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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Long rant:

    spoiler

    As someone who prefers the FMA 2003 series, I have to offer a counterargument to the notion that Brotherhood is the “canon” series. The manga published from 2001-2010.
    FMA 2003 aired from 2003-2004.
    FMA Brotherhood aired from 2009-2010.

    I really consider the 2003 series to be the original story. From 2004 until 2010, there was no such thing as a “canon ending to FMA” other than what was in the 2003 series. It was finished and packed away years before the manga approached its ending. I don’t have a source for this, but I even remember reading somewhere that Hiromu Arakawa made changes to the manga inspired by some anime-original content that she liked. There’s not really a “standard set by the manga”. Rather, 2003 is what set that standard.

    You could also question what “canon” even means. Like, the events of the 2009 anime are obviously canon within the 2009 anime; the events of the 2003 anime are canon within the 2003 anime; and the events of the manga are canon within the manga. You can search up a list of differences between Brotherhood and the manga pretty easily, and even find ways in which 2003 is a much more faithful adaptation of the early manga than Brotherhood. It’s not like there’s a single continuity of canon events that defines Fullmetal Alchemist, there’s clearly three. Arakawa also requested that the 2003 anime would have an original ending, so it’s not like it’s contrary to the vision of the author, either.

    Last point, but I would also disagree that Brotherhood has higher production quality. FMA 2003 had much better background art, never resorted to cost-saving use of 3D models, and I prefer the character designs and lighting. Other than that, there’s not really any big differences in style/animation. I was going to paste in a bunch of sakugabooru links but really the series look pretty similar in action scenes. A lot of boring action lines, but a lot of good dynamic shots, too. Brotherhood never has anything really stunning though, like the ballroom scene from the end of 2003.

    tl;dr, FMA 2003 is pretty good, too. It’s kinda misleading to call it non-canon when it was the original completed story. I’d also argue that the 2003 version had better production value in terms of visual style/animation. It’s definitely worth watching, at least.


  • In response to your section on pronouns:

    As you identify, it’s useful to have multiple different pronoun sets to refer to different people to reduce ambiguity when speaking and writing.

    We could hypothetically base these categories on anything: we could have one set pronouns each for men and women, but we could also set that dividing line somewhere else. Maybe we use one set of pronouns for family and a different set for non-family. Maybe the dividing line is rich/poor. Dog person / cat person. Personality type. Horoscope. Favorite color. Color they’re currently wearing. How recently they entered the conversation.

    Some of these sound pretty reasonable and others sound really useless. A gender-based pronoun has problems, but it’s useful in that it’s often a useful differentiator between any two random people. This wouldn’t be the case for a hypothetical rich/poor pronoun system.

    Now that I think of it, a Chinese zodiac calendar-based pronoun system would be really cool. The 60-year sexagenary cycle would give us 60 different pronoun sets for each year people are born, allowing each pronoun (fire dog, metal rat, etc.) to gain their own associations over time, though constantly changing as people from each cohort get older. Because people don’t really live more than 120 years, you would also only ever have two generations of each birth year. So there would be an “elder fire dog” and “junior fire dog” and it could be so interesting and artistic and poetic with two very different groups sharing a common pronoun… So much room for symbolism and reflection 🤤

    But anyway, snap back to reality. Neo-pronouns already exist in colloquial English, especially online. I’m not talking about xe/xim, I’m talking about bestie, oomfie, anon, homie, my guy, my brother in Christ, girlypop, etc.
    We should recognize these for what they are (pronouns) and normalize their use. They all have different contexts, connotations, and use-cases, but they are absolutely usable sets of pronouns. Some of them are still gender-specific, but the important thing is that gender is no longer the primary relevant factor in pronoun selection. Let’s have 100 different pronouns, and everybody can use any of them depending on the context. It would be awesome.






  • Good question actually. What are some things that have competent production and writing but are otherwise just really generic movie slop?

    My vote is for The Shawshank Redemption. Is it good? Yeah, but it’s just a movie. It’s not something special like Fantastic Planet, Fiddler on the Roof, or some of my other favorite movies. There’s a good guy and a bad guy. They fight, and the good guy wins. It’s the #1 highest rated thing on iMDB but like, it’s just qualityslop. People only like it because it’s good 👋🙄

    I think the exact same is true of Sousou no Frieren, currently the #1 rated anime. Qualityslop is generic and unspecial enough to reach mass appeal, and people only like it because it’s high quality. Slop.






  • In defense of chronological order, the “original release” is only 14 episodes and the so-called broadcast order that many recommend is a fanmade amalgamation of the 2006 broadcast and 14 of the 28 episodes that aired in 2009.
    In a literal sense, the “broadcast” or “original” order is not the original order of the broadcast. There were 14 episodes in the 2006 series and 28 episodes in the 2009 series, only half of which were new. “Broadcast” order is just the 2006 series with the new episodes tacked onto the end.

    There’s nothing wrong with the broadcast order, but many people think of it as “the original” or “closer to the original artistic intent”. If you’re watching 28 episodes of the show, that’s simply not true. Many of the episodes are placed much better in the 2009 (chronological) order, especially Live Alive and Someday in the Rain. I would never recommend watching those so early, as one would do in “broadcast” order.
    I personally recommend the chronological order OR if you’re willing to be a little bit confused trying to figure out what episode to watch next, a custom watch order like this one posted by user Xirema to Reddit or this one that I created and posted to MyAnimeList a couple years ago.


  • Seems to be queer exclusive, ignorant of climate change, ignorant of the economic reasons people aren’t having children, and (knowing the villainous Heritage Foundation) probably based strictly in prescribed gender roles.

    Aside from all that, this is in theory a really good idea. Get people prepared for marriage and children, probably improving their own lives and the life of their kids. If this is done in a way that is cognizant of different cultures and queer families, it could be great. Maybe pay people a token amount to be there, too, just as a motivator.


  • Yes!
    The sexual harassment is definitely a major part of the show and while I think its portrayal is very nuanced, many would disagree and that’s also a valid take. “Endless Eight” is the arc where they reanimated and rerecorded the same episode (8 times actually), but each episode was directed by a different person. It’s probably my favorite part of the whole show but again, many disagree and think it’s just boring.


    1. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006 & 2009) - amazing in every way. Every arc is perfect and it’s the greatest character study ever in the medium of anime.
    2. Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (1998) - this one is Hideaki Anno’s best work. The same depth of characterization as Eva but without the scifi or action.
    3. Hibike! Euphonium (first two seasons, 2015 & 2016) - kinda a retelling of Aim for the Ace (1973) in my mind. Really great characterization.
    4. March comes in like a lion (2016-2017) - another fantastic drama and hits really hard emotionally.
    5. Nana (2006) - more drama. This one has a great vibe and has a really unique feeling of yearning and incompleteness… Mostly because it’s forever incomplete.

  • So many pointless comments in here talking about how this cannot be objectively discussed. You are contributing nothing to the conversation. Of course it’s subjective. Do you see a thread called “what’s the best movie?” and respond like “☝️😏 actually there’s no such thing as a best movie because it’s all subjective.” Come on, the subjectivity is implied. You agree to a subjective discussion when you answer the question.

    I find that the second model in your image is more accurate from a utilitarian perspective. At the most basic level, I think the origin of goodness is in pleasure (/happiness/whatever). Evil is the opposite: someone taking away your pleasure. Therefore goodness exists first, and then evil emerges as the absence of good.
    Anything that’s evil, even pain and suffering and illness, is only evil because it’s preventing good. Why does this count as the absence of good instead of the presence of a novel concept of evil? Why not, rather, do we think of pain coming first with pleasure as its absence? I would argue that pain and suffering are not inherently bad; in a world without good, pain and suffering wouldn’t mean anything. On the other hand, pleasure is good even without the existence of suffering.