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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!
Well this week I decided to start up my personal 2010 Seasonal Callback Challenge. I'm basing it on the AniList Seasonal AWC of course. So just going to watch 6 shows each week from that 2010 Winter Season that I haven't seen before and do a per episode review. Hope to see a bit about how things have changed over 10 years, though I feel like all I've learned thus far is I have a bunch of terrible harem ecchi that I didn't watch that is going to make this a rather terrible couple weeks.
Dance in the Vampire Bund Ep 1:
Well that was quiet a large shift in style I feel like between the first 15ish minutes and the final 15ish minutes. The whole guest show style was an interesting opener and let them play with the visuals as if it was being shot from a TV camera. But the longer it went on the worse it got for me. The visuals don’t really look great at all and were improved when you add a fake tv camera filter on everything at the beginning. Also, the gecko vampire with a temporary mechanical arm is incredibly odd and something I never even considered seeing before. Though that mechanical arm raises questions for me about how far the technology in this show is going to go, at first it looked rather normal 2010ish tech level but I’m guessing the vampires are going to have the super advanced trope applied.
Sound of the Sky Ep 1:
I’ve heard many people talk about how nice and relaxing this show is, and I can see it already. The first episode here was just pure enjoyment and easy to watch. I was worried how much the war and military background the show uses would affect that, but thus far it doesn’t look like it will that much. Even though we have only really met two characters, I already feel like I’m going to love all of them.
The Qwaser of Stigmata Ep 1:
Well of everything I’ve ever watched, this is one that really makes me question how this has 2 seasons. Like maybe this gets a ton better later on, but after Episode 1 I’m already questioning how it can be redeemed. I think my issue with this show really is it seems like it is going to try and be rather serious, and then cut between these serious moments I feel will be ecchi boob sucking moments that just feel wrong. Wish shows would stick with one serious tone when needed, and a lightweight funny tone between fights not during.
Omamori Himari Ep 1:
Oh man I thought doing this throwback challenge at least one of the shows I picked that I hadn’t watched before would be semi-decent, but it isn’t looking that way with this one. While I don’t think it will be as horrible as Qwaser, it isn’t running much higher overall. To start it is a typical harem and starts off super strong with the harem aspects and I just hate that. None of the VA are really good or impressing me yet. And animation wise it is just super generic 2010’s animation with nothing special or great. I think I’m going to start regretting deciding to try this self-made challenge of mine really quick.
Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts Ep 1:
Well it isn’t the worst show I’ve seen yet in this 2010 challenge I’ve made. But it definitely isn’t the greatest. Thus far it is higher up than Vampire Bund but nowhere close to Sound of the Sky. The jrpgish battle system is a bit neat, but I don’t really fully understand it at all or why it really exists. Really my main issue at the moment is just the pure setup for this whole anime doesn’t make any sense to me. Guess it is just one of those moments I’ll just have to completely ignore how dumb of a set-up it is. The characters don’t do anything for me at all, just rather bored and annoyed with them. And the animation is once again just real generic 2010’s anime style without anything special to me.
Katanagatari Ep 1:
This is off to a pretty decent start for me, it feels interesting and new. Also not being a generic harem ecchi anime like some of the others I’m watching from this 2010 winter season helps a lot. The characters are pretty interesting, and I want to see were they go from here and see how much growth they actually get. The animation and art style are really good to me, stands out from the rest with how unique it is. At the moment I think it will slot in beneath Sound of the Sky for me in rankings, though just by a small amount. Also, the long episode was neat, something I don’t see in anime very often.
I don't want to discourage you if it's a challenge you feel that you absolutely must do for a reason, but I think it is reasonable to drop any shows that you just aren't enjoying. My personal bar is somewhere after 3 episodes of something I find terrible, I'll move on to something else.
There are multiple lifetimes worth of anime, some good and some bad, and I hope that watching lower quality harem+ecchi series does not negatively impact how you feel about other shows. Then again I can see that watching a bad one here and there can really make you appreciate the truly good series out there.
I am usually tempted to binge watch stuff that is already complete, but I wanted to mention that Katanagatari felt fresh and exciting during the time it first aired. Rather than 24-minute weekly episodes, each episode was released once a month which probably built up some of the suspense. There are quite a few series these days that are sub-five minute (probably because they are based off 4-koma), so the hour long episodes definitely helped my enjoyment of Katanagatari.
There is a cool feeling that comes from being that familiar with a period in time and becoming an expert, even if the individual shows aren't great.
At one point I tried to watch every anime from 2000 as part of a bigger project, and though I didn't finish and forced myself through a lot of garbage, I enjoy being that acquainted with what the average anime was like at that time. It's not worth forcing yourself through if you're absolutely hating the experience, but I definitely think there can be value to pushing through even with bad anime if you're a nerd and value the...educational value?
I watched A Silent Voice movie and it was very good. Went into it without knowing anything about it besides the girl in the story is deaf. Any other anime movie suggestions? (Non studio ghibli)
Here is my current to watch list:
Not sure what genres or subjects you might like but in no particular order:
There's some others on my own watch list that I haven't gotten around to watching myself yet and a few I've seen but can't recall at the moment. I'll add them or make another list later.Ghost in the Shell, Gurren Lagann, and Little Witch Academia also have TV series, but all the movies in this list should be fine to watch if you have not nor plan to watch the related shows.
Thanks, I've seen about half of these already but will give the other half a look! :)
Your Name is probably the most recent "classic" film if you haven't already seen that. Also heard good things about Mirai, but I can't confirm that one personally.
I saw Your Name twice and liked it, waiting to see Weathering With You which just released in theaters the past week near me. Hoping it's not a dub, but not getting my hopes up.