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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 started reading Golden Kamuy. I love adventure stories and Golden Kamuy mixes history, culture, and adventure pretty well. The leads are "Immortal" Sugimoto, a Russo-Japanese war veteran and Asirpa, a young Ainu girl. The Ainu are the natives of the Hokkaido region of Japan, and the manga weaves stories of their history, culture and lore through a classic treasure hunt adventure.
Sugimoto and Asirpa make a very interesting team and Asirpa's role as a guide to Hokkaido is not just for Sugimoto, but for the reader as well. She introduces Sugimoto to many hunting and survival concepts and these come into play when the the two of them run into an antagonist.
It's got some fantastical elements, but overall it's very grounded in reality and real-world history, so if you're looking for a break from more "superpowered" adventure stories, Goldem Kamuy is a great option.
Finally, the art style is incredible. Everything from Asirpa's hunter outfit to the snowy peaks of Hokkaido is very detailed.
I watched Bakemonogotari and Nisemonogotari.
They're.... different than any other media I've watched so far. There is a generous amount fan service throughout, but the characters are complex and sharp, dialogue is great, music is amazing and general focus on dialogue means I can rank it very high on my personal quality anime list.
I wouldn't risk recommending it to someone who's not thoroughly familiar with general anime tropes, though. ;)
I got caught up to where I tuned out in Attack on Titan, s2e5, "Historia" I know the plot points that are revealed, and am also aware of the curiosity I've held onto about various other points. S2 isn't as gloomy as I remembered it,, at least in a death-oriented way, and I like that it develops more than Eren, Mikasa, Armin and their direct reports.
I also didn't realize how central Christa was, relatively speaking. I thought they literally pulled her out of thin air for S2, but she was always there, just out of focus. I've just watched the episode before her background, and it makes more sense this time.
I have wanted to go back and re-watch AoT because there is so much to frok or miss. But then I remember s1 pacing and realise I don't have patience for that anymore. Good thing it came out when I was in college, no chance for it today.
Can I ask about the pacing? It's longer, for sure, but I found the non-linear storytelling in S2 so far to be harder to track. I figure a show is a show if it's 26 or 10 episodes a season.
I remember being frustrated even back then just how awefully slow first season was. Second season was not much better, with added nonlinear storyline as you say. Third was very much perfect IMO, and current season has been good, but very inconsistent. There are episodes now that cram together decades of story in single episode while there are couple of episodes with basically 2 minutes of real story/action stretched out for 20 minutes. I still love the show and its just my opinion, but it gets tiring and I don't have patience to waddle through all of this second time around.
My partner and I finally got around to checking out Halt and Catch Fire and we've blown through seasons 1 and 2 already. Really enjoy the characters and ridiculous drama.