I remember liking the graphic novels back in like 2008 but I have NO idea whether they hold up!
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scottās rumiko takahashi-style charmed guy who sucks in the mode of a webcomic has such a different valence now vs. 2010 that itās going to be something. i have to imagine the actors and staff returning from the movie are aware of its ignominy as the graduate for self-loathing nintendo guys
iāve been sending a friend this gif of kim pines to express my feeling when theyāre too much for over a decade
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not exactly something i wanna revisit but knives in anime form could be cool
Considering the comic is a very good deconstruction of nerd protagonists that has been largely replaced in the publicās eye by the well made but terribly altered ending of the movieā¦this seems like it might be good considering the science saru involvement.
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itās like belladonna of sadness meets mr arashis amazing freakshow. I keep pausing and staring at so many backgrounds
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love bani-chanās art so much!
important bocchi the rock news
bocchi is a gamer 
unfortunately this means there can only be 12 episodes of the anime
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Speaking of Belladonna I found out that the director of that and the guy who did Night Of The Galactic Railroad did a short film a few years ago in Belladonnaās style thatās not been made available yet.
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I will still watch this eagerly BC it looks amazing visually but Iām not loving the tone so far. Seems too seriousā¦Idk if telegraphing spider man 2099 as the antagonist so obviously is a great idea but maybe itās misdirection
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Iāve been binging Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor. Iām nearing the end of the E-Card arc. I canāt stop watching, Iām so gripped by it! I canāt believe how much Squid Game straight-up lifted from this, but Iām enjoying this a lot more.
At first the art style completely turned me off. The characters look grotesque and angular, the backgrounds are drab, and thereās a ton of bad mid-2000ās anime CGI.
Iāve sort of come around on it though. This is a story about deeply exploited, alienated people on the margins of society entering into situations where theyāre forced to distrust and fear each other. I donāt know that, like, Naruto style visuals would really cut it. These guys are weird looking in a sort of true-to-life way. The fucked up art contributes pretty well to the tone.
I really appreciate how introspective this show is. It does that thing some anime does where youāre almost constantly inside the main characterās head, hearing his internal monologue. On top of that, you also get these ridiculous expressionistic visual metaphors for his emotions. Theyāre corny but theyāre extremely effective. Thereās this great scene where heās put into a coffin and transported through a building, and the animation and sound does an incredible job at putting you in his shoes, making you feel the claustrophobia of it and giving you a surprisingly strong sense of the motions of the coffin and what he can tell about his environment from within it, without giving you any knowledge he wouldnāt have himself. Very impressive and novelistic dedication to this manās interiority.
I love the showās clumsy sincerity.
Itās also such a great thriller, really keeps you in suspense, tons of great twists and turns. Also maybe the most unsubtly marxist anime Iāve seen?
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The Kaiji manga was one of my favs, was very excited to find an official release for real cheap a few weeks ago, told myself Iām not gonna buy more than two volumes but maybe Iāll get weak and keep goingā¦
I recently googled ābest mahjong mangaā cuz I think Iām turning into a grandpa, I ask computers for āthe bestā, and the most trustworthy-seeming lists I found had two Nobuyuki Fukumoto in the top slotsā¦very exciting stuffā¦much of Akagi seems to be scanlated but itās very old timey shit, I think they were using MS Paint for it, would love a higher quality version, maybe thereās one out thereā¦if I look
Anyway I enjoyed the anime too
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watched the first three episodes of Uncle from Another World, an gag anime about the titular uncle who got iskeaiād before the playstation 2 released and recently came back to modern japan with actual magic powers and is trying to use them to become a youtuber along with his nephew who agrees to put him up
itās definitely a āthrow a ton of jokes and references at the viewerā trash show but itās entertaining so far? uncle has the videogame taste of an insert credit poster and will rant about guardian heroes to anyone who will listen and all of his isekai adventures involve him being chased by an angry āorc huntingā mob because he looks like a regular human being and not an anime character
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Kaiji loses its way after a few story arcs. Once it gets to the pachinko gambling arc, I was done. That first story arc really is the best one, and its the only one with a clear leftist reading to it.
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That sounds fine though since it describes most manga. I get the impression the commercial imperatives generally make hit manga continue long after the inspiration runs out. Like every series has the Simpsons problem, but it usually hits much earlier unless itās both a rich concept and an author with a particular talent at continuing without rehashing nor jumping the shark (and making one good arc requires so much talent already!)
I consider it normal at this point to drop out of series somewhere between volumes 2-6, as when I start sensing diminishing returns it doesnāt usually recover. I donāt really blame the author for this, I just wish publishers would encourage them to write more miniseries and move on to other ideas.
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Oh I agree, and Kaiji is a great example of a shonen series that should have ended after the first arc. It didnāt need an endless succession of escalating schemes and corresponding watering down of the premise to āgood gambler versus evil gamblerā
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Isnāt that the 4th Colossi
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