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

[Thomas Talus]

Space Dandy is an anthology with each episode having a different director. Quality can vary, but the best ones are phenomenal.

 

[Bender]

Please recommend me some trash anime with OP mcs so I can not pay attention to election bullshit.

Mars of Destruction, @Secret Asshole loved it when I recommended it to him.

Edit: Disregard that, I forgot what you were looking for when I was trying to think of stuff and thought you wanted anime with trash MCs.

If by "trash anime" you mean the cheesy 90's stuff then I'd recommend Golden Boy and Great Teacher Onizuka, both have MCs that are OP but somewhat grounded in reality.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

https://twitter.com/_namori_/status/1324201588123082752

Chinatsu is forcing Kyoko to practice social distancing in Japan.

 

[he who has thus come/gone]

There's The Misfit at Demon King Academy.

Already watched it. Actually enjoyed it. I thought the MC was pretty good even for a stereotypical "OP MC interacts with fellow high school students"—but only because Anos' attitude was kind of unique in that he didn't give a fuck and was always one step ahead. That was the only thing keeping the show going. Same reason I liked Maou-sama, Retry! The MC's attitude made it worthwhile, even if every other part of it was trash.

Well, if you haven't watched Mahouka yet Tatsuya gets the sasuga oniisama treatment and is basically Jesus.

I've seen that anime pop up before, but it looked kind of cheesy at the time. But now? I'll take it.

There's also the classic Jesus Yamato with Gundam Seed, original dub adds to the charm with some over-the-top performances.

Cross Ange

Getter Robo Armageddon OVA - I don't think you need any knowledge of the Getter series to enjoy it, pretty short too.

Most of the modern Mazinger stuff

Mars of Destruction

I'm really not into mechas to be honest. I know some people love them (or at least tolerate them) but I really can't take mecha things seriously. I couldn't even get through the first episodes of Evangelion. Mechas just seem dumb to me. I was recommended Knights and Magic since I'm really into OP isekai MCs, but, again, I just find mechas to be stupid as all hell and quit after a few episodes.

I haven't watched it through myself but Hagure Yuusha no Estetica probably also counts.

Looks interesting, if a little lewd.

Drifters and Hellsing OVA

I've watched Drifters (really enjoyed it, wish there was a second season) but not Hellsing. I'll have to take a look. I liked the Netflix version of Castlevania which seems similar.

Crusher Joe Movie

Doesn't seem like a mecha movie, from what I can tell, so I'll add it to the list.

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

Seen it, had to stop watching when he started fingering that cat loli for "plot reasons."

Arifureta

Only heard bad things (well, more like that it's for middle school boys), but I don't really care at this point. One more for the list.

Space Dandy

I've heard great things, but never watched it before (probably the name turned me off). Good rec.

Golden Boy and Great Teacher Onizuka

Golden Boy seems a little...lewd. Onizuka is something I've seen thrown around a lot, but never gave a chance. Should probably try it out.

If by "trash anime" you mean the cheesy 90's stuff

I kind of was just looking for iseaki-tier "trash" where you can pour in 6 hours of watching and get nothing out of it other than "wow this guy/gal is super OP, let's see what they do next that's fun and allows me to escape from politics." The problem is, I'm fairly certain I've seen every isekai out there—good and bad. So it's either rewatching shit like In Another World with My Smartphone (and My Underage Loli Harem) or forgettable trash like Isekai Cheat Magician, which I haven't seen in years, or finding some gem in the rough.

 

[Atatata]

I kind of was just looking for iseaki-tier "trash" where you can pour in 6 hours of watching and get nothing out of it other than "wow this guy/gal is super OP, let's see what they do next that's fun and allows me to escape from politics." The problem is, I'm fairly certain I've seen every isekai out there—good and bad. So it's either rewatching shit like In Another World with My Smartphone (and My Underage Loli Harem) or forgettable trash like Isekai Cheat Magician, which I haven't seen in years, or finding some gem in the rough.

You could try manga, really puts it into perspective that the ones with anime adaptions are the top percent. Reincarnated as a Sword has a good number of chapters out now, if I remember correctly.

 

[he who has thus come/gone]

You could try manga, really puts it into perspective that the ones with anime adaptions are the top percent. Reincarnated as a Sword has a good number of chapters out now, if I remember correctly.

I might have to break my ban on reading manga (with the exception to the rule being Berserk, because of course). I'll look at Reincarnated as a Sword. Thanks for the rec.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Also I just noticed this because I was distracted by the pretty art in the end credits, but what are the Fate people doing that they're being giving special thanks? Are they giving advice or what?

View attachment 1710402

I just happened to look up Higurashi Kai's ending and realized I was gonna have to take an L on this one. Turns out TYPE-MOON got involved with Higurashi rather late into the first season, and has stayed since.

Episode 23:

Episode 24:

Still don't know why they had gotten involved in some way to be given special thanks, but there you go. That's what I get for not paying attention to the credits because of pretty imagery.

 

[Big Bad Wart]

I might have to break my ban on reading manga (with the exception to the rule being Berserk, because of course). I'll look at Reincarnated as a Sword. Thanks for the rec.

Why not read Manga?

As for trash anime with OP characters these are the ones I can think of :
Death March was pretty bad ( at least they didn't animate to the point where it revealed the Hero is a pedophile who is jealous of the MC for being around little girls.)

Maou-sama retry would probably fall under that

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? its not that bad but this series has an OP character but it technically has multiple MC's.

Kaze no stigma the MC is pretty OP but it never finished because author dead. Overall not run of the mill in terms of quality.

Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica

Kenja no Mago

Strike the blood

Airing right now is Noblesse if you want something current.

 

[Soew]

more like that it's for middle school boys

it is, i like it because it tips over into being funny with how over the top it is. think fun in the way schlocky 80s/90s action movies are

 

[Thomas Talus]

Still don't know why they had gotten involved in some way to be given special thanks, but there you go. That's what I get for not paying attention to the credits because of pretty imagery.

One of the secondary characters in Higurashi is very heavily based on a Tsukihime character. Same name, same face, same favorite food.

 

[Trashfire Garbagefuck]

Just caught up on Chainsaw Man, god damn that was all kinds of metal and heartwarming and funny as hell. And here I thought we were heading into Fire Punch tier nihilism and sadness when I last left off. I think I'll take one more break since ch91 is a great point to leave off on and this looks like the last leg of the story. I might need to reread it too. I bet there's a lot of connections I missed the first time, or would only understand now.

Spoiler: also

 

[he who has thus come/gone]

Why not read Manga?

I just don't want to become too much of a weeb. But maybe that ship has sailed.

As for trash anime with OP characters these are the ones I can think of :
Death March was pretty bad ( at least they didn't animate to the point where it revealed the Hero is a pedophile who is jealous of the MC for being around little girls.)

Maou-sama retry would probably fall under that

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? its not that bad but this series has an OP character but it technically has multiple MC's.

Kaze no stigma the MC is pretty OP but it never finished because author dead. Overall not run of the mill in terms of quality.

Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica

Kenja no Mago

Strike the blood

Airing right now is Noblesse if you want something current.

I've already seen Death March (pretty meh, but not horrible), Maou-Sama Retry (the MC carries the whole show, otherwise it's forgettable), and Kenja no Mago (totally forgettable, to be honest). Strike the Blood and Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica look interesting, though the rest don't seem that appealing to me. I really just like classical isekai genre with an OP MC (though I don't particularly care for harems) it's just that I've unfortunately seen most of them.

 

[FuckedUp]

Even excluding monster girls and actual hentai, this is so common in anime it's not even funny:

ESPECIALLY One Piece, like I'd bet huge money Oda comes up with most of his ideas when jacking off.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Even excluding monster girls and actual hentai, this is so common in anime it's not even funny:
View attachment 1715806
ESPECIALLY One Piece, like I'd bet huge money Oda comes up with most of his ideas when jacking off.

Isn't Oda like perpetually horny for his wife, who's a cosplayer, and he's hoping she'll dress up in all the different skimpy outfits he designs for Nami?

 

[Atatata]

I just don't want to become too much of a weeb. But maybe that ship has sailed.

I've already seen Death March (pretty meh, but not horrible), Maou-Sama Retry (the MC carries the whole show, otherwise it's forgettable), and Kenja no Mago (totally forgettable, to be honest). Strike the Blood and Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica look interesting, though the rest don't seem that appealing to me. I really just like classical isekai genre with an OP MC (though I don't particularly care for harems) it's just that I've unfortunately seen most of them.

How about trying the new isekai coming out? Iirc they're at five episodes by now. Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear and By the Grace of the Gods are both pretty basic, fairly slice of life. I don't know about the Million Lives one.

Moonled Journey Moonlit Fantasy is one that I particularly like that's getting an anime next year. The manga scans can be pretty low quality though. Its about a guy that gets isekai'd because of a deal his parents made with that world's goddess, only to be told he's too ugly and gets thrown out.

 

[King Dead]

Well, I recently finished watching everything related to Steins;Gate because I'm late to the party, so fuck it, here's some random thoughts about it. This is the perspective of someone who has not read the VNs, so I won't be talking about plot points that only come up in the VNs or other differences between them. I might get around to reading them at some point, but for now, my experience is anime-only.

First off, without getting into spoilers, I watched in the order S;G -> Episode 25 (OVA) -> Load Region of Deja Vu (movie) -> Episode 23β -> S;G 0. Now that I've watched them all, I'm still mulling over my opinions on what the best watch order is. I think the way I did it is probably the best way overall, despite how S;G 0 fits into the overall structure. Maybe move the OVA and movie to the end since they're more of a definitive ending to the overall story, but otherwise you should definitely see the end of the original anime before you watch 0 so that you get the full context of the events that play out.

Okay, now spoiler talk:

Spoiler: Let me tell you about worldlines

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with both series, and I can see why S;G has gotten a lot of praise. I enjoy time travel stories quite a bit, particularly those that take the effort to clearly define the rules of time travel and avoid paradoxes. In that regard, S;G delivers quite nicely through the concept of worldlines. Crazy how the writers managed to take a twenty-year-old internet prank and turn it into the basis for such an engaging story.

The original anime is well worth a watch, even if you don't go on to anything else. It has great pacing, a fun cast of characters that play well off each other, and a plot that manages to be easy to follow despite involving parallel timelines that you have to keep track of. It starts as a madcap adventure with a self-proclaimed mad scientist and his assistants accidentally stumbling into the concept of altering the past, and then building off of that to create a working time machine. And then, exactly at the halfway point, it takes a major turn, the stakes go through the roof, and you watch Okabe suffer through constant time leaps trying to save Mayuri, even sacrificing Kurisu to allow her to live...

...and just when you think it's over, there comes Suzuha out of fucking nowhere for one final twist. Those last two episodes are top-notch, especially the future Okabe's D-mail telling present Okabe how to reach Steins;Gate. I had the biggest grin on my face during that whole sequence, and by god Okabe earned his happy ending. I feel like I could talk about the series for hours and all the things I liked about it (the idea that Okabe caused Mayuri's death by jumping to the Alpha worldline in the first place and had to undo everything to get back to the Beta worldline, the unfolding relationship between Okabe and Kurisu despite the latter not knowing about many of their interactions together due to all the time travel, even the little things like how the OP/ED change as soon as Okabe returns to the Beta worldline), but I'll move on.

Not too much to say about the OVA except that it's fucking hilarious. It also has a really sweet ending, with Okabe dropping the chuuni act and being forthright with Kurisu about his feelings for her. A satisfying cherry on top of the main series.

I found the movie to be an even better ending than episode 25, to be honest. I'm sure some would disagree and would prefer for the time travel shenanigans to be over and done with because they're tired of seeing Okabe suffer, but I thought it was neat to see Kurisu's perspective as the time-traveling protagonist. I liked the concept of Okabe's inability to accept the Steins;Gate worldline due to all his conflicting memories of the other worldlines causing him to slip into a parallel, almost-identical worldline, to the point where he basically never existed in the first place. Everyone knows something's off, but they have no idea what it is, and it was neat watching Kurisu piece together what happened, even time-traveling against Okabe's wishes to find a way to keep him in Steins;Gate (even if she causes a bit of a time paradox in the process). And the ending is incredibly sweet and brought a tear to my eye.

And then we get into S;G 0. Now, I've heard that this isn't as good an adaptation of the VN as the original S;G anime, but I have no context for that so I can't tell you one way or the other. From my anime-only perspective, however, I really liked 0 too. It follows a different branch instead of the true ending that the original anime followed, exploring the concept of what would happen if Okabe couldn't carry on and get back into the time machine to save Kurisu a second time, which is what episode 23β shows. It can be something of a bummer for fans of Hououin Kyouma to watch Okabe behave like a normal college student and avoid his friends at the lab, but I found it fascinating to see a different side of his character. After lord knows how many time leaps, it's really not hard to believe that Okabe would be changed by his ordeal, attempting to disassociate from anything that could remind him of his failure to save Kurisu...only to be thrust back into it when he learns of the Amadeus AI that is built off of Kurisu's own memories.

It was interesting to follow the story as it progressed along similar lines to the original, with shadowy organizations attempting to gain control of the secrets of time travel while Okabe tries to keep his friends alive, only this time without the use of time travel, until he finally has no other choice to time leap to try to save Mayuri again. And then the ultimate badass moment comes after he's transported to the future WW3, when he makes up his mind to time leap three thousand times to return to 2011 and set things right, heralding the rebirth of Hououin Kyouma. Seeing how everything tied together at the end (2011 Mayuri convincing 2010 Mayuri to smack some sense into Okabe (with the triumphant return of the original S;G OP!), 2025 Okabe giving 2010 Okabe the plan to reach Steins;Gate, and then going back to 18,000 B.C. to rescue the stranded Mayuri and Suzuha like a goddamn badass) was immensely satisfying, and only heightened my appreciation for the original's ending, seeing all the work that Okabe went through to reach the good end. Again, I dunno if this is a popular opinion or not, but I enjoyed S;G 0 a lot and would definitely recommend it.

In short, well worth the time spent watching them. Like I said, might get around to reading the VNs at some point, but we'll see.

 

[Rance's Hyper Weapon]

Recently rewatched Samurai Champloo and fell in love with it all over again. It had some weaker episodes but overall the journey of our three protagonists was fun to watch. I remember not liking the ending when I first watched it back in the mid 2000s but watching again now I think it's a perfect ending and can even relate to the message. Also the soundtrack really helped the show too.

 

[Namekian George Floyd]

Been watching Black Clover recently and I'm almost caught up to the point before the filler starts and like, jesus fuck, I really liked the first couple arcs but it's such a mixed bag afterwards. It went from an extremely simple yet well executed shonen to strangling itself in an attempt to ramp up the scale and complexity. There's so many background characters and characters who come out of literally nowhere that are somehow important to the story and get a lot of attention, like there's an entire tournament arc that was filled with literal who's with no personality then we get to this arc where a bunch of known characters are possessed and being controlled but they all somehow retain their personality despite this with the addition of talking about how much they hate humans, they all make for terrible villains despite some of the fights being cool.
Anybody else here watch Black Clover? Or did everyone just drop it in the first 13 episodes due to them admittedly being fucking terrible?

 

[ロボ﹏§¤r﹏h¶rœ]

Rewatching Gintama these days. What a show. Imagine if it aired in 2020. The butthurt it would cause all over twitter and anime blogging sites. Priceless.

Also, Crunchyroll subs >>> Funimation subs.

 

[King Dead]

Been watching Black Clover recently and I'm almost caught up to the point before the filler starts and like, jesus fuck, I really liked the first couple arcs but it's such a mixed bag afterwards. It went from an extremely simple yet well executed shonen to strangling itself in an attempt to ramp up the scale and complexity. There's so many background characters and characters who come out of literally nowhere that are somehow important to the story and get a lot of attention, like there's an entire tournament arc that was filled with literal who's with no personality then we get to this arc where a bunch of known characters are possessed and being controlled but they all somehow retain their personality despite this with the addition of talking about how much they hate humans, they all make for terrible villains despite some of the fights being cool.
Anybody else here watch Black Clover? Or did everyone just drop it in the first 13 episodes due to them admittedly being fucking terrible?

I've mentioned my love of the series before, so I think I can understand where you're coming from with regards to the large quantity of characters. It can be a little bit overwhelming when new ones show up all the time and you're trying to keep track of it all.

I think what sets it apart for me is that the major characters are all pretty damn memorable in their own ways. There's a fair amount of random background characters that might get named but don't do much, but each character that provides large contributions to the story is unique and sticks out in my mind, especially the Black Bulls. On top of that, I can honestly say that I don't hate a single character in the entire run so far, and that's saying something. Characters that fit archetypes that I'd normally find annoying end up being endearing thanks to the writing. For example, Yuno as the 2kool4skool rival: Yuno doesn't hate or resent Asta, and their rivalry is just how they keep pushing each other to get stronger. You can tell that they really care about each other, even if Yuno keeps egging Asta on.

The elvish possession maybe could have been written a little better to make the personalities more different and distinct, but even if the individual characters are a little samey, those are more of the appetizers to the main course of the end of the arc, which is well worth it. I dunno exactly how far you're into it so I won't get into spoilers, but suffice it to say I enjoyed the hell out of it.

At the end of the day, Black Clover is a pretty standard shonen series, but it plays it straight and earnest and keeps it entertaining throughout (I'm having a hard time thinking of a more earnest shonen protagonist than Asta). I really have to credit Tabata for the writing, managing to deliver a huge cast of characters that I thoroughly enjoy, along with great humor and a standard yet engaging plot. I'm hoping it can continue at that quality in the future.