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niceinchnails · 1 year

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tell me about your project plans so far my friend......

TY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok i revamped it from two earlier stories there are 3 stages to the production of this project with possibly many more to come. i think this infos like necessary to understand how much this projects like in limbo. and ill tell you all about it

the joke story. in this stage the title was "the chlilds wish" (typo included. during 7th grade inside joke me and my friends (theres 4 of us) bullshitted in a messy google docs and tried to make as funny as possible (it wasnt btw But its charming and nostalgic in its own way i guess) and from there came the characters sprinkles nugget and candy jade and tree x and a bunch others. The story basically involved a lot of shitty inside jokes and also some silly self inserts we made U get the deal we were in middle school making friendships. Pictured below is nugget (green) candy (pink) and sprinkles (blue)

2. 7-8th grade things start to get srs around this point. the title for the story @ this stage is "hazelquest". Me and my friends (3 of us now, the 4th one moved to a different class wah) are starting to come up with elaborate plots and arcs for them and we came up with a plot about the main character sprinkles and his siblings (candy + nugget) living in tihs library/house hybrid. and sprinkles on his somethingteenth birthday made a magic wish for a special quest (ALSO around this time we came up with the last name hazelquest) to prove himself and he got one somehow. and his quest was to like find the missing gemstones for this huge magic tree cause the world was like...corrupted or something and bringing the gemstones back would uncorrupt it or something. the main antagonist was the void and the antihero or villain i forgor was my bestie's oc theo. i forgot most of the plot LOL but here were some cover ideas i had

as you can see it was a lot more fantasy based before with like magic and spells and stuff it was more urban fantasyish than it is now lol. also heres nugget candy and tree x in my very fandomy artstyle

heres theo + the old design for the void #swell #marvelous

around 9th grade we started getting bored of the story and we realized we were never gonna finish it so we just slowly quit LOL. Until

3. da revampening

this is the BIGGEST change by far its borderline unrecognizable when you compare it to story 1. so basically i listened to a song around 9th gradeish and i had such a moment i was like wait. i rememebr this story. so i ask my friends if they would let me take the story for my own since theyre not interested in working on it anymore and they said YES!!!!!!!!! and one of my friends pulled their characters from the story which was fine by me + my bestie gave me full rights to do whatever i want w his oc theo. So here we are rn. eventually SPRINKLES turned into MILO, CANDY turned into "soon to be renamed", NUGGET turned to my silly fucking rabbit valentine. jade turned into jaiden (whos nickname is jade and thats almost all they ever called her so theres little change there) and tree x became TRIXIE! valentine and trixie pictured below im sure youve seen them before probablu. also i dont have a name for this one yet

and the history lessons done now #evolution so ill tell you the actual current things i have in mind so far. Literally all of this is subject to change i could be lying about any of this OR it could be the finalized ideas . Neither of us could ever know

SPACE + MAGIC (SETTING)

theres gonna be space Theres gonna be so much stars and planets and galaxy you have no idear . Im kind of lessening the magic and spells and stuff 4 this new story purely cause im just not into that kinda stuff anumore but IDK if theres gonna be minimal magic. like there might be runes and stuff but in a more astral stars galazy kind of way rather than an ancient wizards and staffs and spells kind of way. i might make it more scientific but put a lottttttt of artistic license into the science so the storys kinda magical but being ambigious abt it.

for the setting, its gonna take place in their universe's equivalent of our solar system probably? like earth and venus and saturn and mars and all of those but earths gonna be like different like the placement of the continents and culture and stuff its also present-day ish also theres some mythology and god involved somewhere. IN THIS UNIVERSE theres like this place AND group of characters called the "astral". so theres the VOID (I havent removed the void from this story because i still like it) and theres the GODHEART which is the heart of the entire universe its so HUGE and fleshy at the same time (which i think is a byproduct of this phase i had when i was 14 where i was obsessed with flesh and meat and stuff i think you were there for it). there MIIIIIIGHT be a huge universe tree in this story jic i wanna revive some of stage 2s plot but in the meantime im still thinkin abt it

2. PLOT

i dont kno 😒. i just kno that the voids the main antagonist and theo''s the antihero/villain guy. also theyre gonna find their mom at some point. most of this projects just built on random plot beats and character arcs stitched together

3. CHARACTERS

most of the characters are half baked bcus the storys half baked. But in time they will be baked . just you wait

THE WORLDLY: these characters are part of da #normalworld Which means theyre not like Part of the astral or somethink

milo constelle (he/him) - Main character. ambigiously transgender. hes smart and kinda a nerd but also bitchy but bashful and well hes just a bit reserved. hes a weird assortment of things i dont know how to describe him... he loves science and space though. i think his speech patterns like kinda dry But hes funny and sarcastic and passionate abt the things he likes so ya..............Dont know his arc but i know that when i figure out the plot his arc will come right after

valentine "val" constelle (she/they/he) - Shes So many thinsgs shes everything. her dad was a superstar and she wanted to follow in his footsteps n become talented like him (but with acting) but when he died she had a super huge identity crisis cause she based herself a lot on him and she doesnt even know who she is if not "the daughter of a superstar" and her thing with acting went downhill bcus of the state shes in (if she doesnt know WHO she is how could she act like someone shes not? yadda yadda smth like that) and he lives the rest of his life as a washed up nobody but tries not to let it show how fucking MISERABLE he is <- i think thats the most i ever talked about her that isnt Oh pathetic sopping in rain. reminder that literlaly anything im talking abt could be changed at any time though btw LOL. also i dont know how to resolve his arc but we'll get there

candace "candy" constelle (she/her) - idk. Shes super strong and super bubbly and sweet and loves pink and i know more abt her personality than i do milo's but i have got to come up with an arc for her ASAP

trixie (they/them) - theyre a trickster prankster a Little mischevious🤫!!! They are INSANELY clever and creative and resourceful and agile as fuck overall just one of my fave characters to think about. they have autism swag and have these cool little noise cancelling headphones with stickers on them whenever they get overwhelmed. Their sense of identity is rlly strong but their arc involves letting ppl help them and accepting help and talkin abt their feelinz. ive yet to work on their backstory though!

jaiden (she/ze(?)) - IDK ANYTHING ABT ZEM sobs.......

THE MEDIAL: In between the astral and the worldly

theodore "theo" infinity (he/they(?))- ANTIHERO antagonist i cant rlly decide. DURING the beginning of the story he tags along w the crew cause hes cute and silly And kinda the punching bag TBH ....... he starts off the most morally positive + kindest but gradually he builds up a resentment for them for something i forgot but what rlly gave him the push was when he met the void somehow. all of this is insanely vague apologies

flashbang (she/him) - dont know

dont know (he/him) - dont know

esther constelle (she/her) - the constelle siblings mom She got missing or something Wierd...

THE ASTRAL: So ya these are like specil little guys bcus theyre on a whole different plane of existence or something ok?

orion (they/them) - I POSTED ABOUT THEM AND THEIR BACKSTORY I THINK so basifcelly they live at the fvery very BOTTOM of the unvierse just where the universe ends and the void meets. theyre mute aswell + deaf + have this little computer bug thingie that follows them around :) And because theyre at the bottom of the universe, the mythology of the universe involves them planting stars and cultivating them until theyre ripe enough to release them into the heavens above

void (it/she) - I DONT FUCKING KNOW❗❗❗❗❗

godheart (it/its) - this Huge heart that lives in the center of the universe its so huge and big the size of like 99Solersystem man IDK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry this was so vague LOL i might update this from time to time who knos...................

where 2 finf more info: my toyhou.se ill update it more soon and my oc blog @constelle

also this is like a LOT for a first project so ill probably work on way way smaller projecys around this universe before i acually make this story a realitu so :3 ya.

#isocverse #⁉️

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themesozoicsperm · 5 years

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4 Cartoon Halloween Specials from the 80s

Nothing like your favorite show doing a spooky-themed episode, uh? This was originally just a normal halloween list but decided to make it 80s only when noticed that most of then were from that time. Also this is not a top best, just wanted to talk a little about these cartoons. So here are my recommendantions for halloween special cartoon episodes/movies from the 80s in no particular order!

1) Scooby-Doo

In general anything related to our dear Scoobert Doo seems to be mandatory for this season. Nowadays we have a new movie every year since the sucess of Zombie Island, movie which I still think is probably the best thing in the franchise. BUT before that, we got a couple of cheesy fun stuff in the 80s. Around this decade Hanna-Barbera made a series of tv movies featuring their popular characters like Yogi Bear or Top Cat, and of course that the halloween themed movies belonged to the brown great dane!

During this time a lot of characters from the Scooby franchise got redesigned, but if anything Hanna-Barbera was know for, was for being cheap! They just changed Shaggy green t-shirt to red and called it a day :P. This is why these movies are usually called “the Red T-shirt Shaggy movies”, and yeah, movieS because they didn’t make 1 but 3 specials! Let’s talk a little about all them:

-Scooby Doo Meets the Boo Brothers: Shaggy inherits a house that happens to be haunted, while there is also a gorilla on the loose and a country girl tries to woo him. My least favorite, sounds like a lot going on but I found it pretty boring. Could actually talk a lot more about how silly this one was but you have ScoobyDooMistakes for that. Also kinda sad that only Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy were in these specials. Would have loved to see how the others characters reacted to “real” monsters, and yes I put the real between marks because if you don’t know yet, the modern Scooby movies are having a trend of explaining how the monsters in these past movies were also hoaxes >:(.

-Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School: This one got quite a cult following for the past years. A cartoon movie about monsters girls saving the day sure feels like something very modern, specially taking in mind that this one wasn’t even made for little girls but for general audiences. And what else can be said that has not been said already??? Is really pretty fun, both ironically and unironically, the animation is goofy and cheap but the characters are so much fun, you even got a quite wacky female villain, and they are all so beutifully designed. To this day is still my favorite Scooby-thing after Zombie Island.

-Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf: "HEY SCOOB DIG THE PUSS IN THAT CHICK. ITS SO AWFUL IS FUNNY”

2) Garfield's Halloween Adventure

YES, the image you are looking above is from a FRICKIN Garfield cartoon, the very same classic 80s one most of us remember.

We will get into that later but first let’s talk about the special in general. Premiering in the halloween of 1985, this was written by Jim Davis himself and counts with all the classic nostalgic voice cast, specially Lorenzo Music as Garfield AND gotta mention that if you are Latino like me, shall also check the dub version with Sandro Larenas who gives Garfield a very soft asmr-ish like voice just like in the original.

The story of this special is quite simple. Our favorite orange fat cat decides to go for free candy with his best canine friend, makes somes gags here and there, some spooks, and THEN, final 1/3 gets really weird, when our furry friends find themselves alone in a haunted island. It really feels like one be watching another show, but no, is the same friggin Garfield but with a whole different atmosphere, specially with that creepy artstyle as you see in the image I attached. Perhaps the spooky characters were not that scary in their own merits but what makes it work is how everything was just cute till the momment they appear.

3) Ghostbusters' The Halloween Door

Just like with Scooby-Doo, it was pretty much mandatory for this show to have a halloween special. And it actually had other 2, but those kinda worked more as casual episodes that happen in Halloween. On the other hand, this one had its own intro, musical numbers and what at least to me seemed like... better animation than the regular show???

As I said in the review of this series the other day, the main reason to watch this is because of how wacky everything is, specially the creature designs, that go from ghostly elephant-like creatures to arthropod dogs, and in this particulary case, a villain with his own song!

Cheesy fun and the ending doesn’t lives that much to expectatives, but what’s really interesting about this one is how our main human antagonist was a man agaisnt Halloween because he thought kids shouldn’t be playing with “monster” or “magic” stuff. YES, they went THERE, a issue that stills happens to our day but this show sure quite got some balls to do that in the 80s, when lots of angry mommies wanted to ban stuff like He-Man or Dungeons & Dragons because they were “demonic” :P.

4) My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle

Wait don’t leave yet!!! Sure the word “pony” nowadays could let us to some discuss some topics but here I just wanna talk about the very first MLP cartoon ever, which was basically the pilot for the series.

Is not really about Halloween or any of that but I put it here just because... because... look just consider that all the next images you are going to see are from a special that was targeted towards little girls back then:

Gosh in the 80s even those ponies were metal...

#Scooby-Doo #Garfield #Ghostbusters #My Little Pony #halloween cartoons #scooby doo and the ghoul school #the real ghostbusters #My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle #Scorpan #Garfield's Halloween Adventure #cartoon review #Revolta #80s #80s cartoons #halloween special

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connan-l · 5 years

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Ciconia Phase 1 Ramblings

Well, it sure was a wild ride, but I enjoyed it quite a bit!

The whole thing was very Heavy and Intense and Long and a lot of stuff happened. I’m not sure I really digested everything yet, but I have Thoughts.

GOD I spent so much time writing all of this... At first I just wanted to make a short Twitter thread about it, but it ended up a lot longer than initially... 😔

Those are just some messy ramblings and I don't think I said any more new or interesting stuff than what other people have already said, but I still felt the need to write it down, so...

Ciconia spoilers for Phase 1 and the tips:

So I thought overall it was pretty good and interesting! As someone who didn’t play the demos, I went in completely blind, and it was a nice read. (As such the flood of Okonogi memes some time ago were kinda confusing to me at first lol.)

It was radically different from Higurashi and Umineko, but that was something I expected (Umineko was radically different from Higurashi, after all.)

I’m not sure if it’s going to hit me as personally as Higurashi and Umineko did yet, or even if I’m going to like it as much — I enjoyed Phase 1, and the story is really intriguing, but it’s not quite on the level of its predecessors for now. Then again, it is only the first part of the story so it’s a bit unfair to compare them now, and I remember I was far from being into Higu and Umi by just their first installments too. So I guess I’ll just have to wait for the other phases and see!

On a technical level, this is definitely ones of Ryukishi’s most sophisticated visual novels — with the big animations and sound effects during the battle scenes, of course, but also with the numbers of different backgrounds and the visuals for the Kizuna thing. The sprites are also my favorites from all of Ryu’s games, they have the uniqueness of his artstyle all while being more polished and with really pretty coloring. And the character designs are SUPER GOOD — the best of 07th Expansion works to me (well, I was still a bit disappointed in Vier’s design, though. I mean. She’s just Takano with a lab coat. You could’ve at least changed her clothes or something, Ryu.) The music was the only thing that was... pretty average. It wasn’t bad, there was a lot of neat OST in it... but there wasn’t really anything memorable either (Alright, except for Apocalypsis Ciconia II. This one was dope as hell and it gave me chills.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how good and compelling the worldbuilding was too, as personally I find this peculiar part of Ryukishi’s writing has always been one of his weakest points. I don’t know much about sci-fi stuff admittedly, so I’m not sure how that would be perceived by fans of the genre, but Ciconia’s world is still quite fascinating — the different factions, the technology and selcom stuff, the way childbirth is managed or the history of World War III, all of that was good. Although to be honest, some stuff felt kinda contrived too (like, sure, let’s say the entire history of WWIII is entirely erased, like that we don’t have to deal with the political issues of our current real world lmao), and I don’t know all of the histories of the countries mentioned, so I can’t really tell if some things were insensitive (for example, how Africa was “unified” by a single king felt a bit off to me, but, er... I don’t know...)

The more absurd elements like the conspiracy theories, the chivalric orders or the freaking ILLUMINATI KINGS were pretty hilarious, honestly. I’m... not sure what to make of them. Obviously none of Ryu’s stories were ever going to be realistic (and well, the entire premise of Ciconia is about children soldiers who have the strength of an entire army in one gauntlet, which is ridiculous enough), but knowing him I wonder how much of this is going to be played straight and how much of this is meta stuff. Especially with all the religious/spiritual references (the blue bodies of Evil Miyao and of the gauntlet girls alluding to the Hindu god Shiva, Seshat being a Egyptian goddess, etc.)

I have more mixed feelings about the plot, and especially the pacing. Most of it was okay, but some scenes were really dragging and redundant. Which, isn’t really something new with Ryukishi’s writing, but here especially with the political stuff and the long blocks of exposition it was... kinda boring and hard to focus on it, and after a while it even felt quite egregious. Some of those parts weren’t needed, or at least didn’t need to be that long. Especially given that after the first hours, there were not a lot of more peaceful moments that would give the player time to breath.

Which is another one of my complaints: a lot of intense things happened, but the narrative rarely give you the time to actually digest those things, especially in the second part of the story. It often pretty much felt like “X event happen > Discussion of X event between the characters > Y event happen > Discussion of Y event between the characters,” and this without any breaks (with the exception of some exposition here and there in between, of course). The events, discussions and characters were interesting enough to more or less keep my attention, but it still felt like too much at times. Part of this may be volunteer, as it put a stressful and opressive feeling on the reader (God, the clock and quotes between each chapters stressed me out a lot lol), and after a while I really felt like I was kinda suffocating with all of this like the characters — but even so I think it would’ve been better to give us some pauses here and there. Which is something we could have had with, say, the tips. I thought it was a shame all of the sixteen tips could only be read once the main story was over, because the narrative could have really benefited from having them fit into the plot or in-between chapters, like in Higurashi.

Also, I know Ciconia wasn’t exactly marketed as an horror story unlike the other WTCs, but hoo boy, I think some of the sequences in it are honestly among the most gory and disturbing things Ryukishi wrote? I haven’t read Iwaihime or TRianThology, so I can’t really say for sure, but damn, those human factories really are big nightmare fuels...

Now, I think the most tricky parts and the ones who are gonna get the most criticisms are, likely, the whole political and military stuff. Ciconia is probably Ryukishi’s most political and provocative work so far, maybe on par with Rose Guns Days — not to say Higurashi and Umineko are not political, they definitely are, but here it truly is in-your-face. Which is not a bad thing, per se, but... let’s say it all depends on how Ryukishi handle and criticize all those stuff down the line in the other installments, when so far it’s been... meh?

Like, the whole military stuff, specifically, was... shaky, at best. The thing with fiction that portray militaries with soldiers as their main characters is that they walk a thin line between just portraying this thing and actively glamorizing it. The narrative was definitely critical of some of it (lol the whole massacre at the end was very obviously there for a reason), and I appreciate Ryukishi often makes a point in his stories to frame a problem with different persepectives... but the whole “healthy military balance” and “Walls of Peace” thing was still iffy, and I’m... unsure about how much of it is going to be criticized within the narrative in the end. Now, again, it is just the beginning of the story, and Ryukishi has always been good at presenting a thing at the start for later on tearing it down to pieces, so... I don’t know.

It’s way too early to decide what kind of themes and messages Ciconia is going to have, so here too I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m just a bit wary given some things that were in RGD were... definitely questionable. Now I actually think Ciconia got to a better start than RGD, but... well. I’m also not really someone who know much about these stuff, so I’m not the best placed to talk about it, but it’s definitely something worth to be under scrutiny.

On the more positive side, there were times where some things felt really, really real, as well as pretty in tone with some of today’s social issues. Like all those news about the terrible things going on in the world and that a war can happen anytime, the military propaganda to recruit young people who “want to fly” in the army but who just end up killing each other, or the feeling that these kids have about how in the end they’re just powerless pawns who can’t do anything used by selfish old men... I saw someone said Ciconia was basically Fuck Boomers: The Game, and... yeah. Yeah, that’s basicaly it lmao. All of the adults being assholes is not new in WTC or even in Ryukishi’s works in general, but here it was definitely a big theme. God even the whole thing at the end about how the planet is dying and that everyone knows it but people just don’t care about it... lmao, if that wasn’t directly referring what we’re living right now with climate change, I don’t know what is.

I just really loved too the way the game was sort of sold as this “cool sci-fi battle royal,” but in the actual story all of those kids are desperately trying to not kill each other, until the very end where everything just goes to hell.

I said it before, but there really was a huge feeling of suffocating and being powerless the more and more you reach towards the end, and the way everything culminated in this huge massacre truly sent shivers in my back. I know at some points I could really feel for the kids who were like “Well, fuck it, let’s just let all those awful people kill each other and the world get destroyed.” The final scene with the Christmas party was really powerful and also so uncomfortable to read, it was really well done.

Otherwise, if there was one work I wasn’t expecting to scream “LGBT+ rights,” it was Ciconia, but here we are I guess lmao. Honestly, that entire conversation was super neat, not just in a “Oh it’s great they acknowledge gay and trans people exist in a positive way,” but also because it really adds a lot to the worldbuilding. I remember some people talking about it when a similar thing happened in the comics of The Legend of Korra, and honestly more stories should do that, not just in term of representation but because, well, it’s just good writing to put this much thought in your fictional world. The conversation in itself was a bit clumsy (GAYS DON’T FUCK), but it also felt very sincere and a pretty believable discussion a bunch of teenagers with very different backgrounds could have on the subject (and I really loved the narrative acknowledge how different cultures and religions feel about those topics, without it being judgemental.) I’m also thankful it was here at all because of the, uh, gay jokes made about Miyao and Jayden early on that were a bit tasteless to me.

(Now it would be even more great if we could have actual canon gay and trans characters too. Ryukishi... please...... I beg you........)

And of course, the characters were also really good!

It was so nice to have such a big diverse cast all constituted of likeable characters, and I was honestly impressed Ryukishi managed to handle it. That was something I was wary of when the game was first released, but in the end I think he did a good job so far. Of course, that’s only from my point of view, so I can’t say if other people found there were some things he did badly or that was offensive...

But personally, I honestly love all of the Gauntlets kids so much. They’re all so good and charming! And I kinda want to adopt them all lol.

I think my favorites for now are Miyao, Gunhild, Naima, Rethabile, Chloe, Koshka, Rukhshana, and Lingji... But like I said, they are all really good it’s hard to choose!

However... when it comes to their writing I felt Ciconia went in the continuity of Rose Guns Days and concentrated more on the plot than the characters, and that’s something that... honestly bother me a bit. I liked RGD, but Ryukishi’s writing is still at its strongest when it comes to very human, character-driven narratives, like Umineko and Higurashi. Like I said, I love all of these kids a lot, and some of them have pretty solid characterization and screentime... but in the end a part of me still feel like we didn’t really... get to know them much, if that makes sense? Even with the main ones, like Miyao, Jayden or Gunhild — most of their scenes were principally focused on the Plot Stuff, and not much about them as people.

I know there are a lot of folks who criticize the slice-of-life parts of Higurashi and Umineko, where there are lots of scenes of just the characters spending time with each other or goofing around and that don’t do much to advance the plot — and in a way I understand that, because yeah, some of these scenes can be pretty long to get through and drag the pacing. But personally, I always thought those sequences are very important. Even if some of them are admittedly unnecessary or are a bit too long, they’re really needed to humanize the characters and make you invest in them — which was something that was a bit lacking in Ciconia. Basically I guess I’m saying the VN needed more slice-of-life stuff, and that rejoin with what I said earlier — that including some of the tips in the plot here and there instead of putting all of them at the end would have really helped with that.

Now, that said, again I’m aware this is just the first part of the story. I understand Ryukishi needed to have all of those exposition blocks and truly pose the basics of his story first and foremost. So I’m really hoping that after that he’ll be able to focus more on its characters — especially on those who got almost no screentime, like the Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad girls. Having characters and human grounded moments is especially important in a story where war is a big focus like Ciconia.

Now, on the characters themselves...

Miyao was a really charming protagonist, and I love him a lot! He was so endearing to me during the whole story. He was instantly more likeable as a male protagonist than Keiichi and Battler, where it took me some time for them to grow on me — principally because, well, Miyao don’t have the shtick of sexually harrassing the female characters around him, which was profoundly annoying in the other WTCs. I loved his serious but caring and friendly personality, his friendship with Jayden and Gunhild and with all the other kids, and his anger against the adults trying to use him and the others. His relationship with his father too was interesting. His interactions with Evil Miyao were also pretty intriguing, even if I’m not sure yet what to think of him being a “murder program” or about what even is Evil Miyao.

Now, the only thing I am on the fence about him is... his whole DID thing and Meow. Like, on one hand, I think it is neat to have a likeable protagonist with a named mental illness, and the narrative felt sincere on not wanting to present this as a bad thing and just a part of who Miyao is... but on the other hand, there were all the jokes made as a result of this, which made the whole thing pretty awkward to me. Furthermore, there’s the problem that this “CPP” thing is not really DID, as if I recall it doesn’t actually seem to come from any trauma-related reason, and is almost a made-up condition? It kinda gave me Kara no Kyoukai flashbacks, in which Shiki, the protagonist, also has an alter, but it is not as a result of trauma or anything — it has a fantasy explanation. And, I mean... An author taking an actual, real condition that a lot of people have to bend it at their will to fit a story isn’t super cool, especially if you’re going to make some jokes at its expense... The other kids calling out Jayden on how he didn’t act properly with Miyao about this was nice though. (Also, now that I think about it, did Miyao just... randomly told all of the other gauntlet knights about it? Wasn’t it said that “CPPs” were something most people didn’t like to talk about? It’s a bit odd.) Plus there’s also the fact Miyao is possibly a “program” and it adds another layer of not-so-great stuff... So I’m just really wary of how Ryukishi is gonna handle this going forward...

Those problems aside, Meow herself was... fine. She’s cute, but she doesn’t really have much going on for her. She and Jayden are dorks together and their scenes definitely made me smile, but their relationship still felt kinda shallow so I don’t have much feelings about them as a couple (like, it’s just that to me Miyao and Jayden have a lot more chemistry and have been friends for quite some time, so it’s just odd that he instantly decides to date Miyao’s sister whom he just met. And, also, he was definitely flirting with Miyao before meeting Meow, too.). It was also pretty jarring the way she just... almost disappears once the war stuff began, so in the end I had this disagreeable impression that she really was just here to be Jayden’s girlfriend, and not as a character on her own or to develop Miyao more...

Jayden was pretty neat too! He’s a character that could be “yikes” pretty easily, but in the end he really did come across as a awkward but kind teenage boy who may be clumsy at times but is still trying his best. In fact, I really wish Ryukishi had wrote Keiichi and Battler more like Jayden. It was nice in general that none of the guys in Ciconia acted inappropriately towards the girls (with the exception of Toujirou, I guess. The way he acted towards Valentina especially made me go “ehh dude please no.” Like I know the LATO girls are said to be older than the other kids so they’re probably 18 or something, but still, it was a bit ugh... But even then it wasn’t something that was too overt, so it didn’t bother me too much), because some of Keiichi and Battler’s antics towards the female characters was something that annoyed me greatly. Don’t get me wrong, I did end up liking Keiichi and Battler despite this, they’re both good kids at heart — but it’s possible to write horny teenage boys without them ~comically~ sexually harassing the girls around them, if you feel me? Aside from that, I like that the story made a point to show that Jayden is actually a pretty lonely and kinda socially awkward kid just like Miyao, and that’s why their friendship work so well. On the other hand, though, his character mostly only turned around Miyao and Meow, and so we didn’t get much of him as a person? Which is a bit disappointing as he is meant to be one of the main kids, so I’ll hope he’ll get more interesting later on.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE GUNHILD, she really intrigue me! I wasn’t expecting to love her so much — for the most part I thought she was okay but nothing more... though now that I finished the story, she’s probably my favorite character for now? Her scene in the restaurant with her sibling, and especially the tips focused on her, really got to me. I loved her cool personality and her backstory was really interesting, as well as her relationship with Miyao and Jayden. She seems to honestly like and care for both of them, but at the same time resent them, and the way she obviously have a lot of pent-up anger towards the world and some self-hatred make her a truly compelling character. I’m pretty intrigued by Maya and her relationship with her too. She’s honestly one of the characters towards who I look forward the most, and I really hope Ryukishi will deliver on her.

Chloe has definitely a lot of Rena Vibes, so of course I was going to love her lol. Although honestly for now I find her mostly... confusing. She’s obviously really fucked up (CHLOEVIL), and she made me pretty nervous during the entire story because there was this “Okay so when is she going to snap?” kind of tension with her. And her last scene with Lilja gave me chills... At the same time, her kindness and caring nature as well as her friendship with Koshka, Lilja and the others felt genuine, so it was an interesting contrast. Other than that I wasn’t a fan of the running gag of Okonogi hitting her whenever she mess up (or do not mess up, for that matter)... Like obviously Okonogi is meant to be a Bastard, but the thing being presented as comical made me go :/ I really wish it’s going to stop.

Koshka was cute and also Extremely Relatable in a lot of ways (I, too, would rather spend my time playing silly games on my phone rather than socialize lmao). I love her a lot, and like Gunhild she really fascinate me. I like the fact that she’s meant to be an asocial, cold person but that at the same time it’s pretty easy to see glimpses of the affection she has for Lilja, Chloe or Miyao, and how she’s actually a deeply traumatized and angry teen. I’m pretty intrigued by what kind of “crime” she must have committed and how she ended up being an “equipment”... Not sure what to think about her super brain or the thing about her being some sort of “chosen one” lol. It sounds really shady.

For Lilja, I have to say I wasn’t exactly fond of her at first, but then the small moments we got with her where she obviously care a lot about Koshka and Chloe still got to me. That scene in the tips where she fiercely defends Chloe made me go “awww.” She really give me the impression of being the sort of person to hide her vulnerability behind a tough façade and her odd tics, and in that way she’s pretty similar to Koshka, which is how their friendship feel really special. The revealation at the end that she’s probably faking a lot of her personality and of her friendship with Koshka because it’s an assigment made her and her relationship with Koshka a lot more interesting to me, and I hope it’s going to result in a lot of compelling character stuffs.

Lingji was great! She’s pretty cool. I liked her optimism and her will to do the right thing, and how that actually cover the fact she’s a pretty fragile and sheltered person. Her scene where she break down after her grandfather’s death is really illustrative of this especially, and where I really felt for her too. I think she’s the most interesting character in term of possible development. I quite enjoyed her friendship with Miyao too, but here again I wish these two had gotten more moments together. Like, how much more impactful the scene where Miyao kill her would have been if we had actually seen these two have some intimate moments before? But, oh well...

Aysha was really cool too, and I especially loved the way her sharp and down-to-earth personality contrast to Lingji’s idealism. The moment where she calls out both of her teammates was super good. Momotake was okay, and I love his intense admiration for Lingji (I’m a sucker for male characters really looking up to cool female characters lol)... but otherwise I felt he was honestly the most stereotypical character of the bunch — especially compared to Lingji and Aysha.

NAIMA IS THE BEST, SHE’S MY BABY I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She was my favorite before I even start the game because of her design alone (SHE’S THE CUTEST CHARACTER RYU EVER DESIGNED OKAY), and I wasn’t disappointed from seeing her actual personality. She’s not especially complex or anything for now, but she has a lot of potential. I loved her relationship with Naomi and Stan too — it kinda felt like two older siblings looking after their annoying youngest one reluctantly, but who still have a lot of affection for them. Also she’s such a little badass, I literally cheered out loud during that rescue scene or during the last battle scene where she screams she wants to protect all of her people. I want more of her in Phase 2 pleaaaase!

Naomi was really overshadowed by Naima and Stan, so as a result I don’t have much to say about her. I think she’s cool, and her backstory about how she apparently lost a lot of her memories and emotions is interesting, but again I can’t say much given we barely see her at all. Stanisław was a good boy, but despite the fact we see him a lot during the story, I... don’t really have a lot of thoughts on him? I liked his implied friendship with Gunhild as them being death metal buddies, but we didn’t actually saw them interacting at all, which was a shame.

Rethabile was the coolest character of the cast, I love her dearly! I like how she can be so adorable and such a dork but at the same time she’s probably the one who has her shit together the most out of all the kids. I feel she really has a good grip on politics and how the adults just want to use them compared to the others — which, well, isn’t all that surprising given she’s literally a princess. The scene with her brother’s death was pretty harsh, and I’m sad they didn’t really... put much attention to her reaction to such a traumatic event. I know the plot hadn’t time for that, really, but I feel even Lingji got more focus when her grandfather died, so I wish we had more of that with Rethabile too.

Ishak and Abdou... well, they didn’t really get much time for them either. They seem like nice dudes, and I really love their relationship with Rethabile, how they tease her quite a bit but there’s still obviously a lot of complicity and respect among them. So I hope we’ll get to know them more, especially on an individual level — as for now they were only present as a duo.

The LATO girls were... interesting too. I especially love Valentina, because she really give me Bad Bitch vibes and I love bitchy female characters lol. It’s pretty clear she has some Secrets and I’m really curious about her goals. As for Maricarmen, I thought she was mostly going to be comic relief like the Yeladot Shavit, but towards the end she actually showed some interesting depth so she did grew on me quite a bit.

And then there was just the teams no-screentime lol. Alright, I guess Suparṇa did get some time, and Rukhi is ones of my faves, but they still were really sidelined. I liked Sujatha, she’s such an uptight idiot, and her scene towards the end where she says she was aware that Miyao’s plan was doomed but still played along for Lingji made me kinda emotional. Rukhshana is the cutest and the greatest — I really liked her personality, how she can be extremely shy but then also completely goof around when she actually trust the people around her. And that moment at the end where she just say to her superiors to fuck off was glorious and one of my favorite scenes. Her relationship with Sujatha and Andry is adorable too. Andry himself was also... not present at all, but I really love the small glimpses of him we have seen, he’s pretty cool. I like how he sincerely seems to care a lot about his teammates despite his aloof character (him protecting Rukhi when their superiors try to hit her at the end was sweet.)

Still, Suparṇa wasn’t sidelined as much as Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad, though. I mean, I do like those girls — I adore Gannet because she’s cute as hell, Noor seems cool and Mariana intrigue me, but I can’t actually say much about them. Leah, Fatma and Stephania were also mostly comic relief except for one or two scenes towards the end. So I really hope Phase 2 will remedy to this, ‘cause I want more of these six, definitely!

I’m not sure I have a lot of thoughts about the adults characters quite yet — GERMAN TAKANO cracked me up, but she’s just as great as her Higurashi counterpart for now, and I always trust Ryukishi to write good Terrible Women. Especially Terrible Mothers, which is one of my personal weaknesses. Though I guess it’s not actually been confirmed she’s Miyao’s mom? It’s heavily implied, but we all know Ryukishi love to troll his audience so I wouldn’t put it past him that it is in fact just a red herring, but well, we’ll see I guess.

Toujirou is obviously a bastard, but he’s an interesting one, and I have no fucking idea what is going on in his head. Like it’s interesting that on the one hand he seems to genuinely care about his son, but on the other hand he has no problem manipulating and screwing him over (and the implication of Miyao being maybe just a program is... ooof.) Okonogi was... a bit less worse than in the other WTCs, I guess? He obviously care about the kids in his own way, and him defending them at the end was nice... but I still can’t really feel anything but contempt towards him. He’s still a pretty bad instructor, and like I say, I’m really not a big fan of the way he treats Chloe at all, even if it’s meant to be “comical.”

The Three Kings mostly made me laugh to be honest, and they’re more plot devices than actual characters for now so I really don’t care about them (a part of me even wonder if they “exist” at all, because, you know, meta stuff). I absolutely LOVED Jestress on the other hand! I have no idea what’s the deal with her, whether she’s Lambda or whatever, but she’s really intriguing and her design is top notch and I want more of her. Seshat was so fucking cool and I don’t have much thoughts about her yet other than I wanna marry her.

And that’s pretty much it!

I’m not really good at predictions or at throwing theories around (sorry, Ryukishi), so I’m not sure what to expect for the rest of the story. I guess my only thoughts are that the moles are probably Gunhild and/or Chloe, but then they seem like obvious candidates, so I don’t know. I kinda suspect Valentina too, because, er, I do not trust her at all and she just have that traitor vibe.

I really hope too that we’ll have time loops here again instead of a linear story because... well... I don’t wanna these kids to die okay... I also know that Ryukishi said Ciconia is only going to have four parts, and that’d make sense given how long Phase 1 was... but a part of me still kinda hope we’ll have a bit more... I guess it’s just that only four phases seems really little compared to the density of the story, and I’m really hoping he’ll have the time to develop well all of his narrative points and characters...

In any case, I think my thoughts on Ciconia for now pretty much get down to: it’s interesting and it has the potential to be a really great story, even if it’s far from being flawless and that I’m still very wary about how Ryukishi is going to handle some elements in the future.

But I’d definitely recommand it to people who love 07th Expansion stuff and sci-fi stories, and am very much looking forward to Phase 2!

#Ciconia: When They Cry #Ciconia no Naku Koro ni #Ciconia #07th Expansion #Connan's posts #Connan's ramblings #My posts #Ciconia Spoilers #Ciconia: When They Cry Spoilers #Ciconia no Naku Koro ni Spoilers #Text #Ciconia Phase 1 #Phase 1 #Phase 1: For You The Replaceable Ones #Ciconia: When They Cry Phase 1

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megareviews · 5 years

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Winter 2019 1st Episode Impressions

Back again after Issues prevented me from doing these 1st impressions last year. New year new me new season, let’s try to get all four seasons reviewed in a timely manner.

3D Kanojo: Real Girl 2: I would prefer less self-insert otaku protagonist romances in general, which includes those shows getting multiple seasons.

Ameiro Cocoa sideG: I don’t know how a show that’s entire 1st season was 30 minutes long could bore me so I don’t expect them to retain me as a watcher for 5 seasons.

B-PROJECT: Zecchou*Emotion: The second season of what looks like male idols, so… hard pass.

BanG Dream! 2nd Season: When I get fully into idol anime, this will be near the top of the watchlist. I’ve seen the scenes from the first season and this one and there is a big upgrade in quality, not that it was particularly difficult given the rough 1st season.

Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastrale: As far as I can tell this is a mermaid slice-of-life anime with characters based off of the card game Cardfight!! Vanguard. I’m interested as far as most shows are not about the supernatural creatures that are mermaids, but there isn’t really anything else that’s pulling me in as of the first episode.

Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) (Boogiepop and Others (2019) / Boogiepop Never Laughs (2019)): I cheated on this one and watched two episodes before writing this, because the first two episodes premiered at the same time. Good thing I did because episode two explains pretty much everything that was barely set up in episode one. One threw a bunch of names and story bits at the viewer between romantic rooftop chats between the titular character Boogiepop and some guy. Two showed the viewer everything that Boogiepop was vaguely describing and introduced us to the main spookies of the show. Overall the animation felt stiff and generally revealed actions of characters rather than showing them, though the few supernatural events peppered in looked relatively nice. The concept is the only thing keeping my attention on it for the time being, but that’s a weak lifeline.

Circlet Princess: When I saw VR e-sport in the description, I was excited, but if the sport doesn’t progress beyond the 1v1 duel that was showcased in the first episode, they I probably won’t care. The show starts out by accidentally introducing the main character to a new sport by fighting an ace in it, and then progresses to her transferring to the school where the sport originated from, only to find out that the school no longer has a club for the sport. From this I’m going to guess that the show will just be her struggles to revive the game at the new school with friends she’ll make and train for a rematch against the ace, since their first bout ended in a tie.

Date a Live III: As somebody who’s watched all the previous material for this show (two seasons, two OVAs, and a movie), I was surprised at how good the second half of this episode was. The first half was a fairly normal slice of life x harem hot pot scene to reintroduce the main cast minus my favorite character. After that came the introduction of the newest addition to the growing list of enemies that will eventually join the harem, codenamed Witch. Her main abilities seem to be transformational powers, changing her enemies weapons into much less lethal objects and disguising herself. After the main guy accidentally angers her, she decides to use these powers to ruin his life, which I won’t spoil because that’s the best part of the episode. Overall, I can’t really recommend this series but if you’ve made it to season two, the art style might be different… again, but keep going.

Dimension High School: There are many shows that I struggle to fully classify as anime, and this one is probably one of the oddest, as about half of the show is live action, with 3D CG for the other half. The premise is very simple: solve the puzzles of the sphinx or lose what’s the most precious to you. If the main cast was more interesting or if it wasn’t trying to be purely comedy, this could be a fun show to watch, but there’s just a lot going on that doesn’t really work well together

Domestic na Kanojo (Domestic Girlfriend): Another show with a premise that theoretically could be interesting, but I am fairly certain is just going to be pseudo-incest garbage. So we got a main character who has a one night stand with a girl he meets at a mixer, and then it turns out that his father is getting re-married and the girl becomes his new step-sister. I think there is some promise in this as a concept, as that is just supremely unlucky and not really anybody’s fault for how awkward that is, but the key visual and title of the show looks like it’s going to be a romance after these high school kids become family. Oh yeah in addition the main character has a crush on his teacher at school who becomes his other step-sister due to the re-marriage.

Dororo: A modern adaption of an old manga (by Osamu Tezuka) about a child trying to get back the pieces of his body that his father traded away to demons in exchange for successful leadership of the lands he lived in. The first episode was pretty introductory to the main character, who hasn’t been named yet, and the titular Dororo, a very young but talented thief. The action has been pretty cool so far, and the full body prosthetics of the other main character are a nice touch, though I’m not sure how that will continue as he defeats the demons to reclaim his body.

Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue (My Roommate is a Cat / Sometime, Your Roomate is on Your Head): An eccentric writer who works as alone as possible because other people are just too loud, while visiting the grave of his parents and finds a cat that inspires his new work. At first he loves this cat for being so inspirational, but ends up getting annoyed with having to balance taking care of it while writing his book. From his perspective it’s a bit of a boring story with a goofy twist at the end, but then when we watch the same events narrated from the cat’s perspective, it’s quite a bit more interesting. Only somebody who really likes cats, or this cat in particular, could make it through this whole show, as I’m expecting ~50% of it to be a slog to get through.

Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles): We’ve got a princess who’s just turned old enough to start taking on more of her kingdom’s duties and the people supporting her in different divisions. While she just wants to put a smile on everybody in the entire world’s face, that’s a tough job for a space 12-year old to do. That’s the plot from the first half of the episode, while the second half is a decent mech battle between some new additions to the kingdom’s defense force, and the ace of the force, who happens to be a childhood friend of the princess. There’s a lot of places that this show could end up going, so I’ll be sticking with it for at least a little while.

Endro!: So, the heroes defeat the demon lord, the credits roll, and wait hold on there’s still another 17 minutes left in the episode. We’re suddenly back in adventure school teaching the heroes how to be proper adventurers, and the new teacher for their class is… the demon lord? The demon lord got sent back in time and now tries to stop the heroes from becoming strong enough to beat them in the future, and fails so much that they end up advancing the heroes’ progress. I can only describe the artstyle as saccharine, which is the main thing holding me back from watching it in season, but if you can stomach it this looks like a fun show.

Fukigen na Mononokean Tsuzuki (The Morose Mononokean Continued): Season two of something that I didn’t find interesting.

Girly Air Force: Two childhood friends escape Shanghai due to alien attacks that are mainly focused in China, only to have the ship they’re fleeing on be attacked by aliens. Like most media with alien invasions, standard military force is useless against them, but Japan has the secret weapon to deal with them. There’s a squadron of planes piloted by artificial humans programmed to overcome the technological advantages the aliens have, which happen to be based near the protagonist. He apparently is a stabilizing factor for the artificial humans, who are all female by the way, and gets recruited into this secret branch of the Japanese air force as a support unit. Based on the first episode, I bet this is going to be a harem with the pilots, or at least a bad romance, which I’d rather not spend time finding out if I’m right.

Gotoubun no Hanayome (The Five Wedded Brides / The Quintessential Quintuplets): When a poor genius meets a family of rich, nearly failing, quintuplets, that sounds like a win-win situation, except the guy manages to get on the bad side of four of them before realizing that they were who he needed to tutor. It’s also framed as a flashback for this guy’s wedding with one of the five, so it can’t be a harem… right? So far it’s pretty lighthearted and I can get behind a guy who orders a yakiniku set minus the yakiniku because it’s the most cost effective item on the menu.

Grimms Notes The Animation: In a world where everybody’s fate is written down on an individual book and there are many worlds based off of fairy tales, there also exists beings known as “Chaos Tellers”, who seek to destroy these worlds by rewriting people’s fates. Fighting to keep the stories intact are a group of people whose books of fate are blank and can take on the forms of famous story figures. The first episode shows an example of this fight through the story of Red Riding Hood and has a unique take on fate by framing it through these fairy tales.

Hulaing Babies: If you thought this show was about babies doing hula, you’d be 50% right. It’s about high school girls trying to make a hula club, and other than that all I can really say at this point is the art is uniquely soft and springy, so I’d recommend checking it out purely for that at this point.

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen (Kaguya Wants to be Confessed To: The Geniuses’ War of Love and Brains / Kaguya-sama: Love is War): Instead of having one character that’s too embarrassed to confess to the other for a rom-com, this show is about both characters too proud to do so. The show is incredibly dramatic for the characters bouts of wit to try and force each other to confess first, while being incredibly oblivious to each other’s and even their own feelings. In addition to following the thought processes of the main characters, there’s the narrator who sounds like he should be in a shounen battle anime rather than a rom-com, but he fits in perfectly with the ridiculous tone of the show.

Kakegurui xx (Gambling Addiction xx): Horny gambling is back for a second season, and guess what, everyone’s still horny and gambling. This season reminds you of this with an advanced game of chicken, which includes a finger guillotine and the opponent betting on the fact that the protagonist has the ability to feel fear, which the viewers show know by now, she does not.

Kemono Friends 2: After the director was fired during the success of the first season, the second season feels lackluster compared to the previous one. If you liked season one, check out Kemurikusa right below this for where the animation studio and director for this went.

Kemurikusa: A post-apocalyptic survival of a group of siblings living on a chain of islands and fighting against “Red Bugs” who appear from “Red Mist”. They all have some form of supernatural power, but struggle to find enough resources to live, and while gathering water from a lake, they run into a human who ends up being able to sense the Red Bugs. It’s done by the people who formerly made Kemono Friends, and it definitely looks similar, but the genre is quite a bit different, so try it if you like the genre or the staff, you might find something that broadens your horizons.

Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai (The Kotobuki Squadron in the Wilderness): Once you get past the weird way that some characters are 2D and others are 3D, this is a great show. It’s about a squadron of pilots fighting to protect a cargo blimp, and the fighting scenes that take up a good chunk of the first episode are amazing. Even watching on a pretty small screen, it felt like you were actually flying around in a plane with how the camera was used, and while I’d assume there’s not usually music playing during a dog fight, it was never obtrusive and sounded right for how it was used.

Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka (Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka): After a large war against creepy stuffed animal aliens, the five out of eight surviving magical girls return to dealing with humanity, as their enemies are no more. We follow one who swore to quit being a magical girl at the end of the war and is just trying to reintegrate into society. This is an issue due to the PTSD she suffers from, her former superior officer trying to recruit her to training future magical girls, and outbreaks of terrorism in Japan. My enjoyability of this show will be determined by if they go down the “help soothe the girl who fought wars in middle school’s PTSD” path which would be great or “Maybe the real evil in the world is humanity” path, which would be… less great.

Manaria Friends: Cygames is bringing back it’s Rage of Bahamut characters for one more anime, which I’m up for. It looks like a slice of life in a girl’s academy, and that’s about all I got from the first episode. It’s got a dragon girl as a main character (yeah it’s Grea), so I’m willing to see if there is any sort of a plot, or if it’s just gals being pals.

Mannaka no Rikkun (Rikkun in the Middle): Well… this show was supposed to have aired by now, but I can’t find any traces of it on the internet.

Meiji Tokyo Renka: I knew from approximately 3 seconds in that this was adapted from an otome game, and just kept going. Our main character has ~2 personality traits which was more than I expected given the source, a love of roast beef, and depression stemming from the lack of interaction with other humans since her friends found out she could talk to ghosts in elementary school. After the setup of those traits, she gets transported to the Meiji era by a hot dude magician, nearly gets run over by a carriage containing two hot dudes, and then goes to a party with roast beef and more hot dudes. Oh yeah and the main character and hot dudes can see the ghosts that the main character has been talking to since she was a child.

Mini Toji (Mini Katana Maidens): A series of shorts for people who liked the character designs from Toji no Miko, but couldn’t get into the story/fights/CG. Shows the off time of the characters and helps develop some others who didn’t get as much screen time in the main series.

Mob Psycho 100 II: A good episode to get back into the Mob Psycho 100 flow, showing how Mob uses his powers with people and against spirits, brings back some characters the viewers might have forgotten about, and revealing at least one interesting secret.

Pastel Memories: A slice of life-looking show that morphed into a steampunk action show in the last two minutes. After the shutdown of the manga and anime industries, Akihabara becomes a normal city, with only vestiges of the otaku hub it once was remaining. The first episode introduces us to the cast of characters working at a café with daily customers in the single digits, and a request in their guestbook to read a certain series. This prompts a search of the entire district to find all the volumes from the last bookstores open. There’s a whole swath of character archetypes showcased and a couple of motifs that seem odd, at least until the genre shifts right at the end to how some enemy is destroying the existence of the same series that the cast worked so hard to gather.

Piano no Mori 2 (Forest of the Piano 2): I’m not suffering through ugly CG fingers and hair for whatever the story here might be, I’ll get the story from a printed form instead.

Revisions: During a kidnapping incident in elementary school, the protagonist and his friends are told that they will be the people to save the world in the future by a mysterious hooded figure who helped them. Since then the protagonist is the only one in his group to still believe in those words, and lives in a battle ready state all the time, only for their school to be teleported into the future with a giant robotic being to terrorize, capture, and / or kill the students and teachers. Helpless to save the people he cares about, the hooded figure shows up again, without memories of the protagonist’s group, but still offers the protagonist a secret weapon because she recognizes his name. It’s all in CG, but it’s a mech show so it actually looks decent, and those last facts are probably the deciding factors in whether a person should watch this show.

Rinshi!! Ekoda-chan: A short about a poor girl living in the city and working multiple jobs to make ends meet? The episode is 23 minutes long like a TV-length show, but most of it is an interview with the director and voice actor for Ekoda, because it changes with every episode. Kind of an odd way of doing it, but if you enjoy the ‘behind the scenes’ of other movies and shows, this show packs that in the main show, otherwise you can just watch the first couple of minutes for the animated story part of it.

Star☆Twinkle Precure: Pretty Cure is a monster of a series that I may or may not ever watch any of.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (The Rising of the Shield Hero): With a double length first episode, a lot happens, and a lot of red flags are raised for me. I’ll try to keep the length of this similar to others by streamlining what occurs which is: four heroes are summoned from different realities to save a kingdom from invaders, each with their own legendary relic, three of which are weapons, and our main character gets a shield. Due to him not playing a game in his world that function like this world, and the lack of being able to wield a weapon, nobody joins him except one lady who dumps a fake rape accusation on him while stealing his stuff, causing him to lose trust in others, and leads to him buying a 10-year old demi-human slave. There’s just so much reasoning that’s either damaging to real people or downright nonsensical to fuel this guy’s persecution that I can’t reasonably find a way to enjoy this.

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou (How Clumsy You Are, Miss Ueno): Starring a super genius middle school inventor trying to confess to her crush through “testing her inventions” with him during science club meetings. Unfortunately he is incredibly dense and when given the opportunity of (arguably) most boy’s dreams, he gives reactions of either confusion or scientific boredom. The tests as of episode one are somewhat perverted and since they’re middle schoolers, so I generally don’t feel too comfortable watching them.

Virtual-san wa Miteiru (Watching Virtual-san / Virtualsan – Looking): A show featuring a large cast of Virtual YouTubers (VTubers) which is executed as a large series of shorts like episodes from their respective channels. For some of the more knowledgeable about VTubers, the main cast are some of the more popular characters, while missing two of the most popular, Kizuna Ai and Kaguya Luna. The animation and art quality vary rapidly between the signature styles of various VTubers, and overall it feels like watching a bunch of hyperactive kids interact. They do promote lesser known characters, in sections where they give brief introductions and ask for viewers to send in their own characters to promote.

W’z: It’s listed as a sequel to Hand Shakers, which I found an odd premise with clashing art between great 2D are and hideous 3DCG.

Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita! (An Angel Flew Down to Me!): A show that was relatable for about a minute before becoming creepy for the rest of the show. It’s about a shy, cosplay crafting college girl who… falls in love at first sight with her 5th grade sister’s friend. I thought UzaMaid last season was a creepy enough show starring a pedophile, but somehow we’re already on another level of creepy. It almost alleviated the main issue I had with UzaMaid (College student with an elementary schooler is still illegal, but closer in age than an ex-airforce pilot) but introduced quite a few problems, such as bribing the target with sweets to wear certain clothes and take pictures in them, and the target agreeing to come back as long as she gets more sweets, since they’re homemade by the college girl.

Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland): The other of the two shows that I’ve read the source material for, and as of episode one it looks like it will be a great adaption of the original. The story takes place in an orphanage where the kids train their minds by constant testing, and their bodies by playing tag in the forests. There’s a decent amount of spoilable plot that goes on other than that so I’ll just leave a recommendation to watch. The music and shot composition just often enough hint at the viewers that something is wrong before the big reveal at the end of the episode.

#Megareviews #first episodes #anime review #Winter 2019

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