wjs018 @ wjs018 @lemmy.ml

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Joined

2 yr. ago

I haven't been watching it, but I remember the early episodes being a bit divisive due to the animation style (Studio GoHands). It seems as though the extreme GoHands-yness of it toned down as the season went though.

I liked it way more than I was expecting when the season started. It has good characters and strikes a good balance between comedy and heartfelt moments.

Same vibe as the guys in every romance manga that just prowl the streets of Japan trying to pick up any girl/woman that doesn't have a man on their arm.

Having a large cast of characters can be difficult. It is something that I think has hurt some otherwise great shows I have watched in the past like Baccano. I love that show dearly, but the cast is so large it is hard to keep straight for somebody on their first time through. Also, handling a large main cast is something that I think Naruto does very well (though they have a lot more time to build out the cast). I haven't heard too much about Seven Spellblades, so glad to hear they are doing this right.

My partner worked for a very exploitative company for a long time, so Zom 100's first episode felt pretty close to home in that respect. Sometimes the most random things can help provide perspective and strength to persevere through adversity. Wishing you the best!

I also plan on checking out Murder Farce when I get a chance as it has gotten a lot of love in this thread.

Not every show is a winner in a season. Sometimes the plot of a story just can't live up to the characters that live it. I've felt that way about shows in the past. I usually like to dive into an older show that has stood the test of time afterward.

The best sci fi is able to focus on very human questions without getting bogged down in crunchy, technical specifics. I am a big fan of the genre in western media, but haven't really explored it in anime very much.

That is a fair take on Helck I think. If the humor doesn't connect for you, then I imagine it would feel really slow. They are going at a really slow pace story-wise and letting the humor keep things light and engaging. Take the humor away and that strategy falls apart.

Also, I have heard good things about Undead Murder Farce as the season has gone on, so I will check it out.

I might give Great Cleric a shot then. The synopsis has all the right things to make me interested, I just didn't really have time to add any more shows to my plate this season. Thanks for the recommendation!

My thoughts on shows I watched this season fall into a couple groups.

The Good:

• Helck: This one is still going since it is running for two cours. I have enjoyed the slow, mysterious world building they have done. It really feels like they are taking their time to build things up in a rewarding way. It has also had good comedy bits and Vermilio serves as an excellent straight man to the clowns that seem to be everywhere else in this world (I mean that in the most loving way possible).
• Isekai Vending Machine: When I started this series, I had low expectations based on the idiocy of the premise. However, it has far exceeded my expectations and has actually been really fun. If you can get past the ridiculous premise and accept a bit of silliness when it comes to combat, then there is actually a story with some heart and thought behind this ridiculous title.
• Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero: This is another that I expected to not be that great, but turned out to be a pretty satisfying fantasy story. The characters and their interactions in this show are the best part of this show. The political storyline that is happening is a bit bland, but doesn't drag the show too much.
• Horimiya Pieces: I am a huge fan of the manga for this series, so I was happy to see this anthology of cut content from the original run of the show. However, I think that viewers that aren't as familiar with the source content might not be as engaged with this run of episodes since it focuses more on side characters than the titular Hori and Miyamura.

The Bad:

• Atelier Ryza: This one was tough for me to stay awake while watching. I understand that the game is widely beloved, but the adaptation to a show just fell flat for me. I don't know how much of the game was adapted, but the whole season feels like they are just stuck in some kind of tutorial rather than undertaking some grand adventure.
• Am I Actually the Strongest: This show was just bad. I have seen/read a lot of really bad isekai and this one might take the cake. The story is incredibly oddly paced; flying through extremely important plot segments and then dwelling for an excrutiatingly long time on fluff/omake stuff that doesn't matter at all. Just steer clear of this one, it's really bad, but not so bad it is funny. It is just really bad.

The Mixed Feelings:

• My Happy Marriage: I have written a lot about this series in the episode threads already, so I will keep it short here. The first half of this season is excellent and really sets up the potential for a great period romance. However, the second half of the show is incredibly disappointing in this regard and just feels so lackluster compared to what was set up through episode 6.

The only other show from this season I am watching is Zom 100. It has been pretty great so far, but because of the delays in production, I don't want to make any final verdicts about it.

Love the credits pages that they do for this series.

Same! That is what motivated me to try to keep tabs on new oneshots posted to Mangadex. Here is my previous post listing some of the good ones I posted recently. Doing so has caused me to find out that most oneshots are just not very good or are more like art practice than anything else. A recent example is Battle. It is impressive art, but not really a story that I found interesting enough to post. A lot of oneshots don't even good art going for them, let alone a good story (example).

In case you missed it, there is a post-credit scene this episode. As far as I remember, it is the only one this season, so FYI.

tl;dr As written, the Usuba family served no purpose and really hurt the story.

Alright, rant incoming...

I was really hopeful for this show for a number of reasons. I think there needs to be more josei stories adapted to the anime medium. We have shounen, shoujo, and seinen fairly well represented, but josei mainly lives on bookshelves in printed form. So, I was hoping that this story, being one of the few josei to get a quality anime adaptation would really become a flag bearer for josei everywhere and encourage more adaptations in the future. Note that if it does well commercially, it still might do that, but time will tell.

My central thesis, after giving it some thought, is that introducing the greater Usuba family to the story (at this point) really squandered a lot of potentially great storytelling. I will first explain why they make absolutely no impact to the story and then what could have been done instead.

Let's look at the contributions that the Usuba grandpa and Arata made to our story. The grandpa gave an entire episode's worth of exposition dump giving us the backstory of Miyo's mother and how Miyo's powers ended up sealed; then basically disappeared again never to be seen. Arata served the purpose of being some kind of benevolent jailer to Miyo, selected by the Usuba family to protect her. He also served the purpose (through the duel with Kiyoka) to show a bit of why the Usuba family is feared by the other supernatural families. However, it's important to note that in this final episode, Arata decides to give up doing his one job just because Miyo asked nicely. I mean, what was the point of kidnapping her and dueling Kiyoka and all of that if you just let her go again? It feels like it is simply some contrivance to create artificial tension in the relationship between Miyo and Kiyoka and to physically separate them so that they can't communicate and clear up any misunderstandings.

Now, let's think about what could have been done instead. There are a few story beats we need to hit in the second half of the show:

• We need some way for Miyo to learn about her mother and her powers
  • I think this could have been done better if we got to learn about Miyo's parentage slowly over a couple episodes through her dreams. She had touched her mother's tree, breaking the seal on her powers at this point. Grandpa Usuba did say when he was explaining her power that she can see the past and the future in her dreams. This also would help the viewer gauge her developing her skill at controlling her power; as she better controls it, she can see and learn more.
• We need Miyo to begin confronting the trauma she has had in the Saimori household since her mother passed
  • The bonus potential for these dreamwalking segments is that she can confront different parts of her psyche and acknowledge and begin to deal with the trauma that the Saimoris inflicted on her. We got a little bit of that in this final episode, but it could have been done much better. In the show, she basically overcame her trauma by hugging it out with herself. In my alternate version, it would take time and repeated dream confrontations. These confrontations would be the best way to make Miyo's physical condition decline as she struggles to deal with her past trauma.
• We need some way to foster a closer relationship between Miyo and Kiyoka
  • I think this could be done by keeping the grotesqueries storyline. Have Kiyoka consistently in the field, fighting battles to protect the city. Meanwhile Miyo is struggling at home trying to control her powers. You could even keep the bit where Miyo collapses in the city. However, instead of Arata inserting the Usubas into the storyline at that point, have Kiyoka rush to Miyo's side and give our main couple a bit of R&R while they talk about all the things they haven't been able to lately. This allows them to share a common goal, understanding and controlling Miyo's power, and it brings them closer as partners.
• Ideally, we would like to have some kind of climax to end the season on.
  • This episode works pretty well for that purpose. The main difference is that she won't need Arata's permission to help Kiyoka. Just make her be a badass on her own instead.
• A hook for season 2
  • This is where the Usubas can best fit into the story. Have some ominous scene at the end of the season with the Usubas talking about needing to remove her for her protection or something to those ends. Perhaps the events of the grotesqueries storyline and Miyo's ability very publicly saving Kiyoka is what alerts the Usubas to her true powers.

/end rant

I am glad I watched this show, rant aside. I will likely stick around for season 2 since I still think there is a lot of potential in this story. Like I said up top, I hope that it is successful and is something that can help more josei story adaptations to get made in the future. Time will tell.

Honestly, it's deserved. Much worse shows have had multiple seasons. The premise is so stupid that a lot of people aren't going to be able to get over it, but if you do, I think there is a decently written story underneath it all. Lots of the world left to explore, so I am looking forward to it.

Let's hope that the end of the chapter is foreshadowing the end of falling prey to every trope to avoid recognizing any of the girls feelings. This series has been spinning its wheels for a while, not getting anywhere.

Same! I have read what has been translated of the WN, but there are some differences and I want to support this one if I can.

Poor Makoto. I felt similarly sitting through lectures in grad school. Sometimes, as much as you want to understand something, it just isn't going to click.

Welp, this show was better than it had any right to be. It's not going to be on anybody's AOTS lists, but it was far from the worst isekai this season. I didn't have a vending machine kissing scene on my bingo card for this show, but here we are. All in all, this was a pretty satisfying conclusion. They teased future content if there is enough interest for a season 2, but the story also feels like it is at a good stopping point in the (likely) case that season 2 never happens.

Edit: Season 2 confirmed

Make sure to check out the search history on his phone.

RIP Piwi, taken from us too soon.

This show continues with its slow, cryptic lore building. This time, we see a glimpse of nega-Helck and there is something weird about his sword. I feel like Helck is similar to playing an RPG but using cheat codes to max all your stats. There isn't anything he can't do if he puts his mind to it.