Change is a part of life, no matter what Jordan Fringe may indirectly imply. All it takes is time. For a while now I had claimed I hated several shows I used to watch when I was younger, whether I was just spiting a community I wanted nothing to do with, or I just never bothered to actually watch the series again just to see if it's as bad as I remember. Since then, much has changed, and I'm gonna list three shows I've either become a fan of again, or I respect at the very least. It will go from least likely to watch to a filler spot to most likely.
Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi
When I first saw this show, I liked it alright. It didn't stand out to me but I tuned in anyhow. Because this show focuses on young females with a colorful style, it is inevitable that it attracts some interesting fans. BenTheLooney beckons. A lot of what I had to say about this show was based on a complete misunderstanding. I had assumed this was trying to be an anime attempting to mimic shows from the 60s, and I was especially harsh to the almost literal art direction taken for Ami and Yumi, and Julie, and Kaz for the most part.
Let's be real, Renegade Animation, company behind this, has initially stuck to a retro aesthetic with a majority of their shows and it's in full display here. I take it Ami, Yumi, and those other two losers took on the look they did for the sake of standing out from other characters, near as I could tell other characters from Japan in the show don't look this way so that's my best possible theory. They go for the most obvious anime tropisms because they wanted to stay true to this montra; "An anime done with the aesthetics of a classic cartoon, or something like that."
I can forgive the otherwise basic flash animation because either they just didn't have the budget to go further, or because it was entirely intentional for the retro aesthetic, and with that the plots would be simple to match. I guess if they had gone for more blatant Japanese elements then I question how well it would turn out, but at the end of the day, it's a cartoon series done in the vein of retro cartoons that just so happens to focus on a Japanese pop duo, if you like Puffy this is obviously up your alley.
Only things I don't like is how often the tides turn in favor of Ami, and even when it seems like she would learn otherwise things would go into her favor. I'm just saying, Yumi did something out of selflessness to help Ami achieve something wrought through selfishness. The other thing is that I don't like Grey DeLisle, hear her enough times and you're bound to get sick of her, her range is more limited than people are willing to admit.
I probably won't watch the series again, but I certainly have more respect for it now than I did before.
Ed, Edd n’ Eddy
So the Kankers prevail a few too many times and thus the entire series sucks, eh?
Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided I hated the show. It stood the test of time, it was like no other Cartoon Network show when it came out, and it didn't take long for me to see that light again. I owe my negative feelings on it to the show's fifth season.
The fifth season, along with changing the setting for the most part and marking the show's shift to digital animation, marked some serious changes, and not for the better. Getting the smaller stuff out of the way, it feels like school for the most part was an afterthought, because they had to get Sarah and Jimmy in there somehow, and it seems less like they're amping up the comedic factor and more like they take a general idea and just roll with it with minimal thought, like mugging. I can forgive changes for the sake of switching things up every now and then, but any problem the previous seasons had are amped up to a considerable degree. I made a post talking about the fifth season a while back, so check it out if you wanna know more about what I thought.
While that season technically had the most terrible episodes, even what is considered to be the very worst in the series, it has its fans and I can't deny them it, but if you haven't seen the show in a while, please go in order, the fifth season could make or break your experience with it, take it from someone whose been there.
And it's not even the incorporation of a new setting, because that should be forgivable if the writing can justify it, I mean it's not as bad as someone suddenly coming into money, or a family having a new child (imagine the strokes they'd have if they learn about Andy Keaton), or getting a haircut, oh, and god forbid someone decides to lose some weight-
Yeah I've still yet to find a good reason to hate Disney's Doug, or Jordan Fringe is full of shit.
Camp Lazlo
Even I'm still surprised how quickly I got back into this.
Okay, in the past I wrote the show off as promoting toxic positivity and this being a sign Joe Murray was starting to regress... then I actually bothered to watch the show. My biggest hangup was the assumption Lazlo was ignorant as hell, but I was wrong. He's just very optimistic, and it's within reason most of the time. I was able to find context to scenes that put me off from watching the show again, and episodes I'd normally hate would become some of my favorites.
And it's funny, utterly funny. Rocko's Modern Life popularized adult innuendos in kids shows with the masses, and while Camp Lazlo is more straight-forward, there're still some glimpses of hidden adult jokes, good ones in general, a lot of it still got a laugh out of me as an adult, and the characters are all very likable. Episodes seemed annoying to me time ago, but when you give them enough thought, it'd be easy to understand why things turn out the way they do.
Also, I give mad props to Meat Man for committing to a very dark story.
This is number 1 because I've actually wound up seeing more episodes than I expected to, it's that good. There're still some episodes I would prefer not to see again, but that's something that goes for every show.
Conclusion
Sometimes it's worth it to go back to shows you initially hated, I know it was for me. Now, you may think this is a good opportunity for me to go for other shows I bash frequently... prepare for disappointment.
A lot of the other shows, I just have no good will for anymore. I want to avoid PowerPuff Girls like the plague, seriously fans of that show are nuts, you gotta draw the line when people whine about using a more familiar design indigenous with, you know, the main characters. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was the first show I recall hating...
And you already know where I stand with Teen Titans, if I feel I could dissect many of the episodes, there's no going back from it. And that's just going by shows I've actually seen in full. Let's be real, sad as it seems, there're just some shows we can never get back into.
I knew someone was gonna ask.
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