Anime and Manga - New Season

[uuuhhii]

5 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Looks like I found an anime I can watch more than the first episode of. Almost done with episode 4 (out of 12 iirc) of Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens...

No movie budget animation and soundtack like Frieren, no Monty Python surreal story like Dandadan, just the interactions between Jin and Nagi so far. The latter being a goddess (of a sort), manifesting herself in a sculpture made by Jin because her sacred tree has been felled. Of course she decides Jin, a student living in an accommodation rented by his dad, is going to be the perfect place to live for the time being, with the trouble that comes with explaining to his childhood (girl)friend, that Nagi is just a step sister that moved in. To complicate matters further, Nagi's sister and rival Zange shows up in town...

As said, no action scenes, no drama scenes, just interesting characters and the oddball humour that for some reason really appeals to me (like when she accidentally super glues her improvised magic wand to the living room table)

 

been a while since last seen anyone talk about kannagi

barely remember anything about it but the art style are certainly aged well compare to most

[Sarex]

@Gorth did you ever try Plastic Memories?

[Gorth]

14 minutes ago, Sarex said:

@Gorth did you ever try Plastic Memories?

Doesn't ring a bell. I'll take a look at it...

[Bartimaeus]

My Sister Momoko (2003).

A cute children's movie about a brother and his disabled sister, where everyone learns to get along with each other and appreciate their differences despite their own personal struggles, both small and large. Maybe a little on the edutainement side, but it was still pretty enjoyable, and I saw comments online about how viewers with either their own disabilities or family members with disabilities really connected with it.

Spoiler

Halfway through the movie, the parents promise to take them to Universal Studios Japan for their birthdays, and luckily, the film definitely doesn't end with the poor girl dying while never having actually made it there due to her deteriorating health. Nope, happily ever after. Children's movies never end in tragedy...right? I mean, they wouldn't put a segment into a children's animated movie where the little handicapped girl literally begs to die while she's having a health episode and in pain in the hospital and then actually does half an hour later, would they? No, of course they wouldn't...

Edited April 19 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing episodes 1-5

A group of child soldiers are sent to Earth to fight against an aristocratic fascist regime. So far I'm digging it.

[Sarex]

6 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing episodes 1-5

A group of child soldiers are sent to Earth to fight against an aristocratic fascist regime. So far I'm digging it.

You jumped in to that bottomless pit, huh. Good luck then.

19 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

My Sister Momoko (2003).

A cute children's movie about a brother and his disabled sister, where everyone learns to get along with each other and appreciate their differences despite their own personal struggles, both small and large. Maybe a little on the edutainement side, but it was still pretty enjoyable, and I saw comments online about how viewers with either their own disabilities or family members with disabilities really connected with it.

  Reveal hidden contents

Halfway through the movie, the parents promise to take them to Universal Studios Japan for their birthdays, and luckily, the film definitely doesn't end with the poor girl dying while never having actually made it there due to her deteriorating health. Nope, happily ever after. Children's movies never end in tragedy...right? I mean, they wouldn't put a segment into a children's animated movie where the little handicapped girl literally begs to die while she's having a health episode and in pain in the hospital and then actually does half an hour later, would they? No, of course they wouldn't...

One day... when I'm in a masochistic mood.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

19 hours ago, Sarex said:

You jumped in to that bottomless pit, huh. Good luck then.

I'll need it, looks like there's a lot of Gundam. Probably won't watch all of it though.

Bit further in, like Violet Evergarden there's a Lieutenant DIO. There's also been a coup to make the regime more imperialistic and all kinds of fun ****.

[Bartimaeus]

22 hours ago, Sarex said:

One day... when I'm in a masochistic mood.

I think it's aimed at too young of an age group to be of genuine interest to anyone else here, a Ghibli movie it is not...but it's one of those occasions where even though something feels like it's kinda for babies with a lot of the messaging really on the nose, it still manages to get an effective and powerful message through.

[Gorth]

Found Plastic Memories. Will watch it once I'm done with my two WIP's. A bit more than halfway through Kannagi and liking it very much. In addition started watching a new Anime, which only just had it's third episode getting released (I have only watched the first two episodes).  The name is Zatsu Tabi -That's Journey- about a manga artist that gets fed up with her drafts getting rejected by publishers and decides to go on a journey, looking for inspiration. Sort of a road trip movie I guess, although it's still early days.

 

[Gorth]

About to watch episode 10 of Kannagi. Still loving it. The "love triangle", the misunderstandings and social faux pas between Nagi and Zange (goddess sisters) and Tsugumi (his childhood friend) is just too adorable. The latter accidentally blurted out that he (Jin) might be homosexual, in the middle of a school hallway. Needless to say, rumours spread and now the only way to quell such rumours is for them to show the school, that Jin has a "normal" relationship with girls (as if anything involving those three girls could ever be interpreted as normal). Next up is a Karaoke competion

[Bartimaeus]

Batman update: Second half of the season has generally been much stronger and more consistent than the first half. Less episodes that feel like they were written by idiotic ten year old boys that think Batman is just the coolest and is never weak or makes mistakes certainly helps a lot. I've noticed that most of the best episodes, including most of the Joker and/or Harley Quinn episodes, are written by one Paul Dini, and there have been some pretty great episodes among those. I read this excerpt from the infamous episode "Harley and Ivy", the first time Harley and Poison Ivy teamed up together, which would be a reoccurring partnership in the decades to come:

Quote: According to Paul Dini, this was meant to be the first prime time episode. "Fox was going to run it. Then a Fox executive saw it and said 'What the hell is this? Batman's not in this episode. He's only in it at the end? The whole episode is two girls running around in their underwear. There's no boy appeal here.' I said, 'Well maybe not any boys you know.' They refused to run it in prime time. Their idea of a perfect [episode] is 'I Am the Night.' That meets their criteria. It's dark and grim, with more of an adult feel and Robin was in it."

Interesting thought process by that Fox executive there. I would say that "Harley and Ivy" was among the best episodes of Batman: TAS (and it was the first time you ever see Harley without her makeup or costume, with her normal hair and in normal clothing), with a lot of very interesting subtext about Harley's abusive relationship with the Joker that would come to fruition later in the Joker's murderous betrayal of Harley...also written by Paul Dini, in the final episode of the whole series. It's almost kind of like some writers were actually trying to tell evolving long-form stories about their characters, while some other writers were just smashing their action figures together.

[Bartimaeus]

Two episodes of The Apothecary Diaries (2023).

Premise: Young woman (older teenaged girl?) that is an apprentice apothecary is kidnapped, sold, and ends up a servant girl in the Chinese Imperial Court, uses her skills, intelligence, and total lack of charm to prove herself and rise up from her position as the lowest of the low.

There are good elements here that I like, but I am frustrated with this. I am reminded greatly of the movie Like the Clouds, Like the Wind (1990)...

...which has a very similar premise and seemingly some of the same ideas at play. I wish this show had been made around the same time, I probably would've really liked it; as it is, trapped in the conventions of modern anime and the show's unwillingness to slow down (she's already tasked with making drugs by the end of the second episode, with god knows what the eventual end point of the show is...), I switch between smiles and groans too much while watching this. This show really needs a heavy dose of common sense injected into its approach and writing so that just a speck of suspension of disbelief can be had, but I know that's not something that really happens anymore. It's very bittersweet that so many old shows (cartoons, anime, and live-action alike) are largely episodic and their main stories almost always move at a snail's pace even while they continue to build up their world and characters, while new shows completely reverse this by instead just running full speed ahead through so much of the story that they want to tell, not taking the time to consider what pace is sensible or how to bond the viewer to itself with its characters and intrigue. And the Apothecary Diaries actually has a number of episodes - 24 in the first season, with the second season still ongoing - so maybe it does eventually settle into a better pace than what I saw in the first two episodes, but I find it very disappointing nonetheless.

Edited May 11 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

There are hundreds of C-Dramas with that theme. Endless >45min episodes where absolutely nothing happens.

 

Edited May 14 by HoonDing

[Bartimaeus]

13 hours ago, HoonDing said:

There are hundreds of C-Dramas with that theme. Endless >45min episodes where absolutely nothing happens.

I don't want to look at real people unless I really have to. Then again, I don't want to look at current anime unless I have to, either. Anyways, it satisfied my yearly quota for assessing the state of anime.