I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime

vorduran

The animation quality bugged me more in ep 10 of Dahlia than it had previously, and kept knocking me out of the story.

In particular it was the shadows that were just awful. Shadows would be coming from the right as the characters talked to one another across a table, then it would change perspective to the other person at the table (so a 180 degree turn)... and shadows are still coming from the right, so therefore the light source is completely opposite from 2 seconds ago. This happened time and again, and noticing it just kept me from being able to follow/enjoy the story. And frankly, even why have such drastic shadows anyway? It's not like they were in any way relevant to the story, like showing time of day, or time passing, or anything like that. It was just way too distracting for me.

Anyone else notice this, or am I just being oversensitive?

shyevsa

I have watch I parry everything and not yet read the LN but I enjoy it so far. it kind of dumb tho and there is a lot of point that I cannot stand if it was and LN.

I also have watched Dahlia and it was nice so far. I dropped the LN because the author keep getting those "I pay you back" in every sentence and every character which I can understand but unable to emotionally accept, I mean if I need to keep track of who give me what and what I give to other I better life alone.
but luckily the anime cut down most of that annoying dialog/monolog and making the relationship a bit more acceptable.

@vorduran said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

In particular it was the shadows that were just awful.
Anyone else notice this, or am I just being oversensitive?

I am with you there. the indoor shadow that cut thru half of the character are so distracting.

arghc

@shyevsa said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

In particular it was the shadows that were just awful.
Anyone else notice this, or am I just being oversensitive?

I am with you there. the indoor shadow that cut thru half of the character are so distracting.

Never noticed shadow issues. Am very tired of the window sill with those same leaves on it in the same position, though. At least move them around! Change up the number!

Geezer Weasalopes

Y'all done better than me.
I've only watched the first episode of Dahlia.
Um, no.

NakamiJun

Honestly I'm seriously disappointed in the anime adaptations of all three... Which in part is why I didn't say anything about the three latest episodes...

I Parry Everything is cringy as heck and so hard to watch, just as it was to read. I recall reading book 1 of the LN and ranting to people about it because it physically hurt to read. I'm only really watching to see if it ever stops be super cringy.

Dahlia is animated poorly and they don't seem to understand how to pace it. I'm only still watching it because I loved the LNs... It almost manages to slightly fill my lack of Dahlia LN's to read. Almost. Slightly.

Vtuber Legend is decently faithful, though I have some issues with it's forced 'the real people behind the vtuber don't exist' concept that the LN did not use. Also... I basically stopped watching at the same part I stopped reading the LN's at. The introduction of the Vtuber who wants to be a baby. I find it and her so cringe at that point I can't actually get through any scene involving the girl.

saffire

@NakamiJun said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

Vtuber Legend is decently faithful, though I have some issues with it's forced 'the real people behind the vtuber don't exist' concept that the LN did not use.

The LN absolutely does the same thing. Real names are never, ever used and all images use the avatar models even if they're set in real life.

NakamiJun

@saffire Um... No...? Unless we read different books whenever they met in person they would introduce themselves by their real names. I recall that specifically as it meant I had to remember twice as many names as usual. As a person who has trouble remembering peoples names, it's something I'm very aware of.

kuali

@NakamiJun The LN definitely gave us real names for most of them. I put together a list at once point.

But I think the illustrations are all of the avatars, even when illustrating out-of-character scenes.

NakamiJun

@kuali I never said anything about the illustrations...? I specifically have said (several times) that it bothers me that they skipped naming their 'real lives' in the anime and how they pretend it doesn't exist.

As a vtuber myself, we actually have a bit of an issue with people treating us as if we 'aren't real people' because we use a vtuber model and not our 'real' faces. As if showing your face makes you 'real' or not. It's made less clear when things like Neuro-sama exist. That the anime goes further into pretending RL isn't a thing by never naming their RL or showing them outside their avatar is easily the worst part of the series from my point of view.

kuali

@NakamiJun You didn't, @saffire did. The reply was to you because you were the last person to post - I didn't think I needed to do explicit reply quotes when responding to the two posts immediately above my own.

Lily Garden

@NakamiJun said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

As a vtuber myself, we actually have a bit of an issue with people treating us as if we 'aren't real people' because we use a vtuber model and not our 'real' faces. As if showing your face makes you 'real' or not. It's made less clear when things like Neuro-sama exist. That the anime goes further into pretending RL isn't a thing by never naming their RL or showing them outside their avatar is easily the worst part of the series from my point of view.

I wonder if that has more to do with the Japanese culture side of things. The whole Japanese idol culture part of Vtubing in Japan, a kind of tacit ignoring of the person behind the model. A kind of don’t peek behind the curtain.

Also, I would like to thank you for providing a perspective as a Vtuber yourself, it’s interesting to hear the perspective of someone who is actually in that industry.

saidahgilbert

I finally caught up on VTuber today. Yeah, I agree that they should've included the IRL people in the anime. Some of the most poignant scenes I remember from the books were interactions that happened off-stream. However, I still like the anime. I still had a few laughs here and there and I like what they did for the endings- having a different VA sing them. It reminds me of Monogatari series with each season getting a different theme song sung by the lead VA.

NakamiJun

@Lily-Garden Yes... Idol culture is part of the issue. Especially for corporate vtubers in Japan which are arguably the most popular. Though there are vtubers who stand out on that. Kson, for instance, was once part of Hololive who left and became a dual streamer who does vtuber and live content. Heck she even won that Like a Dragon contest to become one of the characters in the game as her RL identity. I'd also argue that Mori Calliope also tends to bend that line because she still makes content as her original identity... Including going on music tours under that identity. She's one of the few people I can think of with not just one, but two major music careers and that's on top of streaming!

Hopefully things like that will slowly open Japan up to accepting more variation in how 'idol culture' works.

Personally I'm a Indie EN Vtuber, and small enough my VYT page doesn't exist any longer as the requirement to be listed has changed since I was listed. But the expectations of viewers is heavily still based on Japanese influenced content.

saskir

@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

Now excuse me while I go check out the "I Parry Everything" pilot. Once you realize that Noor is supposed to be extremely dense, and that the Adventurer's Giuldmaster is an idiot. It's actually a fairly well written and enjoyable series.

Haha I underline the "Guildmaster is an Idiot" in there.

Mitalma

@NakamiJun I'd say the separation is kind of the whole point. Kizuna Ai's whole thing was pretending to be AI afterall. That said, pretending the real world doesn't exist isn't the right call either. Nekomasu, one of the old kings claim to fame was being a guy who worked at a convenience store IRL and learned how to make his own model to become a virtual youtuber.
You shouldn't need to blend the character and the actor together to acknowledge that there's still a real person behind it all.

NakamiJun

Man... Just watched I Parry Everything episode 11... And... I think it's still just to absurd for me. The ending was heartwarming, but... The stupidity in the difference between Noor and literally everyone elses opinion of reality is downright painful to watch.

@Mitalma said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

You shouldn't need to blend the character and the actor together to acknowledge that there's still a real person behind it all.

While true that that's the way things should work... It's still a fact of life. The Japanese trend to play a character and the Japanese idol culture combine to make it harder. Even in the US or 'EN' market. One of the most successful EN vtubers of all time who breaks streaming records is Iron Mouse and even she gets asked things like 'are you a real person?' and she gives them a verbal smackdown. Mousie is a more typical EN example of a vtuber who is basically just themselves with 'lore' that we play on.

Outinthegardener

Episode 11 of Dahlia was a breath of fresh air, showing Dahlia and Volf getting closer in a natural and unrushed way. But as one of the season's highlights, it was a 6/10 episode. It just feels good by comparison to all the mid. I can forgive poor animation if it doesn't hinder the story. Fumbling with the setup and themes of the story is disappointing.

Vtuber, for me, has dropped the more interesting metacommentary about "virtual identity" and devolved into... scripted Vtubing. It still has some interesting things to say about culture, with the cast being way over-the-top of what's acceptable. TV being a spectacle and all. But it's lost track of the spontaneity streams can have. Like a reality TV show that can't hide how over-edited the events are.

I still find the humor mostly funny, but that quality is subjective. If one doesn't find "I'm drunk and saying SEX" or "I'm a baby wah" funny the show doesn't do much, and the characters don't feel like they have authentic relationships with each other. More like stage banter in between songs.

NakamiJun

I don't know... I just decided to stop reading Seventh (which had long sat on my list of 'to read') and reread Dahlia... And Dahlia is (mostly) just so good... I watched episode 11 this morning and it's luke warm at best...

It's just so clear they didn't understand the story. Comparing the two, the book has a lot of depth, but as a mostly non-visual media and some things do drag. The anime in contrast really does treat the book as if it was to wordy and 'needs to get to the point'... But clearly has lost the point most of the time to make this a romance.... But Romance is very extremely subtle in Dahlia and the visuals usually don't even live up to what one would hope from that.

Edit: So I just finished Dahlia book 1 this morning and near the end is a scene the anime basically skipped about how neither Dahlia or Volf is all that interested in a relationship and it struck me how subtle their relationship actually does build. Even by book 8 neither will admit to themselves they have feelings that fit a relationship with the other. Outwardly they both keep themselves totally platonic while inwardly asking 'what if?'.

Though the Anime did remind me that the one outstanding mystery of Dahlia is about her mom's family and why she never returned to her dad after giving birth to Dahlia...

NakamiJun

So... I just watched Dahlia episode 12... It jumps right to the third or fourth part of LN #3! Ironically I just read that part earlier this morning, but that meant they skipped past the scene at the graveyard, the unicorn necklace being given to the soap dispenser craftsman's wife, multiple times with them hanging out... Geez... It skipped like nearly a half a book... x.x

And even though the do the creeping sword part, a significant part of the scene is changed relating to events we don't get to see... And to top it off... Rather than the sword 'crawling' like some kind of snake... It just kinda vibrates around...

Then they introduce a complete new (because I don't remember a scene with a rainbow serpent scale) romance scene of Dahlia and Volf at a noble party dancing... Only then do they backtrack to the scene of Ivano and Gabriella talking about the requirements if Volf and Dahlia wanted to get together... Inserting Dahlia into the first part of the scene... And then backtrack further into the dinner with Dahlia, Irma, and her hubby... And for some reason add Lucia to it...?!? Only to finally (for some reason) have the graveyard scene...

Sigh It just drives home the point that the team for the anime didn't understand Dahlia... Though it makes sense to end on the Graveyard scene it misses so much of the prep work that it feels weird.

arghc

@NakamiJun said in I Parry Everything, Dahlia in Bloom, & Vtuber Legend Anime:

So... I just watched Dahlia episode 12... It jumps right to the third or fourth part of LN #3! Ironically I just read that part earlier this morning, but that meant they skipped past the scene at the graveyard, the unicorn necklace being given to the soap dispenser craftsman's wife, multiple times with them hanging out... Geez... It skipped like nearly a half a book... x.x

The scenes without Dahl and Volf together are pretty few and far between in the anime.

And even though the do the creeping sword part, a significant part of the scene is changed relating to events we don't get to see... And to top it off... Rather than the sword 'crawling' like some kind of snake... It just kinda vibrates around...

I figured it would "crawl" by vibrating. It is still a solid metal object, after all. The LN does give the impression of more... volition? directionality?

Then they introduce a complete new (because I don't remember a scene with a rainbow serpent scale)

Yeah, pretty sure that's an invention. Volf would have found a new one for her by now if it wasn't. 8-)

romance scene of Dahlia and Volf at a noble party dancing... Only then do they backtrack to the scene

The noble dance is also an invention, altho certainly a plausible thing for their future. However, I doubt Dahlia would be surprised if Volf came over and escorted her to the dance floor.

And for some reason add Lucia to it...?!?

To be fair, including Lucia does make things better. I wonder if Lucia's "workshop" is her atelier, though?

Sigh It just drives home the point that the team for the anime didn't understand Dahlia... Though it makes sense to end on the Graveyard scene it misses so much of the prep work that it feels weird.

Volf just mentioning the harpy battle was very disappointing, not to mention the still image montage of the dinner party and the reappearance of the window sill leaves (plus the top of the Green Tower shot) makes me think they're having budget issues or are just lazy?!? 8-)