The last of our new set of teams brings your their first recording of our rebooted TangleCast! David, Peter, and Marcelo of Team FtK (For the King) take a look at the most popular anime of the last several years, My Hero Academia, and discuss why it works so well. What makes it like the great shounen of the podcasters’ youth, like Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z, and what sets it apart? Plus, the group talks about the problems of power scaling, Peter mentions how the Hulk can destroy planets, the guys talk about how selfish Goku really is, and Marcelo hates on the Bount arc in Bleach.
Warning: Lots of spoilers ahead, but only up through season two of My Hero Academia. There are also very minor spoilers for the series mentioned above, as well as Juni Taisen, Gurren Lagann, and Hitman Reborn!
And we want your feedback as well! Each week we’ll ask a question on the podcast and feature your answers the next time that team rolls around.
Here’s this week’s CQ (Cast Question), or rather, request: David mentioned that he hates slice of life series, but Peter and Marcelo wonder if it’s just because he hasn’t found the right ones. What slice of life series would you recommend he watch?
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Check us out on iTunes or through our RSS Feed! For those interested in Juni Taisen, the recommendation from Holly that David wasn’t so hot on, check out recent articles on the series by Samuru and Team Anchester’s Matthew. We’ve also jumped into My Hero Academia on multiple other occasions here on the blog. The featured art on this post was illustrated by CalendarV (reprinted w/permission).
My genre identification powers are weak, old man (should I not have come back?). But here are a few shows that I think might unambiguously count as slice of life (e.g., emphasis on comedy, no pretensions of having an overarching plot, low on action…and no weak characters achieving godhood 😉 ) which I enjoyed:
Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto
KARAKAI JOZU NO TAKAGI-SAN
Interviews With Monster Girls
DMMV (David’s mileage may vary), but I had fun with these. (Of course, if he doesn’t enjoy them, he’s clearly a bad person. 😛 )
I think I was a little like Peter hearing David’s words about slice-of-life…like, Boku no Hero brought you to tears and you don’t like slice-of-life?!
Here a few suggestions that fits different categories:
Clannad and Clannad After Story – very long and starts out kinda fluffy, but the last 13 episodes are pretty much guaranteed to make you bawl. Classic series.
AnoHana – much smaller commitment and not as good as Clannad, but similar effect
March Comes in Like a Lion – probably already recommended by Peter, an excellent series that gives you that shounen feel but approaches topics like depression and loss in a sensitive and moving manner (also GREAT animation)
Free! – Buff guys help encourage you to keep working out? Also severely underrated (season two is best)
Silver Spoon – From the mangaka behind Fullmetal Alchemist, I think this series is EVEN BETTER. So incredibly good. About a city boy who buckles under the weight of expectations moving out to the country for high school and learning about himself and the world.
Usagi Drop – A beautiful little series about adoption. Probably will make David cry.
Hourou Musuko – An examination of the transgendered community from the POV of middle schoolers. Beautiful artwork and maybe the a very good topic to get a young pastor thinking about that community
Oregairu – My favorite anime ever. Awesome characters, witty writing, and a super thoughtful and surprising second season.
Working! – If you want straight up comedy, this is among the best of the bunch. Also has a lot of fun romance in it.
I can’t think of too many, but some slice-of-life series you can check out are:
One Week Friends – Short and great. I really liked this one, and I am not a slice of life fan either.
Working! is super funny, loved that one.
New Game – If your a fan fo video games, this was good.
Animegataris – About an anime club, but again, super funny. I don’t know if this is slice of life…but whatever, watch it ! 🙂
A lot of suggestions from Instagram:
jewelletime: Anohana
half_shade_: Non Non Biyori
justinayana: Fruits Basket, My Love Story, Hyouka, K-On, Beck
celtic.nerd: Re:Life (one of my favorite slice of life series). Barakamon is one of my favorites as well. And Handa-Kun (the prequel) as well.
animenerd277: ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM
johnny.teix: Barakamon
asocial_ambivert: Nichijou, OreGairu, and Daily Lives of High School Boys
inusmasha: School Rumble
y_yvtt: Tamako Market
normtaku: Daily lives of high school boys
imsoojung_: But slice of life is the best?!!!!! Recs: Re:life, toradora, orange
sniffsmota: Sakamoto desu ga
tanmaykushwaha: Usagi Drop
kokorodaki: he should check out Your Lie in April XP
mag_shep: AnoHana
the_hikari_uta: I really like Lucky Star but I get that it’s not everyone’s favorite due to the lack of plot
mikeglez8: A Place Further Than the Universe
okiedokiedawn: Natsume’s Book of Friends is one of my faves
[…] to listen to the first episode? Sound rougher to you? It’s still worth a listen, especially for My Hero Academia […]