Topic: Manga and Anime discussion

I purchsed a box set for the first 21 volumes of Bleach for just over £80. Considering the standard retail price of the volumes for £9 a pop or the box set for £165... Getting it for over half the price is quite a steal I'd say.

Especially when it seems like buying the anime will be... An extremely costly endeavour...

Once my salary comes, I intend to buy the FMA manga… yes xo

Mostly summer of sequels for me right now. The one new series I am watching is Wistoria which I sorta don't recommend, but it has really nice production values, so I am watching it mostly for that purpose.

Otherwise, for me its the new season of MHA - which is... fine? I guess. I feel like watching this in a binge style fashion when the season is over (assuming you can avoid spoilers) would be more satisfying than watching it weekly. I'm also just a bit disconnected from MHA in general to be honest? It kinda reminds me of late stage Bleach, where the core cast are now so impossibly powerful the writing just has nowhere left to go. When everyone is immortal and can defy the rules of reality then its just completely dull, cause there is no tension, danger, or stakes or anything.

I hadn't realised the second part to Sengoku Youko had even started to be honest, I don't see anyone talking about this. However, Satoshi Mizukami is one of my favourite mangaka, and after Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer was absolutely butchered in its adaptation, part 1 of Sengoku Youko was almost impossible to objectively process, as the bar had been set impossibly low. Every time I saw a character actually move in camera, like actual real frames of animation in SY, it was like I was a person born blind seeing colour for the first time. I wouldn't say avoid this one, but I'd probably suggest just reading the manga instead as this is definitely more about the characters, world, story etc than it is in having 50 episode long fight scenes, but so far the anime isn't a bad way to experience this, unlike Biscuit Hammer, which is absolutely the worst way to experience that story.

Finally for me is season 2 of Shy. Season one is like the most six out of ten anime I've ever seen and Season 2 is more of the same. Why am I watching it then? Honestly, I sorta don't know? It sometimes has some nice art direction, some of the characters are okay and it sorta feels like early arc MHA only with the action significantly trimmed back. It is just something to put on really when I'm eating my tea.

I am also trying to watch stuff outside of Crunchyroll - Loser Ranger, Undead Unluck and Bleach Blood War are all on Disney+. I could not recommend Undead Unluck enough, the perfect antidote to shounen fatigue (not by being innovative or original necessarily, but just being reminded that a shounen can hit all the conventions and still be well written and paced).

Loser Ranger is very very slow but is constantly planting interesting seeds so I keep watching. Sorta like The Boys meets Power Rangers, but with a softer edge and much less satire.

And I remember reading Bleach's Blood War arc and thinking it was one of the worst things I have ever read, but I wonder if in animation it holds up better, as the arc was mostly a blur of endless battles, endless power ups, endless ridiculous abilities and counters to those abilities being pulled out of people's asses every two seconds. Just felt like it didn't really work on a page. Watched a couple of episodes and I'm still not convinced its any better by being animated, but the really stupid stuff hasn't started yet.

There is also the Scott Pilgrim, Hajime No Ippo and Eden's Zero I am slowly chipping away at on Netflix. Not loving Scott Pilgrim, but Eden's Zero is actually excellent so far if a little budget constrained at times and Hajime no Ippo was a favourite of mine growing up, and it still holds up all the years later. A must watch from me.

@Yousef- I'm collecting the Full Metal editions. 18 volumes in total and the art book looks great too!

I finished season 1 of Jujitsu Kaisen and also the movie. Looking forward to season 2.

@MightyDemon82 I plan to get the CSM and JJK mangas too but I have a one manga per two months rule so I’ll be pretty slow but it’ll be fun. xD

Currently watching:

• Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Thinking about watching:

• Kill la Kill
• Attack on Titan

Most of these are rewatches. Took me half a decade but it seems I’ve completely existed my Slice of Life and RomCom hyper-obsession. I’m just getting my feet back to where I used to. I’m also reading Invincible.

Latest additions to the collection.

Heaven's Lost Property Final - What a load of crock. Even by anime standards of ending before being caught up with the source manga, this was terribly mismanaged and nigh incomprehensible. Starts out in the middle of the final climax with little to no context as to what is going on, goes on to have a flashback that doesn't even try to bridge the narrative gaps (said flashback is like 90% of the film, BTW), when it finally decides to return to "present events" it just abruptly ends as our protag arrives at the big bad's stronghold, nothing explained or resolved.

Ranma 1/2 Set 7 - It was a delight revisiting this series. It started to retread ground many sets ago (I think the Principal was the last recurring character introduced, and that was in like set 3 or 4), but the cast is so likeable that it never really got boring. Also, many of these episodes I'm positive I've never seen before (I must have dropped it at some point back when I was watching it ages ago), which was a nice surprise.

Ranma 1/2 OVA & Movie Set - Really looking forward to watching these, as I know I've never seen any of them before (except maybe a Christmas one). I didn't even know the series had any movies.

Urusei Yatsura OVA Collection - Currently watching through this. It's really nice watching some UY content with pretty high grade animation (some of the TV episodes could look nice, but others not so much. Definitely a product of it's time), and it's nice revisiting this world. I do like how surreal the series can be, but overall I do think I prefer Ranma as I think it definitely refined the formula a bit.

I think Ranma & Urusei Yatsura will be the last long running series I collect though (like stuff over 100 episodes) until I one day decide to invest in DBZ. I don't have unlimited space, and these long running shows just have too many sets (especially once you start figuring in movies & the like, which are sometimes sold individually).

Trying out some new mecha.

Full Metal Panic! - This has been pretty good so far. Set in a pretty contemporary Japan (for the 2000's) except that militaries have mechs. Pretty much an independent military group sends our protagonists undercover in a Japanese high school to protect a girl who is being targeted by terrorists & foreign government agencies (as she has some sort of secret ability/knowledge that hasn't been fully explained yet), and she sort of gets caught up in their world/battles.

Patlabor: the Mobile Police - 7 episode OVA series from the 80's. Wasn't really long enough for any deep narratives, but the cast grew on me, and it was cool getting a police procedural in anime form (we need more police anime!). I'll be looking up the other entries in the franchise eventually.

Just been watching the first season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I already finished about 20 of 26 episodes so I’m already nearing the end. I’m pretty new to watching JoJo, I had a bit of a small obsession with it a few years ago and watched clips of it on YouTube but never saw it or read the manga the anime is based on.

The show is so fantastic and so crazy. The concept of Ripple/Hamon is so cool and the battles are so unique, not to mention the way that some of the characters win the battles with the techniques they use are so unique. I should also say the presentation, art direction and art style is amazing, plus the color palettes that are used in the fight scenes are so appealing to the eye and funky, plus the opening intro for the episodes are so well-animated and have nice stylization. Although I don’t read the manga, I have seen some panels from it and the stunning artwork Hirohiko Araki (the creator of JoJo) has drawn and I can tell the anime replicated and honored his art style and manga very well. Araki seems very creative with the fight scenes he writes and makes for JoJo. I absolutely love his writing and the way he draws and colors his art. He also has some of the best and most unique manga character designs I have ever seen!

I did start watching this maybe a week or two ago and finished binge watching the episodes adapting Phantom Blood the same day I started it, but it’s been taking me forever to finish the episodes adapting Battle Tendency. Every night I choose to binge watch the episodes but I only get about one or two episodes in and then I accidentally get cozy in bed and fall asleep from how sleepy I am and then comes the next day and I have to get through work and patiently wait for the nighttime to watch it. I’m gonna see if I can binge watch the remaining episodes tonight, but I gotta make sure I don’t accidentally fall asleep with my phone in hand. I really can’t wait to get onto the next seasons, but the fifth season isn’t available on the service I’m watching JoJo on (curse you Netflix for getting streaming rights to Stone Ocean!)

Finally started reading Kagurabachi, dunno if its good bland or bad bland, to be honest. I get that all shounen borrow from each other, but at least so far around ten chapters in this has basically zero personality of its own. A little Jujutsu Kaisen here, a little Bleach there and maybe some sprinkling of Chainsaw Man in for good measure.

These are all ingredients I really enjoy, and I think they could make for a solid anime if the adaptation is good cause a lot of the powers and battles seem made for motion, effects, colour etc.

But as a manga I just feel kinda whatever about it so far. No real standout characters. World is interesting but it doesn't have me desperate to learn more. Some interesting powers / abilities, but it doesn't have the nicest art or the clearest panelling. I will say it has some great character designs and has moved at an excellent pace so far. I kinda worry the anime will slow this down a lot, but reading it its like wall to wall and I enjoy that.

Who knows maybe I'm like a chapter away from when all this changes and I look like an idiot but this is where I am.

@Pizzamorg how far are you so far?

About 12ish chapters I think.

Newest Additions:

Dallos - I've always liked 80's sci-fi OVAs, and apparently this is the first OVA ever (directed by the same guy who'd go on to direct Ghost in the Shell no less), so I'm looking forward to trying it.

Kite Integral Version - This comes with all 3 different versions (most censored to completely uncensored), and is another one I'm interested in trying out.

Monster Musume - Haven't seen. Expecting it to be nothing more than a guilty pleasure.

Nadia: Secret of Blue Water - This has been largely really good. Not quite up there with Gainax's best (Gunbuster, Evangelion, Gurren Lagaan), but that's a high bar to clear so I can't hold it against it. It was getting pretty slow in the second half, but it's hit the climax and has gotten really exciting so I'm looking forward to finishing it (two episodes left).

Riding Bean - Not amazing, but a really fun homage to classic American crime/cop action flicks in the vein of Dirty Harry & Lethal Weapon, but in OTT anime fashion. A brisk 45 minute long OVA film.

Tona-Gura! - Another harem show. Again, just expecting it to be a guilty pleasure.

I bought the second box set of Bleach covering the entire Arrancar arc. Annoyingly this box stands upright rather then the previous box which lies on it's side

Still can't complain. Got it for £90 and considering it has... 26 volumes in it I think that's pretty good. Especially considering the supposed retail price of 190 or so.

I'm also watching Hellsing: Ultimate and umm... Yeah Crispin Freeman could be reading the phone book for all I care