You'll probably have more luck posting here

GeneralJ posted:

GeneralJ posted:

Why Teppu had to end :(

Author's health. That's probably the worst cause possible. Not when something got axed/cancelled because of publisher or editorial meddling, but because author is just not capable of continuing.

I didn't Know :(. I hope that they are at least better now.

I actually don't know if it was author's health (at least I never read about it anywhere, or if I did, I don't remember anymore), but series was on hiatus for around 2 years and after getting back it had clearly rushed ending quite fast, so I just assumed it was the most likely reason why.

Plenty of straight guys like yuri despite not being gay or girls, so you really shouldn't worry about it. What you like has nothing to do with your identity (usually) and nothing should be excluded from anyone for any reason.

daydream_dog94 posted:

me while reading this: "what the fuck am i reading"

A tale of a pure friendship.

Odiumkalad posted:

I don't believe it took me over half of this to realize it's for April fools. Truly well done, thank you for good laughs!

You're welcome <3

wsedoiugly posted:

I figured it out when she said "LOL"

Aunt_Rhody posted:

the lol with a question mark got me good

Yes. That was intentionally sweats (uses lol as exlamation in chat and normal conversations)

xxSatsumaChan420xx posted:

what the fuck did I just read

A true story about friendship.

Solaris1 posted:

This needs a “What the fuck am I reading“ tag

What are you talking about? All my friendships were pretty much like this. It's a very realistic depiction.

Hylarn posted:

Bingeing is the worst way to consume media.

Eh. It really depends on show and you. I think some things are better/meant to be binged and some people prefer to binge watch stuff.

Serenata posted:

I think I'll just pause magi record on ch12 then, maybe after the second season they will remake it into movies with an extra ending for the third movie because Japan loves to do that (not just with madoka but code geass, gundam, fate etc etc).

I'm not sure movies are a good idea, since they already didn't have nearly enough time to include everything in TV series, they'd have even less time and have to cut even more content from movies.

Ugggghhhhhhhh. If I'd never played the game I'd probably think anime was great and finish it on very positive note (then again, maybe I'd not be able to appreciate what was good about it, without playing it). I still probably need few more days to really let sink in all the things anime has changed in last episode and understand what it's going for with them, but I still can get my honest opinion right now. I really wanted to like Magia Record. I was genuinely impressed with first 3 episodes and how they were fixing a lot of issues with source material. I hoped that they'll do story justice and enhance it using medium. I was trying to play devil's advocate for past 12 weeks, but I run out of patience. I'm going to rant about series as a whole, so if you don't want any spoilers, don't read it.

I thought last episode sucked major ass. Yes, it had some cool moments/animations. But overall it underperformed incredibly. I have a confession, I actually wasn't Madoka fan. I watched original series. Thought it was good. Never felt the need to watch it again, watch movies, read any mangas etc. Especially since I don't really like tragedies, I felt like I got my fill already and was content with it. Decided to give game a chance mostly for a friend. I liked story and was impressed that it was actually pretty good for what they had to work with, but still didn't really change my feeling on the series as a whole. Then I got to chapter 6. The one that episodes 11-13 cover. Yachiyo's backstory reminded me why Madoka was great. But it wasn't just that. What really finally sold me on going back to rewatch original and officially join Madokamism was how Iroha proposed to Yachiyo and decided to prove that love can overcome everything convinced Yachiyo that it wasn't her wish that killed her teammates. It was moment that really let Iroha's character shine and anime completely trashes that scene. It finally let me stop lying to myself and admit that I'm really not happy with this anime. As I said before, while anime has strong moments, it cuts a lot from the story, sometimes pretty major stuff, but I never felt like I was missing it, because I watched it with knowladge of all those things, so I knew the greater context and was able to fill in the blanks where necessary. Without that, this story loses a lot of it's heart. So I can't really give anime credit for things that are not in it.

Anime completely butchered foreshadowing of Yachiyo's past, past itself and resolution to it. While it did show her antagonizing new magical girls and she was pretty harsh towards Iroha, it didn't really went beyond that and she accepted Iroha pretty quickly (granted Iroha did give her grief seed to Yachiyo knowing her own soul gem was already pretty clouded), but it took way more than that in the game. First, when Iroha started to investigate rumors, she kept running into Yachiyo since she was doing the same, but whenever Iroha asked her for any information or anything in general, all she got in return was "I have no obligation to answer that." Their relationship was very rocky and Iroha was getting majorly frustrated with Yachiyo, her secretiveness and general lack of cooperation. First major breakthrough was during Staircase of Ending Friendship where Iroha proved herself in battle and Yachiyo finally at least accepted that Iroha isn't weak and can take care of herself. Something anime removed completely and just as I worried, never really addressed. It made sense Iroha won't become strong overnight and at first it wasn't that long since she started coming to Kamihama, but after some point we are never shown Iroha battling or doing anything other than running around and never landing any major hits (only time was her using Doppel, so it doesn't really count), so when in last episode she suddenly is killing Rumor (? I have no clue what it was, it wasn't in the game and anime didn't bother to explain) with few shots with some power up(?) she seemingly got out of nowhere, all I could feel inside was a complete apathy.

Second, when Iroha started to investigated Seance Shrine, Yachiyo finally gave in and agreed to just team up with her, since if they're going to keep running into each other, that way is easier. You'd think she finally warmed up to her, but nope. Instead of calling Iroha her friend, teammate, partner or anything like that, she instead announces her to be her "assistant" which takes even Iroha by surprise, since it kinda came out of nowhere. It was first major hint that Yachiyo wasn't just a mean bitch (and yes, initially I did dislike her, so gj game), but that little exchange shown that there's something more going on with her. Through the game she kept assigning "roles" to everyone and refuses to call anyone friend, despite everyone clearly growing close as a group and bonding together as a family. Iroha as her assistant, Tsuruno her disciple, Felicia hired mercenary and I forgot how she rationalized Sana. Anime made it pretty much a thrown away line in episode 11, way too late. You could be forgiven to not think Yachiyo had any issue with calling them friends before that point as anime doesn't bother to establish it as her hang up.

Third, so finally when Mifuyu came to visit Mikazuki Villa to invite everyone to the lecture, she has a quick private chat with Yachiyo scolding her that she totally went back to how she used to be and in fact, is a little pissed about it, as the whole point of disbanding their team and Yachiyo going solo, as well as distancing herself from most people, was in order to avoid her wish killing anyone else and Mifuyu suffered because of it and now Yachiyo's acting as if it never happened, making disbanding original team completely pointless. Yachiyo had to face the fact that she can't keep kidding herself that just simply not calling them friends will somehow magically prevent her wish from killing them and doing so was just her last defense mechanism in copying with her guilt. So she decided to go back to distancing herself from everyone. That was another annoying thing last episode. Nobody really reacted to it and when they were going to the lecture I hoped that Iroha will at least ask last time if Yachiyo wants to go with them, but she doesn't say anything. It really made it look more like Yachiyo was just in bad mood and they were ignoring her rather than a huge crack in their relationship. In game their interactions went to shit and you can really feel and see how everyone is worried and don't understand why Yachiyo suddenly started to behave like that. They ask her multiple time to help them find Memory Musem and then to go with them, but Yachiyo refuses everytime. Yachiyo does have change of heart later and decides to go join them, just like in anime, but she's acting way more composed. In anime she storms there and is visibly angry, while in game she just goes there and is allowed to join without issue. Admittedly, other than getting her there for the plot reasons, her action does seem a bit contradictory, but her trying to be cold and distant is contradictory to her kind and caring nature in the first place. I guess she wanted to make sure everyone is fine and nothing bad is done to them, as well how well they handled the truth (she was fully aware they're going there to learn it).

The major change happens after Iroha wakes up. She's asked to join Wings of the Magius, but she refuses and when she wakes up she finds Yachiyo there sleeping as well. She sees nobody else so she waits for her to wake up and once she does, she wants to find exit together and look for everyone else. But Yachiyo refuses, announces that she is disbanding the team and wants to go separate ways. Iroha initially thinks Yachiyo is just acting like that to confuse Magius and goes along with it, but it quickly turns out Yachiyo is serious. Iroha doesn't understand and keeps pressuring Yachiyo to stop acting wierd, but it's not working. When asked why she acts like that she hears familiar "I have no obligation to answer that." which was a great callback, but also heartbreaking. At this point Yachiyo is completely back to acting just as she was when they meet first time. Not really having other options Iroha sticks to Yachiyo and keeps pressuring her to explain to her why she acts like that. At the same time we learned that Yachiyo never told Momoko why she disbanded their team and distanced herself from her. Right, that's another major difference between game and anime. In game Momoko can't stand Yachiyo. She constantly scolds her for her poor treatment of Iroha in the beginning, doesn't take rumors seriously, because it's something Yachiyo is investigating and don't like working with her in general, because she's still pissed at her for cutting contact with her without explanation. Even after Iroha gets closer with Yachiyo, while Momoko is not as agressive towards Yachiyo anymore, their relationship is still strained. After constant nagging Yachiyo finally gives in and decided to explain to Iroha the reason why she disbanded team and why she become distant in the first place. And here is why anime butchered her past.

I really hoped they'd devote entire episode 12 just to Yachiyo's past, so we can get a proper taste of it, but it was also combined with lecture, which was done well and the memory part was also good, but it really took away time from things that really mattered. Kanae doesn't even have a fucking speaking line. That's treason. How are we supposed to feel anything about her death when we know nothing about her? Sure, she didn't have too much screen time in the game as well, but she had one. You get to briefly see how she, Yachiyo and Mifuyu interact at Mikazuki Villa and then during battle. They're forced to retreat and Kanae offers to sacrifice herself just after telling Yachiyo that she made her life worth living for and rationalizes her decision by saying that Yachiyo is more important for the team. Yachiyo is devastated. Then we skip to Mel, and at least anime give her some screen time and I think it's about the same, so I can't really complain there, but for the love of all that's yuri. Why the hell did they cut out Mel's final words? "It was a lucky day, because I got to save senpai I admire." I know that they did include both of those lines in this episode, but they're blink and you'll miss it on screen texts. They lack any impact whatsoever and they feel more like twists without twist. Like when you were watching those scenes, it all sounded like things that those characters would say at that moment. It fit their characters and sounded reasonable, so you had no reason to think there was anything more behind it. But then you learn what impact they left on Yachiyo and how those words lead her to believing it was her power causing their dead. The words themselves are not the twist. Yachiyo's conclusion based on them is. I have no clue why anime decided to put so much weight on them, at the same time putting no weight into how they were presented.

So because both Yachiyo and Iroha refused to join Magius, they decided to get rid of them. Iirc Alina first weakens them with her Doppel and then leaves them to fight Rumor of Memory Museum. Yachiyo obviously tells Iroha to stand back and wants to solo the Rumor, but Iroha refuses. After arguing a bit more for the first time in the game ever Iroha snaps, get angry at Yachiyo and tells her that she'll prove to her that she's wrong. So she starts to desperately fight rumor while telling Yachiyo to stand back. After struggling with it for a while, she finally defeats it and proposes asks speechless Yachiyo to give herself 1 more chance and that she'll stay with her forever and never die, so she can see for herself that it wasn't her wish that killed them and she can stop beating herself over past and living in guilt. That is the scene that made me think this story was great. It was a satisfying payoff to a great set up (in fact it made me cry just writing it down). I have no clue what that garbage 5 minutes in anime was. In fact I don't really understand what happened. Something ate Yachiyo? And Iroha saved her by blowing it up? Using some ass-pull power that was never established? And Yachiyo just kinda gave into Iroha's half-assed pep talk. It felt like Yachiyo broke down anyway and anything Iroha would say would work. In game Yachiyo completely froze her heart again and was 100% ready and confident to go back to the way she acted at the start of the game. She wasn't even moved by Magius taking Tsuruno, Felicia and Sana away. It was only Iroha's persistence and effort that manage to set doubt in her heart and allow her to believe in herself again. That's the reason why they're pretty much a canon couple of this series (just like Madoka and Homura). Their bond is unbreakable and it only grows from there. And to add insult to injury, anime has audacity to split them and make Yachiyo think that Iroha might die/is dead. Not even hour passed since Iroha promised Yachiyo she'll clear any doubts she might have about her wish and Iroha screwed it up already. GJ! Seriously I can't believe that they manage to screw the most important part of entire story that badly. I'm honestly pissed off.

I heard mixed opinions about inclusion of original cast. Some love it, some hate it. I personally don't mind it. It is still called Madoka Magica Side Story after all. I think their involvement in the game was done well enough. They only have minor roles, which is fine, because they're not main focus, it's not their story, so they shouldn't steal the spotlight. They kept Mami's and Kyouko's appearances just like in the game (for the most part), so I was really surprised they cut off Homura's and Madoka's. They show up looking for Mami and run into main cast while they try to investigate Endless Solitude. They join forces and together solve it. Honestly considering how small their contribution to the story was in that chapter and how anime handled that episodes (Sana's arc is one of the best part of the anime, they really handled adapting her story quite well) I was perfectly fine with their absence. It would take away time and focus from Sana and her story and they had a very tall order to fill with introducing her and making you care about her and her relationship with AI, all in span of just 1 episode (since they decided to not do it the way game dealt with it). I hoped it meant they'll introduce them when they have time to properly focus on them and their interaction with main cast. Even if it'd mean that they won't show up this season. Welp, they kept Sayaka's cameo though. Like I don't understand it. There was already so much shit going on in this episode and at that time, there was just no time to give Sayaka's appearance proper impact. She pretty much just shows up, says Mami's name few times, blocks Trio Finale and hides away from her bullets. She's barely there and she barely interacts with Mami. Her introduction felt really pointless, especially since any follow up on her we could possibly get, will only be in season 2 and that's ages from now. I actually thought that'll be be where they add Homura's and Madoka's cameo instead. It would make sense, because they went to look for Mami together and Sayaka just happened to be closest and rushing to her. In game we already had their cameo earlier without Sayaka, so it made sense they would let her have some action on her own, but since anime skipped it, there was no reason to not include them together. Other than no time and/or together they could actually defeat Mami right here and there, and we can't have that. Oh right. There was perfect solution to it. Just don't make her show up. This way you could make Iroha not useless and have her fight Mami together with Yachiyo, cementing their newly established marriage partnership. But no, we had to keep Sayaka's here for some reason. Like, I bet people like her (I was never fan of her, she just didn't click with me, probably because I'm Homura fan, so we don't get along), but if you're going to skip cameo or have cameo in last episode, wouldn't having Madoka's/Homura's/preferably both of them much better and more anticipated by people than Sayaka's?

And don't even get me started on Mami. I was praising previous episodes. I'm taking that all back. Not only now for some reason they added brainwash subplot back to her, they went with Holy Mami after all. It worked in game, but as they clearly made Mami stronger mentally in anime, I'm confused what's the point of suddenly going back on it and brainwashing her. Does that mean she was brainwashed/fused with Rumor when we saw her before or did it only happened recently? If so, why? Also they clearly are doing the Mami vs Yachiyo fight from later now, which as I said I wanted to see animated, so I should be happy, but I'm not and anime makes it really hard to be. First, while it starts pretty good it quickly devolves into her just standing/floating in place shooting shitty CGI guns into the same directions without really any strategy and characters hiding from copypasta bullets. Sure, they don't have movie budget to make it look as good as Homura's duel with Mami, but common. It's the final big action of last episode of the first season. Couldn't you make it look at least less shitty than that? And second reason is that for some unyurily reason Iroha, the freaking magical girl that leaps 10 meters, fight witches and uses magic, managed to now of all times twisted her ankle while running, but the worst part is THAT SOMEHOW MADE HER LOSE CONSCIOUS????????? It's comedy gold, but MR isn't supposed to be one... Especially in last episode when they're cutting back and forth between their fight and Magius creating First Galactic Empire, I mean, preparing to take over the world. Iroha got 2 minutes to shine and now she's back to being completely useless. So anyway, because Yachiyo has to carry her on her back, she can't actually fully focus on fighting Mami, making the fight a complete waste of potential, if it really was supposed to be a callback to later scene from the game. And of course once Iroha comes to, instead of trying to fight normally first, she immediately jumps into using Doppel. And we barely see it anyway. Also what happened to her twisted ankle??? I'm not even going into a rabbit hole of "Yachiyo seems to know about and how to use Doppels." 1 thing though. In game (as far as I know) the only real reason Doppels are bad is because you need energy to maintain the system that allows you to use them, aka, we need to let Rumors kill people to power it up and we're feeding Witches for energy, which is the main and only reason, main cast consider Magius and their methods bad and refuses to join them. Yachiyo says that supposedly there's some other downside to using Doppels, but... SHE DOESN'T FUCKING SAY IT. IN THE LAST EPISODE. WHAT KIND OF SHITTY SEQUEL HOOK IS THAT?. Anime please. If you can't be arsed to explain or state things outright, throw away lines. They're your best friends. So much issues with things not being clear in this anime would be solved by simply adding some throw away lines. Why do you do this to me!? Also I just realized, last episode ended with "we'll finally explain how Doppel works". This episode didn't explain how Doppel works at all and to rub salt into the wound, Yachiyo starts explaining it, but never finishes. That's some new lvl of withholding information.

And speaking of Doppels. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh. Wasted potential number 1943823094385230. So in game Doppels appears in story only handful of times, but gameplay wise, you can us them whenever you want and it's one of the most important mechanics in the game. So I was actually thrilled when anime added that scene with Kaede using her Doppel, because I took it as meaning that they're trying to incorporate them more into story and fights. The idea of Doppels and seeing different ones of different magical girls is one of the most unique and interesting things game invented, so sticking to story and not showcasing as many as possible would be a huge misopportunity. That's why I loved the idea that they'll actually try adding characters using them. Or at least that's what I though they'll do with it. Instead they turned it into some weird ass subplot that goes unaddressed pretty much until last episode and only non-game-canon Doppel use we get is second time Iroha uses it (so we already saw it) and Yachiyo's Doppel (which she never uses in story, at least in part of story NA server covers so far). Maybe they plan to have more characters using it in second season, but 1. that's not this season 2. it is still huge wasted opportunity and a lot of tease without any big payoff.

On topic of weird ass subplot. I have no clue what they're going for with Momoko's team joining Magius. Where the hell did that come from? In game Momoko thinks Kaede and Rena are not ready to handle the truth and is procrastinating on telling them, so when the thing with lecture comes up, she decides to tell them and that's how they learn about it and about Yachiyo's past (well as much as Momoko knows about it). And after that and when Yachiyo returns with Iroha to Mikazuki Villa, she confronts Yachiyo for the last time about their past and since Iroha penetrated Yachiyo's walls and made her softer
[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)] she finally tells Momoko truth, who forgives her and now that Momoko's grudge against Yachiyo is gone, Momoko can wholeheartedly support her and her new partner Iroha. Same goes for Rena and Kaede (once she gets over her truth induced depression). So that's some serious double character assassination. First she is not mad at Yachiyo, but then she betrays her by joining Magius. Also I'm confused. My first thought was that after Kaede cut contact with everyone, Momoko confronted her and after learning what happened, told her the truth and later staged meeting with Rena. But when Kaede showed up, she already joined Magius and Momoko wasn't even the slightest surprised. I'm not sure about Kaede, but Momoko doesn't seem to be brainwashed, so did she and Kaede joined together? Did Kaede join and Momoko joined because of her?

Which brings me to something I really wished they'd do without altogether, but instead they completely skipped it over and only left it implied, which again, I feel like is much worse. Brainwashing. That was like the biggest plot point of the whole lecture thing. Memory Museum is a brainwashing machine (or at least it has it as a additional function). Lecture was just a formality, since the moment Magius decided to invite them, they already planned to just brainwash them. They never had any intention of actually letting main cast make up their own mind. Which is weird, because you'd think any magical girl that learns about truth, would be more than happy to join them, especially since they managed to create a way to prevent you from turning into a witch. In fact I thought everyone in the main cast had a legit reason to join them. That could be a great twist. We assumed by default that weird, cult like organization that seems evil, must be evil, but they actually have good motivation and things are much more morally gray, than they first appeared. Granted, main cast already clashed with them and refused to back down, so Magius could think they have no option, but they still could at least try to explain everything to them first (they never tried after all) and only when they still refuse, proceed with the whole brainwashing.

And that's really my main issue with Magius and their portray. They seems to have no issue telling everyone about their goals and truth. Magical girls from all over the Japan come to them and enlist themselves to help them and yet it seems like main cast are the only ones they refuse to tell anything. Since first time Iroha and others encountered Black Feathers, they only talked about liberation, but could never share the details. Sometimes it was implied they themselves don't really know them, other times they knew but weren't allowed to talk about it. That's why I never understood why it took so long for Magius to decide to actually talk to main cast and tell them why they shouldn't interfere with their operations as well as why they're the only ones they decided to brainwash from the get go, especially considering they never had to brainwash anyone else to join. They want you to think Magius have a point, while at the same time going out of their way to portray them as a black and white evil people, so you won't doubt for a second they're bad guys. They just brainwash them, because it's what villains do. Everything you hear about them from the start paints them as bad. They protect rumors and raise witches. They're even ready to kill anyone who messes with their plans. And sure, Doppel system do require sacrifices, but they could make it sounds more like necessary evil and maybe they constantly look for different ways. Anime gives Mami line like that, but it's a lie they fed her. Magius don't look for other methods. They straight don't care about anyone other than themselves. Later, when brainwashing is undone and Magius pushed into wall, only then they realized "oh, we should talk it over first". Yea, I thought you already realized it, but you brainwashed us instead. And we learn about their true goals and what kind of selfish, egocentric and piece of garbage people they are. We couldn't have someone who actually tries to do something good, even if it requires dirtying your hands. No, they had try to bite more than they can chew and we need to stop them. I guess there would be no game without it.

All this episode needed to do in order to end season on a strong note: Show Iroha proposing convincing Yachiyo to give herself another chance and then when it seems like things are turning ok, all that's left is to get everyone back to Mikazuki Villa and give Yachiyo coasters, pull the rug from under them revealing other 3 have been brainwashed. After that make quick, epic battle between Mami and IroYachi, which they'd ultimately be forced to flee and make last shot of the episode them sitting on sofa in the empty living-room, wondering what to do next. There. Strong set up for second season. We didn't need Emperor Touka or betrayal of team Momoko.

That's all about (mostly) episode 13. I probably could keep going for dozen more paragraphs about rest of adaptation, but I'll stop here. I don't expect anyone to read it, yet alone reply, so don't feel bad about it. There were scenes/episodes I really liked and I'll definitely watch season 2. Existence of anime didn't make game disappear and nobody is taking that away from me, so I can reread story there whenever I want. Who knows, maybe once I see where they'll take it, I'll find new appreciation for anime as it's own take, but as a adaptation of the story I grew to like, it fails miserably.

I had high hopes for anime, as it seemed like they were improving story in a lot of ways, but at the end of the day they failed and game is overall still ironically better, as much as I hate to admit it. I really don't think it was some unreachable task. They proved many times it was possible. They just needed a bit more time to better pace everything and not cut as much of important stuff, while streamlining and improving what was good. And of course not make dumb changes. I honestly can't decide whatever it was matter of money and the way anime is made, that they could only afford to do it with 2 13 episodes seasons or that they really thought it was enough to fit everything that they thought mattered to the story into that frame as well as whatever they weren't allowed to change story too drastically or they actually thought the story was fine as it is and didn't want to change it more. Considering they did make some very major changes, I don't think that was a issue in particular.

last edited at Mar 29, 2020 6:56AM

schuyguy posted:

What do you mean, "mentioned in tag"? I see that there's an "also known as" that includes Yorita Miyuki.

That's what I meant. That her actual name is included there.

I just think maybe she should be listed as Yorita Miyuki, since that seems to be the name she primarily publishes under and uses online. Did she actually use "Kida Miyuki" in the past?

I agree. Kida seems to be a misreading of her name and the main one should be Yorita. Kida can be kept in "known as" in case someone looks for her using Kida.

Serenata posted:

I... don't like Magia Record tbh

You're not alone. Majority of Madoka fans hate it and/or are very underwhelmed by it.

I don't like the animation,

I have some issues with them, but I don't mind them for the most part, though some feel a bit lackluster. Maybe they'll improve them on blue-ray, but I'm not denying they're not perfect.

I don't like the protagonist

I really like Iroha's personality (and really like most of the characters for that matter) and I think for the most part anime did good job of showing it, but I really can't be objective on that one. Game has much more time to flash out characters and show their interactions and chemistry, so I went into anime having good idea who they were and am in general very pleased with their portrayal in it, but I understand for someone who knows nothing of them, it might be hard to really connect with them and come to like them (though it's not impossible).

and I hate that they have skipped the main plot (where is Ui and what's the little's kyubi's deal all about) with everyone's else conflict first,

I have no clue what you're talking about. That is the main plot. Iroha is looking for her sister and by doing that she stumbles onto those conflicts. And thanks to that she found some clues that Ui's disappearance is clearly connected to Magius and Rumors. It's supposed to start looking like a monster of the week, but then later turns out it was all part of something greater (though anime leaves clues there's something more going on from episode 1). I'll admit game makes it much clearer from the start that Ui has to be connected to rumors and I'm not sure why exactly anime changed that or if it was there, but just too ambiguous that I didn't pick it up (wouldn't be the first time, anime is terrible with just establishing some facts that were very clearly stated in the game).

I haven't watched today's episode yet, maybe we'll get all the answer like an info dump today or there will be a season 2 but that doesn't excuse it for me to be like that, had they made it about the fact that they turn into witches momentarily and then go back to normal it would have been way more exciting but guess what, THEY AVOID TALKING ABOUT THAT TOO!! the other girl who can transform just doesn't show up anymore and the protagonist doesn't care about it, she spend the whole anime going from one person to another asking if they know about Ui and everyone has the same answer.... NO!

Again, it is about that. Just it's something that wasn't really explained yet. Knowing future events you can rationalize it to make sense (for the most part), but for people who only watch anime I can understand it seems like they just ignored a very huge plot development and it can be frustrating. Magia Record really is anime that you're supposed to binge watch, not watch weekly. Yachiyo knows the truth. That's why she didn't tell anyone about it. She avoided it on purpose. Tsuruno doesn't know, but I guess she was just too shocked and since they're no longer close with Yachiyo and she doesn't want to talk about it, we can assume she either was too afraid to bring it up or did, but Yachiyo hand-waved it. As I said, you can rationalize it, but it really wasn't explained, I get why they didn't add any scene like that, but also it can be frustrating when you need to make excuses for anime, because it feels like a plot hole (also the fact in game Iroha was just fully conscious entire time and all of them were just very confused together about WTF just happened, doesn't help either).

About Kaede, it's another of those things that seems to be forgotten but comes back later when Momoko shows up to talk to Rena. And since Momoko knows the truth as well it makes sense why it didn't become a big deal. She probably found out what happened from Kaede later and told her the truth to "calm" her down. We know for a fact it had to happen, since Kaede showed up to Momoko's talk with Rena, knowing the truth. That's why she was shown at home mopping around and not talking to anyone. She needed time to take it all in. But again, had they gave us that information earlier, it would ruin the mystery. The whole after-credit scene wasn't in the game, but I get why they added it and I think that overall they handled it fine. They merged it with later event, so all they changed was when Kaede learned and reacted to the truth.

As for when Iroha remembers about Doppel and uses it to defeat Rumor of lucky water. Ughhhhhh... in game she was there when Amane sisters uses and explains how Doppel works (without explaining why it happens) and story-wise Iroha doesn't use it there (and gameplay-wise you can use Doppels, but only of magical girls you unlocked it for and it's not available for everyone yet, Iroha is one of those you can't unlock it for yet). So... yea, anime never explains why she didn't talked about it to anyone or question why Yachiyo lied to her... Ok fine, you win that one. I guess anime also adds some plot holes.

I think the biggest issue of MR is high expectations of Madoka fans. I started playing game expecting nothing from the story and knowing full well they won't go around killing off characters and mood won't be nearly as heavy as in OG series, but instead was positively surprised. In fact, I was sure it will be terrible (not that I know many other mobile games stories), so the fact it didn't suck major ass was already impressive. Sure game is far from perfect, it has some stupid moment, some things don't make that much sense and it can drag, but overall I think the story they came up with is pretty creative and ties to original series quite well. That's why I can really appreciate when anime is fixing/changing some stuff for better (and get frustrated just like everyone else when it creates plot holes where there weren't any before). I do think you can enjoy anime without playing game (for obvious reason, I can't confirm it, but I saw people who didn't play game and still enjoyed it just as much as me), but I feel like the best experience is to play the game first and then watch anime. This way you can really appreciate parts that anime changes, but also have all the knowledge to quickly fill in the gaps when anime leaves any or when it underperforms. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch, but I still think it has solid moments and does good job at what it set to do.

Today's episode opened really strong and overall I think it was good, but again as always I feel like they could add just a little bit more here and there to really make it great. Never before I wished so badly they could just do as many episodes as they want so they can adopt everything they want the way they want, so they don't have to cut out so many things and could give some parts little more breathing room.

last edited at Mar 21, 2020 6:56PM

YarnGirl posted:

People who haven't played Magia Record don't click this :) Yachiyo heard voices in the fight which were the voices of the two girls that died protecting her in the past. Even Yachiyo didn't understand how she got the power boost, but I assume that her wish of wanting to survive is related to it

Right. There was that. Honestly I don't mind idea conceptually, but I much prefer that it really wasn't Mel and Kanae actually giving Yachiyo power from afterlife. I think Yachiyo's power being the source of it is much more plausible. I know. I know. We're talking about world with magic in it and I'm getting hung up on supernatural things being unrealistic. I just think afterlife actually existing is fine as a story for a event in game, but shouldn't be part of the canon. Just because 1 supernatural thing exist, doesn't mean you can add whatever you want. I like when setting is overall more or less realistic, so it can focus how that 1 supernatural power is working in it.

Hylarn posted:

More of a comment than a counter-argument, but they're clearly framing Iroha (and Yachiyo) as a mother figure for Sana and Felicia. The "This isn't where someone will call my name" scene in particular was unsubtle about that

I'm fully aware of the whole family dynamic. Game makes it even more blatantly obvious, especially having not 1, but 2 magical girls teams totally acting like families. Game is so openly gay, it's unreal. So the dynamic of Iroha and Yachiyo as parents and Felica and Sana as their children is not lost on me. Anime doesn't shy away from it at all, keeping parts where Yachiyo is pretty much scolding Felicia like a child all the time and in last episode outright stating they're a family.

I was sure anime had a scene, where Yachiyo is scolding Felicia yet again and then turning to Iroha looking for her approval, as if she was her lover (they totally are) and Iroha is completely caught off guard by how casually Yachiyo did that, but I can't find it, so seems like it was in the game instead. It was really adorable.

Either way, that doesn't mean they couldn't bond over similar experience. One doesn't really exclude the other. Just saying. And honestly, even if they removed it, I still think anime handled Sana's introduction perfectly. It just felt like they were going to do it the same way game did it, with all the set up and all, so then pretty much ignoring/downplaying it significantly left me feeling cheated.

last edited at Mar 8, 2020 12:22PM

Episode 10 of Magia Record was amazing. I really like most of the changes they did. Only thing I was annoyed at was that they pretty much removed Iroha bonding with Sana over their loneliness. That was the main reason Iroha risked her life to safe her and why Sana so eagerly joined them, because first time in her life she felt needed and important to someone. It made them spending half of the episode 8 so blatantly building Iroha's loneliness pretty pointless. It was already subtly conveyed over the show. Some parallels were nice and done well, but some parts, like the bullying, felt totally unnecessary. Overall good set up, but without any pay off.

I love the way they handled Mami joining Magius. It was explained in the game and I found it perfectly reasonable, even if the resolution to her plot line was handled poorly, but I much more prefer anime's taken on it. It portrays Mami as much stronger character even if still conflicted. Her being unstable mess, made sense considering her character and original reaction to truth, but it pretty much removed all agency she had as a character, replacing her with completely different character, even if she consented to it. And speaking of which, that was my main issue with how Magius handled explaining their plan to main cast, which admittedly knowing future events and their general approach to "allies" makes more sense in the hindsight. Still I felt like main cast had legitimate reasons to join Magius and it would make for much stronger, engaging and interesting story. But no, let's just brainwash them. Again, make sense in context of what kind of people Magius are, but still feels incredibly cheap.

In fact I can perfectly see it working that way. Sana's and Felicia's brainwashing was undone almost immediately and had no impact whatsoever. While I felt like revelation of truth would impact them a lot and might give them reason to join them, I'd be perfectly fine with them never joining at all. On the other hand I feel like set up for Tsuruno to joining Magius from her own will is already there. She is close with Mifuyu. She carries a lot of burden and guilt and I can totally see her giving in into temptation of promise of salvation in exchange for finding inner peace. And then we would have emotional fight between Tsuruno and Yachiyo where she connects with her and convince her to come back. And that's exactly what they seems to be setting up with Mami, which would give arrival of original trio a lot more impact. It should be them actually trying to reason Mami back, instead of that bs with Yachiyo just beating sense into her, when it was clearly established to not work like that with Tsuruno and needing a genuine connection and understanding, that Yachiyo clearly didn't have. Don't get me wrong. That duel sounds awesome and I'd be lying if I said that I don't want to see it animated, but priorities. That reminds me. What was up with Yachiyo getting some sudden boost of power in that fight. I don't remember if it was explained at all. If it wasn't, they better remove it. Anyway, since they also showed willingness to big changes with Mami not being fused with Rumor, they can just as easily not do it with Tsuruno as well. Not from top of my head, but I'm sure there are ways to work around it.

That's honestly my biggest issue with Magius in general. Instead of being a complex villains with a point, making it more of a gray area whatever what they do is good or bad and giving room for some moral dilemmas, they just went for black and white, they're pure evil and need to be stopped. And sure, their methods still could be wrong, but there could be more nuance with it. For starters, I hate that they don't actually ever explain their goals, because that should be best way to convince everyone to join them. First sign something fishy is going on. And yes, they do explain it eventually, but after clashing several times with main cast and they invited them for a lecture already with full intention of brainwashing them. They didn't even give them a chance to make a choice for themselves. That's why what they did with Mami is step in good direction and gives me hope, they'll change other scenes as well in similar fashion. Having to win them back, by reasoning why what Magius is doing is wrong, simply feels like much better idea.

Anyway, people stop thinking it's Madoka lite and will never be as good. It doesn't try to be a repeat of OG series. It's a different show, trying to do different things and is doing pretty darn good job at it.

last edited at Mar 7, 2020 3:37PM

Serenata posted:

To be frank, I love the manga, never had a problem with it but then they made the culture festival arc, it's... odd.

Well I have some issues with general setting, like it really is pretty contrived and doesn't make sense. I also didn't like that from what I saw, they really are going very black and white with characters designs. Like except for Plasma (or however that teacher was called) all heroes are obviously good guys and all villains look like villains, including the birth mutations. Some powers are just totally OP/ridiculous and I really didn't like where the story was going from spoilers of future development I heard. Also speaking of powers, some characters were clearly created as villains first and then author tried to make their backstory fit, because at least 2 powers wouldn't make sense if they weren't possessed by the villains that possess them. Right, and female characters are very underdeveloped/used (I know it's aimed at boys but still).

but then they decided to give Deku the possibilities of multiple quirks and he hasn't mastered the first one yet and that, in one word felt WRONG like it goes against his character, I can't get used to it and idk if I will ever feel good with it.

That's my biggest beef with the series. It's very ironic considering originally Deku was supposed to stay quirkless and be a sorta batman in universe, but editor said it won't fly and so author changed it to what we got now. Deku batman could be really cool, but I was fine with All For One idea and it make for interesting story with how Deku was adapting to it, especially with his personality of brains rather than brawn. But then suddenly he gets access to all other quirks AFO had and that I call bs. We went from quirkless protagonist to OP protagonist with like 7 quirks. That's like exact opposite of what series was supposed to be about. But I guess it's not shounen battle series, if MC doesn't unlock new powers/forms as the series progress.

Hylarn posted:

I wouldn't go that far, but it's certainly the anime I've most enjoyed watching for some time. And definitely the best mobage adaptation (possibly the best game adaptation)

I'll admit I might be a bit biased, but I'm just way too used to anime having almost no animations and being mostly static characters flipping mouths with occasional fight breaks if anime has those, so I was just blown away by the amount of animation and really unique and engaging presentation of first episode. Sure in moments it might feel little too rushed and you need to focus a lot and figure out some things really quickly in order to follow some plot developments, but I'll take that kind anime over all the boring shows where you're shown everything from start to finish, filled with dialogue and episode ends up accomplishing very little and even dragging a bit.

Honestly playing and knowing the plot beforehand really makes me appreciate the amount of detail, care and information packed in ever episode, so that probably increases my score and enjoyment of the show. Not to say that I agree with all changes or like everything, but overall I think it's a really solid anime and great adaptation. And yes, games always had more leeway with adaptations, but even then it really is taking advantage of format and medium and elevates source material to another lvl. The fact they take a lot liberties with it and in fact changes heavily/fixes some plot/story elements from the game, is a very unexpected and good thing. Since story is told using visual novel format, they could just copy paste it and make anime like that, but they didn't and instead decide to put more effort into it.

That being said, episode 8h was really underwhelming. A lot people complained about 7th but I thought it was fine and, while disappointed with lack of inclusion of some things I really liked in game, I could understand changes and was fine with them for the most part. This one, while having some good parts and was supposed to be slower one, setting up things, removes a lot of stuff from them game, but it didn't feel like they added anything that great instead. And of course the biggest thing is where the fuck is Madoka and Homura and why they didn't appear yet!? On the other hand I don't understand why Mami showed up and how it will be explained, because the way she does, doesn't really make sense assuming anime is following the game.

onyxpanda posted:

I've read a bit of the manga on a foreign translation, but I agree that they've definitely tuned in on the yuri focused aspects in the girls' interactions with each other. Also it helps that the voice actresses all seem to have script directions that help encourage this tone, haha.

I like their one-shots. Tender Night is one of my all time favorite ones. On the other hand I always forget she also wrote Manga no Tsukurikata, which is to put it lightly... not good. Of course I immediately looked for their other stuff and found Budoukan, but according to baka updates it's at best one-sided and wasn't being translated anyway. Once anime was announced, I was reminded of it and checked it again, but baka still only marked it as one-sided love and I didn't feel like putting so much effort into something that might not be even yuri. I found the raws, but didn't really properly check entire manga, cos it would take me too much time. I did take a look at it, to compare first few episodes to it, they pretty much adopt entire thing and add a lot stuff, because there's not enough material. So it's highly possible anime is gayer than manga. That being said, if enough people are interested I can translate it.

Hylarn posted:

It's interesting how Rika and Ren have had the most memorable cameos, despite neither of them technically being there

Yea. I believe Ren's was straight from the game. Game is pretty gay already and having canon lesbian is awesome, but I also liked that that's how anime decided to feature Rika, because it both means they aren't trying to censor her gayness as well as are acknowledging the yuri.

last edited at Feb 22, 2020 3:53PM

Yuki_mi46 posted:

I've just come to a realisation while reading the few last chapters (waited before reading them cuz thos cliffhangers are killing me) idk if anyone has come to this conclusion, or if it has been stated before, but I was quite proud of me lol.
What if the title of this series "my unrequited love" isn't about Uta not being able to reach kaoru, but karou that was never able to reach reiichi ...

The idea that "unrequitedness" apply to all main characters was rise few times before.

Blastaar posted:

Any Japanese speakers who can help out with the actual title?

Whether the love is “unrequited” or ”won’t reach” or whatever, is it singular “my love” or “our loves”?

I mentioned it before already. The literal title is "Even if it's a string that won't connect" referring to the red string of fate. Title can be interpreted as "Even if we're not fated for each other, I'll still love you" or something like that. And obviously it seemed like the title was about Uta's love for Kaoru, but considering how this manga developed it seems it could refer to everyone's love for people they wanted to be with, but seems to not be destined to.

EDIT/ Japanese technically doesn't have plural, so whatever it's 1 string or few strings, depends on the context. It still can fit if every main character in the story is saying that line about themselves.

last edited at Jan 21, 2020 6:33AM

circamoore posted:
Did a bit of reading up, I wasn't previously familiar with tai transformation verbs for desire... いたくない is transform from いる for negative desire I think (いる becomes いたい for desire then いたくない for negation)... with so much of the meaning (and word length) coming from conjugation Japanese can feel very dictionary un-friendly sometimes.

Exactly. It's true figuring which word it is can be sometimes hard, but I think the biggest issue here was that word iru is really short and is in tier where you always remove "ru" and replace it with appropriate form, unlike where "ru" is part of conjugation. Normally "to want" is created by turning verb into "masu" form and then swapping "masu" for "tai", like iku, ikimasu, ikitai, which makes it easier to distinguish, but in case of iru, imasu, itai, it can be hard to notice at first glance.

"So, I want to stay away from you for a while" is correct. Not sure how anyone could interpret it as "So, I don't want to stay away from you for a while". It's not first time ChaosTeam translation wasn't that good, so I probably shouldn't be surprised.

Literal translation: "For a while, I don't want to be together" (in a sense of being in the same place)

last edited at Jan 18, 2020 11:19PM

Noticed it as well. I think she was originally misread as Kida and nobody ever fixed it?

EDIT/ Nvm, it's mentioned in tag.

last edited at Jan 13, 2020 7:14PM

Btw. I know we all are joking around, but we didn't even see what hit her. I'm pretty sure if she was hit, it was just normal car.

roflcopter posted:

Tomboys can be kun sometimes as well.

You kinda explained yourself.

Also for clarity sake, kun is technically gender neutral honorific, but in practice, it's almost exclusively used towards males.

last edited at Jan 13, 2020 4:01PM

BlueDsc posted:

I don't think it's that unbelievable since I've had that exact thing happen to me on multiple occasions. A good gust of wind can be shockingly strong.

I don't deny that sometimes wind can be quite fierce. It's one thing if glove was laying somewhere, but it's hard to believe Nika would lose grip on it, even if it was strong. Maybe I just never experienced the wing strong enough to do it. I guess she might not be holding on it that strong and gust took her by surprise. Also of course, I'm talking about normal wind. Any disaster lvl one would easily do the job.

cecile posted:

Like I said, I have a strong feeling that this is just to stall Nikaidou and make her lose her deadline. It would be really out of character for this story if someone actually died.

Yea. I'm not saying die, but some serious injury. I see it possible, but I'd still hate it if this drama was prolonged. I really hope it's just a red herring and next chapter we see Jun and Kurumi laying on ground together and car rammed into railing or something.

There's some significance to it. Like how Nika didn't fall off the bridge to save Jun's gift (she was all "oh, this was for the best"), but she jumped in front of a truck to get Kurumi's gift back.

Good point. Didn't think about that. This make it make more sense and be symbolically important.

Serenata posted:

God, forgive me for what I am about to read https://youtu.be/qQ3ZVmXNgt0

Lol, this version actually sounds great xD

I read newest chapter randomly on a whim and rotfl it's hilarious. I laughed so much. No clue how anyone can take any of this seriously.

last edited at Jan 13, 2020 9:34AM

GeneralJ posted:

Why Teppu had to end :(

Author's health. That's probably the worst cause possible. Not when something got axed/cancelled because of publisher or editorial meddling, but because author is just not capable of continuing.

last edited at Jan 13, 2020 9:26AM

1. It's usually guy driving the truck, so that's probably why Truck-kun or just the usual of assuming truck is male by default.
2. Next issue of Galette drops on february, so it's not that long of a way.
3. I cringed at the implied accident cliffhanger. Could we just not? I hope it will be subverted and that nothing serious actually happened.
4. I'm way more distracted by the fact that somehow glove that Nika was holding got blown by the wind. Seriously never heard of that before and it hurts my suspension of disbelief so hard, it makes me feel like author didn't really think it through and came up with that sudden accident on a whim, just for a dramatic plot twist.

last edited at Jan 13, 2020 9:23AM

Wow that chapter was so painful to read. Can't wait when Hinako will find happiness with Satou.

Ugh, from top of my head Aqua Blue Cinema. It's mostly lighthearted. Also maybe Hanjuku Joshi? It's more of a exploration than fluff, but it's really good and ends on positive note. Doesn't really have any heavy drama. Right there was Wife and Wife for pure fluff.