Fucking aliens.

This sure took an 'interesting' direction.

>>37557
There's no way people seeing it for the first time wouldn't think it's creepy.

Oh no, I hope she didn't transform from cute to cunt.

Congratulations to whoever sneaked this one in at Silver.

>>37578
I was saddened by that scene, I thought she was going to be a cute friend for Konoha.

I have some serious new found respect for game makers of old.

>>37578
>>37580
>cute
Her glasses and fatassery said otherwise.

>>37586
I couldn't imagine doing that. The level of devotion is impressive.

>>37590
>Her glasses and fatassery said otherwise.
Hey, I like fatassery.

Side note, but I doubt doujin gamedev had nearly as many women in the 90s as 16-bit sensation would lead you to believe. I'd bet at least 90% of people involved back then were stereotypical, nerdy men.

Post edited on 25th Nov 2023, 7:01pm

>>37592
There's more female artists in the industry than you'd think.

>>37592
Next you'll tell me that unlike what New Game!! had me believe, game dev shops don't have yuri-tease bosses.

>>37590
>glasses and fatassery
Megane girls have high appeal!

A look at the pc-98: https://strangecomforts.com/the-strange-world-of-japans-pc-98-computer/

Someone send the terminator after her. Please.

>>37599
Only the worst gacha games disregard symmetry.

>>37600
I didn't even know that was a thing outside of exceptional circumstances and doujin games.

>>37601
I think FGO (which ironically gets advertised in this anime) is probably the best example of this. Many of the characters have very distinct and clashing art styles. Different artists doing different characters is common, but other games at least try to nudge artists in a particular artistic direction.

>>37601
Multiple illustrators would often work on eroge so you would see this to some degree. Mitsumi Misato and Amazuyu Tatsuki (whose stand-ins are here) would share work on games often and you could tell who did which.

[ep7 minor spoiler]
I'm disappointed they didn't fully commit to the madoka OP music gag and have it replace the usual OP song

America is back, boys.

How do you like your new king?

This is a fucking nightmare.

And it keeps getting worse.

Ep 10 introduced a great twist; in retrospect it's perfectly obvious that a hit of that scale would immediately become commoditized and have any indie culture drained out of it. There's the obvious layer of meta-commentary here: in some sense anime is already trending towards that direction with "soulless" cash grabs, and we're recently seeing western companies partner to release their own animated yet anodyne shows. It's also a cute veiled jab at how the west infects anything it touches; despite anime/otaku industry being subject to the same capitalistic market forces, perhaps the only reason it hasn't lost its spark of excellence is due to the passion of the artists creating art for its own sake instead of explicitly looking at everything with a profit-driven frame of mind.

Post edited on 9th Dec 2023, 5:15pm

>>37633
Is this meant to be their take on American comicbook style art?

I don't quite understand their plan in ep10


So the issue is their smash hit was so successful that it fell prey to commercialization, rapidly transitioning from a niche indie thing to a commoditized/corporatized one. I'm guessing the way it played out was that it made a noticeable splash abroad that American software companies that had recently gone through the dotcom bust quickly pivoted to the gaming industry instead, and quickly outcompeted Japanese firms (not much of a surprise since Japan was never really known as a leader in software). The centre of otaku industry thus shifted from Japan to America, and with this commercialization the more unsavory elements were probably toned down as well. Whatever talent remained in Japan probably left to the US as well, given the much more lucrative positions offered there.

So given that's the setup for the dystopic Akiba timeline, their plan is that she will go back to 1999 with her remaining magic box, and secretly release another game on the heels of their smash hit. And supposedly this will help avoid the dystopic scenario and maintain Akiba as we know it today.

But there's two things I don't understand:

1) They claim this will preserve both the dystopic Akiba as well as restore the original Akiba, both in parallel timelines. The parallel timeline thing doesn't make sense, because it's been established from the beginning that every time Konoha travels and makes alterations to the past, when she gets back to the present she is not restored to an original "parallel" timeline free from the consequences of her action. Instead the timeline she is restored to is one that accounts for her actions (e.g. we noticed that books disappeared off of her book shelf). So if this plan does succeed, it would erase the "dystopic" Akiba that Mamoru still wanted to preserve.

2) More fundamentally, why would releasing another game on the heels of the first hit prevent this scenario? The chain of events would likely play out in the exact same way. The only thing that could feasibly prevent the center of otaku gaming from shifting to the US is if Japan had the economic and human capital to "outcomplete" the Western firms on the software front. It's possible that their goal is to motivate other Japanese groups, to demonstrate that the smash-hit wasn't a one-off wonder but something that could be one-upped. But that seems pretty tenuous.

>>37641
Mamoto doesn't seem like an idiot (even if he's a bit of a weirdo when it comes to the PC-98). I would assume he knows you can't have your cake and eat it too in this situation. So much of what they want are mutually exclusive.
It's just a guess, but I think he might have a trick up his sleeve and be secretly planing to undo all of the changes she made so far.


Also, I like how he basically just drew the diagram from BTTF2

Post edited on 9th Dec 2023, 10:43pm

>>37641
>They claim
When do they claim that? Aren't they just planning to overwrite the future again, aiming to get the best of both worlds?
20:20
「わからん。どの道これをやっても多分完全に同じ未来はできない。ただ秋葉に美少女文化は残せるはずだ」
"I don't know. Either way, it's impossible to perfectly bring about the same future, even with this. However, we should be able to preserve bishojo culture in Akiba."

>>37644
Ok you may be right. I was mislead by Konoha's statement that

Dialogue: 0,0:18:36.79,0:18:40.34,Default,Konoha,0,0,0,,There are lots of people who \Nenjoy Akiba as it is now.


But I think you're right when Mamoru says

Dialogue: 0,0:20:00.35,0:20:04.08,Default,Mamoru,0,0,0,,By doing that, Alcohol Soft's \Nsuccess will still exist,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:04.08,0:20:06.66,Default,Mamoru,0,0,0,,while preserving the course \Nof video games in Akiba.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:07.14,0:20:08.05,Default,Mamoru,0,0,0,,In other words,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:08.05,0:20:13.17,Default,Mamoru,0,0,0,,we'll create the course of events that leads \Nto the 2023 you know, here in this 2023.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:13.46,0:20:16.18,Default,Mamoru,0,0,0,,We'll bring both histories into \Nexistence simultaneously!
[spoiler]

He is referring not to [spoiler]the current dystopian akiba and the old akiba when he says "simultaneously" but rather Alcohol-Soft still having released their game, but also still preserving video game culture

So ok that part makes sense, it was just a misunderstanding on my side. The second part of my confusion still remains how, how exactly is releasing a second game going to ensure the center of otaku industry remains in Akiba instead of shifting abroad

Post edited on 9th Dec 2023, 11:11pm

I think people are looking into this a bit too much just to reaffirm their views. Honestly, the American versions presented aren't all that different at the core; the art (American comic style) and demeanor (more serious) changed but that's about it. And I find it interesting that a culture of cute still developed, it just manifested differently. Would be interesting to see which games "replaced" YU-NO and the like.

>>37645
Because doing the thing again to save the day, is a common trope, as well as solutions that require little to no sacrifice or compromise. It's a tonal thing.

For some reason I had dejiko on my mind right before this scene.

I just wanted an anime about VN development and work shenanigans. The only things worthwhile this episode were Mr. Glenn, because I'm a sucker for Americans still being portrayed as blond, and everybody's favorite PC-98sexual. Good grief.

Post edited on 13th Dec 2023, 12:35pm

How hot do you think it'd get in there?

>>37654
Read the manga. It doesn't have the time travelling story and goes into way more detail about the industry.

>>37668
I absolutely will. God bless, anon!

is it stupid to feel a sense of dread when awaiting the next episode of an anime you really like for reasons unrelated to the anime itself?
each new episode of this that releases, i'll go onto different imageboards to talk about it, since i really like this anime and its message, but every time there's some whole thing happening...
>The main character sucks and I hate her! Her voice alone makes this anime unwatchable!
>What? There's suddenly time travel now? This doesn't make sense at all! They need to explain every detail of how every aspect of the universe works in this anime or I'll get lost!
>They should've just done a direct adaptation of the manga! I didn't even know there was manga until someone else told me there was one and I still don't even know what the manga is about, only that it doesn't have any of this nonsensical pseudophilosophical bullshit!
>Huh? Why are there suddenly aliens talking about imagination? This is stupid! It's trying and failing to be like Eva!
or, just random consolewar shitflinging for no particular reason...because this anime just has so much in common with magical destoryers and rumble garandoll i guess.
i thought every episode so far was pretty straightforward...like, to the point where i'm genuinely surprised people got confused.
i don't really understand the people that are genuinely upset about this not being a straight adaptation of the original webcomic, partially because the webcomic doesn't have much of a story going on, so i don't think an anime adaptation would've worked that well to begin with, but also, with how much people complain about it, you'd think there was false advertising or a bait-and-switch, but i was able to deduce that the anime was meant to be an original story that takes place in the webcomic's universe with its characters pretty quickly after just reading the synopsis for the two and spending 5 minutes reading the first chapter of the webcomic. and also seeing that the anime has a subtitle that's not in the original. you'd also think more than 5 people were reading the webcomic before the anime started airing but that's neither here nor there. not to say that anyone is wrong for just wanting the history lesson that's presented in the original, i appreciate both the webcomic and the anime, just that i don't think the two are very comparable since the anime is nearly entirely original.
...this isn't meant to be a response to anyone here in particular, quite the opposite, actually, this place is a lot calmer than some other places, but i just wanted to vent. i get the answer to my dilemma is to just use the internet less, but this is the most social interaction i get, and this anime seems to be relatively niche, so all the other places i visit have some of the only discussion about this anime (in english) that i can find.

Mista Glenn did nothing wrong. By putting Konoha into the tank, she wouldn't be able to talk. But like Shinji, she refuses.
At least I have Echo-chan to look forward to.

(Thank you to the mod that deleted my embarrassment.)

>>37672
I think a big problem with anime discussion is people choosing not to accept when something is going in an unexpected direction. It can be very frustrating but I've learned to tune it out over time. No matter how understandable something is, if it's not what they expected they'll treat it like it's nonsense.

>>37676
I've seen so much stuff at this point that if things go in an unexpected direction I consider it a breath of fresh air. The tried and true formulas work, but it gets dull seeing the same plot lines play out over and over.

It's not so much the deviation, but that the story just isn't good. I was pretty happy about the "aliens" being introduced, and that episode itself was a highlight for me, but what came afterwards is not compelling.

>>37672
>this anime seems to be relatively niche
nyaa is a decent proxy for seasonal popularity, and 16bit Sensation is not even close to niche, and 4/a/ is often posting about it. Niche would be Bullbuster or something of the like.

>>37678
I haven't watched past the episode the aliens were introduced yet, but even if the entirety of the remaining episodes are duds I'll still treasure the first half.

It is of course disappointing though when a strong show falters on the last few episodes. In fact I don't really remember too many shows where this happens, usually it's the other way around where a weak show hits begins to hit its stride midway through.

>>37679
>even if the entirety of the remaining episodes are duds I'll still treasure the first half
And you should. Fun is fun. I was just introducing a counterpoint. But really, I should have known better given the author. TWOGK is quite good, up to a point, but much like this, lost my interest.

Hm I see what is meant about the change at the end.

I actually liked the aliens part, but the "stuff konoha into the matrix" twist felt like a bad end that wasn't supposed to be there. I especially don't like that they made Toya into a villain here, although I suppose that line >>37578 was foreshadowing. Still, it doesn't seem right that despite admiring Konoha she actually wanted Konoha to go along with it just so she could save her company. This isn't a show that needs a villain, and yet Toya is artifically made into one for the sake of plot. Maybe there is some meta-point to doing this, but I don't really see it (other than poking fun at some cliche of "forced action").

And with this diversion, episode 12 now has several plot threads to resolve: not only this issue, but also the original one of restoring the timeline. Maybe in some deus ex-machina the aliens will set everything alright, but then at that point things seems to be straying rather far from the initial thread of the show which was essentially the exploration of art as a medium: we saw this manifest in the show through their game creation which was a labor of love, but also in a meta-role as the show itself paid homage to the greater otaku & doujin culture.

Unless there's some grand Urahara-esque reveal that all these new plot points of matrix abduction & alien deus-ex-machina fit into some ultimate meta-narrative about story telling and artistic expression, then it really seems like they cheapen the original core of the show – it's basically diluting honest, passionate work with cheap action-filler.

Given only one episode to finish on a good note, it wasn't bad, albeit what one would assume. As expected of Echo-chan!

>>37690
I give them credit for not completely reversing everything, and instead the world is a result of a compromise of sorts. (One I would like to live in.) That said, feels like a story that needed more episodes, as usual.

>>37702
Well it's what they said they would do. A bit disappointed that the prediction of >>37690 basically turned out to be true though, and there wasn't any further meta-twist that warranted this side-plot. Although the most obvious twist of having that entire abduction plot be part of the game they were making would be quite clichéd..

Konoha is infinitely cheerful, I wouldn't be able to trust Toya again after those events.

The writers for this anime clearly have some strong opinions about modern game development...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwmYPsrVtUc
This is a nice PV