Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
What weapon is the best?
Who will win in this Death Battle?
Is this costume practical?
You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
Tenth episode now, let's go.
"Violet Evergarden feels like Oscar bait"
It kinda is, Kyoto Animation have a history of emotional story telling and Violet Evergarden is no exception, with the added disaster of the KyoAni studios fire it adds some weight to the emotion on screen knowing that some of the people who worked on it are sadly no longer with us.
"Makoto Shinkai Films Are Getting Kinda Old"
Looking at his works, they kinda start feeling the same, absolutely incredible scenery but storytelling is a bit convoluted, his works were already feeling old by 2013 let along ten years later in 2023.
"Character designs peaked with Juvia"
How can you say no to such a sweet girl.
Real talk, Juvia is a better made character than many people think, she's more than just a stalker with a crush, her increasing beauty is a subtle way of showing that she is stepping out of the gloomy melancholy rain and accepting the love and compassion in her new home of Fairy Tail, not to mention she has some pretty intense battles and has shown incredible loyalty, it is a testament to Hiro Mashima's work but to answer the other part, there's still room for great characters to come out, so it's not even close to peaking.
"Slice-of-Life Anime is boring and I don't understand the appeal at all"
Might be because you've never grown up in a country with such strict values and work ethics, it's worth noting that anime has foundations in escapism whether it be in another world or grounded in a simpler reality, Japan just sees more value in watching characters do simpler things whether it be about a Diving Club, a Little Market town or working in a Restaurant in Another World, there's a lot to offer. Remember that the longest running anime in history is about a housewife and her family, you can't get more slice for your life than that.
"Most romantic female characters these days aren't as attractive as the ones back in the 80s and 90s, by virtue of them looking like actual grown women and having the wisdom to match"
This is more aesthetic, the old art styles gives them a more mature look but in most cases the average age of female characters is really no different to today, mid to late teens usually. As for the wisdom part, I wouldn't be looking in the Sailor Moon cast or Tenchi Muyo for a girlfriend and certainly not Gundam, this is also why I always preferred adult female characters even when I was a teen myself. Adult females in the 80s and 90s did at least have the wisdom back then but over the last couple of decades more often than not they act like grown up womanchilden.
I'm here today to give you a challenge, can you criticise your favourite anime?
This test is designed to see if you can accept flaws in your personal top 10 anime.
I'll attempt it with mine and we'll see how I get on.
10. Nisekoi
I often refer to Nisekoi as a better written Love Hina but still like Love Hina, Nisekoi's biggest sin is how crowded the cast gets and how pointless many of the late arrivals get.
9. Jing King of Bandits
There are a couple of stories that took more than one episode, Jing as a concept works better as a situation of the week show. Jing as a character is not suited to long stories, it's a similar problem found in Kino's Journey.
8. Fairy Tail
This one is easy, it gets away with far too much Power of Love and Friendship bullshit.
7. Cowboy Bebop
Within the last couple of years it's showing it's age more and more with less grace, Evangelion suffered the same thing.
6. Ranma 1/2
Is it the length? Nope, just Happosai. This anime would be so much higher if not for Happosai. That and you realise how terrible some of the supporting cast is.
5. Precure
Precure was clearly influenced by many of the Magical Girl shows that came before and during it's 16 years of broadcast to very different returns, Precure at it's worst looks like a pale imitation of a better show, it also has a habit of following it's best seasons with weak seasons. It's current problem is that it's running out of ideas.
4. Lupin the 3rd
Screw it, it's Lupin. That's the logic you need for Lupin the 3rd. It can't be anything else, it's design doesn't support it, so when it tried to do more art house style with practically no gags, it falls flat.
3. Dirty Pair
Dirty Pair has so many iterations that it's hard to keep consistent quality control, there's always going to be one you like and one you hate.
2. Slayers
Has the weakest dub of the top 10 and can easily have stories that do absolutely nothing for the franchise and that's not just the filler talking.
1. Black Lagoon
It's world building is compromised by it's inability to work with it's languages. When needing to use more than one language it can break the story. The Japanese sub draws attention to a character that is bad at English while speaking in Japanese, meanwhile some of Revy's best moments are when actress Megumi Toyoguchi uses English which ultimately gets lost in the dub. I'm also a little bitter about Roberta's ending.
That's my little list, now I challenge you to try and criticise your own top ten. I'm curious to know what you would say about them.
End
