Anime

[Radical Dude 42]

I figured I'd make a thread about anime, since I like it and want to talk about it. Actually, the truth is that I prefer manga over anime because I read faster than I watch, but I just started a new show and I need to tell other people about it. Feel free to bring up other anime, though. I'm especially curious about what people are watching nowadays that's new, because I think I only alienate myself by watching old things.

It's called Martian Successor Nadesico, or Kidou Senkan Nadesico (this isn't a translation, the name was changed a little bit. Like "Neon Genesis" vs. "Shinseiki" (New Century)). It's a mecha anime, and it's about an advanced non-military battleship flying to Mars, because Earth is currently fighting against some aliens from Jupiter, and the off-planet colonies are being neglected. But there's so much more to it that that hardly feels like a summation of the series. The main character, Akito, doesn't actually really want to be on the spaceship, the Nadesico, nor does he want to pilot the robots. He got tangled up in the plot because he ran into someone he knew from his childhood on Mars, and thought he could learn more about how his parents died by following her. She's the captain of the Nadesico.



I am finding that this series is perfect for me, because of so many reasons. It's pretty heavily comedy-based, it has a lot of references to old mecha shows (from the 70's days. There is a metafictional series in it that is more or less Getter Robo), I like the science fiction they come up with, and also I find Akito relatable (imagine Shinji Ikari except a little more heroic). There's so much for me to love here. Earlier I said I watch things pretty slowly, and this show is disproving that, today alone I watched 3 episodes (normally I only watch one a day!).

But anyway, what else are people watching? Over the summer I watched the very first Mobile Suit Gundam, The Big O, and Lucky Star. Nothing new at all, though I am reading Komi-San Can't Communicate and Fate/Apocrypha, which I think both have ongoing anime adaptions.

[Feengoid]

sweet thread, and anime! im not really into big mecha anime, with evangelion being the main outlier i guess, but this sounds pretty damn neat with all of the interplanetary stuff going on.

the most recent anime i remember watching might be Uncle from Another World (Isekai Ojisan) on netflix. i think right now only a few episodes have released, since its a weekly thing, but from what i watched its pretty good.
its about this guy's uncle, who got into a coma for 17 years, coming back having lived through a stereotypical isekai scenario (think like sword art online or digimon!), but got to keep all of the experience and abilities from that, and so can do things like conjure magic spells or pull out weapons. its pretty comedic, and has a lot of references to other things like sega, which i like. if i remember correctly it might also be a manga adaptation, so you can probably read it instead if thats what you prefer.
not really that engaging i think, most of the strong draws come from the absurdity of the Other World, or what the uncle might do in certain situations based on his 17 year coma, but i enjoyed the few episodes i watched, id recommend it if you have nothing else to watch.

[ghoul_house]

Anime thread reminds me that one of my friends in high school vehemently swore that Sword Art Online was a good show. Then, for his birthday party, we watched the first like 7 episodes of Rising Of The Shield Hero...

It was really really sus. Any media that goes "what if hypothetically there was a situation where slavery was good" should go eat dirt.

That aside, I'll always sing the praises of Jujutsu Kaisen, which has the strongest opening of any shonen and a refreshing pace. More happens in two episodes of that show than happens in 20 of some other anime in the same genre. Also, it's got cool insane women and a pretty dope power-system based around making binding oaths with your wizard powers. AND the emotional beats? Good lord.

[boqol]

proud to have been a sword art online hater since day one i remember how long it took for me to try and get my sister off of the series, it took her like one or two SAO spinoff shows for her to get disillusioned LOL. theres a lot wrong with sword art online but id be opening a whole can of worms there. speaking of isekai anime, im not crazy about them. in the past i have watched more than a few, even attempts by some shows at subverting the genre have gotten a little old so in general i kind of avoid any isekai series now regardless of the merit they may have. moreso that im more interested in seeing something new, rather than outright disliking the genre. though it goes without saying that theres still a lot of isekai anime i dont like and probably some that i would like if i gave them the chance. 'uncle from another world' has a chance of falling into the latter group so im thinking ill check out a few episodes to see how i like it first

that said, im not really big on mecha anime either (though i havent ever watched a mecha anime before.. that includes evangelion. other than this one OVA i saw lately, ill be getting to that) but i might just try nadesico as some sort of introduction to the genre as a whole (though, pretty much all of the references may be lost on me. that wont be stopping me though). ill let you guys know what i think of it once i get around to it

as for anime ive seen recently... i havent been watching a lot of anime lately, though at the moment i've finally gotten around to binging hajime no ippo again, review & recommendation pending!

one ive checked out lately was the 1998 dragon's heaven OVA, because the art in it really appealed to me. i love makoto kobayashi's artwork and especially his robot/mecha/vehicle/whatever designs and i love how this OVA managed to capture and stay faithful to his style, even with the low budget. it has a really neat, gritty look to it.


you can actually watch the whole thing on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vqRjVQhjBw

again, i love the shit out of the designs in this OVA. also i cant help but feel that kobayashi takes a little bit of inspiration from moebius' look in some places but this is coming from someone who's not super familiar


this only got a VHS release which is a big shame but thankfully we live in the modern era where that kind of thing doesn't really matter anymore. still, i wish this thing got even a fraction of the love it deserves. i was thinking i would post a big, personal list of good anime recommendations, but maybe i can start a separate thread for that, and have other people post theirs as well. ive been meaning to create one for a few months now actually

[Radical Dude 42]

Wow! Skimming through this a little, this looks great. That live-action opening looks great, and they definitely were accurate to the art. Getting all those hatching marks must have been difficult in animation. I've got to watch this sooner or later, I'll report back when I do. Kobayashi does seem heavily influenced by Moebius (a lot of Japan was), but luckily it's a pretty unique style that hasn't saturated any media at any time (so far(?)).

I used to be a Sword Art Online fan, but then I grew up. I either actively blacked it out of my memory and can't remember why I liked it at all, or maybe it was just so forgettable I just forgot about it. For some reason I don't like the idea of an isekai, I never really watched or read any of them besides SAO. Big ups for being a SAO hater since day one.

I hope you like Nadesico, Boqol! I think the specific references will go over your head, but the general gist of it will settle just fine. Though I do wonder how it will act as an introduction to mecha, because it doesn't seem like it would be great for that, there's a lot of comedy in it. If you can appreciate older things and arguably bad animation, I'd recommend checking out the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam. I think it still holds up.

[Deacon Blues]

i can't pledge to watch your anime of choice, boqol, because i've already pledged myself to too many shows and things. but! i can join the proud society of SAO haters. i tried watching it when i was 14 or so (around when AOT was getting popular) and i found it so boring and unnecessarily dark. and this was right after finishing season one of AOT, which isn't much of a cakewalk, tonally! it was just so boring and predictable in it's sadness and i went on to greener pastures..... by not really watching much anime after that for like two years

[Sharkalien]

i can join the proud society of SAO haters. i tried watching it when i was 14 or so (around when AOT was getting popular) and i found it so boring...

This is very similar to my experience, except I was a little older because before I vehemently dismissed most anime as totally gay and dumb shit. I forget the exact details, but I watched one or two episodes of SAO and was like "this is so boring, screw this noise" and dropped it like a bad habit.

Now? I'm something of a sakuga connoisseur... Lately I've been going through this little-known anime called "Furi Kuri" frame-by-frame because the animation is so damn hella freaking amazing.

► Show Spoiler

So good: https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/e3d678 ... 4151c1.mp4
Badass staredown: https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/43989e ... 072b62.mp4
Wham: https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/65a13f ... b864b8.mp4
Fuck yes: https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/7c3aad ... d0f26.webm
Blam: https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/730a73 ... e4db23.mp4
Blammo: https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/b1059e ... 4c951e.mp4

[boqol]

if anyone's worried about time committments to the dragon's heaven OVA, dont worry! its like half an hour long. you could skim it and enjoy it just the same, even.

Now? I'm something of a sakuga connoisseur... Lately I've been going through this little-known anime called "Furi Kuri" frame-by-frame because the animation is so damn hella freaking amazing.

1000% agreed, to anyone who hasnt seen FLCL already, WATCH IT NOW!!! its definitely on my all time favorites list, as far as anime goes. im tempted to rewatch it right now. that would make it a third rewatch, i think? the first time around, the entire story was lost on me. its definitely something you need to consume more than once to truly enjoy

If you can appreciate older things and arguably bad animation, I'd recommend checking out the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam. I think it still holds up.

1. i love older things
2. arguably bad animation is arguably charming animation, if you ask me. i find that animation on a tight budget is consistently a lot better than a lot of the soulless high budget anime you find nowadays. constricted budgets always lead to experimentation and often times a lot more expressiveness. have you seen the kind of budget they worked with for the early yogi bear cartoons? also might i add that slightly off-color animation just tends to be more interesting looking, a lot more than something like, lets say, that new chainsaw man anime coming out:


call me a contrarian, but i think kind of scuffed animation is better. i might check that out first instead, just to see how i like it

[Radical Dude 42]

I also think it's charming animation! The old Hanna-Barbera "planned animation" stuff, like Yogi Bear (or Jonny Quest, which I think was a little more daring with its cinematography, though Yogi was probably better for the budget) is some of my favorite stuff out there. I like it the best because I can clearly see how it was put together and constructed. I think you should really check out Gundam then, I think you'll really like it.

[ghoul_house]

also might i add that slightly off-color animation just tends to be more interesting looking, a lot more than something like, lets say, that new chainsaw man anime coming out:

THIS TBH... like I'm hyped for chainsaw man anime adaptation and I see why they went with the Big Production type animation but. Come on. it's chainsaw man. it's messy and fucked up and beautiful and vulgar. Does this artstyle here scream any of that. No!! it does not.

I was also bummed about dorohedoro's adaptation, not because it's 3d but because... its ugly! but not the right kind of ugly as expressed in the manga, yknow? just kind of stiff and jank at many small occasions.

I miss mob psycho 100 man.

[angel]

mob psycho proven again as best anime ever ^

[Radical Dude 42]

I finally finished watching all of Nadesico and its sequel film, Prince of Darkness. I think both of them had some problems, but those were honestly negligible in comparison to the good I found in the series. The film had less good to it, but I liked it overall--apparently it's hated by fans. I haven't seen the OVA of the metafictional series from Nadesico, Gekiganger III, but while I think I'll enjoy it, it won't be as multi-faceted as the others. I also have yet to find out a way to play the non-translated Sega Saturn game which bridges the timeline between the show and the film...

I'm really excited for the next series which I'll watch, though, which is Space Battleship Yamato. Some fun, relevant trivia about its name is that it was referenced in Nadesico's name, twiceover: Uchuu Senkan Yamato is its original name, and you may remember Nadesico was originally Kidou Senkan Nadesico. Kidou was actually borrowed from Kidou Senshi Gundam, too. The second reference is one of wordplay: The two ship names, Yamato and Nadesico, refer to Yamato Nadeshiko.

But anyway! Yamato is a classic, and some of you may recognize it. It was even brought over to America in the 80s as Starblazers, with some admittedly cool (to me) localized names, and some rewritten stuff which seems lame to me. Especially because they undid the fact that the Yamato is literally the sunk Japanese warship from Real Actual History refitted to be a spaceship, or at the very least they call it the Argo.

Here's its intro, which I love despite not having seen an episode yet.



Before I watch this, though, I plan on watching Boqol's recommendation, since I have the free time (Go COVID isolation!).

[Radical Dude 42]

one ive checked out lately was the 1998 dragon's heaven OVA, because the art in it really appealed to me. i love makoto kobayashi's artwork and especially his robot/mecha/vehicle/whatever designs and i love how this OVA managed to capture and stay faithful to his style, even with the low budget. it has a really neat, gritty look to it.

I finally got around to watching this. It was really nice, it was incredibly charming. Have you read the manga, or are you just familiar with the artwork by just looking up Makoto Kobayashi? Though, wow, I just looked him up and found out he did "What's Michael?"! Wow!

I can also see the inspiration its had on you, or at least common DNA if the timelines don't match up right. This kind of robot design reminds me of your blood robot, or whatever it was called. And have you looked into Gundam at all? I really do think you'd like it.

[Deacon Blues]

i watched a bit of urusei yatsura on a whim and it is pretty fun! it is like one of those animes that is like the megalodon precursor of a bunch of modern shows. where you are like "wow this is kind of run of the mill" but only because everything else is copying it. and not doing as good a job. anyways it's about this total loser lecher delinquent named atsura who (though convoluted means) mistakenly proposes to lum, an alien babe. she becomes immediately infatuated with atsura despite his protests (he has a girlfriend you know) because proposals are very sacred on his planet. so you have this dude who is just pissed a hot girl is following him around all the time and it sort of makes sense (he can't really be with his girlfriend anymore because of a lame mistake), unlike every other anime where it's like "why is this productive member of society attached to this total loser guy who does nothing with his life and also she is infatuated with him for some reason" well we have an answer now: it is because she's an alien. it probably helps that the manga was made by a woman so it's not super gross either.

anyways it's a very charming show, and i like it a lot more than what i've seen of the new show. and the intro is catchy too, have a listen

[boqol]

I finally got around to watching this. It was really nice, it was incredibly charming. Have you read the manga, or are you just familiar with the artwork by just looking up Makoto Kobayashi? Though, wow, I just looked him up and found out he did "What's Michael?"! Wow!

I can also see the inspiration its had on you, or at least common DNA if the timelines don't match up right. This kind of robot design reminds me of your blood robot, or whatever it was called. And have you looked into Gundam at all? I really do think you'd like it.

im glad you liked it!!
i actually havent read too much of the manga, but im pretty familiar with makoto kobayashi's artwork, a lot of the familiarity just comes from me looking up his stuff. as for the inspiration thing, i can see it, though i can never really tell when it comes to artistic influence. its more or less a subconscious thing i rarely give any thought. ill just play it safe and say he is indeed an inspiration since i pretty often draw inspiration from things ive already seen and not realize that till much later

also, i have been looking into gundam. i started off with the 0079 series. i got about 10 episodes in before taking a short break on it but im getting back onto it real soon. i really like it so far. at times it feels a little slow, but in general its a net positive for me thus far (still getting used to the scale of mobile suits though. WTF theyre so big, i expected them to be at most half as big as they actually are). i also really like the art style, in general i really like the style of a lot of anime from this time period but sadly i dont know of many id actually like watching other than this.

► Show Spoiler

my friend also recommended "gundam the origin" (i think it was called something like that) as a nice supplement to go with 0079, i plan to get to it after a few more episodes, since he says that it provides a lot of meaningful background/further context to 0079 that makes the show more enjoyable.

BTW have you watched any other gundam series other than the original? if so, would you recommend any? generally i already know to avoid (most) of the alternate universe stuff (the aforementioned friend hates SEED with a passion, and apparently pretty much all gundam fans). im inclined to agree, for me when writers just decide to say "screw it" and decide to not work around the "restrictions" of a setting instead opting to do some sort of cheap AU of some sort it usually doesnt turn out too well. usually. at least in my experience. otherwise, im met with a lot of choice paralysis. theres a boatload and a half of gundam series out there and it seems like theyre pumping these out at an alarming rate, and i really dont know which of any of these series id like more

the intro is catchy too, have a listen

charming A.F.
the opener alone makes me want to try out the show, and im not really big on most 'slice of life' type anime (im making an assumption here, but just using that term almost feels DISRESPECTFUL, so many of those suck). i think ill try the show out but it might have to wait since my anime backlog is already growing a little long

[Radical Dude 42]

BTW have you watched any other gundam series other than the original? if so, would you recommend any? generally i already know to avoid (most) of the alternate universe stuff (the aforementioned friend hates SEED with a passion, and apparently pretty much all gundam fans). im inclined to agree, for me when writers just decide to say "screw it" and decide to not work around the "restrictions" of a setting instead opting to do some sort of cheap AU of some sort it usually doesnt turn out too well. usually. at least in my experience. otherwise, im met with a lot of choice paralysis. theres a boatload and a half of gundam series out there and it seems like theyre pumping these out at an alarming rate, and i really dont know which of any of these series id like more

I haven't actually seen any other series besides the first one, yet. I think the next one I'll watch will either be Zeta Gundam or Char's Counterattack, whichever one is like chronologically closer to the original series. I plan to watch like, as much as I can, in order of release date, and then I'll probably tap out around the 90s or 2000s because a lot of Gundam from then looks a little samey and boring to me, and a little too over the top. That being said, the two series I'm looking forward to are Turn A and Witch from Mercury, mostly because I like the protagonist Gundam designs there. The Witch from Mercury one has a nicely distinct silhouette from all the samey Gundams and is frankly sexy (wasp waist, big thighs, high heels? Pinch me, I'm dreaming), and the Turn A one is super unique because it was designed by Syd Mead.

However, I can tell you that if you like the aesthetics and the human element of Gundam (which is really most of it. Anybody who thinks that mecha anime mostly focuses on the robots has only seen Evangelion and they think Evangelion is an outlier), you'd probably like Space Battleship Yamato. I'm in the middle of it right now and I'm loving it.

[Radical Dude 42]

I finished watching Yamato and loved it thoroughly. Deacon watched some of it and hated it, though, so it's not for everybody (at least the original 1974 version, I've heard reviews that say Space Battleship Yamato 2199, the one from 2013, is better. It probably is, for more modern audiences, but I like old things).

To fill its void in my schedule, I've began watching Dai-Guard. It's about a giant robot that was previously used to fight giant aliens, but then those aliens stopped showing up and the robot is just like a big tourist attraction. But now the aliens are showing up again and some regular workers are piloting the robot to fight them! It has an amazing blend of Super Robot trope expectations, but Real Robot physics and mechanics. There's also a focus on the bureaucracy necessary behind anything that needs to happen, which also grounds the show very well.



I have also began watching the Youtube original anime Obsolete, which is another very grounded mecha show, though in a very different way. Very military. For me the main draw is the mechanical designs, I cannot wait to make models of these.

[Deacon Blues]

I finished watching Yamato and loved it thoroughly. Deacon watched some of it and hated it, though, so it's not for everybody

i didn't hate it! i just found it rather boring. i feel the same way about watching yamato that i'd probably feel watching citizen kane, where i can tell it is important and greatly influential, but i'd rather watch something else in my free time.

however, do you want to know something i do hate? martian successor nadesico: prince of darkness, the followup movie to martian successor nadesico! i must preface that i really really liked nadesico. i thought it was a wonderful, energetic show with a wonderful heart. prince of darkness cuts out that heart with surgical precision and then sews a bunch of dark leather patches to that heart and also gives it a pair of sunglasses cause OH SHIT we're somber and realistic now. FUCK THAT it's lame as hell. to me it's on the same level as turning speedball into penance, or following up homestuck with the homestuck epilogues.

it helps that prince of darkness was supposed to be the first in a series of movies but i guess it just super underperformed and the sequels never came. let this be a lesson that you cannot launch a trilogy of movies with a bad movie. and chase i know you like the movie, or at least are indifferent to it, but it sucks!!!!! it sucks so much. it sucks like a hoover vaccum, it sucks like a black hole, it sucks like some other third thing that sucks a lot. AUGH. so lame.

[Deacon Blues]

i started (and finished) watching ping pong the animation, yesterday. it was good. like, really, really good. for one thing it's directed by masaaki yuasa, which is probably why it's really, really good and not just regular good. the art direction is super distinct, and the characters move. they move a lot. that's probably yuasa's trademark, in my opinion. whenever he's directing something, the characters bounce around all over the place. ping pong is no exception.

the part of the visuals i liked most was how some shots would be broken up into panels. so, for example, there's a scene that starts with a wide shot of two characters standing at a pingpong table, with the bleachers in the background. then, as the scene goes on, instead of cutting to the bleachers where the audience will chime in (a staple of all sports manga/anime), the frame will get cut up into panels, where each panel is a close up shot of someone in the audience. and then, you realize the initial wide shot was composed so that all the panels would fit on screen! it's genius, seriously. basically i am writing this just to tell you how fucking awesome the panelling is in a tv show. i never thought i would say that.

of course, the characters are good too, which is important in a sports show where the characters are just as important as the actual sport. the sport being ping pong is also a little bit funny, cause you get the same level of melodrama (actually, way more melodrama) than something like haikyuu but instead of volleyball, where you're running around all over a gym and leaping and spiking and shouting... it's ping pong. and i'm not trying to trivialize ping pong, it's just that i think it's an inherently less dramatic sport than something like volleyball. ping pong the animation just goes to show you can make a sports anime about any sport as long as you're passionate about it. and you feel that passion! at least, i do. i really want to play ping pong after watching it.

sorry, i got off track. anyways, the two main characters are smile and peco, childhood friends who bonded over ping pong who have drifted apart in recent years. smile is called smile cause he never smiles, peco is called peco cause... i dunno, i guess it's his name? peco has always been good at ping pong and dominates the local scene, making money off bets at a local ping pong dojo. peco is also insufferable. his style of play is fun to watch but he's incredibly vain, so him and smile make for a fun pair. but where they differ from most anime friend pairings is that peco and smile don't get along the greatest. you get the sense that you're entering near the end of their friendship. i can't say too much or it would ruin the show, but i found it very true to life. it made me think of my old best friend who i drifted apart from over the years.

anyways, i think you can also draw a connection between ping pong and keep your hands off eizouken, which are both about groups of young people finding their passion in life. both also deal with things like natural talent vs learned skill... okay eizouken deals with natural talent at least. it's been a while since i last watched it so i am maybe misremembering.

finally, here are some screenshots from ping pong the animation which should explain some of the paneling stuff.

[Radical Dude 42]

A friend of mine told me about Ping Pong the Animation and showed me a clip, it did seem very great. I don't remember any of the paneling in the clip I saw, though. I should check it out... part of me wants to read the manga instead, but that's not gonna have the same animated paneling, and it might be more dynamic in motion. Plus I think the studio that did it was the same that did Devilman Crybaby, which also had some interesting shots and a similarish art style, which I think is interesting. I don't think Devilman did as much with its shots but it'd be interesting to compare nonetheless.

[Deacon Blues]

you should totally check it out! the anime, i mean. i'm pretty sure both shows were directed by yuasa as well... but i might also be totally wrong cause i never saw devilman crybaby

[Radical Dude 42]

I forgot all about this thread, I've watched some anime in the meantime and I just started a new one, let me get a list and some statements on the shows.

Devilman Crybaby - Funny that this was the one I watched next, since we mentioned it a little. It was nice and experimental and overall a good adaption of Devilman, though I thought that the new origin for Ryo was pretty lame, because they brought in a whole "magic light skinned boy shocks brown natives with amazing powers" thing, when that wasn't there in the original. Plus they got rid of the spraypainted "ancient mask" which I thought was really funny in the original manga.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket - This is a good one. It's kind of like a distilled 0079 Gundam, at least thematically, and the technical skill behind the art was great (and probably more likeable to wider audiences than the older series). I would recommend this to people who are kind of on the edge if they want to get into Gundam or not.

Armored Trooper VOTOMS - I love this one so much. It came out in the '80s but for the longest time it was the mecha series with the most realistic robots. Seriously, if you hate how powerful "protagonist robots" are, you'd like this series, the robot Chirico, the main character, pilots is destroyed in the first episode. They're really just tools, and they are dispensable.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - This one was also cool. I feel a little bad watching it as like, my first magical girl show, because it's sort of a deconstruction of something like that, but, well, whatever. I loved it for the playing with gender roles and nonconformity in those, and it also just had great music and interesting aesthetics. Plus it's pretty popular so that's good, I'll meet other people who actually know this.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury - I watched this one out of like, curiosity about newer series, since this started last year and ended this year. I also watched it because it has many similarities with Utena, and pointedly so--they both take place at schools with strange dueling systems and there are lesbians. That and also the writer for this wrote the novelizations of Utena, so there is a direct connection. It wasn't bad... but I guess I just really love old stuff, because it didn't capture me the same way as something like VOTOMS or Utena did.

Perfect Hair Forever - this isnt an anime. ummmm.... oops. This is an Adult Swim parody of anime stuff, and it's pretty old, so it's not great. This was still in the age where "OMG there are scantily clad women" and engrish were like the main jokes about anime. It's a little like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, since the creator of that actually worked on this right before he went and made ATHF. It's short though, so I watched the whole series. It was kind of whatever.

Serial Experiments Lain - This is also a good one. To someone who loves it when animation is like, shockingly not animated, this was great. So many static frames. Interesting writing and concepts, too, about the nature of truth and history. I doubt I got all of it, but I doubt anybody gets it all on their first time around. I think this is also the most popular anime in like, communities like these, so I bet all of you have heard of it.

And then I just recently started watching Trider G7, an old Super Robot anime. It's not really known at all, and because of this the subs are pretty bad! But that's just the nature of things. It's still very like, childish and comedic, but I love it because it has a realistic look at some things--the accountant of the company that owns the giant robot worries about money and costs, and the pilot, a young boy, is often interrupted in the middle of school or playing stuff like baseball, to go and pilot the robot. It's a little like Dai-Guard, which interested me!

[MARY]

ive been watching a little bit of votoms. little bit of turn a gundam (i SERIOUSLY need to continue that series- paging the group chat now. alright we're on for tomorrow guys. crisis aborted.) those ones are good. but im sure any of you something excellent-goers that have like, seen me on discord or tumblr at all in the past 3 months know that that all is not what im about.

i'm seriously in my fuckin Bocchi the Rock! era. im off that Bojjhe di Wahhg pack. ive started watching this show 10 times, with four of those watches still in progress (though 3 are basically near completion.) the way i do it is that every time ive watched it has been with a separate person/group of people, i think id have to be actually insane to watch this show alone more than once. (i actually have Not ever watched it alone.) and i really like hearing different peoples reactions to different parts of it since i get new perspectives on that shit. its a lot of fun! the show itself also just makes me incredibly happy. i couldnt explain my obsession with this show to you. theres like this little pink slug that wants to have friends and play guitar, i think. might have something to do with it.

the manga's also really good, and reading it has made me incredibly excited for more of this show to get animated. theres a spinoff manga about a certain character that im planning on starting soon, too.

[Radical Dude 42]

Go VOTOMS! I'm interested in Turn A Gundam but I haven't got around to watching it yet, I probably wanna watch some more UC stuff first, like Zeta and Double Zeta. And Char's Counterattack. Does that come before or after the Zeta stuff? But Turn A seems really great. It has Syd Mead and at least one instance of crossdressing. What more could you need?

I also do wanna check out Bocchi, too. I suck at watching things though, I'm too slow, so I normally prefer manga when it's possible. I've heard that the anime does things better than the manga for Bocchi though, is that right? Would I not get the full experience if I read the manga instead?

Though I have been getting a little better at watching more episodes per day, so maybe I can do the anime anyways. My current show is Trider G7, which isn't really notable in any way besides the fact that it's so not-on-the-radar that it only ever got a foreign release in Italy, and this shows in my subs (which were done off of some Italian dvd set, I believe)--sometimes a "Mamma mia" slips through, and I am seriously not joking. It's pretty funny.

The thing I plan to watch next is an upcoming thing, a new mecha anime called Bullbuster. It looks kind of boring to me because it's a new anime (everything lacks so much charm nowadays. There's no line weight and all the characters look so soft and samey), but I like the hook it has: There's a giant robot and its funds and monetary resources are not neglected. Funnily enough, this is something that Dai-Guard and even Trider G7 did too--a lot of comments I saw stated that Bullbuster seems like the Trider/Dai-Guard of the modern era.

[MARY]

char's counterattack is after zeta and zz, yeah. im not planning on watching those two myself, though. currently my plans for going through UC go like: finish 0079, stardust memory, and then char's counterattack. ive heard theyre not all that worth it, but ill probably end up watching them at some point- im just a lot more interested in cca. then after cca, ive gotta rewatch gwitch with a buddy of mine who hasnt seen it, and then ill probably watch victory gundam or something. i have a whole section in my watchlist specifically for gundam, this franchise has so much damn stuff in it.

your question about bocchi is a tough one... the story and characters are just as strong in the manga, id say, so i wouldnt say its, like, a diminished experience or anything (plus, you can always just read the manga & then watch the show afterwards...)
i think what id advise is, like... if youre not sure whether youd be interested in the story itself (its a slice of life comedy but its also mostly a coming of age story, and i know not everyone can really get invested in some loser 15 year old trying to make friends...) then id for sure recommend getting on the anime first- its the funniest anime i think ive ever seen, makes use of the medium itself in a lot of cool ways, great acting (including parts that have actual real-life actors rotoscoped- interesting stuff!) and yknow. its a real fun time.

i do enjoy the logistics of giant robots... maybe ill look out for bullbuster when it comes out (next week, apparently...) and i should probably put dai-guard on my list too, i think i saw a clip of it you posted once and thought it was neat.