know what's good? over the last few years I've basically completely stopped seeing "manly" used as a synonym for "badass"

back in the 00s every hype anime thing that happened had to be the manilest man anime for manly men

now it tends to mean "Kinda stupid and self-destructive"

remember talking about TTGL in 2008

Remember Gar?

the manly anime for real men that makes you cry like a man

I've ranted at length about how even TTGL doesn't buy that

the people who say that are the people who took everythin Kamina said at face value

Yeah TTGL does a pretty good job of setting up its Machismo machine as a self-aware faker

Like, in the story, self-admittedly

Simon's actualization as the protagonist comes from the mentorship of both Kamina and Nia

You have to actually not watch the show to take everything Kamina says at face value because Kamina himself admits to being full of shit

you don't have to be the same kind of gravel-chewing hypermasc idiot that kamina was to be strong

you just have to be who you are

Ramases II : I KNOW you've met people who admitted to stopping at episode 8 because they didn't see the point anymore

Simon becomes strong not by becoming Kamina 2 but by becoming Simon

Yes and I stopped talking to them

Also man

Expecting Gainax to value machismo as the main guiding value of a work.

Gainax

I mean people also hated Shinji because he wasn't Kamina, and TTGL hadn't even come out yet

...I feel like the only legit way to use those words in the same sentence now is if we're referring to Manlybadasshero

The ideal man is now Alex Louise Armstrong

Big and buff and not afraid to cry

you know, people shit on FMA 2003 a lot, but there's a bit in it where Izumi does a crime to help Ed and Al, and Armstrong is on the scene and has to try to stop her, and she like hits him with a big rock via alchemy and he goes "OHHHHHHHHHHH I'M SO SEVERELY WOUNDED I CANNOT POSSIBLY PURSUE YOUR TEACHER EDWARD ELRIC"

and Ed is just like "the spot you're clutching isn't where she hit you"

that doesn't have much to do with anything I just love Alex Louis Armstrong