The Anime Thread

[one-armed dwarf]

I only watched a single episode of Part 5 but Koichi is in it lol

[OCH]

[Maryokutai]

 

This is based on some comic from the Philippines but as someone who doesn't know the source material I got some SMT vibes from it.

[OCH]

It kind of reminds me of Blood The Last Vampire. I'm intrigued. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Where does one start with Berserk? I think I have little to no interest in trying to get into manga, so I'm basically asking if any of the anime adaptations are remotely interesting. I know that the 2016 one is really hilariously badly animated.

[Maryokutai]

The three Golden Age movies are probably the best way but I suppose the original works as well if you're willing to look past some of its more dated visuals. Keep in mind though that no animated version goes even remotely as far as the manga has progressed. I think every anime adaption, even the old one, concludes with Golden Age, which is a third?fourth? of the entire (between quotation marks now I suppose...) saga.

 

The manga is really well drawn btw., I would recommend reading it.

 

That said there's no way you're going to watch an anime adaption and then not want to continue after seeing the eclipse anyway.

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah I realise that, I just think though that a 30 year manga series is the kind of investment I'm not really prepared for or interested in. I've found before also that reading manga on e-ink devices doesn't feel ideal, the screen is too small and I can't get all those physical books

[Maryokutai]

There should be collected releases available though. I have some 500-pages per edition version (in German) that goes up to volume 40 I think (I stopped at 30 but will definitely complete it now). There's probably something similar in English as well.

 

And even though I usually don't recommend it, but you could always just read it on one of those online platforms. The only person you'd be hurting with that is unfortunately gone now.

[OCH]

 

That's your best bet, as far as the Manga goes.

 

There's the Golden Age films that Mary recommended. Plus:

 

The Box of War set from the 1997 adaptation. The films and boxset cover the same chapters of the story. Avoid anything made recently.

[DANGERMAN]

@one-armed dwarf  the old anime @OCH mentioned is really good. Even the theme tunes are great.  It ends at a very particular point, like a "why would you stop there?" point. It also doesn't include a character it should have introduced earlier if it was going to get a 2nd series, they'd have had to to a bit of work to catch that up, but it's the best adaptation for my money. It gets the tone right, mostly tells the story right, the acting is very good, even in the dub

 

The Dreamcast Berserk game is a good introduction to the world too, but it's a standalone story and kind of presumes you know some of the main characters

[one-armed dwarf]

I was watching a really interesting video on the PS2 sequel to that DC game (think it was a sequel). Turns out that game has some pretty interesting ideas on how to do greatsword combat, so I'm gonna give it a try at some point.

 

I think I will try the 2012 series of movies and decide based off that if it's a world I'm interested in getting into, rather than doing it the purist way and starting way back at the start with a manga that probably take a while to get going. I'm assuming it takes a while cause I learned that the part of the story that gets adapted the most is a prequel arc that takes place a while in, it didn't proceed chronologically like I'd thought. So I guess that's where all the well known famously spoiled stuff happens.

[DANGERMAN]

@one-armed dwarf it's not a sequel but it was a fun game, shame it never got a western release. It's kind of a retelling of a later part of the manga, after the original series ended if my memory serves

 

The manga starts quite full on. He wrote a few chapters before getting the go-ahead for a recurring series, so it starts all demon hunting, then kind of restarts with the war stuff, with a younger Guts. It's a shift in tone, but some pretty horrible stuff happens in that arc

[OCH]

Yep. The tone of Berserk hits you very early on.

[Maryokutai]

Aren't the early manga chapters straight up non-canon? It's been a while since I've read those but if I remember correctly there are some contradictions between them and the "real" story.

 

I never played the PS2 game but the DC game was ace, at least for its time. The theme song was so good.

[OCH]

I had to think for a minute what you were referring to. But, it's actually the other way around. Since its publication, Chapter 83 AKA The Lost Chapter, has been made non-canon by Miura himself. To the extent it was removed from any collected volumes.

 

I've also only seen videos on the PS2 game. It looks a lot more faithful than the side story of the DC game. The DC game was actually my first experience with the series. So characters like Zodd (via his boss fight) and Skull Knight in the epilogue were very cool visuals and nothing more. I was only aware of it being a standalone title at the time. It was years before I was introduced to the series proper.

[Maryokutai]

It's been a while. I plan on re-starting the entire thing as soon as I receive the remaining volumes but I could have sworn that some of the earlier chapters were just non-canon monster-of-the-week kind of stories?

Edit: turns out I remember that wrong, they're actually canon and just happen later in the chronology. Something to pay attention to when reading it again I suppose.

 

I played the DC game before reading it, too. It's funny because, technically speaking, the game spoils a lot of the manga/anime plot but for some reason it's one of those spoilers that's only a spoiler if you already know what has happened, so in other words it's not a spoiler at all. Spoiler-ception.

[OCH]

 

The next collection from Junji Ito... Another mixed bag.

Lovesickness - the titular story - is interesting and a bit too obscure with some of its themes. A cultural differences thing I expect. The antagonist is vague and very ill-defined as is the resolution.

Next up, is basically Ito's take on the Addams Family. Expect he has already explored this kind of dynamic before and this one is a bit of a dud. The third story is one of his typical body horror tales. It was interesting and didn't overstay it's welcome. Finally we have the last two stories, basically a "house of pain" and a brief [unfunny] gag story about poop.

I dunno. There is another collection due later in the year, fingers are crossed for that one. This one was definitely of overall lesser quality than Remina. 6/10

[OCH]

 

So concludes May's reading with OPM Vol. 22

I actually can't believe this arc is still going!?! One of the most subversive things about this series is that every hero, aside from Saitama, could be the lead in their own Shonen book. Case in point, this volume concludes the battle with Child Emperor (on the cover) from the last book. The finale was very much a pastiche of the Mech Genre, as is the character himself. More interesting was Zombieman. His thing, speaks for itself. An age old argument is also resolved here too: Vampire vs. Zombie, who wins? He is actually one of the more interesting characters to be used in this arc too. This volume was definitely more filler though. An entertaining side story that is further padding out a bloated storyline, that should have been resolved multiple volumes ago. 6/10

[Jimboxy]

@OCH

I can't remember which volume of OPM I'm up to (somewhere in the teens I think, it's when the monster association are trying to gain control (I don't think that's what they're called, but I can't remember their name at the moment)) and Satima hasn't been in it for ages, just sat in an apartment playing computer games, and vaguely in a tournament whilst other stuff is happening outside. I do like OPM a lot, but Satima felt like he'd been side lined as he's too OP (I think they even make a joke about it at some point) and as good as some of the other characters are, I kinda want to see Satima doing stuff.

[OCH]

2 hours ago, Jimbo Xiii said:

@OCH

I can't remember which volume of OPM I'm up to (somewhere in the teens I think, it's when the monster association are trying to gain control (I don't think that's what they're called, but I can't remember their name at the moment)) and Satima hasn't been in it for ages, just sat in an apartment playing computer games, and vaguely in a tournament whilst other stuff is happening outside. I do like OPM a lot, but Satima felt like he'd been side lined as he's too OP (I think they even make a joke about it at some point) and as good as some of the other characters are, I kinda want to see Satima doing stuff.

We are still in the same arc. Saitama was briefly at the end of Child Emperor's storyline in this volume. I don't think he was in the last one at all.