u/mp3help

1. Actually I Am/Jitsu Wa Watashi Wa/My Monster Secret

I love the main trio of Kuromine, Shiragami, and Aizawa, and how they're so respectful and understanding of each other as friends despite being in a love triangle, plus they're still such fun characters to follow, too! Personally I would say Aizawa's the standout in the cast for being a very multi-dimensional and adorable tsundere.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of the rest of the cast- Akemi (orange hair, glasses) is the trope of "Friend who's legit cruel to their crush instead of being open about their feelings, then gets sad about it when nothing happens." and her magical gimmick is more annoying than funny. Shishido's (long dark pink hair) multiple personality gimmick gets old quick, barely fits the werewolf she's apparently meant to be, and feels like they're two characters rather than one character undergoing a change, even ignoring the fact that it's kind of an uncomfy stereotype nowadays. And personally I'm already not a fan of the 1000 year-old loli trope, but the character in question also being extremely annoying and a hindrance to the main characters doesn't help it either.

(Main Couple 8/10, Side Cast 3/10)

2. Yamada and the 7 Witches.

One of my favorite couples in anime overall (and also one of the best anime OPs of all time). I absolutely love Yamada and Shiraishi's chemistry and development together. And in all fairness, I'm going to be less harsh on this than I am on the previous entry- side characters like Itou as the female comic relief, along with Igarashi and Odagiri as early minor antagonists.

But like with the previous entry, the rest of the side cast are just defined by one-note jokes that get old quick after their introductory arcs. And the final arc about the student council was just way too melodramatic and convoluted for my taste- it felt like it was the inspiration behind the ProZD skit about how student councils in anime are basically totalitarian shadow governments. Also I feel the male comic relief characters Miyamura and Tsubaki are just a bit inconsistent and underdeveloped despite being a part of the main cast.

Still, I might sound like I'm being harsh but I still love the main couple (and the few other characters I mentioned) so much that I would definitely recommend this series for anyone who's curious! It's a good emotional story of an opposites-attract couple whose fates intertwine because of a secret magical aspect!

(Main Couple 9.5/10, Side Cast 6.5/10)

3. Oh Boy, was I Wrong About Her. (Japanese title way too long)

The newest entry on this list- I think it genuinely does a great job of portraying estranged childhood friends reuniting. Hayato and Haruki have great chemistry and you can really believe they used to be best bros as kids whenever they talk. On top of that, the MC's little sister Himeko is actually funny and helpful to the story, and isn't just there to be annoying or fanservice! The three main characters are easily this anime's strongest suit.

But I would say the series' weak point is how it's stretched thin between too many subplots, leaving the side cast feeling really underdeveloped. The rest of the cast just feels like either weird harem bait, or just a storyline that goes nowhere, especially Kazuki and the other celebrity girl. Which is a shame, since I wish the story would focus on the plotline with Haruki's mom- easily the most compelling part of the series beyond Haruki and Hayato's friendship/romance.

So by the end of the anime and manga (which got axed despite the light novels continuing further) it feels like we have 4 or 5 subplots that didn't go anywhere, and you're just kind of left wanting more of the main couple, or just more progress overall.

(Main Couple 8.5/10, Side Cast 5/10)

But what do you think? Do you agree with my points here? And do you have any similar anime that also fit the bill of having a great main couple but disappointing side characters?

I know we had the option to kill Lt Harmony, but I hope Gearbox makes it canon that she lives so we can get a teamup like this someday, haha.

1. Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2. Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

Based on a comment I saw a while back from someone saying they ran a special Marowak as a kid because they liked how it cast the moves from its bone like a wand, as well as Alolan Marowak still keeping its Kanto form's gigantic Gen 1 special movepool.

I remember when all of these characters were announced before their respective games released, there was a decent amount of fan theorizing and discussion about all of them possibly being twist villains. Mainly because most of them were secretive old people in positions of power (or in Briar's case, related to major lore characters- plus she has scary eyes). And since none of them were traditional Pokemon professors or champions, that also fit the bill for them being in a more villainous role.

I think my favorite characters are Clavell and Cyllene, since they both played major roles in the story and had fun and interesting personalities. My least favorite would probably be Briar, since not having any Pokemon really hampers a character's memorability, and I expected a lot more lore from her considering she's Heath's descendant. All she really does is endanger children in Area Zero, and she doesn't have any fun character quirks to make her entertaining like some of the others on the list.

I think I was most convinced that Jett would be evil, considering she's the CEO of a powerful and mysterious corporation, and her not being evil was all the more surprising since ZA is the only mainline Pokemon game to not really have an evil villain at all. At most, you could say her promoting her grandkid to CEO thanks to nepotism is kinda dumb, but I guess that's not really evil, haha.

I also animate DCU videos on my Youtube, too!

1. In The Naked Gun, when Frank Drebin Jr is told that the villain's doomsday device drives people mad with rage, he surmises that it does the opposite of calming people down- it "calms them up" instead.

2. In Kung Fu Panda 2, Po tries to downplay his stress about not knowing his birth parents before he has to confront their murderer, saying that he's not freaking out, he's "Freaking in"

I'm sure there's a bunch I've forgotten, so I'd love more examples!

Trying my best to manifest a good dub for this show so I came up with this!

I couldn't fit Kiri into the graphic, but I guess my pick for her would be someone like Jad Saxton- she's one of my favorite dub actresses anyway!

I'm not the most knowledgeable about which actors are tied to which agencies, so if you have your own fancast ideas for the series, I'd love to hear them too!

Edit: More notes on the choices-

Lizzie Freeman is one of my favorite VAs with lots of range- I also love actresses like Cherami Leigh and Hannah Alyea, but I think their strengths lie more in high-intensity action and comedy, not the more lighthearted and chill vibe that Pseudo Harem has.

Not shown on his graphic, but my main reason behind choosing Ricco Farjado as Eiji is his performance as Jun in Tomo-Chan is a girl- he does a great job at portraying a high-energy but sweet and reliable male love interest!

Link

For one reason or another, adaptations like to downplay or refuse to condemn child abusers. Either to make them sympathetic as a "both sides" argument, or because stories don't think children can handle stories about cruel parents, despite it being a central theme of many fairytales told to young children for ages.

1. Netflix Ozai (Avatar: The Last Airbender) In the original series, Ozai burns his son Zuko purely out of malice for his son being "weak" and showing compassion to the soldiers of the Fire Nation. The point of his character is to be a despicable abusive monster, and that nothing Zuko does to earn his respect is worth it. That Zuko needs to learn that his honor comes from his own actions and integrity, not how much cruelty he can exhibit to impress his father.

The Netflix adaptation tries to make Ozai more sympathetic by making him regretful of burning and banishing Zuko, seeing it more as "necessary tough love" which he is reluctant about, while burning his own son anyway. Trying to give any weight to Ozai's point of view only muddles the point of his whole character- that he's emblematic of all the cruelty the Fire Nation has fostered and inflicted on the world in the last century, that his rhetoric of "might makes right" is not in any way condoneable.

2. Lusamine in most adaptations that aren't the original Pokemon Sun and Moon games: In Pokemon Sun and Moon, Lusamine is a narcissistic power-hungry woman obsessed with gaining power over the Ultra Beasts and their worlds after she lost her husband to a wormhole. She cryogenically imprisons Pokemon in her trophy room, tortures Cosmog to create wormholes for her, and restricts her children in what they can do or wear, enforcing her philosophy that only aesthetic beauty has any worth whatsoever. This has led to her daughter Lillie developing severe anxiety and self-worth issues, and her son Gladion becoming especially rebellious, aggressive, and cold. Lusamine practically disowns Lillie in the game's climax and attacks the player purely because Lillie speaks her mind and tries to stand up for herself.

In the Ultra games, Lusamine is portrayed more as an antihero, doing all the cruel things in the original games for the new reason of trying to defend the world from Necrozma. While her desperation to obtain Cosmog in this version of the story is understandable, her cruelty to her children and their clear trauma from her behavior is still inexcusable, especially since this version of the story ends with them letting her back into their lives.

In the anime, Lusamine is an entirely different character, not evil at all in this interpretation and more like a dorky soccer mom. And as a result, Lillie's whole character arc changes too. Lusamine is still recklessly obsessed with Ultra Space and her experiments with it still have dangerous effects on the environment and her children, but again, their trauma is presented as just an unfortunate mistake on her part rather than a character flaw she needs to address.

The only adaptation of Lusamine I know of that keeps her as evil and addresses the ramifications of that is the Pokemon Adventures manga, which is very good and well worth a read! But speaking of which...

3. Norman, Pokemon Adventures (English Publication). In the original Japanese publication, Norman is a rageful and abusive dad who struggles to accept his son Ruby's lifestyle of performing in Pokemon contests rather than battling. This whole aspect of his character is what motivates Ruby to run away from home to chase his own dreams. When Norman finally hunts Ruby down, he savagely beats Ruby with his bare hands, demanding Ruby to fight back to prove his resolve.

In the American English publication, awkward steps are taken to block out all of Norman's abuse. When he throws Ruby down a flight of stairs, the translator just says Ruby '"accidentally fell down". When he punches Ruby in the face, an awkward speech bubble is added in to say "Lightning struck nearby and he accidentally dropped Ruby", ignoring the fact that he was furiously holding Ruby by the nape over the edge of a building before either way. And by downplaying Norman's abuse, it makes Ruby's frightened and rebellious behaviour seem less reasonable, and weakens the story overall.

(Another example is the English translation removing Crystal's mother slapping her with an awkward redraw, but that's a one-off moment that's less connected to the themes of the story.)

4. Zeus and Hera, Disney's Hercules. I don't actually hate this one, I just found the sheer difference between this and the original myths humorous and wanted to include it to add diversity to the examples.

It's been 2.5 months since my last post here and in that time, Even a Replica Can Fall in Love had over 7 new chapters translated and a full anime season, so it shot up from 9th place to 4th place! Definitely check it out if you're feeling uncertain- it's not the most comedic series on here but it more than makes up for it by being the most emotionally mature and heartwarming+heartwrenching series! I've already bought the light novels so I can keep reading ahead from where the anime left off!

Also noteworthy is that Komi Can't Communicate had a special bonus 10th anniversary chapter released, for any fans who haven't heard about it yet!

I also added another page for series that I loved as anime, but haven't read the manga yet (just because I'm busy)

As always, if you want to know more about any of the series listed here before you start reading/watching, I'm more than happy to give a synopsis and review in the comments!

Special shoutout to u/Endiamon for recommending me Aharen on my last post! I had so much fun watching the anime for it! You’re the big winner of understanding what I like in a romcom, including:

·       It being really REALLY funny

·       A couple where both people are weird and silly, not just a “normal” person and their hotter quirkier love interest. Even kuuderes are used for comedic moments.

·       A story that continues after the couple gets together

·       Fun and memorable side characters (even if I felt the side couple’s arc was weirdly rushed)

·       Lots of wholesomeness, antics, and vibing. No forced arguments and no love triangle (outside of self-aware jokes)

I don't need all of these in a recommendation, but the more of these that fit, the better! And as a reminder of what I'm usually not into in romcoms, I dislike:

1. Enemies to lovers or just constant arguing

2. Will-they-won't-they with repeated confession fakeouts

3. Kuudere leads whose emotionless natures aren't used for comedy.

4. I don't hate ecchi, but I'd prefer if it wasn't the series' main focus, or if it's at least funny.

But yeah! I had fun making this! I'll probably only update this whenever Journey Home wraps up its first anime season!

I had a lot of fun practicing art styles for this- Ruthye is inspired by Gurihiru's art (one of my favorite art teams ever), especially how they draw eyes! Lobo's crazy proportions are based on his DCAU design, just with Momoa's look instead. And Kara is drawn in more of my own art style!

But yeah, it's a good fun movie! Directing and editing a bit choppy at the start and it could have been more colorful, but the effects and the acting were great! 8/10, would recommend!

Now that we know their abilities, I just had to swap Scovillain out with Emboar this time.

I tried incorporating a lot of my favorite design elements alongside common Mega design trends!

It's based off a Therezinosaur, with the arm blades from the original Mega Sceptile now as its claws- and the tail looks more like a palm frond than a conifer. The blue accents come from Charizard and Mewtwo's X Megas also having more blue on them (RIP Raichu X breaking this trend but still) and the colored belly, longer snout, and head leaves come from Grovyle since a lot of the new Megas borrow traits from their pre-evolutions!

I'd also appreciate more feedback on if/how Parry Blade is balanced? I'd like if it didn't fail against non-priority moves like Upper Hand, but I also don't want it to be so spammable it shuts down entire builds without any effort. Maybe it just has low PP? Or it takes a 50% damage penalty whenever it blocks a priority move?

I'm also aware that it also goes on way more threatening Pokemon than Sceptile, including unreleased Megas like Golisopod and Absol Z, not to mention Kingambit, Chien Pao, Sneaseler, Iron Valiant, and Kartana, so I'd love to hear more about how a move like this would shake up the meta!

Super-speed is already known as one of the most overpowered abilities since it usually comes bundled with a lot of other powers to make it work like strength, durability, reflexes, and even full-on telekinesis and time alteration at its extreme. So I really appreciate it when speedsters come with built-in limitations to prevent them from being overpowered and to let them use their abilities more creatively!

1)      Mas and Menos, Teen Titans. They can move at superspeed but only when in contact with each other.

2)      Yo-yo, Agents of Shield. She can run really fast, but she is automatically sent back to her starting point after a brief amount of time.

3)      Star Platinum, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. (And most other short-range power Stands) A little unconventional, but it still counts! They have incredible speed and reflexes only in the single-digit meter range they can be summoned in by their user. For the close-range Stands that can even move at all outside this range, it is implied that either their strength or their control drops off noticeably upon doing so.

4)      Pohatu, Bionicle. At his original power level when using super speed, his surroundings are mostly a blur to him. After his Nuva powerup, he is able to clearly view his surroundings even when going faster than before.

5.  Chase, Dispatch. Every time he uses super-speed, the time dilation to allow it ages him extra fast.
   

6.  Tiger Beetles, real life. Similar to Pohatu, Tiger Beetles have the fastest running speed of all land animals relative to their size. However, their eyes and brains are unable to keep up with their surroundings at that speed, meaning they have to stop every few seconds to re-calibrate their position.
   

Specifically, when a character gets rejected by their crush and the story almost immediately gives them a new relationship partner so the audience doesn't feel too bad for them.

1. Nancy and Edward, Enchanted: This one is a double instance since both Nancy and Edward's original fiancees Robert and Giselle got together, so Nancy almost immediately leaves her life on Earth behind to run off with him to his animated fantasy kingdom in another dimension to marry him.
2. Manbagi and Wakai, Komi can't Communicate: After getting rejected by her crush Tadano after almost a dozen volumes of love triangle drama, Manbagi soon runs into the awkward soccer player Wakai and the two quickly hit it off in their own romantic subplot from that point onwards.
3. Black Canary and Green Arrow, Batman the Brave and the Bold: I know they're one of DC's most iconic power couples, but specifically in the Brave and the Bold cartoon, it's almost comical how she only accepts Green Arrow's confession the minute after Batman rejects her. (Sidenote: this happened in the Music Meister episode, which is one of the best cartoon episodes ever made)