Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

I do applaud them that they did a recap that wasn't a traditional recap episode. Even though it would actually be warranted since it has been several months.

Whoops, forgot to bring up some of the stuff I was watching:

No Gun No Life - Only managed to watch the first episode, but I'm sold on it so far. It's so rediculous, but it seems like it has an interesting noir/alt-history/sci-fi plot building up.

Some weird music video thing - I can't remember the name of it, so it's officially lost to the aether, but I'll never forget it, at least. It's like a series of CGI music videos I'd see on old-school MTV late at night, strung together into a barely coherant storyline - less of a movie, and more like a fully animated music album. Stylish, weird, raunchy, blending elements of science fiction and eastern samurai movies, all backed by country music that wasn't always fitting to the situations.

...I loved it! I mean, I probably spend more time watching AMVs than actual anime, admittedly, so this was right up my alley. I recall Daft Punk did something similar, where they got an anime studio to make a feature-length music video for one of their albums, and I loved that growing up. So this really took me back. Apparently another film from the 80's also did something similar. I wish I had written all this down while I still had the names...

My Hero Academia - Watching the 4th season with my brother over Discord. It's been interesting watching it week-to-week instead of my usual approach of waiting for the season to end so I can burn through it at my own pace. With that said, it's harder to stay patient - they're building up an interesting mystery with the yakuza and a horned little girl, and I just want to know where it's all gonna go...

Magmell - I thought this was going to be a major shounen romp, but I'm 9 episodes in, and there's still no sign of a plot developing. It's just been monster-of-the-day stuff and a little bit of the main character's backstory, which seems simple enough so far. It's not bad, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to finish it.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans - Oh hey, I was rewatching this again on Funimation, but I now see it's on Netflix, so I guess I'll rewatch it from the beginning all over again. I swear, I never get tired of this show. It really is the best Gundam TV series since Gundam 00, and I'm including the TV recuts of U.C. and The Origin here.

Also, I'm working my way through Makoto Shinkai's directorial library, starting with She and Her Cat and Voices of a Distant Star, both of which were pretty good despite the late-90's flash animation. I might skip "The Place Promised In Our Early Days", since I recall that one goes off the rails pretty quickly. That means skipping to "5 Centimeters Per Second", which I realize I had confused for "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time"...that explains why I always thought Time Travel was involved somehow. Apparently it was the first of Shinkai's films that didn't have any supernatural or sci-fi elements, so knowing me, I probably got bored partway through and popped in a different movie. Guess we'll see if I stick with it this time.

Probably forgetting a bunch of other stuff.

@CanisWolfred I'm a massive Gundam nut, and while after the first season of IBO I might have agreed that it was the best since 00, I felt the second season was much weaker, and averaging them out I would rank IBO much lower. I never bothered to watch the TV cuts of Unicorn though, because I have the OVAs on Blue Ray. It was just a re-edit for TV right? As far as I know, they didn't add anything.

To be fair, I'm only saying that even Gundam Unicorn and The Origin haven't been as consistantly enjoyable for me compared to IBO. I'll admit that the first season is better than the second, but it still feels like a complete and compelling story with memorable action and characters, and I really liked how it would usually alternate between action-focused and character/plot development episodes, at least in the first season, giving the story more time to breath early on. Helped it avoid some of the pacing issues that most entries in the franchise wind up suffering from.

@CanisWolfred It's definitely accurate to say IBO is a much more complete and self contained story. As a long time fan, I like Unicorn precisely because it draws so heavily from earlier content, but on the flip side that's almost certainly a negative for more casual watchers.

Part of why I didn't like the second season of IBO was because much of the character development and excellent pacing of the first season was lost. I felt like many characters made decisions inconsistent with how they would have behaved in the first season and several plot points from the first season were tossed aside, like the relationship between Tekkadon and that other group whose name escapes me right now. It felt to me like the author decided on how they wanted it to end, and then worked backward to force that ending. Though season 2 did have a few purely awesome moments too, it wasn't a total mess.

On the other hand, the first season of IBO utterly blew me away! I was on the edge of my seat practically every episode dying to know what happens next each week! If season one was a delicious meal, season two was that same meal, reheated for the second time a week later with some extra seasoning thrown on to mask the unpleasantness from the mistake of reheating leftovers a second time... At least in my book.

I had the opposite reaction, and think the series has largely gotten better with each episode (outside of episode 5).

Honestly, if he wasn't comically evil, it would be less believable. In 2019.

also because of the setting and what this genre does, but no srsly 2019

I am waiting patiently for the second season of Rising of the Shield Hero. I really enjoyed the first season

I didn't realize until yesterday, when I watched a compilation of Shaft studios anime openings, but...holy crap are there a ton of Monogatari series. I feel off the wagon right at the beginning of it all, but now I have no hope of catching up with that story.

@CanisWolfred My friend absolutely loves the Monogatari series and has desperately tried to get me into it as well but I just can't. I've only just now caught up with Jojo, I'm not going through another long journey like that anytime soon

Watched a lot of anime this year. There were a lot of good shows but the big three for me were Dr. Stone (Season 2 confirmed!), We never Learn (both seasons, hoping for a season 3 announcement after the next episode!) and Rise of the Shield Hero (season 2 presumed but unconfirmed as far as I know)

Honorable mentions: Sword Art Online Alicization, My Hero Academia, The Promised Neverland and Fire Force.

What did you guys in enjoy this year?

-Dr. Stone
-Sarazanmai
-Kaguya-sama
-Vinland Saga

I mean I enjoy most of the anime I watch, but those are the standouts I saw. I'm happy at how different they are, thinking about it.

oh and also Promare, but that's a movie. Finally getting to Flip Flappers and Konosuba was fun too.

I really gotta check out Dr. Stone.

Only anime from this year I finished was Jojo Part 5, I've been too busy catching up on some older stuff I've never seen. Bouncing between Space Dandy and Haruhi Suzumiya rn

In terms of series, I really liked Captain Earth when I watched it earlier this year, and I also rewatched Godannar, though that's more of a guilty pleasure. Other than that I liked what I saw of Dr. Stone & Fire Force as well, but I haven't really been in a position to catch Toonami regularly enough to really get invested in anything.

On the movie front I loved Dragonball Super: Broly, and my annual rewatch of InuYasha Movie 2: Castle Beyond the Looking Glass. Also finally got around to watching Netflix's Godzilla trilogy, which was decent.

Just finished up Godannar (Blu-Ray)!

What it is:

• A super robot anime from the early-mid 00's with a bit of a fun, over the top vibe that seemingly pays homage to the super robot shows of an earlier era, mixed in with heavy doses of fanservice, though not without a heart of it's own.
• The story revolves around Anna & Goh Sawuwatari, newlyweds who also happen to be giant robot pilots that are at the forefront of protecting the world from an alien threat known as the Mimetic Beasts.

What I Liked:

• As an homage to the genre it takes on a fun vibe, revelling in the over the top silliness of it all. Bright colors, ham fisted melodrama, yelling out super attacks & all that jazz. It's good because it's "in" on it all if that makes sense (such as a running gag centered on a character based on the typical shonen hero who constantly does reckless things, assumed dead, only to reveal he's still alive). What really sets it apart though is that despite all the silliness, it does have a heart all it's own, even if the story itself doesn't break any new ground.
• While the concept admittedly isn't for everyone, I feel this is one of the few fanservice centric anime where the fanservice is done "right". Sure, there's women in highly improbable tight fitting jumpsuits with Senran Kagura physics everywhere you look, but even the obligatory "ladies man" character doesn't grope anyone, so it never feels uncomfortable. Plus, unlike a lot of other "fanservice" anime I've seen, it remembers to actually have a story with a sense of weight, even if it's not terribly deep.
• It's a great package as a whole, with some great special features including concept art, Japanese TV commercials (even including a few for a tie in PS2 game), and terminology encyclopedias in addition to the standard stuff like clean credits scenes and trailers for other titles.

What I Disliked:

• There is a minor subplot involving the British robot pilots, a brother and sister team, that not so subtly indicates they have incestuous feelings for each other. The only aspect of the show I was uncomfortable with.
• The HD remastering process can be a bit hit or miss. It mostly looks really good, but every once in awhile there'll be a scene or background that doesn't look touched up.
• It's from an era where English voice over could be rough, and while it does offer subtitled Japanese VO as well, if you choose to watch it in English I could see Anna's voice coming off as grating.

Content Guide:

• Sex/Nudity: (Heavy) - Nearly every female character has a Senran Kagura level endowment, with jiggle physics to match. Further, they often wear jumpsuits that are tight enough to feature visible impressions of certain areas they're covering up. Heck, even a few of the mechs have breasts (with guns in them). The one area it does hold back in slightly is explicit nudity, with modesty steam (or some other object) oftentimes covering up a character's breasts, though even then there are a few scenes where they do show nipples, though they just don't color them in (with exactly one exception in the entire series).
• Language: (Mid) - Typical PG-13 swearing, and some comparable innuendo.
• Violence: (Mild) - It's mostly robot on monster action (and the monsters usually have blue/green goo/blood if at all), but a character may have a stream of blood on their face if they're robot is badly damaged. Certain characters contract a disease that grotesquely transforms their body, though it's bloodless.

Overall it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for a mecha/giant robot fan, if not a timeless classic. That, and I'm a sucker for a series where a romantic couple must pilot a robot together to bring out it's best.

More guilty pleasure than anything. I'm all for over-the-top super robot series, but I could not get myself to finish Godannar. Way too much fanservice with no real substance to back it up, IMO. When I wasn't cringing, I was just bored. I mean, I've seen worse by now, like Dai-shogun, which IIRC, may as well have been a hentai...although honestly, I've seen actual mecha hentai OVAs with better animation, and I'm not just talking about the "action" scenes, either. I had to look it up to make sure it actually came out within the last decade...

Assuming it keeps going as is, Eizouken will be better than any anime I watched last year. Really impressed so far.

Even if I wasn't loving it, I'd be impressed at how instantly iconic it is. It has only existed for three weeks as an anime, and yet I feel like anyone half paying attention to anime could immediately recognize the main two girls. If you put them in silhouette, I'd still recognize them.

Man, Studio Trigger's new anime couldn't appeal to me more if they tried:

My body is ready.

@kkslider5552000

Oh yeah, I was wondering if that one was any good. I don't really keep up with new anime (no matter how much I try, I can't handle week-to-week viewing), but that one seemed like a good one to binge-watch when it gets far enough along.

@CanisWolfred I will literally watch anything Trigger puts out. I haven't been disappointed yet. There's been a couple that I thought were "only good" but most have been absolute awesome!

It looks so good. ;__;

I'm just scared that its gonna be stuck in Netflix jail. I'm still upset that Little Witch Academia didn't get the attention it deserved because Netflix kept it in Japan for months and months.