I'm currently around episode 170.  Some of the arcs are entertaining (Arlong Park and Alabasta), but the Skypiea arc I'm on now is terrible.  I've been stuck on it for over 3 months.  Normally I would've dropped an anime that did that long ago, but with 800+ episodes left I'm trying to power through this arc to get to better ones.  However, it's so damn boring its a struggle just to get halfway through an episode.

Overall, I'd liken One Piece to the free bread you get at restaurants before your meal.  It's not good.  Its not bad (outside of this dreadful Skypiea arc).  Its just something to tide you over as you wait for something better.

Not quite to one piece level, but I'm watching Hunter x Hunter and overall it's been fairly good. Got into the chimera ant arc and it feels like it's just dragging on and on. Working towards the final showdown for the crew vs king, and overall feels like it could have been half the episodes it's taken so far and I'm only still about halfway through the arc.

You'll like it.

Hunter x Hunter is a top 5 all time anime, IMO.  Which is amazing to me considering I almost threw the towel in after the first 2 or 3 episodes because it seemed like a goofy Saturday morning cartoon. Thankfully that tone didn't last long.  It also has arguably the best original soundtrack in all of anime.

And, like most anime, for the best viewing experience I recommend people skip the OPs until the end of each arc.  They aren't as riddled with spoilers as some others, but they do ruin various surprises.  Especially the Chimera Ant OP.

Patlabor the Movie I/II are some of my favorite Anime titles of all time.

Fantastically done movies with great storylines and just enough action.

The scene in Patlabor II where the attacks begin and Gotoh goes out to call in to the division HQ is fantastic. Also his reaction, when he comes back into the meeting.

He really is a fantastic character.

I've definitely liked it. Once the world starts building up the the story is pretty in depth, serious, but fun as well. Characters are interesting. And overall the pacing has been pretty good. It's just recently (I'm on ep100) that it has felt a bit dragged out.

Isnt one piece like thousands of episodes? Watching that sounds like a full time job.

The op for reincarnated as a sword sounds like the op for Gate.

My niece in Jr High is all about that show and yeah it's got over 1000 episodes. She is pretty. much an American hikikomori that doesn't attend school and her life revolves around that show. Not saying it's the show's fault, she and her parents have some serious issues but it seems she spends most of her life watching and re-watching One Piece. I tried to watch some of the episodes so I could "relate" to her but I couldn't get into it. Still haven't been able to get into Hunter X either. Both of the shows are too... cartoony for me and that's saying a lot as I actually enjoy Boku no.  

BTW the current season of Boku no is freaking AWESOME!

878 dubbed so far.

Probable.

Alright guys, here’s something different, I’m going to a ramen place tomorrow and have never had it before unless you count cup o noodles, so, which one(s) should I try?
I’m open to pretty much anything.
Their menu…

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Killer Ramen looks good.

I would go with the Killer Ramen. Maybe the regular Tonkotsu Ramen if you don't like spicy.

Black garlic, killer or tonkotsu

I'm in the 400s

Overall story is good

For just starting out in "real" Ramen
I'd start with either Tonkotsu Ramen or Shoyu Ramen, both are very traditional ramen.

My local (kinda) place is Ramen Bowls in Lawrence KS, There my two favorites there are
Double soup ramen and Tan Tan Men ramen.

Double Soup
Thin noodles, combination pork bone and chicken broth, 2 slices pork belly, corn,
braised egg, garlic, leeks, scallions, nori, extra noodles by request.

Tan Tan Men (Sesame & Chili)
Wavy noodles, pork bone broth, pork belly bits, sauteed spinach and Napa cabbage, scallions,
sesame seeds, spicy miso topping.

Not miso unless you've already tried and know that you like it. I do not like it.

Also be aware that tonkatsu is not the same as tonkotsu - you want tonkotsu.

And if you’re looking for some anime to watch, try Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens…

(But that’s more of a sports anime - if you want a ramen anime, look for: Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles)

I didn't know this. I'm familiar with one, but couldn't possible tell you which one, and have no idea what the other is.



Naruto was originally (supposedly) supposed to be about Ramen. Kishimoto basically got told that aint nobody gonna fuckin read that shit, so he made a few minor changes.

Thanks for the recommendations guys, I’ll probably go with the Killer as I like spicy, wife is still undecided.
This should be interesting, my descent into otaku continues.

I

I agree about the Chimera ant arc. I didn't care for the premis in the first place and thought they spent way too much time on it.
On the other hand, I did like the way they ended it, and not just because it was over.

I binge watched the first season of KanColle (which originally aired in 2014 or 2015 - and which Crunchyroll mistakenly identifies as ‘season 3’ for the sub) and really enjoyed every single minute.

It was all ‘fwoosh’ and ‘kapow’ and mostly fun and lighthearted (well, except for a few properly somber scenes), with good pacing and decent animation and terrific creativity - exactly what you’d expect from a bunch of fleet girls faced with a tenacious alien enemy force - whether those girls may be aircraft carriers or destroyers or torpedo cruisers or whatever, they had a war to win and so they pressed forward with everything they could bring to the fight - and they fought hard and played hard.

Fast-forward to 2022 and the release of the first few episodes of season 2.

I’m only ten minutes into episode 1, so I can hold out hope that it will pick up the pace and get much, much better, but so far, it has been a real buzzkill - the best word that I can think of to describe the OP is ‘lugubrious’, and the show itself feels, well, labored and measured and boring and ssssslooooowwww and totally unlike what made season 1 so charming.

The authors probably have their own reasons for the unexpected about-face - and I should give it more time to see where they’re taking it (and why) - but if they can’t get it back into the groove soon they’re in real danger of ‘missing the boat’ (pun intended).

ETA: Reached the end of ep. 1 and so far it hasn’t gotten any better. The dialog is stilted and unimaginative, the action so far is missing-in-action, and the pacing is still lethargic.

I’m wondering whether there’s any crossover at all between the creative team from season 1 and the parties responsible for this so-far-disappointment of a show.

ETA2: Ep. 2 was a tad better in the action department, but the dialog and pacing still suck - and it is totally lacking in the ‘fun’ department. Someone on the ‘creative’ team (and I’m using that term loosely here) must have taken their ‘make it seem realistic’ marching orders too seriously and thought that replicating the mundane details of mind-numbing defense department and logistics bureaucracy would be a good idea - it wasn’t.

Season 1 actually had several honest-to-goodness laugh-out-loud moments - while I remain hopeful for season two to improve as it gets rolled out, so far I’ve seen nothing to encourage me.

It appears that ep. 3 is the “war is hell” episode. Unsurprisingly, not a whole lot of laugh material there.

The dub for Spy x Family is atrocious.  Especially the VA for Anya.  In the sub Anya sounds like a little girl.  In the dub Anya sounds like an adult attempting, and failing, to sound like a little kid.

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Sounds like a little kid to me.

Same here.

I’ve encountered plenty of children under the age of 10 that have voices that sound similar to sub Anya.

I’ve never in my life encountered a child under the age of 10 that has a voice that sounds like dub Anya and if I did I would strongly suspect they were actually an adult dwarf attempting to masquerade as a child.

Welcome to 'Dubs Are Cancer' episode 36,487

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given how big the menu I assume they dont make it, but go with the dipping ramen

My 11 y/o daughter and I both agree with you.

Am I the only one just freaking out about My Hero Academia this season?

EVERY SINGLE EPSISODE is just freaking nuts. They are killing off characters like Hasbro in the Transformers movie. Oh we've got too many characters now? Just fucking kill them all. Brutally. Oh we can't kill all of them? Just fucking maim them so they are forever bedridden.. that will take care of it.

Sounds like it got fun as long as the didn't kill best girl (Toga).

Toga was my favorite but now after this season it’s all Mirko all the time.

What was ruined has been made whole again.
Click To View Spoiler

Is Deku's bitch ass still alive?

One of the reasons this season is so awesome is he’s hardly been in it. He was in todays episode thou and like the other characters he’s improved and was kicking some ass.

That's not a great sign of a strong main character.
I only watched season one and thought it was okay.

I threw in the towel early S2, IIRC.  Deku was simply too insufferable to tolerate anymore of the anime.

Kinda agree. Some "Game of Thrones" would do the series good

There were some shit episodes for sure and Deku for a long time was painful. I didn't start watching it until a couple of years ago so I was able to binge watch and blow though the mediocre stuff but even then were moments of awesomeness. Last season was My Villain Academia and was all about the villains and what they were planning, this season started off with the heros coming in to stop them and yeah it's been awesome.

I don't know how far I would have gotten into the show if my son wasn't into it and we were watching it together. He stopped watching it last year thou and I kept on but heck I wasn't even excited about this season and didn't watch the first episode when it aired and prioritized other shows. After that first episode thou.. freaking wow!

Well, to be fair she did try to make it up to him the next morning.

Also,  @Gunslinger808: Bro, how was the ramen?

Just got back into town a few hours ago, sorry for not reporting back on my thoughts on it.
I ended up getting the Killer(I’m a whimp, wasn’t trying anything too unusual) it was darn good but not as spicy as I thought it’d be.
I purposely didn’t order extra spicy as I wasn’t sure how much they’d add, but it was darn tasty.
The noodles were a surprise, I expected the same sort of half cooked consistency as a ramen cup, but these were firm and yet just better, I really don’t know how to explain them.
They had some daily special fish type my wife ordered that she fell in love with, it was spicy and loaded with ginger, I have no idea what it was called.
One thing was the smell, they set the bowl in front of me and I knew it was not what I was used to, it smelled great, the aroma was a definite attention getter, I knew it was going to be good.
The portions were massive, I was expecting similar to how Pho is served, these bowls were about the same diameter as a medium pizza and deep, we were both sloshing when we left.
Last thing was I don’t know if it was me but it didn’t seem to be as overloaded with salt like I’m used to, great flavor without seeming like it was more subtle than the usual basic seasoning I’m used to.
Definitely will be back to try something different the next time.
And yeah, I did it as they do on the anime shows, chopsticks and slurping, the one thing I wasn’t too excited about was the soft boiled egg, not my favorite by any means, but it did blend well with the flavors.
I’m hooked, now if I could only find a decent place here in close proximity to my little town, Phoenix is a hour and a half drive, Tucson about the same.

I made it all the way through Season 4, but just couldn't bring myself to start Season 5. I needed a break.

Based on the comments about this season, it sounds like I'll have to pick it back up again.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners was actually pretty good.

I'm not even that big of an Anime fan (I've liked a few in the past, but rarely) and I enjoyed it.

Uzaki chan actually hung out. A lot.

I love that show so much!

The gun scene from last week killed me