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I watched Komi cant communicate a few years ago and it became on of my fav anime's (idk maybe because it just felt wholesome in a way? I'll go back to it lmao) though your review actually makes a lot of sense

great review on komi cant communicate, it makes a lot of sense

cool museum, maybe go on a date to a museum , good place GLHF!!!!

Same here mate, them album covers have this very strange beauty to them that just draws you in. They are in a sense grim/morbid like you mentioned but they really do have a sort of grace to them.

Wow, that's nice to hear. Were you brought up in Kerala or Karnataka? Do you speak Malayalam?
Oh, that's out of the blue lol.

Good to hear that. Hope you end up liking it.

That's cool. Yeah NF is compared to Eminem all the time, and I definitely get that. Not just with his rap style, but, he even kinda looks like Em. 'How could you leave us' is one of my fav too; it's the song that really pushed NF forward. All three of those are fantastic, with 'The Search' probably being my favorite out of everything, its also what my profile is based on, as you can see.

Btw, your pfp is from Apashe right? I actually had my pfp set as one of his album cover too (black heart with flowers), not long back. I haven't listened to his music much, but I adore all the album covers. They are beyond gorgeous.

I'm from Kerala. Wbu?

I did like that portion of the suspense of finding the identity of friend [...] no foreshadowing or mentioning that we couldn't really give a fuck about

Both you and that person who made the reddit post you linked do bring up some fair points regarding the story. I agree to some and disagree with some others. Some issues that the redditor brought up didn't mind me much and while I agree that they exist, for all the brilliant things that 20CB does, all its flaws are heavily overshadowed.
I actually like Katsumata, while his motives aren't as solid as Fukubei's, he was still a well done character. He was what Fukubei always wanted to be (at least in some ways). He actually had ESP powers, he actually successfully performed a resurrection that even managed to fool the whole world, Katsumata also never really had friends unlike Fukubei who actually had but just wanted to be with the cool/popular kids. He was more true than Fukubei. Also, iirc Katsumata was foreshadowed before his reveal, but maybe too subtly.

Considering the fact that you are watching SAC 2nd gig do I need to watch the second movie innocence before SAC or after. I wanted to continue but wasn't sure whether the order was og movie>innocence>SAC or SAC before innocence.

Just finished SAC 2nd Gig today and was absolutely riveting. Very much more thrilling and intriguing than S1.
Coming to your question: Innocence is a direct sequel to the original film, so watch that next. SAC on the other hand isn't a sequel to innocence or the original, rather its an alternate setting/take on the story of GiTS original. You could watch SAC before innocence and it wouldnt do any harm.
But the order I watched was: GiTS original > Innocence > SAC > 2nd GIG

Ps nice to see NF based profile and bio. Pretty underrated rapper in the current scene

Thanks! I really enjoy NF's music. I'm not much into rap as a whole and NF is the only rapper I really follow. His whole vibe/style is also really cool in my eyes so I decided to stylize my profile similarly. Do you listen to him usually? What would be you favorite song from him?

Off Topic: Nice to know that you are Indian. I am one too.

First of all, sorry for the really late reply. Just got busy with some irl stuff.

I feel the major issue with 20th CB being the characters and the length

20CB's length is one of its issues but I touched upon my take on it in my previous reply. But coming to its characters, I think of it to be one its strongest point along with its story and villain. While too many characters is a hindrance to any story and is applicable to 20CB too, I felt like for all the characters it develops (Kenji, Kanna, Chouji, Keroyon, Fukubei - just names from the top of my head) it does it very well.

friend was a pretty pathetic antagonist [...] The constant question of friends identity that kept changing

The constant question of friend's identity was the major mystery of the story , so his "identity" needed to change and shift so that the readers are hooked on until the final, true reveal. I dont see how you expected it to be answered quickly. Also, friend a pathetic villain? Damn. Friend was my fav part of the story. The questions of who friend? why friend? how friend? are the ones that drive the story and I think was exceptionally presented and executed by Urasawa. Along with writing great side characters, writing terrific villains is one of Urasawa strengths as a mangaka. And personally Friend is no exception to that. I too prefer the ending in 21CB. More true to the story.

katsumata, yamane being added into the plot merely as a convenience

God/Kami felt more like a plot convenience/plot device for me than Katsumata.

I can't really give a direct answer [...] if you have read either monster or 20th cb.

I don't know if its because you may have misworded it or that I am misinterpreting it but, the pattern that you gave seems like what almost every mystery-thriller follows, and that being Urasawa's specialty, I would assume he writes in that manner. But then again, certain elements you mentioned like open-endings, protag who's mistreated are ones you don't usually see in other stories of similar styles. So those count as a pattern in my book.

I will get to Billy bat soon even I heard it was a little of a mindfuck with the timeskips and the references to past events

Yup, Billy Bat is a really grand scale story, one told through multiple timelines of history, time skips, location changes etc. Hope that whenever you do complete it, you enjoy it.

Have a great day!!

Thanks for being honest, and I'm glad you're interested in learning more! Yeah, Miyokichi's relationship with him is toxic. I disagree with one of my friends on this, but Yakumo is clearly not into her, only romantic obligation initially. He's definitely queer-coded from the little interactions he's had, especially with Sugeroku.

Nah, I appreciate your candor. I would also be lying if I didn't say I was a bit surprised by that cause I think if you said that to someone else, they'd be kinda pissed lowkey LOL; if you're willing to talk more about LGBTQIA+ topics though, I think it's completely fine though~ Think of it as learning about another culture, if that helps. We are people too lmao. You don't need to force yourself to think about your own sexuality or gender. I didn't care about it until I watched that very self-conflicted anime I mentioned. Take your time. If you never take that time, that's fine too. So my dad is liberal and my mom is conservative lol; my brother shows no implications of being accepting or transphobic so no idea yet. He's open enough to me about his sexuality and romantic feelings (which he has none of lol) but I don't know about gender yet. It's weirder to talk about I guess. But yeah, I trusted my dad enough cause he works with LGBTQIA+ people in his company. My mom...probably does not. I kind of have figured it out, even my sexuality. I think I'm aromantic/romantically ace, but also cishet. I don't really like real people romantically but I've been attracted to them? I'd rather stick to 2-D though LOL

Hope to see good work in the future! Lol dub is good sometimes, it's good to try both if you can.

I'll definitely check out Nana's manga in that case! I have heard of Paradise Kiss and I'll check that out as well. Yasu, bald or not, is beautiful </3 He is so underrated to be honest. The only Nana fan I know who likes him the most is Fleure (who has good taste :DD). If there's more of him, I'll be excited to keep watching!

That's a great connection between you and Tatami. I was already living a fairly happy social life in college, talking to online friends LOL so it's good to see it affects others positively~ I'll need to revisit at another time. I watched with brother too and he liked it as well! Much more respect for Yuasa despite the fact I think he bombed Ping Pong lol

Hey Happy new year, hope you have an amazing year

Nice to meet you too!

Welcome to Critics and Connoisseurs. Please go through our Club FAQ. We encourage all our members to be active in our You Decide, Spotlight Forums and keep up with the activity requirements. Here is a link to our Old Spotlights to help you familiarize yourself with titles that have been nominated in the past. Again Welcome!

I've only read Urasawa's main 4 works as of now. I do plan to read his other lesser known works whenever I get the time.
For me too Monster is his best work but, I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's by a huge margin because 20CB also holds up quite well. I did feel like it was longer than needed but at the same time that issue I felt actually helps to some regard in expanding the scale of the conspiracy and the general mystery of the series, other than that it was really solid imo. If monster is brilliant psychological-thriller then 20CB is a brilliant mystery-thriller. And regarding the ending, that's an issue that didn't bother me much (the ending in 21CB that is). It was executed well enough and was satisfactory for me at least.
Would you be okay to elaborate on the 'same pattern' that you say Urasawa follows in his works?
I would recommend reading Billy Bat too. It's probably the most confusing Urasawa work but still great nonetheless.

Btw, Yasu is my favorite Nana character as well! Great to see some appreciation for him~ Tatami Galaxy is pretty great as well, I finished recently~ I also bought the first volume of Girl on the Other Side! I'm so excited to read since I love the anime short for it~

I'm also a month late but happy belated bday!

Thanks for being understanding. It's okay if you don't understand. Just expose yourself to some good queer media in general. You might be surprised, but despite shitty rep like Najimi, there's actually really amazing rep as well in animanga. I always recommend this manga to people since I love it, so you should read the autobiography, The Bride Was a Boy, https://myanimelist.net/manga/96936/Hanayome_wa_Motodanshi . It's actually taught me about vocabulary I didn't know myself despite the fact I felt fairly well-informed before reading. For a manga, it's fairly weirdly formatted, but it was a web comic so there's that. If you really want to learn more about people like me, you should consider reading! I loved it so much I own a physical copy from my hometown Books Kinokuniya. Once you know the correct terminology, queer-coding in animanga, you can more openly talk to other people about it, both online and offline. I noticed you like Rakugo so I want to point out Yakumo is queer-coded as well, but only by implication! If you ever rewatch, you should look for hints the director and mangaka give off.

I have actually talked about my experiences in figuring out my gender identity in my bio. Here's my About Me page.


As for the actual story, I refuse to put it in my About Me cause the show that showed me who I was has a transphobic ending despite having a 10/10 first 10 episodes. I'm talking about the Hourou Musuko anime. Apparently the manga ending is not transphobic so I undropped. I know I'm not crazy cause my friend who was a leader of a local LGBTQIA+ coalition who I told about the show agreed with me exactly. He actually rates the show a 4/10 rather than my 'generous' 5/10. The 1st 10 episodes have enough value to the point where I objectively can't rate it lower, but the new context contradicts all its former messages. What I did rate a 1/10 was the Hourou Musuko Specials which just utterly confirmed the transphobia and pissed me the hell off. At that point, I could not objectively rate the Specials so I gave it a 1/10. Anyways, I know I completely deviated from the point, but basically, the MC of the show is a transgender female who contained many relatable, subconscious struggles relating to gender conformity that I had. I am an AMAB, assigned male at birth, but I always hated stuff like my sexuality and being identified as a male, being told what I should do for marriage (getting a wife) since my friends and school were fairly progressive compared to half my relatives. Even my dad's old boss is homophobic which made me feel conflicted since he's a good guy otherwise, but how can someone be 'good at heart and homophobic'? It makes zero sense. Anyways, the reflection Hourou Musuko made me think of is "Why do I always wear gender-neutral clothing?" "Why did I cover my skin?" "Why did I wear a beanie to hide my hair?" "Why do I not like hanging out with other boys? Why am I so different from boys and girls other than my sex organs?" It made me sob for the first time since Koe no Katachi because I never really thought about what gender was; I was so focused on mental health of my own and others, and school that I didn't think about anything else. I knew about the "Don't assume gender" memes, and I understood what it meant to be transgender male or female, but I hadn't realized people could be neither, or both, which is non-binary and gender-queer. It was quite a time coming out to almost everyone. Telling my dad was hardest but was the right decision cause he accepted me regardless. I haven't told my mom or brother yet cause I know my mom is anti-LGBTQIA+ and kind of racist (I still love her but those are really bad things); my brother I've been trying to phish out his opinion but he's kinda hard to read for me. I'll tell him if he's accepting though.

Anyways, I know it's not really a story but it was an experience if anything. I don't recommend writing a review only post-airing, because it gets too rushed. Every reviewer I know I will bet money writes most of their review at least right before or much earlier than when the last episode airs. You really can't go in-depth right after the last episode and also expect to make top review, it's physically impossible.

You don't have to delete your whole review cause of 2 sentences cause it was still good. Its overall quality was definitely impeded by the Najimi sentences though. Don't worry too much about it for now, just make sure you're more self-aware when writing next time. Stay safe traveling! Omicron is rampant...it's pretty yikes.

Lol fair enough. Based on what you just said, you probably watch dub for your shows if that's the case. I still need finish a 2nd volume of any LN in general LOL; it's just too much work for me.

I would just rewatch the first episode or 2 of Nana. I think the fact they put a tarnation recap in episode 5 and 6 I think is evidence enough there were budgeting issues. That isn't to say a low budget kills a show. Just look at Hataraku Saibou Black. It has enough sound directing going for it that it makes the animation choppiness completely bearable. But yeah, I still enjoy Nana despite the technical qualities. Even Hachiko who I despised for the first 10 episodes for being a shoujo cliche of "I want to be in love uwu" *see Otome Game and Wolf Girl Black Prince* became a much better character, lowkey becoming somewhat of a favorite so now I see her appeal. I still don't get the Shin hype though so I'll wait on that. Yeah, I heard about the ending. I tend to be harsher on bad endings if it invalidates the themes of the series. I think that way towards Monster and Shouwa which I thought were quite excellent before their last episodes. I am certainly interested in the Nana manga though.