Anime

Log Time General #18 Podcast | Beginning of Winter 2019 — The Magnificent Winter Anime

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Mythos came back to us, and to celebrate, we decided to do a seasonal cast (definitely not because that’s what we usually do, anyways – totally not)!

For the Xth time in a row, we talk about how “surprisingly good” the winter season is, how we always actually have a lot of good stuff in the winter season, and get down to talking about a veritable treasure trove of shows. We talk about some good, good horror in The Promised Neverland, a lot of 3DCG shows, one of which (cough cough W’z cough cough) gets Tofu both riled up and introspective, some mental, emotional warfare in Kaguya-sama, and really, a lot more things than we can adequately list here.

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

This podcast was recorded on January 25th, 2019.

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

The Backloggers 4th Anniversary – The Ride Never Ends

thebackloggers 6 Comments

It’s that time again, folks. The Backloggers Anniversary has rolled around again, and I honestly can’t believe we’ve been doing this 4 years at this point. Granted, we’ve had our ups and downs in terms of activity and the first year of starting up really doesn’t count anyway, but hey, at least we can say that we’re still doing it and still intend to continue doing it for a while. So no worries about us going anywhere anytime soon; we’re here to stay!

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover with this year’s anniversary post, so let’s just go ahead and get right to it!

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Please, Please Don’t Watch W’z

generaltofu 11 Comments

It’s the end of 2018. The year is coming to a close, with a new year and new anime just on the horizon. As I scan over the Winter 2019 season’s offerings, I spy a show called W’z that stirs something within me – it looks a whole lot like Hand Shakers, a show that, no pun intended, shook me to the core almost two years ago. I find a trailer, and sure enough, it’s the same style, aesthetic, and even the jarring gear-looking weapons. I’m having minor heart palpitations. Surely Hand Shakers didn’t get a sequel greenlit – a show that was as consistently panned by critics and viewers alike couldn’t have been given the blessing, let alone the budget, for a season two. I talk to my co-host Owningmatt93, and I’m assured by him that “it’s just the style GoHands does, man. All of their stuff looks like this.” Looking at trailers for, for instance, K: Return of Kings, it does indeed look pretty much exactly the same, aside from a lesser emphasis on a mix of 2D and 3D animation. My fears assuaged somewhat, I continue on with my look at what’s in store for the next few months.

It’s 2019. A new year, a fresh start, and a new season ahead of us for anime. It’s 2019, and I get this message in The Backloggers Slack chat:

shaking

…Wait.

screenshot (61)

…No.

shaking 3

No.

shaking 2

NO.

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Log Time General Podcast #17| End of Fall 2018 — Rest In Peace, Fall Anime

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We decided to drink and do a seasonal podcast to come to terms with Mythos’ absence.

We talk about some of our favorite shows from the fall anime season, along with other shows that we thought were boppin’. We discussed what made some shows like Zombie Land Saga and Bunny Girl Senpai unique within their genre of shows, and how others like SSSS.Gridman and Run with the Wind are similar to other shows, but also doing their own take on those elements as well.

As a final send-off to our year, we also showcase our Anime of the Year Top 5!

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

This podcast was recorded on January 4th, 2019.

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

[Season Sampler] The Price of Smiles 1 — Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Owningmatt93 2 Comments

If you’re anything like me, you may have given this anime one glance and thought that it looked like a strange concoction of what people would regard as a “generic fantasy show” with very under-stellar elements regarding animation and effects. There’s nothing really that makes this anime stand on its own from just reading the synopsis and watching the PV. To older anime viewers such as myself, it almost looks like a cross between Aldnoah.Zero and Chaika: The Coffin Princess in terms of both style and elements presented to us throughout the show. Both of those shows were at varying levels of popularity and quality, but I think that while comparing Price of Smiles to those shows may be accurate in terms of plot setup and world-building elements, it’s also disingenuous to say that this show is exactly like either of those, as it does have a wide array of differences in terms of execution and tone that keeps it apart as its own entity.

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New Series – Picks of the Month!

Selie Leave a comment

Hey!  Mythos, here.  I wanted to try something new.  If you’ve followed us for a while, you may have noticed a bit of a dry spell from us and I know we’ve apologized a million times over it.  All three of us try to do this site on the side from our own lives, which unfortunately have gotten super busy to the point where it’s kinda out of our hands right now.  We’re still committed to doing this blog and starting a lot of fun and interesting discussions, however. So, instead of apologizing over and over again, I decided I’d do something a little different to help out over the course of this blog being a little slow with updates.  So lemme get to this.

I typically don’t have a lot of time for things but where I suffer from insomnia, I usually have an unfortunate ton of time before my meds kick in where I’m just laying in bed waiting to sleep.  So I’ve been doing a lot of reading, mostly manga and webcomics. As such, I figure I’m already doing the research for it, so why don’t I write about what I’m reading?

These won’t be super long pieces, as while I have time for the reading part of this, I still don’t have a ton of time for the actual writing.  So these will just be little short pieces either detailing a specific manga, manwha, or webcomic I’m going through and either explaining the plot or detailing a specific idea or concept from them I find interesting.  I love giving a shout out to fun ideas or stories as there’s always a lot of negativity about. So hopefully, these can act as a nice bit of levity from all that. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find something you like with some of these and take a look yourself!

One last bit here and as a bit of an aside:  I usually play a little loose and fast when it comes to scanlations when I can’t find an official release.  However, I always, always want to support the source material if I can and buy the official version.  So while some of these may not have an official English version, many others do.  I highly recommend buying it and will always try to link to someplace that you can, if possible.  In fact, if you all ever find a legal version of any of these, and I don’t mention it, PLEASE let me know about it.  I will buy this shit in a heartbeat because 1) I absolutely want to support the authors and 2) I’m a collector so I need dat shit in my life.  So lemme know if you ever find the full release of some of these and I will buy it and share where everyone else can as well.

That’s it!  Hope you enjoy.  The first of these new posts is linked below!

Pick of the Month – Satoko & Nada

Log Time General Podcast #16 | Beginning of Fall 2018 — Bloom Into Fall Anime

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This week on the Log Time Podcast, we encounter the good, the bad, and the weird of the Fall 2018 season. We discuss an immaculate Conception, talk about spooky booksellers and monster spouses in some short shows, geek out over some kaiju action in SSSS.Gridman, get some good rap battles in via Zombieland Saga (which apparently is not a continuation of the 2009 film), and talk about a spooky bunny actress girl in Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai. This season is full of good shows, so do some digging and find something you like!

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

This podcast was recorded on October 18th, 2018.

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

My thoughts on rape scenes in lieu of Goblin Slayer

Selie 4 Comments

Warning:  This may be be difficult for some to read.  If discussion about rape is too much for you, please go ahead and pass on this.  I will always support mental health and taking care of yourself.

The anime adaptation of Goblin Slayer has come out this season and it’s raised a lot of discussion in the community due to some of the material in it with one scene in particular I’ve heard about.  I haven’t seen the scene in question, nor have I sat down to watch a lot of shows this season but I wanted to take time to post my thoughts on rape scenes in general in media because I feel there are a couple of important things to think about when it comes to this discussion.  Once again, this isn’t a direct commentary on this anime as I can’t do that.  I’ve not seen it so I won’t say Goblin Slayer is completely acceptable or to burn it as filth or anywhere in-between.

So to get into it, while I think there are a ton of other factors to consider, I believe there are two big questions to always ask when creators put a rape scene in a series like this.

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Log Time General Podcast #15 | End of Spring 2018 — 3D Boys / Real Anime

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This week on the Log Time Podcast, we lament that life made watching anime difficult this season, but we cover a few shows that made the Spring 2018 season great for us. We get to the nitty-gritty of the sheer fun of Megalo Box, discuss the awkward (but good) mess that is 3D Kanojo/Real Girl, and go ham on what seemed to be our show of the season, Hinamatsuri.

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

This podcast was recorded on July 13th, 2018.

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

3D Kanojo 5 + 6 – All Aboard the Misunderstandings Train

generaltofu 3 Comments

Given how it works within the romcom genre of anime, 3D Kanojo is an odd show to begin with. It eschews a number of tropes that make so many of the romantic plotlines in those series feel contrived and samey through how it approaches the awkwardness and insecurities of new romance, and in turn makes its characters feel surprisingly relatable. As we reach the midpoint of the season, however, things seem to have gotten a bit muddied in terms of some of the show’s strong track record out of the gate. While episodes 5 + 6 do have their fair share of heartfelt moments that get to the core of what makes this show so good (in my view), it definitely suffers in terms of a few pretty important story plotlines and character-building moments.

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