Was glad last weekend to see a few of us get talking last weekend in the One Piece thread. Lemmy is way too dead when it comes to anime and manga talk. So let’s see what we need to be talking about.
What have you been watching, what is it, and why do you think it’s worth watching?
Odd Taxi was pretty good. It’s not new or anything but I really liked the narrative.
I’ve recently completed several shows that were in a limbo in my currently watching list.
Fate/Apocrypha - It was a nice action show, especially liked the use of extremely distorted sound effects to portray power. Did not feel connected to any of the characters at all though, there were way too much and the show ended up not giving enough attention to any of them, except maybe Sieg.
Birdie Wing S1- I’m not a golfer, but it was fun, very “anime” show with all the imaginary power-ups and whatnot. Was expecting it to stay on the gambling side of golf for longer than it did, but not complaining. Might watch the second season at some point in time.
Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! - CGDCT/SoL is not really my jam anymore but this one was enjoyable enough, although slightly boring at times and it took me a long time to finish. Didn’t have too many running gags, which is good IMO because those get old fast.
Then I’ve also been watching the new season of Mushoku Tensei. It’s really weird. The pacing has felt super off, and every episode somehow relates to Rudeus’ dick not functioning. Which, if you ask me, is not a super interesting plot point to base your adventure story around. Will stick to it though, because I trust the story will eventually get back to the quality it was in the first season.
Cool, some things I haven’t seen! I haven’t looked into any of the Fate shows yet. Jahy-sama I hadn’t heard of, but looks funny. I’ve been bummed out a bit lately, so some cute and happy are in order. Thanks!
I haven’t looked into any of the Fate shows
It’s certainly a can of worms waiting to be opened. For anime onlies, there is unfortunately no perfect watch order as Fate/Stay Night does not have a perfect anime adaptation, and it is essentially the base for all other titles in the franchise.
If you want to get into the Fate anime series (but don’t necessarily want to read the original visual novel), your best bet is to start with either the 2014 Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works series, or 2006 Fate/Stay Night. Neither is a perfect introduction, for reasons that you can search up since this topic is discussed a lot.
After that you can continue with Fate/Zero, and pretty much any of the Fate titles.
Not quite anime, but I’ve been watching the one piece live action. Context for the review: I’m up to date on both the manga and the anime. The live action is actually really good. It might even be as good as the anime. It’s a bit more realistic and darker, because of more actual deaths happening on screen, but it still has the one piece vibe imo.
The no power fight scenes (zoro, early story nami, etc.) actually look better. But I will concede that the powers and fishmen look worse.
Buggy has had his personality fused with Joker and it’s working out surprisingly well. He’s become more psychopathic.
I keep hearing so much good stuff about this. I watched the trailer and it looked better than I would have thought, except like you said, the powers look a bit odd.
Read a NYT interview with Oda rm the other day and it seems like he had a lot of say in it. I’m sure that makes a big difference. I’ll have to check it out, but I’m already reading the manga and watching the anime, so I don’t want to just One Piece 24/7!
It’s 8 episodes (1 hour each). Looks like it ends at the end of arlong park. If you want to pace yourself, I recommend one episode a day or week. They don’t really end on cliffhangers, especially if you already know the story.
Oh yeah, also just finished Farming Life in Another World. More light fanservice than any actual farming, but I loved the spider! I didn’t find any of the harem annoying and there wasn’t anything outright pervy, so it was fine. It does bother me a bit how emotionally unattached the MC is, especially to his kid.
Also watching Helck, which I went into blind. So far, nothing at all like I expected. Very silly in a good way. The demons are the good guys and the humans bad. Lots of cool powers, and some really cute side characters. In the midst recent episode, some dark things were hinted at, so we will see some serious moments ahead. Really fun so far though, and I look forward to it each week.
I also appreciate that the harem in Farming Life is so matter of fact, but it does mean the MC comes off as cold or distant a lot of the time. Agree that Makuro (spider) is great and everybody from the world is low-key terrified of Makuro. I also love the wolves Kuro and Yuki.
Helck has been interesting. It has had a very slow start, but it feels like it is doing a lot of work in establishing things. I mentioned in the last episode thread that the slow, unspoken worldbuilding they are doing in Helck reminds me a bit of Adventure Time. A pretty silly cast of characters that is set in a world harboring a very dark past.
I just actually read that Helck thread. It seems I haven’t been seeing them because I have bots blocked. I’m torn turning it off, but there’s so many posts with no talking.
I had expected Helck to be like I Quit Heroing, but it started more like the arena scene from Thor: Ragnarok. Even the fights so far have been relatively comedic with things like the shield guy that needs constant snacks and people calling Vermilion cutesy things and she gets all mad. The last episodes finally started hinting at dark things though. I’d like the plot to get deeper, but I really like a lot of the fun interactions. I also love Piwi, especially when he plays dumb like he was a regular bird.
The reactions to the spiders and wolves are one of my favorite gags in Farming Life. I like when the spider just waves hello to the people cowering in fear and then she just goes off and eats potatoes. The drunken slime is also fun. I’d party with that guy.
I read a bit of the wiki and it seems MC just guess around knocking everyone up, so I’m torn continuing watching the show. I like all the girls and animals, MC is just so bland though. He doesn’t have any struggles. He doesn’t seem to care much for anyone in particular. He didn’t even sweat fighting any monsters so far. If they ditched him and just had fantasy Yuru Camp in the forest, I think I’d prefer that.
I am up to date on the Farming Life manga (not read the LNs) and it doesn’t really change in those regards. I would consider it an Iyashikei series (even though MAL just has it as SOL), so by design it is mostly just chill vibes and character-driven gags occasionally. I do think that the MC and supporting cast could be more dynamic though. It sometimes feels like the author just wants to nerd out about some topic of the week related to farming/village construction rather than character writing. There are other examples on that MAL page of Iyashikei series that have very interesting characters (including my favorite show of all time, Mushishi) and Farming Life is just so bland in comparison.
I’m still watching Gintama, on EP ≈270 currently. Funniest Anime with great story arcs sprinkled in.
Holy heck do I love Gintama! I watched it all during Covid and loved everything about it. As funny as it was, it could pull some very emotional episodes off as well and I love the 4th wall breaking and screwing with the viewers. So much fun. I started a rewatch, but I have so much in watching right now.
