9
votes
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!
Been keeping up with Chainsaw Man as of late and, honestly, not enjoying it. I don't know what this man is cooking but I'm not really into it. We got some idea of what these past couple aimless-feeling chapters have been culminating into, but I still kinda don't get it and it just feels like it's shaping up to be the Part 1 finale all over again but without any of the likeable characters. It's not like I have anything better to do so I'm still gonna read it but it's really losing me hard.
One Punch Man is hilarious as usual. I fuckin' loved the King chapter where he goes from dojo to dojo and keeps getting turned away. Saitama's "Just Lift Dude" slayed me. Never misses. Also Clavicle Smash best S-Class.
I also need to get back on the Pokemon Adventures manga. I bought like 8 volumes but only read up to like 4. Really enjoyed that cute lil story.
I think CSM suffers more than the average manga from there being a week between chapters. There are a lot of moving narrative pieces, some very abstract, that are hard to remember from chapter to chapter with week-long breaks in between. And the art style being on the looser side means characters aren't as visually distinct and it's easy to forget them or mix them up.
I remember having similar issues when I read Part 1 in real time to what I'm having now. But conversely, when I reread Part 1 in it's entirety, things clicked and flowed much cleaner. I'm curious if Part 2 will have a similar feel once it's done.
OPM is great. I love the interaction between Genos and Flashy Flash in the latest issue
I totally forgot that this is a weekly thread now! Wall of text incoming, and next week I'll start making much smaller comments
Using details tag to compress text, no spoilers ahead except where clearly marked
Banana Fish
Started last month, finished this month. Rough watch. Not a bad show for the most part, but I'm gonna try to avoid anything with this much rape in it from here on. It had a fantastic ending, right up until the end of the end. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but that ending makes me regret ever having started this show in the first place. First time I've regretted watching a series. It was an 8/10 until the last part. At least it was fun to watch for the most part.
Spoilers for Banana Fish and Cowboy Bebop
Maybe writing it down will help me process why I hate ___'s death at the end of Banana Fish, but didn't hate _____'s death at the end of Cowboy Bebop. They're basically the same, right? The series ends with the implication but not outright confirmation that the character died.
I think the reason I'm okay with it in CB is because _____ went into the situation that lead to his death voluntarily, knowing what the consequences would likely be. He was aware of the price he would for his vengeance.
On the other hand, ___ was ambushed while trying to escape the awful circumstances that he'd always been in. That's just unfair. Contrast that with ______'s death earlier in the series, which was also unfair, but was necessary for plot and character development. ___ gets stabbed in the gut within the last 60 seconds of the show, hobbles back to take a seat, and just. Dies. It doesnt serve the plot like _______'s death. There isn't any left.
I've talked myself into giving it a 3/10.
BNA
"I'm not a furry, but..."
I watched this show for the same reason I watched ACCA: Youtube Music played the theme in my super mix, I liked it, so I threw the show on the list. Overall happy with it. I needed something lighthearted after the last one.
I don't love it when you just kinda have to go "okay" when a show gives an incredibly important and not at all foreshadowed bit of info right at the end, and it feels a bit like the last episode could have used one or two more episodes of buildup, but an enjoyable watch. Cherami Leigh bumps it up to an 8/10 from me
Side note: I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 lately, and it's so weird hearing Michiru (and Uiharu, and Suzuha, and Asuna) swearing like a dang sailor
Redline
This movie was an absolute blast to watch, the animation is like nothing I've seen before and every single shot is absolutely oozing with character. I love that we're dropped into a fully developed universe for it. Coulda been a franchise. Sick as hell, 10/10
Planetes
How did I go this long without watching Planetes? Hard sci-fi about a crew of orbital debris collectors, it's literally the perfect show for me! I love the aesthetic of 20th century technology in media set in the future. I like my futuretech bulky and angular.
And I feel a need to praise little details. Phone calls from the moon to earth include speed of light delay. Nobody would have complained if they'd ignored that. It's scifi, who cares? It's me! I care!
Seven episodes in, and I'm already giving it a 10/10
...
Gurren Lagann
Already finished watching Gurren Lagann with my flatmate. We burned through it much faster than we did Death Parade, mainly because it demands that we watch the next episode in a way that DP never did. It felt so mean saying "I'm glad ______ is your favorite character too, I love him so much," as if I didn't know full well what was going to happen to him.
He reacted to ______'s big scene near the end the same way I did. You wanna be sad, but it's just too goddamn radical. The hype overwhelms the sad. God, I love the shot of his eyes being all spirally. "So this is the power of the Spiral. Not bad, not bad at all..."
On MAL I give it a 10/10, but this is my actual rating for the show
Roagh Roagh, fight the pow-ah.
It's been so many years but there's so much enjoyment from the series I'm fairly sure it will remain my absolute all time favorite for a long long time. And eventually when everyone goes "what the heck is TTGL" because there is sincerly something better, well then I'll step aside as an old fart and watch the young-uns go to the stars.
One of the fantastic things about ______'s big scene you're talking about....is that I can easily point to at least five characters who deserve that kind of "Woah" for their big scene.....at least five that I guess are yours too, but even the others all have their place in my heart.
I remember just breaking down ugly crying over a very very mundane still drawing......amidst the galaxy tier fierce battles, one individual's quiet dream ....and their realising that ah yes this must be an impossible dream........ Still tear up thinking about it.
I don't think I have ever encountered another series that is so sincere, so red-blooded and so unabashedly a cheer leader for Life and for US. Masterpiece.
So you guys gonna watch the extra TTGL short animations now? (Gurren Lagann Parallel Works)
_____'s impossible dream is what cemented him as my favorite character of the latter half of the show, but "when did you get taller than me?" is when I start breaking down ugly crying
Shoot, I never saw the parallel works. Guess I gotta watch those over the next few days
Re: sincerity. I watched a video the other day about how a lot of current media seems allergic to genuine sincerity, and it helped me put into words why I love Gurren Lagann (and anime in general) so much. Like, I don't recall the last time I saw an anime point at itself and say "wow? Isn't that crazy? That could never happen in real life! Don't get too emotionally invested!"
I've been watching a few of the free streams on Crunchyroll.
Mieruko-chan has surprised me a few times in a good way, each episode has something surprising in it. I didn't know what I was getting into and it was funnier that way. It's probably worth pointing out, I didn't know going in, that it's a pretty horny anime, so beware if that's not your thing. It's a horror-comedy and it's better than I expected honestly.
I'm liking the Tokyo Ghoul anime too, it has a lot of brutality and unique/dramatic characters and the pacing is good so far, I'm only a few episodes in though, but I can see why this one gets some hype online.
Finally started Spy x Family, cutest show. My wife typically shys away from animation but she really like it too.
Given how much fanart of Yor I saw before watching the show, I was worried it was going to be a fanservicefest, but I don't recall seeing any in the show. Big fan, I need to get caught up on the second season
Yeah, the euphemistic “fan service” is why I hardly watch anime, and have trouble taking people seriously who watch lots of it. Even when I’ve grown to respect someone, and then learn they watch anime… then I try out a recommendation of theirs… I’m usually disappointed. I get guilty pleasures, but please don’t try to sell it to me as some artistic masterpiece.
At the risk of doing exactly what you said not to do... Check out Mushishi. I would call it an artistic masterpiece, and I'll stake my reputation on the fact that it's not the kinda show that you'll be disappointed by. I can't think of a single moment in it that I wouldn't be comfortable watching with my mom sitting on the couch next to me.
alright, I’ll definitely give it a shot. Probably soon
More Jujutsu Kaisen recent chapter with Kenjoke-u
The second season from Jujutsu Kaisen is amazing (as always from MAPPA) and also I'm very much enjoying the female gaze fanservice :>