Anime and Manga - How do you Live? Edition

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 minute ago, Sarex said:

The newest "bonus" chapter of the manga seems to be hinting at some continuation of the "core" story, or at least it's saying that they still remember the premise.

There's a story?

[InsaneCommander]

55 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

There's a story?

Edit:

Spoiler

the skyrocketing body count in this series is already putting GoT to shame. The guy who brought grenades to a gunfight was hilarious. Apparently, in the next episode they will finally realise that Yor is invincible and they will try to blow up the entire ship.

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by InsaneCommander

[majestic]

I don't watch the anime or read the manga, and even I know the main story is about Anya making faces.

[Bartimaeus]

Porco Rosso (1992). What is just "alright" in an English dub can sometimes turn out to be...much better in Japanese. I'd now rate this as one of the better Miyazaki films, whereas before I had been a bit disappointed with it. Even with Susan Egan voicing one of the main characters in the English, the Japanese is just...that much better for various reasons. Laputa: Castle in the Sky will be next for me at some point, as I remember the English dub was rather poor even at the time of watching it years ago and suffering greatly for it. Additionally, having now seen Future Boy Conan, I think I may well better appreciate it from that angle as well, given Laputa essentially being a spiritual remake movie of the series.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

There is the whole story regarding Ania, her origin, powers, etc... That seems to have fallen by the wayside and turned in to a gimmick. She is the main character after all.

[Sarex]

Frieren ep.12. Right in the feels.

[Sarex]

Going for the mythic triple post.

https://anime-dandadan.com/

[Gorth]

6 hours ago, Sarex said:

Frieren ep.12. Right in the feels.

I saw a few trailers and clips on Youtube for Frieren. Looks just up my alley, so I'll probably pick that one up next

[InsaneCommander]

11 hours ago, Sarex said:

There is the whole story regarding Ania, her origin, powers, etc... That seems to have fallen by the wayside and turned in to a gimmick. She is the main character after all.

There is also the story about preventing another war by approaching the Hitler analogue. But that requires Anya earning 7 stars and, at this rate, it will take decades.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 hours ago, Sarex said:

Going for the mythic triple post.

https://anime-dandadan.com/

I know nothing about it but a cow being abducted by a flying saucer has me down to check it out.

11 hours ago, Sarex said:

There is the whole story regarding Ania, her origin, powers, etc... That seems to have fallen by the wayside and turned in to a gimmick. She is the main character after all.

NANI!?!??!?

5 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

There is also the story about preventing another war by approaching the Hitler analogue. But that requires Anya earning 7 stars and, at this rate, it will take decades.

OH MY GOD!!!!

[Sarex]

12 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I know nothing about it but a cow being abducted by a flying saucer has me down to check it out.

The mangaka of Dandadan was the assistant for the mangaka of Chainsaw Man. That should tell you everything.

Also don't take that the wrong way, Dandadan is it's own thing and at this point I like it more than Chainsaw Man.

If you want a teaser, without giving out much away, the story is about

Spoiler

a boy trying to get his balls back. (literally)

12 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

There is also the story about preventing another war by approaching the Hitler analogue. But that requires Anya earning 7 stars and, at this rate, it will take decades.

That to me is the side story. Idk, it's probable that my expectations are wrong at this point. I'm pretty sure they are, but for me the story devolved and started being cookie cutter. The jokes were funny up to a point, but they cannot carry it for me. The mangas name is Spy x Family after all, so I don't know what I'm expecting at this point.

13 hours ago, Gorth said:

I saw a few trailers and clips on Youtube for Frieren. Looks just up my alley, so I'll probably pick that one up next

You won't be disappointed.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Sarex

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Finished up Tokyo Ghoul....a while ago and forgot to post about it. I enjoyed it quite a lot, the more surreal and mindscape parts worked very well for me. I'd reccomend the anime (Tokyo Ghoul > A > :re) to anyone who liked Ergo Proxy or is down for like 40-something episode seinen sci-fi.

Also.....rewatched Hellsing. It's......well it's extremely edgy and the cgi hasn't aged well but it's a fun ride nonetheless.

[Lexx]

Watched Chainsaw Man. Not bad, though the constant sexualization in anime kinda annoys the hell out of me. Maybe I'm too old for this stuff now? It just makes me think all the time.. bruh, don't you have anything better to worry about? It's really not that big a deal...

[Gorth]

Finished Episode 4 of Frieren... I think I'm in love

 

Before I started, I was worried it might be some sappy drama stuff, but I was wrong. It's awesome. An elf girl just after my head (not sure if she has any plans for that potion that dissolves clothes in future episodes)

[Bartimaeus]

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie AKA Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Which I think is the also name of a Neon Genesis episode. Sorry, I actually meant "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door: The End of Cowboy Bebop" (...although from what I read, this movie actually occurs between episode 22 and 23 of the show even though it came out years later, so not really).

I read a comment that suggested this is basically a really long normal episode that treats itself a little more seriously but without any of the horrid melodrama of the main series' central story...and I thought what are the chances that someone who dislikes the show ends up liking the movie? Probably not great. But then I considered that maybe it'll be a reverse of Escaflowne, where I love the movie but hate the TV show! Yeah, fat chance, but whatever, I'll just turn it off if I need to. Strange thing about that thought: I specifically thought of it well before I started watching, and then as I did start to watch it...well, speaking of Escaflowne, this Cowboy Bebop movie sure looks a lot like the Escaflowne movie. I paused it to find out that the Escaflowne movie was a joint production between Sunrise and BONES released in 2000, and this Cowboy Bebop movie was...a joint production between Sunrise and BONES released in 2001. Hmm.

Well, this film is more or less exactly what that comment I read said it was. Here's the really weird thing: I quickly found myself enjoying the film, actually caring about what happened, laughing at most of the humor, and I even paid attention during the action scenes. The film did feel just a little bit wobbly at points, but I didn't ask myself too many questions while watching, and as a whole, it was fairly compelling and I very much wish the show had been more like it. Intertwine the serious and the silly better, slow everything down a little, make it all just a tad more tethered to reality instead of almost always doing that annoying "nothing you're watching really matters because we're not being sincere" tone, have our characters actually do things beyond just the pointless action and the annoying smarm...and suddenly, I enjoy it. Wow! It's like magic. Now I'm almost tempted to go watch the rest of the show...but I think like the eventually cancelled first season of Ranma 1/2 that I very much enjoyed in direct contrast to the not-cancelled rest of Ranma 1/2 that I very much did not, it might be better to just let it be. A reverse Escaflowne indeed.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[uuuhhii]

On 12/1/2023 at 2:38 PM, Lexx said:

Watched Chainsaw Man. Not bad, though the constant sexualization in anime kinda annoys the hell out of me. Maybe I'm too old for this stuff now? It just makes me think all the time.. bruh, don't you have anything better to worry about? It's really not that big a deal...

chainsaw man actually does it a very unorthodox way compare to most of the acg industry in recent decade

 

not that many tomboy wearing full suit and tie on the acg market

 

again yuri part of the acg are most tolerable right now

[Azdeus]

15 hours ago, Gorth said:

Finished Episode 4 of Frieren... I think I'm in love

 

Before I started, I was worried it might be some sappy drama stuff, but I was wrong. It's awesome. An elf girl just after my head (not sure if she has any plans for that potion that dissolves clothes in future episodes)

It did hit differently as someone that has spent most of the past 20 years playing pnp rpgs with plenty of elves in the group.

[Gorth]

Reached episode 12 of Frieren. Almost binge watching it at times now. That potion I mentioned earlier.... showed up again

No, it's not really an anime with a lot of nudity (none) or even innuendo (very mild).

 

[uuuhhii]

anyway

anime harley quinn

might work

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 hours ago, Gorth said:

Reached episode 12 of Frieren. Almost binge watching it at times now. That potion I mentioned earlier.... showed up again

No, it's not really an anime with a lot of nudity (none) or even innuendo (very mild).

 

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

[majestic]

So, with Lies of P done, and my interest in playing games sated for the time being, I went back to my long-ass list of shows and animes that I need to finish. I decided on watching the remaining elven episodes of kemurikusa. (that peroid is part of the name, but it is often omitted), or ケムリクサ - which just really spells out kemurikusa, a combination of smoke and plant. The characters and introduction I already posted two years ago, in case anyone's interested:

This was my conclusion from the first episode:

Quote

 

Plot? Plot... yeah, dunno. They're on an island looking for water. They are or aren't human. They're certainly not human in the sense that Wakaba is.

I have no idea what's going on, but I'm sure happy this is only twelve episodes long.

 

After watching the entire series, that changed from "I am happy that this is only twelve episodes" to being somewhat annoyed that it only has twelve episodes. The first episode aside, this is actually a fun, shortish sci-fi show, even if Ritsu's constant nyan-ing is highly annoying. In the second episode, the troupe of girls and Wakaba decide to go on a journey to a different island, to look for water. The world is covered in a strange, red mist, which they call red smoke (akakemuri, 赤煙), prolonged exposure is apparently deadly.

There are also mechanical entities they call bugs, that I mentioned before. The red ones were corrupted by the red mist and seemingly attack the girls and Wakaba for no reason. Much of the episodes is spent on them traversing the post-apocalyptic wasteland the world has become, talking about this and that and nothing in particular. Whenever there's action, it usually makes sense, and in the middle there's a teamworking payoff action sequence where they combine their abilities to take down a giant enemy robot that they never managed to fight off before.

When they finally find some more water, they end up realizing that things are much, much more dire than they ever imagined...

Never thought I would like this, but the characters grew on me, even Ritsu and her stupid nyan-ing.

As for the plot:

There is not much of it, but that is not a bad thing - it means the anime has much more time to spend on the group just walking about and talking while overcoming hurdles along the way.

Spoiler

Wakaba eventually manages to awaken Rin's locked memories that are stored in her memory leaf, a kemurikusa. Some time ago, another version of Wakaba - who is an alien - was busy building islands and human cities out of kemurikusa. He has a friend called Riri, a human girl he resurrected using kemurikusa. It is implied that she lost her parents when he asks her if she wants to go back to Earth, and since everyone thinks her dead she'll stay with Wakaba.

Wakaba is really busy copying human cities for... well, might be a museum, as he calls what he builds cultural heritage, and Riri is slightly annoyed that he's always working so much. When Wakaba mentions that his work will be done by the time all the kemurikusa around is used up and inactive, Riri gets an idea. She combines a bunch of kekurikusa with the intent of creating kemurikusa that seeks out and stop other kemurikusa. It takes the shape of a red tree, and begins to spread red mist.

Wakaba sacrifices himself in a vain effort to stop the destructive power of Riri's creation, while Riri runs off and transforms herself into kemurikusa-based people - the six sisters of the show, three of which died before the first episode. The new Wakaba might be a clone, a copy or some sort of resurrection, but at the very least he lacks the memories of the original.

When the girls and Wakaba find the tree, they defeat it with teamwork and the echoes of their dead sisters, however that works is never truly explained, but it also barely matters.

I'd even give this a tacit recommendation*. Color me surprised.

*Keep in mind that I consider myself compromised by prolonged exposure to nuTrek. I am uncertain if I can tell "this is okay to likable" from "well, at least it is not nuTrek level bad" at the moment.

Edited December 7, 2023 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

15 minutes ago, majestic said:

Keep in mind that I consider myself compromised by prolonged exposure to nuTrek. I am uncertain if I can tell "this is okay to likable" from "well, at least it is not nuTrek level bad" at the moment.

It's time for you to watch a bunch of teenagers chase around a David Bowie impersonator in a small town during the bizarre summer of 1999. Break your brain in a good way.

[majestic]

On 12/7/2023 at 3:09 AM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

It's time for you to watch a bunch of teenagers chase around a David Bowie impersonator in a small town during the bizarre summer of 1999. Break your brain in a good way.

やれやれだぜ。

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

やれやれだぜ。

ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ

[Gorth]

Frieren episode 14... made me go all soft in a very unmanly way