Infinite Dendrogram had basically the same thing, except without the slavery. If I had a nickel for every SAO-adjacent anime where one of the supporting characters wore fursuits that gave surprisingly high stat bonuses...
You gotta love how not only did they mix up two babies, they mixed up two babies of a different gender, hair color, eye color, and wearing different clothes.
Sad funny thing is baby swapping use to be a serious problem not all that long ago, people could even easily get into a hospitals and walk out with a kid. Large reasons why they beefed up attention to prevent that from happening because of how frequent it was.
The reason I like the show and give it a 7/10 is because of the scene where instead of executing a certain person, they rename her Bitch and her adventurer name Whore. That scene took me aback so much that I loved it XD
Trapped in a Dating Sim’s is suprisingly really enjoyable. The first two episodes are a bit off putting but after that the anime finds its charm. The mc isn't a pure good boi and he is okay with that. The show is like finding a wet and dirty 20dollar bill in a bin you shouldnt reach your hand into.
That description is honestly the best way you can describe it. I expected to laugh at the cliches in the manga, but it does a decent enough job on reinforcing the things that make it different, surprisingly. Wonder how the rest of it will go.
The mc got the same charm as kazuma from konosuba, just in a slightly serious genre...it sure is fun for sometimes but kinda went repetitive at some point...simply said a good series with trashy moment in it, or trashy series with good moment in it, dunno which the better suited one
In “Trapped in a Dating Sim’s” defense, the lore of the game world is greatly elaborated and expanded upon starting toward the end of Vol. 3 of the LN, and there is some genuinely good worldbuilding to be found in the series, but the anime will end before we get to that point, unfortunately.
Trapped in a Dating Sim actually does something interesting near the end of the season where it follows through with the consequences of the Isekai MC being overpowered. His relationship with the original protagonist girl suffers a major blow because she is never given room to grow into her own person. The anime acknowledges that the stark power imbalance between the two of them created an unsustainable foundation for a friendship.
I really like the show, somehow his pettiness just becomes my spirit animal over time in the plot. He really does the same thing hero's do just for more believable reasons.
I swear that happened in another "reincarnated into a dating sim" manga, one of the ones where a girl is reincarnated as the "rival" character. Rather than being a "mean villain" like she's supposed to, she keeps trying to protect the Main Character girl and inserts herself into every conflict to defend MC girl, and at some point realizes this has caused MC girl to have no character development, thus resulting in a bunch of "bad endings." And I cannot for the life of me remember the name, because there are way too many manga with an "I reincarnated as the villain of an otome game" plot.
Yes there's issues but this explanation is quite misleading. It's not that their relationship as friends is damaged like you're suggesting. It's that he is purposefully distancing himself from her because he believes she should only be involved with the male harem from the otome game and not him. This conflict is a major character development for both her and MC. The last arc of the manga ended with this conflict and it was resolved nicely.
@@GoddoDoggo - I believe what you’re describing is My Next Life As A Villainess. And I don’t think she causes bad endings by doing that. Instead she ends up going from antagonist to protagonist because she gets the romantic interests, rivals and the og protagonist to fall for her instead but she’s so oblivious that she has no idea that she created a mix gender harem for herself.
Trapped in a Dating Sim wins this season's award for "Most Exceeded Expectations". It SHOULD be trash, but has been unironically entertaining with only a hint of grime in the corners. I went from rolling my eyes at the plot to being genuinely invested in how this season wraps up.
I vividly remember my brain being totally off as I scrolled novelupdates' page, ready to skim through some garbage, saw the title, thought it sounded shit, read for like 10 minutes and actually got fairly hooked. By no means a masterpiece but pretty solid.
What I've learned from Goeff's hottest trash is that they're mostly junk food type of animes - not the classics or MUST WATCH but def you can find them really enjoyable or even your fave. I'm unironically wanting to add this anime to my to watch list after enjoying Geoff's My Isekai Life and Black Summoner onto my list with his other vid.
I legit got hooked when my friend showed it to me, I thought it was just gunna be some throwaway anime that has a few funny moments but I've genuinely loved the story to the point I got all of the LNs lol although it has gotten pretty repetitive but there's usually some new, interesting or funny stuff to keep me mostly happy
@@anotherrandomtexan25yeah, plus the in the ln, you'd get surpriseingly good world building and drama too❤❤ . And it actually has good character development as it progresses. But the best part of this series is definitely it's comedy,not just from our sarcastic mc, but also from other characters like the idiot brigade and mari. 😂😂
Episode 8 is when Trapped in a Dating Sim won me over, because it addressed one of my greatest bugbears in anime: the protagonist's gobbling up of all agency. It actually made the protagonist face the consequences of that and is turning it into a character growth arc. Time will tell whether it's executed competently, but that they addressed it at all is keeping me hooked.
Due to the anime sadly having low chances of a S2. the next arc is even better. All his mistakes and naivety all comes to bite back his ass, and he has a harder time to fix it. This is sadly why im disappointed with the animation, if the reincarnated demon king studio and trap in dating sim studio switched, i could see it getting a S2.
you should get the light novel a read, it actualy adresses him seizing all agency in more details... [spoiler] ...especialy when he gets into contact with more reincarnated people who also want to get things into their hands... it turns them into antagonists because they have conflicting stances and trust issues on what to do with all the power
Here is the thing about Trashy anime. We all need it from time to time just like we all need that late night Taco bell once in a while. You'll enjoy it in the moment, then regret spending your time with it later.
@@isaac_marcus I lost interest after the turtle arc. At the time, I didn't have it in me to wait for each weekly chapter when the hero just went back to square one when the original world wasn't fully explained.
@@chrisdaughen5257 oh I agree it is super frustrating. I'm enjoying all the headcanons it's giving me but as far as the actual show... I'll stick with it in hopes it picks up but not feeling great
Demon King Gets Reincarnated makes me sad. I actually enjoyed the first episode. I thought it was cute watching a grown adult in a child's body run around town trying to make friends with people for the first time and not get what he's doing wrong. And when they actually did become friends I felt pretty genuinely happy for both of them. Sadly, right after that however it immediately jumped straight into boring fantasy magic school harem nonsense and I was super disappointed. Show would have been ten times more enjoyable if the whole thing was the MC trying and failing at making friends. I would have watched that
Yeah. A big problem with light novels is that the "hook" to draw people in usually gets resolved within the first chapter or two and then the rest is just your standard boring overpowered protagonist harem plot. In this case, the MC reincarnated to become a weakling so he could make friends, but is still so powerful compared to everyone else and makes friends quickly that it completely invalidates the original premise. I remember one manga where the main character was cursed so he was starting to lose his levels to the point that he couldn't keep up with the hero's party anymore so they booted him out. In the very first chapter, he comes across a girl that is able to remove the curse making him super strong again. Instead of an epic journey with him trying to remove the curse while getting weaker and figuring out how to overcome that, the entire premise is resolved right away so now he can be awesome and pick up a harem of beautiful girls without actually having to struggle and the "cool" hero party get to look like a bunch of stupid jerks. Gosh it was so stupid.
It is sad how often this kind of thing happens. The Shield Hero chapters where he's a dad forcing a child soldier into being his weapon, those are cute and heart warming. There's one series where the unconventional and fun shark girl gets turned into a generic titty kitty slave. They start with some good things going on, and then crush them. I've read tons of smut with much better story structure. How to Kill Reincarnators From Earth sneers at the trope of women being nothing more than trophies for the MC. The Saint's Dungeon Business - all the heroines have their own stories and problems THAT DON'T GET RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY, that have their ongoing story threads. So you have this thing called texture, and variety as the heroines cycle in their turn to take the lead? The elf archmage girl being treated like an idol by tons of mages, and having to go into hiding to avoid her crazy stalker fans (compared outright in the text to sasaeng stalkers): that idea alone is enough to build a whole manga around on its own. And it's just a subplot. The problem isn't with the fantasy magic school harem nonsense, it's the BORING part that's important here. That's endemic to lots of anime: how many Dragon Ball or Magical Index characters become completely superfluous, with nothing to strive for or do? But they still hang around onscreen, like some kind of ghost that won't go away? The friend collector genre is an appealing one to most people so I don't begrudge the concept. But friends, sometimes they need to go away and come back later. And I understand that a life full of constant problems is annoying, real life is hard and cruel, but being forced to react to your environment a little is what our brains were designed to do. (Saiki K is a great series where the little problems the OP protagonist has to put up with gnaw at his soul.) TLDR: Mangas are drawn by and successful mostly based on the ability of the creator to draw pretty lines. Story is tertiary, if even that. Please enjoy the last 300 chapters of Bleach, everyone. If you want a story, go read a webnovel.
As Geoff said, "...everyone wants to be his friend now...because obviously you want to be friends with a strong person so they can protect you from scary stuff...and, you might think that contradicts the initial premise of the story, but...Shut UP!" I had pretty good laugh at that line, and its masterful, deadpan delivery. 😛
Trapped in a dating sim was so much more enjoyable than I expected when I first just jumped into it, I only wish the art quality and animation had more budget for me to recommend to someone that would actually watch it
@@raeldri5867 I would HIGHLY recommend checking out the actual source material being the Light Novels over the manga adaptation. The official licensed English translated LN volumes are even better and are WAY farther ahead of the manga adaptation.
I am so happy that Trapped in a Dating Sim made this list. It's pretty rare that I manage to spot enjoyable trash before a TH-cam Anime Reviewer recommends it to me. And I love it so much. I don't usually like protags who are overly self-loathing and spiteful, but he's clearly having so much fun in spite of himself. It's kind of like the Angry Video Game Nerd got isekai'd into an otome game.
The weirdest part about reading the LN is that somewhere along the line, you stop reading it as a silly power fantady wish fulfilment, and continue reading it as an interesting story that has bizarrely deep worldbuilding to reconcile the insanely shoddy writing of the original otome game with the sci-fi apocalypse of its history. It gets extremely, extremely good without you realizing it until you're blitzing through volume 6 and realize you haven't eaten in the past 9 hours
@@andrewcapra7153 Is it out in manga form? Something about light novels just tends to turn me off, even though I love reading even things as simple as young adult novels. Maybe it's the over-simplicity of the style plus awkward translations, but if it's at least in manga form I find I can stomach it better.
That outro was fantastically written and delivered. I'd say more, but the waiter is shoving me out of the alley because someone else happened to fall into this one in a drunken stupor.
The absolute best part about Trapped in a Dating Sim in my opinion is that the main character is deliberately being an asshole to everyone that deserves it. But a gentleman to everyone who deserves to be given the respect they sorely lack after being displaced from their original fates, just as his master has taught him.
It's funny how things have come full circle. When I was young, I loved trash anime. Then I went through a period where I would primarily try to watch what I considered to be "good" anime. As I get older, I am back to loving trash anime again. I still watch all the really good anime every season, but I need to be in the right mindset to enjoy those anime, so I tend to put those on hold for weekends. After working all day, exactly what I need is to sit on the couch, watch some trash anime and relax. On a similar note, I used to not see the appeal of Slice of Life, and now it's one of my favorite genres.
THIS. Good anime/ manga must be savoured. Trash anime is enjoyed while half asleep at your couch. I do enjoy some kingdom building manga just before sleep.
What’s funny about shield hero season 2 is after they got through the Adamantoise arc (not the name of the giant turtle, but cmon that’s what it is) they immediately got back to and expanded on that concept they teased at the end of season 1 with the multiple isekai worlds and possible multiverse war with a central villain
Agreed. So far it's definitely shaping up as half a season of trash and (hopefully) half a season of what made it one of the better non-prestige isekai. It'll never be Re:Zero or Mushoku Tensei, but the two good episodes we've had so far are still preferable to yet another "X was reborn as a Y" show.
Honestly I feel like the director heard 'the tortoise arc isn't great' and decided to just speed run it, cutting out a bunch of stuff, including a few of the things that were actually quite good about it. There was a bunch of cool stuff they cut out in the first half, including some development for the other heroes and Naofumi that it was a generally awful adaptation, but they're getting back on track with the second half, even if they heavily deviated from the novel in one key aspect. I love the show so I hate that the first half of series 2 looked so bad
@@frostyblade8842 They decided to speedrun it so they cut anything and everything interesting about it leaving only the boring turtle squashing only interrupted by a couple quick exposition dumps which ironically makes it feel very long and drawn out despite how fast it's going.
@@frostyblade8842 they somehow managed to cut every single interesting part about the turtle arc while leaving the boring unnecessary shit untouched, if they were really trying to speedrun the spirit turtle they could have done all of it in 4 episodes and focus the rest of the season on the double isekai arc but instead they got stuck on the lame middle ground of "too short to feel naturally paced" and "too long to be interesting"
Shield Hero became worse with every adaptation: from web novel to light novel, and from light novel to anime. Characters become dumber, the plot becomes more bloated. Just sad.
Trapped in a Dating Sim has absolutely no rights to be good, but is an oddly interesting experience. Leon is both ridiculously funny in his "prideful villain" thing, but also interesting in his own hipocrisy of wanting to live a peaceful life yet still doing things that bring attention to himself, which end up cascading into even more attention-bringing situations. Angie and Olivia also have a very interesting dynamic, specially considering how they were supposed to be the protag and antag of the story. I ended up reading the manga and a bit of the LN because I got genuinely into this trash-looking show. Now if only the artstyle of the anime wasn't so... Bad.
The weird thing is the art is reasonably good in the manga but it’s god awful in the anime. I started watching the anime and then got into the light novel and thought man this understands the importance of giving your protagonist a bit of character
Angie and Olivia are the unfortunately far too rare harem sister wives that minus the MC would probably carry on their own relationship, and I'm 100% for ACTUAL polyamorous "harems"
I'm actually really glad that "Trapped in a Dating Sim" got such a glowing review in this video. I honestly adore the series. I started with the anime at first, it started at the bottom of my list when considering what animes would be good for the Spring Season. I thought it would probably just follow a lot of the normal isekai stereotypes, but as I watched it, it completely surprised me with how good it was! Great World building, a fascinating political system, surprisingly deep characters, and a main character that actually has a fun and interesting personality that isn't just an audience self insert. So I had to know more, I then proceeded to read the Manga. (Chef's Kiss) I was astounded by how good this story was. The anime had already sold me on the idea that this story was definitely worth my time, but the Manga is just on a whole different level. Going into even more world building, character development, and political intrigue that the anime just simply doesn't have time to expound upon. It genuinely impressed the hell out of me. I keep hearing people say that the Light Novels are even better than the Manga, which at this point, I can't even imagine how, considering how utterly impressed I've been by just reading the Manga series. If I have the time for it, I'll try to dive into it, but for now I feel content with how both the anime and manga series have been. Honestly, I wasn't expecting it when I picked up this series, but I feel I can confidently say, it's probably the best Isekai Anime to be released for the spring season.
the light novels dive deeper in each of the character's thoughts and motivations and expands on the worldbuilding even more. Trapped in a Dating Sim starts off like a stock otome game isekai, but if you slow down and carefully read you'll find that the game world is ridiculously well developed, both in the meta sense AND in universe. The ramifications of the reincarnators' actions both reflect off the games' events but also comes out in surprisingly realistic outcomes. The romance is a bit smarmy but at least the MC is mostly aware. The MC is also realistically flawed, he's not a moral jesus, or grey moral demi-god (too many isekai MCs fall into either category and they are the blandest types of characters ever), he's a person from 21th century japan thrust into a political hellscape magical fantasy. ok talking about moral jesus and grey moral demi-gods has got me reminded of my absolutely detested isekai story ever: His Eminence in Shadow. Like god, thats just edge. Pure edge, and just edge. The MC is cringy as fuck, his harem is completely undeserved, the world even is just boring. I absolutely hate that series. The premise is that the MC wants to be this amoral underground shadow organization that manipulates the world or whatever. I was actually hooked by the premise, too many isekai either have a moral jesus or someone who says they are amoral, but obviously isn't. I was fucking tricked. The entire series is one big self gratifying trash piece of a novel that's so utterly uninteresting. The MC creates this organization, filled with girls (bc of course it is), AND HE DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE FUCK ITS PURPOSE IS. His subordinates are often doing stuff in the background that the MC isn't even aware of and never really explained most of the time, and the edgy chuni shit he espouses IS SOMEHOW THE FUCKING TRUTH?!? The MC has zero responsibility for the organization he fucking built and I swear the world itself actually retroactively warps to make the MC look better, because that's all that ever happens and far more conceptually interesting. Like this is the the kind of weird stuff that you find in AO3 not a PUBLISHED FUCKING BOOK. I was bored by the World's Greatest Assassin one too, but at least parts of it was informational and the world wasnt solely written to make the MC look great 24/7, even if they are written kind of flat.
The 1st 3 novels were the peak. The manga is currently at the beginning of vol3. Honestly after that a lot of people don't like the direction it takes because a lot of the initial premise of the story is more or less void at this point and the characterisation after this is not nearly as good. I'm up to the most recent English novel and although still decent it's not really what it was
Damn they really had 2 dollars as a budget for “trapped in a dating sim”, huh? The manga art is actually kind of nice so it feels so jarring watching this and seeing those jank eyes that my 12 year old probably drew… the manga really is nice to read, it’s very funny with deeper characters than I thought we’d get
If you like the series, I highly recommend reading the actually source material being the Light Novels. The manga, like the anime, is just an adaptation of the Light Novel series. The officially licensed English translated Light novels are even better and are WAY farther ahead of the manga adaptation.
It's a complicated feeling, I'm happy that people have been so into it and I'd gladly point them in the direction of the manga or LN if they want more but I'm personally on the verge of dropping it.
When you were describing the "Typical Demon Lord Reborn etc etc", it wasn't until you got to the succubus part did I realise "Wait, I've actually read the light novel this is based on". Thats how generic these stories have become.
@@varenoftatooine2393 You don't know something is good until you try it. And I read it when there was only one volume of the light novel out, so there were only so many reviews
"all rooted in real historic fact. Especially the fetish stuff" Who can forget that Sun Quan was so impressed with Lu Meng's troops maid outfits he made him one of the top commanders.
I like Miki Yoshikawa’s other work, like Yamada and the 7 witches or Yankee-kun to Megane-san. I read the first few chapters of Cuckoo a while back but kinda forgot about it. I’ll probably watch the anime now, then that’ll make me want to read the manga🤷🏻
I had a similar issue jumping into I'm Quitting Heroing this season, where it starts off as a terribly animated fantasy about an overpowered hero who humanity is scared of due to his sheer difference in power level compared to the demons he's protecting them from, which is valid tbh, with vague allusions to an isekai plot in the background. This is then shattered by the fact that everyone, even the snarky piece of shit protag who you learn why he's a snarky piece of shit protag, go through genuine character arcs and we learn the world is actually a Shannara Chronicles-esque post apocalypse that has developed into a Middle Ages-esque world from repeated destruction as a result of regular demonic invasions and the protagonist is actually a bio-engineered half-demon half-human who has been protecting humanity for multiple millenia that he's built up terrible personalities to cope and because he was programmed to have nothing but the instinct to kill demons and what the actual fuck is going on here.
@@rainylupin Yea it went from an honestly neat concept with some admittedly poor animation (and terrible subtitle QCing from HIDIVE) to "Why am I being Kemono Friends'd again?"
@@sachitechless I don’t even watch it on HIDIVE. But yeah, every week I go to the website to watch the newest episode. I thought the initial premise was cute. Weekly episode the former hero guy helps out another demon general, showing their all lovable idiots that are good hearted people trying to commence a war in the most benevolent way. The demon army goal isn’t even about directly harming or ending humanity, all they want is something the humans possess that can bring a better quality of life to the hellscape of their demon world. So, the demon army has a lot more going for it then the typical take over the world cliche. Then you find out the real history of Leo, which is so I completely hadn’t seen coming. This series and Trapped in a Dating Sim are both my hidden gem series of this season.
Oh man, props for the Birdie Wing shoutout in the intro- I had such a hard time identifying why the absolute batshit premise actually worked and I unironically loved it until I discovered that it's directed by the same guy who did Tenchi Universe. Also makes sense why the OP is so GOD DAMN UNNECESSARILY catchy. Man has a very specific love of 80s pop.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this same reaction to 'Trapped in a Dating Sim'. My poor brain likes there to be a clear, linear scale from Gold to Trash, and that damn anime just won't pick a spot on it. It's VERY confusing. I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but I need to know if I should be feeling guilty about it, and how much!
Guilt is a weakness. Turn off your brain and immerse yourself in the trash. Advice from a dude who constantly read Chinese cultivation manhua for the lulz.
Make it a 2-axis thing. On the X-axis you have "it's enjoyable" to "it's ass", on the Y-axis you have "it's objectively smart" to "it's objectively trashy". Nyever forget the difference between trash and garbage.
Also a note on "trapped in a harem anime" the two girls shown are also extremely fond of each other, and the relationship between the 3 act more like a polycule than a harem. On top of that, in the manga it's constantly mentioned that beastmen slaves are used for sex.
I KNEW Trapped in a Dating Sim would make this season’s hottest trash. The anime is genuinely a pleasant surprise. The plot has been quite engaging, and I’m interested to see what happens next.
Something really important about the otome game one, the details you left out. It's not that the protag played the game for his sister, it's that she blackmailed him into playing it for her while she went to the beach. Similarly, the fake protag does have full knowledge of what to say to charm the pretty boys, but she also has absolutely no knowledge of the RPG side of things (this is something that comes up later).
The whole inversion of gender roles thing could've potentially worked, but I completely lost immersion when I realized that they still had men doing most of the labor, especially the dangerous stuff like military. They could've had women do that especially since the introduction of magic would take away most of the importance that comes with physical strength, but with the men being the ones who handle combat and other tough jobs, it's far less believable that they'd be kept in subservience
@@user-uq9oe7sc5m Not exactly, while men nowadays are more careful of not doing the wrong things towards women, far and wide men still completely dominate.
I recently read a isekai with the same idea of "reversed gender roles" and the way they justified was that man weren't able to use any form of magic, which includes body strengthening ones, meaning in this world woman are stronger than man while they have access to magic, why do I point to this fact? Well, because there's a special type of handcuff capable of supressing magic.
@@Maddinhpws Bro I don't think u have been to my country where like according to a statistic report multiple teenagers commit suicide due to false charges of harassment and peer isolation.
Honestly, Trapped in a Dating sim's characters actually surprised me. Like, Olivia's breakdown hasn't even been resolved in a single episode, and that caught me offguard so much I felt like I was 10, experiencing the breaking of the 4th wall.
Well almost all interactions Olivia had with characters who were not Angie or Leon have been building up to her having a mental/panic breakdown regarding her relationship with them. It wouldn't make much sense if it could be resolved within a couple of episodes.
It was interesting and very true to Leon's established character but also punch-drywall level frustrating how he reacted. Of course the whole situation with Olivia and Angie was completely untenable and contrary to his stated goals, and his rational calculation said this was the chance to extricate himself from that. I'm really interested to see if the story can come up with a good way to resolve the conflict and get Leon to realize what a selfish dickhead he's being.
My god, MB. When you gave your comparisons for Shield Hero Season 2 (which I refuse to retype in fear that each key stroke will break a bone in my hands) I'm preeeety sure that i felt such horrid terror that i screamed for as long as my lungs could allow and only stopped to black out, wake up in the ER and be informed by my loved ones that when they found me i was spraying blood from my throat like a ghastly fountain from Satan's day spa. Long story short, just *hearing* about Shield Hero Season 2 saddled me with heinous medical bill, an extensive deep cleaning invoice, and a modest amount of fresh paint form the hardware store. But I MUST thank you, because if i had watched it myself i probably would've rent reality asunder and driven everyone at least within a 3 mile radius of me insane, so you've actually done me a great favor.
Trapped in a Dating Sim feels like its not really trying all that hard and yet will surprise you with original ideas. My favorite thus far is that, he's doing everything for the poor girl (who's actually the protagonist of the game) and she begins to feel useless or like a pet, because he won't let her fight her own battles. I also thought it was really clever that the ship/AI he recruits is a DLC he bought in real life to make the game easier. The AI is now making his life a lot easier.
Hands up, anyone who’s old enough that Geoff just needed to say “they made a new Ikki Tousen” to know you were in for a _transcendently_ horny garbage fire.
I might be old enough, but have not watched the original when I watched this glorious garbage bin, yet realising that the entire """"season"""" is just 3-4 episodes made me real sad. I was pumped for this garbage.
Y'know, there's a potential good idea there in the concept of someone getting stuck in a dating sim that they actively despise. Like, say, a rough and tumble fighter getting stuck in one of those shitty Diabolik Lovers style abusefests and instead of meekly submitting she kicks their asses and just does plot stuff. Or go the old-school Tokimeki route and have the protagonist get so obsessed with the tedious time management stat-raising that they totally forget about the the romance aspects and become a big neurotic ball of hobbies and stress. Just spitballing, but it seems like "Trapped in a Bad Dating Sim" should be much more fun than a generic isekai.
Also funny: protag is determined to not be protag because she hates all the main characters and ACTIVELY pursues some side character who only ever got like 5 lines of dialogue in the actual game. Except her ignoring the main harem cast just makes them pursue
The only other anime I can think of about otome games is My next life as a villainess, but there's a bunch of manhwas about the concept I think. And if not strictly otome games, there's also a bunch of manhwas about being trapped in romance novels or manhwas. Like "How to survive a romance fantasy" is about someone isekaid into a book and tries to avoid the story and make fried chicken. Or "If you touch my little brother you're all dead" where she's isekaid into a BL story with her younger brother as the protag and tries to protect him from all the morby love interests. There's probably some other/better ones I can't remember.
I'm also going to rec "Beware the Villainess", it's a manhwa that's exactly what you're looking for, except the story-within-a-story is a novel instead of a game. It's about someone who reincarnated as the villainess of the novel, promptly realizes all the love interests of that novel are trash when they're real people she has to deal with, and starts beating some goddamn sense into them while befriending the original female lead. AND the manhwa is complete, meaning you can read the entire story!
I'll be honest with you, Trapped in a Dating Sim, outside of the fan favorites SpyxFamily, Love after World Domination, is like one of my favorite show this season. I've even read the first three light novels because I was so enjoying the show and I wanted to read ahead to see what was going to happen. I don't think it's trash. The quality of the animation could be better but the studio is doing the best with what they've gotten and the story sticks enough of the LN's points that I thoroughly enjoy it. There are quite a few episodes I rewatch just because of that.
SAME I like to imagine the subpar art is just part of the lore; as in, this is what the graphics in the original game looked like. I mean, the little bit of real world we see looks half-way descent.
Shield Hero is such a frustrating series for me because I do think it actually has the foundation for a good story in place. The first season dropped occasional hints that Naofumi was going to have to grow as a character and ultimately choose to get over his edgelord crap to become the hero the world needed instead of the one it deserved (but that potential plot line is basically dead at this point with Naofumi’s name cleared). And Raphtalia COULD have an interesting character and romantic arc if the story actually bothered to dig into it. What if, rather than simply using the part about her voluntarily remaining a slave as a fig leaf so the plot can have its fetish cake and eat it too, the story put in the effort to show some deeper psychological issue at work? She has a deep fear of being alone and abandoned due to her horrible childhood, what if that plays into her relationship with Naofumi? What if she’s convinced herself that the only she can be certain Naofumi won’t leave her is if he legally owns her? What if the two of them actually had to go through an arc where they learn to fully trust each other and build a genuinely consensual relation? I know this is just me throwing out ideas on TH-cam, but truly crappy anime don’t drive me to think about all the ways it could work better.
I’ve been watching it and it’s a fun ride. There’s almost no “romance” just a lot of ridiculous scenarios and laughing at how dumb these characters are. The ED also slaps
Trapped in a Dating Sim is an anime I thought I'd hate but I genuinely enjoy. The main character Leon is a major subversion from the normal Isekai Protag, he's not uber powerful like most but he's not helpless thanks to his innate knowledge of the world. He acts like a complete troll and doesn't take anyone's shit but he's still a genuinely good guy who sticks his neck out for others even when he knows full well he'll suffer for it. His relationship with Angie and Olivia is also very sweet as it feels pretty natural and is genuinely fun. I thoroughly enjoy it.
Wait how's that a subversion when we seen or all ready had characters like that. That like saying the same thing in a death game manga or show when most the characters in that Genre act just like this.
@@lonelywolf5659 Usually Isekai protags end up in the world with some insane amount of power or rare items that basically make them a god. Leon doesn't have any of that. He knows how the game works yes but that only goes so far, he has to actually make a conscious effort if he wants to acquire power.
@@thefanwithoutaface8105 And even with what's been shown I don't feel like Leon's OP. He might be better than a lot of them NOW, thanks to his knowledge and his acquired AI partner... But as the others mature and learn more, he's likely to fall off and become more equal to them.
@@Kyle_116 Exactly, Leon has knowedge which is useful and Luxion is useful but Leon himself isn't overpowered. He needs his mech suit and ships to be a serious threat to anyone. If he were to fight someone without any of his gear, he'd lose. Can't say the same for characters like Ainz, Rimuru, Hajime, etc.
I said to myself that the otome isskai was a bit of a surprise, because it's a genre seemingly only entered by generally capable creators investing in doing good work, and I was dead curious to see someone drop the ball and make some serious trash out of the set up. But sure enough, the curse of 'every otome anime is secretly amazing' strikes again. Curses, yes, definitely curses.
Trapped in a dating sim is actually very "good for an isekai," the whole first great arc is very solid and self contained, except for the MC's unwillingness to unleash a robot apocalypse as a way to solve his problems Too bad they had such a small budget, they had to sacrifice the character's animation in order to have decent mech battles Skeleton Knight is another super tier trash, its as generic as it gets, but without bullshit justifications, pretty enjoyable
I was so surprised by trapped in a dating sim, I thought it was going to be some misogynist “women are so bad” garbage like redo of a healer but more pg. I was surprised by how quickly it became a solid fairly comedic and engaging 7 or 8 out of 10 anime.
i dont think redo of healer has a "women are bad" theme in general, i mean mc got abused by everyone because "hero fluids increase level caps". redo of healer is so bad no amount of colorful language could do it justice but i dont think its msogynistic or at least i didnt see it
For about half an episode I was unironically on board with greatest demon lord reborn as a typical nobody, because it pretends it's going to be about a guy who can't make friends because he can't act normal to save his life. But then it suddenly makes a hard turn and becomes literally every other reborn demon lord anime, and just like, why.
Trapped in a Dating Sim has one of the best protagonists to date, alongside Leo Demonheart from I'm Quitting Being a Hero and a few others I've seen this past season. You witness Leon's struggle with his inability to process this new world he's been reincarnated to as a reality because not only does he have a genuine desire for a passive life, but it's also a great character arc for him to go through until he's accepted the fact that he's more than just a mob and unveils the curtain of classic protag density. As for Greatest Demon Lord Reborn as a Typical Nobody, I love it because it's trash. A guilty pleasure like Gundam SEED and its dumpster fire of a sequel. At least, that's my opinion.
What sucks about Demon Lord is that I felt the first few episodes were actually pretty good, but when the Dragon King showed up I felt the Story just went down hill. I am still watching it, but its just not as good as I felt it could have been.
I would have to say that at least two of the selections you made for this spring, I have been watching. Trapped in a Dating Sim is a refreshing take on the Isikai genre, and it is nice to see how our hero wants nothing but a peaceful life, but his knowledge of the game and the fact there is a second reincarnated person in the story who is upending the story to her own ends is wonderful Your rating of it was perfectly stated. As for Shin Ikki Tousen, the original actually had me go out and research the Legend of the Three Kingdoms, and dear lord it is even more confusing than the anime. With this continuation, I look forward to more insanity.
I just want to take a moment to thank you, Geoff, not just for this video, but for all the videos on your channel. They bring me so much enjoyment and have led me to some of my favorite shows and manga of all time, and every time I get a notification that you’ve posted something new I get such a genuine rush of joy. Thank you for all the hard work! -signed, someone who can’t stop rewatching your content
I'm honestly surprised how much you liked Trapped in a Dating Sim. I'm currently reading the LN and I'm having a good time, but I can't stand the anime's art style. But you basically hit all the points as to why the series is enjoyable.
I also read the LN version first and yeah I kinda wish the anime adaptation could have been better. BUT! I still enjoy watching it. OP and ED were absolute bob, and Leon's Voice actor totally nailed his snarky character to the t
Trapped in a Dating Sim's is much more fun and interesting than I expected. Also THE SOUNDTRACK! Like wtf, the ost is so good that actually feels out of place in this show
I don't see the "weak" romance aspect of a Couple of Cuckoos to be a detraction. The character dynamics are still really good, it's just not focused on the romance for once. It's kind of refreshing to see a romance anime setup not immediately jump to the romance. It adds a layer of realism to the absurd premise, since the characters are acting more like how real people would actually act in such a situation. It's neat seeing them develop this close friendship instead of immediately falling head over heels for each other. I have a feeling it's setting up for a slow realization of love which you don't see nearly often enough and I'm looking forward to.
your roasting anime video are some of the most hilarious things i've seen. i cant express with words how much they have helped me. thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Went into this video thinking it was a coin flip as to whether or not Birdie Wing would be on it, I see you have chosen correctly. It's just a genuinely amazing show, the biggest-brained sports anime I've ever seen, and I want it to run for 500 episodes and never stop escalating. The SHOW has a frigging UNDERGROUND MAFIA GOLF GEOFRONT in it by episode FOUR. It is simply incredible.
Geoff, I would like to ask that in this upcoming season, don't disqualify witch from Mercury for being a sequel, because it's not. Yes, it's part of a preexisting franchise, but it's also stated to be a new, standalone story not connected to the other entries, and is specifically designed for newcomers. It really shouldn't be treated as a sequel for the purposes of your seasonal anime videos.
Is it really? I wanted to watch more Gundam but haven't seen any from the UC timeline. That's a relief. Iron blooded orphans was great for a newcomer like me
1:02 THIS! I swear, CG must have killed every person on there's parents with how much they hate anything that even dabbles in it. I get liking more "traditional" animation over it but no matter how well animated or designed, if the show uses CG it's an automatic 2 point deduction on overall scores. Ninja Batman fucking slaps, they're all just cowards.
There's a bias towards traditional animation because people are used to it. That said when the cg quite simply looks like shit it's hard to argue on its behalf. It's like saying horse manure is an acquired taste.
Well, I never heard anyone complain about the CG in JJBA or the ufotable Fate animes. The issue is that most CG, at least in recent memory, is a product of a studio's finance dept rather than the animation dept. So when people see CG, unless it knocks their socks off, they get suspicious that it was done for budget purposes. Yes, it's an unfair standard, but it exists for a reason. It's also worth noting that bad art stands out more than good art, and this applies to CG as well. A good example is Shield Hero s1 ep15(?), where there is a CG T-Rex that (imo) looks great until it starts fighting a horde of copy-pasted CG Chocobo trash that ruins the whole scene.
@@Rudoku1 Well, I didn't hear complaints about the CG in JoJo Parts 1 thru 4, which is as far as I watched. JoJo Part 3 hit deep, like that scene from COD:MW where your chopper gets nuked out of the sky and you're forced to crawl around a burning wasteland before dying in agony. JoJo Part 4 hit like COD:MW2 where the devs saw how much players loved that scene, so they did it like 3 more times. Just killed the magic of it for me.
Thing that sucks about Shield Hero? I already started watching it back when it had half decent ideas and I am functionally incapable of dropping shows until they're over. So...sucks to be me I guess. Also, man, you're dropping way too much flawed but kinda good actually anime into this! Give us some real garbage! I know you can find it even in "good" years. I know that's dregs of anime production that even you have been loath to touch! Show us the goods!
If you're looking for something that makes the series a little better, there's a decently sized fanfic that follows Malty after she dies against the Church and wakes up before the heroes arrive. She's still a shitty person, but now she's a believable shitty person that you feel a smidgen of pity for. You can find it as the only fanfic listed under the "Malty/Raphtalia" tag. Also sadly perpetually unfinished as the author ragequit fanfiction.
Just read the web novel for shield hero. It's like the LN and anime, but Naofumi doesn't become different people to service the plot and it isn't bloated.
I am watching like over 10 this season. this season has been my most packed and anticipated in history to be honest and funnily enough one of the anime he has in this video "Kakkou no Iinazuke". was one of my top ones and most anticipated ones
Yeah, I feel like “Don’t Hurt Me Healer” is a victim of bad pacing... a lot of the jokes from the manga just don’t work as well, because it takes like 1.5 minutes to tell any of the jokes as opposed to a few pages. I feel like it would work better if they just halved the length of the episodes without changing anything else, as it would probably work a lot better with a quick and snappy pacing.
I think a lot of it depends on the viewer's perception as well. Many seem to think that Carla is a terrible healer, with Arthur having to suffer due to that. To me, it comes across more like an experienced MMO player coming across a total newbie and going along to watch over them, but having a bit of fun messing with them along the way. Not that Carla is your typical healer, mind you, but, well, Arvin is the type of anime protag I normally hate... the type that believes charging in and yelling loudly will win the day. The type that should not make it to the end of the first episode, let alone the end of the series. So, Carla good fun, Arvin dumb, obnoxious idiot who suffers, and that makes it all good.
Aaaaw, I'm glad you liked Trapped in the Dating Sim isekai, that one was a fun one and also the amount of spite he has towards the harem characters is amazing and it was fun to see him beat them up. Heh. Plus it's hilarious to see him point out why he hates them all lol.
I definitely thought trapped in a dating sim was gonna be my trash isekai of the season from my first glance at it and drop it after a few episodes, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought. The characters are fun to watch and end up getting more depth than you're lead to believe, though I can't tell if it's intentional or not. The whole show combines a bunch of elements from different types of games and it somehow works. It's kind of brilliant in how it gives off the vibe of being bad, but is actually has effort and thought put into it's writing and world. It's certainly not my favourite show this season, but man do I unironically like this quite a bit. Glad to see you talk about it as I thought it would get overlooked since I almost did too.
So I know this is taboo here, but... what is the exact rating system based on the dumpster fires? What is more/less/differently trashy based on the rating? Upon finishing the trapped in an otome game section, I think I’ve FINALLY figured it out.
Wow, you must have had a really hard time setting up this season's trash tasting menu, considering that the first two entries actually sounded pretty good, and that now I'm going to watch the second one unironically
If I could make one recommendation for anyone interested in checking out "Trapped in a Dating Sim" it would be to check out its dub. It's really good and the sheer amount of scenery the main character's voice actor can chew is honestly astounding.
Really should've mentioned that in Otome the MC literally goes for Milf Queen of the country since he's traumatized by the shit amount trash nobility girls in his academy. And he actually succeeds with it!
@@neonalchemy9492 He does, which is why _Demon Lord Reborn_ comes off as *way worse* than _Trapped in a Dating Sim_ on here, with him admitting that he's unsure if _Trapped in a Dating Sim_ should even be on here.
"And you might think that contradicts the initial premise of the story but.. shut up!" really got me man, I saw it coming, haven't watched that show saw it coming, but man that hit well
I’m sure that I am probably in the minority on this but having watched all of the episodes available so far I actually like A Couple of Cuckoos. I think the plot is interesting and I like the characters and I’m interested to see where it goes from here but I will say that it is missing more of the romance aspect
This season's trash anime is like going on a first date with a lady you met at the laundry mat at 2am and promising her a 3 course meal at a fancy restaurant but having to settle for McDonald because you are broke and you picked up a lady at a laundry mat at 2am so how classy an she be.
Trapped in otome sometimes does interesting commentary about gender roles, but then it suddenly flips back to him being the cool suave harem protagonist who ends up saving the damsel in distress by fighting for her honour Like yeah women have the main power in this world, but besides his complaints here and there (which feel seriously incelly at times) he still ends up as the main cool guy. Idk its enjoyable but also irritating cus it had the potential to be better
@@EpicGamerWinXD69 strangely I actually really like how they animate the eyes. I also think they do a pretty good job of subverting the blank slate protagonist trope but the light novel is definitely better
I was legitimately upset when you included Mob on this list and then I felt better the more you talked about it. I love the novel and the manga so much, and even though the quality of the animation is way lower than I think the story deserved, I'm still stoked to have more people get exposed to what I think is a truly wonderful story
Trapped in a Dating Sims English Dub has extra jokes and snide comments from the main character that makes it seem like the shows premise is taking itself less seriously and is pretty enjoyable for what it is
Hey Geoff, I know this video is a few days old, and there's not a huge chance you or many others will see it, but I just saw the videos by J.J. McCullough discussing Bill C-11. A bill which, if passed by the Canadian senate, stands to give the Canadian government the power to fundamentally shift how TH-cam prioritizes videos to promote "Canada-friendly" content. Or at least, what the Canadian government THINKS is Canada-friendly. As a Canadian TH-camr of mild acclaim, I thought you should know if you aren't already aware. And I think a lot of us Canadian watchers would appreciate you amplifying the noise rallying against these shenanigans before we face the biggest successful act of misguided censorship the western Internet has ever seen. If you see this, thank you dearly. Keep on with the videos, and keep on being you.
Damn you hit the nail on the head for Rising of the Shield Hero. If I wasn't watching it with someone more invested than I am, I wouldn't be still hanging on. It's also somehow nostalgic to know that I will be able to go back to Ikki Tousen and be absolutely just as confused as when I was last there. (thanks to some poorly translated fan-subs) How fitting that Hakufu has a sister that to my knowledge has never been previously mentioned! If you squint hard you can pretend there is a real story hiding in there somewhere, it's just hard to figure out where it's hiding. Maybe a few more frames of ultra zoomed in butts will help! :) Never change Ikki Tousen... truly you are the savior we deserve!
not gonna lie; shield hero's "wear this fursuit for high stats" is probably one of these few isekai-rpg jokes I've actually laughed at
Yup- the stupid clothes was a nice touch but again with the slave seal. At this point bro should just hire the slave trader.
One of them housed the soul of the winner of a fursuit dancing competiton.
Infinite Dendrogram had basically the same thing, except without the slavery. If I had a nickel for every SAO-adjacent anime where one of the supporting characters wore fursuits that gave surprisingly high stat bonuses...
That's just Kuma Kuma Kuma bear's basic premise.
You gotta love how not only did they mix up two babies, they mixed up two babies of a different gender, hair color, eye color, and wearing different clothes.
I know... they could have at least drawn them to look more similar as babies XD
Sad funny thing is baby swapping use to be a serious problem not all that long ago, people could even easily get into a hospitals and walk out with a kid. Large reasons why they beefed up attention to prevent that from happening because of how frequent it was.
Geoff: "This is a list of trash anime"
Also Geoff: "Trapped in a Dating Sim is actually a pretty good show"
He's right.
This anime is like: you are really loving it and gave it a good rating. Then after a few days you'll regret that why you watched such a bad anime.
@@docilelikewintercatfish Not at all, it's been in my top 3 favorites this season.
@@peaj4812 Same here. The other two being Spy x Family and Ascension of a Bookworm.
@@segevstormlord3713 Yep and Yep! Can't get enough of them.
The Shield Hero saying “its shieldin’ time!” was peak fiction. Easily one of the animes ever made
Can't argue with this, definitely one of those anime that was made. Ever.
Definitely one of those anime which is
And then he shielded all over them...
The reason I like the show and give it a 7/10 is because of the scene where instead of executing a certain person, they rename her Bitch and her adventurer name Whore. That scene took me aback so much that I loved it XD
It worked out for it. First anime to ever garner 100 Shieldillion members on MAL
Trapped in a Dating Sim’s is suprisingly really enjoyable. The first two episodes are a bit off putting but after that the anime finds its charm. The mc isn't a pure good boi and he is okay with that.
The show is like finding a wet and dirty 20dollar bill in a bin you shouldnt reach your hand into.
That description is honestly the best way you can describe it. I expected to laugh at the cliches in the manga, but it does a decent enough job on reinforcing the things that make it different, surprisingly. Wonder how the rest of it will go.
Perfect description
I knew the show from the manga and it's heartbreaking to see that it got dog shit budget.
The mc got the same charm as kazuma from konosuba, just in a slightly serious genre...it sure is fun for sometimes but kinda went repetitive at some point...simply said a good series with trashy moment in it, or trashy series with good moment in it, dunno which the better suited one
Seriously... there's not many moments in anime as satisfying as Bartfort beating the pretty boy princes with a shovel.
In “Trapped in a Dating Sim’s” defense, the lore of the game world is greatly elaborated and expanded upon starting toward the end of Vol. 3 of the LN, and there is some genuinely good worldbuilding to be found in the series, but the anime will end before we get to that point, unfortunately.
I was surprised to enjoy it and will definitely read it when i have a chance
Nice PFP
I could say the same for The Rising of The Shield Hero, but with the way things are going, season 3 will have the plot that addresses most complaints
But the manga shall endure?
Yeah, this is one of those cases of bad adaptation compared to a bad source like SAO.
I think “Trapped in a Dating Sim” just received the most glowing review ever given in a trash anime of the season video. I’m shook.
It made me genuinely interested in checking it out at some point.
@@mediawarmonger3850 Do it. The anime is kind on the cheap side, so you might as well go for the manga.
It's honestly a lot of fun. But the MC is super grating at time
It sounds genuinely good!
I'm actually checing it out based on this video. It sounds kinda sick.
Trapped in a Dating Sim actually does something interesting near the end of the season where it follows through with the consequences of the Isekai MC being overpowered. His relationship with the original protagonist girl suffers a major blow because she is never given room to grow into her own person. The anime acknowledges that the stark power imbalance between the two of them created an unsustainable foundation for a friendship.
I really like the show, somehow his pettiness just becomes my spirit animal over time in the plot. He really does the same thing hero's do just for more believable reasons.
I swear that happened in another "reincarnated into a dating sim" manga, one of the ones where a girl is reincarnated as the "rival" character. Rather than being a "mean villain" like she's supposed to, she keeps trying to protect the Main Character girl and inserts herself into every conflict to defend MC girl, and at some point realizes this has caused MC girl to have no character development, thus resulting in a bunch of "bad endings." And I cannot for the life of me remember the name, because there are way too many manga with an "I reincarnated as the villain of an otome game" plot.
Yes there's issues but this explanation is quite misleading. It's not that their relationship as friends is damaged like you're suggesting. It's that he is purposefully distancing himself from her because he believes she should only be involved with the male harem from the otome game and not him. This conflict is a major character development for both her and MC. The last arc of the manga ended with this conflict and it was resolved nicely.
@@GoddoDoggo - I believe what you’re describing is My Next Life As A Villainess. And I don’t think she causes bad endings by doing that. Instead she ends up going from antagonist to protagonist because she gets the romantic interests, rivals and the og protagonist to fall for her instead but she’s so oblivious that she has no idea that she created a mix gender harem for herself.
I have a feeling the inevitable season 2 of that show is gonna retcon that to shit
Trapped in a Dating Sim wins this season's award for "Most Exceeded Expectations". It SHOULD be trash, but has been unironically entertaining with only a hint of grime in the corners. I went from rolling my eyes at the plot to being genuinely invested in how this season wraps up.
I vividly remember my brain being totally off as I scrolled novelupdates' page, ready to skim through some garbage, saw the title, thought it sounded shit, read for like 10 minutes and actually got fairly hooked. By no means a masterpiece but pretty solid.
What I've learned from Goeff's hottest trash is that they're mostly junk food type of animes - not the classics or MUST WATCH but def you can find them really enjoyable or even your fave. I'm unironically wanting to add this anime to my to watch list after enjoying Geoff's My Isekai Life and Black Summoner onto my list with his other vid.
I legit got hooked when my friend showed it to me, I thought it was just gunna be some throwaway anime that has a few funny moments but I've genuinely loved the story to the point I got all of the LNs lol although it has gotten pretty repetitive but there's usually some new, interesting or funny stuff to keep me mostly happy
@@anotherrandomtexan25yeah, plus the in the ln, you'd get surpriseingly good world building and drama too❤❤ . And it actually has good character development as it progresses.
But the best part of this series is definitely it's comedy,not just from our sarcastic mc, but also from other characters like the idiot brigade and mari. 😂😂
Episode 8 is when Trapped in a Dating Sim won me over, because it addressed one of my greatest bugbears in anime: the protagonist's gobbling up of all agency. It actually made the protagonist face the consequences of that and is turning it into a character growth arc. Time will tell whether it's executed competently, but that they addressed it at all is keeping me hooked.
Due to the anime sadly having low chances of a S2. the next arc is even better. All his mistakes and naivety all comes to bite back his ass, and he has a harder time to fix it. This is sadly why im disappointed with the animation, if the reincarnated demon king studio and trap in dating sim studio switched, i could see it getting a S2.
you should get the light novel a read, it actualy adresses him seizing all agency in more details...
[spoiler]
...especialy when he gets into contact with more reincarnated people who also want to get things into their hands... it turns them into antagonists because they have conflicting stances and trust issues on what to do with all the power
The name "Ard Meteor" when said out loud sounds exactly like a Warhammer 40k Ork describing what their ideal steak would be like
Who wouldent want a steak like that?
@@swingkapp3994 Presumably the afore mentioned orks, though I'm not familiar enough with the game to confirm their taste preferences
TF2 and Warhammer 40k were the first things that flashed into my mind when I heard it. We sharing a brain cell here or something?
Thanks...I hate it
I'd like an 'ard meteor steyk, extra grot fingas. Da crunchy zound iz zoggin' good!
Here is the thing about Trashy anime.
We all need it from time to time just like we all need that late night Taco bell once in a while. You'll enjoy it in the moment, then regret spending your time with it later.
In both cases, best enjoyed near or on the toilet
I live for trashy anime
@@zerofox641 you know what's up.
if every anime is amazing, then no anime is amazing. We need trashy anime shows to appreciate good ones.
More like we need trashy shows to balance out the good shows.
That's a more fair analogy.
things got so well by Naofumi's standards that they HAD TO TOSS HIM ONCE MORE INTO ANOTHER WORLD TO DO IT ALL AGAIN
But actually though is this the most popular (er, well, have the most brand recognition) isekai-ception ever? It's a straight isekai within an isekai.
@@isaac_marcus I lost interest after the turtle arc. At the time, I didn't have it in me to wait for each weekly chapter when the hero just went back to square one when the original world wasn't fully explained.
@@chrisdaughen5257 oh I agree it is super frustrating. I'm enjoying all the headcanons it's giving me but as far as the actual show... I'll stick with it in hopes it picks up but not feeling great
And the villain is so comically evil, it's bad..
@@isaac_marcus Technically overlord fits as well
I love how “Trash” has gone from insult, to criticism, to critique, to genre
Demon King Gets Reincarnated makes me sad. I actually enjoyed the first episode. I thought it was cute watching a grown adult in a child's body run around town trying to make friends with people for the first time and not get what he's doing wrong. And when they actually did become friends I felt pretty genuinely happy for both of them.
Sadly, right after that however it immediately jumped straight into boring fantasy magic school harem nonsense and I was super disappointed. Show would have been ten times more enjoyable if the whole thing was the MC trying and failing at making friends. I would have watched that
Yeah. A big problem with light novels is that the "hook" to draw people in usually gets resolved within the first chapter or two and then the rest is just your standard boring overpowered protagonist harem plot. In this case, the MC reincarnated to become a weakling so he could make friends, but is still so powerful compared to everyone else and makes friends quickly that it completely invalidates the original premise. I remember one manga where the main character was cursed so he was starting to lose his levels to the point that he couldn't keep up with the hero's party anymore so they booted him out. In the very first chapter, he comes across a girl that is able to remove the curse making him super strong again. Instead of an epic journey with him trying to remove the curse while getting weaker and figuring out how to overcome that, the entire premise is resolved right away so now he can be awesome and pick up a harem of beautiful girls without actually having to struggle and the "cool" hero party get to look like a bunch of stupid jerks. Gosh it was so stupid.
It is sad how often this kind of thing happens. The Shield Hero chapters where he's a dad forcing a child soldier into being his weapon, those are cute and heart warming. There's one series where the unconventional and fun shark girl gets turned into a generic titty kitty slave. They start with some good things going on, and then crush them.
I've read tons of smut with much better story structure. How to Kill Reincarnators From Earth sneers at the trope of women being nothing more than trophies for the MC. The Saint's Dungeon Business - all the heroines have their own stories and problems THAT DON'T GET RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY, that have their ongoing story threads. So you have this thing called texture, and variety as the heroines cycle in their turn to take the lead? The elf archmage girl being treated like an idol by tons of mages, and having to go into hiding to avoid her crazy stalker fans (compared outright in the text to sasaeng stalkers): that idea alone is enough to build a whole manga around on its own. And it's just a subplot.
The problem isn't with the fantasy magic school harem nonsense, it's the BORING part that's important here. That's endemic to lots of anime: how many Dragon Ball or Magical Index characters become completely superfluous, with nothing to strive for or do? But they still hang around onscreen, like some kind of ghost that won't go away?
The friend collector genre is an appealing one to most people so I don't begrudge the concept. But friends, sometimes they need to go away and come back later. And I understand that a life full of constant problems is annoying, real life is hard and cruel, but being forced to react to your environment a little is what our brains were designed to do. (Saiki K is a great series where the little problems the OP protagonist has to put up with gnaw at his soul.)
TLDR: Mangas are drawn by and successful mostly based on the ability of the creator to draw pretty lines. Story is tertiary, if even that. Please enjoy the last 300 chapters of Bleach, everyone.
If you want a story, go read a webnovel.
As Geoff said, "...everyone wants to be his friend now...because obviously you want to be friends with a strong person so they can protect you from scary stuff...and, you might think that contradicts the initial premise of the story, but...Shut UP!"
I had pretty good laugh at that line, and its masterful, deadpan delivery. 😛
Demon King-san can't communicate.
Or Maou-sama Can't Communicate. Sounds better, I guess.
I'd watch that show.
I dropped it after Ep. 7. I can't stand the plot anymore.
Trapped in a dating sim was so much more enjoyable than I expected when I first just jumped into it, I only wish the art quality and animation had more budget for me to recommend to someone that would actually watch it
Yeah I started watching it then bought the entire light novel series and I gotta say it’s a lot of fun
You should definitely check the manga (i felt like you really helped with that itch)
@@raeldri5867 I would HIGHLY recommend checking out the actual source material being the Light Novels over the manga adaptation. The official licensed English translated LN volumes are even better and are WAY farther ahead of the manga adaptation.
@@Branden13able are they expensive and where would I be able to get them?
@@dragondude1012 Already forgot about the Bookwalker add in the beginning huh.
I am so happy that Trapped in a Dating Sim made this list. It's pretty rare that I manage to spot enjoyable trash before a TH-cam Anime Reviewer recommends it to me. And I love it so much. I don't usually like protags who are overly self-loathing and spiteful, but he's clearly having so much fun in spite of himself. It's kind of like the Angry Video Game Nerd got isekai'd into an otome game.
Yeah I was reading the manga adaptation and I looked forward to every chapter, I rate the crap out of it.
The weirdest part about reading the LN is that somewhere along the line, you stop reading it as a silly power fantady wish fulfilment, and continue reading it as an interesting story that has bizarrely deep worldbuilding to reconcile the insanely shoddy writing of the original otome game with the sci-fi apocalypse of its history.
It gets extremely, extremely good without you realizing it until you're blitzing through volume 6 and realize you haven't eaten in the past 9 hours
@@andrewcapra7153 Is it out in manga form? Something about light novels just tends to turn me off, even though I love reading even things as simple as young adult novels. Maybe it's the over-simplicity of the style plus awkward translations, but if it's at least in manga form I find I can stomach it better.
Gg duee :)
Do not skip the outro. It's hilarious.
But also don't stick around too long after the outro. Geoff wouldn't like that.
why isn´t this pinned
That outro was fantastically written and delivered. I'd say more, but the waiter is shoving me out of the alley because someone else happened to fall into this one in a drunken stupor.
The absolute best part about Trapped in a Dating Sim in my opinion is that the main character is deliberately being an asshole to everyone that deserves it. But a gentleman to everyone who deserves to be given the respect they sorely lack after being displaced from their original fates, just as his master has taught him.
The first 10 chapters of the manga were amazing , but later the art and story fell down the drain
I respect the first one actually incorporated the "we're not _actually_ siblings" card by saying it came from her reading too much trashy manga.
Self aware trash tends to be pretty good trash.
It's funny how things have come full circle. When I was young, I loved trash anime. Then I went through a period where I would primarily try to watch what I considered to be "good" anime. As I get older, I am back to loving trash anime again. I still watch all the really good anime every season, but I need to be in the right mindset to enjoy those anime, so I tend to put those on hold for weekends. After working all day, exactly what I need is to sit on the couch, watch some trash anime and relax. On a similar note, I used to not see the appeal of Slice of Life, and now it's one of my favorite genres.
One day everyone will discover that isekais and slice of life are the best genres for anime.
Honestly when you can have a good time with a bad show, then lots of things become fun to watch
THIS. Good anime/ manga must be savoured. Trash anime is enjoyed while half asleep at your couch. I do enjoy some kingdom building manga just before sleep.
@@Kupoinfo it is not the best gerne when you’re watching it with your brain turn on. It’s good when you have it turn off.
On the topic of slice of life, holy crap Heroines Run the Show is good.
What’s funny about shield hero season 2 is after they got through the Adamantoise arc (not the name of the giant turtle, but cmon that’s what it is) they immediately got back to and expanded on that concept they teased at the end of season 1 with the multiple isekai worlds and possible multiverse war with a central villain
Agreed. So far it's definitely shaping up as half a season of trash and (hopefully) half a season of what made it one of the better non-prestige isekai. It'll never be Re:Zero or Mushoku Tensei, but the two good episodes we've had so far are still preferable to yet another "X was reborn as a Y" show.
Honestly I feel like the director heard 'the tortoise arc isn't great' and decided to just speed run it, cutting out a bunch of stuff, including a few of the things that were actually quite good about it. There was a bunch of cool stuff they cut out in the first half, including some development for the other heroes and Naofumi that it was a generally awful adaptation, but they're getting back on track with the second half, even if they heavily deviated from the novel in one key aspect. I love the show so I hate that the first half of series 2 looked so bad
@@frostyblade8842 They decided to speedrun it so they cut anything and everything interesting about it leaving only the boring turtle squashing only interrupted by a couple quick exposition dumps which ironically makes it feel very long and drawn out despite how fast it's going.
@@frostyblade8842 they somehow managed to cut every single interesting part about the turtle arc while leaving the boring unnecessary shit untouched, if they were really trying to speedrun the spirit turtle they could have done all of it in 4 episodes and focus the rest of the season on the double isekai arc but instead they got stuck on the lame middle ground of "too short to feel naturally paced" and "too long to be interesting"
Shield Hero became worse with every adaptation: from web novel to light novel, and from light novel to anime. Characters become dumber, the plot becomes more bloated. Just sad.
Trapped in a Dating Sim has absolutely no rights to be good, but is an oddly interesting experience. Leon is both ridiculously funny in his "prideful villain" thing, but also interesting in his own hipocrisy of wanting to live a peaceful life yet still doing things that bring attention to himself, which end up cascading into even more attention-bringing situations. Angie and Olivia also have a very interesting dynamic, specially considering how they were supposed to be the protag and antag of the story. I ended up reading the manga and a bit of the LN because I got genuinely into this trash-looking show.
Now if only the artstyle of the anime wasn't so... Bad.
The weird thing is the art is reasonably good in the manga but it’s god awful in the anime. I started watching the anime and then got into the light novel and thought man this understands the importance of giving your protagonist a bit of character
I really like the Artstyle. Its a bit generic but it has the right amount of colour and details. Queen is really hot tho. I m down bad for her.
Yea I was expecting it to flop hard cause of the hentai lookin ass art style but it's doing better than I anticipated.
@@xvaldez3284 the story, voice acting and ost hard carry it.
Angie and Olivia are the unfortunately far too rare harem sister wives that minus the MC would probably carry on their own relationship, and I'm 100% for ACTUAL polyamorous "harems"
Geoff - “This is a list of trash anime”
Kongming shows up and my heart breaks and then Geoff says “IF YOU HAVE GOOD TASTE” I was like THANK GOD
I'm actually really glad that "Trapped in a Dating Sim" got such a glowing review in this video. I honestly adore the series.
I started with the anime at first, it started at the bottom of my list when considering what animes would be good for the Spring Season. I thought it would probably just follow a lot of the normal isekai stereotypes, but as I watched it, it completely surprised me with how good it was! Great World building, a fascinating political system, surprisingly deep characters, and a main character that actually has a fun and interesting personality that isn't just an audience self insert.
So I had to know more, I then proceeded to read the Manga. (Chef's Kiss)
I was astounded by how good this story was. The anime had already sold me on the idea that this story was definitely worth my time, but the Manga is just on a whole different level. Going into even more world building, character development, and political intrigue that the anime just simply doesn't have time to expound upon. It genuinely impressed the hell out of me.
I keep hearing people say that the Light Novels are even better than the Manga, which at this point, I can't even imagine how, considering how utterly impressed I've been by just reading the Manga series. If I have the time for it, I'll try to dive into it, but for now I feel content with how both the anime and manga series have been.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting it when I picked up this series, but I feel I can confidently say, it's probably the best Isekai Anime to be released for the spring season.
And Marie is best girl, trust me
And you can read the side story of Marie Route, that IF storry is soo good
for real, though when i saw ya boy kongming in one of the thumbnails i was like you dare call this trash, that is BLASHPHAMY!
the light novels dive deeper in each of the character's thoughts and motivations and expands on the worldbuilding even more. Trapped in a Dating Sim starts off like a stock otome game isekai, but if you slow down and carefully read you'll find that the game world is ridiculously well developed, both in the meta sense AND in universe. The ramifications of the reincarnators' actions both reflect off the games' events but also comes out in surprisingly realistic outcomes. The romance is a bit smarmy but at least the MC is mostly aware. The MC is also realistically flawed, he's not a moral jesus, or grey moral demi-god (too many isekai MCs fall into either category and they are the blandest types of characters ever), he's a person from 21th century japan thrust into a political hellscape magical fantasy.
ok talking about moral jesus and grey moral demi-gods has got me reminded of my absolutely detested isekai story ever: His Eminence in Shadow. Like god, thats just edge. Pure edge, and just edge. The MC is cringy as fuck, his harem is completely undeserved, the world even is just boring. I absolutely hate that series. The premise is that the MC wants to be this amoral underground shadow organization that manipulates the world or whatever. I was actually hooked by the premise, too many isekai either have a moral jesus or someone who says they are amoral, but obviously isn't. I was fucking tricked. The entire series is one big self gratifying trash piece of a novel that's so utterly uninteresting. The MC creates this organization, filled with girls (bc of course it is), AND HE DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE FUCK ITS PURPOSE IS. His subordinates are often doing stuff in the background that the MC isn't even aware of and never really explained most of the time, and the edgy chuni shit he espouses IS SOMEHOW THE FUCKING TRUTH?!? The MC has zero responsibility for the organization he fucking built and I swear the world itself actually retroactively warps to make the MC look better, because that's all that ever happens and far more conceptually interesting. Like this is the the kind of weird stuff that you find in AO3 not a PUBLISHED FUCKING BOOK. I was bored by the World's Greatest Assassin one too, but at least parts of it was informational and the world wasnt solely written to make the MC look great 24/7, even if they are written kind of flat.
The 1st 3 novels were the peak. The manga is currently at the beginning of vol3. Honestly after that a lot of people don't like the direction it takes because a lot of the initial premise of the story is more or less void at this point and the characterisation after this is not nearly as good. I'm up to the most recent English novel and although still decent it's not really what it was
Damn they really had 2 dollars as a budget for “trapped in a dating sim”, huh? The manga art is actually kind of nice so it feels so jarring watching this and seeing those jank eyes that my 12 year old probably drew… the manga really is nice to read, it’s very funny with deeper characters than I thought we’d get
If you like the series, I highly recommend reading the actually source material being the Light Novels. The manga, like the anime, is just an adaptation of the Light Novel series. The officially licensed English translated Light novels are even better and are WAY farther ahead of the manga adaptation.
@@Branden13able im a picture book guy i need pictures lmaooo
@@fayr1e LNs do tend to have imagery, so you're not out of luck.
Strangely the Animation studio is the same one that did Kono Tomare; maybe if it gets a season 2 they'll kick it up a notch...
It's a complicated feeling, I'm happy that people have been so into it and I'd gladly point them in the direction of the manga or LN if they want more but I'm personally on the verge of dropping it.
When you were describing the "Typical Demon Lord Reborn etc etc", it wasn't until you got to the succubus part did I realise "Wait, I've actually read the light novel this is based on".
Thats how generic these stories have become.
The pieces started falling into place and my mind started pictures several other stories that share the same basic premise.
But why would you read that when you could read something actually good?
@@varenoftatooine2393 You don't know something is good until you try it. And I read it when there was only one volume of the light novel out, so there were only so many reviews
Generic doesn’t mean bad though. Like every shonen is generic and tropey but they still manage to be some of the most popular shows.
@@coasterthekid8867 I agree, but my point is that it literally took a more specific part of the story for me to realise that I had read it.
Truly Geoff is a man of focus, commitment and sheer fucking willpower to sit through all this garbage. Mad respect.
The greatest Demon lord blah blah blah is the worst trash of this season the rest of the anime on this list is at least enjoyable
i get a suspicion that he's actually can't live without those garbage anymore at this point
@@JimboShogun0686 I agree with this. I'm not even sure if Not Milim Nava can make the show bearable.
@@roempoetliar7995 like Garnt said: we are all drawn to a dumpster fire
At this point, Geoff mainlines this stuff straight into his arteries.
"all rooted in real historic fact. Especially the fetish stuff" Who can forget that Sun Quan was so impressed with Lu Meng's troops maid outfits he made him one of the top commanders.
In china it is popular to say that Wei are into NTR, Wu are all lolicons and Shu are all gays
As someone who reads the 'Couple of Cuckoos' manga, I loved the review of it! It makes me laugh and warms my trash heart!
I like Miki Yoshikawa’s other work, like Yamada and the 7 witches or Yankee-kun to Megane-san. I read the first few chapters of Cuckoo a while back but kinda forgot about it. I’ll probably watch the anime now, then that’ll make me want to read the manga🤷🏻
Y’know retrospectively, this season really great of these shows are the only ones that are “bad”. I actually am enjoying all of these
Agreed however shield hero is just dogsshit
@@wimpyweeb it's an okay anime
"Lots of people kick buildings, until they explode. It's a good time."
Your narration style is, as always, so fun to listen to.
I had a similar issue jumping into I'm Quitting Heroing this season, where it starts off as a terribly animated fantasy about an overpowered hero who humanity is scared of due to his sheer difference in power level compared to the demons he's protecting them from, which is valid tbh, with vague allusions to an isekai plot in the background. This is then shattered by the fact that everyone, even the snarky piece of shit protag who you learn why he's a snarky piece of shit protag, go through genuine character arcs and we learn the world is actually a Shannara Chronicles-esque post apocalypse that has developed into a Middle Ages-esque world from repeated destruction as a result of regular demonic invasions and the protagonist is actually a bio-engineered half-demon half-human who has been protecting humanity for multiple millenia that he's built up terrible personalities to cope and because he was programmed to have nothing but the instinct to kill demons and what the actual fuck is going on here.
Wait, hold on. That sounds legitimately interesting.
@@rainylupin Yea it went from an honestly neat concept with some admittedly poor animation (and terrible subtitle QCing from HIDIVE) to "Why am I being Kemono Friends'd again?"
just one question......"should i continue this anime or not??"
coz i already dropped this series after watching 3-4 episodes.
@@sachitechless I don’t even watch it on HIDIVE. But yeah, every week I go to the website to watch the newest episode. I thought the initial premise was cute. Weekly episode the former hero guy helps out another demon general, showing their all lovable idiots that are good hearted people trying to commence a war in the most benevolent way. The demon army goal isn’t even about directly harming or ending humanity, all they want is something the humans possess that can bring a better quality of life to the hellscape of their demon world. So, the demon army has a lot more going for it then the typical take over the world cliche. Then you find out the real history of Leo, which is so I completely hadn’t seen coming. This series and Trapped in a Dating Sim are both my hidden gem series of this season.
I gave up reading halfway into your explaination. Just like I should have given up after the first season of Westworld.
Oh man, props for the Birdie Wing shoutout in the intro- I had such a hard time identifying why the absolute batshit premise actually worked and I unironically loved it until I discovered that it's directed by the same guy who did Tenchi Universe. Also makes sense why the OP is so GOD DAMN UNNECESSARILY catchy. Man has a very specific love of 80s pop.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this same reaction to 'Trapped in a Dating Sim'. My poor brain likes there to be a clear, linear scale from Gold to Trash, and that damn anime just won't pick a spot on it. It's VERY confusing. I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but I need to know if I should be feeling guilty about it, and how much!
Guilt is a weakness. Turn off your brain and immerse yourself in the trash. Advice from a dude who constantly read Chinese cultivation manhua for the lulz.
Make it a 2-axis thing. On the X-axis you have "it's enjoyable" to "it's ass", on the Y-axis you have "it's objectively smart" to "it's objectively trashy". Nyever forget the difference between trash and garbage.
Trapped in a Dating Sim actually really surprisingly good lol i am not ashamed to enjoy it
Also a note on "trapped in a harem anime" the two girls shown are also extremely fond of each other, and the relationship between the 3 act more like a polycule than a harem. On top of that, in the manga it's constantly mentioned that beastmen slaves are used for sex.
Actual poly relationship?!
Based
it'd be cool if a series had the balls to do an actually poly relationship instead of just shitty harems
The 3 MC of Mobsekai relationship is great, each of them fill the holes in their heart perfectly.
@@Dell-ol6hb girlfriend girlfriend is also a great polycule anime
God damn degenerates.
I KNEW Trapped in a Dating Sim would make this season’s hottest trash. The anime is genuinely a pleasant surprise. The plot has been quite engaging, and I’m interested to see what happens next.
Something really important about the otome game one, the details you left out. It's not that the protag played the game for his sister, it's that she blackmailed him into playing it for her while she went to the beach. Similarly, the fake protag does have full knowledge of what to say to charm the pretty boys, but she also has absolutely no knowledge of the RPG side of things (this is something that comes up later).
The whole inversion of gender roles thing could've potentially worked, but I completely lost immersion when I realized that they still had men doing most of the labor, especially the dangerous stuff like military. They could've had women do that especially since the introduction of magic would take away most of the importance that comes with physical strength, but with the men being the ones who handle combat and other tough jobs, it's far less believable that they'd be kept in subservience
Eh, I feel that makes the unfairness more pronounced and makes it more unique instead of generic amazon society.
Less believable? Isn't our real world turning into this?
@@user-uq9oe7sc5m Not exactly, while men nowadays are more careful of not doing the wrong things towards women, far and wide men still completely dominate.
I recently read a isekai with the same idea of "reversed gender roles" and the way they justified was that man weren't able to use any form of magic, which includes body strengthening ones, meaning in this world woman are stronger than man while they have access to magic, why do I point to this fact? Well, because there's a special type of handcuff capable of supressing magic.
@@Maddinhpws Bro I don't think u have been to my country where like according to a statistic report multiple teenagers commit suicide due to false charges of harassment and peer isolation.
Honestly, Trapped in a Dating sim's characters actually surprised me. Like, Olivia's breakdown hasn't even been resolved in a single episode, and that caught me offguard so much I felt like I was 10, experiencing the breaking of the 4th wall.
Well almost all interactions Olivia had with characters who were not Angie or Leon have been building up to her having a mental/panic breakdown regarding her relationship with them. It wouldn't make much sense if it could be resolved within a couple of episodes.
It was interesting and very true to Leon's established character but also punch-drywall level frustrating how he reacted. Of course the whole situation with Olivia and Angie was completely untenable and contrary to his stated goals, and his rational calculation said this was the chance to extricate himself from that.
I'm really interested to see if the story can come up with a good way to resolve the conflict and get Leon to realize what a selfish dickhead he's being.
Hell nah, Trapped in a Dating Sim is unironically amazing!
My god, MB. When you gave your comparisons for Shield Hero Season 2 (which I refuse to retype in fear that each key stroke will break a bone in my hands) I'm preeeety sure that i felt such horrid terror that i screamed for as long as my lungs could allow and only stopped to black out, wake up in the ER and be informed by my loved ones that when they found me i was spraying blood from my throat like a ghastly fountain from Satan's day spa. Long story short, just *hearing* about Shield Hero Season 2 saddled me with heinous medical bill, an extensive deep cleaning invoice, and a modest amount of fresh paint form the hardware store. But I MUST thank you, because if i had watched it myself i probably would've rent reality asunder and driven everyone at least within a 3 mile radius of me insane, so you've actually done me a great favor.
Trapped in a Dating Sim feels like its not really trying all that hard and yet will surprise you with original ideas. My favorite thus far is that, he's doing everything for the poor girl (who's actually the protagonist of the game) and she begins to feel useless or like a pet, because he won't let her fight her own battles.
I also thought it was really clever that the ship/AI he recruits is a DLC he bought in real life to make the game easier. The AI is now making his life a lot easier.
Hands up, anyone who’s old enough that Geoff just needed to say “they made a new Ikki Tousen” to know you were in for a _transcendently_ horny garbage fire.
I might be old enough, but have not watched the original when I watched this glorious garbage bin, yet realising that the entire """"season"""" is just 3-4 episodes made me real sad. I was pumped for this garbage.
Well damn lol
Y'know, there's a potential good idea there in the concept of someone getting stuck in a dating sim that they actively despise. Like, say, a rough and tumble fighter getting stuck in one of those shitty Diabolik Lovers style abusefests and instead of meekly submitting she kicks their asses and just does plot stuff. Or go the old-school Tokimeki route and have the protagonist get so obsessed with the tedious time management stat-raising that they totally forget about the the romance aspects and become a big neurotic ball of hobbies and stress.
Just spitballing, but it seems like "Trapped in a Bad Dating Sim" should be much more fun than a generic isekai.
Also funny: protag is determined to not be protag because she hates all the main characters and ACTIVELY pursues some side character who only ever got like 5 lines of dialogue in the actual game. Except her ignoring the main harem cast just makes them pursue
You will totally love "Endo&Kobayashi's play by play and color commentary" Don't ask. Just read.
The only other anime I can think of about otome games is My next life as a villainess, but there's a bunch of manhwas about the concept I think.
And if not strictly otome games, there's also a bunch of manhwas about being trapped in romance novels or manhwas.
Like "How to survive a romance fantasy" is about someone isekaid into a book and tries to avoid the story and make fried chicken.
Or "If you touch my little brother you're all dead" where she's isekaid into a BL story with her younger brother as the protag and tries to protect him from all the morby love interests. There's probably some other/better ones I can't remember.
Pretty sure that's an actual ending of Tokimeki Memorial
I'm also going to rec "Beware the Villainess", it's a manhwa that's exactly what you're looking for, except the story-within-a-story is a novel instead of a game. It's about someone who reincarnated as the villainess of the novel, promptly realizes all the love interests of that novel are trash when they're real people she has to deal with, and starts beating some goddamn sense into them while befriending the original female lead. AND the manhwa is complete, meaning you can read the entire story!
I'll be honest with you, Trapped in a Dating Sim, outside of the fan favorites SpyxFamily, Love after World Domination, is like one of my favorite show this season. I've even read the first three light novels because I was so enjoying the show and I wanted to read ahead to see what was going to happen. I don't think it's trash. The quality of the animation could be better but the studio is doing the best with what they've gotten and the story sticks enough of the LN's points that I thoroughly enjoy it. There are quite a few episodes I rewatch just because of that.
Well said. Mobseka, much like the incoming Eminence in the Shadow, is just "trashy", not actually "trash".
SAME I like to imagine the subpar art is just part of the lore; as in, this is what the graphics in the original game looked like. I mean, the little bit of real world we see looks half-way descent.
Trapped in a dating sim has been my favorite manga and I like the anime. I just wish it had better animation
It reeks of a JC staff rush job and it runs at pretty break neck pace trying to cram 3 volumes of the light novel into 13 episodes
@@Chuckakhan yup. Likely won’t be a second season but I’ll keep buying the manga when new volumes are out.
Shield Hero is such a frustrating series for me because I do think it actually has the foundation for a good story in place. The first season dropped occasional hints that Naofumi was going to have to grow as a character and ultimately choose to get over his edgelord crap to become the hero the world needed instead of the one it deserved (but that potential plot line is basically dead at this point with Naofumi’s name cleared). And Raphtalia COULD have an interesting character and romantic arc if the story actually bothered to dig into it. What if, rather than simply using the part about her voluntarily remaining a slave as a fig leaf so the plot can have its fetish cake and eat it too, the story put in the effort to show some deeper psychological issue at work? She has a deep fear of being alone and abandoned due to her horrible childhood, what if that plays into her relationship with Naofumi? What if she’s convinced herself that the only she can be certain Naofumi won’t leave her is if he legally owns her? What if the two of them actually had to go through an arc where they learn to fully trust each other and build a genuinely consensual relation?
I know this is just me throwing out ideas on TH-cam, but truly crappy anime don’t drive me to think about all the ways it could work better.
"the edgelord crap" actually made him way more interesting than most isekai characters, i dont want him to go all soft and positive
That was actually good..
I came here immediately after finishing Trapped in a Dating Sim. Gotta say, the glowing review was accurate for the finale of the series too.
As much as A Couple of Cuckoos sounds like absolute trash, the sheer convolution of the premise at least sounds fun as fuck
I’ve been watching it and it’s a fun ride. There’s almost no “romance” just a lot of ridiculous scenarios and laughing at how dumb these characters are.
The ED also slaps
^ absolutely agree with this
It helps that the animation isn’t that bad either
I thought nothing could compel me to watch harems, but... I was wrong 🤤
@@paru-chinbaka5214 I thought so too until I watch 'The World God Only Knows' Now I compare all harem anime to that anime
Trapped in a Dating Sim is an anime I thought I'd hate but I genuinely enjoy. The main character Leon is a major subversion from the normal Isekai Protag, he's not uber powerful like most but he's not helpless thanks to his innate knowledge of the world. He acts like a complete troll and doesn't take anyone's shit but he's still a genuinely good guy who sticks his neck out for others even when he knows full well he'll suffer for it. His relationship with Angie and Olivia is also very sweet as it feels pretty natural and is genuinely fun. I thoroughly enjoy it.
Wait how's that a subversion when we seen or all ready had characters like that.
That like saying the same thing in a death game manga or show when most the characters in that Genre act just like this.
@@lonelywolf5659 Usually Isekai protags end up in the world with some insane amount of power or rare items that basically make them a god. Leon doesn't have any of that. He knows how the game works yes but that only goes so far, he has to actually make a conscious effort if he wants to acquire power.
@@thefanwithoutaface8105 And even with what's been shown I don't feel like Leon's OP. He might be better than a lot of them NOW, thanks to his knowledge and his acquired AI partner... But as the others mature and learn more, he's likely to fall off and become more equal to them.
@@Kyle_116 Exactly, Leon has knowedge which is useful and Luxion is useful but Leon himself isn't overpowered. He needs his mech suit and ships to be a serious threat to anyone. If he were to fight someone without any of his gear, he'd lose.
Can't say the same for characters like Ainz, Rimuru, Hajime, etc.
He is uber powerful, he used paid DLC to cheat his life.
I said to myself that the otome isskai was a bit of a surprise, because it's a genre seemingly only entered by generally capable creators investing in doing good work, and I was dead curious to see someone drop the ball and make some serious trash out of the set up. But sure enough, the curse of 'every otome anime is secretly amazing' strikes again. Curses, yes, definitely curses.
The writer is a guy who admits they were super into otome games and isekai. So he does know his stuff.
Trapped in a dating sim is actually very "good for an isekai," the whole first great arc is very solid and self contained, except for the MC's unwillingness to unleash a robot apocalypse as a way to solve his problems
Too bad they had such a small budget, they had to sacrifice the character's animation in order to have decent mech battles
Skeleton Knight is another super tier trash, its as generic as it gets, but without bullshit justifications, pretty enjoyable
Trapped in a Dating Sim is such a great Light Novel. It deserves way better animation than what it's getting right now
Why is the character design so meh compared to the ln and manga 😭😭😭😭
I was so surprised by trapped in a dating sim, I thought it was going to be some misogynist “women are so bad” garbage like redo of a healer but more pg. I was surprised by how quickly it became a solid fairly comedic and engaging 7 or 8 out of 10 anime.
i dont think redo of healer has a "women are bad" theme in general, i mean mc got abused by everyone because "hero fluids increase level caps".
redo of healer is so bad no amount of colorful language could do it justice but i dont think its msogynistic or at least i didnt see it
wtf you talkin bout daft monke?
It's a take on all the otome games
For about half an episode I was unironically on board with greatest demon lord reborn as a typical nobody, because it pretends it's going to be about a guy who can't make friends because he can't act normal to save his life. But then it suddenly makes a hard turn and becomes literally every other reborn demon lord anime, and just like, why.
Trapped in a Dating Sim has one of the best protagonists to date, alongside Leo Demonheart from I'm Quitting Being a Hero and a few others I've seen this past season. You witness Leon's struggle with his inability to process this new world he's been reincarnated to as a reality because not only does he have a genuine desire for a passive life, but it's also a great character arc for him to go through until he's accepted the fact that he's more than just a mob and unveils the curtain of classic protag density.
As for Greatest Demon Lord Reborn as a Typical Nobody, I love it because it's trash. A guilty pleasure like Gundam SEED and its dumpster fire of a sequel. At least, that's my opinion.
Yeah, did not expect the main characters from either anime to be so good. Especially the 3000 year old scifi battle machine.
What sucks about Demon Lord is that I felt the first few episodes were actually pretty good, but when the Dragon King showed up I felt the Story just went down hill. I am still watching it, but its just not as good as I felt it could have been.
I would have to say that at least two of the selections you made for this spring, I have been watching. Trapped in a Dating Sim is a refreshing take on the Isikai genre, and it is nice to see how our hero wants nothing but a peaceful life, but his knowledge of the game and the fact there is a second reincarnated person in the story who is upending the story to her own ends is wonderful Your rating of it was perfectly stated.
As for Shin Ikki Tousen, the original actually had me go out and research the Legend of the Three Kingdoms, and dear lord it is even more confusing than the anime. With this continuation, I look forward to more insanity.
I just want to take a moment to thank you, Geoff, not just for this video, but for all the videos on your channel. They bring me so much enjoyment and have led me to some of my favorite shows and manga of all time, and every time I get a notification that you’ve posted something new I get such a genuine rush of joy. Thank you for all the hard work!
-signed, someone who can’t stop rewatching your content
I'm honestly surprised how much you liked Trapped in a Dating Sim. I'm currently reading the LN and I'm having a good time, but I can't stand the anime's art style. But you basically hit all the points as to why the series is enjoyable.
Yeah, the animation didn't seem to get much budget. I would recommend the LN instead of the anime.
I also read the LN version first and yeah I kinda wish the anime adaptation could have been better. BUT! I still enjoy watching it. OP and ED were absolute bob, and Leon's Voice actor totally nailed his snarky character to the t
Ever since Prison School, I've learned to never look down on the trash, there might be treasure in there.
Pure culture
Trapped in a Dating Sim's is much more fun and interesting than I expected. Also THE SOUNDTRACK! Like wtf, the ost is so good that actually feels out of place in this show
the slowed down instrumental version of the ED that kicks in at certain emotional moments...chef's kiss
I don't see the "weak" romance aspect of a Couple of Cuckoos to be a detraction. The character dynamics are still really good, it's just not focused on the romance for once. It's kind of refreshing to see a romance anime setup not immediately jump to the romance. It adds a layer of realism to the absurd premise, since the characters are acting more like how real people would actually act in such a situation. It's neat seeing them develop this close friendship instead of immediately falling head over heels for each other. I have a feeling it's setting up for a slow realization of love which you don't see nearly often enough and I'm looking forward to.
Yeah its still trash though and the characters are just boring and cliché
your roasting anime video are some of the most hilarious things i've seen. i cant express with words how much they have helped me. thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Went into this video thinking it was a coin flip as to whether or not Birdie Wing would be on it, I see you have chosen correctly. It's just a genuinely amazing show, the biggest-brained sports anime I've ever seen, and I want it to run for 500 episodes and never stop escalating.
The SHOW has a frigging UNDERGROUND MAFIA GOLF GEOFRONT in it by episode FOUR. It is simply incredible.
Agree with you. Even the golf matches are fun due to the risk involved.
Geoff, I would like to ask that in this upcoming season, don't disqualify witch from Mercury for being a sequel, because it's not. Yes, it's part of a preexisting franchise, but it's also stated to be a new, standalone story not connected to the other entries, and is specifically designed for newcomers. It really shouldn't be treated as a sequel for the purposes of your seasonal anime videos.
Its going to be another AU Gundam much like IBO or Wing. So it should totally be in consideration
Finally another Gundam.
I'm waiting for that one.
Is it really? I wanted to watch more Gundam but haven't seen any from the UC timeline. That's a relief. Iron blooded orphans was great for a newcomer like me
1:02 THIS! I swear, CG must have killed every person on there's parents with how much they hate anything that even dabbles in it. I get liking more "traditional" animation over it but no matter how well animated or designed, if the show uses CG it's an automatic 2 point deduction on overall scores.
Ninja Batman fucking slaps, they're all just cowards.
There's a bias towards traditional animation because people are used to it. That said when the cg quite simply looks like shit it's hard to argue on its behalf. It's like saying horse manure is an acquired taste.
Well, I never heard anyone complain about the CG in JJBA or the ufotable Fate animes. The issue is that most CG, at least in recent memory, is a product of a studio's finance dept rather than the animation dept. So when people see CG, unless it knocks their socks off, they get suspicious that it was done for budget purposes. Yes, it's an unfair standard, but it exists for a reason.
It's also worth noting that bad art stands out more than good art, and this applies to CG as well. A good example is Shield Hero s1 ep15(?), where there is a CG T-Rex that (imo) looks great until it starts fighting a horde of copy-pasted CG Chocobo trash that ruins the whole scene.
Some CG looks terrible, look at EX ARM and Citrus, but other anime, like Etotama, do it well
@@ferrishthefish People shat all on the CG used in JoJo part 6.
@@Rudoku1 Well, I didn't hear complaints about the CG in JoJo Parts 1 thru 4, which is as far as I watched. JoJo Part 3 hit deep, like that scene from COD:MW where your chopper gets nuked out of the sky and you're forced to crawl around a burning wasteland before dying in agony. JoJo Part 4 hit like COD:MW2 where the devs saw how much players loved that scene, so they did it like 3 more times. Just killed the magic of it for me.
You know you're about your shit when your name is Geoff instead of Jeff
Can I just say how much I love you do a 'hottest trash' list rather then a 'worst' list. All the fun of complaining, none of the negativity!
Thing that sucks about Shield Hero? I already started watching it back when it had half decent ideas and I am functionally incapable of dropping shows until they're over. So...sucks to be me I guess.
Also, man, you're dropping way too much flawed but kinda good actually anime into this! Give us some real garbage! I know you can find it even in "good" years. I know that's dregs of anime production that even you have been loath to touch! Show us the goods!
its much better after it got past the trash spirit tortoise arc now
For a show to genuinely be bad, it most likely must be boring and if something is boring, it's just not fun to watch, ironically or not.
Im the same about not dropping whatever I start
If you're looking for something that makes the series a little better, there's a decently sized fanfic that follows Malty after she dies against the Church and wakes up before the heroes arrive. She's still a shitty person, but now she's a believable shitty person that you feel a smidgen of pity for. You can find it as the only fanfic listed under the "Malty/Raphtalia" tag.
Also sadly perpetually unfinished as the author ragequit fanfiction.
Just read the web novel for shield hero. It's like the LN and anime, but Naofumi doesn't become different people to service the plot and it isn't bloated.
I'm only watching 4 shows this season so I'm excited to hear about some of the oddities I missed
Overlord?
;)
I am watching like over 10 this season. this season has been my most packed and anticipated in history to be honest and funnily enough one of the anime he has in this video "Kakkou no Iinazuke". was one of my top ones and most anticipated ones
19:32 yup.
Yeah, I feel like “Don’t Hurt Me Healer” is a victim of bad pacing... a lot of the jokes from the manga just don’t work as well, because it takes like 1.5 minutes to tell any of the jokes as opposed to a few pages.
I feel like it would work better if they just halved the length of the episodes without changing anything else, as it would probably work a lot better with a quick and snappy pacing.
I think a lot of it depends on the viewer's perception as well. Many seem to think that Carla is a terrible healer, with Arthur having to suffer due to that. To me, it comes across more like an experienced MMO player coming across a total newbie and going along to watch over them, but having a bit of fun messing with them along the way. Not that Carla is your typical healer, mind you, but, well, Arvin is the type of anime protag I normally hate... the type that believes charging in and yelling loudly will win the day. The type that should not make it to the end of the first episode, let alone the end of the series. So, Carla good fun, Arvin dumb, obnoxious idiot who suffers, and that makes it all good.
The premise of Trapped in a Dating Sim is legitimately creative and hilarious.
Schools in real life: showing your shoulders will distract other students
isekai schools: just put on pasties
This seasons trash isn’t trash, it’s junk. Magnificent junk that can sell for a pretty penny if you find the right guy.
Edit: Ok, most of them.
Aaaaw, I'm glad you liked Trapped in the Dating Sim isekai, that one was a fun one and also the amount of spite he has towards the harem characters is amazing and it was fun to see him beat them up. Heh. Plus it's hilarious to see him point out why he hates them all lol.
I definitely thought trapped in a dating sim was gonna be my trash isekai of the season from my first glance at it and drop it after a few episodes, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought. The characters are fun to watch and end up getting more depth than you're lead to believe, though I can't tell if it's intentional or not. The whole show combines a bunch of elements from different types of games and it somehow works. It's kind of brilliant in how it gives off the vibe of being bad, but is actually has effort and thought put into it's writing and world. It's certainly not my favourite show this season, but man do I unironically like this quite a bit. Glad to see you talk about it as I thought it would get overlooked since I almost did too.
"Shield Hero Season 2 is trash."
One Punch and Neverland enjoyers: "First time?"
There never was a season two or promised never land. There is no war in ba sing se.
OPM season 2 wasn't bad
@@paru-chinbaka5214 garo's theme song is so good, chills every time it kicks in proper
OPM S2 wasn’t as bad though. It wasn’t as good as S1, but not horrible either.
So I know this is taboo here, but... what is the exact rating system based on the dumpster fires? What is more/less/differently trashy based on the rating?
Upon finishing the trapped in an otome game section, I think I’ve FINALLY figured it out.
Wow, you must have had a really hard time setting up this season's trash tasting menu, considering that the first two entries actually sounded pretty good, and that now I'm going to watch the second one unironically
If I could make one recommendation for anyone interested in checking out "Trapped in a Dating Sim" it would be to check out its dub. It's really good and the sheer amount of scenery the main character's voice actor can chew is honestly astounding.
Really should've mentioned that in Otome the MC literally goes for Milf Queen of the country since he's traumatized by the shit amount trash nobility girls in his academy. And he actually succeeds with it!
You can really talk me into watching good anime man. Your intro made me realize I need to watch your spring 2022 best of.
Strangely amusing when the smells of the dumpster fire was being described is interrupted by an ad selling perfume.
No! Trapped in a Dating Sim is unironically good! Demon lord reborn as an average nobody is way trashier!
Agreed!
Yes this is the hill I would die on
I wounder if he even watches the shows?
@@neonalchemy9492 He does, which is why _Demon Lord Reborn_ comes off as *way worse* than _Trapped in a Dating Sim_ on here, with him admitting that he's unsure if _Trapped in a Dating Sim_ should even be on here.
"And you might think that contradicts the initial premise of the story but.. shut up!" really got me man, I saw it coming, haven't watched that show saw it coming, but man that hit well
Got to say, that Overpowered Protag being reborn as a Overpowered Protag... is hilarious...
Dude you have no clue how happy I am when I see these videos. I fucking laugh my head off all the time. I can’t take it, you’re genuinely funny.
I’m sure that I am probably in the minority on this but having watched all of the episodes available so far I actually like A Couple of Cuckoos. I think the plot is interesting and I like the characters and I’m interested to see where it goes from here but I will say that it is missing more of the romance aspect
Trapped in a Dating Sim in this vid is like finding an undamaged rolex watch in a garbage bin
I’m always shocked how intuitive the garbage-scale here is.
This season's trash anime is like going on a first date with a lady you met at the laundry mat at 2am and promising her a 3 course meal at a fancy restaurant but having to settle for McDonald because you are broke and you picked up a lady at a laundry mat at 2am so how classy an she be.
Tough for a mob is a lot like pickles or cheese, in anything else it would be rotten or trash but I works in that kind of environment.
You still the one guy I watch for anime recommendations. 🐐
Trapped in otome sometimes does interesting commentary about gender roles, but then it suddenly flips back to him being the cool suave harem protagonist who ends up saving the damsel in distress by fighting for her honour
Like yeah women have the main power in this world, but besides his complaints here and there (which feel seriously incelly at times) he still ends up as the main cool guy. Idk its enjoyable but also irritating cus it had the potential to be better
The thing that annoys me about trapped in an otome game is the animation it’s really low quality
Manga Adaptation>>>>
@@Chuckakhan it’s honestly not that bad though, I’ve seen far worse.
@@Chuckakhan the adaptation being low quality doesn't help but like,, i can watch it as 2× speed and it feels okay
@@EpicGamerWinXD69 strangely I actually really like how they animate the eyes. I also think they do a pretty good job of subverting the blank slate protagonist trope but the light novel is definitely better
I was legitimately upset when you included Mob on this list and then I felt better the more you talked about it. I love the novel and the manga so much, and even though the quality of the animation is way lower than I think the story deserved, I'm still stoked to have more people get exposed to what I think is a truly wonderful story
Trapped in a Dating Sims English Dub has extra jokes and snide comments from the main character that makes it seem like the shows premise is taking itself less seriously and is pretty enjoyable for what it is
Hey Geoff, I know this video is a few days old, and there's not a huge chance you or many others will see it, but I just saw the videos by J.J. McCullough discussing Bill C-11. A bill which, if passed by the Canadian senate, stands to give the Canadian government the power to fundamentally shift how TH-cam prioritizes videos to promote "Canada-friendly" content. Or at least, what the Canadian government THINKS is Canada-friendly. As a Canadian TH-camr of mild acclaim, I thought you should know if you aren't already aware. And I think a lot of us Canadian watchers would appreciate you amplifying the noise rallying against these shenanigans before we face the biggest successful act of misguided censorship the western Internet has ever seen. If you see this, thank you dearly. Keep on with the videos, and keep on being you.
Damn you hit the nail on the head for Rising of the Shield Hero. If I wasn't watching it with someone more invested than I am, I wouldn't be still hanging on.
It's also somehow nostalgic to know that I will be able to go back to Ikki Tousen and be absolutely just as confused as when I was last there. (thanks to some poorly translated fan-subs) How fitting that Hakufu has a sister that to my knowledge has never been previously mentioned!
If you squint hard you can pretend there is a real story hiding in there somewhere, it's just hard to figure out where it's hiding. Maybe a few more frames of ultra zoomed in butts will help! :)
Never change Ikki Tousen... truly you are the savior we deserve!