Yeah, ideally I think I’d like to read the manga and then go back and re-watch the show. Part of Nichijou’s appeal (for me) is KyoAni’s beautiful animation, but I also really liked the absurdist humor. By the time I get through all the manga, hopefully I will have leveled up enough that an L26 show is no problem.
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On ep 20/39… It’s hard to know just what to think of this show. I’m enjoying it, and It’s also good listening practice - something about the voice acting(?), and also the vocab leve, I have to really pay attention a lot of the time, unlike Sailor Moon).
The sibling relationships are all weird (of course)… But then again almost everyone in this anime is at least a little nuts in some way (usually more than a little). Sometimes the surreal elements land for me, and other times less so. All the characters have flaws, in a way that I can’t say I totally like anybody in this story, and I’m not really crazy about the way Himemiya is written a lot of the time (bc she feels more like an object than a character, but also bc her behavior is inconsistent with the reasons the narrative gives for it)… Tho that’s started to improve with the 2nd arc. (To be fair, Utena is also kind of written inconsistently at times - but she doesn’t feel like an object)
The 2nd arc is interesting, the basic structure is “Character A can’t accept a certain part of their life, so they temporarily submit to the bad guy, then have a battle with Utena”… But somehow that seems to resolve their issue, and even lead to positive developments afterwards? I’m really not sure what to make of it at this point.
Also I could really do without the repeated 1.5 min “walking up the stairs to the magic battle ground, with strange music” thing… That and the whole “the world is an egg” sequence the student council always has/had. (Also wth is up with the stopwatch already?!)
I’m curious to read the manga after this
Otherwise 9 eps into 美少女戦士セーラームーンクリスタル Season I: Dark Kingdom | L28 and have been enjoying it well enough. The plot and battle scenes are definitely the most enjoyable elements, and it’s just nice watching such a straight adaptation. Great vocab reinforcement too
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I would recommend watching the movie next and then reading the manga. The manga is very different from both, and the story is comparatively underdeveloped. That said, after seeing the movie (more overtly lesbian and with lovely artwork) I think the manga can be enjoyed for what it inspired in both adaptations.
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I had no idea there was movie - thx for the tip.
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Not sure how you all do the fancy embeds for LearnNatively.
I picked up 安達としまむら | Lv. 23 today because I was kinda getting bored with the Level 20 stuff. I’ve seen it before in English and read the first 4 books.
I have to say, I’m actually surprised by just how large of a jump in difficulty there is from 20/21 to 23. I’m still not having any particular trouble, but it’s definitely noticeably more difficult–I can’t multitask while watching it without missing stuff, and I even had to look up a word. (三日坊主) This is without JPN subs.
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Post the link on its own line for the big card version. Or post the link within a line, and it will (usually) autoformat.
You’ve got a typo, should be 安達としまむら. Been too long since I watched, so I can’t comment on the difficulty
Such a great word!!
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Whoops, wrong Adachi! Though it doesn’t surprise me that the IME defaults to the name of the ward.
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At some point in the series Utena finds the elevator 
I read those repeated sequences as the series’ take on magical girl transformation sequences, incidentally.
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I assume in arc 3? (like 2 more episodes). I’ll look forward to that moment 
Sure, it’s just unnecessarily long and identical. (At least with Sailor Moon there’s a some variations in either dialogue or sequence length, and even all 5 in a row go by quickly enough)… It’s conceptually cool, I just have low tolerance for that sorta thing.
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In both SM and Utena I learned how long those sequences were and used the skip forward 10 seconds button liberally.
It’d probably be fine to watch the whole sequence at the pace of an episode a week, but when you’re even just watching one a day it gets tedious fast.
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The player I use for Utena has a skip 30s. SM (both versions) I either do vocab reviews or actually watch it, cuz it’s so pretty, and there’s just enough variation.
That’s a good point about weekly vs daily+. I’d probably be mildly hyped if it was weekly
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I started watching 消えた初恋 S1 | L22 on a whim this weekend; I was hoping for some long term shenanigans due to the premise, but the misunderstandings got cleared up by like episode three, haha, so now it’s just a regular high school romcom, which I unfortunately have little to no interest in. It’s gonna make grading tough; the show is slightly above my comfort level, but the difficulty seems more severe because I have to force myself to even pay attention to what they’re doing on screen. 
Thinking of watching 真・女神転生デビルサマナー S1 | L30?? as my next show in honor of the Raidou remaster being announced; this doesn’t actually feature Raidou, but it’s in the same sub-series of SMT, so close enough. Hoping it’s not going to be too difficult, as I highly doubt I’ll be able to find subs for it.
Oh, and I think 薬屋のひとりごと | L34 should be arriving in my regional Netflix tomorrow? I’m super pumped for it, and will definitely be watching (hopefully with subs).
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Well she found it! And that whole sequence (and everything else) got a lot more sensual. Unfortunately the humor and surrealism stuff is getting more disruptive and obnoxious. Also the school chairman guy is soooooooo creepy. Like he already was, but now they’re more directly showing it - which I think is good. I’m feeling apprehensive about the remaining 13 episodes, but I’m not writing them off yet either.
I wonder if Nanami and her brother will have some kind of a moment or confrontation - since all the other siblings get them (not necessarily a good thing). It’s interesting, for all the things I can’t stand about her, she does actually have some respect for (some people’s) boundaries. So she’s the least likely to have a sibling experience, I think.
I had to skip the filler ep of the elementary school kid idolizing Nanami… it’s believable, but I’m also not gonna sit through a 20 minute episode of knowingly glorifying someone who’s abusive. Like he even understood that she was intentionally bullying Himemiya and others, and praised the way she had others do her dirty work. Ew
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If you don’t like surrealism then I change my mind - skip the movie.
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Continuing on my self appointed duty of grading all of the (魔女)少女 anime of my youth I’ve picked up ふしぎ遊戯 S1 | L23. I guess you’d probably consider it an early Isekai (much like 魔法騎士レイアース S1 | L27) that doesn’t carry much modern Isekai baggage (but I do remember it being problematic in its own ways 
). afaict, subs just don’t exist for it, but it’s been pretty easy except for the details about the world/Suzaku no Miko/Shichi Seishi. I have it graded at L23 which so far feels right (it’s been a touch easier than Sailor Moon was for me, but I did also watch that about a year ago last…). Anyway it’s been pure nostalgia directly in my veins and I’ve been loving it.
I also started 僕の心のヤバイやつ S1 | L24 on Netflix when I was Japan and have the rest of the season downloaded to my ipad (it’s on Crunchyroll, but no jp subs). I’ve been really really enjoying it as an anime as well. It looks like the first season takes me farther than I’ve read (I think I’m only through the 2nd book?), but both of the leads are just done so well in the show so I’ll probably watch it through. I’m gonna have to find the thingie I use to connect my iPad to the TV (although I did watch an episode on my lap last night and enjoyed it quite a bit).
After seeing the Japanese Netflix catalog in person again, I think I might need to find a VPN that works with it still bc there’s a lot of really good live action especially that we don’t have here. 
Not to mention the anime that has perfectly timed subs I don’t need to fiddle with to watch on CR.
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It depends on how it’s done. I’ve mostly liked or not been too bothered it in this, but for a few eps it was getting obnoxious. Surrealism I love: おにいさまへ… S1 | L26 . Surrealism I hate: 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン S1 | L35
Otoh ep 30 just went exactly where I really didn’t want it to go, but hopefully it’s just a bump along the way
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Another on my list to get to soon
I use NordVPN and have never had any issues
That is definitely a thing I appreciate - tho Netflix doesn’t account for contrast, so depending on the scene you might not be able to read them anyway
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In particular the with the problematic elements, ふしぎ遊戯 has (both plot and cw spoiler ) a male character who dresses/identifies as a woman that is played for laughs around the reveal. iirc that subsides, but I’m not fully through the gags for it.
On the iPad you get a blurred background behind the white subs which solves that. I don’t know why they won’t add a yellow without a background option to the TV/web.
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The transformation sequences in Pretty Cure Max Max Heart are so long that as soon as a fight starts, I just go ahead and start doing vocab reviews. Between transformations, attacks, the support character transforming, powering up attacks… It’s really bad. 
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I finished 少女革命ウテナ S1 | L31 … I’m left with the burning question: what did “revolutionizing the world” mean this entire time? I still don’t get it…. My main advice for others who may be interested is “don’t watch until you’re already comfortable with harder shows” (or at least have gone through the jpdb deck pretty thoroughly). In the end, I have pretty mixed feelings… there was a lot that was amazing, but some stuff that was grating, dragged out, or just a mess too. I’m sure there’s stuff that went over my head. A lot of the last 1/4 felt particularly frustrating and dragged out, and maybe I should have taken another day or two. Also the end felt like a slap in the face, in so many ways.
Anyway, I’m more interested in reading 少女革命ウテナ 1 | L24 than I am in watching 少女革命ウテナ アドゥレセンス黙示録 | L30?? at this point - but I’ll probably eventually do both. I’m intrigued the manga is only L24, while the anime is (appropriately) L31.
I’m gonna go chill with 美少女戦士セーラームーンクリスタル Season II: Black Moon | L28 and catching episodes I skipped in 美少女戦士セーラームーン | L24 for a bit, I think
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