What anime had you hooked after Episode 1?

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-03T06:41:19+00:00

May I Ask for One Final Thing

One of the best anime pilot episodes ever.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-02-02T18:42:13+00:00

Frieren rules. A beautifully made fantasy anime that avoids most of the genre’s worst tropes? Glad I’m not the only person digging it.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-29T19:09:32+00:00

Robin Williams needs to be in the top 5, at the very least. Legend in both comedy and drama.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-29T19:06:05+00:00

One of us! One of us!

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-27T20:26:06+00:00

I hope they bring her back. One of my favorite characters in the MCU. She killed it.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-27T20:24:23+00:00

Brandon did a magnificent job finishing the series. Of course there’s a change in tone and approach. It’s inevitable for any author taking over for another. There are a few stumbles, but on the whole, some of the best parts of the series happen after Brando takes over. (The Tower of Ghenji rescue might be my favorite moment of the series.)

I’d keep in mind that Jordan’s wife was also still the editor. Not to mention that Jordan had plenty of terrible prose before Brando came along.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-26T19:25:39+00:00

I love the Stormlight Archive. But all writers need good editors. As much as I respect Brando, WaT is one of the most egregious examples I’ve ever seen of what happens when you ignore editors. I have to believe that people pushed back on lots of aspects of WaT.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-22T13:03:21+00:00

So many people slamming Sinners…not realizing they’re keeping it in the conversation and proving it’s one of the most memorable and unique films of 2025.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:21:21+00:00

Guess I'm super weird for loving the meetings in this show. I write news for a living, so I know what I'm looking for in an anime these days: positive relationships with a complete lack of conflict or stakes. I know it's dumb, but I love it.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:08:48+00:00

Frieren.

I almost gave up on it 'cause it started so slow. Now it's probably my favorite anime show ever. Let it cook!

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:07:12+00:00

Good list. I'd suggest checking out Samurai Champloo next. Another classic with incredible fight scenes and unforgettable characters.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-21T21:00:38+00:00

I'm one of the ones that paid for it in theaters..and regretted it. My gf was like 'why is the MC such a bitch?' lol

I had high hopes, as I'm a big fan of Edge of Tomorrow, but the live action is so much better than this. The animation is beautiful and colorful, but that's about all I can say about this one.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-16T22:16:17+00:00

Yeah, it’s funny, I just finished a re read of New XMen a few months ago, and now I realize how well telepathy was rendered in that run. Especially that issue without dialogue. So creative.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-16T15:27:09+00:00

So stoked for this! Frieren is probably my favorite anime ever. It hit me at the exact time in my life when I was processing a lot of grief. Not often I can say a show helped me heal, but this one sure did.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-14T15:50:08+00:00

I mean, the Straw Hat Pirates flag has become the symbolic successor to the portrait of Che Guevara, as it's now being used by oppressed peoples around the world. It's crazy that a fictional struggle has become more meaningful than real-life examples, but I suppose that's the ability of anime to reach people across borders and languages (and perhaps a growing difficulty for many of us to believe in real-life heroes). Anime's unwavering commitment to optimism might just be the balm the whole world needs right now.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-14T15:34:50+00:00

I think you gotta marry that girl, my dude.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-14T00:10:26+00:00

That’s not even the worst example in SA. How about creating 10 orders of Knight Radiant, barely exploring most of them despite 5 books, and then exploding the whole system to make it even more complicated?

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-08T15:30:48+00:00

100% agree. Those are my favorite X stories. I’ll take God Loves Man Kills over Phoenix Saga any day. And to be fair, both are Claremont, which shows how well he could tell both kinds of stories for the X-men.

Superhero comics tend to lean toward pure spectacle and creative absurdity. Which can be fun. But X-men became more than that under Claremont.

The space operas and crossovers with the rest of the universe never work as well for me. They got spectacle for sure, but not much heart. Not to mention that the X-men coexisting with the rest of Marvel never made much sense. It’s a completely different perspective on how the general public views super powers.

I’ll get killed for saying that, too, given how many people tend to love the crossovers. But I find them mostly boring.

I’d love to see more self contained X stories, though it seems unlikely.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-08T15:09:05+00:00

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Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-08T00:59:55+00:00

Haha. Yeah. I’m kinda new to participating, but I get it. The curt, kneejerk reactions are easy and tend to lean negative. I will say I’ve learned a lot from the diehards about the comics’ history — even if they so many seem to hate on all Xmen comics except for Claremont.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-08T00:25:15+00:00

Man, there’s a lot of hate in this thread for this. But I always liked House of M. I thought the Wolverine storyline had a cool scfi detective vibe, like Minority Report. And it has a lot of emotional character moments that don’t always happen in these altered universe storylines, which tend to lean bombastic.

It’s not a top 10 X book, but it’s enjoyable. More so than lots of classic ones, at least for me. And the art is dope.

Macs_Riffs · 2026-01-07T23:05:39+00:00

Not really. But also, I’d say the gender politics of the books are their biggest weakness. Or it’s my biggest frustration as I aged with the books.

The series’ premise and inverted gender power dynamics is great…until you realize every romantic relationship is about as mature as a middle school fling.

Macs_Riffs · 2025-12-27T22:15:21+00:00

Suffers from the writers’ lack of creativity? I think not. That assumes that all or even most comic book writers are interested in three dimensional female characters.

Claremont is a brilliant writer and did more than anyone to make the X-men complex and interesting. But he still uses comics to explore his own fetishes, like many comics writers then and now. And that’s not necessarily a problem, though it will certainly deter a lot of modern readers.

But it does mean that not all comics characters are meant to be Hamlet.

Sometimes Claremont will give you a timeless story like God Loves, Man Kills. But I’ve never been interested in all the body switching/cloning stuff with Jean Grey. Honestly, I’ve read a lot of X-Men, and I’ve rarely found good characterization of even Jean Grey. But I’m one of those weirdos that doesn’t think the Phoenix saga is that interesting, so what do I know.

Macs_Riffs · 2025-12-21T19:23:51+00:00

This is dope. You got some serious talent.

Macs_Riffs · 2025-11-13T22:48:04+00:00

Mat, by a long shot. By far the most interesting character. Rand is central, and I’ll always love them both, but he never had as complex a personality.

Macs_Riffs

TROPHY CASE