don't know what it is about WEP, but it really resonated with me (at least the episodes released so far). the OST is also one of my favourites i've ever heard

Can't seem to post screenshots from Dragon, Ie wo Kau but it's quite enjoyable.

Interesting interpretation of the Tales of the Heike directed by Yamada Naoko in collaboration with screenwriter Yoshida Reiko. The art direction is engaging and novel, it retains faithfulness to aesthetics of the Heian era while simultaneously displaying Science Saru's distinctive style.

>>35845
>When you stare too long into the Abyss

>>35672
I ended up hooking up a mouse and keyboard and it's comfortable now. The mouse is some wireless one I dug up in my box of electronics and the keyboard is wired but placed on a convenient stool. Finally I can watch anime like you're supposed to, in a well-lit room and seated far from the screen.

>>35854
I'm nearsighted so I'm pretty much forced to use my laptop/monitor anyway (wearing glasses doesn't feel quite right). Besides, sitting up close makes things feel a lot more immediate.

Watching monster, and... is this where the name anNina of the higurashi ending came from? Probably not, but... I couldn't help but think of that.

>>35841
This faggot should voluntarily step down, and if he doesn't, the board should remove him (if they have the power to do so).

My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission Makes Its 2nd Place Debut @ the Japan Box Office
Mamoru Hosoda's "BELLE" has reached the 4 billion yen mark

Macross Delta the Movie: Zettai Live!!!!!! hits cinemas in Japan this autumn. To pre-game for the big premiere, a new Blu-ray box of the TV series is coming out, full of cool bonuses for Walküre fans.
Macross Delta Releases "Walküre Edition" Blu-ray with Beautiful New Art
Home video release will include concert videos, a photo book, and vendor-specific bonuses

twitter@shinkalion

The official website for Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion Z, the second installment of the train transforming robot anime franchise Shinkalion, has announced that Rei Ayanami will appear in its forthcoming crossover episode with the Evengelion franchise to be aired in Japan on September 17, 2021.
As reported, Shinji Ikari to be voiced by his original voice cast Megumi Ogata has been also confirmed to appear in the episode. Ayanami previously made her guest appearance in the 31st episode of the first Shinkalion TV anime aired in August 2018, along with Soryu Asuka Langley. We don't know at this point if Asuka will also appear again, or if they'll have dialogue spoken by the original voice actresses.
The crossover episode will also feature "Oni Eva" (Demon Eva). It is a giant monster created from the statue of Eva-01 at the Toei Kyoto Studio Park by an unknown enemy named Teoti.

>>35899
So, what exactly is Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion about? I've been thinking about this series a lot since it came out because of the Hatsune Miku crossover, but i haven't had enough motivation to watch it. How are these crossovers even happening?

>>35891
Edit:
Just for some context, going into Aria I expected I would enjoy it a lot. It seemed like a show well suited to my tastes. I enjoyed Amanchu immensely, and watching it was the trigger that finally got me to try out Aria. In theory Aria seems like it would be a great anime, but its execution is lacking. I wanted to like it.

Also regarding the OST, I am a little negatively biased because I tend not to enjoy guitar-like instruments as much as the average person.

Aria seems like it doesn't explore its setting enough to fully realize its potential. The lack of detail in the visuals is also a significant aspect of its wasted potential.

>>35892
Yeah I know Aria has a lot of dedicated fans. I thought I'd become one of them.
They've probably mentally assigned me a "shit taste" label, if they haven't done so already lol.

>>35893
I don't know if it could be useful for you, but Aria didn't start to grow in me until 2nd season, first season also gave me a general "meh" feeling. That doesn't mean 2nd season is substantially better or different, but it's how it happened, it takes time.

>>35892
> Although I know YKK & Aria have a lot of popular fans (even inspiring a textboard)
Sounds interesting, which textboard?
>>35894
I once read that the first season is an introduction to the cast, while the second season is an introduction to the world it takes places. The third season is about the development of the cast.
Personally I agree with this, I loved season 1 but it is surely the weakest of the 3.

>>35894
>>35895
A lot of people have echoed this sentiment to me, about the later seasons being better. A higher budget could certainly go a long way.

I will probably give them a try in a few years. I'd rather let the memories I have of season 1 fade a little so that the content will be more novel to me. I'm more likely to enjoy it that way.

It is a historically significant SoL classic, so I feel obligated to watch it in any case.

>>35799
>it's a show that I strongly believe was designed for the viewer to engage with
I didn't see a reason to look deeper into it since I didn't enjoy my initial experience enough to want to. Intentionally making an anime where the viewer is supposed to get most of their enjoyment from it by researching its themes, puts the entire point of anime and storytelling as a whole into question.
>relationship with her mother
The one she never knew and had no conception of? I didn't get to this before, but the whole, bad guy hypnotizes good guy, good guy's friends try to snap them out of it and fail, good guys try again with the power of friendship/love or whatever and succeed this time thing, really annoyed me. It was one the most bothersome, predictable parts of flifla.
>the beauty of flip flappers comes from the way it interweaves all these three layers together
Haphazardly?
>for a show wholly centered around the notion of perception and the subjective nature of experience, should it really be any other way?
Have you seen Paprika or Perfect Blue? I think those do similar things better. The movie format is generally better for this kind of thing in my opinion since we don't expect to get too attached to characters. More emphasis can be placed on themes for themes sake since it's a low dosage. SEL though did it better too since it was tighter, more focused, and managed to have more chemistry between Alice and Lain.

>she gains that self of identity and independence
I know that's what the show said practically point blank. They basically tacked that on at the end after her friends break her out of hypnosis(if she were really more independent, wouldn't she not need them to save her?). I didn't feel it over the course of the series though. She was also still just as boring by the end.
>this is one I can't really see
I worded it confusingly. They were "good friends" in that they l

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>>35802
> after her friends break her out of hypnosis
If I recall correctly, it wasn't actually "hypnosis" it was just that Cocona was physically trapped in that tree thing, representative of the fact that she was still mentally trapped by her dependence on her mother. To quote from the doc

> One day she leaves her comfort zone, opens up to another girl, and goes on an adventure with her. However, what dwells deep within Cocona is her lost relationship with her mother. Cocona, afraid of failure, runs away back into her mother’s care, but she realizes that her new relationships aren’t something she can - or wants to - give up, and that her friends aren’t letting her go that easily either. She accepts who she is and becomes her own person.

And in particular in that scene we see that even though Papika herself is the motivator, it is Cocona who ultimately has to accept and unlock the tree herself.

There's also beautiful symmetry here since in the very next episode we get a flashback that shows that very tree thing is where Papika was trapped after Mimi disappeared and fragmented pure illusion – the meaning here is less clear, but I interpreted this is as the fact that Papika was ridden with guilt (since as I recall it was her idea to escape). And this time it was Cocona who helped Papika overcome that.

>bad guy hypnotizes good guy, good guy's friends try to snap them out of it
Except in this case, it _has_ to be Papika and Yayaka that help Cocona defeat Mimi. On a psychological level Cocona only overcomes her issues with the help of _both_ Papika nad Yayaka, and so it is only right that the two team up with Cocona to finally overthrow Mimi (the symbolic interpretation of this should be obvious).

And more generally, pure illusion is by definition symbolic. You can't separate the two, and everything that happens in pure illusion must be interpreted through that lens since pure illusion is the very dream-like subconscious.

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>>35803
>her dependence on her mother
Who she never even knew. What dependence could you have for a person you never even met? A deep-seeded longing for her mother isn't very well-established either.
>it wasn't actually "hypnosis"
She acted hypnotized and not aware of her surroundings, so for all intents and purposes, she was hypnotized.
>the symbolic interpretation of this should be obvious
Yeah, it's the power of love and friendship. This theme conflicts with "becoming your own person" a bit. Sure "she must go out of the tree herself", but she doesn't think to do it on her own. She might as well be swapping her mother for her friends and gay lover.
>But that's what every episode basically was?
The in universe explanation is that Pure Illusion is another dimension that actually exists. This is a misdirection. All of the magical girl, collecting rocks just because stuff was also a needless distraction. A straight forward "here's a neural meguffin, lets use it and see what happens" set-up, would have served better.
>everything that happens in pure illusion must be interpreted through that lens
Unless I'm back in english class and getting a grade, I want to enjoy my stories first, then look at them with an uber-deep, symbolic lens.

Post edited on 7th Jul 2021, 10:10pm

I was reminded of Pure Illusion when I came across the works of Neville Goddard. He was in the camp of those who believe that reality can be influenced by thoughts. (This idea is also found in certain magick communities, and is presumably the basis for things like manifestation/law of attraction). The idea that reality is a sort of canvas we all influence (whether we consciously realize it or not), that things change fluidly and regularly without our noticing, and that the gaps are filled in by our collective logic feels like a very direct, literal representation of the idea of pure illusion.

Of course a natural question is to what extent is this true. Putting aside the question of free will for a moment, we have control over our own thoughts and feelings (and this can be strengthened through things like meditation) so it's true in that limited sense. And we can of course influence the world through our actions, and deeply desiring a situation will make you more observant/likely to act so as to establish that situation so it's true in that limited sense. And things like the placebo effect show that mere (unconscious) intention itself is sufficient to effect some change within the realm of your body. I think anything stronger than that is wishful thinking at best, delusional fantasy at worst; but ironically fully committing to that on both a conscious and unconscious level might make it more likely for you to act on things you wouldn't have acted on before.

>>35742
But the game is in japanese...

>>35877
I can't read it, but it hasn't stopped me from playing it.

>>35742
I enjoy the anime greatly but I always lose patience with mobile games. Happened with Princess Connect the same way.

The daily grind in the mobile game is way too tedious.

Hill Climb Girl
Over Drive
Nasu: Summer in Andalusia
Idaten Jump
Yowamushi Pedal

In no particular order:
Slayers (including movies and first three seasons)
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
Hidamari Sketch (all seasons)
Azumanga Daioh
Touhai Densetsu Akagi
As others have stated, limiting it to five is pretty tough. Broadly, I like a lot of CGDCT and slice of life, as well as a couple other mahjong anime.

Such rankings never work, because often different works are not comparable.
So, allow me to cheat a bit.

Top 20s
SHADOWS HOUSE

Top 5 10s
GOSICK
ONE PUNCH MAN
Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica
CROSS ANGE: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo
Attack on Titan

Top 5 00s
Rozen Maiden: Ouvertüre

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Escaflowne
KamiChu!
Madoka
Code Geas
Macross

I don't think I could watch this without killing myself, regardless of whether it's good.

They started off with one of the most thought provoking films of all time, did a half-remaster, half-sequel and the culmination of almost 20 years of waiting is... A fucking _anime_.
It's not creative but awful, it's not great but bland. It's pure, concentrated _passable_. They wrote an ending to a franchise as important as Evangelion in the most pedestrian of ways. They might as well have released it straight to video, because it got an OVA treatment in the writing department and no amount of render-farm bullshit can save the two and a half-hour run-time from the clearance bin.

Everything about this movie is just Anno giving the middle finger and laughing at the fans who eat this shit up, at least he knows these movies are a joke.

Now that he has properly funded his studio, I am very much looking forward to his new works.

>>35873
>>35874
Just as planned.

>>29323
I forgot to share the password, it's "explosion".

An English translation can be found here: https://skythewood.blogspot.de/2017/03/KG2.html

Sage because bumping a years-old thread may be considered rude.
>>25499
>Why does Aqua keep calling the main character a hikki-NEET? Isn't being a NEET or hikki naturally incompatible with being a high school student?
Because the characters were originally older in the web novel but were aged down in adaptations. Aqua looking down on Kazuma for being a hikki-NEET makes more sense when Kazuma is college-aged, and Megumin's chuunibyou behaviour actually looks odd for her age like it's supposed to when she's seventeen rather than fourteen.
>>27845
>>29323
>>29340
Thanks for this.

>>35869
>Sage because bumping a years-old thread may be considered rude.
The eternal dilemma...

Here's a reason to bump: a new animation announced last month: https://twitter.com/konosubaanime/status/1416746565700440071 . I don't remember seeing any info on the format, but hoping it's a 3rd season. I've been (slowly) reading the LNs, and it seems like there's plenty of material.

>>35871

>>35812
>sexual undertones
The wording here reminded me of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLoRO87lu_8
Joking aside, this amount of "elegance" feels like beating around the bush.
>Sangatsu no Lion
Looks interesting.

>>35812
> I'm glad you're here to defend Flip Flappers
I don't think it's something that really needs defense per se (art is inherently subjective and in the eye of the beholder, after all); the discussion just gave me an opportunity to flesh out thoughts I've wanted to for some time.


>>35812
> You might as well be saying something isn't supposed to be "good".
I think that goes to the core of what art is, which is deep into the philosophy realm I don't know much about. But yes, I think criticism of shows reveals more about the mismatch between the value function of the viewer and the one optimized for by the show, than it does reveal something inherent about the show itself. Of course, even this indirect information can still be useful for determining what you ultimately care about: whether the show will work for you.

Or in other words for every flaw you can find in a show there's probably someone else who considers that flaw crucial to his enjoyment.

Thank you for providing this analysis. It's a breath of fresh air, too many people trot out the cliche that anime went to shit after [year the speaker got into anime]. If you did this whole analysis again for a different year, would you pick an adjacent year or one farther away?

I was a little surprised that you considered 2016 better than 2017. Perhaps I shouldn't be quick to judge, since I've seen far fewer 2016 anime than 2017, but to me 2017 had some pretty strong offerings: Made in Abyss, Kemono Friends, Youjo Senki, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, Little Witch Academia, Isekai Shokudou, Urara Meirochou, and Mahoutsukai no Yome for example. Though on second thought, eight is not many when you're comparing an entire year to another.

You call Fantasy and Mystery/Psychological the weakest genres but in >>35786 it is instead fantasy and slice of life that you talk about. Could you elaborate on why mystery/psychological was weak?

Regarding the presentation, using bbcode would have helped, and it's also much easier to read if you separate vertically rather than horizontally. (Picture related.) Don't be afraid to take up the vertical space. Well, that's questionable, but definitely use the bbcode so it's immediately obvious which text is and isn't anime titles. You can use more posts so you can separate the broad topics, e.g. a post for best by season + best in year (and the order of those should be swapped so you increase in granularity of the categories as your whole analysis proceeds), then a post for the genre awards, then for the characteristics awards, etc. From where the posts break up the text, I get the impression it was only post length limits that determined the splits.
Regarding the honourable mentions, as a reader I don't see much of a point in having that section. Without knowing why a specific anime got a mention, it becomes just a list of the anime that did not make the top three for whichever award you're listing it for. Perhaps you could restrict it to one anime per award and have a sentence or two explaining why that one is worth mentioning but not worth putting in the top three. Another approach is to put th

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>>35834
Thanks for this helpful response and taking the time to read everything.

>If you did this whole analysis again for a different year, would you pick an adjacent year or one farther away?
I'm doing it again for 2017 right now, and plan to do it for 2018 after that. 2017 doesn't seem to have as many completion-worthy (for me) shows as 2016, so I should be able to get through it relatively quickly and post an analysis within a year from now. Hopefully life doesn't get in the way.

>I was a little surprised that you considered 2016 better than 2017. Perhaps I shouldn't be quick to judge, since I've seen far fewer 2016 anime than 2017, but to me 2017 had some pretty strong offerings: Made in Abyss, Kemono Friends, Youjo Senki, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, Little Witch Academia, Isekai Shokudou, Urara Meirochou, and Mahoutsukai no Yome for example. Though on second thought, eight is not many when you're comparing an entire year to another.
You're absolutely right that 2017 has some exceptional titles (I've already seen most of the ones you listed), but 2016 will be hard to beat in terms of the total volume of high-quality anime. I'd gladly be proven wrong though, and hopefully I will discover some more 2017 titles that I rate highly.

>You call Fantasy and Mystery/Psychological the weakest genres but in >>35786 it is instead fantasy and slice of life that you talk about. Could you elaborate on why mystery/psychological was weak?
Sure, I probably should have elaborated on this. Basically, for mystery/psychological there were very few shows that I liked which fit into the genre. Joker Game was pretty much the only title that had a significant mystery element to it, hence it's the top of the category. I needed a runner-up, and Bungou Stray Dogs seemed like the only reasonable option because it does sometimes have mystery aspects. The only other title I considered for tha

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Every other anime ED ~ slow music, static shots, minimal or looping animation because the purpose of the ED is to list credits.

Kumoko ED ~
https://youtu.be/uc5XHQd2UNc
https://youtu.be/X5pQ_sGcNg4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCpLShqAJg0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NPpm6mxCe4

The soundtracks for Kimagure Orange Road are brilliant, I've been listening to them for a while now.

Post edited on 12th Apr 2021, 2:57am

I'm partial to those EDs that have a note of sadness and ronery feeling in them. They're especially great to listen to when feeling disillusioned.

Imouto sae Ireba II – Donna Hoshizora yori mo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWgQgdu6q10)
Slow Start – Kaze no Koe wo Kiki Nagara (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rcgYwxkx_k)
Comic Girls – Namida wa Misena (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPvPWKgq_sM)
Gakkou Gurashi – Afterglow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AwI0qum_6w)
Gakkou Gurashi – Harmonize Clover (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqkIZwbYiyQ)
Hanayamata - Hanayuki (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh0oG8apqQM)

>>35815
Slow Start had a great ED.