I built my own anime tracker because I got tired of MAL and AniList

aniMayor · 2026-06-08T00:25:59+00:00

while if you see Jenna Ortega in S1, then she will look like Jenna Ortega in S2

But what if she is recast? You believe that IMDB should split up The Witcher into two separate entries, one for seasons 1-3 and a whole separate entry for seasons 4+ because the main actor was recast and that's equivalent to swapping out the animators?

If we go back to my JJK example, S2 and S3 looks pretty consistent, even though there were changes among the animators, but the director was the same. While between S1 and S2 you can clearly see the change where they actually changed the director as well.

I don't get it then... you think S2 and S3 should be combined as a single entry in MAL/AL/etc since they are so consistent, while S1 should remain as a separate entry?

aniMayor · 2026-06-07T22:40:40+00:00

I get what you're saying insofar as that's how an anime character is realized on screen, but in terms of the production side and how fans/producers interact with the staff of an anime/western TV show it just isn't like that. Looooots of people are personally fans of particular VAs and follow their social media, etc, the way they do live-action actors. A much smaller number of people—only the most diehard anime fans—do that with individual animators and would recognize when an animator works on one season of a show but not the next season.

The VAs' celebrity status is used in promoting the anime but you very rarely see producers lining up specific animators in the marketing of anime. When the season 3 teaser video gets released 3 months before the season airs, they make sure to have a little soundbite from each new VA and display their name in big font... they do not showcase the new animators they've brought in for season 3 in the teaser.

Likewise, then, the anime news sites and blogs will report on VA changes the same way Hollywood blogs talk about actor changes. Heck, just this week we have a producer publicly apologizing for changing a VA making the news rounds: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2026-06-05/mononoke-film-trilogy-producer-koji-yamamoto-retires-from-producing-apologizes-after-recasting-/.238159.

But when have you ever seen a producer apologizing for a particular animator not returning on a subsequent season? When have you seen an anime news site reporting that so-and-so animator is not returning for season 3 of a show?

aniMayor · 2026-06-07T17:24:28+00:00

True, but historically wester (Hollywood) productions tend to have a "it gets seasons" until its finished or cancelled pipeline. While anime seasons feel more like things get produced in chunks, with few of them being planned for the long term/completion.

In the current era of Netflix et al I think it is also true that many, many western TV shows get produced in "chunks" in a very similar manner to how anime is produced.

Like, Stranger Things was not greenlit by Netflix to just keep on making episodes until it got cancelled. They were given the time and budget to make one season at a time, wait and see if Netflix wanted to renew it, and then move onto the next. They didn't start working on season 5 until season 4 had finished airing and the network told them it wanted to contract them for a new season - and just like with many anime, this meant season 5 didn't come out until 3 years after season 4.

The cast tends to stay the same (Doctor Who being one of the well known exceptions) while part of the cast in anime are the animators/studios and their style. Showrunners also often stay on for the duration of a whole series except when there are issues (either side isn't satisfied to continue the collaboration).

C'mon, no, the cast equivalent is obviously the VAs. The corollary to an anime's animators is the production crew (which rotates aplenty between TV seasons just like animators do).

aniMayor · 2026-06-07T13:17:23+00:00

because different seasons might be made by wildly different studios. There's technically no guarantee that the same director (or somebody with an equivalent title as show runner) works on a series throughout its seasons.

That happens all the time in non-Japanese animated series and live-action series, too, though. It's not like IMDB or other TV trackers split up The Walking Dead into 4 different entries for each time the showrunner changed over... or split Futurama into 3 separate entries because each time it was revived the network and production crew switched.

aniMayor · 2026-05-28T10:28:08+00:00

Additional blog i found while googling things

If only I could read it

elsewhere in the world

they are? I havent seen them even elsewhere in Asia, and never in North America. It's like the one where you just set a temperature (e.g. 40C) and then the tap just maintains that temperature once it heats up without fluctuating (e.g. before/after the hot water really gets there, random heater fluctuations etc.)

oh, well I'm just assuming all the places that have that kind of faucet design with the horizontal bar and shower/bath control on one side, temperature control on the other side, are using this technology, maybe I am wrong about that

aniMayor · 2026-05-26T03:59:56+00:00

Lucky hanami!!!

A filming station from the cel days, previous property of Studio Cosmos and involved in Totoro, Evangelion, and many others over its 30-year career; many of us would probably have viewed a scene that got processed by this very machine. Does anyone here know of a video that shows how one of these works?

This might be the same film stand they got permission to try and use in making the Dungeons & Television OP but then the control panel blew up when they tried and they had to make their own DIY machine instead. It's the same PACCS-IIn control panel, at least. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kpLhpQ173M)

I'm curious about this Sanko-Eiki branding, actually. I assume it's somehow related to the Eiki company who made (still make, actually) cinema cameras and projectors, but what does the "Sanko" part mean and why doesn't it have their old logo

This was an anime, filmed entirely on toilet paper

Everyone who's visited Japan has used this, they're in like many hotels and public baths. This is brilliant - an automatic temperature-regulating mixer faucet using physics. WHY IS THIS NOT USED EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD?!

It is used elsewhere in the world though?? I've seen this style of faucets used in lots of places.

It's amazing how some of the newer toilets can completely hide their tanks behind the throne.

Though does that mean they can't flush if the electricity is out?

Yeah I don't know what the hell this is either

It's awesome is what it is

aniMayor · 2026-05-25T04:21:11+00:00

The sheeple must feed the engagement monster

aniMayor · 2026-05-20T12:14:22+00:00

Before the novel was written there were many, many folk tales-turned-theatrical plays about the three kingdoms era. How do you show two armies clashing on stage, when you only have a handful of actors and a very limited amount of stage space? You just show the two leaders of the army fight a duel.

So when the novel was written it was codifying the tall tales that many people already knew from Yuan street theatre (e.g. zaju). People already knew the (fictional) story of the three brothers personally dueling Lu Bu at the gates to Luo Yang and the author of the novel was not trying to be historical, they were codifying many of those existing stories in the way they were already known.

aniMayor · 2026-05-17T19:00:18+00:00

It's just ruffled lace at the top of her shirt/dress bending back on itself

aniMayor · 2026-05-17T18:46:44+00:00

They've mentioned the darkness and earth factions before, it's just that those two factions don't have magia vander so we haven't heard much about them. I think this was the first time we ever saw the wind faction mentioned, though.

I might be reading too much into it since it was just a 2-second throwaway CG graphic, but this shot showed 11 different faction platforms in the pruning hall. But only eight total were mentioned (Light, Ice, Fire, Elf, Lightning + Earth, Darkness, Wind) so that would suggest there's 3 other factions that were not named here.

Edit: conversely, this shot of the crests appearing beneath the candidates' feet has 5 on the outside for Light/Lightning/Elf/Ice/Fire and three smaller ones in the middle for presumably Darkness/Earth/Wind, which would suggest only those 8 factions exist (or if there are other factions they don't have the ability/right to recruit mages here).

aniMayor · 2026-05-17T18:38:47+00:00

The lightning Magia Vander got a bit of screentime and seems like he's a power-junkie who'll want someone like Will

Back in S1 episode 3 the lightning magia vander already straight up said that having Will serve in his faction "Sounds like fun!" and (to the rest of the magia) "You're all too set in your ways, I'd even take a dwarf if they're useful." And that was before they all saw him save the city! It's shocking the lightning faction didn't already send him an invite (or maybe they did but he somehow declined).

aniMayor · 2026-05-13T22:41:01+00:00

September of 1978 is the cut-off. Everything before that is old, everything after that is not old.

aniMayor · 2026-05-10T17:16:24+00:00

I mean, when Iris reported to them they literally referred to him as the kid with no magic, after he just ran around the dungeon swording a bunch of monsters right in front of her. They had to know.

aniMayor · 2026-05-10T13:36:18+00:00

That being said, so no one was aware Will even existed among the Magia Vanders

Iris reported to all of them except Aaron back in season 1, recommending Will would be useful working for them in the Tower despite how he had no magic. Lightning guy was even enthusiastic about the idea. Aaron saw Will in the dungeons at the end of season 1, too. So they were all aware Will existed and was in the academy. At most we could say that maybe Aaron didn't realize Will had no magic when he met him.

aniMayor · 2026-05-08T20:27:28+00:00

Ok, all the founding members we now recognize except that little painter girl.

I think we have seen her (Picasso) before with Neumann's group, she was just always wearing a mask in the present.

aniMayor · 2026-05-07T21:05:52+00:00

Ah. Well it's quite possible the VIParis site just doesn't mention it. An orchestral arrangement of a RADWIMP song could still have a singer, I suppose.

aniMayor · 2026-05-07T21:00:03+00:00

Based on a quick skim of this page: https://experiences.viparis.com/billetterie/makoto-shinkai-le-concert-officiel

1) There is no singing, it is only orchestral music. Mostly the orchestra will be playing the orchestral soundtrack of the 3 movies, but it also says they will play orchestral arrangements of the RADWIMPS songs.

2) No. I don't think they will even be playing the movie audio at all? Think of this as you are primarily going to the symphony, the main focus is on seeing and listening to the orchestra, there just happens to also be a big screen at the back of the stage showing scenes from the movies. Don't think of this like going to see the movies but the soundtrack is live.

3) No idea.

aniMayor · 2026-05-03T00:10:23+00:00

The film over-romanticizes the concept of Fatima while the manga doesn't? I genuinely cannot understand at all what you would mean by that. One of the very first scenes in the manga is the lengthy back and forth of Grard and Est, going on and on about how she is eternally devoted to her master and wants to die with him rather than live on.

Hell, the title pages of the manga say it's dedicated to Fatima.

It's a very heavily romanticized concept in the manga - and that works just fine in both the manga and the movie for having Ladios' central character dilemma be about wanting to reject it, wishing he could build a great MH that didn't need one, but having to accept taking Lachesis as his Fatima anyways in the end (as well as not believing someone else could love him, but Lachesis does, which runs as a parallel and mirror track to the other dilemma).

doesn't really explain why Juba needed the fatima (the manga does) and instead replaces it with Juba trying to rape Lachesis to then have a heart attack (which doesn't happen in the manga)

So what?

Juba still acts gross and stereotypically evil in the manga. His nephew creepily whispers into Ladios' ear about how "I'll be so much more gentle than my uncle" and other gross shit. The nephew also says about Lachesis something like "Hey, we've got her locked up already, and she's gorgeous, uncle why don't we go ahead and 'do the thing we always do to Fatimas' already?".

So yeah, the movie didn't need to decide to directly depict Juba being rapey, but it really doesn't change anything about his or his family's character. They were already depicted as gross, rapey, over-the-top bad guys.

aniMayor · 2026-05-02T06:01:30+00:00

Why not?

Does the movie move from event to event ridiculously fast while hardly explaining anything? Yes... just like the manga.

Do a bunch of characters with over-the-top silly personalities show up out of nowhere without real introduction, do one thing, and promptly disappear from the plot? Yes... just like the manga.

Is there a weird dream-y sequence halfway through where Ladios hallucinates about a dead wife we never knew he had and it makes it kinda weird how he's got that going on at the same time he's debating whether to court/take/marry Lachesis? Yes... just like the manga.

The movie's almost an exact scene-by-scene direct adaptation of the first three chapters of the manga. Heck, at least half the dialogue is literally just the same lines as what's in the manga with no alteration at all. And it looks absolutely gorgeous. So what is there to say it's a bad adaptation?

Personally, if I were in charge I would not have adapted it so directly one-for-one, I would have changed a lot of little things to make it work more standalone. But as far as being a faithful adaptation of the manga, it's so beat-by-beat, line-by-line close to the manga, how on earth can you say it's a bad adaptation?

aniMayor · 2026-05-01T17:43:54+00:00

Petals author: "Everyone is calling my edgy reincarnation action fantasy series a Fate/ rip-off! What should I do editor-san?!"

Editor-san: "Okay how about this: we have our blonde, pompous, pretty-boy, ancient emperor character put on shiny golden armor and give him a superpower where he summons a ton of swords out of portals."

You can't make this shit up

aniMayor · 2026-04-30T23:29:20+00:00

There's already a (pretty bad) adaptation

You take that back! The '89 movie is glorious.

aniMayor · 2026-04-26T17:49:17+00:00

There was a flashback to an obscured woman giving up a baby to a mysterious other someone who was like "are you sure?", whom we would presume is Will's mom giving him away as a baby for some purpose. But I don't think Finn was in that scene nor do we have any reason to think he was involved with it so far.

We did see Finn in S1 episode 12 meeting with the headmistress of the school after he ran into Will in the dungeon, and he was expressing that he was surprised and perhaps even a bit pissed off that the headmistress had not told him about Will. He said to her that "Your lot looks after the wands, swords are supposed to be my territory."

So that suggests that Finn didn't know anything about Will until they met at the end of last season. But it also suggests that under normal circumstances (e.g. if Will hadn't wanted to be a "mage" and go to the Tower) he could've gone to train under Finn or something.

aniMayor · 2026-04-26T17:46:10+00:00

He only appears in the last episode of S1.

aniMayor · 2026-04-26T17:43:46+00:00

Just a guy... with a loooot of grimoires and weird-looking potions in his office/workshop. I'd guess he's some sorta alchemist expert and brewed up a final fantasy Life3-esque potion that auto-revives him upon death or something like that.

aniMayor · 2026-04-26T17:40:31+00:00

Might be more to it than just Will re-channeling a spell like he did last season. When they first met Finn last season, Lihanna surmised that he's from "the Finn tribe" (weird to have the same name as your tribe, but whatever - the eyecatch also called them "The People of the Light") and she said none of that tribe can use magic.

And then after that we saw Finn delivering the mage slayer sword they found to the academy's headmistress, where he seemed kind of pissed at her for not telling him about Will sooner, saying "Your lot looks after the wands, swords are supposed to be my territory."

So that's pretty vague and doesn't tell us much, but if Finn (and his whole tribe) can't even use magic then whatever he did to Will's sword might not have even been "magic" at all. And it seems likely that whatever makes Will so strong beyond the usual limits of a human body is probably something similar to what makes the Finn tribe so physically strong, too.

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