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Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

Various Thoughts

Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

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  • Category Archives 2020 – Winter
  • Anime Related » 2020 - Winter
  • ØBSOLETE & PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA SIDE STORY – Magia✧Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden

    Posted on February 11, 2021 3:27 am by Offkorn Comment

    Obsolete is a web series exploring the idea of what would happen to the current western-centric technological hegemony if aliens showed up one day and offered a cheap, powerful machine that could be used for both manual labor and combat to anyone willing to pay their price. As the title suggests, it would become obsolete. While there is a simmering conspiracy plotline lurking around in the background that links the various episodes together, it would probably be best to approach this as more of an episodic ‘what if’ kind of series with a military theme.

    In Magia Record‘s case, it would probably be best to treat it as a stand-alone sidestory rather than as a technical sequel to Hangyaku no Monogatari. It nails the atmosphere and visual style… but stumbles pretty badly at the ‘making you care about its characters’ bit.

    Oh, and if you decide to watch a fansubbed version, make sure to avoid any release that uses YameteTomete’s subs. Arbitrarily changing “Tamaki” to “Iroha” is just flat-out unacceptable. Gods only know what other bizarre alterations they made.

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Dropped Finished Game Adaptation Magical Girl Science Fiction Series Televised Urban Fantasy
  • Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei Shitemita. & BRAND NEW ANIMAL: BNA

    Posted on February 7, 2021 4:09 pm by Offkorn 1 Comment

    RikeKoi is a romantic comedy featuring allegedly university-aged characters, most of whom have relationship issues of one form or another. There isn’t any beating around the bush with the central relationship though, as they’re basically a settled couple from the very first episode and simply refuse to call a spade a spade for the rest. The main flaw, other than perhaps certain characters’ personalities, is the periodic science terminology interludes.

    A completely different sort of comedy, BNA is a multi-genre series focused on social justice and personal identity issues which has pretty much all the hallmarks of the better Studio Trigger series while avoiding most of their worst impulses; there’s no gratuitous ecchi content for instance. There is however still a bit of an issue regarding excessive idealism and seemingly random plot developments though.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8974

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Spring 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll Drama Educational Finished Incomplete Source Netflix Romance School Life Series Televised Urban Fantasy
  • Akudama Drive & 7seeds

    Posted on February 7, 2021 10:36 am by Offkorn 2 Comments

    Being a heist movie in series form, Akudama Drive‘s primary trait is momentum. To work, it’s got to keep the pace moving so that you don’t have time to dwell on the oddities present in the post-apocalyptic setting.

    And it succeeds in that task beautifully.

    7Seeds features a more conventional post-apocalyptic setting but doesn’t pace itself anywhere near as well; the first season is only barely watchable due to a combination of trying to juggle too many balls at once and concluding in one of the worst places possible.

    The second season however improves the pacing quite a bit while simultaneously narrowing the focus, resulting in tighter, easier to follow plot and relationship developments. Making the work as a whole a decent enough choice for when you’re in the mood for relatively light post-apocalyptic survival content.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8974

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Spring 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Finished Funimation Netflix Partial Adaptation Science Fiction Series Televised
  • Asteroid in Love & Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu

    Posted on January 29, 2021 12:56 pm by Offkorn 1 Comment

    Koisuru Asteroid resembles Yama no Susume quite a bit in structure, just focused on geology and astronomy instead of mountain climbing. Though primarily an educational schoolgirl club comedy it also features a not insignificant number of dramatic subplots (usually relationship-related) that crop up periodically, the appearance of which are usually as much of a surprise to the show’s characters as the viewer.

    While also focused on comedy, Isekai Maou features a pretty much equal amount of action and drama as well. This is a series I’ve been on the fence about pretty much since it was first announced due to its synopsis bringing to mind Shinmai Maou no Testament (which did not handle its erotic elements well), but turns out it’s more like a combination of Overlord and Hagure Yuusha. It’s shockingly well made for an isekai harem series, although the ecchi content certainly does veer into overwhelming/awkward/creepy territory more often then I’d prefer.

    Speaking of comedies: I recently tried watching Nami yo Kiitekure… only to lose interest pretty quickly about halfway through the first episode. It was just overly weird. Setup, characters; all weird.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8974

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    This entry was posted in 2018 - Summer 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll Drama Dramatic Support Ecchi Educational Fantasy Finished Funimation Harem Incomplete Source LN Adaptation School Life Series Televised
  • Sundry Anime Movies

    Posted on October 11, 2020 3:19 am by Offkorn 1 Comment
      Gekijouban: FAIRY TAIL – DRAGON CRY
      The improved animation (compared to the parent series) is offset by the worse character artwork and massive pacing hit watching it where it supposedly takes place (post-episode 285) causes. Content-wise it’s effectively a generic battle shounen filler movie.
      Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Fine
      The franchise‘s conclusion begins by almost entirely sidelining the harem aspects to focus on Megumi and how her comments regarding the game mirror her real-life relationship with Aki… only to have the entire thing derailed by a completely unrelated dramatic development about a third of the way through which inexplicably reintroduces the harem elements. They had a natural ending right there only to go and water down and delay it via contrived drama. Why?
      Goblin Slayer -Goblin’s crowN-
      It starts out with a 25-minute recap of the first season (focusing on the violence and rape; which is an odd choice considering the initial reaction to that season was mostly split between ‘the first episode is nothing like the rest of the series’ and ‘the series is nothing but rape’). Such baffling production decisions. As for the new content, the quality level ends up slightly worse the prequel… assuming you go in expecting a double-length TV episode rather than a movie. If you go in actually expecting a movie it will probably end up mostly disappointing.
      HUMAN LOST
      While inspired by No Longer Human and including some of its major plot points, this movie changes far too much to be considered an adaptation (so best to just forget about that if you haven’t already). It’s an action-drama now and a gorgeous work of desolation and futility… though I feel the giant monster and final fight in the ‘void’ were overkill.
      BURN ✠HE WITCH
      Taking place in the same universe as Bleach, being set in a completely different location (one with more of a Harry Potter vibe to it), this movie focuses entirely on the franchise’s magic system rather than item-based or physical combat. It starts off well enough with crisp artwork, fluid combat animation, and mostly decent characters. The problem is with one particular character: Balgo. He’s awful and has no reason to exist beyond being awful and causing some of the most contrived plot developments I’ve recently had the misfortune of being exposed to.
      Sora no Aosa o Shiru Hito yo
      While the movie works decently enough as a music-themed relationship drama for about 3/4ths of its runtime (leavened by ample comic relief), the vaguely Anohana-like supernatural elements don’t really add anything. It doesn’t have much of an ending either, with events being resolved in the most arbitrary manner possible and an epilogue taking the form of still images embedded in the credit roll.

    Related posts:

    1. Miku Hatsune Concerts Doremi has been releasing some of them subbed, and while...

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    This entry was posted in 2017 - Spring 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Fairy Tail Fantasy Funimation Goblin Slayer Harem Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Movie Music Romance Saekano Science Fiction Urban Fantasy
  • 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 8974

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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
  • Dorohedoro & Kabukichou Sherlock

    Posted on September 3, 2020 8:44 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

    The gory CGI action-comedy Dorohedoro appears to have been the inspiration behind Kekkai Sensen, as they have a remarkable number of similarities between them in terms of atmosphere and character behavior. So I’m not really sure why I ended up so ambivalent about it. There are the obvious problems of course, such as the brain-damaged ecchi child, Hakata Ramen-esque baseball episode, cringey late-series mind-control developments, and both Nikaidou and Noi bearing a curious resemblance to Goku… but in the end I think it may have just been that the style of CGI animation they used disagreed with me.

    Kabukichou Sherlock is another comedy series which would have been better off named ‘Rakugo Sherlock‘. I hate rakugo. While I’ll grant that making Sherlock a rakugo addict rather than a drug addict goes a long way toward making him even more eccentric, I’m not sure there are all that many people out there who can stand that level of eccentricity. Especially when almost every other character in the series besides Watson is neurotic in some manner. And that’s ultimately all this series has going for it; neurosis. If you don’t enjoy laughing at outcasts there won’t really be anything for you here.

    If you happen to be in the mood for a cute parenting-themed traveling show however, you can instead check out Somali to Mori no Kamisama without fear of it developing romantic elements.

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Comic Adaptation Dramatic Support Dropped Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Mystery Netflix Series Televised Urban Fantasy
  • I⊃:INVΛ⊃≡⊃ & Inception

    Posted on August 26, 2020 10:21 am by Offkorn Comment

    ID: Invaded is a series in the vein of Psycho-Pass if Psycho-Pass readings resembled Inception‘s dream-diving. It’s far more of a mystery-thriller than an action series however and unfortunately gets weird in a manner similar to King of Thorn toward the end (the Akane stand-in being made even smaller is another oddity).

    Speaking of Inception, that happens to be a movie I’ve referenced a time or two in the past in relation to newer works… yet, I never actually saw the whole thing. I had only seen the trailer and read the Wikipedia summary.

    Having now watched it, it doesn’t appear I was missing much. It’s not as mind-bendy as you would think (Doctor Strange gets weirder than it does) and in effect just ends up a variation on the standard heist movie formula popularized by movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job. Which doesn’t make it not worth watching… just that the description evokes something more innovative than the reality.

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Winter Anime Related Movie & TV Related and tagged Anime Original Funimation Movie Mystery Romance Science Fiction Series Televised Thriller Workplace
  • Tejina Senpai & ITAI no wa IYA nano de BOUGYORYOKU ni KYOKUFURI Shitai to OMOIMASU.

    Posted on August 23, 2020 4:19 pm by Offkorn 1 Comment

    The half-length episode series Tejina Senpai starts out as an amusing enough version of Ueno-san, only to run out of steam partway through and lean ever more heavily on lewdness as a crutch. The joke variety is also lacking and the additional two members that eventually get added to the club don’t really help much in that department (unless you’re a fan of inexplicable pseudo-incest).

    Also a comedy, Bofuri takes the virtual fantasy land action-adventure aspects of Sword Art Online and combines them with a somewhat random style of reaction humor focusing on Mary Sue parody. Before the guild gets formed most of the amusement comes from the sharp contrast between Maple’s appearance/personality and fondness for unintentional brutality… and this part of the show works fantastically. Eventually however it leans too far into the ‘overpowered main character’ shtick to the point event developments become tiresome. Remarkably high-quality action scenes throughout though.

    That’s the danger of parody: You run the risk of becoming the very thing you’re trying to laugh at.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8974

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Summer 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Adventure Comedy Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll Ecchi Fantasy Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Novel Adaptation Parody Romance School Life Science Fiction Series Televised Virtual World
  • PSYCHO-PASS | Sinners of the System & Season 3

    Posted on August 3, 2020 12:55 am by Offkorn Comment

    The three Sinners of the System movies are a mixed bag. Being theoretically set a few months after the first Psycho-Pass movie, in practice only the third actually functions like a sequel.

    The first is a side-story that completely overhauls Mika’s personality (for the better) and feels like it should be a prequel to the second season. It’s also not very good. The second is mostly a prequel flashback to the first season (framed by a few ‘modern day’ scenes set before the previous movie) focused on one of the S2 enforcers. This movie is quite good. And then there’s the 3rd movie, which…. Well, it’s sort of required watching if you plan to follow-up with Season 3, yet it comes across nothing like a Psycho-Pass work.

    That third season begins after a multi-year timeskip, and quite a number of things have changed: Mika underwent another personality overhaul, Japan has relaxed its isolationist stance, Sibyl is gearing up to reveal its presence to the masses, Akane is off the team, and there are three new enforcers and two new inspectors. The old team is still around, just in a notably different role. It’s surprisingly good (clearly meant to be a return to Season 1 sensibilities) but suffers both from a number of unexplained developments and having Arata be so ludicrously overpowered. It also ends on a cliffhanger…

    …resolved by a ‘movie’ follow-up. This bloated conclusion takes the concept of “homage” far too far. It apparently wanted to recapture the magic of the mid-series Season 1 climax, but instead stumbles time and again with both questionable action scenes and by just flat-out dragging things out for too long.

    In the end it’s tough to recommend watching any of these besides the 2nd SS movie: The first is a pointless sidestory, the third lacks any Psycho-Pass sensibility, S3 requires having seen that third SS movie, and First Inspector is just plain tedious.

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Winter 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Amazon Prime Anime Original Drama Finished Movie Mystery Science Fiction Series Televised Workplace

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