Kono Bijutsubu 02 - This show is consistently funny and cute. I was enjoying it so much it seemed like the episode went by really quickly. This, New Game, Amaama to Inazuma, and Love Live make this season a slice of life paradise.
Kono Bijutsubu 02 - This show is consistently funny and cute. I was enjoying it so much it seemed like the episode went by really quickly. This, New Game, Amaama to Inazuma, and Love Live make this season a slice of life paradise.
Moar sales.
Spoiler:
Koyomimonogatari sold well, of course. Can't wait to get BDs subbed to watch it.
Academia sold far worse than I would have thought. Only a combined 4.7k sales. Surprised it so easily got a second season.
Even moar.
Spoiler:
Kiznaiver is selling like shit. Complete shit. Only 647 on V2, 50% drop from V1.
Mayoiga is also unranked, so it looks like it sold next to nothing, but it could be an error.
I've never seen SAO so I don't have an opinion on the anime itself, but I did like his comments on death in general.
I fear I give the wrong impression that I like characters dying in series, if just for the sake of tragedy itself. I was recently thinking about this a bit on my own in an attempt to better frame my exact view. Watching that video it helped me much better articulate my position.
Death is a human universal and the effect that death has on those who remain is often profound. It lays bare the thoughts and feelings of those who remain in moments of unrivaled clarity. Profoundly, it raises that specter that we keep at bay most of the time: that we are mortal ourselves and that some day we will meet the same fate.
For a series to deploy death as a plot device is not new or daring, but to actually accept the consequences of it is surprisingly rare. What often happens is a pathetic compromise: death is treated as temporary. Either the characters do not actually die (but are treated as dead for a period of time) or are killed but their death is reversed. By doing this the series seeks to cash in on the emotional impact but avoid any of the substance. And so as he points out in his video, it implicitly tells the viewer that there is no risk ever again. It retroactively undermines its own drama AND greatly dampens its ability to produce it in the future.
This is why I am so adamant about this topic, and why I am so disappointed when death is fudged. It's not that I seek the destruction of characters but that I want the development of others as a result.
This is a big peeve of mine too. I hate it when characters come back for any reason other than it being central to the plot line and making total sense. Very few anime are like that though, and most bring a character back just to bring them back, because the writers didn't want to kill them off in the first place, but sucked at writing drama any other way.
I guess merchandising definitely does help, but that goes more towards the investors, publishers, committee and manufacturers, than the anime studio. Though if merchandising is good enough, those people will pay the studio to do another, so that'd make sense.
BD/DVD does still matter quite a bit though. If it doesn't sell much, then merchandisers won't make as much merchandise for the show, since they think they won't get as many sales, though they probably get insider info from the stations on viewership ratings for the show.
Yeah, that point is certainly valid. And it's quite a common complaint with anime, especially for shounen.
But bringing it back to the video for a second, that's why his overreaction about how it's so terrible and oh my god I can't believe they've done this is stupid. It's nothing new in anime at all. SAO is cliche because it falls victim to the same mistakes we see in anime time and time again, but the guy in the video is trying to make it appear like SAO is the only anime that would dare do something so dumb.
Even the title is dumb as fuck - "How SAO Became the Worst Anime Ever". I don't care if that's hyperbole, the entire video is stupid. It's low hanging fruit meant to hook in the quasi-elists who actually think they're smarter for hating on a really popular anime. SAO is far from the worst anime ever made and if you really think that you've probably seen like ten anime total.
I don't even like SAO but I'm seriously sick of this stuff.
Though don't think I'm raging at you lol - I realize you haven't seen it. I'm just ranting in general.
SAO suffers from what a lot of mainstream suffers from. People hate for the sake of hating it to feel like they are part of the popular crowd. I enjoyed the hell out of it. I liked watching it and look forward to the new season. The only part I didn't particularly enjoy was the Elf arc.
SAO has major problems with pacing and characters, along with a fair amount of plot holes, similar to Attack on Titan (though the pacing in SAO is better). The first five episodes were disjointed, the first arc after those episodes were decent, the second arc was abysmal, GGO was terribly paced, Excalibur was the epitome of shit, and Mother's Rosario was actually really good.
Danganronpa 2, Case 3 - Mikan was my primary suspect before the trial. But to be honest I also thought Akane might have done it; I didn't buy the Nagito's excuse that because they were sick they couldn't have killed anyone... I even tried to blame Akane when it got to the "choose the culprit" part. Mostly because I was a bit confused about Mikan/Fuyuhiko's alibis... I didn't think there was time for Mikan to run from the hospital to the venue, as I thought Fuyuhiko saw her before that.
The case itself was pretty strange though. It was obvious the killer faked the broadcast, but I also had a bunch of weird suspicions and didn't fully understand how the murder was done until the trial. The trial itself gave me a bit of a headache though because some of the rebuttals made no sense to me, especially the last one (mostly because I forgot you could "save" evidence... fucking took me 25 minutes until I looked up the answer online)
Ending to the case was whatever because I've been spoiled about the true nature of the students already... though I don't know all the details. But I did learn that Mikan is amazing.
i keep playing entire chapters in one sitting, and it gives me motion sickness/headache afterwards... jeez I'm getting old
Koe no Katachi / A Silent Voice - 9.5/10
For Agatha
Social ostracism is a human universal: in order for there to be a group there must be outsiders. Those with obvious differences are the natural choice. Koe no Katachi is a story about the people on both sides of this experience.
Shouko NIshimiya is a deaf girl who has recently transferred to a new school. However, her hopes for a fresh start are swiftly dashed when Shouya Ishida, a rambunctious but fairly normal boy, chooses her as the class pariah for his taunting and other antics. This triggers an avalanche of abuse as the inconveniences caused by her disability become the grounds for her wholesale rejection by the class and teacher. In the end Nishimiya is forced to transfer schools once again. Unfortuately for Ishida the spite that was formerly directed at Nishimiya becomes focused on him, resulting in him being bullied and isolated.
The Good:
The terrible clarity and accuracy with which Koe no Katachi portrays the mentality of both the victimizers and victim is the bedrock on which the series is founded.
First there is Nishimiya. Born deaf, she fundamentally cannot forgive herself for living. She blames herself for her parents’ divorce, for the inconvenience caused by having to keep transferring schools, and ultimately for her own bullying. It is the sad logic of the isolated that they believe they are at fault for their own suffering. And since they are at fault, they are convinced they deserve it so as to remind them of all the trouble they have “caused.”
Next is Ishida who is given an insight into this same state after his elementary years. However, as one who has fallen from acceptance his feelings are somewhat different. While he also regards himself with a level of self-hatred he seeks to fix his mistakes. That is, while he loathes himself it is because of what he has done, not who he is.
This distinction may seem small, but its effects are profound. This can be most readily seen in the chapter leading up to Nishimiya’s attempted suicide. Some may question why Nishimiya chooses this time to try to kill herself. The answer is simple: she is too happy. Here she is with friends now, enjoying herself. It isn’t right in her mind. She deserves suffering. Ishida doesn’t think this way: while he also beats himself up, he seizes upon potential acceptance with a fierce hunger (think of how he reacts when they go to the amusement park as a group). He ultimately holds out hope for light at the end of the tunnel while she does not.
Last, I’m going to use Naoka Ueno, one of Ishida’s classmates that joined him in bullying Nishimiya, as a prime example of the tormentor. Ueno is driven by her own desires and has reasonable self-esteem. She isn’t evil so much as interested in her own well-being and willing to sacrifice the well-being of others for it – in other words: a distressingly normal human.
What is telling is when Ueno is faced with Nishimiya’s reflexive self-sacrifice she is incensed. She wants Nishimiya to fight back, to give her justification for her actions. But this fury more deeply stems from a lack of comprehension. Ueno fails to understand Nishimiya because she cannot envision what it is like to not value herself. It is completely beyond her ken. She can only conclude that Nishimiya must be putting on an act, abusing her status as “disabled” to garner sympathy. And with that, a slap.
Another wonderful aspect of Koe no Katachi is its detailed drawings of faces and hands. As a series that must portray the thoughts and feelings of a character who cannot speak them herself, Koe no Katachi devotes beautiful effort to ensuring that her voice is heard. There are honestly too many pages to name where I was impressed once again by the detail given to the small details of expression.
Finally, while Koe no Katachi has many outstanding pages, there is one in particular that touched me more than any other: Nishimiya’s resolve in Volume 6, Chapter 45, pg 17-18. (page in question) A few pages before we see Nishimiya’s younger self, battered and hurt, expressing to her sister one desperate wish: “I want to die.” This is not an idle thought or a petulant outburst after a bad day. Nishimiya, in her soul, does not believe she deserves to live and be happy.
But in the aftermath of her attempted suicide she has been confronted with something that she never imagined: her self-hatred had hurt those closest to her. But, this anger…it was for them wasn’t it? Didn’t her mere presence cause them pain and grief? How arrogant could she be to ever think that a nasty, useless creature like herself had the right to forget this?
…
And yet…they cry. Her mother, her sister…even Ishida…they cry for her. Why…? Was she…was she really worth that? No…yes? She had hurt them again, but…they loved her still. She has been hurting alone inside for so long…does she deserve to now cry with them, for herself?
In this moment of remorse, pain, compassion, and release Nishimiya feels for the first time that she has value as a person. I cannot emphasize enough how hard it is for her to do this. Her whole life has been built on believing she is nothing. To turn this around is possibly the most difficult thing she has ever done. And as the chapter closes we see her realizing the truth: she has to live.
The Bad:
Without a doubt, the weakest portions of Koe no Katachi are the final 8 chapters. Nishimiya’s attempted suicide is the climax of the series. In that darkest moment everybody’s worst fears are realized. The aftermath of this event lays bare the realities of the situation: that half measures and kind intentions were not enough. But at the same time, it offers the hope that having passed through this ugliest of times people may renew and strengthen the bonds between them. Ending with Ishida’s reunion with Nishimiya on the bridge, after both fearing they may never see the other alive again, was a perfect finale to this arc.
This is, in my opinion, where the manga would have best ended, with perhaps a couple of chapters afterward to round things out. Instead we are treated to a lengthy and somewhat meaningless denouement, where details that did not matter before are given extensive coverage. How all the characters would spend their futures was of no concern. Nor, really, was the movie they were making; the entire scene where the professional artist berated their poor production was particularly underwhelming.
What made this worse for me was also the unfocused and ambiguous nature of the “friends” at the end. I hold Koe no Katachi in very high regard for most of its psychology, but in this area it was tenuous. The behavior of many of the characters in the hospital continued to reinforce that they were still focused on only themselves. Kawai’s speech in particular was disgusting with its self-serving pantomime of compassion. And yet, in the last few chapters we are shown that apparently Nishimiya is to continue to spend time with these people that resent and despise her, and that they are actually going to build a bright future together. This goes beyond forgiveness into the realm of masochism. Up until the very end of the series I felt uneasy, waiting for Ueno or Kawai to make another move; this isn’t the feeling one should have if they’ve truly become friends. As such, this aspect of the resolution felt false to me, as though the author was caught between realism and a storybook happily ever after, and in the end faltered for a confused compromise.
The other notable weak point of Koe no Katachi is Ishida’s “best friend,” Tomohiro Nagatsuka. In a series full of amazing characters, he is a caricature. We learn almost nothing about him, except that he is slavishly devoted to Ishida because of his lack of friends and he has dreams of being a director. He receives no development and his main purpose is to act as hybrid of comic relief and font of positive energy. Even his visual style doesn’t match the rest of manga. That I never took him seriously as a person is the harshest critique I can give.
Finally, I want to leave a final remark about the captions at the beginning and ends of the chapters. They were terribly mismatched with the tone of the series, frequently full of phrases that sounded like cheap commercial endings. “What will happen next? Only the clear blue sky knows!” “Now…the story…begins...” “How will everyone respond to this reunion?” Thankfully I could mostly disregard them as they had no actual impact on the story.
As I end this review, I fear that I have given a false impression by my criticisms. Koe no Katachi is a deeply moving portrait of what it is like to live in the shadow of others’ lack of empathy, and a hopeful expression that such times do not last forever. I was moved to tears by its poignancy. It is a story that I would recommend to anybody, if just to remind them how important being understood and valued is.
Let in muslims.
- - - Updated - - -
Best girl album