The Rise and Fall(?) of Gen Urobuchi

[@Harlez]

YT hyper aggressively recommending me no view videos from creators I’ve never interacted with guarantees I’m about to watch a banger

[@justanothergamer300]

*His whole career* *No mention of Thunderbolt Fantasy* How'd you miss it though?

[@Anonlyso]

It really is a massive oversight for a vid, especially considering the big "7 Years of nothing but mid" deal, like even as a hater, thinking post-Aldnoah that Urobuchi was just completely washed, meanwhile He's been having the time of his life since 2016 (literally 1 year after Aldnoah) with Taiwanese Wu Xia Puppets, even doing a classic reluctant hero story

[@Kushula4815]

Yeah I thought the same thing. Really massive oversight with how creative that show is. Maybe do a follow up on that. Good video regardless.

[@guilegale8942]

@@Anonlyso Dude's been writing literal musicals for kung fu puppets that also explode into gore. It's simultaneously the least and most urobutcher thing, and it's become my favorite of all his portfolio.

[@nevarinai6120]

I do think it would have deserved at least a reference. Thunderbolt Fantasy is easily some of the most fun I've had watching Urobuchi anything, and is fun in some of the best ways. The characters in that show you can tell are really bolstered by his writing specifically, as they could have come off so much more bland in the hands of anyone else, especially considering it's written for a puppet show. The amount of wit and effort he puts into the banter for those characters just makes it an absolute joy. It's on crunchyroll for anyone interested. It's a bit of a slow starter, but I think it's an absolutely fantastic show in Urobochi's portfolio.

[@haldir108]

Also missed Blassreiter, Expelled from paradise, The netflix godzilla trilogy (2nd one was good, fight me) and probably a bunch more.

[@razinoid6863]

From what i remember reading at the time Urobuchi only worked on first episode of Aldanoah

[@Entogariac]

At Anime Expo 2024 he said he was spending time with his family or something. I know he's working on his rabbit video game right now

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

Honestly, if that's the reason for the delay, good for him!

[@thatnerdygaywerewolf9559]

Aha, I knew that was Gaim’s Silhouette! And you’re telling me he was involved in Aldnoah too? 😮 Excited to watch this video.

[@N0ir41]

Came for Madoka Stayed for horror. 10/10 would gladly be grossed out again ‼️

[@miyamoto8733]

Gaim mentioned.

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

It'd be a crime if it wasn't, especially given it flips between second and first place Rider series between it and Saber recently

[@zinv08]

Yo~

[@horhar4706]

"We're finally getting Walrpurgisnacht Rising later this year" Hey so I'm sorry you have to find out this way,

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

I literally recorded the audio for this THE DAY the delay got announced lmao I was too mad to put an addendum in the video 😂

[@Daisy_Galvez713]

WAIT, IT’S DELAYED!? DAMN IT! ;-;

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

@@Daisy_Galvez713 By another year, yes. Unfortunate but honestly if it means we get the best quality of the movie I think it should be worth it.

[@NirusuKun]

​@@ChloeSunfloraVAi think so. I was on a Con at the last Weekend and there was an Artist that mention my Kyouko T-Shirt and she dosen't know about the delay at the time wenn i ask her about it. Her reaction was 😢 she was sunken down her Chair, but we came to the conclosion, its done wen its done.

[@mercyy4424]

Damn this is how I have to find out too. Walpurgisnacht Rising is the Silksong of anime movies they ain’t never making it 😭

[@marocat4749]

psycho pass season 1 still holds up and gagantia is pretts good and that other dystopian

[@dungeonmasterchef]

You forgot about Thunderbotl Fantasy, which has its first 2 season ended in a high note, but season 3 sorta fell off. (A Japanese-Taiwanese puppet show written by him)

[@spongeyspikes09]

Much as I hate the guy and his writing and philosophy i'll give him credit for giving me a rare ability among fans: The ability to not give an F whenever a character dies knowing that if I despair, guys like him win

[@seer007100]

10:28 "Mata Ashita", the episode 1 and 2 ending only played in the DVD/BD release as far as I know

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

As someone who watched it through fansubs as it aired in 2011, I can 100% assure you that was aired in the TV versions of it

[@PasscodeAdvance]

Recommendations is doing good

[@Anonlyso]

Saw this in the feed, and as Ex-Fan and Certified Urobutcher Hater™ ... I'm kinda dissapointed that the general journey of work wasn't anything I didn't already know, sans maybe CyberSlayer, but that is ALSO really disappointing that the only thing you mentioned was the "Gritty CyberPunk being too Kinetic Novel, not Visual/Active" without much else. Just find it repeating the same Western Anime fan narrative of "Wow Urobutcher had 3 hot shows, then fumbled with the Dream team of Troyca and Hiroyuki Sawano and was completely washed", and while the general sentiment is how the trend works, the vid never really goes into just HOW MUCH FAN FERVOR Urobuchi had surrounding him (and still does if you check how many new vids on his works keep getting made) Also the line about everyone at first loving his moral quandaries of UTILTARIANISM VS INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM (Only the single seasons he does) only to back pedal on "getting bored of all his writing tropes" touches, but doesn't really scratch the kind of reasons Urobuchi was so popular: being """""subversive/D E C O N S T R U C T I O N S"""" of supposed genre conventions, something in retrospect and deeper genre watching, is built more from Fan Genre Prejudice than actual legitimate attacks from the shows themselves. Saya no Uta actually derives a lot from the Ero-Guro/Eldritch Horror VNs that have a large influential sub-genre -Amalee Doree has an amazing documentation on a lot of them (including how intertwined the genre is with queer narratives), specifically KusariHime which draws an exceptional parallels to a massive self-realizing horror etc... Fate/Zero's history is also rather shallow, since as you treat the main collaborator as Takeuchi (the main illustrator) and not Nasu (the infamous mushroom scenario writer), when Urobuchi actually is deep friends with those at Type-Moon, to the point that they shared Table Top Gaming sessions (with Urobuchi including his own character in a much later work). Infamously his most famous scene of the Dinner of Kings is cited as straight up character-assassination for Altoria, if not just having "woe is me, failed heroic chivalry" getting laughed at by the hedonist and bara boys. I take issue with Madoka being so self-centralizing part of the genre while also being "not-like-other-Magical-Girls", both in that Season 1's finale mirrors the OG Sailor Moon far closer than one would expect, 2) The themes of Feminine Self-lessness that DO align with standardness Magical Girls clashed super hard with Rebellion basically being the inevitable Rug-Pull > Individualized Self-Destruction...that also calls back to Saya no Uta's final themes 3) Allegedly Urobuchi to not having even watched PreCure before writing Madoka, of biggest note that he could've watched HeartCatch Precure right after and had a massive change of heart about the genre (and also *Spoilers* More Characters stay dead in HeartCatch permanently than in Madoka no-cap) And I ain't gonna take that Granbelm Slander at all while here, if anything it's premise of an unjust battle royale of magical lineage is a straight comparison to OG Fate's Grail Wars in mage lineage being a shackle etc..., but more directly, the ultimate theme of Granbelm being an appreciation of natural life WITHOUT MAGIC/POWER is in fact one of the major pillars of almost every standard Magical Girl show (nearly every show ends with young girls learning to mature without the need of magic)...ironically except Madoka -because 12 eps are only able to fit PLOT and SUFFERING...but none of the Slice of Life focus the rest of the genre is built on. Hell, the fact that Magia Record (both the game AND the show) puts a major emphasis on the time spent of just the girls lives outside of just Mahou Shoujo Suffering, putting it WAY more conventionally a magical girl show...and people HATED it, which brings back to the main point, people don't watch Urobuchi shows "just" to be dark, but because there is a major disconnect in wanting to "subvert" the wider genre he's tackling. Skipping ahead past Psycho-Pass and how Season 3's movies finally complete Akanes arc without Urobuchi (ironically more comparable like a Sci-Fi ver of recent Hannibal style Serial-Killer-Thriller shows). Also both appreciated and baffled that Kamen Rider Gaim is finally given the respect of part of Urobuchi's major legacies, but not much else beyond "and Kamen Rider is ALSO an edgy series", without any talk about Gen's consistent obssession with corrupted Justice (Law in Psycho-Pass, but specifically called HEROES OF JUSTICE in both Fate/Zero and Madoka) Aldnoah/Zero was almost bound to fail, since Gen "The Urobutcher" just can't seem to hold a candle to Yoshiyuki "Kill 'Em All" Tomino's Gundam War Drama slaughter. I'm more surprised you didn't even bring the general fan excuse that Gen gets demoted in Writing position after ep 1 for the Boku no Pico writer, but hey, I guess it's all the same that with how mid Aldnoah was after the hype, interest in Gen himself took an absolute nose-dive... And while that nostalgically mirrored my own experience...just the complete flippancy of every post-Aldnoah work disappoints me that even a supposed fan won't give any real analysis of those shows. No Mention of Gargantia, only a passing mention of how Mid Revenger was, completely missed on Expelled from Paradise (I watched it, thought it was the shallowest AUTHORITARIAN SOCIETY vs RUGGED WESTERN FREEDOM take from him yet) NONE of the Godzilla movies he wrote for, just immediate ex-fan stone walling like damn. The Rwby Ice Queendom deserves the slander tho. Most Baffling and Myopic is that jump of 7 years gap until Madoka Walpurgis movie being some major comeback....and completely ignoring Thunderbolt Fantasy, it being THE passion project of Gen collabing with Taiwanese Puppetry AND still getting Sawano Hiroyuki and TM Revolution hype, going strong since 2016, y'know, THE ENTIRE SUPPOSED 7 YEAR POST-ALDNOAH SLUMP ERA. just a massive oversight considering the topic, and I say that as well with Gen being almost time-capsuled in 2010s anime-sphere, just weird that the retrospection of fans doesn't even follow the man to his own classics.

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

I will be completely honest, the reason I do these quick overviews on some of them is because I value people being able to experience that kind of thing on their own, it's why I didn't go into details with all the themes in the works presented as I didn't wanna completely spoil the experience for those who may be curious. I fully admit though, as a Urobuchi fan, I have never watched Thunderbolt Fantasy or the Godzilla Films he did and didn't cover it because of that fact 'cause they flew under my radar until this came out, I may well cover them in future given how many people have mentioned it in these comments, but it isn't meant to be an intentional oversight because I don't care for them. I do however stand by the fact that I tried to get into the series during the slump period and couldn't really bring myself to care as much to give them proper appraisals ngl, Ice Queendom is pretty alright tho and I stand by that as a RWBY fan myself.

[@mazrimtaim86]

@@ChloeSunfloraVA Thunderbolt Fantasy is peak Urobuchi, treat yourself!

[@WCWit]

Why didn’t you mention the three seasons and two movies of Thunderbolt Fantasy that Urobuchi has written? That’s taken up a lot of his time between 2016-Now (fourth season’s in production last I checked) and it’s great! Urobuchi deliberately writing against type to deliver an epic Wuxia fantasy action-adventure through the medium of Taiwanese glove puppetry! Featuring the best main cast from any of his shows! TMRevolution voices a character who sings the show’s opening theme to fight a dragon!!!

[@danielramsey6141]

Definitely one of the Best shows I’ve ever watched.

[@dre1426]

I remember telling my partner that I wanted to watch Kamen Rider Gaim with them because I thought the main actor was cute lol. Knowing that Urobuchi was a writer on the show only makes me more interested in watching it haha.

[@juliojuli]

Magical Girl Raising Project is very underated the sequel (light novel) has a lot of world building but yeah it's a very gruesome show a lot of the characters will die.

[@sangamchauhan3564]

Man I really want Gen to write another rider season

[@thetribunaloftheimaginatio5247]

My fave? "Kamen Rider Gaim."

[@MrInuhanyou123]

You said Takeuchi was a writer instead of nasu 💀

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

Didn't say he was the writer, I said creator which technically is true alongside Nasu. 🤷‍♀️

[@MrInuhanyou123]

@@ChloeSunfloraVA hmmm. Im watching you *side eye* just kidding good video lol. Im someone who thinks the exact opposite about fate zero as you do (as it's contradictory to characterizarion and lore of certain characters in wider fate) and also resentful of madokas "impact" on the wider concept of wider mahou shojou magical girl anime. But I still in general respect urobuchi for his writing chops despite his edgelord obsession in his earlier years. It's nice to see these topics by creators I haven't seen before

[@zainmudassir2964]

Hi good video

[@hello-o3i]

18:37

[@DunYappin]

You're a voice actress too?

[@ChloeSunfloraVA]

Hell yeah I am! 💖