January Talking meme: January 20
January 20 - Favorite recent (as in the past five years or so) manga and/or anime! I am about five years or more behind and trying to catch up... ( 
oyceter )
I may actually not be the best person for this, as I haven’t been keeping up with them well myself! I think the only new-to-me manga that’ve really jumped out for me in the last couple years are Ancient Magus Bride and Kamisama Kiss. Both are “semi normal girl and immortal magic guy” type stories, though AMB is more mythological and soul searching while KSS is more fluffy shoujo fun (with iffy parts in recently licensed volumes) with reverse-harem elements. Between the two, AMB is probably more your style and it’sthe better of the two, but KSS is a nice bit of entertainment. I also discovered 7 Seeds in that time period, but I’m petty sure you read that.
Akatsuki no Yona/Yona of the Dawn is one that I discovered in both anime and manga form, and need to catch up on the manga, and isprobably The Big Deal for me of the things in this post. It’s an “exiled princess seeks to reclaim throne” shoujo action series set in fantasy-ancient Korea. It’s a full blown reverse harem series, which usually turns me off, but not this time. The anime fllows th first 2 major arcs and few side things from the manga pretty faithfully.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime/Snow White With Red Hair is the other recently popular shoujo series with a redhaired heroine in a pseuho-historical world, this time medieval Europe. It’s much calmer and combines adventure and slice of life pretty well. The heroine, an apothecary, has to flee her homeland after it’s prince decides to force her to marry him, and ends up befriending the younger prince of a nearby kingdom. It’s less exciting than AnY and a little more prone to sometimes have the heroine play the secondary lead, but still very fun.
Shirobako is an anime about an anime studio making an anime. Very worth watching for the premise. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a comedy series about making shoujo manga. The initial premise had me going in with low expectations (girl confesses to her crush and he mistakes her for a fan because he’s a shoujo mangaka in secret, and she ends up becoming one of his assistants) but it ended up being a wonderful meta series.
After trying and failing to get into Durarara!! several times over the years, I fell in deep just before the 3rd part of the second season started airing. Urban mythology, social media, street gangs, a headless woman and stalkers everywhere. If ou liked Baccano! you’d probably like this after you got through the first couple episodes. People I thought would hate this like it, and a couple who it seems would don’t, so this one’s individual success rate is a bit hard to judge.
Sports anime has been big lately, though Chihayafuru, about a girl who wants to be a professional karuta player and starts a karuta club at her school, is the only one that I’ve been into. It’s also noteworthy for being one of the few Josei series that got adapted into anime. I haven’t watched them, but Free, Yuri on Ice and Haikyuu are other sports anime that have been popular among some mutual friends.
For a not-quite-anime rec, Thunderbolt Fantasy is the only series that I stuck with for more than a few episode since last spring. It’s not anime, but a live action show featuring puppets by Pili, and it’s a great wuxia deconstruction series that has a happy ending in spite of also being from Gen Urobuchi. (Which is probably the biggest spoiler possible for the series in the Urobutcher context, but possibly a needed one.)
oyceter )
I may actually not be the best person for this, as I haven’t been keeping up with them well myself! I think the only new-to-me manga that’ve really jumped out for me in the last couple years are Ancient Magus Bride and Kamisama Kiss. Both are “semi normal girl and immortal magic guy” type stories, though AMB is more mythological and soul searching while KSS is more fluffy shoujo fun (with iffy parts in recently licensed volumes) with reverse-harem elements. Between the two, AMB is probably more your style and it’sthe better of the two, but KSS is a nice bit of entertainment. I also discovered 7 Seeds in that time period, but I’m petty sure you read that.
Akatsuki no Yona/Yona of the Dawn is one that I discovered in both anime and manga form, and need to catch up on the manga, and isprobably The Big Deal for me of the things in this post. It’s an “exiled princess seeks to reclaim throne” shoujo action series set in fantasy-ancient Korea. It’s a full blown reverse harem series, which usually turns me off, but not this time. The anime fllows th first 2 major arcs and few side things from the manga pretty faithfully.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime/Snow White With Red Hair is the other recently popular shoujo series with a redhaired heroine in a pseuho-historical world, this time medieval Europe. It’s much calmer and combines adventure and slice of life pretty well. The heroine, an apothecary, has to flee her homeland after it’s prince decides to force her to marry him, and ends up befriending the younger prince of a nearby kingdom. It’s less exciting than AnY and a little more prone to sometimes have the heroine play the secondary lead, but still very fun.
Shirobako is an anime about an anime studio making an anime. Very worth watching for the premise. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a comedy series about making shoujo manga. The initial premise had me going in with low expectations (girl confesses to her crush and he mistakes her for a fan because he’s a shoujo mangaka in secret, and she ends up becoming one of his assistants) but it ended up being a wonderful meta series.
After trying and failing to get into Durarara!! several times over the years, I fell in deep just before the 3rd part of the second season started airing. Urban mythology, social media, street gangs, a headless woman and stalkers everywhere. If ou liked Baccano! you’d probably like this after you got through the first couple episodes. People I thought would hate this like it, and a couple who it seems would don’t, so this one’s individual success rate is a bit hard to judge.
Sports anime has been big lately, though Chihayafuru, about a girl who wants to be a professional karuta player and starts a karuta club at her school, is the only one that I’ve been into. It’s also noteworthy for being one of the few Josei series that got adapted into anime. I haven’t watched them, but Free, Yuri on Ice and Haikyuu are other sports anime that have been popular among some mutual friends.
For a not-quite-anime rec, Thunderbolt Fantasy is the only series that I stuck with for more than a few episode since last spring. It’s not anime, but a live action show featuring puppets by Pili, and it’s a great wuxia deconstruction series that has a happy ending in spite of also being from Gen Urobuchi. (Which is probably the biggest spoiler possible for the series in the Urobutcher context, but possibly a needed one.)