Anime Thigh Thread II

[Nazrark]

November is best month for Birthdays. Mine was today. Someone else was earlier. All the proof needed.

[Epuration]

November is best month for Birthdays. Mine was today. Someone else was earlier. All the proof needed.

That would be me, Happy Birthday!

[Deleted]

November is best month for Birthdays. Mine was today. Someone else was earlier. All the proof needed.

Happy birthday, nab!

[Pejo]

Flip Flappers 07 - Last weeks episode was a little bit of a letdown but this week's went right back at it again. Next week is going to be really interesting.

I haven't watched today's yet, but I'm curious what you didn't like about last week's episode? Last week is what brought me deeper into FF

[Sal the Shieldhog]

Someone's birthday today!?


Mongrel.

[Nazrark]

That would be me, Happy Birthday!

Best club ever?

[Neichus]

For example?

I had the inkling of this, but doing some further reading confirmed it: the ideology through which Lain perceives people is a form of existentialism. Existentialism is notoriously hard to pin down, but one of its core aspects is that humans create themselves. It's a sense that humans are doomed to be free to create their fates, and that there is nowhere to hide from this burden. This is essentially a riff on the blank slate idea. This position is provably false in modern biology and psychology.

The secondary philosophical point that I disagree with is its view of the nature of reality. If nothing else the entire point of Lain is to make you question what is "real." I don't want to get too far off track, but I regard its views as one stage of development in epistemology. This doesn't make them wrong in the way that existentialism is wrong, but I do regard them as incomplete after a fashion.

The reason I say it's unfair, even hypocritical of me, to take these issues with Lain is because the "key" that made me understand Texhnolyze was that it was also a profoundly existential work. So for whatever reason it didn't cause me to react in the same way (here reaction can be understood almost like an allergy rather than analysis). But I am trying a re-watch and not disliking it, so there's that!

[Schirmy]

-snip-

I'm through 6 episodes right now and loving it. No reason in dissecting my thoughts now, though.

[Pejo]

Thanks for that info, Goriq. Watched the latest and enjoyed - love me some Papika. Next week should be good

Hah I seriously love Keijo! Miyata is awesome, and I feel myself wanting Kaminashi to succeed. Yet, I'm watching beat the shit out of each other with their tits and asses - a weird world we're in

[Sesto]

Zaregoto - This shit is amazing. I really like the setting, and SHAFT does a wondrous job supplementing it with their usual background visuals. I don't know why but I just really have this odd love for isolated/lonely atmospheres (also why I loved the latest Flip Flappers episode).

The art does look kind of strange sometimes though.

[Neichus]

I'm through 6 episodes right now and loving it. No reason in dissecting my thoughts now, though.

I'm really worried that this will become some odd sore/sticking point. I really want to explain myself but it seems like it threatens to generate some contention.

I wasn't aware of this and it makes me curious: How exactly can existentialism be proven to be wrong?

As far as I know, existentialism at its core, means that humans exist, first and foremost, and give meaning to their lives by their actions and the values they create for themselves. If anything, that just sounds logical to me, so I don't really see how it's fundamentally wrong.

The reason it's a problem is because existentialism relies on total freedom. That humanity is truly self-created. But we know very well that humans are not given this infinite latitude of choice. We are strongly limited by a variety of factors. I mean this far more deeply than simply, "you're affected by where you grow up." While that is undoubtedly true, there is a much greater reality of our biology.

Spoiler: 

The first is the reality that we are not a blank slate. Period. There is absolutely no support for this idea that humans come fresh and clean into the world with infinite possibilities. We are wired in very particular ways that lend us to adopting particular forms of thought and belief. Take phobias for instance. Phobias of snakes and spiders are overly common compared to phobias of things such as cars (which are far more dangerous). We have latent wiring as primates to fear these things, and given the right circumstances they are activated more readily than any rational fears.

The second, and in some ways more damning, point is that value judgments are not conscious. Studies of our methods of moral judgement reveal that in fact consciousness and argument have very, very little to do with our intuitive moral values. You know something is wrong before you can explain why. Afterward it is important to justify it, but this is more for convincing other people than it is actually analyzing your own view. This is why so many value-based beliefs are incredibly resilient to any sort of logical argument: that was never its basis, and so there is limited value in addressing the intellect. We can even point to areas in the brain that we know this specific function takes place.

Taken together, it simply means that existentialism as a view of how humanity operates is defunct. It worked before we opened our own skulls and saw how the machine actually did its job.

I also can't seem to follow your train of thought in the second paragraph. Which stage of epistemology are you referring to and why do you disagree with it?

There exists a sort of natural progression in epistemology as people begin to understand things.

Spoiler: 

At the basic level we accept our senses as truth. Our experience of the world is indeed how the world is. This is how most of humanity goes about their daily lives, in the Matrix as it were.

Then with some thought it becomes obvious that the world of our senses is not the reality of the world. Plunged into this frightening new reality, things that you took for granted your whole life are now uncertain. Really, if the senses aren't The Truth then how do we establish The Truth? Is there a Truth out there to know? Are there many Truths that depend on each of us individually? All these possibilities blossom outward from this fundamental realization.

This is the level at which Lain exists. In the Wikipedia article it specifically mentions how the authors were very pointed in making sure there was no God view of the situation. Indeed, that they actively encouraged the ambiguity on whether the Wired or the "Real" world was superior. They also pursued the idea that it was uncertain whether it was reality that gave rise to thoughts or if thoughts gave rise to reality. It is the ultimate house of mirrors in which you can never be sure if what you're looking at is the real thing or only an illusion.

But there are stages beyond this. Kant exemplifies this in Western thought, although his particular brand isn't the only version in town. One of the best phrases for illustrating this idea is a Buddhist phrase: "Things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise." In this stage the uncertainty of the senses is still taken for granted, but two key aspects are recognized:

a) There is not an arbitrary relationship between experience and reality. There is a correlation but not a correspondence.
b) It isn't that we have the wrong "view" of reality. It's that reality is "unviewable."

The first is important because it begins to address some of the rampant relativism that sprung up with the first dethroning of the senses. Yes, the world is not like what you first thought, but that doesn't mean it is every which way either. The second is key because it is coming to an appreciation of the limitations of human conceptualization. It isn't that what we conceptualize creates reality, it's that what we conceptualize is the way in which we bound it. These details relate to certain key aspects of reality, but they are not, in fact, representative of it.

The best metaphor here is again a computer. Look at your monitor. You likely have several windows open. If I were to ask you which window was on top you could easily point to a particular window that was over all the others. But you would be wrong. There is no such thing as "on top of" for the window because it is a 2D screen. And it is nonsensical to talk about code being "on top of" other code. The properties of being "on top" for the window DO mean something for how you interact with it (when you click your mouse what happens, how it interacts with other windows, etc.) but being "on top of" is not an actual computer reality. To ask which is on top is to ask a question which has no answer, for you have framed the question improperly.

I have some suspicion that there are yet more subtle and developed understandings that exist, but (for now) they escape me. What I describe above is the current limit of my development. So when I look at Lain I see a stage which I have passed through, which I appreciate as valid but simultaneously one which is no longer fruitful for me to contemplate. This is why I didn't say it was "wrong" like the existential section. It's not that it's proven wrong, simply that I regard it as a more formative vision.

...whew.

[Sj]

Been pretty behind on watching stuff, only just now got to watch the latest Euphonium. Good to see some more Asuka development. Really bothered me that Midori had her fingers taped up for playing a bass guitar. Stupid twat. (she's literally the only character I dislike in the show)

- - - Updated - - -

Damn didn't realize that subs were out for second Chihayafuru movie a month ago.

- - - Updated - - -

Akame ga Kill 76 - Getting rushed as all hell. Honestly, I think the anime's ending is better so far. I think there are only 1 or 2 more manga chapters left.

[Zatheyll]

I can be a brown girl in Pokemon Moon.

GotY.

[Artorius]

Akame ga Kill 76 - Getting rushed as all hell. Honestly, I think the anime's ending is better so far. I think there are only 1 or 2 more manga chapters left.

I think the next one is the last one unfortunately...

[Enjeh]

Battle Through the Heavens is getting a anime (or whatever the Chinese equivalent is) and it's going to be full CG.

[Sj]

I can be a brown girl in Pokemon Moon.

GotY.

Nintendo are truly visionaries.

I think the next one is the last one unfortunately...

I find it funny that the manga ended up so close to the anime-original stuff that everyone hated because it was anime-original.

Akame ga Kill manga/anime spoilers
Honestly, I liked Mine dying better than this "well she's in a coma and I totally forgot about her" deal. Kurome's showdown with Akame in the anime was done really well, but I like that she's still alive (for now) in the manga as I shipped her and Wave pretty hard. Leone's death is 99% confirmed but after this chapter it feels like she could get an Incursio-level ass-pull return. Tatsumi's merging with Incursio is the biggest change from the anime and honestly the only interesting difference besides Wave wielding two teiguu. Esdeath is still retardedly overpowered bae.

Still an enjoyable series, though it felt like they tried to cram so much story and edge into a relatively short series. I'm curious as to how many people are going to change their tune on the anime ending after the manga wraps up.

[crimson]

Battle Through the Heavens is getting a anime (or whatever the Chinese equivalent is) and it's going to be full CG.

Hmm, Ya Fei and Medusa with proper CG could be interesting.

[Epuration]

Hmm, Ya Fei and Medusa with proper CG could be interesting.

:memearrow: it would take forever to get that far into the plot.

[crimson]

:memearrow: it would take forever to get that far into the plot.

Don't bring that shitty meme into this thread please.

:flip:

Ya fei is really early on in the plot though, but Medusa isn't till chapter 300+ so rip.

[Suicidal Panda]

I just realized I read BTTH rofl. hype hype hype for ISSTH full adaptation