May The Anime be With You

First here is the introductory post for this series.

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

I watched both Re;Zero movies and they were pretty good.

On May 27th I watched Eden on Netflix and it was great.  Japan is starting to finally get good at CG Animation between this and the Lupin film from December 2019.  

Spoilers for Eden in the paragraph below.

The twist I liked was how unlike other SciFi stories with a premise like this.  The idea that Humans need to be wiped to save the world didn’t originate among some AI deciding it "Logically", but originated with a Human.  Only a Human would ever be arrogant enough to think Humans are inherently harmful.

So I’m A Spider, So What episode 14 was a pretty dope episode.  I suspect Sofia might be SpiderChan.

On May 30th I watched the English Dub of the first episode of I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 years and Maxed Out my Stats.  It was pretty fun, and already planting seeds for Yuri.

Anime Update: Steins;Gate, FMA, ReZero, Haven's Feel and more

First here is the introductory post for this series.

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

I finally watched the Steins;Gate Missing Link OVA since the English Dub for it finally popped up online.  And I also started FullMetal Alchemist 2003.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime season 2 episode 9 was more of the Council of Elrond.

My first goal watching Fullmetal Alchemist was to complete the first 28 episodes, which is what Mother’s basement said is the break off point for when the original show departed from the Manga.  I then finished it and found it pretty good.

So I’m A Spider, So What episode 13 was pretty good.

I watched all of Re:Zero season 2 and it was great, I think I enjoyed it way more than I did season 1.

I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa and liked it. I shared some thoughts on one of my Tumblers.

https://theshadowmenlounge.tumblr.com/post/652191488707543040/i-dont-understand-the-hate-for

I also got to watch Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel III Spring Song finally, it was great.

In my opinion you can't both like Madoka Magica and morally object to it's "Copycats".

You can dislike the Post-Madoka shows for their perceived lack of creativity or whatever and I'd still disagree but consider that a valid opinion.

But when I hear someone who's made 12 hours of YouTube content over analyzing every detail of Madoka to try and paint it as the perfect Magical Girl show, turn around and dismiss later "Dark" Magical Girl shows as "trauma porn" or a betrayal of the genre's core values, I get annoyed.

Every argument for why Madoka is still an optimistic uplifting true Magical Girl show in-spite of it's darkness applies to most of these shows equally as much or maybe even more so.  Yuki Yuna Is A Hero specifically is the one I definitely consider more Optimistic then Madoka n it's conclusion exactly as much as it can be described as more depressing then Madoka in the journey to get there.  

Because Madoka's ending is still not perfectly happy, and yes I'm going off the original 12 episode series and not counting Rebellion here.  Madoka does have to sacrifice her normal life with her family and friends.  Madoka Magica has a very happy ending by Hollywood "you can't not kill someone in Endgame" standards.  But by the standards I hold Anime in general but especially this Genre to, it falls short.  It is a less perfectly happy ending then we got from Nanoha A's or Pretear or Wedding Peach or any PreCure or Sailor Moon (at least the 90s Anime, I still don't know how the Manga version of Stars plays out).  The people who are more okay with Rebellion then Clearandsweet is are in part the people who were always unsatisfied with this aspect of Madoka's ending and are hoping a 4th Movie will finally achieve the perfect happy ending.

If you go back to my Gospel According to the East Post, and read where I refer to David Bentley Hart's take on The Gospel and Antigone, as building up the idea that a Sacrifice has to be made only to reject that, and how that is reflected in a lot of my favorite Anime.  Yuki Yuna Is a Hero appeals to me in how it's the one that most literally does that.  But also how I just generally like and relate to it's characters more, Madoka's feel so much more like paper thin archetypes in comparison.

And then shows like Selector Spread Wixoss and Daybreak Illusion I place between Madoka and Yuki Yuna on this scale.  (note Spread is season 2 and so you should watch Infected first but know that it was never meant to be the entire story).

Now I have not fallen massively in love with all of these shows.  Raising Project has it's good points so I don't regret watching it but it's not a top recommendation.  Sepc Ops Auska I couldn't finish but being "Dark" or "Edgy" isn't why since I really don't consider it much of either of those things.  Someone who is into the idea of Magical Girl Rambo would probably like it.

Now Mahou Shoujo Site is a show I have a unique relationship with, I'd kind of chronicled it as it aired on this blog in the Spring of 2018.  It's not a show I will try to argue is equal to or above Madoka in the Happiness of it's ending,  But it's also the rare example of a show where I would have been fine with it even if it didn't end nearly as happily as it did.

Because I do think we need more fiction that doesn't use kid gloves when it deals with bullying, as someone who was bullied themselves and thus is often annoyed how often both American TV and Anime brush that issue off even when technically condemning it.  That's why my love of Magical Girl Site is similar to my love of the 2005 Lifetime film Odd Girl Out, but even that falls a bit into the "just stand up for yourself" trope.  So right from episode 1 this Anime grabbed me.  And now post 2020 I appreciate it's Trans Girl even more as I've increased my questioning of my own Gender Identity, she should be considered one of the top examples of Trans representation in all of Anime.

As much as I often talk like a happy ending is an absolute requirement for me, I do understand the artistic and emotional value of Tragedies, and so demonstrating the ramifications of bullying is one of the better justifications for that in my view.  But Site IS still a Magical Girl show and so these girls do overcome their Trauma, but not in the way most Individualist American media about bullying tells kids to deal with it, but rather they do it how Magical Girls usually do it, which I value even more.

Ya know it's not just in the context of this genre that I often feel those criticizing stories for being "Edgy" or "Trauma porn" are often people with more privileged lives looking down on the rawness of how people less fortunate express themselves.  I thought of this watching the latest Atop The Fourth Wall video.  I don't think the New52's Joker's Daughter has some brilliant origin story or anything.  But the detail that struck me was Linkara specifically reacting to her line about the physical pain drowning out the emotional pain as some particular proof the Comic doesn't understand the issues it's pretending to deal with.  But I know someone who's cut themselves in the past and that's exactly how they explained why they did it, so to me it was one of the better parts of that Comic.

Of course part of the methodology of these people who like Madoka and only Madoka of this Sub Sub Genre is saying that "Magical Girl shows had always gotten Dark sometimes".  And while I agree with pointing that out to undermine people's oversimplified understanding of classic Magical Girl shows.  These people really do seem in denial of the fact that Madoka is dark in a way no prior TV Anime undeniably classified as a Magical Girl show ever was.  

Sailor Moon could get "Dark" in ways that also applied to friggin Pokémon, the 3rd Pokémon movie is darker then Sailor Moon ever got.

Sailor Moon S gets called "the dark season" of Sailor Moon.  Most of it is not that dark, it's over half done before the real story even begins.  Once Hotaru's there the darkness is kind of present every episode, but most of them are ramping up the goofiness at the same time.  There really are only two episodes of them truly being in the thick of it.  To suggest that show is at all equivalent to Madoka in tone would be absurd.

The Magical Girl Warrior genre opening up to darker takes around the same time it turned 20 was inevitable, that's how these genre cycles work.  And now that it's turning 30 I look forward to what new innovations will come next.

Steins;Gate is the best Science Fiction Anime.

I also think it's probably the best Time Travel based story in any medium.  

But I want to clarify what I mean when I say it's the best Sci-Fi Anime.  I mean it's the best Anime at specifically being Science Fiction, the best Anime to recommend to Normie Sci-Fi Nerds as a potential entry point into Anime.

There are Anime I like more that also qualify as Sci-Fi.  

Like for example a show that exists in the same Universe called Robotics;Notes.  That show is quite possibly to me at least better then Steins;Gate at what I generally come to Anime for, but doesn't quite nail it's Sci-Fi premise as well.  But still the difference between those shows on both those scales is an ultimately small matter of degrees, if you like Steins;Gate then Robotics;Notes is probably the next Anime you should give a shot to and vice versa.

However A Certain Scientific Railgun and Code Geass are higher ranked candidates for the title of my favorite Anime franchise period, and are also both technically Sci-Fi.  But they are by no means Hard Sci-Fi, but rather the best Anime equivalents to classic Pulps and Serials.

Gundam Anime (the ones I currently like most are 00 and the Trilogy) are as Mecha War stories better Sci-Fi then Code Geass but ultimately below Code Geass in my opinion for other reasons, and still not as great Sci-Fi as the Semicolon shows.

"Why dedicate a post to this distinction?" you might ask.  Because I know to some Internet Pedantists it might be difficult to wrap their head around making this distinction.  That there can be a difference between a show's use of Sci-Fi being specifically one of the things it's good at, and being merely a plot device or setting to facilitate what the show's real appeal is.

Now there might be a better Sci-Fi Anime then Steins;Gate among what I haven't seen yet, which is still a lot.  But I feel like I've seen enough for my opinion to be worth noting, having completed 535 Anime, and started over 280 I haven't finished.  I can't guess right now what percentage of those qualify as Sci-Fi in some capacity, but it's a significant amount.

Anime Update so far in May 2021

First here is the introductory post for this series.

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

Adachi and Shimamura episode 11 is basically the chronicle of Adachi becoming a full on Simp. So I’m A Spider, So What episode 11 has me wondering if it was in fact SpiderChan who killed Julius? Attack On Titan’s final mid season finale was okay. And it’ll be next year before it really finishes. I’ve also been watching some Azumanga Daioh and have now finally completed it. It’s a fun show. I also started Bubblegum Crisis and watched all of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl which was great. Silme Incarnation season 2 episode 8 was really good, I am legit excited for where the show is going now. I completed Azumanga Daioh, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl and Pretear, they were all awesome. Adachi and Shimamura episode 12 was very good, the show is completed now and I’d say it’s more than decent.

Usagi Tsukino's Origin Story, Sailor Moon Act 1, Comparisons.

I've finally gone and read the first chapter of the Sailor Moon Manga, so I can now properly compare it to both of it's relatively direct adaptions, the Pilot episodes of the 90s Anime and Crystal.

There are differences still even between the Manga and Crystal, and every one of them makes the Manga the better of those two in execution of what it's going for, but the nature of their mediums makes Anime always more enjoyable for me personally then reading a Manga, I usually need acting and motion to fully immerse myself.

I have repeatedly expressed the opinion that any criticism of an adaptation that only someone familiar with said source material would notice or care about should not be treated as an actual criticism of the adaptation as a stand alone work of art.  Out of context some stuff in this post could seem like I'm violating that principle of mine, so I want to make my intent clear.

This post is not arguing that the Pilot of the 90s Anime is bad, it did what it needed to do, I like the 90s Anime, especially the first season, and specifically the work of both the writer and director of this episode.  This is only about why it's the weakest version of this specific 20 minute story.  In particular with Clearandsweet in mind, as they alone of all 90s Anime fanatics has specifically said the Manga is not "well written" but the 90s Anime is.  Others like Vrai and Zeria at least seem to understand that their preferences for the 90s Anime are in concept rather then execution.  

And it's only in comparing individual episodes that it's even remotely possible to get away with arguing the 90s Anime is "better written".  You'd have to be delusional to not see how the overarching plotlines are so much more fundamentally broken in the 90s Anime.  I may or may not do equivalents of this for future episodes, I haven't made up my mind on that.  

I like Clearandsweet, their Madoka break down was awesome and I've already recommended it on this blog.  But their statements about Sailor Moon Crystal and The Manga do bug me.  They're in truth upset about that version not living up to their personal rules for this genre.  Sherlock Holmes doesn't always follow the rules of the Genre he started either, that's part of being the origin of it.

I'm still not gonna cover everything, some of what I will cover are ultimately nitpicks, but compared to differences I don't even know how to describe they feel quite worth noting.

The only difference between The Manga and Crystal that is really relevant to the first episode is Crystal having less of the first person narration, Crystal kept it only when having no other way to tell us a character's name.  In fact this is the only area in which the 90s Anime kind of has Manga material that Crystal doesn't, since it's opening monologue from Usagi prior to the story actually starting is pretty much all taken from the Manga's narration, but front loaded in that version.  Defending first person narration is something I want to do more of on this blog in the future, but for our purpose here it's only in dramatized mediums it's ever considered controversial, it's much more the standard operating procedure in Comics.

When it comes to comparing specifically these first episodes I've only ever seen one argument for the 90s Anime being better, and that's Vrai's post made after the first episode of Crystal debuted.  That post was mostly them pre-emptively dismissing the value of a "more like the Manga" adaption and the Senshi/Shittenou shipping which we suspected in advance was coming.  They had only one actual argument for the 90s Anime's pilot being better then Crystal's pilot.

In both The Manga and Crystal Usagi first meets Luna by seemingly accidentally stepping on her while running late to school and then stopping to apologize and make sure she's okay.  In the 90s Anime she sees some kids being mean to Luna and then chases them off.  To Vrai this moment is what "showed us that Usagi will be a hero" as if without that she won't be one.

Wanting to see Usagi scare off some bullies (especially if it's before she gets her powers) is very much a value instilled in Western Nerds by American Superhero Comics and their prominent adaptations.  From Captian America's "I don't like bullies, where ever they're from" to the 2019 Shazam movie, to Clark coming back to that diner at the end of Superman II which my parents told me got the biggest applause of anything in that movie in the theaters in 1980.

The Magical Girl superhero is supposed to be built on very different foundations however.  Instead of the focus being on answering violence with violence, it's on a young girl's empathy for another living creature, stopping to care for it even though she's already running late.  In the 90s Anime doing what she did here only slowed her down further because of her Airheadedness which the 90s Anime will develop a pattern of exaggerating.  It's not a bad thing that Usagi stops kids form bullying a Cat, but it's thematically not useful to establishing her character and if anything is a distraction from what should matter here.  

Ironically as time goes on the 90s Anime will overall resemble post Sailor Moon Magical Girl shows more then the Manga does, largely since the Anime is more what inspired future creators.  But in these opening chapters where this newborn Genre is taking it's baby steps, it was the Manga that was stepping in the right direction.

The next worth commenting on is the conversation at the bench between the School scenes and Naru's family's jewelry store.  In the Manga and Crystal a total of 5 people are involved in this conversation, but in the 90s Anime it's just Usagi and Naru, yet it tries to say all the same things anyway making the conversation seem much more random.

Next to talk about is the Meet Cute between Usagi and Mamoru.  I'm glad I double checked everything before writing this, because what Mamoru actually says isn't really any different, he comments on her hairstyle and the test score, but doesn't actually call her stupid yet.  My memory of Darrien in this episode was definitely filtered through what he will become by the end of the Jadite arc. Still in the 90s Anime version his tone is harsher, even when performed by the same Actor in the Viz Dubs.

The 90s Anime completely skipped the introduction of Motoki and the Game Center Crown.  This is perhaps the most forgivable among the differences I'm actually mentioning, they knew they had way more episodes to work with so why not save time in episode 1 and introduce Motoki in episode 2 which for the most part wasn't based on Manga material at all?  

The actual battle with the Youma of the Week at the end has a lot of small differences I'm not gonna comment on, what matters is the timing of Tuxedo Mask's contribution. In the Manga he says "crying won't solve all your problems Sailor Moon" after her sonic crying attack does it's damage, meaning it's clearly meant to serve as advice to not be dependent on that in the future, thus setting up in Act 2 where the same attack isn't effective.  

In the 90s Anime she doesn't use that ablity again in the following episode, or the episode based on Act 2, or at all till Dentist of Horrors during SuperS where it was as effective as it was the first time.  But more importantly for comparing the episodes at hand, Tuxedo Mask saying this is moved up to before the Sonic attack happens, thus making him look simply wrong.  This sets the tone for the 90s Anime's tendency to make Tuxedo Mask less then useless.

Those are the differences that are truly relevant to how they are written on paper.  But similar to one of the things I said about The Snyder Cut, even with what's on paper the same everything has more Gravitas in Crystal.  I have a lot of Nostalgia for the aesthetics of the 90s Anime, I'll never hate it, but the only thing I still prefer about it visually is how Kazuko Tadano draws Legs (she should team up with Naoko Yamada someday).

There was a time when I was with the people complaining about how Season 1 of Crystal looked, but I was an idiot blinded by Nostalgia in ways I usually try not to be.  Now that I've seen every episode more then once I can no longer relate to those complaints.  Crystal looks great, those of us with attachments to the older Anime simply needed to get used to it.

And the Music Even more so, leaving OPs and Insert songs aside the 90s Anime had passable but bland elevator Music for it's actual score.  Crystal sharing the Composer of Suite Pretty Cure has a phenomenal Score that can compete with John Williams and Danny Elfman.  Meanwhile Moon Pride has become equally as Iconic as Moonlight Densetsu.

Clearandsweet's panel on Sailor Moon is called "Grace v. Glamour", the irony of them being such a Crystal/Manga hater is that The Manga and Crystal are specifically better at what that very thesis is focusing on.  The 90s Anime loves to constantly undercut it's Feminine Grace and Glamour for a cheap laugh.  The Manga and Crystal also have humor but they are far less prone to becoming outright self parody, and I enjoy content that is Self Parody yet still Sincere, especially from Anime, so I do enjoy nearly all of the 90s Anime's sense of humor.  But I also greatly appreciate finally having an Anime that takes it's Grace and Glamour far more seriously.

And same with the thesis about the "conflict between them" (honestly it's a difficult for me to follow since as a Christian I'm conditioned to define Grace very differently, but that definition is also relevant to the Genre).  The 90s Anime is much less like the Manga and more like other Magical Girl shows precisely in how it's less willing to dwell on how Usagi is inevitably going to lose her normal life.

Moonlight Knight, the only problem with the Doom Tree Saga

I've made clear on this blog that I love the Doom Tree Saga, the first 13 episodes of Sailor Moon R.  The Moonlight Knight plotline is it's one issue, the one thing I have to ask people to try to ignore or look past as they watch it.

He is pretty unconnected to why I love this Arc so much.  I love it for how it's the last time a lot of characters and elements of season 1 are truly prominent, I love Ail and Ann and their wacky antics, and I love how looking forward this is the first time Sailor Moon truly looks like what the Magical Girl Warrior sub-genre will become.  I love most of it's one off Filler episodes but I also love it's Eucatastrophe of a finale.

So if someone today did a remake or adaptation of this Arc I would not have a problem with The Moonlight Knight being removed. In fact I would remove him myself even though in the American set Sailor Moon reimaging I've been writing in my head I intend to cast Darrien Shields (name subject to change) as ethnically Middle Eastern, and then maybe just homage the concept by having him Cosplay as the Moonlight Mask at a Halloween Party or something.  Referencing the Moonlight Knight is not even my reason for that decision, it's more a result of my comparative mythology theories where I compare Endymion to Dumuzid/Tammuz, so I want Prince Enydmion to look like a plausible Iraqi in the flashbacks.  (On an off topic note I do want people to know that Usagi herself will remain Ethnically Japanese in this adaptation I'm imagining.)

This post is only an Apology for this plotline in the sense that it's important to remember Japan doesn't relate to "Race" the same way America does.  Now it's wrong when some reactionary Twitter Weebs want to make it sound like Japan is unaware of the very concept., modern Japan has clearly become aware of it, and Racism has been a theme in some Anime.  But it's not their main ancient grudge breaking to new mutiny like it is for the United States.  Tropes related to American Racism pop up in Japanese media because of how Japanese media has been influenced by American Media with originally no knowledge of the context, hence why the further back you go the more often Black people in Anime are full on Loony Toons style Black Face.

But more importantly Japan is not one of the countries constantly bombing Middle Eastern countries back to the Stone Age.  Rather they are a Nation that knows what it feels like to be Bombed and so when 21st Century Anime does address the War on Terror in a show like Canaan it tends to do so from a very anti-American Imperialism viewpoint.

Positive Stereotypes are still a problem, I'm well aware of that, the stereotype that Asians are good at math for example makes things more difficult for Asians who struggle with math.  But I do feel like it's worth noting how the positive Stereotypes that used to exist for Arabs and Muslims have been pretty much gone from American Pop Culture since 9/11, they've just been Terrorists or in media critiquing the War on Terror passive victims.  Americans haven't been in the mood for a revival of 1000 Arabian Nights style fantasy.  And Arabs are kind of the only American Minority for whom that is the case.

So in that context discussing a character like the Moonlight Knight is a good opportunity to remind people that a lot of the tropes we associate with Chivalry and Courtly Love are the product of Medieval French writers borrowing ideas first innovated in the Arabic Literature and Poetry they were exposed to during the Crusades.  And those tropes are somewhat baked into Sailor Moon right from the original Manga, so acknowledging the Arabic version of that was probably well intentioned, I just wish it hadn't been done so poorly.

Fate/Zero is the Darkest work of Fiction I give a 10 out of 10.

Possibly even the Darkest I give more then a 7.

It is the Darkest instalment of it's franchise for certain.  And like Revenge of The Sith ends as badly as it does because it's a Prequel, it's about setting wrong what our future heroes will set right.  Fate/ is overall a pretty optimistic franchise, it's name is meant to be Ironic, it's generally about beating Fate and rejecting Fatalism.  Now the average Fate/ Anime is not as much like a Magical Girl show as Fate/Khalied Liner Prima Illya, and that's fine, it's okay that there is a spectrum here.

But it's also in my opinion by far the darkest work of the "Urobutcher", as I've said repeatedly Madoka Magica and it's clones in-spite of everything are true Magical Girl shows where love and courage triumph.

Most other Anime thought of as being Dark Edgelord Anime have a limited appeal to me.  And plenty of the other Anime I like that are often considered super Dark and Edgy have a lot of light people don't see largely because of people who didn't watch them all the way to the end.

But I didn't say "Anime" or "Anime and Manga" in the title, I said fiction in general.  And when it comes to Dark works of Fiction I'm known for defending, it's often material related to DC Comics, Snyder Films, the live action Titans show, and Comics like Identity Crisis, War Games and the Bruce Wayne Fugitive Storyline.  

And for each of those cases the answer to "do you like them less then Fate/Zero or are they less Dark then Fate/Zero?" is BOTH.  And there is a limit to how much darkness I tolerate even from DC, I don't defend Future's End of any of the overly edgy New52 stuff, Fate/Zero is closer to their lever of edgy darkness, but is better then them at not feeling like it's all being done only for shock value.

The only things I can possibly say I like more then Fate/Zero that can maybe be described as at least more Dark then they are Not Dark are the Anime named Noir from 2001 and The Dark Knight from 2008.  But both are works I have very optimistic interpretations of in-spite of everything.

Snyder of course is the real controversial subject here. I really don't think any of the people who've made hours long Video Essays on why Snyder is the most cynical, toxic, pessimistic, nihilistic, misanthropic film maker of all time have watched Fate/Zero.  There is no way they can be as unforgiving of what they're unforgiving of while also being as unable to see the light in the darkness as they are when it comes to Snyder, and still be able to even sit through Fate/Zero.  Fate/Zero is much closer to being everything those people accuse Snyder of, and the optimism buried beneath the surface is visible mostly through knowing what it's a Prequel to.

And yet it would also be far more difficult for them to deny Fate/Zero was written by a good intelligent writer and directed by a skilled talented director.  Snyder allows his Style to hide his Substance, Gen Urobochi and UFOTable do not.

What does it say about me that Fate/Zero uniquely is able to be as Dark as it is and yet still be as appealing to me as it is?  I don't know really.