Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 284: Who even watches anime now?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Anya best dodgeballer ever. Her shot was just so cool!

*heh*

re:zero season 2 done.

Um... holy shit?

Best Non-Harem ever, maybe? Dude is just so emotionally honest and genuinely good. Like he takes the concept of harems and just makes them beautiful and wholesome.

So like, anyone who complains about this season I guess I get from a 'progression of overall plot' standpoint but it filled in so, so many gaps that it was utterly amazing. The density is just absurd.

Echidna is fucking amazing. Amazing character design, I think I enjoyed her in almost every scene she was in. I had so many questions after season 1, this season answered almost all of them and gave me about twenty more. She was the best part of the season for me. Tea Time with a Witch just pleased me every time I saw it.

"I want to make him my # 1", Beatrice is way too strong for her own good tbh.

Subaru is top tier, I don't think this needs to be discussed much but yeah!

I don't know anything at all about the source material but there feels like there is a lot left in the tank. Either way I guess I will be watching season 3 weekly whenever it comes out lol.

So anyway now what random anime should I go after next?

Asobi Asobase, switch things up a bit

DoomTheGyarados posted...

Lots of stuff

Yeah it was a fantastic season. And there is indeed a lot more left in the tank, the LNs go well beyond this.

As for the next show...I mean I'm not gonna say no to that Asobi Asobase recommendation, it's a masterpiece of dumb bullshit. If you want something more in like with Re:Zero though, I think Jobless Reincarnation is VERY good, just be aware that it starts out...pretty rough, depending on your tolerance for the main character. I quit the series for over a year after the first 6 episodes because of how much I hated him at that time.

I don't know what you've seen before though, so before that I have to lay down my 2 top priority anime recommendations in general which are Steins;Gate and. Baccano, both absolute masterpieces.

Random Q for nobody in particular; What's your go-to snack for anime?

Mine: Pretzel pieces.

I mean I withstood the mid-season hell of re:zero so how bad can this main character be to start...!

Hardcore_Adult posted...

Random Q for nobody in particular; What's your go-to snack for anime?

Mine: Pretzel pieces.

rice crisps

DoomTheGyarados posted...

I mean I withstood the mid-season hell of re:zero so how bad can this main character be to start...!

Boy let me tell ya.

It's a whole different category, Subaru never stood a chance at this crown. Not for the reason you would expect though.

well I am on a kick for this genre and I bet you will be amused by my reaction so...!

Oh, shit, not taking back the rec but I will yet again bring up Re:Creators for the iseaki genre, so maybe add that to a list at least.

Sure, I got a lot of "free time" where I am multitasking at my computer so I like to have a second screen anime these days that I will every once in awhile look at and go 'oh shit'

Hardcore_Adult posted...

Random Q for nobody in particular; What's your go-to snack for anime?

Mine: Pretzel pieces.

I usually eat pumpkin seeds. This actually reminds me that I need to buy some more, thanks!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eGJWz3E5HrU

Everyone LOVES Spy X Family. S2 incoming.

oh right this week's One Piece is another recap episode

I bet they're doing this because the next 4 episodes are the Film Red prequel episodes and they didn't want to start Robin vs. Black Maria and then have to wait a month to get back to it

Spy x Family S1 finished. The first half was phenomenal. The concept is great and well executed to start, the main three were all adorable (although I did and do want to see way more Yor), the pacing was fast but not breakneck, and it's utterly hilarious in places. It reminded me a lot of Hinamatsuri, albeit with lesser emotional beats, and I don't know if that's intentional or not but anything that warrants comparison to it is worth a watch. I think the second half is entertaining but fails to develop on the premise very well: I think it's kinda telling that the show dropped in quality the second the status quo for the future was set in place. I also feel like Anya is focused on a bit too much for me to get as invested as I might otherwise, but she's still adorable and the comedic timing is top notch. I think the brother shit single-handedly brought it down from an 8/10 to a 7/10. You'd hope that anime would be able to have stories without a designated incest character in the year 2022, but I suppose that's too much to ask. All that said, it's still an excellent and very charming show that's worth a watch for anyone, and I'm looking forward to S2.

SxF is fine but it is the definition of meandering.

Up until the last few chapters, between the establishment of the status quo and and now there has been one actual meaninful story arc.

I think it may just be that it's a victim of it's own success. It looks very visually pleasing and has such standout character designs that the expectation was set for it to have some kind of driving narrative to go along with it, when really I don't think the author intended it for it to go much further than a week to week comedy manga.

Two more airing anime completed

Spy x Family was fine. I didn't like it anywhere near as much as the rest of the world, but there wasn't anything wrong with it. Anya is cute, Loid is cool, and Yor is fun. All the side characters were fine. I just feel like it never really focused on anything. Anya needs to do well at school but she seems mostly stuck in a rut. Loid is doing spy stuff but we never see the impact on the political situation. Yor is presumably doing assassinations but they never show that at all. Like, I have absolutely no idea who Yor works for, is she working for the government Loid works for or against him? I dunno. Sometimes Loid's agency has no other spies except for him, sometimes they can summon hundreds at a moments notice. This isn't funny enough to be a purely comedy anime, in my opinion, but so far none of the other elements have risen to fill the gap. I'll definitely keep watching it, but I hope it evolves into something more at some point.

Love Live Nijigasaki S2 was also fine. I liked this season more than the first because there was no dumb drama like in S1. It felt like it'd go that direction early on but thankfully it never did. The new characters they added were all good too, Lanzhu's songs in particular are great. This is still by far my least favorite Love Live, though. They did a lot more group stuff this season, but I still never felt like the Nijigasaki girls came together as well as 's or Aqours did. It also never felt like they had a concrete goal, both the original Love Live and Sunshine had something they were aiming for the entire time. Nijigasaki was more episodic with characters having personal goals. It was still a fun anime though.

Season ranking so far:
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
Ya Boy Kongming
Love After World Domination
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
RPG Real Estate
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
Healer Girl
Love Live: Nijigasaki High School Idol Club S2
Spy x Family
Heroines Run the Show

Spy x Family is one of the few comedy anime Ive seen thats actually funny, imo.

Beated Spy x Family. I don't read the manga or LN or whatever this is based on so I have no frame of reference but the pacing is glacial. Also seems the show had two fillers, the first was that castle episode and the second was the last episode. I don't mind shows where nothing really happens and it's just chill, like Flying Witches, but there's something about Spy x Family wanting to meander about with the plot and then throw in spiced up SoL episodes here and there that rubs me the wrong way. Something just feels off about it.

Another problem I had with the show is the unequal screen time for the three main characters. Lloyd and Anya get so much focus and the two episodes dedicated to Yor one of them was wasted on her brother... I don't think we know anything about Yor other than what's shown in her introduction.

The castle episode wasn't technically filler, but they did stretch 3 pages into about 12 minutes. That's the last time I watched the show.

Definitely agree on the screen time, it's an issue in the manga too. There's only one major Yor section of the manga where she's front and center and unsurprisingly it's much better than the entire rest of the manga.

2 minutes into Jobless Reincarnation.

LMAO this guy is the worst but I will keep in mind the hype from my trusted source.

Gear 4 is goddamn ridiculous

DoomTheGyarados posted...

2 minutes into Jobless Reincarnation.

LMAO this guy is the worst but I will keep in mind the hype from my trusted source.

Yeah like

I cannot stress enough how loathsome I found Rudeus for the first 1/3 of this series.

How much I still love the show says that much about how much better it gets.

I think Rudeus is always not a good person in some ways, but the reason it works is because it's designed from the ground up to be a show about deeply flawed characters who are trying to improve on those flaws.

That said, it is probably true that he's depicted better later on in the show as compared to the first few episodes.

GANON1025 posted...

Gear 4 is goddamn ridiculous

All hail Bounce Man

More completed spring animes:

Love After World Domination was good stuff. It's cool to have a show about a couple that's already in a relationship and have it executed well. Lots of creative storylines, though some were more typical, and a good voice cast, especially for the princesses. The show mostly remembered to keep it comedic and feel-good, which was nice.

Spy x Family is my favorite show of the season. It's hilarious, has great characters, and every episode's interesting/creative in a different way. Feels like a bizarre show to complain about 'filler' in, since the castle episode was one of the best of the season, and most people seem to agree that the content in that episode's better than the source material. It's at its best when it's focused on Anya antics, since she's amazing. Give us scenes where she's interacting with other characters and you can't really go wrong. Unfortunately, the last episode was something of a dud, which knocked my opinion of the show down a bit, but it was excellent otherwise.

Updated ranking of beated Spring shows:

1. Spy x Family
2. Aharen-san
3. Bookworm S3
4. Ya Boy Kongming
5. The Executioner and Her Way of Life
6. RPG Real Estate
7. Love After World Domination
8. Dance Dance Danseur

looking for recommendations for a romcom (or romdrama is fine too) anime or manga. doesn't have to be particularly heavy on the romance or comedy even, really just something to make me feel emotions.

only things i am specifically not interested in is anything loli/incest/furry.

stuff i've seen/read and really loved:
kaguya-sama
oshi no ko
toradora
horimiya
violet evergarden
makoto shinkai movies
spyxfamily

stuff i've seen and thought was solid but probably wouldn't go back to:
your lie in april
angel beats
nisekoi
oregairu

stuff i didn't really care for much:
monthly girl nozaki-kun

If you wanna go all in on drama, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is still a classic.

For something more modern with a romcom slant, My Dress-Up Darling from last season is great.

If you want something slow paced and casual, I'm a big fan of Just Because!

Snow White with the Red Hair is easily my favorite romance. Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions has romance but is mostly comedy. Iroduku: The World in Colors is a bit lighter on romance and comedy but it has a bit of both and definitely made me feel emotions. As was already mentioned, My Dress-Up Darling was also great. Those are the first four that come to mind for me.

Over the weekend I caught up on Ascendance of a Bookworm, which meant finishing the second and third seasons. It's definitely one of the better isekai I've seen, but that still only made it a fairly average anime. I liked how Main slowly introduced new technologies. Watching her 'invent' stuff was the best part of the show, as was the merchant aspect. That said, her book obsession became increasingly at odds with the plots that began happening around her. It was so important early on but by the end you could've cut the whole book aspect and it wouldn't change anything. And the bad guys were all stupid evil, anytime the show got serious it became worse because they were all cackling cardboard cutouts. I didn't care for certain aspects of the setting either, the church especially felt really poorly thought out for a supposedly important institution. Regular people literally knew nothing about it and didn't care at all. In our world's Medieval times, religion was a pillar in most people's lives. Their whole mana shortage was dumb too because there's an obvious way to fix their problems and they aren't doing it for some reason.

I'd rank the third season below Spy x Family but ahead of Heroines Run the Show on my Spring 2022 ranking in post 468. Bookworm was fine but nothing special.

Yes. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is an easy recommendation. Holy crap, I need to rewatch that...again.

'but most importantly, she brought me outside.'

Episode 2 of jobless reincarnation was alr-

*last scene of episode 2*

... well at least he apologized for being a degenerate.

Now I see why you dropped it at episode 6. fucking yikes

Yeah my dude, I warned yuh!

You know, I don't actually have experience of the show all in a row, so that definitely colored how I felt! I actually dropped at 8, after reviewing, and episode 9 is EXACTLY when the show starts it's hard swerve, so my experiences with it are completely decided between the two distinct sections by 10 months.

Well it has enough cool stuff that I don't mind watching it on the second screen while I do other stuff. Most of every episode is okay and then they will go a few moments of 'fucking yikes what the fuck' so at least it is short bursts. This is less bad than the re:zero stuff because I was already a little invested in that so when that happened it was like fuck.

You don't feel like you miss anything multitasking like that?

pjbasis posted...

You don't feel like you miss anything multitasking like that?

Nah. I have always done well multitasking on things rather than hard focusing on one thing. I prefer to watch things dubbed so I don't have to be glued to the subtitles when I am multi tasking though. I'll look at it quite a lot but I can do things like work on spreadsheets or text to clients easily enough.

episode 8.

SHE'S 12

Two years older than him

Mac Arrowny posted...

Two years older than him

In body, yes.

IN MIND THOUGH MAC

Hey, his mental state's been affected by having a child's brain

bullshit <_<

But I made it through episode 8 and now the start of 9 is promising.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Hey, his mental state's been affected by having a child's brain

This guy's first act was bemoaning about how is 3 day old baby peen couldn't get hard when he was breastfeeding, my dude.

Rudeus definitely has child-like emotional maturity, but my interpretation is that it was due to past trauma and being a recluse for years.

I am giving him a lot of a pass due to trauma but there's a line here tbh

I multitask while watching anime too. One of my many hobbies is cross-stitching and I realized that with a simple enough pattern I can follow even subtitled stuff with no problem. I'm stitching the LTTP map right now, which has large chunks of one color. I only need to look away one of every five seconds or so.

I tried finding an anime-related pattern but I couldn't find anything I liked from a show I've seen. I found this work-in-progress of Yohane from Love Live that's awesome but unfortunately they didn't post the pattern

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrossStitch/comments/ei6c7q/wip_yoshiko_cross_stitch_love_live_sunshine/

I used to room with someone that was a huge movie buff but I never saw him actually a watch a movie when he put it on!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

If you wanna go all in on drama, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is still a classic.

For something more modern with a romcom slant, My Dress-Up Darling from last season is great.

If you want something slow paced and casual, I'm a big fan of Just Because!

Robazoid posted...

Snow White with the Red Hair is easily my favorite romance. Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions has romance but is mostly comedy. Iroduku: The World in Colors is a bit lighter on romance and comedy but it has a bit of both and definitely made me feel emotions. As was already mentioned, My Dress-Up Darling was also great. Those are the first four that come to mind for me.

thank you thank you i'll look into these and pick something that looks interesting to me

Watch Konosuba