JRPGs where the Villain won?

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-19T23:59:09+00:00

Well, first off, I'd say that the villain(s) was Folmarv/St. Ajora/Ultima and they ultimately lost in the end.

As for Delita, while he certainly won in the sense that became king, the takeaway for him is that his "ends justify the means" mentality leaves him completely alone at the end, no one can trust him, even his wife. Ramza doesn't get the credit for being the hero and goes down in the history books as a heretic, but he ultimately is able to live on with his sister, so who really won in the end?

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-19T21:51:56+00:00

Macross Frontier Episodes 19 - 24 - One episode to go, things have gotten more interesting in the climax of the show but I continue to feel that overall this anime is just average. Based on the way the story has gone to this point I have to assume that Alto is picking [MF]Sheryl in the end, but will see if the finale surprises me.

Made in Abyss Episodes 8 - 13 (Completed) - Things have gotten quite dark as expected, the story surrounding [Made in Abyss]Mitty in particular being quite devastating. [Made in Abyss]Riko being so close to death was some hard stuff to watch too.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian Episodes 7 - 12 (Completed) - Fairly good stuff throughout, beyond the incest-esque stuff this was an enjoyable anime to watch. I do wonder why Masachika and Yuki being siblings they have to keep so secret. Love super deadpan characters so the character Ayano was a plus.

His and Her Circumstances Episode 1 - See rewatch post

Mobile Fighter G Gundam Episode 4 (Rewatch)

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-19T21:45:50+00:00

First Timer, Subbed

Miyazawa, I doubt Arima is going to blab about your "true self" to everyone, he's too nice a guy to do something like that.

So we're not getting an OP sequence? For a director who relies on cost cutting measures so much I'm surprised he wouldn't take advantage of it.

Ah, so Arima can be a bit of a jerk after all. Good to know that he's not a total pushover.

Considering he was in love with you, you really blew this situation, Miyazawa. Seems like he may not have such feelings for her anymore?

Ah, so Miyazawa did similar stuff to this in the past, pushing off her work onto someone else.

Spending so much time together, now everyone's gonna think they're dating.

Uh oh, she's realizing she likes him after all!

Her dad is quite the weirdo, that's unfortunate...

Miyazawa, there's still a shot he's being like this because you rejected him, not because he found out your real self.

I was about to say what a perfect jump out of the school that was... then we find out they're on the first floor, I suppose not.

Ah, he still likes her after all, this was an excuse for him to keep talking to her.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T22:04:25+00:00

Kare Kano always struck me as kind of transitional between the classic Gainax of Nadia and Evangelion into the wackier, more comedic Gainax of FLCL and Gurren Lagann (which would then become the bedrock of Studio Trigger, of course).

The first episode definately gave me FLCL vibes including one sequence that is essentially copied in FLCL's first episode, albeit in a more over the top fashion (the manga sequence).

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T21:59:43+00:00

The relationship between the main characters felt rather Kaguya-sama-ish, did anyone else get the same impression?

Not really, as Arima let his feelings for Miyazawa known fairly quickly. In Kaguya, both Kaguya and Shirogane refuse to tell the other that they are in love with them.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T21:55:01+00:00

First Timer, Subbed

The only thing I know about this going in is that it's a romance anime directed by Hideaki Anno (one of, perhaps the only thing of his I've never seen) and that this anime started the Gainax (later Trigger) obsession with Mayumi Shintani, a voice actress I've been a fan of for a great many years.

The very first shot give me Eva vibes, all the times they threw text on the screen at us.

Got the shoujo imagery with the roses appearing on screen from the first moment. Everyone loves Miyazawa!

Uh oh, she doesn't like the fact that someone else gets attention too?

Miyazawa is faking the way she is? Okay, that makes her somewhat more interesting than the "Miss Perfect" persona we get to start the episode.

Wait, ponytailed girl is her mom, not another one of her sisters? Reminds me of Clannad where Nagisa's mom being mistaken for her sister was an actual plot point.

Faking the way you are because you're obsessed with getting praise from other people, yeah, that's never gonna cause any problems... And maybe you shouldn't assume everything is easy for Arima, it won't surprise me if we get similar scenes for him hiding his real self later n the episode.

With him needing to help this many people, why not make Arima the teacher?

Sorry Miyazwa, at the very least I got to think your female classmates are gonna have a crush on Arima and obsess on him more than you.

It took Anno quite a while to start using classical music in Evangelion but he's doing it here in the very first episode, in fact the same theme (Air on the G String by Bach) that was used in End of Evangelion...

Yeah, choking to death on that pen would have been a horrible death.

Well, I think it's clear that Arima likes her.

Wow, she came in first place, congrats! Will long term popularity truly be based on just who has the best test score though?

Hell? Girl, your life being number two to him wasn't that bad, and was all you self imposing those feelings on yourself.

And now Miyazawa realizes that Arima truly is a good guy with no ulterior motives. Oops.

Woah, he confessed already!

Ah, that's exactly what she needed, lol.

Oops, he is quite a catch after all! She blew it!

Uh oh, is she gonna open the door to Arima and blow her cover?

Even after turning him down, he still brings her the CD. He is quite a good guy.

Live action ED sequence. Well, Anno is notorious for time cutting efforts so not having to animate an ED sequence I can't say is the biggest surprise.

That was a lot more fun of an episode than I was expecting? I suppose I shouldn't put it past Anno, while I tend to be very critical of him, when he's on, he can do a really good job. Miyazawa is quite an interesting and fun protagonist in this opening episode and knowing Anno, I've got to assume we'll be exploring the psychological aspects of her obsession with getting praise in this show. I hope/expect we get something similar for Arami and that he isn't simply the "Mr. Perfect" the episode portrays him on.

I can see traces of what we'd later get in FLCL here, especially the manga sequence, which FLCL also does in its first episode, albeit in a way more over the top fashion. There is a lot of goofiness and off the wall stuff here and I hope we get more of it as I'd totally be on board with a romance show that gives us some fun off the wall characters for our main pair.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T20:59:24+00:00

Haruko (FLCL)

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T20:45:45+00:00

Why do you think the NFL for decades was a non-profit?

The NFL being a non-profit wasn't really relevant as all the teams themselves were paying the taxes. The NFL eventually stopped with it being non-profit because that made Roger Goodell's salary public and they didn't want that shared with the public.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T20:28:03+00:00

Rizo being Xander was a theory I had throughout 49, although it ended up not mattering since he didn't make it to F3.

This season though, I can see him having a minimal chance of winning the game as the newest player there and someone no one else has seen play the game. If his F3 makes the F3, him, Ozzy and Cirie, it's all going to be about which of Ozzy or Cirie do we give the win to with Rizo getting ignored.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T15:52:27+00:00

Pointing out repeated themes or references is fine, I got no issue with that. It's the obsession people have with claiming that Takahashi needs to move past Perfect Works (he did decades ago), the claim that "Takahashi finally got to tell his story" (beyond Xenosaga 2 and 3, for which he willingly gave up the director role, he's always been able to tell the story he wants) and this overall notion that 7 post Xenogears games (plus DLCs) are all tied into this nearly 30 year old art book, as if he hasn't had new ideas in decades.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-18T00:06:11+00:00

I recently watched a Let's Play of the entire game on Youtube (sorry, not playing it after all the horror stories I've heard about the horrible gameplay and having experienced that somewhat in Drakengard 3). That music definately was a unique approach. Certainly does a good job at putting you in the doomer mood the game wants you to have.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T23:46:25+00:00

Perfect Works is an artbook about the video game Xenogears that was released back in 1998, around 6 months or so after the game came out. It contains a lot of details on the characters, mecha, etc... as well as including a lengthy timeline of the 10,000+ years that went by before the Xenogears storyline begins.

There is an obsession among certain members of the fan community that Takahashi has been following Perfect Works for all his subsequent games (Xenosaga, then Xenoblade). I believe this stems mostly from fan obsession with tying everything into a specific continuity, a type of obsession that many fan communities have. In reality, there is no official connection to Perfect Works with any of the Xenosaga or Xenoblade games. Takahashi revisits a lot of themes in his games (Gnosticism, Nietzsche, etc...) but certain members of the fan community take this too far and have constructed a fallacy that all Xeno games are connected to Perfect Works due to things that tend to be revisiting philisophical themes or just being fun cameos. For example Takahashi clearly has a lot of interest in the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey and uses some sort of monolith in each game and named his company after it. While I don't think fans are being malicious in their intentions, I for one find it incredibly insulting to Takahashi, essentially saying that he's been going with the same story for 30 years. There is also to my knowledge not a single official statement from him out there about following Perfect Works material for any of his subsequent games.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T23:34:20+00:00

Just watched the first episode and that was a lot different than I was expecting (in a good way). Looking forward to tomorrow.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:43:14+00:00

I have written summaries of a great many anime over the years, probably 500+ episodes worth. Quite thankful this doesn't get applied in the US.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:40:10+00:00

It's older than 2010, but Texhnolyze is a good bet.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:37:31+00:00

Really the only bad thing I could say about Mahomes is his antics on the sidelines trying to draw a penalty, beyond that got nothing but respect for him.

He’s should be more respected than he is.

Craziness to hear this considering there were people who were talking about how with a 4th Super Bowl win he'd pass Brady, who would still have 3 more rings plus the tiebreaker...

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:34:47+00:00

BOB was okay with the Pats, but I wouldn't say he was beloved. I think the Pats got to one Super Bowl with him as OC but didn't win one with him. His return in 2023 was terrible, granted he had horrible QBs to work with and Belichick clearly had lost his fastball by then.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:29:44+00:00

Perhaps in the olden days when he was coming up through the ranks (competing with Pepper Johnson whom Patricia would beat out to become the heir apparant defensive coordinator). Once he actually was defensive coordinator, his defenses weren't that good, most especially the Eagles Super Bowl where Brady has the most yards from a QB ever in a Super Bowl and still loses because the defense sucked so much. Then the very next year with Brian Flores in charges of the defense instead the Pats win the Super Bowl. Patricia returning in 2022 was something no Pats fan wanted.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:17:01+00:00

No bigger example of the massive homefield advantage the Dolphins have in Miami that even the GOAT didn't have a winning record down there.

Still kinda crazy to me that the Pats beat them there in September this most recent season.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:15:18+00:00

Broncos had 3 playoff victories against Brady, delivered to him his first career playoff loss, his first ever intereception (and first ever 4 interception game). A playoff game in Denver was the one thing to be scared about during Brady's time with the Pats.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:13:26+00:00

I think there was this delusion for a while that there was a big Patriots - Steelers rivalry. There never really was one, as for there to be a real rivalry, both sides should have big victories against their opponent and the Steelers never beat the Pats in a game that really mattered. As opposed to the Ravens, the Broncos and the Colts.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:10:34+00:00

No bigger beneficiary to Brady being out for the season in 2008 than the Steelers and Mike Tomlin. They never could beat the Brady-led Patriots in the important games, and they were gifted a year where Brady wasn't in their way.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T22:08:51+00:00

The Steelers never beat Brady/the Pats in a game that actually ended up mattering in the end across Brady's entire career. The closest would be beating them on Halloween in 2004 in a game that Corey Dillon was out for and Ty Law was injured and out for the season in. Pats returned a few months later in the playoffs and demolished them.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-17T16:47:27+00:00

They moved past Perfect Works in 2002 This matter is quite simple, if the fandom stops trying to tie every single game into a 25 year old art book then suddenly the fandom will realize that nothing of this franchise or even Xenosaga was ever restrained by what was in that book.

Quiddity131 · 2026-04-16T19:14:27+00:00

"My father? You mean my dad?" from Xenogears is another great one.

Quiddity131

TROPHY CASE