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Mobile Police Patlabor: Reboot - It was OK, interesting look at a version of Patlabor that evolved from the original crew, I kind of liked the CGI stuff, some of it was a to CG looking, but kind of liked the hands were on the ingrams. I would be happy to see more.

Your Name - Very glad to see it at the cinema! Unquestionably a blu-ray to get. I really liked it, unsuprisingly it was very good looking, the thing that surprised me was just how funny it was.

Also as I went to The Electric to see it (Britians oldest working cinema and right next door to New Street Station so VERY easy to get to one it's a cinema I've been meaning to try for ages) I am very happy to of already booked to see Ghost In The Shell there on 25/1/2017 as its a very nice independent cinema.
 
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0-Episodes 1 and 2

Episodes 1 and 2: Brilliant first couple of episodes. Right off the bat, there were two things I absolutely loved. The first is the character of Mirai and just how realistic the of a child character of that age she is. She's kind of a dick to her little brother because she's older, she doesn't want to be treat like a child anymore, she thinks the world is unfair due to her family circumstances, and, on the whole, she's kind of bratty. But you know what? I was totally that kid too. I too have a younger sibling I was kind of a dick to when I was younger, and I also thought the world was unfair and was jealous of my peers. Honestly, it's just a character that totally rings true for me, and is very relatable, albeit not to my current self. There's also her younger brother Yuuki, whose boundless energy and childishness just makes him a character you instantly care for in wake of the tragedy, and you do kind of feel bad when you see Mirai treat him poorly. The second thing I loved is that it took its time with the whole earthquake thing. It would have been so easy to just have 5 minutes then have the earthquake happen, but here we have the whole first episode to set up the characters and their situation, to establish the status quo, before having everything thrown into discord. The only concern I have at the moment is how the premise is going to stretch another 9 episodes. For how long can you make the aftermath of an earthquake entertaining? I guess I'll see.

Episodes 3 and 4: Okay, so after seeing a couple of post-quake episodes, I still really love it. Although the plot is pretty much just walking, it survives solely on the strength of it's characters and the dynamics of the group. As mentioned above, the brother/sister dynamic is especially great and feels realistic, which makes it easier to get invested. I also like how they still manage to put in some great set piece bits too; seeing Tokyo Tower falling over in episode 4 was awesome.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable-Episode 35

Took me a little while to wrap my head around Bites the Dust's power, but I think I got there. It does raise the question though, can Kira reverse time an hour at will? I think the implication is yes, seeing as he'd have to rewind time to unkill Hayato to plant the bomb on him but I thought I'd see what others thought.
 
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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin - Episode 4

Generally agree with most comments on here about this episode of Origin, I enjoyed it a lot and easily the best episode so far, but I think some of that is down to how familiar a lot feels as it happens in the build up to the OYW.

Yuri!!! On Ice - Episode 8

I found this episode really repetitive and wanted to skip through the skating sequences by the second half of the episode! I had a feeling that this was going to happen.
 
Drifters ep8

Kind of treading water again this week, but I'm hyped for the next one. Dwarf musketeers! The episode title reference is also pretty boss:


MIO~ <3

Diamond is Unbreakable ep35

Still don't feel like I'm going to end up liking DiU more than Stardust Crusaders, but I do admire the show's ability to regain my attention when I feel it's dragging.
 
Drifters-Episode 8

Boy, does this show need a second season. 8 episodes in and I feel like it's barely gotten off the ground.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0-Episodes 5-9

Hmm. Despite my adoration of the initial few episodes, I think my opinion of this series has gone down a bit since those episodes. I still like it and all, and it's a good show, above average, but it's got a couple of issues bringing it down in these later episodes. First of all, I can't help but feel the story is stretched a tad thin. The three characters going across a devastated Japan is pretty neat at first, but after 9 episodes, it's starting to feel a little bit like it's outstaying it's welcome. Part of me thinks that this might have worked better as a movie rather than a TV show. Sure, it probably would have cut out some of the good character stuff, but the shorter running time might have been beneficial. Something else that's bringing it down is that these later episodes are starting to feel very emotionally manipulative. I counted 3 major death fake outs, where it tricks you into thinking someone is dead, only for it to turn around and go "NOPE, EVERYTHING IS ROSY". This definitely took away from the series, as every time I believed it, I just felt cheated afterwards, and if the show *does* decide to actually axe characters, I simply won't believe it's real, taking away any emotional impact it might have had. The fact that everyone's loved ones survive and nothing majorly bad happens to the main characters just doesn't feel right to me. I get the feeling this was trying to be a somewhat realistic take on what would happen if a huge earthquake hit Japan, and I'm sorry, the chances of everything ending happy seems like it would be quite slim. If this show had the balls to actually put the characters in real danger and have them get hurt or have someone die, it would have been much more effective, in my opinion anyway.
 
Occultic;Nine - Episode 8

I still can't decide how much I like this... I mean, I love how off kilter it all is, and how everyone talks at a million miles an hour, and how it's all used to distract you from the subtle hints the show drops throughout. It's almost Durarara like with it's large cast of extraordinary characters, going about their seemingly ordinary business, all intersecting along the way.

But at the same time, I'm not quite on board with the "cause" of everything so far, and I don't quite understand how it intends to wrap up in another 4 episodes with the amount of story threads it's waving around.
 
Classicaloid ep 6. Bach is kind of awesome.

Izetta: The Last Witch ep 7.

Kiss Him, Not Me ep 6. Shipping wars are always entertaining.

Long Riders ep 5.

Occultic;Nine ep 5-6. Well, that raised more questions than it answered. I'm finding this surprisingly compelling, though I can't put my finger on why.
 
Yuri!!! on ICE - Episodes 01-06

Not sure how this managed to upset the small minority it has*, this is genuinely fantastic. It's funny, charming, cute and moving. It's been a while since I've felt compelled to watch 6 episodes of a show in a day. It looks fantastic, but mostly it presents me with characters I want to succeed even though it's impossible. There's not a single character I don't want to win the competition (except maybe that Swiss guy, but I don't exactly dislike him).
*Let's be honest, I think we all know exactly why...

My only complaint is that Victor seems have steered aggressively into Manic Pixie Dream Guy territory and does not appear to be coming out anytime soon. It's like the character has no life outside of drinking and trying to coax Yuri out of his shell. It's somewhat disappointing to see it falling back on such a well worn trope, given how excellent the rest of the show is. I like the rest of the show so much that I'm more than willing to forgive it this anyway.
 
What an absolute load. Implying that people who don't like the show only don't like it because it's gay and not because it's an awful show just because they disagree with you is quite offensive. Personally, I haven't a clue how anyone finds it funny or charming or anything of the sort, and saying it's compelling is just laughable because it's one of the dullest slogs I've had to endure.
 
There's a difference between people who aren't interested in it, and people upset by it who moan about certain elements of YOI as though they spoil everything the show is trying to do when it's just their own homophobia speaking, and I'm pretty sure the latter group exists as I've heard them moaning endlessly about those elements too. Nothing Buzz said was implying anything else. Heck, he even included rational criticism.

Even setting aside my personal liking of the show which I have defended in two separate debates now, I feel it's objectively decent unless you passionately, passionately hate ice skating, adult characters, feel-good sports shows or same-sex romance (in which case yeah, it'll be a slog, because personal preferences have that effect). I just don't get how it can be seen as lower quality than some of the absolute dreck that passes muster each season.

R
 
Rui said:
Heck, he even included rational criticism.
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I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this, but are you trying to say my criticism is irrational?

Rui said:
I just don't get how it can be seen as lower quality than some of the absolute dreck that passes muster each season.
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Objectively, I cannot say that YOI is the worst show this season. I can't say any show is the worst show of any season, I pick up a very small amount amount of shows per season, less than 10, when there are easy 40-50 simulcasts every season. Whilst it is very easily the worst show I've seen this season, there is a very high posability there is something worse. However, unlike those other shows, which I imagine everyone will either ignore or just dump on from week to week, YOI is a show that is put on a pedestal. It's praised from everyone, from all angles, and that's what ticks me off. Everyone is acting like it's this 10/10 amazing show, when it just isn't, in my opinion. It's a less than average show that's being treat like the second coming of Christ in anime form. I'm just sick of hearing about it from everywhere. I'm actually looking forward to the next season when everyone will forget about it and just move on to whatever the next hot commodity is.
 
I'm with Rui, the rest of the show is so fantastic, so brilliant, that even if you don't like the show, I think it's pure competence at everything it does would prevent anyone from being too negative. I can buy criticisms that the show was being missold and it isn't a great sports show, but then I'm not convinced it wants to be. I think it's clear that's it's trying to be a romantic comedy/drama with sports, rather than a sports drama. I understand that people might be upset by that, but the sports stuff is really well done.

It seems to me like a lot of this criticism is unfairly disproportionate to the show's actual problems. I have noticed a few people seemingly try and hide their homophobia by disproportionately emphasising other criticisms and rather bluntly, I know too many people that (discretely) dropped the show after learning the contents of Episode 7, without presenting legitimate criticisms for me to believe it isn't homophobia.

It's nice that you want to believe the best of people. But I think a lot of people have noticed the anime community's weird dichotomy between being a place where lots of LGBTQ people reside and a place where lots of casual homophobia/transphobia and just general socially regressive views persist.


IncendiaryLemon said:
Objectively, I cannot say that YOI is the worst show this season. I can't say any show is the worst show of any season, I pick up a very small amount amount of shows per season, less than 10, when there are easy 40-50 simulcasts every season. Whilst it is very easily the worst show I've seen this season, there is a very high posability there is something worse. However, unlike those other shows, which I imagine everyone will either ignore or just dump on from week to week, YOI is a show that is put on a pedestal. It's praised from everyone, from all angles, and that's what ticks me off. Everyone is acting like it's this 10/10 amazing show, when it just isn't, in my opinion. It's a less than average show that's being treat like the second coming of Christ in anime form. I'm just sick of hearing about it from everywhere. I'm actually looking forward to the next season when everyone will forget about it and just move on to whatever the next hot commodity is.
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Sadly for you, I'm not sure people will move on from Yuri!!! on ICE. The purported contents of episode 7 alone will probably stop that from happening. Free! made one of it's characters explicitly gay/bisexual before, but Yuri!!! on ICE is having the guts to reciprocate and actually depict them doing romantic things is unexpected and brave. Especially given the casual homophobia rampant amongst the anime community, any show that took an LGBTQ relationship seriously and wasn't just doing it for fujo-bait. (The title is spoiler tagged, because it happens in a part of the show not legally available in the West yet.)

Plus, even if you take the social aspects out of the show, it's still a fantastic romance.
 
Buzz201 said:
I'm with Rui, the rest of the show is so fantastic, so brilliant, that even if you don't like the show, I think it's pure competence at everything it does would prevent anyone from being too negative.
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Pure competence? I wouldn't call a show where all the comedy is about as funny falls flat, where all the characters are boring, unlikable or just plain annoying and full of boring sequences competent in any way, shape of form.

Buzz201 said:
It seems to me like all of this criticism is unfairly disproportionate to the show's actual problems. I have noticed a few people seemingly try and hide their homophobia by disproportionately emphasising other criticisms and rather bluntly, I know too many people that (discretely) dropped the show after learning the contents of Episode 7, without presenting legitimate criticisms for me to believe it isn't homophobia.
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Just because you don't see the problems doesn't mean they aren't big for other people. To just write them off like that when people like me take such issue with almost element of the show just because you disagree is absurd.

Buzz201 said:
Sadly for you, I'm not sure people will move on from Yuri!!! on ICE. The purported contents of episode 7 alone will probably stop that from happening. Free! made one of it's characters explicitly gay/bisexual before, but Yuri!!! on ICE is having the guts to reciprocate and actually depict them doing romantic things is unexpected and brave. Especially given the casual homophobia rampant amongst the anime community, any show that took an LGBTQ relationship seriously and wasn't just doing it for fujo-bait. (The title is spoiler tagged, because it happens in a part of the show not legally available in the West yet.)
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At least I won't have to hear about it week to week or see a ton of screenshots or whatever, that's good enough for me.

Buzz201 said:
Plus, even if you take the social aspects out of the show, it's still a fantastic romance.
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That's very debatable.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this, but are you trying to say my criticism is irrational?



YOI is a show that is put on a pedestal. It's praised from everyone, from all angles, and that's what ticks me off. Everyone is acting like it's this 10/10 amazing show, when it just isn't, in my opinion. It's a less than average show that's being treat like the second coming of Christ in anime form.
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Reminds me of another few shows.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
Pure competence? I wouldn't call a show where all the comedy is about as funny falls flat, where all the characters are boring, unlikable or just plain annoying and full of boring sequences competent in any way, shape of form.

Just because you don't see the problems doesn't mean they aren't big for other people. To just write them off like that when people like me take such issue with almost element of the show just because you disagree is absurd.
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Let's get this out of the way, a lot of your opinions on the characters are just flat out wrong. A lot of the development of Yuri is subtle, the show isn't trying to thrust everything in your face. A lot of it is from his reactions and implied in the discussions of his past. I can see why you might not pick up on it if you aren't 100% in for the show, but it's definitely there. (And given my general lack of social knowledge, it can't be that hidden either.)

Yurio isn't supposed to be likeable and he isn't. But most of the audience likes him despite that. I think it's rather childish viewpoint of the world to assume that people are either completely bad or good. You can like him and want him to succeed, whilst acknowledging that he's an immature, selfish brat.

I have already expressed my disappointment at the lack of development for Victor, but I'm only 6 episodes in. It has 6 episodes left to give him some and to be fair, it has just hinted it might do something about his relationship with Yakov. If I'm being completely honest, I only noticed the MPDG thing because somebody specifically asked if I thought the characters were developed enough. If they hadn't asked, I would never have even realised, that's how unimportant it was for me in the grand scheme of things.

To be honest, and perhaps a tad harsh, it seems to me like YoI is just a little too subtle for you. You wants something a bit more obvious, that plays it's cards more overtly. That's not a problem, but not doing so doesn't make YoI a bad show, it just makes it not for you.
 
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