Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 43]
Endmaker@ani.social 3 weeks ago
I gave Zombieland Saga 4 episodes before dropping it. I thought the show is going expand upon the cast’s backstories (e.g. how and why they became zombies). Instead, all it did is have them dance and sing as idols - which I have no interest in. 6 / 10
I binged Summer Time Rendering over the weekend. I can see why The Summer Hikaru Died is getting compared to this. It felt more like a thriller than suspense anime though.
There were sufficient clues, and the development of the plot is standard enough to be predictable.
e.g.
I was able to guess that the head priest is the real antagonist / Shide. tbf he was giving off typical villain vibes. I was also able to predict this one since it is such a cliche: upon resolving the issue, the MC looped right back to the beginning of the show.
I found the way the story developed infuriating at times though. I can’t help but feel that if Shinpei made better decisions (or at least the decisions I would make), or is straight-up replaced by a smarter protagonist, he would not have needed so many loops.
I’d say the real MVP is Ushio. In fact, I noticed this trend of many time travel stories: the male protagonist can go so far only because of a female character.
e.g.
Subaru has Rem in Re:Zero Rintarou has Kurisu in Steins;Gate
Regardless, this show is able to keep me hooked, and I’m sufficiently satisfied with the ending. 9 / 10
I have now watched up to the movie Load Region of Déjà Vu.
Honestly, this is more of a romance anime than time travel / suspense / thriller.
I think it made for a decent epilogue to the main series though. 8 / 10
In fact, I noticed this trend of many time travel stories: the male protagonist can go so far only because of a female character.
The oldest example of the timeloop sub-sub-genre in anime that I can think of, the original Higurashi/When They Cry, gives the male protagonist around a half-dozen female helpers, and everything since seems to have provided at least one. (Higurashi did mix things up a bit by having the odd loop where one or the other of the girls ran violently off the rails.)
Yeah, as much as I like Zombie Land Saga, if you aren’t vibing with the idol storyline, then it isn’t for you. The show is an idol show first, everything else second. They do get into backstories of other characters from time to time, but it is always secondary.
mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Yes