Media Anime and Manga Thread MK3 - Beware Spoilers

RODAN

Banned deucer.
RODAN's Annual top 10 OPs of the year list. woot woot. will have webm links to all OPs in the post

#10 - Kekkai Sensen & Beyond - Fake Town
kekkai sensen continues to be as stylish as ever, and this is also the first appearance of unison square garden on the list. the ED for this show is great too, by the same guy who did Viva Namida from space dandy. https://a.pomfe.co/kxyflll.webm <- the ED

#9 - Garo: Vanishing Line - EMG
really cool animation here, awesome use of black and white and the song is JAM PROJECT at their most Jammy. perfectly ties in with the feel, aesthetic of the show.

#8 Youjo Senki - Jingo Jungle
this show is very ugly, but the op is kick ass. a show about loli hitler really needs something punchy to get you in the mood and myth&roid really hit that mark. i generally dont even like myth&roid but this song is fucking great.

#7 Kemono Friends - Welcome to Japari Park!
havent actually watched this show yet, but the OP is one of the catchiest of the year and has been stuck in my head forever so I can't justify leaving it off this list.

#6 Onihei - Onihei: Edo wo Hashiru
this one is purely aesthetic based. the way the jazz goes with the relatively simple visuals really stands out to me. this is so different from everything on the list.

#5 Re:Creators - gravityWall and sh0ut
both the recreators ops are awesome. i fucking love hiroyuki sawano. huge fanboy of him, every song he touches is instant gold for me, plus the insanely high budget of the show make this one of the more impressive OPs of the year.

#4 Inuyashiki - My Hero
theres something about MAN ON A MISSION that is so inherently charming. it reminds me of the early 2000s in the best way. this is corny as fuck, but its so fun guys... only reason i didn't have this higher is the CGI. I hate cgi....

#3 Welcome to the Ballroom - Invisible Sensation
unison square garden strikes again. this is their best OP this year, of a year where they did quite a fair bit. i love the visuals in this OP too, theres something visceral about it that i can't really put my finger on

#2 ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka - Shadow and Truth
i LOVE stylish OPs. and this and #1 are easily the most stylish of the year. this song is just so fun too and counter balances the slow and methodical pace of the show. btw watch acca if you havent, one of the best anime of teh year

#1 Warau Salesman NEW - Don't
this show is mostly garbage. but holy FUCK where did this OP come from. it sounds and looks like something youd see in a shaft show like monogatari, but its on some nothing show like warau salesman. there is some incredible style to this, incredibly interesting and unique
 
Made in Abyss OP was really good overall I loved the show and it was my pick for anime of the season.
This season I picked up Black Clover, 3 Gatsu Lion 2, Houseki no Kuni, and Kino No Taibi.

Black Clover: This one is probably the only anime I wish I didn't pick up. It's absolutely dated and just feels like a poor mans Naruto. It has all the typical Shounen Tropes but does not do anything with them and blatantly just tells you "hey this is a generic shounen enjoy it for what it is." If you just want to mindlessly enjoy decent action scenes than you might get something out of this.

3 Gatsu Lion 2: I loved the first season a lot shaft can honestly do no wrong when it comes to pure atmosphere, very cozy very enjoyable to watch.

Houseki no Kuni: I picked this up for aesthetic/meme b I didn't think i'd enjoy this show. I hate CGI and that's mainly why I could never get into RWBY. However, this anime has grown on me for the first 4 episodes so far I've pretty much don't mind it at all. Best girl is the Slug.

Kino No Taibi: I never watched the original anime adaption so I can't really gauge how it compares but i've absolutely adored this show from the start. This is honestly a high contender for AOTS.

I'm open to picking up more shows what should I be looking into; any suggestions?
 

breh

強いだね
Inuyashiki is like hilariously bad on the art front. I like its plot but you can tell whenever shit's about to go down because they can't animate the transformation scenes without CG, so when suddenly somebody's face goes all clay it's jarring and uncomfortable. Either way, definitely worth watching.

I don't like episode 4 and it's a lot more fucked up than the rest of the show has been up to this point.
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
yeah ep 4 of inuyashiki was very bad. nothing in it made sense at all and the animation was super jank, hope it was just a temporarily stumbling block
 
Shoujo shuumatsu ryokou is the Rugiest show in the world and I strongly recommend it to anybody who is a fan of the more chill slice of life shows
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
lets get a non seasonal discussion going. first of all how would you guys feel about a community watch of a show. like weekly 1-3 eps depending on the length.

secondarily: how would you feel about discussion questions being posted ITC from time to time? (stuff like, how much do you value animation in your anime?)
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
lets get a non seasonal discussion going. first of all how would you guys feel about a community watch of a show. like weekly 1-3 eps depending on the length.

secondarily: how would you feel about discussion questions being posted ITC from time to time? (stuff like, how much do you value animation in your anime?)
I’d be down for both of those. Did you have any shows in mind re: group watch?
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
thinking something like a Yuasa show such as: Kaiba, or Kemonozume for the group watch. Something with a little meat to it that warrants discussion.
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
3-gatsu s2 is airing currently and if you havent seen the original series i would highly recommend it. its one of the most touching, well directed stories about a relatively normal life. its seriously such a relatable show. also the direction/ost is absolutely incredible, but its by shaft so you can expect that.
 
I've seen all the anime suggested so far except for Kemonozume, but idk if I even have time to follow along for a group watch. But for now, I'll suggest one of personal favorites, Haibane Renmei, for the group watch.

edit: actually, i haven't seen the rock lee anime either lol
 
The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl/Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome was really good, it's a movie by basically the same people that did Tatami Galaxy
 

Acklow

I am always tired. Don't bother me.
Hi there, I haven't posted in this thread in a while so I figured I'd give you guys a look into what I've been reading and my thoughts on each series:

Goblin Slayer: Just gonna start off the bat by with this one. I love this manga. It's gritty, and it knows its tempo. The mangaka Kagyu Kumo isn't afraid of gore or violence or strong themes. Goblin Slayer is about its titular character, the Goblin Slayer, who is on a quest of unending vengeance towards goblins and he does not say no to any given opportunity to mutilate, decapitate, poison or do any other tortuous things to these creatures - and for good measure too. The goblins in this world are rapists, murderers, and disgusting vile creatures that breed like rats. As a result of this, a seemingly minor creature in modern fantasy stories turns into a nightmare for even the most powerful of heroes. In fact, in the latest translated chapter (chapter 18), one of the strongest heroes, who is basically a super priestess employs Goblin Slayer to get rid of her city's infestation because she literally is afraid of doing it herself. I rate this manga a 8/10 and only because there were a couple chapters that felt like filler and were leaning towards the moe side of manga as opposed to being consistently gritty like the rest of the content. Read it. You will enjoy it.

Munou na Nana: There are few mystery Manga that really ever tend to surprise me. I remember reading through Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, which is my most favorite Manga of all time, and thinking damn, this is a good story. Munou na Nana, isn't on the level of Umineko of sheer mind-bending fuckery, but it gets close. What Munou na Nana is basically about is a group of Danganronpa power-level students with special abilities (more supernatural than DR, albeit) that are on an island at the most prestigious school in the world. The goal of the school is to equip these students with the training necessary to fight off the enemies of mankind - the mysterious force that is often unseen and indiscriminate in its victims. The story mostly follows the protagonist who attempts to defeat the Enemies of Humanity through the use of intelligence and manipulation. I rate this manga 9/10 because of how consistent it is in working with the major plotline and being able to stay on course for narrative as well as the great plot twists thrown around and good use of strong characters.

Sheriff Evan's Lies: I remember talking about a comedy Manga that I'm pretty sure is getting serialized as an Anime, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai - Tensaitachi no Renai Zunou etc... That was a great romcom that had a really strong-midgame but has kind of fallen off in terms of its humor. Sheriff Evan's Lies is much like Kaguya in that it is very much a romcom, except it has a couple things going for it that Kaguya-sama has difficulty expanding upon, and that is its setting and cast. Kaguya takes place in modern-day Japan at a school, so it relies on a moderate cast of characters to drive the story and its humor. A lot of the jokes in more recent chapters tend to feel more or less un-inspired, recycling tropes that most romcoms tend to devolve into. Sheriff Evan's Lies on the other hand takes place in the old American West, where cowboys and robbers were commonplace. Evan's cast is very small, limited to roughly three to four recurring characters, with only two ever showing up in every chapter, Sheriff Evans, and his rival and love interest, Bounty Hunter Phoebe Oakley. The strength in the comedy lies in its ability to play up tropes that we see in modern day romcoms but adding a western twist to it that brings a breath of fresh air to the genre. Its lightheartedness and willingness to play both Evans and Oakley for complete fools gives it a reminiscence of Kaguya's first twenty or so chapters which I personally enjoyed. Since it is a romcom, you may not necessarily enjoy it but please give it a shot as I give it a 9/10 in the RomCom genre.

Violence Action: See my avatar. Notice the background? Kill Bill much, right? Yeah this is basically Kill Bill the manga, except the main character is a college age sweetie that kicks ass. I rate this one a 9/10 because goddamn my waifu knows how to get shit done.

Tenkuu Shinpan: Not sure if this will ever become an anime, but this is a great story that is as weird and wild as it is mysterious. It's difficult to really compare this manga to something different except that it feels like its trying to be a Battle Royale without the whole "this is a GAME BATTLE THING" thrown right into your face. The whole premise is a girl gets sent into a weird dimension where the everything takes place on the top of a skyline. People wearing masks act like zombies and try to kill the girl, but when their mask gets ripped off, some sort of a suicide program overrides their ability to think and they throw themselves off the building. The story continues with this whole idea of people trying to "get closer to God" and their having power over the masks who are considered "angels". So far the story is 193 chapters in and I'm still kind of unsure who the heck is behind all of it, but the strong cast of characters and the gritty atmosphere has kept up pretty well. I rate this one a 7/10. Go check it out if post-apocalypticesque shit is up your alley.

Otome Sensou: While not everyone will like historical Manga, Otome Sensou really stood out to me because of where and when it takes place: Poland during the start of the Bohemian War (1420 in case you didn't know). The main character, Sarka, is raped and left for dead amongst her town's corpses but is picked up by one of the most legendary generals of all time, Jan Sizka. In case you didn't know, Sizka is infamous for being one of the few commanding officers in world history that never lost a single battle. The story follows Sarka as she joins Sizka's ragtag band and is trained up as a child soldier. The art style is a bit wonky and not your usual art style for Manga but that really allows the intricate designs of apparel from that era to shine. I highly recommend this manga and I give it an 8/10 for teaching me a thing or ten about Polish history (which I can really relate to because of my Russian heritage).

Our Lonely War: This manga has been slow going with only 3 chapters so far and I think only one chapter published monthly. If you are looking for a Mecha manga to get depression, this is for you. Nothing about Our Lonely War says "You'll be happy, don't worry the main characters have hope!" Nope. Instead the mangaka, Erubo smacks you in the face with a really heavy hitting introductory chapter that makes you wish you hadn't picked this manga up. I am not sure what direction this manga is going to take, but I rate it 7/10 so far because muh feels and wishing I had the courage to actually be emo and cut myself but I'm too terrified of blood so I won't ever do that lol.

Yakusoku No Neverland: Some people on MAL compare this to Attack on Titan. It is nothing like Attack on Titan. Sure, the story is slow as fuck to progress, but that's because it's rich in exposition and is often times just straight up chilling. The premise is basically a bunch of orphans living a good life in the orphanage they grew up in, except they are forbidden from ever leaving. I hate saying that I won't spoil it, but I honestly won't. Read it. It's a good 9/10 in my books and the main character is actually likeable unlike Erin and you won't feel like you want to punch their goddamn face everytime you see it unlike Erin.



I also noticed that there are a couple manga that I've been reading that are going to be anime:

Death March: Don't watch it. It's bad. I've been following it for a while, hoping that it will get good but it's basically another dude gets sucked into a fantasy dimension and levels up his abilities over time and acquires a big harem and there aren't any male characters that join the main cast at all so it fucking sucks kind of manga. The anime will likely not be any different. It's bad. Just don't. This shit's like 4 or 5/10 level shit.

Grancrest Senki: It's okay. It's a Fantasy Shounen, with a weak male hero and a strong and smart female lead that has a mixture of political feudalism and fantasy magic. It hasn't gotten far in fanslation so it's difficult to ascertain whether or not the story will become amazing or not. Keep this one on your radars though, folks. 7/10 so far.

Poputepipikku: This one's become popular as a 4koma. I mean, if you haven't seen screenpics from various panels from this 4koma or at the very least seen people with these fucking annoying ass avatars, then you're living under a rock. This 4koma is popular because it's a fucking ride. While some jokes fall flat, overall the its strength lies in it's absolute randomness and simple art design. I am 100% unsure how in the world this got approved to become an actual show, so if anyone decides to brave this one, let me know how it turns out because this ones a coinflip imo. ???/10, though the few memes that I caught when reading it makes it like an 8/10 if I had to hard-rate it.


So yeah, that's just an update of what I've been reading so far. Highly recommend Munou na Nana and Violence Action out of all of them, as those two are my favorites atm.
 

vonFiedler

I Like Chopin
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
So there was a Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya movie called Oath Under Snow and I kept seeing headlines like "this is the most fate fate adaptation yet" and "this is the best shirou has ever been in animation" and yep yes I can concur these things now. Sure, the rules are different, it has almost none of the characters, and the action is an afterthought..... ......but everything ELSE is right and hot damn is it right. It's so good I hate that I ties in so hard to Prisma Illya when it could have easily been standalone. It's not perfect movie. Like... I'm left with so many questions about the villains... but at least I HAVE questions instead of not giving a fuck like with Apocrypha. 10/10 would recommend. PROBABLY better than presage flower. Subs out by Beast Lair. Not as fucking horrendous as their Hollow Ataraxia translation, but pretty amateur still.

"I guess I've just gotten used to losing things." Fucking chills man.
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Been a while since I've posted here; time to comment on some shows:

Made in Abyss
Personal rating: 5/10
Critical rating: 6/10
How to watch: Binge to make the middle few episodes more bearable.

Made in Abyss is one of those shows where honestly it promises so much and then comes up short with what it actually offers. There are a handful of genuinely great episodes in there–episodes 1 and 10 being the key examples here–and yet at its worst it is very dull and mediocre. I didn't like episodes 11 and 13; I felt that episode 10 was going to mark a turning point for the show, and while the backstory we got for Nanachi in episode 12 was definitely very good, the way that it actually presented the end of the mini-arc was just... idk, it tried to make it sad and emotional but instead just ended up being annoying and milked it excessively. We were given 1 episode of backstory explaining Nanachi's relationship with Mitty, but they didn't give me enough time or backstory to allow me to feel close enough to the character to justify the sheer excess of screen time that the annoying wailing was given in my mind. Honestly it's just very middling on the whole, and while its world and the concepts it presents have me more than invested enough to watch season 2 when it (eventually) releases, I just feel kinda let down on the whole.

Cowboy Bebop
Personal rating: 9/10
Critical rating: 8/10
How to watch: Doesn't matter really; just watch conjoined episodes in the same sitting.

Cowboy Bebop has presented me with an issue that I don't think any show has ever presented me with before in that it has left me feeling totally unsure about how I want to rate it from a critical standpoint. While I have given it an 8/10 just as a kind of compromise rating, I think this comes in large part down to the episodic nature of the show combined with the large variability in actual story quality from episode to episode causing issues with regards to my ability to actually assess it on an overall basis. It presents a lot of concepts and tells us the stories of a lot of characters, but it fails to follow up on a lot of these concepts or doesn't do enough with them (or resolves them in an unsatisfying manner) a lot of the time, and it results in it being a bit frustrating to reach the end of the show, and I think this is a side effect of the way that all of these concepts are presented. It has a lot of very good individual episodes (the best one is Speak like a Child) and yet it just doesn't all fall into place in the same way as a whole. That said though, the show is still very strong and something I would thoroughly recommend to everyone.

My Hero Academia Season 2
Personal rating: 9/10
Critical rating: 7/10
How to watch: Binge it all in 2-4 sittings.

My Hero Academia is very entertaining. That's kinda the point of battle shounens, and as such it has achieved its goal in spectacular fashion. Its individual fight scenes and its character writing just really grabbed me and pulled me in; the simplicity of its characters makes it easy to relate to them, and the simplicity of their motives makes them very easy to root for. The fight scenes are fucking superb as well. Uraraka vs Bakugo is hands down one of the best fights I have ever seen in an anime; the emotional weight it carries throughout is really immense, and despite the surface level zero-stakes nature of a tournament arc it manages to generate a reason why both sides absolutely can not lose, and especially for Uraraka the way that the lead-up to the fight was managed along with the fight itself meant that by the end of it I was honestly on the verge of tears. While the other fights both inside and outside of the tournament arc don't quite hold up to the absolutely insane standard that this fight sets, they make a point of giving it a run for its money, whether that is Deku vs Todoroki in the tournament arc, Iida+Deku+Todoroki vs Stain in the apprenticeship arc or Bakugo+Deku vs All Might in the final exams arc. In general it achieves everything that a genuinely good battle shounen should aim to achieve. That said, there is a lot of filler early on, and while it does cut down on it to an extent it can still be rather annoying watching half an episode of filler before anything happens in some episodes. The filler is much easier to sit through without breaks between all the episodes, so if you are going to watch this at all you will enjoy it much more if you binge it.

OVA: Mahoutsukai no Yome: Hoshi Matsu Hito (The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star)
Personal rating: I will decide on this when I re-watch it
Critical rating: I will decide on this when I re-watch it
How to watch: Binge all three episodes in one sitting; watch this before you watch the main anime

This is a very touching side story which takes place before the events of The Ancient Magus' Bride; it introduces us to Chise and her situation in an emotionally punchy and profoundly beautiful manner, and it just leaves a mark in a way that the main series so far hasn't succeeded in doing thus far despite the concepts it pulls to the table. There were only three episodes, and I don't remember them that well because I watched each one as it released (i.e. months apart) rather than binging them in one sitting; I'll probably re-watch them soon just to make sure that I was following them properly (hence why I've refrained from providing ratings), but even when watching it like that I felt that what I was watching was something genuinely brilliant.
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
im watching Railgun. i've fallen for the Misaka Mikoto meme.

ALSO 2017 is almost over, so what is everyones AOTY? I know this season isn't over yet but its pretty late in it so its easy to tell if you like something or not. imo.

This year I only gave 2 shows a 9/10 - Made in Abyss and ACCA. And if I had to pick a favourite of the 2 it would be ACCA for sure, as it was a completely concise finished story. The aesthetic was killer, the show was slow and methodical and really made you think about a lot of stuff going on. it was very subtle political intrigue, and the way they handled it was super mature and interesting. most other shows would go for a loud bang but this one went for a slow burn. excellent show.
 

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