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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!
Yakusoko no Neverland. Super compelling, very solid characters, great world-building, chilling, high-stakes conflict, amazing OP. Highkey recommending to everyone I know. I'm watching Rising of the Shield Hero and Mob Psycho 100 II and they're also good. The new season of Mob is just gorgeous.
RIght now I'm:
Trying to read Mob Psycho 100 in Korean. I already completely read the web comic in English.
Watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure–as you might've guessed from my handle. Part 5 is airing right now, and is excellently animated, as usual from David Productions. That said, I hate that english localization is changing names to avoid copyright. Sticky Fingers -> Zipper Man, Beach Boys -> Fisher Man, Kraftwerk -> Arts and Crafts, are you joking..?
Going to re-read Jojo's part 7 manga since I burned through it so quickly the first time. And probably catch up to part 8, but I hate waiting for new chapters to come out, get translated, and then colorized...
Mob Psycho 100 and Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken.
Serial Experiments Lain. This has been on my too-watch list since shortly after it came out, and I've somehow just now gotten around to it. I'm really enjoying it, despite how different it is from what my expectations were.
Golden Time — includes spoilers
There are parts of it that I really liked around the character relationships, but the core focus of Banri having amnesia was frustrating more often than not. I would have much rather focused on Kouko's insecurities and the group dynamics along with Banri moving on from his amnesia which I know was the point of Ghost Banri and all but not handled well from my viewpoint.
I also knew going in that there was a character named Nana that was a reference to the punk rock girl by the same name, but I expected her to basically be a cameo rather than have the role she did. Not that I'm objecting to it, I loved both NANA and the analogue in this show.
For other characters, I most liked how Linda was developed outside of the late-game triangle between her, Yana, and Oka which really deserved more attention since I was enjoying that in parallel to Kouko/Tada. I'm amused by the tea club girls; while I wouldn't have been interested in what they were doing at all when I was in college they seem a lot of fun in retrospect.
And now for the obligatory comparisons to Toradora since they're from the same author.
One reason I can immediately point at for enjoying Toradora significantly more is that Banri's amnesia is basically a supernatural cause of drama that's external to the group while Toradora's is entirely driven by the characters themselves. And that's sad because I like the college setting more as a general premise and Kouko, for all her flaws, was a more interesting female lead to me than Taiga at the start of both series.
I didn't mind the smaller similarities in tropes and themes that I picked up on since they're all aspects that I enjoyed in both, including the music being from the same composer. The characters are all distinct enough that I couldn't point at any two from both shows and call them the same archetype with minor differences, which is more than I can say for a lot of anime that are completely unrelated.
Overall it had amazing potential for me, but faltered by handling a central theme in an aggravating way.
Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative — includes spoilers for that and other Universal Century Gundam anime (0079/Zeta/ZZ/CCA/Unicorn)
I never had a strong opinion about Newtypes in Universal Century entries, I mostly accepted it as some odd space telepathy with occasional extra unexplainable powers while focusing on the politics and mecha. I get that the general Newtype concept is about the evolution of humanity to a more sympathetic and understanding place, but that's not the part that I'm concerned about here.
Unicorn, however, pushed power creep to a new level following the miracle that was the Axis Shock event in CCA. And now Narrative focuses entirely on that part of the franchise, leaning heavily on the post-corporeal aspect in particular along with making the battles more super robot than ever before. And I'm not really a fan of that.
The villain was sloppily written with some justification as a Cyber Newtype which I wish had more of a parallel with the main trio's story. Using a rehash of the Sinanju and Neo Zeong from Unicorn was just lazy though.
I did like how they weaved in aspects of the earlier UC entries, from the Sydney colony drop (which was something to see in a theater) to Zeta/ZZ's Cyber Newtypes and the one old pilot drawing comparisons to personally seeing the Axis Shock. Too bad Mineva and Banana only had a minor amount of screen time but at least his custom Silver Bullet was cool.
Overall I'm still not sure what I'm going to rate it. I love the continuity (not a movie you could walk into unprepared and I'm fine with that) and it was an entertaining watch overall but with the Newtype focus it's not something I'm particularly invested in.
With one odd happening the end of Unicorn explained here as time manipulation, I have to wonder if they're planting the seed for a timeline split so they can fully disown the Late UC part of it instead of trying to force plotlines to conform to them as an end goal. I know they've been pushing the "UC NexT 100" thing with promo visuals including F91 and Victory but for as much as I enjoy F91 (and hate Victory) it's going to be difficult to reconcile Unicorn and Narrative with those. An alternative look that someone pointed out but I failed to notice in the theater was that the Phenix is undoing what Unicorn did along those lines by using the time manipulation to remove the psychoframe from the Narrative and Neo Zeong, essentially resetting the power level from where it had been.
All that said, I'm still looking forward to Hathaway's Flash next year.
I'm curious how Banri's amnesia feels external to the characters to you. It's a core element of one of them that's always present and its only meaningful impact is on those relationships, it doesn't really spin off into its own thing and to me feels functionally the same as the wrench Ami throws into the dynamic in Toradora. Though spoiler, I love them both dearly :)
(Of course "it just feels separate" is a totally valid reason and response, but I'm curious if you have reasoning beyond just that.)
It's something that the characters themselves have no control over, it just happens. Usually at the points that will cause a high amount of drama. Ami knows full well what she does through the course of the shows and deliberately prods at the other characters to motivate them.
I suppose I just don't see what the difference between personality traits that someone doesn't have control over and something like Banri's amnesia is. To me they feel equally like things that are just givens for who the people are.
Thanks for explaining, though :)
I recently discovered Samurai Champloo. Not sure how I missed it all these years, but I'm glad to see it now.
may be off-topic but... can someone recommend a page for reading manga?
Been keeping up with Kaguya-sama Love is War since I've been following the manga for ages. I'm loving how far they've taken the original manga and adapted it into its own force. I'm very happy about it.
Also following Mob Psycho this season and it's really great. I haven't read the webcomic yet (I'm one of those people who start with anime and finish with anime) and I really love this story. It's so good.
Zombie Land Saga - Pretty funny anime about Japanese idol girls who die and become Zombie's and work to become idols after their deaths.
Episode 5 is one of the funniest episodes of anime I've ever seen. Highly recommend!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37976/Zombieland_Saga
I started City Hunter few weeks back and I am currently at episode 22. Ryo Saeba a.k.a. the sweeper keeps the city clean from vermins. He is an excellent marksman who never misses his target. But his biggest weakness? Beautiful girls and he behaves like an idiot around them.
City Hunter is an episodic series i.e. each episode has its own standalone story and there are no recurring characters save for the main cast. I believe most of you might be either familiar with City Hunter either as an anime or the movie starring Jackie Chan. For a series which was released in 80s, the animation style still feels fresh and the music in ED and OP will make you fall in love with the series more.
As for manga, I recently finished Bonnouji. It's a sweet and short mature romance series. What I liked about this series that the plot felt more realistic than other love stories which is inundated with useless fanservice and drama.
[No/very minimal spoilers ahead]
The first part was really out there. Remember that it came out in 1987, and Araki I guess didn't have a lot of experience writing yet. So it gets introduced as a basic plot of "kinda generic evil vampire guy vs wholesome good guy". It's not bizarre at all yet. ;) Also the art style is generic super buff guy.
Part two is a refinement of the first, where the protagonist actually has an interesting personality. I still enjoy watching this part, and it's really short at 12 episodes anyway.
Part 3 is where it becomes, truly a bizarre adventure, and has 48 episodes, split into two parts. The mechanics of the powers in the Jojo world completely change, but this is the part that defines Jojo's for a lot of people. Hell, on reddit the jojo's subreddit is /r/stardustcrusaders, after part 3's name.
So I recommend watching them all still (I love part 3 personally, and it has the best music imo, but is kinda a slog at first), but Parts 4 and onwards are where it gets really creative and interesting. Part 5's animation is coming out weekly right now and I wholeheartedly recommend it. The art style from part 4 onwards is also much better since it's no longer just super buff guys with basketball shoulders.
If you like reading manga, then I suggest catching up and reading Part 7 because that one is sublime.
I love the chapter structure of JoJo's. It's a great way of avoiding the problems that plague other long-running battle shounen, and let Araki shake off ideas that were old tropes or would have worn out their welcome to try something new. It's like you can watch his growth as an artist as it goes along. Without going into spoilers, that's what happens when the mechanics of the powers significantly change, and I like to imagine Araki at some point realizing all his protagonists were comically buff. :p
I'd also agree with the folks saying part 3 is around when the show finds its own groove. It's like how Star Trek: The Next Generation figured out how to be something other than The Original Series with a new cast somewhere around season 2—only in JoJo's case, it was more or less trying to be like Fist of the North Star.
Right. If Araki had continued after Part 2 with the same story/mechanics, it would have become like any other stereotypical shonen where power levels are always absurdly increasing. That's why I dislike DBZ, Naruto, etc.
Someone else put this really well, but essentially Jojo's avoids the shonen training + power level stupidity due the unique new mechanics in Part 3. Training is no longer necessary; It becomes more about wit, ingenuity, and steely resolve rather than well, "I trained under X for 10 years". "I can't beat this person until I go to Y mentor and train and learn a new ability". Even Jojo's isn't immune though, part 2 had training... In the original context of manga (based on real life martial arts), it makes total sense, but it just doesn't work well beyond 1-2 seasons of a show usually. It wouldn't work with Jojo's either probably, if the protagonist were always the same. But Araki is a madman that makes likeable main characters and then only features them for 1 part.
That said, even with Part 3's mechanics, some abilities are still absurdly overpowered. I would really like to discuss further but it's really tough to do so without major spoilers.
One Piece also handles this fairly well, since it's not just training based abilities or skill. But I can't stand Oda and his need to draw women with ridiculous bust sizes, especially Boa Hancock. And you know, inexplicably making the female protagonists' tits way bigger after the big timeskip. Such a cool universe, ruined by Oda being a perv.
Exactly. If it's just a single-axis power level, it's extremely limiting and repetitive. With varied powers, there's a lot more going on, and even a powerful character can be threatened by an enemy they're weak to or can't figure out. (And if you want to discuss further, there's always PMs!)
And I know what you mean about One Piece. I was never super into it, but from what I did see, the depiction of women really stuck out. Between the huge busts and skinny wastes, I don't know how they all didn't have crippling back problems.