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Think you can prank OUR Patreon? We’ll show YOU. Here’s TWO episodes this month (technically, by a few hours)! The DECADE IN REVIEW~! continues as we finally get to talking about 2017, now that 2020 is more than halfway done at this point.
Introduction (0:00 – 19:57)
Anime North did their virtual convention, and we dug it quite a bit. One channel, lots of pretty cool topics and presentations, AND they saved the VODs on Twitch! Of course, Twitch VODs are removed after a few days, so here’s hoping they export those VODs and put them up on Youtube or something. They could also manually select the whole broadcasts as Highlights, but nobody remembers to do that. Not even professional Twitch streamers do that.
On Saturday August 1st–whoa, that’s TOMORROW–Otakon Online will be going into effect with SIX SIMULTANEOUS STREAMS, and Gerald rightfully questions whether the law of diminishing returns has set in. Daryl will soon find out, for a highly truncated version of Thirty Years Ago: Anime in 1990 will (almost) kick off Otakon Online over at this link, 10:30 AM Saturday morning. Wait, who the heck is awake at 10:30 AM on a Saturday morning?! Especially for a VIRTUAL convention! There’s quite a bit on the schedule, but if you’re reading this then do show up and let’s at least try for some mid double digit viewership, shall we?
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (19:57 – 22:08)
Right as soon as Daryl’s Otakon virtual panel ends, Right Stuf’s panel begins (albeit in a different room). They’ll be sure to announce some new licenses and unleash some brand new Gundam release details, some of which may even have to do with…Gundam NT. Which is about to be released. Real soon now. In fact, you can rent it digitally now.
The DECADE IN REVIEW~!: 2017 (22:08 – 2:19:12)
This was a year where most of us had a fairly low amount of titles selected. We’d state what those titles are in the show notes and maybe even the Review Index in the interest of accessibility, but that would require us having to remember what we talked about and when, or at least write down what was talked about and when. That’s like, work and stuff. All you need remember is that 2017 had some really great stuff…and some very strong candidates for Actually the Worst Anime of the Entire Decade.
Just a small correction. Funimation released Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid on home video here, not Overprice of America. I just ordered it from Right Stuf and look forward to receiving it (and the rest of my order).
Worth mentioning Seikaisuru Kado. It starts out fairly interesting as a first encounter with aliens sort of show. However, it devolves into a magical girl defeating the yandere alien baddie in the end…. Also worth noting that the writer for it is Nozaki Mado, who goes on to get another one of his works, Babylon, adapted. That one deserves a review for what a trainwreck it became.
Another bad show worth laughing at is Ousama Game the Animation. A classroom suddenly gets mysterious texts that force them to play along or get punished. It has hilarious leaps of logic like one girl not wanting to die, so she decides to commit suicide because dying would be horrible.
I’m glad you finally aired your feelings about *Re:Creators*, since you’ve been muttering about it in earlier episodes, and I was curious about your (unanimous) negative reaction to the series. I guess I’m still puzzled by the strength of your negative reactions.
I enjoyed the series a great deal — going so far as to revisit it last year. And I note that it got consistently good reviews at ANN, both from the reviewer and the community rating.
I think Gerald’s analogy of the antagonist to an evil Hatsune Miku is completely off-base — Altair was the obscure original character of an obscure doujinshi artist who happened to gain a following among habitues of Pixiv, not a major commercial phenomenon — so I didn’t have that misconception standing in the way of my suspension of disbelief. [I said that, then corrected myself to say Black Rock Shooter, but the point is that in that world the character should not have been seen as obscure among a cast consisting of otaku! –Daryl]
I enjoyed the reversal of the isekai cliche — the fictional characters come into our world instead of the bland nebbish going off to fulfill wishes in a fantasy setting. I thought there was a good variety in the characters from the fictional settings, and I liked the way the various characters interacted (the knight and the magical girl, the chaotic evil magical-schoolgirl-with-fangs. I also enjoyed the characterization of the principal protagonists, the interactions of the characters with their creators, the use of social media to engage fans within the show in order to give characters new powers, the various scenes of magical characters interacting with a government bureaucracy, and the games played with the question of theodicy — that is, the characters confronting their creators with the suffering that the creators had made in the characters’ worlds. All that stuff struck me as entertaining. [The reason we hate this show so much is precisely because all of these things are present in the show and are mishandled. That is in fact why it’s so maddening; because all of those are interesting concepts to explore. –Daryl]
I’ll agree that the central nebbish was a variation on your typical self-insert character, and even if that was a deliberate choice, he could probably have been handled better (though I think someone’s suggestion that the series would have been improved by having Altair be *his* creation was a terrible idea). [That is indeed a terrible idea, but that is not “the big terrible thing he did which he feels immense guilt over which they walked back from.” The suggestion given is in fact that “he should have been responsible for starting the online trolling of her creator and participated in it himself.” –Daryl] But I think the other characters made up for the central nebbish’s failings — enough so that I hesitate to label him the “main character” more than any of the others (really it was more of a “main ensemble”).
So, yeah: you guys missed the boat on *Re:Creators*. [It appears that you missed the boat on everything I said about it, so we’ll call it even. –Daryl]
Feh: Instead of Black Rock Shooter, think one of the more obscure Touhou characters. Not even otaku (outside that particular fandom) can keep *them* straight, or would even recognize a modified form of one of them.
So, you think that stuff was there but mishandled. I think it was there, and handled just fine. Shrug.
And I think you’re incredibly butthurt.
Just finished the ep, really loving these yearly wrap ups. I thought you might’ve missed one of my favorite shows from recent memory, Mysteria Friends, but it turns out my brain is full of worms and that was a 2019 show! I hope it makes an appearance on that year’s review. It’s a politely horny, shockingly heartwarming Yuri show that looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to that mobage money (that’s “moba” from mobairu/mobile and “ge” from gemu/game; love you Gerald).
Looking at my own list, I don’t think you missed anything. I enjoyed the Blame! movie that came out that year but your opinions on Polygon Pictures are well known so I can’t count that as a miss. I hadn’t heard of Haikara-San but now I’ll definitely be checking it out when the rest comes out over here.
Regarding Black Clover, I read through the manga on the Viz’s Jump app (best deal in manga or anime) and really enjoyed it. It’s got an incredibly strong and fun supporting cast and I found the premise of the first big arc (first 100-ish chapters or so) an excellent little bit of fantasy worldbuilding that reminded me of the central plots in games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. But when I went to the anime to see some of the hype fights in motion, it really let me down. While my preference for consuming shounen epics has definitely turned toward manga over anime these last few years the BC show felt flat and sloppy in ways that MHA never did even at its worst. It definitely scratched a fantasy itch for me but I would stick to the manga if anyone’s thinking of diving in.
I am a bit surprised that Gerald liked Dragon Maid even though one of the characters is a shotacon.
I’m in the minority with Kemono Friends. I watched the first episode and felt I got dumber by the end of the episode for what was happening overall. I didn’t care about the bad animation but the actions of the main characters’ were just so dumb that I immediately stop watching beyond episode 1.
You guys missed Bang Dream since it’s very popular at the moment. I do enjoy more than Love Live due to it being closer to music I like. General idol music isn’t my thing while girl rock bands works for me (even though the main band is closer to idol music). I should mention after season 1 that the show went full CG for seasons 2 and 3.
Atom the Beginning I feel like it was meant to be something else until someone had the great idea of converting it to be an Astro Boy prequel. I probably put Young Blackjack and Gundam Thunderbolt in the same category as Atom the Beginning. Gundam Thunderbolt is better than those two but I can’t get over why a Gundam with 4 arms existing at the same time as the original Gundam piloted by Amuro. 4 arm Gundam is more of a Gundam Unicorn thing not UC0079.
The third Made in Abyss movie was supposed to be screened in US theaters back in April but some disease ruined that.
I have heard complaints about the dance scenes not being animated in the way they hoped to be in Welcome to the Ballroom.
I forgot about the Reflection being in 2017. It had an unique style to it and one of the biggest slow rolls with the four high school girls. Also it was the last major project that Stan Lee did before his death.
I did watch BlendS when it originally aired. My friend kept playing the meme which I decided “If you are going to keep memeing the show, you will watch the first episode.” I also do a weekly group watching with friends which after watching the first episode, my friend wanted to watch the rest of the series which we did.
You guys didn’t talk about the greatest anime with the best elderly protagonist ever in Inuyashiki. It even had the Donald in it.
I think Black Clover gets a bad rap in the beginning is that Asta’s VA just constantly screamed all his lines. Eventually either I got used to it or he calmed down a bit. Also it takes shounen awhile to get going so taking 20-30 episodes before it gets good fits Black Clover.
I would vote Dies irae as being a contender for worst anime of 2017. That show made no sense at all and regret watching episode 0 and 1.
As you spent more time talking about Little Witch Academia’s presence on Netflix than the show itself, I’d like to praise it as my favourite show of 2017 and one of the most delightful shows of the decade. I’m speaking as a lapsed otaku who only watches three or four new anime shows a year, and LWA, in all its forms – the two OVAs and the full series – was a constant joy and I loved every minute of it. It’s so much more than “anime Harry Potter”. Actually, it’s closer to anime Worst Witch, with Akko a more confident and boisterous Mildred Hubble. Akko’s such a reckless foolhardy goofball. I loved her. I love the show just for the range of expressions on Akko’s face. She has so many faces. She might have more facial expressions than any other anime character. The antipode to Golgo 13.
It feels like something to show to non-anime fans. Most anime high school show cliches are absent or reinvigorated into something less off-putting for potential new viewers. Despite Akko’s short skirt there are no lascivious angles or suggestiveness, and again I lamented the fact that the current mainstream perception of anime is still that it’s all creepy and perverted (People are giving Miyazaki what he wants and don’t think of the Ghibli films as “anime”). I mean, what does it say when you watch a show and are relieved that it doesn’t grossly sexualise teenage girls? Anyway, it’s a non-stop parade of exuberant fun with Looney Tunes-esque fluid animation, and distinctive character designs, where everyone can be recognised in silhouette. For an anime show set in a girl’s school, that’s bloody impressive.
Apart from the 70’s and 80’s catalogue of Diskotek releases, these days the tastes of AWO and myself rarely intersect, which makes for fascinating listening, as so many of the shows that you’re all passionate about leave me indifferent. Not that I think they’re bad, but I don’t feel excited about most of them. Little Witch Academia is a show I’m passionate about. Watching it makes me feel really good. It has what I call the Kill La Kill effect: I watch it and love it so goddamn much that it resurrects my dormant anime obsession and I want to watch more anime right now.
The first few chapters of Made in Abyss do have an… above average amount of fanservice. That falls away once the adventure begins, though, so it’s worth reading if you can’t wait for the new movie.
In Tokyo we’re actually getting close 500 corona cases daily… I know it’s peanuts compared to the US, but it’s still a lot!
This year didn’t register for me at all. I actually did my own look back at a decade of anime (from 2008 – 2018… between when I was 20 and 30 *dies*) and I had nothing for 2017, except for maybe the last Kizumonogatari movie?
I was aware of a lot of the major titles brought up here, but none of them really click with my sensibilities. However Haikara-san seems like it could be aight if I get past the shojo character designs. Also do need to check out the LWA show. Meant do it when it was on, but… work…
Just as I was coming to terms of being addicted to new episodes of AWO, fully aware they cannot come faster than once a month.
Made in Abyss was one of the few “current” shows I watched (I am insanely picky and prefer older stuff in general), because the sheer amount of CARE shined through. The pacing, the camera framing, the ATMOSPHERE?? Those things are almost as important as deep characters and a plot that makes sense. You gotta have good timing/editing and scene-appropriate atmosphere atmosphere to help immersion, the secret ingredient of good anime (and any show for that matter). Successfully selling you the mood in visual storytelling is a must.
Also, glad you kept the intro for all these years. Keep it forever, it is classic. And not only that: if you ever say something factually inaccurate, or, gods forbid, dumb, you can always point at the intro and say “We warned you, but you didn’t listen!”