Anime and Manga Discussion Thread

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Nobby-W said:
I've never actually watched Sailor Moon. Am I missing anything?
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Not really... It was pretty formulaic back in the day, had the same pattern it followed per episode. Most other Mahou Shoujo tend to mix it up a bit, some even get really long plot/arcs where they follow villains and heroines.
 
Nobby-W said:
I've never actually watched Sailor Moon. Am I missing anything?
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The first season of the original series (which tells a complete story) was one of the foundational animes for me growing up. I place it in the same category as Jem and the Holograms - really cheesy, has a sorta upbeat bubblegum pop aesthetic that reminds me of the 1980s, and suffers a little bit from "monster of the week"-itis, with like every third episode actually advancing the overall plot (but that ending is a dooozie!).

The main criticisms are that it was not extremely faithful to the Manga (which I think was unfinished at the time, so it was sort of a Full Metal Alchemist situation), and that it was heavily bowdlerized for an American audience (removing some violence, but more significatly switching the genders of certain villains andd editting out romantic subplots because American TV didn't let gay people be in children's shows in the 90s).

Since it's airing, an unedited and re-dubbed version has been released (currently the only version of that show available for...legal... purchase), and then one or more new series that are way more faithful to the original comics, both in art style and plot.

And, well...I preffer that original series. The new stuff just doesn't have the same charm, humour, or heart (IMHO YMMV, natch), and those original voice actors are ingrained in my heart as THE voices of the characters.

Which is not to say that I would recommend seeking out that original series (on some pirated Blu-Rays for example that I know nothing about) for anyone who din't watch it at the time - like most stuff from childhood, it was "of it's time period" and my affection for it is at least 50% nostalgia-based. I don't know if I'd recommend the new stuff either though, because, well, ultmately it is a show aimed at little girls. It is a foundational work in establishing what became the "Magical Girl genre" (which was eventually deconstructed and laid to rest by the admittedly far superior Madoka Majica - so I mean, it would add to the appreciation of Madoka by understanding the tropes that it was deconstructing), but it's not like it's a masterpiece of storytelling or characerization.

I dunno, I rewatched the original series a few years ago, and it held up for me. And my GF, who'd never seen it, enjoyed it as well. But yeah, it's stuck in that weird limbo place like Galaxy High or Jace and the Wheeled Warriors - it's really probably only going to appeal to a very specific audence wth specific sensibilities from a very specific tme period in TV's history.
 
TristramEvans said:
editting out romantic subplots because American TV didn't let gay people be in children's shows in the 90s).
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The funniest part of this is that they referred to the characters as cousins, but so much of the original animation that made it obvious they were together was still there, so it really just came off as them being incestual.
 
TristramEvans said:
Which is not to say that I would recommend seeking out that original series (on some pirated Blu-Rays for example that I know nothing about) for anyone who din't watch it at the time - like most stuff from childhood, it was "of it's time period" and my affection for it is at least 50% nostalgia-based. I don't know if I'd recommend the new stuff either though, because, well, ultmately it is a show aimed at little girls. It is a foundational work in establishing what became the "Magical Girl genre" (which was eventually deconstructed and laid to rest by the admittedly far superior Madoka Majica - so I mean, it would add to the appreciation of Madoka by understanding the tropes that it was deconstructing), but it's not like it's a masterpiece of storytelling or characerization.
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I hit Evangelion that way around - watched it without having seen any significant amount of Mecha content. Afterwards I saw some of the original Gundam series on Netflix (or maybe a move made of some episodes bashed together) and it was clear what stuff Evangelion was ripping on.

I've seen Madoka Magica, and it was pretty good. Maybe going back and seeing some magical girls stuff might be interesting.
 
Heh, in the 90's there were these weird live action introductions and ad bumpers for the show, just found a collection of them on Youtube:

 
I hate being on the weekly chedule with new anime, but I've gotten into a few shows for the new season.

My Dress Up Darling is the stand-out of the bunch I don't know why I even started watching it - slice of life shouju isn't really my thing - but two episodes I was hooked, and halfway through I was like "why is this the best thing ever"? I still cannot explain the appeal, I just thoroughly enjoyed it all (except for one part - those who've seen it prolly know that part. I seriously am starting to wonder - do bathrooms not have locks on the doors in Japan?).

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If you do watch this one, this is one of the few times I highly recommend subs over dub - the dub just didn't capture the characters right.

Skeleton Knight in Another World is like Overlord light. It's an Isekai, and pretty standard at that, without the most interesting of plot or even a great supporting cast or interesting world. But... and it's enough of a but to keep me watching...the main character is just great. He's an 8 foot skeleton playing at being an Arthuria-style Knight who is also just ridiculously optimistic ad one of those geeks that is just brimming with enthusiasm about everything. I'm reminded of Abed from Community's line "I just like liking stuff" - he's the epitome of a nerd with no guile or bitter cynicism or pretensions, he's just f-in having a blast being a giant skeleton in a fantasy word, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

Oh, and the openng is a banger - nothig has got me this pumped since One Punch Man's opening titles:



Love After World Domination is an adorable superhero romance about the leader or a group of Power Ranger-esque Sentei Squadron falling in love with one of the ain villains fro the evil organization they fight. There's nothing especially deep here, which is why I hesitate to recomme d it to anyone, but just as adorable comfort food with some Supers-specific comedy.

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3rik said:
:quiet:
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Yeah, this was the same group of censors that made them replace Michaelangelo's nunchucks with a whip, wouldn't let Captain America fight Nazis, and wouldn't let Spiderman punch anyone (and thought the term "Sinister" - as in Sinister Six - was too scary for children)

...cartoon censorship hit max stupid in the 90s.
 
TristramEvans said:
My Dress Up Darling

Skeleton Knight in Another World

Love After World Domination
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I don't watch much anime anymore, but I read fan translated manga every night before sleep as my brain floss. It's been weird the last two years seeing the anime-only community finally getting into series I've been reading devoutly for 3-5 years!

I dunno about the anime, but the manga for My Dress Up Darling is pretty amazing. It's one of my favorites to come up in my subscribed feed! It's one of those series that proves that a well-written story with well-written characters is quality, no matter the genre or medium. Did I expect to get hooked on a shoujo manga about an earnest apprentice dollmaker falling in with a cosplay-obsessed gal? No...but I did. Let me know if the anime manages to get to the school pageant arc this season...there was a scene in that one that lands good and hard.

Love After World Domination is a great situation with decent characters and writing. Not in my A tier, but I am caught up and read each new release as it hits...something I can't say about everything in my subscription feed.

...like Skeleton Knight in Another World. I've read the first few chapters but got distracted by something else. I should probably go back and binge to catch up.
 
I just got book 1-9 delivered of The New Gate, and have the 10th book on preorder. I've read them before, but not in dead tree format.

It's an Isekai. It's a "VR" game turned death game. It's an overpowered main character. So far, standard template... The first book starts with the MC defeating the final boss, and he stay on to make sure all his friends can log of. However, before he can log out himself, a gate appear and a flash. When he wakes up, the option to log out is gone and the world has become more real.

I'm a wee bit bored with the zero to hero stuff, so I enjoy the protagonist. That he's trying to lay low, but doesn't have a clue how powerful he actually is, is part of the fun.


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I recently watched Super Atragon, a 2 part OVA based on the film Atragon. It's not as good imho, and I was only able to see the dubbed version. Watched Season 2 of Netflix's Ultraman anime. It's not that bad. Hoping to check out their adaption of Spriggan soon
 
Received my Blu Rays of Cyber City Oedo remastered and Violence Jack. Haven't actually rewatched either yet.

Super excited at the recent announcements of legitimate western releases of various Macross. RightStuf is handling Frontier, Delta and 7. I'll rebuy Frontier again. Animeigo is handling Macross II, and I'll pick that one up again. Some other UK company is doing Macross Plus, and I'm in for that one too.

No word about Macross Zero, or anything specifically about the Frontier and Delta movies. Of course, still nothing but rumors about DYRL.

Oh... Got my Kickstarter edition of the MADOX 01 Blu Ray a while back. I'm wondering what Animeigo's next big project is. (It was made clear that Macross II was in addition to their big project, not the project itself.)
 
Gabriel said:
Received my Blu Rays of Cyber City Oedo remastered and Violence Jack. Haven't actually rewatched either yet.

Super excited at the recent announcements of legitimate western releases of various Macross. RightStuf is handling Frontier, Delta and 7. I'll rebuy Frontier again. Animeigo is handling Macross II, and I'll pick that one up again. Some other UK company is doing Macross Plus, and I'm in for that one too.

No word about Macross Zero, or anything specifically about the Frontier and Delta movies. Of course, still nothing but rumors about DYRL.

Oh... Got my Kickstarter edition of the MADOX 01 Blu Ray a while back. I'm wondering what Animeigo's next big project is. (It was made clear that Macross II was in addition to their big project, not the project itself.)
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Never watched any Macross. What's its claim to fame?
 
The first Robotech series was based on one of the Macross series, iirc
 
Nobby-W said:
Is it notably good, or just another mecha franchise?
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Macross is the first 'serious' mecha aimed at teens instead of kids, with a stronger emphasis on romance and sf elements.

Historically important and I would say a cut above the rest although there are so many sequels and spin-offs it definitely gets confusing and repetitive.
 
Macross Plus is a self-ontained miniseries of like 3 feature lngth episodes with absolutely beautiful animation and music, if anyone just wants a taste of Maross without commiting

This song in particular is like, one of the best in anime ever:

 
Quasar said:
I do think Macross Frontier is still my favourite Macross.
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Macross was my first mecha obsession, partly because it was the appearance of the models in the UK that first introduced the genre to me properly (the 70's giant robot toys with spring-powered rocket fists were always out of my league, and I was too young to know they came from Japan). The other part was because there was an actual in-universe reason for transforming mecha, unlike Gundam which just seemed to have less cool, non-transforming mecha for no particular reason. Stuff that like is important when you're young.

I find it hard to pick a favourite, though Frontier is definitely up there. I liked Zero and Macross Seven more than a lot of people at the time. I still haven't worked up the courage to watch Delta after all the bad press it got for the second half, but I'll probably get around to it.

I recently watched the Do You Remember Love movie again and was struck by how good the mecha animation was. Hugely complicated space battles, all those attitude rockets firing, and very little anime magic in the Valkyrie transformations. And the music was better than I remembered, though that's probably just in comparison with modern pop. Will probably watch the TV series again soon, after my Armoured Trooper VOTOMS marathon.



I have never seen Rowboat-Heck Robotech, though I read the novel series after I found out which anime they had cobbled together to make the show. The books were actually not bad in terms of creating a bigger story. The only Americanised anime I ever liked was Starblazers (Space Battleship Yamato in Japan), for the title song and the so-ridiculous-they-were-funny changes such as having what was clearly corpses moaning, "Oh, my head..." and the doctor getting drunk on "spring water".
 
Just finished Monster, a series that's been on my "to watch" list for years, and....damn.

If you've been putting this of like I have, then don't, really, watch it as soon as you can, and if you've never heard of it...well, the less you know going in the better, I think, but let's just say that it is unlike any other anime ever made, it is on a completely different level - up there with The Prisoner and Twin Peaks.
 
TristramEvans said:
Macross Plus is a self-ontained miniseries of like 3 feature lngth episodes with absolutely beautiful animation and music, if anyone just wants a taste of Maross without commiting

This song in particular is like, one of the best in anime ever:

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I think about this song at least once a week. The whole soundtrack is an absolute triumph.
 
TristramEvans said:
Just finished Monster, a series that's been on my "to watch" list for years, and....damn.

If you've been putting this of like I have, then don't, really, watch it as soon as you can, and if you've never heard of it...well, the less you know going in the better, I think, but let's just say that it is unlike any other anime ever made, it is on a completely different level - up there with The Prisoner and Twin Peaks.
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I couldn't get through the anime because it is a very faithful adaptation of the manga... and unfortunately that makes the pacing WAY slower than the manga. I can read it very fast, but the exact same scenes in anime form feels very slow. That said, it is one of my favorite manga.

Naoki Urasawa is one of my favorite manga artists. If you haven't yet, try to hunt down 20th Century Boys and Billy Bat by him. They are both also fantastic.
 
Vile said:
Macross was my first mecha obsession, partly because it was the appearance of the models in the UK that first introduced the genre to me properly (the 70's giant robot toys with spring-powered rocket fists were always out of my league, and I was too young to know they came from Japan). The other part was because there was an actual in-universe reason for transforming mecha, unlike Gundam which just seemed to have less cool, non-transforming mecha for no particular reason. Stuff that like is important when you're young.

I find it hard to pick a favourite, though Frontier is definitely up there. I liked Zero and Macross Seven more than a lot of people at the time. I still haven't worked up the courage to watch Delta after all the bad press it got for the second half, but I'll probably get around to it.

I recently watched the Do You Remember Love movie again and was struck by how good the mecha animation was. Hugely complicated space battles, all those attitude rockets firing, and very little anime magic in the Valkyrie transformations. And the music was better than I remembered, though that's probably just in comparison with modern pop. Will probably watch the TV series again soon, after my Armoured Trooper VOTOMS marathon.



I have never seen Rowboat-Heck Robotech, though I read the novel series after I found out which anime they had cobbled together to make the show. The books were actually not bad in terms of creating a bigger story. The only Americanised anime I ever liked was Starblazers (Space Battleship Yamato in Japan), for the title song and the so-ridiculous-they-were-funny changes such as having what was clearly corpses moaning, "Oh, my head..." and the doctor getting drunk on "spring water".
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I think in part my love of Frontier comes from its strength musically and certain characters like Sheryl.

Seven I never could get into, and DYRL. In part it’s age I think. Haven’t seen Macros II either. I didn’t mind Delta, been meaning to try out the films.

Thats another thing I liked about Frontier, the films. They were really great. You might expect just the show edited down to two films but that’s not what it was at all. I was really impressed.

Macross was and is still really my one mecha thing. Never really got into much else, not even Gundam. Aside from the Mari Okada one, but I’m a Okada fan.
 
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EmperorNorton said:
I couldn't get through the anime because it is a very faithful adaptation of the manga... and unfortunately that makes the pacing WAY slower than the manga. I can read it very fast, but the exact same scenes in anime form feels very slow. That said, it is one of my favorite manga.

Naoki Urasawa is one of my favorite manga artists. If you haven't yet, try to hunt down 20th Century Boys and Billy Bat by him. They are both also fantastic.
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20th Century Boys is great, I haven't been able to find Monster or Billy Bat in manga yet (I can't read longform comics online).
 
Voros said:
20th Century Boys is great, I haven't been able to find Monster or Billy Bat in manga yet (I can't read longform comics online).
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I will admit that I might have read in some slightly nefarious ways because he is against digital publishing of his manga and the actual physical copies are out of print in English.

It is actually one of those things I find annoying. This whole "no it has to be paper" and making it so hard to actually enjoy it because it is unfindable is just eccentric artist mindset.
 
EmperorNorton said:
I will admit that I might have read in some slightly nefarious ways because he is against digital publishing of his manga and the actual physical copies are out of print in English.

It is actually one of those things I find annoying. This whole "no it has to be paper" and making it so hard to actually enjoy it because it is unfindable is just eccentric artist mindset.
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Ah I was wondering why I was having trouble tracking down hardcopies. Pirating is hardly worth it for me personally.
 
Just reread all of Children of the Whales to catch up on the last 4 volumes I hadn't read.

Isn't it great though when the last part you get to is clearly in the middle of the final story arc and the next volume doesn't come out in English until March :grin: :grin: :grin:

(Apparently the ending in JP is going to be in January in the magazine publication of it, and looks like it is going to be 3-4 more volumes from where I am (JP is 2 volumes ahead of EN release right now)...

It really is good though. Great worldbuilding.
 
Big News nerds.




No joke, I'm stoked for this and like it more than EVA. Only available in the US right now from what I can see, hopefully I can get it to Canada at a reasonable price.
 
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I watched the first episode of Hell's Paradise that just dropped. I really liked the Manga, and with Mappa doing the animation it is in fact, super well animated. Also it is a good adaptation of the first chapter, so hopefully the whole series gets done (the manga is finished and only 13 volumes long).

So I'll continue watching it.
 
Sasuke Uchiha may be a dang dirty emo goth punk, but there's just something about him that I like and that I personally find inspirational on a creative, artistic, aesthetic, and emotional level all at once....

d6t4xr2-274a4de8-ad80-4311-abfc-82326e85f981.gif
Oh, you got an ass on you alright. See that's what I'm talking about! Spread your ass open, Sasuke!

You can do the rump shaker, huh, Sasuke? The Goth Shaker; gimme the Goth Shaker, dude, shake your ass! Take your hands off it and shake that shit. Pull your shirt up, I know you can shake it, shake it! Yeah that's some fine emo ass right there. Oh yeah, that'll work. You got the booty, dude! God damn. Look good, bro? Yes. Yeah nice, huh? Alright that'll work for me. I'ma put that condom on....wait...nah, fuck that shit. I'm gonna bareback this emo goth like a French whore! '

Cause I'm a real man! I don't use no condoms and I don't take no anesthetics! Did Lincoln ask for girly gas when they blew his head off?

I'm sorry, I could not stop myself. :clown: :grin: :clown:
 
These days I am really picky about what Anime I watch. So far this year the only show that caught my eye was Chainsaw Man... good stuff, check it out.

Trailer


Opening Credits


Kon - The Fox Devil
 
I just read everything that is out of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End last night and today.

It is one of the most fantastic fantasy manga I have read in a long time. It is about Frieren, the elven mage that fought with the party of heroes that killed the Demon King. But it isn't about the journey to kill the Demon King which took 10 years. It is about her life afterwards, and years later, as all the other members of the party (except the dwarf who is still very advanced in age, while she still looks the same age she ever has) have died of old age, and the impact that the journey had on her, despite it being such a short portion of her life, and how she didn't realize how much it meant to her until after they were gone.
 
Voros said:
This parody of bad anime dubs made me bust a gut.

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...The post is pointing out how foolish the statement of 'You need to be Japanese to understand how bad Subs can be.' It's less WHAT is being said (As Japanese is closer to how Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back speaks so 1-1 translation is impossible) and more of HOW it's delivered.
 
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