Anime and Manga - How do you Live? Edition

[Sarex]

@PK htiw klaw eriF new chapter of Berserk is out.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

21 minutes ago, Sarex said:

@PK htiw klaw eriF new chapter of Berserk is out.

Going to read in on my lunch break.

Edit: This Will Do.

Edited November 7 by PK htiw klaw eriF

[Gorth]

Watched episode 6 of Dandadan. Getting more hilarious than ever

 

Turbo Granny, now trapped inside a Neko doll, mocks Okarun and Momo, because they can't find his balls. She describes them as trapped inside a golden sphere radiating spiritual energy (Turbo Granny dropped them shortly before she got incinerated by a warding spell). This can result in whoever possesses them being pursued by Yokai and evil spirits for its energy or awakening spiritual powers in humans if they touch his balls in their current state (golden spheres)... they are not amused with Turbo Grannys attitude

 

In the meantime, it has (finally) dawned on Okarun that Momo is actually cute

Of course, he being him, means now he can no longer look at her and pointedly looks the other way when they are together....

 

Guess who ended getting hit over her head  by Okaruns balls? Yup, the local beauty queen (Aira). She is convinced she is destined to fight evil and save the world, because she's too pretty not to!

 

Because Aira has held Okaruns balls in her hands, she can now see at least part of the spiritual world. Enough to be convinced that Momo is a demon, because she saw her ectoplasm arms manifest in the previous episode (Momo used them to smash a washing basin over Aira's somewhat empty head). To save the world, she acquire a heroic cape, a holy book, a crucifix (which is actually a lighter) and of course the golden balls which marks her as the chosen one. Time to take down the Momo demon!

 With the help of two friends, they overwhelm Momo and tie her arms with zip ties. Aira is a bit baffled by her strength as she refuses to get banished from this world just by having a crucifix rubbed in her face, so she resorts to her strongest weapon! Rubbing Okarans balls in Momo's face!

 

Unfortunately, as mentioned above, playing around with Okaruns balls means Aira has also attracted spirits, some of which are not nice. This one (which I think is based on Japanese legend) is obsessed with being called "Mommy". Aira refuses

 

Okarun and Momo (still tied) joins the fight. The lady in red first swallows Okarun, then Aira. Momo keeps fighting to the last, but she just has a bad hair day (bad pun)

 

Turbo Granny is also present, but she doesn't have her powers anymore. However, being a cat, she brings luck

It just so happened that the lady in red swallowed a lot of her own hair when she ate Momo. Momo uses the Crucifix/Lighter to set her hair on fire and she spits out the three kids.

 

Episode ends here, just as the fight is about to pick up pace

 

 

[Lexx]

Currently watching The Daily Life of the Immortal King. This show has no right to be as good as it is.

[Sarex]

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

Currently watching The Daily Life of the Immortal King. This show has no right to be as good as it is.

Chinese anime?

[Lexx]

Yeah. I expected nothing, but it turned out pretty good. Some fresh takes on things, and even if the premise seems super obvious, they find a way to switch things up. Some later episodes are quite short, though. Think some were like 12 minutes or something if you remove intro and outro, but oh well.

Season 2 intro song is VERY clearly inspired by the 5th Element opera scene, but I'm digging it hard.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited November 12 by Lexx

[Bartimaeus]

Episode 1 of Hellsing Ultimate.

This might be my least favorite thing that I've ever seen in my whole life. I know I've said that about a few different things in this thread over the years, but I genuinely mean it every time. I think I'd rather watch ten more episodes of Dandandan than even one more of Hellsing Ultimate.

 

The Hakkenden (1990) AKA The Legend of the Dog Warriors, I guess?

Weird historical series about a cursed family trying to deliver a legendary sword to...uh, someone or another. I watched the whole thing through because it was actually halfway decent for me, but at the same time, I didn't really care that much about the plot proper, and then it ended six episodes in, which seemed to be only about half of the story. You know this is historical because everyone kills themselves for one reason or another. Your dog is accused of biting someone? Kill yourself. Your parents arrange a marriage for you when you already have a boyfriend? Kill yourself. Family gets magic curse from some lady dog-spirit thing? Kill yourself. Accidentally present the wrong sword to your lord? Kill yourself. Killing yourself really is the solution to all life's problems, you just can't go wrong with a little injection of suicide in your life. Now, accidentally murdering your own sister that you were separated from when you were young and whom you've been searching for your whole life right after you finally find her? Welcome to Shrugsville, that's not really that big of a deal, let's get on with the show. Anyways, it's an O.K. OVA but not really recommended, not that anyone here would watch it anyways - I mainly am posting about it because the amount of suicide started to become amusing after a while. I don't know how the Japanese ever survived when it seems like suicide was the first and last resort for every problem or offense, real or imagined.

And on a side-note to @majestic, the leading lady pictured above looks suspiciously exactly like all the damsels-in-distress that kept popping up over and over in Carried by the Wind, to the point where I remember being confused if it was actually supposed to be the same girl or not even across multiple different towns and eventually realizing that it wasn't. Well, they always turned out just fine in that show, but this one got butchered, which was unfortunate, because I liked her.

Edited November 14 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I don't know how the Japanese ever survived when it seems like suicide was the first and last resort for every problem or offense, real or imagined.

I know this was not a serious question, but the answer is that, while seppuku was seen as a sort of socially idealized response to losing one's face, in reality it was not practiced nearly as much as popcultural depiction would suggest. Especially not when looking at its usual depiction as a way to evade the disgrace of defeat. You're not going to win any wars if all your samurai (or even just the officers) ritually kill themselves after losing a battle, after all.

Oh, and the practice was limited to the aristocracy (i.e. samurai).

The OVA also seems to be an adaptation (of a sort) of an Edo period novel, so that would track.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

And on a side-note to @majestic, the leading lady pictured above looks suspiciously exactly like all the damsels-in-distress that kept popping up over and over in Carried by the Wind, to the point where I remember being confused if it was actually supposed to be the same girl or not even across multiple different towns and eventually realizing that it wasn't. Well, they always turned out just fine in that show, but this one got butchered, which was unfortunate, because I liked her.

Was my first reaction to seeing the image. "That looks an awful lot like Tsukikage Ran."

Edited November 14 by majestic

[Sarex]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Episode 1 of Hellsing Ultimate.

What/who made you think you would like this? It's a very action focused series, with a cool story that doesn't make much sense on the side.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Episode 1 of Hellsing Ultimate.

This might be my least favorite thing that I've ever seen in my whole life. I know I've said that about a few different things in this thread over the years, but I genuinely mean it every time. I think I'd rather watch ten more episodes of Dandandan than even one more of Hellsing Ultimate.

But you'll miss the Catholic special forces carpet bombing London and Nazi-Vampire-Science-Hybrids!

I sincerely don't know why you would try this show in the first place though. Perhaps the only thing more anti-Bartimaeus (besides maybe The Elder Sister-like One, google for 30d6 psychic damage) is going to be Kengan Ashura, which I think is among the worst things I've ever seen. Did you lose a bet?

[Bartimaeus]

6 hours ago, Sarex said:

What/who made you think you would like this? It's a very action focused series, with a cool story that doesn't make much sense on the side.

48 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

But you'll miss the Catholic special forces carpet bombing London and Nazi-Vampire-Science-Hybrids!

I sincerely don't know why you would try this show in the first place though. Perhaps the only thing more anti-Bartimaeus (besides maybe The Elder Sister-like One, google for 30d6 psychic damage) is going to be Kengan Ashura, which I think is among the worst things I've ever seen. Did you lose a bet?

It was something my sister watched when I was younger (her as well as a few friends of mine's consistently terrible tastes in anime is what originally drove me to believe I absolutely despised anime wholesale for many years), and it happened to be this month's pick for animes to watch by/for a community I'm technically but not really a part of because I'm not on speaking terms with 99.9% of the people who watch anime these days. Though with that said, they've still picked some things that I do like...like Cardcaptor Sakura, where I saw several people complaining that the show didn't follow the manga closely enough, to which my response was "die, pond scum".

8 hours ago, majestic said:

I know this was not a serious question, but the answer is that, while seppuku was seen as a sort of socially idealized response to losing one's face, in reality it was not practiced nearly as much as popcultural depiction would suggest. Especially not when looking at its usual depiction as a way to evade the disgrace of defeat. You're not going to win any wars if all your samurai (or even just the officers) ritually kill themselves after losing a battle, after all.

Oh, and the practice was limited to the aristocracy (i.e. samurai).

The OVA also seems to be an adaptation (of a sort) of an Edo period novel, so that would track.

Was my first reaction to seeing the image. "That looks an awful lot like Tsukikage Ran."

From what I can see, there's no overlap between animation studios, directors, or the character designers, plus there's ten years in between when they were made, so it is a bit odd that there's so much similarity in the character designs, but maybe you could just chalk it up to Tsukikage Ran deliberately trying to look throwback-ish (there's nothing else released in 2000 or even from a few years before that looks like it, after all). The overall art direction of The Hakkenden is quite a bit darker and grimier overall compared to Tsukikage Ran, but that makes sense, given the totally different tones and one releasing in 1990 vs the other in 2000. Also, The Hakkenden was more experimental with its art style, and actually changed between different art styles for different kinds of scenes. And apparently, I didn't look closely enough, because the series actually has a Wikipedia article which also says that there's apparently a second season (i.e. seven more episodes) that I apparently did not notice. I'm not sure that my heart is really in for another seven episodes given that I think the second half of the show is likely to be more plot drama and action-y than the first half: literally all of the supporting characters that made the first half of the second interesting to me are dead now, which is why I wasn't too upset that the show just suddenly ended what seemed right smack in the middle of the overall plot (which it evidently was).

Edited November 14 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

But you'll miss the Catholic special forces carpet bombing London and Nazi-Vampire-Science-Hybrids!

I sincerely don't know why you would try this show in the first place though. Perhaps the only thing more anti-Bartimaeus (besides maybe The Elder Sister-like One, google for 30d6 psychic damage) is going to be Kengan Ashura, which I think is among the worst things I've ever seen. Did you lose a bet?

I see you haven't seen Record of Ragnarok. The eldritch sister is just a spinoff of porn, so I still think that would do the most damage.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

I see you haven't seen Record of Ragnarok. The eldritch sister is just a spinoff of porn, so I still think that would do the most damage.

 

Oh I have seen that. I forgot it tho. It's very bad but it didn't actively make me as angry as Kengan Ashura.

[Gorth]

Saw episode 7 of Dandadan. Wont post serious spoilers or screenshots that might spoil it in case someone still has to watch it...

 

Get ready to get sucker punched. Badly. Really badly. Complete change of vibe.

[Sarex]

27 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Saw episode 7 of Dandadan. Wont post serious spoilers or screenshots that might spoil it in case someone still has to watch it...

 

Get ready to get sucker punched. Badly. Really badly. Complete change of vibe.

I was waiting for your reaction after the last episode. As I said the show is genreless.

[Lexx]

I thought it would have been better to have a few more seconds before the outro starts. That flashcut  kinda ruined it for me.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Well I can certainly go for another 10 episodes of Dandadan after that.

Speaking of 10 episodes........I tried Akuma Kun and meh, not really my thing. Who would have thot demons could be this ****ing boring.

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Well I can certainly go for another 10 episodes of Dandadan after that.

It gets even better.

[Sarex]

Watched the episode myself now. Damn even with knowing the story it just hits so hard.

[majestic]

Was Mami's head bitten off?

[Sarex]

3 minutes ago, majestic said:

Was Mami's head bitten off?

You'll have to watch and find out.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

11 minutes ago, majestic said:

Was Mami's head bitten off?

No, but SPACE RIPPER STINGY EYES was used.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

You'll have to watch and find out.

Yeah, sure, fat chance of that.

[Bartimaeus]

Baoh the Visitor (1989).

I think this would have actually been pretty decent as far as stupid 80s action OVAs go if not for the atrocious writing. Frustrating to see fairly good direction and animation go to waste because the writer is total pants and insists upon inserting themselves constantly by writing out the dumbest things possible. Who wrote this, anyways?

Quote

Hirohiko Araki

Oh, well, uh...true to form, I suppose?

Edited November 16 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

NANI?!