Anime/Manga Journal

[Kevadu]

Honestly the first couple of story arcs in Bleach were fine.  Pretty good, even.  It's just that after it got really popular the author started dragging everything out waaaay too long and not really going anywhere with it.

[Ranadiel]

This is probably why I liked Bleach. Ichigo may be impulsive, but he's not an idiot. It was just nice to see that he actually made an effort to do well in school. Sadly, his type isn't too common. Aside from the occassional detective, shonen heroes tend to be not very smart. In fact, many are as dumb as bricks. I wonder if that's meant to make them more relatable? I know the Japanese school system can be very demanding, so maybe characters that don't do well when it comes to intellectual stuff are more relatable?

If you want a smart shonen protagonist, you should try Dr. Stone when its first volume comes out. Being smart is really that MC's primary defining feature.

Honestly the first couple of story arcs in Bleach were fine.  Pretty good, even.  It's just that after it got really popular the author started dragging everything out waaaay too long and not really going anywhere with it.

Part of the reason it got dragged down is because he made each faction way too fucking big and then refused to trim the fat in later appearances.

[Chronix112]

Bleach had 2  big problems and they just continued to get worse as the series progressed
1. Tite Had a fetish of creating god mode stu villains that took copious amounts of deus ex machIna to deal with, and sometimes even that truly wasn't enough.
2. His refusal to kill off popular characters no matter how mortally injured they may be

[Tomara]

If you want a smart shonen protagonist, you should try Dr. Stone when its first volume comes out. Being smart is really that MC's primary defining feature.

I've seen that one around, but I think I hate the artstyle. Female characters have this weird bendy, blobby anatomy.

Bleach

Not to mention most battles eventually turned into showcases for Bankais and other special powers. I was so pissed when Renji and Ishida teamed up (which was cool), managed to think up a strategy and actually work together (even cooler), and landed a solid hit on on a seemingly invincible opponent (awesome!), only for it to be revealed that everything they did was basically useless and that the battle was actually meant as a set-up to let the local Mengele save the day. That outcome was just so many layers of horrible...

In the end, most fights turned into playground levels of bullshit. You know how playfights between kids are? They like "Pew, you're dead!" "No, I'm wearing a bullet proof vest!" "But my gun shoots through those!" "Nuh, uh, this one is special!" And five minutes the discussion is now somehow about who is stronger: Batman or a T-rex.

...

(And then shows up the guy who's special ability is turning children's games into deadly attacks. I have no idea if that's some sort of meta commentary or the bullshit just reach Nirvana.)

[Aeolus]

Bleach's fights were often described as contests of who could press their sword into their opponent's sword harder, and infinite recursions of "Now it is I who is behind you!" until some arbitrary quota was reached.

Meanwhile Naruto's first arcs sucked until Chunin Exams which were interesting, which then got completely negated by the timeskip abandoning all that potential and devolving into a contest between Asian Wizards looking to see who could claim the most Shotting Guns.

Inuyasha had an interesting premise and was actually quite dark and violent to start with, then Naraku shows up and after the first fight against him the entire thing basically found itself on this Hamster Wheel of Naraku incarnations, Tetsaiga powerups, and relationship melodramas. At least Inuyasha had the distinct advantage of having female characters who occasionally got to be relevant (and it amuses the hell out of me that Sango's one upgrade took her from occasionally shows up to get buttmonkey'd alongside Miroku to putting her damn near on par with Inuyasha despite him being on his 12th or some such by that point; though poor Miroku had what was probably one of the worst 'upgrades' in Shonen history).

Dragon Ball had a bad habit of fights that tend to drag on, even as far back as the first World Martial Arts Tournament arc (although discounting the whole 'tournament arcs suck' rule, Red Ribbon Army basically went on forever since half the villains basically could not die to Goku's hand or their own stupidity and yet never gave up). At least Demon King Piccolo was pretty good.

DBZ continued the actually fairly good arcs until Freeza and his 'Namek will self-destruct in 5 minutes *cue several weeks of fighting before Goku shows up*' bullshit. Androids and Cell kinda set the stage for the rest of the series to ignore, which is sad because it gave us Goku being not the worst dad for once and him and Piccolo getting their Driver's License.

DBGT sucks. I guess the part where they're running around through Space looking for Dragon Balls was okay, but then they go back to Earth and basically its refights and buttmonkeys all the way down.

Never watched Yu Yu Hakusho due to it being a massive sausage fest that I had no interest in.

Zatch/Gatch Bell was weird, and was occasionally good, especially by the end.

[discussion]Bobobo sucked ass.[/discussion]

IGPX only had Optimus Prime voicing the old mentor going for it. The rest was derivative dreck.

Cyborg 009 holds up surprisingly well despite the occasional casual racism and general scarcity.

Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac was before my time, so no strong opinions here.

Kikaider was an anime I watched. But I'm in Tatsunoko territory now so I'm stopping here.

[Annubis]

And then there's Jojo which apparently is great but I know nothing about it.
Any Jojo expert here? Like what should I watch/read and in what order?

Like DB for example you'd read the manga until time skip, then go to DBZ Kai and then straight to Super.

[Tomara]

I read a bit before it became popular. Basically, it's one huge adventure that spans generations and dimensions, but each part can be read on it's own and has its own feel to it. It's also stylish in a batshit insane way.

One way to start it to just grab the very first volume of the manga. The Phantom Blood storyline is three volumes, is set in the 1880's in Brittain and has a bit of a gothic horror vibe to it (while Stardust Crusadors raises the adventure flag high and moves the story to countries such as Egypt). If you want more JoJo but different flavours, you just go from there. Most arcs, the earliest two excluded, are around 15 volumes.

Then there's the 2012 anime, which thusfar adapter the first three parts. The first 26 episode season covers Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency in 26 episodes. Stardust Crusaders is 48 episodes, Diamond Unbreakable aired in 2016 and is 39 episodes.

If you want to be weird, you could track down Viz's first publication of Stardust Crusaders from back in the 00's. It was actually one of their worst selling titles back then. Not because it was bad. It was the most popular storyline in Japan at the time (and might still be today), but it just wasn't the flavour of manga most readers were looking for at the time. Shaenon Garrity is better at expressing its awesomeness, so click here.

[Ranadiel]

Meanwhile Naruto's first arcs sucked until Chunin Exams which were interesting, which then got completely negated by the timeskip abandoning all that potential and devolving into a contest between Asian Wizards looking to see who could claim the most Shotting Guns.

I disagree as I think the Bridge Arc in Naruto has good fights in it. Chunin Exam is certainly when Naruto's fights were their best, but Bridge Arc was not bad.

IGPX only had Optimus Prime voicing the old mentor going for it. The rest was derivative dreck.

I wish they had gone with the original IGPX premise instead of turning it into a race. I don't know if the story would have been better, but the fights would have been more visually engaging.

[Annubis]

You may remember me talking a while ago about Kyouran Kazoku Nikki.
Well, I did go back and re-watched the whole thing.

Overall, it's much better than I remembered.



Let's start with the basics. There was a great evil (Enka) that was defeated long ago at great cost.
Before dying, it swore that its offspring would destroy mankind in a number of years.
That time is now!

Every government scanned every being on the planet to see who had Enka's genes to find out who the possible enders of humanity are.
Since victory was impossible against the child, a plan was devised to put them all together and create a nice cozy family atmosphere so that the ender would rethink the destruction of humanity.
As such, operation Cozy Family was created.


Ouka Midarezaki
A government agent who is the head of the "Supernatural Phenomenon Treatment Bureau". He is selected due to his excellence as the father figure of the family and expected to save humanity in such a role.
As an elite, Ouka is serious and willing to do anything for the mission.


Kyouka / Kyoukya
A 20 year old cat-eared and child-bodied goddess who left her secluded place of worship to join the operation.
Given her inflated ego, she self-appoints herself as the mother of the family and weds Ouka.


Yuuka
A 9 year old child from one of the richest and cruelest family in the world. She was the 'demon child' of the family before being brought into the cozy family as the eldest daughter. The 'demon child' is the youngest of her old family and everyone else is allowed to mistreat it however they please.


Ginka
The twenty-three year old son of a major yakuza boss boasts the role of eldest son. He ran away from it all after his 'family' killed a girl close to him. Once gone, he threw away the machismo he had pretended to have and became much more in touch with his feminine side. He likes to dress as a girl and presents himself as homosexual.
SIDE NOTE: This is a fairly old anime and Japan being Japan... well... there are some not so great gay jokes but overall the character is respectable and all but one character accept him as he is. The most offensive thing is that one character wants to set him 'straight'. It's a slightly recurring 'gag' which gets old quickly but it's not overly present.


Teika
The last of the Bister Kings. The kings of all beast who boast the ability to communicate with any animal (which does include humans) and can assert their dominance over all using their roar. Every member of his family fought one another until he alone survived hidden in the corpses. Why is a lion here? Well, he's the second son of the family being seven years old.


Gekka
A sushi loving flying jellyfish. Also the second daughter. One of the best character - and I ain't even joking here.


Hyouka
A biological weapon created from the cells of Enka. He was supposed to be the ultimate weapon, but he escaped from the laboratory where he was created. As a being with Enka cells, he is put into the family as the youngest son.

---

If it wasn't obvious from the cast, this is a comedy show that uses absurdity. There are also some references to now old animes/mangas too.
The humor is pretty on point and it's served in good variety and pacing.

The story itself while less present at the beginning can be really interesting. Separated in mini character arcs, it becomes a strong driving force midway and by the end it becomes more important than the gags.
Each arc takes a slightly different tone and there should be at least one that resonates well with everyone.
Personally, I had totally forgotten about the whole "Vitamine C" thing in one arc and got my mind blown away (again).
There's even some 'feels' here and there.

It's important to state that Kyouka is the foundation of the show. As such, if you find her annoying, I'd quit because there is tons of her in there.
On the other hand, if you like her, you will be served with some very wacky fun.
Here's one of her moments that just demonstrates how well they utilize every aspect of her character:
- To get revenge Kyouka is offered a powerful magical girl staff, but is unsuccessful at activating it









While later after activating the staff, proudly presents herself as:


---

On a final note, I'm glad I somehow remembered this anime and that I gave it another watch. This is one of those anime that became forgotten to time.
I can only hope I inspired someone here so that I am not the last person to ever watch this.

IMPORTANT:IMPORTANT:IMPORTANT:
If you don't feel like watching it, then at least check out Teika's version of the credits. It's pure art in visual and song form.
https://youtu.be/80qM5p2tBMI

[Rook]

...that's all I got. Oh, and Yowamushi Pedal has a 4th season now...I still haven't seen the first season, since I'm not really into sports anime.

Chihayafuru then. Its sports, poetry, and schlocky teenage love triangle and works beautifully. For being a card game is also does the sports better than any other sports anime. Unfortunately it will never be finished, which also means I can't complain about the ending either.

For more traditional sports anime, Haikyuu. Yowamushi does characters extremely well and its sport terrible.

[Rook]

Sorry, but every light novel adaption I've seen so far has been utterly disappointing, so I just stopped caring.

Grimgar?
Konosuba season 1?
Devil is a part-timer?
Aldermain in the sky?
Sound Euphonium?

[Mickeymac92]

...that's all I got. Oh, and Yowamushi Pedal has a 4th season now...I still haven't seen the first season, since I'm not really into sports anime.

Chihayafuru then. Its sports, poetry, and schlocky teenage love triangle and works beautifully. For being a card game is also does the sports better than any other sports anime. Unfortunately it will never be finished, which also means I can't complain about the ending either.

For more traditional sports anime, Haikyuu. Yowamushi does characters extremely well and its sport terrible.

I remember wanting to try that a long time ago. I still don't think it'd hold my interest, however - neither back then, nor now. If anything, I'd probably be more interested in Saki, since it looks more Yu-Gi-Oh-esque in its approach (I'm aware they're using different sports, btw). I don't care about the accuracy of the sport. I'm never going to play it myself, after all. As far as I'm concerned, he sport is only supposed to be a framework for the story, a means of displaying its world and characters. That's why the last one I got into was Kuroko's Basketball. It was stylish in ways that was slightly surreal - enough so I could separate it from reality - while presenting interesting characters I wanted to know more about.

I dunno, I rarely get that from the others I've tried, since, quite frankly, they were too pedestrian for me to care.

Sorry, but every light novel adaption I've seen so far has been utterly disappointing, so I just stopped caring.

Grimgar?
Devil is a part-timer?

Damnit, you got me with those two. I still feel like it's easier to wait for the dust to settle before I invest my time with them, however. That's a rule I prefer to use in general, I guess. I know "don't knock it before you try it" still applies, so...sorry about that.

[Rook]

...that's all I got. Oh, and Yowamushi Pedal has a 4th season now...I still haven't seen the first season, since I'm not really into sports anime.

Chihayafuru then. Its sports, poetry, and schlocky teenage love triangle and works beautifully. For being a card game is also does the sports better than any other sports anime. Unfortunately it will never be finished, which also means I can't complain about the ending either.

For more traditional sports anime, Haikyuu. Yowamushi does characters extremely well and its sport terrible.

I remember wanting to try that a long time ago. I still don't think it'd hold my interest, however - neither back then, nor now. If anything, I'd probably be more interested in Saki, since it looks more Yu-Gi-Oh-esque in its approach (I'm aware they're using different sports, btw). I don't care about the accuracy of the sport. I'm never going to play it myself, after all. As far as I'm concerned, he sport is only supposed to be a framework for the story, a means of displaying its world and characters. That's why the last one I got into was Kuroko's Basketball. It was stylish in ways that was slightly surreal - enough so I could separate it from reality - while presenting interesting characters I wanted to know more about.

Its an accurate portrayal but that's not why the "sports" part of Chihayafuru is great. The matches are riveting. The anime can keep you guessing who is going to win and doesn't do it with cheap stunts like always taking it down to the final card (or final pitch, final shot etc). Take for example Yowamushi pedal in which every race comes down to a photo finish, its dull and boring and renders everything up until the finale pointless.

[Mickeymac92]

...I still don't care. I don't know what else to say, since I've been through this song & dance with other sports/competition stories, and it's clear to me that I'm not the target audience. By and large, my interest in a story starts with the setting, and I have no interest in stories that lack any clear elements of fantasy/supernatural, or science-fiction. I only brought up Yowamushi Pedal, since I seemed to recall that it had a few fans on this site, and it was having another season...also there wasn't a lot to talk about in Winter 2018, period. It's looking to be a bit of a dull season, IMO.

[Annubis]

For me, winter season is a step up from fall season, so I'm fine with it.