Manga & Anime

All non-Nolan related film, tv, and streaming discussions.
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I just 'accidentally' ordered Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 1-3 (colored ed.):

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...and would like to thank darthnazgul for that. ;)

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I was given Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo for my birthday. Gonna start watching it soon.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is fun (sub > dub) and I recently watched some episodes of Slayers (1995).

2017 in general was a good anime year for me. Higurashi (2006)was cool, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid had a lot of heart and I started The Ancient Magus' Bride.

In terms of manga, I only started reading Gunnm. I like it so far. Don't know why people keep telling me not to bother with The Last Order.

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The Last Order to BAA is like Dragon Ball Z to original Dragon Ball. Not as good, different, but definitely solid stuff. I actually have some volumes.

Not sure what’s going on in The Martian Chronicles lately.

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m4st4 wrote:I just 'accidentally' ordered Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 1-3 (colored ed.):

Image

...and would like to thank darthnazgul for that. ;)
Image

Coloured edition is great. I'll be honest, it can be hard to make out what's going on in some black and white pages.

Just remember that it's a product of its time and stick with it. Eventually, you'll just be wanting more of that JoJo greatness.

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darthnazgul wrote:
m4st4 wrote:I just 'accidentally' ordered Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 1-3 (colored ed.):

Image

...and would like to thank darthnazgul for that. ;)
Image

Coloured edition is great. I'll be honest, it can be hard to make out what's going on in some black and white pages.

Just remember that it's a product of its time and stick with it. Eventually, you'll just be wanting more of that JoJo greatness.
Man, I cannot thank you enough for posting about JoJo in this thread, will update after each volume or so and I understand what I'm getting into. ;)

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So from what I hear Devilman Crybaby might be an excellent anime. I only remember seeing some episodes of Devilman Lady from back in the day because I never watched the Devilman 1972 anime or the manga.

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I have now seen Devilman Crybaby in its entirety and it's so beautiful in its misery. I love it! Finding an anime that talks about the importance and power of empathy that does it with this much gravitas and stakes is rare. It's not a 'humanity is bad, hence everything goes to hell' story. It rather spends its time with Akira, Ryo and Miki and explores how their interactions shape the story. Akira is an empathetic crybaby who turns into an empathetic badass. Ryo is an emotionally cold guy who ignores social conventions and norms regularly. Miki is the most gentle and positive character out of all of them and usually brings out the best in everyone around her. Out of the secondary characters the stand-out is Miko, a rather shy girl who undergoes a big change over the course of the show and who ends up being one of the more rounded and paradoxical characters because 10 episodes aren't a lot to flesh out everyone to the same extent.

The way the demons are portrayed is also quite significant here.
Akira/Devilman changes perspectives on them after episode 5 where he witnesses the demon Kaim declaring his love for the demoness Silene/Sirene when previously Akira was under the assumption that demons were vile and horrible beings driven by nothing but desire. Akira being highly empathetic, this means for him that he needs to do all he can to preserve human and demon lives as much as possible because they are not just primitive and evil beasts
.

The pacing gets a lot faster in the second half and yet, it all follows a throughline. At the centre of much of this stands Ryo, Akira's best friend from childhood. He is the one who convinces Akira to join him in the quest to destroy the demons and summons the demon Amon to possess Akira's body in order to give Akira the power necessary to fight the demons. The way Ryo factors into the story is quite intriguing and by the end, his story ends up being surprisingly moving.

Going in, you'd expect a fun, if very gory and very explicit (lots of gratuituous sex and violence in this), adventure series where Akira tears monsters in half left and right on a weekly basis. Starting in episode 4 the tone shifts into something somewhat more serious and contemplative and towards the end it gets grim in a way I do not recall any recent anime attempting (Made in Abyss might come to mind). It has some fun nods to the 1972 show (which apparently exists in this show's world as a tv program that Miki's younger brother Taro enjoys), its soundtrack is amazing and powerful, it has recurring motifs (the baton, the track running, etc.) that all factor into the theme of the show and
the ending
specifically. It has some notable flaws, namely some plot developments and tonal shifts seemingly happen rather abruptly, due to the fast pacing of the show and the fact that some plot points are implied visually in the background over the course of the show so that you really need to pay attention to small details for some things to make sense (looking at you
Taro
). Some characters are not really developed enough for the tragedy to hit as hard as it could in the early episodes but by the end there are instances where the devastating implications of what was happening brought a tear to my eye. I can now see why Berserk and Evangelion were inspired by the manga.

Final verdict: not for the faint of heart but otherwise a great way to start 2018.

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Release date: January 18/19, 2018 (USA)

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Alright, so, JoJo’s Part I (Phantom Blood) was alright, for its time. Took me too long to finish it and I only really liked the final part which was quite surprising.

Onto Part II and Battle Tendency...

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...is instantly more likeable! Joseph Joestar is such a great protagonist, I’m having tons of fun with this one.

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Yeah Part One is admittedly a bit of a slog. There is stuff to like about it but I don't think the series starts to firmly plant its roots until Joseph, who as you said is a great protagonist. He helps to establish the mindgames and back and forth that makes the fights in JoJo stand out.

I actually just finished a rewatch of Battle Tendency and hoo boy.

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