Recommended Anime/Manga?

[FinalBaton]

For Cecily's hair :

It's just orange ink used for the line art, instead of the usual black ink.

Simple as that.

[Inspektor]

Thank you very much Durandal & Ji-L87!
I decided to start in chronological order, makes it both interesting to see how the franchise developed over time and how it all started. If it clicks then I go on with the next season, I'll report back when I finished Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, which, at my pace, will take forever but yeah

[soprano1]

Anyone saw Knight's & Magic? Was it decent?

[BryanM]

I have not.

It's an isekai webnovel from Japan, not from Korea or the United States. Which bodes poorly, as those tend to lack the critical deathgame or satirical elements that make the genre any good, and a proclivity to including waifus that have more in common with pets or androids than actual people.

Therefore, I feel like I'm 100% qualified to give it a review despite knowing jack shit about it:

"Knights and Magic is a riveting take on the 'watch giant robots bash each other with swords' genre. If you like strong, primary and pastel colors, along with teenage cartoon girls, this is the anime of the year for you!"

...Honestly the only reason I've even thought about reading it is because it's hosted on the same site that hosts the translation of Hero Without Blood or Tear.

[soprano1]

I have not.

It's an isekai webnovel from Japan, not from Korea or the United States. Which bodes poorly, as those tend to lack the critical deathgame or satirical elements that make the genre any good, and a proclivity to including waifus that have more in common with pets or androids than actual people.

Therefore, I feel like I'm 100% qualified to give it a review despite knowing jack shit about it:

"Knights and Magic is a riveting take on the 'watch giant robots bash each other with swords' genre. If you like strong, primary and pastel colors, along with teenage cartoon girls, this is the anime of the year for you!"

...Honestly the only reason I've even thought about reading it is because it's hosted on the same site that hosts the translation of Hero Without Blood or Tear.

Sigh, haven't seen a good "modern" mecha anime since 2009's Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!, and even that wasn't revolutionary. Not counting some Gundam stuff, at least.

[BryanM]

Heh, I remember you asking about Rondo of Angels and Dragons out of desperation. These things have more in common with Escaflowne than the dakka dakka, band of brothers/kill the alien scum genre!

Season four of Full Metal Panic should be forthcoming in the upcoming year.

The genre seems to have passed its hey-day. Hell, the only thing that comes to mind that's even kind of newish and kind of in the genre this past decade was an animation of Muv-Luv Alternative, and that's still based on an ancient video game from like the 90's. (It was an inspiration for the Attack on Titan writer. I always find that amusing, that a spinoff gaiden of a gentle dating sim into this grimdark world was successful. Japan is a strange place. Guess it's not too different from something like There Will Be Brawl.)

Hopefully the market will eventually move again. The hopeless malaise from late stage capitalism can't last forever, right?

[soprano1]

Sacrilege, but I'm not a fan of FMP. But just like our good scammer friend Inafune said, it's better than nothing.

[Durandal]

Been looking forward to the next chapter of Rurouni Kenshin or following the physical print?
Too bad, Nobuhiro Watsuki got charged for possession of CP so expect a cancellation immediately.

[soprano1]

Been looking forward to the next chapter of Rurouni Kenshin or following the physical print?
Too bad, Nobuhiro Watsuki got charged for possession of CP so expect a cancellation immediately.

[Ji-L87]

Anyone saw Knight's & Magic? Was it decent?

I did! And me and the guys found it to be, in fact, decent. From the imagery and descriptions I would never have picked it up myself (I don't like most isekai shows these days anyhow, but not for a lack of darkness).

The art is merely so-so, character designs are bland/uninspired but the decently cool mecha designs, better than expected 3D animation, energetic lead hero and brisk pacing made it fun. Not "I'm gonna get this on bluray"-fun but "well, that was nice" kind of fun.

If nothing else, it's perfectly harmless and you'll know within 2 episodes if it's going to work for you or not, because the pacing and feel that it establishes early on is what it's going to stick with throughout. And to be fair, it just uses the "dies and goes to another world" thing as an excuse to have the lead super into robots and doesn't really push it after that.

Season four of Full Metal Panic should be forthcoming in the upcoming year.

That thing has me so worried. There is plenty of potential to make a bad entry in MFP. The Second Raid came quite close a few times, despite how gorgeous it was. Balancing high school love comedy with the whole terrorists kidnapping people-kind of thing was evidently hard already in the first season by Gonzo which, despite it's popularity (and younger me liking that shit a lot) isn't very good save for a few highlights moments. I mean, I still like it enough to get it on bluray but it has problems.

Been looking forward to the next chapter of Rurouni Kenshin or following the physical print?
Too bad, Nobuhiro Watsuki got charged for possession of CP so expect a cancellation immediately.

Indeed. I guess this is as a good time as any to ask if the Kenshin anime in it's various forms is worth checking out?

[soprano1]

The anime follows the manga until episode 62, and it's a good ride, then it goes into horrible filler until the end. You can watch the prequel OVA's, they are ok. Do not watch the sequel OVA's, though, they are horribly depressing, which is why Watsuki was making a new manga that takes place after the original. Well, that's not happening now, I guess. I am in shock, to be honest.

[KAI]

FXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Lu over the wall and night is young walk on girl BDs are out, Yuasa hype!!

[BrianC]

The anime follows the manga until episode 62, and it's a good ride, then it goes into horrible filler until the end. You can watch the prequel OVA's, they are ok. Do not watch the sequel OVA's, though, they are horribly depressing, which is why Watsuki was making a new manga that takes place after the original. Well, that's not happening now, I guess. I am in shock, to be honest.

Season 1 also has a few not so good filler episodes, but the stuff that isn't filler is good. At least it's not all filler like season 3. Kyoto arc is the best part of the anime.

[drauch]

Devilman... crybaby?

Uh... think I'll stick with the manga. Which hey, probably mentioned already since I haven't been around, but it's getting a new English release! Huzzah.

[soprano1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMNcx1Z2BPo


Junji Ito Collection anime series.

[z0mbie90]

Cool I love Junji Ito, will be fun to see how it will be. Just saw this Buttuman Ninja

[Lord Satori]

Holy crap, Lu over the wall was amazing! I really hope there's more of it sometime, though the ending has me worried that it was just a one off.

[Durandal]

Helck had the raws for its final chapter released, and I'm glad it's finally over. Jesus christ, I cannot stress out how much the final arc jumped the shark, like a Olympic athlete-level jump.
It's unbelievable, what started off as a decent gag manga and then turned into something more serious but also better (how much points it deserves for ripping off Golden Age is up to you) had a major war arc which went on for fucking ever and fell into the trap of endless escalation. Like, the decline in quality happened so fast, it's unbelievable because it used to be so good and then it just went on and on, as if the mangaka hit her head and had no idea what to do with it anymore.

It didn't help that it set up waaay more than the manga actually got to explore, and at some point it became obvious that the mangaka had bitten off more than she could chew and decided to end it in one big drawn-out battle arc. This could have just been a smaller arc, but deciding to end it here just made it worse. The final battle takes the idea of 'this isn't even my final form' to a new extreme, but you'll just stop caring at some point. It starts introducing newer and stronger types of enemies at an exponential rate (each of which get predictably beaten), battles just become endurance matches with zero choreography, mindgames, or even character interaction to make it appealing, certain plot beats get repeated way too often, and the pacing receives a massive hit.

Maybe there'll be a sequel to this to pick up the loose ends, but if it still has the balls to pull off yet another power creep then I can only tell it to get fucking lost,

[copy-paster]

Few days ago I watched Your Name.

Enjoyable. Perhaps the best 'body-swap' movie I've ever seen, though a bit overrated. Kinda interesting because the movie's biggest twist hits in the second act and likely you will keep guessing what happens next. Sadly I do not like how the ending turns out, I know it was meant to be open ending but it executed poorly.

[M.Knight]

night is young walk on girl

Is this a Tatami Galaxy sequel or something?

[GaijinPunch]

Few days ago I watched Your Name.

Enjoyable. Perhaps the best 'body-swap' movie I've ever seen, though a bit overrated. Kinda interesting because the movie's biggest twist hits in the second act and likely you will keep guessing what happens next. Sadly I do not like how the ending turns out, I know it was meant to be open ending but it executed poorly.

I thought it was a bit over rated as well. Good, yes, but it wasn't some thing that was going to be praised by non-weabos. It was good though, and probably one of the best modern anime in ages.

[Durandal]

Fire Punch just ended, and what a crazy ride that was.

It's about some guy with regenerative abilities living with his sister who feed their town by cutting off their own flesh in a post-apocalyptic world frozen over completely, but are then set ablaze by some guy from an outside military force who can cast fire which never goes out and deemed the whole village a cabal of cannibals, leaving the MC to writhe in a painful regenerative cycle for a decade until he manages to withstand the pain enough to stand on his two feet again, setting out on a quest for revenge against the man who burned everything away from him, and thus becoming the Fire Punch.

The initial chapters feel like an edgelord's fantasy with people being evil for no reason compete with cannibalism and bestiality, after which it becomes an insight into a dystopia involving Matrix people battery farms and crazy religions, after which the story starts poking fun at hero archetypes in some kind of faux training montage, after which it becomes one big action scene, after which it starts getting into introspection territory, after which it shifts into maximum suffering, after which it becomes ???

Basically the tone changes every volume, as was the intention according to the mangaka. The main plotline is the main character trying to find peace in a world he doesn't understand filled with people he doesn't understand or relate to, him being a burning man in eternal agony who can't touch anything without setting it on fire. Some great side-characters, concepts and other worldbuilding elements are introduced, but they're all also as quickly dropped and never mentioned again. It kind of hurts that all this cool shit is never really explored, but then again the manga was never really about those things, it's only about the journey of the MC, which is admittably very well executed.

It starts off rather fantastically, has a solid middle part, and a bittersweet ending which kind of leaves me iffed. While it was satisfying enough as crazy and absurd the whole ride was, I couldn't really shake off all the many (MANY) purposefully unresolved plot threads. I think that's what may make this manga polarizing for a lot of people. Some will be turned off by the initial part, some will get confused, some will think it's a mess about nothing which can't decide what it wants fo be, and some cannot wrap their heads around the supernatural things never being really explained. I had to re-read everything to see if I didn't miss anything, and I almost never reread anything. Though I personally think it's incredible and worth anyone's time, be aware that this isn't your run-of-the-mill story. It's messy and weird in a lot of places.

It's no understatement to say that the paneling in this manga is absolute kino, and for once kino is an accurate description. The panels themselves do a perfect job at conveying emotions and events without text, lending the manga a feeling of a classic novel heavy on prose or a well-shot movie for lack of a better description. I honestly haven't read any manga or anything on print where the paneling is such an integral element to the story since Watchmen. You could take any page and it would be inexplicably pleasant to look at, especially in print. I'm getting the physical editions for sure.

[soprano1]

Devilman Crybaby is now available. Time to watch the same story all over again with a brand new paint.

[KAI]

God! Yuasa is a fucking monster, devilman crybaby is the best thing I've seen in years.


Nexflix is also streaming the sequel of Shimamoto's Blazing Transfer Student. It has a Blue Blazes tier kind of humor, so if you liked that, this is worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpSPDS58xFw

[copy-paster]

Devilman Crybaby looks interesting, gonna watch it when I have a time. Also stopped watching Made in Abyss after episode 3, damn what a slow pace!

[Xyga]

Fire Punch just ended

Really? Haven't seen the final chapter anywhere.

[KAI]

Seal of quality

Nagai Year confirmed, can't wait to watch Mazinger Infinity, Cutie Honey Universe and the new eps of Robot Girls Z.


Nagano announced the 14th volume of FSS for the next month. Translation never.

[wgogh]

Mazinger with a remake of the original music, nice.
The first trailer that i've saw had somewhat of a generic trailer soundtrack, that one sounds so much better.

[BryanM]

heh, now you know why it's called "Devilman Crybaby" :3

My mind is still reeling a bit from last year's revelation that Issei Hyoudou, the protagonist from Highschool DxD, passed through a membrane into our reality and became a manga artist. Since the Slayers money dried up, he's now reduced to doing the art for some smut that started off as the mere crazed ramblings of a random Internet Person.

It's truly a post parody reality, this computer simulation we're living in, is. The creepy, bizarre meta stories about this stuff is way more interesting than the stuff itself.

[wgogh]

heh, now you know why it's called "Devilman Crybaby" :3

That joke actually made the name less awful, thx.