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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!
The spring season
So, what I watching in this season and mostly liked:
Yesterday o Utatte
I already readed the manga, so I donʼt have a choice. Itʼs interesting that the anime was without openning, but I very liked the fisrt ending. In the manga non-main persons are also important so that is why manga better than anime here.
Kakushigoto
Itʼs cute comedy and parody on relation between dad (adult manga artist) and girl. I liked the openning. I catched many flashbacks from other anime — Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei which is more brutalit in parody, and where the same: author of origin, anime studio.
Gal to Kyouryuu
Very similar to previous: cute stupid comedy, parody with absurds. I liked warm ending. The style is a little similar to Pop Team Epic: two [mostly] similar parts, but here first is animated and second — from camera.
Brand New Animals
The enging is oshi-e-te! The animation from Trigger is again pretty. The story is about conflict of coexistence of many things. The main character here is pretty ra
coonchan — pleasure for my eyes, laugh.Nami yo Kiite Kure
The anime had already finished but I didnʼt watch the last episode because [Ukrainian] translators, I guess, have some problem, so I am still waiting. But if to speak about the general, itʼs kinda radio plus slice of life, so there are comedy, kinda dramas and stories which I liked.
Arte
As I can understand, the main character is very-very little based on Artemisia Gentileschi, so itʼs not so as important as a main theme about woman, coexistence and the setting: the arts plus about 16th century slice of life in Italy with little romance.
Great Pretender
I watched only three episoded. For now itʼs pretty good. I just must have to mention about the ending — itʼs Fredy Mercure!
Gleinpnir
My opinion about this is remake and resetting of Darling in FranXX. Nuff said.
Old or anime movies
Non Non Biyori
Nyanpasu! I watched two parts of light and nostalgic slice of life. And now I am waiting of third part.
Avatar
I rewatched a part of The Last Airbender, and I dunno why, laugh. Itʼs still good for now and me.
Well after many weeks, things are finally wrapping up for most of the shows I'm watching. Still have a movie or two I'm going to finally watch this coming week with the lack of shows to watch, so looking forward to that. Overall this season was a mixed bag for me, some stuff I really liked but other stuff that did nothing for me at all. And decided to write some reviews of some shows I've watched this season of course. But I have decided rather than making this post 3x longer than it normally already is, I'll just link to the reviews on AniList. Though I didn't do a review for everything I finished, if I don't think I can add anything or really write anything decent that doesn't involve rambling to fill character count I won't. So onto the various reviews and thoughts, and hoping the final week of the season goes well.
Standalone Reviews via AniList
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE
2020 Spring Week 12
Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE Ep 12
Man, what an absolute shit show this turned out to be. I was actually kinda liking it for a couple episodes in the middle. But by the end, everything was just so rushed and confusing that it ended up being one of the worst shows I’ve seen recently. The final arc literally just appeared out of nowhere without any buildup at all. And the final episode forced me to skim through the previous one thinking I missed something with how fast it opened. And then it just kinda ends with a fight that I guess kills everything and destroys the world?
To add on, I am super confused at the after-credits stuff. I’m guessing the one knight becomes the next King of Darkness after going insane and restarting the process. Queen of Light ended up turning into a cat for some reason? And Prince of Darkness woke up in a different world, what did he reincarnate. Is this whole show a prequel for a different game where we follow a reincarnated Prince of Darkness try to track down a white cat to turn it back into the Queen of Light?
Princess Connect! Re: Dive Ep 12
I’m just completely loving this show, both the characters and the story. And this really was the wrapping up point for the story. Give us a full solid story episode to lead into the final episode, and it worked well. Sure, it hasn’t had much of a story thus far mostly doing character and slice-of-life stuff. But the episodes that do focus on story makes me super excited in how it will all come together. I’m also shocked that is seems like this won’t be a full, go play the game to understand what is happening, like what happened with Shironeko Project.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War? Ep 12
Well that was an explosive final episode. Almost always enjoy Kaguya-sama, and the second season was just as good as the first. And in some respects, I want to say it is actually better than the manga at times. Reason being the fluidity and narration and general voice acting just adds so much to the story and characters. I did kinda hope we would get farther into the manga than we did, but hey just leave that for the next season that I figure is going to happen. Not actually going to do a review for this show, don’t think I could say anything about it really besides talking about how good it is at adapting a good manga.
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Ep 10
The longer this show goes on, the more I think it isn’t as terrible as I first thought. It is just that the first half of the show that was rather terrible. But at the moment, it isn’t terrible but still suffers badly from just not having enough episodes. I can see where somewhere in here is a classic Ghost in the Shell story that just doesn’t have enough time to develop properly.
You can see it in episodes like this, where you have a good base idea about democracy and the will of the people and mob justice. But because they need to fit this entire mini arc into 2 episodes, and have it done before the end of the show it gets rushed. They just leave so much discussion behind and replace it with an action scene to force the arc forward at a lightning pace. And it just keeps happening with every arc, they run out of time to properly explore the context so just throw in an action scene and call it good.
This pacing issue also just destroys most of the cast. They exist as mere background characters with an occasional line of dialogue instead of important members of Section 9. They no longer have jobs to do, or personalities, or a reason to exist. Overall, it is just really sad what has happened to the show because of the pacing. This is one of those shows I feel I will point to in the future, that required 24 episodes minimum. And if you are seeking to make the show, ask if you can actually do what you want in 12 episodes or if you absolutely require 24 to actually explore the context of your story.
2010 Spring Throwback Week 12
Night Raid 1931 Ep 12
Nearing the conclusion for this show, and I just don’t find myself extremely interested in how it is wrapping up at all. I was interested in the first couple episodes but somewhere along the way I just lost interest. I don’t think it was really any massive fault of the show, the story and the characters just didn’t capture my attention at all. Then you have the Chinese voice acting that appears at time and just feels super jarring.
If I could point to some things I haven’t liked. The story didn’t really cover things I wanted to learn about. I wanted to learn more about their abilities, who else have them, more about limitations to them and where they came from. But none of it was really ever explained and that just disappoints me. Also, the story itself feels like it has expanded to cover a bunch more stuff than I figured it would. And might have just taken on too much stuff to really work well for me.
House of Five Leaves Ep 12
Overall, this show just didn’t do anything for me. I never fell in love with any of the characters, or the story, or the world. From the beginning, this just wasn’t my style of show. I kept wanting something to develop or change, but all the change was real minor character development stuff that didn’t work well for me.
I think for the right person this show would work really well, but for me it just isn’t the right show. Nothing really against it, just differences in expectations and opinions.
The Tatami Galaxy Ep 11
Well, this was an incredibly odd show. And I don’t think I loved it as much as other people have at all. Not even close really. But by the end I was incredibly invested in the characters and what was going on with the story. I really wanted to see how it would all conclude, and how all these various episodes fit together.
In the end, I am satisfied. Somehow the final episode wrapped up almost everything I wanted to know. Cleaned up the characters and the various stories so they all make more sense. And in general, just did a great job just finishing the show. Only thing I still have questions about is how this all started, I know it is related to the fortune teller I think somehow.
This is one of the shows I don’t think I’m going to write any review for at all. I don’t feel like I can add anything to conversation about the show, positive or negative. And I would just end up filling the character count out with pointless ramblings like I’m trying to finish an essay in high school, so I’m just going to leave a quick conclusion here. I liked the show but didn’t love it. But I think I can recommend it.
So, in your final analysis of House of Five Leaves and Tatami Galaxy, did they let down/meet/exceed your original impressions? I recall advising you that they were honest up-front about their styles, so I wonder how useful I was.
I just watched the Fate/Grand Order: First Order movie on a whim. I watched the Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works series a couple of years ago, and I expected something comparable, but my expectations were thoroughly dashed.
Very light spoilers - plot outline, but no details
It has pretty visuals, that's for sure, but there is very little in the way of story. Some remote research facility, people chosen from all over the world to change history, then sabotage!, only one person can save the project, random fights, an unexpected ally - really, I can't see Cú Chulainn as Caster - even more fight scenes, the enemy seems to triumph but is then defeated thanks to THE POWER OF LOVE (ok, not really).It was actually more-or-less fine until the last ~15 minutes, if a bit too tropey and diluted, but the twist at the end just came out of the left field. It felt completely unnecessary, save to set up a plot hook for even more "only you can save the world!" anime, with a side dish of evil for the sake of evil.
Maybe I missed the point, I'm not sure, but this doesn't stand on its own.
You are completely right. The FGO series: First Order, Babylonia, and whatever else related to them were made with the target audience being players familiar with the Fate/Grand Order mobile game in mind. I've not played the game myself, but I believe the anime adapts the story/chapters from the game, so large parts of it might only be understandable to people who have played and are familiar with those characters.
I'm not a fan of micro-transactions (predatory/anti-consumer or not and despite my indulging every now and then) but I believe FGO is one of the most popular mobile games in the world. I am sure they make a ton of money from people trying to collect their favorite waifus so the anime appeals to those fans and possibly acts like an advertisement.