Rate the last Anime/Manga you finished out of 10

[Captain Cadaver]

Man, this could have been close to a 10/10 had they not emitted several key moments from the Golden Age, such as Wyald.

I'd say removing Wyald worked best for the anime version when considering his purpose was to be a benchmark for later Apostles, something completely irrelevant if ending at the Eclipse.

The ending as well was pretty terrible, ending directly in the middle of the eclipse with no Skull Knight coming to the rescue, so I guess we are to believe that Guts died then and there? I'm not sure why the Skull Knight wasn't in the anime either.

We know from the post credits scene and episode 1 Guts escaped somehow. I agree that the cliffhanger was the worst thing about the 97 anime, though using Skull Knight probably wouldn't have been best for an anime that had no intention of continuing and, without the later context of the manga, would've probably just made him seem like a deus ex machina.

Debating whether or not I'll burn my retinas with 2016/17 now.

I did my best to tolerate 2016 Bersucc and could barely watch 7 episode of the ClanGI .

 

[SSJ2]

Dorohedoro: 7.25/10

Overall a very good story. It featured an enjoyable cast of characters within 3 different factions. The majority of the characters within each faction had key moments in the series and each went through their own development. It's rare to see that many characters receive such treatment. I found the story to be too ambitious at times, becoming overly convoluted and difficult to follow. While there were explanations later on within the story, it was difficult to keep up with at the time of reading. The art was also fairly inconsistent, ranging from very good to nearly illegible for certain panels. Those two things held the manga back for me.

 

[SSJ2]

Liar Game: 7/10

Wall to wall this manga was consistent in terms of quality. It's without a doubt the most tactical based manga I've read, and always required you to use your head to follow what was happening. I had two main gripes with the manga. 1. At times the tactics were almost a little too overwhelming. Some of the lengthy explanations bogged down the pacing of the story and made some chapters more of a drag to read. 2. Akiyama. Regardless of any situation that was presented, Akiyama ALWAYS had the answer and was able to get himself and Nao out of sticky situations. It would have been nice to see him lose at least a couple times, or have Nao be the one to come up with a game-saving plan. It removed tension from the story because you knew that Akiyama would save the day. He was fucking ridiculous lol. But aside from those two issues, this was a very good manga that I'd recommend.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

All You Need Is Kill - 1/10

I think this page best describes the one thing that makes this manga pointless, as well as shows the bad writing inherent of time resets:

Spoiler

As expected of time reset stories, all the story does is present a major plot convenience for its two main characters to go from novices to experts in a way anyone could do in their situation, making neither their achievements fully earned nor their struggles be genuine when death is very much just the same as resetting a game and having no genuine repercussions for defeat when they only need to try again at their own luxury (once more showing why JoJo Part 4 is still the only manga that came close to getting time resets right). The characters also aren't anywhere near interesting enough to really care about their struggles, with even the psychological aspect it'd have ends up having no resonance with how desensitised they become to it, leaving there to be nothing to take away from the manga beyond its art (which, whilst as detailed as expected of Obata, lacks the distinctiveness in imagery that Death Note has, nor does it have the expressiveness of Bakuman, overall just feeling like Obata's drawing a Starship Troopers spinoff). There's also no explanation given to how, even with a cybernetic suit, a slim woman is able to outdo the feats of physical strength by muscular men required to harness the suits at their peak .
Also, a minor nitpick, but Rita's real name being censored in her backstory was annoying and stupid compared to her just being referred to in second or third person, or just being called by her real name when it played no relevance in the plot.

If wanting a series that uses loops (though not really time loops) to explore the psychology of its characters, watch The Tatami Galaxy. If wanting a war drama that explores a character becoming gradually used to its cycle in a believable way, watch the Area 88 OVAs. Don't read this manga for either, its only purpose being to show how good art can't save the kind of terrible story that's common of a light novel.

 

[SSJ2]

That's 1 point higher than I gave it. You must have low standards.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Might have made it one point lower if not for the latest Super chapter making it apparent how low the bar can go .

 

[SSJ2]

House of Five Leaves: 8.25/10

Definitely among the best manga I’ve read. The cast of characters had great chemistry and all experienced significant development for such a short manga. While the premise of the story wasn’t unique, the handling of it was done to perfection. It skillfully covered ideas such as morality and good vs evil, as the main character was forced to put aside his values for the sake of what he cared about the most. It was enjoyable to experience his growth as a person along with his impact on the group. Biggest complaint would have to be some of the flashbacks. Some of them were rather vague and were randomly shoehorned into the story making it hard to follow, though these were few and far between and were eventually made clear in the story. Also the art wasn’t fantastic but was tolerable. Very solid from front to back.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 9/10

Fourth time watching the series and it's even better than I remembered. The series stands out heavily amongst its contemporaries in the Nekketsu (Battle Shonen) genre through elements such as having the most consistent major power system in anime, relying significantly more on tactics and limitations than most as well as not overstaying its welcome by ending exactly when it needed to (and with an excellent finale, at that). Along with those to boost it above many in the demographic, it also stands on its own as a story by all standards through its well done character writing, utilising all of its cast perfectly when serving their role in the plot to the point not a single one was unnecessary and great exploration and juggling of its multiple themes such as science and religion, the flaws of revenge, human nature, individualism, optimism vs cynicism/pessimism, etc. and with a great deal more maturity than many of higher age ratings (other than one exception, but we'll get to that).
Other than some minor contrivances such as Greed not using his shield fully after revival except once (which isn't a big issue when he only needed to regenerate a few times prior to the climax and he had a explanation based on his personality, but it's still a questionable element), the only thing that comes close to a prominent issue is that the humour can occasionally seem out of place. The biggest example would be Izumi's bleeding being used for comic relief when the cause of it makes the joke in very bad taste for the show's tone and messages.
As an adaption, it also does an excellent job with the pacing of the anime as well as improvements to the art through the more vibrant colour palette and great animation. The first few episodes fail as an adaption of the manga due to the far faster pacing of some events, but on their own are fine and offer decent alternatives anyway.
Even with a few minor flaws, it's still easily the best action/adventure Shonen series in anime and a great story in general.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Tomie - 2/10

The biggest problem with the manga is its characters. Almost all of them either lack any coherency in their actions or have little genuine agency, most of them just being "driven mad" to excuse pulling a 180 and some decisions being very unrealistic (eg. a teacher having his students dismembering a body on a school trip and not expecting any of the witnesses to leak this secret). This is further damaging when considering this is a series that needed its characters to carry it when there is barely any plot to speak of after the initial events with the school characters and the last 3-4 chapters, with the rest being episodic filler and almost all the chapters being an extremely repetitive formula of Thotmie making people simp for her until they go crazy and kill her; with even the chapters that have plot continuity being pointless overall due to the ending. This really does seem like a manga that should've remained a oneshot, because each chapter is ultimately just the first one's storyline repeated ad-nauseum.
The only redeeming quality is the art being detailed and creative, though that's far from enough to save this poor excuse for horror.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Akatsuki!! Otokojuku: Seishen yo, Taishi no dake - 1/10

The original Otokojuku manga was far from being good when it came to its writing, but the sequel doubles down on every single problem the original had and doesn't learn from any of its mistakes, such as the incredible amount of plot armour and contrived survivals without explanations (including an iconic character that died in the original manga being alive again with no explanation) and its cast all just being bland rehashes of the archetypical cast of the original with the only difference usually being design.
The plot is definitely the most damaging aspect of the series not just for its contrivances and holes though, but its general formulaic repetitiveness and reliance on nostalgia with it basically rehashing many points from the original manga and hoping the audience would care so much about nostalgia to be fooled into thinking it was good. It also doesn't help that the arcs don't even have what slight level of interconnectivity most of the old manga did, just moving from one thing to the next and usually ending abruptly without much sense of payoff for either the poor way of subverting expectations or the mangaka just getting bored (in particular the last two arcs which were unbelievably rushed). The only decent element was how it tied Miyashita's previous work, Baramon no Kazoku, into the series' canon, but the arc that did so quickly became an underwhelming run of the mill Shonen.
Not even the art could help save it as a dumb fun series, with Miyashita's artstyle having gone from the more detailed HnK-inspired designs to a far more exaggerated look.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Angel's Egg - 5/10

If any anime is befitting of the label "pretentious," it's this one. The visuals are great and help make it seem superficially interesting, but that's about it. What plot it has relies on a lot of reaching to make any sense of it and all the ark imagery for what the film could mean are far less deep than it attempts to be. Along with that, the film is drags out what's essentially a 10 minute story to 71 minutes. One of those anime that'll satisfy a pretentious postmodernist attempting to find meaning in the slightest scrap of an obscure work, but nothing more than a pretty mess for anyone looking for something actually substantial.

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

Tomie - 2/10

The biggest problem with the manga is its characters. Almost all of them either lack any coherency in their actions or have little genuine agency, most of them just being "driven mad" to excuse pulling a 180 and some decisions being very unrealistic (eg. a teacher having his students dismembering a body on a school trip and not expecting any of the witnesses to leak this secret). This is further damaging when considering this is a series that needed its characters to carry it when there is barely any plot to speak of after the initial events with the school characters and the last 3-4 chapters, with the rest being episodic filler and almost all the chapters being an extremely repetitive formula of Thotmie making people simp for her until they go crazy and kill her; with even the chapters that have plot continuity being pointless overall due to the ending. This really does seem like a manga that should've remained a oneshot, because each chapter is ultimately just the first one's storyline repeated ad-nauseum.
The only redeeming quality is the art being detailed and creative, though that's far from enough to save this poor excuse for horror.

Junji Ito is one of those mangakas who cannot write to save his life and is totally carried by his amazing artwork and abstract ideas. I recommend his honey and sleeping one shots though - both play to his strengths.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Junji Ito is one of those mangakas who cannot write to save his life and is totally carried by his amazing artwork and abstract ideas. I recommend his honey and sleeping one shots though - both play to his strengths.

Completely agree. Even his most praised work Uzumaki, whilst not bad, is basically just a poor man's H.P. Lovecraft tribute at best. Only read Tomie as per Kenshi's challenge.

 

[Papasmurf]

double post

 

[Papasmurf]

Eh, I'd call Uzumaki a high tier shonen similar to Rurouni Kenshin, early Death Note and Part 1 One Piece and the like. A lot of Itou's works pale in comparison, but he isn't one of those talentless dudes who are only good at drawing like Hiro Mashima, Kubo or Hiroya Oku (I'd put Watsuki here too since most of his works after Kenshin have been complete bile, if his art didn't degrade so much after the Kyoto arc). Uzumaki is pretty captivating on the first read (although the Lovecraft references are undeniable) and Tomie is interesting as a record of Itou's artistic progress similar to Yu Yu Hakusho (a mediocre shonen) serving as a nice look into Togashi's evolution as an artist (in the rare moments where he actually puts any effort into drawing).

 

[SSJ2]

While it's still an ongoing manga, I'm only a couple chapters from being current on Vinland Saga.

Easy 8/10

I'm struggling to think of many faults at this point. The farming arc had a very slow buildup which I felt could have been a bit faster but that's about it. Solid all the way through.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Hunter X Hunter 1999 (+ Yorknew OVA) - 6/10

This will mainly be concerning comparison between what both adapted when comparing it to the 2011 version (seeing as how there's no denying the 2011 anime is by far the more complete story by ending at a point with some closure). I've already compared both versions in the watch thread, so to summarise the Hunter Exams and Zoldyck Family events are slightly inferior here due to some questionable consistency in its filler, the Heaven's Arena Arc is an absolute mess structurally compared to Togashi's and the Yorknew City Arc is at best on par with its newer version in its writing, only being superior in animation and direction.
What's most striking in their differences that places the 1999 version solidly below its newer counterpart, however, is how Furuhashi lacked an understanding of Togashi's style and tone when it came to finding an ideological centre for its story. Many view the newer Hunter Exam as too light hearted in tone compared to the older version despite how essential this was in creating contrast when getting to parts such as Yorknew and allowing this optimistic image to be what the series can return to compared to leaning too much into more ominous aspects in the 1999 version from the start. Moreover, this light tone despite the very questionable moral decisions of characters within its early events allowed for the dark aspects of HxH's world to hide in plain sight or, as Gotoh put it, "not everything is as it seems," something that has far less relevance here when the older anime didn't make as great an effort to create such contrast. That's not to say Furuhashi's direction in general was bad as it'd be great for a series with a typical structure, but HxH is far from a typical Shonen in its structure with Togashi often exploring multiple ideas and varying drastically in tone and focus between arcs whilst adding some reinforcement and empowerment of what elements of the Shonen ideology he admires, something the Madhouse version had clear understanding of whereas a director that specialises in consistently darker and more contemporary storytelling like Furuhashi didn't quite get.

 

[Papasmurf]

[mention]Captain Cadaver[/mention] Most people prefer the version they saw first. Most fans who started with 1999 feel that that version captured the tone of the manga better and that the 2011 anime always using Departure! as the opening and not having a dark enough tone in the Yorknew arc (along with a bright shonen tone in general for the first 3 arcs) didn't do it justice. A lot of older fans also hate Killua wrapping that heart in cloth that he got out of nowhere (Johness' shirt wasn't even that torn) rather than crushing it was retarded, and preferred Kurapika's chain animation in 1999 to the remake, etc.

I've no real opinion about 1999 other than that the filler at least isn't as damaging as faggotry from One Piece, Naruto, DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh! or other shonen and that the 1999 Yorknew arc is the superior one because I feel like they expanded on Pakunoda's character and had a much more mature direction.

I'm also in the camp that the 2011 anime is superior as a whole due to having a competently adapted Chimera Ant arc and the Heavens Arena arc not being halfway ruined by last minute script changes due to the show almost getting canceled, but the 1999 Hunter Exams was still okay here for what it was and the 1999 Yorknew arc definitely offers more to the table in both atmosphere and direction as well as character moments in the ending. Pakunoda just felt like a copypasta of her manga self in 2011 while her character was expanded to the point that people probably shipped her and Chrollo in this version. Because the Yorknew arc is done better here, while I do prefer the 2011 anime as a whole I wouldn't say it's by a landslide like with the JJBA Part 3 OVAs compared to DP's SC anime - where the only thing the OVAs did better was adding more explosions with the tank lorry as well as lengthening High Dio's fight scene with Jotaro.

 

[SSJ2]

Jojo part 3: 4/10

This manga was some 150+ chapters and realistically it only needed to be 70-80. The episodic nature of the quest prolonged the journey to take down Dio who was set up to be the main threat/villain. For some reason minor villains received more attention than Dio in many regards, who only appeared as a silhouette until the group met with him face to face at the end of the manga. It felt odd that Dio was the final boss when he had no direct involvement in the plot until the very end.

Some positives though. Overall the cast of characters was fairly likeable and some of them underwent personal growth during their travels, but nothing too significant. Stands were a better concept than I recalled them being initially, allowing fights to be about more than raw power (in some cases). I thought it was complete bullshit that Jotaro magically learned to stop time in the battle with Dio, but realistically Dio's stand was too powerful to overcome in any other way.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

For some reason minor villains received more attention than Dio in many regards, who only appeared as a silhouette until the group met with him face to face at the end of the manga. It felt odd that Dio was the final boss when he had no direct involvement in the plot until the very end.

That was very much intentional though as DIO is far more cautious and experienced than the Dio in Part 1, even being cautious of Joseph's Hamon despite his age. It would be out of character for him to simply attack the group gun's blazing at the first opportunity. Moreover, this is made up for by the manner in which his henchmen act as extensions of him with the fear or loyalty even dangerous Stand users have, not to mention Jonathan's Stand being the reason the minor villains could track the Stardust Crusaders in the first place.

I thought it was complete bullshit that Jotaro magically learned to stop time in the battle with Dio, but realistically Dio's stand was too powerful to overcome in any other way.

Whilst it could have been implemented better, it wasn't a complete contrivance. It was given some foreshadowing in the D'arby gamble with him instantaneously getting the juice seemingly out of nowhere and Star Platinum's Developmental Potential is listed as being A, showing it still has plenty of room to grow. Leaving aside the "it's the same type of Stand as Star Platinum" line (much like how Joseph and Jonathan's Stands are near-identical), one of Star Platinum's main abilities is its incredible reflexes/speed, of which time stopping is very much the peak of what can be done with it. It's not as if Jotaro's time stop was a match for The World's either with him having to be very tactical about when he used it due to the fight with DIO being the only time he was truly pushed into using it properly, much like how Jonathan's Stand isn't as advanced as Joseph's due to DIO mainly relying on The World.