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

Pretty neat. It also moves. And there was a projection on the wall of the shopping mall it's at, featuring Char, Amuro and Lalah. A neat place to wait for a bus at.

Another month gone, another month older, another month at work.

𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚

I've been reading Great Teacher Onizuka and so far it's almost exactly 1:1 like the anime... which means, the horribly aged ableism is about to hit, beyond all the other problematic stuff. Beyond that, it remains as fun as I remember. It's neat. B+

𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐞

Gundam SEED has managed to make it across its entire 50 episode run without making me too annoyed or in amused disbelief over the nonsense happening on the screen. Really, it's... alright. I wish Kira and Lacus were less wooden characters. Athrun and Cagalli were significantly more interesting and 500x more likeable than Ange and Tusk in the trainwreck of a show named Cross Ange, who used them as a ~~self-plagiarism~~ source of inspiration B-

SEED Destiny too... has been pretty alright so far. However, I do like Shinn's character. That man has definitely every reason to be as angry as he is... but I am fairly confident the show won't do too much with that. Speaking of Cagalli, wow, that is a massive downgrade in character writing compared to S1. Supposedly, there's IRL drama that caused that! C+

CITY is Nichijou 2, not much else to say about it. It doesn't quite live up to the predecessor, and with the shorter show run it probably never will, but it is undeniably still a good show. A

Dragon Ball Z - almost done with the Freeza fight. That was... pretty long. But consistently good, even though some previously impactful stuff, like people dying, is not much of a big deal now. A

Ranma 1/2 is also consistently entertaining. Not much else to say about it at this point. A

𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

I knew Gravity Falls was always a highly regarded show... but I did not expect it to be this good. There's an iconic cast of characters, compelling storytelling... it's just very very competent at what it sets out to do. A+

𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬

A challenging Super Robot Wars game in the year of our Lord 2025? One that has, so far, good writing? One that is available in a language I speak? Y is shockingly good. I've been on a binge this weekend. A+

Wake up, eat, commute to work, work, lunch break, work, commute home, two hours, fall asleep, repeat

Manga

Blooming Love is a pretty generic romcom. A competent one so far, but it's VERY familiar slop. B-

Anime

Gundam SEED, at around 3/4 of the show is... alright. It has not shit the bed... yet (?). Definitely not the best, but less of a trainwreck I expected. We'll see about SEED Destiny. B-

CITY. Nichijou 2 is peak. The most recent episode was mesmerizing, and like a comrade stated, it evokes the feeling of being in a social situation and being sensory overloaded quite well lol. A+

Nisemonogatari. Horrible Oreimo flashbacks. Please no. Kizumonogatari was shockingly peak before that (but I am de jure a goth and vampire slop is always fun). Apparently the infamous toothbrush scene is as horny as it gets. Will it continue being questionable? Almost certainly lol. 🥴

Dragon Ball Z. The refrigerator man is a good villain. The pace is still slowwwwww. A

Western Animation

Gravity Falls is still fun. Though I feel so far Mabel was a less obnoxiously written character in S1? Stan on the other hand, a kid friendly version of Quark from DS9. I love that old bastard.