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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!
Spy x Family, Chapter 100
The past few Spy x Family chapters have been a flashback retelling of a love story. I've looked forward to chapters week to week; the story is surprisingly dramatic. I enjoy how it touches on themes that I've been trying to exercise in my life like "learning to show your appreciate for others before it's too late". It's a change of pace from Spy x Family's usual comedy, but I welcome it.
The Indomitable Martial King, Chapter 35
I've been reading a manhwa called The Indomitable Martial King about a guy who is demonized and later killed for fighting for the civil rights of enslaved "otherworldly" species (elves, dwarves, etc...), but gets a second chance to try again.
This week's chapter has the main character seeking advice about what he did wrong in his previous life, and is told that he was apathetic to the concerns of the people he was fighting against:
This chapter really caught me off guard. This series is a bog-standard, action manhwa. I'd never really thought about the potential harms of not caring (v.s. direct antogonization) and this manhwa was the last thing I expected to provoke such a reflection.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
A story about a middle schooler, trying to return home with her little brother and an adult after a major earthquake.
The pacing is a bit slow, but the anime is 11 episodes so it's bite/binge-sized. The portrayal of the children are especially good and the anime mostly revolves around the feelings of our main character. Even though the rest of the world and Japan is intact, the anime does invoke that post-apocalyptic travel kind of feel; which I always appreciate.
Spoilers
I especially liked the plot twist towards the end where Yuuki(MC's brother) died and Mirai(MC) started to hallucinate him. The viewers are given multiple hints from a few episodes prior where Yuuki is feeling/acting sick, to the death dream Mirai sees(which, surprise!, was not a dream), adults acting in a weird/consoling way towards Mirai, no-one else talking to Yuuki after that point, the MC and Mari(the adult which helps them on their journey) sleeping on two beds instead of three and the scene when Mari holds Yuuki's bag when Yuuki is wearing it which all but confirms Yuuki's death. I rambled a bit but I quite enjoyed catching the signals early and figuring out the twist before it was revealed at the last episode.
Also, at the end, Mirai finally arrived at the shelter and found her parents. She hugged them while crying, informing them of the death of her brother. At that point when all three of them cried while hugging each other, I cried and by that I mean I cried a LOT. I don't even remember the last time a media made my cry that much, so beware if you're cry-ey(is that a word?).
Finally, at several points in the anime, the MC questions what she's going to be in the future. That made me think the MC's name being Mirai(should mean future in JP) is a quite nice touch.
Just finished Hunter X Hunter.
I really enjoyed this series! The Chimera Ant Arc dragged a bit for me and the ending was kind of underwhelming. I enjoyed a lot of it, but there were some parts that didn't feel crucial to the overall plot. The Chairman arc might be my favorite of the series. A lot of the stuff with Ging cracked me up 😆.
The ending was satisfactory for the most part. I feel pretty good about the whole thing.
A Certain Scientific Accelerator is an interesting middle ground between Index and Railgun. For one thing, the story heavily involves both magic and science, with the Coffins being a complete marriage between the two. The two main characters are an esper and a magician. The two antagonists are a scientist and a magically reanimated corpse. But also, it has more subjective things in common with either series. Like Index, there's too much fanservice, the story makes little sense, and the season ends with a plot hook instead of wrapping up the story neatly. But like Railgun, this show is actually fun to watch