Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

It is six and two threes here, really.

Some scenes have been out and out removed, their removal alters pacing and also changes the way scenes come across because they now have altered context. I wouldn't say any of those alterations are dramatic, it is still the same story, they haven't added like filler arcs or whole new characters or whatever, but it isn't a panel for panel recreation of the manga.

In terms of battles, it is a little different. The fights have been, so far, the same as they are in the manga. The same beats, the same conclusions etc, but they are just expanded. Where a fight may just be a couple of borderline incoherent poses of Chainsaw Man surrounded by gore, they have now created cohesive bridges through the panel moments to give action scenes a complete end to end flow, whereas the manga required you to use a LOT of imagination.

If one is an aggressive purist they may say these expansions are not true to the source, which I guess technically they aren't, but I much prefer the action in the anime. And I'm not one of those who thinks that animation always makes an action scene better when it comes to adaptations.

It will be interesting, however, to see how they approach some of the more experimental, later, action scenes which invert shounen expectations for more minimalist showdowns as those will clash with the animes presentation I think.

@EllaTheKawaiiNeko maybe I should've added that I'm mostly talking about stuff that's actually faithful and only adds little bits and bobs to flesh out scenes.

I think One Piece actually does that a lot lately with fights that are super short or straight-up off panel in the Manga.

I get being frustrated with adaptations that just go completely off the rails.
Didn't throw a tantrum like a lot of the community but I was - rightfully, if I may say - PISSED OFF when the second season for Promised Neverland came around.

@Dom_31 Yeah, I wanna punch a wall when the anime doesn't follow the story of the manga. Tonikawa is still my favorite anime, but if you were to ask me what season I think the secret of Tonikawa will come out in, I couldn't tell ya because the anime has different order of plot. It's still the same events and plot, but it's in a different order than the manga. So the secret could come out this following 2nd season, or in the 10th season. No one knows.

@Pizzamorg hmm, the stuff about removing (small?) moments is news to me but I didn't really follow online discourse about it tbf.
Curious how that may impact the story, whether it's in big or small ways, or if they just shuffle some things to different spots. Don't really remember EVERYTHING that's happening in the story and I will wait with reading the Manga again until I saw the anime just to enjoy the latter more if stuff I may have liked got cut or something.

An early example, and SPOILERS, is they took out the Muscle Devil part of the story. The explanation for this is it makes it very obvious straight away that Makima is a villain, and they thought the exchange between her and Denji with the noodles and the "what is your type" stuff had more nuance without the Muscle Devil stuff framing the exchange. I honestly sorta agree with this too, but I dunno whether the mangaka wanted us to not like her/be wary of her straight away. I don't really feel it meaningfully changes anything personally, but people really lost their ***** over this.

@Pizzamorg see, I don't even remember that whatsoever
Guess I'm not a real fan and only bought the Manga because I'm a poser haha

I probably only noticed because I recently reread the whole manga from start to finish in prep for the show. I thought the first half of the manga was really good, I thought the second half was pretty terrible, but the new arc which is like Part 2 or whatever and has sorta changed protagonists? Kinda? Pretty cool, to be honest.

It is actually the second half of the manga I am most excited to see animated though, as the second half of the story is really battle heavy and the art is often really not great when it comes to intelligible action scenes. So I'd love to see all that noise and clutter translated to clean, fluid, action scenes. I think in motion the second half of the manga will make for some incredible anime episodes.

I do think because of a bunch of botched adaptations that people have really over-corrected into thinking an exact one-to-one recreation is the only way to do said things. Which is not remotely true, just on the obvious basis that most manga are not perfect.

Tomorrow is Spy x Family Saturday. I'll walk to Wesco and get a big bag of popcorn, I say this episode is gonna be great.

Started watching chainsaw man because they already started dubbing - and streaming - it over here and it's incredible how damn good this series looks in its first episodes already.

And I constantly see people saying it only seems to look better with each new episode, which is STUPID exciting to me as a huge fan of that series (and Fire Punch.. And Look Back... And Goodbye Eri... I may have to look into the one shot collections by Fujimoto)

Forgot to post, but I got these in last weekend.

Lupin the 3rd: The First - As far as I'm aware this is the newest Lupin 3rd film, and the series' first attempt at a CG flick. It was actually really fun. You can definitely tell it's not as advanced as what Disney or the other big western animation studios produce (in terms of the tech), but it didn't feel particularly dated either. Good jumping on point too, as it's probably the cleanest Lupin film I've seen since Cagliostro (though not quite as tame as that one). Pretty much Lupin 3rd: Indiana Jones edition, and it was fun. BTW, I got the steel book edition since the cost was about the same as the standard release.

City Hunter 3 - Just finished this one up (at only 13 episodes long, it's much shorter than the first two series, which were over 50 & 60 episodes each respectively). It's pretty much more of the same, and although the animation quality may be a bit better than the earlier series' on average, I wasn't a huge fan of the aesthetic choices on offer. A minor issue, but it had a much more autumnal color palette I felt (a lot of oranges, creams, & browns) which I didn't care for after the very bright 80's neon pallettes of the earlier episodes. They even changed up a few characters' hair colors (Kaori went from reddish to brown & Saeko from bluish to black) which I never quite got used to.

City Hunter '91 - The last series in the franchise, so I'm almost done (like CH3, it only has 13 episodes). Only one episode in so far so not much to say yet (other than that it doesn't look to shake up the formula much, if at all), though at least they fixed Kaori's hair at least.

Bonus: Alternate City Hunter box art under the slip cases.

Probably going to move on from the Lupin stuff for a bit since I've gotten so much of it, and this appears to be the end of the line for City Hunter as well (already got the 2019 film as well).

@KAIRU I'll have to let my brother know there's a new episode. I'll try to get around to watching it sometime, too.

@KAIRU It probably will have 12 episodes. I'm 13, but my brother says it isn't as ecchi as the internet leads on, so I'll give it a watch sometime soon. Plus, Grisaia series is probably worse, anyways, and I've seen part 1 and the movie of the Grisaia series.

My newest pickups.

My Neighbor Totoro - It's probably the most famous anime film I've never seen before. I'm sure it'll be worth the purchase due to it's pedigree.

Fatal Fury: the Motion Picture - The steel book edition. Watched it last week. Don't think it was quite as good as the two preceding OVAs, but still a decent enough time (and it gets points for going all out on the Mai fan service, lol).

Code Geass - I haven't watched this since it last aired on Adult Swim back in the day (& I don't remember that much of it, especially the later parts, since me & buddy would spend all weekend playing video games back when it aired). This has both series, & I've just started on the second this weekend. It's really good stuff, even if I don't think I like it quite as much as my absolute favorite childhood/teenhood anime.

Bonus: Fatal Fury steel book outside the slip case, front & back (it's a largely clear case, so the only major difference is the removal of the BD & NEO GEO logos, as well as the "100 Minutes" graphic).

Art under the Totoro slip case is exactly the same, so I didn't include it.

I am currently away, so I upgraded my Crunchyroll sub to be able to watch stuff offline (it is only a quid more than the regular sub). I know a bunch of people hate Crunchyroll, but I have never really taken the time to look into why and personally I think Crunchyroll is one of the best streaming services around. As prices balloon for streaming services all over the place, Crunchyroll has remained one of the most reasonably priced. And especially with their acquisition of Funimation, you now have a vast catalogue of shows, a vast catalogue of manga, loads of simulcasts and a massive range of both subs and high quality dubs. It is deffo the streaming service I put the most time into it, probably the next closest is Disney+.

Anyway, I have been working through Engage Kiss. I was following this when it aired, but for one reason or another fell behind around the half way point and then sorta forgot about it completely, but all the shows that pulled me away from this have now either finished or I am up to date with them and waiting for their episodes weekly, so I was poking around my watchlist for stuff to download for the plane and was reminded of this show’s existence.

It kinda feels like this was conceived as a hentai, from the protags design, to the general set up of the story, to the somewhat mediocre animation, but it never ends up quite going in that direction. Well, not completely, the protag powers his demon partner with a kiss (hence the title, I guess) and the way that is animated is erm…

But no, that aside, we get a different kind of action instead, the literal kind. And for some reason, almost every action set piece the show just goes so damn hard. It is like every episode is coasting, and then they splurge all of their budget per episode on like 15 seconds of fighting, and I am fully here for that approach. Every time I think about potentially abandoning this show, they wow me with a set piece and secure my investment at least in the next episode.

I thought this fits. Fortnite is getting and spoilers ahead, mha! now if you read what I said then yeah it’s real, I’m really hyped and I now what I. Dropping some cash on. How will it work I have no idea, but they made dbz and Naruto work.

@KAIRU Yeah, my brother said something unpredictable happened. I have to watch this anime now. But let me finish Arifureta first.

@KAIRU I see. Have you ever seen Arifureta? And before you yell at me saying "It's just an average isekai!" and "It's a rip-off Konosuba!" I wanna let you know that I already know that. But it's still a great show, plush, it has something Konosuba doesn't... BUNNY GIRLS! Bunny girls are the best alongside cat girls, and if you disagree, I'm sorry, but I can't trust you.

@KAIRU Lol. I thought you would have at least seen Arifureta. I'm sensing the feeling I've seen more anime than you. Name EVERY single anime you've watched, and we'll see who's seen more. I'll start. Steins;Gate, Made in Abyss, Tonikawa, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Nyanko Days, Lucky Star, Machikado Mazoku, Bofuri, Spy x Family, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out, Konosuba, Isekai Quartet, Re:Zero, Komi Can't Communicate, BNA, Little Witch Academia, The Helpful Fox Senko-san, Love Chunibyo and Other Delusions, Blend S, Gabriel Dropout, School-Live, Demon Slayer, Sailor Moon Crystal, Your Name, A Silent Voice, Steins;Gate 0. That's all I can remember, but I've seen much more than that. Here's the ones I'm currently watching.
Arifureta, Elaina the Wandeirng Witch, Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagaan, New Game, Sweetness and Lightning, Romantic Killer, My Hero Academia, and SAO.

No waffleboat, the Simpsons is not an anime
(Idk why I posted this I just thought it would be funny)