Winter 2021 anime thread

[Mattias]

Rokka was good even as the production collapsed in on itself.

Was it all behind the scenes stuff? Because I never noticed anything. It has been seven years so it's not fresh in my mind, but something coming apart at the seams in the last few episodes is pretty memorable. Like Eva 25-26.

[Rafflesiac]

Nah, I remember midway through the series where Hans? had a fight against Adlet showing off his agile fighting style and the choreography was solid but the animation itself was rougher than a cliff side.

[bassgs435]

LN fans are already complaining about skipped stuff. Liimit the show and you piss'm off even more. I'd reccomend dropping ReZero if you don't like the main cast or just want muh thing happening. Go watch Index, Date a Live or any other rushed adaptation. Re Zero as it is is wonderful and an incredible miracle of a show. No episode or second is wasted. And if we leave only what's relevant to the arc, future seasons are damaged when stuff this part of the source set up is used as it'd come out of nowhere in the anime. So yep, the idea of nothing happening in Re Zero is hilarious and a personal problem.

[pinetree]

Was it all behind the scenes stuff? Because I never noticed anything. It has been seven years so it's not fresh in my mind, but something coming apart at the seams in the last few episodes is pretty memorable. Like Eva 25-26.

Yeah, characters started going off-model even in simpler scenes towards the end, I remember it being really noticeable.

LN fans are already complaining about skipped stuff. Liimit the show and you piss'm off even more. I'd reccomend dropping ReZero if you don't like the main cast or just want muh thing happening. Go watch Index, Date a Live or any other rushed adaptation. Re Zero as it is is wonderful and an incredible miracle of a show. No episode or second is wasted. And if we leave only what's relevant to the arc, future seasons are damaged when stuff this part of the source set up is used as it'd come out of nowhere in the anime. So yep, the idea of nothing happening in Re Zero is hilarious and a personal problem.

I don't care about the characters in this new arc because the show did a terrible job of endearing me to them lol
There's a massive range of options between the usual rushjob LN adaptation and the crazy stuff Re:Zero is doing. You can show both relevant stuff, have good foreshadowing and endear the audience to characters in much less time than what Re:Zero has available if you use your time effectively.

Like, how about you show me some actually heartwarming scenes between Emilia and Mother Fortuna so I care about their relationship instead of just having them stand around saying they love each other for 10 minutes straight. Maybe show any scene that builds chemistry between Betelgeuse and Fortuna instead of just having her blush at his inane comments? Those are some pretty simple changes that'd make the long-ass flashback actually worth it.

Ever since this season starter, Re:Zero just assumes you're going to care about the characters from the get go, and instead spends its time mentioning terms and names so you'll be surprised when they turn up again 50 episodes later.
This was way less of a problem in the previous season because we had a more interesting cast that was more relevant to the world at large and that participated in a constantly changing narrative due to the vastly different loops and locations we went through. Now we're stuck in this Sanctuary going through very similar loops constantly and interacting with the quirky angry boy and the bland elfs.
It's crazy how poorly this season utilizes its time.

Edit: Also, I really don't care what LN readers are complaining about. This kind of fandom will never be satisfied with any kind of adaptation.
Just like ours lmao

[bassgs435]

That's a personal problem, really. Too much ranting to say the show doesn't work for YOU and thul, somehow it's factually bad. The show's done a great job for many people. If it fails for you, too bad. But saying it wastes it's time or does nothing is what's factually wrong. Sorry Teppei isn't endearing you to characters using the methods you approve of, oh great and superior critic god-king of writing.

- - - Updated - - -

That said, we should finish the Re Zero thing here (or at least that's my last post on the matter since I noticed I'm getting hostile and there won't we agreement or civil discussion if we continnue), so I'll switch to other matters
Tatoeba last dungeon over. This was a constantly fun and funny show. Cast is great and even when it seems to go serious it never loses it's humor. Some great and interesting developments, too. Honestly a fun watch.

[Pendant]

I just can't accept Non Non Biyori ending, bro...

[ballinamon]

Someone knows how many episodes is Slime?

[Pendant]

12.

[Mattias]

12.

Wait, really? I thought it was getting the full 24 since the OP's got a costume change in it that he still hasn't done.

Ok, just looked it up and it is 24, it's just split cour and taking the Spring off.

Yeah, characters started going off-model even in simpler scenes towards the end, I remember it being really noticeable.

Wow that went way over my head then. Then again I don't really focus on animation errors when I'm trying to figure out what's going on in the plot.

Ever since this season starter, Re:Zero just assumes you're going to care about the characters from the get go, and instead spends its time mentioning terms and names so you'll be surprised when they turn up again 50 episodes later.
This was way less of a problem in the previous season because we had a more interesting cast that was more relevant to the world at large and that participated in a constantly changing narrative due to the vastly different loops and locations we went through. Now we're stuck in this Sanctuary going through very similar loops constantly and interacting with the quirky angry boy and the bland elfs.
It's crazy how poorly this season utilizes its time.

I wouldn't say the cast is less interesting, since it's all the same people as the Mansion Arc (minus Rem), but just that the focus shifted exploring the new ones, which they did in the first half, and instead focused on the main cast that they still hadn't really fleshed out 30+ episodes in.

[pinetree]

I'd argue we do have a less interesting cast overall, and that includes the main characters.

Mansion arc had a very small cast but they were all immediately interesting (due to us meeting them for the first time). Twins with funny and dynamic interactions with Subaru, mysterious OP clown magician, Beatrice's entire deal. They also had interesting dynamics between themselves, regardless of Subaru's existence. We now very little about them, but that serves to set the tone for the mystery of who's the one killing Subaru.
We only spend enough time in a loop to learn something new, then move on. Things happen.
The arc is resolved, we explore in detail some of these characters that we spent a lot of time with, other continue to be a mystery. That's all fine, I can't say I love how Rem turned out from here on, but it was pretty good regardless.

I won't go into this much detail for every arc in season one, but suffice to say that we always had many moving parts that were very relevant to the world we knew (first the mansion, then the capital) and all the newly introduced characters had the same qualities the main cast had in the first arc. I'd say they're arguably even better, and the show is worse just by not having them anymore.

Fast forward to the Sanctuary. We have bland elf girl who's actually many girls and barely has any presence in the story, there's no reason to care about her. Frederica comes out of nowhere and the show does nothing with her. Garfiel just hangs around being an asshole and spouting inane stuff. Otto friendship with Subaru is great, but also completely unjustified. We're taken off the larger stage and thrown into a small village irrelevant to the world at large. The conflict is supposed to be about these people taking the main cast hostage, but none of them have speaking roles and we see them for 5 minutes tops (making it so that the reveal that "it was only Garfiel all along" fails because this is just how we felt about it from the start anyway).
Subaru has finished his "development" that started with the whale arc and is now an obnoxiously generic shounen hero who cures traumas by punching people once then talking to them. I already said everything I think about how rest of the main cast is also worse in this arc.
Then, after an entire cour of set-up that actually set-ups very little, we go into a marathon of flashbacks about the new boring cast and Emilia. Yikes.

Also individual loops are way less interesting and the teleporting stones that act according to what the plot needs destroy everything interesting about having a loop in the first place every time they're used.

Edit: I don't think I made it clear despite the wall of text, but my point about the OG characters being worse is that they worked as a mystery when we knew nothing about them. Now their secrets are out but are explored so poorly that it makes them less interesting than before.

[Mattias]

I don't think I made it clear despite the wall of text, but my point about the OG characters being worse is that they worked as a mystery when we knew nothing about them. Now their secrets are out but are explored so poorly that it makes them less interesting than before.

Ok, I can see where you're coming from with that.

On the topic of the new characters, I'd say Gar is actually the best since he manages to actually grow, whereas Ryuza is a walking McGuffin and Fredrica a Damsel.

I think the loops lose their impact in this arc becasue you don't really learn anything from them. All the assassins/rabbits show is a threat that needs to be overcome, but rarely is any new knowledge gained. You learn Roswaal is behind everything, then he's confronted and admits it, then they wait a bunch of episodes to do a flashback for his motivation. There's no the plan going wrong becasue Subaru fails to predict some reaction (like all the confrontations with Geuse), or any investigation of motivation right after a death (like finding out why Rem/Ram gutted him the first night in the mansion).

[pinetree]

On the topic of the new characters, I'd say Gar is actually the best since he manages to actually grow, whereas Ryuza is a walking McGuffin and Fredrica a Damsel.

My issue is that we don't even know how Garfiel really was before changing. His actions change wildly between loops and we never spend the time to get to know him. Subaru just gets told stuff about him from other people, and then makes the guy change his entire life in a scene.
And it's absurd to me that I can even say we didn't spend time with anything when this show has so much time to use.

I think the loops lose their impact in this arc because you don't really learn anything from them.[...]

Yeah, totally.

[bassgs435]

Otherside Picnic over. Show might be flawed, but I like it. I like the characters, and the how they deal with the supernatural stuff and how weird said supernatural stuff is, also that it's inspired by modern japanese creepypastas and net urban myths instead of traditional yokai folklore. Good show, even with the flaws.

[Laserman]

Fire Force Season 2 Episode 23: The mystery deepens as Shinra and Hibana go to Asakusa to talk to Konro and find him being attacked by a White Clad. During the fight with the Demon he saw Adolla for a split second, and got scarred just like the others that came in contact with the place. I knew he couldn't have anything to do with the White Clad. Learned a lot more about Tamaki too as she started her own training with those two kids. She made a brand move towards the end, and Benimaru said that she's been suppressing her power this whole time.

[bassgs435]

Gekidol over. Surprise of the season for sure. Don't want to spoil much, but this isn't a simple idol anime. It has a crazy good sci-fi psychological story and lots of turns you don't expect. And it ended great. Definitely a wonderful show

[pinetree]

Oh no...

[LegalLoliLover]

I'd say that naked cloak Rimuru is hot but then I realized that there is canonically nothing under there.

[bassgs435]

Oh no...

Yep. Sadly, production's a mess. Conditions were good for a normal show, but the staff here got too ambitious and bit more they could chew. I hope we don't end up needing an End of Egg movie

[pinetree]

Not a movie but they'll need to release the last episode somehow, who knows when and where.

[LegalLoliLover]

Kame da ne kame yo