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What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.
If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!
Oh man, I guess anime is out of fashion this week. 🧟‍♂️
Not that I would blame anyone for not talking about anything. This last week has probably felt crazy to everyone.
This week I have gone back in time to watch Princess Tutu. I didn’t watch it when it was new because the art style was really off-putting to me at the time, which prevented me from really getting into it. Now I actually really like the aesthetic even if it is a bit Gonzo.
Unfortunately I am watching it the only way I have access which is through Amazon Prime video, which only has the English dub. It’s really not very well acted. The only character who seems to actually care is the main actress who unfortunately has a very annoying voice (though it’s appropriate since she is a duck).
Interestingly enough it seems that the creator of this show was one of the main animation directors working on Sailor Moon, which makes you want to compare it to that other subversive magical girl anime made by a guy in charge of animating Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Tutu is much more down to earth and doesn’t stretch the metaphors anywhere as much as Utena does. But what it does do is heavily borrow upon tropes of Germanic folk tales, ballet, and features a soundtrack full of arrangements of classical music. For a show that features so much ballet imagery, the animation is not actually that great, and it is easily outshone by the extremely high quality soundtrack. But that’s not too bad; the soundtrack is surprisingly capable of handling some of the heavy lifting.
Well, if only we were in a more perfect world. But I will be OK with the English dub for now. To be honest I’m watching it in my car during lunch at work, so having them speak a native language is sometimes helpful.
In the past week I finished Summer Time Rendering, which was great and I would highly recommend it. It felt like the whole series had and outline in a good way. I felt that some of the concepts in the series could trip up an author with weaker writing, but Yasuki Tanaka played it very well.
Also Reading two smaller time manga (maybe webcomics?) Koibito Ijou Yuujin Miman and The Guy She was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All which are both so fun and a breath of fresh air with all the isekai getting pumped out.
You weren't kidding; that was fantastic. I love the art in it. I don't really read too much Yuri, though, so there's a part of me hoping that they'll just end up being very good friends. :P
My only problem with it is that there isn't more of it!