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Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

Various Thoughts

Various thoughts on a variety of topics.

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  • Tag Archives Dramatic Support
  • Log Horizon: Entaku Houkai & Hori san to Miyamura kun: Horimiya

    Posted on April 13, 2021 8:26 am by Offkorn Comment

    Log Horizon‘s third season doesn’t waste any time with recaps, so it’d be best if you re-watched the earlier episodes before jumping in. Doing so will also prepare you for it’s somewhat unconventional mix of actionless dialog-heavy arcs and action-focused arcs.

    Back when I first saw the series the only MMO I had played was City of Villains, but now after getting involved with FFXIV I can actually appreciate the extensive mechanic-related references. So experience with the subject matter will definitely influence your enjoyment level… but at the end of the day the choice of whether or not to watch it comes down to how much tolerance you have for extraneous exposition.

    Horimiya meanwhile is an alternate version of an OVA series which fully adapts their shared source material in record time. Which isn’t a complement. This is the kind of story that wants to breath, and here it’s never given the chance.

    Oh the comedy is certainly good and it’s nice to have a cast of characters who actually talk to each other about their problems rather than let misunderstandings fester, but everything develops at such a breakneck pace it strains credulity. It crams over a year of its characters lives and relationship developments into a mere 13 episodes. Just because the show tells you (indirectly) that a month has passed in a second doesn’t make accepting it any easier.

    Continue reading → Post ID 9111

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    This entry was posted in 2021 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Comic Adaptation Dramatic Support Fantasy Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Novel Adaptation Romance School Life 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 9111

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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
  • Majo no Tabitabi: THE JOURNEY OF ELAINA & Shachou, BATTLE no JIKAN Desu!: THE ANIMATION

    Posted on January 24, 2021 12:17 pm by Offkorn Comment

    Majo no Tabitabi caught me by surprise. Based on the description I was expecting something mostly laid-back and/or relaxing, yet it ended up having quite a bit of (remarkably well-animated) action alongside some significant dramatic twists and themes (episode 9 in particular stands out). It’s not a simple episodic travelogue, nor is it a generic ‘cute girls being cute’ comedy (though it takes elements from both)… it’s more a character study that’s not adverse to poking fun at itself.

    After the surprising animation quality of the previous series I looked up the studio responsible only to discover that not only were they involved with SukaSuka, but they also happened to have made another series in 2020.

    That series being Shachibato (which I had skipped over in my earlier scan through the Spring releases), a parody based off of a now defunct online RPG. It’s… okay I guess? Watchable as a distraction. There are some notable oddities (why are noncombatants brought into the dungeon?) and annoyances (the doormat protagonist’s altruism), but the animation is fine and it’s amusing more often than not.

    Continue reading → Post ID 9111

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Spring Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Dramatic Support Fantasy Finished Funimation Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Parody Series Televised Workplace
  • 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 9111

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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 9111

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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 9111

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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
  • Joshikousei no Mudazukai & Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai

    Posted on September 4, 2020 11:59 pm by Offkorn Comment

    A schoolgirl comedy in the vein of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (with a main character transplant from Nichijou), Joshikousei no Mudazukai‘s main problem is that a good chunk of its cast end up more annoying than entertaining when they go to extremes (there effectively being only half of a straight man to bounce the insanity off of contributes to that issue). So it’s basically as hit/miss as a random comedy would be and your mileage will definitely vary.

    The school life comedy Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai meanwhile takes its cues from Bakemonogatari and Haruhi, mixing Bake‘s structure with Haruhi‘s sci-fi theme along with character traits from both. What it lacks in action and flashy visuals it makes up for with consistency and an avoidance of potentially offputting extreme behavior. The movie continuation unfortunately doesn’t share those positives, going deep into heavy drama territory as it does, and honestly I suggest skipping it since Shouko remaining a mystery will likely a produce better result than finding out what’s actually going on.

    Oh, and there’s also Ore o Suki Nano wa Omae Dake ka yo (another school life comedy), which sadly doesn’t have anything at all going for it beyond creepy character design and nakedly artificial character behavior.

    Continue reading → Post ID 9111

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    This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Spring 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Comedy Comic Adaptation Crunchyroll Drama Dramatic Support Finished HiDive Hulu Incomplete Source Movie Novel Adaptation Romance School Life Science Fiction Series Televised
  • 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

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