Anime/Manga - Discuss Japanese cartoons and comics here; NO CULTURE WAR DOOMPOSTING!

[Moguro Fukuzou]

Through what feels like a sheer stroke of luck I managed to stumble upon a copy of Evangelion Finally at my local record shop. It hits different listening to KOMM, SUSSER TOD off vinyl, highly recommend picking it up if you have a vinyl set up and manage to find a copy.

Is there any isekai series where the main character goes to a truly alien world, instead of the usual medieval European world? Like a world with 2 moons or 2 suns? It's a vast universe out there...

What I may really like is an isekai where there's no civilization in the other world - they're like "Stone Age" aliens. Or an isekai where the aliens are technologically ahead of Earthlings and have space travel.

I imagine there's also "reverse isekai", where one from some fantastical world turns up in modern Japan.

It's not really isekai (more sci-fi) but Jyu Oh Sei has that alien world feel going on, only real problem is that it gets incredible rushed near the end. Has a great opening though:

It probably also might not be what you're looking for, but it's worth a shot looking through the Lost Civilization and Post-Apocalyptic tags.

Being perfectly honest I've been spending more of my time lately reading through Korean webtoons than watching anime or reading manga.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Idaten is weird, it's like there is a basis for an interesting show, but the writer doesn't have any clue of what to do with it so it just keeps going. It also goes pretty far with what's allowed to show on television with explicit mentions of pedophilia (and not in a jokey way).

 

[Wingnut]

I imagine there's also "reverse isekai", where one from some fantastical world turns up in modern Japan.

Re: Creators is a reverse isekai that I enjoyed. It's a contained story with 24 episodes but got fucked in the Western market by Amazon's shitty AnimeStrike service that existed when it initially aired. It's still a digital Amazon exclusive despite being 4 years old.

 

[Atatata]

Idaten is weird, it's like there is a basis for an interesting show, but the writer doesn't have any clue of what to do with it so it just keeps going. It also goes pretty far with what's allowed to show on television with explicit mentions of pedophilia (and not in a jokey way).

It makes more sense in the context that it was originally a free to read web comic that stopped and then got a magazine adaption. Iirc it was toned down for the anime.
The author also wrote Interspecies Reviewers.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Re: Creators is a reverse isekai that I enjoyed. It's a contained story with 24 episodes but got fucked in the Western market by Amazon's shitty AnimeStrike service that existed when it initially aired. It's still a digital Amazon exclusive despite being 4 years old.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0diZ76yLLyo

My main complaints with it are that it took itself WAY too seriously, and various issues with how the main character was handled. A character powering up through fucking Twitter likes and the final battle being an anime crossover event are inherently silly concepts. And you know, the characters in-universe should certainly be taking it seriously, because it’s a matter of life or death for them. But the way it’s framed, it’s like the writers are expecting me to take it seriously too, which I take issue with. I suppose this is a very subjective and nebulous line, but this anime felt like it was trying way too hard to be deep and insightful when would’ve been better served having some more fun with its inherently ridiculous concept and stopped taking itself so damn seriously.

Spoiler: Major issues I had with it

So first off, his mom. She appears for one scene to disapprove about how he’s always drawing instead of studying, and never shows up again, despite him going up to his room literally right after that and making a hell of a racket when the first character gets isekai’d out of his tablet. Usually, this kind of stuff is handwaved by saying the MC’s parents are on a business trip, but when you introduce a strict/disapproving parent and not even two minutes later (not to mention for the rest of the show) seem to immediately forget that they ever existed, it just rubs me the wrong way. If you’re not going to actually USE a character like that for more than a scene, maybe just don’t introduce them at all. Because once they’re there, their absence from events that they would logically be a part of (ya know, being his mom and all, and presumably having to sign off on him going to help with some secret government project instead of going to school, which based on her one scene is something she’d almost certainly be against) becomes very conspicuous and hard to ignore.

When the government lady is first putting together the team, after gathering up all these important people, she just casually throws in, “oh yeah, of course you (the MC) are also going to be in on this.” Um, WHAT? At that point in the story, nobody knows that he has privileged information about the villain, he’s just some high school kid who happened to run into two of the isekai’d characters who has no skills of note to contribute to the master plan. There is no adequate in-universe reason for why he’s apparently brought on as a coffee boy instead of being served a gag order and being sent back home. It also makes him a way shittier character, because he actively makes things worse by withholding information that he has an obligation to divulge, by virtue of officially being part of the plan.

This could’ve been easily fixed if, instead, he wanted to work with them, but being too ashamed to divulge his history with the villain’s creator, he’s justifiably denied because as far as they’re concerned, he has nothing of value to offer to the project. Now, he still has to go through the same internal struggle of confronting his shame and eventually revealing his knowledge to the team, but instead of actively making things worse by withholding information he is obligated to give, he is being proactive and going against government orders in order to give them information that would help them, after which point he is officially integrated into the team because he now has a unique value that only he can give to the team.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It makes more sense in the context that it was originally a free to read web comic that stopped and then got a magazine adaption. Iirc it was toned down for the anime.
The author also wrote Interspecies Reviewers.

How the fuck do you tone it down without it being outright porn? Though it now makes sense how it has such a nice world building.

My main complaints with it are that it took itself WAY too seriously, and various issues with how the main character was handled. A character powering up through fucking Twitter likes and the final battle being an anime crossover event are inherently silly concepts. And you know, the characters in-universe should certainly be taking it seriously, because it’s a matter of life or death for them. But the way it’s framed, it’s like the writers are expecting me to take it seriously too, which I take issue with. I suppose this is a very subjective and nebulous line, but this anime felt like it was trying way too hard to be deep and insightful when would’ve been better served having some more fun with its inherently ridiculous concept and stopped taking itself so damn seriously.

Spoiler: Major issues I had with it

So first off, his mom. She appears for one scene to disapprove about how he’s always drawing instead of studying, and never shows up again, despite him going up to his room literally right after that and making a hell of a racket when the first character gets isekai’d out of his tablet. Usually, this kind of stuff is handwaved by saying the MC’s parents are on a business trip, but when you introduce a strict/disapproving parent and not even two minutes later (not to mention for the rest of the show) seem to immediately forget that they ever existed, it just rubs me the wrong way. If you’re not going to actually USE a character like that for more than a scene, maybe just don’t introduce them at all. Because once they’re there, their absence from events that they would logically be a part of (ya know, being his mom and all, and presumably having to sign off on him going to help with some secret government project instead of going to school, which based on her one scene is something she’d almost certainly be against) becomes very conspicuous and hard to ignore.

When the government lady is first putting together the team, after gathering up all these important people, she just casually throws in, “oh yeah, of course you (the MC) are also going to be in on this.” Um, WHAT? At that point in the story, nobody knows that he has privileged information about the villain, he’s just some high school kid who happened to run into two of the isekai’d characters who has no skills of note to contribute to the master plan. There is no adequate in-universe reason for why he’s apparently brought on as a coffee boy instead of being served a gag order and being sent back home. It also makes him a way shittier character, because he actively makes things worse by withholding information that he has an obligation to divulge, by virtue of officially being part of the plan.

This could’ve been easily fixed if, instead, he wanted to work with them, but being too ashamed to divulge his history with the villain’s creator, he’s justifiably denied because as far as they’re concerned, he has nothing of value to offer to the project. Now, he still has to go through the same internal struggle of confronting his shame and eventually revealing his knowledge to the team, but instead of actively making things worse by withholding information he is obligated to give, he is being proactive and going against government orders in order to give them information that would help them, after which point he is officially integrated into the team because he now has a unique value that only he can give to the team.

The two big problems in the show was:
1. A boring mary sue villainess that can't lose because she turned into a mary sue meme. Everyone else can't win against her despite being just as broken anime protagonists. She even gets a happy ending despite all the carnage she's done.
2. A midway shift from focusing on the fictional characters to their creators, which was just a circle jerk on how awesome they are for writing shitty fiction.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Manga Author Kayono Saeki Passes Away at 69 Years Old

Area 88 creator Kaoru Shintani made the official announcement this week that his wife—manga author Kayono Saeki—passed away on August 29.

otakuusamagazine.com

Manga Author Kayono Saeki Passes Away at 69 Years Old
by Joseph Luster September 21, 2021
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Area 88 creator Kaoru Shintani made the official announcement on Monday that his wife—manga author Kayono Saeki—passed away on August 29. The fellow creator was 69 years old and passed due to lung cancer.

Saeki was diagnosed with stage four cancer three years ago, and the cancer had already spread so surgery wasn’t an option. According to the announcement, her condition took a turn for the worse back in March, and she passed with her family surrounding her.

Some of the manga for which Saeki was known are the Smash! Meg manga, which debuted in Sho-Comi in 1980, and the Kuchibeni Combat and Akihi manga. She also teamed up with Shintani on the Quo Vadis manga in 2007 and her Hi no Ryosen manga netted her the 23rd Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 1994.

 

[Atatata]

How the fuck do you tone it down without it being outright porn?

The manga had racier angles and nipples, plus I'm pretty sure they decreased some of the boob sizes.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

The manga had racier angles and nipples, plus I'm pretty sure they decreased some of the boob sizes.

I remember when To Love Ru was being written and some new law in Japan was going around restricting what would be considered too echii for a “teen manga”, so people either had to dial back on it or be labeled “adult/explicit”.

So the artist just continued the story but went went full echii/naked for the fanservice parts.

 

[Fat Tub of Lard]

I remember when To Love Ru was being written and some new law in Japan was going around restricting what would be considered too echii for a “teen manga”, so people either had to dial back on it or be labeled “adult/explicit”.

So the artist just continued the story but went went full echii/naked for the fanservice parts.

And now the same guy who drew that is back in Shonen Jump doing Ayakashi Triangle, getting away with all the ecchi stuff by censoring it in Jump while putting the nipples back in for the tankoubon (from what I've heard; I've only been following the chapters through Viz's website).

 

[Revo]

I’ve read the first 15 chapters, and I’m definitely enjoying it, but god damn are there some salty ass fuckers in the comments complaining about how the MC doesn’t become super OP and fuck all the women.

And that’s way more annoying than a harem anime/manga with a generic MC. People getting this bent out of shape of a character not being whatever it is they want.

EDIT: also calling the main character sexist because he wants to protect women. Christ, I hate current year…

I wish to see these people writing their own mangas/light novels /fanfics about how the mc becomes op and has sex with all the girls, instead of wasting their time by owning with their facts and logic some Internet strangers for some Internet stickers.

 

[KokoroKoroki]

I imagine there's also "reverse isekai", where one from some fantastical world turns up in modern Japan.

Most of the big ones have already been mentioned and out of the ones I've seen, The Devil is a Part timer is probably my favorite of the bunch if only because I liked the humor and characters.

The genre itself doesn't have that many shows but I imagine a lot could be done with it if it's given more attention.

 

[Gar For Archer]

And now the same guy who drew that is back in Shonen Jump doing Ayakashi Triangle, getting away with all the ecchi stuff by censoring it in Jump while putting the nipples back in for the tankoubon (from what I've heard; I've only been following the chapters through Viz's website).

That’s also what happened with the original To Love Ru, though I assume he must’ve given up with the sequel because it straight up borders on softcore porn at times and I have no fucking clue how it could’ve possibly been censored.

Dude also has a lot of fun with reflections, because apparently it’s completely fine to draw uncensored female genitals as long as it’s in a barely-distorted reflection.

 

[ロボ﹏§¤r﹏h¶rœ]

Crunchyroll and Fuji TV Announce +Ultra Development Partnership​

Crunchyroll is officially teaming up with Japanese television network Fuji TV to kick off a partnership for the development and production of new series. Titles produced through the partnership will be broadcast in Japan on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block and streamed on Crunchyroll in over 200 countries and territories.

In addition to Crunchyroll and Fuji TV, creative company Slow Curve is on board to co-develop and co-produce a slate of series starting in April 2022. Upcoming titles in the works include a new project by manga author Tsutomu Nihei (Knights of Sidonia, BLAME!) and Polygon Pictures, as well as original title Estab-Life, which comes from producer and director Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion).

The Crunchyroll streaming premieres for these and other titles will arrive day and date with their debut on Fuji TV's midnight anime block +Ultra, which first launched in October 2018.

Ahead of these new titles, Fuji TV and Crunchyroll have teamed up on Muv-Luv Alternative, the long-awaited anime based on the hit game that follows the bonds between those who fight, in a world pushed to its limits. The series starts in October on Fuji TV's +Ultra block, and Crunchyroll will exclusively stream it worldwide outside of Asia.

 

[Rotollo 2]

So learning about Lupin the third Part 6 made me want to revisit some of the old episodes and I stumbled onto this gem:

Lupin uses the patented CWC strategy of information overload to fuck with Interpol.
This brought me down into one of the more retarded shitpost thought experiments I had: if Lupin was real, would have a thread here and if so how long would it be?

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

So learning about Lupin the third Part 6 made me want to revisit some of the old episodes and I stumbled onto this gem:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=p9gO1sYfhTU:680Lupin uses the patented CWC strategy of information overload to fuck with Interpol.
This brought me down into one of the more retarded shitpost thought experiments I had: if Lupin was real, would have a thread here and if so how long would it be?

I don't know. Zenigata maybe.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

if Lupin was real, would have a thread here and if so how long would it be?

Zenigata for sure, but Fujiko would have a thread for a honeypot fapbait.

 

[Rotollo 2]

You know what since I'm in a Lupin kick right now and actually completing my Lupin backlog like I promised @Kari Kamiya months ago on a call I want to ramble my opinions of Castle of Cagliostro here after finishing it:

Spoiler

TL;DR It's good but I don't think it is the peak of Lupin's story telling and I don't get why people say it's a good entry point other than it being a good single self contained story and it being one of Miyazaki's most interesting works. But I also don't think it's a "betrayal of the character" like some people do.
Prefacing this with saying I watched the dub which other than being annoyed at them saying wolf throughout the movie despite saying lupin at one point (fuck you Leblanc's estate it was gay when Doyle's did it to him and it's gay with this) was fine but might have contributed to some of the problems since IDK how some of the characters were portrayed in the Japanese version
Despite some people saying Lupin was too soft and portrayed too sweet and "declawed" I think he was pretty on point, the context of Clarisse helping him out all those years ago along with the general douchebaggry of the count making him want to be on his best moral standing.
Jigan and Zenigata are also on their top game here, especially when Zenigata has to team up with Lupin and gets devastated when the UN fucks him over, I was waiting for Zenigata March the entire film but didn't expect when it did show up to be such a gut punch.
The rest of the returning cast is meh, Goemon is just there and doesn't have much to do. This is common in a lot of Lupin media but in this case it stands out since he's called in for back up around 1/6th of the way from the movie by Jigan while everyone else has more natural introduction. Fujiko was fineish but I swear to god when she said to Clarisse that "Lupin is a rat" when she could probably grow whiskers and run Disneyland with how many times she fucked over the gang made me roll my eyes.
The film itself has great production value, amazing visuals, soundtrack, and structure but god does it feel like lupin and the gang stumbled into an unrelated Ghibli movie. With the villain being undone by his own hands pretty much, nature reclaiming the world with the roman ruins, hell at curtain points Lupin and the gang start to feel more like forces of nature trying to write the Count's wrongs. That's not a criticism mind you, Lupin is a very flexible character and I love when it isn't just "here's another by the number heist film" and offers something new. But when people say that Castle is a good entry point I just don't see it coming off as good without prior watching of something like Green Jacket to get a feel for how these characters normally are. You lose something without that prior knowledge and while Cagliostro is good I just feel people treating it like the gold standard for how good the series can be is slightly reductive.
Though I think it does serve as a good transition in the attitude in how Lupin was portrayed from Green Jacket moving into Red Jacket

I'll move on to Mystery of Mamo on Kari's suggestion next and I have high hopes for that as well.

I don't know. Zenigata maybe.

Getting a takedown request from INTERPOL would be a step up from the New Zealand police

Fujiko would have a thread for a honeypot fapbait.

So it would get moved to BP to stop thirstposting and then devolve into cat ladies alogging her?

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Mamo is basically Lupin at his apex - everything that's great about the character is in it. If you watch it dubbed, there are four dubs. I prefer the one with the TV series cast.

 

[Namekian George Floyd]

This is still the worst looking adaptation I've ever seen, I always knew that the art style of something and animation added flavor to a series but I didn't realize exactly how much until Shaman King became one of the worst looking Shonen Battle shows I've ever seen in my life despite loving the manga.