What are you reading/watching? AKA Anime/Manga General

[Strange_One]

Musing upon art.

There are those creators whom, once they've carved out a place in their industry feel they should divest themselves from adult content.

Then are those creators who seem to have a secure place in their industry whose talents only really shine in questionable content.

[Spartacus]

The second half of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

The 1st half is about how the MC grow from a total bitch and can't take shit really well, the 2nd half is more convoluted with many things going on. But I think they handle many plots at once fairly well.

I like how the characters represent all the people in this 'talent spectrum.' We have normal people (MC and Nanami), above average people (Rita and Jin) and talented people (Misaki, Mashiro, and Ryuunosuke). The best part is all of them are painted positively yet flawed. How much the left-middle spectrum struggles to be on the same level to the right, how much these people hurt by associating with them alone, keep comparing and being compared with them. The right-middle spectrum meanwhile, must deal with how much their talents hurt the people they love, even simply by doing what they good at without actively hurting them. Once again the story presents it with a spice of realism, they patch things up in the end, but not fully healed like it never happened and have an impact that changes how the characters interact with each other.

After all the fairly grounded albeit harsh shits they need to go through, come something that what fiction excel at: fantasy. The fantasy part comes twice, and it always presented as a pay off for the climaxes. The first time is how the cast needs to move the audience with ridiculous demands to make their Kinect game works. The second time is the same, the cast finally able to defend what their love by ridiculously moving the audience heart. It serve as a reminder that in the end of the road, we will be rewarded from our hardwork if we really try to finish the race.

The message that can be taken from the 'normal people' is great too. They question what they do for years is for nothing, but they realized that it means something, an experience for them to be better later on. I really-really can relate with this, how life can be sometimes unfair and de-motivate me. But in the end, I love doing what I love and strive to be better at it, willing to hear criticism knowing full well it will hurt me, not give a goddamn crap how many times people ask me to stop. If I look back at it, that is actually the beauty of life: how both sweets and bitters things give me a very treasured experience. How much fun it is for giving us all, constantly challenge our-self by looking at people above.

Then the most part I like about this show: perspective. People like Jin and Rita both struggle the expectation of those higher and lower than them. The MC see them as person of greatness, but upon moving to other side and see them from there, they aren't perfect. Constantly trying to catch up with the talented and once they reach it, the talented already leveled up themselves. They repeat this cycle over and over until one of them start losing their shit. These people get the most shit because trying to relate down only for the people on that side say they were great, goes up and people from the upper ground say they aren't good. They really represent the theme color of this anime, iridescent: A color that changes if you see them from different angles.

I'm sure the LN goes into crap tho, this kind of story tends to be stretched to the point repeating herself but making something new will only remove its charm. Which already can be seen from the 2nd half, like how I feel about Nisekoi, Death Note, Attack on Titans, and Tokyo Ghouls. But I don't like being persuaded without reading it myself, and most people spoiled me saying 'best girl lost so it is shit' which I don't give shit; so I gotta read it (if there is a TL/official TL in a language I understood).

[Historia]

attack on titan ch 107:

Spoiler:

mikasa is heir to the shogun of her people across the sea, on top of being an ackerman. historia is pregnant -- they turned her into a breeding machine for royal titan babies, and she looks pissed as fuck despite accepting to inherit the beast titan. that's all i care about tbh

[Neir]

[Rafflesiac]

[img]**************dex.org/data/974440c494c75a4bdf5d8f01887e2c88/k10.png[/img]

rip random pro

[Laserman]

D.Gray Man Episode 101: The Exorcists in Lab 5 are missing except for Allen who can't move. The Level 4 Akuma has set it sights on Chief Komui and Rouvelier pretty much forced Lenalee to try to synchronize with her Innocence for a chance to beat it. The Akuma is just too strong, barriers definitely can't hold the thing back. It's gotten to the point where Komui has to take the Innocence and all the personnel they have at the Europe branch and escape to the Asian branch in fear of it destroying everything. I'll say it again, I never thought things would get this bad.

[Skull]

I watched the anime film "Sword of the Stranger" last night and it was a blast.

It felt very much like a Western, a nameless ronin helps a boy being targeted by Chinese soldiers being hosted by a shady Japanese lord. Very grey in terms of morality - other than the innocent boy there isn't really what I would call a "hero", very gory with many people (even major characters) dying inglorious deaths in or out of combat, great action scenes not just sword combat but also spear and bow & arrow fighting, and also a hint of mysticism surrounding the world. I certainly appreciated that Bones went the extra mile and hired Chinese actors for the characters who were born in China, but not say Luo-Lang who's a naturalised citizen and thus doesn't share the same accent, some attention to detail there.
Definitely recommended to anyone who loves a good samurai flick. <3

Y'know this is really off-topic but, the relationship between Kotaro and "Nameless" felt like how it should have gone between Rey and Luke in The Last Jedi... ┌༼ σ ‸ σ ༽┐

[Laserman]

D.Gray Man Episode 102: Lenalee managed to synchronize with her Innocence again and just like Allen's Clown Crown it has a new look and it's more powerful than before. I wonder if she's a Transcendent One too? I can't believe Allen used his Innocence to move his body so he could fight, that was pretty clever. But just when they thought they took the Level 4 down, one of it's fingers twitched. The next episode is the last one, I'm so excited.

[Sunara]

So what I'm a spider, Red Riding Hood & the Big Sad Wolf, 3 million animes, My Girlfriend is a 9-tailed fox (kdrama), & misc shows....

[GundamFSN]

I watched the anime film "Sword of the Stranger" last night and it was a blast.

It felt very much like a Western, a nameless ronin helps a boy being targeted by Chinese soldiers being hosted by a shady Japanese lord. Very grey in terms of morality - other than the innocent boy there isn't really what I would call a "hero", very gory with many people (even major characters) dying inglorious deaths in or out of combat, great action scenes not just sword combat but also spear and bow & arrow fighting, and also a hint of mysticism surrounding the world. I certainly appreciated that Bones went the extra mile and hired Chinese actors for the characters who were born in China, but not say Luo-Lang who's a naturalised citizen and thus doesn't share the same accent, some attention to detail there.
Definitely recommended to anyone who loves a good samurai flick. <3

Y'know this is really off-topic but, the relationship between Kotaro and "Nameless" felt like how it should have gone between Rey and Luke in The Last Jedi... ┌༼ σ ‸ σ ༽┐

It also got the most sakuga animation that I will always be sure to never forget.

The music is also top notch.

[eddyak]

It also got the most sakuga animation that I will always be sure to never forget.

The music is also top notch.

I don't remember much about that movie, but what little I do remember is the incredible swordfighting.

[Historia]

I don't remember much about that movie, but what little I do remember is the incredible swordfighting.

Just like Moribito with its spearfighting.

Shame the rest of the novels didn't get animated. Though, the first and second do have manga adaptations. Also a shame those weren't officially translated, they have beautiful art.

[Mattias]

Just like Moribito with its spearfighting.

I've had Moribito sitting on my watch list, stuck at episode 10 for like 6 months. I keep trying to finish it but I never remember what was happening, so I restart from scratch get 10 episodes in, then the new anime season kicks in, or I decide to power through a less than stellar season of Gundam and forget about it for months.

[Laserman]

I finished watching D.Gray Man. The last episode starts at some random party which you don't find out until latter has some of the members of the Noah Clan along with the Earl attending. It has to be in the future, but I don't know how far into the future. Anyway, with the Level 4 finally destroyed,the Black Order in Europe has to move somewhere else and Lenalee's weapon has been classified as a crystal type that's different from the other 2 types. Lavi and Bookman think the Earl could have destroyed the Black Order over a 100 years ago if he had something like that Level 4 Akuma on hand. They think that he might have a reason to keep the Order around, I doubt it though.

Tyki looks so different in the end, his skin's so dark I almost didn't recognize him. I wonder Earl said the Exorcists thought of the Akuma as just machines, but they were wrong. I want to know what they were doing at a party with a bunch of human beings. The episode and the show ends with Allen walking through a desert in a new uniform, going another adventure.

It's hard to say if I liked Seasons 3 and 4 more than 1 and 2, because I liked how episodic Season 1 and 2 were, but I also liked all the cool moments that happened in Season 3 and 4.

I just wish I could have seen this years ago, there was absolutely no excuse for Funimation to have not have gotten the license for the last 2 seasons along with the first two. The author constantly putting the manga on hiatus several times didn't help the series either.

Next, I'm going to watch D.Gray Man Hallow, I just hope they kept the same composer from the first anime.

[Historia]

[IMG]**************dex.org/data/ce0f62dadd1a6a06961af7779668ba59/C1.png[/IMG]

[Imperial]

I watched the anime film "Sword of the Stranger" last night and it was a blast.

It felt very much like a Western, a nameless ronin helps a boy being targeted by Chinese soldiers being hosted by a shady Japanese lord. Very grey in terms of morality - other than the innocent boy there isn't really what I would call a "hero", very gory with many people (even major characters) dying inglorious deaths in or out of combat, great action scenes not just sword combat but also spear and bow & arrow fighting, and also a hint of mysticism surrounding the world. I certainly appreciated that Bones went the extra mile and hired Chinese actors for the characters who were born in China, but not say Luo-Lang who's a naturalised citizen and thus doesn't share the same accent, some attention to detail there.
Definitely recommended to anyone who loves a good samurai flick. <3

Y'know this is really off-topic but, the relationship between Kotaro and "Nameless" felt like how it should have gone between Rey and Luke in The Last Jedi... ┌༼ σ ‸ σ ༽┐

It's so, so good. Easily my favorite anime movie to date.

It spoiled me on how good animated sword fights can really be.

[Nikiri]

Finished Angel Beats

I think I said that already, but I'm easily moved. And that's probably the reason why I postponed watching this for 7 years, it was patiently waiting in my backlog (downloaded in 2011, sitting in external HDD).

It's a bit shame that most characters were not explored, if I had to complain, but otoh trying too much could make it worse, so in the end it's fine where it is.

now I wonder if I decided to watch it while I was in high school, would it motivate me to study harder...

- - - Updated - - -

oh yeah btw, in the opening they actually animated the dampers moving from strings that happens when you press sustain pedal in the piano, neat

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Yeah, I'm easily moved too. It's why Key stuff gets me even when I can see it coming a mile away. Even Charlotte got me emotional, although it's easily the weakest Maeda work thus far.

To be fair, the idea of Hanakana walking around with my literal heart in her is not a bad thought.

[Rue]

Finished Angel Beats

I think I said that already, but I'm easily moved. And that's probably the reason why I postponed watching this for 7 years, it was patiently waiting in my backlog (downloaded in 2011, sitting in external HDD).

It's a bit shame that most characters were not explored, if I had to complain, but otoh trying too much could make it worse, so in the end it's fine where it is.

now I wonder if I decided to watch it while I was in high school, would it motivate me to study harder...

- - - Updated - - -

oh yeah btw, in the opening they actually animated the dampers moving from strings that happens when you press sustain pedal in the piano, neat

Well, there is that Angel Beats 1st Beat VN that explores some of the side characters like Iwasawa if you want some more.

[Nikiri]

I knew about light novel / manga, but didn't knew about VN, I will look into it someday, thanks