Media Post!
So I've generally been keeping up with anime. Reactions to the new stuff so far:
-Majimoji Rurumo- Somehow when I was looking at what I was going to try, I missed the part where this is ecchi and the MC has that "super pervert" label going on, which I find annoying and stupid as a general principle. There's also a loli component that I don't appreciate, being that the girl who is apparently supposed to be the love interest looks about eight years old. Blech. Definitely not my cup of tea. Honestly, the only reason I haven't dropped it already is because the cat is awesome, and I have a weakness for cute/awesome animals. (see for reference: everything ever, basically)
-Love Stage!!- Interested me enough after the first episode that I hunted down the manga, which I proceeded to inhale. (It's regrettably short- 23 chapters as of this point that I could find, and it's at a cliffhanger. Bleh.) There are a couple of things that bother me (like a super girly uke, to the point where I have to keep reminding myself that he's a guy) and I did almost stop reading it at one point, but overall it's enjoyable. It's cute and brainless, and basically everybody involved is a complete dork except Rei, which adds to the cute factor. And it puts a spotlight on certain BL stereotypes/ inaccuracies about gay sex and points out that these things are stupid, so. That's kind of refreshing. I don't know how much of that they're going to do in the anime, but we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling that the anime might be a better bet, actually, because starting around... eh, chapter 19 or so? They start adding drama just for the sake of adding drama- but that's part of the current story arc that's not finished yet.
-Free- Daaaaaamn, Haru, new guy has called you out and declared his territory! Now what are you going to do about it? :P (That was seriously the main thing that I was thinking through most of the second episode. XD) Oh man. You know, it's almost a shame that Rin has all these ~professional swimming aspirations~, because he'd make a great coach. I think that kind of thing is what I like most about this season so far- getting to see Rin as an actual HUMAN BEING and a shockingly good guy. Imagine that. XD (Also, Rin and New Guy Whose Name I Haven't Bothered To Remember Yet are sharing a room. This can't possibly end well. XDDD) Oh, and Nagisa absolutely FREAKING OUT when he thinks Rei is going to leave the club/is in love with someone who is not him. Oh man. NAGISA, YOU ARE SO TRANSPARENT IT'S PAINFUL TO WATCH.
-Persona 4 Golden- I know I said I wasn't going to watch it yet, but supposedly Golden assumes prior knowledge of the game to make sense, so I dug in. First of all, I don't agree with that at all. It's true that they don't explain much in the first episode, but that was true of the original anime and the game, too. So whatever. The biggest problem I see, if you haven't seen the first anime or played the game, is that it's two episodes in and there's not really any plot to speak of so far. It's mainly just everyone fooling around, plus the addition of a new character Marie for no apparent reason. So basically, you CAN watch this if you're not familiar with the original canon, but I'm not really sure why you'd want to, since you wouldn't know/care about these characters at all. General observations so far... I don't know about this. I don't really like the art that much. Toast/Yu comes off as really kind of creepy right from the getgo. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.
-Kuroshitsuji- No opinion yet. It's not anything new at all so far, though admittedly I haven't actually watched the second episode yet.
-Whistle- Okay, I know this one's not new, but a conversation with Krim made me start downloading/watching it. I'm six episodes in so far. It's cute, I guess? I don't have much to say so far. It seems a lot older than it is because of the old school sound/art. I keep thinking it's a 90's anime, but nope. XD Not that this is a bad thing necessarily, it just amuses me mostly.
On non-animated media, I sat down and watched the first two episodes of Girl Meets World that are out so far, despite being afraid that they would ruin everything. I have to say that we were both pleasantly surprised and we enjoyed it quite a bit. Definitely some squee-worthy moments for BMW fans. The kids are great, and I can already tell that Maya is going to be my favorite. I love that Cory is a history teacher (though I'm dying to know what Topanga is doing with herself, not to mention Shawn), although he has horrifyingly little control over his classroom. And did anybody else catch the board in the back of his room that says "Dream. Try. Do good." ?? *squee* I did want to address two things, though-
1. For the people who are complaining because BMW dealt with heavy stuff and GMW so far is not- you have to remember that BMW did all of that over a long period of time, as Cory and Co. got older and dealt with increasingly complicated events in their lives. The first season of BMW, while great, really only has a passing resemblance to the show at the end. It was appropriate, given that the show grew up along with the characters. We have to allow the same growing room for GMW. They're TWELVE, okay? They're not necessarily going to be dealing with certain things yet. Not to mention that it's TWO EPISODES IN. Chill the hell out.
2. The one thing that DID actually really bother me, though, was a seemingly minor detail. They live in New York City, right? Okay. So in the first episode, Farkle (who is a complete creeper, btw, which is a whole other topic) brings in a presentation featuring sparklers. Now. Aside from the problems this ends up causing, there's a HUGE issue with this right from the getgo: ANY and ALL fireworks- including, yes, sparklers- are illegal in New York State without a permit. I never even held a sparkler until I was damn near 17, and that was only because I was in Wisconsin at the time. And sure, you might be able to argue that Cory may not know this because he's from Pennsylvania, but I really doubt that's something that he wouldn't have picked up by now. This bothers me because even though it might seem like a trivial detail in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't speak well of the writers and their ability to not fuck things up. But we'll see what happens.
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This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D
-Majimoji Rurumo- Somehow when I was looking at what I was going to try, I missed the part where this is ecchi and the MC has that "super pervert" label going on, which I find annoying and stupid as a general principle. There's also a loli component that I don't appreciate, being that the girl who is apparently supposed to be the love interest looks about eight years old. Blech. Definitely not my cup of tea. Honestly, the only reason I haven't dropped it already is because the cat is awesome, and I have a weakness for cute/awesome animals. (see for reference: everything ever, basically)
-Love Stage!!- Interested me enough after the first episode that I hunted down the manga, which I proceeded to inhale. (It's regrettably short- 23 chapters as of this point that I could find, and it's at a cliffhanger. Bleh.) There are a couple of things that bother me (like a super girly uke, to the point where I have to keep reminding myself that he's a guy) and I did almost stop reading it at one point, but overall it's enjoyable. It's cute and brainless, and basically everybody involved is a complete dork except Rei, which adds to the cute factor. And it puts a spotlight on certain BL stereotypes/ inaccuracies about gay sex and points out that these things are stupid, so. That's kind of refreshing. I don't know how much of that they're going to do in the anime, but we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling that the anime might be a better bet, actually, because starting around... eh, chapter 19 or so? They start adding drama just for the sake of adding drama- but that's part of the current story arc that's not finished yet.
-Free- Daaaaaamn, Haru, new guy has called you out and declared his territory! Now what are you going to do about it? :P (That was seriously the main thing that I was thinking through most of the second episode. XD) Oh man. You know, it's almost a shame that Rin has all these ~professional swimming aspirations~, because he'd make a great coach. I think that kind of thing is what I like most about this season so far- getting to see Rin as an actual HUMAN BEING and a shockingly good guy. Imagine that. XD (Also, Rin and New Guy Whose Name I Haven't Bothered To Remember Yet are sharing a room. This can't possibly end well. XDDD) Oh, and Nagisa absolutely FREAKING OUT when he thinks Rei is going to leave the club/is in love with someone who is not him. Oh man. NAGISA, YOU ARE SO TRANSPARENT IT'S PAINFUL TO WATCH.
-Persona 4 Golden- I know I said I wasn't going to watch it yet, but supposedly Golden assumes prior knowledge of the game to make sense, so I dug in. First of all, I don't agree with that at all. It's true that they don't explain much in the first episode, but that was true of the original anime and the game, too. So whatever. The biggest problem I see, if you haven't seen the first anime or played the game, is that it's two episodes in and there's not really any plot to speak of so far. It's mainly just everyone fooling around, plus the addition of a new character Marie for no apparent reason. So basically, you CAN watch this if you're not familiar with the original canon, but I'm not really sure why you'd want to, since you wouldn't know/care about these characters at all. General observations so far... I don't know about this. I don't really like the art that much. Toast/Yu comes off as really kind of creepy right from the getgo. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.
-Kuroshitsuji- No opinion yet. It's not anything new at all so far, though admittedly I haven't actually watched the second episode yet.
-Whistle- Okay, I know this one's not new, but a conversation with Krim made me start downloading/watching it. I'm six episodes in so far. It's cute, I guess? I don't have much to say so far. It seems a lot older than it is because of the old school sound/art. I keep thinking it's a 90's anime, but nope. XD Not that this is a bad thing necessarily, it just amuses me mostly.
On non-animated media, I sat down and watched the first two episodes of Girl Meets World that are out so far, despite being afraid that they would ruin everything. I have to say that we were both pleasantly surprised and we enjoyed it quite a bit. Definitely some squee-worthy moments for BMW fans. The kids are great, and I can already tell that Maya is going to be my favorite. I love that Cory is a history teacher (though I'm dying to know what Topanga is doing with herself, not to mention Shawn), although he has horrifyingly little control over his classroom. And did anybody else catch the board in the back of his room that says "Dream. Try. Do good." ?? *squee* I did want to address two things, though-
1. For the people who are complaining because BMW dealt with heavy stuff and GMW so far is not- you have to remember that BMW did all of that over a long period of time, as Cory and Co. got older and dealt with increasingly complicated events in their lives. The first season of BMW, while great, really only has a passing resemblance to the show at the end. It was appropriate, given that the show grew up along with the characters. We have to allow the same growing room for GMW. They're TWELVE, okay? They're not necessarily going to be dealing with certain things yet. Not to mention that it's TWO EPISODES IN. Chill the hell out.
2. The one thing that DID actually really bother me, though, was a seemingly minor detail. They live in New York City, right? Okay. So in the first episode, Farkle (who is a complete creeper, btw, which is a whole other topic) brings in a presentation featuring sparklers. Now. Aside from the problems this ends up causing, there's a HUGE issue with this right from the getgo: ANY and ALL fireworks- including, yes, sparklers- are illegal in New York State without a permit. I never even held a sparkler until I was damn near 17, and that was only because I was in Wisconsin at the time. And sure, you might be able to argue that Cory may not know this because he's from Pennsylvania, but I really doubt that's something that he wouldn't have picked up by now. This bothers me because even though it might seem like a trivial detail in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't speak well of the writers and their ability to not fuck things up. But we'll see what happens.
---
This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D