I read about the first dozen or so chapters from the translated Manga, but while I loved the storytelling (and the Arwen parallels) it was a bit too slow moving to hook me. Maybe I’ll go back and read more or watch the anime. I like some “slow life” stories as well, and it’s thematically significant, again, just didn’t hook me.
As for Mr.Beast, I first heard of them via their many issues and legal challenges from LegalEagle:
I’m not equipped to judge the person in question, and there is possibly some bias from the content creator, but that and some of the non-stop Amazon ads made me uninterested in any further examination. But I didn’t respond in the thread in question because I don’t care enough (in either direction) to bother.
I just wanted to chime in and agree that Frieren is really good. If you like fantasy stories and anime, watch it.
It’s very “Dungeons and Dragons” adjacent (especially since there are parties of adventurers of mixed classes going on adventures), and has decent humor, but good writing and some very sober subject matter to it. It’s a really good example of the genre.
Do you remember which one? If someone tells me, “I know nothing about anime but I’ve heard Studio Ghibli is highly rated,” I recommend Porco Rosso. It still has fantastic elements but is a more linear plot that westerners expect than some of the other offerings.
Personally I like the threads where Dopers brag about not knowing something. It is a breath of fresh air compared to all the rest of the threads where us Dopers brag about knowing everything.
That reminds of way back when I was younger and dating. Invariably, I would meet a girl who LOVED Stephen King. They would ask me if I had read so and so book. I would say, sorry no, I’m not that much of a fan. To which they would reply, ‘Oh, if you haven’t read [their favorite], you really can’t judge’.
This happened more than you might imagine - always with a different recommendation.
I’m pretty sure it was Spirited Away. I have no quarrel with those who praise it – and after all, director Hayao Miyazaki won an Oscar for it – but it just didn’t hold my attention. My quarrel is with those who demand that everyone share their artistic values and who ridicule those who don’t, whose cultural milieu might not even include knowledge of some of the artists that those critics worship as gods. With the exception of objectively useless crap, culture is a very broad space with room for many tastes.
I like that movie but it is a bit slower-paced. I totally understand that. They’ve made 22 movies, and they vary quite a bit. They even have a film based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series.
My favorite of their movies is Princess Mononoke. The English dub has an outstanding cast, including Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton, Keith David, Minnie Driver, Claire Danes, and so on. The story itself is pretty action-packed and fun. (Neil Gaiman wrote the English script for the dub; it was originally offered to Quentin Tarantino, but he passed and suggested Gaiman.)
