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

[Mattias]

Yeah, there are definitely people who stayed the MCU with Endgame. I'm not saying that's a bad thing either, just that you shouldn't consider the series complete until you've seen it all. Or given up on it, that can also happen especially if there are super rough patches in it. Like the start of Jojo.

It's a bit like a video game. You can play it until it bores you, finish the main story, or complete it 100%. And if you do either of the first two, you can always go back and do more, and if you did the third, you probably enjoy it enough to go again from the start.

Long running series are tricky though. They have to make it appealing enough to new people, but also cater ro the old fans too. Which is why Gundam and Jojo constantly shifting settings works so well.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Phantom Blood was not a rough patch, and I will fight anyone who suggests that.

[Laserman]

I read the first volume of the Mars Red manga.

Spoiler:

There are some differences like how some of the vampires are more monstrous with a lot more fangs, or like the how the story itself started. For example, it begins at the earthquake before flashing back to the beginning of the story. Yamagami had a child, that was something not in the anime. Him and Kurusu were actually in Siberia when I don't know if it was their unit, but two vampires broke of confinement, 1 Unranked and 1 S-Class and the S-Class looked like one of those shark vampires. Defrott also used some kind of hypnosis on Shirase when they first met.

Kurusu's side of his throat looked like it tore out when they were moving them. By the time the story starts, Romeo and Juliet is already being advertised instead of Salome and Misaki is also not show either. Oh and here, Kurusu actually manages to say goodbye to Shirase just like Yamagami did with his wife. The young soldier that was with Maeda wasn't in here either and Maeda himself doesn't make that many appearances in this volume. Nakajima said he was willing to make a deal with the devil in this and I wonder if he said that in the anime too.

Takeuchi is a D-Class vampire, Suwa is C-Class. which was surprising to me since I thought he was at least B-Class. It ends with Suwa coming back to the play after watching a play and identifying Defrott as an S-Class Vampire. It ends with Suwa coming back to the play after watching a play and identifying Defrott as an S-Class Vampire.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Finished reading the Arrancar Arc of Bleach, and I must say, the whole thing felt quite well-paced, and no fight truly dragged, even if I do think some of the tactical decisions by many of the characters kinda sucked, especially Gin's. Now I'm excited to see how I view the Lost Agent/Fullbring Arc with my current perspective. I was quite a different person 5 years ago when I first read it, and my perspective when reading has altered quite a bit.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Also, I admit to absolutely adoring those after chapter side/gag stories and Kubo's sense of humor in those, especially with that one side-story involving Kon and Jinta ruining a soccer game.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Finished the Lost Agent/Fullbringer Arc in Bleach again, and I must say that upon a second read, it's actually not a bad plot on its own or as a Bleach arc, but when Kubo-sensei said that this would be the arc where Chad gets some focus, that didn't happen, and it definitely failed for that. Still, the Fullbringers were mostly quite interesting, the character interactions were pretty good, and though this holds for most of Bleach, I read closely enough to see the surprising amount of depth in Ichigo's character that I missed in my first read. He may be one of the Big 3 Protagonists, but he certainly subverts many Shonen protagonist tropes.

Also, five years ago, I considered this whole arc a waste of pages and an asspull that undercut the ultimate sacrifice Ichigo made to defeat Aizen, but considering all that Kubo revealed about reiryoku and what losing it really meant, I realize he's been entirely consistent with his application of getting one's reiryoku back, and honestly, people should have seen this coming, since there were many plot points that were not yet addressed by the end of Deicide.

Onto the Thousand Year Blood War, and who knows how I'll see it now?

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Reading the Thousand Year Blood War arc, and did anyone else get the sense that Äs Nödt was a survivor of the initial Auschwällen, and Ywach took pity on him and gave him a Schrift? It makes his fear of Ywach extra fucked up IMO.

[Laserman]

Not exactly sure, since Uryu surviving that is supposed to be a big deal.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Not exactly sure, since Uryu surviving that is supposed to be a big deal.

I think Uryuu was special because he wasn't affected at all and kept his power and life. It took Kanae 3 months to die as well, so maybe Äs Nödt hung on for longer than expected.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Watched Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light yesterday. It was fine, all things considered, and functioned competently enough at wrapping up the loose ends the manga left. Still, I wish Elizabeth played more of an active role in the climax of the film.

[Laserman]

Yugioh Vrains Episode 113-116:

Spoiler:

Roboppi would of beaten Soulburner if it wasn't for him malfunctioning near the end of duel. With him gone, Ai's is now truly all by himself. After that Soulburner challenged Varis twho came for Ai's location to a duel to settle the score between them.

Soulburner won. He freaking won.

I still can't believe Soulburner beat Varis, that's nuts. That would be like Joey beating Kaiba, it's just not happening.

Unfortunately, since that was Varis' last duel, I won't get to see him duel Playmaker one last time, Rival vs Rival, or this thing

Spoiler:

ever be animated going up against Firewall Dragon Darkfluid, which is a crime.

It's almost the end of the show when the other series lasted about 150 episodes...

[Laserman]

I watched Digimon Tri Movie 4: Loss yesterday.

Spoiler:

So Himewaka was a Digi-Destined that lost her Digimon and she wants to see them again, that's why she's with the bad guys

So Himewaka was a Digidestined that lost her Digimon and she wants to see it and that's why she's with the bad guys. They wanted the reset to happen so all the Digimon that were lost could come back since apparently if a Digimon is destroyed outside of the Digital World, it's gone for good. But the reset would restore them back.

After meeting up with their Digimon in their In-Training stages, the Digi-Destined and their Digimon just clicked together despite the Digimon's memory loss. Well all of them besides Yokomon and Sora. Even after Digivolving with the rest of them, Biyomon still didn't want anything to with Sora. They all got separated because of Meachinedramon's attack, but Sora managed to meet with Meiko who came to the Digital World somehow who met up with Meicoomon again.
T.K. seeing Elecmon again in the Digimon village was nice even if they couldn't remember each other.

The whole group managed to meet up again, but not before Gennai sent Machinedramon along with MetalSeadramon after them again.

The problem was their Digimon couldn't Digivolve until Tai and Matt got swept under the water by MetalSeadramon. To save them Agumon and Gabumon Digivolved to their Mega forms and beat MetalSeadramon just like before.

And it took some time, but Biyomon managed to accept Sora as her partner and having her risk her life for her let her Digivolve to Phoenixmon. (They probably decided to not use Hououmon because of the name similarity to a certain other fire bird.). But with help from HerculesKabuterimon and Seraphimon, (Which came out of nowhere, totally not earned at all. If anything that should have happened in the last movie.), they beat Machinedramon. But while they were doing that Gennai got to Meiko and Meicoomon.

In the next movie, Omnimon, Alphamon, Jesmon, (who made an appearance as Hackmon here which such a deep voice), and Meicoomon in a new form are going to fight, so that's going to be cool I hope. This movie was probably the one I like the least. I do not like the whole memory loss thing at all, it better be fixed by the end.

I really don't like what happened to Gennai, licking Sora like that was just gross. He was the one who helped them with everything before, so it's sad to see him like this. Who or whatever this King Drasil is, it has to go. Meicoomon is even more important than I thought.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Just finished the Bleach manga and the oneshot, and looking back on the Thousand Year Blood War arc, it really wasn't that bad. Sure, since Bleach got suddenly cancelled, Kubo had to end it real quick and abruptly leave several plot points he had going dangling, but it was still competently written, since the Vandenreich and Ywach were a very real threat in a way Aizen never was, nothing actually dragged for that long, even if some characters, like Lille Barro and Gerard Valkyrie, refused to die no matter how many times they were cut down, and I feel the themes of accepting death while still pushing forward was fairly well-communicated. Besides, there weren't nearly as many Deus Ex Machinas or plotholes as I remember, so all in all, a fun experience. Now I'm gonna read the Light Novels.

[Ideofago]

I'm considering giving Bleach a second chance after trying to put up with the Bount arc for too long like 5 years ago. Would it be worth it? I remember liking stuff like the animation, how the classmates were finally getting elaborated and such, but then Rukia doesn't get with Ichigo and that's just fucking stupid.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Just read the manga, then you don't have to deal with either the Bount Arc or the Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc or whatever it's called. Either way, the manga doesn't have them, and it doesn't drag. I suppose it's not as great to read scanlations if you don't shell out the money for a Viz account or the actual volumes, but still. Also, Ichigo doesn't have nearly as much shiptease with Rukia in the manga. That's pretty much all Studio Pierrot's doing.

[Rafflesiac]

I'm considering giving Bleach a second chance after trying to put up with the Bount arc for too long like 5 years ago. Would it be worth it? I remember liking stuff like the animation, how the classmates were finally getting elaborated and such, but then Rukia doesn't get with Ichigo and that's just fucking stupid.

Just skip the Bount Arc, it's dumb filler.

[Mattias]

Just skip the Bount Arc, it's dumb filler.

Remember the guy who's power was Snakes? Good Times.

[Ideofago]

Just read the manga, then you don't have to deal with either the Bount Arc or the Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc or whatever it's called. Either way, the manga doesn't have them, and it doesn't drag. I suppose it's not as great to read scanlations if you don't shell out the money for a Viz account or the actual volumes, but still. Also, Ichigo doesn't have nearly as much shiptease with Rukia in the manga. That's pretty much all Studio Pierrot's doing.

Even if it's shiptease, they work so much better than cardboard cutout orange hair girl. Bleach is filled with amazing women characters and they pair the protagonist with the literal worst of the bunch.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I will always go out to bat for Orihime's worth as a character because she actually is fairly compelling.

[Mattias]

Orihime always felt like she fit too much into the Hinata Hyuuga school of love interests, where her most prominent trait is how much she likes the protag, and any actual chance they had for character outside that got sidelined by their third appearance. Maybe she got more development by the end of the series, but by the end of Aizen where I dropped off, she hadn't really advanced past where she was by the time they were gearing up to save Rukia. She got more powers, sure, but she didn't really do much with them. They made such a deal about her healing being time fuckery, I was really hoping she'd be the one to beat Aizen by reseting him back to before he God Mode-ed, but nope, just punch him hard until Kisuke shows up.