Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 301: Beyond Anime's End

(+) Yeah! (+)

Fantastic day overall, though one of these is technically yesterday. Sadly can't Monogatari yet, but I'm hearing it's the Grade A level stuff even by the franchises standards.

Quality Assurance in Another World

Please. I fucking beg of you, just cut it out with the disgracefully bad titles. Much like the Parry show though, I'm very pleasantly surprised, though this actually hooked me much more just for the ending chunk.

This one came at me in layers. At first I was merely surprised by the general quality of the show, it's a other one you'd expect to be a slop production but they're doing a decent job. I was initially pissed by the horrible title in this case actually ruining the entire concept of the series, but it turns out that twist in an of itself is very obvious, very fast. However, the last 3 or 4 minutes absolutely slams layers on top of both your assumptions and the direction of the show, almost like it was made on iois on purpose as a red harring. That, combined with the strong character designs for a show like this, have me intrigued more than I am by Parry. I will be continuing.

The Elusive Samurai

When I commented on the announcement of this anime, I said it seemed odd this was getting an anime so fast and that I had seen basically no buzz about it in the west. I hold true to that, however I have zero doubt that will change. I think this has an even more impressive first episode impression than Demon Slayer did as far as Shounen Jump series go, and I know for a fact this is going to blow up.

Besides that, I did think the episode was very strong. The quick shift in tone wasn't hard to see coming knowing the creator's past works (me going into this with a love of Neuro and no attachment at all to AssClass is definitely against the norm, lol), but it was executed well. The seconds of hang time around the missing ball were extremely suspenseful, knowing SOMETHING was about to happen. The Priest character is filling the mascot role here, and he's exactly what you'd expect from Matsui.

Of course the entire thing is basically porn for production heads, just stunning cuts left and right. I have to admit that CloverWorks is becoming one of the faces of the industry, and perhaps it's time to let go of my grudge from that year or so where they were ruining every anime they touched, culminating in the Promised Neverland Canon Event that arguably killed the momentum of both the franchise and it's creator......it's a deep grudge, though, I doubt I can ever forget it entirely. There's no denying what they've done here, though. Stunning.

Dahlia in Bloom

I do wish we'd stop getting these shows that clearly tossed a tag onto their series just to hit a genre quota for the algorithm. This being an Isekai is meaningless, it does not even appear the character themselves is aware, other than maybe a vague recollection of some terminology like "hair dryer".

Still, I can't knock the show for it too much, this was very charming. I like Dahlia herself, the father is excellent, the show looks great, it's good vibes across the board. I do still need to see what the show is actually ABOUT to figure out how invested I'm going to be, but right now I've really got no complaints....other than the Isekai thing.

Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary

Between this and Stepsister, I may be becoming a bit of an anime hipster in places. As soon as I realized it was a letterboxed anime, I was already sold lol.

I have not seen Hyouka, but I have been told this is the same creator and is fairly similar, just saying that for a baseline. The atmosphere of this show completely sucked me in, the whole time it feels like something else is going on and another show could drop at any minute, but then again maybe it won't! So many of the shots here had me enraptured despite their mundanity, like it was a movie rather than a show. Character work is very down to earth to get things started, but I cannot wait to absorb more in future episodes. The last minute, it's obvious how the episode is going to end, but I still found myself dreading it, despite the low stakes involved, because of how much it had surely drawn me in.

This sounds like a lot of bullshit. Maybe! I know what I like though andt his is sooooooo very much it.

The Elusive Samurai manga has a 6.48 on MAL. Guess it really tanks over time?

I will be very interested to see what this show does to the sales numbers and review for this series moving forward. It was a VERY impactful premier.

Of course, maybe it won't hold. Hard to tell. I would be shocked if the show continues to look this good.

I think there's enough shows so far this season that I can throw up where I'm at so far.

Shoshimin
Stepsister
Otokonoko
The Elusive Samurai
Suicide Squad
Dahlia
Quality Assurance
Parry
---
Russian
---
Pseudo Harem
My Wife has no Emotion

Oshi no Ko might be at the actual top, but as usually I don't wanna slide in sequels until the season is over and done with.

OK so like

If I have watched up to Hanamonogatari and still haven't watch Kizu, am I still going to be OK putting off Kizu and just watching the rest of the seasons to get to Off/Monster?

Not because I don't want to see Kizu, but just knowing the mental block of having to watch 3 feature length movies is going to keep me gated for a while probably.

Skipping Kizu is bad but that's more because Kizu is fantastic than anything else, especially at the point you're at, I think. I don't think there's any further harm in continuing to skip it.

In novel release order, Kizu comes between Bake and Nise. It was actually the first novel released in English. Off the top of my head the primary thing you miss out on by not getting Kizu it is Characterization/backstory for Shinobu and the Vampire Hunter trio that gets its primary payoff with Episode's reappearance in Owarimonogatari, which you've already seen/are well past.

Yeah I knew Kizu was actually the first thing you really should be watching anyways, so I didn't THINK it would make a difference this deep in whether I saved it for a time when I actually want to absorb it in on it's own time. I absolutely still want to watch it in general.

Stuff I still have to watch besides it are Tsuki, Koyo, Owari, and Zoku. My understanding is that it's less daunting than it seems at least?

Oh, I completely forgot where Hana placed, oops. I forgot it was that far back.

Tsuki is one of those "movies" that's actually just four episodes aired together.

Koyomi is a season of half-length episodes that are pretty much all side stories but should still be watched yeah

Owari and Zoku are proper TV series, though Zoku is only half-cour while the other half of that cour is the end of Owari.

It's not too bad.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I think this has an even more impressive first episode impression than Demon Slayer did as far as Shounen Jump series go, and I know for a fact this is going to blow up.

tbh I thought it had a great Chapter 1 too, but it doesn't really carry the momentum as you might expect. Also it starts to rely more heavily on japanese history that is gonna be a turn off for westerners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4eY9dF_Zlc

Chair-sama approaches October 2024

Fire Force S3 and Bleach Blood War Part 3 confirmed.

Also this thing that I tries to read for a few chapters, but 90% of action Webnovels are just the same story repackaged so I couldn't do it.

https://twitter.com/MangaMoguraRE/status/1809757072809992345?t=Z4oBSgKEMlTBa41fmQo1BA&s=19

watched the live action city hunter on netflix. alternated between excellent and super-mediocre, but worth it for Get Wild at the end. what a fantastic ED (and one i only learned about from the recent contest)

Watched Insomniacs After School

This was solid, but I don't know that I'm willing to say much more than that. Followed a typical romance trajectory where I generally liked the two leads and their chemistry but didn't especially care for most of the dramatic parts of the show. Think I would have liked it more as just a chill vibes slice-of-life show since that's definitely where I thought its strengths were.

They really shoulda been the photography club and not the astronomy club.

I really loved Insomniacs. It had pretty much exactly the kind of vibes and drama levels I want out of romance anime. The main two had a lot of cute and heartwarming moments, too.

Shows for tomorrow:

Blake Clover

Hopefully not terrible Tower of God S2

Bang Dream Cheerleading

Hopefully the solid weekend hits continue.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Also this thing that I tries to read for a few chapters, but 90% of action Webnovels are just the same story repackaged so I couldn't do it.

I think this description shortchanges it. Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint isn't groundbreaking, but it's very fun and better-executed than (most) of the rest of its genre.

EDIT: Wait did you try to read the webnovel instead of the manhwa?

No, I tried to read the Manwha, meant to say Webtoon not Webnovel. Only got a few chapters in, but I was reading it alongside Revival Hunter (which I got much further in, like.....uhhh 50 or so chapters?)

And it was just

It was the same thing. Just like Solo Leveling.

They're basically all the same series lol.

It's not like I've abandoned them, but my friend Manwha push from several months ago was abandoned pretty quickly

Apparently the President of IG just casually revealed they're finishing the rest of Haikyuu during an AX Q&A because he didn't realize they hadn't confirmed that at any point lol.

Extreme spoilers from the JJK panel regarding past events. I'm sure you can guess.

Nobara is confirmed dead by Gege himself, it's Joever.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Apparently the President of IG just casually revealed they're finishing the rest of Haikyuu during an AX Q&A because he didn't realize they hadn't confirmed that at any point lol.

This was confirmed years ago.

Well everyone was going crazy about it at the panel, so apparently not.

I guess maybe what wasn't confirmed is that they would be covering the time skip, based on the specific reactions.

Look Back Panel Q&A

A: The movie theaters need 70 mins to be consider a movie, so in the US, it cant be considered a standard movie to show in movie theaters.

Oh.

Oh they gotta put a fucking interview in that reel or something Jesus fuck.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Also this thing that I tries to read for a few chapters, but 90% of action Webnovels are just the same story repackaged so I couldn't do it.

I think the genre is just not for you. Not only are those two of the better series but they are really different as far as stories of the type goes. I'd even call them different sub-genres.

It's like how a person who doesn't like romance stories will see every school romance series as basically the same thing. All they see are the genre tropes and they can't appreciate the things that make it good or unique to the fans of that genre.

Definitely propable, the tropes are so consistent too. I mean I like Tower of God a lot, it just feels way different from all these.

I'll tell you what: tell me if ORV has a female character who's presented as being one of the strongest people around, but is already weaker than the protagonist at the time of or shortly after they meet, and ends up only existing to be his GF.

If not, I'll give it another go lol.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I'll tell you what: tell me if ORV has a female character who's presented as being one of the strongest people around, but is already weaker than the protagonist at the time of or shortly after they meet, and ends up only existing to be his GF.

Well so far MC doesn't have a GF and I can't think of anyone who fits that. There are strong female characters who are potential love interests but they are both originally presented as weak characters who should have died immediately if MC didn't intervene, they only become strong thanks to the help and guidance of the MC and are never treated as being on the level of the MC and especially not the original story's MC (who are not the same person). The third main love interest gets closer to that as they are strong when we meet them but they aren't "one of the strongest" by any means, they are just the leader of a unique faction with a decent power.

The strongest female character we know of is MC's mom. And maybe a prophet lady that has had one brief appearance or the original story MC's love interest who again we haven't really spent time with but i assume they are strong. Also a little girl.

https://x.com/Geo_AW/status/1809801188478447934

Toei executing on Oda's vision

Well at least that's different, I'll try and give it aother go.

Alright, time to buckle up and see what the damage is in ToG.

S1

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a352560a.jpg

S2

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e32e9707.jpg

*siiiiiiiiiigh*

Not even 3 minutes in and I'm struggling not to be a hater.

Ohhhh boy, only 10 minutes in and I'm gonna have words about this fucking Harry Potter ass show.

Ooooooh I'm struggling, I have never been so pissed off by something so innofensive merely for existing in the state it does. I'm gonna be SOOOOO unfair and irrational about this show.

Can't hold back, was gonna talk about all the shows for today at the same time but nothing doing.

Wistoria: Wand and Go Fuck Yourself

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/82460c57.jpg

Holy shit, I'm irrationally pissed that this exists.

The show is absolutely stunning to look at. Even after Oshi no Ko and The Elusive Samurai, this may be the most impressive looking show of the season. The music is killing it, the direction is top notch. Character art, backgrounds, processing, shading, it's a master class of anime. They're fucking FLEXING, there are cuts of people just walking which are animated like it was their last shot of their life before retirement.

So why

WHY.

Is this all in service or the most boring, worthless, generic, uninteresting slop of a fantasy anime that has ever existed?

There is NOTHING of note here. It's not AWFUL, it would be better if it was. When I was in my maximum Mushoku Tensei hate train at the beginning, I was at least ENAGED, I hated it but it was INTERESTING.

This is nothing. This anime was written in fucking ChatGPT.

All this talent, all this effort, all this money, put towards something that should have been throway low budget slop left on the roadside to be forgotten when the season was over. It makes me soooooo maaaaad that this exists.

Is it the worst anime premier ever? No, of course not, it doesn't have anything in it worth talking about at all, it's completely empty. However, this is my most hated anime premier of all time because it's suck a waste. It's completely unfair to think that, but I frankly do not care. I am so frustrated.

Main girl in Deer Show outs herself as a Danganronpa 2 fan in less than 4 minutes, thank you God for this pallet cleanser.

Narenare -Cheer for You!-

https://youtube.com/shorts/2QWXkUdNqu4?si=eSKH51ixNAk-vxvS

We are so back.

I won't pretend I wasn't already keyed in on this before it even aired, but I feel like I was thoroughly justified, I loooooove this, and it's exactly what I wanted. A cast of characters with good potential, some past drama to unfold, really just a joy to watch. Felt like that first time I watched Love Live back in the day.

Most obvious thing that stands out visually is that EVERYTHING has a colored outline, wasn't sure about it at first but ended ion thinking that it was an excellent choice. Also every single character has an underage in the entire show, including background characters, so....that's a targeted assault on me personally.

The chase sequence at the end was excellent, really brought it home for me and I know I'm gonna be all in on this one for the season to come.

Also glad to see a show me and Roba will probably agree about lol.

Nokotan

Given the insane hype campaign that this has been receiving, you'd thing there would be a lot to talk about here, but not really lol. I mean, I always knew really that no matter how insane the PVs were and how much push it was getting, that it's still just a gag manga adaptation, and that some people were probably expecting it to be more than what it is. Which isn't a bad thing, Unlocked this, it was funny! I'll definitely be watching it, but I just know that it got built up way too much, and the show is going to get both rabid fans calling it AotY and spiteful haters calling it overhyped trash. Really it's just a totally enjoyable wacky gag series with higher production values than usual, just watch and enjoy IMHO.

Tow of God S2

Man. OK.

Tower of God S1 wasn't, like, a masterpiece. It was a totally competent production, but it did stand out! It had a look all of it's own, it was typically well animated, and it had a vibe and atmosphere that sold me in it. That anime is WHY I got into the Manwha. And yeah, the early karts if that Manwha aren't great! It's also not very good to look at! That first season elevated the source material in a way that got me invested and interestedntk move forward, and it was worth it. Everything gets better as it goes.

There's a lot working against this premier. I MYSELF know these characters and am glad to see them, but anime only viewers from almost half a decade ago are going to be pretty confused. That's not a big deal, though, things will advance, it'll all come together.

But man. MAN. This looks SO MUCH WORSE than season 1. It's a downgrade across the board. All of the personality is gone, it doesn't stand out at all anymore. I guess someone behind the scenes felt it needed to look moreild the source material, and it does, but the source material at this point....looked....not...great?? Every character looks worse than they did in season 1, and it's made all the more obvious from the opening minutes of the episode where we actually see them. All the girls look worse. Rak looks AWFUL. Background characters are hideous in general. Lots of still shots, but they don't feel like intentional still shots, thet feel like budget saving shots. There some decent fight animation at the end, but it's worse than S1's and isn't even THAT impressive besides that.

It's not a totally hideous show or anything, but it's such a downgrade, it s depressing. I don't know what happened behind the scenes to cause the change in studio and direction. It's clear this 4 year wait was because of problems and not because of the effort put into the production. It could have been worse, it could have actually looked bad, but....ugh. I'll still be watching, I have to, but I can't say I'm all that happy about it. At least Kevin Penkin is still here

Narenare
Shoshimin
Stepsister
Otokonoko
The Elusive Samurai
Suicide Squad
Dahlia
Nokotan
Quality Assurance
Parry
---
Russian
---
Pseudo Harem
My Wife has no Emotion
---
---
---
Fuckin' Wizards

Sequels:
Oshi no Ko
Tower of God

I still have to watch that Raising Kids in Another World one but I'm going to be busy until late evening soon and I want to post about the three new episodes I did see

Narenare: Cheer For You was really good! It managed to introduce every single major character, make them all fun and unique, and yet at no point did any of it feel rushed or forced. The animation and movements were always so smooth and dynamic. It was a joy to watch even before getting into the content. I was a big fan of Anima Yell, another anime about cheerleading, but it didn't have the highest budget. Outside of a few moments, the cheerleading performances in it were mostly slideshows. It also didn't help that the main girl in Anima Yell was a total noob and afraid of heights. In Narenare, it was so cool when it opened with an amazing-looking performance and the main girl was doing crazy flips all over the place. I'm also really liking some of the heavier stuff it's introducing with the one friend in a wheelchair (though I'm not sure if she was injured or what) and the main girl losing her motivation. I was starting to think Pseudo Harem had AotS locked up, but Narenare is going to make a fight of it.

My Deer Friend Nokotan was also good! Not AotS good, at least not yet, but I enjoyed it. It had the chaotic and fast-paced style of humor I hoped it would. I really like Nokotan the deer girl, and she has a fun dynamic with the secret-delinquent main girl. Shows like this usually benefit from a larger cast, though. It did a great job in the first episode with only two characters. It could still become amazing once it has more people to bounces jokes off of! The only bad part is that, unfortunately, it looks like my fears about the quality of this anime's subtitles have been confirmed. Did you notice the number of sentences that didn't start with a capital or didn't end with a period? I sure did. I didn't catch any outright wtf mistakes like I noticed in Tonbo, but I imagine it's only a matter of time. No way Crunchyroll is subbing this, it's the licensing company and they're doing a shoddy job of it as per their usual.

Wistoria: Wand and Sword was another one that I enjoyed! I went into this with low expectations after Mashle botched the "guy in magic academy who can't use magic" premise. Thankfully, this anime was closer to being a fun magic academy anime, similar to Reign of the Seven Spellblades (though less of a Harry Potter ripoff... even if Wistoria still had a lot of HP influences, I mean look at the main dude's glasses). I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I like that the main guy not being able to use magic is an actual thing that he's judged for and has to work around. Also this had surprisingly good animation. It won't be my favorite or anything, but compared to some of the boring or infuriating junk I watched yesterday, I'll take Wistoria's fun competence any day!

That's three good Sunday shows! I'm glad it wasn't a total dud like Saturday turned out to be.

It took me quite a while to even realize most of that cheer performance at the beginning was CG, they've really nailed down the 2D look for those models.

Robazoid posted...

Did you notice the number of sentences that didn't start with a capital or didn't end with a period? I sure did. I didn't catch any outright wtf mistakes like I noticed in Tonbo, but I imagine it's only a matter of time. No way Crunchyroll is subbing this, it's the licensing company and they're doing a shoddy job of it as per their usual.

I noticed this and for some of it I just assumed "oh they're doing, like, Yankee speech", but it did still seem weird in places. Totally forgot about the multiplatform stuff. That DeDeDe thing is also getting subs from elsewhere, isn't it? And apparently those suck too.

Maniac64 posted...

Well so far MC doesn't have a GF and I can't think of anyone who fits that. There are strong female characters who are potential love interests but they are both originally presented as weak characters who should have died immediately if MC didn't intervene, they only become strong thanks to the help and guidance of the MC and are never treated as being on the level of the MC and especially not the original story's MC (who are not the same person). The third main love interest gets closer to that as they are strong when we meet them but they aren't "one of the strongest" by any means, they are just the leader of a unique faction with a decent power.

The strongest female character we know of is MC's mom. And maybe a prophet lady that has had one brief appearance or the original story MC's love interest who again we haven't really spent time with but i assume they are strong. Also a little girl.

The character that fills the role he's describing is YJH :>

I'd be very surprised if anyone looked at the old Tower of God art and thought the show needed to look more like that. I do actually like the art a lot starting around season 3 and maybe the end of season 2, but before that it ranges from serviceable to outright bad at the very beginning. (I mean season 3 of the webtoon, which at least would be like season 5--if not later--for a hypothetical anime adaptation that gets that far.)

I think it's more likely they just didn't put as much effort into the adaptation though, which unfortunately I'd always thought was the smart production move anyways. There's a few things the series has going against it from the anime perspective. First is yes the issue of all the new characters right at the beginning of season 2 which have to carry the show for several episodes, which no matter how good it is risks turning off some people before they start reintegrating old and new characters again. Also while this won't affect season 2, any future seasons are plagued by (vague structural spoilers for future Tower of God webtoon content) the gargantuan monstrosity that is the Hell Train arc, which without checking I suspect was longer than all the previous arcs combined. The only options I see are skimming through while vomiting the necessary lore down the viewer's throats at rapid-fire pace, or a faithful adaptation that probably drags on for so long that everyone loses interest without a highly invested fanbase. Sure there are mini-arcs and climaxes and things at least but I just don't know. Frankly I don't see any way to adapt the series past season 2 of the anime successfully unless the anime achieves a One Piece or Demon Slayer level of success.

I think I'm actually shortly after Hell Train lol. It has been a while, but last I left off it was in the middle of the arc where people's names were being stolen, probably just need to start that one over.

The thing that makes me think it was an attempt at Manwha accuracy is the colors, they're really garish here compared to S1, but they're extremely spot on for where the source materials colors were at this point.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4c52f5f6.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1a01b83f.jpg

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I think I'm actually shortly after Hell Train

UshiromiyaEva posted...

last I left off it was in the middle of the arc where people's names were being stolen

I have bad news...

To be fair I guess, it looks like even the wiki has started describing Hell Train as a "mega arc" with many different sub-arcs, which is probably a better way to think about it. The story still drags no matter how it's compartmentalized though.

My memory is you're finished with what I thought were the weakest parts though, at least.

Oh wait is it still technically within Hell Train lol.

Ahhh well, I mean I didn't have any issues, I think my PC died for a while (no tablet at the time) and I just never got back to it after getting it replaced.

So Nokotan has an Amazon exclusive Simuldub.

It's uhhh.....questionable at times.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Oh wait is it still technically within Hell Train lol.

Hell Train technically is about 200 chapters long and ends with chapter 315 of season 2, which is nearly the end of season 2 as a whole. Prior to this arc or mega-arc or whatever the entire webtoon was 189 chapters total. I can't remember when it started but the chapters have also gotten longer as the webtoon has gone on.

Edit: Thinking about it more--I'm not super familiar with One Piece, but Hell Train seems more analogous to what I think that fandom refers to as a "Saga" than to an individual arc.

CoolCly posted...

The character that fills the role he's describing is YJH :>

There is that ship yes lol. But YJH is definitely stronger than the MC early on.

OK so yeah, both the sub and dub for Nokotan are handled by an AI company who only has experience with Portuguese releases.

In the dub (yes, the DUB), there are instances of the characters mixing the Ls and Rs in words.

This is a total shitshow.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

OK so yeah, both the sub and dub for Nokotan are handled by an AI company who only has experience with Portuguese releases.

In the dub (yes, the DUB), there are instances of the characters mixing the Ls and Rs in words.

This is a total shitshow.

As far as company metrics go, this is probably going to be 'okay' in the beginning but hurt their long-term success as people grow more disillusioned with the quality of anime as a whole. But hey, short-term profits went up cause they fired a couple people! All hail to shareholders!

https://twitter.com/Otsalia_/status/1809361400512286837?t=vjE_4ArdTfE3wrkYOfL07w&s=19

OK maybe I need to watch the Vtuber anime tonight.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2fb23f38.jpg

I actually preferred Vtuber to Cheerleader, though I liked both. It's got the kind of yuri undertones I really enjoy

Cheerleader was not without it's yuri undertones!

I am familiar with Anna Aveiro Nakamura dos Santos Morella Cuccittini, but she's not the chick from Vtuber

There's only so much you can do in front of a nun.

I doubt Anna cares about that, though I'd like to believe there is a timeline where Anna is the girl from Vtuber. I think their unfiltered energy is pretty similar; Anna just hasn't gone full degen in order to get views.