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[Loud Whispers]

On that vein of cyber anime

Maou 2099 has a fun premise that isn't obliterated by coomerism. Evil Sauron megadeath satan overlord gets killed by Arthurian hero dude. Standard stuff. Gets resurrected into the distant future, where his world has merged with Earth. His world taught Earth magic, Earth taught his world capitalism. Facing the changes of the world, he ends up turning to an unexpected person for help: the man who killed him. The tone is really light hearted but hints at much darker tones, and it's been decent so far

and villainesses. As far as isekai trash goes, villainess isekais are just the best. It forever kills me inside when you have a power fantasy like Solo Levelling where the MC has a special cheat skill that no one else has that makes them super powerful and OP, and everyone looks down on them so they have to be stronger than everyone else, and no one else can understand them because they are so strong and so cool with darksteel blades and fingerless gloves showing emotions is for the weak e.t.c.

The freaking main character talks about how he has to be the strongest because everyone looked down on him and he'll never let that happen ever again. And then he abandons his girlfriend, who never looked down on him even when she was stronger than him, because she is too weak to keep up with him. Utterly unhinged shit

Then you get the villainess stuff. 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy. If the MC has a cheat skill, it's that she's been groundhog daying her life over and over again. But everything she learns she learns through hard work. When her enemies look down on her, she turns them into friends with humility and good will. When her friends show her good will, she repays them with friendship transcending lifetimes. No external motivations forcing her to do this, do that, level up or whatever - her motivations are intrinsic and she learns new skills because she wants to live life to its fullest. God damn, who would imagine characters with personality and motivations would be so fun

I'm the Villainess so I'm taming the final boss. MC starts off the show verbally murdering her ex, then invading the romantic lead's house openly demanding her intention to use him politically for her own gain, and tells him flat out to his face she does not love him. Hilarious 10/10

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord. MC has the power of schizoid autism on her side, is isekai'd as the secret boss, and in her attempts to appear normal and approachable to everyone else just ends up looking even more utterly terrifying. Supporting cast is fantastic and the MC ploughing through the story with the subtlety of a juggernaut was very endearing. Entire show had this running theme of everyone around the MC telling them they should be unhappy because they're cursed with black hair (which is an omen of the demonic) and the MC just kinda shrugging "idk man I just don't care" which is an ethos I can endorse. Their well meaning and awkward friendships felt very genuine too. I won't spoil anything but it is hilarious how obscenely overpowered the MC is, and how oblivious to how obscenely overpowered they are

And then we got I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History this season. Similar routine. Isekai story, isekai'd as the villainess. But whereas the other villainess MCs are usually decent, even morally good people who just look edgy, this MC is trying their damned best to actually seem like a petty, spiteful villainess. They're still good natured and kind, they just want to be seen as good natured and kind, in a petty, spiteful way. Another hilarious one, one that actually manages to pace itself from her childhood to adulthood

All of them have the bare minimum to make an interesting story that I wish the other cookie cutter isekais would aspire to. Main characters that have a motivation. Some personality traits. Romantic leads that don't throw themselves at the MC's feet because the MC said one nice thing and no one has ever said a nice thing before. Romances with chemistry. Conflicts with stakes. MCs actually failing at things and learning!

At least for action we've got Dandadan. Which has personality, chemistry, aliens and ghosts. 10/10

I wish stuff like Undead Murder Farce and the Witch and the Beast were more popular. I am starved for gothic action.

[Loud Whispers]

Just watched Dandadan ep 7 and ended up watching it twice. They pulled a futurama where you get lured in by the light hearted comedy and then get punched in the heart. Stellar

[JoshuaFH]

Ep 7 really knocked it out of the park. I was like "please don't cry, please don't cry" all throughout.

[JoshuaFH]

I watched Beastars season 3 recently. I just want to compliment Paru Itagaki, cause she fuckin' cooked.

I also decided to just randomly pick up Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai, or My Wife Has No Emotions. The premise is that a random guy, a real Sensitive Salaryman, gets a humanoid maid to cook and clean for him. It has the appearance of a steel mannequin with an expressionless plastic mask draped over the head. He admits himself it is just a kitchen appliance with a human appearance. That sure doesn't stop the man from going over the deep end in a hurry, cause by episode 2 he's already purchased a wedding ring for it to wear, and commanded it to refer to them as husband and wife.

I'm not done with it, but it really does seem to just be a sweet love story between a maidenless man and his robot wife that seems to be developing real intelligence and emotions. Honestly it is concerning how nonchalant the guy is when the Robot starts doing things and making autonomous judgment calls that I feel very confident that it would be forbidden to do. Like how it occasionally 'gets emotional' and grabs its human master very forcefully. Or decides that because it is play-acting as the 'wife' that it is now allowed to start answering his phone and introducing itself as his wife. The "Mina Series" of robots seem designed with childlike curiosity and learning capabilities, which on the one hand is crazily advanced and would make them very adaptable; but on the other hand seems very insidious, like there is a deliberate corporate agenda to use these robots for some nefarious end that hasn't been discovered yet.

I'd say it's even more concerning how supportive everyone seems to be of his so-called "Relationship" with his Rosie-the-robot housemaid. It's stated that's there's no rules against it, but I'd expect some social pushback when a guy starts dolling up his emotionless kitchen appliance and calls it his wife. Like, it's not a sex doll, nor is it designed with companionship in mind, he just doesn't have anyone else in his life so he became infatuated with the only human-like thing in his life. I'd take that as evidence of a person's psychological decline and social regression, and if I were his family I'd want to interfere before they cut themselves off from society totally.

but again, I'm only on about episode 5, and there's no big, grand plot, it's just a cute show in the same vein as Chobits, or Plastic Memories (well, hopefully not Plastic Memories...), and I'll probably watch all of it because it assuages the pain of loneliness I have to suffer through every single day of my life, and I too wish I had cute robot wife that gave me companionship that is totally free of the endless psychological stress, performative socializing, emotional baggage, and potential for disastrous trauma that real relationships have.

[Loud Whispers]

I never finished My Wife Has No Emotions but I got like two thirds through. You could legit turn it into a Kubrick horror with a different musical score 

But I actually enjoyed it. Has that neat intersection between manmade horrors within societal dehumanisation and kawaii. The man, dehumanised. The object, anthropomorphised, given soul. Maybe it hits less philosophically watching it within a culture that believes every tool can have a soul. Like it'd be easier to suspend disbelief and go "well obviously she has a soul." I really loved how it reminded me a lot of Real Steel of all things. Even though one is about robot waifu and another about robot boxer, they both deal with this kind of ambiguous level of relationship between the robot and the human that can be interpreted as "just" machine functions or something real and equal. Is our guy descending into insanity, or is he based and pygmalion pilled? Matter of perspective really, unless the season finale did something I haven't got around to yet

Also Real Steel is pretty goated for "AI writing that can be interpreted as sapience OR just machine functions." Their robot is capable of learning by watching and mimicing others, because it's a shadow boxing robot made for sparring training other bots. They have a seen where the robot is left in front of a mirror, just watching itself. The scene is the robot alone, with no music or anything. Is the robot staring into its own soul? Or is it just a robot that's left on idle? When the robot is on the ground and the kid is screaming "get up!" Is it standing up to fight for its friend, or is it just responding to a learned voice command from a recognised user? I used to know this brilliant croation philosophy teacher when I was a kid, she used to go on about this stuff. At one point do you say a simulation of consciousness has become consciousness, and is biological consciousness in any way special to one born of silicon and steel?

In retrospect, I uprate the Robot Waifu anime. It wasn't forgettable, it made me think things, I think it will be more relevant as society becomes more socially isolated and we've already seen people spending more time talking to AI boyfriends/girlfriends than they do talk to real people

In that same season there was also a "I'm a regular dude but I got a maid waifu who is also a secret assassin" and I can't really remember that one or care for it, despite combat assassin maids being ridiculously stylish and fun. But their romantic pair had no chemistry or personality either of them. How do you fuck that up, after we just had Akiba Maid War and Undead Murder Farce?

[JoshuaFH]

I finished My Wife Has No Emotions. All throughout, our main character Takuma remains the genetic deadend loser as he ever was (and I'd still trade places with him in a heartbeat if given the chance) but yeah, it's a show that you can't help but have a strong opinion on it, despite it being such a tame sci-fi. I think there's a bit of a missed opportunity in that the show never SHOWS our MC striking out with real women, it's just implied to have happened (an implication that the target audience undoubtedly psychologically projects anyway; the show knows its audience).

At the end of the series though, (spoiler alert) everything works out fine, there's no drama, the machines really are both benevolent and indistinguishable from real sapience, and Takuma is literally living in the most Utopian Dystopia possible; despite every part of his thought experiment of a life turning up roses however, I still really doubt Takuma has a enviable life, or that his actions aren't pathetic. Takuma seems to be living in a very small social bubble where literally nobody is willing to challenge his lifestyle in any serious way. His Uncle gets close, but he gives up at the first pushback. I mean, the show is fixated on how idyllic Takuma's situation is, and isn't really concerned that he's basically infantilized himself, content to playing make-believe marriage with an expensive toy, content to living a futureless life, happy but devoid of meaning.

We don't get to see very many other Mina-style robots which I thought didn't make sense since there seemed to be a mega-corporation that is making these things and shaping society and the legal landscape around them in the process. Narratively speaking however, they can't, as that would undoubtedly shine a light on the societal damage being done if these things were everywhere and shown many people getting similarly infatuated with their own.

I did like the finale to the show, in that it brought up the inherent master-slave relationship and how that is antithetical to a real, 'true' marriage, and tried to resolve it in a somewhat logical manner, even if the solution was a bandaid fix at best. Though then that bandaid fix was rejected, the inherently unfair power dynamic continued, and so Takuma will just need to delude himself that much harder and keep his conscience anesthetized that much more, I guess.

There IS a manga that continues the story... though the anime stops at a good point, I don't know how much I'd benefit from seeking it out.

[Loud Whispers]

All anime is an advertisement for the manga. Unless the manga is on hiatus ;-:

[Sirus]

There are a rare few anime that are original IPs without existing manga or VNs to advertise for.

[MCreeper]

I wonder what led to that grim state of affairs. I'm not even into anime specifically, but it already feels af if every japanese wannabe writer aims to release the product of his creativity in novel/VN, manga and anime forms from the start (well, applies to every writer with great ambitions  ), and it is some luck if at least one of the three is finished once started.

[Loud Whispers]

There are a rare few anime that are original IPs without existing manga or VNs to advertise for.

oh yeah I was joking but then I realised the joke wasn't even that true after exaggeration. Also ones based off novels like Vampire Hunter D, which I learned to my surprise is one of the best selling novel series in human history

[Frumple]

I wonder what led to that grim state of affairs. I'm not even into anime specifically, but it already feels af if every japanese wannabe writer aims to release the product of his creativity in novel/VN, manga and anime forms from the start (well, applies to every writer with great ambitions  ), and it is some luck if at least one of the three is finished once started.

From... what I understand, a lot of it's because a lot of it's basically sourced from the japanese version of royal road (or Ao3, or whatever major amateur publishing platform you care to make the comparison to). Goes a long way towards explaining both the quantity, quality, and common formats (WN -> manga -> anime, in order of production values and barrier to entry). Mix that with the normal incentives production companies work with (i.e. go with stuff they know-ish works, dip toes in other mediums when possible) and you get a fairly consistent production pattern with relatively few exceptions.

Not even necessarily a bad thing, really. Prior to venues like RR et al, wannabe writers were mostly just fucked and were never going to see any sort of publishing or publicity (that's still true, mind, but pretty notably less so). Has its problems but compared to yesteryear it's mostly an upgrade, from what I've noticed (which may say more about the state of publishing prior to fairly recently than anything positive about the current state of affairs, but eh).

[Loud Whispers]

That time I wrote my premise into a webnovel but didn't expect it to become popular (and the demon lord is my editor)

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's like all the

>I was the weakest buy actually am the strongest
>Banished from the hero's party I...
>Betrayed by my... I...
>Even though I have the D rank skill I'm actually the S rank...
Are slowly being distilled into the peak isekai, whose title is longer than the draft manuscript itself. Either that or AI are legit writing them now

[JoshuaFH]

Isekai slop has always been in a state of freefall as they raced to the bottommost denominator. If anything, AI would pump out tripe that is too intellectual for Isekai's core audience, only a human writer can be deliberately degenerate enough to satisfy the your typical Isekai fan that cannot get enough of this kind of trash.


A Mahjong manga that I liked, Touhai, got an anime adaptation recently! ... and honestly they botched it. It seems that the plot is being very carelessly skimmed over, the animation and cinematography is poor, and the story is just being rushed to the point where getting excited at the show's main action is just impossible. If art's purpose is to nourish the human soul, this is anti-nourishment, that somehow leaves you hungrier than when you started.

What's odd is that there was a live action adaptation of Touhai released years ago, and that was perfectly good! Mahjong anime just ain't what they used to be. Jesus, I need to go re-watch Akagi for the 20th time to wash my mouth out.

[Robsoie]

not caring about anime, but some recommendation on some good stuff that i recently read on scanlation websites like mangadex :

a few very good dark fantasy stories in their Berserk-like way (all ongoing)
- "Clevatess"
- "Centuria"
- "Re CERVIN"

and on a different genre
- "VS EVIL" (completed) and its current ongoing sequel "The Last Exorcist -Ender Geister- ", alias movie reference galore, just great with very good art