dr. b

Dandadan is total quality. Like flawless. Watched the third episode last night. Still loving it.

I must say, I’m not super hyped for the winter season. But we’ve gotta have a seasonal thread, so here we are Links: MAL Winter 2024 AniChart I’ve looked over the MAL page a couple times now and honestly nothing is jumping out at me. Once I know what Crunchyroll will have streaming, I might take a closer look at a couple things. I think I would love to watch a good slice-of-life or light-hearted teenage romance story (e.g. something along the lines of Horimiya or Skip and Loafer) this winter. I’m not sure if anything new is going to scratch that itch though. This winter might end up being a backlog-catch-up season instead. Is there anything you are looking forward to?

Hey @Gardenstaff ! Happy belated birthday. Glad you stopped by here. Are things getting weird or weirder ?

New Beat & Motion today!!! 41.1 Special Illustration New chapter in 14 days! Let down.

Dandadan is really good. Can’t believe I slept on it for so long! I am also super enjoying the Ranma 1/2 remake. That is all I need to count this as a really good season (I’m still watching Tower of God S2 as well, but that’s almost more out of a sense of duty than for enjoyment )

This week's chapters. Lots of good stuff! Spy x Family #106 Sakamoto Days #185 Undead Unluck #226 The Elusive Samurai #176 Kagurabachi #53 Akane-banashi #130

Nice Kagurabachi gets really good! I have held back on trying any of the new series that debuted in Jump over the last few weeks. Don’t want to make my weekly reading listtoo long. But JJK and Shojo Null finished recently so I guess I have some openings. JJBA Stone Ocean only has about it a dozen chapters until it ends too. Dandadan will definitely be next in my list. Then maybe Hakutaku next. Your description of it sounds good.

I watched the first episode of Dandadan last night. That was something else! It's a winner. It's tempting to start binge reading the manga right away... but I'll try to stick with just the anime until the end of the season, and then really sink my teeth into the manga. I also watched the first episode of Blue Box on the weekend. It wasn't really what I was hoping it would be. Oh well. Might give it another chance later on if I get bored enough. Maybe I'm passing judgement too soon I guess this season I'm only watching Dandadan, Ranma 1/2, and the continuation of Tower of God S2.

Hunter x Hunter is back in the weekly rotation!!! I don’t know how long it will last until the next hiatus but I’ll enjoy every chapter all the same! Already hyped for the next one The Elusive Samurai #175 Akane-banashi #129 Undead Unluck #225

The first episode of the Ranma1/2 remake was a hoot! Great with by MAPPA. It’s a winner for sure.

Beat & Motion #41

Show-ha Shoten! #34

Never heard of that one. Maybe I’ll check it out. The last Metroidvania-style game I really enjoyed was Chasm. Might need to re-play that one sometime soon… That seems kinda short for such a high price tag game. I assume there’s more stuff to 100% complete it though. I’m still curious about it… but not at full price

Who have you got winning the Wild Card series!?! I like Detroit and Baltimore in the AL, and Milwaukee and San Diego in the NL.

Fall ‘24 season incoming! Links: MAL Fall 2024 Anime AniChart Fall 2024 Crunchyroll Fall 2024 Lineup I’ve got a few things on my list for the fall: Dandadan — I’ve been curious about this title in Jump for a while now. If the anime hooks me then I’ll catch up on the manga (~170 chapters) afterwards. Ao no Hako (Blue Box) — Same story as Dandadan, I’ve been meaning to check it out in Jump for a while now. Could be fun. I think Netflix has this one. Ranma — A new anime adaptation seems worth a look! MAPPA does good work. I think this will also be on Netflix. Looks like Tower of God S2 is continuing into the fall, so I’ll stick with it as well. The last couple episodes haven’t been terrible.

Holy smokes, you work fast! Didn’t that just release on Friday? How many hours to beat it?

Dang. Forgot he lived down that way. Good to hear that he’s safe.

The Elusive Samurai #174 Spy x Family #105.1 JJK #271 (finale) The ending was not bad but it was not great either. Kind of forgettable I’m holding out hope that the Culling Game arc will come across better animated, if/when it gets animated. It certainly has its moments in the manga, but it was not a consistently engaging and compelling arc IMHO. Undead Unluck #224 Sakamoto #184 Absolutely killer action this week in Kagurabachi #51

I would absolutely love an Elusive Samurai themed hack’n’slash game! re: the latest Elusive Samurai chapter: Agreed the current arc in Sakamoto Days has been pretty good so far.

Well, it looks like it’s not happening for the M’s this year Eizan. Bummer. I had hope for them… but I guess both our teams are disappointments this year! The Royals, Tigers, and Twins all owe a big debt to the White Sox. That’s a lot of wins for each of those teams against Chicago. The complexion of the Wild Card race would be different if the White Sox were a respectable team

New stuff this week was solid. Kaiju No. 8 #115 Choujin X #57 No spoilers since I don’t think you’re following this one anyways… Just wanted to say that I think you should get on board! This final arc has been epic. I’m loving it. I love the art style throughout. Ishida is a great artist and storyteller. Feels like we’re getting close-ish now to the final showdown. Chainsaw Man #178

Coming down to the end of the Summer season now. This has got to be the slowest our seasonal thread has ever been. @Tassifox @Eizan where are you be!? I enjoyed the ending of Mayonaka Punch. It was a goofy show. Started slow but then found a stride after a few episodes. It was a pretty original idea. DeDeDeDe wrapped last week but I still haven't watched it as I was out of town last weekend. I mistakenly thought there was one more episode tonight, so I was going to watch both tonight. Guess I am only watching one episode tonight..! I am really not sure how it's going to end, but I'm excited to see what happens. The Elusive Samurai will finish up tomorrow night -- hopefully with the announcement of a second season soon following it. I have last weekend's episode saved, so the kiddo and I can watch episodes 11 and 12 tomorrow night This is no doubt my Anime of the Season. (DeDeDeDe comes in a close second place) Last thing on my list is S2 of Tower of God. I am not sure how long it's going to go. Is Sunday night's episode the last or will it continue into the Fall season? Dunno. MAL says it's unknown

I’ve got a soft spot for FFVIII. I have never gone back for a replay… but that’s mainly because I put so much time into in the first place at release. Memory is of course very fuzzy now, but IIRC I did everything I wanted to do and then some in that game, and I enjoyed all of it. Just not quite enough to do it all again. Too many hours. VIII is still lower on my power rankings, but it’s at least better than II and IX !

I finished DB last night. I’m glad I read the manga. It’s a masterpiece. I love the last arc especially. All the matches in the Piccolo Jr. tournament were fun as heck. I have found I really prefer the simpler DB to the increasingly more complicated Z and Super. More martial arts and less energy blasts. Energy blasts and special moves feel more impactful when they’re used more sparingly, like when Ten busted out his first Kikoho. I also love the special items Goku uses early on like Kintoun and Nyoibo, and all the silliness. (Really wish Lunch had continued to be a recurring character in Z. I forgot how hilarious she is!) I started reading the Saiyan arc in Z last night but I dunno… I sort of just want to read the original all over again!

I find “Fooey!” kind of charming, and I think it fits fairly well with how juvenile the sense of humour is in DB. I guess it’s kinda funny juxtaposed against all the panels of naked Goku (“Damn!” or “Shit!” would not have been so bad really.) But even the other maybe-not-so-kid-friendly things like the sex jokes, naked Goku, etc. are all relatively tame and childish. I think it works to keep the language clean in the translation. I don’t know if I’ll continue on with DBZ. Maybe just the Saiyan saga, which is low-key maybe my favorite arc of DBZ overall. I’m well into the Piccolo arc now in DB because I couldn’t sleep last night, so it won’t take long to finish.