8 votes

What have you been watching/reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

Posted by Cleb
Tags: ask.survey, recurring.weekly

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 Anilist, MAL, or any other anime/manga database you use!

6 comments

  1. [3]
    Whom
    Link
    Well I haven't posted in any of these in...a while? Never? Anyway I've been in a rut with anime lately and I've felt like I've more or less gone through or at least familiarized myself with most...

    Well I haven't posted in any of these in...a while? Never?

    Anyway I've been in a rut with anime lately and I've felt like I've more or less gone through or at least familiarized myself with most everything anime has for me in the way I consume things. I tend to burn through interests, learning enough to be "in the know" and then moving on. So I've been a weeb most of my life, but I think around now is when I make the decision of if I stay in it as a "genrehead" or if I keep it as one of my main things.

    So I decided to do a watching challenge on AniList, particularly the Beginner's Challenge. I figured it could force me to try some things out that I wouldn't normally, plus I really like profile badges. I've been watching some other stuff, but I'll just list what I've been doing for that:

    Watch an anime that combines your favorite and least favorite genre - Vandread

    • I started out a bit charmed, but by a certain point it got somewhere between boring, sexist, and just kinda icky and I began to hate it. Not worth a watch.

    Watch an anime recommended to you by a fellow AL user - Golden Boy

    • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! My first 10 in a long time, this is such an insanely good show and it's totally one of those that you just can't explain why it's good without sounding like you're trying to justify loving something because of the ecchi elements. This show is insanely sweet, funny and even smart, but I understand why the constant barrage of innuendo and sexual imagery would turn people off. Absolutely one of the best things ever, I was not expecting that at all. It's also one of the prettiest OVAs I've come across.

    Watch an anime with a number in the title - White Album 2

    • Anime youth romances, despite only a few of them being in my absolute favorites list, are absolutely my comfort zone and what I love to default to. While not outstanding, this was a good and touching one that makes me want to just dive back into that genre.

    Watch an anime that aired this year - Violet Evergarden

    • I don't have too much to say about this one except that even though it stumbles a decent amount, it still has its heart in the right place and keeps my attention. I'm still not sure how I feel about the art, though. It's still good, but I can't help but compare it to something a lot more controlled and consistent like Hyouka and wish it looked more like that. No complaints about the backgrounds though, they're some of the best I've seen outside of Ghibli films.

    Watch an anime with less than 12 episodes - Gunsmith Cats

    • Always been on my radar, now I've seen it. Cool I guess. It's fine.

    Anyway, the point isn't the anime themselves, but that I think I still find value in watching anime even if nothing wows me in the way Golden Boy and my favorites from years past have. I'm interested enough in the medium and the industry that watching for the sake of it is valuable beyond the possibility of running across great art, which will continue to go down as I see more and more.

    I'm not even all that close to finishing my challenge and some big life moments have gotten in the way of this being the fast watching I wanted it to be...but I absolutely suggest doing challenges like this one.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      talklittle
      Link Parent
      Huh, Golden Boy is on VRV but not Crunchyroll. Didn't know they started to do that. I've been meaning to watch this for so long, so thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like you've watched pretty...

      Huh, Golden Boy is on VRV but not Crunchyroll. Didn't know they started to do that. I've been meaning to watch this for so long, so thanks for the recommendation.

      Sounds like you've watched pretty much All The Anime? How invested are you in anime-adjacent hobbies like manga, light novels, visual novels and video games?

      4 votes
      1. Whom
        Link Parent
        I didn't know they did that either, seems confusing as hell. Anyway, Golden Boy is wonderful if you're not immediately turned off by the ecchi, because it is a really prominent part of it. I...

        I didn't know they did that either, seems confusing as hell. Anyway, Golden Boy is wonderful if you're not immediately turned off by the ecchi, because it is a really prominent part of it.

        Sounds like you've watched pretty much All The Anime?

        I wouldn't quite say that. I'm a fairly experienced watcher, but it's more that I've at least poked into nearly every relevant anime to the point where I at least know if I care or not, you know? I've either seen, seen part of, or learned enough about to have crossed off most things that matter, to the point where things I still want to watch are either longshots or things I want to watch for the sake of having watched it.

        I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people here have seen more than me and still don't feel that way. It's more about the outlook toward what's left rather than the volume of what I've seen, if that makes sense.

        How invested are you in anime-adjacent hobbies like manga, light novels, visual novels and video games?

        There's definitely more room for me to dive into manga. Like, a lot. I was doing that a while back and got off track, but it's still something I want to dedicate myself to. From what I can tell, the pool of manga that would appeal to me is much shallower than anime, but who knows?

        Light novels are something I'm not sure I'll ever get into beyond a few. I don't need the most fancy and high-brow prose in books, but seemingly simplified translations of stories that are already written for ~middle school level readers tends to not be very engaging for me. Plus a lot only have iffy fan translations or none at all.

        There are also some more VNs I want to play, but I feel like I have to be a lot more careful there. There's a lot more difficult-to-ignore pedo shit there that I really don't want to deal with. Still, I adore visual novels as a concept and I think they have so much untapped potential.

        I'm well acquainted with Japanese video games, though. Gaming is definitely a medium where I feel like I also reached the point of being interested in gaming as a whole more than I am in the artistic value of the games themselves.

        3 votes
  2. talklittle
    Link
    Finally finished A Place Further Than the Universe and sad it's over. 10/10 it was great the entire way through. I fully understand why people talk so much about rewatching it even though it only...

    Finally finished A Place Further Than the Universe and sad it's over. 10/10 it was great the entire way through. I fully understand why people talk so much about rewatching it even though it only came out this year.

    1 vote
  3. apoctr
    (edited )
    Link
    I've started rewatching Kaiji, it was one of the first I saw and although the animation/art style is, uh, unique, I find the actual episodes quite gripping. It doesn't seem like such a popular...

    I've started rewatching Kaiji, it was one of the first I saw and although the animation/art style is, uh, unique, I find the actual episodes quite gripping. It doesn't seem like such a popular anime, but if you think you'll enjoy a more psychological seinen type anime I'd recommend it.

    Kaiji Itou is a good-for-nothing loiterer who spends his days drinking beer and stealing hubcaps—that is, until he ends up being tricked by his former co-worker. Unable to suddenly repay his friend's huge debt all by himself, Kaiji is offered a shady deal to participate in an illegal underground gamble on a cruise ship. This turns out to be nothing more than the beginning of his new life of hell—thrown headlong into a life-threatening roller coaster of mind games, cheating, and deceit.

    1 vote
  4. Rocket_Man
    Link
    I started watching Tsurune, a show about kyudo. I personally find the characters endearing and generally the style is pretty nice. There's of course the usual story line of the guy who's really...

    I started watching Tsurune, a show about kyudo. I personally find the characters endearing and generally the style is pretty nice. There's of course the usual story line of the guy who's really good at the sport and then something happens and he stops, which is just in general the trope for sports anime. But in this one it's due to the character developing target anxiety which I think is a neat, emotional/mental addition. But I'm also biased because I really enjoy the sports anime sub genre.

    1 vote