14
votes
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!
Have started watching Nichijou. It's really good. The kind of really good where I almost don't want to watch it because I know that once I reach the end I'll never be able to unwatch it and nothing will ever come close to its level of quality. I normally don't care for slice-of-life (or anime in general honestly) but this one is incredibly well-done in both writing and animation.
Hello fellow Nichijou enjoyer! I bring tidings of good news!
The creator of Nichijou, Keiichi Arawi, has also created another series called City, and that is getting an anime this year! The trailer came out recently and I am in love with what KyoAni is doing to bring it to life. It looks absolutely gorgeous in ways that nothing else does and even in just the trailer, you can tell it still has that trademark feel of it's creator.
So enjoy Nichijou without shame, there's at least something new in this style that's around the bend.
Huzzah! I am glad to have found this out, that trailer looks incredible! I know what I'll be watching next then, thank you for the good news!
You just made my day!
Nichijou is unique, among many other anime I've watched. The drawing style, characters and the humor can be clearly seen in this trailer. Can't wait, thank you for the great news!
MINOR SPOILERS: The dogs scene, the pencil stab scene and many many more will always stay in my mind and is my "go-to show-off" if anyone asks which Anime they should watch.
My vote of favorite scene is the deer scene i love how it just escalates in a perfect manner.
My slow watch through of Taiyou no Kiba Dagram continues! I've watched through episode 48 so far.
In the last two episodes, we saw the Fang of the Sun (the group the main character is a part of) established as a "mobile strike force of the liberation army". This has indicated that the guerillas are more organized, with their chief of staff joining their ranks a few episodes ago. It's also nice seeing them have some strategy to their actions instead of randomly fighting whenever they are caught by Federation troops or need to get from point A to B. It also shows Rocky maturing as a leader for the group and assuming the role appointed to him. This is part of his character growth arch in the series, showing him going from essentially a motorcycle hooligan/gang member to being a key player in a revolution. Character arches like this happen very slowly in the series and are not the main focus with there being little focus on introspection for individual characters, even the main character.
The group is also dealing with the loss of Rita, first thinking she had betrayed/abandoned the cause and now dealing with the grief after finding out she'd be killed by Destin (who had betrayed the guerillas early on in the show). Giorgio, who was pursuing Rita romantically, has been hit the hardest and is now even more reckless. He's been shown to be suicidal at times and has been causing risks for the other members of the team and I'm curious to see how this plays out.
One of my favorite segments of the last two episodes was actually a focus on Crinn's father, the leader of the Federation on Deloyer (I want to say Chairman, but I can't remember his title). He's returned to earth to perform politics, and we learn more about the situation on earth between the different states and how their interests conflict. There's also some drama within Crinn's family related to the conflict on Deloyer and Crinn's role as a member of the rebellion. His father has a moment with his mother talking about how Crinn has taken after him more than any of his children by pursuing his path and risking his life for what he believes in. To me, it came with a hint of pride in his son living by his principles, and I liked them taking the time to flesh out this character more. He's not "evil", he's doing what he feels like is in the best interest for Earth and the people he represents. Terrible actions at times, but one's that are understandable given his frame of mind and the political structure that he is a part of.
As I draw nearer to the end of the series (only 27 episodes left) I'm planning to start jotting down more detailed thoughts on the series as a whole and post a review for anyone who is interested. I don't think people will flock to watch a 44-year-old series, but so far I think this is a good series that other people would enjoy if they gave it a chance.
I also think they added in a new track for the "mobile strike force of the liberation army" as I hadn't noticed the music they used in the last episode before. While this may not be a big thing in other series, the soundtrack of this show is great, but limited. I've mentioned before that you will quickly hear all the tracks that are used regularly, so any new track sticks out.
I just finished watching the second season of Solo Leveling and it was great. It's a really cool show with over-the-top battle scenes and is the first anime that I've seen that was done by a Japanese studio and based on a Korean source. If you like action, dungeons, and overpowered characters, you should give it a try if you haven't already. This is the first anime I watched this year and it definitely made me feel glad to be back.
As mindless fun, with a good depiction of a necromancer, I think it takes the lead, but...
It's kind of a 'self-insert' genre, in where there is really never a challenge for anything the MC does, i think at least at first you saw the grind of his progression, but really never the struggle...
I don't know where it's going yet, but feels slightly copy-paste the entire season, just put a bigger boss in front, see other S-level characters die, he will kill it somehow without much problems, and repeat over and over again...
It's popcorn slop. Really good popcorn slop, but still only as deep as a puddle. It's just very impressive sakuga over and over again. Which is great if you want to turn off your brain and see some cool shit.
It seems that popcorn slop is what I want from anime. In my opinion SLF is an overall better show than Solo Leveling, but when they were airing in the same season I found myself consistently looking forward to Solo Leveling more. Sadly I've not found a good enough source of sakuga this season to fill the void it left.
I'd argue and say everything is a challenge, he visibly struggles with every match but the show doesn't shy away from the ass-pull's either, they are all items or abilities hes gained not just has by default.
One I'm currently watching is The Beginning After the End. I'm watching it because my wife was pretty excited for it after having read the source material.
The anime though is pretty bad. The animation is underwhelming at best and the storytelling isn't very compelling. It feels like the internal monologue exposition may actually outpace the amount of actual dialogue. It also very much suffers from that the whole first 2 episodes are just Mushoku Tensei but worse. The poor animation suggests a low budget, so I'd assume that to be the root cause of the adaptation's biggest faults.
According to my wife this has been a huge letdown, especially because she thought it was popular enough to get an adaptation that had some quality. It's poor quality stands out especially hard due to being outshined by low-expectation shows, such as Underground Healer or Too Perfect Saint.
It does feel a bit bizarre. I'm not sure how popular the novel is, but the manhwa has a pretty big following so it's surprising just how subpar it is. A friend of mine made the hilarious comment that the manhwa would be better animated if you edited the panels into a video.
Someone actually did that!
Oh wow, it's actually true. That's tragic.
Mushoku Tensei was so much better than I was expecting. The expectation I set came from the first few episodes. Lots of perv-y awkwardness. But it developed into an adventure in the first season. The second season mostly focused on one location. The main character grew a lot. And the story covered two topics in a surprisingly mature and healthy way that really impressed me. It's a really cute show with some great sword and sorcery fantasy. Looking forward to the next season.
Started Dungeon Menshi (Delicious In Dungeon). It's hilarious and unique in that it's like a cookie adventure. It's a lot of fun.
I binged Moonrise this past weekend. Overall I enjoyed the storytelling and animation. It's a very adult-themed anime that tackles some tough questions and Grey areas. My only complaint was that the last few episodes felt a bit rushed and some of the time jumping made it feel disjointed. I think they could've done things more linearly for most of the show and it would have been better. But beyond that, worth the watch.
I'm in a book club, but occasionally we stray from books and watch media (movies/TV shows).
I'm someone who has watched all the Studio Ghibli movies, but hasn't watched many anime TV shows. But we watched Death Parade last week (the first 3 episodes) and I really liked it! Will probably end up watching the rest