/ot/ - Off-Topic

I'm getting back into watching seasonals after a couple years. Any 2021-2024 hidden gems? Non-BL adjacent series are fine.

>>8043
>it attracts the boring pedos that can't talk about anything but loli cunny for a single second
I just started watching Medalist and yeah, no kidding. Absolute dogshit threads. Hoping for some bait between the two male coaches.

>>8062
>Any 2021-2024 hidden gems?
Definitely give Odd Taxi a chance. It's probably the most surprising series I watched and it was a pure art and love project.
Dungeon Meshi and Frieren are insanely popular and I would rec them if you like actual fantasy and adventure.

Everything else is more subjective I believe but if you like shoujo-like war drama give 86 a chance as well for it has some fantastic direction but gets IMO only really good halfway in of s1. Not because the earlier parts were bad but because I misjudged it and assumed it would go into a different direction. Well I was wrong.

Bravern, Elusive Samurai and SK8 are popular among fujos. Bravern is as gay as anything can get and honestly basically canon despite being a super robot show. SK8 is similar. First features two adult military dudes and an aggressively gay robot (I won't say more about that), second has a varied cast of different ages and pretty character designs. Elusive Samurai isn't really gay but it's a heavily male dominated show with some teasing between certain characters and it has a bunch of cute blushing shotas as well as varied menhera adults and closely befriended ojisan samurai.

It depends on what you like. I am also a huge fan of Vinland Saga s1+s2, Made in Abyss or PLUTO but opinions on these probably vary depending on whether or not someone likes adult dudes, cute kids and sci-fi, fantasy or history.

>>8063
>Odd Taxi
>86
>SK8
>VS
>MIA
>PLUTO
I actually watched all of these, just finished PLUTO today; I've been waiting for it to be released for years but only got to it now lol. Loved them all aside from SK8 which I found to be average but still enjoyable, so good taste.

I'll check out the rest you mentioned, Elusive Samurai looks pretty interesting in particular. Thanks anon.

>>8063
Seconding Bang Braven since it's basically a BL. It's very campy and has a very gay robot, would absolutely rec to any nonna here. I also liked Sk8 and Dungeon Meshi from the ones that nonna listed. If you like full-on BL Cherry Magic is cute. It's about a 30 year old virgin who develops mind reading powers and realizes his coworker is in love with him.

>>8062
>Any 2021-2024 hidden gems?
I'll go through my anilist for those years and put down some stuff that I enjoyed but don't often see people talk about: Fairy ranmaru, Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu, Kemono Jihen, Ousama Ranking, Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru, Shadows House, Uramichi Oniisan, Koukyuu no Karasu, Atarashii Joushi wa Dotennen, Dark Gathering, Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri, Migi to Dali, REVENGER, Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, Undead Girl Murder Farce, Yuzuki-san Chi no Yon Kyoudai, Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai, NegaPosi Angler, WIND BREAKER(Tbh I don't think this last one is all that good objectively but if you want to see cute boys beating each other up homoerotically it's great).

>>8065
>>8067
Thanks nonnas. Gonna watch Bravern tomorrow. I have a lot of free time now so hopefully I'll get through most of these and catch up on ~3 years worth of anime. If any other anons are looking for series I recommend Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru and Tsurune for some nice (sports) homos.

And damn I've only heard of a third of these, do you watch everything each season?

>>8068
>And damn I've only heard of a third of these, do you watch everything each season?
Not everything. I browse anichart each season and pick up anything that sounds interesting to me. Sometimes I end up not liking it and I'll drop it, other times I'm glad I gave it a shot.

>>8062
Pui Pui Molcar. You can watch both seasons in an hour. If you want more cute shorts we've also had Chiikawa (subs are posted on /wsg/ every Tues and Thurs, you can catch up with what's on nyaa), Odekake Koazame, and Yoru wa Neko Issho.
>>8067
Seconding Fairy Ranmaru, Kyuushi, Atarashii Joushi, Migi to Dali, REVENGER (though that final ep, good lord), Undead Girl Murder Farce. Was not pleased with Sankaku Mado's adaptation quality, the relationship between the leads is far more fun in the manga but be aware there's a major het pair too.

Throwing in High Card because the leads are very shippable and even though the writing falls apart by the end, the revelations in S2 are batshit homo. There's no other way to summarize what goes down other than "wow pretty gay". Also Onmyouji, which FINALLY got an anime adaptation after decades of live action movies and TV specials, but Netflix gave it all the budget of a vanilla ice cream that contains no real vanilla and put rainbow jimmies on top hoping we'd be appeased. Well Seimei and Hiromasa are meant for each other and they even slipped in Seimei turning up at various men's bedsides so I was happy despite Douman getting genderbent for some reason. I'm guessing someone in production staff demanded more boobs in a period setting where everyone would be covered up. Thankfully she seems to ship the leads, so it's more like genderbending to prevent SeimeiDouman shippers getting in Hiromasa's way (if they even exist).

Shows with little homo appeal I'd rec include Akiba Maid Wars (PA Works doing yakuza mob movie parodies with cute maids), Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (poison loving girl in old China ends up solving mysteries in the palace harem), Paripi Koumei (famous Chinese general takes on Japan's nightclub scene and promises to make a girl a star), and Chimimo (a family of three sisters play host to Suwabe oni/namahage and his cute minions, who are supposed to be researching how better to torture modern humans in hell). I also really liked Tsukimichi and Shinigami Bocchan but those are an isekai and a CG het romcom so your mileage will vary.

I wrote too much for one post, teheh.

>>8075
Cont.

Do you like trash? Trash with singing? Visual Prison happened, and it was a complete dumpster fire, but it's a rare breed of shameless all male dumpster fire we don't get so often. About vampires who idol band sing while fighting for moon wishes or something, and there's a cat (nobody knows why there's a cat). Gekkan Mousou Kagaku tried taking its title with added giant neon furries and a conspiracy theory archeology theme, but was kind of lacking even in the weirdness department. And then there's Kawagoe Boys Sing, where the boys did sing, and the animation did fall apart, and there's a honey badger (nobody knows why there's a honey badger), but the guys were remarkably likeable and it even gently suggested ships.

Lastly, for children's shows there was a Muteking reboot that had surprise homo between the hero and a space cat-octopus, despite the hero's motivation being a girl he likes.

Starting Bungou since it keeps toping the AO3 charts and I'm jealous of the fans who are eating well. lol I like reading classics and I know some western authors are featured in the series so I'm curious how the writers I like like Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain will be treated.

>>8089
When I watched it I ended up never getting into a gay ship but I find it entertaining for how chuuni some of the fights and superpowers can get.

>>8094
Yeah I'm on episode 9 and no shipping meter is going off yet, in fact right now it seems weird that it blew up so much. It gives big 12 episode seasonal vibes. I like Dazai he's like a much younger, bishie Itoshiki Nozomu.

>>8094
>>8102
I watched it too but felt the same. In the end I also disliked the MC and kinda felt like the screentime was wasted when it focused on him or his gf. But worse is that it's one of those series where I feel like all characters are the same guy in a different flavor because most are the same young types of underworld affiliated dudes with the same body type and the same super high IQ, fancy clothes and elegant demeanor and since the series has a LOT of characters I ended up mixing everybody up with each other and the only ones that stuck out were Dazai, the detective and maybe the angry goth twink. It still worked for s1 but I forgot almost everything when s2 came and didn't even remember names or plot points when I stared s3 so I gave up lol.

It's not a bad series and despite of what I said the designs are still 10 times better than those of the usual gacha or idol slop that's mainstream these days but it banks too much on winning you over by coolness and super smart OP characters for my taste.

The only things I remember from two seasons of BSD are green tea on cold rice, Moby Dick is terrorism, and never touch a lil' rolling ball. I don't even remember why they have powers.

>>8109
kek. i also watched two seasons and only things i remember are evil f scott fitzgerald and the random incestuous side characters. then i started the manga, got cliffhanger’d on that one helicopter explosion, and dropped it in mourning.

>>8076
>Trash with singing
You were talking about a different series but you just reminded me that Hypnosis mic was a thing. I know there's more to it than just the anime but that's all I watched, out of curiosity, and while I don't know if I can recommend it it sure was a ride. A rando terrorist character threatened a rando woman by pointing a mic at her and it actually makes sense in-universe.

I enjoy Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte as someone who likes detective series in general but I wish she looked like a mature woman instead of a child. I know this might sound like I'm an anime tourist but it's just my personal opinion and taste.

Finished the first season of Bungou and I think it falls into "not for me" I wish the author-namesake had more of an impact on the characters. Besides Ranpo it really feels more like window dressing for flashy attack than anything meaningful. For example Kenji Miyazawa is wrote children's stories so the character is a child, that's it his real life as a school teacher doesn't seem to be a factor at all. Maybe it's because I haven't read a work by Doppo or Dazai but while I enjoy the characters it just doesn't seem to really amount to anything? >>8108 You are absolutely right about their being WAY too many characters nonna and I'm horrified by the fact that I know I haven't even been introduced to half the cast. I think I'll give it one more season to try to hook me but I'll probably drop it after that if it doesn't hook me.

>>8118
> I know this might sound like I'm an anime tourist but it's just my personal opinion and taste.
Don't think so. I didn't pick it up because of her design (and because I usually don't like anime detective series since they often end up being forced 6D chess that relies on luck).
I feel like a lot of teen and kid coomers (especially loli fags) among the anime fandom are just pretending to be attracted to kids to fit in these days. So if anything the people that sound like tourists to me are the ones that force the underage=hot/mature=ugly meme.

Besides killing my immersion with a character in a high position looking like 12 I also simply don't like bland designs and "pretty" anime designs are basically always bland aka puppet faces with a face shaped like a circle or V for the men, mouth and nose being dots, eyes being round with huge irises that make them look like animals etc.

>>8118
>>8154
>light novel source material
Yeah, expected that. Light novels don't really choose who doess the character designs or illustrations, pretty sure the publishers just pick whoever is cheap and marketable.

>>8164
Honestly most LN designs and covers look like AI slop to me even though they aren't, I wouldn't wonder if they would end up using AI in the future lmao
I wish they would put a bit more thought into it though. The GGO LN isn't even that good but the art is so pretty and stylish. I prefer sketchy art or pics with stark contrasts over this super digitalized art that every gacha game and LN seems to have these days.

The bathhouse vampire anime is pretty funny. The vampire literally getting a boner over a virgin 15 year old boy is probably going to filter some people but it's lighthearted enough that it didn't bother me.

I watched a BL isekai and the faggy ass protagonist wouldn’t stop crying every 30 seconds
Then I read the manga and he still kept crying but he also got a BBL in some chapters.

I feel like I’m more tolerant of weepy ukes than a lot of people but Jesus Christ dude must be dehydrated as fuck from all those tears.

>>8180
They need to apply the common acting advice "nobody wants to see you cry, they want to see you holding tears back" this would immediately redeem SO many ukes

>>8181
Makes me wonder why there are so many crybaby MCs. I've never seen anyone like that character archetype, only complaints. For BL, I'm sure it's just there to further contrast the pairing's personalities especially if the seme is a stoic but there has to be a better way to pull that off.

>>8182
I hate this with men and women, it even puts me off lol. I can only imagine it's either exec mandated because they're out of touch and believe that crying shitters would be relatable for the audience or the brainless masses are actually giving these series more clicks than stories with masculine or interesting MCs.
This stuff is one of the reasons for why otome and most shoujo adventures are unreadable for me too. The MCs are way too passive, weak and insecure in most of these but it's even more enraging when it's a guy. And I have never seen anybody that likes that either.

>>8144
>his real life as a school teacher doesn't seem to be a factor at all.
This is why I found it so curious when Isekai Shikkaku got licensed and the anime announced, as all these BSD fans started QRTing in shock and horror saying it was an insult to the real Dazai and gross, saying it was going to "ruin their boy" or something. But as far as I'm aware, this manga that never names Sensei as Dazai, EVER, is more accurate to the real man and his works than BSD was, purely by using a handful of trivia as its basis. I like collecting trivia notes, so it's lost potential to me that I can't remember much in BSD that stuck.

>>8166
>covers look like AI slop to me even though they aren't
It's a certain style of rendering that has been fed into AI libraries because it's the most shared general art on social media. You know, the kind of pretty stuff where people don't know who the character is but they'll like and retweet it just for being bright and shiny and sometimes wearing a string bikini with a skirt.

>>8179
Some of the comedic timing feels a little off to me, but I've been waiting for this so I'll keep with it. The boner in ep 2 was predy bige.

>>8181
Gonna need to throw holding back tears in the hurt/comfort thread now.

>>8183
I've always assumed there is an audience for it, and I've just not been it. Like you say, there's a ton of shoujo for younger readers where characters cry openly, so when I encounter a BL with a weepy uke I think oh it's just for teenage readers who see crying as a more common thing to do. I have no idea what JP BL demographics are like though, nobody really posts numbers and charts on age ranges there.

>>8194
>I have no idea what JP BL demographics are like though
Men (and women) crying is a time-honoured Japanese fetish dating back to the Heian period, it was basically the fastest way to get someone horny. I think because of the vulnerability when you have a culture where people rarely show their true feelings. It's been described as pity = love.

>>8195
I think men crying are cute, but only when it's the result of injury or built up angst. They need to earn the tears you know?

How the hell are they getting away with the lighting in this?

>>8205
This hurts my eyes, but in a good way. Not a fan of the show but it's a neat OP.

>>8206
Right? Just surprised that they got flashing lights like that on air.

>>8205
I will change guidelines like magic, shine on screen, shine on screen. Every nona is watching about night of strobe~

Highly recommend listening to the full song, the TV size feels so lacking afterward.

I am so busy with fanart drawing that I can barely watch anything. I enjoy a few series that I expected to enjoy but Sakamoto was surprisingly fun as well. It's usually just that this type of shounen eventually becomes repetitive and boring so I am only cautiously optimistic. Agree about Medalist being good and I watch Aquarion because I like the weird artstyle and because I am a mecha and original anime fag.
>>8195
>>8204
I like manly men crying. Not because of the cuteness but because it's usually scenes that make me cry as well which means that they are good.

Thus far I'm only keeping up with SakaDays and Babanba Vampire but I've been having a fun time with them both, very nice Saturday watches. I may pick Medalist back up and finally actually give Doctor Detective a go, but I'm honestly enjoying the first two enough to be completely sailing this season. That said, I've been watching stuff from my backlog too. Psycho-Pass S1/2 (will continue with movie and S3 some point soon), SK8, and I just started Kado: The Right Answer because of sheer curiosity.

I like all the Psycho-Pass OPs so far but I rank them Abnormalize> Enigmatic Feeling > 'CAUSE I FEEEEEEL
EDs easily go Monster Without a Name > Fallen >>> All Alone With You
SK8 was fun but I realized that once the angsting started I wasn't actually super invested in Reki and Langa like that, though I def don't hate them or anything. I think maybe I just found how it was done way too by the books, so I was more just waiting for it to follow the beats I figured it would. At some point I just wanted it to get back to the actual batshit skating, lmao. I actually really liked Shadow and Adam was totally deranged and enjoyable.

>>8277
>Kado: The Right Answer
Finished it. Can not actually think of a better picture to describe watching this than pic rel. I was kinda spoiled about a few things beforehand but holy hell I still ended up completely blindsided. I really liked how slow, largely serious it began (I honestly think the scene where they're moving Kado is my favorite, if not at least among the top few) but it just completely veered off course and I was losing it by the end. Probably very little I could say about it that hasn't already been said years before by now but yeah, hot damn. This'd also be my perhaps second? experience with a (mostly) 3DCG anime so lol what a memory. Hanamori was also really adorable, the poor pure bastard.

Not really watching, rather re-watching certain episodes of Megalobox and Nomad. Does anybody else think that this series has top tier male designs?
I dig oldschool designs so fucking much, I wish more modern anime would get their inspiration from them. I am a huge fan of muscular anime men with soft, droopy eyes and maybe even eyelashes.

Big fan of Dezaki anime for the same reason. The dudes from Takarajima and other shows were otherwise super masculine but had those huge sparkling eyes with eye lashes and long hair. I like contrasts like these.
>>8312
The way this series treats the gays (and to an extent fujos) and the implications about it are a whole own thing, but even that aside it pissed me off like nothing else that it seemed to be one of the super rare anime that finally didn't seem to shove the "technology/progress bad" narrative down my throat and showed that high-tech can actually help millions.. only to to a radical 180° turn on that and become a generic tech=evil, gay=bad show with psycho villain.

Babylon from the same guy is a similar trainwreck but I at least expected it there which made it way more enjoyable to watch.

>>8312
I was hanging around /a/ when it aired but I wasn't watching it myself cause I got turned off by the 3D so imagine my surprise when I saw hints of how insane the show got later in the season and scrolled through episode threads with anons losing their minds.

Cute idiot from the vampire bathhouse anime.

Not gay and probably total trash taste but this season I enjoy Medalist, Momentary Lily (the gohands anime, I watch their originals) and Aquarion MOE. And now I finally started the old man isekai and enjoy that too. This is the first time since SAO back in 2012 or whenever it started that I don't feel like dropping a modern isekai. Not that SAO is particularly good, but back then I was at least curious and it had some cool ideas.

Oldman episode 1 actually made me feel old as well. Not only is that dude ironically more relatable than the average anime MC thanks to being normal, he also listed a bunch of old anime with drill-haired rivals like Glass no Kamen until his daughter interrupted him to tell him that it's all old shit nobody knows anymore. I knew all of the series he listed so I felt out of touch, lel. Have this feeling everytime I talk to someone who is uses tiktok or cares about current pop culture. It makes the series more fun to watch. I want more out-of-touch MCs.

That aside the old dad is just cute IMO even if the series is straight. It looks like Medalist has some fujo pandering though.

>>8420
>I want more out-of-touch MCs.
You might also like Isekai Ojisan. They did a good job of nailing how Sega fans are just Like That, lol.

I started watching BRAVERN!!!! (he always calls out his own name like that in caps) tonight and it's something else. There's a sort of love triangle where blondie wants the robot who wants Isami who's just miserable all the time. At first he doesn't want to get in the robot and then his clothes disintegrate and he doesn't want to get out. And that hot blooded 70s ass opening song… The male and female characters look like different species. The moeblobs are so jarring when everything else is flaming gay.

>>8429
The moeblobs seem to work as protection from specific sort of fans, at least. That, or maybe I'm lucky.

>>8429
Yeah, gayness aside easily the best part of the show was just how campy-retro (is that a phrase?) the whole thing felt. It's great how it embraces the goofy-ness of the genre.

>>8429
If you are at episode 3, you'll understand the triangle is isami>smith>bravern but wait for further development on that
Anyway wouldn't call the girls moeblobs, the character designer is a yuri artist and his style is very reminiscent of kyoani. Every girl is cute but not moe, maybe the only exception is Lulu but won't say anything else.
I suggest you to check the episode preview here of the episodes you watched or going to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH9JEUZOvp0&list=PLAIkDdUiHwFN91Q9KRBmaonuKUkF7Q2tF
there are more translated things related to the anime in the same channel but wouldn't look at them atm since they are spoilers

I never watched HachiKuro when it was airing and ignored it up till now. I've been on a hunt for university/college anime and started this on a whim. So glad I gave it a chance. I miss simple SoL where the drama is unrequited love and personal reflection about abilities, dreams and the future. If anyone as more 2000s SoL/romance recs, BL or otherwise, please drop them. This gave me the same feelings as Junjou Romantica and a lot of BL manga I used to read in the late 2000s (eg. Yamada Yugi & Yamashita Tomoko).

>>8502
I'd recommend checking out Nodame Cantabile, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, and Gin no Saji. Rec is a short and cute series too.

>>8504
I just realized 2 of those aren't from the 2000s kek. Bokura ga Ita is exactly what you're looking for years and genre wise. Beck and Genshiken are also good, latter is a college anime with fujo rep.

>>8502
For me it's Zettai Shounen, but it involves some sort of paranormal mystery so I am not sure if it's what you are looking for even though it's at the end a very character centered slowburn that focuses on inner conflicts and the likes with a lot of SoL scenes that are more on the realistic spectrum.
Also, not gay but the boy is very cute IMO. It isn't romance heavy IIRC though.

So Red is bisexual for real? Anyway interesting episode. I guess I have shitto teesto because I like Aquarion and Momentary Lily the most this season, first is called boring, second is avoided for being a GoHands series but you can speculate about them the most and I really like the stylish chibi designs in Aquarion