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!
I used to do a segment where I quickly cover topics I don't have time for full posts on, time to bring it back.
It All Started with Ranma 1/2
I've likely mentioned that my first interaction with anime of any kind was Ranma 1/2, despite my age at the time being around 6-9, I fully understood that Ranma was changing into a girl with water, so I was exposed to LGBT content at quite an early age and saw it as normal, so when I was introduced to it properly later on, I really wasn't questioning it.
Chun-Li Was My First Fictional Crush
To this day, I still don't know what attracted me to Chun-Li to begin with, maybe it was her vivid colour palette, her dress or maybe it was because it was the first time I laid eyes on a fighting woman. As an adult, there are more obvious reasons to love the character.
Pokemon TV is Back
The Switch had a fantastic app showcasing seasons of the Pokemon anime but was dropped after a couple of years for unknown reasons, it has recently returned as a Youtube channel and is uploading season 1 sporadically as we speak, so if you want a free legal way to watch old seasons of Pokemon, you can now do so.
I'll be taking a break from this feature due to lack of decent hot takes.
"Demon Slayer is Overrated"
Story yes, animation no.
"Sword Art Online is actually good"
To begin with, it kind of crapped on itself.
"Higurashi: When They Cry is a twisted adult version of Groundhog Day"
Yes, yes it is.
"Lina Inverse is the best written anime character"
No I didn't write this but whoever did deserves all the likes.
"I watch Haikyuu for the Volleyball"
Sure you do.
Real talk, most male dominant sports anime will always put character motivation over the actual sport any day, characters make a sports anime not the sport.
"Serena is the worst of Ash's love interests"
Mostly because shippers are easy to bait with Serena's go no where romance subplot.
"Digimon Anime is better than the Pokemon Anime"
Digimon started off as better, it hasn't been for well over a decade now.
"There's too many anime coming out these days, so much so that none of them are any good"
Yes, but at the same time people are too comfortable with the popular stuff and refuse to take risks on other titles.
Welcome back to the show that looks at some Hot Takes and see where I stand on them.
"Bleach gets too much hate"
This take is a bit dated as Bleach was out of the spotlight for quite some time, in fact the idea that we have anime fans now who haven't seen the first Bleach anime is plausible while old fans don't really care anymore; back in Bleach's prime it was a narrative mess and the hate was mostly justified but it wasn't as overhated as Naruto was.
"I'm getting tired of 12 episode slice of life anime"
I'm probably more sick of the 12 episode seasonal format rather than any genre specifically, there are way too many mediocre anime that out stay their welcome by episode 6 but it's not usually the Slice of Life ones that fail.
"The anime industry overuses fan service"
Funny how most people when they bring this up never mention Free when it's more fan service than quite a high number of tamer shows.
Real talk, fan service shows have been more clever in recent years in how they flaunt the goods, normally using the one gender rule to avoid any pitfalls of being sexist, Keijo and Free popularised that, it's not gone completely and the 00s were particularly bad for fan service, it really isn't as big as it used to be, in fact the audience for it are all Gacha gamers now.
"The longer the title the more likely the anime is going to be bad"
I don't think the length of the title has anything to do with quality, but having titles that literally tell you the plot of the show is off putting, so I can see the grievance in that.
"The anime industry wouldn't be where it is today without 4Kids Entertainment"
Bull shit! 4Kids were fortunate as they were the ones who had licensed Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh for the States but they mishandled both properties and were left bankrupt as a result. The western side owes more to Akira for taking a chance on the States and succeeding followed by ADVFilms and Central Park Media taking a risk on other early anime. If we include Japan, Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Yoshiyuki Tomino and Monkey Punch were the true Elite Four of anime that made modern anime what it is.
Considering I'm taking alot of these takes from today's fans the well will dry up quick so if you got a few Hot Takes of your own, I shall give you my two cents.
"Misty's still the best Pokemon girl"
That's a funny way of spelling Dawn. Dawn is the only female character in Pokemon history to have equal billing with Ash and the only former female companion to actually turn up in person to his Championship match, Misty was memorable but has very limited appeal.
"Gundam Wing is the best Gundam"
Even Heero thinks your statement is a load of bull.
Real talk, there is no definitive best Gundam series as each series brings something to the table that it's contemporaries don't have, looking at the latest series Witch from Mercury has Utena vibes for instance, anyone who does name a best Gundam series is likely to have only seen that Gundam series, another issue the franchise has, is that it's very difficult to like more than one Gundam series because of how wildly different the content can be each series.
"Goku is not a good character"
I've seen this alot, in fact it's the most common hot take next to the argument on fan service and subs vs dubs, don't think we'll be seeing the last of it anytime soon. Goku's status is usually helped by the fact that funimation made him act more heroic but he's still raised in the boonies and taught martial arts by a known pervert and it's pretty obvious when Toriyama has more input as his sense of humour is utterly juvenile, I can see where the argument is coming from, at the same time like the grandmother that voices him in Japan, it's a familiar face that reassures you that the world is okay, not every hero is written to be perfect but can still be a symbol of peace.
"Modern Isekai is the worst anime genre ever created"
It's not, you're just sick of the over saturation of the genre in recent years, the actual worst genre is surreal comedy, if you don't believe me, watch the Super Milk Chan Show and you'll be begging Truck-Kun to send you to another world.
"Sailor Moon has aged like milk, and there's nothing it did well that Nanoha and Precure haven't done significantly better since"
Precure's existence relies on homaging previous ideas from older magical girl shows, even the original referenced the Dirty Pair; Precure even had the director of the Sailor Moon anime direct Hugtto Precure.
Nanoha is just a trashy magical girl show that's trying way too hard.
While the content of the 90s Sailor Moon anime is a little dated, it still has a charm that keeps people invested, most anime fans when asked to name a magical girl show, the same three shows will turn up, Sailor Moon, Madoka Magica and Card Captor Sakura, it has the strongest staying power in all of anime along with Evangelion and the Dragonball franchise.
With Ash becoming Champion last month along with a new game, let's see how previous champions rank.
Blue - Iconic rival but rather unimpressive Champion, he'd almost be considered a villain.
Trace - Doesn't really strike me as the Champion type and he's much nicer as a rival than Blue.
Lance - As Champions have evolved Lance is looking less impressive by the day and he knows it.
Red - His presence as the ultimate Champion gave Gold and Silver it's title as best Pokemon game.
Steven - I find him more charismatic than Lance and gave Steel types some weight.
Wallace - I consider him a strange choice considering there is still a water gym as the last gym making him the easiest to defeat.
Cynthia - Outright iconic Champion and would argue the strongest trainer in Pokemon history.
Alder - The Pokemon equivalent of Jiraiya, but past his best and lost to N quite easily.
Iris - Same as Wallace, but worse as I consider Drayden a bigger challenge.
Diantha - Certainly has a presence but doesn't exactly do much in her game.
Kukui - Alola doesn't have a Champion so I'm using Kukui instead, goofy but has a proven track record for being a tough fight.
Leon - He's grown on me in recent years and feels like the definition of just being a formidable opponent who enjoys what he does.
Mustard - Clearly hasn't lost his edge and is nice to see a former Champion look like an old master.
Peony - I question his credentials as champion mostly because he's too goofy.
Nemona - It's easy to forget that Nemona is indeed a champion but I'm left wondering what her real team is as opposed to the one she trains alongside you.
Geeta - She's less champion and more boss of a corporation, not helping is that she's the easiest champion to defeat as she fails to take advantage of any of her Pokemon's abilities.
Blue - 6.7/10
Trace - 6.3/10
Lance - 6.4/10
Red - 9.8/10
Steven - 8.5/10
Wallace - 7.0/10
Cynthia - 10/10
Alder - 4.7/10
Iris - 5.9/10
Diantha - 6.9/10
Kukui - 8.0/10
Leon - 8.8/10
Mustard - 8.1/10
Peony - 5.5/10
Nemona - 7.5/10
Geeta - 5.0/10
