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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!
Took a break from gaming to clean out some of my backlog:
Kaiju No. 8 Season 2 - It's good old shonen action, story isn't complex but engaging, characters aren't complex but relatable, the action's good, the tropes are all present, just an easy and enjoyable watch. Only 11 episodes and it ends on a massive cliffhanger though, so it does feel a little short.
My Dress-up Darling Season 2 - High school romcom but cosplay-flavored. Cute characters and a generally wholesome vibe, and thankfully none of the characters or voice acting are overdone to the point of being annoying, which happens too often in this genre. You get to learn a few things about cosplay culture in Tokyo too.
Lazarus - An action thriller made by none other than Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, it's pretty solid overall. I think most people that were excited for this were expecting something on the level of Bebop but it's a completely different kind of story so comparing the two isn't fair. It tells a cohesive, linear story that's just as long as it needs to be, the action scenes are excellently choreographed (they got Chad Stahleski, the John Wick director, to direct them), the characters are all interesting enough, it's not really complex and there's not much subtlety. Probably won't be a timeless classic but it's still good.
Secrets of the Silent Witch - Didn't really expect much from this one but I ended up watching the whole thing because the main character is a socially awkward small animal that's animated as such and I'm a sucker for simple cute humor. It's got some Konosuba or Princess Connect vibes, that kinda thing. It's otherwise just fine, story, characters, and animation are all fine with nothing really standing out.
Also finished some rewatches:
Delicious in Dungeon - Man I love this show. The character building and world building is just meshed together so well, and it's always great when the main party interacts or is mentioned by another more "normal" party because it highlights just how strange the main cast really is. I really respect Studio Trigger for having maybe the best standards for working hours and quality among all the big-name animation studios and only doing one project at a time, but I neeeed another season of this.
Hakumei and Mikochi - This might be my favorite show to just relax to. A lot of iyashikei shows I've watched end up being a little too slow paced or quiet and I end up getting sleepy going through those, or I just drop them altogether from boredom. This one hits it just right. There's no unnecessary forced drama, just people living their lives and sometimes going on small adventures. It's fantasy, but it's not fantastical. The characters feel real and relatable, even when they're animals or bugs. There is a notable appreciation of alcohol, one character even makes their own limoncello. The soundtrack is made by Evan Call (Violet Evergarden, Frieren) and it does a perfect job of capturing the energy of the show - sometimes calm, sometimes playful, sometimes nostalgic, always very wholesome.
We went to see the Chainsaw Man Reze arc movie over the weekend. It was alright! In some ways it was different than what I expected going in, and the vibe I got from the other theatergoers was the same. Then there were other parts that were exactly what I expected, for better or worse. I fell for all the cinematic tricks and ended up liking Reze's character! I want to see Season 2, and based on this one movie, my gut says Chainsaw Man fits better in a TV episodic format, to split up the episodes by tone, and they could add soem cliffhangers too, and the fight scenes could be shorter! On that note, some of the special effects were literally seizure-inducing, with those bright white strobe lights on the big screen, that wasn't my favorite lol
Spy×Family had just about its best episode yet, I think. I'm pretty excited to see where the rest of the season goes.