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

[pinetree]

His father not coming back in the series is the most baffling thing in your post, just due to how silly and pointless it is to include it in an already packed film.

Amuro finds him when they go to Side 6. He's there, crazy due to oxygen depravation and living in a garbage dump. He gives a piece of junk to Amuro as if it was a super upgrade to the Gundam, then Amuro leaves him there.
As they leave Side 6, the movie shows him crazed as he cheers the Gundam on in the battle that's being televised. He then falls down the stairs, presumably to his definite end.
It's just... So weird. I would understand it if at least this was the moment Amuro found out he's the one who "killed" his father. But he never does.

I'm still going to watch Zeta just because I want to see what else is there in the franchise and eventually get to Turn A, but this was a rough start.

[Spartacus]

tbh as a longtime fan myself, it better off to start Gundam with the well-received ones and standalone like Gundam 00 and Iron-Blooded Orphans.

A lot of OG Gundam's success feels like owe to being a novel-take on the giant robot genre and fairly realistic war in anime for its time.

[pinetree]

Watching the better standalones was probably the best choice, but I just really want to see Turn A because I like the mecha design and that one girl's drill hair, and I'm the kind of person that likes seeing things in the order of release and can't stand missing the in-narrative references.

[Mattias]

It's a little weird that you went with the movies then, since there's going to be a bunch of reference from the 50 episodes seasons that they're going to leave out for time, but will keep being meme'd forever.

It is a much more concise experience, and not everyone has the time for 723 episodes plus however many movies, but it loses a bunch of the charm. You don't start caring about Four or Ple until you've seen them just dick around for a few episodes then them being shoved into this death machine actually make you care, rather than "Oh hey, it's that person I met five minutes ago, there's no way I can kill them". Granted I don't even know if Four is in the Zeta movies, and people who skip ZZ (because no movies there) would have no idea who the hell Marida is when Unicorn comes around.

[pinetree]

I imagine you're referring to a bunch of future characters there, but my plan was never to go ahead by watching only recap movies. This trilogy was the only one I was going to watch anyway because it's the only one people praised. And I don't particularly care about memes since I don't interact much with the anime community anyway, even less so with specific fandoms outside of this place.

[Skull]

Granted I don't even know if Four is in the Zeta movies,

She is, but unlike the TV show she dies for real in the explosion after helping get Kamille back into space instead of inexplicably surviving somehow in the TV anime, thus her screentime and effect on the plot is drastically reduced.

[bassgs435]

Strike Witches Take Off TV and OVA done. Low as hell production values , but very hilarious parody for any SW fan. Can't wait to watch the World Witches continuation that starts in the winter season. I coudln't stop laughing with every episode

[Mattias]

I imagine you're referring to a bunch of future characters there, but my plan was never to go ahead by watching only recap movies. This trilogy was the only one I was going to watch anyway because it's the only one people praised. And I don't particularly care about memes since I don't interact much with the anime community anyway, even less so with specific fandoms outside of this place.

Fair enough. Though I wasn't thinking of online memes so much as fandom one's since a bunch of the secondary series (like Build Fighters, the weird SD series, and the gundam version of Carnival Phantasm) are all about that stuff. Sure almost no one is going to start with them, but you never know.


Also, I decided to watch Outlaw Star while waiting for new years. I think I finally realize that the reason I like Hilda so much is she has the same English VA as the Major form GitS.

[Deathhappens]

oh lol that manga

Kouhai has been, is, and will be robbed.

Glad at least some people appreciate kohai was best girl

[Spartacus]

Started to watch Warlords of Sigrdrífa.
Not sure what to expect, but war, military, relatively modern setting, SoLs, and cute girls; so far it hits all my tastebuds.

[Laserman]

I finished rewatching the first season of Digimon two days ago. I thought it was a lot longer, but it turned out to be only 54 episodes. I forgot things like Matt and TK's parents being separated. or Izzy being adopted and how that would effect them on them journey in the digital world. It was nice seeing how they all became better people because of their adventure with their digimon. It was very good, and I'm excited to start season 2.

[Spartacus]

Okay, Warlords of Sigrdrifa.

First of all, the good things. The four main characters' developments are done well, as they are loveable enough for me to care about them. Animation is great, fight scenes are great, and most moments didn't fall flat nor overdone. Emotional moments regarding them are all done nicely.

It has things that could be improved of course. The main antagonist is barely explored, despite it is thematically interesting in my opinion (a deity that refused his mythological conclusion and wants to redo the final battle again to prove that wrong), I say he is really the weakest aspect of the show. Removing my bias about knowing the Mythology beforehand aside, the plot twist that the world didn't remember Norse mythology ended up means nothing at all. And the rest of the subplots could be interesting if they explored them, like with the dead Sakura girl, the missed opportunity to revive the big sister as an undead plane, or anything regarding Claudia and Odin's relationship.

There are things that I neutral upon. For example, using the 20th century or below planes instead of jets, because I find that doesn't matter at all when all of them are magic planes, we can change how they look and operate, it will be pretty much the same. I mean it's a show about girls in miniskirt flying an airplane... And I suppose none of the major characters except the big sister died is pretty much expected from the writer of Re:Zero.

Despite the negative contain more words, I think it's an average show that lean more to the good side rather than the bad side.

[Laserman]

I finished volume 8 of 7th Garden and I can't believe the author decided to suddenly make a whole new manga after that last part. This makes me so mad.

[Spartacus]

Elaina is great and I extremely biased.

[Spartacus]

Bought Legend of the Galactic Heroes novels this week. Can't wait to read it.

[Skull]

Bought Legend of the Galactic Heroes novels this week. Can't wait to read it.

That reminds me, I have six of them so I should just get around the getting the others so I can read it all in one go.

[Mattias]

I just remembered never finished that second season of the Die Neue These.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Watching Record of Grancrest War, and I must say, one heck of a find.

[Rafflesiac]

Aqua you asshole.

[RoydGolden]

So I watched Angel Beats! on Netflix over the last week or so. First time experiencing any of Jun Maeda's work and I have to say I found it pretty enjoyable. A very creative fantasy premise (I mean, teenagers in the afterlife waging war against God to protest their unfair lives isn't exactly something you see everyday) with enough mystery to keep me curious what happens next, fun quirky characters (TK's Engrish was a joy in any scene he appeared in) and a good mix of frenetic action and character-development. I have to say though that this show proves I'm not really the target-audience for tearjerkers. I enjoyed the show but none of the tragic scenes made me more than slightly misty-eyed.

Also the romantic subplots were really blatantly rushed. Not to spoil, but both the main pairings by the end got very little foreshadowing and felt like they jumped from tentative friendship (or foe-yay style bickering in the first case) to "tearfully proclaiming our undying love" jarringly fast. Probably just a symptom of how the latter half of the series was rushed in general though, since execs didn't give Maeda as many episodes as he wanted to tell the story.