Topic: Manga and Anime discussion

Just finished up Godannar (Blu-Ray)!

What it is:

• A super robot anime from the early-mid 00's with a bit of a fun, over the top vibe that seemingly pays homage to the super robot shows of an earlier era, mixed in with heavy doses of fanservice, though not without a heart of it's own.
• The story revolves around Anna & Goh Sawuwatari, newlyweds who also happen to be giant robot pilots that are at the forefront of protecting the world from an alien threat known as the Mimetic Beasts.

What I Liked:

• As an homage to the genre it takes on a fun vibe, revelling in the over the top silliness of it all. Bright colors, ham fisted melodrama, yelling out super attacks & all that jazz. It's good because it's "in" on it all if that makes sense (such as a running gag centered on a character based on the typical shonen hero who constantly does reckless things, assumed dead, only to reveal he's still alive). What really sets it apart though is that despite all the silliness, it does have a heart all it's own, even if the story itself doesn't break any new ground.
• While the concept admittedly isn't for everyone, I feel this is one of the few fanservice centric anime where the fanservice is done "right". Sure, there's women in highly improbable tight fitting jumpsuits with Senran Kagura physics everywhere you look, but even the obligatory "ladies man" character doesn't grope anyone, so it never feels uncomfortable. Plus, unlike a lot of other "fanservice" anime I've seen, it remembers to actually have a story with a sense of weight, even if it's not terribly deep.
• It's a great package as a whole, with some great special features including concept art, Japanese TV commercials (even including a few for a tie in PS2 game), and terminology encyclopedias in addition to the standard stuff like clean credits scenes and trailers for other titles.

What I Disliked:

• There is a minor subplot involving the British robot pilots, a brother and sister team, that not so subtly indicates they have incestuous feelings for each other. The only aspect of the show I was uncomfortable with.
• The HD remastering process can be a bit hit or miss. It mostly looks really good, but every once in awhile there'll be a scene or background that doesn't look touched up.
• It's from an era where English voice over could be rough, and while it does offer subtitled Japanese VO as well, if you choose to watch it in English I could see Anna's voice coming off as grating.

Content Guide:

• Sex/Nudity: (Heavy) - Nearly every female character has a Senran Kagura level endowment, with jiggle physics to match. Further, they often wear jumpsuits that are tight enough to feature visible impressions of certain areas they're covering up. Heck, even a few of the mechs have breasts (with guns in them). The one area it does hold back in slightly is explicit nudity, with modesty steam (or some other object) oftentimes covering up a character's breasts, though even then there are a few scenes where they do show nipples, though they just don't color them in (with exactly one exception in the entire series).
• Language: (Mid) - Typical PG-13 swearing, and some comparable innuendo.
• Violence: (Mild) - It's mostly robot on monster action (and the monsters usually have blue/green goo/blood if at all), but a character may have a stream of blood on their face if they're robot is badly damaged. Certain characters contract a disease that grotesquely transforms their body, though it's bloodless.

Overall it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for a mecha/giant robot fan, if not a timeless classic. That, and I'm a sucker for a series where a romantic couple must pilot a robot together to bring out it's best.

Dragon Quest Your Story movie will be available on Netflix next week.

I just watched No Game No Life Zero. It was incredible. I didn’t realize it was gonna be a prequel, but boy did it add a lot. The story was just so good. In a numbers of ways it’s very different to the mains series, but still definitely feels apart of it. It was more serious, and it gets really emotional. I cried by the end.
I can’t fathom why Season 2 isn’t a thing by now. I want it so bad now. I really wanted after I saw the first season. I need it after seeing this movie.

Didn't even know they were making them but I'm super hype for the next two chapters!

Dragon Quest Your Story was surprisingly pretty decent. Definitely better than Ni no Kuni. Having said that, it not having Toriyama's art style just feels weird.

Also, I highly recommend this movie for those who haven't watched it, yet.

Jojo’s coming to Netflix March 1st. Finally I can see what everyone’s talking about 😂😂

@nessisonett noice

on a side note if anyone fromt he UK is interested Crunchyroll are FINALLY showing One Piece over here, just the current Wano Arc for now but it's a start

@FullbringIchigo Trust me, you don't want to watch that 1000 episode travesty. I can only imagine what good could come of the resources for its anime and games being used for something with quality and an actual concept instead.

@nessisonett The best JoJo's Bizarre Adventures series for me is still the 1993 OVA. The animation looks great and it stills hold up well to this day. In terms of recent series, my favourite one is Stardust Crusaders but I'm not a fan of the art style and the animation quality is no where near s good as the 1993 series. Also, the recent series struggles quite a bit with pacing mainly due to lengthy monologues. I do however love the opening theme animations and some of the songs (especially JoJo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~), though.

@KratosMD Persona Q characters doing JoJo poses.

A JoJo reference in Persona 5:

The World (Za Warudo in Japanese), a humanoid Stand which the villain Dio Brando can summon has the ability to stop time.

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, that live-action movie was not bad. I've watched the anime as well. I like the art style but that whole stripping down naked thing is just weird. Not really my cup of tea.

I just got the first volume of Berserk, deluxe edition. Just in time for perfecting my modified Guts build in Dark Souls 3.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Berserk is awesome but bloody dark as hell and it's still not finished yet

Trailer for Altered Carbon: Resleeved spin-off anime movie.

Looks pretty cool. I have the live-action series added to my list but still haven't gotten around to watching them yet.

@FullbringIchigo Did you like the Guardians of Desire story arc? I thought that was brilliant, and a great way to kick-start the series. I just finished volume 1 of the deluxe collection of the manga.

BLEACH IS COMING BACK, the final Arc "Thousand year Blood War" is being animated and will be released next year

as a huge Bleach fan (if my name didn't give it away) i am SO stocked right now

i'm gonna change to a Bleach avatar to celebrate

Forgotten how much humour was in Netflix's Castlevania to go with all the blood and guts!

@FullbringIchigo Looks like they added a bunch of Bleach seasons on Netflix but I don't plan on watching all of them. I'm thinking of maybe watching one of the seasons if I can. Which is the best Bleach season you would recommend?

@WanderingBullet Bleach is linear story so it’s best to start at the beginning. The first 10 also episodes of my favourite anyway.

In terms of skipping stuff. The are filler is where the story doesn’t really progress. I would watch episodes 1 to 63, 110 to 167 and 190 to 366. There are some single episode fillers as well but you can probably recognise those in the first few minutes.

@WanderingBullet like @Ryall said it's best to start from the beginning

And you can skip the filler if you like that's up to you but some of the filler arcs ain't bad really such as the bount arc