The many John Carters of Anime.

John Carter is the name of a 2012 film adapted from a 1912 Pulp Sci-Fi series originally titled A Princess of Mars but it and it's sequels are often called the Barsoom series. 

The way this movie was soon as so generic despite how it's source material predate everything it was seen as derivative of has made a euphemism in my mind for all similar scenarios, something highly influence then later fell into obscurity and become overshadowed by it's children which got high profile mainstream adaptations way sooner.

For Otaku Media the comparable situations are mainly source material from the 90s or early 00s that didn't get a full TV Anime adaption till the 2010s or 2020s. 

The big one I've already talked about is YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World. It's 2019 Anime was dismissed by casuals as just another Isekai but with a drawn out Steins;Gate/Re:Zero set thrown in.  There were no zero Isekai prior to the 1996 release of the YU-NO game, but it still long predates the formative texts of modern Seinan LN Isekai. 

But those kinds of Anime aren't the only ones I feel YU-NO influenced in some way. When I was watching it not even knowing how old the source material was yet the talk about being "outside the four great Ancient Civilizations" reminded me of exposition rom Madlax a not largely forgotten 2004 Anime. Mio Shimazu I feel is a very formative early Tsundere and Kanna Hatano likewise is an early formative Kuudere. 

John Carter the film you can argue doesn't do itself any favors in avoiding the Generic accusations in how it presents itself.  And YU-NO it similar, as much I love the 2019 Anime I do lament that it's based on there modern Character design revamps of the game's then recent remake. In 2020 we have Anime like Red River showing us a modern Anime still feel faithful to it's original 90s Character Designs. 

Red River can indeed by added to this list, as a classic Shoujo Time Isekai it's Manga predates Inyuasha. 

But another big Visual Novel example is Muv-Luv.  It's original release was 2003 and the first version adding Alternative to the title was 2006. There was no proper adaptations of a version of it's main story till 2021-2022, but it has spin off Anime in 2021 and 2016. 

The pilot of the 2021 Anime is one that I'm sure watching no knowing the history of Muv-Luv would have been comparing to the pilot of Attack on Titan, but it's Manga didn't start till 2009. It all shares a lot of vibes with many modern Gacha game based Anime. 

There are of course some major important early Visual Novels that still have no TV Anime. Shizuka, Kizuato, Silver, Cross Channel, Tsui no Sora. 

Was 1990-2004 the Peak era for Fantasy?

 I made a prior post inspired by a BookTuber named EverymanReads where he argued for that.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2026/02/booktuber-overing-classic-fantasy-novels.html

There we were talking just in the context of Prose Novels. Looking beyond that the case becomes even stronger.

For movies we have Peter Jacksons' LOTR Adaptations and the first two Star Wars Prequels to name just the first the easily pop into head.  For TV we had Hercules and Xena, that Sam Neill Merlin miniseries. And Urban Fantasy was largely defined by shows like Forever Knight and the Buffyverse and Charmed and Anime like Witch Hunter Robin. 

Speaking of Anime and Manga, this era had classics like Berserk and Escaflone, and adaptations of some of those LNs I talked about, and most of the most defining entries of the magical Girl Warrior subgenre.

But Video Games is where things were even more genre defining. It'd almost be easier to name what Video Games aren't either Fantasy or Sci-Fi in some ways, the defining franchises of the medium like Mario and Sonic and Kirby and Pokémon are distinct Fantasy settings that only Gaming as a medium come up with. 

But even if we limit ourselves to Games that feel more line with conventional Fantasy there is still a lot.  For Zelda this period includes A Link To The Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Oracle Games, The Winder Waker, Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap. All those genre defining JRPGs of SNES and PlayStation that were important to prior post of this blog are this era, as well as much of the PS2 and Game Cube era. Then there's Casltevania and lots of classic Star Wars Games. 

And spinning off from that are Visual Novels like YU-NO: The Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound Of This World, Higurashi, Tsukihime and it's sequels and Fate/Stay Night. 

For Otaku media I almost want to shift it a year to be 1991-2005. I don't even know much what I'd be loosing dropping 1990, but I know I'd be gaining Fate/Hallow Ataraxia, Mai Otome, the second seasons of Nanoha and PreCure, most of the Shuffle Anime Adaptation.  Or heck maybe even 1992-2006.

Why limit myself to 15 years per era? Because it feels like that's the average for the pretty agreed upon language for talking about eras of American Superhero Comic Books.

And speaking of which the 90s and early 00s is when most of my favorite DC Comics came out as well, most of which have some degree of Fantasy in them.

Otome VIllainess Anime defy a certain common narrative.

I’ve done a post on why I technically have beef with the starting premise of the genre, and another where I explain why I do enjoy some of these shows regardless of that. 

But today I want to discuss how the history of this sub-sub genre goes against certain common narratives about the relationship between trend setters and trend followers. It’s a conventional wisdom I often personally disagree with, but I can usually still see why the OG is viewed as above the rest.

Once one big hit is followed up by a bunch of shows doing something similar, it's common to see a lot of talk about how most if not all of the imitators missed the real point of why the original worked. With the implication that what makes them different from the original makes them more generic or less artistically interesting.  I'm often a contrarian on that, but I can still generally see why it can seem that way.

The Otome VIllainess genre started with My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Sometimes called HameFura for short. I liked it, well I liked season 1 but never finished season 2. But it’s hard for me to imagine even people who love it much more than I do, who may personally still like it the most of them, being able to argue in all seriousness that it has a depth its imitators have hollowed out, that by default they are more shallow. No matter how much you love it, HameFura is objectively the most shallow take on this premise.

I stand by my conviction that it was never common for Otome Games or Shoujo Manga to treat an OjouSama character as a completely unsympathetic one dimensional villain. But there is still legitimate social commentary that could be made by exploring this hypothetical archetype. Or even without touching on the politics, just many interesting ways to play around with it. 

HameFura is the show least interested in doing that. When Caterina’s memories of her Japanese life awaken her “villainess” personality is just completely overwritten, there is no engagement with asking the question of why that person became a “villainess” or if she were really as one note as she seemed.  The story is solely about the Japanese High School Girl who unintentionally stole her life with no acknowledgment of how existentially terrifying that is. 

The strictest definition of this genre is it being the Villainess who the reincarnator reincarnates as. Of those, the one I like the most is definitely I’ll Become A Villainess Who Goes Down in History, commonly shortened to Rekiaku from Fall 2024. 

I’m The Villainess, so I’m Taming the FInale Boss aka Akulas from Fall 2022 is a show where I liked the first three episodes, but then episode 4 felt liked it rushed to the end of the first LN when this arc should have had six episodes like the adaptations of the first LNs for Haruhi and Index. 

Both those shows have in common how in different ways the MC embraces the Villainess role becoming a sort of Antiheroine rather than just being comedically the opposite of who she was supposed to be. 

The other two of my personal big three for this trend are adjacent examples where the villainess isn’t the person who's a reincarnation of a player of the Game but completely still herself. 

I’m in Love with The Villainess shortened to WataOshi from Fall 2023 (it seems like the gems kept dropping in Fall, yet I didn’t catch any in 2025). It’s a Yuri and is great, it’s the one I most hope gets a season 2. 

The third is MobuSeka which I talked about in one of those prior posts. Its second season is about to come out and I know enough spoilers to know things are getting pretty interesting.

Why I'm excited for The Ribbon Hero.

I'm very conceptually a fan of the concept of taking something once big but since overshowed by what it's influenced and reimagining it in a way that draws on those more well known works it influenced.

This is what I would like to do with adaptation of various Paul Feval works.

The Ribbon Hero is looking to be a wonderful version of that concept.

Osamu Tezuka's Ribbon no Kisha/Princess Knight was a precursor of The Rose of Versailles and the entire Magical Girl Genre and Revolutionary Girl Utena and via them Steven Universe.

This movie coming to Netflix this August is looking to indeed in conversation all of that, and I'm thrilled. 

The best year of future Anime.

I have a couple posts on this blog made this year arguing the best year in Anime history is either Gregorian 2006 or April 2006-March 2007. 

So I decided ask the question, what about other Mediums of Otaku Entertainment from that timeframe?

I already talked about one 2006 Visual Novel in those posts, but that's because Summer Days also counts as an Anime. And in my Yandere post I talked about how the Future Diary Manga started in January 2006.

Thing is I've come to think the best era of Visual Novels, and the broader Bishoujo Game category into which they are a part, as being 1991-2005.  Summer Days may be one 2006 VN I prefer to the most comparable VN from 2005, it's predecessor School Days, but that has a lot to do with my personal biases where that franchise is concerned, School Days is more fleshed and coherent in what it's trying to say. 

And that Yandere post is also about how Future Diary's most defining character is an archetype built by prior works. And to some extent so are the other core features of Future Diary. 

2004 may be for the source materials of future Anime what 2006 is for Anime. Death Note started at the end tail end of 2003 and continued into early 2006, similar with Higurashi and Pluto and Baccano! and Lucky Star and Nana.  Fate/Stay Night and Clannad both dropped in 2004 as did the first LNs for A Certain Magical Index and Durarara!! and The Familiar of Zero.  And then the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya LN as well as Endless Eight. 

When you add to that how 2004 was perhaps a better year for Original Anime then 2006, and it could be considered a pretty peak year for Otaku Culture. 

A Response to Zero Woolfe about the Star Wars Prequels.

This is a response to this YT Video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cInoOeFNt0

Zero Woolfe is a Leftist YouTuber but one who adheres to the same reactionary dogmatic belief in the existence of Objectively Quality that Mauler and the Critical Drinker do. It's difficult to think of them that way because they have difference specific views on Objective Qualify and what media does and does not pass it, and they also make their videos in a very different style. But they do in fact adhere to that same basic philosophy. Which is why in my opinion they fail at being a Leftist.

Their thesis about Prequels and their reevaluation is in large part debunked by my existence. I was 13 when The Phantom Menace came out, and I saw all three in Theaters the day of release and loved each one immediately.  I had already seen the original Trilogy and mostly liked them but have never loved them nearly as much.  So no 10 isn't too old.  I was also never that big a fan of the Clone Wars and consider it overrated, so they add no context to why I like them, if anything I enjoy The Clone Wars as much as I do because they remind me of the Prequels, not the other way around. 

I know I wasn't alone, I was never a popular kid but I know others my age liked them. So no the fact that Zero recalls negative things being said about The Prequels by people who would have been 10 in 1999 doesn't prove anything about the generation as a whole. In fact I didn't even encounter evidence of the hate existing till Episode II had been out for awhile. 

In fact my personal belief is that the Prequel Haters were always a Loud Minority even among their Gen X-Late Boomer Age group, it's just that Negativity in general was what online culture encouraged back then. But even if that's not true, I think something about the nature of Millennials and Zoomers made positive media opinions more welcome online once we started taking over.  And yet Prequel fans always had some presence online, you just had to know where to find them. 

My relationship with Disney Star Wars has also been complex. I liked each Sequel film initially but soured on them pretty soon similar to how I reacted to Superman Returns.  Only The Last Jedi would I ever say I actively hated, and I currently regret having engaged with that hatedom, but I was never much a fan of any of them and I still don't care for them.  I haven't given a second viewing to either The Last Jedi or Rise of Skywalker, someday I will. 

However I have liked ALL of the Live Action Disney+ Star Wars Content, unironically, every single one.  I still haven't gotten to see The Mandalorian and Grogu since going to the Theaters isn't an option for me right now. But I also equally love both Anime seasons of Star Wars Visions, didn't watch season 2. Right now I see all of them having a better chance at future reevaluation then the Sequels. 

If future Sequel Trilogy reevaluation depends solely on younger people liking them from the start getting older, then it isn't going to happen on nearly the same scale as the Prequels. Disney has refused to make Sequel era EU content and more or less accepted their failure.  At best we'll see the view that The Last Jedi alone was worthwhile will become more popular. Right now you don't have to be as old as you used  to be to make your opinions known online. 

And the reason why they think so many Romance Novel plots are based on Kylo Ren is because Kylo was already based on Romance Novel Style knock offs of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. 

I almost wish it were true that Prequel fans were still only people who always liked them like me, but I know they aren't.  I'd seen positive Prequel videos begin with the person confessing how they used to hate them. I've seen notable online people change their minds in real time. And some people absolutely give the impression of Posers, that they want to be seen as someone who always knew the truth, but didn't. 

Sequel Trilogy Reevaluation will depend on that even more then the Prequels did because the evidence is showing the Sequels failed to engage the current youth the way the Prequels did precisely because they always cared too much about catering to Prequel Haters. They failed to create anything New for a New Generation of fans in their obsession with pandering to the people who'd been fans since 1977.  And that is what I predicated before The Force Awakens came out. 

I don't have a problem with Anime LARPers.

I can absolutely relate to being conceptually a fan of something I can't engage with directly whether it's Video Game franchises with an interesting Lore but the actual Gameplay is unplayable for me personally like Mega Man and many RPGs and most Visual Novels.  Or foreign media that still lacks any kind of English Language localization like some Paul Feval novels, La Seine no Hoshi or the Pre-School Days Overflow Games. 

However beyond that strict definition of a Fandom LARPer (someone literally presenting a fan of media they haven't engaged with directly), LARPer as an insult in the Anime community is also becoming functionally synonymous with terms like Tourist. It's about what it means to say you like Anime as a concept. 

I should be clear that on the subject of terminology to me Anime Fan and Otaku and Weeb are not perfect synonyms. Though in the context of specifically Western Fandom discourse for the purpose of this discussion the nuanced distinction between Otaku and Weeb doesn't matter. An Anime Fan is anyone who is a fan of at least 3 distinctly different Anime and identifies as liking Anime. However an Otaku or Weeb is someone who even when they don't like certain trends of Anime will never view them as things that should be gotten rid of, there is no room for Antishippers in Otakudom. 

I want new Anime Fans, or even long time ones who've remained very limited in what they've seen, to watch more and expand their horizons. But in my opinion talking down to those people, calling them culturally illiterate or tourists or LARPers is counterproductive, you're just making them hate the culture and pushing them away.  Politely recommend them shows similar to what they already like, or from the same creators, and/or what your personal favorites are, but let them take their time. 

I've currently completed over a thousand Anime and partially watched nearly 300 more. But there was a long time, from like 2005 to 2014, when I'd seen less then 50 and still referred to myself as liking Anime, not using the words Otaku or Weeb only because I hadn't heard them yet. Looking back on that now I know there is a lot I used to be wrong about, but I do not view that younger version of myself as lying about liking Anime. 

What's changed about Tourist discourse in the last like year is a massive increase in even the perceived Left Wing of the Anime Fandom doing it.  What's interesting there is how it's the Left Wing who is truly putting it's emphasis on wanting more people to watch more older Anime, while the shows the  Neo-reactionaries are mad at your for not watching are recent seasonals.

Thing is as a Leftist Anime fan who has seen more older Anime then most of these Reactionary Vlogers. Most of the Anime I like are part of Genres and Trends that took off in the 90s and 2000s so only a very small percentage of stuff from the 60s and 70s feels significantly relevant to my tastes. 

There are two Genres of Anime in particular whose fandoms have a tendency to get really angry about anyone saying anything about them if what they've seen is still only a few of the most well known shows.  Mecha and Magical Girls. As someone who is an enjoyer of both genres, with more then mere entry level familiarity with both, I also find this troubling.

Yes it's annoying when people talk like experts on something they have a small sample size of. But being factually mistaken on on the history of a genre of fiction is not the worst thing in the world.

And some of the opinions these people think can only exist among people who've seen very little I think they are massively underestimating the validity of.

On the subject Mecha, I only feel more vindicated in calling Evangelion a Deconstruction the more of the genre I watch, not less. A lot of disagreement on what Anime can and cannot qualify as a Deconstruction is more predicated on disagreement on what a Deconstruction is then a given Genre's history. 

I still hold the view that no Magical Girl show qualifies as a Deconstruction. However not every Video on Madoka's role in the history of the genre that makes fans mad is at all appealing to that term specifically. 

I would agree that Pretty Cure monopolizing the market has more to do with the lack of Shoujo Manga based Magical Girl shows in the last 15-20 years then Madoka. But the basic opinion that Madoka disrespected the prior history of the genre is not going to go away simply from knowing the prior precedent for darker takes exist. 

I also disagree with the claim that Anime is more mainstream now then it used to be.  But that's another string of topics. 

I'm gonna link to two nuanced yet opposing YouTube Videos.

Carbio-kun's I Have no Taste and I must Larp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ9ynYK7qTI

It's Blythe's Gatekept Fandoms ar ethe Worst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Fx0rM2GDU&t

Update: Here's a 3rd one.

Framing The Narrative The Truth about Anime Tourists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5mHu3UsFwY