Monday, 11 November 2019

Saturday, 26 October 2019

State of the Union address 2019

So this is a ranked list of all Shaft girls that I remember.
More or less ranked.
And more or less remember. I may have forgotten to include somebody. I barely remembered to include Nadeko...

Friday, 25 October 2019

Fall 2019 take 2

Average Abilities

Kabukichou - Elementary, but with rakugo
Kemonomichi - gets better; believe in Akatsuki Natsume
Africa Office Worker - good comedy
Assassins Pride - high quality chuuni edge

TUEEE - too repetitive, but Toyosaki Aki alone makes everything worth it
Ore wo Suki nanowa Omae Dake ka yo? - could have been really great, but right now is simply a middling comedy
Rifle Is Beautiful - nice SoL

Chuunibyou Boys - cringy SoL?
Babylon - it's a k triller?

The bookworm that doesn't even get aroused by books if we believe novelfags - MC is definitely not a bookworm, judging by what's been going on
Val x Love  - meh, not funny enough
Tokunana - discount fantasy GitS works only if cast is competent
NGL - ehh, the fuck. the main boy is awful, and not a single other character is interesting.
Iruma - I'm too old for this
every other series that got dropped on the first episode
Beastars - not interesting, bad first episode, I may as well skip it

left to try:
a lot of shorts and ONAs 

Friday, 18 October 2019

Fall 2019

Average Abilities
Africa Office Worker
Assassins Pride

Rifle Is Beautiful

Chuunibyou Boys

probably not:
Val x Love

left to try:
that romance show
a lot of shorts and ONAs 

Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Re: Shomin Sample

As far as I can tell, the story goes quite well for ten volumes of the novel and almost 15 of the manga - up until the end of the summer vacation. But then first the novel gets offed and the author has just one volume to wrap it up - novelfags seem to think he had 2-3 volumes in store, which he cut down to just one. And then... when the manga catches up to the end of the summer vacation, it gets even less: just one chapter.

Now, the spoilers:

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Error: the body was too long

Honestly, this is the least of my problems with this anime. It's not like the rest are big, just they are too many.

-chara design of MC is with smaller eyes than the rest of the cast, which is weird, as it suggests she's less "pure" and "innocent". I'd say a girl that wants to fuck only books is pretty pure even if she's mentally much older.
-chara design is also with the right proportions for a child, but weird more adult-like details, like the aforementioned eyes, or the shoulders, and other stuff. Lolis are usually the opposite: as frail and child-like in the details as possible, while having wrong more adult-like proportions for the sake of sex appeal. So she's an anti-loli.
-what's with this uniform five-storey buildings town? A medieval town with buildings this size would have much more people, per apartment and as a whole. Problems with waste would be way worse, and relying on wells would be unthinkable. And Myne's family seems pretty rich to have such an enormous apartment. If they have budget for this art style, they should at least do some details right.
-related to this, what's with the waste? They establish that it's dirty, but they don't really bother animating it.
-the very beginning of the anime is out of place, providing no context and creating no questions. All it says is "this isekai protag is like from another world to the rest of the isekai society". No shit.
-the more stylized part in the beginning should have instead been less stylized hyper-realistic in my opinion. Maybe even just filtered photos. That would have worked quite well. Just show some filtered photos of libraries and you're set to have a bigger impact than the contradictory fairytale aesthetics for a real life story.
-overall, why do they try so hard with overanimating pointless scenes? It's a waste of money. Money that could have been spent fixing the other problems.
-the music was practically nonexistent for some reason.
-what's with Myne's reactions? I know they have to establish the gimmick early on, but it feels forced as fuck. They should have instead spent time trying to build Myne as something more than a gimmick. People don't feel a narcotic addiction to books - but Myne does.
-whatever else is said about Myne is also weird. She feels zero body dysphoria after becoming a little girl, but a male changing the clothes of her new body? That's as awful as a male changing the clothes of her old body. So she's really quick to adjust to her body, but not quick to adjust to what her body means. At least make it more of an independency issue and say she wants to change her clothes herself.
-if they want Myne to be a meme character, at least show the reactions of the others to her meme-ness. The rest of the cast are pretty much just cardboard cutouts with names. Surely the previous Myne acted differently? Show some acknowledgement of this.
-and if they want the entire cast to be meme characters, just vessels for a funny what-if, at least try to make it funny. But the animation style and atmosphere are in direct contrast to such a goal. They suggest a better-crafted story, not a cheap parody of isekai stories.

Every point of this by itself is more of a nitpicking and personal preference, but together they make the experience nigh unwatchable. It's amazing how they manage this effect, even the mom isekai was easier to watch (and there the desired effect was to make you cringe).

>The fact that the production quality wasn't bad, and it had a solid concept yet managed to stay boring thorough is quite the feat.
Indeed. It's rare to see a first episode so devoid of attention hooks. The concept is indeed solid, but there's zero love poured into it. I don't even know if I want to watch the second episode. It just deleted all of the fucks I gave about it before airing.

Friday, 4 October 2019

Re: Choyoyu

Can somebody tell me what Choyoyu is even trying to do? Is it trying to have overpowered geniuses for main characters? Because if so, it's miserably failing. The way to do the concept of "a group of geniuses go to a fantasy game world and clear it with ease" is by setting the difficulty of the fantasy game world to the maximum, and yet the heroes managing it with ease. Ironically, TUEEE does exactly that, except for the damegami fucking it up. But, even more than that, the cast seems bland as fuck, and with zero effort made to match their personalities with their supposed talents. For example, how the fuck does the "genius politician" start spilling his guts the moment he wakes up? Broadcasting his weaknesses and taking forever to establish basic facts? He's acting like a spoiled aristrocrat, not a politician. Afterwards, he can't chew, but he can reach the crash site?! If they wanted to do an ecchi parody, they should have put more work in being ecchi and in being funny. It's not quite ridiculous at the level of "so bad it's good", so if they wanted to do that, they should have at least lampshaded it. Honestly, I barely managed reaching the middle of the episode. How did this even get published, much less get an anime? I've absolutely zero idea what mindset I should get into in order to be able to enjoy this shit.

Saturday, 21 September 2019

Regarding excellence

A good meal, you see, is all about unexpected delight: it's one thing for food to simply "taste good," but a real master can make it taste good in a way that surprises you. And for that to work, you have to start from a place where you can permit yourself to be surprised. And, interestingly enough, the person eating has to cooperate for that to really be successful.
I'm a decent cook. I'm an outstanding eater.

Friday, 24 May 2019

Spring 2019

RobiHachi - it's the usual Ixion Saga spiel, but with less lolis and more gay Sugita (which balances out the lack of lolis)
Yatogame-chan - fun and short


Yu-no - maybe I should read the VN
Isekai Quartet - I keep it around for the numbers


Kenja no Mago
(both are meh, but I keep them because they are an easy watch while in the metro and I need the numbers)


C&T - it's meh, but inoffensive. Picked it up only when I had lots of time in transfer to waste.
Sara Zanmai - not suitable for watching while on the go, which means I'm constantly behind on it


Fruits Basket - pretty good, not only for the nostalgia factor.
???ият Живот на Сам Самичка - really good
Senryuu Shoujo - really good
Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai - a /d/enizen teenager girl goes through her first vanilla love


Kimetsu no Yaiba - that's surprisingly good; ufotable are doing a great job with the adaptation, enhancing the strengths of the source material really well.
Chou Kadou Girl 1/6 - it's fine
Joshikausei - great, but less so than its source material
Nobunaga - it's fine


Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin - great side stories, while the overarching plot is about a spurred gay ex-lover demigod. It's as bad as it sounds.
Nande Koko ni Sensei ga - surprisingly enjoyable

Only 10 full episodes per week. That's a new low for me. In a better season I would have dropped 2-3 of these, and at least 3 of the shorts. Maybe I should do so anyway and pick up something from the backlog.

Saturday, 11 May 2019

Handholding is too lewd

So, Dan prompted me to think about stuff that's been in my head for quite the long time.
This is a sign of a well-known mentality of... well, the internet from a decade or two ago.

This mentality has a few key points:

1. Lack of importance given to physicality. Dan outright states it. 4chan also outright states it when 4channers fawn over their waifus. It is related, even if only tangentially, to the purityfaggotry of Japan, and is in strict contrast to America's view of sexuality. Sexuality is not shameful, just a physical relationship takes second place to an emotional one.

2. Lack of importance given to language. 4chan's normal behavior is to use rude words. Which normalizes them and takes away their power. 4chan just doesn't care. Dan himself only started noticing that labels exist quite recently.

3. Compensating for the above two with importance given to the emotional connections.
3.1. That's where the handholding comes from. It is a sign of an emotional connection. That's why it is too lewd. Whatever the story up to there it may be - perfectly normal, or with strange fetishes but no sexual content, or even the most hardcore of /d/ shit - it's the emotional connection that is deemed too lewd. It's the sex in missionary position for the purpose of procreation that leaves impression, after a whole doujin of all imaginable and unimaginable poses, rape, and so on. Dan, obviously, strives for the exact same hook, but of the suggestive type, not of the brutal /d/ sex type.
3.2. And that's why 4chan has normalized being rude. Because when the importance is put on the emotional connection between the posters, it's better if you have more toolset to establish that connection. Just by being nice and commending the other person's taste, you will instantly manage to create a connection. Because the normal would have been to be rude. Dan also has entirely different focuses when writing dialogue. If it's the action plot, it's with less dialogue. If it's exposition, Mr Exposition does it as a monologue in as few pages as possible. And if it's about establishing emotional connections, Dan puts extra work and extra focus in the dialogue.

So yeah. That's about it.

Friday, 10 May 2019


DAL 1:        6/10
DAL 1 ova:  8/10
DAL 2:        5/10
DAL 2 ova:  8/10
DAL movie: 5/10
DAL 3:        4/10

...I blame the disappointment about having a whole arc about Origami, but ACTUALLY it was about not-Origami. Not-Origami was awful, except when influenced by Origami.

Tuesday, 19 March 2019

The Spirit Puppet, Or Rather Her Love And Resuscitation

С гръм се отвориха очите ми, в калта ти ме хвана за ръка.
Забивам нокти, и отново се пълнят дробовете ми с живот.

Нито едно нещо няма да оставя “спомените, известни заради любов”
Нито едно нещо няма да повдигна “смъртта превзема всичко”
Само едно нещо е сигурно “е, ела с мен”
Импулсът, който ме стимулира “любимата ми кукла”

Онзи ден, някой ден, е смъртта ми. А сега прераждането ми.
Нямам собствени цели да преследвам, даже песните забравих.
Всичко в името на това да умра.

Няма нужда нищо да чувстваш, откъснат цвят
ела при мен
Няма нужда нищо да си спомняш
Ти си по-красива когато се разлагаш.

Взорът ми е нагоре към есенно небе и падащи листа
И ме изпълва чувство все едно че някой, някой ме зове.
Това ще да е гласът на единствения благ човек,
Който плака за тук спящата аз.

﻿Онзи ден, някой ден, е смъртта ми. А сега прераждането ми.
Нямам собствени цели да преследвам, даже песните забравих.
Всичко в името на това да умра.

Песен за кукла, прехласната по смъртта. Неможеща да напусне кафезът си.
Сънува, а сънят ѝ е лек като дрямка.
Блуждаеща душа.

Translation credit: me.
Feel free to use and/or expand.


What we value as art requires two things: effort and meaning.
Of course, the effort needs not be physical. Nor does it require an art degree.
Of course, the meaning needs not be intended. If the audience can derive meaning by themselves, it's okay.
The creation of art is more accessible than ever. Practically everyone who grew up on the internet has been involved in the creation of art... at least prose if nothing else. We're in for a great future.

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Random youtube comment

As far as I'm concerned, Goblin Slayer depends on the meta-narrative about a group of murderhobos playing a mediocre D&D campaign. It's not even that meta of a meta-narrative, as the whole gods rolling dices thing is... a thing...
Which, pretty much, means that Goblin Slayer's big problem is one: everything else.

Tuesday, 1 January 2019

Goblin Slayer

It was a really streamlined experience. The core engagement was about D&D roleplaying game with murderhobo characters, but it did not depend on the viewer having a previous investment in the concept. Log Horizon is infinitely better, for example, but it depends on the viewer having an investment in this society-creating aspect of MMORPGs. Retarded Dragon Girls is also miles ahead, but it depends on the viewer interpreting everything through the lens of a trpg campaign. So Goblin Slayer was okay for a mainstream entertainment.