Recommended Anime/Manga?

[Durandal]

Kemono Friends was kind of a surprise with how not bad it actually is, even if it looks like a cheap educational children's show. As in, it could be worse and clichéd in so many ways like most anime currently airing, but it somehow isn't. It's actually quite good on its own and worth a watch.

[Ji-L87]

Kemono Friends really blew up, huh? Would never have guessed that from the early episodes.
I couldn't stand more than a few until the shoddy visuals and tone drove me up the walls (the wheels doesn't even move on the bus in the OP) but there's so much fanart now - nsfw or otherwise.

[FinalBaton]

a Record Of Lodoss War OVA blu ray is coming to North America(july 18), for those of you whom it interests
pre-orders are now on.

$65.99 CAD over at Amazon.ca (canadians get the better deal, wtf?)
$66.47 USD over at Amazon.com
$62.03 USD over at Rightstuff.com

Includes the original OVA on blu ray, and the Chronicles of the Heroic Knight series on DVD.

[soprano1]

Oh man, Lodoss War! Great stuff, that cover looks good.

[Yoroi no Kyojin]

I'm waiting for One Punch Man S2!

[Mortificator]

The OVA's awesome. The TV series... has a good opening sequence.

[soprano1]

The TV series... has a good opening sequence.

Maaya Sakamoto to the rescue lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blICu7KsmyA

[null1024]

fucking everyone and their dog is talking about Kemono Friends, so now I'm giving it a watch

I expected a stupid little slice of life. I just finished the second episode, and it's surprisingly mildly interesting.
The setting is mildly worrying. The presentation is absurdly cute as expected.
The animation quality is basically nil and I'm kind of wondering if the entire series was done with less than $10k, it's that poor.
The render quality is pretty decent though, and the show looks fine in stills. It's just got appallingly cheap looking 3D animation.

might just end up watching this to the end, assuming it gets better
[edit]
it's almost 2am and I'm still watching this and I'm on ep6, help
quality almost seems to take an uptick, or maybe I'm just used to how ugly the show can get

some parts are really fucking awful and have really jarring plain plastic-shaded 3D models for scenery though

[edit 2]
I'm done. Watched the whole thing.
Despite being zero budget and really basic [heck, isn't this targeted at literal ten year olds], it was still solidly enjoyable throughout.

[edit 3]
also, word of warning: the manga is an actual slice of life [and takes place in a far less interesting alternate world] and is correspondingly far less enjoyable overall
like seriously, don't bother, nothing interesting happens whatsoever and it's not even particularly funny

[GaijinPunch]

That's a pretty good deal. I liked this one a lot. Watched it not long ago, so not sure if I'll rewatch/buy. Never saw the TV show. Looked a bit ass.

Recently (finally) finished Zillion. Solid animation quality throughout, considering it's 25+ year old television. The pervy stuff thrown in here and there was really awkward. Definitely representative of the time frame, but just dragged on. Could have been cut down to 12 episodes easily and be a bit better remembered.

[null1024]

decided to watch Konosuba after being bored as hell and remembering that literally seven of my IRL friends [well, most of them are just acquaintances ] told me to watch it
I wasn't a huge fan of the first episode, so I never bothered continuing before. About to start episode 7 now.
It still kind of sucks in a way [mostly because it likes to keep the status quo pretty much constant for the sake of keeping this a gag series], but it's at least kind of funny at times.

MC manages to be fucking retarded despite being fairly reasonable and level headed a good 80% of the time. Aqua is a one trick pony and the gag died already. Megumin's joke died quickly too, but she at least seems likable and seems to be approaching actual character development at times. Darkness's gag is still mildly funny, but also unbearably annoying, and MC's deep worry around her is wholly justifiable.
Slight cuts from the joke formula [and I really do mean slight] would have massively improved this show. Might still keep watching into S2 because I'm bored as hell, but...

also, it's actually kind of weird seeing a show that has an actual budget after watching Kemono Friends, lol

[Xyga]

Berserk chapter 351

DICKS EVERYWHERE

[Durandal]

Berserk chapter 351

DICKS EVERYWHERE

IT'S HAPPENI-
>hiatus until winter
aaaaagh

[null1024]

started s2 of konosuba
and now I'm dropping it

it shows zero sign of getting better, the occasional laughs aren't worth this shit

[M.Knight]

That's a shame, but I can't deny that Konosuba isn't the kind of show that has a whole new lot of jokes at every episode. If the premise and character interactions don't make you laugh right away, the future developements won't do much to change that. But if you really click with that, then boy you're going to have a good time.

The main focus is on the execution IMO. The sightly off-model-ish characters, wacky expressions and goofy faces as well as the intonation in the voice-acting really elevate the situations and make them very hilarous, without going overboard and falling into the tryhard pitfall the way I think Nichijou does.
Besides, the characters, while not necessarily deep or multi-faceted, are a bunch of assholes and that makes their interactions so funny to me. I like jerk/stupid characters in my comedies and Konosuba has plenty of them, including its MC.

Konosuba's JRPG-parody aspect also reminds me of a webcomic I used to read a lot named Adventurers! so it is a pleasant similarity.

I remember S2's early episodes being slightly less funny that S1, but the last arc was comedy gold to me :

Spoiler

The gang goes to a hot spring town that turns out to be Aqua's cult's headquarters. The streets are filled with crazy devoted cult members that desperately try every trick in the book to enroll Kazuma, Megumin and Darkness, including the anachronic "Congratulations! You're the millionth visitor on this street! I'd like to give you a prize, but you'll need to join the Axis Church to claim it".

fucking everyone and their dog is talking about Kemono Friends, so now I'm giving it a watch

I'll have to watch it sooner or later for the same reasons.

[null1024]

I like a handful of things about Konosuba, but it gets so... well, junky. I like the setting, and a lot of the situations are pretty solid. Voice acting is also actually ace.
I think I'm just ridiculously sick of constant forced levity in media at large, you can let some seemingly serious moments stick, it won't hurt the funny aspects.
Maybe I'll finish it at least.

Nichijou has its tryhard moments [in particular, the Daiku coffee scene makes basically zero sense on a rewatch, the bit that gets a giggle out of me still is the absolute end where she's just like "screw it, I'm going to get vending machine coffee from now on", and the ridiculously long and overdone windup beforehand is too long], but I still enjoyed parts of that -- some bits that make no sense in the manga [like the airship ejection one that ends with Yuuko being surprised having like no impact in the manga] work much better animated wildly.
I still really enjoy the tone and pacing of it as a whole, even if it's got a fair few misses.
also dat budget, hnnnnnng

[BryanM]

Speaking of waifu collectors of the pastel swords and sorcery genre, I was looking at these screens of Chivalry of a Failed Knight the other week and could not for the life of me remember if it was something I've already looked at or not.

Berserk

I really don't like how it looks like they're going to "fix" Casca with witchcraft. (Uh... by apparently killing a shitload of dicks.)

Sometimes things get broke, they can't be fixed.

[Xyga]

Even more rare; Black Lagoon got a couple new chapters, still about that Chinese chick though.
Well at least they're not on a boat...

[soprano1]

Finished watching New Game!, wasn't too bad, but had nothing special going for it.

[soprano1]

Tiger Mask W ended, at least the main story, since next week will be focused on his manager's new career.
It was a nice series if you like JP wrestling, very watchable even if you didn't watch the original 70's series. Animation quality dropped somewhat since the first episode, of course, but it wasn't horrible like DB Super.
Shame we didn't get to see Yellow Devil's/

Spoiler

Tiger the Great the Third's

face, i was expecting to see Broly! (kudos to anyone who gets the joke).

[WelshMegalodon]

I'm probably not the only one that's noticed this, but those aliens in the first chapter of the Grendizer manga look an awful lot like Skrulls.

Oh, and someone's actually subbing Flowering Heart. You should definitely watch it (and not just because it features a bishounen prince named Trump).

[M.Knight]

I like a handful of things about Konosuba, but it gets so... well, junky. I like the setting, and a lot of the situations are pretty solid. Voice acting is also actually ace.
I think I'm just ridiculously sick of constant forced levity in media at large, you can let some seemingly serious moments stick, it won't hurt the funny aspects.
Maybe I'll finish it at least.

Nichijou has its tryhard moments [in particular, the Daiku coffee scene makes basically zero sense on a rewatch, the bit that gets a giggle out of me still is the absolute end where she's just like "screw it, I'm going to get vending machine coffee from now on", and the ridiculously long and overdone windup beforehand is too long], but I still enjoyed parts of that -- some bits that make no sense in the manga [like the airship ejection one that ends with Yuuko being surprised having like no impact in the manga] work much better animated wildly.
I still really enjoy the tone and pacing of it as a whole, even if it's got a fair few misses.
also dat budget, hnnnnnng

I don't know if Konosuba would have benefited from a few serious moments here and there. They wouldn't have hurt for sure if well-integrated, but I actually like that even the plot-advancing moments such as the fights against the mid-bosses can be goofy. Different strokes I suppose.


That coffee scene from Nichijou illustrates pretty well my gripes with the series. It takes a real-life situation that is mundane enough to be widely relatable and has enough quirks to be used for humor, but it just pads everything with over-the-top exaggeration that drowns and kills the jokes. Yuuko's confusion at the amount of choices and options is depicted as if she was having a heavy panic attack or a seizure and could die anytime. Some of the camera movements and cuts are just way too extreme for the actual situation. I mean, I get that all those coffee choices can get absurd, no need to shout it and scream that in my ears every second. Comedic exaggeration can obviously be a powerful technique, but they just went overboard IMO. It's like the studio didn't believe the jokes had actual humor in them and tried to compensate for that perceived lack of comedy instead of fully embracing the joke and naturally let it unravel.

On a side note, I also don't get why the clerk seems to be terrified of speaking to a fellow human being. Not only does that make no sense, but it really distracts from the jokes and slows the pacing even more.

I am not the kind of person to prioritize the animation quality as a factor of enjoyment, so the animation, while nice, didn't do that much for me. Actually, I would even go as far as saying that Nichijou would have been much better if it had Kemono Friends's budget and a mere 12-minutes per episode. Some of the sequences are animated in a way you can see the time and effort put behind, but because the director and animators had the time, budget and skills to do that, they induldged in it and completely set aside the notion of comedic timing. The wind-up before Yuuko's "I'll use coffee machines next time" is a form of padding, but this other form can be seen for example in the scenes where Mio doesn't want others to stumble upon her yaoi doujinshi.

I can't believe how they managed to make such a comedy goldmine of a situation unfunny and boring. Those scenes usually start pretty well with the escalating tension around Mio's doujiinshi book but end with an unbearably long fight/chase scene with beautiful, handcrafted animation that would have been the first thing to get the axe should airing time and budget be reduced. I mentioned Konosuba's off-model-ish faces earlier and how they contribute to the comedy. That's because I think the animation should serve the anime's purpose, especially in a comedy anime that draws some of its humor from its audiovisual presentation. That's also why Cromartie's mid-30s biker thug-looking highschoolers look funny and highlight the contrast between their serious appearance and stupid antics.

I really wanted to like Nichijou but I think it needs to cut a ton of fat (the pace-breaking padding, the "lulz random" scenes, the quality sakuga, the unfunny side characters such as the gun girl, etc.) to truly express its comedic potential.

[ZacharyB]

That coffee scene from Nichijou illustrates pretty well my gripes with the series. It takes a real-life situation that is mundane enough to be widely relatable and has enough quirks to be used for humor, but it just pads everything with over-the-top exaggeration that drowns and kills the jokes. Yuuko's confusion at the amount of choices and options is depicted as if she was having a heavy panic attack or a seizure and could die anytime. Some of the camera movements and cuts are just way too extreme for the actual situation. I mean, I get that all those coffee choices can get absurd, no need to shout it and scream that in my ears every second. Comedic exaggeration can obviously be a powerful technique, but they just went overboard IMO. It's like the studio didn't believe the jokes had actual humor in them and tried to compensate for that perceived lack of comedy instead of fully embracing the joke and naturally let it unravel.

On a side note, I also don't get why the clerk seems to be terrified of speaking to a fellow human being. Not only does that make no sense, but it really distracts from the jokes and slows the pacing even more.

Nichijou is Japanese humor. The whole point of that scene was making fun of the Japanese custom of being accomodating. The accomodation itself in that scene was a tall order... a doppio, if you will.

Another example: The principal sees a student receive a love letter in her locker, and smiles contentedly. Then he opens his own locker and sees a bread roll, and hyperventillates. A westerner would not know the significance of this scene: when you give someone bread as a gift in Japan, it means that you are disappointed in the gift recipient. In the same episode, we saw that roll in the vice principal's possession.

Lots of silent cultural references like that.

[Durandal]

I was once told that the reason for why straight man comedy is so popular in Japan, is because it has more to do with it being more polite to laugh when the straight man essentially says it's okay to laugh.
So when I told a Japanese acquaintance about this, he started laughing almost immediately, after which I called him rude. He just kept laughing harder.

[Winane]

Talking about web novels, the great continent of China has invested in an animation of The King's Avatar. You can start watching the thing right now on their youtoob channel.

I actually kind of enjoyed that, so thanks for bringing Quan Zhi Gao Shou to my attention!
Lord Smug tends to be a little too smug, and too OP (at least until the very end of season 1), and there are various other flaws of course. But for the most part, I was unexpectedly impressed with the show, despite my not really having any interest in nor experience with MMORPGs.

And a heads-up to anyone else interested in it:
The official English-subbed version of Episode 12 (last episode of season 1) is going to be removed from YouTube in several days, so now would be the time to watch.

[Ji-L87]

Have this been mentioned already?
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... th/.117938

Seems like things are finally starting to move on this.
Not that I want to get my hopes up yet or anything but this is kinda exciting

[ryu]

Wish I could be excited, but word of mouth is all the quality staff has left Gainax for either Trigger or Khara

[BryanM]

While on the topic of gag series, I'll reiterate that I enjoyed The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. For the longest time I put it off since I found the cover art and main character's design so repulsive on the surface. The series itself never lingers too long on any one story, moving on within 2 to 6 minutes, and whenever the one note characters begin to get stale, introduces new ones. The main character's consistent mild disappointment with the world is a refreshing tone as well.

Judgement Knights of Thunder is possibly the chuuniest theme song possible.

I actually kind of enjoyed that, so thanks for bringing Quan Zhi Gao Shou to my attention!

I was unexpectedly impressed with the show, despite my not really having any interest in nor experience with MMORPGs.

Good good. For some strange reason, it seems humans lack my interest in sifting through smelly garbage for garbage's sake.

One thing that's neat about these webnovels about games, is that they can be about stuff that doesn't or can't exist in the real world. For example, the game they play in The King's Avatar is a fantasy FPS MMORPG, of which exactly zero exist in the real world.

[S_Fang]

I was once told that the reason for why straight man comedy is so popular in Japan, is because it has more to do with it being more polite to laugh when the straight man essentially says it's okay to laugh.
So when I told a Japanese acquaintance about this, he started laughing almost immediately, after which I called him rude. He just kept laughing harder.

So if I point out an ill hobo on the street and say how weird it is, they laugh. Even better if I called them out for being shit heads, right?

I'd rather prefer the western style of straightness, thank you.

[Bloodreign]

Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedding Peach because why not. I enjoy Sailor Moon, and this one's from the 90's, first episodes always seem kind of slow for anime. Especially after the disappointing Asu no Yoichi I watched. It was tagged harem and romance, it barely touched on either.

[WelshMegalodon]

Wedding Peach is one of those bad Anime Moon clones that ought to be conveniently forgotten along with Tokyo Mew Mew and Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. Maybe toss Yes! PreCure 5 in there too. I recommend reading Shugo Chara! instead.