Fixing Things Without Really Fixing Them

Some recent shows I watched gave me the impression that they only pretend of trying to address my concerns, and possibly other fans concerns.

Eminence in Shadow

For example, recent Eminence in Shadow seemed to listen to my criticism of the original and tried to address these issues in sequel.

I criticized Alexia for being hard-ass, I praised scholar-girl from second ark, Diabolos-chan, Gamma, Delta and Eta.

Second season partly feels like they listen to me and even tried to do things I asked for.

So, in second season we have much less Alexia, who now wears glasses, perhaps to get some of that scholar girl charm.

In contrast we have a lot more Delta and Gamma. That seems like an improvement over the original, however if you look deeper then you can notice that it isn't.

In the original, every girl in Shadow Garden was her own distinct type, that would appeal to different people. Alpha was arrogant but busy hard-ass, Beta was shameless in trying to attract men, but girly girl, Gamma was demure, reserved, immaculate manners woman, who is also a clutz, Eta was basically Tomoko from Watamote, but also scientist.

Now they lost many they behavioral differences. Their gimmicks are retained, but more core personality traits are being swapped for something else instead.

The reason for that is the way they started to white these more popular characters. Back in original, Gamma was a demure, reserved and proper mannered woman. She had her distinct role in organization as well.

In sequel she instead works close with Alpha and to some extend take on some of her qualities to her new self. Second season Gamma is much less demure and proper compared to the original. She is much more confident and assertive then she was in the original. 

Delta was fleshed out into a savage, feral woman-beast. In the original she was more of a generic cat-girl who kills people easily, but afraid of Alpha.

Eta was anti-social nerd/scientist, that could not talk properly. Now she is just wicked scientist.

Diabolos-chan lost her vulnerable side as well, she had little chance to showcase her mannerism as well.

What made Alexia so unappealing was her assertive, outspoken, exploitative, hard-ass personality. If you take away Alexia, but spread her qualities across other characters, it only appears, like you trying to address the issue, but you are really not. The qualities and personality traits, that I and other people do not like are still there, just more diffused in the show itself. It does not address the issue, just makes it harder to isolate.

Konosuba

Recently Konosuba decided to address the same issue as well. They took the most likable character from the quartet, Megumin, and made a spin-off show about her.

Original Konosuba had unlikable, arrogant smug Aqua, masochistic, but pushy and assertive Lalatina as well as capable, but flawed wizard Megumin, who can only use one spell and then just falls on the ground helplessly.

Of these four Megumin was the most girly in a traditional sense. That is why fans liked her most, there were plenty of art of Megumin on places like gelbooru.

Now finally plea of fans was addressed, or was it?

As main character of the show, Megumin somehow acquired many of the Aqua's personality traits. Now she is more of Aqua in Megumin's clothes then actual Megumin. (Wolf in Sheep's clothes metaphor)

Show also has feminist family where women make rules.

One that had it right - Girls Bravo

I do wonder how all that begun though. Back in the days for example we had Girls Bravo, it had Miharu and Kojima. They contrasted with each other: Kojima was violent for no reason and hurt Yukinari too often, in contrast Miharu was demure feminine and proper at all times. Muharu was the only guy who did not gave Yukinari girl-allergy.

That girl-allergy was like metaphor to the idea that if girl would behave properly, like Miharu, then guys would not avoid them.

That also was dream and wish fulfilment: even if you are short and weak, there is some nice girl for you somewhere on the moon. Your little angel. One day she will fall down from the moon and make your life happy.

In Miharu character, Girls Bravo showcased what men want women to be. In Kojima, what men do not like in women, why they avoid them.

One that Eventually Ruined it - Sora no Otoshimono

This show took the whole angel idea literally. It straight gave away you an angeloid in the very first episode. Ikaros was not just the ideal woman (other than the fact that she is somewhat fat): quiet, demure, obedient, accommodating and subservient; she also had magical ability to solve all your life problems too.

Then it somehow went wrong way in writing department. Kojima equivalent, Sohara had her violence as gimmick rather than flaw. They also added a truly mean character, Mikako. These two were taking most of the screentime.

Sakurai, unlike Yukinari was more interested in collecting panties, than in finding happiness with Ikaros.

Unlike Miharu, Ikaros was treated more like helpless disabled creature, that needs supervision, rather than ideal girlfriend type. Eventually they added even more angeloids, who were nothing like Ikaros: tsundere Nimph, genki Astraea.

All that only took show further from the original idea. Now show no longer knew what it was or what it even supposed to be. It became chaos and not the ideal relationship show.

Conclusion

Then future shows just removed Ikaros type all together, leaving only violent assertive girls.

Now we have a lot of anime, where girls are anything, but attractive. Especially main girls.

Alas.

School Days Review

Overall Rating 7.8 out of 10 - A very good show with unfortunate ending and few other plots.

I recommend watching.

It turns out that "gambling apocalypse" Itou Kaiji has a little brother, Itou Makoto, who is "dating apocalypse" instead. 

This is a well written show, with interesting plot twists, diverse and well written characters, good story and many other things.

It is also a deep and profound story that illustrates a lot about human nature and such. In that regard it is similar to Revolutionary Girl Utena. However, unlike Utena, School Girls do not use metaphors and allegory (except at the very end), thus making it easier to understand for viewer unfamiliar with literary fiction.

Story begins with slow nice and easy romance. First 3 episodes are pleasant and enjoyable to watch.

Then in the middle part things get complicated.

Finally, a very well written culmination in the few final episodes. The only unfortunate part is that Sekai kills Itou. Itou did nothing wrong and it all was Sekai's fault.

Story has one male protagonist, two main female love interests and many more girls, who all end up sleeping with him.

However, that is not simple harem show, with some light comedy, like Hand Maid May, that I also like.

Instead, it explores darker sides of human psychology. It shows how people can sometimes can-do awful things, when relationships involved. I am not only talking about murder at the end of the show, but also of all the lies misinformation and pressure in the middle part as well.

Kotonoha is a very nice girl, but she has no allies and many enemies who are jealous of her beauty. Thus, they get out of their way to ruin her relationship with Itou.

In contrast community is on Sekai's side. Some like Kyoura help her openly and others are just misled by her constantly hanging around Itou.

I wrote in my previous article how it was Sekai's fault that Itou ended up cheating on Kotonoha. Show does agree with me in the epilogue, where characters in masks do show Sekai the truth of her intentions.

It was also Sekai's fault, that he cheated on her as well. Eventually, Sekai's overbearing nature, lead towards him going for other women out there.

Sekai faked her pregnancy, but that changed nothing. Doing that could not solve a fundamental problem with her own character. Sekai is annoyingly overbearing and fundamentally a liar.

My favorite is of course Kotonoha. She is cute, sweet, demure, woman like. She is an example of how women should be. When it comes to example of femininity, Ryo from Koufuku Graffiti, will do better. As there is nothing bad happening in that show.

However, Kotonoha is more than just set of feminine qualities. She is both sympathetic and even partly relatable to me.

I like how she worked hard to please Itou.

However, I also like how loyal she was. No matter how much Itou was hanging out with other women and how much other characters wanted to take her away from him, she stayed true to him. Her classmates burdened her with work out of jealousy. Sawanaga, who despite being Itou's friend, coveted cute Kotonoha as his own, tried to lie his way into her panties. That is how much any friendship is worth when faced with dating dilemmas.

That loyalty and attachment to Itou made Kotonoha almost insane at the end. However, that also allow her to learn the truth about conspiracies that were happening behind the scenes.

Still dead eyed Kotonoha is cute in her own way, compare to puppy eyed one.

I also liked it that she avenged Itou by killing Sekai. Sekai killed Itou and had to pay for that. Loyalty

Mess like this is why I am cautious with dating and such. I do not want to end up a victim of a crazy girl conspiracy.

Overall, however this is a very insightful show, that allows one to see issues and pitfalls of relationship and human nature. Something I used to talk about with TrueHellDei back in the days. I think she is much like Kotonoha personality wise.

Because of that all, I would recommend this show. So that you at least do not make the same mistakes as Sekai.

Extra: I also watched an original ONA that was basically just a first episode basically pilot with few differences. The show gets much better few episodes later. Also, I watched without subtitles, so there is little I can say on plot differences. ONA by itself is just 6.5 out of 10

Unbreakable Machine Doll Review

Overall Rating 7.2 out of 10 - Good show, despite poor beginning.

I recommend watching

I am actually glad I did not drop it on first few episodes. It begins rather poorly but then recovers really well. In fact, it is best to simply skip first three episodes and start from episode 4. Final battle of Cannibal Candy Ark is alright, but the rest of the arc is not.

The show is divided into three arcs, 4 episodes each. Each ark has main antagonist and well as another girl for Riashin's 'harem'. You can understand that only by episode 5 something.

First ark has the worst girl, snobbish tsundere Char. Her personality together with Raishin's preference for her over Yaya nearly made me drop the show.

Second arc has calm, demure and likable dandere-clutz Frey(a) as Bond Raishin's girl. Her and Loki story is rather compelling and relatable, their 'dad' reminded me of my own. Loki and Raishin exchanges somewhat reminded me of me and my brother. I do not like dogs, but that was not big deal. Anyhow Frey(a) is cute. Overall, this is best ark.

Final ark revolves around Char and her sister Henri. Henri is confused girl, who thinks everyone is out to rape her or something. However, she can be sweet at times. Char is not as annoying here as in first ark, because she does not get too much screen time.

However, it is Yaya, who is the best girl of the show. She is often shown as going Yandere over Raishin interacting with other girls. However, behind that it is easy to overlook, that she is very devoted to Raishin and will do anything for him. She looks cute too, this short kimono, that this show possibly stole from Gintama is cute. Not to mention black cloth and hair, white skin and frills, add a little red here and there. This color scheme is just perfect. Yaya's attire is like Enma Ai gone sexy.

Overall, the art style of Japanese girls in this show is perfect. Yaya has two other sister dolls whose names I did not catch. While and orange dolls are good in their own way. Their alcoholic creator looks alright, but she is not my thing, unlike Raishin I am not into powerful women. I want all my girls to be subordinated to me. She is not as bad as Char or the red head though.

I do not share the same enthusiasm for Victorian era steampunk of the rest of the show. Somehow, it is too grey and dull. In general, this trope is overused in modern anime and possibly Hollywood as well, I did not watch a Hollywood movie since release of Hobbit so I cannot tell.

Also, the show is full of sexual innuendos that by the end of the show, fill almost half of the episode. All girls here always think about all sorts of sexual stuff. That all gets chaotic at times.

My favorite character is Magnus thought. He is rational, calm and collected as I am. Also, I want to have a harem of loyal dolls just like he has.

Overall is it a very good show. Without first three episodes I can even give it 7.7 something.

Also, an extra picture of Yaya, because I feel like it.

Devil May Cry Review

Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - Mostly good with a few flaws.

I can recommend watching.

This one is very simple, but fun nonetheless show. 

Dante is an anime version of Chuck Norris. He does look cool and has likable enough personality. While not especially interesting, he makes for much better protagonist compared to many others, like for example his look alike Light from Death Note.

Supporting cast is alright for the most part. They are good fit in the overall theme of the show and do not stand out like a sore thumb. 

The two girls are rather exploitative of Male MC, I am not sure if creators thought this is playful or something, but that does not make a good impression. Their introductory episodes do not showcase them in good light, but they do much better as support cast in other episodes, like Death Poker for example. Their poor personality is somewhat balanced with relatively good looks and not too much dialog lines for me to drop this show because of them.

Some episodes are borderline silly, such as motorcycle one. Others are better thought through and even have an interesting plot to follow. However, none are so bad, you would want to drop.

Overall feel or atmosphere of this show is supported by over the top dark and 'bad ass' aesthetics, for the lack of better word. The feel is consistently applied to everything in this show, mostly to portray Dante as some uncompromising alpha chad.

Overall, it is an interesting show. Much better than some AoT or Demon Slayer.

.hack//Quantum Review

Overall Rating 6.6 out of 10 - An exceptionally strong beginning, but otherwise somewhat flawed experience.

I can still recommend watching.

Quantum begins really well. It takes realistic emulation of the IRL MMOs to the next lever. The Dragon Raid is just like the Onyxia's Lair from original WoW. The coordination between raids members is also very realistic. The show was going to the next high mark.

As a little bonus icing on the cake, Sayaka is the cutest character design in the whole series. She is cute at being clutz as well. So adorable.

Unfortunately, the show goes somewhat downhill from there.

IRL sections are too long. The explanation of the plot is very long, I think it takes nearly full episode just to actually explain what is going on, and there is only 3 episodes in total. Plot is overly stretched: sure, the other .hack// series shows also exploited inability to log out and game irregularities as plot points, but they were more subtle about it. Here however it seems that everyone and their dog hacking the game like no tomorrow.

Hermit is overly simplified Tsukasa mixed with Maha, who actually lost all the traits and development that made Tsuakasa great character to begin with.

The guild leader is overly authoritarian person in general and show takes undue pleasure to showcasing that.

I would still recommend it, the very first episode at the very least. For dragon raid and Sayaka.

One Reason New WoW recieves so much criticism

Fundamentally most gamers are introverted people. Introverts get overloaded from too much of social interaction and need plenty of alone time to recover. 

Old WoW with it heavily exploratory character, worked well for introverted players. In some zones like Desolace, Plaguelands and especially Azshara you can play for hours without encountering any NPC at all. It was a reflective and contemplating experience. However, in general game did a good job of leaving you alone with your thoughts, only occasionally feeding you some new info. That way you had time to see and think for yourself. 

Not to mention, original Azshara was stunningly beautiful: autumn wonderland with white marble ruins and seashore. Something Pushkin wrote is autumn poem about. Possibly the best-looking zone in the game, tied with Ashenvale.

In Cataclysm Azshara was remade into a Goblin theme park with rollercoasters and what not. In general, everything became so jam-packed with stuff, that it easily gets as overwhelming as social interaction.

In general game become a lot more like invasive ad, that constantly throws something at you without giving you a break.

I am not sure if Blizzard decided to adopt game to extroverted people on purpose or just by accident. However, by doing so, they did lose the introverted player base. I am not sure if extroverts now love WoW more than parties, but introverts spew criticism of Blizzard instead.

Tsukasa as Nihilist Character

 

Someone once asked me about Nihilist movie recommendations, I named many but not this one. Not the type that preaches nihilism but rather reflects on it. 

Nihilists are people for whom there is nothing in the world that brings them happiness. .hack//Sign, but especially Tsukasa's character is a good example of a nihilist. He wanders the world looking for something he might enjoy and avoiding anything he does not like. He is very self-protective and escapes the moment he senses some trouble. His story is very relatable to me personally, I think I mentioned that in my review of the show.

Because of that I can recommend .hack//Sign as the ultimate story about Nihilism and Nihilists.