Looking back on 2023

 For starters it’s my second year as a Detective Conan aka Case Closed fan, the only Movie I hadn’t already seen by the end of 2022 was the one that wasn’t out yet, which this year I as expected had to wait till November to see.  I enjoyed movie 26 but it might be the hardest movie to recommend to franchise newcomers. This year was also big for Conan fans in getting 50 new Dubbed episodes on Tubi, and the Dub for movie 24 The Scarlet Bullet was finally seemingly just before Christmas for Digital Purchase on Amazon PrimeVideo.  And on the main show some long awaited developments in the main storyline.

For Pretty Cure, Soaring Sky I do think is probably the best show we’ve gotten since Hugtto but I wasn’t able to finish it for reasons that have nothing to do with its quality.

The Pokémon Franchise gave us both Paldean Wings and Path to The Peak which were each very good.

Lupin III vs Cat’s Eye was decent, and this year also had some movies I still haven’t been able to see yet, like the Sailor Moon Cosmos movies and the second SAO Progressive movie.

And outside the realm of Anime was the Willow series which I mostly enjoyed but Disney decided to bury. And from Star Wars I enjoyed both Mandalorian season 3 and Ahsoka.

But let’s look at regular Seasonal Anime now.

Winter had 9 shows I watched to Completion, not all as they were airing, plus two that finished then from prior seasons.  Two of the sequels were In/Spectre which is still pretty cool and Vinland Saga which was also good.  

Tomo-Chan is a Girl was a fun RomCom, I’m not as into the main premise I think a lot of other people will be but I enjoyed it’s Kuudere character. I already made a post about her as a great new addition to the Kuudere Canon.  

Buddy Daddies is a show in an unfortunate situation because I suspect it will ultimately be mostly forgotten in Spy x Family’s shadow even though I think it was a more overall satisfying show.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady kicked off this being perhaps the best year for Yuri since 2018.  It was a great show, very funny but also genuinely emotional.  And it ended in such a way where there is room for a season 2 but it won’t feel unfinished without one.

Onimai was awesome was awesome.

Uncle from Another World, Ningen, Fruit of Evolution season 2, and Rougo were all fun Isekai.  

I’ll share my thoughts on both seasons of Eminence in Shadow up front here, it’s good but I’m not gonna be as inclined to list it as a favorite as some other people are.

The Super Mario Bros movie and Across The Spider Verse were both great western Animated films.

Spring dropped an instant classic with Heavenly Delusion which I do hope gets a season 2. 

Honestly there are a lot of shows this year I haven't finished or watched yet but which I still might.  Like Tsundere VIllainess, and the second season of Tonikawa and Bofuri.

My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at lv999 was a very good RomCom Anime.  Dead Mount Deathplay was a fun new Reverse Isekai Premise.  Season 2 of Witch from mercury was also great but not something I have particular thoughts on.

My thoughts on Psycho-Pass Movie Providence I already tacked on to the end of my Dystopian Sci-FI post from earlier this year.

Yuri Is My Job was very fun as well, it kind of felt like a true throwback Yuri in the best way possible.

Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers is one of those shows that had a strong start but I don’t really like where it ended.

The main show I have complex thoughts on for the spring season is In Another World With my Smartphone season 2.  As someone who’s been season 1’s most vocal online evangelist since it aired back in 2017 I don’t like reporting that I felt disappointed by season 2, but I kind of do.  Part of it is how the Dub had to replace some cast members, but in a way that tried to keep people from noticing which only made those performances sound more forced.  It’s the kind of failed recasting I do not blame on the actors.  However I don’t think that’s the only reason I think this period in the story in the original LNs was perhaps a low point.  Also the confirmation that Leen is going to become one of the nine wives I don’t like.  I like Leen but as a mischievous perverted little gremlin side character, I don't think her as a main Waifu will work.

For another digression outside of Anime I watched The Flash and I did like it, but I don’t feel like going out on a limb for it.  My view that the accusations about Ezra Miller are pure Transphobia hasn’t changed.

The Summer season was pretty fun too.

Zom100 technically isn’t a show I completed but that’s because it’s one indefinite hiatus, it’s a fun show with blatant Marxist Subtext which I highly recommend.

Am I Actually The Strongest? Was another fun Isekai.

Liar Liar feels like a distinctly more light hearted take on the Battle Royal inspired genre, Death Game set up but without the Death, which it turns out appeals to me perfectly.

Rent-a-Girlfriend season 3 was great, the more frustrating aspects of the series were toned down this season to focus on our main characters actually achieving a goal and dealing with some real emotions.  I never agreed with the hate on the first two seasons but for season 3  anyone claiming they watched it and that it’s no better is simply lying.

Jobless Reincarnation season 2a was also good, don’t listen to the haters.

Fate/Strange Fake Whispers of Dawn was a neat little special and I wild definitely watch the full show when it airs.

For more non Anime digressions season 2 of Apple’s Foundation series was great, it massively improved on what I already enjoyed about season 1.  Now you have to accept that it's not Isaac Asimov’s vision at all, but once you accept it as its own thing it’s a perfectly enjoyable and interesting Sci-Fi show, perhaps the best the west has had since Caprica.

Dungeons & Dragons honor Among Thieves was also a more enjoyable movie then i expected, it’s the closest any Western Fantasy show can come to the appeal of an Isekai or “I can’t believe it’s not Isekai'' style Anime since it has that living in a Game world Vibes.  But without distinctly Otaku Elements has an even broader appeal.

Venture Brothers Radiant is The Blood of The Baboon’s Heart had a pretty satisfying movie if it indeed is the send off for that franchise it’ll have been a fitting one.

The Fall season I’m most hesitant to even cover here since it isn’t over yet.  

I did watch two Netflix Anime in October, Good Night World and Pluto which were both awesome, and then November had a neat Slime Reincarnation ONA.  Besides that there’s only 4 shows I’ve watched to completion, one I already covered up above.  There are a number of shows I put On Hold that I feel there’s a strong chance I will return to like Frieren.

I’m In Love With The Villainess was fantastic, another required viewing for Yuri fans.

Tearmoon Empire was also cute and fun.

16bit Sensation Another Layer was a great show with Deep Cuts for someone like me who's spent the last two years researching the history of Visual Novels and Dating Sims and related game genres.

For one last non Anime addition I saw  Rebel Moon Part 1 but I’ve decided to stick to Mastadon for expressing my thoughts on it.

I suppose Suzume can count since it’s not originally from 2023 but the Dub I watched probably is, it was good.  I could also add Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War - The Kiss That Never Ends, which was very good.

If I included everything I watched for the first time in 2023 but which is actually older this post would be twice as long.  A lot of them were via browning Tubi.TV.  Some of them I’ve already discussed in various Blog Posts.

If anything new is added before midnight on Christmas Eve I’ll add an Update.  In the meantime Happy New Years.

Update December 28th: Well I just finished BOFURI season 2, which also happens to be my 900th completed Anime.

Sometimes a single Show gets Sole Credit for a Trend it's only the most well known example of.

The almsot over current Fall 2023 Season of Anime includes not one but two Fantasy shows where part of how the story starts is the idea of beginning at or after where a traditional Epic Fantasy story ends [Update: turns out it was three actually].  They are massively different from each other in almsot every other way from vibes to art-style to what subgenres they fit into to.

But the thing is nether is actually the first Anime that can be described that way, it also applies to Dead Mount Death Play earlier this year, to The Devil is a Part Timer several years ago, and I feel confident I recall one or two others in recent years who's names now escape me doing it [Update: Endro is one of them].  And yet if this concept becomes even more popular in the coming years I suspect a narrative will develop that Frieren, one of the two currently airing, started the trend even though it didn't since it has a respectability or at least staying power that A Returner's Magic and those shows which came before it largely do not.

Because this has happened before.  It's like the Great Man Theory of History but applied to popular pieces of Media rather then people.

Take how Sword Art Online is blamed for the broader Anime trends that those above shows merely fit into Sub Genres of.  There were shows that actually qualify as Isekai airing during the same season and in preceding seasons.  Even if we distinguish what modern Isekai is like from what we usually got in the 90s and early 2000s then still War on Geminar from 2009-2010 largely fits the modern criteria, and in Japanese it even has the word Isekai in the title.  

But even if we go back to the era of SAO's original Web Novel publication a decade prior, 2002 had other fully immersive VR Video Game themed stories like .hack//Sign and all the way back in April that year's annual Detective Conan/Case Closes film The Phantom of Baker Street.

Sometimes many artists are coming up with similar ideas at the same time organically for reasons that can't be chopped up to one innovator who everyone else copied.  A common term for this kind of thing is a Zeitgeist.

Take for another example how throughout the 2010s every Incest Anime was viewed as part of a trend started by Oreimo.  Oreimo season 1 was again not even the only Incest show of it's season. Yosuga no Sora was also a pretty big deal at the time.  And earlier in the same year we had Kiss X Sis as both OVAs and a TV Anime.  But what bugs me about this is how people forget that Little Sisters being already a thing in Otaku culture is partly what Oreimo was about.

Or we could talk about the narrative that Neon Genesis Evangelion "Altered Anime Eternally".  In that case it's not so much a specific trend or genre or trope that Eva is given sole credit for but the entire landscape of modern Anime.  I absolutely agree that 1995 was the beginning of an Era of Anime.  But Eva premiered in the last season of that year, the prior 6 months had already been filled with TV Anime and Movies and OVAs that were ground breaking and game changing in their own ways, and to a lesser extent so had the 6 months prior to that.  Eva was just one final Cherry on top of a very innovate Sundae.  (Also Metal Fight Miku was a completely original TV Anime in the Summer of 1994 that had no connection to any prior IP in any medium, and it was popular enough to get an English Dub.)

However It's not just in the world of Anime this happens.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a show I was once and kind of still am a fan of, it was my favorite TV show of all time before PLL and Anime entered my life.  But the narrative often presented by many of it's fans that it was not just the first Girl Power TV show but also the beginning of what I'll call Semi-Episodic Television in general, annoys me.

That narrative forgets that La Femme Nikkita started airing at almost the exact same time in January of 1997, and that Xena Warrior Princess had been on the air since September of 95.  "Neither of those is about a Blonde High School Girl with a superhero like double life" you may retort.  Well The Secret World of Alex Mack started in October of 1994 and lasted 4 seasons overlapping with Buffy.

And all of that is without even getting into the Girl Power Anime that was already officially available to American audiences.  Sailor Moon's DiC Dub debuted in Canada in late 95 and was on American TV by some point in 96.  The early episodes of Slayers were dubbed by the end of 95 as well, also Bubblegum Crisis had been released in the States in 91 and 92 and was Dubbed in 94.

But speaking of Sailor Moon perhaps it's hypocritical of me to say all this now when earlier this year I tired to defend the notion of Sailor Moon single handedly creating her genre (whatever you call it), well really Codename Sailor V in 1991.  The thing is 1990 had the first Devil Hunter Yohko OVA which technically fits all the requirements for being a Magical Girl Warrior but really doesn't fit in Aesthetically or Thematically.  And 92 also had the original video game debut of Galaxy Frauline Yuna. Then there's other niche things like Dream Hunter Rem.  So I still agree with distinguishing the Magical Girl Warrior genre from the Sally the Witch style sitcoms or the Idol variation.  But Sailor Moon is merely the biggest not only piece of the puzzle of how that genre formed.

And all this is part of why even when a trend does seem to Chronologically have a pretty undisputable singular starting point I still oppose dismissing everything that came after as mere copycats.  Yuki Yuna Is A Hero and Daybreak Illusion and Blue Reflection Ray each feel to me like shows their creators were trying to say something with, and that they would have tried to make in some form even without Madoka Magica coming first.

Re:Creators rejects Auteur Theory

Artists tend to be biased in favor of Auteur Theory since it serves their interests, they want to feel an absolute ownership over what they create.  So I did not expect to ever watch an epic Fantasy story where rejecting Auteur Theory is explicitly the moral of the story.  But that's exactly what the Anime titled Re:Creators is.

Spoilers for Re;Creators will naturally follow.  But first here's it's spoiler free Synopsis on MyAnimeList for those who haven't heard of it before.

Humans have designed countless worlds—each one born from the unique imagination of its creator. Souta Mizushino is a high school student who aspires to be such a creator by writing and illustrating his own light novel. One day, while watching anime for inspiration, he is briefly transported into a fierce fight scene. When he returns to the real world, he realizes something is amiss: the anime's headstrong heroine, Selesia Yupitilia, has somehow returned with him.

Before long, other fictional characters appear in the world, carrying the hopes and scars of their home. A princely knight, a magical girl, a ruthless brawler, and many others now crowd the streets of Japan. However, the most mysterious one is a woman in full military regalia, dubbed "Gunpuku no Himegimi," who knows far more than she should about the creators' world. Despite this, no one knows her true name or the world she is from.

Meanwhile, Souta and Selesia work together with Meteora Österreich, a calm and composed librarian NPC, to uncover the meaning behind these unnatural events. With powerful forces at play, the once clear line between reality and imagination continues to blur, leading to a fateful meeting between creators and those they created.

Also here is Mother's Basement's video made when only 7 episodes out of 22 had aired.

https://youtu.be/kwS1mX_Clfw

Now my analysis begins, again beware of Spoilers.

 

First of all on a pure Symbolic level two of the relevant Creators in the story are literally dead when the story begins, both the creator of our Antagonist and the creator of who I feel is the real Protagonist of the show, it's Kuudere Gandalf.  It is quite literally about Characters living on beyond the deaths of their authors.

But more directly relevant, when various authors aware of what's going on start trying to write new retcons to power up our protagonists, they discover that something truly becomes Canon only when the audience accepts it.  So in the rules of this universe Han indeed Shot First.

This is one of those Anime where the Antagonist is much more who the story is about then the Protagonists.  And indeed the Antagonist is a character who's abilities mostly don't come from her original author.  She's basically an Internet Meme Character who gets new powers every time someone makes a viral YouTube Video about her.  Also she began as an AU Fan Fic version of another character.

I'm in the difficult position of being a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy fan who's not a supporter of Auteur Theory, Worley and Nerdonymous were all about Auteur Theory.  I don't defend the Prequels because I think George Lucas's artistic vision is the definition of good Star Wars, if that were the case I would also like the Original Trilogy.  In fact the only OT film Lucas directly created as much as he did the Prequels is the one I like the least, heck I even like most Disney Star Wars content more then I like A New Hope.

I love the Prequels because of the work countless artists put into making them and how the fans later expanded on the world they created.  Rick Worley's pious devotion to Auteur Theory is what lead him to becoming a full on J. K. Rowling Simp.

Auteur Theory was coined in the 50s or 60s by French Philosophers but before then it was basically the premise of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and why that work has a history of resonating with people who find her political world view repulsive like Zach Snyder and ColdCrashPictures.

However traditional Death of The Author isn't exactly what Re:Creators is arguing either, rather it's arguing something far more Communist in nature.

1. Being rooted in Classical Liberalism the original Death of The Author Essay is focused on the validity of Individual Interpretations not Collective Fandom interpretation.

2. The original DoTA Thesis also still insists there has to be a basis in the text, the reader can't just make something up out of no where or based purely on Vibes.

Both those restrictions are defied by what Re:Creators depicts.  The collective Audience absolutely has the power to add something with no basis in the original.  And Collective Interpretation is the point.  It's a system where Fanon is the Canon.

A Certain Raildex Watch Order Post

My recommended watch order is a version of the "simplified chronological order" which is the term other people use for an order like this.

Unlike past posts where I've given my watch order for this franchise I want to really break down and explain my logic more. 

A Certain Scientific Railgun (Season 1)

A Certain Magical Index (Season 1)

A Certain Scientific Railgun S

A Certain Magical Index II

A Certain Scientific Railgun T

A Certain Magical Index III

I have chosen not to include A Certain Scientific Accelerator because I kind of don't recommend it at all.  It's not horrible, a true franchise completionist will probably be able to get something out of it.  But it doesn't appeal to me much.  It's chronological placement is between Index I and II but it aired between Index III and Railgun T.

I also didn't give the movie a placement simply because it's not really canon at all.  I do like the movie a fair bit, but I wouldn't prioritize when to watch it.  Index season 1 has everything you really need to know for it.

In the spirit of this watch order not being strictly chronological, I won't make my arguments in their chronological order either.  I'll start with why each season of Railgun should be watched before it's numerically corresponding season of Index.

Railgun Season 1 simply is a better entry point to this world.  I do recommend skipping episode 2 on your first watch since it's both filler is gives an unfortunate first impression of a certain character.  But other then that season 1 of Railgun is a fantastic fun little SciFi show that only ever seems under whelming in the context of the major heights achieved by it's sequels.

One YouTube video I watched defending the Broadcast order as ideal insinuated that Railgun leaves some things unexplained because it assumes you already watched Index.  But especially as far as their respective season 1s go I really don't see what they're talking about.  Railgun is far better at organically explaining how the Esper stuff and Academy City's technology works, and the Magic stuff isn't relevant to Railgun.  Sometimes I think we Nerds assume anything that can be read as a reference to something you've already seen in the release order can only work that way when the truth is they can often work either way.  

Railgun also simply is the better show by a significant margin, so much so that I can imagine the existence of people who'd like Railgun but not Index while I can't imagine the opposite.  The way less Fanservice (by my definition Railgun has no Fanservice but I know some might disagree) the better pacing, the usually more intelligent fight scenes, the fact that it could almost pass as a Shoujo, all give it a broader appeal.  

So while there are reasons the order I listed above is best if you do watch both, if you aren't able to get into Index don't worry, nothing in the Railgun sequels absolutely depends on having seen any of Index, it can all stand on it's own.

But the reason why Railgun S should be watched before Index II even beyond all those above reasons is mainly episodes 6 and 7 (or episodes 30 and 31 of Index as a whole as some sites might number them).  This two parter is Kuroko focused and it will hit harder if you have the increased knowledge of her perspective on the Sisters Arc that Railgun S provides.

The particular reason why it's better to watch Railgun T before Index III isn't even much because of either show's main cast.  Episodes 4-6 of Index III is The Battle Royal arc which in the release order (and even more so for Index onlies) introduces a lot of new characters a good deal of whom die in this same arc.  Now the Anime should have given this arc more then 3 episodes to begin with but even if it had I'd still say it works best with the prior investment in Item, Member and School that Railgun T provides.  (Scavenger isn't in Battle Royal however so you could see you've seen everything relevant by the end of episode 20 of T).

Now some will tell you you the later part of Railgun T requires having seen Accelerator first because of Scavenger but here's the thing, I had seen Accelerator first as it aired and I'd forgotten about Scavenger by the time their Railgun T episodes aired.  Railgun T on it's own makes a perfectly fine introduction to them and for me is entirely what endeared me to them, it refers to them having had a bad experience with Accelerator but it's not difficult to guess what that entailed, we don't need to have seen it just like we never needed to see the Kessel Run.

Now as I said if you do watch both there are benefits to watching at least some of Index before the second and third seasons of Railgun.

The reason Index season 1 should be watched before Railgun S is The Sisters Arc.  This arc is to a large extent the same story told from different POVs.  But it is Touma's POV that presumes the audience will be as uninformed as Touma is, while the S version does have some dramatic irony going on, not so much it can't be followed at all on it's own, but enough that it adds to the experience to have already seen the other version.

The reason to watch Index II before Railgun T is mainly again episodes 6 and 7 since they explain one key aspect of what's going on with Kuroko during the Daihasei Festival.    In fact if you are someone who generally hates Index and is a Railgun fan only these are the only two episodes of Index I'd remotely suggest a Railgun fan can't simply ignore.

There are also a few things that reference the events of Index's Daihasei Festival arc while the reverse never happens.

Thing is the Railgun T Daihasei Festival also via one character references a Railgun story still not animated at all, so there is no avoiding an Anime only feeling like they missed something.  

Sometimes the Second Episode is the Problem that the Three Episode Rule protects against.

Some attempts to deconstruct the Three Episode rule focus mostly on defending the first episodes.

But a main reason I consider it important is how often I consider the exact second episode of a show to be one of it's worst.  Maybe some of you are thinking "well you don't need a Rule to not give up that quickly".  The thing is it's very easy for me to imagine finding a story's initial set up to be the only part of it that's good.   With American LA TV shows it's definitely happened a few times where I found a first episode pretty fun but as soon as they settled into their regular weekly routine I got bored of it.

Now when it comes to Anime where the second episode can give a potentially harmful early impression.  There are fortunately some that are episodic enough where I'm very willing to just recommend skipping the second episode entirely, at least on your first watch.

That is most heavily the case with A Certain Scientific Railgun.  What is so frustrating about the second episode isn't exactly something never in other episodes, but that's the only one where it's the main plot of the episode, and goes further with it then the show ever will again.  And it's not even filler in the Monster of the Week sense, but it fortunately has no actual connection to the Level Upper Arc.

The second episode of the 90s Sailor Moon Anime actually was skipped by the original DiC localization, so we have documented proof that it wasn't actually needed (thing is other episodes DiC skipped were among my favorites).  With Sailor Moon I'm kinda willing to tell people to just watch the 3rd episode first.

But in less episodic shows this goes back to the structural reasons the three episode rule exists.  The firs 3 episodes are often like an extended first act of a movie.  The first and 3rd episodes contain the most vital things that establish the world and initiate the plot.  The second episode can often be mostly necessary but less engaging connective tissue between them.

I also want to acknowledge the early Pokémon Anime here. In that case I really like the second episode but I know not everyone considers it great because of Suede's Pokémon Journey's review of it.  The second episode is to me filled with lots of fun stuff and it's certainly important set up and world building.  But it is indeed not as "tightly" written as episodes 1 and 3.