It’s time for a new general discussion thread! Hot takes, recommendations, questions, cautionary tales, all of it is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Thanks for the nominations for the year-end awards everybody! We ended up with quite a few nomination forms for me to work through this week. Please look forward to the voting round beginning this time next week.
As for anime, some thoughts on the past week:
- Dan Da Dan - We got to know a bit of the new main cast character and…he’s a lot… Looking forward to this coming week’s finale.
- Tower of God - It’s almost over. Definitely still here from the sunk cost of watching so much, but it still manages to have its moments.
- Loner Life Isekai - Finale aired this past week and it was fine. I don’t expect this to have a season 2, and it frankly doesn’t deserve it. Season 1 ends at a good point.
- 365 Days to the Wedding - I continue to enjoy this show, but sometimes it can be tough watching two extremely socially awkward people try to figure out a relationship.
- Negative Positive Angler - Really great episode 11 to set things up for a finale this week. I’ve been really pleased with this show and the past two episodes have been really narratively satisfying.
- Villainess in History - Lots of things being set up in this show and I am not sure there is going to be a payoff for it all yet. It has a lot of fun moments though.
- Appraisal Isekai - War is hell…except when you take a break and have a snowball fight. A pretty fun episode this past week.
I still need to catch up on the past couple episodes of Orb. I have held off to give this show the time and attention it deserves in my opinion. It’s been excellent so far, but it is running through next season too, so I am probably going to catch up on it during the slow period between seasons.
Loner Life Isekai
I just binged this. It was better than I expected but that’s only because I wasn’t expecting much. I think I agree that it doesn’t really deserve a Season 2. Not because it was bad but because by the end of Season 1 it’s no longer Loner Life. Like the whole premise is that he has trash skills and is a loner. By the end he’s OP and not a loner. And they’ve exhausted a lot of the unique story elements such as the wall of skills and the cheat skills so moving forward it would just be generic isekai.
moving forward it would just be generic isekai
That is exactly what happens. I read the manga quite a bit past where the anime ends and this is pretty much it. This anime was specifically adapting the manga instead of the light novels. From what I understand, the LNs actually have a bit of a unique (and polarizing) style that sets them apart. By comparison, the manga sticks closer to safe, generic isekai.
Dan Da Dan** - … Looking forward to this coming week’s finale.
It feels like it just got started… And from the looks of it, it’s not gonna end on a particularly interesting arc. Should’ve been a 2-cour season
Weekly ranking roundup:
- Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Bleach: TYBW
- Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Dan Da Dan
Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.
Status quo prevails this week again as both AC and reddit keep the same winner. One surprise is Blue Lock jumping up to #2 on AC’s chart. I am glad that somebody seems to be enjoying it!
Woof, the holidays are upon us, and it’s unusually busy at work too, for this time of year.
That doesn’t leave me much time for watching anime, as opposed to keeping up with real life.
I’m really happy that some fellow anime-loving lemmings have stepped up to post in a good chunk of the episode threads for shows that I follow!
One show that I’m surprised doesn’t have more visible support here is Let This Grieving Soul Retire/Nageki no Bourei wa Intai shitai
Not that I actually have watched any of it, but some random comments from users here say they watch it and it’s decent-to-good.
For me, it got lost in the seasonal deluge of isekais with long names, so I never bothered to try a single episode, and at this point with my own neglected watching queue, I really don’t plan to start.
at this point with my own neglected watching queue, I really don’t plan to start
Yeah, this is me each season. I have a hard time dropping a show once I start. So, it’s tough to pick up a show mid-season due to time.
Rewatched Sakura Trick since I have yet to rate it on AniList, and it’s been a while since I watched it.
I’ve forgotten how much of a win this anime is with the non-stop lesbian kisses. I was thinking 100 Girlfriends has the most kissing scenes in anime but after the rewatch, Sakura Trick just blows it out of the water (until season 2 of 100 Girlfriends maybe?)
The plot isn’t very good to be honest and there isn’t much character development. Well, who gives a shit. I’m just here to watch cute girls kissing each other.
Side note: I have forgotten how much boob-jiggle there were in this anime.
In short, this is one of the best non yuri-bait. The only way it can be better is if they go further like in Gushing over Magical Girls.
I would give it a 8.5 / 10, rounding it up to 9 / 10.
You have my attention…
Looking at when this came out, I am not surprised that I wasn’t familiar with it at all. That period of my life is when I was just barely keeping my head above water in grad school. For me personally, Gushing was a bit too much, so this might be a more comfortable watch.
2.5D Seduction has wrapped up and a new season has been announced immediately. All in all, it was a decent adaptation. The animation was wonky at times and a few things got skipped (if I remember correctly), but they got the spirit of the manga right. Yeah it was way less ecchi than the manga, but that was never the main selling point of the manga and makes this more accessible as well. I don’t think it’s fair to call it censorship either.
It also made realise again how nice the 24 episode format is. You can get nicely accustomed to the anime and it isn’t over once it gets going. I wish there were more 24 episode anime rather than a new 12 episode anime every season that, most likely, will get glossed over because of the sheer amount of other new anime every season.
I agree about 24 episodes. However, it is a bigger investment up front, so I doubt we will see more of these other than the very likely to succeed series (Frieren, Apothecary, etc.). The 12 episode format allows rights holders to try out more series to find out what is able to catch on a bit before deciding to invest more.
The 12 episode format allows rights holders to try out more series
A side effect of this, however, is that we’re overloaded with shows every season, so it’ll have to fight more for our attention. But yeah, you’re probably right. Risk averse investors basically.
After doing some more thinking on this, I suspect there is another factor at play as well. By investing in and producing 12-episode seasons, investors don’t have to wait as long for source material to build up. So, if there is a hot new LN or manga, you can snatch up the rights earlier in its lifecycle.
So, really, the shorter seasons work better from an investor’s standpoint in two ways:
- Lower cost to try out series that are experimental or have an unsure return.
- Allow for an anime adaptation with less source material available to try to capture/build attention while the source is more relevant and fresh.
By investing in and producing 12-episode seasons, investors don’t have to wait as long for source material to build up
Is this actually how it works out though? There was easily enough material to do 2 seasons of Dandadan. Sakamoto Days is airing next year and there are already nearly 200 chapters of the manga. Witch Hat Atelier has 13 volumes, and Medalist has 11. Kono Kaisha ni Suki na Hito ga Imasu has 15. Honey Lemon Soda? 27. I went through quite a few of the shows announced for next year and couldn’t find a single one that doesn’t have enough material for 24 episodes. Only Medalist is even close.
Yeah, it doesn’t always work that way, but it can. What made me think of this was actually going through the manga award nominations and seeing Kagurabachi all over the place. It just started last year and they just recently (kind of unofficially) announced an anime adaptation, likely meaning the deal was struck some time ago.
Idk, I am just some random dude on the internet that fell backwards into moderating a discussion forum, I don’t really have any actual insight into how these things work, just speculation.
Fair points too, however:
- Choosing the hot new manga/LN also means having to wait a long time until you can even start a new season, killing hype, which is exacerbated by the shorter run time, making it easier to forget.
- The hot new manga/LN may turn out to suck ass after the adaptation.
But yeah, the shortterm benefits are probably more attractive for investors. Easier money I guess.
I’m still not watching any current anime, but Negative Positive Angler is on my TBW.
I finished up Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019). It was pretty good all in all. As I noted last week, I watched the original series - Boogiepop Phantom (2000) - years ago, and while it was intriguing, it was a bit too buried in the surrealistic visual imagery of the era, which made its already subtle plot pretty much indecipherable. This one was much more straightforward in style and presentation, which is a much better approach, since part of the overarching theme is bizarre mysteries and horror taking place right under our noses and virtually everyone failing to even notice. And with a more straightforward style, I was better able to follow the recurring characters and appreciate their certainly not coincidental growth, and piece together hints about the mysterious Towa Organization that’s lurking in the shadows behind many of the crises that Boogiepop and friends face. And now the light novel series is on my TBR, which is presumably the intent.
Then, casting about for an entirely different tone, I thought back to series adapted from manga I particularly enjoyed, and suddenly remembered Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san (2013), so that was next, and it was wonderful. It’s a slice of life gag series centered on a notably staid high school student/tsukkomi who spends his spare time fishing, and the childish, self-absorbed, seemingly immortal mermaid/boke whose attention he catches after he literally catches her (more than once - one of the many running gags is that no matter how many times she ends up with a hook in her mouth, she just can’t resist a fishing lure). It expands out to an entire cast of legendary creature bokes, and has more laugh-out-loud moments stuffed into its 13 minute episodes than anything I’ve watched in quite a while.
Then most recently I watched an oddity called NieA Under 7 (2000). I just happened on it listed in a stack and thought it looked interesting, and I ended up quite liking it. It’s a sort of melancholy slice of life about a distressingly poor ronin (in the modern sense of the term - someone who’s out of high school and studying for, but hasn’t yet passed, college entrance exams) who lives above a quaint old bathhouse in Enohana with a brash, selfish, free-wheeling alien freeloader (in their timeline, aliens crash-landed on the Earth about 20 years previously, and have since just sort of blithely blended in with human society). The art style is rough and simple, but it fits the setting of a broken down bathhouse in a broken down town, and the overall feel of it is satisfying - mostly melancholy but with bits of hope shining through, and with a pleasantly well-developed cast.
And I have no idea yet what’s next. I’ve been sort of considering catching up with either DanMachi (which I burnt out on with the second season) or Re-Zero (which I dropped after the first season because I hate Subaru with every fiber of my being), but I just can’t quite get myself inspired. We’ll see - something will present itself, one way or another.
I haven’t seen any of those series, but I can speak to Negative Positive Angler. With the premise of an MC that has a terminal health condition, I had thought it would be more dramatic and emotional. Instead, for most of its run, it is a pretty chill slice of life about fishing. The finale is yet to air, but the show has been a lot of fun and has pretty seamlessly weaved some powerful emotional moments throughout.
