Anime/Manga/Light Novel Thread

histoire I think its a generational thing. Fantasy type things are normal in a videogame, so the extraordinary can be described in a familiar way.

You would think that it would be a hindrance to creativity to describe things like a video game, but I think it opens the door to making things that wiuld otherwise suspend disbelief seem briliant.

That almost sounds like a slight, but it is exactly why I like Overlord so much apart from the neat characters

histoire
hahaha i didnt even think about actual literature
took me a second to realise what you meant
also... these are all, except Narnia, public domain i believe? very exciting

yukarihinata
I think the reason for that effect is two fold.

First, it's the fact that it's building upon something already established both fictionally and in the real world. You know what a video game is, you know how they operate. You may not know the specifics of this particular fictional one, but you understand the concept. This is a link they can use to reference a video game that doesn't exist and you know what they are talking about, so you kind of accept it as "just the way the game is"

Second, games are inherently rule based constructs, and so long as the rules are applied consistently, most people will accept it and move on, because that's just what games are.

Lumeinshin
Yeah, I was talking about the "real" thing lol. Figured you would appreciate knowing.

I’m watching Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family this season.

Both are very good, I really like how light-hearted and family oriented Spy x Family is. It seems like the perfect kind of show a young family would watch together. Pretty funny too, not really that much in your face 2000s anime humor.

Chainsaw Main is alright so far. The pacing feels a tad bit slow, and the actual action isn’t nearly as intense as it could be - overall I find the fighting scenes disappointing. But I’m a huge fan of the general dynamic between the characters, I absolutely love Denji, and he’s me fr lol.

Never really watched “in season” anime before but I find it quite enjoyable to stick with anime each week and then read discussion about it on 4chan!

I'm planning to watch Bocchi the Rock and Kyokou Suiri today. Wish me luck

Nickname Bocchi was a surprise for me. I went in hearing people say it was the next K-ON, it's not, but I was still really enjoyed it. I prefer slice of life shows and Bocchi is a good one.

I started to watch new stuff again after a long hiatus. What did you think of Stone Ocean? I thought it was the best part in the conceptual level but the execution was consistently sloppy and the ending was pretty crappy. Jolyne and Pucci were excellent tho

Finished Mawaru Penguindrum yesterday. It was a good watch, but some of the scenes were quite uncomfortable and I felt like the ending was a bit of a letdown. Anyhow, are any of the recent/current anime worth watching? Apparently Bocchi is a decent watch.

gemisthon The second picture reminds me of Tome Kurata from Mob Psycho, lol.

gemisthon
looks cosy! i'll have to give it a watch (probably once its all out so i can binge watch it)
These days I find myself either revisiting stuff or only really watching more relaxed seinen anime if anything.

Picked up an old anime recently called Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, about a cat-eyed joshikousei and her friends traveling 1,000 years into the future to take part in friendly space battles. It was originally a light novel series adapted by J.C. Staff into two OVA series in 1996 and 1997, followed by a two-cour television series in 1999. Some interesting people worked on it, notably Akiyuki Shinbo, who directed both the OVA and television series, but also Nakazawa Kazuto (OVA character designer) and Watanabe Akio (television character designer).

Television opening:

OVA I ending:

I love the series, but I can see why no one’s heard of it. It’s a bit of a toss up. The OVA, not surprisingly, is somewhat thin on the writing due to the short runtime. The focus is largely on visuals and atmosphere at the expense of characterisation and coherency, and it maintains a quirky, light-hearted tone for the most part. I actually didn’t like it the first time I watched it, but after rewatching it with a better understanding of the source material and what they were trying to accomplish, I think it’s the pinnacle of the franchise. The television series offers more engaging storylines and character development, but is more straightforward in terms of storytelling and is visually more dubious. The animation isn’t as impressive, Shinbo showcases much more of his trademark style in the television series (which I’m not a huge fan of), and as much as I like Watanabe’s designs in other projects, they feel like a downgrade compared to the OVA here. Nakazawa’s lithe designs fit the focus on active, athletic high school girls like a glove.

Maybe it is mediocre if you look at it critically, but the aesthetic is so on point that it doesn’t matter. Like most '90s sci-fi anime, it has aged like the finest wine, both in terms of art direction and overall concept. I really miss shows like this. It strikes an almost perfect balance between cool sci-fi designs/action and a fun tone. Very little is explained, especially in the OVA, which I also appreciate. The creators understood that the story is fundamentally a vehicle to get cute girls into spaceships and to have imaginative space scenes, e.g. one episode revolves around playing space billiards with small planets. If you go in expecting hard sci-fi and deep worldbuilding, you’ll be disappointed. It’s better viewed as a “cute girls doing cute things” kind of show, but before that genre really took off.

Some more sakuga from the OVA:

Heading back to Gurren Lagann; I lost interest in it as a 13 year old. Watching it again I truly wonder how.

I've started watching Ryu Knight and so far really enjoyed the first few episodes. A fantasy Wild West with magic robots is something really refreshing to me.

I picked it up after seeing it on a chart of /m/ recommended mecha anime and something about it just caught my eye Maybe it was the silly, toy-like, design of Knight Zephyr and its pleasing colour scheme.

Recently watched a two-episode OVA from 2003 called Mizuiro, adapted from a 2001 eroge. Apparently there was an earlier hentai adaptation, but the 2003 OVA is SFW and overall a very pure watching experience.

This one was really nice. I'm glad I watched it. The only serious criticism is that it was too short. Obviously they had to put in all the main VN characters in, but since it's only two episodes and only focused on two of the heroines, everyone else is under-developed. But otherwise it's short, sweet, surprisingly easy-going considering the ghost girl angle, and most importantly, extremely comfy. Plus Yuko Goto's in it, playing yet another well-endowed airhead. Kind of the perfect OVA to watch on a rainy day. I just wish they'd had the budget for one more episode.

I keep getting banned from streamable so we'll see how long these stay up:

Fimm Haven't seen it, but the opening song is incredible. Peak '90s j-pop kino.

I just watched The Place Promised in Our Early Days and I... didn't get it.

I checked it out because I read that it took place in a world where the Soviet Union occupied Hokkaido after World War II, so I thought it was going to be about that (I watch films for the wrong reasons). Instead was about long lost childhood friends reuniting across alternate dimensions, which also sounded cool. Unfortunately it was a really slow film that involved people just standing around and talking about their feelings. Luckily the animation, and the backgrounds especially, were very beautiful so it wasn't a bore, but it wasn't really for me.

Fimm Ryu Knight looks fantastic. I love Mecha with an offbeat look. And the medieval look is always cool when combined with giant robots. Just from that pic, it looks like Five Star Stories for kids. Which, god damn, where the hell was that when I was growing up!?

I recently read Hideyuki Kikuchi's Demon City Shinjuku and Demon Palace Babylon. Awful stuff, which I so wanted to enjoy because I like the Kawajiri film adaption of Demon City Shinjuku. I've read translations of Mishima and Murakami which have been fantastic, and so it cannot be the fault of the translator. The dialogue is stilted, the stories move at an awkward, inconsistent pace, and the world building is goofily overblown. I know these are the equivalent of pulp novels, but Conan the Barbarian short stories and noir novellas are so much better than this.

I have actually been reading a manga for the first time in a while.
It is another isekai, but I've enjoyed the protagonists jibes about VN tropes, although I didnt really play otome games much.

Otomege Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu

Leon, a former Japanese worker, was reincarnated into an “otome game” world, and despaired at how it was a world where females hold dominance over males. It was as if men were just livestock that served as stepping stones for females in this world. The only exceptions were the game’s romantic targets, a group of handsome men led by the crown prince. In these bizarre circumstances, Leon held one weapon: his knowledge from his previous world, where his brazen sister had forced him to complete this game. This is a story about his adventure to survive and thrive in this world.

I hope to read some more and maybe rewatch some anime sometime soon, maybe its time for another deathnote rewatch