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

[Reign]

I know I'm 10 years late on this but I started Anohana last night. 4 episodes in and really enjoying it.

[bassgs435]

Coppelion done. Great show. Great characters all around, and a pretty solid plot with really tense, cool and even sad moments. Gotta say I really loved the antagonists in this one. Protags were great too. A really great watch

[Mattias]

I think a lot of people checked out of Coppelion why that one antagonist started throwing electric powers around on the flimsiest pretense. I was already too invested to drop it, but there was a bunch of eye rolling from people I know.

That's a fucking pull from nowhere though. What made you decide to go back to a one season show from eight years ago?

[bassgs435]

I love how GoHands shows look and find the premise interesting. I've been interested in checking it out for a really long time, and the show was taking lots of space in my hard drive for a single cour show.

[Nikiri]

While Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei make some "sense", Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is an amazing and hard to understand mess, it's great.

[Reign]

Saw Weathering With You finally. I didn't enjoy it as much as Your Name (didn't really expect to either though, Your Name is my favorite movie ever) but the background art might have been even better and Hina was a really fun character.

[bassgs435]

So, someone leaked the KnY movie into PSN
It's not there anymore, but it's on the high seas and I just watched it
Cool shonen movie. Had cool, funny and sad moments and Rengoku was awesome. Can't wait for S2

[bassgs435]

MM! done. Hilarious show with a great cast and even some good development and heartwarming comedy. Had tons of funn

[Mattias]

Since I've come across both a Black Lagoon fanfic (not that great, but tolerable) and a meme (pretty funny) this week, I decided that once I finished my queue for this week's anime, I'd give it a rewatch, since it's one of my favourites. Remember when Neo-Nazi's were a joke and not an actual thing that necessitated serious consideration? The finale to this arc has so much I enjoy. From taking the piss out of seinen gun hype as seen in Hellsing, to the final conversation between Dutch ad the Nazi, where they both are open about how much they despise each other but still will work together to get what they want.

The tonal whiplash from Fucking Nazi's to slice of life is also really interesting, especially when it culminates in a confrontation over an issue that was brought up and put aside last arc. Also the thought of the head of the Russian mob having to spend an afternoon editing a bunch of porn herself because she didn't think to hire someone never fails to entertain. Th deadpan "yep, she sure is" always get a chuckle. And Rock's complementing Yolonda's Tea.

Fuck it's almost 4am, and I'm only halfway through the first season. This is going to be all my day tomorrow while I grind out Monster Hunter, isn't it? Thank god the English dub is the way to go on this series.

Edit: Shit now Garcia's here and I have to decide if I stick out the next hour to finish of the Maidinator pt 1 or get my drunk ass to bed and finish it tomorrow...

[Rafflesiac]

The latest Danmachi OVA was legendary, way better than I expected. All the jokes landed, especially the send ups of Volume 11.

HE DRANK THE BATHWATER

[LegalLoliLover]

As I mentioned in the seasonal anime thread, I ended up watching Kujaku Ou AKA Peacock King AKA Spirit Warrior AKA Mystic Defender (for the game) etc. Yeah, that version of Nobu is certainly a good mouthwash for the toned down/sanitized version of Nobu as portrayed in Yasuke, what with his sword infused with Buddha bones to slay Buddhist monks. However, in terms of the story as a whole, it falls into the same trap as the Evil's Return manhwa where the "tragic drama" is done so hard that it makes you wonder the "point" of the entire series. Both Peacock King and Evil's Return have children destined to bring about the apocalypse, so there are efforts from several parties to either kill them, help them fulfill their destines, or help them defy their destinies. Both cases, said children eventually just decide to commit suicide... Well, if they were going to do that, anyway, WTF was the point of the entire work?

[Laserman]

I finished reading Volumes 9 and 10 of Blue Exorcist. Immediately after beating the Impure King they have to go fight a Kraken just like in the anime, but the whole thing turned out completely different. I also saw in the thing at the end of the books that there was a demon that was kin of the King of Time, Samael, which I found interesting considering the elemental chart only had 5 elements on it. So I was wondering what that demon was like and the answer in the volume 10 just shocked me lol.

Demon incidents are spiking all over, another person revived another one of the King of Rot's kin, the Impure Princess, and a man made Gehenna Gate was made somehow. They said that the Illuminati is behind it all, that secret society is an actual thing in Blue Exorcist. I wonder what they're trying to do?

[Laserman]

Volume 11 was pretty fun, Shiemi enrolled in the main school after passing her entrance exams and is attending the regular classes at True Cross Academy.It's a shame that the festival got ruined by the Illuminati appearing there though.

Spoiler:

I can't believe Shima out of all of them was the spy for the Illuminati. Like it'sShima, it didn't seem like he had the motivation for anything besides girls, and he was their spy on the inside. I guess having the person you would least expect it tobe it is good, but god. Freaking Konekomaru and Ryuji didn't even have the slightest suspicion it was him, and they've know each other forever.

Even worse, the head of the Illuminati is the Demon King of Light, Lucifer, who's stronger than Mephisto, even if he is weakened. The key to his plan is Izumo for some reason that might have to do with her with coming from a bloodline of priestesses. So she got captured by them and now her class is going after her while learning about her past. Those last few pages really show that Rin and her have so much in common...

[Mattias]

So I finished my Black Lagoon re-watch (why do I remember the NSA team remarking that there's no way Dutch actually served in Vietnam?) so I moved on to Jorgmungand. It's weird watching the two back to back. While rather similar from a distance, both focusing on villainous protags, Black Lagoon is more character focused, about Rock's slide to the darker side of the underworld, while Jorgmungand tends to be more spectacle focused, with some minor character development in each of the squads arcs, but no real ongoing progression.

Also, did it always take this long to get to Jonah's backstory? I remember it being in like the second or third episode, but so far Orchestra is down and still there's nothing about Koko's brother yet.

[Deathhappens]

So I finished my Black Lagoon re-watch (why do I remember the NSA team remarking that there's no way Dutch actually served in Vietnam?)

That happened in the manga, iirc. Might have been in Roberta's Blood Trail?

so I moved on to Jorgmungand. It's weird watching the two back to back. While rather similar from a distance, both focusing on villainous protags, Black Lagoon is more character focused, about Rock's slide to the darker side of the underworld, while Jorgmungand tends to be more spectacle focused, with some minor character development in each of the squads arcs, but no real ongoing progression.

Also, did it always take this long to get to Jonah's backstory? I remember it being in like the second or third episode, but so far Orchestra is down and still there's nothing about Koko's brother yet.

Jormungand is a more 'realistic' (insofar as anime can be realistic) portrayal. Jonah's backstory comes somewhere in the middle of the first season, iirc.

[Mattias]

Yeah, it turns out it was the very next episode after I posted that.

[Skull]

Just binged the "Jujutsu Kaisen" anime.

Absolutely brilliant. It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Shonen anime as much as I did here. The plot is interesting, the characters are all very likeable and the setting is fascinating - kind of reminds me of what I was hoping Bleach would be like going into its first arc.

Anyways, can't wait for a season 2.

[LegalLoliLover]

I probably won't watch Nobunaga the Fool for pretty much the same reason as me not watching the Monte Cristo anime. From my wiki research, unlike historically, in Nobu the Fool, Mitsuhide the traitor does not get his comeuppance at the hands of Hideyoshi... Which is basically the opposite of the Monte Cristo anime. In the same way that I am salty that the "avenger", Edmond, dies in the Monte Cristo anime, despite surviving in the book, to reinforce that "revenge is bad" nonsense, I should be equally salty that Mitsuhide apparently doesn't die in Nobu the Fool, despite his hilarious defeat historically, to reinforce the cliche of "the hero of light/savior defeating the Demon King and living happily ever after".

In Kessen II, where, if you play as the "heroic" Liu Bei, you end up killing the "evil" Cao Cao, but if you play as the antihero Cao Cao, you end up sparing the "tragic" Liu Bei, like how you don't kill X and Leon, even in Vile and Joachim modes, in Megaman Maverick Hunter X and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, respectively. That being said, Zangetsu gets a "dying" animation, if you defeat him, whilst playing as Bloodless in Bloodstained, so that's cool. There is much pleasure to actually kill Liu Bei in Dynasty Warriors, given that.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Just binged the "Jujutsu Kaisen" anime.

Absolutely brilliant. It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Shonen anime as much as I did here. The plot is interesting, the characters are all very likeable and the setting is fascinating - kind of reminds me of what I was hoping Bleach would be like going into its first arc.

Anyways, can't wait for a season 2.

Akutami did say Bleach was one of his main inspirations for JJK. Also, the anime is an absolutely superlative adaptation of the manga, no joke. The music is especially great. That being said, I cannot get over the fact that shit happens way too fast, and I sometimes struggle to care about characters for how underutilized they are.

[Skull]

That being said, I cannot get over the fact that shit happens way too fast, and I sometimes struggle to care about characters for how underutilized they are.

Eh, I'm the complete opposite. Maybe it's just me getting too old, but I don't have the patience anymore to sit through 200 chapters before something starts to happen.