Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

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.

I just finished Konosuba and I absolutely loved it. One of the best english dub voice casts I've heard! Hopefully there will be a season 3!

I've heard great things.

sigh There's no way for a normal person who has hobbies other than anime to watch all the cool anime coming out. There's been at least half a dozen all time great anime to come out already this year it seems like...and that doesn't even include any of the sequel seasons, of which there were many. It's actually impossible, the quality is so overwhelming. Some of them just look like big budget anime movies at this rate, I don't know how they were made by humans.

If I had to make a top 5 best manga list for myself, it would be:
1.Dragon Ball/One Piece
2.Fullmetal Alchemist
3.Yu Yu Hakusho
4.Death note
5.One Punch Man

Cutie Honey Universe (HiDive via VRV) - Reboot of a classic Go Nagai (Mazinger Z, Devilman) property, that follows Honey Kusaragi, a seemingly average high school student who is really the magical girl superhero Cutie Honey (and can take on other forms as well, such as the biker persona Hurricane Honey), who battles a terror group of female beast people called Panther Claw.

It was okay, but I wasn't terribly enthralled by it. Though it did have some cool action scenes, in general it had a feeling of cheapness about it, I didn't care for the general enemy design, and most of it's attempts at humour didn't click for me. That, and you'd have to have a unique taste in fanservice (the standard transformation & bathing scenes are one thing, but it also has a bit of a masochistic bent with female characters often getting their clothes torn off by whip, including leaving marks, if not by that episode's villain, than by the surprisingly harsh teachers at the school).

the Sacred Blacksmith (Funimation) - Medieval fantasy series that focuses on young knight Cecily Campbell & how she gets mixed up in the affairs of the blacksmith Luke, the only one in town who can forge Katanas (blades much superior to what people usually carry around). However he has a chip on his shoulder & refuses to make any more, and Cecily gets dragged into a decades long struggle involving demons, magical demon swords, & more.

I remember watching this a long time ago back when I was still watching anime via unofficial means and really liking it, and I still really enjoyed it. It's generally animated quite well with a few fantastic action sequences, I liked the character design overall, and it has the right mix of light hearted humor, surprisingly dark moments, and light fanservice that I think would go over well with fans of shows like Is it Wrong to try & Pick up Girls in a Dungeon? Unfortunately it clearly didn't hit it's mark back when it aired & it only has one season, with plenty of plot threads left dangling.

Just finished the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen. Enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm curious to find out if Yuji Itadori's bubbly personality will eventually bleed into Sukuna's surly attitude and they'll form a bond as a result, a la Naruto and Kurama. So I'm looking forward to the second season, although it'll probably be a while before it airs.