>>122119
No, she doesn't. You should watch it for many other reasons, though. I hope someone here watches Undead Unluck as a result of my 150 posts about it

>>122123
>Clerics in particular are a super D&D thing,
It's literally biblical.

>>122128
Spellcasting isn't biblical.

>>122130
Miracles are acts of God, not caused by mere incantations. Clerics also have a reusable pool of magical power that's totally different from divine grace.

>>122131
>not caused by mere incantations.
And the same is true for DnD clerics. They call for the power of their gods.
(in fact, through bad writing the same is true for wizards, they all get their power from the goddess of magic)

>>122132
Then why do casters have limited powers if every higher being is constantly agreeing with them?

>>122133
Don't ask me how exactly the lore works. I never read the actual rule books. I only played games and talked about those with other players.

If you've ever played Baldur's Gate though, you may remember Viconia, who lost all her spellcasting powers when she disobeyed Lolth and would have died if not for the sacrifice of her brother.

>>122134
Well, there you have the difference: gods in D&D give you a measurable automatically-refilling power source for you to do whatever you want with as long as they're okay with you as a person without giving much mind to limited individual actions, but that's not how miracles work. In the Bible, or at least according to Christians, miracles happen because God decided to either intervene directly or less directly with the Holy Spirit acting through something or someone, you can't call upon God to help you anytime because grace is unearned and undeserved, a gift by a loving father. Working harder or achieving more things won't grant it to you, as per Ephesians 2:8-9:
>For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith
>—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
>not by works, so that no one can boast.
Whereas clerics and paladins REQUIRE devotion and work to obtain their powers in the first place, the biblical God can act through whoever He wants whenever He wants and it's a fleeting thing. In RPGs characters also grow stronger and learn more spells by earning experience as time passes, but God doesn't ever use spells, slots, or mana, he can do anything limitlessly, and Elijah doesn't need to carry around a spellbook with Revivify in it.
For a comparison with polytheism and how it differs there too there's this video that includes the matter of veneration and priesthood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3DgX78Qi_c

>>122123
> The former is only a mockery
Mockery wasn't the best word for the comparison of orcs and demons. Speaking strictly from what I've seen in the anime, demons are a reflection of elves, similar to how orcs are a reflection of elves. In Frieren demons and elves are actually quite similar, with their main differences being an inherent malevolence towards humans and presence of horns vs pointy ears. Both species dedicate their long lives to honing a particular skill and generally have detached, almost apathetic, views towards humans. Notably elves in both settings serve to guide humans towards future in which humanity is the ruler of the world; while orcs and demons are directly opposed to this view and seek to create a world in which there respective leaders are in charge (Morgoth/Sauron and The Demon King respectively).
Frieren does lack the more intentional moral reasoning for demon creation but the Demon King and demons serve a similar role that Morgoth/Sauron and orcs play in the Tolkien; as ancient, evil creatures opposed to elves and the "rise of man".

>All in all there are commonalities, but that's because all of fantasy as we know it originates with Tolkien
With respect to your discussion of Dark Lords earlier, I think it's important to note that Dark Lords in a lot of Japanese media do still have a passing resemblance to Sauron but like you said they are not really like Sauron upon closer inspection. The lack of Christian influence and meta physical evil in the Dark Lords' character says something about what the culture/author considers important about the story.

I appreciate the bits of history and chronological context, I don't really read but it seems like i should atleast watch the Lodoss adaptation to get some context of Japanese fantasy.

>>122136
Ahhhh, a mirror image. Alright, alright, that makes much more sense, yeah, I can see that.
>says something about what the culture/author considers important about the story
To be fair, the Encyclopedia of Fantasy in its entry on DARK LORD states that "DLs are frequently rooted in whatever political or religious figures happened to be worrying readers at the time" (interestingly Paul Atreides matches this) but that of Sauron's meaning and actions "much genre fantasy simply copies this." So really, more like what worried Tolkien, and inherited by those that came afterwards.
>seems like i should atleast watch the Lodoss adaptation
Super recommended as a historical thing, I've seen Frieren repeatedly described as Lodoss Afterstory. Eisen's grandpa is in it.

BY THE WAY CHECK OUT THIS BEAUTIFUL ENTRY ON GENRE FANTASY FROM 1997 ABSOLUTE GOLD

>>122135
>a measurable automatically-refilling power source for you to do whatever you want with as long as they're okay with you as a person
No, that is not quite right. They feed you power constantly. When Bhaal was dead, people were legitimately surprised that his clerics continued to receive power from him.
It's probably more like how the internet works. All users can access an internet forum. But that does not mean that the website is on everybody's computers. It's just automatically accessible so long as you have an internet connection, the correct address, and haven't gotten your account banned for misconduct.
The idea that specific individuals are more divinely empowered than others is also strongly implied by the grouping of the miracles towards a small group of miracle workers (and in fact, Judea had a concept of prophets and healers. Later, during the middle ages, Christians continued to follow this idea and had actual fights over the possession of certain holy remains that they were sure had miraculous properties.

>but God doesn't ever use spells, slots, or mana,
That's just complaining about the fact that DnD is a game.

>>122149
Well, akshually, vancian magic is older than D&D. The memorization of spells and their usage through slots as ammunition was first written about in The Dying Earth, a novel which faced none of the limitations of being a game:
>Turjan closed the book, forcing the spell back into oblivion. He robed himself with a short cape, tucked a blade into his belt, fitted the amulet holding Laccodel’s Rune to his wrist. Then he sat down and from a journal chose the spells he would take with him. What dangers he might meet he could not know, so he selected three spells of general application: the Excellent Prismatic Spray, Phandal’s Mantle of Stealth, and the Spell of the Slow Hour.
Then after using it the spell goes poof and you have to re-memorize it again later. The fact that God doesn't use prepared spells is of great importance, because neither does Gandalf or any faerie or daimon of auld, but Goblin Slayer's Priestess and Frieren do, with accompanying finite energy sources that the previous set lacks. This is a specific kind of spellcasting that Vance formulated with his mixture of sci-fi and fantasy and didn't exist prior to that, and D&D makes it weirder by going from Vance's world of scientific wizardry as the sole source of power to a setting where all these different sources of magic coexist.

Now, God's grace itself is indivisible (or at least so has a Catholic told me), that's why every fragment of the True Cross has miraculous healing powers that are not proportional to their size, they don't scale. Relics like that do appear in the bible serving as further evidence that God acted through them and thus post-mortem miracles are a requirement for the canonization of a saint. That certain people are closer to God is one of the principles behind intercession, so explains the Catechism that:
>956 The intercession of the saints. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus . . . . So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."
But it's always up to God, everything down to the smallest detail, they cannot use this closeness to coerce him or the like. The fact that clerics can continue to use magic even after Bhaal's death does set a difference there because all miracles are acts of God, by God, not of the associated person, it reinforces that the fantasy deity is a source rather than an actor. The internet is not a person either, while God is.

>>122156
I will concede that DnD clerics are not literally biblical but merely inspired by the bible.
We also have to make allowance for the fact that DnD is in fact polytheistic. While there is an entity that is supposed to be the stand-in for God (being called AO), the gods that people interact with are not omnipotent, are not omnipresent and are certainly not omniscient. They trust their agents to do the right thing in their names.

>>122158
Did not mean to sage with the second post.

>>122158
Exactly, that's why I'd rather describe it as a deposit more than anything else. Its gods aren't able to keep up with all of their followers like an omni-ist deity would.

The climax of the OP of Sengoku Youko looks really beautiful. It's hard to compete with the other stuff that was airing, but it's worth mentioning that it looks great, too. The more impactful moments of the story definitely have an extra notch of quality to them.
I've watched the first 12 seconds at the beginning of this clip so many times, the music and the visuals are just so good.
I wonder what will look amazing in Spring?

the lainteens

Precure Allstars F didn't really have much of a story, but the visuals were really good. The scenery in the SoL-y parts was especially beautiful.

>>122397
Well, SoL-y is the wrong term to use. The happy parts? The uhh... casual? My brain can't seem to function.
Anyway, I wanted to upload more of the finale but there's just too much animation and I'd have to upload 4 files that are a minute each and it would be 120mb. So instead here is the last minute of the finale. Spoilery in the sense that you'll know what it looks like, but not spoilery in the sense that it follows every other villain-of-the-week formula.

WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE?
Ah, I just realized I kept the subs in. Well, it takes 10 minute for my CPU to 'search' for the part of the video to encode so I don't want to do it again.

I think the biggest issue Dungeon Meshi has is that it's an ADHD test to see if you can stick with it and separate the subtle movements of the plot in the first half from the movements of other foodporn bores. 13 episodes in and there's been a major development for both the goals of the cast and the dungeon itself. The anime is showing itself (in plain daylight now) to be far more than what you'd expect of a typical cooking anime, yet there are still those that dropped it in the beginning turning their nose to it for being tricked by the facade.

Even then, I think the facade portion of the anime was played well enough on its own to have been one of the better foodporns in the genre. Especially given that it had more dungeoning and adventure than 95% do. Kinda funny how the painting episode which I thought was just a really well done one-off session turned out to be so much more integral to the story than I ever expected. I wonder if Laios really was able to make a mark on the history of the dungeon by entering into those paintings or if the lunatic magician just resides a portion of his conscious in them. Hmmmm

>>122626
Yes, making the first several episodes nothing but boring foodporn is an excellent way to ensure that only people who want boring foodporn are still watching when you stop being boring foodporn. Truly a genius strategy.

>>122627
One could say the author was simply pretending to be retarded

>>122626
>>122627
Yes, it's something that seems average and quirky at first glance with its topic about cuisine, but gets a lot more interesting later on as noted by me in: >>121760
Anime is affected too much by first impressions and the "3 ep rule" thing. It's also a lot harder to progress through an anime's history than it is to progress through a manga history.

New OP is a lot better than the first one by the way. Just started watching it. The first OP did not help with trying not to make the show seem monotonous.

>>122627
The heavier themes were always present, they were just pushed out of mind of the party so that they could trudge along and not fall into despair at the overbearing task in front of them which was descending into the depths of the dungeon and taking on a dragon with a ragtag party of 4 adventurers with a limited supply of goods and a limited amount of time.

>>122634
That's a meaningless point. A story's theme's are determined by what the author gives focus.
Even if an anime declares at the beginning of the story that the world is ending, say, with a rolling text before the first episode of K-On!, that alone doesn't make the setting of K-On! apocalyptic. It's still the same series, except with an odd opening.
Fantasy series routinely deal with technically very dark stuff, but they tend to focus on the heroic aspect of it all because that's usually what the readers are there for. If we for instance learn that war is terrible, it's commonly in a montage where the hero emotes about the senseless loss of life, before the story moves on, in much lighter tones.

This is not a criticism of Dungeon Meshi.

>>122632
>the "3 ep rule" thing.
Exists specifically to counter how often anime give false first impressions. Grabbing the audience is a necessity even in forms of media where the audience only has to show up once, like movies or some games. If you can't do something interesting in an hour of screentime, an audience that values their time will leave.

>>122634
Have heavy themes doesn't make something entertaining or interesting. Even after 150 chapters of getting invested in the characters and wanting to see them succeed, I was barely able to keep forcing myself through the slew of 3-gatsu cooking chapters because it's horribly boring even if it does serve a narrative purpose (though not enough to justify the amount of time spent on it).

I remember that riiight when it came out and I posted >>118166 I was feeling rather ehhh combined with how I do think a majority of tabletop-based fantasy either doesn't manage to be as interesting as or doesn't elicit as strong a response as a good gaming experience, or just /tg/ stories really. It's much more impactful when I'm the one without spell slots trying to run the fuck away. I wouldn't have paid any attention to DM if its reputation didn't precede it, and I still think that's a bad sign, but I have a fairly more positive view of it now.

Now, it's not exactly MiA as I compared it to then but from early on the details it put into its food autism gave the hints of a worldbuilding that, although it may seem generic, is far more thought out than most fantasyland fiction and constantly relevant to the plot. The one that's really stuck with me is the rainbow ice cream made from impromptu holy water and the chills of dispelled specters. Or its thoroughness in rebuilding the bone structure of everything the dragon had digested before carrying out a resurrection using its entrails. That's special, that's unique, a great mix of what it has going for it. But the episode when it's Chilchuck getting trapped in a room figuring out how to get out, not so much. What I hope it'll do now that it's getting super serious is continue to rely on this worldbuilding, like it happened in today's episode with its twist on a practice that's been well established and the goodwill you'd typically expect from it. They're introducing a lot more characters too, but I haven't seen anyone voice displeasure over it so I expect it to work out. Pretty nice stuff. (I also did just heavily spoil myself by looking at fanart and I gotta say it looks cool.)

How do you feel about 3D cars?
It's kind of weird to think how it's become noteworthy to have 2D cars; it's something I actively noticed in Astro Note. Although the "car" is 2D here you can tell that they kind of resisted moving the camera around much since it's extra work.
As a whole I don't really care that much about vehicles being 3D. Of course I'd prefer them to be 2D since they look far better, but I guess if corners are going to be cut somewhere then I think cars are possibly the least offensive things to skimp on. It's a bunch of straight lines and they're not particularly expressive if the story isn't centered on them. It kind of extends to mechanical stuff, too, like the weapon here. In 3D modeling there's two main branching paths that people specialize in and hard surfaces for man-made stuff is separate from natural things. Organic material is far more nuanced for reasons that are probably obvious.

I think it's also worth mentioning that Astro Note has a nice style to it. An anime original with a great retro-ish cartoony look. The dog in particular is very fun.

>>123800
God, that looks terrible. Even the animated parts feel static. Nothing interacts with anything else.
The wheels turn into rockets, while the car's motion is perfectly monotonous.
Girl is sitting perfectly still while her cube turns into a massive gun.

this is cheap as shit.

>>123803
Do you have an opinion on what I said in the post itself? I even mentioned that the camera is static because they didn't want to "animate" a car. It's very much not an action show so it's kind of surprising they tried at all, and without a 3D car as well, but they did.
Dealing with "this is shit, that is shit, the thing you like is shit, everything is shit" people is exhausting when people actually want to discuss things.

>>123804
>Do you have an opinion on what I said in the post itself?
Sorry, I just skipped past that initially.
I don't really feel very purist about the 2D/3D thing. I prefer when the final product looks like a single thing, rather than a bad mesh of handdrawn animation and CGI. But other than that preference, I think that animators should use CGI wherever they think it is appropriate.
>It's very much not an action show so it's kind of surprising they tried at all,
I would argue that they did not.
Ignoring the short lane-change maneuvering thing, I am not complaining about bad animation. The clip's defining feature is the lack of animation.

I am not demanding explosions here, or high-speed action. I am asking for the animated objects to visibly respond to stimuli.

This most recent Mushoku Tensei episode (video has no story but it's spoilery if you don't want to see a battle) reminded me that the first season actually had a lot of nice stuff like this. The past 30 episodes have been just a lot of talking with occasional action, so it makes me wonder what the next season will be like.
The CG hydra wasn't bad, either. I'd prefer 2D, but at least it's not terribly offensive. Still needs work, so maybe Yostar could help with that or whoever it was that did the Trigun remake.

>>129042
Does this part have something to do with his mum? Is this where they found where his mum is and are now going to rescue her?

>>129043
Yes and yes. That particular subplot concluded with that episode.

>>129045
Have watched only the first season of the anime. Good to see no drop in quality despite reaching over 30 episodes. Seeing how far they've come, they might actually really animate the whole LN; honestly, didn't think they'd actually do it when I watched the first season. Probably should watch the anime myself now...

>>129047
Just remember what I said about them talking. This last episode stands out because it reminded me of the first season when so many other episodes didn't. When people were voting for this in the seasonal stream a few people (including myself) were more voting on the potential it could be rather than what it currently was.
As for the subject of the thread, It didn't look bad, it just... didn't really have a lot of stuff to show. Here is Rudy talking here, and now he's talking here, and now they're talking over there.

>>129050
Don't remember the LN as vividly, but I don't think it was action packed itself. Besides, (i think) with shows like this it's more so about the characters than the action scenes, although they are appreciated.

This season has some very pretty shows. Will they be remembered as the best anime ever? Probably not, but few are. But, it's a visual medium and these visuals are very good!
I think it's safe to say that Nige Jouzu No Wakagimi is in the lead for the best looking show this season. They're basically showing off. It's not like there's just 2 or 3 moments like this in an episode, they're sprinkled around quite liberally. And even when there's not beautiful motion like this, just the direction of the movement like scene transitions is phenomenal.

Oshi No Ko is a show that is extremely beautiful and visually interesting despite its rather mundane subject matter of teenagers being pop stars or theater actors. This is just a couple of guys doing sword fight on stage and yet..

Well, they really outdid themselves in the episode 6 climax. Needs more Kana, though.
This show and the samurai one are the clearly the most visually spectacular shows this season. There are some other shows that are quite pretty, but these two really stand apart.

And one of the other shows is one I mentioned during its first season... Sengoku Youko! I really love the colors and style and at times it has similar surreal visuals due to the subject matter of otherworldly creatures and gods. I'm such a sucker for this kind of thing. Objectively I can say that it doesn't have the budget of the other two as the beautiful scenes are punctuated by fairly normal talking scenes, but it's still very beautiful.

Kissu is a site the is extremely beutiful and visuall interesting despite it's rather mundane matter of adults being blog stars or content creators. This is just a post of a guy doing a sword fight with another poster and yet...

well, kissu really outdid itself in the >>132313 climax. Needs more vermin, though.
This board and the japanese one are clearely the most spectacular imageboards on the net. There are some other boards that are quite neat, but these two stand appart

>>132313
Cool.

>>132314
Bit.

>>132352
That's really incredible. I have to admit that I felt disappointed to see the 3D horses (I think I already said that) but if it was a sacrifice they made since horses are apparently a major pain to animate then I guess it's tolerable when you take the anime as a whole.
They seem to have themes for each villain, like the eye guy's bizarre close-ups remind me of Ren and Stimpy and this most recent episode reminded me of classic Disney.
HEY YOU DELETED THE POST

>>131257
Turns out they actually used physical paper for that flat segment in the last episode. It's a surprising amount of effort and thought put into those thirty seconds of animation, especially for something that is anime-original. In the manga it's one shot of him running with narration around it. Alongside that we had Takauji's massacre, all the ear weirdness, and Genba's fight with the radar duo. In fact, a ton of the visuals are wholly original and comparing this episode to volume 2 is like night and day.
All his jumping around is adapted from a single panel, and the purple ring of fire is hardly even implied when you look at how small the fire is. Same for the mass beheading that's only a bunch of heads casually flying upwards. But also things like Genba sitting on his web of ropes or acrobatically transitioning from the party to the assassination of Takauji. Even just the radar background behind the ear/eye pair. Fucking insane adaptation.
>>132298
>despite its rather mundane subject matter of teenagers being pop stars or theater actors
I wouldn't truly call it mundane, as certainly the things that take place are rarer than something like Yuru Camp, Slow Loop, or any other themed CGDCT you can think of. Past that, it's not like a grounded story directly equates to regular visuals, as Tatami Galaxy is really out there for an anime about a guy living through his college years (granted, that's Yuasa). There was a lot of heightened emotion here to match the guy's state and it was entirely fitting, that's what it makes it powerful.

>>132353
'Twas raw, I forgot to make half of the reply and there was a sentence I hadn't even finished writing.
>horses are apparently a major pain to animate
Man, I wonder how Steel Ball Run is going to turn out. Half of the manga takes place on horseback or besides a horse and frequently with at least half a dozen of them, they are central to the story.
>They seem to have themes for each villain, like the eye guy's bizarre close-ups remind me of Ren and Stimpy and this most recent episode reminded me of classic Disney.
The next one isn't going to be as cartoonish, believe me.

>>132300
Posting in this thread again to say how much I love Sengoku Youko.
It's just so pretty and a treat to look at. It's hard to describe since I think the other shows might have better "direction", but Sengoku just looks more appealing to me somehow.
There's such a great variety of themes with all sorts of brilliant colors! Clips don't do it justice because while other shows go to 11 for 20 seconds (sakuga or whatever) and then hang around at 6, this one has a far more leveled approach.
I'm also reminded that it's the same studio that did Utawarerumono 2 and 3, and unlike those this one got a proper budget. (sigh)

>>132677
To demonstrate the variety I mentioned, this is in the same episode.

I think Atri deserves mention as being another good-looking show, but this time centered on the character and facial animations! From a VN source where each character had a few portraits to this is quite the leap I'd say. Best faces of the season, although you need to go frame-by-frame to appreciate some of them.
I don't know what it did to get such a fantastic adaptation, but it's very nice.