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

[LegalLoliLover]

You mean "I honestly did not know where the phrase murderhobo comes from." it's ok. You're still wrong about the rest though.

Honestly, the first time I heard it was from D&D character builds. However, given that someone straight up brought up Abraham fucking Van Helsing the origin of the asshole with big hat character trope (well, it's either him or Vampire Hunter D), I think I'm completely right about the rest.

[Skull]

Spoiler:

Dennis and Shun's rematch, but I don't know if you gotten that already though.

I've finished Season 2 so no need to worry about spoiling me.

That's very interesting. I would say that was where my waning interest picked back up as the plot was finally kicking back in.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

On the contrary, Shinobu or Kyojuro are actually very nice people. They also had no qualms executing Tanjiro on the spot, even overriding their own Oyakata-sama when he spoke of mercy. There's just no way you can pass off that kind of persistence as good. And while yes, there's a certain buddhist flavor to their organisation, they're no more religious than, say, Hellsing.

Shinobu's not really that nice, no, and whatever niceness she has is mostly an act. She is a kind person, however. Also, you have to factor in the reality that all the Hashira minus Mitsuri have personal bad experiences with Demons and don't believe they can be changed or not hurt humans, which is 99% correct. It's not a good thing they tried to do, but once they got to know Tanjirou, Nezuko, et al., they changed their minds and fully welcomed them (minus Sanemi and Obanai, but their objections don't really have to do with the original problem), ya know, like good people should do.

Also, since you bring up Hellsing and vampires, I'd argue that even without an explicit religious theme, they're still quite Christian-oriented because the original vampire folklore both Hellsing and Dracula draw upon is indelibly Christian in theme and orientation. The same goes for monsters like oni and tengu in Japan, so I'd argue that the organizations are oriented towards Christianity and Buddhism respectively despite no official pronouncement of religious faith by either. That being said, Hellsing is probably more "secular" than the Demon Slayer Corps.

[Mattias]

I honestly did not expect the hobo part of murder hobo to be taken literally, so I'll drop the hobo part. But they are still murderers for Buddha, just like those assholes with the big hats are murderers for Christ.

No they're murderers for Humanity.

[LegalLoliLover]

That being said, Hellsing is probably more "secular" than the Demon Slayer Corps.

Therefore, if those assholes with the big hats are murderers for Christ, then the Demon Slayer Corps are definitely murderers for Buddha.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Therefore, if those assholes with the big hats are murderers for Christ, then the Demon Slayer Corps are definitely murderers for Buddha.

Yeah, I did NOT say that, only that the organization is inevitably Buddhist-oriented. Also, aren't there actual murderers for the Pope in Hellsing for you to direct your ire at?

[LegalLoliLover]

... I think that this is more that issue we had when talking about the many deaths of the Joker on the Batman thread. When one character has many portrayals, 2 different people can be talking about 2 different portrayals. All I said was that the Hellsing organization was founded by Van Helsing. Then I went and talked about Van Helsing, assuming that an organization founded by him would have his ideologies.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

You're the only one who brought up Abraham von Hellsing, my dude. The rest of us were talking about the organization when we could follow whatever you were on about.

[LegalLoliLover]

I just assumed that ideologically speaking, both founder and organization would be interchangeable, so the specification shouldn't have mattered.

Demons who remember their original self are almost unanimously horrified and disgusted by what they've become, so killing them really is a mercy.

Delirium right before final death, about as worthless as an atheist, in this situation, believing in God. Going back to the original topic, it does explain why Demon Slayer glorifies martyrdom. Me? With the words of these fine, sexy people, I mock it:

[bassgs435]

Finished Absolute Defense Leviathan. Funny and cute show. The girls and their antics are entertaining and fun, even when it gets more serious in the second half. Not much plot, though. Jormungandr best girl. I had a fun time watching. Next is Betterman as part of my SRW 30 homework

[Skull]

Welp, I finally finished my binge-watch of "Yugioh: Arc-V" (with about three weeks to go before the world drops in Duel Links) and you know what that means, it's time for another overly long rant. I'll try to boil it down to the main issues though...

Ranty Rant

I see what all the "But you still take damage!" memes were about. I swear they say that at least once per duel this season if not more.


Anyways, as I alluded to in my previous rant they spent way too much time goofing around in the Synchro Dimension in Season 2 and so Season 3 has to contend with cramming both the Xyz Dimension, Fusion Dimension *and* a hidden Epilogue arc all into less than 50 episodes and so the pacing is rushed to all heck. The crew really needed to be in Xyz by the last third of season 2 if not the halfway point. But other than the rushed pace, the Xyz arc was pretty decent. Aster worked as an antagonist, even if he was just re-treading his GX arc. Kite was amazing and I loved his new Cipher Archetype of cards, and even Kurosaki got some much needed development.


The Fusion arc is where the cracks really start to show as the show has some good set up with both the interdimensional war brewing and Yuya's foreshadowed darkside trying to awaken. But unfortunately it all falls flat by the time they get there as there's so few episodes to work with that Academia's forces are effectively wiped out in a rushed battle royale with most of them KO'd by friendly fire. Combined with the fact that any Lancer not named Yuya/Reiji essentially gets reduced to a cheerleader role. And then we get to the battle with Supreme King Z-Arc...


I've racked my brains over this climax. It's blatantly trying to parallel Supreme King Jaden from GX yet it simply doesn't work this time and I think I figured out the reason. It's because Jaden *was* the Supreme King and so his sins were Jaden's and trying to overcome the darkness was genuine character building. But Yuya and Z-Arc are effectively two different people in one body and so blaming Yuya for any of Z-Arc's actions is illogical and the fact that the two of them never have a proper scene together is baffling as it robs Yuya of any proper character development beyond "don't be bad".


The Epilogue arc did go some ways to alleviate some of these problems by giving a spotlight to characters like Kurosaki, Dennis and Gogenzaka but the damage had already been done. By the way, I felt like Yuto/Yugo/Yuri all got screwed by the ending. They really should have been revived separately or had Yuya be a complete blend of their minds and personalities. I really didn't buy the narrative that they "live on" inside of Yuya as presented.


Side note: I've no idea what the heck was going on with the "reveal" that Layla was a girl the whole time. It served no narrative purpose and no even acknowledges it - the ENG subs didn't even notice as they kept referring to her with male pronouns even after the reveal. It felt very weird and as if something was planned with Layla's character but got scrapped on the cutting room floor.

So yeah, that's Arc-V done. I'll probably leave it a while before tackling the second half of Zexal or giving Vrains a second shot.

[LegalLoliLover]

I'm reading the artbook for Made in Abyss: https://exhentai.org/g/1874596/788b77da17 And the author is truly kindred. His words give voice to what I feel... Even right down to the notes about Skyrim.

[ResidentSeagull]

So I just finished watching Betterman...What a ride. All in all a really weird but cool show. Was kind of iffy during some parts of it, but the fights and Betterman himself are what really made the show for me. Human characters were nothing special, but for as little character development as they got I didn't hate any of them. Some plot points are definitely not explored at all, although I feel that the show did give you enough puzzle pieces to figure most of the plot on your own. Overall pretty enjoyable show for people such as myself who like weird artsy shit.

[ResidentSeagull]

On another note, I also started reading Bleach yesterday and I'm currently at chapter 222 (just after the "King and his horse" speech). I'm actually really enjoying it so far. Characters are all likeable so far (Chad is best fucking boi and it's gonna be tragic watching him become the resident jobber in the future) and the fights were great. Reading it I definitely do understand how the series became one of the Big Three. The Soul Society arc is a really cool expansion to both the cast and world that were established in the first 60 or so chapters, so it's easy to see how it would blow up in popularity around the time it was being written. Kubo's character designs and fights are something that always looked cool to me as an outsider looking in, but reading the manga you definitely appreciate those aspects so much more.
Will update as I read more.

[Deathhappens]

Thing is by bingereading it you lose out on the insane hype that built up whenever Kubo pulled off another fucking Kuboism and -To be continued in (chapter number)- . The manga is good enough to stand on its own, as long as you can liberally apply Rule of Cool to everything that plain doesn't make sense (like Aizen, or nu-Aizen, or Hitler Aizen). But the weekly insanity is what really propelled Bleach to the next level.

- - - Updated - - -

Apropos of nothing that reminds me I have to reread Katekyo Hitman Reborn someday.

[ResidentSeagull]

Thing is by bingereading it you lose out on the insane hype that built up whenever Kubo pulled off another fucking Kuboism and -To be continued in (chapter number)- . The manga is good enough to stand on its own, as long as you can liberally apply Rule of Cool to everything that plain doesn't make sense (like Aizen, or nu-Aizen, or Hitler Aizen). But the weekly insanity is what really propelled Bleach to the next level.

Oh yeah I definitely get that. I find that bingereading manga definitely alters one's perception and the pacing of the manga in question.
And to add to that I am quite aware that later on the manga becomes a weird mess of Aizen's 9d chess moves and Ichigo's 16 out-of-nowhere power-ups because it turns out that he is part-Hollow part-Quincy part-Arrancar part-Shinigami or whatever the fuck. It seems to me that out of the Big Three Kubo definitely got fucked the most in terms of mangaka burnout.
Nevertheless, I did not expect to get this invested. Like, holy shit this is a roller coaster and it is just so much fun.
Shit like

Putting this here just in case

Kenpachi's "Did you know that a sword is more powerful when you swing it with two hands instead of one?" is some of the stupidest and hypest shit I've read in a very long time.

So yeah, I'm not expecting Shakespearean writing in the future, but I feel like I'll have a great time.

[Laserman]

Welp, I finally finished my binge-watch of "Yugioh: Arc-V" (with about three weeks to go before the world drops in Duel Links) and you know what that means, it's time for another overly long rant. I'll try to boil it down to the main issues though...

Spoiler:

So yeah, that's Arc-V done. I'll probably leave it a while before tackling the second half of Zexal or giving Vrains a second shot.

Spoiler:

I see what all the "But you still take damage!" memes were about. I swear they say that at least once per duel this season if not more.

But smile, you have to smile, right, lol.
I'd say the second half of Zexal was pretty good.

Anyways, as I alluded to in my previous rant they spent way too much time goofing around in the Synchro Dimension in Season 2 and so Season 3 has to contend with cramming both the Xyz Dimension, Fusion Dimension *and* a hidden Epilogue arc all into less than 50 episodes and so the pacing is rushed to all heck. The crew really needed to be in Xyz by the last third of season 2 if not the halfway point. But other than the rushed pace, the Xyz arc was pretty decent. Aster worked as an antagonist, even if he was just re-treading his GX arc. Kite was amazing and I loved his new Cipher Archetype of cards, and even Kurosaki got some much needed development.

Them staying in the Synchro Dimension for so long is something that I've seen a lot of people talk about. They really could have just had the time they were there cut in half. Not to mention the fact Yuya that doesn't even Synchro Summon again until the very end of the show after learning how to do it. No Enlightenment Paladin or High Nirvana Paladin after all that...

I suppose the state of the Xyz Dimension justified the short stay, I didn't think it was that bad. Aster was pretty cool and so was Kite. Shun is one of the best characters in this show, and one of my favorites.

The Fusion arc is where the cracks really start to show as the show has some good set up with both the interdimensional war brewing and Yuya's foreshadowed darkside trying to awaken. But unfortunately it all falls flat by the time they get there as there's so few episodes to work with that Academia's forces are effectively wiped out in a rushed battle royale with most of them KO'd by friendly fire. Combined with the fact that any Lancer not named Yuya/Reiji essentially gets reduced to a cheerleader role. And then we get to the battle with Supreme King Z-Arc...

Yeah... Battle Beast was just dumb. And Reiji shows up so many few times in the show despite being one of the best characters in general and being the rival. It was always a treat seeing him duel but, he doesn't show up as much as you would think he would.

I've racked my brains over this climax. It's blatantly trying to parallel Supreme King Jaden from GX yet it simply doesn't work this time and I think I figured out the reason. It's because Jaden *was* the Supreme King and so his sins were Jaden's and trying to overcome the darkness was genuine character building. But Yuya and Z-Arc are effectively two different people in one body and so blaming Yuya for any of Z-Arc's actions is illogical and the fact that the two of them never have a proper scene together is baffling as it robs Yuya of any proper character development beyond "don't be bad".

Hmm, I didn't even think of that parallel. It was just something that happened even though everyone tried to keep the 4 boys from becoming Z-Arc again. Only to fail, and have Z-Arc pretty much defeat anyone who tried stand against him. The thing I do like about him and the final villains in Zexal, and I guess Vrains too, is that both have decks that push the summoning mechanic introduced in their shows to the limit. I thought that was pretty cool. The way that Z-Arc is defeated in though isn't. Maybe if Z-Arc separated from Yuya and he was defeated by him in a duel that would have been better.

The Epilogue arc did go some ways to alleviate some of these problems by giving a spotlight to characters like Kurosaki, Dennis and Gogenzaka but the damage had already been done. By the way, I felt like Yuto/Yugo/Yuri all got screwed by the ending. They really should have been revived separately or had Yuya be a complete blend of their minds and personalities. I really didn't buy the narrative that they "live on" inside of Yuya as presented.

Oh, not just Yuto, Yugo, Yuri, the bracelet girls too. They were all different people with their own lives, friends, families, and they're just gone, and everyone is fine with that somehow. So it definitely would have better if they were all brought back and separated.

Side note: I've no idea what the heck was going on with the "reveal" that Layla was a girl the whole time. It served no narrative purpose and no even acknowledges it - the ENG subs didn't even notice as they kept referring to her with male pronouns even after the reveal. It felt very weird and as if something was planned with Layla's character but got scrapped on the cutting room floor

.
Like she was meant to be this big secret weapon, but didn't do much outside of that.

I liked Arc-V in the beginning, it had so much potential. Only for it to turn into the mess it became at the end.

- - - Updated - - -

On another note, I also started reading Bleach yesterday and I'm currently at chapter 222 (just after the "King and his horse" speech). I'm actually really enjoying it so far. Characters are all likeable so far (Chad is best fucking boi and it's gonna be tragic watching him become the resident jobber in the future) and the fights were great. Reading it I definitely do understand how the series became one of the Big Three. The Soul Society arc is a really cool expansion to both the cast and world that were established in the first 60 or so chapters, so it's easy to see how it would blow up in popularity around the time it was being written. Kubo's character designs and fights are something that always looked cool to me as an outsider looking in, but reading the manga you definitely appreciate those aspects so much more.
Will update as I read more.

All of those things, the characters, the fights, the art, the story all made me fall in with Bleach. Hope you enjoy it.

[ResidentSeagull]

All of those things, the characters, the fights, the art, the story all made me fall in with Bleach. Hope you enjoy it.

I definitely am, thank you. To an unexpected degree, even.

On that note, I just finished the Fullbringer arc. Certainly not as strong as Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, but I'd say it was still ok. Thankfully didn't really overstay its welcome. I kinda got the vibe that maybe Kubo wanted more JoJo-esque battles judging by the powers introduced, but unfortunately it seems like editorial forced him to wrap the arc up ASAP. Would make sense since I can imagine people being confused with the new direction and dropping the series en masse. In any case, you can see a lot of missed potential, which is always sad to see.

On to the Thousand Year Blood War. Will update when I'm done.

[bassgs435]

Finished Betterman myself. Wild this is an spinoff of a mecha show for kids (GaoGaiGar) and takes place in the same world. It was a weird, but interesting show. The titular Betterman was cool as hell. Hinoki's hot

[bassgs435]

Watched End of Rebuild. Great movie. Goddamn, Anno nailed in my honest opinion. This is for me a pretty good ending to all of Eva. I'm sure it's divsive and there'll be others who disagree. Such is the nature of all fiction. But these are my honest feelings