I now have a full time job plus a long commute, which means… more time for reading manga while half-asleep? Huh?

Anyway the last thread of this kind was in July, and since then an anime season has finished, so might as well do it again.

For me:

Manga:

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (2005): Parallel to watching the excellent adaptation, I have picked up the manga and, much like Kaiji, finished it in a concerningly short time. Koji Kumeta has a bone to pick with the world… with everything in the world. What arises is a very entertaining ruthless critique. I’m fairly sure he’s either still a leftist, or used to be one and got disappointed. However, he is also nationalistic. A political mess, mostly agreeable, sometimes dropping horrible takes - but a fantastic manga which never loses its bite no matter how many chapters you are into it. It’s also less horny than the Shaft adaptation. A+

√Paradise (1991): Being curious about Kumeta’s early work, I read this short manga of his, which is basically the Yakuza games’ cabaret club side-plot in manga form. Not too interesting, but a decent enough read. B-

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san (2017): Nagatoro is a decent romance manga with a pretty bad beginning. It ended a few months ago, but I have caught up only recently. Not much else to say, really. B

Shiroyama to Mita-san (2021): Nice comedic romance/slice of life manga about two (mostly) uncool people. Fun, but have not finished it yet. B+

Anime:

Aa-Megami Sama (2005): I had read a large chunk of the manga before, and it’s just as fun as I remembered it being. The romance stuff isn’t too strong, but the hijinks are fun. The source material being from the 80s means that many of the usual tropes didn’t exist yet… or were being invented. A-

Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Almost done with this show, it’s been really good overall. Strong characters and storytelling, and the anime original plot… I can clearly see why it’s controversial, but I like it. Good show. A

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! (2024): The only seasonal I didn’t drop. Story-wise very conventional, but the character writing was good. Anna Yanami in particular, being one of the strongest female leads in recent anime history. It had a few tone-unfitting scenes that felt tacked on for the horny audience, but overall decent show. B

Western Animation

The Owl House (2020): Very fun show, with some blatant inspiration from many recognizable source materials, western and Japanese. King is a king. A

  • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    1 month ago

    Recently finished with mom

    • Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan: funny, sometimes low budget, sometimes cringe (mainly because of Anko), it was neat getting to follow along on this show week by week since I haven’t done that in a long time.
    • Library War: very strong recommendation, the cliffhanger in the penultimate episode was so good that we had to watch the last episode right after.

    Continuing from previous months with mom

    • Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: this is an absolute classic, it’s cartoony but it still tells a very captivating story.
    • Samurai Champloo: top class, not much more I can say.
    • The Boondocks: also top class, we’re nearly done with season 2 and I’ve heard that it kinda starts to drop off after that point…

    Recently started with mom

    • Cells at Work: Code Black: it’s not as good as previous seasons of Cells at Work, the “grittiness” rubs me the wrong way, and the new red and white blood cell duo aren’t as charming as the duo from the first two seasons. I still appreciate that they did a boner and cum episode though.
    • Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu: we started watching this one because it has the same original creator as Mitsuboshi Colors. We have really enjoyed these first two episodes but I wouldn’t say it yet stands out as better than Mitsuboshi.

    Brought back from years on the paused list with mom

    • Barakamon: Mijikamon: these are short chibi-style videos promoting each episode of Barakamon. They’re silly, simple fun.
    • Minami-ke: Okawari: the first season of Minami-ke was better, and that was itself fairly middle tier slice of life. Still, we’ve been enjoying the second season, even if we sometimes have to interpret or ad lib new lines when the subtitles randomly decide to cut out.

    Anime I’ve been watching by myself

    • Dinosaur King: this is a nostalgia watch, I’m only one episode in so far. It was decently entertaining but it’s a 4kids dub of a kids’ anime so y’know only so much.
    • Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card: I’m only two episodes in, and I love seeing these characters again, but all the changes subtle or otherwise might take some getting used to. I wish it had Norwegian subs, though, since that’s how I watched the OG Cardcaptor.
    • Toradora: I’ve stalled out on this one because I feel like I’ve reached a point where my feelings towards it are like a combination of my feelings towards Stardust Telepath and Gurren Lagann as I was watching those, i.e. “this character has some big feelings, and now this character has some big feelings, yawn” + “I want to finish this show but I don’t actually want to watch it”. But at least those shows had things about them that made me finish them despite me feeling kind of bored with them. I absolutely will finish Toradora but I just feel like it’s gonna take a while between each time I’ll actually say to myself, “hey, I feel like watching Toradora right now”.