Let's talk anime.

For some non-sequel anime to look forward to:

Here's the list stolen from the YouTube comments.

10. Back Arrow
9. 2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley -bu
8. The Low Tier Character " Tomazaki-kun"
7. Redo of Healer
6. SK∞
5. High - Rise Invasion
4. Kemeno Jihen
3. So I'm a Spider , So What?
2. Mushoku Tensei
1. Horimiya

My thoughts on a few of those that I read:

I hope So I'm a Spider, So What? is good but the trailer didn't really pull me. Still the light novel was pretty solid. So I'm hopeful. Mushoku Tensei was not to my taste manga wise and was generic. Had some okay parts but was also fanservicey. Redo of Healer is freaking revenge porn. Totally not my thing. High - Rise Invasion I've read this a bit but not too much. What I did read was pretty solid though.

Edit on titles - Was a copy paste error

Yeah, I absolutely love the Spider books, so I hope they do well with the anime. At least I'm happy with the casting of the Spider.

I've heard Redo of Healer is rape revenge porn, which will completely keep me away from it.

I'm lost with Attack on Titans... Was there a Time-Skip... Was kinda confuse with the jump in time, or is it a flash back ? I'm lost.

I haven't had time to watch anything yet this season (post-new-years work!).

I've been looking forward to Ura Sekai Picnic / Otherside Picnic, since the light novels are some of the best I've ever read.

There's a lot of followups to stuff that started off solid, since it seems like everything got shoved back to 2021: Promised Neverland 2, Dr. Stone, World Trigger Season 2, Non Non Biyori Nonstop. Previous WIXOSS series have been weirdly better than they deserve to be do I'll probably also check out WIXOSS Diva(A)Live.

master0 wrote:

I hope So I'm a Spider, So What? is good but the trailer didn't really pull me.

I thought the new trailer looked pretty good. We'll see how it turns out.

master0 wrote:

Redo of Healer is freaking revenge porn. Totally not my thing.

I'm tired of isakai-ish revenge porn.

Manach wrote:

I'm lost with Attack on Titans... Was there a Time-Skip... Was kinda confuse with the jump in time, or is it a flash back ? I'm lost.

Oh, you mean with S4? Yeah, there's a time-skip between S3 and S4. Plus get to see a bunch of flashbacks that connects some of the gaps from the first 3 seasons. Plus we are starting to see a much larger picture (layers within layers) of the world now. Things are starting to connect again though so stick with it! I'm expecting a really wild ride to the ending...

I think it's a 3 year time skip. I remember it being mentioned in one of the episodes.

OMG. We have an avalanche of anime coming in! I like some of them well enough. Nothing I'm obsessing over currently, but I'm easily following 5 or 6 shows!

Rewatching GITS:SAC, and it's better than I remember while all of my old criticisms (the Major is hyper-competent to the point of removing any drama/conflict, Hooo-boy does it give "Kid who just finished a Philosophy 101 class" vibes) still feel valid.

For anyone who, like me, has no idea what GITS:SAC is, it's probably Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Ah, yes, sorry, I assumed everyone was familiar with the acronym, but that's right.

Prederick wrote:

Ah, yes, sorry, I assumed everyone was familiar with the acronym, but that's right. :D

To this day, I think they did the best of any SciFi for how the future would look if: "Body parts were easily replaceable."

I'll have to continue my rewatch, because my memory is very fuzzy, but it is interesting how it uses/deals with the "Ghost" vis-a-vis total cybernetic body replacement, whereas a lot of Western stuff treading similar ground leans more towards concepts like "cyberpsychosis" when too much of the human body is lost.

Prederick wrote:

Ah, yes, sorry, I assumed everyone was familiar with the acronym, but that's right. :D

I'm ignorant, and I figured I might save someone a little time. I watch a little bit of anime, but I'm so clueless that amateurs laugh at me.

Hey, this is one of the, like, four series I've actually watched and enjoyed, so we're similar boats.

EDIT:

Spoiler:

Also, I'm up to Episode 10 of S1 of my GITS:SAC rewatch, and I am pretty sure you could write a paper about how the two Japanese-Americans from the CIA look more "Japanese" than the entire main cast, all of whom are ostensibly born and raised.

Malor wrote:

Just wanted to add to the word-of-mouth: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is excellent. As always, I'm watching the subbed version, so I don't know what the English voices are like, but the Japanese version is fantastic.

It's just a story about three high school girls that want to make anime, which doesn't sound that great, but it's almost pure fun to watch. Everything in it is so deftly handled. And I really enjoy the meta-level to it, because you're watching the characters discuss how to do stuff, often while seeing it done by the, um, "hosting animators" is the only phrase that comes to mind.

I often say that you could do worse with your time, for shows I like. This is one where I think it's worth going out of your way to chase it down.

FYI, I discovered this evening that KYHOE is available on HBO Max, so if you have a subscription, go watch it immediately. It's worth it.

Watched some of Heaven's Design Team. Good fun in a silly and occasionally educational. Although the complaints from the contractors about unreasonable clients give me work flashbacks. Like when one complains the client (god) needs it done asap. Then ignores it after it's submitted for several days...

I don't know if its because they are so similar and/or generic or because I am just watching too many anime this season (likely a mix of both), but there are a few anime that I spend the first few minutes of each episode reminding myself what events were happening in which show.

Fantasy Group:
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - A perverted hikikomori is killed and isekai'ed as a boy with extraordinary magical power. He is extremely perverted and often creepy with the female cast.
The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter - Main character is born with a rare skill that answers any questions he has. He uses this to gain extraordinary powers which require points that are recharged by doing perverted and often creepy things with his harem and other female characters.
Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies moved to a starter town? - As the title says, the kid moved from the end of the "game" to the starting town, where the skills that were ordinary for everyone in his hometown are extraordinary. He is, of course, surrounded by a harem. At least he isn't perverted, but very naive.

Hidden Dungeon and Kid from the Last Dungeon are played as comedies, where Jobless tries to play itself straight as a mix of coming of age and overcoming past trauma, but, honestly looses its seriousness often with how much of a creep the boy is. I find them entertaining, but none of them are all that great. Kid from the Last Dungeon is probably my favorite of them.

Slice-of-Life Romance:
Horimiya - Socially awkward boy meets a girl who discovers the secret he is hiding. Piercings and tattoos. A rather sweet romance starts to build while the boy is drawn into a wider social circle as a result and the problems that causes.
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki - Socially awkward boy meets a girl who discovers the secret he is hiding. He is the top player in Smash Bros Tackfam. Girl takes it on herself to teach him how to win at the game of life and he is drawn into a wider social circle as a result and the problems that causes.

I always seem to have to remind myself which secret each boy has. Its kind of a shame, really, because Tomozaki a silly comedy, but Horimiya is just a delightful, nicely paced romance.

Other than those, So I'm a Spider, So What? is certainly my favorite, but I'm a big fan of the novels, so that shouldn't be a surprise. As I expected Aoi Yuuki is perfect as the Spider! The CG isn't that great and is frequently distracting, but the story is still as enjoyable as it always was.

WONDER EGG PRIORITY has been a trip! Twisted and heavy without looking dark and gloomy. I really want to see more of this series to find out where it goes and to get answers for the many questions it dangles over our heads.

After bouncing off the manga after the first arc, I find myself really enjoying the animated version of The Promised Neverland's next arc. They seem to have cut out much of the fluff that caused me to loose interest in the manga, at least from what I remember reading.

I'm enjoying the continuation of World Trigger, but after a break of five years, I really needed a recap episode of the story's huge cast of characters, especially since it jumps into an arc featuring the secondary cast! Some anime go on break for a week and still give us a recap episode, but not World Trigger!

I wondered what they would do to give us a new season of Umamusume: Pretty Derby, but I admit I didn't think they would change the main character of the show. It works extremely well, keeping the same cast but changing the focus.

Also, why did they make Cells at Work! CODE BLACK sexier than the original? Busty white blood cells that can't button up completely. The kidneys and the liver. The sperm. Well, maybe not that last one...

I think you nailed why I don't like Mushoku Tensei. I found the whole thing sort of creepy and I don't understand why it has a certain level of popularity that it does. I also feel there are better shows with the same concept. Maybe I'm just not the market for that.

I think I need to bite the bullet and get a subscription to Funimation. There's too many good new anime skipping Crunchyroll these days.

Got caught up on Boruto. Looks like they are going full on cyborgs as the big bads. The tech for this show is so weird. In one episode they use a balloon to as a transmitter for their radios. However, this world has tv that can broadcast without a balloon. Actually digging it even with the odd tech. Well I guess their tech is based on chakra development would be different. So they can have chakra laser gun but no guns because maybe gun powder doesn't exist.

It would be funny if android naruto showed up.

Started Attack on Titan Final season and liking it. Was a little surprised at who is currently missing but I get it. New opening was cool. I wonder if a guy becomes the female titan will he be a female titan or will he be a male titan with the powers of the female titan.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Started Attack on Titan Final season and liking it. Was a little surprised at who is currently missing but I get it. New opening was cool. I wonder if a guy becomes the female titan will he be a female titan or will he be a male titan with the powers of the female titan.

Now on episode 4 or 5. The ending song is really good. Everything is spelled out it for anyone that was lost. The last few episodes were just info dumps, Good info dumps. I'm guessing the next episode will have more action because someone just declared war

Teaser for the next film by Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Boy and the Beast, & Mirai):

Do you guys ever buy anime? I was never big into buying anime and do so less now because it rarely comes with a digital version. All the movies I now buy are like blue ray, dvd, digital combos. The last anime I bought was whatever the last Evangelion blue ray was. Most of the stuff I watch is from subscription services.

I bought a lot back when they were on VHS or DVD. The shared region codes with Japan raised the prices past what I was willing to play for many series, so it started to drop. With the availability on streaming services, I almost never buy copies any more, with the exception of a few movies here and there, like Mamoru Hosoda, Makoto Shinkai, and the Miyazaki collection a few years back.

There's so many anime that you can not get on streaming services nor are available for purchase that, if I really like a show, I buy it on Blu-Ray or DVD when I can. There's so much garbage with licensing rights in the anime scene that it makes a perfect example of the all-digital future being awful for preservation.

That said, from what I can gather, the anime fandom is one where it's all about what's new new new and not about rewatching and appreciating old favorites, so I'm probably an odd ball in that I actually rewatch something if I like it.

The last anime I bought was when our local Suncoast Video was going out of business in the mall and they had a Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale on all DVDs, so maybe 2005 or 2006. That's how I scooped up the entire Samurai Champloo series. Before you ask, it was the only whole series left in the anime section. The Cowboy Bebop and Gundam Wing seasons went fast.

edit* This Suncoast was also where I bought my first anime. VHS of Ninja Scroll that I had to hide from my parents and only watch when they weren't home. I don't even know how I smuggled it home since my mom was my ride from the mall.

I don't even have a DVD or Blu-Ray player. I couldn't buy anime if I wanted to. I suppose I could dig out my old PS3 from the closest.