Bookworm?Originally Posted by Pendant
Bookworm?
Binged All Of Gundam In 4 Years, 1 Week and All I Got Was This Stupid Mask
FF XIV: Walked to the End
Started Legend of the Galactic Heroes (14/07/23), pray for me.
Aye
I haven’t been keeping up with anime, but i remember that was one of the reason i never fell in love with the novels and just stopped.
"An ideal is only an ideal after all. As long as you embrace that ideal, the friction with reality will continue to increase. So you will someday face reality and will have to pay for your compromises"
Just saw the first ep of Listeners this morning. Been a while since I've last watched a mecha series and this one was pretty fun. The musical motifs set it apart in an interesting way, and I loved Mu's cheerful and laidback personality.
Ok, I'm going to need some context - what did Main do that sparked this comment? I mean, the most recent episode highlights her use of modern Earth sensibilities to be more kind and compassionate than people around her, so it seems like an odd thing to say now.
Her idea of "compassion" is to turn a bunch of starving orphans into indentured servants who, in order to be fed, are forced to labor in her paper mill. And not only that, it took an illiterate kid (Lutz) to nudge her into having any form of basic decency of even going just that far.
Like, if she were an Ains-type character who sheds all of his 21st century morality and takes the new world as it is and places the issues he comes across under that lens then I'm more accepting of it. Main is the complete opposite. Her biggest motivating factor is sculpting her new world into some passable facsimile of the modern world. She is always pushing to introduce modern conveniences and creature comforts onto their society so I shouldn't have to explain to someone like that child labor is bad.
She's still a child though, right? Maybe she sees it as more the labour of her peers, rather than the exploitation of the young and impressionable?
Binged All Of Gundam In 4 Years, 1 Week and All I Got Was This Stupid Mask
FF XIV: Walked to the End
Started Legend of the Galactic Heroes (14/07/23), pray for me.
She is in a child's body but she possesses a modern day adult's mind.
She also doesn't have many options at her disposal. You act like she's the typical OP isekai god who can do anything, and she's far from that. She needed to be convinced because she wasn't sure she could do it. I feel many people complaining about this overvalue what Main can do to improve the orphanage. More so when the overall leader figure (the fat old man) and his supporters hate her. She's lucky Ferdinand agrees something needed to be done.
Seriously, what alternative do you propose?
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
DINO GETTER,FUCK YESS
Spoiler:
She could have freed them and taken them to Beno's company and said she wouldn't produce anymore goods unless he provides for them. This would certainly have gotten her kicked out of the church, but oh well, worth.
She finds some starving orphans and, realizing that she cannot afford to take care of them, figures out a way to make the orphanage self-sufficient by teaching them to gather their own food, and then training the kids in a cutting edge technological field while simultaneously educating them in the three Rs, something only the wealthiest commoners get. Under her plan, the orphanage would be self-sustaining, even profitable, and the children will be set for life with top-tier jobs highly valued by everyone including the nobility. Even by modern standards, that's exceedingly generous.
Just a quick reminder - The church is so cash-strapped that Main's offering of a large gold coin is so valuable that they are willing to go to major lengths to get it and her magic. The church isn't feeding the kids because its evil; it isn't feeding them because it cannot afford to. This is above and beyond the social structure which she, as a 7 year old commoner girl, is utterly unable to change.
Well, Beno would refuse, because he couldn't afford to take in dozens of unproductive children, either. And after she was 'kicked out' of the church, Main would die - painfully. Although, having betrayed her oaths to the nobility that run the place, they probably wouldn't let her leave... if lucky, she'd simply be executed. Far more likely would be a fate worse than death (which the anime may get to, later). Remember, as Beno has said, the nobility can just flat out kill commoners and they can do nothing about it.
You have some very 21st century Western sensibilities. But it wasn't until after World War 2 that it stopped being expected, even in the Western world, for children to work in their parent's businesses. It's still common, just not the expected thing any more. In a near-subsidence level medieval society like the one described in Bookworm, though, unproductive members of society die because there is simply nothing available to keep them alive.
So I watched the second episode of Listeners this morning. What the heck is even going on with this show any more. From a fairly standard if stylish mecha show in the first episode, it turned into some kind of surrealist mindfuck. I have no clue what's going on, and plot-points like Mu being the heir to the "great one" (heavily implied to be the Player Echo saw as a child) who destroyed the world years ago, to the Earless being former humans who lacked the compatibility to become Players, are tossed out so quickly that in a normal show would probably take half its runtime to be revealed. At the very least it's still a fun ride, and the visuals are consistently impressive (especially the staticky effects for the Neubauten Sisters' power) so I'll still keep watching even if I have no idea what to expect from here on.
I do have some other thoughts on the episode though. When Mu was humming a little tune and Echo asks what she's doing, that pretty much confirms the concept of music doesn't exist at all in this world anymore. That was sorta' implied in the premise of the show, but it hadn't been confirmed in-series until now. That's really sad... makes me wonder what wrecked the world so badly to get it into this state. Also, "Dada" is the name for a philosophical/avant-garde movement that basically believes "art" as a concept shouldn't exist, so it fits for the villain group who seemingly want to eliminate music from the world (at least, seemingly that's their goal, it's not really clear now).
Last edited by RoydGolden; April 28th, 2020 at 12:15 PM.
Still been watching Listeners. The third episode calmed down a bit after the last one's breakneck pace. We got some more backstory just what this world is and the identity of the mysterious Player Echo saw. I got a chuckle out of the couple sprinkling My Bloody Valentine songs into their dialogue. That was so goofy, but fun. Then again that pretty much describes this show as a whole, at least so far. Straightforward and not so original in terms of its plot, but carrying it forward with enough earnest enthusiasm it manages to be entertaining.
From the looks of it the next arc of the show is going to be a Pokémon-like setup with Echo and Mu travelling the world and duelling other famous Players to find out more about Jimi. Then again, that's assuming the show mostly continues with its premise, and doesn't throw any more wild twists in to shake things up like last ep.
Plunderer episode 16: "We're the army that doesn't kill anyone!" *goes on to slash, stab and shoot a bunch of dudes literally seconds later* Like, seriously? That sure flew out the window fast, and even worse they didn't even seem to acknowledge the juxtaposition at all. Granted, Alan isn't part of class-A so he wouldn't be part of that promise (though it still kind of reeks of technical pacifism; if I don't kill but rely on my friend to do it for me I don't really have any legitimate leg to stand on when it comes to ideals) but Tokikaze straight up slashed a dude across the chest with his katana and Genji skewered another with a spear, and there's no indication those weren't deadly wounds.
Granted, looking back over the scene they do seem to mainly aim for the shoulders and upper chest rather than stabbing straight through the heart or anything like that. But even getting slashed across the chest with a samurai-sword can easily be a lethal wound even if it's not enough that you die instantly, especially on a chaotic battlefield. I feel like class-A has kind of downgraded from "army that doesn't kill" to "army that maims you so you bleed out later on" which isn't nearly as inspiring. If they really were taking those guys out in some way that was intended to be nonlethal they could've noted that in the scene itself, especially since this show has a bunch of other exposition.
Weird incongruities aside this episode was fairly entertaining. Looks like we've reached the end of the "school enrollment" arc. Nothing like ending a slice-of-life school arc by having the army storm in and start killing everyone I suppose. Firenda is giving some seriously sinister vibes, and she seems unexpectedly like a worse person than Shumerman at this point. Shumerman at least acts like he genuinely cares about the kids even if has some twisted moments (like the killing intent he gave Licht), whereas Firenda just treats them like test-subjects.
Her glee when the army attacked the school (the threat of which is what allowed to carry out her human testing) was practically orgasmic, after all. I bet she played a part in "corrupting" Shumerman and getting him into his much more overtly evil "teaching orphans children's books about how to kill people" persona he displays in the present day.
Also I feel like Doa has a crush on Sonohara or something, and is bullying her to try to drive her away from becoming a soldier so she won't have to stain her hands killing people. He basically admitted the latter in this episode (albeit sarcastically) and he's getting enough character-focus at this point I'd be surprised if he turned out to be just a random bully. He's giving me "middle-schooler who pulls on his crush's hair because he can't admit he likes them" vibes.
Oh and, when Lynn is moping over not being able to save Licht Pele snaps her out of her funk by literally pinning her down and shoving suspiciously phallic-shaped vegetables down her throat. (It makes slightly more sense in context, since he says something like "People who have too much stuff on their minds should just eat!" but the imagery is pretty blatant...).
So yeah, that's something that happens in this show. Honestly I'm not sure what to think. Obviously Plunderer is a show that loves its fanservice, but oral vegetable pseudo-rape in the middle of an ostensibly serious and emotional scene is a bit much for me. I don't even mind fanservice usually, but I'd prefer if it was kept out of more serious moments or at least integrated in a way that makes sense thematically. (Like Kill La Kill's fanservice made sense because the show's themes were all about the meaning of nudity and clothing, so it fit when the characters were traipsing about half-naked even in "serious" scenes).
I feel like this show has a lot of interesting potential with the plot and characters, but it can't seem to get over its various tonal issues to be something really memorable. I'll probably keep watching though.
Looks like next episode Licht is going to reveal his true power as the Ace of Flashing Strikes and fight off all those military dudes. I wonder if the time-travellers will be able to change history so he stays true to his vows of not killing anyone, or the future will stay the same after all. Given the Licht we're attached to through the whole show is the one dealing with his tragic past it kind of suggests the latter, but we'll see.
Last edited by RoydGolden; May 2nd, 2020 at 06:09 PM.
So out of curiosity I just checked the Plunderer manga chapter that mostly corresponds to this ep and it turns out most of the scenes of class-A fighting through the halls and whatnot were anime-original. They were just a few panels in the manga, and much less clear whether they were slashing/stabbing most of the goons or just hitting them and knocking them out. Heck it wasn't even clear if Tokikaze fully drew his sword.
I guess the anime wanted to spice that scene up and make it more exciting/dynamic, but the way it did so kind of came off as bizarre given the whole "no-killing" thing. Heck, the anime even added the "We're the army who doesn't kill anyone!" line right before that fight, which makes it even more incongruous.
So in this case it doesn't seem to be a fault in the source material, but the anime fleshing things out in an ill thought-out way...
Watched ep 4 of Listeners. Have to say, I love how the show didn't make its school-episode set in a generic anime fantasy highschool. The school dripped with grubby charm and uniqueness and I could imagine a whole show set there even apart from Echo and Mu's adventures. Musical references aside this series is really good at making a fun and memorable setting out of otherwise fairly typical story-beats. The "math fan club" gag also nearly made me laugh out loud for how unexpected it was, which is rare in anime. All in all I can see this show tying with Appare-Ranman for my favorite anime of the spring season.
Checked out the latest episode of Listeners today. They're not even trying to be coy with the musical references at this point. Before they at least blended them into dialogue (albeit not very naturally), now we have a city outright named 'Paisley Park' run by a dude whose basically anime!Prince (even rocking an outfit the RL Prince wore).
Makes me wonder why in JoJo the musical references have to all be censored but here it's okay... (Especially when Prince's estate is notoriously lawsuit-happy)
References aside this episode was pretty fun. Denka (the Prince-lookalike dude) is a surprisingly chill and likeable guy for being the leader of a city that's basically a giant red-light district. It helps that despite their rampant hedonism the denizens of Paisley Park seem to have pretty innocent ideas on sexuality. The questions they asked Mu were more bizarre and goofy than outright perverted...
Also shows how this series is committed to being tame in terms of fanservice. Could've easily gone all-in with the T&A given the premise of this episode but instead they keep it to a minimum, with the ass-shot of Wendy early on being the only outright blatant fanservice (and that's easily justifiable given Echo was actually ogling her in-universe, it's not just for the audience's benefit). Frankly it's kind of refreshing. I don't mind fanservice, but it's nice seeing a show confident enough in its story and themes it doesn't feel the need to shove it in every 5 seconds...
Unfortunately the actual mecha-combat is still the weakest part of this show. For ostensibly a 'mecha show' the fights are really lame, the CGI mecha models lack any kind of impact in how they move and hit each other and the battles tend to boil down to just flinging flashy lights around. Even this episode where the fight had a bit more strategy it boiled down to just waiting until the enemy leaves themselves open and then bumrushing them with your ultimate attack. It doesn't seem like this'll really get better, so for now I'm enjoying the show mainly for the characters and atmosphere, not the mecha stuff. Mecha fights are consistently the least entertaining part of any episode. Denka going all "This whole city is my Equipment!" this week was pretty cool, but all it amounted to was shooting more flashy lights around.
Also, this thread has been surprisingly quiet what with me being the only one posting lately. I wonder why. Is nobody watching seasonal anime lately, or are they just not seeing the need to comment? If anything I would've thought with coronavirus going around more people would be staying home and watching anime and the like.
Last edited by RoydGolden; May 5th, 2020 at 05:19 PM.
All my seasonal anime is on hiatus. Simple as.
Ah right. That does pretty well explain it. The only show of mine that's on hiatus is Appare-Ranman, but then again I wasn't watching much to begin with.
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