Media Anime and Manga Thread MK3 - Beware Spoilers

[Reduxion]

anyone here read classroom of the elite or hyouka? thinking of picking them up

 

[bdt2002]

This will probably be the last post I make today on any of these threads. Or at least the last one before dinner. Knowing me I'll be back here in less than a half hour.

So why am I here all of a sudden, you may ask? Excellent question. Until college, I never thought much of anime or manga. A few of my high school friends were into it, but it was little more to them than a time killing hobby. For most of my life up to this point I had convinced myself that people only followed anime and/or manga because they were both popular topics that shared some sort of connection I didn't quite understand. In other words, it was a case of people hopping onto popular trends, something that I wasn't much of a fan of.

This changed significantly when I met my roommate(s) when I moved to college last year, however. The one I share a room with has been a huge fan of Japanese culture for quite some time now, and it also happened to be the case that me and him both had an interest in creative writing. Fast forward to the present day, and I can name multiple popular anime he's introduced me to watching, along the lines of Death Note, Demon Slayer, Akame Ga Kill, and Hellsing (the "Ultimate" version to be specific, I have no clue what the difference is), just to name a few of them. The jury's still out on me buying and starting a manga collection, but that's more so because I'm not allowed to drive on my own yet and the only good book/manga stores aren't that close by my school anyway.

Now that I've started to grow my interest in writing in other ways, and that I've become much more open to branching out into new interests as my old ones start to die out, I can finally understand the appeal of this neat little community of yours. I wasn't just going to watch and read popular stuff, though. As luck would have it, one of, if not my biggest interest period is the topic of neurodiversity. I've talked about my autism diagnosis and other details in different threads, but for the sake of this particular thread, it's probably best if I just cut to the chase.

Provided I most likely won't look into any of this until after exam week (next week) is over so I can study, this post marks the start of my search for recommendations of anime and/or manga (preferably anime if possible, remember what I said about book stores). This is the first time I've taken this "recommendation approach" of mine for something that isn't video games, now that I think about it. I'm specifically looking for anything that has as many of the following as possible. The more of these that are checked off, the better. Thank you very much for your help in advance, and maybe, just maybe, you guys will see me around here more often :)

1. Something with added emphasis on characters and neurodiversity/autism, whether it be main or side character(s)
2. Something that isn't exactly... well, inappropriate (this one's kinda important, I'd likely be watching this stuff at home where my family lives)
3. Something with a story I can relate to or learn from (Example: I really like and can sympathize with a specific character)
4. Something with good music, settings, etc. (The finer details are what separate the good from the greats)
5. This one's optional, but something I could share with my roommate(s) never hurts

Any genre is fine so long as (as many of) these details as possible and especially #2 is met. Thanks again for your help :)

Do yourselves a favor before reading this post. Only bother with going through and reading all of my previous one if you absolutely feel like it, because it’s way too long and perhaps a little too in-depth. Normally I wouldn’t link that post here at all, but I’m doing it anyway because I need to re-use that list I made.

So now onto my actual post. It’s winter break now, and I forgot how much free time I was going to have on nights like this. I’ve been telling my friends I wanted to start and/or catch up on some more shows just to have some more variety in my lineup, as well as for potential free writing inspiration. I’ve been home for about a week now, and I haven’t been able to decide what to watch. Soooo… I’m going to see if I can ask you guys for any recommendations instead. As mentioned above, I’d be interested in checking out shows with any of the following, provided #1 is honestly more of a personal preference

1. Something with added emphasis on characters and neurodiversity/autism, whether it be main or side character(s)
2. Something that isn't exactly... well, inappropriate (this one's kinda important, I'd likely be watching this stuff at home where my family lives)
3. Something with a story I can try and relate to or learn from
4. Something with good music, settings, etc. (The finer details are what separate the good from the greats)
5. This one's optional, but something I could share with my roommate(s) never hurts

Thanks for your help in advance, per usual. I apologize if this creates any confusion, too.

 

[Posho]

Violet Evergarden

 

[QuickBH]

1. Something with added emphasis on characters and neurodiversity/autism, whether it be main or side character(s)
2. Something that isn't exactly... well, inappropriate (this one's kinda important, I'd likely be watching this stuff at home where my family lives)
3. Something with a story I can try and relate to or learn from
4. Something with good music, settings, etc. (The finer details are what separate the good from the greats)
5. This one's optional, but something I could share with my roommate(s) never hurts

Zeta Gundam.

 

[Posho]

Bleach, Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho 100, all gone, reduce to athoms and I'm sadge.

July is looking like the craziest month thus far with Bleach and Jujutsu Kaisen. Demon Slayer in April and somewhere in 2023 we should get the last Attack on Titan season. And for the One Piece fans, we're in for an incredible ride with the chapters that are going to be adapted this year.

 

[Local Dog]

July is looking like the craziest month thus far with Bleach and Jujutsu Kaisen. Demon Slayer in April and somewhere in 2023 we should get the last Attack on Titan season. And for the One Piece fans, we're in for an incredible ride with the chapters that are going to be adapted this year.

Really wonder how they'll do the last AoT season. There's like 9 chapters left to adapt and I doubt they can keep up the pacing of the second part of final season if they're adapting these chapters closely

Don't know if I'll watch it if they adapt these chapters directly. Really despised these last 8 chapters and couldn't believe how shit the ending was. Still hope for an anime-only ending but I doubt that will happen frankly

 

[Fishin]

Bleach, Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho 100, all gone, reduce to athoms and I'm sadge.

Yeah, next season is gonna have a hard act to follow. I looked at the chart and don't see anything I'm really confident about being good.

Though I like how we went straight from Spy x Family to the gay version

 

[Surgo]

Winter 2023 is a great season if you like comedy. On the new front, there's Tomo-chan. On the sequel front, there's Bofuru season 2 and Misfit of Demon King Academy season 2. On the continuing front, Eminence in the Shadow is still running. That's four solid comedy series.

 

[Rugi]

It's still airing but the hidden good show of the season is "Maiko san chi no makanai" which is just about a bunch of cute geishas-in-training talking about cooking food and geisha culture which is honestly what half of my real conversations are like so yeah maybe this one just appeals to me but watch it anyway because Kiyo is a very good chef and she is my child and she does a very good job!!
View attachment 355095

Hi Netflix has made a live action remake of this show and are advertising the crap out of it.
A bunch of mainstream media is now talking about how amazing it is so I'd like to say that "I told you so" and to go watch the anime instead

 

[Rugi]

ANIME 2023 (Stop making isekais):
Isekais:
Isekai nonbiri nouka: Bad. Don't watch.

Benriya Saitou: It starts off as a bunch of silly shorts of a handyman in a weirdly realistic isekai and then gets too serious for its own good

Rougo ni sonaete isekai de (etc): Sick of these long titles. This show puts on the veneer of being your average isekai but quickly reveals its gimmick that the protagonist can warp back into the real world whenever she wants. You'd think this would strip the story of all narrative tension and it kinda does but it makes up for it by slowly revealing just how fucking insane the protagonist is willing to be with her new found powers. Watch her take firearms that she illegally bought in South America into a fantasy world for profit and other funny shenanigans. It is by no means good, but the 'lol hahah what the fuck?' factor makes it a fun watch with friends.

Tondemo skill de meshi (etc): Isekaid Japanese guy cooks mediocre Japanese food and uses this to befriend god. Exceedingly stupid even for isekai standards. It's fine I guess.


OTHER ANIME:

Hyouken: Spiritually an isekai despite having nothing to do with isekais. Mysterious legendary magical warrior now goes to a normal school for normal magical people. The plot of this show is irrelevant what matters is that it looks like it was animated with a budget of bathroom lint and happy meals. The dialogue and voice acting is also awful. It's always bad, but sometimes it's so bad that it's good and there is a twintailed tsundere that spends all her on-screen time talking about insects so it's actually a pretty good show.

Vinland S2: This season is technically watchable without having watched the 1st season but Vinland Saga S1 is peak fiction so you should go watch it anyway. S2 is shaping up to be a bit weaker. However, a bit weaker than one of the best anime of recent times still makes it amazing. If you're even slightly interested in Viking history or historical fiction suffer porn this is the show for you.

Koori zokusei danshi: Literally the blandest romance anime I have ever watched. An ordinary girl falls in love with the guy at her company who happens to have ice powers. They both act like lobotomised ten year olds yet the show is so quiet and the character interactions are so boring that there isn't even any humour to be had. The whole ice powers thing is irrelevant and never goes anywhere. Bad show.

Oniichan wa oshimai!: Weirdo shit. If you've always dreamed of being a transgender middle schooler and want to watch a show with copious amounts of very questionable fan service and awful humour, this is for you. Hourou musuko did this concept better just watch that instead.

Ayakashi triangle: Weirdo shit. If you've always dreamed of being a transgender middle schooler and want to watch a show with copious amounts of very questionable fan service and awful humour, this is for you. Ranma did this concept better like 100 years ago just watch that instead.

Inu ni Nattara Suki na Hito ni Hirowareta: Weirdo shit. If you've always dreamed of being a dog etc etc. Don't watch this one. Please.

New trigun: It's fine. The animation is really good but it's just a generic action show and is missing the soul of the original.

Buddy Daddies!: Yeah yeah gay spyxfamily we've all heard. Give this one a go. I've always thought the child-rearing part of SpyXFamily was pretty weak since Anya is by no means a normal kid and her parents are both hyper-competent. Though the story and moment to moment humour is worse, there is something to be said about Buddy Daddies' dynamic of having two idiot assassins take care of a 4 year old girl who is a realistic 4 year old (a dumbass and unwitting actor of Chaos). Miri is a good girl and everyone calling her annoying has clearly never worked with kids before.

MOU IPPON!: The good show of the season. It's just a generic sports anime about a bunch of girls reforming their high school judo club. However this show is very close to my heart. I was in a judo club in highschool and I went to contests and everything. Seeing judo depicted so lovingly and realistically in an anime really hits all sorts of nostalgia. I know it's a niche recommendation but if you ever did judo or other martial arts growing up, this is a must-watch.

 

[Voltage]

Chapter 1 of JoJoLands goes hard, excellent way to kick of the new part

 

[Morkal]

The Code/Eida arc is finally getting adapted in the Boruto anime, and I am STOKED; Boruto succeeds the best when it hones in on the cyborg/multidimensional diety/sci-fi aspects of its story over the more traditional ninja aspects

 

[Local Dog]

Chapter 1 of JoJoLands goes hard, excellent way to kick of the new part

I just read it, cool premise. Albeit I am really not a fan of the song that the main character's stand references. I know it doesn't sound like a big thing but going from some of the greatest songs ever made to... Fucking Guns 'n Roses... I don't know. That's genuinely the only thing I can criticize though. Very nice start. Seems very lighthearted, but so was Jojolion

Also, after Araki tried to make us Jojo fans gay through big muscular man, he absolutely made huge fucking strides with Dragona

 

[Local Dog]

So I just finished Jojolion (yeah I read Jojolands chapter 1 before finishing part 8, sue me), I have to say, that part was kinda... bad

Spoilers for all of part 8

The stand battles were pretty good for the most part, but I think there was a huge overfocus on the battles with a very distinct lack of character moments and actual development. We see very little of some members of the main cast, Daiya, Hato, Kei, even Joshu and Jobin to a degree, who both lack some critical character development moments, especially Jobin's lack of confrontation with Josuke after the beetle fight is disappointing. Kaato being very important in the ending but getting very little screentime before that doesn't help. Even Norisuke was kinda neglected after the I am a rock arc. Josuke, Yasuho, Tsurigi and Rai are well written, but compared to the very large cast of part 7, where everyone got fantastic character moments, this was just disappointing

The rock humans as antagonists are also so one note. I don't like it in general when a whole fictional race is depicted as evil. If there was some rock human ally of sorts, that would've cool, but all we got were a bunch of asshats. The first wave of them had somewhat good motivations, with Yotsuyu wanting to proof his superiority, Aisho acting out of loyalty after having been betrayed by a human and Damo being interested in money after spending his life in a society that values money so highly, despite him having no real need for it. But the later guys? I think they still wanted to show their superiority and feel insecure due to them being a fallback plan for carbon-based life, but having like 5 characters that all share this pretty weak motivation? The connection between this and them wanting the Locacaca is also not really strongly established

Imagine if Tooru wanted to use the Locacaca to both present himself as a successful person after his former ideas were always rejected and by bridging a gap between carbon and silicon-based life. We saw the Locacaca made people become part rock. The fact that he didn't kill Yasuho despite this being in the nature of rock humans could've alluded to this. His philosophy of dreams and memories would've aligned really nicely. After having villains with amazing motivations like Kira, Pucci and Valentine, this is just weak

Wonder of U is also such a cool stand but the final battle with it is really anticlimatic. Josuke asspulls a new ability, doesn't even directly encounter the main villain or have any kind of meaningful interaction with him. He just shot him twice over a long distance and that's it. The ambulance scene just felt like a way to have a last moment solution for Josuke not encountering Tooru directly after he was revealed as the main villain. It's also pretty a pretty bad scene. Similarly, my above mentioned point of Jobin never fighting Josuke directly: his death was so dumb. Fully anticlimatic and he felt somewhat unnecessary in the end. Despite him being a beloved character, he really didn't have that much of a distinct impact on the story or the ending. He really could've been anyone, all he did was do some supporting villain shit and steal the grafted branch

The art also deteriorated pretty badly in the last third. Some panels look great but compared to earlier Jojolion and especially SBR, the consistency just isn't there

Finally, it's all so disconnected. I know that Araki's intention for part 4 was to not have a fully connected story and just have fun adventures in Morioh, which is what he wanted to actually do in part 8, but part 4 had a theme of community and the good heart of a small town, whilst part 8's theme was something about following the flow or something? It doesn't have anything to it that part 4 did well. We don't see any minor characters returning and it barely even feels like we're in the same location throughout the part

Honestly just a huge letdown. I enjoyed it at parts but as a whole... Probably my least-favorite part, even if it does a lot of things objectively better than the first three parts. Maybe it will grow on me, I didn't like part 5 at first too, but I kinda doubt it

 

[Local Dog]

Triple post, woooh

I changed most of my opinion on Jojolion. It's hard to explain but as I let it sink in further, the themes of flow, family, human connection and the entire development of Josuke with how he's opposed to Rock Humans have really grown on me. If I was to reread it, I would probably enjoy it throughout. I hope part 9 will cover some of the loose threads of Jojolion. I would put it somewhere in the middle in my ranking of Jojo parts

 

[Rugi]

MOU IPPON!: The good show of the season. It's just a generic sports anime about a bunch of girls reforming their high school judo club. However this show is very close to my heart. I was in a judo club in highschool and I went to contests and everything. Seeing judo depicted so lovingly and realistically in an anime really hits all sorts of nostalgia. I know it's a niche recommendation but if you ever did judo or other martial arts growing up, this is a must-watch.



View attachment 491128

I know I said it's the best show of the season but I still undersold it. The fight scenes these past few episodes have been insane with twists and turns and fantastic direction I would never expect from a fairly realistic slice of lifey judo anime. This show is gonna stick with me for a long time