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Dr Stone episodes 13-18. Finally we have confrontation. All going well so far, although I'm worried that the village is supposed to have been there for 3,000 years without any change in language. Bit the bullet and ordered season 2 from CEX.

AKB47 Request 100 Live at the Tokyo Dome 2012: Finished this four DVD extravaganza. Eight hours of hordes of girls in cute costumes singing and dancing (and doing some comedy routines). I'm impressed that the shows, recorded over four nights, featured the top 100 songs from the group(s). They do work hard. The fifth disc is a behind the scenes and I'm not sure it's worth a watch until I learn a lot more Japanese. Still, good value for £20.
 
Kaiju No. 8 Episode 1
Fun romp with nice animation. Good blend of over the top shōnen action with some (actually humorous) humour thrown in. Brain off and enjoy 👍

Memories Film anthology
Magnetic Rose
From the synopsis, I thought this would be really creepy. It wasn’t as much as I thought but the atmosphere it created was really cool. I really enjoyed the story and the animation was decent. Some CG stuff suffered from the time it was made but thankfully it wasn’t too much to ruin the film.

Stink Bomb
This was my favourite out of the three films. I liked the character style a lot and despite the story being about a major calamity, it still remained funny and light.

Cannon Fodder
This was my least favourite by a strong margin. The concept is cool but I think I’d rather read it as a short comic/manga than watch as a short film. The animation reminded me of soviet animation as well as Monty Python, but they have never been an aesthetic that I’ve clicked with.

A rose, a bomb and a whimper walk into a bar… 🌹💣😪
 
Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers ep 1: This standard isekai romp is at least kind of funny in its half-assed storytelling, though I don't really see the point in continuing further. The hero is summoned to one fantasy world from another, conveniently sidestepping the 'typical Japanese schoolboy' nonsense. Unfortunately, he's rejected after being summoned - his power level wasn't high enough - and given hush money before being shipped off to a dangerous corner of the land to live in isolation since nobody can be bothered to work out how to send him home. It's only then that he levels up by accident and discovers that all of his stats are now off the charts (sort of - despite being blessed with maxed-out intelligence he's as dumb as a rock). The usual RPG-style pop-up menus and intrusive interactive walkthroughs are on full display as he explains away his sudden manifestation of god-tier powers. At that point I was hoping that he would immediately ally with the enemy kingdom and crush his abductors but instead he just teleported back to the town which had just exiled him (a bit of a flex) and wibbled around until he upset a gathering of the local tsundere girls. All of whom then began worshipping him after a demonstration of his power, at which point we're introduced to a demon subplot which seems to involve hot babes. Meh?

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio ep 1: A very average anime about a pair of schoolmates who happen to be young voice actresses struggling to make their mark on an industry saturated with pretty women trying to be perfect multi-talented idols. The gimmick is that the lead is actually a trendy gal when she's not at work, while the prickly girl she meets in this first episode is a loner who takes everything very seriously. There's nothing wrong with the show, it just kind of lives or dies based on how much you like the dynamic between the two young women struggling to make it as idols, and how much you buy into the 'idols must pretend to be pure and flawless with no interesting traits of their own' ideal (I think individuality helps them to stand out, personally!) I'm not into it enough to keep watching but it was a pleasant enough first episode.

Viral Hit ep 1: A guy with absolutely no spine whatsoever teams up with one of the school bullies who treats him like garbage so that together they can take down the leader of the bullies by humiliating him via the medium of viral streaming videos (since the bully is a popular online influencer). The visuals are unappealing but the biggest problem is that every single character in the entire series is utterly unlikable; there's absolutely no nuance to be found anywhere in Viral Hit's world and it greatly hurts the story. The decision to localise all of the character names for the Japanese version when they're mentioned so often was also weird and annoying, because the subtitles use the original names and they are completely different. It's not the reason that I'm dropping the series but it did hamper my enjoyment.

A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics ep 1: Worlds collide when a struggling detective meets a young, magic-using princess from another world who has a remarkably inconsistent understanding of life in Japan. She ends up living with him (of course) and he teaches her a little about where she's ended up while she openly attempts to bend him to her will at every opportunity. They both also talk about food a lot. The series often feels like a barely-disguised tourism advertisement (it's set in Gifu, as the narrative will remind you every few minutes) but it's not terrible, and I do really like the princess' colourful design. It's just a shame that the main plot and male lead are so drab, and I also can't forgive them for not fully explaining how the detective's main case from the episode wrapped up! I know that it was probably not that interesting but as a fan of Detective Conan (this is topical as it's referenced throughout the episode) I'm used to there being a payoff to that kind of story.

Kaiju No. 8 ep 1: Unlike a lot of recent anime, which typically take an exciting-sounding concept and make it boring, Kaiju No. 8 takes a dull-sounding idea and turns in a story which is packed with tightly-plotted highs and lows. The result is a bit like a mash-up between Planetes and Attack on Titan; in a world where kaiju attacks are everyday occurrences, our hero works for an agency which cleans up the mess they leave behind. It's an unglamorous job and his childhood friend is one of the soldiers who actually fight the beasts, leaving him feeling glum about how his life has turned out - but never cynical or whiny. Everything looks great and shows smart attention to detail in the world building. I'm not into kaiju stories myself but the quality on display is impossible to ignore, so I'm going to give this a second episode to see where it goes. This first one genuinely held my attention from start to finish.

R
 
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF - Episode 1 [English Audio]:
I was waiting for confirmation that, like their seiyuu counterparts, Brina Palencia and J Michael Tatum return as Holo and Lawrence respectively and they sure did. Really is nice to be back with this once again, especially after listening to some of the audiobooks (with those 2 narrating, even it did occasionally leave me subconsciously thinking they would start narrating after finishing a sentence back here in the anime). Will definitely be keeping up with it.

One thing thing I noticed, they seem to be using an English version of the opening song for the dub, seems to be that its performed by the same singer, I like it.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1779981822182523106
 
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Gods’ Games we Play episode 3 Recruiting.

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf episode 3 Minted.

Train to the End of the World episode 3 Out of the light.

TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- season 2 episode 27 Damaged trust.

Ninja Robots Tobikage episodes 13-24
 
Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers Episode 2

Gods' Game We Play Episode 3

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability Episode 3

Re:Monster Episode 3

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 3

The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases Episode 4

TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- Season 2 Episode 27
 
Metallic Rouge - Episodes 8 - 13 [Final]

There was so much I wanted to like about Metallic Rouge but it was such a mediocre show!! Honestly, I found it painfully dull at times and by the time the finale came round I couldn't care less about what was happening.

Lord of Lords Ryu Knight - Episodes 46 - 49

I am still really enjoying Ryu Knight, it just has this dark edge that makes it so watchable. The run of the last 10 episodes or so has had a couple of recap episodes that in any other series I wouldn't pay much attention to but here I am glued to!

Kaijuu No. 8 - Episode 1

Now this was great fun, looking forward to more of this :)

RadFemHedonist said:
Wreck-It Ralph (REWATCH) - Def one of Disney's best CGI features, colourful and inventive with a good character arc for Ralph and Vanellope and plenty of fun stuff involving Fix-It Felix and Sergeant Calhoun as well :)

The Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 1 Episodes 31-39 COMPLETE (English dubbed) - I feel like I should have paid a bit more attention towards the end but my knee is hurting it's been a tough few days, still I think this absolutely deserves it's status as a classic family adventure anime, I enjoyed the mini-documentaries at the end of each episode as well :)
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I've been thinking about re-watching MCOG myself recently, I can remember watching it when it first aired on UK TV in the early 80's and it made such a huge impression on me, I last watched it at the end of the 00's and it stood up well then. I loved Wreck-It Ralph as well, such an inventive and entertaining film.
 
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Akira Film

So I’m in a film club where we have a theme picked each week (by the person that watched “the best film” from the week before) and this theme was dystopia. I’ve been wanting to watch Akira again for a while and kept putting it off for some reason.

This is actually my first rewatch since reading the manga a few years ago. I’ve been worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the film as much now, however that was not the case and it’s still sitting up there as one of my faves of all time.

Canadaaaaa! 🇨🇦 yeah I know it’s not spelt like that but 🤫 🤣


Ghost in the Shell Film (1995)

Damn this film looks good in UHD! I had to take a pic of the scene below as the colours looked so great.

Anyway, I’m ashamed to say that I think I’ve only ever watched this film twice and once was when it first came out. I thought I had a good handle on the plot and then it turned out that I actually remembered very little 🤣

Two Ghosts, One Shell 👻 👻 🐚

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RonJB said:
Konosuba season 2: Wow, there's a big IQ drop-off between my last anime (Dr Stone) and this bunch of overpowered frustrated virgins. Can it get dumber in season 3? I'm not sure I'm that interested in continuing watching.
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Yeah, the first episode of season 3 was pretty dumb, more so than the first two seasons. Plus it was nothing but that screaming and yelling "comedy" though the entire episode. I'm on the verge of dropping it here and not bothering with season 3, if the second episode isn't any better. But I'm sure most other Konosuba fans think it's the most wonderful thing since sliced bread.
 
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Film

Another rewatch of a film that I thought I remembered pretty well and it turned out I didn’t. I do remember that when it came out it was the first anime I watched that wasn’t about blowing things up 🤣 then I realised that anime could be about more than that.

Great afternoon film to chill to. I’m glad I managed to pick it up on Blu-ray as I have no idea where my DVD of it is now after so many house moves.

⏰
 
Bartender: Glass of God episode 3 Essential techniques.

Date A Live V episode 2 Stressing.

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3 episode 2 Persuasive princess.

Mysterious Disappearances episode 2 Back to school.

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio episode 2 Fried.

Ninja Robots Tobikage episodes 39-43 (Complete. An entertaining series that Discotek went above and beyond for in acquiring the dub.) 3.5/5

Ninja Scroll The Series episodes 1-7
 
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It’s Always Sunny in Konosuba 3 ep1

Hmm. I was a bit apprehensive about the prospect of Konosuba coming back. Season 2 feels like a lifetime ago and I was not that enamoured with the film, so the third round starting by rehashing one of the film‘s more cringeworthy gags didn’t do much to endear me to it. This does feel very much like a recap episode though, so shall reserve judgement for now. I still enjoy the dumb reaction faces at least.

Kaiju No.8 ep1

Good lord. Production IG really dug deep for this one, it looks amazing. The city with its cool colours and deep shadows interrupted by vast amounts of grue seems to be channeling nothing so much as Akira. I didn’t know what to expect from the plot, so realising that we‘re in for another ‘demon hero’ story did make me roll my eyes a little (”you mean it’s all Devilman?!” “Always has been”), but I can’t see myself not being onboard for the duration.
 
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