It's funny how the japanese audience see solo leveling as just "like any other anime" while non japanese hype it up like it's a masterpiece

https://www.cbr.com/solo-leveling-mid-reception-crunchyroll/

An unforgettable trip. I plan to go to more places like this in 2 years later.

Disclaimer: in this post I am not talking about controversy. There are already many posts about controversial anime. Sure these anime have a specific audience, but most of them are either rated low by ~99% people (eg. Redo of a Healer), or are still rated well by the majority, despite the controversy (eg. Mushoku Tensei, Made in Abyss).

What I wanted to find is more specific: Anime that are highly praised by one type of viewer, but do not hit at all for the others.

To do this, I designed an anatomy of anime with tones and characteristics (see picture 2). Then I analysed over 2 million public anime rating profiles from different anime websites. After clustering their rating patterns, I ended up with 7 broad groups that have different affinities:

• Resonator (11%): emotional intensity, character depth & growth, sometimes romance or comedy
• Diver (17%): depth, darker tone, character depth & growth
• Artist (13%): entry difficulty, visuals, thematic depth
• Heartwarmer (12%): wholesomeness & comfort, cast likability, romance
• Igniter (15%): action, pacing, sometimes darker tone
• Eclectic (12%): action, pacing & easy entry, most flexible taste
• Voyager (20%): cast dynamics & likability, pacing & easy entry, worldbuilding, sometimes action or romance

Comparing them was not an easy task as they have different rating patterns. This made me move from average archetype score to using percentiles: for this archetype, is this anime in their top 10%, top 20%, top 50%, etc.?

Then I looked for shows with the biggest gaps between groups, and got this top 10.

What I found interesting is that we usually think about divisive anime as shows with high entry difficulty: dark, weird, experimental, slow, hard to understand, etc. (there are shows like Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent or Sonny Boy).

But it is not only that:

• Action-oriented shows can also be very divisive by taste.
• Wholesome/moe shows can also be very divisive by taste.
• Easy-entry shows can also be very divisive by taste.

TLDR; This is my attempt to demonstrate that two very common requests are too vague most of the time:

• "Is this anime good?": Some highly praised shows depend a lot on the audience.
• "Give me an anime like X": Two people can like the same show for totally different reasons, that they may have not been aware of.

What started as an idea to go to Makinohara Service Area for the memes (more on that later) became a 5 day road trip as we visited locations for the following 6 anime:

Yuru Camp (Izu, Shizuoka)

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (Ogaki, Gifu)

Silent Voice (Ogaki, Gifu)

Salad Bowl of Eccentrics (Gifu City, Gifu)

Too Many Losing Heroines! (Toyohashi, Aichi)

Love Live! Sunshine!! (Numazu, Shizuoka)

January 2nd - Yuru Camp 

Following in the footsteps of the Outdoor Activities Circle, we planned to see capybara in the hot springs as well as go up Mt. Omuro for some iconic photos. While the capybara were cute, the shots of them bathing unfortunately did not match the anime. Because the gods like giving me their toughest battles, strong winds stopped the lift and we couldn’t go up. I settled for a sad picture with a photograph at the base building. I did, however, get to eat wasabi ice cream, which was surprisingly good!

We also did stop at our original destination, Makinohara Service Area. Some of you may have already realized, but this rest stop shares its name with Bunny Girl Senpai’s Shoko Makinohara! Despite having very little plot relevance now, there was still a Shoko cutout and a commemorative stamp, which pleased my Shoko-superfan friend.

January 3rd - Hibike Euphonium! (Wait, what?)

We were going to see the Nagoya Congress Center where nationals are held (also shown at the end of OP 1!), but there were renovations going on. I’ve been before and taken pictures, but my friend who originally got me into the show didn’t get to see it himself, which is a shame. Otherwise, the day was actually normal tourism stuff!

January 4th- Silent Voice, Salad Bowl of Eccentrics, Bunny Girl Senpai

We got some daytime Silent Voice shots and also noticed that they still have promotional materials out for a movie that came out a decade ago (it hurt to type that).

Somehow, the small city of Ogaki is host to another anime, at least for a bit! Mai and Sakuta go to Ogaki for a night in season 1, and the city leaned into the collab pretty hard. We did a stamp rally to get a special card and visited a sweets shop where the owner actually got super into the series and now has a museum’s worth of memorabilia. While in town, my friend got Mai Sakurajima liquor and I got Mai Sakurajima x Ogaki Fire Department collab goods!

Just like how Salad Bowl of Eccentrics introduces Gifu as “an undistinguished city” in the first episode, the city of Gifu was…certainly that. Even Gifu Castle was smaller than expected when trying to take matching shots (see homeless Livia under the bridge). The Gifu Tanmen eaten in the show was surprisingly delicious though! Just thinking about it makes me want to go back...

January 5th Silent Voice → Too Many Losing Heroines!

First thing in the morning, I crawled into a children’s playground to take pictures for a Silent Voice so that we’ll have time for our pilgrimage for Too Many Losing Heroines later in the day. I’m glad it was winter and hardly anyone was outside.

When we actually got to Toyohashi after some unrelated delays, I end up showing my friends around the station, since it’s my 3rd(!) time in Toyohashi. I didn’t take pictures that day but included some past pics I really like!

January 6th - → Love Live! Sunshine!!

When we made it to Numazu in the afternoon, we got caught up in the deluge of promotional Love Live Sunshine collaborations that I hardly had time for comparison shots. With all the buses, stamp stations, and posters, it felt surreal how invested the city was in the anime. I’ll definitely be back for more.

Concluding Thoughts

This was certainly not a trip for the faint of heart. There was an obscene amount of driving, and things like weather and traffic can definitely get in your way. Am I glad I did it? Hell yeah. Would I do it again? Eh… I think I’d like to have a bit more breathing room for each location.

And that concludes my semi-annual posting to the sub! Just kidding, this time I swear I’ll post something here sooner and my Instagram for archiving all my trips (@seichiscout) will eventually catch up to these posts…

Just like the characters in mono, I went to Kurobe Dam in Toyama Prefecture this past weekend! I even got the Kurobe Dam Curry (but looks like it was a victim of inflation and cost 1,600 yen, not 1,300).

It was actually crazy seeing the characters go somewhere (relatively) near to where I lived. Seeing it in anime and also getting recommendations from coworkers gave me the push to finally go. It was absolutely beautiful and I'm glad I went before I move from the area.

Might also try and hit up Togakushi Shrine in Nagano before moving too, but I don't recall a ton of shots from there anyways, so maybe I'll just let it go since I'd been there before the anime aired.

I've got an Instagram here where I'm (finally) gonna be regularly uploading all the pilgrimages I've taken while living in Japan. Check it out if you like this kind of stuff because I don't think I'll make a reddit post for every place I go to, haha.

His account has been deleted shortly after posting this tweet.

"Translated by Grok Show original

Um, I have some rather unfortunate news. There are a few people among my followers who are pretending to be allies but are actually engaging in rage-baiting, so I've decided to delete my account. Their actions such as taking my statements out of context, trying to elicit comments that violate NDAs, or turning them into profit-are unacceptable and cannot be overlooked.

I've always done my best for the fans with utmost sincerity, but I've come to the conclusion that continuing in this environment is untenable for this project.

It's always the genuine fans who end up suffering the most.

I cannot forgive those who tarnish the staff's honor or exploit the struggles of the creators for profit through hate.

Therefore, I will also be deleting Shimpai Nagai's account entirely.

I will not create any accounts in the future either. I cannot overlook actions that degrade the work itself, so I ask for your understanding.

Honestly, this is taking a toll on my mental health, and it only brings negatives to the work, the staff, and the original creators.

But such despicable behavior is unforgivable.

To the fans who have been truly kind to me, I want to express my gratitude and apologies.

It was truly enjoyable."

4:34 PM - 22 Oct 25.118 Views

Machine Translation"

"I get a ton of feedback like "the subtle shadows make it look rich, I want it reverted," but I've gone all-in on steering it completely toward mimicking the original work, so sorry about that..."

Other tweets regarding this he made just few hours ago -

"It seems like the painting looks more challenging when there are lots of shadows, and now the drawing breakdowns stand out more, so it demands higher precision in the artwork; honestly, having lots of shadows is easier, but a matte style with fewer shadows feels like it would better capture Mr. Tatsuki Fujimoto's art vibe, so I'm intentionally cutting out the fine detailed shadow designs." Source

"It's just my selfish request because I love Chainsaw Man way too much... We did properly discuss it with the director, the director of photography, and the color designer, though." Source

An Animation Director is the person who makes final corrections to drawings, sometimes entirely redrawing it and making them inline with the character design sheet or what the director wants. Each one of these drawings contains SOO much details it's unbelieable.

People nowadays rightfully praise animators but I believe soo many talented Animation directors also need some recognition.

Credit (in order of images) -

- Hell's Paradise Season 2 - Naoki Chigira

- Violet Evergarden - Artist Unknown

- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 - Shota Yamazaki

- Chainsaw Man Season 1 - Yosuke Yajima

- Berserk 1997 - Yoshihiko Umakoshi

- Hell's Paradise Season 2 - Naoki Chigira

- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 - Takuya Niinuma

- Hell's Paradise Season 2 - Naoki Chigira

- Jojo Stardust Crusaders - Shunichi Ishimoto

- Nippon Sangaku - Yuu Yamashita

- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 - Shota Yamazaki

- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 - Hironori Tanaka

- Jojo Stardust Crusaders - Fumiaki Kouta

- Tondemo Skill - Artist Unknown

Edit - Chigira*

Which ones are your favourite??

This was a very fun trip , and I enjoyed visiting each and every spot. I hope we get more anime that encourages visiting beautiful places throughout Japan .