I dunno if you can call Darling in the Franxx "less popular". At least in my circles it seems like a hugely popular work. A lot of people like it but I do consider it a bit of a waifu-trash anime, lol. So I didn't think it was as critically good writing as the other stuff I listed.
Kinznaiver is on the less popular side. As is BNA (Brand New Animal). The Tokusatsu community seems to like the SSSS.(Gridman/Dynazenon) anime, but arguably taking the Gridman name makes them more into Tokusatsu than the anime community anyway.
I had not heard of it until a month or two ago and yeah parts of it were definitely a bit cringe in the classic anime fashion but I liked the story and art style overall.
It's really hard to take an anime seriously when the girls outfits have butt handles. Darling in the Franxx got a lot of attention, but a lot of that was the meme crowd have a field day with it.
Not really everyone watches anime "seriously", you can watch them in a more light-hearted way. I'm a big fun of Kill la Kill really because of how silly and over the top it is, same for the second season of JoJo.
I actually liked KLK, even with the sometimes extreme levels of fanservice. I think the thing that made KLK work for me is how it was both a love letter and at the same time a direct challenge to the cosplay community.
Franxx however tossed me out when the robots are controlled by dry humping teenagers. There's a level of pandering at which I just couldn't take it anymore.
So you whine that Franxx has girl outfits with "butt handles", but then you like Kill la Kill, an anime that is so unapologetically about fan service. Actually funny.
Sorry to intrude into this discussion but... Franxx is a different level than Kill la Kill.
Have you seen the two shows? I know if you've only seen Kill la Kill where the BDSM "Disciplinary Captain" gets power from whipping himself, it sounds like things can't get any more hypersexualized, but somehow Franxx made it more awkward than Kill la Kill ever made it.
A big problem is that the romance / dating aspects of Darling in the Franxx were front and center, so the characters are supposed to have sexual attraction / romantic feelings for each other. So somehow all these sex-jokes just landed differently / in a totally different context than Kill la Kill's more joke-heavy style.
Somehow its different when the characters involved are "seriously" romantically involved with one another. Because now we as the audience are seriously considering the implications of these positions or sex-jokes / whatever.
I think you've expressed it perfectly. Both KLK and Franxx are fanservice heavy, but Franxx made it awkward and uncomfortable to watch. To be fair, there are some parts of KLK that go beyond as well, but they don't appear until later in the series. Franxx put it front and center in the first episode.
I wasn't totally sold on it for the first ~4 episodes or so. I especially didn't like Marcille's role in it.
However, from around episode 5 onward, it started getting REALLY good.
I think the thing I appreciate the most of DiD is that it really feels grounded in its setting. Every character and detail feels like it connects and is a part of a cohesive setting. There's a lot of anime that isn't like that.
It also has a good sense of tone. It knows when to take things seriously and when to cut loose and joke and balances those two fairly well.
It's willing to have some slower and calmer sections which I like. (Though IMO I'd like even more)
It's unfortunate to say this, but it's basically one of the only good anime I've seen in maybe a decade. Most of the stuff out there is so terrible...
> It's unfortunate to say this, but it's basically one of the only good anime I've seen in maybe a decade. Most of the stuff out there is so terrible...
A lot of the shows that get meme'd to top status are pretty terrible at writing. The top shows are more about drawing style + music rather than contemplating the story.
The strongest "story" shows of the 2014 through 2024 decade are:
* Ranking of Kings
* The Promised Neverland S1 (S2 drops the ball but at least finishes the story).
* I actually have a softspot for Studio Trigger's "Little Witch Academia" (2017), an innocent school-setting / slice of life. Its probably my favorite Studio Trigger work actually (Gurren Lagaan is their best stuff ever IMO, but that was done when the team was still technically Gainax). I would argue the "techno-witch" Croix Meridies, who serves as the antagonist (with her "break tradition, embrace technology") has aged well as we moved from 2017 into 2024. The focus on tradition from the protagonists (and Shiny Chariot + her motif of the North Star) vs technology+progress (Led by Croix Meridies, obviously a riff on the Southern Cross / South Astronomy) is a simple, but relevant, debate. Nothing outright villainous but instead is a lower-stakes debate appropriate for the setting, and I bet it will be a timeless story moving forward.
Its Studio Trigger however, so expect things to get kicked up a notch as the ending arc comes about. But the bulk of the storytellilng / philosophical debate is well thought out and likely timeless.
* OddTaxi
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I'm slowly going through what many have considered were thoughtful anime of the past decade, but I haven't actually finished these yet.
* Sonny Boy
* Rascal does not dream of Bunny Girl sempai
* I'm surprised by "Toilet Bound Hanako-kun" and need to see where its going. Genre-aware ghost trying to help the main character is... actually fun. And the characters were deeper than they were letting on.
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I know everyone likes Frieren these days, which I do consider anime of the year. But I purposefully am leaving it off the list for "top of the last decade". I do think other shows have deeper stories / better thought out characters than Frieren (even if Frieren is above-average compared to typical popular shows). Frieren being the best of the popular shows is quite different from best thought-out overall.
I admit that I haven't seen any "Delicious in Dungeon" yet. Maybe its good, but that will have to wait and see until I get a chance to watch it.
Ranking of Kings is definitely up there, I like both frieren and bojji but I think ousama ranking lacks is "human touch" feeling frieren has in terms of intensity and waifu << this is important imo because bojji is child with superpower physical at the end of the show making it more disconnect from viewer compared to elf that study thousand years
Apparently there's a lot of anime about Rakigo these days. I'm not so cultured to follow the details, but I get that it's a traditional comedy / storytelling style from Japan.
You might enjoy it if you're after thoughtful story-driven shows from the last decade. It's on my personal mental shortlist of those right alongside ODDTAXI and Ousama. Knowledge of rakugo is definitely not required.
I watched the beginning of Delicious in Dungeon.
Interesting weird and funny concept, but seemed too shallow and I do not like the overly dramatic anoying way of talking, or rather screaming all the time by the female character (I know it is characteristic to some Anime). But if there is an actual story to be found, I might have to give it another shot..
There is a story and decentish world building. It's just slow. Most of it happens from off handed comments the characters make. It's there! I can understand not wanting to watch 3 hours of anime to get background information though.
Are they actually still working on Delicious in Dungeon? The last episode in season 1 comes out this week, and I've been looking for confirmation that another season is coming but to no avail so far.
"Gainax Bounce" and "Gainaxing" just had a flow to them, though. The world just won't be the same if we have to rename them... "Trigger Bounce" and "Triggering" draw up very different images.
Edit: So, I wanted to check the discussion/history page to see when/why it was removed. Both need a login, and I can't create an account with a disposable address... Feels pretty suspicious.
I have an EE degree. Trigger bounce is a real thing.
But it's not an EE thing, it has to do with a firearm malfunctioning in a way such that a normally semi-automatic firearm fires more than once per trigger press, due to some internals on the trigger that I'm forgetting about / don't know about.
Now that I put my EE hat on though, there is a significant parallel to "switch bounce", which is an EE thing.
Assuming it's the same thing as hammer follow, it's usually caused by a worn disconnector or hammer.
The disconnector prevents the hammer from moving forward until the trigger is pressed again (semi-auto) or the gun is in battery (full auto, closed bolt). I suspect open-bolt guns don't have one, but I've never looked at the trigger group of an open-bolt gun so can't be sure.
Aoki Uru will never get made and even if Top o Nerae 3 gets made, one can consider TRIGGER's entire early catalogue and Gurren Lagann spiritual sequels of sorts already.
And that's it for any of GAINA's projects that have been announced 5 years ago now that might have given a hint of them carrying GAINAX's torch.
Gainax has a long history of financial follies despite having created one of the most successful anime in history.