Anime What was the last anime you watched before posting in this thread?

[RetroPokeFan]

Getting back into the anime watching habit with Yu-Gi-Oh SEVENS, Number24, AMAIM and a new show I've wanted to watch for a while but didn't quite get the chance to last year: 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team.

 

[galacticarticuno]

Currently on episode 7 of Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. Watching on Aniwatcher.

Also watching an anime on Netflix I had started called The Daily Life of an Immortal King, Pokemon Journeys, and Kimi no Todoke.

 

[Juliko]

Monster episode 10
Delicious Party Pretty Cure episode 39
Bocchi The Rock episode 8
The Fire Hunter/Hikari no Ou episode 1

 

[toastedghost]

i'm trying to get back into watching anime, which is hard because my attention span has gotten much shorter, but i started catching up on spy x family

 

[Chidamari Sketch]

Do it Yourself; previously I made a kinda-sorta effort get back to watching anime by going through Bocchi the Rock. Which I enjoyed well-enough that it was a previous theme.

 

[toastedghost]

bungou stray dogs season 1 episode 2

 

[Sinon]

The season finale of Chainsaw Man

 

[Strawberry Cupcake]

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story (Season 2) I really love this anime, I also like the original and I can't wait for the new movie that is hopefully coming out this or next year.

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

Lupin III Part 5 Episode 16

I've decided Lupin is my spirit animal.

 

[Emmy]

Opening Narration: Once upon a time, there was a man who died. The last story he was working on was about a brave and handsome prince who vanquishes a crafty raven. But now, it seems their battle will go on for eternity.
“I’m sick and tired of this!” cried the raven. “I’m sick and tired of this!” cried the prince as well.
The raven escaped from the pages of the story, and the prince pursued the fell creature. In the end, the prince took out his own heart and sealed the raven away by using a forbidden power. Just then, a murmur came from somewhere - “This is great!” said the old man who was supposed to have died...

So yeah, finished binge watching the anime "Princess Tutu", the brain child of Ikuko Itoh - famous for her work on the Sailor Moon anime and while it might seem on the surface to be yet another Magical Girl anime, the fact that several key episodes were written by Chiaki J Konaka should tell you that there's a lot more going on than first glance.

Spoiler: Long winded spoiler ramble

I was a little wary at how well combining Ballet with the Magical Girl genre would work, but you can tell the passion for both ballet and fairy tales that oozes out of the production. For instance, the episode titles are double layered with the German being either a ballet, fairy tale or a piece of classical music that thematically corresponds to the episode, whereas the Japanese "translation" is often a more literal description of what happens in the episode so like the fifth episode is "On the Eve of the Fire Festival - Bilder einer Ausstellung: Die Katakomben" (Pictures at an Exhibition: The Catacombs). Similarly the OST is caked with classical music to the point where subtracting the OP and ED, I think there's only two or three non-classical tracks on a list of about forty songs which really gives the show a different feel then if they had just occasionally thrown in a few classical pieces which might have come across as pretentious.

People say that this show is a deconstruction of the Sailor Moon aesthetic, but I'm not sure I would agree with that as it's honestly only marginally a Magical Girl show, instead I'd say it's more accurate to call it a deconstruction of the idea of fairy tales, what given the characters becoming blatantly aware of the fact that they're in a story and them rebelling against the "roles" assigned to them by the author Drosselmeyer. Speaking of the man, his snarky Greek Chorus from outside the story reminded me of something like the Meta-Characters from Umineko and how they would have their own parallel plot to the characters on the game board. The "deconstruction" aspect comes in from stuff like how despite the protagonist Duck being a reference to the Ugly Duckling, the message of the anime is to be true to yourself and she ultimately gives up being Princess Tutu (the Swan Princess) and goes back to being Duck.

Something I have to bring up is how this anime really nailed the episode structure. At first it seems like a typical "enemy of the week" format where Tutu meets a person being afflicted by a shard of the Prince's heart that got stuck in their body and retrieves it for Mytho. But as things progress and you start to realize some incredible foreshadowing was sprinkled in for later events, which combined with the gradual character growth as the heroes interact with each other, makes you realize that not a single episode can be removed without drastically affecting the story. It's this kind of super tight script writing that makes me lament other shows like "Digimon: Ghost Game" that I'm also currently watching that has 60+ episodes and most of them are pointless filler.

So yeah, a criminally underrated anime that I would implore more people to check out, whether they care for the Magical Girl genre or not.

 

[Palamon]

Watching Made in Abyss on Toonami right now, at the moment.

But the last anime I finished was Stone Ocean. That was...a ride. If we never get Steel Ball Run, I'm fine with it, though.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Digimon Ghost Game episode 61. Without going into any spoilers, a few moments towards the end of the episode kinda hit me in the feels.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Vinland Saga Season 2

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

There’s a lot that happened between now and early October, haha, so I think I’ll truncate this to my magical girl series viewings and some other things.

Cardcaptor Sakura, Episodes 6-10
Innocence is such a fleeting thing, isn’t it? The rollercoaster of weirdness that was these last few episodes of Sakura demonstrate this beautifully, and unexpectedly so. In these five episodes alone, we have an expansion of the show’s love triangle (because Tomoyo so obviously has it baaaaaaad for Sakura, haha) into a quadrangle (because even the resident “friendship is dumb and so are you” character isn’t immune to a good ol’ precarious crush, apparently); Sakura nearly falling to a very family-unfriendly death at least twice in a single episode chasing the ghost of her dead mother; a cross-dressing, butter knife-wielding child thief raiding a museum at night in the name restoring their dead father’s honor; and Sakura in a midriff-baring catsuit as one of her costumes, all while in the middle of helping said child thief. Oh, and that scene with Rika (if you’ve seen the manga or the uncut anime, you know what I’m talking about; oof). I can see why the original dubbed version of this got so many edits back in the day… this series isn’t nearly as innocent as it seems!

Spy x Family, Episode 10
Dodgeball episode is best episode, haha! What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

Delicious Party Pretty Cure, Episodes 5-6
It’s really interesting how this series is took its sweet time bringing its characters into spotlight, with only Cure Precious and Cure Spicy being formally introduced as of the end of episode six. But actually, I think a part of me kind of likes that! That said, perhaps they could give some of that same care to the Bundoru Gang, yeah? While the inherent danger of the havoc they wreak (messing with people’s food, and with people’s livelihoods if they’re selling that food) does help with the stakes a bit, the writers could do with telegraphing that a bit more, I think, perhaps with some more background character interactions that helped Futari wa push through a similar problem (there’s only so much of the likes of Pisard and Gekidrago that one can stand otherwise) and in this case would help us understand the worth of this food-focused world on a more personal level, I think. Otherwise, aside from Yui with her earnest yet so far fairly typical pink cure charm and Kokone who seems to be following in the footsteps of Yayoi/Cure Peace and Himari/Cure Custard as the shy, socially awkward type (in an endearingly vulnerable and relatable kind of way here), there’s only really increasingly repetitive encounters with the Bundoru Gang to look forward to, all on the same Delicious Fiiiiiiield!!! (<- not sorry, haha) that I suspect won’t be changing for quite some time yet. I look forward to what appears to be a slightly higher-stakes episode with Cure Yum-Yum’s imminent debut in the next episode. But that’ll have to wait a while, since I’m likely going to pause this in favor of Hirogaru Sky! (if and when Crunchyroll simulcasts it) and Futari wa, as there’s only so much Precure that I can reasonably keep up with at a time (speaking of that, see below).

KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode, Episodes 1-6
The story of how I ended up watching Kira Kira is a long and complicated one; a story that will have to wait for another time, I think. But I will say that I was kind of ticked by the thought of watching two food-themed Precure series back-to-back, and comparing the two to see what one does better than the other, or worse. To make this quick, things that I liked include: 1) Ichika/Cure Whip in the first episode, 2) Himari/Cure Custard in her first episode, 3) Actually, almost everyone in their first episodes (almost), 4) Fairies as villains, 5) Sweets! 6) The live-action “recipe” segments in episode one and at the end of each character’s intro episode, which could’ve been weird and jarring but are surprisingly awesome, and 7) Did I mention sweets? Things that I didn’t like too much or that I’m ambivalent about: 1) The animal motifs, which are cute but feel slightly tacked on and out-of-place as a theme alongside the main sweets theme; is this Precure or Tokyo Mew Mew? 2) Ichika after the first episode, ultimately being rather average personality-wise so far and especially compared to her teammates, 3) Characters staying more in the background than I’d like after their intro episodes, with the exception of the again far less interesting Ichika, 4) Yukari/Cure Macaron, who most certainly fits her motif as a cat but in the least flattering of ways, being aloof in a rather distant rather than endearing way to the point of seeming almost self-centered and disinterested in, you know, the entire point of being a Cure (helping and protecting others), as opposed to just amusing herself, 5) Lack of hand-to-hand combat, which is fine on its face — what’s being a magical girl without some, well, magic, right? — but then this is Precure, and it’s especially jarring from me having watched Futari wa not long before this, and 6) The creeping feeling that the stakes have been kind of low so far in every department — from character development to the overall plot — unless you really, really care about Pekorin, which I don’t, yet. So it’s a mixed big overall, I think; I can already see why this series was so controversial in some circles of the fandom. I’m willing to see where this goes with a few more episodes, at least, but not now; as mentioned above, Hirogaru Sky! awaits and so does the rest of Futari wa.

Do It Yourself!, Episodes 1-6
On the glowing recommendations of @Rockapheller and @Emmy, and driven by my increasing admiration for slice-of-life anime, I went ahead and gave this a shot, and I’m glad that I did. There’s nothing spectacular or paradigm-altering here, but there doesn’t need to be; the charm of the characters and the respect and passion shown for the subject matter are enough to sell me on everything and keep me watching, in the spirit of the best and purest slice-of-life series. In the interest of time, I’ll just say that I agree with most of what @Juliko wrote in her review of the series. That said, I will say that I was expecting something more dramatic to be pushing Serufu and Purin apart rather than “we’re not going to the same school, even though my school is so close to yours that Miss Meow can literally leap into the DIY Club building from there”. Did I miss something in those first few episodes? I mean, I figured that adolescent immaturity played a role in their rift (on Purin’s side, mainly), but I didn’t think that it was quite that petty; yeesh! At least Purin seems to be breaking out of that at least a little bit as of the end of episode six, though. Given this show’s vibes, I’m expecting a happy ending for the two; the key will be how they do it, I think.

 

[Juliko]

KiraKira☆Pretty Cure A La Mode, Episodes 1-6
The story of how I ended up watching Kira Kira is a long and complicated one; a story that will have to wait for another time, I think. But I will say that I was kind of ticked by the thought of watching two food-themed Precure series back-to-back, and comparing the two to see what one does better than the other, or worse. To make this quick, things that I liked include: 1) Ichika/Cure Whip in the first episode, 2) Himari/Cure Custard in her first episode, 3) Actually, almost everyone in their first episodes (almost), 4) Fairies as villains, 5) Sweets! 6) The live-action “recipe” segments in episode one and at the end of each character’s intro episode, which could’ve been weird and jarring but are surprisingly awesome, and 7) Did I mention sweets? Things that I didn’t like too much or that I’m ambivalent about: 1) The animal motifs, which are cute but feel slightly tacked on and out-of-place as a theme alongside the main sweets theme; is this Precure or Tokyo Mew Mew? 2) Ichika after the first episode, ultimately being rather average personality-wise so far and especially compared to her teammates, 3) Characters staying more in the background than I’d like after their intro episodes, with the exception of the again far less interesting Ichika, 4) Yukari/Cure Macaron, who most certainly fits her motif as a cat but in the least flattering of ways, being aloof in a rather distant rather than endearing way to the point of seeming almost self-centered and disinterested in, you know, the entire point of being a Cure (helping and protecting others), as opposed to just amusing herself, 5) Lack of hand-to-hand combat, which is fine on its face — what’s being a magical girl without some, well, magic, right? — but then this is Precure, and it’s especially jarring from me having watched Futari wa not long before this, and 6) The creeping feeling that the stakes have been kind of low so far in every department — from character development to the overall plot — unless you really, really care about Pekorin, which I don’t, yet. So it’s a mixed big overall, I think; I can already see why this series was so controversial in some circles of the fandom. I’m willing to see where this goes with a few more episodes, at least, but not now; as mentioned above, Hirogaru Sky! awaits and so does the rest of Futari wa.

Yeah, certain characters receiving more time in the spotlight at the expense of others is unfortunately a pretty common problem with the various Pretty Cure series as a whole. Also, from what I've heard, KiraKira as a season was deliberately made a lot more cutesy and light-hearted, complete with toning down the physical fighting, because apparently parents complained that the fights in the two seasons before that were too scary for small children.

 

[Timu]

Lookism was the last anime I watched a couple of weeks ago

 

[toastedghost]

nausicaa valley of the wind