Another season of anime has (mostly) ended. Inspired by @Flashfall 's excellent seasonal review in an earlier weekly threads, I thought it'd be interesting to hear about everyone's overall experiences.

So, what's the best anime you've watched over the last 3 months? Doesn't have to be one released this season, as long as you've recently watched them. Seeing how the old and new compare to each other could also be interesting.

You can mention which other ones you've also watched so others know what the comparison was. It's also okay if you've only seen one since the fact you liked it enough to highlight is still noteworthy.

I thought this was a comedy, instead it just made me feel sad.

Another show ended this last week. Any one else also watched this one?

Overall a bit hit-and-miss for me. The art is beautiful, but the direction I felt frequently has odd moments that affected the pacing.

If there's a theme to the story I guess it'd be something along the line of don't be too obsessive in pursuing your dream (Yousuke with trying to bring Seiroku back, or the wine lady having to remind Inako that focusing on her dream of making her mom's sake is great but don't forget about the people the creation was meant for).

However, a lot of characters' actions were poorly motivated, making the story felt disjointed. While watching I kept thinking why Kihachi and Yousuke couldn't just work together instead of keep trying to steal the book from each other, it's not like they were competitors. Kihachi was said to be distrustful so maybe it was because he was suspicious of the guy, but then he kept giving out information or showing Yousuke his invention, as if enticing him to steal the book. Another example is Inako's dream to make her mom's sake and be a master brewer, which felt like should have been focused on more early on during the show, making her a foil to Kihachi's approach in chasing his dream perhaps. Instead the show seemed to put more focus on her being too trusting for most of the show, only when the electric book was randomly revealed to also contain her mom's sake recipe that this aspect of her character was brought back.

On a higher note, the OP and ED musics were the highlights for me. Quirky and sparkly which suits the story very well.

A bit late to the party. How did you feel about the show?

The retro 90s artstyle is definitely the highlight for me. Really gave me fluffy feeling of watching anime when I was (more) little.

Though that look was not a straight copy but got updated with some slight modern touches,

Something I'm also curious about is the red/blue color scheme for the mermaids. There must be some significance to who was chosen as red or blue but I couldn't quite tease it out yet.

Someone said Sayonara Lara sounds better than Goodbye Lara so that's what I go with for the title :)

What do you guys think about the anime?

I thought it was excellent. The art is impeccable and the historical matters were handled with great care. Studio Saru is on fire lately.

I've only watched the 1995 movie before, so it was a pleasant surprise this closer adaptation turned out to be straight crime drama with dense political intrigues and social commentary. The world feels more detailed and not just backdrop for philosophical musing, and so the questions being raised are more multi-faceted.

A particular highlight for me is the child-trafficking /ghost dubbing subplot. Not only does it further blur the lines between artificial and organic intelligence, but does so in a way that put more emphasis on the ethical dimension and not leaving it abstract.

Another example is her court statement questioning whether her shooting the kid or whoever brainwashed him in the first place should be more responsible for his death. The philosophical question is whether the death of a person should be marked when their mind or their body ceased to function, but the context of this being a defense for police unlawful killing gave me second thoughts.

Major's more lively characterization here also makes for an interesting contrast especially regarding her final act. In the 1995 version, she was morose since the beginning and just generally passive overall, so I interpreted her merging with the Puppet Master as due to being coerced, or her not very attached to living to begin with and so this is akin to a suicide on her part.

However, this version of Major is sexually active and enjoys indulging in life many pleasures. Crucially, merging (which was heavily implied to be analogous to digital procreation) was her choice, which makes that final decision more as embracing the call to adventure and choosing to enjoy new experiences, hence more life affirming.

Most of the political conspiracies went over my head though so if anyone can help explaining that side of the plot to me that would be great.

Not necessarily new, could be old but you simply haven't watched before.

Simply curious about everyone's habits. Like for me, I know about the dedicated databases but in practice, I just stumble upon whatever the algorithm decides to show and if the art looks eye-catching I'll give it a shot.

So, who wants a fun rabbit hole?

The Future I Saw is a 1999 manga by mangaka Ryo Tatsuki about supposed prophetic dreams. Supposedly many of those predictions would come to pass 15 years after each dream, or else in 15 year cycles (e.g. if something didn't happen in 2001, it could happen in 2016, then 2031, etc.). Purportedly this includes the deaths of Freddie Mercury and Princess Diana, and the 1995 Kobe earthquake, though those are debatable based on the fact they occurred before the manga was published. Or at least, Freddie Mercury's death was. There are currently two chapters translated and based on the foreword they were published in 1995 and 1996, and I don't know what year the Princess Diana prediction was published. I also don't think she published before the 1995 Kobe earthquake since she claimed that dream was only 15 days before.

As an extra note: she wasn't publishing the manga to spefically taut herself as a psychic or prophet. The two chapters that have been translated feel like a pretty standard example of a mangaka recounting some weird or mysterious event in their lives. In these chapters, she specifically focused on the bit about Freddie Mercury, a dream about her uncle's funeral, and a recurring dream of a woman in what she later learned to be an air raid shelter after finding it on a walk. And then the news reported a woman being found murdered there with the same clothes as her dream.

She's far from the only one who I've seen illustrate a story about a wild or creepy coincidence, I'm sure I've seen others also recount dreams that turned out to feel semi-prophetic. She just apparently had enough such stories to compile into a thematic volume, which makes sense since she apparently kept a very detailed dream journal to at least the 1970's. So lots of chances for her dreams to match up with reality.

However, some predictions that did come to pass afterwards, and the reason this manga became viral? The 2011 earthquake, and COVID.

Specifically, the cover included text on a notebook page saying "great disaster March 2011" which she added based on seeing the text in a dream shortly before the deadline. In regards to Covid, she supposedly predicted a great virus would strike the world in 2020 and peak in April, but it wouldn't be too deadly. The not deadly part was wrong... But she also predicted it would come back in 10 years even worse, so... Yeah, let's hope she's not psychic.

Now, to emphasize: a bunch of it is most likely coincidence. I've seen sources claim as many as 12 or 13 of her predictions have come true, but I can't actually find a full list of predictions to gauge the actual accuracy. The only one I can find is this Medium article, but it got the "death as a manga artist" wrong since she did retire around 2000 after publishing this volume. That said, there's definitely confirmation bias going on by people who want to believe she's psychic. She has some very avid believers. And also, again, she kept a dream journal since at least 1976. It makes sense some of those dreams would coincidentally line up with future real world events.

But it's still interesting. It feels rare to have two different big events predicted by a single source, so that adds a layer of intrigue and just a hint of "but what if...?" as you look at the other predictions. Based on the articles I've scoured, the big ones that have yet to occur are an eruption of Mt. Fuji (originally predicted for 2021, now pushed back to 2036 because of the 15 year thing), and an earthquake and tsunami in Kanagawa between June and September 2026.

The one that's currently making news and prompted this writeup: in the 2021 reprint, she predicted a major tsunami would occur in July 2025. So naturally people are saying last night's earthquake was that one. The details don't match up: she predicted the earth would crack open under the seabed between Japan and the Philippines (so the opposite side), that the waves would be worse than 2011, and people thought her descriptions of "boiling seas" indicated a volcanic eruption. But it's still an interesting coincidence that there was, indeed, an earthquake and tsunami in July 2025. And apparently that's good enough for some people to count it as an accurate prediction. Also, July isn't over yet, so uh. Who knows?

For some bonus reading if you want to dive into the rabbithole: There's a full Wikipedia page about that prediction, and the mild frenzy in the leadup to July this year. Most of the information I've shared came from various articles published just this year as a response to the growing rumors about it. That said, a lot of articles also seem to be either AI translated or maybe even AI written or researched with little human oversight, as many wrongly use male pronouns for her. I also haven't seen any articles reference the actual content of the manga beyond the big predictions, so chances are they're all regurgitating information that originally spread from a small selection of articles. So that just adds to the quagmire of iffy information available in English.

Still, like I said, it's kind of fun to look at and wonder. It's almost certainly just coincidence, but it's also the kind that leaves you wondering if maybe, just maybe...

I was reminded of that the first season (it's been greenlit for more) of the Netflix adaptation of One Piece came out, a good little while ago. How was it? Have you seen it? I've yet to see it - I've heard good things about it but never saw terribly much discussion about it online.

Alternative title(s) Horimiya: Piece
Genres Romance
No. Episodes 13
Information MyAnimeList AniList AniDB

Synopsis

It followed the relationship between Hori and Miyamura, two high school kids slowly forming a bond and falling in love - but only so much manga can be adapted and put into a thirteen-episode series. "Horimiya: The Missing Pieces" is here to fix that: It goes back to the beginning of the original series and fills in the pieces of the original manga that were left out in the first adaptation. From silly moments to quiet ones, this is a chance to reconnect with your favorite characters and see what happened between the scenes of the original.

^{(from IMDb)}

Discussion rules

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Since all episode discussions are within a single thread, here are some rules to ensure revisits are safe from spoilers.

Special note:
Since this is a bonus series for the original run of Horimiya, assume there'd be a lot of spoiler for the original show (i.e. details about the original show won't be/ don't have to be hidden). Please watch the original first for the best experience.

Direct links to each mini-thread

Episode discussion (main)

| Ep1 | Ep2 | Ep3 | Ep4 | Ep5 | Ep6 | Ep7 | Ep8

General discussion (extra)
| General chat || Main series, Source material,

^{P/S: See here for more ongoing show discussion threads this season.}

Alternative title(s) Dekineko, The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today
Genres Comedy, Supernatural
No. Episodes 13
Information MyAnimeList AniList AniDB

Synopsis

When Saku took in a stray black cat, she never expected that he would become the equivalent of a housekeeping life partner. But Yukichi, a giant cat who towers over Saku, is not your ordinary feline. He takes great pride in his culinary skills, and a good sale at the supermarket always gets his whiskers twitching. Saku may not have her act together yet, but at least she has Yukichi!

^{(from MyAnimeList)}

Discussion rules

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Since all episode discussions are within a single thread, here are some rules to ensure revisits are safe from spoilers.

Direct links to each mini-thread

Episode discussion (main)

| Ep1 | Ep2 | Ep3 | Ep4 | Ep5 | Ep6 | Ep7 )

General discussion (extra)
| General chat || Source material,

^{P/S: See here for more ongoing show discussion threads this season.}

Alternative title(s) The Gene of AI
Genres Drama, Psychological, Sci-Fi
No. Episodes 12
Information MyAnimeList AniList AniDB

Synopsis

This science fiction omnibus depicting a doctor who "treats" robot and humanoid problems takes place in the near future, when humanoids with artificial intelligence account for 10% of the population. The main character, Dr. Sudo Hikaru, also has the undercover name Moggadeet, under which he secretly takes on illegal medical procedures. For example, for a man who inadvertently infected his humanoid wife with a computer virus when illegally backing up her data, Sudo proposes an operation to rewrite her memory using backup data. Could an existence replaced by backup data truly be said to be the same as it was before?

^{(from MyAnimeList)}

Discussion rules

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Since all episode discussions are within a single thread, here are some rules to ensure revisits are safe from spoilers.

Direct links to each mini-thread

Episode discussion (main)

| Ep1 | Ep2 | Ep3 | Ep4 | Ep5 | Ep6 | Ep7 )

General discussion (extra)
| General chat || Source material,

^{P/S: See here for more ongoing show discussion threads this season.}

Alternative title(s) Undead Murder Farce, Andeddo Garu Mada Farusu
Genre(s) Fantasy, Mystery, Supernatural
No. Episodes 13
Information MyAnimeList AniList AniDB

Synopsis

The end of the 19th century—a vampire's wife is murdered, and the detective known as the "cage user" is called in to solve the crime. But there's more to the detective and the curtained birdcage he carries...after all, when solving a case involving a monster, it might just take one to know one!

^{(from MyAnimeList)}

Discussion rules

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Since all episode discussions are within a single thread, here are some rules to help ensure revisits are safe from spoilers.

Direct links to each mini-thread

Episode discussion (main)

| Ep1 | Ep2 | Ep3 | Ep4 | Ep5 | Ep6 | Ep7 )

General discussion (extra)
| General chat || Source material,

^{P/S: See here for more ongoing show discussion threads this season.}

Alternative title(s) Sorcery Fight, JJK
Genres Action, Drama, Supernatural
No. Episodes 23
Information MyAnimeList AniList AniDB

Synopsis

The second season of Jujutsu Kaisen.

The past comes to light when second-year students Satoru Gojou and Suguru Getou are tasked with escorting young Riko Amanai to Master Tengen. But when a non-sorcerer user tries to kill them, their mission to protect the Star Plasma Vessel threatens to turn them into bitter enemies and cement their destinies—one as the world’s strongest sorcerer, and the other its most twisted curse user!

^{(from AniList)}

Discussion rules

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Since all episode discussions are within a single thread, here are some rules to ensure revisits are safe from spoilers.

Direct links to each mini-thread

Episode discussion (main)

| Ep1 | Ep2 | Ep3 | Ep4 | Ep5 )

General discussion (extra)
| General chat || Season 1, Source material,

^{P/S: See here for more ongoing show discussion threads this season.}

I've been curious about this for a while now. I'll start:

The Philippines has a fair number of weebs. It helps that the local networks have been reshowing shows like Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, etc since forever. We even have vehicles called jeeps that have murals painted- it's unsurprising to see an anime character or two there.

Of course you still get people who think animation is lame, those are never gonna disappear. But it's not hard to find someone who is familiar with a classic show or two (high chance it'll be One Piece).

Alternative title(s): My Star
Genres: Drama, Supernatural
No. Episodes: 11
Series Description: (source from MyAnimeList)

Stream Link(s): Hidive, Disney, Ani-one Asia, Bilibili, Akiba Pass TV, ADN

Discussion Rules: Manga readers are welcome! Since Season 1 only covered till chapter 40, please hide any spoilers from chapter 41 onward by following the "Expandable sections" part of the formatting guide.

_{Fluff: I noticed that a few people in the recurring thread have been watching Oshi no Ko. Seems like a discussion thread is just what the doctor ordered!}

It seems this is something many of us want, but unsure how to start.

I thought the way @TesterJ set up the Community Watchthough is very nice so maybe we could do it that way for current airing shows as well: one thread for each show and every time a new episode drop, someone can pop in to make a new top-level comment (@TesterJ explained in more details here).

Maybe at the beginning of each season, we can have an ask thread of which shows we'd like to make dedicated threads for (to gauge interest and also avoid bloating up the group feeds with shows that no one watches haha). If this works we could do similar threads for manga series too.

What do you guys think?

Edit: According to the Recommend summer anime thread, several people are watching:

• Undead Girl Murder Farce Discussion thread
• Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu (The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today) Discussion thread
• Horimiya: the Missing Pieces Discussion thread
• Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Discussion thread
• AI no Idenshi (The Gene of AI) Discussion thread

Imma start with these 3 5 next week when the new episodes drop. Do mention if you have any more suggestions!

Alternative title(s): Boku Dake ga Inai Machi

Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Suspense

Series Description:

Streaming links: Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu

Discussion Rules: There will be a top-level comment posted for each episode according to the schedule below. All comments must be replies to the appropriate top-level comment. This will help keep the post organized, and by making use of the "Collapse replies" button, people can easily avoid spoilers when opening the post. In addition to the episode discussions, there will be a top-level comment for "General Chat" as well as a "Rewatchers - May Contain Spoilers" comment for those that wish to discuss anything that could be considered a spoiler for first-time viewers.

For anything that could even vaguely be considered a spoiler that isn't being put in the spoiler section, please refer to the "Expandable sections" part of the formatting guide in order to hide it

Schedule:
Episode 1 - Sunday, June 11
Episode 2 - Tuesday, June 13
Episode 3 - Friday, June 16
Episode 4 - Sunday, June 18
Episode 5 - Tuesday, June 20
Episode 6 - Friday, June 23
Episode 7 - Sunday, June 25
Episode 8 - Tuesday, June 27
Episode 9 - Friday, June 30
Episode 10 - Sunday, July 2
Episode 11 - Tuesday, July 4 (Possible move to the 5th due to the holiday)
Episode 12 - Friday, July 7

One Piece is known for extreme foreshadowing and grandiose world building, which allows for some interesting fan theories. So, let's see what you've got :)

I'll start.

I've always suspected that Imu was from the Void Century or earlier, due to them having history or knowledge of the giant straw hat frozen in impel down, and with the recent chapter it's looking moreso indicated.

My thoughts about how and why he became immortal, are because of the Op Op fruit, but the reasoning I think is because it was necessary to beat Joy Boy the first time around.

Joy Boy, or at least Luffy's manifestation of it, seems to sap vitality whenever it's used. My suspicion is that the Op Op fruit is necessary in order to achieve a full form Joy Boy, or else Joy Boy will just die of old age. So, Imu used it in order to steal that opportunity from Joy Boy in the past.

So, if I had to guess, Law will sacrifice himself for Luffy toward the end of the show to allow Luffy to permanently enter the Joy Boy state and bring eternal freedom to everyone!

That's all folks!

• Manga MAL

• Anime MAL

Today marks the release of the final chapter of Mashle: Magic and Muscles by Hajime Komoto. After three years, 162 chapters, and an official anime release, it's finally time to say farewell to our muscular, magicless, creampuff loving bowl cut.

Many of us have grown used to weekly updates on the world that seems like a farcical mix of One Punch Man / Harry Potter and will definitely feel its absence on Sundays.

I wanted to create this thread due to the popularity of the series (more than 5 million units in circulation!) and to spark more manga discussion in the community overall. This is the largest series to end in a long while, so it deserves a bit of a sendoff.

Topics/discussion points (feel free to address all or none):

• What did you think of the final chapter/arc?
• How do you feel about the series as a whole now that it has ended?
• Was Mashle successful in its storytelling goals?
• What are the strongest/weakest parts of the story and work as a whole in your opinion?

What are your thoughts on Naruto as a series? Anything specific you want to highlight (plots, characfers, themes, arcs...). Thoughts on manga, anime, movies, novel... all welcome.

What are you looking forward to?

-What do you think of Penumbra?

-Will you try to get Light of Foliar Incision or Alhaitham?

-Or rather you would save for Kokomi?

-Or you are a long time planner and preparing for Fontaine?