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finished 'revolutionary girl utena' yesterday and am obsessed. actually started it like a month ago and made it to episode 27 but then quit (i loved it at first but started to get impatient with it). glad i picked it back up though since 28 on was hit after hit, especially the last few episodes, and the later sections even redeemed earlier points i forced myself through when i was watching them
love utena, definitely reccomend picking up the movie - especially from a visual standpoint, still get goosebumps from the opening scene with the bells
I think watching utena is probably the first time I noticed the way that older productions influence what's coming out today and got me to engage with anime on a much deeper level and become interested with the people creating it. Speaking of which, I wasn't posting much when it was coming out but I really liked Eizouken because it's basically an articulation of everything I love about anime, and puts across thoughts and ideas that at times I find hard to articulate. If it encourages anyone to appreciate that anime is produced by real people who work hard to create something for us then I think that's great.
kanji: ultimate survivor
parasyte
liar game (manga)
terror in resonance/zankyou no terror
monster
steins gate
psycho pass
made in abyss
fate:zero
re:zero
death note
code geass
future diary/mirai nikki
danganronpa
your name/kimi no na wa
Speed Grapher is criminally underrated and underviewed. Even though MAL doesn't officially have the tag on it I would suggest you try it out if you want psychological thriller with mystery and a bit of horror sprinkled in.
Wow I'm a dumbass, I can't believe I forgot about Akagi and Ultimate Survivor Kaiji. Both are extremely intense survivor gambling based shows made by the same mangaka, director and studio. If you're looking something that will leave you wanting more at the end of each episode look no further than either of these shows. Kaiji was made several years later, is more refined and better known but both are fantastic for someone looking for psychological thriller.
Edit: I should probably warn you that Kaiji is a lot easier to watch as the gambling is based of rock-paper-scissors while Akagi is based of the infinitely more complex mahjong. Akagi takes some getting used to whereas Kaiji is much more accessible to a western viewer.
It's the end of another month of my unhealthy level of anime consumption! Work hours got reduced down to 4 days a week so I had more time on my hands to blow on viewing my endless backlog. With the announcement of so many shows being postponed or delayed from the spring and summer seasons there has never been a better time to try and catch up instead of treading water with the current season. Of course I don't watch new shows because I prefer to binge things that have a least 2 seasons if they are not completed works. However I'm extremely interested in Darwin's Game as I'm a sucker for survival games but I haven't been able to get a good answer on whether or not the cour wrapped up nicely because I have heard there is another season in the works.
Gonna put my watched list in spoiler tags from now on because they just keep getting longer KEY Highly Satisfying Very Enjoyable
Average Waste of Time Dropped Recommended Re-Watch Must Watch Once
Sorcerous Stabber Orphen (6/10) Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: Revenge [ep. 4] (4/10) Seven Senses of the Re'Union (4/10) HELLS (6/10) Air (4/10) A Place Further Than The Universe (10/10) Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody (5/10) Bleach [ep. 109->127] (6/10) Bleach [ep. 138->146, 150->167] (8/10)
Beatless + Beatless: Final Stage (4/10, 4/10) Angel Cop (3/10)
Bleach Movie 3: Fade to Black (6/10) Bleach [ep. 190->203, 206->212] (6/10) Dororo (7/10) Happy Sugar Life [ep. 4] (1/10)
Ringing Bell (6/10)
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs (5/10) Princess Principal (8/10)
Night on the Galactic Railroad (5/10) Iria: Zeiram The Animation (7/10)
Fuse: Memoirs of a Huntress (6/10) Pilot Candidate [ep. 3] (3/10) Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok (4/10) Bleach [ep. 215->226] (6/10) Karakuri Circus (6/10) Promare (9/10) Gunbuster + Diebuster (8/10, 9/10) Perfect Blue (10/10)
Battery: The Animation (4/10) UQ Holder! (4/10)
Lily C.A.T. (6/10) Girls' Last Tour (9/10) Allison & Lillia (3/10) Bleach [ep. 266->286] (8/10)
Iroduku: The World in Colors (5/10)
Sea Prince and the Fire Child (5/10) Bleach [ep. 288->302] (7/10) Bleach the Movie 4: Hell Verse (7/10) Bleach [ep. 306->310, 342] (9/10) Kokoro Connect + Michi Random (7,10, 7/10) Flying Witch (6/10)
Bleach [ep. 343->354, 356->366] (6/10) Tytania (3/10) Kabuki-bu! (5/10) Area 88(9/10) Cheating Craft (3/10) Humanity Has Declined (7/10) Millennium Actress(8/10)
Blue Seed [s. 1 & 2] (7/10, 6/10) Tokyo Godfathers (10/10) The Legend of Mahjong Akagi (7/10)
Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth (8/10)
Notes
Finished up Bleach just in time for the announcement that the anime is going to start back up again next year? Not sure how hyped to feel because the last arc, while very subpar, was a nice buildup. The expectation that the story will continue with the groundwork that was laid is a lot more intriguing than 'hurdur read the manga'
Re-watched Perfect Blue and decided to go ahead an watch everything by Satoshi Kon. Millennium Actress was good but not really in my wheelhouse and Tokyo Godfathers is like 1b to Perfect Blue's 1a, I'm undecided at this moment. Next up is Paranoia Agent and the Memories compilation with Paprika wrapping things up.
I also went on a bit of a throwback run with stuff like Gunbuster, Area 88, Galactic Railroad, Ringing Bell and Harlock: Arcadia all crossed off my watchlist. I'm not an advocate for Amazon Prime Video but they do have a nice selection of older series and movies. If you didn't pick up on it, about 1/3 of my list this month is on APV, been trying to finish off my list on the streaming service because it's much smaller than what I have racked up on CR, Hulu and Netflix.
Brand New Animal subs for 7-12 came out a couple days ago. Either it's only a 12-ep series or there's going to be a timeskip or something for more later because most things are wrapped up and finished at the end of #12. Overall a fun series but they really hit the accelerator on these last 6 episodes and were going way too fast by 11-12.
I really think they could've easily cut out the "purebred alan" stuff completely and replaced it with something like "it turns out micheru and nazuna were experiments for animal transformation and alan uses the perfected version on himself, including shirou's god blood, to give the final boss powerup". I really don't know why they even dumped that "actually there was an illuminati controlling the humans all along" unless they were hinting at a part 2.
I'm not a fan of the "beastmen go huge and berserk" stuff either (are we supposed to still be sympathetic for them when this shows how dangerous they are???) but that would require a bit more rewriting to remove.
Either way I just finished watching One Outs. It only covers the first half of the manga's story (of which I haven't read yet). 25 episodes.
Tokuchi Toua is a gambling master whose favourite game is One Outs, a a simplified form of baseball that consists of only a batter and a pitcher. Hiromichi Kojima, the star player of the weakest Japanese baseball team, the Lycaons, is desperate to find a new pitcher for his team and catches wind of Tokuchi's exploits. He tries to take him on but loses to simple fastballs. After exploiting the rules in a rematch, Kojima beats Tokuchi after making a bet with him to take the Lycaons to the championship. Tokuchi forms a contract with the Lycaons' owner where he will get 5 million yen for each batter he strikes out, but will pay the club 50 million for every point scored against him.
The plot follows Tokuchi's journey through the Japanese baseball league. Tokuchi's only pitching technique is a standard fastball, the owner tries to set him up for profits, and he has to contend against pro-baseballers and teams all while trying to earn a living and bring his team to victory. One Outs is not your typical sports anime; I wouldn't watch it if it were. I didn't know much about baseball before watching this, so don't think that this is a barrier to entry. What makes this show so captivating is Tokuchi's methods of getting out of what seems like impossible situations. Nothing is out of the ordinary and could technically be pulled off in a real baseball game, but it's all about Tokuchi's ingenious planning. His opponents are not all imbeciles either, which keeps tension alive.
If you like Liar Game, it's by the same author, so you know what I mean when I say this shit's dank.
If you haven't read Liar Game, Liar Game's great but it's manga-only. It's got the same kind of mind games as Death Note. M2H you would like this.
It's been a few days that I started to read a new manga entitled musuko ga kawaikute shitaganai maozoku no hahayoa, honestly, It's one the cutest thing I ever readid, I recommend it to you if you just wanna have a good time ^^ !
Ps: don't worry the picture below isn't a spoil, it is the start of the manga.
God do I love the impact that causes this trailer.
I've read the manga and they have small shots from the latest manga episodes, which basically means nothing for anime-only's, but hell do I feel like a smartass analyzing every detail.
The anime has a different studio, but honestly this trailer leads me to believe it will look great, and even better once they do a Blu-Ray release.
Attack on Titan: The Final Season releases in October; that's all the information available at the moment
God do I love the impact that causes this trailer.
I've read the manga and they have small shots from the latest manga episodes, which basically means nothing for anime-only's, but hell do I feel like a smartass analyzing every detail.
The anime has a different studio, but honestly this trailer leads me to believe it will look great, and even better once they do a Blu-Ray release.
Attack on Titan: The Final Season releases in October; that's all the information available at the moment
Here's another summary of how much time I wasted invested watching anime last month. I was a bit bored with trying to finish off my Prime watchlist so I decided to start the month off the right way with a K-On! rewatch. This was necessitated by the fact that I still had not seen the Movie that caps off the show ending. So I decided to do the thing correctly and just binged everything K-On!, it's one of my favorite SoL shows so this was an easy choice.
As for the coming month, I finally went on unemployment so HunterxHunter (2011) is going to be my big shounen watch of the month with other stuff interspersed.
KEY Highly Satisfying Very Enjoyable
Average Waste of Time Dropped Recommended Re-watch Must Watch Once
K-On! [s. 1 & 2] + K-On!: Live House & Keikaku (9/10, 9/10, 8/10, 7/10) K-On!: The Movie(10/10) Getbackers (4/10) Fireworks, Should We See It From the Side or the Bottom? (7/10) Trava: Fist Planet (7/10) Redline(10/10) Wolf Children(10/10) Isekai: Cheat Magician (3/10)
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (7/10) Paranoia Agent (8/10) School Days(3/10)
Back Street Girls: Gokudolls (5/10)
Forest of Piano [s. 1 & 2] (6/10, 5/10) Blame! Movie (7/10) Flavors of Youth (8/10) Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor(9/10) Kaiji: Against All Rules (8/10)
Bananya (4/10) My Sister, My Writer [ep. 2] (2/10) Akashic Record of Bastard Magic Instructor (3/10) Paprika(8/10)
Love and Lies (6/10) Photon: The Idiot Adventures (6/10) Project A-Ko(7/10) Project A-Ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group (6/10)
Project A-Ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody (5/10)
Project A-Ko 4: Final (6/10)
Cybersix (5/10) Altair: A Record of Battles (7/10)
Black Jack: The Movie (6/10) Honobono Log (6/10)
DearS (4/10) Monster(9/10) Lu Over the Wall (7/10) Spriggan (4/10) Ingress: The Animation (2/10)
Fate/Extra: Last Encore + Illustrias Tendousetsu (5/10, 5/10) Fate/Apocrypha [ep. 4] (3/10) High Score Girl [s. 1 & 2] (7/10, 8/10) Hero Mask [s. 1 & 2] (4/10, 2/10)
Patema Inverted (6/10) Baki the Grappler [s. 1 & 2] (7/10, 6/10) Baki [s. 1] (6/10)
Umamusume: Pretty Derby (5/10) Aggressive Retsuko [s. 1 & 2] + We Wish You a Metal Christmas (7/10, 7/10, 6/10)
Mary and the Witches Flower (6/10) Revisions [ep. 3] (3/10) Cells at Work(7/10) Miss Hokusai (8/10) Dorohedoro (6/10)
Grimm's Notes The Animation (5/10)
Notes
The K-On Movie was as good as advertised and easily capped the entire series with grace, laughter and lots of kawaii chef's kiss
Redline is my all time favorite anime movie and I've seen it nearly a dozen times that I can count. So when I finally checked Trava: Fist Planet off my list, it was only natural to follow up with Redline. If you've never seen it, I vehemently urge you to do so. It's the pinnacle of style over substance and nearly bankrupted Studio Madhouse as a result of the entire thing being drawn in 1's.
Mamoru Hosoda's reputation proceeds him and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a favorite so I decided to watch his entire catalog (more on that next month) starting with arguably his best work, Wolf Children. This one smacked me right in the feels; made me never want to have kids, and also marvel at Hana's fortitude in raising such difficult children.
Speaking of Director's with reputations, I completed my run on Satoshi Kon's works. Fucking RIP man, the lost potential as nobody made anime like he did. Paranoia Agent was a deep think while re-watching Paprika gave me more perspective on the mind bending visual transitions.
School Days is infamous and for good reason. This show was a train wreck almost from the beginning, with a lot of poor directing and subpar animation but it was a train wreck you can't look away from; thus the confusing score. The ending had me laughing hysterically but I can't in good conscience rate this dumpster fire higher than a 3. Best ending to a VN series I've witnessed thus far (looking forward to Steins;Gate).
So there is a lot of CGI anime on Netflix and I decided to muckrake that shit and find out if any of it is worthwhile; the verdict isn't good. High Score Girl, Blame! Movie and Knights of Sidonia (just wrapped up a few days ago) are the only watchable of Netflix long list of 'Original Content'. Don't even waste your time with Sword Gai, Revisions, Ingress or Hero Mask, unless you're a masochist, while Forest of Piano was passable but also had some bizarre looking CGI whenever characters actually, y'know played the piano.
Monster has been near the top of my PTW list for months now and so I dutifully binged it over the course of Memorial Day weekend. It was a bit of a slog at times, and the massive cast of characters require patience to become invested in but the pay off at the end is so, so worth it. Easily one of the best series I've watched, though it did feel more like a western show than an anime, perhaps the setting and lack of any of the usual anime tropes is the cause; highly recommend.
While I was on my Netflix tear, I dipped my toes into the Baki pool and enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately it quickly became clear that I was missing a lot of info about various characters and so went back and easily completed the original two seasons of Baki the Grappler from 2001. It isn't as clean looking as the newer Netflix season, but what it lacks in visual appeal it quickly makes up in substance. Understanding the genesis of Baki's feud with his father as a thirteen year old is paramount to the interactions they two characters have during the new Baki season as well as the just released 2nd season of Baki (already completed but that will come next month). If you like beef cakes beating the ever loving shit out of each other, this show is for you.
Lastly, Dorohedoro was a carnal delight for the eyes. I wanted to score it higher, but the abrupt and confusing nature of the first three episodes and the pseudo cliffhanger ending left me feeling almost windswept. By the time I knew what I was watching and thoroughly enjoying myself, it was already over pending more seasons to come. This one is completely character driven so buyers beware it's not for everyone.
anime noob here (only about a year and some watching, ill maybe link my MAL account). FINALLY got around to demon slayer the other day and i just wanna say the animation is beautiful and everything so far is just a 10/10. only 10 episodes in too, im really damn excited to see where this is headed
The last thing I watched was the Azur Lane anime adaptation but it wasn't good (still enjoyed it) so I feel like there's something else I could be doing to clear my mind. I was thinking of picking back up either VOTOMS or Zeta Gundam but I'm not sure.
Either way I just finished watching One Outs. It only covers the first half of the manga's story (of which I haven't read yet). 25 episodes.
Tokuchi Toua is a gambling master whose favourite game is One Outs, a a simplified form of baseball that consists of only a batter and a pitcher. Hiromichi Kojima, the star player of the weakest Japanese baseball team, the Lycaons, is desperate to find a new pitcher for his team and catches wind of Tokuchi's exploits. He tries to take him on but loses to simple fastballs. After exploiting the rules in a rematch, Kojima beats Tokuchi after making a bet with him to take the Lycaons to the championship. Tokuchi forms a contract with the Lycaons' owner where he will get 5 million yen for each batter he strikes out, but will pay the club 50 million for every point scored against him.
The plot follows Tokuchi's journey through the Japanese baseball league. Tokuchi's only pitching technique is a standard fastball, the owner tries to set him up for profits, and he has to contend against pro-baseballers and teams all while trying to earn a living and bring his team to victory. One Outs is not your typical sports anime; I wouldn't watch it if it were. I didn't know much about baseball before watching this, so don't think that this is a barrier to entry. What makes this show so captivating is Tokuchi's methods of getting out of what seems like impossible situations. Nothing is out of the ordinary and could technically be pulled off in a real baseball game, but it's all about Tokuchi's ingenious planning. His opponents are not all imbeciles either, which keeps tension alive.
If you like Liar Game, it's by the same author, so you know what I mean when I say this shit's dank.
If you haven't read Liar Game, Liar Game's great but it's manga-only. It's got the same kind of mind games as Death Note. M2H you would like this.
finished 'cardcaptor sakura' yesterday which i loved. the animation is excellent, it has a great balance of magical journey and slice of life, the characters are a joy to watch (except for mr. terada who i booed every time he was onscreen, tho luckily they toned down the stuff w/ him and rika significantly from the manga from what i've read), the fight scenes were way more interesting than i expected them to be, and the sakura card arc remained really good (was expecting there to be a drop off after the clow arc since that was the main objective). if anyone knows any other classic magical girl shows worth a watch do lmk, have been having fun with them
also watched 'dorohedoro' right after finishing CCS since it was short, i didn't have much to do, and the netflix preview seemed pretty cool and really enjoyed it :) v cool character designs, violent in a good way and had a surprisingly easy time keeping track of the lore stuff while i was watching. just sad i'll have to wait a million years for s2...
update: currently reading the manga. was not tryna wait at all
(except for mr. terada who i booed every time he was onscreen, tho luckily they toned down the stuff w/ him and rika significantly from the manga from what i've read)
Digimon Adventure: (2020) is coming back with Episode 4 starting on the 28th. I wasn't sure about the animation quality at first, but I take back what I said bad about it. Even if it were "outclassed," I would still ignore it in favor of the writing. Just like the 1999 series, it's not actually designed with younger kids in mind, but rather the shonen audience. We're even going to see the Partner Digimon's 6th levels of evolution by Episode 5 or so, even if it's in a flashback of a sort. I don't know why the western localizations still insist on treating it as a kids' show.
What is the canonical reason that the Gear users keep coming up with new songs every season?
Maria and Tsubasa sure, they're real idols, they need to invent new material, I can buy that. But the others? Once they have a song that they know works, why not just stick with it? Spend your time practicing punches and kicks, not song lyrics. And who is even devising these new songs for optimal phonic gain without Ryoko around? I need answers
I was reading the Wikipedia page for The Tatami Galaxy by chance and stumbled across this little tidbit:
In June 2020, it was announced the novel will receive a sequel titled Yojō-Han Time Machine Blues (Tatami Time Machine Blues) which will be released on July 29, 2020.
Obviously this isn’t an announcement of any anime adaptation, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that we might get one more glimpse into that wonderful 4.5-tatami multiverse.
