10
votes
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 don't watch a great deal of anime, but I recently started Jujutsu Kaisen and was very amused by the characters. It has about as many tropes as most shōnen, though this genre is one of my guilty pleasures. There's something about the exaggerated stakes and unbelievable fight sequences that makes me laugh enough to keep watching.
I really like the characters, even the bad guys. It's nice when both sides show some sort of respect for each others.
I'm kinda starting to think that Jujutsu Kaisen is shounen for people who don't like shounen.
I love shounen, but dropped Jujutsu Kaisen a few episodes in.
I started watching Saenako. After Community, I have taken a liking to satire/parodies and Saenai Heroine to Sodetakata is very good at mocking everything in it's genre (and there is a Community reference too!)
Apart from that, I've finally gotten hold of Cowboy Bebop, and will probably binge it over weekend.
You're in for a treat! It's worth watching for the soundtrack alone. Yoko Kanno is a genius, the Seatbelts are amazing, and I still regularly listen to the OST since it's just that good.
I'm halfway through in Cowboy Bebop and boy oh boy you were so right. This soundtrack, somehow is still one of the most original ones I have ever heard.
Not to mention the general balance in the whole series to show just enough to keep the viewer fill in the gaps with imagination is brilliant.
I always liked Firefly, and I'm totally glad I watched this after it :)
I've become somewhat conflicted with Kanno after learning how much she was... "inspired" by other artists' works. I guess it makes sense, because she would probably have to be a serious contender for the greatest composer of all time if she had pretty much mastered that many disparate styles in order to come up with all that music herself. She still gets big respect, but I'm not sure she's in genius category.
Just stumbled on this Charles Cornell video where he reacts to the Bebop Soundtrack, discusses the accusations of plagiarism, and talks about Yoko Kanno in general, which may change your opinion on her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE60dIn6gCo#t=5m29s
Nah, not really. His influence vs. plagiarism bit makes me think he hasn't looked too deeply into it, as there are multiple examples of similarities just on the Bebop soundtracks that go beyond mere influence or coincidence when taken in sum. I don't think it's necessarily outright stealing, as there are apparently different degrees of collaboration or approval involved with the original artists, but there's also not a lot of transparency from her. If you look at the source blog in that reddit post, you'll see she's made statements hedging on giving credit to those artists whose work she doubtless used as inspiration.
From what I gather, intentional music copyright operates (or is at least contested/enforced) somewhat looser in Japan than Europe and North America, so there is something of a prcedent for infringement there. I remember being introduced to Yngwie Malmsteen only after discovering that a main riff of one of his songs was used (totally unlicensed, naturally) as the intro to one of my favorite video games of yesteryear. I still think Kanno obviously has talent, and she doubtless has work in her vast catalog that she can take blameless credit for, but I don't see her as the god-tier musician I assumed she was when I thought her works were all original. There isn't even enough transformative work done in some of the examples to really justify them as her ideas in the sense of sampling either. I look at them more or less as arrangements or remixes, at best, of others' pieces.
As long as her best song isn't plagerized, I'm OK with everything.
(Just kidding, obviously this is her best [or maybe this])
I have to admit, I had never understood Gotta Knock A Little Bit Harder (or even properly thought about it, really) until you posted about what it means to you. Thanks for that.
Not sure if I could pick the best out of her work, but I do really like Call Me Call Me. A fair amount of that is probably due to Steve Conte though, so maybe it doesn't count.
Your response kind of sent me through a loop, because I did not remember actually talking about that song. And so today I did a search and found that it was from a two year old thread. I'm actually quite moved that you remembered what I said.
I actually remember it from a different thread, where you had commented in a lot more detail about why it resonated with you. I don't know if I could dig it up now, but it was both illuminating and impactful.
Man. I just came across this playlist with even more examples from the Wolf's Rain, Macross, and GITS: SAC soundtracks that I wasn't aware of before. No bueno.
@cfabbro
I'm currently watching Himitsu no Cocotama. It's very lovely. I'm about 30 episodes in, and they're still introducing new characters.
Though, I'm not sure if I'll watch the whole thing. It's 139 episodes long. I didn't even know anime series could be that long.
Yeah.. Few of my friends keep pushing One Piece on me as the greatest thing in the universe, but the sheer number of episodes is intimidating.
For now, its on my "after-retirement" list :)
As someone who also loves One Piece, it's totally not worth it. Toei fucked the anime after around episode 550-600, and the pacing became AWFUL. we're talking like 10 mins of new content per 24 min episode. They'd rather pump out a weekly episode that adapts exactly 1 manga chapter than preserve any semblance of quality by having breaks to let Oda make some more chapters.
It's alright early, but towards the end I'd recommend reading the manga instead, or perhaps looking into the One Pace project, which edits out tons of the filler.
I found One Piece anime extremely content thin almost right from the start. I feel cheated at every step. I have other things to do and watch.
Thanks for One Pace recommendation. It makes One Piece approachable for me.
I disagree with everyone else, One Piece is easily the best anime I have watched. It's not a show where you get instant payoffs all the time. A lot of the fun is the characters exploring the world and discovering its mechanics. Some story elements get mentioned but only become relevant 200 episodes later. There's a lot of wholesome side character arcs and you eventually care about all their stories and how it all ties together.
If you like world building, it's a great show.
Some of the episodes as the series goes on have less content, for example 1 episode might be less than 1 manga chapter, but I watch the show to chill which means I get to spend more time in the One Piece universe (and an episode is usually less than 20 minutes anyway). Also as the story progresses, I'd say it just keeps becoming better and better. Sometimes I wonder where Oda gets his ideas. He gets to explore so many different deep themes.
One Piece reuses a lot of animation and there are literally flashbacks to the same episode. The amount of repeated scenes and situations is astounding. This happens in the majority of the episodes I watched - about 70. It does have qualities but everything happens three times and in slow motion. It is really hard to bear.
It's like we're watching different shows :P
I find that it makes the show feel nostalgic. Like it's from another era. Usually those moments will be backed by some great music too. Over time, you hear those musics so many times that you form an emotional connection to them. This is what sets One Piece apart from the other big shows. They are really consistent with the OST. New tracks are added over time, but the classics are still there.
I'm actually not that young and have watched plenty of anime older than One Piece that managed to maintain a steady pace while engaging emotionally. So... IDK. There are other ways to evoke nostalgia.
It really isn't. Maybe read the manga.
Not quite Manga per-se (I believe correct term in Manhua), but I've jumped back onto the long running train that is unOrdinary Plot is moving along, not too slow, not too fast, but exactly as it should IMO. The curse of reading in-progress titles is that I now have to wait for each new chapter to be released, and I am not a patient man because I need to know what happens next >_>
I'm at episode 10 of the Blade of the Immortal ONA, and good lord am I enjoying it. At turns it's tense, restrained, melancholic, explosive, tender, philosophical, brutal, and overall, gripping. It's scored excellently, the cinematography is fantastic, the art direction is stylish. My initial skepticism skyrocketed with the first couple episodes' supernatural/horror elements, but the story itself is unfolding so far to be really interesting. Come to find out it was done by the same director that did Shigurui (possibly the closest I've seen to a perfect season of an anime series), and it does feel like something of a spiritual successor. I hope this can deliver where Shigurui left us hanging.
There is a LOT of graphic violence though, so it definitely won't suit everyone's tastes.
I just finished,
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, The Irregular at Magic High School.
And really liked it. Watched it on Crunchyroll. Then found out season 2 was now airing.
Which is a little odd as season 1 was seven years ago.
The OP and ED's are pretty good, But the incidental music and sound effects are amazing.
Can't wait for a rewatch. Recommended.
I've been watching Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. Enjoyed the first season enough to start the second. I haven't finished it yet so can't really speak for the series as a whole, but the second season is raising a lot of interesting questions so far.
My friend pushed me to watch it although I don't really appreciate mecha as a genre. I asked for political twisty action with minimal required brain power and this delivered on so many levels. I found myself invested in what happened to the characters which hasn't really happened with me for recent anime series.
If I had to give a one-sentence summary of what it is about maybe "Trials and tribulations of a start-up transport company set against a space war with giant robots."