Anime & Donghua

Incidentally, grom is Russian for "thunder, roar"

TIL!

the voice acting — it's all Microsoft Sam

Me trying to find Japanese videos about speedrunning to practice listening to native Japanese speakers but every time I click on one it's just those got-dang 2hu TTS thingamabobs (but as you say, I'd totally be the one using the TTS if I were a Japanese person making videos about vidya on NND 15 years ago, so I can't be that mad)

Fanime is to me something defined by its "spirit" first and foremost: the spirit of making things for the sake of making things, even if the end result is poorly drawn, poorly acted, and poorly written, or otherwise "cringeworthy".

Hear, hear! Even though I'm not a fanime enthusiast in particular, this is absolutely how I feel about art more broadly. I want to see the actual human who made it in the end result!

Adam Neely did a great video on AI generated music recently, and one of the interesting things he teased out is that people who use AI to "compose" don't cite any influences—AI or otherwise. Personally, one of the most gratifying things about music is understanding it on a deeper level—both from analyzing the notes/techniques/textures themselves purely in the context of the song, but also tracing the lineage of musical ideas: "Oh, that kind of chord voicing comes from X composer" or "That lick is definitely a reference to Y's solo" or "That production technique was made popular by Z". This gives the listener an idea of the unique blend of music that shaped the composer's style, and can point to more things to listen to in order to broaden their musical palate and historical perspective.

I think she might've also shown me another song in the intermissions but I didn't make note of it, alas.

I'm fairly certain it was just the one song, but if there was another, it can't have been very good if neither of us remember it

Apropos anime I've already seen before, Gurren Lagann: It fucked way harder than when I watched it for the first time yeeeaaars ago, but the movie was disappointing.

Never saw the movie—from what I've heard, it's a recap with a bit of new animation, no?

Courage the Cowardly Dog is another old cartoon I'd wanted to get a taste of just to familiarize myself with others' nostalgia. I was surprised that the dog talked, I kinda thought the dog only whimpered. Frankly, I think it would've been better if the dog only whimpered.

Genuinely never seen any of this show (see above: no cable)—only know what it looks like from still frames—so I'm curious to know what you mean but I think I prefer to keep it a mystery (at least in terms of direct experience).

Archer

I remember enjoying it well enough, but that was a long time ago and I doubt I'd enjoy it as much now, as much as I like H. Jon Benjamin. I watched it with a friend, so like you said, that may have contributed a lot to the enjoyment.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

I think I've only seen the transformation sequences and maybe some random scenes which I've forgotten. Doesn't seem like my kind of show, but I've heard that the music (courtesy of prominent Japanese composer/producer TeddyLoid) is pretty great.