What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

My slow watch through of Initial D First Stage finished this weekend.

I've been watching the series in bursts and have been forgetting to post my thoughts about the episodes I did watch. I really enjoyed watching the second half of this season. I felt like the pacing of the show was really enjoyable. Seeing the build up to each race and seeing the slice of life in between each episode made the highs of the euro beat filled street races that much better.

The early CGI of the cars was something that grew on me. I'm not the biggest fan of CGI in anime, I know it can look great when done right, just like the older cel animation can look terrible when done poorly. For some reason this incredibly jarring old CGi just worked, though this could be nostalgia since the cars looked like they were lifted from a PS1 era game and transplanted in to the anime.

One of the aspects I found myself enjoying more than I thought I would was the sound of the cars. It felt like I was right there with the cars. I watched a review of this season and the youtuber mentioned that the sound of the cars is toned down in the remake/remaster of this season, and he felt like it toned down some of the feeling of the action. I haven't watched any of the newer stuff, so I'll wait and see if I notice it when I finally get there.

I can see why this is a classic, and I'll definitely be watching the later seasons of the show later on and probably finish the manga eventually as well to get some of the storyline/side plots that didn't make it in to the anime.

I do get to announce that my new slow watch through of Soukou Kihei Votoms or Armored Trooper Votoms has started! I've watched through episode 1 so far.

The creator of this series, Ryousuke Takahashi also created Taiyou no Kiba Dougram, which I also shared my thoughts on as I watched it, and still plan to write a longer review to post on here at some point. I felt like changing genres and still don't feel like diving down the Gundam rabbit hole, so this series which is more self contained as it only has a few short prequels and a short sequel felt like a nice option to dive back in to some gritty mecha anime.

Planning to share my thoughts on VOTOMS a bit more regularly as things go. My schedule for watching anime fluctuates as always, but hopefully you all find these somewhat interesting.

I got around to the Uma Musume movie recently, waiting for Cinderella Gray to be complete. I love the absolute change on focus for the animation, it really does bring out the storytelling even better. The absolute cinematography for both Agnes Tachyon and TM Opera O had them absolutely shining throughout the film. Its a great sports story is an interesting world with gorgeous animation. I highly recommend!

As for our newest show to watch, we chose Nyaight of the Living Cat. This show is stupid in the most complementary way possible. Take the most classic of zombie horror (Dawn of the Dead, Walking Dead, etc) and replace all the zombies witch cats. Getting nuzzled by a cat turns you into one. Next, make it so ALL the characters love or appreciate cats in the most delightfully forced way such that nobody wants to actually harm them. Now you have the recipie for one of the most absurd shows I have seen in a while. Its stupid and thats why you watch it. The best part? No forced fanservice! In fact, several episodes in the only thing that could be considered fanservice is the gratuitous shots of adorable cats. Want to see cats and humans reinacting various classic horror scenes? Then this is your show. I definitely recommend this one.

The dive into Chinese animation continues.

I finished watching Link Click / Shiguang Dailiren and came away quite impressed.

• The story revolves around two friends with complimentary abilities:

  • Cheng Xiaoshi, who can look at a photo and travel back in time into the body of the photographer at the moment that photo was taken.

  • Lu Guang, who can look at a photo and see everything that happens afterwards for the next 12 hours, starting from the moment that photo was taken.

  Together, they run a service to help people retrieve information from the past, subject to their agreed rules:

  • No staying in the past for more than 12 hours.

  • No changing the past itself.

• Season 1 is largely episodic and mainly serves to familiarise the viewer with the premise, although it ramps up towards the end as the focus shifts to the larger overarching plot.

• By season 2, it's assumed that the audience fully understands the premise and this is when the show really begins to dial it up to 11. The story and the ways in which the time travel and powers are used become increasingly surprising and elaborate (to the point where I occasionally had to go back and re-watch parts to make sure I understood what was happening), while the animation and direction - particularly the action scenes - also keep getting better as the series progresses.

• Season 3 looks great visually, but I didn't think the story measured up to the excellent season 2. Despite only running 6 episodes, it's pretty slow paced, there's a lot less of the time travel / powers stuff which made the earlier seasons compelling, and there's no satisfying resolution to the plot that it does set up.

I wouldn't fault anyone for glossing over this one due to the terrible English title that makes it sound like malware, but it's worth checking out. Be warned, though - it gets pretty dark!