What Are You Watching?

[Daikun]

Which episode did Toonami just air? I haven't been following the dub.

It's currently up to episode 9.

[Mustang]

Don't get me wrong, Demon Slayer has been great. I don't "dislike" Tanjuro, but there's something about him that makes me iffy about him. He's miles above past shounen mains like the Naruto's and Luffy's, but there's just something there that I can't put my finger on that's making me iffy on him.

I'm digging the show so far though. I haven't seen anything that "wowed" me yet, but it does draw me in.

[Avaitor]

I watched the premiere of the new Fate series on my break yesterday, after finally getting around to finishing Vinland Saga (A++++, btw). I have to admit that I felt kind of lost, at least with the ending- is this supposed to be a preview of what's to come?

Besides that, the world building is pretty solid thus far. I'm hoping it picks things up as it goes along.

[Mustang]

Demon Slayer
To be honest, while I thought they were good, this blonde-haired kid has really been bogging it down a little bit for me (last few episodes have been like this for me). His antics are reasons I tend to drop a lot of anime, especially because I don't find it funny, not to mention

Spoiler

you get this badass underneath all that only when he's asleep

[close]

I hate that. All that off my chest, this is still a good series. I don't see it as great, or rather I haven't seen anything that would make me say it's great.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think the appeal of it, at least for me, is in it's themes and gradual character development. The themes are at first deceptively normal by what you expect of a shounen series, but as it progresses it really humanizes the villains (aside from Muzan), while also showing the societal flaws that lead them down the path to choosing to become Oni in the first place. Much like something like the Chapter Black arc of Yu Yu Hakusho or most of Hunter X Hunter, there is a lot more dimensionality to most characters aside from just the main protagonist and his friends.

Likewise, the characters, apart from their quirks and gimmicks, don't all stay the same over time. There is a genuinely gradual progression to their growth and development rather than just abrupt moments forcing them to change as is more expected from the genre. Tanjirou becomes more assured in his convictions, Inosuke starts to develop genuine connections to other human beings (something which is vital to his character upon learning of how he was brought up), and even Zenitsu starts to become more confident even when he's wide awake.

I also just really love the fights. I love samurai and sword techniques combined with that old-school anime martial arts mentality. When you take that and combine it with strategic  encounters that force the characters to outwit usually much physically superior opponents, it makes for something very entertaining, IMO. I especially love how creative some of the Oni's abilities can be.

I also appreciate how the series doesn't try to constantly top itself with an escalating scale in it's arc progression, but rather has big and small encounters that build up a bigger conflict over time. To me, that kind of escalation that it wisely avoids for the most part can kill the momentum of a lot of other series. That's kind of what happened to One Piece after Marineford. Oda essentially couldn't top himself after that and seemed to have some trouble writing more status quo style arcs after that point until just a couple of years ago when he started to get his old rhythm back.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I watched Digimon Last Adventure Kizuna yesterday, and while it's much better produced and animated than Tri, it's still a mess with a thin story. Even though much of the film's almost meant to be an apology for Tri by bringing back more original songs from the first season, changing the character designs to match the old look, giving the 02 kids actual screentime, and ignoring all of Tri's cliffhangers, it still recycles most of the same beats. Tai and the gang angsting about getting older. A former Digidestined turning evil because she lost her partner Digimon. Shafting of certain characters (somebody at Toei really hates Sora). The plot doesn't offer or say anything new, even though the movie thinks it does. They're so heavy handed in telling Tai (and the audience) that growing up means giving up certain things like Digimon, something that's completely undermined not only by interviews indicating the epilogue's still canon but the Adventure reboot premiering less than a couple months after this movie first came out.

[Avaitor]

If there's one thing COVID has been good for, it's that this time has been giving me a chance to catch up on some series I've been wanting to get to. I finished Dorohedoro last night, and that mostly lived up to the hype. I enjoy how frantic and absurd it can be, while also coming down to earth when it needs to. The animation is also pretty sharp, and allows for an outlet for its energy.

[Avaitor]

Okay, I get the appeal of Bobobo, just two episodes in. I'm honestly kind of surprised that I missed its original run on Toonami.

[Avaitor]

My most recent series was .hack//Sign. I remember seeing some of it on Toonami way back when and enjoying it alright, but I don't think that I ever saw the full thing. It's been on my radar to watch in full for a while, but something bumped it up for me- apparently Bennett the Sage gave it a negative review a while ago. That guy is a tool with whack opinions, so I knew that if he thought it was boring, it'd probably hold up.

It's a solid series overall, but I'm kind of surprised that it aired on Cartoon Network, since it's pretty light on action. This focuses more on character and psychological development, which isn't too far off from Toonami's wheelhouse, provided a little bit of butt kicking and chase scenes, which there isn't a whole lot of here. You'd think that it would be a better fit on ASA, except this is too tame for even a PG rating, and even when they were still editing their shows, this would stick out like a sore thumb.

But hey, I liked the babble and the character writing. The story could be a little confusing, although reading it up now shows that might have been somewhat intentional, which I could get behind. But the real MVP is the score, which is beautiful throughout. That was more than enough to make me happy to see the show all the way through now.

[Markness]

The most recent anime I've watched was Made in Abyss Dawn of the Deep Soul. Are there any shows I am missing out on and is it bad I haven't been keeping up with the seasons?

[LumRanmaYasha]

They've been uploading official english subs for Oishinbo the past couple months and I've really been digging it. I really enjoyed the manga back when Viz published a couple best of's a few years back so I'm glad to finally have a chance to watch the anime. It's a fun culinary show about appreciating the effort that goes into cooking well and thinking of who you're cooking for, and especially shines in the conflict between its lackadaisical but open-minded protagonist and his fundamentalist, elitist father. It's also just some classic old 80's anime sitcom fun. Watching it has become a welcome part of my lunchtime routine.

As far as current stuff goes, I'm only really watching Jujutsu Kaisen and Yashahime, though the latter's been kind of dissapointing. I'll probably get around to Sleepy Princess soon since I've been a fan of the manga for a while anyway, but just didn't manage to check out the anime due to busyness these past few months. Though the show I really want to check out is Akudama Drive, which from what I've seen and heard was seemingly was the real sleeper hit of the season.

[Mustang]

So I recently started using Hulu (2 days ago). Lots of stuff on there but at the same time, not as much as I thought there would be.

Anyway, rewatching Bleach at the moment. Has it really been a decade since this series started? I feel so old lol. "Holds up" is not the right phrase I want to use. I think I'd say that it still keeps me entertained. I remember I gave it a pass despite its many flaws.

Samurai Troopers was another one I was surprised to see, but I'm watching this on RokuTV. As much as I remember running home from school to catch this show and I look at it now, this is some corny stuff, but like Bleach it still keeps me entertained. I was hoping to find Tekkaman Blade (I think that's the name) on one of these streaming apps but no dice so far.

And then there are a few that I'm curious about. Dr. Stone, Tokyo Ghoul and Black Clover. These have been showing up on my recommendations feed.

I'm without cable now so there's a good chance that I'm pretty much back into watching anime part time for the moment.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watched a couple episodes of Platinum End because I thought "I know everyone told me the manga's kinda shit, but it's by the Death Note guys, so I want to at least see what went wrong". And besides being Mirai Nikki again, the show is so unpolished that Death Note, a show from 15 years ago, looks and feels newer in both animation and storytelling. Maybe it's lack of a budget or the director wasn't as inspired as the Death Note director was, but how does a show from 2021 seem older and less advanced than a show from 2006? Same problem I got from a lot of anime over the recent years. If I didn't know they were new shows, would I be able to tell or just assume they were random shows from the mid-to-late 2000s that resurfaced from obscurity? And this isn't nostalgia talking because I know there's still at least one or two shows per season pushing new and different styles, I liked what I saw in The Heike Story.

[TheDisneyPlayhouse]

I've been recently showing a close friend of mine Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Cowboy Bebop, since she only watched a few Episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho on DVD, only saw one Episode of Inuyasha, and never saw Cowboy Bebop. She didn't watch Toonami (Which YYH eventually aired on) or Adult Swim (Which Bebop, Inuyasha, and at first Hakusho aired) much as a kid. She told me that was because she didn't want to get in trouble with Adult Swim and whenever she would try watching Toonami, DBZ just happened to be on and it bored her (Oddly enough, she loves DBZ now as an Adult)

So far, she seems to be really liking these shows. We've watched through 10 Episodes of these shows. I know with Yu Yu Hakusho, one Episode she loves is "Kuwabara: A Promise Between Men" and for Cowboy Bebop, she seems to love "Waltz for Venus". So far, it feels like Inuyasha is the show she likes the most, but I haven't actually asked her yet, so i'm not sure.

Eventually, I plan to show her Trigun, the Fullmetal Alchemist Shows, and Neon Genesis Evangelion

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watched some first episodes of shows this season.

Police in a Pod: Copaganda's a really stupid word that people online overuse to describe any show with a cop in it, but this show pushes the "Being a cop is such a thankless job" angle hard. It's funny, but not in the way it intends to be.
In the Land of Leadale: Boring. One of those isekais that's tonally indistinguishable from watching a shitty Let's Play.
Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout: Kind of liked the first episode actually, even if nothing happened and they kept dragging on the one "Is it gay if I want to fuck my best friend now that he's a hot girl?" joke for the entire run.
Akebi's Sailor Uniform: Beautifully animated, but all the foot shots are weird.
Requiem of the Rose King: Everyone but the main character looks like Kayneth from Fate/Zero.
The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt: The show ran out of budget before the first episode was over.
My Dress-Up Darling: Fine, I guess. Main character's creepy instead of endearing though.