Skip & Loafer feels like a Honey and Clover spin-off
Stop making me feel emotions!

"Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki", among other things is primarily about a woman that falls in love with a man who turns out to be a werewolf. It is about love, loss. Having & raising kids, moving to & living in the countryside of Japan, the wonderful joys that children bring, as well as difficulties. There is also the aspect of the children being werewolves, with them changing into a wolf and back depending on their moods in their childhood and due to more sophisticated reasons as well when they are older. Other than that they are completely regular children, facing social difficulties in school as well, hence the picture.

It is narrated by the daughter of the main character, but the story follows her mother. As previously stated she moves to the countryside due to her children being werewolves, due to financial difficulties as well I believe. She buys an abandoned house, cleans & repairs it. Starts growing her own food & over time gets to know the people that live around her, with her being a well known figure in the local community by the end, making friends, acquaintances and everything, including a particular ossan who helps her greatly with farming. At some point she has to see her son off to life, which she does with great difficulty.

I believe that it is a complete masterpiece, with a reason for it being relatively unknown being the werewolf aspect, but as much as I dislike anything to do with a focus on mythical creatures I can confidently say that it is done good. I believe everyone should at least give it a try, going on some anime streaming site, finding & pasting the title and playing it takes less than thirty seconds in my experience, actually watching the nearly two hour thing feels way shorter. Watch it now.

>>37296
It's interesting that this movie, The Girl who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, were written by Okudera Satoko, who only ever worked on 5 anime projects, 4 of which being Madhouse ones. You'd hope someone who worked on such great movies would be more prolific.

>>37297
I really do wonder why that is, from her Wikipedia page it says that she is a full-time writer, yet is only this prolific. Perhaps she is just taking it easy, who knows

I still remember being underwhelmed by Summer Wars compared to its prototype.

Malice@Doll is a 2001 film rendered entirely in 3D computer graphics. Most people today would probably say that it looks like ass. But for me, the art style evokes a sense of nostalgia because it looks like it could be a cutscene from one of the PlayStation games of the same era, and playing those is one of the more fond childhood memories I have.
Be advised that the movie contains a number of sex scenes, including rape scenes.
You can find it on LBRY and odysee.com and probably elsewhere.

The protagonist is a sex robot named Malice, who is apparently programmed to work as a prostitute in some sort of amusement district housed inside of a large building.
The days of her getting any clients, however, are obviously long gone. She still strolls through her former place of employment every day, but it's obvious that the entire complex had been abandoned by humans a long time ago. It is never explained what happened to the humans.
There are other robots around, but they too have long since outlived their purpose. Most of them are intelligent enough to hold a conversation, but what is there to talk about other than how pointless the tasks they are programmed to do are when the humans they were constructed to serve are long gone and don't seem to be coming back? What is the point of a sex robot when there's nobody she can have sex with? What is the point of a cleaning robot when there's neither nobody who throws his trash anywhere nor anybody who can appreciate a clean environment?

Everything around Malice looks as if it had been left to decay for decades or centuries or even longer, and so does she.
While still beautiful, her body is obviously malfunctioning, as she starts leaking coolant from one of her eyes, making it look as if she were crying. Because of this, the robot who administrates the complex orders her to visit the repair robot, but warns her to stay away from the complex's security robot, the Leucocyte, because it has forgotten ts programming and may act in unpredictable ways.
As you have probably already guessed, she does indeed get attacked by the security bot as he apparently misidentifies her as an intruder. Luckily, she is saved by the bot that is tasked with repairing the various pipes of the complex, who drags Malice into a maintenance shaft out of view of the Leucocyte. While trying to make her way to the repair bot on one of the upper floors, she keeps seeing visions of a young girl playing with a white ball, who eventually leads her to a room with a large entity which she initially mistakes for the repair bot. As it turns out that's not who he is. Rather than a mere machine, it is of partially organic nature, and as Malice approaches, tentacles spring forth, grip Malice, and rape her. She blacks out and wakes up in her old room, but with a new body, the body of a human. She begins transforming all the other bots into biological entities by kissing them, but rather than becoming beautiful women like herself, they all turn into disgusting monstrosities.
There's more to the plot, but I'm getting bored of retelling it.

In the end, I wasn't quite sure what had actually happened.
Were the events following the tentacle rape just a dream inside of Malice's head?
Did Malice possess a soul that was ultimately freed from her body in that last scene?
Is Malice the god of that world and changes it at will?
Is Malice's real identity the human girl found inside of the rape device at the end, and the entire world is just a dream of that girl?
Tell me what you think, if you decide to watch the movie yourself.

>>373153
MAL has some interest stacks with similar old-school CGI movies:
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/23479
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9474

>>37315
Did you read my earlier review of this?
>>33471
I actually don't remember the ending too well, but going off of what I wrote, everything resets. Since writing that review, I played Nier Automata, and I'd say it explores the same themes in a more fleshed out, interesting way.

Post edited on 11th Jul 2023, 7:23am

>>37317
>Did you read my earlier review of this?
heh. No, I didn't expect anyone else here to have reviewed it because of how obscure and old it is, so I didn't even check the thread beforehand.
>everything resets
Yes, but in the new world, Malice's presence as either a doll or human is completely erased, the other dolls do not remember her except as a singing voice that irritates some of them while endearing others. She takes on the form of a spiritual being resembling a crossing of an angel and a succubus, and apparently can be seen only by Joe Admin and the brunette doll who had always looked up to her. The very last scene is her ascending the elevator shaft and vanishing from view as she enters the daylight at the very top. The writer has actually published the movie's screenplay on his homepage, so you can read it in his own words if you want (if you can read Japanese): http://www.konaka.com/alice6/malicedoll/malice_scenarios.html

>Lain
I felt most reminded of Ergo Proxy, but of course all three animes are heavily infused with Gnostic themes.
M@D doesn't constantly namedrop Western philosophers and religious concepts like EP does, but does make heavy use of Judeo-Western esoteric imagery, picrelated. Apart from the Masonic black-and-white checkerboard, the red moon embodying the Female Principle (it even looks like a womb or an egg cell when viewed from the side) accompanied by the green winged serpent embodying the Male Principle (it even looks like a penis) seems like something taken straight out of the Zohar, Noach 14 (look it up on sefaria.org).
And that girl with the white ball, is that a divine spark Malice is chasing?
Humans are referred to as gods, and the movie asks the old Gnostic question of whether or not your creator is worthy of reverence even if he is clearly flawed. Yet in a way, the dolls are closer to being godlike, since they are potentially immortal. And this whole concept of machinery being imbued with souls is perhaps more in line with a Shinto-inspired animistic view on spiritual matters.
Malice also reincarnates multiple times until her spirit is perfected and she ascends to pleroma/nirvana. The others too seem to get to live in a slightly happier world, seeing how Joe Admin takes out the Leucocyte.
All of it in a world that apparently Malice herself is dreaming and in which she experiences herself in different forms.

btw there is also an interview with the director and the writer of the movie, in case your Japanese is good:
https://odysee.com/@kujibikiunbalanced:5/malice-doll-bonus-live-part-01:1
https://odysee.com/@kujibikiunbalanced:5/malice-doll-bonus-live-part-02:3
https://odysee.com/@kujibikiunbalanced:5/malice-doll-bonus-live-part-03:e

I haven't played any of the Nier games. They look interesting, but they also look like you'd need to invest a lot of time into them.

>>37320
>Malice's presence as either a doll or human is completely erased
I forgot about this part. It's another reason why the ending reminded me of Lain's.
>I felt most reminded of Ergo Proxy
Never watched that. I've seen Lain and Texhnolyze. The latter is very distinct, but maybe Gnostic symbolism can be found in that too. I have no idea about those things.
>they also look like you'd need to invest a lot of time into them
I played Nier Automata for 61 hours. Make of that what you will.

https://anidb.net/anime/12647/

I watched Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome, also known as The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. Here are my thoughts:

This movie is the spiritual sequel to The Tatami Galaxy (Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei), and I enjoyed this movie much more because it didn't have the awful whiny MC that made me dislike The Tatami Galaxy so much, although other familiar characters are present, such as Higuchi and Hanuki. The art style is also quite similar to The Tatami Galaxy – I appreciated it. The visuals are creative, unique, dynamic, and entertaining to admire; it is a nice satisfying visual feast. Overall this is a very 'artsy' movie that would be enjoyed by those who like avant-garde abstract experimental stuff. That said, the OST and voice acting are nothing special, in my opinion.

There isn't much of a coherent story and I never felt interested in the plot. The dialogue in some scenes is kind of neat, but the overall storyline just isn't engaging at all. Superficially, this movie basically just feels like a series of absurdist scenes mashed together. It seems like a veiled allegory for the brevity of life, or something of that nature. It's up to your interpretation, but there's definitely a deeper message lurking in here. It's not just a series of random mashed-together scenes; there's clearly artistic intent here, but it's up to you to unravel it however you wish. There are numerous scenes focused on alcohol consumption, which I enjoyed. Drinking is a prominent theme in this movie, although ironically it's well suited for being viewed under the influence of cannabis.


My overall rating: 6/10
Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome is quite visually interesting but lacking a substantial concrete storyline. It is abstract in both artistic form and its writing. I found some parts mildly boring but in general this is an entertaining movie if you calibrate your expectations correctly.

Those who enjoyed The Tatami Galaxy would definitely like this, and even those who didn't may find this movie superior or at least redeemable. In my opinion, it lacks many of the flaws that plagued The Tatami Galaxy. Although hardly perfect, this movie occupies a niche unsatisfied by most anime; it is certainly unique.


>>37276
>which girl best girl?
I would have to say Tsuneki because she is fun, adventurous and focused on her own goals, which are all attractive qualities.

>>37331
I couldn't stand how fast the narrator in Tatami Galaxy talks, dropped it after 5 minutes because of that

>>37332
I got used to it.

I watched Claymore, an action fantasy anime from the 2000s. It was enjoyable. Surprisingly good action scenes, with more strategic elements than is typical. There was a whole lot of bullshit and shounen power ups, but it wasn't so ridiculous as to break my immersion. Animation quality is fair.

The atmosphere is great and one of Claymore's best attributes. This is helped by the stellar soundtrack. Although it's been compared to Berserk, it's not at that level. The setting is far less interesting than Berserk's.

Some problems. Raki was a somewhat annoying and unnecessary character. I understand how he plays into the theme of accepting help from others, he just doesn't do a whole lot besides follow Clare everywhere. The relationships she forms later with fellow claymores is more compelling, so giving Clare a rookie claymore companion would probably have worked better.

There's also the anime original, open-ending. It wasn't great, but it didn't anger me like it seems to have other people. I don't think you should avoid Claymore because of it. If you're in the mood for a darker action series, I would recommend it.

MF Ghost ~ it's an updated Initial D with the updated Toyota 86 and camera drones. Heh.

I watched MSG 0080: War in the Pocket today. It was a really great OVA. Despite being a short 6 episodes long and being relatively small in scale compared to other Gundam works, it did the best job of demonstrating the horrors of war that I've seen so far.
Also, the first episode starts off with some really great action, and the last episode is really cool because a Zaku fucks up a Gundam.

It's overall excellent, and worth a watch even if you aren't that interested in mecha action, as it's pretty light in that regard. I don't really have any issues with it, besides what looked like the CG colony from Char's Counterattack being reused, but I don't think that's too big of a deal, and I might be misremembering it anyway.

>>37346
I recommend reading the Claymore manga. It actually has one of the most satisfying endings of all mangas/animes I've ever read, where a lot of things actually get resolved.
It's also a rare example of an action manga where the fight scenes are well-drawn so you can actually follow what is going on.

Manga and anime only start to diverge around volume 9 of the manga, so you can start reading there.

>>37836
>mangas
>animes

>>37836
Claymore character design sucks. They are literally the same except for hair-style.

The Promised Neverland ( Japanese: 約束のネバーランド, Hepburn: Yakusoku no Neverland ) is making me sad but it's good...

>>37321
>I've seen Lain and Texhnolyze. The latter is very distinct, but maybe Gnostic symbolism can be found in that too.
Probably, since Lain, Texhnolyze and Malice@Doll were all written by the same guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaki_J._Konaka

Another one of his creations is Ghost Hound.
I originally watched this when it came out back when I was still in school, but recently re-watched it because I felt reminded of it when I had a chat with an Alawite, whose religious practice apparently includes a strong focus on astral projection, which is a focus of this show.

It starts off very strong with a creepy atmosphere and very good sound work.
It's really something you want to watch in the dark and with headphones on.
The plot seems coherent enough in the beginning and revolves around clearing up the mysteries surrounding the kidnapping of the protagonist 11 years earlier.

There are lots of small details I like. Take for example how the protag is into HAM radio. It makes you think of radiowaves, which are all around you yet you cannot see or hear them unless you get the right tools to turn them into sound or visuals. This is much like the Invisible World the show focuses on, as it is full of spirits that are all around you, yet you cannot see or hear them unless you are attuned to it.

Unfortunately, I think some of the visual designs don't fit with the tone of the show.

The characters also seem too one-dimensional. The edgy wolf kid is a bit too edgy, the smug annoying urbanite a bit too smug and annoying.

In the later episodes, the show loses a lot of what makes it unique, the plot becomes generic and predictable, and the creepy atmosphere is mostly gone.
The show introduces a lot of religious, scientific and paranormal concepts, but in the end you can't help but notice that it doesn't explore most of them much or at all.

Still, it's actually one of my favorite shows because of the atmosphere it manages to create, even if it loses steam at some point.

Picrelated is the NDS game, which I cannot recommend unless you're really unsatisfied with the anime's ending and want to read the game's epilogue.
Apart from said epilogue, it's mostly just a 1-to-1 retelling of the story from the anime without adding much. If anything, it even leaves out certain things.

>>37866
The monster designs are good.
But yeah Yagi seems to have a thing for blondes with lithe physiques.

>>37837

>>37902
I love these so much, despite agreeing with the referenced post.

>>37902

>>37903
>agreeing with the referenced post
it's the worst kind of pretentious pseudo-elitism.
At least write them properly as アニメ and 漫画 if you insist that Japanese loanwords should get special treatment.

Maybe I should call them comics and cartoons just to trigger the two of you.

>>37905
>it's the worst kind of pretentious pseudo-elitism.
Yeah, tell those cattles.
>At least write them properly as アニメ and 漫画 if you insist that Japanese loanwords should get special treatment.
Do you have any more advices?

>>37905
If you insist on acting silly, don't be taken aback when you receive criticism.

>>37907
Correct. If you make silly comments like >>37837 then don't be taken aback when you receive criticism.

>>37908
And so the cycle continues! But for the record, not that you're necessarily implying it, I didn't make that post.

>>37906
>Do you have any more advices?
Sure.
Advice and cattle are not countable, you should say pieces of advice or head of cattle.
Mangas on the other hand is the correct plural form for what Merriam-Webster defines as "an individual comic book or graphic novel of the manga genre"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mangas

>>37910
None of the anons in this quote chain, but citing Webster doesn't really tell you anything, they only categorize English language as its used, it's not meant to be some authoritative prescriptivist source. And English isn't really a language known for its rigidity (or for being authentic to the languages it borrows from), so I don't see why it matters too much.

Now if you want analysis from a linguistic perspective of whether nouns borrowed from Japanese have traditionally been treated as irregular plural (no difference in singular/plural form) then you can look at [1, 2]. Some dictionaries clearly allow the plural "-s" form. Maybe even more common than anime/manga is "emoji" which is commonly found in pluralized form. (Interestingly to me there's a subtle nuance difference when using "emoji" in a collective sense compared to using "emojis", similar to the nuance difference between "cattle" and "cows").

[1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/501/should-nouns-borrowed-from-japanese-be-pluralized
[2] https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3212/what-is-the-proper-pluralization-of-anime-and-manga

My simplistic take is that affixing 's' to manga, anime, and similar words sounds very wrong to my ears, and it's often associated with the less desirable types. [I'm not saying the anon here is one of those!]

>>37911
Interesting post!

>>37905
I don't mind loanwords being pluralized and I agree that it can be seen as elitist or pedantic correcting others but I also don't like the ¨anime is just animation/cartoons¨ and ¨manga are comic books¨ mindset among casual fans. I don't apply this to words like ¨bento¨ that are not as common or recognized among English speakers. Manga and anime have successfully become English loanwords, in my opinion. It seems like translators are trying too hard to maintain consistency when I see them translated as comics/cartoons and they avoid TL notes.
I know you were probably poking fun at them with your last comment but I wanted to give my 2 cents. We should focus on using Japanese onomatopoeia in casual English conversations as the next step hehe
>>37906
I miss Ellen-sensei and her simple yet appealing design so much. It was a fun trend.

Post edited on 16th Feb 2024, 11:05pm

>>37913
>We should focus on using Japanese onomatopoeia in casual English conversations
They sound cuter, so I exhort the mods to mandate their usage. Dissenters will be sent to the Christmas cake gulags.

>>37912
>Interesting post
I think in that first link "hippietrail" is spot on when he mentions that given historical context the only apparent trend is that words borrowed from Japanese start off unpluralized but then gain the standard "-s" pluralization as they become more common.

Out of the examples he cites, "futons (never futon)" and "tsunamis (never tsunami)" are probably the most interesting as bellwethers. To me "futons" is absolutely the only one that sounds right, there's no way to use "futon" as plural in English that doesn't sound wrong to me. "I have two futon spread out in my room(?)". Tsunami I could go either way on, "Two tsunami hit the coast" and "Two tsunamis hit the coast" both sound fine to my ears, and now that both are semantically satiated in my brain I don't know which one I would have personally chosen before this post. On the flipside, "kanjis" and "geishas" seem really off to me, likely because as the post mentioned they're intrinsically linked to their Japanese origin.

Also as an aside, I think basically all food dishes from Japan become collective nouns in English so they effectively resist pluralization by those means. The SE post calls out some of these, but I think it goes further and even things not mentioned as collective in that post, like "sushi" "ramen" and "sashimi" are still collective nouns (you'd never say "a ramen", it's always "a bowl of ramen" or "a plate of sashimi").

>>37915
Posts like yours are one of the reasons why I like TC. But that aside, "loli" is interesting to me since neither its collective nor English plural forms sound good to me.

>>37916
I wonder if that's because loli isn't truly Japanese in origin, it's itself shortened from Russian "Lolita". And the natural loaning into English from there would use it more as an adjective (as in "lolita complex").

>>37917
Boy do I feel stupid for not remembering that. Another good point nonetheless, and even "lolitas" doesn't sound too bad as well.

>>37913
It seems that for many Japanese people アニメ = animation in general and 漫画 = comics in general, so depending on the context, the English words "anime" and "manga" may be too narrow to be used as translations, because the speaker might not be strictly referring to works of Japanese origin.
But I kind of dislike the translation of "アニメ" as "cartoon" because "cartoon" might be ambiguous and doesn't necessarily imply the presence of animation unless it's used in a phrase like "watches cartoons".

>>37917
>I wonder if that's because loli isn't truly Japanese in origin,
"Anime" isn't either.
Neither are "futon", "kanji", "ramen", or "tofu" for that matter, but these words also lack a plural form in their languages of origin.
>it's itself shortened from Russian "Lolita".
Doesn't the nickname "Lolita" come from Spanish? Nabokov was born Russian, but he later became an American citizen and wrote Lolita in English.

>>37919
Somewhere in Japan there's a marvel comic book otaku lamenting his language's butchering of English via wasei-ego.

>>37919
Oops yeah you're right, I only remembered the author's name so misattributed the origin.

>>37912
>>37913
>less desirable types
>casual fans
I'd disagree, I think we've come full circle. 10 years ago casual fans may have said "animes" and "cartoons" but nowadays casual fans are the ones insisting on "anime" and pronouncing manga with the 'a' in 'father'. I've always been on the side of 'it doesn't matter' anyway though. You aren't judging anyone based on the use of a single word.

"weeb" is another thing though. Why is it that a stupid joke from 2005 is now the name I have to use is beyond me. Use Otaku, coined by otaku for otaku since time immemorial. (Yes, I know it means 'house', the otaku coined the other meaning to describe themselves)


We are otakus...

>>37923
>but nowadays casual fans are the ones insisting on "anime" and pronouncing manga with the 'a' in 'father'.
Seems like good news to me, assuming this is an actual trend. Haven't seen it myself though, but I mostly hang around places where this isn't a problem.

>Why is it that a stupid joke from 2005 is now the name I have to use is beyond me.
You should ruminate on this, because the answer is one you will not like.

the real question is, is it "otaku" or "otakus"?>>37916
i've seen people say "lolies". i don't know if that one's better or worse than the alternatives.

>>37925
Neither, it's "otaki."

>>37925
"otaku" is actually one of the words mentioned in the SE post, at least to that user
>otakus sounds better than otaku as a plural to me but this word hasn't gained much currency in English as yet
Of course since it's partly used as a shibboleth (otherwise wotaku wouldn't have been coined as a replacement after "otaku" became too mainstream in Japan as I understand), having the word resist english pluralization makes sense.

>>but nowadays casual fans are the ones insisting on "anime" and pronouncing manga with the 'a' in 'father'.
I've always said it this way instead of "a-ni-may" because in my mother tongue words are pronounced phonetically as well.

>>37928
I held myself back from writing the same thing you did because they were talking about English speaking anime communities. Since you already mentioned it, let me also add that we call anime fans here "otaku" and adding an S to make it plural is just as common as the usage of the word. I've yet to see someone correcting others for it, probably because it's an old word and we all grew up adding a S to pluralize it. It works as a general way to refer to anime/Japan fans but it can also be used as an insult by itself, similar to how Japanese use it (I think). It carries a strong negative connotation, like "nerd" in English but worse since we also use nerd and gamer here.

>>37924
>assuming this is an actual trend
My only source is being outside and then overhearing conversations between kids talking about the shounen of the month, or coworkers (ew... he works...) talking about one piece. For some reason they think that because they like Japanese media they are now the authority on all things Japanese including pronunciation and grammar.

>You should ruminate on this
Hmm... /a/'s influence on western otaku culture spread past their insular community until it became a bastardized version of what was originally an inside joke between a few people? From my understanding it was popularized with its current meaning because "wapanese" was wordfiltered to "weeaboo"... fuck, this mindless early 00s trolling is what defines the internet now? Why can't young people create their own culture?

>>37928
>>37929
I guess there's no real answer because what defines grammar rules in languages isn't consistency but agreement. Foreign words can obey foreign grammar or native grammar with no real pattern. This is interesting though, to have words for different levels of nerd.

>>37321
I just watched Texhnolyze.
I feel like I would have to watch it again right away to properly make sense of it. But it's a bit too grim and depressing for me to do that.
There's some real intellectual meat on this show, so actually writing a proper review would take me much more time than I'd care to invest.

In the last episodes, Ichise plays out the role of Orpheus, who goes to the depths of Hades and back again for the woman he loves, only to lose her in the end. The surface world is in fact full of references to the French 1950 film Orphée, which you can watch here:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1IZIwV7c3os
Some of the radio broadcasts are taken verbatim from this movie.
Orpheus was a central figure in the mystery schools of ancient Greece, which had strong influence on Plato and the Gnostics.

I still wonder what Chiaki J. Konata wanted to symbolize with this girl holding a white ball, if anything.
She shows up both in Malice@Doll and in Technolyze, in both cases as the main character glimpses into the "outside" world.
The white ball reminds me of a pearl, which is an important symbol in Gnostic Christianity:
http://thepearl.org
https://odysee.com/@altrusiangracemedia:1/the-song-of-the-pearl-a-gnostic-metaphor:f
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A45-46&version=NIV