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

[bassgs435]

So, after liking Lycoris Recoil, I decided it was finally time to check some old shows in my backlog: Bee Train's "girls with guns shows" and Gunslinger Girl
First up: Noir
Pretty good and I can see why it launched Kajiura to fame. The plot and characters were interesting and the fights were well done. Even with the usual trappings of anime gunfights, one thing I appreciate is that when the girls get hit, even if it isn't a fatal shot, the damage isn't something they can ignore. I like this show. Next up Madlax, which is surprisingly in the same universe as Valkyrie Drive Mermaid and Birdie Wing (this is a joke because they share the main writer and these shows all have a fictional european country named "Nafrece" in them)

[bassgs435]

Finished my rewatch of The Unlimted Hyoubu Kyousuke, the ZKC spinoff focused on Kyouske and PANDRA. As I suspected this works better when you've watched the main show. Really nice to recognice the cameos by characters that don't do much here, and in general to be more familiar with everyone after seeing them in so many episodes of the original. Pretty good stuff

[Skull]

So like, I couldn't stand waiting for the next episode of Chainsaw Man (this is why I dislike watching things weekly) and so I spent the day binging the entire manga to get caught up...

Damn, that was one hell of a trip, so many emotions that it's hard to describe. One thing I do know is that I'm not sure how to feel about Part 2, it's giving me major "Tokyo Ghoul: RE" vibes. Hopefully I'll come to love it just as much as Part 1.

[pinetree]

I've been pretty satisfied with Part 2.
Though that's mostly because I've come to appreciate the author himself a lot. The chapters are good, bit they are much better with the knowledge of what he has written recently (Look Back and Goodbye Eri) and anticipation of something on the level of those coming up.

That said, I liked (most of) RE a lot and though that it was better than the first part overall, so maybe I'm just into this kind of sequel.

[Mattias]

I find shounen, or shounen-ish, stories tend to have this effect more than others. It probably has something to do with their habit of leaving episodes on a cliffhanger.

[Deathhappens]

Finally sat my ass down to watch Cyberpunk Edgerunners. I marathoned up to episode 9 and holy shit, hit me right in the feels. It honestly might have used an extra episode of two lightening the atmosphere here and there, because the gut punches came and kept coming. I'm actually scared to watch the last two episodes because I don't want to watch everything that's left crash and burn.

I have to give Trigger full marks here, when they have someone holding the reins on them so they can't go full cuhrazaay with their storylines they do a bang up job on the visuals. Between this and their short for SW Visions, I might even have to forgive them for KlK.

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So, after liking Lycoris Recoil, I decided it was finally time to check some old shows in my backlog: Bee Train's "girls with guns shows" and Gunslinger Girl
First up: Noir
Pretty good and I can see why it launched Kajiura to fame. The plot and characters were interesting and the fights were well done. Even with the usual trappings of anime gunfights, one thing I appreciate is that when the girls get hit, even if it isn't a fatal shot, the damage isn't something they can ignore. I like this show. Next up Madlax, which is surprisingly in the same universe as Valkyrie Drive Mermaid and Birdie Wing (this is a joke because they share the main writer and these shows all have a fictional european country named "Nafrece" in them)

Can confirm Gunslinger Girl is a good watch (at least if you enjoy shows like that), but I'd stay away from Il Teatrino (S2).

[Five_X]

Gunslinger Girl is a great classic, one of the shows that got me into anime. Season 2 and the OVA are fine, they just look different since it's a different studio - Madhouse's take is very iconic. The manga is also well worth a read once you're done watching, and I think it's very underrated and less-remembered than season 1 of the anime.

[Deathhappens]

I can second the recommendation of the manga.

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Finished Edgerunners. It was sad and predictable and it still hurt.

[TomPen94]

Watched Film Red, it was pretty nice. Think it benefitted from the theater experience, cuz when I watched the first 7 minutes on YT, I thought it sounded bad, but in the theater with full surround the songs really popped out. Actually had to hold back from singing Shinjidai out loud.
Has a pretty nice fanservice moment for manga readers too.
It was a lot of fun, recommend it.

[Deathhappens]

Having put it off time after time and again, finally got around to watching Cowboy Bebop. I can definitely see why it's become such an enduring classic, though as always I can't help but nitpick (the art can be absolutely beautiful one moment and completely destroy someone's anatomy five seconds later- somehow this seems to happen to Faye the most). One thing that's actually impressed me though is how ahead of its time it seems to be; while stereotype Okamas are still stereotype, scenes like Faye busting in on a gay couple having sex to no comment, or the way Gren's situation is handled, stood out to me, particularly for an anime that came out in '98.

Question for the audience, though- should I finish the anime and then move on to the movie, or does it fit better somewhere before the ending? There also seems to be at least one OVA about Ein?

[Rafflesiac]

Oshi no Ko: Finally, Kana gets interesting material again. Can't wait for the next chapter.

[bassgs435]

Finished Madlax. Pretty crazy with far more supernatural elements than Noir, and more of a mistery focus. Gotta say, I like the ambiguous ending, and the titular Madlax was cool as hell. The OST was cool. Specially the track/maybe tracks that play when the magic words are uttered and their sorcery enters into play. The weird tribal chanting really helps create a supernatural mood for said scenes. Fun show

[Toranth]

First Noir, then Madlax - man, you're really triggering the nostalgia here. Fun shows I haven't thought about in a long time... I think I may go re-watch Noir, for the music if nothing else.

[LegalLoliLover]

Owari no Seraph's plot is certainly more chaotic than Kimetsu no Yaiba's, in a good way. Like, you never know what's going to happen next.

[Laserman]

I don't know if I want to start reading that again to be honest.

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I only stopped reading it because of something that was happening in the story, which was a shame since I was very into the manga.

[bassgs435]

Finished Trigun (movie included)
With Stampede coming out, I figured I should hurry up and get this out of my backlog. Pretty good show. Plot was well done, and characters had good development. Main villains were good, too. Specially Legato. The movie was pretty much a filler, but a pretty good one. Getting to see Trigun with better production values was great
Looking foward to what Orange does with Stampede, even if I'm iffy on some stuff, like changing Meryl's profession, replacing Milly, the designs or 4Kids Wofwood (replacing cigs with lollipops is what 4kids'd do. I think this is because Woflwood is underage and Japanese laws forbid underage smoking from being shown in TV shows (reason why Jotaro smoking had to be censored for the TV airing of Stardust Crusaders). I guess Orange couldn't make the censorship work in 3DCG (I don't remember seeing any of these CG shows needing to be censored, so I don't know how they'd look censored) so they chose to remove his smoking), but I hope it's still a fun show. Would have prefered a faithful adaptation of the manga, but I don't know how many episodes Stampede even has. I hear the full manga (Trigun + Maximum) is long and maybe they couldn't get enough episodes greenlit for a non-rushed adaptation of the manga

[Mattias]

Wait, Orange is doing Stampede? I didn't know that. I now have a small amount of hope it will be done well, rather than none.

[bassgs435]

Finished KissxSis TV and OVA . That was good and very lewd. I like it. My only complaint'd be that the girls had no nipples.

[bassgs435]

Finished El Cazador de La Bruja. More lighthearted than it's predecessors, but still good. The journey was well done and I liked our 2 leads (Nadie and Ellis) and how their relationship grows. That said, it's funny to go from the main antagonists being leaders of the not-Illuminati (Altena being the Soldats' High Priestess) or a sorceror leader of a hacker mafia (Friday Monday being the leader of Enfant) to a CIA guy with his own agenda (He isn't even in the CIA after the first half of the show, since when evidence of his shady deals and actions starts coming out and risks damaging the CIA's rep, he gets kicked out so the CIA can save face). The secondary cast (Blue Eyes, Ricardo and Lirio) were also great. LA as the rival character had perhaps the most fucked and tragic story of all 3 rivals in Bee Train's trilogy (The other 2 being Chloe from Noir and Limelda from Madlax). At least Chole died following her own will and Altena cared about her in her own fucked up way. LA was nothing more than a brainwashed puppet to Rosenberg and only in his last moments he was truly free. Also, at least Altena wanted Chloe to suceed and become Noir alongside Kirika. Rosenberg never expected LA to succeed and he just wanted the kid as an obstacle for Ellis to overcome as an step to the awakening of her powers. Once his role was done, Rosenberg didn't care about his life.
Next up, both seasons of Gunslinger Girl

[Rafflesiac]

Oshi no Ko

[FAILED IDOL ARIMA KANA SEDUCED OLDER MAN FOR ROLES
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