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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Roba, whenever you get to Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, be sure to look at the voice cast as well.

Thanks for pointing that out. Teppen has some of the BanG Dream girls! I remember Aimi took a break for medical reasons, hopefully this means she's doing better and can bring her classic Kasumi energy into this

oh, I assume that's Black Summoner getting an anime. I sort of skim through that occasionally on j novel.

It's actually probably more like Arifureta but somewhat less goofy and more serious (so it's not as tongue in cheek/self aware about how chuuni for the sake of being chuunibyou it is).

I watched Adachi and Shimamura today. I wonder if I'll ever find a good yuri romance because the few I've seen have been absolute duds. I'm going to rant for a bit, don't mind me.

This started kind of charming. I liked it really early on when it was Shimamura's perspective and you got to see Adachi's crush growing from the outside. Then they never progressed beyond that. They actually moved backwards a couple of times instead, it was so annoying. This anime would be great if all you want is the awkward blushing stage of a pre-relationship. I find that charming for a week or two and then it gets excruciating as months turn to years. I'm not sure if Shimamura is the most obtuse person in the universe for her to never realize what was going on, or if she's just the most boring person ever and her realizing something would ruin that by making her slightly interesting. Adachi was barely better, her entire personality was 'likes Shimamura'. Adachi's mental state crumbled if Shimamura so much as stood next to someone else, because she kept worrying that Shimamura looked as happy with that person as she was with Adachi. And you know what? Despite all the times Shimamura's thoughts told me 'this isn't the same as when I'm with Adachi', it was exactly the fucking same as when she was with Adachi. Shimamura was the same no matter who she was with, she was always confused or bored or apathetic. And don't even get me started on the random-ass alien, literally an alien, which ate up a bunch of screen time but symbolized nothing.

All I want out of a yuri romance is some romance, is that too much to ask? Keep the awkward beginning, it's charming and realistic for them to wonder about each other and probe for mutual interest. Then move past it. Have a romance. Don't just waste my time with twelve episodes of nothing. I keep looking for an anime that makes me feel like the visual novel Highway Blossoms made me feel but I'm starting to doubt I'll ever find it.

At least this was better than Citrus.

I didn't care for how crazily obsessed Adachi was, but Shimamura was easily the worst part of the show for me.
Robazoid posted...

I'm not sure if Shimamura is the most obtuse person in the universe for her to never realize what was going on, or if she's just the most boring person ever and her realizing something would ruin that by making her slightly interesting.

I remember an early scene where she gets a feeling that Adachi likes her and internally hopes that's not the case. I hated her after that, as it felt that she was intentionally stringing Adachi along.

Robazoid posted...

All I want out of a yuri romance is some romance, is that too much to ask? Keep the awkward beginning, it's charming and realistic for them to wonder about each other and probe for mutual interest. Then move past it. Have a romance. Don't just waste my time with twelve episodes of nothing.

Have you tried Sakura Trick?

Robazoid posted...

At least this was better than Citrus.

-_-
...on second thought, I think you should watch Netsuzou TRap. Very captivating, and with half length episodes, I actually blew through it in one night. I think you'll enjoy it, and I assure you this is a serious recommendation and not the vindictiveness of someone who actually likes Citrus >_>

Citrus supremacy.

I quite like Adachi and Shimamura, but not really for the content the anime gets into. I agree Shimamura is hard to like.

I liked the friends, though. Can we get a spin-off series focused on them?

Adashima anime was too slow imo. I haven't read the novels, but from what I've seen the anime covers the first three and they get together in the fourth. It's just like why

SockoressKnight posted...

Have you tried Sakura Trick?

Robazoid posted...
At least this was better than Citrus.
-_-
...on second thought, I think you should watch Netsuzou TRap. Very captivating, and with half length episodes, I actually blew through it in one night. I think you'll enjoy it, and I assure you this is a serious recommendation and not the vindictiveness of someone who actually likes Citrus >_>

I watched one episode of Sakura Trick back in the day, when I was getting less interested in anime so I started a bunch hoping one would hook me. It wasnt bad, I'll definitely get back to it someday! I remember reading about Netsuzou once and deciding it wasnt for me. I have a low tolerance for cheating even when the protagonists are doing it

And my hatred for Citrus comes entirely from the anime, I don't know anything beyond that. I loved Yuzu but Mei was awful. Yuzu could do better tbh

Mac Arrowny posted...

Adashima anime was too slow imo. I haven't read the novels, but from what I've seen the anime covers the first three and they get together in the fourth. It's just like why

Maybea second season could save this for me someday, then. As it stands right now the whole story goes nowhere

Bloom into You is the best yuri anime by far, and it goes more places than a lot of others. It still ends pretty prematurely though.

Asagao to Kase-san is an hour-long OVA that has the couple already in a relationship. I haven't seen Sweet Blue Flowers, so I dunno how far that goes.

You should check out some manga! Ring my Bell is a great time if you want a full journey casual relationship advancement and sapiness without all the tiring fluffy "UWU fluffy precious lesbians" genre tropes you see so often.

Sakura Trick is full of that stuff, so even though I watched it front to back I can't say I liked it much.

Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl is clearly the best as far as manga goes. Hana to Hoshi, Prism, and Aoi Hana are all excellent too, despite Prism's tragic cancellation.

I found Bloom Into You good, but frustrating. Another instance where I preferred a side couple.

While I recommended Sakura Trick, I actually dropped it because one of the leads annoyed me. Still, if you want a yuri that goes past the awkward beginning, Sakura Trick kinda skips that part.

If you're interested in yuri romance then I think manga/manhwa/webtoon are way better sources than anime. I also have the impression visual novels are good for yuri but I haven't delved super far into that area myself. If you want specifically yuri anime then you're looking at pretty slim pickings, and you've already seen a good chunk of the common recommendations.

I'd also say Bloom Into You is easily the best yuri anime I've seen, though I'm not sure what you'd think of it.

https://twitter.com/Crunchyroll/status/1539644530764369920?t=mOkgwjWkvvriL8il4Cpz4g&s=19

Aw yea

I would be recommending Sakura Trick, but the anime ends in a rather jarring point in the story that doesn't really get resolved until near the end of the manga. So I don't know how well Roba would take that.

Not to mention that my favorite characters don't get all that much spotlight until after where the anime ended.

On a side-note, I like how the author has been making her own doujins (not the lewd kinds) of the characters during their college lives.

Fact: The best yuri anime is definitely Yuru Yuri. Can't be disappointed by the anime not getting to the actual romance part when that's clearly never going to happen in the first place!

(Actual thoughts: Bloom Into You and Sweet Blue Flowers are the best serious yuri anime. But both of them only cover about half their manga source and have unsatisfying endings as a result.)

Haven't seen Yuru Yuri yet, but it will be tough to beat Valkyrie Drive Mermaid.

Yuru Yuri is just bait, but the show itself is absolutely fantastic. Until Asobi Asobase came around it was easily my #1 girls in school anime.

Oh right, Valkyrie Drive definitely holds nothing back on the yuri front, and seems to cover a whole story.

I've never read a manga before, but if anything would finally convince me to it'd be a good yuri romance. I have no experience of where to go to read them or if I'd need to buy physical copies or what, but I'll at least look into some of the ones mentioned here!

I still hope there's a good yuri anime someday, though. One that tells a complete story about a healthy relationship and doesn't just end at the confession like 99% of romance does.

If you have android I'm sure there's people here that can help you set up ways to read for free. Of course there's probably also legit ways to read through official subscriptions.

GANON1025 posted...

So in One Piece, whats with the Admirals having two names? Is one their real name and one like a title?

Aka-inu = Red Dog = Sakazuki
Ao-kiji = Blue Pheasant = Kuzan
Ki-zaru = Yellow Monkey = Borsalino
Fuji-tora = Purple Tiger = Isshou

I'm not sure how far along so I'll stop there. The admirals (at least these colored animal themed ones) are inspired by real actors. That's why their faces are more realistic than the rest of the manga characters.

GranzonEx posted...

If you have android I'm sure there's people here that can help you set up ways to read for free. Of course there's probably also legit ways to read through official subscriptions.

I have already been sent some links to at least get me started by kind folk, so no need to worry about me! I don't see myself becoming a big-time manga reader anyway but it'll be nice to have the option and read the occasional one

Final Summer 2022 thoughts

The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting: Violent yakuza thug needs to look after the daughter of his boss. The premise sounds fun, kind of reminds me of Hinamatsuri. I'm cautiously optimistic

Isekai Ojisan: A kid's uncle was isekai'd but now he's back and catching up on what he missed. This sounds like the kind of non-isekai isekai I might actually enjoy, but sadly I heard this is going into Netflix jail. I'll look into it whenever it releases

Engage Kiss: Set on a futuristic artificial island, the story seems like a love triangle. Those are rarely done well, so I'll skip this and see what reception it gets.

Kinsou no Vermeil: Magical school harem where generic main dude needs to make out with a hot demoness every day. Yeah I'll pass on this, thanks

A Harem in a Fantasy World Labyrinth: Isekai guy in labyrinth, presumably with a harem. I like labyrinths but I don't really like harems. I'll wait and see what the reception on this is, it sounds Master of Ragnarok tier but maybe it'll be good?

My Isekai Life: Thankfully the last isekai. It's another one with a focus on slimes, why are there so many of those? I'll pass on this one

My Stepsister is my Ex-Girlfriend: I appreciate that the title explains the premise. I feel like this type of show usually sucks so I'll wait to see the reception it gets. There's the odd gem out there that's more than just fanservice

When Will Ayumu Make His Move?: Guy joins shogi club and plans to ask out a girl there when he's good enough to beat her. Which I'm guessing he won't be by the end of the season so this will be another teasing romance that goes nowhere

Call of the Night: Aimless insomniac guy meets a girl who I assume is a vampire. I'll give this one a shot because, from the number of members it has on MAL, this will be the popular show next season. I'm wary about it, though. Feels like it'll be a dark action anime and those are hit-or-miss with me.

That's all of them, assuming no others get added and I didn't miss any. This isn't looking like the best season ever but I'm excited for a few and hopefully a few others will pleasantly surprise me!

Anime I'll check out, in order of of excitement:
Phantom of the Idol
Teppen
KJ File
The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting
Parallel World Pharmacy
My Recently Hired Maid is Suspicious
Prima Doll
Call of the Night
Shine Post
Luminous Witches

Thanks for reading, everyone. This helped kill some time at work.

Mobilezoid posted...

A Harem in a Fantasy World Labyrinth: Isekai guy in labyrinth, presumably with a harem.

a slave harem!

How are they getting away with My Daughter is My Ex-Girlfriend? Like...seriously how?

you might need to reread that title

Oh...that's how....

*At Chipotle after work.*

My Daughter is My Ex-Girlfriend will be the title for the sequel series. He marries his stepsister twenty years later after she had a kid with someone else but uh oh, the kid is a high schooler he dated!!!! The big twist will be that she actually is his daughter from a one night stand and the stepsister never told him

It could happen.

My daughter is my ex-girlfriend, what is this the sequel to Usagi Drop

Two more spring animes compleat:

The Executioner and Her Way of Life - this started a bit slow, but got better as it went. My main problems with it were the weak characters designs and some bad dialogue (please never talk about being a strong/pure/etc. priestess again). The cast was pretty good though, and the worldbuilding was compelling. Ashuna was a fun twist on a warrior princess - I loved how consistently confident and selfish she was, while still being heroic. The action was also much better than I expected - lots of 2D monsters, with only a bit of CG. It's a shame they stick to the 'best friend' angle rather than going full yuri, but oh well.

RPG Real Estate - Consistently enjoyable stuff. The parts with them finding houses for people were generally a good vehicle for nice cute girl antics. The more serious story parts were all good too I think, and I love that they actually killed the main character, which I wouldn't generally expect to happen in a cute girl SoL show. I wasn't a fan of the overly sexualized character designs, though they were occasionally hilarious (particularly Kotone's sisters). Fa was the best character from start to finish. Any scene focused on her was guaranteed to be great. Kotone could also be surprisingly funny sometimes when she did really dumb stuff.

Updated ranking of beated Spring shows:

1. Aharen-san
2. Bookworm S3
3. Ya Boy Kongming
4. The Executioner and Her Way of Life
5. RPG Real Estate
6. Dance Dance Danseur

I also finished two more airing anime

Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness was a super solid slice-of-life. Nagomu was just such a good dude, and Itsuka's situation with her father provided a good emotional crux without ever getting overly dramatic. Every side character got their time to shine, but my favorite was Kanoko. It used the whole sweet shop angle pretty well too, treats like that always have a relaxing aura. This was a nice, chill anime to watch every week.

RPG Real Estate was also pretty good. I liked how selling houses organically introduced various characters and always resulted in unique situations without ever feeling forced. It did that thing a lot of comedy anime do where it had a super dramatic arc near the end. Usually those outright ruin an anime for me, but RPG Real Estate handled it surprisingly deftly. Fa was my favorite character in this by far, she was always cute and funny, but I liked pretty much everyone, even one-off characters like the bard who couldn't sing well or the hot spring cats.

Season ranking so far:
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
Ya Boy Kongming
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
RPG Real Estate
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
Healer Girl

Seeing the title "RPG Real Estate" just makes me think of the FFXIV housing lotto.

I finished Heroines Run the Show. 80% of it was really good, I liked Hiyori a lot, and the dynamic between her and the surly idols was fun. Unfortunately, the last few episodes ruined this anime by wholeheartedly embracing the most toxic aspects of idol culture. It's an industry known for this junk, where idols are stalked and harassed and have their careers ruined for the tiniest things. I don't rag on something like Love Live for not dealing with it because they don't bring it up. Heroines Run the Show did bring those things up, and all it had to say on the matter is 'that's fine, because passionate fans are what matter most'. I understand why they did that, the people who made this have a whole stable of idol properties and you don't get money from crazy fans by attacking the crazy fans. I'm not a crazy fan, though, so I found the end of this anime sickening. It'd be like a story where an abused wife goes back to her alcoholic husband or something. Realistic? Sure, that happens all the time in real life. But fiction doesn't need to glorify it.

Slot this one in at the absolute bottom of my Spring list. Like, Healer Girl was a 6/10, this is a 2/10

So wait...you hated they brought it up, or did the show highlight it just to go LOL NOT A BIG DEAL, LET'S DANCE? Cause I want darker shows digging into tough subjects call out the evil men do.

Strife2 posted...

So wait...you hated they brought it up, or did the show highlight it just to go LOL NOT A BIG DEAL, LET'S DANCE

I would love an idol show that treated toxic idol culture as a serious problem. This one did the latter

Ah...that makes sense.

Robazoid posted...

I would love an idol show that treated toxic idol culture as a serious problem.

Watch Perfect Blue. I'm not sure any other anime actually treats it that seriously.

Gotta admit, Ive been liking Dressrosa so far. I think being able to read it in large chunks helps, I can see how the pacing might be bad reading it week to week

Robazoid posted...

I would love an idol show that treated toxic idol culture as a serious problem. This one did the latter

Thatd be a hard thing to do considering the audience that watch these shows are a source of the toxic culture.

Youd better off hoping for an anti-Capitalism show that has idol culture as a portion of it.

WhiteLens posted...

Youd better off hoping for an anti-Capitalism show that has idol culture as a portion of it.

...So that arc from Aggretsuko where Retsuko becomes an idol?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bmX3sHUAqew

SUGOI! DEKAI!!!!!!! Season 2 incoming!

Lots of Season 2s coming. Always good news.

Finished Miss Corporate Slave and the Little Baby Ghost. Super cute black company propaganda. It's essentially Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid with more focus on Kobayashi working, and you replace the boob monsters with adorable ghosts

Robazoid posted...

It's an industry known for this junk, where idols are stalked and harassed and have their careers ruined for the tiniest things.

Reminds me If My Favorite Idol Made It To Budokan, I Would Die. It's a comedy series with heart-warming moments, so nothing dire comes of it, but one of the idols is rumored to be in a relationship, and her popularity and sales immediately tank. Worst part is, the rumor involves one of the main characters, and he revels in her misfortune because he likes that she doesn't get as much attention from other guys.

Twelve Kingdoms about halfway done. There was a 5-6 episode stretch where absolutely fuck all was going on. But once the story shifted back to Yoko and two new girls, it picked right back up.

got caught up on Chihayafuru since its ending soon. current battle did the thing i was hoping it wouldnt do augh.

and a silly meme image got me started reading Hanging Out with a Gamer Girl. havent read much yet but its silly and cute enough to keep going. short chapters also help

If you want a good manga check out Mitsuboshi Colors. Absolutely fantastic slice of life comedy without falling into the usual cliches. I like that they don't spend any time in school despite being school-aged.

By the way, in one piece, this girl with power to turn people into toys? Not only is this super overpowered ability, but its probably one of the most horrific powers Ive seen yet.