Topic: Manga and Anime discussion

@KidBoruto, YashaHime sadly sucks (though from what I understand it's partially due to behind the scenes development issues), and hasn't overshadowed the OG series in any meaningful way. It was highly divisive, with a ton of fans noping out at some point, and what goodwill it has left being from SessRin shippers who are happy the show confirmed it.

That said I hear the manga adaptation is a ton better (fixes a plethora of the anime's narrative plot holes), and as a huge fan of the series will give it a read once I'm done rereading the OG manga.

@RR529 I'll prob end up just watching the YashaHime anime, don't have time to read much manga anymore sadly.

Please do let me know what you think of the manga though!

@Kairu Yea Haikyu!! is really good. Some sports anime are absolutely amazing. My brain hates sports irl (always fall asleep) but sports anime get me pumped. Check out Kuroko no Basket, Major, Hajime no Ippo, Ace of Diamonds and currently airing that I'm enjoying AoAshi.

@Kairu No problem dude. Let me know your thoughts if you manage to see them yes AoAshi is the football anime. It's fun seeing what types of powers/ super skills the creators come up with related to the sport. No hadouken or Kamehameha type moves, usually based on real world techniques but super versions.

Additions to my small, but growing, collection.

Ghost in the Shell Arise 1&2 - The first two entries in the GitS Arise OVA. Each one is about an hour long, so I'm gonna wait until I have the time & watch them back to back like a movie.

City Hunter 2 set 1 - Really liked the first season of City Hunter when I streamed it on Retro Crush, so decided I'm going to buy the rest of it physically. I've never been so scared of breaking a disc because they are just gripped in there unreasonably tightly, but luckily I managed to remove the first disc without issue. Just finished watching the first episode and it was very enjoyable as predicted.

Bonus: boxes outside the slip cases.

My first order arrived from the RightStuf 2022 Birthday sale!

They're a little late in getting here, but here are my latest additions (still working through City Hunter 2 from the last set, so no new series, just a couple movies/OVAs).

Ghost in the Shell ARISE parts 3 & 4 - the last two OVAs in the ARISE line. Already watched them last night & they're narratively pretty dense IMO, but worth a look if you liked the first two.

Lupin the 3rd: Goemon's Bloodspray - Followup to Jigen's Gravestone. Watched it last night & it was insanely fun. Very bloody, action packed, modern take on a samurai film focusing on Goemon being pushed to the limit when he finds himself up against a nearly indestructible American assassin named Hawk who has killer axe skills.

Bonus: Alternate box art outside of the slip covers.

New pickups arrived today.

Lupin the 3rd: Fujiko's Lie - Last entry in the "Koike" trilogy. Really liked the first two, so I'm eager to watch this (though the weakest aspect thus far was Fujiko's plotline in Jigen's Gravestone, so maybe I should keep my expectations in check).

Triage X - I've watched this a couple times before (via streaming), so I'll know I'll enjoy it (it unfortunately doesn't cover the entire manga, but I follow that too).

High School of the Dead - Again, have watched it before via streaming, so know I'll like it (& have already started it). Likewise it doesn't cover the entire manga, but I plan to get to that eventually.

High School of the Dead: Drifters of the Dead - The OVA episode of the series. Usually these are included in the base physical release, so it was surprising that it was a separate release.

Bonus: Alternate Fujiko's Lie art under the slip case.

A couple of classics for my latest additions.

Lupin the 3rd: the Castle of Cagliostro - I've always heard about how this is often considered one of the best pieces of Lupin media, and after watching it yesterday I can see why. Absolutely gorgeous feel good film.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Hopefully this shouldn't need any introduction. Yes, it's apparently the "Netflix" dub (they say "Nerv" funny & cheaped out & didn't license "Fly me to the moon" for the ending), but it has such a complicated history of releases that I figured I should grab it while I had the chance. Neither issue is honestly that big a deal to me anyways. On the plus side, it also includes both of the 90's movies, Death (Truth)² (which I've never even heard of), & End of Evangelion (which I've only ever seen via a sketchy pirate site years ago), which I wasn't expecting.

@JohnnyShoulder Oh wow I had no idea this was a thing. With this and the Trails anime all we need now is a Yakuza/Like a Dragon anime. I'm not the biggest fan of IP's crossing over to different media but there are always exceptions!

Well, after over a year of reading, I've finally finished up all 500+ chapters of InuYasha. It was my first time reading it in an official capacity, and as the anime was my life in middle/high school I'm glad I did.

I think it does loose a little something in terms of charm after awhile, and for awhile it's clearly stalling for time, but I think it comes together well enough by the end with a pretty satisfying ending. Been at it since 2020, so I'm gonna be at a bit of a loss now that I'm done.

I also followed up by reading the first volume of YashaHime (which is the only one currently available). I wasn't a fan of it's anime counterpart, but the manga is off to a MUCH better start (I don't want to get into the myriad of reasons why the anime sucked, but the mangaka seems to be deliberately acknowledging most of it's issues), which is making me excited for this followup all over again. Too bad the next volume doesn't drop until December.

@RR529 Most of Takahashi's series go on way too long. Of her major works, Maison Ikkoku was probably the big exception: it's a perfect length, and has a defined beginning, middle, and end. And also the most satisfying conclusion of any of her works.

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who first experinced EoE via sketchy methods. It took so long to come overseas that I pirated an untranslated screener of the film back in the late 90s. It did eventually come over in an official capacity, thankfully. Glad the movie is available on Netflix and whatnot now, because the original EoE DVD is insanely expensive at this point.

Death isn't really necessary viewing. People mostly bought the original Death and Rebirth movie for the Rebirth section, which was the first third or so of EoE. The Death portion is a truncated synopsis of what happened in the series, although they did re-animate certain key sequences from the TV show for it, which look extremely nice.

@Ralizah, yeah, I looked it up since I posted so know that Death (Truth) is largely redundant. Looking forward to getting to EoE as I'm almost certain it wasn't in HD back when I watched the sketchy version, so it's probably going to be a real mind bender. Only 5 episodes of the TV series left.

New arrivals.

Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo - The very first Lupin film. I've heard it's a mixture of the more slapstick nature of Part 2 (which it was produced alongside) & the more graphic nature of the original manga, so I'm interested in seeing how it turns out.

City Hunter 2 set 2 - The second set of episodes in the series. This has become a bit of a comfort food series for me.

Bonus: Alternate art for City Hunter 2 set 2 under the slip case (Lupin's art is the same under the case).

A recent batch of new anime orders came in finally! Looking forward to watching them all eventually

Most of them are blind buys, I've only seen Claymore and Trinity Blood.

@Kairu I'm waiting for Season 1 to finish, then I'll start binging it.

I don't have the patience to wait for weekly releases.

@Kairu I don't have the time to re-watch anything, too much anime in my backlog heh.

Glad you're enjoying the series though!

Arrivals I got in last weekend (a bit of a 90's fest).

Fatal Fury: the OVA Collection - the two 90's era Fatal Fury OVAs, obviously enough. Watched them back to back like a movie (about 2 hours long total). Every bit the cheesy martial arts flicks of the time, they're not particularly deep, but they are a fun time (only minor issue is that they changed a prominent character's hair color between the two). I enjoyed the corny faux "Arnie" German accents the big bads had, lol.

Outlaw Star - Still not even quite 10 episodes into it, but I'm already having an immensely fun time with it. It doesn't seem to have had the cultural staying power of an Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop, but it was just as much part of my childhood.

Bonus: Alternate box art under the slip cover for Fatal Fury: the OVA Collection

@KidBoruto, congrats on the haul! Definitely interested in nabbing the Fatal Fury & Street Fighter II movies myself.

Pretty cool looking 2D/3D mashup animation.

Says "Video unavailable" for some reason. Click on the "Watch on YouTube" to watch it instead.