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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!
Lazarus
Episodes continue to be quite good. Its rather a shame that my expectations were sky high going in: it needs to be evaluated by its own merit, of which there are many. Each episode is paced well, and gives more insight into their world. It's not often that an anime can portray a different culture and/or socioeconomic strata with empathy and appreciation. They're not super depth or anything, but neither do they seem like passing landscape behind Carmen San Diego's convertible: they feel like lived in places where many types of people live and very possibly might die soon. Each episode is interesting enough, even if not crazy world shatteringly inventive like Dan Dan Dan. The overall story is emerging quite nicely, and I very much look forward to seeing the overall thesis, and having good conversations about how each of these episodes contribute to the whole. Bonus: It's so nice to hear Hayashibara Megumi's voice.
Apothecary Diaries
As a light novel reader, I'm greatly looking forward to the conclusion of this season. One of the most interesting things about this series is how they balance bringing up some of the darkest elements in their world with "putting a veil over it" delicately. Sometimes it's a villain's brief explanation of tragic motivation. Sometimes it's framed as something that happened long ago. Most times, and to highest comedic effect, it's Maomao's selective attention. Poor Jinshi.
Absolutely agree that expectations were sky high for Lazarus (including from me). There's no way they could not have been with the all star staff, Watanabe returning to the genre that put him on the map and the action packed first episode.
Having said that, I don't think there's been an episode yet where I haven't at least been entertained, and I'm of a similar mind to you where I don't mind the slower episodes that focus more on the world building - I actually miss the little monologues at the start of each episode where the characters discuss their experiences with Hapna. There's clearly an intentional message being sent to the audience with all of the scenes of wealth inequality, damage to the environment and people literally numbing themselves to the horror and pain of the modern world. I'm interested in seeing how the characters answer when they finally find Skinner.
Also happy to see Hayashibara's character getting more involved in the story. She's been fantastic in every role in her late career. My personal favourite from this period is Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu.
What! She was in Showa Rakugo?! ....wait Miyokichi?!?! Wow. I was so captivated by that whole story arc and these three ill fated friends I was completely absorbed with them being their own people. I missed her performance. I was initially drawn to this series because I wanted to hear Ishida Akira's voice, but within a couple episodes I've forgotten about that entirely, and 100% immersively saw Kiku as his own person.
Such an underrated show.
This week is https://myanimelist.net/anime/60157/Kanpekisugite_Kawaige_ga_Nai_to_Konyaku_Haki_sareta_Seijo_wa_Ringoku_ni_Urareru.
This is a show that I don't really know how to describe. It almost seems like a romance anime, but isn't. It almost seems like a fantasy adventure anime, but isn't. It also has some twists I didn't expect. Overall it's pretty decent though.
The basic premise is that the main character is born into a family of saints. Saints in this world are rare, usually only like one or two per country, and exceedingly important to national security. They're responsible for things like monster elimination and putting up barriers. Some can also do other things, like change the weather or create medicines.
The main character, Philia, is considered to be probably the best/most powerful saint of all time. So good in fact that it has caused political problems. She was fully suppressing all the monsters on her own, designing better medicines than the pharmacists, and so on. These things had the effect of making other people feel like she was taking work from them (ex. soldiers and pharmacists). This was not helped at all by her being emotionally flat and come off as cold.
She gets sold off to a neighboring nation that lacks a saint because theirs recently died. Simultaneously she learns what it means to be valued, because the new nation actually appreciates what she does and doesn't really care if she lacks "charm", and her original nation expectedly rapidly starts going downhill because she was kind of carrying them.
It felt like it was going to be a romance anime about a cold "perfect" girl learning about love in this new nation and ending up with the prince. Maybe that'll eventually happen, but so far it isn't actually much of a romance anime despite it's character designs. As stated up front, I'm not really sure how to describe the anime.
Unexpected twist - heavy spoilers
Philia's parents kind of hated her. It wasn't really clear why, but it just got revealed: Philia isn't actually their child. They stole her from who she believed to be her aunt. Basically the father hated the aunt (mostly because he's just a jealous selfish piece of shit that hated that his saint sister got more attention than him) and ultimately ended up stealing her child when he was unable to have his own. So he kind of resented Philia forever, but needed her because he needed to have a saint child to remain politically relevant.
That also answered why Philia is so cold. She eventually gets sent to train under her biological mother who believes the best she can really do for her is to train her harshly so she can survive living in such an environment. So it's implied that the coldness was, at least somewhat, intentionally trained into her by her real mother so that she couldn't get emotionally crushed by her parents.
So I read a small series called Sanjin Sadou, which is the first series from the author Satoshi Mizukami. It's a brisk 21 chapters long, and follows an diminished exorcist named Fubuki, whose ambitions as a youth led him to messing with powers beyond his abilities to control. He was a powerful blood thirsty warrior as a teenager, and he is now a weak and washed up late 20 something. His cast off spiritual powers manifest themselves as a spirit that has possessed and kidnapped a high school girl and he goes off to get her back.
It's a fun, if amateurish, little series. It would not be the series I would use to introduce Mizukami to people, but I would recommend it to people who have read or watched his series Sengoku Youko. They take place in the same universe, with Sanjin Sadou taking place in the present day, and Sengoku Youko (unsurprisingly) taking place during the Sengoku period of Japan. Sanjin Sadou is this neat little microcosm of ideas that get more fleshed out in Sengoku Youko. Both series tackle ideas regarding the concept of "strength", and what it means to both have and not have it. What it means for how one regards the self and how society will view you for having it or not having it. I would absolutely regard Sengoku Youko as the superior work, but Sanjin Sadou is sort of a fun way of seeing the blue print to what Mizukami would eventually make with his career. It's sorta like seeing the concept artwork for a game or a movie you enjoyed. Though I do think it is funny that Mizukami's art looks the same now compared to back then. Like I think his art is generally more detailed in the background and in action scenes, but the way he draws characters is almost exactly the same.
I’ve started a second watch of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. The interconnected themes of the subtle power of friendships, time, and loss really connect for me. I find myself tearing up or fully crying in most the episodes, even in some of the happier moments. I really enjoyed it the first time, but I love it even more this time.
Sonny Boy was weird. I liked it. The story is inscrutable and seemingly entirely metaphorical. But like so many other weird (non-pejorative) shows, the important part isn't the literal events that take place, it's the way the characters interact with each other and react to those events. It sits on the same shelves in my brain as Kyousougiga and Serial Experiments Lain. There is surely a lot to talk about, but I'm not nearly good enough at talking to meaningfully do so.
What I can say is that I really like the art style, I really like all of the characters and the character development, and it has the strongest absurdist themes in anything I've watched. It's not the surreality that does it, it's the struggle of people trying to find meaning and seek some kind of order in an inherently meaningless and disordered world.
Watching this and Cyberpunk Edgerunners back to back was certainly a decision. Think I'll go for something more lighthearted next. Maybe Kiki's Delivery Service.
I checked this show out based on your recommendation and it feels right up my alley.
The premise reminded me right away of Umezu Kazuo's Drifting Classroom (which in turn built on earlier work in the genre like Lord of the Flies), so I got a kick out of the show referencing it right off the bat.
Also loving the animation style which feels like something out of the 90s (in a good way) or Science Saru's shows, with very spare detail and flat colouring, but a lot of attention paid to how the characters move and gesture.
I've been reading Aono-kun ni sawaritai kara shinitai. It's an odd blend of sweet romantic drama and Japanese horror.
The brief synopsis: A girl falls in love with a boy and they become a couple, only for the boy to die in an accident shortly after. The girl is distraught and considers killing herself to be with him, only for the boy to return as a ghost. The couple are thus reunited (at least in an intangible sense), but there's something else which comes back with the boy and demands a terrible price.
The writing does a great balancing act between the drama and the horror elements so that neither is in service of the other. Both come off as fully fleshed out and satisfying while providing the impetus for the other aspect's further development . The boy's intangible nature and the consequences of his continued involvement with the girl are an ever present burden on their relationship, while the girl's desire to be with the boy whatever the price is a constant complication for how she and her friends are trying to counteract the supernatural events linked to his return and let him pass on to the next life.
On the latter, I particularly like how methodical and deliberate the characters are about working out the rules followed by the spirits in the story and how they could be taken advantage of to stay safe / turn them back. Yes, they're freaked out like normal kids would be, but instead of panicking, they break out the whiteboard and try to work out theories backed by the facts they have. It's a bit reminiscent of how a lot of Dracula (the Bram Stoker novel, not the adaptations) was just the hunters sitting around a table having meetings.
For the most part, the art and character designs are very simple, but I think this must have been a deliberate choice because from time to time there'll also be panels with a lot of detail drawn in. It creates this nice contrast that draws the focus to dramatic or horrifying scenes.
All in all, it's the kind of unconventional manga which I love from Afternoon.