• 1 Post
  • 38 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 14th, 2023
  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoAnime@ani.social•Anime with a high death count that's actually good?English
    4·
    2 months ago

    The deeper question here is what interests you about about having a high body count in an anime?

    If it’s about pure numbers, you can’t beat Apocalypse Hotel; every human dies or flees the planet by the end of the first episode. The show itself, however, doesn’t really linger on that. It’s just the setup for how a bunch of robots cope and find usefulness after all the humans are gone. It’s life-affirming.

    If you’re interested in general bleakness and existential dread, where anything can happen to anyone at any time, I’d recommend Made in Abyss and Sonny Boy. These are two VERY different series. Made in Abyss falls into the newly coined “guro-moe” genre (purposely-designed chibi characters dealing with gut-wrenchingly painful situations) where the main characters are compelled to face increasingly dire and morally complex scenarios in service of a Sisyphean quest from which they may never return. Sonny Boy starts with a well-worn “floating classroom” trope, but quickly turns into a dense meditation on existential philosophy. Taken in isolation, you’ll find yourself constantly playing catch-up to understand what the hell is going on. If you decide to try this one out, I strongly recommend following up each episode by reading Steve Jones’ episode reviews on Anime News Network, which really help unpack the action and provides context clues to a lot of the philosophical musings the show gets into.

    These may not be exactly what you had in mind. Two others that I read about that might be up your alley are Death Parade and Alice in Borderland, but I haven’t watched or read either of them.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoAnime@ani.social•Maebashi Witches - Episode 2 discussionEnglish
    1·
    7 months ago

    I’m watching the subtitled version and don’t speak Japanese, but I get the sense that the rapid-fire dialogue may be serving some fun comedic timing that doesn’t translate via subtitles. The first episode had a frenetic energy that seemed to jive with that kind of tone.

    But this second episode, oof. The charm wore off fast, and the entire purpose seemed to just be a dumping ground for Azu to treat everyone like a gigantic turd while the entire cast absorbed it and never reacted. That’s a lot of lost opportunities for character moments.

    I will give the show at least one more episode purely to see where they’re going with this Azu plot twist.

    Anime Feminist right now: 😬

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoAnime@ani.social•Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 - PV (January 2026)English
    3·
    9 months ago

    It all depends on how you define and categorize morality.

    The Tolkien dilemma reasoned that since orcs could talk and demonstratively discuss the ideas of right and wrong, then they have some sense of morality. If they have reason and morals, could they at some point decide to stop being evil? And if so, is it moral to eradicate them entirely?

    I haven’t read the Frieren manga, but the show referred to its world’s demons as not actually speaking, but having learned to make human-like noises to elicit desired responses. I’m not sure if I buy that explanation (given how the characters behave and converse) but if you do, it’s a functional hedge against feeling bad about our beloved protagonist doing a genocide.

    Again, the manga might get into this more. Also this could be a potential character arc for Frieren; whoop lol maybe I shouldn’t do a genocide after all. I do hope it goes this way, but I doubt it will.