Recommended Anime/Manga?

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sky-13
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by sky-13 »

Sima Tuna wrote:Captain Tylor is a classic. Every bit as inspired by Star Trek and Starship Troopers as it was by Macross. The show reminds me the most of old short stories I read when I was a kid.

In particular, this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Dreadnough ... 044177735X

"Shadow on the Stars," by Algis Budrys, is about an improbable and unconventional genius who successfully wages intergalactic war using methods that fly in the face of conventional military principles. Captain Tylor feels like an anime-ized follow-up.
Very true, cool short story too. Certainly sounds like Tylor.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

I've been thinking a long time on how to sustain the feeling of novelty. It's a very weird field, where things are not equal.

Take kaiju, for example. They tend to have a very high velocity of diminishing novelty. The second lizard monster you make always feels like a cheap knockoff of the first one, the same with the second robot, beast, alien, zombie, etc. It's very easy to make a lot of bad kaiju (see: pretty much every kaiju franchise. Godzilla movies, Rampage sequels, etc.) and it only gets harder and harder to make good ones as you add to the pool.

Last year I tried writing a pulpy web novel inspired by Evangelion. The seed of the idea was a typical savior type thing: "These people are really messed up, but maybe if they could talk to one another and get some damn therapy, maybe they'd have been able to make it!" So I kind of wanted the MC to be like this therapist that fixes everything by talking to them.

... it didn't work out like that, and trended much more to hyping up the kind of showdowns the show is famous for. The problem being, I couldn't see myself living up to that hype (especially since the MC was supposed to be a mob with little power and no status to do anything in a fight). In retrospect, Evangelion itself had problems with that: all of the fights tended to be novel and different from one another in some way, it wasn't always just "punch the thing until it dies". That need to seek novelty in the showdowns actually led to some hokey ones, like the matched choreography needed to defeat the gemini aliens. And by the end of the series, you really get the impression they've also lost interest and just given up on fight sequences altogether.

Evangelion as Evangelion has a limited lifespan, by design. I suppose that's true of most things that put a lot into the high-stakes doomsday trope.
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Post by NYN »

Got my hands on Crying Freeman, VIZ Edition 1990 Portrait of a Killer Parts 1 and 2.

Don't think me daft, I knew the risks... 8) Got into manga in the second half of the incomparable '90s, so I never had to bother with, ahem, breaking up and falsifying by "correcting" the natural experience. Though I remember the fat tomes of AKIRA to be stubbornly "corrected" (I hear Lone Wolf&Cub still maintains this). Custom to the then age Cryman here is flipped, plus it's also inconsistendly messy. It starts with traffic on the "wrong" side and ends with mad killers that strongly prefer their left hand. The narrating gal Emu is shown writing: DEAR DIARY-LAST ENTRY :!: left-handed. Next panel shows some detail kana, where her right :| hand holds the pen. :roll: I don't mean to rant, it's just such an odd artifact. What amazes me every time I encounter a stupid idea is how insanely short-sighted it is. :lol: Also, the effort to mirror the images in the first place is what baffles my mind. I still mean to read further the 1st chapter.

Strangely I can keep my calm. Other examples that idioticly flip for no reason are numerous, and always bemuse me. Comics or video games. The latest is the otherwise awesome HUNTD0WN, where Babe Plissken can't decide which one of her lovly eyes is acually patched. I got owned.
"I've transmuted into a super being. I'll proof it by killing you." -NGIII ( words to kill by )
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BIL
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

*cough* *splutter* *fume* Yuh Rahhhtid (■`w´■) I've been taken for a fool 3;

Natsuki Crisis OVA 1 (1994)

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I was promised a women's take on competitive fighting shonen that emphasise agony and sacrifice and passion ala my old favourites Ippo, Kengan, and Baki! (a sliding scale from "nice kid" to "bouncing tits n' shattered clavicles" to "rapes a random man in his asshole to inspire him to take up mountaineering") That sounds interesting! However this isn't that at all, it's a Sailor Moon thingy in highschool karate club garb.


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It's not bad in its silly shojou/lesbo way though, especially if you are stuck at home waiting for mail for some other fuckface. Best part is Natsuki's NICE BUTT Image You can see why her male teammates, seemingly rapists to the last, are always whimsically sexually assaulting her! (it's ok, she hits them! never in the nuts or windpipe, though - that'd hurt!) Second-best is lovable HEICHOU, who is conspicuously non-rapist, and I genuinely thought was supposed to be a leatherfaced gravel-gargling 57y/o retired champ, a walking encyclopedia of SENJUTSU - OSU! - but ho ho holy fuck, no, he's like sixteen and studying for entrance exams. Quality Saved By The Bell aesthetic. ^w^

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Worst AND best part is not the usual 105lb schoolgirls thrashing biker gangs and yakuza, that's just part of the territory, no, it's that everyone is lacking mental acuity in a way that suggests underlying developmental concerns, as our budding friends NATSUKI and WHITE EXCHANGE CHICK get into a nasty fight, when the latter's vengeful former classmen wreck her beloved motorbike and tape a sign to it saying "IT WAS ME NATSUKI I H8 U LMAO." I was genuinely surprised and disappointed as they hauled off, was getting endearing Gunbuster vibes! And without a nude communal bath scene to make me look over my shoulder for Hansen-Taichou, even! :shock:

Even moreso a shame, as it's a legitimately venomous exchange, with a distinct attentiveness to the grim practicality of joint locks, small joint manipulation, and other catch-as-catch-can goodies. Quality choreography deserving of proper narrative undergirding. Unlike earlier cheesecake shots, the camera hiding with SAKUSEN outside poor Natsuki's shower, even the pantsu is warranted! Once you've seen a grown man shit all over himself in the agony of contest, a bit of upskirt doesn't really register tbh.

Wait, I get it. They had to go straight for each other's throats apropos of nothing, to explain why they didn't change into their uniforms first! :o Japan is ingenious :shock:

Good silly fun with some surprising grit here and there. x999 MAX MULTIPLIER if you, too, dig early 90s OVAs!
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Udderdude
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

I remember coming across that one years ago .. fun stuff.
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BIL
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Yeah OVA 2 was good! :o Kinda Downtown Nekketsu x Rival Schools. I like how they pulled no punches when HEICHOU-SENPAI rolled up all "BITCH I GOT FINALS" and the episode's ranking Deadly Rival is all "IYAAA YAMETEEE~" :lol:

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Yes that's right Natsuki-chan, now both of you please go home so I can have an angry fap (`w´メ)
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Brick Shithouse-senpai gives the women's fighting concept some welcome perspective and contrast, to the point I was sad to see it's just the two episodes. I wondered how that fruity bishounen chairman was gonna deal with Bricky, other than shooting him! Or doing some incredibly lame Aikido shit - even Baki has that stuff :o
NO BUTT IS SAFE (◎w◎;)
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Fun series for a rainy day, I'll have to give the manga a look assuming it wasn't quite as blueballing! I always recall the SFC game, which has badass boxart, but ofc went straight down the SFII craze rabbithole like a million other IPs (could be amazing, and nothing at all like SFII for all I know, I just ~Feel The SFC SFII Meh~ thinking back to that scene 3;).

Concept reminds a lot of Taito's relatively little-known hybrid belt/2D fighter Onna Sanshiro: Typhoon Gal. No Aiki or ki blasts there though! Image Just teeth scattering the dojo floor like mahfuckin tic-tacs! Image
ULTRA VIOLENCE
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EDIT: Oho! Manga's pretty lengthy, tiem 2 get RAW
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KAI
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by KAI »

Go read Medalist! 10/10 sports shojo manga.Vol 7 just came out and was soooo good.
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This is gonna be aoty as soon as the anime comes out
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BIL
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Cheers bud, onto me shortlist! I always meant to try out some non-fighting sports manga/anime. Handy way to get around the ol' Friend Collector issue (other than just killing all homie's friends 3;)

I need to catch up with Ippo and Kengan, too. I'm kinda Baki'd out atm, ever since the key to defeating Pickle turned out to be
Spoiler
Hitting him in the nuts :/
Miyamoto arc was batshit superb though, largely because it treated him as the protagonist for a good bit there!

Really liking the Natsuki manga so far. Bricky is Natsuki's Stand, basically. Cute! Highschool romance / RyonaEcchimania guest-starring Kenshiro. Author draws some legit bad dudes for Bricky to Takamura on. Poor Rapey-kun gets his ass beat trying to win Natsuki's favour, I hope he survive and l2gentleman ;w;

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She'll cut herself! (◎w◎;)
Oh Jesus WTF are you doing
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Woman must master ILLEGAL CARRY-RYUU to stand a chance (■`w´■)
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Being UWUU JUST FRENS w/Star Platinum works too! >;3
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Re-reading Baki The Grappler, that first stretch up to Baki and Yujiro's first fight would've been a great psychological horror manga in the guise of shonen martial arts, had Itagaki slammed the brakes right after. Twisted, yet blackly hilarious on account of Yujiro and Emi's respective evils. 3;

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"Please officers! Let me dream a little longer!" Fucking Christ! :shock: :cry: Of course a man's gotta eat, so there were a million further wacky adventures, and now Baki is a great homoerotic body-horror manga in the guise of shonen martial arts - which is almost as good! Image I can think of few better accompaniments for pizza and Tekken 3's OST Image
A Cunning Plan To Become Yet Stronger
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Lucky he didn't get buttfucked tbh!
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

KAI wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2023 5:12 am Go read Medalist! 10/10 sports shojo manga.Vol 7 just came out and was soooo good.

This is gonna be aoty as soon as the anime comes out
I was looking forward to this one.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Lemnear »

MANGA:

BTOOOM!
Waltz (spin-off, semi-standalone of another series)
Pika Ichi
Battle Royale
The Rose of Versailles// Lady Oscar
Sailor Moon
Climbers
Daydream
Berserk

ANIME:
Attack on Titan
Glass Mask
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
The Rose of Versailles// Lady Oscar
Sailor Moon
Devilman
Urotsukidōji
Claymore
Hokuto No Ken
City Hunter
Lupin III
Paradise Kiss
Special A
School Rumble
Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Battle Tendency

Movie:
REDLINE
Paprika
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BryanM
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Some hopium and copium for the Haruhi lads going around these days. Some new text might be coming down the line. The entire voice cast will attend a Kyoani event in November.

My opinion is "if not now, never". Much longer, and the voice actors will be as scratchy as Marge Simpson has gotten, the invested audience who glommed onto as youths will have died from old age/their kids will have left the house so they could dodge the indoctrination from their parents; that kinda stuff.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

I'm not falling for Endless Eight 2.0.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

If we don't get excited, we won't be able to be disappointed. And making the chemicals in our brains go up and down is what life is all about~!

The last time people were teased, it was for a pachinko machine. But I think more of it as a music video, myself.

There's just enough content left for one big arc. Unless the writer can get over the terror of possibly ending up as a fraud and start churning out some words.
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mycophobia
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by mycophobia »

i wanna see the parallel universe stuff animated. kyoani could do it justice. would be sick. plus with another 26 episodes endless eight would seem less egregious (though i actually like endless eight)
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

Sousou no Frieren is pretty good this season. If you like slice of life, definitely worth checking out.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

BryanM wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 1:29 am Some hopium and copium for the Haruhi lads going around these days. Some new text might be coming down the line. The entire voice cast will attend a Kyoani event in November.

My opinion is "if not now, never". Much longer, and the voice actors will be as scratchy as Marge Simpson has gotten, the invested audience who glommed onto as youths will have died from old age/their kids will have left the house so they could dodge the indoctrination from their parents; that kinda stuff.
Real monkey paw moment as it turns out it will be some random side stories.
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mycophobia
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by mycophobia »

eh books shmooks, Surprise was a good enough ending for the series imo. just want more cartoon
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Steamflogger Boss wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 6:49 pmReal monkey paw moment as it turns out it will be some random side stories.
Yeah, the real hopium is the November event tho. They're hauling out the entire voice cast for the thing. (Kyoani music fes proofs. They're on the second day.)

"Maybe they'll do a big synchronized push for the franchise? Maybe something good will happen?!" thinks an absolute moron, right before a meteor hits Japan and dunks the island into the sea, taking Haruhi along with it for the rest of all time.

I actually prefer the meandering slice of life/small self contained stories. The big climatic bullshit is well... like the series itself says, "why not put the climax in the middle, where it'll be unexpected?!" And I can only nod and agree exactly - get the annoying useless stuff out of the way so you can get along with the actually interesting stuff like playing a damn game of baseball with your friends.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

BryanM wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:57 pm
Steamflogger Boss wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 6:49 pmReal monkey paw moment as it turns out it will be some random side stories.
Yeah, the real hopium is the November event tho. They're hauling out the entire voice cast for the thing. (Kyoani music fes proofs. They're on the second day.)

"Maybe they'll do a big synchronized push for the franchise? Maybe something good will happen?!" thinks an absolute moron, right before a meteor hits Japan and dunks the island into the sea, taking Haruhi along with it for the rest of all time.

I actually prefer the meandering slice of life/small self contained stories. The big climatic bullshit is well... like the series itself says, "why not put the climax in the middle, where it'll be unexpected?!" And I can only nod and agree exactly - get the annoying useless stuff out of the way so you can get along with the actually interesting stuff like playing a damn game of baseball with your friends.
Yeah I really doubt we will get more anime but hey who knows! Not sure the author has any idea how to end a series like this anyway. I'd for sure watch more if we got it.

Currently watching Strike the Blood and The Irregular at Magic High School. Just trying to black out staring at anime girls before the end tbh.

The Irregular at Magic High School exceeded my admittedly low expectations. Seems to be very mixed feelings on this one online too. It's not particularly smart, the main character is overpowered and it does that light novel thing where it loves getting overly descriptive but it's just really damn watchable for me. Strike the Blood is honestly great. Vampires, other monsters, panties, good action.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Lander »

Been devouring Grappler Baki on BIL's recommendation; up to the third series, Son of Ogre, and having a grand time with it.
Mind games, Junior, mind games
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I only have passing knowledge of Ali, but all of his scenes were really enjoyable alternate reality character writing :)

I feel like there was some unspoken subtext with Jr. getting his shit absolutely destroyed by the returning cast of masters :lol: never stated directly, but their ruthless hazing seemed to go further than simple response to challenge; no doubt looking after their boy Baki.
Though I thought the Great Prison Battle saga was a tad weak, eh pibe? The fleshing-out (har har) of Biscuit's muscular backstory was solid, but it seemed a bit clown shoes shock value between the hot potato political framing, and bipolar Bunk Pals in Death Penalty Prison vibe.
Some great moments, but on the whole felt like it was trying to relive the glory days of World's Most Dangerous Serial Killers, similar to Great Chinese Challenge's callback to Maximum Tournament, but falling a bit short.
Perfectly normal grounded muscledude manga
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J/K lol! :lol:

Credit to him, achieving Ultimate Hench so you can still sweep your bitter, depressed ojou-sama landwhale of a lover off her feet is pretty god damn manly!
Thankfully, Pickle Wars (whattaname Image) is delivering in spades. Loving the return to Tokyo, and all the beloved old faces that show up as a result.

Except Jyaku. What a prize dick that man is.
Two Gods Menace A Bartender
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Brilliant scene. There was a time where Yuujiro would have sooner crushed Doppo than sit down for a drink! Subtle vibes of unity between the existing players now Pickle has reared his enormous power level, though I suspect it's playing coy and having the ogre hang back from battle with good reason.

It's clear that Itagaki knew he had gold had on his hands with Papa J; I expected the father-son fight to be good and done by now, but keeping him around for more Strongest Shenanigans on Earth has been a clear winning choice.
And proof positive that charismatic writing is king; black martial arts duds, formal shoes, and a hella mane is all the design you need when every scene is gold!
Last edited by Lander on Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Steamflogger Boss wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 12:36 amThe Irregular at Magic High School exceeded my admittedly low expectations.
Haha, that friggin' guy. That friggin' guy. Dumping huge Ayn Rand infodumps about how he'll make an island where he'll be free of the inferior subhumans who won't allow him to marry his sister. (Is he a big fan of Yosuga no Sora?? Probably... not. There are a bunch of non-sister routes in that game/show.)

I can never let it pass about how hard it warps basic logic. The main character is an absolute cripple, right? He should be dead last on the totem pole, and constantly struggling just to barely stay alive. But in upside-down objectivist world, his gigachad brain is able to magically not only overcome his disability, but he makes all the other people with 1,000,000 more MP than he has look like dumb, helpless little toddlers.

The ideology really does appeal to people who think they're special, super smart, and everyone else is stupid and dumb. Really is the worst form of chuunibyou. I'm a misanthrope who holds humanity in contempt, and even *I* feel like they think far too little of other people.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Yeah I have had loud bursts of laughter at scenes that I don't think are supposed to be funny. It honestly might be MORE absurd than SAO* given it completely defies any logic it's also trying to establish. And like I said it is really doing that light novel info dump so it's actually trying to have everything make sense only to have it make no sense at all other than plot armor.

*What an accomplishment.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Lander »

BryanM wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:37 amchuunibyou
So that's what the term is. Anime and manga straight-facedly embodying the idea always seemed a kind of fucked up notion to me; escapism is one thing, but full on megalomaniacal wish fulfillment starts getting into psychologically unhealthy territory.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Lander wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:52 pm
BryanM wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:37 amchuunibyou
So that's what the term is. Anime and manga straight-facedly embodying the idea always seemed a kind of fucked up notion to me; escapism is one thing, but full on megalomaniacal wish fulfillment starts getting into psychologically unhealthy territory.
There are even anime series about it. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions season 1 is really really good.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Lander wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:52 pmSo that's what the term is. Anime and manga straight-facedly embodying the idea always seemed a kind of fucked up notion to me; escapism is one thing, but full on megalomaniacal wish fulfillment starts getting into psychologically unhealthy territory.
Pretty much all fiction adheres to some fictional impossible model of a world. I feel like cartoons are a healthier model for that - a more clear delineation between fantasy and reality.

Look at all those police shows we have where the police are the warriors of justice busting scumbags. Essentially zero of them are as balanced or thoughtful as The Wire, it's a very black and white view of the world, without any reflection on systematic incentives put upon the characters involved. This kind of stuff translates directly into reinforcing certain kinds of political beliefs, and have a firm hand in shaping actual reality itself.

I do appreciate series where the support characters have things going on that don't revolve around the protagonist, though. Even if it's just 1 thing (and in a friend collector 1 thing at a time is all they have room for), it does wonders for verisimilitude.

Anything with superpowers is also automatically chunni. Spider-man. Die Hard. Fist of the North Star. Robocop. The Destroyer. People don't have superpowers. A fun re-interpretation is looking at these characters as cosplayers, just totally normal weirdos play-acting. It creates a very different vibe. (Perhaps a better one, where their motivations are just having fun. Instead of carrying out the tiresome chore of saving the stupid world. Yet again.)

Ambiguity especially doesn't get used much. I really love how in Electro-magnetic Girlfriend all of the crazy shit the crazy people believe might actually be true. It usually looks like it isn't, just the ravings of the mentally ill. But every once in a while, something happens that's just enough to go "well, maybe this one.." It also gets originality bonus points for the MC having these things called muscles, and his superpower is equipping a rolex during a fistfight.

2 OVA's and the final book isn't covered in a third. But if you need to see some more episodes of Pokemon, you're covered once a week until the sun burns out.
Steamflogger Boss wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 11:55 amYeah I have had loud bursts of laughter at scenes that I don't think are supposed to be funny.
Right-wing kinds of worlds are always the best kind, for violent conflict style stories. Brutal Wuxia/Xianxia stories where the protagonist isn't any better than the absolute monsters he's fighting against - it's the kind of world where someone would burn the souls of an entire planet if it would give them a +0.2% to their fire resistance stat. "It is a metaphor for capitalism" one sagely nods to themselves, as the next round of bastards try to screw one another.

RPG style video game worlds should have similar incentives - everyone walking around is a bag of EXP. It's rarely presented that way, since you have to be a sicko to be able to enjoy the kind of stupid degeneracy such stupid world design entails. FFF- Trash Hero had these race-based wars solely motivated by the EXP. I'm a bit sad the manga adoption of that one was so absolutely terrible; the dark fantasy character art for the web novel was so much better. And having giant globs of exposition and internal thought monologues ripped out destroys both the comedy and the character-establishment of the psychotic main character.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Lander »

Steamflogger Boss wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:58 pm There are even anime series about it. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions season 1 is really really good.
I shouldn't be surprised :lol: is that in the wink-nudge parody sense, or the straight-faced Is It Okay To Genre In A Genre sense?
BryanM wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 5:59 pm Pretty much all fiction adheres to some fictional impossible model of a world. I feel like cartoons are a healthier model for that - a more clear delineation between fantasy and reality.
I should probably rephrase to 'fiction in general', though japan's cartoon world seems more fascinated than most with the study of weird-ass social phenomena.
Anything is fair game, of course, but some showings come off a little too earnest in their normalizing of something-o-pathy beyond the regular bounds of Myers-Briggs arsehole space.
BryanM wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 5:59 pm Look at all those police shows we have where the police are the warriors of justice busting scumbags. Essentially zero of them are as balanced or thoughtful as The Wire, it's a very black and white view of the world, without any reflection on systematic incentives put upon the characters involved. This kind of stuff translates directly into reinforcing certain kinds of political beliefs, and have a firm hand in shaping actual reality itself.
One day I hope to see a world where unthoughtful mid-budget afternoon telly has less of a grip on the state of things.
Though that's looking like a bit of a pipe dream at present.

And oh! I still haven't watched The Wire. Bounced off it right along with Twin Peaks back when I had no sense of culture.
Fuck yes, I get to watch The Wire. That's dinner TV sorted for the next month :)
BryanM wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 5:59 pm Anything with superpowers is also automatically chunni. Spider-man. Die Hard. Fist of the North Star. Robocop. The Destroyer. People don't have superpowers. A fun re-interpretation is looking at these characters as cosplayers, just totally normal weirdos play-acting. It creates a very different vibe. (Perhaps a better one, where their motivations are just having fun. Instead of carrying out the tiresome chore of saving the stupid world. Yet again.)
Die Hard?! Maaaan :lol: being a Dynamite Cop is pretty humble as superpowers go, but I suppose it counts.
Though wouldn't super fiction as a whole fall under the more general Delusions of Grandeur? Chuuni seems specific to the teen set.
BryanM wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 5:59 pm Ambiguity especially doesn't get used much. I really love how in Electro-magnetic Girlfriend all of the crazy shit the crazy people believe might actually be true. It usually looks like it isn't, just the ravings of the mentally ill. But every once in a while, something happens that's just enough to go "well, maybe this one.." It also gets originality bonus points for the MC having these things called muscles, and his superpower is equipping a rolex during a fistfight.

2 OVA's and the final book isn't covered in a third. But if you need to see some more episodes of Pokemon, you're covered once a week until the sun burns out.
I vaguely remember Kanon playing with ambiguity for a sizeable part of its story. Serene character-character meandering with carefully-spaced doses of the one weirdo who casts doubt on it just being a show about girls and stuff.
Hmm, should I be embarrassed to admit having watched that? Uguu, whatever I guess.

One of a few off-pasture recommends from some colourful teen peers. There was also one about Le Comte de Monte-Cristo - in space, of course - that seemed terribly cultured at the time :lol:
And something about a fella with an alligator head that wasn't his actual head, and a love for gyoza? God knows. Sounds kind of interesting in retrospect, though.
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mycophobia
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by mycophobia »

i watched all of kanon and k-on a few years ago whilst recovering from surgery and zonked out on oxycodone. it was pretty cool. that's my story
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mycophobia
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by mycophobia »

for the record k-on is great and ive watched it several times since then and kanon is not very good, at least not without consistent opioid consumption to accompany it. thank you
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Lander »

Finished up Baki: Son of Ogre. Thought it ended pretty strong, but having pushed forward into Baki-dou, I'm not sure what to make of it.
Spoiler
Strongest Father-Son Quarrel settled, some good (if late-running) bonding moments, and both still around for more action. Good stuff, if not what was expected.
That's how I felt at the time, but now I'm beginning to think it was a missed opportunity to go out with a bang.

Thus far, the series has mostly existed on the right side of grounded - some crazy shit happens in fights, but the majority of it can be taken as figurative abstraction over fighting spirit rather than literal oh shit he can project a magic hologram.
Pickle was the first sign of stepping wholly over that line, given that unfreezing a living cretaceous man in perfect form is edging into science fantasy, but bringing Miyamoto Musashi back from the dead by way of a top-secret above-the-law under-the-ground cloning facility wilfully leaps into the realm of ridiculous.

Sure, it's fun to see the man striding around modern-day japan cutting bitches in half, but it feels like we've gone way off the martial arts manga range; Baki hasn't been the main character in a good while, the real-world US politics infection has worsened, and ultimate badass Yuujiro is still walking around being ultimate... But for what? To support a digression? Where's the payoff, the passing of the torch and genesis of a younger, kinder ogre who more resembles his grandfather?

I dunno man, feels like the series has given up and started coasting. Art and presentation is still good, but the destination is no longer known :|
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