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

I watched half of Shinsekai Yori. I kind of like it, not sure what specifically. However the directing is fairly bad, there are lots of time-skips that break the flow of the show (a lot happens off-screen, for example a character was portrayed as a threat to the main characters, the camera is black for two seconds and the threat is now the main group's friend. What?)

Watching Dr Stone S01 and The Great Passage S01.

I was waiting for Boku No Hero Academia to finish the season, but seeing how I wanted to rewatch the first 3 anyway, I wanted to start that....

Haven't started, been playing too many games, but that's what I'll be watching next.

That's my solo watchplan, I also have several anime I wanted to watch with my partner. They haven't seen Samurai Champloo, Mob Psycho 100 or Kill la Kill (although I don't see that last one happening...) I would love to share the first two with them, though.

Guess I am now in the final half of my 2010 Seasonal Throwback challenge, and already lost many shows right at the start. With a rather mixed bag left still being watched. During this second half I think I'm also gonna try and watch a movie or two, and see what was going on with those.

Dance in the Vampire Bund Ep 7:
Wow, well that was some episode. In some ways I feel like it was really rushed, but it also really worked well. I guess overall this finishes up almost the prologue of the story and depending on where this goes might make me want more. Will have to see how this continues to progress. In total for this arc, it wasn’t my favorite thus far, but it was really important to progress the characters and their histories. Though I still would have liked a bit more from it, feel like it might have been a bit rushed.

Now the visuals in this episode where something completely different. Using some incredibly odd camera filters and angles and just general transformations. It was 100% Shaft, but at the same time almost felt more than normal Shaft. Like they bumped it up to 120% for no real reason, or somebody discovered they could put filters on stuff and decided to keep doing it.

Sound of the Sky Ep 7:
With this episode it has passed the half-way point, and my feelings on the show are really mixed. Part of the issue are the events that played out via the flashback helped a tiny amount to relieve some of my issues. But not enough to really say it is doing amazing.

To start, lets look at just this episode. I figure one of two things happened; the planet was attacked by aliens, or somebody created a weapon that they could not defeat. Don’t have a clue which is closer, or even remotely close to what happened of course. But while it helps a tiny amount, it doesn’t solve nearly close to any of the questions I have and raises even more of course. Overall outside of the questions, it was really just more character building as the previous episodes. Just this time focusing on a different character.

Previously I figured the trumpet thing was just some old fashion tradition, but we see they use it to convey commands across the battlefield. Well the issues with this method are immense in the age of technology of course, but also of sound. Nobody would be able to hear a trumpet over the sound of a tank battle. Or why would that lone tank engage an enemy at all instead of marking their location and retreating till the rest of the group arrives? Also why does it seem like they are progressed enough to have mechanical tanks, but they are still using WWII style manual loading aiming and controlling of the tank? Really all this episode did was raise even more questions about what is wrong with the technical progression of this world. It almost makes it seem like somebody used some time reverse bomb, that is slowly making technology, knowledge, and the planet in general go back in time.

Overall at this point, I have a pretty large issue with this show just not doing enough with its location and apparent lore. Instead of slowly giving me answers and building on the world and really getting me invested in this place they are living. We have gotten 6 episodes of just Cute Girls Doing Cute Things basically, with some character development in each episode. In some ways I kinda want to compare it to School-Live. But that show I feel did the whole Cute Girls in horrible circumstances much better, it had plenty of character development, but each episode also gave you more information and built on the world. Where this I feel like is going to load all that lore and information about the world in the final couple episodes. IDK, I will see where it goes from here but at this point, I can’t help but feel like this will be another show that I disagree with the average review score and general reviews.
Omamori Himari Ep 7:
Wow does this show have some of the worst music I think I have ever heard in a show before. Like the music is straight out of a cheap VN, were the music is just kinda super lazy and does nothing but give something in the background. Overall really, I have to say this was one of the worst episodes of this show yet. You have everything bad about it in one go, terrible fights, terrible music, terrible animation, and terrible character interactions. But I still can’t say the show is terrible for some reason, a truly terrible show I wouldn’t still be watching and able to somewhat enjoy.

Manga side:

Motoko's antics in the first volume of WataMote are genuinely cringe inducing, which discourages me from reading any more of it.

Act-Age seemed like a bad bet with its focus on acting, but it is a beautiful and well-panelled manga overflowing with narrative. I caught up with the manga in one weekend and it is now one of my favorite series. Don't be put off by its topic or the fact that it is serialized in WSJ! It's worth a shot.

Anime side:

[C] - Control was a mixed bag that was tragically shortened by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake+tsunami. The bad ranged from the inappropriate use of economic/finance terms to the pseudo-incestual overtones of Kimimaro's relationship with Msyu. With that being said I am partial to the harsh criticism of the financialization and stagnation of Japan. Plus it's pretty entertaining when everything goes crazy towards the end.

I finally got my stuff together and got to watch.

Aggretsuko S2

I finished the second season of Aggretsuko, and while it was good, I don't think it was really up to par with the first season, and the twist at the end made me think it just pretty stupid and more of an excuse to have more seasons, on top of knowing that she'll end up with the hyena. Still, a good and fun series.

JoJo Part 5: Golden Wind

The main show I watched, I finally sat and binged the entire series(around 15 episodes) and I do not regret it, although I feel like some moments failed to meet up to the standard of the manga and other adaptations(PS2 game). Still, worthy of watching.

Getter Robo Armageddon Ep1-4

Beyond badass and definitely my kind of mecha. I'm willing to say that I'm very much a newbie when it comes to mecha and I've only watched some of the big shows(Eva, TTGL). I will likely end up liking the show as a whole.