Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 292 - The G Stands for Gear

(+) Yeah! (+)

Instead of finishing any of the several shows I've already started, I began watching Twin Star Exorcists today. It's pretty good so far! The battles against the weird supernatural creatures have all been fine. My favorite thing, though, is the dynamic between the main guy and girl. It's established pretty early on that they're destined to get married someday, but as of six episodes in they're still at the stage where they can't stand each other. It's fun and cute.

You can run Crunchyroll through Amazon Video now. Would have to swap subscriptions though.

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1716804045250105593?s=19

This is the same in the end, it's just whichever app you prefer.

I mean, CR works fine on PS5, so, meh

This would have been a far more enticing option a year ago when Crunchyroll ran like garbage. Now it runs just fine though since the last overhaul, so....

Forgot if I mentioned this already but recently beated two anime

Code Geass Resurrection - I don't understand the point to this movie. Could have just added the last five minutes to the third recap movie and that would've saved a lot of time and money.

Lycoris Recoil - This was great. Excellent animations and entire cast had moments to shine. Mika is the best though.

Lycoris Recoil was a fun show. It went too dark at times for my taste, but Chisato and Takina were both great.

GranzonEx posted...

Mika is the best though

So true

I loved Lycoris Recoil, really, really hope it gets a second season.

SUPAH CAAAAAH!

It's getting something. We just don't know what it is yet.

Finished the 3 episodes of Apothecary. The trailers were definitely misleading and sold a very different show, but I do like this a lot for different reasons than I expected.

Sorry pj, but I'm 37 chapters into Unluck and am loving it.

However I have....no idea how the story at this point could have 180 chapter and counting, so maybe that will change.

Don't tell anybody but I've been rewatching dragon ball GT for the first time since it aired on Cartoon Network

I find it hilarious that since getting possessed by Baby the only thing Gohan and Videl can do is beat up on their child

In my ongoing quest to catch up on the last few seasons, I watched Insomniacs After School. I thought it was a 10/10 perfect anime. Every little thing was packed with so much emotion that I felt strangely nostalgic even though I was watching it for the first time. Nakami and Magari were both great and I loved every second they spent together. It had sweet moments without ever feeling saccharine and sad moments without ever feeling melodramatic. This didn't have any of the awful tropes that usually ruin romance anime for me. There were no idiotic misunderstandings or evil love rivals. This was just the story of two people who otherwise had little in common who realized they each suffered from insomnia. Then they began slowly getting to know each other, and it was beautiful. Some sequences were so magical that I didn't want them to end. Their little radio shows in episode seven might be one of my favorite anime moments ever.

This was a better astronomy anime than Asteroid in Love. A better photography anime than Tada Never Falls in Love. A better camping anime than Laid-Back Camp. A better insomniac anime than Call of the Night. And a better romance anime than any other that I've ever seen. I'm glad I finally watched it.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Sorry pj, but I'm 37 chapters into Unluck and am loving it.

That's ok I'm used to it by now.

For what it's worth I think the second half is worse, but the fan base seems to love it even more. Even heard people say they didn't like it at first but started coming around to it in the second half, which is the most mindboggling take to me.

I shouldn't say mind-boggling I guess because the appeal is clear, it's just not for me. It's like wayyyy too sentimental for me that it comes across as massively corny.

Shit in jjk sure is about to start hitting the fan even more than it already has, huh

Mappa implosion continues.

Multiple directors taking openly about the horrible working conditions on JJK and everything else, and how everything there is falling apart.

Director of the newest episode saying it's not possible to have pride in your work there and that the release of the episode made him feel worthless.

Frieren doing a fantastic job with these action oriented episodes as expected. However I am not looking forward to the inevitable whining of "when is the next combat arc" and "here's the Frieren watch list that excludes all the 'filler' episodes" from the unwashed masses.

Speaking of anime that give the creators time to make them, Pluto is now out on Netflix after over six years of production. I've only watched the first episode so far, and it was fantastic. Best first episode I've seen this year, personally.

Really looking forward to watching Pluto. Absolute tragedy that it's going to go completely under the radar due to it being a Netflix dump.

Rip and tear, Frieren

Final episode of Attack on Titan will be 85 minutes

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Really looking forward to watching Pluto. Absolute tragedy that it's going to go completely under the radar due to it being a Netflix dump.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners was the most popular new anime of 2022 in America.

Hopefully csm being 1 cour a season means that production isn't as brutal but who knows

Cyberpunk was an entirely different beast with an ENORMOUS marketing campaign. I don't think this so going to be that. Very little discussion anywhere and barely any talk prerelease, almost any.

By the same token of "look how well Edgerunners did" , you could also say "look how much Stone Ocean completely flopped". You could also day "look at the dozen Netflix anime that release over the last year that people don't even know exists".

I'll be sure to add Pluto to the list of shows to watch the one month of the year where I have Netflix! The other one I was looking at the other day was that Happy Marriage one.

My wife seems to enjoy that one.

We also enjoyed No Doubt In US. A Chinese anime on Netlfix.

Hardcover JoJo books changing their release schedule from every 3 months to every 2 months for Part 6

I might get the full series before I get old and pass away

Updates to watchlist

Shy and Undead Unluck - great shows but dropped both because I went and read all/almost all of the manga because I was enjoying the show so much and now I can't bring myself to keep watching. I keep doing this to myself lol.

Tearmoon Empire - continue to be amazed at how much I'm enjoying this show, it's not like it's song anything special it's just real fun to watch

Frieren - duh

Faraway Paladin S2 - This is a D&D anime like Goblin Slayer but for the parties that spend several sessions RPing in town.

Apothecary Diaries - very strong and probably going to be one of the more noteable shows for the year.

Shut-In Vampire - Light Novel trash but it's good fast food at least, funny enough.

Dead Mount S2 - funnily enough dropped, considering I marathined the whole first season 2 prepare for it. I dunno man it's just a boring show. Maybe if it had an even remotely similar direction quality to Baccano or DRRR, it's just completely phoned in.

100 Girlfriends - giving me the Romcon stupidity I haven't indulged in with a while, thankfully withbsruoidiry making up like 80% of it's body.

Firefighter Daigo and Overtake - dropped for just not caring enough to stuck with it.

Episode 2 rundowns of the stuff I'm watching this season.

Spy Family: Need more Bond and Loid hjinx. Borf!

Shield Hero: Oh boy. Another woman to add to the cast, and she's not Kizuna. Well fuck.

Magus Bride: Kind of an filler drama ep, but she white haired girl's dreadface is kinda nightmare inducing.

Goblin Slayer: More Goblins...

SxF > Bride > Goblin > Shield

Will probably catch other stuff once I'm done with Last Exile.

I'm caught up on ten new shows from this season now. I may as well do a quick updated ranking from best to worst (I started watching that 100 Girlfriends one so I'm not counting Dark Gathering anymore)

1- The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch. This show is stupid fun and I love it. Every episode has at least a handful of amazingly dumb gags that make me laugh out loud.

2- Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. I don't like this as much as most people seem to, it's only a 7/10, but it's a solid anime. I preferred her more aimless wandering to the serious plot of the last few episodes, but I'm sure we'll get back to that soon enough.

3- Stardust Telepath. I really like the shy main girl and her weird alien friend. I feel like this year hasn't had many other good cute girls shows, so I'm really glad for this one.

4- Tearmoon Empire. It's fun watching the main girl stumble her way through various situations and have everyone think she's a compassionate genius. It's just a really fun premise that's being executed well.

5- Shy. Kind of a mediocre setting and overall conflict so far, but I like Shy and her best friend and I'm curious to see where the story goes.

6- I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness. It's kind of a generic show overall, but the main two are cute together. Hayami Saori also voices the main girl and she's great in this kind of role. Her "awawa" flustered noise alone puts this above most of the rest of this season.

7- The Apothecary Diaries. This show is fine but nothing special. Maomao isn't growing on me at all like I thought she would. She's so passive most of the time, and her cute moments when it comes to apothecary duties don't make up for it. The problems she's solving have all been mediocre so far.

8- I'm in Love with the Villainess. This show honestly kind of sucks. Main girl is constantly a creep towards the villainess and I don't like how the show keeps making excuses for it. The villainess has a better relationship with the prince she has a crush on than she does with her creepy maid, which is not how I want to feel while watching a so-called "yuri" show.

9- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, REALLY Love You. This show may have the occasional good joke or cute moment, but I don't think anything will ever overpower the profound discomfort I feel while watching one guy slowly build a triple-digit harem. I don't like how it isn't exploring the implication that these girls have had their free will stolen by a stupid love god. Main dude is completely taking advantage of all of them.

10- The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess. This show is awful. I don't know why MAL lists it as a comedy because funny is the last word I would use to describe it. It's bleak like an edgelord anime a lot of the time. The only time it even tries for a joke is with the creepy maid, but she's creepy and I hate her.

In love with the villainous has a lot of arcs coming up that are going to build those relationships. It does start out a little award though.

Robazoid posted...

I don't like how it isn't exploring the implication that these girls have had their free will stolen by a stupid love god. Main dude is completely taking advantage of all of them.

You are misunderstanding the basis of the show. The free will of the girls isn't being affected at all, the fuck up from the love god is that they're all legitimately his soulmates and if he doesn't date all of them the ones left out will die. So, yeah, it's a hilariously awful situation, but the girls aren't falling in love with this guy because of mind control or something. If anything the one who's actually in the awful situation is him!

If the lead actually, like, TOLD THEM date me or die, we'd have a very different show.

Also apparently what the series is actually mostly ABOUT going forward is the friendships the girls build with eachother and their own dynamics, thus the ED having the lead guy as just a doll sitting around while the girls all meet up to hang out.

I don't have a lot to say about seasonal anime since so much of it is solid adaptations of sources I already enjoyed. SHY, Stardust Telepath, Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, continuations of Ancient Magus Bride and Dead Mount Death Play, all going strong. Was unlikely to drop any of them unless the adaptation was obviously flawed. Though Frieren sometimes annoys me enough to make it tempting.

As for the shows I picked up that I wasn't (entirely) familiar with the sources of, Vexations of the Vampire Princess is certainly the worst and the closest to me dropping out of disinterest. It has elements that seem like they would appeal to me but it rarely comes together into anything. 100 Girlfriends is good but the style of humor is at times grating. Will probably be more tolerable in the manga but I'll stay with the anime for now. Then there's 16Bit Sensation, which is an anime-original retelling of a manga I did read, and that's quite fun.

Still need to make time for Pluto. That's another manga I read, though it was ages ago.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

You are misunderstanding the basis of the show. The free will of the girls isn't being affected at all, the f*** up from the love god is that they're all legitimately his soulmates and if he doesn't date all of them the ones left out will die. So, yeah, it's a hilariously awful situation, but the girls aren't falling in love with this guy because of mind control or something. If anything the one who's actually in the awful situation is him!

I completely agree with Robazoid's take on the situation, and it's bizarre to me that anybody could accept the mental gymnastics on display in this post to justify making these girls all soulmate for life this dude

I dunno it's just not how I see it at all as a harem hater who hates literally all other harem anime in existence outside of Tenchi Muyo.

Pluto is by far the best show of the season.

CoolCly posted...

I completely agree with Robazoid's take on the situation, and it's bizarre to me that anybody could accept the mental gymnastics on display in this post to justify making these girls all soulmate for life this dude

It's a comedy show. Sometimes you just have to accept the silly premise.

I know 100 Girlfriends is a comedy and I shouldn't hold that part of its premise against it. The whole time I was watching it, I just kept thinking of Romantic Killer. It was a hilarious anime in addition to doing a good job at thoughtfully exploring the whole "free will" thing with a similar premise.

....I rememeber looking forward to that show, why didn't I ever hear anything about it....

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/1/2/AAeolZAAE--Q.jpg

Oh.

'Thoughtfully exploring' the free will stuff in Romantic Killer was one of its worst aspects. Might be the reason it's so much less popular than 100 GFs.

I think disregarding the premise would only be be something I would do if it was a hentai doujin, which, quite frankly, it's only a hairs breadth away from being.

CoolCly posted...

which, quite frankly, it's only a hairs breadth away from being.

..........

I can't screenshot on Crunchyroll for some reason, but if I could I'd post a screenshot now of the shot where the guy and the pink-haired girl somehow managed to 69 each other while trying to kiss!

Yeah that's like....

Listen no offense because it's definitely the right call, but you have clearly managed to avoid the dozen+ legitimate ecchi anime that air every season.

CoolCly posted...

I think disregarding the premise would only be be something I would do if it was a hentai doujin, which, quite frankly, it's only a hairs breadth away from being.

"After a night of drunken revelry, 19-year-old Kouta Satou decides to relieve himself near a seemingly secluded temple. Meanwhile, an angel is attempting to seal the queen of the underworld into a holy ball with his bow. Unfortunately, he misfires, trapping her instead inside of Kouta's unwitting balls. The angel departs, leaving Kouta a dire warning: if he fails to resist ejaculating before the end of the month, the queen will be released and mark the end of the world.

For the lustful Kouta, such a commitment is easier said than done; on top of using any means necessary to resist temptation, he must also guard himself from advances made by Elyse, a lesser devil who would resort to drastic measures to free her queen. In My Balls, the fate of the entire world rests upon the improbability of one man's chastity."

I think you'll find 100 GFs' premise pretty tame compared to actual ecchi series, let alone hentai.

Ahhhh yes, "My Balls".

I used to read that back when I was in high school when it first started coming out.

Never finished it of course, I stopped before ending high school when it apparently has 3 years left in it.

There not being an anime for My Balls or Onani Master Kurosawa is still a crime

MacArrowny posted...

I think you'll find 100 GFs' premise pretty tame compared to actual ecchi series, let alone hentai.

I think it's worse for a series to present itself as serious even though it's just an excuse for thinly veiled eroticism. At least ecchi is honest about what it is!

pjbasis posted...

I think it's worse for a series to present itself as serious even though it's just an excuse for thinly veiled eroticism. At least ecchi is honest about what it is!

Nothing in 100 GFs is the slightest bit serious. If you wanna compare it to something, The World God Only Knows is the closest.

New Madoka Trailer

https://youtu.be/vSdolbHyvkA?si=PGxqt8cLcey3yJqT

I finished an anime and posting about it will fill the topic up, so I guess I'll just make a new topic and post about it there