What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

So this past week I found out about Bug Ego. It is written by ONE of One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 fame. It's like a weird mystery/horror series about two high schooler students finding a notebook that tells them about small "bugs" in reality. The weird thing is that it seems like the first chapter came out like a year ago, and I've seen zero discussion about it online. His other currently running series Versus isn't nearly as popular as his other works, but still definitely has a following. It's weird to see that he just had another one out there. Maybe because it feels very different from all of his other stuff.

My slow watch through of Taiyou no Kiba Dagram continues! I've watched through episode 40 so far. I had honestly hoped to get an episode or two in each evening my wife was out of town but my oldest son brought home a new round of sickness. That being said we had great developments these last couple of episodes.

Episode 39 finally concluded the arc of the guerilla fighters making their way to the Andi mine. This episode introduced a group of Federation mech pilots and helped to give a face to the host of Federation soldiers that have been dying in the name of opposition to the mighty Dougram. A small note I enjoyed, but I enjoy logistics being something discussed in this series. They ended up needing to take a train to get to the mine since that infrastructure already exists and the concern for if the trailer that hauls Dougram will fit on a train car is brought up. I don't get deep into the weeds on logistics, though it's a rabbithole I could see myself diving into one day, but I appreciate the grounding this gives to the setting. The mechs require transportation, maintenance, and supplies, as do the soldiers that are involved in the conflict.

Episode 40 involved them taking some time to relax and was the first episode in a long while that didn't involve a mech fight which was honestly refreshing. In amazing news disco is still alive as one of the characters mentions the mine town has a discotech (I know this can be used as a term for a night club type venue, but you can't take away space disco with my giant mechs in my head)! There's some politicking going on in this episode and I'm sure this will continue for some time. These scenes make me want to restart and actually finish Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The federation soldiers decided to disobey orders and attempt to destroy Dougram to get revenge for their fallen comrades. They spotted them taking Dougram to get repairs at the end of the episode so I'm sure mech fight and political fallout is incoming next episode.

All in all, looking forward to watching more. Work has been busy and my evenings full, so I've not been able to watch more which is a bummer. I actually watched these episodes last week (or maybe earlier this all has blended together) and just haven't had time to write down my thoughts on them. I did schedule a day in early December where my wife will watch our kids and I have a day to myself. I'm thinking I'll watch 10-20+ episodes that day which will be awesome and relaxing. Time to go out and get some popcorn kernels in preparation!

R.O.D: Read Or Die was pretty fun. It made its way onto my list when I saw this fight somewhere a couple years ago, and only just got around to actually finding and watching it. It follows Yomiko Readman, a substitute teacher who also works for the British government fighting supervillains. They have some evil plan or another, but more importantly, they stole her book.

I love everything about this OVA. I love everything about almost every OVA, but this is my favorite one I've seen so far. 9/10, highly recommend if you're as into turn-of-the-century anime as I am.

Also started R.O.D: The TV last week. It takes place a while after the OVA, with Yomiko Readman having been missing for four years. Explaining what the show is about would be hard, so I'm just gonna say it's a ton of fun to watch. Unless the last four episodes turn out awful, this one's getting a 9/10 as well.

Edit: the last four episodes did not turn out awful! 10/10. I feel a unique adoration for this series. I have a hard time putting words to feelings, but it's an affection I haven't felt for a cast of characters to this degree before. I'm sad that this show is over.

I feel like my ratings are too high. I enjoy what I watch too much. Can someone recommend an absolutely awful single season anime? I don't want anything offensive, I just want to remind myself that there are bad shows out there. The last time I saw an anime that I don't think fondly of was Banana Fish, over a year ago.