:;()$&@"\The Anime Pub/:;()$&@"

Getting back to watching more anime once again. This season is STACKED. Kaguya-sama and Shield Hero being the two HUGE sequels (well, Komi being the third, but I haven't finished season 1 yet) and then there's one of the (to my knowledge) most anticipated shows of this year - Spy x Family. And oh my is that one just a delight to watch. I can wholeheartedly recommend that one. Top tier comedy while also having quite some heavy themes in there as well. Set in definitely not eastern Germany and definitely not western Germany during the times of definitely not the cold war.


Recently got to see Jujutsu Kaisen: Zero in that trusty local cinema I keep mentioning. It was a great watch, some very well made action and oh so much screen time for Gojou. Getting to know more about the backstory of those characters made it well worth the watch.

Also, they showed a trailer for another movie I'm now unreasonably hyped about, Belle. In case anyone's interested, it's the newest movie by Mamoru Hosoda and the trailer in question was the so-called 70 second trailer. Which has no dialogue, only scenes and ost. And my god that ost. That, combined with a certain shot they show during the trailer really, REALLY makes me want to see that movie.



Anyways, I still got more to watch. Again, this season is nothing short of amazing and there's also stuff from previous seasons I haven't gotten to. "The List" just keeps growing and growing...

Much more low-key for us. Watched Thermae Romae to prepare for Novae, which has to be one of the more unusual situations when it comes to Tsuda and Netflix: the NAZ-produced Netflix version is actually 'animated' whereas the original was a flash animation gag anime. I won't lie, I was worried we were facing another Househusband situation. Novae has this cool after-show feature where the mangaka travels to various bathhouses and onsen around Japan -- the first one she went to was in fact the only one I've been to, a fairly famous town called Kusatsu. Kinda cool. Kinda hot, too.

I paused my Higurashi watching because I am 99% sure the final season, Sotsu, was hit hard by Covid production issues. I know it doesn't end well and I know it's a lot of recap. I'll get back to it, but right now I've other things going on.

JJK0 played at our local but dub only, and we aren't willing to trek into the city for the sub. It's fine, it'll look decent enough on my tv.

Belle came and went here I think. Or not yet. Not sure. I know it's had its season in Japan though.

My god doesn't Bubble look stunning? That one I'd like to see at the cinema.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

My god doesn't Bubble look stunning? That one I'd like to see at the cinema.

It sure does. I'm quite excited for that one for a multitude of reasons. With it being a netflix exclusive though I wouldn't count on it getting a cinematic release. Sadly.

"

FCK42 wrote:

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

My god doesn't Bubble look stunning? That one I'd like to see at the cinema.

It sure does. I'm quite excited for that one for a multitude of reasons. With it being a netflix exclusive though I wouldn't count on it getting a cinematic release. Sadly.

It's a netflix anime the way Apocrypha was -- they stream it, but it has much wider distribution otherwise (eg. Aniplex did the blurays for Apoc, whereas some actual 'netflix anime' will likely never see blurays). Bubble will absolutely get a cinematic release; way too much money to be made from such a dream team doing a full-on movie rather than a movie based on an existing series (which can have hit or miss animation quality -- see Gintama The Very Final). Friend in Tokyo actually saw a trailer for it when he went to see a different anime film.

__

Unrelated: three episodes into Thermae Romae Novae and my goodness, it's a very different beast to the old Froggyman flash animations. The quirkiness is gone but what we have instead is actual animation and story. Neither cancel the other out (the quirkiness was hilarious) which is sort of rare when a remake is so much closer to the original work.

Huh, so apparently there is a new Shinkai Movie on the horizon, "Suzume no Tojimari". The trailer looks quite interesting. Art, soundtrack, fluidity of animation is as usual from the looks of it, though the story appears to be a fair bit more... let's say "fleshed out" than his latest two movies. In both Kimi no Na Wa and Tenki no Ko it felt more like a tool to deliver the character drama, where this feels more like the story itself will be the focus. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more news on that one.

I still haven't seen Tenki no Ko. Other than 5cm, I never really liked Makoto Shinkai's work, and even then 5cm is sort of like a budget, one dimensional Only Yesterday/Omoide poro poro.

meanwhile...

Science Saru are releasing a sequel to Tatami Galaxy on the sly ON DISNEY+ OF ALL PLATFORMS this week.

And a silly Macross F x Macross Delta album (wherein singers from F sing songs from Delta, and vice versa) continues to dominate the Oricon, despite fans not really liking it that much.

Strange fuckin' times.

Been quite bored lately, so I decided to give 86 a shot (that almost sounds like a light novel title). Damn. That show sure... how do they say it these days? Oh right, "hit different". I knew it was a quite highly praised show, but it was not exactly what I was first expecting. I binged through the entirety of season 1. It sure can be heavy quite a lot of the time. Now I just wonder what it'll hit me with in season 2.

Not exactly a show I could recommend to just anyone, but it is damn amazing. Also, despite (or because of?) the CGI feeling slightly out of place, it ironically felt quite fitting.

"

FCK42 wrote:

Been quite bored lately, so I decided to give 86 a shot (that almost sounds like a light novel title). Damn. That show sure... how do they say it these days? Oh right, "hit different". I knew it was a quite highly praised show, but it was not exactly what I was first expecting. I binged through the entirety of season 1. It sure can be heavy quite a lot of the time. Now I just wonder what it'll hit me with in season 2.

Not exactly a show I could recommend to just anyone, but it is damn amazing. Also, despite (or because of?) the CGI feeling slightly out of place, it ironically felt quite fitting.

Interesting coincidence, I'm wearing one of my 86 Spear Head shirts atm. Only seen season 1 here but it's definitely different fare to the usual LN adaptations. Reminds me quite a lot of Oshii's Sky Crawlers and Iron Blooded Orphans, only with more political oomph than either of those.

The CG is pretty well done, given it's Shirogumi -- same guys that did Night Head 2041, which was unusually good for straight up CG. They also did the amazing CG for Solomon -- those Demon Pillars were great. But it's a little uncanny, sure. Deliberately, I think and agree.

I'd say it's an easy recommendation.

___

So a theatrical run of Revue Starlight has just been announced for the US in a few months. Kinda envious -- that movie absolutely demands a giant screen -- but at least this means we can expect a proper bluray release from Sentai at some point. That'll be a banger and a half. If you haven't seen the series yet, FFS stop anything else and get to it. Especially now that Hidive have uploaded bluray rips of their own making (far higher quality than the TV broadcast).

___

Finished Themae Romae Novae. Whew, there's one that's gonna slide right under a bunch of radars due to Netflix Original 1 full season dump style. Surprisingly consistent story. Recommended for a few hours of fun and education. Yamazaki Mari knows her shit when it comes to Roman culture, that's for sure.

___

Dennou Coil on bluray next.

Watched the first two episodes of 86 season 2. Not exactly the direction I thought it'd take, yet simultaneously I don't think it could've gone any other way really. Gotta see how it continues.


Spy x Family is just a delight to watch. The interactions between our three protagonists are just on point. From our spy Loid despairing over the fact that he now actually has to rely on other people, Yor the assassin just obsessing over anything that could be used as a utensil to kill someone to our little esper Anya being both annoying and adorable at the same time. Despite their rather unusual background and circumstances they still make for a really good family. And it's only going to get better from here if they keep following the source material as well as they have been thus far. I can't wait to see the school's director animated.

TL;DR: Spy x Family is a 100% recommendation from me.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

If you haven't seen the series yet, FFS stop anything else and get to it.

I know I should. But... but... all those other shows I'm already watching!

Yeah I don't care. You'll do as you're told and you'll thank me for it. :P

You do that, and I promise I'll start catching up on the past 3 seasons. Once I've cleared these blurays.