Retro Anime & Manga

>>515 I feel that EatMan comes off as heavily nihilistic. And so I think the main reason EatMan was so hard to take in is because its nihilistic worldview resides heavily over the story. Although many episode serve as a parable there is no overarching theme or message that the show has to deliver. If anything the episodic nature of the show is used as a way to show the cyclical and meaningless nature of life. All the moments in the anime are quickly forgotten and nothing that happens has any effect on an existing overarching story. As well as this Bolt never really changes at all. Early on they reveal that he was some kind of freak weapon made in a lab, but besides that nothing is revealed about his past and they never mention it again. And besides Bolt all the characters are fairly 2 dimensional and there is never an attempt at making characters 3 dimensional. I'd say there are two types of character in this anime: those who have are driven by their desires and those who have no desire. Mercenaries like Bolt and Heart are people who have lost any desire and so they wander the world acting as tools others can use to achieve their own desires. Yet people like Bolt know first hand that desire is a type of ignorance that only leads to more desire and so on. And this is shown through all the recurring characters whose desire either leads them to suffering or a point at which they only desire more. Bolt helps people achieve their goals, but it is often implied that nothing he does really helps anyone face reality. In one of the last 98 episodes he gives the robots back their memories and lets them continue living on believing they are human. This implies that Bolt does not save anyone, he merely lets them live in their own fantasies, or dreams. I believe this is partly why the program in the episode where the little girl dies says that Bolt is the only one who gets her. Because just as the programs keeps people in a dream Bolt lets others live their own dream. And why when he fails to save the little girl he renounces his title as a mercenary when he failed to keep the little girl in her dream. In the final episode of 97 Bolt is forced to take down the ship that is the dreams of many. The flying ship is comparable to the titanic which was known as the unsinkable ship. In fact the flying ship in Bolt is even explained to be able to keep afloat because of the people who believe in it. ThPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>516>*That it is sometimes necessary to go against the goals that you set at the beginningSorry I hardly read through this before posting

>>516Thanks for the write up, that's actually quite interesting and I never saw the anime in this light before. I can respect it a lot more from that.I never really felt any nihilism from the anime, it just felt like a world that's not that different from our own and Bolt was helping random people as the story dictates, but the way you word it actually makes a lot of sense since the episode plots don't really matter it's more about Bolt trying to solve problems to fulfill the dreams of the people he helps.

>>518I think what you're saying about the setting being similar to the real world is exactly right and partly why I believe it is nihilistic.Because even though the anime takes place in a futuristic world, that at first seems different from our own, somehow its essence is similar enough to the our real world to be boring. But I think this is part of what gives EatMan a nihilistic vibe. It's not trying to take the viewer on an otherworldly adventure, rather the adventure is so founded in reality and humanity that it gets repetitive quick. Maybe part of Eatman's message is that there are no fairy tale like adventures out there, only harsh reality and dreams which deny reality's harshness. Bolt himself says that only someone who has eaten metal while crying can truly know what adventure tastes like.

Truth be told when it comes to these kinds of shonen reading the Manga is the best idea. Lots of things lost in transcription.Specially with those early digital EFX that are frankly puke inducing. Fascinating that stuff like this was contemporary to SE Lain's pure digital production.

>>500Both those statements can coexist.

>best character on the show by a longshot>gets his own spinoff>it sucksI'm still pissed.

>Fires entire mag into a wall while next to a girl who flinches and almost breaks down everytime you shoot itThis is the kind of man I want to be. I still have absolutely no idea why he did this in relation to the episode plot.

>>502>>503>Filename What?

>>496Tenchi 2: The search for more money.

>>496I've never really looked into buying older anime and manga, it was never really something on my radar. The last thing I did find was probably a Trigun DVD Boxset for £15 back in 2016. It's sadly a USA only DVD but the boxset itself is really cool. Pic related was a listing on Ebay for £125. Can't believe a random impulse buy could be worth so much. I guess I did also buy a Gunsmith Cats Omnibus for £12 back in 2019 but that was at a con. Also, I might as well add that back in 2017-19 there used to be a small Japanese bookshop that seemed to sell tons and tons of manga that was surprisingly unknown in my area. I didn't even know about it until coming across it randomly. You could get really good deals for manga (in Japanese) that I imagine were around the same price it would be IN Japan. I bought a volume of Ten for a friend for £2. I also remember finding a massive Kaiji manga boxset for around £30, looking back I should've bought it since it was brand new. It's sadly gone now and replaced with a bubble tea/karaoke place which I've gone to several times, it depresses me but I guess it was wayyyy too good to be true and still around after I found it.

>>498I paid 200 bucks for that when it was new. Still go it. Collecting old manga can be fun, but you'll very often run into a problem where most of the volumes can be had for peanuts but then some asshole is trying to charge and arm and a leg for the one or two volumes you're missing.

>>492He's having a mental breakdown

>>493Who

>>493Who

>>489Looks neat

>>490It's really fun. It's kind of complicated to start off in but if you join a faction and their discord almost always there's tons of people to help you out with answers to questions

>>486idk never watched it. Is it good?

>>486If one has never seen most super robot shows that came out around the time then this could leave a false impression on Japanese super robot shows, golion had more unusually horror elements

>>480worth watching?

>>481Fuck yeah

>>481Yeah, I'd say it really hits its stride in the second season though

>>481Definitely worth watching.I've been rewatching and boy is it as enjoyable as I remember it to be.Dark tournament arc possibly one of the best tournament arcs out of everything I've seen.

The best girl.

>>475I mostly do it for my wife, Konata.

>>475I always liked Ukyo the best. Love a woman who can cook.

>>468Stream was great. Thanks for hosting.My favorite was the minky momo Bridge over dreams ova.

>>469do NOT have sex with your computer

>>471If I'm not supposed to have sex with my computer then why is my computer so sexable?

>>468Source on image? I really like the way she's carrying that fainted(?) girl and want more.

>>473Agent Aika. It and its two prequels are pretty much summed up by that image, so go crazy.

>>462That sounds like a lie or a lot of cope. They sleep facing each other holding hands. It never went full gay because Chiho thought it would scare people away, so Ikuhara put as much romantic subtext as possible into the series

>>463they never went full gay because it would not make sense for their characters to act like that. retardchiho saito wasnt the arbiter

>>464>chiho saito wasn't the arbiterNo but bepapas were a team and they all had their say. This is literally confirmed by interviews with Ikuhara and Saito that she was the one to stop it being gay. The reason why the movie is gay is because it was unrestrained Ikuhara.>it would not make sense for their characters to act like thatDid you even watch the show

>>459Movie Utena is a cute reverse trap tho

>>466She was a cute reverse trap until she turned into a fucking car, was insane