The BIGLY Discussion of Anime/Manga Thread

[HarleyQuinn]

Others I finished over the last several months...

Bakemonogatari: Good series with Koyomi Araragi surviving a vampire attack to return to human form but finds himself involved with Hitagi Senjougahara after he saves her (and finds her eerily weightless). I liked it but I also felt like I was missing something at times beyond the great artwork and solid characterization considering its 8.33 MAL score. I didn't like it nearly that much but worth a watch. 7/10

The Executioner and Her Way of Life: Fun series is about Akari, a girl who finds herself being assisted by Menou, a girl who's supposed to kill people like Akari who have special concepts powers. Menou can't find herself willing to do so and thus they end up on a journey to figure out the underlying truth behind the group who rule over Menou and others like her. There's a lot of Yuri overtones (especially Momo towards Menou) but the artwork is great and the last several episodes are intense action and intriguing twists to what's happening. MAL is a bit mixed (6.79 score) but I liked it more than most seem to. 7/10

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady: Enjoyable series about Princess Anis Palletia who ends up taking on Euphyllia Magenta as her servant after Euphyllia gets rejected for marriage by Prince Algard. Anis' goal is to create and utilize "magicology" by mixing what she knew of Earth with her experiments despite being unable to do magic herself. There's a very sweet friendship/Yuri aspect to Anis and Euphyllia's relationship and Anis is a fun protagonist to root for in achieving her goal. 7/10

Wasteful Days of High School Girls: I'm an absolute sucker for slice-of-life, schoolgirl groups doing schoolgirl shit together whether it be clubs or otherwise. Fun, typical stuff with enjoyable characters. Nothing deep but is what it is. 7/10

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Suzume (2022) - IMDb

Suzume (2022) Reference View

www.imdb.com

Finally watched this. Really good but not quite on the level of some of his previous movies like of course "Your Name".

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Suzume (2022) - IMDb

Suzume (2022) Reference View

www.imdb.com

Finally watched this. Really good but not quite on the level of some of his previous movies like of course "Your Name".

Just watched this last night. Some fantastic visuals and great character design/arcs. I'd probably give it a 7.5 bordering closer to an 8/10.

I have Your Name as a 10/10 so topping that would be very impressive. I think I liked Weathering With You more than Suzume by a tiny bit but Suzume is still a great movie.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watched the movie Maboroshi aka Alice and Therese's Illusion Factory on Netflix. Solid story with some very good visual moments. The ending did feel pretty quick and the story was getting a little jump around/confusing at points but worth a watch. 7/10

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Couple eps into everything this season. Not a lot of standouts tbh,

What's Old is New Again (sequels!):

Mashle 2nd: He has no magic in a world where the magicless are hated. How can he survive? Sheer strength! This show is so goofy and so funny. @HarleyQuinn might like this.

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illumanti Saga: This is the 3rd season (plus a movie?) iirc. I really loved the first season but the second wasn't great. We'll see how this goes.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 2nd Stage: One of those shows were the nerd/dysfunctional types learns to be a better person while also improving the people around him. This is one of the better versions of these shows.

Classroom of the Elite III: Super smart slacker with a HIDDEN PAST manipulates everyone from behind the scenes while facing seemingly impossible tasks. Seeing how all the various plots come together and the character backstories are the fun.

Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside Season 2: This isn't that good.


The Isekai trend just never stops:
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic: Guy gets transported accidently along with his two classmates who are actually wanted but it turns out he has the rare healing magic. Comedy anime, might be a drop.

My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: This might be intended as a parody but the line has gotten so blurry it's hard to tell. The protagonist can literally kill anyone with a thought, no matter the distance etc. He's also the cliche vanilla dead emotion type. The reactions to his antics are somewhat amusing but there's not much here.

Solo Leveling: This is only semi-isekai as the characters travel to other worlds from ours to fight monsters. The Main character is the weakest level but gets trapped in a brutal dungeon and given a chance to level up. Lots of gore in the first episode. The world building seems interesting so this might have potential.

Ishura: This one seems like one of the most interesting of the season. @Brooklyn Zoo might like this. The Demon King is dead and no one knows who killed him. The world is full of overpowered heroes, many of them from our world. Each episode so far has been about one or more of those heroes while also building the world. Animation and world building is very intriguing.


Doesn't fit in the other 2 categories!:

Bucchigri?!: Normal (read cowardly/whiny) high schooler joins a school of delinquents who are constantly fighting and he ends up possessed by some kind of spirit that gives him fighting power? This is really weird and full of wacky characters and fighting. Might be ok.

The Witch and the Beast: This one seems like it has potential. There's a magic organization that goes around dealing with Witches who are the most powerful magical threat and there's 2 people it's focused on, one of whom was cursed by a witch.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Low level dude gets killed but comes back as a skeleton, he starts killing other things in the dungeon and levels up to a Ghoul, hides his identity and tries to start over. This seems decent so far.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Finished up Lycoris Recoil (released in 2022) - 9/10, really good show. Sounds like there may be more to the series, whether it's a movie or something else, that was announced in February of 2023.

Takina Inoue is a member of a government-sponsored all-female task force of assassins and spies made up of young orphaned girls known as "Lycoris", an undercover group who eliminate criminals and terrorists in Tokyo while disguised as high school students to maintain peace in Japan. However, during an operation to intercept a large exchange of firearms, she starts firing indiscriminately at the enemies to save a colleague who was taken hostage, jeopardizing the safety of other Lycoris in the process. As a result, the agency dismissed her for disobeying orders. She was then transferred to work with an elite Lycoris agent, Chisato Nishikigi, on a branch of the agency which operates undercover as a café called "LycoReco".

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

My nephew is super into "My Neighbor Totoro" now. Another kid hooked.

 

[tekcop]

My nephew is super into "My Neighbor Totoro" now. Another kid hooked.

You're going to regret that when in 8 years all he watches are some terrible descendants of harem isekai shows.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

McDonald’s announces anime dining experience in West Hollywood

The fast food giant is partnering with giants in the anime world on an ambitious promotion that includes manga and McNuggets.

www.dailynews.com

this is pretty fun. I didn't realize the WcDonald's thing dated back that far and across so many manga/anime.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Sand Land: The Series Is A Fitting Sendoff For The Legendary Akira Toriyama

This back-to-basics desert tale is a rollicking good time

kotaku.com

new series from akira toriyama. Very weird seeing this drop right after his death.

 

[tekcop]

No disrespect to the GOAT, but I'm not watching Gamecube-era cell shaded CG anime.

I read most (all?) of Sand Land in the American Shonen Jump like 20 years ago. It was one of their initial series. It's not very good, tbh.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I don't know if I'm getting pickier or there's just less stuff coming out that's interesting (or both) but my watchlist is the smallest its been for a spring season that I can remember. That said there's some really great stuff on it:

Returning Shows:

My Hero Academia Season 7: We're getting near the big blowoff here and I'm loving it.

Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc: Only 1 ep in but it was a great episode. The quality of animation on this show is just so good. I still hate the coward character and the comedy stuff for the most part (which is why I wasn't so big on season 1) but when this show is more serious it's fantastic).

Konosuba Gods Blessing...3: If I'm going to watch an Isekei this is the kind I want to watch because it basically doesn't matter. It's just a silly stupid show.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as A slime 3: This show is so slow paced and full of talking until the last few episodes of every season. I just kind of watch it out of habit.

The Misfit of Demon Academy II Part 2: The most perfect main character who can never be beaten except when he's pretending to be beaten as part of a master plan's continuing adventures. I don't know why people think this is a masterpiece but I watch it out of habit once again.

Actual New Shows:

Wind Breaker: @Brooklyn Zoo should like this one I think. This is just a straight up shonen show and it doesn't make any pretenses about it. It's about a high school where all the students are punk fighters except they're dedicated to protecting the city. A new kid shows up who of course wants to fight his way to the top. There's rival gangs and battles and crazy characters.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger!: Again I think BZ would like this one in particular. Several years ago some monsters from beneath the earth invade and are beaten by basically the power rangers. But the minions are kept around and forced to battle every week and lose to make the rangers look good. Now a minion is rebelling and trying to take them down. This is both funny and dark so far.

Kaijuu 8-gou: Only watched 2 eps so far but this seems good. Basically Kaiju monsters are always attacking Japan and this guy who wanted to fight them washed out and ended up on the cleanup crew instead. Of course he ends up getting involved.

The New Gate: This is a show that's been done a billion times and I'll probably drop. A top level gamer gets trapped in the game blah blah.

 

[Brooklyn Zoo]

I don't know if I'm getting pickier or there's just less stuff coming out that's interesting (or both) but my watchlist is the smallest its been for a spring season that I can remember. That said there's some really great stuff on it:

Returning Shows:

My Hero Academia Season 7: We're getting near the big blowoff here and I'm loving it.

Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc: Only 1 ep in but it was a great episode. The quality of animation on this show is just so good. I still hate the coward character and the comedy stuff for the most part (which is why I wasn't so big on season 1) but when this show is more serious it's fantastic).

Konosuba Gods Blessing...3: If I'm going to watch an Isekei this is the kind I want to watch because it basically doesn't matter. It's just a silly stupid show.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as A slime 3: This show is so slow paced and full of talking until the last few episodes of every season. I just kind of watch it out of habit.

The Misfit of Demon Academy II Part 2: The most perfect main character who can never be beaten except when he's pretending to be beaten as part of a master plan's continuing adventures. I don't know why people think this is a masterpiece but I watch it out of habit once again.

Actual New Shows:

Wind Breaker: @Brooklyn Zoo should like this one I think. This is just a straight up shonen show and it doesn't make any pretenses about it. It's about a high school where all the students are punk fighters except they're dedicated to protecting the city. A new kid shows up who of course wants to fight his way to the top. There's rival gangs and battles and crazy characters.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger!: Again I think BZ would like this one in particular. Several years ago some monsters from beneath the earth invade and are beaten by basically the power rangers. But the minions are kept around and forced to battle every week and lose to make the rangers look good. Now a minion is rebelling and trying to take them down. This is both funny and dark so far.

Kaijuu 8-gou: Only watched 2 eps so far but this seems good. Basically Kaiju monsters are always attacking Japan and this guy who wanted to fight them washed out and ended up on the cleanup crew instead. Of course he ends up getting involved.

The New Gate: This is a show that's been done a billion times and I'll probably drop. A top level gamer gets trapped in the game blah blah.

Appreciate the recs. Right now watching Frieren, the new My Hero, and gonna get started on the new Demon Slayer.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I've found myself getting pickier (no surprise) but also opting to go back to past years and try stuff e.g. Lycoris Recoil that I just didn't get to that would be up my alley too so that doesn't help the newer seasons.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Kaiju No 8 ended up being a complete blast, really picks up and the soundtrack/animation is fantastic. Go Go Loser Ranger is also a standout. This season ended up having a lot of quality shows.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Finished up Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc (good but it felt somewhat like a short placeholder season. Mainly gets the 8/10 for that final episode) and Delicious in Dungeon which I found pretty entertaining and liked the characters.

Started up Hinamatsuri from 2018, which I'm loving. It's like the father/daughter relationship of Spy x Family meets the character of Lala (and some of the other characterization) from To Love Ru in a way.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

yeah training arc wasn't as great as the last few seasons but i thought it did good at character development and the last episode was fantastic.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Ok we're a few episodes into the new season and I've started almost everything I think. I haven't started the second season of "Our Last Crusade" because I need to rewatch the first season.

New Seasons:
FAIRY TAIL 100 YEARS QUEST: yes it's back finally with all new adventures and even more ridiculous chest sizes. Natsu and the crew are out to hunt down a whole new slew of baddies.

Tower of God: I've been looking forward to this one. The animation is vastly improved this time out.

NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Part 2: This show makes me want to play the game but saves me the time and effort of something that is much too hard and time consuming for my skill level. Thanks!

What, they're still making Isekai!?
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells: One of those shows where the protagonist is thought to be a loser with no skills so he gets buttfucked by the summoner and his classmates but oh shit he's SUPER ELITE and sets out for revenge. This is actually not bad so far despite the by the numbers premise.

No Longer Allowed in Another World: A famous writer and his lover try to commit suicide but get hit by TRUCK-KUN and get sent to another world and are separated. He's determined to hunt her down and die properly. If you can't handle LOTS of suicide jokes this isn't for you. I find this pretty funny because I enjoy a good suicide joke.

The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army Was a Human: It's pretty much in the title. Human hides his identity while being a leader in the Demon Army and trying to teach them to be less Evil and shit. It's ok so far.

I Can't Believe it's not Isekai!
I Parry Everything: He thinks he has no skills but he's actually super strong and yes he parries everything! Everyone else is so clueless that they think he knows how strong he is so they don't tell him. The joke will wear thin fast but for now it's amusing.

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible: Somewhat similar to the above this guy also has very little magic but he is very good at one thing and trains to death at it. This show is much better though and doesn't COMPLETELY hang its hat on everyone being clueless (only somewhat).

Wistoria: Wand and Sword: probably dropping this one. Yet again the character is weak except at one thing! He's at a magic school and he wants to become the bestest so he can go see his BF.

Something @HarleyQuinn might like
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian: The cute girl is constantly talking to herself in Russian about the boy she likes because she thinks he doesn't understand but uh-oh he does! lots of fun comedy and characters. Totally a show HQ would like.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1828962018163868116

Studio Trigger making an anime for Transformers 40th Anniversary!

I also finally got around to starting Slam Dunk, and I can really see just how huge an influence it had on every other sports anime.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Dragon Ball Daima is the fifth anime series in the Dragon Ball franchise, with the series being preceded by Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z (and its enhanced re-release, Dragon Ball Z Kai), Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super. However, the timeline can be a bit confusing, as the new anime is set shortly after the Majin Buu saga. The story of Dragon Ball Daima involves a supposed "conspiracy" that leaves the likes of Goku, Vegeta, Krillin, and others in a small, diminutive, and child-like form. In order to undo this dramatic change, the Z Fighters have to travel to another world and uncover the truth behind what happened.

Since Dragon Ball Daima begins after the Majin Buu saga, the anime is a sequel to Dragon Ball Z, meaning it does not take place after Dragon Ball Super. Instead, it's set before the ten-year time skip seen in that series finale. Thus, it's unlikely that any new forms for the characters will be introduced during Dragon Ball Daima, as these new transformations for Goku and his allies would be inconsistent with what's shown in Dragon Ball Super.

Now much smaller and seemingly weaker than before, Goku will go back down memory lane in order to contend with what happens to him. Using his iconic Power Pole, the Saiyan warrior will go on adventures somewhat closer to those seen in the original Dragon Ball.

This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. It debuts on October 11th on CRoll. It sort of sounds like an attempt to do GT right but without some of the dumber elements. The idea of Vegeta being reduced to a child-form sounds extremely funny to me.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Netflix Reveals One Piece Season 2 Casting for Nico Robin and Crocodile - IGN

Netflix has revealed the actress and actor behind One Piece Season 2 characters Nico Robin and Crocodile.

www.ign.com

I don't know anything about the woman playing Nico Robin but that seems like really good casting for Crocodile.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Got the finale left of MHA. Banged out Season 1 of The Familiar of Zero (6/10) but not gonna continue with it. Didn't like any of the characters, especially the treatment of the servant by the lead female witch, and I kept waiting for the plot to actually pick up.

Going through my mid 2000s options, I'm gonna try Ouran High School Host Club as I've heard a lot about it and it looks like it'd be fun.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Too early to do a proper list of recommendations but everyone should run not walk to watch "Dan da dan" which is on Netflix and Crunchyroll. I'm not even going to attempt to describe the plot but the animation and soundtrack is unreal. The studio doing the anime did Space Dandy and Star Wars Visions.

Also an early recommend to "Mecha-ude" which is giving "Kill la Kill" and "Undead Unluck" sort of vibes.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Too early to do a proper list of recommendations but everyone should run not walk to watch "Dan da dan" which is on Netflix and Crunchyroll. I'm not even going to attempt to describe the plot but the animation and soundtrack is unreal. The studio doing the anime did Space Dandy and Star Wars Visions.

Also an early recommend to "Mecha-ude" which is giving "Kill la Kill" and "Undead Unluck" sort of vibes.

Just started Dandadan up and it's fantastic. It having the occult/paranormal ties definitely made it more fun for me too.

 

[tekcop]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1843108810489221148

Welp.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

The 2nd to last ep of MHA, which I completely forgot about a particular character relationship plot, gutted me (having read the manga version months ago) and the season finale ep is gonna gut me even further. I'm pretending everything is okay/they're FINE between Toga and Ochako until the episode drops

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Seeing the new MHA movie tomorrow, fuck yeah.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

1. My Hero movie was fun but nothing groundbreaking. Great animation and music. 7/10 probably.

2. Dragon Ball Daimo debuted today. Not a lot in the first episode beyond setup but I think it's going to be a fun ride.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Caught the last ep of MHA and surprised but kinda glad next season is the final season. Dandadan had a great 2nd episode and glad to see its getting popular on Netflix.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Ok finally a couple episodes in on most stuff so here is what I'm watching this season:

Continuing series:
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Conflict: This continues to be so fucking good. I enjoyed the original series but this is so much better. No filler. Minimal comedy. Amazing animation.

Blue Lock vs. U-20 Japan: Still very early in the season but this show is hilarious because it takes itself so seriously. A lot of fun.

It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: I believe this is season V? It's settled into a nice groove at this point. It's not doing anything fantastic but it does what it does well.

Tower of God Season 2: Workshop Battle: The animation quality in season 2 is a lot better than S1. I really like the lore and characters on this show.

Shangri-La Frontier: I usually find "its all in a video game" shows to be mid at best but this one actually puts an effort in to make the fights and lore somewhat interesting so it works a lot better.

The best of the new stuff:
Dandadan: already talked about this in a previous post. Loving it.

Dragon Ball Daima: This could be terrible and I'd still love it. That said it's good so far!

Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms: previously talked about. very good so far.

The Most Notorious "Talker" Runs the World's Greatest Clan: Grandson of the greatest adventurer ever but oh he has the weakest "class"! Thankfully this isn't a comedy like most of these shows are now. Fairly dark so far which is nice.

Yakuza Fiancé: The daughter of one yakuza family is betrothed to the son of another and it turns out he's a fucking psycho. This is a comedy! It kind of works as long as you don't think about how fucked it is.

Just kind of there:
Loner Life in Another World: this is really close to a drop. Another Isekei where a whole close is sent to another world. The loner falls asleep as powers are assigned or whatever so he gets a grab bag of all the "worst" shit. blah blah.

DEMON LORD 2099: The demon lord returns after 500 years but now it's an advanced tech society and he doesn't really fit in. pure comedy stuff.

Let This Grieving Soul Retire: The strongest team is led by a guy who is super weak but everyone thinks is OP. He just wants to quit but no one will let him. typical comedy shit.

The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest: Everyone thinks dude is a super weak healer but he's actually a really strong guy. why he insists on being a healer they haven't explained yet. Another one that might be a drop.