Anime 2020

I've decided for this year to try doing something similar to what I did with in 2018 with the Anime Weekly Updates tag.  I'm gonna try it again because it helped keep this blog active even when I lacked inspiration for more specific ideas.

This year of course I'm not gonna feel quite so obligated to make it a weekly schedule, though it may often play out that way, the goal however is just whenever I feel I have enough thoughts for a good update.  Because I mostly follow Simuldubs it may take a few weeks for it to properly start and then carry over into 2021.

This tag will chiefly be for Anime coming out this year, or at least Dubs that weren't available till this year.  I may sometimes comment on what old Anime I'm watching or re-watching, but I won't feel obligated to.  If one is interesting enough it'll probably get it's own post.

Right now I'm currently following 6 Simuldubes that carry over from Fall 2019.

Azur Lane, who's last couple episodes were delayed but I just watched episode 10 which was pretty good.

Assasin's Pride, which I may not finish, but unlike the AniTubers who decided to talk about it, I'm seeing it intentionally or not as more of a Shoujo Anime, almost a throw back to 90s Shoujo.

Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia, which is proving to be a pretty entertaining show.

Kabukichou Sherlock aka Case File nº221:Kabukicho, which I genuinely think rivals Sherlock and Elementary as fascinating modern re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes.

CHOYOYU!: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World! Is proving to be even more interesting then I expected.

Didn't I Say to Make my Abilities Average in the Next Life?  Is a very Cute Girls doing Cute Things Isekai show.

Now for what's coming in Winter of 2020.

My top priority is A Certain Scientific Railgun T which I'm confident will get Simuldubbed even though it's not announced yet due to how both IndexIII and Accelerator were.

Magia Record, the new Madoka Magica spin off is on Funimation but that page has been including stuff they aren't actually Dubbing lately.  The Madoka Franchise is generally Dubbed by Aniplex which means unless it gets on Adult Swim the Dub it will probably take awhile.

I will at least start Healing' Good PreCure when it starts in February, no guarantee I'll keep following it all year, I wound up dropping Star Twinkle around episode 12, nothing wrong with the show, I guess I just couldn't do the full PreCure thing two years in a row.

Since I did a post on The Clone Wars being like a Mecha show, maybe it'll include it in my winter 2020 coverage just for the fun of it.  Where ever I choose to talk about it I'll probably be making Anime comparisons anyway.

Right now that's all I know for certain I'm interested in for the Winter season.  I suspect others will catch my attention in due time.  For Spring I know I'll be keeping an eye out for that Otome Game Anime known as Hamefura.

I'm pretty sure Adult Swim will air SAO Alicization - War of Underwolrd at some point.  Same with the final season of Attack On Titan.  I don't know yet what the Lupin III project(s) for 2020 will be, but I wait for the Dubs no matter how long they take for those so I may not see any this year.  There are also two 2019 Lupin III projects we're still waiting for the Dubs for.

I'm hoping the Dub for Heaven's Feel Spring Song comes out in November like the prior two films.

The Clone Wars is the closest thing Western Media has to a Mecha Anime

It doesn't quite officially qualify because there are no humanoid giant robots piloted by human pilots.

But it does feature Droids of various sizes fighting in a war (called Clankers by the Clones), and ace fighter pilots, and being Force sensitive is a little like being a Newtype.

And the stories it tells are frequently about how war is bad, how it's usually not worth it even if one does have a good cause, and this war's cause is quite questionable.  It features Heroes On Both Sides but also evil everywhere.

This war is like the One Year War in that the Antagonists are the secessionists.  And like in some Gundam timelines we know the Protagonists' side's victory will only result in them becoming a totalitarian dictatorship later on.

There are many female characters in Sunrise shows of the last 20 years I feel were based on Padme Amidala, though some perhaps are more like Duchess Satine.

Ahsoka Tano is practically an Anime Girl, she even has a vaguely Japanese sounding name (not the only one in Star Wars).  And the fanbase does plenty of Yuri shipping her with Barris Offee (the first part of the Forces of Destiny - Ahsoka & Padme comic feels like a Doujinshi that had the H scene edited out).  And there are some other Lightsaber wielding Waifus as well, like Aayla Secura, Luminara and Shaak Ti.

Star Wars as a whole has been drawing on Japanese Media from the beginning, first and foremost the films of Akira Kurosawa starting with The Hidden Fortress.  And Japan has returned the favor with the Real Robots sub-genre of Mecha having Star Wars influence right from it's 1979 beginnings.  I see no evidence of specifically Anime influence on the Original Trilogy, but it wasn't long till Anime started being a factor.  Grand Admiral Thrawn I suspect was inspired by the aliens in Space Battle Ship Yamato and maybe also Macross, both had localizations Zahn could have been exposed to in the 80s.  And my theories about Anime influence on the Prequel Trilogy may be the subject of a future post on this Blog.

The inability of other Star Wars to work this way isn't just because of less literal Mecha, but the fact that once everything becomes Rebels vs Empire or Resistance vs First Order everyone's perception is too wrapped up in the perceived Nazi allegory to allow any actual nuance.

The Clone Wars is unlike most Anime in that it doesn't much matter if you watch it in order.  For the first three seasons the release order wasn't the chronological order anyway.  Some may find it weird how I'm more okay with watching this show out of chronological order then the Six Episode Movie Saga.  But that's because this show is all filler to the Skywalker saga anyway.  Those who think it actually fixed problems in the Prequel Trilogy are morons.

And the movie isn't the best first impression of the show, it isn't as bad as some make it out to be but it doesn't work as a theatrical film and is far below the show's high points.  I can't just compare it to the filler movies many Anime have because it's also the beginning of Ahsoka being Anakin's Apprentice, including the reason he calls her Snips.  But there isn't much you need to know, the gist is Anakin's assigned a Padawan and is at first not thrilled with the idea but warms up to her.  Actually all that happens in the first 28 minutes and 10 seconds, the rest is basically just a filler movie.

My biggest divergence from most Clone Wars fans is I don't support bringing Darth Maul back, fortunately that doesn't really come into play till the end of season 4.  And I'm not big on the Ventress and Nightsisters stuff either.

I wish I could share other fans' excitement for Disney bringing the show back.  But the main reason Clone Wars is like a Mecha show is something I'm afraid Disney will tone down, Disney doesn't like it when people think Capitalism is bad.

The main selling point of the show was Ahsoka, and they kinda wrote her off.  I suppose they could do stuff with her, maybe show how she starts on the path that takes her to where she was on Rebels.

I'd like to see more spotlight episodes for Aayla Secura, and an explanation for what happened to Barris.

YouTube has some MashUp trailers of Star Wars trailers and Code Geass that are pretty cool.