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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.