Anime and manga appreciation and discussion thread

[sdp]

tons of alternatives are going to be popping up and for a while they'll be taking them down so you'll need to find an alternative from time to time and none will have as big of a catalogue as the main one used to, until one new version arrives that is better than anything that came before and that one will last many more years until the cycle repeats. This has happened tons of times.

[Allio]

Wow. I wish people learned the ?don?t like, don?t watch? mentality. I saw the image of Abby and Uzaki and some people need to grow the **** up.

[Allio]

been reading some new manga

U12 - Not for the faint of heart. It's about 12 girls that are sold off by their families to be part of a survival game in a prison.
Lovely Professor and Robot girl's despair-like utopia. A saddening tale during the apocalypse as a man and the robot he created search for survivors, which as the man has said he is hoping to find some that his friend doesn't have to be lonely when he dies.
Henai Cafe: A cafe where people of all types of weird fetishes come in. Chapter 1 had a menophile, Chapter 2 had a girl into S/M and chapter three Maiesiophilia. Weird, but in a fun weird with some nice twists.

Manga two is definitely a recommendation if you want feels.

[Allio]

It’s rare that I would ever binge a series to completion (or at least up to date)

But holy shot. Welcome to Demon School, Iruma Kim is just that good. Binged 160 chapters in a little of over a day.

[Allio]

Been rereading Ranma 1/2. That **** is so good, Rumiko’s best in my opinion. I’m thinking about putting it in my top 5/10 with ease. So it’s up there with Fraken Fran.

[Allio]

After years of not finishing collecting the books I finally picked up Rosario+Vampire. And since It's been so long since I finished it back in 2014 I decided to reread it (through the books I own)


also I decided to read the new manga that came out this year 100 girlfriends that really, really, really, really, really, really love me. I do love that it's toting itself as the series where there are no losing heroines. 43 chapters in and we have 10 girlfriends from Rentaro

My only real complaint is that I think the series goes a little far with the "meta dialogue."

[drgon78]

I am glad that Discotek is releasing old school anime like All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Blue Seed, Cutey Honey(New), Robot Carnival, Sorcerer Hunters, Urusei Yastura Beautiful Dreamer, etc. on Blu Ray. Also Will be getting Project A-Ko, Kodocha, and the rest of the Urusei Yatsura movies sometime this year or so.

[Allio]

Looking forward to a lot of their future releases like the Japanese version of Medabots

[CyberCubed]

I don't watch much anime but I'm going to watch the final season of Attack on Titan when it ends. I enjoyed the show a lot so far but I'll wait till the current season finishes to watch it through.

Besides that I'm still waiting for Dragon Ball Super to return. Remember Super ended in March 2018, I can't believe its been 3 years already and there's no sign of it coming back. I'm really surprised Toei would leave such a huge gap.

[Allio]

Decided to read Senton Academy. Pretty funny animal school story.

Sentai Filmworks (notorious for having anime for expensively cheap) had some big sales during the new year, picked up:

Listen to me girls, I am your papa (just good wholesome series)
Original Higurashi
Gatchaman Crowds (original gatchaman is still too much for my taste)
Big O
Clannad

[sdp]

What are some kissanime alternatives?
Anywho right now I'm watching Gamba on prime video, great little 80s anime about rats.

[Allio]

Gogoanime is one that comes to mind.

[CyberCubed]

It's funny that everyone watches anime illegally online and nobody bats an eye, but if you say you watch a regular live-action movie or a TV show online on a illegal streaming site...everyone goes crazy and you get called a pirate/thief.

I wonder why when it comes to anime nobody seems to care.

[Allio]

That’s because that watching anime illegal is pretty much ingrained into the culture of non-Japanese anime culture. Most people that are involved in producing anime for the west nowadays has been involved in illegal anime in some form (like either fan-translators becoming official or Abridged voice actors becoming official.)

Of course that doesn’t mean there isn’t backlash to it. But it’s because anime is still a “niche” (at least still compared to large ip) and so it gets drowned out by a lot of other stuff

[CyberCubed]

A lot of anime is on crunchyroll, netflix, etc. these days, but most don't seem to care.

[Allio]

Decided to watch some classic Japanese superheroes. The original Gatchaman as well as Yatterman (2008 version.)

[sdp]

Well there's tons of anime out there and kissanime made it easy to watch, no matter how obscure or niche it was while the streaming services only have the most mainstream anime and cruchyroll is also selective in their choices.

Originally Posted by Allio

The original Gatchaman as well as Yatterman (2008 version.)

I remember watching G-Force as a kid, is it a bad hack job of an adaptation or is it decent? If I wanted to watch Gatchaman would it be a good alternative or should I go for a Gatchaman dub? Or is battle of the planets actually a better Voltron type americanization where they make it their own thing.

[Allio]

Don’t know. Never saw either Battle of the Planets or G-Force dubs. But the new Gatchaman dub is good. From what I hear it seems to be a faithful dub (moreso than BotP) but with English names and English music. It’s by ADV which if I remember most of their dubs weren’t good.

Infini-T Force is fun. It’s an Avengers type of crossover with Tatsunoko Characters including Ken from Gatchaman. I hope we get a second season so that we could get more characters, perhaps from either Yatterman or Samurai Pizza Cats or Speed Racer. CGI can be a killer for some but honestly the cgi is actually pretty smooth and I felt was the best cgi anime until BEASTARS came out.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

A lot of anime is on crunchyroll, netflix, etc. these days, but most don't seem to care.

Wouldn't that depend on the series (referring to places like Netflix and Hulu), though and if it has a sub option? I know some people prefer raws/subs to dubs in a general sense and want to watch a series in the way it was naturally intended to be. Maybe the choices are also limited. There are some shows you can't just find on those services either...like a lot of older series. I mentioned earlier that I was watching the series GeGeGe no Kitaro, the 1967 version, which I was enjoying, but never got around to finishing. The series is still around and has had a version for practically every decade since. Also, for the show's theme song (which is still the same after all these years), I like the 60s version best because it's the spookiest sounding of them. It fits the theme of the show dealing with ghosts, imo. So that could be a factor.

Last year (no wait, 2019) a friend of mine had me watch the original Full Metal Alchemist, which he saw back when it was newer. After, I was going to try that Brotherhood series. It was on Hulu and I'd never seen it. The only thing I knew about it was that the music group Porno Graffiti did the first opening, which I always enjoyed and I knew the song before I knew of the show since I was generally more into music. I liked what I saw, but never did finish it.

I started rewatching Sailor Moon (original series) subbed, which was nice and nostalgic since years prior, I'd only seen the DiC dubbed eps on TV and didn't see past when Rini showed up, so when finding out there was even more, I really wanted to watch it. It was nice being able to watch the original version without it having to be through a computer screen like I had to do 20 years ago to finally see the series in full. I used to use a site back then called Sailor Moon TV or something like that. It had all of the eps fansubbed.

I started watching Fruits Basket on Hulu, the more recent version. For the 2001 version, which I only saw subbed back then, I liked it, but hated where it left off since the manga was still being written. I liked what the newer version did, as it is closer to the manga...but I did have trouble getting through it. I'm just glad it had a Japanese audio option. The English voices, when giving them a chance, were grating on my ears. In some ways, I kind of prefer the 2001 version, even though it was unfinished. That's not on Hulu or Netflix.

Other show I started watching on Hulu was the 2011 Hunter x Hunter series. Aside from one of the movies, which I went to the theater to see while in Japan, I never actually watched the 2011 version of the show (which is still technically unfinished). Not sure if it's still like this, but in Shinjo station (since that's where the manga-ka is from), they have Hunter x Hunter banners hanging in the station. I noticed it when I had to travel there every month. Anyway, this is on Hulu as well. I couldn't get into it at all and I'm a Hunter x Hunter fan. Despite the flaws, I prefer the 1999 version of the series. I liked the pacing, character development, build up, and the soundtrack suited it better, imo, as opposed to the generic sounding soundtrack the 2011 version had. It also has ADHD storytelling and pacing, which I never liked much. I know some didn't mind it, but it bugged me. An example, Gon during one of the tasks has to hunt down Hisoka for his number plate. This took a few eps because we were supposed to feel just how emotionally distressed Gon was and how scared he was...how high his anxiety was, realizing just how serious his situation was, while also feeling his joy when he does manage to get it from all of the training and practice he did during that time. He truly earned the victory. It's breezed over in the 2011 version. The 2011 version is also a bit toned down from the 1999 version with the blood and stuff. They even toned down the fight Killua had with Jones in Trick Tower. It was exactly like the manga for the 1999 version, and it was more badass with that wicked smirk on his face when he defeated him, causing the others to look on in shock (minus Gon). It's hard to find the 1999 version now. Looking at the bit I could get through of the 2011 series made me want to go back to the 1999 version, despite the creative liberties it took.

I started the Digimon Adventure 2020 series a few months back. That's on Hulu, subbed. It bugs me that they have some of the original voice cast from the original 1999 series doing voices of characters in the series as opposed to their original ones...but never mind that. Anyway, it's nice that Hulu has this...but, like with Hunter x Hunter, it has an ADHD approach to storytelling. The characters don't really react either to their situation and the character development is pretty much nonexistent from the nearly 20 eps I've seen of it. Even the characters' partners' evolutions don't feel deserved and more like convenience, aside from Mimi so far (imo) and that's pushing it. This makes me miss the 1999 version of the series, and I don't think that's on Hulu...well, the dub is but as most know, I don't like the dub of the series. Digimon in general is what turned me off of dubs all those years ago. lol

So yeah, I think that platforms not having certain series may be the reason why some people still go to other sites to watch illegally. GeGeGe no Kitaro, Fruits Basket (2001), and Hunter x Hunter (1999) are a few that I can't watch through legal means.

[sdp]

I'm about to watch the evangelion movies, how are they? I like the original show but I was never obsessed with it like most people are.