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

[The Fair Lady]

Anybody know sites that show raw manga scans? Im trying to see volume 5 of Ray by Akihito Yoshitomi. It hasn't been translated beyond the first 3 volumes and I wanted to see what the crossover from his other work Eatman looked like.

Anybody remember Eatman? Absolutely fantastic series. Two good shows and two excellent manga.


View attachment 1957327


It's about a clint eastwood type immortal mercenary, who can eat anything inorganic and recreate it though his hands.
It's one of those concepts that sounds kinda retarded on paper, but looks great in execution.

Never thought I’d find anyone on this site who’s heard of Eat-Man. I started reading the manga a couple years ago and found it really interesting. I gotta get back to it eventually.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

At least she has the courtesy to use a cutesy avatar instead of plastering her face in all her videos unlike this guy. His videos could be amazing for all I know, I'd never find out because I can't look at his jiggly melted-looking face for more than a few seconds without feeling physically uncomfortable.

Oh I remember that guy, he mostly talks about shounen titles. I remember watching his video about him calling out Hiro Mashima for admitting he had no end goal for the manga. Short video, and he actually looked okay back then since his hair didn't look too dumb, and it looks like he must've lost weight since then and it made his face longer.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

So I guess Cells at Work had a short season, it was kind average and I'm pretty sad Blood Cell was barely in it.
Spider Isekai ended last episode with one hell of a cliffhanger, my guess is that either the heroine survived by her "survive at 1 HP" skill and isn't considered alive by sensei due to being a monster/sensei lies, or that she dies and we'll have a 15 year timeskip until she's res'd by the Demon Lord to justify everyone being on the same ages (since I'm convinced the dragon egg the heroine tried to eat at the first episode was the bully).
Cells at Work Black had one hell of an episode, sometimes the death flags catches you when you think it will be an ordinary episode.
And last week's episode of Yashahime was really good and it's kind of a shame they waited this long to reveal Setsuna's past, which shows a completely different side of her.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Oh I remember that guy, he mostly talks about shounen titles. I remember watching his video about him calling out Hiro Mashima for admitting he had no end goal for the manga. Short video, and he actually looked okay back then since his hair didn't look too dumb, and it looks like he must've lost weight since then and it made his face longer.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZuN7o-dr1zQ

That hairstyle definitely frames his face a lot better. Good on him for losing weight - it's just unfortunate it has side effects.

With respect to
>admitting he had no end goal for the manga

I know Fairy Tail is sort of a posterchild for pointlessly drawn-out stories, but this is a problem endemic to serialized storytelling. Can't remember if it was earlier in this thread or in the Attack on Titan thread, but there was a discussion about why so many manga have underwhelming or shitty endings, and I think it's mostly a combination of serial storytelling incentivizing in-the-moment action and intrigue over building an overarching narrative, and outside pressures altering the pacing of a story, either by drawing it out for a longer run or by premature cancellation. In fact this is a problem it shares with Western live-action shows, which are also infamous for going on for way too long (or being prematurely canned) and for IRL circumstances dictating writing (like a character being killed off because an actor wants to leave the show due to conflict or controversy).

Gantz is probably the series for me where while I'd still say it's good, it's clear the author had no idea what he actually wanted to do with the story and as a consequence the plot is a complete nonsensical mess. Prison School is another good example, where the first arc (e.g. the part that got adapted to an anime) is a perfectly good standalone story that reads like it was pretty carefully planned, but slowly devolves into a complete trashfire of a nonsensical plot. Overall, it takes an exceptionally skilled writer to be able to either come up with a plan beforehand and be able to adapt to any unexpected situations that may pop up along the way, or to make stuff up as you go along and have it still gel together into a cohesive whole over the course of years, if not decades.

 

[mr.moon1488]

That hairstyle definitely frames his face a lot better. Good on him for losing weight - it's just unfortunate it has side effects.

With respect to
>admitting he had no end goal for the manga

I know Fairy Tail is sort of a posterchild for pointlessly drawn-out stories, but this is a problem endemic to serialized storytelling. Can't remember if it was earlier in this thread or in the Attack on Titan thread, but there was a discussion about why so many manga have underwhelming or shitty endings, and I think it's mostly a combination of serial storytelling incentivizing in-the-moment action and intrigue over building an overarching narrative, and outside pressures altering the pacing of a story, either by drawing it out for a longer run or by premature cancellation. Gantz is probably the series for me where while I'd still say it's good, it's clear the author had no idea what he actually wanted to do with the story and as a consequence the plot is a complete nonsensical mess. Prison School is another good example, where the first arc (e.g. the part that got adapted to an anime) is a perfectly good standalone story that reads like it was pretty carefully planned, but slowly devolves into a complete trashfire of a nonsensical plot.

I didn't think the ending for Fairy Tail was all that bad. I thought the post-story "100 years quest" was kind of dumb though. They should have gone way into the future with it and had the MCs from the original story become the old-timers in the guild like what Gildarts was during the main story. Slowly kinda leaking what happened to the characters over the years would have kept it interesting.

 

[Commander X]

Let us point and laugh at this person. "I changed my mind, but only because I realized the use of "incels" was wrong for the character, not because I was wrong to use it or anything, the flak I've gotten had NOTHING to do with it, I swear!"

 

[Kari Kamiya]

That hairstyle definitely frames his face a lot better. Good on him for losing weight - it's just unfortunate it has side effects.

With respect to
>admitting he had no end goal for the manga

I know Fairy Tail is sort of a posterchild for pointlessly drawn-out stories, but this is a problem endemic to serialized storytelling. Can't remember if it was earlier in this thread or in the Attack on Titan thread, but there was a discussion about why so many manga have underwhelming or shitty endings, and I think it's mostly a combination of serial storytelling incentivizing in-the-moment action and intrigue over building an overarching narrative, and outside pressures altering the pacing of a story, either by drawing it out for a longer run or by premature cancellation. In fact this is a problem it shares with Western live-action shows, which are also infamous for going on for way too long (or being prematurely canned) and for IRL circumstances dictating writing (like a character being killed off because an actor wants to leave the show due to conflict or controversy).

Gantz is probably the series for me where while I'd still say it's good, it's clear the author had no idea what he actually wanted to do with the story and as a consequence the plot is a complete nonsensical mess. Prison School is another good example, where the first arc (e.g. the part that got adapted to an anime) is a perfectly good standalone story that reads like it was pretty carefully planned, but slowly devolves into a complete trashfire of a nonsensical plot. Overall, it takes an exceptionally skilled writer to be able to either come up with a plan beforehand and be able to adapt to any unexpected situations that may pop up along the way, or to make stuff up as you go along and have it still gel together into a cohesive whole over the course of years, if not decades.

For sure, though I think some people took issue with it because Mashima admitted he didn't know how to end the series. Serialization pressure or not, I think every creator should at least have a good idea how to end their story while keeping it flexible if needs be. They should always know the beginning and ending of it, it's the middle part that can be dragged out as long as they want, which serial stories take advantage of.

Even then, revealing to the public about not knowing how to end it was probably the wrong move to make. It breaks the illusion and just gives more ammo to the hatedom. Fairy Tail developed quite the hatedom and I'm sure them hearing Mashima admit to it was music to their ears, but it upset the fans, too.

 

[Gar For Archer]

For sure, though I think some people took issue with it because Mashima admitted he didn't know how to end the series. Serialization pressure or not, I think every creator should at least have a good idea how to end their story while keeping it flexible if needs be. They should always know the beginning and ending of it, it's the middle part that can be dragged out as long as they want, which serial stories take advantage of.

Even then, revealing to the public about not knowing how to end it was probably the wrong move to make. It breaks the illusion and just gives more ammo to the hatedom. Fairy Tail developed quite the hatedom and I'm sure them hearing Mashima admit to it was music to their ears, but it upset the fans, too.

From a PR perspective, I agree it's a really bad move, but on some level I gotta give it to the guy for being honest and just admitting that he has no fucking clue where his story was going. That's preferable to GRRM pretending as if he'll actually finish his series, instead of some ghost writer throwing something together from his notes after he dies of fat.

 

[murdered meat bag]

anyone watch shirobako? theres a scene where Oi mentions sunrise (as sunup) and a few other animation studios by their characters but all the characters are mosiaced out. doremon and gundam are the most obvious but there are others that cant be sussed because of the censorship. is that in the original air/blurays or an american streaming license issue?

 

[Erika Furudo]

Why did people praise A Silent Voice?

Spoiler

It's literally a disabled girl being bullied, but because she is such a doormat her bullies end up befriending her. She literally had no personality outside of being deaf, being bullied and attempting suicide. It's really a shame as I liked the idea of the story showing a deaf MC, and thought it was interesting how the bullying was initially due to a kid getting other peole to laugh when he engaged in said bullying. But the characters were never fleshed out, and it just sends a bad message of "Be a doormat and things will get better".

Weathering With You was also shit, I don't think the director will ever surpass 5cm per second.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Why did people praise A Silent Voice?

Spoiler

It's literally a disabled girl being bullied, but because she is such a doormat her bullies end up befriending her. She literally had no personality outside of being deaf, being bullied and attempting suicide. It's really a shame as I liked the idea of the story showing a deaf MC, and thought it was interesting how the bullying was initially due to a kid getting other peole to laugh when he engaged in said bullying. But the characters were never fleshed out, and it just sends a bad message of "Be a doormat and things will get better".

Weathering With You was also shit, I don't think the director will ever surpass 5cm per second.

I didn't care for the movie. Just because the animation was lovely to look at and (I guess) it had a good soundtrack didn't mean the story/pacing was any good. The manga might be a bit better, but the movie had to fit a two-hour run time and I feel like it cut out things. I just couldn't tell you what they cut having not read the manga.

Weathering With You I'll have to take your word for it. The Makoto Shinkai worship is so overblown just because he makes beautiful movies that I honestly can't believe the masses. 5 Centimetres was pretty good, though I think I'll remember it more for the soundtrack tbqh. Still, Your Name gave me vibes that Shinkai was "fixing" 5 Centimetres because of how much it made people cry over lost love and I didn't like that. But it's considered blasphemy to bash Shinkai films even if the criticism of the story's on point.

 

[Atatata]

The manga might be a bit better, but the movie had to fit a two-hour run time and I feel like it cut out things. I just couldn't tell you what they cut having not read the manga.

They make a movie together alongside the broccili dude and other characters. I stopped reading it after a while, but there was also a drama arc featuring the braided girl.

I found that the deaf girl wasn't as much as the protagonist as more of a subject to bounce the main character's problems off of, like a mirror.

 

[Thomas Talus]

The visuals for Mushoku Tensei really are something else, it's insane how pretty they make it even with such a muted color palette.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Why did people praise A Silent Voice?

Spoiler

It's literally a disabled girl being bullied, but because she is such a doormat her bullies end up befriending her. She literally had no personality outside of being deaf, being bullied and attempting suicide. It's really a shame as I liked the idea of the story showing a deaf MC, and thought it was interesting how the bullying was initially due to a kid getting other peole to laugh when he engaged in said bullying. But the characters were never fleshed out, and it just sends a bad message of "Be a doormat and things will get better".

Weathering With You was also shit, I don't think the director will ever surpass 5cm per second.

You’ll slowly start to realize that Your Lie in April is better than both of them.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

Why did people praise A Silent Voice?

Spoiler

It's literally a disabled girl being bullied, but because she is such a doormat her bullies end up befriending her. She literally had no personality outside of being deaf, being bullied and attempting suicide. It's really a shame as I liked the idea of the story showing a deaf MC, and thought it was interesting how the bullying was initially due to a kid getting other peole to laugh when he engaged in said bullying. But the characters were never fleshed out, and it just sends a bad message of "Be a doormat and things will get better".

Weathering With You was also shit, I don't think the director will ever surpass 5cm per second.

I feel like you're over simplifying what the film is trying to do as that is not at all the take away I had from the film even after watching it several times. The film, to me at least, dealt a lot more with the themes of redemption, dealing with trauma, growing up, and attempted to show a more realistic depiction of bullying and its long lasting aftermath. I personally find the film amazing, along with Yamada's other film Liz and the Blue Bird, for not only its gorgeous visuals but Yamada's ability to convey emotions. It plays into how she likes to describe her directing style as a "method" director, who likes getting into the minds of the characters.

Spoiler

The main character also isn't Shoko, much of the story is focused on Ishida, but I still wouldn't consider her as boring of a character as you're saying. Her acting "like a doormat" towards bullying is a very common response, finding that it must be your own fault in some way for you to be the target or that it might make the bullies grow bored and stop. It's even more understanding of Shoko to act like this given her environment growing up and her belief in herself being a burden to those around her which didn't just start because of the bullying, it's a very common feeling for those with disabilities. It's made a lot more clear in the manga with Shoko's father literally abandoning them because she's deaf that more cement the idea. None of this is helped by their dogshit teacher, who gives no effort to stop anything till someone in authority gets involved where he takes the easy way out and lays all the blame on Ishida even though he knows it wasn't just him; coupled with the school itself giving no attempts to actually accommodate her or integrate her into the class. Shoko attempting suicide in the end isn't just due to the bullying, but playing back into the fact that she believes herself a burden that can only hurt other people (like she believes it's her fault what ended up happening to Ishida) and would make everyone else much happier by being gone. She has zero feelings of self-worth, Ishida to a lesser degree also suffers from this, which feeds into their beliefs that they somehow deserve their treatment.

I will agree that due to them having to cut content a lot of characters didn't really get much development, but I found the ones that actually mattered received enough at least. Red head could have been cut entirely, at least showing the others from elementary showed how the bullying impacted them.

I do agree that I don't really get the hype around Shinkai since he just seems to be doing the same thing over and over, with his stories definitely being his weak point along with characters. Personally, I'd say his best is either 5cm or Garden of Words. At least with someone like Mamoru he switches things up with his themes/stories even if it's dealing with very similar things, he likes to focus around family and channel his own experiences into it.

You’ll slowly start to realize that Your Lie in April is better than both of them.

It might sound weird given my praise of A Silent Voice, but I could never get into Your Lie in April because of how emotionally manipulative a found the whole thing to be especially after hearing about the ending. There's just something about the whole series that rubs me the wrong way and makes me feel that the emotions it wants me to feel haven't really been earned by the series in a way. It's strange I know.

If I want to go through an emotional beatdown I turn to the Natsume author and their animated works, like natsume yuujinchou or the very underrated Hotarubi no Mori e, never fail to make me an emotional mess. Never feel that weird emotional manipulation I was feeling with Your Lie in April even if just hearing some specific ost tracks from the series get me all mushy feeling.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

It might sound weird given my praise of A Silent Voice, but I could never get into Your Lie in April because of how emotionally manipulative a found the whole thing to be especially after hearing about the ending. There's just something about the whole series that rubs me the wrong way and makes me feel that the emotions it wants me to feel haven't really been earned by the series in a way. It's strange I know.

Your Lie in April showed promise, but midway after the main character got over his mommy issues, his character became flat and he clearly couldn't balance out Kaori whom he relied on so heavily. The secondary characters got shafted so hard when they badly needed development, which hurt the series. The only reason people like it is because of the beautiful animation and the music, of which the OST is actually pretty good and the first OP "Hikaru Nara" is fitting to the show, and that's what makes people cry. The majestic blending of visuals and music manipulates the viewers' emotions, and I stopped falling for its bullshit once it hit the midway point (such is the fate of many a A-1 Pictures anime, they fall apart midway). This was and still is considered an unpopular opinion and got me ire from some people once the show ended.

It and CLANNAD get compared a lot, but the difference is CLANNAD actually has a build up and a pay off that is more emotionally satisfying. The main characters also balance each other out and still have personalities even with character development (Tomoya doesn't become any-less interesting when he solves his personal conflicts), and the supporting characters are exactly what you'd expect supporting characters to be like regardless of your feelings toward them when they were in the limelight.

 

[Xenomorphs Are Cute]

View attachment 1957840
Let us point and laugh at this person. "I changed my mind, but only because I realized the use of "incels" was wrong for the character, not because I was wrong to use it or anything, the flak I've gotten had NOTHING to do with it, I swear!"

She went protected lmao.

 

[WinchesterPremium]

anyone watch shirobako? theres a scene where Oi mentions sunrise (as sunup) and a few other animation studios by their characters but all the characters are mosiaced out. doremon and gundam are the most obvious but there are others that cant be sussed because of the censorship. is that in the original air/blurays or an american streaming license issue?

Its a joke. References being censored is a common joke.

 

[Erika Furudo]

I didn't care for the movie. Just because the animation was lovely to look at and (I guess) it had a good soundtrack didn't mean the story/pacing was any good. The manga might be a bit better, but the movie had to fit a two-hour run time and I feel like it cut out things. I just couldn't tell you what they cut having not read the manga.

Weathering With You I'll have to take your word for it. The Makoto Shinkai worship is so overblown just because he makes beautiful movies that I honestly can't believe the masses. 5 Centimetres was pretty good, though I think I'll remember it more for the soundtrack tbqh. Still, Your Name gave me vibes that Shinkai was "fixing" 5 Centimetres because of how much it made people cry over lost love and I didn't like that. But it's considered blasphemy to bash Shinkai films even if the criticism of the story's on point.

I liked Your Name, it was ok. Very pretty, but nowhere near as memorable as 5 cm, and if if people dislike 5cm, I think it wasa very interesting way to take a romance film. It bothers me Your Name overshadows everything else and people don't seem to look into his other works, I agree it was him "fixing" 5cm, but obviously I view that as a downgrade, to this day watching 5cm or hearing the final song feels like a punch in the gut. No other film has that level of impact with me, and that is why I love it. Weathering You characters have no real chemistry, and there is only 1 particularly good scene towards the end imo, there is no real emotion in the film, story sucks and it was just bland overall.

They make a movie together alongside the broccili dude and other characters. I stopped reading it after a while, but there was also a drama arc featuring the braided girl.

I found that the deaf girl wasn't as much as the protagonist as more of a subject to bounce the main character's problems off of, like a mirror.

Yeah I felt she was more of a prop than a character.

You’ll slowly start to realize that Your Lie in April is better than both of them.

I still need to watch it.

I feel like you're over simplifying what the film is trying to do as that is not at all the take away I had from the film even after watching it several times. The film, to me at least, dealt a lot more with the themes of redemption, dealing with trauma, growing up, and attempted to show a more realistic depiction of bullying and its long lasting aftermath. I personally find the film amazing, along with Yamada's other film Liz and the Blue Bird, for not only its gorgeous visuals but Yamada's ability to convey emotions. It plays into how she likes to describe her directing style as a "method" director, who likes getting into the minds of the characters.

Spoiler

The main character also isn't Shoko, much of the story is focused on Ishida, but I still wouldn't consider her as boring of a character as you're saying. Her acting "like a doormat" towards bullying is a very common response, finding that it must be your own fault in some way for you to be the target or that it might make the bullies grow bored and stop. It's even more understanding of Shoko to act like this given her environment growing up and her belief in herself being a burden to those around her which didn't just start because of the bullying, it's a very common feeling for those with disabilities. It's made a lot more clear in the manga with Shoko's father literally abandoning them because she's deaf that more cement the idea. None of this is helped by their dogshit teacher, who gives no effort to stop anything till someone in authority gets involved where he takes the easy way out and lays all the blame on Ishida even though he knows it wasn't just him; coupled with the school itself giving no attempts to actually accommodate her or integrate her into the class. Shoko attempting suicide in the end isn't just due to the bullying, but playing back into the fact that she believes herself a burden that can only hurt other people (like she believes it's her fault what ended up happening to Ishida) and would make everyone else much happier by being gone. She has zero feelings of self-worth, Ishida to a lesser degree also suffers from this, which feeds into their beliefs that they somehow deserve their treatment.

I will agree that due to them having to cut content a lot of characters didn't really get much development, but I found the ones that actually mattered received enough at least. Red head could have been cut entirely, at least showing the others from elementary showed how the bullying impacted them.

I do agree that I don't really get the hype around Shinkai since he just seems to be doing the same thing over and over, with his stories definitely being his weak point along with characters. Personally, I'd say his best is either 5cm or Garden of Words. At least with someone like Mamoru he switches things up with his themes/stories even if it's dealing with very similar things, he likes to focus around family and channel his own experiences into it.


It might sound weird given my praise of A Silent Voice, but I could never get into Your Lie in April because of how emotionally manipulative a found the whole thing to be especially after hearing about the ending. There's just something about the whole series that rubs me the wrong way and makes me feel that the emotions it wants me to feel haven't really been earned by the series in a way. It's strange I know.

If I want to go through an emotional beatdown I turn to the Natsume author and their animated works, like natsume yuujinchou or the very underrated Hotarubi no Mori e, never fail to make me an emotional mess. Never feel that weird emotional manipulation I was feeling with Your Lie in April even if just hearing some specific ost tracks from the series get me all mushy feeling.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=sCSKZnpTNNE

My issues my stem from what I expected from the film. I expected it to be a relatively wholesome story showing an unusual protaganist with a disability, and maybe sharing some insight into how deaf people experience things. I know Japan does have a serious bullying problem, but the entire thing just felt manipulative because while I get the main character is a bully who feels guilty about what he did, I expected it to go further exploring the victim, and fleshing them out as a person, not just leaving them as "cute deaf girl". I'm sure you will disagree but I feel Katawa Shoujo atleast tried to show peoples disabilities didn't define them, even though the writing quality varied and some was bad, an attempt was madem and it jsut sucks a 4chan project did a better job dealing with the issue. I think it's a missed opportunity to give exposure to the issue, especially in Japan wich supposedly has some stigma around disabilites, if ther character is there and they are a prominent part of the story, they should be fleshed out and not just a prop to advance the story. Unless it's a really good story.

 

[Michael Wade]

Never thought I’d find anyone on this site who’s heard of Eat-Man. I started reading the manga a couple years ago and found it really interesting. I gotta get back to it eventually.

I got into it by watching the 1997 12 ep series. It just might be the most stylistically cheap animation ive ever seen. Really dug how it used micro flashbacks and camera angels to convey certain things. Oh and there's no opening animation, just credits over a bitching theme song. They definitely made the most of what they had, and it was very fun to try and figure out the main character Bolt. I remember being very afraid he was going to be some pussy like Vash the stampede in the first ep, but this show really surprised me with what he's capable of.

It's not done by the same guy who wrote the manga, so there are some minor differences in the characterization and the scale of his ability's, but he's immortal so its not too hard to handwave it as a prequel.


The manga is fucking great. I love the show, but the books have the creative freedom to do some imaginative shit with this guy's powers. First series ended kinda weird, but the very recently finished sequel "The Main Dish" mostly cleared up all the contrived shit and gave a fantastic send off.


Eatman 98 is alright. It's got a bigger budget and follows the manga more closely, but it's not as stylish as 97. It also inexplicably wastes 4 episodes on a decent but undeserving story that could have been done as a 2 parter.


Overall, It's leagues better then most of the shit we get now. Very much deserving of a modern adaption.


And for some reason Jim Lee made a cover of it.