Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Well I've been praising The World God Only Knows like crazy, so there's that.

So uh, I've been getting into anime a lot more lately and...yeah.
Anyway, I wanted to talk about two particular anime, and you'll read this because everyone cares about the opinion of a dude with a Kirbytron profile pic, right? Right.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (+Stardust Crusaders): WHY IS THIS ANIME SO UNDERRATED?! I can't believe anime like Black Butler-- uhh, Bullet keep getting so much attention while JJBA is horribly ignored...
The show is split into three parts, with Part 3 currently on episode...9, if I remember correctly. Each part has a completely different protagonist and completely different stories while sharing certain elements at the same time. Part 1 and 2, for example, are both about vampires, while Part 1, 2 and 3 share some characters with each other.
Basically it's the best shonen ever and there's nothing quite like it available right now. If you haven't watched it yet and are JUST getting into it, take in mind that part 1 has a...rather mediocre middle act. But its beginning and ending are fantastic (oh, and Part 3 is the best. While the animation of all three parts is really stylized and uses colors wonderfully...

...the shift from Part 2 to Part 3's animation is so amazing it'll take you...about one episode to get used to the new animation style. Then you'll love it. Forever).
By the way, this show is REALLY fabulous while managing to be the manliest thing ever at the same time.

Hunter x Hunter: Another rather famous anime nowadays...
Now, I watched the old version when I was a tiny lad...but I can safely say this new version is much, MUCH better. I don't even know why people keep discussing like it's any sort of contest. It's not. The new version is much better. Period.
Anyway, I'm currently on episode... -checks Crunchyroll queue, CR doesn't load- ...yeah ok. Uhhh, episode 40-something? Or was it 50-something...jeez, I have terrible memory. Why must you fail me now, Crunchyroll, girls are watching!

[strong]Well that was longer than I expected...
Hey. It's 1 am. Bear with me.[/strong]

I've rarely been into anime but when I do get into it, I'm simply amazed by the charming characters they all have.

One Piece is a very interesting with its story, humor and characters (Roronoa Zoro is my favorite). But I end up spoiling up most of the story progress. Why? Because the stories in these things are too long to the point that it never ends or shows interesting plots after several episodes later. that's kinda the reason why Pokemon anime really isn't much because its the same thing over and over again even if there are a few changes.

Yes! Space Dandy's back, baby! Season 2 is almost here and it looks ridiculous. You thought season one was wacky! I can't wait. New season premieres July 5th on Toonami!

Reading Ghost in the Shell since it only has 11 chapters and I really wanted to know more about the manga for quite some time now.

Apparently you can (legally) watch the entirety of Redline on Youtube, so I did that.

And yeah, it's got ridiculously good animation. Seriously, what I saw was outstanding in both execution and style, so much so that I'm willing to say that it may be the best animation ever. Granted, all of the animation is put to use to breath life to an unambitious story that occasionally falls into the trap of, "How Do I Get From X To Y?" Thankfully, the story only barely interrupts the animation, meaning that it's not that hard to ignore.

My final verdict; it's got ridiculously good animation. Also, it's free, so go watch it you dingus.

Wow, I watched Redline almost exactly a year ago now actually. Redline was definitely a visual treat. I enjoyed it for the incredibly simple minded crazy fun it is.

Toonami Saturday night!

Attack on Titan - Missed it.

Bleach - Missed it.

Space Dandy - Missed it.

Naruto: Shippuden - Missed first half. From what I did see, Sasori's past was pretty sad.

One Piece - Pretty good episode overall. Enjoyable throughout.

Blue Exorcist - Looks like stuff's about to go down, and Ren has to proove both his worth, and trust.

Black Lagoon - So I guess Chinese people speaking broken English is a cliché even in anime (or was it broken Japanese in the original)? Whatever the case, she and Revy had good chemistry (hope she becomes a recurring character). Also, the driver was absolutely hilarious, lol.

EDIT: Oh, and they reviewed Child of Light: 8/10

I just finished Un-Go, and... Well... Can someone help me make sense of this?
The show itself is pretty good, yet I get this nagging feeling like there should have been more (kind of like with Firefly). Many of the questions, especially those around Inga, aren't answered until the OVA, which only came out sometime later. Even then, there are small holes here and there.
Was Un-Go cancelled prematurely or something?

Steve Blum wrote the English script for Digimon Tamers?
What?

this is the best thing I've heard all day

So World Trigger is one of the newest battle manga to WSJ, and it's sci-fi no less. Since, at this point, I've become such a big fan of certain shounen, I guess I'll have to check out the anime when it comes out and/or pick out the first volume in November.

Sorry to double post, but I just thought I'd post some exciting news that is sure to interested fellow Jojo fans. Earlier in May, Viz confirmed they were reprinting their line of Stardust Crusaders, which I think is fairly obvious result of the recent Jojo fandom explosion thanks to Crunchyroll giving the anime a much larger audience as the first legal source. (Including me) While that is exciting enough alone as it shows the higher ups are noticing Jojo becoming pretty popular in America for the first time, not to mention All Star Battle recently being released in America. However, just yesterday Viz confirmed, they're bringing Phantom Blood over to the US! There had been rumor for a few days, ever since a pre-order for Phantom Blood Vol 1 showed up on Amazon (I was skeptical) and while that page has been taken down, Viz has officially confirmed they are bringing it over! This is super exciting, as not only means that finally another part of the manga will be available legally, but its now very likely that other parts will be brought over! Who knows, maybe someone will license the anime for physical release too! This is just too Jotastic.

Can't find the J-Music thread so I might as well post here. I bought Base Ball Bear's Shin Kyokyu album. It's surprisingly compelling j-rock! I also got the best of AKFG collection, which is great as expected! My ears are happy right now

@Jollykarp - Have you checked out AKFG's Landmark album? Overall it's not as good as the Best of (as expected), but I got at least 5 tracks from it and I still have a few more I need to pick up. Well Then, See You Tomorrow, Bicycle Race, and Railroad are quickly becoming my favorite tracks from AKFG, period.

I had a sample of Landmark before buying and I do admit some of the tracks there are fantastic. I couldn't resist the classics on the Best of though I remember liking Bicycle Race and Clicking My Heels to Love a lot

Finished up a manga called 01. Overall, it was a good idea that was executed poorly.

It centers around a full body controlled virtual reality fighting game called MBZ. 12 year old Nero decides to take part in the game to beat and embarrass the school bully, Yagami (who is an arrogant prodigy at everything in school, and never gets in trouble because of it).

The problem is, it has terrible pacing, and takes 10 chapters to set this up, and when Nero finally does take part in his first game, the fight lasts another 5 chapters...

After that, the pacing gets better as he helps to build a ragtag team of seven players to compete in a big tournament (representing an aging arcade on the verge of death), and finds his first love in the process, but the series abruptly ends the day they show up for the tournament (41 chapters in total), so it feels like it got cancelled before the conclusion, and you never find out how it ends...

@RR529

Aww, too bad it was cancelled. It sounds like it was building up from those initial problems too. Unfinished stories are the worst.

The men who cancelled Barrage should be arrested. That was absolutely criminal.

Toonami Saturday night!

Attack on Titan - Missed it.

Bleach - Oh goodness, I forgot just how stupid these Fullbrings' powers can be. Painful to watch.

Space Dandy - One I've already seen, but a good one.

Naruto Shippuden - Hey, there was actually a decent amount of consistent action tonight. That final bit was pretty cool, too.

One Piece - LOL, that "Sniper King" bit totally made my night! Oh, and what's this? A "Ramen Kempo" martial artist! Sounds like something right out of Ranma 1/2, lol.

Blue Exorcist - Getting back into very akward territory, but the story is interesting...

Black Lagoon - Creepy...

Oh, and they reviewed Wolfenstien: the New Order: 8/10