Retsam

Wikipedia only has it listed as 10 episodes and an OVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_of_an_MMO_Junkie - apparently the OVA is on Crunchyroll.

I'm a big fan of the original anime. I've taken a few stabs at the manga in the past, but never got very far. Manga is generally just not my thing, I found the Trigun manga a bit hard to follow when I tried it, and I've gotten the general impression that the parts I liked most about the anime were much smaller parts of the manga. I also was fairly disappointed by Stampede - though I've started rewatching it and I'm enjoying it a bit more - it probably helps that I started rewatching it in the middle, with the episode that I remember liking the most, and some of it is probably the magic of lowered expectations.

It's pretty good - not perfect, but a solid thriller and a complete story in 12 episodes which is always nice. TBH, not sure there's much else I can say without spoilers. Though, speaking of opening themes, it's rare because the opening theme was an existing song before the anime came out, (most opening themes are made for the anime nowadays) and was actually a song I had listed to a lot - Asian Kung Fu Generation was the first band I really got 'into'. Was very weird getting to the end of the first episode where it plays and being like... wait, what?

I really like it - it's the sort of show that's all over the place tonally. It's heavy in some places, but also very funny (especially, IMO, the English dub), the main leads have really good chemistry; the time-travel plot actually largely makes sense (eventually) and has some really good twists and turns, and it has a really satisfying ending. It can be divisive - a lot of the characters are flawed and a lot of people find the main character a bit difficult (but that's even more true in-universe: that's kind of the point of his character), and there's one particular plot point that annoys a lot of people. But still, I've seen a lot of stuff, and it's pretty high on my list. I used to be able to rattle off a "top-5 favorite anime" but at this point it's probably changed quite a bit and I'd have to figure out what to keep and what to bump... Steins;Gate is definitely pretty high up though.

OP means opening theme, ED means ending theme. As opposed to "OST" which is just the general soundtrack for the show. e.g. Frieren has a great OST ("Zoltraak" is probably the most popular/famous track), but OST it's not usually what people mean by "anime songs". Though there are also "insert songs" - vocal songs in the middle of an episode - like God Knows which Eluvianii mentioned. --- Of the list earlier, I think Unravel is my favorite musically; ended up liking the song a lot more than the anime Tokyo Ghoul, and ended up listing to it (and various remixes/alternative versions) for ages afterwards. But it's hard to judge because a lot of times how much I like the song is influenced by how much I like the anime. (e.g. I love Hacking to the Gate, but that has to be a least partially because Steins;Gate is a top-5 anime for me)

If you mean OP/EDs, r/anime did more-or-less yearly "best opening" and "best ending" tournaments for awhile, their results were: "Again" from FMAB "Hacking to the Gate" from Steins;Gate "Unravel" from Tokyo Ghoul "Flyers" from Death Parade "Cruel Angels' Thesis" from Evangelion "Tank" from Cowboy Bebop "Renai Circulation" from Monogatari "Guren no Yumiya" from Attack on Titan "99" from Mob Psycho 100 "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" from Ya Boy Kongming! "Idol" from Oshi no Ko It's a pretty good list of some of the top-of-all-time OPs.

I had fun with Yumi because it was like... page 12 where I clocked "oh, this is Sanderson's take on Your Name". Funnily enough, I was so distracted on the Your Name parallels, I completely missed the FFX stuff, until it was mentioned in the afterward, which is a bit surprising as that's my favorite video game story of all time.

I'm not normally much into sports anime, but I really enjoyed Turkey: Time to Strike! a lot which aired in the last year. Kinda hard to describe what makes it good; it's one of those anime where it's worth giving it an episode or two and seeing if it's your thing or not.

Yeah, it just depends on what your goals are. If your goal is to be educated about Japanese culture and language as a higher priority than experiencing the story as it was originally intended, then a literal subtitle is better. But I think for most people, (and hence the general approach that most translations take), the goal is to give as close to a native experience as possible which often means a less literal translation and more of a "thought-for-thought" translation. And the reality is somewhere in the middle on both - if you go too far on the "thought-for-thought" translation you end up with "Eat your hamburgers, Apollo", but if you go too far on the "word-for-word" translation, then everything goes "according to keikaku". --- I actually have a little formal background in translation - studied biblical translation in college (though not to the point of a degree) and it's the same general ideas - more literal word-for-word translations are good if you're really trying to dig into some technical meaning of the original language... but less literal translations (while still accurate to the original idea) tend to be better for everyday usage.

I think part of it is that that used to be more true - I think older dubs tended to be lower budget and often worse; but anime is a bigger business in the West now and dubs are a lot better. Also if you go back far enough you get into the era where "hiding the Japaneseness" was a goal. (Eat your hamburgers, Apollo) But that really hasn't been true for awhile. Nowadays? I legitimately struggle to remember the last time I ran into something that I'd really call a "bad dub". I can name a few voices that I didn't care for (e.g. one character in Mushoku Tensei, despite my overall preference for that show's dub), but that's also true of subs (e.g. there's one character I dislike in 86, despite my overall love for that show). (For context, I watch quite a bit of both subs and dubs - my default is subbed, especially since dubs are usually delayed, but I often end up rewatching shows dubbed with a friend, or I sometimes watch things dubbed in the background when working which doesn't work with subs) I think there's some truth to this - but I think an argument in favor of dubs is that dubs can sometimes give you closer to the original experience better than a sub. The true "original experience" is to watch it in Japanese while being completely fluent in Japanese language and culture, and that's... tricky to pull off. (I should know, I've been studying Japanese for quite awhile now) Failing that, a good translation can be better than a more literal one. Comedy is the most obvious example: if you want to have the "original experience" of watching a comedy anime, you should laugh, but often the way to make a Western audience laugh is not to tell the exact same joke. That's what I mean about why, e.g. Steins;Gate is such an amazing dub - it replaces a bunch of Japanese nerdy cultural references (e.g. 2chan) with Western equivalents (Dr. Who, Star Trek) because the point is that the protagonists are huge nerds, not the specific references being made, and Western references bring that across better than things that going to fly over the head of most of the audience. (Strictly speaking this is mostly about the literalness of the translation, but "sub = more literal translation, dub = potentially more localized" is broadly true - my understanding is dubs generally have actual writers who decide how to localize it while subs have translators who really aren't empowered to make meaningful changes)

My view is generally "good dub" > "good sub" > "bad sub" > "bad dub". You're much more 'in-tune' with your native language so you can both appreciate good acting more, but you also notice bad acting a lot more, too. Plus, I find comedies work better when you hear the joke with proper timing and delivery rather than reading the punchline on screen. Sometimes it's just carried by a specific voice actor: Trigun, as mentioned, is a classic example (Johnny Yong Boshe), (shame that Tristamp Vash was mostly too depressed and angsty to really show of JYB's abilities). I'd also put Code Geass in the same category for the same reason. (Johnny Yong Boshe) Sometimes it's the localization: e.g. Steins;Gate and Kaguya - not that English voices aren't good, but it's really the localization that carries it - the dubs add or modify jokes to work better to Western viewers ("You're such a Wesley", or the Spongebob joke in the Kaguya dub). Other miscellaneous shows where I liked the dub better: FMA, Planetes, Mushoku Tensei (I don't really count Ghost Stories - yes it's great, but it's IMO closer to an abridged series than an actual translation)

I try to stick to English names, but I spend too much time online and so it varies from show to show. I do wish more shows just gave things short, simple English names, like "Erased" instead of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (literally "the town without only me"). "Rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai" for example is a phenomenal romance/supernatural show, but has an incredibly awkward title. The upcoming season being called "Rascal does not dream of Santa Claus" is not better. (Unrelated, the whole "bunny girl" aspect makes it seem ecchi but it's really not - it's just a plot point in the first arc)

"Dungeon Meshi" is the Japanese title (yes, including the English word "dungeon") - anime fandoms tend to be very split about using Japanese titles vs. using the official English title. Sometimes because the series gets popular before there's an official English title, sometimes because the English title is just awkward - (way easier to say "Oregairu" than "My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected", for example) - and sometimes because anime people are just weird like that.

Shame that it's not really available for streaming - I tend to recommend people try the 2003 version first. Not necessarily because it's better, but because it's different and it's different in such a way that if you watch the 2003 version first you can still enjoy Brotherhood, but if you watch Brotherhood first, it's harder to appreciate the 2003 version. FMA2003 does a lot better with the shared material: it's got a better introduction and a better (slower) pacing through a lot of the earlier plot. Brotherhood moves quickly through some plot stuff and it just doesn't hit as hard, and even skips some stuff, which it awkwardly addresses with a flashback later. If you watch FMA2003 first you don't mind that Brotherhood speed runs the same material, but I don't think it works as well in reverse. I think this is a pretty common opinion - a lot of people who like Brotherhood more overall think the original handles the early stuff better. ... but honestly I'm not one of those people, on the whole I actually just think the 2003 version is better. Yes, Brotherhood is "more faithful to the manga" but that's not the same as "better". Brotherhood is good, and the plot is more coherent in some places, but it's a lot more of just a shonen battle anime in the end, while the 2003 version stays a lot more focused on the themes and philosophy of Equivalent Exchange and keeps a much stronger melancholy tone throughout the show. The main downside is that the ending of 2003 isn't great - the show's ending as a whole is good, but a cliffhanger, and the movie that resolves it is underwhelming (and a bit dated visually). But still, journey before destination, and I like the journey of 2003 better.

Yeah, and honestly the incident you mention is IMO the most defensible example of it in the series, as at least there it's an important part of a main characters arc: there need to be something highly traumatic. The other cases in the series it's either just a shortcut to make a villain villainous (second arc, third arc, ... IIRC a minor antagonist in the first arc, too), or worse just... thrown in with tentacle monsters or whatever. (The last category is the stuff that I've heard some people say were added or exaggerated by the adaptation) And yeah, the writing has gotten better in some respects: other than a few incidents Alicization really was fairly well written, though I still found the conclusion a bit unsatisfying: it seems like the author is good at coming up with really interesting premises, but not that great at executing or resolving them.

SAO is probably the most inconsistent show I've ever seen: there's parts of it that are phenomenal and parts of it that are awful and they're not always that far apart. I've sometimes joked that most of the tension in SAO doesn't come from the antagonists but from the writers room. To the three famous sources of conflict: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Self, I feel like we need to add a fourth: Story vs. Itself. But seriously, the show is incredibly inconsistent: the rift between the first arc and the second arc is famous, but even within the first arc, it varies pretty widely: the premise is great and there's some great episodes, but there's also a good chunk of not great episodes and a lot of "Kirito collecting his harem like Ash Ketchum collects Pokemon" (something that largely continues even after he has an established love interest). And there's just some fairly consistent downsides - for most people the aforementioned harem aspect is one, a lot of people aren't big fans of Kirito as a protagonist (a bit too blank slate) and the show tends to lean on sexual assault a fair bit - both using it to establish villains (which is divisive) but also the show just kinda throws it in sometimes when it's not necessary. (I'm told part of that last category is the adaptations fault, either adding or exaggerating stuff from the source material, but haven't read the source material myself to check) There's some really good parts of the show, and overall I enjoyed it more than I disliked it, but you kinda have to deal with some garbage to get to it. For a lot of people I think it falls into this really awkward "uncanny valley" where it's just good enough that the flaws really bug you. It'd be better if it were a bit better, but if it were a bit worse nobody would care.

Yeah, Love is War's dub is fantastic. We watch the sub as it comes out but then rewatch for the dub (though not immediately - we haven't watched the S3 dub yet): it's a rare case where the dub is so different from the sub that it almost feels closer to watching a different show at times than rewatching. Mostly the narrator is different, but that's a pretty big change, in a way it takes an opposite strategy: the joke of the original narrator is that they're taking the whole thing absolutely seriously, whereas the dub has a lot more "abridged series energy", and the narrator is much more in on the joke, and kind of poking fun at the whole thing. Overall I might actually prefer the dub... but it's hard to say, they're both good in their own way.

If you haven't you should check out Higurashi, as it's mystery/horror and it's one of my favorite things I'm watching right now. It's originally a Visual Novel, that was adapted to an anime back in 2006. It's been on my radar forever (I remember a friend excitedly describing it shortly after it came out), but I never got around to watching it. So when I saw that they were remaking it this year, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to see a slightly shinier version of a show that I've been interested in for awhile.... except, Shia Surprise, it's actually a Stealth Sequel, so I guess I'm watching the sequel to an anime I've never seen. Despite that, I'm enjoying it a lot. I wasn't sure at first: the horror and tension was on point, but the plot was disjointed and confusing. But that's I remember from my friend's description that's how the original was, too - it's a bunch of "question arc"s that don't really make sense, followed by the "answer arcs" that actually explain the plot. And now that the new show is into the answer arcs, it's on a whole other level: it's maintained a lot of the horror and tension from the first half, but it has a coherent and quite gripping story to go with it. I'm being intentionally vague as I really don't have a clue what I could say about the actual plot of the show without spoiling it, but it really exceeded my expectations quite a bit. That being said, this is a horror anime. It's got some quite violent and disturbing bits. I was mostly expecting that (again, reputation, and having seen some out-of-context bits of the original) - but even expecting that, there's one episode of this series that was just beyond the pale. Without exaggeration it was the most disturbing episode of anime I've ever watched. So, strong recommendation, but also a strong content warning on this one. It's been fantastically interesting, but know what you're getting into.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. I don't think it was quite as good as Skyward - but second books rarely are. It definitely went a different direction than I expected, (though that meant largely leaving behind the secondary cast). On the positives: I liked that it fleshed out the Superiority's side and motives. The alien races were all pretty interesting from a world-building perspective; the diones especially. I actually think Spensa's new flight is more interesting than her DDF one, with each member having their own background, agenda, and motives. Hesho was a particular favorite - both a classic humor character but still not one-dimensional. I liked Spensa's misreading of both Cuna and Brade. I actually liked Brade's character, she's an interesting foil for Spensa and certainly her perspective is skewed by her upbringing, but she's not just a brainwashed victim, either. The doomslug reveal wasn't particularly surprising - but I also think that a strength of this series is that it isn't so reliant on big worldbuilding twists to move the plot along. "Chapter 45" was probably the biggest twist of the book, which did make me laugh. (Though if Sanderson really wanted a "twist ending" he should have ended the series after two books) For negatives: I think Spensa is a less interesting character in this one. Her major character arc largely resolved at the end of Skyward - she's no longer an outsider, no longer needs to prove herself to the DDF, no longer insecure about her father. She has an arc in this one - realizing that the supremacy aren't all villains - but it's not as strong and a bit stereotypical feeling, to me at least. (Tangentially, I thought the Steelheart sequels suffered from the same problem: David has a really strong character arc in the first book, and much less so in the sequels) I also think there's less tension in this book, as a whole, compared to Skyward. There was a constant life-or-death threat in that book, and every time the squadron went up you never knew who would come back down. Spensa's infiltration is a source of tension, but it's much more passive "background noise" sort of tension, and overall the infiltration goes very smoothly.

I don't care if "introducing a major character in the middle of the climax" has been the plan from the moment Iron Man debuted, I still think it's narratively awkward. Apparently I'm a "senile old fan" for not having absolute trust in Marvel's storytelling. As a matter of fact, yes, I do think the resolution to Age of Ultron was really unsatisfying, (and frankly that Vision's entire character has been badly done in the MCU). And, incidentally that's a big reason why I don't have absolute faith that Marvel is not going to do basically the same thing this time. Again, I'm not saying they're definitely going to screw it up, I don't have a crystal ball. All I said is "if they resolve it this one particular way, I think that would be a bad resolution". But please keep going, it sure is fun having a discussion where if you say any negative thing you're accused of being sexist. It's not toxic at all.

Yeah, I'm really apprehensive about Endgame's direction; at best, the timing just is awkward - Infinity War / Endgame is the climax of the last decade of MCU movies, and introducing a new character in the middle of a climax is awkward, especially a powerful one. And I'll especially be pretty frustrated if the movie boils down to "and then Captain Marvel shows up and saves everyone", not because I have any particular beef with Captain Marvel, but just because introducing a powerful character out of nowhere to defeat an antagonist is a really unsatisfying resolution. I have a bit of trust that they won't do that... but it wouldn't exactly be the first plot misstep in a MCU movie. (I think they tend to do a *great* job with characters, and just an okay job with plot)

If anyone's looking for anime from this season, "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War" is the best thing I'm watching - granted, it's not a long list this season. It's a slightly topical recommendation, with Valentine's Day tomorrow, but mostly it's just a fantastic show. It's basically like if you made a romantic comedy in the style of the Death Note "potato chip" scene - the premise is two genius high schoolers who are in love with each other but both wants to force the other to admit it first, so mundane interactions are narrated and monologued as titanic battle of the wits. That premise alone would probably get dull fairly quickly, but it's got a lot else going for it: some actual heartfelt moments and the characters themselves are just a lot of fun, including the secondary characters. The best character in the show so far isn't one of the two main protagonists (and it's not even close).

Yeah, this is what finally pushed me to stop watching trailers, at least for Marvel movies. Not because Marvel movies are particularly bad about spoilers (this being a frustrating exception), but if I'm going to see them anyways, I may as well not watch the trailer. I'm not sure it'll work, in practice, as any big reveals will probably get spoiled by memes, or titles of reddit posts, or off-hand mentions in threads like this; but I'm not feeling a great loss in my life by not participating in the huge trailer hype cycle, anyway.

Based on what you've said, huge recommendation for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, if you haven't seen it. It's one of those shows where the less you know about it, the better; but it's likely to subvert some expectations. Hinamatsuri from earlier this year is a comedy that fits the "so stupid it's awesome" very well. A young girl with telekinetic powers shows up in house of a yakuza and coerces him into becoming her guardian by threatening to destroy his precious vase collection. It was hilarious (and strangely poignant at times) and never really settled into a formula, which kept it fresh. I also second A Place Further than the Universe in general; I think it was my favorite show this year; but it doesn't as much sound like what you're looking for specifically.

On the topic of recommendations; at least in America, the anime film A Silent Voice is coming back into theaters, in a few days. I saw it last time it was in theaters, and really liked it. It's got a lot in common with March Comes in Like a Lion (3-Gatsu); both tackle heavy subject matter - A Silent Voice is about a former bully who nearly commits suicide at the beginning of the movie, and the deaf girl that he bullied - but are ultimately uplifting: they start in a dark place and they don't trivialize the darkness, but they don't wallow in it, either. So if anyone's looking for a movie outing; the sub will be playing on the 28th and the dub on the 31st. The dub is especially noteworthy, as the deaf main character is actually played by a deaf actress, but the subtitled version is really good, too. --- Are you looking for more action-oriented shows? What did you consider "too mundane/SoL"?