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

My interests are on currently airing anime as I have been keeping up with it for at least the last 2 years. I generally try out anything with action, adventure, magic or mystery and pick up any comedy based ones if they get highly recommended. I try to avoid the school-life, slice-of-life and things geared more toward children. This season:

Black Clover - About a world where magic dictate a lot of the government and centered around 2 orphans who aspire to become the Magic King that presides over the government. This was hard to start watching because the main protagonist had the most annoying voice actor and personality but over time you get used to it. The story has potential but I think the intended audience being young teenagers will leave it falling short of being great in the end.

Mob Psycho 100 - Psychic boy works for a fake psychic and has to confront many challenges despite not wanting to use his powers in any negative way. The first season was quite entertaining and popular enough to have received a live action remake already. The second season is on par with it so far.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime - A man dies and gets transported to a world of D&D as the most basic mob creature, a slime. Unlike a normal slime he has earned some special latent abilities from his past life. Again decent premise for the story but quickly turns into over-powered game character and reduces the impact of any struggles presented.

Dororo - A child is born cursed by his father and fights to survive his curse. I imagine every episode will have some amount of ninja fighting vs demonic beings. Decent action so far.

SAO - Alicization - I liked the original SAO and even GGO was decent but this feels like they are beating a dead horse.

Radiant - Cursed magic users segregated by society fight for normalization. Aimed at young teenagers so it tries to tack on morals instead of being bloody and brutal.

Domestic Girlfriend - This depicts an awkward family/social interaction and falls more on drama than romance but also includes a little bit of comedy.

The Quintessential Quintuplets - Rom/Com have yet to see if it actually worth the watch yet.

The Promised Neverland - Children being harvested like farm animals become aware of what is happening to them. There is something great about this show even though it center around child characters.

The Rising of the Shield Hero - Another transported to D&D setting but set up to be way under-powered and a nice dark twist to set the mood and pace.

I would elaborate more, but I don't want to spoil the plot should anyone decide to start watching these.

So, I just discovered Tachiyomi on F-Droid the other day, and I have gone on a yuri binge - Asagao to Kase-san (in which Yamada, the plant appointee, and Kase-san, the tomboyish girl on the track team get together), I decided to fake a marriage with my junior to shut my parents up (exactly what it says on the tin), Bright and Cheery Amnesia (in which Mari's girlfriend, Arisa, loses her memory of their relationship but is still in love with her), and lately Tamen de Gushi/Their Story. I have yet to diversify out.

Could really use an recommendation for an anime without any cringe-y middle school perv tropes. Currently watching Accel World and all these stupid "whoops accidental human-on-human collision, time to spend 5 minutes groping you trying to figure out where my hands are" scenes are starting to get physically painful. It seems like a decent story and an interesting world but there's just all these throwaway fanservicey-but-not-even-really scenes. Would really appreciate just a solid non-weeby show.

I've recently taken up watching Nichijou, which I watched a few episodes of a while back. I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I'm having a great time with it. The humor is so surreal, and the animation is so smooth. It may have the best animation of any non-movie anime I've seen.

I've been reading Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, which I got for Christmas from a friend who does occasional attempts to get me into manga and anime.

The premise is kinda silly: A princess is kept prisoner in a castle, and every night she has trouble sleeping, so she goes on an adventure around the castle looking for whatever she needs to fall asleep. One night a soft pillow, one night soft sheets, one night a softer bed, etc. Since she's a valuable prisoner, the guards can't actually hurt her, so they mostly have to tolerate her shenanigans. They try to keep her locked up though, but she's quite resourceful and a talented escape artist.

And it's OK, I guess. I've read about a third the way through the first book, and I've honestly lost interest. The first couple of chapters were quite fun, but the premise quickly got repetitive. Maybe this is the kind of book you're not supposed to read through in one sitting though. I'll put it on the shelf for now and maybe read more of it later.

I'm enjoying Baki on Netflix (Anilist, MAL). Based on the first 3 episodes, so far the pacing is great, plenty of violent martial arts action each episode. The overall tone is serious yet over-the-top enough to make it entertaining. The story is simplistic but it's not the type of show you watch for the story. It's pure action.

IMO this one is really easy to binge compared to other action shows, which tend to have highs and lows and unwanted filler. Hope the good pacing continues. I liked the old OVA, happy to see the new show being done justice.

This week I've continued watching Endro~! and Shield Hero loving both of them with Shield Hero giving me a huge emotional rollercoaser and Endro~! continuing with it's heartwarming antics.

On the manga side I finally read 177013 which was... something. Truly a soul crushing read that left me thinking long after I was done with it.

And also on the novel side (we should include LNs and Japanese web novels in these threads imo) I read through the first volume of Infinite Dendrogram which was an absolute blast. It reminds me a lot Only Sense Online but a bit more serious and more plot driven as opposed to slice of life type antics.

I'm currently doing a rewatch of Nichijou, a slice of life comedy! It has a reputation for being sort of a "memey" anime, but it does have its sweet moments :)

I'm also working my way through the corresponding manga and CITY, a spiritual 'sequel' to Nichijou. Both series tend to polarize people; either you like it, or you don't.

Currently Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon and Tales of Demons and Gods unfortunately I've made the mistake of moving past the mangas and started reading the light novels. Now I have to wait months at a time before I can continue reading......