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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!
Started watching Hunter x Hunter.
After Frieren, I was looking for another Madhouse anime to watch. I've heard of this, but never tried it. I was hesitant knowing that the manga has been on hiatus for years and the anime is incomplete. But I read that where the show left off provides a good ending for the most part.
Currently I just finished Heavens Arena Arc. I'm really enjoying this so far! I'm really glad I decided to start watching this show.
I love HxH. As far as I know the manga's writer is back to work on new pages. I need to read the manga, I imagine it will be a while before there's enough new story to adapt into new anime episodes.
You have any favorite characters yet?
So far it would have to be Wing. We didn't get too much time with him, but I really liked his vibe. He's this unassuming person, but has a mastery of Nen. For some reason rocks a half untucked shirt, but always has some knowledge to drop. I hope I get to see more of him and his story in the future.
Truly fantastic! I'm glad you're enjoying it, and I hope you like what more is to come!
I'm also intimidated by its length and hiatus history. A friend of mine who's been following since day one has said though, that there are several story points where the whole thing can be considered to have wrapped up satisfactorily, so don't worry about the lack of final ending.
I remember watching the first adaptation of this, which started back in the late 1990's. That one looks so good that it's hard for me to brave the new adaptation. Add to that I don't love HXH so I could be watching anything else.
The "new" Hunter x Hunter adaptation (which, it has been pointed out to me, is almost 15 years old) is even better than the original one, and certainly less disjointed.
But if you don't like it, you don't like it! No need to force yourself to watch it. Plenty of other stuff out there.
I did watch the first episode of the 90's version. There was a comment that the ending of the modern version feels more complete with that context. It definitely had a different vibe to it. The recent iteration is a bit more upbeat and faster paced. I think this is one where you'll know if you want to watch it after a few episodes.
Friend recommended to me the manga Sakamoto Days and it's been hilarious so far. Former assassin turned family man. Gives me One Punch Man vibes with him being super overpowered but just generally being a goofball and worrying more about his next snack than his own life.
Sakamoto Days has some insane double pages during fights too. Especially over the last few weeks.
Thank you for this. I just read the first few chapters and it is quite fun!
No problem! I too was hooked within a couple of pages lol.
Recently finished Goodnight Punpun. It was great.
I started with One Piece a couple months ago because I like a challenge. I'm on volume 16 now
Ah probably my favorite. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and still think about it daily...
Jellyfish Don't Swim In The Night
If you liked Lycolis Recoil and or Bocchi the Rock, give Jellyfish Don't Swim In The Night a try: young people who may be discouraged by various life circumstances decide to be brave and give art a try because companionship makes you feel better.
Delicious In Dungeon
Greatly greatly enjoying Dungeon Meshi. It's funded by Netflix and the English dub is very good. If you're a fan of ProZD's silly skits, Sung Won Cho voices one of the main characters . (The original Japanese VAs are amazing as well obviously, but just throwing that in there for folks who prefer not having to read subs). Season finale this week, with extra manga that has great art to tide you over. Excellent story telling, characterization, and world building all around. Maybe not as gorgeous and beautifully meditative as Frieren, but I would say comparable in terms of excellence in what it sets out to do. It's a laugh a minute great time, every episode, in a fantasy setting that entirely respects Norse/Tolkien style aspects with the author having obviously put a lot of thought into it.
If you ever thought about eating monsters in a dungeon, this is for you. If you recoil at the thought of even discussing the ethics behind eating demi-human species, this series is for you. If you are in for the laughs to see how they'd tackle various not edible monsters like [spoilers redacted], this series is for you.
I haven't had this much fun in a fantasy series since Interspecies Review (highly not safe for work), which is also a high recommendation for me.
I'm gonna use this as an excuse to talk about one of my favorite aspects of Ryoko Kui's world building that I never see people bring up: the fact that every race is considered "human." Dwarves, half-foots, gnomes, elves, tall-men, all of them are just different races of human. Tall-men are what we are. Idunno what it is about it, but using human to refer to all the sapient races feels more natural than having to refer to elves and dwarves as non-human people.
Absolutely!! I love that even us Tallmen aren't just default minus racial bonuses. It's fantastic and I'm a little scared for what's coming but I'm all on-board for more of her fantasy world. She evidently very observant in the media that she herself enjoys and thinks deeply into character designs beyond the story.
Here's a spoiler free piece of her fantasy game art to illustrate my point - so many types of elves and the way she draws them tells you so much of their personality!
https://envs.sh/eXK.jpeg
Today I finished watching the first season of Yuru Camp △.
I was looking for something relaxing and perhaps pretty to look at, and well, I couldn't stand the annoying childlike voices all the characters have and their usual high-pitched reactions to every mundane thing that happens. The best moments are those with the solo camper Rin, or when she's with Nadesiko. The opening theme alone made me think this wasn't going to be what I was looking for, and I should've heeded it.
Too bad we couldn't have more chill time alone with Rin.
Maybe next I'll get onto my Seirei no Moribito rewatch.
It's unfortunate Yuru Camp wasn't for you. You're absolutely correct, the strong parts of the show are the Rin parts. Season 2 gets worse in that regard. Season 3 gets better again, but there's still a bit too much excitement at times, and characters I care little about. I keep forgetting who everyone is, except Rin and Nadeshiko.
Undead Murder Farce is a mystery adventure with a huge paranormal/monster twist. The main characters explore the world solving mysteries involving Vampires, Werewolves and other common literary tropes. This show really scratches the itch of trying to solve the mystery as story arc happens in a way that you could likely guess generally what's going to happen, but not 100%. It scratched that itch of a good mystery show that's really hard to fill. You get to feel like the detective putting things together as the protagonists do and in a way that makes you feel smart when the mystery wraps up and you were either 90% of the way there, or 100% dead on. Highly recommend.
Rereading Mix by Mitsuru Adachi, so I can be up to date for the latest books.
Good baseball romantic comedy
More and more, I find that classic genre tropes irritate me, even when disguised under a novel gimmick or two and good production values (as in, say, the currenly ongoing Kaijuu 8-gou, which is shounen but with adults). I'll still consume some of these stories and be entertained by them, and there are millions of people who stand to derive genuine enjoyment from them, but it's hard not to roll my eyes when saving the world turns out to be secondary to childish competition among supposed allies... if every shounen tale since Dragonball has done the same thing and you were there for all of them. In other news, old man yells at cloud.
That long-winded intro just to say that I've been finding much greater enjoyment in stories with good intentions, good character chemistry, and weird-ass premises, such as these two:
Tsumiki Ogami & the Strange Everyday Life.: As you can probably tell from the title, you should expect slice of life here. This is a feel-good, positive story about diversity. Protagonist Yutaka, a male teen, was (you don't learn this immediately) unhappy with who he was and contrived to move to a different school where he's trying to reinvent himself. His new school is primarily attended by the kids of Genjin, supernatural beings who have recently come out of centuries-long hiding and are trying to fit in with Japanese society, but are seen by many with suspicion and distrust. At the beginning of the story, Yutaka befriends Tsumiki Ogami, a popular werewolf girl. She befuddles him - she's incredibly strong and thinks nothing of picking him up, slinging him over her shoulder and carrying him away. She likes to roll in the mud, she's very honest and doesn't care what people think. But she sees something in him and "adopts" him, and they form a strong bond of friendship that gradually expands to include various of the other supernatural kids.
The Summer Hikaru Died: Set in a small town in southern Japan, this is the story of male childhood friends Yoshiki and Hikaru. Yoshiki, a quiet, sarcastic teen is (I don't think this has been openly addressed yet, I'm bad at reading these regularly) deeply in love with a sunny, likeable, and very straight Hikaru. But at the very beginning of this manga, it turns out that this Hikaru died and his body was posessed by a corrupt eldritch monstrosity mountain god lovingly known as the Great Brain-snatcher, or "Hikaru" for short. "Hikaru" loves being a human teen, loves Yoshiki and is trying really hard to fit in, but doesn't understand the value of human lives or the importance of not murdering people, so he scares the shit out of Yoshiki and the few who know about him. So this is a horror, tragedy and romance story in one neat package, with a slow pace, moments of high tension and pretty good art. There's a whole thing going about Hikaru's family history, exorcists, evil land developers, etc.