Ending Anime in August by getting Summer Simuldubs started

The Saints Magic Power is Omnipotent episode 6 was okay.

Some classic Anime I finally finished recently are Excel Saga, the original Berserk, and Princess Tutu.  All are good at what they set out to do but none are likely to ever be among my personal favorites.

Episode 10 of HigurashiStosu started out really frustrating but then did something I genuinely wasn’t expecting.

I watched episode 13 of I’m Standing on 1,000,000 lives, and I guess I’d forgotten just how genuinely emotional this particular Isekai was trying to be.  I also get the sense this first arc for season 2 can be considered a little Seven Samurai inspired.  As a Dub watcher I’m amused by the accent choice for this island’s natives, ones that usually equates to Osaka in Dubs but this Island setting has me thinking they might be speaking Okinawan in the Japanese.

The first episode of HameFura X (My Next Life as a Villainess season 2) was fun.

SSSS.Dynazenon episode 8 has a sort of Deadpan sense of Humor going for it that worked surprisingly well.

The last episode of season 1 of 86 was pretty good.  There was even kind of a Prequel Meme in it.

Episode 3 of Realist Hero was also pretty neat.

The premier of Battle Game in 5 Seconds was pretty engaging.  Lisa Ortiz's new voice is not what I was expecting though.

Well I’ve started the second part of Slime Incarnation season 2, it’s back to being fun and amusing. 

Juggalo Anime Recommendations (Also Bone Thugs)

I'm not a Juggalo but my brother is, so I know a lot about that community that the average outsider probably doesn't.

But also I'm an Otaku.  Being an Otaku and a Juggalo are kind of parallel in how to outsiders it just seems like a fancy way of saying you're a fan of something (Anime in one case and in the other the Insane Clown Posse hence forth called ICP for short and affiliated artists), but there is in fact a deeper hard to define identity behind it.  You weren't an ICP fan before you listened to ICP music but you were probably already a Juggalo.  Likewise I only got enough into Anime to even start considering calling myself an Otaku in the latter half of 2016, but what an Otaku is I in fact always was.

There is also how it sometimes becomes almost a quasi religion.  While Juggalos symbolize God as a Dark Carnival of freaky clowns, Otaku symbolize God as a Cute Anime Girl in Sailor Fuku.  

Also like with a lot of insular fan communities that chiefly interact online there has been post Gamer Gate an increasing visibility of the loud minority of political reactionaries in each community tainting how they were once perceived as fairly inherently progressive.  My brother and I are both Socialists.

One of the roles I have self appointed myself in the modern Anime community is being someone who thinks they know how to recommend potential entry points to people who haven't tried it yet.  And in this case one of the things I think Juggalos and Otaku sometimes have in common is their sense of humor.

You see I think I might very well be the only non Juggalo who's watched Big Money Hustlas and found it funny, I get the sense of humor it's going for, meanwhile Big Money Rustlas which has had better luck at getting nice things said about it from Normie critics I found rather unappealing.

Now there are a lot of Comedy Anime out there going for a lot of different styles of humor.  But the first Anime to pop into my mind as material that might be enjoyable to the same people who find Big Money Hustlas funny are Nabeshin shows like Nerima Daikon Brother and Excel Saga.  The first one I listed is probably better for people new to Anime, if you've seen The Blues Brothers you have basically have all the pop cultural context you really need.  Excel Saga has a lot of meta going for it that makes a working knowledge of the 30 years of Anime history leading up to it helpful, but still I don't necessarily think entirely necessary.  I hate that neither show it seems can be legally streamed online right now.

Those are comedy recommendations.  Juggalos are also known for being into the Horror genre.  Recommending Horror Anime has already become a recurring theme of this blog, but it's become increasingly necessary for me to qualify my recommendation of Higurashi When They Cry.  

Please for the love of God start with the 2006 Deen Anime and then it's sequel Kai, and then take a break, contemplate that story knowing that for a long time what was all there was, they are legally streaming on HIDIVE and can be found for free on sites I won't risk linking to here.  Then maybe give the Rei and Kira OVAs a shot but their canonicity was always ambiguous at best and their goofiest episodes definitely not cannon.  For the Gou series that started in late 2020 and it's follow up Sotsu which is still airing (officially in English often called Higurahsi When They Cry New) I won't have a final verdict till I see how it ends which I now fear even Sotsu won't have the final ending, right now my feelings are complicated leaning towards not liking it.

Now when it comes to Umineko When They Cry, as the only person who seems to truly love it's Anime version, I think Juggalos if they found it might appreciate it.  It can't legally be streamed anywhere right now however.

For Zombie Media, the Anime equivalent to the George A Romero films would be School-Live! aka Gakkou Gurashi!  While something more like Zack Snyder's Dawn of The Dead for better and for worse would be High School of The Dead.  Both are also on HIDIVE along with Vampire Hunter D and Princess Resurrection which I haven't watched yet.

The 80s Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs are on TUBi, RetroCrush and Midnight Pulp if I remember correctly.

Many Juggalos are also into the Music of Bone Thugs N Harmony, and I have two kinds of recommendations based on that.  First my favorite Anime Composer, Yuji Kajiura, has a musical style that I feel can at times have a similar appeal to that of DJ U-Neek who is Bone's main Producer.

She did the music for most of the old Bee Train shows of which I still consider her best work to be Noir followed closely by it's sister serises Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja.  She then did Mai Hime a show I still haven't watched most of yet, and the Kara no Kyoukai films, then really hit it big in 2011 with the one two punch of scoring Fate/Zero and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  Since then she's done Princess Principal which was great, Demon Slayer which is a Shonen I didn't watch, the Heaven's Feel Trilogy, Lord El Melloi's Case Files and more.

She also did the Music for at least one Live Action Japanese film and that's the Boogiepop movie from 2000.

Boogiepop and Others is a series of Light Novels that started in the 90s that in-spite of their influence didn't get a proper Anime till 2019.  The Author of that series liked to reference in various ways the Music he was into.  And one of those was clearly Bone Thugs N Harmony because the prequel novel features a character named Mo Murda (but that gets back translated into English Localizations as Mo Murder by people not getting the reference) which is a confirmed reference to the multitude of songs Bone made with some variation of that title.

The 2019 Boogie Pop Anime is difficult to talk about, because I found it pretty enjoyable when I watched it not knowing what they cut.  But it's first three episodes are to anyone in the know a frustratingly abridged version of the first novel.  The live action movie is a much better adaptation of that source material.

The 2019 Anime still has value, the books adapted for the latter half of the 18 episode season I feel were adapted much better, at least in that the Anime version can stand on it's own better.  Episodes 10-13 is the Prequel story, Boogiepop At Dawn which contains the Bone reference character mentioned above.  

The Live Action Boogiepop movie doesn't and shouldn't have a Dub, for LA that's an inherently more awkward process.  For the 2019 Anime I like the English Dub but I'm known for being not too Dub critical in general, either way of consuming it should work fine, do what ever you'd generally prefer.  Same is true of everything else recommended except Higurahsi Kai and Umineko which sadly don't have Dubs.  Nerima Daikon Brothers might be the one that's most better to watch Dubbed, since it's unique musical nature can be harder to follow subbed even for people very used to it, that of course could make it more difficult for a Dub to work, but they pulled it off spectacularly.

Anime updates for August

First here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2021/04/anime-torah-year-introduction-post.html

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links.

https://myanimelist.net/profile/KuudereKun

https://twitter.com/KuudereKun888

Darwin’s Game was enjoyable but not anything special. I tried to give Fena Pirate Princess a shot and it just didn’t work, having a MAL page doesn’t keep it from being just as inauthentic as Avatar and Castlevania. Grimgar was the first time truly doing the 3 Episode Rule. I decided to force myself to watch a full 3 episodes even though I really wasn’t enjoying it. Now the thing is I have no actual criticisms, as far as can tell the show was succeeding at being exactly what it wanted to be, and for many it might be exactly what they want more of from Fantasy Anime. But for me it’s just dull and boring. Moriarty The Patriot’s first season proved quite enjoyable, I hope season 2 gets dubbed before the year is over. The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent episode 5 was good. Ya know I really have to wonder what watching this show in Japanese was like given how the Japanese word for Saint is the main character's name. Obviously diegeticlly Japanese is not supposed to be the language of this world, nonetheless much of dialogue of this show in Japanese must basically sound like “Is Sei is The Sei?” I decided to watch Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike. It’s not like most Anime Films, it has no Anime series, but isn’t a true stand alone either. It’s the opening arc of an ongoing Manga, and as such it’s pretty decent. HigurashiSotsu episode 9 was a shore to watch. I really hate this arc, but I’ve become determined to always be able to say I’ve watched all the Higurashi Anime that exists. So I assume these new characters in SSSS.Dynazenon episode 7 are the same ones form the sequel hook of SSSS.Gridman. Episode 10 of 86 was interesting.

Summer Anime is slidin along

Godzilla Singular Point was great.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent episode 4 was very good.

I watched all of Wonder Egg Priority including the Special now that it’s Dub is out.  I enjoyed it from the start more than I expected to, I really don't think it was fair how it was called another discount Ikuhara, it’s not like Revue Starlight at all.  I love most of it but I am iffy on that ending.  If there’s a season 2 or a movie I’ll watch it.  The first 7 episodes are perfect.

I watched HigurashiSotsu episode8 of course, and this take on this arc simply makes me uncomfortable.

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time doesn’t make any sense at all.  But it is an infinitely more satisfying ending then what this franchise was stuck with before the Rebuilds.

SSSS.Dynazenon episode 6 was good.  But when are they going to explain why the “Kaiju Eugenicists” are called that? I’m starting to wonder if any Anime Writers know what Eugenics even is beyond having something to do with the Nazis and thus is a word to associate with villains.

I finished So I’m A Spider, So What and it was pretty fun.  I hope it gets a season 2, but I also hope season 2 can manage itself better and avoid the dragging Animation quality the last stretch of season 1 had.

Episode 9 of 86 was pretty damn good.  It almost felt like a final episode.

Episode 2 of Realist Hero was also alright.

First here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2021/04/anime-torah-year-introduction-post.html

Fantasy stories should look Fantastic

Lately there has been a lot of complaining about the over abundance of Medieval European Style Fantasy in Anime.  But I'm glad Anime gives me so much because even at it's most generic Anime takes on this Genre always look like a world I can believe someone would Fantasize about living in.  Even when the subject matter gets rather dark like in Berserk or Goblin Slayer it's still not afraid to actually have a bright and colorful look do it.

American Media has been approaching this genre the same way they have Historical fiction.  Besides the actual Tolkien and Lewis adaptations they are obsessed with looking "Gritty" and "Realistic", which I feel often results in looking uninspired and boring.  And some might think Jackson's approach to Middle Earth was too gritty, well it mostly was for The Hobbit.

For an example I watched the first episode of The Shannara Chronicles on Netflix recently, and it looks so dull, like they'd rather be making one of those YA Dystopian movies that was a trend in the 2010s.  Like you can have a culture in your fantasy setting have a "we're the Emos wearing black all the time" aesthetic, but that certainly shouldn't be the firggin Elves.

And every other Live Action Fantasy show I saw scrolling Netflix looked the same, The Witcher, Cursed, all of em.

Thing is you can be aesthetically dark in a way that's still visually interesting, like the Aesthetic Giger was hired to create for House Harkonnen in Jodorowsky's canceled Dune adaptation.  But that's not what we're getting in these shows, it feels like they're gritty because they think that's how to be taken seriously in a post Game of Thrones world.

The Gritty and Realistic approach worked for Game of Thrones because it had successfully positioned itself as the Watchmen of High Fantasy.  A show trying to look like Game of Thrones while not being so deconstructive in how it's written (Shannara's pilot seemed to be setting up some pretty standard heroes' Journeys) will clash far more then a dark story that looks bright and colorful will.

Let's take Narnia for example.  In the case of Prince Caspian I consider the film version an improvement over the book.  It is darker and even grittier in subject matter then the first movie, but still in fact operates with the exact same color pallet.  It doesn't clash because Narnia looking like a world someone might want to live in is what makes bad stuff happening to it effective.  And that is doubly true for why the original Berserk Anime worked.

But speaking of Anime, most of the Fantasy Anime of the last 10 or even 15 years is not stuff the Inklings would have been likely to like for other reasons, because of how much they run on Gamer logic.  However 2018's Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is an exception to that, it's a High Fantasy Anime Film that is free of those Gamer elements and really is a pretty good reference point for how I would want an Animated Film or Series set in the First Age of Middle Earth to both look and feel.

The Superhero genre has learned that it doesn't always need to be dark and gritty.  To the point where now even most R Rated Superhero films are pretty bright and colorful like The Suicide Squad and the Deadpool movies.  And then Birds of Prey was a good example of being dark a lot of the time but still vibrant.  I wish both the Fantasy and Historical Epic genres could learn that lesson.

Perhaps some might argue the budget is to blame when I'm talking about TV shows.  Shannara wasn't even a Netflix exclusive but originally on MTV.  However I don't see how that so specifically effects Color.  You see the thing with Shannara is that everything else you could call cheap and bland about how the sets and costumes look I could have tolerated if it was colored differently, or maybe even if the colors they do have weren't so muted.  It might be because of my ADD but Bright Colors inherently hold my attention more.

Anime in August

 I finished Love, Chunibyo and other Delusions, the entire franchise, or everything I could watch Dubbed on VRV anyway.

Episode 7 of the current season of Rick and Morty was a Voltron parody, sorta.  It really annoys me how much old shows like that are still the face of Anime to a lot of mainstream society.  I felt copying how the Speed Racer dub sounded was annoyingly out of date when South Park did it for their Pokemon parody.  And my experience there is why I’m not gonna take this parody’s word for it that that’s how Voltron sounded.

The dub for the first episode of How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom also went up.  This is my third time watching an Anime where I had already read at least some of the Manga.  I have read very little Manga in general and I often make a point to only do Manga I doubted would ever get an Anime.  This one I had been prompted to read because BeneathTheTangles wrote something on the Light Novel, but I don’t always read what they talk about either.  I’d read only 11 chapters, maybe that equals 11 episodes, I’m not sure.

It did not look how I expected, the MC’s face looks like a generic early 2010s Hentai protagonist.  The Voice Actors sounded fine.  The truth is I barely remember any of the details of what I read so I don’t feel qualified to critique it as an adaptation, which is good because I don’t like doing that anyway.  I do recall like Smartphone it will go explicit Polygamy, which I do want more of, but I don’t want them to always be Polygynous.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent episode 3 has convinced me this is probably the most Shoujo Isekai we’ve had since the 00s.

Watched the first episode of Dragon-Maid season 2, and I do not like where this is going.  I decided to Drop it.

I watched HigurashiSotsu episode 7, and I’m not looking forward to having to sit through another version of this storyline.

So I’m A Spider, So What’s finale was delayed a week, which is a bummer.

Episode 8 of 86 was pretty great.

Summer Simuldubs are starting rather slowly.

First here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2021/04/anime-torah-year-introduction-post.html

It seems like The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is going to be one of those every other week Simul Dubs.

I finished Sankarea and it was good.

In/Spectre are pretty darn good, a truly unique kind of mystery show.  In an odd way perhaps the most accurate Sherlock Holmes I’ve seen in Anime yet.

I feel slightly disappointed by episode 6 of HigurashiSotsu, there was no actual conservation between Rika and Mion.

The penultimate episode of So I’m A Spider, So What was kind of irritating.

Episode 5 of SSSS.Dynazenon was enjoyable for a Beach Episode.

I watched the first 7 episodes of Love, Chuibyo and other Delusions and found them fun.

Episode 7 of 86 has a twist of sorts.  

I like the idea of doing one of these shows and revealing the “Republic” righting against the Evil Empire to be Racist Ethno State.  But I’d like to see that in a grander story exploring the Empire as well.