Topic: Manga and Anime discussion

Well, after over a year of reading, I've finally finished up all 500+ chapters of InuYasha. It was my first time reading it in an official capacity, and as the anime was my life in middle/high school I'm glad I did.

I think it does loose a little something in terms of charm after awhile, and for awhile it's clearly stalling for time, but I think it comes together well enough by the end with a pretty satisfying ending. Been at it since 2020, so I'm gonna be at a bit of a loss now that I'm done.

I also followed up by reading the first volume of YashaHime (which is the only one currently available). I wasn't a fan of it's anime counterpart, but the manga is off to a MUCH better start (I don't want to get into the myriad of reasons why the anime sucked, but the mangaka seems to be deliberately acknowledging most of it's issues), which is making me excited for this followup all over again. Too bad the next volume doesn't drop until December.

@RR529 Most of Takahashi's series go on way too long. Of her major works, Maison Ikkoku was probably the big exception: it's a perfect length, and has a defined beginning, middle, and end. And also the most satisfying conclusion of any of her works.

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who first experinced EoE via sketchy methods. It took so long to come overseas that I pirated an untranslated screener of the film back in the late 90s. It did eventually come over in an official capacity, thankfully. Glad the movie is available on Netflix and whatnot now, because the original EoE DVD is insanely expensive at this point.

Death isn't really necessary viewing. People mostly bought the original Death and Rebirth movie for the Rebirth section, which was the first third or so of EoE. The Death portion is a truncated synopsis of what happened in the series, although they did re-animate certain key sequences from the TV show for it, which look extremely nice.

@Ralizah, yeah, I looked it up since I posted so know that Death (Truth) is largely redundant. Looking forward to getting to EoE as I'm almost certain it wasn't in HD back when I watched the sketchy version, so it's probably going to be a real mind bender. Only 5 episodes of the TV series left.

New arrivals.

Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo - The very first Lupin film. I've heard it's a mixture of the more slapstick nature of Part 2 (which it was produced alongside) & the more graphic nature of the original manga, so I'm interested in seeing how it turns out.

City Hunter 2 set 2 - The second set of episodes in the series. This has become a bit of a comfort food series for me.

Bonus: Alternate art for City Hunter 2 set 2 under the slip case (Lupin's art is the same under the case).

A recent batch of new anime orders came in finally! Looking forward to watching them all eventually

Most of them are blind buys, I've only seen Claymore and Trinity Blood.

@Kairu I'm waiting for Season 1 to finish, then I'll start binging it.

I don't have the patience to wait for weekly releases.

@Kairu I don't have the time to re-watch anything, too much anime in my backlog heh.

Glad you're enjoying the series though!

Arrivals I got in last weekend (a bit of a 90's fest).

Fatal Fury: the OVA Collection - the two 90's era Fatal Fury OVAs, obviously enough. Watched them back to back like a movie (about 2 hours long total). Every bit the cheesy martial arts flicks of the time, they're not particularly deep, but they are a fun time (only minor issue is that they changed a prominent character's hair color between the two). I enjoyed the corny faux "Arnie" German accents the big bads had, lol.

Outlaw Star - Still not even quite 10 episodes into it, but I'm already having an immensely fun time with it. It doesn't seem to have had the cultural staying power of an Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop, but it was just as much part of my childhood.

Bonus: Alternate box art under the slip cover for Fatal Fury: the OVA Collection

@KidBoruto, congrats on the haul! Definitely interested in nabbing the Fatal Fury & Street Fighter II movies myself.

Pretty cool looking 2D/3D mashup animation.

Says "Video unavailable" for some reason. Click on the "Watch on YouTube" to watch it instead.

I've been feeling nostalgic as of late and so me and my daughter have been watching the Pokémon anime from the very beginning.

I was what... 17? 18? When it first came out with Kanto/Indigo league and I remember watching a couple of episodes but not a whole lot due to reasons so it's been fun to revisit it despite the very kiddy tone with the 4kids dub (Or the somewhat strange localisation choices at times. Jelly doughnuts anyone? 😂)

Team Rocket are so iconic though and clearly Rachael Lllis, Eric Stuart & Maddie Blaustein having a blast voicing them

I've heard some of the later seasons crank their appearances down or get rid of them entirely and I can't imagine that Team Rocket as they're also the best part of it @Kairu! 😂

That's Chainsaw man for your Avatar gif right? Haven't got round to watching it myself (or read the manga) but I'll be giving it a look... Eventually

Studio Ghibli x Lucas Film collaboration.

Need some recommendations on good, preferably not too old, rom-com animes.

I’ve been out of the loop for a good 15 years and just recently decided to watch a random rom-com anime again and now I’m hooked. All the stupid goofiness yet somewhat serious in this genre just clicks with me.

@Relygon Don't watch many rom-coms but this one's pretty good!

@WanderingBullet Thanks! Looks interesting, I’ll be sure to check it out. Good length too, 24 episodes.

@Relygon No problem. The anime's pretty old, though. Hopefully, you won't have any trouble finding it.

Forgot to post, but I got these in last weekend.

Lupin the 3rd: The First - As far as I'm aware this is the newest Lupin 3rd film, and the series' first attempt at a CG flick. It was actually really fun. You can definitely tell it's not as advanced as what Disney or the other big western animation studios produce (in terms of the tech), but it didn't feel particularly dated either. Good jumping on point too, as it's probably the cleanest Lupin film I've seen since Cagliostro (though not quite as tame as that one). Pretty much Lupin 3rd: Indiana Jones edition, and it was fun. BTW, I got the steel book edition since the cost was about the same as the standard release.

City Hunter 3 - Just finished this one up (at only 13 episodes long, it's much shorter than the first two series, which were over 50 & 60 episodes each respectively). It's pretty much more of the same, and although the animation quality may be a bit better than the earlier series' on average, I wasn't a huge fan of the aesthetic choices on offer. A minor issue, but it had a much more autumnal color palette I felt (a lot of oranges, creams, & browns) which I didn't care for after the very bright 80's neon pallettes of the earlier episodes. They even changed up a few characters' hair colors (Kaori went from reddish to brown & Saeko from bluish to black) which I never quite got used to.

City Hunter '91 - The last series in the franchise, so I'm almost done (like CH3, it only has 13 episodes). Only one episode in so far so not much to say yet (other than that it doesn't look to shake up the formula much, if at all), though at least they fixed Kaori's hair at least.

Bonus: Alternate City Hunter box art under the slip cases.

Probably going to move on from the Lupin stuff for a bit since I've gotten so much of it, and this appears to be the end of the line for City Hunter as well (already got the 2019 film as well).

Been watching through Fuuto PI. Haven't watched W in maybe a decade? But thankfully, I am not too lost. I generally watch Toku as I love the craftsmanship of the special effects, something that is obviously lost in translation to animation. But animation also frees them to do action kinda unlike what they could achieve in the show. Not that any action scene yet couldn't have been done in live action, it just would have probably required a lot of that ropey toku CG. The show is also generally a bit more violent and bloody than the live action counterpart.

I gotta be honest, I kinda forgot this came out, watched the first couple of episodes and then just got distracted by other shows, but since I am up to date with Witch from Mercury, MHA, Chainsaw Man and Bleach, I have a lot more time for other shows.

I bought some anime during Crunchyroll Store's recent sale, they're all blind buys except for Burst Angel and Lucky Star.

MHA continues to be my anime of the season. While it is mostly just a traditional shounen battle anime, the quality of the animation and general tone of the story really set it apart for me.

I know it sounds so edgy, but it isn't really intended, but it is just so nice to watch a shounen battle anime with consequence. Where heroes can lose, heroes can die, events have permanent repercussions that shape stories that come after it.

I think for both Japanese and American superhero stories, we have kinda become conditioned that nothing is permanent, that there is always a way out if the writer decides they need it. That no matter how much damage the hero takes, they will still win in the end and be fine ready for the next arc to come. So, for MHA to stick to their guns - or at least like they have so far - I am just always left in awe of its set pieces, its battles and the places the narrative goes.

On the flip, the other shows I am watching have all slowed down quite a bit, while that remains all gas. For Bleach, I dunno whether they have expanded the source, or it is just the merit of the way anime is paced versus you burning through chapters of manga at a time, but the story feels more fleshed out and coherent than I remember, so I am not really minding as it slows down.

Chainsaw Man though, I am having a harder time with. I have read the manga, so I know what is coming, so I just enjoy watching the anime to see moments brought to life in really high-quality production, but I got a lot of friends to watch the show based on my recommendation and because of me talking for years about how nuts the story was and the anime kind of isn't that. Like again, I dunno how much is deliberate change or just because of the change of medium, but the anime just feels like it is going at an absolute snail's pace and individual episodes sorta don't stand on their own at all, they just feel like one piece of something bigger. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that, but a lot of my friends who don't know what the bigger picture is watch these episodes and their main takeaway is general boredom.