![What have you been reading/watching recently? [Anime - December 2024]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/828404218527219722/1312190967025107034/image.png?ex=674d92d1&is=674c4151&hm=9b13d8d8d2f735844f45e69211ec58ebaa16060b195925671e36f88937304787&){kind=link}
Almost got fired yesterday, and my trial period at work got extended. Oh well. Anime time.
Picking up again after last month's thread, here's some manga I read and anime I watched this month:
Manga:
I've been catching up on Arasa OL Haman-Sama, which much like Char's Daily Life is a Gundam parody / Slice of Life show. It's alright. The latter manga I mentioned is better. B-
I've been reading some of TenPuru: No One Can Live on Loneliness after seeing people sing its praises as a hilarious comedy. It's underwhelming, but alright. Some good gags, but nothing impressive thus far. Also lecherous characters are part of the premise, so y'know. C+
Anime:
I started watching Kill La Kill on a whim earlier this month, when I was home with a nasty cold, and while it did not click the previous times I tried watching it, it did now. Silly? Yes. Infamously horny? Yes. But does it have a bone to pick with society and the writing quality to back it up? Surprisingly, yes. I'm looking forward to the second half of the show. If the quality keeps up, it could become a problematic favorite of mine. A
After finishing Dragon Ball a couple of months ago, I started Dragon Ball Z. It continues with the quality the original one ended with, but it's merely getting started at this point. I'm gonna be watching this for a couple of years, odds are.
Keep your hands off Eizouken! was very much a showcase for Science SARU's animators. Very simple story, but impressive overall. Worth watching at least once. B+
Also season 2 of Aa, Megami-Sama! (the 2005 one). Still entertaining, but more of the same from season 1. I like it. A-
Light Novels
I had paid time off earlier this month and went to Norway for a few days. There, I stumbled upon an impressively stocked comic book store, where I picked up an American import copy of Full Metal Panic, I'm gonna find the time soon to read it.
Anime-Adjacent
Three full years after getting to the penultimate level in Super Robot Wars V and getting distracted by SRW 30 when it came out, I finally finished the game. It was good. The whole series is a gem for anyone who enjoys mecha anime. A+
I finished reading Oshi No Ko. I'm starting to understand why some mangaka spend their whole lives working on one thing and die before it ends. Because they can't write endings for shit. But maybe thats like a universal writer flaw with stuff like Game of Thrones having the same problem.
The author has admitted to getting bored with it and starting work on their next project before Oshi no Ko was done, which is the same thing they did with Kaguya-sama. That had a similar issue of having a good end and them continuing past it but being way worse.
I know its cope but I hope the anime changes things entirely and wish more authors would use those adaptations as ways to tell alternate stories/endings and essentially bug fix the worst parts of their plot. The Attack on Titan anime tried to do that but it wasn't much better. Kaguya-sama just ended after the best arc and didn't adapt more.
Part of this is market pressures (the realest moment in that manga is when the one manga artist says the editor's job is to prevent a successful manga from ending), but there's a broader tendency for most anime/manga to have shit endings.
Ganaix is a notable exception - Gunbuster, Diebuster, Evangelion, Gurren Lagann - all have satisfying endings.
However I feel endings are a dying art in all media. Sitcom endings have become shittier (looking at you HIMYM), films don't end but always tease a new thing, etc.
Again this is capitalist pressure to keep feeding from the success of the original so ya know...
Uh, original run or End of Evangelion?
Original run. Even if it's not giant robot kino, it's emotionally satisfying and closure to Shinji's arc
I'm remembering the giant struggle sessions over the original ending back in the 90s and into the 00s. It was polarizing to say the least. A big reason for it was because Anno couldn't decide on the ending, proving the thesis of the thread. I unironically think the Kubrick 2001 style ending is why Eva has such enduring staying power.
Oh I was there as a 17 year old on those forums. At the time I liked it because I thought it was pretentious. Now I like it because it wears its heart on its sleeve. The final episode especially is just emotionally perfect. Indeed the penultimate ep is weaker because they focus on everyone rather than just shinji. But that final episode is actually just perfect and delivers uncompromisingly on the emotional story of the series even as it entirely discards the robots.
And that's fine since the robots were always set dressing.
Kaguya-sama did indeed overstay It's welcome imo.
I really do have to wonder how much of a complete idea the series was before it started, because imo it seemed like the mangaka got bored of the main plot almost immediately and turned it into "slice of life in the entertainment industry" real quick.
As for Kaguya, I still think they might do an S4 in spite of there being no more manga to promote, but only time will tell.
I also feel that because the whole thing was billed as "showing the dark side of the entertainment industry" and it did that very superficially for a few subplots and that was it.