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

[ResidentSeagull]

Fair point. That does make sense, although you will have to forgive me as I have yet to watch Blade Runner, so I can't really testify to the movie's effectiveness in conveying its message, although I do agree with the thesis --> antithesis --> synthesis framework.
(FYI I have read Do androids dream of electric sheep?, but from what I gather it's so different that it's not an adaptation in the traditional sense anymore)

To clarify myself as well, though, I do actually agree with you on how the movie presents its themes. My statement about GITS coming out when it did is that perhaps people were more impressed by the themes that the work presented, rather than the way those themes were presented. While I am sure that the ideas of the nature of human consciousness in the age where everything is becoming ones and zeroes (among all of the other ideas in Ghost) were revolutionary for many people in the 90's, today they are more relevant than ever, as well as paradoxically mundane and less taboo. This leaves Ghost in an awkward position where many newcomers, such as me and you, find it leaving something to be desired in the writing/thematic execution department.
Again this is something that I find myself thinking about more and more as I watch more influential works such as this. The sense of demystifying media that one hears so much about and forming one's own opininons on them makes for a very unique experience imo.

[Ideofago]

Yeah, this is a very wide reaching phenomena. Still, Ghost redeems itself through its absolutely fantastic score and visuals. If it lacked in the conceptual presentation, it sure did not in the audiovisual. Which is why I personally still enjoyed it as more than just an influential work.

[ResidentSeagull]

Absolutely, although I suppose that I'm still gonna have to wait a bit for my thoughts to fully crystallize on my impression of it.

What I can say is that I'm really enjoying SAC. It's a good show. On 2nd GIG now.

[Laserman]

D.Gray Man Volume 14:
General Cross taking care of Tykki so easily when they were struggling so much made Allen and Lavi remember Chomesuke's words from his message: You would only slow him down.

Allen has been seeing that smiling shadow ever since he played that piano on the Ark. The symbols on the music score were the secret code him and Mana made long ago.
They're investigating the Ark and it is hard to believe that technology like that existed 7000 years ago.

This is also where Rouvelier also makes his debut along with Inspector Link. Link's okay, but Rouvelier can just go to hell.
A big meeting with all the generals and branch chiefs revealed that they know that General Cross has some connection to the Fourteenth Noah, but still no idea of what it wants. That and Allen being able to use the Ark the way he did puts them both under suspicious and they can't talk to each other either. Even though they saved the day. They're heroes, Allen should be made a General, but nooo. That man only cares about winning the war no matter what it takes, and the Exorcists are expendable to him. I'd loveif he and all his goons were to just vanish and never come back.

Parasite Type Innocence are so few in number because the stronger it gets, the more it depends from it's host and that shortens the accommodator's life span.

Allen is a good guy! Johnny is freaking right he is. It was brave and right of him to say that, the people gossiping are all dumb.

They finally got the author's gender right. It only took 14 volumes.

This volume ends with the appearance of Lulubell and all the Level 3 Akuma coming out of the new Ark.

D.Gray Man Volume 15:
This is going up to the last episodes of the original anime.
Lulubell is the Lust of Noah and she has the power to transform into anything she wants. Though I don't see how her power ties into that. The Bookmen have only documented Akuma up to Level 3 so seeing a Level 4 Akuma for the first time was a real shock to everyone.


Allen threw up when he saw it's soul it didn't show it. It really does seem like the more the Akuma evolve the more degraded the soul that powers them becomes.


Also before they became Generals, General Cross was a member of the Science Division which I just can't believe, I mean everything I know about him suggests that he wouldn't be caught dead doing that kind of stuff. Froi Tiedoll was a artist, Cloud Nine was a circus animal trainer, and Winters Sokaroo was a death row inmate. Even with the way he acts, I never would have guessed that.


The Skulls live to be 200 years old and are strong and also immune to bullets. Their responsibilities include helping to create new Akuma, cleaning the Ark, mending the Earl's clothes and other odd jobs. I guess that's better than being random servants that hung around the egg.


And a bunch of the people in the Science Division are all from different branches of the Black Order.


I don't know if anyone that knows Japanese can answer this, but I'm finding some differences in names with the letters L and R compared to the anime, is there a reason for that?

[Rafflesiac]

His smile and optimism: Restored.

No way it ends this easy, though. Uehara might've been Himekawa's dad but he can't have been his father.

[Laserman]

D.Gray-Man Volume 16:
I think the most scary thing about the Level 4 Akuma was how childlike it is along with it's appearance, and new personality. And I say new because Akuma get egos when they evolve to Level 2. So the way it was talking, asking about certain things, and it's actions wouldn't add up if it still had the old ego. So when that thing emerged for the first time, it got a new one.

The part when Allen and Lenalee destroyed the Level 4 was a color page along with the few pages after, and it definitely deserved it.
I don't think the Earl sent that as a "message", because if he did, he would have sent a Level 4 outright instead of one just evolving in the giant Akuma.


The Noah have enough influence to go fancy parties and start wars with Akuma posing as people to help bring up the number of Akuma they have.


The classification of Lenalee's Innocence is now Crystal-Type. The Innocence is the black rings on her legs now ad the marks are where the blood comes from to help form the Anti-Akuma weapon. There's no talk of the synchronization rate of her new Dark Boots or how it would compare to the Innocence of a General either. Everyone didn't like the blood part though.


Bookman actually says if Lavi has any symptoms of his Innocence turning into a Crystal-Type he'll pull them out of the Order. I guess that because of how you become more connected to your Innocence like a Parasite-Type and they don't want to become so attached to the Order.


I've known a little about the next story arc since I saw a little part of it in a Shonen Jump magazine, but never how it actually starts.
Katsura Hoshino has talked about in interviews how she wanted to make a zombie story and now it's in D.Gray-Man, hah.


Komui tried making something that would allow people to work even more by relieving fatigue, and he unintentionally made a zombie virus. The thing he made to hel[ people basically turns them into the zombies that try to bite people to turn them into zombies. They got Marie from the start, who would have been so helpful, after being bitten by Miranda and so many other people too.
They actually thought it might have been an enemy attack, but they basically did it to themselves.

The fact that this all started with Krory chained up finally waking up to some woman in his room and then this.

Oh, and Kanda and Lavi are smaller now thanks to something else Komui made, and Allen has long hair now.

This started because they're moving headquarters because of the attack.

In all the moving, the bad things they had locked away had to opportunity to get broken or opened. Their only hope is to make a vaccine for it.

I'm very excited to see where this story goes.

[Mashina]

Just finished watching Higurashi Sotsu. After Gou I was excited for it, but so much of it felt... not bad necessarily, but just kind of unneeded. They could have easily shortened it to 12 episodes without really losing much.... or even just stapled the last two episodes onto the end of Gou.
That said those last two episodes most certainly made it worthwhile. It feels like they saved up most of their animation budget for these fight scenes and it definitely paid off. The way the endless fight began to devolve into bickering as the two confronted the core issue behind it, yet how they didn't lose any intensity despite aknowledging the absurdity of it all was *chefs kiss* Also the Hanyuu vs Eua scene was peak shonen anime and I absolutely loved it.

A 10/10 conclusion to an otherwise 5/10 anime.

(Jahy-sama style Featherine anime when?)

[bassgs435]

One unintentional fun part of Sotsu was seeing how awful the censorship in the later half of Gou was, since Funi couldn't get the uncensored footage like they did for the 2nd half of Gou (Now with all of Sotsu censored and the first half of Gou censored, I wonder how and why Funi was able to get only the 2nd half of Gou uncensored for simulcast) . Jesus, some scenes really lose their impact like that and I feel bad for the japanese fans who watched them like that for the first time

[ItsaRandomUsername]

Super Crooks' MC is voiced by TsudaKen?

Please. I was already on board. I don't need to be catered to any further :')

[Mattias]

Is Super Crooks any good? All I've seen makes it look like an edgier version of Invincible.

[Ideofago]

Invincible can be edgier?

[RoydGolden]

I've heard that the last few episodes actually adapting the original comic are pretty good heist fare but there's a lot of filler in the middle. As for myself the fact that it was billed as a tie-in to Jupiter's Legacy was enough for me to not watch it since I checked out one episode of that and couldn't stand it. Worst combo of pretentious, edgy and dull.

[RoydGolden]

Up to ep 20 in the Babylonia anime. I wonder why they changed the scene of King Hassan cutting Tiamat's wing off. That seems like the kind of visual flourish they'd go all-out on in the anime.

[ItsaRandomUsername]

The first episode of Jupiter's Legacy was so shitty, I don't disagree. I did, however, IMO, think that the series certainly built itself up enough to something interesting over time and that I was invested in it by the time it wrapped up.

I can def see how/why it wouldn't get renewed for follow-ups, of course. Bit of a shame, really. But like I said, I can see why not.

Super Crooks is certainly by and far a superior work, even right from the get-go. I can see why it 's reviewed well, whereas JupLeg did not.

Anime really is the superior medium :^)

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Invincible can be edgier?

You shitpost about this, but everything Invincible did, in show and in the comics, was merited by the sort of story it wanted to tell. The edgeiness, when it was/is used, is meant to serve a purpose that goes far and beyond "violence cool" or other notions.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Forgot to post, but last week, I watched My Senpai is Annoying! Season 1, and I gotta say, I quite liked it. I am exactly Futaba's age, and am at the same place in my career as many of the younger salespeople, so I empathize with their navigating a work-life balance, finding office camaraderie, etc., and I generally find the whole cast endearing and a nice wish fulfillment of what an office could be (though I don't hate my workplace at all). The main romantic tension between Futaba and Takeda senpai is nice and all, but tbh, I'm mostly there for the raw sexual and romantic tension between Sakurai's aggressive horniness and Kazama's bashful horniness. Every single interaction makes me crack up and root for them at the same time because it feels that they're just one sentence away from devouring each others' faces right at the office, tearing each others' clothes off, and going at it like animals for a week, and yet their interactions are super genuine as well, and Kazama is genuinely respectful of Sakurai's boundaries, almost too much so.

[LegalLoliLover]

With a possible new season of the Utawarerumono anime, I'm watching season 2 (played the game for season 1). I wonder what Nasu, with his stories about humans outliving the planet, would think about "prime normal" (using Fallout terminology) humans being reduced to less than a handful (and some of them are clones of preexisting ones to begin with).

[RoydGolden]

With a possible new season of the Utawarerumono anime, I'm watching season 2 (played the game for season 1). I wonder what Nasu, with his stories about humans outliving the planet, would think about "prime normal" (using Fallout terminology) humans being reduced to less than a handful (and some of them are clones of preexisting ones to begin with).

Isn't "normal humans" becoming a minority something he already depicted in Notes?

[LegalLoliLover]

You mean with Gun God? But isn't he the protagonist? In terms of the first game/season of Utawaremono (back when it was assumed that prime normals were wiped out), apart from the Shakukopolu, most everyone else considers the Onvitaikayan to be evil gods. The second and subsequent seasons/games do have the main character be essentially the last prime normal (the only other one is the Mikado and his clones, but without spoiling anything for myself, I'm assuming that he's gonna die).

[Laserman]

D.Gray-Man Volumes 17-18:
It turns out Krory was the first person to get infected with Komuitan D, (making him a zombie vampire), so he's the one they have to find.

But the Generals beside General Cross got infected which made things even worse. The cause of Komuitan D getting out was a ghost of a girl that was experimented on by the order. By the point she shows up, Komui, Lenalee and Reever got separated from Allen, Kanda, Lavi and Bookmen, who got overwhelmed by the Generals and were bitten.

She let loose that virus because she doesn't want them to leave the Order and be left alone. She even holds Reever hostage and possesses Lenalee to get Komui but he tells her that's not my call. The zombies close in on them soon, and right before they get them, Komui actually recites the names of all the test subjects in the accommodator experiments since he's been at the Black Order, trying to find out her name since she couldn't remember it herself. Seeing him do that made the ghost save him, and gave Komlin II the opportunity to get Krory's blood to make the vaccine and then cure him. Unfortunately, Komlin II was immediately destroyed and the zombies got them. Bak had to made the vaccine and as clean up the mess as he said.

It was a little fun mini arc. The moment at the end with Komui reciting those names was so cool, it shows he really does care.


With this the original anime ends and now it's gone straight to Hallow, which starts with the graveyard battle 3 months after the move.
Oh, they decided to split up the Science Division into 3 seperate ones with people coming in from Central to help out there and in other areas.
Since General Cross is a sorcerer, even if he isn't Judgement's accommodator anymore, he's still alive. He can't just show up and die like that.

The idea of the Earl having human collaborators that aren't the Noah sure is something. A nun too, a freaking nun.
Timothy's Tsukikami is pretty cool, but he always has to have someone with him not just because he's a kid, but because's he's vulnerable while using it. If can overcome the Level 2 possession limit, he'll be able to help out even more since the Earl is sending out Level 3 Akuma now along with Level 4's.

And look the new "Exorcists" that can absorb Akuma showed up to help. Man, I bet being part Akuma isn't going to backfire at all!

Katsura Hoshino has been showing off their nephew in the beginning of the manga, and he was so cute. In volume 18, the picture at the start was them lying on the floor of their workspace.

They also tell the story about their first trip overseas to Germany's Animagic in 2008. They were apparently scared on the plane rider and said there were a bunch of anime, manga, and video game fans there along with amazing cosplayers. She drew a bunch of people doing cosplay of D.Gray-Man characters. One dressed up as Road gave her candy apparently. Her sister was there as an attendant with a video camera, and Katsura Hoshino herself had a hard time taking it all in like anyone would on their first trip outside their country. The venue for her first ever signing was bigger than she imagined and she was so nervous her stomach hurt. Halfway through, she forgot how to write her name, but managed to fake it to make it through. They were a nervous wreck from start to finish, but it was a lot of fun meeting all those fans and it's something she'll always treasure.

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Man, I hate the Volume 19 cover.

[Laserman]

D.Gray-Man Volumes 19-22:

Spoiler:

There are 13 Noah, including the Earl and excluding the Fourteenth, with what they symbolize of Noah all finally revealed and in one place besides Skinn who's dead.
#1:The Earl
#2 Toriado: Judge
#3 Tyki: Pleasure
#4 Sheril: Desire
#5 Wisely: Wisdom
#6 Fiidora: Corrosion
#7 Mashima: Pity
#8 Skinn: Wrath
#9 Road: Dreams
10 and 11: Jasdevi: Bonds
12: Lulubell: Lust
13: Maitora: Ability
*sigh*
And for this big group villain reveal, what did the author do?
Made them look like a bunch male strippers, absolutely the worst.

The Alma Karma Arc is so bad. It's so stupid. The idea the Earl had all of the Noah attack different places and awoke Alma Karma just so the Fourteenth would awaken in Allen is so freaking stupid. A big attack like that all for that. The Third Exorcists don't need to exist there's no real point to them and they do nothing for the story.


The story, the story....

This is the worst it's ever been.

A born exorcist, Walker's primary anti-akuma weapon is the cross that's embossed on his red, disfigured left hand, which contains Innocence. But not only does Walker destroy akuma, he sees the akuma hiding inside a person's soul! Together with his fellow exorcists fighting under the command of the Black Order, Walker leads the battle against the Millennium Earl, the evil being out to destroy mankind.

That's the story of D.Gray-Man. A story of good vs evil, it should be the simple.

So where the hell, haha, does it say that, that some dumb Hitler A-hole and his goon squad comes in right after this amazing battle, the peak of the series so far and brings nothing but suspicion and hate.

Where the hell does it that the hero of the story, has one of the very demons the servants of his sworn enemy has inside. Allen having the Fourteenth insides is such BS.
Cursed with a eye that sees the souls of Akuma and given an arm that can destroy, he's supposed to have a Noah inside of him slowly killing him before it takes over his body. And there's nothing he can do about it.

"You can't stay at the Order anymore, heh heh."

Freaking brains-dead decision probably made some stupid editor that has his pants on his head, like the multiple androids in the Cell Saga. Either that or Katsura Hoshino's illness effected her mind.

How on Earth does it make any sense, when Allen and the story are at the highest points they've been at, to push them both down him so far.

I almost forgot about Apocryphos. Innocence is supposed to good, so why on Earth would it be attacking people and trying to hunt down Allen. Unless it's Innocence that went rogue, which could be interesting.

So many amazing moments and scenes that were elevated by the anime and the music from that.
And someone made the stupid decision to ruin all of that.

I dare someone to tell me that any of that is good. I'd really love to see it.

I think the last time I was this upset about an anime/manga was with IBO's last few episodes. Calling that woman a great writer is insult to writers, she's a freaking hack. I don't care how many movies she makes.

Allen was just thinking of the Order headquarters as the home he never had as a small child. And the friends that he gained too. He's leaving all of that behind. Why give him all of these things just to take them away?

The only thing that is going to get me to read on, is all of the good will from the anime and manga, but even that's....

I can only hope that Allen manages to beat the thing inside him to submission and make it his own power like Ichigo did with his Inner Hollow. Or destroy it completely, either's fine with me. I hope Rouvelier gets lost too. And get the Noah out of those literally dumb outfits.
Just so things can go back to the way they were before.

My rant.

If there's any errors, well, I don't know if I want to look at it again to fix them. It would probably just make me even more sad and angry.