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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 just got Hulu, and they have a lot of anime. I've only ever watched a few things-- Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Twilight of the Cockroaches...Can anyone recommend to me what on Hulu (US) is worth watching? I'm pretty open to most genres, if it's well-executed.
Took a skim though what's on Hulu (I'm not longer living in the US) and see a few great titles my wife and I would recommend:
This list covers a wide variety of genres and all are generally good to great. I bolded the ones I feel are particularly good.
Thank you! That looks like I could get a great start with that.
:) why some bolded? Spy x Family and Mob Psycho are my favorites from this list
RT has a list of all the anime on Hulu that is probably worth checking out the sort by popular of:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/browse/tv_series_browse/affiliates:hulu~genres:anime~sort:popular
And looking at the list myself, there is a decent amount of good stuff on there. I can wholeheartedly recommend Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It's great from start to finish, and has similar depth as Ghost in the Shell, but also with some comedy elements.
One Punch Man season 1 was amazing (and still worth watching), but season 2 was unfortunately kinda meh.
Attack on Titan is similar; I really enjoyed the manga, however the anime only started out really awesome (season 1 is still worth watching) but they dragged out the story for way way way too long, IMO.
I personally love Naruto but it's also loooooong and has tons of filler episodes. It's also pretty juvenile, basically being a pure teenage boy power fantasy, so it definitely isn't for everyone.
Samurai Shamploo was awesome, especially the fight animation and music, and it's only 2 seasons so easy to get through. If you liked Cowboy Bebop you will probably like it as well, since they have a similar vibe.
Death Note gets a lot of praise, but I personally found it hard to get through, especially since the main char is absolutely despicable.
And I haven't watched Spy x Family but it's on my watchlist and I've heard good things. And I haven't watched Mob Psycho 100 yet either, but it's from the same manga author as One Punch Man, and I've also heard good things (like it being way better than One Punch Man).
p.s. @chocobean also recommended DAN DAN DAN and a few others in another comment below. I haven't watched DAN³ yet either though, but it's apparently on Hulu, and on my watchlist now because of her recommendation.
Thank you; I remember reading (maybe here) about Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and I may start with that. It is standalone, right? I don't need to watch the original first?
They're essentially the same story. The original anime was produced before the manga had actually finished and once they caught up to it they started making up their own stuff, whereas Brotherhood was produced after the manga had finished and so is much truer to the manga's story. And having watched both, I would definitely recommend Brotherhood for a first time watch. The original is still worth watching if you really want to, but it's definitely not essential, especially since it has a lot more filler episodes in it.
Thanks for the explanation!
Where my fellow DAN DA DAN fans at?
[Edit: @cfabbro and others who hasn't seen it - threat of SA warning in episode 1 - [11:58 - 16:50]. I promise it's not gratuitous and plot necessary]
FLCL had long been my top favorite 3 anime, and not until I saw this season's DAN DA DAN did I feel FLCL had a worthy spiritual successor: bold animation choices, loud action, subtle relationship notes, and that awkward slightly sour and spicy tang of adolescence... The story is good so far, solid 8/10 conservatively speaking, but it's the animators that push this to 13/10.
Like the manga scene from FLCL, the Hybrid Rainbow scene where Canti takes flight, and the bridge scene with Bran New Love Song ... There are some very visually memorable scenes I won't spoil for y'all. Every shot a painting. They spent the time thinking through framing and colours and cameras and sound etc etc.
Remains to be seen whether or not the story is as good as my all time favorite Guerren Langann, or my upcoming second favorite, Frieren. But the fact that DAN DA DAN is even in the running so quickly amazed me. I have cried twice watching so far, and some of the story decisions and world building elements are worth contemplating. Great mix of action, humour, romance, and thriller.
Last year's chainsaw man didn't really sit well with me, Demon Slayer is overhyped, and I have tried and failed to like Jujutsu Kaisen. This one feels different. It's not going to be a big three type, but I'll be able to re-watch it and find new things every time like an Edgar Wright film.
Here! I've mentioned Dan Da Dan in an earlier weekly.
It's one hell of a ride. Stellar animation, great voice acting, interesting writing, and just overall a quality and polish you don't see often in anime, with a very mature approach to relationships to boot.
Yeah it has a lot of a certain kind of quality that makes it feel rich with film techniques that just throwing millions of dollars at a project can't match ..... I will steal words from Sakura Blog - production notes
Good read! Thanks for sharing. A bit heavy on the names if you're not familiar with the business, so it's rather difficult to parse and remember who did what when they get referred to later in the story, but I suppose that's on me and not the author.
My slow watch through of Taiyou no Kiba Dagram continues! I've watched through episode 43 so far. Life is busy and stays busy. I actually watched this episode a week or two ago.
Episode 43 followed the guerillas flipping a Federation officer to their side. This involved exploiting Federation military politics and some well timed rumour spreading. The episode also saw Rocky (the leader of the Fang of the Sun group) and Canary (the only female member) pose as newlyweds to sneak out of the Andi mine to meet with external guerilla groups and bring back the flipped officer to be the new Chief of Staff for the government that the Professor is forming. It was nice seeing the two get to spend some time together as they've been paired but not official since early on in the show.
Great episode, things are starting to come together for the guerillas. The formation of a rival Deloyer based government I think will happen soon and then I'm ready for some politicking.