Berserk - the '97 series. As famous as the franchise is I'm completely uninitiated. I think I'm about 9 episodes in now & am enjoying it quite a bit.
From Up on Poppy Hill - Haven't seen before, but Ghibli is always a safe bet.
Metal Skin Panic: Madox-01 - Saw this years ago on an old YouTube channel that was dumping a bunch of old 80's & 90's OVA's/Movies, but haven't seen it since. Generally like Mecha/sci-fi stuff of the era though, so It'll be nice to give it a watch.
Ranma 1/2 Set 2 - Finished this up recently. It's still as hilarious as it ever was & I can't wait to buy the next set once I'm done with Berserk.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
A bit late to the party, but I just finished Metallic Rogue. At first I really appreciated its unconventional approach to storytelling, its focus more on mood, vibes and atmosphere over anything else. This is all fine in the early episodes of a series, because in our minds the pay off for all of this is still coming. But the pay off here... never really comes. As the final credits rolled I couldn’t really tell you what the show was about or what even really happened. There also weren’t even really any memorable climactic battles, in fact it felt like we got less and less action with each passing episode, even as the show narratively was ramping up to these apparently climatic, world altering, showdowns. It was also just a lot of mediocre, to downright not great animation too. Just yeah, not a horrible show or whatever, but just such a nothing show I'm sure I'll forget I ever watched within a matter of months, probably less.
Another late one, but I just finished the second season of Mashle. It is funny, because I don't usually care much for comedy or parody / spoof anime, but I thought the early episodes of Mashle were for the lack of a better term and not intended pun - magic.
They were absolutely hilarious and kinda weird, with this strange Harry Potter meets One Punch Man premise. I really liked it. As the season went along though, it became more and more like a traditional shounen battle anime and I found it significantly less interesting in its back half due to this shift in direction than I did in the first half.
Which is weird, because this is somewhat of a shounen trope in itself, a more light hearted comedy beginning that develops into a more serious action series as it goes along and usually I like them better when they do become more serious and action focused, but this one, I dunno, it felt like the wrong direction.
Season two comes along, and in a lot of ways it feels like its carried that forwards. Season 2 has a lot more world building, a lot more focus on its themes and continues to be more of a traditional shounen battler than the comedy / parody / spoof anime we began with. I think this is a shame personally, but I do also think season 2 of Mashle is a much better shounen battler than the back half of Season 1 was. So overall I thought this season was fine.
Freedom - Absolutely fantastic stuff. The wonky mid 00's CGI character models don't really do this any favors (& may be why I'd never heard of it until now), but otherwise from the theming & other aesthetic qualities it feels like a modern take on an 80's sci-fi OVA.
Grave of the Fireflies - Absolutely gut wrenching stuff. Great watch though.
Lupin Zero - I wasn't sold on "Lupin in highschool" at first, but it was actually a pretty fun series & a worthy origin.
Paprika - Haven't watched it yet, but am looking forward to it.
Ranma 1/2 Sets 3 & 4 - Been really fun going through these, it's a great comfort watch.
Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar - This one was actually pretty disappointing. It's not terrible, but it's probably my least favorite of the Tenchi stuff I've seen (even the Tenchi stuff that's pretty far removed & tenuously connected at best, like Dual!).
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Ishura has this sprawling cast of characters, and is the rare example of a show that could have done with a little more exposition, to be honest. Despite dedicating a good half of the series just on establishing our characters, by the time the show was actually starting to move forwards in the back half of the season, I have to be honest I was pretty lost. They kept talking about some tournament or something, but in the end it ends up being more a political anime... I think? Just, keeping track of who was who, who was on whose side, what the motivations of each side were - let alone the basic rules of how this world even worked. Yeah I was barely clinging on, to be honest.
However, while that probably makes the show sound terrible, I want to make it clear, this complaint comes from a positive place, rather than a negative. It wasn’t like this world is alienating so I’m just gonna switch off and zone out. This is a world full of intrigue and the complaint comes from the fact that I wanted to learn more and understand better.
Even if you don’t end up at that point, every episode would deliver at least one well animated, well produced and directed - and just straight up kick ass - action scene. Almost every character here is imaginative in concept either/and/or has some kind of imaginative ability set, so whenever characters clashed it always felt like a treat. I also appreciated that generally whenever characters seriously clashed, there was a definitive outcome. Like I’m genuinely surprised by how few characters ultimately made it out of this first season and it makes me wonder what they’ll do if they make more of this.
So yeah, overall, kind of mixed on this. It is a very bingeable series because of its action, but with so much anime fighting your time always, it is kinda hard to give this a true recommendation.
I've been watching Bleach the past couple of days. Nearly finished the Soul Society arc.
Always enjoyed this so much out of three shonen franchises that were big at the time (Bleach, Naruto & One Piece) when I started to read manga (shortly after finishing Persona 3 for the first time)
The characters (Though there's so much wasted potential), the artstyle, the storyline (I never quite liked the Fullbring/Lost Agent storyline and it's a shame how quickly it had to end due to Tite Kubo's health).
Looking forward to (Eventually) getting to Thousand Year Blood War and maybe it getting a bit of a better send off then it could as a manga.
Belladonna of Sadness 4K - By far the oldest anime I've bought (an early 70's film), but also one of the more unique (stylistically it doesn't even really resemble what you'd call "anime" by today's standards). Definitely a bit of an acquired taste, but worth a look if you like horror, and something that may be worth rewatching around Halloween.
Heaven's Lost Property - Raunchy harem show centered around robot space angels. It's nothing special, but a fun time if you like the genre.
Heaven's Lost Property Forte - Sequel to the above. Pretty much the same assessment too, though it does get narratively a bit more interesting in the back half.
Heaven's Lost Property the Movie: Angeloid of Clockwork - Film that follows the events of Forte. Still a few fun moments to be had, but dampened a bit by the fact that the first half is an abridged recap of the TV series', and it feels more like a sidestep rather than an advancement narratively.
Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple: the Attack of Darkness - I remember reading through the manga on a scanlation site a number of years ago (if you go far enough back in here I probably posted about it), but I didn't know it had an anime adaptation! This little OVA series starts a few arcs in (apparently there was a preceding TV anime that started at the beginning), and it was nice to be reintroduced to this world in a new way. Can't say I'm super eager to get to the earlier seasons (partially because the anime never got a proper ending), but this was a nice watch in an of itself.
Kiss X Sis - Just no. I mean, I do enjoy raunchy comedies, but this just wasn't it man. A blind buy & not a very wise one (will definitely be tucked away in a little corner of shame, lol).
Mobile Suit Gundam: the 08th MS Team - This on the other hand was pretty fantastic. The Gundam franchise is one that was always a bit hit & miss with me growing up, but since this one was only 12 episodes long I decided to give it a shot and am glad I did. Easily up there with the best 90's anime like Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, & Outlaw Star, IMO.
Ocean Waves - Fantastic little coming of age/romance drama from Ghibli. I've really been digging their more grounded movies more than their fantastical stuff, and this was another hit with me.
Ranma 1/2 Sets 5 & 6 - Still working my way through this and wow does it have a lot more episodes than I remember (I'm starting to think I've never been through the whole thing before). At this point all the main players have been established so it's kinda getting pretty long in the tooth at points, but there's definitely still gold to be found as well. Nice comfort food anime, and I can never get enough Nabiki.
The Wind Rises - Another fantastic more grounded Ghibli film, that presents a (fictionalized) biography of the man who designed the "Zero" fighter plane. I can definitely understand feeling a bit iffy on this one since it kinda only gives lip service to Japan's role in WWII, but that out of the way it was a really engrossing drama.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
I purchsed a box set for the first 21 volumes of Bleach for just over £80. Considering the standard retail price of the volumes for £9 a pop or the box set for £165... Getting it for over half the price is quite a steal I'd say.
Especially when it seems like buying the anime will be... An extremely costly endeavour...
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
Mostly summer of sequels for me right now. The one new series I am watching is Wistoria which I sorta don't recommend, but it has really nice production values, so I am watching it mostly for that purpose.
Otherwise, for me its the new season of MHA - which is... fine? I guess. I feel like watching this in a binge style fashion when the season is over (assuming you can avoid spoilers) would be more satisfying than watching it weekly. I'm also just a bit disconnected from MHA in general to be honest? It kinda reminds me of late stage Bleach, where the core cast are now so impossibly powerful the writing just has nowhere left to go. When everyone is immortal and can defy the rules of reality then its just completely dull, cause there is no tension, danger, or stakes or anything.
I hadn't realised the second part to Sengoku Youko had even started to be honest, I don't see anyone talking about this. However, Satoshi Mizukami is one of my favourite mangaka, and after Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer was absolutely butchered in its adaptation, part 1 of Sengoku Youko was almost impossible to objectively process, as the bar had been set impossibly low. Every time I saw a character actually move in camera, like actual real frames of animation in SY, it was like I was a person born blind seeing colour for the first time. I wouldn't say avoid this one, but I'd probably suggest just reading the manga instead as this is definitely more about the characters, world, story etc than it is in having 50 episode long fight scenes, but so far the anime isn't a bad way to experience this, unlike Biscuit Hammer, which is absolutely the worst way to experience that story.
Finally for me is season 2 of Shy. Season one is like the most six out of ten anime I've ever seen and Season 2 is more of the same. Why am I watching it then? Honestly, I sorta don't know? It sometimes has some nice art direction, some of the characters are okay and it sorta feels like early arc MHA only with the action significantly trimmed back. It is just something to put on really when I'm eating my tea.
I am also trying to watch stuff outside of Crunchyroll - Loser Ranger, Undead Unluck and Bleach Blood War are all on Disney+. I could not recommend Undead Unluck enough, the perfect antidote to shounen fatigue (not by being innovative or original necessarily, but just being reminded that a shounen can hit all the conventions and still be well written and paced).
Loser Ranger is very very slow but is constantly planting interesting seeds so I keep watching. Sorta like The Boys meets Power Rangers, but with a softer edge and much less satire.
And I remember reading Bleach's Blood War arc and thinking it was one of the worst things I have ever read, but I wonder if in animation it holds up better, as the arc was mostly a blur of endless battles, endless power ups, endless ridiculous abilities and counters to those abilities being pulled out of people's asses every two seconds. Just felt like it didn't really work on a page. Watched a couple of episodes and I'm still not convinced its any better by being animated, but the really stupid stuff hasn't started yet.
There is also the Scott Pilgrim, Hajime No Ippo and Eden's Zero I am slowly chipping away at on Netflix. Not loving Scott Pilgrim, but Eden's Zero is actually excellent so far if a little budget constrained at times and Hajime no Ippo was a favourite of mine growing up, and it still holds up all the years later. A must watch from me.
Most of these are rewatches. Took me half a decade but it seems I’ve completely existed my Slice of Life and RomCom hyper-obsession. I’m just getting my feet back to where I used to. I’m also reading Invincible.
Heaven's Lost Property Final - What a load of crock. Even by anime standards of ending before being caught up with the source manga, this was terribly mismanaged and nigh incomprehensible. Starts out in the middle of the final climax with little to no context as to what is going on, goes on to have a flashback that doesn't even try to bridge the narrative gaps (said flashback is like 90% of the film, BTW), when it finally decides to return to "present events" it just abruptly ends as our protag arrives at the big bad's stronghold, nothing explained or resolved.
Ranma 1/2 Set 7 - It was a delight revisiting this series. It started to retread ground many sets ago (I think the Principal was the last recurring character introduced, and that was in like set 3 or 4), but the cast is so likeable that it never really got boring. Also, many of these episodes I'm positive I've never seen before (I must have dropped it at some point back when I was watching it ages ago), which was a nice surprise.
Ranma 1/2 OVA & Movie Set - Really looking forward to watching these, as I know I've never seen any of them before (except maybe a Christmas one). I didn't even know the series had any movies.
Urusei Yatsura OVA Collection - Currently watching through this. It's really nice watching some UY content with pretty high grade animation (some of the TV episodes could look nice, but others not so much. Definitely a product of it's time), and it's nice revisiting this world. I do like how surreal the series can be, but overall I do think I prefer Ranma as I think it definitely refined the formula a bit.
I think Ranma & Urusei Yatsura will be the last long running series I collect though (like stuff over 100 episodes) until I one day decide to invest in DBZ. I don't have unlimited space, and these long running shows just have too many sets (especially once you start figuring in movies & the like, which are sometimes sold individually).
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Full Metal Panic! - This has been pretty good so far. Set in a pretty contemporary Japan (for the 2000's) except that militaries have mechs. Pretty much an independent military group sends our protagonists undercover in a Japanese high school to protect a girl who is being targeted by terrorists & foreign government agencies (as she has some sort of secret ability/knowledge that hasn't been fully explained yet), and she sort of gets caught up in their world/battles.
Patlabor: the Mobile Police - 7 episode OVA series from the 80's. Wasn't really long enough for any deep narratives, but the cast grew on me, and it was cool getting a police procedural in anime form (we need more police anime!). I'll be looking up the other entries in the franchise eventually.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Just been watching the first season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I already finished about 20 of 26 episodes so I’m already nearing the end. I’m pretty new to watching JoJo, I had a bit of a small obsession with it a few years ago and watched clips of it on YouTube but never saw it or read the manga the anime is based on.
The show is so fantastic and so crazy. The concept of Ripple/Hamon is so cool and the battles are so unique, not to mention the way that some of the characters win the battles with the techniques they use are so unique. I should also say the presentation, art direction and art style is amazing, plus the color palettes that are used in the fight scenes are so appealing to the eye and funky, plus the opening intro for the episodes are so well-animated and have nice stylization. Although I don’t read the manga, I have seen some panels from it and the stunning artwork Hirohiko Araki (the creator of JoJo) has drawn and I can tell the anime replicated and honored his art style and manga very well. Araki seems very creative with the fight scenes he writes and makes for JoJo. I absolutely love his writing and the way he draws and colors his art. He also has some of the best and most unique manga character designs I have ever seen!
I did start watching this maybe a week or two ago and finished binge watching the episodes adapting Phantom Blood the same day I started it, but it’s been taking me forever to finish the episodes adapting Battle Tendency. Every night I choose to binge watch the episodes but I only get about one or two episodes in and then I accidentally get cozy in bed and fall asleep from how sleepy I am and then comes the next day and I have to get through work and patiently wait for the nighttime to watch it. I’m gonna see if I can binge watch the remaining episodes tonight, but I gotta make sure I don’t accidentally fall asleep with my phone in hand. I really can’t wait to get onto the next seasons, but the fifth season isn’t available on the service I’m watching JoJo on (curse you Netflix for getting streaming rights to Stone Ocean!)
Finally started reading Kagurabachi, dunno if its good bland or bad bland, to be honest. I get that all shounen borrow from each other, but at least so far around ten chapters in this has basically zero personality of its own. A little Jujutsu Kaisen here, a little Bleach there and maybe some sprinkling of Chainsaw Man in for good measure.
These are all ingredients I really enjoy, and I think they could make for a solid anime if the adaptation is good cause a lot of the powers and battles seem made for motion, effects, colour etc.
But as a manga I just feel kinda whatever about it so far. No real standout characters. World is interesting but it doesn't have me desperate to learn more. Some interesting powers / abilities, but it doesn't have the nicest art or the clearest panelling. I will say it has some great character designs and has moved at an excellent pace so far. I kinda worry the anime will slow this down a lot, but reading it its like wall to wall and I enjoy that.
Who knows maybe I'm like a chapter away from when all this changes and I look like an idiot but this is where I am.
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