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Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

Various Thoughts

Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

  • Category Archives 2020 – Summer
  • Anime Related » 2020 - Summer
  • Dragon’s Dogma & KIMI to BOKU no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru SEISEN

    Posted on January 22, 2021 10:10 am by Offkorn Comment

    I’m not really sure what the point of making a new series based on an action-RPG from nearly a decade ago was. If the MMO version were still active or they were in the process of hyping a sequel I could understand… but there just doesn’t seem to be any reason for it to exist.

    Is it worth watching? Not really, no. Though I will grant that the production team did seem to put some effort into re-working the story to fit a miniseries mold.

    The show with the long title on the other hand has an obvious reason for existing: It’s an adaptation of an ongoing light novel series. And is it worth watching? Again, not really. Although most of the action scenes are surprisingly decent; it’s rushed, the comedic elements feel out of place, and both the story and character behavior are as generic as can be.

    Skip them both unless you’re incredibly bored. Maybe even then.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8897

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comic Relief Dragon's Dogma Drama Ecchi Fantasy Finished Funimation Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Netflix OVA Romance Series Televised
  • GREAT PRETENDER & Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen

    Posted on January 12, 2021 12:18 am by Offkorn Comment

    I first tried watching Great Pretender back in September… and didn’t get very far. Three attempts later and I’ve only just finished the second arc and can safely say the series simply isn’t for me. It’s certainly engaging visually, and a bit of a Black Lagoon dynamic begins to emerge over time, but the character interactions don’t sit quite right. Particularly how Makoto is treated.

    The second Mahouka series meanwhile is notably lacking in visual quality (particularly when compared to the prequel) and doesn’t have much going for it story-wise either. The characters are its saving grace, and even they take a hit due to the increased harem elements. Frankly, this season probably wouldn’t be worth watching at all if it weren’t for the second arc which introduces a couple new entertaining characters and manages to salvage some of the franchise’s earlier dynamics.

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Spring 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Dramatic Support Dropped Ecchi Finished Harem Hulu LN Adaptation Mahouka Netflix Partial Adaptation School Life Series Televised Urban Fantasy
  • Quanzhi Gaoshou 2: the King*s avatar & Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha ~Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei Shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou~

    Posted on December 4, 2020 12:50 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The follow-up to Tebie Pian, though it’s been longer than expected in arriving, fully delivers on its promises. The same effortless destruction of pro-player scheming you’ve come to expect from the series with better animation (than the first season). Not much else to say really; either you like the franchise or you don’t.

    Completely unrelated to the above beyond sharing the ‘overpowered protagonist’ trait, Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha doesn’t take itself very seriously for the most part. Choosing instead to play up the genre’s various tropes in a manner similar to a homage. And, surprisingly enough, it manages to do so fairly competently (even touching on some pretty dark themes)… at least until the lackluster confrontation-heavy conclusion anyway.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8897

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Crunchyroll Dramatic Support Fantasy Finished Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Partial Adaptation Quanzhi Gaoshou Series Sports Televised Virtual World
  • Rifle is Beautiful & Yahari Ore no Seishun Lovecome wa Machigatteiru.: Kan

    Posted on November 11, 2020 12:12 pm by Offkorn 1 Comment

    Rifle is Beautiful starts out as a pretty standard schoolgirl club comedy. Then about a third of the way through it starts to introduce serious sports elements, turning into a full-blown sports series in the concluding third… resulting in a particularly uneven showing despite the comedy style remaining intact throughout. While I have to give it credit for not artificially dragging things out as those series tend to do (usually with innumerable training episodes), the sport it decided to focus on (beam rifle target shooting, a variation on air rifle shooting) being actively sedentary does not work in its favor.

    OreGairu‘s final season picks up immediately from where the previous one left off. So it would be a good idea to (re)watch the 13th episode of that before starting this. The character interactions are the highlight as always, but there’s a bit of an awkwardness overlord issue and the primary source of drama comes across as a hamfisted plot device. It is, however, nowhere near as bad as what the Saekano movie pulled; only ending up a minor speed bump in an otherwise enjoyable series conclusion.

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Comedy Comic Adaptation Dramatic Support Finished LN Adaptation OreGairu Partial Adaptation Romance School Life Series Sports Televised
  • Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shite shimatta… & Lapis Re:LiGHTs

    Posted on November 3, 2020 2:28 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

    The show with the excessively long title (which can be more sensibly shorted to HameFura if you’re so inclined) is a slightly unconventional isekai variant in which the protagonist doesn’t actually have any notable abilities. Her lack of notable skill is, in fact, apparently the very reason all the other characters like her so much (well, that and the way she unconsciously steals all the character-specific romance events for herself). This presents a problem; there’s not much of a reason to root for someone who continually fails into success after all.

    A slightly more conventional ‘magical academy’ series, Lapis Re:Lights starts out featuring some pretty generic character behavior and event developments. Unilaterally forcing Tiara into Rosetta’s group at the beginning was completely unnecessary and leaves a bad taste, while the eventual idol reveal in the second episode (which almost completely invalidates the setting’s premise) is just soul-crushingly banal. I couldn’t bring myself to go any further.

    Then there’s also Honzuki no Gekokujou, another reincarnation-based fantasy isekai with an unpowered protagonist, which I long suspected wouldn’t appeal to me based on said protagonist being a child. A suspicion that turned out to be completely accurate.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8897

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Spring 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Comedy Dramatic Support Dropped Fantasy Finished Harem Idol Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Mixed Media Project Music Romance School Life Series Televised
  • NO GUNS LIFE & Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T.

    Posted on October 7, 2020 2:08 pm by Offkorn Comment

    The action-drama No Guns Life has a visual similarity to Zetman, an atmospheric similarly to detective noir, and a small ill-fitting streak of often ecchi-related comic relief. Personally I just strongly disliked Tetsurou and Olivier’s character design and wasn’t interested enough in the plot developments to stick with it beyond the first half.

    Yet another entry in the Index franchise, Railgun T takes place sometime between the Accelerator spinoff and Index III. It’s strange. Ideally you would want consistent visual quality, right? Yet here the end result comes off as unnaturally natural. Like, there are fully drawn people walking around with detailed background destruction down to individual glass shards… the world actually looks real.

    And that’s the problem: Anime, in my opinion, shouldn’t look real. It’s disconcerting. Almost as disconcerting as the large amount of fanservice (e.g. there’s an entire episode dedicated to two characters’ quest to enlarge their bust size).

    Oh yeah, I also watched some of Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! recently; if you really like the mechanics of making Anime (and don’t mind children’s drawings) give it a shot. I’m not all that fond of creator mythmaking myself and didn’t like the character design much either.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8897

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Spring 2020 - Summer 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Dramatic Support Dropped Ecchi Finished Funimation Incomplete Source School Life Science Fiction Series Televised Toaru
  • Sword Art Online: Alicization & War of Underworld

    Posted on September 23, 2020 5:37 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

    There are a great many problems with the three part sequel to the SAO Ordinal Scale movie.

    The central one is the ill-conceived fusion of the sci-fi modern day plotline and Underworld’s essentially stand-alone fantasy plotline. The two never had any reason to mix. Assassin’s Creed does something similar, and the criticisms about the way that franchise mixes its past/present settings hold doubly true here since Underworld is effectively self-contained as opposed to being a reflection. The author could have easily wrote Alice and Eugeo’s story as its own thing with no association whatsoever to Kirito’s group and ended up with a far more consistent and immersive product.

    Pretty much all of the remaining issues can be tied back to Kirito’s involvement with the story; spontaneous power-ups, random cameo appearances, last minute saves, questionable character motivation, harem elements, and bizarre plot twists all. Really, the only flaw that can truly be called its own is the re-occurring theme of using psychosexual megalomaniacs as main villains.

    Vaguely related to all of that in a ‘you can probably watch this if you’re a fan of the genre’ sense are the series Runway de Warrette and Princess Connect! ReDive. The first of which is a fashion industry-focused Cinderella story overloaded with assholes who magically become nice while the latter is a conventional fantasy action-comedy whose protagonist has the personality of a particularly dull puppy.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8897

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    This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Winter 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Battle Shounen Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Fantasy Finished Hulu LN Adaptation Romance SAO Science Fiction Series Televised Virtual World

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