General Anime/Manga/Otaku Thread

[retrolinkx]

Well, it certainly doesn't hurt that I'm a med student.

Haha, yeah it probably does help.

Also, since summer has come to an end and I want to do something to distract myself so I can become sleepy, time for me to talk about all the anime I've finished this summer since my last post.

Where was I...? Oh yeah, Inuyashiki now THAT was a fucking GREAT anime. (Although reading all the MAL reviews has massive mixed reviews, some give it 10's and some give it 2') Here's the OP:




Best way to describe it since the OP pretty much tells you nothing is that this anime is about two people. An old man diagnosed with cancer and a young teenage boy who loves manga. Both of these two suddenly get wiped out by some extra terrestrials by accident, but are soon brought back to life due to the ET's technology. Unsurprisingly, the characters then develop super human abilities and pretty much become robots. Now, I know I've described it badly, but man I don't really know "how" to describe it to get you to watch it, but if you want me to put it into a really small description.

It's about an old man becoming a robotic alien super hero who flies around Japan with rockets flying out of his back curing cancer and fighting Yakuza meanwhile the teenager becomes a robotic alien super villain who goes around killing everybody with finger guns.

No seriously, that's EXACTLY what it is, give or take a few moments. I was really surprised at how good it was because I really enjoy weak characters like the MC becoming stronger, and the teenager was an interesting antagonist. It had it's fair share of problems that I won't discuss here, but honestly if you want to watch a good 11 episode anime. Give this a try, it's great. Although, if you don't want to here are some of the best scenes.

Spoiler

There's probably a few more I missed, but I don't want to show them. I just chose some of the better and more action filled scenes. There are a lot of heart warmers though.

In a change of pace, I also decided to watch Cosmic Warrior Zero since that was a 12 episode anime that caught my attention by upon reading reviews I was told to just watch Captain Harlock, since that was what this material was based off.

Captain Harlock (or Herlock, I'm not really sure) is pretty much from an era of anime that is long forgotten beyond a few gems here and there, and Harlock is probably one of them. The best way to put Harlock is that he's kind of like Doctor Who in Space, but instead of a Tardis he has the Arcadia, an incredible battleship designed by his "friend". He always saves the day, and his motley crew of 40 or so so midgets who all look the same (besides the main plot characters) help him along the way. The story is set around 1000 years in the future, humanity has declined (as usual) and are actually about to be invaded by the "Mazone" a group of incredibly beautiful aliens who have called Earth their rightful second home, and will do anything to capture it. Although Harlock is having none of that bullshit, so while everyone on Earth does nothing, Harlock and his crew will stop this invasion OF A LITERAL CIVILIZATION if it kills him.




For an anime from the late 70's it was....alright. It had it's fair share of VERY BORING moments and VERY BORING episodes, but overall it was a fine anime. If you can excuse the poor production quality and the filler episodes (and boy were there filler in this 42 episode anime). It holds up. I can't really say much about it since it didn't stick with me very well, I can remember a few episodes here and there and the kinda....bad ending. But overall, if you're looking for some original 70's space uh "action". I'd say give it a try.

If not, at least laugh at the English Dub opening with me.




Oh yeah, then I watched Flying Witch, now THAT was a cute af anime.




Best way to describe it is just a really cute slice of life about a witch and her cat who go to a small village in Japan to hang around with family members for 12 episodes and do cute slice of life things with each other, ranging from picking apples to FLYING UP TO A FUCKING SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS TIER WHALE IN THE SKY.

Like, I went into this thinking it'd be "alright", you know that kind of anime where you turn your brain off and let the cuteness overflow, but man I was wrong, for what it is it's actually very good because, while it is Slice of Life, it deals with aspects of the occult in that world. So once episode may have you watching them do some farm work, while another will have you watching them go to a ghost cafe and hang around with ghosts and animals, one episode may be about friends at school, while another may be about a dog girl who is angry at the MC's sister for turning her into a furry.

The whole show is just brimming with heartwarming stories that I loved. I'm not the kind of guy to really talk about stuff like this, but man I truly enjoyed it. If you've got time for something cute and heartwarming, give this a try.

Oh boy, then I came to Elfen Lied and boy was that a ride. Honestly I'm not even going to put an OP here, it was just as bad as the show.

Honestly, I don't even want to talk about it. It was just bad, I watched it dubbed and it basically felt like watching "The Room" of anime, it was taking itself WAYYYYYY too seriously meanwhile underage girls walked around naked killing people with ghost arms while a shit dub ran through my ears. Like, I didn't take this seriously for one second, it was hilariously bad. Just avoid it, it's not good.

Interestingly, the next thing I watched was Michiko to Hatchin and it was surprisingly good. It felt very western like Cowboy Bebop, I'd suggest it if anime isn't really your kinda thing (although not sure why you're reading this far down). Here's the OP:




The plot of this is basically about two people. Michiko, a 30 something criminal on the run and Hatchin, her supposed 9 year old daughter on a quest to find her father who was apparently killed years ago, but obviously Michiko isn't believing that for one second. The anime is set in Brazil, which is quite an interesting location for an anime, and mostly deals with the problems of avoiding police, making money, finding leads, dealing with an idiotic woman in her 30's and a bratty kid who's smarter than her. Overall, it's a unique anime that feels like it could honestly be a tv drama with how good and unique it all is.

I'd recommend it because every episode feels different, and even the filler has parts that expand the characters and make them feel more "realistic" in this unrealistic world. One of my favourite episodes was where several assassins were trying to take out the criminal all while driving on a busy highway. Like literally, 14 minutes of just GTA tier fighting but with intelligent moves done by each person. It was truly a unique episode.

After this, I decided on watching three trashy anime before finally watching an acclaimed one.

The trashy anime were Blend S, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid and Girls Und Panzer. I feel there is no real need to discuss these, since they're all fairly new and well known but I'll give my opinions on them.

Blend S was trash, nothing about it was interesting or unique and it wasn't fun to watch. I actually watched it at 2x speed just to get it over with.

Dragon Maid is something that's always felt tainted to me, I couldn't watch it with a clear mind since one side of me always said it was shit, while another said that it's good. After watching the episodes, I knew it wasn't for me, but compensated and gave it a 7/10. I feel it's just above average and while I personally wouldn't watch another season, it's not a bad anime.

Girls Und Panzer was quite a hilariously stupid anime, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Pulling off stupid Initial D tier drifting techniques and blocking the barrel of a Tank by putting another Tank on top of it was so hilariously stupid I couldn't help but love it. I enjoyed it from many aspects, the underdog aspect, the war aspect and even the cute aspect. Out of the three, this was quite the surprise because of how funny it was to me and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Now, it's onto the big dog. Ashita no Joe. and Ashita no Joe 2.

I didn't talk about this much in this thread, beyond that post I made a few days ago but I'd really like to tell you just how AMAZING this anime was.

The anime is basically about a kid named Yabuki Joe, a drifter who makes money off scamming others and nothing more, that is until one man, a retried drunk boxing coach notices his potential as a boxer, and does everything in his power to put him in the ring. While my description may not give you the best insight to this anime, it truly is something special, since this anime was pretty much THE ANIME to prove that anime isn't just a cartoon and could be a legitimate piece of media that's not just for kids.

The first season is 79 episodes long, and the second is 47. Overall, it tells Joe's entire story, his highs and lows and more. The one thing I loved about Joe was that it was never boring not for one second, from the first episode I was hooked, especially for something from the fucking 70's. It has a way with how it's presented, you're lead to hate Joe as a character but can't help but love him as he meets more people who are just as bad or worse than him. Especially when he meets his first rival, the Champion boxer Rikishi Tooru and HAS to beat him in the ring, and leads to some horrific matches as time goes on.

I'd 100% suggest this anime to anyone. While 126 episodes combined may seem long, it was truly be worth it. Ashita no Joe is such an amazing anime for what it is, from the action scenes, to the drama, from the music, to the heart breaking moments. EVERYTHING WAS AMAZING ABOUT IT.

HOWEVER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. DO NOT LOOK AT ANYTHING ON YOUTUBE. I WAS SPOILED ON MANY CHARACTERS AND THEIR ENDINGS AND I'M SO PISSED AT THIS ONE FUCKING VIDEO FOR LITERALLY SAYING THE EQUIVALENT OF "HOW ASHITA NO JOE ENDS" IN THE TITLE AND IT BASICALLY RUINED THE ENTIRE THING FOR ME.

It's such a shame since I went in without actually know how it ends, only for my curiosity to get the better of me and finding out too much. It's such a shame because it probably would've been an instant top 10 in my eyes. I just hope that these videos I post don't lead you to that video, it's truly the worst video on youtube just because it spoils the ending in it's title alone.

Anyhow, please watch Ashita no Joe, it's incredible for an anime from the 70's and everything about it is perfect.

While I posted my favourite opening above, here's the spanish opening for some reason (hopefully this won't have the related video spoiler):




And lastly, I watched something called Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai! and honestly, even I don't know what I watched here. Part drama, part play, part anime. It was the story of a girl going back in time and stating she was the granddaughter of this family's son, and honestly it's just impossible to even comprehend and type at 5am. 

If you want to know more, the MAL would give you a better insight.

And that's it baby, I'll probably watch something called Martian Successor Nadesico next before I head off back to uni and my summer is officially over. But until then, thanks for reading.