Anime/Manga Anime Watch Challenge 2022!
- Thread starter Sapphire Rose
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It slipped my mind last month to finish watching Welcome to the NHK but I love sports anime so I will do my best with this one. I looked up anime to find one I hadn't seen and I've never heard of Run With The Wind but the reviews sound good. Will try at least start it!
Also yay excited you're watching Haikyu GP :D
Also yay excited you're watching Haikyu GP :D
I hope it's as good as people say :')
RadEmpoleon
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Does Yuri on Ice count as a sports anime? Because if so I'll try that one. I've heard of it and wanted to watch it, but I never did.
It counts!
It's honestly tremendous. Especially the 2nd season! I hope you love it! <3
RadEmpoleon
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I second this, and both sub and dub are great!
RadEmpoleon
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I just watched the first episode of Yuri on Ice and I don't know why I didn't start it earlier. I'm here for this gay content. Also Yuri is a precious bean who needs to be protected at all costs
Well shit. It really is that good. I went to watch two episodes and ended up watching seven. I'm not sure I'll get through all of it in a month, but I'm going to devour this first season at least lmao.
So... Haikyu. Haikyu is so much better than it has any right to be.
For an anime with such an extensive cast, it does a fantastic job of fleshing out everyone's personalities. There's a few characters with similar personalities to each other, but they just feel like characters who are similar rather than clones. We're not just talking about the starting line-up of the team though. Some of the substitutes like Yamaguchi and Sugawara get really well-fleshed out and they started doing similarly with Kinoshita too. Even Enoshita - the most NPC-looking guy ever - got an epic moment. Even a solid number of the characters from outside the team are fleshed out really well.
The story itself isn't revolutionary, of course. It's literally just your typical underdog sport team story. But it is executed so well and so character focused that it doesn't matter. The series captures the dedication and love the characters have for their sport so well. It is also the best depiction of the joys of success and the pain of defeat that I have ever seen. When you dedicate yourself that much to a craft, victory feels incredible and loss is soul crushing and Haikyu gets that. Haikyu capitalises on that so well that even if you know nothing about volleyball you get pulled in deep. The fact that the characters are so well written helps a lot with that.
The animation is really clean too. The movements feel extremely crisp and dynamic and everything (except for Korai. What the fuck is his face?) is really aesthetically pleasing to look like. The music is also really good. It captures the vibes of each scene well, especially when things start getting intense and/or hype.
Go watch Haikyu.
For an anime with such an extensive cast, it does a fantastic job of fleshing out everyone's personalities. There's a few characters with similar personalities to each other, but they just feel like characters who are similar rather than clones. We're not just talking about the starting line-up of the team though. Some of the substitutes like Yamaguchi and Sugawara get really well-fleshed out and they started doing similarly with Kinoshita too. Even Enoshita - the most NPC-looking guy ever - got an epic moment. Even a solid number of the characters from outside the team are fleshed out really well.
The story itself isn't revolutionary, of course. It's literally just your typical underdog sport team story. But it is executed so well and so character focused that it doesn't matter. The series captures the dedication and love the characters have for their sport so well. It is also the best depiction of the joys of success and the pain of defeat that I have ever seen. When you dedicate yourself that much to a craft, victory feels incredible and loss is soul crushing and Haikyu gets that. Haikyu capitalises on that so well that even if you know nothing about volleyball you get pulled in deep. The fact that the characters are so well written helps a lot with that.
The animation is really clean too. The movements feel extremely crisp and dynamic and everything (except for Korai. What the fuck is his face?) is really aesthetically pleasing to look like. The music is also really good. It captures the vibes of each scene well, especially when things start getting intense and/or hype.
Go watch Haikyu.
RadEmpoleon
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I only watched like 9 episodes of Yuri on Ice but I'm loving it so far. Yuri and Viktor are so cute together. I don't think I've ever seen this much gay romance in anime and I'm here for it. And episode 7? EPISODE 7???? THEY ASJDKADHKFKSDSJKD I've rewatched that scene so many times and I always feel warm and fuzzy. Gay stuff aside, I really love Yuri's character. He's just a soft wholesome guy who loves his food. I love the way the skaters are animated. I don't know jack about ice skating, but they seem animated so realistically.
The one thing I will say I don't like are the ass fanservice moments. They've had a few close-up shots of people's butts and it makes me really uncomfortable.
The one thing I will say I don't like are the ass fanservice moments. They've had a few close-up shots of people's butts and it makes me really uncomfortable.
I finished Tsuritama fairly early on in the month this time around and just didn't have the time to sit down and write a proper review from my experience. The anime wasn't bad as far as I was concerned, but with the addition of aliens, and a crutch of comedy that just didn't really land most of the time.... eh? I was kind of excited about the idea of an actual fishing based anime with the interesting art style of the show, but it just really didn't end up being what I was hoping for. Overall it was just really weird and felt almost like a fever dream once the binge was all over lmao. I liked the art style, it had good music, and there were a few moments of "clarity" where certain themes I'd been hoping for shome through and a few other moments where it tried to drop some bits of wisdom.
Overall I would probably recommend it just because it's a short watch and it wasn't really bad. Probably a solid 6/10
Overall I would probably recommend it just because it's a short watch and it wasn't really bad. Probably a solid 6/10
Its a new month, and with that comes a new theme. This time around we're going to leave it a little open ended with Shonen. Anything from your widespread battle packed action anime like SnK, Naruto, and HxH, all the way to series like Black Butler, Horimiya, and Dagashi Kashi - Shonen covers a wide range of titles, so you can rest assured there'll be no shortage of options for this month.
Sapphire Rose
[I]Only thorns left on this rose.[/I]
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I'm going to watch the last season of Boku no Hero c:
Hmmm.... I had considered finishing off the last 20ish episodes or so of Black Clover, but there were a few other shows I've been eyeing on my backlog and just haven't gotten around to trying out. This time around, after taking some time to consider my prior judgements and whether I'd like to incite chaos or not I settled for Yamada and the 7 Witches.
RadEmpoleon
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I'll be watching Fire Force! I know nothing about it other than the title lol.
I've been hearing good things about it recently!
Okay, so, Jujutsu Kaisen. I finished it a few days ago, it's about time I actually leave a review.
Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime that I put firmly in the same camp as Demon Slayer. That is to say, it is an extremely solid action shounen series that has been vastly overhyped because of the quality of the animation and action. It does not do anything particularly new or special. The characters are not groundbreaking. The magic system isn't anything particularly new or exciting (or well-explained lol). The story is not revolutionary or unique in any real way. It isn't bad. It is a very solid show that I very much enjoyed. But the only thing that sets it apart from any of its competition, is that the animation/art is very good. The action sequences in particular are extremely well done. Arguably better than Demon Slayer even though they aren't necessarily as aesthetically/stylistically appealing because of how incredibly fluid they are. I could continue praising the art, animation and the direction of both for this entire review post and that would probably be fair.
But instead, I'm going to talk about the things that irked me. So, firstly, the pacing of the first roughly 5-6 episodes is terrible. We get introduced to our supposed main cast of four characters. Then a thing happens and we are suddenly only following one of those four characters really and he then spends several episodes working entirely with a totally different character (who I admittedly like a lot) on the actual plot while the remaining three of the supposedly main cast of characters are very rarely cut back to where they are doing basically nothing.
Then, eventually, after a different thing happens that should have had a much bigger effect on our protagonist than it did, we enter what I will loosely describe as a tournament arc which takes up the majority of the rest of the season. This is also where the second thing that I found bothersome comes into full effect. You see, usually, a tournament arc is introduced into a story like this is as an organic way to introduce a large roster of secondary characters all at once. Which is exactly what Jujutsu Kaisen's exchange event does. Ordinarily, this would not be unusual. We get introduced to the second year students from the Tokyo school as well as a bunch of students from the sister school (primarily second and third years I believe). What is strange about this choice is that it is done at a time where three out of four of the main cast are still basically non-entities - and even Yuji who we have been basically exclusively following up to this point has not actually experienced anywhere near as much character growth as the show tries to make you believe. All we know is that Yuji is a goofball who wants to die on his own terms, Megumi has an implied but poorly expanded upon morality for who should and shouldn't be saved, Nobara's kind of a bitch and Gojo is Yuji but even goofier and with god tier powers. Then they introduce us to Maki, Panda, Toge and the Kyoto characters on top of this.
So we're now left in this very strange situation where a large number of secondary characters have just been introduced to the cast before we know anything at all really about the four main characters of the story outside the most basic elements of their personalities. Which only gets weirder still when instead of using this arc to flesh out the main cast, those recently introduced secondary characters are the ones who actually get the development while Gojo, Nobara and Megumi do essentially fuck all. People really like to tout Nobara as an example of a female action shounen character who is actually written well and I have no idea why because she has no presence at all. She adds literally nothing to the story. There are two female characters that are well-written and add to the story - Maki and her sister. Who are part of the secondary cast. In fact, Maki is pretty much the most compelling character in the show at this point. Panda and Toge also get a fair amount of spotlight, but I think Jujutsu Kaisen might have accidentally forgotten that Maki is not its protagonist (or even a main character) for like half of its run time.
Then, finally in the last like... 2-3 episodes of the show we get to learn more about Megumi and get a tiny taste of Nobara's outlook on life too. Not a lot about either, but we get to at least understand them as people to a greater extent.
So yeah, Jujutsu Kaisen is weird. It has some of the best action sequences I've seen in animation... well ever, and while it's base premise isn't anything we haven't seen before (Yuji is basically what if Naruto ate a piece of fox meat in a crisis and got saddled with Kurama as a result), it's still a compelling enough premise to catch my interest. It is not a bad show by any means. It's a great choice for if you want to switch off and watch people with powers beat the living shit out of each other and look good while doing it (which is exactly what I needed this past week lol). But it is not at all as complex or deep as it wants you to believe it is and it makes some absolutely fucking baffling writing choices with its pacing and the way it handles its characters.
Basically, watch it for the action and animation. Don't go into it hoping for it to be anywhere near as incredible as some of the hype around it makes it out to be. Like I said, same camp as Demon Slayer. Also Maki is really cool. That is all.
Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime that I put firmly in the same camp as Demon Slayer. That is to say, it is an extremely solid action shounen series that has been vastly overhyped because of the quality of the animation and action. It does not do anything particularly new or special. The characters are not groundbreaking. The magic system isn't anything particularly new or exciting (or well-explained lol). The story is not revolutionary or unique in any real way. It isn't bad. It is a very solid show that I very much enjoyed. But the only thing that sets it apart from any of its competition, is that the animation/art is very good. The action sequences in particular are extremely well done. Arguably better than Demon Slayer even though they aren't necessarily as aesthetically/stylistically appealing because of how incredibly fluid they are. I could continue praising the art, animation and the direction of both for this entire review post and that would probably be fair.
But instead, I'm going to talk about the things that irked me. So, firstly, the pacing of the first roughly 5-6 episodes is terrible. We get introduced to our supposed main cast of four characters. Then a thing happens and we are suddenly only following one of those four characters really and he then spends several episodes working entirely with a totally different character (who I admittedly like a lot) on the actual plot while the remaining three of the supposedly main cast of characters are very rarely cut back to where they are doing basically nothing.
Then, eventually, after a different thing happens that should have had a much bigger effect on our protagonist than it did, we enter what I will loosely describe as a tournament arc which takes up the majority of the rest of the season. This is also where the second thing that I found bothersome comes into full effect. You see, usually, a tournament arc is introduced into a story like this is as an organic way to introduce a large roster of secondary characters all at once. Which is exactly what Jujutsu Kaisen's exchange event does. Ordinarily, this would not be unusual. We get introduced to the second year students from the Tokyo school as well as a bunch of students from the sister school (primarily second and third years I believe). What is strange about this choice is that it is done at a time where three out of four of the main cast are still basically non-entities - and even Yuji who we have been basically exclusively following up to this point has not actually experienced anywhere near as much character growth as the show tries to make you believe. All we know is that Yuji is a goofball who wants to die on his own terms, Megumi has an implied but poorly expanded upon morality for who should and shouldn't be saved, Nobara's kind of a bitch and Gojo is Yuji but even goofier and with god tier powers. Then they introduce us to Maki, Panda, Toge and the Kyoto characters on top of this.
So we're now left in this very strange situation where a large number of secondary characters have just been introduced to the cast before we know anything at all really about the four main characters of the story outside the most basic elements of their personalities. Which only gets weirder still when instead of using this arc to flesh out the main cast, those recently introduced secondary characters are the ones who actually get the development while Gojo, Nobara and Megumi do essentially fuck all. People really like to tout Nobara as an example of a female action shounen character who is actually written well and I have no idea why because she has no presence at all. She adds literally nothing to the story. There are two female characters that are well-written and add to the story - Maki and her sister. Who are part of the secondary cast. In fact, Maki is pretty much the most compelling character in the show at this point. Panda and Toge also get a fair amount of spotlight, but I think Jujutsu Kaisen might have accidentally forgotten that Maki is not its protagonist (or even a main character) for like half of its run time.
Then, finally in the last like... 2-3 episodes of the show we get to learn more about Megumi and get a tiny taste of Nobara's outlook on life too. Not a lot about either, but we get to at least understand them as people to a greater extent.
So yeah, Jujutsu Kaisen is weird. It has some of the best action sequences I've seen in animation... well ever, and while it's base premise isn't anything we haven't seen before (Yuji is basically what if Naruto ate a piece of fox meat in a crisis and got saddled with Kurama as a result), it's still a compelling enough premise to catch my interest. It is not a bad show by any means. It's a great choice for if you want to switch off and watch people with powers beat the living shit out of each other and look good while doing it (which is exactly what I needed this past week lol). But it is not at all as complex or deep as it wants you to believe it is and it makes some absolutely fucking baffling writing choices with its pacing and the way it handles its characters.
Basically, watch it for the action and animation. Don't go into it hoping for it to be anywhere near as incredible as some of the hype around it makes it out to be. Like I said, same camp as Demon Slayer. Also Maki is really cool. That is all.
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