The Anime/Manga/Related Merchandise Thread

Looks like a bit of fun but the visuals on the people are too close to in-game character models so, like you say, it has a cheap feel.

I think it will be better in terms of story and characters than the American film, but it won't give the visual treat of those effects.

We'll need to do Mash spoilercasts for both eventually.

Aye, I seen someone on twitter say at first they thought it could look better but now they kind of like it for the reason that it could almost be a cut scene from the games.
Also I just looked up some more stuff on it and it only has a run time of 58 minutes so even if it turns out shite you won't be wasting much time.

I literally sat and watched Gaijin Hunter's compilation of all the MH4 cutscenes, which was about an hour, so . . .

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

 All Might is much more bearable than I thought he'd be.  

All Might is the fucking BOY!
That is probably not a surprising opinion from me, huh?

You're fond of the weedy guy who turns into a loud, supremely confident, muscly bloke?  Never would have guessed.

We've stopped in the middle of season 2.  The final battle of the games was the biggest non-event because I didn't care at all who won, they were both bobbins.  I guess neither of them being happy about the outcome is the best one could expect (and Bakugo needing his medal forced onto him ).  

In the same way as Absol is probably still my favourite Pokémon, so Tokoyami can be my best boy.  Screaming chuunbiyou with his cute little dragon thing.  Why does he have a bird head?  Who cares?  Apparently.

Muss wrote:

But it's not just dead pantheons. We've got Hinduism in there, Buddhism, and we even get an appearance from Adam... as in Adam and Eve Adam.

I genuinely love this.  Shame the show isn't any cop.

My last week has been basically divided between work, sleep, MHA, and TGAAC. It's so good... Mineta aaaaaaaall the way aside. We're now in the middle of Season 3, and Tsu has in no way stopped being Best Girl. I hope Aizawa ends up reluctantly yet devotedly married to green-haired joke lady.

We also tried a couple of other shows:
Jujutsu Kaisen: Comedy or horror? Make up your mind, show. Anyway, this is really good - just a shame it's only one season. We're halfway through.
Demon Slayer: This on the other hand starts as horror, then dials it right back straight away. We've only just started this, partly because it doesn't feel like the characters are compelling us to continue.
Great Pretender: Finally, this Netflix exclusive. Slightly odd art maybe, but it's a fun romp about con artists conning people who deserve to be conned.

Super chuffed to see you've started MHA, Balla! Let me dig into your thoughts on it.

Balladeer wrote:

I like it!  It's very cheery, with a nice creepy villain.  All Might is much more bearable than I thought he'd be.  Aizawa best teacher, Tsu best student, little pervert worst student.  I don't know why they felt it made any sense to make the straight-laced class VP into The Fanservice Character, but I don't like that much either.  Otherwise it's good.  

Season 2 does seem to have kicked Bakugo rather ignobly out of the spotlight though.  Not sure Hotncold is quite as good as a rival.

Aizawa rules as does Tsu, and I'm glad you've latched onto to the Mineta hate train. I despise that little grape shite with a passion.

I'm sure you've seen this as I've noticed you're onto S3, but Bakugo isn't out of the spotlight for long.

Balladeer wrote:

In the same way as Absol is probably still my favourite Pokémon, so Tokoyami can be my best boy.  Screaming chuunbiyou with his cute little dragon thing.  Why does he have a bird head?  Who cares?  Apparently.

If you want an actual in-universe reason for why Tokoyami has a bird head, I'd imagine his parents probably had heteromorphic bird quirks (those that alter how a person looks, like Tsu's frog quirk, I suppose) and those traits were passed down to our best chuuni boy.

Balladeer wrote:

My last week has been basically divided between work, sleep, MHA, and TGAAC.  It's so good... Mineta aaaaaaaall the way aside.  We're now in the middle of Season 3, and Tsu has in no way stopped being Best Girl.  I hope Aizawa ends up reluctantly yet devotedly married to green-haired joke lady.

S3 ruuuuules. The Summer Camp arc leading into the AFO arc is my favourite stretch of the entire series to date. I love the stakes getting ramped up and how much of a genuine threat the League of Villains presents at the Summer Camp.

I'm glad you're digging Jujutsu Kaisen as well! I really enjoy the cast in that show.

Yep, Mineta seems to be the comic relief but he's not... at all... funny.  Just sickening.  Kaminari is fine as comic relief, no need for 'little grape shite' (stealing that ).  We've blasted through S3 (hello again Bakugo, also you played clarinet?  That's adorable), and have kind of stalled at the end of S4 (what the heck is the point of Gentle Criminal?  Give us back the LoVs or plague doctor yakuza), because we don't want to hit S5 and have nowhere to go afterwards! Same problem with Kaisen.

We have turned elsewhere for our fix, but I'm not sure I can recommend Black Clover per se.  It kind of does the same thing as MHA, only worse: in a kingdom where everyone has magic, one boy does not, so he trains super-hard to be a Magic Knight - only, he's really annoying, and everyone around him is written worse than in MHA.  It's hard not to compare them (FMA Brotherhood too, as the main character is pint-sized), and BC really doesn't come off well.  

Watching anything fun at the moment Jay?

I can't remember if it's in S5 or the second half of S4, but there's a line that Mineta has towards Eri that made me despair. Like, fuck off forever Mineta, you turgid grape shit.

Yeah, Gentle Criminal was a bit of a goober, but the role he played in being the first villain Deku takes down without any help at all is pretty neat.

I have... not heard good things about Black Clover, so I may pass.

I've not really been watching much in the way of anime at all this season - it's a pretty sparse one for me personally, so it's just been S5 of MHA and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, which I can't say I'm particularly enjoying to a huge degree. MHA has also been a bit of a downer as it's had some real pacing problems this series, although I'm not sure if that'll be as apparent if you haven't read the manga. They've rushed a much anticipated arc though, which has been a bit of a bummer.

So yeah, I should probably find a new show to watch. Maybe I should jump down the Evangelion rabbit hole at long last.

I'll stay away from the manga then! Was the Mineta line something like 'see you in ten years'? Because I think we've had that. Or does he get worse?

Where am I supposed to get my recommendations from now? I will say that I still enjoy Black Clover more than chuffing Stardust Crusaders. We started Diamond Is Unbreakable but had many of the same problems elsewhere, and also the best character from SC is revealed to be an arse off the bat so that was rubbish.

Nope, that was the line.

You could always have a look here for recommendations.

I started Diamond is Unbreakable as well but stalled after seeing what they did to my boy Joseph.

He was the best character I meant.

Ooh, cheers! The Lady has really taken against Steins;Gate after trying one of the games and running into a lot of creepy dialogue, but I might try some of those (and your other 8/10s and higher) on my own.

Oh, that's a shame! I've only played the original Steins;Gate and didn't run into any creepy dialogue, and of course I adore the anime considering I gave it a ten. I'd solidly recommend it, natch.

I'd actually go as far to say it's worth checking out anything I rated seven or higher on my list! And I'm not just saying that to get you to watch the entirety of Dragon Ball and DBZ.

I'm not sure you're getting me to watch anything of those bar the abridged series. Anyway, enough to be working my way through!

Once I drop my essay on why Vegeta has one of the best character arcs in all of fiction, I'll have you hooked.

i should mention that is 100% hyperbole in case you thought I was serious...

Okay Moyles: at what point does Steins;Gate get good? At the moment we're chasing around three really annoying people (the airhead, the pervert, and the conspiracy nut) and your bargain basement tsundere as they visit maid cafés and talk too much about bananas. Even if I do like the fact that they've picked literally CERN to be the baddie, the rest of it has yet to grab me.

Woah woah woah, I'll accept pacing criticisms but I'll hear nothing ill said of Kurisu.

On a more serious note, yeah, the pacing is the most common criticism people have of S;G. I will say that the very slow pacing and the somewhat twee happenings in the early episodes is likely a by-product of the fact that S;G is a visual novel adaptation, but it's also VERY intentional as a contras of things to come. I'd say that the mysteries and intrigue steadily ramp up after the first few episodes. Episode 12 is usually the point where people say they're utterly hooked. I hope you can stick with it through to then, at least!

After a thoroughly enjoyable lecture of putting down Okarin, she just seems to get involved in 'you're a pervert!' 'no you're a pervert!' which is one of my least favourite anime devices. Anyway, I'll stick with it until then.

Oh, and - finished MHA S4. Not starting MHA S5 for a good while now. I had to look up LaBrava to confirm that she wasn't... you know. A kid. Because it all felt rather creepy for a bit there.

I don't remember that part of her character sticking around for long - I really enjoy how her and Okarin's relationship develops across the course of the series.

Again, I fear that character design is more of a play to Japanese audiences - I totally agree with the creepy aspect, but I think they did establish she was an adult in the show itself at least. What did you think of Endeavour's big moment?

Erm, well.

Spoiler:

I think you'll like how S5 handles that, then. It's handled with a lot more tact that I'd expected as I was in the same boat as you.

Glad to read it!

Progress update, for Jay's benefit and basically nobody else's:
Black Clover - Turns out that, after struggling through Asta's (the MC's) terrible voice acting and a lot of one-note characters until somewhere around 50-60 episodes, things get quite good here. Asta's actor tones it down enough, most of Asta's comrades get at least some development, and their captain Yami is just generally great. There's even some pretty good battle animation in places, although nothing that'll trouble Mob. It's a hard sell to anyone to say 'watch 50 episodes of duff anime and there's a 7-8/10 show to be found', but... well, that's what we've got here!
Demon Slayer - They've just met Big Bad and his ball and arrow friends, and have started to tell a few jokes. Some of these jokes are thoroughly welcome, and some (especially of the 'Juju Stroll' equivalent) don't really seem to fit. It does however make me feel slightly better disposed to what had until then been an immensely po-faced series. Also Nezuko is kinda cute, although they're showing a little too much of her legs and I still don't appreciate the apparent brainwashing put on her by Nose Boy's teacher.
Steins;Gate - I'm now done with episode 8 and we have slightly uncomfortable trans stuff to deal with as well as everything else! Oh joy.

Yeah, the problem with a lot of the big shonen shows - Black Clover, Naruto, DBZ, One Piece etc. - is that there's SUCH a huge commitment with a lot of them. I honestly think the only one I could recommend wholeheartedly would be My Hero Academia, even though I adore Dragon Ball.

As for Ruka in S;G... I honestly don't feel qualified enough to talk about that considering how it's handled later in the show. I think it's handled better than the likes of the original Danganronpa handled those sort of themes, at least.

Thing is, those are shows I want to watch. I want to be able to get into 100-odd episodes of anime. I just haven't been able to. I have big issues with One Piece's female character design; Bleach was incredibly slow and boring; I haven't tried Naruto but I'm worried it'll be similar; and Dragon Ball looks like it's battle after battle with not too much character development in between. That last one might be unfair, or it might be just Z that's like that.

Handling trans stuff better than DanganRonpa is a bloody low bar!

From what I've heard, Naruto is very similar to MHA, so that might be worth a watch. The OG Dragon Ball is a charming adventure anime with some cool fights interspersed throughout. The only bit you might balk at is Master Roshi essentially playing the pervy Mineta role. DBZ does have some issues with fights leading into fights and so on, but there's still some great character moments in there.

The Lady doesn't really like the Dragon Ball art style, which hampers us there. Doesn't Naruto spend a lot of time transforming into a naked girl? Regardless that might be one for us to try once we've blitzed through the really-quite-exciting-suddenly Black Clover.