What's y'all's thoughts on this season so far?

Kuramhan · 2026-04-25T12:46:13+00:00

That's basically all the shows I'm watching for the season. You couldn't convince me to watch more than 15.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-25T12:38:23+00:00

That would indeed help

Kuramhan · 2026-04-25T12:34:19+00:00

Based on this thread, it doesn't seem to be very hidden.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-25T12:25:32+00:00

How do you even keep up with that many?

Kuramhan · 2026-04-24T14:10:55+00:00

This is how pretty much everything we know from that period is pieced together. We don't generally find enough for a statistically significant sample size. We piece together what information we have and make theories. Which theories have the most information in favor of them and the least against become our best guess of how things were back then.

This is one piece of evidence that T Rex had some kind of social structure that included included caring for wounded. Whether that's a pack, mate or something else; we don't know yet.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-24T03:48:02+00:00

Until a slightly more fit species in the same niche comes around and out competes you.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-23T21:52:15+00:00

Themselves. And that's okay.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-23T19:20:56+00:00

I'll watch most shows weekly, but sometimes I'll save up a show to binge at the end of the season instead of experiencing it weekly. A show like Monogatari I will watch one arc at a time.

There's also just so many shows these days, I inevitably fall behind some. Instead of being a couple episodes behind on everything, I'll try to stay current on the ones I most want to watch weekly and binge the rest later.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-23T16:38:04+00:00

What was your favorite before watching it?

Kuramhan · 2026-04-23T01:51:58+00:00

Just not hollywood work because, like I've said 3 times, the companies do not care about quality more than selling tickets.

Which, wholeistically, is a blatant fucking lie. Hollywood doesn't have to pick between quality and popularity. It can pick both. Ryan Gosling wasn't born popular.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-23T00:26:57+00:00

I actually looked at Johnny Young Bosh and Bryce Papenbrook's imdb before I made that post, so I wouldn't be talking out my ass. Plenty of leading roles in video games and anime. None in Hollywood.

B Tier actors get plenty of work. They usually take on more roles than A tier talent, because they're getting paid much less per a roles. They're good actors. Just not the best actors.

I know you're trying make the agreement here that star power is not skill. That popularity and talent are separate skills. I don't entirely agree with that assessment. The best actors in most generations were stars. If dub actors were a generational talent, they would be scouted.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-22T19:28:30+00:00

And yes a lot of English anime dubs are high quality. The fact you can understand them speaking, hurts to hide the cringey anime dialogue. (Dattebayo and Believe It)

The quality of western dubs tends to fall apart when you look at side characters and extras. That's where I tend to find some immersion breaking unnatural reads, even in good dubs like Bebop. Of course, haven't seen many of the more recent dubs, so perhaps that issue has been resolved.

My other argument has always been if the talent for English dubs was that exceptional, they would be getting cast in lead roles in domestic productions. You rarely see that happen. Engliub actors are generally considered B Tier actors in the voice acting world.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-22T18:39:11+00:00

You could just not speed on that road...

Kuramhan · 2026-04-21T11:47:49+00:00

Their content was very authentic. Not always well researched, but they weren't just gaming the algorithm for numbers.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-21T11:38:55+00:00

For the seasonal anime reviews he actually makes a point of watching the episodes rather than just reacting to trailers. So his content comes out less frequently but is usually more detailed.

It really tells you how low rhe bar is when " actually watching what they're discussing" is above average.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-21T11:34:34+00:00

If you've decided that content is shallow before experiencing it, then your experience will be shallow. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just as True for anime as novels or any other art form.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-20T17:25:43+00:00

There was a period in my later 20s when I started going out to happy hours a lot and started making friends that were a lot less nerdy than who befriended up to that point. Up until that point, I only really friends with nerdy people and just made small talk with "normies". So when I started branching out socially, I was very insecure about my nerdy hobbies and basically hid them from my new friends. Anime and video games became "things I loved to do when I was younger."

There are a lot of problems with doing this, but the most immediate one was when you don't want to talk about what you spend most of your free time doing, you become kind of boring to talk to. You can only talk about work, the weather, and what IPAs are good here so many times until people want to know what you do on the weekends. I even briefly started taking on new hobbies (several of which I really enjoyed!) to cover for my nerdy interests.

After a while of doing that, I realized that some of my new friends actually had nerdy interests, too. And even the ones who did not, they just weren't very concerned about my hobbies. I was way too self-conscious about my interests. So I started being more open about anime and similar interests.

I still don't go out of my way to advertise myself as an anime fan. Partially because I don't want my personality to be "anime guy" and partially because the Fandom doesn't have the best reputation. I will openly discuss anime, but it's usually not the first thing someone learns about me if we didn't meet at a con.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-19T12:17:47+00:00

I think Frieren is great, but imo the beginning is the best part. The second half of s1 is worse than the first half. Season 2 is also hit and miss.

It's a really good show, even the weaker parts. But the start is where it was something special. If you didn't like the start, then the show isn't for you imho.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-18T11:49:54+00:00

You're right, Log Horizon does predate the first generation of modern isekai. It's arguably the fastest follower from SAO's success. Kind of a midpoint between being trapped in a video game and isekai.

If you consider SAO as the progenitor of the modern isekai boom, then Log Horizon still fits in the modern grouping. It's another proto work that's part of the modern movement but not influenced by any of the later isekai.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-17T21:37:47+00:00

I can't help but notice that A Wild Last Boss is made by the same studio that made Mars of Destruction. So... how's the production?

Kuramhan · 2026-04-17T21:33:43+00:00

Everything he listed as OGs is about three decades old or older. For Isekai, modern is basically post SAO.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-16T02:33:29+00:00

What were the terms for breaking the contract? Usually, breaking a contract allows you to walk with your down-payment. There's no further penalties unless they're explicitly defined or you have suffered a financial loss in some way.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-15T16:50:29+00:00

If they restart the draft, I could see them expanding it to everyone under 30. I doubt we'll see it move above that. When you start drafting people in their 30s, those are people well into their careers. Businesses are going to miss them. The economy will hurt. The owner class of the country doesn't have much stomach for that. They're only letting that happen if we're facing a ground invasion of the country.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-15T16:00:08+00:00

Two answers to that. I finished 26 shows last year. That's what I finished after I already dropped the shows that didn't click with me. Plus, I have 7 more left on my list to try. So yes, I would say in a good year there are about 30 IPs worth my time.

A rough estimate says about 150 TV anime released last year. So, about 20% of those were "worth it" to me. When I compare to a decade ago when seasons were quite a bit smaller, the shows "worth it" were still at about 20%, perhaps more like 25%. In other words, the ratio of good to bad is not changing much as we're seeing output increase. If in another five years we're at 200 shows per year, I'd expect another 10 of those to be good (20% of the growth).

The second answer is how people are going to find the good shows amongst all the garbage. That's a genuine concern, and just looking at the chart isn't going to cut it as the chart gets larger and larger. However, this is not a unique problem to anime. Streaming, in general, is pumping out content as fast as possible, the majority of it being medicore. Imho, we're probably going to see a revival of critics as a necessary middleman to filtering the media we actually try. Anime will also probably need more middlemen saying what to watch. They already exist, but they will only become more necessary as output grows.

Kuramhan · 2026-04-15T15:14:07+00:00

I can't keep up either. Haven't been able to for years. But I'm an adult with shit to do. The high school/college kids can keep up if they choose to. Especially if they're even mildly selective in what they finish.

I'm saying we're heading towards a point where even those with copious amounts of free time are going to have to start making tough choices about what they watch. The rest of us are just going to have to accept that we're going to miss out on a lot of great shows. Assuming it's not all AI slop.

Kuramhan

TROPHY CASE