Watched all 5 episodes of Vampire in the Garden
It’s only 2 and a bit hours long in total but I liked it. It’s kinda sad and a little thought provoking at times but not super deep.
(Completely random question but how do you get the link with a picture to show? I always end up with just the word in blue and no image or such. Can you tell I have no idea what I’m doing? 
)
You‘ll have to put the link in its own line
https://learnnatively.com/season/2fbddfc3d3/
Like this. Then the link will expand into image and text (most of the time ).
Awesome, thank you 
And this week as well.
Again, suuuuuuper slow. By checking the book, I realized that they are going at a 1 episode = 1 chapter pace… which means that they are indeed aiming to only cover the first 2 volumes, then.
I also couldn’t help but be disappointed by a scene that is really tense in the book. The voice actors did their best and do match the tone, but someone thought it was a good idea to add a whimsical upbeat background music. Why. They could have put no music and just wait a little bit until the situation gets resolved and then play the upbeat music.
I guess stuff will start happening from the end of next week, then. In terms of pacing, it’s kind of a tall order to expect people to wait for nearly 4 episodes until things really pick up… In the book, the pacing is fine because there are nice descriptions of the environment and world building, but in the anime, we are just shown those things, which takes a lot less time. Trying to match one episode = one chapter necessarily makes the pace pretty slow.
I don’t find it slow
But otoh I haven’t read the books, nor a description, so I have no expectations about their contents, and I am not waiting on certain things to happen.
Btw: 6 episodes per light novel seems a normal pace for me. This series is not the first one that uses that pace.
That’s great to hear! It’s true that I am biased by the curse of knowledge. That gives me more hope that the average viewer will like it.
Hmmmm I feel like it makes sense in an action heavy series (like, a fight scene would take a lot more time comparatively), but that’s not really the case here.
But, again, if it doesn’t feel slow in the absolute, then it’s perfectly fine!
I finally finished this, and mmmmm I’m on the fence. Some of it was excellent, and some of it didn’t quite land for me. It was definitely a good highlight of how much further my audio-only comprehension has to go. I initially watched with subs, but switched eventually b/c I was too lazy to keep lining them up. Anyway, I liked it enough overall to give an S2 a try, if one ever gets made. I appreciate that the premise approached things from a totally different angle than most fantasy shows.
https://learnnatively.com/season/aff8718433/ S2 ep 1-3 continues to be fine (it’s well done, my interest comes and goes)… Ranma & Mousse just had their battle, and we had the summer festival + 100 chestnuts technique. I was more excited w/ S1 so far, but might just be a mood thing. There was a nice, short “manga-esque panels” sequence for a good 10-20s in one of the eps
自転車屋さんの高橋くん S1 | L23 ep 1-3 - dropped this. It’s not bad, but it’s still got that J-drama overacting thing I don’t like, and I just enjoy it much more as manga
https://learnnatively.com/season/f1e482624c/ ep 1-2 - this is great so far. Will try to watch the next two eps soon!
Great choice. How’s it working out?
I’ve seen the first season of sailor moon so many times that I practically have it memorized. It is interesting watching it now (no subs) and thinking “Oh, THAT’S what they’re saying in Japanese”.
Also, I watched the Chainsaw Man movie last night. I thought it might be decent listening practice, but as soon as my eyes saw subtitles, my brain took the path of least resistance and just read the subs. C’est la vie.
Incidentally, trying to read the subtitles in 3D Imax ended up giving me a massive headache too. 
None of my other friends had this problem, so not sure how common it is.
I can’t read them in 3D either, gives me headaches and dizzy spells but I get motion sickness and have issues when using VR too.
I don’t think the 3D added that much either. Not worth the headache.
I still liked the movie. There’s some really big action set pieces toward the end that are so much fun to watch animated.
(movie spoilers ) I’m kind of surprised the romance stuff at the beginning didn’t take longer. That part takes up so much of my brain space when I think about the Reze arc.
I’m burdened by being the only one of my friends who reads the Chainsaw Man manga. 
I wanted to go see that but I don’t want to drive all the way to the closet subtitled non 3D showing of it (well the closest is downtown and parking is a nightmare, so the second closest). I think I’m fine waiting until I can watch it on TV, but I do want to go see it. 
I recently bought the series so might watch that then see if there is a non 3d showing nearby. I’ve never read the manga though
I’m through the first arc (so a few books past what the movie covers), but I really need to read more. It’s very good, but a little bit unsettling at times so I have to be in the right mood.
Finished 舞-HiME S1 | L27 and enjoyed it pretty well. Yay for 2000s fantasy anime 
it has a bit of Kansai-ben (1 supporting character), and gradually some yuri as well (either a lot or a little, depending how you interpret certain characters - but some is explicit too). But I wouldn’t go into the show looking for either specifically. It also has some het romance, and eventually a love polygon (perhaps inevitable given the huge cast). I’m a little curious about Mai-Otome now, but have other stuff I wanna watch for now.
Started playing ラブ★コン S1 | L26 in the background while I work (so if you count audio-only as well, I think I’m in viewing number 4 now?). Enjoying it, tho I’ll probably stop by the time I get to the cheating arc - since I’m in the middle of reading it, and also don’t like it so much. I’m rewatching as much for the language, as the story
A few more Kansai-ben shows & movies:
A nice 癒し系 where a 27 year old who resigned from her job goes to take care of her grand-uncle. It’s largely a food tour of like various mom and pop shops in Kyouto. Each of the merchants explains stuff about what they do, and she discovers stuff she likes, etc. That’s the gyst. おっさん関西弁 is kinda challenging to understand. Female MC mostly speaks Tokyo-ben, but everyone else is Kansai-ben. There’s a follow-up TV series as well… confusingly, with the exact same name https://learnnatively.com/season/c6fddfa2f4/
Another 昭和時代 朝ドラ set in 1940s 信楽 (Shigaraki in 滋賀県 Shiga-ken)… very similar setup to https://learnnatively.com/season/234f11bd68/ but way less intense so far, and I guess this one’s about a girl who becomes a potter. Basically the same family archetype, but no grandparents this time. I like カーネーション better so far, but this is good and the accents aren’t quite as thick (岸和田市 is known for having a particularly thick accent). The middle-aged men are still the hardest to understand, but there’s subtitles for everything. There’s even a prominent supporting character who speaks Tokyo-ben (and is from Tokyo) to set it apart 
I thought the mother was maybe played by the same actress in both, but apparently not.
Still watching じゃりン子チエ S1 | L26 and need to catch up on https://learnnatively.com/season/301c505b64/, 笑顔のたえない職場です。 S1 | L27, and https://learnnatively.com/season/f1e482624c/
I watched all of season 1 of Apothecary Diaries and all it’s making me do is want to read the light novels 
I tried episode #1 two years ago and found it too difficult 
I was getting bits and pieces of it and could probably note the dialogue down in hiragana but since the english sub translations of the Japanese audio don’t always match, I’ve no idea what the kanji would be I considered buying the Japanese versions of the blu-ray but £60-70 for 12 episodes (not including delivery) is kinda steep
I’ll just make do for now and at a later date rewatch it once my Japanese is better like I did with Demon slayer.
I watched the anime of
after finishing the book. Went pretty well without subtitles. The anime feels a lot faster than the book
I will finish volume 1, one of these months!! You could always go for the manga btw
That’s kinda impressive tho
I saw someone complaining about this yesterday. Supposedly CR subs are better than Netflix in this case - which I found ironic, since in JP Netflix is excellent about subs (though not visual contrast)
It is quite difficult - both the anime & LN
That’s pretty good for anime Blu-ray… but still not cheap
I’ll probably do this eventually after I’ve read the novels. The thing is there’s all the pseudo-Chinese court vocabulary, and then all the apothecary/plant vocabulary - and neither of those is particularly common elsewhere (well the former is if you read this genre a lot, I guess)
I can follow “well enough” (meaning I mostly get the plot and may or may not get the explanations) now with subs. Tho when S3 comes around, I may try to pre-study for episodes (make jpdb deck from subtitle files)
