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.
What’re you talking about? FMA’03 1. resolves all its plot threads and 2. is anime original, not “overshot the ending” filler. The mangaka herself asked the anime staff to make its own plot; that is why from very early on fma’03 diverges and starts setting up its own plots and themes. The show is better put together in terms of pacing, plot, characters and themes than the manga imo because of the simple advantage it gained by not being written as a serialization
Also fma’03 goes way harder against Amestry’s fascism than brotherhood does so it wins by default edit: like tbh brotherhood
spoiler
literally has the genocidal ethnofascist state “reformed”, it’s genocidal military “reformed” (mustang doesn’t even have himself and other war criminals killed as promised), scar turns reformist, etcetcetc. Genuinely infuriating. In '03, Scar completely rejects the fash state and, after losing both his arms fighting the fascists, pulls a giant boulder around to create a transmutation circle in a city the military plans to invade, evacuates the city, and destroys an entire army at the cost of his life