Toradora!

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

The fact that I have seen a least a few dozens memes related to this topic tells me that we are well into that phase of quarantine. Ya know, the one where everyone has tried all of the new stuff that people said they were going to do and has gone back to just re-watching their favorite shows. Yeah, well, I never really tried to much new stuff. In fact, this last season is probably the most amount of new anime I have consumed at one time. I know, I know, fake fan, I get.

But, hey, that’s kind of just who I am, I really like what I am already comfortable with, so for today, I thought I would go over some of the shows I am most excited to Re-watch in the near future. With that being said, lets get started.

“Toradora” is one that I have already started on again and, if I am being completely honest, I am not exactly sure why. At least so far, the show has the same decent qualities I vaguely remember. However, I can’t help but feel I was spurred on by a bit of leftover high school nostalgia and the legacy that the show has with long time anime fans. Like, do not get me wrong, there is plenty there worth watching again, but this is probably the series I want to re-watch the least at of these five if for no other reason than I am not sure how I will end up feeling about it on the other side.

Log Horizon

On the other hand, “Log Horizon” is a series that I have been meaning to re-visit for a long time now, as it is one of my favorite series of all time. The series was one of the first to come out of the early Isekai boom that followed the immense success of “Sword Art Online,” but had significantly more of a focus on worldbuilding and politics that I found to be much more interesting. It is a series that dares to questions fundamentally aspects of living and how those things work inside this video game world, something that a lot of modern Isekai do not even attempt, let alone succeed at. Plus, with the latest season just about to wrap up, and me having watched none of it, there will be a nice little surprise at the end.

The Toaru Series

A lot of this list could just be boiled down to “x series has new material, therefore I would like to re-watch said series for full context” and it would be entirely true. However, the “Toaru” series is also a franchise that is just a lot of fun. Its confusing system of “magic” vs “science” powers combined with the weird jumps from the main character to side stories about other areas of the city makes it so that there is so much going on all at once. Like, its not good, but it does have its moments. Also, hot take, “Railgun” is significantly better than “Index,” just sayin’.

Psycho-Pass

If I were to do an anime studio tier list, which, in all likelihood, I probably will at some point, expect production I.G. to be fairly high up on that list. It will be for a number of reasons, obviously, but one of the big ones will be “Psycho-Pass,” a show that explores the ideas of criminal justice from the perspective of a futuristic society in which people are judged by a system that gives them a number from a gun based on how likely they are to commit crime. This show has a lot of re-watch value because of how intense some of its best moments are and also because with each passing day I am reminded of just how important this show’s message really is.

*stares in George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and literally hundreds of other names have died at the hands of cops who only saw them as a crime*

America is kind of an awful country, huh…well that’s a separate post entirely.

Re:Creators

While there is not as much a focus on world-building, much like “Log Horizon,” “Re:Creators” questions fundamental assumptions about how its own world even works. Rather than hold your hand through some boring plot, it presents the idea that creators, i.e., novelists, video game creators, mangaka and the like are gods, and that their creations have now come to this world for some undisclosed purpose. For some that might not sound like the most original idea, but the series presents it in a way that makes it a matter of literal life and death.

What series are you planning on/are re-watching at the moment? Let me know in the comments below.

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If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

Being as ill-prepared as a I usually am, I kind of totally forgot about Valentine’s Day until literally the day before. Because of that, I did not actually have any kind of holiday related post planned, so think of this as my extremely late and now totally irrelevant Valentine’s day post. Yeah? Cool.

So, I was like really in my feels right-

Sorry, my inner gen Z just came out, anyway,

Man, I was feelin down bad-

Sorry, happened again.

Not being in an active relationship makes Valentine’s Day a little awkward for a lot of people. After all, what are you even celebrating at that point? Personally, I spent the day hanging with a couple of friends and then meeting a few co-workers at their house for some drinks and games. But, I also have the habit of thinking about things that bother me for way to long, and of watching re-watching shows that end up matching my mood. I hope you can see where I am going with this…

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So yeah, I started re-watching “Toradora” and, well…its alright. I also have the tendency to make a lot of conclusions about shows before I get to the end of them. Granted, it is a little different because I am vaguely aware of what happens, but the last time I watched the show was the middle of high school…there are a lot of things I am still missing.

This is more or less going to end up as a “first impressions” type of post, so lets just go good and then bad. For starters, the animation is a lot more fluid in certain scenes than I remember. Slice of life/Romance anime tend to get chewed out the least for sub-par animation because the storytelling often does not require it outside a couple of really important scenes. However, shows like “Kaguya-Sama” are definitely upping the anti in that respect, even if the romance in that series is not the primary component.

Still, for what it is, the series does really well. There are definitely a lot of movement heavy scenes even in the first couple of episodes, and the quality stays fairly consistent throughout.

The show also has a solid, albeit fairly unimpressive soundtrack. While there are not any tracks that stand out in particular, the moments where the soundtrack needs to be present it is there, and sounds fairly good all things considered. The first opening song, “Pre-Parade,” performed by the three main female voice actresses, is also a catchy bit of j-pop that helps to sell the idea that its main characters, Taiga and Ryuuji, are both calm and collected but also both a total mess. At least musically that is what it sounds like.

Actually, hold on let me read the lyrics…ok well its actually more about Taiga, but the general idea still stands.

Since I had originally watched the series before there was a dub, or at least before I knew about it, I decided to give the English version a try and…maybe I should have just re-watched it in Japanese.

Ok, ok, that is a little harsh. After all, Cassandra Lee Morris honestly does an amazing job portraying Taiga as the feisty asshole she is, and also appropriately gives her voice the more high pitched tone you might associate with her stature. As for everyone else, well, they did fine. Since I am not as familiar with dubs as I used to be, its hard to gauge any of the actors performances against their other ones. That is, aside from Johnny Yong Bosch, who sounds pretty average all things considered.

Its hard to say what exactly my feelings are on the show, but it feels safe to make the statement that my overall view of the show, at least for now, has gone down slightly. Whether its the high school mellow-drama or the really odd story choices, I am unsure of. However, if I do decide to finish the series, I will be sure to give a more detailed summation.

How do you all feel about “Toradora?” Let me know in the comments. Also, fellow bloggers Moya and NegativePrimes finished an extensive write up of the series around the middle of last year, one that I plan on reading relatively soon. So, if you’re looking for more in-depth analysis, be sure give that a read as well.