Well_known_bear's recent activity
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Comment on Anime: Your personal year in review for 2025 in ~anime
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Comment on Anime: Your personal year in review for 2025 in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkPretty good year overall! I'll limit this to 2025 because holy cow, that's still an absolute ton of shows given how much is coming out these days. Favourites of 2025 Shōshimin: I love this even...Pretty good year overall!
I'll limit this to 2025 because holy cow, that's still an absolute ton of shows given how much is coming out these days.
Favourites of 2025
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Shōshimin: I love this even more than Hyouka. The oddball platonic dynamic between the two protagonists and their verbal and mental sparring is so satisfying to watch, and the commitment to telling a full story with an arc over the course of their school life together pays off wonderfully.
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CITY: Weekly dose of joy.
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Mono: Weekend animation: Just such a cheerful, fun and undemanding show backed by a likeable cast, great performances (Kiriyama is a standout) and nice fluid animation.
Disappointments of 2025
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Mobile Suit Gundam Gquuuuuux: Look, I like UC Gundam as much as the next guy, but if the intention was to focus so heavily on Char's story, they should have just made him the protagonist like in Origin. All three of the actual protagonists come off as undercooked and the ending just devolved into a slurry of fanservice. Credit to Tsurumaki for the great animation but Anno does not deliver on the writing.
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One Punch Man S3: Shounen Jump has paid so much care and attention to nurturing their other series (even Jump Plus stablemates like Spy Family and Chainsaw Man) that I'm so curious as to how they fumbled this. One Punch Man may not be their flagship title, but it's well known and beloved both within Japan and overseas and very easy material to adapt - this should have been a slam dunk! I would love to see the Shirobako-style insider story as to what went wrong here one day.
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Lazarus: I don't want to say this is a bad show, because it is fun to watch week to week and it has some great action. However, everyone went in with sky high expectations because this was meant to be Watanabe Shinichirou's return to the genre that made him a legend, and it just doesn't come together as a package in the same way as his earlier work. Would have worked better if they'd either cut some stuff like the assassin guy or extended it to a full 26 episode run.
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3-nen Z-gumi Ginpachi-sensei: I just wanted more Gintama, but instead I got someone writing a totally different show using Gintama's characters. Awful.
Surprises of 2025
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Chainsaw Man: Reze arc: I was rather cynically expecting this to just be the next season packaged as a more profitable movie, but on top of delivering everything that you could want from Chainsaw Man (flashy action, off-beat writing and imaginative visuals), it's just a great movie in its own right and absolutely not the sort of story that should be told in episodes. The tender performance for Reze in particular is just outstanding and really invites you to go back and imagine what's going through her head in the earlier scenes once you've seen the entire story play out.
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Ruri no Houseki: It's an anime about
rocksminerals, but it's actually pretty good? Despite the abundance of unnecessary fan service, it's genuinely educational and beautifully drawn and animated to boot. -
Apocalypse Hotel: It shouldn't work on paper but somehow it does. The sheer unpredictability and variety in the episodes, the weird sense of humour and the strangely heartwarming themes all come together in one tasty soup. As someone who rarely takes holidays, the forced holiday episode is one that will remain in my memory for a long time.
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Link Click: Great Nolan-esque time travel thriller that really shows off what Chinese studios are becoming capable of.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkIn The Hundred Line, there's a character who enjoys the most horrific, gut-punchingly shocking adult games, and in a specific conversation, she recommends a list of her favourites. All of these...In The Hundred Line, there's a character who enjoys the most horrific, gut-punchingly shocking adult games, and in a specific conversation, she recommends a list of her favourites. All of these are real games, and out of morbid curiosity, I wrote them down to check out at some point. Suffice to say that the writers did their homework, because these are exactly the sort of games you would imagine this character playing. Even as a VN nerd who enjoys horror and is pretty thoroughly desensitised to anything you can do to fictional characters, it's a lot.
To balance this out, the rest of my gaming time is being spent on cute, colourful games that are simply joyful to play.
Öoo
Short but delightful.
The mechanics of the game are very simple - all you can do is move, lay bombs and detonate them - but through its puzzle design, the game is constantly teaching you new ways to use those mechanics. Instead of powering up your character with new items or skills, it's the player who is being powered up with a better understanding of what can be done with the existing mechanics, which feels very satisfying.
The puzzles themselves also feel very well tuned in a way that usually demands some experimentation (so that the player often feels like they're organically discovering the new techniques which the room is designed to impart) and lateral thinking while never being so hard that you're banging your head against a wall with no idea where to start.
Add on top of that some simple but expressive pixel art and a bopping soundtrack and you've got a great little package that pretty much anyone can enjoy.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch 2)
It's basically Super Mario 3D World / Land with Kirby, which is great because I loved those games.
All of his moves and mechanics from the 2D games are here (on top of a cute but completely unnecessary soulslike dodge) so you're pretty overpowered, but it's a great game to just chill out to as you 100% a level or two a day. Each level has plenty of secrets and collectibles to find, but the levels themselves are short and you receive enough of a hint as to where to go / what to do that none of it ever feels obnoxious.
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Comment on Kyoto Animation to produce RuriDragon anime in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkExtremely brief teaser here. No release date announced, but sounds like it might not be 2026. The manga's been through a lot including a fairly long pause in serialisation, but the anime was only...Extremely brief teaser here. No release date announced, but sounds like it might not be 2026.
The manga's been through a lot including a fairly long pause in serialisation, but the anime was only a matter of time given the popularity of the series (possibly the last remaining big Jump Plus hit that hadn't yet been animated). Kyoto Animation should be a good fit for the content too.
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Kyoto Animation to produce RuriDragon anime
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkFLAG Watched this after seeing the review in this weekly. I'd never even heard of this show, but it turned out to be interesting stuff. In terms of vibe, it's definitely the anime equivalent of...FLAG
Watched this after seeing the review in this weekly. I'd never even heard of this show, but it turned out to be interesting stuff.
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In terms of vibe, it's definitely the anime equivalent of seinen manga. Yeah, there are cool 'real robot' mechs and even a decent amount of action, but the real substance of the story is not spoon fed to the audience - being an outsider vs belonging / participating, the power of imagery vs the imperative to protect it and so on. I dug all of this!
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On the other hand, the presentation of the story almost solely through camera lenses (those of its two protagonists, the on-board cameras of the military, etc) got old for me very quickly. Yeah, I get that it ties in with the themes of the show and is meant to give it a Blair Witch kind of verisimilitude, but it ended up feeling really disjointing to have to sit through someone going through a menu on their camera between each cut. I wish they would have at least cut out those transition parts.
Sakamoto Days
If you can picture Anzai-sensei from Slam Dunk as John Wick trying to retire and live a quiet life with his family, only to constantly have other assassins, mafia and so on mess with him, you've pretty much got the picture.
When you've got Sugita Tomokazu as a comic badass, his earnest but dorky sidekick and a vaguely Chinese martial artist heroine with a terrible accent starring in a Shounen Jump action/comedy, it's hard not to draw the obvious comparison to Gintama - and in many ways, the vibe (and even the comedic roles and timing of the main characters) is similar, although some of the latter's sharp wit has been traded off for better animation.
Easy and fun watch.
Banana Fish
Checked this out after seeing the clips of the terrible AI dub and thinking the animation looked pretty decent (turns out it was done by Mappa).
It's an interesting one. All of the stuff I was expecting is in there - action, shoot-outs and crime - but in equal parts, it's also a dark drama with a heavy focus on the relationship between the two male leads. Although there's nothing too graphic, the story really doesn't pull any punches when it comes to things like sexuality and child abuse. It's all presented in a remarkably frank way which I think is not uncommon in Western shows, but quite rare for anime.
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Comment on Minky Momo to release first new OAV in thirty-one years in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkWait, hear me out before you close the tab! I may be an old bloke, but even I'm not old enough to have been into Minky Momo in real time - and yet, there's something about this story and the...Wait, hear me out before you close the tab!
I may be an old bloke, but even I'm not old enough to have been into Minky Momo in real time - and yet, there's something about this story and the recent trend of anime necromancy which fascinates me (see also High School! Kimengumi, originally from 1985, Samurai Troopers Yoroiden, originally from 1992 and Jigoku Sensei Nube, originally from 1996).
Let's imagine that you've been put into the shoes of the producer tasked with making this OAV:
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On one hand, it's been 31 years since the last OAV. The original TV series aired in 1982. An enormous portion of your addressable audience (presumably pretty large if it's releasing via streaming and not coming out on VHS like a real OAV) has either never heard of your show or only knows about it from parodies or by hearing about it from grandma. Magical girls as a genre has moved on from this show (which was one of its original progenitors, predating the Sailor Moon anime in 1992 by a long shot) and been expanded upon (Card Captor Sakura / Lyrical Nanoha / Prisma Illya), subverted (Madoka Magica) and polished to a knife's edge of marketability (Pretty Cure) in the subsequent decades.
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On the other hand, the actual fans of the franchise, few as they may be in comparison, will have very specific memories and expectations about what the show should be like - i.e. like an 80s anime, tone, story, art and all. They may well not have watched any other anime since they were kids!
Faced with this scenario, what kind of show do you make?
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What new technology from the last few decades do you use, if any (e.g. CG)?
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Do you try and incorporate elements which made later shows hits, or keep it to the sort of story that would have fit right in with the original series? Would making something that feels like it came straight out of the 80s actually feel fresh nowadays, given how common polished remakes / reboots have now become?
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Do you try and weave in themes that adults (which your original audience have now become) can appreciate, or keep it pitched at a new generation of children and hope that the original themes land with them despite the generation gap?
This article doesn't answer any of those questions, but I'll be curious to see how it (and all the other recent remakes) turn out.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season!
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Minky Momo to release first new OAV in thirty-one years
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Comment on She fell in love with ChatGPT. Then she ghosted it. in ~tech
Well_known_bear Link ParentThis line of thinking is really reminding me of the instructions for conjuring and treating with demons in occult texts like the Lesser Key of Solomon. Paimon teaches all arts, philosophies, and...This line of thinking is really reminding me of the instructions for conjuring and treating with demons in occult texts like the Lesser Key of Solomon.
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Paimon teaches all arts, philosophies, and sciences, and secret things; he can reveal all mysteries of the Earth, wind, and water, what the mind is, and where it is, and everything the conjurer wants to know.
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[Gushion] tells all past, present and future things, shows the meaning of all questions that are asked to him, reconciles friends, and gives honour and dignity.
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Buné makes men eloquent and wise, and gives true answers to their demands and also richness.
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[Flauros] gives true answers of all things past, present and future, but he must be first commanded to enter a magic triangle for if not he will lie, deceive the conjurer, and beguile him in other business.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentThanks for the detailed responses! The last point does seem to be the real sticker for adoption. As good as VR can be for providing unique experiences in specific cases like this one, it's always...Thanks for the detailed responses!
The last point does seem to be the real sticker for adoption. As good as VR can be for providing unique experiences in specific cases like this one, it's always competing with just doing the same thing on your existing screen with less cost / friction.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentI've been VR curious for years now, and reading about experiences like this always tempts me to jump in, particularly with how cheap entry level headsets like the Quest 3s are getting. When I look...I've been VR curious for years now, and reading about experiences like this always tempts me to jump in, particularly with how cheap entry level headsets like the Quest 3s are getting.
When I look into it, though, there are still a few caveats which are making me hesitate:
- I need glasses, and apparently there's a risk of them grinding up against the lenses and damaging both if you don't order custom inserts.
- You need a pretty decent framerate / resolution not to get sick, and my GPU is mid-range at best.
- Valve is about to put out the Frame, which seems like it'll deliver on the tech specs while 'just running' games without having to finagle with side loading or deal with Meta.
- Uncertainty about how much use I'll actually get out of it. Out of an informal poll among my friends with VR headsets, none of them used theirs regularly.
I wish I'd gone and tried one out before the pandemic when stores actually had test units. These days, it feels rare to even see them on shelves!
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What are your predictions for 2026?
Thought I'd post the thread this year as I haven't seen it pop up yet. It's been an eventful 2025, and we certainly live in some interesting times. If you made predictions for this year, how did...
Thought I'd post the thread this year as I haven't seen it pop up yet.
It's been an eventful 2025, and we certainly live in some interesting times. If you made predictions for this year, how did they turn out? What are your predictions for the next year?
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Comment on New Neon Genesis Evangelion short to premiere at event in February 2026 in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkChief supervisor / writer will be Anno Hideaki Director will be Asano Naoyuki (animation director for Evangelion 3.0+1.0) Gainax veterans Tsurumaki Kazuya / Higuchi Shinji / Todoroki Ikki will...- Chief supervisor / writer will be Anno Hideaki
- Director will be Asano Naoyuki (animation director for Evangelion 3.0+1.0)
- Gainax veterans Tsurumaki Kazuya / Higuchi Shinji / Todoroki Ikki will also serve as supervisors
- Short will only be 13 minutes long
Hopefully it'll see a subsequent release outside the event too.
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New Neon Genesis Evangelion short to premiere at event in February 2026
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Comment on This life gives you nothing - Your attention is all you have. Wasting it is annihilating in ~life
Well_known_bear LinkThanks for the link. It's trite now of course to say that screens can have a negative effect on us, but I found the directions in which the author takes the subject to be interesting. To take just...Thanks for the link.
It's trite now of course to say that screens can have a negative effect on us, but I found the directions in which the author takes the subject to be interesting.
To take just one point, back when I used social media, I definitely experienced a similar "Tetris effect" where my brain reflexively sought to frame all new stimulus in terms of how it could be shared and, perhaps a little shamefully, how it would be received by random strangers on the internet. Suffice it to say that this kind of thinking only leads to a kind of constant low-key misery and dissatisfaction with life.
I have been social media free for a number of years now and thankfully, my brain has unlearned this behavior. What the article raises for me, though, is whether I'm still unconsciously framing and "redirecting" experiences in other ways (similar to the camera experience described by the author) - work, TV, gaming and so on could all still be having that effect on me.
Not to say that I'm going to throw all of that away and live in the woods, but it's given me some food for thought as to:
- at least recognising this kind of reframing when it happens; and
- at least being conscious about whether the trade-off is worth it.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkYet another season starts to wind down. It's been a relatively quiet one for me, but next season is looking packed. Jujutsu Kaisen S3 Feels like this went a bit off the rails in S2 with the loss...Yet another season starts to wind down.
It's been a relatively quiet one for me, but next season is looking packed.
Jujutsu Kaisen S3
Feels like this went a bit off the rails in S2 with the loss of focus on the trio of protagonists and all the elaborate but poorly explained powers, but I'm here for this so long as they keep up the exceptional animation.Jigokuraku S2
It's not as flashy as Mappa's other shows, but S1 was some solid action / adventure / cultivation fantasy and I'll be happy to watch more of the same.Oshi no ko S3
I still don't think the premise or writing is anywhere near as good as Kaguya, but the animation and performances are top notch and have carried the show for me so far. I've heard there was some fan discontent about how the manga ended, though, so I'm keeping my expectations in check.Enen no Shouboutai S3 Part 2
They've jumped the shark with this one and I'll only be watching due to sunk cost fallacy. The answers to all the mysteries set up in the initial seasons are ridiculous and there are way too many characters in play, slowing the pacing to a crawl.Fate / Strange Fake
I stopped being invested in the lore of the Nasu-verse after they turned it into a multiverse, but I'll admit that a lot of these Fate shows are pretty good on their own terms. I even enjoyed Prisma Illya, Lord El-Melloi and that dumb cooking show.In this case, though, the preview airing of episode 1 already feels a little too self-indulgent with all the cameos and references to other series. I'm also not a fan of the reuse of Gilgamesh (again!?). It makes the world feel small when they have access to anyone from all of history and mythology but keep going back to the same well, and I would have preferred to see some American servants to go along with the new setting instead (Paul Bunyan as rider? John Henry as berserker? The possibilities are endless.)
Trigun Stargaze
Basically season 2 of the CG Trigun anime, which was surprisingly good (once you get used to the CG art style) and very smartly paced. I love the original too, but it has a ton of filler and does a worse job of conveying the story.Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals S2
Could do with being a bit grittier given the premise and a little less tied to the story and characters in the main series, but it's fine as the obligatory seasonal Bones action show. Working class Batman is a standout and I wish they had made him the protagonist.Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu
I'm intrigued by this one as a death game enthusiast, but the whole 'protagonist is a death game expert' premise might end up being a bit too meta for its own good. The detailed art in the trailer also looks quite nice, but it's Studio Deen, so who knows if the animation will actually be any good.
Honorable mentions for shows I won't be watching but liked the manga for:
Sousou no Frieren S2
Kind of regret not jumping on the anime train for this one, as there's a ton of fighting in the manga now and it's not the artist's strong suit, with the battle scenes often feeling very stiff and clinical - A is shooting B in panel 1; B is using a shield spell in panel 2 - and so on. It reminds me weirdly of the fight scenes in Akamatsu Ken's manga, where the panels are often filled with beams and explosions and people hitting each other, but there's no dynamism or impact to the composition or panel flow. I expect these scenes will look great when paired with proper storyboarding in the anime, though.Darwin Jihen
Possibly the most realistic depiction of Western characters and setting that I've ever seen in a manga. Also has the usual mature themes and handling of them that you'd expect from an Afternoon series.Kirei ni shitemoraemasu ka
Slice of life series about a lady running a dry cleaner in Atami who 'washed away' her own memories. Cute and relaxing. It also taught me that you have to leave your washing machine door open to air it after use, and I always think about this series when I do. -
Comment on Orbitals | Announcement trailer in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentFair enough! I think the requirement for 2 players is going to be the hurdle for me, although judging by the success of the Hazelight games, I expect there's a market for this genre.Fair enough! I think the requirement for 2 players is going to be the hurdle for me, although judging by the success of the Hazelight games, I expect there's a market for this genre.
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Comment on Orbitals | Announcement trailer in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkEverything from the designs and linework to the VHS colour palette and the yellow subtitles is so on point for the aesthetic they're going for, but I feel like the parts which are running at 60fps...Everything from the designs and linework to the VHS colour palette and the yellow subtitles is so on point for the aesthetic they're going for, but I feel like the parts which are running at 60fps actually detract from it since they feel unnaturally smooth next to the models being animated at the (proper) lower frame rate (24fps?).
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Comment on After 42 years, Gainax officially closes in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkThe actual talent that built the studio left for Trigger and Khara long ago, but still rather sad to see a name with such a history shut down. Time used to be that they were churning out hit after...The actual talent that built the studio left for Trigger and Khara long ago, but still rather sad to see a name with such a history shut down. Time used to be that they were churning out hit after hit in every kind of genre, and you could go on their site and see new illustrations by their artists ever week.
For anyone with an interest in the glory days of Gainax (or just the history of anime in Japan in general), Otaku no Video is a must see!
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkI'm also watching Lord of Mysteries as part of this season's Chinese animation dive. The first thing which strikes me about the show is that the animation is remarkably good. The action scenes are...I'm also watching Lord of Mysteries as part of this season's Chinese animation dive.
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The first thing which strikes me about the show is that the animation is remarkably good.
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The action scenes are all very dynamic, and they don't skimp on frames or art consistency even for less important scenes, small movements or characters who aren't in the focus of the shot. The character designs also lean towards the realistic and have a pleasantly chunky, thickly-shaded style to them which makes me think a bit of the Netflix Castlevania show.
However, the show does have a heavily post-processed look (lots of gradients, filters, particles and CG effects) which people may or may not love.
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On top of the animation, the backgrounds are unusually detailed and I suspect that most of them are actually just composed out of 3D CG models, as there's a lot of sweeping camera work showing them off from different angles. It wouldn't surprise me if they used AI in the workflow, as it would require a tremendous amount of effort to produce this level of detail by hand, but if that's what they did, none of it leaps out to me as looking bad (other than some of the models for things like carriages and buildings looking a bit janky due to unusually low texture detail compared to the surroundings).
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In terms of the story, it's basically Chinese isekai progression fantasy, complete with jobs, levels, skills and so forth.
This isn't usually my jam, but at least it's not the usual "light novel JRPG Europe" setting, instead being more of a 1900s Lovecraft / Aleister Crowley occultism / "revealing the arcane" sort of deal with a bit of SCP Foundation thrown in. The usual genre tropes with the protagonist planning out his character build and using his knowledge from Earth are definitely there and kind of obnoxious, but there's enough of a proper plot outside of that stuff to make it worth watching.
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Speaking of the plot, the first episode has to be one of the worst on-boarding episodes I've ever seen. There's literally zero time devoted to establishing who the protagonist is (or even the fact that he comes from our Earth) or what the rules of this setting are. Instead, it launches straight into four or five separate storylines and the introduction of a dozen different characters and locales, the relative importance of which are not even hinted at.
However, the show does narrow its focus into a much more manageable single storyline from episode 2 onwards, so it's worth pushing through to at least that point before deciding whether it's for you.
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Interesting. I've never really thought about parenthood as a genre per se, but there are actually a fair number of anime / manga series which approach it from different angles.
Off the top of my head:
Would be interested to hear if you saw any others that resonated with you.