this last show kind of ruined my brain so idk what i'm gonna follow it up with

Quote from: Verbatim on January 11, 2018, 09:17:54 AM

just add a prompt at the title screen asking if you'd rather not play online please

that is an option in 3, can toggle to play offline in the settings. maybe 2 as well, can't remember, but don't see why it wouldn't get included

idk, i can see them going the hyper purist route

i'll be pleasantly surprised to see any of the more archaic design decisions fixed up though

just add a prompt at the title screen asking if you'd rather not play online please

I decided to take a break from the 1995 shit to watch something more contemporary instead—in fact, this is something that dropped less than a week ago on Netflix, so this show is actually extremely relevant right now.

If your name is Snake, then don't read this overview at all. Just watch the show. I'm specifically recommending this one to you.

Devilman Crybaby (Science Saru, 2018, completed)

I am so very conflicted about this show. On one hand, this anime contains pretty much ALL of the themes that I've been searching for ever since I decided that the medium was irrevocably terrible: It's a dark, cutthroat, extremely hateful, grotesquely brutal, and delightfully ultraviolent examination of humanity, exploding with blatant, unflinching, and intensely misanthropic messages. This is EVERYTHING that I've ever wanted to see—and for what it's worth, it does it so very well... For the most part. We'll get to what sucks about it later.

While the show relentlessly beats you over the head with the most vile and unpleasant aspects of human nature, with decidedly unsexy fanservice, perverted characters, and continuous sexual imagery (including a gay sex scene), all of which seem to coldly mock the human desire for sex, rather than celebrate it (which I've been begging to see in an anime for YEARS). On top of that, there's some patently horrific and genuinely harrowing scenarios that each character finds themselves in, and they all effectively and rapidly evoke feelings of anger, sorrow, disgust, and despair, all in one gut-punching 10-episode package.

On paper, this should've been my favorite anime (and it IS on paper, since it's based on a manga written in the '70s). But, as perfect as it may seem for me, I'm afraid cannot ignore the simple fact that it's ultimately just as flawed as every other anime I've given a lower score to. And that pains me SO MUCH to say, because I feel like a show like this only comes once in a lifetime (and previous adaptations of the same story don't count). It feels like someone in Japan heard all of my requests across the Pacific Ocean, but my voice was too muffled for them to hear precisely every last detail of what I wanted to see.

The degree to which this show condemns scummy human behavior is palpable and scathing, sure. That's great. But it's still not quite misanthropic enough for me. Since the story is supposed to be a shonen manga for younger boys (despite all the pornographic imagery), the ending still has a relatively positive and vaguely life-affirming note—albeit, in a highly Pyrrhic fashion, but a trapping that I would've preferred this series not to have fallen into, because I feel like it undermines the sheer intensity of the rest of the show.

Not to mention, after the catastrophic acutely heart-raping events of the penultimate episode, I'm left almost completely numb to the ensuing apocalypse that happens during the finale, where the show starts losing its footing a little bit in terms of pacing. Sure, it's an undeniably emotional, poignant, and tightly-constructed ending that I wish I could've appreciated more, because on the same level, I feel like you almost could've ended the series one episode earlier and have been mostly fine.

However, those issues, among other various technical aspects that I don't really care to go into right now, I have are relatively minor compared to my biggest issue, and I think it has to do with a small yet significant difference in vision and philosophy. I'm willing to accept that I may be undergoing some cognitive dissonance here, but I intend to smooth my thoughts out over the next few days so that they're more clear.

Basically, I get it. People are awful. People are disgusting. People are the worst scum on the planet. The world is a much better place without us. This show illustrates these messages competently, yet also to a grave fault. I don't need to be told these things; other people do. But think about the kind of people that this series would most likely appeal to.

In spite of its attempts to shock and horrify the viewer, let's be honest with ourselves. It pretty much winds up pandering to the same scumfuck people that the show is disgracing. They're going to treat the series as gore porn, in spite of all the attempts to question why you find that shit entertaining in the first place, causing them to miss the point entirely. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad—I can already hear someone saying "that's not the show's fault." And to some degree, you'd be right. However, it still finds itself pandering to the worst kinds of people, almost by nature, which I consider a failure on the show's part.

This is what I like to call the Me!Me!Me! effect, where your messages gets buried by the people that you're trying to reach out to, all while giving them a shotgun to kill you with. Also, you can also kinda tell that the animators really had a blast animating some of the more fucked up scenes, which may have added to their devastatingly stomach-churning nature, but it also puts a sick taste in my mouth, upon further reflection. This anime was made by the same filthy scumfucks the show appears to hate so much, and they relished in every second of its creation. Kind of undermines the message, too, though I'm willing to concede that I'm being too presumptuous here.

But you can see now why I'm so torn about this one. But I think I've finally decided where the tip scales for me. We've just come to different conclusions, and this is what I meant earlier, when I said I wanted it to be even more hateful. The show is misanthropic (good philosophy), yet life-affirming (poor conclusion)—that is my ultimate problem, because it fails to provide a tangible justification for the latter position. I don't want a series like this to have ANY semblance of positivity towards life on earth, but it seems convinced that humans, though flawed beings, are still forgivable. Needless to say, I strongly disagree with this. All I wanted to do when I finished this series was spit blood in the face of life itself, which is all I think anyone should ever want to do. It does not inspire any confidence within me that things will get better, so long as we all stop being pieces of shit.

That's where I wanted more from this story, and there's precisely where I didn't get it, and it hurts the overall narrative a lot for me.

That all being said, I'm still incredibly happy that a series like this exists (and the story itself has been floating around for decades), because it's the closest an anime has ever come to meeting almost every one of my prerequisites. Every scene depicting sex, alcohol consumption, and other shitty, debaucherous behaviors (including rape) is portrayed with a underlying sense of "This is you. This is how disgusting you are." and it all makes life on earth seem so incredibly foolish, embarrassing, and shameful.

This show comes a cunt hair away from transcending all of the trappings that I hate seeing so much in nearly every single anime that I've ever tried, so it's sad to have to admit that it ultimately came up short for me.

I'm not quite sure what I'd give this show /10, because of my mixed reactions to it. Right now, it could be anywhere between a 4 and a 6. It's quite the anomaly.

Kill yourself

I don't recall ever seeing it. Was it before Snake kidnapped me and brought me here?

this was 2013, so shortly after b.lind happened

Quote from: Verbatim on January 10, 2018, 03:52:46 PM

Quote from: Snake on January 10, 2018, 03:46:06 PM

uh paulie bring up the image of a young mr. potila wearing a fedora shooting double finger guns at the camera

one finger gun

wasn't even close to a fedora

easily the best picture i've ever taken

I'm out of the loop here what is this

i'm 99% sure you saw it

when i was in italy, i went to this medieval-themed novelty diner type place where they had us wear these froofy colorful berets during the "feast"

just a fun little thing, and the picture was taken ironically, but people thought i was genuinely trying to look cool or something, so it spread around

would you go so far as to say, its fine when nintendo does it

No

it's just the least bad

Quote from: Verbatim on January 10, 2018, 02:49:53 PM

Quote from: Christa on January 10, 2018, 02:45:12 PM

none because not autistic

but

you are

oh yes the "no u" reply

a classic

but it's common knowledge that you are

this has been known since bungie.net

Quote from: Verbatim on January 10, 2018, 02:18:32 PM

Quote from: challengerX on January 10, 2018, 01:58:02 PM

I'm not a weirdo so I'd rather they were all thrown into a hole and left to die.

they all deserve about 10x worse than that, and the fact that you think they deserve better makes you the weirdo

>state sponsored torture

Classic verbatim

something that you already support, whereas i actually don't

albert fish

you get paid for jury duty anyway, don't you

not sure how much though

Super Metroid: Can't skip the missile tutorial that appears for every single missile upgrade. Wall-jumping is kinda janky.

Wind Waker: Perhaps one too many filler islands. Hard to say, as the game's biggest shortcomings involve things that aren't in the game, but could've been (a little bit more sea activity, perhaps, like storms, etc)

Super Mario World: Maybe some questionable (albeit extremely minor) level design elements.

The thing about my favorite games is that they're not really flawed at all—not because they're my favorite games, but because if a game has any flaws, it's hard to consider it a favorite.

No, because it's the best Star Wars film.