Seto Kaiba Posted October 6 Posted October 6 (edited) I'm glad to hear that they didn't attempt to modernize Ranma 1/2... some titles really need to be in their native timeframe to work as well as they do. Started the second season of As a Reincarnated Aristocrat today, and it picked up exactly where the previous season left off. It jumps right back into the civil war plot that started at the end of last season, with a war council of the region's nobles debating what to do about the opposing faction in the succession crisis kicked off by the assassination of the provincial governor. The art quality is just as good as last season's, and the writing continues to evade virtually all of the isekai genre's usual blatant wish fulfillment pitfalls. No superpowered protagonist, no harem nonsense. True to its title, Ars is making his way in the world as a capable of but average leader by finding talented subordinates using his appraisal skill and then trusting in the skills and expertise he hired them for. In a way, it's quite a refreshing change from the genre's staples. It's standing on the strength of the character writing. Gave Mecha-ude a whirl, and... well... it's pretty much a shounen anime form letter. If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be "nondescript". The story is just another one of those "generic Japanese youth finds a clingy macguffin and then has to join up with other users of clingy macguffins against the evil organization that wants the clingy macguffins for themselves". The art style is "every shounen anime of the last 10 years that isn't Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, or One Piece". The way the titular robot arms are integrated into people's clothes makes it feel like it wants to be family friendly Kill la Kill but has none of the personality. Edited October 6 by Seto Kaiba Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 6 Posted October 6 Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V started and I enjoyed it. Quote
Big s Posted October 7 Posted October 7 1 hour ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V started and I enjoyed it. That’s one of those questions that if you ask you probably should already know the answer Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 7 Posted October 7 Started The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians today. The visual aesthetic of the series is very bright, but not offensively so and the art style is quite pleasant. Many of the backgrounds and objects in scenes are colored and textured like they were done with colored pencils rather than inks, which lends the whole thing an oddly pleasant storybook aesthetic. It's the story of a girl who, after meeting a mage one night when she was young, decided to study her entire life to become a mage herself and then failed to gain admittence into the magic program at the school she applied to. It's a little bit shoujo, a little bit slice of life... but weirdly charming for what it is. The only thing that bothers me is I'm not sure anyone in this series except the one mage girl at the start knows how hats work. (The uniform includes something styled like gakusei-bou, but only the girls seem to wear them and they're worn off to one side at like a 45 degree angle and with the brim pointed down... which just looks weird.) Quote
Dangard Ace Posted October 7 Posted October 7 On 10/5/2024 at 5:33 PM, Duke Togo said: Dug the first episode of the new Ranma 1/2. Set in the 80s, so it's not been transposed into the 21st century. Saw it too. It was fun. Just missing the Yap Papa OP song to make it really nostalgic. New Stuff: NegiPosi Angler - something about fishing give it a shot Mecha-Ude - gotta have something mechanical in this show right? Dan da Dan - no idea poster was colorful Give it a shot Healer Banished is the strongest - do I? Don’t I? Seems I’ve seen this formula before You are Ms Servant - Assassin turned maid Give it a shot until Sakamoto Days shows up Goodbye Dragon Life - not sure but it’s got dragons Give it a shot Dragon Ball Daima - Toriyamas final DB? Hell yes Continuation stuff SAO GGO S2 - more SAO World stuff DanMqchi - Familial Fight! MF Ghost - I drift cool cars! Blue Lock - I’m an ego maniac that’ll take 30 mins to kick a ball! my Hero - eh I know how the manga ends Screw it I’m watching till the end! Bleach - gotta finish the story One Piece - my treasure! My precious! Plus it’s finally finishing Aristocrat Appraisal - I binged S1 last week Surprised I liked it since most isekai stuff doesn’t appeal to me Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 7 Posted October 7 Seirei Gensouki season 2 started. I enjoyed the 1st episode, I can't wait for more. Quote
Duke Togo Posted October 9 Posted October 9 I'm a little more than halfway through Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Solid show, but I think I was expecting a bit more from it given what I had read about it. I've also checked out the first episode of Dan Da Dan. Kinda bonkers in an interesting way. I'll keep watching. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 9 Posted October 9 'bout eight minutes into Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister and I have completely checked out. It's definitely giving a "minimum effort harem comedy" vibe. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 9 Posted October 9 REZero was great again today. Emilia is one tough lady. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 11 Posted October 11 The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party Is, in Fact, the Strongest is j-fantasy at its most unremarkable. It's not unwatchable or even really bad... it's just generic. Really generic. There are times I swear I could see the barcodes. This season definitely has a lot more interesting titles than the previous one, though. I've added a bunch more today including Nina the Starry Bride, MF Ghost, Yakuza Fiance, Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions, and Acro Trip. Gonna give a few of those a whirl this afternoon. 😁 Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 11 Posted October 11 Gave Let This Grieving Soul Retire a whirl... and it's pretty tedious. Quote
Duke Togo Posted October 13 Posted October 13 (edited) Most of the voice cast from the original Ranma 1/2 is back for the remake series. Dig it. Edited October 13 by Duke Togo Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 13 Posted October 13 (edited) Wow, If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student is so good. Edited October 13 by Hikaru Ichijo SL Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 14 Posted October 14 Started Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions... and I'm really enjoying it. It's kind of a buddy cop sort of show, with two detectives working together to solve murders. One's a newbie on the verge of getting kicked out of the investigations department due to being kind of a clueless meatheat and the other's a shut-in genius detective who stepped away from crime-solving because his weird habits are quite off-putting. It's very clever and fun and it's very well animated. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 14 Posted October 14 Ended up binging the first half-dozen episodes of Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions. It's really quite good. The titular detective reminds me a lot of the himbo Sherlock Holmes from Dai Gyakuten Saiban/The Great Ace Attorney, and the overall vibe is like if Holmes had resolved to stay out of the spotlight by steering John Watson to the answers and propping him up as the real Great Detective. Spoiler It is a bit weird that the reason for the subterfuge is that there's an absurdly powerful detective school that apparently has the power to extrajudicially execute detectives for sleuthing without a license. Isn't that just premeditated murder? Anyway... It takes a fair bit from Sherlock Holmes, albeit framed in a modern context, and manages to keep the course of each case pretty well obscured without violating Knox's ten commandments of detective fiction. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 14 Posted October 14 (edited) Mecha-ude might be a strong new contender for "Worst Shounen Anime". The first episode left me thinking the series was lazy, overly derivative, and profoundly lacking in anything resembling original thought or artistic merit. The second episode is, if anything, actually worse. This is what you'd get if you asked ChatGPT to write a painfully generic shounen anime. It's a collection of overused tropes and shallow stock characters woven into a woefully threadbare with no real sense of direction or purpose. This episode attempts to explain the central conflict of the story, but all that the writers could muster in terms of ideas was "Rise up against this litigation-safe stand-in for Amazon.com to defend these dangerous self-aware macguffins from being studied!" No, really. That's it. 365 Days to the Wedding is an interesting little romcom about a pair of travel agency employees who... actually, hold up. Does this kind of manual effort in-person travel agency even still exist in the real world? With desk jockeys actually calling hotels and airlines and such to reserve bookings for clients? I thought that kind of thing went the way of the dinosaur twenty years ago when online booking became the new normal. This seems like it'd be really wasteful, expensive, and time consuming compared to booking online. Anyway... 365 Days to the Wedding is the story of two seriously introverted 20-somethings who work for a Tokyo-based travel agency. When their company announces that it will reassign one unmarried staff member from their department to be the branch manager of a new branch office in Alaska in one year's time, they join forces to avoid the unwanted reassignment by faking an engagement. Their efforts to fake it 'til they make it are unwittingly helped by their manager totally shipping it. Edited October 14 by Seto Kaiba Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 14 Posted October 14 Arifureta is back. I enjoy this series. I love Hajime and his crazy inventions. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 15 Posted October 15 (edited) Acro Trip is... well... kind of a trip. It's the story of a young girl named Chizuko who is a positively rabid fangirl for her town's resident magical girl Berry Blossom. By coincidence, she encounters her idol's ineffectual villain Chrome in town one day and he attempts to persuade her to join his evil organization and provide some quality magical menace to keep Berry Blossom employed. It has a warped sense of humor to be sure. I'd say it's a bit like a non-ecchi version of Gushing Over Magical Girls, with a comedy emphasis instead. I'm having a lot of fun with it. Edited October 15 by Seto Kaiba Quote
tekering Posted October 15 Posted October 15 9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Does this kind of manual effort in-person travel agency even still exist in the real world? With desk jockeys actually calling hotels and airlines and such to reserve bookings for clients? I thought that kind of thing went the way of the dinosaur twenty years ago when online booking became the new normal. Ah, but you forget Japan is The Land That Time Forgot. Newspapers still sell, ATMs remain inaccessible on weekends and holidays, even fax machines are still manufactured here. A significant percentage of the population still won't use the Internet, either out of fear or a stubborn refusal to change... and some of those people still head corporations, or national government positions. 🙄 Quote
Big s Posted October 15 Posted October 15 45 minutes ago, tekering said: Ah, but you forget Japan is The Land That Time Forgot. Newspapers still sell, ATMs remain inaccessible on weekends and holidays, even fax machines are still manufactured here. A significant percentage of the population still won't use the Internet, either out of fear or a stubborn refusal to change... and some of those people still head corporations, or national government positions. 🙄 I hear rumors of phone booths still existing Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 15 Posted October 15 14 hours ago, tekering said: Ah, but you forget Japan is The Land That Time Forgot. Newspapers still sell, ATMs remain inaccessible on weekends and holidays, even fax machines are still manufactured here. A significant percentage of the population still won't use the Internet, either out of fear or a stubborn refusal to change... and some of those people still head corporations, or national government positions. 🙄 Ah, very true... I guess I forgot how old-fashioned much of Japan still is since the firms I work with over there use more modern solutions (probably for our sake). 🤔 My brief confusion aside, 365 Days to the Wedding is quite a cute little romance/romcom series. I've heard from a friend there's a live action version too. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 15 Posted October 15 I am really enjoying The Apothecary Diaries. It is so good. Quote
Focslain Posted October 16 Posted October 16 15 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said: I am really enjoying The Apothecary Diaries. It is so good. MaoMao is a treat, if your watching the sub version there are several points where she channels Tanya. Cause same VA. Can't wait for the next season (been announced at least) Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 16 Posted October 16 7 hours ago, Focslain said: MaoMao is a treat, if your watching the sub version there are several points where she channels Tanya. Cause same VA. Can't wait for the next season (been announced at least) I have never seen Tanya. But did know that Yuuki Aoi voiced both. I only watch subs. Her vocal range is just crazy. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 20 Posted October 20 Venturing into Rom Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions season two... and it's just as good as season one. This one's rapidly becoming a favorite. Spoiler ... though I am just slightly disappointed that the link to Sherlock Holmes went from thematic to literal. Apparently there's some Lupin III-style successor shenanigans going on here, with successors to Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty in play. Quote
Duke Togo Posted October 20 Posted October 20 The new Ranma 1/2 is just delightful. I take some issue with the subs, but it's Netflix, so... Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 20 Posted October 20 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2024-10-17/welcome-to-japan-ms-elf-tv-anime-reveals-more-cast-theme-songs-january-2025-debut/.216847 I am looking forward to this. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 23 Posted October 23 Yakuza Fiance turned out to be a highly entertaining and unconventional series. It's about a girl named Yoshino, the granddaughter of a major Kansai yakuza boss, who tries to lead a normal life until her grandfather returns from a big meet-up of the country's yakuza family heads and announces he's trying to set her up with Kirishima, the heir to a powerful Kanto yakuza boss. So she's off to Tokyo to spend a year with the family of her possible future husband. Spoiler After discovering he's a creep, already a gang member, and more than a bit of a psycho, she decides to spend the remainder of her year in Tokyo making his life a living hell for treating her so badly. Joke's on her, though... he's into that sh*t. As soon as she starts being awful to him, he pops the question... and so begins their horribly dysfunctional love story. It reminds me a bit of The Way of the House Husband, in the sense that it's got a lot of over-the-top Japanese mafiosi wandering through its story alongside a Very Normal Girl(TM) and her ridiculously threatening love interest who just can't act normal for five minutes straight.. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 23 Posted October 23 Dang. ReZero has been super this season. When Capella Emerada Lugunica speaks it is Yuuki Aoi. Poor Emilia and Mimi. Quote
Duke Togo Posted October 24 Posted October 24 I finished the first season of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. I thought the show was decent about 2/3's of the way through, but the last several episodes were really good. Changed my entire view on the season. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted October 25 Posted October 25 (edited) Started watching the Initial D spinoff/sequel MF Ghost... and it is so much better than the last racing anime I watched (HIGHSPEED ETOILE) that it crosses the line four times from not funny to funny to embarrassing (for HIGHSPEED ETOILE) to absolutely goddamn hilarious. This is what racing anime should be... even if it is basically another love letter to the Toyota Motor Co. So much more exciting and energetic than HIGHSPEED ETOILE's static choreography and obsession with getting the maximum number of sponsor logos into all shots. EDIT: This is the second show this season where I've picked it up figuring "Oh I'll just watch one or two" and realized hours later I'd binged the best part of an entire season in one unbroken sitting. MF Ghost is just THAT good. Edited October 25 by Seto Kaiba Quote
rsvictor1976 Posted October 25 Posted October 25 I just started watching, "Good Bye, Dragon Life." Man, the show gives a weird hentai inuendo. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted October 27 Posted October 27 I watched the Yuru Camp s3 specials and they were great. I really hope we get more. Quote
Stampeed Valkyrie Posted October 31 Posted October 31 I've pumped the brakes on this season, I intentionally have delayed watching ReZero S3, I am going to let it get ahead abit before I move onto Ep 2. As for others this season, just not feeling anything currently. Danmachi is just ...... at this point, and Arifureta S3 (sp?) is just more of the edge lord stuff and was stale in S2. Dandadan is entertaining, probably keep up with that for that time being. I even gave Uzumaki a go, and that was just.. bad. Quote
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