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Magical girl collage.jpg

Starting this Saturday (1st Feb), be sure to join us over at the forum's simulwatch area for the magical girl retrospective, as we chart a course through over 50 years of transforming, world-saving, mischief-making, singing, dancing, sometimes PTSD-suffering allies of love and justice. Whether you're a life-long magical girl otaku or someone who wouldn't know a Kyubey if one jumped up and bit you on the end of your... never mind. The point is: all are welcome.

Watching and commenting on one episode per day, we will dive through the first 1-3 episodes of a dozen shows to see how the genre evolved through the decades. Many landmark series are represented, and most of the shows are available to stream in the UK. Follow the full watchlist or just drop in to comment on a few shows that intrigue you; the choice is yours! Don't miss the chance to say, "I was there!" when future generations speak in awed whispers of this epic simulwatch.

There's really only one question: will you trust the talking cat?
YES / NO

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Professor Irony said:
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex ep1-12 (rewatch, English dub)

The passage of time only makes me appreciate SAC more, I think we’ve still never seen any other sci-fi procedural top how consistently good it is. Been rewatching it with a friend and it’ll likely be a while before we can get back to it, but I look forward to picking it up again, as we were just short of Yen, Euro, Dollar (¥€$) one of my favourite episodes.
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Totally agree with this. I'm in same situation as you, been watching through GitS with my partner recently and am slightly ahead of you but have also had to take a break recently. But it's such a pleasant slice of some top notch very early 00s anime, it holds up incredibly well. The writing, visuals and music are all excellent. And it's probably only improved with age as most of its themes and ideas seem more relevant than ever really. So far there hasn't been a bad episode.
 
Finished Trigun Stampede.
As a Trigun super-fan I have complicated feelings on this one. Partly because you can see so many tiny things that prove the people making this new adaptation are also Trigun super-fans. They have announced a continuation and I'm interested to see how it shapes up.

Watched Liz and the Blue Bird (have not seen Sound! Euphonium). That was nice.
 
Dr. STONE: Science Future Episode 4

Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest Episode 4

The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World Episode 4
 
Dr. Stone: Science Future episode 4 Trail of flowers.

Momentary Lily episode 5 Value.

Rurouni Kenshin -Kyoto Disturbance- episode 40 Symbol.

Trillion Game episode 17 Collateral.

Dragon Ball GT episodes 58-64 & Dragon Ball GT: A Hero’s Legacy (Special) (Complete. GT is a flawed successor to Z that, especially in the wake of Super, feels less impactful to the overall franchise. With that said, there were some highlights and it was neat to see some what-ifs post-Z, even if de-ageing Goku felt gimmicky, and has been better executed so far with Daima.) 3/5
 
Dai said:
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Starting this Saturday (1st Feb), be sure to join us over at the forum's simulwatch area for the magical girl retrospective, as we chart a course through over 50 years of transforming, world-saving, mischief-making, singing, dancing, sometimes PTSD-suffering allies of love and justice. Whether you're a life-long magical girl otaku or someone who wouldn't know a Kyubey if one jumped up and bit you on the end of your... never mind. The point is: all are welcome.

Watching and commenting on one episode per day, we will dive through the first 1-3 episodes of a dozen shows to see how the genre evolved through the decades. Many landmark series are represented, and most of the shows are available to stream in the UK. Follow the full watchlist or just drop in to comment on a few shows that intrigue you; the choice is yours! Don't miss the chance to say, "I was there!" when future generations speak in awed whispers of this epic simulwatch.

There's really only one question: will you trust the talking cat?
YES / NO

View attachment 38263
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One thing that amazes me is that whenever magical girl series are discussed one that never gets mentioned is the excellent Maho Shoujo Tai Arusu (literally Magical Girl Squad Alice) which was released in the us under the idiotic "Tweeny Witches".
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One thing that amazes me is that whenever magical girl series are discussed one that never gets mentioned is the excellent Maho Shoujo Tai Arusu (literally Magical Girl Squad Alice) which was released in the us under the idiotic "Tweeny Witches".
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I haven't seen that one, and I think I did ignore it because of that title!
 
Dai said:
I haven't seen that one, and I think I did ignore it because of that title!
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MAL says it's also an isekai. 2004, so the very tail end of the traditional isekai shows that were mostly shoujo with female leads rather than the switch to mostly male lead power fantasies later in the decade. Most traditional MGS are in a modern setting aren't they?
It's by Studio 4°C which have a good record of nice looking stuff and also 40 episodes long, but 9 minutes each!?
 
Orgun said:
My Macross - Do You Remember Love 4k set arrived today from Amazon Japan 😁. I was expecting it Monday and was going to watch it next weekend but I am going to try and squeeze in a watch of it on Sunday.
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Lucky you. My copy arrived at the local DHL delivery office this morning... and then somehow got sent to the opposite end of the country. Current status is "Shipment arrived at incorrect facility. It will be sent to the correct destination for delivery". 🤦‍♂️ I guess whoever loaded the vans this morning needed more coffee.
 
The Most Notorious Talker
Finished
By the end I was thinking that Noel isn't very nice.
Had a pretty decent ending in that if that's it, fair enough.

I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History
Finished
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Less action than I like but loved the ending. Made me really want a S2.
 
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio eps 9-12 (complete)
Reaching 120%!
Pretty fun show about the stresses and strains of being a VA. I'm sure it's not 100% accurate to what it's really like, but equally didn't paint everything as being all sweetness and rainbows either like other shows I've seen. I think the best bit was the interaction between the two main characters as love/hate relationship over their acting.
The art and animation wasn't spectacular, but not bad either.
7/10
 
Dragon Ball Daima episode 16 Third eye.

I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I'll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time episode 4 Terrifying sound.

Sorairo Utility (TV) episode 5 Sweat and swing.

Tasokare Hotel episode 5 Spruced up.

Dragon Century OVA A middling fantasy OVA from the late 80s and not much to write home about. 2.5/5

Dragon Crisis episodes 1-12 (Complete. Not a bad watch but the last few episodes weren’t all that great.) 3/5

Dragon’s Heaven OVA The artwork here was nice but otherwise not overly worth the short investment time. 2/5
 
D1tchd1gger said:
MAL says it's also an isekai. 2004, so the very tail end of the traditional isekai shows that were mostly shoujo with female leads rather than the switch to mostly male lead power fantasies later in the decade. Most traditional MGS are in a modern setting aren't they?
It's by Studio 4°C which have a good record of nice looking stuff and also 40 episodes long, but 9 minutes each!?
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This got me thinking about the overlap between magical girls and isekai. The most obvious example would be Magic Knight Rayearth, but I started looking at other shows in a different way.

Could Utena be considered an isekai? We never see the world outside the academy, but the movie in particular implies that it's like another world. It's an unusual case where we only see the surreal otherworld, and have no way to gauge whether it's significantly different from the outside.

To flip it around the other way, The Vision of Escaflowne is obviously isekai, but is it also a magical girl show? Hitomi doesn't correspond to any of the more marketable tropes of transformations, catchphrases and gadgets, but her fortune-telling does turn into real magic when she crosses over to the other world. Like a magical girl, it's a power unique to her, not something everyone in that world can do.
 
I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time Episode 4

I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class Episode 5

Sorairo Utility Episode 5

Übel Blatt  Episode 4

Welcome to Japan, Miss Elf! Episode 4
 
Blue Exorcist - The Blue Night Saga episode 5 Simple rules.

Medalist episode 5 The way you are.

Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Know What She's Saying episode 5 Shirt shopping.

Sakamoto Days episode 5 Tapes.

Solo Levelling: Arise from the Shadows episode 17 Sluggish.

Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel episodes 1-21
 
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War (English Dub) Episode 40

Beheneko: The Elf-Girl's Cat is Secretly an S-Ranked Monster! Episode 6

I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! Episode 4

I'm Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? Episode 5

Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Knew What She's Saying Episode 5

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2 Episode 16
 
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