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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!
Don't think I'll do a week-by-week update on all the stuff I'm following unless I come across something particularly intriguing in that week's episode. With that said:
Yani Neko continues to surprise both in how low it makes its characters go, and also how random some of the bits are. It just randomly name-dropped a niche manga that I really enjoyed and that was a total mental flashbang. Still have no idea how this got greenlit and has so much talent behind it but thanks I guess.
Finished the spinoff season of Ousama Ranking, Yuuki no Takarabako, which was only 10 episodes long and focused on other events happening during the course of the main story that really flesh out some of the characters. Huge positive energy in it just like the previous season, and another banger of an opening too. Not sure when we'll get a second season but I'm looking forward to it.
Started Haikyu!! last week. I'm in the latter half of season 2. Without knowing this beforehand, I could tell it's the same composer as MHA. Something about the drums and strings that reminded me of You Say Run lol.
I'm really enjoying this though. I like that there's a focus on training and fundamentals. Talent and strong emotions aren't enough to make them the best. Also the less talented players also have something to contribute and imrpove. I don't know anything about volleyball, but this breaks it down well enough.
I'm curious if this show will follow Hinata's whole HS career or just be the first year across all these seasons. Either way, I'm looking forward to finding out
Plenty of anime focus unnecessarily long on uninteresting side characters.
Haikyuu makes most of them very interesting characters in their own right, which ultimately makes the show click much better when the team feels like multiple kids rather than one hero. Even the other teams get the appropriate level of attention.
At the very least, not every match is won by having the protagonist protag-kun'ing himself all over the court.
Haikyuu is definitely a favourite comfort watch of mine, it just does such a great job of laying the groundwork for believable progression and character growth that it all feels earned when they dial up the tension in the big matches.
Ahh it's gotta be one of my favs, I don't even like sports! My partner and I kinda ran into an issue where we started with one of the best sports animes and others didn't seem to appeal.
It's fairly accurate to real volleyball! Some of the techniques demonstrated later become... unrealistic, but making an accurate depiction of volleyball was a goal of the author. They also make it accessible to folks with no knowledge, I ended up getting pulled in during season 2 of my partner's watch and figured it out quick enough.
The anime isn't finished, production has shifted from seasons and it may only get finished through movie releases as I recall, though I do think one is in the works.
Ive been following You Are A Four Leaf Clover for a while now.
Its currently at a big cliffhanger with the latest release. The big overarching narrative mystery has more or less been solved, it seems, and its the endgame of the story. This most recent chapter makes it seem like it ends with the protagonist dying, which honestly could actually be how it ends because the story is pretty explicit and dark. But I still really doubt it.
I've been waiting for the story to complete then catch up on it, does the MC's boyfriend's mental health get better?
Yes. By the current point in the story he has largely recovered and has returned to a personality more like his childhood before all the bad stuff happened. It actually seems like they are about to start an arc where he takes on more of a deuteragonist role, I think.
I feel like the chaps at Kyoto Animation responsible for this cut this week had something on their minds.
~ Manga Corner ~
Looks like we're missing some manga in this group. Here're some stuff I've been keeping up with (with links!)
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Kagurabachi | Chapter 127
https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1029382
End of childhood flashback, now the forging of the magical weapon continue! This chapter helped explain why Rokuhira was so selective in who he'd sell his swords to. I'm also noticing a running theme of current generation having to deal with mistakes caused by the previous generation.
Very stylistic battle manga, pretty confident this story will be popular once the anime is out.
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Akane-banashi | Chapter 217
https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1030001
A breather chapter after the big rakugo showdown between Akane and Kaisei, and hype for upcoming performances by master Zensho and Issho. Not sure how the anime is doing but the manga has been very good at using its medium to convey the expressive quality of what is otherwise a very minimal artform.
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Spy x Family | Chapter 139
https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1030001
Agent Nightfall and super-agent Anya continued their solo investigation into the surprised hospital visit by former PM Desmond. But wait! Did Anya have a major discovery?
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Someone Hertz | Chapter 44
https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1030040
Our cute comedian couple went on a date searching for some spooky stories.
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Mason and the man-eating apartment | Chapter 39
https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1029782
Whimsical adventure in a surreal post-apocalyptic cyberpunk setting, reminds me of Blame and other old-school sci-fi manga/anime.
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Class of Brains | Chapter 29
https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1029762
In this chapter we meet a sentient tree spanning an entire planet! Art a bit wonky and story a bit uneven but the world building has potential.
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Dragon and Chameleon | Chapter 60-61
https://global.manga-up.com/manga/400 (official)
https://weebcentral.com/chapters/01KXYQSAJXKT2CQMHRHJDWSQ8X
One of my favourite manga about art. It begins with a typical setup of body-swapping and a copycat who wanted to coast on the MC's legacy for fame and success, but the story uses that setup mostly as an excuse to explore all the different kinds of people working in the industry, in addition to showing the subjective details of the creative processes. You could tell the author draws (heh) from experiences (and then packaged them into shonen-style actions).
Well I said mostly but in the latest chapter, the MC (Hanagami in Miyama's body) had an encounter with someone who knew Miyama from the past. Looks like the plot is back!
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Blue Period | Chapter 88
https://kmanga.kodansha.com/title/10060/episode/367154 (official)
https://mangapill.com/chapters/581-10088000/blue-period-chapter-88
My other favorite manga about art. Story follows an art student on his learning journey. Early on the story has the usual format of teaching the audience the technical aspects of a new subject, but in more recent arcs the story goes more directly into his emotional experiences and encounters with other people, which probably matches with his growing competence as an artist. This manga also manages to get me to appreciate modern art so that's a plus.
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That's it for now, let me know what you guys've been reading
I'm a fellow Kagurabachi enjoyer.
This will likely be Weekly Jump's next poster series given most of their popular serials (barring One Piece and the frequently truant HxH) seem to have ended.
The anime trailer looks fantastic and captures the flashy action (the core strength of the series in my view) really well.
I'd been meaning to post about Hunter X Hunter vol 39. I've never come so close to dropping this series - it's become a parody of itself with all the giant walls of text and people monologuing in cabins - but it really picks up in the second half by going back to what makes this series good - rules, systems and games. Hope this keeps up!
I've been meaning to get into HxH someday, but got intimidated by its reputation for walls of text, maybe this is the time