...god damn it

Tired.

Manga

Same as usual, I have been very slowly continuing GTO, Inari Konkon, and keeping up with Shibuya Near Family. Something I like about GTO is how Vice Principal Uchiyamada is frequently the butt of the joke, the subject of Onizuka's accidental torment; and the mangaka goes out of the way to show that he is absolutely a terrible person with very few redeeming features.

Anime

I am almost done with The Twelve Kingdoms, and yet it feels nowhere near done. It's good.

Sailor Moon S is a step forward compared to the previous seasons, and that is largely because of the more eccentric villains. It's good.

Cardcaptor Sakura is a cozy, and so far low stakes show. It is something I did not know I wanted to watch. Very good.

Space Battleship Yamato holds up very well to this day, and the very 70s soundtrack makes it better. It was extremely ambitious back in 1974, and it is significantly grander in scape than like 95% of slop airing these days.

You're Under Arrest is episodic (copaganda) fun with an ensemble cast, and basically a very slightly worse Patlabor with no mecha. The show's biggest strength lie in the world created. The authors are good at not only creating memorable side characters, but also not forgetting about them.

I have started Overman King Gainer today. The OP is iconic from the moment you witness (or hear) it. The show has a good start, but I am waiting for Tomino to explain the setting more.

Live Action

I have started a project of a Martin Scorsese filmography dive. Who's That Knocking at My Door was mid. Boxcar Bertha wasn't that good of a movie, but the topic was unusual (it's an adaptation of a novel by an anarchist, and union struggles in 1930s America are the core of the story). Mean Streets was fun. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore was a major surprise, and an excellent movie with a perhaps somewhat lacking ending. Taxi Driver deserves its reputation. It is a very interesting movie.

It's cold, it's dark, work is every day. And yet there is time for anime.

Manga

Beyond continuing GTO at a glacial pace, as well as keeping up with Shibuya Near Family and Wasteful Days of High School Girls + Gekkan-Shoujo Nozaki Kun whenever updates release, I have picked up Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha. It's short, it's fun. I'm pretty early into the story to comment more.

Anime

I have finished Monogatari: Second Season, and the Kaiki arc is just fantastic. It's another high in a series that I have both underestimated and feel that it does live to its questionable reputation. Onto the next series, which is... uh... Hanamonogatari?

One Outs is a gambling sports anime that has been recommended to me for a while, and it is decent so far. The MC is pretty un-Kaiji like, and more your average extremely confident gambling genius.

I've watched Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's somewhat style over substance, but it is refreshing in a sea of formulatic slop. I remember the ending having a bit of controversy surrounding it. I thought it was tragic. The post-credit scene did cheapen that though.

Cardcaptor Sakura keeps being fun and cozy.

I have also resumed Sailor Moon, from Season S. It's still good old Sailor Moon.

Millennium Actress was a pretty good movie, aided by the soundtrack of the excellent Susumu Hirasawa. I felt like I missed half of the appeal of the movie by not being that familiar with what was most likely 1930s to early 1970s Japanese cinema.

The year is over, and I am currently enjoying some paid time off.

Manga

I am still reading GTO and Shibuya Near Family, which are both good.

I have discovered Wasteful Days of High School Girls has someone working on translations of new chapters these days, so that's neat. It's definitely one of the most underrated slice of life comedies I have encountered.

Are You A Landmine, Chihara-San? is one of those manga that keeps showing up in r/manga, so I assume it's not too interesting. However, I have recently seen an interesting video on the Jirai-Kei subculture, so I'm willing to check it out. Maybe it's good, but I am not that many chapters in.

Anime

I have finished Eureka Seven. It is at its core a romance show, and does very few things wrong. Solid overall, but not excelling in anything. I'd definitely say go check it out, even if it perhaps a bit overrated. B+

I have also finished Season 1 of Black Lagoon (and the gag manga DVD-Bonus OVA, as seen in the thumbnail), and it is very good. Its plot structure is basically the same as those late 80s OVAs that are divided into a bunch of movies. It is one of the most western-culture-influenced anime I have ever seen, and an unusually international in scope too. After the ol' reliable first major arc that feels like a Lupin III movie (I love those), we surprisingly get a lot of melancholia about the fall of the Soviet Union and the End of History. The author's a liberal to my knowledge, and such Fukuyama style sentiment of "this is the world we live in. It sucks, but it we can't do anything about it" is interesting to witness. I am definitely interested to see what Season 2 can bring. Oh, and the music is good. A+

I've been watching the original Space Battleship Yamato, after having seen the remake a few years ago and I have been hooked once again. I might even enjoy it more than the remake. Undoubtedly thanks to the very retro charm it has, and the iconic OP and ED. A+

Tokimeki Tonight is a 1982 romcom. Add supernatural themes drawing inspiration from horror tropes, contemporary pop culture (that's not other anime), fantastic stylistic choices and two chaotic evil main characters / rivals? It's very fun. Supposedly, it was an inspiration for Sailor Moon. A

Another fun one is Cardcaptor Sakura. Quality episodic magical girl shenanigans. I'm still too early into the show to judge it.

Monogatari: Second Season is good. SHAFT at its best, and even the highly questionable nonsense from seasons past has been toned down. And when Araragi isn't on screen, it's even better. B+

Why does Ranma ½ (the original) have so much Happosai?

Donghua

I have started The Legend of Princess Chang-Ge yesterday. A historical drama set in a period of turmoil in the Tang dynasty. Episode 1 was good, and I am interested to see if the rest also is. The 3D animation looks very good.

It's early, but yesterday was my last day at work for November, so I'll count it.

𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚

GTO continues being basically the same as the anime thus far. It's fun and aged poorly at the same time. A-

Shibuya Near Family is still pretty good. If you like Kumeta's other works, this one will be enjoyable too. A

Wasteful Days of High School Girls is a very good slice of life nonsense manga I picked up after watching the anime... and one of those manga that got dropped by the translator with no warning several years ago. I find it funny how a MAL review I saw complained that the main characters are too realistic, too similar to annoying people they knew IRL. A

𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐡𝐮𝐚

Nan Hao Shang Feng is slapstick nonsense. It's alright. B

I've been interested in them lately, so does anyone have some recommendations of good Chinese comics? It seems a lot of them have ∞ chapters.

𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐞

Chio's School Road is very anime. 1/3 genuinely fun, 1/3 and 1/3 horny nonsense. Indeed, the author of the manga makes basically only hentai other than this work, which is a fairly common occurrence. B

Eureka Seven is a good mechanime. I'm at the halfway point and I am interested to see what Bones is cooking. A

A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is honestly not too interesting so far, despite it being a Studio Shaft anime. It's alright though. C+

I have also finished Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory. It's a good season, though I feel that the show is at its best in season 1, which has the best balance of action and comedy. Or the all-in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!, because of just how entertaining it is. Shame it ends on a cliffhanger. Season 5 never? It would be a shame. B+

Speaking of... Black Lagoon is basically Full Metal Panic 2 if Melissa Mao was the LI (probably) instead of Chidori and the MCs were criminals instead of war criminals... and it has an industrial pop opening song (just my kind of slop). I can't comment on it much yet as I've only seen a few episodes, but I will definitely watch more.

...because while you are significantly more likely to encounter casual expressions of say sexism or sexuality / gender based discrimination, casual critique that nowadays is mostly far to the left of the average person's worldview was also significantly more common.

Simply the left leanings of intellectuals like the kind of nerds that were making anime in the 70s after spending university years in a Maoist organization (and eventually drifting back to liberalism)?

Genuine sympathy among the workers involved in making the show, such as when they obstructed the making of that right wing WW3 anime movie? (Future War Year 198X, 1982)

The kind of moralizing about the evil empire from the 50s and 60s growing unpopular (+ the Ls the west took around then) for a bit and Corn Man's "policy of peaceful coexistence" becoming mainstream even among average liberals?

Liberal nationalistic concerns that the confrontation between cold war blocs was merely something Japan was stuck in and was harmful to it? Europe had a lot of that, even in the 2000s!

Probably all four!

The source is Combattler V, Episode 2 (1976)

The year has flown by. With the 40 h work week, you're speedrunning getting old!

Manga

I'm still only reading Great Teacher Onizuka and Shibuya Near Family - both of which are good.

Anime

Gundam SEED Destiny was a mess, and feels like a waste of time for what is 100 episodes of Gundam. And yet, there's still the movie to go through. Fun. D+

Eureka Seven is a show I've started recently, and is quite competently made. Not much is original, it feels like, with the show's themes (so far) being kinda obvious - a coming of age story. But I don't dislike it, and studio Bones is pretty reliably good. B

Dragon Ball Z - The Frieza saga ended - 200-ish more episodes to go. But DBZ is reliably good, even if slow. A

Vision of Escaflowne is good, even if imo somewhat harmed by the comparisons to Evangelion. I liked it A-

Wasteful Days of High School Girls is something I picked up on a whim and surprised me. Another show from the Azumanga / Nichijou genre, it's a fun one. I haven't had out-loud laughs at an anime in a while, but maybe it speaks of me I enjoy the kind of silly nonsense this show is about. A