I now have a full time job plus a long commute, which means… more time for reading manga while half-asleep? Huh?
Anyway the last thread of this kind was in July, and since then an anime season has finished, so might as well do it again.
For me:
Manga:
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (2005): Parallel to watching the excellent adaptation, I have picked up the manga and, much like Kaiji, finished it in a concerningly short time. Koji Kumeta has a bone to pick with the world… with everything in the world. What arises is a very entertaining ruthless critique. I’m fairly sure he’s either still a leftist, or used to be one and got disappointed. However, he is also nationalistic. A political mess, mostly agreeable, sometimes dropping horrible takes - but a fantastic manga which never loses its bite no matter how many chapters you are into it. It’s also less horny than the Shaft adaptation. A+
√Paradise (1991): Being curious about Kumeta’s early work, I read this short manga of his, which is basically the Yakuza games’ cabaret club side-plot in manga form. Not too interesting, but a decent enough read. B-
Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san (2017): Nagatoro is a decent romance manga with a pretty bad beginning. It ended a few months ago, but I have caught up only recently. Not much else to say, really. B
Shiroyama to Mita-san (2021): Nice comedic romance/slice of life manga about two (mostly) uncool people. Fun, but have not finished it yet. B+
Anime:
Aa-Megami Sama (2005): I had read a large chunk of the manga before, and it’s just as fun as I remembered it being. The romance stuff isn’t too strong, but the hijinks are fun. The source material being from the 80s means that many of the usual tropes didn’t exist yet… or were being invented. A-
Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Almost done with this show, it’s been really good overall. Strong characters and storytelling, and the anime original plot… I can clearly see why it’s controversial, but I like it. Good show. A
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! (2024): The only seasonal I didn’t drop. Story-wise very conventional, but the character writing was good. Anna Yanami in particular, being one of the strongest female leads in recent anime history. It had a few tone-unfitting scenes that felt tacked on for the horny audience, but overall decent show. B
Western Animation
The Owl House (2020): Very fun show, with some blatant inspiration from many recognizable source materials, western and Japanese. King is a king. A
Reading Parasyte. Decided to pick it up researching some seinen manga and I like it so far. Has major The Thing vibes and it’s funny.
Parasyte’s fun and has a great artstyle. To my knowledge, the anime redesigned the characters, which is a huge L imo.
I’m really enjoying it so far! It’s like the best body horror of the thing mixed with what if school boy got cool powers.
Migi’s a fun character too.
WHY DID NOBODY REMIND ME THAT UZUMAKI IS OUT!
The animation was well worth the wait, but I wish the dub was different somehow. I tried the subbed version but it still has the same “animeness” problem. It’s hard to put it into words, but I think the overacting doesn’t suit the show well. However, even by the second episode I’m either getting more into it or the show itself is getting better. Junji Ito’s work is notoriously difficult to adapt, and I think this anime is doing pretty good. The animation is absolutely fantastic, black and white was the right choice and the occasional rotoscoping is downright creepy just as it should be. I think most of my dissatisfaction with the voicework is down to it not measuring up to what’s in my head- there’s a reason Bill Watterson refuses to license Calvin and Hobbes, for example.
I also decided to try out Kimi wa Meido-sama because I like wish-fulfillment trash and was willing to give it a go. I was surprised at just how good the animation was and the opening was a fantastic mismatch of animation styles. It has a lot of cliches (maid! subservient waifu! highschool protagonist living on his own for no reason! obvious Yor knockoff!) etc but the animation was really good and Meido-sama had the cutest little chibi sad dog face I’ve ever seen that I finished the episode. Time will tell if I continue to watch this well-made trash.
Recently finished with mom
- Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan: funny, sometimes low budget, sometimes cringe (mainly because of Anko), it was neat getting to follow along on this show week by week since I haven’t done that in a long time.
- Library War: very strong recommendation, the cliffhanger in the penultimate episode was so good that we had to watch the last episode right after.
Continuing from previous months with mom
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: this is an absolute classic, it’s cartoony but it still tells a very captivating story.
- Samurai Champloo: top class, not much more I can say.
- The Boondocks: also top class, we’re nearly done with season 2 and I’ve heard that it kinda starts to drop off after that point…
Recently started with mom
- Cells at Work: Code Black: it’s not as good as previous seasons of Cells at Work, the “grittiness” rubs me the wrong way, and the new red and white blood cell duo aren’t as charming as the duo from the first two seasons. I still appreciate that they did a boner and cum episode though.
- Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu: we started watching this one because it has the same original creator as Mitsuboshi Colors. We have really enjoyed these first two episodes but I wouldn’t say it yet stands out as better than Mitsuboshi.
Brought back from years on the paused list with mom
- Barakamon: Mijikamon: these are short chibi-style videos promoting each episode of Barakamon. They’re silly, simple fun.
- Minami-ke: Okawari: the first season of Minami-ke was better, and that was itself fairly middle tier slice of life. Still, we’ve been enjoying the second season, even if we sometimes have to interpret or ad lib new lines when the subtitles randomly decide to cut out.
Anime I’ve been watching by myself
- Dinosaur King: this is a nostalgia watch, I’m only one episode in so far. It was decently entertaining but it’s a 4kids dub of a kids’ anime so y’know only so much.
- Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card: I’m only two episodes in, and I love seeing these characters again, but all the changes subtle or otherwise might take some getting used to. I wish it had Norwegian subs, though, since that’s how I watched the OG Cardcaptor.
- Toradora: I’ve stalled out on this one because I feel like I’ve reached a point where my feelings towards it are like a combination of my feelings towards Stardust Telepath and Gurren Lagann as I was watching those, i.e. “this character has some big feelings, and now this character has some big feelings, yawn” + “I want to finish this show but I don’t actually want to watch it”. But at least those shows had things about them that made me finish them despite me feeling kind of bored with them. I absolutely will finish Toradora but I just feel like it’s gonna take a while between each time I’ll actually say to myself, “hey, I feel like watching Toradora right now”.
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I’m still stuck on Deer Friend Nokotan and the Suicide Squad anime. Both are okay, nothing too special. I’m going to cut back in the future on watching stuff that doesn’t blow me away. I will say Nokotan is quite cute and random which I do like.
I just don’t have the time to watch stuff that’s only okay these days.
Haven’t been watching/reading much.
Working thru:
Anime:
Oshi No Ko season 2 is good, but I’ve been reading the manga, so I’m not rushed.
Shikanoko is alright, though in small doses. I’m like 5 or 6 episodes in? It is sadly not kino at the level of Zetsubou Sensei (glad others are experiencing the greatness!)
Western Animation
I am once again asking you to watch Over the Garden Wall. Trying to savor it this year, so I’m only on episode 2/10 of my rewatch
Only thing of note lately is the anime-original Hoshiai no Sora (Stars Align). Feels like an absolute unicorn of an anime and I’m really enjoying it–unfortunate that it never got a second season. Still got four episodes to go so I don’t know if it’ll shit the bed or something, but I’m honestly not too fussed about endings and it’s absolutely been worth the price of admission already.
All manga atm right now:
Crossbone Gundam (1994): It’s written by Tomino so it has some good plot beats but so far it feels very “anime-y” if that makes sense. It doesn’t really carry the same weight a traditional Gundam show would have when it comes to war. B
Dragon Ball (1984): Love it so far, I’ve read up to the first tournament arc when I used to get comics through Viz so it’s cool seeing it uncensored. The gags are pretty charming (even if Bulma is underage
). AArea 88 (1979): Surprised Mangadex had this, picked it up today and so far so good. I like the idea of mercenaries with fighter jets. I can see where Ace Combat got it’s inspiration from. B
Dragon Ball (1986-1989) was a fun watch. I’m gonna continue onto Z eventually.
You gotta step into the Room of Spirit and Time to watch through Dragon Ball Z
I had to stop reading manga because my tablet died so I have been unable to continue most of my reads. I have been trying chinese mangha (is the name correct?) and I have been enjoying it more since I’m kind of tired of manga tropes. Regarding anime, with the end of the season and the start of the new one, there is not much to talk about yet. I also got a bit burned out from anime in general so I have not watched as much as I usually do. Some highlights from the old season are:
Dead Demons Dededede Destruction - Amazing show. Engaging in every moment from the beginning to almost the end. Great characters and subtle societal comentary about migration and liberalism. Didn’t really like the ending tho. I understand why it went that way but it felt more like a cop out than a proper resolution. I haven’t read the manga yet so it might be a presentation problem (why does ep 0 even exist???).
Oshi no Ko 2 - Adaptation of my least liked (debatible) arc from the manga and I enjoyed even then. The anime art decisions were really good and make it more engaging than I can remember feeling when reading the manga. Story is still a mess and I can complain about it a lot but at least it was fun. Also, I was getting very tired of this last manga arc so I’m not really missing it but I have heard good opinions of the last episodes so I might try to start reading again soon
Senpai wa Otokonoko - I really liked the start but I slowly started disliking most things about it. I am aware that expecting good queer representation in anime is hard but even then I got disapointed. Worst part is that I read the manga a couple of years ago and was disapointed even then. I really need to start handling my expectations better.
Old anime I’m watching:
Rockman.EXE - It’s a kids anime but it has something that is hard to replicate. The vision of the internet in that era was really fun and interesting. It reminds me a lot about Digimon. I’m enjoying this alot but thinking that it has 5 seasons of ~50 episodes is making me wonder where am I going to stop.
ODDTAXI - Rewatched it recently to watch the live action spinnoff and it’s amazing how good it is. Characters are great and their whole interaction is wacky and weird but very enjoyable. Spinoff is simply bad so no comments.
Movies:
Blue Giant - Simple story but amazing concert animations and incredible music. It was probably one of the best animated experiences I have ever had and I loved every single second of it. For whoever enjoys jazz, this is something I would completely recommend
Blue Giant - Simple story but amazing concert animations and incredible music. It was probably one of the best animated experiences I have ever had and I loved every single second of it. For whoever enjoys jazz, this is something I would completely recommend
Ughhhhh, I need to get around to this and Kids on the Slope
Hey mods can we get this pinned and make it a monthly thing in this comm?
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The Fable just finished airing, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Oh yeah, directed by Ryosuke Takahashi (of VOTOMS, etc. fame). I still need to check it out.
Anime:
Patlabor on TV and Patlabor: the New Files: Putting these together since they’re more or less part of the same show. This is probably one of my favorite anime of all time. There’s a primary plot about a private security company, but it really shines in the one-off episodes. There’s all sorts of fun shit - Totoro, spy capers, Wizardry/dungeon crawlers. A+
The Princess and the Pilot: I heard this described as “chick flick for plane otaku” and that’s accurate. Very fun! A
Gundam: Reconguista in G movies: I’m normally not huge on compilation movies, but this is a 5 movie adaptation of a 25 episode show, so it’s roughly equivalent. There’s some new stuff in here, but it’s still kinda hard to recommend one over the other. Must watch for Tomino brained sickos, but maybe not for newer Gundam fans. B
Dominion (tank police): “We’ve got Patlabor at home” before Patlabor existed. Eehhhhh. C-
Patlabor is one of my favorites too. I’m looking forward to the reboot coming out soon-ish.
It’s funny how the MC of Dominion Tank Police is basically the same as Noa Izumi, and they came out at the same time more or less.
Patlabor is one of my favorites too. I’m looking forward to the reboot coming out soon-ish.
I watched that 2016(?) reboot short, and it was alright. I’m so attached to the original cast that I would miss them if they go with new characters like the short lol.
It’s funny how the MC of Dominion Tank Police is basically the same as Noa Izumi, and they came out at the same time more or less.
What if Noa Izumi was more fascist lmao.
Dominion Tank Police felt like a satire to me tbh, but I suppose yeah.
Also if they have a new cast for the new Patlabor, at least have the old one show up from time to time.
Dominion Tank Police felt like a satire to me tbh, but I suppose yeah.
It can be both, kinda like Warhammer 40k stuff lol
Also if they have a new cast for the new Patlabor, at least have the old one show up from time to time.
Even better if it’s just the old cast showing up in the backgrounds, like an older Noa, Asuma, and a child at a park or Hiromi driving a small truck with chicken supplies
Anime
- Ghost in the Shell SAC S2 This shit sucks and I’ve totally stalled on it for months with like 10 eps left due to the non-stop copaganda (does it even count as copaganda if they’re mercenaries?). I WILL finish it eventually. Apparently everyone says S1 is better but I think they’re roughly comparable which is to say equally bad. Perhaps this is a thing of it being the first in the genre which means that I’ve seen other media that more thoroughly explored the ideas, but honestly none of this seems groundbreaking.
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time A clear case of working backwards from a cool concept resulting in a weak story. Imo the first half of “fuckin’ around with time travel” is fun but the back half of drama/romance is boring.
- Castle in the Sky It’s fine. A kids movie that’s pretty solid. Watching it the main thing I noticed was just how different the types of conflict and sense of adventure were from most modern stuff I watch. I wish that they gave an example of… who the CIA wanted to actually go to war with? Perhaps that’s the point, that geopolitics is so removed from the average person’s life that they aren’t even aware of it, but I definitely lean more towards a “this is for kids” explanation.
- Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction About 2/3 through, pretty solid but weird. Very anti-american, which you love to see, and also critical of japanese nationalism. The art style is very different from typical cutesy anime characters, with all of the main girls being disproportioned blobs. Probably helps stuff like the student-teacher “romance” come off less creepy. Oran needs to read theory.
- Oshi no Ko The only seasonal I’m watching, a solid season that’s very character-driven with not much happening with the main plot. Last episode in 2 days I think, and I’m looking forward to it. Ruby needs to learn basic math.
Manga
- Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint The sloppiest of korean slop. What if the superpower of the main character was that he read too many webnovels? There’re some fun character intereaction bits, but the action scenes are mostly unreadable garbage, and as seems to be the way in this subgenre of power fantasy, at some point the power-scaling gets so out there that the numbers cease to mean anything.
- Chainsaw Man and One Piece Still keeping up. CSM continues to be good.
What would you recommend instead of GITS? I’ve always had a soft spot for it considering it was my first “adult” anime.
Depends what you’re looking for.
- For cyberpunk action, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is the obvious recommendation. Akudama Drive might also fit the bill, or Vivy: Fluorite Eyes’ Song (I wasn’t a huge fan it but the central premise is “legally distinct Hatsune Miku must time travel to stop the robot apocalypse”).
- For something with thoughtful politics, sadly I don’t think I’ve ever watched an anime that I’d say is actually good on this front. The best is probably Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but that’s a very different genre. Planetes, maybe; it’s also technically sci-fi but it’s very grounded and a totally different genre. Both of these are unfortunately still Weird About Women (but so is every anime so…).
I get the feeling that a lot of philosophical musings don’t translate well because I can’t recall an anime that made me really think but that could just be me.
I was never really a big fan of GITS for its action sequences, but they are a nice touch. I think you’re right in your second point. The only anime that comes to mind in that milieu would be Kaiba (Kino’s Journey too, but that’s a totally different premise).
I watched Fukuyama Gekijou Natsu no Himitsu yesterday off of a Hazel recommendation from her recent video. All I could find was an unsubbed Youtube video. Fuck copyright and RIP Aniwave. If anyone can find a subbed version of this cute little show I can stream let me know.
There’s a torrent up on nyaa.si that looks to have subs, haven’t confirmed myself though.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Manga
Giant Killing - Great soccer manga, sporadic release.
Hajime no Ippo - Classic Boxing Manga, just had its 35 year Anniversary.
Chainsaw Man - Keeping it real
One Punch Man - Probably could have ended it a while ago, but I’ll keep reading.
Oshi no Ko - Started to lose me with the Brother Sister stuff, but has picked back up
Frieren - there was a big delay and it’s started back up and I can’t remember quite what’s going on. Gotta reread the last ten chapters or so. But I was enjoying it.
Vinland Saga - Shit getting real also feels kinda sporadic lately.
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat - patiently waiting for another volume.
I need to pick up Dungeon Meshi one of these days.
Anime
Dead Dead Demon DEDEDEDE Destruction - completed amazing stuff, definitely recommend 9/10
Dan da Dan - 6 episodes were leaked, AMAZING. lil ecchi in the beginning but great stuff. Reminded me of FLCL. Looking forward to the rest of the season.
Shikanoko - I watch an ep every once in a while. Silly, but needs to be in small doses.
I Parry Everything - completed. funny shit! I bet I would have loved it high. It’s just predictable enough that you’re looking for the joke and it’s so satisfying when it hits.
Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon - Completed. Someone mentioned this a while ago so I thought I would check out thinking it was gonna e a gag anime. But they play it serious for most part… amusing, but I don’t think I’d bother if there was ever a second season of it.
Madougushi Dahliya wa Utsumukanai - completed. iseka about a girl that dies of overwork and is reborn to become an artificer. Cute, but nothing to write home about. I’m also probably not the target audience, being a middle aged dude.
Oshi no Ko season 2 - Decent enough. Adapting the manga well. Has its moments, but…
Ramen Akaneko - About a girl that’s the only human working at a Cat owned ramen shop. Cute. Not much else to say.
Currently rewatching season 4 of Lower Decks. May pick up one of the shows mentioned here tonight afterwards if I’m not sleepy.
I read Dungeon Meshi during Milton while waiting for my power to go out. Never happened. Completed. Enjoyed.
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