So my experience with Tales is pretty limited, I haven't finished any but when I was a kid I was pretty into Symphonia! I had the game on Gamecube (and I think only played disc 1's worth of content lmao so probably not that far) and read the manga, and between that and internet spoiler osmosis I have kind of a general idea of how things play out but I do want to go back and actually play it fully one day. I have a lot of nostalgia for the game and Sheena is my beloved, so I hope I find the time to finally start and beat it for good this time. I also played a teeny tiny bit of ToS2 with a friend and remember being hyped at the MC being voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, but I never actually owned it myself and remember people said it wasn't as good as the first sadly. But maybe one day I'll play that too!

And of course I'm interested in more Tales too! I wanna say the main ones I'm eyeing are Vesperia, Abyss, and Berseria which I'm all anticipating pretty strongly, but hopefully assuming I enjoy those I also find the time for some other good entries in the series. I think I have both Xillias and Graces sitting around too if I remember right, but I also don't have a working PS3 rn so I'd probably have to hunt for one to play those......well, maybe one day. Tales is a series I'm really interested in getting more into but also JRPGs are long so I wouldn't be surprised if I beat one, go "wow that took forever I need a break" and then take forever to pick up another one but we'll see

Haruk- okay no probably not Haruki, that's the funny meme (but also occasionally true) answer but probably not the best answer. Off the top of my head probably Shinji Matou, I don't doubt there are other characters that might fit the bill equally or maybe even more so but I guess my brain's doing a good job of filtering out other characters I might similarly despise and that's for the better! Actually, my brain also remembered Takumi Ichinose from Nana and he definitely also fits the bill......Shinji's an easy answer bc he's so overly and aggressively shitty and pathetic as a person but Takumi's more the kind I find vile and detestable in the way scummy but mundane people can be in more realistic contexts.

Public figure/celebritywise I don't think there are many (if any) I despise enough that I'd want to myself, though some are real close to crossing the line and more of the variety that if they face the consequences of their own actions in a painful way I'd lose no sleep over. A certain former US president comes to mind, but really this could apply to quite a few of the more aggressively bigoted and hateful people out there, especially those with the active power and clout to make things worse for those they discriminate against.

Not really, I feel like I'm a lot better at writing because I have the time to really think through what I wanna say and how best to communicate that whereas talking irl is a lot more spontaneous and sometimes I'll stumble over my words because the idea pops up before how I want to articulate it does. I think the way I talk is similarish but communicating vocally is a lot less smooth for me than just typing it out. Also I'm not very good at public speaking LOL like if I have something of a script it'll be pretty dry and if I don't I just....kinda try my best and hope the idea is communicated even if how I get there isn't the most polished

I'm not too informed about many outside of the MCU or other movies, but I remember some X-Men characters catching my eye either from old movies or bits of TV/games. Off the top of my head Wolverine, Magneto, Gambit, and Nightcrawler come to mind. The first 2 I definitely have something of a better idea of given a good chunk of movies around them being out and the other 2 mostly I like the vibes but hopefully one of these days I'll get around to more stories with them. There are probably some others out there I'm forgetting but those come to mind mainly, other than Spidey charas though I remember liking MCU Captain America quite a bit!

It really depends on the execution, personally I try to stay away from judgments about a work being pretentious unless I just genuinely can't think of a better substitute to describe the feeling though. But if I had to try and define it, I think it's a matter of some kind of implied self assuredness a work has in its intellect and merit in conveying an idea that in practice feels shallow, self-defeating, or vapid so as to feel wasteful. I feel like if a work is really preachy about an idea but fails to seriously consider the nuances or account for meaningful counterarguments, I might consider it as such because the laziness to not assess that assumed belief essentially serves to weaken the work and its message.

I'm not sure if this specifically is the work's fault or is a product of how some fans prop up this element, but as the closest concrete example I can think of: there's a certain shounen that comes to mind that gets hyped for its badass, independent, and relatively unsexualized female characters and I've seen people put down other shounens for the sake of propping up this one. In all fairness, there's a lot to criticize about how many popular battle shounens handle female characters and it's just a very common Jump thing for them to not be handled to the best they could, I can totally agree with that. And yet for whatever reason, the execution to me in this series specifically still wasn't satisfying. It felt more like a checklist of things people consider to be "good female character writing" on twt without the commitment to seriously and deeply explore them as individuals and people with character arcs or personal growth. Probably the biggest example was an episode cramming in the fights of almost all the relevant(ish) female characters of the arc, using one of said characters as a mouthpiece for the woes and stereotypes of how women are treated or have to act in the series without an actual meaningful or thoughtful response to it, and cramming it all into one episode with very limited payoff, all after a whole episode dedicated to the fight of a couple of male characters on the gimmicky side. This combined with one particular female character constantly being treated like a joke and made out to be useless (even in that very arc!) as a punchline left me deeply skeptical of what some fans had said, and some things I've heard about later developments with female characters doesn't inspire much confidence in me either.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I hope that kinda gives an idea. I don't want to slander the series discussed above (if you know, you know), but basically if a story feels assured in its merit in communicating an idea while lacking the substance to back it up, that kinda ends up as what I might deem pretentious. The above example might somewhat be me conflating that with (an admittedly very toxic subset of) fan statements and comparisons I don't think hold up, but yeah. I do try to avoid making that a focal point of my critique though because I'm not sure if it's my place to invalidate an author's experiences or values simply bc I don't vibe with the execution or vision, but I do think when a story or element gets propped up in discourse that deeply conflicts with my viewpoint it runs the risk of evoking a stronger reaction from me as with this one.

Pretty much anything TTGL has to be among my best, but I think the standout for me was watching the movies back to back for the first time at Anime Expo (in 2010 I think it was?) with a crowd of passionate fans. I was already in love with the series, but being able to enjoy that big screen experience with so much energy and getting to indulge in the sheer spectacle of the last fight in Lagann-hen in particular has got to be the most hype anime experience I've ever had and is absolutely unforgettable to me. Though to a lesser extent, getting to watch the US premiere of Promare at Anime Expo many years later in 2019 revived the feeling of an Imaishi/Nakashima cinematic experience in a crowd and I just absolutely dig being able to enjoy that kind of experience, I really miss it.

Worst experience.....I don't know if I have specific bad memories surrounding the circumstances but Glasslip has got to be my least favorite. Mindlessly picked it up as a seasonal since it looked like it could be a cute and shiny romance drama thing, and I remember talk that it could be the next Nagiasu (which....I actually didn't watch at the time but saw and liked years later) and sadly to say, Glasslip was not the next Nagiasu. Just a very frustrating, unrewarding, and shallow watch with characters I could not stand and so little potential of the actual premise really used. It's probably not technically the worst I've seen (if you're familiar with Mars of Destruction or Skelter Heaven......those are absolutely worse but they're also funny as fuck so I love showing them to my friends as questionable trainwreck OVA experiences LMAO) but I'd probably consider it my dullest and most disappointing watch, and while I try to avoid being too slandery on main it is incredibly difficult to muster positive words for Glasslip outside of its visuals and the seiyuu work.

I think the main one that comes to mind is Gintama, not for any content reasons or reservation about whether or not I'll actually enjoy it (I think I probably will!) but for a much simpler reason: length. It's a struggle for me to really commit to a long-form series and anything over 100 episodes gives me pause because I realize I'll have to invest in it for a while to get payoff and that either I'll slow my progress even more by juggling it with other series or I'll have to accept that I'll spend this big chunk of time on one thing when I could finish a lot of other ones on my backlog, so it usually makes me procrastinate on starting at all. I might also add LotGH, but eventually in uni I did try it, watched like 20ish episodes and just didn't really care for it, and put it on indefinite hold ever since but I at least picked that up so that's better than most! I do intend to go back and finish it sooner or later though since I know that's one where the real payoff comes later on in the story.

This is kind of a thing for a lot of VNs too, though to a lesser extent. I feel like a good chunk of VNs I'm really interested in (especially Key ones) are all at least 50 hours to finish and especially for the ones I've seen the adaptations for already it makes it harder to jump into. At least some of the super long VNs I really anticipated were things I knew I'd enjoy and eventually finished (Umineko) or can reasonably finish once I just sit down and focus on them for a good enough stretch of time (WA2), but those are usually some of my most hyped media ever so I can accept a good 70 (or in Umi's case like, 120-130 or whatever it was LMAO) hour read knowing I'll get greatness out of them. Really that's how it probably is for a lot of longer VNs too but yeah.....time is hard. It's so much easier to just binge a 5 volume manga or one cour anime than to sit down and go "alright, 80 hours to finish this one thing" and while some are shoe-in favorites for me, it's a huge bummer when I spend that much time on a VN only to give it like.....a 6. Like that's not a bad score but if I knew all that time would end up just like that, I'd probably have preferred to pick up random seasonal A that's 12 episodes long and I also would've given a 6, it's just that sorta thing.

Hmm I'm not sure if I totally understand what you mean with that terminology, but based on my very amateurish reading after a bit of Googling, I wanna say that Everything Everywhere All at Once comes to mind. It's this massive, larger than life experience about countless possibilities, lives, opportunities, and regrets that's still rooted in a very human, down to earth story at its core. It really captures the sheer scale of reality and just how enormous existence, circumstances, and everything around us is and despite how overwhelming that gets, it really affirms the beauty of treasuring who and what you have now and giving your attention to what really matters and not just getting bogged down by the despair of a cold reality or the unending pace of a world that just keeps on moving. It's not a totally revolutionary or unheard of message, but I adore how it captures the scale of a concept like the multiverse while honing in on what's important and the potential for kindness in humanity and our relationships despite being let down by the world, by others, and perhaps most of all ourselves. In a sense you could see it as a "nothing matters (bad) -> nothing matters (good)" kinda progression but it does so in this crazy, over the top, yet very sincere way, and it really had me reflecting on a lot as someone who's gotten weighed down by regrets and failures all too many times. I don't usually talk (or just personally find much time to dive into watching) films but if anything is cinema to me, it's definitely that! I'm sure there have to be other stories that fit the bill too, but just intuitively this seemed like one that kinda fit that's been so strongly on my mind.

And thank you, I really appreciate it! Hope you're doing well out there too!

I've only watched through the anime so far but I enjoyed it a lot! Season 1 was pretty good but Refrain in particular hit really hard and keeping up with it week to week was such an experience. Animewise LB is probably my second favorite Key work and seeing Riki's growth and all of the payoff with the bros in particular was super satisfying. The insert songs also really hit different and every once in a while, revisiting some of the OST brings back a ton of nostalgia and feels from long ago.

I actually did read a little bit of the VN too (the common route, Rin1, and some of Komari route I think?) but then life got busy with college and I never really found the time to get back to continuing. I do plan on getting back to LB proper one day but I'll most likely just start from the beginning since it's already been many years since the last time I read any of the VN. Given how hard the Refrain anime hit for me, I imagine the VN will leave a strong impression on me if it really is better as I've heard people say