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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!
Binged most of the seasonal shows on my list I hadn't started or caught up with yet:
Yani Neko was a pretty good time. The humor got progressively dirtier and more cringe-inducing later in the season, but consistently funny if you're into that. The production quality really was super high for this considering how niche this seems, and the voice actors totally nailed it. 7.5/10.
Hyakkano S3 was dumb, cute, and exceedingly unrealistic and unserious as it should be. I will watch the next season when it airs because I want to see how much sillier it can get. 7.5/10.
Sparks of Tomorrow was a bit of a challenge to finish all in one go but thankfully the writers remembered there's an actual plotline to this story in the last few episodes so things sort of come together. Not a fan of the visual style changes though, either when characters become cartoony during funny moments or the imagination sequences. It doesn't feel cohesive and kind of kills the vibe. 7/10 because I know some people won't mind the characters or dialogue or visual direction as much as I do and it's done well enough but it's not working for me.
Mushoku Tensei S3 was a solidly enjoyable albeit unsurprising watch for most of the season and I was originally going to give it a 7.5 or 8 until the latest 2 episodes. Hoo boy is that a lot to unpack in 2 episodes, in a very good way though, good enough to pull it up to an 8.5/10.
Also just rewatched Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence earlier today and Mamoru Oshii's adaptation is an even greater departure from the original work than I remember it being. Oshii really crammed this thing full of philosophical musing, what with half of the dialogue being quotes from philosophers or old texts. Saying you prefer that version because it's more mature and thought provoking is just some "I'm 14 and this is deep" shit though, the original work has much more believable dialogue and reactions vs the heavily cinematic/theatrical direction that Oshii went with. That kind of thing matters because it's a whole lot easier for characters to convey messages when they feel real and relatable, as opposed to folks quoting scripture in an effort to sound intelligent. Still love the movie though.