this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024
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Working full time with a long commute sucks. I also think my depression is coming back. Oh well. Anime time.
Picking up again after last month's thread, here's some manga I read and anime I watched this month:
Manga:
Nothing. I was looking for some good story-driven plots, especially in new releases on like r/manga or mangadex, but there's only so many loser guy, gyaru gf and even worse generic isekai or two page chapter web comics you can read. Maybe I should look at Chinese or Korean ones, but I do not like the long strip format.
Anime:
Aa, Megami-Sama! (2005)
Almost done with season 1, will definitely be continuing with season 2. It's got a totally unique chill, while earnest vibe that most anime period do not. Maybe something like ReLife? Once Belldandy's sisters are introduced, the show becomes more fun, with magi-technological hijinks happening on the regular. A
Genshiken (2004)
Picked this one up on a whim, expecting it to be weeb brained nonsense... and it is! But it's also shockingly good in character writing and remains grounded as a slice of life, yet narrative-driven anime. I'm on season 2 and tbh the first one was better (even ignoring the significant artstyle downgrade), and I heard 3's also not as good. But I am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. A
Full Metal Panic (2002)
I read the manga a few years ago after playing SRW V and loved it, but remember being disappointed by the sequel and dropping FMP Sigma. Coming back to the anime, all the things I loved about the show are there. A hilarious comedy with unhinged main characters and "End of History" era lib / Steven Seagal movie logic? You bet. A
I also started Scrapped Princess (2003) and it's good so far, but too early to comment on it. I've also been re-watching Azumanga Daioh, and it's still the GOAT.
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I didn't watch Dungeon Meshi as it aired--only caught the first few episodes and while it seemed good, it didn't quite grab me. I was busy marveling at Frieren, but I did continue to download Dungeon Meshi episodes since everyone was singing its praises, even saying it was better than Frieren. I was skeptical, since I absolutely adored Frieren and Dungeon Meshi seemed prosaic by comparison, but...now that I'm about halfway through, I completely get it. Even though both stories are about parties of adventurers in a magical land, they're pretty different tonally but more importantly in how their stories unfold. I think Dungeon Meshi's strength that may ultimately give it the edge over Frieren for me is how tightly focused it is on the main story, with no timeskips or anything else to distract from it—each episode picks up right where the last one left off. Now, part of the point of Frieren is how different the titular character experiences time compared to her shorter-lived compatriot, but even so there are things like the testing arc which did feel sort of disjointed from the overall plot and vibe.
Idk, I'm not really good at articulating why I like things, but all that I know is that I am absolutely loving Dungeon Meshi and it's taking all of my willpower to savor an episode or two per day instead of just bingeing it all. Watching it has made me realize that I've gotten too comfortable with watching seasonal slop just out of reflex...there are so many great shows out there that there's no reason to shovel down garbage just because it's new garbage.
Oh, and one aspect where it is objectively superior to Frieren is
Spoilers for both Dungeon Meshi and Frieren--I think within the first 1/2 of the first seasons of both?
how it doesn't take a hard right turn into weird fashy vibes when it comes to an "evil" race. That mini-arc where Frieren talks about how demons (or whatever they're called), a sapient race, are all biologically predestined to be pure evil and must be eradicated (and is shown to be completely right after receiving pushback from the bleeding-hearts) was jarring as hell. Thankfully it's only a small part of the show, so it didn't totally put me off it, but I was pleasantly surprised when the orcs in Dungeon Meshi were shown to be worthy of empathy and have their own motivations beyond blind bloodthirst. Sure, the part where an elf and an orc make peace was a little afterschool-special, but I'll take that over regurgitating justifications for genocide any day of the week.Enough gushing about Dungeon Meshi, though! The only two seasonal shows I'm watching are Dandadan and Ao no Hako. The former is incredibly stylish and high octane. Definitely some problematic aspects, especially that first episode (seriously, WTF was the director thinking...), but after the first episode it hasn't been anything that's majorly impacted my enjoyment. Ao no Hako is a fairly conventional romance show, I suppose, but it's executed well and so far has avoided a lot of the things that tend to annoy me (unlikeable/incel MC, creepy fanservice, agonizing misunderstandings). It's my weekly dose of fluff.
I actually really liked the testing arc in Frieren. We got to learn more about how magic works and its history, we got to see Frieren going all-out, and we were introduced to several new interesting characters that I'm really hoping are gonna show up again whenever season 2 comes out (I know it will never happen, but I desperately want spin off shows about Sense, Serie/Flamme, and don't even get me started on Ubel lol). And I loved what we found out about Fern at the very end.