The last anime you saw?

[Sigma999]

Spy x Family : Code White 

 

 

 

[Redgrave]

 

91 Days has the premise of it taking place in the Prohibition Era of the US which is interesting to see an anime cover that. It's basically about how the main character Angelo wants to get revenge for his murdered family by taking out the mafia hitmen that comitted it after escaping as a kid. It's a pretty good premise with a good mafia story to go with it and I like how Angelo goes about infiltrating the group and manipulating them. It's only 12 episodes though so it feels shortlived and I feel like it could have benefited from being longer, maybe another 12 episodes but I still think it's worth a watch if you like that kind of stuff. It has a short side-story thing where it's the same length as a regular episode but it's three different short stories that mostly just give some extra background on the characters.

[Redgrave]

 

A short but nice story about a girl named Shiva that meets a monster guy that she calls Teacher (at least going by the description, the subtitles have her call him Doctor) in a world where there is some kind of curse that turns living creatures into demonic things if they touch them. It's not fully explored at least in the anime, I assume there is more given in the manga but it's more about Teacher's inner conflict since despite being cursed he takes care of Shiva. It's got really nice animation that resembles something of a storybook in terms of artstyle and I like that when animating Teacher they make sure to show that he does what he can to not directly touch Shiva. There is also another monster that talks to Teacher and it's implied he's supposed to curse her but he doesn't want to.

 

But yeah, it's a nice story about a monster creature being nice to an innocent girl that will surely tug the heart strings especially by the end of it. There is also a ten minute short that is for some reason listed as a prequel but it's a wordless bit where it shows the two go throughout a day.

 

 

I was prepared to talk about how cool this was but unfortunately despite the premise it winds up being pretty disappointing by the end because it basically goes nowhere which sucks because the first 9 of 12 episodes are promising but then the last three just feels like they ran out of steam and gave up.

 

It takes place on a modern Earth where some alien race called Peddlers will trade mech suits called Exoframe's for limestone for whatever reason. The Peddlers are never really explored beyond that or what their motives are which is what I would have hoped it would but it doesn't, so their only purpose is to explain why there are mechs but you don't really need them to explain that when just having them be made by humans would have been perfectly fine.

 

Where Obsolete gets interesting is how it explores the idea of countries around the world gaining Exoframes which changes how war is fought. This is shown by showing the different settings from India to Africa and how the Exoframes are used. The first episode even shows the main characters do a spec-ops kind of mission in them which is funny because I'm pretty sure one of them has a suppressor on their gun so the idea of a mech having a suppressed weapon and stealthing around is funny.

 

There is something of an overarching plot involving some Big Boss kind of character that uses the Exoframes to train child soldiers and I believe other groups because there is a tease where whenever the main characters encounter rival Exoframes they all have the logo the Big Boss character uses.

 

This stays interesting for the first nine episodes but then the final three? The plot basically just stops at episode 9 and the last three episodes are just filler episodes that do nothing. There's no further exploration on how other world militaries use the Exoframes, the Peddlers are just forgotten about, and the Big Boss character gets to just do whatever it was he was doing. The final episode plays off like a high school anime where two girls use Exoframes to fight each other but then it's revealed it actually is just some anime the main characters are watching by the credits. If I didn't know any better I would have thought Rian Johnson made this series.

 

So yeah, cool buildup, no payoff. Maybe it was too ambitious for more episodes or the manga abruptly ends so they had to just make up three episodes but I would have rather they ended it on a cliffhanger to at least gain interest than just have nothing episodes. This would also probably make for a cool game with the right dev team and I'm sure the obvious answer would be FromSoft considering Armored Core.

[Sigma999]

Finished Sasaki and Peeps (2024) 

 

[Redgrave]

Blue Literature Series

 

An anthology series that is based on certain stories that I guess are considered "blue literature". It's six different stories with twelve episodes total and they are pretty dark or depressing. The stories are in the following order:

 

No Longer Human - This started sounding familiar as I kept watching and it turns out I watched a video on it a while back. I'm fairly sure it was this one specifically. But yeah, it's a pretty painful story especially since there is some truth to it when you know about the author's backstory.

 

In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom - The way this one is played out kind of makes me think of how old creepypastas go when they involve lost episode type things because of the way this starts off like it will be a normal and comedic anime but then does a sudden tonal shift halfway through. In a way it was kind of funny but at the same time I was caught off guard because of one scene where it actually does go the way you expect it to.

 

Kokoro - Probably my favorite one in the list. It involves someone taking in his friend named K into a home he pays rent in and he starts getting jealous over the girl that lives there. This winds up being a "two different sides" kind of story thing where you are shown the same story but they play out a bit differently and it's not really clear which is the true version. Regardless of which one is true I felt like K was just misunderstood.

 

Run Melos! - This one is the least dark one of the bunch and has something of a nice ending. It's about a writer that feels bitter feelings towards a friend from high school that he feels like abandoned him and some of it is reflected in what looks like a Greek tragedy kind of play in-between scenes.

 

The Spider's Thread & Hell Screen - Both are listed as separate episodes but they take place after another. The Spider's Thread is about a criminal who acts like an edge lord that mercilessly kills people and steals things as he pleases. However at one point he lets a spider live and so when he is sent to Hell he is ironically given a chance to redeem himself by climbing a spider web. I'm sure you can guess how well this goes but I liked how trippy and weird the Hell sequence was.

 

Hell Screen is about a painter for the king in the nation the setting takes place. He is asked to paint something in his tomb that looks flattering but the painter instead paints the atrocities committed by the king. The ending sequence is also pretty cool with the way it's animated.

 

It's a short lived series but I get what it was going for. It would be cool to see more anthology series like this and I liked the live action openings by the guy that talks about the stories and the authors before the episode starts.

 

 

Now for something less depressing. It's about a documentary filmmaker wanting to find out why an actress apparently vanished and quit acting. It does a pretty interesting depiction of her life and showing the filmmaker and his cameraman interacting with her past. It's not meant to be them literally doing so but it was still a unique way to present them learning about her past and how she spent most her life trying to chase a stranger she saved.

 

It also wasn't until after watching it I found out it was directed by the same guy that did Perfect Blue but this has a nicer ending.

[Slava]

@Redgrave I'm bothered by the fact that there's too few hours in a day 😅. Because both of these have sat in my watchlist for a long time, and I still haven't seen them. I heard about Aoi Bungaku in an episode of an old podcast that Gigguk and Arkada AKA Glass Reflection used to be co-hosts of. And Satoshi Kon's filmography is patiently awaiting me as well. There's too much stuff.

[Redgrave]

16 hours ago, Slava said:

@Redgrave I'm bothered by the fact that there's too few hours in a day 😅. Because both of these have sat in my watchlist for a long time, and I still haven't seen them. I heard about Aoi Bungaku in an episode of an old podcast that Gigguk and Arkada AKA Glass Reflection used to be co-hosts of. And Satoshi Kon's filmography is patiently awaiting me as well. There's too much stuff.

 

I think Blue Literature Series is something that you could probably chip away at since all but No Longer Human are two episodes. I guess it's also a controversial take but I think there's no shame in watching something at 1.25x speed if you feel like you need to as long as you understand what's going on.

 

But yeah, Millennium Actress is good too. I would definitely use it for a movie night if you can.

[SelectiveGamer]

 

MHA S7 has officially started english dubbed. Now... I don't like giving the same anime an award(s) at my end of the year list, however, if it's just as good as last season was (which won my personal Anime of the Year) then there may not be much choice. We'll see. For now... yeah it's off to great start already.

[SelectiveGamer]

Apologies for the double post... but... I pulled the trigger. Figuratively speaking I guess.

 

 

I've only watched two episodes thus far. All be honest... the first episode confused the hell out of me and I didn't understand what was going on in the slightest. The second episode though... well things got interesting. So... I'm interested and intrigued. That doesn't change the fact that the first episode confused the hell out of me and I still don't understand what the hell was going on. I really hope this isn't another 'over-rated' situation. I guess we'll see.

[Redgrave]

Terror in Resonance

 

Terror in Resonance is about two kids that are extremely smart (of which is explained) and capable of planning and creating bombs to blow up buildings. The one on the left is Nine who is something of a cold character and the other is Twelve who acts like a goofball. The girl in the middle is Lisa who they wind up taking in because Twelve felt bad for her since she has a pretty crummy home and school life.

 

Despite them making bombs to blow up buildings they do make sure that there aren't casualties, so I guess they aren't really bad people. They also have what looks like a YouTube channel where they drop hints about what their next target is and despite not doing a good job of fully concealing their identities by only wearing masks and not disguising their voices or wearing a full outfit, they manage to stump the police and whoever else is after them.

 

It's only 11 episodes but I think it's worth a watch especially since the ending is pretty nice even if kind of sad. There is also one character that is on the same level as Nine and Twelve that I feel like had the series been longer it could have made for a sort of Death Note kind of rivalry between them and the main character.

 

 

This is about a hypothetical situation where an 8.0 magnitude earthquake hits Japan and it takes place from the perspective of a girl and her brother named Mirai and Yuuki respectively. However during the disaster they wind up getting taken care of by an older woman named Mari that tries to help them get home. Mari's design makes me think of Claire Redfield somewhat and it's kind of funny because she even winds up having a motorcycle.

 

But I guess what the anime shows is the aftermath of an event like this where it shows the recovery as well as the emotions people go through. Mirai is certainly stressed out a lot through out it and there are times where it shows people being selfish or inconsiderate towards her and it's something that makes sense considering how everyone would be feeling the same way she does. Not everyone is like that though and there are moments of compassion from strangers they come across so it shows a bit of both good and bad.

 

It handles the idea of this scenario happening pretty well I think even though it doesn't depict all the harsher aspect of this kind of thing. It does show that people young or old can die during an event like this but it doesn't show the more violent side that comes from it. What isn't really shown is the inevitable violence that comes from a disaster such as fighting, rioting, brawling, looting, or the timeless act of cannibalism.

 

Granted, it didn't really need to show those things since it being from Mirai and the others perspective is more than enough. I guess I couldn't help but notice that it didn't really show those things. The ending will also tug your heartstrings and I kind of suspected it was going to go the way it did before the official reveal. Well worth a watch imo.

[Redgrave]

 

The title of this sounds like it would be for some action figure set that's about a group of ragtag volunteer rescue team members that are always there when disaster strikes and no one gets critically injured but this portrays the work of rescue operators in a serious light. The main character Uchida initially wanted to become a fighter pilot but it wound up not working out and so he gets transferred to a rescue team lead by a guy that is seen as a hard-ass but it makes sense why since these aren't Saturday Morning heroes and they do make a point early on that they can't save everyone.

 

It's only 12 episodes but it does a good job of depicting how harsh but in a way fulfilling being a rescue worker can be with episode arcs bringing in a different kind of drama. There is also something of a side-plot with Uchida's girlfriend where she works for a publishing company. To be honest it's not the most interesting plotline but it doesn't take up too much time and there is something in the way of a payoff for it.

 

There is a part where she's talking with her sister about a date with Uchida and since it takes place in 2005 her sister name drops Star Wars, Batman, and War of the Worlds as movies they saw together but she finds out it was War of the Worlds. This reveals a fatal character flaw in that they don't know quality films by skipping on Revenge of the Sith and Batman Begins for the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds and I find it very hard to forgive.

 

They also play this banger for a couple episodes and while the song is upbeat the context for it playing is a bit sad since it's part of a plotline where they talk about someone the leader knew.

 

Spoiler

 

 

That said it's worth a watch. I also realized I've been on a streak where a series involves disasters and such. Coincidence? Yes.