What Anime and Animation are you currently watching?

[alexvss]

Ayaka: A boy with elemental powers has to return to the island he was born in to fight evil spirits and dragons.

It’s terrible. I decided to give it a shot because it’s an original anime, but I couldn’t stand it. It’s not funny or touching or scary. The fight scenes are meh. The characters are bland. That leaves nothing else to consider.

 

[alexvss]

The trailer for the Netflix adaptation of Pluto, the manga that I'm currently reading, is out now. Looks great. Both the animation and voice acting are looking good. It's gonna take a while to realease though.

 

[HareBrain]

In the meantime, I started a rewatch of Heavenly Delusion, while I wait for the first volume of the manga to arrive.

Ah, it's just so good. Very much rewards a rewatch too.

 

[alexvss]

Undead Girl Murder Farce. In an alternative Meiji Era with magical creatures, a half-demon man travels to Europe to find the body of an immortal undead girl who was decapitated (yeah, they walk around with her talking head).

We’re only in the beginning of the season, but I daresay that this is the surprise of the season. The animation and direction are great. The concept is interesting and the characters, compelling.

I only have good things to say about it at this point. I hope it doesn’t jump the shark.

 

[alexvss]

Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon. No synopsis needed.

No, you didn’t read it wrong. They really did it. I remember posting this in the Batty Book Titles thread, and now the day has come.

So, I watched the first episode. As you can imagine, it’s pretty goofy. A delivery guy tries to “save” a vending machine from falling from a truck and off a cliff, but he ends up crushed by it and, of course, thus isekai’ed. He cannot move as a vending machine, but he still has his memories and ability to think, and he can communicate through the speakers using predetermined phrases. A super strong girl finds him and takes him to town. People love the beverages he sells.

I’m not going to keep watching. There’s no time for that. But I’m glad someone actually wrote this, it got published, and then adapted. It gives me hope.

 

[alexvss]

Rurouni Kenshin aka Samurai X (2023). Remake of Samurai X.

The franchise is a part of my childhood, and I’m disappointed with this new entry. It simply was unnecessary, but they’ve done it anyway, and the result is worse than the original. The only good thing about it is that it’s bloody, but nothing else.

I believe newcomers will never take a liking to Samurai X if they watch this anime first.

 

[alexvss]

Jujutsu Kaisen S2.

This is great! Stunning film quality in a TV series. They really did a good job with this one. I’ll surely be looking forward to this every week.

 

[HareBrain]

Ah, it's just so good. Very much rewards a rewatch too.

Oh my god, E8 on a rewatch is devastatingly sad.

 

[alexvss]

Dark Gathering. A boy that attracts spirits is assigned to be the tutor of a ghost-hunter girl.

Another surprise for me. It’s a great horror comedy!

It resembles Mieruko-Chan because both stories utilize Horror elements without going full-on Horror. But while Mieruko-Chan is a drama with horror elements, Dark Gathering is a comedy with horror elements. And Dark Gathering gets a little bit spooky sometimes (the ending of this first episode was pretty scary), whereas Mieruko never spooked me.

The characters are pretty interesting. They’re all hiding something, and they act as if they’re trying to deceive you about that. The girl’s big sister, for instance, acts pretty dumb at first, but at the end of the episode she’s very scary and shows that she’s not dumb at all.

I’ll certainly keep watching.

 

[alexvss]

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead. A young man working for an exploitative company (a “Black Company”, as they say in Japan), makes a bucket list when SHTF and the zombie apocalypse breaks out, and he has the time of his life.

Another great anime this season. (this season is STACKED!)

I already knew that this one would be good because I read the manga’s opening chapter, but I didn’t expect the anime to be that good. The direction is great. The use of black and white at key times, for instance, has been very well made.

 

[alexvss]

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War S2. Second part of the Thousand Year Blood War saga.

Bleach returned kicking ass. This saga is way bloodier and darker than classic Bleach, and it does so without losing what everyone likes about Bleach.

Bleach just brings up that 2000’s feeling… and it has the most diverse set of characters without ever getting woke.

This first episode was perfect. Very well directed; many things happen in such a short period of time. And they didn’t hold back: the villain is invading Soul Society at the ending of the episode already. It seems we’ll have plenty of fighting this season!

The villains are an interesting case of syncretism only a Japanese could ever do. The main villain is called Yhwach, which is Hebrew, and has messianic traits to him. His minions dress and organize themself like Nazis, and their abilities have German names. Also, their history is based on the persecution that the first Christians faced in Japan. Talk about crazy stuff!

 

[alexvss]

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation S2. Second season of Mushoku Tensei.

The father of modern isekai, that brought us truck-kun, is back. Rudeus is depressed after the events of the previous season, especially being separated from the other characters. But, at the ending of the episode, he burns something that was keeping him stuck to the past, proving that he’s going to move on.

There was episode zero last week, where we see the story of an elf that I think will come up as important in the story later (I don’t read the novel or the manga).

I really like the comedy and the worldbuilding, so I’ll keep watching.

 

[alexvss]

Kami Shibai S11. Eleventh season of Theater of Darkness.

This is an episodic Horror series of four-minute episodes. Obviously, it had its ups and downs after ten seasons, but even the bad episodes are endurable;

 

[alexvss]

wow i didnt realize there were that many to choose from.....where do you find all these and where are they shown?

Around 50 new anime come out every season of the year in Japan. There’s a website, which is also a social network, called my anime list. That's where I check seasonal anime. I read the synopses and decide which ones I’m gonna give a go. As for where to watch them, that depends. Some are Netflix originals, others are available on Disney Plus or Amazon Prime; most of them you’ll find on crunchyroll… but some of them you’ll only find “illegally”, so to speak.

 

[HareBrain]

Yes, it's amazing how many are produced. It's a bit nuts. I watch very few of them, but I sometimes watch anime YouTubers reviewing them for the comedy value, so I recognise some of the titles.

 

[alexvss]

The Gene of AI. An underground doctor treats humanoids--artificial people with implanted memories.

I really like these “fifteen minutes into the future” stories. Much of my own fiction is about that. I like both the aesthetic and the philosophical discussions involved in them. But this one just isn’t good enough. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. As for the narrative, it’s kinda meh: bland characters, etc. Nothing great about the animation to boot.

I’ll pass.

 

[alexvss]

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses. A boy has to help his school crush with simple tasks when she goes to school bare-eyed.

I enjoyed this a lot. It’s so refreshing to watch something that isn’t battle shonen anime or over-the-top horror, especially when it is this wholesome. There isn't a pinch of malice in it, no unnecessary fanservice, nothing.

The animation is top-notch, especially in the opening scene, and the character’s feelings are convincing.

Recommended.

 

[Jeffbert]

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation S2. Second season of Mushoku Tensei.

The father of modern isekai, that brought us truck-kun, is back. Rudeus is depressed after the events of the previous season, especially being separated from the other characters. But, at the ending of the episode, he burns something that was keeping him stuck to the past, proving that he’s going to move on.

There was episode zero last week, where we see the story of an elf that I think will come up as important in the story later (I don’t read the novel or the manga).

I really like the comedy and the worldbuilding, so I’ll keep watching.

I just watched 0 last week, have not started with #1 yet. Enjoying the series.

 

[alexvss]

Invincible: Atom Eve Special Episode. Atom Eve’s origin story.

A 50-min double episode that’s great from start to end. I was never bored.

Her story is quite sad. Brutal, even. It is explained that she can change the molecules and shape reality the way she wants (I wish I could explain this better, but I’ve been more of a humanities kind of guy), but not with living things.

It’s something you watch for the story and voice action, but not for the animation. These Western animations such as Vox Machina and the DC Animated Universe, and the one at hand, are not top-notch like Japanese animation. It gets smoother during action scenes though.

Stars JK Simmons and Steven Yeun don’t participate much , but the late Lance Reddick voices the villain (what a voice!), a US Government bureaucrat who runs a lab that creates superhumans.

Recommended.

 

[HareBrain]

Been watching a fair bit of Heavenly Delusion analysis on YouTube (yes, I'm obsessed), partly to pick up what I missed even on a rewatch, and to appreciate more the amazing writing and visual quality. It's very frustrating that volume 1 of the manga is out of stock in the UK at the moment.

Plus I watched the first four episodes of Dragon Prince S5. Much like S4, this feels tired and padded, with quite a few short scenes that add absolutely nothing except run-time. I also don't like the change in art style since S3, though it looks pretty enough in places. I'm just about invested enough in knowing the end to keep going.