Summer Is Coming

Well as far the Scientific definition of Summer goes it’s already here.  But as an Otaku who mostly watches Dubs, we’re now in a transitional phase, where Spring shows are ending and the Summer season is beginning but the Simuldubs will take a few weeks to start.

For a little while at least these Anime Weekly Updates will be posted on Monday or Tuesday.  Since everything I’m following right now usually drops on Sunday and Monday.

As far as Simuldubs for the Summer season goes, I’ll be continuing Steins;Gate 0, and watching Attack on Titan season 3, and Overlord season 3 as well as the other two Isekai FUNimation is Simuldubbing.  I may try some others as well, and even these I’m not guaranteed to finish.

The only show I will watch Subbed if it doesn’t get added to the Simuldub line up (which I currently consider unlikely) is one that’s starting rather late.  July 13th is when Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight premieres.  As a fan of Nancey Garden’s Good Moon Rising I have an inherent soft spot for fiction about Lesbians in the Theater.

Of course I’ll also be continuing Hutto!Precure.  Maybe some other shows only available subbed will catch my attention from people I follow on social media liking it.  But for now the plan is limited to those.

Now onto talking about what I’ve watched since July started.

Episode 7 of Food/Stay Night (a nickname I didn’t invent but am embracing) was the obligatory “beach” episode, in this case a water park.  It was fun.  It seems like a new episode drops at the start of each month, so three will come out during Summer.

Episode 22 of Hugtto!PreCure was awesome, I don’t know why I react to the OG Pretty Cures as if I watched it back in 2004, but I do.

Katana Maidens episode 22 was also pretty good.  I hope the last two episodes will live up to the hype I’ve been trying to give it.

I did that Engaged to the Unidentified post on Sunday you might have seen already.

I finished Symphogear G, I think I’m gonna take breaks between seasons with this show.  But it is very good.

Well with episode 10 Steins;Gate 0 may have really just started to pick up.

Episode 10 of Legend of the Galactic Heroes was pretty interesting. 

Once the Summer Simldubs start, I’ll at first at least try to keep what new Anime I'm watching on just the currently airing stuff.  And spend the spare time on rewatches.  So before then I’m gonna try to get a few shows I haven’t watched or finished yet taken care of.

Update: I won't necessarily be covering all of it on this Blog however, depends how much I have to say on something.

I may be for a little while increasing the output on my more Bible oriented Blogs.

HIDIVE vs Crunchyroll Engaged to the Unidentified subtitles.

I just watched the first episode of Engaged to the Unidentified on Crunchyroll.  And as I expected the Subs it had when I watched it many times on a certain illegitimate site a few years ago were taken from Crunchyroll.

Last year I watched the first episode on HIDIVE, a new legal streaming site I kind of wanted to become an enthusiastic supporter of at the time.  But the subs were different there, and every difference I noticed felt inferior.

Now when it comes to lines like "Kobeni blew her top" and "Domestic violence already" which are from the Crunchyroll version, I don't know nearly enough about Japanese to say which is more accurate, and my preference for the Crunchyroll version could just be that being what I watched first and got very used to.

But there is one change I feel I can give a meaningful opinion on.

Everytime Benio refers to Mashiro a Mashiro-Tan, the Crunchyroll subs say Mashiro-Tan.  But on HIDIVE they subtitled it as "Marshmallow".

The thing is, the liberty HIDIVE took here is one I could have been fine with in a Dub, if this show ever gets a Dub it'll probably not use Honorfics like most sadly, so having Benio nick name Mashiro "Marshmallow" would be a clever creative liberty.

But in a Sub, when I can hear what Benio is actually saying, it's distracting and annoying.

So my advice to people interested in watching this show is to use Crunchyroll.  Though it's not a show well suited for Normies anyway.

However neither site seems to have the OVAs, which surprises me, HIDIVE has OVAs for many of their series but not this one.

Update: I decided to go to HIDIVE again for the first time in awhile after posting this.  And now they've increased the amount of stuff you can only do as a Subscriber (I wanted to use them for re-watching Higurashi Kai).  So screw them, you've just lost my potential ad support and given it to pirates.

Update January 3rd 2025: Engaged to the Unidentified isn't on CR anymore.  It's English Physical Media Release is Sentai branded which means it most likely has the HIDIVE Subs.  It's Prime VIdoe Uploads are also explicitly promoting HIDIVE.

So I fear the Subs I prefer for this show could become Lost Media if the Pirate Sites start ever feeling the need to Update which versions they have.

Final #MahouShouJune & #PrideMonth post

Hugtto! Precure episode 21 was a pretty good episode with a pretty unexpected ending.

Katana Maidens episode 21 was also pretty good.

I watched episode 9s for both LOTGH and Steins;Gate 0, they were good but nothing major to comment on.

I finally watched Serial Experiments Lain, which was pretty interesting.

Howel’s Moving Castle was pretty good.  It has Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, Christian Bale and Crispin Freeman in it.

In conclusion.  I didn’t watch as many LGBTQ themed Anime as I could have or should have this month.  But I’m glad I made the effort, I enjoyed quite a few that I might not have tried otherwise.

Of course my interest in this topic was not limited to this month.  Going into July I intend to continue watching more of things like Symphogear.   I’ll post more about my Summer Anime ambitions in early July.

#MahouShouJune & #PrideMonth week 4 was a very #Yuri week.

I also watched the recently released Asagao to Kase-San OVA.

It’s a well animated and well directed Anime, and well acted as far as I can judge Japanese voice acting.  But…..

As a massive Yuri enthusiast I hate being the one debbie downer on this OVA, but it’s really not to my taste.  A lot of people are saying it’s so preferable to Citrus cause it doesn’t have so much DRAAAAMAAAA!!!!!  But the thing is, it is still a Melodrama, it is still a conflict driven narrative.  And so if we’re gonna have Melodrama I’d prefer they just go all out with it.

I do want more fiction that isn’t conflict driven narratives.  And what I want from that for Yuri is just Lucky Star or K-On or Yuru Yuri but with everyone unambiguously openly gay, all the plausible deniability thrown out. 

I get that Kase-San is trying to capture a more realistic relationship awkwardness and tension, and if that’s what you need from a Yuri Romance then this might be for you.  But I don’t want that kind of realism from Anime.  This OVA was okay but I couldn’t watch a 12 or 24 episode series with this general tone.

Hugtto! PreCure episode 20 was definitely worth it’s build up. I’ve also done a lot of other Pretty Cure viewing which I’ve posted on elsewhere.

Katana Maidens episode 20 was interesting.  I’m starting to think there is supposed to be some kind of Id, Ego, Superego correlation to the three Princesses.

Episode 8 of Steins;Gate 0 was quite good.

Symphogear season 1 was very good.

And I finally got around to Sasami-San@Ganbaranai which was a very interesting show.

For Shin Sekai Yori however I could not even finish the first episode.

I started Symphogear G which is pretty good so far.

And I finished Magical Girl Site.  It did have a happy ending (but with sequel hooks) so my final opinion on it for now is that it’s a good show.

More Pretty Cure coverage

I said I’d start this week with finishing the first Glitter Force. And I did, it was pretty good, I think the Superbot episode may be my favorite. 

I decided to watch some more Pretty Cure movies before going to another series.  The Smile and Doki Doki films and then the 6th Allstar film.  And they were all pretty good.

And then I finished the Canadian Dub of the original Futari Wa Pretty Cure.  It was pretty darn good. 

Hugtto! PreCure episode 20 was quite worth it’s build up.  I then watched episode 2 of Go Princess which was good.

I watched the first episode of Pretty Cure MaxHeart.  Main reason I want to watch at least some of this before the relatively stand alone movies (I already downloaded the two MaxHeart movies) is to get to know Shiny Luminous.  I’ve seen her in the Allstar movies but she hasn’t done much, she gets the least attention being seemingly just the OG Duo’s third wheel.  Heck the ending CG dance sequence practically symbolizes that as she just stands there while the Duo jump all over the place doing their iconic poses.

And as of the first episode I still don’t know her much, they’re holding off on the formal introduction.  But I was quickly able to guess that she’s the Queen’s reincarnation or has her Heart or some such mystical BS.

There is also a point where the MaxHeart ED song has me thinking of a very specific 50s or 60s American Pop Song, but I can’t put my finger on it.

After the second episode, it’s clear that it’s gonna take a full Arc for HIkari to awaken as Cure Luminous. If the Canadian Dub had continued into MaxHeart, I wonder what Western name they’d give Hikari?  Given her mysterious vibe maybe they could have decided not to change it similar to Hotaru in Sailor Moon S, the Blonde being the only one with a Japanese name would be kinda funny.  It might be she was drawn as Blonde because they wanted her to seem vaguely foreign.

Episode 3 goes for a pretty blatant Omen homage.  On the subject of Cure Black’s costume redesign.  I don’t have any problem with covering up the midriff, but the additional Pink splashed onto it is really jarring.

Having finished episode 5, there is an observation I need to make.  It might be controversial since Pretty Cure is a Shoujo Anime presumably not meant to be Otaku driven at all.  But Hikari is the embodiment of Moe.  I read an analysis of Moe once that linked it to feelings of Nostalgia, and the word Nostalgia is being linked to Hikari quite a bit.  She is a quite adorable innocent younger girl that the protagonists are driven to “Protecc”.

#MahouShouJune & #PrideMonth week 3: Currently airing shows plus a lot of Pretty Cure.

Hugtto!PreCure episode 19 was surprisingly relevant for Pride Month, I liked it.  I also notice how it looks like PreCure has been influenced by the recent trend in Western Superhero tv shows and movies to pretty much just have all the supporting cast be in on it.

Katana Maidens episode 19 was pretty interesting as well.

Legend of The Galactic Heroes episode 8 does provide us with some Yaoi.  Literally, there is no heterosexual explanation for him playing with his hair like that at the end.  That said I’m also not opposed to a threesome including the Blonde’s sister.  In case you can’t tell, I’ll probably never memorize these characters names.

Steins;Gate 0 episode 7 put some more focus on Ruka.  Some might not get my repeated references to Steins;Gate’s handling of Ruka’s gender identity being a confusing problem.  Their being groped for comedic effect from time to time is just a surface level aspect of it. 

The issue is the original show went down the route of suggesting Ruka’s preferred gender identity was Female, but then implies they just felt that way because of their attraction to Okabe.  The sentiment that Gender doesn’t ultimately matter I can support, the issue is how dismissive that can seem of Trans Women.  I guess I would like to ultimately think of Ruka as Non-Binary or something like that, which is why I’ve been using they/them.

I’ve been revisiting some Pretty Cure pilots with the help of Rabbit.  This franchise was super Gay from day one. 

And I’ve now seen Subbed the first episodes of every season but the only two that continue a prior continuity.  None of them are bad, but I seem to be the only person who finds Heartcatch the least compelling.

I also watched some more of the movies.  I have now seen the first 5 Allstar movies, the first Yes 5 movie, and the Suite movie.  The movies are all pretty fun.

And then I finished Glitter Force Doki Doki.  It reminded me of a lot of similar themes from The Last Jedi, Batman V Superman and The Dark Knight “there’s not gonna be any fireworks”.  And while the part of me sympathetic to the critics of those films kind of wants to go “look how this show for little girls handled them better”, I ultimately view it as a vindication.  Clearly those things aren’t so inherently dark and nihilistic as Snyder haters think, it’s just harder for some people to see the hopeful optimism in them if it doesn’t have the color pallet of a cartoon.

And I also feel like saying that the Yuri ultimately is not very subtle.  What really grabbed me was how it kind of even addresses the “girls do it to practice and then grow out of it” when Regina says things like “I was a kid then” but ultimately the love between does prevail.

Magical Girl Site episode 11 was pretty intense.  My final verdict on this show utterly depends on how it ends.

Next I’ll probably finish the first Glitter Force, then focus on either Symphogear or the Canadian Dub of the original Pretty Cure for awhile.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Star Wars

I know I just said on Tumblr that I don't want to talk about my dissatisfaction with Disney's Star Wars anymore.  Well I'm not doing that here directly at all here, this is just me talking about what could have been a good way to follow up ROTJ.

A scenario that could have interested me for a post ROTJ Galaxy is something similar to what we have in LOTGH.  The Empire and the Rebels now on somewhat equal footing.  But with the situation complicated by the New Republic having it's own Fascist tendencies and good people being allowed to exist on the Empire's side.

This post can also be viewed as a bit of a follow up to Legend of The Galactic Fascists.  At first Episode 8 (who's Dub just dropped so that's how far I am currently), had me thinking that this Empire is more like WWI Germany that Nazi Germany (with the use of Kaiser being a clue that was the case all along) a system where a good chunk of Feudalism still exists.

But then they reminded me of the "inferior Genes act".  Of course it's implied that's not the law at all anymore.  Perhaps Rudolf was a sort of Hitler but under successive Emperors a Nazish regime morphed into something more Feudal.

Going back to the Fascist tendencies shown on the Republic's side.  I can't help but wonder if maybe the Empire is more Nazi and the Fascists in the Republic are more Mussolini style Fascists.

Again, it would have been refreshing to see a Star Wars saga where the objective was for the two sides to find peace, and not simply a continuous cycle of needing to wipe out mustache twirling villains.

The more I think about it, the more purely Superficial the Fascism of the Empire in Star Wars always was.  The things it had in common with Fascism or Nazism it also shares with other Totalitarian regimes like North Korea, or the USSR, or the old British Empire, or Napoleon's and of course Ancient Rome.

The Empire had no Nationalism, it may look like the ruling class is all one species, but a Nationalist Empire wouldn't neglect to include the name of the Fatherland in how they refer to themselves.    It really always was just Totalitarian for Totalitarinaism's sake.