Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

I’m currently watching season 2 of Yuru Camp (Laid Back Camp). You have to be in the mood for it as a cute girls do cute things show. For the first series I enjoyed the Japanese scenery. But with this one I’ve got a bit tired of it feeling like an advert for various camping equipment.
But it’s good for soothing the dread of returning to work after a few weeks holiday in the morning at least.

Lycoris Recoil finished this weekend. At least the first season, I have to assume another is coming. The show was alright. I thought it started really strong, but I dunno, they hit like a gear early on and just sorta stayed in that the whole time. I guess compared to some shows which dip up and down having consistency is a strong thing, but I kept waiting for the show to really blow up, but what you get in those opening couple of episodes is all you are getting basically, even as the stakes grow larger.

I also decided to drop Bakumatsu Bad Boys, I had fallen behind by a few episodes, the show was so utterly tedious I had no motivation to catch back up. I only watched it as long as I did because I was up to date with it and like whatever, 20 minutes in my week fine, but anything more than that? Nah thanks.

A couple of classics for my latest additions.

Lupin the 3rd: the Castle of Cagliostro - I've always heard about how this is often considered one of the best pieces of Lupin media, and after watching it yesterday I can see why. Absolutely gorgeous feel good film.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Hopefully this shouldn't need any introduction. Yes, it's apparently the "Netflix" dub (they say "Nerv" funny & cheaped out & didn't license "Fly me to the moon" for the ending), but it has such a complicated history of releases that I figured I should grab it while I had the chance. Neither issue is honestly that big a deal to me anyways. On the plus side, it also includes both of the 90's movies, Death (Truth)² (which I've never even heard of), & End of Evangelion (which I've only ever seen via a sketchy pirate site years ago), which I wasn't expecting.

I started rewatching Bofuri recently. I forgot how much better it is than SAO. I had to draw something with a popular art style for 7th grade art class yesterday, so I decided to draw Shamiko from Machikado Mazoku. It's not the best, but it's ok I suppose. I can't show ya'll as I have no idea how to upload images. Made in Abyss season 2 keeps getting better and better. Plus, Konosuba gets a season 3 AND a Megumin spin off. I've loved Megumin since the beggining of time, even before I watched Konosuba. So I'm excited dfor the spin off more than I am for season 3. I still need to finish a lot of anime first though. Me and my brother started Kill La Kill, Grisaia, Nekopara, and a few other things that I have yet to finish.

Well, after over a year of reading, I've finally finished up all 500+ chapters of InuYasha. It was my first time reading it in an official capacity, and as the anime was my life in middle/high school I'm glad I did.

I think it does loose a little something in terms of charm after awhile, and for awhile it's clearly stalling for time, but I think it comes together well enough by the end with a pretty satisfying ending. Been at it since 2020, so I'm gonna be at a bit of a loss now that I'm done.

I also followed up by reading the first volume of YashaHime (which is the only one currently available). I wasn't a fan of it's anime counterpart, but the manga is off to a MUCH better start (I don't want to get into the myriad of reasons why the anime sucked, but the mangaka seems to be deliberately acknowledging most of it's issues), which is making me excited for this followup all over again. Too bad the next volume doesn't drop until December.

@RR529 Years reading that many chapters is too short. There's a manga I wanna read called "Hayate the Combat Butler" but it's 502 chapters if I remember right and at least 52 volumes. I'm still only on chapter 5. I'll be old enough to drive by the time I finish it! Also, recently saw the last episode of Made in Abyss. I was actually crying. Started Sailor Moon and BNA. Sailor Moon is good, and BNA is better. Also, I finished reading Arisa, and I ask one question. Why aren't half these characters in jail at the end????? But at least Arisa and Tsubasa are friendly with eachother again.

Man, of all the dubs where Crunchyroll could've decided to **** over the guy voicing the main character, it had to be my favorite dub in recent years in Mob Psycho. So now I either wait and hope the bring him back, or try to deal with the replaced voices in the dub or try to get into the series subbed. Haaaaaate.

Only good thing is that I already had plenty to watch this season without Mob, so I'm willing to wait.

New arrivals.

Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo - The very first Lupin film. I've heard it's a mixture of the more slapstick nature of Part 2 (which it was produced alongside) & the more graphic nature of the original manga, so I'm interested in seeing how it turns out.

City Hunter 2 set 2 - The second set of episodes in the series. This has become a bit of a comfort food series for me.

Bonus: Alternate art for City Hunter 2 set 2 under the slip case (Lupin's art is the same under the case).

Why is Crunchyroll making everything premium??? Now I can't watch Kemono Friends, Gabriel Dropout, Non Non Biyori, Sweetness and Lightning, or New Game! I'm 12, so I can't exactly get a job to buy premium, so thanks Crunchyroll, thanks for encouraging to pirate even more.

Wait they're doing it to their older series now too? Wow, screw them.

This is a bad year to be an animation fan in the streaming age. I started using Crunchyroll specifically BECAUSE Hulu had become unwatchable with its ads and slowly turned into a paid service only, so seeing Crunchyroll do the same is tragic.

I can't believe Bleach is back after years away at the same time as Chainsaw Man's debut, which is really like the current generation's Bleach. I'll take it though; I thought both episodes were excellent. It is a great time be a fan.

@kkslider5552000 Yup! I simply do not understand at all. Like, just a few months ago, I was streaming Gabriel Dropout on Discord for free, and now I gotta pay to watch it. Like, who's gonna watch Kemono Friends besides for me?????? I bet soon Crunchyroll will be a paid program, and I'll have to pirate the rest of my life. Screw Crunchyroll and the child labor laws. Oh yeah, Crunchyroll got rid of School-Live, so now I can't do my annual watching of horror anime. On the bright side, Hulu got the TOARU series and Steins;Gate, so I might make my mom watch Steins;Gate.

@kkslider5552000 Also, you didn't always have to pay for Hulu???? My mom's been paying for it since we had it.

@EllaTheKawaiiNeko, back in 2009/10 my brother watched InuYasha: the Final Act (& I think rewatched Tenchi Muyo!) on Hulu for free on the old family PC.

I had never viewed it as something akin to Netflix (which at the time I still think required a physical disc to act as a "key" to stream it's titles on consoles), because as far as I was aware it wasn't something you could get on TV (I saw it as more of a YouTube competitor).

I was surprised a few years later when it evolved into a paid, Netflix style streaming platform.

@RR529 It actually had quite a few actual tv shows tbh. That's how I got into Community, for example. The thing was that you could watch for free earlier episodes, while new episodes you had to wait for unless you paid for it. (IIRC)

@RR529 I was born in 2009. My brother was only 7. So we did not watch anime on anything really. My brother became a weeb at 16, and I became a weeb around 10 or 11. My first anime was a small chunk of SAO, and I watched Tonikawa when I was 11 and it's still my favorite anime. Also, I'm getting the feeling I'm the only 12 year old in this forum. Meh, I'll be 13 on November 6th.

Man, on top of Bleach and Chainsaw Man, I totally missed that MHA is back for their six season as well. It is absolute shounen bonanza, especially if you include Mob season 3 in there as well.

Watched the first two episodes of the new season of MHA and damn, what a hot start. Pretty much straight into the action, the animation is pretty top notch and Mirko is the Step on me Bunny Mommy I never knew I wanted. My new dream death is being killed by her special move, Luna Tijeras.

Crunchyroll has done it again. Now, me and my brother can't watch Grisaia, like, we're lower class, we can't afford your stupid premium, so why you gotta do this to us? What's even the point of premiuming the unpopular stuff, no-one but me is gonna watch Nyanko Days (Yes, they even premiumed that), so I don't understand at all. You got ALL of Funimations library and you're STILL fishing for money, you selfish, stupid company.

This has been a very bad year to be a fan of animation on a streaming platform in general. One of many things that have me think this year hates me specifically.

This is why it's morally correct to pirate anime.
Companies like crunchyroll don't offer a superior service to pirated ones and instead their way of subscribing is guilt tripping you cause they "support" the anime industry despite wasting all their money on their garbage original shows like High Guardian Spice.

You are under no obligation to subscribe to them, you can easily find better alternatives to their site/app for free.
I consistently use gogoanime and watch the latest episodes of the anime I"m watching in 1080p.