Anime

Fukigen na Mononokean / The Morose Mononokean (seasons 1 & 2)

It starts like a standard master/disciple story, but background story develops nicely. Nice textures in the other world too. Not sure when season 3 will be out, may have to continue with the manga.

Scissor Seven (seasons 1, 2 & 3)

A crazy original Chinese animation, good mix of action, humour and emotions. Also the first series I watched in Mandarin. It’s interesting to hear youngsters talk in a casual way when you’ve only heard more formal speech in class, or more dramatic speech and shouting as in Sci-Fi film The Wandering Earth.

Mentions for:

The Reflection

Co-creation of Stan Lee and Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi), it mixes elements of Western and Japanese comics. The pacing is a bit slow at the beginning and sometimes in the middle, but it got quickly more interesting, and not too long with 12 episodes.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

Dark setting, yet surprisingly light mood compared to, say, an equivalent US drama series that would take place in the same setting. The jazzy soundtrack and hero sequences certainly help balancing things. Originally a novel with a story going much farther than the 12 episodes. Unfortunately, the novel will probably not be translated.

Onyx Equinox

Crunchyroll-produced and exclusive. The plot is an interesting retake on the classic adventure story. The devil lies in the details…

Animation is a bit weak at times, despite involvement of Korean animation studios (with some melee scenes having only one character moving at a time, reminiscent of the first Assassin’s Creed).

Unfortunately, there is a good amount of gore, possibly to make it look more adult, but this prevents me from showing this coming-of-age adventure to children. At least, if it was just blood as in shounen, I could show it to pre-teens, but organs and above all bones are getting out a little too easily.

Finally, the main character evolves — as we expect — over the course of the story, but it’s sometimes hard to tell what triggered sudden surges of seriousness and heroism, compared to the previous episode.

Drama

Move to Heaven (Korean Drama)

The topic of trauma cleaners sounded hardcore, but in fact, the drama covers the personal story of the protagonist with poetry, while tackling topics such as social inequalities. I think some parts of the characters’ background story are too streamlined, as if meant for a younger audience — while the “investigations” done in each episode are quite elaborate.

Otherwise, the characters’ behaviours make sense, and there is no long-running annoying character as I found in many other Korean dramas taking place in a contemporary setting, so the show was quite enjoyable.

Currently watching

- Beastars (adaptation from manga)

Update 2023: finished the 2 seasons on Netflix, continuing manga from volume 12

- BNA (Brand New Animal, by Trigger)

Update 2023: finished! Story may not have that many turnarounds, but animation is good, as usual from Trigger

- Children of the Whales (adaptation from manga)

Update 2023: finished season on Netflix, continuing manga from volume 7

- Tatami Galaxy