Monday, August 17, 2020

Another post on Watch Orders

Debating about unconventional watch orders has become a hot topic again lately.  Watching something in its release order is never inherently a bad order but there are plenty of cases where I feel it’s not the best.

For an example of a case where I do favor the release order even though a dispute kind of does exist, The Chronicles of Narnia books should be read in the order Lewis wrote them.  A Horse and His Boy does stand on its own in a way none of the others but the first do, so it can perhaps be read a little out of sequence and maybe if you're into stuff with a 1001 Night flavor it would benefit you to read it second, but definitely start with Wardrobe and save Last Battle for last.  In Anime terms AHaHB can perhaps be considered a Gaiden rather than part of the main saga.

For Star Wars I strongly feel Episodes I-VI should be watched in chronological order, and then the rest I really don’t care about as long as you see nothing before finishing the 6 George Lucas movies.  I actually think it would be hilarious to have someone watch the Disney Sequel Trilogy backwards and see what perspective that causes.

For the Raildex franchise I shall offer an incomplete recommended viewing order, incomplete since Railgun season 3 is still airing.  This is neither the release order or chronological order strictly speaking.

A Certain Scientific Railgun season 1 (skip episode 2 on the initial viewing but besides that all of it)
A Certain Magical Index season 1 (all of it if you can but if you don’t like it the rest of Railgun can stand on its own.)
A Certain Scientific Railgun S
A Certain Scientific Accelerator (currently has only one 12 episode season)
A Certain Magical Index II (the first 7 episodes)
A Certain Magical Index The Movie: The Miracle of The Endymion
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (First episode)
A Certain Magical Index II (episode 8)
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (Episodes 2-3)
A Certain Magical Index II (Episodes 9-13 the Daihasei festival arc)
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (episodes  4-15)
[Update: I've decided you should finish IndexII before seeing the rest of Railgun T]

The Blackcoats novels (English name of the French Les Habits Noirs) were published by BlackCoatPress in a different order then Paul Feval originally wrote them.  Nonetheless in the afterward of the last one they published both the translator and editor expressed the opinion that the books should ideally be read in Feval’s order.  I’m not sure I agree, but it’s complicated.

For the way my brain works Salem Street was the ideal first impression and The Invisible Weapon a great second.  But Salem Street has an element most modern readers will likely be put off by, (but I know of some specific people who’d love it).  They all stand on their own pretty well, but the actual first book is the longest of them and so perhaps a little overwhelming for someone new to reading 19th Century pulpy French Novels no one considered worth translating into English till over a hundred years after the author died.  The Invisible Weapon is in my opinion the absolute best of them and so I see no reason not to simply start with it.  Cadet Gang should be saved for last only because I kind of don’t recommend reading it at all.

My doing this post now was partly because of a recent Mother’s Basement video.  I have currently no direct knowledge of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but I know Part 6 is the first female Jojo so I’ve been intending for a while to start with it when the Anime comes, I don’t care how confusing it will be.

I’ve saved Fate/ for last because that is the most contentious topic.  I am a firm start with Fate/Zero person.

A lot of people will claim it’s only the convoluted nature of how Fate/ has been adapted that makes there be any dispute at all and if only more people would just read the Visual Novel it’d be fine.  However I disagree, even if you are willing and able to consume each Fate/ story in it’s original medium first, I still say read Fate/Zero first.  But I mostly just recommend watching the Anime, translations of Light Novels and Visual Novels suck, but the Aniplex Dub of the UFOtable Anime is perfect.

Fate/Zero simply is by nature the most accessible.  Every person who would like Fate/Stay Night but not Fate/Zero is already into Fate/, they don’t need to be talked into giving it a chance.  There are lots of people for whom Fate/Zero is the only Fate/ they would enjoy.  And I think there are other potential Fate/Zero fans who’d enjoy Fate/Apocrypha before anything else.

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