Winter 2021 anime thread

[bassgs435]

Ex-Arm over
I think there's nothing to say about the visuals, they're an amateur mess and regardless of reasons, aren't good and will put lots of people off. Now on to the rest, I surprisingly unirocally enjoyed the cast and plot. Could've really been a fun show if it got an experienced staff. In the end, even if this is deeply flawed I can't hate it completely. Oh well.
NNB S3 over. Great ending to a great and chill show. I'll miss the good times I had with the cast. Here's hoping they use skipped chapters for OVAs or something. NNB is definitely top tier SoL
Uma Musume S2 over. Really good shit. Teio and McQueen's story was full of tension and drama and really good moments. Draws that get at you, but that just makes the times where they succeed all the sweeter. A damn good show
Reincarnated as Slime S2 part 1 over. A good season, started slow but the final arc was amazing and that ending to this first hafl was great. Looking foward to Diaries now and the 2nd half of S2 in summer. I love this show

[mami-kouga]

Wonder egg is technically not over, and while this episode was more enjoyable for me than the last three (it had a vibe closer to the first episode and I can honestly accept parallel universes more than evil A.I.), the fact that the show STILL isn't giving us straight answers is pissing me off. All the discarded plot points, all the nonsense that's been happening, all the health issues the animators and directors went through, all for what?

its honestly my lowest rated show from this season, at least Mushoku had its overall plot and character writing to fall on whenever it cranked up the disgusting skeeviness, the off putting things here are directly linked to the main plot so I can't even try to ignore it. Well I didn't hate the experience in the end so I guess that's better than my lowest rated series phantom

[ballinamon]

Digimon Adventure Episode 41: A very heartwarming episode of brotherly bonding. It was nice to see Oppusumon actually in the spotlight since I don't recall it doing anything in Hunters aside from immediately Evolving into Cho-Hakkaimon when the battles began. The second the opening narration mentioned Patamon regaining his strength I figured we were going to see Angemon again, though I was surprised it being seemingly permanent...wonder how Goddramon is going to come into play then?

Goddramon is so much the evo of MagnaAngemon as Magnadramon is the evo of Angewomon.

[Skull]

Goddramon is so much the evo of MagnaAngemon as Magnadramon is the evo of Angewomon.

Sure, in a vacuum. But the point I was trying to make was that Patamon lost the ability to become Angemon and so that resulted in a new path which was Pegasmon. Previously I was under the assumption that Pegasmon would then become Goddramon, nice and simple. But now that Patamon has regained the ability to become Angemon...what's to stop him from simply becoming Seraphimon again since we saw that was Patamon's natural Mega form in multiple flashbacks.

That's what I was questioning.

[RoydGolden]

Man I don't really know what to say about Wonder Egg Priority at this point. A lot happened in this ep but it still feels like we're far away from getting genuine answers. I've got a whole bunch of scattered thoughts so I'll just be posting them below in list format:

-When Ai cracked open the last egg, I was sure for a moment it was going to be Koito who popped out but did not expect Ai herself. Well, alternate timelines were already established back in episode 9 so it makes sense, but still took me offguard. It must've been heartbreaking for other!Ai to hear Ai telling how she found true friends and became happy. Everyone who kills themselves believes "it's never going to get better" so to be confronted with a version of herself who did find happiness would be such a gutpunch of conflicting emotions (on one hand, good that some version of her gets to be happy, on the other, knowing that maybe could've been her if only she hadn't taken her own life).

-Sawaki being the Wonder Killer of this ep was predictable but raises a lot of questions. I don't get why other!Ai even has Sawaki as the source of her trauma. Our Ai only suspected him because of his closeness to Koito prior to her death, as far as I recall she didn't even have any significant interactions with him before meeting her. Of course in an alternate timeline things could be different, but it's not really fleshed out and the fact that two separate versions of Ai believed he's responsible for their/Koito's deaths just makes the guy even more suspicious IMO. Also this is a random note but Wonder Killer!Sawaki totally uses Deidara's "Art is a bomb/an explosion!" catchphrase, doesn't he? Since Wonder Killers are shaped by the girl's consciousness I guess Ai is a Naruto fan...

-The scene of Ai and Koito on the roof was a neat conclusion of her character-arc from episode 3. In that ep the victims of the week were two girls who made a suicide-pact together and Ai thinks something like "If Koito asked me to go together with her then I would...", implying she would've agreed to die with Koito under similar circumstances. Here she faces an illusion(?) of Koito inviting her to die together and refuses, ultimately letting go of her hand because she recognizes that while she loves Koito her own life is precious and she's not going to follow such a self-destructive path. Shows how Ai has grown to find her own friends and happiness apart from clinging on to Koito. Also I noticed some symbolism where Koito asks Ai to take her shoes off at the pool. Taking your shoes off before committing suicide by jumping off a roof is a common ritual in Japan, so there's a double-meaning there.

-I have no idea what Neiru meant in the flashback where she says Koito was a "fake friend", or why Ai just shrugs that off. Also Ai says she's moved on from wanting to know the truth behind Koito's death but she pointblank asked Sawaki about it two episodes ago. Are we just never going to follow that up? I guess the show is going for a Umineko-like moral where obsessively trying to uncover the "truth" behind a tragedy at the expense of your own mental health is a bad thing (a la Ange trying to find the truth behind Rokkenjima), so it ultimately doesn't matter what really happened as long as Ai can find closure and happiness, but it's still weird to think we might legitimately never get Sawaki's point-of-view or find out what drove Koito to kill herself.

-Why does Ai still say she's fighting to save Koito when she should already know that the dead girls aren't actually brought back at this point? Unless the group has communicated even less than I thought and she still doesn't know that, which makes little sense. In general I don't get why Momoe and Rika didn't try to warn the others once they were attacked. The excuse Momoe gives that finding out the truth might've made the others withdraw their pet to save it and actually die instead doesn't really hold up, when a more logical possibility is that they could've chosen to not go through with the egg-trials at all knowing their friends wouldn't actually be brought back and they'd just bring the attention of horrifying super-strong monsters down on them. Guess the most sensible explanation is that the two of them were straight-up too rattled by their ordeal (Momoe in particular looked almost catatonic afterwards) to even think of calling the others or trying to communicate, but I wish it'd been clarified a little more.

[LegalLoliLover]

So when are the Healer BDs coming out in the US (English dub is unnecessary)?

[bassgs435]

Redo of Healer over. My personal AOTS among the non-sequels this season, alongside Wonder Egg, Mushoku and Back Arrow. A very fucked up show that's not for everyone, but is for me. Everyone is fucked up in some way and Kayeru is an interesting MC to see, given how consumed he is by revenge, and even then I love how he thinks before he acts and has plans ready. The revenge acts he performs on his targets are something else
The uncensord version really pushed the limits of what can be shown on screen in a TV anime and it's great to see as it opens the doors to adapt other stories with graphic content that might have been seen as off-limits before
Now if I had to rank my favourites this season, sequuels included, they'd be
Re Zero>Higu Gou>MT>Healer>Back Arrow>Wonder Egg. There are other shows I enjoyed airing this season, but these ones stand out to me.

[RoydGolden]

So I thought some more about Wonder Egg Priority and the last episode, and here's my best guess what went down between Ai, Koito and Sawaki now. Both Ai (at least her alternate universe self, "our" Ai's feelings are more unclear) and Koito had a crush on Sawaki. In the timeline where Ai killed herself she confessed to Sawaki, while in the "main" one it was Koito who did the deed instead. Either way in trying to let them down gently he said something like that their childish feelings were pure but they would eventually grow up and get over them. But Ai (or Koito in the other timeline) misinterpreted those remarks and decided to kill herself rather than abandon her "pure" love.

That's consistent with the events we see on screen assuming it's embellished through Ai's perspective. In the world where Ai survived she could've suspected Sawaki deliberately coaxed Koito into killing herself, which is represented by the suicide-pact scene. Also when Neiru calls Koito a "fake friend" that could mean she actually approached Ai at first because Ai was "the student closest to Sawaki" (not sure if it was ever established he took a special interest in her before she met Koito though) and she wanted to get close to him.

It's possible Ai exaggerated her relationship with Koito since the other girl was basically her first ever friend, and they weren't actually as close as you'd think from the flashbacks. That said, I'd still rather believe even if it began as a ruse Koito genuinely began to like Ai and want to be friends with her for her own sake. Heck, maybe Koito started to feel conflicted with how she was "using" Ai and that's part of what drove her to suicide. Either way, having a friend who stayed by her side- even if it was "fake"- saved Ai from falling into despair and that's why she's truly grateful to Koito.

Apologies if all this was obvious simply from viewing the episode itself. I was just a little confused by some of the events (with how many layers of reality and unreality were stacked up it was hard to tell what you were meant to take at face-value) and this helped to clarify my thoughts.

[ballinamon]

Even three months in it still feels weird to me that the thing which bugs me most in Spider Isekai isn't the out of place CG, or the generic isekai hero grinding up a weak skill plot, but the terrible skill readout. The font is blocky as hell, no background on it, and they flash text walls that make bad fictions jealous for only a fraction of a second.

It's really unfortunate how lazy they are with the skill text, but it's not like there was any actually good way to adapt that. I'd rather they just cut it out entirely and only mentioned relevant ones, leave these awful walls of text to eyecatches or something.

In my case though, since I never care to even try to read these, the abhorrent CG is still the worst part. At least the human side has a very pleasing color design.
Like, seriously, I don't know what is different about them but I love the colors there, they (alongside Y.Aoi) are what keep me coming back each week

This is a problem that a lot of Isekai with game mechanics have. The best way to present their stats sheet. This is important in the aspect of the management of the powerlevels as in where is your MC standing respect to the rest of the world.

The ones recently that I have seem to better present it would be Slime and Bofuri, where the system announcer voice tells what skills they get and they show them when they need it, if not at least the most relevants ones, after that, is on the show to present how effective is the skill respect to others.

But is actually depends in the material, I don't think can be done with all of the adaptations. For example is true that in adaptations as Kumo you normally aren't going to go out of your way to read every fucking skill as if in the text of the books (at least I don't) but here is also important to hype the enemies and how they measure against the MC. I don't think there is a better way. For example, yes the font looks bad or it could have been a more neat stat sheets but it get across the point. A rapid view let you see that Alba has like a shiiiiiiiiton of skills and is stats are big numbers so you know he's mad strong. In Slime is more about the presentation and is more in the MC. For example in the evolution secuence you can see how Rimuru skills evolve in obscene power full things only by name. In other cases the presentation is more about how the skills packs a punch.

I'm a bit worried because Sword Tensei if ever get an adaptation it handles the skills as in Kumo.

[Mattias]

I actually do read the skills readouts when they show up in the manga. But at least the text is legible there.

Isn't Sword Tensei the one that got cancelled because the author is a huge proponent of war crimes against the Chinese?

[bassgs435]

No. That one was called Nidome Jinsei
Yuru Camp S2 over. Nothing much to say. If you like S1, you'll like S2. It's more of the great cast and chill atmosphere that makes this show such a great and relaxing experience

[ballinamon]

A bit late to comment in Otherside Picnic, but I really enjoyed the show. Is not a good adaptation but is not terrible, as actually I have seen some terrible. The feel is still there, the characters are still there. Is a case where the story itself is so good so it carries a weak adaptation. The most glaring flaws I can give it are the inconsistencies created by the order of the arcs and the otherside beings losing most of their creepyness. All in all I had fun.

Movie when? Otherside Picnic The Movie: Sorawo and Toriko vs The Blair Witch.

[bassgs435]

Scar on Praeter over. Pretty show. I love how GoHands shows look and this is no exception. Cool fights and cool characters with great interactions. Plot was decent, too. A fun show

[pinetree]

I was ready to spat out a wall of text about Wonder Egg Priority but I just feel... deflated. Whatever.

At least I'm not excited about the last episode, so waiting months isn't going to hurt at all.

[RoydGolden]

I was ready to spat out a wall of text about Wonder Egg Priority but I just feel... deflated. Whatever.

At least I'm not excited about the last episode, so waiting months isn't going to hurt at all.

Guess I did that for you.

[mami-kouga]

I was ready to spat out a wall of text about Wonder Egg Priority but I just feel... deflated. Whatever.

At least I'm not excited about the last episode, so waiting months isn't going to hurt at all.

It do be like that sometimes. Anime originals means lack of spoilers but watching it as it airs means no protection from possible future salt.

[LegalLoliLover]

After some very convincing persuasion, I guess that I am watching Kemono Jihen.

[bassgs435]

Well. World Trigger S2 over. Hidden shonen gem. Looking better than ever, and I like seeing the progression of our main cast. It's also an strenght that the invasion arc that this season opens with has no participation from Tamakoma-2 and yet, it's still so engaging. This show does a great job with it's secondary cast and making you care when the focus is on them. So good. Can't wait for S3

[pinetree]

Guess I did that for you.

It was a good wall bro. Though I did find the stuff about Koito not really caring about Ai pretty obivous since they introduced her obsession with Sawaki, I just don't think it was from the start.

It do be like that sometimes. Anime originals means lack of spoilers but watching it as it airs means no protection from possible future salt.

At least the new season has 'safer' originals to follow.

[LegalLoliLover]

Is there any special reason that Kemono Jihen calls 屍鬼 kura, instead of shiki? Surely not because of previously established copyrights, right? I mean, one cannot copyright the name of a creature, supernatural or otherwise... Wait, wasn't that the reasoning behind calling the "German version of Dracula" Nosferatu because someone got the bright idea to copyright the word, vampire?