Subnostr

Good evening Nostr!

Here’s a show review, which some here have been waiting for. It's one of the few shows I've liked in years.

But before that, it’s also about how Nostr social graphs can make reviews better. I tend to write long, but I do so with a purpose. If you don't give a fuck about the context and want to cut this down by more than half, I'd happily recommend you scroll down past the context session toward the review section.

*Context*:

My excitement and enjoyment hit rate of liking shows and movies lately has been quite low. It’s probably because I’m at odds with my general culture. As we go through a transitional period or weird zeitgeist or “fourth turning”, it’s rare to actually find visual content I like. I’ve had to turn to novels instead over the past several years. Visual productions have a lot of people watching over them and fixing them (i.e. making them worse) whereas a book still has a main author that can kind of put his or her concept out there, which is neat.

Back in my teen years, I liked anime a lot. So I’ve got a nostalgic base there. Cowboy Bebop was my defining favorite, but also Trigun, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Baccano!, Code Geass, Full Metal Alchemist, Akira, Samurai Champloo, FLCL, Durarara!!, and both Dragon Ball Z and Naruto kind of embarrassingly, and then also of course Studio Ghibli productions like Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away.

While American television in the 1990s and early 2000s was episodic and happy, Japanese shows tended to be darker, more emotional, and tended to have continuity from one episode to another and tell a more linear and complete story, as though I was watching a continuous graphic novel from beginning to end. That caught me, and decades later I still remember their plots.

After that, from my mid-twenties and beyond as I was more seriously focused on my professional life, I occasionally tried to watch newer animes in the 2010s and thereafter, but I rarely connected with them like I once did. They felt too immature, or something wasn’t clicking. I liked action, but I didn’t like kid/teen drama and immature heroes, or something adjacent to that. I loved what I grew up on, but new things felt weak, as though I outgrew them. Occasionally something was decent. That’s where Baccano! and Durarara!! and the Brotherhood version of Full Metal Alchemist kind of filled the transitional gap. But I grew apart from the genre.

As an insanely busy person, one of the things I lack for mature anime is a good discovery mechanism, which imo relates to the social graph and Nostr here. I don’t go out and look for good anime anymore, and even if I were to find a high-rated one, I wouldn’t know if those ratings are from a hundred-thousand 15 year olds that might not appeal to me in my 30s. Those reviews aren't context-related.

Some weeks ago, Shinobi aggressively shilled Blue Eye Samurai on Twitter as one of his highest recommendations in years. Over many years I’ve followed him for bitcoin tech content, some of which I agree with or disagree with, but always find value in seeing his viewpoint, and over those years I also know somewhat about a bit of our overlapping anime tastes including Cowboy Bebop, and this was one of the few times where he aggressively shilled a new animated show. So, it caught my attention.

That brings me to my point about social graphs. An aggressively positive review from someone you know with overlapping interests with you is worth 100x random reviews. I hadn’t even heard of this show despite it being released over six months ago, and I watched this 80% because a single taste-relevant connection aggressively shilled it, and 20% because upon googling it the other mass reviews said it was unusually good too.

*Review*:

I watched the 8-episode first season of Blue Eye Samurai. It will have a second season, so it’s not complete, which admittedly kind of annoys me.

But holy hell is this show fucking good. I loved it, which for me is unusual. We start with an interesting protagonist, the blue-eye samurai, and then we increasingly learn about their backstory, which is better than expected. It could have fallen into all sorts of cultural traps but did not; instead it just told a good story. Like the old days.

The animation is great, the story is great, etc. Great protagonists, great antagonists.

The first three episodes are solid and expected from watchers of the genre, but then in episode four it went into completely unexpected territory. I was like, holy shit! And then episode five was also absolutely amazing. That middle period is where I confirmed that this show was truly special, and that a lot of thought went into it.

The next few episodes were great, and without spoilers, my criticism is that it could have ended on a more satisfying and convincing note. I need to see follow-on seasons to truly judge the show. The middle-season was the strongest part thus far, but the early and late season parts were still great.

Rated R, highly mature in terms of violence and sex, but also brought back a sense of nostalgia. Amazing visuals, perfect voice acting, and not quite but nearly perfect storytelling. I have some criticisms, increasingly toward the end, but still open since the show hasn’t ended yet. My husband also brought up similar criticisms.

As a frequent cynic, disappointed with what I watch, I was absolutely thrilled with this, which is rare for me. Later seasons might fuck it up, but in terms of potential, this first season is great, and brings me back to my nostalgic mature anime days.

I’ll watch the second season as soon as it’s out, good or bad.