Blimey... I thought my last hiatus of about a month was long, now I've only just come back after 5 or so months, as a result, I have built up way too much to cover here so I'll point out some of my more recent viewings, sadly not much anime on my end.
Live action One Piece
As you might gather from my new (and actually first) signature, I am incredibly suprised by this one, it's actually pretty good... yeah, I'm as baffled by this revelation as anyone else, when this was announced I was naturally skeptical, putting aside the fact that live action anime adaptations are usually pants for one moment, how on earth were they to transfer One Piece's super wacky character designs to live action? the answer is that they didn't really, at least not with the anatomically out there characters but they did a good job of making the most of what they could within the confines of live action; it is worth noting that there are an absolute ton of changes from the source material, though the most important parts are left intact, I have mixed feelings about the changes with some being great, while others are not so great, if I actually get time to review this I'll probably go into more detail as I have not yet finished this (just one episode off) but yeah, overall, I kind of liked this one, it has a good mix of being dark and light hearted in the right ways and I actually like it's somewhat edgier tone because it gives a good balance with the lighter parts, it's a different flavour of a timeless story that thankfully doesn't mess around too much with the most integral parts of the original story, in any case, speaking of stuff I was not expecting good things from but was suprised by.
Despicable Me 1... I must stress.... 1
The first Despicable Me film was another big suprise to me, I nearly didn't give it a chance because I can't stand the minions... at least, if they are not restrained, though here minons are not actually all that bad, mostly just keeping to the background and leaving most of the action up to the true protagonist of this franchise, Gru, unlike any other Illumination film that I've seen, this one actually has clever writing, great character development and actual emotional scenes that are not forced or badly implemented, this one is actually genuinely good, which is surreal given Illumination's track record, this one gave me some hope that maybe I'll enjoy the sequel as well buuuuuuutt.
Despicable Me 2
Nope... at least nowhere near as much as I did the first film, the writing quality takes a nosedive, the minions are far more common here than they are in the first film, irritating the viewer and wasting said viewers time to the best of their abilities, and the best parts of Gru's story arc have already been told in the first film, it's not completely devoid of merit, it is nice to see how Gru has changed after the events of the first film but aside from a few scenes, this one is just ok at best and little more.
Sing
This is as far as I'm gonna go into the Illumination abyss I think, overall this one isn't great, it was just ok ish, I didn't hate this one but it wasn't that great either and when the elephant character was singing hallelujah I just wanted to watch Shrek as that is a far better film with that song... anyway I'd heard the sequel was better soooo...
Sing 2
This one is perhaps more enjoyable than the first as far as spectacle goes but I'm honestly not sure, the first film didn't make me feel much while this one just baffled me with some of it's story decisions, at best I can call this one a guilty pleasure because it has a far more interesting setting than the first film and visually it is great, it's just a shame the story seems to be missing crucial context for some of the character's actions; overall, this one was only ever so slightly better than the other Illumination films I've seen that are not Despicable Me 1.
Vinland Saga S2 Episodes 1 to 6
Now for some actual anime and back to something that's actually genuinely good, here we have yet another anime that I seriously need to knuckle down and watch for real, maybe over a weekend I'll try to binge this one like I did with the first because, just like the first, this one is also really good so far, it takes more of a slice of life approach as opposed to it's all action predecessor but it allows for more character development to shine, overall I actually really like Vinland Saga and I would watch more of it if I could just find the time to sit through the entire show as it does have that, just one more episode, vibe to it.
There's waaaayyy more stuff I haven't covered here but, well, that'll take all day and then some.