Winter Anime 2021

 I figured I should make a post on this subject between my finishing the 2020 project and what I plan to start in April.  None of these winter shows are completed however since I do mostly Simuldubs, my finishing them up will be chronicled in the series I start in April.

Naturally it starts with stuff carrying over from Fall 2020.  Attack on Titan’s Final Season which started in December I have been following via Toonami.  It’s been pretty good, I think it shall prove to be a fitting ending for the show.  I watched the first episodes of Fate/Grand Carnival and Vladlove, the latter didn’t appeal to me so I dropped it, the former was fun and so I will watch more when they come out.  And the simuldub of Assault Lily Bouquet ended well.

And then the more standard Two Cour shows. HigurashiGou is one of the few I’m following Subbed, and where it’s gone has proven quite interesting, but it’s something I won’t have a final verdict on till it’s over.  Yashahime I put on hold, I may return to it, but it’s the kind of show that I enjoy the start of but will quickly get bored once it settles into a Status Quo.  Kinda like Pokemon beyond the first season.  

But my main goal in watching Yashahime was to be the online blogger testing its ability to stand on it’s own since I haven’t seen Inyuasha, and I do feel it passes that test though I’d recommend non Inyuasha fans to start with episode 2 and save episode 1 for around the same time they watch episode 7.

HigurashiGou ended on March 18th, and it was a cliffhanger, with much of the final two episodes being rather boring.  So I can’t really decide what I think of this sequel till I’ve seen HigurashiSOTSU, which I have no idea when that will even air.

In February I watched the latest Netflix original soon after it dropped, High-Rise Invasion, and it was very good, so far the most successful any Netflix original has been at engaging me.

On the last Day of February Tropical Rogue Pretty Cure started, as of my beginning to write this I’ve seen two episodes of it and it’s a pretty decent start.  PreCure is usually done well, but it's still difficult for me to stick with it the entire year.

The English Dub of Lord El-Melloi Case Files also finally dropped in early March, it was a very good show, better than I expected.

Shows that were Fall 2020 in Japan but who’s Simuldubs didn’t start till 2021 I shall think of as Winter 2021 shows.  The first of them is Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear which I’ve seen 5 episodes of and was enjoying, but then it’s Simuldub seemingly suddenly stopped, I have no idea what’s going on there......  And before March was over more episodes finally dropped, it’s still pretty fun.

For everything else that interests me I decided to wait till the Simludubs can give me a three episode test.  Though Wonder Egg Priority is a show I’m willing to try Subbed if it seems like a Dub won’t be coming anytime soon, but I’ll give it a bit more time to find out, in fact I’ve decided if I do watch it Subbed I’ll just Binge it when all the episodes are out.  Though now that I'm hearing how Suicide themed it is I'm not sure I want to watch it anymore.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle episode 1 was funny, but I question how you can get a full 12 episodes out of this premise.  “You’ve met a terrible fate haven’t you?” I wonder if that Majora's Mask reference was only in the Dub or also in the Japanese?  Episodes 2 and 3 were also very amusing.  Episode 4 was also fun, but definitely starting to stretch the joke already.

Adachi and Shimamura is more fun than I expected.  It’s not one of those boring Yuri like Bloom Into You or KaseSan.

Now I'm moving on to the proper Winter Seasonal Anime.  Jobless Reincarnation I’m not gonna bother with.  Nothing I’ve heard about it endears me, and some people’s attitude has given me an unfair bias against it.  If it is a show I can enjoy, I probably won’t be able to till it's not a current seasonal hot topic anymore.

So I’m A Spider, So What is one of those Isekai where an entire class reincarnates.  I think this is the first one I’m watching as an Anime but The Princess Knight is a Classmate is one I enjoyed at least the start of as a Manga.  I’ve noticed an increase in Anime referencing Marvel characters lately.  According to the White Haired student in episode 3 God is a Girl in this world, I always like when Anime takes that route.

Season 2 of SlimeIncarnation is also getting off to a pretty decent start.

So to start with I'm not following a lot actually, I may decide to start more later.

Update: I watched the Dub of Burn The Witch and enjoyed it.  All the shows above are still proving to be entertaining as well.

Anime 2020 wraps up

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 11 was pretty intense.

I’m conflicted over whether or not I should end this series with this post or not.  Next week the last episode of ALB will be literally the only show left, and it might actually take two weeks the way this Simuldub has gone.  Maybe if I have enough to say about how this ends for it to be a post all its own I’ll include this tag on it.  But this post I think will be the end of this as a weekly occurrence on this blog.

I have decided not to continue Yashahime beyond those first 13 episodes.  I only put it On Hold because I may watch more later.  The show is a good show, it’s just not a Genre’s I’m into.

The Day I Became A God had a good ending.  I’ve decided to give this show a 9 on MAL.  But be warned it becomes a Tear Jerker.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa’s finale was better than I expected, I did not think all that Tsun would have such a big payoff, I might even be willing to call it a Eucatastrophe.  I’m also giving this show a 9.

2020 was a hectic year, but at least it provided some decent Anime.  I’m still gonna consider Railgun T the Anime of the year.  But if I had to pick a favorite among ones that aren’t sequels or remakes/reboots then I’m really unsure, there are still some I haven’t seen yet that I intend to.  Recency bias has me currently thinking one of these Fall shows I’ve spent the last two months finishing.  Also I still haven’t seen either Fate/ franchise film that came out in Japan that year.

In April I’ll be starting another weekly Anime Tag, in March I’m gonna try to write a number of Posts I’ve been putting off.  Meanwhile let’s hope 2021 is a much better year.

Yuri and Lesbian Vampires as we approach the end of Anime 2020

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear episode 5 is a lot more enjoyable when you try not to think about the ideological ramifications of it. I went and watched the first episode of Vlad Love. There isn’t really anything wrong with it, but as someone who got pretty burnt out on Vampires right before I went all in on Anime, this isn’t compelling or interesting enough. Vampires of course have a strong association with Lesbianism independent of Anime. What I am perhaps uniquely positioned to notice is how often Yuri Vampires kind of break with Yuri conventions. To the point where I kind of feel like some non Anime non Japanese Lesbian Vampire fiction actually has more Yuri appeal. Carmilla itself can work as a Yuri Anime pretty well if you made a direct Anime adaptation,( instead all adaptations of Carmilla feel the need to “update” the story even though the original was ambiguous enough to allow a perfectly Woke interpretation). Or the film The Moth Diaries. The real major Yuri Genre show of 2020 was Adachi and Shimamura which has a Simuldub starting right now. Looks like shows of 2020 are gonna be Simuldubing all through 2021. I’d really prefer shows they didn’t start dubbing till they were in fact done and aren’t Toonami/Adult Swim broadcasts to just be dropped all at once. This show I’ll probably wait to binge, or at least wait till I can do the 3 episode test. Well next week is likely to be the end of this series as a weekly feature.

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Anime 2020 some penultimate episodes

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear episode 4 was nice.  Also the first episode of this show is chronologically between episodes 3 and 4, so people who share my preference for watching things linearly should take note of that.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 10 was adorable.

Episode 13 of Yashahime was the last to air in 2020.  I get the sense that Muroku and his wife were characters from Inuyasha, in which case they were not incorporated in a way that created any continuity lock out.

I’m not sure what to think of The Day I Became A God episode 11, a lot of it wasn’t easy to watch, but it wasn’t meant to be.  This is a rare situation where how good something is depends on how “realistic” it is, and I don’t have the real world experience to judge that.

Episode 11 of Warlords of Sigrdrifa was a good set up for the finale.

I'm done covering anything on Toonami for awhile

I watched the first three episodes of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear and they were pretty fun.  

Still I won’t be prolonging this series for a show who’s simuldub started that late, Anime 2020 as a weekly event on this blog will end when I finish the Simulsdubs I started during 2020.  

I’ve completed TONIKAWA and gave it a 9, it’s a very satisfying little Romance with a lot of fun fluff in it.  I also liked Pause and Select’s little video essay on it.

Episode 12 of Yashahime was okay.  I’m not sure how much longer I’ll keep following this show since it still isn’t my genre of Anime, there are a lot of shows where how they start I can find fun but once a long term status quo sets in things get boring if the Genre is less inherently interesting to me. 

So I’ve learned this New Moon thing was a thing for Inyuasha, so that makes me less concerned with the gendered implications of having one of our heroines lose her powers once a month.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 10 was pretty good.  I still feel like this Odin might actually be Loki, even though they did identify one of the pillars as Loki.

The Day I Became A God episode 10 was also good.

The finale of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld was the best kind of bonkers.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Anime 2020 is winding down now

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 8 was late but pretty interesting.  So this show drawing on Norse mythology also somehow exists in a world where no one ever heard of it before?

I decided to drop Our Last Crusade or The Rise of A New World during episode 9.  It feels kind of like a waste to get this deep in and then not finish it, but this show was frankly lucky, it holding on by virtue of none of the Fall Simuldubs coming out consistently. 

Episode 9 of Assault Lily Bouquet was not the sequence of events I was expecting.

I’m not supposed to be talking about Higurashi Gou past episode 13.  But most of my thoughts on rewatching Episode 8 for the Dub are heavily informed by the recent developments of episodes 16 and 17.  I was pretty skeptical of a certain theory when this episode first aired, but now it’s confirmed and I can’t not notice what should have and for many did give it away.

Oddly enough I do feel like I’m maybe willing to say I prefer Michelle Rojas as Mion but still Megan Hollingshed as Shion.

I don’t think I’ll be bothering with episodes 9-13, there isn’t much I feel like rewatching anytime soon there.  You can argue there is a lot to look for now that I know, but this part of Higurashi I can only take in small doses and I’ve recently watched all three versions.

I finished the Million Lives Isekai.  I’m only giving it a 7, yet I still recommend it pretty highly to people at all into Isekai, it has plenty of moments better than the sum of the whole.

I watched some more of Fate/Grand Order Babylonia, episodes 14-16, they were pretty good.

TONIKAWA episode 11 a fun Gaming party episode.

Yashahime episode 11 was a decent Shonen filler episode. 

I then finished Babylonia and gave it an 8 out or 10.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 9 was a very good episode, things are coming together now.

The Day I Became A God episode 9 was fantastic.

The fourth episode of Attack On Titan’s final season, and last to air in 2020, was fairly decent, looks like things will finally pick up next week but my coverage here is over.

The penultimate episode of SAO Alicization War of Underworld was alright.

Pretty good Weekend of Simuldubs.

So I returned to the Dub of HigurashiGou for episode 7 to hear Ayu’s Dark Rika voice.  I’m afraid it was disappointing, I do like this actress and wanted something nice to say about this Dub.  Of course I don’t think the writers “translated” it well either. I watched that scene multiple times on YouTube after seeing the full episode, I really didn’t think it’s be that hard to write.

Rebecca Forstadt doesn’t get the respect she deserves because she’s one of those VAs who pretty much always sounds that same.  But that’s what makes Rika special, her little bit of time as Dark Rika was great stuff and it still angers me they never let that cast to Kai.

WOW, Episode 11 of Million Lives opens with a Pretty Cure Homage that made my Cry.  What is this doing buried deep into a forgettable Isekai?  And then we get even more.  This is 10x better than the show it’s in.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 8 was the perfect kind of Fanservice episode.  Someone animating this show appreciates Legs and Feet in a way most Seinen Anime do not.

TONIKAWA episode 10 was Cute.

Yashahime episode 10 was decent.

Episodes 7 and 8 of The Day I Became A God were quite an emotional whiplash.  The show is really getting good now.

Episode 3 of Attack On Titan’s Final Season was basically flashbacks, but it looks like things are finally connecting back up.

The latest episode of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld was an entertaining mess.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Anime 2020 Fall SimulDubs finally seem to be back in swing.

I watched the 3 part saga of the SlimeIncarnation OVA that was released in 2020, it was pretty entertaining. Well, episode 10 of Million Lives Isekai was not what I expected. Yashahime episode 9 was entertaining. TONIKAWA episodes 7-9 were a lot of fun. The Day I Became A God episode 6 was good television. The second episode of Attack On Titan’s Final Season was pretty interesting. I love the way Reiner told the Potato story making it sound all sinister, it really makes you think about perspective. Well as of this episode the main plot of SAO Alicization War Of Underworld seems technically over, but I think there are three episodes left. I think when I’m done with what’s left of Anime 2020 I may take a break from following Seasonal Anime for a few weeks. I think it may be best to not start winter till I can already binge 4-6 episodes of the shows that interest me.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Incepting Anime 2020

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Our Last Crusade or The Rise of The New World episode 8 was pretty good.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 7 introduced a Daughteru.

Million Lives Isekai episode 8 was very awkward.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 7 was fine.

I changed my mind on Attack On Titan. I wasn’t prepared for this weekend to still have so little of the existing Dubs I'm following, or how little I’d have to say and also didn’t expect it’s Toonami run to start this soon.  Still only 4 episodes count as 2020.

The premier of the final season didn’t feature any of the usual protagonists.  But it was pretty thrilling.  That one girl’s voice sounds familiar but I can’t put my finger on it.

The following episode of SAO Alicization War of Underworld was very entertaining, often nonsensical but entertaining.  Totally made me think of Inception.

Anime 2020 continues in 2021

 Looks like Episode 13 was the last episode of HigurashiGou to air in 2020, so the Sub will receive no more comments on this tag, and the Dub when I watch more of it will only be relevant up to that point as well.  Same with Yashahime, only 13 episodes aired in 2020.  For the single cour shows of Fall 2020 however I will cover all of them I’m following here even if for some the last episode technically didn’t air till January because at that point the resolution is still part of the Anime 2020 experience.

However I’m not gonna count as 2020 Anime any Winter shows that started early like Attack On Titan’s final season or the new Vampire Yuri (if I watch them at all, I’m unsure at this point).  They are mostly 2021 shows and I made a point not to watch any December pilots till the year was over.

Episode 8 of Million Lives Isekai was alright.

The SAO Alicization War of Underworld episode that aired on Toonami on the night of January 2nd 2021 had some good stuff but also felt a little over done at times.

I also watched the Fate/Grand Carnival episode that premiered on New Year’s Eve. I suppose that kind of breaks a rule I laid out above but it's situation is different, I might as well comment on what seems to be the very last brand new Anime of 2020.

It was funny, I’m glad to see Lancer is still the Kenny of the Carnival Phantasm universe, and they even made a Meme about 2020.  But I mostly loved that they finally used the female version of the Grand Order player character, she was awesome.  I hope future episodes provide us some Astolfo memes.

2021 is off to a good start so far, let's hope it stays that way.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Anime 2020 ends for now

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

The first 4 episodes of Gleipnir were interesting.  Aspects of it aren’t to my general tastes but it is interesting.

Okay, I have no idea what to make of the ending of episode 13 of HigurashiGou.  There will likely be a delay in my starting the next arc, I think I need to take a break.

Million Lives Isekai episode 7 was fun, I wonder if that “most Talent” comment was a subtle meta gag?

Yashahime episode 8 was neat.

TONIKAWA episodes 5 and 6 were both pretty cute.

Talentless Nana’s season finale was pretty good.

Gleipnir episode 5 was fine I guess, but I don’t think this show is for me.

This is it for my Anime 2020 tag in actual 2020, I’ll be continuing it next year as I finish shows and maybe watch some stuff I didn’t watch right away.  I’m gonna make a point not to watch whatever remaining new episodes of the shows I follow come out till new years day at least.

My next year long seasonal Anime project won’t begin till April, I’m still working on exactly what to call it.

If I had to right now declare something my favorite Anime of 2020, it would probably be Railgun T.

I will before the year’s over probably make a post looking back at the last decade.  But jsut case I'll here wish my readers a Happy New Year.

Horror is a genre that generally does better when it’s low budget

 or at least seems low budget from a 21st century perspective, the Lugosi Dracula and Karlof Frankenstein may have been the most expensive films of 1931 for all I know.  My point is in the Hammer Dracula movies it’s not a bug that all the blood looks obviously like red candle wax, it’s a feature.

Sometimes the superficial expectations of what “high quality” looks like doesn’t actually fit the aesthetic of the kind of story at hand, it’s similar with classic Film Noir.

Big Budget movies about Frankenstein or Dracula just wind up looking like superhero movies using Victorian pulp rather than comic books as their source material.  I enjoy some of those movies, but they aren’t movies I’d recommend watching as Horror.

My reason for this rant here is that every week now when a new HigurashiGou comes out there is somewhere a twitter image comparing an old 2006 Higurashi screenshot to it’s Gou counterpart saying “and you think Deen looked better then Gou”.  And it feels similar to what I ranted about in that old Sakuga post.

Art is subjective.  And Gou is not objectively better because it looks more pristine and shinier and more like an average generic 2010s Anime.  Rather that is exactly why it no longer feels like Higurashi to me.  I enjoy plenty of generic 2010s Anime, but that’s not what I watch Higurashi for.

I don’t want to dunk on Gou, it’s not the worst looking, I can tolerate it more than Pokemon Sun and Moon which I dislike for similar reasons, and the storyline has my attention still.  My point is the old Higurashi worked, it became nigh universally considered the best Horror Anime partly because of the very visual aspects these people are now trying to bury it for.

This is not any kind of Childhood Nostalgia for me, I first watched Higurashi in 2017, my first post about it on this Blog was when I had just first watched it, so not even half a decade yet have I been into it.  What I do have childhood Nostalgia for is Sailor Moon. I'd started seeing it on TV before it was ever on Toonami even.  And I am fine with how Sailor Moon Crystal looks, it also looks very different from the 90s Anime, but it’s not simply trying to force those character designs into the most conventionally modern artstyle, the opposite really, it's trying to be stylistically faithful to a 90s Manga in a way the limitations of 90s Anime couldn't.  

But perhaps a more apt comparison is Fate/Stay Night another Visual Novel adapted by Deen in 2006 and then later by a more "respectable" studio with "seemingly" more budget put into the Animation.  Fate/ has horror elements but that's not it's primary appeal.  So yes for Fate/ the Deen Anime is almost unwatchable to me while UFOTable is in every way an improvement.  But the reason Deen's style didn't suit Fate/ as well is because Fate/ is meant to feel Epic and Mythical rather then Spooky.  

BNA, Lupin III and more Seasonal Anime 2020

 Last Monday and Tuesday I watched BNA.  I’ve now seen a total of 3 Trigger shows.  I gave it an 8 on MAL, it’s fun but I think it needed more than 12 episodes to properly flesh out what it was trying to do.  The final episode suddenly makes the Pure Breed/Half Breed thing a big deal with no prior set up.

Before I watched it I had seen a video from a certain NazBol Anituber who tried to lay out how it’s Anti Israel propaganda (which would be a good thing from their POV).  There are several problems with that reading, not the least of which being there is no stand for the Palestinians.  The far more meaningful parallels are to Native American Reserves and Hong Kong.  Vic and Hope did a better video on it.

Our Last Crusade or The Rise of A New World episode 7 was… an episode.

Lupin III The First’s Dub became available recently and it was a pretty solid Lupin movie, and by far the best CGi Animation I’ve seen from Japan thus far, for that reason alone it’s great.

HigurashiGou episode 12 was fine.  After finishing this Arc I think I may wait to binge the rest.

Million Lives Isekai episode 6, “but over time some failed to comprehend what our scriptures said about love and peace” that sure sounds familiar.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 6 was great.

The Day I Became A God episode 5 was emotional.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 6 was pretty interesting.

Yashahime episode 7 provides the context of the framing device of episode 1.  Newbies who followed my advice of starting with episode 2 can probably just watch episode 1 now, unless you’d rather not watch an Inuyasha epilogue till after watching the actual show.

Talentless Nana episode 12 was great, only one episode left, this show should turn out more than decent.

So episode 5 of the TONIKAWA Dub has an Audio Sync issue because Crunchyroll sucks at Quality control.  It seems a lot of people were able to finish it in spite of that issue but I can’t.  So I'll have to wait awhile.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Anime 2020 deep into December

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Our Last Crusade episode 6 reminded me how tired I’ve gotten of people with superpowers being persecuted minorities in speculative fiction.

HigurashiGou episode 11 was good, still not sure what to make of this arc.  I didn’t finish episode 4 of the Dub, not really because of the Dub itself, at least it didn't create new issues.  It just didn’t take long for me to realize I don’t really wanna rewatch this one, the first arc is kind of the least rewatchable for me in the old show too, and this different ending was just not as shocking as I feel they wanted it to be.  I may wait to return to the Dub till I can binge it a good chunk of it.

Million Lives Isekai episode 5 was very amusing.

Yashahime episode 6 was very conventional.

TONIKAWA episode 4 was totally fun.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 5 was better than last episode.

Ya know this huge arc of SAO is starting to remind me of my issue with True Blood and Game Of Thrones, jumping around all over the place constantly to barely connected plotlines.  Meanwhile this episode randomly threw in the Anime only Movie characters and it felt totally awkward.

Talentless Nana episode 11 was good.  To a certain extent what I said about Our last Crusade is applicable to this show too, but that’s mostly from what I've told about where the Manga goes later.

Final month of 2020 starts

 I watched the High School Fleet movie which in Japan came out in January of this year.  The series from 2016 was pretty good and this movie was a lot of fun too.  My favorite part was when that one Captain goes full Batman.

Well I watched the first two episodes of TONIKAWA and they were pretty amusing.

HigurashiGou included some scenes I’m pretty sure we didn’t get till Kai last time, but were I imagine always part of the Question Arc in the VN.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 5 was very fun.  This show is a throwback to the old Catholic School set Yuri genre but with modern Action Anime tropes thrown in.

Million Lives Isekai episode 4 was alright.  The continent they’re on looks like Australia.  Glasses called herself a Magi-cal girl which made me realize something about how that term is mapped onto the lip flap of Mahou Shoujo.

Wandering Witch has a Dub starting, I thought the Dubs would have been done starting a few weeks ago.  If I give this show a second chance for the Dub it won’t be till the Dub has gotten past what I already saw subbed.  So for now I have no comments on it.

Yashahime episode 5 was alright.

The Day I Became A God episode 4 was hilarious.

TONIKAWA episode 3 was pretty fun at first, but the absurdity of that Three’s Company esque misunderstanding at the end was a little much.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 4 was a beach episode.  I don’t like beach episodes, they’re rough, coarse, irritating and they get everywhere.

Well I think I have an idea of where Alicization is going next.

Talentless Nana episode 10 was okay.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https:/mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Honorifics rant and more Fall Anime 2020

 HigurashiGao episode 9 is indeed introducing another Teppei timeline. 

The classic Higurashi Dub was perfectly willing to say Sama when referring to OyashiroSama, but the Gou Dub we now know from episode 3 is instead saying Lord Oyashiro.  That is a regressive change antithetical to the direction I want Dubs to go in.  On the other hand I do prefer Demoned-Away to the more cumbersome “spirited away by the Demon”.  But the Sama change is going to have an ultimately bigger impact, this doesn’t bode well, are they also gonna chicken out of saying Nii Nii?

For me this kind of breaks my ability to enjoy this Dub.  I want Honorifics to be just left untranslated in general, but some are more important than others.  And Sama when used as the epithet of a deity is perhaps the most important, because yes we do use the English Lord in that way, but kind of only for Jesus and/or Yahweh, you don’t see a lot of “Lord Zeus” in Greek mythology films.  And there’s also the fact that Sama is gender neutral while Lord is not, when Subs translate Sama being used for a female it’s usually Lady or Mistress.  The Gender Ambiguity of Oyashiro is actually quite important.

And thing is I wasn’t even prepared for this to be an issue after the more than a decade old Dub knew to get this right.  Is the old Dub so irrationally hated that Funimation thinks they have to do everything different just for the sake of being different?  The Yuki Yuna Is A Hero dub also understood this.  Is this a general difference between LA Dubs and Texas Dubs?

I decided to give Our Last Crusade or The Rise of the New World another shot, I finished episode 4 and watched episode 5.  They were good but I wonder if this time they tried to do a whole Light Novel in only 2 episodes.

Episode 3 of that Million Lives Isekai was not what I expected, there were some interesting developments.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 4.  Yuyu seems very different now that we’re actually getting inside her head.  YuRi as their in universe ship name is hilarious.  There was a genuine Spit Take, I always think of Garfield and Friends when I think of Spit Takes.  This show is shaping up to be quite fun.

Yashahime episode 4 was pretty enjoyable as well.  I am perhaps more confused than Inyuasha fans would be but that’s fine.

I just watched Talentless Nana episode 9.  The problem with comparing this show to Death Note is it has so many unforeseeable variables being thrown at Nana right from the start.  People sometimes complain about how much Misa was an unfair disadvantage thrown at Light but that was still over a Cour into the show, L had already gotten onto Light’s trail solely because of Light’s own mistakes made because of his hubris, she was introduced exactly when the show needed a Wild Card to spice things up.  Nana seems to have had the deck stacked against her from the start.

I was not able to complete By The Grace of The Gods episode 4, it was always the least compelling show I was watching this season, and now it’s officially gotten boring.  So it is now Dropped.

Anime 2020 autumn continues

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Since Talentless Nana seems like it’s not gonna get a Simuldub I decided to binge the first 7 episodes.  It’s pretty good. 

I was not able to finish the 4th episode of Our Last Crusade or The Rise of A New World, this was one of those shows that was only entertaining to me as it set up its premise.

HigurashiGou episode 8 was not what I expected at all.

That MillionLives Isekai had an entertaining second episode.

Episode 3 of Yashahime was fun.  For some reason it has a lot of music that keeps reminding me of Zelda music.

The latest episode of Alicization was jam packed with stuff.  I feel this show is better binged, when I watch it one episode at a time I never feel like I got a complete episode.  I’m also annoyed at two straight episodes with not Suguha after the season premier gave her a big entrance.

The Day I Became a God episode 3 was quite fun, I can begin to see it’s connection to Angel Beats, I’ve still never watched Charlotte.

Warlords of Sigrdrifa episode 3 was pretty good.  In this episode what the Valkyries actually were in Norse Mythology is made relevant, something not usually acknowledged in all this modern Nerd fiction that treats them as Germanic Amazons.

Episode 8 of Talentless Nana was quite tense.  This show gets compared to Death Note a lot, I’d say it’s inferior overall but inherently lacks what some people’s main problem with Death Note was.

I have a feeling I won’t have much to say about By The Grace of The Gods so I’ll post this before it goes up.  There’s a chance I’ll be dropping it soon anyway.

Anime 2020 progresses

I’m unsure whether or not even it’s Dub counts as 2020 but I saw Weathering With You on the morning of the 9th and it was pretty good.

Well Our Last Crusade or The Rise of A New World episode 3 suddenly does something I usually wouldn’t expect a show to do till the last three episodes of a season.  It’s bold but then weirdly resolved as quickly as it happened.  Since it’s a Light Novel adaptation it makes we wonder if they decided to rush to the climax of the first book, something that usually takes 4-6 episodes.

HigurashiGou episode 7 was interesting.  From now on I’m gonna try to avoid saying anything Spoilery about Higurashi in these posts.  With episode 2 of the Gou Dub I’m already getting more used to the new voices.  But there are still some things I won’t be able to have full opinions on for a while.

I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives or I’m Standing on a Million Lives had an interesting pilot.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 3 was Gay, really really Gay.

Well I have finally gotten to finish Railgun T and it was pretty awesome, Raildex has quickly become one of my favorite franchises.  I’m gonna rewatch all the Dreamranker episodes sometime soon.

The second episode of Yashahime should have been the first, it takes place before the framing device of the pilot and is a much better introduction to this world for new fans.

The 11/14 Toonami episode of SAO Alicization jumped around a bit but had some good stuff.  And it seems like the other Dubs I was expecting for Saturday and Sunday inexplicably took this weekend off.

I’m currently following 8 Fall 2020 Simuldubs plus SAO on Toonami.  Been awhile since I had that many at once.  Statistically when I have I wound not watching all of them to completion.  But either way it looks like I’ll have some fun to enjoy for the remainder of the year.

The Anime 2020 Tag will probably still be added to in 2021 as I finish shows that started in 2020 and maybe also comment on some movies I couldn’t get to sooner.  In the meantime I’m working on another idea for my next year long Anime watching project.

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

Update: it turns out Warlords of Sigdrifa episode 2 did become available today after all.  If the other two shows drop in the next Day or so I'll add another update.

The second episode was pretty good, make sure you don't skip the post credit scene.  I'm always amused when an Anime has the MC be a Gaijin reacting to Japanese characters.  It gives us an idea of how Japanese Otaku want to be perceived by the rest of the world.

By The Grace of The Gods episode 3 was okay, but I have a feeling this may be the first show I get bored of.

Fall 2020 Anime Dubs finally start rolling out

The Day I Became A God had a very entertaining pilot, I’m certainly gonna keep watching it.

By The Grace of The Gods also had a decent pilot, it has my attention for now.

Our Last Crusade of The Rise of A New World episode 2 was also good.  I’m annoyed at this show getting called a “Romeo and Juliet with magic” or something along those lines.  I get that it’s common to make that analogy for any romance between people on opposing sides plot, but sometimes it’s worded as if it’s as similar as West Side Story was and this one is not.  But in the context of Anime we have shows named after Romeo and Juliet that are just as different from The Bard’s version as this is.

If it’s going to be compared to something based on a very basic premise I’d prefer the Bright comparison I made last week.  But I suppose that too can be viewed as arbitrary, I suppose there are technically other Anime I’ve seen that have as much in common with that premise and I really can’t explain why this is the one making my mind go there, it simply is.

HigurashiGou episode 6 was enjoyable.  I guess Takano does Shaft Head Tilts now.

A Dub for Gou with a new Cast has been announced.  I’ll give it a shot but I’m someone who actually is a fan of the old Dub cast.  If this new cast does turn out to be good then they need to Dub all of it with them, because Gou should NOT be anyone's entry point to this franchise. 

Well I watched the Dub of the first episode of HigurashiGou, besides the after credit scene this is pretty much the same as the old pilot so it’s the most direct comparison.  The new Dub cast will definitely take getting used to, but I don’t want to be unfair.  I feel my brain is criticizing things it probably wouldn't if I weren’t comparing it to a prior Dub I’m kind of attached to.  The only thing I feel close to being able to say maybe doesn’t work right are those moments where the camera zooms in on Rena or Mion’s mouth to imply they’re hiding something.

Of the three characters I particularly praise the old Dub’s VAs for only one is in this pilot and that would be Rika Furude.  Yu Apphia is an actress I’m a fan of from other stuff, she’s one of the handful I follow on twitter.  But those are very different kinds of roles mostly, her roles in Wixoss for example are characters who are “normal” by Anime standards, and some are fairly Kuudere.  

I suppose some people feel the opposite of me about Rebecca Forstadt’s Rika.  Part of the problem is since they only did season 1 she only has a select few moments to do her Dark Rika voice but for me it was enough to show she had this dual voice character down.  I also know some people give certain Dub Voice Actresses crap for being technically too old for a character even though Japan does the same thing.  Rebecca is the oldest actress to voice Rika but all of them were adults and Rika is mentally older than her physical age, and Moe voices are not meant to sound like authentic children.  Yu is probably the youngest actress who’s voiced the character but Rebecca’s Moe voice definitely sounds better.  We still haven’t gotten to hear Yu’s Dark Rika yet however.

Assault Lily Bouquet episode 2’s title is a direct reference to the Song of Songs chapter 2 verse 1.  This show is truly going all in on it’s Yuri tropes, it’s basically Strawberry Panic with an action show premise.

I also watched the first episode of Yashahime now that it’s Dub has dropped.  As I said before I want to be the one person watching and publicly commenting on this show with the perspective of having not already seen Inuyasha.  In that context how much of this first episode focused on the old show’s cast rather than the new one was not what I was hoping for, though it also reminded me of This Year’s Girl being the first episode of Buffy I watched which was not a bad experience.  

Still I feel the general best route for a next generation sequel is to focus the pilot on introducing the new characters and then get us up to speed on the in-between history and the original cast later, that’s the approach I feel generally best works for both potential newcomers and the older fans.  That way the start can work as a stand alone pilot while also making the returning fans wonder what happened.  Then when the reveals do come, for the new fans it can be the same as any other worldbuilding or backstory exposition you’d get in Fantasy stories that aren’t sequels.

The Day I Became A God episode 2 was amusing, it seems in Japan people still remember the 1998 film Armageddon.

The pilot of Warlords of Sigridrifa was interesting. It looks like Odin is popular this season.  Also I suspect there was a Doctor Strangelove homage at the beginning.

Well at 11:30 Central on Saturday November 7th 2020  the last sub-season of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld started airing on Toonami. SAO is a uniquely difficult show for me to even comment on, so I may not even bother including in future Anime 2020 posts.

At any rate this episode brings Sinon and Suguha into the action and they are my favorites.  I don’t get why so many Anime refer to Humanoid Pigs as Orcs?  To me Humanoid Pigs as armies serving a dark lord are Moblins from Zelda first and foremost, but that term I assume only Nintendo is allowed to use.

By The Grace of The Gods episode 2 was pretty fun.

Halloween 2020 Anime

Today is Halloween which is also my Birthday.  

Follow my Anime viewing in real time at these links..

https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir 

Also here is the introductory post for this series.

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/anime-2020.html

So HigurashiGou episode 5 is beginning an arc that should be another take on the timeline that focuses on Shion, I’m unsure what to expect.  In a sense the way the first arc ended isn’t that unprecedented, the one who goes nuts is still one of the three who were already susceptible to that happening.  The main curveball is what happened to Rika and Satoko.  But since this premise is us knowing Rika’s role from the start, why aren’t we seeing her reaction to that yet?

There is a chance I’ll put Gou on hold after finishing this arc, in some ways this kind of show is one I prefer to binge.  In general I may wind up making less Anime2020 posts in November then I did in October.

I enjoyed the pilot of Our Last Crusade Or The Rise of A New World, I’d watched Lidnsay Ellis’ video on Bright and was thinking of that, this show has the potential to be a better execution of Bright’s core gimmick, a High Fantasy World that has advanced to the modern era, but with far less lazy world building.

I know some will consider the World Building Exposition at the beginning lazy, but I really don’t care how “organically” that is handled, just tell what I need to know to start following the story at hand.

I also gave the Pilot of Assault Lily Bouquet another shot now that it’s Dub is out and indeed it was much easier to follow.  

So as soon as Riri explained her flashback I assumed the pale haired Lily is now deceased, and the scene of her and Yuyu at the end only further convinced me of that, that’s clearly Yuyu imagining her.

The Dub of episode 24 of Railgun T took very slightly more than 2 weeks, but I’d already gotten used to that being a possibility.  It was pretty good too.