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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!
I got to enjoy the ending of Dungeon Meshi, which was probably my favorite ongoing series. It stuck the landing, so while endings are always bittersweet, it firmly cemented itself as one of my favorite series ever.
I really appreciate how concise the whole story was. It had a clear vision, and the build up to the climax felt natural. I reread it in preparation for the final chapter, and it was fun seeing all of the seeds for major character moments being planted far in advance
I'm looking forward to anything the author works on in the future.
I’ve got volume 1 but I keep putting it off!! Your thoughts got me itching to read it though. I just feel like I have to many manga I’ve started but not finished.
The premise alone got me to pick it up.
What a good read. It was one of two manga that I keep up with, the other being Land of the Lustrous. That's also nearing its end soon, so I'm gonna need something to fill this void. Can't wait for the anime; it's likely going to be the only series I ever keep up with on a weekly basis
[Offtopic/meta] We changed this anime topic from a weekly topic to a monthly, a few months back when Tildes' active userbase was tiny. Now that we're getting some renewed activity (nice!), what do people think of changing back to weekly? Do we have enough regular anime watchers/manga readers here to justify it? Or compromise with a bi-weekly?
Will ping admin after getting some consensus.
Edit: For reference, last month's topic had 12 votes and 11 comments (8 top-level comments).
I'd appreciate it. I've largely had no outlet to just share thoughts on series I've been reading since I stopped using the other site.
A more frequent thread would be a nice outlet.
I know that feeling. Since I stopped using that other website, I've watched 8 shows and movies, and it's frustrating not having an outlet to talk about them right when I'm finished watching. I could go to MAL's forums, but the structure of nested comments has spoiled me, and I don't much like MAL users anyway.
Weekly makes the most sense to me. In the last thread, the majority of the comments were left within 48 hours of the post being made. Ideally having a monthly thread gives a full month for people to talk about what they've watched, but realistically people seem to wait until the day the thread is posted. I think we would see more active discussion if it were weekly.
@Deimos When you have spare time, could we please get this recurring ~anime topic changed back to weekly? We have enough activity now to justify it. Thank you!
Can’t wait to steal ideas for things to read.
So, after watching One Piece anime up to the end of Arlong arc and watching the Netflix adaptation, I’ve started the manga. I think I’m going to read the manga until I’ve read an arc I really love and then pick up the anime from there. I want to catch up with everyone and I think I can read the manga faster than I can watch the anime.
I also read the first several chapters of Claymore and I love it. Really excited to dive deeper.
Also read Dai Dark vol. 1. It’s pretty cool, but I’m not majorly hooked yet.
On the nightstand I have “A Sign of Affection” and “Skip and Loafer”.
I’ve just recently heard about this fan project called One Pace which edits the anime episodes of One Piece to for the pacing of the manga.
I’ve been watching the anime now for over 2 years, having done a marathon of watching merely 5 or so minutes of each episode during battle scenes, and most of the episodes during slower sections. It still took almost 2 months to get through 700 episodes! I think this could be the answer to those that want to enjoy the anime without 2 minutes of Luffy and [main arc villain] screaming at each other every episode until the progress that fight.
Edit: autocorrect nonsense
Hey thanks! That’s actually an excellent solution. Seems like it’d be a good companion to my manga reading.
Hearing of One Pace a while ago made me stay watching again because good lord the regular anime is slow. These guys do some good work.
I read Claymore a long while back and it still hold a special place in my heart. I think at the time it was being published monthly, so once I'd caught up it became very hard to keep up and remember the story between chapters. I expect it's finished now, so probably a good time to pick it back up again! Thanks for reminding me of it's existence.
Thanks for your sweet response! I’m enjoying it so much, I think it’s going to become special to me too.
Cheers friend.
Not read the manga - my first enncounter was the anime from so many years ago (wonder if it needs a remake hmm), likes it then, might look up the manga. Thanks for jogging my memory
I recently watched Ping Pong: The Animation - I was very surprised with how excellent of a story it is. It's also nice that it's only 11 episodes.
Making use of the details tag to compress what would be a wall of text. No spoilers ahead except for the one labelled [Spoilers]!
Haibane Renmei
Started the month with Haibane Renmei, and it is my new favorite show. I've seen shows that make you cry, but there's a difference between sadness and depression. This is the most emotionally heavy show I've seen so far.
At first it kind of bugged me that the show doesn't answer any questions at all about the world (what are the haibane? Why do they have wings and halos? What's with the walls? What's with the Toga?), but the show isn't about solving the mysteries of the world, it's about the characters overcoming guilt and finding salvation. There are, of course, interpretations and theories as to the answers to those questions, but I can't stress enough that they aren't what's important.
I almost want to drop my rating of every other show by 1 to emphasize the 10/10 I give this show. It's obviously dated, but aside from that one extremely weird editing decision, it's so good. Early 2000's dubbing has a certain je ne sais quoi that I find really endearing.
[Spoilers] Thoughts about the end of Haibane Renmei
I feel like it's worth talking about the differences between Kuramori discovering Reki cutting her feathers, and Reki discovering Rakka doing the same. Kuramori punished Reki when she found her, while Reki embraced Rakka. And in the end, Rakka was the one who saved Reki, because Reki was able to save Rakka.
Reki wanted to be like Kuramori because she thought that was the path to salvation, but what really set her on that path was helping Rakka in a way that only she could.
I'm sure someone who's better at words than I am could express that idea much better and more succinctly than I can, but you get what I'm saying right? Love each other for all y'all's flaws, and don't ever think that feeling feelings is bad
Samurai Flamenco
After that, I watched Samurai Flamenco, because apparently I love that genre whiplash. It starts out as basically Kickass: The Anime, and it could have ended at episode 10, but there's more. There's always more. Even when it's all said and done, there are three episodes left. And there's only 22 episodes.
The first ten episodes are fantastic, 10/10 on their own, but then the show throws an unsavory and extremely ungrounded twist in. By the end of the show everything is substantiated and the twists turn out to be well-grounded in hindsight, but I can't imagine watching one episode a week and trying to keep up with it.
All in all, I give it a 7, because as much as I loved the beginning and the end, the third quarter of the show had a really hard time keeping me interested
Banana Fish
One review on MAL described Samurai Flamenco as the photo negative of Banana Fish, which has been on my list for a few months, so that was next. I've dived into anime without looking before, but I feel like I may have benefited from seeing a content warning for this one. Only three episodes in and it's already brought up CSA and rape. Obviously I have to finish the show, but this has been the hardest one to watch so far.
.
Death Parade
I also finished watching Death Parade with my flatmate. Good show. I'm not ashamed to admit that it made me cry. I like a show that's sincere in its delivery, you know? Hence my love for every show I've talked about this post. It's another pretty heavy one. I'm gonna miss having a cozy bar to hang out at while my household eats dinner.
Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann. Surely this needs no introduction or review. I was gonna flip a coin to decide whether I was gonna force my flatmate to watch this or Mushishi, but then I thought "what would Kamina do," slapped the coin out of the air, and clicked GL.
It has everything I don't like about anime–excessive fanservice, giant fighting robots and the like, but I can't help but feel my heart swell when I hear that triumphant score, and I'm a total sucker for stories about the indomitable human spirit.
11/10, FIGHT THE POWER
Irrelevant tangent: I love that the de facto spoiler tag can also be used to compress a wall of text on this forum. I'd feel bad making this comment as long as it is if I couldn't do that.
I'm up to date with Witch Hat Atelier, which I believe I saw recommended on Tildes in a world building post.
Without spoiling anything, I enjoy the themes discussed regarding power and the perception of power. The main character's goal is to save a loved one, but dies she break taboos to do so.
The art style is beautiful and fantastic, much like studio ghibli, yet the characters often express complex emotions tying back into those complex moral themes.
I'm also so impressed that the only confirmed couple in the story is queer. I don't think I've seen something like that outside of erotic manga. If anyone has any recommendations for queer represented manga, I'd be grateful
The gay couple aren't the only couple, there is also the hot king and his chubby wife. https://mangadex.org/chapter/98e78c6f-69f3-4fdf-bd4c-74e4ba69cafc/4
Does the Sonic IDW comic count as manga? It's, uh, great. Surprisingly so. The most respectful treatment of the material I've seen in a very long time.
Vagabond - finally caught up (finished) the manga. Amazing story line, character development, and artwork. One of the best I’ve read in a while. Especially if you have an interest in Feudal Japan.
I had read a lot of negative comments about Yuri Is My Job before watching it, but I decided to watch it anyways, and I really liked it. Most of the negative comments made me think they came from people who had only watched the first episode or two and nothing more, but I heavily disagree.
I was on the wagon for almost 13 years, having missed out on some great anime over the years. Recently though, I’ve come back to the dark side and started on the current reigning king of Shonen, One Piece, along with the big hitters Overlord, Spy x Family, Attack on Titan, and Demon Slayer. So between seasons I’ve been going through the backlog and picking up on some shows. One of those is Made in Abyss, which has really surprised me. Almost halfway through the first season and I can see that there are some haunting revelations to come. For now though, it’s still relatively lighthearted. We’ll see what happens…
edit: clarity
Elfen Lied. It has been grossly misrepresented to me for decades, apparently. (I've been lied to, you could say, ha ha... ha.) It has some silly issues, but overall it is poetic rather than merely gruesome horror. And the elf song itself is catchy.
Finally got around to watching Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Was kinda iffy on it originally as a lot of scenes in the first episode were just conversations over drawn out still frames, but it ended up really growing on me halfway through.
Ending was depressing, but I already expected that going in as many people mention that during discourse.
I usually watch a lot of anime but recently haven't kept up - any suggestions to watch from current or last season ? (I watch almost everything - except anything yuri. I know Jujutsu S2 and Mushoku s2 are both current)
I like Oshi no Ko if you haven't seen it yet. It's about the Tokyo entertainment industry and idols. With a somewhat more objective view of these things—not all positive, not all negative. The animation quality is excellent even when they're just talking.
I just finished The Fable, a manga (and soon-to-be anime) about a professional hitman who has to lay low and live a normal life in a new city for a year. I really enjoyed it, particularly since it seemed to have a cohesive and fulfilling narrative flow from start to finish. A lot of manga seem to fall into a pattern of abruptly switching directions and trying something new just for the sake of it, and it leads to a very herky-jerky narrative experience.
There's also a second part to it which isn't quite as good imo, but is still pretty enjoyable.