Anime and Manga - I won’t allow your bones to stay on this planet. I will banish your evil soul.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

Edit: If Joseph wasn't so lazy, he could probably have evolved his Stand just like we saw in some rare cases. Who knows what would've happened.

Maybe, but we've seen less assuming stands than Hermit Purple still be deadly, like the electric outlet that Mariah used.

Also I'm disappointed in that meme for not including the actual dog stand user.

Edited September 5, 2022 by KP From Another World

[InsaneCommander]

Sorry, but here is another one that doesn't include Iggy.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

More Stone Ocean. A bone turned some people into trees and made a green baby.

[Bartimaeus]

SpyxFamily, episodes 10-12 (i.e. Operations Dodgeball, Drowning, and Family Bonding).

It was a pretty silly but fairly enjoyable show with mostly nice character stuff (...well, besides that one episode). This joins Vampire in the Garden as the only "modern" anime shows that I've finished (though there'll be more SpyxFamily in the future, but completing its first season is still pretty noteworthy). Coincidentally (or perhaps not?), they're both by the same company, Wit Studio.

(e): I forgot about Girls' Last Tour, which I guess also counts since I sort of liked it, but you get the idea.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

More JoJo Stone Ocean. What I saw wouldn't be believed and is somehow weirder than the description. Oh, and Jotaro doesn't even take off his hat when he's in a coma.

Only negative thing is that I can't stop hearing the villain as Daru and.....yeah.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

SpyxFamily, episodes 10-12 (i.e. Operations Dodgeball, Drowning, and Family Bonding).

It was a pretty silly but fairly enjoyable show with mostly nice character stuff (...well, besides that one episode). This joins Vampire in the Garden as the only "modern" anime shows that I've finished (well, there'll be more SpyxFamily in the future, but completing its first season is still pretty noteworthy). Coincidentally (or perhaps not?), they're both by the same company, Wit Studio.

(e): I forgot about Girls' Last Tour, which I guess also counts since I sort of liked it, but you get the idea.

SUPER ULTRA ELEGANT!

I thought it was a nice slice of life sort of thing. I'd tepidly reccomend Uncle from Another World, but that's a real shot in the dark.

[Lexx]

3 hours ago, KP From Another World said:

Oh, and Jotaro doesn't even take off his hat when he's in a coma.

Why would he, it's his hair! or is it not?

[InsaneCommander]

Uncle From Another World 6

Ojisan makes new friends of all kinds, including cute little bunnies. Mabel needs to find a job. And we see how Ojisan first met the elf.

Best episode so far. Several hilarious moments.

 

Stone Ocean 13-14

Sports Maximum needs a bath and a drink. Jolyne learns to think in 3 dimensions.

 

Edited September 7, 2022 by InsaneCommander

[Sarex]

New chapter of Berserk

Spoiler

It's a sad fest from Guts and good bye to our fairy friends. Hopefully it doesn't stretch out for too long...

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 hours ago, Sarex said:

New chapter of Berserk

  Reveal hidden contents

It's a sad fest from Guts and good bye to our fairy friends. Hopefully it doesn't stretch out for too long...

 

Boat Arc 2.0 here we come.

It was rough seeing Guts totally defeated like that. All those years of suffering and struggle and he is still nowhere near close enough to harm Griffith. 

Great chapter though.

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, KP From Another World said:

Boat Arc 2.0 here we come.

 

  Hide contents

 

It was rough seeing Guts totally defeated like that. All those years of suffering and struggle and he is still nowhere near close enough to harm Griffith. 

Great chapter though.

 

Makes me hopeful for what is to come.

[InsaneCommander]

Stone Ocean 15-16

Jolyne is sent again to the disciplinary area. Foo Fighters gets some help but they don't get there before Jolyne gets in real trouble.

 

Overlord 4.10

Ainz decides to stop playing around and launch the final attack against the Kingdom. The prince is revealed as a surprisingly decent man, but the nobles have their own plans.

[Bartimaeus]

Pastel Yumi.

It's essentially the sequel to Magical Emi - made by the same studio (Studio Pierrot), started a mere month after Magical Emi ended, it looks very similar, the setting is the same, the setup is pretty much the same except swap out doing magic for playing violin instead...yeah, it's pretty much the same show, but with a different yet similar-ish cast. There is one big difference that I've noticed after having seen two episodes of this: Pastel Yumi kind of stinks whereas Magical Emi doesn't. Why? ...I don't know. Well, thanks for coming to my TEDx Talk everyone, and have a great day.

[uuuhhii]

yofukashi no uta

didn't read much of manga

anime have decent production

but still feels bland didn't go anywhere after 8 episode

 

[HoonDing]

Deep inside, Guts just wants Griffith to **** Casca in front of him again.

[InsaneCommander]

Stone Ocean 17 and 18

The Feng Shui episode.
 

Spoiler

I couldn't stop laughing when F.F. kept falling back on the electric chair no matter what. Never underestimate the power of Feng Shui!

This would make a great gif, but I stopped searching for it when I saw the hint of spoilers among the Google results.

 

Edit: also couldn't find the longest F.F. scream from episode 18.

"Efefeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Edited September 12, 2022 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Finished part 2 of Stone Ocean. I guess we'll have to wait a while for the rest to drop, but @InsaneCommander will have fun with the rest of it. Including more efffeffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee screams, body horror, and at least one instance of weird tongue stuff.

Also Uncle DIO episode 6 - the start of the harem. I'm pretty sure that the hero they were talking about is going to become someone else who follows around Wolfgunblood.

[majestic]

2 hours ago, KP From Another World said:

the start of the harem

I was uncertain, but now I am in! This is going to be just great then! Yay!

Spoiler

Not.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

I was uncertain, but now I am in! This is going to be just great then! Yay!

  Reveal hidden contents

Not.

 

On the bright side, Uncle DIO is oblivious to the fact he has a harem and just wants to play Sega.

[Sarex]

21 minutes ago, majestic said:

I was uncertain, but now I am in! This is going to be just great then! Yay!

  Reveal hidden contents

Not.

 

I mean I did say that it's trying to subvert every trope and in the weeb world the harem is one of the biggest.

[Bartimaeus]

Two more episodes of Noir. This show is strange: the best way to describe how watching it feels is...that it's like a "serious" and "artsy"/highbrow romance novel made for women, but the romance is completely replaced with assassin action stuff while being treated with the same level of seriousness. Does that make any sense, @majestic? It's not necessarily a bad thing (again, it's certainly much better than slapstick shonen crap), but I'm really struck by how many scenes there are where the focus seems to be making our two leads look like they're really thinking or feeling something as they're doing "cool" stuff (like staring someone down or literally being engaged in a firefight...there's pretty frequently not much heed for what they're physically doing or what they're saying making complete sense when it might get in the way of the style and tone). It's perhaps a little too much gravity at this stage in the show given how little we know about what's going on, either with the plot or with our characters. Overall, I'm still enjoying it, but it remains difficult to fully grasp how I feel about it.

Also, it's been like a week since I watched the first two episodes, and I have no idea what our two characters' names are. I feel like I've been spoiled with other shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sailor Moon, where main characters' names are said almost constantly in normal conversation and also even when they're fighting together. Girls, it wouldn't hurt to be slightly more conversational with each other when you're not in stealth mode blowing people's brains out so that I can learn more about you, .

Edited September 13, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

54 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Two more episodes of Noir. This show is strange: the best way to describe how watching it feels is...that it's like a "serious" and "artsy" romance novel made for women, but the romance is completely replaced with assassin action stuff while being treated with the same level of seriousness. Does that make any sense, @majestic?

It does - but probably not for anyone who has not seen Noir. It certainly is a strange beast, a blend of things that usually do not blend together all that much. Bee Train was founded to allow artists to create anime free from regular studio constraints, and if Noir is anything to go by, they succeeded. 

54 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's not necessarily a bad thing (again, it's certainly much better than slapstick shonen crap), but I'm really struck by how many scenes there are where the focus seems to be making our two leads look like they're really thinking or feeling something as they're doing "cool" stuff (like staring someone down or literally being engaged in a firefight...there's pretty frequently not much heed for what they're physically doing or what they're saying making complete sense when it might get in the way of the style and tone).

It certainly is an attempt at making the action scenes be more than just cool action. I'm not sure why it is all bloodless, it would add some more gravity to scenes that are meant to be more artistic than awesome, even though some of the kills certainly are meant to be both. Also, indeed, some of the scenes are just ludicrous, like Mireille being able to mow down the entire army squad. Funny how I'd probably be complaining about the series instead of liking it if a few of the elements were just a bit different. Case in point, this episode's beach scene.

Mireille's beach outfit is probably even more suggestive than most in anime, but it's perfectly in character for her, and the juxtaposition with Kirika next to her just made it different enough. Plus, it made me laugh. Not sure if that was intentional, but probably. It's just too ridiculous to not be meant to be funny at least at some level.

54 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's perhaps a little too much gravity at this stage in the show given how little we know about what's going on, either with the plot or with our characters. Overall, I'm still enjoying it, but it remains difficult to fully grasp how I feel about it.

I fear the critics weren't wrong this time around, the pacing of the show certainly is glacial - borderline problematic even, perhaps. The next episode moves forward a bit (very little in terms of the plotline, but for the characters).

54 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Also, it's been like a week since I watched the first two episodes, and I have no idea what our two characters' names are.

Well, that's easy, they are Noir.

54 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I feel like I've been spoiled with other shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sailor Moon, where main characters' names are said almost constantly in normal conversation as well as when they're fighting together. Girls, it wouldn't hurt to be slightly more conversational with each other when you're not in stealth mode and blowing people's brains out so that I can learn more about you, .

Mireille is particularily mum about using names when talking to Kirika, which is probably just a fake identity anyway. Took me a while to remember their names too. It also doesn't help that Mireille is just called Meruru in the few instances Kirika uses her name. Learning more about the characters is apprently intertwined with their connection to whatever the storyline is going to be, so that's probably still going to be a couple of episodes.

It sure is a strange one. I have even less of an idea who the intended audience for Noir was than I had for The Vision of Escaflowne. The latter was the result of a shoujo-retooling of a shounen mech series, but this one was probably fully intentional.

Edited September 13, 2022 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

It's probably more or less the same intended demographic as Vampire Princess Miyu, which is...what, young teenaged girls who want at least a little thought and feeling infused into their action and mystery? Neither Vampire Princess Miyu or Noir are the deepest of shows, but they are tonally serious and at least are trying.

From the way you described the beach scene, I was expecting it to be questionable; I thought it was perfectly tasteful and served a pretty clear purpose in illustrating some differences between them. Yeah, it's a swimsuit, but there was pretty clearly very little male gaze with how they presented her.

P.S. After four episodes, I've begun to look forward to the intro song, .

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's probably more or less the same intended demographic as Vampire Princess Miyu, which is...what, young teenaged girls who want at least a little thought and feeling infused into their action and mystery? Neither Vampire Princess Miyu or Noir are the deepest of shows, but they are tonally serious and at least are trying.

Maybe, but I'd argue that Miyu's strengths are a little closer together than that of Noir. The distance between the almost romance-novelesque parts of Noir and the action feels a bit bigger than that between Miyu's slice of life part and Miyu's dark vampire mystery, at least outside of the end where Miyu flies completely off the rails, but I expect something similar to happen in Noir too. Wouldn't it be perfectly weird for Mireille and Kirika to be an actual angel and demon* sent to... do whatever on Earth? One's fair, the other dark, and all that?

Spoiler

Maidens with black hands, protection, churches, the mafia, millennia old secret societies. It's bits and pieces and hints so far.

 

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

From the way you described the beach scene, I was expecting it to be questionable; I thought it was perfectly tasteful and served a pretty clear purpose in illustrating some differences between them. Yeah, it's a swimsuit, but there was pretty clearly very little male gaze with how they presented her.

I guess I let googling for an image of the scene color my impression while posting, no such implication was meant when I began typing the post.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

P.S. After four episodes, I've begun to look forward to the intro song, .

You also ended up liking the third Sakura OP.

*Or any other religious or divine representation. Judgement, death, or something similar.

[Bartimaeus]

10 hours ago, majestic said:

You also ended up liking the third Sakura OP.

Took almost the entire length of the show, though!

10 hours ago, majestic said:

Wouldn't it be perfectly weird for Mireille and Kirika to be an actual angel and demon* sent to... do whatever on Earth? One's fair, the other dark, and all that?

Boy, that'd be terribly lame. I mean, probably. I'm more open to religiously-inspired stuff than most, but Battlestar Galactica-ing it in completely tacking it on at the last second is pretty unacceptable to me, .

(e): Also, I didn't mean to say Miyu and Noir were similar in content per se - just that their intended demographic would seem to be similar, I think.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Chloe (the character voiced by Sailor Mercury) finally showed up in episode ten.

She looks like she escaped from a different anime and invaded Noir:

Spoiler

Nothing much happened. She shows up, kills Noir's targets of the episode in order to make sure we know that she somehow knows who the Mireille's and Kirika's targets are and calls herself 真のノワール - the true/real Noir.

Rolled my eight ball, it told me: Cannot predict now. So, not really sure what to make of it yet. I'm tentatively leaning towards not liking her character design.