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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!
Edit:
Freiren is so good that I am putting a hold on watching it right now because I want to watch it with a bit more purpose than normal, if that makes any sense. The ending animation is also really unique and beautiful.
Become a manga reader like me. Then you can enjoy Frieren at the slowest pace possible. It's such a beautiful series, in art as well as in tone and writing. Something to be savoured for sure.
I wish I was better at reading manga. I tend to get too distracted by the art to focus on the dialogue and vice versa, and the constant self-distraction makes it difficult to concentrate on the whole thing. I have to be in a certain headspace to enjoy them and it's kind of hard for me to get into them because I get distracted by other things in my life.
I've got a small library of manga that I read through very slowly and piecemeal, so Freiren might actually be a good candidate to add to it.
Might be controversial, but I keep trying (and failing) to convince my friends to stop watching their shows one episode per week, delay by one season and gain the ability to control the pacing. It's much nicer, and it's how I watch the shows I watch on my own.
There are some shows that I think are probably better enjoyed on a weekly basis. Popular shonen anime are a pretty good example; they become grating if you binge them. But the shows I tend to watch are generally better when I can control the pacing and/or binge them.
I have the other experience: I had to put My Hero Academia on hold because I couldn't deal with watching a 10 minute recap and barely advancing a throwaway tournament arc for half a season. Then I came back and binge watched the most recent season or two. It's such a stark contrast, going from that to something that engaging and dark.
I personally like watching my shows one per week because it allows me to think more about it, I'm more likely to go back and watch it again especially to appreciate the art more now that I'm not fixated on the subtitles also being converse about the episode with other people who are exactly where you are adds a huge part of the experience to me.
When I am a season behind might as well be a decade behind. I'll just quietly binge episode to episode because if I want more, I want the next episode, if I don't I just drop the whole thing.
I go a bit further even, and avoid shows that are ongoing. I don't know anyone who watches anime in real life, so the social aspect of talking about the latest episode isn't a thing for me, and I like the depth of discussions I can find online about a show that ended 10+ years ago. Less speculating on what might happen later, more reflecting on what already happened.
I love Spy x Family for the exact reason you mentioned, my gf loves it. I've been trying to get her to watch other anime as well but not much luck (except a few episodes of Way of the Househusband, but that doesn't have the best pacing and isn't bingeable)
Yea the only other shows I've got her to watch with me so far were Komi Can't Communicate and Your Lie in April. She's not interested in Shonen or Isekai and is really put off with the sexualization of minors or unnecessarily gratuitous "fan service" so it really limits the options. She's kind of watched a few episodes of Saiki K and The Way of the House Husband over my shoulder while doing other stuff but as you say they're not really bingeable
We tried Komi as well but for some reason I couldn't get into it. Will try Your Lie in April, thanks for the recommendation.
She's explicitly stated that Anya is her favorite part about the show so I've tried looking for shows with similar characters but not much luck.
When it comes to Komi, I feel like the first half of the first season is a little hit and miss but the last half and second season are strong will leave you wanting more. Also Ive watched it both with subs and dubs and the jokes hit better when watching with subs.
Fair warning Your Lie in April is something completely different, I did not mean to sell it as "if you like Spy x Family you'll like this". The show deals with serious issues including abuse, trauma and loss. It has It's comedic moments but its more of drama, it's a really good story, and the musical sequences are beautiful.
I haven't watched it yet but there is Sweetness and Lightening that looks like it has Anya type character but a more regular slice of life setting. There is also Buddy Daddies with a cute kid adopted by a pair of assassins it's pretty wholesome but a lot more action/graphic than fantastical/slapstick like SxF
Thanks for the many new recommendations :) we'll try them out soon!
FYI The Apothecary Diaries, currently airing this season, is great. I got my wife to watch the first episode and she's into it. Basically about a girl in ancient China that has been kidnapped and sold as a servant in the back court of the Emperor. Episode to episode it's kind of a whodunit mystery style story about someone being poisoned/fallen sick/gone insane. The MC is quite funny and charming.
Added to the watchlist, thanks for the recommendation Gary!
Has anyone recommended Nichijou yet? It's my favorite slice of life anime. It's damn adorable. There's not really an overarching story; it's essentially a sketch comedy show, so you can find endless clips of it on the internet.
Hadn't heard of it -- but looks like something we'll try now so thanks!
Pluto on Netflix.
The ending was a bit cheesy, but that doesn't take away how incredible the ride is. It was a beautiful and terrifying ride. There were so many things that I just could not predict happening in spite of ample foreshadowing. And the animation and artistry is just incredible. I think I cried every episode.
I've also got to note that I really enjoyed the one hour run time of each episode. It's so odd to see an anime run that long so it had the effect of making the first episode feel like it was longer than it needed to be, but most of the episodes couldn't really work nearly as well if they made it your standard half-hour-minus-commercials runtime.
I've also been watching Kamikatsu, and it's like watching a trainwreck in realtime. The less spoken about that anime the better.
I'm glad to hear about Pluto. It's on my list and I was planning on binging it this weekend.
Is this the one with really bad/jenky animation like in one part they drew a characters face over a real person and scene that had been rotoscoped?
I don’t even think it was rotoscoped. I think it was just put through a bunch of effect filters. They also reuse animation so brazenly I sometimes think I might be watching an episode twice. They reuse entire sequences at a time.
I guess I call it rotoscoping because back in the day I would export the frames of my video to photoshop and apply some filters and then touch them up to give them a rotoscoped appearance. My videos looked nearly identical in style to the clip of that show I saw on YT shorts.
I just saw Pluto is out and am about to watch it! I loved the manga, it helped solidify Naoki Urasawa as one of my all-time favorite mangaka, so I'm looking forward to it!
Lessee...
Watching:
Reading:
That's about it for this week. I'd recommend any of the above btw!
I finished Planetes the other day. The last few episodes had me real scared that I would be disappointed, but all in all I was happy with it. I'm avoiding sad endings like I'm allergic to them after Banana Fish. 10/10, my favorite character didn't die. Now to read the manga, because apparently it's very different from the show, and I want more.
Planetes spoilers
The fact that it had a happy ending where everything turned out fine and nobody suffered any real long-term consequences might have dropped my rating for the show to an 8 or a 9 a few months ago, but I'm still so upset about how Banana Fish ended that I'm happy to see a happy ending where everything turns out great for everyone and everyone lived happily ever after.
Started Last Exile yesterday. Only a few episodes in, so I couldn't possibly give a pre-review. I'm a sucker for late 90's/early 00's animation though, so I'm sure it'll be at least an 8 on that alone.
My roommate and I started the second season of Goblin Slayer. We watch in English, so we're a couple episodes behind, but we're loving it so far. The art is even stronger than season 1, and the story is interesting so far, especially seeing the party deal with that prick of a mage.
I also just started an oldie, Hajime No Ippo. As a (casual) fan of boxing and boxing flicks, I'm greatly enjoying it. It's a lot of fun, has some really likeable characters, and I'm honestly very impressed by the animation for how old it is. I think I'm gonna enjoy this one.
Just polished off Made in Abyss season 1 this morning. The last 2 episodes were gut wrenching, totally not what I expected when getting into it. I’m so psyched for the second season. I know I’m behind but it’s so much more tolerable knowing I have a full season left to watch now!
Edit: autocorrect being silly
Imo it's not worth it to watch Made in Abyss further. They have totally lost the sense of mystery and pacing in the subsequent movie and season. I usually don't criticize any media too much but they really ruined the magic they created with S1.
It's one of the few series I regret watching. It feels like a taint upon my soul. Not recommended for human consumption not because of gore or whatever edge, just....it's made to be as anti human as possible.
Everything I've ever read about the show makes it sound like its main selling point is that it looks innocent but is actually super duper edgy. It sounds like an interesting premise to me, but reading through its nightmare fuel page on TVTropes makes me glad I never decided to watch it. I'll stick with Madoka Magica, thanks.
Yup, I tried to accept those parts as "japan just being japan" but it really was too much. It would've been better if the anime didn't continue after S1.
FYI there is a movie that takes place after season 1.
It’s really gross.
Might be worth noting that there's three movies, two of which are recaps. The one that takes place between seasons 1 and 2 is Dawn of the Deep Soul.
Reading:
Watching:
I've always been a casual anime watcher, mostly just paying attention to recommendations from friends and having a nice little meaningless distraction here and there. I've found some heavy anime too, but tend to stay away from those as I'm looking more for happy and light content without drawn out tension or high stakes. But nothing truly connected with me, until...
Over the last couple weeks, I have devoured Ascendance of a Bookworm. I know this series is old news to heavy anime watchers, but somehow I just connected with it in a way that I haven't for any other series. I watched those three seasons in 24 hours, then I rewatched it immediately. Usually, manga is ahead of the anime by a fair bit, and I wanted more of the story, so I looked into it, and a couple sources that I found gave me disappointing news, that the anime and manga were at the same point. (Dunno if this is true, it's just what I saw commented, so I didn't look into the manga too much further.)
So I went to the light novel. J-Novel club was mentioned somewhere else on Tildes, so I checked them out, and they had what I was looking for... but it was paid content. So, I made my first ever purchase of anime-related content. Over the last week, I've read up to the point that has been translated so far. I tried using machine translated versions for free a couple times but it was so broken I just couldn't get into it. I'm now re-reading the light novel from the beginning of the series with the physical books that I broke down and also purchased.
Work has suffered a bit, but I'm over the fever pitch obsession I had for the last two weeks... mostly. I can't wait for the next translation, but I will have to wait for next year this time (approximately, at the current rate of translation) for the English translation to catch up to the original Japanese content.
I'm happy with the pacing of the story. There are gaps of time that are lead up to with phrasing like "we'll have to wait three days..." and then it feels like whiplash when the very next sentence is like "so we walked into that place three days later" when every English author I've ever read has felt compelled to interject a bunch of sentences to make the reader feel the "wait" along with the character. As a skim reader, that sort of lead up makes me scan ahead to the point where the action continues, but I can't do that with this novel. It's so different, and I love it. There's tension, but it's seldom if ever drawn out in a truly uncomfortable way, and most conflicts are resolved quickly, which makes it very... light. Which feels perfect, for me, at this moment in my life, when work has shifted and gotten more intense.
Anyway, can't recommend highly enough, began buying the physical books just so I could lend them out to friends, will support the author any way I can. Wanted to share my first experience of connecting with Japanese content in such a deep way.
Goblin Slayer's 2nd season has been enjoyable so far. Seeing him retain his humanity and help train rookies as a respected but mysterious mentor was as funny as seeing him onslaught through those goblin fools.
"What new strategies awaits us viewers as he continues his rampage ?"
I am growing tired of waiting anime episodes to come out so I might just hop onto its manga and novel but have yet to decide. Does anyone have any advice to offer ?
I made it about halfway through Mieruko-chan and Tokyo Ghoul season 1 before Crunchyroll's Halloween promo ended. I like Mieruko-chan even though some of Miko's reactions can get repetitive, but episode 6 was pretty exciting, maybe I'll finish that show for free next year, lol.
Thankfully Tokyo Ghoul season 1 is still free so I can finish that at my leisure, and I'm liking that a lot, it's really stylish, and the characters have grown on me, and I appreciate the creepy and unpredictable main villain. When they first brought up the food intolerance thing, and coffee, I thought it was a minor detail, but it quickly became central to their entire "lives" and the whole main story. That sets it a bit apart from vampire stories where they can still eat normally.
I really like the manga but had a hard time with the anime, the animators decision to make it way more ecchi than felt right when watching a high school girl terrified for her life. It got better in the second half though. I also didn't find the spirits nearly as creepy as in the manga which is unfortunate. I still enjoyed it despite those two criticisms.
Don't know if you know anything about Tokyo Ghoul's anime but it was kind of a train wreck after the first season. The 2nd season (Root A) isn't nearly as good, they apparently went off script from the manga, then they kind of did a soft reboot in season 3 (Re) to try get in back in line with the manga and Re pt 2 started going off the rails again. I've read that you're probably better off just reading the manga after S1. I hope it one day gets a remake that does it justice
Ah yeah I should have added that disclaimer about Mieruko-chan being a horny anime, I mentioned it last time around but I forgot this time... it helps that it seems to be getting less horny after the first few episodes, unless I'm just getting desensitized to it.
I'm bummed to hear about Tokyo Ghoul, I've been hearing that about a lot of series these days, I'll have to keep my expectations in check, and I appreciate the heads up on that. I like the ending music video, which looks like some stills taken from the manga or in manga style, it's got that cool attitude to it.
I've never read manga until very recently, and I'm not sure why as I have been big into anime my whole life. With all the recent One Piece hype I decided I wanted to get caught up so I can start watching the anime, so I started reading the manga.
I just have to say that wow, manga itself is really cool and I wish I started reading it sooner. Maybe it is just One Piece, as that is all I have been reading so far, but they are in such small bite size chapters that I can sit down and bang out a chapter or more often a few. I don't have as much time these days to sit and have anime binge sessions..so being able to enjoy it in this format is just great.
Anyway, I just got to....
spoilers below...for a ~17 year old episode, lol
Nico Robin's "I WANT TO LIVE" part and wow, I got shivers!I have not had feels like that for awhile in an episode. I love to look up clips in the anime after I finish reading it, like big fights or emotional parts, and that did not disappoint. Anyway, if anyone has not started One Piece and you are intimidated by the amount of episodes then definitely check out the manga. Its really good.
Heck yeah! I've been consuming anime and manga for most of my life, but for the last decade or so have been almost exclusively manga.
edit: One Punch Man is not the artist of One Punch Man
I've actually noticed that some of the episodes for the latest episodes of Dr. Stone have a few close-up frames that are a lot more detailed. It's kind of rare but it's nice when it shows up. It still doesn't hold up to the quality of the manga but that's to be expected for any animation project.
I've considered trying to get into One Piece in manga form. I read a few chapters years ago when I had the US print version of Shonen Jump, and I remember liking it a lot. I really like the art style. But it's one of those things I know that it'll either bore me quickly or consume my life, and I don't really want either of those things to happen.
That sounds great! I will definitely be checking those out as well now! I've got an already growing list of ones I'm excited to work through, and am absolutely delighted by all this content I have to consume. Glad to be here now, lol. 😁
Any good "must reads" ?
I'll pick two that don't have anime adaptation (or atleast faithful ones):
My safe pick is Dandadan. It has a really loveable cast of characters, where some wild stuff happens and have made for some of my favorite double pages in manga (Not sure why Imgur is flagging this as 18+, it's not NSFW). I don't really know that I could explain what the series is about, other than there's a growing group of friends that keep needing to deal with supernatural events.
My slightly out there pick is Ajin: Demi-Human.
It's seinen and can be on the violent side. It's the story of a kid who gets hit by a truck, and finds out he's an "Ajin", people who can't die and emit "Invisible Black Matter" (IBM). Ajin are villainized, so the main character becomes a fugitive and needs to figure out how to survive.
The story's villain is probably one of my favorites. And I felt like the author did a really good job of respecting the boundaries of the power system, and uses those constraints to come up with some very creative action sequences.
Note: Ajin does have an anime, but midway through the second season it stops being faithful to the source material and it never got a season 3.
Probably Momo's maid suit? Don't know, there are "worse" panels in that regard.
Anyway, putting in my support for DanDaDan too! The art is great, the story flows well and the characters are really well characterized. It can get a little fanservice-y at times, especially in the beginning, but honestly I still have to find a series that doesn't rely on a little fanservice from time to time (if you know about any good one, please let me know!
Where do you draw the line on fanservice?
UndeadUnluck has the deuteragonist fondling the protagonists' tits in the first two episodes but he does that for a story reason (trust me on that one), while things like FireForce has the whole "ripped clothing while fighting" thing going on.
Jujutsu Kaisen doesn't do any of that unless you count people being exceptionally pretty on purpose. So far, none of the characters have been sexualised other than being super ripped and good looking.
Your Lie in April or Violet Evergarden are just incredibly sad stories. Sexualisation or lewd angles aren't even a thought in these series' minds.
There's a bunch of really good shows that have no fanservice. It's admittedly ubiquitous, but not impossible to find.
I used to think Jujutsu Kaisen was very fanservice-lite, until someone made a comment on this thread a few weeks ago about how they appreciated the "female-gaze fanservice".
That comment helped shine a light on why the fanbase seemed fervently attracted to characters in the show, especially Gojo. Jujutsu Kaisen has tons of fanservice, but it just so happens it isn't targeted at me so I don't notice.
I was sort of mentioning that by saying everyone is ripped and pretty. It's there for sure, but it's rather light and not aimed at men so it doesn't always come across as fanservice.
My post was trying to ask where they would draw the line, that may be one of them. At least it's not pantsu shots.
That's an interesting question. I'd say that I don't like "gratuitous" fanservice, but to varying degrees. Mostly it depends on wether I like the overall story and how much the fanservice takes me out of it. It's also connected for me to the bigger problem of the extreme sexualization of the teenagers and in my case it gets worse the older I get: in my teen years I wouldn't had bat an eye for things that now, in my 40's, would make me feel gross.
Take for example Yoko in Gurren Lagann, there's no reason for her to be in a bikini top the whole time, but it's only an insignificant part of the whole BIGGER story (and it's counterbalanced by Kamina being shirtless the whole time).
Or Nami and Robin in One Piece, it sorta makes sense for them to be the "sexy ladies" given the setting and their characters (even if Nami is way too much on the younger side for my tastes).
Or Fujiko in Lupin the 3rd (yeah, I'm old), being alluring is an integral part of what she is.
Fire Force's Tamaki is a weird one: while being absolutely in the "too much" field, Okubo integrates it in the overall story, especially when developing her character. It's a weird mix of exaggerated on purpose, leaning on the 4th wall and character development. Somehow it makes sense in context, but only if you get to the end of her whole character arc.
).
And boy do I! I'm just gonna make a list, because writing a short description of everything ahead would be too much work right now. We may draw the line on fanservice in different places, so I'm gonna focus on shows that I wouldn't be uncomfortable watching with my mom on the couch next to me. Gold star for shows that are exceptionally parents friendly
I'm casting *Compress Text* with a 5th level spell slot here
In the order in which I watched them:
Vivy: Fluorite Eyes Song
Violet Evergarden
Hyouka (not the OVA)
Belle (but it's meh so skip it)
A Silent Voice⭐
Baccano
Deca-dence
Trigun⭐
Akudama Drive, sort of. Doctor is a fairly heavily sexualized character, but I don't recall the show focusing on her to the point where my mom would question what I'm watching. I would watch it with my dad, but it doesn't get the gold star
ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department ✨⭐✨
Spy Family⭐
Mushishi✨⭐✨
From the New World
5 Centimeters Per Second
Your Lie In April
Nichijou⭐
Odd Taxi
Sk8 The Infinity
A Place Further Than The Universe⭐
Bocchi the Rock⭐
House of Five Leaves⭐
Haibane Renmei✨⭐✨
Banana Fish (I wouldn't be comfortable watching this with my mom, not because of fanservice, but because of multiple instances of SA)
Planetes✨⭐✨
Thanks for closing the parenthesis!
And thanks for the list!❤️
Of those I've only watched Odd Taxi (loved it, but it's not for everyone) and I just started Baccano. Looks like I have a lot to watch!
Baccano absolutely rules. Are you watching it dubbed? If not, check it out; it's one of the few shows where even subs purists tend to agree the dub is the best way to watch it!
One Punch Man is a must, very funny deconstruction of the superhero genre with a gorgeous art.
Some other random suggestions:
Finally got into Mob Psycho 100 after wanting to for ages. I only had time to watch the first two episodes, but it’s already super fun!
I also watched a bit of Kaguya Sama with my friend, and though it’s not my usual cup of tea, it was still pretty funny.