Media Anime and Manga Thread MK3 - Beware Spoilers

Shield Hero is fine if you're the sort of person who can enjoy uncultured (ie trashy) low-mid tier isekai stuff. I feel like the SAO comparison is pretty accurate for the most part except for the whole shield thing that means that MC has to work in a party instead of soloing everything.

Dororo is alright so far, though the two protagonists are an annoying kid and a mute so it's hard to really care for either of them, and I'm also kind of concerned by the fact that the manga it's adapting apparently doesn't have a proper ending.

Manaria Friends feels like it was written as a full-length show and then compressed to a short afterwards which is fairly plausible considering it was delayed indefinitely for awhile. It's pretty much fluff but if you're looking for dragon girl lesbian romance it seems like the best there is.
 

BLOOD TOTEM

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A while ago I purchased this book and it finally arrived today. It's a collection of illustrations from prominent artists in the anime / doujinshi community celebrating characters in anime and games from 1989 to the present day, along with a couple of pages of commentary. Overall I'm really happy with it and there's a bunch of pictures I love including one of Kinomoto Sakura by Poyoyon Rock aka Akio Watanbe; the character designer for Nurse Witch Komugi, Popotan, and lesser known shows like the Monogatari Series.

I've not spent a huge amount of time looking through the commentary sections but I managed to translate the names of all the shows and games that were highlighted on the timeline by the main committee that put the book together. From what I can tell these are the anime and games they consider to be the most significant from their respective years, and I thought some of you might be interested in looking at what the Japanese consider industry staples.
1989 - Ranma 1/2
1990 - Patlabor, Nadia, Chibi Maruko
1991 - GPX cyber forumla
1992 - Street Fighter ii (game), Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho
1993 - V Gundam, Slam Dunk
1994 - G Gundam, Hao Taikei Ryu Knight, Rayearth, Evangelion
1995 - Slayers
1995 - Tenchi Muyo
1996 - Saber Marionette J, Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go!!, Kidou Senkan Nadesico
1997 - Revolutionary Girl Utena, Yume no Crayon Oukoku
1998 - Cowboy Bebop, Cardcaptor Sakura, Lodoss War
1999 - One Piece, Hunter x Hunter
2000 - Love Hina, Tsukihime (game)
2001 - Galaxy Angel, s-CRY-ed, HELLSING, Mahoromantic
2002 - Kanon, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Final Fantasy XI (game)
2003 - FMA, Kino's Journey, Uchuu no Stellvia
2004 - Futari wa Precure, Nanoha, BLEACH
2005 - Air, Aquarion, Akagi
2006 - Haruhi, Code Geass, F/SN
2007 - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Lucky Star, Hatsune Miku (game)
2008 - Strike Witches, Toradora
2009 - K-On, Saki, Bakemonogatari
2010 - Heartcatch Precure, WORKING!!
2011 - THE iDOLM@STER, Anohana, Madoka
2012 - SAO, Girls und Panzer, Aikatsu!
2013 - Love Live, Shingeki no Kyojin
2014 - F/SN UBW, Shirobako
2015 - Cinderella Girls, Hibike! Euphonium
2016 - Kimi no Na wa, Re:Zero
2017 - Kemono Friends, Player Unknowns Battle Grounds (game)
2018 - SSSS.Gridman, Hiscore Girl
Personally I think it's a pretty good list, you can get a better picture of Japanese taste from the 2ch popularity charts but it's still a nice reflection. Nice to see Heartcatch Precure make the list as it's badass and should be core viewing in the west too. I think that generally I prefer the shows listed for the earlier years; Kemono Friends and PUBG are hardly my go to for 2017, but I guess those were both pretty huge. The prevalence of Slayers in a lot of the illustrations has me interested in the series so I'll probably check it out as well as Tenchi Muyo, Lodoss war, and a couple of the other older OVA series.
 
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Da Letter El

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Kaguya I've finally gotten around to watching; first two episodes were fine. Lots of smirk exhaling through the nose, not a whole lot of laughing; sort of enjoying the premise, but not in love with the execution of what I'm supposed to take from assorted skits. Turns a corner and has a run of some great skits and my first real laughs in ep 3. I thought the magazine skit was hysterical, 20 questions concluded well, and the walking to school skit was the first time that we actually get a reason to care about them being together and was definitely a feel good moment.

I'm fairly sure some people are gonna go crazy for the 1 off ED but this didn't do anything special for me; "oh it's a smoothly animated ED sequence with a song I don't like, ok" but i'm sure it will have its fans
 
Like rodan says domestic na kanojo has a killer op and I honestly watch it just for that

Boogiepop: Im not a fan of shows that to get any satisfaction out of I have to read tv tropes and a wikipedia page if u like boogiepop then u probably think lain is a masterpiece which is ok but maybe you should get a degree that isnt theology/media studies

Shield hero: A show that had a few warning signs of being cheesy isekai shit but I absolutely loved this first arc writing a character thats happy with their status as a slave is really treading on "holy shit" territory but shield hero does it super well

Ueno: Its funny because shes horny and does science to justify it. if u like ueno ur probably a genius.

Neverland: Really gripping jump mystery thriller. I was cautious but damn it turned out good. Also opening is catchy.

Dororo: Kind of hard to believe this is made by tezuka but the japanese medieval horror style is cool as fuck
 
MANARIA FRIENDS
This show gets its own post because I've never seen a show that nails my trash so hard. Magical other world slice of life lesbian dragon princess and its absolutely gorgeous and the dragon girls uniform is split up into two parts with an opening that allow for her wings and holy shiiii
I legit hope that she has some identity crisis about being half dragon or something or we get some more world building that would be fantastic
 

Pilo

uses walther
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roundup on all the shit i've been watching. i'm a few weeks behind since i've been focusing on my backlog more but i still figured i'd talk about what i've been enjoying.

Dororo
it's good. not really a lot to say just didn't want you to think i dropped it.

Ekoda-chan

not the best thing i'm watching right now but it's so low commitment that there's no real reason for me to drop it. some of the interviews are pretty insightful too, although i'm not sure they had to be 6x the length of the actual episode.

Kaguya-sama

omata is trying so hard to ape shaft's style without really understanding what makes it tick. he'll just do something retarded like make half the screen red and the other half a kaleidoscope and all the people who think itamura's monogatari looks good will clap their hands and eagerly reach for their wallets to buy the bds. rakugo shinjuu wasn't really my cup of tea but the direction was super tight so when i saw omata would be doing kaguya-sama i might have gotten my hopes up to high. needless to say i'll be sticking to the manga from now on.

Kemurikusa

wasn't expecting to enjoy this show as much as i did based on my initial reaction to it but i've been catching up on it and it's honestly not too shabby. is it incredible? no, far from but it's still a fun watch if you pace yourself. i'm not a duty-bound tatsuki shill so you can trust my opinion on this.

Mob

i'll be honest i'm not as into this season as everyone else but it's still good enough that i don't really mind watching an episode every week. none of the episodes have left that big of an impression on me so far but i'm still holding out for the finale.

Precure

nothing's really grabbing me about this season but i don't really mind, it's just plain entertaining and kappard is frankly badass, hope we see more of him.

Ueno-san
the only show along with precure that i insta-watch each week. you might be sleeping on ueno-san just because it's a fetishbait flash cartoon but i assure you that it's a fetishbait flash cartoon of the absolute highest caliber. in all honesty this will probably end up snagging the title of aots for me.

WataTen

surprisingly enjoyable all things considered. it's basically diet ichigo mashimaro but i'll be damned if i don't love that show too.

that's all. everything else was dropped within three episodes. kind of wanted to check out egao no daika and the new moriwaki but i cba.
 

tcr

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Not too sure who still reads things like Tower of God but if you haven't started yet or had apprehensions I would without a doubt start reading it here (support the developer please!) Tower of God just finished its hiatus and break for seasons 2 and 3, with season 3 started this Monday. It is hands down my favorite series ever, I rank it above things like Gurren Lagann, Hunter x Hunter, even things I've read like One Piece or Berserk in terms of Shonen capabilites. It takes some inspiration from things like Hunter x Hunter with how fights are often set up with unique ways to beat things, strategy wise, and a lot of the fights aren't just who has the biggest blast.

I find the artwork to be absolutely amazing if you're into that although admittedly it is not amazing in the first season (roughly the first 70 chapters) but picks up to be absolutely mindboggling detailed in later chapters. The character designs are usually unique enough that everyone finds some favorites, with my personal favorite being the Slayer, White. Other ones I really like are Koon Aguero Agnis and Hwa Ryun. Below are some screencaps of my favorite depictions of these characters (of White, the greatest character of them all).

165273
165274
165275

165276
165278

165279


The thing I love most about Tower of God is the foreshadowing and worldbuilding behind it. If you know me you know that my favorite games are things like Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, etc, and in part you also know that I like those games with the amount of lore hidden in the background for people to discover. Tower of God is the same way, although much more intentional and laid out for the average reader. To start with the series focuses on Baam, an otherwise ordinary dude who enters a "tower" to compete, albeit unwillingly. The tower is a place where there are 134 floors (possibly more though the highest anyone has gotten is 134) with each floor requiring a test of some kind to progress, usually where you compete against other test candidates, often to the death. It's a grueling place where teammates are often disposable, outright power isn't the only thing that will allow you to win the fight, and with clearly defined "winners and losers.' By that I mean that from the start the author foreshadows these giants in the world to exist and influence world events, and the vast majority of people you meet are just no name "fishes." You can read Hunter x Hunter, for example, and learn about Ging from episode 1, but he's never actually shown until like 140 episodes in, or Naruto and the "big names" like Hashirama or Madara aren't even mentioned or shown until way later. Tower of God does this idea so much better imo, with mentioning a lot of the bigger names outright either in lore backstories from the author or directly in the story from the beginning, then slowly teasing the people in and out of the story. The scale of the power levels is really exciting to watch, with these big names often being asleep or otherwise uninterested in the comings and goings of the world but often having to get involved with the story in some way, so its cool to see certain powers or techniques way ahead of time and then figuring out through training arcs how the stuff actually happens. Honestly the best way to describe the series is just epic

please read this series so i have someone else to talk to about it thank you

I really cannot stress how good this series is. I read a lot of manga and webtoons and manwha and if you're looking for a shonen to get into that's not just dudes yelling at each other then you should get into reading it. I also have a discord i can link people if theyre interested in talking about the story or speculation and stuff.
 

Pilo

uses walther
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many new viewers' ikuhara virginity will be stolen tomorrow as he figuratively (and possibly literally) penetrates their collective assholes with yka the second: yaoi kappa arashi. there was an advanced screening of episode one in japan and apparently it's fucking disgusting.
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Hi, so someone just introduced me to a taste representation format and it seemed interesting enough for me to give it a shot.

So basically the gist of it is you choose your favorite show that starts with each letter in your name. This can be your real name (full or otherwise) your internet name, a nickname, a pet name etc., and the rules for what qualifies for each character are as follows:
  • Only one show may be chosen for each letter of your name.
    • E.G. if your name is John you can only pick one 'H' title
    • However, if your name is Hannah you can pick up to two 'H' titles
  • The letter can be taken from either the original name or an official localised name of a show
    • E.G. Madoka qualifies for the following:
      • Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Japanese)
      • Puella Magi Madoka Magica (English)
    • Evangelion qualifies for the following:
      • Shin Seiki Evangelion (Japanese)
      • Neon Genesis Evangelion (English)
    • E.G. Gunbuster qualifies for the following:
      • Top wo Narae! Gunbuster (Japanese)
      • Gunbuster (English)
  • If the title starts with a number, both written and numeral forms of the title qualify
    • E.G. 3-gatsu no Lion qualifies for all of the following:
      • 3-gatsu no Lion
      • San-gatsu no Lion
      • March Comes in like a Lion
    • However, the number MUST be read in the language of the title UNLESS it is implied that it is supposed to read in a different language (e.g. English language Japanese title on a show set in the west), in which case it is reversed
      • Three-gatsu no Lion would not qualify
      • Ninety-One Days would qualify
      • Kyuu-Juu-Ichi Days would not qualify
  • If a kanji character at the beginning of the title can be interpreted in multiple contextually valid ways, both interpretations are valid
    • E.G. A Place Further than the Universe qualifies for all of the following:
      • Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho
      • Uchuu Yori mo Tooi Basho
      • A Place Further than the Universe
  • Shortened "fan titles" do not qualify.
    • E.G. A Place Further Than the Universe does not qualify for the following:
      • YoriMoi
    • E.G. Neon Genesis Evangelion does not qualify for the following:
      • Evangelion
  • R and L are largely interchangeable provided it's not obviously intended to be one or the other
  • This is kinda a given, but you don't omit stuff like "A", "The" etc.
  • If you haven't seen any shows that match a letter, you can treat it as a "semi-free" space; only shows that are eligible under other letters are allowed, and you must indicate clearly that it is treated as a "semi-free" space
    • If you have seen one or more shows for the letter, you must list one of them regardless of how much you like/dislike it
Making this list was honestly incredibly difficult; while it wasn't very hard to come up with a shortlist for most letters (with one obvious exception), actually narrowing it down presented me with some pretty difficult decisions.

Key:
  • "Semi-free" space
  • Compromise choice (explained below)
Majo no Takyuubin (Kiki's Delivery Service)
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (AnoHana)
Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal)
The Tatami Galaxy
Inazuma Eleven
Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e (Noein: to your other self)

ERASED
V -- Re: Cutie Honey
Amanchu Advance
NHK ni Youkoso
She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~

The slots that were the hardest to decide on were probably R, the two As and S; R was kinda saved by the free space, but A leaves YoriMoi without representation which was a really difficult thing to do. I also had to do a do a lot of compromising to make S viable for this, and I've explained my thought process below.

All of the particularly difficult clashes outside of S were:
  • M: Kiki's Delivery Service and Madoka Magica
  • A1+2: AnoHana, Amanchu Advance, and YoriMoi
  • R: Trust and Betrayal, Re Cutie Honey and ReLIFE
  • N2: NHK and New Cutie Honey
  • V (semi-free): YoriMoi, Re Cutie Honey
S presented a unique challenge for me in that the shortlist contained seven shows that are either on my 3x3 already or which have been on my 3x3 in the past twelve months. These shows are as follows:
  • Shinsekai Yori (From the New World)
  • She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~
  • Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal
  • Serial Experiments Lain
  • Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
  • Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho (Uchuu Yori mo Tooi Basho, A Place Further than the Universe)
  • Scrapped Princess

As such, trying to choose a single show out of these to get representation was difficult, as there were multiple different criteria that I had to choose between when selecting one:
  1. Pure favoritism (mood dependent, but probably Shinsekai Yori in the highest % of moods)
  2. The show I think is technically the best (a three way toss-up between 'Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal', 'Serial Experiments Lain' and 'She and Her Cat: Everything Flows')
  3. The show that I think best represents the a broad picture of my taste (there are convincing arguments for all of 'She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~', 'Scrapped Princess', 'Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu' and 'Serial Experiments Lain')
  4. The shows that extracted the most noteworthy emotional reactions ('Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho', 'She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~' and 'Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu'
  5. The level of respect I hold the show to (A tossup between She and Her Cat, Trust and Betrayal, Shouwa Genroku and Lain )
Choosing any one of these is honestly a fools errand; no matter how much I looked at the list, I couldn't decide on any one criterion to use. As such, I did it as a sorta qualitative amalgamation of criteria 3 and 4 that took 1, 2 and 5 loosely into consideration. I also looked at how the list interacted with other letters to try and cut it down, removing Trust and Betrayal from the equation.

Even after all of this it was still a toss-up between Lain and She and Her Cat, but I ultimately settled on She and Her Cat because it resonated with me more on a personal level.

Brackets = The show appears on multiple distinct letters

M - Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica / Majo no Takyuubin / Mob Psycho 100 / Mouretsu Pirates
A - Amanchu Advance / (A Place Further than the Universe) / Assassination Classroom / Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai / Ajin / (A Lull in the Sea)
R - (Rurouni Kenshin) / (Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal) / ReLIFE / Re: Cutie Honey / Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry
T - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan / Toradora / Tsuki ga Kirei / Top wo Narae! Gunbuster / The Tatami Galaxy / The Tale of Princess Kaguya
I - Inazuma Eleven / Inferno Cop
N - (Nagi no Asukara) / (Neon Genesis Evangelion) / NHK ni Youkoso / Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e / Non Non Biyori / (New Cutie Honey)

E -ERASED
V - not seen anything
A - Amanchu Advance / (A Place Further than the Universe) / Assassination Classroom / AnoHana / Ajin / (A Lull in the Sea)
N - (Nagi no Asukara) / (Neon Genesis Evangelion) / Net-Juu no Susume / NHK ni Youkoso / Noein / Non Non Biyori / (New Cutie Honey)
S - Shinsekai Yori / Spirited Away / Serial Experiments Lain / She and Her Cat: ~Everything Flows~ / Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu / (Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho) / (Shin Seiki Evangelion), Scrapped Princess / Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda / Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko / (Shin Cutie Honey) / (Samurai X) / (Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal)
Brackets = The show appears on multiple distinct letters

M - Madoka Magica, Majo no Takyuubin
A - Amanchu Advance, A Place Further than the Universe, AnoHana
R - Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, Re Cutie Honey, ReLIFE
T - The Tatami Galaxy, The Tale of Princess Kaguya
I - Inazuma Eleven
N - Noein

E - ERASED
V - [Semi-Free]
A - Amanchu Advance, A Place Further than the Universe, AnoHana
N - NHK, New Cutie Honey
S - Shinsekai Yori, She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~, Serial Experiments Lain, (Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho), Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal, Scrapped Princess
Brackets = The show appears on multiple distinct letters

M - Madoka Magica, Majo no Takyuubin
A - AnoHana
R - Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal
T - The Tatami Galaxy
I - Inazuma Eleven
N - Noein

E - ERASED
V - [Semi-Free] Re Cutie Honey, (A Place Further than the Universe)
A - Amanchu Advance, (A Place Further than the Universe)
N - NHK, New Cutie Honey
S - Shinsekai Yori, She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~, Serial Experiments Lain, (Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho), Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Scrapped Princess

Overall, working within this constriction was pretty fun to do and got me thinking a lot about the way I interact with the shows that I watch and the way that this, in turn, shapes aspects of my thinking. It also showed me some interesting pointless statistics: the disparities in the number of shows I've seen on different letters in the alphabet, namely:
  • 2/3 of the 'I' shows I've completed are different series of Inazuma Eleven, and all the other ones suck ass to the point that there are only really two Inazuma Eleven series in contention for the slot
  • The only two 'E' shows I've completed are ERASED and Eromanga Sensei
  • (Obviously) I've not seen any V shows
  • I've seen an obscene number of shows that start with the letter S.
I might try and doing these for a few other combinations of letters in the future (gamer boy, A-Z+a number, and maybe even one for my full name that's restricted to Japanese phonetics if I can be arsed) but I've already spent a few hours too long on this so I'll leave it there; those will be totally separate challenges and I don't even know if I'll be able to come close to completing them.
This is very difficult. I give up.
 
early thoughts

We Never Learn: same premise as Quintessential Quintuplets from last season, but very slightly better, the characters are a bit more likable and it doesn't dump 5 of them on you all at once. Still pretty mediocre.

Carole and Tuesday: Good thus far. The sci-fi setting seems like window dressing than anything and the subplot with the model girl is boring but the main pair are likable and it has BONES and Watanabe. Should turn out well.

YU-NO: I'm kind of interested in this since the original VN is considered holy grail level by a lot of Japanese players but it's a godawful chore to actually play. Thus far nothing really interesting has happened though so idk.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Standout of the season thus far. The setup isn't anything terribly amazing for shonen but it looks great and has solid writing. Should be really good as long as the quality of the source material and animation holds up.

Fruits Basket: Mildly enjoyable but feels like it's lacking a hook (unless you like reverse harems, I guess).

OPM s2: Animation is a downgrade but surprisingly servicable. Comic timing also feels like it took a bit of a hit. Not great, but still enjoyable enough.

Senko-san: Touch Fluffy Tail: the anime. Guilty pleasure of the season.

Sarazanmai: ew. There's some vaguely interesting stuff going around in the background of this show but it's not actually that fun to watch, even with the occasional Ikuhara wackiness.

Seems pretty weak for Spring which is usually one of the stronger seasons.
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
hitori bocchi is the best new show of the season. sarazanmai is a close second in this gamers opinion.
 
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Surgo

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I got to see The Saga of Tanya the Evil movie in theaters. It was great. Animation was beautiful too -- you could tell they had a bigger budget than the series.
 
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Acklow

I am always tired. Don't bother me.
Not too sure who still reads things like Tower of God but if you haven't started yet or had apprehensions I would without a doubt start reading it here (support the developer please!) Tower of God just finished its hiatus and break for seasons 2 and 3, with season 3 started this Monday. It is hands down my favorite series ever, I rank it above things like Gurren Lagann, Hunter x Hunter, even things I've read like One Piece or Berserk in terms of Shonen capabilites. It takes some inspiration from things like Hunter x Hunter with how fights are often set up with unique ways to beat things, strategy wise, and a lot of the fights aren't just who has the biggest blast.

I find the artwork to be absolutely amazing if you're into that although admittedly it is not amazing in the first season (roughly the first 70 chapters) but picks up to be absolutely mindboggling detailed in later chapters. The character designs are usually unique enough that everyone finds some favorites, with my personal favorite being the Slayer, White. Other ones I really like are Koon Aguero Agnis and Hwa Ryun. Below are some screencaps of my favorite depictions of these characters (of White, the greatest character of them all).



The thing I love most about Tower of God is the foreshadowing and worldbuilding behind it. If you know me you know that my favorite games are things like Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, etc, and in part you also know that I like those games with the amount of lore hidden in the background for people to discover. Tower of God is the same way, although much more intentional and laid out for the average reader. To start with the series focuses on Baam, an otherwise ordinary dude who enters a "tower" to compete, albeit unwillingly. The tower is a place where there are 134 floors (possibly more though the highest anyone has gotten is 134) with each floor requiring a test of some kind to progress, usually where you compete against other test candidates, often to the death. It's a grueling place where teammates are often disposable, outright power isn't the only thing that will allow you to win the fight, and with clearly defined "winners and losers.' By that I mean that from the start the author foreshadows these giants in the world to exist and influence world events, and the vast majority of people you meet are just no name "fishes." You can read Hunter x Hunter, for example, and learn about Ging from episode 1, but he's never actually shown until like 140 episodes in, or Naruto and the "big names" like Hashirama or Madara aren't even mentioned or shown until way later. Tower of God does this idea so much better imo, with mentioning a lot of the bigger names outright either in lore backstories from the author or directly in the story from the beginning, then slowly teasing the people in and out of the story. The scale of the power levels is really exciting to watch, with these big names often being asleep or otherwise uninterested in the comings and goings of the world but often having to get involved with the story in some way, so its cool to see certain powers or techniques way ahead of time and then figuring out through training arcs how the stuff actually happens. Honestly the best way to describe the series is just epic

please read this series so i have someone else to talk to about it thank you

I really cannot stress how good this series is. I read a lot of manga and webtoons and manwha and if you're looking for a shonen to get into that's not just dudes yelling at each other then you should get into reading it. I also have a discord i can link people if theyre interested in talking about the story or speculation and stuff.
You're not alone. I promise. However, I will have to admit I stopped reading it around the time one of the first hiatuses hit and this mostly due to the series being removed from my favorite manga app on my tablet (which is where I almost exclusively consume manga/manhwa). I plan to get into it again once I get a better grasp of Hangeul. I'm currently studying Hangeul while teaching English here in Korea and so I want to read ToG from the OG language :)

But yeah ToG is GOAT, though I sometimes feel like it's rather easy to lose track of who's who and why they're important because of the literal multitude of characters the writer/artist juggles.
 
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brightobject

there like moonlight
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what ive read/ reading

omoide emanon: its ok.

solanin: its great

monmusu nichijou: its good for what it is, and doesn't pretend to be anything else. lol.

kaguya: rollercoaster rn, but still pretty consistently above base

dr stone: different but still pretty good rn.

chainsawman: gets better and better w each ch. will probably go off the rails like fire punch but might as well enjoy the ride while it lasts

gunnm: action porn hybrid. AMAZING art, not quite sure how i feel about the story. goddamn. making me feel attached to desty nova probably one of the great achievements of the century.

makai to ossan: its deece. mob is better by miles.

spirit circle: VERY good. ending is kind of wtfboom but u deal.
 

tcr

sage of six tabs
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You're not alone. I promise. However, I will have to admit I stopped reading it around the time one of the first hiatuses hit and this mostly due to the series being removed from my favorite manga app on my tablet (which is where I almost exclusively consume manga/manhwa). I plan to get into it again once I get a better grasp of Hangeul. I'm currently studying Hangeul while teaching English here in Korea and so I want to read ToG from the OG language :)

But yeah ToG is GOAT, though I sometimes feel like it's rather easy to lose track of who's who and why they're important because of the literal multitude of characters the writer/artist juggles.
definitely, while I feel that it's one of the writer's main strengths (that and the worldbuilding he has) I do feel that there are a lot of extraneous characters at times that it can feel overwhelming and easy to lose track. I've reread it enough to grasp who's who but even still new arcs introduce tons of characters over and over. It is, however, easy to keep track of the main cast in my opinion, as I feel during season 1 of the series the author solidly introduced the regulars to where they stick in the brain, each with their own quirks and different feels. One recent arc was a doozy of an end to the season, as it introduced like 30+ new characters (that only stuck around for that arc thus far like a lot of the previous arcs).

Really I think if someone has grown accustomed to other shonen, like one piece and its infinite supply of side characters, then keeping track of certain characters should come naturally

Wow, learning korean (or hangeul i guess as its called?) must be tough. I think it will definitely be worth it though, in this context there are some frustrations about the quality of translation that LINE has in reproducing the webtoon, so getting it from the OG language would definitely help with understanding the story better. I think it would also be cool to get all the little references SIU makes in his panels without the translations being butchered

Anyway, season 3 has been picking up a bit for the series now that we're about 15-20 chapters in (icbb to check right now), and I'm really interested to see where this takes us. I find it fascinating how SIU is exploring the slayer side of the world, as I always find the 'evil' groups (like akatsuki or the spiders in hxh) very interesting, and introducing the slayers piecemeal is a cool way to build them up. The slayer in this arc that's being primarily focused on is slayer Baylord Yama, who has been referenced as far back as like 2012 or 2013 i think and is only JUST NOW making his appearance (fans with patience are rewarded heavily)
 

Deck Knight

Blast Off At The Speed Of Light! That's Right!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
I stumbled onto Wise Man's Grandchild the other day, and ended up binge-watching it through to the current episode (Episode 8). I kind of figured a magical story that starts with being trained by a guy named Merlin would have a certain direction, but I wasn't wrong. Shin is your basic OP / hyper trained protag, but he isn't pretentious and they didn't turn it into a harem story either - he has the one girl he likes who likes him back. It shouldn't be as endearing as it is. One thing that did get my hopes up was in episode 3 where they show a pretty brutal onscreen death, so at least I know the series isn't going to chicken out on stakes/ brutality. Kind of thought there would be more personal fallout from the murder for the common sense- deficient protag but that wasn't the direction they went with it.

Truthfully the only thing I don't like about Isekai at this point is it gives you about 30 seconds of backdrop about a past life and never really explores tension about it. Maybe it will happen later in the series, but it hasn't yet for Shield Hero (in the Manga mind) and they are already multiple arcs in. Sword Art Online did this properly, I haven't seen anything else play with the idea. Speaking of Rising of the Shield Hero, they just finished what I would consider the first broad arc with Episode 21, so binge watch it from the beginning if you haven't.
 

Acklow

I am always tired. Don't bother me.
Wow, learning korean (or hangeul i guess as its called?) must be tough. I think it will definitely be worth it though, in this context there are some frustrations about the quality of translation that LINE has in reproducing the webtoon, so getting it from the OG language would definitely help with understanding the story better. I think it would also be cool to get all the little references SIU makes in his panels without the translations being butchered
Yeah, kinda have to learn it since I'm living in Korea atm. :P

I'm looking forward to reading it in Hangeul once I have a better comprehension of the language.
 

RODAN

Banned deucer.
i started watching seasonals in fall 2013. so slightly over 5 years of this bullshit. decided im going to post my top 50ish shows ive watched live since then. chronological order and ill bold the really good ones. in red are what i consider truly great shows that i love a lot


kill la kill
golden time
white album 2
sakura trick
mikakunin de shinkoukei
space dandy
wake up, girls!
jojo (full series)

ishuukan friends
ping pong
rail wars!
gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun
shirobako

amagi brilliant park
inou-battle wa nichijou-kei no naka de
assasination classroom
danmachi
hibike! euphonium (only season 1)
kekkai sensen

rakudai kishi no cavalry
ore monogatari!!
one punch man
dimension w
active raid
kiznaiver
ace attorney
tanaka-kun wa itsumo kedaruge
amanchu!
91days
mob psycho 100

flip flappers
keijo!!!!!!
3-gatsu no lion
kuzu no honkai
onihei
ACCA: 13-ku kansatsu ka

busou shoujo machiavellianism
sakurada reset
princess principal
made in abyss
ballroom e youkoso
hajimete no gal
garo: vanishing line
blend s

mitsuboshi colors
violet evergarden
killing bites
after the rain
lupin iii part 5

planet with
goblin slayer
ssss.gridman
kaguya-sama
dororo

sarazanmai
hitoribocchi no marumaru seikatsu
carole and tuesday
 
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