On Moe Anime

 

I personally like moe.

Moe is sexy and feminine. I like moe blobs and I find them likable. They are soft, squishy and gentle.

This makes them attractive.

We need more moe anime.

More on it here

Thoughts on Shonen Anime

I do not think there is any genre that I changed my mind on.

It is more of an individual anime that does not appeal to me for one or another reason.

Say Shonen original big three are Naruto, Bleach and One Piece all have their own differences that make me say like Naruto more over One Piece. 

Naruto has better characters with more psychological depth. I can relate to Nagato a lot, he is one of the main characters with a lot of back story that is very relatable. I can relate partly relate to Sasuke, Itachi, Garra and Shikamaru as well. In contract in OP there are few relatable characters. Closest to me is probably Mihawk or Sabo how he was during the flashback ark. We hardly ever see Mhawk in the show.

Action mechanics are also better in Naruto. Ninjitsu has some logic in them: it is made up but does feels like battles are won by skill, cunning and better use of the mechanics rather than by just guts alone. Guts feel too arbitrary, just author decided that way that is why MC won. In Naruto Kishimoto does a good job to make it look like it is because winner is better at nunjitsu. You can believe you will win too if you ninjitsu like Madara.

So they all are not made equal.

I think Fairly Tail, FMAB, SNK, MHA, Boruto and Demon Slayer could be counted as modern shounen. I too do not like them for different individual reasons.

Then on the other hand shounen is for younger demographics that I am currently in so may be I grew up out if it. Only nostalgia keeps me attached to Naruto, UFO Robo Grendizer and Speed Racer. However I would still re-watch these from time to time. I do not think they are bad or no longer for me.

Problems with isekai genre

Problem with isekai is that people who do not play MMOs write them. Editors probably told them do isekai because people are into MMOs nowadays. So they do it.

They get only loose idea what MMOs are and then go from that. They might even hate they have to do isekai to begin with.

The results sometimes often are underwhelming. However they sell because isekai label

May be they even convert every poor script into isekai to guarantee sales.

All most guarantee sale franchises or genres end up devolving into cesspits of mess and fail. Because <people will buy it anyway> principle. 

In video games EA sports are good example of such mess. EA sports make company billions yet have graphics from stone age that would not change ever since forever. Because sports fans would buy it anyway.

In other genres that does not fly. Other fans are hell a lot more picky. They even game EA the Golden Turd anti-award for exploiting this principle.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni VN Analysis and Reflection

Overall Rating 9.5 - Masterpiece second only to Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion.

I whole heartedly recommend if you are smart enough to understand it.

Caution: This review cannot be understood with room temp IQ. If you do not get it, then watch some other shows, like Planetes, until you get smarter and try again. Alternatively read my simpler older review of Umineko. This review is a "black tea" for "fellow monsters"

This is the most '7-dimensional chess' type of show out there. Can also be described with 2deep4u and similar expressions.

Ryukishi07 is the most successful IRL troll. Almost a testament of true might of Anon of /b.

"If you understand what is going on, you laugh with the witches. If you are as puzzled as Battler, then you do not get it." - Emperor Thor ie me. 

"Black tea is best enjoyed with your fellow monsters." May be that is why I am here.

I, as a sorcerer of theatergoing, demand blood. In my other capacities I demand other things.

I will review and analyze the anime together with visual novels without making comparison between two.

This is a very unconventional show, that makes you not only think outside of the box, but even outside of the box in which the original box is located. If such stretches of intellect are too hard for you, you should probably turn back now while you still can, before I started turning chessboard around and twisting it allover the place.

For the rest of you, you are in for a rare treat. You will hardly find anything this deep elsewhere, even if you search for it eternally like Bern for the fragments.

On the surface it is a mystery novel, just like Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. However this one does not have a detective who will give you a straightforward answer of who killed them. There are just hits, many. However you have to figure it out yourself. 

I will rule out the so called ShKanonTrice theory from VN Ep7 since it is an obvious lie. Even short story about maid at the very beginning of episode 7 hints to that conclusion. Decalogue of Knox and 20 wedges also forbid the culprit to be a servant. 

The tea party at the end of ep 7 tells you what really happened.

Despite many fans writing plenty of their own theories on culprit, as far as I seen and remember none of them manage to arrive to this rather obvious answer: Eva.

You can figure it out right after the first twilight in the first episode. After 6 people were just killed most of those who remained are concerned about safety as they try to pull out guns to defend themselves. Even if you are seasoned killer you would be concerned if something like 6 simultaneous murders happened on the cut-off island with just 18 people on it. 

There was just one person who was more concerned with not being blamed for the whole thing then with her own safety. Cousins talked to her in the parlor. I mean how much more obvious you need this game to spell this out for you.

Most importantly, Eva pretty much the only one who had motivation to do it. 'Why do it' thing. Krauss and Natsuhi already have control of the island, there was no reason for them to do anything since they already have everything and nothing to gain from mass murder. Rudolf and Rosa did not want to be a successor ot Kinzo. They just needed money. Kyrie is also not too aggressive or ambitious to pull anything on her own. Same with Natsuhi, even if she despised Krauss she did not have enough guts or ability to slaughter everyone. Both she and Kyrie are outsiders in the family so it would be double hard for them to pull anything out without husbands support.

So Krauss could easily cut a deal that all of them would be happy with. Kraus will be the successor and keep the island, money will be split. Everyone would be happy, except for Eva.

Eva always wanted to supplant Krauss and be named successor. She married early, got Hideyoshi into Ushiromia family rather than join his family, the way women normally should do. She gave birth to George earlier than Natsuhi to Jessika and put a lot of effort into raising him a worthy successor. Finally she trained heavily in marital arts, not a suitable hobby for a woman tbh. All to no effect. Krauss was still successor. 

So when Kinzo died, gold was found everyone else agreed to the final settlement that put final nail int the coffin of Eva's mad dream, she snapped, gone berserk and killed them all. Because that was the only way for her to be Kinzo's only successor. She succeeded, see episode 4 of VN to see how it all went. How no one believed she did not killed them, because she did.

This is the only theory that holds water, other then the one where it was done by Battler, Ryukishi07 or the one where aliens from Trafalmador kidnapped them all to display them in their zoo together with protagonist of Slaughterhouse 5 and that fashion model.

That leads us to the second truth of this sojourn. There is no truth at all. Like a Schrodinger cat: you cannot know if it is dead or alive without opening the box. Since island is destroyed by explosion and all the evidence is buried by this explosion there is no longer any way to find out what happened there. From there on any theory is as good as any other and nothing can ever be proven. Red truth is impossible. Period.

Then the third truth. If author of the story does not give the answer, and sometimes even if he gives, then the story ends up just like a Schrodinger cat's box, there will never be an answer. There can only be a subjective truth from there on, or an infinite multitude of truths if you look at it from a different angle. Ryukishi07 made just that and now enjoys looking at how you all try to discern what a truth is when there is no one single truth here at all. 

By now it is no longer a story but a gameboard to flex logical muscles, just like these debates between Beato and Battler in metaworld. Any story can become something like that but this is probably the first time when someone done it deliberately, and then illustrated the whole process within the same story.

In fact the story even depicts the whole process: characters in the Meta World take turns in making up their own stories in Chiru. Episode 5 told by Lambda, 7 by Bern, 6 and 8 by Battler. All of them just make up their own stuff, often not compliant with original story.

Forth truth: the whole thing is a made up story and did not happen at all. No one killed anyone and Ryukishi07 just made the whole thing up. Then he is the only culprit. He also got away with so many murders. That makes him a golden which or a golden sorcerer. That also leads us to the question of Ryukishi07 gender. After all how you can reasonably expect someone who writes this king of out of the box stories and uses pseudonym Ryukishi07 to be 100% honest about own identity.

Epilogue. There is one other kind of story in there. Beato's love story. Beato's long and futile attempts to make Battler love her. She even asked Virgilia for help. May be it is a metaphor of a story trying to appeal to reader. Or, may be, an author hope for someone to understand and love him/her. Beato even let him destroy herself in the end of episode 4, to satisfy him, his views. She is very accommodating in that regard. 

I do wonder if answering 'What do I think of Beato after it all' question from a personal perspective matters in any way in particular or not. What such an answer could lead to... I can somehow tell that author wants to know but they should not be expecting a simple answer for something like thaaaaat from someone like me. Whahahaha...

Final Epilogue. Somehow I can relate to this family a lot more than to other families in fiction, not in the good way though. Does that mean that my relatives are as upper class as Ushiromiyas or that they are as insane and cruel as them. Probably both. I wonder if this family is relatable for anyone else.

Gintama Review

Overall Rating 8.5/10 - Great Comedy

I recommend watching.

Since ancient times, Kings employed court jesters to entertain themselves, their retainers and guests. Jesters would do funny non-sensual things and be laughed at. Some of them even reached some prominence and influence in the government. Modern comedy is a continuation of this esteemed tradition.

In that sense Gintama is an entertainment, worthy of any King, no less. Unlike some other shows that fail at being funny.

It begins kind of serious, with alternative history Bakumatsu era where aliens, instead of the Americans opened up Japan to the Galaxy instead of the world. If it continued that way it would have just failed quietly like many other shows.

Fortunately for us all, creators soon gave up on that and decided to just go full insane combined idiocy mode. So we got the Gintama, that is loved throughout the world.

Gintama has many episodes, sometimes it kind of tries to get back to being serious again. Unfortunately that started to happen way too often in recent times. Making new arks unfunny.

However when it is at its maximum idiocy, almost nothing can come close. 2 episodes of Bentendo Owee and Yamazaki infiltrates Joishishi are some of the best examples of 1st class comedy.

If you like Zucker Brothers movies (Naked Gun, Police Squad, Aeroplane, Hot Shots), Shaolin Soccer, Nichijou or Excel Saga you should watch this.

Guilty Crown Review

Overall rating 1.0/10 - Affront to everything good and likable.

Do not watch no matter what.

This is the only show I gave 1 out of 10. It is just that bad.

It tries to be the next Code Geass and fails. It is to Code Geass as Robot Chicken Star Wars is to the original Star Wars. Except that Robot Chicken is funny and this thing is not.

Most failing shows manage not to fail in one or other aspect, just by sheer coincidence. However, this one does not fail to fail in absolutely everything.

Plot tries to incorporate the same plot twists as Code Geass. However, Code Geass managed to justify these plot twists with good writing that made these actions logical steps to take in given situation. In Guilty Crown every plot development raises the same question of 'why even bother to do it'. 

If main protagonist can simply defeat everything in one simple attack, then why not just do it and roll the credits. The way show delays this from happing is completely hamfisted with unnecessary intermediate steps is completely appalling. Other actions like freeing some dude from prison or not letting Shuu join the Undertaker without training, despite needing his power to win the war. What training is for, if his power works perfectly well without it.

Characters are completely unlikable:

Shuu is probably the original simp, who only joins the Undertaker only because of Inori, despite the fact that she does not even likes him. 

All the girls are snarky, bullish and unlikable. They all like a guy named Guy, yes creators failed to come up with more original name for this character. He is the only reason they are in the Undertaker, not seriously.

The only good thing in the show is art, if I remember correctly. Which is a shame. A lot of talented artists work, and budget is wasted on this appalling plot.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Review

Overall rating 2.5/10 Awful

I do not recommend watching it.

So many people praise it like it is next best thing since sliced bread, I can't quite understand that. This show is painful to watch.

It is about the guy who somehow hates himself, believes he is worthless and deserve to suffer. 

I cannot relate to any of that. 

That is why it is painful to watch what other characters subject him to, even more painful is the fact that he believes he deserves it.

Shinji's dad looks like a worst kind of scum to me, Rei is also problematic in many ways. I dropped before seeing Asuka, which is probably for the best.

I am not a psychiatrist, but I think Shinji's mental condition is called Inferiority Complex. I have Avoidant Personality Disorder and possibly Autism but not Inferiority Complex.

I am not sure but I might have liked that show more if character with Inferiority Complex was a girl instead.

I am not sure if I should recommend this show even to people with Inferiority Complex.

And if you have children and like this show then I pity your children.