Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

@crimsontadpoles @Tsurii Jojo is my favourite manga and anime, I liked the beginning because it felt so unique and different than other common shonen. To be honest, I prefer the first half of Phantom Blood than the second half and than Battle tendency. Battle tendency is good but it's not bizarre enough. Stardust crusaders, Diamond is unbreakable and Stone ocean are the best parts, it's with Stardust crusaders that the real fun begins. I think that Vento Aureo is disappointing because imo characters have not adequate motivations and the story itself is rather shallow and empty but I guess when one write so many different stories it's just normal that sometimes one of them is less good than the others. Still I like some of the characters from Vento Aureo, Giorno, Bucciarati and Abbacchio, and Abbacchio sub plot was very interesting and engaging

Glad to see someone else who enjoys Rinne. Just so you know, seasons 1 & 3 are just more of the same (though they progressively add more characters to get in on the shenanigans), as it doesn't have much of an overarching narrative (except for the vague goals of Rinne trying to escape poverty, and the secondary narrative of Rinne & Sakura's relationship, which advances & regressess based on what's needed for the comedy at any given time). But hey, if you like it enough be sure to check them out.

@RR529 Yeah im planning to watch the third season. Good to know it stays classy.

Just finished sansha sanyou. Its just another clone moemime that didnt moe me. Seriously the day ill enjoy shows of this caliber will be the day ill be someone like barry goodman. What i dont like about these shows is how cheap the protagonists often feel. All they seem to emanate is fluff and sugar without any substance. Im sure ive seen those girls with the same (aura) in other animes before, squeaking at each other and trying too hard to be kawai.

Id say it was a mediocre watch.

@CanisWolfred I'm glad you answered Tsurii's question cause I was wondering your thoughts on that too. Thanks for the useful information! I will try the movie trilogy sometime.

I always got turned off from IBO cause I don't like the character designs or the style, but I guess that's pretty superficial. I'll give that a chance too, someday.

@Jhena, if you finish with Rinne & want more, try out Ranma 1/2. It's an earlier series by the same mangaka (Rumiko Takahashi), and is pretty much the same thing, just with a martial arts theme instead of a ghost theme (you'll even recognize most of the faces, because it's sort of a trait of hers to reuse most of her character designs from series to series). Unlike Rinne, there is some nudity, but is mostly because the main character is cursed to become a girl every time he comes in contact with (cold) water, and he has no modesty.

You may also want to try out InuYasha (the series she did inbetween Ranma 1/2 & Rinne), but it's also the most serious of the bunch because it's an action/adventure rather than a comedy, however it does feature the same character archetypes as the other two shows. It can be tough to get into though (I think I'm really the only one around here who likes it, though it's probably one of my top 3 anime), as like it's comedic brethren it features an episodic structure at first that doesn't give away to a more traditional arc structure until quite aways in, and for some reason the anime studio made the male & female leads more combative in their relationship than they were in the manga (I think it was an attempt to give it a more Ranma esque comedic angle, but it doesn't always work due it's more serious nature, and makes the female lead come off unlikeable to a lot).

@RR529 Loved those two as a kid. They were both running in the child programm. Yeah i remember those nice pink boobies. And i think i had the most feelings for ranmas female form. How i miss to fall in love with animated girls -.- Also im a big fan of tsundere pairs and ranma was a feast in that regard like inuyasha.
Rinnes caracter designs reminded me of ranma. When they made those satan signs when being beaten i was almost sure it was the same mangaka. Now i know it thx.

I rewatched inuyasha a while ago and got burnt by it. Didnt know the anime was discontinued. To be honest the last episodes kinda felt too much of the same. And narakus smell almost made me angry xD. Still some ridiculously sad and beautiful love scenes, great atmo and music. True kagome felt a little bit too bossy sometimes and made inuyasha feel like a pitiful underdog. Best caracter is Inuyashas brother. He has such an awesome aura. I could fall in love with him. I can totally understand why you like it. Sadly except for some exceptions like homunculus, blame or punpun im not a big manga fan.

@Jhena, the InuYasha anime did get closure with InuYasha: the Final Act, if you don't know. It's a bit rushed since they crammed about 230 chapters worth of content into 26 episodes, but it's worth watching if you want a concrete ending.

@RR529 Ups^^ Thats nice. Not sure how i could overlook this though. First ill finish tanaka kun then ill watch the final act. Is there a reason they crammed it?

Finished space patrol luluco. Its a nice enough shortform best of trigger but it wasnt enough to convince me. I dont like shortform animes.

Got around to Ghost in the Shell: Arise recently (the first three parts anyhow, as that's what Netflix has, and while the first two are dual audio, part 3 was subs only...).

It's a prequel/reboot, and while each part is it's own independent story, it's tied together by the fact that the Section 9 team we all know & love is slowly coming together along the way. It's not as brilliant as the original film by any means, but I still found each part to be a good watch (Part 2: Ghost Whispers was my favorite, followed by Part 1: Ghost Pain, & Part 3: Ghost Tears) and would recommend it to both current fans of the series, and to newbies/fans of anime & sci-fi in general (after they watch the original film, of course). Hopefully Netflix gets part 4 of Arise and the 2015 film in soon to finish it out.

Honestly suprised I haven't heard any discussion of it here before, unless GitS is just too old of a franchise to these kids with their One Pieces, Attack on Titans, & One Punch Mans (just kidding... sort of).

^A lot of Ghost in the Shell fans on the anime forum I used to frequent weren't happy with the Arise films. I don't remember a whole lot of the discussion, though, since GitS is just...not something I've ever been into. I keep trying to watch the TV series, but it's just not that fun to watch, for the most part. Maybe I gotta start with the original film, though. I've never seen it the whole way through, because the cover had tits on it. Not exactly something you want to rent out of a library or purchase from a store where people might and have recognized you, lest I be derided for it 'till the end of time...

@Tsurii Maybe I'll let you know when/if the anime adaptation of the Seven Deadly Sins catches up to that point, then. While I started with the manga version, my general rule of thumb is to stick to the flashiest version of anything I can find, because I love visual experiences most of all.

@CanisWolfred, I'll freely admit I'm definitely a "casual fan" of the two TV series at most. While I'm sure they're great if you can get into them, as you said they can be slow, and at the time I didn't really have the commitment to watch them every week (back when AS was originally showing them) to keep up with what was going on (for that reason, my favorite episodes tend to be ones that aren't heavily involved in the main narrative).

However, I'm a big fan of the original film because in addition to the fact that it's animated beautifully, it's easier to commit to. It makes you think, but as a film (and a relatively short one at that), it's not a daunting task to rewatch it occasionally to try and get more out of it. That's also the sort of thing I appreciated about the Arise series as well. In addition to being a reboot (so no previous knowledge required), each entry is it's own story, making them easier to digest (that, and the Major being younger and more rash means that the series has a higher level of straight up action than previous GitS material). I'm still confused by some of the story in Part 1, but I think I mostly have things down as far as Parts 2&3 go.

@RR529 Sry i forgot to thank you for telling me about the last act. Thanks^^

Tanaka-kun is always listless: Oh yes thats my kind of cozy feel good anime. Tanaka reminds me of my old self. I was also a natural stonehead or maybe i still am. Just looking for peace. Theres nothing more satisfying in this world than that feeling of almost being asleep (sure sleeping is nice but i prefer to enjoy the stuff) and feel nothing more than the inner peace which can feel like pretty much anything. Feels like paradise and it should because its my mind.
Anyway i like him and together with ohta they would make for a very nice boys love couple and generally are pretty good characters. Its laid back, its nice, its humorous and the moe bullet girl is moe.

I think thats the last anime of the spring 2016 season i watched. Nice to end it with a charming anime.
Bakuon, im sakamoto, jojo, kuma miko, rinne, twin star exorcists and of course tanaka kun were my favourites. I could have forgotten some but who cares the season was decent.

Inuyasha: Worth watching if only to finish stuff i started watching when i was much younger. Its still an enjoyable series though. But it reminded me again of its dark tone. Seriously the series is too gloomy^^ I prefer the tone of rinne or ranma. Nice ending. It was a little bit like ff x(x2) just with reversed genders. Nice journey overall.

Oh, well now I'm just mildly disappointed.

EDIT: Wait, no, I meant the part about Melodias! C'mon, man, don't fake me out like that...

@Jhena, believe it or not, the InuYasha manga started out even more graphic than the anime (it had as much nudity as Ranma, and even had more gore. For example, early in the series they come across "Spider Head" demons, this is where InuYasha's human form is first revealed, and while the anime depicts them as ninjas with spider like abilities, in the manga they are actual spiders that walk around wearing decapitated heads that they're nesting in). It calmed down to the anime's level around chapter 150 or so (after the first fight with Kagura), but there was still the occasional instance where something was censored in the anime.

Just watched Boruto Ep.13 and it reminds me that I'm really starved for an epic fight in Naruto/Boruto. I enjoyed the episode but it really just shows how broken Naruto is. Nothing really felt like a threat considering how he's basically a walking God, and even stated he could handle it in one shot. The writers tried to justify his inability to solve the issue, but it's kind of a 'what the' point considering Naruto at the age of 17 and less was able to handle far worse enemies.

Anyways, I fully expect Boruto to pull out a Talk no Jutsu against the antag next ep. Let's see if he can surpass his father in this area.

@RR529 I believe you. Many years ago a friend of mine showed me the manga for this reason. Ugh spiders...

Active Raid S2: Really forgettable and boring special forces anime with a little bit of mechs. My mind was constantly wandering away and i only watched it for completions sake. Not a good summer 2016 start but it can only get better.

So I got around to watching Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods, and I must say it was actually kind of impressive. I had only watched the adapted material in Dragon Ball Super, but it was interesting to see what elements carried over from the movie to the series and which were removed or changed.

Overall, the plot was way more concise (obviously due to the time constraint), but there are a few things I enjoyed seeing in Super, like Whis and Beerus' visits to some alien planets. It's also curious that they changed the setting of Bulma's party to a cruise ship in Super.

The ending fight between Goku and Beerus was one of the most energetic and dynamic fights I've seen in DBZ, and all of the movie's action action was very well animated (but of course that's to be expected as I assume BoG had a higher budget than Super and no episodes to spread the animation budget out). The rapid change in settings also helped the fight scene, as opposed to their boring battle being set simply in the space/sky (probably done to save budget). However, the 3D computer graphics mixed in with the 2D animation looked mostly awful. I really hate when 3D graphics are implemented into anime, I understand it's done to save budget but I've never seen it look good/natural (Season 2 of AoT is a good example of this imo). Still, all-in-all the movie itself looked great compared to Super. Overall I loved it, and I love Beerus and Whis even more now!

( @RR529 I don't know why but I like the way you bold certain words in your posts, hope you don't mind if I steal your thing lol)

Watched Halo: Legends earlier today on Netflix, and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit (the series seems to adapt well to anime, based on this).

It's an anthology film, split into 8 short stories (each animated by a different studio), all taking place in the Halo universe. The first two parts simply recount the backstory of the series as narrated by Cortana, while the other 6 are seperate short stories which are each artistically, narratively, & thematically different.

Finished alderamin on the sky. It wasnt bad. Cast was ok but i dont really like genius guys ( the kind that predicts pretty much everything and knows everything) and i dont believe him the lazy act one bit. Sure hes doing some lazy stuff but i dont feel it. But maybe thats just anime. On the other hand its nice to see heroes who arent completely nice guys. Though hes still too much of a nice guy. The first half was more interesting.