Currently/just finished watching/reading anime/manga thread.

[Samus Aran]

finished watching Hanamatsuri early this morning. utterly great show, i gave it a 9 but i could possibly give it an 8 if i scrutinize it a bit more. its chief problem is that there's so much left unexplored, tbh, and i feel like it's a result of trying to cram so much into 12 episodes of a show that unfortunately will probably never get a second season. one of the funniest and most heartwarming shows i've seen in a very long time. WATASHI NO SUMATOFONU GAAAA

finished Love Love Sunshine S2 a few days ago, kinda just to finally get it out of the way. i liked it more than the first season overall, but it grows tiresome how every single goddamn episode tries to be as dramatic and climactic as possible. but thankfully there was more actual characterization this season. i really liked the riko/yohane-focused episode, and the dia-focused episode. a weak 7/10, better than the first season's 6

a couple weeks back i plowed through two things i'd been putting off for two long: FLCL Progressive and Alternative. Progressive kind of blows. Alternative is a bit better. the best parts of these shows are only just barely holding them together. 6/10 for Alternative, 5 for Progressive. it might be being slightly harsh, but it is what it is.

also recently i quickly read a really neat manga, Onani Master Kurosawa, which is on the surface just about a teenage dude who jacks off in an unused school bathroom a lot, but it quickly becomes a really intense coming-of-age story. actually great stuff. often called "fap note" for its initial similarities to Death Note in its surface plot (though it becomes apparent quickly that the subplot is far more important). 9/10

[Samus Aran]

in continuing my quest to finally finish shit that's been on my "watching" list forever, i finished Aho Girl. it sucks. i've seen much worse, but it's still bad. and it's certainly not funny. 4/10

also, the other day i read through a short 3-volume manga called genkaku picasso. it seems rather beloved by a lot of people, so i was expecting more than i got. it's good, but it's not that good. the early chapters are especially weak. gets better as it goes. 7/10

[ME##]

I'm sad Eva on Netflix doesn't have the OG voice actors.  I wanted to watch it

[Samus Aran]

it also doesn't have "fly me to the moon" as the ed

[Samus Aran]

A couple weeks ago I started watching Dragon Ball GT. This is a series that I didn't really have access to as a kid back when I was really into DBZ, except for a couple Viz VHS tapes I had. And the small amount I did see, I didn't like very much. Years later, I tried to watch some of it on some anime streaming site. I got about 6 episodes into it before dropping it.

Fast forward to a couple weeks back, I finally decided to get around to actually watching through it all. After all, I knew there were iconic things in the series even if most people don't like it overall. SSJ4 and the Golden Great Ape, the evil dragon arc, etc. I wanted to finally experience some of this stuff.

And well, I did. And it's not very good. Am I surprised by that? Not in the least. It's not quite as terrible overall as people make it out to be. It's kind of like watching any of the lesser DBZ movies. Nothing feels right about it but there's still some cool stuff sometimes.

The initial Black Star Dragon Ball arc is lame. The "humorous" and adventurous tone is supposed to hearken back to the original Dragon Ball (and after all, it's about searching for the Black Star Dragon Balls), but much of what happens doesn't really make sense like it did back then. Goku, Trunks and Pan have little reason to sneak around when they have enough power to blow up a planet by sneezing at it. It's dumb. And pretty much just bad the whole way through.

The Baby Saga is ok. It starts out pretty lame but actually gets pretty cool in the later parts, with SSJ4 and Golden Oozaru and such.

Super Android 17 arc is actually just plain godawful. Thankfully it's only 8 episodes.

The last arc, Shadow Dragon Saga, is actually pretty decent! And the ending is weirdly poignant. I like how the saga addresses something that nothing else in the franchise does: the unnatural effects of overusing the Dragon Balls.

But yeah overall 4/10 lol, it's a pretty bad show. The tone is all over the place, the characterization is all off (I can't believe this show makes Vegeta and Piccolo, two of the franchise's coolest characters, into worthless side characters for the most part), the music is weirdly unfitting most of the time, and almost none of the series is really all that interesting.

And the most important thing for long-ass shounen shows like this is lots of cool hype moments. This series unfortunately doesn't have many. Is it cool to see Goku go SSJ4 for the first time? Yes. Does SSJ4 Gogeta rule? Hell yes. But do they compare to things like...Teen Gohan going SSJ2 and destroying Cell? Or the first time Goku goes SSJ? Or the Vegeta vs. Goku Gallic Gun/Kamehameha standoff? No. Nothing in GT comes close to these iconic moments.

[YPrrrr]

Started watching My Hero Academia

Holy shit it has a ton of padding. So many unnecessary flashbacks. So much bloody crying.

But when it's just heroes fighting it's kinda neat I guess

[Samus Aran]

yeah get used to seein Deku have flashbacks of All-Might first offering him All For One

it's a pretty damn good series tho

[The Hand That Fisted Everyone]

i finished eva

boy i heard the ending was bad but i didn't expect it to be the worst god damn ending of anything ever.

[Nyerp]

now watch end of evangelion

[Samus Aran]

i finished eva

boy i heard the ending was bad but i didn't expect it to be the worst god damn ending of anything ever.

idk i've seen worse tbh, but yeah it's not a good ending

end of eva would basically be considered the "real" ending in that it incorporates the "stuff in shinji's head" of episodes 25 and 26 but greatly expands upon that as well as everything happening outside his head too.

[tommy_no_ice]

Started watching My Hero Academia

Holy shit it has a ton of padding. So many unnecessary flashbacks. So much bloody crying.

But when it's just heroes fighting it's kinda neat I guess

its a kids show wat do U expect
?

[strongbad]

watching Yowamushi Pedal because I love bikes and it is really good

[YPrrrr]

Started watching My Hero Academia

Holy shit it has a ton of padding. So many unnecessary flashbacks. So much bloody crying.

But when it's just heroes fighting it's kinda neat I guess

its a kids show wat do U expect
?

kids shows dont recap for a third of the runtime

Seems more of an anime thing - Dragonball Z, Digimon, I don't watch enough animes, One Piece apparently etc.

Typical MHA episode: 3 minute opening song, 3 minute recap, 8 minutes new content, 3 minutes flashbacks (including flashbacks from the same damn episode?), 3 minute song credits

It's a neat 8 minutes though and luckily with streaming you can skip all the other shit

[Samus Aran]

3 minute opening song, 3 minute recap, 3 minute song credits

i mean this is the shounen standard right here u got urself into this

[Nyerp]

in what world are anime opening/ending credits 3 minutes long