Recommended Anime/Manga?

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BIL
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

Xyga wrote:
Ghegs wrote:
drauch wrote:Yeah, Votoms is awesome. Highly underrated and very mature, often overshadowed by Gundam fare. Not crapping on that stuff, which I like, but Votoms feels way more practical. I didn't upgrade my old DVDs since this was just an SD set, sadly, but cool it's at least back in print--at least I assume, but this Rightstuf closeout has got me all goobered! I think Ghegs here is also a fan if I recall.

Also a cool OVA in the same universe, Armored Hunter Mellowlink, which is worth tracking down.
Votoms is indeed awesome, even if the ending is kind of...not what I was hoping for, let's say.
I've started watching the anime once and quickly got turned off by the darkness and bleakness, not judging the quality here it looked quite competent and I've heard only praise, but I wasn't in the mood for such a depressing tone. :oops:

Dunno if it's worth trying again, I think I've noticed there's a maybe un-named subcategory of military/war/mecha manga that instead of epic and heroes emphasizes on war horrors and drama, and not just a bit but as the main 'attraction'. Not really my taste.
If Votom's like that I'd rather not return to it even if it's good.
Ohshi that sounds like mah jam :o (not to be contrarian or anything :mrgreen:)

Always liked the look of VOTOMS' mecha designs from the PS2 game, which I hear is one of those Licensed Games That Don't Suck™. Looked like the sort of brutal machinery you could get a loose sleeve caught in if you don't adhere to workplace safety protocol, naw mean.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

Yeah, Votoms is a lot like a mech sidescroller in how it handles. There's actual rules to its machinery; it doesn't just zip back and forth in space like in Gundam. It's actually got little boosters to accelerate and treads to make it speed along the ground. Feels like playing Metal Warriors or [insert mech sidescroller].
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Da spoils

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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by scrilla4rella »

Nice! didn't realize three 9 was out on blu-ray. Reiji Matsumoto Ownz!!
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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scrilla4rella wrote:Nice! didn't realize three 9 was out on blu-ray. Reiji Matsumoto Ownz!!
Eventually it all will be thankfully.

There are some major supply issues right now and it is impacting Discotek so I went ahead and tossed in Adieu and the first movie onto a pre-order of Giant Robo and the Galaxy Express 999 TV series Part 1 BD. Still waiting on the first movie to get back in stock. They managed to get one of the back-ordered Project A-kos back in so I'm hopeful. Galaxy Express 999 Eternal Fantasy is coming to BD as well. I have that in a pre-order with Bobobo. Discotek basically has a direct line to my bank account.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

I liked Tomo. In a similar vein in the genre of cute stupid shit, Rokudou no Onna-tachi is better than you'd expect.

Which brings to mind due to it also being in the genre of highschool delinquents - the pre-internet OVA Hana no Asuka Gumi 2. Since it came out before the internet to a very limited print run, it had zero screenclips of it available. A lost artifact.
__

When I started watching episodes of the Attic Gamer, I ended up having to slow down the videos to be able to read and watch it at the same time. It's the only media I've ever had to do this for - absorbing content at 150% speed these days isn't uncommon.

I've never really thought about it outside of music videos, but most videos only focus on one input stream at a time, don't they? If there's action on the screen, there's no talking. If there's talking, there's no action.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

Sentai pre-black Friday sale with a lot of the stuff from the Rightstuf recent sale if anyone's interested. No Ideon. I blame Steamflogger for buying the last one.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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drauch wrote:Sentai pre-black Friday sale with a lot of the stuff from the Rightstuf recent sale if anyone's interested. No Ideon. I blame Steamflogger for buying the last one.
I don't think they are restocking Ideon, Votoms or Patlabor. Time will tell but it really doesn't look good.

For this sale I had like $360 in my cart initially. Pared down to $138 by the time I ordered. Would have bought it all but I just bought a large game lot here from BM. Couldn't resist Dunbine and When They Cry sets at $20 each this time.

Can't imagine how much I would have had in my cart if not for the sale last year. It was really nice to be able to scroll through this sale and mostly be like have it, have it, have it. I DON'T HAVE A COLLECTARD PROBLEM YOU ALL DO.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by cj iwakura »

I want to buy the Garden of Sinners set, but DAMN, Aniplex...


I really enjoyed the films, you can watch them on Crunchyroll if you want.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Aniplex can eff off.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Ji-L87 »

There's a few companies that matches the pricing of the Japanese market or at least come close to it. Aside from Animeplex, Pony Canyon and sometimes also Sentai Filmworks also springs to mind.
Always a shame when something you want is released from them. I quite like Food Wars but not to the extent that I'm happy to dish out an eye watering $99,98 for the pleasure of owning a fun but ultimately forgettable fanservice cooking show. Sorry, $74,99 while on sale. :mrgreen: Oh, and Nadia: Secret of Blue water is priced the same. That's a classic but still steep.

Oh, I am sure they are very nice releases but these prices places things firmly in the camp of the hardcore collectors. Forget buying something on impulse because it seemed interesting, unless you're just that loaded or doesn't care. For every special edition, there needs to be a regular edition.

Oh, and the Japanese market needs to sort itself and stop relying on their otaku whales to buy their overpriced separate blurays. Which will never happen unless it collapses. Which would be bad for everyone and hurt the overworked and underpaid animators the most.

On the other hand, manga are still relatively affordable 8)
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Yeah but Sentai has blow out sales. Nadia was $15 on their recent sale before selling out. I'm gonna drop some pics in the bought thread of my recent sale purchase. Would have spent and got more of I didn't but a pile from bullet magnet too.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

I mean, that's still not bad for an entire remastered show on Bluray. Japanese prices are always way more insane, usually in the 100s+ for an entire series. Dirty Pair bluray box coming out in December has a nice $500 MSRP lol. When they did a DVD set over there it was a couple hundred too. Sometimes they'll get Blurays of movies I'll want that haven't been released yet anywhere else but I never bite because they're always $40-50. They're nuts.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

drauch wrote:I mean, that's still not bad for an entire remastered show on Bluray. Japanese prices are always way more insane, usually in the 100s+ for an entire series. Dirty Pair bluray box coming out in December has a nice $500 MSRP lol. When they did a DVD set over there it was a couple hundred too. Sometimes they'll get Blurays of movies I'll want that haven't been released yet anywhere else but I never bite because they're always $40-50. They're nuts.
Yep it's a different approach over there. Target the whales only.

Sentai MSRP typically doesn't approach Aniplex and Ponycan levels, though shout out to the LOGH set. I love LOGH but I am not spending $800.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by drauch »

Yeah, I actually had no idea that even finally came out until a week or so back when I googled it out of curiosity if that license deal ever went through. That's pretty fuckin' nuts. I don't think I'd ever buy it anyway with those insane redrawings they did after the laserdisc releases. It's so incongruous and odd that they did that. It'll probably just be these LD rips for me forever.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by soprano1 »

Just watched Roujin Z, what a wonderful mix of SF mecha and comedy, with some very good social critique that still applies today.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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So it's not good at all and the lead character is awful but Say I Love You is extremely my shit.

Oh and there are some good characters, just not the main girl. Or really the main guy for that matter either.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Since it's been over a decade since I last enjoyed zany OCD crossfit-style hijinks, I did actually watch the barbell thing. While it obviously wasn't going to be a realistic manual where the heroine spends three years of her life before she feels like she can perform a squat worth a damn... I was still completely amazed at how they breezed past the bench press and squat in 2 seconds like they weren't important, never to be seen again. (Bench press is the #1 cause of death in weight training. It warrants the minimum three-sentence long safety briefing on how to set the bar down that of course I'm sure the author isn't familiar with.) And of course they described how to perform them nearly completely incorrectly.

There was an extreme fixation on isometrics, though. Really took me back to those old Charles Atlas scams. So ez to sell people things they want to hear.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

It was definitely "Cute girls do X", where "X" is "Weight training". :lol:
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by GaijinPunch »

soprano1 wrote:Just watched Roujin Z, what a wonderful mix of SF mecha and comedy, with some very good social critique that still applies today.
Surprised more like this haven't come about w/ Japan's aging population. It's indeed a goodie.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BIL »

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Thoroughly enjoyed One Punch Man anime season 1! But have followed BryanM's good advice from a while back and just gone with ONE's webcomic in lieu of season 2. For now anyway. Still gonna peek at s2 but yeah, this rocks. Superb comedic timing, almost Sonichu-esque.

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Jeez I like catching up with stuff. Image

---

OPM anime season 2. Honestly, 40% of it was enjoyable. Everything involving KINGU, Saitama, Garo, BANGU and the BIGGU TITSU Image/Flying Loli sisters felt like a logical progression from the first season, and almost as enjoyable. GARO is a perfect antagonist for this mad send-up of shonen guff! I was sympathetic, even as I relished seeing him get his shit shoved in by a classic OLD MASTER BEATDOWN!

The old man never fights this hard... I'm losing consciousness...
Spoiler
Image

Actually... I'm probably going to die....
YEAH YOU REALLY FUCKED UP SON Image

The last three eps were unironically great Shonen action. BANGU is one badass OYAJI. And as a Technos Japan aficionado, I cannot help but like KINNIKU BAT as well. Far from being a death sentence, The Other Dudes getting the spotlight actually made the downtime with Saitama that much more refreshing.

Unfortunately, there is a gigantic hunk of dog shit smack in the middle, a fucking tournament arc of all things, played as stultifyingly straight as can be. Recommendation: watch the first four eps and the last three, forget the rest.

Oh well, no harm done and a few great scenes. Back to the web manga. Image
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Udderdude »

OPM Season 3 when?
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

BIL wrote:Unfortunately, there is a gigantic hunk of dog shit smack in the middle, a fucking tournament arc of all things, played as stultifyingly straight as can be. Recommendation: watch the first four eps and the last three, forget the rest.
Pretty out of character for Saitama too, as the man is the very definition of a slacker.

Ironically tournament arcs in later Dragon Ball Zzz episodes tend to be highlights, as it gives all the characters who don't matter anymore some screen time and the opportunity to actually win a fight for a change. [1] While in OPM you're presented with these filler characters you've never heard of before (besides Snek) who'll spontaneously cease to exist after the arc's over. As opposed to the webcomic where the existing characters you're already invested in are all turning a new corner in their storylines right now. Ah, I want to talk about them but I don't want to spoil anything.



[1] Of course, if the writing was decent they would have all had something to do without it >: (

In retrospect Yamcha isn't the saddest fighter in the series, Tien is.

... arg, when you think about it, it's a lot like those Cheat Isekai where the protagonist is a special snowflake Mary Sue everyone fawns over just because they're the protagonist. Videl only ever existed in order to be impressed by Gohan's magic videogame karate and to check the ladyfriend box so he doesn't look like a loser. The shonen narrative system is truly a thing of existential horror when you think about it.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by copy-paster »

Tournament Arcs are always lasting least impression to me so far. GAROU is indeed the highlight of this season, the fact that he still has ZERO human kill count and being kind of the kid makes it for me.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by M.Knight »

Man, OPM S2 was so disappointing to me compared to the first season. The only few moments I have really enjoyed are :
Spoiler
-King's character and all the times he plays video games with Saitama. Not only are his backstory of accidental hero status and his "King Engine" super funny, but the way he easily beats Saitama in fighting games because the latter completely lacks strategy is also an interesting way to show how Saitama's OP strength also comes with tunnel vision in many aspects of his hero life. Because he isn't challenged during real fights enough, he never has to try different approaches. I like that kind of more subtle life lessons given to characters through real experiences rather than cheesy speeches or whatever.

-The clash of personalities between Saitama who does hero things for intrinsic reasons and Fubuki who seems more obsessed with ranks and all that external validation shit.

-The few times Garo gets accidentally smacked around by Saitama. Too bad he survived it.
The tournament was kinda annoying by nature, but at least there were some funny scenes in it. Anything involving the
Spoiler
wig
for example. I thought that the Garo character is easily much worse than the tournament. He's easily the worst thing to happen in this season for me.
Spoiler
This character looks like he should simply be a set-up for a joke, the exact same way some one-off baddies were in S1. His backstory is too dumb and ridiculously corny ("I like monsters more than heroes why are you one-dimensional NPC kids bullying me for being a in-OPM-universe equivalent of a furry boohooohoo") for us to have pity on him like we were apparently supposed to, and there isn't any actual in-universe reason AFAIK for why he should be so much stronger than every other non-Saitama character.

His fights against the other heroes go on for fucking forever. OPM was supposed to parody $uper-hero and $honen series but this is the exact same kind of shit they pull off on a regular basis. Where's the subversion? What's the difference between those S2 fights and any Dragon Ball Z shit? Urgh.
I also found the ending to be much less satisfactory than the S1 equivalent :
Spoiler
S1 had a very climatic fight against Boros that was pretty impressive on its own but also very funny ("Ok.", "Consecutive Normal Punches!") and never strayed away from the depiction of Saitama's boredom and OP-ness affecting his excitement levels when pitted against opponents that look like they'll finally give him the fun fight he looks forward to so much. It's also very conclusive and all the plot threads about this final boss who seemed to be a mirror to Saitama were closed.

S2 has this goddamn CG centipede you've already seen a billion times throughout the season. There is no character to him, nothing interesting about him. It's just a random bad guy the heroes spend forever to kill. Oh, and there are tons of unfinished plot threads and no real conclusion to the season. Garo is running away. The Monster Association stuff hasn't been given closure or anything. Basically an advert to go read the manga/webcomic. Great.
I recall coming across plenty of criticism online about the animation quality, the visuals and all sorts of similar stuff. But honestly it doesn't matter, most of the scenario is horribly unsalvageable anyway. If animation-quality is all you care about, go watch Animator Expo shorts instead of actual stories that happen to be animated.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Xyga »

Mob Psycho is better than OPM :P (tho S2 was weaker than S1 as well but heh)

In any case by the manga S3 will be more of the same except assaulting the main enemy force. The script is similar, focus switching from secondary character to character while we have short updates on Saitama being bored and slowly as hell walking towards the strongest bosses that he'll meet at random and OP the fuck out of them.

PS: the comedy's lacking as it progresses and the upscaled manga + anime is now full shounen.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by M.Knight »

Xyga wrote:Mob Psycho is better than OPM :P (tho S2 was weaker than S1 as well but heh)
That's how I feel too. I liked both shows' S1, but while OPM was mostly very funny, I thought Mob Psycho managed to have both humor and main characters with more depth and interesting backgrounds (Mob himself of course, and also Reigen in S2). I don't mind some of the OPM characters not being explored as much as the Mob Psycho main cast because the parody aspect is a lot stronger in OPM.

I enjoyed Mob Psycho S2 up until
Spoiler
that fucking terrible sudden tonal shift halfway through. Mob Psycho 100's strength has often been his main character and his inner struggles, and you see him try to never rely on his supernatural powers to improve himself and overcome his anxieties and shortcomings. The school race was a perfect culmination of his attempts at self-betterment through effort rather than just OP powers. And then all of a sudden we get his parents and brother apparently dying in a horrible criminal fire in his house (WTFFFFF of da world??!), the sky turns red for the rest of the series and it's just boring shônen fight after boring shônen fight. Urghhhhhh. And the final boss is a one-note dark demon lord who wants to rule the whole world. Yay. (-_-")
If these two series are probably just going to become boring shônens, why bother with future seasons anyway? :(
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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opm season 2's animation took such an incredible hit that i stopped watching it almost immediately. incredibly ugly and almost heartbreaking :[ manga looks fantastic, at least, but i'd read it ahead of time and knowing how boring things start getting was also a hit to my motivation to continue with the anime.

i hadn't read mob psycho 100's manga to know what was going on, but i'd have probably burned through s2 the way i did, regardless. really disappointed at a lot of the character developments and direction but that animation was superb. deserves superlative upon superlative
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

It's just a random bad guy the heroes spend forever to kill.
Phoenix Man in the original webcomic: A man in a bird suit who gets sliced into pieces within two panels by Child Emperor. Child Emperor seems to forget about him before his body is even cold, remarking "so the monsters have formed an association...." to himself. Just part of an overall sequence that serves to briefly introduce the basic powers of more of the extended cast.

Phoenix Man in the for-profit fanfiction spin-off: Way more screen time, just lurking around on rooftops, opaquely plotting, is presented as an actual threat in his fight scene (to the point of even coming back from the dead all phoenix-like and stuff).

It's inconceivable that ONE wrote both of these series. The soul crushing aspect of this is he's drawing story boards for Murata alone, instead of actually working on the real comic. I speculate he's being pressured by The Man to provide content at a fixed schedule.

(Phoenix Man coming back from the dead dozens of chapters later only to keep getting one-shot would be actually pretty funny as an on-going brick joke tho...)
Spoiler
and there isn't any actual in-universe reason AFAIK for why he should be so much stronger than every other non-Saitama character.

His fights against the other heroes go on for fucking forever.
The in-universe reason is the same reason that Saitama is OP. When confronted with their obvious inferiority and informed of the existence of this narrative-empowered limit breaking, the other S class heroes respond in different ways. Only the first act of which we know about, since that's where the series is stalled at. I'm a bit shocked the adoption still hasn't covered the climax of the second arc, which is... like years and years old by now.

Like always, I recommend not reading/watching bad fanfiction. Garou's canon fights against other heroes are the same as everything else in OPM: Only what is necessary or has a point, nothing more.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by null1024 »

Was recommended Toilet-bound Hanako-kun, and found it pretty good so far, I'm still catching up to current. The title sounds stupid, but it's a fun supernatural story. Hanako is great.
Also, I will continue to recommend reading Beastars despite the writing having jumped the shark ages ago. Every other week is some absurd soap-opera style twist. It's very, very entertaining... and very, very stupid.

I kinda wish Made in Abyss would update, god.
At least I'm not reading Hunter x Hunter, which has literally skipped entire years. :lol:
Eternal hiatus is hell.
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