Another week of the year is in the books which means we get a new general discussion thread. Feel free to use this thread to talk about what you have been watching lately, questions about a series you didn’t understand, recommendations for what to watch next, or any number of things. A couple examples to get your brain gears turning:
- What anime character this season has the best facial hair and why is it Denken?
- Konami is making their own anime? If you enter the code in the player, do you get the uncensored version?
- I saw that Maomao was on the cover of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare magazine. What do you think the next anime character used by the Japanese government will be? Perhaps Ai Hoshino for the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology?
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Two things I wanted to write about this week. First is that I finally finished up Helck this past week. Overall, it was fine. I definitely think there were some pacing issues and once you got through the first act of the show, it lost a lot of its charm. At a certain point, it felt like I was watching an anime version of a Thomas Hardy novel. If there is a second season made, I may watch it, but I probably won’t be going out of my way for it depending on what else is airing that season.
The second thing I wanted to talk about this week is that I started watching, and just caught up with Brave Bang Bravern. I have been really enjoying it. The show is some kind of mashup between a Saturday morning cartoon show about a super robot that does all the tropes. It transforms, it shouts out the names of its moves, it even has built-in speakers that play its theme song in-universe. On the other hand, it is a gritty depiction of the horrors of war. We see plenty of death happen on screen, bloody bodies and tough decisions being made in a makeshift field hospital, and depictions of torture and the broken mind it leaves behind. The show is wild. Each episode it feels like anything could happen. I highly recommend it to anybody that appreciates just the right amount of insanity in their anime. Also, if you have fond memories of any super robot series, then this will connect with you.
I enjoyed Helck overall, but yeah, first half was all fun and games, while the second half was all dark and serious. With it so segregated content-wise it just felt like it didn’t know what it wanted to be.
I think we could have revealed the backstory evenly throughout, like during the cooking competition, show how he looked after his lil bro.
Piwi was so cute and charming, but through all the backstory he’s literally just sitting there.
With all the backstory gone now, I hope a season 2 could bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.
That’s a good point that a season 2 wouldn’t have to bear the burden of telling the whole backstory, so it can flow a lot better.
This is my big complaint. I felt that this could have been handled a lot better and the backstory doled out in pieces throughout. I think it was even more jarring because its run overlapped with another show that does flashbacks in bits and pieces just where you need them; Frieren. So, the wildly different approach that the two shows took to tell their stories really threw into relief how much the plot progression came to a standstill for a month in Helck. I suspect it won’t be as bad after the fact if you can binge the series, but watching week to week, it was tough for me.
I think Helck left off at a very good spot for a second half. I don’t know if I’d want more than another full season, and I don’t think the manga was all that long to begin with. If like to see it reach its conclusion for sure though and see everyone get a nice ending.
I keep hearing all this talk about Frieren. I looked at some trailers, I’ve read the show summary, but I guess I’m going to have to just watch it, because nothing about it is really selling it as anything special to me.
Nothing in this season has really got me pumped, but I have spent the last few months binge reading all of One Piece, which I hadn’t seen or read before, so it’s going to be tough for anything new to measure up.
Frieren has been an excellent anime and one of my favorites in recent memory; easily my anime of the year last year from its first cour. However, at the same time, I recognize that its story isn’t necessarily for everybody. It is deliberately very slow, contemplative, and melancholy in a way that a lot of other anime aren’t. The production of the adaptation has truly been excellent, taking an already great manga and improving on it with great animation and an incredible soundtrack.
If you want to give it a fair shake, I recommend watching through episode 4. When it premiered, the first four episodes were shown as a single movie, so it does a pretty good job of setting up what to expect from the show. If you aren’t hooked after that, then you can pretty safely drop it and know that it just wasn’t going to be your thing.
I’ll definitely give it a look. Thanks!