Ichigo: What even *are* you?!
Kenpachi: Some say my mother was a train. Some say that I'm a rejected Godzilla monster too strong for the series canon. But everyone says: I'M THE KEEEEENPACHIIIIII!!!!
I mean, he only survives that because the omnipotent God that he was fighting constantly revived him and was trying to psychologically break him down, which it managed to do so at one point (by creating a world where his friends and allies lived happily, their problems rendered moot thanks to someone else having his power and successfully preventing all of the tragedies that occur in the series. That actually drove him to suicide until Composite Misaka stopped him). And Touma's hardly a stock character (at least in the LN)IMO since he doesn't care about Good or Evil, and isn't trying to be a hero. He saves people because that's what he wants to do, not because he's altruistic. He's actually a somewhat less broken Shirou Emiya.
But to each their own.
Last edited by Len Ikari145; 05-31-2020 at 04:16 PM.
Ichigo: What even *are* you?!
Kenpachi: Some say my mother was a train. Some say that I'm a rejected Godzilla monster too strong for the series canon. But everyone says: I'M THE KEEEEENPACHIIIIII!!!!
Ok, look I... odd stream of consciousness rant incoming. I mean nothing malicious with it, just want to make myself clear.
I am just now getting into the Certain series because I friend convinced me to try out the animes. I checked out recommended viewing orders because I know they intersect and whatnot, and decided to go with one that has me watching Railgun seasons 1 and 2 first. First season is a lot of fun and the main cast is super-endearing. Can not say the same for Touma's cameo appearances, they just seem to be there to I don't know humble Misaka in ways that other parts of the season does much better (also why doesn't she just electrocute him from through his feet whenever they fight and why does she only ever drop her coin for her Railgun move so he can jump in, it just seems so manufactured to make him look at least partly at her expense). Now, I am aware that Index came first and that these meetings happen there with him as the protagonist and POV character and the outcomes can't be changed. Fine, he's not in the season a lot anyway, and I just love the main quartet of girls so much. They're just great and my favourite aspect of the show is the contrast between the girl's humble everyday interactions and the crazy super-power nonsense going on all around them.
The Sisters arc in Railgun season 2 basically benches that aspect of the series and Touma comes in and saves the day after Misaka failed to accomplish anything despite her soul draining hard work. Again, I am aware that the Index version of the story came first (looked it up afterwards and had a feeling during) and that the outcome was already set in stone. I get that and I did really enjoy Misaka's fight with the ITEM crew and the hardships she had to go through during the arc. But it's pushed aside the aspect of the story that I enjoyed the most and replaced it with Touma, who I already don't care for (though his interactions with 10032 were really cute). I would've been much more interested in the melodrama of Shirai, Uiharu and Ruiko finding out about the Sisters project and trying to help Misaka not kill herself, it also would've been really cool to see them all in contrast with the ITEM team Misaka fought. But I didn't get that and I understand why the story plays out the way it does. But that doesn't change my reaction or opinion and it has not improved my view on Touma.
And maybe that's unfair. Maybe I should try to hold it in until I see Index, maybe the next arc of Railgun will bring back more of the elements that I actually enjoyed. And I am certain that Touma goes through tons of character development and hardships that makes him endearing, it's a very long running series in its original medium and there's a reason it has lasted as long as it has. But as it currently stand I think that Touma is boring and stock and I think that his power is stupid because it seems (to me so far) that the only reason it works is because his opponents start fighting like idiots. So that's where I stand on him right now.
I will also add that I might not ever like him even if I go through the whole franchise. That just happens, some times we just don't like the heroic character. I mean, have you seen how often Guy puts Rey into this thread even though she basically only does good things in her movies. He has his reason for not liking Rey that I am not that interested in discussing if I'm being honest. And that's ok.
Again, sometimes we just don't like the heroic character. Somebody might wish to see Meliodas stomped into a puddle because they think his relationship with Elizabeth is skeezy and uninteresting no matter how the story moves it forward, or they want to see Harry Potter beat up because he acted too much like an emotionally unbalanced teenager in The Order of the Phoenix, or they're big Zutara fans and they want Aang to be smacked around.
You mentioned Shirou Emiya. I don't like Shirou Emiya. I think he's the least interesting character in that entire series. Fate: Zero was my introduction to the franchise and I really want to see a satisfying conclusion to Saber, Rin, Sakura and Ilya's storylines at the same time as they confront the forces that screwed over their lives. But I will never get that, instead there are three versions where the random kid Kirei saved from the very end of the series becomes the hero while the girls take turns falling in love with him while the others don't get that much resolution, unless you're Ilya and then you're just screwed over all the time and that's the most galling aspect of Fate: stay/night. So yeah, I don't care for Shirou Emiya either, probably for similar "unfair" reason as I have for not liking Touma.
Sometimes we just don't care for the heroic character and we put them into this stomp thread. Simple as that. Weird rant over, I need to sleep
Last edited by Dark Soul # 7; 05-31-2020 at 05:29 PM.
Imperfect Cell VS Rey and Kylo.
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THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ Know them. Follow them. Love them.
Ichigo: What even *are* you?!
Kenpachi: Some say my mother was a train. Some say that I'm a rejected Godzilla monster too strong for the series canon. But everyone says: I'M THE KEEEEENPACHIIIIII!!!!
And because I've been re-watching Stand Alone Complex and Armitage III:Poly-Matrix recently: Naomi Armitage and Motoko Kusanagi vs The Batman Who Laughs and Crazy Steve.
Ichigo: What even *are* you?!
Kenpachi: Some say my mother was a train. Some say that I'm a rejected Godzilla monster too strong for the series canon. But everyone says: I'M THE KEEEEENPACHIIIIII!!!!
Yeah, you kinda fucked up there. Season 1 of Index must always be watched before Season 2 of Railgun*. Honestly, I'd say you should have started with Index because it came out first anyway. "Proper" chronological order is overrated sometimes.
*Also because you went for the Railgun anime which kind of ups the whole friendship thing between the quartet (by, like a lot. A whole lot) compared to the source material (the Railgun manga). Like, it's cool if you like it, the director of Railgun definately does. But it's also kind of not going to be a thing at times.
Also, hey.
Hazard's Playhouse - Episodic anime reviews and other things. Current Post: Houshin Engi: What was Skipped
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The order I went with was less out of a desire to see things in chronological order and more because the emotional impact from the Sisters arc is supposed to be greater if you see things from Misaka's POV without knowing anything ahead of time.
Apparently a true chronological order looks something like this.
A Certain Scientific Railgun 1-14
Railgun OVA
A Certain Magical Index 1-6
A Certain Scientific Railgun 15-16
A Certain Magical Index 7-9
A Certain Scientific Railgun 17-24
A Certain Scientific Railgun S 1-10
A Certain Magical Index 10
A Certain Scientific Railgun S 11-16
A Certain Magical index 11-14
A Certain Scientific Railgun S 17-20
A Certain Magical Index 15-17
A Certain Scientific Railgun S 21-24
A Certain Magical Index 18
A Certain Magical Index II 1
A Certain Magical Index 19-24
A Certain Magical Index 2-7
A Certain Magical Index the Movie: The Miracle of Endymion
A Certain Magical Index II 8-24
A Certain Scientific Railgun T*** This is a tentative placeholder until it finishes airing. This series takes place at the same time as roughly episodes 8-13 of Index II, but I’ll wait until it finishes to fully update this.
All of A Certain Magical Index III
And it sounds then like I'll be sticking to the Railgun anime. I might just the happiest with that. By which I mean instead of the manga version. I'm still gonna see Index.
Also, s'up dude. How ya been?
Are... are you here of your own volition or is my rant actually a weird summoning spell of some sort?
Last edited by Dark Soul # 7; 06-01-2020 at 12:49 AM.
Renji and Rukia from the final arc vs. Yammy Llargo
Let's see how mister zero can handle these powered up versions!
I'd throw in Chad as well, but he does pretty much nothing in the final arc.
Coolers.
And yeah, I usually go for the assholes. But even I just want to punch the protag in the face every now and again.
Last edited by Dark Soul # 7; 06-01-2020 at 02:19 AM.
HTF Splendid vs MaloMyotismon
whatever Scientists tells us what they believes are the only things that exists in Reality(our world), they treats what US government and mainstream news media said about things like 9/11, CO2 Emissions, and so on as their gospel
https://lnk.bio/Masonicon
calling Real Life Martial Artists that can break walls "Comic Book Peak Human" is like calling Pre-new52!Cassandra Cain "Shounen Manga character"
Abridged Recoome VS Moon Knight.
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THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ Know them. Follow them. Love them.
Super Tomura Shigaraki VS The Boys.
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Rumbles Moderator
THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ Know them. Follow them. Love them.
I can certainly understand not liking characters that are basically decent people. Any time that I try to read To Love Ru, I can only last a few chapters before I am unable to keep up because it feels like the mangaka took Urusei Yatsura and removed 90+% of the personality from the cast. Plus the sexualizing of Yami is weird to me because even though she's allegedly in her mid/late twenties (don't remember which), she is also just blatantly an attempt to make the definitely underaged Eve from the mangaka's prior work (Black Cat) technically legal.
That said, with Shiro I like how he's fairly snarky in a generally pleasant way, and that his heroic willpower and strong moral compass are depicted as being both admirable and also an extremely self-destructive mental disorder that is going to almost inevitably lead to his ideals shattering him and his loved ones mourning him unless he develops the ability to actually want something for himself and throw away his ideals. Especially how it addresses the sheer hypocrisy about how both he and Saber are equally horrified by how the other sees/treats themselves, despite the extremely strong parallels between the two.
With Touma, while I do like his self-destructively noble side as well, I agree that there's a lot of PIS involved in how his powerful, but relatively limited (and inconsistently portrayed) ability protects him from people that should be able to swat his entire postal code in manners that should still severely injure/kill him even after he removes any active supernatural effects, even after they explained that he basically has some degree of combat precog to let him dodge/intercept attacks by instinctively detecting fluctuations in the AIM field as that really wouldn't help him deal with someone chucking a building at him at mach twenty. Also, the way everyone seems to adore him is kinda annoying (though I did get a chuckle about a nun telling a bunch of other nuns that they needed to keep fighting to honor the sacrifice a certain young man made for them all without ever mentioning Jesus). OTOH, I really enjoy how much of an absolute spaz he is, prone to panicked flailing at the smallest matter and also being a bit of a weirdo in general.
I do wish that Index had more development in the story, though maybe they explored using her more in the last few years since I stopped really following the light novels...
Cameron from Pokemon and Meiko Mochizuki vs Happy Tree Friends(minus characters like Flippy, Splendid, and Buddhist Monkey)
Clash of anti-sues
whatever Scientists tells us what they believes are the only things that exists in Reality(our world), they treats what US government and mainstream news media said about things like 9/11, CO2 Emissions, and so on as their gospel
https://lnk.bio/Masonicon
calling Real Life Martial Artists that can break walls "Comic Book Peak Human" is like calling Pre-new52!Cassandra Cain "Shounen Manga character"