So I’m a dirty pirate and I always thought that at the end of the episode during the “letters to home” gag, I just had a bad copy of S1 and S2 and they were unintentionally cut short. But even in this episode, the letter was cut off… so I guess that’s the way they are supposed to be?

Sylvia is underappreciated

Can someone sell me on the appeal of this anime?

I thought they were just paying someone to half assedly maintain MAL for the last few years, but it turns out they were paying someone to build a back end and create a browsable database so they can sell user’s information for their own profit.

I have only seen the first season. I went in knowing as much about the series as you, being aware that it is a popular franchise but knowing nothing else.

I had my expectations pretty low when I started the first episode. The turning point for me was at the end of the episode when one of the main characters says “Baka, baka” after something completely stupid and ridiculous happens, that’s when my brain went “Oh it is OK to laugh at this, they are just being silly in this show.”

Then the rest of the season was a goofy ride full of anime harem shenanigans. On a technical level, DAL isn’t really special, though the characters, character designs, absurdity of the setting and the OVA punch above their weight.

And the idol spin off series, Love Live

I liked when Summer said “Space Momma” because that was cute.

The animation actually looks good but I dislike the character designs and art style. I know they picked an action sequence to show off, but the real meat of R&M has always been the comedy - I wonder how that will translate with a Japanese production team at the helm.

Weird to think that R&M has been around for 10 years already. Maybe even as recently as 3 years ago I was still really hyped about this show and I would have been more excited, but now I am just sorta like “meh.”

I’m just here to provide the standard PSA saying that you are free to make up your own opinion about anime instead of having someone on Youtube tell you what to think. The amount of people who don’t seem to realize this is depressing.

As the viewer, you’re not required to like Makoto. As a character, I thought he was great. He felt extremely human as the kind of guy who let his dick make all of his decisions for him and tried too hard to please everyone at once.

Anyone else notice that MAL locked their forum discussion on this same topic for the reason of “Please refrain from posting thread topics which extend beyond the discussion of anime/manga as an entertainment medium.”

What kind of brain dead take is that? There was nothing controversial happening in that thread, then still locked anyway.

I’ve been holding out on JJK season 2 all this time. I finally watched 22 episodes over the last few days and am going to watch episode 23 after I have dinner tonight.

I’ve enjoyed it a lot despite knowing about the production issues behind the scenes. I guess I am just greedy, but while watching I have just been thinking, “OK, can’t wait til season 3 comes out.”

Kind of a “whoa dude” moment to realize we have gotten 45 episodes and a movie of top tier animation in just about 3 years. Remember how we all had to wait 3.5 years in between Attack On Titan seasons 1 and 2, and it was just for 12 episodes?

ClariS - Irony - OreImo season 1 OP

It’s so gahdamn catchy

Are you familiar with Monster? Both this and Pluto are anime adaptations based on the same author’s work.

Pluto felt like a distilled version of Monster in the way that it built its mystery up over only 8 episodes rather than 74. The beginning part of Pluto did a good job of evoking that same feeling of tension and fascination that made Monster so enjoyable to me.

There were times during Pluto where the dialogue felt obnoxiously obvious, clearly providing exposition that the audience didn’t really need. These moments pulled me out of the show a bit. Off the top of my head as one example: in one scene there is an explosion, there is a 0.5-1s pause, then one of the characters says, “It’s an explosion!” Thanks, script writer, much halp, very explain.

Though even despite those moments, and also even despite its kind of unbelievable concept of robots exploring emotions, Pluto did a good job of pulling me in and I was able to suspend my disbelief for most of the series.

I liked it more than I disliked it. Would recommend it to any fans of this author or people who are interested in sci-fi murder mysteries.

Cereal Experiments Lain

Thanks for the news roundup. I know it probably takes more time than you want and gets fewer votes than it would on Reddit or something, but it is good to see here.

More recently, Nishii Terumi (former animation director for JJK 0 and Jojo), posted to twitter (stop trying to make X happen) about problems training talent (English article) due to studios focusing on profits rather than talent development.

Sakuga Blog has been pushing the “anime is dying because the talent is being stretched too thin and/or not being cultivated properly” angle for a long time. At first I thought it was overly alarmist, though maybe we are actually seeing it in real time and we just don’t realize it. After all, it’s not like there will be one day where suddenly every studio in Japan stops producing anime, it will of course be a gradual change.

Shimoneta is misunderstood by people because they think it’s only a lewd ecchi show. However, while it does have sex jokes, it is actually a story exploring the idea of censorship - it takes that idea in an absurdly extreme direction to a point where the government bans all mention of sex and there is an underground rebellion that fights against them called SOX. I think this show has only become funnier and more relevant as time has passed.

One of my favorite recurring gags in the series is how whenever Anna chases Okuma, she’s wielding another bizarre weapon: tongs, a bug catching net, etc - the implication being that she doesn’t even know what a penis looks like because she has lived in a censored world throughout her entire life.

“Jujutsu 0 probably shouldn’t have been completed in terms of production time. If we set a precedent that it can be made in that time frame, it will only make things more difficult in the future.“ (Itsuki Tsuchigami, episode director)

“The worst cycle is when the staff members all somehow manage to complete a schedule that would be impossible to meet under normal circumstances, while seeing hell, and the higher-ups who only saw the results misunderstand and neglect to improve, thinking ‘It’s not that bad, it can be done!’ I wonder if the beginning of this was when they completed a movie in four months…“ (Sota Shigetsugu, key animator)

I’m sure we’ve all met that boss at work who saw you bust your ass 150% one time then somehow expects that to be the norm every day, all day. Expectations like this are unreasonable, dehumanizing, utterly lacking in empathy, and also ignorant of the actual expertise required for the job at hand.

Seeing these opinions come to light puts me as a fan into a bad position. I really love this anime series and wish to support the art, but I disagree with the way the studio treats its animators and also the way the studio attempts to silence them when they do speak out. If you enjoy the show and praise it, then you are indirectly supporting MAPPA’s poor policies - on the other hand, if you choose to boycott the show, does it even accomplish anything?

In the event there is a lengthy production delay like Ojisan, Zom100 or Nier, at least I made the right call by not starting season 2 yet. Though… I might feel icky while watching it, despite how much I like the story itself.