No.2882
>>2881sushi roll, that anticlimax is literally the whole point. It's a joke.
No.2883
>>2882Is the author supposed to be f*cking with the audience then?
No.2887
>>2881I liked Fire Punch because it's dumb fun.
The plot makes no sense and characters get killed off so quickly they don't even matter. (Like the naked underwear guy…? Huh…?) I can't even remember the main plot points besides: Agni eats himself, Agni gets lit on fire, Agni has a thing for his sister, Agni gets lit on fire, and then the end. I wouldn't read it for something to mentally chew on and the same goes for Chainsawman. The plot for Chainsawman is
more cohesive, but it still heavily meanders.There's probably a whole layer of satire and irony I'm missing, but I more or less got the same interpretation as you.
No.2897
>>2895What are your thoughts about the anime? Did they really make a 20 pages story into a full episode?
No.2898
>>2897 I didn't watch the entire anime, but that's definitely the same feeling i got from it. Trying to put in big reveals and deep thoughts, but never committing enough for them to have any emotional weight.
No.2899
>>2895It's pretty close to being that Majo no Tabitabi show a few seasons ago. All the actual philosophy is pretty deep, I think, or at least the questions raised are certainly deep; the problem comes down to the fact that the medium like you said close to prohibits actually engaging with it. The LN is technically a bit better about it, but both of them would've been better as collections of actual prose short stories or a non–chonological novel.
No.2907
>>2895I do actually feel quite similar about the anime version, but the aesthetic and atmosphere of the show still makes me enjoy it a lot despite the shallow philosophy
No.2914
https://mangadex.org/Mangadex is back
But holy balls is it ugly as sin
No.2916
>>2914I think it *looks* fine, but it seems to be a bit broken right now. They were really pushing back on the frontend so that doesn't surprise me. It'll take some more time.
No.2921
>>2916Yeah it looks like everyone is stuck on the mobile UI for now because the desktop UI isn't done
No.2999
>>2997I haven't been following the latest chapters at all but I picked it up ages ago too.
I think the main thing is that at the time there was just too much fucking saturation of isekai, most of it low level bottom of the barrel trash, so anything with even a hint of creativity ends up looking like absolute genius. Look at Overlord, it's pretty much the exact same thing as any isekai except 1. the dude is a skeleton and kind of unrepentant Evil without being an edgy asshole and 2. he's got all his high-level friends with him instead of needing to find them. It's not good once you really start reading it, but it's better and that's all you really care about after a certain point.
No.3101
I finally got around to reading Wolf Guy / 狼の紋章, the image the old meme picture from the NTR scale comes from.
It came out in 2007 which is actually around when I guessed it probably came out (2007-2012), less because of the artstyle and more because of the excessive grimdark that seems to be the hallmark of anything that came out around that time. I don't really mind the grittiness; the manga heavily features the yakuza and insane gangsters so stuff like drugs or whatnot seems par for the course, like Holyland, a 2000 manga. The main issue I had with it is the gratuitous amount of sex and rape. It almost reminds me of Game of Thrones, the TV series not the books; the books were always poorly conceived gibberish, but the TV shows took it a step further by pathologically removing as much fantasy from the world as possible in an attempt to be dark.
With that being said I think the basic premise of the manga is fine. Excessively violent outcomes aside it does a fairly good job at actually developing its characters in some way, though not all in good directions. Also, the author's artstyle and some of the dialogue, while certainly meant to be dark, intimidating, or enlightening, is impossible to take seriously just because of how he draws it - see the image.
All in all I'd still recommend the series, though it probably isn't for everyone.
No.3117
>>2950I like it. It's more of a fantasy story than a straight-up isekai for me. Although I feel like the dark tones that made it interesting at first have been lacking in recent chapters. Not that I think edginess for edginess' sake is good…
No.3134
>>3117I think it was never particularly dark? No more than e.g. FFXIV is a dark game. It's got a miserable backstory but the actual storyline wasn't particularly out of the ordinary. It's
grotesque but it isn't
dark, if you know what I mean? The
zombie brother under the fire was horrifying but the message was mostly upbeat.
No.3141
>>3134>>3134Yeah maybe dark isn't the right word… But do feel like recent chapters have been too fluffy. I guess that was always an element of the story, but I miss the more serious vibe of decline that it had initially.
No.3144
>>3143Was Bard Loen that one where he
and the princess/queen loved each other but she married someone else and he was too late to even see her when she died? No.3405
>>3402There's a danke release up to volume 11 on madokami, you can probably find them on nyaa.
No.3407
>>3405Oh sweet, you've made my morning. Not sure why I didn't think to check either of those places.
No.3436
Finished reading Yesterday Wo Uttate. Can recommend, it resonated with me.
Next up is 3-gatsu no Lion. I've watched the first season of the Anime back when it aired, haven't been keeping up with it since then.
No.3437
Where do I read manga from now that MangaDex is gone?
No.3438
>>3437mangadex still exists. The new site kinda sucks but it works
No.3681
I read the Alien 9 manga, and really liked it! I think the OVA is better overall, especially in terms of pacing and certain scenes having MUCH more emotional impact in the OVA. However, it was great to see more of the characters I love, and the direction they went with the overarching story was interesting, as it's only ever teased at in the OVA. This series has a really cool (and quite dark) tone and aesthetic to it that is definitely shown off a lot in the later chapters of the manga. The alien designs, body horror, and action scenes are really striking in how unique and gory they are. That, along with the focus on the girls mental states, personalities, and upbringings really makes me empathize with these characters. I was consistently rooting for them the whole time, especially as things looked increasingly grim.
I also appreciate how invested I was able to get into the setting. It kept the lore dumps concise, but vague and interesting enough to make you want to keep reading. I never felt like I had to go out of my way to keep up my suspension of disbelief towards what is ultimately a very strange setting, and I think a lot of that is due to how little is explained. It keeps the focus on the girls, the changes and struggles they go through, and the aliens themselves.
I haven't read Emulators or Next yet, but will probably do so in the coming days.
No.3682
>>3681Having slept on it I have a couple other, more spoiler related things to say:
I was slightly disappointed initially in how fast they cleared up
Kumi's death and resurrection. I felt like there was a lot of room there to explore Yuri and Kasumi's reaction to it that they never get into beyond just one or two panels. This kind of thing is what I mean when I say the manga is paced oddly at times. However the way in which
she comes back was more than interesting enough for me not to mind in the long run, and she actually became my favorite character after that arc. The stuff with her
struggling to cope with her new body and her desire to protect Yuri from the same fate was really interesting and emotional.
The themes of puberty and growing up and sexual stuff is less prevalent in this manga as compared to the OVA. It's there (at least to my eyes), but it feels like the idea is less pushed. It makes me wonder if the OVA staff saw that and decided to focus more on it. For example, in the OVA there is a dream sequence with
Yuri's stomach expanding into a borg while standing in front of a ruler to measure her growth. To me that reads as very blatant pregnancy or puberty-themed imagery. But this scene and probably others are absent from the manga. The manga does have some pretty serious plot points about
how drastically the girls bodies and feelings change though so I'd hesitate to say that my 2deep4u interpretation is only relegated to the OVA.
I found it interesting how the
teachers, who were initially framed as evil or nefarious, are revealed to be basically just as powerless as anyone else in being pawns to the aliens. They're just trying to make the best of the way the world works in this universe, which brings the interesting question of if
what they're doing to the girls is "right" or not. When the alternative is the
sunflower aliens, it seems very obviously like the lesser of two evils, but even so it's a very grim conclusion.
No.3825
>>3822I've always preferred shorter anime and manga, they feel more impactful if they're done right.
No.3826
>>3825I think it's more that a lot of the shorter shows are clearly more well-planned and since they're kept "tight" the mangaka is free to execute his vision.
No.3879
>>3878Have you read Yokohama kaidashi kikou or kabu no isaki? Ykk is set in a comfy post apocalypse.
No.3892
>>3879I've read some chapters of the first one, but I don't think it's what I'm looking for.
I think what I like the most about certain works of fiction and, even the real world, is the sense of journey someone can get. It's why I liked those previous manga I mentioned so much. It's also why I fantasize a lot about the idea of getting a motorbike and travelling all across the world as well.
No.3907
I just read girls last tour and went on to read shimeji simulation… they are both really good! I'm super excited for more shimeji to come out now.
I think I'm going to read alien9 next.
No.3911
>>3909So far I like yuri's gooey melty eyes they're so cute, but I'm kinda anxious about how much I identify with her.
No.3912
>>3911Have you watched the OVA?
The series deals a lot with (very minor content spoilers:)
trauma on Yuri's part and there is some body horror stuff so fair warning No.3921
>>3912Well, I can sum up my thoughts on alien9:
kumi wants to merge with yuri lulzNo, actually, I feel like either about around the time the OVA ends the story started to make less sense to me. Like, the reveal of the broader world was good, but then the progression from that point in terms of what the characters were actually doing and what their motivations were… kinda lost me. I'll probably go back and read it again sometime and maybe be able to follow it a bit better. Though I do feel like being unable to follow it kinda works given the story being told.
I thought the concept of
their memories being in some way absorbed into the borg was really interesting and like either they should have done more with that, or they did do more with that and it flew over my head.
>>3682>fast they cleared up…I agree, but I feel like they couldn't have done it slower without having some extra explanation. Like, the superviser
is screwing with them to be sure, but for them to not find out about
weird gross cell gel healing until later would require some explanation. Like
"Hey your friend is actually fine, I can just heal her using alien magic bullshit, but I didn't tell you right away because reasons"… unless the supervisor didn't know
she could be healed so easily but I think that would have weird implications for the state of her knowledge and the rest of the world.
Really having read it I'm still fascinated with the world. It would be cool to read more stories set there, but as for the plot… I'm not sure exactly what I make of it. Maybe I'll comment again after dwelling on it some more.
No.3925
I've been getting into reading manga more regularly, so far I caught up on shimeji simulation which was amazing, and i read kira kira study which was decent but the ending felt rushed and unsatisfying, then i started reading chotto ippai!, but then it got a little too melodrama heavy so i stopped reading it. Then i randomly started reading Onii-chan is done for, which i wasn't expecting to like but it's actually quite good fun. If anyone has any recomendations for good slice of life cgdct manga (for context on my taste my favourite anime are hidamari sketch and gochiusa and sketchbook) i would greatly appreciate it. I always thought reading manga is too much effort but it's actually quite calming. And i can read on the train or something that is nice.
No.3926
>>3925>Then i randomly started reading Onii-chan is done for, which i wasn't expecting to like but it's actually quite good fun.good taste. did you know it's getting an anime adaptation?! I was really happy and surprised
No.3927
>>3926I did not know that! I did not expect it to get an adaptation. It sure has some cute girls in it.
No.3954
I really enjoy reading manga and I need to get back into it. I was reading the Wadanohara manga and it was pretty fun
No.3955
>>3925I read shimeji simulation after I read all of girls last tour and needed more girls last tour and it fulfilled all of my hopes and more.