Recommended Anime/Manga?

[BryanM]

Saw Hi Score Girl. There are things that irritate me about it, but, hell, my standards are set on the floor. It's about something other than cartoon boobs, the art does not conform to the mandated template, and the main character is pathetic. All the basic necessary requirements on paper that makes something worth my time.

The "Guile turtling" in the first episode triggered a bad shameful memory from my own childhood. Where I tried to Guile turtle like a scrub instead of relying on my Chun Li proficiency.

It really does. Even worse, it's just a regular fighting show now. I can't really see how they coud have maintained the central gag beyond 12 episodes but it's still disappointing.

Seriously, just read the real One Punch Man manga by ONE. It's still absolutely fucking fantastic. None of that horrible filler that was inserted to slow down Murata from overtaking the original.

Like we've said before, Bad Shonen Shit took all the wrong lessons from Dragon Ball. Wrestling isn't about wrestling.

Tomoko develops immensely as the series goes on, even if she is still a pervert, she stops with any schemes to be popular, her judgement of others is way less harsh and she does become a kinder and nicer person

Yeah, I read a few of the later issues at random to see how it continues and was a bit disappointed that they'd move away from all the cringe.

Having characters that have an actual personality shouldn't be a drawback. There should be a little more substance to someone than their hair color or breast size.

It really depresses me wondering if this series would have done financially okay if Tomoko had gazongas that bounced every twelve seconds or something. From the way I see people shitpost about Granblue Fantasy characters, the masses really only seem to care about the surface level. Legs and exposed armpits? A beloved favorite. Has an actual brain in her head, building an army of murderous robot chickens? Ah who cares robot murder chickens aren't sexy.

[RiderKick]

It's not as if the other characters...don't have a personality?

It's Tomoko, anyone who hangs with her is cringe or has some serious problems, one girl is a repressed homophobe that refuses to accept she is a lesbian, another is even more awkward than Tomoko, another is so annoying she is being bullied by every girl other than Tomoko and so forth.

While their flaws aren't always being shown, they do have flaws that cause problems from time to time, and a lot of it is just in the background or only seen by the art rather than being said, even that twintail girl in the anime that sometimes talked to Tomoko:

Ends up being revealed to have been a major loner during middle school who had a high school debut changing her entire personality and look just to have someone liking her, constantly lying to everyone around her and the main reason why she even talked to Tomoko was because she was kinda suprised Tomoko could be so weird and open about how she is really like while she tries to hide everything.

And that is with her secrets being a lot less bad, her main problem is that she is an otaku with a major love for slice of life anime, hence her anime like hair style when compared to everyone else, and being a bit sadistic and scary when actually angry at Tomoko to the point of shutting her up a few times just with her glare:

Though eventually she reveals her true self and loses some friends while making others incredibly mad that she was just pretending all this time, Tomoko even only found she was an otaku by accident.

Seriously, a big part of the reason why the series became popular again is because the new characters do have traits of their own, and are more interesting than the old ones, to a point where even fan service character Yuu stopped appearing, with the only such characters being Yoshida and Asuka, and Yoshida never even does anything with her body while the joke with Asuka is that her acting like a fanservice character from an anime creeps everyone out, even Tomoko.

[MX7]

Seriously, just read the real One Punch Man manga by ONE. It's still absolutely fucking fantastic. None of that horrible filler that was inserted to slow down Murata from overtaking the original.

Need to get on that. It's probably loads easier to find second hand too. Loved the first volume.

[BrianC]

Seriously, just read the real One Punch Man manga by ONE. It's still absolutely fucking fantastic. None of that horrible filler that was inserted to slow down Murata from overtaking the original.

Need to get on that. It's probably loads easier to find second hand too. Loved the first volume.

The original manga is a web manga and there's a different manga that was drawn by a different artist. ONE drew the original himself and the artwork is crudely drawn at first.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Saw Hi Score Girl. There are things that irritate me about it, but, hell, my standards are set on the floor. It's about something other than cartoon boobs, the art does not conform to the mandated template, and the main character is pathetic. All the basic necessary requirements on paper that makes something worth my time.

The "Guile turtling" in the first episode triggered a bad shameful memory from my own childhood. Where I tried to Guile turtle like a scrub instead of relying on my Chun Li proficiency.

Seriously, just read the real One Punch Man manga by ONE. It's still absolutely fucking fantastic. None of that horrible filler that was inserted to slow down Murata from overtaking the original.

Like we've said before, Bad Shonen Shit took all the wrong lessons from Dragon Ball. Wrestling isn't about wrestling.

Yeah, I read a few of the later issues at random to see how it continues and was a bit disappointed that they'd move away from all the cringe.

Having characters that have an actual personality shouldn't be a drawback. There should be a little more substance to someone than their hair color or breast size.

It really depresses me wondering if this series would have done financially okay if Tomoko had gazongas that bounced every twelve seconds or something. From the way I see people shitpost about Granblue Fantasy characters, the masses really only seem to care about the surface level. Legs and exposed armpits? A beloved favorite. Has an actual brain in her head, building an army of murderous robot chickens? Ah who cares robot murder chickens aren't sexy.

Yeah, sex sells. So much anime now is about bouncing tits, and it sells remarkably well. Good, deep characters in anime are tough to find and there is a lot of shit to wade through.

Watamote doesn't sell enough figures and other "extra" things I would bet. The anime was a really nice surprise for me. One of my favorite pick-ups from the winter Sentai sale along with Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun.

I'll have to give High Score Girl a proper watch at some point, but I'm still in the middle of some longer things.

[M.Knight]

I haven't read Watamote's original manga but her being a miserable, lonely and bitter person is the absolute best thing about the show, so I am not sure I'll like the direction the series is taking. And it's not even for schadenfreude that I liked the anime, but due to how her cynical and paranoid attitude ultimately made her feel very human and real. Something you don't get as much with generic "nice" main characters without those same non-superficial flaws.
I also enjoyed the voice she was given in the anime adaptation. It's creepy-cute in a way, and fits her pretty well without being offputting. The ending song also has her sing with that voice at times and it's quite funny. I may miss that by reading the manga.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up! I should check it out, maybe I'll actually like it regardless, as the perspective of a person who used to be this bitter reflecting at her own past self can also be worthwhile and entertaining.

[Squire Grooktook]

I have not watched/read this series and have no intent to, but just skimming through this convo:

Tomoko develops immensely as the series goes on, even if she is still a pervert, she stops with any schemes to be popular, her judgement of others is way less harsh and she does become a kinder and nicer person

Yeah, I read a few of the later issues at random to see how it continues and was a bit disappointed that they'd move away from all the cringe.

Having characters that have an actual personality shouldn't be a drawback.

>Character development happens and their personality changes and grows in accordance with their experiences within the story arc, rather than just remaining as the static flat gag that made it popular
>"Man, it sucks that they had to get rid of her personality. How shallow!"

??????????

I dunno man, maybe you guys are phrasing things poorly but a character not staying exactly the same throughout an entire series and instead learning from their flaws and mistakes sounds like a fun arc to me.

[Durandal]

I dunno man, maybe you guys are phrasing things poorly but a character not staying exactly the same throughout an entire series and instead learning from their flaws and mistakes sounds like a fun arc to me.

It's moreso that she 'developed' from an unique personality that drew people into the series in the first place, into a more standard indistinguishable personality.

[RiderKick]

She is still a pervert and has quite a few moments of being an asshole or doing things with ulterior motives, she didn't exactly become a happy go lucky saint, she just is less of an asshole, like i said, she is still recognizable as Tomoko.

As for her changing, from what i understand, the manga is, in some ways, biographical, both the writer and artist were loners with heavy social anxiety, with the artist, a woman, having been a shut-in in the past and someone who rarely appears because her social anxiety gets the best of them, apparently she even rarely went to anime meetings, and the few times the anime staff saw the artist, she pratically ended the meetings by apparently hyperventilating or having social anxiety panic attacks.

She suffers from the biggest case of social anxiety between the two, but she still stopped being a shut-in, and the writer, while apparently admitting to still being socially awkward and having anxiety, he has admitted that he did change as life went on and things became easier.

It seems that Tomoko is based on both of their experiences, so i am guessing that their first few years at school weren't the best but things got better, for the writer at least(i assume so since he was never a shut-in) and that's why Watamote changed.

Though the other characters do have more slightly anime personalities, but then the series subverts expectations, gives a dash of reality to those personalities or the characters are more than just what they appear to be, besides, there is still some cringe here and there.

[null1024]

I'm reading Beastars.
This manga seemed so reasonable and down to earth a while ago.
It's a constant wild ride now. Still a bit grounded in a way a lot of what I've been reading hasn't been, but absurd shit keeps coming up in the story.
Really interesting writing, explores a fair few social issues in the [story's] world, and completely bonkers shit happens every couple chapters.
Our main character is the most lovable moron, but good god, he's a moron.

Spoiler

Seriously, he just got shot for being so fucking stupid as to let the criminal that he was supposed to have been helping to capture go free.
This isn't particularly out of character, even if it was surprising.
I'm increasingly convinced there's something actually in-story wrong with him.

[soprano1]

I'm enjoying Beastars too. The conclusion of the battle against the mysterious killer in their high school was quite shocking, not anyone can sacrifice THAT. I like the art, the big feline characters look derpy as hell when they are shown front and center.
And yes, Legosi is dumb as hell. Hell, he's not shounen MC type of dumb, just plain dumb.

[BryanM]

With Eva Netflix redub, 3.0+1.0 coming out next year, and the preview in a few weeks, was going through people's interpretations over 3 again.

I guess everyone agrees its a meta continuation, and not a narrative one since it ret-cons everything that happened in 2.0 and has a massive timeskip for only one reason and one reason alone: to have the amount of time Shinji spends in limbo to match up with the same amount of time between then and the release date of End of Evangelion. (The actual amount of time that passes, in terms of characters aging and event progression, is obviously less than 4 years.)

In other words, an author tract instead of an actual continuation of what came before.

This is a world where only three people get to pilot the giant world-saving bio-mechs. Every single other person is either in support of them, or an NPC. What Anno might not have considered, is that it isn't Shinji that his loathed otaku fans identify as. But as just another one of those millions of poor bastards who huddle in terror under their desks hoping that today isn't the day that they get turned into Kool-aid.

Perhaps Anno is the one rejecting reality. It's idiotic to blame Evangelion for the masturbatory over-the-top wish fulfillment entertainment media has become and always has been. (You guys remember stuff like the Andy Griffith Show, right? Pure fantasy.)

In retrospect, still kind of annoyed Kaworu put the suicide collar on his neck. Instead of rolling down the window and tossing that shit out instead. Like a normal person would. Instead of a hamfisted Jesus expy.

I hope the new movie is such a dumpster fire I'll be pissed off about it 15 years from now. Though by this point they really should be thinking about doing a Rebuild of Rebuild instead, considering the irl time lapse of eight years here.

[RiderKick]

Spy X Family is a comedy series that i have been enjoying, it's basically about the world's greatest spy(think James Bond only he doesn't care about sex or flirting with women) being tasked on a very long mission to infiltrate a terrorist group but the leader is a conservative guy that rarely meets anyone, so his best chance?

Adopt a kid, find a wife and put said kid in the school where his target's children live, boy, how can that possibly fail?

Oh, the school is insane and he has to hide the fact he is a spy from his new family, also dealing with the fact that his new family is pretty quirky and the girl he adopted is apparently not as smart or as professional as he thought...despite her being the only one to figure out he is a spy but being smart enough to not say anything to anyone while trying to follow her new cool superspy adoptive father for a chance of adventure while her new mom is mostly clueless.

Okay, maybe it's just me, but i ended up finding this manga to be pretty funny and full of charm, i also appreciate any series where the main character is an adult professional and there is no fanservice or ecchi elements.

[Vanguard]

I've been reading Spy X Family too. I like it a lot so far.

I dunno man, maybe you guys are phrasing things poorly but a character not staying exactly the same throughout an entire series and instead learning from their flaws and mistakes sounds like a fun arc to me.

Characters who grow from their experiences < characters who don't learn anything.

[Randorama]

Otomo (Katsuhiro) and Sunrise have found enough funds to start a new, faithful adaptation of Otomo's most famous work. The main characters will be slightly older (they problably don't want to portray minors doing drugs), but the goal is to adapt the original manga in its entirety.

I am wondering how many complaints there will be about this enterprise.

[soprano1]

Vinland Saga anime begins! Thoughts?

[RiderKick]

Shuumatsu No Valkyrie, that is all.

...Okay, so to summarize it, every God from every pantheon is real and they all get together and decide to kill humanity, but the valkyries stop the process and invoke Ragnarok, which was a joke rule where a bunch of humans and Gods would fight in a tournament to decide if a decision would go through or not, and thus, a tournament between the strongest Gods and the strongest humans in history occur with the fate of humanity at stake, also, the valkyries give the humans divine weapons because human equipment...would just be too weak otherwise.

Needless to say, it ends up being about awesome matches to the death(any God or human that dies will have their spirit demolished, meaning a total erasure of existence, not even the possibility of reincarnation) and being hype as hell.

Currently on it's third match as well, for those curious, so far we've had:

Thor VS Lu Bu

Zeus VS Adam(the literal Adam from the Bible)

And now it's Poseidon VS Sasaki Kojiro and it's been a great match so far.

Also, i love how Adam's divine weapon that he picks to fight Zeus is...a single knuckle duster, the father of humanity don't need no weapon when he can just punch Zeus in the face!

[Steamflogger Boss]

This sounds stupidly amazing and awesome.

[RiderKick]

This sounds stupidly amazing and awesome.

Because it is exactly that, also, for some reason Jack The Ripper and Nikolai Tesla will fight against Gods, i mean, i didn't know that a random serial killer and freaking Nikolai Tesla were strong enough to be chosen by valkyries to fight against Gods, i just hope this means Tesla will have a divine gun that shoots electricity, sadly, that fight is still going to take a while to appear.

Oh yeah, the tournament already has a list of all human fighters and Gods, it's how we know Tesla will be in it, that is going to be...a fun fight mostly because i really want to know what they will come up with for his fighting style.

But yeah, another reason to read the series, it will eventually have Tesla with divine weapons fighting against a freaking God.

[soprano1]

A cool concept indeed, but the ugly shit-eating grins are, well, ugly.

[Ajora]

Man, the cliffhanger ending to the Area 88 OVA is hugely disappointing. Up until that point, it was fantastic. What a bummer.

[kitten]

Man, the cliffhanger ending to the Area 88 OVA is hugely disappointing. Up until that point, it was fantastic. What a bummer.

???

it's a very clear narrative conclusion and imho a pretty strong ending

[Steamflogger Boss]

Area 88 is great.

Anyway...

Amagi Brilliant Park. It's stupid and nothing special but it tickled me just right or something as I blitzed through it like I haven't done in awhile. ASK ME OUT AT GUNPOINT BABY.

[Vludi]

it's a very clear narrative conclusion and imho a pretty strong ending

Agreed, especially consering it's a pretty short adaptation of a long manga. One of the most solid ovas imo.

Amagi Brilliant Park. It's stupid and nothing special but it tickled me just right or something as I blitzed through it like I haven't done in awhile. ASK ME OUT AT GUNPOINT BABY.

The mascots in that show were pretty funny, wish they were more exploited. Nothing special but it's worth a watch.

[Ajora]

If you look up the upload on Youtube, about 80% of the comments are people echoing my exact sentiments, in that it was an amazing ride up until the shit ending. I'm astonished that anyone could like it.

[BryanM]

Amagi Brilliant Park. It's stupid and nothing special but it tickled me just right or something as I blitzed through it like I haven't done in awhile.

That one's a pretty good example of not being laser-focused into a rut. On a high design level, it isn't much different than most otaku bait - a male teenage protagonist meant as an audience cypher, lots of girls, and what few males there are, are non-threatening to the protagonist's "romance prospects".

But bringing attention to that stuff isn't given a ton of screen time - every character is allowed to matter, the narrative breathes, fun adventures are had - a variety of stuff that everyone can enjoy. (It's often been said Kyoto Animation is almost "embarrassed" by the seedier content with how quick the cuts of these scenes are, but I think it's all the better for it.)

(You might like Chuni if you haven't seen it yet. It's not as chuni as the Jet Black Wings but still pretty chuni.)

[Steamflogger Boss]

Amagi Brilliant Park. It's stupid and nothing special but it tickled me just right or something as I blitzed through it like I haven't done in awhile.

That one's a pretty good example of not being laser-focused into a rut. On a high design level, it isn't much different than most otaku bait - a male teenage protagonist meant as an audience cypher, lots of girls, and what few males there are, are non-threatening to the protagonist's "romance prospects".

But bringing attention to that stuff isn't given a ton of screen time - every character is allowed to matter, the narrative breathes, fun adventures are hard - a variety of stuff that everyone can enjoy. (It's often been said Kyoto Animation is almost "embarrassed" by the seedier content with how quick the cuts of these scenes are, but I think it's all the better for it.)

(You might like Chuni if you haven't seen it yet. It's not as chuni as the Jet Black Wings but still pretty chuni.)

Sounds about right. I really only grabbed it because it was cheap. When I put it in I wasn't sure if watch it all but like you said it's not hyper focused on the lamer aspects. Interestingly enough there are really only figures for Isuzu. As opposed to the typical every female character from the show that usually happens.

I have not heard of Chunk so I'll look into it in a bit. I've been laid up lately so I've been watching a lot.

[kitten]

If you look up the upload on Youtube, about 80% of the comments are people echoing my exact sentiments, in that it was an amazing ride up until the shit ending. I'm astonished that anyone could like it.

Spoiler

i'm not sure youtube comments by anime fans are particularly the ring you want to throw your hat into, but i have a frankly difficult time imagining any other ending. area 88 is very melancholic and drives home a lot of points about the futility of conflict, the depressing state of our world, and the nature of loyalty & duty. it feels deeply loathing of wanton capitalism, predatory industry, and war profiteering - and i feel like shin's choice at the end to throw himself back in the fray to his obvious death, favoring his brothers-in-arms over a life he feels he's been too exposed to the poisons of the world to return to, perfectly punctuates the story. to choose not to depict the death and leave it on the somber, soft ending that they went with jives pretty well with the OVA's slow pace and its depictions of the constant traumatic grind of war.

i'm guessing most youtubers wanted shin to go out in a total blaze of spectacular glory or even get back to his girl, but i feel like that would deeply betray the intentions of the rest of the OVA. maybe that's more tonally fitting for the manga, but the OVA was never going to be something with a happy or explosive ending

[BryanM]

Damnit, Kyoto Animation arsonist.

33 dead. 36 injured. So far.

[Durandal]

Damnit, Kyoto Animation arsonist.

33 dead. 36 injured. So far.

It is insane.

KyoAni Studio 1 is where all the main production took place, and where all the masters and talent were housed. Now burnt to a crisp.
One third of their staff were murdered, and the other third were injured. That's nothing to speak of the severe mental trauma incurred by this attack, especially in a society as accostumed to peace like Japan. You can't expect anyone under KyoAni to go back to work like this. None of their in-progress animations were backed up, everything they were working on has been burnt away. All their talent was in house too so you didn't just lose the students, you lost the teachers.

KyoAni is beyond recovery. All because of one guy with some gasoline. And it's even more harrowing to consider how this will go on to inspire copycats in the social stratum of shunned otaku who have been written off as good-for-nothing losers by society.