8
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 just finished Devilman: Crybaby last night.
It popped up on my Netflix queue after finishing Castlevania season four. I tried starting D:C when it came out in 2018, but turned off halfway through the first episode because of the nudity, but I thought, eh, same vibe as Castlevania, right? NOPE.
I'll thread for spoiler discussion if others want to talk about it, but you know those shows you'll probably never rewatch because of how they make you feel, but are grateful you experienced it? Yeah, this is one of those shows.
I came into D:C blind. I knew nothing about the franchise's legacy, or the production team's pedigree. I'm... glad?... I persevered.
Mechanically, the show is beautiful. The action is crisp, and I really like the show's art style. I've heard reviews say that the way this show was produced made it feel like a 10-part OVA, and I definitely agree.
I watched the dub, and the overall voicing was pretty good. I'm not deeply entrenched in the "subs vs dubs" holy war, though... More seasoned anime fans might have more to say on that.
The music is really good - there's this synthwave track that shows up a few times I'm a big fan of, and that song will pluck my heartstrings forever.
The story itself (again, no spoilers) was very fast paced - they pack a ton into 10 episodes, to the point I had a little pacing whiplash. Then I had a lot of pacing whiplash. Then I felt multilayered sadness.
I'm grateful I didn't watch this as a chaser to Castlevania season 3...
I'm a fan of the show's director, Masaaki Yuasa, whose signature is the unique art style you saw here. For me D:C did quite a few things right but it was more or less empty calories - usually good for a rush, and it rang a little hollow when it did try to probe a little in later episodes. Much of my gripes apparently had to do with the source material, though. I'm planning to soon watch an older show of his, Kemonozume, which is supposedly quite similar to D:C thematically.
Yuasa is a weird one, he both made one of my favorite anime ever (Kaiba) which I've rated a 10/10, and one of my most hated anime ever (Devilman Crybaby) which got a 1/10 from me.
Kaiba looks interesting. Added to the list!
Enjoy, it's great.
1/10? Really? There's much, much, much worse anime than Crybaby, so I don't know where you go from there. Why'd you dislike it so much?
I found the artstyle and animation terrible, like I've literally seen short flash animations from the 00s that looked better to me.
The fight scenes looked like a vague abstract mess.
I couldn't give a damn about the characters or plot.
The overall message of the anime feels extremely misanthropic and nihilistic, which is always a gargantuan red flag in my book.
Not only did I dislike the ending itself, it also kinda felt like a sort of nod to Evangelion, another anime I deeply despise, so that only added more fuel to the fire.
I found it extremely boring.
I found the soundtrack super crappy, and I say that as someone who tends to love anime OSTs.
Like I said at the start of the thread, I was initially turned by how over-the-top the nudity was, but I pushed through it. I definitely agree with basically every review I checked before restarting my watch - this show is definitely not for everyone.
Regarding the art style, I really liked it. I love shows that decide to lean into being visually distinct. But I also get why it's a double-edged sword and can be just as strong a turnoff.
I really liked most the soundtrack, but again, it was a good pairing to my electronic/synthwave/whatever tastes. It's another very blatant, deliberate choice, and I totally get why it could deliver the opposite reaction to what I got.
Regarding characters and plot, I loved the characters, but I'm still trying to understand what I took away from the show - was it just nihilism and sadness? Still figuring that one out.
I did enjoy the art style, so I will have to look into more Masaaki Yuasa work.
Regarding that bit about empty calories - The show hit me hard emotionally, so I'm still discerning what I'm actually taking away from it. But yeah, I hear you - once the show gains momentum, secondary and tertiary plot points become shallower.
Overall, I'm still giving it a thumbs-up.
Kemonozume looks interesting. Added to the list!
I have recently started going to the gym again and that has given me plenty of time when I do nothing but stare straight ahead.
So, I've been using it to start working through my watch list on VRV that hasn't been touched for ~2 years.
I'm almost through all of what is currently released of So I'm a Spider, So What? and I can definitely recommend it if you want an Isekai with a bit of a twist and plenty of comedy.
Slight Spoilers
It starts with the usual bit of the main character dying and being reincarnated into a fantasy world, but instead of just the main character, the whole class is reincarnated.Most of the class is reincarnated as humans, but the mc is, as the title implies, reincarnated as a spider.
While most of them get brought together over time, the mc is all alone.
The story jumps back and forth between the mc and the rest of the class and that helps to keep it from feeling like things are dragging on in either of the storylines.
The two storylines take place at different points in time, with the mc storyline starting shortly after reincarnation and the class storyline starting ~15 years later.
As the series progresses, these two storylines slowly converge and there are hints as to what happened to the mc in the latter storyline and when they'll meet up.
So far, every time that I thought I knew what had happened/what was going on, there has been a bit of a twist.
That along with the comedy and jumping between storylines has kept me very interested in seeing where the story goes.