LAST EDITED ON Aug-04-15 AT 00:42 AM (EDT)
 
I was at Zoner's last night, and he got bored and more or less randomly started watching an anime series on... whatever streaming video service that was, I wasn't really paying attention to the selection process.

Which is how I ended up sort-of-half-watching the first episode of something I believe is called, if whoever translated it is to be believed, Gotta Be the Twin-Tail. I say sort-of-half-watching because I realized within a few seconds that it was going to be sort of a Cthulhu Mythos scenario, except instead of reducing SAN it would erode INT, and I still have aspirations of earning a graduate degree. Wow.

I mean, I'm no novice, I've known for a long time that Japanese animation is capable of being just as stupid as anybody else's, if not more so. And sometimes I enjoy its brand of stupid. Heck, it's not as if Kantai Collection is fuggin' Goethe, you know? But... yeah. Wow.

"Mr. MegaZone... what you've just watched is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever seen. At no point in its rambling, incoherent expanse was it even close to anything that could be considered a rational plot. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having watched it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

--G.
Also: Zuikaku would completely fuck up those aliens' shit if they were stupid enough to cross her. I'm just saying.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Looking it up online, it's apparently often considered the 'best bad anime' of 2014, and looking at the details... yeah. O_o

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

I rather enjoyed it but I have a soft spot for shows that take an evidently stupid premise and play it completely straight. I'm not going to pretend that the premise isn't stupid though.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-04-15 AT 05:41 PM (EDT)
 
If you read the light novel, even the characters think the premise is stupid. Actually, the LN is pretty good, because there's a lot of snark coming from the characters, alternating between incredulity and Ranma-style lack of self-awareness. It also uses the word chuunibyou a lot, i.e. "eighth grade syndrome" (lit. middle [school, class] two disease). I don't think I really need to explain that further, nor its applicability to this show.

> if whoever translated it is to be believed, Gotta Be the Twin-Tail

The title is Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu, which is closer to "I (masculine) become twintailed".

> sort of a Cthulhu Mythos scenario, except instead of reducing SAN it would erode INT

I'm pretty sure it damages both stats. Having interdimensional enemies who steal people's fetishes can only lead to madness. (If you actually want to see a good show that reduces SAN, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san is pretty funny. I like to think of it as Urusei Yatsura with Japanese mythos swapped for Cthulhu mythos).

LAST EDITED ON Aug-04-15 AT 06:19 PM (EDT)
 
>It also uses the word chuunibyou a
>lot, i.e. "eighth grade syndrome" (lit. middle [school, class]
>two disease). I don't think I really need to explain that further

Weirdly, I just encountered that word for the first time the other day, in the context of - of all things - Kantai Collection characters. There are a couple of fleet girls who wear eyepatches, and there is evidently a branch of the fandom who choose to believe this is not for any technical reason, but rather because they suffer from this condition (which is evidently Japanese for "being a pretentious douchenozzle").

(In Kiso's case there is direct evidence against this, in the form of the scar that can be seen running under her eyepatch and the fact that, in one of her "damaged" artworks, it's come off, revealing that her right iris is discolored in the standard comics-art "this eye does not work" fashion. In Tenryū's case there's nothing arguing against it in the artwork, but a glance at history turns up the fact that the actual IJS Tenryū - one of the oldest ships in the fleet by 1941 - had battle scars aplenty even before the war. There is another theory that her eyepatch, which is quite techy-looking, is actually the plan position indicator for her radar, and so not unlike the targeting visor that's available for Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 2.)

At any rate, it's an unfair assumption for either of them, but then, a lot of the running jokes in Kantai Collection fanon are unfair and/or unkind (e.g., Akagi's gluttony extending to cannibalism, its commonly linked counterpart "Soylent Green is Naka-chan", horrible things happening to poor Ushio for no good reason, Kaga being the Admiral's doormat, et al.). That fandom has a mean streak.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I think what brought it especially to the western fandom's attention was that other Kyoani show a few years ago, Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!/Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions in which the main female interest wears a rather distinct eyepatch because...reason's that escape me. So that at least might be part of the association, though in Kiso's case it's not helped by her sudden Nautical Pirate Makeover.

(It (Chunibyo) is rather reviled in my circle of friends for the simple reason of "Make more Full Metal Panic instead of this you Bastards" ...which wasn't exactly helped when Free! Came out instead after a big build up they were SURE would be an Adaption of FMP! Sigma a few years ago.)

On Twintail, it was a guilty pleasure for me, not something I really...enjoyed alone, but when it was me and my boyfriend and another friend watching it all in a sitting or two it was so mind numbingly stupid it wraped back around to amazing as we correctly guessed every plot twist before it happened.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-15 AT 01:38 PM (EDT)
 
It makes no bones about being a stupid show. It's an extremely stupid show.

But the amount of FUN the show has in being unapologeticly dumb is kind of refreshing, unlike some other shows that give us a patently stupid premise and then play everything absolutely straight.

I do remain amused that the show owes much less to Magical Girls than it does.. Kamen Rider.

EDIT: In more seriousness, though, considering G's already demonstrated likes, he would probably enjoy Symphogear quite a lot. Magical powered armor fueled by song, courage (and a determination to PUNCH THE EVIL OUT OF PEOPLE). And a main character who is basically being trained in the art of kicking maximum ass by someone who is for all intents and purposes a broken tier Street Fighter character.

Gonna second the recommendation for Symphogear, at least the first season. I haven't actually managed to watch the second (or third) yet, so I can't say much about them.

If you need the full title, it's Senki Zesshou Symphogear. Season 2 is G, and 3 is GX, which is still in the process of being released - I believe there are six episodes currently available, with a seventh on the way? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I can provide links to streams on request, if you don't mind using an ad blocker. Or I'm sure someone else can provide something more legitimate.

I think we've got a thread for that.

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

Yar, that would indeed appear to be the case.

Just reading the Wiki article made me a little dumber. Dear lord...

Given that this is a Funimation title, 1) none of this surprises me and 2) it was probably Hulu Zoner used to inflict it on you.

not that this info neccecarily HELPS, though.