Darling in the Franxx is exceptionally bad and problematic, but I'll say that I at least wasn't bored when I watched it.
It was weird enough and full of spectacle that I was interested in where the fuck it would all go. And everything bad bit of character writing, plot twist, or awful example of gender politics kind of made me chuckle in the sheer audacity of it. It also reminded me of those bizarro future 70s films with trippy/bad ideas of sexuality and birth like Logan's Run and Zardoz, so that added a little bit of kitsch factor for me.
When it got to the last episode with all the batshit stupid visuals and weird plot choices I just kind of cackled at it all. Almost reached a kind of "So bad it's almost watchable" level.
There is a clear lesbian, who wants to try and pilot, but cannot, because her partner is also a woman and therefore they can't fuckjumpstart it.
Don't forget that in the later half of the series they introduce a squad of antagonistic pilots who are coded as very androgynous and are able to pilot their mechs solo without partners. And the main characters are like "Wow, everything about them is so strange and unnatural!"
Darling in the Franxx is exceptionally bad and problematic, but I'll say that I at least wasn't bored when I watched it.
It was weird enough and full of spectacle that I was interested in where the fuck it would all go. And everything bad bit of character writing, plot twist, or awful example of gender politics kind of made me chuckle in the sheer audacity of it. It also reminded me of those bizarro future 70s films with trippy/bad ideas of sexuality and birth like Logan's Run and Zardoz, so that added a little bit of kitsch factor for me.
When it got to the last episode with all the batshit stupid visuals and weird plot choices I just kind of cackled at it all. Almost reached a kind of "So bad it's almost watchable" level.
There is a clear lesbian, who wants to try and pilot, but cannot, because her partner is also a woman and therefore they can't fuckjumpstart it.
Don't forget that in the later half of the series they introduce a squad of antagonistic pilots who are coded as very androgynous and are able to pilot their mechs solo without partners. And the main characters are like "Wow, everything about them is so strange and unnatural!"
Sounds like a Trigger show, this is how I felt about Kill La Kill.
Darling in the Franxx is exceptionally bad and problematic, but I'll say that I at least wasn't bored when I watched it.
It was weird enough and full of spectacle that I was interested in where the fuck it would all go. And everything bad bit of character writing, plot twist, or awful example of gender politics kind of made me chuckle in the sheer audacity of it. It also reminded me of those bizarro future 70s films with trippy/bad ideas of sexuality and birth like Logan's Run and Zardoz, so that added a little bit of kitsch factor for me.
When it got to the last episode with all the batshit stupid visuals and weird plot choices I just kind of cackled at it all. Almost reached a kind of "So bad it's almost watchable" level.
There is a clear lesbian, who wants to try and pilot, but cannot, because her partner is also a woman and therefore they can't fuckjumpstart it.
Don't forget that in the later half of the series they introduce a squad of antagonistic pilots who are coded as very androgynous and are able to pilot their mechs solo without partners. And the main characters are like "Wow, everything about them is so strange and unnatural!"
Sounds like a Trigger show, this is how I felt about Kill La Kill.
The difference is that Trigger-produced shows (which this isn't) tend to be aware of and lean into their inherent absurdity. While Darling feels like it's actually sincere about it's craziness, and thinks that they're being real clever and profound.
I like how Sushio (Trigger animator and KLK character designer) apparently will just randomly spit out a new set of Ryuko and Mako drawings and it pretty much seems themed around “These two are on a date”
I just finished Macross Delta. It was incredibly disappointing. Besides the music, I'd say it was roughly 3/4 terrible.
As someone who has now watched about 75% of all Macross media (I missed most of original Macross, II and Zero, and most of the movies) I can now say with confidence: Macross is bad, actually.
The highs are high enough to keep people interested, but good lord are the lows low. Again, besides the music, I'd say roughly 3/4 of the entire franchise is terrible. Which is not how I was expecting to feel about it when I started this journey. I'm willing to bump it up to 50/50 good/bad as I'm assuming original Macross is pretty good (for its time). I should probably go back and finish it at some point, just to be sure.
0
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
I just finished Macross Delta. It was incredibly disappointing. Besides the music, I'd say it was roughly 3/4 terrible.
As someone who has now watched about 75% of all Macross media (I missed most of original Macross, II and Zero, and most of the movies) I can now say with confidence: Macross is bad, actually.
The highs are high enough to keep people interested, but good lord are the lows low. Again, besides the music, I'd say roughly 3/4 of the entire franchise is terrible. Which is not how I was expecting to feel about it when I started this journey. I'm willing to bump it up to 50/50 good/bad as I'm assuming original Macross is pretty good (for its time). I should probably go back and finish it at some point, just to be sure.
I had the thought that a lot of mecha tends to go off the fucking deep end, but then I realized that's more because almost all mecha is original. Manga and LNs do exist (eg FMP, Knights and Magic), but they're far from common. Even exo-suit half-mech things (eg Infinite Stratos, Horizon) are more common. Anyway, having to actually write an ending and close off plot threads I think is what actually makes them more likely to end up somehow piloting a space baby delivery service.
0
PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
I like how Sushio (Trigger animator and KLK character designer) apparently will just randomly spit out a new set of Ryuko and Mako drawings and it pretty much seems themed around “These two are on a date”
I just finished Macross Delta. It was incredibly disappointing. Besides the music, I'd say it was roughly 3/4 terrible.
As someone who has now watched about 75% of all Macross media (I missed most of original Macross, II and Zero, and most of the movies) I can now say with confidence: Macross is bad, actually.
The highs are high enough to keep people interested, but good lord are the lows low. Again, besides the music, I'd say roughly 3/4 of the entire franchise is terrible. Which is not how I was expecting to feel about it when I started this journey. I'm willing to bump it up to 50/50 good/bad as I'm assuming original Macross is pretty good (for its time). I should probably go back and finish it at some point, just to be sure.
Sounds like it's time to start Aquarion then.
It may not necessarily be good, but it's certainly unhinged.
Macross Plus is not an anime, it is a cartoon. It was like watching 50 episodes of old Ninja Turtles or GI Joe or something. The plot advances ridiculously slowly, until they near the middle and end, and realize they have to hit a certain point on their timeline and rush through plot madly. It also has about twelve episodes worth of animation stretched out across those 50 episodes. It's bad.
Frontier is actually totally fine! Solid B+ show right there.
I've actually almost watched Aquarion a few times, maybe I should put it on the list.
0
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Macross Plus is not an anime, it is a cartoon. It was like watching 50 episodes of old Ninja Turtles or GI Joe or something. The plot advances ridiculously slowly, until they near the middle and end, and realize they have to hit a certain point on their timeline and rush through plot madly. It also has about twelve episodes worth of animation stretched out across those 50 episodes. It's bad.
Frontier is actually totally fine! Solid B+ show right there.
I've actually almost watched Aquarion a few times, maybe I should put it on the list.
Are we talking about the 4 ep OVA that is pretty universally acclaimed here or?
edit: You sound like you are talking about Macross 7.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Oh wow, sorry. I just hate Macross 7 so much it forced itself into my brain there.
Plus is gorgeous but also did not hold my interest at all. I appreciated it while not really being my thing. I'll watch clips of the good parts and recommend it, but never watch it again.
Darling in the Franxx is exceptionally bad and problematic, but I'll say that I at least wasn't bored when I watched it.
It was weird enough and full of spectacle that I was interested in where the fuck it would all go. And everything bad bit of character writing, plot twist, or awful example of gender politics kind of made me chuckle in the sheer audacity of it. It also reminded me of those bizarro future 70s films with trippy/bad ideas of sexuality and birth like Logan's Run and Zardoz, so that added a little bit of kitsch factor for me.
When it got to the last episode with all the batshit stupid visuals and weird plot choices I just kind of cackled at it all. Almost reached a kind of "So bad it's almost watchable" level.
There is a clear lesbian, who wants to try and pilot, but cannot, because her partner is also a woman and therefore they can't fuckjumpstart it.
Don't forget that in the later half of the series they introduce a squad of antagonistic pilots who are coded as very androgynous and are able to pilot their mechs solo without partners. And the main characters are like "Wow, everything about them is so strange and unnatural!"
Sounds like a Trigger show, this is how I felt about Kill La Kill.
The difference is that Trigger-produced shows (which this isn't) tend to be aware of and lean into their inherent absurdity. While Darling feels like it's actually sincere about it's craziness, and thinks that they're being real clever and profound.
to bring it back to A-1, let us not forget that Franxx came out around when A-1's cash cow of choice was still Sword Art Online
which, well, some of that show's problems are inherent to the source material but given it's a light novel and not a manga I feel like it's fair to say they made some choices there
(it's me I'm the one with a really strong anti-A-1 bias)
edit: further research indicates that the main writers were Naotaka Hayashi, the guy what loves putting semi colons into anime titles a la Chaos;Head, and Atsushi Nishigori, a guy who's normally a leading animator at Trigger and the old associated Gainax unit but who had no prior writing credits to his name. so, perhaps some of the issues are Trigger-derived (which makes sense, Nishigori also directed the last episodes of Diebuster and those go off the rails in a similar, albeit more coherent/fun/cool way, to how the finale of Franxx goes)
Naotaka Hayashi, the guy what loves putting semi colons into anime titles a la Chaos;Head, and Atsushi Nishigori, a guy who's normally a leading animator at Trigger and the old associated Gainax unit but who had no prior writing credits to his name. so, perhaps some of the issues are Trigger-derived (which makes sense, Nishigori also directed the last episodes of Diebuster and those go off the rails in a similar, albeit more coherent/fun/cool way, to how the finale of Franxx goes)
Oh, THAT guy. I absolutely loathe all of the "semicolon title" things he's written. The writing is always the fucking worst version of the sort of Lost-style "mystery box" writing, where he clearly writes comes up with a bunch of mysteries with no particular resolution in mind, then wraps it all up with an ending that makes you feel like you've been hoodwinked into wasting your time watching. "Wait, none of the mysteries mattered, it turns out fucking magic is real and can do exactly what was needed to explain everything and this was not foreshadowed in any way, and you are a sucker for trying to figure out how it all tied together"
If he wrote Franxx that explains a lot.
BahamutZERO on
+1
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited March 16
Nier Automata's dub cast is confirmed, nearly everyone from the game is back:
Naotaka Hayashi, the guy what loves putting semi colons into anime titles a la Chaos;Head, and Atsushi Nishigori, a guy who's normally a leading animator at Trigger and the old associated Gainax unit but who had no prior writing credits to his name. so, perhaps some of the issues are Trigger-derived (which makes sense, Nishigori also directed the last episodes of Diebuster and those go off the rails in a similar, albeit more coherent/fun/cool way, to how the finale of Franxx goes)
Oh, THAT guy. I absolutely loathe all of the "semicolon title" things he's written. The writing is always the fucking worst version of the sort of Lost-style "mystery box" writing, where he clearly writes comes up with a bunch of mysteries with no particular resolution in mind, then wraps it all up with an ending that makes you feel like you've been hoodwinked into wasting your time watching. "Wait, none of the mysteries mattered, it turns out fucking magic is real and can do exactly what was needed to explain everything and this was not foreshadowed in any way, and you are a sucker for trying to figure out how it all tied together"
If he wrote Franxx that explains a lot.
It doesn't, really. I know you hate SciADV based on their anime adaptations, but Hayashi was the main writer for several Visual Novels within the series, not their anime adaptations which - aside from Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 - are universally acknowledged to be quite awful when compared to the source material.
I suppose what I'm poking at here is, I get the feeling Franxx's issues aren't really the individual fault of any one person so much as a stack of several layers of problems
Like, at a bare minimum you've got an experienced Trigger/Gainax animation and storyboarding guy who is out of his depth on actually writing stuff, another writer who's better known for VN thrillers trying to do a horny mech show, a studio that I've heard described as the WcDonald's of anime, and then also a production committee touting the government's line re: conservative heteronormativity. And then, who knows who actually had control of the final run at the script
Naotaka Hayashi, the guy what loves putting semi colons into anime titles a la Chaos;Head, and Atsushi Nishigori, a guy who's normally a leading animator at Trigger and the old associated Gainax unit but who had no prior writing credits to his name. so, perhaps some of the issues are Trigger-derived (which makes sense, Nishigori also directed the last episodes of Diebuster and those go off the rails in a similar, albeit more coherent/fun/cool way, to how the finale of Franxx goes)
Oh, THAT guy. I absolutely loathe all of the "semicolon title" things he's written. The writing is always the fucking worst version of the sort of Lost-style "mystery box" writing, where he clearly writes comes up with a bunch of mysteries with no particular resolution in mind, then wraps it all up with an ending that makes you feel like you've been hoodwinked into wasting your time watching. "Wait, none of the mysteries mattered, it turns out fucking magic is real and can do exactly what was needed to explain everything and this was not foreshadowed in any way, and you are a sucker for trying to figure out how it all tied together"
If he wrote Franxx that explains a lot.
It doesn't, really. I know you hate SciADV based on their anime adaptations, but Hayashi was the main writer for several Visual Novels within the series, not their anime adaptations which - aside from Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 - are universally acknowledged to be quite awful when compared to the source material.
I liked the Occultic;Nine anime a lot, but I hear the VN is even better.
Naotaka Hayashi, the guy what loves putting semi colons into anime titles a la Chaos;Head, and Atsushi Nishigori, a guy who's normally a leading animator at Trigger and the old associated Gainax unit but who had no prior writing credits to his name. so, perhaps some of the issues are Trigger-derived (which makes sense, Nishigori also directed the last episodes of Diebuster and those go off the rails in a similar, albeit more coherent/fun/cool way, to how the finale of Franxx goes)
Oh, THAT guy. I absolutely loathe all of the "semicolon title" things he's written. The writing is always the fucking worst version of the sort of Lost-style "mystery box" writing, where he clearly writes comes up with a bunch of mysteries with no particular resolution in mind, then wraps it all up with an ending that makes you feel like you've been hoodwinked into wasting your time watching. "Wait, none of the mysteries mattered, it turns out fucking magic is real and can do exactly what was needed to explain everything and this was not foreshadowed in any way, and you are a sucker for trying to figure out how it all tied together"
If he wrote Franxx that explains a lot.
It doesn't, really. I know you hate SciADV based on their anime adaptations, but Hayashi was the main writer for several Visual Novels within the series, not their anime adaptations which - aside from Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 - are universally acknowledged to be quite awful when compared to the source material.
I liked the Occultic;Nine anime a lot, but I hear the VN is even better.
Occultic;Nine is a really weird outlier within SciADV, partly because it's actually the only entry for which the source material is not a VN but an incomplete series of light novels written by the main series planner (Chiyomaru Shikura). The first ~9 episodes of the anime adapt the LNs that exist and then the final three wrap up the story. A VN was made afterwards but from what I've heard (I've never read it as it was never translated to English and most likely never will be) the story it tells is pretty much a slightly worse version of the LNs/anime. Therefore, this is the one entry for which the consensus (at least amongst the people within the Western SciADV fanbase who can read Japanese) seems to be the opposite of all the other entries; this time the anime is better than the VN.
In any case, I'm not sure to what extent (if any) Hayashi was involved with O;9, but he most definitely was not the main writer for any version of the story like he was for the VNs of Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes.
Wait did the japanese government actually fund the production of anime that'd encourage people to start families? I thought those Abe memes were just memes.
Wait did the japanese government actually fund the production of anime that'd encourage people to start families? I thought those Abe memes were just memes.
As far as I can tell it is just a meme, but, there is a "there" there WRT anime and manga industry production/editorial staff clearly craving something deeply and problematically heteronormative
Like, the fact that World's End Harem, which got mentioned earlier up thread, isn't even the grossest "Y: The Last Man but make it a trash-tier ecchi/harem" series I know of...
The memes are because the show is pushing Abe's heteronormative child-bearing message, regardless of whether or not government was actually directly involved. The show's director literally said in an interview that the two genders of boy and girl are required for marriages and children to exist, and the show is conveying that to the audience.
Japan is really great at brainstorming solutions to problems just so they can ignore the actual roots of those problems and pretend to be doing something. Like the declining birth rate and its link to the ever-increasing workload of the average Japanese salaryperson draining all their time and energy to the point there's an actual word for "death by overworking". And just because Abe's dead doesn't mean that will change, Japan's conservatives have held control since after World War 2 when they murdered the leader of the "liberal" party to ensure their power.
Remember, if you're not having penetrative vaginal sex that results in procreation, you're not really a person.
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Not so sure that's a Clamp thing considering how much gay subtext there was in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle between Fai and Kurogane to the point even I noticed it
Madican on
+3
PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
that is one of the least homoerotic things jojo has done
Posts
It was weird enough and full of spectacle that I was interested in where the fuck it would all go. And everything bad bit of character writing, plot twist, or awful example of gender politics kind of made me chuckle in the sheer audacity of it. It also reminded me of those bizarro future 70s films with trippy/bad ideas of sexuality and birth like Logan's Run and Zardoz, so that added a little bit of kitsch factor for me.
When it got to the last episode with all the batshit stupid visuals and weird plot choices I just kind of cackled at it all. Almost reached a kind of "So bad it's almost watchable" level.
Don't forget that in the later half of the series they introduce a squad of antagonistic pilots who are coded as very androgynous and are able to pilot their mechs solo without partners. And the main characters are like "Wow, everything about them is so strange and unnatural!"
Sounds like a Trigger show, this is how I felt about Kill La Kill.
The difference is that Trigger-produced shows (which this isn't) tend to be aware of and lean into their inherent absurdity. While Darling feels like it's actually sincere about it's craziness, and thinks that they're being real clever and profound.
Also Gamaguri must be larger than everyone else on screen
As someone who has now watched about 75% of all Macross media (I missed most of original Macross, II and Zero, and most of the movies) I can now say with confidence: Macross is bad, actually.
The highs are high enough to keep people interested, but good lord are the lows low. Again, besides the music, I'd say roughly 3/4 of the entire franchise is terrible. Which is not how I was expecting to feel about it when I started this journey. I'm willing to bump it up to 50/50 good/bad as I'm assuming original Macross is pretty good (for its time). I should probably go back and finish it at some point, just to be sure.
You didn't like Plus or Frontier?
gamaguri gets jealous
Sounds like it's time to start Aquarion then.
It may not necessarily be good, but it's certainly unhinged.
Frontier is actually totally fine! Solid B+ show right there.
I've actually almost watched Aquarion a few times, maybe I should put it on the list.
Are we talking about the 4 ep OVA that is pretty universally acclaimed here or?
edit: You sound like you are talking about Macross 7.
Plus is gorgeous but also did not hold my interest at all. I appreciated it while not really being my thing. I'll watch clips of the good parts and recommend it, but never watch it again.
The Information High AMV is perfect though.
to bring it back to A-1, let us not forget that Franxx came out around when A-1's cash cow of choice was still Sword Art Online
which, well, some of that show's problems are inherent to the source material but given it's a light novel and not a manga I feel like it's fair to say they made some choices there
(it's me I'm the one with a really strong anti-A-1 bias)
edit: further research indicates that the main writers were Naotaka Hayashi, the guy what loves putting semi colons into anime titles a la Chaos;Head, and Atsushi Nishigori, a guy who's normally a leading animator at Trigger and the old associated Gainax unit but who had no prior writing credits to his name. so, perhaps some of the issues are Trigger-derived (which makes sense, Nishigori also directed the last episodes of Diebuster and those go off the rails in a similar, albeit more coherent/fun/cool way, to how the finale of Franxx goes)
Oh, THAT guy. I absolutely loathe all of the "semicolon title" things he's written. The writing is always the fucking worst version of the sort of Lost-style "mystery box" writing, where he clearly writes comes up with a bunch of mysteries with no particular resolution in mind, then wraps it all up with an ending that makes you feel like you've been hoodwinked into wasting your time watching. "Wait, none of the mysteries mattered, it turns out fucking magic is real and can do exactly what was needed to explain everything and this was not foreshadowed in any way, and you are a sucker for trying to figure out how it all tied together"
If he wrote Franxx that explains a lot.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-03-15/nier-automata-ver-1.1a-anime-reveals-english-dub-cast-march-18-premiere/.195991
It doesn't, really. I know you hate SciADV based on their anime adaptations, but Hayashi was the main writer for several Visual Novels within the series, not their anime adaptations which - aside from Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 - are universally acknowledged to be quite awful when compared to the source material.
Like, at a bare minimum you've got an experienced Trigger/Gainax animation and storyboarding guy who is out of his depth on actually writing stuff, another writer who's better known for VN thrillers trying to do a horny mech show, a studio that I've heard described as the WcDonald's of anime, and then also a production committee touting the government's line re: conservative heteronormativity. And then, who knows who actually had control of the final run at the script
I liked the Occultic;Nine anime a lot, but I hear the VN is even better.
Oh yeah Diebuster is one of my favorites of all time, and the way it goes absolutely wild at the end is crazy in a good way I think
Just, Franxx tries to clone some of that story beat and visual motif and doesn't quite stick the landing where Diebuster did
Occultic;Nine is a really weird outlier within SciADV, partly because it's actually the only entry for which the source material is not a VN but an incomplete series of light novels written by the main series planner (Chiyomaru Shikura). The first ~9 episodes of the anime adapt the LNs that exist and then the final three wrap up the story. A VN was made afterwards but from what I've heard (I've never read it as it was never translated to English and most likely never will be) the story it tells is pretty much a slightly worse version of the LNs/anime. Therefore, this is the one entry for which the consensus (at least amongst the people within the Western SciADV fanbase who can read Japanese) seems to be the opposite of all the other entries; this time the anime is better than the VN.
In any case, I'm not sure to what extent (if any) Hayashi was involved with O;9, but he most definitely was not the main writer for any version of the story like he was for the VNs of Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes.
Whenever I do, I just uninstall, uninstall.
Acquaintance of mine once described the plot of this show, and I knew I'd never watch it.
Absolute banger of an OP though.
man that show had some great design ideas, like what if Jotaro Kujo was a stand, and what if instead of a normal stand he was a giant Mecha
I generally am not a fan of dubs, but the dub for the game was really well done. This is good news.
As far as I can tell it is just a meme, but, there is a "there" there WRT anime and manga industry production/editorial staff clearly craving something deeply and problematically heteronormative
Like, the fact that World's End Harem, which got mentioned earlier up thread, isn't even the grossest "Y: The Last Man but make it a trash-tier ecchi/harem" series I know of...
also the fact that he can be summoned using the FLCL forehead portal is very fun
really gives Diebuster a mild "Turn A Gundam but for Gainax OVAs" vibe
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Not so sure that's a Clamp thing considering how much gay subtext there was in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle between Fai and Kurogane to the point even I noticed it