Damn! Yano-kun is pretty sweet! Lots of good "derp" faces.

Fall 2025 stuff that caught my eye that hasn't already been mentioned by youse twose:

I've only watched the first couple of episodes, but Fragrant Flower seems quite good. I don't watch a lot of this genre, so if I had to compare it to something, I'd say it reminds me of Blue Box, which I also enjoyed.

Edit: Forgot about Skip and Loafer. Guess I watch more of this stuff than I realize.

Saw the new Demon Slayer movie. Looks nice and all, but man... if you're at all familiar with the series you already know that the story peaks somewhere in the middle and it's just kind of a turd after that. I honestly don't know if it's that I blew through the manga as quickly as possible and can't remember everything that happened, or if it's that they actually tried to flesh more of it out in the adaptation, but some of what's here seemed really unfamiliar to me.

Anyway, as a film, structurally it's a fucking mess. The mid-fight flashbacks range from annoying to laughable, with the back third of the movie basically having the heroes victorious, but oops nope the villain isn't defeated and now here's their sob story in exhaustive detail! Like, holy shit. It must be seen to be believed, and even then you'll struggle to believe what you're seeing.

Maybe I'm just a hater.

You mad bastard, it's too early to be thinking about the Fall.

But of course now that you've planted the seed, I had to go and look, consarn it.

A couple people I know asked me if I had watched KPop Demon Hunters, and I was like, "No... should I?" I had seen the thumbnail on Netflix and just assumed it was some cash-in garbage done on the cheap. But I decided to give it a shot.

Holy crap. This movie has way more going for it than I ever would have expected from a made-for-streaming release. It's totally legit! I was smiling and laughing and even getting weepy in parts. What the heck, Netflix.

Have you read the Dress-up manga? The story doesn't really ever find its footing again. It becomes more and more of a cosplay tutorial, the horniness pretty much evaporates, and the lovey-dovey moments between Marin and Gojo are few and far between. Any and all potential conflict is immediately resolved and forgotten, and plot threads are introduced and never properly developed. And then it just kind of ends.

I guess they could deviate heavily in the adaptation, but I feel like they won't.

That being said, it's the one show this season that I watch as soon as it's available.

Why is this so good?

Superman! It was pretty damn good. Probably the closest thing I'll ever get to what I want out of a modern Superman movie. Doesn't seem to be making ALL of the money though, so no doubt they've already declared it a flop.

Quote from: jonhammstein on Jul 09, 2025, 09:25:54 PM

Well. Panty & Stocking delivered the goods. Hallelujah.

Ew, it's on Prime?! Bleh. Also, dubbites malding because everyone in the English version was recast.

People need to accept that in Japan voice acting is sacred, and literally everywhere else it's just mercenary.

I mean... that's because nothing happens. There's no plot to lose.

On the flipside of the slice-of-life coin, I watched City, which has way more going on animation-wise than Food Court, but it didn't really grab me either. Most of the humor just doesn't land for me. It's like clearly these scenes are meant to be suuuuuuper funny, and I should be holding my sides from laughing soooooo much, but it's just a whole lot of nothing. Nichijou at least had the high school setting to fall back on.

I hadn't heard of that one, nor the foofaraw around it. I watched a trailer, and it definitely looks nice, but the female lead is a bit too "widdle baybee" for my liking.

I'll give it a look in September, though.