Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Finished Whisper of the Heart… @Link-Hero you were absolutely right. One of Ghibli’s best films easily. It’s hard to describe what kind of film it is, apart from the obvious romance, and it wouldn’t be fair to throw it in with slice of life… but that’s kinda what it is.

It’s not just a slice of the pie with the raisins taken out, they keep everything in. In one scene Shizuku and Seiji are walking together down the road, and they stop talking for a few seconds to avoid a car. Shizuku’s dad greets one of his neighbours. Shizuku herself drops Seiji’s coat, and she gets off the bike to grab it. It’s all these little things that make the story so immersive and so believable. It’s not this walled garden production that cleared out the entire city to make room for two lovebirds, it’s a living, breathing environment.

Ah, young love. So adorable yet so painfully awkward!

@Snatcher I may be young, but I'm not the type of person to run at the sight of blood. I already know it's super gory, but I don't mind.

@EllaTheKawaiiNeko Same, It’s a vary good show, And you will probably love it!

@EllaTheKawaiiNeko Same, It’s a vary good show, And you will probably love it!

@Snatcher I probably will love it, as my brother loves it. And my brother has an amazing taste for anime.

@EllaTheKawaiiNeko I can tell.

Anyone here seen Tonikawa or Teasing Master Takagi-san?

We are kicking into a new anime season, not a lot has grabbed my attention yet but I will wait for early reviews to start rolling out to get stuff on my radar.

I see Rent-a-Girlfriend has got a second season, I know this show is kinda trashy and it isn't usually my thing, but I ended up getting quite into the first season in the end. It was just nice to see a romance anime that dealt with 20 somethings at Uni, rather than kids in secondary school. I appreciate that is usually the target demographic for this stuff, so I won't knock any of that stuff if you like it, but I just feel I am too old for it now. I can't relate at all as someone in my 30s to the problems of fourteen year olds, I am sorry. Might rewatch the first season and then make a start on the second.

I also see Lucifer and The Biscuit Hammer has got an adaptation. I read this years ago and really loved it but I wasn't that impressed with the first episode. I think the story and characters of the source are strong enough to carry the show regardless, but I really liked the art style of the manga and seeing it realised with pretty mediocre production qualities just seems sad. Especially after it being so many years. I guess I can hope they are saving the budget for bigger later episodes, but I won't hold my breath.

In terms of my existing rotation, I am almost done with Harukana Receive. There doesn't seem to have ever been much chatter about this one online, possibly because outwardly it is a pretty trashy cute girls fanservice show, but it often has production qualities far beyond what it really deserves and while it is a mostly generic sports anime in terms of story, these tropes become tropes for a reason - because they are enjoyable. We want to see this ragtag duo succeed. It is no Haikyuu!! but still plenty enjoyable.

I am also working through the Yu Yu Hakusho dub, now it is on Crunchyroll. This is one of those pillar shounen for all sorts of kids my age, but I somehow just never ended up watching this one at all growing up. It is very nineties in it's production, but it usually always seems to me that these shows are way better produced than similar modern shows are. The first couple of arcs are honestly kinda whatever, but I hear it pretty soon hits the moon in terms of hype, so I am riding it out to see for myself. I heard very similar things about Hunter x Hunter too, and that is also on my list, but I bounced off of that quite a few times already.

I am also making my way through the second part of Stardust Crusaders, but I am again just really struggling with Jojo. I thought with that first part out of the way, the second half would be all gas. But they just went straight back to creating villains of the week with goofy powers that no one can fight head on directly and I am just so bored of this at this point. This might be the earliest yet in a Jojo season I have just begged for it to be over. I know a bunch of people rank Season 3 as the worst part, so I can hope the next Part is better, but I feel like I have said that over and over now at this point. And people also rank Battle Tendency really highly and I thought it was one of the worst things I have ever finished.

When Pokemon TV was available on the Switch. I started watching the show. So far I bought seasons three to six. Every morning I watch one episode. A great way to start the day with a good and motivated mood by the way. Still is a great show that teaches to not give up and pursue your life goals. Please excuse me, I forgot how to mark something as a spoiler. Can someone please tell me? Spoiler: I was really sad at the end of season 5 when Ash, Misty and Rocko went seperate ways. To me it was also a long journey. I watched the series for many months and tears came into my eyes. How I wish I could have an adventure with my friends. I kinda fear the day when I will have watched every episode. But luckily this will take some time. I plan on watching One Piece in the morning after this.

Currently I am watching Pinocchio from 1976. Really good show especially for younger kids, because it is really educating. I also love the artstyle. The classics from that time are really good. I also watched Maja, Nils Holgersson, Wicky, Heidi, Rascal, Marco, Sindbad, Puschel and Alice.

So every year on r/anime I get involved with one of the rewatch threads where every day people talk about the next episode of whatever anime the thread is about. And I die of exhaustion trying to stay caught up and having to regularly bring up my thoughts on every single episode, every single day! Yay!

Anyway this year was Spice and Wolf. Was not sure how much I'd be into it, based on what I knew about the series, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far. It has lived up to its reputation.

@kkslider5552000 My brother is also excited for Spice and Wolf. I haven't seen it yet though. I plan on watching it with him soon though.

Got a little haul in.

City Hunter the Movie: Shinjuku Private Eyes - I fell in love with City Hunter when I watched the first season on Retro Crush, so I decided to nab the recent movie. Watched it this morning & liked it.

New Cutey Honey - I first watched this about a decade ago on a YouTube channel that was uploading a bunch of old US Manga Corps/Central Park Media (which has been defunct) properties & remember really liking it. Needless to say I was excited to find out it had been picked up & remastered for Blu-Ray by a new licensor & am hoping to see if it still holds up.

Maken Ki season 1 - Similar story to the above, as in I watched it probably about a decade ago (though on some pirate site) and remember enjoying it (particularly this first season). I've been eyeing it for awhile and just haven't pulled the gun until now (no matter what I'll probably pick up season 2 eventually just for completionist's sake).

Bonus: Alternate art for City Hunter the Movie under the cardboard slip cover.

@RR529 That looks nice!

I am finally caught up on Chainsaw Man. I feel like it deffo did like what I would call a hard Tite Kubo in that it seems Tatsuki Fujimoto thought up a bunch of cool *****, threw it all together and then suddenly realised... oh *****, now I need a story to thread this all together, but I haven't got a single clue as to how to tell one.

Those early chapters really lull you in, just like Bleach did all those years earlier. There is strange sense of cool about everything, even though Chainsaw Man is way darker, grimer, grungier and dirtier. You get swept up as you are flooded with what feels like an endless array of imagination captured in weird and wonderful images.

But that stuff never lasts forever and much like with Bleach, there comes a point where Chainsaw Man descends into what feels like an endless series of almost completely incoherent battle scenes where the chronology and geography of the events was almost impossible to follow, it was just jumping all over the place.

In some ways I guess this is better than Kubo's work on Bleach, especially later portions where power systems had become so convoluted, I am not sure Kubo even really understood his universe any more. As he would continuously conjure up convoluted nonsense powers and the only rule seemed to be that there was always one person who happens to exist with the ultra specific niche counter power to thwart them. No, Chainsaw Man never does that.

But in other ways, it is somehow worse here, too. The rules of the universe are just as convoluted and impregnable, for a time this seems like a deliberate design choice, but later appears to be because th mangaka has written themselves into a corner. What eventually happens is everyone can just do everything, until they can't do everything as now the author has decided this is where the battle comes to an end.

It makes for an extremely unsatisfying second half of the story, even if I do enjoy a story that isn't afraid of killing major characters, in this case in often brutal and deeply disturbing ways, with oftentimes even more brutal and disturbing consequences. But like I say, those few genuine "oh *****!" moments are lost between what feels like an endless stream of hard to follow panels of people endlessly fighting until the author seems to get bored.

Hey everyone,
So I was mindlessly scrolling through Youtube one day when I came across what seemed to be a clip from an old-ish anime where there was a family of three and the toddler brother and sister were able to turn into half dogs whenever they got too emotional or excited or something like that, I don't remember the exact details (it was framed like a flashback as well if I'm not mistaken). Does anyone here know the name of it by chance? Because shows/movies like that (protagonist has an unwanted power they must control) are right up my alley.

Also, just to clarify: I swear I'm not a you-know-what, I just like this trope in anime is all.

@Fizza I've been looking for that one too! lol

@Link-Hero That's exactly it, thanks! Would you have any idea on where to watch it such as Youtube or Crunchyroll and whatnot?

@Link-Hero Sounds great, I'll see what I can do through sites like Amazon and Funimation like you suggested.

Honestly another really disappointing episode of Biscuit Hammer this week. It isn't a "horrible" adaptation, but it just feels very cheap. Lots of obvious cut corners, cost saving measures and classic action scenes which are closer to Power Point slides than actual animation.

I don't wanna be lumped in with the "just read the manga" crowds as I don't like them either, but when I see a manga I enjoyed - a manga I waited years to see adapted - with a stylish and energetic art style, turned into what borders on a glorified motion comic, I just can't help but feel really sad.

So halfway through Spice and Wolf, it has lived up to most expectations. That's good, I don't like being the odd one out in terms of loving a widely beloved classic, most times. Though I think part of my fondness of it is how utterly sick I am of adolescent anime nonsense made by people who aren't even good at it (the massive amount of time I spent playing Xenoblade 2 only enhancing that opinion). So this one that isn't full on WACKY at any point and has genuine and relatively subtle character interactions is a breath of fresh air.