Anime and Manga - The Bear and Badger

Tempy

Ah, I know roughly where you are.

You've already met Chairman Netero, in the airship bit. His character goes places and is sort of key to understanding the world of the show. Keep an eye out for the weird bracket placings he gives some people later in the arc.

Love his design too, says a lot about his character even if you don't know it yet.

The next part of the exam arc is good though. I would say that despite the insane buy in, if you aren't hooked by episode 36 you probably never will be. It's the episode that sort of concludes the first third of the show, and if you feel excited about that episode you'll like the whole show.

Nina

Yeah the episode with the chairman was interesting. Had some good insight in the two kids too (Gon and his friend, forgot the name).

Episode 36 you say ehh, think Netflix has 26 episodes per season so I wonder if everything is there. Don't really want to look as the summary for the next episode is quite full of spoilers in this case.

Nina

Just had a look at Netflix, only 58 episodes there (seasons are divided a bit strange, 26, 12 and 20 episodes each season if I remember right).

Will that website you sent me for JoJo also have the rest of HxH, @Tempy?

Tempy

Ok so it sounds like Netflix has the Hunter Exam, Heaven's Arena and Yorknew City/Phantom Troupe arcs, which are all really good. If you enjoy them it's definitely worth hunting down the following arcs, Greed Island and Chimera Ant.

LivDiv

What is Yu Yu Hakusho?

Any interest in the "collective rare trax" soundtrack?

Tempy

YuYuHakasho was Togashi’s first stab at a shonen manga, ended in its prime when Togashi reached his physical limits

LivDiv

Thank you for your answer but I have no idea what much of that means.
Seems prestigious mind.

For semi context I have in my possession a copy of the rare trax CD.

Tempy

I imagine it as a lot of fans as Togashi is considered one of the greats and YYH is well loved by many!

Sorry, had a few bevvies.

LivDiv

No worries mate cheers. Am in the same state.
If anyone wants it I'm happy to pass on for 15 quid posted.
Seems to be half going rate.

LivDiv

Basically does Reg want it before I eBay it.

cosmicjellybean

I genuinely did a “what the fuck?!” when I put on NGE on Netflix last night.

Still interested in watching it all the way through again, but Shinji and the new VO is gonna take a lot of getting used to. And not sure about those new subs either...

Still have the OG dvd boxset somewhere so can dig it out if necessary I guess.

Rebuild 3.0+1.0 is next year now, right?

Tempy

New subs are shit. They totally fucked io Kawarou and Shinji’s bonding, took away all the ambiguity and homoerotic undertones and replaced with some total bullshit about Shinji feeling “worthy of his grace”

cosmicjellybean

Yeah that’s what I read. It’s a shame as it was a massive deal (for me) when I first watched it, and with their relationship in particular.

Apparently it doesn’t quite take away the fact they have deeper feelings for each other, and that Shinji finally has someone who accepts him and has genuine feelings for him, but yeah, I’ll need to watch it fully to comment.

It looks really shitty from what I’ve seen so far

Brooks

Imagine caring about Evangelion.

cosmicjellybean

Get outta here yous.

hylian_elf

Manga exhibition at the British Museum was decent. As with the video games exhibition at the V&A, it’s mostly aimed at newbies, the general public who wouldn’t mind an insight into medium. But there’s enough there even for a veteran to appreciate. All nicely set out and good lighting etc, but that’s expected.

Some nice artwork on display, including a 70ft or so long tapestry/curtain from late 19th century, as well as some original prep and final manga pages.

hylian_elf

My more knowledgable cousin tells me that Berserk is still going. Is that right?

I came out of there wanting to read Berserk and also Vagabond.

Tempy

Berserk is over 30 years old. Good luck waiting for Miura to publish more than a chapter ever year at the minute. Also big chat about it on the last few pages.

Brooks

Vagabond is pretty decent and beautifully drawn, but if you've read the source material the divergences and compressions can be a bit distracting.

mistercrayon

I am watching this evangelion and eight episodes in it feels like incel propaganda.

Amongst other things, natch.

Tempy

Only two episodes of JoJo: Golden Wind left, but on of them is three weeks away as it’s a double. Chomping at the bit as it’s full mental and I love.

Currently educating by watching the 2007 OVA of Giant Robo, can definitely see how influential the manga it was based on was. Especially to stuff like Eva.

Frosty

Tempy old pal I have finished the HxH anime. The chimera ant saga was like a very long gut punch.

Up until that point I was enjoying it but that was so different to any other shonen show I've seen.

Tempy

Ah hell yeah! Glad you enjoyed. Chimera Ant is exceptional. It's maybe a bit overlong, but the second half of it is just fantastic, ridiculously good stuff. I think the reason it works so well is that Togashi is very intimate with shonen, and so he doesn't shy away from letting the show revert back to the shonen stuff when it needs to, it's just that deviating from it means that returning to it makes a point rather than feeling formulaic.

The Netero/Meruem stuff is one of the best things in the whole show as well, though I think people before the whole Gon/Killua dynamic.

Frosty

Chimera ant is definitely too long but it still mostly works. You get 30 episodes into the attack on the Palace and it ends with "it has been two minutes since the attack commenced" or something. And that happens multiple times. Its bonkers.

I really liked that for the most part it inverted my expectations on how it would go. I was always expecting each arc to end with a big bad that had to be overcome but for a lot of the series it instead ends with the motivation being something other than winning a fight. The zoldyck rescue ends with everyone chatting and kinda just working things out. It was nice.

Tempy

Yeah, it's always really interesting. The long drawn out stuff in the palace attack coupled with the narration is a big hard to digest, but it's about as you can make the animation match the manga - Togashi is pretty famous for writing a lot more than he draws as his back is a big problem for him so he often can't draw for long periods.

That said, I think it works because it shows how crucial basically every second is for them when they finally get inside, a single mistake would be massive.

I also really like how Gon subverts the typical Shonen protagonist, especially in the way that he frequently mirrors Hisoka. One of my favourite touches is at the end of Greed Island

Spoiler:

mistercrayon

Finished the old Evangelion.

Ha I imagine the fucking online larks and fun if that final episode came out now...before we knew if there was a two part film years later. Btw: Netflix has this edit where you watch a whole credits between part one and two in the film.

I’m glad I persisted I feel like the objectionable parts wound around to a point where at least they sort of narratively justified it (I don’t believe Major Katsugari is treated well at all and Kaji can go right in a fucking dustbin). Still think Shinji is too much of a fantasy cipher for dorks - and the ending does not really persuade me otherwise

Spoiler:

I think it’ll be interesting to watch the films once they’re all out. I tried watching the first one but it was too breakneck iirc.

cosmicjellybean

They put up the first 10 minutes of the final rebuild of Evangelion film, 3.0+1.0

I’ve seen the first 3 films and from the footage I can see that

Spoiler:

mistercrayon

Expanding on what I’ve said re:vangelion.

I learnt afterwards there was a backlash on the first ending of the series and the follow up ending was in part a proto mass effect 3/game of thrones/all nerd crap Bullshat.

I feel that helps me reframe some of the egregiousness of the series, in the sense that yeah of course the main character is a complete nice guy shit and therefore the show is pandering to nice guy shit heads. There’s probably a little too much cake and eat it but perhaps the having the cake is the price to put the show on and the fact there’s a cleave point right through the middle of the series allows the having of the cake to be separate from the eating of the cake from an artistic stand point.

Tempy

The show was also written episode to episode and is largely based on Anno’s experiences with depression. I dunno about Shinji being a quote-unquote nice guy as he’s not after sex or relationships, just acceptance.

mistercrayon

Apart from that time when he was millimetres to kissing a sleeping Asuka.

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