Twist Pilots are my least favorite Anime Pilots

I’m referring to cases where the first episode of an Anime ends on a twist revealing even the genre of the show wasn’t what it was precented as for most of the pilot.

They are often pretty entertaining the first time you watch them, but when I rewatch a show I find myself wanting to just skip it and start the show with the first episode that actually represents what the show is. 

The more I like the rest of the show the more the fact that they start with these kinds of pilots annoys me. Because in an online culture obsessed with treating not spoiling something as a moral value, these become shows you are supposed to recommend to people without even accurately telling them what genre they are getting into. 

School-Live! is the ultimate example of this, its mere inclusion in my posts recommending Horror Anime is technically a spoiler, but it shouldn’t be.

The impact of watching the School-Live! Pilot blind without knowing you are actually watching a Zombie Apocalypse show works only if you like both Cute Girls Doing Cute Things and Zombie Apocalypses as genres (which I do), someone who only likes the former will be upset you got them into that show only to take it away, and someone who only likes the latter will be annoyed they had to sit through a Moe show for 20 minutes.

Maybe some will argue it's good to filter out the Slice of Life haters in the pilot because it is still structurally largely a CGDCT show even after the Zombie shoe drops. But as someone who is an enjoyer of vanilla Cute Girls Doing Cute Things shows I think it’s perfectly valid that some people can enjoy those antics with a Genre element mixed in but not on their own, I have no desire to Gate Keep the joy of School-Live! from people who can’t also enjoy Lucky Star and K-On. 

A more recent show where this applies is Quality Assurance in Another World. I haven't rewatched this one yet at the time I’ve started writing this but I’ve been planning to, and I keep wondering whether or not I should just skip the pilot and start with episode 2.

In both cases there is an artistic/narrative reason for starting the show this way beyond just shock value.  That it’s important to sell a certain character’s perspective. But that really doesn't take away its lack of rewatchability. A single 20 minute episode of Anime doesn't have a lot of time to do anything that truly feels interesting to rewatch knowing the twist. The twists in Anime that have a good set up and pay off are the ones that span multiple episodes.

I said the more I like the rest of the show overall the more I dislike it starting this way, so let’s look at a reverse example.

Talentless Nana’s twist pilot works pretty well. But my excitement for the show early on did not maintain itself. 

This was hyped by some of its fans early on as being an example of “Death Note but better” because Death Note has a certain type of hater, people who want an Anime with its basic appeal but where the female cast is treated better. I’m no Death Note fanatic, I’ve never called it one of my personal favorites and I too prefer Anime that are more feminine at their core. But in the case of Talentless Nana watching it while comparing it to Death Note does not do it any favors. 

Some people complain about Misa in Death Note being a Chaos Factor that made Light’s defeat unfair.  But she does not show up as early as people are making it sound when they say that.  Light had already made the key mistakes that made his downfall inevitable, L was already treating Light as effectively his only suspect. A Chaos factor is kind of what the show needed at that point to keep it from getting boring. Seriously everyone who says they wish Misa wasn’t in the show, what do you think it could have actually done without her?  

Talentless Nana actually does what people falsely accuse Death Note of in this regard. It introduces way too many not remotely foreseeable factors way too early. I think the show would have been better if it took two cours to cover what it wound up covering in only 1.  And I’m saying that as someone constantly annoyed at how often people online are saying that about every single show lately. Or even just did a few more simpler scenarios before starting all the mini arcs. 

The Executioner and Her Way of Life is a debatable show to include here because the equivalent twist happens more like half way through the Pilot. I feel like this show I might have convinced myself I liked more than I really did originally out of some obligation to it being a Yuri. But the truth is I kind of want more Yuri Isekai that are the same as regular Het Isekai in how the Romance is integrated instead of always having some other quasi subversive element to it. 

A Future Delivery crew is Transported to Another World Created by the Imagination of their Malfunctioning Alcoholic Foul Mouthed Robot.

Lately I’ve been thinking about Bender’s Game, one of the sorta movies that makes up season 5 of Futurama. [Update: so Futurama is one of those annoying stations where different placed number the seasons differently, I said season 5 based on Wikipedia but on Hulu they are season 6.]

It can be described as an Isekai, but not just in the way that the Pylea arc of Angle can be. By using a Game, Dungeons and Dragons, as one of its main jumping off points, by being a parody set in what can be thought as a very generic Fantasy setting. It truly is the only work of western media I can think of that’s almost like modern Isekai Anime.

It draws on the iconography of DnD and Lord of The Rings the same way all these modern Isekai draw on Dragon Quest and Record of Lodoss War. 

I find that fascinating since it’s from 2008, five years before this kind of Anime really starts becoming a thing. 

Maybe it says something about me that I always even back then kind of enjoyed this the most of the 4 movies while others I suspect found it the least interesting, a filler arc comparatively. And now I’m a Weeb who is one of modern Isekai’s apologists. 

I’m writing this without having yet rewatched it. I haven’t watched the whole thing since before I got full time into Anime around the same time this modern Isekai trend was taking off. I am concerned I won’t like it as much now in the context of how some of my tastes have changed and how a lot of what these “adult” cartoons were doing in the 00s hasn’t aged well. I kind of wanted to document my thoughts here before a rewatch changes them. 

And I do also want to comment on something unrelated to the Isekai comparison. The Titanious Anglesmith persona. 

When this personality takes over Bender while they are still in the regular Futurama setting he seems very different in personality from Bender. The Comedy for long time Futurama viewers is Bender not acting like himself. But once they are in the fantasy world Titanious now is just Bender in a fantasy world and that becomes the joke. 

I could see someone else drawing attention to this making a criticism out of it, “why isn’t Titanious written consistently” DING. But Futurama is first and foremost a comedy and so this contrast is probably intentional and not an oversight, it is itself part of the joke. But given how Futurama does go for more than just comedy, I sometimes wonder if there is something philosophical in this choice?

Since I titled this post with my humorous guess at what a long LN style title for Bender's Game would be. I'll end with what Google Translates says that would be in Japanese. 

ある配送チームが、故障した酒浸りで口の悪いロボットの想像力によって生み出された、別世界へと転送されてしまう。

Aru haisō chīmu ga, koshō shita sakebitari de kuchi no warui robotto no sōzō-ryoku ni yotte umidasa reta, bessekai e to tensō sa rete shimau.

Batman has never been The World’s Greatest Detective on The Big Screen.

I know I’ve said this before, but I want to make this point the focus for a change.

The reason it so annoys me when part of the hype for Matt Reeves’ The Batman is being the first Batman movie to really showcase Batman as a detective is that the same promise was made by The Dark Knight back in 2008 and as much as I love that film having for a long time called it the greatest movie ever made, it failed to deliver on that promise and so did The Batman. 

I don’t care that these two films have scenes that carry the aesthetic of an Investigation.  Batman doesn’t deduce anything until it’s too late, in one the villain never had a secret identity and in the other that identity was never uncovered prior to him being arrested exactly when he planned to be arrested. 

The pseudo Detective Film qualities of The Batman are because of what it inherited from what  pre 2010 Fan Trailers thought Nolan’s take on The Riddler would be, a cringe awkward mashing together of Se7ev, Zodiac and Saw.

These kinds of Batman stories give you the edging of a detective story, but not the happy ending where the Great Detective actually outsmarts the criminal or exposes their perfect crime they thought was unsolvable. These are stories that make a point out of Batman’s victory being hollow or pyrrhic so much that in-spite of the nominal stopping of the villain’s plan it still feels firmly like the Hero was the one outsmarted every step of the way. 

I’ve been thoroughly spoiled what for a Detective Story that also works as a satisfying Action film can be by the fact that I’ve seen all the Detective Conan films (well not the most recent since it’s still in Theaters in Japan).

I am the kind of Conan fan who sometimes complains about how the Conan films have become more Action oriented over time.  But make no mistake, I think even the most overly action bloated, explosion heavy and dumb Detective Conan film (Movie 16 The Eleventh Striker) is still a more satisfying Detective story then any live action Batman movie has ever been. 

And at their best the Detective Conan films are better Detective movie/Action movie hybrids then even the RDJr Sherlock Holmes movies. The top tier of Conan movies I view as movies 1, 3, 4 and 5, the next tier just below them are 7-9 and 11-12.  I also think movie 14 Lost Ship in The Sky makes a better Die Hard sequel than any actual Die Hard sequels and movie 18 The Dimensional Sniper was a great Swan Song for the guy who wrote 14 of the first 18 movies. 

If I had to pick an absolute favorite from that top tier of films, I’ve gone back and forth between picking the third movie The Last Wizard of The Century and the fifth movie Countdown to Heaven. 

The fourth movie Captured In Her Eyes is one I know some would criticize for not giving the audience a fair shot at figuring it out themselves, but as I’ve said many times that’s not what I care about in a Detective Story. What matters here is it does it feel like the villain was outsmarted in the end and not beaten ONLY by brute force. This movie is also the most like a Film Noir of any Detective Conan movies is relevant to another claim people keep making about The Batman.

The first film, The Time Bombed Skyscraper, you could argue has the opposite problem, I don’t see anyone guessing wrong about who the villain is. But that goes to show that you can have a satisfying Detective Film in the way I’m talking about even if the villain is an established member of Batman’s Rogues gallery. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s obvious to the audience who the villain if because he shares a name with a villain from the Comics, or the film was promoted partially on seeing this A List Actor play this Iconic villain, what matters is does Batman figure out who they are on his own or does the villain just reveal himself after jerking Batman around all film.

None of the ones I just singled out are the most accessible to watch legally in the United States right now, and I recently learned I can’t even count on the BangZoom dubbed movies to stay on Amazon PrimeVideo. The first 6 movies were dubbed by Funimation but aren't legally streaming anywhere, they all had DVD releases but they are out of print and so might be pretty expensive now.  Movies 7-18 have never had an English Dub release and have only ever been legally Subbed in the US when they were each temporarily on YouTube for a week last year. 

But perhaps none of the theatrically released Detective Conan films are the purest of detective films. Perhaps what people really want from a movie length detective story is something more like the 2 hour special episodes of the series, some of which are now part of the collections of episodes on Netflix.  

But also the 2014 feature length TV Special The Disappearance of Conan Edogawa is pretty great. It’s not afraid to move slowly at first, or be minimalist in its use of music.  And it contains one of my favorite Ran moments, which since we’re comparing them to Batman movies here I will say feels very Denny O’Niel.

Are animated Batman movies better than Detective stories?  Some of them by a little bit, when the villain isn’t a standard rogue, something special for that film. Mask of The Phantasm, Under The Red Hood, kind of Batman Beyond Return of The Joker and Mystery of The Batwoman.  But just like The Dark Knight and The Batman they are often too fixated on making Batman’s Victory not very victorious. Batman The Brave and The Bold’s Scooby Doo Crossover film is somehow actually the best Batman movie at being a Detective movie.  

The Downside of Physical Media that no one wants to talk about.

Mass producing Physical Media means also mass producing plastic which has an environmental impact. But this is the one thing Internet Leftists don’t want to think about the Environmental impact of right now.

How much the 2020s have been defined by concerns about Cryptocurrencies and NFTs and Generative AI has put a lot of focus on how doing things digitally can have an environmental impact. But that Environmental Impact is entirely a symptom of Fossil Fuels being our primary energy source. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs and Generative AI have reasons to be opposed that have nothing do with the Environment, storing data digitally in general will have no adverse effects on the Environment once Fossil Fuel industries are destroyed and all energy is clean energy, which is what needs to happen to save the planet regardless.

The concerns that digital and streaming replacing physical media are bad for Art Preservation is also a symptom of Capitalism and Copyright Law. Intellectual Property Laws need to be abolished or at least massively reformed and there should be laws mandating all even minimally culturally significant Art and Entertainment Media be archived by as many Public Libraries as possible. 

Art Preservation is an ongoing process even when it's physical media, your physical copies will be ravaged by time even when not used. It's never going to be as simple matter as "there are physical copies in a vault somewhere so now they are preserved". 

Plastic Production is an environmental concern that exists independent of those issues. And it’s very messed up how when something related to that issue trends it’s usually something like Plastic Straws which many people with disabilities need.

I understand the impulse behind wanting Physical Media, I have an emotional attachment to every VHS and DVD and Blu Ray I already own. And destroying what already exists will not solve the problem, it could make things worse (never burn plastic, that's the worst thing you can do), so go ahead keep what you have.

But there was a time early in the streaming era when some people were talking about how unhealthy this obsession with collecting Physical Media is. Owning stuff for the sake of owning it used to be included in what people critiqued when they critiqued “consumerism”.

The Profit Seeking Corporations have made streaming less convenient than it was supposed to be, but that should not discredit the concept itself, it should discredit Capitalism. Instead people started romanticizing Physical Media again.

You don’t want to support the Corporations that own the official Streaming Sites and Digital Purchase platforms, good, but guess what most Piracy is digital nowadays too. Buying bootlegged physical media requires connections you are probably better off not having. 

I have very recently felt the frustration of something I bought a digital copy of being removed from PrimeVideo when there never was a Physical Release meaning I now have to resort to Privacy if I want to watch it again. But the way to prevent that should be first and foremost laws banning such practices. 

Worldbuilding doesn't and shouldn't matter.

I’ve increasingly come to feel there is nothing people should care about as an “objective criticism” less than “Bad Worldbuilding”. 

When the Worldbuilding in something is genuinely well thought out and holds up under scrutiny that’s a neat bonus, I love watching YT videos about the hidden depths of the lore in ASOIAF as much as anyone else who only watched the TV shows. But it should not be a requirement and certainly not an end in and of itself, and I kinda feel like what’s happened to that very franchise proves my point. 

Tolkien was a worldbuilder like none before him because he spent 20 years writing about this fantasy world just for himself before he actually published anything set in it. And even then he still had to partially rewrite The Hobbit later when he fully integrated it into Arda’s overarching history. Chances are you have not read the book that was published in 1937. 

I don’t care whether or not the world of a story makes sense, I care whether the characters are people I like spending time with and then if the story being told with them is compelling. And if anything related to worldbuilding as a concept affects my ability to enjoy a story, it’s not detailed the history is, or how unique it is and unlike other fantasy worlds it is, or whether its internal logic really makes that much sense. As I explained in my post on why I couldn’t get into Magic Knight Rayearth it’s whether or not the world actually feels alive and lived in, like the people playing specific roles in the story are not the only real people in it. 

I saw someone say how a particular Urban Fantasy Pet Peeve of theirs is when the Economy doesn't make sense, and then went about all the math they did regarding some story's Economy. The fact that you put more thought into this silly thing to even care about in the first place than the author did doesn’t make you a better writer than them. 

Another incorrectly named Detective Conan Collection on Netflix.

It should be named The Vermouth Arc because it's real purpose is finally filling in what they skipped in the first collection. I wish they could have just added these to that.

My nitpicking the presentation aside, they are all episodes I'm glad to see Dubbed finally and as usual this Cast Dubs them all excellently. It's also nice to finally have one with no extra long episodes and thus an episode count that doesn't look deceptively underwhelming

This was half episodes that barely if at all feature FBI characters, and for the ones that do it's a kind of a spoiler to be advertising them as FBI episodes, these are all from before that was supposed to be known. When they announced the new collection will be FBI themed I expected a few of these but mostly episodes continuing after 425. But this is for the best, those post 425 episodes should be part of a future Collection branded as The Clash of Red and Black.

I'm glad the Nano voice for Sonoko of finally got to do a Deduction show. And I'm pleasantly surprised Higo's introduction got to make a collection at all.

The case this batch ended on is the first case in this Dub that I hadn't already seen in it's entirety before.  It's a good case, some unique non standard tension that makes it stand out. 

After ending where it did, I'm now expecting the second Cour of this collection to open on Contact with The Black Organization and then include both Four Porsches and The Connivence Store Trap, and I'm hoping at least also the Hidden Bathroom Secret. After that it could go either way on just being the other 2003 Vermouth Arc episodes or including some episode following it's finale.  Episode 346-347 is easy to dismiss as a mere aftermath episode but it is the episode that properly reveals certain things. And Aftermath episodes are fun.

Based on the pattern of how the last collection was released, I'm expecting July 1st to be one the second half drops.  But I do hope it can happen sooner after having to wait so long for the 3rd Collection.

And then there is the matter of the Watch order.  I may add a more refined update on this later, or link to someone laying it out well if I find one. But the gist is...

The first case of this collection should be watched before The Desperate Revival.

The second case in it between where the Rivals Collection ends and The Mysterious Passenger.

The next 3 cases between The Mysterious Passenger and The New York Case.

And the last case after the New York Case.

Update: The Director of the Dub has updated her Chronological order list. I should just always link to that instead of trying to explain it myself. 

https://matchaandmayhem.tumblr.com/post/799001080524570624/detco-dub-order

Anime that are more Christian then Frieren.

Christian Anime fans are becoming more visible on Antitube and other places online, but I can't help but find it odd how many are leading with Frieren as the natural Anime to be the face of that.  

I like Frieren, it's a good show, I gave season 1 a 9 out of 10 and season 2 an 8 out of 10, and I'm expecting to like season 3 more. But when it comes to Anime I would recommend to watch for a Christian reason it's nowhere near the top of my list. 

There is a certain type of Christian who still sees the Platonic Ideal of what Christendom should be as Medieval Western Europe. It doesn't surprise me that some Catholics and Episcopalians are like that, but what's become more visible in online Christianity are people denominationally Low Church who are like that. So these types for purely Aesthetic reasons want their ideal Christian Anime to be a Medieval European style Fantasy story, and Frieren is even by its secular fans praised as the contemporary Fantasy Anime most true to the Tolkienesque roots of the genre and free of modern Isekai and Gamer trends. 

But even for that appeal there are better choices then Frieren in my opinion. Maquia, Grimoire of Zero and it's Spin off Dawn of the Witch, various Tales of Anime (sometimes the Fantasy Anime that feel the least Gamey are the direct adaptations of Specific Games). Or watch a real classic like Record of Lodoss War. And for something pretty recent The Witch and The Beast.

Frieren's most actually contentious element has also garnered it Christian apologists for misguided reasons.  

Let's set aside what the Demons in Frieren are called.  Demons in Freiren are not analogous to any theory about what Demons are Biblically.  They aren't fallen angels or disembodied spirits of   "Nephilim" who died in the Flood. They are a natural species who seem to be the way they are for biologically determined reasons, but regardless are capable of human levels of intelligence. They have Souls based on what that word (both the Greek Psyche and Hebrew Nephesh) objectively means, I don't care if the in universe world building ever says they don't. 

I like some others believe Frieren is eventually going to subvert what it's been doing with the Demons and that's why I'm not letting it bother me for now.

Of all the Fantasy Tropes associated with Tolkien, what the Orcs wound up being is something he regrated, he was himself uncomfortable with the implication, and I can sympathize with someone writing themselves into a corner as they basically help invent a genre. But those following in Tolkien's footsteps should learn from his mistakes.  From a Christian perspective, nothing capable of Human intelligence should ever be considered ontologically irreversibly evil from birth, Christians can have different views on the theoretical possibility of an individual becoming irredeemable based on their choices, but no one should ever be irredeemable because of what they had no choice in. 

Now when a story does call a species Demons but depicts them unlike Biblical Demons in similar ways to Frieren's Demons and then does depict them as redeemable or even Good actually, that will be called by some Anti-Christian at least on the grounds that they shouldn't have labeled these beings Demons.  But it makes sense to me that an intelligent species viewed as Evil by many others would be called Demons and maybe even internalize that label over time. There is in my view something very Christian in exploring that, certainly more Christian then just having evil things you can kill without consequence.

The Title of this post promises recommendations, so that's coming up. 

Talking about by why I like these shows as a Christian while trying to be as broadly appealing as possible is a bit tricky. I believe these Anime can have Christian appeal even to Christians who disagree with me on certain things I disagree with other Christians on. In fact a lot of what makes a Christian lens more applicable to them then Frieren is specifically my affinity for a very Evangelical understandings of The Gospel rather then Catholic. But they do also speak to me in ways that connect to those disagreements too.  But to be clear none of my disagreements with the majority of American Christians are on anything any major denomination considers an essential doctrine of the faith, I'm Nicene and Trinitarian with a High View of Biblical Inerrancy. 

Rather then listing these in any order that ranks them on how good they are or how Christian they are, I'm going to try and list them in an order that helps me lay out my logic, almost a narrative itself. 

This should be obvious, but again I'm not suggesting any of these were intended be intentionally Christian.

SSSS.Gridman

The reason Gridman works for this will also be applicable to other shows on the list, but might be more of a spoiler for them. One thing that really helps a Gospel reading of something to me is if one of the Villains is also the person our Heroes specifically want to Save. The Good Shepherd came specifically to find the Lost Sheep. And Gridman is one of the purest examples of that. This isn't applicable to every time villains are redeemed (though that never hurts), it's about when Saving someone in-spite of what a bad person they've become is an explicit part of the heroes' goal.

Robotics;Notes

This show is one of the best expressions of Collectivism in Anime. A Collectivism you don't have to agree with any particular Political or Socio-Economic ideology to appreciate.  The Robot Research Club is a Body and each member could be considered a different body part, like how the NT talks about the Body of Christ.  Add to that it's strong sense of optimism and themes it shares with others on this list, and it's one of the shows I most strongly recommend in general, to Christians or Secularists.

The Magical Girl Warrior genre in general has a lot of themes I see as very Christlike.  

But some in particular that I have thought about along these lines include Peartear which would be the one I'd list here if I limited myself to only one, I consider it in general the most underrated and overlooked classic entry in the genre.  Wedding Peach for something that more often has a coincidentally Christian Aesthetic going on, and Blue Reflection Ray for something more recent then most I've been talking about.   

Higurashi When They Cry

Most specifically the original 2006 Studio Deen Anime adaptation and it's 2007 sequel Kai. It's lore is ultimately built around something I think makes a good analogy for Original Sin.

Steins;Gate

This one works for it's particular approach to the theme of self sacrifice, in ways that are a Spoiler but not the potential Spoiler I was talking about with Gridman. It's probably the most uncontroversial Visual Novel adaptation to consider good, I happen to like a lot of them though.

Re:Creators

This forgotten classic of 2017 has a lot going for it. 

My all time favorite Anime, Noir, I connect to my Faith in ways I don't think I can adequately explain.

For an example that I don't count as Anime but others would, Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind. It like others examples is a nice gender inversion where the Christ Figure is a Woman. 

I should try to mention something more contemporary, that is a major factor in why Frieren gets to be in so many thumbnails, it's the current most popular trending show. 

Zenshu shows classic Fantasy Vibes can still prevail even when something officially qualifies as Isekai.

Tower of God as a lot going for it.

Shy is a show I've praised mainly in it's context as a Superhero Anime, but it also shares themes with these Anime. 

For another show from the same season as Frieren's debut, I'd also recommend Pluto.

A few that are specific episodes more so then the show as whole.

Detective Conan, The Mysterious Passenger, among the episodes currently on Netflix, mainly for one specific plot point.

Detective Conan's 12th movie The Full Score of Fear for it's use of Amazing Grace.

Sailor Moon R episode 24 Battle of The Flames of Love Mars Vs Koan, episode 70 of the show as starting from the original series, and episode 64 of the DiC Dub where it was named Enemies No More. 

Sailor Moon episode 26, 22 in the DiC Dub, is also neat.

The first six episodes of Sailor Moon SailorStars also some good material. 

Episode 18 of Corrector Yui. 

Below shall be examples I recommend in-spite of how they also contain content many Conservative Christians might have trouble tolerating.

If Anime were Mainstream then Anime that are adaptations would be allowed to stand on their own.

I guess this is part 5 of my “no Anime isn’t mainstream” series.  But each prior part I genuinely felt like now I’ve made the most important point and these should be read backwards. But in this case I'm not sure this point is actually more important than the last two, but it is more of a coherent point then the first two.  It does still stand on it's own however. 

Stephen Spielberg's Jurassic Park is a bad adaptation of Michael Crichton's book, it only even tried to adapt the last half of it and changes everything, who lives and who dies isn't even the same, the very moral of the story is arguably changed somewhat.

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a bad adaptation of Stephen King’s book that King has vocally expressed his intense undying hatred for. 

James Whale’s Frankenstein movie is pretty much in name only (when it isn’t changing even some of the names). 

Each of these movies is near universally considered a Cinematic Masterpiece, why? Because Cinema is respected as an artform, if the movie is undeniably a good movie then how it's not like the source is fun academic trivia at best. Only if the movie is seen as a bad movie all on its own will its infidelity to the source material be then added on as another offense it committed. 

But when it comes to Anime that are adapted from a source material, especially Visual Novels, you will see a refusal to accept this, I've even literally seen people argue an Anime that seems good on it’s own is worse then one that is simply Bad because it gives people the wrong idea of what the source material is. 

This proves Anime isn’t mainstream, or to be consistent with this post’s predecessor is not currently any more mainstream than it was 20 years ago. What has increased in at least it's existence being known to Westerners in those 20 years are Visual Novels. So now fans who do care about the Visual Novel at least in concept (even if they aren't actually going to read it) are a large enough percentage of those watching the Anime, especially the ones invested enough to make YouTube videos about them, that their perspective can dominate the discourse.

Visual Novels are themselves a not very mainstream artform, especially here in the west where they are inarguably more niche then Anime is. And so their grudge against Anime they feel misrepresents certain VNs comes in part from that place of resentment. 

If any of the artforms related to Otaku Media is mainstream at least in Japan it’s Manga.  Not all Manga, not Doujinshi by definition, but the ones serialized in popular weekly Magazines by the biggest publishers. So no surprise the rare Anime that are somewhat normal to be praised as equal to or even better than their source are Manga Adaptations, not all or even most of them, but enough to be notable. It does kinda bug me how often this happens to be Shoujo Manga made by Women adapted to Anime primarily by Men.  But I will highlight an example of the opposite, the Manga for  K-On was made by a dude, but the Anime was written and directed mainly by two women and a studio largely founded by women (and a woman did the Character Designs too) and that Anime has been proclaimed by one highly respected Anime Scholar, The Ultimate Adaptation.  

I led with Jurassic Park because it’s the least contentious. Stephen King has his fanboys willing to defend his perspective on the film (I'm one of them sometimes honestly). And Frankenstein’s Novel has fans who keep wanting each new Frankenstein film to be the perfect adaptation and then complain when it isn’t (the 2004 version is the closest I think a dramatized adaptation theoretically can be). 

In the case of Jurassic Park however I find it telling that the film version’s popularity overshadows knowledge of the book’s very existence to such a degree that half of what people say when hating on the Jurassic Park sequels are unknowingly them becoming more like the original book. Chief example being every time someone gets so offended at the very concept of allowing a human to be able to kill a Dinosaur, that happened multiple times in the original novel.  

Back when most westerners didn’t even know what Visual Novels were, Higurashi When They Cry’s Studio Deen Anime was very popular and universally praised as the best Horror Anime.  It is in terms of the basic sequence of events less different from the source material than any of the three movies I mentioned up top, and certainly can't be accused of inverting the moral or the themes the way they do. But now popular opinion is turning on it because of the influence of VN fans. 

Higurashi being the Anime I'm focusing on defending the most in this post is also a factor in why I choose the three Book to Film adaptations at the start that I did. Each of them is a story that is arguably a Horror story but also arguably not. But more specifically here the adaptation is arguably leaning into the Horror aspect more then the source material did, the percentage of the whole that is focused on being "scary" is larger in the film then it is in the book. And that is also the case with Higurashi, an Anime that is frequently considered the best execution of the Horror Genre in it's medium, but the VN fans often seem to hate Higurashi even being classified as Horror in the first place. 

A lot of times people critiquing an adaptation will accuse it of lacking an important theme or subtext that I absolutely got from the adaptation simply for not being conveyed in the exact same way. With Visual Novel adaptations that is especially potent. As someone who defends Voice Over Narration and Inner Monologues in Anime in general, I’m baffled at how determined VN fans are to think the pages of inner monologue cut from the Anime are the only way to convey a certain character has a certain psychological issue when simply watching how they act makes it incredibly obvious. My past anti "Show don’t Tell" rants were about defending the artistic value of telling not denigrating the value of showing, but VN fans really do seem to think telling is the only way to convey information. 

Maybe it seems like I’ve rambled off topic.  The point is if most Anime were in fact being watched just as widely as Disney movies, there would be no shortage of people just enjoying the Anime as Anime and hopefully respecting the VN when they hear of it but not letting any complaints change how they feel about the Anime that got them into it in the first place. 

No one thinks Visual Novels are mainstream now, certainly not the ones actually made in Japan. What this observation proves is that Anime, especially Anime based on Visual Novels, are more mainstream then Visual Novels but only barely. 

The Best Year in the History of Anime?

This is a follow up to a post I made at the start of 2026 where I made the case for 2006 being the best year of Anime History while doing my usual, “look back on Anime that turn 20 this year” thing I started doing in 2024.

The thing about years in Japan however is that in every way but nominally Japanese society really functions as if years begin with Spring and end with Winter, the first month being April and the last being March. 

So the thought entered my mind that maybe an even better year could be created by swapping out Winter 2026 for Winter 2027? 

It so happens that would correspond to exactly the year that Nana was airing.  So we could call it the Year of Nana, or Nana Year or Year Nana. 

I already said in that first post that the Spring season is where the argument for 2006 really kicked off. Some of what was airing in Winter 2006 were multiple cour shows still airing in Spring. 

So the full shows we lose from dropping Winter 2006 are mainly Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl and Neirma Kaidun Brothers. Both shows I like a lot but wouldn't call either the best of its genre, Kashimashi is closer to being an essential viewing of its genre(s) but is also arguably surpassed by later 2006 shows. 

On the subject of Detective Conan we do lose what I consider perhaps the single best episode of that show in 425. But the trade off is getting Shadow of The Black Organization and The Unsmashable Snowman. We also switch out the 6th OVA for the 7th, they are all about equal in quality. 

What we gain by adding Winter 2007 includes Shattered Angels which I consider a very underrated Jem, Hidamari Sketch which is a show I haven’t seen yet but know is considered important to the Slice of Life/CGDCT genre, and Venus Versus Virus which I haven't finished and haven’t seen what I did see for awhile.  Plus the start of Yes! PreCure 5, a show that proved important to setting the tone for Pretty Cure going forward. 

Looking more at stuff I haven't seen there is a Shuffle sequel called Shuffle Memories I didn’t know about till recently. And the start of that Les Miserables Anime.  

And then there’s Loving Angel Angelique which I should look into as an early Otome Game Anime, and it was a sequel whose first part aired in Summer 2006 so is a show I should have known about back when making the first 2006 Anime post, it looks like it was the first TV Anime based on an Otome Game adding more to the argument for this being a particularly important year for VN Anime.

And for Shounen fans the start of Naruto Shippoden (it occurs to me that means the closing arc of the original Naruto Anime must have also aired during this year). I’m afraid I can’t bring myself to care about standard Battle Shonen enough to find out what was going on in the other two of the “big three”.  Maybe someone else trying to follow up my thesis could do that. 

The other major Four Cour show connected to 2006 was Blood+, it changes from three fourths airing during the year in question to just the second half, but that’s still enough to matter. 

And we also gain the second cours of a lot of Fall 2006 shows like Kanon and Le Chevalier D’Eon. There must have been some delays in the original broadcast of Code Geass because I expected it to end in late March but it was actually in late April, same with Death Note, I expected episode 26 to air in the first week of April at the latest but it didn’t.  Still for both those shows adding Winter 2007 adds a lot of why they are considered great. Same with early Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, episode 25 aired in Japan on March 29th

In the OVA department Winter 2007 had the Burst Angel OVA and the first episode of Murder Princess. And some Maria-Sama OVAs.

Something I should have mentioned in the original 2006 post is Summer Days from June.  It’s not on the Anime Database websites due to how it’s released being a Visual Novel but like School Days the prior year it was Animated, seemingly even more so. I, like many Americans, have only been able to play the censored version of its later remake titled Shiny Days, but it seems a lot of what I like was already there in the original, but there is a lot of Shiny Days content that wasn't there originally (not just the Inori routes).  It’s the Anime where my favorite Anime character gets to be the lead, so it’s important to me. 

The annual Lupin III TV Special during this year was Seven Days Rhapsody in September.  But I haven’t seen it or most 00s Lupin specials since they aren’t among those Dubbed, so I can’t say if it was even above average for the time. 

I considered looking at what source materials for future Anime came during this year, but there wasn't much.  2004 might be the better year for that, containing a number of source materials for what got animated during this year as well as some that came even later.  But I didn’t think to look into that back in 2024.

Four of what I’m currently listing as my top 23 Anime on Anilist are from this year, no other single year is that overrepresented. Those are three shows I consider the best of their genre, Nana, Kanon and Higurashi, and one that in the past I’d labeled my second favorite of all time, Code Geass.  Add to that the importance shows like Haruhi, Death Note and Gintama have, and a few other best or most important of their genre candidates like Strawberry Panic, and the case for this being the best year is pretty easy to make.  [Update: Black Lagoon is another pretty popular Anime from Fall 2006 I forgot to mention before.]

Talking about all the hidden gems adds some nice flavor to the argument but every year has those so they aren’t the crux of it. 

Of the 2006 shows I consider the best of their genre, Kanon is probably the most controversial. Yes they’re all gonna be disputed by someone, Strawberry Panic is hated by people with very different priorities for what they want in a Yuri Anime (some of them might like Simoun the best) and Higurhshi is hated by VN purists who don’t like it being classified as Horror in the first place and others who think no Anime has ever been good at Horror. But with Kanon it tends to be nearly universally viewed as surpassed by its own spiritual successor Clannad and Clannad After Story. 

I do love Clannad and place it just below Kanon.  Some of why I prefer Kanon is more my personal tastes then anything remotely objective, but I also think getting the entire story in one single Anime instead of across two counts for something. Clannad fans I’m sure at least respect the fact that Kanon made Clannad possible both as a VN and an Anime. And with Kanon it has been argued the KyoAni Anime is an improvement over the source material while Clannad is still viewed as falling short of the VN. Since as an Anime specifically is the point of comparison here, I think you can even argue Knaon is better animated. 

Haruhi, Death Note and Code Geass are important to Anime culture as a whole in ways that transcend whether or not they are the best of their "genre" or not. Haruhi created her genre, making her important regardless of if you think something like Bunny Girl Senpai has surpassed her. Code Geass and Death Note can’t be considered the best of any Genre simply because they aren’t pure manifestations of any Genre you could slap onto them since they are Genre Mixes ultimately, they are compared to each other more often then they are the rest of their genres. If any Anime is as important to the 00s as Eva was to the 90s it’s one of these three.  Clearandsweet has a video on how Haruhi is singularly important to redefining what most Anime looks like.

The Vermouth Arc was the best Era of the Detective Conan Anime.

Interestingly I could almost argue that this Arc’s Kishotenketsu structure correlates to its episodes that aired in Gregorian Calendar years 2001-2004. 

Of course 2000 can be argued to already be part of the Vermouth era.  The character of Vermouth is technically introduced in episodes 176-178 Reunion with The Black Organization in January of 2000. And then 188-193 The Desperate Rival can be considered connected to it. But that's all stage setting, you could follow the storyline of the Vermouth Arc proper without really having seen them. Heck a 1999 episode is arguably more relevant to the plot 170-171 The Blind Spot in the Darkness. 

I will be mentioning some episodes I like from this era that aren't part of the Arc, but I still haven’t seen every episode even in this area so my knowledge is incomplete. 

2001 contains the Ki of the arc.

The year opens with Episode 219 The Gathering of the Detectives! Shinichi Kudo vs Vaitou Kid. It's not part of the Arc at hand but is important for other reasons. 

226-227 The Battle Game Trap is perhaps still just stage setting like the 2000 episodes, but the character it introduces is very important. 

Not relevant to the arc but 228-229 The Murderous Pottery Class is one of the show’s best Columbo episodes. 

2001’s film was the first and for a while only movie featuring the Black Organization, Countdown to Heaven.  Neither Vermouth or any other distinctly Vermouth arc characters are in it, but it’s also the best Haibara movie and does a good job at setting up where she is as a character when we enter this saga.  

230-231 The Mysterious Passenger is the episode that properly initiates the storyline, it establishes a key aspect of how Vermouth operates we didn’t know about before so it can then introduce three suspects for who among those the main cast interacts with she could be. It’s also one of only three Cases from this arc included in Netflix’s Black Organization Collection and thus with an official Dub.

253-254 Metropolitan Police Love Story 4 is the only chapter in that ongoing storyline also tied into the arc since two of the suspects appear in it. 

258-259 The Man from Chicago introduces another relevant character. Putting all the pieces finally on the board. 

The 2002 episodes are the Sho, further developing what the Ki introduced. 

271-271 The Secret Rushed Omission.

275-275 Truth of the Haunted House features characters but is perhaps not too relevant. 

277-278 English Teacher vs Great Western Detective.

279-280 Hooligan’s Labyrinth is an often overlooked important episode to Hiabara’s character development. 

284-285 Chinatown Deja Vu in the Rain sets the stage for the following episode. 

286-287 Shinichi Kudo’s New York Murder Case is the second case of this Arc included on Netflix. 

That’s all the key Vermouth Arc episodes of 2002.  301-302 near the end of the year is a neat informal continuation of the Sato and Takagi storyline. Episode 303 is a TV Original but I like it as a stand out Mitsuhiko episode. 

The movie for 2002 was The Phantom of Baker Street which I have mixed feelings on. I ultimately rank it among the lowest but there is stuff I like in its first half. It’s interesting in how it was the last film to be Cel Animated and is an early example of a trapped in VR Video Game from the same year as .hack//Sign and the original SAO web novel.

2002’s OVA was the second one, 16 Suspects. Which is a neat relic of how Shiratori was characterized early on that I think has maybe been forgotten. 

I began writing this just as an argument for 2003 being the best year of the Detective Conan Anime. The year began with episode 304 The Trembling Police Headquarters: The 12 Million Hostages, which was a special two hour long episode. During this era Detective Conan began most years with a 2 hour special so that isn’t unique and this isn’t the best of them, but it’s also far from the least which is impressive since none are bad. 

Remember those rants I did on how much of the Vermouth Arc was skipped by the Netflix collection?  Well it turns out a lot of the most important stuff that should have been included aired in 2003. The important plot developments here are the Ten. 

To list them again those episodes are.

307-308 On The Trail of a Silent Witness.

307-311 Contact with The Black Organization. 

329-330 A Friendship can’t be Bought. 

335-336 Secret of the Tohto Film Development Studio

338-339 The Four Porches. 

340-341 Hidden Bathroom Secret. 

343-344 The Convenience Store Trap. Which were also the last episodes to air in 2003. 

So basically Netflix skipped an entire Act of the storyline.

I haven’t even seen every episode from 2003. It looks like there were some Heiji cases, and an Eri appearance and some other fun filler episodes. 

331-332 The Suspicious Spicy Curry is on my probably still incomplete list of Columbo episodes. 

The movie for 2003 was the 7th Crossroad of The Ancient Capital. It was the first to be Digitally Animated and the last directed by Kenji Kodama who did all of them before this. It’s the first movie where Heiji and Kazuha are co-leads for the entire film. It’s pretty good. 

The Annual OVA for 2003 was also a Heiji and Kazuha one. 

And then the two and a half hour finale of the arc that opened 2004 is the Ketsu.  Episode 345 Head-to-Head Match with the Black Organization: Dual Mystery on a Full Moon Night. This episode is dubbed on Netflix, and it’s Dub is great, you should watch everything that’s on netflix. 

The next case 346-347 Find The Buttock's Mark served as a bit of an epilogue to the arc in how it opens at least. 

361-362 Teitan High School’s Ghost Story also serves as a bit of an epilogue. 

2004’s late Winter-Early Spring had a lot of Kaitou Kid material. 

The 4th OVA in March was Conan, Kid and the Crystal Mother which adapts a chapter of the Magic Kaitou Manga but writes Conan into it as he wasn’t there originally. 

A TV Special to promote the next few examples titled Time Travel of the Silver Sky. It’s kind of a Kid focused Recap episode with a framing device starring Agasa. 

His fourth appearance in the TV Anime, but arguably second proper Kid episode, 356 Kaitou Kid’s Miraculous Midair Walk. 

And his second movie, Magician of the Silver Sky, which I rank as an A tier film. It was the first directed by Yasuishiro Yamamoto who would Direct all of them for the next Week of Years. 

There is also more epiloguing of the Vermouth Arc in Kid’s 2005 appearance 394-396 Big Adventure in The Electric Mansion. 

Which is in turn followed up on in 398-399 The Strange Family’s Request. 

2005 had the 9th movie, Strategy Above The Depths which some consider the last good movie, I think most are still good but I would agree there was a decrease in average quality after this. 

Update May 3rd 2026: More of these Episodes are Dubbed and on Netflix now thanks to the FBI Selection added on May 1st (sometimes the Title has a different then expected English title). Be sure to check them out. I'm confident even more will be added when the selection's 2nd Cour drops. 

I wish BangZoom would Dub more of the old Lupin III TV Specials.

Now that the Koike Petnology is all Dubbed and no new Lupin projects seem to be in development. 

Most of my personal favorite Lupin III adventures were among these specials.  But there are many I still haven’t seen because I’ve chosen to remain strictly Dub only with Lupin. 

First priority should perhaps go to the Dezaki directed specials not yet dubbed, the first and last of them are Dubbed but not the ones in between. Hemingway Papers sounds like the most interesting premise to me personally. 

According to an old article by Ben Ettinger which I know about thanks to Caribou-kun, Dezaki was only nominally involved in Napoleon’s Dictionary. That one tends to be considered by those who have seen it one of the worst.  I often like what others don’t but for franchises like Lupin on how things rank at least my opinions often line up mostly with common opinion. So yeah this one can remain at the bottom of the priority list.

From Siberia With Love should be a solid outing though. Dezaki plays an important role in how I define Anime. 

Next the 2001 Special Alcatraz Connection was the first Lupin Anime to be Animated Digitally, the transition from Cel to Digital is an interesting topic to Anime historians so this landmark in one of Anime’s oldest and most consistent franchises is important.  And it turns 25 years old this August. 

But the special that turns 20 this year is Seven Days Rhapsody in September.  I’m developing a thesis that April 2006-March 2007 was the best year in Anime. So it’d be nice to see if that year’s Lupin special can live up to the hype. 

The Last Job from February 2010 is famous for how it was the send off of 3 long time members of the Japanese voice cast.  You can’t really translate that meta significance into a Dub unless maybe you saved it for when the current BangZoom cast eventually retires?  I doubt they’re thinking that far ahead though. 

Anime from 2001 turns 25 this year.

Given the 2000s are my favorite Decade of Anime, we’re entering a period when what turns 25 a given year might start interesting me more then what turns 20. But of course I might become more nostalgic for the late 00s and early 2010s as they turn 20.

For these 25 year anniversary posts I want to start including some discussion of material in other mediums that became source material for future Anime, or haven’t yet but should. But my knowledge on those subjects is not as deep as my knowledge of Anime, which is itself far from comprehensive or complete. 

Type-Moon’s first Visual Novel Tsukihime was initially released at Comiket at the very end of 2000 but I feel it’s safe to say 2001 when it really spread. The proper founding of Type-Moon as a company is considered to be in 2001. And January 21st 2001 was the release of Tsukihime Plus-Disc which included the first four chapters of the Kara no Kyoukai LN series. 

For Detective Conan this year opens with an episode that was at the time celebrating the show’s 5th anniversary and is now one of the Episodes with a new English Dub on Netflix, the last episode of the Rivals collection. Episode 219 The Gathering of the Detectives! Shinichi Kudo vs Vaitou Kid.  The show during winter went on to have some Heiji appearance I might have seen, 226-227 The Battle Game Trap which introduced an important recurring character and 228-229 The Murderous Pottery Class which is one of the show’s Columbo Episodes and perhaps among the best of them.  

There is no TV Anime to start in Winter 2001 I’ve watched to completion yet. Arjuna I’ve seen a few episodes of and keep considering watching more of, my feelings on it are mixed. For notable stuff I haven’t seen there’s Tales of Eterinia The Animation which I should check out since I’ve liked other Tales Of series Anime but there seems to be no Dub. And Ojamajo Doreme, a notable Nakayoshii/Toei Magical Girl series airing in the future PreCure timeslot, switched from its 2nd to 3rd series. 

The Manga being serialized in the Nakyoshi magazine during 2001 were Mink, Ojamajo Doreme, Little Cute, Tokyo Mew Mew, Zodiac PI, Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts and Musume Monogatari.  Elsewhere the Manga for Nana was also running this year. 

February 2001 had the Light Novel Boogiepop Paradox: Heartless Red.  None of the Boogiepop Anime have gotten this far, I have no idea what happens in it. Later in December was Boogiepop Unbalance: Holy & Ghost. 

In the OVA department March had the last episode of FLCL which is probably my “I don’t care for The Godfather” Anime opinion. But also the first episode of Puni Puni Poemii which wasn’t as funny as I was hoping it’d be, it’s 2nd and last episode was in December. 

Spring 2001 has a number of great shows, starting with Noir, my absolute favorite Anime of all Time.  Also Pretear, which I consider one of the most underrated classic Magical Girl shows, it was directed by Junichi Sato who was the Series Director for the best era of Sailor Moon. Angelic Layer might be my favorite of every proper Clamp Anime I’ve seen.  Comic Party which I consider the Lucky Star of the early 00s.  Sister Princess is a great forgotten Gem and Galaxy Angel was also a fun comedy. For shows I haven’t completed, SoulTaker is a notable Akiyuki Shinbo Anime which looks neat.  And SuperGals is an underrated Shoujo Anime I intend to watch more of, it’s free on Nozomi Entertainment's YouTube Channel.  

The 5th Detective Conan movie, Countdown to Heaven, came out in April. I still consider it one of the 4 best movies, and I know some consider it the absolute best.  Metropolis came out in May, it’s a movie I have mixed feelings on but ultimately recommend people check out. 

Back to the Detective Conan TV Anime.  April has 230-231 The Mysterious Passenger which is the formal start of the Vermouth Arc and among the episodes you can watch both Dubbed and Subbed on Netflix. This is what I still consider the best era of the show, so much of 2001 has I'm confident pretty good episodes even though I haven’t seen most yet. Metropolitan Police Love Story 4 and The Man From Chicago are also from 2001. 

In June was the annual Lupin III: Alcatraz Connection this year’s annual TV Special.  I haven’t seen this one since it doesn’t have a Dub and I’ve chosen to be strictly Dub only with Lupin. But I know from asking about the topic once that it’s the first of the specials to be Digital Animation rather than Cell Animation. So it’s an important artifact of this transitional period that people researching should check out.  The same studio, Toho, wouldn't fully switch to digital for Detective Conan till next year. 

For Pokémon this year was deep into the Johto Era, which for the TV Show I don’t have as much nostalgia for as other eras.  But it was the US release of the 3rd movie Spell of the Unown which I still consider the best  Pokémon movie, as well as Mewtwo Returns which is a personal favorite of mine..  In Japan this year’s movie was the Celebi movie known to the West as 4Ever which is flawed but still good, and the Legend of Thunder special which was neat. 

What was different for the Western Fandom is something I need to keep reminding myself to get into more.  Pokemon was usually a year behind, but some shows we didn't get till five years later.  It was in 2001 that Toonami finished Dragonball Z and started Dragonball.  Sailor Moon was also still broadcasting its Cloverway Dub era material S and SuperS. Gundam fans got both the 08th MS Team and 0080 War in The Pocket. Also The Big O and more Tenchi Muyo. 

I literally haven’t even started any TV Anime since Summer 2001.  Something like this seems to happen most often with Winter and Summer.  I think back when multiple Cour shows were still more standard those were the seasons getting fewer new Shows because so many slots were filled by second cours. But one of those Spring shows I talked about was single Cour. It looks like the most popular Anime from Summer 2001 was Fruits Basket which is a Shoujo. 

In the VN department July had the full release of Air, the second Key Visual Novel. And in August Age’s Rumbling Hearts was released. Both produced some very good Anime later, but Rumbling Hearts I’d recommend more strongly though.

In the OVA realm August had the preview episode of the upcoming TV Anime version of Clamp’s X which was interesting but I don’t think necessary. 

Also the first episode of the non Hentai OVA series for One Kagayaku Kisetsu e.  I found this 4 episode series garbled and confusing, the Hentai version is legitimately a better presentation of the story. It’s based on a 90s Visual Novel the Key founders made before they started Key. 

Another OVA from August was Jikuu Ihougin Kyoko: Chocola ni Omakase! (it has no official localization but that seems to translate to Time Stranger Kyoko: Leave it to Chocola).  It’s interesting, I checked it out once because it's the only other Anime based on a Mangka from the same author as Kamikase Kaitou Jeanne. 

The two episodes of the Pure Mail Hentai OVA that I talked about before came out in September and December of 2001. They are in the same universe as School Days. 

And Fall 2001 has the TV Anime version of Clamp's X which I recall really liking but I can’t describe it right now. The original Hellsing Anime which I still prefer to Ultimate aesthetically.  Mahoromatic and Najica Blitz Tactics. I’m also just now realizing as I write this that I had neglected to add Kirby Right Bat At Ya to any of the watabase websites even though I have watched a few episodes of it. 

One of the last things to come out this year was the Overflow Bishoujo Game Snow Radish Vacation!  It’s the chronologically first game of the universe that School Days and Pure Mail take place in. 

Video Games and Anime that turn 30 this year

I’ve kind of already talked about the importance of 1996 to Video Games when I argued it’s the start of the Silver Age of Gaming.  

But to sum it up the original Pokémon Games in Japan, the Launch of the N64, Super Mario RPG, DKC3 and Kirby Superstar as a trio of swan songs for the SNES and in the world of Japanese Bishoujo Games the birth of the Visual Novel with Shizuka and Kizuato from Leaf alongside Welcome to Pia Carrot and Kakyusei and to end of the year Otaku Culture’s Princess of Mars turned John Carter in YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World. 

Remember that Commercial for Super Mario RPG about the Elderly man rambling about the plot of the game to his Grandchildren? I was 10 for most of 96 and I consider myself possibly on the younger end of people Nostalgic for this game.  So we’re now halfway to the point of that commercial becoming real.

For Anime that turns 30 this year, due to what my focus has been lately Detective Conan is what I’ve been hearing about and talking about the most. Netflix has some of the earliest important episodes streaming both Dubbed and Subbed, the two part pilot at the start of the Black Organization collection and then the first five episodes of the Rivals Collection are episodes that aired in 96.  But there are still many important 96 episodes not there like the Moonlite Sonotata Murder Case, Kogoro’s Class Reunion Murder Case, and the Mountain Bandaged Man Murder Case. They can all be watched Subbed on Crunchyroll, and they do have English Dubs for those who know where to look. Episode 42 (or 43 of the international count) was the last to air in 96. 

It looks like that’s the only TV Anime to start in Winter 1996 I’ve even partially watched. Looking at what shows have their second or last cour during Winter of 96 could cement an argument for viewing Spring 95 as the start of the year that begins the Bronze Age of Anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam Wing and Wedding Peach. 

For Sailor Moon this year ends SuperS in March and then airs most of SailorStars. 

For OVAs we have Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team, the Sonic The Hedgehog OVAs which became localized as Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie, Fire Emblem which I don’t remember the details of right now, it stars Marth and I think is the first time he was voiced by who still his voices him in Smash, but that’s the Japanese VA in the English Dub he’s Spike Spencer.

I like Inma Youjo enough to break my usual resistance to mentioning Hentai in these kinds of posts.  Its second and 3rd episodes came out in 96 and the 2nd in January is possibly the one I like most,  I have a sneaking suspicion Maya’s character design from the first two episodes influenced Utena. 

In Spring we got Escaflowne, Kodocha and Slayers Next and the first Shamanic Princess OVA on a date that’s technically Summer already, the birthday of John The Baptist, I can’t find dates for its other episodes.  That exact same day is also the release date of the 2nd of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVAs which is the wildest one with its early Internet plot.

For movies we have Tenchi Muyo In Love which was good and Lupin III Dead or Alive which is probably fun but I don’t remember it as well as other lupin movies I’ve seen, Lupin’s TV Movies were better during the 90s, which we see in August with Lupin III: The Legend of The Twilight Gemini which I consider a personal favorite. The film version of Clamp’s X/1999 came out this year, but I’ve only seen the TV Anime version. 

Summer’s OVAs include the Maze OVA which is another fun hidden Gem of 90s Isekai.  But I’ve seen no TV Anime that started in Summer of 96, just continuations of prior shows. 

Fall had the Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy TV Anime once localized as Magical Project S which I do highly recommend. Another anime from Fall that’s notable but I haven’t seen yet is Martian Successor Nadesico. And Those who Hunt Elves also aired out this season. 

In the OVA department the year ends with Galaxy Fraulein Yuna and Wedding Peach DX and 08th MS Team reaching its halfway point.

For Western Weebs, this year is I’m pretty sure when Sailor Moon first aired in America after the DiC Dub initially broadcast in Canada in late 95. I’m pretty sure catching early Sunday morning broadcasts of Sailor Moon in 96 was my very first exposure to any Japanese Animation. 

Shirou Emiya is characterized just fine in the UFO Table Anime

Before I talk about anything else, I realize the main thing that vindicates the narrative that the Anime adaptations have butchered Shirou’s character are all the Anime only people who hate the character and make fun of him. 

You are giving those haters too much credit by charitably assuming they’d like or even get Shirou more if they read the VN.  The Anime community simply is filled with people who are going to hate that kind of character no matter what, they think the standard Anime Protagonist is boring and dumb, they are the Anime community counterpart to thinking Superman is unrelatable.  No amount of Fantranslated Inner Monologue Nasu Prose is going to change their minds.

But I’m not gonna say there are zero people for whom this would make a difference, because I already know that this minority of people are over-represented among the kinds of people who make Fate youtube videos, they keep saying they didn’t like Shirou in the Anime but got him when they played the VN. And that makes sense, that is exactly the kind of experience with Fate that would most motivate one to want to dedicate their lives to trying to advocate for the VN to Anime Onlies. 

But I’m pretty sure those people never hated Shirou as much as the people I was mainly referring to before. 

There is an impression to many that even the majority of people who like the UBW Anime as Anime onlies hate or dislike Shirou, but I feel this is just another product of the actual majority opinion among casual Anime watchers having no representation in online discourse. Clearly lots of people unironically enjoy Solo Leveling and Rent-A-Girlfriend, but they aren’t interested in trying to push back against the hate those shows receive on YT and Twitter and Bsky.  

I watched the UFO Table TV Anime version of Unlimited Blade Works first of any Fate/Stay Night adaptation as well of any UFO Table Anime, I had no spoilers. But everything these VN fans keep saying the Anime failed to convey about Shirou’s character I got just fine.  I always liked the character.

I recently saw someone on Reddit say, and I’m paraphrasing, “Anime onlies think Shriou has some Batman level no kill rule which is clearly not in the VN” and I'm like, the Anime clearly showed Shirou being mad when Archer didn’t kill Caster.  Anyone who thinks Shirou is deadset against killing bad guys simply wasn’t engaging properly with the Anime.

The main thing however is Shirou’s survivor’s guilt, everyone insists this is something completely absent from the Anime versions of the character. To me this was an incredibly obvious aspect of his character in the Anime, it’s the last thing I even think of as even remotely benefiting from further elaboration. 

However, what I’ve noticed time and time again is that people who critique something only as an adaptation and not as a stand alone piece of art within its own medium/artform, they will repeatedly confuse not conveying something in the exact same way as the source material with not conveying it at all. They aren't even considering the ways this new medium has to convey information that the source material didn’t.

The main reason I consume mediums like Anime over mediums like Manga, LNs, and most VNs and even more so generally prefer Dubs to Subs, is because I appreciate Acting as a skill and a talent and an art. VNs sometimes have voice acting but I’m pretty sure Fate didn’t originally and has still never had an English Voice Over track. It’s not impossible for me to get immersed in a performance done in a language I don't understand, but it is more difficult and with my ADD I prefer not to have to try. 

The difference between Voice Acting in a standard VN and Voice Acting in an Anime is that in an Anime the non vocal parts of an acting performance are provided by the animating of the character the voice is being projected onto. So what Anime specifically can add to Fate/Stay Night in place of all the lost prose is not just flashy Sakuga heavy fight scenes but actual Acting. It’s because of that acting that this artform can convey with how one line is delivered as much meaning as a page of prose.

So to me to claim that Shriou’s Survivor’s Guilt is flat out not in the UBW Anime is to disrespect and insult all the work done by those artists and animators and by Bryce Papenbroke, and I’m going to optimistically assume Sugiyama Noriaki did a good job as well. 

I don’t make these videos defending Anime Adaptations of Visual Novels because I don’t respect what Visual Novels are uniquely capable of as an artform.  But because of things like my ADD they are an artform I simply can’t engage in and appreciate as intended. But I do have endless respect for them and appreciate how they’re responsible for such Anime I love. 

Decade Anniversary of 2016 Anime

2016 happens to be an important year in my personal history with Anime. Even though I’d had some interest in some Anime for 20 years previously, and at the end of the year still had only seen a fraction of the Anime I’ve seen now (maybe even specially a minority of what had existed up that point), it was during this year I feel I truly became an Otaku, became someone whose interest in Anime and related media took priority over all the older Nerdy interests I do still have. 

For Winter 2016. 

Grimgar of Ashes and Illusions is an Anime I didn’t finish but it’s notable to some as what a lost potential of what Isekai could have become if it’d been Darker or more Realistic and or just generally taken itself more seriously. 

Knosuba is the opposite yet also a show I never finished even the first season of as the ultimate Isekai parody.  This season also had the second cour of Gate which I’ve talked about before.

Erased is a show I’ve watched twice and I like it, yes even its ending. 

And it had the last season of Durarara!! Which was excellent. And also the last cour of Lupin III Part IV which was also good. 

Aokana is a show I’ve seen and consider pretty okay. Also the last part of Code Geass: Akito of the Exiled and the Selector Destructed Wixoss movie. 

Spring 2016 had Re:Zero, Netoge, season 3 of Sailor Moon Crystal, High School Fleet, Flying Witch and the second part of Concrete Revolutio an Anime I only very recently became a fan of. That's six very solid shows right there. It also had the 20th Detective Conan film Darkest Nightmare which was good and the movie version of Gundam Thunderbolt December Sky which was very good. And the third Gundam The Origin OVA, the fourth would come out in December. 

Summer 2016 had the second half of Re:Zero season 1 but also the first half of Tales of Zestria which is a great example of how the Fantasy Anime adapted from specific Video Games often feel the least Gamey. 

New Game! was great, Prisma Illya 3wei is as well. 

The separate Anime listed on the database Websites as different Danganronpa 3s should not be watched separately but in the episode order they are placed in on Crunchyroll.  In that form they are The Godfather Part II of Anime and in my opinion even better, a true masterpiece.

For movies Summer 2016 has two of the biggest of all, Your Name and A Silent Voice, both of which are great movies. It also has the Accel World movie which I enjoyed and Pokémon: Volcanion and The Mechanical Marvel which was okay. 

For Pokémon this year was the end of the X and Y Generation which I really like, probably the last Generation of Pokémon I really got into. That also means it’s the start of Sun and Moon which I’ve always found the art style of off putting.  But the Pokémon Generations ONAs were pretty good. 

Fall 2016 is a fascinating season, one of it’s biggest shows I’ve still never watched but conceptually do respect and want to give props to, Yuri On Ice. Another show from that season I know of but haven’t seen is Keijo. Of the six shows from this season I have watched to completion, all are shows I like.  I also recall that the second season of Sound Euphonium aired this season.

What’s special about this season is it’s my first time really following Seasonal Anime as they aired. Earlier in the year I had heard of both Re;Zero and Konosuba and maybe also Erased but didn’t follow them. I had watched Crystal season 3 on Hulu (which was Free with Ads back then) as it aired where I was also following the finishing of SailorStars being uploaded there, but I’ve always compartmentalized Sailor Moon from general seasonal Anime. 

Those six Fall 2016 shows are Izetta The Last Witch, Flip Flappers, ViVid Strike!, Lostorage Incited Wixoss, Occultic;Nine and Magical Girl Raising Project which is the only one I’ll qualify, as a defender of so called “Dark Magical Girl shows’ in general this isn’t one of the best of them but I like some of what it does.  The first two of those are the ones I actively followed at the time.

When talking about 2017's importance I have sometimes mistakenly referred to that Winter as my first time following seasonal Anime.  This is because of three things.  I didn't watch much of Fall 2016 at the time.  I kinda just happened to be following these currently airing shows not registering that this was an Anime Fandom practice I was doing for the first time. And 2017 was my first full Gregorian calendar year following Seasonal Anime. 

This year was the 20th Anniversary of Detective Conan’s Anime just as current year is the show’s 30th. Which is why this year had the Episode One OVA which was an okay way to get the gist of how it started with more modern Animation, but I’d more recommend just watching the early episodes which are currently on Netflix.  

For the show proper 2016 began with two 1 hour TV Original special episodes (804-805) written by the same guy who wrote movie 11 and was pretty fun. The Darkness of the Prefectural Police (810-812) was a fun episode that introduced a new character important to the Rum saga. The Shadow Chasing Amuro (813) was a tie in episode to the movie I mentioned before. The Actress Blogger’s locked room (814-815) is the next appearance of that new character. The suspects are a Passionate Couple (822-823) is a fun episode, one of the rare modern DC episodes I’ve watched 3 times already. Ramen so Good it’s to Die For 2 (827-828) is another fun episode, it has Sera in it. The Unfriendly Girls Band (836-837) is another fun episode I’ve seen 3 times, it’s a K-On reference and builds on some important lore and has one of the most memorable EDs which I suspect Yuki Yuna is A Hero fans will get a kick out of.  If I’ve seen more from 2016 I don’t remember for certain, but those are already more interesting episodes then I was expecting a single year from the Rum era to have when I started writing this. 

And the year ended with the Fate/Grand Order: First Order OVA which was fun. 

Going back to an observation I made at the start, even most Anime from 2016 I hadn’t seen at the time.  Most stuff from the first three seasons I didn’t even know of at the time, for the movies and some shows their Dubs didn’t exist yet, and even for that last season there’s still many I didn't watch till later. 

I got into to Anime during this year watching stuff that wasn't new at the time, or at least wasn't brand new, like Yuru Yuri, Lucky Star, Haruhi, Future Diary, Selector Infected Wixoss and Selector Spread Wixoss, Fate/Zero and Stay Night, and then Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and it’s sequel A’s on Thanksgiving, and possibly some more that I’ve forgotten exactly when I first watched them. And also revisiting some of the Anime I’d already been a fan of (including being the year I watched my favorite Anime Noir Subbed for the first and still only time). I didn’t realize at the time how for some of those Anime this year was their 10th anniversary and are thus turning 20 now. 

So perhaps it’s a little silly to celebrate the Anime that actually aired this year alongside it being the anniversary of my becoming an Otaku. But every time I find out something I watched more recently is from 2016 my brain goes “that makes sense” it’s like this was meant to be the year that got me to go full Weeb. 

There is none Anime stuff from 2016 I like in a similar way. I’m still a Suicide Squad apologist with mixed feelings on both BvS and Rouge One and all the American TV shows I was watching at that time. I may have even still been reading BlackCoatPress books. But Anime became my priority and it’s stuck. 

Sub Eras of The Isekai Era

I feel like I have a unique perspective on understanding this timeline of events. 

First I’m aware there is a long history of Anime that can be described as Isekai before this era.  This is about the distinctly modern trend of Isekai as we currently know it being one of the most prolific and defining genres of the current state of Anime. 

Winter 2013 through Spring 2017 is a time when there is already a visible increase in Anime that can be described as Isekai, as well as non-Isekai Fantasy Anime becoming increasingly more beholden to JRPG Gamer logic. 

But from what I recall the English speaking fandom wasn’t using the word “Isekai” all that often yet, all the AniTube videos talking about shows we now call Isekai that I’ve seen from this period did not use the word, it wasn’t in videos on relevant shows from TrixieTheGoldenWitch, Mother's Basement or Gigguk.

This was also an era when there not only were still Fantasy Anime without this Gamer Vibe but they weren't inherently less common either. Spring 2017 has two highly underrated Fantasy shows I would not even remotely classify as even Quasi-Isekai, Grimoire of Zero and WoldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?. It’s not that those kinds of Anime ever stopped, some like them still get made, but I do think this was the last time we got two in one season.

And almost every proper Isekai from this era is among those that most who’ve seen them consider among the good ones, whether it’s the highly popular instant classics like, Log Horizon, No Game No Life, Overlord, Konosuba, Re:Zero, and Tanya The Evil, or very distinct hidden Gems like Problem Children, Outbreak Company and Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions.  The most disliked Isekai from this era is Gate, which was not for being seen as “generic” but for its politics, and even then Gate was still a very popular show. 

Summer 2017 was the beginning of the Isekai era in full force, In Another World With My Smartphone is the first Anime to truly have all of the vibes of a "generic Isekai” which I say as someone who unconditionally loves it. And it was while it and Restaurant to Another World and Knights and Magic were airing that I recall the English Speaking fandom first really started using the word Isekai. And that is when the state of discourse about Isekai entered the form we now know it.  

And I find it fascinating how quickly during that season the narrative became that Isekai is an overused premise people are sick of even though earlier the same year no one was complaining about it. 

I started writing this thinking Fall 2017 was the last season without an Isekai, nor did it have anything I’d call a Quasi-Isekai.  So for that reason you could argue this was still a transitional period and Deathmarch to a Parallel World Rhapsody in Winter 2018 was the start of the full non-stop Isekai bombardment. But the early part of an era can have some stumble in getting off the ground so I was still willing to start this era in Summer 2017 regardless of that.  

However I’d forgotten about Ancient Magus Bride, that show is an Isekai but is like the pre 2017 shows in how pretty highly regarded it is, though I still haven’t watched it. It’s also a Shounen Manga adaptation rather than starting as a Light Novel, so it does still feel like part of the modern Isekai discussion purely by technicality.  There was also Recovery of an MMO Junkie which is part of the undeniably connected yet distinct trend of Anime about playing an MMORPG.

And then double checking myself saw that there wasn’t an Isekai in Spring 2018, at least not among what I watched, just the somewhat JRPG like Fantasy show Last Period. 

Either way Summer 2017 was still the turning point in my opinion.

And I’d say this era continued into the start of the Pandemic.

About 2021 is when the discourse mutated into a state where some were hoping the trend must be finally almost over while others entered resigned acceptance that this being a consistent part of each season is here to stay.  It’s also in this era that Isekai’s own Sub Genres started being defined in common use even if some of the roots of them were already there. 

Ancient World Fantasy

The most common default setting for a secondary world Fantasy is a Medieval Europe inspired setting, some Fantasy Anime might have a Medieval East Asia aesthetic. 

But settings besides the Middle Ages do exist. We have Space Fantasy or Futuristic Fantasy, the kinds of Fantasy that get confused for Sci-Fi. We have Gaslamp Fantasy which is the Fantasy counterpart to SteamPunk. And Urban Fantasy refers to stories set kind of in the modern world.  And of course settings inspired by the Ancient World also exist. 

But what I wanna talk about here is how Ancient World Fantasy so often defaults to the Bronze Age, at least in the Vibe they give off, they might be using Iron weapons but the Vibe is Bronze Age. From old Italian Sword and Sandal films, to the 90s Sam Raimi Hercules and Xena shows, the obscure 1991 OVA Majuu Senshi Luna Varga, the 2018 Isekai Anime The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar. And then the Fate/Grand Order Babylonia Anime also fits into this lineage. 

The Bronze Age is the largest age of Antiquity, it is about Two Thousand years from over 3300 to 1184 BC, Biblically that’s The Tower of Babel (or you could argue Tubal-Cain in Genesis 4) down to the end of Judges. The thing is the sub ages that can obviously be divided into are not all that distinguished by these kinds of Fantasy Stories. Those Sword and Sandal films will mix and match the Heroic Age of Greek Mythology with Sumeria and Egypt’’s Old Kingdom will look the same as the New Kingdom. 

Exceptions exist, I own some of them, but none of those have made huge impacts on Pop Culture.  At most we could have Classical Antiquity references being meshed into an otherwise Bronze Age aesthetic like 300 or all the Rome stuff in Xena, Xena’s timeline will not ever make real world sense and that’s what’s fun about it. 

One of the key early Trope Codifiers of Ancient Secondary World Fantasy was Conan The Barbarian and other works of Robert E Howard.  Howard was to Ancient World Fantasy what Tolkien is to medieval Europe Fantasy. And that includes how both were not strictly secondary worlds originally, they both technically set their stories in a prehistoric distant past of this world.  But they mark a key transition into modern Secondary World Fantasy because of how the detailed world building made their world seem distinct yet real in ways prior stories doing technically the same thing more vaguely like William Morris stories could not. 

And that's why Fantasy Stories were originally drawing inspiration from the less well documented periods of human history (that’s what the term “Dark Age” originally meant, a period we don’t know much about), and the Bronze age was once even less well documented then it is now. Only once the transition to full Secondary Worlds was complete did writers of Medieval Fantasy realize they could start moving upward into the High Middle Ages and Renaissance for inspiration. But why didn’t Ancient World fantasy do the same?  

Each type of Fantasy Setting began with writers who were to some extent romanticizing the period they are drawing inspiration from, the Fantasy stories with more cynical takes on those time periods came later in response to the stories that first popularized it. 

And in the modern world the kinds of people who romanticize Classical Antiquity do so in a way that is functionally mutually exclusive with telling stories where real Supernatural stuff happens. Classical Antiquity is romanticized by principally New Atheists/Reddit Atheists who pretend the values of rationalism and empiricism were more popular in ancient Greece and Rome then they actually were, that it was a Golden Age of Science and Reason destroyed by the rise of Abrahamic Religion.

Now you may think “Christianity was born during Classical Antiquity so wouldn't Christians romanticize it?” but you'd be wrong. The world view of modern Right Wing especially High Church Christians is that Christianity was born into a broken world that needed fixing and the Medieval World was the product of Christianity fixing it.   Liberal Christians (especially Low Church Protestants) believe Christianity was born into a broken world and modern Liberal Democracy is the result of Christianity eventually slowly fixing it.  And a Leftist Christian believes Christianity was born into a Broken world and still hasn’t fixed it yet.  The point is that the context of The Gospel demands that Jesus wasn’t born into the best period of time to be alive Civilizationally speaking. The option I’ve been more willing to consider then most Christians is that there was value in the Hellenistic Civilization that was lost when it fell to the Romans, and the fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom was certainly lamentable, after all Jesus observed Hanukkah in John 10. Ultimately though I am a Leftist with Liberal characteristics.

Atheists however, not all Atheist but the really devout ones who build their personality on being Atheists, have a world view built on inverting the Catholic view and appropriating the Puritan view.

And The Bronze Age is more popular than the Iron Age because it has the quality of being what was Ancient History already to the people of Classical Antiquity.

But another factor is the Western Bias, every time I said Classical Antiquity both you and I were first and foremost thinking of the Greeks and Romans more than the Persians or Carthaginians or Parthians or Late Period Egypt or Kushites or the kingdoms of East Asia and Mesoamerica and certainly not the “Barbarians” of Western and Northern Europe.  And when we do we kind of think of them as being aesthetically still in the Bronze Age (which is kinda true for Egypt, they never entered the Iron Age). 

The plot twist I've been building to is that perhaps a different style of Ancient World Fantasy has been hiding in plain sight this whole time.  That Tolkien’s legendarium was actually more Ancient than Medieval all along but pop culture perception has just run with faulty assumptions. 

When early Rings of Power images started coming out I saw one person on Twitter not at all inclined to say nice things about Rings of Power say that at least its costume design is more inline with Tolkien’s actual intent then the Peter Jackson films. Peter Jackson’s costume design went all in the High Middle Ages when the Third Age of Middle Earth really was Early Middle Ages at the latest. Literally the Norman Conquest is when Tolkien felt everything went wrong.  Eomer shares a name with a 5th century king of the Angles for a reason, the Rohirrim and Rhovanion are meant to be ancestors of the pre-migration Anglo-Saxons. 

Even if the Third Age is Medieval, it’s not just Western Europe, Gondor is kind of Byzantium, the rump in South Eastern Europe of the fallen Empire of the West.

The First and Second Ages however are definitely Ancient, they are basically imagining that the Celts had a “Civilization” before the Greeks and Romans. And in so doing it results in Numenor feeling very Roman and Eregion feeling a little Athenian, and I would even call Mordor kind of Sparta how Anti-Spartan Athenians saw them. The Fall of Gondolin was partly based on Troy as many have written about before. 

And capturing all of that is part of why I love Rings of Power, especially season 2.