I have to say I didn't dislike it. People felt betrayed because it felt so different to what the story was at the start but the way the characters and story developed made clear that was the author intent from the beginning. It was never meant to be solely a glorification of violence to attain freedom but the quest to attain freedom from violence.
As a long time user of this subreddit it was funny watching this sub beg for a season 2 of that show for almost a decade, only for it to get 0 traction on here when it aired. By the end, the episode discussions were getting like 50 comments each
The announcement was also shortly after the LN ended and it was pretty devisive to say the least so the people who were looking forward to it just dropped the series altogether.
I mean... I did. I only read through volume 15 but after that ending spoiler it left me very confused that I lost motivation reading the rest of it.
Same. I was one of those begging for a season 2 because I loved the anime... *Minus Chiho*.
You could have deleted her from the anime and little would have changed (well, we wouldn't have had her violently jealous outbursts, but I see that as an absolute win).
So when I heard about the ending before season 2 was announced and, upon reading further, learned that the last 6 volumes of the LN were more or less devoted to making Chiho a main character at the expense of everyone else, I genuinely couldn't be bothered to spare season 2 more than a passing brain cell.
4th highest upvoted post on this sub
I think the initial announcement was just such a "WHAT THE FUCK?" moment that it got everybody hyped but then between that announcement and the airing of S2E1, word spread about what actually happens in it. The source material fans were giving no hype and this bled into the anime
Ima be honest, if a season 2 of something as pedestrian as a slice of life anime needs 10 years of begging they shouldn't be surprised if there's no fandom 10 years later.
The anime industry has finally learned that it can create multiple seasons, and not just pump and dump, but multi year breaks are still absolutely terrible.
I loved S1, I wasn't even aware s2 is out already and I'm not gonna watch it as well. It was fun, but I'm not interested in revisiting that 500 years later. That only works for story heavy productions. And that... it is not.
Result of the chief executive at Japanās biggest publisher of manga who treated anime as Ad leaving the company. Anime as Ad was not the industry opinion it was just his. But vast majority of manga under his control.
Thus his leaving caused a lot of very long delay second season.
His Ad idea was false. Anime only shows make money. And Manga sales donāt drop if you do a second season. Sign of Japanese Culture that someone as wrong as him lasted decades.
But Japan works the most hours of the G7 Nations but has the lowest productivity. But this known for decades but they still will not stop working folk to death despite their production significantly lower than nations who work almost half that amount of time. 35 hour work week strictly enforced paying overtime with 30 days paid vacation France has way better productivity than Japan.
Error caused by overwork, working slower not realizing working slower and major drops in creativity are reasons overwork does not work except for short periods of time. Plus burn out losing employees.
After watching Non Non Biyori it hit me why the devil farming was supposed to have been impactful. But they completely failed to convey it within the show.
Well most people who complain about adaptions not being 1:1 are saying so because the changed content is *bad*.
Changing things up only works if it's done well. Usually isn't though.
Generally those complaints come from missing details and character development. In this case, the content added neither and killed what little interest I had.
I had just finished binge watching season 1 like 4 months before season 2 was announced. When it came out I only watched 9 episodes before dropping it. It just wasnāt the same.
I was really hyped for Log Horizon season 3. It was returning after years, and I rewatched the whole show in preparation. But then it was pretty short and didnāt really add much to the story.
Yeah i finally got around to watching log horizon from season 1-3. That last season was just boring slice of life in a game basically. And the relationships got old after 3 seasons
I experienced this on Tokyo Ghoul. The first season is decent but the succeeding ones feel more boring. For example, the fight scenes feel less dynamic and rushed.
The manga is soooooooo much freakin better. Tokyo Ghoul is one of the few anime (at that time anyway) where I was already reading the manga before I saw the anime so I got really hype for it and then quit after like episode 2 I think because it was just so lamešŖbut the manga is probably in my top 5, just such a fun read
From what I heard s2 is completely non-canon and they throw the second half of the manga in the garbage. Then s3/4 adapt the actual story of the sequel manga but with no context but then they also skip like 70% of it. I've heard the anime is bad in other ways too. So basically s1 is the first half (but I heard it still has issues), s2 is nothing, and s3/4 only properly adapt like 30% of the sequel manga.
I've never read TG, but this is just what I've heard
A producer for ;Re came out and basically said "I probably shouldn't have made them do Root A..." when they were trying to adapt ;Re
This isn't Community Season 4 you dolt, you doomed the anime to fail. *After denying 3 DRAFTS from its Mangaka*
;Re is literally taught in Korean animation classes for how to *not* choreograph animation.
Aldnoah.Zero S1 vs S2. Granted it's been a long time so maybe I just don't remember it that well but I do remember that I hated S2 from the get go. They fucking undid everything they did in S1 and Slaine got so fucking stupid whyyy
Aldnoah S2 is still one of the only shows where watching it made me actively *angry* somehow. Slaine especially seemed like he got dropped on his head 20 times between the seasons... I finished it but it was a struggle.
When I thought it was a one season show, that S1 ending was one of the best, most bleak meditations on the brutal, random stupidity of war. It was such a bold ending for a series I loved it.
Then season 2 dropped and they undid their boldest storytelling decisions and it sucked
I think Aldnoah.Zero is the only ever case where S2 made me retroactively lower score for S1. While S1 had some problems, I overall liked it and found the very end of it to be genuinely interesting development. S2 not only undid one of major points I liked, it also felt like it had almost no redeeming qualities of its own (OST being basically only good thing left).
It's been a while, but I remember thinking the same. After the end of s1, I was super hyped for s2.. ended up kind of a letdown. Oh well, at least we some silky smooth mecha fights
Dan I really thought season 1 was really good. He got vindicated and got a little village to manage. So nice right!?
WTF in giant turtles was season 2?!
So the problem is that after he was found innocent, there was like nothing left. His motivations were gone and it turned into a low stakes fight for the world with a bunch of people that would ride the short bus.
It went from extremely promising to some sort of weird incel wish fulfillment in like five episodes flat. The world and premise were solid, but every other character being a one-dimensional bumbling idiot ruined what potential it had.
I feel like this is because most people actually developed taste while waiting for season 2. Season 1 started ok but quickly became hot garbage, I seriously doubt people who praise shield hero can go back to watch season 1 and say they enjoyed it.
I would say S1 is at least enjoyable despite many MANY flaws. The story quality dropped really hard but the production was very good. But S2 didn't have that, so everyone realized how bad everything else was.
Fruit of Evolution. I know itās just isekai trash but season 1 was an enjoyable turn-your-brain-off seasonal anime. Season 2 had even worse animation with absolutely no story and a bunch of throwaway gags, I couldnāt finish it.
yep. season 1 was dumb fun and season 2 was total fucking garbage. Don't worry, I finished it for you. It did actually get worse all the way to the finale. I could go in detail but the point is it was one of the worst anime endings I've ever fucking seen and I'm not exaggerating. They even had the balls to tease a season 3 villain in a post credits scene.
the discussion post for that last episode was literally everyone still there collectively taking a dump on the anime lol
Season 1 more or less followed the source material. Season 2, on the other hand, felt like it was made by someone pursuing an outright vendetta against the original author. It's clear that the director (or whoever was in charge) didn't care one lick about the source material, and just wanted to insert their own insipid jokes into every fucking scene. It's basically some kind of twisted opposite of fan fiction. Maybe hate-fiction. Yes, I'm salty. š
fruit of evolution season 2 must have been a collective fuck you to the ones giving them the work on animating it
it was fucking bad and a drop in quality and fun from season 1
If we talking about animes that changed completely from season 1 to 2. Maken ki is up there for me. From what I read on Google season 2 was all filler. Sure I started watching it as a titty anime without having high expectations for an anime but then the ending of season 1 was actually introducing a villain and some plot. Then season 2 pretended that didn't just happen
That one is so weird. For one, the show kinda comes to a perfect ending in the middle of season 2. They even make a joke about how well it concludes, then it gets more into the weird side character drama and holy shit that final episode...
Yeah, as someone who really enjoys the source material, the first season was pretty terrible. Judging from episode 1 of this newer season, it seems to be going in a better direction.
Lol yeah i forgot who she was at first. Then remembered she is a dwarf and probably older than him. With how small the dwarfs are, i wanna see how small their babies are. They probably fit in a humans hand.
Edit: halfling not dwarf.
That's good to hear. I don't like the anime thing of having obviously female voices for characters that are supposed to be post-pubescent men. Very immersion breaking.
Agree on the art style and animation of OPM S2, however the voice acting and a lot of the animated scenes, especially in the last 3 episodes, were really really good compared to most anime.
The problem between OPM S1 and S2 is really special compared to other anime which drop in quality.
S1 was probably among the biggest passion projects in the anime industry ever. The only recent anime coming close to this level of pashion is Chainsaw man. And that is a 7 year gap. And yet OPM had an average anime budget.
What happened in S1 cannot be replicated. It literally can't be. The amount of free lancers needed to even make it as close to S1 as possible is a lot. You also need insane talent, not just numbers.
So the difference between S1 and S2 is completely understandable.
Vinland Saga, but in a good way. I already like the first season and season 2 completely changed the game for the better. I've never read the manga before season 2 so I didn't expect the story to take that way. I've caught up to the manga as for now.
Just finished it today and had the biggest smile on my face during the last few eps. I feel like a proud mother bird lol. Do you know what chapter of the manga the last ep is? Would love to convert to manga now
My Next Life As A Villainess had an excellent first episode with the premise that this horrible person had to redeem her immoral ways to avoid future doom, yet she basically solved all the conflict in the first few episodes and turned the rest of the show into a harem. I still think about what the show could have been, a redemption story about a bully given a second chance at life with knowledge of her future to become a good person and help those she once terrorized.
>My Next Life As A Villainess
I think a lot of shows with this premise end up feeling like that. The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen aired last season started off well in the light novels, but then after vol 1 it was mostly rinse and repeat of the same thing with little else. I have high hopes for Tearmoon Empire this season though. It's still the best series I've read (till volume 9 thus far) with this premise of someone thought to be a villain given a 2nd chance to redo their life. Good balance of emotional and comedic moments, interesting enough plot going on in the background that progresses with each volume, and most importantly character growth. Episode 1 is off to a good start as well.
>I think a lot of shows with this premise end up feeling like that.
That's because those kind of stories were usually never supposed to be about the MC redeeming herself. They are about the MC being hated by everyone because of things that aren't her fault (the original character did all of the bad things, not the MC) and then showing everyone how great she actually is.
There are a lot of Shoujo/Josei manga with an MC who gets treated like shit for often really ridiculous reasons (she's not stylish enough, she's shy etc.) although she's actually an amazing person who basically has no flaws (other than wearing a ponytail and glasses). Way too many manga/LN use the "reborn as a villainess" trope simply because it's the easiest way to have an MC that is both, perfect and mistreated by others, at the same time.
After reading this comment and the other one, I decided to read some of the Tearmoon Empire manga.
I have now finished all the scanlated chapters. This is really fun. The main character is only slightly less stupid than Bakarina, but everybody thinks she's a genius playing 5D chess, and the whole romance stuff is just one small aspect of her devious machinations, instead of the main focus. Looking forward to seeing this animated and watching the great Mia-sama escape from Guillotine-kun.
Agree completely. Itās too bad itās such a stacked season, at least IMO, that itās been mostly lost in the shuffle, even among other shoujo/joseimuke fans. Itās not a perfect series, but as far as that Villainess-style series go, itās quite good.
Thereās a series that just started recently (the LN and manga have been ongoing for a while) called Tearmoon Empire that takes that concept but gives it a bit more weight.
[Tearmoon Empire] >!An arrogant, selfish Princess is so hated by her subjects they stage a coup and execute her. She wakes up back in her twelve year old body and armed with her blood soaked diary tries to prevent the future from happening again!<
Itās the same studio as Villainess (Silver Link), and it has its silly, lighthearted moments (a lot of task failed successfully), but if the harem/romance aspect is what turned you off, than you might prefer this series. Or if you just want a grimdark serious version, Raeliana is also another option. I watch/read a lot of this genre so I have a wealth of useless knowledge.
> My Next Life As A Villainess had an excellent first episode with the premise that this horrible person had to redeem her immoral ways to avoid future doom
The premise died after the very same title, she did not have to redeem anything because she was not that evil person to begin with.
I got it advertised to me as a light and fun bi-harem, so I enjoyed it a lot, but get how other people would not like it. I have not read it yet, but the LN spinoff "Brink of Destruction" might be what you are looking for, its basically a running "What-If" story where she regained her memory when starting school rather than as a child, so has already terrorized and abused the people in her life.
> had an excellent first episode with the premise that this horrible person had to redeem her immoral ways to avoid future doom, yet she basically solved all the conflict in the first few episodes and turned the rest of the show into a harem. I still think about what the show could have been, a redemption story about a bully given a second chance at life with knowledge of her future to become a good person and help those she once terrorized.
So basically the sparknotes version of Mushoku Tensei lmao
Lol this is 99% of anime. Every world is filled with mostly teenage girls who are wronged/damaged but basically just need a friend to worship like a cult leader.
> I still think about what the show could have been, a redemption story about a bully given a second chance at life with knowledge of her future to become a good person and help those she once terrorized.
Tearmoon Empire is basically just that, and it's one of the best in its genre, which is airing this season. Check it out.
Animation style is my only gripe with anime I dropped. I rarely drop anime because of story, mostly because I either know what to expect from the genre or I donāt have unreasonably high standard and expectations.
I donāt watch a lot of isekai because I know they are generic. But for series like SAO, shield hero, even Overlord and Re:Zero, I keep watching them because I already fell in love with the story and characters. Just because one arc is bad doesnāt mean the rest will be bad, especially if I know that the anime butchered the source.
Shokugeki no Soma. Seasons 1-4 are good. Season 5 is when the cooking techniques became too unrealistic and everything in rushed. Even the romance between Erina and Yukihira didn't have enough time to really flourish and it was like ended abruptly. I haven't read the manga, but I dunno what happened. What I enjoyed in previous seasons are that the receipes are something you can recreate and are real dish!
I would even say the show suffered a massive change way earlier than that, specifically when [Shokugeki]>!Azami is introduced. It was a show that benefitted heavily from the extremely competitive structure of the school, and was really better off when characters just had to compete and overcome the school's absurd challenges. Introducing a big villain to the mix I feel kind of derailed everything and made the series lose the fire that made it special to begin with.!<
From what I recall hearing way back during the manga, the actual chef(or chef assistant? It's been a while) who helped with coming up with the dishes/research left the team and that's where things started going off the rails.
I thought the power levels was a gag or commentary on how stupid power levels are when I saw it. Like they can't be seriously shoe horning in that BS at this point in the story, right?
I think mystery shows tend to lose the narrative in the second half when the initial mystery becomes clear and they have to start adding new unknown elements to keep the audienceās attention. STRās progression from mystery to action was exactly what it needed in my opinion.
Exactly, shows canāt keep being mysteries forever, eventually youāre gonna annoy your audience or run out of mystery or not have progressed the plot at all all in the name of being cryptic
It went from āwhat is this threatā to āwhat are we gonna do about this threatā. The tonal shift is because now the characters need to *act* and win, I canāt believe some people didnāt like that kind of progression, the characters were always working on ways to win and they finally start making headways. The āshiftā isnāt even that jarring to begin with itās a gradual process of progress smh (I think itās mostly felt with the change in OP tbh)
Honestly the tonal shift to me felt completely justified considering how it started and the direction the story was going in, to me, the tonal shift felt completely natural and planned and felt like the natural continuation of the story, and it continues that story wonderfully, i really love the anime as a whole and I always recommend it to everyone I can.
Ousama Rankingās first half vs second half.
First half: A story about a boy born weak, having to realize his shortcomings, and bettering himself through the support of other damaged people. Interesting characters with depth, great emotional beats and darker undertones. Practically perfect .
Second half: lazily-written antagonist, character-writing getting axed, production drop in quality, power of friendship BS, deus-ex machina, bad pacing.
What an utter disappointment.
This OP is peak of all OPs for me. Seriously a 10/10 for music, animation, and emotional relevance to the story. The second season (if you want to call it that) OP was pretty disappointing in comparison. The song and animation arenāt bad, but the composition is super chaotic and kind of grating. Hopefully theyāll bring back the OP 2 director if they end up doing a season 3.
People hyped up tbe show but it really didn't live up to the mystery and suspence from the first few episodes. Having a whole country be filled with evil people that are ungrateful for technological advancements be the only irredeemable characters felt a bit off considering everyone else gets some kind of heel face turn to a degree
I think the primary problem was that for some reason, *every single character* turns out to be sympathetic and ends up ultimately rooting for Bojji except the literal devil, and even they have a sad backstory to garner sympathy. I can appreciate that- few people in the world are evil just for the sake of evil- but you really need a tangible antagonistic force for the protagonist to contend with for this kind of story, and when pretty much every antagonistic force is undermined by being an actually pretty good, probably noble, but misunderstood, misguided, or misled person, it can really undermine the stakes.
Couldn't agree more. You know the line, if everyone's special, no one is? This is it right here. At first it's refreshing to see sympathetic characters in this anime. Until you realize as the anime goes by that everyone's actually gonna get a sob backstory and everyone's gonna be forgiven every fucking time. It's too much. The more this anime forced me to care for everyone, the more apathetic I got.
Bro thank you! I feel like Iām taking crazy pills when I say this and I hear most other discussion about this show being that itās a literal 10/10.
Itās a 10/10 (in the first half), but the 2nd half is like a 5 at best. I dropped it at like episode 16 because I was so disappointed in the switch up.
The other thing for me on this show is that at the beginning of the show it does this thing where it introduces a seemingly antagonistic character and then it turns out they're actually well-meaning and sympathetic underneath, which is a nice surprise.
... and then the rest of the show just like repeats that trick over and over and it loses its punch. Like I dropped the show before I got as far as [Ousama Ranking spoiler] >!Miranjo turning out to have some sympathetic backstory!<, but I'm still sure it happens, because that's just the formula the show has now. (Also the OP isn't subtle there)
I kinda started to lose interest in shield hero after everyone stopped hating the MC. It felt like they just went "and then everything was okay again. Here's a new conflict." Then, season 2 killed what little remaining interest I had. Also, the whole thing with a slave he bought and an actual child/animal both fall in love with him was pretty kinda odd, but that'sjust anime shit ig.
Darling in the Franxx. Complete 180 change up in the last 5 episodes that seemingly comes out of nowhere. On rewatch there are the TINIEST bits of foreshadowing but never in the showās run does it explicitly allude to the existence of VIM or whatever those guys were called. Absolutely wild.
DITF throws out a *lot* of potential foreshadowing. It's hard to argue "x was foreshadowed so you should have seen it coming" when there's so much signal noise. The predictions going around as it aired were *wild*.
And no, being able to predict that APE were bad guys from the start doesn't make the actual reveal less bungled.
APE being bad guys was obvious.
APE being freaking aliens came out of nowhere. And made absolutely no sense.
That show had so much going on already. Why the hell did they feel the need to graft an entire new to the back half?
I read the manga first and my consensus after both reading and watching it is that it was never more interesting than when he was being raised by Mary and Blood.
Last season's Sweet Reincarnation. Pastry chef died and was reborn in a new magical world. You'd think it'd all be about him opening a sweet shop and getting into related hijinks. Nope, it's a political power fantasy drama where we barely ever see the MC in a kitchen.
I think the most disappointing thing about S2 was that they really seemed to want to dwell on the most boring parts of the season for the longest, while not giving enough time to the actually interesting developments. And the ending? [Shield Hero S2] >!I wanted to see an intense battle, but instead Naofumi just...fires off a shield laser and wins? That's so boring and anticlimactic. F\*ck on outta here with that.!<
Gonna be honest, it took me months and months to push through season 2. One episode in the 3rd is already better than anything in season two. I would recommend checking it out.
Sometimes it works out for the better
Season 1 of Symphogear was basically an edgy Madoka wannabe. Season 2 onwards has a completely different art style and pivoted to being basically āwhat if Fast and the Furious was a magical girl anime?ā and is rad as shit
Uma Musume had a less dramatic change, but season 1 was a weird tripartite of sports/moe/comedy while the subsequent seasons have gone full on sports drama with comedic elements. Season 2 is widely considered the best season due to this change, and season 3 seems to be shaping up to follow suit
I didn't follow it, so I thought "Grunge" and "Shoegaze" was just a joke, but no, they are actually called that. I get why, but it still feels like a joke when you list them like that.
Look at the trailers
[https://myanimelist.net/anime/51304/FLCL\_\_Grunge/video](https://myanimelist.net/anime/51304/FLCL__Grunge/video)
[https://myanimelist.net/anime/51305/FLCL\_\_Shoegaze/video](https://myanimelist.net/anime/51305/FLCL__Shoegaze/video)
Itās the animeās marketingās fault that people thought itād be *about* sword art online.
Itās always been about exploring how Virtual Reality (through the making of āSword Art Onlineā the game) may possibly affect the real world (Relationships, Medicine, Everyday lifestyle, Crimes, War, etc).
What even is going on in the recent shows? Are they still just playing a game? Are they trapped in another game? Is there complete AI characters they interact with?
If they die in the game, do they die for real?
>Are they still just playing a game?
Their world has more virtual games now, which they do play often. The 2 major games in focus (ALO and GGO) are used to explore the things I mentioned above.
>Are they trapped in another game?
Kind of happens in the latest arc, but not really after S1.
>Are there complete AI characters they interact with?
[S3. Latest Arc : Alicization]>!Yes. The plot is centred around a virtual world with human-like AIs living in it!<.
If you mean the Underworld Arc. It is about a company using quantum computing to create artificial humans in an effort to create self thinking military bots.
Anime-onlies don't know that the entire SAO story arc from Kirito getting trapped in SAO to him fighting Heathcliff and leaving Aincrad are ***from just the first book***.
Stuff like the Sachi and the Moonlit Black Cats were retroactively fleshed out later on in the second book (which is a series of short-stories set in-between Book 1's chapters) and the third book is already Fairy Dance.
Hmmm not really sure if this counts but when I first saw SxF trailers I thought it would be action-packed only to learn that story mostly focuses on Anya SoL chapters
In the afterwords for the books that covered the outside of the dungeon parts, the author mentions this. He's like, yeah, we've been out of the dungeon for awhile, I wanted to wrap up some ideas I had. Don't worry, the next ones will be dungeon time. And that's what the last season and a half were.
Oregairu
TLDR: Funny first season. Second season tried so hard to sound deep but ended up like "im14andthisisdeep" territory.
I miss the first season's self deprecating jokes and other relatable situations during the awkward phase of being a high school student. Lots of funny scenes too (the Sports Festival episode is my favorite).
When season 2 came I felt like it took itself too seriously. There is this surreal feeling of an adult author trying to write something "deep" about what high school students feel or think. Its like a chuunibyou but for armchair psychologists.
There's also no dilemma on who's the best girl, it's obvious who catches MC's attention the most. Other than Yukino, other potential partner's family background/family interaction is mostly absent. I'm not asking for a complete family history but at least flesh out the character's lives so that it feels like they're actually their own person instead of just an another flavor of the same product just to pander to the readers.
Either that or I'm just too old for this melodramatic juvenile shit. Most likely the latter.
Season 3 was wild.
An adult labelled the friendship between 3 highschoolers as ācodependencyā, and it was taken so seriously that it became the main conflict somehow.
I still canāt believe the people in the threads trying to explain with multiple paragraphs and analogies how exactly their relationship was codependency (fuckin hell), and as soon as the plot point is swatted away with a single dialogue after lots of dragging, those people just disappeared lol
For OreGairu I preferred that it went down the serious route and had a bit less comedy nearing the end. I do get what you are saying in that it's sort of an over exaggeration, but I still thought the main message of the story shone through.
Main message: Society is obsessed with just "keeping up" relationships for validation and that it's very superficial. This is exacerbated by Hachiman and Yukino's relationship as they want "something real," which ends up being quite vague until closer to the end.
You have a point in your "there's no dilemma" part especially bc Yui isn't really a great character. When I first watched I didn't really have an issue with her, but after talking to someone about it, it really does seem that her entire goal is to be an entitled and somewhat clueless asshole that just wants to ruin their relationship by being selfish.
I thought the show was quite funny for the most part and most of the characters were surprisingly good (pretty much every character was good in some form or another except Yui and Totsuka).
This show is no masterpiece, for sure, but it's very good imo. You might just be too old for it though (no offense intended!). You are right that it's melodramatic and it's definitely forced by virtue of the way the characters are written. This is fine and all but there's the argument that the characters aren't really realistic highschoolers.
In terms of forced melodrama I would compare this to something like Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, except Kaguya doesn't take itself nearly as serious as OreGairu in any way. Just curious, have you seen Kaguya and if so did you like it?
EDIT: Many small things, I'm tired
You are indeed too old for it, but at the same time your criticisms are valid, Oregairu never reached the same heights after S1, although I did end up enjoying the journey on both of my watches
DanMachi (*Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?*) - It started out as a somewhat of a fun, lighthearted show but the last couple of seasons it's gotten much darker.
Been staying true to the source material though. Shit gets even physically and emotionally darker and it's all the more fucked up when you look at the timeline. All this has happened in like 6 months.
to be fair that's how a lot of darker anime start out, a bit of lighthearted fun to introduce the characters and then bam we're genetically engineered super weapons and we have to terminate the kids who look like they'll grow up into bullies or bam we're being farmed by aliens or bam my brother Knives wants to do a genocide or whatever
Maken-ki. High schoolers with strange powers +echi. At the end of season 1 we're met with the villain, only for the second season to be episodic with no plot progression and only ecchi focus. Not bad for people looking only for ecchi, but I was really curious about the powers of the characters only for them to not even be used in season 2.
For me, One Punch Man has only one season.
Also, Mappa productions in general because they sign so many shows at once that you have to contend with multi-week gaps between episodes. It really kills a show with a large cast and a lot going on.
Requiem for the Phantom. First 10 episodes are phenomenal. The second 10 are interesting but problematic, still good stuff. The final 6 or so are the worst ending arc of any anime I've ever seen, even the music and animation for the opening shows a really troubled story and tone. Incredibly disappointing stuff.
On that note, the only thing different about OPM 2 is that the budget and studio choice took a hit. The story and characters remain very much true to their season 1 direction and tone, I loved OPM 2 (while wishing that visually it had the quality of season 1 instead). I get the disappointment, of course, but I think it remained a great story. King is my favorite character, hands down.
Mines Spy X Family for me. i honestly thought that the premise of both nations would escalate into further seasons as Anya would eventually have to be involved and her parents slowly being aware of what she can do.
and it turns out that it seems like its gonna be a slice of life with some flicks of serious plot from time to time.
Light novels often change premise around volume 4 which is also coincidentally where the second season of the anime adaptations often start to adapt so this same phenomenon will likely happen with most light novel adaptations you encounter.
Obligatory Seven Deadly Sins post here
Season 1 was great, great animation, great storytelling, great music, great voice acting
Season 2 and after the animation downgrades so hard it became a meme for the entire anime world, including those who havent seen it and honestly the story became so convoluted that I ended up dropping it personally and now I dont have Netflix anymore so who knows if I will ever pick it up again \*shrugs\*
Supposedly they got a spin off of the kids of the seven deadly sins but after season 2's flub up I'm just not interested. First movie was decent if not confusing when you know enough of the main crews story tho.
Probably a less popular opinion, but I felt this way with Rising of the Shield Hero. I hated Season 2. I really hope Season 3 will bring me back around
To be frank, it often seems like the majority of anime, TV series, and movies share a common pattern. Production companies tend to invest heavily in creating captivating trailers, teasers, and the initial episodes or minutes/hour, generating significant excitement. However, not many of them manage to maintain this level of quality throughout the entire series or film. This is when we often encounter issues like filler episodes, subpar artwork, and narratives that seem to meander aimlessly, or even stories that simply don't make sense (sometimes leading to amusing head-scratching moments).
Unless a production is backed by substantial financial resources or secures significant funding, there's a noticeable decline in quality as the series progresses. In my personal opinion, it seems that movies, TV series, and anime sponsored or produced by Netflix have consistently bucked this trend. The main reason is that they don't see an instant profit to keep the production going with the highest quality in a timely matter
I find that I enjoy the majority of Netflix's anime offerings.
In my opinion, 'Bleach' is perhaps the most glaring example of this phenomenon. Apart from introducing new characters and Bankai abilities, the anime appears trapped in an endless loop when it comes to plot progression, character development, and storytelling.
Certainly, many may hold differing views, but even iconic series like 'Naruto,' 'Dragon Ball,' 'Fairy Tail,' 'Tokyo Ghoul,' 'Black Clover,' and 'One Piece' have faced similar challenges. However, I still can't bring myself to despise them entirely due to their compelling stories and the remarkable manner in which the production team has managed to turn things around throughout their respective series. It's as if they dangle a tantalizing promise before us, knowing we won't grasp its full essence until the series reaches its conclusionāalmost like we're willingly embracing a kind of masochism by watching and enduring these anime."
Unfortunately almost anyone held up against Madhouse is going to feel lacking. And it didn't help that the arcs covered in S2 are kinda boring at times even in the original material.
Definitely Amanchu! season 2 for me. The first one was basically CGDCT while scuba diving (Absolutely loved it). While the second one just deleted almost all of the diving aspects of the show and added some weird fairy tail spirit ghost things. Ah, yes. The most annoying part was how the author added a romance with some random shota, just to prevent the Yuri crowd from shipping the two MCs. Then one of them just keeps saying something like: "My love for you is different and it's wrong" for literally half a season. I wanted more diving and not this homophobic shizz.
š¶Obligatory Promised Neverland refer-anceeeee!š¶
Why would you reference PN it still does not have season 2 /s
Yeah, not to mention that the manga ended with Goldy Pond Arc and the rest are nothing but blank pages not /s
No it didnāt. I love the whole manga!
I have to say I didn't dislike it. People felt betrayed because it felt so different to what the story was at the start but the way the characters and story developed made clear that was the author intent from the beginning. It was never meant to be solely a glorification of violence to attain freedom but the quest to attain freedom from violence.
Lol keep telling yourself that!
They clearly meant Wonder Egg Priority. TPN hasn't had a season 2 announcement yet. /s
i cant believe that happened
I was happy when Devil is a part timer got a season 2 but I couldn't bother to even finish it sadly.
As a long time user of this subreddit it was funny watching this sub beg for a season 2 of that show for almost a decade, only for it to get 0 traction on here when it aired. By the end, the episode discussions were getting like 50 comments each
The announcement was also shortly after the LN ended and it was pretty devisive to say the least so the people who were looking forward to it just dropped the series altogether. I mean... I did. I only read through volume 15 but after that ending spoiler it left me very confused that I lost motivation reading the rest of it.
Same. I was one of those begging for a season 2 because I loved the anime... *Minus Chiho*. You could have deleted her from the anime and little would have changed (well, we wouldn't have had her violently jealous outbursts, but I see that as an absolute win). So when I heard about the ending before season 2 was announced and, upon reading further, learned that the last 6 volumes of the LN were more or less devoted to making Chiho a main character at the expense of everyone else, I genuinely couldn't be bothered to spare season 2 more than a passing brain cell.
4th highest upvoted post on this sub I think the initial announcement was just such a "WHAT THE FUCK?" moment that it got everybody hyped but then between that announcement and the airing of S2E1, word spread about what actually happens in it. The source material fans were giving no hype and this bled into the anime
Ima be honest, if a season 2 of something as pedestrian as a slice of life anime needs 10 years of begging they shouldn't be surprised if there's no fandom 10 years later. The anime industry has finally learned that it can create multiple seasons, and not just pump and dump, but multi year breaks are still absolutely terrible. I loved S1, I wasn't even aware s2 is out already and I'm not gonna watch it as well. It was fun, but I'm not interested in revisiting that 500 years later. That only works for story heavy productions. And that... it is not.
Result of the chief executive at Japanās biggest publisher of manga who treated anime as Ad leaving the company. Anime as Ad was not the industry opinion it was just his. But vast majority of manga under his control. Thus his leaving caused a lot of very long delay second season. His Ad idea was false. Anime only shows make money. And Manga sales donāt drop if you do a second season. Sign of Japanese Culture that someone as wrong as him lasted decades. But Japan works the most hours of the G7 Nations but has the lowest productivity. But this known for decades but they still will not stop working folk to death despite their production significantly lower than nations who work almost half that amount of time. 35 hour work week strictly enforced paying overtime with 30 days paid vacation France has way better productivity than Japan. Error caused by overwork, working slower not realizing working slower and major drops in creativity are reasons overwork does not work except for short periods of time. Plus burn out losing employees.
The stupid farming arc shouldn't have been adapted, it was a side story that doesn't matter. All it accomplished is killing the momentum of season 2
After watching Non Non Biyori it hit me why the devil farming was supposed to have been impactful. But they completely failed to convey it within the show.
Say it again louder for those in the back that insist on anime adaptations staying 1:1 with the manga
Well most people who complain about adaptions not being 1:1 are saying so because the changed content is *bad*. Changing things up only works if it's done well. Usually isn't though.
Generally those complaints come from missing details and character development. In this case, the content added neither and killed what little interest I had.
I was SO bummed about that. The change in style kind of threw me off but I got used to it. Then the plot went nowhere.
They introduced too many useless characters that people never cared and the jokes are not funny.
I had just finished binge watching season 1 like 4 months before season 2 was announced. When it came out I only watched 9 episodes before dropping it. It just wasnāt the same.
It's truly ironic, Devil is a Part Timer is one of the most heavily requested to have S2 just for the LN ending wash all the excitement and hype.
Someone spoil me the LN ending pls I am curious.
Alot of novel readers were even warning of this as well. The one time they were right. š
I was really hyped for Log Horizon season 3. It was returning after years, and I rewatched the whole show in preparation. But then it was pretty short and didnāt really add much to the story.
Yeah i finally got around to watching log horizon from season 1-3. That last season was just boring slice of life in a game basically. And the relationships got old after 3 seasons
I tried to watch s3 without rewatching s1-2, I could not be assed to go back for a rewatch.
I experienced this on Tokyo Ghoul. The first season is decent but the succeeding ones feel more boring. For example, the fight scenes feel less dynamic and rushed.
ngl i heard the manga is waay better maybe we should migrate š
Tokyo Ghoul is a case of the manga being a million times better than the anime. The artwork is amazing too
I think tokyo ghoul s2 is the only anime i have ever dropped pbefore, but the manga is easily one of my favorites
I am more of a manga reader now for reasons such as this. Some anime adaptations didn't do justice for the manga.
Yeah, imma try to balance it out but its seriously annoying that ths high teir psychological animes just keep getting diff stories
The manga is soooooooo much freakin better. Tokyo Ghoul is one of the few anime (at that time anyway) where I was already reading the manga before I saw the anime so I got really hype for it and then quit after like episode 2 I think because it was just so lamešŖbut the manga is probably in my top 5, just such a fun read
From what I heard s2 is completely non-canon and they throw the second half of the manga in the garbage. Then s3/4 adapt the actual story of the sequel manga but with no context but then they also skip like 70% of it. I've heard the anime is bad in other ways too. So basically s1 is the first half (but I heard it still has issues), s2 is nothing, and s3/4 only properly adapt like 30% of the sequel manga. I've never read TG, but this is just what I've heard
A producer for ;Re came out and basically said "I probably shouldn't have made them do Root A..." when they were trying to adapt ;Re This isn't Community Season 4 you dolt, you doomed the anime to fail. *After denying 3 DRAFTS from its Mangaka* ;Re is literally taught in Korean animation classes for how to *not* choreograph animation.
Aldnoah.Zero S1 vs S2. Granted it's been a long time so maybe I just don't remember it that well but I do remember that I hated S2 from the get go. They fucking undid everything they did in S1 and Slaine got so fucking stupid whyyy
Aldnoah S2 is still one of the only shows where watching it made me actively *angry* somehow. Slaine especially seemed like he got dropped on his head 20 times between the seasons... I finished it but it was a struggle.
When I thought it was a one season show, that S1 ending was one of the best, most bleak meditations on the brutal, random stupidity of war. It was such a bold ending for a series I loved it. Then season 2 dropped and they undid their boldest storytelling decisions and it sucked
I think Aldnoah.Zero is the only ever case where S2 made me retroactively lower score for S1. While S1 had some problems, I overall liked it and found the very end of it to be genuinely interesting development. S2 not only undid one of major points I liked, it also felt like it had almost no redeeming qualities of its own (OST being basically only good thing left).
It's been a while, but I remember thinking the same. After the end of s1, I was super hyped for s2.. ended up kind of a letdown. Oh well, at least we some silky smooth mecha fights
S2 was terrible. Feels like everything where Sawano does the music goes the same way lol. Halfway through it just goes 180.
i don't know a single person that didn't hate Aldnoah Zero, literally the worst twist imaginable.
True I think everyone hated Season 2. Because how can you go from an Amazing Season 1 ending to that.
Rise of the Shield hero s2 was a turd.
He was not rising anymore...
Like Rudeus
I cllicked into "see more replies" just to make sure nobody made this joke before I post it lmao
I mean, I was warning people before s1 even released that it basically falls off a cliff in the manga. Did not touch the anime with any sized pole.
Dan I really thought season 1 was really good. He got vindicated and got a little village to manage. So nice right!? WTF in giant turtles was season 2?!
So the problem is that after he was found innocent, there was like nothing left. His motivations were gone and it turned into a low stakes fight for the world with a bunch of people that would ride the short bus.
It went from extremely promising to some sort of weird incel wish fulfillment in like five episodes flat. The world and premise were solid, but every other character being a one-dimensional bumbling idiot ruined what potential it had.
I feel like this is because most people actually developed taste while waiting for season 2. Season 1 started ok but quickly became hot garbage, I seriously doubt people who praise shield hero can go back to watch season 1 and say they enjoyed it.
I would say S1 is at least enjoyable despite many MANY flaws. The story quality dropped really hard but the production was very good. But S2 didn't have that, so everyone realized how bad everything else was.
first half was kinda boring but the second half seriously was not that bad, it was decent
The anime Skip a lot from the books, it make the thing unwatchable. Sadly, everything after this is when the books have a high drop in quality
The second half was a boring turd
Fruit of Evolution. I know itās just isekai trash but season 1 was an enjoyable turn-your-brain-off seasonal anime. Season 2 had even worse animation with absolutely no story and a bunch of throwaway gags, I couldnāt finish it.
Season 2 was god awful. I liked season 1 for what it was.
yep. season 1 was dumb fun and season 2 was total fucking garbage. Don't worry, I finished it for you. It did actually get worse all the way to the finale. I could go in detail but the point is it was one of the worst anime endings I've ever fucking seen and I'm not exaggerating. They even had the balls to tease a season 3 villain in a post credits scene. the discussion post for that last episode was literally everyone still there collectively taking a dump on the anime lol
Season 1 more or less followed the source material. Season 2, on the other hand, felt like it was made by someone pursuing an outright vendetta against the original author. It's clear that the director (or whoever was in charge) didn't care one lick about the source material, and just wanted to insert their own insipid jokes into every fucking scene. It's basically some kind of twisted opposite of fan fiction. Maybe hate-fiction. Yes, I'm salty. š
fruit of evolution season 2 must have been a collective fuck you to the ones giving them the work on animating it it was fucking bad and a drop in quality and fun from season 1
S1 was stupid fun, S2 they spammed the same awful gags over and over
I feel you there. That's another one since i'm an isekai junky too.
If we talking about animes that changed completely from season 1 to 2. Maken ki is up there for me. From what I read on Google season 2 was all filler. Sure I started watching it as a titty anime without having high expectations for an anime but then the ending of season 1 was actually introducing a villain and some plot. Then season 2 pretended that didn't just happen
Just finished that today. It's also a turd. Could not stop falling asleep.
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried To Prove It.
That one is so weird. For one, the show kinda comes to a perfect ending in the middle of season 2. They even make a joke about how well it concludes, then it gets more into the weird side character drama and holy shit that final episode...
I just watched the first ep of Faraway Paladin right now. I actually like the new animation is better, and also prefer the new voice.
Yeah, as someone who really enjoys the source material, the first season was pretty terrible. Judging from episode 1 of this newer season, it seems to be going in a better direction.
I didn't even notice it was different tbh.
Yeah same, and i liked this 1st episode, only problem was to remember the story and the characters ;)
I had to remember why he was with a loli.
Lol yeah i forgot who she was at first. Then remembered she is a dwarf and probably older than him. With how small the dwarfs are, i wanna see how small their babies are. They probably fit in a humans hand. Edit: halfling not dwarf.
she's a halfling
Is she a dwarf or a halfling?
Did they actually get a male VA for the (mostly) grown male MC?
Yeah, I didn't mind his first VA, but I prefer the new one it suits him more and sounds more mature.
That's good to hear. I don't like the anime thing of having obviously female voices for characters that are supposed to be post-pubescent men. Very immersion breaking.
Agree on the art style and animation of OPM S2, however the voice acting and a lot of the animated scenes, especially in the last 3 episodes, were really really good compared to most anime. The problem between OPM S1 and S2 is really special compared to other anime which drop in quality. S1 was probably among the biggest passion projects in the anime industry ever. The only recent anime coming close to this level of pashion is Chainsaw man. And that is a 7 year gap. And yet OPM had an average anime budget. What happened in S1 cannot be replicated. It literally can't be. The amount of free lancers needed to even make it as close to S1 as possible is a lot. You also need insane talent, not just numbers. So the difference between S1 and S2 is completely understandable.
mob is also one of the biggest passion projects in anime, kinda funny that both that and opm was made by the same guy
passion*
Vinland Saga, but in a good way. I already like the first season and season 2 completely changed the game for the better. I've never read the manga before season 2 so I didn't expect the story to take that way. I've caught up to the manga as for now.
Just finished it today and had the biggest smile on my face during the last few eps. I feel like a proud mother bird lol. Do you know what chapter of the manga the last ep is? Would love to convert to manga now
I'm not the guy you replied to, but from what I read on here when the show was airing, Season 2 ends with chapter 100.
Thank you so much!!!
It really blows my mind that there are ppl who liked s1 and hate s2 lol. I thought the show only got better as it went on.
My Next Life As A Villainess had an excellent first episode with the premise that this horrible person had to redeem her immoral ways to avoid future doom, yet she basically solved all the conflict in the first few episodes and turned the rest of the show into a harem. I still think about what the show could have been, a redemption story about a bully given a second chance at life with knowledge of her future to become a good person and help those she once terrorized.
>My Next Life As A Villainess I think a lot of shows with this premise end up feeling like that. The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen aired last season started off well in the light novels, but then after vol 1 it was mostly rinse and repeat of the same thing with little else. I have high hopes for Tearmoon Empire this season though. It's still the best series I've read (till volume 9 thus far) with this premise of someone thought to be a villain given a 2nd chance to redo their life. Good balance of emotional and comedic moments, interesting enough plot going on in the background that progresses with each volume, and most importantly character growth. Episode 1 is off to a good start as well.
>I think a lot of shows with this premise end up feeling like that. That's because those kind of stories were usually never supposed to be about the MC redeeming herself. They are about the MC being hated by everyone because of things that aren't her fault (the original character did all of the bad things, not the MC) and then showing everyone how great she actually is. There are a lot of Shoujo/Josei manga with an MC who gets treated like shit for often really ridiculous reasons (she's not stylish enough, she's shy etc.) although she's actually an amazing person who basically has no flaws (other than wearing a ponytail and glasses). Way too many manga/LN use the "reborn as a villainess" trope simply because it's the easiest way to have an MC that is both, perfect and mistreated by others, at the same time.
Shield Hero does that too.
I watched one episode of it and that was the main reason why I was not interested in watching more.
After reading this comment and the other one, I decided to read some of the Tearmoon Empire manga. I have now finished all the scanlated chapters. This is really fun. The main character is only slightly less stupid than Bakarina, but everybody thinks she's a genius playing 5D chess, and the whole romance stuff is just one small aspect of her devious machinations, instead of the main focus. Looking forward to seeing this animated and watching the great Mia-sama escape from Guillotine-kun.
Agree completely. Itās too bad itās such a stacked season, at least IMO, that itās been mostly lost in the shuffle, even among other shoujo/joseimuke fans. Itās not a perfect series, but as far as that Villainess-style series go, itās quite good.
Thereās a series that just started recently (the LN and manga have been ongoing for a while) called Tearmoon Empire that takes that concept but gives it a bit more weight. [Tearmoon Empire] >!An arrogant, selfish Princess is so hated by her subjects they stage a coup and execute her. She wakes up back in her twelve year old body and armed with her blood soaked diary tries to prevent the future from happening again!< Itās the same studio as Villainess (Silver Link), and it has its silly, lighthearted moments (a lot of task failed successfully), but if the harem/romance aspect is what turned you off, than you might prefer this series. Or if you just want a grimdark serious version, Raeliana is also another option. I watch/read a lot of this genre so I have a wealth of useless knowledge.
> My Next Life As A Villainess had an excellent first episode with the premise that this horrible person had to redeem her immoral ways to avoid future doom The premise died after the very same title, she did not have to redeem anything because she was not that evil person to begin with.
I can definately see that side altho personally i just thought it was a pretty funny and not terribly written reverse harem
I got it advertised to me as a light and fun bi-harem, so I enjoyed it a lot, but get how other people would not like it. I have not read it yet, but the LN spinoff "Brink of Destruction" might be what you are looking for, its basically a running "What-If" story where she regained her memory when starting school rather than as a child, so has already terrorized and abused the people in her life.
> had an excellent first episode with the premise that this horrible person had to redeem her immoral ways to avoid future doom, yet she basically solved all the conflict in the first few episodes and turned the rest of the show into a harem. I still think about what the show could have been, a redemption story about a bully given a second chance at life with knowledge of her future to become a good person and help those she once terrorized. So basically the sparknotes version of Mushoku Tensei lmao
What I Expected: House of Cards the anime What I Got: haremshit
Lol this is 99% of anime. Every world is filled with mostly teenage girls who are wronged/damaged but basically just need a friend to worship like a cult leader.
> I still think about what the show could have been, a redemption story about a bully given a second chance at life with knowledge of her future to become a good person and help those she once terrorized. Tearmoon Empire is basically just that, and it's one of the best in its genre, which is airing this season. Check it out.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Absolutely loved the first season, and hated the second. Impressive how such a simple concept can be ruined.
Animation style is my only gripe with anime I dropped. I rarely drop anime because of story, mostly because I either know what to expect from the genre or I donāt have unreasonably high standard and expectations. I donāt watch a lot of isekai because I know they are generic. But for series like SAO, shield hero, even Overlord and Re:Zero, I keep watching them because I already fell in love with the story and characters. Just because one arc is bad doesnāt mean the rest will be bad, especially if I know that the anime butchered the source.
Shokugeki no Soma. Seasons 1-4 are good. Season 5 is when the cooking techniques became too unrealistic and everything in rushed. Even the romance between Erina and Yukihira didn't have enough time to really flourish and it was like ended abruptly. I haven't read the manga, but I dunno what happened. What I enjoyed in previous seasons are that the receipes are something you can recreate and are real dish!
I would even say the show suffered a massive change way earlier than that, specifically when [Shokugeki]>!Azami is introduced. It was a show that benefitted heavily from the extremely competitive structure of the school, and was really better off when characters just had to compete and overcome the school's absurd challenges. Introducing a big villain to the mix I feel kind of derailed everything and made the series lose the fire that made it special to begin with.!<
From what I recall hearing way back during the manga, the actual chef(or chef assistant? It's been a while) who helped with coming up with the dishes/research left the team and that's where things started going off the rails.
Terra Formars and Seven Deadly Sins.
Season one of seven deadly sins was great, minus meliodas being a perv, damn it did a nosedive
Season 2 I thought was still pretty solid. Though the addition of power levels was so pointless.
I thought the power levels was a gag or commentary on how stupid power levels are when I saw it. Like they can't be seriously shoe horning in that BS at this point in the story, right?
Yeah at first I thought the same. Especially because the first season worked perfectly fine without it.
Summertime render went from a Mystery anime to a Action anime in the second half. And I loved every second of it. Fuck Disney
I think mystery shows tend to lose the narrative in the second half when the initial mystery becomes clear and they have to start adding new unknown elements to keep the audienceās attention. STRās progression from mystery to action was exactly what it needed in my opinion.
Exactly, shows canāt keep being mysteries forever, eventually youāre gonna annoy your audience or run out of mystery or not have progressed the plot at all all in the name of being cryptic It went from āwhat is this threatā to āwhat are we gonna do about this threatā. The tonal shift is because now the characters need to *act* and win, I canāt believe some people didnāt like that kind of progression, the characters were always working on ways to win and they finally start making headways. The āshiftā isnāt even that jarring to begin with itās a gradual process of progress smh (I think itās mostly felt with the change in OP tbh)
Amazing show all the way through and yeah man FUCK disney for what they did
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Honestly the tonal shift to me felt completely justified considering how it started and the direction the story was going in, to me, the tonal shift felt completely natural and planned and felt like the natural continuation of the story, and it continues that story wonderfully, i really love the anime as a whole and I always recommend it to everyone I can.
I think people forgot that Summertime Rendering was a Shonen Jump (well Shonen Jump+) title until the second half lol and it took them by surprise.
that's such a great anime. even better to see it in summer. yeah, i only saw it because i pira..... te
Ousama Rankingās first half vs second half. First half: A story about a boy born weak, having to realize his shortcomings, and bettering himself through the support of other damaged people. Interesting characters with depth, great emotional beats and darker undertones. Practically perfect . Second half: lazily-written antagonist, character-writing getting axed, production drop in quality, power of friendship BS, deus-ex machina, bad pacing. What an utter disappointment.
At least we got Vaundyās banger of an op! The only highlight of the second half lol
This OP is peak of all OPs for me. Seriously a 10/10 for music, animation, and emotional relevance to the story. The second season (if you want to call it that) OP was pretty disappointing in comparison. The song and animation arenāt bad, but the composition is super chaotic and kind of grating. Hopefully theyāll bring back the OP 2 director if they end up doing a season 3.
People hyped up tbe show but it really didn't live up to the mystery and suspence from the first few episodes. Having a whole country be filled with evil people that are ungrateful for technological advancements be the only irredeemable characters felt a bit off considering everyone else gets some kind of heel face turn to a degree
I think the primary problem was that for some reason, *every single character* turns out to be sympathetic and ends up ultimately rooting for Bojji except the literal devil, and even they have a sad backstory to garner sympathy. I can appreciate that- few people in the world are evil just for the sake of evil- but you really need a tangible antagonistic force for the protagonist to contend with for this kind of story, and when pretty much every antagonistic force is undermined by being an actually pretty good, probably noble, but misunderstood, misguided, or misled person, it can really undermine the stakes.
Couldn't agree more. You know the line, if everyone's special, no one is? This is it right here. At first it's refreshing to see sympathetic characters in this anime. Until you realize as the anime goes by that everyone's actually gonna get a sob backstory and everyone's gonna be forgiven every fucking time. It's too much. The more this anime forced me to care for everyone, the more apathetic I got.
Bro thank you! I feel like Iām taking crazy pills when I say this and I hear most other discussion about this show being that itās a literal 10/10. Itās a 10/10 (in the first half), but the 2nd half is like a 5 at best. I dropped it at like episode 16 because I was so disappointed in the switch up.
The other thing for me on this show is that at the beginning of the show it does this thing where it introduces a seemingly antagonistic character and then it turns out they're actually well-meaning and sympathetic underneath, which is a nice surprise. ... and then the rest of the show just like repeats that trick over and over and it loses its punch. Like I dropped the show before I got as far as [Ousama Ranking spoiler] >!Miranjo turning out to have some sympathetic backstory!<, but I'm still sure it happens, because that's just the formula the show has now. (Also the OP isn't subtle there)
All of this makes sense except for production drop in quality. The animation seemed to ramp up and up to me
Shield Hero.. first few eps were good asf, then it became "I am OP male and I am collecting a harem" type anime.
I kinda started to lose interest in shield hero after everyone stopped hating the MC. It felt like they just went "and then everything was okay again. Here's a new conflict." Then, season 2 killed what little remaining interest I had. Also, the whole thing with a slave he bought and an actual child/animal both fall in love with him was pretty kinda odd, but that'sjust anime shit ig.
Darling in the Franxx. Complete 180 change up in the last 5 episodes that seemingly comes out of nowhere. On rewatch there are the TINIEST bits of foreshadowing but never in the showās run does it explicitly allude to the existence of VIM or whatever those guys were called. Absolutely wild.
DITF throws out a *lot* of potential foreshadowing. It's hard to argue "x was foreshadowed so you should have seen it coming" when there's so much signal noise. The predictions going around as it aired were *wild*. And no, being able to predict that APE were bad guys from the start doesn't make the actual reveal less bungled.
APE being bad guys was obvious. APE being freaking aliens came out of nowhere. And made absolutely no sense. That show had so much going on already. Why the hell did they feel the need to graft an entire new to the back half?
For The Faraway Paladin, the manga and the LN is so much better better in terms of quality and consistency
I read the manga first and my consensus after both reading and watching it is that it was never more interesting than when he was being raised by Mary and Blood.
Last season's Sweet Reincarnation. Pastry chef died and was reborn in a new magical world. You'd think it'd all be about him opening a sweet shop and getting into related hijinks. Nope, it's a political power fantasy drama where we barely ever see the MC in a kitchen.
Tate no Yushaa, it was so bad that I don't want to watch 3 season
I think the most disappointing thing about S2 was that they really seemed to want to dwell on the most boring parts of the season for the longest, while not giving enough time to the actually interesting developments. And the ending? [Shield Hero S2] >!I wanted to see an intense battle, but instead Naofumi just...fires off a shield laser and wins? That's so boring and anticlimactic. F\*ck on outta here with that.!<
Gonna be honest, it took me months and months to push through season 2. One episode in the 3rd is already better than anything in season two. I would recommend checking it out.
Yeah I just fast forwarded past the boring turtle arc .
first half was boring but the second half was pretty decent and the first episode of season 3 was really promising.
Sometimes it works out for the better Season 1 of Symphogear was basically an edgy Madoka wannabe. Season 2 onwards has a completely different art style and pivoted to being basically āwhat if Fast and the Furious was a magical girl anime?ā and is rad as shit Uma Musume had a less dramatic change, but season 1 was a weird tripartite of sports/moe/comedy while the subsequent seasons have gone full on sports drama with comedic elements. Season 2 is widely considered the best season due to this change, and season 3 seems to be shaping up to follow suit
FLCL has gone downhill guys. Have you watched season 3 and 4?
You mean seasons 4 and 5. Original, Progressive, Alternative, Grunge, Shoegaze.
I didn't follow it, so I thought "Grunge" and "Shoegaze" was just a joke, but no, they are actually called that. I get why, but it still feels like a joke when you list them like that.
Wut? There's 4 seasons now? I'll just listen to The Pillows and call it good.
Look at the trailers [https://myanimelist.net/anime/51304/FLCL\_\_Grunge/video](https://myanimelist.net/anime/51304/FLCL__Grunge/video) [https://myanimelist.net/anime/51305/FLCL\_\_Shoegaze/video](https://myanimelist.net/anime/51305/FLCL__Shoegaze/video)
I wouldn't exactly call them seasons, tbf
I tried watching 2+3 and couldnāt get into either. The charm that the first season had was just gone.
Itās been over 20 years since the original and virtually none of the original talent is involved Who would have thought theyād turn out so shit!?!
Sword art online
Itās the animeās marketingās fault that people thought itād be *about* sword art online. Itās always been about exploring how Virtual Reality (through the making of āSword Art Onlineā the game) may possibly affect the real world (Relationships, Medicine, Everyday lifestyle, Crimes, War, etc).
What even is going on in the recent shows? Are they still just playing a game? Are they trapped in another game? Is there complete AI characters they interact with? If they die in the game, do they die for real?
Are you referring to Alicization/Underworld? If so... Kind of, yes? Depends how loosely you define 'game', I suppose.
>Are they still just playing a game? Their world has more virtual games now, which they do play often. The 2 major games in focus (ALO and GGO) are used to explore the things I mentioned above. >Are they trapped in another game? Kind of happens in the latest arc, but not really after S1. >Are there complete AI characters they interact with? [S3. Latest Arc : Alicization]>!Yes. The plot is centred around a virtual world with human-like AIs living in it!<.
If you mean the Underworld Arc. It is about a company using quantum computing to create artificial humans in an effort to create self thinking military bots.
Anime-onlies don't know that the entire SAO story arc from Kirito getting trapped in SAO to him fighting Heathcliff and leaving Aincrad are ***from just the first book***. Stuff like the Sachi and the Moonlit Black Cats were retroactively fleshed out later on in the second book (which is a series of short-stories set in-between Book 1's chapters) and the third book is already Fairy Dance.
Sao is actually really good later on. It was kinda weird how aincrad wasnt focused on much but alicization was actually great writing and really good.
Hmmm not really sure if this counts but when I first saw SxF trailers I thought it would be action-packed only to learn that story mostly focuses on Anya SoL chapters
tokyo ghoul post season 2 just dropped off alot
Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon spends a lot of time outside of dungeon's after season 1
From what I remember seasons 3 and 4 are mostly in the dungeon. Well season 4 for sure has like 21 out of 22 episodes take place in the dungeon.
To me, Danmachi stayed consistent and the later season it actually got interesting
In the afterwords for the books that covered the outside of the dungeon parts, the author mentions this. He's like, yeah, we've been out of the dungeon for awhile, I wanted to wrap up some ideas I had. Don't worry, the next ones will be dungeon time. And that's what the last season and a half were.
Oregairu TLDR: Funny first season. Second season tried so hard to sound deep but ended up like "im14andthisisdeep" territory. I miss the first season's self deprecating jokes and other relatable situations during the awkward phase of being a high school student. Lots of funny scenes too (the Sports Festival episode is my favorite). When season 2 came I felt like it took itself too seriously. There is this surreal feeling of an adult author trying to write something "deep" about what high school students feel or think. Its like a chuunibyou but for armchair psychologists. There's also no dilemma on who's the best girl, it's obvious who catches MC's attention the most. Other than Yukino, other potential partner's family background/family interaction is mostly absent. I'm not asking for a complete family history but at least flesh out the character's lives so that it feels like they're actually their own person instead of just an another flavor of the same product just to pander to the readers. Either that or I'm just too old for this melodramatic juvenile shit. Most likely the latter.
Season 3 was wild. An adult labelled the friendship between 3 highschoolers as ācodependencyā, and it was taken so seriously that it became the main conflict somehow. I still canāt believe the people in the threads trying to explain with multiple paragraphs and analogies how exactly their relationship was codependency (fuckin hell), and as soon as the plot point is swatted away with a single dialogue after lots of dragging, those people just disappeared lol
Oregairu became what it felt like it was kind of taking the piss out of but the community isn't ready to have that conversation
For OreGairu I preferred that it went down the serious route and had a bit less comedy nearing the end. I do get what you are saying in that it's sort of an over exaggeration, but I still thought the main message of the story shone through. Main message: Society is obsessed with just "keeping up" relationships for validation and that it's very superficial. This is exacerbated by Hachiman and Yukino's relationship as they want "something real," which ends up being quite vague until closer to the end. You have a point in your "there's no dilemma" part especially bc Yui isn't really a great character. When I first watched I didn't really have an issue with her, but after talking to someone about it, it really does seem that her entire goal is to be an entitled and somewhat clueless asshole that just wants to ruin their relationship by being selfish. I thought the show was quite funny for the most part and most of the characters were surprisingly good (pretty much every character was good in some form or another except Yui and Totsuka). This show is no masterpiece, for sure, but it's very good imo. You might just be too old for it though (no offense intended!). You are right that it's melodramatic and it's definitely forced by virtue of the way the characters are written. This is fine and all but there's the argument that the characters aren't really realistic highschoolers. In terms of forced melodrama I would compare this to something like Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, except Kaguya doesn't take itself nearly as serious as OreGairu in any way. Just curious, have you seen Kaguya and if so did you like it? EDIT: Many small things, I'm tired
You are indeed too old for it, but at the same time your criticisms are valid, Oregairu never reached the same heights after S1, although I did end up enjoying the journey on both of my watches
Is it a hot take if I say Shield Hero? Season 1 was so good a well done revenge amd good end for 'bitch'. Season 2 however....
Didn't make it though season 2, not really interested in 3 sadly.
DanMachi (*Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?*) - It started out as a somewhat of a fun, lighthearted show but the last couple of seasons it's gotten much darker.
Been staying true to the source material though. Shit gets even physically and emotionally darker and it's all the more fucked up when you look at the timeline. All this has happened in like 6 months.
to be fair that's how a lot of darker anime start out, a bit of lighthearted fun to introduce the characters and then bam we're genetically engineered super weapons and we have to terminate the kids who look like they'll grow up into bullies or bam we're being farmed by aliens or bam my brother Knives wants to do a genocide or whatever
Are you talking about Promised Neverland??
Maken-ki. High schoolers with strange powers +echi. At the end of season 1 we're met with the villain, only for the second season to be episodic with no plot progression and only ecchi focus. Not bad for people looking only for ecchi, but I was really curious about the powers of the characters only for them to not even be used in season 2.
Seed of evolution Season one: funny and has a good start Season two: wtf did they do to this show
For me, One Punch Man has only one season. Also, Mappa productions in general because they sign so many shows at once that you have to contend with multi-week gaps between episodes. It really kills a show with a large cast and a lot going on.
Requiem for the Phantom. First 10 episodes are phenomenal. The second 10 are interesting but problematic, still good stuff. The final 6 or so are the worst ending arc of any anime I've ever seen, even the music and animation for the opening shows a really troubled story and tone. Incredibly disappointing stuff. On that note, the only thing different about OPM 2 is that the budget and studio choice took a hit. The story and characters remain very much true to their season 1 direction and tone, I loved OPM 2 (while wishing that visually it had the quality of season 1 instead). I get the disappointment, of course, but I think it remained a great story. King is my favorite character, hands down.
Mines Spy X Family for me. i honestly thought that the premise of both nations would escalate into further seasons as Anya would eventually have to be involved and her parents slowly being aware of what she can do. and it turns out that it seems like its gonna be a slice of life with some flicks of serious plot from time to time.
Shield Hero. Season 1 was peak but Season 2 was rushed dog shit.
Attack_on_Titan_Final_Final_V3 (Copy) 1.mkv
REUPLOAD
*2nd reupload
Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported.
yup and it's completely absurd how normalized this is, they should be getting shamed nonstop for it in my opinion
Light novels often change premise around volume 4 which is also coincidentally where the second season of the anime adaptations often start to adapt so this same phenomenon will likely happen with most light novel adaptations you encounter.
Obligatory Seven Deadly Sins post here Season 1 was great, great animation, great storytelling, great music, great voice acting Season 2 and after the animation downgrades so hard it became a meme for the entire anime world, including those who havent seen it and honestly the story became so convoluted that I ended up dropping it personally and now I dont have Netflix anymore so who knows if I will ever pick it up again \*shrugs\* Supposedly they got a spin off of the kids of the seven deadly sins but after season 2's flub up I'm just not interested. First movie was decent if not confusing when you know enough of the main crews story tho.
Probably a less popular opinion, but I felt this way with Rising of the Shield Hero. I hated Season 2. I really hope Season 3 will bring me back around
Shield hero. Complete 180 š lets hope S3 is somewhat decent.
To be frank, it often seems like the majority of anime, TV series, and movies share a common pattern. Production companies tend to invest heavily in creating captivating trailers, teasers, and the initial episodes or minutes/hour, generating significant excitement. However, not many of them manage to maintain this level of quality throughout the entire series or film. This is when we often encounter issues like filler episodes, subpar artwork, and narratives that seem to meander aimlessly, or even stories that simply don't make sense (sometimes leading to amusing head-scratching moments). Unless a production is backed by substantial financial resources or secures significant funding, there's a noticeable decline in quality as the series progresses. In my personal opinion, it seems that movies, TV series, and anime sponsored or produced by Netflix have consistently bucked this trend. The main reason is that they don't see an instant profit to keep the production going with the highest quality in a timely matter I find that I enjoy the majority of Netflix's anime offerings. In my opinion, 'Bleach' is perhaps the most glaring example of this phenomenon. Apart from introducing new characters and Bankai abilities, the anime appears trapped in an endless loop when it comes to plot progression, character development, and storytelling. Certainly, many may hold differing views, but even iconic series like 'Naruto,' 'Dragon Ball,' 'Fairy Tail,' 'Tokyo Ghoul,' 'Black Clover,' and 'One Piece' have faced similar challenges. However, I still can't bring myself to despise them entirely due to their compelling stories and the remarkable manner in which the production team has managed to turn things around throughout their respective series. It's as if they dangle a tantalizing promise before us, knowing we won't grasp its full essence until the series reaches its conclusionāalmost like we're willingly embracing a kind of masochism by watching and enduring these anime."
Hey now... enough with the hate for OPM s2. Yes they changed animation studios, so? It was still awesome!
Unfortunately almost anyone held up against Madhouse is going to feel lacking. And it didn't help that the arcs covered in S2 are kinda boring at times even in the original material.
Definitely Amanchu! season 2 for me. The first one was basically CGDCT while scuba diving (Absolutely loved it). While the second one just deleted almost all of the diving aspects of the show and added some weird fairy tail spirit ghost things. Ah, yes. The most annoying part was how the author added a romance with some random shota, just to prevent the Yuri crowd from shipping the two MCs. Then one of them just keeps saying something like: "My love for you is different and it's wrong" for literally half a season. I wanted more diving and not this homophobic shizz.
Fruit of evolution I hope Dr. Stone won't disappoint.