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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!
I recently started and finished Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. It was only two seasons, so it was an easy binge over the last two weeks or so. It was alright; the second season was more interesting and exciting that the first, as the first just set up characters, relationships, and overall premise, while the second season was a lot more palace intrigue, politics, and Gundams actually fighting (not just a bunch of in-school duels). The politics and intrigue is the stuff I like in anime and other media.
Of Gundam shows, I've only fully seen Iron Blooded Orphans and Unicorn (or UC). I liked the former a lot; didn't care very much for the latter. I'd say The Witch from Mercury falls somewhere in between those two.
And I think a lot has to do with this being Gundam but taking place within a ritzy high school. Complete with "houses" and all that. I know Gundam has always been about kids/teens piloting mechas, but TWFM really leans into that. So you get the high school drama. There are Gundam duels that take place between house members. There are rich and powerful houses that seem to try to keep the poorer, less powerful houses down (and of course our MC and cast are part of this poorer "Earth House"). In some ways, felt like I was watching Harry Potter. And the weirdest part is that the school's owner's daughter will be married off to whoever is the best Gundam duelist (the "Holder"). It's explained why that is; still feels weird.
But in the second season, the more "traditional" Gundam or genre elements came back, so I was pleased.
I will give props to the series for being LGBT-forward. I know Iron Blooded Orphans had a minor gay character and portrayed the character not stereotypically and even explored that character's sexuality a little bit. Which was great.
But in TWFM, the MC, Ms. Suletta Mercury, pretty quickly and unexpectedly becomes the "groom" of said school's owner's tsundere daughter, Ms. Miorne Rembran, when Suletta unexpectedly defeats the then-current male Holder. And that relationship is a major plot point. And it's not like "Ewww, but I'm a girl and she's a girl!" It's rather matter of fact instead. The tsundere is like, "Well, I guess you're my new fiancee. Better do what I say." And the MC and all the students and parents other adults accept it. Going further, there are hints that each girl might have a kinda crush on a respective male classmate. Are they lesbians? Are they bi? Or is that my "primitive" thinking, since these kids are hundreds of years into our potential mecha-filled future, where labels don't matter anymore? Either way, props to the writers for willing to show a LGBT relationship front and center!
Also in the process of finishing Season 2 of Frieren. Just have the final episode to watch. Gonna be real sad since when I'm done with it, since it seems like we probably won't get anymore Frieren and Co. for a long time. Sigh.
Lastly, started Witch Hat Atelier. Qifrey is so pretty...But so is the art style and animation!
If you liked the lgbtq elements of TWFM, have you watched the show its plot is based on/lifted from, Revolutionary Girl Utena? Knowing that the plot is based on Utena, which is much older and much more surrealist, helps with knowing why the plot is so all over the place at times.
So when I was like 14-15yo, one of my younger cousins, who was like 13yo, had some Utena movie. And she played it for my younger-than-her brother and me. I just remember being like "Cuzzo...what in the eff are we watching??" Not because of the queer elements, but because one of the girls like turned into a car or something? Also I vaguely remember something about rape in that movie? Idk, I had no clue what was happening.
So I only have the most basic familiarity with Revolutionary Girl Utena. And so had no idea TWFM was based on that story!
As an adult, I should be probably give that movie a rewatch. And maybe watch the show. I still bring it up with my brother every once in awhile, "Remember that show Laura made us watch? Utena? Tf was that??"
I watched the Utena movie for the first time a year or two ago and it was quite an experience. I probably wouldn't be able to accurately summarise the plot as it's pretty heavy on the symbolism. I doubt I would have had the patience for it when I was a kid, but I'd certainly recommend it as a fairly unique film now.
I think the show and the movie are loosely both a retelling of the same material? I suspect the series might have been a little easier to follow in places, but I kinda liked the extravagance of going in and experiencing the movie without much in the way of expectations.
Definitely this! Gundam in general can be pretty derivative of both Sci-Fi and real world conflict. It also tends to be very self-referential as well. For example, Gundam Wing is a retelling of Mobile Suit Gundam, swapping WW2 for the Balkans. Gundam as a whole is also classically ambivalent about utopianism. It projects a very cyclical human history where seeming utopia rests on the cracks that precede major conflict.
Witch from Mercury is exploring certain tropes found in G Gundam to examine the ways that Capitalism tends to be used as a tool for Imperialist agendas. This is where Utena's theme of despair in the face of unbreakably patriarchal norms comes in to add another reflective layer that makes these socio-political aspects all the more personal. A major aspect of Utena is about seeming love being used as a device to control others. But a theme shared by both series is actual love being the key to release others from bondage or control.
(Also, that ambivalence towards the future coupled with the traditional dowry is another part of the "why" for the marriage rites in WfM, but yes, it's first and foremost a major aspect of the plot of Utena and meant to tip you off.)
If you're a Gundam nut, and/or you have all the context for what Witch from Mercury is trying to do with its story, it actually makes it a very rewarding watch. I'll always be a UC fan at heart, but this one has definitely become one of my favorite alternate universe stories specifically because of its higher context. Buuut, I'd never fault someone for seeing it in isolation and going "hwa?".
I've been watching The Summer Hikaru Died, and honestly I'm not really enjoying it that much. It's a bit too weird for my taste, and the pacing feels really slow in a way that makes it feel like nothing is properly advancing.
I do understand what it's trying to do with Yoshiki still being attached to Hikaru even though he knows something is deeply wrong, but I can’t really connect with him emotionally, so instead of it feeling tragic or compelling it mostly just feels uncomfortable.
SPOILER
Specially the scenes where he's touching inside Hikaru also feel really odd to me, they come across as really sexually heavy, and since they're both teens it just feels kind of icky rather than interesting.That said, I do think the animation is beautiful. A lot of the scenes feel very realistic, and that honestly makes the creepy parts even more uncomfortable in a way that is very effective. So even though it's not really working for me overall, I can still appreciate how well made it is and how strong the atmosphere is.
I can definitely see why other people would like it, but for me it just isn't landing (yet?).
I've watched the entirety of Zettai Shounen over a period of 2 months.
The anime is confusingly split between two arcs, each focusing on a different set of characters, including different main character. I say confusingly because the plot moves so slowly that you may want to have stuck with a single main cast so we at least care about them eventually just by sheer time.
The two arcs are tied by a plot involving supernatural beings, which moves so slowly that it seems most of these characters aren't too interested that aliens/faeries or whatever those might be exist and are seemingly everywhere and apparently almost caused a disaster.
I must give an important spoiler going forward.
Communication with the material faeries is never achieved during the series, leaving our cast to come to their own conclusions as to their nature. This is very disappointing as it seems their entire involvement in the series was much ado about nothing.Girls' Last Tour
I'm just about to watch the 6th episode. This has been fun. One thing I dislike is the backgrounds are sort of obscured or blurred often, meaning I cannot discern much of where the characters are.
It's a fun and calming watch generally. I'm watching the English dub so I don't have to read subtitles. That adds to the laid back experience frankly. Also in the first episode, when Yuri was aiming at Chito, that was quite convincing. I though the anime was about to go edgy on me, but it didn't happen.