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The BIGLY Discussion of Anime/Manga Thread

Dandadan is coming 7/10.

Finished up Gushing Over Magical Girls and it was a lot of fun. It really leaned into the S&M/Ecchi aspect in terms of the "evil villain" (tricked into that situation) lead being a stan for the Tres Magia magical girl group and reminded me of stuff like Panty & Stocking in Garter Belt (new P&S coming this summer!) where you go in knowing what you're getting from Episode 1 and it doesn't try to do anything else. Apparently it sold so well that by the 6th episode a 2nd season was heavily rumored and has since been officially announced.

Also finished Fire Force Season 3 - Part 1. Great stuff as expected.

Speaking of there's a lot of interesting LGBT anime coming: The Summer Hikaru Died, There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless..., and Bad Girl.
 
Picked up Girls Und Panzer and Call of the Night (Season 1) on Blu-Ray for around $30 each. Also started up Re:Zero Season 3 and I'm greatly digging this way more than Season 2, which I just found an absolute chore and gave a 6/10. Loving the villains and the concept which feels like its hewing closer to the horror elements of Season 1. The villain group also reminds me of something that'd drop into Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia or some such but just done much darker.
 
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Good news for Netflix and it explains their ramping up on Anime...

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Netflix Says 50 Percent of Global Users Now Watch Anime, Reveals Expanded Slate

At Anime Expo in Los Angeles over the weekend, Netflix revealed that its anime viewership has tripled over the past five years, while sharing new looks at 'Sakamoto Days,' 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2,' 'My Melody & Kuromi' and other anticipated titles.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

"According to Netflix, more than 50 percent of its members — amounting to over 150 million households, or an estimated 300 million viewers — now watch anime. The company says anime viewership on the platform has tripled over the past five years, with 2024 marking a record-breaking year: 33 anime titles appeared in Netflix’s Global Top 10 (Non-English) rankings, more than double the number in 2021.

The streamer also revealed that anime content was viewed over 1 billion times globally in 2024, and that 80 to 90 percent of users opt to watch anime dubbed. To capitalize on the demand, Netflix has begun offering anime titles with dubbed audio and descriptions in up to 33 languages."

www.cartoonbrew.com

Anime's Global Takeover: One In Three Consumers Watch Weekly, 150 Million Netflix Subscribers Are Tuning In

Netflix says half of its 300 million users now watch anime, while a Dentsu study found that almost a third of global consumers watch anime at least once a week.
www.cartoonbrew.com www.cartoonbrew.com

"However, even in Western markets such as the U.S. and the U.K., anime viewership is experiencing a surge. One in three U.S. consumers watches anime weekly, proving that the genre has moved beyond its cult following into broader pop culture relevance.

U.S. anime fans aren’t just watching, they’re spending. An eye-popping 40% of American viewers reported spending over $200 on anime merchandise in the past year, and 20% spent more than $500. That makes the U.S. the most lucrative market for anime-related products globally, followed by Thailand and China."
 
NEW SEASON~

I'll try listing these in a different formant than the genres I have usually

YOU NEED TO BE WATCHING THESE SHOWS, YES THAT MEANS YOU:
-Dan Da Dan Season 2: Everyone and their dog knows this show, so no need to explain.
-Kaiju No. 8 Season 2: This was a pretty big hit last year. Superb animation and a fun story.
-Gachiakuta: I think this is going to be one of the big Shonen series with stuff like Demon Slayer and My Hero wrapping up. Young guy gets dumped from the sky city he lives in to the surface of trash and is determined to get back. Mysteries, Monsters, Super Powers, etc. Animation is fantastic and it's a really cool dark world so far.
-Lord of Mysteries: Supercell was the big non-Japanese anime for last season and this is the one this time. This is a crazy blend of steampunk, magic, horror, etc. Very worth checking out.
Too soon to tell
-Tougen Anki- This seems like it has potential to move up but the first episode isn't enough to tell. Oni and Momotaro (like the folk tale!) are locked in a secret war but one Momotaro adopts an Oni secretly until he's killed by the others and now the Oni has to learn to control his powers and wrath.
-The Summer Hikaru Died- Main character's best friend (clearly implied with the subtlety of a hammer to be more) is replaced by some kind of ghost or monster. This feels a little like Higurashi When They Cry. Except more LGBTQ friendy.

Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra: World Conquest Starts with the Civilization of Ruin: This is like if the Main character in Overlord was a total wuss who just wants to hide out and do nothing.

New Saga: Another "hero defeats the big bad at horrific cost and gets somehow sent back thru time to try and do better" shows that have started popping up. I like the few of these that have happened so far better than the usual Isekei stuff we get.
The Water Magician- Speaking of Isekai... You know the story here. Guy is reincarnated (this time literally just at the same age and same body) with completely broke abilities and is totally clueless how strong he is. Hijinks ensue.

Haven't started yet
Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus- I love the first season but I still need to watch the movie that bridges them.
 
This season of Dan Da Dan hadn't been as balls out amazing as the first but the last two episodes, especially the latest one were fantastic. The animation and imagination on display in the 15 minutes or so with the musician sequence was spectacular.
 
Ranma 1/2 Season 2 is going to be returning to Netflix on 10/4.
 
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle was really great. Ran a little long (I left at Noon for a 12:45 PM showing and got home at 4:30 PM) but the score was excellent, fantastic fight scenes, and some great heartwarming stuff.
 
Finally knocked out Season 2 of Dan Da Dan just in time for Ranma 1/2 to come back, lol.

Snagged the following as hoodies off Tee Public. The Demon Slayer I got as a long-sleeve T-Shirt while the Soul Eater/Toga were both hoodies.
mail
mail
mail
 
Finally snagged Seasons 1-5 of My Hero Academia on Blu-Ray for around $267 (about $53 per season but a few were the "2 Part" releases) and started up the final season, so hyped.
 
Not a lot this season for me but it makes up for it in having a few really good ones.


One Punch Man 3- I don't think we'll ever get the animation quality of S1 again but this looks better than S2 thank goodness.
My Hero Academia Final- This is going to be insane every episode.
Spy X Family 3- Always fun.
Let My Grieving Soul Retire 2- I barely made it through the first one so I don't know if I'll continue.
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s- Another isekei with "loner is the REAL strongest" vibe but it's been better than average so far.
Sanda- Only watched the first episode so far but the animation and style is pretty cool. The idea is he's the descendent of Santa and he can grant wishes and he is going to help find a missing girl and it looks fucking insane. It's being made by the same animation company that made Dandadan.

Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider- Haven't actually started this
Ginpachi Sensei- Haven't started this but it's just based on the Gintama skits of the cast in class that they'd do sometimes.
 
Gonna catch Chainsaw Man on Tuesday instead (since I have the week off so may as well make it count). Really enjoying Ranma 1/2 S2 and There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover Unless... (which has more heart than expected). Everything else is mostly solid e.g. Gachiakuta and The Summer Hikaru Died but I'm not racing to complete them.

Kenkou Zenrakei Suiei-bu Umishou is fine as an ecchi comedy series about a swim team where a possible mermaid-girl (Amuro Ninagawa) suddenly joins them adding to the chaos for our male lead, Kaname Okiura who is trying to learn how to swim. It's a little mindless and right up my alley after watching stuff like MHA Final Season or Gachiakuta where I need something fluffy and light.
 
Started up the Yuri? show 'This Monster Wants To Eat Me' solely because of the title and the image on CRoll. It's great. It's a scary fucking mermaid with claws that's possessive of a female student and transfers to her school too.

Throwing this in here because I just learned of this thanks to Danny Motta (25 Million views how did I NOT hear of this???)

 
Saw the dub of Chainsaw Man: The Movie - Reze Arc and it was fantastic. 9/10

A lot of stunning visuals, loved the villainess in Reze, and the heart they built up prior to the turn and even teased at the end too. I knew what was going to happen at the end and the hopeless romantic in me was really hoping it wouldn't turn out the way it did (or Reze would join them I dunno, lol).

Reze was great and loved the usage of her devil powers and the creativity in the solution of how to stop her. My only real knock on the movie is that by sidelining the "side" characters from the get go (Power, etc.) the fight scene, as amazing as it was, did start to feel draggy as it kept going on.

Some of the knocks I've seen are it not furthering a "plot arc" or feeling like a movie, which I kind of get but I think they really glossed over the simpleness of the arc in relation to furthering Denji's character or are the type of people who are all, "plot for the sake of it and anything not plot focused is filler," crowd who tend to dislike character-centic filler episodes if it doesn't do anything for the main arc(s).
 
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It actually does move the plot forward, you just don't realize all the implications until latter. Which is kind of part of the idea of long-term story arcs. I agree that it does have a big impact on Denji though. It also furthered a couple important relationships that become more central as the story goes on. Power is the only one that really gets short-changed here IMO and she had so much to do in the earlier arcs it isn't too bad. She does get a mid or end credit scene, I can't remember which.

The music was also really good I thought.
 
Trying to wrap up Witch Watch today before NFL kicks off, currently 23 of 25 episodes through this post. It's a fine series where a girl witch returns befriending her childhood male friend, with other people w/powers moving in leading to very slice of life bits. Maybe it's the intro to blame (which admittedly feels like it's pulled from a completely different anime) but I kept waiting for more to happen in this show. Everything about it from the characters to the dialogue, slice of life scenes, etc. is perfectly serviceable to the point it almost feels bland and flat (to the point I was getting strong deja vu moments because it was taking SOL moments from other shows).

I'll give it a 7/10 mainly because it went 25 episodes and I wasn't hating it or anything but kind of disappointed. As somebody who digs slice of life stuff, I went into it expecting something else and the characters that should've engaged me really didn't.
 
Quickly hammered through an anthology series Tatsuji Fujimoto 17-26 based around 8 episodes off his early work mangas (17-21 and 22-26) but you can definitely see the influences on Chainsaw Man later. Lot of great stuff, only 1 episode really "missed" for me and it was still fine.

Can be watched on Amazon Prime.

My personal favorites (CWM won't be surprised lol) were #4 Shikaku and #7 Nayuta of the Prophecy. I'd be down for seeing either of those be their own full series.

The directors by shorts that I could find: 1 - Seishirô Nagaya; 2 - Nobukage Kimura, 3 - Nobuyuki Takeuchi, 4 - Naoya Ando, 5 - Tetsuaki Watanabe, 6 - Kazuaki Terasawa, 7 - Tetsuaki Watanabe, 8 - Osamu Honma
 
Holy shit that's the worst fucking shit. It isn't just how dead they sound, it's the lack of breath, them getting words wrong, fucking everything.
 
YouTube automatically turns on AI dubs for a lot of creators in multiple languages and will default to whatever your account language is set to. It's awful. The first time I clicked on a Japanese video in my feed and heard "HELLO IT IS ME HIROKI" I thought I was having a stroke.
 
yeah i had this happen to me once when I tried to watch a Korean show on youtube. There was no official subs so I'll use AI subs if there's NO choice and sometimes they're ok (as in you'll at least follow the basic outline). Instead it hit me with the AI dub and my god it was horrific.
 
cobainwasmurdered said:
Some really good stuff coming this winter https://anichart.net/Winter-2026
Click to expand...
I started up Sousou no Frieren because of that Season 2 coming and it's a really good show. I was surprised at how much I quickly got into the characters and appreciate the balance of "slice of life" with kind of taking things slow while ramping up now & then in some episodes.

I think it was @tekcop who talked this show up a lot ITT? I just remember a ton of people loving S1 and I simply had way too much else at the time that I just never got around to it.

* Uruwashi no Yoi no Tsuki sounds like something that could be decent and screams gay lol: Yoi Takiguchi has long legs, a deep voice, and a handsome face…in other words, Yoi is such a good-looking guy that most people don’t notice or care that she is, in fact, a girl. Indeed, she’s had the nickname “Prince” as long as she can remember. That is, until she met Ichimura-senpai…the only person who’s really seemed to see her for herself. To her surprise, she’s not sure how to handle this new relationship, especially when her newfound friend is a prince himself (and a guy prince, at that).
* Jingai Kyoushitsu no Ningengirai Kyoushi is another male teacher finds himself teaching a class of female demi-humans who want to become humans. I'm a sucker for cuteness potential and this has potential.
 
myanimelist.net

Gnosia

Saddled with amnesia, Yuuri awakens on an interstellar cruiser drifting through space. Unfortunately, a lack of memories is the least of Yuuri's problems. Among the four other crew members is a Gnosia: a Gnos infectee whose goal is the eradication of humanity. The Gnosia appears human in all...
myanimelist.net myanimelist.net

I think you'd really like this @HarleyQuinn

It's like a time traveling game of mafia with an ever expanding cast and ruleset and quirky queerness.
 
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