I am unfortunately employed now, so my free time has been devoured by the job, commute and preparation. However, I have still managed to keep up with a few shows and manga - at a slow pace. So how about you?
For me:
Manga:
Oresama Teacher (2007-2020, 176 Chapters) - The only manga I’m reading at the moment is a work by Tsubaki Izumi of Gekkan-Shoujo Nozaki-kun. It is a story of a former delinquent Mafuyu Kurosaki becoming a transfer student and trying to turn her life around. Like a wild mixture of Angel Densetsu and Nozaki-kun, it is indeed a hilarious manga with surprisingly in-depth characters, but instead of the 4-koma format of the latter, it has shoujo manga length chapters. *(so far) A+
Anime:
Dragon Ball (1986-1989, 153 Episodes) - Dragon Ball is a VERY competent Shounen, and one that steadily gets better and drops the immaturity and much of the horniness of the early part of the show. However, around the 100th episode things start changing. The show becomes… interesting. Definitely recommend sticking around to see the show grow. A
Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Season 1 (2007, 12 Episodes) - This show apparently was a darling of weebs a decade ago, and it is not hard to see why. Edgyness, egregious fanservice, a cynical attitude towards society so typical of the 90s and apparently the 2000s too. The show provides critique that can sometimes hit at the core of the problem (including anticapitalist critique), and at the same time mock people who seek to do something about it. It’s hit and miss, but undeniably interesting. The unique artstyle, the music, the Maeda cameos are bonuses. A
Lupin III: Part II (1977-1981, 155 Episodes) - Hit and miss episode quality, but always entertaining. Sometimes really weird (but apparently 80s Lupin/Part III is most like that), but those tend to be the most fun episodes. Definitely a fantastic show to relax after a stressful day, and there’s a lot of episodes. A-
Lost Universe (1998, 26 Episodes) - Fun characters, but the sci-fi spin-off to Slayers is nowhere near as fun as that series. It’s decent though. B-
Konosuba Season 3 (Ongoing seasonal, 11 Episodes) - It’s more of Konosuba. Juvenile and horny humor, surprisingly decent character writing in spite of the weeb-brained overall writing and a better isekai than the much of the genre it satirises? Yeah, it’s all still here. And not much more, but if you like the rest… B
Too early to tell - Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 (Very good so far. I like the atmosphere more than FMAB’s and find myself enjoying it more than when I tried to watch that) - Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (very much anti-weeb brained + unique setting and premise = good, but can’t tell more until I’ve seen the rest)
Tired of libs? Want to debunk common arguments as early as in the first chapter? Read Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Not as hard as its reputation suggests.
Reading
Read One Piece up to the current point. It’s okay, but I almost feel that it’s more famous just for being really long than for any sort of quality. No character growth of any sort for anyone, and 5 out of the 11 major arcs are about getting a good king (usually just the former king) to replace a bad king. It’s also incredibly clear that very little was planned out in advance and the rules change to be whatever Oda thinks would be fun which occasionally means things are fun, but also means the payoffs sometimes just feel like asspulls.
Reading new CSM and Kill Six Billion Demons (it counts!) as they come out. Both continue to be good but reading as they release is pain.
Watching
Dungeon Meshi continues to be very good.
Konosuba S3 hasn’t been very funny so far. Perhaps my expectations were just high or my tastes have changed.
Watched uhhh one more episode of GitS: SAC. It’s really not grabbing me, but I’ll probably finish it eventually anyway.
yeah for sure. sanji is the worst offender of the character growth thing (reading wano it’s like whole cake island never happened) but they all are really feeling it at this stage. and the king thing is so funny when people try and say it’s this leftist masterpiece. it’s fun to return the rightful king to the throne but it isn’t leftist!
the pacing isn’t very good these days, i only catch up like once a year and it still feels glacial. can’t imagine how bad reading it week to week is
despite all these complaints i do generally like it
Imo Usopp is worse re: lack of character growth. He’s a coward -> he stops being a coward, no wait, he’s still a coward lol. At least his cowardice was used for a funny bit when he was immune to Perona’s depression ghosts because he already had such low self-esteem, where Sanji’s horniness stopped being entertaining around 2 chapters after he showed up.
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my favorite bit of skypeia is luffy fighting for the honor of the settler colonialists and making sure they regain control of the island