Recommended Anime/Manga?

[Skykid]

BIL would you really recommend Jojo then? I've often been curious, but the initial volume didn't do much for me. How much has been colourised?

[BIL]

I find it a hard series to recommend in total, not only for the shifts in style over its nearly three decades, but also its inherent oddness. Incendiary shonen melodrama and brain-spattering ultraviolence suggest FOTNS, but the offbeat, knowingly camp tone and crazy scenarios certainly don't. I find parts 1-7 quite lovable as a whole, but 2 and 3 are probably the strongest in isolation.

Consensus seems to be JoJo Part 1 / Phantom Blood is a weak start. I enjoy it enough, but aside from a promisingly nefarious villain in Dio, it is fairly run of the mill FOTNS-style shonen (in Victorian cod-horror garb). Part 2 / Battle Tendency is similar in tone but stronger all-around, with a grander scale and a far more charismatic protagonist. Joseph is the anti-Kenshiro. A prick, a cad, and a sneaky muhfucka who's never too proud to beg for mercy, or cheat, or occasionally flee for his life (all according to plan). I love Joseph, haha. Worra rascal!

PEEPIN DAT BOOTY most unchivalrously

Spoiler

Part 3 / Stardust Crusaders is the most popular and a watershed either way. Drops the FOTNS martial arts trappings and establishes the "Stand" concept that dominates the rest of the series... it's still broadly shonen fighting, but Stands' metaphysical nature give Araki carte blanche for vastly more creative battle scenarios, at times wildly surreal and typically ruinously violent. Its seek/destroy plot is ridiculously fast-paced ("villain of the day" might suffice); you'll probably know if you want to continue the series from here. As I've alluded to a few times in this thread, I find the ongoing parade of Stand users and weird yet mortally intense duels a little predictably unpredictable at this point, but Araki obviously puts a lot of heart into his work. If you dislike Part 3 or feel you've gotten your fill, don't bother with Parts 5-7 at least. 4 and 8 are weird. I like them too, and could see non-fans of the more battle-focused parts who still like the Stand concept getting into them.

Basically I'd suggest Parts 2 and 3 as stand-alone examples of the series' shonen and later phases, respectively.

AFAIK... the entire completed manga (Parts 1-7) has been colourised for digital download; Part 8 / JoJolion is ongoing and b/w only for now. What I'm not sure about is translation status of coloured pages. Part 7 / SBR is 100% done for sure.

The 2012-ongoing TV anime is an absolutely excellent adaptation of the manga; I'd actually suggest skipping to episode 8 (the climax of Part 1), and continuing into Part 2 as a fine alternative to reading Part 2's manga. That's what I did when I wanted to pick up the anime again for Battle Tendency, but didn't feel like sitting through Phantom Blood again.

[M.Knight]

[Disclaimer : I only watched Parts 1, 2 and 3 so far. Plan to watch Part 4 once the anime adaptation is finished]
If you are looking for something extremely serious and "gritty", then it is difficult to recommend JoJo. It is called "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" for a reason. Otherwise, I cannot second BIL's recommendation enough.
Phantom Blood is weaker indeed, but I think the first half of it is still enjoyable due to how it sets up its main conflict and villain. However, its second half inherits everything that makes shônen series unwatchable IMO, so I would also recommend skipping it.

Parts 2 and 3 are truly excellent, and they both feature an enjoyable mix of fun fights and funny moments. Seeing Part 2's Joseph Joestar (the best JoJo!) use his endless array of tricks is such a treat and his mischievous personality is refreshing for a shônen series, while Part 3 has an appealing group dynamic between its main characters. The number of enemies in Stardust Crusaders is much higher and there is always a new threat around the corner, but there's no repetition or fatigue going on. Some of the Stands and the fights being very unconventional also helps.

I usually can't stand shônen series due to their sheer length coupled with their absurd amount of filler arcs, padding and useless mid-battle chit-chat, their predictability, the dumb power creep and so on. But judging from what I watched of it, JoJo is mostly free of all of those pitfalls. Or at the very least (excluding Phantom Blood's second half), it doesn't negatively impact the series.

[BPzeBanshee]

As a fan of Steins;Gate I thought I'd give Occultic;Nine a go when I saw it show up on Crunchyroll's front page.

If you go by the premise that the first episode is an indicator of the whole series then it's probably not worth watching. The first episode was paced like it was written by someone with ADHD and or a drug addiction - unnaturally fast and trying so hard to fit different character introductions in that you'd need to set your media player to 0.75 speed to reliably read a goddamn thing.

The second episode however was much better in regards to the pacing but I'm not keen on the stupid fanservice bullshit. Steins;Gate had next to none of it and I'm disappointed to see this show riddled by it since it detracts away from what could be an actually interesting plot. I'll probably watch next week's episode since at least I'll be making use of my Crunchyroll subscription.

I also watched the first part of The Ancient Magus' Bride. Shame they're not doing more episodes until next year, it was beautifully done.

[null1024]

I love JoJo. Part 1 is okay. Part 2 is the easiest to recommend by far, with the most fun protagonist and cast. 3's the most famous and sets the pace for all the others onward, but certainly feels more like an ordinary battle shonen despite the cool powers and interesting fights. Jotaro is quite nearly the least interesting person alive.

4's my favorite, but it's weird and doesn't have a driving plot, a lot of it just goes and explores about what if ordinary people have Stands, it's practically an action slice-of-life. It also goes and expands on the fact that Stands are fucking weird, it's the bit where Araki seems to have noticed that he put the word "bizarre" in the title and runs with it -- all the parts from here onward are definitely pretty weird. Haven't seen the anime, heard it fucks with 4's pacing [which could be a significant issue, considering that 4 isn't the most action-packed thing]. Has the best JoJo.

5 goes back to 3's high-action style, combined with 4's more interesting and outright weird Stand powers, but it suffers from having NO BRAKES and being almost all non-stop action. Also, the MC is flat as a board [ridiculously stylish though] and might as well just be a plot device, thankfully the other characters aren't so bad. Also, it's got the least to do with the rest of the series, you can literally go from part 4 straight to part 6 and not notice. I still liked it a lot.
also, the very end of the story can be really confusing because you may end up having to rely on a really, really bad translation
also, I should stop saying also, haha

6 is great. It's got a ton of dumb shit to it, but if you enjoyed 3 and 5, you'll likely keep going. It also has F.F., who deserved to be in the PS3 games. Jolyne is ace.

haven't read any 7 or 8 yet -- been meaning to for a while, just haven't bothered

If you can read them in color, do so -- in particular, Part 1 benefits massively from colorization, the fights are wonderfully brutal and lively with the extra pop it brings. Re-reading Part 1 in color made me enjoy it significantly more.
Although you should read it in order, at no point are you actually required to know anything at all about the previous arc to enjoy the current one, any past characters showing up get far more minor roles and their prior exploits don't really have the biggest influence on the plot, prior details are explained enough.
JoJo doesn't suffer from power creep or a lot of the more egregious shonen series issues simply because each arc is very self-contained.

Really, it's not too hard for me to recommend the series, although Part 1 is definitely somewhat weak. It still has some really great moments, but it's not an overall amazing work. Part 2 however, is fantastic, and the series as a whole is generally good.


tl;dr:
read the manga, in color, if you don't like a part, skip it, but you shouldn't have to skip anything because it's all still pretty good

[BIL]

About power creep (hadn't heard that one - useful term), with giant spoilers for Part 2:

Spoiler

I love how it handles Joseph and Lisa Lisa's respective statures in the endgame. Joseph isn't put over his master as some Mary Sue "chosen one" ; he has hereditary talent, a lightning-quick tactical mind and mad sleight of hand, but Lisa is undoubtedly the stronger Hamon user (killing Wired Beck before he or Joseph knew he was dead, to JoJo's amazement). Unfortunately Kars isn't a consummate champion ala Wammu; he's a sly dog ala Joseph, and after rigging the battlefield promptly ambushes Lisa for an underhanded win.

So JoJo stepping in to save the day against another trickster feels completely natural, as does his winning with the same combination of craftiness, balls-out gambling and occasional blind luck he's relied on the whole series (convenient volcano, and Stroheim saved his ass beforehand, but fortune favours the bold!). He's just significantly more disciplined and vastly more experienced at this point.

I'd actually be okay with Part 6's climax receiving a minor to moderate overhaul, should the anime make it that far. It works in isolation, but

Spoiler

given the arc's very premise, it's hard to ignore the total absence of Giorno. Part 4's goofballs and misfits not being on their A-game I can buy, but not an ambitious and capable son of Dio... let alone one with an eminently potent Stand who's also a ranking mafia boss. Far too much to just write off there, with all the apocalyptic shit going down in Florida.

I'd be happy if it played out exactly the same with the briefest, fluffiest of cut-away explanations, pretty much. A bit like Araki already seemed to attempt with that chapter-end blurb.

[BryanM]

Okay, I need opinions on this.

Whenever a series has a countdown timer teasing a "reveal", that "reveal" will always be a pachinko machine branded with that franchise's art, right? Which is technically far worse than



because they're crassly trying to exploit something you love for effortless profit, without giving you more of the thing you want.

How a series really gets announced, is in a dark corner in the back of an obscure magazine by a mid level production employee, about two to four years before said project is released.

That's how reality works right? Has there ever been a marketing gimmick countdown that hasn't led us into the valley of pachinko and death?

[Durandal]

I thought those announcements are usually for crossovers

[Frenetic]

Kakukaku Shikajika (かくかくしかじか) by Akiko Higashimura

Really enjoyed this autobiographical manga about a young girl who wants to become a manga artist. She meets a very interesting mentor along the way...

--F

[Xyga]

Mahou Shoujo of the End

That's a rather plot-heavy, apocalyptic sci-fi horror here, not bad at all.

Despite the name it's free of any actual magical girl cute shit, no worries.

A quote from my favourite character:

Spoiler

[BryanM]

Mahou Shoujo of the End

This franchise is Madoka on battery acid.

My favorite manga panel ever is in its sister series Site, where onii-chan is angry his favorite punching bag isn't around anymore.



It is a good image macro for when you need to endure something.

[soprano1]

Is he trying to endure his need to fap, or his need to take a crap?

[BryanM]

Neither! But it looks that way. And that's why I love it so.

[BIL]

Mahou Shoujo of the End

That's a rather plot-heavy, apocalyptic sci-fi horror here, not bad at all.

Despite the name it's free of any actual magical girl cute shit, no worries.

Hey, that's pretty good! Some "uwu Japanese highschoolers" guff for sure, but it moves so fast and derangedly it's easily forgiven.

A quote from my favourite character:

Spoiler

I just took a break and logged in to post that page.

[Xyga]

but it moves so fast

Yes that's the strong point. I hate when 80% -if not more- of whatever (book, comic, show, movie etc) is filled with irrelevant crap telling the lives and worries of damned teenagers and shit.
Here the space is mainly occupied by the story so it's actually worth one's time.

I remember enjoying Psyren in a similar fashion.

[Opus131]

Is he trying to endure his need to fap, or his need to take a crap?

Both, probably.

[BryanM]

At least the countdown wasn't for a pachinko. A sidestory book getting released, and an announcement of an announcement for November. I'm guessing that's when we'll have the pachinko announcement.

For Shonen perverts, DxD season four is a thing forthcoming. Hopefully they won't hack things to shit like did in series 3.

For Shonen perverts who prefer a focus on giant robots, Full Metal Panic is getting a new season too. This one really hit me out of nowhere - it's been over a decade since the last one after all.

[M.Knight]

About power creep (hadn't heard that one - useful term), with giant spoilers for Part 2:

Part 2 spoilers :

Spoiler

I agree with your analysis. I didn't feel that having Joseph beat Kars instead of Lisa Lisa felt unnatural or forced at all. That final fight was a real treat, and Joseph pretending to have planned the strangling hand thing just to piss off Kars was absolutely hilarous.
We wouldn't have had that with Lisa Lisa instead, even though she was a much stronger Hamon user.
Two things were a bit too heavily foreshadowed in my opinion though : the red stone coming in handy against Kars (due to the prophecy Lisa Lisa mentionned earlier) and the fact that Kars has a weakness to outer space (due to how many times they mention him being the ultimate life form "on Earth").


I also think that having Joseph rely on tricks, gadgets, cheating and the occasional luck is the result of the mangaka realizing that Hamon powers were becoming really stale. At least, I felt that way when going through Parts 1 and 2. In Part 1, all of Jonathan's OvaadorivUUU are more or less the same attack so Joseph has to spice things up.
Another sign of Hamon powers getting old is the fact that every time our main character is in a pinch, it is due to their difficulty breathing after getting hit by an enemy attack. It felt oddly specific and I am glad Stands shaked things up in Part 3 onwards.

[Skykid]

So I took a look at Jojo's and it's pretty awful so far. Completely without subtlety or plot and kind of childishly hamfisted in its spelling out of events; "he's going to do this, I must do this".

The illustrations are generally awful but not without personality.

This is part one, and I suppose all I want to know is does this manga ever become anywhere near as beautiful or characteristic as Capcom's CPSIII rendering of it, or is that just some incredibly misleading inspiration?

[soprano1]

So I took a look at Jojo's and it's pretty awful so far. Completely without subtlety or plot and kind of childishly hamfisted in its spelling out of events; "he's going to do this, I must do this".

The illustrations are generally awful but not without personality.

This is part one, and I suppose all I want to know is does this manga ever become anywhere near as beautiful or characteristic as Capcom's CPSIII rendering of it, or is that just some incredibly misleading inspiration?

Yeah, art improves by Part III, then again by part V.

[BIL]

So I took a look at Jojo's and it's pretty awful so far. Completely without subtlety or plot and kind of childishly hamfisted in its spelling out of events; "he's going to do this, I must do this".

The illustrations are generally awful but not without personality.

This is part one, and I suppose all I want to know is does this manga ever become anywhere near as beautiful or characteristic as Capcom's CPSIII rendering of it, or is that just some incredibly misleading inspiration?

As said, you should probably skip Part 1; it's weak. Where it's an at times overly earnest shonen, Parts 2 onward take themselves a lot less seriously, with positive effect on their character designs, plotting and overall tone. Do keep in mind that it's only really Part 4 that attempts a plot much more complex than "superheroes must track down and destroy megalomaniacal supervillain," though. JoJo is mostly about its character designs and battle scenarios.

The CPSIII game's art style and general tone is 110% lifted from Araki's manga, from the sprites, backgrounds and voice acting down to tiny details in its various menus. I recently got a Japanese DC copy despite having no real interest in the game itself... whether by labour of love or sheer professionalism (I'm guessing both), it's an amazing work of cross-media art.

[EmperorIng]

A quickie: Natsuki Chronicle. Based off a game? A manga? Who cares! Two short 30-minute episodes that give me exactly what I want: hot-blooded fights between melodramatic high-school girls, replete with ultra-cheesy music that is as schizophrenic as the constantly changing emotions the characters display. It's very fun, and the length is more than manageable!

image

Finally, a manga that depicts Japanese people how they actually look!

[soprano1]

image

Finally, a manga that depicts Japanese people how they actually look!

No, that's Grappler Baki:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1IsTZiaRsZA/ ... iSmile.jpg

And here is the proof:
http://shmuplations.com/wp-content/uplo ... wata03.jpg

[BryanM]

To try to hype myself up on another Nitroplus crapshoot, I traveled back in time to watch Requiem for the Phantom.

It started promising, a simple little story of brainwashed assassins for the mafia. Then it went places rather uninteresting. I'd have been happier if they just went full out with the genre shift into the Japanese Highschool Comedy route, or stayed in America with a rampage of revenge route. It very much feels like they were just stretching out a very small and simple story into something it wasn't built to ever be.

Genre clashing is one of the few things I like in the medium these days. Like how the guy in Planetarium who's a scavenger living in a grimdark apocalypse filled with killer robots and disease vectors.. and the plucky little robot who thinks things will all be okay just as long as she gives the best damn speech about the night sky she can. To an empty room. Because all the humans are dead.

After all, they... don't exactly bother to animate too many Korean RPG deathgame novels these days.

Nitroplus

I just googled this and discovered a fighting game exists by the name of "Nitroplus Blasterz". Ain and Saya are characters included..... next to things like Super Sonico. Without any male characters present.

It makes my skin crawl in a rather bad way.

[soprano1]

To try to hype myself up on another Nitroplus crapshoot, I traveled back in time to watch Requiem for the Phantom.

It started promising, a simple little story of brainwashed assassins for the mafia. Then it went places rather uninteresting. I'd have been happier if they just went full out with the genre shift into the Japanese Highschool Comedy route, or stayed in America with a rampage of revenge route. It very much feels like they were just stretching out a very small and simple story into something it wasn't built to ever be.

Genre clashing is one of the few things I like in the medium these days. Like how the guy in Planetarium who's a scavenger living in a grimdark apocalypse filled with killer robots and disease vectors.. and the plucky little robot who thinks things will all be okay just as long as she gives the best damn speech about the night sky she can. To an empty room. Because all the humans are dead.

After all, they... don't exactly bother to animate too many Korean RPG deathgame novels these days.

That reminds me, when is Saya no Uta getting an anime OVA?

[BryanM]

That reminds me, when is Saya no Uta getting an anime OVA?

I'd say it's been too long ago and if a miracle happened, the OVA would just be a super abridged guro porno OVA.

They really don't like to take chances on anything that isn't cookie cutter these days. (Which I think is a shame since being able to make niche content on a budget is the core strength of the medium.) Saya's too violent, too gruesome, and too niche.

But hell, Full Metal Panic is coming out of the freezer, and there's always the distant possibly of Ray Kurzweil's singularity where you can have a computer make anything you want, so I'd never say never.. though I'd put more money on it being realized through Kurzweil's kooky religion than a production company making a movie about a serial killer.

(Never going to get that third and final OVA of Denpa-teki na Kanojo, either..)

[Ji-L87]

A quickie: Natsuki Chronicle. Based off a game? A manga? Who cares! Two short 30-minute episodes that give me exactly what I want: hot-blooded fights between melodramatic high-school girls, replete with ultra-cheesy music that is as schizophrenic as the constantly changing emotions the characters display. It's very fun, and the length is more than manageable!

Yeah! Somebody else who likes this thing

Seriously though, I really like it. Nice drawing style and music. The beginning of the first episode, with the electric guitar slowly coming in as the doors to the dojo opens loudly is pretty cool.
While I haven't played the game, the manga is decidedly ho-hum based on the two volumes I have, sadly.

This OVA on the other hand is easily digestible and just the right length for this kind of thing, even if the "story" isn't complete, as with most OVAs.

[GaijinPunch]

A quickie: Natsuki Chronicle. Based off a game? A manga? Who cares! Two short 30-minute episodes that give me exactly what I want: hot-blooded fights between melodramatic high-school girls, replete with ultra-cheesy music that is as schizophrenic as the constantly changing emotions the characters display. It's very fun, and the length is more than manageable!

image

Finally, a manga that depicts Japanese people how they actually look!

I remember this!

[FinalBaton]

BIL, I just got the latest Ninja Scroll blu ray remaster from Sentai Filmworks and I'm soooooo disappointed in the picture >w<

Colors are oversaturated as fuck! This is not how the film is supposed to look!!! >w< I've seen good quality pics of NJ cells, so I know they went overboard with the saturation on this blu ray.

The blues and blueish greys in particular are disgusting, they're like neon... everything steel has WAY more blue in it than it should.

This is supposed to be a bleak universe... Get the FUCK outta my face with your vibrant colors and shit
*flips table*

[BIL]

Sounds awful, sorry to hear that! Have to admit the only official Ninja Scroll release I own is the good ol' Manga Entertainment VHS. ;3