What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

YOI seems to have been more of a hit overseas than it was in its own country. And on that end, while I really liked the show, I can't help but feel that it's getting noticed a bit too much for its appeal to the LGBT community rather than....you know, having a good story with compelling characters and good animation and music to back it up. The anime community in the West is weird like that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm not watching this, but I couldn't think of a better thread for this. Fuuka's anime does not follow the manga.

Normally, this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but it completely bypasses a huge change in the story to tell its own thing. This article goes on about how they came to this conclusion. The original author specifically wanted this because he wanted to see how the story would go if it did not happen at all. I know this change is controversial, but I think it's actually quite a nice touch. I miss when certain anime would go off and do their own thing, and it's nice to see it happen in such a popular and controversial series.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In theory it was a welcome idea and could have satisfied people who were still unhappy with what happened. But in execution...as a fan of the manga, to say it leaves a lot to be desired is an understatement. I may make some sort of write-up or discuss my frustrations with the anime on the podcast in some form in the future.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The funny thing is that, even not having read the manga myself, I can clearly tell where the cut-off point of divergence happened. But for what it's worth, while I was only planning on watching the anime, this development has encouraged me to read the manga while still following this version as well.

[VLordGTZ]

The problem I see with the Fuuka anime diverging is that

Spoiler

Fuuka's death

[close]

happened within the first 30 chapters of the manga and the remainder of the series revolves around that plot point.  I'm fine with liberties being taken in anime adaptions, but removing that plot point takes out a central aspect that made the series stand out.  The anime is just left being a generic music/romance series.  On another note, if they weren't going to follow the manga, they should have just removed "Truck-kun" completely.  It's a superfluous scene in the anime's context, and potentially upset fans of the manga.

[VLordGTZ]

Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond is premiering in October

I wonder if this means that MHA Season 2 will be a continuous 2-cour season instead of split-cour.  Since MHA and BBB are the only shows Bones is producing this year, I wouldn't be surprised if they are breaking their recent trend of releasing series in 1-cour chunks.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The block MHA is in doesn't have split cour shows and Time Bokan said that MHA would be replacing it for half a year. I'm pretty sure at this point it will be Bones first 2 cour series in years.

[Lord Dalek]

Quality Cooper.

[Dr. Insomniac]

ANN finally got around to reviewing Nadesico, and heheheheh... heh.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Zac Bertschy. Of course.

The idea that this show was riffing on mecha anime of all stripes – up to and including the then-new Evangelion – really landed with late 90s otaku, who still marveled at the novelty of shows that winked at them directly.

This is not actually why most people like this show. The fact that it was funny was beside the point. It was a fun space opera at a time when everything was ripping NGE off and being uber serious. It was a breath of fresh air. I think most would find it so now since shows like this are still rare now.

To think the only reason it was popular because it was winking at otaku like the reviewer is a type of narcissism I could only expect from ANN.

[LumRanmaYasha]

While I can understand his problem with the contradiction of the show saying "real life isn't like mecha anime" and then playing mecha tropes straight, I don't think he's giving enough credit to the show's critique and reaffirmation of otaku culture, and moreover, how pop culture can bring people together, yet people may interpret it differently within a different cultural contexts or re-appropriate it to suit their particular philosophies, which acts as a commentary/critique on the religiosity of media and fan culture. How MSN embraces the fun and goofy side of mecha whilst contrasting that with it's more serious aspects helped make it a fun, thoughtful and self-aware comedic reconstruction of the genre. He's ignoring the thematic mountain for the molehill.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, due to being busy with my job, I have to use my free-time sparingly. About 90% of that is being spent on Nioh, my favorite piece of any kind of media or entertainment to come out in years. I'm also playing a couple of other games here and there.

After that I'm currently almost finished with "The Name of the Wind" and soon after plan to read the sequel novel. I was thinking of re-reading Stephen King's "It" in preparation for the remake later this year (which looks surprisingly good going by the first trailer, though I'm still a bit skeptical without Carry Fukunaga on board), but passed on the idea since I just read it two years ago and it's still fairly fresh in my memory. Plus, I still have "The Stand" waiting for me to delve through. I may give the TV mini-series a re-watch one of these days just to relive some cheesy nostalgic memories, though.

I have also been keeping up with all four CW DC shows, so as you might expect that eats up about four hours of my time every single weak, though the season is now almost over.

And then I'm keeping up with several manga plus have a backlog of DC comics sitting on my shelf that I still haven't even touched yet.

So, as you can probably tell my time left for anime is limited, and I've already been keeping up with Dragon Ball Super and Yowamushi Pedal, so all that considered, I'm only really watching two shows from this season: MHA and Boruto, both of which have had excellent premieres.

I'm not sure how I'm going to fit Rage of Bahamut into my time-slot as well, but being an exclusive of a separate streaming service doesn't really help much, so I may just have to pass on it for now and come back to it later on, as much as I've been eager to watch it.

[Avaitor]

So last week, I watched the Patlabor OVA, and I just saw the first movie last night. I couldn't find any good streams, so I rented it from Netflix. I really liked both of them. They're solid mecha works that will do wonders if you're up for the genre, and may or may not win you over if you don't.

I'll watch the second one soon. I may or may not do the third after that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The third one is barely related to the other two. It's decent but nothing on the first two.

If you have the time I recommend the TV series (and the New Files) if you want more Patlabor. It's a good franchise.

[Avaitor]

If you have the time I recommend the TV series (and the New Files) if you want more Patlabor. It's a good franchise.

It's on my mind, but I'm not sure if I'll get to it for a while. But it sounds like they're worth a watch.