Media Anime and Manga Thread MK3 - Beware Spoilers

[Melons-N-Soda]

So I've been wanting to catch up on the stuff I missed from last year (I only watched Dagashi Kashi S2 and Zombieland Saga. Oh, and that sequel to fucking One Room).

To start things off in a more peaceful mood, I started off with Yuru Camp. 1st episode was pretty good. Shimarin is my spirit animal (seemingly at least).

On the side I've also been watching some of the first season of Aria the Animation. Provided it remains consistent it'll likely end up pretty high ranking in my list. And not to mention I generally heard it gets far better later on in Natural and Origination.

 

[vonFiedler]

Jebus McAzn
Look bud I got that she talks about sex all the fucking time (I brought it up). But then on numerous occasions she cops out and it becomes about Koyomi having difficulty with basic shit like holding hands and proper names. I stand by how this weird disconnect makes the show never really sexual, but made by a pervert for perverts (a hard stance to argue against when in the NEXT episode he almost fucks his middle school sister). I never argued that the show is wholesome, but it's so much disturbingly less wholesome for spending so much time having Koyomi sexualize and molest elementary schoolers rather than ever putting the spot light on his actual sex life.

 

[Winry]

I think “okay” is a good way to describe the stuff that aired this year.... I thought that I really liked yuru camp at least but looking back I definitely thought it had aired 2017 or earlier because everything I watched last year left more of an impression on me than it did. Most of the stuff I finished and liked wasn’t anything I would recommend to others (Mitsuboshi Colors, Takagi-san, Tada-kun, Comic Girls...). Maybe an exception being the new Cardcaptor, it was light and cute.

I think my favorite thing I managed to watch this year was 3-gatsu no Lion! Will eventually get around to season2. also Lemonade I think you told me to watch seirei no moribito like five years ago and I managed to finish that too lol

 

[RODAN]

i cant believe they are remaking boogiepop phantom. the original show is one of the biggest brain anime of all time and im really worried that its gonna lose a lot of its weirdness

 

[Lemonade]

I think “okay” is a good way to describe the stuff that aired this year.... I thought that I really liked yuru camp at least but looking back I definitely thought it had aired 2017 or earlier because everything I watched last year left more of an impression on me than it did. Most of the stuff I finished and liked wasn’t anything I would recommend to others (Mitsuboshi Colors, Takagi-san, Tada-kun, Comic Girls...). Maybe an exception being the new Cardcaptor, it was light and cute.

I think my favorite thing I managed to watch this year was 3-gatsu no Lion! Will eventually get around to season2. also Lemonade I think you told me to watch seirei no moribito like five years ago and I managed to finish that too lol

I'm proud of u

 

[Fishin]

On the side I've also been watching some of the first season of Aria the Animation. Provided it remains consistent it'll likely end up pretty high ranking in my list. And not to mention I generally heard it gets far better later on in Natural and Origination.

Natural is where it kinda loses some steam and has a couple weak episodes imo but Origination turns it around and has a super strong finish for a SoL show, I really liked it overall.

I was pretty sure this would warrant a follow up, but I wasn't gonna rant or anything.

Disclaimer: I don't think Tsukihime is that good, partly cause I read Fate first, partly cause it rips off Hellsing an awful lot. Monogatari doesn't have the Hellsing stuff unless you count vampires. But it starts with a loner protagonist meeting a special "progenitor" vampire who has just been almost killed and has to form a pact with her to deal with threats that she herself cannot in her current state. Then it ends with exactly what you had in hide tags. And for good measure, it even throws in a lesson at the end "you can't help others without helping yourself first" hmmmmmmmmm

Huh, I must have forgotten more about Tsukihime than I thought then

 

[Winry]

i cant believe they are remaking boogiepop phantom. the original show is one of the biggest brain anime of all time and im really worried that its gonna lose a lot of its weirdness

just finished the first three episodes and read the first light novel (which adapts into the first three episodes). I definitely liked it a lot better as a novel because it was way easier to keep track of the time passing through different perspectives and it was easier to keep track of all the names (when I first watched episode 1 without having read the LN, it was harder to keep track of who everyone was). I thought the story itself was really interesting and a cool critique of the idea of normalcy in a modern society.

If anyone thinks the first three episodes are mildly interesting, I definitely recommend checking out the novel. It had everything that was featured in the anime plus more. Really excited to see where this series goes and if further arcs will be adapted in a similar manner

 

[Blue_Tornado]

So I had expecations for Kaguya going in, right? High expectations, the previews were baller.

Those expectations were blown away. oh god what just happened

 

[Pilo]

first impressions post

The Good:
Kaguya-sama super on-point adaptation of source. superb voice cast and all the visual flair i'd expect from an ex-shaft director. definitely the show to follow this season
Dororo the script could probably use a bit of fine tuning in my opinion but the backgrounds are pretty sick and sourcefriends tell me a lot of the best stories from the manga probably have a good chance of being adapted with in a 2 cour run.
Mob Psycho 100 2 (200? lol haha) the first half of episode one was kind of shitty (good animation, bad fight choreography) but i thought the second half was really cute. i hope the romantic subplot goes somewhere.
Ueno-san i'd drink her pee
Wataten nothing particularly special so far but i don't hate it. good to watch a nice, comfy doga kobo show every once in a while. hopefully the lack of masahiko oota doesn't hurt it too much.

The Bad:
Ekoda-chan the first ep was 4 minutes of fast paced comedy and then a 20 minute interview with the director where he talked about how he didn't really want to do the show but ended up working on it anyway because he was peer pressured by the producer which, to me, was funnier than anything i saw in the first 4 minutes.
Kemurikusa it feels like i'm watching two trains heading towards each other in slow motion and am powerless to do anything about the inevitable collision
Boogiepop we live in a society. a society where people think it's ok to animate sakuga on 4s and write nonlinear stories with no indication that they're doing so.
Endro~! don't let the fantasy setting fool you. if you've seen any 00s cgdct you've already seen this show. even as someone who prides himself on his enjoyment on shows about female characters in high school doing things of the cute variety i still don't see a lot in this show.

The I-have-yet-to-watch:
Promised Neverland martin is making me watch this. i'm usually pretty wary of jump adaptations but it's apparently been confirmed that the manga hasn't been stretched which is enough of a reason to check this out.
Star Twinkle Precure you know me. (for those who don't know me, i like precure). really digging the 80s pierrot magical girl inspired designs and the premise of planet hopping. it probably won't be as good as hugtto but i'm still hopeful anyway.
Kemono Friends 2 this is the futari wa milky holmes of anime.
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka rodan is making me watch this

The Most Anticipated:
Furuba Zenpen the funi dub of the original furuba was one of the first shows i watched as a kid and i loved the shit out of it. how could i not be excited?
Hitori Bocchi no marumaru Seikatsu been following the source for some time now. easily one of the best currently-publishing manga i'm reading
Princess Principal Movies

england btfo

Ultraman looking to fill the gridman shaped hole in my heart that amemiya and his team left without actually watching toku. this show looks like it could do just that.
Sarazanmai even a bad ikuhara show is usually worth watching (i liked yurikuma damnit) and this one has nobuyuki takeuchi working on it too. excited to experience the livewatch hype.

 

[RODAN]

what im watching this season (no order)
-
Boogiepop - This show is good and pilo is a hater. the first 2 eps were pretty confusing but i think ep 3 really put the first two into context. really cool show adapted from one of the biggest brain IPs out there

Mob Psycho 200 - I love u, mob psycho

Rising of the (supreme gentleman) Shield Hero - Its as if a school shooter wrote an isekai, and for that it gets all of my epic points of the season. I've been told he eventually becomes a women respecter later on so it makes all the initial backlash to this show a lot funnier in my IMHO.

Dororo - cool adaptation of a really old manga, nice updates to the art style and plot to make it more digestible for the modern baby brained anime watcher. extremely sick OP and awesome fight animation despite the CGI mudman in episode 1.

Kemurikusa - this is by the kemono friends guy. i missed kemono friends so im watching this one. i wont be burned twice. this show is kinda booty and his remedial ass cgi anime girls look like goddamn shit in a serious action setting. he should stick to kids shows

Domestic na Kanojo - this is trash but the op is killer and it has a sexy drunk christmas cake teacher so thats really all you need to get me to watch a show in 2019

Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka - i am a LIDENFILMS stan.

 

[Pilo]

Kemurikusa - this is by the kemono friends guy. i missed kemono friends so im watching this one. i wont be burned twice. this show is kinda booty and his remedial ass cgi anime girls look like goddamn shit in a serious action setting. he should stick to kids shows

i like KF a lot but with all due respect i also think that tatsuki is a really bad director who doesn't understand how cg works and the show mostly succeeded on its charming characters and interesting lore/worldbuilding. kemurikusa also looks jank as fuck, not just in terms of the animation but also the cinematography but i think it could work if it manages to deliver an interesting story.

 

[Lemonade]

Domestic na Kanojo - this is trash but the op is killer and it has a sexy drunk christmas cake teacher so thats really all you need to get me to watch a show in 2019

I am a sucker for tropey cheesy shounen romances, but I do wonder what they are going to get done in 12(?) eps

 

[Fishin]

Endro!: I really like how blatantly this rips off Comic Girls. Not only do the 4 main characters have the same hair colors, personalities, and body types for the most part, but the pink hair protagonist has the same voice actor. I like it but I think that has more to do with it copying a thing that I like (or rather things since it also has Yuru Yuri art) than its own merit.

Shield Hero: has some weird victim complex thing going on that reminds me of SAO in a bad way. Aside from that it was fun, could easily go downhill though.

Kaguya: best thing so far

Quintessential Quintuplets: the obligatory bad harem (albeit with weirdly high-budget voice cast)

Promised Neverland: too early to say much, has potential

Wataten: still kinda cute but pretty weak by Dogakobo standards

Boogiepop: first episode was so boring I had to force myself to finish it. Might give it another chance later but for now it's bottom priority

Ueno-san: decent concept but the first episode was two jokes stretched out over the course of 10 minutes which wasn't great

 

[vonFiedler]

Since my vacation doesn't still start for a few days, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai was both high on the list and pretty short, I figured I'd knock it out and have something relatively topical to actually discuss (well, it has both dropped a bit in score, and people are talking about the next season, but it's still top 100 as of now).

And the show is fine. It doesn't suck and it's not great. But it's at least pretty understandable as a hype show. It is very cute and sentimental. The main character, in spite of his bland design, is sometimes much more badass than similar characters, leading to some strong, memorable moments. But the show is also not nearly as profound as it thinks it is. The science is not very good and puberty syndrome is just x-men powers or many many variations on teenagers getting powers for decades. It's not even a concept and it really seems to think it's a concept and I've seen people talk about it like it's a concept. The plot is also insulting at times, especially when involving Mai. She is unpopular at school just because she started late... but she's a famous actress? She can't date because idols can't date, even though the show quickly tells us she's not an idol and that shouldn't apply to her? And then that plot point is dropped like a rock because it's stupid? And season 1 just sorta ends. It's okay for things to be unanswered in a show that will continue, but it doesn't feel like the show had a cohesive story at all. I gotta agree with whoever said that the first two storylines were really on point and then the show just kind of exists until it runs out of material.

 

[vonFiedler]

A Certain Magical Index is one of the few shows of 2018 that I watched while it was airing and not because the series is good, no, the series is total dogshit, but in a so bad it's awesome kind of way. When Gigguk made a video about how the series was good and scientifically grounded I immediately disregarded all opinions he's ever had and will have in the future. It is a series which first story arc hinged on the idea that a bunch of characters believed that having a photographic memory would cause your brain to explode from memorizing too much... an idea so outrageously stupid that it wasn't even true in universe. And somehow over two seasons every story arc managed to be dumber than the last, culminating with a showdown against a villain who hated science because her brother was killed in theme park accident.

For this reason, I watched Season 3 hoping to break down just how bad each story arc was for comedic value, but the sad truth of this season is that it's barely comprehensible at all. It's not so bad it's good, it's just a fucking headache. I think the Battle Royale arc has become infamous even among people who claim the series is good, because in three episodes it introduces five different villain groups, all with multiple characters, many of which are introduced as if they are really important, then mostly die, sometimes off screen. I couldn't begin to explain what anyone was trying to accomplish. Something about tweezers.

So I was thrilled when I got to episode 10, a sort of self contained story, and heard this line:
"Does this airpline have air ducts?"
"Yes, but it doesn't work like it does in Hollywood."
"NO IT'S FINE."

And as I laughed at how stupid it was, I realized just how classic Index this episode felt. So here I am with a case study of this episode just so that the Gigguks of this world can understand exactly how they are supposed to appreciate this show (and it sure as shit ain't because it's smart).

Now, I don't think the main character crawled through the air ducts after being told he can't, but who knows, this season does a terrible job of conveying anything, whether through visual information or exposition. Instead, it seems like he threw a bunch of water bottles and hot liquids down it, which caused it to bulge as if being crawled through, due to "thermal expansion". This tricks a terrorist in the cargo hold of an airplane into firing at the air duct (a really dumb thing to do on a plane) into shooting it, which is enough distraction I guess for the main character to show up right in front of him and get the drop on him.

1. This shouldn't have worked. In so many ways.

And why is MC fighting a terrorist on a plane? You might think it'd be because he is involved in a war, which is why he is flying to London, and he's a high priority target for assassinations as illustrated in the direct previous story arc. But you'd be wrong.

2. Totally coincidental terrorist incident, which occurs because
3. The French hate the English and just terrorist attack them sometimes.

The coincidence is even more galling because the only reason MC is on a slow commercial and not on a super fast jet that was available that would have protected him from possibly being assassinated is because... um...

4. The jet was too fast? I guess? He doesn't give a reason at all really.

And if you're not familiar with the show, it's not as if MC is some badass with combat experience or any real ability to deal with terrorist situations. He is a high school student who can dispel magic, which neither terrorist uses or even knows about. But he might as well handle the situation because,

5. The only people responsible for handling the terrorist attack are two flight attendants.
6. And their only contribution is telling the MC, who they would think is some random high school student, about the attack, then locking him up so that he can't tell the other passengers.

And that's what Index series is all about in a nutshell.

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

masterpiece is a good op

 

[Fishin]

Index is pretty fuzzy to me, it's basically the same thing as the first two seasons of Shana in that I think I enjoyed it at the time but I don't remember a lot of it. And much like Shana, JC Staff decided to wait until everyone had forgotten that the franchise existed before making a 3rd season for some reason. I do remember some dumb stuff though, biggest standout being

spoiler

Accelerator getting beaten by a faked punch, though Touma beating most of the people he beats is usually silly. Especially when one of them was an adult man with a sword ffs

Railgun is generally pretty fun once you get past the filler though

 

[RODAN]

lmao at shield hero ep 2 being completely different from ep 1 in tone and basically becoming a standard isekai power fantasy. fuck you! ill keep watching htough

 

[RODAN]

late but. top 5 ops of 2018. here i go. i judge based on a combo of how much i like the song + how interesting the visuals are and the synergy between them and the song

shortlist

#5 - Yuru Camp - Shiny Days
This OP is fun as hell. First off the song is an absolute jam, and sounds way too similar to the jackson 5. Secondly the visuals are a great compliment to the song. I love how they integrated the credits into the art and i love the rocket ship tent. rocket ship tent ftw.

#4 - Beyblade Burst Chronicles - Chouzetsu Muteki Blader!
Surprise of the year for me. Easily the best kids show OP of the year. Has some completely awesome action cuts and extremely high energy as you'd expect from a Beyblade OP. Check this one out if you're skeptical.

#3 - Kokkoku - FLASHBACK
Extremely cool + interesting OP. Has some of the best symbolic visuals along with one of the most banging basslines that i heard in 2018. This is probably robbed a higher spot but theres just 2 OPs I like more and I can't put this above them.

#2 - After the Rain - Nostalgic Rainfall
This list is extremely dominated by winter anime for some reason. IDK why that is. Anyway this OP is AMAZING. I love every single goddamn frame in this thing. Its adorable and completely sets up the shows plot + characters without a single word. I really liked this show in general, probably my favourite actual show of the 5 on this list. I love the pastel colours in the OP. im rambling


-
-
-
#1 - Pop Team Epic - Pop Team Epic
I knew from the moment I saw this OP for the first time that it would be an INSTANT #1 on my list. Its so freaking good in every way. one of the best OPs ever made in this humble gamers opinion. Shame the show wasnt very good. The OP hits all the notes it should, it feels like a bad trip on drugs where the sound is distorted and the visuals are weird and offputting. Not only that but it just packs in like 90000000000 jokes into this thing. its genuinely fucking impressive.

 

[Martin]

Yeah nothing gave PTE’s OP any competition. Yuru Camp’s is my personal #2 and it’s made better by how the tent thing Rodan mentioned is a reference to the very last episode. Kokokku at #3 for its cool imagery and just generally really cool presentation+credit integration.

No others stick out to me like those three but an honourable mention goes to A Place Further Than The Universe for its brilliant attention to detail, good compressed visual storytelling, carefully considered continuity from start to finish and generally great feelgood factor.

 

[Martin]

Not dipped my toe into a tonne yet but here are some of my early season thoughts:

Kaguya-sama: lots of cool visual direction in this but my main gripe is just that I don’t really find it very funny. Like I can tell where the jokes are which is better than a lot of comedies but at the same time hardly any of the jokes actually land. This one may be down to the subs being exceptionally awful on this even by CRoll standards so I’m having DLE tell me whether the sub group he uses is funny when they actually get around to it, but as it stands I’m probably gonna drop this if there’s a 3rd laughless episode.

Boogiepop and Others: This show’s pretty cool. I generally like when stuff uses lots of very still shots and function-over-form visuals to frame nonlinear stories and the surprisingly low production values really aren’t that offputting in the grand scheme of things. I’ll probably check out Boogiepop Phantom when this finishes airing and it’ll probably actually be better than this granted it doesn’t follow the same plot I think? Btw this show has OP of the season.

The Promised Neverland: My current punt for AotS; it takes an enjoyable premise, unravels it at a perfectly-judged pace and does so with generally really good visual direction. I like how it uses the shot framing to repeatedly imply the manga form without ever directly imitating it, and while this isn’t the first time a show’s presented itself like that it doesn’t make it feel any less smart or effective within any given scene.

Mob Psycho: A bit of a mixed bag but it’s highs are high. I’m glad that Mob is slowly being drip-fed a personality and it’s interesting to see him forming opinions etc. for the first time. I just hope they don’t abandon the romance sub-plot introduced in episode 1. Low points consist of the fight at the start of ep 1 and most of ep 2 both of which were pretty lame but I’m really happy with the rest of it. Also just wanna point out that there is a lot of cool rotoscoping.

Trying to remember if I watched anything else yet but I can’t think of anything else off of the top of my head. I don’t wanna watch Shield Hero. I wanna watch Dororo+am hearing lots of good things about it but I just haven’t got around to it yet. I can’t think of any other titles off of the top of my head for the time being so I’ll leave it there.

 

[Winry]

I’ll probably check out Boogiepop Phantom when this finishes airing and it’ll probably actually be better than this granted it doesn’t follow the same plot I think?

Boogiepop Phantom is set in between the first and second novels (the first novel = first 3 episodes of the 2019 series) and isn’t connected to the rest of the series from what I’ve heard, so you can actually start it now if you wanted.

For this season, I’m only still watching Boogiepop, Mob Psycho II, and The Promised Neverland. Probably Dororo too but I haven’t seen the next episode so I’m not sure. I haven’t been a huge fan of some of the things that have aired so far. Shield Hero didn't seem interesting to me, Manaria kind of boring, Kaguya not really that funny, and Bang Dream was just plain ugly! Saddest about Bang Dream because I do enjoy music shows and I know a lot of people who love the game but... man that CG.

 

[Havens]

Just going to touch on RoosterTeeth stuff since a ton of stuff happened today (note I'm a FIRST member so I saw the RWBY finale today):

RWBY vol. 6 Finale: Considering the amount of things that happened in the previous episode, between finding out Ruby's absolutely nuts, everyone's aura being gone and Adam's DP (wink wink, nod nod) I'd say that this finale was rather tame in comparison to previous volumes. Cinder and Neo got hecking new outfits (especially Neo oml slay), Ruby went through her "trial by fire" in a rather clever way, and amongst all the craziness and drama, I'd say this was a fitting finale to perhaps the best volume in the series to date. Shout-outs to CRWBY for an absolutely astounding volume, with a ton of content (with one scene in particular) that will leave the FNDM ape-shit for months to come. Onto the Soundtrack!

gen: Lock Premier: Aside from the fact that Gray Haddock had hired Michael B. Jordan and Dakota Fanning to be the show's leads, all I knew before hearing about it through the RTX animation panel was that it was going to be a mech show. I'm glad that there's so much more to it than that. I'm not going to spoil much or talk about it much for now, the series legit started today, but I will say: With RWBY now out of the way till October, I can definitely find myself binging to this.

That's probably the two biggest things that happened to me today. With gen: Lock underway and Nomad Of Nowhere/RWBY Chibi helping to fill the gaps in between, it's looking to be another great year for RT. Hopefully I can go to the next RTX though, cause this year might be the best for RT animation yet.

 

[Pilo]

Just going to touch on RoosterTeeth stuff since a ton of stuff happened today (note I'm a FIRST member so I saw the RWBY finale today):

RWBY vol. 6 Finale: Considering the amount of things that happened in the previous episode, between finding out Ruby's absolutely nuts, everyone's aura being gone and Adam's DP (wink wink, nod nod) I'd say that this finale was rather tame in comparison to previous volumes. Cinder and Neo got hecking new outfits (especially Neo oml slay), Ruby went through her "trial by fire" in a rather clever way, and amongst all the craziness and drama, I'd say this was a fitting finale to perhaps the best volume in the series to date. Shout-outs to CRWBY for an absolutely astounding volume, with a ton of content (with one scene in particular) that will leave the FNDM ape-shit for months to come. Onto the Soundtrack!

gen: Lock Premier: Aside from the fact that Gray Haddock had hired Michael B. Jordan and Dakota Fanning to be the show's leads, all I knew before hearing about it through the RTX animation panel was that it was going to be a mech show. I'm glad that there's so much more to it than that. I'm not going to spoil much or talk about it much for now, the series legit started today, but I will say: With RWBY now out of the way till October, I can definitely find myself binging to this.

That's probably the two biggest things that happened to me today. With gen: Lock underway and Nomad Of Nowhere/RWBY Chibi helping to fill the gaps in between, it's looking to be another great year for RT. Hopefully I can go to the next RTX though, cause this year might be the best for RT animation yet.

 

[Blue_Tornado]

All this talk about OPs from 2018 and you didn't mention one of the best