Topic: What anime are you currently watching....

[Highwind Dragoon]

Watching Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 1.

Also Watching the Record of Lodoss War 13 episode OVA (1990 version) mini-series.

[Bloodreign]

Still doing whatever episodes of Dr Slump that are up and English subbed. Also doing Joshiraku, while it has it's funny bits, I kind of find it a bit on the dull side.

[Abnormal Freak]

Kyatto Ninden Teyandee. Loved watching Samurai Pizza Cats as a kid so I wanted to see its origins. Kinda frustrating when you can tell the subtitlers didn't translate the puns. I know it's kinda tough to do, but if Welcome to Lodoss Island can do it, so can this.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Jujutsu Kaisen

I now know why people like this anime. 

[Bloodreign]

Now doing RAW episodes of the original Dr Slump, because only 97 episodes have fan subs, and 2 of them look to be some subs from poor quality VHS tapes. Almost at 200 episodes out of 243 of them. Then there's the OVA's, and the newer series still to go.

[Bloodreign]

Finished the original Dr Slump, now into the newer series from 1997..... and is it me, or did Toriyama get incredibly fucking lazy with his artstyle after Dragon Ball? The original series, everyone had a unique look to them, with this series, all the characters pretty much adopted the Dragon Ball look to them (as also seen with the Dragon Quest series to this day, and Chrono Trigger, as well as the Go Go Ackman games and the OVA for GGA). Seems as though Toriyama settled into a style where everything looked the same as DB/DBZ. Yet you had artists like Rumiko Takahashi (of Urusei Yatsura/Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku fame) who never really let her artstyle be the same from series to series that she did, she kept it fresh every single time.

[X]

I purchased Cowboy Bebop the complete series and plan to watch it sometime.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I've started rewatching Revolutionary Girl Utena and boy howdy the tonal whiplash as it progresses puts my neck in a brace every damn time.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Finished My life as a villainess season 2. OMG! Yay! They are going to make a 3rd season!

In the middle of watching The World Ends with You the animation. I liked the pacing of the game more (maybe because I'm the one moving the game forward).

[X]

I'm currently watching uchi no maid ga uzasugiru! A former JDAF pilot turned maid who's a bit of a Lolicon. I'm only into two episodes so far but it's enjoyable.

[Highwind Dragoon]

Fairy Tail season 1 binging starts as soon as I finish the second Lodoss war OVA.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Currently watching the TV version of the Mugen Train arc of Demon Slayer. I can't wait for season 2 in December.

[Bloodreign]

Very slowly doing the reboot of Dr Slump from the late 90's, but the interest in it is waning. The original series was better by miles.

[Inccubus]

I just finished watching "Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside".
Anyone notice that the hero's quest is basically Final Fantasy?

[Abnormal Freak]

Finally got around to watching the Patlabor Blu-rays I bought years back; I'd previously only seen the original OVA series and the first movie (plus a handful of TV episodes).

I started with the TV series since it's the biggest commitment, is its own timeline, and it may now be my favorite iteration of Patlabor. It's just so carefree and fun, and there's a wide variety of stories that I like. Nobody really ever gets badly hurt, the colors are all bright and cheery, and it does the comedy more successfully than the original OVA.

Then I followed it with the New Files OVA since it's a continuation. It was nice seeing the first four episodes dedicated to finishing the Griffon storyline, but many of the other episodes felt like rejected scripts for the TV show and didn't feature much Labor action. Not unusual for the series—being a mecha anime that's not really all that much about robots—but I was still a little let down. But, it's part of the TV timeline so I had to finish it.

I went back to the OVA series after that, probably the third time I've seen it. Still fun, still uneven, but a nice introduction to the characters. Then it was on to the movies, and I really, really like that first one because it feels like a continuation of the OVA but more in-depth and a bit more serious, but it still holds true to what I feel Patlabor is and should be: a heartwarming, fairly lighthearted comedy with some intense segments where things never get too far out of hand. It's basically the last thing labeled "Patlabor" that feels this way, lol.

So now it's on to the movie sequels which I'd never seen. Patlabor 2 works as a sort of maturing for the series, both in tone and character development, reflected by a line Izumi speaks where she doesn't want to forever be known as the girl who loves robots. The characters are growing up, situations are getting more tense, there are actual death tolls (I was shocked), and Mamoru Oshii has to sneak in his typical political jargon and philosophical wankery, but it was good overall. The music, scenery, and ambience are absolutely beautiful in this movie. Not sure I'm fully on board with the redesigned characters, but it fits the overall theme of maturity that the story has, moving from cutesy Akemi Takada designs to more "grown up" and borderline ugly mutations on those, lol. Good movie overall, I'm sure I'll like it more on repeat viewings.

OH SHIT, THEN WE COME TO PATLABOR 3, OR WXIII: PATLABOR THE MOVIE 3 TO BE PRECISE, AND IT IS BASICALLY PATLABOR IN NAME ONLY lol. I don't really know why this ever was made into a Patlabor movie because the involvement of Special Vehicle Section 2 feels very shoehorned in, and it goes balls-deep with the violence and bloodshed, so it's tonally way different than anything that came before. It barely resembles Patlabor at all, but I liked it overall, though it's definitely the weakest installment I've watched. The accompanying Minipato episodes are cute.

Yeah, I finally feel caught up. I know there's manga but I don't know if it's ever been published in the US, and there's a live-action TV series I wouldn't mind seeing if it's streaming somewhere or made available on Blu-ray. I wouldn't mind seeing Oshii come back to it one more time with other original creators, though it'd probably end up being GITS2 levels of self-indulgence and not the fun Patlabor that I love.