Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 306: The One Where Hikaru Dies

(+) Yeah! (+)

Fuji and her raccoon alien mixed dog are the best.

Started up Dangers in My Heart, dropped it partway through episode 1 back when it first started airing.

I'm glad this shows reputation is so high, because less than ten minutes in I'm reminded of how no MC in history has ever left a worse first impression. I'm truly fascinated to find out at how they could manage to turn this around.

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Peak

Watching Lookism. Decent so far, don't think I've seen many non-Japanese anime style shows before. I like the concept of the dude switching bodies, only to deal with similar bullshit.

I read Lookism and found the very beginning absolutely abominable and then got really good pretty quickly, I should really check out how the anime handled that

I finally got around to watching some Dandadan season 2 and.... I'm kinda underwhelmed. The reason I started watching Dandadan was because of trailers I kept getting served about the Evil Eye movie playing in theatres near me and the trailer got me so hyped, everything about it felt stylistically perfect. But actually getting these episodes haven't really lived up to my expectations.

Spoilers up to S2E16 -

Most of the stuff with the Evil Eye did end up being really great stylistically, the music cuts and the transitions were all great. The cult family was fine on their own, but that's kinda where it all starts to fall apart - this arc really didn't come together with every element. The cultists don't follow the Evil Eye, they follow this other random monster that ALSO causes suicides in the basement. There just happens to be TWO suicide inducing monsters down there, and I don't feel like these two elements really meshed well together. Then once Momo gets back up to the surface, all the running around up there felt... pointless? It's like we just left the meat of the arc behind for a completely unrelated catastrophe to solve. I didn't really enjoy any of that.

The Evil Eye's backstory had some potential but they hinted at it early on when Jiji showed up, but then it was non existent until he shows up to block the worm and gives his entire backstory to Jiji. I feel like this should have been spread out a bit more - and then Jiji completely being absent the second he talked to it that one time and it possessed him took away a bit from the emotional impact of whatever it would try to do if it were to succeed and escape. Even if the Evil Eye possessing Jiji was a great boss monster. Using his soccer skills was really fun.

I feel like one of Dandadan's biggest strengths is how everything is lolsorandom but somehow cohesively ties everything together in a pretty compelling narrative thats both hype and emotional. It didn't really pull that off here.

Nevermind about Lookism. It had some weird visual gag in Ep 3 that I can't explain, but just I found really...awkward looking. Kinda like the show was running 1.25 or 1.50 speed. I dumped it.

Got to The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina episode of Haruhi

Having the movie they made in the Sigh episodes be the first aired episode of the show in 2006 is incredibly hilarious. And the fact that they then went back 3 years later and made the episodes about the creation of it is pretty cool.

"Hilarious" is a way to put it... I went into Haruhi blind and between watching it in broadcast order and watching it dubbed, it was a 1-2 punch of not-goodness. Never been so put off by a first episode in an anime before until maybe Baccano!'s, but even then. Probably still the leader.

I still remember I ranked The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan above it, lol. Haruhi movie was great though. Hell I even liked Endless Eight more than the first season!

Whenever I rewatch it, and I feel like it's owed a rewatch considering the show really isn't as bad as I have it ranked, it'll be in proper chronological order + subbed. Though given the time lag of watching shows on the backlog I'm not sure when any rewatches can happen...

Sidenote since that reminds me, for everyone else since Bane already knows this: I'm working my way through Mob Psycho 100, nearing the end of season 1. Really digging it! but i'll probably post more thoughts later/after I've finished the series.

Finished S1 for Dangers in my Heart.

You know, if something is really well regarded, there's probably a reason, as long as it's not aura farming TikTok slop.

Really just blown away by how great this one is. Only kept getting better, too, with the car expanding more noticeably at just the right time. The sister is just the best in that last episode.

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/the-gundam-series-may-not-survive-for-another-ten-years-gundam-gquuuuuux-director-suggests/

Well yeah.

Not if you keep making shit like GCucks.

Wasn't GQux decently successful? I think the sentiment is more that people don't care nearly as much about mecha shows as they used to, which is accurate.

It was very successful in Japan I think.

This is definitely a case where the opinion of the show is VERY heavily divided by market.

A lot less successful than Witch from Mercury, I think? Didn't hear anything about it having huge gunpla sales. Not sure what other benchmarks there are for success. The movie did solidly, but wasn't as big as the Gundam Seed movie from last year.

I don't know what you can do to make the west care about mecha anymore tbh. Darling in the Franx and Witch of Mercury did alright here, but those are two shows in one decade, and they were driven by shipping more than anything else.

It's not like Japan's making a lot of mecha series in general nowadays, especially not mainstream ones. The Eva Rebuild movies did well enough too.

Oh yeah Witch From Mercury was another level.

GQuuuuuux did well enough there from what I've heard but it's more in stark contrast to it's reception in the west, where Witch was also very popular. GQuuuuuux reception here after the ending was pretty dire, and still seems pretty damn bad. I only see it every get brought up in a negative context, meanwhile people are still making art and fic for Witch of Mercury pretty consistent.

I was championing GQC all the way until it ended, always believing it was gonna SOMEHOW stick the landing and make it all work, but really I had just convinced myself it was going to get an S2 announcement because it HAD too. After it was over...it just felt like such an utter waste. It was Jellyfish all over again, except Jellyfish I can still watch and enjoy and look on fondly despite being disappointed, while Gundam I just can't stand to look at anymore.

As for mecha in general, I see a lot of people who speak very fondly of 86 (I've only read the first volume of the LN which I liked a lot), but that show seems to have been abandoned entirely after the season ended, don't know if it will ever continue.

I think Gundam will survive just fine in Japan. That SEED movie already got a confirmed sequel. Sunrise makes most of their money on gunpla and idol anime nowadays.

86 is from A1, which has a ridiculous number of hit shows that demand sequels and not enough staff to make all of them.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya fully watched, just need to watch the movie now

Asahina > Haruhi > Kyon > Nagato > Koizumi although Sigh episode 4 REALLY does not help Haruhi and Kyon out, but they're good enough outside of that

Peak Anime coming back.

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Oh great, I really liked that one.

Finished The Dangers in My Heart

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One of the best romance anime I've seen. One of the best love interests, one of the best sisters in anime. Great voice acting too (watched dubbed). I really hope it gets a season 3, looks like it's only recently gotten enough manga material to theoretically cover it (going to read it from where the anime ends of course).

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Sekiro anime omg

could be fire or could be kinda trash but it looks colorful at least

Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - Fire Rat beated. Spectacular movie. This is anime art at its peak. Beautiful experience like nothing else out there.

QZilla released a statement saying they aren't using AI art or animation in the Sekiro anime.

Good thing obviously, both that they aren't and that AI is still so toxic to the actual target audience that they had release a statement saying they aren't using the shit they were apparently so excited to praise.

https://youtu.be/AkGPhVXJWo0

Holy shit! Not something I would have expected to get anime announced out of nowhere. Especially when its been long over.

This is the progenitor of the genre right?

Edit: oh it's Madhouse, rad.

omg that's so dope

I never actually finished it but damnnnn I hope it's good

Finally catching up to Rascal (I am terrified to finally take the plunge back into Monogatari.....I have so much to watch).

Finished the Dreaming Girl "movie". Good arc, but it's a shame how obvious it is that it's 4 episodes they originally made for TV stitched together, both in pacing and in production. You can even tell exactly where they would have skipped showing the ED to play credits over the episode at the end of the 3rd "episode" of the movie. Ah well, anime production is often a struggle.

Oh, wow, it looks like they added the second and third Rascal movies to Crunchyroll just within the last week! Had absolutely no idea, I even downloaded them this morning lol.

Finished Sister Venturing Out. The arc is less bombastic than Dreaming Girl, but this is definitely the better movie...in that it actually is one. Kind of makes Dreaming Girl feel a bit weaker even as a result.

It's funny how much it felt like a huge advertisement for remote learning, though. That Ryukishi07 "You're gonna learn my politics and like it" energy lol.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

This is the progenitor of the genre right?

Edit: oh it's Madhouse, rad.

Depending on how you define "the genre", Kaiji is like 10 years older.

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Still doing my "one anime I pick to watch, one anime that's chosen for me at random", Haruhi was my pick to watch so next up was my chosen at random which the Random button gave me....Pan de Peace! Which lucky for me each episode was only 3 minutes each so I watched all 13 episodes in roughly 40 minutes lol, so I've completed my random anime already. Kind of cheating but hey, it's what random chose for me.

Not much to say about Pan de Peace!, 4 high school girls bond over their love of bread. Now I do love bread too, I've long held that I don't think I could live in a world without bread, so I get them. Of course it falls into the typical tropes, especially oogling over their breasts and being in swimsuits. Made even worse by the added trope of one of the group looking like a small child despite being the same age as the others (15, which still isn't great!), a fact that is played on the whole show. So not great there, but otherwise the show is inoffensive enough and cutesy. Not much development since the episodes are so short. They do go over a variety of bread types!

5/10, if it had more to it it could probably get a little higher. Now to see if Roba has also watched this or if I've finally watched something random enough that I'm the only one to have seen it

Was putting down a tentative top 10 so far o see what was at risk of not making the cutoff, and realized that if I don't finish some of these shows I was enjoying but got distracted away from by the end of the year I don't think I'm going to even be able to make one of shows I liked by the end.

Not counting this season's airing shows there is.....ONE show I've finished I feel OK about being on the list. Now, this seasons has a few, but STILL. Gotta catch the fuck up.

Next season has plenty of shows with potential but only one slam dunk (Sanda).

Watched Knapsack Girl. That was...fine?

These 3 movies were all pretty good but I remember LOVING season 1 of Bunnygirl Senpai when it aired and I don't feel that here just yet. Is that just me or was season 1 of the show considered better than the movies?

I thought I'd heard some HEAVY praise for Dreaming Girl at some point, so it could just be I'm not as into it as I used to be.

S1 is certainly better than any of the movies.

WSJ going from 2.99 to 3.99 ohhhh noooooo

Edit: I guess the price increase went into effect last week

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Next season has plenty of shows with potential but only one slam dunk (Sanda).

But zero Slam Dunks

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when you solo'd the entire crew last time and now their cook is kicking away your lasers

one step closer to my original prediction that OP's last arc would feature luffy vs. akainu, zoro vs. ice guy (whoops), and sanji vs. kizaru

I still love Kizaru's reaction to Sanji's line. Just a guy straight up going "thats not how physics works" when faced with rule of cool.

colliding posted...

one step closer to my original prediction that OP's last arc would feature luffy vs. akainu, zoro vs. ice guy (whoops), and sanji vs. kizaru

Its ok, you couldn't predict they would add a blind swordsman admiral

poor ryokugyu

He can fight Jimbei

Goodsmile suspending all shipments to the US.

Love all this winning.

Not just Goodsmile. It's ALL Japan import sites.

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https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/info/20200401
https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2025/0825_01_en.html

As usual the shit that happens all trickles down to us.

Welp, guess I'm not getting my Final Fantasy Tactics LP.

I guess I'm not getting this am I :(

https://www.hlj.com/1-60-scale-pg-unleashed-nu-gundam-banh691910

I wonder if this will still be available in 3.5 years...