 because man it is just so inventive. Fatejojo's no Ken is truly unique. Sugita killed it. Hard.

What next...eh SAO movie 2 at the local cinema tomorrow afternoon. Should be fun.

The GF is eyeing the one about three old spies adopting a kid. From the cast, looks like Spy X Oyaji.

SAO Progressive 2 continues the very fine tradition of turning Asuna into a fucking badass and Kirito into her eager little love interest. We are all hoping for some gay action but are pretty sure this is still SAO so the mighty Head Cannon (second only to the Armstrong Cannon) will probably have to do the heavy lifting there.

I just want something that will bring me the same feelings FMA brotherhood did.
One of the best series out there imo.

HxH was decent but nowhere near that level.
It feels like the more Anime I watch, the faster I lose my interest in them.

There aren't many shounen out there outside of the big cashcows that run forever.
And why would they invest time? Its cheap and it fast just to make a halfway (stupid)decent series of some light novel with a power fantasy in an easy to understand world(isekai). Then rake in the profits and you're good to go.
There is also not much classical style shounen out there.
That is the reason why they are resurrecting bleach and soon kenshin. I'm quite sure that we will see remakes of YuYu Hakusho and Kekkaishi if this tactic reaps profit.
And while shounen is anime, anime isn't shounen, just something to think about.

Talking about remakes, Oranges Trigun is awesome. While the CGI is still strange, orange shows its mastery with it and storywise I actually like this Interpretation
of Vash and the World more. Away with the slapstick, and away with the shounenhero trope.

And shedding a tear for poor Hikari no Ou... This would be one of the greatest animes in a long time, ruined by the poverty of its producers :(