Re: Entertainment Joys

[bomaye]

Dat Mandalorian ending tho

[Werel]

Got a PC for the first time in like 10 years, whoooo pandemic entertainment!

...but I find myself just playing games that are like 10-30 years old on this brand new high end gaming PC. "Oh yeah, this baby can run Cyberpunk on max settings without breaking a sweat. Welp, better download Fallout 2!"

[Enail]

Playing Heaven's Vault, found a massive, story-important book, sat down at my (in-game) desk and spent the next hour and a half just translating page after page and learning new shit. Possibly I'll never carry on with the rest of the game because there's too much book to translate and I actually want to know what it's talking about. :

[bomaye]

Bleach is such a hype shonen anime

I didn't love it the first time around as much as I love it now

[Datelessman]

So after finishing INU YASHA last year, I have finally listened to critics over my own dissatisfaction with a character and am 2/3rds of the way through both seasons of HARLEY QUINN. It's great stuff; reminds me of DC's version of "VENTURE BROTHERS," which is a high compliment.

It wasn't as if I disliked Harley Quinn per say; I'd just gotten so much of her across all media that I have my fill quickly and am wary of more. I often feel the same way about Deadpool, Wolverine, and Batman (and occasionally Spider-Man). I am glad I listened to a personal friend on this show, though. It's been a blast.

[bomaye]

So it turns out as a mid 30s human being who has never seen The Karate Kid before, the movie is actually really great without childhood nostalgia to back it up

[bomaye]

In related news, Cobra Kai has no business being as good as it is, holy shit

[waxingjaney]

So it turns out as a mid 30s human being who has never seen The Karate Kid before ...

Ha, really?

Cobra Kai isn't a (technical skill) bad dojo; it's just run by a giant asshole.

[bomaye]

So it turns out as a mid 30s human being who has never seen The Karate Kid before ...

Ha, really?

It's weirdly common for me to have missed out on '80s classics. I mostly watched TMNT and Ghostbusters as a kid (probably a few others) but I never saw a single Rocky movie until later (and I think I've only seen Rocky I), still haven't seen any Back to the Futures or Indiana Jones (I've seen a lot of these in passing, just never sat down and watched one fully through), and on and on.

Cobra Kai isn't a (technical skill) bad dojo; it's just run by a giant asshole.

There are way too many times Dimitri says something or does something that I fully understand

[waxingjaney]

So it turns out as a mid 30s human being who has never seen The Karate Kid before ...

Ha, really?

It's weirdly common for me to have missed out on '80s classics. I mostly watched TMNT and Ghostbusters as a kid (probably a few others) but I never saw a single Rocky movie until later (and I think I've only seen Rocky I), still haven't seen any Back to the Futures or Indiana Jones (I've seen a lot of these in passing, just never sat down and watched one fully through), and on and on.

Hmmm, could be a generational or US/Canada thing. Up to the early '00s, it was pretty common for US tv stations with small or no network affiliation to run "came out five-ten years ago" movies as weekend afternoon and evening filler.

[bomaye]

Nah, it's mostly a "me" thing. I think I was more into late '80s/early '90s stuff like TMNT, Terminator 2, Aliens, Predator and never watched other '80s stuff for whatever reason

I'm now fully caught up on Cobra Kai and I love it and I hate the wait for Season 4

[bomaye]

Wrestlemania (or Night 1 at least, I haven't hit up Night 2 yet) was the funnest it's been since probably Wrestlemania 31 in 2015. Having jazzed up fans in attendance really helped give things an extra charge (though hilariously some of the wrestlers were a bit awkward playing to the fans because they haven't done it in so long that they're a bit rusty)

[waxingjaney]

I'm kinda curious... has anyone been thrown into the "television" audience at some point, or is that too much of a hard bump these days?

[bomaye]

I'm positive I've seen someone thrown into the Thunderdome audience area before (I do fast forward through most of the shows and skip most of the PPVs though so I might just be inventing the memory), I don't think I've seen someone bounced off the screens themselves.

AEW has the fake audience up front (wrestlers themselves) and people get thrown into them pretty regularly.

New Japan's been interesting with that because one of the regulations is that you can't fight in crowd including some of the entranceways because it's in the crowd themselves, and Bullet Club leader and consummate prick-heel Jay White will actually escape into that entranceway and dare some of the babyfaces to come after him and get the show cancelled.

[Datelessman]

I may be about a year behind on it being "trendy," but I am finally watching ONE PUNCH MAN.

I know it was supposedly the 2nd hottest superhero anime behind MY HERO ACADEMIA, but I am 6 episodes in and I've got to be honest; TIGER & BUNNY is WAY better.

[Datelessman]

I may be about a year behind on it being "trendy," but I am finally watching ONE PUNCH MAN.

I know it was supposedly the 2nd hottest superhero anime behind MY HERO ACADEMIA, but I am 6 episodes in and I've got to be honest; TIGER & BUNNY is WAY better.

I finished both seasons of ONE PUNCH MAN and I stand by my assessment; amusing but overrated. Its second season is the "controversial" one, but I found it pretty similar. I just think people saved their criticisms for it out of awe, or something. TIGER & BUNNY is still my favorite "superhero anime" of the recent past.

Frankly, the only four "mainstream anime series" that I genuinely felt lived up to the hype were COWBOY BEBOP, OUTLAW STAR, YU YU HAKUSHO, and INUYASHA. The fact that most of those were from or started in the 90's says something about me or the industry. So many others -- BLEACH, ONE PIECE, NARUTO, even to lessor degrees HELLSING and FULL METAL ALCHEMIST -- I seemed to lose interest in or not be passionate about. And anyone who says, "oh, you need to watch 30+ episodes before it gets good" needs to realize that time for some is a luxury.

On a related note, I also finished binge watching all 190 THREE STOOGES shorts and watching about 6 out of their 8 or so movies. So that goes to show how I spend some of my time.

[bomaye]

A significant amount of One Punch Man's hype was on the animation quality. Season 1 was blow-away amazing, Season 2 was not.

[Datelessman]

A significant amount of One Punch Man's hype was on the animation quality. Season 1 was blow-away amazing, Season 2 was not.

I see. I did notice that although for what it's worth my mind wasn't blown by how the first season looked visually. But then again I've been spoiled by Disney and Warner Brothers for ages.

Admittedly, I didn't realize that so much of the hype for ONE PUNCH MAN was "oooh, SHINEY" instead of plot content until you indicated it, so thanks.

In terms of the content itself it was like the mutant spawn of THE TICK and DRAGONBALL Z. I loved when people were surprised that a martial arts tournament plot happened in season 2. Like, literally, 99% of all "boys anime" has it. Yes, it was to keep the lead busy so he can't save the day sooner, but it ALWAYS IS FOR THAT REASON. I loved YU YU HAKUSHO but even I know that the "Dark Tournament" existed for a third of it more or less so the Toguro Brothers wouldn't be beaten until the plot was ready (and so the lead could spend half the arc asleep).

Again, I wouldn't call ONE PUNCH MAN bad, I just found it way overrated. It was better than ZETMAN, though, which I watched a few months ago at random.

[KMR]

Personally, it was the humor that originally drew me to One Punch Man. In the first few episodes, the show really embraced the joke and I was enjoying it a lot. But when it started trying to also balance having a more serious plot and be a typical action/superhero show, as well as shifting the focus away from Saitama toward various side characters (that I never really cared about), I felt like it detracted from what made the show great and really stand out. The humorous moments became too few and far between, and the plot and even the action scenes were rarely engaging enough for me to make up for that.

Initially, I wasn't even putting this series into the same category as other shounen anime like Yu Yu Hakusho or My Hero Academia. I thought it was trying to be a comedic/satirical take on the genre and was therefore a bit disappointed when it started to shed that tone and tried to become more of just another action series.

[Enail]

I only watched the first I think five or six episodes, so I didn't get much into the more serious shounen/action, but I was already starting to get the sense it was gonna either run the joke into the ground or have to get more serious, the premise was starting to show its limits already.  I think that kind of parody/comedy can be hard to keep up because of that tightrope between getting stale and getting more serious/losing too much of the comedy. I felt Mob Psycho 100 worked better (first season, at least, I still haven't picked it up for the 2nd season) because it wove together the comedy and the more serious plot/character stuff that it would need to carry the show longer right from the start.

[Datelessman]

I was drawn to ONE PUNCH MAN due to the hype and because as a superhero comics fan I am often interested in seeing how the Japanese interpret the genre. Manga and anime have every genre under the sun but U.S. comics are still about 85% superheroes (being generous). So almost any superhero anime gets a chance from me.

I actually liked a lot of the bizarre satire and humor of the series (comparing it to the Tick which also had weird characters). It was a sendup of superheroes (often the Japanese versions, akin to ULTRAMAN or SUPER SENTAI/POWER RANGERS) as well as shounen anime itself. I do agree that at some point it tried to have its cake and eat it too; make fun of the tropes while still adhering to them to a degree. Saitama is an amusing slacker demigod moron, as a spoof of types like Goku, but he's so powerful that too much focus on him may get boring, so I do understand focusing on others. I was fine with the focus on, say, Genos, his cyborg sidekick, and some of the stuff with King.

I do agree that season 2 kind of went off the rails. Saitama and even Genos are marginalized for other characters who are too one note, especially the season's big villain/anti-hero who wanted to beat the other heroes, Garou. His origin was interesting but it just went on so long with the hero-hunting stuff; it reminded me of something like DC Comics' IDENTITY CRISIS or something. There was a lot of obsessive stuff about power rankings and whatnot and I suppose the martial arts tournament is distracting at best. Also, and not to be "that guy," but I sometimes side-eye series that seem unable to have more than one named female character on screen at any given time, or barely have any at all. Beyond Tornado and her sister, there's only one other. I mean even YYH or DBZ have quite a few heroines or villains.

Again, for my money, my favorite anime superhero series of the recent past is TIGER & BUNNY. 25 episodes and 2 movies so it isn't too long or two short; good mix of characters, solid plot, great VIZ dub (including Steve Blum), even the cell shaded CGI looks decent for a TV budget from almost a decade ago. It was hot for about a minute here and then was cast off for MY HERO ACADEMIA, which is a shame.

[bomaye]

Garou was the only thing I cared about in Season 2 of OPM once it became obvious the animation quality was significantly downgraded, though it also became a problem because they did sideline the main cast in boring subplots just so they could build him up. I don't remember too much about it at this point, though.

>DBZ
>Female characters

Might want to count again on that one, guy

I haven't seen or really heard of Tiger & Bunny but wikipedia says it's getting a sequel in 2022 so if it's that good I might hit it up.

My Hero Academia for my money is the best modern shonen going today (Note: I don't count One Piece as  "modern" even though it's still going)

[Datelessman]

Garou had his moments, but I do agree it went on for way too long and most of it was just throwing characters at him, new and old like a meat grinder.

I was totally acknowledging that DBZ had notable female characters; in fact quite a few of them (even if in DragonBall, of course, no character is useful aside for Goku and Vegeta, in that order, after "Perfect Cell"). OPM barely had any, which was what was shocking to me for a "modern" series.

I do know that TIGER & BUNNY is getting a sequel next year, and I would recommend it. It has 25 episodes and 2 movies (and the first movie is mostly a bonus episode between episodes 2-3), so it isn't much of an investment. The main heroes are a guy in his 30's with a kid, and another young man in his 20's, so it gives a bit of a break for people tired of watching teenagers 24/7. It isn't perfect but is very creative and enjoyable, with a great voice cast of mostly VA's people would recognize from mainstream shows mixed with anime veterans. I am glad it is getting a sequel and hope VIZ is able and willing to reunite the original dub cast for it. They were able to do it for INUYASHA, although that is obviously a higher priority.

[Enail]

Dustin Nguyen's art

[Datelessman]

Although that Delta Covid-19 variant is starting to mess up our recovery, I did go to the first movie at a theater since the pandemic hit. The last film I'd seen in a theater was SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, circa President's Day 2020 (which already feels like a decade ago). A couple of weeks ago I saw BLACK WIDOW in a mostly empty local theater (with a mask on). It was neither the best or worst of the MCU movies; I was sufficiently entertained. A film based on "SCARJO VS. DISNEY: THE LAWSUIT EDITION" may be more exciting, though. I do feel it was a shame that BLACK WIDOW was not produced earlier, which was entirely due to Marvel Entertainment's president, the reclusive conservative billionaire Ike Perlmutter, whose meddling with the film division prevented it before he was quietly pushed from it a few years ago.

In terms of my frequent home media DVD binges, I'd finished the original run of HE-MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE in anticipation of Netflix's MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATIONS -- which I also liked. I am currently binging the original 1985 edition of THUNDERCATS, especially since I saw little of it as a kid for unknown reasons.

I suppose I should be shocked and disappointed by the levels of online hatred that MOTU: REVELATIONS, has gotten online, but I am not. I actually paid attention to the stated premise and the fact that He-Man himself is not in the title, so I was not surprised by it and have enjoyed it so far. I haven't seen such venom thrown at a media product like this since the CAPTAIN MARVEL film, which was also for the same reasons. I will say that anyone who thinks REVELATIONS is the worst concept for a MOTU sequel has clearly never seen 1990's NEW ADVENTURES OF HE-MAN.

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