Zomgfruitbunnies

@elwoodan said:

SAO and LogH have very different worldviews and approaches to utilizing the MMO setting. SAO is a poet, whereas LogH is an engineer. SAO celebrates the human spirit and appeals to the heart. At its core is a love story that goes beyond shallow affectations and physical attraction, a solid rebuttal against the modern courtship ritual and the commoditization of love.

LogH's take on the trapped-in-a-MMO trope is both philosophical and pragmatic. When almost all sense of being and identity is reset, how does one go about making sense of a foreign world? I would argue that the inability to die enhances the sense of despair because there is no way out. It also effectively removes man's most basic raison d'être, creating a beautiful irony where, despite having no reason to live, one cannot die. LogH tackles these issues through Shiroe, who makes sense out of a seemingly senseless and meaningless existence, thereby giving himself and those around him the will to continue seeking salvation while not neglecting the realities of their present situation. Unlike SAO, LogH's answer to man's existential despair is pragmatism, and in this respect, instead of celebrating the soul, LogH celebrates the human intellect and the powers of the mind.

Both are fine shows in my mind, though, admittedly, LogH has been getting away from the technicalities of a MMO and more into fantasy territory with the latest episodes.

Much like Gurren Lagann and probably Redline, Kill la Kill is an exercise in stylistic excess. By itself, it's a showpiece for the power and potential of animation. Framed in the larger context of the Japanese anime industry, fandom, and culture, there's likely something more to Kill la Kill than fanservice and flashy eye candy. I'll leave that potential discussion to those more informed and educated on the matter.

You're right about it being divisive, as the same could be said for all style over substance pieces. For those of us that has been watching anime consistently for years now, it's a nice change of pace from all of the generic rom-com and fluff stuff.

@gnatsol said:

Mostly because it hardly explained enough about itself for the story to matter. The critical elements of the Fractale system and Phryne are so hastily skimmed over it made the overall story completely inconsequential when the finale came. The big question of "So what?" is never adequately answered. Sure, stuff happens, but to what end, and why should the audience care?

When Yamakan begins to inject his signature slice-of-life interests into the story, things quickly fell apart. The story lost focus and the stunning intelligence displayed by the initial set of episodes is lost. Fractale never quite pulls itself together after this, and as a result the ending becomes highly trivialized.

Fractale's aspirations as a sci-fi based piece of social commentary is replaced by a standard boy-meets-girl scenario before it can really flourish. It's a shame, because the first few episodes come off so strong and determined in their goal to be more than just another piece of perishable sci-fi entertainment.

@gnatsol said:

Both are cute and inoffensive enough. It shouldn't surprise you that Kyoukai no Kanata beats Strike the Blood out of the water in the animation department since we're talking KyoAni here. If you're looking or an engaging story outside of the fantasy trappings, you might be disappointed.

You might be surprised to hear that Coppellion has dropped all pretensions of sophistication and became an action series of sorts. Still thoroughly mediocre, though.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, R. Kelly is a crazy person and Trapped in the Closet is fucking amazing.

The author is clearly a genius. Videos games are far more problematic than social stratification and the unequal distribution of resources.

Valverave twists its plot handles hard. It does this so often I feel it's just fucking with us at this point. But what is Valverave without the hard left turns? Consequences? Fuck that. Just turn that handle as hard as you can. I say keep it coming.

In comparison, this week's Kyoukai no Kanata reveal fumbled pretty damn hard because Kuriyama Mirai's original motivations mean absolutely nothing at this point. It literally shoots itself in the foot by being so earnest in depicting Mirai's experiences with Akihito. All this episode did is show us that Nase Izumi is a manipulative piece of shit, which, honestly, who hasn't figured it out by now?

Samurai Flamenco continues to be weird as fuck. The more serious stuff pokes its head up here and there, but I'm having a hard times making sense of it all, still.

Golden Time had me worried last week with its potential ghost nonsense, but handles it brilliantly with this week's episode. Okay, "brilliantly" is way too strong of a word for a simple return to normalcy, but it didn't take the easy way out that many rom-coms would have by now. Tada Banri remains Tada Banri, and character development is afoot. The two leads continue to impress when they aren't being used for comic relief. Golden Time's signature fluctuation in dialogue quality also makes its glorious return during the gathering in Banri's apartment. All in all, a typical episode of Golden Time. Bits of real thoughtfulness wrapped in layers of arbitrary stupidity.

タイトルを信じた俺がアホだった。

止めてくれ。

Just watched Star Driver: The Movie, and, man, I feel bad for anyone that paid to watch this in theatres. For all of the promises about new content and a continuation of the Star Driver story, the movie featured a grand total of, like, EIGHT MINUTES of new footage out of a 150 minute movie.

DUDE, LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK, BRO?

The movie starts off with like five minutes of pretty solid robot on robot violence and makes you go, "Oh, great. I can't wait to see where this goes!" but then cuts to a flashback FOR THE REST OF THE MOVIE. AND IT'S NOT EVEN GOOD. ALL IT IS IS AWKWARDLY CUT TOGETHER FOOTAGE FROM THE TV SERIES! LIKE TOTALLY NOTHING NEW IN THERE. AT ALL. IT'S TURD-RIBLE. Then credits roll and we get THREE minutes of a COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS SCENE OF THE CHARACTERS MEETING UP AND SMILING LIKE A BUNCH OF ASSHOLES LIKE THEY'RE STOKED ABOUT TROLLING THE FUCK OUT OF THE VIEWERS.

The fuck, BONES? The FUCK.

@alexandersheen said:

Nagi no Asukara is still of an unknown quality at the moment. Okada Mari's material seems to live or die by the director she ends up being paired with. Both Hanasaku Iroha and AnoHana are absolutely fantastic while Fractale end up being a mess. Shinohara Toshiya's resume as a series director isn't all that great (Gunparade Orchestra, The Book of Bantorra, Red Data Girl), but at the very least Red Data Girl is an huge improvement over The Book of Bantorra. We'll just have to wait and see where NnA goes.

@extomar: I have a suspicion that the problem here is the source material. Literally nothing is compelling about the characters and story. When the mid-season fluff episode turns out to be the most fun to watch, you know something's terribly wrong. The breakneck pacing doesn't help, either. Things move along too fast and nothing sinks in. I mean, KnK isn't bad or anything. It's just thoroughly middling. When KyoAni's amazing production values can't save a series from mediocrity, it's fucked.

@themanwithnoplan: Knowing that Golden Time is an adaptation of an existing light novel series doesn't get my hopes up.

My biggest worry is director Kon Chiaki, to be honest. A lot of Golden Time's problems can be boiled down to its detached, matter-of-fact, deadpan delivery, even during the more emotional moments. There's a directorial indifference here. It's as if Kon doesn't really give a fuck and just wants to translate text to images as is for the sake of "faithfulness." So, so much is left unsaid, and it's left to the viewers to figure out the emotional twists and turns. As a result, we are too busy trying to parse through the material rather than feeling it. This is fatal for romance stories. You can't logic your way through love, you have to live it with your heart.

@themanwithnoplan said:

Personality swaps are lazy and dumb. They're also boring since it adds no depth to the existing character because it simply replaces one with another. It's basically introducing a new character dynamic without putting in the work to write a new character. If Banri is to regain his lost memories while retaining his current self, I would be all for it. In fact, I would be thrilled since it creates both interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts. Tada Banri and Kaga Kouko are both drama gold mines, and it's disappointing to see their potential left tapped and diminished by a arbitrary personality swap. Golden Time's quality hinges solely upon the dynamic between its two amazing lead characters (every supporting character is terrible, including Linda), and this personality swap is literally removing half of the that crucial equation.

Keep it together, Golden Time!

NOOOOOO! Not you too, Golden Time! :<

As if Samurai Flamenco's antics weren't enough, this week's Golden Time might have also fallen into nonsense territory with that bullshit ending. Golden Time has its problems, but so far everything has been grounded in, more or less, reality. The dramatic tension is genuine and writing, while really wonky at times, sincere. When ghost Tada Banri showed up some episodes ago, I was concerned, but was hoping he would at least be used in some not intrusive way (as a melancholic narrator, maybe). From the looks of things after episode nine, I can't say I'm excited about what's going to happen. WHY YOU DU DIS, GOLDEN TIME? And just when things were starting to rev up, again! The happy couple facade is finally cracking with Kouko starting to experience insecurities again. You had a setup for the perfect storm, some real interpersonal conflict, but now it's potentially ruined with the stupid ghost thing.

Seriously, fuck ghosts.