Recommended Anime/Manga?

[bottino]

On that subject, Hunter x Hunter is a series that's on the same boat as Berserk ( hehe I know, that was terrible ).

Hopefully, they won't spend half a decade on that boat on the way to the dark continent - assuming that no new Dragon Quest games are to be released in the near future, that is.

[drauch]

That seems to be the "Fantasia" arc, from what I'm reading. It has "Ghost Ship" in it.

Anyone like the "Falcon of the Millennium Empire" arc at all?

It's... okay. Hard to recommend, as that's when some big tonal shifts really start to happen. I read it all as it came out and honestly not sure I'd go back. Gets pretty silly, and he even copies a Hieronymus Bosch painting at one point, which comes off as really stupid and lazy.

[copy-paster]

Aho Girl is surprisingly fun to watch, I'm on episode 7 and looking forward to it.

[BryanM]

Anyone like the "Falcon of the Millennium Empire" arc at all?

I'm not exactly chomping at the bit for the next chapter to come out. How I feel about any specific piece... well, that has to be broken down.


Casca getting fixed by the magical girls

I'm on the side of "sometimes things get broken, can't be fixed." Even though it appears at this point that she'll still be traumatized to a small degree, it just comes across annoyingly abrupt. If she slowly got a little less bad, and much of it came from her interactions with Guts, it wouldn't be so galling.

That she was fixed in one sequence by magical girls, and not with time, it's like saying "their relationship meant nothing."


Magical girls

Creatures like Puck and the island of wizards don't tonally fit well with the series. Yes yes - it's supposed to be another dimension made up of the dreams and nightmares of the people of the world. When 97% of everything we see from it is evil, it's just weird and incongruent. It really feels like the three elves in the world should have been devoured by the 10,000 dwarves already.

As for the magical girls, I prefer that they come in your typical "sold their soul for power to an alien in a pyramid scheme" trope. I'm a big proponent of karmic balance - anything good that happens must be cancelled out by something at least equally bad happening. What price do the wizards pay for their power? They seem to spend a lot of time sitting in trees and drinking tea, while everyone else struggles just to survive the next five seconds.

And the unequal power gradient of the group meant this used to be about two principal characters - Guts and Griffith. Everyone else were accessories to their motivations. That the author feels compelled to introduce power ups (in the form of magical weapons and magic) to the side kicks so they're not worthless in battle just feels so contrived and besides the point.

In contrast, in Goblin Slayer, the entire team actually feels like they contribute to a battle. Because they actually do. Seeing High Elf Archer lose her shit and start crushing goblin heads with a club is more viscerally satisfying than anything Berserk has done in a decade.

This guy's lecture on weight is a pretty great description of the stuff I'm talking about here.


Griffith Building His Empire

The point of view is all over the place these days, when it comes to Berserk. This is always a big warning sign that an author is padding for time and just filling content.

"Do we need to see Griffith build his empire, at all?" is a question I always ask when the focus goes back to him. Is he a good guy now? The only bastion for the human species against extinction? Does that mean Guts is the bad guy? Are readers going to be able to care after the Eclipse already made Griffith irredeemable in their eyes?

The last chapter was a battle between Griffith's army and the chaotic evil army of the empire next door. An I emotionally invested in the outcome of the battle? Is there a possibility that any of Griffith's nakama will be injured or killed during it? Is there any weight to any of this?

No. It's a waste of time.


Release rate

This doesn't matter when its finished and left to prosperity, but pulp fiction like this is a living thing that runs alongside its consumers. As Bruce Campbell said, "TV shows age faster than old fish."

It's such a vast chasm away from the web novel format, where you can get 3 to 5 chapters of something in a week (literally almost anything, since there's no strong commercial motivation for these things. (At least outside Japan. Inside of Japan, there's a ton of writing hoping to win the lottery and get turned into an anime.) They can be as niche as you can imagine.). Berserk is something I skim over once a year to see what major events have happened, if any, before my attention is directed to something more productive.


Final Conclusion

Yes I like it very much. It gives me something to complain about for way too long on the internet.

[Xer Xian]

Wow so much negativity here While I agree that Berserk is not without flaws, I for one think it's still well worth the ride.

I think getting Casca back was long overdue - what was the point to let her survive.. that one thing otherwise (trying not to spoil too much)? And Miura was wise enough not to let magic alone do the job, the healing process is shaping up to take more than just a collective sleeping session. The tonal shift to plain fantasy vs dark fantasy is a matter of taste, I understand people would rather have Berserk be all about a lone man cutting monsters and being a badass but for me I've always been into it for the characters interactions and development at least as much as the action (and the art). And that's where I would have a few complains. Main one being that the cast is getting too large imho and that a few secondary characters, old (Isidro, Serpico, Azan) and new (the ship captain, Magnifico, the mermaid) are being neglected or just simply don't have a meaningful role to play.

As for the shift to Griffith, I think it's still too early to say anything about it. Anyway, Griffith has never been a one-dimensional character (ie entirely good or bad) and this facade of him being the perfect leader who offers shelter to everyone in his perfect kingdom is, well, just facade, of course. I'm curious to know what Miura is planning to do with him, he's of course not satisfied yet with what he has.

All in all, among the long-standing series I'm reading (One Piece, HxH, Vagabond.. ok this one I'm not reading anymore ) I think Berserk is the one that's holding up better - especially now that they got off the damn boat and the plot is (slowly) moving forward. So I'll go against the flow and say that now is a good time to pick it up Evil_ash (better than the last 7-8 years at least).

Just my two cents, wanted to express a contrarian view is all

[Udderdude]

Aho Girl is surprisingly fun to watch, I'm on episode 7 and looking forward to it.

I watched it while it was airing, it was fucking hilarious.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Got some good shit on the way, including Macross Plus. Been a minute since I watched that one but I remember it being in my top 3 Macrosssss.

[FinalBaton]

Started reading Goblin Slayer after I saw BryanM mention it. It's pretty dope so far

[Udderdude]

The only good gob is a dead gob.

Got some good shit on the way, including Macross Plus. Been a minute since I watched that one but I remember it being in my top 3 Macrosssss.

I need to watch the original OVA. Only remember watching the "International version" .. on VHS.

[evil_ash_xero]

Looks like I'll be stopping where I thought I would. Right after volume 21.

[Steamflogger Boss]

The only good gob is a dead gob.

Got some good shit on the way, including Macross Plus. Been a minute since I watched that one but I remember it being in my top 3 Macrosssss.

I need to watch the original OVA. Only remember watching the "International version" .. on VHS.

Was that the movie version or just the dub? I'm not familiar with the VHS releases of it. I know there are CAV LDs of each episode released in Japan as the "international version". Those are English dubbed with Japanese in picture subtitles. I grabbed the Manga* OVA dvds as they were quite cheap. Stores even still have new stock of Vol 1 for like $8 shipped.

*Always makes me feel dirty buying a Manga release but we all know more western Macross releases aren't happening, so there is no BD on the horizon.

Anyway I always remember having it up there with DYRL and the original series. Interested to see how it holds up for me.

The other thing I got I have never seen before and it's old, so I'll comment more after watching.

[null1024]

I just started watching Shinkalion. It's a blatant toy commercial, but god damn is it fun.
It's about trains that turn into robots.

[soprano1]

I just started watching Shinkalion. It's a blatant toy commercial, but god damn is it fun.
It's about trains that turn into robots.

But do they also turn into spaceships like Astrotrain?

[Steamflogger Boss]

Watched Macross Plus last night. Prettttay good. Has that whole top gun thing going plus the evil psycho AI.

[Udderdude]

Stuff I watched recently (besides the seasonal crap I posted about earlier). Been watching some 80's and 90's stuff I missed out on back in ye olde VHS days ..

Armitage III: Budget GITS, still pretty good. Movie was better than I was expecting at first.
Cyber City Oedo 808: One of the best cyberpunk OVAs ever. Definitely in my top 10 after watching it.
New Dream Hunter Rem: A lot better than the original OVAs were. Way better animation quality, storytelling is better, etc.
Escaflowne: Still in the middle of watching this one, it's good stuff.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Stuff I watched recently (besides the seasonal crap I posted about earlier). Been watching some 80's and 90's stuff I missed out on back in ye olde VHS days ..

Armitage III: Budget GITS, still pretty good. Movie was better than I was expecting at first.
Cyber City Oedo 808: One of the best cyberpunk OVAs ever. Definitely in my top 10 after watching it.
New Dream Hunter Rem: A lot better than the original OVAs were. Way better animation quality, storytelling is better, etc.
Escaflowne: Still in the middle of watching this one, it's good stuff.

Liked it, liked it, never seen it, ehhhh it's okay.

[BIL]

Cyber City Oedo 808: One of the best cyberpunk OVAs ever. Definitely in my top 10 after watching it.

One of those sterling Kawajiri works that ala Ninja Scroll also has a transcendent Manga UK dub. As a rule I prefer subs but I'll occasionally give these ones a listen instead.

"It's way past your bedtime motherfucker!"

"You wouldn't recognise a god damn vampire if one jumped up and bit you on the end of your fuckin' dick."



Wonder what Raytrace is up to? I'm gonna archive all his GIFs before they're gone.

I half-watched the latest arc of Dragon Ball Super and didn't mind it too much. Glad #17 finally got some attention. It bummed me out how he just vanished from DB after his manful showings VS Piccolo and Cell. He's not the antichrist, he's just a moderately edgy boi! And then GT shat all over him and everyone else too! Also speaking of subtitles, JP Frieza's haughty laugh and bestial war screech still give me chubs! Oooh ho ho ho hooo! SHIYAAAAAA! Shameless fun within its limits.

[bottino]

I have a fleeting memory of a time in which a punch was a punch, a kick was a kick, those special Ki attacks were actually awesome and there was no need for a plethora of silly transformations, fusions and power-ups to cover up the fact that Akira Toriyama can't write for shit and doesn't care one bit, since he's a millionaire and he makes the shareholders and CEOs of Toei and Bandai/Namco very, very happy.

[soprano1]

I have a fleeting memory of a time in which a punch was a punch, a kick was a kick, those special Ki attacks were actually awesome and there was no need for a plethora of silly transformations, fusions and power-ups to cover up the fact that Akira Toriyama can't write for shit and doesn't care one bit, since he's a millionaire and he makes the shareholders and CEOs of Toei and Bandai/Namco very, very happy.

All he ever wanted to do was gag manga, and he was good at it, just look at Dr. Slump. But Dragon Ball was too much of a goldmine. It still is.

[BIL]

I just liek arguing about power levels w/old homies like its 1998 Ma boi was all "HOW COULD 17 B DAT STRONG HE ROBOT" and I got to go "motherfucker he is artificial muscle boi who assrape Gokus fresh outta the box, he found Jesus and went 2 gym" "YE BUT CELL SHOULD B STRONGER" "YE I AGREE, BUT CELL DEAD NIGGA" "Neway Frieza + Vageta woulda whoop 17 ass" "Ye I kno I liek it"

(BRYANM POST is now gone, a moth must have ate it but 2 your point re: shounen rot ye I agree but otoh they're so easy to spot! For instance I was clickbaited into a list of 10 MARTIAL ARTS MANGA 2 BRUTAL 4 ANIME ADAPTATION and read a few volumes of "Holyland." It was okay but pure shounen shite! "Uwuu I must get stronger w/ friends" Yeah okay)

Now when it spreads to formerly non-feelgood fightan mangas like Berserk, oh hell no. But Miura will die jacking himself off like HIDE and MICHAEL HUTCHENCE before he ends the story, so who cares.

[FinalBaton]

My boy Kawajiri is at it again!!!

[BryanM]

Watched season 2 of Overlord. Actually have to say that I do like it.

I wonder if my standards have just been beaten into the ground, though. Maybe I only like it because the entire world doesn't revolve around the protagonist. And because it doesn't use a cartoonish Star Warsian version of good and evil - it's morally ambiguous at best.

They cut some small material from the original that actually makes the story much better. For example, in the webnovel, in the scene where the druglord lady is kidnapped, she attacks Elfgirlboy with her magic snake. This gives some (scant) justification for when Elfgirlboy breaks her leg immediately after.

In the anime, no such feeble resistance is offered. She wakes up, sees there's a weird intruder to her mansion, notices that one of her goons is busy in the middle of being eaten, screams, then gets her leg broke before being dragged away by her hair. This makes her look more sympathetic, and makes the scene into one of complete straight up horror.

"Uwuu I must get stronger w/ friends" Yeah okay

I really do like stories with fair, impartial jRPG systems. Not like Dragon Ball's racist and egocentric one where 99.99999% of the cast are background ferns due to being born in the wrong species and not being the main character. (I miss Bulma being able to do things, like back when it was a fun adventure mangoo.)

Unfortunately the only market putting that stuff out with a high ratio is South Korea these days. Apparently in Japan if you try to write anything that's even slightly non-safespace fluff, you get internet bullied until you jump off a bridge.

I miss How to Kill Reincarnators From Earth. It's a shame, it was almost kind of like a real book. With character arcs and development and stuff.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Going to fire up Gundam Origin on BD tonight. I've heard good things from fellow Gundam fans.

Unfortunately the only market putting that stuff out with a high ratio is South Korea these days. Apparently in Japan if you try to write anything that's even slightly non-safespace fluff, you get internet bullied until you jump off a bridge.

Wait, what?

[null1024]

Just about caught up with Shinkalion. It's a toy commercial series, so be warned if you do decide to give it a go.
Man, the Black Shinkalion fight was pretty cool.

Also, the show has Hatsune Miku as an actual reoccurring character, voice and all. Her name's apparently spelled differently though [different kanji for Hatsune].
Her characterization's a bit surprising too, way different than I'd have expected for this collaboration. It works, at least.

The writing's overall relatively decent, and it's a fun watch. It's certainly been more exciting and interesting than Gundam Build Divers.
The main character is a bundle of joy, he's just this goofy train-obsessed kid. It's really fucking endearing.
Really, the non-battle portions of the show are surprisingly good for a toy driven series.

I really wish the fights were a little better as a whole though, everyone no-sells shit all the fucking time and it's kinda annoying. Bad guy shows up, the Shinkalions do their big attacks and then:
*dive in like idiots*
"oh shit not a scratch!"
command goes "pull back everyone, we've gotta figure this out!"
then they figure it out
"okay, got it! GRAND CROSS!"
and then the enemy dies

sometimes, they're getting bodied hard while waiting for reinforcements to arrive because something split the party or made it so that they couldn't get there [a memorable moment was that the MC's train was too wide to go on the rail line that went to where the battle took place, so he had to sit it out, and naturally the guy who could go got bodied]

The setup for each fight is pretty cool and manages to avert the problem a fair bit, but the actual mecha on monster action is a bit too formulaic.
Seriously, would it kill them to have the bad guy take some hits and be vulnerable, but have him hitting the MCs too hard for them to just win through attrition? Even kids would realize that'd make for cooler fights, and it's not like the show's afraid of having the MC's get hit. Just show some damage. The MCs get bodied pretty often, but look sparkling new when they figure out what they need to do and then fire off their super moves and win.

The CG's a bit ugly too, and all the fights except one so far take place in a capture dome [where the enemies are sealed away so they don't interfere with the public or expose the Shinkalions; naturally the enemies try to break out of it all the time], so the scenery looks the same every battle. I've got a strong feeling this is budget related more than anything else.
And man, it'd be much nicer if things took a little bit of damage. Like, ever.
You know the heroes are going to win just about every fight, too. It's a very traditional super robot show when it comes to the fighting, where it has to end on a finisher.

Also, at this point, there's like six Shinkalion drivers and I think the next episode [still unsubbed] introduces a new guy, it's getting a bit crowded. The best bits are character driven, but now there's a ton of characters, it's harder and harder to focus on all of 'em.

Spoiler

oh, and the N500 is fucking broken and stood up to shit that FIVE FUCKING OTHER SHINKALIONS TEAMING UP were getting hammered by
it's got a powered up mode too
the only reason it's ever fucked up for any reason is because the driver's an idiot that tells the MC off because he thinks they're too young [which is probably true, but this is a show that emphasizes the living shit out of teamwork and friendship, like any good super robot show]

If the above bit seems too negative, it's still a lot of fun to watch.

Spoiler

DEATH GRAND CROSS

[evil_ash_xero]

Why does my copy of Berserk Vol. 13 have a big stupid Parental Advisory sticker on it, UNDER the plastic wrapper?
Jesus, America....
Do the European printings of this have this nonsense?



Also, this is not my copy. Just one I found on the 'net. I didn't feel like taking pictures of my censored book.

[BIL]

Thank goodness the cover has been purified of breasts, so its graphically dismembered forearm stump can be tastefully appreciated!

Fucking idiotic that they'd put the sticker directly on the cover. Condolences.

[Xer Xian]

Do the European printings of this have this nonsense?

Nope. My country also got a nice fat oversized edition

[BIL]

Aww yeah! NOW the cover is extreme! Gouged eyes and torn limbs in a sea of blood got nothing on a modestly-sized pair of hooters.

[evil_ash_xero]

Oh wow.
My Berserks have stickers on ALL of them. The biggest one is on that one, though, to cover up the nudity.

I don't know what's up with Dark Horse.
I just can't get past the fact that they are plastic wrapped trades (which I have never seen before. Only plastic wrapped hardcovers), and still have stickers ON the books. Talk about overkill.

Thank goodness the cover has been purified of breasts, so its graphically dismembered forearm stump can be tastefully appreciated!

I didn't even notice the stump! I'm glad they have their priorities straight!

[drauch]

The contrast of those two volumes next to each other! Early on: gory, nihilistic, brutal; New: Kids, fun, sailing, fairies.