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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!
So I'm watching on Crunchyroll "I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss". And I'll be honest, it's kind of trash, There is clearly something wrong with the protagonist but she's got some endearing qualities as well; It's easy to root for her even when she's doing the stupidest of things, and I've got to admit that any power fantasy from a female perspective is actually really refreshing. But the humor is kind of terrible. There's exactly two jokes that I found funny, and one gets repeated a few times (It's genuinely amusing to see how flustered the protagonist gets when her fiance tries to romance her given how brazenly forward she was when she tried to get him to agree to marry her).
Honestly, though, the real reason why I have been watching is because the music is top notch. And I think the guys who mixed it knew it too because on the original Japanese dub there are times when the music is just a hair louder than it should be; it literally upstages the voice actors and the visuals.
I also kind of love Ribbon; he's got this really simple design and loveably one-track personality. The production is wise enough to not force him into the shot all the time like many other anime do with their cute animal mascots.
Edited for grammar.
I haven't been watching much Anime over the last few years, and TBH I think it's because I am largely overwhelmed with choice; For entertainment in general, but anime especially. So to combat that, and actually find some good stuff to watch, does anyone here know any good resources for finding specific anime tailored to my particular tastes?
I have tried using Trakt, which I often use to discover new TV shows and movies due to its awesome advanced filtering. But it's unfortunately not that great for anime, since even though it has most new listings, the reviews are extremely lacking, and I'm sadly not plugged-in enough anymore with anime news/culture to keep track of any potentially good stuff coming out these days.
All the anime specific database sites that I know of (e.g. MyAnimeList) typically only have very basic search, and genre sorting. MAL's user created/curated "interest stacks" are decent for discovery, but unfortunately they're often old, haven't been updated in a long time, and so don't include any of the latest releases.
So any recommendations for good sites, with good filtering and reviews, to help me discover some newer anime would be much appreciated!
p.s. Or if anyone knows of any good, newly released, dark (bordering on being depressing), psychological/philosophical (AKA pretentious), scifi/hard-scifi/cyberpunk anime, I would appreciate any recommendations. And to give you an idea of the sort of stuff I am talking about, GITS & GITS:SAC are my all-time favorites. Ergo Proxy, Evangelion, and Psycho-Pass being some others that I rank highly.
I don't watch much of anything these days, but I heard good things about Odd Taxi and Made in Abyss which might be close to the mood you mentioned?
If you'd like an old half-recommendation from the studio that did Evangelion you might try Melody of Oblivion. Only half due to the reused/dated animations and fan-servicey stuff, but it had some interesting themes.
Perhaps you should give Made in Abyss a chance? The art/character design belies its unsettling themes.
To a lesser extent (i.e. not quite meeting all of your requirements but still good), I would also recommend
To Your Eternity (not sci-fi, but otherwise philosophical and often depressing) and Beastars (broody, perhaps somewhat philosophical, also not sci-fi, and very furry).
This might have been a bit too obvious, but have you considered watching the one with Cyberpunk in it's name - Cyberpunk: Edgerunners? It's definitely a different vibe from what you're used to but I think that it has the spirit that you're looking for.
It's also kind of the opposite of what you are looking for, but you might like To Your Eternity. I'm purposefully avoiding the second season that's running right now because I don't want to go through all the emotions that the first season did. It's in a fantasy setting, it's generally optimistic, but it's also about dealing with some of the hardest parts of what it means to be alive.
TBH when you talk about the kind of anime you like I just think about the number of times in the past few years I have seen shows try to be that but utterly fail to do so.
There are some slightly older shows that you might like but I'm guessing you may have already seen, like Parasyte. There's one in particular that I liked but really got passed over by the masses called Inuyashiki. It's based on a manga by the same guy who did Gantz, and while it does cover a lot of the same themes I think it's a much better told story in almost every way - to the point where I might actually recommend it even more if you hated Gantz.
Hmmm... I actually haven't seen Edgerunners yet, and I don't even know why given it seems right up my alley and I was already aware of it. I'll be sure to check it out now though. And I have already seen Parasyte and Gantz, which were okay, but not Inuyashiki yet, so I might check that out eventually too. Thanks for the recommendations!
p.s. Also thanks @psi and @TemulentTeatotaler too. Made in Abyss may be a fantasy? rather than scifi, but it actually looks really interesting so I will likely give it a watch too. And a few of your other recommendations caught my eye based on their trailers as well.
Just a heads-up on Made in Abyss; even though they talk about the dangers of going down the abyss early on, It takes a while for those dangers to get "real". IIRC it takes about three or four episodes until the main characters actually start the main journey. That being said, don't skip those episodes. They're not bad at all, and they have important exposition.
Honestly, even though it does wear the clothes of fantasy, it does have a kind of mixed sci-fi like sensibility to it. The people who explore the abyss are kind of like scientists in a way, and the primary mystery that's driving the main characters is how they want to understand the world they are living in.
Same boat as you more or less, right now I happen to be in Anime Mode though for the holidays and having time to resubscribe a month of Crunchyroll.
See what's popular by keeping a loose eye on /r/anime and fan art on Pixiv, and/or the reposts on English-language communities. Chainsaw Man is hot right now, and SPY x FAMILY season 2 is popular as expected. I've been catching up on both this week, along with slightly older moderately popular ones like Zombieland Saga.
Having a time limit really helps me not overthink and just watch something. At the same time I'm not pressuring myself to finish anything; I can always resubscribe again.
If there is one thing I know for sure, it's that my taste definitely doesn't coincide with the majority of users on /r/anime. :P
But even though I don't tend to enjoy that kind of anime, I have to admit that Spy x Family does actually seem interesting and has piqued my curiosity... so I will probably check it out sometime soon. Thanks for that recommendation!
My partner and I are enjoying SPY x FAMILY. It's funny because it sounds like the opposite of the type of shows you were looking for (dark, philosophical). It's a lighthearted romp great for family audiences. I'm having fun with it; just check your expectations!
Heh, no worries. I am not expecting anything from it other than some lighthearted entertainment. Just because I was looking for dark and philosophical scifi doesn't mean I don't also appreciate watching other types of anime too. I do still enjoy the occasional shonen, comedy, wholesome, and/or fantasy animes as well. ;)