It’s time for a new general discussion thread! Hot takes, recommendations, questions, cautionary tales, all of it is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
In case you haven’t noticed, I changed a setting for the bot so that it posts the poster image for a show when it makes a discussion post. After a couple days, I think it is going pretty well, but I am open to feedback if people hate it for some reason. This is not meant to replace the screenshot submission process in the comments, and I have still been editing those in when people tag the bot.
One technical bug I found from this is that the act of changing the linked image in the post actually breaks the post when viewed from piefed. I opened an issue over there and the problem has been id’d and they are trying to figure out exactly how they want to fix it. So, hopefully that will be fixed soon.
I am catching up on Dragonball Daima, and it’s pretty good!
The animation looks clean, but not overly CG, unlike the unlamented Sand Land.
I also intend to watch some Villainess In History since that seems to be a big hit this season.
Villainess has been a lot of fun, but I feel like it really grew into its own once it skipped forward in time a bit. It starts out with Alicia so young that setting up a future love interest just feels icky (his behavior is also pretty icky). It’s easier to ignore the age difference when they look closer in age later.
And Yet the Town Moves (2010) is very good. The first half of the season is great. A frantic, wild comedy. The second half(?) felt to me like it lost its core, and went on side tangents [and style] that I didn’t enjoy.
I started watching a couple shows I wasn’t following before. Anyways, here’s where things are at:
- Blue Box: Still good, but it’s moving very slowly. When I read the manga I already had over a hundred chapters to burn through at once, so experiencing it like this is very very different.
- Dandadan: An absolutely heart-wrenching episode. The animation team executed excellently on this one.
- 365 Days to the Wedding: This is one of the shows I just got caught up on. I appreciate a show that features adult main characters. Overall it’s quite fun. Not as good as Wotakoi, but still good. Cutest ED I’ve ever seen.
- Yakuza Fiance: Same comments as above, really, except that there’s nothing cute here. If you’re annoyed at how the main characters in romance anime always seem to be good people, look no further.
- Mecha-ude: A while ago I said that this show is great at being charming and funny, and bad at being serious or edgy. Unfortunately it seems to be putting most of its screen time into serious and edgy stuff. I’ll keep watching it, but I’m finding myself enjoying it less than the other shows I’m watching this season.
Bit of a down week for me last week, but Dandadan’s latest ep was really good.
Manga readers say there would be more like that. Wonder how those would be kept engaging without being repetitive.
I binged “The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor” yesterday, I found it kind of cute. I like that the MC is the goddamned god of war (figuratively). It reminds me of “7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!” the light novel series (Apparently there’s an anime of that one too but I’ve only read the LN), but it’s cute, the story of two kind autistic people trying to lizard-person their way into falling in love.
Past Seasons
Completed Attack on Titan Season 3, both part 1 and part 2.
It already has many of the usual Gundam tropes in previous seasons, but now it introduced (or made explicit) one more: the princess figure. At this point, I’m expecting a Char clone (maybe Zeke?) and a weapon of mass destruction.
I enjoyed it a lot just like season 2, so I’m giving it a 10 / 10.
By the way, the Beast Titan shouldn’t be able throw as well as he did.
This Season
At this point, I’m only following 3 series.
- Murai in Love - It is the dark horse of the season for me, but fell behind a bit as it approaches the end. I was aware going in that it is a shoujo anime, but the humour was on-point so I didn’t care. In fact, I had high hopes that it would be the first shoujo anime to enter my top favourites. Unfortunately, it looks like it couldn’t resist catering to its demographic and ended up including some shoujo tropes that I didn’t like (i.e. unnecessary drama). With only one episode before it ends, I doubt it’s going to climb back up to being anime of the season.
- Re:Zero Season 3 - Just like others in this community, I was about to put it on-hold and binge it later - but then I learnt that it would be going on break after the next episode anyway. I’m sure it would get good later, but for now, it’s becoming a chore to watch.
- Dan Da Dan - Most likely to be my anime of the season; needs no explanation.
So, I’ll preface this by saying supernatural ‘horror’ is not my thing. I only watched Jujutso Kaisen because it got such rave reviews but TBH I didn’t get much out of it. Felt to me like a bunch of nonsense being yelled at opponents until some cool anime action happened which was good enough to get to the end of S2. Still, I don’t want to repeat that experience.
That said: What about Dan Da Dan is giving it such high ratings? Do you think I’d find this series worth it? What is the expected age group for the show? I haven’t checked it out simply because the series description gave me a hard pass for the aforementioned reason.
Dan Da Dan and JJK are completely different types of shows.
JJK’s main selling point is the quality of its combat animation. The fight scenes are really well-executed, so it gets high ratings from people who like that kind of thing. Plot and characters are bog-standard shounen fighter types whose names and backstories I forget half the time because they’re not all that memorable. If you swapped everyone but the MC out with characters from, say, Chainsaw Man, I doubt I would even notice.
Dan Da Dan, on the other hand, is character-driven. The interaction and budding romance between the main characters is the point of the show, and the fighting has so far been subservient to that. It also doesn’t take itself at all seriously, unlike JJK.
Dandadan’s main charm points for me are the chemistry between the 2 MCs and its style. On the surface, I guess JJK and Dandadan are somewhat comparable, but in execution totally not. I dropped JJK at S2, similar reasons to you but I couldn’t get to the end, but am enjoying the hell out of this one.
What about Dan Da Dan is giving it such high ratings?
People like it. Personally, I like the story-telling, the characters and the execution.
Do you think I’d find this series worth it?
Hard to tell without knowing what you like. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I guess you’d like it if you enjoy a romcom filled with action and a pinch of emotional moments.
What is the expected age group for the show?
It feels like the target demographic is shounen / boys. I’m older (i.e. seinen), but I still enjoy it. I believe ladies (both shoujo / girls and josei / women) would like it too. IMO when it’s good, the demographic matters less; everyone would like it.
the series description gave me a hard pass for the aforementioned reason
Felt to me like a bunch of nonsense being yelled at opponents until some cool anime action happened
I haven’t (and don’t intend to) watch JJK for the same reason: it sounds like a typical battle shounen anime that is boring as hell. That’s not what is happening in Dan Da Dan.
I have been busy and traveling this past week, so I am behind on a lot of the shows I have been watching. What I did watch this past week:
- Dan Da Dan - Excellent stuff. This past episode was a standout in a show that has been a standout for the season.
- Orb - Still really enjoying this show. A lot of this show lately has been conversations, but they are done really well. The stakes are as high as they can be and they translate that tension into the conversation well.
- Villainess in History - A weirdly villainess-less episode this past week. Was a setup for a hopefully great episode this coming week.
- Negative Positive Angler - For a show about an MC with a terminal illness, this show has been chill af. More comfy fishing times this past week.
Short post this week, but I am hoping to be able to do some catching up this week. Next week is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US and I will be mostly unable to watch anything.
Weekly ranking roundup:
- Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Dan Da Dan
- Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Dan Da Dan
Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.
Was there ever any doubt? Of course Dan Da Dan was going to top the charts this week. After a phenomenal episode like that, how could it not. It managed to more than double its reddit karma over the previous episode and became just the second episode this calendar year to break 10k karma (ranking 2nd after the Frieren finale).
