Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

@Magician I started JK a month or two back. I felt the first
almost dozen episodes were only passable but the build up is nice. After a certain point i feel anyone can get hooked.

I love its darker tone too, as well as its comedy. I wasnt expecting to find something new with good comedy because i feel too much comedy can ruin a show, especially western shows, however I feel mob psycho, one punch man, and JoJo's bizzare adventure are the kings of comedy but strange enough they are also kings of action with two really great qualities under their belt.

JoJo does this thing sometimes where some of its really great episodes feel like horror episodes so i feel right at home in jk or jujutsu kaisen. I recommended it to two friends with the description of three way fusion between mob psycho, bleach, and parasite the maxim.

The manga is a really good read too but to really test whelther you might like the series i suggest jujutsu kaisen zero, which is a short prequel like manga which builds up much faster than the show or regular manga.

To any dragon ball or dbz fans I suggest Dragon quest Dai, in terms of story characters and execution I consider it dragon balls equal which itself is one of the best written manga or anime.

Dragon quest dai is shorter i guess than dragon ball but the build up takes less time as a result, also the show and characters regularly stimulates various emotions. The show does this thing where ever battle or second battle is executed as well as drangon ball's world tournament battles.

Dragon quest Dai and world trigger are definitely in my top 10 so for both of them to make a comback at the same time is beyond cool. Bleach and one piece handle massive numbers of characters pretty well and in terms of all the squads in the show I can say world trigger feels like if battle network fused with bleach but the story and how its executed is much better than battle network but only equal to bleach at its better episodes.

Finished watching Attack on Titan (what's done so far anyway, second half of final season should be this winter), that was an enjoyably bleak time.

Currently giving Mob Psycho another shot, I wasn't really loving it the first time I sat down with it but it seems to be one of the internet's darlings so figured I'd try again. Its humour's still not quite my speed but I'm waiting for the characters to flesh out a bit and make the show engaging for their interactions over the wacky slapstick.

That said, I never really 'got' One Punch Man either; I liked the initial premise but it really sounded like a one-joke one-episode concept so I was interested to see where they'd develop it... I guess they also thought it was a one-joke one-episode concept as the focus gradually slid away from saitama to the other regular superheroes doing regular superhero stuff with saitama popping up as an occasional punch(heh)line

@Raylax I like One Punch Man simply because of how apathetic he is to everything which makes a nice change of pace to the typical anime myself.

I love one punch man because its rare something pulls off both comedy action and animation as well as it and mob psycho does.

I watched AOT also, i feel season 1 is tortue but the build up is the greatest build up of all time but unfortunately I feel the show isnt worth it until season 2.

I just plain love mob, I think I may have started it and hajime no ippo almost around the same time so the slice of life stuff is kind of more easy to digest. In terms of build up i feel it rivals attack on titan but with the benefit of being good since season 1 plus it has good comedy and that supernatural element to it.

@jump Yeah, I liked the character a lot, I was just hoping they'd start looking for interesting ways to explore the edges of his abilities and they kinda.. never really did. Like one example from early on, there was that villain who was big a swarm of hornets. "Cool," I thought, "he can't punch that" and settled in to find out what clever / silly solution they come up with to the problem.

The solution is the mastermind hornet is gigantic and very easily punchable, so he punches it, and wins. Ah well. I get that's sort of the joke, but however many episodes in that was I was already familiar with the joke and was hoping for them to start adding new spins on it.

Instead, every time they want to raise the stakes and actually create some tension, they just sorta have saitama not be nearby and slot in one of the other superheroes, which kinda felt like it was missing the point a bit.

For clarity, I didn't hate OPM, or even particularly dislike it. It was fun enough, but not one I've ever been itching to see more of, or rewatch. It scores a solid Fine/10 on my patented review meter

@Raylax. I thought it was going to burnout quickly at first too but then I simply just enjoyed it. I think i like mob better but i need a musou from both. Maybe. Saitama and mob would add intesting mechanics. With saitama you have to hold out with friends until he arrives while with mob you d have to survive until his meter builds up.

So both could offer a new sub genre of survival musou.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2021/04/19-1/character...

Never would’ve expected this! So cool to see it’s coming soon though!

Oh very cool

Berserk good

I'm 8(?) episodes into Mob now and I'm enjoying it much more than my last run (where to be fair I dropped off around episode 5, so hadn't really given it a fair shake)

I go back and forth on whether Mob Psycho is merely great or one of the best anime I've ever seen. I just finished season 2, and it's gonna be a while until I decide just how much I liked it.

At this point I do definitely like Mob Psycho more than One Punch Man though. Not just because season 2 of OPM sucked, but also Mob Psycho feels like its more focused on being about something other than "amusing shonen parody with some heart".

Watched Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge.

Not bad, it's a nice primer before the MK live action reboot arrives on HBO Max this weekend.

@_Dan Berserk is good, it'll scare your overalls off but its good.

@kkslider5552000 its definitely one of the best I have seen for me. Maybe I like it more because of how more emotional it gets plus I guess it has more depth like what you guys are saying, but I definitely like one punch man a whole lot too.

@Magician DC Movies go hard so I knew it was going to be special. I havent played every or even half of all mk games so I definitely appreciate seeing the origin story I either missed or didnt know.

Around the time of it's announcement i had actually been watching and enjoying the history of mortal kombat characters on YouTube.

Senran Kagura (Funimation) - Anime adaptation of the (in)famous gaming franchise of the same name, following the misadventures of a group of female ninja students.

Season one, "Ninja Flash", is an apt adaptation of the main series games. It has a surprising level of quality that you wouldn't expect of a franchise of this nature, with the animation quality hitting highs I'm not quite used to seeing in fanservice focused fare, and it does a good job of following the narrative of the first game pretty closely (only with some of the personal character dynamics glossed over due to the short 12 episode run time). Of course being Senran Kagura it is consistently lewd & full of innuendo, so it's definitely an acquired taste, but it does seem to have some level of restraint as it stops just short of full on nudity (even during bathing scenes there's always a conveniently placed gathering of steam or some such), and it even brings the girls' male teacher in on the innuendo (though admittedly only two instances from memory).

Season two, "Shinovi Versus", takes a pretty big dip in quality however. Animation quality takes quite a noticeable hit, and any sense of restraint or "witty" innuendo is completely thrown out in favor of almost constant wall to wall nudity (nudity in and of itself probably isn't a con if you're watching a Senran Kagura anime in the first place, but the problem is that it's so constant that it's depiction is just as cheaply animated as every other aspect of the show. I mean, fanservice shows generally know where to spend their animation points in this regard, but here? I swear there was a moment where a nipple wasn't lined up right, partially floating in mid-air). Narratively it seems to jump ahead several games as well, with the girls (and presumably the audience) already acquainted with the girls of Gessen academy, the new group of Hebijo students, & a group of Shrine Maiden (as well as the existence of Yoma, demonic enteties at odds with the ninja). It does try to take an emotional turn with the story by the end, but the constant silliness of the first half along with the bloated cast keeps it from really being effective.

The latest episodes' of dragon quest Dai and one piece are easily the best episodes of each. Both were utterly amazing.

Episode 3 story content of shaman king remake is what got me into the series. I was hoping for sequels to it and dragon quest Dai but as far as remakes go both are good.

As an old school wrestling fan I realized i might have judged Ultimate muscle prematurely and perhaps i should try again but subbed if possible.

Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (HiDive via VRV) - Anime set in a fantasy world where human adventures obtain blessings from the gods (who've decended to Earth to live amongst humanity in exchange for most of their divine abilities) in order to fight monsters, it follows the adventures of young Bell Crenel, a soft hearted adventurer who wants to be a hero and is the only member of the Familia of the goddess Hestia (a Familia being a group of humans blessed by the same god or goddess, a guild of sorts).

Based on the name I assumed it was going to be fanservicy schlock, and while it does feature some (as well as harem tropes), it's actually much tamer in that regard than I imagined it to be, and it ended up being a genuinely good fantasy series. The animation has a general high quality to it with some of the key fights having absolutely beautiful choreography, it has great character growth, can get surprisingly dark, and the politics/rivalries between the various Familia that were starting to be explored more in the second season were really interesting. I wasn't at first too big on the idea that the world essentially operates as a video game dungeon crawler (without being a video game), but the character arcs ended up being so good that I ultimately didn't care.

I only watched the first two seasons with their accompanying OVAs (light hearted affairs which are a bit heavier on the fanservice), but I know there's a third season, a spin-off, & a movie as well, so it's definitely a series I'll be returning to.

@KonoRobinMaskDa676
👀👍👌👊

My only experience with the series is back in the day playing the GCN game they put out (which was a very good one) and watching what I believe was the final arc of the Ultimate Muscle dub. But it was a positive experience with both, especially the game which was just really good.

Kiddy Grade (Funimation) - Early 00's sci-fi anime that follows the exploits of Eclair & Lumiere, a pair of secret agents for the G.O.T.T. (Galactic Organization of Trade & Tariffs) who are sent out to settle disputes between planets, stifle violent uprisings, tackle organized crime syndicates, and all that good stuff. Eclair has superhuman strength & a multipurpose weapon disguised as lipstick (can be used as a whip/rope or an explosive agent), while Lumiere has the ability to naturally interface/hack into computer systems & carries weaponized wine bottles (hey, it's anime).

It's okay, but nothing spectacular. The first half of the series is probably it's high point, as while it's more episodic in nature (with only the occasional hint at something deeper) it's fun enough, however when it's revealed that the government organization they work for isn't as noble as first believed (surprise, surprise) & the pair finds themselves on the outs, the show can't seem to pick a lane & introduces some huge dynamic shifting twist every other episode that refocuses who the big bad is (and other smaller twists just for the heck of it, such as a surprise parentage twist in the second to last episode that has absolutely no bearing on the narrative) & involves clones, shape shifters, & new bodies for old characters just to make things seem deeper than they really are. It ultimately comes down to a huge space battle with a massive Macross style starship/giant robot hybrid where a bunch of characters pull off a bunch of fancy contrived abilities that aren't really explained, but it's a fun watch. Probably my favorite part of the show were the "commercial bumpers" that anime tend to have in the middle of the episode, in this case artwork of the characters in various different anime stylings that changed every episode.

No idea how Funimation labeled it as merely TV-PG though. It has (very light) fanservice throughout (including one random instance of nudity about halfway through) & it can get very bloody at times.