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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!
Not exactly anime, but i've been watching Hayao Miyazaki's films. So far I've been delighted with every movie, and The Wind rises was surprisingly grown-up among all the kid-focused movies.. Kiki's delivery service felt a bit rushed. Ponyo is relatively simple, but still elegant. Laputa:Castle in the sky, Howl's moving Castle, Spirited away are, IMO, absolute masterpieces. I had already watched Princess mononoke, so not including it here, but it is great as well. Next on the list are my neighbor Totoro and Porco Rosso. Will try to update this post after i've watched them.
I don't think there's been a debate about what is anime here on Tildes, but by most definitions I would think that Miyazaki films do count.
I've seen some of those (and enjoyed them), but I have not seen The Wind Rises. I'll have to give it, and the others I have not seen, a watch when I get the chance. Looks like he's coming out with a new film, How Do You Live?, with an unknown release date but possibly later this year or next.
GITS SAC 2045 on Netflix. Terrible, utterly disappointed. I don't mind the animation style at all (tho that's the best I can say about it), but the (un)connectedness of the story and failed attempts at depth were really disappointing. What really killed it for me is the cliffhanger ending.
On the other hand I powered through all Castlevania seasons recently (again Netflix) and I was pleasently surprised. I expected it to be a thin ripoff of the game IP (wasn't familiar with the lore at all) but the plot, action and themes were interesting enough to want to binge it all.
Ciffhangers don't really bother me, and I also didn't really mind the animation either (though I would much prefer traditional animation!), but I was still super disappointed with 2045 too... mostly due to the depth issue you touched on. I stopped watching after the third episode, since by that point I saw the writing on the wall and my heart just can't take suffering through another mediocre GITS series, especially after the massive disappointment of Arise. :(
And yeah, seconding Catlevania. It has its flaws, e.g. the English voice acting is horrible, but once I switched it to Japanese audio with subs, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed it too. I still haven't watched Season 3 though... so I should do that at some point. :)
Damn, I'm disappointed to see all the impressions I'm coming across of 2045 are negative. I wouldn't have bet against Kamiyama but I guess you can't win 'em all.
Welp, I didn't get to BNA after all. Tomorrow for sure, maybe, hopefully, lets see. Can I just get life to slow down a bit, give me a couple more hours in the day to watch everything I need to see. Well, my throwback stuff is a mixed bag really by this point but I'm sticking with everything I'm still watching from that thus far. Seasonal stuff is surprising me by having some pretty good stuff that I just didn't expect.
2020 Spring Week 5
Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE Ep 5
Not many shows start off as bad as this one and actually start to impress me halfway through. But this is definitely on my list now for those shows that did so. Is it turning into a must watch, no, but it isn’t a half bad but rather generic show. The characters are growing on me, still kinda disappointed in the main character but everyone else is holding up decently enough. Visuals still aren’t amazing, with the fights being the low point, but decent enough.
But by far the best part about this show is the music. I feel like it is a really personal thing if you like a show’s music, and don’t mention it a ton. But personally, every song thus far has been really good. Good enough I will have to seek out the soundtrack later and add it to my normal playlists.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Ep 6
And the continuous growth of this black hole continues, with her completely ignoring so many people trying to romance her and misunderstanding everything. And once again I feel really bad for Gerald, the actual fiancé who can’t even spend a day with her alone. Though while I do like this show, I can’t help but feel some of the jokes are starting to get a bit repetitive at this point. Can only see so many harem and romance jokes before I start getting tired. Hopefully just the characters being enjoyable will keep carrying the show.
Princess Connect! Re: Dive Ep 5
Well this was the most terrifying summer episode of a show I’ve ever watched. This should have been released at Halloween, though I feel like the original story line in the game must have been the Halloween special. Besides being terrifying though, I love those terrifying girls still. Was a surprisingly nice change from what we have gotten thus far. Though I definitely feel like we aren’t going to see any more of whatever the games story is by this point. Because we haven’t made any progress in any way at all.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War? Ep 5
This is probably one of the better episodes of this season. I just love the content they covered this episode more than the previous ones. Once again though the visual gags are rather amazing, they do a great job copying styles from other shows and media really well. Honestly, I’m shocked how little I have to say with this show, probably stems from already reading the manga. So, I’m not reacting fresh, and more just enjoying seeing it animated.
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Ep 3
Man, this show is annoying me on so many levels. It has not yet felt like a Ghost in the Shell series at all, in any small way. The main team with Major has yet to do anything remotely reminiscent of traditional Ghost in the Shell and has instead just been jumping between terrible action scenes. Meanwhile Togusa just kinda wanders around trying to catch up, it just feels pointless for his character right now.
And while I like some of the augmented vision stuff they have shown, some of it is just getting stupid. The random ads Togusa keeps swiping away are possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. And for some reason I doubt Togusa’s gear would just allow random ads to appear in his vision, that seems like a great way to get hacked.
The background characters in this show are possible the worst I have ever seen. From not having enough of them, to having them just repeat the same animation over and over. That lady is still doing the same swatting flies movement, many days later she is still apparently still getting annoyed by the same non-existent flies. Or the random guys just standing on the street they didn’t even bother giving any animation to at all, they just kinda stand in one place unmoving. Instead of having them all stand around, why not have them at least walk around, or play a card game, shoot cans, idk just anything to make them seem lifelike. If you told me this entire city was made of poorly programed robots, I would believe you 100% and it would make these scenes much better. Also why is LA completely empty, I can understand a war and fighting and such for the destroyed city sections, but these are major roads next to LAX just completely empty because they couldn’t be bothered to fill it with traffic. Both the background characters and traffic is 1000x worse than the original show which at least bothered to add traffic to the roads and make the background characters move around.
2010 Spring Throwback Week 5
Night Raid 1931 Ep 5
Another episode that didn’t do a ton for me really. The past episode and this one just doesn’t seem like the have the same energy that the first three had. The last episode I understand why that is. This episode though, I think it is the character they are focusing on just doesn’t do much for me. I don’t really like the 2 characters that are the main focus all that much. Hopefully, the next episode changes things up a good bit.
House of Five Leaves Ep 5
Yeah, I don’t fully understand this show yet still. It is progressing with a story and characters and the such, but overall, I just don’t love it or really understand it. I feel lost as to what is happening and why I should care a bunch. IDK, eventually I’ll figure out the show right.
The Tatami Galaxy Ep 4
From what I can tell he is being forced to relive the same period of time over and over again. But each time he made a different choice at some point in the past that leads to a vastly different conclusion. But I still don’t see where this is going to end for him at all. Is the final episode just going to have him not talk to the fortune teller, who I figure is causing the time looping stuff, and therefore break free and just continue onwards as normal?