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

[Mattias]

One of the interesting things about going back and looking at previous seasons is remembering all the mid shows you watched and then immediately forgot about. Like does anyone remember Cop Craft? I did, but only as "that cop show that was 60% still frames, 90% in action scenes". Fun fact it also aired right before Covid hit. Another fun thing is seeing what actually released pre- and post-Covid since it's fucked up out collective sense of time so badly. Like the fact Fruits Basket Remake started in September 2019, so 2/3rds is post lockdown.

Also, Children of Whales is a real blast from the past. I remember when that first aired. I know it's only 5 years, but that feels like forever with the come and go nature of anime today. The show gave me good vibes from the "these powers actively kill us, but our society is based around them anyways" plot. Combined with a Claymore style "This society is actually the outlier" thing it's a real fun ride and I wish there was more.

[bassgs435]

I remember Cop Craft. Had an extremely shitty production, but I had fun. The episode where the elf switches bodies with MC's cat was peak anime

[Toranth]

I remember Cop Craft. Had an extremely shitty production, but I had fun. The episode where the elf switches bodies with MC's cat was peak anime

Exactly my opinion. Best body-swap episode in years.
Also, "fairy dust" being a drug was a good laugh.

[Mattias]

Oh Riiiiight. The hostage crisis was basically a Legend of Zelda situation.

Wasn't the premise that the magic world won the not-GATE and then somehow were still second class citizens?

[bassgs435]

Finished Cyber Formula 0. Another great entry. The drama for Hayato and Asuka's relationship was good, as was the whole thing with the Zero Zone and Hayato mastering it after his trauma. That said, the Zero Zone really makes Cyber Formula into some kind of racing spinoff of Gundam, since it's basically newtype psychic bullshit, including trippy visuals, mind reading and telepathic comversations with a rival (Kaga) who also has the power. Henry was also a fun edgelord villain, kid could win an oscar with how good he's at acting given the whole fake politeness act he has going on when he interacts with anyone (before letting it go and show his edgelord side in private or to Hayato exclusively), and I like how Hayato inspired him to calm down the edge and hate by the end. Good stuff

[TomPen94]

If it counts for this thread, I started reading CFYOW.
That first prologue was quite juicy.

[Laserman]

Tiger & Bunny Season 2 Episodes 5-6:

Spoiler:

This episode has Rock Bison go to Kotetsu for advice after he upset Origami Cyclone about his name, which obviously meant a lot to him, while he was drunk. Like for the one pubic appearance they made after, they were able to work together fine, but they're professionals, it's their job. But out in the field, where they need to trust to each other, something like that could get someone else or themselves hurt because of it.


As Rock Bison was trying to apologize, a hostage situation happened nearby and the two made it inside in their plain clothes. This woman and her child were about to be hurt by the hostage takers when Origami tried to switch to places with the mother. But it didn't work out and the men were about to open fire on him when Rock Bison got in the way and took the shots. With his power, he was able to stall them, while Origami used his power to change into Barnaby to lead the hostages out of the building, because everyone knows who Barnaby is, he has lots of fans, and people are sure to feel safe with him vs Origami outside of his costume. Kotetsu and the real Barnaby were able to help take down the robbers and Rock Bison and Origami were able to make up at the end.


After the episode, those two men who have been attacking heroes appeared with a third man called Braun who also has a Ouroboros tattoo. They talked about how they've been attacking even more heroes and how they're going for exactly 36 heroes.


In Episode 6, you have a wonderful of a parent trying to live through their child, Magical Cat in this case, and the parent even gave her terrible, mean-spirited advice based on her life on top of it.
The fact that when Subaru was training and talking about how he had to concentrate to use his power, and Magical Cat says that she doesn't have that problem, only for her to freeze and not be able to create water when in danger was really something.


The whole time, Dragon Kid was just trying to help, but because of her mother's advice, Magical Cat went off on her own twice, and had to be saved both times.
It took help from Dragon Kid, Kotetsu and Barnaby for her to use her powers to beat the arsonist who was just released in the prison in the end.


And at the end of this episode, the 2 mysterious men from Ouroboros and a new one that they called Braun are going to Sternbild City, since there's exactly 12 heroes there, the remaining number that they want to defeat.

I've been liking how they've been having different episodes for hero buddy team, but now all the pairs have been covered. It makes me wonder what's to happen next.

[bassgs435]

Finished Cyber Formula Saga. Pretty good. Given the whole racing with AIs thing, I like the focus these OVAs had in exploring what should be the ideal balance, with Hayato going for a less advanced AI than Asurada at the beggining so he has more control, and the villain Nagumo drugging his racer Phil so it's the Al-Zard AI in complete control. Eventually Hayato goes back to Asurada and the answer the show gives is "a cooperation beetween AI and human as partners". The new artstyle also looks great. Phil also had some good development here. Gotta love what he did in the finale

[Rafflesiac]

Oshi no Ko: Oh shit oh fuck Akane stay safe I'm begging you.
Ranger Reject: I really dig D standing up for autonomy and self-actualization. Also Green Keeper and his giant hammer.

[bassgs435]

Finished Cyber Formula Sin. A good finale with Kaga as MC instead of Hayato. Pretty good character development for Kaga and I like that for his final Cyber Formula competition, he was able to defeat Hayato, also coming to terms with his past and the friend he lost, going back to being Jotaro Kaga instead of Bleed Kaga. The fact that the transition from Bleed to Jotaro is done by having Kaga go back to his natural hair color (for once the crazy colored anime hair was a dye) and cutting his hair shows a rare case of a male character cutting his hair to represent character development. This is a trope more associated with females
As a whole, Cyber Formula was a great time and a great and fun racing story with cool cars. Pretty good franchise
Also, thanks to Ani-One for providing decent subs for Saga and Sin. The HK subs looked disastrous and these were much better.

[Laserman]

Tiger & Bunny Season 2 Episodes 7-8:

Spoiler:

Episode 7 starts with Barnaby and Kotetsu finally having the chance to get drinks like they've been trying to for a while, only for Kotetsu to forget his wallet at home.
When they get to his house, he finds Kaede and her friend there. They're supposed to ask their parents what they do for their jobs, and wanted to go see where Kotetsu works. He tries to get approval for it, but Lloyd shoots him down, with Kaede being fine with the whole situation. The whole time she's understanding of him, with Ryan saying that kids are only like that when they something or are up to something. And just like he said, the two of them were about to leave when Barnaby showed up, taking them to his childhood friend's job.

For the past few episodes, Barnaby has been meeting and talking to his friend that's researching a drug that can give any NEXT powers in a effort to break down the boundaries between those with powers and those without them. What Barnaby doesn't know is, is that his friend has been testing the drug on himself and the side-effects have been rough on him. At the end of the episode, he's going to be told he's running out of time to make the drug, and if he doesn't, the whole thing will be shut down.

While Kotetsu and Yuri are at Law class for children, the subject of Lunatic comes up. One of the kids asks, "Since killing a person in defense of another isn't a crime, then what about Lunatic? Does that mean that he's protecting us since he only kills criminals?".

Kotetsu quickly just says that he's not protecting anyone, that he's a murderer and he's going to bring him justice, and I just thought the whole situation was funny considering the man that they were talking about was right there.

After trying to sneak away again, the real reason why Kaede went to go to Sternbild is revealed. She wants to be a hero, and wanted to go to the Hero Academy open house. Since she thought her father would be stuck at work, she tried to go without telling the man. While Kotetsu is happy that she would want to follow in his footsteps, he's obviously worried about her safety. After getting into a big fight, Kaede and her friend leave, only to see a nearby accident happening. Kaede using the NEXT powers of her friend, tries to save a falling man, only for the man to have powers too, and just when she's about to fall down, Kotetsu comes just in time to save her.

With all the people rescued, they decided to go the Hero Academy at the end after all for a tour. The principal was so happy to see Kotetsu and Barnaby, and it makes perfect sense why, they're basically giant success stories. There, the two girls learn that it's not just a place for NEXT to learn how to become heroes, it's also a place where NEXT can learn to live with their powers. It's something that Kaede's friend, who doesn't like being a NEXT herself was glad to hear. When all is said and done, Kaede and Kotetsu both agree to have another discuss about her attending the school, with him saying that he has a lot to think about in general when it comes to being a hero.




This episode starts with He is Thomas and Subaru corning a thug, but the guy gives up without a fight at first, frustrating Subaru since he wanted a chance to show off. While arguing with Thomas, the criminal shot his weapon at them, hitting a nearby woman who was watching the whole thing. Thomas quickly took the gun out of the guy's hand, but as soon as he got to him, starting beating the crap out of him. And too make things worse, it was caught live on Hero TV.

As punishment for what Yuri decided was an excessive use of force, Thomas got suspended for it. Yuri also brought up what triggered Thomas in the first place, an incident from his past, but of course, Thomas denied that it had anything to do with it. When Subaru asked about it, Thomas said he didn't trust anyone, partner or no partner and left.

It's after that we learn that the whole rich kid thing is just how the marketed him, he's had a very rough life. He lost his parents when he was 9 and his younger sister was 7 after they died in a car accident. On top of that, him being a NEXT made it so no one wanted to adopt him at the orphanage they were at, and not wanting to be separated from him sister of course, no one would take her too. So one day, the man in charge of the orphanage did try to separate them, only for Thomas to take his sister and run away. At night, at some rundown place, these 2 guys try to take the necklace his sister has that their mother gave her. Thomas tries to defend themselves using his powers, but one of the men drew out his gun and shot his sister in the leg. While his sister was suffering, one of the man beat up on Thomas.

Eventually, they were brought back to the orphanage when Thomas' sister was separated from him,
and from then, he's been all by himself. His reason to become a hero was so that no one would ever suffer like his sister did and he saw that woman get shot like her, he reacted the way that he did.

So yes, him and Barnaby do have a lot in common.

To make things even worse, after coming out of the Hero Museum, he meets an elderly couple in need of help. So after assisting them, right after he's told he can come back to work, he finds out that the two of them are a couple of criminals who prey on people who come to help them. Thomas is able to shrug off the drug they used him and take them down, but...

I just feel so bad for him. Just when he thinks he can trust people again after what the other heroes did for him, that crap happens. I can't help feel sorry for him and that experience is just more proof for him that he can't trust anyone.

And something I have noticed that this season has shown is how some people don't like NEXT and how they treat them.

The terrible duo has made it to Sternbild as well, I can't what to see what will happen next.

[bassgs435]

Finished the Tales of Symphonia OVAs. Pretty good. Decent plot, good character development and exploration, great fights and in general a good fantasy show.

[Rafflesiac]

Aka, I'm gonna need you to calm down. Okay? We're gonna, we're gonna talk this out, it's gonna-

AKA NO SUDDEN MOVES! NO SUDDEN MOVES, ALRIGHT!?

Just back away slowly. You don't have to do this. Okay? We're gonna fix this, it's gonna b-

AKA NO PLEASE ;_;

I'M BEGGING YOU

[Laserman]

Tiger & Bunny Season 2 Episodes 9-10:

Spoiler:

The last episode ended with Barnaby being hurt by something and it's explained here what happened. There was a robber who has the NEXT power to cause things to blowup, and he started a fire in the museum he was robbing. Kotetsu and Barnaby both went in to save the art and to rescue any people still trapped inside and what happened was, was that Barnaby who had his power active heard a woman in trouble and went on to save her while Kotetsu dealt with the art. With only a few seconds of his power left, Barnaby moved the explosive object away from the woman, but got hurt because his power ran out just at the last second. And now, he's pretty stuck in a coma at the hospital and no one knows when he's going to wake up.

Of course, Kotetsu does everything in his power to get the guy, going around and asking people,and eventually they got the call that he struck again.
After fighting him for a few minutes, the guy managed to escape, but not before he was found shortly after just frozen on a tree. The ones responsible for it being those two guys from Ouroboros.

While all of this is happening, it turned out that Barnaby's friend stumbled onto a drug that boosts the power of NEXT instead of giving powers to normal people.

In episode 10, the heroes trying to find out what happened to the guy from the last episode start getting attacked themselves, starting with Fire Emblem and Sky High.
By the time they were found, they were frozen too. The video from the suits captured what the two guys looked like, but not how it happened.

The scary thing is, is that Kotetsu got a waring about what was going to happen from a bunch dolls that looked like him and the other heroes hanging in Barnaby's hospital room, which also meant that they were there!
Rock Bison's doll was the next one to fall down from the ceiling, so Kotetsu of course tried to warn him, but as it turned it out, it was mistake from those two.
Their real targets were Origami Cyclone and Dragon Kid, whose real faces and names they knew from hacking into their personal information. The two mysterious leading them away from the hospital into the subway name give their names, Hugan and Mugan, with Mugan claiming to have the power to turn invisible.

Dragon Kid and Origami managed to seemly beat Mugan who was by himself and the others arrived just when he reveals what that his NEXT isn't invisibility, but teleportation, to everyone's surprise, including me.

If you watch that fight, like how when Dragon Kid attacked him, he would just disappear and pop up somewhere else, it makes sense. If it was just invisibility, he would have to moving around pretty fast to get to the places he appeared in again. And there wasn't any noise from his steps either. Along with the fact that he managed to get into a room with two guards in front of the doors, and hang a bunch of dolls in there, there's no way that could just be invisibility. Someone would have seen something.

But unfortunately, they realized this too late, and the guy teleported away with the Origami and Dragon Kid.

[Rafflesiac]

Oshi no Ko: I thought I'd be sad but instead I'm mad.

Spoiler:

[Honestly, I was prepared for Akane dying. Close off Aqua's path to peace after he finally enjoyed the good life and started considering other options. It'd be dramatic and painful and solid writing. What we get instead is just not very satisfying. Instead of Aqua returning to revenge out of rekindled grief or anger, it's just because he's an asshole who dumped his GF he never respected, even after all of those times he apologized and when he said he'd try going out with her without pretenses or using her. "Akane will do something stupid" is not a satisfying motive for revenge. Putting the breakup and the return to revenge in the same chapter isn't very satisfying either; they both feel rushed.]

[BnEl15]

Oshi no Ko: I thought I'd be sad but instead I'm mad.

Spoiler:

[Honestly, I was prepared for Akane dying. Close off Aqua's path to peace after he finally enjoyed the good life and started considering other options. It'd be dramatic and painful and solid writing. What we get instead is just not very satisfying. Instead of Aqua returning to revenge out of rekindled grief or anger, it's just because he's an asshole who dumped his GF he never respected, even after all of those times he apologized and when he said he'd try going out with her without pretenses or using her. "Akane will do something stupid" is not a satisfying motive for revenge. Putting the breakup and the return to revenge in the same chapter isn't very satisfying either; they both feel rushed.]

Spoiler

Just got caught up with the latest chapter as well, and so much this. I'm strictly team Kana, and I don't necessarily want to see Akane dead either, but... I feel what we have here is just underwhelming for every party involved? Killing Akane would be a great way to twist the knife and remind the readers of the stakes involved in the story. If not that, maybe putting her in a coma for a while would also be a good way to rekindle Aqua's sharingan without killing her. Instead what we got was... what..?

[Comun]

Spoiler:

Mr. Random in Kamiki's exact raincoat was such an ugly fakeout I couldn't even properly process the rest of the chapter.

[Laserman]

Tiger & Bunny Season 2 Episode 11:

Spoiler:

So that's Mugan and Hugan's past. I like that Magical Cat finally told her mother to shut up about Dragon Kid, she feels so guilty about what happened to her. Mugan and Hugan gathered all the heroes left besides Kotetsu and fought them, and finally I found out what Hugan's power is.

He can counter pretty much any hit thrown at him, but that doesn't the frozen state that they left their victims in.

The heroes were putting up a decent against them until those two used new drug that was accidentally made by Mattia. Now Rock Bison, Golden Ryan, and Blue Rose are down too, leaving only the rookies, Kotetsu, and now Barnaby who woke up at the end, to fight them.

[Laserman]

Tiger & Bunny Season 2 Episode 12-13:

Spoiler:

With Barnaby recovered, the heroes came up with a plan. They guessed Mugan's warping power could only be used if he could see, so they decided to they would blindfold him while using Barnaby, who didn't know was conscious to launch a sneak attack on them. It was a great plan, but unfortunately, they didn't want to fight in the same stadium that Jake did because they didn't want to copy someone else. So before they decided to teleport away, Barnaby revealed himself and they changed the location to the last place where L.L. Auden, their hero, fought. The reason the two are fighting is because Ouroboros told their adoptive father, Mr.Braun, to have them attack heroes in the first place. They only went with the 36 number since they're a pair and they wanted to match his record of 18 heroes defeated.

They did well at first, but as soon Mugan got the bucket on his head off of him, things turned bad real quickly. Twisting Thomas' already broken arm was so terrible of them, and the sound that the made too was horrible.

Kotetsu used Hundred Power against Fugan, and while looked like he managed to land a solid blow, Fugan got back up and hit him back with the same level of power at the end of the episode.


In episode 13, Barnaby uses his Hundred Power against Fugan, but his hits weren't damage to him, unlike Kotetsu's. When Fugan finally strikes back, it's shown that while he can absorb attacks that come his way, if he stores too much power and uses it, it could damage his body. As shown when both of his hands got broken after he hit Kotetsu and Barnaby.

The brothers didn't back down though and continued to attack the other heroes until Magical Cat finally used her power at the right time and not only separated the two, but gravely injured Mugan, which prevented him from teleporting. It took Thomas using his power, along with Kotetsu's and Barnaby's help, to trick Fugan to take him down.

And with that battle was over, but Fugan and Mugan managed to escape.


In the end, the criminal that they used had a test subject for the power-boosting drug, killed Braun along with Fugan and Mugan as they were saying goodbye, with the drug in his possession.
And it was also revealed that the one who froze all the heroes was Braun, the last thing he did was setting them free.

Part 2 of the second season is out now and I can't wait to see where the story goes from here.

[bassgs435]

Finished Zettai Karen Children
I watched the Hyoubu spinoff years ago, and it was pretty cool. So I was always intending to watch the main show. Well, just did and this was very fun. Fun characters, decent animation (with some sakuga in a couple episodes) and an interesting conflict. Pretty good stuff. Now I'll rewatch the Hyobu spinoff, as I'm sure the expreience will be different having watched the main show.