Devil May Cry 2. It's astonishingly bad, like the designers went out of their way to methodically kill all the fun, leaving you with a bland, boring experience with a barely comprehensible plot and hilariously bad voice acting, the kind that makes Tommy Wiseau sound like Laurence Oliver. It's so bad that even the devs prefer to pretend the game doesn't exist.
Devil May Cry 2. It's astonishingly bad, like the designers went out of their way to methodically kill all the fun, leaving you with a bland, boring experience with a barely comprehensible plot and hilariously bad voice acting, the kind that makes Tommy Wiseau sound like Laurence Oliver. It's so bad that even the devs prefer to pretend the game doesn't exist.
The one good thing to come out of it was that Itsuno was so ashamed of how the game turned out (despite it not really being his fault; Itsuno was the guy who had to course correct after the previous director fucked up so badly) that he became determined to make DMC3 to make up for DMC2. He didn't want to be remembered as the guy who directed DMC2, and considering that he's directed every DMC since, I think he's succeeded.
WARNING: MASSIVE SPERG-OUT AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I already touched upon this both in the "Unpopular Western Animation Opinions" thread, and the Raya and the Last Dragon thread, but that "brown stain on beloved series" title, for me, has to go to Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Let me temper what I'm about to say with this: I've already gone on and on about how much I love the original movie, to the point that it's my favorite Disney movie, and if not the objective best, it's at least in the top 10. Part of the reason for that is because it feels like a labor of love, a true passion project, the kind that's so rare to see anywhere, let alone from (modern) Disney. The reason that it feels like that is, in giving Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois their own film, Disney, unusually, gave them carte blanche to do whatever the fuck they wanted (within reason, of course). They were probably expecting it to tank, like all of their contemporary projects were at the time (Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, et al), but then something incredible happened: it became the only movie they made during that time to actually make a profit. Now that they had a potential cash cow for the first time in a bit of a while, Disney, in typical fashion, had to milk that cow for all it was worth (and oh, did they fucking milk it, but more on that in a moment). The problem was, since it was so unlike anything Disney had ever made before (or, arguably, since), they didn't know what the fuck to do with it. In fact, a bit of a hot take here: if the original Lilo & Stitch had been made by, say, Dreamworks (in their 2D days), or Warner Bros., it would enjoy a much better legacy than it does today.
So, I guess I should've seen it as inevitable that the built-from-the-ground-up-to-be-commercial TV show and its related media would disappoint me so much, but my God, the way that they took a giant, steaming shit over everything that made the original movie so great still pisses me off to this day. For example, the top-notch characterization that I raved about in my original post?
Fixed that for ya, bud. Seriously, most of what you said about Atlantis could also apply to L&S, if not more so. Great animation style? Check (THOSE WATERCOLORS THO). A plot that has shades of darkness and top-notch characterization? Check. Unique characters that totally break the stereotypes of western animation?
Let's see - we have...
Lilo Pelekai - One of the best written child characters in not only animation, but also all of fiction. She can be nice and sweet sometimes, and at other times she can be annoying, mischievous, cocky and/or selfish. Just like a real kid.
Nani Pelekai - Not only one of the most realistic-LOOKING women in the Disney canon, but the most realistic in her behavior as well. She doesn't always gets things right, and is obviously overwhelmed by her now having to take care of Lilo after their parents died, but she will do everything in her power to protect her younger sister. She shows that she's overwhelmed by squabbling with her sister semi-regularly - again, like real siblings do - but she's not afraid to have fun either, as seen in the Hawaiian Roller-Coaster Ride sequence.
Stitch/Experiment 626 - OK, seriously, how many Disney - nay, how many KIDS' movies have you seen that has A LIVING, BREATHING WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION as A MAIN PROTAGONIST? WHO TURNS GOOD BY THE END?! AND IT'S COMPLETLY JUSTIFIED?! None, except this one (and the Iron Giant, which is another great animated movie, but we're not talking about that one).
Jumba and Pleakley - The mad scientist guy who created Stitch and the high-strung galactic expert on Earth who tags along with him to retrieve Stitch, respectively. Great comedic duo to watch bumble around as they try to catch Stitch and help save the day at the climax. AND NO, THEY'RE NOT GAY, TWITTER, STOP PROJECTING YOUR FANTASIES ONTO ANIMATED CHARACTERS PLEASE. (Watch the remake actually make them gay, though.... )
And last but certainly not least:
David Kawena - Nani's on-again, off-again boyfriend. Just an all-around nice guy. He helps save Lilo & Stitch when they run into trouble surfing, helps Nani find a job when she desperately needs it most, and makes two trips to bring everybody back to the mainland. (Watch as they either dumb him down, or completely excise him from the remake, because NANI IZ STRONK INDEPENDENT WAHMAN WHO DON'T NEED NO MAN!!111!!! )
Now, I see your point about Atlantis having sympathetic antagonists, and I raise you the fact that L&S has NO antagonists.
Cobra Bubbles - The social worker taking on Lilo's case. Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois could've taken the easy way out and made an outright bad guy (like a lesser Disney flick would've done), but they didn't. Instead, they made him into a person who absolutely does not want to take Lilo away from Nani, but, if he feels it's best for Lilo - a line he says verbatim - he will. Not because he's evil, but because he's a guy doing his job.
Captain Gantu - Again, just a guy doing his job. When he captures Stitch (and accidentally Lilo) during the climax of the movie, for all Gantu knows, Stitch is still the destructive and nasty little asshole at the beginning of the movie, instead of the changed "cute and fluffy" family member he's become. Thus, Gantu thinks he's doing a service by locking that "little abomination" away for good.
If you couldn't already tell, I fucking love this movie, and what Disney did to it through the TV show and Asian spinoffs will forever be a dark, dark stain among the many in the Rat's dirty clothes. I dread the live-action remake.....
All gone. These wonderfully complicated and three-dimensional characters are dumbed down into simple stereotyped cardboard cut-outs of themselves. Hell, half the time they're not even stereotypes of the original characters, they're just stereotypes of....stereotypes!
Nani is never there except for when she’s darting through a scene yelling about how late for work she is. Because TV Nani apparently can’t tell time or wear a watch. Ever. And she’s late for work every single day. She also utterly hates Stitch and tries her best to never interact with him. Even when she’s mad at him she’d rather yell at Lilo about him, even though he’s usually standing right there and all Nani has to do is turn her head slightly to the right and address him directly, but God knows we can’t have that. I wish I could say that I was exaggerating, but in 65 episodes there is literally only 1 scene where she behaves affectionately towards him.
Lilo is a bore. She no longer takes pictures, she no longer surfs, at least not that we ever see, and I think Pudge the fish is only shown, like, once or twice. She is also obsessed with mummies and vampires and will usually mention this at least once an episode.
Jumba is only there to provide technology and to give exposition. Pleakley is a buffoon. His job is to scream in high-strung panic over everything and wear over-the-top costumes. (he makes Jumba wear them too). I’m talking costumes like matadors, hippies, disco dancers, whatever the writers thought would be funny that week. And no matter how long he’s there (Leroy & Stitch, the finale movie, claims 3 years) he never understands Earth any better at all. The original movie portrayed Pleakley as being misinformed and in-over-his-head, but otherwise studious and intelligent. He worked for the Galactic Federation, who we already know from watching the movie, rewards failure with termination, so if he were really the moron the show makes him out to be, he would have been fired long before the movie even took place.
This goes double for Gantu. In the movie he was a top captain, hyper-competent, able to capture Stitch within implied minutes of arriving on Earth. The only thing he actually did wrong was involving Lilo. Had he let her go immediately, he likely would never have been fired. He did everything by the book. Stitch was simply stronger than the technology he had available to him. In the show, he’s so ridiculous, it’s amazing he’s able to exist without a chaperone. He’s whiny, he’s silly, he’s not intimidating in the slightest, and Lilo, a 6 year old girl, can outwit him at every turn.
And Stitch. Poor, poor Stitch. In the movie, he’s shown as being very in control of his own body. He’s destructive, but deliberately so. He knows what he’s doing when he does it. But in the show, if he touches it, he’s gonna wreck it, half the time not even on purpose. It gets so bad to the point that he gets kicked out of the house in one episode and Nani threatens to get rid of him in another because keeping him has become too expensive. Half the time he’s used as a background gag. Lilo and Jumba will be talking and Stitch is just in the background crawling across the wall and eating a plant or something. He doesn’t really contribute too much until it’s time for the final fight scene with Gantu.
The show as a whole is very repetitive. Disney, having that "not knowing WTF to do with L&S" problem I mentioned earlier, decided that the best course of action, for whatever reason, was to make it a Pokemon ripoff, so the show is about Stitch’s "cousins", the 625 other experiments that came before him. They are dehydrated ping-pong balls that transform into a creature when they get wet and they have been scattered all over Kauai, as told in the pilot film, Stitch! The Movie. Gantu wants them to send off to an evil scientist that used to be Jumba’s partner named Dr. Hamsterviel (GET IT?! HAMSTER WHEEL?! PLEASE LAUGH) and Lilo wants them so she can name them and find them a new home. Every episode is basically this:
The admittedly catchy theme song ends, and we open on an experiment pod that is reeeaally close to some form of water (puddle, wine glass, etc.) Will it fall in? No…no we’re good it rolled away…. no, wait! It’s rolling back! Oh no! It fell in! Flash of yellow light and an experiment appears! Back at the house Lilo and Stitch are involved in an activity (creating a new hula dance, playing a game, creating a slug circus, etc.). Nani runs in yelling about how late for work she is, and takes a second to remind Lilo to not get into any trouble, she’s now gone for the rest of the episode. Pleakley has just learned something new about humans and wants to try it out (cooking, a new outfit, reality television, disaster preparedness, etc.). Meanwhile, Gantu’s computer has just alerted him that a new experiment has been activated, so that means he's gotta go search for it while new sidekick 625 (Reuben) makes sarcastic comments. At the same time Lilo and Stitch have left the house. Both of them see the new experiment, they've gotta go chase it now. But oh no! Gantu sees it too! Now it’s a race to see who can get it first! Stitch for the win! Gantu falls on ass! Lilo figures out what power this particular experiment has (electricity, finding, cooking, possessing things, etc.) and gives it a corresponding name (Sparky, Finder, Frenchfry, Phantasmo, etc.). Just like in Pokemon, once you have captured an experiment it instantly stops being evil. Never mind the fact that in the original movie, it took Lilo 3 days to win over Stitch, you chase down a wild experiment, it respects the effort you put in and swears loyalty to you right away. Because TV show. And now that Lilo has figured out what the experiment is for, she and Stitch have to now use that experiment’s power for their own selfish gain, even though Jumba warned them not to. Because we gotta teach the kids a lesson so that we can ILLUMINATE TELEVISION (how about you illuminate my ass). Oh crap! Gantu’s back! He’s stolen the experiment! What are we gonna do?! Cue another fight scene with up-tempo theme music. Usually just Stitch though. Lilo is the brains, Stitch is the brawn. Okay! Experiment is back, and Gantu is defeated; time to find the experiment a new home. Holy shit you guys! Guess what?! Remember when I said the episode started with Lilo & Stitch involved with an activity?! The experiment’s new home is in some way related to that activity! If Lilo and Stitch started the episode at a pizza parlor with broken animatronics, they are gonna find the one experiment that can fix that. It’s Christmas? There’s an experiment for that. Halloween? There’s a conveniently timed experiment for that too. Need a plant to enter into the big show? Guess what this experiment does! The experiment goes to its new home and is accepted immediately and no one questions what this weird thing is and why it looks like it does. Everyone’s happy, the end.
Rinse and repeat for 65 goddamn episodes, and presto! You have a boring, repetitive, generic ass show that spits in the face of the original movie for the sake of moving merch. Oh, wait, I lied. There are other kinds of episodes. I mean one other kind of episode. The crossover episode, where the characters of whatever concurrent Disney show join L&S in their chase for the experiments!
Y'know, kinda like when Stitch invaded other Disney movies prior to the original movie's premiere.
Except THAT was an ingenious and endearing marketing campaign that was solely for the purpose of getting kids' asses into theatres to see the original movie. When the show did it, it was more like "HEY KIDS! WE ALSO AIR THESE SHOWS, GO WATCH THEM RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY SO YOU CAN FILL UP OUR POCKETS SEE THEIR COOL ADVENTURES AS WELL!" Transparent money-grubbing practices at their worst.
And the attempts to spice things up by introducing their own characters also went disastrously.
There's Victoria, a girl who's setup to be Lilo's best (human) friend because she also likes weird things. "That actually doesn't sound that bad, Vyse" you say. And I'd agree with you.....if they didn't only use her ONCE after her introductory episode. I'm not kidding. Two episodes where she's a primary character and then she slithers away into the background. The dictionary definition of wasted potential.
Then there's Angel, experiment 624. Most likely the best known of the series' creations. I say "creation" loosely because she's literally just a female Stitch created solely for the purpose of making Stitch's dick rock hard. Worse, her arc's an exact carbon copy of Smurfette's - evil girl turned good through the power of love. But she holds nary a candle to the worst creation of the show:
Keoni. Fucking. Jameson. This bastard was apparently mandated by the Disney execs so that he could be an audience surrogate. He was so awful, that even the writers of the show hated him. Who's he, you might ask? Why, he's Lilo's love interest of course! Now, I think that bears repeating: LILO - the anti-social, maladjusted six-year-old who's obsessed with Elvis and has a doll whose ears a "bug laid eggs in" - has a love interest. Not just any love interest either. A RADICAL and TOTALLY KEWL dude who SKATEBOARDS!
They didn't even try with this shit, they DIDN'T. EVEN. TRY. I'm gonna tell you right now, that anybody would have given up on this show had it not been for the name. They made one of the most generic, boring, and repetitive monster of the week shows ever made, they took the name "Lilo and Stitch", smooshed them together, and then slapped it onto TV just like slapping their own greedy dicks. Even though you may not believe this, I hate the fact that I have to hate this show. In an era where every movie studio, especially Disney, is too piss-scared to make a tiptoe outside the proverbial box, it's actually nice to go back to a time when their products actually had a hint of originality, but this is not the way to do it. They should've used their own characters and called it "Alien Catchers" or something. So why slap Lilo & Stitch on this? Because that's what would make the most money, artistic integrity be damned.
In closing this novella of autism, let me say this: it really is a shame when the Chinks are better at capturing the spirit and tone of your movie than you. Fuck L&S: The Series, and fuck the Rat for letting it happen.
TL;DR: Disney made a TV show that not only disrespected the original movie it was based off of, it bludgeoned it to death with a blunt object, buried it in a shallow grave and then pissed on the grave.
The anime is actually kind of a mixed bag for me. Some elements of the anime I actually think were improved over the TV show. Hell, I might even go so far as to call it overhated and actually a decent little show.....were it not for one fatal flaw that ruins the whole damn thing. But we'll get to that later. First, the things that the anime actually did right:
1. YUNA vs. SERIES LILO
A bit of a hot take here: Yuna is a much better protagonist than TV Lilo was. I'm gonna clarify my statements on how TV Lilo was a "bore" in my post about the series in order for you to understand why I think this. There are times when she does say something quirky and there are also some times where her love and devotion to Stitch is evident, don't get me wrong. But there rarely seems to be any charm to her, which for most of the series, doesn't make her that interesting or memorable, which is especially damning, because her incarnation in the original movie was both of those things in spades. And if that wasn't enough, the series takes Lilo so far out of character that she doesn't just become uninteresting. She seems insincere. I think this is mostly evident in episodes like Slick or Sprout, where Lilo gets competitive with Mertle in an attempt to better her at something, or episodes like Tank, Swapper or Phoon, where she tries to change who she is, just to impress the other hula girls and get them to believe that she's not weird. Lilo in the original movie is the sort of girl who would acknowledge the fact that she's strange, but wouldn't want to live her life any differently or care what anyone else thought. Lilo is not consistently represented in the show the way she deserves to be – she is so much better than this.
Now, the Japanese, to their credit, knew that they couldn't replicate the original movie, and so they didn't even bother to try, instead creating a new human cast and setting. That takes balls, I have to admit, and I applaud them for doing so when they could've so easily taken the easy way out and reused Lilo, Nani, etc. And Yuna isn't that bad a character to boot - she's sweet and kind-hearted, but she can snap at you if you push her to her limits. Despite the occasional mood swings, she's still got a good heart. As well as that, she's free-spirited and loves to have fun, but she's also well disciplined, much of which likely comes from years of taking karate. And while the karate does make her very tomboyish, Yuna is not without her feminine traits. Furthermore, when faced with danger, Yuna does use the strength and swiftness that she's learned from her karate to her advantage. Unlike in the series where I felt Lilo was often too reliant on Stitch to do most of the work, the anime fixes this mistake. Yuna can and does fight alongside Stitch considerably well, and when Stitch is weakened or somehow immobilized in action by his enemies, Yuna can fight against them by herself and often prove to be a strong opponent. So yeah, the Japs did good on their protagonist...but what about the supporting characters? 2. A BETTER USE OF SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Remember Victoria? The girl who was set up to be Lilo's best human friend, showed up for two episodes, and then never appeared in a main role again?
This is Sasha, the anime's equivalent. She moves to the island in the second season and becomes Yuna's best friend. Now if I had to pick a favorite out of all the new characters in the anime, Sasha would probably be the one I'd choose. Much like Victoria is (or would've been) to Lilo, Sasha is the best possible friend for Yuna to have. She's friendly, polite, compassionate and understanding, if a little ditzy at points. And while she knows that she makes Kenny (the brother of the Mertle equivalent, Penny) swoon and dresses fashionably, she doesn't show off, instead opting for personality over popularity when it comes to making and being a friend. And unlike Victoria in the series, they do make Sasha a regular character here, and I was really pleased to see that because she is a great character, and I hate the fact that the third season completely cuts her out.
Yuna's other friends include Taro, a cowardly boy in her class at school. In my opinion, he's just OK. He's not a bad character, just not a great one either.
Then there's Yuna's grandma, who I also think is a good character. She's a kind and giving grandparent for Yuna, but is also wise.
The main difference, though, is there's an equal emphasis on both the human cast and the experiment catching here, unlike the American show, where the experiment catching took precedence over everything else. That already makes the anime an improvement over the TV show; the fact that they're pleasant to be around and you want to more know about them is just the icing on the cake. So far, so good, right? The L&S fans were being a bunch of fucking crybabies over nothing, right? Well, remember that fatal flaw I mentioned earlier? Well, now's the time to bear it out: THE INTEGRATION OF THE ANIME WITH THE REST OF THE SERIES
This is the reason why fans were so fucking pissed with this anime, and personally, I can't blame them:
It would be easy to chalk up Stitch! as just an anime reboot or reimaging of a popular Disney character for a new audience, but in the third season, Lilo's absence is finally explained. It starts out with Stich unexpectedly seeing Lilo while walking with Yuna to school. The two reunite and spend the day together similar to the good times they had before. As Stitch's friends try to figure out what's going on, it's Pleakley who finally explains to Yuna and the audience what happened between Lilo and Stitch.
When Lilo grew up, she had to leave Stitch for college but promised that they would reunite on the beach of Kauai in four years. When the four years passed, Stitch waited on the beach, but Lilo never showed up, prompting him to take his space scooter and flee to Izayoi. It then turns out that the girl who was hanging out with Stitch wasn't Lilo, but rather her daughter Ani, as the real Lilo is a grown adult. When Ani tells her mother that she found Stitch, Lilo shockingly tells her that she wouldn't want to see him if she could. Lilo explains to her daughter that so much time has passed since their last meeting that Stitch has probably moved on with a family of his own, and she would only make things awkward by suddenly reappearing.
Thankfully, Stitch made his way to the airport to see her one last time. When Lilo finally does see Stich again, she quickly joyously embraces him as if she never said those comments from earlier. She explains that the reason she was late to the beach was that her sister Nani was having a baby, and by the time she arrived Stitch was already gone.
Now, again, I have to admit, this takes massive balls, and I have to applaud the Japanese for taking it in such a bold direction, even if I (and many other people) don't like it. At the same time, WOW, ANIME LILO. WHATEVER THE FUCK HAPPENED TO "NOBODY GETS LEFT BEHIND?!" THEN YOU WANNA GO ALL "actually nani was having a baby that's why I was late, I couldn't have just TOLD you that or anything, BTW I'm not gonna ask you to come back with me because you seem to have it pretty good here in Grorious Nippon, bye lol". What a fucking shit show.
TL;DR - A decent show ruined by a failed retcon/canonization.
Now, again, I have to admit, this takes massive balls, and I have to applaud the Japanese for taking it in such a bold direction, even if I (and many other people) don't like it. At the same time, WOW, ANIME LILO. WHATEVER THE FUCK HAPPENED TO "NOBODY GETS LEFT BEHIND?!" THEN YOU WANNA GO ALL "actually nani was having a baby that's why I was late, I couldn't have just TOLD you that or anything, BTW I'm not gonna ask you to come back with me because you seem to have it pretty good here in Grorious Nippon, bye lol". What a fucking shit show.
TL;DR - A decent show ruined by a failed retcon/canonization.
Season 8 of The Office wasn't great, too cringey a lot of the time, poor characters, but season 9 was just a trash fire of bad decisions.
Tales of Zestiria was a very poorly designed game and I have already whined about it plenty. These days I just hate that it got an anime and has lasting popularity with the Japanese fans despite being garbage while Berseria wasn't very popular despite being all around a better game. People just didn't play Berseria because Zestiria was so freakin' bad.
Etrian Odyssey V. I was a big fan of the series and V went retarded in handling class, map, and enemy design. I had so little fun with it I stopped at the beginning of the 5th stratum and deleted my save file. Funny how EO started to get shitty after Fatlus started making Persona Q games/bought by SEGA.
Season 3 of My Name is Earl. It had like 3 different story arcs in a show with an established premise that all amounted to nothing. The show itself made fun of it in Season 4 a few times. Just let Earl cross things off his list, dammit.
Shit was boring as fuck, they gave a lot of characters retarded arcs that had almost nothing to do with the main plot, especially Gillian, who by that point shouldn't even be around anymore. Terrible romance, with the exception of best boi Harrow. Underwhelming stakes. Dr. Narcisse wasn't nearly as good of a villain as Gyp Rosetti. Just an overall waste of talent in many fronts.
It was so dissappointing it might've been responsible for cutting the show short, making Season 5 the last one and forcing the creators to do a 8 year time skip.
The final season still managed to pick my interest back up tho, the ending was pretty solid.
Shit was boring as fuck, they gave a lot of characters retarded arcs that had almost nothing to do with the main plot, especially Gillian, who by that point shouldn't even be around anymore. Terrible romance, with the exception of best boi Harrow. Underwhelming stakes. Dr. Narcisse wasn't nearly as good of a villain as Gyp Rosetti. Just an overall waste of talent in many fronts.
It was so dissappointing it might've been responsible for cutting the show short, making Season 5 the last one and forcing the creators to do a 8 year time skip.
The final season still managed to pick my interest back up tho, the ending was pretty solid.
Yeah I loved the final episode, haven't felt tension like that in a piece of television for a long time. Shame about the season being cut short though.
The last four (?) seasons of King of the Hill after Greg Daniels left. The tards running things immediately killed off Cotton in the most pathetic, spiteful way imaginable, then proceeded to ruin characters like Gilbert Dauterive and totally ruined Luanne's backstory by revealing the "truth" about her dad. It never got as bad as The Simpsons, but the heart was gone and replaced with a lot of goofy nonsense.
Archer Seasons 8-10. I have no clue why they spent so much time on Archers adventures in his dreams while he was in a coma. It was just a waste of time, when they could've focused on the spy adventures that people watched the show for.
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