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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!
Saw the Cosmic Princess Kaguya movie and I'm not a big Vocaloid fan but it was a pretty good time. Great animation, simple story, fun characters, and modern covers of a bunch of fan-favorite songs as well as some solid originals. If you're into Vocaloid then it's a must-watch just for Saori Hayami's cover of World is Mine alone, if you're not then it's just a fun movie.
Oh, that's out already? That's on my to-watch list, because I am a big Vocaloid fan. Though I feel like I should watch another adaptation of the original story first, like the Ghibli one.
I haven't read or seen any version of the original folk tale but I don't think any prior knowledge is needed to get the full context. The folk tale is mentioned and briefly summarized in the movie dialogue itself so you won't be left wondering what it is if you have no idea at all.
Starting Lone Wolf and Cub manga, got the full series off humble bundle. Nearly done with Vol 1, so far it's just been "Look at all the clever ways MC does his thing", but I assume a narrative will develop over time, and already there's been some cool story drips.
The series is way more sexual and has way more gratuitous nudity than I was expecting, not an issue but just was surprising (and makes it slightly awkward to read on planes sometimes). One of the issue covers in the first volume straight up has full dick and balls of the 3 year old Cub (he's peeing a la those Calvin bumper stickers), the 70s really were a different time I suppose. Neat to be reading a much older manga though, since all my experience so far is newer stuff.
(Minor note, but this version by Dark Horse reads left-to-right, which was confusing for the first few pages until I figured it out. Unsure why they decided to westernize it like that but idk. Unless old manga was like that and the right-to-left is a newer development? I'm not up on my manga history)
BLAME! (the E is silent)
I bounced off this manga many years ago but decided to give it another shot as we come up on its 30th anniversary next year.
The first volume is definitely the hardest to get through. Not only is the art dirty as hell (even compared to other dirty 90s cyberpunk like Ghost in the Shell or Gunnm) to the point where it's difficult to follow what's happening in each panel, but there's basically zero exposition as to who any of the characters are or what they're trying to achieve.
Once you get to volumes 2-3, though, it becomes a fair bit more readable. The quality of the art picks up with improved parseability and panel flow, and the protagonist also receives a companion who provides much needed exposition and characterisation. There are proper story arcs and established motivations and stakes. Like the cover proclaims ('Adventure-seeker Killy in the Cyber Dungeon quest!'), there starts to be a cool sense of adventuring through a vast and dangerous labyrinth with new discoveries to be made at every layer...
...but then you get to the final volumes, and again it drops anything like a conventional narrative, with many chapters again just featuring characters wandering through scenery and fighting with little to no dialogue at all.
It's definitely an odd one, even by Afternoon standards.
Brigadoon: Marin to Melan
2000 vintage Sunrise adventure anime about a kid, her alien buddy and the mysterious Brigadoon which appears in the sky and dispatches other aliens to kill her. I remember seeing the first episode of this when it aired and being quite impressed, but then mostly forgot about it for 25 years.
Visually, it still looks great, with simple but clean character designs, big bold white highlights and the slightly washed out colour palette of cel animation. CG is used very sparingly and pretty much all of the effects are done by hand.
Storywise, it's pretty straightforward and nothing to write home about so far (although I do like the silly running gag where the story will often just suddenly shoot off on a crazy tangent, only to turn out to be the protagonist daydreaming), but this makes it perfect for just casually watching a couple of episodes before bedtime.
I've been reading Tower of God webtoon. Man this story is addicting. I read it before bed, but ending up staying up too late 😅. Obviously I'm really into this story. I'm past where the anime left off. Once I got past the anime content I was familiar with, I got really invested.
Overall I like the improvement in the art. The new characters are done well enough. Gets me invested in them and they matter to the current arc. There's so much lore and world building yet to be explained, so that keeps me guessing. The plot is action packed usually, so it's fun to read. The relationship between the OG crew is wholesome as well. Safe to say they got me for the full ride of this story. I read somewhere that it's only ~60% complete, so there's more to look forward too
Current Arc - Season 2 of the webtoon.
Right now I'm The Dallar Game in the Hell Train Arc. Bam's progress is crazy. He just did first stage of training with the "God" on the train. He had to leave to do the next stage's game. I'm curious if he's stronger from that training or maybe more secure in wielding the Thorn. I REALLY want him to go back to that training after the tournament.
Yuri Jahad just found Bam and found out he's a FUG slayer candidate. I wonder how she'll react and if she will find out the full truth behind Bam's reasons.
And, I guess, my last ongoing in this season appeared in this week: Medalist, the second season. And a reason is kinda simple here, whichʼs similar to Frieren one: thereʼre only nine episodes, and thereʼs already news that in the next year thereʼll be a movie. Well, the trendʼs going on. It could be just me, but animation became alittle better. Wow, ENGI.
And there was another release from Netflix: Chou Kaguya-hime!, a movie with around two hours and twenty two minutes. And, yeah, as @Flashfall noted, thereʼre enough voicebank references — including mentioned and famous World is Mine, — not only just in songs, but in visual sometimes too (as an example by kVin); whichʼs a good bonus if youʼre in the topic. One of the best standalone non-franchise movie in last years, at least for me. From the time I watched, I listened many times songs from there, mostly Hoshi Furu Umi.
I just finished reading the webtoon Concubine Walkthrough. It's an romance fantasy story about a girl getting trapped in a VR game about becoming the empress in a Chinese-style imperial court. Except she takes over the body of the villainess imperial consort instead of the main character.
And... oh my god it's an actual masterpiece.
I do not say that lightly. I have very few stories I consider a solid 10/10. Just being entertaining is not enough for me to give a story that rating. And this? This is one of them.
Don’t be fooled by the romance fantasy veneer. I discovered it through a recommended video on Youtube, which opened with a reddit post to the otome isekai subreddit from someone who read it as their introduction to the genre and wanted similar stories. All the replies basically said "sorry, you started with the peak and it's downhill from here". That's when I stopped watching and checked it out myself, because that's high praise.
And honestly? Those comments are right. I've read so many series in this genre. I've binged probably hundreds of romance fantasy series since the early days of Covid, it became a bit of a guilty pleasure. And this... yeah, I think I'm done with that genre now. If I ever go back to it, I can easily drop the bad ones because I've seen the actual peak and my standards are now forever raised.
Concubine Walkthrough is a story about life, in the most literal sense. It is one of the most philosophical stories I've read. There were so many amazing narrative parallels in everyone's arcs, so much complexity to their motivations. Everyone's feelings and the messages in it are genuinely sincere. I actually got horrified by some of the deaths, despite repeated reminders Inside the story itself that the characters are all AI because it's a game. Because this story directly addresses the questions and qualms about AI, and what truly matters when defining life and reality.
During the climax and final arc, a thought occurred to me: This is the kind of story I strive to create as a writer. I usually have that thought with more complex stories with complex plots that interweave in the wildest ways, leading to incredible reveals that dumbfound you in part because it makes sense. But with Concubine Walkthrough? What I want to attain with my writing is that heart.
So, Concubine Walkthrough is a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it enough. Apparently a lot of readers dropped off in the first few chapters based on the author's note after the epilogue, but I didn't notice anything bad about those chapters. It may start a bit slow, but don't drop it. The buildup and finale are completely worth it. This is more than JUST a romance fantasy story.
Crazy as it sounds, I think this is one of those stories that has the power to change lives if someone happens to read it at the right time.
So, to anyone who likes otome isekai, sci-fi, or philosophical questions about AI: please read it. I cannot praise it enough.
The only show currently airing this decade tm has returned: Frieren – Beyond journey's end!
Honestly I think this season is where a lot of people will fall off. Fights barely happen, and they are quick and unremarkable, and it's back to being slow. Many people didn't really like the second half of season 1 either. It's too bad. I had thought they'd go into the most well liked arc of the manga and blow everyone's socks off, but that will have to wait and probably be seen by fewer people. It's too bad.
On the other hand I am enjoying the laid backness. It's where I want to be once a week.
On the side I am watching Scrapped Princess to fulfil my fantasy adventure needs. 6 episodes in, and it's actually more laid back than I expected, but real shit is going down as early as episode 5 or earlier. There is only one major plot weakness in this series and it's everyone shoulder pauldrons.
I saw, on the only day it was shown at the local theater, the new Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise movie. It continues where the previous season of the show left off. If you've seen the absurdity that is Zombie Land Saga, it's the continuation you've been waiting (for years) for.
If you haven't seen the show, it's about someone trying to restore Saga to its former glory the only way he knows how: starting an idol group by raising zombies from the dead. Each one an idol from a previous time, plus Sakura. And now they're fighting aliens, because why not.