It’s ok to be a coward | Frieren Beyond Journey’s End episode 5 & 6 analysis
Frieren Beyond Journey’s End episode 5 & 6 analysis Stark in 8-mile We’ve all been here before , the nerves before an important event ,palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There’s vomit on his sweater already I’m just playing but we’ve all felt the nerves when doubts start to creep in and adrenaline […]
Frieren episode 10 analysis | 48 laws of power – law 3 – conceal your intentions
Frieren episode 10 analysis Mana Suppression By far this is my favourite scene in the anime. Let’s take a deeper look and see how we got here. One of the first interactions between Frieren and her master Flamme is one where Freiren expresses the knowledge of flamme’s immense power. This surprises the powerful mage as […]
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Frieren Beyond Journey’s End episode 5 & 6 analysis
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Stark in 8-mile
We’ve all been here before , the nerves before an important event ,palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There’s vomit on his sweater already
I’m just playing but we’ve all felt the nerves when doubts start to creep in and adrenaline fires. The way I used to conquer this as a kid is that I used to tell myself that I was shaking because I cared and wanted to do my best. That motivated me to push through despite the challenge.
Stark is relatable in Frieren Beyond Journey’s End episode 5 & 6 analysis
We can all see a bit of ourselves in Stark. He is unbelievably powerful but he shakes and trembles at the prospect of engaging a powerful foe in battle. Stark has been living in the village for 3 years following his confrontation with a solar dragon that has set up a nest just outside the city. The dragon elected not to attack Stark and instead left the village alone. Stark viewed this as merely luck as he was terrified to face the dragon. Unbeknownst to him, the dragon was equally terrified at the prospect of crossing scales with such a foe.
In Frieren Beyond Journey’s End episode 5 & 6 analysis he underestimates his own strength but it turns out that the dragons of this universe are incredibly perceptive and choose not to engage in fights that pose a significant risk to their health. The dragon was just as scared of him as he was of it. When forced by Frieren’s party to engage the dragon as a distraction he ends up accidentally killing the beast with relative ease. This was an outcome that only Frieren and Stark’s master Aisen could see.
Aisen and Stark parted ways in anger as Aizen had struck Stark with full force leaving the boy with a large facial scar. Later in episode 6 it is revealed that Aizen hurt Stark out of fear not anger. He was overwhelmed with the lad’s power and hit him in self defense. This one statement recontextualizes the entire character of Stark.
Recontextualize your own life
There is a lot we can take away from this arc to recontextualise our own life. We are all unknowably powerful and sometimes when an enemy or friend acts aggressively towards us it is out of fear for our capability. So next time someone strikes you or aggresses you and it seems unprovoked; know that this comes from a deep place of fear. Fear for what you could do if you chose to do it. Also when it comes to being afraid and cowardly in the face of a tremendous hurdle like the dragon;
Ill leave you with a quote from Aisen himself ; he said :” Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It is the ability to act in spite of fear”. Remember this quote next time you are on a stage in front of people , when you are approaching a girl to ask her out, when you have to give a presentation at work or school and even when it’s your turn at the karaoke machine; Remember that even the greatest warriors shook and trembled before battle and your nerves just show that this matters to you. You are stronger than you will ever know. Go out there and do your best; be courageous on the front line in the face of your own cowardice like Aizen and Stark.
By far this is my favourite scene in the anime. Let’s take a deeper look and see how we got here.
One of the first interactions between Frieren and her master Flamme is one where Freiren expresses the knowledge of flamme’s immense power. This surprises the powerful mage as she has always made an intense and consistent effort to hide her mana levels.
We later discover that she does this specifically to kill demons, you see demons are a proud bunch and due to the simplicity of their civilization, power and power alone denotes status. So for the demons, one’s mana is as essential as one’s birth into nobility or peasantry. Flamme makes a mockery of this through her mana suppressions, the demons are often fooled into attacking what they perceive as a lesser enemy and killed easily.
Robert Greene’s 3rd law of power
This concept reminds me of the 3rd law of power amongst the 48 written by Robert Green. Conceal your intentions. In the chapter, green writes about Otto von Bismarck and how he unified Germany as the head of Prussia through hiding his intentions and suppressing himself in a way very similar to the mage Flamme. Just like Flamme he made a mockery of traditional politics in Prussia , in the mid 1800s the then king of Prussia was against going to war with austria and unifying germany.
Bismark was a deputy in the prussian parliament and a proud soldier certainly on the side of war but when the time came to vote. He acted vehemently against any war effort. He was promoted by the king for his anti-war position, he used the new position to strengthen the prussian army and consolidate his political power. Eventually he became the premier of Prussia and when it was time; he led the country into war. He crushed Austria and unified germany just as he planned.�
Flamme uses the 3rd law of power
Flamme used this exact approach with her concealment to kill even the most powerful demons, she passed this strategy on to Frieren who in turn passed this onto Fern. Just as Bismarks deception culminates in the unification of germany;
In episode 10 Falmme’s strategy leads to the rather unfair defeat of Aura the Guillotine sage of destruction. A great demon who has practiced her magic for more than 500 years , Aura represents exactly the type of demon that Flamme’s strategy best counters. In the guillotine arc Aura and Frieren are locked in battle with Aura sending hundreds of puppet soldiers to engage Frieren. Aura could have overpowered Frieren with the share number of her undead soldiers but because of her pride and confidence in her mana.
Frieren episode 10 analysis – Auserlese
She invoked her signature magic Auserlese. It weighs the soul of the target against Aura’s soul , the one with the greater mana gains total control over the other. Its a high risk, high reward spell and the type that only an arrogant demon would use. Aura believed that once she had gotten Frieren to use up lots of mana against the puppets she would become vulnerable to Auserlese. Aura the Guillotine was defeated through pure deceptions as the weight of Freirens immense hidden mana swung the scale in her direction. Giving Frieren total control over Aura’s body. We all know what happens next.
Frieren’s use of the 3rd rule of power is what bested Aura in this battle. The deception was far more powerful than any magic that could have been invoked. Consider the value and utility of concealing your intentions as you go about restricting and defeating your enemies.
Moist critical got me interested in Batman Arkham Knight after many remarks were made about it following the release of it’s successor from Rocksteady studios. The ill fated Suicide squad kill the justice league has received alot of negative press but one positive thing it has done is act as a foil for arkham knight released a decade prior and actually generate interest for the older game. And as a result here I am, taking a break from my super busy anime viewing schedule to check out this game based on a cartoon from my childhood. Hey everybody, welcome to aniprop, let’s get into it.
So for anyone familiar with prince of persia, assassins creed or the middle earth lord of the rings games. The combat system is easily grasped. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel in this regard. It takes directly from those very familiar systems. Where however a new dimension is added is with all the bat gadgets. Like the batarang, the bat claw and the batmobile remote which allows for some wild strategies in a fight. The stealth is also very similar to the assassin’s creed system which is evolved from the splinter cell games for my older viewers. So the average gamer will feel quite at home picking up batman arkham knight
Batman Arkham Knight Movement
The movement is particularly unique as the game takes advantage of grappling and gliding as well as the ability to summon the batmobile to any street. It really gives the traversal of Gotham an extremely unique feel. One negative i will say about this is that if you are a gamer who plays driving games you will find it difficult to adapt to the batmobile. I’m used to right and left triggers on a gamepad being gas and brakes respectively but here they mapped the brake and reverse to the X button and the left trigger instead turns the batmobile into a tank. That’s cool and all but regularly i’m trying to slow down to navigate a corner and suddenly i turn into megatron. I did later find out that there is a toggle you could set to change this button config but this should have been the default in my opinion. I have no clue why this isn’t the default setting. crazy
The quests are really engaging because they don’t really feel like quests. Gotham is in crysis and it only seems to get worse and more unwieldy. Every mission feels like a step towards quelling the crisis. I really felt like a cartoon protagonist fighting against the odds trying to counter all the bold moves of Gotham’s gallery of famous villains like the riddler,scarecrow and Penguin. Why am I just now realizing; after all these years that the riddlers’ government name is Nigma. That one is eyebrow raising. And they call his name frequently throughout the runtime of the game.
Batman Arkham Knight Leveling System
The batman has a leveling system with a skill tree very similar to the lord of the rings games. I don’t think this skill tree has as dynamic an impact on game play as in the other games I compared it with. But still I like that the skill tree is based on Wayne technology. At times it almost feels like the IP of Batman was purpose built for this game. That’s how you know it is well executed
Just as with assassin’s creed and the shadow of mordor, this game fulfills a power fantasy and can look incredible and feel rewarding if it is played well. Its skill based and very punishing but not to the degree that would cause anybody to quit. I got really into the character patrolling the skies of Gotham. Arkham knight is the 3rd game in a trilogy and I did not play the previous two games. This however has not been an impediment to my immersion into Arkham knight’s experience.
The Riddler in Batman Arkham Knight
Where this game really departs from the ones i constantly compare it to however is the puzzling aspects. This game is puzzle heavy as the Riddler has a major plot line in this game. The riddler quests require you to exercise your brain in a way I never had to when playing the other games mentioned. This is good because it acts as a change of pace. The game play slows down and you can really enjoy some of the more obscure mechanics of the videogame. We also get to learn more about the physics engine and how some of the controls apply outside of combat. It’s a solid and interesting departure from the confirmed gameplay loop.
Even though i’m playing this game about a decade after release i think it looks pretty great. My laptop has a Nvidia 4050 and I was able to turn all the graphics options to maximum without enduring any slowdown in frame rates. The rain and smoke effects are particularly impressive to me. The combat is a bit cartoony, especially the way batman auto locks on to enemies far away and just leaps over there to continue a combo. The complaints about the visuals however are exceedingly limited as Gotham looks amazing from the sky above gliding with water droplets running off the batsuit. This is a beautiful game even by today’s standards
My favorite batman animation was actually batman beyond and i would be seriously over the moon if i got an arkham knight game in batman beyond’s timeline. But with the direction rocksteady has gone in, that is very unlikely. Leave me some more game recommendations in the comments please. I want to see what else i can do with this Nvidia RTX 4050.
Solo leveling has probably been the most hyped piece of media to exit Asia in the last 5 years or so. This time it enters the west bearing the Korean flag seeking to solidify the legacy of manhua adaptations. Solo leveling is very pure in its execution. It doesn’t do anything particularly new but instead cuts away all the fat of a power fantasy story and gives us a hero’s journey that’s extremely finely tuned. This kind of power fantasy is exactly why young boys flock to anime.�
Jin woo starts out life as a feeble powerless adventurer with the lowest class possible. He makes no money from his raids because he is unable to kill any of even the lowest ranked monsters. The story of Jin Woo goes deeper however because his mother is sick and he has a younger sister whom he has to provide for. For Jin Woo success inside the gates are life and death, literally and literally.
Solo Leveling – Leveling Up
This is where the main appeal comes, because Jin Woo is overpowered by even the weakest monster, his life is constantly in danger therefore his perception of Danger and risk of death is materially heightened. The best way to look at it is that he is so weak that a D-Rank monster poses the same risk of death to him as a S-Rank monster. What that equates to is that his performance against an S-rank would be better than maybe even a B-rank adventurer as this situation of being overpowered is so familiar for him.. We see this when Jin Woo’s party enters the Cartenon Temple. Most of his team is paralyzed by fear but not Jin Woo as he permanently lives in near death circumstances for every single gate he enters.�
The anime methodically and carefully shows us Jin Woo’s circumstances and i love it because when he gets granted immense power we feel vindicated as an audience. We can see that he deserves it and we are rooting for him. He is a self insert but with so much of his own character. After surviving the Cartenon Temple Jinwoo is selected as the player and is able to level up; solo. He applies his hard working nature to this new venture. His life turns around quickly, he can now kill some monsters which affords him gear and food for himself and his sister. He can then take on better gates that make even more money. His physique changes as he gains muscle, he looks taller due to posture correction. He even gets smarter from leveling.
My favourite part about Jinwoo and by extension this anime is his measured approach to getting stronger. He tries for quests just above his skill level where he still faces the risk of death but the reward is enough to justify it. The reason this appeals so much to me and other boys and men is because this is reality. When we go to the gym the approach is exactly the same, add more weight, risk injury but grow. Squat harder , bench press heavier. Serious and severe risks in the pursuit of self improvement. Just 10 extra pounds for a higher 1 rep max. Jinwoo applies jimbro science to fantasy leveling.
Solo Leveling Job Change Quest
Nowhere in the anime is this more exemplified than in the Job Change quest and Jinwoos battle against Blood-red commander Igris alongside the horde of Knight class warriors and spellcasters. Jinwoo won this challenge through a combination of luck, effort and ambition. He was under leveled for the battle but grew during the fight by achieving several level ups. Also he got a break from the dungeon because of a penalty quest. This allowed him to reset his combat state, assess a new approach for handling the dungeon, assign level up points and check his inventory. This part is the luck i was talking about
JinWoo Ascends
At the end of that quest he went from almost dying to becoming a shadow monarch with an army at his command and S-Class combat capabilities. Again this appeals to the men; young and old immensely because this shows how quickly your situation can change. Jinwoo went from having nothing to everything in a few short months but his mentality was always that of a winner. Even when he was almost dying in class E dungeons. his approach never changed and that served him well.
So with the right mindset whether you are struggling in school, business or at the gym; things will eventually turn around if you keep pushing. In a world where male leaders are persecuted or feminized; men don’t have much to look to for guidance and inspiration but anime has never disappointed me in this arena. Solo Leveling and Jin Woo is one of the best examples of that ideology and this is why we love anime. �
My favourite reality TV show is MTVs the challenge. I realized during season 3 of classroom of the elite that a large part of why i love the anime is the similarities it has with the challenge. It’s a running competition and it sets up challenges in each arc. Sometimes as groups and sometimes as individuals. Season 3 for the classroom of the elite was particularly exciting from the very first episode. Because it sets up Jeopardy in a way that no other anime can using a cast the size of a senior soccer league.
Ayanakoji is maybe my favourite psychopath ever depicted in anime; well maybe he’s a close second to light Yagami if only for the lack of scale in his ambitions. He is literally just trying to have some peace in life. The central theme or plot line for season 3 of the classroom of the elite is the battle between Ayanakoji and Sakayanaga of class 1-A. The intrigue is high for the contest because Sakayanaga is one of the few characters that is aware of Ayanakoji’s past and pertinently his involvement with the white room.
Her father passed onto her an ideal that the experimental whiteroom is inferior to the superior genetics of the noble families. Her class battle then with Ayanakoji extends beyond just a mere contest of wit but a battle of ideals. Each class is like a sports team with almost every player being fleshed out to some degree. Their strengths, their weaknesses and their motivations for the most part are on full display.
With this extended context and somewhat developed characters, Classroom of the elite scratches the exact same itch as a sports anime and gives me the exact same enjoyment as watching an episode of the challenge. Or even a football match. The class finals felt like watching a champion’s league match and I really like that.
Over the years many anime have fallen victim to the, only having one season curse. Traditionally this is done as a tactic to drive new fans to go and purchase the manga. anime is ridiculously expensive to create, you see. Every anime episode that you watch costs approximately 350,000 US Dollars to produce so for these one season anime, often time it’s just a very expensive trailer for the ongoing manga. Blood Lad, released in 2013 is probably one of the best of those trailers.
About Blood Lad season 1
Blood lad is an anime released in 2013 adapted by Brain’s Base from the Manga of the same name. The story follows Staz, a vampire territory boss in the Demon world who discovers a human girl in his territory. She is killed while in his custody. She becomes a ghost but Staz pledges to resurrect her and the 2 go on an adventure around the demon and human world to accomplish this.
Another important thing to note is that this is a seinen which traditionally appeals to an older audience. This is difficult to tell at first because this anime starts out like any Shounen with a powerful protagonist having a seemingly selfless goal and ever increasing power level. Where Blood Lad seperates is the characterization of it’s main cast. These characters are very imperfect, very human. Staz isn’t a self righteous protector of justice and peace; he is an otaku with some morals who is driven in a direction without fully understanding his own motivations and desires.
What type of anime is Blood Lad?
The realism in characterization is what makes this a Seinen and nothing else. The action and comedy is the same as you would expect from a popular shounen but for me everything hit harder because of how invested i am with the characters.
Another area blood lad deviates is the art style. Not only is this anime Similar to JOJO’s Bizarre adventure in how the plot is all over the place it is also similar in the animation department. Like JOJO’s, Blood Lad is very inconsistent with its colours and shaders. Scenes become washed with red or blue depending on the occurrences on screen. In many ways blood lad looks alot like a western cartoon. The style is very fitting to the content however and the viewer adjusts quickly to the differences in the visual style.�
As good as blood lad is, it was released way back in 2013 and still no season 2. The original season wasn’t even a full 1 cour anime, it was 10 episodes with a 20 minute OVA released several months after. I scoured the internet looking for evidence of a second season and found none. What I did find are likely reasons why we will not get a season 2.
The first of these reasons is the time period. It is already well beyond the usual 5 years to renew the anime for a second season. This 5 year period seems to be the industry standard to declare a second season, i couldn’t find a reason in relation to why this is the accepted standard but it definitely seems to be true.
Brains base has a bad track record
The second reason is the studio itself. Baccano! Released in 2007 is one of Brain Base’s most popular releases yet they launched no follow up content for this franchise. In Terms of the reason to make a sequel, there is a lot of content remaining to adapt. The manga has 17 volumes and the plot escalates with each one. Also the anime was pretty popular when it came out, it had both a positive fan reception and critical reception. That’s impressive for a 10 episode release. So I do think that season 2 would be a commercial success.
Based on this i believe we will get a season 2 eventually but it most likely won’t be from Brain’s Base. Also it most likely will be a reboot and not a straight continuation. I do hope we get a second season from the brain’s base however as I have seriously enjoyed their adaptation. Thanks for watching today. I’m in the comments if you need me . Like and subscribe, i’ll see you next week.
They let a black man into anime production and what does he do? Lace up them black air forces and proceed to scam everyone in sight. Back in 2014 Lesean Thomas created a kickstarter for his now infamous cannon busters series. He raised over 150 thousand US dollars then absconded with the funds and delivered his franchise to Netflix. Its interesting because Netlix recently released a new anime from him, the ill fated Yasuke about the titular black samurai. With his return to the limelight light I’m surprised that I don’t hear about how Lesean Rick rolled a whole community. We’re gonna talk about it today though.
Lesean Thomas is the best black animator
Lesean Thomos is an american born anime producer who is based in Tokyo. He is black and has gained notoriety for his good portrayal of black characters in anime. He is notable for his work on the Boondocks, black dynamite, Avatar: the legend of korra and more recently his production of netflix originals Canon buster and Yasuke. Today we are looking at the former.
Lesean Thomas’ Kickstarters
In November 2014 Lesean began crowdfunding the pilot episode for Cannon buster which would be based off his comic of the same name made way back in 2004. The Pilot episode would feature work from staff members of anime studio satelight and staff who previously worked on space dandy and the legend of Korra. Fans were so eager; that the kickstarter reached its financial goals by December of 2014. Roughly a month after its initiation. The pilot was released in 2016 to good reviews.
This is where the problems began. Outside the delivery of the pilot, the tiers of kickstarter contributions listed several rewards such as art books, art prints, t-shirts , special DVDs and other items. So far reports suggest that these things were never delivered. This is significant as the tiers offering physical rewards are from $25 all the way up to $10,000 US Dollars on the kickstarter. So some people were scammed, some more than others.�
This gets worse however because following the release of the crowd funded pilot episode in 2016, Lesean was able to use this success to lock down a partnership with Crunchyroll. He created and released an original anime movie in July 2016 called Children of Ether. Based on the release time, one can assume that he spent a sizable amount of time working on this project while not putting in sufficient effort to fulfill the kickstarter rewards. The ire of fans was deepened when shortly after this he deactivated all of his social media accounts
Lesean Thomas partners with Netflix
Lesean went on to partner up with Netflix to release a full length season of cannon buster in March 2019. In the time between the release of the pilot and the anime season, there seems to have been no effort to fulfill the kickstarter rewards. His social media is still inactive despite the official Cannon Buster social media being fully active. In 2021 Lesean partnered up with Studio Mappa and Netflix to release Yasuke. An anime detailing the stories of the infamous black samurai.
The reviews are middling but Lesean again faced controversy as unverified accusations circulated about his failure to pay staff members who worked on the project. Irate supporters of the cannon buster kickstarter also resurfaced during the promotion of this anime.
Lesean Thomas’ Cannon Buster did not suck
Going back to Cannon Buster for a second. I really wanted in my heart for cannon buster to suck. But if i’m honest it does not. It’s very average. Cannon buster is about the dystopian, western misadventures of an immortal cowboy fugitive filly the kid. He is joined by SAM, a royal-class friendship droid and Casey Turnbuckle, a discarded maintenance droid. At first i thought the anime relies very heavily on its unique negro character designs. The character design for SAM is so different, cute and refreshing. A significant departure from the usual fantasy princess aesthetic which is largely due to her dark skinned design. P
hilly the kid is less interesting as he is obviously inspired by spike from cowboy bebop. A black gunslinger in a futuristic western dystopia is surprisingly not that uncommon in anime. The designs for the supporting characters are really good too despite them not having much depth. Prime example, look at this thick chocolate mama. Love her design. She literally had one line in the anime and it was inaudible.
So I feel like the expert character designs were used in lieu of actual character depth. I cannot interpret this objectively because as a black person , it’s super cool to see cool looking black characters in anime.
Cannon Buster’s story and design
The story is pretty average, it introduces so many interesting new concepts in the same way that it drops interesting character designs. But similarly there is no depth to it. The animation varies from poor to amazing. It is below the standard of an average anime for its release year in most of the show’s run. It’s more like a north american saturday morning cartoon at its worst moments but there are points in the anime where the Sakuga hits absolutely top tier and can be compared to recent releases from the best anime studios.
The music is the best part, it has a banger Opening and ending and a good selection of tracks throughout. This is the area that benefited most from the North american influences. Overall I can’t say the anime is good; but I enjoyed it.
Leasean Thomas is our last hope
The fact that Lesean Thomas has scammed his entire community hasn’t had any impact on his career. He has stolen in broad daylight with no repercussions. This is the perfect scam, no jail time attached. I expect Lesean Thomas to continue to even greater heights on the backs of his abused supporters. Its unfortunate because if we view cannon busters outside the context of the scam, what i see is an improving anime producer with a lot of potential and great ideas who is undoubtedly the greatest hope for diverse representation in anime. �
Seinen tend to be targeted towards more mature audiences than shounen. That being said, seinen tend to have more mature themes but still utilize all the well known anime tropes and plot points. In Kemono Jihen the themes get really mature. Had me saying what the hell am i watching from start till finish. This is going to be a hard video to make but I feel like I really want to make it. Today we are talking about Kimenho Jihen and 3 of the most messed up anime plot lines and themes i have ever witnessed. Hit the like button and Let’s get into it.
Kemono Jihen is an interesting anime to me, mostly because it has the quality that exceeds other battle shounen anime like fireforce but is not nearly as popular. This could be due to its more mature content. The material of the show itself deals with the occult. Kemono are magical beings who feed off the energy of humans and sometimes they procreate together resulting in hybrids like our main cast with the exclusion of akira who is human like in appearance but a full snow kemono based on the lore. In addition to Akira we have Kabane, an undead, half human , half ghoul kemono hybrid. We also have Shiki, a half human , half arachne hybrid. They all work together in Tokyo at the kemono detective agency run by the tanuki kemono; Inugami.
Shiki’s story is the worst in Kemono Jihen
This background sets the stage for the absolute horror that this anime’s narrative goes down. So the first of the absolutely demeanted story sequences is this one. Remember Shiki, the half arachne half human i mentioned earlier. He believes his father to be dead and that his mother abandoned him. The former ends up to be true, his father did indeed die. He learns this from his biological uncle Akio. We later discover that Akio entered a forced arrangement with Shiki’s mother to produce hybrid Kemono. He did this with the intent of selling all purpose spider silk on open markets. He impregnated her with several kemono through natural and unnatural means.
Now incase you are having problems visualizing this, don’t fret because the anime makes an effort to show as much as it can, we see exactly what this process looked like. The horror crescendos when Shiki actually gets to see all of his kemono siblings created through Akio’s experiments. The monsters have surrounded himself and Kabane, numbering in the 100s and they speak using his mother’s voice. My heart sinks at this moment because it is at this point the viewer truly gets an opportunity to grasp the implications of all the plot points covered so far in this ark. It really sinks in as much for Shiki as it does for us the viewers; This was messed up.
Kemono Jihen Reddit research
I took to reddit to see how the community received this episode only to find that people were as broken as me over it. These redditors expressed similar sentiments to how I was feeling at the time. This gets worse though. We soon discover that Shiki’s father’s death was no accident but came about directly from Akio’s actions. He perpetrated the murder inorder to gain exclusive access to Shiki’s mother. After his hundreds of failed Kemonao hybrids This guy goes in and impregnates Shiki’s mother ; his brother’s widow himself. This produces Aya, Shiki’s half sister who he then locks in a basement for years. This guy in the community is compared to Shou Tucker from full metal alchemist and that is awful company to be keeping. This is all summarized well by this reddit post from Shiro_kai. He says�
Akira’s village
The second questionable story concept is about another one of our main cast members, Akira. Akira was born in the yuuki-onna village. This is a village trapped in snow that sees the birth of a male once every 100 years. Akira was born with a twin brother Yui. Being the only males in the village of 200 women. Akira’s older brother Yui was expected to service all 200 of the women with regularity to ensure that the village could survive. Akira was cast aside because the women felt that he did not have the vitality to accomplish such a task. This plot line here had me quite dsturbed as well because a 14 year old being expected to carry the reproductive burden of an entire population is definitely not a light hearted plot line. As drastic as it was in the anime, it’s even worse in the manga. I went and investigated chapter 20 in the manga and discovered that they actually show the women getting what they need from yui in graphic detail. Yue was assaulted daily by the women to carry out his duty and he continued in the effort to ensure that Akira would remain safe and unbothered.
Kabane is on fire
As bad as it is, this story also gets worse as Yui; in protest, accidentally eliminates the whole village and loses his mind in the process. This culminates in Tokyo with Yui and Kabane doing battle essentially for Akira’s freedom. Yui has strong ice powers amplified by an artifact taken from the village. So in order to fight the ice, Kabane is set on fire and fights as a burning skeleton. He is able to do this because he doesn’t feel pain and he regenerates damaged areas. Even though I am fully aware of these facts, it’s still shocking to see burning flesh animated in detail during battle. This anime has no chill. And holds no reservation about making its viewers uncomfortable.
Other horrid stories from Kemono Jihen
Honorable mention for messed up plot thread is the whole character Kon. She is a kitsune Kemono who is abandoned by her master. Kabane befriends her but leaves her to live in a tree at the public park. She is essentially homeless. One time he promised to return to her in the park but he never did until several days later having forgotten about her. Tanuki and Kitsune are natural enemies but it still seems strange to me that Inugami and his whole team knowingly leave this 14 year old to live in a tree.
The Endless eight 15,532-time loop in Haruhi Suzumiya was painful
This year has not been great but luckily for anime viewers like myself, we can time travel to any year we want. So I decided to fire up my microwave time machine and head to 2006.�
Kyoto Ani’s masterpiece
When I got to 2006 I found the melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya…. and friends of course . This anime had much acclaim when it came out in the late 2000s and thanks to the brilliant animation standards of kyoto animation, it still looks better than most modern anime in this current decade. While we are here speaking about the art I would like to note one very interesting thing about the art style. The anime has two distinct and separate character designs. The teenage girls in this anime are animated in the style of mid 90s magical girls with disproportionately large sparkly eyes. The main character and other males are animated in a more modern realistic style. The character designs are interesting because they theoretically relate to the story concept for this anime. Ill get back to this in a bit
Yes let me talk about the story concept because this is one of the most interesting ones ive ever come across. Gather round everyone and meet GOD. This girl is quite literally GOD of this universe. Anything she ponders on significantly becomes reality. She wished for a world with Espers, time travellers and Aliens and it was made so. Haruhi has the ability to create and destroy the universe at will, the only catch is that she is completely unaware of her ability to do so. This becomes even more dangerous when one comes to understand the character of Haruhi herself, she is easily bored and wishes for the most ludacris things at times just for entertainment. Going back to my earlier point about character design, it would not be unreasonable to say that the girls have the 90s magical girl character design simply because Haruhi desired it and thought it would be more interesting than something more normal. Yea, its getting real meta, welcome to the rabbit hole.
This idea illustrates the strength of this story concept, it is so flexible that it allows the anime’s content to push into any Genre and present our characters with a myriad of different situations for story telling. Haruhi’s combination of eccentric and morally bankrupt personality combined with her GOD powers make her the ultimate plot device. The characters around her are distinct too with their own ideas and development. The story concept of GOD Suzumiya also works well because of how well the setting is presented to the viewer. The anime itself goes to great lengths to make sure the viewer understands the rules of Haruhi’s universe; they do this through philosophy and dialogue. In episode 5 they reference the anthropic principle.
This is from wikipedia. scientific observation of the universe would not even be possible if the laws of the universe had been incompatible with the development of sentient life. Proponents of the anthropic principle argue that it explains why this universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to accommodate conscious life, since if either had been different, we would not be around to make observations in the first place. Anthropic reasoning is often used to deal with the fact that the universe seems to be fine tuned.
So basically we observe the world the way it is, merely because it already is that way. Therefore if some omnipotent entity was making changes to the core principles of the world we would observe it in the new way because it is that way. Confused yet? Me too. But basically we have no way of knowing how many changes Haruhi made to the universe and once she had made a change, all the inhabitants save her close contact circle would accept it as if it has always been so. Haruhi the anime gives itself a strong foundation to build the world on. It does avoid entering into too much details because that isn’t what the plot is about, this is just a story concept to use as a platform for the story telling. It’s not perfect but i do appreciate that they at least attempted to address this early on in the show run.
Haruhi made the anime herself
Just as Haruhi the character plays fast and loose with the rules of the universe; the anime itself follows the same principles in its directing style and even in the release approach. Haruhi Suzumiya has 4 different watch orders. The initial airing in 2006 saw the episodes being aired in non chronological order. Haruhi episodes have up to 4 different episode numbers based on which airing we are considering. This is not the only confusion the production staff put towards the viewers either.
I’m of course talking about the endless eight. The endless eight is the story arc that is most synonymous with the Haruhi Suzumiya anime. And I couldn’t possibly talk about it without bringing up this arc.
Spoilers for Haruhi season 1 and 2 as well as the anime film The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya beyond this point.
The endless 8 – more like The Endless eight 15,532
.The director Tatsuya Ishihara makes an intentional effort to piss off all the fans who were peacefully enjoying their anime experience. I’ve seen time loops in anime before but by far this was the worst one. Other anime time loops usually focus on different aspects of the loops until the main characters become cognisant of what’s occurring and escape the loop, so even though it shows us the same period of time; the content varies like what we see in Re zero or steins gate. In Haruhi, the anime shows us the exact same content in each loop with the changes being so minimal that it feels like you’re watching the exact same thing again and again. We end up watching the same episode of anime for about 4 hours. Its even more annoying because when the characters do become aware of the loop, that doesn’t stop it from occurring, that sequence where they become aware is just added to the loop. Even the dialogue and kyon’s introspection is exactly the same. In Fact the changes are so limited i can tell you in a few seconds. The clothes they wear in each scenario is different, the children Haruhi interacts with at the public pool are different and some of the camera angles and character position, Yuuki’s mask changes in each loop as well as a few other very minor adjustments.Re zero tells its entire narrative from time loops but every single episode is different because Subaru is constantly aware of the time loop and therefore approaches the timeline at different angles allowing for good entertainment to the viewers. Haruhi, the anime took a lot of flack for the endless eight arc. Some of the reviews were harsh. I was a bit hesitant to put it down because of how good everything had been to that point. I found it hard to believe that Ishihara had made a mistake.
I know for a fact that these 8 episodes of the same thing were not included as a cost saving mechanism because Kyoto animation reanimated the same thing in glorious fashion. Different camera angles, clothes and character positions ensured that nothing could be reused.
The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya – The Endless eight 15,532
I watched the anime film, the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and then everything became clear. I understood why Tanigawa did what he did. So while us viewers suffered through the 4 hours of the same episode there was one other person suffering too. A being that haruhi created that transcends time and space. The alien Yuki Nagato. Yuki is able to remember every single time loop, which according to her number is 15,532 reptitions. Now the loop is August 17 to 31. That is 14 days each loop. That’s a lot of time, for simplicity however, i will consider each loop as an episode. This is a fact that I believe Ishihara intentionally setup, since every single one of the 8 loops we endured were confined to 1 episode. So thats 15,532 * the half hour slot for a regularly aired episode of anime. That’s 465,960 minutes, converting to hours that are 7766 hours or 323 days. In anime terms she spent close to a year watching the same episode of the endless eight with no breaks in between. More like the endless 15,532. at least you had the option of watching something else in between the mere eight episodes. So can you imagine the suffering Yuki endured. This is the primary idea I believe Ishihara wants the viewer to take away from the endless eight. This is done for the viewer to develop a strong understanding of Yuki Nagato’s motivation in the anime film. The ark executes this so well in fact that people were genuinely upset. The idea then is for you to imagine how Yuki must feel if you’re as upset as you are. The understanding for Yuki; at least for me transcends the confines of the anime itself. The Endless eight 15,532 is ridiculous
In the film,The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki steals Haruhi’s GOD powers and uses them to turn the world into a normal one. Where Haruhi’s madness does not impact the environment and Yuki herself is a regular girl with a less cold personality. It is a world created in Yuki’s image instead of the crazy machinations of Haruhi. We the viewers who sat through a fraction of what Yuki did in the endless eight can fully understand her motivations. She was tired of Haruhi’s world and wanted a normal one. So she took action. This understanding also allows the viewer to better connect with the decision Kyon has to make when it is placed before him. Kyon has to choose whether to leave the world as Yuuki made it or return it to Haruhi’s world. I genuinely found myself desiring Yuki’s world to be left as is. Kyon chose differently.
There is some hope however because 5 years later , studio satelight released The disappearance of Yuki Nagato. This is a 17 episode spinoff story which occurs in Yuki’s created universe. It basically tells the story of what would have happened if Haruhi’s world was not restored. To me this entire anime feels like an apology to the fans upset by the endless eight and the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The anime is pretty much fanservice, there are many jokes in here referencing the original seasons such as Kyon becoming uncomfortable when asakura has a cooking knife in hand.Or the fact that Asakura is super strong and has sufficient strength to pickup yuki and kyon with one hand. Yuki also has the same super calculator powers with math problems as her alien counterpart. the inhabitants of yuki’s world don’t appear to notice these minor quirks however. It’s important to note the character designs by studio satelite are far more normal in this production for all the characters. This is inline with my earlier sentiment about Haruhi’s universe. This is a normal romantic comedy with normal animation. This anime then allows the viewer to confirm whether or not Kyon made the correct decision in the 2010 film. We get to experience both Yuki’s world and Haruhi’s world. Honestly the disappearance of Yuki Nagato deserves it’s own video which i plan to make if this one gets enough likes. One more thing on this, can you believe that these people really put a summer episode from August 17 to 31 in this spinoff anime. It didn’t loop but that was one last middle finger to the fans. So 5 years later and we got a 9th episode of endless eight.�
There is some hope however because 5 years later , studio satelight released The disappearance of Yuki Nagato. This is a 17 episode spinoff story which occurs in Yuki’s created universe. It basically tells the story of what would have happened if Haruhi’s world was not restored. To me this entire anime feels like an apology to the fans upset by the endless eight and the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The anime is pretty much fanservice, there are many jokes in here referencing the original seasons such as Kyon becoming uncomfortable when asakura has a cooking knife in hand.Or the fact that Asakura is super strong and has sufficient strength to pickup yuki and kyon with one hand. Yuki also has the same super calculator powers with math problems as her alien counterpart. the inhabitants of yuki’s world don’t appear to notice these minor quirks however. It’s important to note the character designs by studio satelite are far more normal in this production for all the characters. This is inline with my earlier sentiment about Haruhi’s universe. This is a normal romantic comedy with normal animation. This anime then allows the viewer to confirm whether or not Kyon made the correct decision in the 2010 film. We get to experience both Yuki’s world and Haruhi’s world. Honestly the disappearance of Yuki Nagato deserves it’s own video which i plan to make if this one gets enough likes. One more thing on this, can you believe that these people really put a summer episode from August 17 to 31 in this spinoff anime. It didn’t loop but that was one last middle finger to the fans. So 5 years later and we got a 9th episode of endless eight.�
There is some hope however because 5 years later , studio satelight released The disappearance of Yuki Nagato. This is a 17 episode spinoff story which occurs in Yuki’s created universe. It basically tells the story of what would have happened if Haruhi’s world was not restored. To me this entire anime feels like an apology to the fans upset by the endless eight and the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The anime is pretty much fanservice, there are many jokes in here referencing the original seasons such as Kyon becoming uncomfortable when asakura has a cooking knife in hand.Or the fact that Asakura is super strong and has sufficient strength to pickup yuki and kyon with one hand. Yuki also has the same super calculator powers with math problems as her alien counterpart. the inhabitants of yuki’s world don’t appear to notice these minor quirks however. It’s important to note the character designs by studio satelite are far more normal in this production for all the characters. This is inline with my earlier sentiment about Haruhi’s universe. This is a normal romantic comedy with normal animation. This anime then allows the viewer to confirm whether or not Kyon made the correct decision in the 2010 film. We get to experience both Yuki’s world and Haruhi’s world. Honestly the disappearance of Yuki Nagato deserves it’s own video which i plan to make if this one gets enough likes. One more thing on this, can you believe that these people really put a summer episode from August 17 to 31 in this spinoff anime. It didn’t loop but that was one last middle finger to the fans. So 5 years later and we got a 9th episode of endless eight.�
The Endless 9
There is some hope however because 5 years later , studio satelight released The disappearance of Yuki Nagato. This is a 17 episode spinoff story which occurs in Yuki’s created universe. It basically tells the story of what would have happened if Haruhi’s world was not restored. To me this entire anime feels like an apology to the fans upset by the endless eight and the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The anime is pretty much fanservice, there are many jokes in here referencing the original seasons such as Kyon becoming uncomfortable when asakura has a cooking knife in hand.Or the fact that Asakura is super strong and has sufficient strength to pickup yuki and kyon with one hand. Yuki also has the same super calculator powers with math problems as her alien counterpart. the inhabitants of yuki’s world don’t appear to notice these minor quirks however. It’s important to note the character designs by studio satelite are far more normal in this production for all the characters. This is inline with my earlier sentiment about Haruhi’s universe. This is a normal romantic comedy with normal animation. This anime then allows the viewer to confirm whether or not Kyon made the correct decision in the 2010 film. We get to experience both Yuki’s world and Haruhi’s world. Honestly the disappearance of Yuki Nagato deserves it’s own video which i plan to make if this one gets enough likes. One more thing on this, can you believe that these people really put a summer episode from August 17 to 31 in this spinoff anime. It didn’t loop but that was one last middle finger to the fans. So 5 years later and we got a 9th episode of endless eight. this brings the The Endless eight 15,532-time loop to 15533.
The light novels for Haruhi are coming to an end this year, the writer Tanigawa announced as much. With this I hope to one day get a continued adaptation. One thing I want to make absolutely clear is that this anime is weird, its character design, its story concept, its release strategy, its characters and the complex meta around the universe. It is strange by any story’s standard, and I genuinely feel like that’s how anime should be, weird. I loved the experience of diving into this and becoming a fan.
These are the best anime for a 4:3 aspect ratio screen
I was watching an old show last night with my girlfriend. The nanny, it surprised me how good it was but i realized that it had those two black boxes at the side of the display window. That’s because this show is old ; 1993 to be specific. So it was released for displays that look like this. Despite the Nanny Having some elements of animation. This video isn’t about the nanny. It just made me realize that There are many anime released in the past that many new fans wouldn’t partake in because of the 4:3 aspect ratio and low resolution. But they’re missing out on some gems. So today lets cover the best 4:3 aspect ratio anime and I promise there are some surprises on this list.
So lets say that somehow your amazing 4k monitor broke and you searched around in the garage and found this old busted CRT display. You plug it in and set it up and it works; now you need some anime that you can watch on this thing. Lucky for you it’s aniprop to the rescue
Ninja Slayer 2015
Let’s start with the newest anime on this list. Ninja Slayer is a satire anime made in 2015 and literally uses the 4:3 aspect ratio as part of its visual gag. The animation quality is pretty poor but some regard this anime as a masterpiece. It is written from the perspective of young Americans trying to capture the style of the 90s anime era. For those that enjoy insane Geneon/trigger type anime. This is the newest somewhat authentic viewing experience you can have on your busted display.
Gintama 2006
Another of the more modern shows you will be able to take part in is gintama. It had an aspect ratio of 4:3 from 2006 to 2010. That covers the first 201 episodes. That can buy you loads of time to repair your new display; you can continue with the new episodes on your repaired display. I hope your old monitor can hang on for that long. Gintama is a comedy shounen with some samurai elements. It is, however, more comedy and satire. Maybe you want something a bit more serious for your old screen.�
As a side note I can also mention that the big 3 of yester year, bleach, naruto and Onepiece all switched over to 16:9 aspect ratio in April 2008 giving you access to many seasons of these shows with your old display before they switched over. So enjoy some of that. But the best solutions to enjoy shonen in 4:3 aspect ratio is without a doubt Yu yu hakosho and rurouni kenshin.Yu Yu hakoshi predates bleach having been released in 1992. In many ways however it is better, taking the same emphasis on spirits and spirit powers but with a more nuanced and less repetitive narrative. Ruroni Kenshin on the other hand is slightly newer being released in 1996, it is the only traditional shonen with a somewhat realistic power system that still achieved mass popularity. The characters are based on historical figures and the plot points are based on real world events. Also by watching the original kenshin anime it will give you context to further enjoy the Kenshin 2023 reboot once you get your good screen fixed up. �
With your current situation you can gain access to the first episode aired of Haruhi Suzumiya. This is one of my favorite anime but its release in the west was somewhat confusing because episode 1 is actually episode 25. It being of of my favorites ; I already have a video that explains this mixup in detail. Check that out in the description. This episode was filmed in pov on an old camcorder and as such the output is in 4:3 aspect ratio. This will bring a high quality slice of life experience to your square display. You will enjoy the art as intended
Golden Boy 1995
I’ve covered mainly modern options so far so Lets jump into the classics. Almost all anime made before the year 2000 were published with the 4:3 aspect ratio. So that includes one of the funniest anime ever made. Golden Boy in my opinion is only second to konosuba in terms of comedy leaving Japan. You now have an excuse to get the best possible viewing experience with this beloved classic. It has aged extremely well. I can even recommend the English Dub despite dubs from this period being absolutely terrible. This one is also terrible but it ads to the humour with how bad it is.
I can also recommend both gunbuster and neon genesis evangelion if you are looking for some deeper story and the birthplace of modern fanservice. Watch them in that exact order because between watching gunbuster and evangelion we can see the development of mecha anime and fanservice in anime; both anime being large milestones for key genre elements. I personally have enjoyed the evangelion remakes but the remakes are not actually reboots in the traditional sense and you will only have the full context of the evangelion IP if you; the viewer watches the originals.
FLCL – These are the best anime for a 4:3 aspect ratio screen
My overall favorite anime of this era is FLCL. This is Geneon at its best. Equal parts thought provoking and hilarious, this anime hit me at a time when i needed it most. It perfectly encapsulates the era onto your crappy screen. Infact one of the main characters in this anime has a 4:3 aspect ratio television as his head. There you go, solidarity. So if the repair shop works fast and you can only pick one show to watch on your bad display. This one, this is the one.�
Other interesting mentions are the original fullmetal alchemist anime only for the reason that you will never have another excuse to check this one out. It’s actually a good anime with alot of value but its high resolution remake; full metal Alchemist brotherhood is regarded universally as the best anime ever made. Talk about living in a shadow; So now with your old school monitor, this forgotten anime has a chance to shine. So give it the opportunity.
Those are all the recommendations I have for your ancient screen. Honestly, after making this video, I think I need to invest in a 4:3 display too so that I can gain maximum enjoyment from the classics. Now that you have this list, find your VGA cable, plug in your speakers, set your computer resolution to 800 X 600 and watch some anime.
July 8th, 2024 
Aniprop_Admin
