My deepest desire for anime will always remain another animated season of Monogatari, but I suppose settling for another season of Devil is a Part-timer isn't the worst thing in the world.

I'm also constantly refreshing the Yagakimi subreddit looking for season 2 but I think Troyca's still working on some idol thing so that's an L.

 

Fate is bad, and the themes it portrays are bad. CMV.

 

The Fate series, as in Fate/Stay Night and its whole raft of spinoffs? What do you think its themes are?

 

Here's my in depth review of Jobless Reincarnation and A Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter:

Spoiler

They're both hot fucking garbage, though Jobless Reincarnation has some pretty nice production value...

 

I'm not going to go into any of the spinoffs, because I don't have the time or the appetite to watch them. I'm only referring to Zero and UBW; I haven't seen Heaven's Feel yet, but I'll be finishing that soon. Also haven't read the VN, so if the adaptation wasn't completely faithful then I'm referring to the adaptation.

I'm sure I'm being too broad and overarching in my generalization of Fate, but ultimately, it's a story of human selfishness and "evil" (at least from a moral standpoint) and our protagonist, whether you take it to be Kiritsugu in Zero or Shirou in UBW, is portrayed as the one to combat it. Their goal; their wish is to become a Champion of Justice, whatever that means, to save people and stop the evil in the world. This is obviously impossible, but I'm not here to gripe about the fact that the show portrays the protagonists striving towards their ideals despite them knowing that they are impossible is wrong. I don't mind that nearly as much as the fact that both Shirou and Kiritsugu disregard their own happiness to pursue their ideals. Someone who can't even save themselves has absolutely zero business saving others. I cannot with a good conscience consider what they are doing to be "good", because they can't even understand why the people they are saving need saving. They can also be so blinded by what's directly in front of them that they'll fail to recognize that what they're doing isn't saving someone at all.

The worst part is that Shirou (Kiritsugu's dead, so whatever) doesn't change. Even though it's pointed out to him over and over again that what he's doing is wrong. He continues and, in the end, triumphs over the guy who is his foil. It's like the show is saying that Shirou, despite all the valid reasons why he's actually fucked in the head, is actually right. And that really, really turned me off from the show.

 

You've given an analysis of themes after experiencing the middle third of a piece of media. I recognize it may be frustrating to watch 24 episodes of an anime and then be told it's not a complete experience, but in this case it's simply the truth. You can watch UBW first and fully understand the story, but the themes just won't be complete.

Without going into too much detail on the routes you haven't experienced, I can tell you that the events of the VN are presented as a sort of crossroads in Shirou's life, where the choices he makes and events he experiences drastically alter the course he'll take through life.

Broadly speaking, I agree with you that Shirou's way of thinking in UBW is not good. As you note, most of the characters in the story also tell him as much. What I don't understand is why you think Shirou winning in the end makes him right.

UBW spoilers

Spoiler

Shirou believes he'll be better than Archer; that he won't make the same mistakes and end up with the same regrets. My interpretation is that he'll fail at this, turning out to be exactly like Archer, because he really is just a dumb teenager incapable of truly comprehending all of Archer's experiences. I think the ending is supposed to be fatalistically ironic. I think it's supposed to be plausible that this dumb teenager refuses to listen to reason. But I do not think it's supposed to present Shirou as right. He lives and even wins, yes, but he's doomed for an eternity of suffering...

I didn't like the UBW anime. I think it was a poor adaptation. But what I wrote above should apply just as well to the anime as it did to the VN. You just have to remember that even in anime form, it's a piece of media where the same story has multiple endings. I think people disagree on which ending is best/happiest for Shirou, but they're different enough that I don't really think it's possible to consider them all good (in the moral sense) endings.

 

From what I understand, Heartcatch is the recommended season to start with. Not personal experience, but from comments I've seen it's the best (and has the highest rating on MAL, if that matters).

After watching a view fight scenes I'm kinda curious about it now; it seems to have good animation.
https://imgur.com/gFrx7ym
Fuck yeah, magical pom pom(?) beat down.

 

I actually read up on the Saber route a bit, since I sure as hell was not going to watch the Studio Deen adaptation. I just don't think I'll have the time and will to read a 60 hour long VN.

Spoiler

On the issue with Archer, though, I found it distasteful that his best solution to prevent his future from occurring is to go back in time and attempt to kill his younger self. Laws of time travel aside, he should know exactly how attempting to kill his younger self would turn out. There are far better ways to try to divert Shirou from his path; fighting him is not one of them. Shirou likes the adversity, he's stubborn as a brick and he won't see reason if you try to beat it into him.

 

I can't exactly blame you if you don't want to spend so much time on the visual novel, but most of it's themes and Shirou's characterization is done through narration and internal monologues which is tough to adapt to a visual format so a lot gets lost in translation. Plus Fate Stay Night was made in a way that all three routes have to be seen to fully understand the story. Not exactly something that can be done in a single anime series.

As for the second part, Archer knows exactly what would happen but he's too desperate and too short on available options to care. Once again the vn explains this better but Ufotable didn't do the greatest job in the world of adapting it. It wasn't necessarily a bad adaptation but it could have been better.

 

At the rate things are going right now, Higehiro will be AOTS...

 

In regards to Archer trying to kill his past self to create a paradox, he doesn't even believe it'd work for a number of reasons, he's mostly looking to vent. Both Shirou and Archer say as much during UBW... in the VN at least. As for the "do better than Archer did" part... well part of it is that unlike Archer, Shirou isn't planning on doing the whole thing alone like a dumbass and is probably also not going to think making a deal with the Counter Force to be a good idea. Also Shirou "not listening to reason" kind of ignores one of the things towards the end of UBW where Archer acknowledges that he still admires the dream of wanting to save everyone and that chasing that dream wasn't wrong even as both he and Shirou admit that the dream itself is impossible.

As for Fate's themes... eh? I feel the main theme of Fate/Stay Night in particular is Heroism, both its good points and the many many many bad points. Oh and why filling the head of impressionable kids with Survivor's Guilt, ideas about being a hero is a bad idea. Fate/Zero's theme is unclear, maybe that Grail Wars are a dumb idea that never end well... ever? Or that being an edgelord like Kiritsugu is not good for you, anyone close to you... or anyone at all really. Honestly it's hard to say because even the character with an actual character arc, Waver, has part of his character arc being to learn that no, he's wrong and kind of was just being a brat and learning to move past that. The theme of the series overall seems to be "Humanity/People are pretty great, except when they're being assholes." or maybe even "Even (Relatively) Ordinary people can become extraordinary/do extraordinary things when placed into extraordinary circumstances."

But I agree with not wanting to have to sit through reading Fate (and basically sitting through Unlimited Blade Works again) just to reach Heaven's Feel so you can have the complete story. Even ignoring that both Fate and HF have an adaptation, both of them are... not quite as good at covering the whole of their source as I'd like.


As for PreCure, from what Rehio linked, it looks like Dragonball for girls so... I guess just pick one and turn off your brain and just enjoy the fight scenes?

 

After what feels like an eternity, we have confirmation, PV, and a title for Madoka Magica movie four: Walpurgis's Kaiten.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten

 

I fell in love with Grand Blue (Dreaming). Not totally sure why, I suspect I really needed to laugh my ass off, but it's probably the best comedy that I've seen. It's for sure the only comedy that had me laughing throughout all twelve episodes. Gonna be reading the manga next.

 

I'm wondering if someone has seen Akudama Drive? I recently watched it and found it amazing.

It's about a society where criminals make up a separate class called Akudama (literally: villain), which is completely rejected from any form of citizen life. The story is definitely its strongest point, the animation is very pretty to look at and the characters are compelling, even the unlikable ones. The length is perfect too for the story it's telling, don't expect 50 seasons of 100 episodes each with this. I'm pretty sure the 12 episodes are all there will be of this, which might be a turn-off for some, but for me was a huge pro.

5/5 from me.

 

I aborted Akudama Drive in the 5th episode or so due to the censorship, planning to pick it up again once there's a bluray release.

Totally get that. I read the manga first, and was pretty hyped for the anime. Both are good, but the manga reigns supreme.

 

Wonder Egg Priority pulled a Darling in the Franxx and trolled the ending.

Which is a shame because it was honestly an insanely interesting show.

Probably give it a 6 or 7.

 

Surprisingly, I'm watching four shows this season. Normally that number never rises above one or two.

Aquatope has a slow start. Like a really slow start. But thematically it fits my taste and I'm curious about how it'll go about telling its story. It tells the story of a girl dreaming about becoming an idol who gets fired by her agency and runs away to Okinawa, where she needs a girl desperately trying to keep her family-run aquarium alive. Only watch if you're into soL though, otherwise you're gonna find it boring as fuck.

Kanojo mo kanojo is degenerate comedy. Perfect for watching while multitasking.

Tantei wa mou Shindeiru seems pretty unsure about itself and whether it wants to be a romantic comedy or a mystery detective series. That being said, it still might be AOTS, although if you asked me whether or not I liked it because of the plot or because of Siesta I'd plead the Fifth.

Bokutachi-no-Remake has some pretty cliche “redo your life” themes that seems to be fairly popular these days, so I'm suspecting that my enjoyment of the show will depend on how invested I become in the characters. That being said, the characters are working in the arts which is an area I'm less familiar with but very interested in. This is the other candidate for my AOTS.

 

Well the season deteriorated quickly. You know it's grim when you start looking at Kanojo mo Kanojo as being the best simply because it's quite good at being crack.

I'm really upset at what they did to Tanmoshi. I feel like the light novel had to be better than whatever this shitty adaptation is giving me. I'm only watching out of inertia at this point.

Remake also decided to kind of take a shit on its characters and their character development, so although it's still decently watchable I'm worried that they're really going to fuck up the second half, especially since they last minuted a recap episode which is never a good sign.

And this season was so promising too.

 

I've been watching Baby Steps, an anime about a guy's pursuit of becoming a professional tennis player. It's actually pretty good, and as a tennis player myself I can say that the tennis in the anime is shown pretty faithfully to tennis in real life. There's obviously scenes of embellishment and weird anime logic mixed in, but for the most part it's quite enjoyable and super underrated as a show.

It's quite weird to me too, because I generally don't like sports anime. I despise Haikyu! which I know will likely get me crucified by a good portion of the anime community, but my god is Hinata absolutely insufferable.