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What have you been watching / reading this month? (Anime/Manga)
What have you been watching and reading this month? 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!
My husband bought me the first three volumes of the relatively recent reprint of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon in dead tree format - the "Eternal Editions". I have read it long ago in the form of some really poor quality scans of the original Mixx Manga release, but those really did not do Takeuchi's art any justice. The fact that it's presented properly, right-to-left, and with better typesetting is enough to make it seem like the whole thing was redrawn! I'm still very early into it - only three sailor guardians right now - but I'm really enjoying the pacing and character growth.
That being said, I am very triggered that in the translation notes at the end of the first volume they explain the concept of a computer CD-ROM.
I have a soft spot for that era of Mixx/early Tokyopop but you're right, the quality was definitely lacking, especially compared to now. Dark Horse/Studio Proteus were the ones who definitely put a lot of love and care into their releases back then (RIP Toren Smith).
Also, that bit about explaining what a CD-ROM is is deeply upsetting to me.
Manhwa (korean webcomics)
Return of the Blossoming Blade (fan title: Return of the Mount Hua Sect) - MAL
Came back from season break last week with 5 chapters that ended with a blue-ball inducing cliffhanger before a fight.
This week's chapter was a really fun catharsis and a great tone-setter. MC and his martial arts school fell from grace and spent all of season 1 planting the seeds to start regaining their prestige. This chapter was the first time post time-skip that we're seeing the fruits of their labor really start to blossom.
Thank you for sharing! I just read the first chapter and was intrigued by the concept and art style. As someone who doesn't read much manhwa, it was very pleasant to scroll vertically and have the art medium account for that with the page transitions.
I'm interested to see what the main antagonizing force ends up being, and how the MC finds his way in the world after essentially going through the same thing as Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender. He's thrust into the same setting 100 years in the future as (a reincarnation of) what we can assume to be the most powerful fighter in the world.
I consume a ton of manhwa and think of them mostly as junk food. They usually aren't that good, and really just satisfy a cheap power fantasy with flashy art.
This series does have a lot of that power fantasy stuff, but I think it succeeds in being a more nuanced story (for the genre) of the main character's growth as a person.
I don't think this is a spoiler, but if you're sensitive to spoilers consider not reading the rest of my comment.
Kinda everyone?
Watching the main character grapple with and overcome these is really satisfying. The series also manages to balance that against a decent amount of comedy, because the main character is pretty irreverant.
Been keeping up with this one and oh boy was that season start great. Definitely recommended! Although MC is hella overpowered, his personality just makes the whole thing so very enjoyable. The manhwa blends action and comedy really well.
Going to mention Infinite Leveling: Murim here as a recommendation, since I fumbled onto this one while trying to find a replacement during the season break. MC in this case is just a random foot soldier with no glory that gets a re-do at life with all his previous knowledge, along with a game system that rewards him for completing "quests" that involve extreme effort. I think you'll definitely like it!
Yes! Infinite Leveling: Murim is one of my favorite ongoing manhwa, for many of the same reasons as Return of the Mount Hua Sect:
MC is also grappling with his past, but has the opportunity to prevent the horrors he experienced from taking place in the first place
MC grows as a person, much like the MC in Return of th Mount Hua Sect
Incredibly light spoiler of a theme the webcomic touches on
There's an arc that ends up climaxing into an unexpectedly interesting exploration of the *Self* (in the philosophical sense) in both the narrative and also the art. That was coming off of banger after banger in the story, and really cemented how much I was enjoying the read.I did not expect to like it as much as I did. I think the start of the series is pretty clumsy, but the author managed to build that foundation into a surprisingly cohesive story.
Just read the first season over the past week or so after seeing this thread and I really enjoyed it! I agree with some of the other comments about how the characterization is really good and seeing the growth brings a lot of value.
Personally though, I really feel that a key aspect of the season wasn't so much how the main character changed, but more how the series did an exemplary job of setting up the villains, and getting me to enjoy their comeuppance. The fact of the matter is that in this type of story the main character will never lose. That's simply the genre, and action stories in general. So authors need to find ways to introduce tension and make their audience think that the hero could lose (even thought they won't). Or, they can do what I think Mount Hua does amazingly, and make it extremely fun to watch the villains lose, even though I know it's going to happen.
Overall a very fun read, thanks for the rec!
No way! My initial comment was a shot in the dark; I didn't expect find many folks who were into manhwa, nor that someone would read this based on the rec. I'm really glad you liked it!
Anybody catch the new Oshi no Ko episode 11 yet? I know Tildes apparently doesn't like regular discussion threads but I'm trying to stay clear of reddit lol.
Discussion threads for anime and manga are definitely the biggest thing I miss from my reddit use haha. I know Kbin and Lemmy has similar threads now but they don't feel the same unfortunately.
Definitely miss those threads is there a reason that tildes doesn’t like them?
Most problems with Tildes can be more or less boiled down to there being too few people. Any single topics start getting posted semiregularly and the rest of the site get drown out easily, which makes other people annoyed. It's a catch 22 because this would not be an issue if everyone all agree to posts regularly about their own interest, which would help maintain diversity to the front page. But everyone worries about the same thing and so no one posts anything lol.
I used to heavily use spoiler tags in manga discussion threads. Does Tildes have spoiler support?
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Oshi No Ko - Cool plot twists and surprisingly good insights on the inner lives of performing artists.
Hell's Paradise - Gorgeous visuals and fight scenes, as expected from MAPPA studio. Love watching each character's backstory unfold. It's filling the void nicely while I wait for Jujutsu Kaisen season 2!
I am all caught up on My Hero Academia. I definitely wasn't sold at first but eventually fell in love. One of my favorite moments was the United States of Smash. I'm going to use that in the future. I don't know how. Or when. But I will.
I'm going through the classics right now, specifically Revolutionary Girl Utena and Texhnolyze. Both are wonderful - what surprised me most was the selection of musical tracks for both. Texhnolyze dips its toes into a lot of genres, from techno to acoustic post-rock, while Utena's OST is just... a genre unto itself. It definitely comes across that the music is informing the feel of the animation, and vice versa.
Rewatched One Punch Man to refresh my memory, hoping for Season 3 to come out soon and finish S02's story arc.
What a disappointment. The release date, not the anime. Still top-notch and cracks me up everytime.
With Demon Slayer and Dr. Stone coming to an end for the season, I'm still waiting for new episodes of Mashle. I love it! Think if Saitama from One Punch Man went to Hogwarts and used his muscles to do magical things instead of using magic.
Other than that, I've started Hell's Paradise. Really enjoying the world in this one. About a bunch of death row prisoners in feudal Japan being forced to go to this mystical island in search for the elixer of immortality. Curious to see how the season ends before I can recommend it.
I just started watching Ooku on Netflix. It's an alternative history drama about the inner chambers of the Tokugawa shogunate in a world where a disease has killed off a majority of men in the country, leaving Women to take care of society. The inner chambers were previously made for women acting as the shogun's concubine; with the shift in demographics the shogun is now a woman and the inner chambers are filled with men instead.
It's kind of amazing how engrossing it is. There are points in time where it's very ugly, since a big focus of the story is on sexuality and there is a lot of sexual violence, but it's actually handled very well. I've seen nearly half of it and there's only one scene that I can think of where they even depict a man's bare chest, and that's as racy as it gets. The plot is really masterfully written; there are many examples of traditions and incongruous actions take place, which characters are forced to react to without knowing why it's happening, but everything gets explained in time. It actually starts with an extended first episode that takes place in the "future" - still during the Tokugawa reign, but long enough that all the people in the rest of the series would long be passed away - where all the rest of the episodes exist to explain how things got to that point.
The animation is by Studio Deen and... well, it looks like it. My husband came in while I was watching it and commented that I must be watching a Chinese show because of the quality of the character designs.
I don't think you need to know much about Japanese history to enjoy this show, because most things can be inferred, but this isn't something I would recommend to anyone who didn't already know some of the basics of Japanese culture or at least have seen a Kurosawa film. This is a pretty good example of why I like Studio Deen's work in spite of their lackluster animation.
The manga it's based on is excellent. I don't have Netflix so I haven't been able to watch the anime yet, but read the entire manga. Between when I started it and when it finished, I learned a lot about Japanese history from other sources. Knowing the history certainly helps, but is not strictly necessary.
The mangaka has done a wide variety of other genres, several of which were turned into live action or anime. Antique Bakery and What did you eat Yesterday? are the most notable.
I am a confessed Studio Deen fan. Their animation isn't top notch but I feel that they usually do great adaptations and make the kind of content I'm into.
It's okay to talk about Manhwas here too, right?
Been reading Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble. Haven't caught up yet, but it's been immensely enjoyable. Story centers around the main character, Airen Farreira, a young boy who after witnessing the shocking death of his mother has pretty much lost all will to live and locks himself up in his room to sleep his life away. Eventually he gains the title "Deadbeat Noble", and is mocked by other noble families for accomplishing nothing of his life. One night he dreams of a man who literally spends his entire life swinging a sword. Day and night. Never stopping. When he awakes, he feels an incessant urge to swing a sword himself, and he leaves his room for the first time in years to pick up the sword and swing as much as he can, just like the man in his dreams.
I was hooked around chapter 3, honestly, and the story only gets better. I'm on chapter 47 right now, with 41 chapters to go until the S2 end. Looking to get caught up probably by tomorrow lol.
Currently I'm watching Oshi no Ko, although I haven't seen the latest episode, Tengoku Daimakyou, and The Legendary Hero is Dead.
Oshi no Ko is probably my favorite of the three, some people said it fell off after episode 1 but honestly I think it's stated very interesting.
Heavenly Delusions is also good, although just not quite what I hoped, but still good enough that I'll probably find the manga at some point, especially if they don't announce a season 2.
Legendary Hero is actually great, I expected it to get old fast like most ecchi comedies do, but honestly I think it's been solid. It helps that its actually funny rather than just constant fan service pretending it's going to show you something. Probably not going to be very popular with people on this site anyway, but I was impressed with it
And I guess I need to start paying attention to next season so I don't fall behind, what shows from that look promising if you've been paying attention?
To pick just one, I've been greatly enjoying Cipher Academy. We're slowly uncovering the real meat of the story about 30 chapters in, and it's hard to tell where we may end up.
The manga follows the usual competitive school trope where characters compete to be the top of the class. The combat of sorts is done through "code battles"; these battles can range from seemingly simple pen and paper message decoding, to poker, to complex murder mystery scenarios.
The codes are clever and all technically solvable, though they're also heavily entrenched in Japanese culture and language, which make certain connections difficult for a native English speaker like myself. Some of the stuff is also just out there in a fun way that goes against expectations.
The art is very clean and eye-catching, and the character design is on the level of longer running shonen manga—multiple characters intrigue you without having said a word.
My favorite part of all, however, are the author notes. Along with the characters' narrative explanations of code solutions, Nisio Isin gives us additional notes that can give you that lightbulb moment if you missed something, which you will, but only because they are for the most part intelligently designed codes with a lot of creativity. If you aren't a fan of exposition, this one may not be for you, but it has a lot to offer for people who enjoy puzzles and lighthearted drama.
I'm really enjoying Cipher Academy too, the little backstory snippets we've had from various characters make me very curious about the world, but at the same time I'm quite happy with the story staying inside the school. Tayu Yugata is my favourite character so far, she's a beast!
I'm not surprised the first translator threw in the towel at around chapter 15 (I think?), the early chapters were the heaviest on wordplay, but I'm still able to enjoy the story even when I have to skim over the actual puzzle due to it making my brain hurt.
As I only recently joined I'll include some stuff from last month too.
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
Both reading (up to ch. 232) and watching this one. Currently I'm struggling to continue reading this because I'm all too aware that I'm rapidly closing on the end; I've thoroughly enjoyed the entire series from start to where-I'm-currently-at and really don't want it to finish. It has however certainly earned the honor of being on my future-rereads list. In terms of the anime adaptation I'm finding it to be just as enjoyable as the source material and feel it doesn't miss any opportunities to sometimes even outshine it.
Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4
This show in general I feel just grows in strength every season and it was very hard for me to just not outright binge the entirety of the most recent season in one sitting. Very much looking forward to the continuation.
Yowamushi Pedal: Limit Break
A portion of the characters I think carry this show and allow me to overlook its numerous flaws. I do certainly fundamentally enjoy the show and will continue to do so if it gets more seasons, but I am concerned that going forward the majority of the characters I've particularly liked are ones whose relevancy is now for the most part over. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the newer characters not being as good as the outgoing ones, or if I'm just not giving them a fair enough chance.
Blue Lock
I'm writing all these sections out-of-order and this is the last one so I'll just phone it in and say "yeah it's good".
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
This is just a rewatch that I'm just doing passively in the background. I don't want to say it's the greatest comedy of all time but I'd be hard pressed on the fly to list anything that comes close.
Bofuri: I Have a Really Long Title That I'm Going to Omit
Generally enjoyable show that doesn't demand any effort on my part to care about or get invested in any characters or story; basically meets my needs for something that I can watch two or three episodes of on some random day in the month and then pick it up again weeks later guilt-free. Currently toward the end of the second season, but not sure when I'll watch the final block of episodes.
Edens Zero
Reading this one rather than watching - though I'll watch the adaptation at some point. I'm very early on in the series so far (ch. 32) so can't really say much other than that I enjoyed it enough so far to want to continue it.
For the the upcoming month I think the immediate plan is basically Oshi no Ko, Dr. Stone: New World, and the latest Demon Slayer season. After that we'll go back to the usual order of picking things from the list in a chaotically random manner.
The worst part about Yowamushi Pedal is the smaller western fanbase, leading to less frequent English fan translations of the manga (which is 700+ chapters in; there's a lot of content to enjoy!). It's sad considering it's one of the longest running sports series around.
It's a fun shonen sports series with a lot of charm and epic races, and it's a lot more popular in Japan. Last I went in 2018, an anime season was releasing, so there were multiple themed displays and even restaurants serving little themed treats with Onoda & pals on them all over Tokyo. I saw as much YowaPeda as I did Haikyuu and My Hero Academia.
The most recent anime season was adapted very well, which gives me hope for future seasons. The plot stays fresh after Onoda's second interhigh, so I definitely recommend reading beyond that if you're interested!
I finished up the most recent season of Vinland Saga. I'm caught up to the manga so it's interesting to go back to an earlier time in the story, while knowing what's coming next. I've also enjoyed the reactions of those who have only seen the anime and were surprised by the tonal shift.
I also watched both seasons of the Vampire Dies in No Time. It's hard to find comedy anime that gels with me but I really enjoyed this one. It was really silly in the best ways. It kind of reminded me of the Tick cartoon from the 90s. Large cast of misfit superheroes (vampire hunters) and non threatening bad guys. I hope they make another season!
On the manga front, I read the Saviors Book Cafe Story in Another World manga series. Another Isekai but very fluffy and sweet. I've found myself drawn more and more to the comfy manga lately and steering clear of the grittier stuff. I just haven't been in the mood for dark stories lately (Vinland Saga notwithstanding).
What are your thoughts on Vinland saga? I've seen in on Netflix and thought about diving in.
Vinland Saga is complex and rewards close attention to the details of the show, although you can enjoy it on a surface level as well. The first season is set up for the rest of the series but in the end, is not an accurate representation of the series as a whole. Many people are surprised at the tonal shift of the second season (story arc), but I really love it. The author lays the foundation for where he wants to go carefully, one scene at a time. If you like more mature story telling, Vinland Saga is definitely worth your time. However, if you are not into philosophical historical character pieces, you may not make it past the second season. Be warned, the anime depicts medieval warfare graphically, so if that is not your cup of tea, you will not enjoy the first season.
This may be one of my favorite series of all time, if he can stick the landing so I'm pretty biased!
I’m not watching it per se, but I’ve had Dragon Ball playing on Hulu at night before bed. Last anime I watched watched was season 6 of My Hero Academia.
Just finished up the season of Hell's Paradise and Kimetsu no Yaiba. I fell off of watching Skip and Loafer and Heavenly Folly, I need to go back and finish those up.
I'm getting caught up on too many manga to name - I realized several of the sources I use in my reader app had gone down, so I had to migrate them all and now I'm going through the backlog.
Very excited about the upcoming anime season, mostly for Jujutsu Kaisen and Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon (My Happy Marriage).
I've been rereading Blue Period recently. It's one of my favorite manga, and I had fun watching the anime adaptation, too. Currently the story's focusing on the backstory on some of the characters' past experiences in art school.
I've been watching Serial Experiments Lain because it turns 25 years old this week.
I watched it a long time ago and I remembered couldn't understand what's going on at all. Should I go back?
I wouldn't say it's the easiest watch in the world but it's not impossible to read or anything. Most of what the show puts out there is pretty clear to me.
It's up to you whether to go back or not but it's a really interesting series and it's only 13 episodes so it's not the biggest commitment ever.
Guess I'll give it another go then, maybe now that I know what to expect. Did you pick up anything new upon rewatch or was it mainly for nostalgia?
I picked up plenty on rewatch but that's really only because it's like it's the first time for me. I watched it once shortly after it made its way west originally, and I was a kid at the time.
I read a lot of releasing manga that'd be hard to list, but I did binge read some light novels if that's allowed. I went through all 13 volumes of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear in like a week and a half. It was more entertaining than it had any right to be. I did try the anime after, but dropped it half way through the first season as it kinda felt like it completely missed the point of the series and cut out all the stuff I found especially interesting.
I also read a volume of Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra. Interesting concept to make a game isekai that's 4x focused, but it sadly felt like it just didn't make use of that theme very much.
Reborn as a Vending Machine is better than it has any right to be. Happy to see it's getting an anime this season. And I'm hoping that's a sign that it's ending hiatus.
Last season had some great anime, I loved to see Insomniacs get an adaptation (and a good one at that). This upcoming season also has some strong contenders (I'm looking forward to Heretical Last Boss, it's a novel series I've been incredibly fond of).
That's more or less the highlights of my recent media consumption.
About to finish up Goblin Slayer.
I'm pretty sure Bofuri s02 is wrapped up so I need to get on that