Manga and Anime

The Madrid One wrote:The only Anime i've ever watched with interest and from start to finish (apart from Yugimon and Digi Oh) has been Death Note.

I thought that series was sick, what other Animes that are dark and cerebral like that are there?

try something like Psycho Pass or Darker Than Black

specifically the former IMO

you could also try Devilman Crybaby for something super violent and dark, it was a recent Netflix series..pretty decent but not great IMO..though others love it. Not sure as someone who hasn't watched much anime though if you can get over the very unique artstyle

Has anyone here ever watched Captain Tsubasa ??

Very old football-related anime from Japan back in early 90s I watched (but originally created in 1983). Watching this literally got me into football...my most favourite childhood cartoon.

In original Japanese


With Persian dubbing (actually sounds much better )

Yea i remember watching that as a kid. I think most watched it at some point.

Firenze wrote:

RealGunner wrote:both imdb and MAL ratings are mediocre for it...

But seen high reviews too tho.


Anyways, caught up to boku no hero so going to stop watching that for a year or two now since ain't nobody got time for weekly wait.

Started Haikyu. 5 episodes in and it's good so far. I assume it gets better.

Yeah, it's just introducing the guys..by the end of Episode 9 I was invested in the team and once the actual matches start coming it's hype every ep

ep 24

Spoiler:

of course they did

Oikawa the GOAT

and damn, you're getting through it pretty quick..think I was the same, told myself I'd watch 1 ep a day lmao

Zagadka wrote:Has anyone here ever watched Captain Tsubasa ??

Very old football-related anime from Japan back in early 90s I watched (but originally created in 1983). Watching this literally got me into football...my most favourite childhood cartoon.

In original Japanese


With Persian dubbing (actually sounds much better )

a remake started airing a couple months ago actually, haven't watched it but it's handled by a prestigious studio so it's probably good quality

Tsubasa is a classic. The amount of people that got into football because of it is insane.

@RealGunner

who's your fav player at Karasuno? I take it you're liking it considering how fast you're getting through it

Season 2's probably the best of the 3 IMO, but it's all consistent

Zagadka wrote:Has anyone here ever watched Captain Tsubasa ??

Very old football-related anime from Japan back in early 90s I watched (but originally created in 1983). Watching this literally got me into football...my most favourite childhood cartoon.

In original Japanese


With Persian dubbing (actually sounds much better )

Yeah wanted to rewatch original version but wasn't as fun as Persian dubbed xD

Firenze wrote:of course they did

Oikawa the GOAT

and damn, you're getting through it pretty quick..think I was the same, told myself I'd watch 1 ep a day lmao

Firenze wrote:@RealGunner

who's your fav player at Karasuno? I take it you're liking it considering how fast you're getting through it

Season 2's probably the best of the 3 IMO, but it's all consistent

I wont lie, i kinda was contemplating of dropping it. It's not bad at all. In fact it's a solid 8/10. But it just felt repetitive. However the last few episodes gripped me so i'll continue.

I assume season 2 is redemption arc.

Favourite player? Hinata ofc.

Bit weird that they hyped Asahi so much as the ace but he became a nobody in the end lol.

Yeah I was disappointed by that actually, cause I really liked Asahi's introduction. I hear he gets a lot more hype in the manga though and is one of the teams best known players, but IMO Tanaka is shown to be more of an ace than him in the anime. Hinata smh, vintage shounen MC. Actually thought he would annoy me but his enthusiasm makes you cheer for him ffs. I was surprised too cause I expected him to be the MC but it often seems more like Kageyama is.

How do you guys rate Tokyo Ghoul season 2? Enjoyed the first. But heard the 2nd and beyond are not up to the mark.

And manga. Better?

nah the manga was awful and reeked of the author just milking the series and then getting bored, enjoyed the first part and the setting..second was woeful, don't bother IMO.

@RealGunner

I sense Haikyuu has stalled for you

pls respond

Got hooked to few elite TV shows.

I'll resume in a while.

Did you catch up on My Hero?

I stopped at episode 57 because ain't nobody waiting for weekly eps.

Gonna get back into it in 2-3 years. Shame since it's so good. Wish it had over 200 eps to watch.

good, pick Haikyuu back up again IMO.

I tried to get into the Haikyuu manga but ain't nobody got time for that, definitely something where watching the anime is unquestionably the best way to go

Firenze wrote:nah the manga was awful and reeked of the author just milking the series and then getting bored, enjoyed the first part and the setting..second was woeful, don't bother IMO.

Dead

Just finished the rock climbing manga Firenze hyped. Guess what I'm reading next.

Yep the bird boy one...

Pray for my soul lads.

did I actually hype that though?  The Climber, if I did it was when I was still high on it, started to sour after the first half or so, still a decent read IMO and the art was amazing, did you find it a good read?. PunPun is one of the all time great coming of age stories across all media, if not the greatest. Enjoy.

The good.

Art: 10/10. Like you said, the art was amazing. Probably the best art I've seen in a manga, especially in the later chapters. The hand drawn snowy mountains were beautiful, all the characters were really drawn well too.

Tone: The tonal shift after high school was jarring but thats what set the manga apart. The first chapters were very typical sports manga but the depressing/dark tone it takes later made it far better. In the middle I considered dropping it because it got too depressing.

Subverting expectations:

Spoiler:

Character development: The protagonist's journey and growth was really well done. As were some of the supporting characters.

Ending: Liked it, it was getting boring in the middle but the ending sequence was beautifully written. The analogy of the Himalayan birds that fly over Everest with the protagonist climbing K2 was amazing.

The bad

Melodrama: Criticism of Japanese manga in general, ffs they can make any sport in the world and make it sooooo melodramatic. Someone should make a manga about MT and pro clubs. Guaranteed to be a top 3 popular anime in 3 years.

Abandoned plotlines: The manga reeked of it. I heard the authors changed 1/4th of the way so maybe thats why? We never got any details on why Buntou's friend killed himself for example.

My memory is pretty hazy with a lot of it since it's been a few years and I've read a lot since. I don't ever recall reading about a writer change, pretty sure art and story were handled by the one guy.  IIRC, a complaint I had with it, and which made me start to sour is that, while he did subvert expectations with supporting characters like you said, he did it so often you actually began expecting it and I thought the arcs fell into a predictable pattern. MC met someone, they turned out to be a scumbag and it'd impact the MC negatively. I feel like there were only a couple of halfway decent people in the entire manga. But again, I've forgotten large parts of it.

Spoiler:

Creator has another manga that's highly rated with an interesting setting called Innocent, follows a French noble executioner during the renaissance era IIRC. I couldn't get into it myself.

Curious to see how you find PunPun though. I think a lot of it will come down to if you can relate to certain parts or not. IMO the art is even better than The Climber too, and actually a big part of capturing the emotion during some the impactful scenes. May be a good idea to take a little break though since it can be very depressing too at times and that and The Climber back to back may be too much.

any progress with anything lately? @everyone



JoJo Part 5 ending song from the new season is just ridiculous

an RnB song from the 90s that opens with 'every day in the morning I wake up feeling so horny' ffs

Finished Punpun.

The first parts (up to high school) was 10/10 for me. His whole life being defined by a middle school crush threw me off, don't know who the hell relates to that. Relatability went out of the window as he found himself in more and more absurd situations. Still really good, art was incredible. I'm reading some of the author's other works now (A Girl On The Shore, Solanin).

I always thought, and it's been years since I read it, that he was more so in love with the idea of her, couldn't really adjust to young adulthood and kept clinging onto the one pure thing from his childhood, and romanticizing youth is obviously a huge thing in Japan. I do agree it veered into wacky territory towards the end (especially that one plotline), but I still think it's one of the better coming of age stories. Some brutal moments in it. I agree with the first parts until High School being the best though.

Solanin's the best of his works outside of PunPun IMO, by a decent margin and is more relatable and realistic as a whole for most people in their early 20s, some of the others are ridiculously obscure. Girl On The Shore is def decent though. I recommend reading his earlier short story collections too, they were decent, one of them had a Tarantino vibe with the interconnecting stories.

Sekai no Owari to Yoakemae
Hikari no Machi
Subarashii Sekai

etc, all pretty short, I think he's kinda fallen off for me in recent years, he's trying to move away from the sort of stories that defined him, he's still putting out decent stuff though just not the kinda things I really care about

Also can we finally put to rest the mockery of him being a bird boy in PunPun ffs, it was a good choice from the author.