this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [Week 3] (ani.social)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by wjs018@ani.social to c/anime@ani.social
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Hi everybody! It is time for what I am sure is everybody's favorite thread of the week, the weekly general thread! How have things been going for you with the winter season this past week? I have seen a lot of new faces in this community over tha past week (it's anybody's guess as to why), so if you have recently joined us, feel free to introduce yourself in this thread as well! If you are searching for something to say, here are some example discussion starters to inspire you:

  • Is High Card about how to register for your medical marijuana card?
  • I feel lied to by Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! I was waiting in the snow for a train that was late the other day, and no gals started talking to me. Instead, I just got literal cold feet.
  • I wonder if that little robot bird from Metallic Rouge was also running linux like its forebear, the Ingenuity copter?

As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).

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[–] wjs018@ani.social 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Winter season is fully in motion now. I think every show has had at least one episode at this point with many having 2. So, time to check in what I have been able to watch and some quick hot takes:

  • The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - Lots of fun to see the characters I like from the manga in anime form (especially Rose).
  • Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! - The first episode didn't really do much for me, but it seems like the kind of story I would like more in manga form.
  • Delicious in Dungeon - First episode was a bit shaky for me, but the second episode felt much more solid. Trigger is making Marcy the new reincarnation of Akko with all those reaction faces.
  • Chained Soldier - Willing to give this some more time. Second episode did a good job of establishing Shushu's character, willing to give some time for the other cast members as well.
  • Gushing Over Magical Girls - Dropping this one as it is a bit too H for me.
  • Metallic Rouge - First episode was mostly style over substance to create a bit of a splash, but I loved all the style it had, so I am looking forward to the substance.
  • Tsukimichi Season 2 - First episode back had a bit of recap, but it's nice to see it back again. Looking forward to the Rotsgard antics to come.
  • 'Tis Time for Torture Princess - If you haven't seen my post gushing over shokupan yet, check it out and then make some delicious shokupan for yourself.
  • Villainess Level 99 - Loved the first episode. A lot of anime-only storytelling that was super appreciated and gave me a lot of confidence in this one going forward.

As a meta addendum to this anime post, I am glad to see some familiar faces from the ml community able to find their way over here. Surprisingly, my ml account has not been banned despite admins having gone back and deleted almost all my weekly discussion threads for the past two months. All because I linked to my spoiler guide in them.

Getting found on the fediverse can be hard, but the best thing to attract new users and have a more active community is to simply be more active yourself. Not too long ago, I posted about how I spent 11 years on reddit, and in that time only made 24 posts and mostly lurked. So, if I can decide to be active to make a better community, then so can you! I am really bummed about the whole ml situation, but I think it is also an opportunity to create a more positive and welcoming anime community on the fediverse.

[–] SnowGator@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wait they nuked those weekly threads? Wtf?? There goes about my only meaningful contribution. Guess it’s dead to me. I really like having a history of my thoughts on various shows, and if there’s no trust that it’ll exist in the future, then there’s no point posting.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 4 points 11 months ago

You should still be able to see your comments in your profile comment history if nothing else, so they aren't completely lost in that respect. However, the navigation provided by the "Previous Thread | Next Thread" links I add to the general threads won't be accessible to you any longer.

[–] ReluctantZen@feddit.nl 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic What makes this one fun? It sounds like a lot of other isekai/fantasy type shows.

Trigger is making Marcy the new reincarnation of Akko

She actually reminds me more of Aqua, even though she's actually maybe one the more reasonable ones of the group haha.

Chained Soldier

Oh yea, still need to give that one a go.

shokupan

Didn't realise the Japanese had milk bread as well. I had a lot of French milk bread (Pain au Lait) as a child when on Holiday in France, Germany or Austria. I get nauseous from it now due to eating at one point while being carsick. Wonder how different it is from the Japanese version.

Villainess Level 99

Oh, I should watch that too.

only made 24 posts and mostly lurked.

I'm very similar. Although I still don't post much, I comment much more.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 2 points 11 months ago

What makes this one fun?

I am not about to sit here and type that this series is really special and stands far above its peers. However, my favorite aspect of this series is the ensemble cast. The series does a good job of balancing humorous character interactions between cast members while keeping an overall story moving ever forward. There are later arcs in the series that I think suffer compared to the early part, because they break apart the cast as the MC is traveling on a journey.

Aqua

This is another great comparison. I went with Akko due to the Trigger connection, but all of these characters are absolute gold mines of reaction faces. Looking forward to another Konosuba season this year.

Shokupan vs. Pain au Lait

I haven't made pain au lait before, but have had it before (in Quebec rather than France). Looking at recipes, the main differences are that the Japanese version is less sweet and uses milk powder rather than liquid milk. The sweetness of pan au lait helps explain why it is usually just served as rolls rather than a loaf that is used for things like toast/sandwiches. However, both have a pretty airy, but close crumb. This is likely due to the fact that both doughs are beaten to within an inch of their lives.

The shokupan recipe I use has a minimum of 15 minutes of very high speed mixing with a dough hook, and this pain au lait recipe I found lists a similar 15-20 minutes. This extensive kneading breaks down the gluten to a point that large air pockets just aren't able to sustain themselves in the cooked bread leading to a lot of air trapped in very small pockets within the bread.

Sorry, I realize now that I spent way too long on this one, but I really like making bread. I think I will try to make some pain au lait next time!

[–] kikuri@ani.social 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Seasonal anime I'm watching:

  • Dungeon Meshi: I liked the first two episodes, they're well animated and Marcille is my favorite character. Netflix has wrong colors as usual, so I would recommend alternative sources.
  • Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete: idk about this one, I'm not into bdsm and I doubt it will improve much. Censored audio with uncensored video is a weird choice.
  • Metallic Rouge: I was a bit disappointed, the world feels generic but it's too soon to judge.
  • Sengoku Youko: I'll trust Mizukami's fans and watch a couple more episodes, but the first one was just an average shounen.
  • Urusei Yatsura: it's back and the new OP and ED are beautiful! I love the animation, the dumb characters, the 80s style. Imo underrated and underwatched.
  • Yubisaki to Renren: the surprise of the season for me, it's super cute and I'm glad to see a romance show with university students vs the usual high schoolers.

I'm also watching:

  • Sousou no Frieren, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto and Undead Unluck continuing from the last season. Great shows, especially the first two.
  • Taiho Shichauzo: simple episodic fun to turn off the brain. Natsumi is best girl. The first four episodes were distributed in OVA format and have much better animation.
  • Turn A Gundam: I wanted to give Gundam a second chance after Suisei no Majo and was attracted by the unique artstyle and plot. I'm only at episode 11 and it's already an incredible series. I'll definitely watch 0078 and go in order after this one.
  • Hoshikuzu Telepath: I dropped it last season but decided to finish it. An average CGDCT show with an introvert protagonist and rockets.

I'm new to Lemmy and subscribed to talk about anime, manga and foss. I've been a lurker on Reddit for ~5 years with very few posts and left after the whole API shitshow. I'll try my best to be active and help grow the community!

Edit: I forgot Dosanko Gal wa Namaramenkoi which I decided to drop. I looks like the usual romcom formula with a self insert protagonist, a designated "winner" from the start and a harem. The animation is nothing special, slightly worse than average.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Netflix colors

Looking at a couple of them, it doesn't seem too egregious, but as I was doing it I realized that my monitor is basically a hand-me-down that is ancient, so not sure if would be the best to compare small color differences. In fact, I know the colors are pretty bad since I always check any photos I retouch on my wife's macbook to make sure that I didn't push the colors too far in lightroom so that it looks like the picture came from Wonka's factory. I wonder what causes something like this. Could it be that Netflix has to encode to a different format for their streaming platform?

Yubisaki to Renren

This one wasn't on my radar at all before the season, but it seems to have gotten a lot of great reception. If the buzz sticks around a little bit, I might give it a shot. Like you, I am dropping Hokkaido Gals, so it could fill that slot.

[–] kikuri@ani.social 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I wonder what causes something like this. Could it be that Netflix has to encode to a different format for their streaming platform?

Netflix uses H264 with Main@L4 profile for their SDR streams. I don't see anything weird in their encoding settings, so it's probably some filter that causes a color shift. It isn't a huge difference in this case, but definitely noticeable on my 200€ monitor.

Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon was horrible.

[–] ludrol@bookwormstory.social 2 points 11 months ago

relevant XKCD
I have taken a look at the colors in DM and I don't see a huge difference. (It's there but it wouldn't bother me) Maybe perhaps it is a difference in imagining objects. I imagine objects as 3d objects with movement without color. Maybe you imagine objects differently that make you bothered because of difference between what you perceive and what you remember.

[–] ReluctantZen@feddit.nl 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Got around to watching Suzume this weekend. It was good. This movie feels very different from the previous movies, although it does retain some of the typical Makoto Shinkai romance quirks. Looked stunning of course, but there was a lot more (noticable) 3D than the previous movies. Not at all awful, but it definitely stood out. Story was pretty decent and the music was great, although I did kinda miss the Radwimps feel, but I understand why they went for something else.

Edit: seems like Radwimps was still really involved in the soundtrack. It felt really different (still great though) so I thought it was a different artist.

Seasonally I tried watching the following:

  • Gushing over Magical Girls: that was not good, and not in a funny way. Gonna pass on this.
  • Delicious in Dungeon: fun so far. Glad to see Netflix doing it weekly too instead of batches or completely at once. Will keep watching.
  • Metallic Rouge: can't really make a proper opinion, but it looked cool, so will keep watching for now.
  • Hokkaido Gals: I like the manga, but not too sure about this. I don't think the VA fits Fuyuki very well and the Tsubasa feels much more pathetic than in the manga. Will give it one more episode.
  • Fluffy Paradise: wholesome and adorable. A good healing anime so far. I also find it interesting how isekai MCs seem to shift from loser high school boys to overworked employee. Or at least, sometimes it feels that way.
  • I caught up to Apothecary's Diary. Real good stuff. Love Maomao.
  • 7th Timeloop. A fun start. Will probably continue. For some reason I love this kind of Villainness stuff.
  • Unwanted Undead Adventurer. The manga is a fun read and this seems decent too. Will watch a view more eps to see if it's worth continuing despite having read the manga.
  • The Foolish Angel Dances With The Devil. Might give it one more ep, but will likely drop it.
  • Burn The Witch 0.8. Was only a small special or OVA, but it was fun
  • Continuing with Frieren of course.

Interestingly, this is a third of the amount of seasonal anime I watched last year haha. Seems like I'll be watching more this year, if it continues like this.

[–] ludrol@bookwormstory.social 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

When I watched suzume in theaters I remember reading somewhere that Director wanted to make different film but producers insisted on romance because it sells. I think romance elements where too forceful and it diminished the plot.

[–] ReluctantZen@feddit.nl 3 points 11 months ago

That's interesting if true, since Shinkai has always made romance

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Shinkai was right (the producers didn't watch Frozen 1)

[–] wjs018@ani.social 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Think I might give 7th timeloop a try. I have been enjoying a recent plunge into Villainess/Otome manga, but I haven't read that one. Also, I am planning on just switching over to the manga for Hokkaido Gals. I have heard good things about it in the past and, having rewatched a bit of the first episode when I was a bit more awake, it didn't really improve that much for me.

[–] ReluctantZen@feddit.nl 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have been enjoying a recent plunge into Villainess/Otome manga

Yeah same. Don't know why.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I can squarely point to @Thade780@lemmy.world as the cause of my foray into the genre and all the series they have been recommending to the manga community. It's all your fault! Also, thanks for the great recommendations!

[–] Thade780@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Just noticed your post. My mobile Lemmy client (Sync) still doesn't have push notifications, and if I forget to check my inbox it's as good as gone.

Glad I have been of help in ~~wasting time~~ ensuring you have a lot of new series and genres to follow! 🤭

[–] e0qdk@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Between kbin's issues around the holidays and some of my own issues this month I haven't been very active lately, but I'm still here.

I finally managed to finish watching Penguindrum! That show was weird. I really don't have the words to properly express just how weird it was. Did you know that Penguindrum and Utena share a director? I didn't realize that going into it, but after finishing Penguindrum I felt like giving Utena another try -- and realized that fact after looking up some details about it. It was very much an "ohhhh..." kind of moment. I'm not deeply familiar with the details of the 1995 Tokyo sarin gas attack, Night on the Galactic Railroad, etc. that were sources of inspiration for the show; so, a lot of it probably went over my head. I still have a few screenshots left that I never got around to posting -- here's a suitably weird one.

Since the last time I commented on here, I've also gone back and cataloged all the anime I have. I looked up the starting air date for every show and movie, and then sorted them oldest to newest. That was a bit more involved than I expected it to be and I wasn't sure how I should handle some entries (e.g. Index/Railgun, Fate/, FMA, ...) where there's multiple works that are related in a complex fashion. For movies there were often multiple dates associated with a work so I went with public release dates (in Japan) even if they were shown a few months earlier at a film festival or whatever.

The oldest anime movie I've watched is The Castle of Cagliostro from 1979 (which is older than I thought it was), and the oldest series I've watched through (if you count it) is The Mysterious Cities of Gold from 1982. (The oldest series I have is the first season of Lupin III from 1971, but I've only watched a few episodes and the pilot.) It turns out that the year with the most entries I've got in my collection is 2013 with 2012 as a close second; I did a lot of DVD collecting around 2015-ish when I had terrible internet at home, so I suppose that makes sense.

I also realized recently after seeing a post about a nihonga featuring a tiger and a dragon and wondering if it was referenced in ToraDora (didn't see it in the first episode) that Taiga's English voice actor (Cassandra Lee Morris) is the same person who voiced Fie in Trails of Cold Steel, Morgana in Persona 5, Ritsu in K-On, etc. That was a bit trippy.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

here’s a suitably weird one

The content of the frame was already a bit unusual. However, the real icing on the weird cake in this frame is the subtitle. I don't know if I want to know why a girl is doing Lamaze breathing while looking at an enormous frog in front of her face. It is just one of those weird mysteries of life.

It is impressive that you can go through and document your collection like that. I have watched anime in different forms over enough years now that I could not even begin to put together a list of what I have or haven't watched. I don't keep any kind of list of shows/ratings on any of the index sites because each time I thought I should sit down and do it, it is just incredibly overwhelming to try to search through so many years of memories. I no longer have a lot of the discs/tapes I watched some stuff on because it was borrowed from others, disposed of during a move, etc. There are also series that I only ever saw on broadcast television and never actually owned any media for.

Being an anime fan these days is easier than it has ever been with things like simulcasts, official streaming licenses, digital distribution. No longer do you need to have a friend that is able to convince their parents to go across state lines to the only anime convention in the region only happening once each year, find a bootleg dvd or (gasp!) vhs of a show/movie you are interested in while at the con, and then have a sleepover to watch it together. You know...as a hypothetical example.

Writing this out it also strikes me how much things like box art used to matter. Before high speed internet and places to get high quality information about anime, I would often find myself looking at a whole store shelf full of series that I knew nothing about. So, it was often up to the box art to catch my eye in order for me to pick it up and maybe read the blurb on the back. Alternatively I relied a lot on word of mouth, either from friends or store employees, for series recommendations and went in pretty blind.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 2 points 11 months ago

I don’t know if I want to know why a girl is doing Lamaze breathing while looking at an enormous frog in front of her face. It is just one of those weird mysteries of life.

In this case, the context just makes things weirder. Yes, really. 😅

(I mean, we're talking about a show that involves three invisible penguins, two brothers who aren't really, their terminally ill sister, a posessed novelty hat, a terrorist's ghost, the most inept stalker ever, and a mysterious object that may or may not be able to change the world.)

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 3 points 11 months ago

Ikuhara has two more recent single-cours anime series—Yurikuma Arashi and Sarazanmae—to his credit as well as Utena and Penguindrum. His work is always full of symbolism, magical realism, and miscellaneous lunatic-arthouse-film stuff that can take years to comb through, depending on how far down the rabbithole you want to go. (He also worked on the fourth season of the original Sailor Moon, AKA SuperS. Make the mistake of looking too closely, and you can see nascent bits of Utena in it.)

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago

The oldest anime movie I’ve watched is The Castle of Cagliostro from 1979 (which is older than I thought it was)

That got me as well. It proves how influential this movie is to future anime. It was so ahead of its time.

[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

This is still be kind of a rant so bare with me. I've been reading SpyXFamily and was thinking of showing my partner the anime, even though she never watches anime. It was so wholesome that I felt like it was the kind of show she'd love (we watch a lot of Bob's Burgers, Great North, Great British Bake Off, etc over and over, she also enjoys Ted Lasso).

But then I reached the chapter where Yuri had dinner with them and I reached a speed bump. I just finished the chapter where he helped Anya study and hit it again. She'd 100% find the character gross. His constant thinking of his sister when Anya read his mind, his crazed jealousy over her kissing her husband instead of saving a kiss for him, his dislike of a little girl, his obsession is too much for me reading the manga, and it's probably worse when you have to hear it out loud in the anime. It's not even funny to me, and it wouldn't be for her, either. I've seen people defend it as being an anime trope but that doesn't help when trying to get other people into the hobby or seeming weird if you're new to it. (Same thing with lolicon or fan service in other anime.) Which is too bad because it's otherwise a great show I think she'd love. She already complains about the "pedo tropes" of anime she's heard of, so I don't want to enforce her expectations of anime being all like that with characters like that. At least he doesn't show up until a bit in.

Idk, I haven't finished Haikyuu yet, I got up to the end of the Hulu seasons, but I'm hoping that will maybe work instead. It's not too anime trope-y, at least none of the gross tropes, just a couple of OP main characters and a classic Shonen underdog, but that's not an anime only thing. Everyone loves underdogs in sports stories.

I saw a good comment on Reddit by a user named NozakiMufasa that reflected my feelings well I'm just going to quote it here:

I'm speaking mainly as a bit of an older fan. But I'm so damn tired of anime having to be like this. Yall know what I'm talking about. Yall know its an open secret. It's like no anime is allowed to be 100 percent wholesome or 100 percent just a slick well made show. So many anime throw in weird or taboo elements that are just so uneeded and unwarranted.

Spy x Family was a legit wholesome show. It felt less like a weird anime and moreso a genuinely good cartoon you could show the whole world. One you could show a family and it be an enjoyable watch. Anya, Loid, & Yor are genuinely sweet and well written characters and their hidden backgrounds gives off a feel of classic shows like I Dream of Genie or Bewitched.

But no. Anime has to be weird. Let's make one of the characters love their sister. Fuck this. We were so damn close. An anime that was trying to be good.

If anyone has any other suggestions of wholesome anime I, an older Shonen fan and Cowboy Bebop and Trigun fan, and her, an anime newbie, would both enjoy without being too slice-of-life to bore me and not too weird anime tropes in it to freak her out, let me know. I'm going to keep reading SpyXFamily by myself, I guess, and just push through and endure the chapters with Yuri in it. Maybe one day, if his appearances are rare enough, I can show her the anime.

[–] domi@lemmy.secnd.me 5 points 11 months ago

But then I reached the chapter where Yuri had dinner with them and I reached a speed bump. I just finished the chapter where he helped Anya study and hit it again. She'd 100% find the character gross.

In a similar notion of strange things in a overall good show: There's an episode in season 2 that is surprisingly gory considering the show was fairly kid friendly up until that point.

Not that I mind but I definitely wouldn't recommend the show for kids anymore.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I relate to this pretty hard. I am lucky enough that my wife is fairly tolerant of anime weirdness since she is an old school anime fan as well (though not as tolerant as I am). However, friends that have asked me for recommendations in the past have been turned off by things that hadn't even phased as weird at the time. It has caused me to think about these kinds of things a bit differently. Like your partner, I am also a big fan of Bob's Burgers, GBBO, and Ted Lasso, so here are a couple that come to my mind with what you have written in mind. I also marked the ones that I watched together with my wife and she liked them.

  • Usagi Drop (wife approved) - A story about a salaryman that finds himself having to adopt a young girl after a death in the family. It deals with the realities of being a single parent in the harsh working culture of Japan as well as how to handle caring for and connecting with a newfound daughter. I wrote about this series in a recent clip post I made. This might be a bit of a controversial pick because the manga continues the story and it becomes less wholesome. However, as an anime-only, it is incredibly wholesome.
  • Tonikaku Kawaii - This is a romance about two people that have what seems like a fated meeting and end up married quite suddenly. The show follows their daily lives as they figure out how to have a relationship. Despite the sudden marriage plot point, the romance is entirely wholesome and neither character ever regrets or second guesses the choice. It is mostly SOL, so it might end up a bit on the boring side, but incredibly wholesome.
  • I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years - This is an isekai about a woman that is so overworked in her first life that she dies. She is reborn as an immortal witch and decides to live in a cottage in the countryside, killing slimes occasionally to provide enough income for her needs. Turns out that if you do that long enough, you become super strong. Super comfy fantasy story that isn't too boring imo.
  • Campfire Cooking - Another isekai that has a strong focus on cooking food. I really like cooking and do it a lot, so your experience with this show might differ. When I was watching this one as it aired, I ended up making a lot of Japanese food to eat (so many tonkatsu) because it always made me hungry. There is an overall plot, so it isn't just a story about camping out and cooking, so it should hopefully not be too boring.
  • Natsume's Book of Friends (wife approved) - A story about a boy that is able to see yokai thanks to an ability he inherited from his grandmother. This series is mostly structured as a yokai-of-the-week series with each episode being a mostly self-contained story. There is an overall arc and cast of characters, but nothing too dramatic and very little anime weirdness that would turn people off. The only anime weirdness I can think of is humor around the partner yokai's love of sake.

There are a couple others that I see recommended as wholesome quite often that I have not seen, so it might be worth checking others' opinions first: Yuru Camp, A Place Further Than the Universe, Non Non Biyori, Flying Witch.

Good luck!

[–] kikuri@ani.social 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yuru Camp, A Place Further Than the Universe, Non Non Biyori, Flying Witch.

I watched and recommend all of them:

  • Yuru Camp: cute girls camping with some good comedy. You get to see a lot of real locations (mostly in Yamanashi Prefecture) and food that will make you hungry. There are 2 seasons and a non-canon spin-off movie, the third season will come out in spring.
  • Sora yori mo Tooi Basho: a group of girls going to Antarctica. Each one has her own motivation and is trying to find a place to belong.
  • Non Non Biyori: cute girls having fun and growing up in an imaginary small town in the countryside. Very nostalgic and the backgrounds are amazing.
  • Flying Witch: a wholesome slice of life with witches in rural Japan. A great example of a modern iyashikei.

Some more recommendations:

  • 3-gatsu no Lion: a young shogi prodigy orphan has grown up in a family where he feels like a stranger and is tormented by his past, but finds a new family and everything slowly improves. Lots of memorable characters and top tier animation by Shaft.
  • Hachimitsu to Clover: a josei by Chica Umino, the same author of 3-gastu no Lion. This one is about romance between students in an art university and finding your place in the world.
  • Tamako Market: you can't go wrong with Kyoani + Yamada. Slice of life about a girl and the shopping district where she lives. The sequel movie, Tamako Love Story, is even better.
  • Sakura Quest, Hanasaku Iroha and Shiroi Suna no Aquatope: the "girls working" series of original anime by P.A. Works. Imo Hanasaku Iroha > Sakura Quest > Aquatope. I love Shirobako but wouldn't recommend it to someone who never watches anime.
  • Skip to Loafer: high school romance done well. Probably the best animation quality from P.A. Works yet.
  • Barakamon: a calligraphy artist is "exiled" by is father to a remote island, where he changes his personality thanks to his new lifestyle and friends. The prequel Handa-kun is completely different, a bad high school comedy.
[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

These all sound great and very appropriate, too! Thanks! Definitely bookmarking this comment for future reference lol.

[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Thanks for relating. It's hard to explain to people who know only anime fans. I wouldn't have felt comfortable posting that in the Reddit anime community because people would've just told me to tell my partner to get over it or some thinks just the culture, but Lemmy felt nice enough that I felt comfortable to do so.

And apparently I came to the right place for suggestions. These all sound great! I can't wait to watch them.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 3 points 11 months ago

reddit is an enormous community, for better and for worse. I think a lot of people in that community have only ever known anime after it has had broad popularity and there have been forums (like reddit) in which like-minded people can talk about it. Glad to have you here and have fun!

Since your initial post, my brain did come up with another recommendation that doesn't feature anime weirdness, but is not necessarily wholesome. This one is my-wife approved as well:

  • Mushishi - This is an anthology cataloging the travels of a person named Ginko, who is something like a doctor. However, instead of treating people, he helps them deal with the effects of creatures that most people can't see called mushi. The series is exceedingly melancholic, deliberate, and sometimes dark, but it is probably my favorite anime of all time. Also, it is the subject of my favorite anime video essay of all time.
[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It’s hard to explain to people who know only anime fans.

Hating anime because of questionable content is like hating books because The Anarchist Cookbook or Mein Kampf exists. Anime is a medium that houses multiple genres, including ones you don't want to see. They may have greater freedom/available audience that are willing to watch "those" things, so they exist.

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

A Place Further than the Universe is goated. Its story is simple but a masterclass in execution.

Yuru Camp is one of the wholest-some anime out there.

[–] GreyCat@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

It's kind of hard for to recommend wholesome anime without too much anime tropes, maybe Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun ? But it's very much slice-of-lifey.
If you don't mind non-wholesome ones, my recommendations be: Attack on Titan, Death Note, Erased/Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Hunter X Hunter, Gangsta, Death Parade, Ookami to Koushinryou, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Initial D, AnoHana.
Also, those tropes are very much what comprises most anime, maybe anime is just not for your partner ¯\(ツ)/¯

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago

As for suggestions:

I wouldn't think of Cowboy Bebop as wholesome, but watch the movie if you haven't.

Kaguya-sama

Bocchi the Rock

Mob Psycho

Jujutsu Kaisen

Komi Can't Communicate

Blue Lock

Fullmetal Alchemist

Spirited Away

Call of the Night

Howl's Moving Castle

[–] hitagi@ani.social 4 points 11 months ago

I saw The Boy and the Heron in theaters a few days ago! I thought it was incredibly fun. A little bit slow at first with an awkward beat or two but a lot of the fantastic elements come pouring in after the first act. I found it a bit difficult to understand though.

More of my thoughts (spoilers):It's set during World War II but the images are nothing like Grave of the Fireflies or The Wind Rises. It's a lot more abstract and it's hard to draw direct relationships with what was on screen with the war. I think most people can point out some of the more absurdist themes however. The movie being magical realist helps. There's a scene that talks about fabricating an ideal world versus living in the real world which might be the basis of its other themes on memory and existentialism. I don't want to spoil so much.

and the warawara are so cute!

[–] SnowGator@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Actually had a decent amount of time this week to watch. Enjoying several of the new shows.

  • Delicious in Dungeon - First two episodes were a urprisingly fun and well animated. Had no idea what this was and really liking it!
  • Frieren - Still really good. Although I do miss having some small arcs instead of mostly self contained episodes. Feels like things haven’t been moving much lately.
  • Solo Leveling - First two episodes were pretty good. Not sure where it’s going. Hasn’t blown me away.
  • Apothecary Diaries - Still catching up. Somewhere in first cour, and it’s really good.
  • 100 Girflriends - Finished S1. It was okay. I liked the completely absurd moments, and did not at all see some pivotal moments coming, which was fun. But the harem itself is hard for me to care about. I strongly dislike the child-like girlfriends. It’s hard to shake the yuckiness of those.
  • The Dangers in my Heart - First episode of S2 so far. I love the vibes of this show. It feels so relatable and touching. This is likely a must-watch for me. I always feel so cozy after one of these.

More happening this season than I expected!

[–] wjs018@ani.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Frieren - I do miss having some small arcs

Well, this second cour has been advertised with trailers and visuals all centered around the First Class Mage Exam. So, it is pretty safe to say that the exam won't be done in just 1-2 episodes or else that is a lot of marketing devoted to a small part of the story.

100 Girlfriends

The issue you raised doesn't get better as the story proceeds and there are actually some more problematic age-gap relationships to come. I personally thought it was less of an issue in manga form than when it is fully voiced and animated.

Dangers in My Heart

I bounced off the first episode of this series pretty hard back when it first aired. However, I have seen so much positive reception this season that I might have to go back and get a couple more episodes in before I judge it too harshly. There are plenty of shows that have a shaky start and then find a rhythm (there are the opposite as well).

[–] GreyCat@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Dangers in My Heart

I really recommend it, I don't understand why the author thought it was a good idead to make the MC so much more edgy in the the beginning (first one or two episodes). I had even dropped the manga because of that. The MC is really not anything like in the first episode or two, so push through them if you can. It's really an enjoyable anime after that.

[–] GreyCat@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Seasonal anime:

  • Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season: I have missed this anime so much, still love this, the sound design is still great, the anime is wholesome, can't ask for much more.
  • Hime-sama, "Goumon" no Jikan desu: Watched the first episode, probably not my thing, I didn't enjoy the premise, dropped.
  • Yubisaki to Renren: Thanks /u/kikuri@ani.social for recommending this, I liked the first two episodes, I had liked koe no katachi a lot, so a romance with a deaf character looks pretty good to me !
  • Classroom of the Elite 3rd Season: Still pretty good if not somewhat confusing.

First time I am seeing adaptations for manga I had read such a long time ago and a bunch of them at the same time:

  • Solo Leveling: One of the big ones of the season, only two episodes yet and not much has happened so we'll se how it develops but so far so good. I can't help but wonder if it should have had korean VAs but eh, I guess japanese it is.
  • Dosanko Gal wa Namaramenkoi: I think I am more okay with this show than most, it's a romcom in which the FMC is a gyaru that's not a bully for once, in a winter setting at Hokkaido. The MC is pretty bland so what decides wether you'll watch this is the FMC and the visuals.
  • Nozomanu Fushi No Boukensha: I read this when it didn't even have 10 chapters, I don't remember much but so far the anime is pretty generic. Not worth it if you aren't into the genre. Will keep watching for now but I am not expecting much.
  • My Instant Death Ability Is Overpowered: I think the manga was of better quality, I don't like the animation much, but will keep watching 'cause it has some interesting ideas so I want to see how it pans out.

EDIT Oh yeah there's also:

  • The wrong way to use healing magic: This one has also been in the back of my mind for a long time, a tad bit less original than I remembered but it's still one of the first mangas I've ever read.

non-seasonal:

  • Shin no Nakama ja Nai...: I have rewatched and completed the first after seeing that it just got a 2nd season. And I do not recommend it, it's ok at the start and it has a few nice aspects to it but the characters and their motivations are a bit too dumb/forced, the action animation and fights kind of hurt to look at. The last few episodes are especially bad. It's not completely terrible but I would avoid this.
[–] wjs018@ani.social 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

a romance with a deaf character looks pretty good to me

On a similar note, I recently wrote over in !manga@ani.social about how much I enjoyed reading You Talk Too Much, So Just Shut It Already! which is a romcom with a deaf female lead. The story is still ongoing, but it has been great so far. One of the best things about it is how her being deaf is never portrayed as some kind of disability or shortcoming, it is just something that is different about her.

[–] GreyCat@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Will definitely check that out, thanks for the recommendation o/

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I feel lied to by Startust Telepath: I thought it's about rocketry. It was about the friendship (and yuri) they made along the way.

Started watching Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable. It shows promise.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This comment led me to wonder if there was an anime series about rocketry. I knew there were shows that had mostly realistic depictions of space travel (Planetes for instance) and orbital mechanics. However, I was looking for something like October Sky, but anime. The closest I found was Rocket Girls, which I had not heard of prior to this. So, that was interesting, I might have to check it out.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. If you can ignore the strong christian overtones.

And my personal fav, Oh! Edo Rocket.

[–] wjs018@ani.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

These look great as well! Both Rocket Girls and Oh! Edo Rocket came out in 2007, which must have been a bit of a blind spot for me anime-wise. Looking back at that time period, I was pretty busy with school and had recently started dating my (now) wife. So, I guess I had other things to do with my time.

[–] ludrol@bookwormstory.social 2 points 11 months ago

Irina the vampire cosmonaut - when it was airing the r/anime threads ware a delight. Someone went to the muzeum and asked a bunch of questions about spacecraft and gear shown in anime. Space Brothers - I watched just a couple of episodes but the show is quite realistic.

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Is Saikyou Tank worth watching?

It seems to have high viewing numbers, but I never see anyone talking about it.

It's not on any of the /c or /r charts, so where are all the people who watch it?

[–] wjs018@ani.social 1 points 11 months ago

I just took a quick glance through the discussion threads on reddit and it doesn't really strike me as that interesting. A brief summary of what I was able to piece together (I put it behind spoiler tags, but I don't think it will be that surprising if you read the synopsis):

Strongest Tank summary through ep. 3MC is the tank for the hero's party, but then the hero decides to kick him out for an evasion tank instead because it is more trendy (I also think the new tank is a hot girl rather than burly dude). Turns out that the MC was actually super OP and the hero is a huge jerk! MC decides to head to his hometown to see his sister (he is a huge siscon). He runs into some other adventurer on the way back to his hometown and they find out that he also has a super powerful offensive ability as well. The hero's party proceeds to fall apart without Mr. Super Tank as a harem of old and new women form around the MC.

That is what I have been able to piece together up through episode 3 anyway. I am watching enough this season that I don't think I have enough time to devote to it. Frankly, nothing really catches my attention from what I have gleaned. Additionally, screenshots I have seen from the threads show that the character models are nice, but there are some definite budget constraints when it comes to animating the environment/enemies.