Kingsley: Manga and Anime

AKIRA Akira is a film that really has it all. Body horror, politics, police brutality, fanatical religious groups, human experimentation, and more. I've only seen Akira once before, and was surprised to see just how much I didn't catch onto the first time around or didn't remember. This film is a unique one, I've never seen anything like it. I don't have much reference to go on as far as 80s anime goes aside from the Devilman OVA from 1987, but the animation is amazing, particularly the characters. The characters' movements and expressions are nuanced and realistic, especially their hand gestures and faces. Honestly I was blown away by just about every shot, the cityscapes in Akira and backgrounds in general are beautifully detailed. I made the mistake of watching the dub this time around out of curiosity and it wasn't great, the voice acting was completely out of sync with the characters' lip flaps and just not very good in general at times. I don...

This is my "Solo Exchange Diary". It's about dealing with self-imposed deadlines and getting your priorities straight.

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is a slice of life/autobiographical manga about the mangaka's struggle with existing as an adult, and for the most part is scarily relatable. In particular the main character's relationship with her parents, not the weird stuff, just the off-hand remarks her parents make towards her, for example about her appearance or finding a "real job".  Something nice about this manga is seeing someone living with mental illness. There aren't a lot of realistic, not overly-dramatic portrayals of mental illness in media, so as someone who has dealt with depression and anxiety among other things it was refreshing to see representation that I can actually relate to. I think the simplistic art style also helps the reader to relate to the main character. Each character is pretty generic, and while they're still recognizable as individuals, I think this makes it easier for the reader to put themselves in the protagonist's shoes.

Bakuman is a manga about two high schoolers trying to create their own manga. It was created by the same author + illustrator duo responsible for Death Note, and in the first chapter alone their are multiple references to the popular series. Having read the first chapter, It seems like Bakuman isn't like your typical Shonen manga or anime. Normally when I think of Shonen I think of manga like Bleach or Naruto, manga with lots of fighting and big anime tiddies. Bakuman has a more similar tone to something like Durarara, so far it seems more subdued while still carrying the typical tropes of the Shonen genre (high school aged characters, and love interest, etc). So far Bakuman really reminds me of an anime I'm watching right now called Keep Your Hands of Eizouken. Eizouken follows the story of three high school girls who want to create anime. Similarly to the main characters of Bakuman, the three protagonists of Eizouken all play different roles in their group (producer, dire...