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what does that actually mean
Naaaaaah. I've never even watched StrikerS (and never really intend to). Even A's was way too not-a-mahou-shoujo-parody-anymore for my tastes. And for that matter I never watched the second season of Symphogear either (and again, don't plan on doing so ever).
That's a shame. I thought A's was the one series of Nanoha that's legitimately good.
Like, if I have one problem with A's it's that the movie exists.
The staff all sat down and watched a bunch of anime, got excited and then wrote all their favourite bits into a (semi) coherent story. Again, he meant it as a term of endearment. He likened it to a big dog wagging its tail, slobbering and doing every trick in the book with enough charm to earn your love.
I'd argue the title of most anime thing ever actually goes to Horizon though~
It had some darker moments such as Fine's abuse of Chris, I guess.
I found A's to be my least favorite of the three Nanoha seasons. StrikerS is my favorite. I still haven't quite figured out why people seem to like A's the most...
Well, I guess it does make good use of dramatic irony.
First season of Nanoha has Fate, A's has less Fate. Therefore, first season is better.
But really I dunno. Maybe I'd change my mind if I rewatched them now, though updating my opinion on Nanoha is just about the lowest priority anime-related thing I can think of and I have a huge backlog as it is. For similar reasons I'll probably never rewatch Symphogear and I'll just say I don't like it forever (though in that case I'm pretty sure I'd still have the same opinion even after rewatching).
I'd say the most aggressively "this anime is the most anime anime" anime, at least relatively recently (and that I'm actually familiar with obviously), is probably Code Geass.
Yeah, I enjoyed the first season more because of the Fate drama.
Also, Symphogear is more fun to listen to than watch. At least the first season. I'll get around to watching G sometime.
Shouldn't that be the other way around? I thought A's had way more Arf, or at least more Arf actually doing things. This has to be true because me not liking Arf was another reason I liked A's less. Maybe. I don't remember anything.
This is what happens when you watch the entire show in one day in a half-screen window while browsing the internet.
A's and Strikers actually went places with Fate's characterization past 'Poor broken dark magical girl-chan' and there's nothing wrong with that (It's my favourite character archetype) but I like knowing what happens next.
Her becoming both the more feminine of the two, and the surrogate mother when they grew up, was something you'd never see coming but made perfect sense.
A's is the best series because the antagonists are likeable, the drama is realistic (If a little artificially maintained and dependent on contrivance) and the pacing is great. Pacing in the first series is terrible and Strikers has the same problem Mai Hime/Otome has (Two thirds of one show, one third of another).
I'll eat poop before you'll have me admit Code Geass is the most anime anime. Superficially, sure, but what made it really stand out from its peers was its utter terrible writing and pacing.
I don't see how that stops it from being the most anime.
So Joseph is way more fun with his use of Hamon compared to Jonathan.
For what it's worth, even though Arf really is my favourite character, I actually liked A's much better than the first season for all the reasons Jao⁵ says. I never got around to watching StrikerS.
Obviously it was a sequel hook with how that last scene played out, but really? They could've at least made a semi-coherent ending instead of what we got which basically amounted to "We're done, go buy the LNs"!
Maybe A's had more of Arf engaging in battle and stuff, but in the first season, Arf definitely occupied a key role in the narrative.
That said, I don't know how it's possible to enjoy a story when I'm also browsing the internet. I might pick up superficial details but then I just end up being distracted from writing posts and looking up stuff and also missing the important details when they come up in the show.
That said, for some reason my mom can do it. She says she watches TV shows (albeit live action, not anime) for the setting, rather than the story, so maybe that's it...
Yeah, I was definitely expecting Fate to grow up to be the stoic type while Nanoha seemed more like the caring type. Didn't expect those roles to be reversed.
I actually kinda liked StrikerS's pacing. It gave me time to get to know the characters and come to care about them, just in time for all hell to break loose. See, if all hell broke loose before I got to know them like family through all this heartwarming character profiling and character development, then the feels wouldn't be there. But since I do, it becomes personal.
At least, that's what I think.
> Heartwarming
> Not drawn-out, dull and uneventful
Also,
> false dichotomy between "all hell breaks loose" and "nothing happens"
But really, the stretch of training episodes or whatever the first half consisted of was unnecessary. Subaru and Tia could have ended up spending an episode looking for someone's lost pet and would still have felt more eventful than much of the training, as it would be a "real" situation instead of a planned activity.
It's a little slow, but it's effective in the same way that the first part of Eureka Seven (which is also slow) is effective -- it's not effective by itself, but it provides a context for understanding the characters and their background, so that when major drama happens, it resonates much better.
In contrast, I felt that Symphogear's character introductions were -- while decent themselves -- on the whole, a little rushed. I understand they only had 13 eps to put it together, but I think they could have done a better job.
And considering how that sold it's clear that the only Tokyo Raven's fan around is Kurosaki Maon.
Also yay my decision to eventually watch Strike the Blood instead of it is validated!
Aside from, y'know, all the stuff that happens (Dewey, missions, Renton's obvious growth, conflict).
I hate to say this because it feels wrong but this is the least valid criticism of Symphogear, especially considering that they only character who was really 'introduced' after the first two episodes (and like, at all) was Chris.
It's possible to enjoy it as a moekko delivery platform. This is fine for anime since that's ultimately what most anime are trying to do anyway.
Though I stopped doing that a while ago since it really does make it hard to focus on the show, and I'm already bad enough at remembering things from shows I've watched as it is.
Though the truth is I'm still very easily distracted so I still stop the video every few minutes to do whatever.
Strike the Blood had literally one good episode. It was the last one.
Source: I watched both and enjoyed Tokyo Ravens way more.
are you sure
Tokyo Ravens might have maon and Nanjo Yoshino but Strike the Blood has all of ALTIMA singing about BLOOD DESTINY.
I think you're misunderstanding the reason Symphogear exists. It's not there to provide a thought provoking narrative and send a message. It knows you already know it's message; hot blood and mecha shoujo always win (and I guess Agematsu is your god and you should love his music) and that's great and fun. Watching it for any other reason than to bask in that message is kind of pointless.
I guess there's the insane little moments of detail with the relics as well but it's mostly the first thing.
Maybe it wasn't exactly that, but I just felt that I didn't really feel close to the characters before I seemed to be asked to care about stuff happening to them.
Fair enough.
I'm also easily distracted but when I start watching an episode I end up watching the whole thing in most cases...
Almost makes me want to watch Argevollen.
It wasn't that Tokyo Ravens was terrible by any shot. It's just that it felt like the crap ending invalidated any sort of good the show had done. The way it was blatantly cryptic just rubbed me the wrong way.
I liked Toyosaki Aki as Kon. That girl is a pleasure to listen to. She was ADORABLE as Kofuku in Noragami. She's kinda edging her way up there with Touyama Nao for me... Which is funny since I haven't even watched the show of her break out role. (ie K-on)
Cardfight!! Vanguard Legion Mate-hen : Meanwhile on the moon, a forest ranger from a war torn Eurasian country imprisons a teenager with the help of said teenager's #1 French fan, a South American man whose entire life has been decided by a card game, a doughnut loving Indian girl and a (obviously) Japanese idol, for said teenager's own good.
Their only insurance that he'll remain imprisoned is a card game, of course.
StrikerS was unnatural at times (at least from what I can remember) with character introductions. The first episode spilled a bunch about Subaru's past as if the show was afraid it would run out of time. In contrast, Hibiki never gets an excessively-loaded flashback. She has like, one flashback to events not during any specific episode in all of two seasons, and it focused more on how she felt instead of "VIEWERS MUST LEARN ABOUT THIS ASAP".
can anything about BLOOD DESTINY be better than the first JoJo theme tho
Toyosaki Aki is preeeeeetty much one of my favorite seiyuu but unfortunately she (much like Ogura Yui) seems to mostly get stuck in awful roles or in decent roles in awful shows. Or at best she gets very minor roles in good shows.
Fortunately, K-ON! is the best, and she's also one of the main characters in half of the Jewelpet series (actually, in Jewelpet Kira Deco and Jewelpet Happiness, she plays two main characters each) and Jewelpet is the best kids' anime around, obvs.
I can't believe you just claimed anything performed by people who aren't ALTIMA can be as good as anything by ALTIMA.
I can't believe you're such a dork!
oh wait I totally can
There's, um, a reason for that I think. I've no doubt you already know the spoiler, but it made the reveal very dramatically effective.
I'm sorry I don't prefer shows based solely oh the quality of their opening themes~ (And yes, I really loved Strike the Blood's second op. I also liked the main couple, but literally nothing else about the show was good apart from the bite scenes).