What Anime and Animation are you currently watching?

[alexvss]

Godzilla: Singular Point. Two guys who work in a one-stop-shop team up with a researcher to face a company that is trying to resurrect dinosaurs (to, presumably, destroy the world?).

It’s labeled as cyberpunk on Netflix, but I disagree with that. It does take place in the near future (2030), and there are some high-intelligent AI, but there’s nothing cyberpunk to it--not the cyber nor the punk.

I dig the art direction though. It’s 2D (except for the dinosaurs, which are very ugly), and it’s not like modern anime. I dunno, it seems “unfinished”, so to speak, but that’s part of the aesthetic.

The mystery is captivating. I’m looking forward to watching it all.

 

[HareBrain]

Tengoku Daimakyo (Heavenly Delusion). Just watched 6 out of the 7 episodes available on Disney+. I think they're releasing weekly, which is too bad as I want to see the whole thing NOW. This is one of the best series, anime or otherwise, I've watched in years: great characters, very well animated, intelligent, and super-intriguing.

 

[alexvss]

Tengoku Daimakyo (Heavenly Delusion). Just watched 6 out of the 7 episodes available on Disney+. I think they're releasing weekly, which is too bad as I want to see the whole thing NOW. This is one of the best series, anime or otherwise, I've watched in years: great characters, very well animated, intelligent, and super-intriguing.

I'm shocked this is available on Disney+ . It's a a mature series with some disturbing stuff (they say the source material is even worse).

And it's great btw

 

[HareBrain]

I'm shocked this is available on Disney+ . It's a a mature series with some disturbing stuff

Shhh, they might hear you and take it away.

 

[Jeffbert]

Started watching The Great Mulligan on NF, Two, count 'em 2 episodes are all I could take, for now. This guy by sheer chance saves planet Earth from an invasion by extraterrestrials, and, on a devastated planet, lacking clean water and electricity, they make him President of the USA.

O.k., this is humorous, but not funny. If not for the existence of actually funny programs, I might continue watching this. However, I have Paradise P.D. whose current season, I have yet to watch. It is not only funny, but, very funny. Disgusting, grotesque, nasty, but funny.

So, I actually finished the season, not too shabby, but just not as funny as I expected it to be. I will continue if it has a second season.

 

[HareBrain]

I'm shocked this is available on Disney+ . It's a a mature series with some disturbing stuff (they say the source material is even worse).

And it's great btw

Interesting to note that if you type "anime" in the Disney+ search box, Tengoku-Daimakyo doesn't even appear! Which makes me wonder what else might be hiding on there. (Probably not a lot.) And yes, it continues to be brilliant, one of the best SFF series I've watched in any medium.

More than I can say for Children of the Whales (Netflix). It has some neat ideas and visuals and has more than a few echoes of Nausicaa, but is plagued by a complete lack of urgency and tension even in the fighting scenes. I feel I ought to drag myself through the last few episodes to answer the mysteries, but it feels like "drag" will be the operative word.

I've also watched the YouTube series Sword Art Online Abridged by Something Witty Entertainment, a much shorter "parody" of the original SAO series, re-editing it to tell a slightly different story with rewritten dialogue. I haven't seen much of the original, because it was pretty awful. This seems to be way, way better, and they made a decent story out of it. Sadly, it isn't finished yet and episodes seem to be released at only yearly intervals.

 

[alexvss]

Interesting to note that if you type "anime" in the Disney+ search box, Tengoku-Daimakyo doesn't even appear! Which makes me wonder what else might be hiding on there. (Probably not a lot.) And yes, it continues to be brilliant, one of the best SFF series I've watched in any medium.

It just keeps getting better and better. It’s twist after twist after twist. The story leads you to believe that a certain group are the good ones fighting the bad guys, but it turns out to be the opposite. New things keep popping up and messing with your head.

About the mystery concerning “Heaven”: my analysis at this point is that the lab and the main duo are in different timelines. Once they get there, everything will be down to the ground.

But who knows. It all could change in the next episode

 

[J Riff]

Aggretsuko and Sanrio Boys, both shameless promo of Sanrio products/characters.

 

[alexvss]

Aggretsuko and Sanrio Boys, both shameless promo of Sanrio products/characters.

And yet, not less of a masterpiece because of that (talking about Aggretsuko). It is one of the top anime for young adults. Not because of violence or sex, as it often is with anime, but because of its take on adulthood.

 

[otaylor]

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (just finished season 3). I love the style of this, combines some of my favourite Anime themes. Very stylised with insane fights that remind me a lot of the ramping up in Naruto. That said by the third season the portrayal of women was so sickening as to be boderline unwatchable. I know a lot of anime does this, and it's always super weird and unpardonable. I wish they could break with it.

Tengoku Daimakyo (Heavenly Delusion). Just watched 6 out of the 7 episodes available on Disney+. I think they're releasing weekly, which is too bad as I want to see the whole thing NOW. This is one of the best series, anime or otherwise, I've watched in years: great characters, very well animated, intelligent, and super-intriguing.

Definitely going to give this a watch next! Thanks for the recommendation

 

[HareBrain]

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (just finished season 3).

I got very confused a while back as to what exactly season 3 was. If you mean the "Entertainment District Arc" I think that might technically be the second part of S2 (The Mugen Train Arc being the first part) and S3 proper is the Swordsmith Village Arc (which doesn't yet have an English dub).

Very stylised with insane fights

I might have said above, I love the art style but for me the fights were just too long and too unrealistic (people having conversations during the length of time it takes a sword to swing, etc). Along with the portrayal of women you mentioned, it's one of the numerous anime cliches that frustrates me, because it weakens an art form which often shows ambition way beyond anything produced in the west. Fortunately Tengoku-Daimakyo has almost none of these, which makes me love it even more -- I might start a thread for discussion as the weekly episodes come out.

 

[otaylor]

I got very confused a while back as to what exactly season 3 was. If you mean the "Entertainment District Arc" I think that might technically be the second part of S2 (The Mugen Train Arc being the first part) and S3 proper is the Swordsmith Village Arc (which doesn't yet have an English dub).


I might have said above, I love the art style but for me the fights were just too long and too unrealistic (people having conversations during the length of time it takes a sword to swing, etc). Along with the portrayal of women you mentioned, it's one of the numerous anime cliches that frustrates me, because it weakens an art form which often shows ambition way beyond anything produced in the west. Fortunately Tengoku-Daimakyo has almost none of these, which makes me love it even more -- I might start a thread for discussion as the weekly episodes come out.

Ah yeah, you're right - I was watching it on Netflix, but the part 2 of season 2 makes more sense. I like watching them in the original Japanese, but now that I live in France Netflix only gives me French subs as an option... I'm trying to tell myself it's educational

I totally get you with the fights, although I can see the use of it at times too, to give a pause to something that's otherwise too frenetic, where you and the characters can think. But they are so long, and get too unrealistic, with the trope of someone being basically almost dead, then discovering insane new reserves, rinse and repeat etc. Still, I keep watching it

I just started Tengoku-Daimakyo, very impressed so far!

 

[HareBrain]

with the trope of someone being basically almost dead, then discovering insane new reserves, rinse and repeat etc

Oh yeah, "I'm not dead because naturally I can move my internal organs around to avoid the sword hitting anything vital, a skill I kept totally secret until now because..................."

 

[otaylor]

Oh yeah, "I'm not dead because naturally I can move my internal organs around to avoid the sword hitting anything vital, a skill I kept totally secret until now because..................."

Yeah it leads to the opposite of the Game of Thrones feeling of who will they kill next. Because several times I've thought, oh damn, they just killed a main character, only to discover their heart was in a different place/that actually was fake/it was only a flesh wound etc. Almost Python-esque, without the intent.

 

[HareBrain]

Yeah it leads to the opposite of the Game of Thrones feeling of who will they kill next. Because several times I've thought, oh damn, they just killed a main character, only to discover their heart was in a different place/that actually was fake/it was only a flesh wound etc. Almost Python-esque, without the intent.

And of course that means that when they do kill an important character, viewers don't believe it until they've been in the ground three weeks. "He could still come back..."

 

[HareBrain]

About the mystery concerning “Heaven”: my analysis at this point is that the lab and the main duo are in different timelines. Once they get there, everything will be down to the ground.

I think you're right. My theory now is that Maru is Tokio's baby with Kona (I should have seen this earlier: he looks just like them), and his birth somehow sets off the catastrophe.

 

[Jeffbert]

Just started

Gatchaman Crowds not much humor here, though.​

&

SPACE PATROL LULUCO. runs 7;50 each episode. Quite amusing!​

 

[alexvss]

Update on Vinland Saga. After watching the latest episode (22 of the second season), I must say: this is peak fiction. The manga already has peak character development, but that combined with the anime voice acting, and the direction in general, makes it a true modern classic.

Many people dislike the current season. It’s like the farm arc in Vagabond: there are few fights, and people have nicknamed it “Stardew Valley”. But Thorfinn’s arc needed that. If we only had action scenes, we wouldn’t have gotten Vinland Saga; we would have got another My Hero Academia.

 

[bretbernhoft]

I've been enjoying "Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune" on Netflix.

 

[alexvss]

I've been enjoying "Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune" on Netflix.

Didn't know about this one. I googled it; it gave me All You Need is Kill vibes. Too bad it's 3D, cuz I can't stand it (the exception being Dorohedoro).