SQTDDTOT

[anthony]

Someone asked, now I will very belatedly deliver.

Stupid Questions That Don't Deserve Their Own Threads go here. I have none for the minute, but if you want to discuss something in greater than shoutbox length without disrupting another barely related thread, drop questions in here and see what happens.

[Mason Hall-McCullough]

Why do y'all like bad anime such as Konosuba or Bocchi the Rock, which are for brown people? I by no means dislike anime, but on Twitter I commonly experience confusion as I observe modern FOTM ecchi slop being hailed instead of keyed shonen such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Hunter x Hunter. Is there any actual merit to these terrible slice of life animes? Serious responses only, please.

[Sakana]

y'all

“…”

What is your question here; why people like the specific anime you mentioned, or why people like seasonal anime in general?

The answer to the first question you asked, for Bocchi, is that it is an anime which understands those who wish not to participate in society, sympathizes with them, but yet tells them that they should try to engage in the world regardless. It’s like Aidan McLears Sensitive Young Man, but actually good. Konosuba, I’m not so sure why people like it.

The answer to the second question you asked is that people like new things. I’ve watched many anime in my life, including most of the old classics, and so I like looking at modern ones to find new classics. The reason I don’t talk about Hunter x Hunter is because I’ve talked about it already, 10 years ago.

Also, I must say, on the bell curve of quality in anime, HxH and FMA;B are decidedly just above the middle. The really good ones, like Neon Genesis Evangelion, are talked about even today.

[Mason Hall-McCullough]

That makes sense, thank you for explaining. I had the perception that people watching newer shows were all recent migrants to the world of anime, but your argument is logical. I haven't watched enough to feel like I've come close to running out of older anime.

Maybe I will give one of these shows with that are designed to make you lust over the female characters a chance sometime and see if they're any good, they never looked to me like they had much depth.

I do object to your closing comment, but I won't argue it since it sounds like you've watched more than I have.

[Sakana]

I had the perception that people watching newer shows were all recent migrants to the world of anime, but your argument is logical.

In fairness, what you say is true for a lot of anime watchers. I’m specifically talking about why me and people I talk to about anime watch new ones.

Maybe I will give one of these shows with that are designed to make you lust over the female characters a chance sometime and see if they're any good, they never looked to me like they had much depth.

Some of them are good, some of them are bad. It’s generally not a good idea to think of anime as monolithic; shows that use the same tropes can be vastly different in quality solely due to the skills of the author at executing them. Mahoraba is a very traditional romance anime, but is of exceptional quality compared to most of it’s peers.

I do object to your closing comment, but I won't argue it since it sounds like you've watched more than I have.

I don’t personally believe that you need to watch more anime than someone to have a better opinion on anime. I personally don’t dislike HxH, but it has undeniable flaws, especially at the start.

[Hach]

I have a SQTDDTOT for Mason Hall-McCullough. Your forum name is from a minor character in the webfic Pact, written by Wildbow. What did you think of Pact? It's my favourite of Wildbow's stories, mostly because to me it has the most fascinating setting of them. I found the protagonist sympathetic. Couldn't relate to all the artfag shit and to the protagonist's group of friends in Toronto, but I know the big family gathering experience.

[Lohengrin]

Why do y'all like bad anime such as Konosuba or Bocchi the Rock, which are for brown people? I by no means dislike anime, but on Twitter I commonly experience confusion as I observe modern FOTM ecchi slop being hailed instead of keyed shonen such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Hunter x Hunter. Is there any actual merit to these terrible slice of life animes? Serious responses only, please.

I do not watch any of these personally but the idea is that both programmes contain cute girls, and it's fun and soothing to watch cute girls perform activities befitting of cute girls.  Megumin is cute, and so are all the Bocchi girls, hags included.  It's a serviceable form of disposable entertainment largely justified by the presence and animation of their cute girls alone.

[Mason Hall-McCullough]

I have a SQTDDTOT for Mason Hall-McCullough. Your forum name is from a minor character in the webfic Pact, written by Wildbow. What did you think of Pact? It's my favourite of Wildbow's stories, mostly because to me it has the most fascinating setting of them. I found the protagonist sympathetic. Couldn't relate to all the artfag shit and to the protagonist's group of friends in Toronto, but I know the big family gathering experience.

Glad to finally encounter someone who has read more of his writing than just Worm, I've given up on trying to get my friends to read Pact/Twig even though some of them read and liked Worm. I like the setting of Pact a lot as well, it seems like an upgrade to Worm in this sense because there are complex justifications for the types of magic practiced that tie more strongly back into the setting and characters, rather than just superpowers sometimes being themed around a person's personality and experiences. The pacing of Pact is fun, especially the turn it takes in the second half. It's probably not my favorite of his works however, I got more attached to the characters in Worm and Twig (though I still haven't finished Twig since the audiobook is unfinished). I tried to enjoy Pale, but had to drop it because the characters were insufferable and nothing was happening.

Unfortunately Wildbow's most recent two works I did not like at all, despite him being a true artist estranged from society writing thousands of words a day embodying the creative spirit, he's been corrupted by his hugbox trans discord community who sent him a hundred fanmails about how much they wished they had Jessica Yamada as a therapist. The community also hated Amy (my beloved) for being lesbian while having character flaws so it seems the trajectory of her character arc is hijacked half-way through Ward to anticlimactically write her character into the dirt so the reader could not possibly sympathize with her. They also praise him for writing about depressed traumatized LGBT POC youth and I don't think he's attuned enough with society to get that they're praising him because it's political, not because it's actually narratively interesting (which it isn't). I'm not optimistic for whatever he writes next but I will give it a chance. He's a talented writer who slipped up by making a good faith attempt to please his fans, rather than just writing what he thought was good.

[Guest]

Why is latin american music so fucking annoying? It doesn't matter what particular genre it is or what country it comes from, as soon as my ears hear something that my brain can recognize as "spic music" I am disgusted.

[Muskox]

Why is latin american music so fucking annoying? It doesn't matter what particular genre it is or what country it comes from, as soon as my ears hear something that my brain can recognize as "spic music" I am disgusted.

A lot of Mexican music from the 20th century is good. The issue today is the dominance of reggaeton (or whatever other name they use for the same thing). I truly believe it is the most irritating music ever created.

[Illustrious]

Thoughts? Is he right, /a/marna?

[BillyONare]

I agree.

[Recent Friend]

He's talking about the VN Class of 09.
SoulBroNumbah3 is probably worth talking about for a bit. The lyrics in his songs and jokes he makes in his videos are almost completely about 2000s nostalgia and normal-one-having enforcement. That's mostly his persona.

He made a few abridged series of anime/cartoons. An abridged series is something you wouldn't take too much effort to make. With the new insincerity, there's more motive to turn what was once about loving parody into demonization. You can keep spending more and more capital to try and break perceived bubbles, SMB3, but it's just going to flat if you don't go in with any love. So, ironically, SMB3 is making a bubble.

[Mason Hall-McCullough]

I'm not familiar with Class of '09 or its author, but the trailer and screenshots don't give the impression of something that is specifically setting out to parody "the dating sim". The poster might be objecting to the game's description:

This is the anti-visual novel. Instead of playing as some guy magically able to score with beautiful anime girls, YOU play the anime girl and create mass chaos in the lives of your potential "suitors". Earnest comedy, social accuracy, and late 2000's aesthetic await you in Class of '09!

I think this description is misleading, as it mentions "anime girls" that don't seem to exist in the trailer or screenshots. The "social accuracy, and late 2000's aesthetic" part refers to American culture.

It looks like a more general "parody" game filled with inane jokes similar to Phucker in the Woods or Nightmare Temptation Academy. These games are multiple degrees removed from the eroge, and while they are stupid and degenerate (might give you a laugh if you're bored), I don't find them objectionable on the grounds that they are "attached to weebery", because they aren't.

If this game is the "anti-visual novel" (it isn't), it exists in opposition to Western VNs (which are notorious for being of poor quality), not Japanese ones.

[Guest]

Thoughts? Is he right, /a/marna?

Yes, and they have already been defeated. They suffered multiple crushing defeats in 2023 and have been firmly ghettoized in the indie RPG and western animation fields.

[Selim]

What is the official Amarna Forum position on the new Minnesota state flag? Your answers have very important implications for the governance of the Keyedstaat.

[august]

There is a great video that you can find online of a relatively unknown academic whom I hadn't heard of before, named Dr. C.V. Alamariu, asking little boy Bill Kristol his thoughts on this back in 2016.

Dr. C.V. Alamariu: You quite recently called people who wanted quite mild immigration restriction reform "know-nothings" and I wonder why the people who did predict that Trump would win based [their prediction] on the view that mass third-world immigration was the animating issue of our time and why you missed that? Whether it's because of your worldview in general, or contempt for the White working class, or other issues?

Bill Kristol: ... If they go down the cul-de-sac of demonising quote "third-world immigration" *air quotes gesturing*—what exactly is that a euphemism for, incidentally?—it's really a disaster.

CA: Immigration from the third-world.

BK: Which counts what countries?

CA: Well for example, do you think that Somalis fit very well in Minnesota?

BK: We have published many articles on Somalis in Minnesota, but some of them are also refugees and there is a tradition of taking refugees.

CA: And the United States has a good record of assimilating Somalis?

BK: *defensively* Yes it does have an excellent record of assimilating people from the third-world, in fact!

Bill Galston: *sheepishly* This is, this is—

CA: Yeah, you've been wrong for decades on everything.

BK: *enraged* Is that right? And the country's really suffering from illegal immigration? Is that right?

CA: How come Japan, which is homogenous, does not have the economic problems you talk about?

BK: ... Germany, great economy. Japan's economy, great over the last 30 years. Really taking off there like a rocket. They're inventing new goods, I mean really? 

CA: The economy isn't just the GDP, Bill, it's the living standard and the Japanese living standard has been rising.

BK: Pfft. They don't even have any kids! It's a dying society!

Bill Galston: *reclines in chair, puts arms behind head while laughing at how outrageous Dr. Alamariu's statements are*

BK: Fine, if you want to live in Japan, you can live in a Japanese-type society ... 

CA: How come you've been wrong on this for three—

BK: I haven't been wrong, I've been right.

CA: What have you ever been right on in decades, Bill?

BK: Aheh, most things. 

CA: Right.

[Guest]

Does anybody have some Anime recommendations? Preferably something obscure, since I seem to have watched most of the well-known ones already.

[Zed]

Does anybody have some Anime recommendations? Preferably something obscure, since I seem to have watched most of the well-known ones already.

Not anime, but I'd like to evangelize this 1999 JDrama a bit, since it is incredibly obscure and it shouldn't be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dS8_5I2lSk


Actual Anime:

Boogiepop Phantom (Original)
Koi Kaze
Kara No Kyoukai
Gungrave
Versailles no Bara
Haibane Renmei
Read Or Die
Gankutsuou
Fantastic Children
Eureka Seven
Soukyuu no Fafner
Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora

None are particularly obscure, but they are good and have fallen out of fashion in recent years.

[Guest]

What compels nogs to livestream?