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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.
@Awoo@hexbear.net can we pin this?
I'm back to reading Parasyte. I just realized today the Las Plagas in Biohazard 4 are a direct inspiration from the manga 
Huh this slipped by me
I finished Toradora not too long ago. It was decent. By myself I've been continuing Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card. I'm about midway through now, and I'm liking it so far, I'm getting used to the changes from the original.
With my mom we've mostly been watching Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu, and I'd say I'm hooked on it. I'd say it's on about the same level as Mitsuboshi Colors (if we are to compare anime adaptations of manga by Katsuwo) but they're also clearly very different types of slice of life. Like Mitsuboshi feels like it was more pure gags while Hitoribocchi is more about, like, actual character growth. You want to see Bocchi succeed!
We've also been following along on the Ranma 1/2 reboot as it releases. It's decent, but I don't know if I'd say it surpasses the original.
We've watched a little more Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water and The Boondocks as well. For the latter we've just started the third season now, and I've heard it is around this point that the show starts to fall off. But I have low standards so we'll see if I actually notice it.
Rewatching The Slayers (1995). It's great to see a sincere anime adaptation of a fantasy universe (with dark lords, dragons, etc) that is not flavor of the month isekai with bland everyman/self-insert MC and harem waifus.
Slayers is a personal favorite, especially season 2.
Did a speed run of all the Dandadan episodes. Need to get the manga, but part of what I've loved about it is the music and voice acting. Would be hard to have that experience in a book, unless I play Otonoke on repeat while reading it.
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.
Been following Orb. Seems quite decent.
Orb?
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. Historical fantasy about a european astronomer who discovers heliocentrism, and his quest to not be burned at the stake by the inquisition who insist that the sun orbits the earth.
Manga:
- Staying up to date on Chainsaw Man, One Punch Man, and One Piece. CSM is the best of the three, no contest. Reze movie when?
- Read Kagurabachi because someone here posted a chapter thread. It's pretty interesting, and is really fast-paced which I'm a fan of after reading One Piece earlier this year.
- Kill Six Billion Demons is back and it asks the bold question: would I still have my infinite cosmic power if I was a part of a worm?
Anime:
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Finished GitS SAC S2. Kuze is the dumbest motherfucker alive, and anime politics strikes again. How can a show mention base and superstructure MULTIPLE TIMES only to then have the solution to the refugee crisis be to
spoiler
upload all the refugees into the internet (something which has been set up as almost-always fatal in the past in S1). -
Started Ousama Ranking. It's pretty good so far, and the art style is very blatantly nostalgia-bait but I can't deny that there's something nice about the painted backgrounds. It is kinda forced that "oh Bojji can't be strong" but simultaneously he's incredibly athletic and capable of dodging any attack. The giant ~~3-~~ 2-headed snake is best boy.
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Star Trek: Lower Decks is BACK and it's GOOD.