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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 a copious amount of Hunter x Hunter in the past few days, simply cant get enough.
I want to get into Hunter x Hunter but don't know whether I should watch it or read it, what do you think? I usually choose the manga but sometimes I'm afraid I'll missing out on good animation/music/fight scenes.
Worth both watching and reading, whichever you'd prefer, I think. The 2011 anime is a lovely adaptation and covers all but the current arc of the manga, which has been on hiatus for a bit over a year, and could last for who knows how long.
Some speculate the author's ill or burnout due to Japan's harsh work ethics. He may be battling with back pain.
Oh yeah, I was by no means intending to bash Togashi for the hiatus, I just like to warn anyone who shows interest in the manga that it is not complete & has history of long hiatus.
I love Togashi and it sucks that he seems to be having an incredibly rough time in recent years. Whatever it takes him to be happy & healthy is what he should do, even if that means it ends in him retiring. Would be absolutely awful if he's actually developed a long-term health condition from the work ethic.
I did not think that, just wanted to add some information ;)
The 2011 anime is awesome. I never read the manga.
I haven't read the manga but I do recommend the anime, the animation fights and voice acting is pretty great and consistent throughout.
I haven't seen it but I am looking for something to watch. Why are you so hooked?
Hunter x Hunter is a story about friendship with awesome martial arts and interesting characters. It’s far from revolutionary but very touching and engaging. It’s probably the best regular shounen I ever watched.
I'm gonna check it out! I'll get back to ya.
I believe the pacing is one of it's most appealing aspects. Similar to other shonen anime however I never really feel strung along and most actions seem meaningful to the overarching story. Similar to an rpg you are rewarded for time invested. Also I'm quite interested in the world of hunter x hunter, I can't stop watching because I simply want to learn more.
Just watched the first episode of FLCL. That was the weirdest and funniest thing I've seen in a while now. Looking forward to the next episodes.
Finished Dr. Stone's. I'm pumped for season 2!
I'm on episode 11 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
It's pretty good!
I loved the choice to give conscious to a slime because in every RPG the slime is kind of a boring, mindless, throwaway NPC that overflows grinding areas. It's physical inadequacies make for a bunch of funny situations (Slimey in shackles was just too much!).
The series continues the theme by giving distinct personalities to The Horde, which is awesome! Is Slimey creating an army of monsters to counter the prejudices on mainstream society? I kinda hope so!
It probably wouldn't be very fun to say I've been drip feeding on Eizoken and constantly waiting for new episodes.
So I discovered there was another Yuasa series on VRV that I hadn't seen before and decided to start watching it. That show would be Kaiba. And it's very weird even by Yuasa's standards. The art style, while very novel, kind of insulates me from what's actually happening. As a result, I tend to get sleepy when I watch this one, which is a real shame because there are some important messages coming across.
What's happened so far
I've just finished the episode where Vanilla takes the protagonist to the moon of the underwater planet (the insulation of style extends to the names, so I can't remember many of them). So far it's got what I would consider the most interesting story to it. Particularly interesting was the climax, where they are in this big chase and Vanilla decides to sacrifice his own life to save the life of our protaganist. It's a scene that has been done many times before, but this one is different because the protaganist doesn't share Vanilla's passion. Yet the scene still is played with the exact same kind of aplomb as the originals it is mimicking.
I thought the scene was interesting because it finalized Vanilla's role as a foil to the mentality of the universe that the series is put in. He lives in a place where people can be immortal and people are clinging to living in the objective reality, and yet here he stands living only for his subjective reality, choosing to live through the lens of his dreams even when it clashes with reality, and ending his life with no ability to ever be revived again.
Monthly readings of Dragon Ball Super, and when I can, Samurai 8: The tale of Hachimaru. I'm waiting for a chunk of Dr. Stone and Shield Hero to be released, as I like to binge them. Same for Boruto.
I like me my shonen.
I am behind on reading Hajime No Ippo and Karate Shoukoushi Minoru, and I need to catch up on those. Also may look into reading Kengan Ashura and it's sequel down the road. I like the Baki animes, but I cannot stand the art style of the manga, as much as I'd love to read it.
For anime, I'm waiting for Baki part 3 on Netflix, and have to finish Kengan Ashura on Netflix as well.
I forgot to mention, I'm also slowly buying and reading Dragon Quest Monsters+ (DQM+) and I'm enjoying it.
Man, feel like I'm writing longer and longer rants about Sound of the Sky each episode. And even though half of it is the same thing I wrote before, I can't help but hold out hope it gets explained. But the longer it goes on, the more disappointing I can't help but get.
Dance in the Vampire Bund Ep 8:
Looks like the next major arc has started, and I’m glad to see it is going to deal with the student council president. Felt really bad for her, suddenly being kidnapped and turned into a vampire. And not really having any reason for this to happen besides being in the wrong place. Also, nice to see Mina and Yuki getting along, hope it continues and doesn’t turn into drama. Just would be nice to let some of these characters have a nice ending that lets them achieve some of their goals.
Sound of the Sky Ep 8:
Ok, was that an entire episode dedicated just to building up to the last 30 seconds. Because I really do feel like it was. We learned that she is dedicated to her job, but we already knew that from many previous episodes. So, what else happened in this episode to make it worth the time to watch. I’m fine with this type of ending, but only if the rest of the stuff in the episode was actually worth my time.
Also, onto the questions about the world and lore, that will never be answered properly by this point. Of course, the old question about why this advanced world with walking tanks doesn’t have universal phone service of some kind comes up. Even if you had a world ending alien invasion or nuclear war, I guarantee some form of phone service would still exist and connect large amounts of people. Even if it was a central location in the town with a half dozen shared phones.
But let’s just ignore that issue, why did nobody hook up the phone system to a speaker system in the building. IDK, feel like Noel could 100% figure out how sound travels over the wires and speakers. But that way you don’t need to sit next to the phone, just close enough to reach it if necessary. And you could still get other stuff done while waiting for the call. Heck how about at least test the phone system when a new recruit shows up, so they can see what the phone sounds like and how it works.
You know, just thought about the message from the beginning to stay near the phone because a call might come through. I’m going to assume that they sent somebody on a motorcycle or car with that slip of paper, but why? Why send somebody on a large trip to a remote outpost to let them know a call might be happening. Instead of just calling them in the first place and letting them know to be on watch. Or are they trying to make it so that they know the phone rings so infrequently, that it must be important? Because if so, you can also do that by just not using it often, but still using it to pass messages. It can be important but also used.
Omamori Himari Ep 8:
Somehow this became one of my favorite episodes yet, helps entertain the idea that any of these feels the various characters have for each other actually matter. But episodes like this really make me wish this show had gone the route that each possible pairing had its own mini-arc and conclusion. Instead they are all going to somehow share the same person, nothing will be solved, and the normal relationships between everyone will continue. I’m looking forward to more interactions with this girl in the future though.
For a while now, I've been working my way through a couple animes:
Ace of [the] Diamond - I'd recommend this for any baseball fan. If you don't already know the basics of baseball rules and the details of play, you might have trouble understanding some things, though, because the anime doesn't stop to explain certain things, it just assumes the viewer can appreciate how tough a play was, or what impact the outcome of a certain play has on the overall game.
The Twelve Kingdoms - An old anime (4:3 aspect ratio), but it's intrigued me and drawn me in because it doesn't pander to the viewer by using cookie-cutter character stereotypes, or by explaining up front everything about the world, or the characters, or what's going on. The world, setting, story and characters are deep and rich, but the details are unfolded and revealed bit by bit, and the viewer is presented with a sort of puzzle in trying to piece it all together, and you are regularly pleasantly surprised/entertained as some new revelation is made to make the world make more sense or be more interesting. From the get-go, you are not sure what to think of a certain character, what their motives are, what kind of person they are, how they might respond to a given situation or confrontation. It's not black-and-white where everyone who appears to be "good guys" is good, or "bad guys" is bad. Characters do not just "stay in their lane"; their personalities morph, ebb and flow as they experience things, and grow or change as a person. Trauma traumatizes them, or overcoming struggles makes them grow beyond an apparent emotional or psychological maturity ceiling. Terminology is used to refer to regions, creatures, people, positions (roles/titles), and it's challenging (in an enjoyable way) to keep track of it all, and remember what each term refers to. Again, the viewer is not babied by having the anime introduce and define a term in a super clear, grade-school manner. Instead, the characters in the scene just use the term, and the viewer is left to try to work out what it might mean, as though a tourist in a foreign land. Anyway, I highly recommend this anime to someone who is looking for something more mature, targeted to older audiences. Genre-wise, I guess it is a mixture of supernatural, fantasy, pseudo-historical, seinen.
The great passage.
Genre: Coming of age.
Topic: Make a dictionary.
My score: 9/10