Anime What's something you dislike about your favorite anime?

[carpology]

BSD is great, but the cast is like 90% male with three decent female characters; all of the other women in the show are either given inconsequential roles or are reduced to being obsessed with a particular male member of the cast. Higuchi gets the worst of this treatment because literally the only takeaway from her character is "please notice me Akutagawa-senpai". Thankfully it doesn't devolve into fanservice, but still, it would be cool to have some female characters on par with the 50 fricking dudes in the show.

honestly, this is because most of the characters are based on classical authors--quite a few of the women in the show, for example ozaki kouyou and izumi kyouka, weren't even women in real life, and some of them (for example akutagawa gin & tanizaki naomi) weren't even real people. a large number of authors considered 'classic' are men, especially in japan (which is where most of the authors are taken from), so maaaaaybe that could be the reason that there are so few women, but even then it's kind of a questionable choice by asagiri... i don't think female authors are that hard to come by, especially considering that japan is a country that has long had a high literacy rate... two of japan's most precious classics were written by women...

anyway, i don't know if this technically counts because i'm talking about the manga (refuse to watch the anime. i am that kind of person), but for vanitas no carte i really don't like the relationship between vanitas & jeanne. it never felt to me like it added much to the story... i haven't read the entire manga again since i first read it back in 2020, so admittedly i'm definitely forgetting some details, but the developing 'romance' or whatever between them just felt kind of like, obligatory m/f romance because we need it obviously!!! i don't care for dominique & noé romantically either (especially since they were raised together, but that's how it seems the story intends to go), but i feel like they have much more to them than jeanne and vanitas have... a growing friendship between them would have been much more interesting than whatever they have going on right now i think. it feels kind of nonsensical when they both have trust issues & barely know each other, and have other people they are much closer to. i don't think having trust issues together is a that good a basis for a relationship. and anyway, dominique is and has been right there jeanne........... much more than vanitas has been....... and the same with noé for vanitas.........

 

[Juliko]

I go into more detail about these in my reviews, but I'll do some short tl;drs for a few of them.

The Heike Story: This anime is absolutely GORGEOUS, and a thought-provoking exploration of the events that led to the Genpei War from the perspectives of a child and a woman caught in the middle of it all, but three things really hold it back: 11 episodes is nowhere NEAR enough to tell its expansive story, resulting in a LOT of infodumps that really could have benefited from being depicted on screen rather than being regurgitated as exposition, lightning fast pacing, and many characters being woefully underutilized.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card: A nice sequel to the original series, even if it does retread a lot of plot beats and gets repetitive at times...but that God-awful ending really left a sour taste in my mouth. I know a sequel to this is coming, but it doesn't change how utterly stupid the final episode is.

Stars Align: Unlike with Clear Card, Stars Align's flaws are no fault of its own, including the fact that it ends on a double-whammy cliffhanger thanks to behind the scenes shenanigans cutting its intended episode length in half. Seriously, this is a solid show that really got dealt a bad hand, and because of its lack of an ending, we'll never know how any of its plot threads will be resolved, if at all.

Pokemon Concierge: I really like this short! But it is held back by being way too short for its own good, and we don't learn much about any character that's not Haru, and its worldbuilding is paper thin thus far. Though with the announcement of more episodes coming, for all I know my complaints might get addressed.

Link Click Season 2: After a strong start that followed up on the end of the first season, season two got a little too ambitious and convoluted for its own good, and what answers it did provide for some mysteries established in the first part only wound up raising more questions than answers. And the villains were kinda cliche and dumb. I do appreciate this season giving Qiao Ling more to do and having her be more involved in the plot, though.

Astro Boy 1980: I like Astro Boy. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed my time with it. Except for every single episode that focused on Uran. Dear lord, this iteration of Uran is annoying as shit. I wanted to deck her every time she either caused property damage or caused whatever problem of the week Astro has to solve.

 

[Sheep]

My favorite anime is probably Hunter x Hunter (2011) and really, the only thing I can think of as being an issue is the pacing. Some arcs feel like they drag oon and oooon and it was tough to get through the later ones because of it, but despite that I was still addicted lol. I wish I could go back to watching it for the first time even despite the slowness sometimes.

 

[Blanc]

but for vanitas no carte i really don't like the relationship between vanitas & jeanne. it never felt to me like it added much to the story...

I 100% agree with you. I’m a diehard Jun Mochizuki fan but her choices regarding the romance dynamics in Vanitas feel odd. Vanitas’ relationship with Jeanne feels very forced, same with Noé and Dominique. I understand Vanitas is a peculiar guy, but both relationships feel very crammed together right away and it’s just hard to accept as actual characterization. I feel bad saying this because I do like all characters individually! Just not together… LOL…