What are you watching today?

Japanese Watching
1306

More seasonals in my quest to become the type of perosn who watches seasonals:

Still enjoying Marriagetoxin, Yomi no Tsugai and Akanebanashi, 2nd ep of each was if anything better than the first. I did end up using english subs as a crutch for all of those at times, esp akanebanashi. But I still feel like 95% I was relying on jp so that’s fine. 2 eps behind on Nakamura-kun though I intend to catch up.

new series:

日本三國. The animation and directing is incredible, btu the language is very hard and fast. I am putting it down for now.

北斗の拳 remake. I watched 1 ep, and intend to continue for now. It’s…well its 北斗の拳. A lot of muscly dudes screaming. People seem to be really down on the 3d animation but it’s okay for me. I mean, I was never gonna be into the aesthetic. I am not sure if I’ll continue this for long depending on how many eps it has but for now it’s alright.

左ききのエレン I really liked the first ep!

淡島百景 also pretty good! a bit similiar to the one above in the sense that they are both more slow and about art, but the vibe is different enough.

tl;dr besides 日本三國 I am watching everything I tried. Last season I couldn’t even finish 2 seasonals (still 2 eps left in ikoku nikki) so I’m not sure how this will all work out lol. Only saving grace is I am watching/will watch 3-4 more seasonals with my partner so I don’t have to worry about them (honzuki, witch hat atelier, liar game, kamiina botan). Out of those, we only started Liar Game, which I find ot be a lacking adaptation, but it didn’t really get to the meat of the content yet.

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1307

I was avoiding bc I assumed it was gonna be Hard (it is), but my teacher mentioned that it’s a mix of Iyo-ben (the MC is from Ehime-ken) and Kansai-ben. Since I’ve felt lacking on Kansai input lately, I gave it a try. It’s… weird. To its credit, it’s quite unique - haven’t seen this kind of animation before, and the directing is really interesting. That said it’s also kind of うざい, especially the MC. I’ll probably keep watching because it’s interesting, but at least as of now, I can’t exactly say that I like it

Watched with 📽 JFF Theater Movie Club | April Featured Movie — 🎤 カラオケ行こ！ (Let's Go Karaoke!), and liked it pretty well. If you want Kansai immersion, this is 1.5 hours of excellent, realistic Osaka-ben! I actually found parts harder than カーネーション | L27 or スカーレット S1 | L25 . I found the main duo’s relationship endearing, if unrealistic, and enjoyed the multiple intertwined plots - particularly the tension between the trio in the choir, and conflicting obligations with the film club. I would have liked a bit more of Oka’s home life though. Otoh I enjoyed seeing them do actual choir practice, and their well-intentioned but naive music teachers. The yakuza parts were fine too… tho tbh, I wouldn’t have picked it up on that basis. As an aside, I liked the fact that the 14 year olds look & behave like 14 year olds. Actually tbh it makes me a little less enthused about eventually checking the manga b/c (as is typical for manga) the lead looks at least 16 there. I appreciate that the movie is more realistic in that regard.

There also are some definite BL undertones, imo - but the movie is definitely not romance, and I’m not sure you could even call it subtext (tho I hear the sequel manga - when Oka’s 18 - may have some of that)

I’ve been daydreaming about a Zojirushi yet again… and so I started watching some cooking vids. For now I’ll have to be content with my Aroma (which I am indeed satisfied with)

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1308

I still remember the days where I had never watched a seasonal anime. I was watching ソードアート・オンライン : Alicization - War of Underworld | L29 on Funimation, and suddenly halfway through, I discovered there were no new episodes and that I’d have to wait another 6 weeks :sob: … somehow now I’ve got 12 for the current season :sweat_smile:

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1309

This season watching:

Excited about the production quality going up, or so it seems. Only one episode in, but by looking at the op/ed and the introductory episode, we will get some story development in the 24 episodes.

This is a bit of a guilty pleasure chill anime to watch for me. Surprised it got a Season 2 but I’m not complaining.

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1310

I recently rewatched あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。 S1 | L23, because who doesn’t like to be sad for no reason. :sweat_smile:

Today I watched episode 4 of とんがり帽子のアトリエ S1 | L30??. I probably should have known that it would be a setup episode and waited to watch 4 and 5 together, but oh well. Still fine, but as it was just setup it wasn’t as impressive as the first three episodes.

Also watched episode 2 of あかね噺 S1 | L30?? (behind by a week) and ugh, the shounen is so strong with this one. I know I said this already when I gave my impressions of the first episode, but it’s just so glaring. I honestly don’t know if I’ll continue with this one. Give me the same premise but as a josei series and I’d probably love it, like Chihayafuru.

I’m considering starting 春夏秋冬代行者 春の舞 S1 | L30?? weekly as well. Anyone have any non-spoiler thoughts on this so far before I commit to it?

I don’t think there’s anything else I’m interested it for weekly watching. That said, I really need to pick an already-aired show to watch as well. Maybe メダリスト S2 | L25 (loved the first season), 【推しの子】 S3 | L31 (though all the seasonals are hard, so maybe not right now), or 響け！ユーフォニアム S3 | L26 (I’m long overdue to watch the latest season).

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1311

I loved the first two episodes. The concept is nice and seems light, but there’s also a ton of trauma and complexity that comes out in various ways, from different characters. From the little I read of the manga, I think they adapted the beginning very well, and also am impressed that they portrayed Spring’s speech style so well. I’m expecting this and 淡島百景 S1 | L30?? to be my two favorites this season

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1312

I watched 僕の心のヤバイやつ over the last few days and it was really good! Definitely one of the best school rom-com anime I’ve seen. As others have said about the manga, it’s a bit violent/dark/creepy for the first 2-3 episodes, but then it drops most of the creepy stuff and is just really sweet and funny. I’m going to jump into the second season right away.

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1313

Creepy in what way? Feel free to use spoilers with tags.

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1314

The main character fantasizes about killing people. Nothing graphic is shown, it’s just a bit uncomfortable.

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1315

I’ve finally started watching season two of Frieren, just watched the third episode and loved it. I’ve been pouring all my energy in reading for the past year and really haven’t watched anything at all.

I also started watching https://learnnatively.com/season/0c58ae81e2/ . Only saw the first episode so far and it’s certainly something :smiley: . I just realised when writing this that it will be removed from Netflix at the end of the month I best hurry that. Gotta love owning nothing with streaming services. I can probably watch it elsewhere but on Netflix I can use Migaku for mining.

I also finally added some series I’ve watched to my profile. It’s probably not everything I’ve watched but it’s what I can recall this moment.

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1316

Well, I finally did it. I finished ママレード・ボーイ S1 | L20 . Generally, I enjoyed laughing at the over-the-top drama until the latter part of the series where Yuu goes to America. I don’t know what happened, but the quality of the episodes drops precipitously around that time and the plot starts REALLY dragging.

I have never rooted so hard for the main couple NOT to get together in the end. :joy:

Overall, I thought it was a pretty solid early-to-mid N4 listen. Aside from the first episode where the parents explain that divorce-and-remarriage situation (and a few conversation sequences after), most of the plot revolves around school or romance. And if you miss what they say the first time, they’re going to re-hash it later.

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1317

お疲れ様でした🤣

I’ve climbed that hill before and I definitely understand where you’ve come. (I’m still traumatized by the way Miki says “Yuu… :face_exhaling:” all the time).

If you haven’t read it already, the manga is only a 8 or 10 volume long series and I’ve read it a bunch of times. A lot of the parts that I didn’t like about the anime weren’t in the manga (although the whole plot where he thinks they’re siblings and breaks up with her without telling her is canon and just as annoying in the manga ).

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1318

The OP will live rent free in my head forever. I’ll have to add the manga to my “to-read… eventually” list.

The whole time Yuu thought they were siblings, I kept shaking my head because the whole situation could have been resolved if he just talked to his parents. But if either Yuu or Miki knew how to communicate, the show would only be 10 episodes long. :joy:

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1319

Started watching ソウルメイト Limited Series | L30??

There’s an interesting mix of places and languages. Starting in Japan, it’s set in Berlin, and you hear Japanese, English, German, and Korean (one of the main actors is Taecyeon from 2PM). You might recognize the Japanese actor from Alice in Borderland (at least that’s why he seemed familiar to me)

I recognized a lot of places that I’ve been to before and of course the public transport.

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1320

I finally finished 【推しの子】 S3 | L31 today. The last episode being 50 minutes long kind of killed my momentum and I didn’t watch it for like 2 weeks. It was really good though, as was the season overall.

Spoilers

I’m glad Aqua and Ruby finally learned each other’s past life was. It’s still silly that it never came up just from sibling bonding and discussing a shared experience, but I understand why it was saved for an appropriately dramatic moment.

That said, the sibling affection scenes afterwards were kinda gross. I really hope that was just a silly one off thing, but I’m a bit worried it’ll become an actual plot point.

I assume the final season will come out sometime next year.

What’s everyone looking forward to next season? All I have on my radar right now is the new Nanoha anime series (which is unlikely to be popular enough to be picked up by Netflix) and the new Madoka movie (which is unlikely to air in the U.S. any time soon). So I’m definitely interested in finding one or two more shows.

1321

Catching up with seasonals

氷の城壁 S1 | L24 has been surprisingly interesting and complex for a high school romance. The characters all have different stuff going on beneath the surface, in a way that meaningfully affects their relationships. I’m still not sure who I’m “supposed” to be rooting for with this love polygon, but I’m enjoying the hell out of it

クラスで２番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった S1 | L25 mostly hasn’t hit the same highs as book 1, but the book 2 episodes feel like they’re going better

ガンバレ！中村くん！！ S1 | L21 continues to be cute. I’m enjoying it more than I did at the beginning.

MAO S1 | L26 I’m only on in the middle of 4/9, but really enjoying

Looking through Anilist…

I want to love you till your dying day (KimiShinu): AniList

Clevatess S2: AniList

Young ladies don’t play fighting games: AniList

Futsutsuka-na-Akujo-de-wa-Gozaimasu-ga-Suuguu-Chouso-Torikae-Den/: AniList

Sayonara Lara - AniList

Iwamotosenpai-no-Suisen - AniList

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1322

  1. Ghost in the Shell series, maybe if it is not too close to the movie(s).

  2. 猫と竜, might like it.

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1323

Oh I didn’t know that was getting an anime. I’ve never read it but got the first few volumes for free at some point.. I might check it out.

I’ve been so unmoored from seasonal anime lately, it’s been sad. I hope I can pick something up this summer that I get really into..

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1324

Got all 4 wisdom teeth out this morning so finally took the opportunity of being able to do nothing but lie in bed and drink protein shakes to catch up to とんがり帽子のアトリエ.

I was behind by like 5-6 episodes. Crazy how fast time passes since it does not feel like that many weeks have passed since the last time I watched it.

I remember reading an article on Reactor that said Qifrey was one of the worst mentors of all time which felt off to me then but I’m even less convinced of after watching the latest episode where he stands up for another apprentice. I haven’t read the manga so I don’t know if things change but he seems to genuinely care about the younger apprentices/kids even if he does have his own hidden agenda.

I’m liking the later episodes much more than the beginning. Really excited for Season 2! I might pick up the manga from where the anime leaves off (don’t want to go through the beginning again) once I manage to get to the end of my tbr (which I’m hoping to finish by the end of this summer but we’ll see).

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1326

Movies

I rewatched this in the middle of the night last week, and it was really enjoyable! There are some things that are definitely movie logic and the final battle stuff felt a bit contrived, but overall I found it interesting and enjoyable. I watched with subs, but would have caught most of it without

I caught it in theaters. It’s pretty cool tho I like the show better. The surrealism was pleasing, which is more than I can say for EVA or Madoka movies. The language is a bit easier than the show tho. Much less abstract gobbly gook. It’s making me wanna rewatch the series, but it will probably be with my bf, so will wait till we’ve finished space lesbians

YouTube

I played a bit of Fire Emblem a while back, but didn’t get far in. So I’m curious if I like it better when someone else is playing. Also Hayase Sou is fun - a rare vtuber who doesn’t use a voice synthesizer and has a thick Kansai accent

I keep saying I should continue playing it, but never do - in part cuz I don’t wanna bother with the gameplay parts. So I’m watching this 朗読 instead. The guy reading and commenting is quite fun. I’m on the 2nd case (where you meet マヨイ)

Seasonal

Slowly catching up

Ongoing - Has turned out to be my favorite so far! The love polygon and organic use of misunderstanding or misreading people, while still being genuine and not melodramatic… Idk, the reactions and the way thoughts are interjected feel really organically woven in. The characters too are refreshing, and the portrayal of a hetero close friendship - that a lot of ppl think is romantic, but isn’t - is cool too.

Ongoing - my other favorite! The episodes go by far too quickly. I wish there were more and that I could just binge watch the whole thing. I’m so curious how the relationship between Nanoka and Mao will continue to evolve, and the larger plot is good at keeping things mysterious and interesting

Finished - having read the novels, I’ve been overall underwhelmed. They keep leaving out parts that I either think are key or that add depth. They did nail the last episode though. It’s interesting to me that it seems to be so positively received, but admittedly it is a standout in its genre. Idk whether I’ll watch a S2 if it gets one

Ongoing - Definitely not as interesting as FMA and I don’t really get what it’s building to, but still interesting enough

Still need to catch up with:

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