I am unfortunately employed now, so my free time has been devoured by the job, commute and preparation. However, I have still managed to keep up with a few shows and manga - at a slow pace. So how about you?
For me:
Manga:
Oresama Teacher (2007-2020, 176 Chapters) - The only manga I’m reading at the moment is a work by Tsubaki Izumi of Gekkan-Shoujo Nozaki-kun. It is a story of a former delinquent Mafuyu Kurosaki becoming a transfer student and trying to turn her life around. Like a wild mixture of Angel Densetsu and Nozaki-kun, it is indeed a hilarious manga with surprisingly in-depth characters, but instead of the 4-koma format of the latter, it has shoujo manga length chapters. *(so far) A+
Anime:
Dragon Ball (1986-1989, 153 Episodes) - Dragon Ball is a VERY competent Shounen, and one that steadily gets better and drops the immaturity and much of the horniness of the early part of the show. However, around the 100th episode things start changing. The show becomes… interesting. Definitely recommend sticking around to see the show grow. A
Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Season 1 (2007, 12 Episodes) - This show apparently was a darling of weebs a decade ago, and it is not hard to see why. Edgyness, egregious fanservice, a cynical attitude towards society so typical of the 90s and apparently the 2000s too. The show provides critique that can sometimes hit at the core of the problem (including anticapitalist critique), and at the same time mock people who seek to do something about it. It’s hit and miss, but undeniably interesting. The unique artstyle, the music, the Maeda cameos are bonuses. A
Lupin III: Part II (1977-1981, 155 Episodes) - Hit and miss episode quality, but always entertaining. Sometimes really weird (but apparently 80s Lupin/Part III is most like that), but those tend to be the most fun episodes. Definitely a fantastic show to relax after a stressful day, and there’s a lot of episodes. A-
Lost Universe (1998, 26 Episodes) - Fun characters, but the sci-fi spin-off to Slayers is nowhere near as fun as that series. It’s decent though. B-
Konosuba Season 3 (Ongoing seasonal, 11 Episodes) - It’s more of Konosuba. Juvenile and horny humor, surprisingly decent character writing in spite of the weeb-brained overall writing and a better isekai than the much of the genre it satirises? Yeah, it’s all still here. And not much more, but if you like the rest… B
Too early to tell - Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 (Very good so far. I like the atmosphere more than FMAB’s and find myself enjoying it more than when I tried to watch that) - Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (very much anti-weeb brained + unique setting and premise = good, but can’t tell more until I’ve seen the rest)
Tired of libs? Want to debunk common arguments as early as in the first chapter? Read Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Not as hard as its reputation suggests.
So I recently-ish finished the Stardust Telepath anime (2023) — I liked it a lot but I feel like it had some missed opportunities and didn’t really stick the ending. Would’ve liked to see it get two cours so that the characters could be fleshed out more, but I guess insofar as it makes me curious about the manga, it works.
I saw the Oomuro-ke: Dear Sisters film (2024) with my mom — it was fun, Sakurako always has been among our favorite characters in the YuruYuriverse, we’ll definitely be tuning in for Oomuro-ke: Dear Friends releasing in about 42 days. 40 minutes of short and very slice-of-life vignettes, so it goes by quickly.
I saw one episode of the All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku OVA (1992-1994) by myself — I don’t remember much 'cause it was 4 AM, I’d just thrown up, and I was kind of out of it, but I liked the old OVA art style and thought it had potential.
I started watching Mitsuboshi Colors (2018) with my mom — it’s very cute and it feels unique as far as slice of life anime is concerned, how it shows these kids exploring a whole town and how they have all these nice experiences with grown-ups giving them puzzles and stuff. It’s a welcome break from more high/middle school shenanigans.
Otherwise I’m still watching Futari wa Pretty Cure (2004-2005) by myself — I’m liking it a lot more than I expected to. It’s expectedly formulaic and definitely not as good as Cardcaptor Sakura as far as magical girl goes, I’ve actually kinda been missing Cardcaptor lately; but Precure still has a charm to it. It’s a good anime to watch while eating to test one’s listening comprehension.
I’m still watching Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990-1991) with my mom — it’s good stuff but we’re progressing slowly.
We’re nearly done with Asobi Asobase (2018) — definitely a lot of awkward/gross humor, but as a whole it is hilarious and we don’t regret giving it a shot.
We haven’t seen Library War (2008) in a while — we’ve enjoyed what we’ve seen, though, so we’d recommend it.
We might continue Samurai Champloo (2004-2005) after we finish the first season of The Boondocks (2005-2014) — my brother said he wasn’t really interested in Samurai Champloo after the first few episodes; I’ve seen it by myself already and I thought it was the best anime I saw in 2022. The Boondocks mom and I both find to be top-tier, although my brother strongly dislikes it. Mom says she wants to bake cookies for Huey and Riley. And yes I know that The Boondocks is only anime inspired but whatever I can include it in this comment if I want to thankyouverymuch.
With my brother we watch Lupin III Part II (1977-1980) off-and-till — I share OP’s thoughts pretty much exactly.
I’ve been reading more manga lately:
I blazed through the first volume of The World of Narue (1999-2012) — it had its fair share of moments and had some interesting ideas. It also had an excessive number of panty shots which I found a bit off-putting. I don’t think I’m gonna ask for another volume any time soon.
I also blazed through the first volume of Akane-banashi (2022-) — if I were to describe this manga in two words it would be “blue crystal”, because it was addictive as Hell. I’ve already seen two anime about rakugoka (Joshiraku and My Master Has No Tail) and I generally think that rakugo is one of the coolest and most interesting traditional art-forms of Japan, so I was very excited to get my hands on a manga about a rakugoka, and Akane-banashi did not disappoint me in the slightest. Great art, great storytelling, it always put a huge smile on my face, and I absolutely want more.
And now I’ve started reading the first volume of Aria (2002-2008) — I probably should’ve started with Aqua but eh I took what I could get. In any case, I’ve got Aria in both English and Japanese, so I’m planning on using it as studymat. The Japanese version has furigana on all the words, although at that small print size it can at times be a little hard to read the furigana, which I suppose is a good thing insofar as it pushes me to not rely on them.
I’ve already seen my fair share of the Aria anime, but I’m absolutely glad to be jumping back into the city of Neo-Venezia through paper and ink rather than pixels. The art style is very cute and the whole thing is basically peak iyashikei, I love it.
The Boondocks is anime