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It's more of Kamiyama team, Kanno, and I.G's goodness, so that's assured full marks on the presentation aspect. At first, I found it more challenging to follow than the first season - dunno if this has anything to do with my marathon of much lighter stuff before - but I slowly get on the pace as it goes. The complex plot aims for a higher bar with lots of stuff happening and details to keep in mind is probably what made it feel a bit convoluted earlier, and so far, I find myself drawn to The Laughing Man case along with season one's hones on identity and individuality more, though Gouda is an interesting character, and I heard lots of hype and epic for the Individual Eleven; the snowball is rolling still, and my stance may change.

Another thing, the standalone episodes are overall stronger here thanks to their tie to the 'complex' plot and breath of characterization for the Section 9 members giving the writers a lot more to work with and intrigue to shoot in. You're right, "Less of an exploration and more of an analysis, allowing the storyline to be less dense and convoluted, with greater emphasis on characterisation." That Major's backstory and Paz's affair, man... and other episodes so far have been nothing but great (still, no standalone episode beats Machine Desirantes though lol). So yeah, while I still prefer the first season at the moment, it's everything I can expect from the continuation of the legendary Stand Alone Complex.

Btw, I see the Trigun watch is going strong :p I would've dropped it personally

Hmm... honestly can't say that I find it very enjoyable, but I like how it conceptualizes augmented tech with a thorough, rock-solid ground and never break its rules that it becomes plausible. It also showcases some fun ideas, like in ep 12, with fluid and crisp visuals to bring said ideas to life. Where it falls short is in the filler-y script turns melodramatic in the second half. Now, I know Kanna's death and the mystery surrounding it is a problem that needs to be tackled seriously as it cost real danger, but when it's shown from the perspectives of children that take virtual reality a bit too seriously, I just feel it to be needlessly 'heavy' and dramatic where I think a different, lighter approach can work better. It also doesn't help that I feel little to no connection with the characters; lots of the episodes could've been utilized better before full-dive into the mystery.

TL;DR: Dennou Coil is something that, while I don't get as much enjoyment as I would like from it, I still respect. I appreciate its ideas and its brilliant executions of them, though I wish the script could be tighter and choose a different approach to the characters.

yeah, i can see that. i'm still onto your 200th milestone, it grows excruciatingly slow by the count lmao. i'll look forward to see you back, but for the meantime, good luck on your endeavors. as for myself, i've been going into graveyard shifts at a hospital recently — it's what kept me busy the past months, alongside prelim exams. kind of excited because i might get to experience assisting with childbirth delivery. meanwhile, i'm having a hard time editing my lists. now that i've transferred all my tags onto notes, i need to manually rephrase words to keep the length aligned. its not efficient nor is it even necessary, but I just got to.

oh, and i saw your manga recommendation. thanks, great to see stack challenges are back. i only ever get badges from those.

In that case, assuming you haven't gotten to it, I'd recommend No. 5 for something truly unique; it's his most convoluted yet due to constant jumps in perspective but remains compelling with insanely creative world-building, a fairly eccentric antagonist and with political critique and the like.

I guess I'm also very biased since I first read it when it was "cult" since part 1 had just finished publishing, thus my expectations were "hey i heard it's pretty good", rather than hearing it's his best work. I hate to say it since it feels like some sort of coping mechanism from a big Fujimoto fanboy, but it was my re-read/s that helped me realise it's true quality. Of course, though, your enjoyment of CSM is subjective and it'd be stupid of me to think our tastes and/or expectations would line up 100%. Surprised you read Fire Punch and Look Back before CSM, though, since they're his lesser known works. Not by much, considering how much his works in general have blown up but still.

Thanks once again! Didn't expect someone to enjoy my stacks beyond me just showing off my taste, lol. Would've thought it a bit generic.

And thanks for the request! I thought I had already sent one before but I guess not.

I also see that you're reading Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. What are your first impressions of it so far?

For sure, and Monogatari has some absolute bangers! My favourites are perfect slumbers from Neko: Kuro and white lies from the Second Season (exclusive to the Blu-ray version iirc). I can't wait to complete the rest of Monogatari once I've completed my college stuff.

Those are good too! Monogatari is one of the few anime with a catchy ost. Banger after banger. Renai Circulation is another classic for me. Not just that but they are meme material :)

Yeah, you should give them a watch. Part 2 of S2 gives the original season a run for its money, and even the weaker installments are better than most anime I've come across.

I just finished some of the sequels and loved them. Quality is slightly worse but it's still amazing nonetheless <3

That's a noble ambition, and I think you've succeeded in doing just that.

Thank you, that's good to hear! ^.^
Speaking of interest stacks, I saw that you restacked my 2nd part of Atypical manga topics. I think you'll find a liking to the first part as well and there's some series that are worth checking out :D https://myanimelist.net/stacks/7922
I also just made a interest stack for casuals or newcomers. But it's mainly for casual viewers who don't watch anime. Like your normie friends. Which involves a lot of hype in these series. https://myanimelist.net/stacks/24364

Btw, do you recommend the Aria manga over the anime?

Personally, yes. But Origination does the manga justice. The OST, voice acting, animation, they encapsulated everything that the manga presented. It is peak iyashikei imho. The art in the manga is gorgeous though

Damn, just saw that you finished two seasons of mono. I was curious about your thoughts on hanekawa panty shots, what do you think Akiyuki Shinbo is trying to tell us?

He is really one of the best. His crude line-art tends to turn people off, based off of my friend's experience with Ping Pong's art-style, but in spite of that, his works in general really are works of art and with the exception of No.5 and maybe GoGo Monster, I love how he's able to charge his rather simple narratives with complex emotions and nuanced characters. But, ofc, this is a bit skewed since I haven't read the rest of his works. And yeah, I.G are just brilliant.

Ah, well, personally, your CSM take isn't one I agree with. For me, the story had a lot of moments where the reader is almost required to connect the dots with the amount of subtleties, visual and dialogue-wise, they're given, which actually enhanced the experience for me. And the infamously rushed pacing wasn't an issue, either, since I found the characterisation, relationships and character growth rich enough, in spite of how little chapters they were covered in.

Also, I'm hoping I don't come off as a horny idiot, but the raunchiness was fine to me since it was either psychological manipulation, from Makima's behaviour towards Denji, or simply from Denji's perspective. Not all of the raunchiness is from these two (a very specific lesbian orgy is an obvious example) but to continue my point regarding Denji's perspective; he is a 16 year old whom suffered from neglect up until after the initial zombie arc, thus his fantasies and sexual desires are going to be at full throttle, at least until he discovers what a "true" relationship is like much later in Part 1. But at this point, I'm just rambling lol.

Btw, what about my stacks enticed you, if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks, your kind words mean a lot to me :) The longer ones oftentimes took forever for me to hone, so I'm glad that someone else appreciates them. The same can pretty much be said for yours as well, and the reviews you posted on Letterboxd are amazing, keep them coming! Lots of my Notes are also outdated and were written on Tags, I just added some little touches as I transferred them once the new feature dropped, but I guess my recent, longer ones buried them overtimes lol. Glad to see another Inuko enjoyer :p

Oh yeah, I also wanted to say, I like the whole profile setup and your list/s. Reading takes different to my own is always interesting, even if I obviously don't agree at times.

Oh, hey, thank you so much. Yeah, the stacks were weirdly fun to make. I'm liking your favourites as well, especially the plethora of Taiyo Matsumoto and IG stuff. Don't see too many fans of Tekkon, let alone in their top 10 (presumably), at least in my experience.

picked up Ad Astra: Scipio to Hannibal? hell yeah, that's a gemstone.

it took longer than expected, but i'm back although i'll be keeping comments disabled for the time being. i'm editing my lists, similar to yours, and it'll take some time to transfer all of my entries. anyway, i just wanted to drop by here.. it's good to see you're active again, too, i assume? let's catch up sometime nino!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before how big a fan I am of your stacks. They're comprehensive and the titles are well-chosen, love them.

Thank you! My goal with the stack is to show what anime/manga is capable of. It is more than just mere entertainment. I hope I shed light for the mature audience.

I shall take my time to check them out. Thanks for the heads up! Took a quick glance, noticed you have Ergo Proxy, which has my favourite OP and arguably my favourite ED (it's definitely the best from a purely musical standpoint, but no visuals :( , the OP is extremely well-edited). Laughed out loud when I saw the Tsukihi OP from Monogatari, it's a crazy choice, love it.

You have good taste in music. It doesn't hurt to enjoy weeb music. They are just very catchy :P

I thought it was great. It's not exactly groundbreaking considering that it's a very Mushishi-esque story (and I mean that it in the best way possible), but the selling point for me in the later seasons was the quality of direction, execution, atmosphere, etc. even if the stories followed paths similar to the ones trodden in the past. This was another glowing example of that. I really appreciate how it took a step back from the more specific and isolated one-off tales to talk about humans and their place in the natural order. This was the perfect episode/movie to end on, it ties everything wonderfully well, despite not being the absolute best that Mushishi has to offer imo. Not the pinnacle, but a worthy addition is what I'd call it.

Ig it's time to watch the sequels. I was too lazy to watch them. Which was why I specifically asked you that question lol