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๐ฏ๐ต designated ๐ weeb ๐ฏ topic ๐ฏ๐ต
Post about whatever anime you're watching, manga you're reading, or just general Japan stuff. K-dramas, k-pop, manhwa, manhua, and related discussion allowed too because why not.
Currently watching:
Comic Girls
Megalo Box
Steins;Gate 0
Tada-kun
Yuru Camp
Mostly really impressed by this season. Currently airing anime have been disappointing for a year or so now, in my opinion, and it's nice to see a burst of high quality anime coming out again.
Also, by the way, I've started an anime-focused Discord server to talk about both older anime and currently airing stuff. The idea is to avoid the hate speech and pedophilia and such that's all too common in anime communities. If anyone here wants to join, just shoot me a PM.
What do you think of Tada-kun? I had high hopes for it at the start of the season but I'm not too impressed right now. For an original anime series it's following a lot of the typical patterns you'd usually see in an adaptation of a romcom manga, focused on high school club shenanigans and putting any romantic development to the side for most of the season. That said, the past couple of episodes are finally going somewhere in the romance department so I could be pleasantly surprised by the end.
I'm far from caught up because I started this season late and focused on pumping out episodes of other things first, but I think it's really cute and charming, but I wasn't looking for a strong romance in it anyway. I came in expecting basically more Nozaki-kun since it has a similar tone and is done by the same studio + crew, for the most part.
It won me over by being tropey and formulaic but still managing to have a striking amount of charm and energy even if the outcome of each situation is the same as everything else you've seen.
Opinions on megalo box? I watched the first two episodes and didn't really care enough to continue.
I'm not caught up yet, but I'm in it mostly for the aesthetic and I'll probably watch it all just for that. Do you like Ashita no Joe or Ippo? Even though it's kinda surface-level to just compare it to other boxing things, there's a clear line of influence there, nevermind it being a spin-off of the former. If those weren't to your taste and the aesthetic isn't dragging you through, it's hard to think of why this would be an exception.
Yeah, the aesthetic is the only thing that stood out to me. I have free time anyway so I'll probably watch it regardless :)
I have way too much to talk about in general since I basically live on /r/anime these days, but I'll try to focus on one thing at a time.
So MyAnimeList is partially back up today after being down since Monday. Anyone switch to a different site in that time?
I switched to AniList as soon as the API went down, and I haven't looked back. It's missing one or two hard to find OVAs that I'm not really worried about, and the community is obviously not as large which means there's fewer ratings and such. The mobile apps are also not as good as pocket MAL, but they're not bad. Aside from those minor issues, I haven't had a reason to dislike it. It works with Taiga which is a must, and I quite like the activity feed and airing date notifications on the home page. It's also got neat stats built in, rather than having to go to another website for it.
The one thing that AniList is currently lacking that I want is being able to show and sort by start/finish dates, since I occasionally want to look at what I've completed recently. Other than that it's sufficient right now, so I'm trying to make it my main list.
It can keep track of it, but I've noticed that some sorting options are missing. I wonder if there's a userscript or external website that might do that for you?
The small community that is there on AniList seems to care a little more about their ratings, which is nice. High ratings seem to be a lot more meaningful, there's more spread of goodness. It always bothered me on MAL how even being in the mid to low 7 range means that people generally don't like a show, when to me that feels like a good to very good score.
I'm not an avid user of MAL, but there was a post on /r/anime (I wonder if it's considered a dick move to link back to Reddit =P Welp, can't find the post anyways) where some guy did a pretty thorough research on a few of the more well known similar websites. I think in the end he chose Anilist as his go to.
Indeed. I've referred other people to it a few times while MAL was down and they wanted to see what else was out there.
Does anyone else follow One Piece? I'm loving how the Reverie arc is turning into the Luffy fanclub arc.
When (if?) OP ends I might go through it at some point for the world building, but for now I'm just not really interested in shounen series like that.
Yeah, the world building in OP is on point. It strikes a nice blend between the familiar, the historical and the fantastic. Visiting a totally new place every 8 months or so when the crew arrives at another island is great for keeping the series fresh. I want to run a One Piece trpg sometime, although I might try to subtly alter the setting so my non-weeb players don't realize what I'm doing ๐
I do, but boy does it tire me sometimes... Literally during the climax of the current arc they throw a goddamn flashback on our faces! I was really enjoying it too, which is kinda uncommon since it's usually so slow.
Also, I just realized you're probably talking about the manga and I'm talking about the anime -.- Oops
Ah, you're right. I've heard the anime is paced a bit slower than the manga. The funny thing about the Whole Cake Island arc is that I actually have no idea what part of it you're talking about! There're several climactic moments with flashbacks that could fit.
So what you're saying is it's gonna happen again... Oh boy...
Not gonna mention the exact part we're in because of spoilers. Unless we have spoiler tags. Do we have spoiler tags? I'd love spoiler tags.
Whereโre my fellow darling in the franxx fans? Kinda disappointed there wasnโt another episode this week...
I'm watching it but wouldn't consider myself a fan. I think it's a series I'd probably enjoy more on a binge rather than week to week and without being colored by reactions from the rest of the community from episode to episode. The backlash toward Ichigo after episode 14 put a damper on things.
I tend to stay away from the community reactions these days - darlifra is more about the really well written and directed plot and the animation than shipping wars. I do feel that the week long wait adds to the thrill of each episode though!
Sometimes following an anime along with the community is the best part. IMO this is especially true with anime that seem like they're going to be divisive. I've actually enjoyed some mostly mediocre series just because of the memes complaining about them (cough Re:Creators cough). I'm kind of sad I haven't been following darling in the franxx weekly because, from my ~6 episodes in perspective, it seems like the series is either going to be super controversial or super disappointing, and either of those two things make for fun threads.
Depends on the show, if I'm getting into it myself then I'm definitely on board for the discussions (Mayoiga was great in that regard). But Darling never hooked me so it's more annoying than not for a chunk of the time.
I watched all of Re:Creators due to the hype. It was good enough that I didn't lose interest by episode 2, but kept expecting it to pick up. It was well made, just... shallow?
Oh shit ty for reminding me I havenโt read new chapters of things in months
Watching S;G 0 and MHA this season. Both are really fantastic so far.
One Punch Man (Saitama forever!!!) and Skip Beat. Sort of opposite ends of the spectrum, but what can ya do?
Are you familiar with ONE's other works? Mob Psycho 100 is fantastic (and the manga's finished, if you're the type to binge). The second season of the anime is going to come out soon, so I'm hyped for that.
Designated weeb topic? Yes please.
I admin for the community known as Axis Order, the active ones of you on reddit will certainly have seen us around comment sections.
We're currently watching:
Boku no Hero Academia Season 3
Megalo Box
Steins;Gate 0
Persona 5
Hisone to Masotan
Hinamatsuri
Golden Kamuy
Sword Art Online Alternative - Gungale Online
Darling in the FranXX
Nanatsu no Taizai S2
Megalo Box is anime of the season and GGO is amazing. Hinamatsuri is the weirdest and funniest of the season. Masotan is the cutest and has the second best ED song of the season after Megalo's amazing soundtrack.
Glad to make the acquaintances of my fellow fans! If anyone wants to hop in on us over at the Axis discord, do feel free to come say hi, we run a tight ship over there that's very friendly and non-toxic.
No I'm not going to sign up.
HisoMaso is getting better but the earlier episodes still felt shaky to me with almost every male character in the show being awful. Watching episode 8 right now (the OP just changed!), thanks to Asenshi for subbing it since no one licensed it.
You know you want to! One of us! Forsake ERIS and your hereticism! We're actually really large/active, 300k messages posted to the community per month.
HisoMaso has been adorable from start to finish! You take that back! We've enjoyed it a lot, it's a super comfy show and has been a much needed comfy show in a season without any others. Especially when we just had Comfy Camp and Antarctic Boat Anime (Blah blah far universe blah blah long name).
I have no idea why nobody would license a Bones anime original. It's BONES. It's an anime original. It was obvious from the start that it was going to be great, anime originals are usually very reliable in the first place because studios are highly committed to them. Bones themselves are as comparable to Trigger and Madhouse in the top 3 of "high quality" studios.
๐ Eris pads her chest. ๐
I've been meaning to watch like half the stuff on your list but for various reasons haven't gotten around to any of them. I love the Hinamatsuri manga (and happened to binge it right before discovering the anime was coming out next season) but I've only seen the first episode of the anime. I guess I've been intending to watch it with a friend and just haven't made the time to meet up with them lately...
๐ Praise Aqua! ๐
You should definitely watch it. I can't say I've read the manga so don't know how it will hold up to expectations but those of us that have watched it (we stream that whole list weekly and watch with stream chat as a group) have definitely enjoyed ourselves. It's super weird, but funny and cute and sad.
It has provided some fun scenes for custom reactions, such as this "welcome" one by one of our users: https://streamable.com/yon6z
I really need to start reading JoJo parts 5-8
Just watched Sakamichi no Apollon. I really liked Sentarล; he comes off as a genuinely good person, and works as an excellent foil to "Ritchie." I also liked the jazz themes (which was the reason I decided to watch it). I didn't like the brooding protagonist or the passive love interest. I found their relationship more frustrating than anything else. I'm thinking of watching Cowboy Bebop next, again for the soundtrack.
You're in for a treat! Bebop is considered a classic for a reason. Also, the dub is pretty good, and I'm saying that as someone who watches with subtitles 95% of the time.
Bebop and FMA are the only two anime for which I prefer the dub
Just finished Cowboy Bebop, and I completely didn't realize they had the same director(!) I had no complaints about the dub; it's nice to have a good quality English version :) When you read subtitles, you lose a little. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so serial for whatever, reason, but it does allow for the story to breathe (and it has less filler than some shows I've watched). The ending is interesting; a lot of stories have an emotional buildup/release at the climax, but here all the tension was already released by the final fight. Perhaps they snuck it by me without my noticing. I didn't get Edward at all. She didn't really seem to add much to the plot that Fay didn't already. She was introduced late in the series, and never seems to do much (except be annoying). Is there any canonical explanation for what Gren/Vicious were fighting on Titan? Overall I quite enjoyed it.
Anyway, I don't have much planned for my next-in-line, so I'm open to suggestions.
Sakamichi's one series where, while the anime's ending is okay, I definitely think it's worth going to read the final volume of the manga if you want better closure. And I agree that their relationship was frustrating but also somewhat relatable given how passive I am in my own life; maybe I'm a bit of a masochist for regularly enjoying series that have that kind of thing.
I'll have to check it out.
To be honest, I was more frustrated that he seemed to be more of an insert than a character in his own right. The guy is an asshole a lot of the time, and painfully inept the rest.
It's very hard for me to get into any anime (or any show). HOWEVER, I'm in love with Made in Abyss. I haven't felt this way about an anime in decades. After I finished the first season I went and read all the manga chapters. Then I went and showed my friends and the most common reaction was "that was really fucked up... when does season 2 come out?"
I'm eagerly awaiting season 2.
So I'm completely out of my depth here, but I thought it was fitting that last night I randomly clicked on Terrace House on Netflix without knowing it was Japanese. I watched 3 episodes because I love me a trashy reality show every once in a while. :-D
I have a couple of friends who are quite into it but haven't given it a try myself as it never sounded like something I'd enjoy. That said, I could easily see myself also getting in deep if I found that it hooked me, so I'm also partially avoiding it out of self-preservation.
It's also fascinating for me, since I know nothing about Japanese culture. So I get to see how people interact when they're new acquaintances, etc. I obviously know that these 6 young people don't represent the whole culture, but it's more than I knew before!
I especially like listening to the 6 hosts of the show discussing what they think of the subjects' interactions. What they say is rude almost never seems rude to me! (Cause I'm a big dumb American ;-)) And I'm SHOCKED by some of the things they say to each other. When they were talking about what type of person they would like to date, two of the girls said "I like it when a man is disinterested in me; as soon as they show interest, I'm not interested anymore." and one of the guys said "I want a woman who will do everything for me. I don't want to be domineering, but I just want her to want to take care of me."
At least the other people seemed as shocked as I was!
After seeing a couple of panels about magical girls at Anime Boston I decided to dive in and watch a bunch of them, starting with one that I vaguely remembered from my childhood: Sailor Moon.
While a lot of it is silly monster of the week stuff or middle school girls being middle school girls, there's a decent overall plot to it and the end of the first season gets pretty intense. Could be better but I'm enjoying it overall.
My anime list for anyone curious.
Ooh, you've inspired me to consider switching over to AniList from MAL. This looks a lot more suited to how I actually use MAL than MAL itself is.
EDIT: Oh, this is done by the anichart people! I respect what they've got going there...I think this is a new home! Thanks for this, even though you did it totally unintentionally and it wasn't the point of your post!
I also have a MAL account but decided to start promoting my AniList one instead after being dissatisfied with how the former's been handling their downtime over the past week. Doesn't quite have all the same features but generally works well enough for me.
I'm rereading naruto again for the first time in 5 years.
How does it hold up these days? My only experience with naruto is catching bits of the anime on cartoon network as a wee little elf, and watching LittleKuriboh's Naruto abridged series.