It will forever be hysterical to me that the Abridged Series is a more faithful adaptation of the novels than the actual anime. Not only in that it better preserves and portrays the themes and messages of the original source material, but in that it also (probably accidentally) reintroduces similar key plot beats the anime actively cut. The entire bit where Asuna can't open a menu??? While not as extreme in the novels, Asuna's lack of knowledge and experience regarding video games is an ACTUAL PLOT POINT, especially in the Progressive series. Her unique style of swordplay is a direct result of her initial inexperience with key features of the game's battle system (Who needs to parry if you never take damage to begin with?) and her pre-existing real world athleticism. Abridged Kirito's character development also very similarly parallels Novel Kirito's. Novel Kirito, while certainly not the borderline sociopathic figure we see in the Abridged series, is a kind but admittedly very flawed character. What he and Abridged Kirito share is that both are deeply afraid of developing relationships with other people for fear of being hurt, and their deep parallels with Akihiko Kayaba. Novel Kirito never wanted to beat the game, he fully believed he was simply not the type of person capable of accomplishing it. Not only that, but he develops a somewhat twisted love for SAO despite the risk it poses to his life, his pre-existing imposter syndrome mutating into him fully feeling that he belongs more to the world of SAO than he ever did to the world of real life. He habitually forms deeper bonds with NPCs than he does with other living players and avidly comes to their defense when other players try to do what he perceives as harming them. Hell, there's even a scene where he actively sobs into the arms of one after an attempt on his life directly after leaving the First Town. (It's part of what makes his relationship with Yui hit so damn hard after the reveal.) It's because he's the only person to truly love and appreciate SAO as the world it is, acquiring Dual Wielding from a stat build and completing side quests that only someone *actively exploring and appreciating SAO would obtain* (NOT because he's some chosen one motherfucker, but because he *played the goddamn game*), that Akihiko Kayaba even notices him to begin with. Kirito sees his twisted reflection in Kayaba, and actively feels shame for it. He hates himself, but more specifically he hates the part of him he knows could've become someone like Kayaba. While the Abridged series chooses to draw parallels between Kayaba and Kirito using a far different method for humor, it still technically adapts this plot point that is otherwise entirely absent from the anime.

Spell fire existed before mtg

One of my personal gripes with the "1000 year old Loli" trope, is how it's utilized. I mostly see it in the form of either a 1000+ year old deity that looks and acts like a gradeschooler or a 1000+ year old deity that looks like a gradeschooler and acts like a standard adult. If you wanna go a comedic route, them acting their age has great potential in that department. Imagine how funny it would be to have this grade school looking person roll up with "I was alive when your people we're living in caves" and "Back in my day, every single word in your vocabulary wasn't even invented yet". If you wanna go the serious route, you could explore the struggles that come with having thousands of years worth of life experience, yet being stuck with the appearance of a child. Imagine what their dating life would be like. You could show the challenge of them trying to find a romantic partner who is interested in dating someone with that level of maturity and life experience, but the physical appearance of a child. (Since the kind of people who want a relationship with a mature adult, typically also want said person to look like they've at least reached 18) So many 1000+ year old Lolis have little narrative reason to even be well... a 1000+ year old deity in a grade school meat suit. (Not every weird thing in anime needs some kind of narrative justification, but if you're going to walk the slipperly slope of characters who look like children being involved with themes of romance and or sexualisation, (like putting them in revealing outfits and having them be presented romantically/sexually proaktive or even seductive) their should be some narrative reason they don't just look like grownups.) At best, the character is a 1000+ year old adult in a child body, because their some supernatural being that ages differently, but has the maturity of the average adult. At worst, the character looks and acts like a gradeschooler and is only an "adult" in age, so that sexualisizing the character is tinted with a "technically-" debate, instead of emidiatly being classed as really gross and morally dubious. It's like wanting to portray something in a very morally questionable/dubious way, without wanting the full social consequences and responsibility that come with it.

This video agreed so well I couldn’t even tell how old it was until I looked at it about halfway through

The bad guys are psychopaths. I'm ok with that.

Now I'm going to have to eat all my pasta noodles by themselves. Thanks.

I honestly wonder how these voice actors feel about their job...

The thousand-year loli is everyone's final form

I was one of those people who was against loli beforehand-but I changed my mind a few months ago as I realized and heard some things. First off, apparently the term loli doesn't have anything to do with age anyhow, it's just a small/petite character. They don't have to look like or be labeled as a child anyhow, and that is to say that they look like children, which, in my opinion, they really don't, like at all (to a point that is-when they start getting a realistic body or the grubby hands that's a hard no for me, it has also nothing to do with height or Nahida from he shin impact wouldn't appear on my late night searches so much). There's also the fact that they're not real, so any age applies is extremely arbitrary. What's stopping the creator who listed a character as 16 from listing them as 20? I think that what someone writes isn't necessarily reflective of their real life tastes or actions, and they should not be judged by it, or we might need to lock up the Payday developers for extreme bloodlust and planning bank robberies. It really is the same argument, and just how there is no definitive (there are more studies towards it, however) proof on video games increasing or decreasing people's aggression, there are no studies based on the correlation between this content and pedophilia. So with all the arguments I saw or thought of, I believe that Legality of these characters is a waste of energy to talk about, as in a fictional work, written by someone, you should be able to make any choice you wish (even if it's to be frowned upon-Even I have my limits on what I can accept), but morality isnt. This here is not only a little bit of a useless topic as it brings little to no value in real life, it is something that can be talked about for hours. I personally summarize lewding lolies as "it's immoral, but so is hentai and porn in general" so I really don't see a moral problem anyhow with making the content. P.S. It's also worth noting that I think that when sexualising any fictional character in an image the way they act is irrelevant, as I see no big need to correlate the two (you can if you like though, so that's why it's an afterthought) so any real life problems that would arrive from someone at such a young age (illegal lolies as you may call it) don't work here.

when the film first came out I tried translating the actual lyrics for several songs and they were DRAMATICALLY different from the actual French lyrics - Love is an Open Door becoming Love is a Gift and Let It Go becoming Liberated, Delivered... I _really_ wanted to do a direct translation song, singing "l'amour est une porte ouverte" - when the girls were watching it in French I sang under my breath the translated versions because they sounded SOOO silly compared to the re-written song "l'amour est un cadeau" I'm completely tone deaf, so my "singing" comes out almost on a single note, but if someone could do it then it'd be a joy to watch and laugh at 🤣

Stark's canonically *cold* penis

Why immortal child trope sucks.

my thoughts- I don't give a shit I just wanna see people fighting, give me people fighting.

I really wish the bad stuff in the anime were not there because it really is a good anime with great animation and a great story. Its a great anime...except for those abhorrent moments. I can handle the peeping and the stealing of panty's. I cannot handle the literal molestation of a minor.

I like to think of the Demons like ChatGPT. They mimic sapience but they are not actually self aware like humans. Its all an adaptation to prey on humans.

100% agree, the main character could have been a really interesting character if they anime let him.

Mushishi is a truly unique take on how the elements of fantasy interacts with the world it resides in, I highly recommend it.

Gary Sue is worse than Mary Sue.

"Push a fat man to save 50 people" kind of situation. Normal people will hesitate, psychopaths have no problem with it

wait, I thought SAO was already .hack abriged

There's a lot to be read into with the Demons. I personally don't think they're supposed to be an allegory to shed light on real problems of xenophobia or even racism. They're never really depicted as a threat (to Frieren at least), she dispatches every demon in an almost anti-climactic way. Even the demon king, though we never see his defeat, is a long gone fact, the biggest threat has already been defeated. Maybe they're supposed to be more of an internal reflection rather than an external one, like all of the worst parts of being human that aren't necessarily inherent to a particular person or type of person.

Personally no matter how many video essays I see about it- I hate this trend of Fantasy anime with a Demon King we never get to see frfr, and the D&D party setup. The actual writing of a LOT of the newer anime is great, but the worlds they inhabit feel uninspired and same-ish to the point I cant get invested. We've seen this combination of characters, places and themes in 4-5 times already in just this quarter alone

the nice thing about the op of season one and two is that they link to the theme of the respective seasons. pretty damn clever

I suppose I just think the movie in general is mediocre to me, being more generally uninteresting than bad or mishandled at first thought. Perhaps if it were a miniseries of allowed to be more fleshed out in the movie the plot could actually hook me enough to care whether or not the characters are even effective models of abusers

Now talk about Houseki no Kuni. _You know you don’t want to._

Yo do I have to be a patron to debate some Frieren stuff with you? Funny enough me and you agree on everything but I’m surprised you have it at a 9.5/10. With the short comings you mentioned I have it down to a 7.5. The formulaic flashbacks are solid at first but get tedious by the half way point. I kinda wish we would move on more past the past party. This whole show is about passing the torch. LET GO OF THE TORCH HIMMEL.

all i have to say w/ the corrupt priest bit is that the [9volt] translation is WAY BETTER. Particularly the way they handled the title drop in episode 8.

So I stopped watching halfway through and decided to check out Gushing Over Magical Girls myself and... Is it beyond problematic and borders into the absolute moral dregs mankind can produce|? Yes. BUT... Okay, I can't fully morally justify it, even with the "bartering" theorem you present in the video, the show is just as degenerate (Okay, EVEN MORE SO) than you describe in the video so I['ll further clarify that *you really should not watch this show* if you're uncomfortable with questionably aged girls having put in literal hen tie situations... But there is like, legitimate love put into this show that made me think "Wait, I have *attachment* to these psychopaths." That just comes from a show that knows itself and is just *honest* about what it wants to be. And is that really so bad? I mean, probably. I dunno, I'm not a video essay person, I'm just an idiot with passion who wanted to thank Mr. Explanation Point of unintentionally advertising this wonderful trashfire of a show. So like, thanks, unintentionally.

The Ultimate crossover between Japan and Finland crossover

I'm back watching this video again. Umbrella song still slaps

literally falsifying underaged 13 year old girls to 2000 years old in order to do adult stuff with them is a typical American groomer and pedo behaviour whom usually sleeps with their loli pillows at night

Hey, I know this video is old as balls, but thank you for making it. My husband isnt an incel (Obviously,) but he is the kind of person who is desperately afraid of changing, even though he's miserable all the time, because change would mean losing who he is and admitting defeat. this video helped me understand that, and hopefully we can take this new understanding in a better direction.

13:21

"Are you sleepy yet" had me rolling 😂😂

The amount of times I've died from laughing while watching this video 🤣🤣🤣

Excellent video! I would love to see that Sayaka Sub vs. Dub video if you're still planning on making it

As much as I love SAO (Since it's one of the first Animes besides Pokemon and Naruto) I do agree with EP on a lot of stuff.

I Love Mushoku Tensei, but some Rudous action is to much. He presented as a good person, but how does not sees his pedophile actions. I can understand that he is sexually frustrated and even action on moment of weakness, but at list reflect it, that he understands and regrets. It could have been Anime of all time, but we got what we have

If I had to add another small nitpick, I hated that bit where Fern calls Stark’s penis small. It’s sexual harassment plain and simple and I hate how often anime plays that stuff off as a joke. But credit where it’s due, at least they don’t sexualize this moment (that’s how low the bar is in anime)

Video games

I just want to add to the writing, mainly because I'm procrastinating: The German dub really tries to address the issues you mentioned. For example, the Heiter is always called “Scheinheiliger” (which roughly translates to “pretence saint” but mainly means being hypocritical) which is not only a common insult in german but is also a pun being used for a priest. In general the dub is excellent! The voice for Frieren is a bit more emotional than the original but makes it way more believable and complex. And they tried to avoid any repetition, I never had the feeling to hear something twice. The only thing i really don't like are the names. I know it's highly specific for German audiences, but the fact they only use German verbs or adjectives is really distracting and… flat? Oh, his name is Stark (Strong), is it because he's strong?!? Oh, her name is Übel (evil/bad/a scourge), is it because of her presence is a scourge?!? Oh, the place is called Kühl (cold), is it because it's cold there?!? The Names rarely complement the characters / things, but are only descriptive of their main characteristics so you always immediately know what they're all about. Well that are my 50 cents, hope it's interesting, sorry for my bad English and good day :)

On the topic of Stark's penis, the funny thing is that this is from Fern's perspective, so it's equally as likely that Heiter is just packin' some fuckin' HEAT

11:44 Oh shit she dies? Maybe I should watch this show...

I have to say, I do love the evolution of your microphone-quality over the years.

Okay Minecraft story mode Review when???

In case anyone is curious almost if not every single plot and character choice the writer of Frieren makes is largely dictated by two kinds of Japanese themes: cycle of life and death (Samsara) themes and self identity themes. From Fern and Frieren's conversation about why Fern chose magic to Frieren explaining her favorite spell, that's self identity themes. Almost everything Himmel ever says in every single flashback is cycle of life and death themes. I'll eventually make some videos explaining the themes in general as they're some of the most prolific ones in anime for several decades now.

One thing of MHA that bothered me was how not one group of that world treats the other group as human. You would have Stain criticizing heroes as selfish and profit driven, but his actions of killing the heroes means that possibly a child can be left without a parent or even a parent without a child. When he saw that Iida came to find him not to save the hero that was in danger but to avenge his elder brother he criticizes him of his goals not aligning with what should a hero do, which while true he doesn't consider that as a person that nearly was about to lose a family member to being killed by him he should be rightfully angry at him. He puts more focus that a hero should be self sacrificing, but just because a person likes a selfless spider man it doesn't mean one wants to be one.

Delicious in Dungeon was my Frieren replacement once it ended. Highly recommend.

In my opinion the distinction is that a season of a show should be, at least in part, a full package of some kind. Even if it’s just an installment in a long story or one part of a longer arc. This gets fuzzy for continuous and ridiculously long shows like One Piece but those are in the vast minority compared to seasonal anime like the ones talked about here. A full season of television should be, at least to some extent, a complete package with its own beginning, ending, and focus between those two points. It’s hard to ignore a bad episode in a season because it’s a rotten part of a whole, but if the whole batch is rotten I have no qualms throwing out the whole thing. This also means that I think you can ignore a GOOD second season too. Why not? If you just wanna focus on the qualities or storylines of a single season without working in the later stuff, that’s fine.