People keep asking me, and I haven’t really had an answer, but now yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.
I don’t know why isekai ends up with so much slop (no AI relation intended) while the high fantasy genre gets certified bangers like Sousou no Frieren and Dungeon Meshi. I mean, take away the stereotypical protagonist and I don’t see what isekai offers that you can’t get from straight fantasy.
cgdct
There’s no way I’m not preaching to the choir here, but add Bocchi the Rock! and Yuru Camp to your backlog if you haven’t seen them already. :)
I think what makes it memetic is how distinct it is from both the Japanese dub and from other English dubs. He’s a rare kind of audience surrogate, cheering and booing when and where we would do the same, which allows him to break the fourth wall and get all tongue in cheek about the story. For a semi-satirical plot like Kaguya, that’s a great fit.
But yeah, that’s all well and good if you vibe with his eccentric personality. If not, you may as well watch the Japanese dub (for the record, I think both versions are excellent in their own ways).
I’ve done some searches for plot synopses of a manga recently and somehow landed on one of these kinds of blogs, at least I think it is judging by machine translation.
What struck me about the blog I read was how little of the author’s own voice is in it. It wasn’t a review or critique of the manga, it was just a page-for-page transcription. The author had no editorial opinion at all, didn’t even so much as say “good story” or “bad story.” If there was any kind of analysis of the work at all, no matter how shallow, I would be more inclined to defend it.
“Spoiler article” is an interesting moniker, but I wonder how the conversation would go if they were re-framed as “wiki articles.” Even mid-tier Wikia/Fandom wikis have about as much detail on character/plot pages as a “spoiler article” but they go one step further by having Analysis sections, Personality sections, lists of character relationships, etc. These sections rely on an author analyzing the work and writing something transformative or original about it. Can’t say it necessarily would have saved them in court, but who knows.
I think the article is too short to answer this question: the buyer claims to be sharing the data with Have I Been Pwnd, does that not indicate they are not a threat actor? Or at least a grey hat of some kind?
Actually, the article says that Raccoon is the threat actor, but the linked tweet says they are the buyer? Or does the tweet refer to itself in the third person, by claiming to be the buyer, which makes Raccoon the seller?
What’s going on with this article??
The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity
Wonderful show. It’s a little saccharine, a little contrived, and narrowly specific to Japanese respect culture. But it does a wonderful job showcasing how to deal with issues of self-worth, communicating with intent and kindness, and how to constructively handle one’s emotions. It’s crazy that Cloverworks was making this, and My Dress Up Darling, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus, all in the same season, and yet the animation quality is still high quality.
Koe no Katachi
It’s heavily edited down from the source material - whole parts of the plot are cut to make the story fit into a single movie. But it’s a powerful and impactful story about the value of communication and redemption. There’s a lot of overlap with Fragrant Flower, but it touches on darker and heavier themes. The manga is worth picking up if you’re interested in more. Also, it’s made by Kyoto Animation, and it’s one of their best.
Komi Can’t Communicate
This is more a personal choice, but I started reading Komi-san when it was around Chapter 100. There are 500 chapters in total. It’s… far far too much for a story about a girl, guess what, learning to communicate. But the best thing about the anime by a substantial margin is the first episode. This one episode alone is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, and it’s accompanied by a heart-tugging OST. Watch just the first episode, even if you don’t watch anything else.
Bocchi the Rock!
( 6 Д 9 )
I second CITY the Animation. Pokemon Horizons first season was a strong start for an Ash-less reboot of the anime.
I pirated John Wick on a whim because I was a bored broke college student and saw Keanu Reeves in the lead role. The movie was already out of theaters by that point.
I then introduced the movie to my friends, who all loved it. We then went on to see John Wick 2, 3, and 4 in theatres. I think I even saw 2 twice. And then when they rereleased the first movie for the 10 year anniversary, we paid to go see it again too.
Piracy put John Wick on the map for 10 people and sold 40+ movie tickets.
Sony saw Xbox effectively exiting the console industry and said “excellent, now we have a monopoly on the space, we can make all our games console-exclusive.” This is why, loathe as I am to admit it, it was a good thing for a competitive ecosystem for Microsoft to still be in the race. But since they decided to cap themselves…
Cloverworks
Mother of God.
I’ve always felt that the author dropped the ball by writing Sein out too early. For the chapters and episodes where he’s in the party, he’s like the salt that brings out the flavor of the other characters. Any time Sein is having a one on one chat with Frieren, Fern, or Stark, they open up and reveal a lot more about their qualities and character. Sein gets plenty of development of his own in this short time.
But having him for only 4 episodes just seems wasteful. If his departure was written, idk, 10 episodes out, then it would have felt like we actually spent good quality time with him. And his journey would still be but a fleeting intersection with the others’.
It’s true, the tech will get better in the future, we just need to believe and trust the plan.
Same thing with crypto and NFT’s. They were 99% scam by volume, but who wouldn’t love moving their life savings into a digital ecosystem controlled by a handful of rich gambling addicts with no consumer protections? Imagine, you’ll never need to handle dirty paper money ever again, we’ll just put it all in a digital wallet somewhere controlled by someone else coughmastercardcough.
And another thing, we were too harsh on the Metaverse. Sure, spending 8 hours in VR could make you vomit, and the avatars made ET for the Atari look like Uncharted 4, but it was just in its infancy!
I too want to outsource all my critical thinking to a chatbot controlled by an wealthy insular narcissist who throws Nazi salutes. The technology just needs time to mature. Who knows, maybe it can automate the exile of birthright citizens for us too!
/s
Fuck Vitalik Buterin.
I realize my question could be read entirely rhetorical, but I appreciate the actually insightful answer.