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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 re-reading Chainsaw Man. The first time I read it I didn't like it at all. Part 1 wasn't even finished and I had read it in a few hours, and I thought it might have been due to my mood at the time. Some years later I gave it a second try and liked it quite a bit, including the chapters I read a second time. But I rarely read series on release dates anymore (the only exception is Berserk), so I've been reading every few months.
Recently I read the last few months' chapters, and am I hooked. I'm reading the chapters as they release, and I read Fire Punch last week, and I'm re-reading the manga from the start again. This time I liked it even more than the second time.
Fujimoto has this weird style that I think blends very cheesy and superficial things with good storytelling. The reason I didn't like CSM the first time was that I was put off by Denji's superficiality and the extreme amounts of horniness in the manga. Having both the time to digest the story and having read Fire Punch, I can see now that the Denji's superficiality is intentional. This, of course, doesn't shield the story from any criticism, but it did change my perspective on Denji's story.
There are of course other interesting bits too. Visually distinct (female) characters, unique monsters, a vibe of weird-lit, a more flexible representation of feminine characters, not following a lot of shounen and action cliches, etc. It's an interesting manga. It reminds me of a favorite manga of mine, Dorohedoro, which I'm planning to read again too.
Also on the queer part. Fire Punch solidified my opinion that Fujimoto is very much a queer-friendly author, which are very rare in the shounen genre.
I've started Classroom of the Elite. Some reviews and other factors kept me from watching it before. But I finally gave it a chance. This show is right up my alley! I just stated season 2 and I'm really interested to learn more about the MC. I love that he has no interest in traditional success. Really just wants to just get by despite his capabilities, but gets dragged into all the politics anyway.
Tomadachi Game ends next week and it will be bitter sweet. I really enjoyed this series since watching the anime and then getting into the manga. Hoping it sticks the landing.
My slow watch through of Taiyou no Kiba Dagram continues! I've watched through episode 28 so far. I'm trying for an episode a week at least, but not setting any hard numbers since my schedule may go from my normal busy to a lot busier in the next few weeks.
28 was a great episode. We saw the guerillas struggle with the fact that wars cost money and get caught up in some corporate espionage to ensure that they receive funding and start untethering the economic interests of Deloyer from Earth. There's also some minor politicking between members of the Federation and seeing Crinn's father getting a bit more depth as he's more pensive about his youngest son's involvement in the conflict.
The only thing that stuck out to me is that the Rocky let the guy who betrayed them go. He got in a scuffle with Donovan (I think that's his name) where he knocks the traitor out and then just leaves him. Like I get the guerillas are supposed to be the good guys but they also kill federation soldiers in firefights all the time but he can't just off screen dump Donovan in the ocean or something. I know griping about a kids show not being that bit darker but just seems like such a glaring misstep for the character and their cause from my perspective.