Kenshin_sama

One of the best artists I've come across recently. His/her work is brilliant! Source: https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=961236&from_sid=2738724318

Lol, it hasn't even been that long since I watched Plastic Memories, and I've even forgotten my favorite girl's name. But I do at least recall how I felt about the anime. The romance was very cute, and I remember feeling very strongly about the story, even though it could've been written a lot better. I think this is the kind of anime where just about any romance fan will find something to appreciate about it, even if it doesn't turn out to be amazing.

Due to my weird browsing habits, I discovered this. http://i.imgur.com/6nHgHld.png Thanks for bringing the forums back.

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=2671042

<3 <3 <3

Holy smokes, I haven't heard about Black Cat in a while. A friend I knew in high school use to love that anime too, but sadly I never got around to watching it. I probably will once my PTW is cleared. (Oh man, remember the days when Gonzo made good anime?) But I hear ya, I had a very similar experience with Karin. I started watching this anime around the time I was hitting up random Chatango rooms asking for recommendations to satisfy a newfound rom-com craze I developed after watching Toradora, and Karin was one of the anime suggested to me. Watched it, loved it, thought rom-coms were the greatest things in existence, then I moved on to others in the genre and became even more obsessed, and eventually I lost my innocence after watching Clannad. But Karin always stood out to me in its own unique way and never really left my mind (it still hasn't). So eventually I decided to check out the manga about 2 years later and I pretty much came to the same conclusion as you did with Black Cat. There were some key plot elements that were kept in the adaption, but it differed so much from the source to the point that the atmospheres on opposite ends of the spectrum. The version of Karin I viewed in the anime was light-hearted, sweet, and every bit a 2006 rom-com anime. The mangaka even requested that the adaption have its own original character who would compete with the protagonist in a love triangle. The manga, however, did not have any love rivals, and it was a lot more thick in the way the story was told. It was dark, and it had a bittersweet ending that completely threw me for a loop. It was very interesting though, and definitely a lot more thought-provoking than the adaption. To me, they were both very good on their own merits, and I'd probably still enjoy the anime if I ever decided to re-watch it. And wouldn't you know it, both our anime aired right around the same time frame. I guess anime producers back then had little to no care at all about sticking to the source back then, which might be a reason their work tends stand out a little more. Not to say they aren't enjoyable, or even great for that matter. But I still get the impression that anime producers have picked up some nasty habits by playing it safe and avoiding risky creativity. Ya know, I'd have a hard time arguing against that myself since I've never really enjoyed an anime that I've read the source material for. Hell, even with Shokugeki no Souma, which I started out watching the anime, but then I got super hyped and started reading ahead in the manga. Once I read a fair amount of the manga, I stopped caring about the anime, lol. I guess it does have that kind of affect on ya. That being said, whenever I didn't like an adaption, it's usually one that isn't viewed very favorably, so it might just be coincidence on my part. Now while there is a fair bit of division on this subject, some of the people that read Koe no Katachi beforehand were praising the movie and claiming it to be better than the source. And the only arguments I read opposing this viewpoint basically mentioned scene removal, but no one ever really expanded on why that bothered them so much.

After another long hiatus with ongoing stuff, I'm pleasantly surprised to find a few good fantasy anime this season. Huh, maybe I'll keep this going after Summer's over too, lol. Knight's and Magic (no idea why that apostrophe's there) is the standout show for me so far. This is the first time I've seen an anime combine fantasy elements with mecha, so just for that it's already a unique experience. And though I suppose it's being done into oblivion at this point, I really like how they incorporate the isekai theme in this one too. Like rather than being randomly thrown in and getting to be Mr. Awesome without doing much, he studies diligently and works hard to accomplish his goals over time. And due to how he's transferred to the other world, the way he becomes super OP makes sense. Ernesti's almost the exact opposite of Subaru too; they are both otakus, but Ernesti's an overachieving otaku with an obsessive, and surprisingly likeable, personality. He's kinda cute too. Oh, and the action scenes are fantastic! I think it's adorable how Ady hugs Eru all the time. Definitely shipping! I wouldn't say K&M is the most interesting series this season, but as far as enjoyability goes, I'd say it's my favorite so far. Not sure how good the plot's gonna be, but it has potential. At the very least, there is a grand goal that the protagonist is striving towards. Made in Abyss definitely has something going for it. I like how it's focusing so much on the characters and world building, and that it manages to find a good balance between establishing roots and escalation. Even though I don't always care that much about pacing, it's refreshing to watch an anime that understands how it works. And because of how well the world building was handled up until now, Abyss gives me a lot to look forward to in the upcoming episodes. Not entirely sure how to feel about the new Fate anime just yet, but it's promising. Shame it couldn't be Ufotable to animate it this time, but A1's doing a pretty good job so far. And I suppose it is preferable to having a terrible director like the one in charge of UBW. For a few episodes I thought the necromancer guy was gonna be the protagonist, but by episode 4 I realized that wasn't happening, lol. Ah who am I kidding, only Urobuchi gets to have a cool protagonist! I'm definitely liking the Red Saber; she's spunky. :3 But maaaan, I was having a hard enough time keeping up with a cast of 7 servants and masters in the other Fate storylines. 15 is gonna be tough.

Happy birthday, Krill.

Oh, my bad. I take everything way too seriously, lol. xD

You sure about that? Humanity's not so far gone that there aren't any open-minded people left. I know, I've had several conversations with others on the internet that have either changed the way I think, or they themselves have changed their way of thinking. There are some people that will ardently believe what they want no matter how much sense you make, but if you keep pressing on with a sound argument, I do believe a debate can be reasonably settled more times than not. “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” -Mahatma Gandhi

I myself didn't view it as harshly as most others and I still gave it an above average rating. But the thing I take issue with Little Busters is that the director was more concerned with the anime being faithful than he was with taking full advantage of what could be done in an anime. As a result, the drama didn't deliver the same emotional impact that the VN did, and I think it was too dependent on the source to make itself presentable. I did take my bias into consideration since it was one of the few adaptions I had watched after reading the source, so I asked a friend, whose views generally align with mine, what he thought, and he felt roughly the same way. Good, but underwhelming compared to other Key titles. It's sort of hard to objectify my opinion of this series though since even the VN is more driven by emotional appeal than it is about story. Which begs the question: Why even go into an anime with expectations at all? Whether you've read the source beforehand or not, having higher expectations can only lead to disappointment if the adaption fails. But going in with no expectations at all will help encourage open-mindedness and be more accepting of the changes being made to help the story fit in a different format. But wouldn't that only be a problem if you didn't view the adaption as a standalone? Personally, I don't think the adaption would contradict anything as long as it follows its own set of rules, because I think it should be as independent as it wants to be. Whether it wants to be it's own anime entirely, loosely based on the source, or entirely based on the source, it's fine as long as it's enjoyable. Shouldn't creative freedom be encouraged? I definitely do agree with your point here. Sometimes one's only motivation to watch an adaption is to see the same story twice, but in a different format. And while I don't necessarily do this myself, I don't think it's necessarily wrong either. Right, but what I'm mostly picking at is the mindset many people have regarding adaptions. Are they bashing am adaption's faithfulness just because everyone else is? Is there a reason the lost content bothers people so much? Are perceptions of faithfulness hindering sense of enjoyability? I doubt there are that many people that put a lot of thought into this, and I think they may benefit greatly from doing so.

Sure, take your time. I look forward to your later reply. And yeah, that's a good point. Each storytelling medium has it's own unique form of presentation, so it might also be possible that people just prefer one format over the other, and they may just be looking for another method of validating their opinion. That's also a good point to make on why an adaption shouldn't be so strict in sticking to the source, because what works for that medium may not work for another.

So, I've watched the movie Koe no Katachi very recently, and as someone who hasn't consumed the manga, I'd honestly say I somewhat fell in love with its performance. One thing that stood out to me though was the amount of hate it received for the amount of content cut from the original. I've also heard arguments from readers that the cut content actually enhanced the experience by removing the parts of the story that weren't too significant. Personally, I would have felt better if there was a little more focus on Shimada because But that wasn't enough to significantly deter my enjoyment of the movie. And the reason this doesn't sit so well with me is because I haven't seen any of those critics provide any substantial reasoning for why the cut content bothered them so much, and I think the reasoning behind that is the association of faithfulness with quality. Hence the reason I made this thread. Now there are times where I do think a more faithful adaption would've added more to the story with Elfen Lied as one of the many prime examples. Quick disclaimer: this is something I watched the anime adaption of first before reading the source. For that series in particular, I felt that the adaption was very mediocre and I didn't like the way it ended. I wasn't even planning on reading the manga either until a friend of mine talked about how the anime was cut off before the story picked up, and about how the ending was completely original. Well, as it turned out, he was right. The manga is still one of my favorites to this day and it's one of the cases where cutting content from the manga did severely cripple the experience in the adaption. And I later found out that the anime was originally planned to be 2-cour, but was cut short due to its lack of popularity, which explains the rushed ending. And then of course there's the famously faithful second adaption of Fullmetal Alchemist, which is widely and adamantly accepted by the community as one of the most faithful adaptions to date. Not only did it supposedly (I haven't read the manga myself) follow the manga to a T, it managed to do so while delivering a grand and memorable experience due to its interesting plot and a well-developed cast of characters. However, I'd also like to put some focus on the lackluster adaption of Little Busters. Now, you'd think that with all the buzz going around about how faithfulness equates with quality, one would think that the adaption of this popular Key game would have had a great reception. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Even though the anime did manage to capture all the main elements to make the story work and didn't differ from the source that much, it did so in a very lackadaisical manner and delivered a product that, while still relatively decent, did not hold up to the original. And why is that exactly? Because the direction was slop and the budget for this series was noticeably low. Now I get there are people that'll hate the anime because they generally hate Key, but this was poorly received even among fans of the original. I don't think it's purely due to faithlessness that the Elfen Lied adaption did so poorly. I disliked Elfen Lied not because it wasn't faithful, but because it couldn't stand on its own as a well-written story, and the manga did. And even though Little Busters was a faithful adaption, I still did not view it favorably because it couldn't stand on its own and any quality is did have can be mostly attributed to the source. But see, I think there are a lot of people in the anime community that, due to the lack of quality in certain adaptions, have associated faithfulness with quality, and have become overly critical of shows that aren't as faithful as they could be. And as this behavior becomes prevalent in the anime discussion scene, those who have not yet formed their own opinions on the matter may become influenced by this way of thinking. Another common behavior I've noticed is the desire to read a source material when a noteworthy adaption has been announced. Though it might just be due to general curiosity, I think there might also be an incentive to read a manga for the sole purpose of comparison to the adaption. And see, the reason I bring this up is because I think it might be an unhealthy way to consume anime. Adaptions can't always be perfect, and I think that if one were to take this approach to watching anime, it might severely damage an experience that might have otherwise been enjoyable. That and I feel reading a source material first kinda spoils the excitement that comes with not knowing what happens, and one might be inclined to view it even more critically. Additionally, if popular opinion dictates that an adaption should be faithful, it might cause producers to cut corners on delivery in order to keep it faithful. On the other hand, comparing an adaption to its source also provides something a little more tangible to talk about in discussion since voicing one's opinion on how they feel towards an anime can be a little uninteresting and pointing out flaws within the series without something to compare it to does require an analytical mind. And without meaningful discussion, there are fewer opportunities to connect with others, and that's something I'm sure many forum-goers or commentators desire when posting their reactions. So who knows, maybe it's not entirely without merit. With all this in mind, I'd like to get to know everyone's thoughts on the matter. How would you personally react to not-so-faithful adaptions? Why would you feel that way? Would you be happy with a mostly faithless adaption if it come out great? Are there any other theories you might have in regards to how others react to faithfulness in adaptions? My views on this topic probably aren't as objective as they could be since I very rarely read a source material before watching an adaption, so I'd be very interested in getting to know more about any opposing views that anyone might have.

Apparently Ayana was born to voice Kirino.

I'd say that's a really good call. Even if you do have some things in common, the last thing you need to surround yourself with is people that want to bring you down. I'm still having a hard time doing it myself. My childhood friend has been trying to reach out to me on Facebook, and I've been tempted to reply to him. But I know I shouldn't; he's the kind of guy that likes taking advantage of me, and he has a very serious alcohol addiction that he doesn't want to acknowledge. Now if only I grew up in an anime-like setting with a tsundere childhood friend who eventually falls head over heels for you. That'd be nice. Maybe a little painful too, but who cares!

Idk why I listen to this song. It still triggers me. Warning: Don't read the comments if you don't want spoilers, lol.

Win10 in a nutshell.

Wtf!? There better be a patch restoring that bestiality scene! I will not accept anything less!

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth3 V Generation is on sale at 85% off for about 12 hours.

Okay, I guess I'll go ahead and talk about it now.