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Right now I'm wondering about what to do with myself if I do part from the Aikatsu! franchise. I find that I quite like Shadowverse, but that'll probably go 2-3 years at most in it's current form. Plus there aren't many physical things to collect (even the opening theme was released as a digital single).
It reminds me of how I really loved Buddyfight over it's first two years. The third year introduced a Buddy partner whose main catchphrase was farting, so I quickly abandoned ship despite how great the new character designs looked.
I remember trying to get into new Bakugan, and I really tried considering I watched the whole first half, but now every time I try I remember that most of what I watched was never above mediocre. That and the fact that almost every episode was divided into 12 minute shorts yet they all still dragged on for too long helps me stay away.
https://shootingthemoon.neocities.org/
Tohru's right; you just started living with two dragons and you've already rented out a larger apartment just for them.
and I guess Kanna's is some sort of psychological suggestion thing?
1. interesting canon -- that supernatural creatures walk among us at geekystuff conventions
2. that is one snazzy looking building, and i presume it's an actual real building too
3. or actually 0. holy shit that is a lot of people
y'know i've never actually seen footage of actual comiket, come to think of it
this is an interesting means of introduction
from the MAL commentary thread:
Wow.
.......
oh wow
holy shit i just got played hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
i've been getting played this whole time hahahahahahahahhaa
Incidentally, this is an element that is lacking in the somewhat similar show
Also, I just realized that those two shows (Maid Dragon and Gabriel DropOut) were aired the same season (January to March/April 2017).
kinda funny since it's probably the most famous thing that involves a dragon girl and it's been around for a few years now yet i've watched several other shows that involve dragon girls but not this one
https://www.anime-planet.com/characters/all?gender_id=2&include_tags=239
* (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid) (most recent)
* Dragon Crisis
* Manaria Friends
* Dragon Half
* Chaika the Coffin Princess (not listed for whatever reason)
* Leviathan the Last Defense (not listed for whatever reason)
*
* Dragonaut: the Resonance (not listed for whatever reason)
minor examples:
* Problem Children
* Tales of Zestiria the X
stuff that's on my PTW or stalled or whatever
* Blessing of the Campagnella
* Rage of Bahamut
* Log Horizon
* ReZero
* Dragonar Academy
i could submit character change suggestions to a-p to add the ones that aren't yet listed but i think i might have tried that already, not sure
they can be kinda strict with the tags so i have to do a proper write-up before submitting stuff
like, arpeggio of blue steel somehow doesn't count as post-apocalyptic, since human society is still functioning on land, even though the story certainly makes a big deal about how people no longer have overseas connections with each other
well okay other people just submit stuff without proper write-ups too but if i want to maximize my chances of success i need a write-up
YES!!
If not, this seems like it could be an apt, though (given how it's usually used) an unusual choice of, label of such shows as Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood., Gabriel DropOut, and Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon. Since their point is to portray otherwise ordinary real life but with magical elements sprinkled into their settings, and particularly with the point of juxtaposing the real and the fantastical.
Like, the major works of the genre are books like The Alchemist and the vaguely "there's magic but physics still apply" thing filters all the way down to works Tokyo Cancelled.
Basically, it'd be really hard for any anime to qualify. Least of all a 4koma-adjacent anime that had no desire to comment on the human condition or the physical world.
I actually don't understand why you'd approach any anime and be like "Realism".
Yeah uh that's not it either. That's "Magical SoL", which I just came up with. Magical Realism is a long-understood and celebrated literary style (that I personally don't like). The Alchemist is a long allegorical travelogue that involves several mystical dreams. As it's a journey, there's an endpoint.
I guess in general "Magical Realism" is more about "allegory"+"the human condition"+"various mystical aesthetics", rather than "it's real life with magic". That is to say, genre isn't named simplistically.
* magical or supernatural phenomena presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane setting
* generally considered to be a different genre from fantasy
* substantial amount of realistic detail
* employs magical elements
* often makes points about reality (e.g. a hypothetical outsider's perspective on reality as we know it)
* "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe"
The only part that doesn't fit is that the term is generally used to refer to novels and dramatic performances.
To be fair, (1) a Wikipedia header section is not the be-all-and-end-all of the term's definition, and (2) it even says that the term is "broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous".
Uh, there are multiple pieces of commentary on the human condition and the physical world in the shows I mentioned.
They're just couched in cute anime comedy. But that doesn't mean they aren't there.
There's a dearth of real self-reflection in a cutesy girls-doing-stuff anime, and that's by design. That sort of thing tends to be depressing, it sometimes veers into gross, and generally just offputting. A good example of introspection is something like a lull in an early Steven King novel.
That is not what you're going to get from a 4koma anime. The tone of a work alone affects it's worldview, and the tone never rises above "let's be sad or melancholy for a bit". Nobody considers their own humanity, or limited mortality.
That's not a point. I'm not even sure how you get to this. The original cutesy girls in the anime represent no element of reality, how are the dragon ones supposed to observe reality from them?
4koma settings are not highly detailed or realistic. I mean, if the next season of Kin-iro Mosaic decided it was a magical girl show, I'd barely be surprised.
I have a decent YA example of what isn't magical realism for you; The Lying Game. The series is, for it's time, written as honestly and possible about spoilt rich kids. However, it is narrated by the main character's dead twin, and sometimes plot details are revealed via flashbacks that this twin has to her last days on Earth (which she doesn't remember).
But it is not magical realism because these things are done in service of suspense (the memory thing specifically), Sutton's narration is always to-the-point (though filled with her stylized commentary), and overall the series never considers anything more important than it's facts. If that can't doesn't to magical realism, a cutesy girls anime certainly can't.
By the way, have you ever really thought about or read about magical realism just before now that you wanted something you liked to be magical realism?
For example, the scene in episode 1 of Maid Dragon where Kobayashi gets drunk and basically scares the crap out of Tohru presents a clearly ironic turn on the notion of fear on the part of humanity of the unusual and unknown.
Then there's the fact that Kobayashi gets very worried about Tohru's reputation in the shopping center, and how what happens contrasts with her expectations -- and the fact that she does in fact note how her expectations of Tohru reflect on her own social life.
Just because the show doesn't dwell on these ideas for an extended time doesn't mean it isn't there. Heck, I think this sort of show tends to have a lot of these reflective nuggets.
Limited mortality is mentioned in both Maid Dragon (where it is at least kind of a plot point) and Ms. Vampire. While this trope isn't thoroughly explored in either of these shows (particularly given their relatively short runtime, only lasting a cour), it's certainly not out of the question for this sort of show. In fact I was wondering if there'd be some sort of scene at the end of Ms. Vampire making a point of it, because such a scene would totally fit, particularly in the capacity of an epilogue.
Kobayashi in her capacity as a coder at a software company, along with her commute and such, is clearly meant to be an element of realism. Angels and demons in Gabriel DropOut are specifically sent to live on Earth and interact with humans, which they do. And while the lead human character in Ms. Vampire is unusually interested in the occult (though some humans are too), there are also humans -- including the other human protagonist -- who express far more apprehension toward the supernatural.
Yes; I've read works typically considered to be (or be associated with) this genre, including Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Like Water for Chocolate.
The genre label is, like the Wikipedia page says, "often associated with Latin-American literature". And it seems the "magical" elements are at least sometimes not very explicitly defined, which is in contrast to the very clearly fantastical elements in the shows I've mentioned. These are two arguments against using this genre label. Though, as always, I have qualms about accepting the creator's geography alone as an entire argument.
For what it's worth, Wikipedia also mentions a variety of similar/associated labels, one of which is "low fantasy", which has apparently been used to describe something like these shows, though I don't know the typical use of the term in this sense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy
I've heard "low fantasy" more used to describe "fantasy, but with not much magic" -- essentially the definition seen under the section "Role-playing games". (This is in contrast to "reality, but with elements of fantasy".)
Maybe it's actually a whole new genre but no name has picked up steam yet? I mean there are certainly a number of these shows nowadays. Technically, Orenchi no Furo Jijou could probably be added to whatever genre this is from the Otome side of things.
It's weird that it says that and then also lists Indian and Bangladeshi authors as well as Murakami. Personally I've read more magical realism by Arabic authors if we need to obsess over people's ethnicities.
Ah yeah that's quite uncanny.
Though it was only slightly on my radar a while ago, I'm quite excited for BURN THE WITCH now that I've seen the second trailer.
The first arc of this series involved the Shadowverse Japan Grand Prix, which was as typical as these things come. On that note; I already wondered how the main characters had all suddenly become the best players in Japan.
Of course there's the immensely talented yet-to-lose probably-will-never-lose aptly-named protagonist Hiiro, who plays with Dragoncraft. Hiiro is one of the biggest enigmas in card game anime, but probably not on purpose. For the first eighteen or so episodes, he's just completely lacking in emotions aside from excitement. This makes his reactions to other character's more negative emotions jarring, because he displays a warped sense of empathy.
His foil is the skilled, long-time Bloodcraft player
LuciaLuca, who claims to "hate" Shadowverse and only plays to collect prize money which he wants to use to help pay his sister's hospital bills.Slight digression: Despite this, when Hiiro wins the Shadowverse Japan GPX (this isn't even a spoiler 5 episodes before it happens) Luca is not shown to be mad at him for beating him out of the cash prize. Maybe second place was good enough.
In addition, there's the skilled Havencraft player Mauro Abelard, whose introduction episode doesn't as much introduce him as have him proclaim his insanity as loudly as possible. We later find out that Mauro is the only member of the Shadow Knights who was "chosen" to save the world. By whom, nobody knows.
Mauro dislikes Hiiro because Hiiro is good for no real reason (as probably half the audience does). Mauro's style is brilliant and immensely skillful, a style Hiiro doesn't even begin to approach until halfway through the second arc, but of course he loses to Hiiro's first ever attempt at a multi-turn combo, a combo Hiiro repeats over and over whilst absolutely nobody counters it.
The final main character outside of Hiiro's inner circle is Shadowcraft player and child idol Alice. Alice's main interactions in the series are with one of Hiiro's best friends, Mimori, but in the JP GPX she and Hiiro end up fighting, and it's the first time her story comes to light.
Alice is an idol, so despite using her favorite class (Shadowcraft), she is not allowed to use her favorite cards (yet, as shown later, she's allowed to keep them in her deck) because they aren't 'cute' enough. She's able to resolve her issues later in a battle with Mimori in the second arc to some extent.
Things start to get wonky when we approach Hiiro's best friends, the Forestcraft player Mimori, and the Swordcraft player Kazuki, somehow manage free invites to the JP GPX from the mysterious Genesis Company CEO, Leon.
Mimori has barely really played Shadowverse, even before Hiiro starts, and Kazuki mainly acts as the comedic friend of the group, though he's shown to be able to hold his own. This is compared to the two professional Shadowverse players they face in the JP GPX, who have to be the worst professional e-sports players ever because Mimori and Kazuki end up in the top ten ranked players in the game.
There's also Hiiro's sometimes-mentee, who eventually becomes Kazuki's comedy routine partner, Runecraft player Kai. Though Kai is very good -better than Mimori and Kazuki at least- that shouldn't really qualify him for the top ten.
Regardless, all seven of these characters make their way to the Shadow Grand Prix, held on a mysterious island in the middle of nowhere owned by the Genesis Company.
The Shadow Grand Prix features a "Virtual Reality" VERSUS system that manifests Shadowverse followers in a real way throughout the island, rather than in the designated spots where Shadowverse matches are held in normal cities and towns. In addition, it seems the Virtual Reality can at least effect a false sense of reality on players, since they seem to get "hurt" more when an attack is launched directly at their Defense.
Throughout this arc, various new characters are introduced just so our main seven can beat them and keep ranking up. The competition is structured in a somewhat unwieldy way.
There are three ranks; Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Each player starts each rank with three points, and can "rank up" if they get to ten points. They get these points by "betting" their existing points on each match, with the winner taking all the points on the line. This barely matters, considering Mimori manages to get to Gold rank by fighting exactly three matches total.
Why? Because as more and more players ratchet up to Gold Rank, Leon becomes concerned about the glut at the top and employs his Shadow Knights. The Shadow Knights are the typical employees of Genesis Company, who turn out to be trainees in the whole plot to save the world. They are very good at Shadowverse, and are supposed to be 'ruthless', which would apply if they weren't so easily outwitted by seven pre-teens at every turn, both in the game and in conversation.
Mauro, being the only one of these Knights who was "chosen", still resents Hiiro and his historical ties to Genesis Company CEO Leon through his father. At one point, he and Hiiro have a match, and of course he falls for Hiiro's typical tricks. In fact, a major sticking point for me continues to be how Hiiro uses similar combos and banks on his opponents being unable to finish him when he's at 1/20 life even throughout a whole turn. Opponents will choose to go after followers without Ward or paricularly terrifying Last Words (on-destruction effects) rather than Hiiro's extremely paltry defense.
In fact, opponents will regularly drag out matches so that Hiiro can rack up enough points to enter Dragoncraft's Super Mode, "Overflow"...
Back to the topic at hand, once the Shadow Knights wean out everybody who isn't a protagonist, before losing at the hand of exactly those protagonists, the Shadow GPX is over, and Leon instructs the main characters to come to the Island's Central Tower.
At Central Tower, Leon explains that the "Tree of Woe" has come to Earth, and that it is a sign of a world's destruction. This may be a vague re-interpretation of the original in-game Shadowverse story's Morning Star and Nexus.
As the kids have been playing a smartphone card game on an island, the world around them has been decaying. According to Leon, the only way to save the world is through more smartphone games.
The protagonists comply, and are immediately taken into a new set of battles with the Shadow Knights. In Hiiro's case, he fights Leon. This time, instead of using the seven known classes like our main characters, they use a new "man-made" class known as Portalcraft, which uses creepy gem-like artifact creatures that look straight out of a Final Fantasy final boss dungeon.
And that's where we are for now.
In other news; the new Shadowverse OP starting next cour is by FLOW! I'm quite excited to hear it.