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I don't know when/if you'll hope back on but I do hope you're doing well my friend.

I wanted to quickly say, spoiler-free, that I loved the series finale for Supernatural, it's one of my favourite episodes in the whole series and honestly, makes me glad the series lasted as long as it did. That said, Season 15 as a whole is a contender for the worst season in the show lol.

Also, if you're looking for any recommendations, there's an 144 page One-shot called Look Back that should be available for read on Shueisha's Manga Plus site or Viz's Shonen Jump site. But it's a quick, beautifully profound story that's probably best I don't say much about it, and it's easily one of my favourite manga.

Hey man you seem like a pretty chill wouldn't mind having some discussions and arguments with you.

Glad to hear the third season of Attack on Titan was it's best, especially considering the next season is titled as the final one so I guess it's ending? I don't think the manga's ended yet, so I was surprised to read the final tagline, wonder if it'll be an anime original thing or if they're working on Isayama to reach the same conclusion or something.

And yeah, the battle between All Might & One for All was pretty surprising, I kinda got spoiled on it but still to see it handled with such a definite resolution like that took me back, but I absolutely loved it. I really like how quick the pace in MHA is, how most of the arcs only last a handful of episodes, though I would like to see an extended arc at some point. You know, I think I took a break from MHA at the same point you did. When it was airing weekly, I got to the episode right before the Hideout Raid stuff really happened, the one in the hospital, and stopped watching for months only to return to the best series of episodes in the run. Did you stop at the same point with that episode too?

I didn't recognize The Blacklist at all until you mentioned James Spader, I remember being interested in that show way back when they were first advertising it, had no idea that it was still airing. It certainly sounds interesting, though there's a few worrying elements in your rundown that makes me thing I should wait to see how it turns out at the end before investing the time into it. It feels weird to say this having consumed a ridiculous amount of Supernatural in my life, but the length of a lot of these shows is becoming more of a turn-off to me. Might still check this out though, especially since I'll likely be getting a Netflix subscription again at some point (haven't had one in a year or two I think), and that'd be another show to watch and make the purchase feel worthwhile.

The Good Place is a series I was always aware of, mostly because my friend watched some of it, and because I knew several of the cast & crew on the series (Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, & most importantly, Michael Schur) so I've had some tangential interest in it. Although I'll admit, I'm kinda taken aback by how well the series apparently utilizes it's premise. I suppose I shouldn't be, but I really didn't expect to hear that there's that much in the series to analyze. I also looked up and apparently the next season is an intentional final season, which means that once this all ends, I'm almost definitely going to check this out.

Oh wow, dude when we last talked about Supernatural you hadn't even finished season 6 iirc. The last thing I remember discussing was The French Mistake, to think Supernatural has since topped that in most out there episodes with a Scooby-Doo crossover (which unlike French Mistake, I actually liked). And man, I'm still salty about them killing Death, one of their worst decisions. As for Mary, I liked her resurrection if only because I loved Dean's "I hate you" scene, Jensen absolutely killed it and it was one of the best emotional payoffs in the series. I don't have much positive to say about her implementation outside of that scene, but that's beside the point. And yeah, I can't wait to see what Jensen does next too, I believe Marvel's had their eyes on him for a bit, I wonder if he'll jump into that franchise? To be honest though, I don't expect too much out from him (or Jared for that matter) for awhile after it ends. I know Jensen has a brewery and I expect both of them to want to take a break and be with their families for a bit.

So . . . quick thoughts on seasons 7-13? I'll do mine now, it's a lot of ground to cover so I'll try and brief.

Season 7 feels like a shonen filler arc to me, only exasperated by future seasons refusal to ever feature Leviathans again. Not that I can blame them, Leviathans were largely lame villains, ultimately amounting to just nigh-unkillable shape-shifters, and an entire season dedicated almost exclusively to them made them wear thin real quickly. It didn't help how they were a threat introduced so last-minute that accepting them as this monumental threat never felt tangibly tied to the world. I'll give it props for having balls though, no other season had the guts to limit Misha Collins to only five measly appearances and I've always had a feeling that Bobby probably wouldn't have been killed off in either the Carver or Dabb eras (definitely not in the Dabb era, Carver maybe). The theme of taking away all the toys the boys have grown to rely on is an interesting one though, I wish it paid off more. Did love "Death's Door" too, that was the high point of the season for sure.

Season 8 was a breath of fresh air, once Kevin stated that they can close the Gates of Hell I was like "finally, this feels like Supernatural". Coming after an entire season of nothing but Leviathans, this felt like a logical goal for them after season 5 (6's Alphas was an interesting concept that felt congruous with Supernatural's lore but it's also pretty disconnected from the previous seasons, closing the gates is a logical "loose" thread to pull from) and having Sam do the trials was a nice change of pace and fitting considering his role in opening them up in the season two finale. Kevin and Benny are two of my favorite characters introduced post-Kripke, and they both shined in this season. Castiel's story-arc here might be the last one I've actually enjoyed from him (he has good moments in other seasons, but nothing that felt like a proper arc [that I've enjoyed anyway]) and I thought Naomi was a decent antagonist. This is also Crowley's best season by a country mile, and "Sacrifice" is one of the best finales they've ever done. From the honest, emotional discussion Dean and Sam have at the church to end the trials to the iconography of the angels falling from Heaven (perhaps the best visual effects the show's ever had). And the Bunker and MoL were such a needed addition to the series. I do kinda prefer the road trip vibe of the earlier seasons, but much like Angels in four, the Bunker served as a fundamental shift in the show's identity and was at the very least, crucial for my continued interest. It's a nice level of growth that re-opened up the possibilities for the show, and made it feel fresh for the first time Post-Kripke. All the positive said, Taxi Driver made breaking into Hell way too easy and felt like it undermine the dramatic conflict of Season 3, and the first half of the season was rough, the less said about Amelia's story arc the better, and Sam decision to abandoned everything felt too out of character.

Season 9 is the worst season of the show. I didn't hate it at the beginning, but it was a constant series of poorly implemented half-baked story arcs and ideas that never really felt focused or cohesive. The Angel Civil War is probably the worst told plotline in Supernatural, we're introduced to the conflict in one episode only featuring one of the two leaders. The other leader, Malachi, is introduced in a separate episode, which wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't his only appearance and he didn't die off-screen. I remember being shocked that they had they gall to just kill off an established antagonistic so flimsily like that. And the amount of in-fighting between the Winchesters here was frustrating. I did like that they at least dedicated one episode where the two brothers didn't really interact, instead having Sam & Castiel team while Dean does with Crowley, but that aside, it was just the worst the brothers gotten. I didn't mind the brotherly angst in season 8 too much, but a lot of that's because it ultimately had a pay-off in "Sacrifice" with an honest conversation between the brothers. The fact they we got a resolution to their brotherly troubles then almost immediately jump back into the in-fighting with season 9 made the situation worse, and the resolution 9 provides of Dean dying and Sam admitting then he cared didn't carry any of the weight. I have my issues with 6 & 7 but they also provided at least one episode each I consider to be one of my favorites, I think the best one Season 9 had was the Dog episode. Oh, and "Bloodlines" was terrible.

Unlike most fans I've talked too, Demon Dean being resolved in three episodes didn't bother me much. Having three episodes solely dedicated to this one story arc was more than I was use to with Supernatural, and I thought the resolution worked. Albeit, I already knew Dean wasn't a Demon in the 200th episode before going into the season, and I knew the 200th was really early on, so I didn't have any expectation of it lasting longer. Which, I thought the 200th was great, but also my least favorite of the 100 episode milestone celebrations (Granted, Point of No Return was just a regular episode of Supernatural and not a celebratory one but still). My problem is that the Mark of Cain storyline that followed it was completely stagnant for most of it's run. With that kind of arc, there's no real room for progression until the end of the season where they have to resolve it, and I guess to be fair that's true of Season 3's story arc, but Season 3 really took advantage of the personal element of it's plotline, where to me, season 10 just kinda felt like Dean's obligatory dark-side run on the show. The only character moment I found interesting was that scene where Sam pointed out how long Cain lasted without killing, and that some of this was on Dean's desires too, but I don't really recall that getting meaningfully followed up. Also not a fan of the finale, Death's death really upset me, and The Darkness introduction as a threat was no better than the Leviathans (though to be fair, The Darkness is much harder to reasonably foreshadow, whereas the Leviathans easily could've been seeded earlier on).

Season 11 felt like it was aiming to actually be a continuation of the story's main myth arc in the first five seasons, and in a lot of places it really succeeded. I do think the first five seasons managed to feel grounded and real, whereas season 11 (and forward) definitely felt more like a comic book series, the last minute power escalation with The Darkness certainly didn't help that. Sometimes it felt a bit like a slap in the face to the first five seasons to be honest, with some of the ridiculous power scaling and also how Lucifer's characteristics embodied the more comical Hallucinations Sam experienced than what he was in Season Five (which makes sense, and this is admittedly more of a problem in the later seasons, since I loved seeing him attempt to manipulate Sam into being his vessel again, and the build-up in episodes like Baby was fantastic [side-note: Baby was fantastic]). "Baby" wasn't the best episode of the season though, that was "Don't Call Me Shurley", the ending of which is one of the best moments in the series. From Chuck's Fare The Well performance, interluded and followed by him healing everyone in Sam & Dean's plotline, the return of the Amulet, and finding Chuck with that beautiful instrumental piece, ending with the "we should probably talk". It was such a nice contrast to the often dour show, and perhaps the most mystical scene in the show. Gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it. Fun fact, Rob Benedict even stated in early drafts for the season, God was to die in 11 but CW nixed that idea. You can totally see the death flags in that episode (and I'm also really glad CW nixed that). I also loved how the Amara story-line ended, fitting the series core theme perfectly. I will note, the whole Amara has to grow up angle of the first half of the season wasn't very entertaining, mostly felt like unnecessary padding until the plot could really kick in.

I do like Season 12 more than seasons 6-7 & 9-10 but I also didn't really like this one. The British Men of Letters storyline was really disappointing, and I wish the series didn't feel the need to double down on how evil the organization was with a child murdering policy in order to enter like they had with Mick Davies (who continues the Supernatural trend of dying right after he could've been interesting). Wasn't a fan of the Lucifer plot all that much either, didn't like Rick Springfield's interpretation of the character, even if I liked that he portrayed him more menacingly, there was too big of a disconnect between his and Mark Pellegrino's performance (something Mark Pellegrino himself has even criticized). I don't recall caring too much for the Lucifer kid story either, though admittedly I'm glad for it now. There was definitely stuff I enjoyed in both of the story threads mind you.

Season 13 is probably my favorite Post-Kripke season, and it's mostly held back by the fact that it starts going off the rails a bit at the end. Retconning Gabriel's death, bringing him back for only a handful of episodes, and then have him die in the exact scenario they just retconned from "Hammer of the Gods" was kind of a baffling decision, it made his return feel largely just about allowing the plot into the alternate universe to push forward. Did really like that scene where he trashes Lucifer, and we see Lucifer shed a tear over being insulted so harshly by Gabriel, it was a nice character moment that felt in line with Lucifer's season five characterization, his love for his brothers was one of things that made him the best antagonist so I was glad to see it brought back into play, even if just for one scene. But the biggest flaw with the season was how awful the finale was. I liked all the scenes with Jack (him squashing Michael being my favorite moment, very cathartic and bad-ass) but oh boy, that wire-fight was laughably bad and while it's an interesting cliffhanger, the ending Thriller scene with the glowing eyes was so cheesy and bad.

But outside of that, I loved this season. The plot was really dynamic without feeling all over the place, it featured Scoobynatural, and most importantly, Jack is hands down my favorite character introduced (he was even my avatar on here during your absence), Alexander Calvert is fantastic in the role, and I love how the series handled him. I should also note just how much of a breath of fresh air Season 13 immediately felt like, much like 8 & 4 before it. Jack has a lot to do with that, but removing Crowley was also a big factor. I love Mark Sheppard and like he said "when it's time to move on, it's time to move on", Crowley was nothing more than a source of stagnation on the show by season 12 (where he and Lucifer had the same scene repeatedly in played out power struggle). Almost wish Castiel didn't resurrect but I'm glad they took their time with it and I actually thought Jack gave Castiel a stronger narrative purpose for remaining in the show besides everyone loves Misha Collins. But the first several episodes of Season 13 are my favorite run of episodes Post-Kripke because it's the most honest-to-Chuck character driven the series has been ages. So many great scene where the characters openly express them (mostly in Sam & Dean openly arguing about Jack while Jack prays for Castiel, or the entire therapy episode), or cathartic recognition of their past history (when Dean tells Sam the they'll talk about Billie later and Sam goes "No we won't", then Dean just tells him what happened, the was so fulfilling after years of them keeping secrets). I *loved* that therapy episode, the scene where Dean prods Sam into an emotional lash-out was fantastic, but even better was Jack's scene with the shapeshifter transforming into his mother. It's such a rarity that the show will dedicate this much emotional development to one of it's characters separate from Sam and Dean. I don't know if anyone else besides Castiel and maybe Lucifer have gotten something like that. I also loved that Sam was getting more scenes with Jack than Dean because while I far prefer Dean, Dean *always* gets the special connection with the rest of the cast. Sam rarely ever gets important one-on-one scenes with the rest of the cast, and I'm really glad they rectified that here.

Beginning half still had it's problems, the episode introducing Patience was awful when it wasn't the Sam & Jack plot (finally bringing back Missouri only to quickly kill her off and introduce her ostensibly perfect relative Patience made the whole episode feel like a poorly written OC-insert fan fiction) but overall, it was a really great season. Oh, and I liked how they started to feature more monstrous designs with the monsters.

Since you haven't seen it, I won't say anything else on 14. I hope you've avoided any spoilers and enjoy it. And yeah, that was not quick, sorry lol.

I've never been able to get into watching sports, I like a lot on a base level but it's not a time commitment I'm willing to make, but I have a friend that's obsessed with baseball, so I definitely know how stress-inducing or involved one can get into those. Good to hear you're moderating it better. Did you ever get to attend any games btw? I imagine that'd be a cool experience, at least depending on the result of the game.

Haha, that's fine. Smash Bros is one of my favorite gaming franchises, and Ultimate might be my favorite game ever. Outside of just being a fan of the games, Banjo & Kazooie is the biggest property associated with Nintendo that Nintendo doesn't hold the rights too, as they helped defined the N64 being one of the best sellers before Microsoft acquired the license (& since then, Banjo & Kazooie have only had one game over a decade ago, so it's been a dead series for quite some time). The coolest part is that the reveal trailer framed them getting into Smash as sort of a welcome home celebration, with other characters in the game openly cheering for their arrival. I don't think we've ever talked about video games much, anything you're really into or are you not much of a gamer?

Yo dude! What a nice surprise this is. How you been? And heh, I haven't actually cycled through that many profile pics, you see around this time last year MAL did some server updates and went offline for a bit. Down know how long, but it was at least a week and I kinda stopped watching anime at this point and didn't really end up coming back on here til the very end of 2018, so I can totally relate to that feeling of being surprised at how long you were gone. Even now that it's E3 season, I'm kinda more into games right now, only really watching JoJo's right now (which I think is probably the strongest adaption), though I want to start getting back into it. And I need to get around to Attack on Titan. Guessing season 3's been pretty good? Also noticed you've been going through My Hero Academia, and just finished my favorite run of episodes from the series (well, I'd actually count the next episode in the run too). The Todoroki/Deku episode from the Sports Festival is still probably my favorite of the series, but All Might's fight against All for One certainly gave it a run for it's money.

Have you seen any good non-anime during your break worth mentioning? And speaking of non-anime stuff, I figure you've probably heard this but Supernatural is finally ending next year with it's 15th season. The 14th season finale was honestly my favorite season finale since Swan Song (maybe second place to Swan Song), and while I still have my issues with them, I feel the last two seasons have been the best since five as well, so I'm pretty excited to see how they're going to wrap it up after all this time.

And I've been good, if nothing else Banjo & Kazooie being added into Smash has been a dream come true.

Ha, I would disappear as you came back. Glad to hear from you again, and if you were only going to watch one anime during that time, Made in Abyss was definitely the right choice. If it wasn't for Rakugo, it easily would've been my anime of the year, and I do think there were several other solid contenders in 2017 (Land of the Lustrous, My Hero Academia, Tsuki ga Kirei most notably). Just from the world alone Made in Abyss was top-tier, the Abyss is such an integral character itself, and encapsulated the allure of adventure so well that I would've been down to explore it even without any plot justifications (though I do appreciate and like the one we have). Though the presentation was just magic at some points, from the gorgeous background art, the beautiful score, and the varied and uniquely unsettling monster designs, I just loved the whole atmosphere. I do have to ask though on Made in Abyss, what's your take on the whole child nudity/sexualization topic around the series? Personally, it felt to me like they were doing that comedic purposes, similar to say the stuff in Dragon Ball, there were a few worrying moments but ultimately it felt like rote humor to me instead of like written in for provocative purposes or whatever. I hear the anime toned that stuff down which is why I don't plan on checking out the manga but like yeah, I was curious on your take. Also, have you been watching anything else of note during your anime break?

I can't complain and that my good friend would be WWE superstar Asuka. I've been into wrestling longer than I've been into anime, well kinda, longer than I've been actively seeking out anime rather because I've been into mainstream anime for as long as I can remember with Dragon Ball Z alone. It's been a passion I've fell in out of love with, most prominently for like four years. I mostly faded out with it in 2013 and completely stopped watching in 2014 until like three-fourths of the way into 2016 aside from like a few WrestleMania's because of my friend who still watched it regularly. And Asuka has been probably my favorite thing since coming back into wrestling, she's definitely my favorite at the moment, simply put she's really, really good at the wrestling. But another reason I have her as my avatar is kinda laziness. I have a rule that I don't use anime avatars on here because it's a given I like anime on her so I'd rather express another passion, but sometimes I don't really have much else of interest going on. But Asuka's pretty consistent and also, her gimmick is that she doesn't lose. Like it's been over 800 days since she debuted and she hasn't lost yet so I kinda decided when she moved up to the main roster that I was just going to have her be my avatar til she loses so I don't have to think about it. I might change pictures of her before then just cause I still get bored and if she stays undefeated for as long as I hope for I might abandon this decision but yeah.

Hmm, I get that I guess. It felt to me that the Avengers/Tony's implementation into the story was just a tool to convey the eagerness of being a hero into the responsibility realization of what being a hero means, that I really strongly associate with Spider-Man, since (more so the latter half) has always been at the core of his character. That, alongside the amount of time the movie dedicated to Peter's personal life, mostly through his school but also that shop keep owner (I don't remember what the shop was, I kinda want to say it was deli), just made it feel so Spider-Man to me. The core appeal of Spider-Man to me has always been the sacrifices he makes to be Spider-Man, not in the dramatic death sense but to more tangibly relatable interpersonal relationships like ditching on a date or an academic decathlon. I wonder if our different level of exposures to the MCU affected our takes on this. Maybe not, but I've only seen a handful of movies (including very recently Black Panther, I don't know if you've seen it yet but I thought was fantastic. I actually think it's a better constructed film [with the best villain and action choreography I've seen in a Marvel movie] that Spider-Man Homecoming though I still prefer Homecoming) but I know you've at least more than I have. Like, I'm able to disregard the MCU intrusion as a method to tell the essence of a Spider-Man story because I got a lot less attachment to the MCU. I don't know if this would actually play role but I thought I should mention. I definitely need to find time to re-watch the first two Raimi films. I recall really liking the 2nd the one but it's been a decade at least since I've watched it, I don't really remember it all too well.

OH, and how was Tokyo Godfathers? Since Keiko Nobumoto is one of my favorite writers in the industry, that's a movie I've always wanted to see but never got around to it for once reason or another I haven't (for example, I know it's like a Christmas movie kinda so I held off watching it on Netflix til Christmas and then on Christmas I found out that Netflix had removed it from there catalogue) be

I've really enjoyed this run of Hunter x Hunter chapters, albeit I don't think it's a strong as his previous run. I have a few ideas on where Togashi might be going with this arc but it's still clearly in the set-up phase that it's a bit hard to land on a concrete idea. For me, I think the Izunavi flashback with Kurapika that happened in either the first or second chapter back might wind up being the key, with the whole ending discussions on allies (specifically not sacrificial pawns). If there's been one thing I've been enjoying seeing this arc, is that Kurapika hasn't been dealing with the issues on his own, in terms of intelligence he's a step above obviously but he's clearly had to rely on those he finds himself working with & for. It's a pretty notable contrast from early Yorknew, and I'm imagining this will come into play earlier, though it may not wind up as the most note-worthy element here. The Princes' in the Succession War themselves make me wonder how much political commentary is going to wind up here, or if Togashi's mostly planning on just developing a really well-crafted thriller. I don't know, and the few other thoughts I have veer a bit more into spoiler-y assuming you still just skimmed, especially if you haven't skimmed 366 (which is, imo, the best chapter released so far, really well-structured chapter that ending with a huge scene). Considering Shonen Jump is on break this week (at least from what I heard, glad it's SJ and not Togashi himself) there's no new chapter this week, so if you have the time I think this is the best time to catch up in full.

Hmm, I guess the best way to put it is that I'm satisfied with the finale, but not necessarily with the final episode. Wouldn't really say the final scene mitigates some of my problems, in a strange sense it might be the opposite because I'll occasionally think about how stronger this would've landed without those earlier issues. But ultimately, I left Samurai Jack satisfied with the conclusion, to the extent where it overcome those issues to not leave me with too bad of a sour taste in my mouth at least. A few weeks after the show ended, I actually saw a fan's animatic of like, the last half/third of the final episode, and it was the opposite experience, where I loved everything prior to their final scene. I much prefer a series landing the final note then the ones preceding it, especially when they're as good as the one we got. Last thing I will say about Samurai Jack, it was kinda destined to get mixed reactions. Not only because the thirteen year gap in between seasons 4 and 5, but because the hook of the series, whether or not Jack returns to the past, had fans divided for years prior to season 5. So whichever route Genndy went, was bound to upset those who vastly preferred the other.

Yeah, that's definitely fair. And I agree about disliking One Piece, though I can find the anime adaption of it pretty annoying at times (whether it being shoe-horning in two alternate realities episodes in the middle of Chopper's fight with Kumadori or padding a scene with the same exact joke with almost no variance three times in a row) but for the most part I have positive feelings on most of One Piece. I've seen a lot of One Piece material, and not a single one of the movies got below a 6 for me. Even the ones I was expecting to hate, Chopper and Zoro's (movies 3 and 5) I ended up thinking were fine. Granted, that's not huge praise or anything and I definitely had my issues with them, but I still enjoyed them well enough. Better than either of the Hunter x Hunter movies likely. Not sure if that's because Hunter x Hunter is just harder to capture in such a short time-length or because the OP movie writers had a better understanding of the series though.

I loved Homecoming (thankfully, I changed my avatar preemptively and would've had to scramble to find a new one if I hated it)! Have you seen it?

There isn't really a whole lot to talk about with the movie though, but it was a perfect encapsulation of Spider-Man, or at least the core of the franchise I got from my experience with the series (which isn't much admittedly, mostly the first twenty or so issues from the series original run). Far truer to the spirit of character than either of the previous movies, and as somebody who liked all of those movies to one extent or another, I can say it's easily my favorite movie in the franchise (though I haven't seen the first two Raimi films in years) and in terms of the MCU, the only one I might like better is Iron-Man (though I still have barely seen any of them, only Iron-Man, Avengers 1 & 2, Dr. Strange, and Civil War besides Homecoming). Anyway, Spider-Man Homecoming was just a really fun film, I'm not sure how to talk about it in length without just reiterating how much fun it was. The only complaint I have that doesn't feel like a nitpick is that the final action sequences I found pretty boring, outside of one big moment that I feel the scene was probably conceived around. But that's not a huge issue for me, especially when it managed to to avoid all the problems I thought it was going to happen (two moments in the movie disappointed/worried me but later rectified the situation). One of my biggest concerns based off the trailer and the promotional poster was that the movie was just going to read off like Iron-Man 5, the same way how Civil War read off like Iron-Man 4/Avengers 3, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Instead, the MCU stuff was integrated beautifully into the core narrative. It never took up too much screen time and was utilized in a way to make Peter's story arc that much more powerful, than rather if he was simply on his own. In terms of live-action Spider-Man, Tom Holland continues to be head and shoulders better than any of his predecessors and Michael Keaton as Vulture provided one of my favorite villains in Superhero movies, as well as just generally being the best version of Vulture I've seen yet (though, that isn't particularly hard). It's not my favorite adaption of Spider-Man, that's still the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon that Greg Weisman did, but the MCU version is a clear second place, and certainly has potential to become the definitive version of the character for me. So yeah, really great film imo.

Definitely looking forward to what you think of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga whenever you get around to it.

Good point about the genre being a factor in the loads of characters department. I didn't really think of that, but it's definitely true. And just branching off of the idea of expectation, Kare Kano also didn't really set itself up for handling that many characters. Prior to Chimera Ant, Hunter x Hunter had firmly established the revolving door cast throughout the arcs, and with Yorknew at least established that Gon & Killua will have varying levels of significance (though both are clearly vital in every arc) whereas Ping Pong at least established three of the main characters and started there story arcs from episode one, especially noteworthy since Wenge was an outside influence to the other two. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't even think Kare Kano introduces any of it's secondary cast until after Arima & Yukino become a couple. It's been years since I've seen it, so maybe I'm remembering correctly, but that's certainly how I recall it happening.

Yeah, that's fair. I will say, I have a lot of respect for Togashi to arguably be writing his most ambitious arc yet (in terms of scope and story-threads, this certainly feels like his most ambitious, but I agree there hasn't been a lot of thematic depth yet [I don't really expect that it'll reach Chimera Ant's level there (hence why it'll likely remain my favorite) but instead eventually wind up around the level of Yorknew, just displayed on grander scale]) despite his health issues causing constant hiatus'. Despite my assertion that I'll be satisfied with whatever we get from Hunter x Hunter in the end, I'm positive it's going to sting hard when he does goes back on hiatus. I won't comment on the content since I don't know if you've been following the chapters but I've definitely gotten more invested with the second chapter. Mostly because I neglected to actually re-read much past the last released chapter prior to the hiatus, meaning that when the content wasn't focused on Kurapika's side of things, I was a little lost in at least remembering who was who without google searching afterward.

Samurai Jack's original run was almost entirely episodic, which meant that season five could be viewed with only a cursory understanding of the basic premise and work. One of my friends watched the whole season without watching anything earlier except a rare episode or two, and he enjoyed the season a good deal. I will say that as the season progresses they do add more elements from the earlier seasons, namely in the form of character returns. They're always framed in a way where their return has meaning to the story in a way that's easily translated to those who haven't watched it, but the experience is diminished when you're no longer reuniting with an old favorite character but instead are being introduced to a 'new' character. And The Ecstasy of Gold scene is incredible, one of the most simultaneously tense and mesmerizing scenes I've seen in a long while. Probably my third favorite scene in the whole season. The only two that come to mind that top it, without getting into spoilers, is a certain scene that while nowhere near as technical proficient incorporated an earlier character in a way that really worked for me, and my favorite scene being the last scene of the series. I think I mentioned it last time, but I had several issues with the last episode but the last scene was not one of them. That's actually kind common with the show for me, I can think of several episodes (in the first four seasons) that I didn't like or was apathetic towards until the last few minutes of the episode, where the final scene often enhanced the whole outing. And yeah, I don't really consider the difference in demographic to be reflective of the quality of storytelling in Samurai Jack. The biggest change there would be the difference in structure, as the earlier seasons didn't really allow for Jack to develop much past his initial depictions, though I feel that made his arc during season five all the more powerful.

Wow, I never even considered most of that, I think my expectations for One Piece films aren't that high but I can't deny now there's a lot of potential in the premise they didn't use. Though I do agree the battle with Tesoro was pretty bland and his powers uninspired, the only other thing he did with them was making essentially a giant mech for himself (not sure how else to describe it). I also recall thinking it went on a little too long as well, but I never usually find battles that engaging in most shonen movies. I do recall the minion battles being a little more entertaining, at least the Luck devil fruit one, but quite frankly that's the only other one I can remember. Sabo and Luci really should've bothered me but for whatever reason, the transparent fanservice worked for me. Probably because they're both attached to my favorite periods in the series, but I didn't have much issue with it. But I agree the practice of throwing in popular character for the sake of attracting an audience despite little relevance in the plot is a issue.

I've actually finished the manga recently, and while I didn't enjoy it as much as the anime, I definitely think it's worth checking out. The manga doesn't feature a lot of changes from the anime until Asuka gets introduced, but once she is some pretty interesting alterations are made to the story. It's kinda like how the original FMA anime continued to hit the same plot points as the manga until the first Greed fight despite the drastically different ways they got there (re-watching the original anime after Brotherhood was particularly interesting for this reason alone). Granted, I wouldn't say the changes are that severe in the manga, since you pretty much remain on the same plot-line through to End of Eva, but there's a lot of changes that make the experience a different one, coming to it's own conclusion. A lot of people do prefer the manga too, and there are instances I prefer in the manga. For example, the ballet fight. Well, the fight itself is better in the anime since you can't exactly sync music up to the action in the manga. But everything leading up to that fight (and it lasts almost a volume iirc) I preferred in the manga. It hinges more on the dynamic between Shinji & Asuka (both who have noticeable differences in there characters, more with Shinji than Asuka), which I find immensely entertaining, and the changes they made were pretty clever to. That kinda describes most of the manga story 'arcs' for me. There are portions which I think are better, but not the full thing. There are other instances were I really like what we get instead, but can't help but sort of miss what we got in the anime. Which basically just means I'm really glad we got both, since we get two different takes on great material.

If I had to pinpoint the reason I prefer the anime over the manga, that isn't simply medium preference, I'd probably say that the manga is a lot more explicit/overt/blunt. Not really sure the word to use but the characters are a bit more open, the language can be a bit more harsh (not in terms of swearing or anything), and the depiction of certain events are a lot more clear (which was unavoidable, some of the stuff the anime did just simply couldn't be translated into the manga). It's not necessarily a complaint, just an observation. Though truthfully, without End of Eva I think I'd be a bit more conflicted on which I prefer. As an aside, one of the positives of the manga imo is that it places less emphasis on the Angel battles, which were often my least favorite parts of the series.

One last thing about the manga, it's a visual treat. Sadamoto is actually the character designer for NGE, so the characters are appropriately drawn and he handles the serious and funny scenes really well. There's a lot of details in the Eva designs too but most importantly, I think he takes advantage of the medium really well (much like I think the anime did). There were times that I couldn't quite follow the action sequences but that's always the case for me. Besides that, he used shading to help convey the emotions of the scene really well, and some of the page transitions were brilliant, and can carry a great deal of impact. With NGE's long pauses I was particularly curious to how the Kaworu scene would translate into manga, and I think I like the manga's take on that better. If you get the time, I'd recommend it.

Yeah, Battery is probably more than a fair shake worse more disappointing than Kare Kano. It definitely tops it for more disappointing, since by the end it basically stripped itself of all the interesting themes it had going for it in lieu of focusing on the rote "you should play for fun instead of winning" complete with not showing the result, so I probably shouldn't have put the "think", though I think that's because I had higher hopes for Kare Kano starting off than I did Battery. I really did love the first batch of episodes, any I think the focused on the primary cast. It's weird, cause developing loads of characters and showcasing multiple perspectives tends be a personal penchant for me (e.g. Chimera Ant, & Ping Pong the Animation) but it definitely didn't work for me there. My personal taste has evolved over the years so maybe it'd work more for me now, but I'm not sure I really want to risk a revisit. Definitely interested in how the last few episodes end up shaping your impression though. The final episode in particular is even more detached and odd from the series norm than NGE's TV ending was imo.

To be honest, I'm not too upset by the [very likely] prospect that we'll only get another volumes worth of material. I might end up getting caught up again and hope for another rare streak of chapters (the Election arc had no hiatus during it's entire run I believe, meaning he wrote at least twenty chapters straight, but I think it was thirty) but I'm just satisfied with whatever we got. I was talking about this with Fantalicious earlier but I'd honestly be satisfied with whatever we get from Hunter x Hunter. Like, I've kinda already accepted it may never finish, and since we got Chimera Ant, anything else is just kinda extra in a sense. & yeah, I'm probably going to have to skim over some Dark Continent summaries or something, lol. Outside of the Hisoka/Chrollo stuff, those chapters often felt like short novels, Togashi jam-packed a lot of information and content in those chapters.

& yes, it is Samurai Jack! Samurai Jack was a childhood favorite for years but strangely, one that was mostly in memory for years. Like, I remember so little about the series I was always hesitant to place it too high whenever I was questioned about my favorite shows growing up (the three part premiere, a web browser/flash game, and a few other episodes where all). I often felt like if I revisited it, I'd like it even more so when the fifth season had a start date announced, I went out and bought the four seasons to binge through before the new season started. And yep, it affirmed my suspicions. It's definitely one of my favorite cartoons from the west, up there with Avatar: Last Airbender (still haven't gotten around to finishing Korra), Steven Universe, and Batman: The Animated Series for me. Not sure I'd rank it better than any of those, but it's in the same league for me. The episodic nature resulted in some weaker episodes, but the show was really well-crafted and it's dedication to visual storytelling appeals to me a ton. Like how the first episode had 9 minutes without a single line of dialogue, it just told Jack's story solely through the visuals (& music to be fair, quite frankly that was a big part of it's success too) was beautiful. And for a show "aimed at kids", it kinda surprises me that was even allowed to happen. Honestly the only show I can think of that communicates through dialogue less than Samurai Jack is Texhnolyze, which went it's first 11 minutes without a single spoken word. Season 5 was great too, though I don't think it ended up being my favorite season. Some problems started to crop up in it's second half, and while I love the scene and message the series closed out on, the episode itself had it's fair share of problems. Have you watched any of it?

And I had the avatar for about half of season five's run-time I think, so about two months at this point I think. Honestly kinda sick of it at this point but I'm not really sure what to replace it with, especially since I like to avoid anime.

*Edit*

I meant to ask you about your thoughts on Film Gold? I actually think it's the best of the "Film" One Piece films but it certainly doesn't seem like you agree with that. Off the top of my head, there were two big problems I had with the film. For starters, the way they broke the Nami/Carina flashback up was bothersome. Nami's earlier language being laced with so much bitterness to her makes no sense when she had already figured out that Carina saved her (in a quite frankly, transparent display). I'm glad we got an answer of how Nami got out of that situation but it made the earlier scenes feel like such a cheap misdirect. The second, was while I loved Tesoro's Cowboy Bebop-esque backstory scene, the fact that the movie never connected that to the material in any meaningful way made the whole addition feel superfluous. I feel like had they managed to do that (which I think could've been accomplished by literally adding one line internal reflection from Tesoro as he was defeated) it probably would've been my second favorite One Piece film, instead of my third.

Oh and the CGI was awful.

Have you read this yet? Don't know how legitimate the source is but I've read that this account also reported on Volume 34 before it became official (Shueisha has added it to their catalogue) so I think/hope this is pretty credible. Just one month to wait . . .

Well worth the wait! I don't think I ever truly grasped the symbolism with the Eva honestly, at the very least I know that during either of my watches of the movie I missed the umbilical cord bit. My appreciation for this movie just keeps getting higher. I think the most interesting aspect is the idea that the masturbation scene was meant to parallel with Gendo's story. I actually skimmed the movie again to see if there was any direct visual connections between the scenes and while didn't see any shot-for-shot scenes or anything (not in the scenes I check), I definitely see that the movie itself lends to that interpretation. Namely that the scenes where Shinji masturbates over Asuka and Gendo went to fuse Adam and Lilith with Rei where both essentially the opening scenes of the individual episodes within the movie, so with the theory in mind, it adds yet another layer to the films unusual structure. Other than that, there's the more obvious note Adam Hand and the wank hand are both the right hand.

I don't really like to think that the live action sequences were intended as a middle finger to the the audience. It's certainly a possibility, and I've heard people claiming Anno hated the fans for years and I think I heard some claim End of Eva was made for the purpose of targeting us (which I definitely don't think is the case). Which, all that probably helped me put the series off for as long as I did. Regardless though, I feel as though the series had too much empathy for it's characters ultimately, so I never felt like even when the series was putting the mirror up, it was ever in a derogatory manner. That said, I had either forgotten (since I've heard these accusations prior to having a MAL I think) or just never knew he included death threats. It's certainly an interesting decision, maybe they were incorporated into the film for the purpose of Anno placing some of his own personal negative experiences with human connections throughout the scene. I'm entirely sure exactly where they're placed, but it's not until after the live action scene that we're 'transported' to the Sea of LCL. Perhaps included some of his own personal reasons for wanting to accept something like Instrumentality, especially even considering Shinji rejects, equating Shinji's rejections to Anno's reaction to the death threats to still create End of Eva rather than drop off with the hate his already received. That kinda follows an idea that Shinji operates as author insert rather than an audience surrogate (another debate I seen so many years ago, though I didn't look into many details, but this is actually more or less how I learned about the masturbation scene, with the latter position arguing it was another take that are all the fans that sexualize the characters) and I suppose would make the live action shot of the theater intended less a reflection of the audience but more of a depiction of Anno's perspective. His view of the audience, which would help explain the shot of the empty theater prior to the Sea of LCL. I don't know that I actually subscribe to this interpretation I'm giving but it's just something that's incredibly interesting to think about and discuss. I love this movie.

And I haven't read the manga yet but I just received my copies of the first three omnibus volumes (so the first 9 volumes) from Amazon so I'm probably going to start that pretty soon. My hope is to get the last two and finish the entire manga before the month of May is over. Just as a side note because I think it's pretty interesting, the manga actually started it's publication almost a year prior to the anime's premiere (due to production delays on the anime apparently, the intention was for it start around the same time, just a little before). Even with that head start though, the anime finished almost two decades sooner than the manga, which ended in 2013. I'm not exactly certain what caused that kinda release schedule, I know it changes but I heard it's because Yoshiyuki Sadamoto was just constantly busy with other projects, like he put it on hiatus to work on the Rebuild films, which I'm also hoping to check out soon.

I had a similar problem with Rakugo, not necessarily that I was reluctant to finish the show (I love endings as a concept too much to ever feel like that [too many of my favorite shows just refuse to end *cough* Supernatural *cough*]) but I did start holding off on watching it until I was about to go to bed because I often found that Rakugo was so good I almost never wanted to watch or do anything after it. I spent like an entire day after work doing nothing but listen to music and thinking about the last Rakugo lol, I can't think of many shows I love as much as Rakugo. Definitely looking forward to your final thoughts once you finish it. & definitely let me know your thoughts on ACCA when/if you get around to watching it.

& yeah, I only watched Hand Shakers because of how bad I kept hearing it was. I really only found like episode 1 and 6 to be the enjoyable kinda bad, episode 6 was probably peak Hand Shakers for me for all the very, very, very, bad fire effects. If it had more episodes that emphasized it's terrible aesthetic designs, I might've scored it slightly higher. As for Maid Dragon, after the first episode they introduce more characters, Kanna in particular makes the relationship dynamics more heartwarming but I wouldn't say it adds enough for me to recommend continuing if the first episode left you uncertain. I'm only four episodes in though, so the show may get better but I heard from a friend that remains pretty consistent. I'll definitely be finishing it, though not sure when I'll get around to that. I still haven't started any of the series I planned on picking up for Spring (which admittedly, is a pretty paltry list).

Definitely looking forward to that Eva post. And as a side note to Eva, do you ever plan on checking out the manga version?

lol, I was starting to wonder about that. Glad everything's alright, since I noticed you hadn't even logged in months.

As a quick note on Kekkai Sensen, I'm not sure you ever caught it but both Crunchyroll and MAL had advertised that Kekkai Sensen's new season was going to be in the Spring but apparently that was just a mistake. It's been rectified now and the season will actually be starting in the Fall season. Even though I'm worried about the new season, I was pretty upset when I learned a week ago that it wasn't on the schedule. Haven't looked too much into the Spring season outside of cursory glances but I think I'm down to just My Hero Academia as a surefire watch. I'll probably catch the second season of Attack on Titan at some point, but I'm not really interested in watching that week-to-week. Back to Kekkai Sensen, my feeling is that they're just going to be adapting the manga straight (hopefully going back to adapt some of the earlier chapters the first season skipped, one of the best stories was missed entirely), which means it'll likely just be a straight episodic affair with probably less frenetic energy to the visual style. This is mostly just speculation on my part, but Matsumoto's contribution to the series (the White & Black story arc was her brain child) was a huge part of the reason I loved the first season so much so I'm going in with lower expectations. Namely just expecting a fun series of one-offs, I do like the base material from the volumes I've read. Love to be proven wrong though.

I barely watched anything this season honestly but I find it difficult to criticize a season that provided me one of my all time favorites in Rakugo Shinjuu. I don't want to say much until you finished it but I will say my biggest issue with the series as a whole happens in the last episode. Ultimately it wasn't enough to drop the score from a ten but it did make what I thought would be an easy ten into something I had to really think about. Really looking forward to your thoughts on it once you finished. Despite what I just said, you still have some of Rakugo's best content left to see.

Outside I've Rakugo I've seen all of ACCA and Yami Shibai's fourth season, and a few episodes of Maid Dragon and Hand Shakers. Oh and March Comes in like a Lion, which is probably my second favorite despite the sometimes poor comedy and the directorial choices occasionally detracting from the experience (but it's a mixed bag, sometimes they help punctuate the scene). But excluding carryovers, just those four. Yami Shibai and Hand Shakers are terrible. Hand Shakers was at least at first somewhat interestingly bad, due to all the bad visual choices (if there's one thing you've heard about the show, I'm willing to bet it's how bafflingly bad it is. Maid Dragon is pretty amusing and charming, nothing spectacular from what little I've seen but I like the show.

Just finished ACCA a little while ago, pretty interesting show. Of all the stuff I've seen from the past season I don't think you've checked out, I'd probably recommending that. It's something akin to a political thriller with slice of life element but it's a bit hard for me to really label it a thriller because one of the more interesting elements about ACCA is that despite how grand the scale or how high the stakes get, the series never truly betrays it's laid-back atmosphere. The plot is a slow-burn for a larger portion of the show's run-time before it starts advancing at a faster pace and it wasn't until episodes 8 that I really felt any true emotional connection to the events and characters (and episode 8 is still my favorite). The show's plot is about the fictional Dowa Kingdom, which is divided between thirteen distinct states and ACCA, a governing organization that helps up-hold the peace between the idiosyncratic states. The main character, Jean, is part of the inspection department who has to travel to each of the branches in every district for inspections. I enjoyed seeing all the different districts, the different culture presented in each, how the landscape and personality of the districts influenced it's citizens though that kinda gets overshadowed a bit by the over-arcing plot. And for as much time is devoted to developing the main thread of the story, just as much time is dedicated to the different delicacies present throughout the nation. I think I've heard more talk about bread in ACCA than in every other anime combined (though I haven't watched any food anime). And the conclusion if nothing else was incredibly fitting for the series, and while I have a few problems with it, it's a strong ending for the show. Sorry about not going into as much detail as I usually do but that's partially because of tiredness (my sleep schedule is always messed up) and because I'm not that enthused by ACCA. It's not a strong recommendation but I do like the show and I think it's worth looking into. It's also a Madhouse show, which means it's pretty consistently solid visually. I actually really like the visual aesthetic.

As for Eva, well I'll give you a brief version but I wrote to Insan3 after watching End of Eva so I'll be copy & pasting that into a spoiler tag. It's probably a bit ramble-y since it was my initial impressions watching it and the whole thing kinda floored me but if you want my in-depth thoughts, it's probably still accurate.

But the short version for End of Eva is that I loved it. I loved it in a way I haven't love something in quite some time. I loved it enough that I re-watched it again a few days after my first viewing and I almost never do it (Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods is the only other anime movie I ever wanted to watch again immediately after seeing it the first time, think I ended up seeing that movie 3 times, once in theatres; though that movie works for very different reasons). The second half of the movie ranks among the most surreal experiences I ever had while watching any medium, and there was so much brilliance throughout the film that allowed every character to have some fitting resolution and added insight. Even the masturbation scene which I was spoiled on and dreaded was something I ended up being surprised by (the fact that it wasn't just framed as a perverted scumbag move but as a move of desperation to feel some relief helped tremendously). To be honest, there's no good reason I can articulate to why it didn't get a 10 though. More just a feeling I guess? Maybe my third watch will change that. The full version I sent to Insan3 is down below.



The franchise as a whole ranks pretty high for me and I'm interested in the Rebuild films but as for the show proper I never connected to it as consistently as I wanted to. I feel like I probably would've enjoyed the series much more if I had watched it when I was younger and more prone to self-loathing, though back then I only watched dubs and from what I heard NGE's is terrible so maybe not. Still, there was a lot of great stuff in the series and the moments that did really work were fantastic. I was spoiled that Kaworu was a one-episode wonder in NGE (as well as being an Eva pilot), which I initially was happy about after seeing episode 17 because it made me blind for a long time that Toji was going to be the fourth child but unfortunately once I got to Kaworu's episode it kinda lacked the punch because I was spoiled. Well, that and because Kaworu's short duration meant we only got to establish the base points of his relationship with Shinji.

And as for the final two episodes, I actually liked them! But I don't think they're a very satisfying conclusion to the series and I think had I not been aware of End of Eva while watching them I would've had a bigger issue with them. My biggest complaint about the last two episodes is just how drastically different the approach and presentation of them to the rest of the series. Even though the series had plenty of introspective moments prior, which certainly made the direction seem less out of left-field, the shift is style is still pretty jarring. I understand this wasn't really avoidable and all things considered, I think they made the right call in the situation. If the story wasn't only going to be able to resolve one things, focuses solely on the characters was absolutely the correct decision.

Speaking of Gainax series, I see you're watching Kare Kano/His and Her Circumstances. It was one of those few shows I caught a few episodes of way before I really recognized anime as it's own entity and thus was one of the first shows I watched when I started on MAL back in late 2012. So I don't really remember the series all too well, aside from a few interesting decisions in the last batch of episodes but from what I remember, I loved the first five or so episodes and then started losing interest in every subsequent episode as the focus continuously deviated from the main couple. I think that there was only a handful of episodes I liked in the second half. I think Battery tops it now but it was my most disappointing show for awhile.

Hopefully you're enjoying more. You're pretty far into it seems, what are your thoughts so far?

Yo! I've been doing pretty great actually, thanks. Particularly looking forward to next month with the Nintendo Switch (even though the launch line-up is pretty barren) and the return of Samurai Jack. And how are things with you? I remember that the holidays tend to be really busy for you, so hopefully things simmered down since then (certainly have for me, thankfully).

Also, what have you been checking out for anime? I'm watching a few shows from the current season but the only one I'm really invested in is Rakugo's second season, which is matching if not exceeding the brilliance of the first season (especially the latest season). I'm barely checking out anything else, though I'm enjoying most of what little I do watch sans Hand Shakers which I'm watching for how terrible it is. This year as a whole seems to be pretty disappointing in terms of original material but at least there are several sequels down the line I'm looking for (though I'm worried about Kekkai Sensen's second season since Rie Matsumoto is no longer directing it).

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Asuka develop over the course of the series, along with most of the cast. Honestly, as much as I'm still enjoying the series during this lighter period in the series, it's not giving me as much to chew as some of the earlier ones (episode four is still my favorite so far). And the structure here lends the series to focus just a tad bit more on solving an Angel problem. I will say, I'm highly impressed by the sheer amount of variety in the Angels, no two Angels have been the same, requiring a vast amount of methods used to deal with them. The last episode I saw was the one that focused on Ritsuko, an episode that didn't even have the Eva's themselves play a role in the Angel's defeat. Still though, I rarely find myself enjoying that aspect of the series much so I'm very thankful that they never shifted focus away from the characters. I really liked the bit about Ritsuko's mother and how integral parental relationships are in this series. The recent insight into both Misato & Ritsuko adds a greater sense of cohesion in the series, especially when it's directly connected to Shinji's relationship with Gendo like it was in Misato's episode.

Kinda. They did one episode since then that essentially served as a continuation of that game. I actually bought and played through the first chapter of that game prior to that episode, and honestly, that was practically all I needed to understand what was going on. It spoiled me on the outcome of the game (which is fine because I didn't think it was very good so I'm not exactly rushing to play anymore) but essentially not a ton was needed to understand on that point. They do eventually recap some of the base points, like how the main character of the game relates to the current on-goings. The series at least builds up the transition to this episode for a bit, so it shouldn't be that too jarring of a jump. On the flip side though, the series recently contradicted the second game, so you wouldn't have to deal with that plot-hole (though I still loved said episode aside from that, though I do feel having played the games helped a lot there). I will say the series has stumbled a few times recently, I'm still positive that it'll end up working out greatly in the end.

Battery has been pretty great so far! Takumi so far is a really compelling main character, and his unlikable characteristics are usually framed in a manner that makes him a bit more endearing. Not in the way that I'd defend actions like throwing Seiha's baseball in the forest but in the way that the series expresses the room for growth, how that moment come about both from Takumi's personality but as a concern over Seiha's well-being, as it's seem clear that Seiha has some medical condition (the series even strongly hinted that Takumi does too at the tag in episode two, and how over-protective he is of his hand). I have pretty high hopes for how the series is going to handle Takumi's character arc over the course of the series, and I'm expecting Gou to get more fleshed out as well, since right now the most interesting attribute to him is how he's already influencing Takumi. Granted I've only seen a small sample of 'sports' anime but I wouldn't be too surprised if this wound up replacing Baby Steps as my second favorite (I can't imagine anything topping Ping Pong for me).

I've finally gotten to Asuka and right now, she's pretty great. She's a lot like Misato in that she brings an energy to the show but because her personality is a lot more abrasive than Misato's (unless Kaji's involved I guess), it lends to the dynamics involving her to be a lot more comedic so far. Which is great, I never would've imagined that NGE would have this great of grasp on comedic timing when I started it. Her introduction scene was hilarious. I do like that the shows already given us hints about what lies deeper for her. Also, I've seen the ballet fight with Asuka & Shinji vs. that Angel(s?). Absolutely brilliant. "That 62 second countdown, the ballet music, and the synchronization in attack was surely a sight to behold. It was such a clever, unique way of framing the fight, and it made it easily one of the most entertaining battles I've seen in anime. It's quick, shot-well, and mixes the absurd and awesome incredibly well. If I had one complaint about it, I wish the music matched the movement of battle a little more frequently than it did. This is kind of a nitpick, since it'd be way to difficult to craft the sequence with the intention of having the visuals & music flow together but man, the moments they did sync up perfectly (like when both were doing continuous back-flips), it was just perfect." ~ Quoted from myself.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Having seen the first four episodes of both, I can definitely confirm that the series is intended to be watch in order together (i.e. Future episode 1 -> Despair episode 1 -> Future episode 2 -> Despair episode 2, etc.) which I think is awesome though it's going to make rating each part a little harder. And I'm definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it, especially as someone unfamiliar with the games (well, mainly Danganronpa 2). To be honest though, even I'm starting to get left out of the loop, since now they're incorporating elements from the interquel adventure game they did which I've never played.

I definitely need to get back into those seasonal anime. Really glad to here about Orange, and hearing that Mob Psycho 100 has lessened it's focus on Reigen does wonders to piquing my interest again. & man, Battery sounds exactly what I was hoping for. As much as I love the unbridled energy Haikyuu! brings to the table, it's actually my least favorite sports series I've seen. Well, either that or One Outs. I've only seen like four or five so far, but still, this sounds right up my alley. The fact that the series centers around an unlikable person is actually pretty fascinating, it'll provide a nice contrast to the other sports series I've seen. Maybe this weekend I'll try and binge some of these series. Definitely going to check out Battery & Orange at least.