Media Anime and Manga Thread MK3 - Beware Spoilers

Pilo

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first impressions
This show isn't anything special but that's not to say it isn't without its charms. Nothing really leaped out at me during my initial watch but I'm okay with continuing with this show since it's pretty comfy.

This show is off to a really promising start. Smooth animation, interesting characters and a cool plot right off the bat. The first episode establishes an interesting world that had me pose a lot of questions which I hope will be answered in due time.


This is the worst kind of comedy show. Throughout the entirety of the first episode it felt like all the show did was shove its kooky premise in my face. Keppeki Danshi employed all of my least favourite "comedy" techniques in anime like the "look how apathetic our mc is to all the crazy stuff going on around him" or "change the artstyle to chibi and zoom out every time we make a joke" excessively to the point that I was actually considering stopping watching the show before the first episode was over. The second episode was slightly better but just as unfunny. Please don't watch this show.

Cool plot, cool characters, cool soundtrack.

While browsing through summer's seasonal anime chart this show's interesting synopsis caught my attention, the idea of a grand battle against time travelling historical revisionists is pretty neat of paper after all. Unfortunately this show was a huge disappointment. It starts off with a jarring cg fight scene which is never a good sign in my eyes and the plot isn't very interesting so far and honestly kind of shlocky. idk what it is about this show but the producers definitely flubbed the execution in some way or another.
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
im watching a lot this season here we go

alphabetical because why not
-
aho girl - this is pretty funny, also pretty annoying. glad this is only a short

welcome to the ballroom - never have I seen a show look this ugly at certain points but look absolutely gorgeous at others. this show looks a lot better in motion than it does in stills. this is also a pretty decent show overall, its a sports shounen about fucking ballroom dancing.

fate/apocrypha - this feels like bad fate fanfiction. i've genuinely never enjoyed anything in the fate series, so obviously I don't really like this either though. New saber is hot as fuck though.

hajimete no gal - only seen 1 ep of this so far but I think its pretty funny. its trashy as fuck though, reminds me of how i chat with the bros in private. for better or for worse.

isekai shokoudou - this show is relaxing. its probably the only relaxing show this season. main girl is cute. not much else to say.

kakegurui - holy fuck watch this. its like if kaiji and prison school had a fucking retarded baby. its so fun, one of the most fun shows i've seen in a while. i love crazy gambling shows.

made in abyss - this show feels like its out of another time. like, its just so charming and cute and everything looks so rounded and friendly. but then you have these really Dark Undertones. don't sleep on this one, its amazing. main girl feels the most like a child ive ever seen in anime maybe. outside of like barakamon.

nana maru san batsu - im only watching this because i used to play quiz bowl in high school. better than expected to be honest.

princess principal - HOLY FUCK watch this. episode 2 blew my mind. do not read spoilers. watch this now. the staff is insane, the writing is pretty good, the setting is awesome. the fact that they are cute girls is kinda weird but i can suspend my disbelief. watch this. watch this. watch this. Watch This. (Watch as it ends up fucking bad like everything I hype up)

skirt no naka wa kedamono deshita - this show is just porn. literally just porn.

tsurezure children - very cute, pretty funny short.

vatican kiseki chousakan - its like christian anime csi. better than it sounds. ep 2 is a lot better than ep 1.

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e (im copypasting this name because fuck it) - only seen the first episode but it has an interesting enough premise. like assclass minus the ass.
 
mostly agree with RODAN, I like Fate but Apocrypha is basically a story thrown together from a bunch of bits and pieces left over from another failed project so all I'm really hoping for is some fun characters and some decent fight scenes.

also Gamers was surprisingly fun
 

Mr.E

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twitch and crunchyroll are animu-ing all weekend, in case anyone is interested in seeing recent shows they passed on before or just wanna watch people meme the shit out of everything in chat

schedule (in Pacific bleh) https://www.twitch.tv/events/70394

July 27
- Mob Psycho - 3:30 PM
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid - 9:00 PM

July 28
- Bungo Stray Dogs - 3:00 AM
- Sound! Euphonium - 1:30 PM
- Yuri!!! on Ice - 7:30 PM

July 29
- Space Patrol Luluco - 1:00 AM
- Anne Happy! - 3:30 AM
- Saga of Tanya the Evil - 9:30 AM
- JOKER GAME - 3:00 PM
- ReLife - 8:30 PM

July 30
- Kemono Friends - 2:30 AM
- Rokka-Braves of Six Flowers - 8:30 AM
- NEW GAME! - 2:30 PM
- Gabriel DropOut - 8:00 PM

July 31
- Ojisan & Marshmallow - 1:30 AM
- Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life: Phantasmagoric Arc - 2:30 AM
- World End: What are you doing at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? - 4:30 AM
- Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor - 10:00 AM
- Free! Iwatobi Swim Club - 3:30 PM
- Mob Psycho 100 - 9:00 PM

August 1
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid - 2:30 AM
- Yuri!!! on Ice - 8:30 AM

I dunno why they're reshowing those three at the end but yo. I would've liked to have seen 1-2 older shows in there, like pre-2010's at least. I know CR wants to promote newer stuff but let's see what kind of old-school chops you guys got too, you know? Anime isn't a new medium. Or give us Madoka (which isn't even that old). OPM or Ping Pong would've been way better memes than gay swimming show when they're already headlining gay iceskating show. (actually CR doesn't have the rights for OPM but whatever they do the rest)

Dunno if I'll dedicate myself to sitting around watching any of them. Maybe New Game because it interested me when it released as Shirobako-lite, and biiiiiiiig maaaaaaybe to Tanya just because one of my regular strimmerbros I watch is having a viewing party of sorts. The show itself doesn't interest me, but hanging around with others and watching stuff is usually fun anyway. It got me to watch Love Live, anyway. :toast:
 
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Martin

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Side note, but seeing how MrE talked about older stuff, CR have rights to some Princess Knight (a kid's show from 1967), so not having rights to old stuff isn't an excuse there really.

Either way though I might tune into some of that 'cause there are a few there that I missed (Hibike, Yuri on Ice, evil nazi child*) as well as a few I wanna rewatch (Mob Psycho*, Bungo, Luluco, Joker Game*, ReLIFE*, Rokka no Yuusha, SukaSuka*). I'd watch New Game too but S2 is running already (don't wanna get order of events confused) and, as much as it is a solid show, idt it has much in the way of rewatch value anyway.

*especially these
 
July 28
- Bungo Stray Dogs - 3:00 AM
- Sound! Euphonium - 1:30 PM
- Yuri!!! on Ice - 7:30 PM

So wait, they air both seasons of Bungou but not both seasons of Euphonium? How does that make sense?

Also nice having Dragon Maid and Yuri on Ice playing twice. /s
 

Martin

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I thoroughly recommend that people read The Girl From The Other Side: Siúil, a Rún. I was in Waterstones a few weeks ago and saw it on the shelf, saw the cover and decided to give it a try, and I'm really happy with it overall. It is from the same people who did The Ancient Magus Bride, and it is actually pretty comparable in some ways, and it is just very good on the whole. It follows two characters (a little girl named Shiiva and an unnamed beast who she refers to as "teacher") in a world where there are insiders and outsiders who live separately. Honestly it's a rare case of a synopsis actually providing a good overview to something without spoiling any of the details, so I'm just gonna put it in hide tags.
Once upon a time...

In a land far away, there were two kingdoms: the Outside, where twisted beasts roamed that could curse with a touch, and the Inside, where humans lived in safety and peace. The girl and the beast should never have met, but when they do, a quiet fairy tale begins.

This is a story of two people—one human, one inhuman—who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.

Anyway, it is both a sad and beautiful story and, as more details are being revealed and the events of the story unfold it just keeps feeling more and more subtly sad, as well as the sheer unfairness and corruption of the world that they live in making itself more apparent as it goes on. Outside of just the story though, I can't stress enough how good some of the pages/panels in this manga are, having evidently good planning storyboards and a range of meaningful panels (e.g. an internal debate about telling the truth and continuing a lie, punctuated using two separate panels of plain white and plain black, respectively; Teacher's shadow standing over him as he says "there is nothing I can do" etc.) or even just purely beautiful, impactful panels like this full page one from chapter 6 (I've edited the text out because it's a spoiler), which itself is also meaningful in a way which I won't spoil due to it being complemented by the text on the page (it's really obvious though, and you'll immediately see it when you get to the page). Hell, even just the contrasting color pallet and design compexities of Shiiva and Teacher feels like it was thought out during the planning stages of the manga's production, even if it is just a nice coincidence.

The relationship between Shiiva and Teacher is enjoyable and cute, and they are both really likable characters in their own ways. I won't elaborate too much on this because you should just read it for yourselves, but what I will say is that I have always really loved stories which are largely about the relationship between two characters rather than putting lots of development into supporting casts or 4-5 main characters (see: The Ancient Magus' Bride), and the very isolated setting of The Girl From the Other Side provides the perfect setup for this type of story without coming at the cost of it neglecting its world beyond those two characters.

This has been a really great find for me, and I look forward to seeing how the story continues to play out, and I'm eagerly awaiting when volume 3 releases in the UK at the end of October.

As a complete aside, "Siúil, a Rún" (Gaelic for "walk, my love") is a reference to this Irish song (the group that did this recording is called Clannad (Gaelic for "family"); this is purely a coincidence), which is something unique to the English title. I just think that's kinda neat, and I appreciate it a lot given my Irish heritage. The song is beautiful, as is the language, so give it a listen.
 

breh

強いだね
I feel like I should feel bad for saying this, but I genuinely think Hajimete no Gal is enjoyable. I get that this is kind of counter to the point of the series, but I really wish that they could just cut out the softcore porn-bait scenes. You know the two characters aren't going to do anything together so you just want these scenes to end, but they just go on and on and on. It's like a solid 30s to a minute every time and the joke is so painfully drawn out.

It's weird, really. It's filled with tropes and the animation varies from shit to "we put moving stills here to save money", but the humor (for the most part) holds and it's one of those generic slice of life-y romances where all you really care about is that, like, somebody ends up happy in the end. This is in itself a trope (see also the character functionally being Galko) but a trope I'm willing to indulge.

The translation is a lot less... free than it could be. It feels like it was done by robots who wanted to translate to the letter and none of the English comes out natural as a result.

Also the ed sounds like this part of the hyrule castle theme
 

Mr.E

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Now that the last show I care about catching is done in the Twitch marathon, thoughts. also I spent last night watching way too many Digibro YT videos and really wanna watch Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Konosuba, Log Horizon, K-On!, Girlish Number, Sore ga Seiyuu! and made me feel bad about not watching Euphonium during the marathon. I actually caught that starting like halfway through the first episode, but I decided against it in favor of mashing the final stage in Genius of Sappheiros. :[

shit I've like doubled the amount of anime I've seen now lesse there's... shirobako, meguca, toradora end list no wait there's also love live

Mob Psycho 100
damn those are some buff ass middle-schoolers

Didn't plan on watching it but it was the start of the marathon so I was scoping the stream out anyway and the first episode pulled me in. Honestly, probably the best of what I watched from a strictly objective standpoint. Kinda turns me on to maybe watching OPM in the future, apparently I'm totally okay with watching overpowered protagonists blowing everyone away. I like the theme of self improvement, the brothers' mutual admiration of each other for the other's strengths in what they perceive to be their own weaknesses, Reigen's legit nuggets of wisdom in spite of his hypocrisy, the club guys are totally cool bros rather subverting the meathead stereotype of their ilk. Teruki provides a convenient contrast to everything Mob stands for but eventually grows to understand himself as they spend time together. Although I wish the opening sequence was the actual OP.

Doragon Meido
W O R L D C L A S S
乇 乂 ㄒ 尺 卂 ㄒ 卄 丨 匚 匚

Started out really dumb, what with the contrived premise in general and the whole RANDOM HUMAN WHO DRUNK CHATTED ME UP LAST NIGHT ON MY MOUNTAIN, ALLOW ME TO BE UR MAID AND ALSO BANG YOU thing. Then it actually turned out to be pretty D for Damn good. I see a lot of Kobayashi in myself, minus the drinking problem (replace with Fafnir's) and actually successful career. No complaints about the existence of big-titted hotties TOHRU BEST GIRL *ahem*. (Well actually it's prob Kobayashi but in a totally different way.) Kanna is adorable af and should not lewd the human loli.

Fanservice is there but doesn't go overboard, good spread of slice-of-life across the cast minus little mage boy and Elma who feels irrelevant after her reveal and immediate conflict. The last episode was a bit heavy-handed all the for the sake of showing us how Kobayashi-Tohru subtley changed over the course of the show but it's all good cuz the characters are so damn likable and the first 11 Eps did everything right.

I have an irrational like for the OP, it's infectiously cheery, and I could stare at Elma's ass shaking back and forth to the music all day.
"COME BACK TOHRU YOUR INTERFERENCE WILL THROW THE HUMAN WORLD INTO CHAOS" NIGGA YOU LITERALLY CHAOS FACTION ISN'T THAT EXACTLY WHAT YOU SHOULD WANT? Come ON.
Euphonium
I shoulda watched this. Now I will backlog it and probably never actually do so. The art is really good and I appreciate an actual goal to backdrop my CGDCT.

Anne Happy!
I don't plan on watching this but I was vaguely intererested entirely based off the disgustingly cute art.
Yuri!!! on Ice
I only popped in periodically to see the KappaPride-per-minute count in Twitch chat. Turns out it actually is really gay too but that's not even the reason I don't want to watch it.
Joker Game
Digibro also convinced me this was fucking terrible and good thing I didn't watch it.

Space Patrol
UCO

This started out so nonsensical that even the extremely easy to appease me was going to quit after the first two episodes, but I trudged on for no particular reason and well it's a short anyway so it wasn't exactly a huge time-waster. *shrug* It remained firmly embedded in left field, but by the end it ended up being kinda cute I guess and some of the gags were funny. Still the ED is legit the best part of it, which I mean in both ways but more so in the manner that the ED is just that good.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Nazi Loli
"I have no strong feelings one way or the other."

I wasn't interested going in, I watched it for the sake of my strimmerbro's viewing party, and I never really got all that invested into it as the show progressed. On the other hand, it never offended my sensibilities either and it did have some cool tidbits that interested me here and there, my favorite being how they integrated magic with the technology of the times. So yeah. It's, like, an okay show I guess.

Are those LN frames in the ED? Because it's honestly really fucking cool artwork, even more so compared to the anime art which was the weak point of the show. The actual animation was pretty good outside of the 5 FPS CG elements, but the art was inconsistent and pretty terrible at its low points although Viktoriya is a cute. And a recap episode for a one-cour show? LUL

New Game!
Contrary to Tanya, the first couple episodes actually kinda disinterested me (tfw there will never be another shirobako). Two episodes in and we're already underage drinking and normalizing sexual harassment in the workplace, eventually adding assault/battery. Why the black girl gotta be shootin peeps? Half the characters look like middle-schoolers. also nice Dell Inspiron/XPS PC cases, that's literally my computer yo

But eventually I got sucked in and before I knew it, it was over. So I guess it wasn't half bad? It's certainly not all that realistic in the aggregate, though there are truisms and relatable situations sprinkled throughout. I'm willing to accept the bad/creepy stuff played strictly for laughs and look past the characters that should've been designed to look like actual young adults and not late teens. (Or not look past, as the case really is, because they're still cute grills and that's what matters, right?) I'm definitely of the target audience for shameless fanservice and blatant yuri, more than Dragonmaid offered but still nowhere close to approaching pervasive. What I won't forgive is they literally did an entire fucking episode on Who Stole the Cookie Pudding from the Cookie Jar Fridge. The rest are acceptable flaws and breaks from reality in what is ultimately a cheerful and endearing show; that episode is just bad.

I'd like to see more of the actual work they do, I think that's really why my time with the show felt so short because a lot of the actual game production stuff happens offscreen. They distracted me with CGDCT and before I knew it, the game was finished and the show was over! Mebbe I follow S2 since it's currently airing. S1 ultimately didn't suck, so I have to watch S2 sooner than later anyway since I've seen S1 now and must compusively complete it.
 
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Martin

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Joker Game
Digibro also convinced me this was fucking terrible and good thing I didn't watch it.
Joker Game was one of the best shows of last year though...

Also he thinks that HaiFuri (not very good) was better than either 91 Days or Mob Psycho (both top-three shows from last year) iirc so... yeah I'd take what he says with a pinch of salt
 
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Mr.E

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I mean, I wasn't all that interested in it anyway so whatever. Obviously, I didn't make the effort to watch it during the marathon which would've made it an entertaining watch even if I thought the show itself is terrible.

although with rodan gushing about princess principal and having been told it's basically the femme version of joker game (I forget where I heard that but it was multiple sources, and how would I know it's even accurate anyway)... *shrug*
 
Mob Psycho and OPM are actually pretty different shows despite being by the same writer and having an unassuming but overpowered protagonist, it's easily possible to like one but not the other. That said both are really good.

Now that the last show I care about catching is done in the Twitch marathon, thoughts. also I spent last night watching way too many Digibro YT videos and really wanna watch Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Konosuba, Log Horizon, K-On!, Girlish Number, Sore ga Seiyuu! and made me feel bad about not watching Euphonium during the marathon. I actually caught that starting like halfway through the first episode, but I decided against it in favor of mashing the final stage in Genius of Sappheiros. :[
i don't like Digibro but pretty much all those shows are worth watching except maybe Sore ga Seiyuu and K-on

Chivalry of a Failed Knight in particular was fun because it aired in the same season as some other generic LN magical high school garbo and then proceeded to be pretty much the exact same show but much better. It's pretty solid overall and the finale in particular is one of those rare scenes that I occasionally find myself going back to watch again.

and from what I remember Joker Game was one of those really dry shows that seem like they might go somewhere interesting eventually but are pretty boring to actually watch. That and the fact that after a couple episodes it was looking like the show was just going to be a collection of disconnected one-off stories rather than anything with an overarching plot killed my interest
 
things I'm watching that don't suck:

New Game!!
watched the first season and enjoyed it so now I'm watching the second season and I'm enjoying it. if it keeps following the manga like it has so far then the office politics might get a bit annoying, but it's still a pleasant show that occasionally manages to hit a joke. Iijima Yun will fall victim to my dick one day.

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits
the show that no one is watching because it's not on crunchyroll or whatever other service people use. and that's a damn shame, because this is a nice show. fairly grounded with a generally good feeling to it. plot is basically love live but they're putting on toku stage shows. characters are all pretty one-note but that one note isn't so stale that it's been grating, apart from maybe the blondie with the drills. the highlight is the train otaku who lives in a train carriage and gets high then thinks she's talking to her model trains.

Hajimete no Gal
started this on with lofty dreams of the eventual naughty comics that should be flooding the market in about a week or so at c92 and have been shocked by how genuinely decent it is. plot's stupid, characters are all retards, there are no stakes, and the dialogue is pretty awful. but somehow that all manages to click. for the first few episodes at least, it's the first show to give the vibe of having The Boys hanging out and shooting the shit since nichibros. not sure how that will continue going forward because it looks like too many females are being introduced, but I can hope. only major issue with the show is the nauseating feeling that washes over me when that "oppai loli" shows up on the screen. gross.

Gamers!
there was no way I was going to miss a show called Gamers!, and I'm not regretting the decision yet. the characters are all pretty basic, but at least they're not just boring basic. the bitch casual mc and his new best friend Chad McDarkSkin make a great combo in their interactions. I'm just a bit worried about all of the dreadful misunderstandings making up the plot points. hopefully they play it fast and loose and don't get too serious about it. my prediction is that the main character will challenge the head of the Gaming Club to a video game, beat her ass, and then proceed to plow her ass.

Princess Principal
I started off a bit hesitant to watch this (because the plot looked dumb) and I'm still a bit hesitant to keep watching this (because the plot is still dumb). the only selling point for me remains ichiro okouchi, the geass/valvrave guy. but it doesn't look this Princess Principal will be able to reach the same heights at this stage, it feels a bit too restrained. that throat hole was pretty epic though, looking forward to the artwork.

Made In Abyss
probably the most "good" show of the season, and in recent years. it's got that timeless charm to it made up of little tube kids with snotty noses and a feeling of adventure to them. I can't honestly think of anything overtly bad to say about it now that I actually sit down and think about it, although I am very interested to see how well it is following the manga. that most recent episode felt a bit rushed.

things I'm watching that do suck:

Netsuzou TRap - NTR
a goddamn bait and switch is what this is. VERY misleading title. not happy. yuri is reliably shit. but it's only ten minutes each week, and the blue hair one is a major hottie.

Koi to Uso
the music in this show is really loud and I would have stopped watching really ages ago if I wasn't so into anime girls. hanakana voiced MC is an auto-watch for me, sadly. and the other one is probably even better, she's got that pulled tight hair style with the strands hanging off the back down her neck. and that neck and her upper back is usually exposed in the outfits she's put in, shoulder blades just slightly visible. epic shit. my favourite character design of the season for wholly unwholesome reasons.

Tenshi no 3P!
this man takes daft anime main characters to a new level. just watch this to get an idea for the show: https://puu.sh/wJ413.webm

as for continuing stuff.
Re:Creators has been a major letdown for me, I was hoping it would be a bit more tongue-in-cheek. but hot damn the pressure of a plot line about anime writers writing anime in order to save the world from anime characters that is written by real anime writers has gone to their heads and the sense of self importance the oozes from every line of dialogue is sickening. it could have easily been an enjoyable romp (a la GATE) but I just feel it's being too serious. two outta four from me so far.

Boku no Hero Macademia has become so trite and uninteresting for me. my main issue is that all of the cool and interesting powers are on the extreme side characters, and it leads to some very boring problem solving. having the mc have big punch quick move as his power, along with is best friend big punch and quick move (through explosions), and his other best friend the avatar ends up with them solving everything through brute force. would be way cooler if it was the little purple man saving the world with his balls.

Pokemon Sun & Moon is the most fun pokemon by far. the drawing is crap, but the animation is good. the lack of traveling was off putting at first but it makes it feel less episodic. if you ever want to get back into it watch this version of Pokemon.
 

Mr.E

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After reading through old posts because I actually recognize what some of those anime are now, I have come to the realization that I am, in fact, Jebus McAzn. ban me for multiple accounts fuck
 

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
uhh lesse meidoragon and mob did you not read my post bruh

also I presume you really liked toradora (or really hated the ending), saekano's utaha's legs (RE: toradora OP) and asuka is best girl for all the few minutes of hibike I caught; you have high quality taste except I'm not a music nerd
 
Gamers is looking like surprise aots, it's like the long-lost spiritual successor to School Rumble

then again I'm also behind on a lot of stuff, I blame Netflix/Amazon
 

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