The Anime/Manga/Related Merchandise Thread

Pffft. Tom Bombadil? Beatles? Amateur-hour. Last year (I think), I treated our book group to Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. It's obviously written by a clever person, but it's utter irredeemable shite.

I will not read that then

Please don't. Or please do and share in my pain. But seriously, please don't.

In actually palatable stuff that doesn't have necrophilic orgies in (so far as I know), with Season 6 being announced I've started up Season 5 of My Hero Academia. It's easy to forget, dabbling as I have in a bunch of other series, just how good it is. The battling animation! (chef's kiss)

Balladeer wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

I recently finished Neon Genesis Evangelion plus The End of Evangelion. You may have heard of it. I really liked it, but I think it's spoilery to go into why, so I'll refrain.

Once or twice!  I'm curious, put it in a spoiler tag?

I won't bother putting it in a spoiler tag as Buska more or less touched upon it - I just found some of the imagery and ideas in the latter half of the series to be so striking and bold. The whole ending sequence of End of Evangelion was especially visually arresting. The way the author's depression was portrayed in a mecha anime of all things as well hit me pretty bloody hard too, especially with everything that's gone on over the past couple of years with myself.

Balladeer wrote:

Jay: does the head of the club in Run With the Wind ever stop coming across as a manipulative berk?

Short answer, yes. I hope you stick with it!

Balladeer wrote:

In actually palatable stuff that doesn't have necrophilic orgies in (so far as I know), with Season 6 being announced I've started up Season 5 of My Hero Academia.  It's easy to forget, dabbling as I have in a bunch of other series, just how good it is.  The battling animation!  (chef's kiss)

Season 5 was easily my least favourite, but that's more due to how they butchered one of my favourite arcs in the manga by rushing through it in like 4 episodes when it needed at least double that. The Class A vs B arc was grand though, I'll give it that.

The manga as a whole is getting to be a bit messy, to be honest. I'm definitely not enjoying it as much as I used to.

Oh dear, that's not a good sign. Hopefully the quality of the anime production manages to iron some of that out?  And obviously I've not got to know Hawks in the manga like you have.

I will stick with RWtW, but by taking advantage of the vulnerable to further his own goals and convince them they're having fun, Haiji's giving me big cult leader vibes.  That or free-to-play developer ones.

Did I see one of you started watching Demon Slayer? For some random reason I bought the game on Switch, my only logic was had £6 via Game Collection and liked the Naruto games on PS360.

I watched some of it for work because it's mad popular among my students.

Balladeer wrote:

Oh dear, that's not a good sign. Hopefully the quality of the anime production manages to iron some of that out?  And obviously I've not got to know Hawks in the manga like you have.

I will stick with RWtW, but by taking advantage of the vulnerable to further his own goals and convince them they're having fun, Haiji's giving me big cult leader vibes.  That or free-to-play developer ones.

Hmm, to a point? I do think the animation quality has noticeable dips at points, likely coinciding with whenever they've been working on the movies.

As for RWtW, I don't recall having that reading of Haiji's character at any point and certainly not by the latter half of the series - the running club brings out the very best in all the guys.

Buskalilly wrote:

I watched some of it for work because it's mad popular among my students.

The game takes place from the start to some Arc, that guess if I like the story I can continue on.

I did that with Naruto but gave up after 100ish episodes.

I've tried Demon Slayer. I found Tanjiro mediocre, his fellow slayers worse than that, and heard that they do creepy things with Nezuko later on. Add to that the long (really well animated, I'll give them) battle scenes against monsters-of-the-week, and... yep it didn't work for me.

On another topic: I've realised that a solid half of my top ten telly shows, and another half of my top ten films, are anime. How much weeb is too much weeb?

Never

Balladeer wrote:

the long (really well animated, I'll give them) battle scenes against monsters-of-the-week,

This was the part that was working for me. I found it to be real by-the-numbers shonen stuff. I've heard it gets more interesting, from people I trust, but I dunno.

Quote :

heard that they do creepy things with Nezuko later on

More creepy than creating a super-popular female character who walks around in a revealing half-worn kimonon and a gag, obediently following the boys?

Quote :

On another topic: I've realised that a solid half of my top ten telly shows, and another half of my top ten films, are anime.  How much weeb is too much weeb?

It amuses me that I'm the one that moved to Japan but I'm a lot less weeb than most of the people I know! At least in terms of anime; games, history, samurai and kaiju on the other hand . . .

Nezuko is best girl, okay only seen her and Lady Tamayo that not a lot of choice.

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

the long (really well animated, I'll give them) battle scenes against monsters-of-the-week,

This was the part that was working for me. I found it to be real by-the-numbers shonen stuff. I've heard it gets more interesting, from people I trust, but I dunno.

Quote :

heard that they do creepy things with Nezuko later on

More creepy than creating a super-popular female character who walks around in a revealing half-worn kimonon and a gag, obediently following the boys?

I guess my objection was more that there wasn't enough additional stuff around the battle scenes, although I would like them to be doing more to tie the battles together into something larger.

And apparently, yes.


MHA S5 is good.  I like the battle between the classes, although if shooting people in the face with a cannon isn't allowed them I'm damn sure filling their lungs with mushrooms shouldn't be either.  Nice to see That Guy With The 'Scarf' again as well. Also for my birthday I got a mug with this design on it.

MHA S5:

Also that mug design is excellent - Tsu is great, good choice!

I love Froppy.

This is the correct view to have about Froppy.

Anyone checked out Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix yet? Saw it pop up when I fired up Netflix the other night and wasn't sure if it was up to much.

Mind you, I've just googled it and saw it's by Trigger, so I'm definitely interested now.

Not yet (I feel like I should try that Arkane not-anime too, since it apparently has nothing much to do with League of Legends) - but I did finish Run with the Wind! I enjoyed it, natch, although I never managed to get over how I felt Haiji was forcing everybody into something. The series ran with it (ohoho), but it always felt a bit more sinister to me than it was made out to be.

Welp, back to Komi Can't Communicate, which is dodgy in different ways.

JayMoyles wrote:

Mind you, I've just googled it and saw it's by Trigger, so I'm definitely interested now.

Aliens did it

Definitely give Arkane a go, that show was great.

JayMoyles wrote:

Anyone checked out Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix yet? Saw it pop up when I fired up Netflix the other night and wasn't sure if it was up to much.

Mind you, I've just googled it and saw it's by Trigger, so I'm definitely interested now.

I did end up watching this. It was bloody brilliant and easily the best show in this anime season. I don't even think you need to have played the game to enjoy it - there's certain references and such you won't get without having played the game, but certainly nothing integral to the plot. The animation was crisp and the fight scenes were full of all that Trigger insanity that you'd expect from them. Soundtrack was ace, which was no surprise considering it drew heavily from the game here. I actually even watched this dubbed, which is rare for me, but I liked the dub a lot and I think the future slang and such played a big part in this as I don't think there was a way for that to translate to Japanese as easily. Oh, and Giancarlo Esposito is in it, which was a big surprise too.

So yeah, big thumbs up from me. I gave it a 9/10 on MyAnimeList - well worth a watch.

I read the first volume of my brother's big Berserk set. It was great, I planned to read more while I was over there but ended up being busier than I'd anticipated. Those volumes are really nice though; I may get them for myself rather than finish reading online.

I also packed my copies of Uzumaki and Tomei, along with some other Junji Ito's I picked up while visiting Andy.
Couldn't fit Death Note, or the Pokemon and Monster Hunter mangas, in my bags so they have been taken by my brother.

Am I right in thinking the bloke's son's finishing up Berserk, or have I made that up?

Crunchyroll put Golden Kamuy behind its paywall, but I don't actually begrudge them getting some of my money for what they provide. I signed up, and immediately continued... er, Spy x Family. I'm normally reasonably cynical about family drama, but I'm enjoying this one. The kid's properly adorable as well!

Balladeer wrote:

I signed up, and immediately continued... er, Spy x Family.  I'm normally reasonably cynical about family drama, but I'm enjoying this one.  The kid's properly adorable as well!

I'm loving Spy x Family. The first part was some really sweet and frequently funny family drama and I do agree with your thoughts on Anya. However, she's been swiftly usurped by...

SxF Part 2 :

I think I've got my shows lined up for this new anime season:

Spy x Family Part 2: As mentioned above. It's great!
My Hero Academia S6: The animation in the first couple of episodes is already a step up from the last season, so I'm quietly confident they're going to do this action-packed arc justice.
Mob Psycho 100 III: Really hoping this sticks the landing. The first two series were filled with gorgeous animation, some genuinely laugh out loud moments and far more heartwarming moments than I expected. I gave Season 2 a 10/10 on MAL - I'm hoping Season 3 matches this.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: I've always fancied getting into a Gundam show, but apparently most of them are part of an ongoing series that started back in the late 80s. This is a standalone show, so it's seemingly good for Gundam newbies to hop into. The mech animation has been top notch so far as you'd expect, although I'm not as well sold on the characters so far. Early doors though!

I've yet to start The Eminence in Shadow, which is supposedly a very funny isekai show, nor Blue Lock which is a football show that looks like it's dripping with hilarious edge and I'm 100% down for that.