Topic: Manga and Anime discussion

@Ralizah You can stop those auto previews from coming up. You need to do this from the web page, I've not found a way to do it from the app so far. Sign in to your Netflix account, click over the profile icon at the top-right corner of the page, and click “Account.” Look for the name of your profile under My Profile and click “Playback settings.” Uncheck the “Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices” option and click “Save” to save your changes.

I did this a few weeks ago and it has been bliss!

@JohnnyShoulder oh goodness, thank you. I didn't know that was even an option!

@Ralizah I found it quite by accident when I was trying to get stuff off the Continue Watching list that I have no intention of watching again!

InuYasha (Manga) -As I've mentioned countless times by now I'm working my way through the original series in anticipation of the sequel, and quite surprisingly managed to finish the manga before the anime. This is only the second time I've been through the manga (I'm more familiar with the anime), and as such it was interesting going through it with a bit more of a critical eye. To keep this from being overbearing I'm going to break things down arc by arc (or rather phase by phase, as it often doesn't have focused long form arcs like other shonen series, for better or worse, and as such will be giving them my own names most of the time).

"the Beginning Arc" (Chapters 1-93) - Modern schoolgirl Kagome ends up in Japan's feudal era, and after accidentally shattering a magical artifact called the Shikon Jewel into hundreds of fragments, she must set out to collect them alongside half dog demon InuYasha (who seems to be an old enemy of the Priestess Kikyo, whom Kagome appears to be the reincarnation of). This part of the series is very episodic in nature, with the pair finding themselves up against various demons who have found themselves in possession of a jewel shard. There's seemingly constant advancement towards the end goal here (even though you don't really know how many shards there are), and it's kept interesting by the introduction of most of the main cast & prominent side characters, not to mention the quickly advancing romantic angle to InuYasha & Kagome's relationship, which sees nearly constant growth in this early stage, and of which the manga handles much better than the anime does (in their great wisdom, the anime writers completely removed the scene where InuYasha effectively asked Kagome to be in a relationship for whatever reason, and mishandled some other moments as well). I should also note that at this point, the manga is much more graphic than the anime. It's quite a bit more gory (particularly decapitation happy) and while it's not saturated with nudity, unobstructed views of female characters' breasts aren't uncommon (usually the few times when InuYasha accidentally walks in on Kagome bathing, or humanoid female demons who I guess understandably don't share human modesty). Some stories from this arc were so graphic that they had to be reworked quite a bit to be included in the anime, such as the Noh Mask & the Cannabalistic Sage Tokijin, the later of which was delayed quite a bit in the anime.
"Naraku's Castle Arc" (Chapters 94-223) - Shortly after the main villain, Naraku, is introduced, the quest turns to finding and defeating him (he appears to have most of the jewel shards), and in this arc the group wanders around looking for his elusive castle. The series still takes on an episodic format at this stage, though with most events being traps set up by Naraku (including a fake castle or two), there isn't a lot of advancement towards the main goal, and things kinda go in circles until Rumiko (the mangaka) just sort of randomly decides she's ready for the gang to stumble upon the real deal. Granted, while nostalgia may play a part, I still really like this part of the series, and think it looses something afterwards. To be fair, there are other things going on here as well, such as the introduction of the last few prominent long term characters early on, InuYasha gains 3 new abilities throughout, InuYasha & Kagome's relationship is still a common focus, and you get the beginning of Miroku & Sango's romance as well. While it's still quite a bit more gory than the anime at this point, the nudity makes an abrupt departure shortly after Kagura is introduced (other than one other instance, once again featuring Kagura, way out somewhere in the 300's).
"Band of 7/Mt. Hakurei Arc" (Chapters 224-282) - This is the only arc in the series that more closely resembles the more structured type of arc you usually see in shonen action series, and is a lot of fans' favorite. Naraku is holed up in a specific location, and in order to get to him our heroes must fight past a vicious assassin group known as the Band of 7. It's also the moment in the narrative where the various side characters all start coming together in their own quests to kill Naraku, though not all are enthusiastic at the prospect of working with the core group. Unfortunately, while they still have their moments, romantic interactions between InuYasha & Kagome start taking a backseat to other things, and it marks the beginning of a long period where they seemingly spend more time pissy with each other over a recent Kikyo or Koga appearance than they do having actual romantic moments between themselves. There's quite a bit of advancement in Miroku & Sango's relationship though. It still retains it's gory edge over the anime, and in terms of darkness even features the series' only attempted rape (this is very toned down in the anime).
"The Last Shard Arc" (Chapters 283-326) - At this point there's only one jewel shard left that's not yet claimed by a notable character, and as it has somehow found it's way into the underworld, it's a race between our heroes & Naraku to find out how to retrieve it. As it's an entire arc focused on collecting one jewel shard, even as a big fan of the series there's no denying that Rumiko is definitely starting to meander about at this point. Still, InuYasha gets his first power up since the Naraku's Castle Arc, and while they still have moments, InuYasha & Kagome relationship time is spread out more than ever, at this point starting to be relegated to the very sparse (yet admittedly often humorous) modern era chapters. Miroku & Sango have better luck and make a HUGE leap near the arc's beginning.
"Moryomaru Arc" (Chapters 327-448) - Across the series Naraku has "birthed" incarnations (henchmen created from his flesh), and in this arc one by the name of Moryomaru (well, technically another behind him) decides to gather the others and try to usurp Naraku. Important things do happen here (particularly the death of a notable side character, and InuYasha, Sesshomaru, & even Koga all get powerups), but it's by far my least favorite arc and really feels like Rumiko is stalling for the sake of stalling at this point, even if it is ultimately to clean the slate back to just Naraku for the finale. InuYasha & Kagome's moments are still limited to the rare modern era reprieve, and there's not many Miroku & Sango moments either. At this point most of the manga's edge has gone and it's not particularly any gorier than the anime (ironic, as it's at the very beginning of this arc where the first anime series abruptly ends).
"Resolutions Arc" (Chapters 449-558) - By this point it's time for things to come to a close, so things actually start happening all the time (in fact it begins by wrapping up Kikyo & Koga's role in the story, and doesn't stop there). Most of the main cast instead of just InuYasha gets powerups, many times for the first time, relationships start growing again & it's off to the final battle & end. By far the most I was invested in it since the Naraku's Castle arc.

Conclusion - I think it had a pretty solid ending. Poor Koga simply gets written out (after losing his jewel shards & giving up on Kagome, results so expected I don't consider them spoilers, he simply runs off about 100 chapters before the end, never to be seen again. Luckily the anime remembers to give him an ending), but for the most part every major player is given their due, and it's a pretty satisfying ending.

However, and this may just be me caring waaay to much, for a series so focused on InuYasha & Kagome's relationship, I can't quite shake the feeling it didn't end on the bang it should have (no pun intended). Throughout it's entire nearly 560 chapter run they never once shared even one kiss (hey, even Kikyo got 2), though once again the anime rectifies this. Granted, Kagome loved him so much that even after being seperated for 3 years she jumped at the chance to be with him even though it meant probably never seeing her world or family again, and maybe Rumiko thought that alone spoke louder than any traditional romance tropes could, but it still strikes me as odd that their official marriage status was only confirmed in a roundabout way, when she refered to Sesshomaru as "big brother", and even in the special epilogue chapter, which has never been animated, you never even get a slight look in at their everyday married life, with what downtime it contains taking place in Miroku & Sango's household, which we already got to see at the end of the series proper.

Granted, Rumiko is just as bad (if not worse) than Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama in terms of planning (every interview of her's I've read she admits she never plans ahead on any of her series, letting things flow week by week, and she admitted to being particularly indecisive on the issue of InuYasha & Kagome's relationship, seriously considering a "bad end", only deciding once she had started on the final chapters already, and only after calling up Kagome's Japanese VA for her input, as she figured she'd know the character better than herself at that point). So, she was either too indecisive to include a kiss/more involved marriage moment due to last minute decision making (apparently the endings for Ranma & Rinne are even less satisfying, according to others I've heard from), was pressured into a happy ending and didn't include any out of spite, or I'm thinking way to hard about it.

If you've read through all of this (especially for such an old series at this point) I salute you, and can look forward to my thoughts on the anime at some point in the future. Recently posted my thoughts on the second movie in the Movie thread.

I binged Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu over the last few days. It’s been a while since I’ve been blown away by an anime and while I don’t watch much seinen, it’s one of the most incredible series I’ve ever watched. Quietly devastating and yet sentimental at the same time, I honestly couldn’t recommend it enough. It strangely reminds me of Ping Pong the Animation in places, the themes are similar even if the subject matter is completely different. Still not sure what the actual **** rakugo is and the humour to be found in it but it speaks to the quality of the series that I was engrossed in it all the same. Now excuse me while I go sob quietly in a corner somewhere because it hits hard 😂😂

Looks like we got our first look at YashaHime's English logo (looks a lot like how I imagined).

Funnily enough, even though they're expecting people to vote for their favorite Inuyasha/Kagome centric episodes to re-air (to the point that there's going to be live commentary from their Japanese VA's), as of right now people (particularly English language voters) are flooding it with Sesshomaru/Rin centric episode requests (it's technically open to all 167 episodes of the original series).

I finished Steins;Gate there, including the surprisingly good and fulfilling OVA. It’s right up there with the best TV shows I’ve ever seen, not just anime. I honestly didn’t expect it to be that incredible, the first half of the series almost lulls you into a false sense of security, only for it to subvert anime tropes and shatter your previous misconceptions. Now I’m really in a jam, after watching two amazing anime after each other, I have no clue what to do next! I’m definitely going to play the VN and then watch 0 at some point but for now, I reckon my choices are to rewatch Evangelion (although Netflix’s translation is a crime), give Beastars a go even though I’m not a furry, attempt to get into the Fate/Stay franchise or give Anohana a go. Unfortunately I think I’ve run out of great shoujo shows, I’ve seen pretty much all the classics and rewatched ones like LoveCom, Kimi ni Todoke, Special A and Maid Sama recently. It’s going to be properly hard to find something that’ll top both Steins;Gate and Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu!

@nessisonett RE: Fate, my advice would be to start with Fate/Zero (which is really, really good), and then, if you like that, give Unlimited Blade Works a shot. The truth is that the Fate franchise is stupid and trashy in general, but Urobuchi's writing and ufotable's superior animation really elevated the material with Fate/Zero. UBW feels like they tried to work F/Z's magic with the terrible original series, but it only partially succeeds.

Also, I don't know about anime, but if you haven't read these shojo manga, you need to...

Angel Sanctuary
Please Save My Earth
Red River
Tokyo Babylon
Versailles no Bara
Yami no Matsuei

I have a few manga lined up to get through Beastars is good just finished volume 5, the deluxe Beserk collection, which I can't wait to get into. Anything by Urusawa he's my favourite by far I've read Monster and Master Keaton, Just need to start his other books!

@Ralizah That’s a good sized bunch for me to check out, The Rose of Versailles is like the OG granddaddy of the whole Shoujo canon. I’ll try to find more info on how to penetrate the seemingly incoherent Fate series, it’s definitely confusing with all the different series, some of which are supposed to be good, some bad.

@nessisonett Older shoujo is frequently awesome. Female mangaka were using shoujo and early BL stuff (which is branch off of women's comics) to explore themes surrounding expressions of gender, sexuality, etc. that they might not have been comfortable with otherwise. In that respect, beyond just being entertaining, older shoujo is a fascinating sociological windows into the concerns and interests of young Japanese women in previous decades.

Just a few other names I'll throw out there, in case you missed them.

Gunbuster: Aim for the Top (this Hideaki Anno mecha classic anticipated both Evangelion and Gurren Lagann; it's unmissable, IMO)

Space Runaway Ideon (basically what you get when you combine space opera, old school super robots, and cosmic horror; the feature length film reinterpretation of the ending, Ideon: Be Invoked, was basically The End of Evangelion of its time)

Revolutionary Girl Utena and Adolescence of Utena (Kunihiko Ikuhara's best work; mixes classic magical girl tropes with surrealism and a critique of inherited gender norms and the patriarchy. The movie quadtruples down on the surrealist elements and is more of an art film, but it has some unforgettable sequences.)

Wandering Son (a painfully compassionate look at Japanese trans kids going through puberty and attempting to find their place in the world; the anime isn't as good with issues of gender as the manga is, but you still won't find better trans representation in animated Japanese media)

Maison Ikkoku (as with all things published by Takahashi, some of the social attitudes in this are dated, but it's still a superb romantic dramedy; the manga is far better, but I also liked what I watched of the anime, so you're good either way)

Have you seen the recent anime adaptation of Banana Fish? That's another case of a classic shoujo manga getting the anime treatment recently. Although I haven't seen it, so I don't know if it's decent or not.

@nessisonett Older shoujo is frequently awesome. Female mangaka were using shoujo and early BL stuff (which is branch off of women's comics) to explore themes surrounding expressions of gender, sexuality, etc. that they might not have been comfortable with otherwise. In that respect, beyond just being entertaining, older shoujo is a fascinating sociological windows into the concerns and interests of young Japanese women in previous decades.

Just a few other names I'll throw out there, in case you missed them.

Gunbuster: Aim for the Top (this Hideaki Anno mecha classic anticipated both Evangelion and Gurren Lagann; it's unmissable, IMO)

Space Runaway Ideon (basically what you get when you combine space opera, old school super robots, and cosmic horror; the feature length film reinterpretation of the ending, Ideon: Be Invoked, was basically The End of Evangelion of its time)

Revolutionary Girl Utena and Adolescence of Utena (Kunihiko Ikuhara's best work; mixes classic magical girl tropes with surrealism and a critique of inherited gender norms and the patriarchy. The movie quadtruples down on the surrealist elements and is more of an art film, but it has some unforgettable sequences.)

Wandering Son (a painfully compassionate look at Japanese trans kids going through puberty and attempting to find their place in the world; the anime isn't as good with issues of gender as the manga is, but you still won't find better trans representation in animated Japanese media)

Maison Ikkoku (as with all things published by Rumiko Takahashi, some of the social attitudes in this are dated, but it's still a superb romantic dramedy; the manga is far better, but I also liked what I watched of the anime, so you're good either way)

Have you seen the recent anime adaptation of Banana Fish? That's another case of a classic shoujo manga getting the anime treatment recently. Although I haven't seen it, so I don't know if it's decent or not.

@Ralizah Yeah, Maison Ikkoku is actually the only one I’m familiar with there but I definitely agree with early stuff being surprisingly ahead of its time. Even things like Ranma 1/2, which is chock-full of really quite awful attitudes, is massively iconic for a lot of people who say that it helped shape their own identity and have no idea how it was even aired in the US at the time. I really enjoyed Itazura na Kiss when I watched it but after looking up the manga after the anime’s abrupt conclusion, I found out that the author died suddenly while moving house and the manga was never finished. I’ll check out Banana Fish, I heard about the anime when it aired but had no idea the manga was that old to be honest.

@nessisonett Ranma is interesting. It's horrifyingly homophobic and transphobic by modern standards (particularly the anime, like the anime-original episode where Ranma hits his head and becomes psychologically female, and the rest of the episode is kind of making fun of him), but, for the time, it was also groundbreaking in the way it was able to make fun of traditional Japanese gender roles. The way I figure it, anything actually transgressive, that seeks to question and deconstruct social norms, is almost necessarily going to be dated by the standards of people in the future. You can't judge old stuff with new standards.

If Ranma was created today, I'd have obvious issues with it, but I still really love the series and can appreciate it for what it did right in its time.

On the Takahashi front, I actually recently rewatched the seminal Mamoru Oshii film Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, and boy, people are going to have a fit if the Buzzfeed crowd ever discovers it. 😂😂 Besides Ataru being his usual horrible self, the film opens up with a Nazi-themed display for the student fair. It's still a pretty good film, though: this was playing with philosophical themes and fantastic surrealist sequences back in the early 80's.

@Ralizah I’ve heard of the whole Nazi thing in Urusei Yatsura 2 but genuinely thought it might have been a joke, as in never happened á la all those videos on YouTube called like ‘Shaggy says the N word’ or ‘Mr Krabs says the N word’. I’m utterly confused after a Google search, it doesn’t seem to really tie into the rest of the movie and is just a strange strange choice 😂😂

@nessisonett, I just so happened to watch that film for the first time a couple months ago, and the reason for the Nazi imagery in the context of the film is because the school is prepping for a cultural festival & the class decides upon a (Nazi) military cafe theme, for whatever reason (one of the characters has a genuine WWII German tank which is used for some gags throughout the film). Definitely odd though, even if I enjoyed the film overall.

I'll move our chat here to not derail the Demons Souls thread @Draco_V_Ecliptic

Not that there's much for me to say. After hearing about the Berserk references in Demons/Dark Souls I did go on to read a fair chunk of the manga.

It was alright.

Griffith's an interesting character and I can see why it's fairly well regarded. Haven't seen any of the anime adaptations for it and don't particularly plan to.

It's probably progressed a fair bit since I looked at it and to be honest I don't remember all that much about it beyond a few key points and characters.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I am in the process of sifting through the deluxe series of volumes of the manga, I would thoroughly endorse it as an artistic work. Griffith is indeed, cool and disturbing in equal measures, but yeah, Guts is obviously my favorite, hence my avatar and basing my build in Dark Souls on him.

I've seen some of the anime from '97 of it, and that's obviously easier to watch than reading the manga is. The Band of the Hawk saga is probably less interesting than when the supernatural elements begin to involve themselves in the story,

I'm referring of course to the Golden Age arc, which precedes the supernatural tone the series takes after that age is sort of ushered in by the Eclipse. Anyway, I have a Berserk sticker on my guitar so I hope that communicates my level of dedication to the series.

InuYasha (anime) - Recently finished up a rewatch of it. As I recently did a huge write up of the manga, I'll largely just cover the differences the anime made. This 167 episode series encompasses roughly the first 360 chapters of the manga, covering "the Beginning" arc through the "Last Shard" arc (though it actually ends just as the "Moryarmaru" arc is beginning).

• As for changes made to "the Beginning" arc, graphic content was drastically toned down compared to the manga (as I mentioned in my last write up), as well as the shuffling of a few stories (some of which is related to the cutting of graphic content). The most baffling changes made to the anime here are the complete omission of the moment InuYasha asked Kagome to be in a relationship, and the related deep conversation they have after Kikyo's second appearance (the latter was changed to nothing more than a joke regarding him contemplating being with both women). Still, despite that these early episodes are still some of my favorites, and it's mostly a great adaptation.
• As for the "Naraku's Castle" arc, it starts out as a pretty straightforward adaptation, largely just toning down some of the graphic content as per usual, however near it's tail end they pepper in some filler episodes (including adding some filler to canonical storylines), which can be hit or miss but I do enjoy the 3 episode panther demon filler arc (most filler in the series is comic relief, but this was one of the few instances of a more dramatic filler story, and it's the best of those, as they get worse from here on). I found myself really enjoying the series still at this point, and I liked that some of the later filler episodes (placed inbetween this arc & the next) gave InuYasha & Kagome some extra moments as this was the part of the series in the manga where development of their relationship started taking a backseat.
• Next up is the "Band of Seven/Mt. Hakurei" arc, which is a pretty straightforward adaptation other than again the toning down of a few of the more graphic moments (in fact, I believe it even begins to be a little toned down compared to earlier episodes as well, though it can still get bloody when it needs to). This is also when the series switched from traditional cell animation to digital animation, and I preferred the slightly grittier look of previous arcs. They also gave. Otherwise not much to complain about here, other than the fact they gave the Band of Seven's leader demonic powers he didn't have in the manga, making him just another enemy InuYasha overpowers with the Backlash Wave (the point in the manga was to show how he had grown as a fighter technically).
• Finally is the "Last Shard" arc which is padded out with a few filler episodes as well (this is where things felt like they started to meander along in the manga a bit, so the filler doesn't do this any favors). I have no issues with the core of the arc itself, though the filler is hit and miss (I again enjoy that they bother to give InuYasha & Kagome more romantic moments which were slowing down in the manga, however this is also the part of the series that contains the 4 episode "Naginata of Kenkon" filler arc, which is widely considered to be the worst story in the series, filler or otherwise. I could go on a rant about it, but this is getting too long as it is).
• The final 3 episodes are taken from the beginning of the "Moryomaru" arc, but there's not much to say here as other than the fact they speed things up a bit as they wanted to end the anime on a specific romantic moment between the two leads.

Overall it did start to drag a bit as it went on (and is a reminder of why I don't really follow long running series these days), but it was a nice trip down memory lane. Despite some issues I think the earlier episodes are my favorite overall, and while I think the manga handled the early arcs better, I think I prefer how the later arcs are depicted in the anime (and I'm including the Final Act in this statement) compared to how they went down in the manga. The only other thing of note with the series is that it ends on a cliffhanger, but with the existence of the Final Act (which I'm currently watching), it's not the big deal it used to be.

My thought's on the manga should still just be a few posts ago (on the last page, to be exact), so if you haven't yet you can look at that as well.