What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of food-based anime, I'm 17 episodes into YJ, and for what started out as something fairly grounded in reality managed to get bat-shit insane rather quickly. I am of course talking about the food reactions in this show. To be quite blunt, they make the ones in Food Wars! seem tame by comparison, and I absolutely love it.

When one of the judges eats Mokoyama's Dragon Bread and turns into Bruce Lee, and then eats Kazuma's Turtle Bread and literally spins around in the air breathing fire like Gamera, you know that you're watching something special. I even love how these reactions turn into outright physical gags, like with the judge whistling for one of his dogs to come and knock him over after tasting Kawashi's Hot-Dog Style Yakisoba Bread, and then telling his competitor that he has plenty of more dogs lined up if he wants to try a bite as well.

This reminds me a lot of Eyeshield 21 in how it finds that perfect blend of getting you invested in the outcome of the matches while still refraining from taking itself too seriously most of the time. If this were a WSJ manga, it would've made for a hilarious crossover with Food Wars! had they decided to do something like that. Although, I do think that Ryou's appearance and personality is a tribute and reference to a certain character from YJ; or it could just be a coincidence.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's a really strange manga. Something that could have only come from Shogakukan and Sunday.

That's actually why I like Sunday so much. They have a different flavor to their stuff that Jump and Magazine just don't have. That's why it would be nice if some of their stuff would get licensed more often.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I feel like Jump is mostly the King of the more grand-scale but straightforward Shonen series. There are always exceptions, of course, like Hunter x Hunter or Eyeshield 21, but most of their stuff is fairly conventional in tone. I don't meanthat as a bad thing, either. Mangaka with good Jump editors execute those sorts of manga really well.

But I do also get a sense that since the two main competing weekly Shonen magazines don't have nearly as many readers as Jump does, they have the liberty of being a little bit more risky with how they present a lot of their manga, which is how you get some of the insanity that you do in series like this or GTO, or various other titles.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Kazuma's Ja-Pan No. 44 literally has the power to send people to heaven temporarily. That isn't even a metaphor. I love this series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I never actually read the whole thing, but the nuttiness was its real appeal. It could get crazy out there.

Other Sunday series you might like:

Ganbare Genki
Hono no Tenkosei
Major
Mermaid Saga
Kyo Kara Ore Wa!!
Ghost Sweeper Mikami
Project ARMs
Arata: The Legend

Of course not factoring in the series I already know you're interested in like Fujita's stuff or Cyborg 009.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I have a lot of those series on my backlog as it is. I'll definitely try to get around to at least some of them this year, though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Now that the Spring season is over, I can easily say:

Best of the season: Ushio & Tora
Runner-up: My Hero Academia
Third: Diamond is Unbreakable

It was a great season, all told.

[VLordGTZ]

I ended up putting a bunch of shows on hold, but this would probably be my top 3 for this season:

1.  JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable
2.  Ushio & Tora
3.  My Hero Academia

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Summer season has in store.

Speaking of which, Funimation's recent lineup update reveals that they've licensed The Disastrous Life of Saiki.  I was sure Crunchyroll was going to get it, but I guess this gives it a higher chance of getting a dub.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Good news for Saiki. Funi tends to dub and push its Shonen Jump shows really hard. This might even give the manga a real shot at release over here.

[gunswordfist]

Now that the Spring season is over, I can easily say:

Best of the season: Ushio & Tora
Runner-up: My Hero Academia
Third: Diamond is Unbreakable

It was a great season, all told.

Agreed. It's my favorite season.

[LumRanmaYasha]

My top 3 for spring would probably go:

1. Diamond is Unbreakable
2. Ushio & Tora
3. Sailor Moon Crystal

The MHA anime was strong stuff, though. Really looking forward to how they handle the Sports Festival and Stain in season 2.

This summer should have some good stuff too what with Food Wars!, Saiki, Mob Psycho 100, Orange, and hopefully Berserk if it's executed better than the previews suggest. Looking forward to them!

[Dr. Insomniac]

1. Sakamoto desu ga?
2. Diamond is Unbreakable
3. Luluco

[gunswordfist]

Sweet, Mob Psycho 100 is coming soon.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh, and beause we were talking about the Spring season, I thought I'd post this list. It was a mega poll taken in Crunchyroll's forums of the best anime of the season. Since there are fans and haters of everything, nothing averaged out to 10/10 or 1 or 2/10, but that was expected. Here's what they thought the best and worst shows of the season were:

[Masterpiece: 10/10]
Nothing.

[Excellence: 8-9/10]

Bungo Stray Dogs
Flying Witch
My Hero Academia
Macross Delta
Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto
Re:Zero
Concrete Revolutio: The Last Song
Ushio & Tora
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

[Good: 7/10]

Bakuon!!
Joker Game
Kiznaiver
High School Fleet
Anne Happy
Rinne
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

[Mediocre: 5-6/10]

The Lost Village
Kuromukuro
Kuma Miko
Ace Attorney
Asterisk War
Mysterious Joker
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
And you thought there is never a girl online?
Sailor Moon Crystal
12-sai.: Chicchana Mune no Tokimeki

[Bad: 4/10]

Shounen Maid
Three Leaves, Three Colors
Endride
Twin Star Exorcists

[Shit: 3/10]

Hundred
Big Order
Terra Formars: Revenge
Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités

[DROPPED: 1-2/10]
Nothing.

Not all that surprising, but still interesting to see. I'm surprised by the amount of people that think Lost Village was "supposed" to be bad, though. The chances of that are less than nothing.

[gunswordfist]

I am so glad that Terra Formars is near the very, very bottom. From what little I have seen, the list looks good.