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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!
I've been watching Attack On Titan with my son. We're also watching FMA: Brotherhood together.
He can't keep up in real time with the English subtitles though, so we rely on the dubs - this isn't about the relative merits of that - just that we're behind the rest of the world. This week was the penultimate episode of S3.
The last few weeks have been just mind-blowing. Hero S3 E17 - episode 54 - has a score of 10 on IMDB with over 21,000 votes. That's just insane. The best episode of any TV program ever - according to the voters on IMDB.
It's honestly not my favourite anime either in terms of animation, episode structure or how scenes are put together - I find that aspect of the writing to be clumsy and cliched. But my god the overarching story is just astounding and there's a mixture of dread and anticipation in the pit in my stomach because next week will be the end of season 3 and it's going to be another year or more before we see the conclusion. I'm not immersed in anime so the others I've seen with a story and plot this good are Madoka Magica and Stein's;Gate.
So if anyone can recommend other anime where the story is so strong and complex I'd really love to hear them.
I loved FMA: Brotherhood! Such a great story.
I watched the first episode or two of Attack on Titan and wasn't too impressed -- it seemed to fall into that trope of the one perfect person who can fix everyone's problems? Maybe I should get back into it if it's got the highest rating of any episode of TV ever in there.
As far as other ones, I'm kind of new to the anime scene so I'm not sure what suggestions I can give. But I really liked Avatar: the Last Airbender (is it anime if it's an American show?) and Cowboy Bebop (though I'm not sure how kid-friendly it is).
Frankly I wasn't very impressed with it during S1 and S2 either, but my son likes it and it has a good concept plus it's enjoyable enough, so I stuck with it. They set the context of the story, and move it along introducing characters along with challenges and setbacks to be overcome with some surprising twists and turns.
The third season was released in 2 parts. 3.1 starts to introduce a lot of new and intriguing elements which begin to expand the context of the story. Then end of 3.1/beginning of 3.2 we see the weaving of all these new elements together masterfully, while introducing even more, not only in startling ways, but together with the established context of seasons 1 and 2 as well and the pacing then really ramps up. During that journey you realise it has clearly been meticulously planned right from the start. I haven't seen the S3 finale yet but the scope has already been blown open so widely that it'll be a long painful wait for the conclusion.
Oh wow, good to know. I'll see if I can make it through seasons 1 and 2 to make it to the really interesting stuff. I actually like shows that give a slow burn, sometimes -- thanks for the tip!
I thought I'd heard of some of that argument. Well, it's a great show either way.
Just started JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on Netflix and it's wild. I didn't watch any of the fighting-based anime like DBZ or whatever when I was a kid, but I gotta say, watching episodes that are mostly just talking about fighting with mostly expository dialogue has a special thrill to it. I just sit back and let it wash over me.
I am finally starting Neon Genesis Evangelion. My favorite games podcast, Waypoint Radio, has done a series on it, and their several hours of podcasting is ultimately what's forcing me to watch it.
I just finished higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When they cry) and I'm moving on to the second season. I'm really not sure how I feel about this anime. Overall I'm not a huge fan of the artstyle and animation, and I feel like I only stuck around to see how the mystery turns out. The payoff at the end of the season felt a bit unfinished to me as well, which is probably why I'm continuing on to the second season. I did enjoy some of the twists and turns along the way and most I genuinely did not see coming. So overall I'm enjoying the story but I feel the execution is a bit lacking.