(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ Animes

[Niku]

I pick away at the manga every now and then and get a few more chapters in before my brain goes "this is cute but also not holding my attention" and I'll eventually probably finish it that way, but it's yet another in a long list of recentish manga/anime that people fall over themselves about that I find myself more Sensibly Entertained by than anything.

[Upthorn]

I need somebody else to put eyes on Brave Bang Bravern because it feels like I'm going crazy.

The first episode abruptly changes genres two and a half times,
Top Gun with mechs -> alien invasion disaster movie -> SUPER ROBOT... parody!
And from the second episode onward it feels like each character is from a different genre.

Main character is now Shinji.
American mech pilot rival is still Tom Cruise from Top Gun.
The Robot is Kamina.

[Friday]

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is Good, with a capital G. It's on Crunchyroll.

I haven't been this invested in a serious, non-romcom anime story in a long time. It's a very, very slow burn, so be warned. It really starts to kick off in episode 7.

The basic premise is about an elven mage who journeyed for ten years with The Hero, The Warrior, and The Priest to defeat the Demon King. The opening episode is them coming back from killing him. As elves have far, far longer lifespans than humans, Frieren outlives her former party members. They still show up frequently in flashbacks.

She makes new friends and goes on a new adventure. Mostly it's a chill, comfy anime, and a character study of a being who lives for thousands of years and how she would interact with humans and how she perceives time. But it's got some more traditional fantasy stuff too. The writing is subtle in a way you hardly ever see in Japanese media.

Highly recommended for anyone who's a fan of fantasy and can tolerate, or even enjoy, a slow burn.

[Büge]

Yeah! I love the series. Some folks have said that Frieren is autism-coded, because she has a lot of typical traits associated with autistic people. She's aloof, she has a project that she's fixated on, she tends to disregard social cues, etc.

Something I really appreciate about the series is that it never fell into hacky tropes with the narrative, like, "oh no, the hero's died years ago and Frieren has to defeat the new evil that's arisen!" or "Frieren's friends were slaughtered by demons and now she has to get revenge!" Rather, Frieren has to reckon with her loss(es) and is on a journey to find some kind of peace within herself. We're given indications that Frieren is an incredibly powerful mage throughout the series, but her struggle lies in problems she can't defeat with raw power. It's a lot like a really good Superman story in that respect.

Also the ending theme makes me cry.

[Upthorn]

Absolutely agreed. Frieren is amazing.

But also, it's second opening is bizarrely reminiscent of a 2003 Barenaked Ladies song that never got radio release.
compare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVpkRXUBIcc
vs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqsnJJK8GA4

Edit: fixed wrong link buge pointed out

[Büge]

Absolutely agreed. Frieren is amazing.

But also, it's second opening is bizarrely reminiscent of a 2003 Barenaked Ladies song that never got radio release.
compare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVpkRXUBIcc
vs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pmd0kt3FOs

Your second link leads to the first ending theme. Did you mean this?

[Upthorn]

Woops! Got my tabs confused as I was trying to find the right video to link. Yes, the one you posted is in fact the one I wanted

[Büge]

in case the twitter embed stops working or if you just don't want to click through:

Japanese gender popularity survey of various IPs
Towards the left is for men, towards the right is for women.

[Friday]

all of that is not particularly surprising to me, except for Gintama. 80% women? I've only watched a little bit but isn't Gintama just a joke parody anime? Does Gintoki have a huge female following?

[Mongrel]

Period Dramas (No, not THAT kind of period! Mongrel, you asshole!) are generally anecdotally claimed to have a female-skewing audience in most cultures/countries.

I couldn't really tell you why though. Or if that is actually statistically true, for that matter.

[Esperath]

Yuru Camp viewership more male-skewed than Dragon Ball? Wow.

(I mean, I guess they got me, I'm apparently the demographic)

[Upthorn]

Wait a second. I just noticed that graph has age on the vertical axis. Actually much more interesting to me than the gender gradient.

Their color-coding categories are absolutely insane to me though!
I mean the first three Shonen Jump, Other Manga, and Light Novels are sensible enough
But then you get to categories like "Idol/anime/gacha game/VA" vs "Game/anime" vs "anime" vs "tokusatsu or foreign" and like... what the fuck kind of organizing principles are you dividing things by?

[Esperath]

now what do the diameters of the inner and outer circles mean?

[sei]

in case the twitter embed stops working or if you just don't want to click through:

Japanese gender popularity survey of various IPs
Towards the left is for men, towards the right is for women.

How the fuck is Gintama, of all series, out in girl town beyond even Haikyuu? (Also am I blind or is Yuri on Ice not on there?) I'm also surprised to see Oshi no Ko that far in boy town.

Speaking of stuff on that chart, Apothecary Diaries is p good. Check it out.

Does Gintoki have a huge female following?

Must be Sadaharu or the sadist guy from the Shinsengumi.

[Mongrel]

There's a ton of series not on there, so I'm not exactly sure what the criteria were or what else might be missing.

[atog]

now what do the diameters of the inner and outer circles mean?

they're the radii of your KAMEHAMEEEEEHAAAA event horizon and ionization constant shells, respectively

[Caithness]

Bigger circle means more popular I'm thinking, and I'd guess criteria for inclusion is jut the top x properties.

[Esperath]

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is Good, with a capital G.

If the series remains on par with the first four episodes, Frieren will be my favorite anime of all time.

The writing is subtle in a way you hardly ever see in Japanese media.

Aaaaaaand then episode 5 starts with Eisen making a passing reference to the "one hundredth" line that Frieren uttered in episode 1, and then does a flashback to beat you over the head with it.

Subtle might have been how Frieren opens the scene, which is holding Eisen's gaze for a moment, then saying "Sou da ne." That's it. It conveys the gravity just fine on its own.

As anime goes, this *is* subtle, as the flashback didn't take place 10 seconds after the initial scene, but it was the first instance of not-perfection for me, and it made me go "goddamnit animeeeeeeeeeeee"

[Friday]

Well, yeah. It's only subtle for anime. It's still anime.

Anime is really at its best when its being Gurren Lagann, that is, the opposite of subtle. KlK had that strength as well. Love them or hate them, at least Trigger knows that over-the-top is for pussies and the real money is going beyond over-the-top.

[Mothra]

Finished Somali and the Forest Spirit, it's a nice and pleasant show. Good vibes. I liked it!

Probably due to it only getting one season, it ultimately doesn’t really amount to anything, and while it’s got a good source of drama, none of it coheres to where you might be emotionally affected by it. Wanted this to be sadder, and to earn the sad more.

I want to nominate the human dad of the bird girl for Most Anime Guy of 2024 for KILLING AND EATING HER BIOLOGICAL MOTHER, AND THEN FEEDING THE CORPSE TO HIS WIFE AND KIDS, KILLING THEM. Just a real 10th inning crank of the tragedy dial out of nowhere.