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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!
My wife and I finished The Apothecary Diaries to-date, and have been watching Carole & Tuesday for the first time. It's been a blast. The first several episodes at least feel fairly low-stakes - there's no end-of-the-world problem, no grand tension or overarching wickedness. It's just a lovely slice of life story about two women who want to make music, and the various people that come into and out of their lives along the way.
I'm completely enamored by Akane-Banashi. This story of a girl's relentlessly optimistic climb through the ranks of rakugo is a great change to the formula of these stories. Normally these stories (which I love BTW) are centered around someone who is gifted, but troubled. Usually chased by some demon of their past that is holding them back (Examples: March Comes in Like a Lion and Those Snow White Notes) they have to overcome themselves to improve and grow. This one has the MC (Akane) be an absolute force of nature that is headstong, confident and has the skills to back it up. Her only thing holding her back is her lack of experience and she will put every bit of herself into every opportunity she gets.
The rakugo stories are told well, the characters are incredibly engaging and my favorite part is that we have a female MC who is in a story where it really doesn't matter much that she's a girl. There's no sexualization of her nor any hints of a forced romantic shipping. It's a story that is written and presented in a way that I rarely see and I love it. I just hope whoever eventually adapts this into an anime captures the joy of the story telling, as that is what will make or break the adaptation.
10/10, my favorite active manga on Shonen Jump by far!
I always found it incredible that a series like this was not only running in Weekly Shounen Jump, but has been doing so for almost 3 years (which is a lifetime for that burnout / cancellation-rife magazine). I guess they must consider it part of their sports manga bracket!
I watched Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai.
The title was incredibly off-putting, which is why I skipped it when it was airing, but boy, was that a mistake. The writing on it is just incredible. I love that the characters are written with a degree of respect that youth characters don't usually get. The dialogue isn't exactly realistic; it kind of reminds me of Dawson's creek with how weirdly mature they can be. But I think that's very much on purpose; the characters are all young people who are trying to be adults and they are suffering because of it. I particularly like the structure of the show, which fits a three act structure of each arch into it's own episode more or less.
If I had to put the show into a category it would be a school romance, but that's really not accurate at all because it's about all of the relationships of the main character. It's just front-loaded with one of the most embarassingly fantastic short love stories I have ever seen. Unlike most of these shows which usualy try to make young boys and otaku fall in love with the female lead, this one makes you fall in love with the male lead. Not romantically, of course, but because he's just such an understandable and kindhearted guy. In any case, the romance between the main character and his girlfriend is really great to see because the storytelling is very much show-don't-tell; The words coming out their mouths are almost as often as not different from what they mean or are feeling.
It really gets to you too. The last episode had me ugly crying. I'm actually tearing up right now just thinking about it. The main character has something happen in his life that is so soul-crushing that he can't function, and having been through that I found it incredibly relatable.
It's gorgeous! It's amazing! Everyone should see it if they haven't already! There's a new series coming out now, too!
I loved this anime back when it aired. I have to agree with what you said that you really end up loving the MC more than the girls, even if it's a romance anime. It also blindsided me how "mature" it is. Things get resolved with proper communication, they have real issues that go beyond teenager stuff, and through all that, the MC is really just a nice, smart, emotionally mature guy. It felt refreshing.
Glad you liked it! Have you seen all the movies? The next season is coming soon and supposedly, it picks up right after the movies. (I haven't watched them)
I have not. I only heard about how good it is recently so I started watching it. I heard that two of the movies aren’t available legally in English so I probably won’t get t9 them anytime soon, but I do have access to one of them and I’ll be checking it out.
I know some sites if you want :)
The comparison I sometimes saw when this show first aired was that it was like Bakemonogatari if you took the SHAFT out of it - a show structured around short arcs each dealing with the protagonist, his relationship with one of the women in his life and a supernatural problem that acts as both a kind of framing device and an analogy for underlying personal issues.
I liked both shows, but I think Bunny-senpai is definitely the one I'd recommend to most people (notwithstanding the name). It's accessible for anyone who's been through those teenage years and felt like they were going through their very own 'puberty syndrome'.
You're not alone, the title implies an ecchi romance and I remember when it aired that people had to stress there was more to it than the title.
It did take that season by storm regardless because it's a very well written story.
Admittedly I remember little, but with the second season coming up I may do a rewatch.
Funny enough, I've seen maybe 30 animes, but never watched Naruto.
My sister has begun watching animes and she started with Naruto and kept bugging me to watch it. I also recalled many of friends telling me that it's worth it.
So I started watching it.
The age kinda shows itself with how limited the animation is in the fights, there is a lot more talking than I feel is logical considering the stakes sometimes. Yet, I think it's really good. The fact that it's such a long-running anime allows for characters to be more fleshed-out, even though the cast is big. The psychology behind their actions and their personnality kinda makes up for the "boring" moments.
I'm at ep ~52, watching a no-fillers version and I really enjoy it. It just takes a long time... maybe I'll be done by the end of the year haha
Dating myself a bit here but when I was in middle school, Naruto was THE thing that everyone was into. Other anime shows were also popular, like DBZ, Pokemon, Inuyasha, and Sailor Moon. But Naruto hooked us 12-15 year olds like nothing before. It was mainstream, yet it showed plenty of violence. The main characters were all students with extremely relatable backgrounds (who among us hasn't had their entire clans wiped out by their older brother). Hot Topic started selling Naruto stuff like hot cakes. Hell, kids even started doing the Naruto run with your hands behind your back.
All that is to say that, yup the show feels a bit outdated today, but it's hard to convey how it felt during its peak when all your friends were talking about it nonstop all the time. It served as a gateway for anime in general for a lot of kids and preteens, myself included. For me it's similar to something like Game of Thrones where the cultural impact is part of the reason so many people loved it. Hate saying 'you just had to be there, man' but the cultural phenomenon that happened with certain shows when they came out is hard to convey years later when looking at them with a more objective lens.
I agree! It feels like the spiritual successor to DBZ or Pokemon: a very popular shonen that broke into mainstream culture. I definitely remember the Naruto running stance when I was younger too lol
I've watched 200+ and haven't watched it either. Nor any of the other big shows (DragonBall, One Piece, Bleach, etc.). I don't know how atypical my introduction to anime was, but I was never really exposed to the major franchises when I started. I saw a glimpse of Sailor Moon here and there while changing channels but I wasn't interested. By the time I could find what I wanted to watch myself online, I had probably aged out of wanting to see any of those titles.
Naruto is such a mixed bag for me. I started on it with a Shonen Jump subscription, and I thought the manga was really neat. But generally speaking, I don’t like Shonen anime adaptations; the characters become a lot more childish than what is usually in my head, and in a way that becomes grating to me. I pirated the first Naruto movie before there was any news of an English language release and it was pretty great because it’s more of a story with Naruto rather than a story about Naruto. Then the next Naruto thing I saw was a big long poop gag and I never looked back.
Season 2 of https://myanimelist.net/anime/59095/Tensei_shitara_Dainana_Ouji_Datta_node_Kimama_ni_Majutsu_wo_Kiwamemasu_2nd_Season started today.
Season 1 was fun, but I wasn't expecting it to get a second season. Season 1 basically ends with main character killing a demon lord, which left me wondering where they would go from there. Well, the first minute of season 2 opens with
spoilers
him fighting an angel/god looking character in a heaven-y looking place.
So I now have high hopes that it'll be more silly fun like the first season was.
I’m glad you’re liking it! I am planning on watching it but I prefer to let a few episodes build up before I jump in. The first series was definitely grade A trash for me.
I'm not going to read your spoiler today but I'm looking forward to watching this in September when it's all out. I love the occasional dumb over the top show like this, as long as it doesn't take itself too seriously.
I haven't gotten to watching much anime lately, but I just spontaneously picked one up today that's currently airing called City The Animation. It's very different from anything I've watched in recent years. Everything from the episodic storyline, art and animation style, as well as the songs used are very refreshing to me. The first episode consisted of multiple fun short stories filled with light-hearted and absurd comedic segments. The OP and ED songs are done by two up-and-coming artists that I've really enjoyed listening to for a couple of years now and I was pleasantly surprised seeing their work in this anime. I'm looking forward to more episodes!
My slow watch through of Initial D First Stage continues. I've watched through episode 6 so far.
It's been following the manga beat for beat so far (from what I remember of reading the first ~100 chapters of the manga awhile ago). What has really drawn me in is how intense the racing sections can be. The CGI can be a bit clunky, but I find it less jarring than other newer anime I've watched. I think this is in part because it's limited only to the cars during the races. I'm not a huge car guy, so the anime not going as into detail about the cars compared to the manga is also nice since it keeps the flow of the action going.
The audio in the series I think is the biggest standout to me. The cars are probably louder than they would be in real life, but the intensity of the car sound effects really draw you in. The use of Eurobeat during the races is also awesome.
I do think I'll finish the manga as well eventually to see the side characters and parts of the plot that didn't make it into the anime, but finishing either of them is going to probably take a long while at my current pace.
The CGI improves fast, fortunately. Second, third and fourth stages all have major leaps in how much the cars fit into the hand drawn art. (Mostly upgrades to the texturing and lighting.)
I think part of why it still looks good is because of the attention to the movement. The whole reason they chose CGI for the races was to more faithfully convey the motion of the cars, and a lot of attention was placed on those details. Overly smooth movements between key frames is one of the uncanny things that often make CGI stand out more.
I'm also a major fan of the Eurobeat.
Happy first week of the new season!
Pretty much everything I was planning to pick up has now started airing:
Gachiakuta
It's not particularly deep and kind of beats you over the head repeatedly with the "goods trashed when still usable = humans unfairly rejected by society" analogy, but the animation is nice and it's easy to follow. Pretty much the show you'd expect from the trailer.
New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
I had fully expected this to be a reboot, but incredibly, it's a continuation of the original series and picks right back up from the cliffhanger ending from 15 years ago (so watch the original before watching this one!)
All of the same vulgar humour and Powerpuff Girls aesthetic that made the original stand out is back too, although if I'm being honest, the show feels less transgressive now in 2025 when there's just a lot more Western-styled animation aimed at adults in general.
CITY
I think my expectations were too high going into this one. This is a different animal from Nichijou and the pacing, sense of humour and comic timing all feel a bit dialed down in comparison. Having said that, it's enjoyable on its own terms and seeing it animated and acted out makes the jokes land so much better than in the manga. I especially love the chill, feel-good tone of the OP.
Ruri no Houseki
Lovely animation with lots of attention lavished on elements large (how the characters move and gesture) and small (the way light plays across and through the gemstones)... but it's ultimately a hobby show about girls and mineralogy, so you have to be on board with that premise.
This probably says more about me than the show, but they also come across some amazing looking places (great work on the backgrounds!) when looking for minerals and the cynic in me immediately thought "if this was real life, these places would immediately be posted on social media and swarmed by people" :P
Nyaight of the Living Cat
Very silly premise about a cat virus epidemic played completely straight faced by all of the characters. The first episode is fun, but I can't see how they can stretch this joke out for a whole 12 episodes. The animation is also janky despite OLM usually being pretty good.
Osomatsu-san S4
Kind of feels like watching The Simpsons after the initial run of good seasons. I had hoped the hiatus between this and season 3 gave them time to write some good material, but if that's the case, they didn't put any of it in this first episode. The OP also has some real awkward CG which is a letdown when the OP sequences are usually so good for this show.
Now that Dan Da Dan season 2 is starting I finally decided to watch the first season. It's not as weird as discussions I've seen online lead me to believe but it's certainly one of the stranger anime I've ever watched. The awkward relationship between the main characters is cute. Though, It's something I'd have a hard time recommending to anybody that isn't already neck deep in weird anime. For anybody that has seen it, Turbo Granny is the best character and you can't change my mind.
Weird is a common descriptor but I think it can be interpreted as "unexpected". It's difficult to see what's coming. It constantly pivots and turns on itself.
Though it does have its fair share of weird weird too!
This week I finished reading Hiroki Endou's Eden: It's an Endless World and Kozue Amano's Aria.
Eden: It's an Endless World is an ultra gritty cyberpunk action series that takes place in the backdrop of a literal biblical apocalypses. It is essentially a modern telling of Gnostic scripture. A browsing of the Wikipedia article on Gnosticism did not properly prepare me to do an in-depth literary analysis of the work. So from my own uneducated jackass point of view, it is a story that focuses on the idea on what is required of a human being in order to live in a world filled with sin. Endou delivers a no bullshit take on the crimes perpetuated by modern society. He critiques the existence of poverty, bigotry towards people of different race, gender, sexuality, or religion, and even specific actions like China's mistreatment of the Uyghur people, the conflict between India and Pakistan, and the colonial destruction of Amerindian culture. In short, he paints the modern world as a truly evil place.
The "antagonist" of the story is the Colloid, which is a growing crystalline structure that is being controlled by an AI of unknown origin. The Colloid's goal is to assimilate as much data as possible, but it is (mostly) benevolent. It does not actively attack humanity, but instead beckons the downtrodden and hopeless to join the computer hivemind. Its answer to dealing with a sinful world is to leave the world. The answer that Endou gives to the people who reject the colloid, is that though humans are inherently flawed, they can still struggle and fight to make the world a better place for others. I don't really think Endou takes a particular stance on which side of the conflict is correct. The story is both incredibly bleak, and has powerful moments of hope.
Overall I'd say Eden would get a big recommendation from me. My one warning would be that there is some extreme violence perpetuated against women and children in the story. It has a hopeful ending, but you can argue that there are zero happy endings. Any named character who actually survives the story, instead of becoming a mangled corpse, has to truly suffer to get there.
Aria is pretty much as diametrically opposed to Eden as possible. It is also a hard sci-fi setting that explores finding peace with one's existence, but it does so through a lens that the world is inherently a good place and that one should try to find joy through small everyday pleasures. Aria is about a young woman named Akari who lives on terraformed Mars, in a city called Neo-Venezia, which is a recreation of the city of Venice, where she works as an apprentice gondolier. Each chapter is a letter about recent events that Akari writes in correspondence with a pen pal on Earth. It is a story mostly about appreciating nature and good times spent with friends. If it had a flaw, I'd argue that it is a smidge too toothless and saccharine. I think that flaw is more felt earlier on in the story. The back half of the series lightly touches on the passage of time and the impermanence of all things, which I think turns the sickly sweet into a more bittersweet that ties the work together. I read multiple series at a time. Usually I'll have one that I binge read, which is what I did with Eden, and then I have a few others that I only read one chapter a day. I think Aria really benefitted the one a day format.
I also need to emphasize that Aria is absolutely gorgeous. There is pretty much a double page money shot per chapter. Not only is Amano's compositional prowess above standard for the industry, but sci-fi Venice itself is such a vibe. It's such a treat to look at.
Sadly, the unrelenting grittiness of Eden seems to have burned Endou out, because pretty everything he's done since is much more mainstream (despite most of that stuff also running in the very permissive Evening / Afternoon) and less interesting :<
Eden itself reminded me of an older school of manga (stuff like the original Akira manga) where people would just draw and write whatever they thought was interesting regardless of how inaccessible / unpalatable it was. I don't think this necessarily always leads to enjoyable manga, but at the same time there's a kind of delight in genuinely not knowing where the story could go because the writer is just completely unbound by convention or what is marketable.
I haven't read either of them, and really have no opinion on Soft Metal Vampire, but Eden has a few fight scenes that display a pretty intimate understanding of martial arts. So All-Rounder Meguru absolutely feels like a passion project to me. Again, I haven't read it, so it may be bland or significantly less interesting/novel of a story, but up front it really doesn't feel like selling out to me.
I finished up Lazarus last weekend. I initially had mixed feelings, but after thinking on it, I have concluded that I would not recommend it to others.
It was painful to arrive at this conclusion, because Cowboy Bebop is one of my all time favorite anime. Because of this, I think I enjoyed Lazarus initially more than someone coming in with no context. A lot of the episodes captured the same sort of vibe I remember from Cowboy Bebop, or at least were able to recreate the atmosphere closely enough to resurrect those feelings in me. I genuinely enjoyed the experience of watching the show and unraveling the mystery every week.
But upon the conclusion, I was forced to look at the series as a whole and confront my own nostalgic bias. When viewed through a more objective lens, the show just doesn't hold up. The story feels simultaneously too sparse and too rushed. Very little happens in each episode to advance the story, and ultimately the ending is unsatisfying. None of the characters were really given enough screen time to develop fully, and as a result a lot of their motivations get explicitly stated through dialog. There was a lot of messy storytelling as well, where characters would make logical leaps that just didn't track. It just wasn't very good. It's such a shame, because I really wanted it to be a new favorite.
I wouldn't go so far as to say it wasted my time per se. As I said above, I did get some enjoyment from following along every week. It's just that in hindsight I think a lot of that came from my nostalgia for Bebop rather than genuine enjoyment of the new content.
I agree with a lot of your criticism myself, and have come to the conclusion that the death of one of Watanabe's longtime screenwriters, Keiko Nobumoto, early in production must have really impacted the final product.
I'm still not sure what was the purpose behind so many intentional callbacks to Bebop, apart from Adult Swim producers possibly asking for it to try and hook people.
Recently I have gotten interested in writing fanfiction again with the game Fire Emblem Engage and while I was researching its lore I found out that the manga adaptation changes a lot of things for the better compared to the game. So it's been really interesting to read! It's weird though how there isn't an official English translation