Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Oops, I forget to get to Somali and the Forest Spirit - been busy trying to finish up Fairy Tail, as well as a few other shows here and there. It does look like something I'd enjoy, despite its slow pace.

@CanisWolfred It doesn't seem slow to me. I mean, it's not an action series, but story-wise it's progressing fairly quickly.

I enjoyed Fairy Tail. The ending wasn't the greatest, but it certainly wasn't the mess that Bleach was. And over I enjoyed Fairy Tail the most of the various "super long anime" I've watched, like Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto and Detective Conan. Although my only real gripe with Conan is that the story doesn't really progress overall and time long since stopped making sense. Although many individual episodes are still interesting.

Anyway, I digress. Where are you at in Fairy Tail?

Episode 314, so I still have 15 more episodes to go. It's definitely been a sloppy finale, but I don't watch this for series to get a well-thoughout and cohesively-structured story. This final arc has been a fun light show so far, and every character in this enormous cast has had a chance to shine, and to remind the audience of everything they've been through. I've teared up a couple times when I realized this might be the last I get to see them. Fairy Tail is a saga I've slowly seen unfold since 2014. I can't believe it's really over. Needless to say I'm trying to savor this as best as I can.

@CanisWolfred That's a big part of what I liked about Fairy Tail. Every character got their chance to shine and remained a major player throughout the story. A lot of shonen anime tend to fall back on the MC being the only character who really matters in a fight, but in FT everyone remained pretty consistently in line with one another and pulled their weight. Sure you had stronger and weaker characters, but unlike, say, Dragon Ball, I never felt like it would always end up with Natsu having the finish every fight. FT gave everyone their moments and they remained important even when they weren't the focus.

I've finally gotten around to watching The Rising of the Shield Hero, right now I'm up to Episode 12. I have to say, I've experienced a lot of fictional works over the years, watched a lot of TV shows and played a lot of video games, and never has a piece of fiction affected me so deeply and hit so close to home as this one. I mean, I'm not being accused of unspeakable crimes like Naofumi is, but in a sense I do relate with him because a lot of times it feels like the world is out to get me and wants me to fail and I often feel like I have to put the weight of the world on my shoulders. And then there's Raphtalia. Oh boy Raphtalia. I've never been one for obsessing over waifus, but she is firmly the best waifu of all time in my book, she's the waifu I didn't even know I wanted. The end of Episode 4 hit me in the feels hard, my jaw dropped at how loyal and supportive and comforting she was to Naofumi and it almost felt like she was talking directly to me as well (except she was telling me a very different message, that I need someone like her to help shoulder the burden). Yeah, it is abundantly clear to me now that I need a Raphtalia in my life, that's for sure.

@Bolt_Strike Great show all around. Very character driven. Every character is extremely easy to relate to and thus even if we can't understand what it's like to be falsely accused of an unforgivable crime, or to be a slave who, in a way kind of has Stockholm syndrome, that just makes the writing so much more impressive, that we can follow the cast and understand their feelings. It's very easy to get attached to them.

What I love about the show is that none of the characters are your stereotype character. Naofumi is far from a traditional hero, Raphtalia is far from a normal heroine. The characters have real flaws and imperfections that make them so much more human and realistic!

I've seen people arguing that "How dare they talk about issues like accusations of rape or slavery!? This MC is a monster even if he didn't do it!" But I think that the very fact that you can argue over that is a sign of how well written the show is. Real people have contradictions, they do bad and good things, make mistakes, etc... Traditional flawless heroes are boring! And perhaps worse, very hard to relate to. Well written stories don't pretend bad things are only monsters and evil wizards. In fact, in Shield Hero, the monsters themselves are rarely the most pressing issue.

I absolutely love the show and consider it easily, hands down, the absolute best iisekai anime we have ever had. And possibly the best fantasy anime, but that's such a broad genre it's really hard to say.

@Heavyarms55 Yeah, I'm a little uncomfortable talking about the show to certain groups of people because of the controversial elements like rape and slavery, I'm not surprised in the slightest some people are having that kind of reaction. Moreso the latter, Naofumi being falsely accused of rape doesn't really make him a monster in the slightest since we know he didn't do it, but if I try to tell someone else that the anime is about a character who bought a slave, they might think I was a monster for even enjoying it. Doubly so here in the U.S., where slavery is such an ugly part of our country's history and we specifically fought a war against each other to abolish it that it's been deeply ingrained as a reprehensible act and heavily stigmatized (not without good reason mind you, but a relationship like Naofumi and Raphtalia's where they're both okay with the arrangement would still be heavily frowned upon by people that don't understand it). Personally, I'm fine with Naofumi and Raphtalia's relationship. I didn't like in the beginning when he used the slave crest to make her fight, but aside from that, I have no issue with how Naofumi's treated her and really don't see much of a Stockholm Syndrome there. And the reasons why I like Raphtalia and the way she and Naofumi act towards each other from Episode 4 onward really have little to do with their master/slave relationship. As Ren and Itsuki discuss at the end of the episode, they aren't a normal master/slave at all, none of what makes slavery such a horrible crime and human rights violation in our world is present in their relationship at that point. He's not forcing her to do anything. He's not taking advantage of her. He's not lording power over her in any way. They equally care for, support, and comfort each other, just in different ways due to the nature of the master/slave relationship. It's such an unconventional relationship, one that I never would've imagined could even happen.

I recently finished The Rising Of the Shield Hero. I loved it, hands down the best isekai that takes itself seriously (because in my opinion, Konosuba is the best isekai). I loved all of the main characters and I hated Myne. Overall, great show

BTW, @Heavyarms55 I know you mentioned not knowing about a Season 2, but actually not only is there going to be a Season 2, but they've already confirmed a Season 3 as well:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-09-01/the-rising-o...

So we'll be seeing much more of Naofumi, Raphtalia, and the rest of the cast in the future it seems.

Man, I don't think I've ever seen an anime get 2 extra seasons confirmed at once. In fact, I rarely see an anime last beyond its second, and most of the ones that do are the big dogs (DBZ, Naruto, One Piece, SAO, AoT, MHA). Really says a lot about where this show stands. Nice to know I'm not the only person that thinks RotSH is amazing, it deserves all of the success it gets. Can't wait to finish Season 1 and for Season 2 to come out.

Rewatched Evangelion 1.11 (the first time on Blu-Ray) over the weekend.

It really is a great way to re-experience the early parts of the series. I'll definitely be buying 2.22 & 3.33 in the future. Too bad we'll probably never get the final film (or a re-release of the original series) in a physical release now that Netflix has the rights.

@Bolt_Strike I hadn't checked for an update to Shield Hero in a while, I missed the announcement that more content was confirmed. Thanks for sharing!

@RR529 Why would Netflix not want the film series finished? And I thought they only had the rights for international release. Did the buy they IP entirely?

@Heavyarms55, no, the final film will be made (or maybe it already is, as I haven't paid much attention), and in Japan there's a Blu-Ray release of the original series, it's just with Netflix having the distribution rights of the franchise in the west, we probably won't see new physical releases of the films or series in English as they'll be wanting people to watch on their streaming service.

@RR529 The final hasn't been made for sure. No way I'd have missed it. I still don't think Netflix would block physical releases entirely, even if they could. They might delay a physical release however.

@RR529 The final movie is due out this Summer, and I think you're forgetting that Netflix still handles physical media. There's a pretty good chance that we'll see a box release in the West.

@CanisWolfred, well yeah, they still have the physical rental service, but I'm not sure how often they provide physical releases for properties that are exclusive to their streaming platform (I know some of their really mainstream stuff like Stranger Things, Fuller House, and the like get physical releases, but with hundreds of "Netflix Originals" (both in house, and stuff they license, like Evangelion) releasing in a year, I highly doubt they release everything physically.

I hope you're right, though.

@RR529 Yeah, I mean, I should hope they have enough business sense to realize that Evangelion is closer to mainstream than many of their other anime, especially when the last big hurrah for the franchise is right around the corner. They have the ins with Distributers, they have the dub casts, and they have the Blu-Rays straight from Japan. It'd be an easy win.

Then again, business sense isn't Netflix's strongpoint, so we'll see...

@CanisWolfred Oh the movie did actually get confirmed? Did they say what month! I hope it's while I'm still here in Japan! I'd love to see it in theaters!

@Heavyarms55 June 27th, 2020 in Japan.

@CanisWolfred Wonderful! I will be seeing this in theaters for sure! Thanks for sharing the link!

I started to think about Anime Strike after all this time, and how the early pickups seemed to be...mainly stuff that appealed to me. Like, if they asked me what to snatchup during its first season or two that it was around, I'd have picked those shows. Which might even make for a decent example of how out of touch they were with their audience, since I certainly don't consider myself to be a typical anime viewer.

Anyways, I started going through Amazon Video's library of TV Anime to see what would appeal to me that I weouldn't be able to watch anywhere else, and um...

...it turns out most of those Anime Strike ones are available on HiDive now, especially all the ones I cared about, save for one or two exceptions - including one I didn't even know existed, or at least forgot about completely until now.

Honestly, I only found 15 or so exclusive shows, and once I factored in my tastes I was left with 9 series:

• Super Dimension Fortress Macross
• Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross
• Genesis Climber MOSPEADA
• RAGE OF BAHAMUT VIRGIN SOUL
• Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter
• VINLAND SAGA
• KenIchi: The Mightiest Disciple
• KOKKOKU
• Re:CREATORS

So that's 3 nostalgic trips, a sequel to a series I'm already invested in, a cutesy kids' fantasy-adventure series that MIGHT be charming enough to make me overlook its reliance on 3DCGI animation, a series with a genuinely great story _{(but if I'm being perfectly honest, it's not a series I'd normally be into - I probably wouldn't have even tried it had I not specifically marked it as an exception years ago)}, a campy romp that's only on this list because I missed my chance to watch it on Funimation NOW, a series that looks genuinely interesting, and a series that I was extremely hyped for until I watched a few episodes and realized that it was more cool in concept and style than in excecution, and I had better things to watch during my free trial period.

So yeah, I think I'll save my money for now. Which is a bit of a relief, I guess - Keeping up with 3 and a half other anime streaming venues is hard enough as is. Still, I learned about a couple series I might want to make time for, and I certainly gained a greater appreciation for HiDive and Discotek.