Welcome to another general discussion thread! Feel free to use this thread to talk about things you have watched recently, questions you have, or recommendations you want to give!
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Binged two longer series last week.
First, I finally watched one of the series I’d been saving because I already knew it was good - Oshi no Ko. And yes, it really is as good as its reputation says. It’s an odd series though, because it’s very well done and engaging all along the way - particularly the characters - but if you pull all the way back from the details and just look at the basic premise, I don’t think it holds up all that well. It’s all just a bit too contrived. Still very good though, and really, I’d probably watch it just for Kana.
Then, looking for something completely different, I finally watched Toradora, which was… weird. It started off well enough. It moved slowly, but the characters were all interesting and I could see them growing, albeit slowly. But then starting immediately after Taiga’s fight with the President, it went badly sideways. They obviously changed it up dramatically then - it even got a new OP and ED. But more to the point, it went from slowly and steadily developing the characters to just heaving some seemingly random bit of dissociated plot in the general direction of the audience, then not even bothering to resolve anything before rushing on to the next random bit of dissociated plot. So it just became incoherent and ultimately unsatisfying - instead of a steady progression of character growth, it was just a jumble of sudden and inexplicable changes. Shame too - I was impressed up until then.
I think this is symptomatic of the mangaka’s strengths and weaknesses. IMO Aka is really good at writing fun characters and putting them in interesting and funny situations. Also IMO he’s kind of bad at writing serious plot stuff. I didn’t like the plot of Oshi no Ko, but overall I enjoyed reading it anyways.
That tracks.
As I hinted at, I was especially impressed by Kana. She’s become a terrific character, and obviously because the mangaka has lavished attention on her.and has really satisfyingly mapped out her personality - the combination of strengths and weaknesses and fears and hopes that make her the person she is. Ditto Akane - she hasn’t gotten quite the attention, so not quite the development, but is still very pleasantly well-developed. And Miyako has been a pleasant surprise - she almost seemed like a throwaway character at first, but instead she stuck around and has really blossomed. And so on - even characters like Melt and Frill get satisfying development.
And meanwhile, the whole murder mystery plot, harrowing though it seems it should be, keeps fading into the background, and only moving in fits and starts.
I definitely enjoyed it, and the quality is undeniable, but it just has an odd imbalance to it.
Have you watched or read Kaguya-sama: Love is War? It’s from the same mangaka so the same caveats apply, except that because there’s less of the serious stuff and more of the really good character stuff and silly stuff his strong points can shine more and his weaknesses are emphasized less. Overall I liked it even more than Oshi no Ko.
Huh.
No - actually I’ve avoided it. I read the first few chapters when they were released and thought they were meh, and then when people started to rave about it, it triggered my contrariness, and I wrote it off as likely overhyped mediocrity - pabulum for the masses.
I might have to tamp down my reflexive disdain for it snd check it out…
I’d recommend it. If you read the first handful of chapters and think that you’ve got a general idea of what the series has to offer, I assure you that’s just the setup for an amazingly fun story. The anime adaptation is also pretty great.
If Oshi no Ko S3 stops where I think it would stop, I’d watch no further than that point. Mengo’s art carried this series. Aka could never end it strongly.