That is the question!
So today was meant to be another day of studying, and once again it wasn’t.
Surprise, surprise!
I meant to do a lot of things today:
- Make sure my washing so it would be dry for tomorrow.
- Do the washing up before I had to cook.
- Clean the drinks fridge shelves.
- Actually do some study.
- Sort the clothes I’m giving away and throw away the clothes that need to be thrown away.
Do you want to know what I got done today?
I got my clothes dry… I also technically did do the washing up before I had to cook, but that was only technically true because my “gut” made me have a break before I started cooking.
So what did I do instead?
Not much, but one thing I did do was watch the first episode of a new Anime.
It was called “Dr. STONE” and it was actually pretty good.
The premise is really kool!
Basically a green light spread across the planet and every human got turned to stone. Everyone is still conscious and can see whatever is in front of them. 3700 years later, our two main characters finally break out of their stone prisons and begin to try and restart the human race from the stone age.
The lead character is a “spring-onion-haired” genius, like, super genius, and his best friend, who is an idiot, but strong!
It’s voice acting was really good, but the idiot friend is the kind of character who literally only shouts, so he might get a little annoying.
The lead is voiced by Aaron Dismuke, who voiced Alphonse Elric in the original Full Metal Alchemist.
It’s always weird hearing Aaron in anything, because he was 11 years old in FMA and now he’s a grown man!
The art style is also a little strange, a little more stylised than I tend to like, but close to the “normal” anime style.
The guys are ripped, and the girls have huge eyes, but like, they-take-up-too-much-facial-real-estate big.
But I liked the first episode, it’s a shame I won’t get to watch the rest of it for a while.
Why is that?
Anime is a passion of mine, I love anime, I have a large collection of anime.
But since I started to properly watch anime I’ve basically had to always buy it on DVD or Blu-Ray to see it.
So that leads to being able to binge-watch it all in a few sittings.
But that’s not how anime comes out in Japan, and with the streaming services of Anime Lab, FunimationNow, and Crunchyroll with their SimulDubs, not how it comes out here anymore either.*
So week by week is not how I’m used to watching Anime, and therefore I don’t like it.
Yet as someone who watched Game of Thrones the day it came out from it’s first episode, I feel like maybe that should change, and I’ll explain why.
My in-laws are re-watching Game of Thrones right now, and binged it to get up to date in time for Season 8, the same as my parents did.
And I noticed something in common between them…
They have absolutely no idea what anyone’s name is!
They have no idea about the connections between people, or why some things happened the way they did.
But I know those names (for the most part… I mean, come on, GoT has too many characters and they all have weird names!) I know those connections, and I know why those things happened the way they did.
But… why?
Well in short… I’m a nerd.
But I honestly think it was because I literally had nothing better to do between episodes or seasons that I’d read the discussion articles online.
I’d look at the theories of what was to come next.
I’d read the articles about why things happened.
I had time to analyse who each character was, and what their connections were.
But I look at Anime, and unless it’s one I’ve watched multiple times, or was super long, or was just so incredible!
I can’t tell you what the names of most of the characters were.
I can probably tell you what voice actors were in it.
I may not even be able to tell you what happened in it if it’s been a while since I watched it.
The exact same issues my parents and in-laws are facing with GoT.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes binge-watching is the way to go.
The best example I have of this is the TV show Lost.
Lost was huge!
It was event TV for a while, and the vast amount of characters and their backstories kept me captivated all the way through its 6 season.
Even when it became a Sci-Fi show about time travel and magical islands that move.
But it wasn’t until I start to binge-watch that I saw just how interconnected all the characters were.
You’d see an important character from someone’s backstory in a flashback for someone else.
You’d see a minor character from “The Others” just appear out of nowhere in another backstory.
It was crazy how interconnected that show was and I only saw that because I binge-watched it.
Because instead of being two whole months after that character was last seen, it’s been about half a day.
I’m sure when Season 8 of Game of Thrones is finally available on Blu-Ray and we start binge-watching it, I’ll be picking up on things I didn’t notice on the first watch too.
So, what am I going to do with Dr. Stone?
I think my wife might like it too, so I’m going to hold off until it’s finished… but I might not always do that.
Tomorrow is my first D&D at The Hall of Heroes… so I think I’ll be a little too focused on getting stuff ready for that to do any major video stuff… but I won’t know until it happens.
* I only watch dubbed anime, as I like to watch my anime, not read it. Plus I love the art of voice acting, and the English actors are pretty damn good at their craft now-a-days!