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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!
I'm about 3/4 of the way-through Revolutionary Girl Utena and I am loving it. I'm in the middle of the Apocalypse Saga and the story-telling and symbolism has really picked up and is blowing my socks off!
New season, new anime! I figured I'd look up some unmissables for the Spring season and ended up just now watching the first episode of Train to the End of the World (Shuumatsu Train Doko E Iku?) and it's a wild ride from start to finish. I'm super curious to see where this ends up.
The art style is vibrant, colourful, and at times very peculiar.
Voice acting has been good so far as well, with no awkward anime-isms or pacing problems, and instead sounding like a more modern way of pacing conversation in media (which Japanese media seriously lagged in, anime and games both).
The jokes are landing well with me because they're very matter of fact stated nonsense, like someone straight up saying he can't come along for the adventure "because reasons" in order not to dwell on why four young kids are going on a very dangerous ride, but I'm appreciative of the way such jokes are timed.
So far, just one episode in, I'm along for the ride to the end of the world.
Paprika
Feels fitting to see Paprika within a week of watching Serial Experiments Lain. The two have wildly different vibes and pacing, with Paprika being much more energetic and bright, and Lain being much more slow and gloomy, but both share a surreal mixing of the conscious and the subconscious.
Basically flawless movie. Visually beautiful, amazing soundtrack, easy 10.
Megalo Box
I almost forgot that modern anime is still great. Megalo Box is my kind of anime. A protagonist who's basically a D&D character, a story about the indomitable human spirit, fun action sequences. Even still, I gotta give it an 8/10, because while it is incredibly fun to watch, it doesn't stand out as a masterpiece to me. I am on the lookout for more shows with good action sequences now.
In the same way that Last Exile and Wolf's Rain occupy the same shelf in my brain, Megalo Box is filed right next to Gurren Lagann. I can't draw parallels between the two the same way I can Paprika and Lain, but they both share a certain reverence for the human drive to excel that I really enjoy.
Megalo Box jumped up on my list while I was watching Ghost In The Shell, specifically that one scene with Batou boxing. Watching that scene back, it's insane to me that the clip I just posted was from a show 15 years older, and with so few action sequences. GiTS just does everything better than every other show. I gotta stop comparing everything I watch to it.
I've been watching Train to the end of the world. Finally train otaku have something to look forward to other than getting in the way. This is a currently airing show, and it does not fill the Frieren shaped hole in my life. Not sure I need it filled quite yet though.
I've also been trying to get through Manabi straight again. Always lose interest 4 episodes in or such, but this time I'm feeling better about it. I hope I can keep to at least one episode a day. So far failing. This show looked pretty good, and makes me sad UFOtable became a Nasu-joint later. The highlight to me so far is whenever they bring up the claps in the soundtrack, and I actually like the tsundere character in this show. Mei has understandable reasons and doesn't just have a random personality switch!
I've also been catching the weekly Spice and wolf episode. I was never quite in love with the series or sad it stopped back then. On the whole, I'm not sure how much I buy the economy aspects. The haggling scene on episode 3 seemed a bit ridiculous to me and could potentially come to bite Lawrence in the back later on with him getting a much better price on pelts than they were worth with a major trading company whose agent remembers his name and face years after seeing him last.
Some plans for possible re-watches soonish:
My slow watch through Taiyou no Kiba Dagram continues! I've watched through episode 16 now. They recently fought through a desert and have gained a new member of the team in the form of a mechanic/supply technician.
I saw in a review that there is less development of the main characters than some of the side characters. I'm seeing that now and I'm curious id that trend continues as the series progresses. I feel like beyond Crinn there has only been some minor development in Rocky and everyone else is practically the same or only mildly changed since their introducion in episode 2.
I feel like I'll finish this in 2026 at the rate I'm going. I'm just glad I'm able to access this awesome work 43 years later!
We went to see the Spy x Family Code White movie in the theater. It was about what I expected from having seen the TV series. I can tell a lot of it is written for a kid friendly audience, but we went to a later showtime, so mostly adults, and it was a good time! It felt like the animation was higher quality than the TV show, even though a lot of it did feel like watching more episodes of the show, which isn't a criticism by any means