Honestly, if I were to sort anime into four broad categories. They would be:
-Utter shit
-bland
-Rote but manages to be damn entertaining
-Really fucking good
I'd probably throw must of the anime that gets a following into the third category. Rote, but damn entertaining. That is also where I'd place Demon Slayer. Sure when you do a deep analysis, there isn't any thing special about the plot and the characters. It's the stylized animation that really carries the show and to be honest, sometimes all a show really needs to do is be entertaining, but ideally doing so in a way that doesn't carry water for really shitty ideas.
Yes, sometimes when I read or watch something, I want something that is thought provoking. Other times, I just want something that is entertaining and will let me turn off a fair chunk of my brain without then becoming lost on what the fuck is going on.
I don't think I get what makes Demon Slayer so...special/popular? The humor doesn't really hit for me, the characters are all boring, and the plot is generic.
Very pretty, good animation fights but like, eh?
It’s entirely the animation by ufotable. Entirely. It’s rote as fuck without it.
I wouldn't say it's 100% ufotable's work on it, but it's mostly that. It's hard not to love the ukiyo-e sword trails and such when everything gets going.
The manga doesn't have any of that's it's a basic as hell jump story I'm amazed made it past the cancellation window
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
I think Episode 17 is when Demon Slayer really made people's heads turn, then Episode 19 made them pay attention. I haven't watched past Season 1, so I don't know if there's anything in the movie or afterwards that has the same oomph as those two episodes.
+1
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited December 2022
Demon Slayer is an entertaining not novel or special or world shattering (this isnt a crime or a fault) battle manga that sits down around the campfire, bangs out a story of demons and the people who hunt them and a brother and sister's relationship as the last of their family, then unlike literally every other anime battle manga story in existence it finishes the story, gets up, and walks away into the dark.
It deserves praise for that, at least.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
While I can respect the author for not continuing the story past its expiration date, while reading from start to finish it really feels like we are missing at least one more arc in a middle, to allow for more character development / screen time opportunities for secondary characters.
Demon Slayer is an entertaining not novel or special or world shattering (this isnt a crime or a fault) battle manga that sits down around the campfire, bangs out a story of demons and the people who hunt them and a brother and sister's relationship as the last of their family, then unlike literally every other anime battle manga story in existence it finishes the story, gets up, and walks away into the dark.
It deserves praise for that, at least.
It absolutely does not finish it's story it dropped entire plot lines and just kinda went oh well a century later reincarnated people stopped it accidentally
Edit Added spoiler tags
King Riptor on
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0
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited December 2022
There's always plenty of people unhappy with a finished story.
But thats a colossally uncharitable reading that I flatly do not take seriously.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
0
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Maybe we flat out shouldn't be posting untagged spoilers @King Riptor ?
Because I watch a lot of anime on Kadokawa I see ads for other animes many I just pass on others I will think about but the ads for Futoko No guild are pretty much a hard pass for me
Last night in Animenagerie, we watched a Tenchi movie where the villain was voiced by Rita Repulsa. She also made her monster grow.
Anyway, MangaPlus has a promotion that lets you read a bunch of series for free with the caveats of only being allowed to read most of the chapters once and that you have to read them in the app and not on the website. This promotion is supposed to end next month, so if you wanted to fill some time during the holidays and not understand Dandadan with the rest of us, then you are able to catch up.
Once you're caught up, you should be able to continue reading the latest chapters for free even after the promotion ends, as it seems that the first 3 and most recent 3 chapters of a series are always available to read.
Other series you might want to check out during the promotion are Chainsaw Man and Oshi no Ko.
Demon Slayer is fine, and the anime adaptation is very pretty.
There's also probably additional cultural appeal that I'm not getting since I know the manga became ludicrously popular in Japan.
I suspect it's a combo of a not commonly depicted period of Japenese history, together with hitting a lot of the samurai asthetic and ideals, just without the baggage those usually come with.
Demon Slayer is fine, and the anime adaptation is very pretty.
There's also probably additional cultural appeal that I'm not getting since I know the manga became ludicrously popular in Japan.
I suspect it's a combo of a not commonly depicted period of Japenese history, together with hitting a lot of the samurai asthetic and ideals, just without the baggage those usually come with.
At a guess though!
There might be a lot of Taisho era stuff in Japan, in the same way the west has a lot of historical fiction (e.g. Downton Abbey), but it probably doesn't get adapted to the west.
I tried reading the Demon Slayer manga but found it so poorly drawn that I couldn't make it through the first volume. To me it was one of the ugliest, messiest, most poorly drawn I've ever seen. Maybe it gets better in the later volumes but it sure is rough in the beginning.
Also worth noting that animation has the most tools at it's disposal for outweighing rote writing and getting into the entertaining category. With manga/comic or whatever the hell a language wants to call the stuff being a distant second. It's stuff that is mostly text, where a rote setup gets hard to cover for. That's where you don't have a parade of bad ass drawn pictures or kick ass animation to carry things. It's doable, but usually the people with the skill to pull it off, also tend to have the skill to just write something that is that damn good.
I know someone is going to say "but Mill, how do you explain that stuff getting animations, movies or comics/manga?" Thing is plenty of people just want something they can mindlessly read, but not be heavily invested in. Also there are a fuck ton of readers that just don't analyze a damn thing that they read either by choice or just not have very get analysis skills to begin with. So stuff that isn't utter shit or extremely fucking bland can get enough of a following to catch interest of those that want to turn it into an anime or manga for any reason and if the source material lends itself to bad ass drawing or kickass animation, people are going to be more willing to give the adaptions the greenlight.
Though in the case of Demon Slayer, I'm pretty sure the source material was the manga because it's pretty rare for manga adaptions of light novels to be decent. Most of those tend to be pretty mediocre because they usually exist to entice people to pick up the light novels. I want to say they often do that by not completing the story, though the quality of most of them wouldn't allow for them to avoid getting axed. Manga being a medium to draw bad ass pictures, does cut creators some slack on the writing front. You can show instead of tell with really good art. Really talented creators use that to enhance a really good story and good creators can use the visuals to cover for weaknesses in their own writing.
Sadly, this is also a great explanation for why some really shitty manga and light novels get adaptions and doing really well as anime. They might be carrying water for some truly awful ideas, but usually have writing that throws a thin veneer of "totally not shitty ideas, I swear!" and really good animation to distract viewers from actually analyzing the material. I'd argue this is how Shield Bro has avoided getting cancelled for his pro-incel shit, that also has the MC grooming slave children. It is setup so that if you don't stop and think about some of the content, you'll go on your merry way thinking it's entertaining and not realizing just how fucking vile it really is.
[...] Anyway, MangaPlus has a promotion that lets you read a bunch of series for free with the caveats of only being allowed to read most of the chapters once and that you have to read them in the app and not on the website. This promotion is supposed to end next month, so if you wanted to fill some time during the holidays and not understand Dandadan with the rest of us, then you are able to catch up.
Once you're caught up, you should be able to continue reading the latest chapters for free even after the promotion ends, as it seems that the first 3 and most recent 3 chapters of a series are always available to read.
Other series you might want to check out during the promotion are Chainsaw Man and Oshi no Ko.
I believe Dandadan is an exception to that promotion - it's just free, completely. All the chapters are up on the MangaPlus website, and the app lists the chapters as "free" instead of having that read-once voucher thingie.
I'll second the suggestion on catching up for all three titles, tho', even if Dandadan doesn't seem to be time limited.
[EDIT] Or, uh, not. See below. Probably a regional thing, then. Free in my neck of the woodspolder (The Netherlands). Odd - I thought MangaPlus had the same licenses worldwide, but I guess that was foolishly optimistic of me. Ugh, another place to keep track of geolocking.
Huh, that's weird. On my tablet it doesn't have Dandadan as free and won't let me reread the chapters I already read (it has the torn ticket icon, indicating I already read it). This was how I caught up on Dandadan a few weeks ago.
0
Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
Mx. Moz 🖤 @MLeeLunsford
Finally did a thing I threatened to make a while ago. A 30 song Bad Religion playlist that attempts to follow the story of Evangelion. Enjoy.
Regarding Spy X Family, it's not going to stop me continuing to watch it or anything, but... how much of Yuri am I going to have to put up with going forward? He did not leave a good impression in his first on-screen appearance and feels strikingly out-of-place.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Regarding Spy X Family, it's not going to stop me continuing to watch it or anything, but... how much of Yuri am I going to have to put up with going forward? He did not leave a good impression in his first on-screen appearance and feels strikingly out-of-place.
That's how I feel about Nightfall, her hostility seems a bit much sometimes.
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I really hope a good studio gets to do its anime adaptation.
-Utter shit
-bland
-Rote but manages to be damn entertaining
-Really fucking good
I'd probably throw must of the anime that gets a following into the third category. Rote, but damn entertaining. That is also where I'd place Demon Slayer. Sure when you do a deep analysis, there isn't any thing special about the plot and the characters. It's the stylized animation that really carries the show and to be honest, sometimes all a show really needs to do is be entertaining, but ideally doing so in a way that doesn't carry water for really shitty ideas.
Yes, sometimes when I read or watch something, I want something that is thought provoking. Other times, I just want something that is entertaining and will let me turn off a fair chunk of my brain without then becoming lost on what the fuck is going on.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
The manga doesn't have any of that's it's a basic as hell jump story I'm amazed made it past the cancellation window
It deserves praise for that, at least.
Edit Added spoiler tags
But thats a colossally uncharitable reading that I flatly do not take seriously.
You're welcome not to but that's how I felt after reading it and I stand by it
It's getting an anime so it's probably a good idea to get the volumes now if you collect that sorta thing
Steam
It also has two things I'm a sucker for: compelling hero and villain cliques.
(I freely admit I'm part of the problem, having a Shinobu figure.)
There's also probably additional cultural appeal that I'm not getting since I know the manga became ludicrously popular in Japan.
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Anyway, MangaPlus has a promotion that lets you read a bunch of series for free with the caveats of only being allowed to read most of the chapters once and that you have to read them in the app and not on the website. This promotion is supposed to end next month, so if you wanted to fill some time during the holidays and not understand Dandadan with the rest of us, then you are able to catch up.
Once you're caught up, you should be able to continue reading the latest chapters for free even after the promotion ends, as it seems that the first 3 and most recent 3 chapters of a series are always available to read.
Other series you might want to check out during the promotion are Chainsaw Man and Oshi no Ko.
I suspect it's a combo of a not commonly depicted period of Japenese history, together with hitting a lot of the samurai asthetic and ideals, just without the baggage those usually come with.
At a guess though!
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
There might be a lot of Taisho era stuff in Japan, in the same way the west has a lot of historical fiction (e.g. Downton Abbey), but it probably doesn't get adapted to the west.
I REALLY liked this chapter.
Give me lower stakes with goofball characters.
I think then bring aged up was explained that it was them to being Saiyan's but that doesn't explain Mai!
I know someone is going to say "but Mill, how do you explain that stuff getting animations, movies or comics/manga?" Thing is plenty of people just want something they can mindlessly read, but not be heavily invested in. Also there are a fuck ton of readers that just don't analyze a damn thing that they read either by choice or just not have very get analysis skills to begin with. So stuff that isn't utter shit or extremely fucking bland can get enough of a following to catch interest of those that want to turn it into an anime or manga for any reason and if the source material lends itself to bad ass drawing or kickass animation, people are going to be more willing to give the adaptions the greenlight.
Though in the case of Demon Slayer, I'm pretty sure the source material was the manga because it's pretty rare for manga adaptions of light novels to be decent. Most of those tend to be pretty mediocre because they usually exist to entice people to pick up the light novels. I want to say they often do that by not completing the story, though the quality of most of them wouldn't allow for them to avoid getting axed. Manga being a medium to draw bad ass pictures, does cut creators some slack on the writing front. You can show instead of tell with really good art. Really talented creators use that to enhance a really good story and good creators can use the visuals to cover for weaknesses in their own writing.
Sadly, this is also a great explanation for why some really shitty manga and light novels get adaptions and doing really well as anime. They might be carrying water for some truly awful ideas, but usually have writing that throws a thin veneer of "totally not shitty ideas, I swear!" and really good animation to distract viewers from actually analyzing the material. I'd argue this is how Shield Bro has avoided getting cancelled for his pro-incel shit, that also has the MC grooming slave children. It is setup so that if you don't stop and think about some of the content, you'll go on your merry way thinking it's entertaining and not realizing just how fucking vile it really is.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
I'll second the suggestion on catching up for all three titles, tho', even if Dandadan doesn't seem to be time limited.
[EDIT] Or, uh, not. See below. Probably a regional thing, then. Free in my neck of the woods polder (The Netherlands). Odd - I thought MangaPlus had the same licenses worldwide, but I guess that was foolishly optimistic of me. Ugh, another place to keep track of geolocking.
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Ep 17 aired the end of July and 19 early August which would be right around when the line almost becomes vertical.
What if man but also shark
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
She should call Mel Gibson up. He did a documentary a while back on how to get paparazzo to leave you alone forever.
That's how I feel about Nightfall, her hostility seems a bit much sometimes.