Bleach is amazing because it managed to go from the most popular series in Jump to probably the least popular by the end of its run?
It was like dead fucking last in the surveys for awhile, IIRC
the fullbringer arc was extremely boring
also the solution to ichigo completely lost his shinigami powers was to just have rukia stab him again which is so fucking on the nose
Honestly, it would have been a perfectly fine moment to just end it on too (with Ichigo losing his powers). It had already gotten dragged way out by that point.
Bleach is amazing because it managed to go from the most popular series in Jump to probably the least popular by the end of its run?
It was like dead fucking last in the surveys for awhile, IIRC
the fullbringer arc was extremely boring
also the solution to ichigo completely lost his shinigami powers was to just have rukia stab him again which is so fucking on the nose
Such a thing had been established before with Uryu, who did the Last Ever You Lose Your Powers Thing and then got shot in the heart by his dad to get them back.
And in tbr moment it was at least a neat thing. It looked like Ichigo had finally been betrayed by his friends due to Mr Facebook, but the moment got turned around into something considerably better for him.
wow, average is... very different from the light novel. not terrible, but they skipped the entire first arc.
i don't think it's a bad cut, the whole first arc is pretty whatever.
In the manga of Cautious Hero, I loved the reveal early on
that he was hiding his actual stats and told nobody because of course people being able to see your stats is a huge weakness and you obviously can't trust anybody.
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Oh yeah, Chainsawman chapter 41 this week:
Introduces a new female character that likes and is liked by the male MC. MC's enemies begin plotting her horrific murder to get at the MC, who is physically close to immortal.
There's still a chance for this author to swerve the story and defy expectations, but please don't play this out the standard stuffed in the fridge way.
What are some real good recent OPs that will fire you up and fill you with motivation?
For the "recent" I'll arbitrarily set the cutoff at 3 years old at most.
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Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
I picked up Given because I've seen a good amount of praise for its anime adaptation*, but I figured if it was good I might as well just skip right to the source. It is pretty good! The guys are at a reasonably restrained like, 80% BL bishounen power level, and the story itself is also just nice and not overly melodramatic. The plot has yet to get particularly muddled, it's basically Boy Meets Boy and Gets Him to Join his Band and Also Kinda Gets Feelings About Boy and Eventually They Smooch. It strikes a nice balance too in actually talking about gay identity, while also trusting the audience to read between the lines. The main guy, Ritsuka, is conflicted about his feelings for this new kid... But he's also not an idiot, and you can tell he's actually already been questioning his sexuality long before the new guy showed up. It has awkward coming out to friends scenes! And actual smooching! So far it's talked a little about homophobia as well, but in a fairly hopeful way, a challenge that has to be navigated, rather than just wallowing in the angst of it all.
It's not like it's the best romance or anything, but even just a Pretty Good gay romance that's not all hyper-fetishized or rapey or angsty is pretty rare in anime/manga, so I'll take it.
*Also the anime has some of the flip flappers folks attached to it, and also it's in the NoitaminA time slot. NoitaminA is a prestige evening time slot (as opposed to 2AM) for anime. They're not always good shows, but they almost always have at least like legit artistic ambition and unique character viewpoints.
The other one I (re)read was After Hours, which is a nice little short series about Emi, a 24 year old unemployed girl. She goes to a club with a friend, gets ditched, and then much to her surprise gets hit on by Kei, a 30 year old female DJ. To Emi's further surprise she's OK with that, and next thing she knows she's staying the night at Kei's place. Pretty soon she's helping Kei out at various clubs around Shinjuku* and they're sorta kinda vaguely dating. The manga focuses almost exclusively on their time together between dusk and dawn, with only little hints about their daytime lives, but it's basically always off-panel. It's like their after dark lives are their true lives, and so they don't want to dwell on like Kei's secretary day job, or how Emi was actually living with her boyfriend and they're only gradually sliding towards a breakup. It's interesting too how like, most stories that focus on getting drawn into the world of partying and drinking and clubbing are inevitably morality tales about destructive hedonism, and After Hours just isn't interested in that, even though their lives are kinda a mess it's clearly a world that the author has a lot of affection for.
*Shinjuku is also where most of the gay clubs in Tokyo are, iirc. The manga never draws attention to it, but some of their shows definitely seem to be at gay clubs.
Kana on
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
What are some real good recent OPs that will fire you up and fill you with motivation?
For the "recent" I'll arbitrarily set the cutoff at 3 years old at most.
3 years is a bit soon.
Cause uh, Clattanoia and Voracity are both very “get the blood pumping” type songs.
Odd Future with the visuals is great though.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
The other one I (re)read was After Hours, which is a nice little short series about Emi, a 24 year old unemployed girl. She goes to a club with a friend, gets ditched, and then much to her surprise gets hit on by Kei, a 30 year old female DJ. To Emi's further surprise she's OK with that, and next thing she knows she's staying the night at Kei's place. Pretty soon she's helping Kei out at various clubs around Shinjuku* and they're sorta kinda vaguely dating. The manga focuses almost exclusively on their time together between dusk and dawn, with only little hints about their daytime lives, but it's basically always off-panel. It's like their after dark lives are their true lives, and so they don't want to dwell on like Kei's secretary day job, or how Emi was actually living with her boyfriend and they're only gradually sliding towards a breakup. It's interesting too how like, most stories that focus on getting drawn into the world of partying and drinking and clubbing are inevitably morality tales about destructive hedonism, and After Hours just isn't interested in that, even though their lives are kinda a mess it's clearly a world that the author has a lot of affection for.
*Shinjuku is also where most of the gay clubs in Tokyo are, iirc. The manga never draws attention to it, but some of their shows definitely seem to be at gay clubs.
I read all of this as well, and it was interesting in that way for me, too. I am sometimes bothered when stories with such a more "older than college real life jobs/unemployment" angle has one of the characters be fortunately talented in this thing they just get dropped into (i.e. the video jockeying she did at the club) because I feel like it makes things too easy for them to make decisions about relative to the "older than college real life jobs/unemployment" aspect of the setting. I do think that in having the POV be from Emi's side and we get to know so little of Kei's day job life, it somewhat makes Kei seem a bit more mysterious and attractive, which is frankly how she comes across to Emi anyway.
I also have to wonder if the sites which host fan translations of these series which shortly afterwards get licensed and fan translation ceases serve as barometers for which series publishers like Seven Seas prioritize in acquiring.
It's meant to make things harder! Three years felt like a close enough time span that most of us who have massive backlogs will have come nowhere near much of the stuff from that.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Oh yeah, MPO has two of the best OPs in existence.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
I picked up Given because I've seen a good amount of praise for its anime adaptation*, but I figured if it was good I might as well just skip right to the source. It is pretty good! The guys are at a reasonably restrained like, 80% BL bishounen power level, and the story itself is also just nice and not overly melodramatic. The plot has yet to get particularly muddled, it's basically Boy Meets Boy and Gets Him to Join his Band and Also Kinda Gets Feelings About Boy and Eventually They Smooch. It strikes a nice balance too in actually talking about gay identity, while also trusting the audience to read between the lines. The main guy, Ritsuka, is conflicted about his feelings for this new kid... But he's also not an idiot, and you can tell he's actually already been questioning his sexuality long before the new guy showed up. It has awkward coming out to friends scenes! And actual smooching! So far it's talked a little about homophobia as well, but in a fairly hopeful way, a challenge that has to be navigated, rather than just wallowing in the angst of it all.
It's not like it's the best romance or anything, but even just a Pretty Good gay romance that's not all hyper-fetishized or rapey or angsty is pretty rare in anime/manga, so I'll take it.
Yessss! Is there more of this manga, or is it just the one "season" that got adapted to anime?
Kokkoku, the series for last OP in Jragghen post is a very strange but interesting series. I still need to go back and finish it, it's on Amazon Prime, but I really enjoyed the 7 or 8 episodes I watched.
I need to scan through my watched list when I get home tonight but these are a couple of my favorites that immediately sprang to mind:
Posts
It was like dead fucking last in the surveys for awhile, IIRC
the fullbringer arc was extremely boring
also the solution to ichigo completely lost his shinigami powers was to just have rukia stab him again which is so fucking on the nose
Honestly, it would have been a perfectly fine moment to just end it on too (with Ichigo losing his powers). It had already gotten dragged way out by that point.
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Such a thing had been established before with Uryu, who did the Last Ever You Lose Your Powers Thing and then got shot in the heart by his dad to get them back.
And in tbr moment it was at least a neat thing. It looked like Ichigo had finally been betrayed by his friends due to Mr Facebook, but the moment got turned around into something considerably better for him.
The style of females does not particularly improve, no.
i don't think it's a bad cut, the whole first arc is pretty whatever.
Its worse in the anime imo but it can be jarring yeah
Probably should have.
for your vagina
It is pretty funny that Konosuba, the isekai parody, is now the show to be parodied.
Steam Switch FC: 2799-7909-4852
Was about to immediately post this. Nicely done.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
There's still a chance for this author to swerve the story and defy expectations, but please don't play this out the standard stuffed in the fridge way.
For the "recent" I'll arbitrarily set the cutoff at 3 years old at most.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
I picked up Given because I've seen a good amount of praise for its anime adaptation*, but I figured if it was good I might as well just skip right to the source. It is pretty good! The guys are at a reasonably restrained like, 80% BL bishounen power level, and the story itself is also just nice and not overly melodramatic. The plot has yet to get particularly muddled, it's basically Boy Meets Boy and Gets Him to Join his Band and Also Kinda Gets Feelings About Boy and Eventually They Smooch. It strikes a nice balance too in actually talking about gay identity, while also trusting the audience to read between the lines. The main guy, Ritsuka, is conflicted about his feelings for this new kid... But he's also not an idiot, and you can tell he's actually already been questioning his sexuality long before the new guy showed up. It has awkward coming out to friends scenes! And actual smooching! So far it's talked a little about homophobia as well, but in a fairly hopeful way, a challenge that has to be navigated, rather than just wallowing in the angst of it all.
It's not like it's the best romance or anything, but even just a Pretty Good gay romance that's not all hyper-fetishized or rapey or angsty is pretty rare in anime/manga, so I'll take it.
*Also the anime has some of the flip flappers folks attached to it, and also it's in the NoitaminA time slot. NoitaminA is a prestige evening time slot (as opposed to 2AM) for anime. They're not always good shows, but they almost always have at least like legit artistic ambition and unique character viewpoints.
The other one I (re)read was After Hours, which is a nice little short series about Emi, a 24 year old unemployed girl. She goes to a club with a friend, gets ditched, and then much to her surprise gets hit on by Kei, a 30 year old female DJ. To Emi's further surprise she's OK with that, and next thing she knows she's staying the night at Kei's place. Pretty soon she's helping Kei out at various clubs around Shinjuku* and they're sorta kinda vaguely dating. The manga focuses almost exclusively on their time together between dusk and dawn, with only little hints about their daytime lives, but it's basically always off-panel. It's like their after dark lives are their true lives, and so they don't want to dwell on like Kei's secretary day job, or how Emi was actually living with her boyfriend and they're only gradually sliding towards a breakup. It's interesting too how like, most stories that focus on getting drawn into the world of partying and drinking and clubbing are inevitably morality tales about destructive hedonism, and After Hours just isn't interested in that, even though their lives are kinda a mess it's clearly a world that the author has a lot of affection for.
*Shinjuku is also where most of the gay clubs in Tokyo are, iirc. The manga never draws attention to it, but some of their shows definitely seem to be at gay clubs.
3 years is a bit soon.
Cause uh, Clattanoia and Voracity are both very “get the blood pumping” type songs.
Odd Future with the visuals is great though.
AniList
Revolutionary Girl Utena-Rinbu Revolution
Those are all good shows with also good openings.
Mob Psycho 100
Dragonball Supers last one
I'm sure I have more but Im terrible at recalling anime
I read all of this as well, and it was interesting in that way for me, too. I am sometimes bothered when stories with such a more "older than college real life jobs/unemployment" angle has one of the characters be fortunately talented in this thing they just get dropped into (i.e. the video jockeying she did at the club) because I feel like it makes things too easy for them to make decisions about relative to the "older than college real life jobs/unemployment" aspect of the setting. I do think that in having the POV be from Emi's side and we get to know so little of Kei's day job life, it somewhat makes Kei seem a bit more mysterious and attractive, which is frankly how she comes across to Emi anyway.
I also have to wonder if the sites which host fan translations of these series which shortly afterwards get licensed and fan translation ceases serve as barometers for which series publishers like Seven Seas prioritize in acquiring.
It's meant to make things harder! Three years felt like a close enough time span that most of us who have massive backlogs will have come nowhere near much of the stuff from that.
Depending on how you feel about it, either of these are the OPs of PROMARE and both will get the blood pumping:
Dimension W:
MHA - basically all of 'em, but that's been covered
The anime is poor, but Food Wars has good OPs
Mob Psycho 100
Attack on Titan's OPs continue to be great, but not as break-out as that first one
Black Clover FUCKING ALL OF THEM
Overlord's OPs are great
Lupin III Part 5
Steins;Gate 0
Demon Slayer's OP
Dr. Stone
Fire Force's OP is great, regardless of thoughts about the series.
And just a random one that's one of those which I have no idea what the series is about, but the OP song is great:
And we seem to actually get second/third seasons these days more often than in the past so that is nice.
AniList
Let's not forget this iconic shoujo OP
Did Nana ever actually conclude its story in the manga?
Yessss! Is there more of this manga, or is it just the one "season" that got adapted to anime?
I need to scan through my watched list when I get home tonight but these are a couple of my favorites that immediately sprang to mind:
I used to - back before streaming when you had to watch the openings.
But I don't think I've ever not-skipped an anime's opening in about... oh, at least a decade now.