What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

[Blockio]

Rurouni Kenshin 2023

Wholly recommend heading for the high seas for this one. Because reasons.

YEEEEP, cannot emphasize this one enough

[Dr. Nick]

Eat-Man:

A genius reviewer on MAL made this connection, in large part because of the mysterious main character's inscrutable desert wandering antics: think of Eat-Man as a Neil Breen anime, and you're set. It's not good, but it does have that same tryhard outsider artist energy. Eat-Man '98 is a more conventional, supposedly more manga-faithful take, and as such a lot less memorable.


Knights & Magic:

Here's your Oppenheimer / The Wind Rises counterprogramming. When a Gunpla otaku salaryman gets isekai'd into a world that has Guymelef-style magic mechs, he chooses to spend his second life as Ernesti "Ernie" Echevalier by fully indulging in his robot building hobby. For some reason he's able to become a mechanical engineering god in this world even though he was a computer programmer before Truck-kun hit him, but I've been told modern isekai protagonists are basically required to be stupidly hax OP. Anyway, it's a good setup for a comedy, or maybe a wholesome Build Fighters style hobby anime... except this show also wants to be, even if half-heartedly, a serious fantasy war story with different human kingdoms at war with each other. As a result, Ernie develops into a villain protagonist who, like a one-man Anaheim Electronics, unleashes a weapons proliferation nightmare upon his new homeworld, with his actions directly contributing to the onset of a major war.

At first I thought he's literally the "wow cool robot" guy from that one Gundam meme (and Ernie is explicitly a Gundam fan, as the Char's Counterattack shout-out he drops in the final episode makes clear) and he just doesn't realize the horrifying implications of his actions, but when he gets his big moment of philosophically speechifying at the villain, he proudly outs his sociopathy: he likes robots and he's going to continue building them, and if it thrusts the world into an unending maelstrom of war, so be it. In fact, his beef with the villain nation of Zaloudek is purely aesthetical, as their tech development is too brutalistically functional and mobile-armory for his tastes. By the way, the anime does a dogshit job at making Zaloudek a tech-aesthetically distinct faction, since both sides still use equally gaudy basic template humanoid robots, and Ernie's case of aesthetics over function is undermined by his ground troop buddies defeating their personal big bad by embracing cheap shot combat pragmatism over knightly dueling. And if these contradictions sound theoretically interesting, rest assured, the text itself doesn't acknowledge they're there. It's not a good war story either since the big war, taking up the latter half of the 13 episode anime, has the pacing of an abridged series, with major setpiece battles lasting 30 seconds and a narrator being used to further compress the time scale.

On a positive note, this fantasy world doesn't seem to have any slavery in it, so that avenue of villainy is closed to Ernie, and he also seems to be completely asexual, which is very good considering he's a grown-ass man wearing the skin of a child.

I'm currently in the middle of playing Super Robot Wars 30, and Knights & Magic seems to be one of those cases where the game writers improve the source material by leaps and bounds, this time by making the now double-isekai'd Ernie a fairly pure comedy character whose job is to bring fanboy hype to the proceedings. The smug little twerp's story relevance is now as a side player at the service of the actual drama of the Magic Knight Rayearth plotline, which is pretty funny because Rayearth represents the old style of isekai storytelling where the main characters had to struggle like hell for their power-ups.

[The Killer of Heroes]

I remember watching Knights & Magic as it aired and thinking it was a really bland, nothing series and a good example as to why "Why isn't there a series about the mechanics that fix up the giant robots????" is just not a very strong premise despite /m/ types suggesting it every now and then. I've seen a lot of mecha fans hold it up as a good show though in recent years and it makes me wonder what drugs they're on.

[Blockio]

I've been shown the first... I want to say one or two episodes of it some years back, and my memory of it is that it's just sorta alright. Has potential, but I'll refrain from any further judgement until I've actually watched the damn thing

[Dr. Nick]

I've seen a lot of mecha fans hold it up as a good show though in recent years and it makes me wonder what drugs they're on.

It has that psycho protagonist novelty. A hysterical thought came to me: in terms of life philosophy, Ernie is basically a softer and twinkier M.D. Geist. Both cause a robot apocalypse and gain pleasure from doing so.

[The Killer of Heroes]

I mean in theory that's an interesting or at least fun angle but I don't think the show really makes it work on either of those levels. Never saw M.D. Geist so I'm not quite sure what you're referring to there.

Is SRW 30 any good btw? I kind of got burnt out on the franchise after T, and I seem to remember 30 getting mixed reviews.

[Blockio]

Some mutuals of mine at least had a good amount of fun playing it, for whatever that's worth

[Dr. Nick]

Is SRW 30 any good btw?

It's worth the money just because it gives you Gaogaigar & Betterman sequel content in English, since the original web novel is completely untranslated I believe, and the manga adaptation is only half-way scanlated. It's absolutely wild seeing these characters again. I try to write more about the game itself later in a gaming thread.

[The Killer of Heroes]

I didn't like GaoGaiGar at all so probably not for me then if that's the main selling point tbh.

[chazthesilencer]

Rurouni Kenshin 2023
Hope they get something comparable to Heart of Sword at some point.

What's wrong with you, Slim? Add a link next time!
Is there a more 90s ending theme out there?

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (season 2)
I hate to love this one. This image illustrates some of the best and worst qualities of the show:



Excellent art on Sara’s expression here, she looks genuinely hurt, and the viewer really feels sorry for her in this moment.
The context for the thing that upset her?: an ED-suffering man-child insulting her body.

On the one hand- the world it presents is interesting, has an atmosphere and looks lived-in in a way that most other isekais can only dream of achieving; there’s good, sometimes great animation; appealing character designs; a slow but steady story with endearing characters…
And on the other hand- we have some of the most uncomfortable sexual content I’ve ever seen in a show. The inescapable, highly creepy reality of the main character being an adult in a 14-year old body, doing things to young girls I wouldn’t dare type here.

And they just had to add in slavery, didn’t they? Yet another isekai wherein the protagonist shamelessly exploits a deplorable institution to recruit a swollen-eyed child into their party.
I’m patiently awaiting the day they produce an anti-salvery isekai inspired by the colourful stories of Cassius Clay.

The Duck of Death and his Maid (second cour)
Continuation of the gothic, rom-com, using the same 3D CG character animation style as before with little change/improvement, there seems to be a greater number of traditional 2D characters and sequences popping up this time around, however.

The supporting characters are being given more limelight, which sadly means that the titular characters get a little less. While Zain and Cuff are a welcome side-show, their circus episodes weren’t particularly interesting. We did however get an answer to that age-old question: Where exactly do you kiss the beak of a 6-foot tall, ram-horned, bird-man?
In ep 20, the Duke and Alice are once again given the full, centre stage, and I’m reminded why this was my favourite show of 2021.



Romance and tragedy perfectly blended.

Kaguya-Sama (season 4)
The excellent comedy of the first few episodes of the first season dried up tragically quickly, I accepted that, but came back to see the relationships develop until the third season.
It ended on a decent enough note, what would they do with a fourth season? Figured I’d give it a look. First episode, and I see this:



I can’t remember the last time my interest in a show was so quickly killed.

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses
Sweet, vanilla, middle-school rom-com involving a generic nice boy, legally-blind (and mildy cretinous) girl and their harmless hijinks.
The mileage and quality it gets out of such a simple premise is pleasantly surprising. Expect plenty of scowl-faced, violations of personal space with an abundance of cute girl “Hoh!?” gasps.
Oh, and don’t forget the hair. Very floofy, over-animated hair.


It’s obvious from the beginning that this is a GoHands production, with its opening sequence making use of 3D CG animation to render the winding school halls and stair way, with traditional 2D characters walking around to…variable degrees of success.



They’ve had practice doing this, and it still looks a bit wonky.
Well, it’s more ambitious than the sequence from Seitokai Yakuindomo (S2):



And it doesn’t look quite as ugly as Hand Shakers did:



I’m sorry for reminding anyone that even existed.

[MsenjaKagami]

I can’t remember the last time my interest in a show was so quickly killed.

So I know this looks like a weird swerve into a completely different kind of show/abandoning of the plot, but it actually isn't. It's also not really 'episode 1 of season 4', but the first quarter of the anime movie that adapts the arc that comes following season 3 (and this weird chibi segment is actually contextualized as part of the plot/character arc). Idk how serious you were about this killing your interest in the series (which from the way you described your experience it sounds like this made you immediately exit out when you saw this), and I guess if you were 100% serious this probably wont change your mind. But honestly, if you did have any genuine interest in the show/what was going to happen next, i think it'd be worth it to give this one another shot.

[Blockio]

Found out about The Mars Daybreak by luck some time ago and gave it a watch; it's a shame this show was drowned out by others airing alongside it, it is a very good time. Confident 8/10 early 2000s mostly episodic robot fun. Very enjoyable cast, knows what spots to hit when. Definitely recommended if you're looking for something lighthearted to spend 26 episodes on

[chazthesilencer]

I returned to the Brighton Odeon once again (thankfully not during the winter months and without a stomach full of orange squash this time) to watch Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 along with roughly 3 dozen other people or so.

Patrons were handed out double-sided A4 prints of Asuka and Rei9, which was a nice, little freebie:



Rei9 looks like she’s awkwardly responding to Madonna’s order of “Strike the pose”…

Some (minor spoilery) thoughts on the film-

SPOILER: Show

• Rei9’s pleasant farmer’s life was cute and all, but felt like little more than filler. Shinji was already coming out of his funk, her getting tango’d didn't feel significant enough and the tragedy didn’t quite hit.
• It’s unfortunate to see that even 30+ years after Gunbuster, Anno still hasn’t learned that a single hero (well, duo of heroes) blitzing countless enemies in an action sequence doesn’t always make the hero(es) look powerful, it makes the enemies look weak.
• It was comical how casually Rei0 was reintroduced and quickly nudged aside. Isn’t she kind of a big deal? Wasn’t her rescue the reason the world almost ended? The biggest, most significant change in Rebuild continuity? Couldn't that moment been treated with a bit more...weight?
• They said Kaji sacrificed himself to stop N3i? Huh? Didn’t the 2.22 post-credit spear thrown by Kaworu accomplish that? Was his a meaningless sacrifice?
• I almost, audibly scoffed at the sight of the CG, giant, naked Reiface. Nine years of waiting for that?
• TL;DR: All Asuka needed was a head-pat.

The loudest reaction from the audience was a (light) chuckle at Asuka’s “What are you, his wife?” quip at Sakura.
Seven of us stayed for the credit scroll, the rest knew they wouldn’t be getting any more fan service... well, joke’s on them, we stayers were treated to a nice, da capo rendition of “Beautiful World” until the final ©khara hit.

When all was said and done, I wasn’t feeling satisfaction as much as a feeling of: <pat dust from hands> “that’s the end of that chapter”.

I was lucky enough to see all four films in the cinema, the highlights of the experiences were:
1.0 – Seeing and hearing operation Yashima on the big screen.
2.0 - Sharing a laugh with the rest of the audience after Gendo’s three “Yes”s to Rei.
3.0 - Exiting the cinema very quickly.
4.0 - Shinji's first vomiting reaction at the DSS felt very real.



========

The fall season of 2023 is looking decent, I'll be forking out for another Crunchy subscription for more Spy x Family alone.

[Mr. Tines]

Since Crunchyroll has been having problems here since the end of July, there's little to report on this front, except...

I have just begun my 20 years on rewatch of Eva. Not entirely re-enacting the first time around, as I'm using Platinum, and subbed from the outset, and for once, playing through "Fly Me To The Moon", which Karen and I tacitly agreed to skip after episode 1 and had remained the default ever since.

Two episodes in, watching with a more analytic eye after all this time, realising the fallibility of memory that just stores a condensed version of everything. I'd forgotten quite how break-neck paced those two episodes are, introducing so much in passing as well as doing the bait-and-switch with the giant robot fight. It was not just nostalgia from my very early anime days - those episodes are genuinely good in and of themselves, rather than being mere introduction.

Unlike 20 years ago, which was a binge watch of each DVD as it came out, so a gap of 4-6 weeks, culminating with EoE sometime early Spring '04, this time I shall nibble, a couple of episodes at a time, but with the episodes all to hand, do that every few days.

[Asugran233]

16bit Sensation: Another Layer watch it. Is pretty good, today 2nd episode was airing but i'm watching in tomorow beacuse ia a night in my time zone.

[The Killer of Heroes]

When I rewatched Eva for the first time in years before Shin came out, what really surprised me was how good those early episodes up through the "action" arc were, especially compared to its contemporaries (Many of which aren't even bad themselves). So much variety in the Angel battles.

16bit Sensation: Another Layer watch it. Is pretty good, today 2nd episode was airing but i'm watching in tomorow beacuse ia a night in my time zone.

I really liked the first episode, haven't watched the second yet, though I hope it doesn't fall too hard into a boomerish "The past was just so much better, maaaaan" about VN's of all things, especially since it seems to me we're still getting generally well received ones these days. Like maybe good eroge specifically we're not really getting anymore, but still.

[Dr. Nick]

Majestic Prince:

An early impression I had was "We have Nadesico at home". What I mean by this is the show is comedy-coded, but there's very little comedy in it. The characters are very generically anime-quirky (The main girl is a terrible cook!), but they have shtick, not jokes. The story set-up would be fertile ground for comedy: a morbidly corrupt, dumb-cruel Earth federation is being invaded by an expeditionary force of hedonistic Hiraiface gene stealers, and the planet's last line of defense is a bunch of dorky teenagers piloting instinct-powered mechs. It's bizarre how little it is mined for laughs. Like, it's your basic emotions can manifest as energy thing, but it works bi-directionally, so the robots' black box tech, if driven hard, can induce loopy, temporary personality changes in their pilots, which is a concept Shouji Kawamori would probably build an entire Aquarion sequel out of. Instead, what MJP goes for seems to be "space war things you've seen before, played straight". There's an episode that at first seems to be building towards a joke about death flags, and then it just does the death thing, and not even the protagonist Izuru, who is a cartoonist mind you, says anything genre-savvy. I seriously don't know what the angle is here, because if it's supposed to be retro earnestness, the required pathos isn't there either. Maybe it is realism? Or maybe it's something adaptational, because this is a fairly rare mecha anime that's actually based on a manga, by the GetBackers creator Rando Ayamine. The manga seems to be a completely unknown property in the west, with none of it being translated.

In terms of overall plot, the show as it is only seems to cover the first half of a hypothetical 50-episode anime. Things like Wulgaru homeworld politics and most glaringly, Izuru's entire childhood before his mind-wipe and him reconnecting with Teoria are left unresolved. What's in the show then? If you asked me what mecha anime is first and foremost about robots fighting each other, I would probably recommend MJP now, even though the action is all CG and too fast for my boomer taste. The sequel movie Genetic Awakening seems to realize this is where the show's strength lies and doubles down on the hype shounen fights, and it works. Its screenplay has the terse good guy / bad guy / location / fight! simplicity of A-tier B-Movies like Bloodsport, and it's the best MJP thing by far, making it, technically speaking, one of those rare, vaunted anime that "end good". There are even some actual jokes in it, and they're funny!

[The Killer of Heroes]

I don't remember MJP super well but I seem to remember it being one of the few shows with CG mech fights that people thought actually looked decent.

Not sure how it holds up on that front but I remember it generally looking better CG-wise than, say, the early VOTOMS Pailsen Files episodes.

[Mr. Tines]

Looking back in the earlier reaches of the thread, I characterised MJP as a decent enough not!Gundam - but was watching it in the context of DarliFra not long being over, and thus serving as comparison (including comparing the "transfer student" pilot with the Nines). Finding it was a partial manga adaptation somewhat goes to explain the "it just stops" series ending.

[Blockio]

Felt like some 1920s aeronautics, so I finally gave Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises a watch; Porco Rosso is a lot better a movie than it is a story, if that makes sense; it is very much carried by the vibrancy of its world and the ability to go "oh I know what that is" when it brings up an actual thing from the colorful history of 1920s Italy; I want to liken it to Girls und Panzer, you don't really watch it for its story so much as for its vibes and because you like cool tech; Fio is also an absolute ray of sunshine in a way that I have not seen since Allenby when I watched G Gundam.
Overall definitely worth the time if any part of that sounds appealing to you

The Wind Rises by comparison is very... messy, and ultimately just kind of exists and I question why it does. It walks a weird middle ground between work of fiction and biography, and kind of succeeds at neither; the biographical parts make the work of fiction flow very weirdly, and the attempts to make it into a compelling narrative just end up being extremely frustrating if you know some of the actual events, so every twenty minutes or so, you will feel a strong urge to look up if you've just never heard of something, or if it's another thing that the movie pulls out of thin air, in the same way that you can't trust anything AC Valhalla frames as historical fact. (that comparison is a little unfair because AC Valhalla is fucking awful about it, but the general trend holds)