Was glad last weekend to see a few of us get talking last weekend in the One Piece thread. Lemmy is way too dead when it comes to anime and manga talk. So let’s see what we need to be talking about.
What have you been watching, what is it, and why do you think it’s worth watching?
Odd Taxi was pretty good. It’s not new or anything but I really liked the narrative.
Yes, I loved this one. I should do a rewatch soon. Really loved all the characters and how the story unfolded. I didn’t think this one would live up to the hype it was getting for a while, but I feel it did.
I’ve recently completed several shows that were in a limbo in my currently watching list.
Fate/Apocrypha - It was a nice action show, especially liked the use of extremely distorted sound effects to portray power. Did not feel connected to any of the characters at all though, there were way too much and the show ended up not giving enough attention to any of them, except maybe Sieg.
Birdie Wing S1- I’m not a golfer, but it was fun, very “anime” show with all the imaginary power-ups and whatnot. Was expecting it to stay on the gambling side of golf for longer than it did, but not complaining. Might watch the second season at some point in time.
Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! - CGDCT/SoL is not really my jam anymore but this one was enjoyable enough, although slightly boring at times and it took me a long time to finish. Didn’t have too many running gags, which is good IMO because those get old fast.
Then I’ve also been watching the new season of Mushoku Tensei. It’s really weird. The pacing has felt super off, and every episode somehow relates to Rudeus’ dick not functioning. Which, if you ask me, is not a super interesting plot point to base your adventure story around. Will stick to it though, because I trust the story will eventually get back to the quality it was in the first season.
Jahy-sama has fire OP.
Mushoku tensei has some cut corners plot wise. Rudeus dick is important to the owner and not the viewer. I like it a lot because we still don’t get fanservice. In this arc in (WN) I felt like the subplots were more important than main plot.
Cool, some things I haven’t seen! I haven’t looked into any of the Fate shows yet. Jahy-sama I hadn’t heard of, but looks funny. I’ve been bummed out s but Kathy, so some cute and happy are in order. Thanks!
I haven’t looked into any of the Fate shows
It’s certainly a can of worms waiting to be opened. For anime onlies, there is unfortunately no perfect watch order as Fate/Stay Night does not have a perfect anime adaptation, and it is essentially the base for all other titles in the franchise.
If you want to get into the Fate anime series (but don’t necessarily want to read the original visual novel), your best bet is to start with either the 2014 Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works series, or 2006 Fate/Stay Night. Neither is a perfect introduction, for reasons that you can search up since this topic is discussed a lot.
After that you can continue with Fate/Zero, and pretty much any of the Fate titles.
Not quite anime, but I’ve been watching the one piece live action. Context for the review: I’m up to date on both the manga and the anime. The live action is actually really good. It might even be as good as the anime. It’s a bit more realistic and darker, because of more actual deaths happening on screen, but it still has the one piece vibe imo.
The no power fight scenes (zoro, early story nami, etc.) actually look better. But I will concede that the powers and fishmen look worse.
Buggy has had his personality fused with Joker and it’s working out surprisingly well. He’s become more psychopathic.
I keep hearing so much good stuff about this. I watched the trailer and it looked better than I would have thought, except like you said, the powers look a bit odd.
Read a NYT interview with Oda rm the other day and it seems like he had a lot of say in it. I’m sure that makes a big difference. I’ll have to check it out, but I’m already reading the manga and watching the anime, so I don’t want to just One Piece 24/7!
It’s 8 episodes (1 hour each). Looks like it ends at the end of arlong park. If you want to pace yourself, I recommend one episode a day or week. They don’t really end on cliffhangers, especially if you already know the story.
Ooo one hour blocks is good. We like to watch something more special during Sunday breakfast so that might be a good way to break it up.
Oh yeah, also just finished Farming Life in Another World. More light fanservice than any actual farming, but I loved the spider! I didn’t find any of the harem annoying and there wasn’t anything outright pervy, so it was fine. It does bother me a bit how emotionally unattached the MC is, especially to his kid.
Also watching Helck, which I went into blind. So far, nothing at all like I expected. Very silly in a good way. The demons are the good guys and the humans bad. Lots of cool powers, and some really cute side characters. In the midst recent episode, some dark things were hinted at, so we will see some serious moments ahead. Really fun so far though, and I look forward to it each week.
I also appreciate that the harem in Farming Life is so matter of fact, but it does mean the MC comes off as cold or distant a lot of the time. Agree that Makuro (spider) is great and everybody from the world is low-key terrified of Makuro. I also love the wolves Kuro and Yuki.
Helck has been interesting. It has had a very slow start, but it feels like it is doing a lot of work in establishing things. I mentioned in the last episode thread that the slow, unspoken worldbuilding they are doing in Helck reminds me a bit of Adventure Time. A pretty silly cast of characters that is set in a world harboring a very dark past.
I just actually read that Helck thread. It seems I haven’t been seeing them because I have bots blocked. I’m torn turning it off, but there’s so many posts with no talking.
I had expected Helck to be like I Quit Heroing, but it started more like the arena scene from Thor: Ragnarok. Even the fights so far have been relatively comedic with things like the shield guy that needs constant snacks and people calling Vermilion cutesy things and she gets all mad. The last episodes finally started hinting at dark things though. I’d like the plot to get deeper, but I really like a lot of the fun interactions. I also love Piwi, especially when he plays dumb like he was a regular bird.
The reactions to the spiders and wolves are one of my favorite gags in Farming Life. I like when the spider just waves hello to the people cowering in fear and then she just goes off and eats potatoes. The drunken slime is also fun. I’d party with that guy.
I read a bit of the wiki and it seems MC just guess around knocking everyone up, so I’m torn continuing watching the show. I like all the girls and animals, MC is just so bland though. He doesn’t have any struggles. He doesn’t seem to care much for anyone in particular. He didn’t even sweat fighting any monsters so far. If they ditched him and just had fantasy Yuru Camp in the forest, I think I’d prefer that.
I am up to date on the Farming Life manga (not read the LNs) and it doesn’t really change in those regards. I would consider it an Iyashikei series (even though MAL just has it as SOL), so by design it is mostly just chill vibes and character-driven gags occasionally. I do think that the MC and supporting cast could be more dynamic though. It sometimes feels like the author just wants to nerd out about some topic of the week related to farming/village construction rather than character writing. There are other examples on that MAL page of Iyashikei series that have very interesting characters (including my favorite show of all time, Mushishi) and Farming Life is just so bland in comparison.
Dang, there’s only 2 on that list that I’ve watched and actually stuck with.
Demon slayer season 2, cuz I’m a dumbass and forgot about that series for a while. Oh and Zom100. I love zombie stuff.
Zom 100 is such a unique zombie show. He stays so positive in spite of everything. The show is both brutal and funny from the beginning, and there are a lot of moments I haven’t seen before in other zombie shows and movies.
(Edited to remove ep 1 spoilers)
I haven’t started watching it yet bruh, i feel like it got spoiled lol 😅.
Aww, I tried to keep it really vague in case anyone hadn’t seen it. Most of what I said is set up in the first episode though. This show doesn’t hold back in the savage parts though, even though so far it’s mainly about him trying to have fun. There is a good bit of stuff you probably haven’t seen before to look forward to!
Now i have, i binged on it all day. I love the animation and how they use colors and symbolisms, it’s so good.
Yes, the color effects instead of outright gore I think are more dramatic. My brain is expecting the red, but the bright bold colors add a bit of surprise to the moment. It’s a very creative show and has been a positive surprise for me when I want exciting much from many shows this season.
I feel like that symbolism to show like ironically the apocalypse is his salvation. They use all dark and less saturated colors when he’s living the office life and the zombies are the only way he can find any other colors on the world, it’s amazing. Tho I wish they were kinda subtle with the symbolisms they’re pretty obvious.
I’m still watching Gintama, on EP ≈270 currently. Funniest Anime with great story arcs sprinkled in.
Holy heck do I love Gintama! I watched it all during Covid and loved everything about it. As funny as it was, it could pull some very emotional episodes off as well and I love the 4th wall breaking and screwing with the viewers. So much fun. I started a rewatch, but I have so much in watching right now.
Rewatching the same ones I always watch, currently on HunterXHunter for the millionth time.
I am currently finishing the Black Lagoon OVA, I like the way it depicts Okajima’s changed character.
One Piece: Just finished Arlong Park a little bit ago. It’s my first watch, I just started reading the manga a few months ago and I’m on Water7 in that. Put it off for so long due to how big it was and it didn’t look great art wise. It has such great world building and characters though. Great pacing, and I haven’t encountered anything I’d call filler so far.
Devil is a Part Timer S2: This is much better so far that the first part of part 2. Love how MgCafe is taken so seriously. Glad we seem to be back to character development. More funny than just part as well.
Ancient Magus Bride S2: The school environment is more exciting than I expected. It’s great to see the cat expand too. Seeing more of Elias’s quest to feel human is very good and Chise becoming more independent makes it way more interesting to me than season 1. I almost didn’t start S2, the premise was great, but I just started getting bored. Season 2 has been much more lively and interesting overall to me.
I’ve been rewatching the Fate series, as well as Hibike Euphonium. Seasonally, I’m watching JJK, Zom100 and Undead Murder Farce and dropped 7 Spellblades.
JJK has been a bit underwhelming so far to be honest.
Zom100 is lots of fun, though a shame of all the delays.
Undead Murder Farce was a surprise for me. Enjoying it a lot.
7 spellblades was just boring and imo not that great.
Zom has been such a huge hit for me. I have been taking it kinda personal. I’m losing my job at the end of the month, and after 3 years of working from home and having so much if my life back under my control, the thought of even 3 days in office, let alone 5, is crushing me on to of all the other bad news I’ve been getting lately. I really feel for what the MC is going through.
I had watched S1 of JJK, and I read a decent bit ahead in the manga, but MHA and CSM gave me what I liked from JJK and did it better, so I dropped it completely.
Just checked out the trailer for Murder Farce since some others mentioned that too. That looks pretty interesting to say the least. This thread has gotten me so many new things to watch
Im watching Psycho pass S2 right now. I watched it before, but forgot everything. But as I’m watching it now I remember seeing it more and more. That’s alright though, since I wanted to continue after s2 with all the new stuff. It’s good, but it’s very difficult remembering all the names of so many people.
The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses - recently had some massive development. The second half is moving quite fast
Link Click S2
Blue Lock
Nagi no Asukara rewatch
I’ll have to check out Link Click this weekend, you’re the second person to mention it.
Is Forgot Her Glasses similar to anything else? MAL reviews look very split in this one.
Is Forgot Her Glasses similar to anything else?
Komi Can’t Communicate and Teasing Master Takagi-san maybe
Edit: The internal monologue of Kaede reminds me of Hideki from Chobits
Thank you!
Recently watched Urusei Yatsura (2022), and so now I’m back watching the 1981 anime series. It’s funny how directly To-Love Ru took several of its premises, only to turn them into borderline hentai.
Dang, another I’ve been meaning to check out. Looks like it’s from the Ranma 1/2 people. I didn’t know there was a new one. Did you like the new it is one better?
To-love Ru I watched this year after all the Gintama references to it.
I do like the new one better. The old one was a 213 “segment”[1] adaptation of a 34 volume manga. Still, the old one uses traditional animation styles which gives its its own charm, and it’s more cartoony and looney than the new one is. The new one has better pacing, better animation quality[2], and the OP and ED are both phenomenal.
Apparently the manga has more plot progression though, which sorta makes me curious to check that out. Being completely episodic is kinda frustrating when I do actually want to see the main character change.
That said, I like the series, I like and feel for Lum, but I’m not much a fan of the MC - you’re not supposed to be tbh. At best he’s an asshole, and at worst, he’s unfortunate due in part to his own foolhardy assholish decisions.
Thanks! I’ll check out the new one, and then if I like it I know there’s more.
Other than the seasonal anime airing right now I have a couple older shows I have recently finished.
- Lycoris Recoil: Loved this show. Really struck a great balance between action set pieces and some fluffy SOL stuff. Definitely a bit of suspension of disbelief on aspects of the show and some plot point around the Allen Institute aren’t super clear, but overall really great show.
- Shimoneta: Really fun, silly, horny show. This show takes everything to 11. The translators must have had a hell of a time translating all the filthy, horny Japanese puns. If you are looking for a madcap, over-the-top comedy that is desperately horny, then you can’t do much better than this one.
- The Vision of Escaflowne: Felt like checking out some 90’s vintage anime and saw this one recommended a couple times. Overall it was enjoyable, but the story definitely feels a bit dated. I was initially intrigued by the combination of a fantasy setting with the mecha genre, but the fantasy aspects never really factor into things and it is pretty much just straight mecha. I loved the animation in this series…yes, the character models (especially the noses) are kinda weird, but the mecha animation and fight choreography was great. Also, props to the animators for animating a girl running like a human being rather than the way moe girls are often animated these days when they run.
LycoReco is so good. The characters were such a joy to watch, particularly Chisato. She was voiced incredibly well too.
Ooo I haven’t thought about Escaflowne in forever! Some of those noses remind me of Queen Hilling from Ranking of Kings.
I forgot about Shimoneta completely. I do remember watching the first episode or 2, but I never ended up going back to it.
Bungo Stray Dogs. Link Click. And that new isekai anime with Cleric in the title.
BSD had been on my watch list for a while, but still haven’t gotten to it.
Link Click sounds very much like something I’d like. Thank you!
