I recently started reading and watching “So I Married the Anti-Fan”

 

The lengths they went with the K-Drama to stay true to the source material–the Webcomic, which was adapted from the Light Novel of the same name–is why I have decided to read the Webtoon and watch the K-Drama at the same time. I finished reading Episode 24 of the Webcomic (On Webtoon) and just started Episode 2 of the K-Drama (on Viki).

Without spoiling too much, the pair is about to start filming their reality TV show in the Webtoon while the pair are separately dealing with the immediate aftermath of their imfamous exchange at JJ’s Nightclub in the K-Drama. That’s where I’m at right now with both Mediums. I plan to read the Webtoon version first, then get caught up in the K-Drama version. The Webtoon version was only recently released and was actually released to promote the K-Drama, which is a bit further ahead in the story. As a reminder, both were adapted from the Light Novel of the same name. From what I’ve read, the Light Novel was first released back in 2012 so…yeah.

 

It was easy for me to see why this series was so popular in both mediums: It gives audiences a deep dive into the Idol Culture both South Korea and Japan are known for.

 

That’s a good segway into this video:

 

Here’s the original song it’s based on by Bo Burnham:

 

The dark side of the idol industy in Japan and South Korea has been getting a lot of attention in recent years as more and more former Idols and people from the industry talk about their experiences. Basically, the purpose of your existence is to play a role until it’s no longer profitable. You almost never have time for relationships and often don’t get to see your own family much. When their American and European counterparts start to feel mental health-related burnout, they will just take time off. Not in Japan and South Korea due to cultural differences and expectations. That’s how brutal the Entertainment industry Complex is in Japan and South Korea. Your life is literally no longer your own.

I’ve read stories of Male idols basically having to meet with their girlfriends in secret for their girlfriends’ safety. Why? Because if some of the more crazy fans found out, their girlfriend’s life would probably be in danger. Yes, really. Some people literally worship JPop/KPop Idols to the point they feel their perception must be maintained no matter what. It’s even worse for Female Idols though this is more widely known. More often than not, idols are not allowed to be seen “out of character” while in public if they haven’t completely changed or disguised their appearance.

Both Male and Female Idols who find love after getting into the business is usually kept a closely guarded secret if their love interest is not a public figure or celebrity. If they found love before getting in the business, they have some leeway with both their agency and fans though. If a Female Idol gets pregnant, how the agency handles it depends on if her relationship was publicly known or not. If it was publicly known, they’ll announce it and she’ll have time off until after she gives birth. If the relationship wasn’t publicly known, they will have her take time off and will usually arrange for her to not be publicly seen for at least a year. In more extreme cases, she may even be forced to quietly have an abortion. Why? Because profits over people that’s why.

As far as most Idol Agencies are concerned, the Idol is a product of their making and they can do whatever they want with you as long as you’re profitable. When you’re no longer profitable, they show you the door without compensation. You are not even entitled to royalties. The Agencies ensure that. Some former Idols actually do find Indie success but without the backing of their former agencies, most are forced to find some other kind of work. More so if they left their former agency on bad terms. You’re nothing more than a cog in the machine. That is the Idol Industrial Complex in South Korea and Japan. It used to be like that in the U.S. too but not as much these days.

…What does all of this have to do with Anti-Fan you may wonder? Read and/or Watch and see for yourself =)

 

 

 

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Crunchyroll and Rakuten Viki are clearly gearing up to attract viewers for the Fall and Winter

…That’s probably the best way I can think of to put it right now. Before I preview what’s new, I first want to give a recap on some ongoing anime and one legendary reboot that wrapped up over the summer.

 

Ok here we go:

Digimon Adventure, which was a reboot of the original Anime series wrapped up over the summer. The reboot cut out all of the bloat so prevalent from the original series and a lot of that was because unlike the original series, the reboot only aired new episodes once a week. For those who are either too old to remember or didn’t exist at the time, look up Dragonball Z’s original episode count and compare it to Dragonball Z Kai’s.

Anywho, Digimon Adventure basically cuts right to the point. If you watched the original series, you’ll notice a few changes made to the reboot with certain characters. Most notably with Patomon having a split evolution. Aside from evolving into Angemon, Patomon gets an alternate evolution to Pegasmon. Another interesting change is the kids stay in the digital world until the end. In the original series, they are able to return to the real world after a certain point and this is how we originally meet Tai’s sister Hikari. What happens instead is she is introduced at the beginning and is later pulled into the Digital World.

For those who never saw the original series, you can just watch this instead. Prepare to binge though. At the time the original series was released, yes it was compared to the Pokemon Anime. Digimon are different from Pokemon in two ways. One is Digimon with human partners only Digivolve Temporarily in the Anime. Aside from Mega Evolution, Pokemon permanently evolve. In the case of Pokemon like Eevee that had multiple evolutions, you would need a LOT of Eevee to get all of its evolutions.

The other difference is Digimon can speak human language while almost all Pokemon can only say their name. Team Rocket’s Meowth explains he gave up learning PayDay to learn the human language as well as learn to walk on two legs (Meowth usually walk on all fours). Meowth is able to translate the Pokemon Language though. That aside, any other Pokemon that can speak to humans are almost always a Legendary Pokemon or highly intelligent. You also almost always see such a Pokemon in a movie.

 

As a reminder, the Manga turned Anime is not based on any existing game from the legendary Dragon Quest/Warrior video game series. With the new OP that debuted a few weeks ago, it seems we are fast heading towards the series finale at this point. Dai reluctantly teams up with his estranged father Baran to take on a common enemy. While the two are fighting Hadlar, Baran notices a danger that may make beating Hadlar lethally impossible. King Vearn is confident Dai and Baran will not survive their encounter with  Hadlar, who is already planning to fight to the death. It will be interesting to see how things unfold.

Hyunckel, who was nearly killed in the previous fight was considered too injured to fight anymore. That doesn’t stop him from dragging himself to the Field of Death to join Popp, Maam and Crocodine on the battlefield. Even without Dai, the unlikely friends are prepared to overcome the odds stacked against them.

 

If you passed on watching Boruto up to now because you felt the story should’ve ended with Shippuden, hopefully a major character death and a second one teased at the end of the Kara Arc will change your mind. This is a major spoiler but given the fact it’s all over the internet since the episode first aired two weeks ago, I won’t give a spoiler warning.

During the final battle with Isshinki, Kurama offered Naruto a deal that would give him a massive power boost but it would require a sacrifice. Naruto assumed it would mean death and he was right. Just not his. After the battle, Kurama reveals he only told Naruto half the story: The only one who would die would be him, not Naruto. He didn’t tell him the truth up front because he knew Naruto wouldn’t have agreed to it otherwise. Before disappearing, Kurama explains normally a Jinchuriki would die with their Tailed Beast but because of what Kurama did, Nauto’s life would be spared. The loss of Kurama means Naruto no longer has Superhuman strength and Chakra but he’s still really powerful.

Kawaki, who suffered extreme abuse and torture for most of his life gets the final victory over Isshinki by making a Shadow Clone and using it to fool his former benefactor. It was a great fist-pump moment and closure for him to say the least. Naruto offered to make Kawaki a Genin and he simply replied “I’ll think about it”. Amado defecting to the Leaf was what made that victory possible. Seeing him get a happy ending was also satisfying all things considered. Some might not agree with the fact he was able to easily neutralize the threat of Momoshinki taking over Boruto again after the emotional build to that point but all things considered, I’m totally fine with it. Both Boruto and Naruto have been through enough to that point.

Everyone in the Kara has been eliminated except for Code though based on the preview for the next episode, that loose end appears to be on the shelf for now. The next episode takes us back to the Chunin Exams which were interrupted and put on hold quite a while back. Ninja exams tend to get put on hold quite a lot in the world of Naruto, don’t they? Based on the preview, Sasuke and/or Orochimaru may be involved in the Chunin exams so we’ll see. It’s sure to be quite interesting to say the least!

 

The Second Season of Yasha-Hime: Princess Half-Demon recently started and out the gate, we get a bit more story development regarding Sesshomaru, Rin and Setsuna in particular. As was revealed in the first season, Sesshomaru pretended to ally himself with Kirinmaru to protect his family as well as Inuyasha and Kagome. We find out why Sesshomaru stopped the girls rom killing Zero in the latest episode and why she said “If I die, she dies too!”

In this case, “She” is Rin. In the latest episode, it’s revealed Zero–She’s Kirinmaru’s sister as a reminder–put a curse on Rin shortly after Jaken hid the girls. She then linked herself to Rin so that if one dies, the other would too. This basically ensures Sesshomaru or anyone who knows about the link can’t kill her. This is also why he stopped the girls from killing Zero at the end of Season 1. The reason Rin was placed in the Tree of Ages was to stop the curse placed on her from spreading. Time for her has stopped biologically. Presumably she will remain there until Sesshomaru can figure out how to sever Zero’s link with her as well as break the curse on her.

One interesting development was the revealation Riku, who turned on Kirinmaru was actually born from one of his horns. Everything Riku sees and hears, Kirinmaru can see and hear. Zero is actually the one who tells him what he really is and you can tell after he learns this, it’s likely Kirinmaru knows his every move to now. Riku turned on Kirinmaru and had been secretly helping Towa for the last few episodes. Now that he knows Kirinmaru knows everything, that makes things more complicated for him. We’ll have to wait and see how things unfold moving forward.

 

…Moving over to Asian Dramas on Viki.

I neglected to comment on this last year but Viki has moved more of their existing content to its Standand and Premium Subscription tiers. I was a little annoyed to see some titles that were Free for me before now being locked behind a Premium subscription though the ones I have in mind were dramas I already watched. I do have a Standard Subscription and though I do plan to upgrade to Premium at some point in the future, it would have been great if Viki at least sent an email to let people know a show they watch or have on their watch list is changing tiers.I  renewed for another year this past September. The Standard Tier is $50 a year while the Premium tier is $100 a year. I will always prefer annual subscripions–I have one for Crunchyroll also–because you save longterm. $10 a month is $120 a year but $50 a year or $100 a year means you save $70 or $20 a year.

I mean I get those who don’t want to be locked into an annual subscription and more so if they don’t watch much but that’s a good reason to do the annual sub: You don’t feel pressured to watch at least once a day. With an annual sub, you can go weeks without waching and with series still in progress, you give time for several new episodes to be released. With Viki, I’ve only watched shows with all Episodes available so far personally though.

 

 

 

Anyone who’s been reading the Webtoon True Beauty probably already knows about the Live Action adaptation that was released on Viki in 2019. If you’ve only seen the Live Action Drama, get the Webtoon app and read it so you’re caught up. The TV Series ends with Suho being forced to leave for Japan to attend to his father, who suffered a stroke.

If you’ve never seen the Webtoon, here’s what’s happened since then and warning, MAJOR Spoilers:

• There is a time skip of a few years. Everyone’s a Young Adult now.
• Jugyeong goes to College, majoring in makeup (obviously).
• Jugyeong and Seojun start dating (!)
• Seojun sees Jugyeong’s bare face for the first time, he compliments her for it
• Seojun enters the Pop Idol Business at Jugyeong’s urging
• Jugyeong finds part-time work as a Makeup Artist
• After rumors about their relationship spreads online, Jugyeong breaks up with Seojun (!).
• Suho returns from Japan (!)
• Jugyeong gets a Stalker but fortunately, Suho eventually steps in.
• Seojun learns Suho is back, the Frenimies pick up where they left off.
• Suho learns Jungyeong and Seojun were dating while he was away (!)
• Jugyeong learns a friend is in an Abusive Relationship
• Jugyeong, Seojun and Suho end up spending a weekend together
• Suho and Seojun come clean about both having feelings for Jungyeong and settle the contest “like Men” (they get into a fistfight), Suho wins (!)
• Jugyeong shows her two high school friends her bare face for the first time.

 

That’s where we’re at to now. If you’ve been following the Webtoon to now, this is nothing new to you. If you haven’t read it yet or haven’t read much this year, go get yourself caught up! Oh and yes, I do think there is and should be a Season 2. I would end Season 2 with Suho’s return. End with a cliffhanger for Season 3.

 

 

Speaking of.

This is another Webtoon with a Live Drama Adaptation: My ID is Gangnam Beauty. I watched the Drama in full on Viki earlier this year but only last week did I find out it’s based on the Webtoon of the same name. With True Beauty, I started reading the Webtoon first and by the time the drama came out the current story was well past where the TV Series leaves off.

…I’m gonna read the Webtoon from the beginning so I’m caught up the story. Basically, the exact opposite of where I am in regards to True Beauty. The Webtoon App is free by the way. I have it on my iPad but you can also read on your phone or computer.

 

There was more I was gonna cover but with the next post I have in mind, I decided to cut things short.

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Here’s some recent Anime that I reccommend would make decent intros to the Medium

 

When I say “recent”, I mean they were released in the last 2 to 3 years. Weather you’re new to the world of anime or you have someone you want to bring in, it can be pretty overwhelming picking one. The first thing you want to keep in mind either way when picking you “entry” anime is keeping personal preferences in mind. You or your friend don’t have to like something just because others do or because it’s super popular (or “mainstream”).

There is literally an anime for everyone and even with the 2 to 3 year limit I put on this list, it’s not too hard to name some. Before I continue, as usual I am only going to reccommend Anime I have seen myself. All of these Anime are on Crunchyroll which is free but if you want to watch new episodes the same day they become available in Japan (Free users have to wait an extra week) and watch episodes without ads (You have 2 or 3 rounds of Ads per episode to sit through on the Free version), you’ll want to get a subscription.

 

Ok here’s my list. Bold means the anime season is ongoing as of this writing. Bold Italics means the Anime is ongoing AND new. If you see Italics, that means a new season is planned or has been announced. Whatever is plain text either aired in its entirety or there are no known plans for a new season to my knowledge as of this writing.

 

• The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!
• Fena: Pirate Princess
• Fruits Basket (2019-2021 version)
• Dr. Stone
• That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime
• I’m Standing on A Thousand Lives
• Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai
• Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You
• Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
• Rent a Girlfriend
• Ahiru no Sora
• Tokyo Revengers
• Persona 5: The Animation
• If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat A Demon Lord
• Somali and the Forest Spirit
• The Rising of The Shield Hero
• Remake Our Life!
• 86: Eighty-Six

 

Most of these are critically acclaimed by anime fans for various reasons. I tell everyone this but don’t feel like you have to binge watch one anime before moving on to another. Feel free to jump around between a few if you want. The only listed Anime I have not actually seen yet is Tokyo Revengers and that’s because I’m planning to watch the whole season or series when it finshes, whichever happens first.

I went with a list of Anime that covers a range of genres. There’s a bit of everything in short. Take your time and just dive right into whatever looks interesting to you. Like Sports? Ahiru no Sora (Basketball) would be a good one. Slice of Life? Rent a Girlfriend is a pretty good pick. Want Isekai? I’m partial to The Rising of the Shield Hero and That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime. Are you feelng Hungry? Get fed with Food Wars. Want something based on a video game? Persona 5’s is pretty faithful to the source material. Want to see a new type of Shonen? Dr. Stone is not only good but educational. Slice of Life? Fruits Basket. Needing Adventure? You can’t go wrong with Fena: Pirate Princess.

 

I can go on and on but…yeah. There are other anime that came out over the last 2 to 3 years of course. These are just the ones I personally reccommend. It doesn’t mean some of the others aren’t decent though. These are just my picks.

 

 

 

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I just started watching Eighty Six-86 and the moral controversy has some real world parallels that should not be ignored

 

I just finished watching the seventh episode on Crunchyroll and it is now my favorite new anime of 2021. Based on the Manga of the same name, 86 is the story of a country in the near future at war with rogue autonomous drones trying to invade the country’s far eastern boarder. The government and military boast it is a bloodless war since they claim to also use autonmous drones but the truth is much darker: In reality, the drones used by the country are piloted by people not considered human because they are not the “chosen race”. Since they are not considered human, they don’t exist as far as the government is concerned and so their deaths are never officially reported or acknowledged.

Yes, really.

This goes there and it doesn’t try to shy away or gloss over the obvious moral controversy. In fact, that is the story.

Of course, the general public is ignorant of the truth and to an extent is complicit due to the racism. Only those with silver hair and blue eyes are considered “human” while everyone else is not as far as the country is concerned. The anime is called 86 because those not considered human are confined to the county’s 86th Region on the edge of the country. These people are referred to collectively as The 86 or simply 86. They have no human or civil rights and live far from the eyes and thoughts of the rest of the Albins, which is the name of the “chosen race”.

Due to the government and media propaganda boasting “zero human casualties” in the war, officially their deaths in combat are not reported or recorded. The fact the 86 are not considered human and the battlefront is far away makes it very easy to cover up what would easily be considered human rights violations of the worst kind. Since they are not recognized as human, there is no reason or need to acknowledge their deaths as far as the government is concerned.

On that note. Episode 5 confirms what viewers were probably thinking to that point: The real plan for the country is for them to use the war to kill off all the 86. Since they are not considered human, there is no reason or need to acknowledge their involvement in the war to the public. As is revealed, 86 staying in concentration camps are basically pressed into military service with the empty promise of freedom and full citizenship if they survive 5 years of meaningless fighting. Of course, they are well aware that they are being lied to from the start and the sole purpose is for them to be killed off.

This is, of course to say nothing of the severe PTSD the 86 suffer throughout. More so knowing their death can come at any time and no one would know or care. As a reminder, the general population doesn’t know the truth and for the most part wouldn’t care about the truth if it were known. Again, since the 86 are not considered people their deaths are never officially acknowledged or counted beyond the codename “Processors”. As a reminder, the public are told unmanned drones do the fighting and so there will always be zero human casualties so…yeah.

…Sorry to veer into politics with this but some countries have a long, dark history of exploiting minority populations for military purposes since ancient times. Sometimes when a kindgom annexes another kingdom, instead of their own people they will press the people of the conquered territory into forced military service.  More recently, when ISIS carved up the Middle East 10 years ago they didn’t slaughter everyone. They gave the men a choice: “Fight for us or die”.  So, the plot for this anime is right out of the pages of history to say the least.

With everything going on in the world right now, it’s not hard to imagine scenarios like this happening again. I look at the U.S., Russia, China, The Philippines, Nigeria, India and Brazil being just a few countries that are more than capable of doing something like this in the near future. That’s based on what I’ve seen in all those countries. Is it a violation of human rights? Of course. Would the public give a damn at tthe end of the day? Of course not.

I’ll put it like this: Today, 13 U.S. Troops were killed in Afghanistan but dozens if not hundreds of Afghan civilians were also killed in the same attack. The media has almost entirely been on the American soldiers killed while the Afghan victims are basically footnotes in comparison. I’ll take it a step further. No one in the U.S. outside the military and their families give a damn about the U.S. Troops killed and injured today. I’ll just put it like that. As far as most laypeople are concerned, “Soldiers know they could die when deployed to dangerous parts of the world.” Why else do you think all the keyboard warriors are sounding off and have been since the crisis in Afghanistan blew up last week?

All that said and moving back to 86. The world has rightfully become very concerned by the U.S. government starting to rely on unmanned drones for both surveilance and combat missions more and more. Don’t get the wrong idea, no one objects to the idea of not having to needlessly risk human casualties for these things. The concerns lie in governments and by extension the people of countries that use military drones becoming desensitized to the often wanton destruction their military’s drones remotely inflict on human populations in distant lands.

It’s not really a secret the U.S., Russia and China all have Cyber Corps Divisions. Their primary purpose is defense but in the case of Russia and China in particular, they also engage in offense at the discretion of their commanders and high-ranking government officials. It’s not a stretch to assume some military bases in all three countries have computer terminals from which these cyber soldiers remotely operate drones deployed to other countries (so far).

I do know in regars to the U.S., Military Drones are replacing manned military jets for recon missions and in more cases bombing missions. No longer does the U.S. Air Force have to wait until the cover of night to do bombing runs. They can simply deploy a drone as the advance force to devastate targets on the ground, then send in soldiers to clean up afterward. No longer are fighter pilots risking being shot down in enemy territory.

So far, countries that have military drones have only been using them for either surveilance or in counterterrorism operations. You’d be a fool to not know it’s only a matter of time before two countries with military drone go to war with each other. If a country with military drones goes to war with a country without drones, it goes without saying the country with drones would be at a huge advantage. They could penetrate deep behind enemy lines and even when shot down, the attacking forces have still suffered–wait for it–no human casualties.

…You get the real world connection with 86 now?

While the drones used IRL are being remotely controlled by people, that still doesn’t take away the moral concerns with using them in an actual war. The prospect alone has been quite the derrent for the world’s military superpowers to fight each other so far but it’s anyone’s guess how long that can be maintained.

 

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So many interesting new Anime on Crunchyroll lately

 

…Which is good considering the rest of Attack on Titan’s final season is on hiatus, Black Clover’s final episode aired on my birthday (March 30) and it’s still not clear if the Quintessential Quintuplets will have a third season after the announced movie or if it will be like Demon Slayer + Mugen Train. As the saying goes, time will tell.

 

Ok let’s start with this Anime:

Honestly, I was pretty turned off by Sayu constantly trying to seduce Yoshida off the jump even after finding out where that’s “normal” to her at the end of the latest episode. Yoshida putting his foot down in the latest episode is why I’ve decided to keep watching.

The basic premise of the show is Yoshida meets Sayu, a 17-year old runaway the same night he’s dumped and decides to let her stay at his apartment until she’s ready to go back home. The Anime seems to be trying to avoid the Rom-Com route in favor of Slice of Life which is good since neither of the leads are complete idiots.

Now that Yoshida’s reaffirmed his boundaries, it looks like he’s going to do what he can to help her unlearn a lot of the bad stuff she picked up before they met. The preview for the next episode indicates Sayu will get a part time job at a convenience store. Should be interesting.

 

Here we have a new Isekai with RPG references to hold us over and no, there is no connection to That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime (On hiatus, likely until Winter) or its spinoff series Slime Diaries (more on this in a bit).

It’s been a pretty interesting Anime so far since like most Isekai these days, the lead is OP but doesn’t want the attention that comes with it. The supporting cast is being introduced so far which is a good way to keep the focus away from the lead too much. It’s quite interesting so far and assuming it’s 12 or 13 episodes long, it should wrap up mid-summer.

 

 

Honestly, I like this anime because of the simple fact you get a bonus episode each week featuring the voice actresses of the four leads. A lot of care clearly went into both. You can tell from the interactions between the voice actresses that it was a labor of love.

The animed and live episodes were both obviously done during the Pandemic. It’s a nice slice of life series to say the least.

The 2019 reimagining of Fruits Basket has been quite the departure from the original 2001 series to say the least. Season 2 ended with the shocking revealation Akito Soma is actually Female. It’s revealed in the opening episode of Season 3–the final season–that Akito was born Female but her mother–whom she is extranged from partly for this reason–decreed she be raised as Male.

Akito’s true gender is a closely guarded secret even within the family though clearly that might not be the case for too much longer: At the end of episode 2, Shigure reveals to Akito his and always has been madly in love with her.  Though it’s offscreen, it’s implied they then have sex. If Akito got pregnant from that, it would be very difficult to keep her true gender a secret for much longer.

We will have to wait and see how things go. The first two seasons were 25 episodes. I have no reason to believe this will not bet the case for Season 3.

While That TIme I Got Reincarnated As A Slime‘s current season is on hiatus, we are getting a spinoff series to help pass the time. The slice of life spinoff appears to take place between Seasons 1 and 2. It’s literally filler and yes, there is also a Manga version.

Is it necessary to watch before Season 2 resumes? Obviously not but if you’re a fan of the original series, it’s sure to be entertaining at least.

Square-Enix was clearly smart to not base it on any of the mainline games released so far. That takes a lot of pressure off of it to say the least and it’s been paying off.

The recent revealation Dai is actually the son of Baran wasn’t too surprising for some given there were clues that heavily implied a connection. Like Hyunckel, Baran had an experience in his younger days as a Dragon Knight that made him turn his back on Humanity. Dai was born during that time and eventually ended up on the Monster Island where he grows up.

Having now slain Baran’s three top warriors, Hyunckel appears intent on trying to convince Baran it’s not too late to change course like he did after learning of his past. Hyunckel was initially raised by monsters and had been led to believe Avan, the man who trained him (as well as Dai, Popp and Maam) killed the skeleton who raised him. He was later tricked by Hadlar into turning his back on Humanity and became the leader of the Undead Legion in the Dark Army.

After learning the truth from Maam, Hyunckel decides to join Beast King Crocodine in aiding the Students of Avan fight the Dark Army. After the group rescues Princess Leona and slays Flazzard, Maam’s Magic Bullet Gun breaks so she decides to leave the group to train as a Martial Artist. It’s looking likely she will return after the current storyline finishes so we’ll see.

 

…Whew.

So much anime to look forward to over the next few months. I plan to do another post like this around this time next month. I may start a new job in the next week or two so I’ll need the extra time anyway.

 

 

 

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Rakuten Viki and Crunchyroll Renewed for another year; Reviews for Recently Completed Anime

 

Despite the Pandemic turning most of the world into shut-ins, I haven’t been able to spend most of this year consistently binging Asian Dramas on Viki. Such is my life sadly. Even so, I did manage to watch almost 30 shows in their entirety over the last year. With a lot of the stuff I have cued and am watching now, it makes the most sense for me to renew my Viki subscription for another year. With the things I am working on in life right now, I know I will be able to make the time for Viki in the coming year. Same with Crunchyroll, which I also plan to renew in a few months.

The majority of Viki’s offerings are from China and South Korea. There is a modest selection from Japan and Taiwan however. Like other streaming services, a lot of it has to do with licensing. If you get either of the premium subscriptions, you get immediate access to shows still airing. The more expensive subscription (Premium+) gives you access to everything the platform has to offer barring regional restrictions. When I start working, I will upgrade to Premium+ for both Viki and Crunchyroll.

Nearly a year after Funimation abruptly ended their partnership with Crunchyroll, Sony (which owns Funimation) has announced they have bought Crunchyroll (owned by WarnerMedia) for almost $2 Billion. The sale has to clear some regulatory hurtles which is expected to so the purchase is effectively a done deal.

The reactions from fans and users of Crunchyroll online has been overwhelmingly negative since the news broke on December 9. As of this writing, Crunchyroll has announced the buyout/merger on their website but no further information is available. Most likely, they don’t know themselves yet. We don’t know if Crunchyroll and Funimation’s streaming services will continue to operate separately or will be merged. We might not know until maybe next month most likely.

The funny thing is the same day as this announcement, I renewed my Crunchyroll Premium for another year. I don’t think those who are currently subscribed will be impacted without at least be offered compensation personally. I remember when Neon Alley being folded into Hulu was first announced, they offered a full or partial refund to premium subscribers if they didn’t want to switch over. I expect something like that to be offered if Crunchyroll is folded into Funimation. Of course, it’s certainly possible they will be allowed to perate separately but all we can really do is wait and see.

 

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a minute to comment on the political controversy surrounding the Live Action Mulan movie. Originally planned for a March theatrical release, the movie was released in July on Disney+ due to the ongoing Pandemic in progress. The movie has become a lightning rod of criticism because Disney thanked government officials in Xinjiang Province where the movie was filmed in the movie’s credits.

Why is that a problem?

It turns out a detention center imfamous for being used to house Muslims for “Re-Education” is located not far from where most of the movie was filmed. Disney explained they chose that region for the movie “after consulting scholars and historians”. The movie used an all-Chinese cast and crew. This can easily be handwaved away as just appeasing the Chinese government and public but some now believe the filming location being so close to the Detention Center may have been why they wanted to keep a lot of details under wraps even from Disney.

It’s not hard to believe Chinese government officials worked with the film crew to help keep Disney from knowing about the Detention Center during filming. I get Disney’s hands were tied mostly due to soured relations between the U.S. and China in recent years but that’s still no excuse. They should’ve realized something was up when they were basically told certain areas were off-limits.

Disney dropped the ball big time and not just over this. Liu Yufei, who plays Mulan in the movie expressed her support for Hong Kong Police last year. Anyone following the news involving China and Hong Kong in recent years knows how volatile things are now. Yufei, who is a Chinese-born American made the remarks on her Weibo Account (Weibo is China’s version of Twitter for those who don’t know). Many perceived her support of the authorities in Hong Kong as support of the sometimes violent crackdowns in Hong Kong by the Chinese government.

Yufei’s comments on Weibo and the Xinjiang Detention Center controversy has led to many wordwide to call for Mulan to be boycotted. Thailand and Taiwan have both banned the movie. Many in China criticized the original 1998 animated version, feeling it was too Westernized and seemed to mock Chinese history in some regards. A lot of the criticsm from within China towards the live version has to do with hand signals and gestures used during the movie’s action scenes lookng too “Ninja-like”. I would point the blame toward whoever from the Chinese government was supposed to oversee the Chinese version of the movie.

For those who don’t know, two versions of the movie were made: The International version and a second version just for Chinese-speaking audiences. Every scene was shot twice, once in English and once in Chinese. This is why the entire cast is Chinese. I do think Disney will be forced to reshoot the International version a third time because of the controversy with the lead role recast. Disney should have redid the whole movie after Yufei’s comments went public last year but I won’t digress further.

I am on the fence about watching the movie myself but I’m leaning toward not seeing it. Mostly because of how poorly recieved it’s been in China more than anything else. I just hope Disney learned from all this or they will be in trouble down the road.

Both versions of the movie is based on a Chinese folk tale called Hua Mulan, which tells the story of a young heroine who disguises herself as a man to take the place of her ailing father to fight in the Imperial Army. The first movie renewed debate in China as to weather or not this really happened. At first it was dismissed as fiction but historical records from the period the folk tale was believed to have come from seems to indicate it’s likely true.

At the time drafts only applied to sons, not daughters as the army was all Male. If the family had no sons, the father or grandfather would be drafted. The consript was given to the family which required one Male from the family to serve in the military. Anyone who tried to defy the draft risked their entire family being punished or killed. Only families that had no Males capable of fighting were excused from the draft. In the case of Mulan’s family, her father was a decorated soldier in his younger days. It’s not clear weather he was in poor health or had an injury but regardles, he accepted the conscript on behalf of the family. Mulan took matters into her own hands when she took off with the conscript and her father’s armor.

While women disguising themselves as men to get military training or fight in the miliary was not uncommon, most who were found out were sent home, executed or raped. Some like Mulan who proved themselves capable and earned the respect of her fellow soldiers were allowed to return home after serving in the military.

 

 

The last two episodes were clearly rushed but the ending was still very satisfying. It ended the same way it began prettymuch: Yukihira trying to get Erina to be honest about her feelings to him. There was so much going on in the last two episodes, they should have been split into 2 or 3 episodes each. You have Yukihira beating Saiba to go on and face Erina. We all knew that was the showdown being built towards.

Joichiro being revealed to have mentored Saiba when he was a kid explains a lot of his personal animosity towards Yukihira. Joichiro telling Saiba after the match “I will always be your father as a chef.” was pretty boss. Finding out during the credits Saiba and Erina were actually half-siblings though…that makes certain thoughts go through your head until you realize neither of them knew they were blood related until after the fact and almost off-screen. Their dad basically says “Oh by the way Erina you know that guy who wanted to marry you if he won? He’s actually your older half-brother.” That right there is a whole episode. So was Yukihira traveling abroad for 6 months after losing to Nakiri in the final match. Instead that was skipped entirely to his return for the final moments of the series.

Make no mistake Food Wars was an amazing anime from start to finish. Delays between seasons 4/5, 4/3 and 3/2 did slow momentum but not to the extent the months-long delay two episodes into the final season due to COVID-19 caused. It didn’t take away from the rest of the season though. My only real complaint is how rushed the last two episodes were. They tried to do too much in them and it came out looking sloppy to me.

 

 

 

This Anime’s lead character is a legit Mary Sue yet somehow this Anime makes it work by not making him the focus from start to finish. Instead, the focus is put world building. Somehow, it just works. The ending kinda leaves the door open for a second season but I felt like this was it.

 

 

 

Ahiru no Sora was quite the amazing coming of age anime with a bit of everything. Sure, the ending is unresolved but I think it was the safe way to close things out.

If they decide to make a Season 2, there’s plenty of material to work with now.

 

Fire Force Season 2 just wrapped up and now the wait is on for Season 3.

 

Most of Season 2 focused on character development as well as world building. The Season ended with the news all eight Special Fire Force companies as well as the Hajima Company and the Military will coming together to take on a common enemy in the mysterious White Clad and their benefactor, the malevolent Evangelist. Season 3 will presumably delve into their backstory as the stage is set for war between them and the Fire Force.

Season 3 hasn’t been announced yet and likely due to the ongoing Pandemic. All we know is there WILL be one eventually.

 

…Whew.

Folks should expect the next season for most Anime to be delayed due to COVID-19. Attack of Titan and Dr. Stone’s season premeires were originally supposed to be over the summer but they were pushed back due to the ongoing pandemic. The next season for Rising of The Shield Hero was also supposed to be around this time but it’s been pushed to sometime next year for the same reason.

Attack on Titan’s final season just premiered. I’ll do a recap of the story up to now for the benefit of those who may not have been following Attack on Titan’s story since the first season AND haven’t read the Manga. From how the final season opened, we’re going to be getting a lot of backstory that should tie up a lot of loose ends and explain where the Titans came from.

 

 

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Vic Mignogna is beginning to pay the price for his arrogance

 

…I do feel like at this point, it’s safe to say we may be seeing the beginning of the end of Vic Mignogna’s professional career as an actor and voice actor.

 

Anime News Network’s January 30 article (a new window will open) sums up the situation better than I ever could and I urge you to read it if you haven’t yet. As noted in the article, they like everyone else was hesitant to run the story simply because of the man involved: Legendary English voice actor Vic Mignogna. Above are pics of him with 8 of his most known roles. He voiced Broly in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie as well.

It’s pretty obvious from reading the article much care was taken by the author to keep their emotions in check and not appear to favor one side over the other. Clearly it was a story that they had been working on for years at least with the sources vetted for accuracy. While most of the allegations come from congoers and all of them come years after the fact, some have come from fellow voice actors as well. The allegations come from men as well as women.

Anime News Network provided an update here in which it was announced Vic has been removed from RWBY. The article also notes Vic’s appearances at 13 convention appearances were cancelled but he is still booked for five. Over the years, more and more conventions have been quietly blacklisting him because of the unsolicited inappropriate physical contact alleged by congoers backed by witnesses.

 

Speaking of conventions. I made a thread on Anime Boston’s forums last week requesting comment. Chris O’Donnell, who is Anime Boston’s Director of Public Relations responded shortly after I made the thread:

“Mr. Mignonga has not been a Guest of Honor at Anime Boston since 2006. None of the reported allegations, as far as we are aware, occurred at Anime Boston. As such, we have no comment regarding these reports at this time.”

For reasons that should be obvious, he is not at liberty to say any more than that. Anime Boston does have actual experience in the area of invited Guests of Honor being the subject of allegations like this. A few years ago, longtime convention guest and voice actor Tom Wayland sexually assaulted a female convention staff member. The incident reportedly happened in the Sheraton Hotel, which is one of the venues used by the convention and it happened during the weekend-long event. He was a convention favorite alongside fellow longtime guest Greg Ayers and often brought his kids with him to the convention.

The New England Anime Society (NEAS), which is the parent company of Anime Boston banned him for life and the victim took him to court. That was the incident that made congoers realize they needed to be mindful of inappropriate conduct not just from other congoers or members of the public but people from the industry as well. NEAS set the standard for how all conventions should approach allegations involving people from the industry and public figures. You certainly don’t ignore or silence those who come forward.

Getting back to Vic’s indescretions. He did put out a public statement on January 21 which Anime News Network included in the first link from above and it is mostly in reaction to a Twitter thread from January 16. Here it is in full:

Most of it is the usual victim blaming and “They just want to ruin me” drivel you would come to expect from a public figure. In response to the allegations of inappropriate physical contact with Congoers and fellow industry members, he basically waves it off as “That’s how I interact with my family” and that’s the problem. You’re not meeting with family. You are meeting with members of the general public. Yes they’re fans of your work but that doesn’t give you a free pass to do whatever you want. He does say at the end he will change how he interacts from now on because of how much attention it’s been getting lately first and more likely his bottom line is being effected second. He let the fame go to his head in short.

This past weekend, Vic issued a public statement at a convention and was likely in reaction to the ANN article:

This should have come 10+ years ago.

For those who don’t know, he was approached about the allegations MANY TIMES by people in the industry. Fellow voice actress Monica Rial mentioned via Twitter she confronted him about it twice and complained to others higher up and she was silenced. Why was her voice, those involved and many others silenced or ignored?

Because it’s Vic Mignogna that’s why.

It’s clear in the video he finally got it and owns up to how he made so many people feel for almost 20 years. I don’t doubt the sincerity in the video at all and it’s clear he knows he hurt alot of people and let a lot of people down. I just hope he knows there is no one thing he could do that would make everything right.

I doubt everyone will forgive him but seeing as he did finally own it and apologized, his longtime fan club the Risembool Rangers needs to follow his lead and apologize for their part in helping to surpress the voices of those who spoke up over the years. Blind faith is no faith at all. No one is perfect and he has shown remorse for how he made others feel. His willingness do that shows me he is truly sorry. The thing those who insist on defending him no matter what need to prepare themselves for is more coming forward as well as civil lawsuits against him. Most likely he will settle as many of them out of court as possible. No one is perfect and when the people we look up to make mistakes, they should be held accountable. More so when they’re public figures.

It is important to know that there are no winners in a situation like this.

Vic’s reputation is permanently tarnished, alot of people who violated and many more people were silenced. Hopefully everyone involved can find peace. I don’t think this will destroy Vic professionally and more so now that he’s publicly apologized and owned it. I do think he should cancel his 5 remaining convention appearances for the year and take some time away from voice work though. He can make a comeback but first he should step away for a bit.

 

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Attack on Titan set to end in 2019; The story so far

 

…It’s hard to believe it’s only been 5 years since Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin burst onto the scene and became a GLOBAL Phenomenon out the gate. Five years after it began, series creator Hajime Isayama (Also had a part in Death Note) announced over the summer during an interview the iconic series will end next year.

 

He allowed cameras to capture him drawing what will be the final panel of the series:

The dialogue bubble says “You are free.” No context was given, presumably on purpose. The two leading theories from fans are it’s either Eren and his daughter or an unknown pair many years later.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Season 3 of the Anime is taking a 6-month hiatus and will resume in April 2019. The reason given is so that action scenes in the second half of the season can be properly done right but this may be the other reason: To give time for the Manga to wrap up. I have the Manga volumes up to 20 but plan to get the rest up to present once I have income again.

It is worth noting the Live Action movies did use plot elements from the Manga that hadn’t been approached yet. I’m specifically talking about the origins of the Titans and how the world was before the walled kingdom. The timeline including the events of the prequel Before the Fall series seems to be a few hundred years from the present. Researchers develop what we know as the Titan Serum, a special cocktail that will cause the person injected with it into a Titan. The first Titans unleashed on the world wiped out whole nations single-handedly and in fact, 80% of the world’s knowledge was lost shortly afterward.

Most of the world’s survivor erected the walled city and hid from the Titans inside. As we know, there WERE other humans who lived outside but due to the country’s strict control of information and knowledge, those who lived within were ignorant of the world beyond the walls. If anyone knew how to kill a Titan before, that knowledge was lost by the time the Before the Fall series begins. The series takes place 100 years before the start of AoT and the Omni-Directional Movement Gear (ODM Gear for short) is introduced for the first time. The first known successful Titan kill is recorded during that time as well.

Anyone who knows the series knows a Titan’s one weak point is the nape of the neck. Using paring blades with the ODM Gear, humans could now kill Titans by attacking thir weak point. The main series seems pretty straightforward but then a curveball is thrown when it is revealed Eren and other humans have the power to turn into Titans at will. Even worse, there are traitors among them. In ousting the traitors, the Survey Corps becomes aware of a closely guarded conspiracy going back many generations within the government and both Erin and Krista are key.

It’s revealed Krista is really Historia, the illegitimate daughter of the last remaining member of the royal bloodline. To protect her life, her father arranged for her to live under an assumed name but times have changed. In the end, Historia decides to turn on her father and decide her own life on her own terms. She backs the military-led coup de tat and inadvertently ends up cutting down her father after he turns into a gian Titan. This allows the military to present their new Queen to the people as a Hero.

It’s revealed along the way that Mikasa, Levi and he man who raised him named Kenny are all from the Ackerman Clan. Their clan is one of two who are immune to the power of the royal family’s bloodline. By the time AOT begins, the three named people are the only known members of the Ackerman Clan still alive. Mikasa’s mother was a member of the clan but she along with Mikasa’s father were both killed by bandits. She was taken in by the Jaeger family after the incident. Levi was raised and trained by Kenny, who kept their shared heritage a secret out of convenience. Yes, his full name is Levi Ackerman. He had no clue until Kenny told him in the end. With Kenny dead (cue South Park reference lol) that leaves Mikasa and Levi as the sole known members of the Ackerman Clan left alive. The rest were killed off or went into hiding (which Mikasa’s mother did).

I am not up to date on where the story currently is–not yet anyway–but I do plan to own all the volumes of the Manga. I have plenty of space on my bookshelves. I do feel that AOT will be remembered as one of the most engaging anime ever. Its global reach goes without saying. I do remember hearing a few years back that Marvel approached Isayama about doing an AOT crossover. On that note, the spinoff series Attack on Titan Junior High was done with his blessing (Unlike in the US, Fan Fiction is protected in Japan and more so when you have the original author’s permission).

I can say for sure Attack on Titan is on my top 10-all time Anime list. I’m sure it is for alot of folks. It’s certainly one to remember!

 

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I now have Crunchyroll Premium for 12 months!

 

…It took some time and effort but I made the money needed to get it. I made it official yesterday afternoon. I now have Crunchyroll Premium through December 7, 2019. I am already preparing to renew for another 12 months when the time comes.

It goes without saying I have ALOT of Anime to both catch up on and watch since my subscription expired at the end of June. A bit of news and updates on a few Anime I know of so far:

 

• Attack on Titan Season 3 is taking a 6-month hiatus. The (obviously planned) hiatus is to allow time for the action sequences to be done right in the second half of the season. The story up to now ends with Eren, Mikasa and Levi about find out what Eren’s father had stashed in the basement of their home. The leading guess is a truckload of Weed. Season 3 is set to resume Spring 2019.
• Ace Attorney Season 2 covers the events of the third game, Trials and Tribulations. The English Dub for the first season (the events of the first two games) recently became available on Crunchyroll so if you didn’t watch it subbed last year, you can take your pick. The Dub and Sub run as separate episodes just so you know. Some An Anime-exclusive case is currently ongoing. Before that, a flashback episode focusing on Miles Edgeworth makes reference to the spinoff game Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.
• The Persona 5 Anime is done “for now” though the plan is for the story to be wrapped up in a movie set to be released early next year. I own the game so I know the plot obviously. It’s a question of weather or not said OVA will get released on Crunchyroll. Korosuke’s Basketball got OVAs that focused on just the games so we’ll see. I hope it gets released on Crunchyroll but we’ll have to wait and see.
• My Hero Academia is (wait for it!) taking a break until next year. Unlike Attack on Titan, this time it’s to allow time for the Manga to progress a bit further before they continue the Anime. This should be looked at as good news for MHA fans as this means there probably won’t be Filler Arcs like we saw in other Anime. Advance notice was given before the current storyline began. I assume the release of both the MHA Movie and video game were timed to help keep series fans busy while they wait.

 

That’s some news as I know right now. I understandably stepped away from Anime after my subscription expired over the summer so…yeah. I have been keeping up with new popular anime that has been released since then but first, I want to get caught up what I was watching when my subscription expired. I expect that alone to take at least the rest of the month. Although my laptop is broken, I can still stream Crunchyroll using my PS4 or iPad. I have Viki and AsianCrush on my iPad as well so…yeah. Anywho, I will provide updates as I go along for those who I’m sure missed my updates. As before, I’m sure I’ll do more watching than writing!

Before I forget, I do want to explain AnimeKat’s absence. Her family has been dealing with financial issues for most of this year and understandably she has been focused on that. I can’t give a timeline for when she may return unfortunately but keep her in your thoughts.

 

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Jump Force and My Hero One’s Justice announced at E3

Two games based on Mega Popular Anime were announced over the weekend, both fighting games.

…Once you’ve finished picking your jaw off the floor, note what wasn’t shown and what was shown. Goku, Naruto and Luffy were obvious. Same with Frieza as well. Light and Ryuk from Death Note appearingh at the end…HOLY SHIT!

Here’s a few other names I’ll drop that I’m sure will make the cut:

• Ichigo Kurosaki
• Rukia Kuchiki
• Naruto Uzumaki (Child and Teen versions as separate characters)
• Sasuke Uchiha (Child and Teen versions as separate characters)
• Sakura Haruno (Child and Teen versions as separate characters)
• Boruto Uzumaki
• Sarada Uchiha
• Mitsuki
• Goku (Child and Adult versions as separate characters + All canon forms)
• Vegeta (All Canon Forms)
• Piccolo
• Beerus (from Dragonball Super)
• Hit (From Dragonball Super)
• Kale (From Dragonball Super)
• Caulifla (From Dragonball Super)
• Jiren (From Dragonball Super)
• Broly
• Frieza (All forms including new Gold Form)
• Eren Yeager (able to use Titan Form)
• Mikasa Akerman
• Levi
• Asta
• Yuno
• Edward Elric
• Alphonse Elric (Suit of Armor version)
• Roy Mustang
• Alex Louis Armstrong

…I know those are alot of names from just a handful of franchises but I’m fairly sure that it will be a large playable roster. I’m also sure many shows will be represented as well. Some of those names could very well be DLC Characters as well.

Jump Force will be released on the PS4, Xbox One and PC later this year. I intend to get it obviously. LOL.

…We knew a game would be coming sooner or later so…yeah. So much is revealed in this 2-minute trailer. The game uses the Unreal Engine just like Jump Force will so you know they went all in. The inclusion of Pro Heroes, Stain and Villains is icing on the cake. More so since it seems the game’s storyline will follow the Anime’s up to a certain point like most Anime games tend to. All Might vs. All for One in game will be EPIC, more so given their fight in last week’s episode.

My Hero One’s Justice will be released later this year on the PS4. I plan to get it as well. Time to go beyond! Plus Ultra!