Anime Discussion (2021)

[ChrisIII]

Not sure that would happen at Universal Studio's American locations, although I'm guessing at some point they might have to phase out the Marvel Island at least, although that may end up with a Nintendo one.


Disney World has a smallish anime gallery section in the Japan section of Epcot but it's mainly just Domo/Sanrio/Miku/Miyazaki stuff (with a tiny bit of Gundam). Gift shop has tons of anime stuff though.

[AdamFTF]

Not sure that would happen at Universal Studio's American locations, although I'm guessing at some point they might have to phase out the Marvel Island at least, although that may end up with a Nintendo one.


Disney World has a smallish anime gallery section in the Japan section of Epcot but it's mainly just Domo/Sanrio/Miku/Miyazaki stuff (with a tiny bit of Gundam). Gift shop has tons of anime stuff though.

They won't have to get rid of the Marvel stuff as long as that contract that splits the country along the Mississippi remains intact. And besides, at least in Florida, Super Nintendo World is slated to be part of Universal's fourth park (let's see . . . Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay water park . . . yup, it's fourth) Epic Universe. It's supposedly going to be split into three parts: Nintendo, How to Train Your Dragon and Universal Monsters. I do have to say though, they don't seem shy about selling anime merch. I was down at Universal about a week and a half ago. I went into one gift shop and it was full of stuff from Dragon Ball Z (or one of the later Dragon Ball shows), My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer.

It would be a neat idea, though. And anime is getting more and more mainstream. After all, we got Goku in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and everything. But hey, I also want a bandes desinees section with attractions based on Tintin, Asterix, Marsupilami and the Smurfs, which is even less likely. So maybe I'm just a dreamer.

[ChrisIII]

Looks like yet another intersection between American music and anime:

https://www.cbr.com/lady-gaga-crunch...c-ibP9N8fup6do


It's kind of been a thing for a while now, think Kanye is probably the most visible anime fan in music but he's certainly not the only one. Of course MJ's Scream also used stuff from Vampire Hunter D, Akira and some more obscure stuff. Daft Punk, Linkin Park had some collaborations (There's even a Linkin Park Gundam kit!) and one of Dua Lipa's songs is animated in a very Sailor Moon style, and Billie Elish wears anime shirts at a bunch of her concerts.

[AdamFTF]

Okay, so I said there were too many anime I'm interested in this season. So, I thought I'd elaborate. Here's my list for Crunchyroll alone:

Spy x Family
Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3
Love After World Domination
The Girl From the Other Side
A Couple of Cuckoos
Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai
Aoashi
Birdie Wing-Golf Girls' Story
Dance Dance Danseur
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
Don't Hurt Me, My Healer!
Fanfare of Adolescence
Healer Girl
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki
Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost
RPG Real Estate
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it R=1-SIN0
Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie
Cue!
Salaryman's Club
Digimon Ghost Game

That's about 21 shows. And watching anime is not the only thing I'm going to be doing for the Spring, so I'm probably going to have to make cuts as I go. I've already eliminated Salaryman's Club, which I started last season and found myself rarely getting around to watching. Also, Fanfare of Adolescence, which did not impress me with its first episode. Aharen-san, Shikimori, Miss Shachiku and Tsubaki all seem to be keepers so far. I'll probably stick it out with Love After World Domination because I'm a sucker for superhero tokusatsu and spoofs thereof. I know it's anime blasphemy this season, but I'm not sure about Spy x Family. Not because it's bad but because I'm already reading the manga. I already know what's going to happen, so I don't really need to watch it.

Further developments as they arise.

[Gaastra]

. . yup, it's fourth) Epic Universe. It's supposedly going to be split into three parts: Nintendo, How to Train Your Dragon and Universal Monsters. I do have to say though, they don't seem shy about selling anime merch. I was down at Universal

Nintendoland with mario and donkey kong areas and pokemon teased for the future
How to train your dragon
Universal monsters
Another harry potter land
A space themed hub land
Plus the head has teased illuminations area.

[Gaastra]

Nintendoland will look like japans version with a dk land added.

[AdamFTF]

Nintendoland with mario and donkey kong areas and pokemon teased for the future
How to train your dragon
Universal monsters
Another harry potter land
A space themed hub land
Plus the head has teased illuminations area.

Illuminations? Didn't watch the video yet but I'm guessing they mean Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Sing, The Secret Life of Pets, etc). They're really leaning into that Harry Potter license, aren't they?

All this talk about theme parks is actually making me nostalgic for something I did as a kid. This may sound odd, but did anyone else sit down with a sketchpad and design their own imaginary theme parks as a kid? I have half a mind to whip up my own Epic Universe or Islands of Adventure.

[Gray Lensman]

Okay, so I said there were too many anime I'm interested in this season. So, I thought I'd elaborate. Here's my list for Crunchyroll alone:

Spy x Family
Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3
Love After World Domination
The Girl From the Other Side
A Couple of Cuckoos
Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai
Aoashi
Birdie Wing-Golf Girls' Story
Dance Dance Danseur
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
Don't Hurt Me, My Healer!
Fanfare of Adolescence
Healer Girl
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki
Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost
RPG Real Estate
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it R=1-SIN0
Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie
Cue!
Salaryman's Club
Digimon Ghost Game

That's about 21 shows. And watching anime is not the only thing I'm going to be doing for the Spring, so I'm probably going to have to make cuts as I go. I've already eliminated Salaryman's Club, which I started last season and found myself rarely getting around to watching. Also, Fanfare of Adolescence, which did not impress me with its first episode. Aharen-san, Shikimori, Miss Shachiku and Tsubaki all seem to be keepers so far. I'll probably stick it out with Love After World Domination because I'm a sucker for superhero tokusatsu and spoofs thereof. I know it's anime blasphemy this season, but I'm not sure about Spy x Family. Not because it's bad but because I'm already reading the manga. I already know what's going to happen, so I don't really need to watch it.

Further developments as they arise.

And your list doesn't even have Kaguya-sama: Love is War! Ultra Romantic on it. Talk about painful cuts...

[AdamFTF]

And your list doesn't even have Kaguya-sama: Love is War! Ultra Romantic on it. Talk about painful cuts...

That's another one I was reading the manga of (well, little by little over a long period. I think I only got to volume five). Or at least I was until they jacked up ComiXology (Aargh! I was reading a whole bunch of manga on there! And some were ComiXology exclusive in the U.S. But I really don't want to use that platform anymore).

I'd maybe watch all of them if anime was the only hobby I have. But I also read regular books and manga and comics. I also like tokusatsu and have about four seasons of Ultraman I need to get around to (80, Tiga, Dyna, Gaia) not counting the ones Tsuburaya just straight up put on their YouTube channel. Plus I like plastic models and growing stuff in my garden, and recreational cycling and games of various sorts. But then there's also regular life stuff. So, something's got to give.

[Gaastra]

Illuminations? Didn't watch the video yet but I'm guessing they mean Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Sing, The Secret Life of Pets, etc)

Yes that's the one.

[AdamFTF]

Watched a couple more shows, thought I'd give my thoughts on them.

Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness: This one's a bit interesting. It's about an immature 30-something failed musician who returns home to his family's Japanese confectionary shop to find that his parents have taken in a 10-year old girl who was left with them. The guy's a bit of a screw-up and the girl's got kind of a tough exterior and doesn't like relying on others because of her past experiences. The foreshadowed promise of the show is that the girl will end up looking to the prodigal son as a parent somewhere down the line. I'm really a sucker for family stuff, especially relating to parents and children. So this one looks like a keeper.

Birdie Wing-Golf Girls' Story: This one is kind of crazy from the jump. It opens with a lower class golfing prodigy girl posing as a famous women's golfer to cover up the fact that she has an injury, complete with Mission: Impossible style face mask. It seems to be leaning into the class conflict thing, but there's some kind of anime weirdness flowing under the whole thing. What I find interesting is that for some reason they didn't make the lead Japanese. I think she's supposed to be American but I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm going to watch it a while longer, but it may fall away later.

Dance Dance Danseur: Now this is an interesting one from a personal standpoint. I actually have a soft spot for the ballet even if I'm not a full-fledged balletomane. And one of the first anime I ever watched after first digging into the medium, Princess Tutu, was a love letter to the ballet. But Princess Tutu was an expression of love to the content of the ballet, specifically the stories told and the emotions expressed. Dance Dance Danseur on the other hand is more devoted to the craft, art and hard work put into becoming a danseur. The plot is kind of expected. A young boy who loves ballet gets drawn into learning the art despite worrying about how it may affect his masculine image among his peers and the other commitments he's made. Still, they might do something interesting with it.

I might be back with more as I go further through the list.

[Jackalope89]

Didn't realize SpyxFamily got an anime. Been reading the manga for a good while, and the latest drop, man.

Outside of that, most series I've been following are fantasy based. One even surprisingly Lord of the Rings-esque in how it approaches Fantasy and High Fantasy. Technically isekai, but the MC only has vague memories of his previous life. But his main life, began by being raised by a mummy of a mother, a giant warrior skeleton as a father, and a ghost as a grandfather. Things happen, but the current arc in it, gives more respect to The Hobbit setting than The Hobbit trilogy did. And yes, the inspiration is that clear, but still different enough.

[ChrisIII]

Been going through the first three City Hunter movies from the late 80s/early 90s after finishing the second season.

It's kind of interesting the show has a big following in France, although apparently they had to edit a lot of the humor out and changed the character names and music (as it was shown on a Kid's variety show which also had a ton of other anime), such as this concert clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv1MuRfo7cI

[Somecrazyaussie]

Been going through the first three City Hunter movies from the late 80s/early 90s after finishing the second season.

It's kind of interesting the show has a big following in France, although apparently they had to edit a lot of the humor out and changed the character names and music (as it was shown on a Kid's variety show which also had a ton of other anime), such as this concert clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv1MuRfo7cI

It's funny which shows catch on with different markets. Despite the success of The Fast & The Furious films, Initial D just didn't catch on in America and Wangan Midnight never went there at all.

In the case of City Hunter, ADV should have brought that to the states in the mid 90s rather than the early 2000s (a dub would have helped too). I've been grabbing the blu ray sets from Diskotek and it's been nice to revisit it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Okay, so I said there were too many anime I'm interested in this season. So, I thought I'd elaborate. Here's my list for Crunchyroll alone:

Spy x Family
Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3
Love After World Domination
The Girl From the Other Side
A Couple of Cuckoos
Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai
Aoashi
Birdie Wing-Golf Girls' Story
Dance Dance Danseur
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
Don't Hurt Me, My Healer!
Fanfare of Adolescence
Healer Girl
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki
Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost
RPG Real Estate
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it R=1-SIN0
Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie
Cue!
Salaryman's Club
Digimon Ghost Game

That's about 21 shows. And watching anime is not the only thing I'm going to be doing for the Spring, so I'm probably going to have to make cuts as I go. I've already eliminated Salaryman's Club, which I started last season and found myself rarely getting around to watching. Also, Fanfare of Adolescence, which did not impress me with its first episode. Aharen-san, Shikimori, Miss Shachiku and Tsubaki all seem to be keepers so far. I'll probably stick it out with Love After World Domination because I'm a sucker for superhero tokusatsu and spoofs thereof. I know it's anime blasphemy this season, but I'm not sure about Spy x Family. Not because it's bad but because I'm already reading the manga. I already know what's going to happen, so I don't really need to watch it.

Further developments as they arise.

Well, let's see, these shows I started last night....

Spy X Family: An interesting premise with a Bond level superspy (minus the charisma) nursemaiding a cute preschool telepath
Birdie Wing-Golf Girls' Story: I'm always up for a sports anime with dynamically talented girls in it, and this show certainly qualifies
Healer Girl: This show caught my interest most with teen girls using songs they sing as a form of alternative medicine
Science Fell In Love, So I Tried To Prove It, season 2: I've been waiting for this sequel, and it's just as funny as ever
Shikimori's Not Just A Cutie: If it wasn't for the stars of My Dress-Up Darling and Akebi's Sailor Uniform, Shikimori would be my Best Girl for 2022

I'm already watching Cue! and I like it. I gave Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai a try, but it didn't appeal to me. I'll see about the other shows when I have the chance.