The Made in Abyss movie, which I forced myself to watch for the sake of the review I posted in c/anime (obvious CW for gross and pedo shit, but I avoid explicit details and hide the worst under a spoiler with another warning) last year. It's completely and utterly empty, vile trash that's both nonsensical and repulsive with no real plot or character development other than that the characters keep moving forwards past the hard point of no return in the very end. It is well and truly gratuitous, serving absolutely no purpose other than indulging the author's sick fetishes in a quasi-legitimate form.
Thank God someone else mentioned the gross pedoisms of made in abyss. I musta been in the wrong spaces taking about it cuz i was all 'how do you guys not see this problem'
I felt like I was losing my mind when I actually watched the first episode of that anime after it was suggested everywhere - the pedo stuff is extremely obvious from the start and it was always played off as something funny or whimsical. I think that was the last time I gave watching anime a chance and just started reading manga from artists I like.
Chainsaw Man, I also enjoyed Fire Punch. I was reading Trail of Blood by Oshimi Shuzo, but it finally ended and I've read pretty much all of his other stuff too - Welcome Back, Alice ended kinda quick, but maybe for good reason.
Other than those two artists, I haven't found others I enjoy yet. I'm reading through Yotsuba in Japanese and, though it can be funny, it's mostly for reading practice.
Let me strongly recommend ZOM 100: Bucket List of the Dead. It's a hopeful, class-conscious, pro-social zombie apocalypse story that starts from the satirical premise of a burnt out wage slave waking up to a zombie apocalypse, celebrating because he doesn't have to go to work anymore, and setting out to do all the things he wanted to do because he was too busy working himself to death. And if you're thinking "wait, that sounds kind of anti-social, silly as the concept is?" then it also agrees and is quick to hold up foils to him and show off his reckless hedonism and wish fulfillment as empty and reckless, pivoting to a balance that I can only sum as something like "even in the face of the apocalypse, people and their hopes and dreams are the most important thing and life should still be enjoyed, but responsibly and together."
It's a scathing rejection of nihilism and every misanthropic zombie trope, that's also stylish as hell. The only half downside is that it does a lot of like overly enthusiastic regional Japanese cultural tourism stuff as filler in between the big plot beats, making much of it just a tour of different domestically famous locations which the characters soyface over and then get chased by zombies. Its anime adaptation is also amazingly stylish and vibrant with gorgeous cinematography and animation, and I would really recommend checking that out after getting through the manga if you like it (full disclosure: I have only seen the first 6 episodes of the anime and that was all very faithful to the tone, content, and themes of the manga; if it does something horrible or jumps the shark after that, I don't know about it).
The Chainsaw Man anime is pretty great. I was pleasantly surprised by it. The main character is a horny teenager (often played for laughs), but in a way that isn't gratuitous like most anime, is relevant to the plot, and it's clear the adults around him are fucking awful for taking advantage of him.
Made in Abyss is "Yo what the fuck" territory. Something else I haven't seen mentioned here is the writer's shit fetish. Like literal shit. There's way too many scenes about fictional characters' poop.
Made in Abyss is "Yo what the fuck" territory. Something else I haven't seen mentioned here is the writer's shit fetish. Like literal shit. There's way too many scenes about fictional characters' poop.
It's every bodily fluid in general. Just an endless parade of things oozing and leaking out of every part of the characters, which gets even more excessive in the second season when they reach the frenworld ancap blob monster village and then gets worse and worse and worse. I have a strong stomach and high tolerance for just repulsive and horrible content, and I actually felt ill trying to slog through to the end so that I could definitively say that Made in Abyss is the worst thing ever made. Like as much as people joke about the idea of "psychic damage" I took actual psychic damage from it and was out of sorts for days.
Ok yeah tail of blood whoo i just checked it out mannn its holding tension so well i gotta take a break after chapter 14 (barf). thanks for the recommendation shits hitting hard
Like I know you hate Sword Art Online, and let me say that SAO is comparatively quaint and wholesome and well paced and well thought out next to the absolute pile of flaming garbage that is Made in Abyss. SAO is poorly written slop that's good enough that it can be laughed at for how bad it still is (and its spinoff series that was written by an entirely different author is actually almost good although still bad and problematic). Made in Abyss is just an abomination that should not exist.
With what I read about it alone I truly don't understand why anyone, here of all places, would make excuses for and run interference for Made in Abyss. I can't even bring myself to be angry about that as much as just... sad. Well, sad and disgusted. It's sold as entertainment value, and clearly its defenders are entertained, which makes me have questions about those entertained people.
It's worse. Like people joke about psychic damage or media haunting them in kind of an exaggerated way or like an overly dramatic way of describing the emotional impact something had, but this genuinely gave me psychic damage and it genuinely haunts me. Not in an "oh it had such an impact, it was so sad/scary/whatever" kind of way, just a "this is gross and bad and dumb and I hate the author and everyone who enables him and also people who like this series" way that makes me angry just thinking about it.
I saw a link in this thread to a year old review of that hog slop, and having read it, I am baffled, disturbed, and deeply disappointed that even that got excuses made for it from some Hexbears back then.
I never saw it myself, and I never want to, especially after what I already read. Deriving entertainment value from that compels me to question the character of anyone making excuses for it, self-described leftist or not.
but this genuinely gave me psychic damage and it genuinely haunts me
I had a similar experience to each and every attempt for treat hogs in my local area (coworkers too, unfortunately) to show me the "good parts" of Game of Thrones. Some of what I saw still makes me feel recurring disgust and sadness when I realize how many millions of people gobbled it up and even proselytized about how great it was ("DAE RED WEDDING?!" ) for like a decade. I felt like being shown that "disabled zombie" animation when he was told, with much enthusiasm, how badly they wanted to replace artists entirely with more of that.
Similar deal with pretty much anything Justin Roiland, who I can safely assume was the kind of target consumer for Made in Abyss, too, considering his "children's special" involving pretty much nothing but gory violence and (of course) SV against children as a "joke."
I saw a link in this thread to a year old review of that hog slop
Wasn't that me linking my old review? The "Made in Abyss is the worst thing ever made" thread?
I am baffled, disturbed, and deeply disappointed that even that got excuses made for it from some Hexbears back then.
Some of the deleted comments in that thread were people arguing in its favor. I still see people recommend it now and then and I'm always quick to jump on them for it.
Like just to contextualize this, I like grindhouse as a genre. I like awful slop as a spectacle. I watched (pirated) all of SAO and enjoyed riffing on how bad so much of it was. I sat through (pirated) all of Overlord and found it something that's awful in a way that's fun to mock and hate because as gross and bad as it is it's still in the tier where you can point at it and say "lmao wtf, that's awful" instead of just feeling sick. I watched (pirated) those shitty Piranha reboots that literally included jokes about breast sizes in their titles and thought they were entertainingly dumb, gratuitous movies. I enjoyed (pirated) the Sci-Fi channel original series Blood Drive about a death race with cars that are powered by human blood for some reason. I think Hellsing Ultimate is actually kind of good if also dumb and very gratuitous, as in lingering on graphically killing literal Nazis so long that it starts to get kind of boring and repetitive, which is a concept one wouldn't think possible but they manage it somehow. And Made in Abyss actually haunts me with how awful and also just sort of shit it is.
Although that said, I have seen short blurbs about things that might rival it for being unwatchably awful that I'm never going to bother with because they also look boring and gross. Live everything I've heard about Peter Grill for example makes me think two things: that it may actually rival Made in Abyss in repulsiveness and also . Shield Hero and Redo of Healer are also in the "maybe this is as bad, but I don't feel like confirming it" dumpster.
I had a similar experience to each and every attempt for treat hogs in my local area (coworkers too, unfortunately) to show me the "good parts" of Game of Thrones.
I hate the GoT showrunners and all their OC, and even the early seasons I thought were decent when I first saw them looked cheap and mid when I revisited them a few years later, and I want to stress that even that is nowhere near how bad this is, that's how bad it is.
Wasn't that me linking my old review? The "Made in Abyss is the worst thing ever made" thread?
I think it was you, yes, but I didn't want to on the spot assume that it was you without checking first.
Some of the deleted comments in that thread were people arguing in its favor.
I saw shit like that for Shield Hero and Goblin Slayer too, especially "Thermian Arguments" about how slavery/genocide are okay because the author said so, turn off your brain, let people enjoy things, I am special and immune to propaganda and anyone who isn't deserves whatever they get, stop being such a joyless scold, To Each Their Own(tm).
Like just to contextualize this, I like grindhouse as a genre. I like awful slop as a spectacle. I watched (pirated) all of SAO and enjoyed riffing on how bad so much of it was. I sat through (pirated) all of Overlord and found it something that's awful in a way that's fun to mock and hate because as gross and bad as it is it's still in the tier where you can point at it and say "lmao wtf, that's awful" instead of just feeling sick. I watched (pirated) those shitty Piranha reboots that literally included jokes about breast sizes in their titles and thought they were entertainingly dumb, gratuitous movies. I enjoyed (pirated) the Sci-Fi channel original series Blood Drive about a death race with cars that are powered by human blood for some reason. I think Hellsing Ultimate is actually kind of good if also dumb and very gratuitous, as in lingering on graphically killing literal Nazis so long that it starts to get kind of boring and repetitive, which is a concept one wouldn't think possible but they manage it somehow. And Made in Abyss actually haunts me with how awful and also just sort of shit it is.
I have some guilty pleasures of my own (hard not to when enjoying MST3K) and I totally feel you there.
I hate the GoT showrunners and all their OC, and even the early seasons I thought were decent when I first saw them looked cheap and mid when I revisited them a few years later, and I want to stress that even that is nowhere near how bad this is, that's how bad it is.
I will be pleased to never have to watch it. I am glad in some ways that pop culture is so fragmented now, because there may never be another Game of Thrones type monolithic experience that all the treat hogs expect everyone else to gobble up like that again.
I couldn't make it through the first episode of either of these. They're fucking terrible. Anyone who likes Goblin Slayer I'm assuming is just a contrarian. Shield Hero is pure isekai waifu harem slop. They exist solely to sell merch to Japanese nationalists. Attack on Titan is similar.
I couldn't make it through the first episode of either of these.
I couldn't make it past the first major scene of Goblin Slayer, and to disgusting treat hogs that made excuses for it, it was both something to to and some grand and permanent justification for funny genocide in the show forever after.