Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 285: From Romcom Heaven to Isekai Hell

(+) Yeah! (+)

I rewatched the two seasons of Kakegurui. An anime of the Kakegurui Twin spinoff is coming out in August so I figured I should watch it again.

My opinions haven't changed much on rewatch. First season was still excellent, the second season had its moments but also some lame games that dragged it down. The last two gambles in the second season in particular both felt like huge wastes of time. I still love Jabami Yumeko, she's always a fun character and it's thrilling to watch her approach the games. Hopefully there will be a third season someday that continues her story.

JoJo Stone Ocean Part 6-2 airs on Netflix September 1st and in Japan beginning Oct 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a86MGp2u2w

oh ya Father-Son Kamehameha

JoJo trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNKtj0ZkDZI

https://c.tenor.com/Q-ZI_V15MAoAAAAC/curb-your-enthusiasm-larry-david.gif

Finished In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki. I thought this was pretty good! There are something like 30+ different girl ninjas, so most of them only appear in one episode and only have one gimmick. I think that's fine, though. The premise of ninja training lent itself to a lot of great gags using those gimmicks. Also, despite Tsubaki's main gimmick being her interest in men, it never got creepy or anything. It all felt like fairly innocent coming-of-age stuff. It was a fun anime.

I may as well talk about Komi Can't Communicate S2 now, even though I still have two episodes in it because lol Netflix delay. It'll be my last show from Spring and I want to get that all done now before Summer truly starts. My main complaint from the first season was that the side characters all sucked, most of their gimmicks were directly dependent on Komi (the yandere for Komi, the girl who wants to be a dog for Komi...). This season improved on that by introducing a lot of funny characters who aren't dependent on Komi at all. I liked the two normal-ish girls from the school trip. I like the shy delinquent looking guy. I like the narcissistic guy. Plus it's focusing on the fun characters from the first season (the chuni, the big sister, the airhead) rather than the lame ones like the yandere or the dog. There have been a lot of sweet moments between Komi and Tadano, too. I'm liking S2 a lot more than the first!

Definitive Spring Ranking:
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
Ya Boy Kongming
The Demon Girl Next Door S2
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki
Love After World Domination
Komi Can't Communicate S2
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
RPG Real Estate
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
Healer Girl
Love Live: Nijigasaki High School Idol Club S2
Spy x Family
Ascendance of a Bookworm S3
Heroines Run the Show

I watched the first episode of two more shows.

Lycoris Recoil: I'm going to be shocked if this doesn't wind up being my favorite anime of the season. When I briefly talked about Summer shows last week, this wasn't even one of the ones that interested me. The MAL description made it sound like Pastel Memories where girls work in a cafe but sometimes they fight random shit and isn't that crazy lol. Turns out, the MAL description didn't do it justice. I don't even want to talk about this too much yet but it was amazing and I hope everyone gives it a shot.

Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laughing 'til you Cry: The only anime with more exclamation marks than Keijo!!!!!!!!. I don't know a whole lot about the manzai style of humor, and humor is often difficult to translate anyway. It didn't make me laugh until I cried like the title suggested, but it was fine. Cute girls doing anything is usually inoffensive at worst. This seems like it'll focus on a different group every episode, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of the alien girls. They were my favorite.

Summer ranking so far:
Lycoris Recoil
Phantom of the Idol
Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki - Definitely surpassed my expectations. First episode wasn't the best, but I liked it a lot when it wasn't all 'omg a man' jokes. The huge cast worked well, and there were fun interactions between many of them. The action was also surprisingly good. I thought it'd be perfunctory, but we get some genuinely cool fights, and the last episode in particular looked great. Good stuff.

Deaimon - Nice show from start to finish. Itsuka's the highlight, and the show's always good when it's focusing on her... which is why it's a shame they didn't focus on her more. The first 6 or 7 episodes all introduce new focus characters, and while they're never bad, they're not as good as the mains. I also liked Kanoko, but it felt like she should've gotten back together with Nagomu during the show - there's not really any obstacles between them, and we oddly don't get much of a picture of Nagomu's romantic feelings for her (though he was a good character). Consistently good show that should've been better imo.

Updated ranking of beated Spring shows:

1. Spy x Family
2. Aharen-san
3. Bookworm S3
4. Ya Boy Kongming
5. The Executioner and Her Way of Life
6. RPG Real Estate
7. Love After World Domination
8. In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki
9. Deaimon
10. Healer Girl
11. Kaguya-sama S3
12. Dance Dance Danseur

Note - I gave DDD a 7, so I liked all these shows. I haven't finished the worst two I've been watching though...

Okay Spy x Family's dub is done, so I am watching that now.

Five minutes into episode 3 I love this show too much.

the mad lads at trigger are doing psg season 2

Trigun trailer sometime within the next 2 hours.

colliding posted...

the mad lads at trigger are doing psg season 2

BRUH

THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE

I hope they don't even acknowledge the ending to season 1

New Bleach TYBW Key Visual and Trailer.

https://twitter.com/VIZMedia/status/1543421772313366530

https://twitter.com/VIZMedia/status/1543423029287403520
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sygUhb8Q2Y

also I see girl golf is prince of tennis but with ladies

sign me up for 6 seasons and a movie

https://twitter.com/hamster_angel/status/1543437660580065280

Absolutely DYING for the direct feed.

https://youtu.be/AzZYXqUdp5o

AHHHHHH

colliding posted...

I hope they don't even acknowledge the ending to season 1

The trailer starts from right at the ending of S1.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

https://youtu.be/AzZYXqUdp5o

AHHHHHH

oof, that looks awful. Orange should stick to animating non-humans. S2 of LotL would look way better than this.

Lol Mac you're always such a contratian.

The trailer looks absolutely stupendous.

Not that I wouldn't do anything for Land of the Lustrous 2.

I'm more with Mac on this one, but I'm hoping it turns out alright

It's anime CG, there's always going to be a division in thoughts especially trying it with a classic nostalgia series. It being from Orange means the division isn't quiiiite as harsh as it could be but it'll always be there

It looks good overall, though I was hoping for a more faithful adaptation.

As I said in the other topic, I'd be exstatic if this ended up giving us an HD home release of the original to replace my DVDs.

I always thought Trigun was way better than the other popular shows of the time. I couldn't be happier this is coming out.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-07-02/right-stuf-nozomi-ent-to-release-macross-7-on-home-video-in-n-america-for-1st-time/.187292

:O

Watched the first episode of Luminous Witches. I'm curious to see which wins out, my love of idol anime or my dislike of the Strike Witches universe. It's just such a boring setting and I can't believe it now has two spinoffs. It's a ripoff of World War II but the Germans have been replaced with aliens so they can have German stereotype characters without offending anyone and so that the Japanese aren't on the side of evil. I'll never understand why so many alternate universe/alternate history stories seem to go out of their way to parallel real world history. It's an alien invasion, you can do literally anything, but sure let's open Luminous Witches with an exact replica of Dunkirk. The Neuroi suck too, they have zero personality and are just shapeshifting blobs that explode if they get shot in the right place.

Luminous Witches is about magical idols helping morale from behind the front lines, though, so I'm really hoping this episode is the last we see of the actual war effort. Please just be about wartime idols from now on.

Summer ranking so far:
Lycoris Recoil
Phantom of the Idol
Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luminous Witches

The real contrarian take is that Land of the Lustrous looked solid but would have looked significantly better with traditional animation and that cgi=good was exactly the wrong takeaway.

I naturally don't think this looks good but I already didn't like Trigun to begin with for other reasons

Land of the Lustrous had a traditionally animated promo trailer and the CG version looks better!

https://youtu.be/rYWOG9q2HpI

It's not like I'm some CG enthusiast. All fully CG anime look like crap unless Orange is making it. The Polygon Pictures stuff is terrible too.

But I'd take Orange over a traditional studio for a large number of anime. The talent at that studio is just too good.

Of course I know full well that it's partially the result of them making so few anime to begin with.

solo leveling is getting an anime

FUCKING HYPED

Hopefully Tower of God season 2 next.

It's the only one of the webtoon series to have been any good so far.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

But I'd take Orange over a traditional studio for a large number of anime. The talent at that studio is just too good.

Of course I know full well that it's partially the result of them making so few anime to begin with.

Orange has worked on over 100 series, varying greatly in quality. I believe they still work on quite a few nowadays (were you a fan of Godzilla Singular Point? That's one of their more recent shows).

It's interesting, I recently discovered that a lot of when you see a studio's name on a series it's just advertising. For example, Ya Boy Kongming was over 90% done by DR Movie, with PA Works barely touching it. DR Movie also did the entirety of Kaiji season 2, even though Madhouse was credited as the studio for it.

Tomo-chan is a girl is getting an anime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmpa10BFimE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRcyVc9wvgg

is this anime christmas in july

Ive heard of Tomo-chan and its probably something Id be interested in

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Land of the Lustrous had a traditionally animated promo trailer and the CG version looks better!

https://youtu.be/rYWOG9q2HpI

This looks better than the actual show to me and it isn't especially close.

As for Tower of God, I'd love to see a season 2, especially because there's some parts of the next arc I think would really benefit from an anime adaptation, but I think the source material makes it a bit tricky. It feels like they would either need more than 12 episodes, which seems unlikely, or they would have to decide between having the next arc be rushed or unfinished. I also think it's likely to be a bit offputting regardless because (Tower of God webtoon spoilers for the premise of the next arc) it would be starting off with a timeskip and focusing on almost all new characters.

Really? Well to each their own!

The first Gower of God season already made a lot of changing around itself, honestly I think having a season 2 that trims the fat for the next arc would be a welcome thing. Tower of God does get a bit...unruly, you have to admit.

https://twitter.com/Crunchyroll/status/1543716312798699521

LET'S GOOOOOO

Good thing I didn't buy those LNs yet!

pyresword posted...

This looks better than the actual show to me and it isn't especially close.

I also agree it looks better, but Land of the Lustrous CG looked good too. I usually don't mind CG, the later BanG Dream seasons were fine for example.

Something about the Trigun CG still looks really off to me. I've never seen the original, though, so my opinion doesn't count for much

"I've never seen the original" seems to be a common theme amongst discussion online about this and that's just tragic to me.

I mean hell, can you even stream Trigun anywhere?? It's not showing up on anything I've got.

It was on Funimation forever though...

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Tower of God does get a bit...unruly, you have to admit.

This is true but I don't think it really becomes apparent until the content for a hypothetical season 3 (which...god help the writers if they're ever tasked with handling that monstrously large plot thread in a condensed form). I think making cuts to the next arc or two is much trickier. I'm sure it's doable, but I don't have a particularly large amount of faith in it being done well. I'd be worried about them skimping on characterization of new characters when I think the right way to do it is to shorten up bits of the somewhat bloated climax.

Strife2 posted...

It was on Funimation forever though...

It actually looks like it JUST came to Funi/Crunchy like a a month ago?

Unless it left and just came back M.

I want to say left and came back. I know when I first got Funi a couple years ago, I watched it along with Bebop. It has definitely been available. My problem with Trigun is the first...10-12 episodes really paint an annoying comedic picture. When you contrast it to what kind of shit it does in the second half...hot fucking damn. It's kind of like watching Bebop, and having the Spike and Vicious storyline, but you have to watch the Radical Edward focused stuff for like 3-4 episodes straight. That and the goofy old school animation really created a disconnect.

Again, Trigun is great, and holds up, but the older I get, the worse the comedic bits tend to be. Stuff like Bebop and Lagoon are far less wacky and more grounded in the pulpy action.

Speaking of old shows, I'm checking out Ouran in my usual "nostalgia phase." Just seeing if it holds up.

"Oh, you're a role model to all poor people. You're proof that if you work hard enough, even a poor person can make something of themselves."

Wow....yep; still holds up.

I'm pretty scared to rewatch Ouran.

That show was popular....in a different time.

It's very lightweight fluff, but an easy enough watch. I'm sure it does all the cliche school junk (swimsuit episode, School festival episode, firework whatever thing). I usually chalk these up to character chemistry and writing.

It is really weird re-watching a show with such a heavy Vic McNogna presence being a show about "pleasing girls"...but kind of unavoidable at this point. I mean, can't dismiss Persona 3 or FMA for the same reasons I guess.

https://youtu.be/IN5XdlB0x0U

Bakuhatsu Bakuhatsu LA LA LA

yeah Trigun came over to crunchyroll back in May

I assumed it was on Funimation before then, but I don't know

Purple Bullet episode of girl golf is peak sports anime lmao

DoomTheGyarados posted...

Purple Bullet episode of girl golf is peak sports anime lmao

Hell yeah, it was so good

The two only two shows so far this season I was interested in checking out, Lycoris Recoil and Yurei Deco, were both great.

I am pleased to announce the Yoshihiro Togashi exhibit -PUZZLE-.

This was only possible thanks to the warm feelings and support of the readers. Allow me to express my sincere gratitude to you all.

That was stiff of me, huh? I think so too. You're probably thinking, "Go draw the next chapter already." True, I was unable to sit in a chair for two years, which made me unable to draw, but by throwing conventional methods to the wayside, I've been able to resume drawing somehow. Everyone, I sincerely ask you to take care of your backs and hips. Just two weeks before writing this message, I couldn't get into position to wipe my butt and had to take a shower every time I pooped. It takes 3-5 times longer for me to do everyday movements. Your hips are important.

So if you're at the exhibit and you happen to drop something, I recommend assuming a sumo crouching posture when you pick it up. Sincerely, Yoshihiro Togashi.

Togashi included an illustration of himself as an anthropomorphic dog lying on its back while drawing, and captioned it, "Currently, I can only draw in this position."

Started watching Love After World Domination. This is a fun show. Also the OP is a bop.

ganbare togashi