General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour

[cobaltstarfire]

I would agree that Log Horizon has some pretty awful pacing, but I like some of the concepts in it enough that I'd watch a third season of it if it ever came out. It's not like I'm hurting for time to watch a show anyway.

[Anteros]

Has anyone seen this one?
https://myanimelist.net/anime/33926/Quan_Zhi_Gao_Shou
It reminds me of SAO but more grounded. Also, it's really struck me that it was a chinese anime so the moonspeak threw me off a bit.

Defintely-not-WOW professional gamer gets booted off his team. So he gets a job at a netcafe and creates a new account for the love of the game. It's kinda hard to find right now, I think there's stuff only on Amazon strike or something.

I watched about 6 episodes of this and I enjoyed it. It's kinda like other game animes but they just skip over the "stuck in a game" subplot and admit it's just a guy playing a video game. I honestly enjoyed the slice of life parts about the main character's life outside of the game more than the parts about the game itself.

[HMS Invincible]

I watched about 6 episodes of this and I enjoyed it. It's kinda like other game animes but they just skip over the "stuck in a game" subplot and admit it's just a guy playing a video game. I honestly enjoyed the slice of life parts about the main character's life outside of the game more than the parts about the game itself.

That's good, I watched like three, but I've been too busy to watch the rest. The other shows take priority.
I was concerned that the Chinese origin nature might have limited the conflict to a feel good people's party approved blandness.

[Lethologica]

That's good, I watched like three, but I've been too busy to watch the rest. The other shows take priority.
I was concerned that the Chinese origin nature might have limited the conflict to a feel good people's party approved blandness.
Only in terms of the absence of skeletons, probably.

[Arbane]

Re: Creators #9: DAMN YOU, MAGANE!

....Is it just me, or was she flirting with Sota?

[HMS Invincible]

Re: Creators #9: DAMN YOU, MAGANE!

....Is it just me, or was she flirting with Sota?

If you consider emotional abuse and humiliation flirting, then sure...
I think the Alice subterfuge would have worked better if mamika had simply died in Alice's arms with less talking. I was surprised by the reversal of the second lie though. I wasn't expecting meteora to catch Sota that fast. Most stories demand they have a misunderstanding and fight a bit before it gets sorted out.

[Merellis]

Well this month's chapter of Dungeon Meshi is out, and we get some more world building for how dungeons work in this world! As well as some super neat mystery for Laius' new application of magic. :smallbiggrin:

And of course the big reveal!

Kabru and his party finally meet up with Laius' party! Will the cynical swordsman who specializes in people kill the optimistic monster eater? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

Honestly the fact that Laius is starting to take on his sister's role and ability to see ghosts/visions is really neat. I think it's a family line thing that's only unlocked when you can access magic, or in the case of Farlyn, are just that good. Wonder if this means that they'll be losing Farlyn forever?

The fact that all three parties have met up with each other sort of makes me think that Laius' party will be heading back down past the 5th floor, which I'm super stoked for!

Also, the fact that Chilchack has figured out how to navigate the moving maze that is the 5th floor is a really mundane but no less amazing feat to get considering that the entire floor is a maze of alleys and buildings. Everyone seems to be powering up and picking up neat little things, beyond Senshi and his already legendary cooking skill in regards to monsters.

Ahhh, I just love this series!

[Kato]

Just here to give this a dump and say I really liked the new manga chapter of OPM.


I mean, Saitama's talk was kind of stating the obvious but it still worked well enough. And King even tried what I would have, giving him a challenge he can't easily win. Though I'd have maybe tried something else than video games...

Also: Watchdog beating Garou is pretty fun. And him meeting the two and getting easily removed was at least a bit funny.

[BiblioRook]

So recently I've been in a rare anime mood and looked into the 'Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid' anime since I heard so many speak well of it. I ended up enjoying it more then I expected. What I thought was going to be just another 'cute monster girls' thing ended up being something of an exploration in simple relationships of a shockingly non-romantic type. That always seemed like a rare thing in anime (and really media in general). I have to ask though, am I just reading to much into things?

[Drascin]

So recently I've been in a rare anime mood and looked into the 'Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid' anime since I heard so many speak well of it. I ended up enjoying it more then I expected. What I thought was going to be just another 'cute monster girls' thing ended up being something of an exploration in simple relationships of a shockingly non-romantic type. That always seemed like a rare thing in anime (and really media in general). I have to ask though, am I just reading to much into things?

I really think that Kobayashi, despite being full of dragons and fantasy, is a much better look at relationships than most purported romance shows.

Kobayashi is an extremely realistic person. And the way she slowly grows from "this dragon person is bloody crazy and I want my life back" to "I think I may actually love this family I built" to "I love Tohru and I will stare down a ****ing RPG final boss for her if necessary" is very well done. No need for extreme shows or cheesy confessions or crying drama under cherry blossom petals or any of that rot, because people's actual relationships don't work like that.

I think calling it non-romantic seems a definite stretch, though. Kobayashi is a person who has a lot of trouble putting herself out there emotionally, so she needs to take things slow (which she straight up admits to Tohru at one point), but I don't really think she's non-romantic about it. For one, Kobayashi is too kind and mindful of other people's feelings to lead the couldn't-be-more-obviously-smitten Tohru on for that long without telling her she's not interested, for her own sake, if she wasn't in fact interested.

[BiblioRook]

Well I wasn't just thinking about the relationship between Kobayashi and Tohru but also the likes of Kobayashi and Kanna or even Takiya and Fafnir.

That being said, it's not as if the romantic relationship between Kobayashi and Tohru is one-sided I think, Kobayashi probably wouldn't have been so inclined to invite Tohru to live with her if she wasn't into her in the first place.

[Drascin]

Well I wasn't just thinking about the relationship between Kobayashi and Tohru but also the likes of Kobayashi and Kanna or even Takiya and Fafnir.

That being said, it's not as if the romantic relationship between Kobayashi and Tohru is one-sided I think, Kobayashi probably wouldn't have been so inclined to invite Tohru to live with her if she wasn't into her in the first place.

Exactly what I meant, yes. I had understood that you felt the main relationship was non-romantic and I was kind of "wait, what?" :smalltongue:. Kobayashi and Tohru are clearly romantic on both sides, it's just not this loud blushing thing that most anime does because Kobayashi is a very muted person who has some intimacy issues, so she's taking it slowly.

[BWR]

I never picked up on any romance there. Tohru is infatuated with Kobayashi, which isn't the same as romance, and Kobayashi is learning to enjoy life outside of drinking and geekdom, perhaps especially as a parent.

Guess I'm just dense (maybe I should apply for the role of Protagonist-kun in a harem comedy).

[BiblioRook]

I mostly got it in the flashback when they first met, maybe it was just me but that wasn't pity I was getting from Kobayashi when she made the offer to Tohru.

[Spacewolf]

I mostly got it in the flashback when they first met, maybe it was just me but that wasn't pity I was getting from Kobayashi when she made the offer to Tohru.

Seemed more like drunken camaraderie at that time they have had a few moments later though.

[endoperez]

I was also surprised by how much I ended up liking Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon. I don't watch many anime shows, but it was my biggest favourite in years! Also, it's on sale for 4.42€, on Steam of all places, if you want to throw some money into it.

I also think the show is about relationships and/or couples and/or living together. It's about learning to accept the other person until both have changed to fit better together. And that's something that sounds like it should be a romantic story, except romance stories aren't actually about that; they tend to be more about awkward crushes and embarrassing almost-moments and so on.

Also, as much as I like the show as a whole, the Queztalcoatl / Shouta sexual harassment thing is just weirdbad.

[BiblioRook]

I also think the show is about relationships and/or couples and/or living together. It's about learning to accept the other person until both have changed to fit better together. And that's something that sounds like it should be a romantic story, except romance stories aren't actually about that; they tend to be more about awkward crushes and embarrassing almost-moments and so on.
Agreed. It's refreshing to have a show about romance and/or relationships that doesn't depend entirely on ackward humor or the will-they/won't-they. Those are always the worst part about romantic anime while also easily being the majority of what's out there.


Also, as much as I like the show as a whole, the Queztalcoatl / Shouta sexual harassment thing is just weirdbad.

Also agreed. I... try to ignore those parts honestly or at the very least try to see it in the context of Queztalcoatl know being entirely aware what she's doing, but it's still a pretty all-together regrettable part of an otherwise enjoyable series.

[BWR]

Eh, it's not the best part but it's enjoyable enough.
I can stomach quite a lot in the name of humor.

[JCarter426]

Well, Netflix finally released Little Witch Academia from its hoarding, behind-the-times grasp. Which is good, because I don't think there's a whole lot lined up for the next season. Owarimonogatari isn't even a full cour.

And Re:Creators' recap episode was without a doubt the greatest recap episode I've ever seen.

[BWR]

The girl and I just finished watching Revolutionary Girl Utena and I'm rather disappointed. A promising start and a few hilarious filler episodes aside, nothing much of interest - nothing much at all - happens for thirty-odd episodes until the last five. Utena shows no growth, no questioning what the hell is going on, no initiative, no protagonisting at all, nothing of note for the vast majority of the show, just showing up for duels because....reasons, and winning them because of plot device. The middle arc was entirely pointless and added nothing except timewaste. The show could also not quite decide what it wanted to do with its characters and most of them ended up being entirely irrelevant after having been built up. The entire show could easily have been cut down to ten or twelve episodes (down from 39) and would in all likelihood be better for it.

[HMS Invincible]

Well, Netflix finally released Little Witch Academia from its hoarding, behind-the-times grasp. Which is good, because I don't think there's a whole lot lined up for the next season. Owarimonogatari isn't even a full cour.

And Re:Creators' recap episode was without a doubt the greatest recap episode I've ever seen.

Meteora's take on events is hilarious. A planned recap was really ballsy. Anybody get evangelion vibes from the recap?

[Chromascope3D]

Well, Netflix finally released Little Witch Academia from its hoarding, behind-the-times grasp

I'd be laughing at this if I wasn't currently crying...

...Because they only released half of it.

[JCarter426]

Meteora's take on events is hilarious. A planned recap was really ballsy.
Well, we're in between seasons right now. The alternative would be to take the week off, as Boku no Hero Academia did the same day. Better to air something than nothing when you have something of substance to air, which they surprisingly did. And the entertainment value of the episode aside, I think it was appropriate considering how the whole show is a commentary of the anime industry. It wouldn't be complete if we didn't get chapter on recap episodes.

I'd be laughing at this if I wasn't currently crying...

...Because they only released half of it.
After six months, I'm just glad they released anything. I doubt they'll be able to keep getting away with this in the long term, though. I know they have their whole business model of trying to kill broadcast television, but if making people wait six months to watch something starts to hurt their business, and it will - that's why all these simulcast sites have sprung up in the first place - then they'll have to change their business model. Either they'll simulcast in English like everybody else does, and like they're simulcasting in Japanese, or they'll get out of the anime business. Either would be a welcome improvement from my point of view.

Of course, they just announced that Fate/Apocrypha will release in November. So it seems they haven't caught on just yet.

[HMS Invincible]

https://myanimelist.net/anime/season
Summer season is out, anybody find any gems yet? I haven't gotten around to anything, but I'm looking forward to more spinoffs and sequels like Fate Apocrypha and New Game!!.

[Fri]

Made in Abyss because it is what it is, and Kakegurui because I am what I am.

[BWR]

The ones I've tried so far.

Aho Girl from the creator of the Manga/ka and his Assisstants, this time with less panties and more bananas. Amusing enough if you enjoy utter braindead+straight man humor.

Yokai apartment no yuuga na nichijou. Seems a bit bland after one episode. There are several good takes on this basic theme: Magetsukan Kitan, Mononoke Sharing (from the author of everyone's favorite maid dragon), Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san, and a couple others whose names have escaped me at the moment, so why we were given this and not one of those is beyond me. Maybe it gets better.

Isekai Shokudou. Pretty nondescript and nothing much happening, and not in the good way like Aria or Amanchu. For some reason I can't really stomach cooking manga/anime (Sweetness and Lightning being the exception because the food isn't really that big a deal), and this seems to be too food-focused. I'll take my food porn in purer form. Maybe I'll give it another chance. Maybe not.

[cobaltstarfire]

I'd be laughing at this if I wasn't currently crying...

...Because they only released half of it.

T_T

We just started watching it tonight, the 2 episodes we've watched were really fun.

[BWR]

So I tried a few more shows.

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits
Let's put on a show; right here. When the country's most popular superhero show is canceled in a small town, the little kids are deeply disappointed. A couple older kids put on a show for the younger ones to try to lift their spirits. More promising than pretty much anything else I've seen so far.

Jikan no shihaisha
Shounen, monsters, time manipulation, annoying superpowered protagonists. Not gonna watch any more.

Battle Girl High School Project.
I had intended on giving this one a miss based on the description. Anything saying 'based on a game' is instantly suspect in my book (even though I've been pleasantly surprised a couple of times, so you'd think I'd be more open to them). Then I saw someone comment that it was basically Yuru Yuri with magical girls. It wasn't. What it was was a generic young girls fight aliens/demons/whatever with generic stereotyped personalities and stock dialogue, with little comedy and no yuri in sight. Seems my first instinct was right.

Centaur no Nayami
Slice of life with monster people. Not the naughty fun kind like in Monmusu or the innocent fun kind like in Interviews with Monster Girls, just everybody being human/other animal mishmashes and having a normal, boring school life. Not bad but I'm not sure I'll bother watching more.

Princess Principal
Easily the best so far. Alt.u steampunk London, cavorite, spies and very nice art and decent animation, and promising setting and story. The only objectionable bit is all the important people being young girls with the standard variety of made-to-appeal-to -guys personalities and extreme skills. And one with a kasa and a katana for some reason. Because Japan, I guess. Still, I'm going to keep watching this one.

[DoctorFaust]

I've seen Fate/Apocrypha and Princess Principal. Apocrypha seems fairly enjoyable, and the first two episodes make me hopeful that they'll be able to pull off the large cast at least decently. Really enjoying Miyuki Sawashiro's performance as Saber of Red.

Princess Principal I'm a little doubtful about, though that's to do more with the age of the cast than any real issues I had with the first episode. So I guess I'm more or less in agreement with BWR about it.

[mallorean_thug]

Warning:

Princess Principle is being written by Ichiro Okouchi

[BWR]

Warning:

Princess Principle is being written by Ichiro Okouchi

I had to look up the name, and realized I hadn't seen most of it. So worst case is we get Koutetsu no Kabaneri again: generally nice art and animation, good world building, completely unlikable and uninteresting characters that fall to all the shounen tropes so hard it cracks the iron wall.
Best case we get something generally enjoyable like Azumanga Daioh (though that was written by someone else so I don't know how much credit he can take for that).

I'll keep watching for a few more episodes to see what will happen, at any rate.


Also tried:

Knights and Magic
Yet another died and reincarnated in a fantasy world one. Dull and predictable once you've seen a couple. Of course, everything after Konosuba is bound to be a disappointment if you aren't terribly interested in the genre already.

Hajimete no Gal
I'm already reading the manga, so I'll be watching this, mostly out of lack of anything better to watch. Total loser nerd gets a gyaru girlfriend. Juvenile male-centric romantic comedy. A timewaster but not bad.

Tenshi no 3P
Loser nerd who makes music is scouter by three gradeschoolers to produce their band. Eh, I don't think it's for me.

[Prime32]

Knights and Magic
Yet another died and reincarnated in a fantasy world one. Dull and predictable once you've seen a couple. Of course, everything after Konosuba is bound to be a disappointment if you aren't terribly interested in the genre already.It looks to be rushing and skipping over content at ridiculous speed. The first episode was equivalent to half the first book, or 9-10 chapters of the manga.

[JaneStop]

Great thread!

[mallorean_thug]

I had to look up the name, and realized I hadn't seen most of it. So worst case is we get Koutetsu no Kabaneri again: generally nice art and animation, good world building, completely unlikable and uninteresting characters that fall to all the shounen tropes so hard it cracks the iron wall.

You mean worst case we get Valvrave and the bad parts of Code Geass again. And yeah, generally when you're looking at writing credits for an anime original work, you should only look at previous anime original stuff, not scripts for adaptions.

[BWR]

You mean worst case we get Valvrave and the bad parts of Code Geass again.

Like I said, I haven't seen most of the stuff he's worked on.

[Rysto]

So the other day I decided to rewatch Re:Zero. It was all going well until Emilia showed up and suddenly I heard Megumin speaking (I hadn't seen Konosuba the when Re:Zero originally aired). I'm not sure I can take her seriously anymore... :smalleek:

[Fri]

Knights and Magic
Yet another died and reincarnated in a fantasy world one. Dull and predictable once you've seen a couple. Of course, everything after Konosuba is bound to be a disappointment if you aren't terribly interested in the genre already.


So the other day I decided to rewatch Re:Zero. It was all going well until Emilia showed up and suddenly I heard Megumin speaking (I hadn't seen Konosuba the when Re:Zero originally aired). I'm not sure I can take her seriously anymore... :smalleek:

Konosuba ruined the genre forever. Just like how Airplane! ruined disaster movies and Animal House ruined college movies :smalltongue:

[BWR]

Hell Girl is back!
The first episode is another traditional JS story about bullying and lack of friends, a tragedy of errors that results in people going to hell. The old gang is back, plus the new ones that were introduced over the last seasons, and what is presumably this season's plot arc is already teased. Best show yet this season.
It really is odd that I should like this show as much as I do because I generally don't like the tragedies and people being real world horrible to each other. Were it not a supernatural show I would avoid it like the plague.

[Rysto]

Konosuba ruined the genre forever. Just like how Airplane! ruined disaster movies and Animal House ruined college movies :smalltongue:

I was being literal there. Emilia and Megumin have the same voice actress, and Megumin was such a distinctive character that it really stands out to me. It's hard to take Emilia seriously when I keep expecting her to bust out an "EXPLOSION!".

[HMS Invincible]

I was being literal there. Emilia and Megumin have the same voice actress, and Megumin was such a distinctive character that it really stands out to me. It's hard to take Emilia seriously when I keep expecting her to bust out an "EXPLOSION!".

If you kept up, and watched as they aired, you wouldn't have this problem.

[Rysto]

Uh, I did keep up with Re:Zero when it was airing. I was rewatching it. And if I'd kept up with both shows it actually wouldn't have helped: Konosuba S1 aired before Re:Zero.

[Spacewolf]

So what Manga are people reading currently? Or ones that are a fair way in so I don't run out to quickly.

[Fri]

Here's five of my "main" manga recently.

1. Hinamatsuri.

If people ask me what's my top 5 favourite movie, or game, or anime, I'd have hard time making a list. But if someone ask me what's my favourite manga of all time, I'd easily pick Hinamatsuri, hands down. It's my favourite manga of all time.

It's hard to explain, hard to link individual pages of, and starts slowly. But the basic premise is it's a slice of life comedy manga where a Yakuza (who is weirdly actually a nice guy) got a weird girl with psychic power appearing in his apartment, and she strongarm him to basically adopt her as her daughter. The manga is about their daily life and the cast of characters that appearing around them, the Yakuza's coworkers, the girl's school friends, the bartender who tend the bar he frequent, etc. It's hard to explain, but basically it's a snowballing comedy manga. Each chapter is a built up or preparation for another chapter, which will be foundation of another chapter, and so on. It starts really slowly (not helping that early art and scanlation is rather bad), but it rolls and keep building more setting and character interaction to set up for a punchline and heartwarming or tearjerking interaction ten chapter in the future. It's hard to link any individual page or chapter and point out why I'm laughing my ass off, because each chapter is basically built on every previous chapters. and since it's I think 12 volume up right now, it has a lot of foundation for punchlines. If any of you're interested, you should try to keep up for about one or two volume.

2. Dungeon Meshi

Eventhough this is a manga, this is the best "lighthearted dnd style" media I've ever encountered. You know what I mean by lighthearted dnd, there's fighter, dwarf, elf, rogue, magician, they delve dungeons. It's about a party who almost got TPK'd in a dungeon by a dragon, but the party's healer managed to did a heroic sacrifice to teleport the rest into the surface. The party then delve back into the dungeon to try to challenge the red dragon again and find the healer's remain so they can ressurect her before it's too late, but since they're out of money, they have to survive by eating the various monsters in the dungeon. But there are serious thing afoot in the background. It's dnd+nature documentary+cooking show. And it's amazingly good.

3. Golden Kamuy

This is basically AU Metal Gear set in 19th century japan. It's about a veteran of russo-japanese war known as "the immortal" because he keep surviving things that kills his comrade, and a young ainu (northern japan indegenous people) girl, travelling japan to find gold stash that was supposedly collected for ainu rebellion years ago. But they're not the only one trying to find the gold stash, besides them are a fanatical military company led by a crazy psychopath, and the remnant of the satsuma rebellion, the three sides trying to find the gold stash for their own purpose. It's a weird combination of visceral and sometimes gory fight scenes, ridiculously absurd comedic situation, historical lesson, and japanese wildlife and cooking documentary (since they survive by the land and the manga explains about the various indigenous animals and plants they use to survive). Why I call it metal gear AU? It's about soldiers being discarded after war trying to find their place, with lots of combat, weird philosophical musing about nature of war, psychopaths with captioned title (Solitary Wildcat Sniper!), and they basically heal up by eating.

4. Kimetsu no Yaiba.

The jump shonen fighting manga I follow recently. It's a shonen fighting manga, you know about it, but I just find the story and setting nice. The art is rather bad and webcomicy at the start, but the author improves steadily. It's about a boy who got all of his family eaten by demon, and got recruited into a secret demon hunter society in 19th century japan.

5. 81 Diver.

This is more personal follow, I don't think most people would be interested, but it's still one of the main manga I follow that brighten my day whenever I got new one. It's about over the top shogi, which start relatively low key, but slowly getting more and more over the top. But here's a background. There's gap between pro soccer player that plays in a league, and amateur soccer player, there's an obvious gap, where a bad pro soccer player is still better than a good amateur soccer player. Shogi is the sport where the gap between pro and amateur is the widest. This is partly because the system in professional shogi in japan. If you want to be pro shogi player, you have to take national exams that's done twice a year. If by certain age you still haven't reached certain dan, you're not allowed to continue in the system. Then if you pass, if by 21 year age you haven't managed to pass the pro shogi exam, you're not allowed to continue in the system, you can't be a pro shogi player and join the pro league. And if you manage to pass the exam and be a pro shogi player, if by certain age (30, I think) you hasn't managed to reach certain dan, you have to quit being pro shogi player.

The manga is about a guy who dedicated his youth to be a pro shogi player, but failed to be one in when he reached 21 years old, and lost his purpose in life. But then he's involved in underground amateur shogi, that get more and more over the top as it goes (yes, there will be attempt to conquer the world through amateur shogi very later on).

[Eldariel]

Here's hoping "Ballroom e Youkoso" delivers. I've been waiting for an anime on partner dance for god-knows-how-long and I'd hate for it to fall flat on its face.

[kamikasei]

Seconding Fri's recommendation of Dungeon Meshi. Although his description is somewhat misleading - really, it's a study in how much horror and despair a single elf face can express.

I'm reading a few of the mainstream titles - My Hero Academia is still great, UQ Holder and Attack on Titan... exist. Kiss Him Not Me seems to have exhausted its idea reserves but it's still in my queue out of inertia. Flying Witch is comfy and amusing when it updates. I'm a little behind in Arpeggio of Blue Steel, but it's still one of my surprise hits. Sweetness and Lightning is cute, of course.

A few of the new Jump Start titles from Weekly Shonen jump - which they're including in the digital English subscription - have been pleasant surprises. Dr Stone isn't great, but it's keeping me interested. The bit surprise has been Robot x Laserbeam. I would never have predicted that a sports manga about golf would be one of the titles I most look forward to each week, but there you are.

[Merellis]

Thirding the Dungeon Meshi recommendation.

Amazing world building throughout the series, great humor, and excellent characters~!

[BWR]

I'm reading an embarrassing amount of stuff, but for a small selection of the most notable:

Yotsubato. If you like Sweetness and Lightning, you should like this one. Ridiculously cute slice of life about a young girl's fascination with the world around her.

Seconding Flying Witch.
Akatsuki no Yona. because it's frickin' awesome. Go watch the anime if you haven't already.

Maou-jou de oyasumi. the demon king kidnaps the princess because that's what demon kings do. She just wants a good night's sleep. Hilarity ensues.

Tomo-chan wa onnanoko tomboy tries to get the attention of her dense as neutronium childhood friend.

[Spacewolf]

Yea Dungeon Meshi is one I'm already reading, it will be interesting if it keeps the humour up with recent developments.

[kamikasei]

Tomo-chan wa onnako tomboy tries to get the attention of her dense as neutronium childhood friend.
Can't believe I forgot to mention this one myself.

[DoctorFaust]

The longer running stuff I've been following recently has been Horimiya and Ancient Magus Bride. And I guess Kumo desu ga, Nani ka, but I don't think it's had quite as many chapters. Other notable stuff includes:

Somali to Mori no Kami-sama, which is about about a young human and their forest guardian...guardian, I guess, going on a journey in a world that hates humans to try to find more humans. Quite melancholy despite having, like, a 7 year old as one of the main characters, and there's some out and out horrific stuff in some of the character's backstories. There's definitely some light-hearted stuff in it as well, but I wouldn't say it's the majority.

Witch Hat Atelier, a sort of Harry Potter-ish series about a girl that gets pulled into the world of magicians after being sold a forbidden book of spells. I like the magic system, though it fortunately hasn't gone incredibly in depth about it. It's also got some freaking great art.

A Bride's Story, a historical romance series set in the late 19th century about a woman that's sent into an arranged marriage with a boy 8 years younger than she is. Which I'll admit sounds like a bit of a skeevy premise, but it's actually really good, both because the two are obviously in love with each other, and because the main woman is freaking badass. Also has fantastic art (http://pm1.narvii.com/5936/bee712be0358321b715226255d096ffc674b756b_hq.jpg) and some really fun side characters.

Kono Koi ni Mirai ga Nai and Our Lonely War both seem promising, but don't have much released yet. Kuutei Dragons was also really good for the six chapters that got scanlated, but since it's been dropped, I doubt there'll be much more of it released in English.

[BWR]

A Bride's Story, a historical romance series set in the late 19th century about a woman that's sent into an arranged marriage with a boy 8 years younger than she is. Which I'll admit sounds like a bit of a skeevy premise, but it's actually really good, both because the two are obviously in love with each other, and because the main woman is freaking badass. Also has fantastic art (http://pm1.narvii.com/5936/bee712be0358321b715226255d096ffc674b756b_hq.jpg) and some really fun side characters.


I can't believe I forgot to mention that one. It's really good.

[Alent]

I'll echo support for Somali no Mori no Kami-sama, Ancient Magus Bride, Dungeon Meshi, Bride's Story, and Akatsuki no Yona. Good stories, good art. Bride's Story is a long time favorite, as an artist- the woodcarving in chapter 2 or 3 is just... ~wow~.

My own suggestion would be Helck. It starts off as comedy and quickly becomes this amazing dramatic adventure to save the world full of feels and comedy as an out and out parody of JRPGs: Helck is a human that's attempting to fill the position of Maou so he can destroy all humans, and it only gets more incredible from there as things get revealed and tropes get deconstructed.

Shoukoku no Altair is also a good one. I've been following the Manga for that one for quite a while, the Anime is airing this season, but the art doesn't hold a candle to the original, which has some simply beautiful artwork.

I'm sure there's some others I'll be going "I can't believe I forgot ____!" about later, but right now all I'm getting is a head full of Isekai titles I really wouldn't recommend. (That subgenre amuses me far too much. I can't believe the Isekai x Foodporn genre is a thing now.)

[Fri]

My own suggestion would be Helck. It starts off as comedy and quickly becomes this amazing dramatic adventure to save the world full of feels and comedy as an out and out parody of JRPGs: Helck is a human that's attempting to fill the position of Maou so he can destroy all humans, and it only gets more incredible from there as things get revealed and tropes get deconstructed.

I forgot about Helck. I can't believe it. Sorry Helck, after all you've gone through, I also forgot about you ;_;

[Spacewolf]

I forgot about Helck. I can't believe it. Sorry Helck, after all you've gone through, I also forgot about you ;_;

So after seeing the recommendation for Helck tried it out and yea it was pretty good, seems I've started right before the climax of the current arc though.

Also of the Anime I'm watching this season From the Abyss seems the most interesting even though I haven't heard much about it

[BiblioRook]

Finally got around to watching 'Interviews with Monster Girls' when it hit me... wow, isn't calling them 'monster girls' super insensitive? I mean they even had an issue with being called demi-humans.

[kamikasei]

Finally got around to watching 'Interviews with Monster Girls' when it hit me... wow, isn't calling them 'monster girls' super insensitive? I mean they even had an issue with being called demi-humans.
That's EN marketing for you. The JP title uses "Demi-chan", as is the preferred nomenclature.

[BWR]

That's EN marketing for you. The JP title uses "Demi-chan", as is the preferred nomenclature.

Well, the manga uses 'ajin-chan' in the title while the anime uses 'demi-chan', so I suppose you can say the English translation is, if my virtually non-existent Japanese is right, is closer to the manga's title.

[kamikasei]

Well, the manga uses 'ajin-chan' in the title while the anime uses 'demi-chan', so I suppose you can say the English translation is, if my virtually non-existent Japanese is right, is closer to the manga's title.
Not exactly. As far as I can see, the manga is also Demi-chan. It just uses the kanji for "ajin", with "demi" as furigana (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/Demi-chan_wa_Kataritai%2C_volume_1.jpg).

[BWR]

Not exactly. As far as I can see, the manga is also Demi-chan. It just uses the kanji for "ajin", with "demi" as furigana (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/Demi-chan_wa_Kataritai%2C_volume_1.jpg).

Ah. I was going by the transliterated title listed on the comic which used 'ajin', since I know bugger all about kanji.

[Metahuman1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUpPzETJy7o&t=99s

1:36 to 1:39, does anyone happen to know what anime that is suppose to be?

[kamikasei]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUpPzETJy7o&t=99s

1:36 to 1:39, does anyone happen to know what anime that is suppose to be?

The giant photographic stockinged legs over the sketched-out cityscape? I think that's from Panty & Stocking.

[Calthropstu]

Hey guys, I have a question. Is the saga of tanya the evil the prequel to strike witches?
I remember the anime strike witches mentioning some world war in europa which led to the unleashing of the great enemy, and the mages in tanya work the same as in strike witches. Or am I just looking too far into things?

[HMS Invincible]

Hey guys, I have a question. Is the saga of tanya the evil the prequel to strike witches?
I remember the anime strike witches mentioning some world war in europa which led to the unleashing of the great enemy, and the mages in tanya work the same as in strike witches. Or am I just looking too far into things?

You're looking too deep. For one thing, no animal spirits, no panties fan service. And the characters are too old. Not to mention the much darker story telling.

I can't believe that fate anime isn't being picked up on crunchy roll.

[Pendulous]

I feel really limited because I only recently got into watching anime regularly, and I only watch dubs, so I'm stuck with what I find on Hulu and Funimation. But I really enjoyed New Game so far, so much so that I watched season 1 twice. My Hero Academia as well. Waiting for another season of Seven Deadly Sins as well, and I'm gonna try to catch up on some older stuff I missed. Also gonna check out Gamers since it seems to be highly rated, and looking for more stuff similar to New Game. As new as I am to anime in general, I'm even newer to that genre, but the show really grew on me.

[kamikasei]

I can't believe that fate anime isn't being picked up on crunchy roll.
Netflix nabbed it. You'll watch it once it's all done and all the discussion of it has passed you by, and you'll like it, by god.

(Annoyingly many shows lately are being picked up by channels like Netflix or Amazon which either don't make them available while they're airing or make watching them a huge pain in the ass, or strictly region-locked.)

[Chromascope3D]

They finally released the second cour of LWA on Netflix, although I couldn't find any official announcement advertising it anywhere, which I can't possibly figure out the reasoning behind.

[Lord Raziere]

I'm still wondering where I can watch pokemon all the time.....even if I know the outcome of every arc. Its not about Ash's inevitable defeat, its about seeing the episodes of how pokemon behave along the way.

[kamikasei]

They finally released the second cour of LWA on Netflix, although I couldn't find any official announcement advertising it anywhere, which I can't possibly figure out the reasoning behind.
I did get an email from Netflix about it, which may be as much announcement as they consider it to need.

[Pendulous]

I did get an email from Netflix about it, which may be as much announcement as they consider it to need.

Ditto. Got a new dub episode of New Game and the rest of Little Witch Academia. Making a very terrible week just a little better.

[VariSami]

I just caught up with the Made in Abyss manga... It is just so good! I am laughing so much at Digibro's assessment that the story might be a standard shounen arc based on the latest anime episode. His reasoning was flimsy at best to begin with (since even dark stories need lighter arcs to break the tension and make it felt again), but wow. Just wow. I think I will actually collect all the physical volumes of this once they start being published in English at the beginning of next year (at least Amazon will have Vol 1 then).

The author does have a strange obsession with naked lolis and peeing lolis, though. Some of the time, it works to give a sense of nonconformism to the characters and situations. At times, I think it is used as a joke. However, it is even acknowledged within the series that there are intended to be sexual connotations to it.

[t209]

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2017/08/12-1/new-gundam-seed-and-gundam-seed-destiny-dub-in-the-works
Well, I think there goes "Ed vs. Edd" (both VA voiced Kira and Athrun respectively) and "racist Rarity/Soma Perries" (Tabitha St. Germain voiced Flay).

[Doorhandle]

Just started watching JoJo again, and you know what i'd love to see? An edited version with all the stands made invisible, so we could see it from the perspective of a non-stand user.

I mean, the Anubis!Polnareff vs Jotaro battle would be hilarious! You'd see a french guy repeatedly missing the world's burliest schoolkid with a sword before they're suddenly being thrown into a building!

[BiblioRook]

So I recently found out how to download videos off youtube and since I've been trying to put togeather a collection of some of my old favorite openings and endings from anime as well of new ones that I haven't seen before but enjoyed as I stumbled upon them. In the interest of refreshing my memory (a lot slips through the cracks in 10+ years) or finding something new I was wondering what people's favorite openings and endings generally are.

Currently if I had to pick a single favorite I would have to give it to Konosoba (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqqI5G9OLpE), it's practically an episode in itself condensed into a minute and a half.



Unrelated. My brother is more then a little obsessed with the game Go, to the point where it pushes away any and all other interests. Not to long ago though he was moderately a fan of anime but specifically a fan of the anime Bleach. Given his current interest in Go it was hard to see what his thoughts on Hikaru no Go were. His response? It was 'too short'. (For those that aren't aware, Hikaru no Go is 75 episodes long...)

[Lethologica]

You can always inform him that there is an extra arc of Hikaru no Go material in the manga. IDK if I liked it, but it's there.

On favorite OPs, Serial Experiments Lain's is definitely one of mine. It basically contains Lain's fundamental character arc in 90 seconds of condensed, symbolic storytelling, but there's no way a first-time viewer would be spoiled by it. And the music is great.

[BiblioRook]

Actually that wasn't 'too short' as in 'I wish it was longer', he apparently thought it was unusually short for an anime series because he assumed that anime's the length of Bleach were the norm.

[tensai_oni]

Let it be known that when it comes to fiction, I can be pretty forgiving. I have tolerance for weaker episodes and I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt, that missteps are just that, missteps, and not proof that a show that I saw as great is suddenly now garbage.

I mean, I gave Build Fighters TRY 17 episodes before deciding, yeah, this is bad.

That being said:

Latest three episodes of Re;Creators are a perfect example of how to ruin a good (great, even! Possibly anime of the season until a certain point) show and turn it into worthless crap.

[Rysto]

Sounds like I dropped it at the right time then. (Actually, that's totally a lie. Dropping it after 2.5 episodes, like I originally did before you lot convinced me to give it a second chance, would have been the right time)

[tensai_oni]

That's the problem, if the series was bad from the start, that wouldn't be so horrible. But the first ~16 episodes were legit good. Shame about the rest.

[Fri]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-09-12/hinamatsuri-super-powered-yakuza-comedy-manga-gets-tv-anime-next-spring/.121248

I'm dead. This was my ghost typing this. I'm dead.

[Pendulous]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-09-12/hinamatsuri-super-powered-yakuza-comedy-manga-gets-tv-anime-next-spring/.121248

I'm dead. This was my ghost typing this. I'm dead.

I don't read manga, but that sounds amusing.

Right now, I'm not watching anything, but waiting for new episodes of New Game and My Hero Academia each week. Even though I have tons in my queue. Just can't muster the motivation. Last thing I finished was Railgun S, which was ok. Tsuredure Children is...ok, but I'm not really caring when new episodes come out. My Girlfriend is a Gal might be the most appalling thing to have been created for TV.

[Rysto]

Meanwhile, I've been having more fun watching seasonal anime this summer than I have in a while. Made in Abyss and Princess Principal are both great. Gamers! is way better than I ever would have expected from a romcom (and Funimation has done a fantastic job with the English dub). New Game+! has upped its game significantly in its second season, and I'm enjoying Tsuredure Children a lot.

[BiblioRook]

My internet has been so bad lately that I've been desperate for things I can watch offline, I've mostly turned to anime for that. Sort of been focusing on long series such as Fairy Tail, Beelzebub, and Gintama. Gotta say with Gintama, while I never not known about it, it's always came off to me to be something of a very low-key hit. I mean it clearly much be popular (you don't get to nearly 400 episodes for nothing) but it's a series I never really hear talked about. Like, at all.

For those that don't know what Gintama is, think Rurouni Kenshin only with the serious bits removed and the weirdness dialed up to 11 I think. Oh, and aliens are involved.

[Fri]

My internet has been so bad lately that I've been desperate for things I can watch offline, I've mostly turned to anime for that. Sort of been focusing on long series such as Fairy Tail, Beelzebub, and Gintama. Gotta say with Gintama, while I never not known about it, it's always came off to me to be something of a very low-key hit. I mean it clearly much be popular (you don't get to nearly 400 episodes for nothing) but it's a series I never really hear talked about. Like, at all.

For those that don't know what Gintama is, think Rurouni Kenshin only with the serious bits removed and the weirdness dialed up to 11 I think. Oh, and aliens are involved.

I'd dare to say that Gintama is actually one of the most popular running anime/manga in japan that's not straight up Shonen Fightan. I mean, it's the kind of thing where people default to when thinking about the VA, in the line of "this guy who voice character X is the VA of Gin" and the characters keep appearing in "favourite character" polls with other classics in between whatever character from the current season anime.

I really want to get to it, but the number of episodes always intimidates me :smalleek:

[BWR]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-09-12/hinamatsuri-super-powered-yakuza-comedy-manga-gets-tv-anime-next-spring/.121248

I'm dead. This was my ghost typing this. I'm dead.

Neat. I like this one.

[DoctorFaust]

Here's something else that might kill Fri. If the stuff I'm reading is to be believed, Harmony Gold has lost the license to SDF Macross.

[Spamotron]

Here's something else that might kill Fri. If the stuff I'm reading is to be believed, Harmony Gold has lost the license to SDF Macross.

The version I heard is that while Harmony Gold currently still has the rights a definite date for them to expire has finally been set. Specifically March 14, 2021

This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoMs6iYXyng&t=302s) is what I was linked to.

[DoctorFaust]

Yeah, now that I've actually seen an article that appears to have been done by lawyers and not Macross fans, that is what it looks like.

:smallfrown:

This is significantly less good news.

[Fri]

Yeah, now that I've actually seen an article that appears to have been done by lawyers and not Macross fans, that is what it looks like.

:smallfrown:

This is significantly less good news.

Well in 2021 most likely we're all won't be dead from apocalyptic nuclear hellfire yet. Maybe.

[BWR]

Of the last season I ended up finishing Princess Principal, Aho Girl, Tzuredure Children and I'm working on Jigoku Shoujo. I like the show but I find it hard to stomach the misery in an episode without giving it time to settle before the next one. PP was, if you could get over the nigh-superhumanly skilled young girls, a good show in pretty much every respect. Good art, good animation, decent characters, and interesting plot. I would have liked to see more of the world they lived in and more politics and actual spy stuff, but I was entertained all the way. I wouldn't mind seeing more, but I'm not holding my breath. TC was just fun and sweet all the way, and AG was good for crass stupid fun stuff. If I'd been less busy I might have finished Action Heroine Cheer Fruits, but at this point I don't really feel the need to do so.

This season has a couple of good ones. First off, Mahoutsukai no Yome. A story about a damaged young girl and her slowly finding joy and comfort in life. With magic and fairies and skull-faced father figures.
Boku no kanojo ga majimesugiru sho-bitch is basically Seitokai Yakuindomo with an actual romantic relationship, so if you like slightly dirty jokes you'll probably like this one.

It also has a couple weird ones.
Houseki no kuni androgynous crystal people fight weird invaders from the moon. Not sure what to think yet. Maybe it will be worth watching. Maybe it will end up being crap.
Imouto sae ireba ii LN writer who really likes little sisters. Likes them so much it's either disgusting or just weirdly pathetic, depending on your disposition. It's probably trying to be the Eromanga sensei of this season but does not give a good first impression. It's times like these I wonder why I don't look more carefully at titles or descriptions before clicking things.

Apart from that there doesn't seem to be much of anything interesting, but based on experience I'll try something else and end up finishing it, or even greatly enjoying it So, new season, possibly new pleasant surprises.

[Rysto]

Princess Principal was really good, but I was a bit disappointed about how episodic it was. The first two episodes had me expected a longer-form plot with a lot of twists and turns and betrayals, which we didn't really get. Still, I really enjoyed it.

Gamers! was a lot better than I would have expected. At it's core it's a fairly standard romantic comedy whose humour revolves around the characters misunderstanding each other. What made it work for me, rather than it just being Generic Romantic Comedy #1492, is that whenever it looked like it would start getting stale and predictable, the status quo gets completely upended in a hilarious way that takes the story in an entirely new direction.

Made in Abyss was fantastic. The only real blemish is that it's an adaptation of an unfinished manga, so the overarching story is incomplete. But what we did get was so well done I don't regret watching this. One thing to beware: this show absolutely earns its rating. If you're squeamish, stay far around from this one. The characters are cute but don't be fooled; this show pulls no punches.

New Game+ really wound up surprising me. The first season was mostly a pretty standing cute girls show with light comedy and plenty of fanservice. The second season upped its game considerably by adding realistic workplace drama and conflict. It's not Shirobako-level stuff, but it was a welcome change of pace and got me to reevaluate my view of the series as a whole for the better.

Tsuredure Children was fun. It was a series of romantic shorts following a fairly large cast. There were some characters and individual scenes that I didn't like very much, but even most of the characters that I disliked wound up having parts in scenes that I did. This is another adaptation so not all of the character arcs got finished off, unfortunately.

[Pendulous]

I'm still absolutely in love with New Game. Between it and My Hero Academia, gonna be disappointed when the new season starts without them.

That said, I watched the first season of Love Live Sunshine, just in time for season 2 to start. And I'm watching through K-On as well, so I'm definitely getting my fill of cute girl anime.

Looking forward to the new season, despite everyone just...hating, all the hell over it. Once Funimation's schedule starts, gonna try to keep up with Black Clover, Urahara, Konohana Titan, and Recovering MMO Addict. Meanwhile, Chrono Crusade, Yu Yu Hakusho, Clannad, and Blood Blockade Battlefront also in my queue.

[tensai_oni]

Re;Creators didn't fully destroy, but somewhat eroded my faith in original anime series.

Princess Principal restored it. A fair tradeoff, I guess.

[lord_khaine]

New chapter of One Punch Man out, the story continues to be surprisingly good as the fight unfolds.

[Rynjin]

Decided to pick a random new anime this season. Inuyashiki seemed neat.

Hoo boy.

I feel like it'd be better without the cringeworthy Berserk 2016 quality CGI animation and the BEYOND cheesy OP but even without that I think it'd still be kinda corny. The basic premise sounded interesting but the execution is just so...bland. It has a very specific feel to it that i can't quite place my finger on. It reminds me of a much older anime.

EDIT: BLASSREITER. Something about it feels the same. Man I haven't thought about that anime in a while. Similar issues, I think is what reminds me. Bad CGI that tries to make things look cool and important but just ends up feeling super lame. Also involves humanoid robots. Sort of. Kind of.

[BWR]

Tried a few more.

Konohana kitan is a cutesy supernatural slice-of-life with minor fanservice. Pretty, but nothing particularly original. Still, the gf and I will watch this unless the quality takes a serious hit.

Urahara seems like more girl-centered, less fanservicey version of Akiba Strip: three cute girls get technological/magical powers to fight off aliens coming to steal our culture. I'll give it another episode or so, probably.

Animegatari School show centered on an anime club. Seems to be nothing but fan references to real life works (under different names, of course). I doubt I'll bother finishing this one.

Kujira no kora sajou ni utau. Floating island cities in a sea of sand, mysterious world history, mysterious girls you find on a passing island and minor magic. Maybe it will lead somewhere.

[Delusion]

Can someone recommend me an anime? My favorites are Madoka, Kill la kill, Princess Principal. Other ones I mostly liked were Yuki Yuna is a hero and Konosuba. The manga I liked most are Claymore and Full Metal Alchemist.

So something along those lines. I am not picky about length though 12-24 episodes seems to be a sweet spot.

[endoperez]

Can someone recommend me an anime? My favorites are Madoka, Kill la kill, Princess Principal. Other ones I mostly liked were Yuki Yuna is a hero and Konosuba. The manga I liked most are Claymore and Full Metal Alchemist.

So something along those lines. I am not picky about length though 12-24 episodes seems to be a sweet spot.

So something fun, that might have a bit of drama and/or tragedy on it, or an adventure/similar show with drama, not afraid of heavy themes, and seemingly a preference to fantasy stuff?

You could consider Katanagatari.
The premise of ridiculous characters on an adventure is a bit reminicent of Konosuba, even if the group only has 2 people in it. However, as it goes on you learn about their long-term goals and their pasts, which adds a bit more weight and drama, even a touch of tragedy to the series. 12 episodes, and an interesting art style. It's, hmm, let's say martial arts / low-magic fantasy.

If you really enjoyed Konosuba and would like more fantasy parodies, Overlord might be worth checking out. The protagonist played a game as a max level evil skeletal lich mage, but he and his entourage of min-maxed minions enter a fantasy world that the lich could probably conquer on his own. He proceeds to be a paranoid, over-thinking and over-planning dude who's not half as good at all this evil mastermind stuff as his minions think he is, but when it comes to magic, well, Megumin from Konosuba is the only more epic magician I've seen so far in anime.

Cowboy Bebop is a scifi romp carried by the characters and the style. Again, mostly light-hearted, although the theme of the episodes does vary a bit, and sometimes the theme of the week is horror, or tragedy, or sacrifice. More often than not the theme is something lighter, though, such as "space shuttles are cool" or "find the dog!".

Ghost in the Shell is a cyberpunk scifi show about police / special forces doing their thing. The main cast are mostly good, in a world of mostly gray. It doesn't go full dystopia, but it talks about good and bad aspects of cybernetic brains, including move those brains between bodies or into a cybernetic body, brain uploading, brain hacking, AI versus human intelligence, and whether a soul or spirit ('ghost') exists and whether it's diminished if the brain ('shell') transforms from a biological into a cybernetic one. Good storytelling, interesting ideas, and it's mostly well executed.
There's some anime movies, and a series titled "Stand Alone Compex" (SAC), 2nd season titled "Stand Alone Complex - 2nd Gig", and a conclusion in the animated film "Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society". Each are individual arcs with the overall story arc focusing on a specific investigation. There are OVAs that include 'Laughing Man' and "Individua Eleven" in their titles, they're shorter adaptations of SAC and SAC 2nd Gig. These are all one continuity, slightly different from the manga.
Ghost in the Shell: Arise is a prequel more in line with the manga world, despite being a prequel and not an actual adaptation.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is a story of a very low-level party's struggle in a very low-fantasy world. I think the biggest, baddest monster they ever see in the first season is a big kobold. It's slow, thoughtful, and to be frank kinda cheaply animated - there are lots of slow, panning shots over a static background, with a voice over it. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but even though it's set in a fantasy world and has the fantasy checklist, it doesn't feel like a fantasy story.

[Delusion]

So something fun, that might have a bit of drama and/or tragedy on it, or an adventure/similar show with drama, not afraid of heavy themes, and seemingly a preference to fantasy stuff?
Pretty much. Though on the humor front I have noticed that much of the humor in various anime just makes me cringe while the rest leaves me giggling like a maniac. Konosuba and Kill la Kill were mostly latter though about half the jokes related to Darkness in Konosube and some of the most overtly sexual jokes in Kill la Kill were former. One of the biggest things I like in the three I mentioned as my favourites are the larger than life emotions and the characters not giving up despite the difficulties and tragedies involved.




You could consider Katanagatari.
The premise of ridiculous characters on an adventure is a bit reminicent of Konosuba, even if the group only has 2 people in it. However, as it goes on you learn about their long-term goals and their pasts, which adds a bit more weight and drama, even a touch of tragedy to the series. 12 episodes, and an interesting art style. It's, hmm, let's say martial arts / low-magic fantasy.

If you really enjoyed Konosuba and would like more fantasy parodies, Overlord might be worth checking out. The protagonist played a game as a max level evil skeletal lich mage, but he and his entourage of min-maxed minions enter a fantasy world that the lich could probably conquer on his own. He proceeds to be a paranoid, over-thinking and over-planning dude who's not half as good at all this evil mastermind stuff as his minions think he is, but when it comes to magic, well, Megumin from Konosuba is the only more epic magician I've seen so far in anime.

Cowboy Bebop is a scifi romp carried by the characters and the style. Again, mostly light-hearted, although the theme of the episodes does vary a bit, and sometimes the theme of the week is horror, or tragedy, or sacrifice. More often than not the theme is something lighter, though, such as "space shuttles are cool" or "find the dog!".

Ghost in the Shell is a cyberpunk scifi show about police / special forces doing their thing. The main cast are mostly good, in a world of mostly gray. It doesn't go full dystopia, but it talks about good and bad aspects of cybernetic brains, including move those brains between bodies or into a cybernetic body, brain uploading, brain hacking, AI versus human intelligence, and whether a soul or spirit ('ghost') exists and whether it's diminished if the brain ('shell') transforms from a biological into a cybernetic one. Good storytelling, interesting ideas, and it's mostly well executed.
There's some anime movies, and a series titled "Stand Alone Compex" (SAC), 2nd season titled "Stand Alone Complex - 2nd Gig", and a conclusion in the animated film "Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society". Each are individual arcs with the overall story arc focusing on a specific investigation. There are OVAs that include 'Laughing Man' and "Individua Eleven" in their titles, they're shorter adaptations of SAC and SAC 2nd Gig. These are all one continuity, slightly different from the manga.
Ghost in the Shell: Arise is a prequel more in line with the manga world, despite being a prequel and not an actual adaptation.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is a story of a very low-level party's struggle in a very low-fantasy world. I think the biggest, baddest monster they ever see in the first season is a big kobold. It's slow, thoughtful, and to be frank kinda cheaply animated - there are lots of slow, panning shots over a static background, with a voice over it. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but even though it's set in a fantasy world and has the fantasy checklist, it doesn't feel like a fantasy story.

Thanks I'll check some of those out after the exams next week when I have more time :)

[Fri]

Grimgar and Konosuba are a GM trying to pitch the exact same campaign premise to two different groups, but one group turned it into comedy shenanigans and the other group turned it into maudlin serious drama. They even got aired in the same season.

[Rysto]

Can someone recommend me an anime? My favorites are Madoka, Kill la kill, Princess Principal. Other ones I mostly liked were Yuki Yuna is a hero and Konosuba. The manga I liked most are Claymore and Full Metal Alchemist.

Give School Live! a shot. But go in completely blind. Don't google it, don't read the summary on Crunchyroll, don't do anything. Just watch the first episode. The entire first episode, mind you. It's not until the very end of the episode that the full plot is revealed. My sister, who really liked Madoka, PrinPrin, Yuki Yuna and Konosuba thought that it was too cutesy for her half-way through episode 1 of School Live! but by the end of it was loving it and immediately asked that we do the next episode.

[endoperez]

Pretty much. Though on the humor front I have noticed that much of the humor in various anime just makes me cringe while the rest leaves me giggling like a maniac. Konosuba and Kill la Kill were mostly latter though about half the jokes related to Darkness in Konosube and some of the most overtly sexual jokes in Kill la Kill were former. One of the biggest things I like in the three I mentioned as my favourites are the larger than life emotions and the characters not giving up despite the difficulties and tragedies involved.

Thanks I'll check some of those out after the exams next week when I have more time :)

On the cringe front, I totally get you. The shows I mentioned are mostly good with that, with Overlord being the worst about it.

You might also want to give a try to some anime rom-coms too. No adventure, but some of them have the humour and the larger-than-life emotions and nice characters. Some even have mundane tragedies, sans all the monster-related drama. If that sounds good, maybe give Lovely Complex a try? If you end up liking that, you'll want to ask for recommendations that fit your preferences. Most of anime romances are bad IMO even when they aren't pervy harem shows, and some of the bad ones are really bad.

[Silfir]

I think Little Witch Academia is a perfect fit. It's made by the studio that made Kill la Kill and shares animation style and sense of humor (though it's less insane), it's almost literally all about emotion, and it's completely appropriate for all ages. Probably my favorite show of the year.

Konosuba to me is highly reminiscent of one of my old favorites, the 1995 fantasy comedy Slayers, which I think still holds up extremely well. It's to traditional pen & paper RPGs what Konosuba is to MMOs, essentially. Where Konosuba stays comedy-focused throughout, Slayers mixes in serious arcs and arguably delivers them just as well. It's pretty clean fun, too.

An anime that I'll always recommend to people with an affinity for fantasy is Seirei no Moribito.



I really did not enjoy the direction Katanagatari was taken towards the end. The discussion of why belongs behind spoiler tags, of course (and then I'm not sure anyone's particularly interested in having it, so I'll refrain).

[BWR]

I really did not enjoy the direction Katanagatari was taken towards the end. The discussion of why belongs behind spoiler tags, of course (and then I'm not sure anyone's particularly interested in having it, so I'll refrain).

I confess to some curiosity. I can guess, but on the whole I quite liked the show in spite of the one flaw. It was annoying but you can ignore it and enjoy the rest.

The whole alternate timeline thing

[Silfir]

I confess to some curiosity. I can guess, but on the whole I quite liked the show in spite of the one flaw. It was annoying but you can ignore it and enjoy the rest.

The whole alternate timeline thing

No lie, I had to look up what you're talking about. Apparently I was so unconvinced by the turn events took towards the end that I didn't even remember those. There was a villain and he had some sort of plan.

Obviously, yes, Togame's death (and the whole deal with her being supposedly evil all along) just didn't convince me at all. The obvious counterpoint is "You just don't like that it's tragic", and while there's some truth to it, I don't react to all instances of tragedy this way. They have to be "earned" in much the same way happy endings do, is the way I think of it. If you're going to kill off a sympathetic character, you have to sell me on why they had to die. If it's just "Sometimes there's no good reason for anyone to die, just like real life", that feels trite and obvious to me. Apparently some people equate cynicism with profundity; I don't.

That was a problem in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, too. You have this show that, back-to-front, is all about how doing the impossible is the easiest thing in the world... and I do get that Simon needed to show his growth as a character by understanding that making himself master over life and death was one step too far; I just don't like that Nia was reduced to being a device for someone else's character development. She was her own being, wasn't she?

But while I can see arguments for the way things ended with Nia, Kittan's death is complete hogwash. I'm not sure what emotional reaction the makers were gunning for when they had him go out exactly like Kamina did, but it didn't feel "earned" at all - since the show operates pretty much solely on Rule of Cool and makes up things as it goes along, there was no sense of inevitability to it. He could just as easily have made it out of things alive and lived happily ever after with Yoko. It's as jarring as it is because the rest of the show is so relentlessly optimistic. And at least, if you're going to have him sacrifice himself, don't make it a 1:1 imitation of Kamina's sacrifice. Give him his own thing at least!

And it's not that you can't have heroic sacrifices in a relentlessly optimistic show - Kamina's works wonders. That's because it happens at a time when the characters, Simon in particular, were still at the beginning of their growths as characters. At the same time, it's the culmination of Kamina's personal journey; he was always going to go out with a bang. There's no small amount of foreshadowing connected to it. And finally, you really get a sense that Kamina lives on from the way the other characters are transformed by the experience, and how their memory of him affects their motivations. It has weight. It was earned.

[Pendulous]

Urahara is weird. Watched the first episode. The girls' powers are vague, unexplained, the story is fast-moving, like they were rushing through the origin story, and there was nothing there to make me care about any of the characters.

Konohana Kitan is a little better. Not sure about the setting, or the clearly-underage fan service, but it has much more fleshed out characters.

However, I just recently finished K-On for the first time, and I'm still emotionally recovering from that. Also kinda want another show with similar style and music.

[Zalabim]

And it's not that you can't have heroic sacrifices in a relentlessly optimistic show - Kamina's works wonders.

To be quite frank, I think Kamina's death was BS. Nia's death/sacrifice/whatever that was supposed to be was nonsensical. Kittan's sacrifice was alright. But opinions, right?

[BWR]

No lie, I had to look up what you're talking about. Apparently I was so unconvinced by the turn events took towards the end that I didn't even remember those. There was a villain and he had some sort of plan.

Obviously, yes, Togame's death (and the whole deal with her being supposedly evil all along) just didn't convince me at all. The obvious counterpoint is "You just don't like that it's tragic", and while there's some truth to it, I don't react to all instances of tragedy this way. They have to be "earned" in much the same way happy endings do, is the way I think of it. If you're going to kill off a sympathetic character, you have to sell me on why they had to die. If it's just "Sometimes there's no good reason for anyone to die, just like real life", that feels trite and obvious to me. Apparently some people equate cynicism with profundity; I don't.


I didn't really have a problem with that from a narrativistic point of view. Sure I was as dumbfounded as most when it happened, but as far as the story and the antagonist's plans were concerned it made perfect sense. Togame admitting to being 'evil', sure whatever. Some truth, some trying to convince herself and Shichika of its truth.
Haven't watched TTGL so I can't comment on that.

[Merellis]

Well hot damn this has been a crazy few chapters.

Find the dragon, kill the dragon, revive the sister with the dragon's body.

Then you have the Mad Sorcerer just waltzing in to MESS WITH EVERYTHING and run off with the sister. Fine, okay, can live with that a bit.

Main group runs into one of their old companions, runs into the people that are hunting them, AND THEN RUN INTO SISTER CHIMERA DEATH MACHINE. She kills most of them with ease, casts magic, and then runs off. Also, her internal organs don't seem to be where they should anymore, considering where she got stabbed. :smalleek:

Great set of chapters, really happy to see Laius actually get annoyed at someone too.

[BiblioRook]

So I've been thinking about Negima a lot lately, just the concept behind making it is something I find hilarious.

Ken: I've done the whole harem thing, I think I want to do a fighting series of sorts.
Producers: No! Harem is what you made a name with so that is what we want you to do more of!
Ken: Fine fine...
Ken: Actually you know what? I think I'm going to make this a fighting series after all. Screw it.

Also as it turns out Negima coming to mind has nothing to do with UQ Holder apparently coming out recently as an anime, that was a completely unexpected bonus! They even amusingly reuse the Negima theme. Honestly I feel it's used much better here, I actually always hated the Negima opening with it's weird unnecessary focus on the girls playing around in bikinis.


Edit: Talking about fantasy anime. Looked into that 'In Another World with my Smartphone' anime today since I prefer watching things all at once when they are finished when I can. Honestly it's pretty stupid so far but not enough that I'm inclined to give up on it (more it watching it will pass an afternoon and I probably won't think about it further afterwards). Main character is probably the biggest Mary Sue (Stu?) I've ever seen. Guy gets a choice of a boon and chooses to have access to his smartphone (or rather the information a smartphone would be able to normally access) which already is a humongous asset (I mean, just look at Gwenpool in Marvel, that basically alone is her 'superpower' only she only has assess to information she was able to memorize beforehand), but no that's not enough so he gets additional boons of enhanced strength and agility and affinity to every magic even on top of that all without asking. Bah. I mean I complain but it's not as if I don't get it, the whole thing is just a geeky wet-dream, all the trappings for a fun fantasy adventure romp with zero of those pesky drawbacks or hardships. I guess I'm mostly annoyed because as much as I like the whole 'Suddenly in another world' trope it's actually the adjustment phase where they have t o adjust and learn how to deal with the new world that I find most entertaining and this series seems to just flat out skip over that.

[BWR]

IAWwMS was bad enough that I gave up after one and a half episodes, and that was while keeping half an eye on it while doing the dishes. Everything I've heard about it indicates that it was that bad all the way.

[BiblioRook]

Yeah, it definitely didn't get any better but it was short enough and what was there was such generic anime fluff that I was still able to make it through it. Certain;y not something I would recommend. One weird thing I noticed though was considering the anime is named for it the smartphone is barely relevant in the series. He uses a map ap to search for things and baffles people by taking their pictures, but that's basically it.

[kamikasei]

One weird thing I noticed though was considering the anime is named for it the smartphone is barely relevant in the series.
This is the main thing I've heard about it and it strikes me as deeply weird. Having only a smartphone as your special ability in an isekai could be interesting! There's potential for a bunch of stories there! Why would you then immediately pile further distinctions within the setting on to the protagonist so that they become more and more generic and uninteresting? It's like a version of Re:Zero where Subaru is so badass he never dies!

[BiblioRook]

One of the reasons I was inclined to watch it in the first place was because I thought the idea had potential, but no. Even worst they tease you with the wasted potential. Like right away in the first or second episode there's a part where a friend of his companions who runs a restaurant is in desperate need of something 'new' to attract costumers and so the main character looks up how to make ice cream and cakes. Such a small thing could have opened up so many story opportunities! This is barely mentioned again outside of a brief mention about how the desserts got really popular several episodes later. Another time he uses his phone to 'invent' the bicycle and the gun. Again, what could have been a huge story development was instead met with a reaction along the lines of 'Oh, that's neat I guess'. (He even makes two additional guns for some of his companions. They never actually use them.)

[tensai_oni]

Smartphone is the anime equivalent of a powerful tranquilizer. It's so incredibly by the numbers, uninventive and stereotypical that you recognize it as bad, very bad even - but it's so lowkey and boring that you can't even get mad at it. It puts you to sleep before you have a chance to get angry.

Good for insomniacs I guess.

[BiblioRook]

Anyways. So like I said I've had the Negima series on my mind a lot lately and finally thought to look into the anime. Turns out there are two. I know one is an alternate telling of the other or something and I can only imagine that the one that UQ Holder shares a theme song with is the main one, but can anyone tell me what the actual difference between the two might be?

[tensai_oni]

Neither of the Negima series are canon. The first one diverges from the manga plot pretty quickly and heavily and the second just doesn't care from the start and does its own thing. There's the Ala Alba OVA but for people who didn't read the manga and only watched the anime, the sudden jump forward in time and in seriousness of tone will be extremely jarring.

In the end the best way to experience the series is to just read the manga series.

[Rysto]

Just a warning, everybody: it seems that Crunchyroll had its DNS hijacked, so attempting to visit their site will redirect to a fake site that attempts to download and run ransomwear on your computer. Stay away from Crunchyroll at the moment, and definitely don't run any random .exe files that your computer happens to download.

[lord_khaine]

So for those who care, there is a new chapter of One Punch Man out. Action is getting kinda intense here, im really looking forward to see this fight animated when the anime picks up again.
Also, the relationship between King and Saitama continues to be kinda hilarious :smalltongue:

[BiblioRook]

Another Negima question, but (unconcerned with spoilers) I was wondering how many characters from Negima show back up in UQ Holder. Personally I'm hoping for Yue at the very least to make a notable appearance as she was one of my favorite characters from Negima and she does go on to become a mage which I think would give her a decent chance of still being around and active 80 years later.

[Lethologica]

I caught up with the OPM and My Hero Academia anime. I should be able to find the corresponding points in the manga easily enough, but my question is, is there anything earlier in either manga that I should read that was left out of the anime, or can I just skip to the point where each anime ends? Thanks.

[Prime32]

Another Negima question, but (unconcerned with spoilers) I was wondering how many characters from Negima show back up in UQ Holder. Personally I'm hoping for Yue at the very least to make a notable appearance as she was one of my favorite characters from Negima and she does go on to become a mage which I think would give her a decent chance of still being around and active 80 years later.There are some flashback chapters where most of the Negima cast appears. Quite a few show up in the present day, but most of their appearances are limited to cameos or exposition.
Yue and Nodoka have apparently become strong enough to be mentioned in the same breath as Jack Rakan.

[LaZodiac]

There's no other place to put this so I'll slam it down here.

Megumi got ****ing robbed and Souma's Food War's next like...fiveish chapters are going to be ****ing boring. God damnit.

[BiblioRook]

I recently got in the mood to watch/rewatch Log Horizon (I only saw the first season before now) and it's just as great as I remembered it. Sadly though I'm coming to the end of it and I'm thinking on what to watch next and was surprise to find myself being inclined to get further in Fairy Tail. I guess not that surprising when you think about it, both are fantasy anime focused on guilds and magic and all, just it feels weird to put the two in the same category for some reason. (Side-note though, the characters in Fairy Tail suddenly make a lot more sense actually when you apply the Log Horizon class systen to them. Like Erza as a Defender or Natsu as a Monk and such. Lucy as a Summoner is pretty self explanatory I guess, not sure what Gray would be).

On Log Horizon, as much as I liked the main story I really can't help but wish there was a whole series just focused on Kanami's adventures. I guess that's sort of her whole point though. I know she gets more 'screen time' in the books and whatnot, but I don't really have easy access to those (honestly just trying to get a hold of the manga is hard enough for me right now!).

Talking about the Log Horizon manga, actually while searching online for it I found myself directed towards another called "That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime". Pretty simple series (the title saying exactly what the series is about) and hardly something that hasn't been done several times over, but I found myself rather liking it. Then again I'm already really fond of the whole 'reborn in a fantasy world thing' (which I feel like I might have already mentioned). It really reminded me of a specific other series along those lines called 'ReMonster' (in that the main character is reborn as a lowly monster in said fantasy world rather then as a person) only I liked 'Reincarnated As a Slime' loads more then 'ReMonster'. Not only did 'ReMonster' talk itself way too seriously but it also got into some... uncomfortable scenarios for kind of no reason whatsoever (hint: it involves geriatric goblin boners). Not only was 'Reincarnated As a Slime' much more enjoyable but the narrative (however still unlikely) actually made much more sense to me as to just why he ended up as he did (basically while he was dying he complained about how his life up to that point was going and the Powers That Be that reincarnated him took everything he said way out of context, like for example he complained about dying of blood loss so they gave him a body that 'didn't require blood to function' or after jokingly saying he almost managed to become a Sage (ie: was a virgin past the age of 40) they made him a literal Sage in his next life). 'ReMonster' by comparison went with 'Oh, I just always had powers so of coarse I would still have them even after being reincarnated as a goblin..."

[Spacewolf]

If you like that sort of stuff try the Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? manga It was recommend to me on here and I've been enjoying it immensely.

[BiblioRook]

Ooooh, spiders? Bonus! :smallbiggrin:

[BWR]

In addition to the shows from this season that I'm watching, I'm also slowly working my way through Dirty Pair. Short version: couple of highly skilled bimbos work as mercenaries for a big company in spa-a-a-ce. It's surprisingly entertaining and surprisingly LGBT-friendly for something made in the mid 80s. I don't call it a masterpiece or anything, but it keeps me coming back.

[lord_khaine]

And another new chapter of One Punch man is out, if anyone is following that.

Two main points of observation is that i think its kinda funny how King ends up at least trying to be the voice of reason.
And also that i think he showed a surprising amount of courage doing what he did, acting as bait for Elder centipide.

[Kato]

There's no other place to put this so I'll slam it down here.

Megumi got ****ing robbed and Souma's Food War's next like...fiveish chapters are going to be ****ing boring. God damnit.

Oh come now... Megumi was up against a top Chef in their field and who was not exhausted. She did well but she's just not that good.

Souma had to pull all stops to win. Yeah, it was predictable but it was fun enough to read, for me anyway.
He didn't do it alone either, he had to borrow from his allies and enemies in order to make it. And for that awesome unlimited bladeworks copy, including Kurokiba Busterblade (Kurokibuster?) I feel pretty entertained this week.

[Leewei]

On Log Horizon, as much as I liked the main story I really can't help but wish there was a whole series just focused on Kanami's adventures.
Kanami has a great inversion of the You Can't Go Home Again trope. Kanami doesn't want to go home - she wants to bring her daughter there!

[LaZodiac]

Oh come now... Megumi was up against a top Chef in their field and who was not exhausted. She did well but she's just not that good.

Souma had to pull all stops to win. Yeah, it was predictable but it was fun enough to read, for me anyway.
He didn't do it alone either, he had to borrow from his allies and enemies in order to make it. And for that awesome unlimited bladeworks copy, including Kurokiba Busterblade (Kurokibuster?) I feel pretty entertained this week.

Megumi hasn't won a single time in this entire series. This was to be her moment. It could of been really cool.

It doesn't FEEL like Souma had to put out much effort because the only reaction Satou got was sending the judges flying with his sword. It had no real build up and was overall rather weak a showing from this guy.

Also this is just personal but I feel Momo's dish was actually just really really ****ty? I love puff pastries and I'd have to see how it works out in real life but the entire point of an iron chef like fight is to bring out the flavor of the ingredient chosen. Momo didn't do that, she brought out the power and flavor of the rose petals. Apple was just kinda also there. Meanwhile Megumi's was completely dedicated to the apple. Also I don't care how good the pastry is, nothing beats a ****ing pancake sandwhich.

[Kato]

Megumi hasn't won a single time in this entire series. This was to be her moment. It could of been really cool.

It doesn't FEEL like Souma had to put out much effort because the only reaction Satou got was sending the judges flying with his sword. It had no real build up and was overall rather weak a showing from this guy.

Also this is just personal but I feel Momo's dish was actually just really really ****ty? I love puff pastries and I'd have to see how it works out in real life but the entire point of an iron chef like fight is to bring out the flavor of the ingredient chosen. Momo didn't do that, she brought out the power and flavor of the rose petals. Apple was just kinda also there. Meanwhile Megumi's was completely dedicated to the apple. Also I don't care how good the pastry is, nothing beats a ****ing pancake sandwhich.

Wow... I was not aware her track record was that bad... It seemed to me it was somewhat decent.
Hm... I'd say without having actually tasted either it's hard to decide. But I'm very willing to admit you have a good point there.

[Doorhandle]

That's the problem, if the series was bad from the start, that wouldn't be so horrible. But the first ~16 episodes were legit good. Shame about the rest.

Ah, I was wondering why that show seemed to have vanished off the internet.

[BiblioRook]

Was recently reminded of the manga Zombie Powder. Man that was a fun comic, it still bums me that it didn't manage to go anywhere and had to be ended prematurely despite being created by the guy who did Bleach.

Question for you all.
Since I know this happens a lot, what are some of the anime and manga that never got a proper conclusion?
As a fan of anime it's actually a huge annoyance how often they make an anime based off a manga (which in turn is often based off a light novel) and the anime basically just ends up as something of a tease saying "Just letting you know that there is a lot more to the story after this... but this is all we are going to show you". Or alternatively, when an anime or manga is 'ended' but in a way where it's obvious it was meant to go on longer but was cut short.

Anime wise 'No Game No Life' comes to mind, where they make a big deal about conquering all the other races but end things after literally just meeting the first non-human representative...

As for manga, I have a manga I really like that is probably a bit obscure called Mx0 about a boy who accidentally stumbles on a school for magic and has to pretend to be a top-ranked student despite no actually having any magical ability. The manga basically covers his first year and keeps talking about how when students graduate the top students basically get a wish granted for them (which for the main character would be not to have his mind-wiped ad retain the memory of his experiences at the school) which was implied to be the end-goal of the series... only the manga instead ends abruptly after their first year with him transferring away to be entered into a different school entirely to be taught magic properly so he would no longer have to fake it...
I still think it would make for a good anime, but given the manga ended over ten years ago it's not something I would hold my breath over...

[BWR]

Since I know this happens a lot, what are some of the anime and manga that never got a proper conclusion?

Too many to list. Some of it may be that nothing more has come yet, but even discounting those and the ones that got a hasty end, far, far too many.

[Silfir]

No Game No Life appears to be one of those light novel adaptations that are intended as promotion for the light novels themselves more than anything; they often have trouble getting additional seasons made even if they're fairly successful. A third season of Konosuba is similarly unlikely to come around soon. (Madhouse also seems to have a thing for making one very successful season out of a property, then not continuing it. One Punch Man, for instance, is reportedly getting a second season, but switched studios to do it.)



As far as anime or manga that actually ended, School Rumble comes to mind for me. As far as I'm aware the author just lost interest.

I was always a little bummed by the ending to Ranma 1/2. That final panel of Akane and Ranma holding hands is probably still better than many other series of the same kind can come up with, though.



Then again, sometimes you get endings that are so fundamentally broken that you'd have preferred a rushed non-ending or even a cliffhanger. The ending of the Karin manga was like that.

[Lethologica]

Claymore's anime is a solid example. (In my opinion, though, the manga dragged on too long, so...split the difference?)

[Pendulous]

Question for you all.
Since I know this happens a lot, what are some of the anime and manga that never got a proper conclusion?


Recent shows I enjoyed:

Haganai: Introduced a major plot point like two episodes before the end of the second season, and never made a third season.

Is this a Zombie?: Lots of unexplored backstory involving Eucliwood, the usual "which girl will he end up with", the main villain never really even being conflicted with. I guess I can hold out hope for a third season, but not really expecting it.

[LaZodiac]

Was recently reminded of the manga Zombie Powder. Man that was a fun comic, it still bums me that it didn't manage to go anywhere and had to be ended prematurely despite being created by the guy who did Bleach.

Question for you all.
Since I know this happens a lot, what are some of the anime and manga that never got a proper conclusion?
As a fan of anime it's actually a huge annoyance how often they make an anime based off a manga (which in turn is often based off a light novel) and the anime basically just ends up as something of a tease saying "Just letting you know that there is a lot more to the story after this... but this is all we are going to show you". Or alternatively, when an anime or manga is 'ended' but in a way where it's obvious it was meant to go on longer but was cut short.

Anime wise 'No Game No Life' comes to mind, where they make a big deal about conquering all the other races but end things after literally just meeting the first non-human representative...

As for manga, I have a manga I really like that is probably a bit obscure called Mx0 about a boy who accidentally stumbles on a school for magic and has to pretend to be a top-ranked student despite no actually having any magical ability. The manga basically covers his first year and keeps talking about how when students graduate the top students basically get a wish granted for them (which for the main character would be not to have his mind-wiped ad retain the memory of his experiences at the school) which was implied to be the end-goal of the series... only the manga instead ends abruptly after their first year with him transferring away to be entered into a different school entirely to be taught magic properly so he would no longer have to fake it...
I still think it would make for a good anime, but given the manga ended over ten years ago it's not something I would hold my breath over...

Barrage of the Battlestar deserved to go longer than it did. Same with Cross Manage.

[Chromascope3D]

Finally gotten around to watching Nichijou. Mio is adorable and I love her.

[Fri]

****ing Shaman King: Hana. It's really good. Hiroyuki Takei just has no luck. He used to be AA level shonen mangaka, but none of his manga since the original shaman king seems to gain much ground, which is a shame. Despite his sometimes weird pacing, has this distinct weirdness and twists on his premise and setting (You thought Karakuridouji Ultimo is straightforward shonen battle!). And Shaman King Hana is really good, great sequel to Shaman King (this is how you make a second generation manga, not to mention how I really like the original main pairing of Shaman King), and ended when it was at its high point.

[BWR]

Recent shows I enjoyed:

Haganai: Introduced a major plot point like two episodes before the end of the second season, and never made a third season.

Is this a Zombie?: Lots of unexplored backstory involving Eucliwood, the usual "which girl will he end up with", the main villain never really even being conflicted with. I guess I can hold out hope for a third season, but not really expecting it.

While I'm inclined to agree with these two, if what I've heard of later goings-on in Haganai is true, we saved ourselves a lot of rage and heartbreak by not getting any more.

[LaZodiac]

Y'all need to read Promised Neverland so I can have people to talk about Promised Neverland too. It's responsible for one of the most genuinely evil and fascinating antagonists (just introduced in this arc) and his name is just Lewis.

[mallorean_thug]

Hello friends. We still like ordered lists, right?

My top ten for the year is probably
10. Scum's wish
9. Symphogear s4
8. ACCA
7. Owarimonogatri s2
6. Little witch academia
5. March comes in like a lion s1
4. Eccentric family s2
3. Land of the Lustrous
2. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo s2
1. Made in Abyss

However, I still need to finish/ catch up on Dragon Maid, Tsuki ga Kirei, Sakura Quest, welcome to the ballroom, Fate Apocrypha, Princess Principle, The Reflection, Just Because, March comes in like a lion s2, BBB&B, new kino's journey, ancient magus's bride, recovery of an mmo junkie, and girls last tour.

I think a couple of those have a chance of bumping out shows in the bottom 3, but the top 7 are pretty much set

[Fri]

Y'all need to read Promised Neverland so I can have people to talk about Promised Neverland too. It's responsible for one of the most genuinely evil and fascinating antagonists (just introduced in this arc) and his name is just Lewis.

It's pretty great. The thing that really catch my interest, most apparent in he first part, though also in general, is how good the feeling of despair the manga have, for lack of better word. For me it's because how "close to earth" their problems are. I mean, if you read a manga where the heroes have to jump over a ten thousand feet mountain, it's over the top that you don't feel the despair the characters have. But if they have to jump a ten feet wall, you understand that it's really possible to reach, so you despair for it. And it that sense, how accomplished you feel when they manage to jump over it.

[LaZodiac]

It's pretty great. The thing that really catch my interest, most apparent in he first part, though also in general, is how good the feeling of despair the manga have, for lack of better word. For me it's because how "close to earth" their problems are. I mean, if you read a manga where the heroes have to jump over a ten thousand feet mountain, it's over the top that you don't feel the despair the characters have. But if they have to jump a ten feet wall, you understand that it's really possible to reach, so you despair for it. And it that sense, how accomplished you feel when they manage to jump over it.

God I know right. I love it. I wish more people read the series so we could talk about it.

[endoperez]

God I know right. I love it. I wish more people read the series so we could talk about it.

I started reading it.
I'm half-way through chapter 24.
OH MY GOD IT'S INTENSE and it's not even anything specific that's going on, it's just that it stays so intense. It just keeps raising the stakes. There's a screw, and it keeps turning and turning and turning, and it never loosens, there's never a break to catch.

Speaking of breaks, this is probably the first time in my life I've had to take a break from a manga just to get a breather. I just can't keep reading this on a single sitting. This didn't happen even with BioMeat, which was shock and horror, or when I read Worm, the (it got worse)(it got worse) the novel. I mean, there are many works that are too long to consume in a single sitting, but now I actually have to take a break to calm down.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[LaZodiac]

I started reading it.
I'm half-way through chapter 24.
OH MY GOD IT'S INTENSE and it's not even anything specific that's going on, it's just that it stays so intense. It just keeps raising the stakes. There's a screw, and it keeps turning and turning and turning, and it never loosens, there's never a break to catch.

Speaking of breaks, this is probably the first time in my life I've had to take a break from a manga just to get a breather. I just can't keep reading this on a single sitting. This didn't happen even with BioMeat, which was shock and horror, or when I read Worm, the (it got worse)(it got worse) the novel. I mean, there are many works that are too long to consume in a single sitting, but now I actually have to take a break to calm down.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Glad you're enjoying it!

I don't think the screws ever stop. It's...REALLY intense.

[Fri]

That's basically my reaction as well. As I said, I think it's because how "down to earth" the problems are (eventhough the premise isn't) but the stakes are so high, so the cat and mouse keikaku battle between geniuses feels much more intense than say, code geass or death note. I forgot the part about where the intensity is keep increasing and the screw keep turning.

[LaZodiac]

That's basically my reaction as well. As I said, I think it's because how "down to earth" the problems are (eventhough the premise isn't) but the stakes are so high, so the cat and mouse keikaku battle between geniuses feels much more intense than say, code geass or death note. I forgot the part about where the intensity is keep increasing and the screw keep turning.

The best part about the battles of wit in the Promised Neverland is that they make our super smart characters realistically smart. This isn't some "Light has this extremely over elaborate plan to **** over L" situation, we have a pretty clear tell on how smart our characters are, and what they are really good at and what they are really bad at. Mom is powerfully smart, but as impervious as she is even she has weak points. And our heroes are hella flawed cause at the end of the day they ARE kids.

[Silfir]

It's time for my quarterly game of "Which anime am I watching this season?" again. This last season I either didn't play properly or just got unlucky and only pulled one hit (Netjuu no Susume), so I'm doing my best to stay on top this time.

I'm up to three this time around:

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san: I love the manga of this, and the anime is pretty much a 1:1 adaptation so far, with all advantages and disadvantages - it's just as funny as the manga, but it also has the same stories that the manga does. In the pilot, at least - let's hope for some anime-original material.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho: Absolute top drawer animation. It has an original premise and it looks like it's going to be perfectly executed. Cannot recommend it enough (for all the two episodes I've watched)!

Citrus: I'm going to love this one, I'm pretty sure. It double-dips into the "forbidden love" barrel by not only featuring a lesbian couple, but a lesbian couple of (thankfully, only very recently assembled) stepsisters. One of them has big-time emotional issues (because love stories are boring if there's no work to be done), but the other one (who's the protagonist) seems pretty fun so far.



I also watched one episode of Ryuuou no Oshigoto. I only read the premise, and what I was hoping for was kind of like a Hikaru no Go (Except it's Shogi). I got... well. You know how when you watched Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon you were very grateful that they managed not to cross any lines with Kanna? That she's a kid, and the only one who lusts after her is another kid, and it's puppy love so it's okay? This one... crosses lines.

I also tried to watch Slow Start, but it looks like one of the less interesting high school slice of life moes I've ever seen, and there was only so much gratuitous rhythmic boobie-bouncing I could take.

I hear Violet Evergarden is supposed to be really good, so that's what I'm watching next. If you've tried to watch something so far that I didn't list, I'd be glad to hear your take on it!

[BWR]

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san
Eh, this one didn't really do it for me. Mostly because the spin-off where they have a kid is the same thing over again, and I realize whathisface is a total masochist with no brains.


Sora yori mo Tooi Basho:
Backgrounds are amazing but the characters are too flat and shiny, causing a serious visual disconnect for me. Only seen one episode, may watch more.

Citrus
I started on the manga but it didn't catch my interest. Probably give this one a miss.

Cardcaptor Sakura- Clear Card Arc
CLAMP: You know how you really liked CCS?
Audience: yeah, that one was super cute and fun
CLAMP: and how we gave you a second story arc that was basically the same as the first, only shorter and less interesting?
Audience: um, yes?
CLAMP: well, here we are again with the same thing for a third time
Audience: ....
Audience: eh, Sakura is still cute and big bro is still awesome. Let's see where it goes

Chou you Bing
If you liked the parody aspect of Excel Saga or Bikini Warriors, this isn't as good but still manages to be amusing. Pokes fun at fantasy, primarily. Crap animation quality.


Still watching Mahotsukai no Yome. Very enjoyable.

I'll check out a few others in time.

[LaZodiac]

I'm sorry but why aren't any of you watching Pop Team Epic.

[Chromascope3D]

Some of us are. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?546677-Pop-Team-Epic) :smalltongue:

[BWR]

I'm sorry but why aren't any of you watching Pop Team Epic.

That's on the 'get around to it' list.

[Tvtyrant]

Anyone else following Relifes ending? Not sure how they can deliver on this.

[BWR]

Anyone else following Relifes ending? Not sure how they can deliver on this.

I expect it will either be an arsepull 'you two get to keep your memories afterall' or the two will meet up afterwards (maybe with string pulls of their handlers) and restart their relationship from scratch.

The entire premise of the story raises so many questions, like how they can age a person exactly 10 years younger - why not more? How the drug would be super useful for certain things, why you can't extend the reduction span, how they can so precisely remove the memories of people and why this isn't used for more lucrative or important issues (national security, for instance), etc, etc. etc.
It has likeable people - especially Hishiron - but those questions get me every chapter.

[Silfir]

I'm sorry but why aren't any of you watching Pop Team Epic.

On the list of the top 100 ways to tell you're absolutely, definitely not "with it" -

Watching an episode of this and thinking "I'd much rather be watching that idol show" has got to be up there.

[BWR]

So I've checked out a few more

Violet Evergarden
In not-Europe in the wake of not-WWI, some special forces girl who only knows how to follow orders is trying to learn how to be a Real Boy girl. Art and animation is lovely, and unlike that Antarctica one the character art doesn't clash with the backgrounds. Not sure if the story and characters will be worth it, but I'll give it a few more episodes.

Killing Bites
Therianthropes are used as pit fighters for giant companies. The guys are genuinely bestial in their battle forms, girls are, naturally, still mainly human with a few odd tufts of hair, tails and kemomimi. And giant boobs. A generic bunch of characters, but the MC isn't a high-school student, and the main girl has to take care of him against her will, so it's not the most cliche set-up, just close to it.
I doubt I'll bother watching another one.

Beatless
Rogue AIs escape. Obviously, they are all shaped like hot young scantily-clad chicks with oversized weapons. MC is a high-school student living alone with his little sister and had a thing for the lesser humanoid AIs that abound in society, and of course one of these robot chicks saves his life and wants him to become her new owner, because 100% autonomous AIs need owners. Combat, cliche and primitive discussions about the nature of true sentience. Looks like something between Chobits and GitS. The world-building is, apart from the robot chicks, quite fascinating. A lot of thought has been put into how increasing automation and computer power will affect life. It remains to be seen if they have truly done their homework, but it looks promising. I'll be keeping an eye on this show for the background stuff alone.

Hakumei to Mikochi
Slice of life of two cute little girls living in the forest. Eh, maybe. Certainly not offensive unless unrelenting cutseyness is offensive, but not particularly interesting so far.

Toji no miko
Something something, cute girls fighting aliens, magic school, duels, or something. I think. I lost interest rather early on.

Märchen Mädchen
Magical girl, magical school, special book, running around naked. Another one in the 'eh, maybe' category. I'm more interested to see this take on magic than anything else.

[Ibrinar]

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san
Eh, this one didn't really do it for me. Mostly because the spin-off where they have a kid is the same thing over again, and I realize whathisface is a total masochist with no brains.




Never read the spinoff but it is by a different author so I wouldn't hold it against the original.

[Silfir]

It has the author's endorsement, and there's nothing that happens in the spinoff that you can't see coming crystal clear from reading the original series.

Ultimately it's just a different take on the Peanuts comic strips about Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. You know he never will, but every time you want to see how he's tricked into going for it another time. (Of course, Peanuts had more than just the one gag.)

The dramatic irony of the series is that Nishikata could get the better of Takagi-san anytime - all he'd have to do is actually make a move on her, because she's clearly, hopelessly, head over heels for him. (Of course, from reading the spinoff you get the impression that he somehow went through marrying Takagi and fathering a child with her without actually realizing this, ever.)

[BWR]

Considering both mother and daughter love teasing Nishikata, it's a wonder he ever comes home. I shudder to think about what he went through before he actually got to the 'fathering' bit.

[Ibrinar]

It has the author's endorsement, and there's nothing that happens in the spinoff that you can't see coming crystal clear from reading the original series.

Ultimately it's just a different take on the Peanuts comic strips about Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. You know he never will, but every time you want to see how he's tricked into going for it another time. (Of course, Peanuts had more than just the one gag.)

The dramatic irony of the series is that Nishikata could get the better of Takagi-san anytime - all he'd have to do is actually make a move on her, because she's clearly, hopelessly, head over heels for him. (Of course, from reading the spinoff you get the impression that he somehow went through marrying Takagi and fathering a child with her without actually realizing this, ever.)

It is the first work of someone I consider it basically as author approved fanfiction. And for fanfiction that it is just the old formula despite changing circumstances is for me expected. But yeah in the original he is so easy to tease because he is rather childish and gets easily embarrassed or second guesses everything. Just copy pasting the formula on their adult life sounds a bit jarring.

[BiblioRook]

Question for you all. You know how some manga has like a zillion volumes? What's the series that you bothered collecting the most volumes for?

I remember as a kid managing to completing series such as Love Hina or that one series by the author of Ranma 1/2 about the guy in love with his apartment manager, but as many volumes that might have seemed back in the day for me I think they only were like around 15 volumes each which is hardly anything in hindsight.

[LaZodiac]

Question for you all. You know how some manga has like a zillion volumes? What's the series that you bothered collecting the most volumes for?

I remember as a kid managing to completing series such as Love Hina or that one series by the author of Ranma 1/2 about the guy in love with his apartment manager, but as many volumes that might have seemed back in the day for me I think they only were like around 15 volumes each which is hardly anything in hindsight.

I think I own all of the .hack Legend of Twilight manga. I don't...know why. I also got like five volumes of Case Closed/Detective Conan which um...mistake. Don't try to complete that series.

[Kato]

I also got like five volumes of Case Closed/Detective Conan which um...mistake. Don't try to complete that series.

I was going to emanate a hysterical laugh at your futile attempt to complete that. Then I checked and it has "only" 94 volumes, which is kind of tame, especially considering its been running for fourteen years, which puts it at only about six book a year. I'd expected way higher numbers.

[Fri]

Question for you all. You know how some manga has like a zillion volumes? What's the series that you bothered collecting the most volumes for?

I remember as a kid managing to completing series such as Love Hina or that one series by the author of Ranma 1/2 about the guy in love with his apartment manager, but as many volumes that might have seemed back in the day for me I think they only were like around 15 volumes each which is hardly anything in hindsight.

as a kid I used to have complete doraemon books (45+all of the adventure series), rave master, Eyeshield 21, Conan up to vol 50~ I think before we just got bored by it?, tekken chinmi, and many more that are not really known in the west (mostly children's manga). My family collect a lot of manga and comic books (we also collect disney comics and such), I guess the difference is that manga isn't expensive at all here compared to in the west, it's just more comic book to collect. I think it's roughly about two dollar per tankoubon (funny enough, it's the same now, it actually adjust for inflation. it's just that a dollar is about 5X more expensive now than in my childhood).

[Silfir]

I got to about 50 on Detective Conan, too. The longest complete series I own is Dragon Ball, with Ranma 1/2 hot on its heels.

[Chromascope3D]

Just watched the first episode of Darling in the Franxx. It was pretty alright, but unfortunately I also finished Devilman Crybaby this morning, so I've got some serious trust issues with anime weighing it down right now. :smalltongue:

EDIT:
Boy, I'm glad it was established early on that Dr. Franxx is a total perv because, BOY, that sure makes the pilot configuration make a lot more sense...

[BWR]

Even more shows

Kokkoku
Magic item that allows you to freeze time and move around in it. Interesting set up and something you always want to see: someone who immediately asks how this works, what about friction and light speed and more. Sure it's waved off but at least the writers acknowledged the problem. Unless this takes a nose dive I'll be following it.

Darling in the FRANXX
Pacific Rim only even more anime by putting the protagonists in high school and upping the skinship. Pretty meh and predictable so far. I'll probably drop it since there are plenty of better shows on this season.

Mitsuboshi Colors
Three young girls 'protect the peace' of their neighborhood. Slice of life comedy that manages to be just entertaining enough that I'll bother to keep watching it.

Slow start
A very appropriate name. I remember nothing about this except that I actually watched the first episode.

Takunomi
Girl moves into a house with other girls, and booze. Again, nothing that sticks with me.

Koi wa Amaegari no you ni
High school girl falls in love with an older guy, who barely notices her existence. It's a surprisingly sweet story that treats the set up as well as you could hope for, avoiding most of the icky elements that could so easily develop in a story about such a situation.

Ramen daisuki Koizumi-san
What it says on the tin - some girl likes ramen. A supposed SOL comedy about someone who likes ramen and someone who wants to get to know the first someone. Exactly as entertaining as that sounds: pass.

[Velaryon]

Hi everyone! I have a little favor to ask.

I'm starting a new anime club at my library, and I'm planning to stream off of Crunchyroll whenever possible. However, in my own anime watching I tend to stick to either what I can find on DVD or what's on Netflix, so I'm a couple years behind and not really up on current series. Even among older shows, there's a LOT I'm not familiar with, or know only by name or reputation.

I want to have my teens involved in the decision process to get them more invested, but I also need to make sure that we watch stuff that's age-appropriate. But of course, unless it has been televised or released in theaters in the US, it doesn't usually have ratings.

Can you all tell me what are some popular shows on Crunchyroll that you would feel comfortable showing to a group of middle schoolers? And for that matter, can you tell me some shows you wouldn't show to people that young? I'll appreciate whatever advice I can get here.

[Rynjin]

While ratings are iffy, you can usually look at target age group to determine what's middle school appropriate. Shonen and Shoujo are, Seinen generally isn't.

Of course, you also run into Japan's somewhat different ideas on what is appropriate for kids anyway, particularly in the fanservice and violence departments. While I'd say Naruto is middle school appropriate, for example, it's iffy on whether it's necessarily SCHOOL appropriate given the sometimes extreme levels of violence and dismemberment and near-nudity.

A good rule of thumb would be "Don't show them anything you haven't watched yourself" because everybody's going to have slightly different opinions on what's appropriate for age and setting.

Of the relatively new series' however, Boku no Hero Academia is a really popular (and really good) Shonen action series with a solid dub (though I prefer the sub on this one), I've heard excellent things about Haikyuu Kuroko no Basuke and plan to watch them at some point, Tiger Mask W is great cheesy wrestling fun, and Rakugo Shinju might give them an idea of the more mature (as in sophisticated) storytelling anime can get into, or possibly just bore them, I dunno.

Going a bit older I really like Hajime no Ippo (dub is great late 90's/early 2000's obscure but fun voice actors, but alas the two sequel series' were never dubbed), Yu Yu Hakusho (same dub suggestion as Ippo, but ALL of it is dubbed), History's Mightiest Disciple Kenichi, Space Dandy (I think its raunchiness is at the perfect point where it'll get a laugh from middle schoolers without getting parents up in arms -WATCH THE DUB HERE), Shingeki no Bahamut, and the Lupin the III movies (could never get into the old anime series though), among others.

Ippo and Hakusho are probably a bit long, but Ippo particularly is one they can get the gist of in the first few episodes and determine if it's something they like.

If they were high school I'd suggest JoJo's but I think it's a bit much for middle schoolers even though the gore in the anime is heavily censored. Maybe Part IV/Diamond is Unbreakable only, as the softer art style serves better to hide the censored gore and the slice of life portions are great contrast and give the series a younger feel until the true horror of its villain shows up. Plus it's largely self-contained unlike the other three.

[Silfir]

These are the ones on the Crunchyroll catalog that I've seen, liked, and I'm pretty sure are fine:

- Squid Girl (Straight-up gag anime about a girl who is technically a squid come from the sea to overthrow humanity, but gets stuck at a Japanese beach house for the entire summer, working)
- Tsuredure Children (The movie "Love... Actually", except instead of Christmas, it's a Japanese high school)
- Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san (About a middle school girl who keeps teasing a middle school boy, and his doomed attempts to return the favor)
- Recovery of an MMO Junkie (though part of why I like it as much as I do is that I'm almost 30 myself)
- Gamers! (Somewhat misnamed; the main characters are gamers, but they mostly engage in social inepitude and miscommunication. Romantic comedy.)
- Flying Witch (Super cozy and friendly. Think Kiki's Delivery Service, with a bit more time to devote to magical shenanigans.)
- Yona of the Dawn (Fantasy anime that's dramatic and funny in a very decent mixture. Main character starts out weak and grows tough and gathers a harem of opposite-gendered followers - except she's a girl and her "harem" is male. Quite wholesome.)
- MY love STORY!! (Another romantic anime. Extremely wholesome and quite funny.)
- Sound! Euphonium (I don't have a specific reason I didn't keep watching it. It seems absolutely fine.)
- Mob Psycho 100 (Category "looks ridiculous, is ridiculously good".)

Actually, it looks like they have A Place Further than the Universe, too. This one's currently running and absolutely a joy to watch.

[Rynjin]

Mob Psycho is great, yeah.

[Chromascope3D]

I'd start off with something recognizable like One Punch Man. They've probably heard of it and/or will have seen it already, and if there's anything I know about anime club kids, it's that they'll always flock to things they've seen before.

Once you have them hooked, then you can show them more obscure things like Mob Psycho. :smalltongue:

[Pendulous]

First time I've ever watched non-dubs, so getting into the new season a bit more:

Yuru Camp - And this show might have been the reason why. Hearing people talk about it, I had to check it out. Loved Flying Witch, dug the cozy style anime (already into slice of life in general). This show is the coziest of cozy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe0OhckoUCI). It's so much fun to watch, as someone who, as Jim Gaffigan called it "is indoors-y". Also, did not expect a lot of food-related things, but also food (https://78.media.tumblr.com/f6bf31994b5375016c2fa058eac51144/tumblr_p21jjxrTYG1t0lt8go1_500.gif). The art, the animation, both fantastic, and apparently, the locations are all real places. It's just so lovely.

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san - Speaking of food, here we go. This show is...well it's...um...I don't remember. Kinda forgettable at this point. Actually has a similar theme in characterization with Yuru Camp, as the cast tries to hang out with lone-wolf type girl, and she's blowing them off. In this case though, it just hasn't been as entertaining.

A Place Further than the Universe - You know what? I don't care if they even make it to Antarctica. The character development mixed with them at least trying to loophole their way in has been entertaining enough. Good characters, a couple good tearful moments, and this has been number two just under Yuru Camp for me so far.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san - Uh, speaking of dubs. Watched an episode of this before I realized it was getting simuldubbed. So I'm gonna wait on that. But the opening is adorable (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaTAUhAXDs4), and the show itself is promising. The girl's expressions, her smile, really make this show. I am a bit worried. There is an underlying romance blooming, if the genre title and hints in the first episodes are to be believed. But I don't know if you can get twelve episodes of a girl trolling her school friend (and him failing at getting her back) without it getting stale. We'll see, but the first episodes was fun.

Pop Team Epic - Made it five minutes in. What is this garbage?

[Lord Raziere]

Pop Team Epic - Made it five minutes in. What is this garbage?

Garbage. Referential drug-fueled garbage that is Vine is anime form. I made it ten minutes in and its just not worth watching no matter what anyone says about it. its just not funny.

[Chromascope3D]

Pop Team Epic - Made it five minutes in. What is this garbage?

Anime of the season. Touched by the kamisama itself!

[Rynjin]

I'd start off with something recognizable like One Punch Man. They've probably heard of it and/or will have seen it already, and if there's anything I know about anime club kids, it's that they'll always flock to things they've seen before.

Once you have them hooked, then you can show them more obscure things like Mob Psycho. :smalltongue:

The difference between the two is Mob Psycho is way more school friendly, since to my remembrance nobody dies in the whole series, and certainly not in the ultra-bloody fashion of OPM.

It also has a good moral/motivational message for kids of that age.

[Metahuman1]

So, just to work out if I can watch it or not,

Is the new Godzilla Anime Nudity/sex free?





As an unrelated matter, is it any good?

[Spacewolf]

So, just to work out if I can watch it or not,

Is the new Godzilla Anime Nudity/sex free?





As an unrelated matter, is it any good?

The planet of the monsters one? Yea it's nudity free, nah it's pretty bad. The MC suffers from a bad case of stupid ass hole syndrome.

[Chromascope3D]

The difference between the two is Mob Psycho is way more school friendly, since to my remembrance nobody dies in the whole series, and certainly not in the ultra-bloody fashion of OPM.

It also has a good moral/motivational message for kids of that age.

True, but I also know from experience that middle schoolers also watch Adult Swim. Hence why everyone around my age range knows about Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, and the like. Granted, I understand that that isn't really a reason to go out of your way to show it to them in an official setting, but, even if we aren't supposed to acknowledge it, it is something that a great deal of them are aware of and actively consume on their own. But that's just me recalling my own elementary/middle school experience.

[Velaryon]

A good rule of thumb would be "Don't show them anything you haven't watched yourself" because everybody's going to have slightly different opinions on what's appropriate for age and setting.

That's what I did when I showed anime at my last library job, but these days I don't have the time to preview everything myself. I also want to have the kids involved in the decision-making process in order to increase their investment in the club, which means there's a good chance I'll be asked about shows I'm not familiar with. When possible I definitely want to have at least a basic idea of which shows are and aren't safe, but I only have so much free time and I only want to spend so much of that on anime (I'm a casual otaku at best).



I'd start off with something recognizable like One Punch Man. They've probably heard of it and/or will have seen it already, and if there's anything I know about anime club kids, it's that they'll always flock to things they've seen before.

Once you have them hooked, then you can show them more obscure things like Mob Psycho. :smalltongue:

If it turns out that the best way to run the club is for me to select the titles myself, then I will probably end up doing this. But my plan at the moment is to try and get the kids involved in picking the titles so that they'll feel more invested in coming to the program every month. Getting teens and tweens to attend programs at my library has proven to be difficult, so I don't even know how many to expect yet, or what their likes are. I've written up a short survey I plan to distribute to everyone who shows up tomorrow and see how that goes.


Thanks for the recommendations so far, everyone! Please keep them coming. Also, one girl I talked to at the middle school while I was promoting this program is a huge Aquarion Evol fan. Based on the half episode I saw while testing how well the library's wi-fi can handle streaming, it looks okay for this age bracket, but I'd like some more feedback. Is that show something you'd be comfortable showing to 6th graders?

[mallorean_thug]

Thanks for the recommendations so far, everyone! Please keep them coming. Also, one girl I talked to at the middle school while I was promoting this program is a huge Aquarion Evol fan. Based on the half episode I saw while testing how well the library's wi-fi can handle streaming, it looks okay for this age bracket, but I'd like some more feedback. Is that show something you'd be comfortable showing to 6th graders?

Hmm, maybe? Thinking back on it, its actually a pretty chaste show for having the primary hook of the show be "characters have to participate in a threesome to form the larger robot necessary to fight the monster of the week".

Honestly, with middle schoolers, I'd just kind of go off of Crunchyroll's popular tab? A lot of anime discourse online kind of skips past stuff that's hot with the younger kids. Like, there's a currently airing show called Black Clover that's also a newer title in Weekly Shonen Jump. The consensus among older fans seems to be "been there, done that", but its pretty consistently pulling in basically the highest viewer numbers for any currently airing show.

The other thing that would probably make a difference is knowing what kind of gender mix your group is. A mostly male group is probably going to want to watch a bunch of WSJ titles like Black Clover, but a more female mix might want stuff more like Orange, or Ancient Magus's Bride, or Black Butler.

[LaZodiac]

I mean Black Clover's gotta lotta hot boys too. Girls can like WSJ type series (and for more reasons than just that, obviously).

[BWR]

In a fit of madness I gave Pop Team Epic another shot. The fans raved about how awesome episode two was, so I thought maybe I just wasn't in the mood. That has been the case for a number of other shows I disliked on the first viewing but adored when I gave it a second try. I generally enjoy absurd and meta humor, so maybe the problem was me.

Nope! It's the show that's the problem.

Still ****, still entirely self-absorbed and not really even trying to be good. Thing is, I could see how some of the elements in it could, in hands willing and able to put actual good effort into it, be amusing. But it isn't amusing. It's the absurdist equivalent of potty humor by a 5 year old. And unlike so many other shows I dislike where I can, if I squint a bit and remind myself of all the crappy stuff I enjoy, understand why someone might like it, I literally cannot see how anyone can like PTE.

Well, enough about that. More about Kokkoku.
This is the surprise hit for me this season. It remains to be seen if they can pull the season off without making it stupid, but the first three episode have been fascinating, tense and oddly funny. Story is interesting and information is doled out at a decent rate so far, making us feel we are actually learning stuff but without the info dump some series have. The episodes have ended on gripping cliffhangers and the characters are actually engaging. They seem less like stereotypes than most shows manage, and out main protagonist is turning out to be quite badass in a short amount of time.

[Pendulous]

Picked up Mitsuboshi Colors. Despite the show being about nine-ish year old girls "keeping the peace" and getting into shenanigans, I'm pretty sure the writers know who's reading/watching it. The girl who brings everything back to poop. The girl with morbid solutions (we can't clean the pond? Time to kill all of humanity) who's also always playing a 3DS (best girl). This show is legitimately funny so far.

So many simulcasts to keep up with, I'm still waiting on three simuldubs (Death March, Citrus, and Karakai Jouzu), I watched the first episode of Katana Maidens (not bad), and now I'm halfway through Toradora for the first time. Holy crap this show is good. Legitimately funny for the first half, while it sets up the characters. Started getting deep recently. While I kinda wish it would stay fairly comedic and light-hearted, I know it's not gonna, but it's a great show. Taiga is best tsundere.

[Chromascope3D]

I mean Black Clover's gotta lotta hot boys too. Girls can like WSJ type series (and for more reasons than just that, obviously).

I didn't realize the Wall Street Journal had so much sex appeal. :smalltongue:

[tensai_oni]

Thanks for the recommendations so far, everyone! Please keep them coming. Also, one girl I talked to at the middle school while I was promoting this program is a huge Aquarion Evol fan. Based on the half episode I saw while testing how well the library's wi-fi can handle streaming, it looks okay for this age bracket, but I'd like some more feedback. Is that show something you'd be comfortable showing to 6th graders?

I wouldn't be comfortable showing Aquarion Evol to anyone.

It's trash that makes the first Aquarion look like a masterpiece - and Genesis of Aquarion was pretty bad to begin with.

Also the Aquarion shows have some pretty suggestive themes, what with a heavy focus on (mostly badly written) romance and the Element Gattai having some rather orgasm-like imagery. At least the first two are like that - dunno about Logos, didn't watch that one. Anyway it's nothing new to sixth graders, but the usual caveat applies of adults being more embarassed showing suggestive things to kids than the kids are themselves, etc.

I really wouldn't want them to get the idea romantic relationships work like anything portrayed in Evol, though.


EDIT: Oh yeah, and about Pop Team Epic - the more I watch it, the more I like it. By ep 3, it's definitely in the "deliberately so bad it's good" territory. You know, like the 4koma it's based on.

[LaZodiac]

I didn't realize the Wall Street Journal had so much sex appeal. :smalltongue:

I can't tell you how many times I've made this error mentally. Damn yooou.

[Pendulous]

Welp, finished Toradora. I loved it, and could use some suggestions of other shows that can make you laugh and cry at the same time (also, Taiga best tsundere), but also I might need to stick with some straight comedies for awhile to mentally recover.

[Silfir]

If you haven't seen Lovely Complex, do that! It's the closest thing to Toradora's mix that I can think of.

You can watch Ore Monogatari to recharge beforehand.

[Velaryon]

Update on my anime club: I had 11 teens show up yesterday, a good mix of high school and middle school kids. Surprisingly, the aforementioned Aquarion Evol fan (who was so excited when I told her about this club she practically peed her pants) didn't make it.

We ended up selecting Free! Iwatobi Swim Club as our first anime to watch. Then Crunchyroll wouldn't let me play the second episode for some reason, so we ended up closing out with the first episode of Assassination Classroom after that.

As for Black Clover that a couple people mentioned, as it happens that's what I used to test my wi-fi connection before the program. The main character shouts too much for my liking, but it seems like it would have been okay to air, and when a commercial for it played a few of the kids seemed interested.

Once again, thanks for the help and suggestions!

[Rynjin]

As for Black Clover ... The main character shouts too much

yes


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKt3NwcZZGg

[Lethologica]

Wow, that VA has a talent for finding the exact right pitch and growl to drive me nuts, and holding it...and holding it...One day his voice is gonna freeze like that.

[LaZodiac]

Wow, that VA has a talent for finding the exact right pitch and growl to drive me nuts, and holding it...and holding it...One day his voice is gonna freeze like that.

The tragic part is that this is the most correct and accurate voice this character should have. For better or worse, this is the perfect casting.

Black Clover is not as good as it surprisingly is because of Asta. Or even Yuno. It immediately suffers from the Naruto problem in that the side cast are far more likeable. But they actually get to do something!

[Chromascope3D]

Also that the anime insists on dragging things out because Studio Pierrot hasn't yet figured out the seasonal model that every other studio has completely eliminates the need for filler. :smalltongue:

Also, it's page 49, we better start coming up with some titles.

[Rynjin]

General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: Maid In Japan

[Chromascope3D]

General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: Tournament Arc

[Velaryon]

Wow, that VA has a talent for finding the exact right pitch and growl to drive me nuts, and holding it...and holding it...One day his voice is gonna freeze like that.

Based on what little I saw, I think his voice did freeze like that. I'm pretty sure he yells every single line he has in the first episode. Not since Watanuki in xxxHolic have I taken such an instant dislike to a main protagonist.


As for the new thread title, I don't feel that I've participated enough in this one to weigh in on the next one (also I don't have a good suggestion). However, I do like this one:

General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: Maid In Japan

[Pendulous]

In honor of Yuru Camp: General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: The Comfiest Thread

[Rynjin]

General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: STRUCTURED SERIES OF INDIVIDUAL FIGHTS ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRC

Gigguk'd that for you.

[Tvtyrant]

General animanga discussion 15: Thread Learner's Permit

[Fri]

Let's just follow animemaru (http://www.animemaru.com/) and have GAD 15: The Leader of Anime News.

[BiblioRook]

General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: Consecutive Normal Threads (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbq7f2CcxE)

[deuterio12]

General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: Maid In Japan

I'll vote for this too.

[Tvtyrant]

I am so irritated with Hajime no Ippo these days. I waited most of my life for the author to decide to get back to the main plot and he seems like he just isn't going to...

[LaZodiac]

I am so irritated with Hajime no Ippo these days. I waited most of my life for the author to decide to get back to the main plot and he seems like he just isn't going to...

The manga is ending. And it seems like a good ending based on what I know of the series. The image of Takamura shrouded in shadow, one of his eyes just ****ing dead is fantastic.

[Tvtyrant]

Perhaps if the story hadn't taken a decade long detour from the plot, and then decided not to actually finish any of the long term plot hooks I might not be so angry.

Neither the Gonzalez nor Miyata fights ever happened, and he never resolved the love triangle plot.

[LaZodiac]

Perhaps if the story hadn't taken a decade long detour from the plot, and then decided not to actually finish any of the long term plot hooks I might not be so angry.

Neither the Gonzalez nor Miyata fights ever happened, and he never resolved the love triangle plot.

I mean it's not over YET. It's endING, not endED. They'll probably resolve the love triangle.

As for the fights...look man. Some things just don't happen. Ippo's punch drunk, Takamura's half blind. This isn't some comicbook where they'll get miraculously cured and get to fight again. This was Ippo's last bout, and I don't imagine Takamura lasts longer. Sometimes you've gotta accept that reality, even in the realm of a fantasy like a manga, will come through

[Tvtyrant]

I mean it's not over YET. It's endING, not endED. They'll probably resolve the love triangle.

As for the fights...look man. Some things just don't happen. Ippo's punch drunk, Takamura's half blind. This isn't some comicbook where they'll get miraculously cured and get to fight again. This was Ippo's last bout, and I don't imagine Takamura lasts longer. Sometimes you've gotta accept that reality, even in the realm of a fantasy like a manga, will come through

Recently invented plot for Ippo so that we have a reason not to watch him fight Ricardo or Miyata. The plot since the second Sendou fight has been unmoving "the Dempsey Roll doesn't work!" Maybe we could have gotten to the important stuff if we didn't spend a decade fighting magicians, one armed men and boys raised by monkeys.

[tensai_oni]

A Place Further Than the Universe is amazing. Very rarely do I see a series recognizing and celebrating individuality in such a mature, well-written way - not just anime, but any media in general.

You see, the show's basic theme is nothing new: "follow your dreams, you can do it!" But the thing is, most shows with this message also have a conventional, socially acceptable definition of "dreams", usually success at some profession, sport, business, etc. But what if that dream is something really out there and ridiculous like a visit to Antarctica?

From a conventional stand point it's ridiculous and a little absurd, and the characters in series treat it as so. But the show also tells you not to let go of your dream, that you can make it happen if you work hard enough even if no one else thinks like that, even if no one supports you. Screw the haters, down with the conformist attitude! There lies the strength of this series' message.

It's also beautifully animated, genuinely funny and the main cast is likeable and well-written. A strong contender for the anime of the season.

[Pendulous]

KaiserNeko explains it a bit differently than just simply "following our dream". What he says is, in Japan, high school is a person's "last hurrah", so to speak. Whereas here in the U.S., college is more for experiencing life, and people aren't as locked into careers here, Japan does it differently in regards to entering the work force and determining how the rest of your life is going to be. That's why this trip is so important to Mari. Maybe not the rest of the cast, but it's placed early on that this trip is a "last hurrah", even though the situation isn't the same for each girl. Really, the only one following their "dream" is Shirase, and the rest are along for the ride. Which is part of what makes it so good. Each girl is different and has different motivations for going (I'm forgetting Hinata's reasoning for going, but she's so far the best character so it's all good).

Best show of the season? Possibly. Recency bias has me thinking it could be the case, as the last episode of Yuru Camp was a little disappointing. Mitsuboshi Colors has been fun all the way through though, super consistent and good laughs. I just picked up Slow Start today and caught up, and it's ok. Definitely not as good as those three, but it's fun. I'm following the dub of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, so I'm waiting on that one to see how it goes. It's solid so far, but I'm worried the theme could mean it gets stale along the way.

[Silfir]

Each girl is different and has different motivations for going (I'm forgetting Hinata's reasoning for going, but she's so far the best character so it's all good).

She got a high school diploma presumably out of middle school and is just hanging around until she's allowed to do college entrance exams, or delibaretely delaying college until she's older. Either way, I suspect she's kind of between Kimari and Yuzuki - whatever friends she made growing up are living the high school life without her, and now she's bored out of her skull and just wants to go on an adventure. Since we heard so little of her backstory I suspect they're keeping some drama in storage for later.

[gooddragon1]

Recycling a joke: Yare Yare Daze of Our Lives.

[tensai_oni]

Shirase's the one who started the dream but it doesn't mean the rest are just along for the ride (okay, Yuzuki kinda is, so far). They're all willing to work hard to make it happen, it's their shared dream now.

No idea who KaiserNeko is but I can't agree with them. I know there's that stereotype in Japan that high school is the best years of your life but I simply don't see that motivating Kimari at all. She wanted to do adventurous things in high school not because it's the last hurrah but an open book. The beginning of a new chapter, not an end to one.

And I'm glad it's not her motivating factor because "high school is the best period of your life!" is one of those bullcrap lessons anime likes to shove down your throat that simply isn't true at all. This series on the other hand paints a more realistic outlook, with two characters' high school days being pretty miserable through no fault of their own, while the third simply decided to skip it all and it's not portrayed as something bad at all.

[Mx.Silver]

Given the titles of this thread and the previous one, I think the most fitting title for the next one would have to be General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: The Beach Episode


Anyhow, it's getting to be about about time for the best 5 (or so) series I've seen in the last 6 months or so since my last list...

Wait, how long has it been since my last list?



Two years, huh?

Well, I suppose this is what happens when your last time on the site was in the summer of 2016 :smalltongue:


So, yeah, I guess this means I've got 4 of these owed, so really this would need to be a 'best 20 series' list. Which is doable but may take a little time. So, watch this space?


Also I seem to be back now.

[Silfir]

I'm very much on the verge of giving up on Citrus. Too much melodrama and sexual assault, not enough romance. Well, not enough romance that doesn't veer into sexual assault, at any rate.

Right now the shows I'm watching are ranked in terms of enjoyment thus:

1. Sora yori mo Tooi Basho
2. Koi wa Ameagari no You ni
3. Violet Evergarden
4. Yuru Camp
5. Mitsuboshi Colors
6. Gakuen Babysitters
7. Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san
8. Citrus

Really looking forward to the Spring lineup. I have a thing for baseball anime, and there are two coming up. Major 2nd and Full Metal Panic IV fit in the category of sequels I have to watch simply out of love for the long-running parent. Hinamatsuri is highly promising, and I won't repeat my mistake of rereading the manga before the season begins (sorry, Takagi-san - it's not your fault you're a straight adaptation). I'm also going to try Gurazeni, Hisone to Maso-tan, Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii and Mahou Shoujo Ore (if only for the impending trainwreck factor). Obviously Boku no Hero Academia 3rd season is on the list as well.

[LaZodiac]

I'll admit I'm not super up on this season of anime because most of it looks bad, or is something no one else likes (Pop Team Epic) or something I'm waiting to watch with a friend (Cardcaptor) so I'm also holding out for Spring. God, come faster My Heroooo!

[kamikasei]

I've actually been enjoying Pop Team Epic. I mean, it's ridiculous, and most of the jokes either don't land or are obviously references to things I don't have enough context to get, but it entertains me.

[Silfir]

I'll admit I'm not super up on this season of anime because most of it looks bad, or is something no one else likes (Pop Team Epic) or something I'm waiting to watch with a friend (Cardcaptor) so I'm also holding out for Spring. God, come faster My Heroooo!

Have you tried some of the stuff on my list? Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho in particular strikes me as something that's very hard not to enjoy. It's possible that I've just been looking harder for anime to watch this time, but in Winter 2017 I watched Netjuu no Susume and that was about it.

[LaZodiac]

Have you tried some of the stuff on my list? Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho in particular strikes me as something that's very hard not to enjoy. It's possible that I've just been looking harder for anime to watch this time, but in Winter 2017 I watched Netjuu no Susume and that was about it.

I barely know what these series are if you use the Japanese titles since I can't recognize them and cannot tell what they are.

I know the colourful children one looks fun. I want to see small children shoot a bazooka at a cop. I should watch that, probably.

[Pendulous]

Halfway through, I'm something like:

1. Yuru Camp
2. A Place Further than the Universe
3. Mitsuboshi Colors
4. Slow Start
5. Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san (because of following the dub, still only on episode 3)
6. Katana Maidens (this dub is on episode 4)
7. Citrus (dub is on episode 4)
8. Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san
9. Takunomi

Currently for older shows, watching Tsugumomo, which I'm enjoying enough.





I know the colourful children one looks fun. I want to see small children shoot a bazooka at a cop. I should watch that, probably.

Yes, yes you should. FYI that's Mitsuboshi Colors. Sora Yori is A Place Further than the Universe, which is often shortened to Sora Yori. Or, I just call it "Antarctica".

[gomipile]

Do any of the legal subscription streaming services have the English dubs of both Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion?

[kamikasei]

To my knowledge there's no simple legal way to watch Evangelion - it's one of the big gaps in the canon. No one's streaming it and the DVDs are out of print, so you'd need to buy disks at huge markup on ebay or similar if you don't want to pirate it. I'm not sure why - it might be that the arrangements around Rebuild have put the original into a weird licensing limbo compared to other Gainax properties which are available.

[Pendulous]

There's a redditor from r/animedubs who made this handy google doc listing everywhere you can legally watch any dub https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JR7RVRX3qamFuw6QqBftngWk7lTRmQTyL2bs_FwQrMY/edit

Cntrl+F tells me Evangelion isn't available anywhere.

Speaking of, don't remember if anyone mentioned it, Hulu has the Kill la Kill dub now.

[Mx.Silver]

Yeah, as kamikasei's touched-on, Evangelion's been in kind of a distribution rights limbo for a while now. As such it's rather difficult to find through ways more legitimate channels.

[gomipile]

Speaking of Evangelion, I've seen a lot of people call the rebuild movies "NTE." What,if anything, does NTE stand for?

[Lethologica]

Speaking of Evangelion, I've seen a lot of people call the rebuild movies "NTE." What,if anything, does NTE stand for?
New Theatrical Edition.

[Fri]

Just random thought about random manga.

I can't believe that The Promised Neverland still haven't let go of its tension even until now. Holy crap. You'd thought it will slack or slow down after almost a hundred chapter. You'd thought it'd jump the shark after the escape. You wonder how they could keep up the seemingly limited premise at the start. But no, for me personally, it's still as tight and tense as if you're being held with a knife on your throat for every single seventy-so chapters.

[gomipile]

New Theatrical Edition.

Ah, thank you. I was assuming that the E stood for the same thing in each initialism.

[Kato]

So.. Since FMA live action is on Netflix now I decided to have a look and it was... It's a thing that exists?
I mean, it's clear that condensing a story like this into 2 hours is impossible and casting clearly European characters with Japanese people isn't helping but I wasn't surprised about that. But the acting was most of the time bad, the effects, too, and it seems to me they just picked some fan favorite parts of the story and glued them into a "plot".
I could understand if this was just a cheap cash grab but at times it seemed they cared so... Can Japanese just not act? Or did they try to mirror the anime style reactions? Because that really doesn't work in live action.. I guess I should watch some other Japanese movies.

[gomipile]

So.. Since FMA live action is on Netflix now I decided to have a look and it was... It's a thing that exists?
I mean, it's clear that condensing a story like this into 2 hours is impossible and casting clearly European characters with Japanese people isn't helping but I wasn't surprised about that. But the acting was most of the time bad, the effects, too, and it seems to me they just picked some fan favorite parts of the story and glued them into a "plot".
I could understand if this was just a cheap cash grab but at times it seemed they cared so... Can Japanese just not act? Or did they try to mirror the anime style reactions? Because that really doesn't work in live action.. I guess I should watch some other Japanese movies.

There is plenty of good acting in Japanese films. This movie just had some very bad performances in it. It seems as though the production spent most of their effort on getting the visual style... mostly right, with a few egregious exceptions. The plot, line delivery, and general tone all suffer greatly from this adaptation.

[lord_khaine]

So.. have anyone been enjoying the Recent One Punch Man?

[Tvtyrant]

So.. have anyone been enjoying the Recent One Punch Man?

I like where the plot is going, but I am irritated that they feel the need to explain his existence. His totally stupid explanation of his powers didn't need a deeper in universe explanation, even if it works well to explain the setting.

[Mx.Silver]

Since we're nearing the page cap, I've put together a poll with all the previously suggested titles for the next thread (https://www.strawpoll.me/15155639), so that we'll actually have some idea what to call it.

[LaZodiac]

Just random thought about random manga.

I can't believe that The Promised Neverland still haven't let go of its tension even until now. Holy crap. You'd thought it will slack or slow down after almost a hundred chapter. You'd thought it'd jump the shark after the escape. You wonder how they could keep up the seemingly limited premise at the start. But no, for me personally, it's still as tight and tense as if you're being held with a knife on your throat for every single seventy-so chapters.

One thousand percent. Even when they reveal something anyone could of seen coming a mile away it still kills it.

This only takes the knife away sparingly, and even then only to surprise you later on to find it wasn't actually gone, just somewhere else. Or as of recently...stabbed into you.



So.. have anyone been enjoying the Recent One Punch Man?

It's real good but I'm following the official translation so I'm probably behind everyone.

[Lethologica]

So.. Since FMA live action is on Netflix now I decided to have a look and it was... It's a thing that exists?
I mean, it's clear that condensing a story like this into 2 hours is impossible and casting clearly European characters with Japanese people isn't helping but I wasn't surprised about that. But the acting was most of the time bad, the effects, too, and it seems to me they just picked some fan favorite parts of the story and glued them into a "plot".
I could understand if this was just a cheap cash grab but at times it seemed they cared so... Can Japanese just not act? Or did they try to mirror the anime style reactions? Because that really doesn't work in live action.. I guess I should watch some other Japanese movies.
I would recommend The Twilight Samurai. It's quite accessible: good acting, character-focused, but with enough action to keep it from getting slow.

[lord_khaine]

OPM

I like where the plot is going, but I am irritated that they feel the need to explain his existence. His totally stupid explanation of his powers didn't need a deeper in universe explanation, even if it works well to explain the setting. Well it felt kinda relevant. Like in part it was talking just as much about what were starting to happen to Garou, as to what had happend with Saitama. And the explanation of the setting was also rather nice. Not to mention i found it kinda hilarious that "he paid a high price.. he grew completely bald.. " were likely said 100 % seriously.




It's real good but I'm following the official translation so I'm probably behind everyone.

Likely, where is the official translation at the moment?

Anyone been watching Mob Psycho as well then?

[BWR]

I would recommend The Twilight Samurai. It's quite accessible: good acting, character-focused, but with enough action to keep it from getting slow.

Seconded.

The only bad aspect was the overly drawn out death scene. It went from touching to 'just die already!'

[LaZodiac]

OPM
Well it felt kinda relevant. Like in part it was talking just as much about what were starting to happen to Garou, as to what had happend with Saitama. And the explanation of the setting was also rather nice. Not to mention i found it kinda hilarious that "he paid a high price.. he grew completely bald.. " were likely said 100 % seriously.





Likely, where is the official translation at the moment?

Anyone been watching Mob Psycho as well then?

The official translation's latest chapter was the Hero Hunter defeating Gatling and his friends. It's way back, I think.

[Kato]

Okay, I'll see what I can find concerning Japanese movies and maybe it will fix my opinion :smallbiggrin:


So.. have anyone been enjoying the Recent One Punch Man?
Mostly... Or "well enough"? I guess it's personal preference but I'm into OPM for the comedy and not for... What's happening right now. Because frankly, this chapters main action is pretty cliché, even if the exposition is nice. Not to say what is happening is poorly done but I feel we've seen that bit a thousand times now.


One thousand percent. Even when they reveal something anyone could of seen coming a mile away it still kills it.

This only takes the knife away sparingly, and even then only to surprise you later on to find it wasn't actually gone, just somewhere else. Or as of recently...stabbed into you.
Yes, yes, I'm going to catch up with it. My gosh :smalltongue:


The official translation's latest chapter was the Hero Hunter defeating Gatling and his friends. It's way back, I think.

Hm... I think that was about five chapters ago or so? Maybe more... I'm likely forgetting something.

[LaZodiac]

Yes, yes, I'm going to catch up with it. My gosh :smalltongue:

Begin the hunt.

[lord_khaine]

The official translation's latest chapter was the Hero Hunter defeating Gatling and his friends. It's way back, I think.

As fast as this goes then thats not to far away. I did like the idea of the A-team joining up to fight the Monster Garou, even if they were not allowed to succeed due to plot.


Mostly... Or "well enough"? I guess it's personal preference but I'm into OPM for the comedy and not for... What's happening right now. Because frankly, this chapters main action is pretty cliché, even if the exposition is nice. Not to say what is happening is poorly done but I feel we've seen that bit a thousand times now.

I do actually think that the action bits in OPM is good enough to drive a regular Super Hero manga on its own, even if the series true strenght lies in its at time absurd humor. The humor is then taking a slight backseat, though there were a few bits with #66 that made me laugh. Instead it seemed like we got some rather relevant plot progression.

[Fiery Diamond]

Edit: Nevermind; I found what I was looking for.

[Kato]

Begin the hunt.

Well, I AM caught up now :smalltongue:
I did / do enjoy the story but for some reason it didn't quite grasp me all the time, even though the author seems very intent on ending on cliffhangers. That's not to say anything about the story is bad, but I had no problem putting it down or not reading for a while. I can't quite say why... maybe because while the story is interesting and there is no particular reason for it, I don't feel connected to the characters (yet). I mean, I don't dislike them but... maybe it's because they are all / most a bit too perfect? Not sure if that's it. It's not that I dislike any of them but I can't say I really love any either.

The story itself is pretty interesting, as I said. I guess a few things seem orchestrated for the sake of the plot but I', okay with that. I'm curious enough to see where this is going.

[LaZodiac]

Well, I AM caught up now :smalltongue:
I did / do enjoy the story but for some reason it didn't quite grasp me all the time, even though the author seems very intent on ending on cliffhangers. That's not to say anything about the story is bad, but I had no problem putting it down or not reading for a while. I can't quite say why... maybe because while the story is interesting and there is no particular reason for it, I don't feel connected to the characters (yet). I mean, I don't dislike them but... maybe it's because they are all / most a bit too perfect? Not sure if that's it. It's not that I dislike any of them but I can't say I really love any either.

The story itself is pretty interesting, as I said. I guess a few things seem orchestrated for the sake of the plot but I', okay with that. I'm curious enough to see where this is going.

That's fair. I just really like it because it's just...so well drawn, with perfect but still flawed characters I feel, and the world is so fascinating, and it's just horrifying to see some of the imagery in it.

Speaking of which. DIE THE DEATH. SENTENCE TO DEATH. THE GREAT EQUALIZER IS THE DEATH. Rip that demon.

[gomipile]

Which DVD version of Neon Genesis Evangelion has the English dub, but with subtitles for the text screens? Especially for the 25th and 26th episodes.

[Kato]

That's fair. I just really like it because it's just...so well drawn, with perfect but still flawed characters I feel, and the world is so fascinating, and it's just horrifying to see some of the imagery in it.

Speaking of which. DIE THE DEATH. SENTENCE TO DEATH. THE GREAT EQUALIZER IS THE DEATH. Rip that demon.

Well, I guess my attempt to give it a thread on its own was futile. :smalltongue:
I think the art is pretty good, too, but I rarely get into something just because it looks great or interesting, I'm most often solely focused on the plot / characters / not art aspects.

[LaZodiac]

Well, I guess my attempt to give it a thread on its own was futile. :smalltongue:
I think the art is pretty good, too, but I rarely get into something just because it looks great or interesting, I'm most often solely focused on the plot / characters / not art aspects.

I didn't actually see that thread sorry D:

[Ibrinar]

So for the last few seasons I couldn't be bothered to check out new anime. Is there anything that stands out that I should watch in the last year or so? (Not a big fan of sport anime but some are good, not particularly interested in "cute girls doing cute things" unless it is funny or I guess has really good character writing. Something funny is always nice. Proper fantasy is something I would give a try but proper fantasy is rare. But just name what you considered outstanding and I can filter myself.)