Anime and Manga Discussion Thread

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
It really is one of the best things I've ever watched in my life, up there with The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, and Serial Experiments: Lain.
 
I often feel like I'm one of the only weebs who doesn't consider Evangelion a top tier anime. I like it more now than I did when I first watched it, but I still look at it and try to see what it is other people see in it and just... don't see it.

I think it is interesting, and I've watched it multiple times, which you know, clearly I don't think it is bad. But every time I come away with "Man what could have been if he hadn't ran out of budget/time", rather than coming away thinking it was amazing.
 
I found I did like the End of Evangelion film.

This has been getting good reviews by non-weeb press and apparently is breaking the box office in Japan.

 
Voros Voros I've been finding myself liking the Rebuild movies more. Partly because I know they will get finished the way he wants them to, and partially because I enjoy watching the people who wanted it to just be the same thing again mald.

Also, my son has told me that the train arc is where the manga actually starts getting really good in Demon Slayer. Looking forward to seeing the movie.
 
Voros Voros I've been finding myself liking the Rebuild movies more. Partly because I know they will get finished the way he wants them to, and partially because I enjoy watching the people who wanted it to just be the same thing again mald.

Also, my son has told me that the train arc is where the manga actually starts getting really good in Demon Slayer. Looking forward to seeing the movie.

I heard 4.0 is epic and:

Has a satisfactory happy ending.
 
I often feel like I'm one of the only weebs who doesn't consider Evangelion a top tier anime. I like it more now than I did when I first watched it, but I still look at it and try to see what it is other people see in it and just... don't see it.

I think it is interesting, and I've watched it multiple times, which you know, clearly I don't think it is bad. But every time I come away with "Man what could have been if he hadn't ran out of budget/time", rather than coming away thinking it was amazing.
I found it a bit meh as well, although I understand that the rips on mecha anime might have made a bit more sense if I'd seen more of that genre. In fact, Evangelion is the only mecha title I've ever watched, and it was meant to be a deconstruction of the genre.

I got into anime over the past few years as Mrs Nobby-W Nobby-W was a fan, but I'm not really a full-fat weeb. Having said that, I've watched enough Abroad In Japan and Trash Taste that some of the Japanese background of it is starting to make sense now in a way that wouldn't if I hadn't watched those.
 
I found it a bit meh as well, although I understand that the rips on mecha anime might have made a bit more sense if I'd seen more of that genre. In fact, Evangelion is the only mecha title I've ever watched, and it was meant to be a deconstruction of the genre.
The way it deconstructs the super robot genre is actually the parts about it that make me like it more than I did when I first watched it as a teen. It really does do a good setup of knocking down a lot of the tropes by playing them to their more realistic conclusion (what would a reclusive genius dad who ignored his family to make giant robots ACTUALLY be like), but the rest of it... yeah. I don't think it is really as deep as people think it is.
 
The thing is, we got to see how Hideaki Anno would end Evangelion with more time and a bigger budget - and he told the exact same story, from a different PoV. So I don't think the ending of the series was comprimised, as far as conveying exactly what the author intended.

As to what anyone gets out of it, well that's up to the individual viewer.
 
The thing is, we got to see how Hideaki Anno would end Evangelion with more time and a bigger budget - and he told the exact same story, from a different PoV. So I don't think the ending of the series was comprimised, as far as conveying exactly what the author intended.

As to what anyone gets out of it, well that's up to the individual viewer.

I read spoilers of 4.0, the latest Evangelion movie. I don't think the latter's ending is exactly like EoE, considering the fact that:

Shinji gets through to Gendo and the latter and Yui sacrifice themselves to let Shinji rewrite the Universe to be without Angels and Evas, although Kaworu survives and is turned to a normal human. Shinji gets together with Mari and they live happily ever after.
 
I read spoilers of 4.0, the latest Evangelion movie. I don't think the latter's ending is exactly like EoE, considering the fact that:

I'm not talking about the reboot, I'm talking about the original End of Evangelion film.
 
This looks so cool, hope we see a translation sometime.



A part of me wants this to just totally disconnect from the actual film, like the Wildstorm prequel comic for Super 8, where it turned out the alien had murdered every group that attempted peaceful contact with it before it was captured and imprisoned.
 
A few years ago I was introduced to Gleipnir by chance, and read through a vast quantity of the series in one sitting. Thanks to an associate’s generosity I had a chance to catch up on it today, but so much had been published since my previous binge I had no idea where I left off, and given the story was starting to lose me where I left off, I’m not sure if I’ll push on.

i tried the anime a few months ago, but the decreeping of the main character lost me, as part of him being off made the manga’s fladh forward near the beginning intriging.
 
Just got turned on to Ane-naru-mono, a new ongoing manga (4 volumes released so far, a fifth on in a few months) translated in the West as "The Elder Sister-Like One"

It's about a young boy, Yuu, orphaned when his parents are killed in an accident, and shuffled between extended family members suffering neglect and abuse and becoming more and more inverted, until he ends up with one uncle who basically lets him live in his house as long as he never enters his workshed, where the uncle spends all of his time. The two never see each other, and Yuu, now 13, basically takes care of himself and lives a life of quiet solitude, until his uncle ends up in the hospital.

Yuu finally enters the workshed, looking for some medical information the hospital requested, and finds that it's an occult laboratory, Lovecraftian in nature, and his uncle was secretly a cultist/magician of some sort. It's here that Yuu accidentally summons an avatar or Shub-Nigguruth, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young, and, amused by the perplexed child who obviously has no idea what she is or what he did, offers to grant him a wish in exchange for...something (it's deliberately ambiguous, maybe his soul, maybe something else, but there's a lot of foreshadowing of great tragedy in the future).

And Yuu makes a wish for basically the only thing he's ever wanted since losing his parents - for a family member that cares for him. Essentially asking Shub-Nigguruth to be his "oni-chan" ("Elder Sister").

Of course, this being manga, Shub Nigguruth takes on the form of an incredibly hot, busty anime babe. I mean, I'm not complaining.

It's uh...I mean, it's not Hentai, but it is kinda trashy, but it's the kinda trash that pushes some of my buttons in between "Manic Pixie Girl" tropes and "Lovecraftian horror playing at being human", and does manage to be beautiful, touching, and even tearjerking from time to time.
 
Just got turned on to Ane-naru-mono, a new ongoing manga (4 volumes released so far, a fifth on in a few months) translated in the West as "The Elder Sister-Like One"

It's about a young boy, Yuu, orphaned when his parents are killed in an accident, and shuffled between extended family members suffering neglect and abuse and becoming more and more inverted, until he ends up with one uncle who basically lets him live in his house as long as he never enters his workshed, where the uncle spends all of his time. The two never see each other, and Yuu, now 13, basically takes care of himself and lives a life of quiet solitude, until his uncle ends up in the hospital.

Yuu finally enters the workshed, looking for some medical information the hospital requested, and finds that it's an occult laboratory, Lovecraftian in nature, and his uncle was secretly a cultist/magician of some sort. It's here that Yuu accidentally summons an avatar or Shub-Nigguruth, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young, and, amused by the perplexed child who obviously has no idea what she is or what he did, offers to grant him a wish in exchange for...something (it's deliberately ambiguous, maybe his soul, maybe something else, but there's a lot of foreshadowing of great tragedy in the future).

And Yuu makes a wish for basically the only thing he's ever wanted since losing his parents - for a family member that cares for him. Essentially asking Shub-Nigguruth to be his "oni-chan" ("Elder Sister").

Of course, this being manga, Shub Nigguruth takes on the form of an incredibly hot, busty anime babe. I mean, I'm not complaining.

It's uh...I mean, it's not Hentai, but it is kinda trashy, but it's the kinda trash that pushes some of my buttons in between "Manic Pixie Girl" tropes and "Lovecraftian horror playing at being human", and does manage to be beautiful, touching, and even tearjerking from time to time.

The fact that a good Anime can manage to make the most absurd premises have actual emotional resonance is why I love that form of media in general.
 
So, I just binged season 1 of Inuyasha on Netflix and decided to look it up on the interwebs. And I discover that it's based on a manga written by Rumiko Takahashi, who also did Ranma-1/2, the first anime I ever watched - in a fan sub on VHS back in the middle of the 1990s. Netflix only has season 1, but Wikipedia indicates there are about 200 episodes. The character designs are all trad manga - big eyes and pointy chins.
 
Last edited:
You watched a fan dub of Ranma 1/2???

But the original dub is so awesome - it uses the voice actors from the Peanuts cartoon specials!
 
You watched a fan dub of Ranma 1/2???

But the original dub is so awesome - it uses the voice actors from the Peanuts cartoon specials!

Sorry, fat fingered that. It was a fan sub, and in 1990s New Zealand there were no official channels so this was someting a friend who worked at the local comic shop managed to get through his connections.
 
So, I just binged season 1 of Inuyasha on Netflix and decided to look it up on the interwebs. And I discover that it's based on a manga written by Rumiko Takahashi, who also did Ranma-1/2, the first anime I ever watched - in a fan sub on VHS back in the middle of the 1990s. Netflix only has season 1, but Wikipedia indicates there are about 200 episodes. The character designs are all trad manga - big eyes and pointy chins.
Inuyasha has this weird distinction in my social circles that people who otherwise hate anime love it.
 
Inuyasha has this weird distinction in my social circles that people who otherwise hate anime love it.

It's pretty accessible, I think, as was Ranma-1/2. I remember Ranma-1/2 being quite funny when I saw it (and Mrs Nobby-W liked it when I tracked down a DVD boxed set for her), although I've only seen as far through as the ski trip arc. Although it has a bit of a shonen vibe, Takahasi avoids the worst of the cliches in that space and the stories and characters have a bit of depth.
 
Netflix has released Takashi Shimizu's (The Grudge) live action adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto's (Ichi the Killer) manga Homunculus.

Fans of the manga are not happy with some of the changes in the second half but I think you have to consider a film as its own thing from the manga, as frustrating as that can be if the adaptation loses what one feels are important aspects of the original.




I'm about half way through and not surprisingly from the guy who wrote Ichi there are some troubling sexual politics (although nothing too extreme to those familiar with Japanese exploitation and yakuza films) but overall I'm reasonably impressed by its earnestness and strangeness. Good acting as well.
 
Netflix has released Takashi Shimizu's (The Grudge) live action adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto's (Ichi the Killer) manga Homunculus.
We have this in our to-watch list.
 
Having finished it I do understand the criticism of the ending, it ends much more happily and turns a sympathetic character in the book into a villain. Not even knowing that going in I found the ending okay but out of joint with what came before, I wonder if this was a studio enforced change.
 
Netflix has the original Gundam Mobile Suit 79' movie edits up in Canada. We debated the datedness of the original series earlier in this thread but I find the animation style and the 'kids cartoon meets war' tonal clashes part of the charm.




More early Tomino like the bizarre super robot kids show Zambot 3 and Daitarn 3 are up on YT for the curious.







I need to find his Space Runaway Ideon, it sounds insane.

 
Last edited:
New Junji Ito. Just finished the first part, it is surreal cosmic sf horror and this may be the most beautifully illustrated comic I've seen from him.

91wGVzFanpS.jpg
 
Put in my pre-order for the complete Evangelion on Blu-Ray by Shout Factory

They gave fair warning that it doesn't include "Fly My to the Moon", but as long as it has the original dub and not the godawful Netflix redub, I'm OK with that
 
Gunbuster, not otherwise available on DVD or blu in North America last I looked, is up on YT at the moment.

 
I really liked the rebuild movies. I haven't seen the last one yet though.
 
I would like to make an Original Character named:

Ken Illustrious Ikari

One day.

And yes, the name is a hint to who wins the decades-old shipping war in the Rebuilds...
 
Last edited:
Not sure if this should go here or in the Star Wars thread but one of the Star Wars Visions shorts T0-B1 is a delightful mix of Tezuka and Moebius and so I stumbled across this great photo of Tezuka and Moebius in Kyoto, 1982.

art of osamu tezuka - tezuka moebius.jpg
 
OOf! Just found out the original Evangelion dub is only included in the Ltd edition collector's set, the regular release just has the Netflix dub. So, just cancelled my original preorder and seriously debating if it's worth an extra $130 usd just to get the real dub. I could just hang on to my DVDs, or sell them to pay for the blu rays since they are now ridiculously valuable
 
I mean, I've never liked the original dub and always watched it subbed anyway.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top