General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour

[Fri]

Well, since those three are so wildly different, what do you mean by "in that vein" ?

[Ravian]

Well, since those three are so wildly different, what do you mean by "in that vein" ?

NVM, just realized I missed that season two of Arslan came out. That should occupy me for a bit.

[VariSami]

Ah, Thunderbolt Fantasy was satisfying. Plus, there is another season in the works. I suppose it really showed how good of a writer Urobuchi can be at times, even if the writing is not quite at the level of his best works.

Currently mostly focusing on watching Claymore. I am positively surprised at how much better it got ever since after the first few missions (i.e. starting with Teresa's introduction). Too bad it apparently just stops when the episodes end, without any proper closure. Currently on episode 21 if memory serves.

[Morph Bark]

Ah, Thunderbolt Fantasy was satisfying. Plus, there is another season in the works. I suppose it really showed how good of a writer Urobuchi can be at times, even if the writing is not quite at the level of his best works.

I saw the first two episodes of that so far. Certainly a very interesting show! The dolls are a little creepy, but the voice acting, movements and blood effects and such are all really well done.

[DoctorFaust]

The first episode of Izetta was surprisingly good. I enjoyed the Princess, Izetta was cool in the little bit of screen time that she had, and all of the technical stuff like animation and sound seems solid so far. I didn't really have any expectations going in, despite its PVs looking pretty interesting, but I guess a magical girl on an anti-tank rifle is enough to keep me watching.

OTOH, Tiger Mask W seems like a pretty bog standard show with nothing really standing out too much. Across the board, pretty much everything was exactly what you would expect from a Toei show.

Spoiler: A stupid joke that's also a spoiler for Tiger Mask W ep.1

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And for gods sake, WrestleMax, get a better booker. Not even Vince Russo would've sunk so low as making someone to lose in their debut match by voluntary count-out. Bro.

I'll be sticking with it for a few more episodes to see if we get much of Okada or Tanahashi, but I'll probably end up dropping it if it stays at this level of quality.

[Rising Phoenix]

So am I too late to the re:zero party? Cause that show was pretty amazing despite its flaws.

[BWR]

With the new season under way I have only tried two things so far.

The second season of Mahou Shoujo Nante mou ii desukara had slipped under my radar, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it. I enjoy the silliness of the reluctant magical girl, the weird and slightly perverted magical animal companions. I honestly hadn't expected to see any more of it.

"Flip flappers" was ....I don't know what it was. Weird, certainly (and I generally like weird). Sort of magical girly, maybe. Sort of secret organizations fighting each other, at a guess. Alternate worlds? VR? Is that magic or super-tech? I'll be keeping an eye on this one, in any case. I think it could either be quite entertaining or a massive letdown.

I see "Keijo!!!!!!!!" got an anime, but I think I'll be giving that one a miss since the manga didn't appeal to me. Short version: a sports anime about hot girls in swimsuits trying to butt-sumo each other into the water while standing on small floating platforms.

[Prime32]

So am I too late to the re:zero party? Cause that show was pretty amazing despite its flaws.

Y'know, there was originally a cliffhanger ending, but the anime cut off just before reaching it.

Spoiler

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Why do you think that letter was blank?

[DoctorFaust]

"Flip flappers" was ....I don't know what it was. Weird, certainly (and I generally like weird). Sort of magical girly, maybe. Sort of secret organizations fighting each other, at a guess. Alternate worlds? VR? Is that magic or super-tech? I'll be keeping an eye on this one, in any case. I think it could either be quite entertaining or a massive letdown.

It reminds me a lot of Rollig Girls, actually. Though I'm hoping it doesn't end up the same way.

[BWR]

It reminds me a lot of Rollig Girls, actually. Though I'm hoping it doesn't end up the same way.

Really?
I tried Rolling Girls but it didn't work for me.

[DoctorFaust]

Really?
I tried Rolling Girls but it didn't work for me.

Yeah. The feel of the show was more...relaxed, I guess you could say, than Rolling Girls, but the overall style reminded me of it a lot.
And do you mind if I ask why?

[Rising Phoenix]

Y'know, there was originally a cliffhanger ending, but the anime cut off just before reaching it.

Spoiler

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Why do you think that letter was blank?

And that's why I am hoping for season 2. Easily one of the best shows of the year, if not of the last five years. Yes it has flaws, but when it's good, it's REALLY good

I am avoiding spoilers so please don't spoil too much

Spoiler

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With regards to the letter there are two possibilities:
(1) The logical one is that one Emilia's competitors is interfering. The most logical explanation being the red, fire mage (i forget her name). Hence once they they're all tired from the skirmish they will attack while they're weak.
(2) It is one of the other sin archbishops since they need to do their ritual.

Also it is pretty evident that Subaru has the potential to be the pride archbishops

[BiblioRook]

I've always been really interested in getting into Re:Zero as I normally love the whole 'stuck in a fantasy world' trope but honestly has been pretty reluctant as it's hard to pin-point just where it goes tone wise. From what I hear about it it can be both pretty humorous but at the same time pretty serious and grim and I can't seem to tell just to what extent of ether. Tone normally is a pretty big deal for me and is something I usually rather have an understanding for beforehand as heavy drama is often a pain for me to deal with and often is something I would like to avoid (though not a deal-breaker).

[HMS Invincible]

I've always been really interested in getting into Re:Zero as I normally love the whole 'stuck in a fantasy world' trope but honestly has been pretty reluctant as it's hard to pin-point just where it goes tone wise. From what I hear about it it can be both pretty humorous but at the same time pretty serious and grim and I can't seem to tell just to what extent of ether. Tone normally is a pretty big deal for me and is something I usually rather have an understanding for beforehand as heavy drama is often a pain for me to deal with and often is something I would like to avoid (though not a deal-breaker).

Go watch the first arc, and then decide if you want to complete the whole thing.

[BWR]

Yeah. The feel of the show was more...relaxed, I guess you could say, than Rolling Girls, but the overall style reminded me of it a lot.
And do you mind if I ask why?

I can't quite put my finger on it. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good enough to keep me interested. It's quite possible that if there had been fewer shows I liked that season I would have watched it.

[Rising Phoenix]

I've always been really interested in getting into Re:Zero as I normally love the whole 'stuck in a fantasy world' trope but honestly has been pretty reluctant as it's hard to pin-point just where it goes tone wise. From what I hear about it it can be both pretty humorous but at the same time pretty serious and grim and I can't seem to tell just to what extent of ether. Tone normally is a pretty big deal for me and is something I usually rather have an understanding for beforehand as heavy drama is often a pain for me to deal with and often is something I would like to avoid (though not a deal-breaker).

The MC suffers...a lot... He's not omnipotent and doesn't have plot armor. He's also the most plot aware character in any anime that I've watched.

If the above is a deal breaker than yes skip it. But as other have said watch the first arc.

[VariSami]

I heard Glass Reflection mention Occultic;Nine as a promising series this season when I was listening to him while cooking. Watched the first episode.

Spoiler

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It was like the worst bits of Steins;Gate made into a parody of Bakemonogatari with a cast borrowed from Eiken but with superior numbers compared to Durarara. Also, according to Reddit, they adapted a whole light novel in the first episode... When only 2 novels were actually published before the rest were cancelled.

[DoctorFaust]

I heard Glass Reflection mention Occultic;Nine as a promising series this season when I was listening to him while cooking. Watched the first episode.

Spoiler

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It was like the worst bits of Steins;Gate made into a parody of Bakemonogatari with a cast borrowed from Eiken but with superior numbers compared to Durarara. Also, according to Reddit, they adapted a whole light novel in the first episode... When only 2 novels were actually published before the rest were cancelled.

Also according to reddit, there is a VN in the works, so the story might not be a complete trainwreck. Heavy emphasis on the might, though.

But in good news, Trigger released the PV for the Little Witch Academia series!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3jFdqs4jUQ

A few little bits of weird animation in there, and it looks like they're going to be retconning at least some of the first two films, but I am definitely excited for this.

[BiblioRook]

Got around to watching Flying Witch. Lovely show and very enjoyable but I can't help feel I would have enjoyed it a great deal more if I were in better place in my life. One thing I feel I have to say though; for as much as he's in the opening I really wished the Harbinger appeared in the show more then just the one time. Seriously though, the opening makes it look as if he was one of the main characters and he's barely in it at all!

[Fri]

From the three that I was most hyped for this season, Izetta is neat and epic, Drifter is neat and cool, Flip Flappers is neat and weird and somewhat simpler design than I thought. In other word, it's cool season so far.

[Prime32]

So I haven't seen Soushin Shoujo Matoi / Matoi the Sacred Slayer brought up yet. Anyone watching it?



It's the first original work from White Fox (responsible for things like Steins;Gate, Hataraku Maou-sama! and Re:Zero), so it seemed promising. After two episodes it's giving me Lyrical Nanoha and Digimon Tamers vibes, with a little TRIGGER-esque goofiness mixed in.

[Magicgnome]

Attack on titans is the best

[Closet_Skeleton]

Saw episode 1 of Soushin Shoujo Matoi. Felt like every magical girl first episode ever.

Wasn't especially promising, was far from the worst episode 1 I've seen this season.

Currently hate other blonde (not the busty secret agent who actually does stuff in episode one, the mysterious more experianced shaman who pops up for random out of context action)'s character design, might change my mind when I work out what her personality is actually supposed to be.

[DeltaEmil]

Show By Rock!!# is absurdly cute.

That first episode where the bad guys destroy everything while a goth-loli rock band sings about love and despair during the apocalypse and time-traveling ninjas have to return to the past to save the future sets up a good start.

Spoiler

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[gooddragon1]

Spoiler: I don't believe it, I can't believe it

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[DoctorFaust]

If anyone here has read and like stuff like Aria, Amanchu, Mushishi, or Hyouka, you should definitely give Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou a chance. It's about the life of a robot running a cafe in a post-apocalyptic world and the people she lives around, and it is at times achingly gorgeous and at others heartbreakingly melancholy, especially in the later chapters. But good god was it fantastic to read.

EDIT: Also, I know I said that it would probably be smarter to watch all the Kizu films in one go, but damn was it nice to see the first two in a theatre.

[Fri]

So, Drifter's really cool and it's the anime I can't wait to watch every week now. I guess it's more that it lines up with my stylistic taste, aka, "what I consider cool." Especially that opening, man.

In other random topic, let's talk about manga a bit. Have any of you ever read Hinamatsuri? It's what I can safely consider to be my favourite manga of all time. It starts quite slowly, and hard to explain, but basically it's a comedy/slice of life manga that does my favourite premise well, that is, absurd situation done completely straight and seriously. And it's not gag manga, it's a manga focuses on long time story and relationship where absurd situations keep happening and everyone dealt with it straight face.

It's hard to discuss this manga with my friend, because all the "funny" stuff are never independent, it will only be funny if you follow what's happening in the manga up to that point. Not exactly brick joke either, but you often see comedic situations set up from things happening for ten chapters. And each of those chapters are as hillarious, but the set up was done ten chapters before! So I can't just link funny pages to my friend, because it always need context on why I find that page abso****inglutely hillarious.

The starting premise is actually rather cliche? It's about a yakuza member finding a mysterious girl with overwhelming supernatural power and they live together (as father and daughter). Early chapters are rough (and the available english scanlations for early parts really aren't good). But after the set up time needed for you to internalize everyone's position and relationship, the simple premise become both more and more outlandish and down to earth at the same time, and it only makes sense if you actually read it from the beginning.

I have been reading it for a very long time, and each chapter I kept saying "This is the best chapter yet, I wonder how they can top this." But of course they top it. Every single chapter.

Anyway, here's a review that might be able to summarize the series better than my rambling thought.

https://terrenceswiff.wordpress.com/...8/hinamatsuri/

[DoctorFaust]

I actually tried reading Hinamatsuri a while back, and I could never really get into it. But considering that site is the one that lead me to Yokohama Shopping Trip, I might have to give it another try. When does it start becoming more comical?

And good lord is Your Name fantastic. I got to see it in theatres over the weekend, and it was quite probably the best film I've seen in the past number of years, anime or otherwise. I love everything about it from top to bottom, and it is one of the very few movies that made me literally want to yell at the screen. It is well worth any price of admission, and depending on whether or not my enthusiasm wanes at all in the next few days (which I hope to god it doesn't), it'll probably be my second ten of ten anime ever. Can't ****ing wait until it comes out on blu-ray.

[Fri]

There's never any specific point. It just turns to comedy organically. But how far were you? It's been a while, but I think the point where it starts to get into its groove is after anzu's fight with hina and/or after hitomi become bartender. Basically as I said, there's never a single independent punchline moment, but things set up for 10 chapters just get into "logical" explosively comedic situation/chapter.

Like for example, at one point Hitomi becomes a bartender. A middle school girl becoming a bartender seems like a punchline, but it isn't. It's a setup for highly comedic situation way later, where characters from 5 other chapters somehow clash together in her bar, which won't work if you don't know the situation on why Hitomi becomes a bartender and why is it an absurd thing to happen and why those 5 other characters somehow meet up in her bar and why it's ridiculous for them to meet up there.

But the main draw of the series for me is how the situations are both mundane and over-the-top/absurd at the same time, and everyone are facing them with straight face.

I'm sorry for my continued extended rambling, it's just I've been trying for a long time to put into words why this series is so endearing for me. I'm going to give a slightly spoilery example.

At one point, Hina took part time job as a waitress in a coffeeshop, a normal coffeeshop that after some slightly convoluted set of events let people pay for her to address them as dad/grandpa as she wait for their table. Nitta, her foster father for five years, found out about it and sit there and pay for her to call him "dad."

Out of context, this is somewhat non-sequitur, or at most mildly chuckleworthy. I don't know if I'm just easily amused, but if you know Hina and Nitta's personality and complicated relationship, and history of events leading to that point, the situation is gut-bustingly hillarious for me. Mind you, it's not some punchline of a brick-joke. It's a situation and character development, developing after 10 whole book worth of chapters.

...the punchline of that chapter is, that, the job only last one chapter. Another seemingly non-sequitur that only makes sense in context.

[Rysto]

So this year I've introduced my sister to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Yuki Yuna Is a Hero and School Live!. I think that the obvious next step is to watch an actual cute girl anime with her and see how many episodes it takes her to figure out that no twist is coming.