Full title: ‘Show How 3M Is 0% at Fault:’ Expert Witness Used ChatGPT to Write Report Defending Company in Deadly Explosion Lawsuit / ChatGPT prompts show how an expert witness report was created in a $61 million lawsuit over an explosion that killed three people.
GPUs: +19.2% in one month
Fixed basket of 176 GPU models, tracked at 3+ retailers daily for 30 days (July 15 - August 14), to rule out the distortion that happens when cheap cards sell out and skew a simple daily average.
Not a single spike, started climbing around July 24-25 and has been steady since. Consistent across markets too: Germany +19.6%, France +18.1%.
RAM: +18.6% over two months
Same fixed-basket approach: 112 DDR5 kits in stock at 2+ retailers on both June 19 and August 18, tracked daily throughout.
This one had a sharper inflection point: flat through most of June, then a sudden +6% overnight jump on July 1 (checked individual SKUs to rule out a data glitch, it’s real, looks like a manufacturer-side price change hitting multiple retailers the same day), followed by continued climbing through mid-July, then a slower steady rise since.
Methodology, for both: price is the average across whichever 2-3+ retailers carried a given product on a given day, not the single cheapest price, and not a blended average across a shifting product list, a fixed set of SKUs, verified daily, same products at the start and end of the period.
Data limitation: RAM figures are consumer DDR5 desktop kits only
Independent corroboration: German tech outlet Heise recently reported a similar ~20% GPU price increase: heise.de/…/Grafikkarten-werden-nochmals-rund-20-P…
Data source: PriceSquirrel, tracking hardware prices across 20+ EU retailers.
Today’s game is Control. I went Anchor hunting today and did that whole questline. I can’t believe i had never done it up until that point. I would have expected me to easily have a run in with that location considering how accessible it is.
Nonetheless, I escorted the guy out. Then went back, found out i needed the levitate ability, progressed the story far enough to get it, then went all the way back to get it.
With this playthrough i’m not rushing through as much either. As such i’ve found so many references to Alan Wake that i just missed on my first playthrough. Such as this page with a narration by the man himself. There’s also a Coffee Thermos and a few pages describing people going through events similar to Alan’s Dreams.
I also found out i can pick up the projectors. There’s nothing interesting about this, i just thought it was cool. I feel like a lot of games would just tie the projectors down rather than rendering a whole extra thing for rotating them and such. It was pretty cool.
I made my way through the whole Ordinary AWE site and i’m about to head over to the Research wing to mess with the projectors. This was about the point i remember last time getting too before the last “push” and finishing the main game. So i may very well finish it tomorrow and move back to the DLC.
I wrote a blog post about fingerprinting.
#image description
still of sam from lord of the ring. (the po-ta-toe scene) text:
“surgeon: penile inversion method me: per - ma - tuck”
This website made me reconsider if 99.9999% SLA and always online is really that important for lots of websites. I used to self-host my own server in my own apartment, but gave up on that after my internet provider had their first major outage that lasted almost a week. Also I didn’t want to worry about the fire hazard, or the server going down when I was traveling etc.
But a solar powered server seems interesting, if the batteries could be made fire safe.
Someone just released a Megaman X fan game that mixes a lot of the mechanics of the series into a classic Megaman X package all done in Godot engine. Free over on itchio
The mouse did not survive interrogation.
Also mouse not pictured.
Hey everyone!
I’m SketBR, a solo indie developer, and I’ve been working on Starfish ROOM: WELCOME TO LOOP ETERNAL.
It’s a fast-paced 2D Musou/action roguelite where you play as Kibo Wave, a transgender catboy fighting hordes of monsters and aliens while trying to save mysterious ROOMS.
The basic loop is: Fight hordes → collect Core → complete objectives → choose random cards → survive the Flow → enter a Starfish Arena → fight an alien → repeat the loop.
There are also weird random cards, combo abilities, dash attacks, dynamite, alien bosses, and an eternal loop system where eventually you have to face Boki, Kibo’s clone from the future. I develop the game as a solo dev using GDevelop, and a lot of my development has been done directly on an Android phone. It’s definitely been a weird way to make a game, but I’ve learned a lot from it.
I’m posting this because I’d really like people to actually play it, rather than just look at screenshots. I’m especially interested in hearing whether the combat feels fun and whether the game keeps you interested after a few minutes.
Play it in your browser: kittycreampuff.itch.io/starfish-room-final
Steam page / wishlist: …steampowered.com/…/Starfish_ROOM_WELCOME_TO_LOOP…
Thanks for checking out my weird little game!
DEFEND THE ROOMS. BREAK THE CYCLE.
cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/74144681
The symbol for Amazon’s VGT3, the Las Vegas facility where it scans book for AI training data.
Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.
A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.
That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.
“Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use,” an Amazon spokesperson told me in a statement.
The world’s AI companies are constantly looking for, and spending extreme resources to locate, more material to train their AI models. With books, that sometimes means destroying them in the process, something that large parts of the public have spoken up against, and which we can now confirm Amazon is doing.
In July, I published a story about booksellers who reported a historical spike in sales starting in the past year. They suspected this spike in sales was due to AI companies acquiring any books they can in search of new training data. Printed books are valuable as training data because a lot of the text they contain is not readily available on the internet, which AI companies have already scraped. The data is also conveniently organized and, if the book was printed before 2022, is guaranteed to be free of AI-generated text, which can make any AI model that is trained on it worse via a recursive process called “model collapse.”
📖 Do you know work at a facility where you scan books? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at @emanuel.404. Otherwise, send me an email at emanuel@404media.co.
These booksellers suspected AI companies were behind these large bulk purchases because of the high number of books they were buying, the seemingly random choice of books, and the fact that these buyers, unlike libraries and universities, did not seem price sensitive at all. But booksellers couldn’t say for certain who was behind the large purchases because the marketplaces where they sell their books keep the buyers anonymous. When an order comes in, a bookseller ships the sold books to a warehouse operated by the marketplaces, where books are sorted and then sent to the buyer.
In July, one bookseller told me they received a very large order of around 1,000 books on Biblio, one of these marketplaces. The seller agreed to put an Apple AirTag provided by 404 Media in one of the books included in this order so we could see where the book was going. And by extension, which company, AI or otherwise, was behind this massive order. 404 Media granted the bookseller anonymity because they worried sharing this information would harm their business. Biblio did not respond to a request for comment.
cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/74144681
A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination. That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands. “Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use,” an Amazon spokesperson told me in a statement. The world’s AI companies are constantly looking for, and spending extreme resources to locate, more material to train their AI models. With books, that sometimes means destroying them in the process, something that large parts of the public have spoken up against, and which we can now confirm Amazon is doing. In July, I published a story about booksellers who reported a historical spike in sales starting in the past year. They suspected this spike in sales was due to AI companies acquiring any books they can in search of new training data. Printed books are valuable as training data because a lot of the text they contain is not readily available on the internet, which AI companies have already scraped. The data is also conveniently organized and, if the book was printed before 2022, is guaranteed to be free of AI-generated text, which can make any AI model that is trained on it worse via a recursive process called “model collapse.” 📖 Do you know work at a facility where you scan books? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at @emanuel.404. Otherwise, send me an email at emanuel@404media.co. These booksellers suspected AI companies were behind these large bulk purchases because of the high number of books they were buying, the seemingly random choice of books, and the fact that these buyers, unlike libraries and universities, did not seem price sensitive at all. But booksellers couldn’t say for certain who was behind the large purchases because the marketplaces where they sell their books keep the buyers anonymous. When an order comes in, a bookseller ships the sold books to a warehouse operated by the marketplaces, where books are sorted and then sent to the buyer. In July, one bookseller told me they received a very large order of around 1,000 books on Biblio, one of these marketplaces. The seller agreed to put an Apple AirTag provided by 404 Media in one of the books included in this order so we could see where the book was going. And by extension, which company, AI or otherwise, was behind this massive order. 404 Media granted the bookseller anonymity because they worried sharing this information would harm their business. Biblio did not respond to a request for comment.
The symbol for Amazon’s VGT3, the Las Vegas facility where it scans book for AI training data.
Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.
A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.
That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.
“Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use,” an Amazon spokesperson told me in a statement.
The world’s AI companies are constantly looking for, and spending extreme resources to locate, more material to train their AI models. With books, that sometimes means destroying them in the process, something that large parts of the public have spoken up against, and which we can now confirm Amazon is doing.
In July, I published a story about booksellers who reported a historical spike in sales starting in the past year. They suspected this spike in sales was due to AI companies acquiring any books they can in search of new training data. Printed books are valuable as training data because a lot of the text they contain is not readily available on the internet, which AI companies have already scraped. The data is also conveniently organized and, if the book was printed before 2022, is guaranteed to be free of AI-generated text, which can make any AI model that is trained on it worse via a recursive process called “model collapse.”
📖 Do you know work at a facility where you scan books? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at @emanuel.404. Otherwise, send me an email at emanuel@404media.co.
These booksellers suspected AI companies were behind these large bulk purchases because of the high number of books they were buying, the seemingly random choice of books, and the fact that these buyers, unlike libraries and universities, did not seem price sensitive at all. But booksellers couldn’t say for certain who was behind the large purchases because the marketplaces where they sell their books keep the buyers anonymous. When an order comes in, a bookseller ships the sold books to a warehouse operated by the marketplaces, where books are sorted and then sent to the buyer.
In July, one bookseller told me they received a very large order of around 1,000 books on Biblio, one of these marketplaces. The seller agreed to put an Apple AirTag provided by 404 Media in one of the books included in this order so we could see where the book was going. And by extension, which company, AI or otherwise, was behind this massive order. 404 Media granted the bookseller anonymity because they worried sharing this information would harm their business. Biblio did not respond to a request for comment.
Another article to provide some clarity on the types of books: …biggo.com/…/37a2899b-5f1a-4571-9bb5-1156c0ac4605
I think it would be nice if my guests could easily print and scan when they are visiting.
Printing should be relatively easy nowadays with the printer on the same network. Scanning is another story. I found this nice project which works very nicely.
However, I would love to have the same but for printing, that way I would not have to do device specific troubleshooting/helping when trying to print something from guests’ devices.
There is this project, which has a screenshot of what seems to be exactly what I’m looking for, but the issues are unanswered, there is no release, the building of the project is lacking.
Dockerfiles are incomplete, they are lacking copy yarn.lock and api lacks db initialization. The ports seem to be hardcoded. And once built, it doesn’t work or at least I didn’t manage yet. I got the frontend finally up but can’t login. My knowledge is very limited so I’m checking with you if there is anything similar in the landscape or anyone willing to help on that project. Unfortunately I am locked out of github.
CUPS didn’t work for me as I can’t see an upload option on the web UI.
edit: So I spent time on tweaking the akronae repo, and after a few corrections, adding CUPS and improvements, I managed to get something functional. If I have more time I might publish it. It’s fully vibe coded though 'cause I couldn’t be arsed learning TypeScript and shit, and the original repo has plenty of outdated dependencies which, same, I won’t update because I don’t have the skills.
cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/74091518
CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, and Silicon Data, the industry leader in GPU market intelligence and benchmarking backed by global trading firm DRW, today announced plans to launch two Compute futures contracts on October 5, 2026, pending regulatory review.
These innovative new trading tools will bring much-needed hedging and investment vehicles to businesses looking to manage the cost of compute, the processing power and hardware infrastructure that machines need to train and run AI models. Both Silicon Data H100 Rental Index Futures and Silicon Data B200 Rental Index Futures will track indexes measuring hourly rental GPU costs published by Silicon Data. Each contract will represent a month’s worth of rent for the Nvidia H100, the chip central to today’s AI ecosystem, and the next-generation Nvidia Blackwell B200, respectively.
“Compute has become the currency of the AI age, and this innovative market will bring transparency to the current and future costs that AI builders and hyperscalers need to hedge as they grow,” said Pete Keavey, Global Head of Energy and Environmental Products at CME Group. “Just as oil fueled the 20th century economy and evolved from spot trading into a global derivatives market, our futures contracts will now turn compute into a standardized, tradable commodity that will provide global businesses with a reliable, regulated venue to manage price risk .”
“For years, two companies buying the exact same GPU capacity could pay wildly different prices with no way to know who got the better deal. They will now have a benchmark to check that against,” said Carmen Li, Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Data. “Compute futures give the market something it’s never had: a public, tradable reference price for the resource every AI system runs on. Silicon Data’s benchmarks make that price real; CME makes it tradable. Together, that turns compute from something enterprises negotiate blindly into a market they can actually plan around.”
Explosive demand has driven sharp swings in compute prices, with volatility exposing a gap in the risk-management toolkit for companies building the AI infrastructure. CME Group and Silicon Data’s Compute futures close that gap, bringing transparency to the market and allowing companies, including AI developers and hyperscalers, to lock in their costs. They will also provide a window into future AI spending.
Mrwhoistheboss says that margin rose from 30 to 80% for memory companies and that the playstation price may increase from 400 to 1000. Does that really add up?
Movements to reclaim power over technology are springing up, from Neo-Luddism to Permacomputing to Rewilding the Internet. Alongside these approaches, we must discuss how tech has atrophied the exact civic muscle we’ll need to reclaim power over it.
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the Summer of Ludd, organized by NYC Off Tech and dedicated to getting people “off big tech, into public space, and re-enchanting each other.” Like the original Luddites rebelling against the machinery that stole their livelihoods, the Neo-Luddites are correct to rebel against today’s tech, which threatens our livelihoods, our privacy, our living world, our creative joy, and our ability to think.
Despite the heaviness of the stakes, the event itself was light: plays, puppets, clown workshops—I put on a gnome hat. My favorite moment of the event, which I dipped in and out of all week, was when a yellow gnome asked me to put my iPhone away and “carry this instead,” then passed me a hand-painted cardboard apple attached to a popsicle stick. How silly; how reasonable.
By itself, the event was not a labor movement; it was a cultural one. I think often about the divide between Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden as depicted in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7. Abbie keeps insisting on the importance of cultural revolution through street demonstrations, theater, humor, and sexual liberation, while Tom dismisses it as a distraction from “actual revolution.” My favorite moment in the film comes when Abbie tells him, “We’re not going to jail because of what we did, we’re going to jail because of who we are. Think about that the next time you shrug off cultural revolution.”
I agree with Abbie: how people play, feel free, and come to see what’s possible matters just as much as formal politics. I also agree with Naomi Klein when she says surrealism expands our political imagination, and with David Graeber when he asks, What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun? My coalition is big enough for whimsy, and it can’t be effective without it.
My problem is when people will read a book and say something like “why in a world with fantasy powers are men more likly to persue magic than women when their both equally capable of this must be proof that the author hates women”
I think a really good example is how naruto fans claim the author is sexist because most of the female ninja are weaker than the male ones and never “got” to persue their ninja job like the men". (note i do think the author of Naruto is sexist i just don’t agree with this reasoning.)
When, in the Naruto universe, men and women don’t have the same social norms as the real world. Not only are women in naruto from the clans are expected to and are forced to be ninja (essentially child soldiers) Most of early Naruto is literally both them the women and the men in the story lamenting the fact that being a ninja has stolen their lives away.
The women in Naruto going against the cultural norms of their society and actually freeing them selves from constant violence is not them conforming to patriacal standards especially not in universe its literally the exact oposite of that. It literally blows my mind that people make that point.
The sad thing about Sakara isn’t the fact that she never became as strong as Sasuke and Naruto. The sad thing about Sakura is the fact that even after multiple years to think on the problem she still thinks that she could have solved Sasuke’s emotional problems and trauma by punching him hard enough that he is forced to stay in the leaf. She never actually learned to communicate with other people outside of power and dominance and because of that is never truly able to empathize with either Naruto or Sasuke.
Also i just tend to look at fictional socities from a martrial realism point of view rather than a sociological
Manga girl sitting on the floor of the super market liquor aisle: When my parents ask when I’m getting married but this is the only aisle I’m walking down.
Hi there, I am hosting a service for mainly me and also some family members. I want it to become more.
Currently the chain just as follows: interwebz <-> UDM <-> npm <-> services. The services are mostly run in VMs or LXCs, npm runs in docker, accompanied by one Adguard home instance and another AGH instance in an LXC.
I now want to add f2b to this whole chain. I’ve installed f2b in the OS which runs docker (and therefore npm) (VM1) and also in the OS of my existing service (VM2). Both VMs use Ubuntu as their OS.
What I already figured out thru testing and reading is, that f2b in VM2 acts as expected when the jail is triggered, and sets the block. But nftables/ufw don’t block connections coming from external, as they are coming thru npm. f2b sees and uses the public IP for the checks/bans.
So now I am thinking how to solve that.
So, what’s your opinion? How do you fine folks handle that in your environment? Option 2 seems to be more elegant, as it would be “at the entry” and let’s me easily add additional services later. But I don’t know, if that’s a path worth digging in to.
Take a look at this. A Tesla Robotaxi in Austin pauses, seems to reconsider a right-hand turn through some bollards, and then decides: "I’m just gonna send it."
cross-posted from: thelemmy.club/post/54453891
As someone who’s been watching anime for over a decade, it may be a shocker to some that I’ve never seen My Hero Academia. Some may think it’s because “I don’t like superheroes”, but it’s actually the opposite. I love Superheroes; I grew up with the DCAU & both 90’s & 2000’s Marvel cartoons, I’m practically one the few people who still watches some MCU movies in theaters, Spider-Man PS4 is my all-time favorite games, and so on. So why have I never seen this show? Well for a couple reasons;
- 1.) I’ve felt like Japan’s take on superheroes have never fit my tastes in Superheroes (which I’ll talk about in the end).
- 2.) The concept seemed off, with a non-powered teen wanting to be a hero in a world where everyone has powers and then gets powers.
- And 3.) The director who worked on it was my mortal enemy, because he made my most hated anime, Gundam Build Fighters. Really mature thinking I know. I have nothing against Kenji Nagasaki nowadays. He seems like the guy who loves what he does, so I don’t hate the guy. I just don’t like his writing style and I’ll talk why soon.
So, what’s my opinion on this show? Is it as good as people make it out to be? While it’s better than I expected, it unfortunately left so much to be desired. It’s just…not as good as the stuff I grew up with. There’s stuff I like enough for me to consider it passable, but not enough to make me love it. That’s the TL;DR, but I’m going into more detail, so don’t go bitching about my wall of text. Otherwise, here’s my opinions both Season 1 & Season 2
Season 1; While this is where my issues come from, It’s a little forgiveable, since it’s the beginning of the series. It’s just trying to find its footing and setting you up for this world. It does fine for the most part, but it honestly feels a little barebones.
**Plot: **
The story goes, in a world where people with superpowers called “Quirks” are the norm, our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, has none. All that changed when he encountered his idol, All-Might. Once they formed a bond, not only he shares his secret with him, but also offers him his Quirk, finally granting Midoriya his dream to go to My Hero Academia & become one of the greatest heroes. Sweet story, hits you in the feels at times. There’s stuff I can easily nitpick, but at a macro scale, it’s a pretty competently told story. However, there’s certain aspects I don’t like. While this show prides itself on being a superhero story, it’s lacking in certain aspects. While we see the basic stuff; heroes saving civilians and fighting bad guys, I feel as though it’s lacking in the minor stuff; like the heroes interacting with civilians, preventing massive disasters, or even heroes quipping. Seriously, none of these heroes have any quippy remarks to make. But I’ll talk about that in S2.
But the story itself actually has some decent build up, since it actually has our protagonist earn his powers through a show of determination & real training. I also think that it has emotional moments that feel earned; like All-Might telling Midoriya that he can be a hero and Midoriya actually getting accepted into UA. Those moments where honestly the highlights. This is going to be a common theme on my thoughts on both seasons, but there’s things that this show does well as an anime, but not well enough as a superhero show. The feel good aspects in the story does feel genuine, but the superhero aspects feels too focused on the action for my tastes. Overall, decent story that lacks stuff I want to see in superhero media.
**Characters: **
Honestly, I guarantee that the characters are what people mainly talk about this show. Do I agree? Well to some extent, yes. While I didn’t care too much about all of them, the ones I did really did leave an impression on me. Luckily it’s because of the stellar english voice acting. I don’t care what the stupid Sub-Elitists will say, MHA’s voice acting is one of its strongest aspects. While the dialogue wasn’t always the best, the acting really did improve it. As for the characters themselves, here’s my thoughts on them
Heroes:
I was honestly shocked how much I actually liked Izuku Midoriya. Many people call him a “nothing protagonist”, but he and another character I liked perfectly represent the Superhero aspect I wanted to see more of in this show. While Midoriya started off the show without a quirk, I was engaged with how heroic he was. Him standing up to a bunch of bullies with quirks and even helping one of them when they were being attacked by a villain really made him a capable enough protagonist in my eyes. I also like that he actually has to train hard to earn his quirk from All-Might. My only complaint is that I wish that the notebook he carries was actually used more. Like his whole gimmick is that he studies heroes to learn from them, but that never helped him much outside of a couple scenes. But I think he’s a strongly written protagonist.
Not a lot of heroes in UA were developed much in this season, so I don’t really have too much to say about them. The only ones I want to comment on are Uraraka, Iida, and 2 of the Facility members. Ochaco Uraraka was a pretty fun character with gravity manipulation, as she’s cheerful & bubbly. I also really like her rapport with Midoriya, as they have some good banter with one another. Tenya Iida had me worried at 1st, as he looked like the stereotypical smartass. But I was honestly surprised at how much I actually liked him. While he’s by the book and eager, it remained interesting with his dedication. I also like his Quirk, makes him a more mature speedster, which is an interesting take. There’s more students that were fun to watch; like Kirishima, Momo, Asui, and Shoto, they don’t get much to do in this season.
Unfortunately, there’s 2 students I genuinely couldn’t stand; Minita & Bakugo. Minita is pretty obvious, he’s an obnoxious pervert who’s only desire is to see boobies. Luckily he’s barely in the first 2 seasons, so he’s pretty forgettable (most of the time). Bakugo is the complete opposite, as he’s in the majority of the series, and I can’t name a single thing I like about this asshole. He’s cocky, brash, rude, & just an all round psycho. I wouldn’t mind that, if he actually grow throughout the show, but he really doesn’t. What’s worse is that his behavior is rewarded and there’s isn’t a single moment where that punk gets what’s coming to him. But that’s about it for the students.
As for the facility, there’s 2 I want to highlight; Aizawa (Eraser Head) & Toshinori (All-Might). Shoto Aizawa was pretty interesting to watch as this cynical but sharp teacher who tests the students in many ways. And his Quirk to block someone else’s Quirk just by looking at him is also really cool. But my favorite hero and favorite MHA character is without a doubt All-Might. At first, I thought it was going to be a cynical take on “paragon of justice” like we’ve been getting lately, but he’s actually a genuinely good hero. The secret is that his true self is weaker and he’s only able to show himself towards people he’s close to, which becomes Midoriya. Speaking of which, they’re friendship is honestly the best part of the show. All-Might feels like the mentor Midoriya needs, and Midoriya motivates All-Might to be a shining example. These 2 interactions are easily the best part of the show.
Villains:
If I’m being honest, the villains in this season are really forgettable. Like there’s only 2 bad guys that actually left an impression, and that’s Shigaraki & Kurogiri. Shigaraki for his bitterness & desire to kill All-Might made him somewhat interesting. And his Quirk to disintegrate objects was honestly really cool and made him and actually threat. And Kurogiri has this mysterious vibe with his calculative demeanor. I also think his Quirk to teleport people to other places is cool too. Though most of that is because of his design being sick AF. However, every other villain really didn’t left an impression on me. One of the many cracks in Kenji’s writing. At least the Nomus were cool and presented an actual challenge to the heroes.
Overall, the cast has their hit or misses. Some are great; like Midoriya, All-Might, Ochaco, & Iida. Some are decent, but forgettable; like the rest of the UA students & the villains. While others genuinely got on my nerves; like Minata & Bakugo. Whoever’s your favorite is completely up to you, but that’s my opinion on the cast Verdict:
Season 1 does what it sets out to do, introduce us to this new world and get us comfortable with these new characters. How well it succeeds is a matter of personal tastes. But for me, while it did decently well enough, it kinda felt a little underwhelming. Especially the world building, which I’ll talk about in S2. While I liked the main character & his idol, his banter with his friends, & some of the feel-good moments in the show, I was just left underwhelmed for the superhero stuff. Like the last few episodes,it was going to have students train to save & protect civilians like actual superheroes, but instead it’s just a bunch of D-list supervillains fighting them. The fights were cool, but that’s abou. It. As a shonen anime, it’s pretty good. But as a superhero show, it’s lacking in a lot of areas. Next
Season 2:
Apparently, this is the highest rated season on MAL with a whopping 8.05. So does this mean it’s the greatest anime of all time? I’ll say this, it’s a lot better than S1, but again, not to the point where I was fanning over this show. Hell, the only parts I genuinely enjoyed about it was the middle chunk involving the internship and the majority of the final exam. Otherwise, my opinions on this season are the same as the last season; decent anime, lackluster superhero show. Now it’s time to go into more detail
Plot:
This season has like 3 arcs. The 1st one is your stereotypical tournament arc, the 2nd one has the students do some internships, and the 3rd & finally one has them do a final exam, where they fight the teachers. Honestly out these 3 arcs, the tournament arc is easily my least favorite, for 2 reasons; too fucking long & unsatisfying ending. There’s moments I like, like when Iida learns about his brother’s accident and Shoto’s messed up backstory. Those where great moments, but it doesn’t excuse the lion’s share this arc takes up. And the fact that Bakugo wins really pissed me off.
On the other hand, I really liked the Internship arc, since it puts the students into the field & teaches them about patrolling as a superhero. It also pairs Midoriya with All-Might’s mentor, Gran Torino. And it introduces a pretty good villain for a change. The Finals arc is a take it or leave it scenario, where I liked some parts, but couldn’t stand others. Overall, outside of the tournament arc, I was well engaged with certain parts of the plot. Not enough to make it my favorite, but enough to keep me interested for long enough.
Characters:
The characters here are honestly way more interesting here, as they have more to do and are given more screen time. And for once, we actually have a villain with real & understandable motives (maybe generic, but it’s something). There’s even some new characters to shine. And as always, the English voice acting really carried these characters.
Heroes:
Midoriya is a lot more proactive here and is finally given more chances to show off his Quirk. Speaking of which, I might as well talk about what kind of Quirk it is. “One-for-All” is basically a generational Quirk that increases the user’s abilities tenfold. All they need is to take the previous user’s DNA (or in Midoriya’s case, eat All-Might’s hair), along with their consent. I like seeing him struggle at first, since using it greatly damages his body, only to learn to control it a whole lot more. As for Midoriya himself, it’s like S1 where he’s just really selfless and I just love seeing that in a protagonist. He’s just helping in a multitude of ways. Like helping Shoto with his childhood trauma or helping Iida fight a villain when he’s down.
Speaking of which, Tenya Iida is a lot more interesting here. We learn that his family runs a hero business and that he looks up to his brother. So when he learns about the accident that basically ended his superhero career by a psychopath, you want to route for him to get justice. However, I have an issue with how his desire for revenge is handled. Or specifically, how others treated it. When Iida is paired with a professional hero, he tries to stop him from pursuing him, not because it won’t make him feel better, but because it is against the law. Which is fair enough, but I would’ve like if he had a realization that killing the villain that harmed his brother won’t set the heroic example he wants to set. Something like that would’ve been more interesting. I still think Iida is a lot more interesting here.
Ochaka doesn’t really have too much to do, but I like that they expanded on her motivation a little more, as she wants to be a hero to support her family. But the anime doesn’t really have much outside of that. I like that the side characters are expanded a whole lot more, as they have more to do. Momo gets to use her powers, to create things out of thin air, in unique ways. Asui has a solo episode where she stops a bunch of shipjackers. And we get to see more of Kirishima, as he works for a big boss for his internship.
But the character who I think is the most interesting is Shoto Todoroki. For starters, he has a unique combination of both fire & ice powers, but he mainly uses ice powers as his fire power is from his father. That last part is the main talking point, as we see his backstory. His father was an abusive jerk who pushed his son to become stronger to beat All-Might, while also beating his wife for trying to help her son. This leads her to go insane and burn Todoroki’s face with a kettle, hence the scar. This gives him more depth as a character, as you want him to be his own person and break free from his trauma. I also like that it was Midoriya that broke him out of that abusive state of mind, and embraced both sides of himself. And I like that he tried to save Midoriya. Those 2 and Iida were honestly the best characters in this season in my eyes.
The opposite can be said about Mineta and Bakugo. Mineta is an obvious fucking creep, so I have less than nothing to say about him. Bakugo on the other hand earns a spot on my list of most hated anime characters. The only positive I can say is that he actually gets punished in certain parts of the show, like getting thrown into a wrap sheet after the tournament or being tormented by the hero he’s mentoring. Otherwise, I just can’t stand the fucking guy. He doesn’t listen to reason, he punches through without thinking about the consequences, and is just an overall rude person. The moment he slapped Midoriya made me want to reach out for the asshole on the screen. But that’s all the students I really have anything to say.
As for the teachers, I’ll say they were pretty interesting. Eraser Head being a cynical teacher was fun to watch, and I like how he tests the students in unique ways. And while I didn’t talk about him in the last season, Present Mic was also a fun watch. I don’t have too much to talk about him as a character, but I like his design as it invokes Jet Set Radio, and his quirk to scream loud is cool too. Similar case to the principle, Nezu, who’s just a smart hamster. That’s just funny to me, I don’t know what else to say. Midnight is an interesting character for a couple reasons. 1.) Elizabeth Maxwell does a really good job voicing her, as she matches her seductive demeanor. 2.) He Quirk to disperse sleeping gas is pretty useful and goes well with her fighting style. And 3.) I like how she & Mt. Lady talked about skimpy outfits for superheroines. That’s a pretty meta discussion, but I wished those 2 actually went deep into that and not be a throw away gag. As for All-Might, like last season, he’s the absolute GOAT. I like how he expanded on his backstory more, as he was Quirkless like Midoriya once and he trained under a man named Gran Terrino. He also actually mentors the other students like Shoto and even Bakugo, though you can tell which students he had better luck with. And hanging out with Midoriya will always warm my heart.
Two more heroes I want to talk about are All-Might’s mentor Gran Terreno and Shoto’s father, Endevor. Gran Terreno was a fun guy to watch, as he helps Midoriya improve his quirk usage and drops some pieces of wisdom towards him. And this his Quirk to jet through areas is a fun one too. My only nitpick is that he tells Midoriya that he didn’t become a pro hero, because he didn’t want to deal with the “extra work”, when it would’ve been better if he said that he didn’t want the attention and just wants to be a hero for the sake helping others. That would’ve perfectly tie in to what this season was trying to say. As for the “hero” Endevor, I’ve mentioned this before, but this scumbag beat both Shoto into becoming stronger & his own wife for trying to defend her son. I want to know what the writers were thinking when they made the obvious wife beater bob with fire powers a prominent character, because I’m obviously not going route for a clearly abusive creep who treats like a successor to beat All-Might. But of Endevor & Bakugo (and obviously Mineta), the heroes were honestly quite interesting time around
Villains:
I can’t really say the same about the villains however. They feel very one note and feel like they only exist to give the heroes something to punch. Shigiraki & Kurogiri are basically the same as they were in S1, so I don’t have too much to add. The only villain that was actually interesting, was the new villain Stain. He was the only villain who was even remotely interesting, as he’s the only one who actually serves as a threat. For starters, he’s completely ruthless in his attacks with the amount of times he’ll stab his victims. Sure, a hero can dodge it easily, but that’s where his quirk comes in. He has the ability to paralyze someone by licking their blood. Those traits and his plethora of blades, and we have a deadly foe to deal with. But what makes him a great villain, is his reason for going after heroes. He believes that there’s no true heroes in this world anymore, other than All-Might, and he wants to get rid of all of them. And to be honest, he’s not wrong. Most of the heroes we see in this world are basically walking advertisements and only care about the spectacle. With heroes like that, it’s kinda hard to tell who’s a genuine hero and who’s only doing it for fame & glory. The only reason why he wants All-Might to kill him is because he thinks that he’s the only “true” hero left.
Unfortunately, all of that comes crashing down when you realize that he’s never proven wrong. Not in the way where he’s that delusional, but just…no one learns anything. Going back to my Gran Torino point, no one really learns what it truly means to be a hero, let alone called Stan out for his faulty reasoning. And this is where I take issue with Kenji’s writing. He introduces a really good concept, but expects the spectacle & aura farming to carry it, instead of actually going deeper with the concept itself. And this is a prime example, where the villain presented a really good point, but everyone solved it with their fists. It’s kinda lazy in my eyes, as anything that’s handled with your fists feels shoehorned in. Overall, while I did like Stain as a character, the villains still felt pretty lacklucker in my eyes, as they didn’t have any intrigue that makes a villain interesting. While this show does tease more villains for the next season, let’s just say I have no interest whatsoever.
Otherwise, I think the characters are what really keep me somewhat interested in the show. While there were some characters I really didn’t like, The ones I did like were enough for me to keep on staying. They were an improvement from the last season as they had more to do and were a bit more fleshed out. And again, the english voice acting was pretty good.
World Building:
Honestly, while I praised some of the characters in this show, the world they inhabit was what broke the camel’s back in terms of a superhero series. World building in superhero media is what made the stories we see so interesting. Both DC, Marvel, and even Ninja Turtles have such fascinating lore, that it makes the story they’re telling so investing to watch. MHA is just lacking in that area, as there’s not a lot to make it stand out. For starters, I kinda hate the idea that nearly everyone in their world has a quirk. To quote Syndrome “once everyone’s super, no one will be”. If everyone has a quirk, it kind of takes away from the stakes, since everyone can either make a force field or shoot fire. They also don’t explain how humans with no quirks feel about people with quirks. They kinda did that with Midoriya in the S1, but they dropped it immediately. I just think DC & Marvel handled this way better. In the DCAU, a faction called Cadimus is formed out of fear of Metahumans turning against them after learning about an evil version of the Justice League in an alternate universe that took over the world. Marvel has humans forming a prejudice against mutants, to the point where they create giant robots that hunt down mutants in the form of the Sentanels. MHA doesn’t need to follow those examples, but doing something with non-powered heroes would’ve been interesting.
I also wonder if there’s anyone who got their powers through an accident, like a radioactive spider-bite, gamma radiation, a trip to space, or super soldier serum. Going back to the civilians, there’s also rarely moments between the heroes and the civilians. Outside of Midoriya’s mom & All-Might’s detective’s friend Naomasa Tsukauchi (I actually like him & All-Might’s rapport), there’s barely any civilians who actually interact with the heroes in a meaningful way. The closest we got was that coast guard congratulating Asui from saving the day & Bakugo scaring a bunch of kids. I just think back at any super hero media that utilizes the civilians in a meaningful way; Like in Spider-Man 2 with Aunt May & the Train Passagers Peter saved, in Batman Begins with that little boy who Bruce gave one of his gadgets to, hell, even the MCU is loaded with moments like that. Again, I felt like MHA is lacking in that area.
There’s UA, but I don’t really have too much to say, other than the facilities that test their super powers and that stadium. It’s basically just a Japanese High School you’ve seen a million times with the Danger room slapped onto it. I know I’ve been negative about this part of the anime, but there’s certain aspects I actually do like. Like the students making their costumes, choosing their hero names, and you know, the action is pretty good. I also like the friendship between All-Might & Naomasa, as it reminds me of Batman and Commissioner Gordan.
Overall, I just don’t find MHA that interesting in terms of world building, as other super hero stuff has done what it did but better. I get that it’s trying to be more small scale, but it just feels limited in that regard. I think that fight scenes are good enough and the quirks used in pretty unique ways, but that’s all I can really say. I’ve saved the world building section for S2, because it was basically non-existent in the last season. But otherwise, I’m just not impressed
Verdict:
Was this wall of text that not a lot of people are gonna read a way to say that I’m not a fan of MHA? Not exactly, as there’s more to it than that. As a shounen anime, it’s alright. It’s good enough for me to see the reason for the popularity. However, I wasn’t watching it as someone who likes anime. It’s just that I was watching this show as someone who grew up with superhero media my whole life. With that lens, I realize that, while you can tell that Kenji’s a massive fan of superheroes, his heart is kinda in the wrong place as it lacks what made superheroes so interesting.
While most of us are going through “superhero fatigue” because of how Disney monopolized Marvel, I feel as though that superheroes can still be cool if handled well. I could just think “man, superheroes were cool”. And I’m not just talking about the live-action stuff. I remember that tender moment in Batman: The Animated Series where Bruce saved one Mr.Freeze’s goons from succumbing to hyperthermia, Scott helping his childhood friend who’s running an orphanage in X-Men the Animated series, Leonardo going through an arc where he tries let go of his trauma, and that ending of PS4 Spider-Man where Peter let Aunt May go to save the city from the virus made me really teary-eyed.
Just watching MHA really made me appreciate the stuff I grew up with, but made me realize how Japan handles Superheroes really doesn’t hold a candle to what I see. Maybe some Japanophile will write a long rant on how they feel the opposite, but I really don’t care. If you like this show, more power to you. I’ll just to the western stuff to get my superhero fix.
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/51503727
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