Anime

[Andross Darkheart]

I just finished the first season of So I'm a Spider, So what? I love the story of the protagonist and the voice attacking. It hits some good notes.

My only gripe about it is how they chop up the time line so they can have this big reveal at the end of the season which made keeping track of what was going on rather confusing.

Spoiler: The Reveal Explained

They wanted to keep it a secret that Spider joined the demon army until the end of the season, but they still wanted to show what she was doing while in the demon army. So they kept cutting between her as a spider living in a cave and her post-human form fighting in a battle. Then during the demon army invasion they kept talking about a spider monster in a cave from 15 years ago then they cut to Spider in the cave making me think she has been stuck in that cave for 15 years. What is not clearly explain in the anime is that the first war they show is the future war, then the second war was the past war, then the third was the modern day war, but it ends with the events of the past war when Spider joins the demon army. They have a dozen demon generals they show during the modern and future war, Spider in human form is one of them, not one of much significance, but you don't see spider get her human form until the last episode where she decided to join the demon army.

 

[Videomaster21XX]

Spider was decent, but yeah the jumping between the humans and the spider got a bit annoying. Especially when you didn't know they were two different time lines.


Though I'll tell you this. At least it's not Peach Boy Riverside. I'm trying to enjoy the show, but hot damn this out of order airings make everything confusing as hell.

 

[Daith]

Spider was fun but yep those transitions between her and her Human reincarnated classmates was jarring especially when the time between them ended up being quite the difference.

But I like economics! So of course I've latched onto "How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom". It's Isekai mixed with "Maoyu" or "Spice and Wolf". Plus it used one of the Slayers opening songs during an episode as what the hero wanted the best singer in the country to try to perform. And the examples of odd cuisine they came up with to help alleviate the countries food shortage. Slime Noodle Udon anybody?

 

[Autobubbs]

While visiting my Mom I binged 'Ghost Stories' on her Amazon account. Loved every hilariously inappropriate 'abridged'-ish moment of it.

Question though... is the Dub actually true to the Anime or did they just go and give it the team 4-star treatment?

 

[Videomaster21XX]

While visiting my Mom I binged 'Ghost Stories' on her Amazon account. Loved every hilariously inappropriate 'abridged'-ish moment of it.

Question though... is the Dub actually true to the Anime or did they just go and give it the team 4-star treatment?

From what I understand, the show was a flop in Japan, and they were so eager to make any money off of it, they told the dub team to just go nuts and do whatever they want. So in short, no the dub is not accurate to what's being said at all.

Sometimes this is funny. Sometimes it's cringe and annoys the hell out of me. I particularly found the episode about their mom dying, turned into an orgy joke extremely distasteful, and it made me walk away from the show. I've never finished it.

 

[mx-01 archon]

While visiting my Mom I binged 'Ghost Stories' on her Amazon account. Loved every hilariously inappropriate 'abridged'-ish moment of it.

Question though... is the Dub actually true to the Anime or did they just go and give it the team 4-star treatment?

Rather than abridged/Team 4-star treatment, which still understand and follow the general plot of their respective series, but just make the dialogue more farcical to highlight the absurdities, I understand Ghost Stories to be more like Samurai Pizza Cats, in that they didn't even bother to reference the original script. Instead, they just made up whatever silly crap they could and still match the visuals.

The difference, though, is that in SPC, they simply weren't given the original scripts to reference. For Ghost Stories, the Japanese licensor explicitly told ADV to ignore the scripts.

 

[Xellos]

From what I gathered from Greg Ayers talking about it at several panels over the years, they could not get anyone to even license it overseas, which is why they gave almost free reign in the dub.

Apparently the only things that were not allowed to be changed were the names of characters (places? Been a while) and the youkai, as well as them having to follow the bare bones story. After that, they were allowed to embellish anything they wanted. And hilarity ensued.

A bit dated now with references kids these days may not get, but I still do a rewatch every few years.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

I watched all 700 episodes of Naruto. My g-ds, the Fourth Shinobi War took hundreds of eps! It's been cool but I dunno if I should watch Boruto or not.

 

[Daith]

So who's been watching Fena: Pirate Princess. Love the opening music by JUNNA along side the gorgeous animation.

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As a series.... Well I like the fun adventure of it. But I'm wondering what exactly our endgame is. And is this going to be a one and done season? Being coproduced by Adult Swim I could see them not wanting to finance this long term. But damn if this could be Production IG's best work in some time.

 

[Confuzor]

Im liking it alright, but not as much as the very high production values should entail. I find the pacing odd. Like episode 5 felt like it would have been the episode before the 3 part season finale in other shows.

Do we know how many episodes its supposed to be?

 

[Daith]

Wikipedia says 12 episodes I guess. So we are at the halfway point this last weekend? Damn I was hoping for at least a two cour run.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I...like it more than most of the other anime Toonami has had a hand in lately (Dimension W, the FLCL sequels).

The story feels like such a random grab bag of various ideas from different cultures. I get the feeling that the idea was to make a "international" feeling anime, since this is a US/Japan coproduction. So...they combined a bunch of different things both countries liked and is trying to make a story around it. We've got pirates, ninjas, crystals, Joan of Arc, the Garden of Eden....the story doesn't really feel like it has much of a focus. And I'm still not sure if this is supposed to take place in the "real world" or if we're in a fantasy world.

But, it's still mostly working, if only because it's got a sense of humor. And the animation is great. I kind of wish we got more time with Fena herself, since she seemed fun in the first episode, but is kind of reduced to reacting to things around her since then.

Frankly, I'm a little nervous for the OTHER anime Toonami seems to have a hand in coming up. The Blade Runner series looks like it might be kind of forgettable. Uzumaki might be a gem, but we'll see if they get it right. And then...*sigh*...there's Shenmue. Shenmue feels like a misstep, and I have to wonder if that'll be cancelled since the game bombed so badly. Unless the anime actually plans on giving us a ending, I don't see the point. I'd rather Toonami save their money for licensing shows that are actually good, instead of trying to make their own. They...haven't really been great at it.

 

[Confuzor]

Especially with Netflix securing Jojo part 6.

 

[Daith]

I'd rather Toonami save their money for licensing shows that are actually good, instead of trying to make their own. They...haven't really been great at it.

But that's kind of the issue with Toonami these days. The majority of Good Anime they put up on air these days are vetted good already before they put it on air since it already has been online for some time. Sometimes they may get the Dub premier of a show, but quite a few people aren't watching like myself since I've already seen these shows already subbed weeks to years before. Stuff they actually get to premier on their broadcast has the best chance of bringing people in to watch Toonami these days.

But I won't disagree that it's been a very mixed bag. The FLCL sequels didn't live up to the original series for sure. Dimension W I didn't think was a co-production but if it was my only disappointment was it didn't get a continuation. Still a bit unfinished how the left the story. Space Dandy..... a great pedigree of talent wasted on immature trash.

As for the rest of the incoming shows, nothing has my attention grabbed. Blade Runner has never been that great of a franchise for me and while I'll probably give it a try it's barely registering to me that the anime still hadn't hit yet. Not sure what to think of Uzumaki. I remember hearing about it but really have no remembrance of what it's about. I hear the name and Naruto pops in my head. And Shenmue... I'll have to agree that I'm not sure that will see the light of day after the game tanked. I think Shenmue as a franchise should have just been left dead. I don't think the anime would help revive it or make it any better.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I might be misremembering with Dimension W. Toonami did premiere the dub of that, but that might have been it. Though, the relationship between Funimation, Crunchyroll, Warner, and Toonami feels like it makes things a little murky.

Space Dandy was dumb...but it was fun-dumb to me. Some episodes were better than others, but it was kind of a fun anthology...sorta. That's why I left it off the list.

And...I dunno, I feel like there's a market for old fogeys like me who like their shonen anime in more digestible weekly dub form. Stuff like Naruto just feels better to me dubbed on a network. But, I realize that's a minority opinion. Still, I'm kind of hoping for shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and SSSS.Dynazenon to eventually make their way to Toonami. Maybe even something like GeGeGe no Kitaro, since that feels like it might do okay on the block. I still feel like airing on Toonami can give a anime series a little bit of a boost to make it really popular in the US with "mainstream" viewers. I feel like My Hero Academia didn't really start getting REALLY big in the US until it aired on Toonami (though, that might be personal biases, I'll admit).

Shame about Jojo part 6, though. Same for Mob Psycho 2. I guess that's one problem with Toonami's structure, too. They don't always get the sequel seasons. I'm not even sure if they have all of Food Wars ready to go. And I'm not sure what's going on with Assassination Classroom, I would think that would've been pretty easy to get the rest of, so many years after the fact.

 

[mx-01 archon]

Space Dandy..... a great pedigree of talent wasted on immature trash.

Then you didn't watch Space Dandy.

It's absolutely my favourite series of the last ten years or so, and will fight you over that.

 

[Dekafox]

Well SSSS Gridman did air on CN, so good chance that Dynazenon and the third series(whatever it's called) will follow.

Pretty much just watching Dragon Maid S2 and Getter Robo Arc at this point. Arc has basically wrapped up the manga story itself with last week's episode, other than the timeskip final page, so now they have 2 episodes left to give the story an actual conclusion. (The author died before finishing the manga.)

 

[Daith]

I appreciate Toonami being there for people to get their Anime fix every weekend. I mean it's how I watched many of my favorite shows for the first time and am appreciating that feeling again with Fena. But it's just easier to anyone with internet service to watch stuff online before it hits broadcast anymore. There's hardly a show that has come to Toonami that I've been interested in that I haven't watched the sub through already. It's why I'm glad to see shows like the FLCL sequel series and Fena come to Toonami first. And admittedly it did prompt me to rewatch SSSS Gridman.

 

[Daith]

Hahahahahahahaha! Just finished the second season of Next life as a Villainess. Oh Bakarina, your cluelessness never fails to give me a chuckle. And there is a Movie coming.

 

[MadameVixen]

Anyone else a fan of Yu Yu Hakusho?