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Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

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RR529

@CanisWolfred, @Knighty_IX, oh wow, I would have never guessed, lol. Even her father kind of acted like she was on the verge of becoming a spinster when she said she didn't have a man in her life yet.

Edited on by RR529

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Heavyarms55

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is a series that I never doubted. I loved it when it was new, and revisited it once about 7 years ago while in university. But I actually heard so much good about it that I started to tire of it and it kind of warped my opinion of it.

But with the stay at home that I had over the last two weeks I revisited it and you know what? It deserves every last drop of praise and then some! It's a show that I think really does everything right to a degree that we see, maybe, once in an entire decade! It hits every note right and is really a must see for anyone who enjoys anime and I am really glad I revisited it.

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kkslider5552000

FMA: Brotherhood is one of those series I also get annoyed at how much praise it gets. But that's because while I do think its mostly great, it didn't connect with me as much as a good chunk of other anime I've seen, unfortunately. Objectively, its pretty top tier, but there's just plenty of anime I personally enjoy more.

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Heavyarms55

Personal preference is always a factor to be sure. Take food, you could have the most delicious spicy food in the world, but give it to someone who just doesn't like spicy food and they likely still wont like it.

FMAB is amazing. I feel it does everything right and love it. But it's still not my favorite. I can list off flaws in my personal favorite series that just aren't there in FMAB. Though my own preferences are the reason I like other shows better. For example I love Gundam, it's my favorite anime... franchise. But I fully will call them out on doing things they don't need to, to sell more model kits. Or for having some poorly written characters - especially female characters. But I love the themes it covers, the action it portrays, the setting, world building and ideas so much, that the flaws with the show don't matter much to me. Even though I can't possibly argue that any season of Gundam is even written as well, let alone better, than FMAB.

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Maxz

Has anyone here watched much of Silver Spoon? It’s from the same stable as Fullmetal Alchemist. By which I mean, it’s... err, completely different, but was written by the same author and I was trying to make a horse pun. Anyway, I was very fond of it back in the day, and sad it didn’t get a third season (I believe the manga extends a lot further than the anime ever got).

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RR529

I've been watching Lupin the 3rd Part 1 on Amazon and it's mostly been a good time, but for some odd reason episodes 4 & 10 have had some sort of commentary turned on (I thought I may have accidentally messed with some setting, but the only settings available are the subtitles & audio language, and no other episodes so far have had this issue), and it's distracting hearing a couple of dudes talking about manga/anime differences or how good Castle of Cagliostro was when you're just trying to watch the show.

Also, I know the original series doesn't have many fans here, but what are everyone's thoughts on the announced InuYasha sequel? I'm both excited because it's something I never thought would happen, but worried too because the concept sounds a little fan fiction-ish (it largely focuses on the half demon twin daughters of Sesshomaru, who were split up at a young age during a forest fire, with one of them being sent to the modern era where she was raised by the family of Sota, Kagome's little brother), and it appears that InuYasha & Kagome weren't around to raise their own daughter (the third main character, who is described as not knowing much about her parents, as she's lived by herself since childhood), which threatens the happy ending of the original.

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Heavyarms55

@Maxz "I believe the manga[light novel] extends a lot further than the anime ever got"

That's about 70% of anime sadly. Frankly I wish they'd turn less overall Manga and light novels into anime and instead finish more stories.

@RR529 I had no idea that was a thing. I liked InuYasha as a kid a good bit. I'll have to look into this.

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RR529

Lupin the 3rd Part 1 (Amazon Prime Video) - The first anime adaptation of the Lupin the 3rd franchise, all the way back from 1972! Known as the "Green Jacket" run, as that's the color jacket he wears here (it's a different color in each series). It's an episodic series that follows the exploits of thief Lupin the 3rd (grandson of famed thief Arsene Lupin) and his gang, with a mostly comedic bend.

I don't have as much nostalgia for Lupin as I do other anime I watched when I was younger, but this particular series was new to me so it was a fun watch. The first half of the series was generally a tad more serious than I was expecting at times, but that gave it a bit of a unique vibe (the manga was more graphic, and while toned down, the early episodes pulled closer to it). The animation was actually quite good considering it's from the early 70's too (and it looked remastered). My only main gripe is that 4 or so random episodes had commentary enabled (there were no settings regarding this, so that's just how they're uploaded to Amazon's streaming service for whatever reason).

Content Guide:

Sex/Nudity (Medium) - Femme Fatal Fujiko Mine appears in various states of undress in some of the earlier episodes (the most graphic being a shower scene where you can see her butt), and a pretty "blink & you'll miss it" moment where the police commissioner can be seen reading a nudie mag (you can fully see one of the pictures) whenever inspector Zenigata barges into his office.

Violence/Gore (Mild) - Most violence is pretty cartoony (like Looney Tunes type stuff when caught in an explosion), however there is some blood, though nothing particularly graphic (the most graphic that comes to mind is a scene where Goemon cuts someone down the middle, though the wound is only bloody during that initial slash).

Language (Mild) - Typical PG/PG-13 stuff.

Just tagging @Spanjard because I knew they were asking about Lupin awhile ago.

Edited on by RR529

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JoyBoy

@RR529 Thanks, we appreciate it 😉

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Heavyarms55

Sometimes being wrong can be a good thing! I originally ignored The Devil is a Part-timer because I assumed it was about the actual biblical devil and I found the idea to be both stupid and uncomfortable.

In reality however it's just the common Japanese trend of taking any random mythological names they can find for fictional characters that are nothing like it. And the show itself is positively hilarious!

I had an utter blast watching it and I really hope it gets another season some day!

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RR529

I recently subbed to Hulu to rewatch all the InuYasha stuff in anticipation of the sequel, and am absolutely floored by the selection.

Whether it be Bleach, Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, FLCL, Gundam Wing, InuYasha (plus the Final Act), Lupin the 3rd Part 2, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun, or Yu Yu Hakusho, it seems like they have almost everything I grew up watching on Toonami & Adult Swim (haven't seen Ghost in the Shell, Eureka 7, or Tenchi Muyo! though, and of course Netflix has dibs on Evangelion).

Outside of InuYasha they also have Ranma 1/2 & Kyokai no Rinne in terms of Takahashi stuff, which is cool.

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Heavyarms55

@RR529 That is a pretty good selection of classics. I watch about 90% of anime I like on Crunchyroll and a little bit on Funimation. But I might check out Hulu at some point if I ever make an account on a site that carries western TV again.

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Rocko52

Hey folks, I'm still alive out there heh. Recently rewatched Madoka Magica - on Netflix - for the first time in like, 6 years. Was a highly nostalgic experience and made me feel all kinds of feelings again. Not quite a decade old but almost, definitely has gone down as a classic and definitive series of the 2010's.

Also been watching Slayers recently, one a more aesthetic level I really love the characters, designs, voices, music of that show a ton. IMO A peak 90's aesthetic

Edited on by Rocko52

Anime watching: Mobile Suit Gundam, Lupin III, & Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
Reading: The Golden Compass

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kkslider5552000

Rocko52 wrote:

Also been watching Slayers recently, one a more aesthetic level I really love the characters, designs, voices, music of that show a ton. IMO A peak 90's aesthetic

I'm glad to see people watching Slayers for the first time. I absolutely love the series, and I actually rewatched some of it recently. It still holds up really well.

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RR529

InuYasha (Manga) -As I've mentioned countless times by now I'm working my way through the original series in anticipation of the sequel, and quite surprisingly managed to finish the manga before the anime. This is only the second time I've been through the manga (I'm more familiar with the anime), and as such it was interesting going through it with a bit more of a critical eye. To keep this from being overbearing I'm going to break things down arc by arc (or rather phase by phase, as it often doesn't have focused long form arcs like other shonen series, for better or worse, and as such will be giving them my own names most of the time).

"the Beginning Arc" (Chapters 1-93) - Modern schoolgirl Kagome ends up in Japan's feudal era, and after accidentally shattering a magical artifact called the Shikon Jewel into hundreds of fragments, she must set out to collect them alongside half dog demon InuYasha (who seems to be an old enemy of the Priestess Kikyo, whom Kagome appears to be the reincarnation of). This part of the series is very episodic in nature, with the pair finding themselves up against various demons who have found themselves in possession of a jewel shard. There's seemingly constant advancement towards the end goal here (even though you don't really know how many shards there are), and it's kept interesting by the introduction of most of the main cast & prominent side characters, not to mention the quickly advancing romantic angle to InuYasha & Kagome's relationship, which sees nearly constant growth in this early stage, and of which the manga handles much better than the anime does (in their great wisdom, the anime writers completely removed the scene where InuYasha effectively asked Kagome to be in a relationship for whatever reason, and mishandled some other moments as well). I should also note that at this point, the manga is much more graphic than the anime. It's quite a bit more gory (particularly decapitation happy) and while it's not saturated with nudity, unobstructed views of female characters' breasts aren't uncommon (usually the few times when InuYasha accidentally walks in on Kagome bathing, or humanoid female demons who I guess understandably don't share human modesty). Some stories from this arc were so graphic that they had to be reworked quite a bit to be included in the anime, such as the Noh Mask & the Cannabalistic Sage Tokijin, the later of which was delayed quite a bit in the anime.
"Naraku's Castle Arc" (Chapters 94-223) - Shortly after the main villain, Naraku, is introduced, the quest turns to finding and defeating him (he appears to have most of the jewel shards), and in this arc the group wanders around looking for his elusive castle. The series still takes on an episodic format at this stage, though with most events being traps set up by Naraku (including a fake castle or two), there isn't a lot of advancement towards the main goal, and things kinda go in circles until Rumiko (the mangaka) just sort of randomly decides she's ready for the gang to stumble upon the real deal. Granted, while nostalgia may play a part, I still really like this part of the series, and think it looses something afterwards. To be fair, there are other things going on here as well, such as the introduction of the last few prominent long term characters early on, InuYasha gains 3 new abilities throughout, InuYasha & Kagome's relationship is still a common focus, and you get the beginning of Miroku & Sango's romance as well. While it's still quite a bit more gory than the anime at this point, the nudity makes an abrupt departure shortly after Kagura is introduced (other than one other instance, once again featuring Kagura, way out somewhere in the 300's).
"Band of 7/Mt. Hakurei Arc" (Chapters 224-282) - This is the only arc in the series that more closely resembles the more structured type of arc you usually see in shonen action series, and is a lot of fans' favorite. Naraku is holed up in a specific location, and in order to get to him our heroes must fight past a vicious assassin group known as the Band of 7. It's also the moment in the narrative where the various side characters all start coming together in their own quests to kill Naraku, though not all are enthusiastic at the prospect of working with the core group. Unfortunately, while they still have their moments, romantic interactions between InuYasha & Kagome start taking a backseat to other things, and it marks the beginning of a long period where they seemingly spend more time pissy with each other over a recent Kikyo or Koga appearance than they do having actual romantic moments between themselves. There's quite a bit of advancement in Miroku & Sango's relationship though. It still retains it's gory edge over the anime, and in terms of darkness even features the series' only attempted rape (this is very toned down in the anime).
"The Last Shard Arc" (Chapters 283-326) - At this point there's only one jewel shard left that's not yet claimed by a notable character, and as it has somehow found it's way into the underworld, it's a race between our heroes & Naraku to find out how to retrieve it. As it's an entire arc focused on collecting one jewel shard, even as a big fan of the series there's no denying that Rumiko is definitely starting to meander about at this point. Still, InuYasha gets his first power up since the Naraku's Castle Arc, and while they still have moments, InuYasha & Kagome relationship time is spread out more than ever, at this point starting to be relegated to the very sparse (yet admittedly often humorous) modern era chapters. Miroku & Sango have better luck and make a HUGE leap near the arc's beginning.
"Moryomaru Arc" (Chapters 327-448) - Across the series Naraku has "birthed" incarnations (henchmen created from his flesh), and in this arc one by the name of Moryomaru (well, technically another behind him) decides to gather the others and try to usurp Naraku. Important things do happen here (particularly the death of a notable side character, and InuYasha, Sesshomaru, & even Koga all get powerups), but it's by far my least favorite arc and really feels like Rumiko is stalling for the sake of stalling at this point, even if it is ultimately to clean the slate back to just Naraku for the finale. InuYasha & Kagome's moments are still limited to the rare modern era reprieve, and there's not many Miroku & Sango moments either. At this point most of the manga's edge has gone and it's not particularly any gorier than the anime (ironic, as it's at the very beginning of this arc where the first anime series abruptly ends).
"Resolutions Arc" (Chapters 449-558) - By this point it's time for things to come to a close, so things actually start happening all the time (in fact it begins by wrapping up Kikyo & Koga's role in the story, and doesn't stop there). Most of the main cast instead of just InuYasha gets powerups, many times for the first time, relationships start growing again & it's off to the final battle & end. By far the most I was invested in it since the Naraku's Castle arc.

Conclusion - I think it had a pretty solid ending. Poor Koga simply gets written out (after losing his jewel shards & giving up on Kagome, results so expected I don't consider them spoilers, he simply runs off about 100 chapters before the end, never to be seen again. Luckily the anime remembers to give him an ending), but for the most part every major player is given their due, and it's a pretty satisfying ending.

However, and this may just be me caring waaay to much, for a series so focused on InuYasha & Kagome's relationship, I can't quite shake the feeling it didn't end on the bang it should have (no pun intended). Throughout it's entire nearly 560 chapter run they never once shared even one kiss (hey, even Kikyo got 2), though once again the anime rectifies this. Granted, Kagome loved him so much that even after being seperated for 3 years she jumped at the chance to be with him even though it meant probably never seeing her world or family again, and maybe Rumiko thought that alone spoke louder than any traditional romance tropes could, but it still strikes me as odd that their official marriage status was only confirmed in a roundabout way, when she refered to Sesshomaru as "big brother", and even in the special epilogue chapter, which has never been animated, you never even get a slight look in at their everyday married life, with what downtime it contains taking place in Miroku & Sango's household, which we already got to see at the end of the series proper.

Granted, Rumiko is just as bad (if not worse) than Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama in terms of planning (every interview of her's I've read she admits she never plans ahead on any of her series, letting things flow week by week, and she admitted to being particularly indecisive on the issue of InuYasha & Kagome's relationship, seriously considering a "bad end", only deciding once she had started on the final chapters already, and only after calling up Kagome's Japanese VA for her input, as she figured she'd know the character better than herself at that point). So, she was either too indecisive to include a kiss/more involved marriage moment due to last minute decision making (apparently the endings for Ranma & Rinne are even less satisfying, according to others I've heard from), was pressured into a happy ending and didn't include any out of spite, or I'm thinking way to hard about it.

If you've read through all of this (especially for such an old series at this point) I salute you, and can look forward to my thoughts on the anime at some point in the future. Recently posted my thoughts on the second movie in the Movie thread.

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RR529

Looks like we got our first look at YashaHime's English logo (looks a lot like how I imagined).

Untitled

Funnily enough, even though they're expecting people to vote for their favorite Inuyasha/Kagome centric episodes to re-air (to the point that there's going to be live commentary from their Japanese VA's), as of right now people (particularly English language voters) are flooding it with Sesshomaru/Rin centric episode requests (it's technically open to all 167 episodes of the original series).

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kkslider5552000

3 episodes in Kaguya-sama season 2 is even better than the first season. I'm really loving it.

3 episodes in BNA unfortunately seems like a lesser tier Trigger anime. Still good by most standards, but not something I'm super invested in either so far. Feels like it might get screwed over in terms of popularity regardless by being the less critically acclaimed current anime about anthropomorphic animals that will be compared constantly to Zootopia that is exclusively on Netflix.

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Heavyarms55

We've finally got Re:Zero season 2 this season! The first episode is immediately despair inducing - though somewhat less so, if you saw the director's cut of the first season you already knew how it was gonna start. Still the first episode was really good and it was a solid 28 minutes of actual show. Most anime these days are about 22 minutes show and 2 minutes opening/recap/credits/preview. Seems like a small difference, but it's actually quite noticeable. I wonder if they are just not going to have an opening this season, of if just for the first episode it was cut to avoid some of the typical spoilers that are in opening sequences. The original opening of Re:Zero is one of my all time favorites and I think would be hard for them to top.

Fire Force is pleasingly already back with its second season far sooner than I would have guessed, but it looks every bit as ridiculous as the previous season - in good ways of course!

Sword Art Online is back from its delay and predictably as controversial as ever. I don't think people would be as upset had this episode aired when it should have, in the middle of a story arc, but because of where they cut the season, starting with that kind of scene is always going to upset the crowd of self-righteous haters who still follow the series around. Personally though I liked it, a bad character did something really bad, and once the protagonist got free, carried out some sweet sweet justice! Overall, I'm pleased it's back! I don't think there's anyone left to decide, at this point you either enjoy SAO or you don't and nothing any of us say to one another will change each other's opinions. I like it, and I don't care if you don't.

Those are the big 3 this season for me. But Demon Misfit Academy looks like all the right kinds of trash. By no means does it look good but it looks pleasingly stupid. I'll watch it, have fun, and forget about it.

Deca-Dence looks really interesting so far. Big Gurren Lagann and Darling in the Franxx vibes - but it's not Trigger. For some folks, that might be a good thing, but I love Trigger's style. I really liked the first episode and the fact that this show is original and not based on a manga or LN gives me hope for the rare case of an anime that actually finishes properly.

Watching some older anime I had missed too.

Cop Craft is quite literally western 90s cop drama meets iisekai anime and I freaking love it! You have your gruff, hard smoking, hard drinking American cop who just lost his partner, and he gets stuck working with an elf knight from the fantasy world to hunt down the illegal immigrant mage responsible for it. It has both the cop show tropes and the fantasy/iisekai anime tropes and I slammed through like 6 episodes of it yesterday! The world building is dripping with potential and I know when it ends I'm gonna be upset that there isn't more, as well as other shows set in that universe. It's a setting begging for a whole series of shows covering different things.

Fairy Gone is another interesting one. This one is kinda a mix of historic fiction and fantasy. It's set in a world similar to real world 1910s but with some magical stuff thrown in and all fictitious locations. The story is alright but held back by too many fictional locations that have no contextual meaning. However where it shines is some downright fantastic action scenes! Really, if you only are looking for a quick action show with some unique fights, this is a good one to check out!

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jump

I'm really enjoying Carol & Tuesday at the moment however I'm a bit disappointed with the music as it doesn't hit the same high standards of Shinichirō Watanabe's other shows like Kids On The Slope or Cowboy Bebop etc.

I'm hoping as I'm only a few episodes in they were saving some of the better songs for later.

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Rocko52

I am still a gigantic fan of One Piece, and whew boy did the latest chapter, Chapter 985 (damn, we're getting really close to the big 1000), hit it out of the park. No spoilers, but both for the arc we're currently in and the trajectory of events larger, feels like a bit of a gamechanger. Though knowing One Piece it'll be AT LEAST five years before we reach it, the last several arcs have made clear we're finally approaching/in the build-up to the endgame. This recent chapter of Wano just screams "the One Piece is near". Now, near in the fact that it'll again still be years away haha, but the finish line for becoming Pirate King is so, so much closer now. It has been really since Zou in 2015, but every arc since has just furthered the intensity. To say nothing of the recent Gold Roger flashback which got us the closest we ever have been to "the answer to all the mysteries of the world."

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Reading: The Golden Compass

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