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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!
Banished from the Hero's Party, I decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside
Caught a meme and gave this a shot. I thought it might be a low budget fantasy affair, but i was surprised. Animation was pretty good. Seemed like it had a solid mid tier budget. The story is good and the MC is likeable. He's not secretly OP and the one who will actually defeat the demon lord. Which isn't to say he isn't important. They get into that right away though.
The first season balances him building his new life and his old life coming together very well. I didn't like the second season as much, but it was still enjoyable. It definitely explored more of the lore of the world. Apparently the LN finished and there's enough for a third season. But who knows if they'll finish it. I may pick up the LN audiobooks to finish the story later
I thought that one had a solid romantic relationship between adults (a rarity in anime) in a story that's not particularly interesting otherwise. As you mentioned I did enjoy that he wasn't all that strong himself, but still had an important role in the party.
Yea that was a highlight for me too. Since they already had a history there was little will-they-won't-they nonsense. Felt like there was a natural progression of their romance
I was planing to watch NieR Automata Ver1.1a, since I like the game, does anyone recommend it?
Fragments of the layered city | Chapter 4
https://mangadex.org/chapter/437746be-1ace-4302-8ffd-833d103913c8/2
Girls' last tour author's new work! Surprisingly more "down-to-earth" than her previous two. When I heard that this will be a prequel to Girls' last tour, it didn't sound as interesting but I think the author found a way to make it unique.
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Sunny sixteen | Chapter 13 (end?)
https://mangadex.org/chapter/ded244a2-ac71-452c-84d6-027bc0a047b8
Coming-of-age and photography. I wonder if the author had the idea for the topic or the character first because the 2 fits very well together.
The MC personality is odd in a realistic and somewhat specific way, like someone you probably know in real life. She's indecisive. When being asked question, she tends to take a long time before giving an answer, and even then the answer often is clumsy or just a repeat of someone else's words. I get a sense that she's the type of person who doesn't think in words (despite the manga having plenty of internal dialogues), which makes word-based exchanges less effective and so photography is a good outlet for the non-verbal thoughts inside her.
On the other hand, anyone taking photos often can probably relate to her experiences as well. The subjects of her photos sometimes didn't like how it makes them look, that the subject and her can have different opinions about the photos, or that the photos often turned out differently than how she intended to take. There's a sense that a photograph can have its own viewpoint, different from how the photographer or the subjects see it. So taking photos demands less on planning and more on serendipity, which fits her character as someone not good at thinking ahead and mostly operate on instinct.
Amusingly, her description of having a pretty face and often being frozen in place is kinda like a manifestation of a photograph as well if you think about it.
I hope this is not the end because I very much enjoyed it.
~ Manga corner ~