The Official Anime & Manga Thread Vol: 三

Shingeki no Kyoujin

So the name of Eren's form is the attacking titan (Shingeki no Kyoujin)? That means the real name of the series is supposed to be Attacking Titan and not attack on titan? :lol:
 
^ dont ask me how 
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WhatsComplex said:
 
Only anime I've watched is Grave of the Fireflies and I loved it. I was looking for a street/urban Anime next. I think Akira might be one. Can anyone recommend anything else that came out more recently?

Thanks for the help if anyone knows any.
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^

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Best sports anime of tha season. Tha ridiculous combat moves and techniques are worth tha watch.


And this week's episode of March comes in like a lion was pure lulz.

Wouldn't want to change those stinky diapers either gramps.
 
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Tower of God
What's worse?
To be amoral (Hoaquin) and kill without hesitancy or doubt, not caring about right or wrong and lacking empathy and humanity? Or to be immoral (Rachel) and kill while you suffer to cope with the horror of your actions, understanding the difference between good and evil, but choosing to embrace evil?

I liked this chapter a lot for a few reasons. It essentially gets rid of the theories that Rachel is good, but is acting like this to catalyze Baam to climb the tower. Instead, she's the typical climber in the tower, will betray those around her and even her own morals in order to move up, however she's weaker and more incompetent that most climbers and wants everyone else to do all the work for her, but FUG is backing her, because they want Baam to chase her upwards. Although, 1 thing I don't get. Karaka wanted to melt Baam into the thorn, so that it'd have the power of an irregular, and I guess because it gets rid of competition for him. But wouldn't it be easy to just kidnap Rachel and melt her into a weapon and have the same effect. She's technically an Irregular, just not one chosen by the tower. 

I wonder how long Wangnan has been suppressing his memories, he's probably very old as he's Karaka's brother. I know we'll get significant development there, it'll just be interesting to see what path it takes. It's interesting because with the 3 going dealing with major events, Baam as of this moment, is the only one who is decisively moving forward. It's interesting though that now Wangnan is contemplating every death that surrounds him, as his fault, even the time when Yiwha burned and killed all the regulars in the same test as him, except him. I mean it's interesting to see as he's immortal (so it seems thus far), but is dealing with accepting deaths around him, especially with those he actively attracted. That takes me back to last chapter. If things had gone to Rachel's plan, Yura Ha would have tried to kill Wangnan, resulting probably in him living. Instead Arkraptor charged Rachel. Wangnan probably would have only died if Rachel decided to kill him herself, and as we see this chapter she had no intention of actually getting her hands dirty. Between Wangnan and Rachel we see both of them using cognitive dissonance for the same reason, but due to different causes. Rachel to make herself feel free of atrocities she's committed and going against her original morals (remember she instilled her morals into Baam) for selfish pursuits and Wangnan to protective himself from having survive while those around him die not by his own fault, but a perceived betrayal for not having died with them or saved them it seems. 

The thing with Baam, is he basically now wants to be the strongest being in the tower, but now the idea of absolute power being a corrupting influence will come into play. Khun will need to support his friend more than ever. Also I'm interested in seeing how the God of Guardians reacts to Baam's request. He seems to resent how Jahad and the other family heads turned out from walking revolution road and has a lot of hopes in Baam, so will this request sour him or what? There's a lot of development being set up all around, also how will Baam react when Yiwha and Rak reappear? Will it derail his need to become a God or will it again alter his perspective? Also Baam's perspective of a God is the one that FUG taught him, a super powerful individual that makes people's wishes come true.

The Hoaquin and Casano conversation. Hoaquin may be the quintessential climber of the tower one who recognizes the competitive nature of the tower and will mercilessly do what it takes to get to the top. Although here he's giving advice to Casano, is it because he wants Casano to become a better tool he can use later or does he want to impact Casano emotionally and somehow manipulate the situation to his advantage later.

I like how SIU has made an effort to reinforce the idea that the tower is a competition as it seemed to be forgotten about for a while, as season 2 has been so long.
 
It's easy to forget that up until a certain point everything Baam knew was what Rachel taught him. He's never had to deal with any of the situations he's been thrown into since he entered the tower and most of his education on the tower has probably come from FUG which is scary to think about. He actively wants to be powerful now to protect himself and his friends but it will be interesting to see how he uses his new power from his lessons in the Rice Pot combined with FUG and Rachel's teachings.
 
Based Jesus said:
 
It's easy to forget that up until a certain point everything Baam knew was what Rachel taught him. He's never had to deal with any of the situations he's been thrown into since he entered the tower and most of his education on the tower has probably come from FUG which is scary to think about. He actively wants to be powerful now to protect himself and his friends but it will be interesting to see how he uses his new power from his lessons in the Rice Pot combined with FUG and Rachel's teachings.
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Yeah that Baam analysis I posted a while back notes part 1 points out Baam was a blank canvas, except with a red blotch in the corner which was Rachel's influence. Add on top of that, Rachel's fear of Baam, she created what she felt was an ideal person, basically, but for some reason fears him. There's a lot to explore with Baam, especially as he learns and sees more and it shapes him. There's so many ways things can go. Also, if Baam goes through the Rice Pot and gets stronger like he wants what does that do to the team dynamic? He wants to stay with them, but they're already climbing at a very high speed and as he gets stronger at this exponential rate it'll be harder for them to keep up. 

Also, I just remembered, that swordsman, who started following them at the 1st station of the hell train, is the worst. All he does is mess things up for the group, but it's so subtle that it's overlooked I feel like.
 
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Watched the Orochimaru vs Sarutobi fight just cause and god damn I miss the early days of naruto. Straight up ninjutsu.
Other than bleach, no anime has fallen this hard for me.
 
^ I loved the scene when Five  was trying to speak English.

My guys Nine and Twelve had the whole city shook

definitely worth the watch if you haven't seen it yet.
 
Finally finished The Seven Deadly Sins on Netflix :smokin Series is great and i'll definitely be continuing with the manga. I'd say it's one of my favorite series out right now. along with Magi and One Piece.
 
Wish Fairy Tail wasn't so childish. This arc has been dope and so many cool reveals but so much potential ruined. The power of super friendship is so tiring.
 
I found another good analysis post for Tower of God. This one focusing on Rachel, using Hoaquin as a parallel.
Hoaqin’s Origin

Our glorious villain Hoaqin is actually an extremely interesting character when looking at the grand story of Tower of God. One of the main narratives that is presented is how the society of the tower is completely lacking in morals. The Tower is very much a competition and a power struggle. Within such an environment, there is little to no room for emotion. To succeed, one has to step on others. To go up, one has to do so in place of another. It has been heavily emphasized how brutal the climbers can get and the only reason that we have seen fairly little of this close up is that our main cast is so idealistic. S1 had just a few antagonistic characters while everyone else had changed their mindsets because of Baam. Because we primarily follow Baam, we usually see the lighter sides of the Tower and the grim is hidden.

Hoaqin is a character that DEFINES the horror of this Tower. The horror of having lost your very humanity for the sake of achieving a goal. He is a character that was already “fallen” before even beginning the climb. Let’s go back to his origin a little. This will also be food for the readers that enjoy theorizing about characters that have not made a canon appearance yet.

Hoaqin started out living in an extremely competitive and prestige Arie family environment. One of the very first things that we found out from the flashbacks was that the Arie children were made to spar each other and this can be taken as an active attempt by the family to promote COMPETITIVENESS in their children. They were being trained to become regulars from the very, very beginning. In this case, you could say that Hoaqin’s ORIGIN is already being promoted towards that of a fallen. This level of competitiveness should be taken as a given in EACH child of the family. Now Hoaqin’s close brothers and sisters with whom he made the devil pact were people that had developed a different mindset and wanted to actually oppose the father. Here is where I am slightly theorizing: in my opinion, what happened was that Hoaqin’s “clones” were the children that did not want to reject their humanities straight up and did not sense the same level of competitiveness and thirst. They had found their own interests and so they opposed the ideals that the Head of the family was enforcing on them.

Hoaqin, however, was different. His talk with Arie Hon was what sparked a change.

This set of panels is the key

Essentially, Hon has taunted Hoaqin to surpass him. He had shown him everything that he had achieved and just straight up said that it all belonged to him. He had renounced the importance of Hoaqin’s existence. To say that to a child… Quite cruel. However, this set of panels are Hon saying that if Hoaqin gives up his humanity entirely, he could achieve it. That he could have purpose as a person and be able to overcome the one figure that decided to pin him down. This was a challenge. Children love challenges.

What followed was Hoaqin giving in and rejecting his humanity by accepting the demon’s offer. He had gather the group of children that did not harbor that same sense of power, but wanted to be free and had been the odd one out, by having rejected his humanity and having only a single fixated goal in front of him. To surpass his father.

This is where theorizing can begin: Did Hon intend for this to happen? The eyes give me a very clear nudge that he did. On top of that, the demon felt a bit too convenient. It feels like Hon wanted Hoaqin to take this power and to grow into a monster. To become the perfect regular. A being that shows no remorse and only sees his own goal in sight. One that does not consider other humans as humans, but as bugs. Playthings. This is what it means to reject humanity. Why did he do this? What is the motive to create something that might eventually come back to kill you?

Rachel’s Origin

When talking about Rachel’s origin, it is, of course, the case that we don’t know the very start of it. It is not known what she did before entering the tower apart from hanging out with Baam. The hypothesis that I have is that Rachel lived in some sort of prestige place, but had no status there. Her outfits and look have given me a very strong sense of a maid. Like she was a maid in the palace. Only able to see the beautiful princesses running around. It has been my theory that Rachel used Baam as a sort of stress-relief with whom she could feel as someone important. Baam treated her as a queen and she enjoyed it. She taught him the things that she saw as traits that a noble, kind person would have. It’s very possible that she had belief in those same traits too at first. However, at some point, it is clear that she was told of the existence of “Stars” which could be taken as a way for her to become a heroine. As was stated in her conversation with Ryun on 2F. She had felt constrained just as Baam, but in a different way. She had felt like a person that no one cares about, except for Baam and wanted to become someone of importance. So she took a tip and entered the tower using Baam. She got tempted by this prospect of getting “Any wish of hers come true”. Her conversation with Haedon is proof of this. Delusions of getting all her wishes come true. These wishes have been so strong that she was willing to abandon Baam for them. That’s how much this goal means to her. She has entered the tower in pursuit of a goal, which could be theorized to become a heroine. I am basing a lot of this by considering her monologues and conversations with Haedon, Ryun and Khun as legitimate thoughts with a lot of weight.

Within the Tower – Rachel

So upon entering, we have a very clear parallel. Hoaqin has already rejected his humanity and is set to be the perfect regular. He wants to go up and will use any means to do so. His very existence banks on surpassing his father. It’s like a drug. He cannot stop.

Rachel, on the other hand, enters the tower as a naïve girl. Her conversation with Haedon has made it very clear that she did not know of the atrocities within the tower. She had entered chasing her dream, but quickly found out that reality is not so kind.

What is extremely important is how she did not try to beat Haedon’s test, but kept arguing and looking for a workaround. This is indicative of her lack of strength and how she feels betrayed by the world. She then proceeds to see Baam take the same test with the opposite mindset and then gloriously pass the test after getting help from Yuri.

Rachel’s reaction is the key. She had started arguing how Yuri had helped Baam. She had focused on unfairness. On how it was unbalanced that he was given the Black March. Haedon pointed out how even though he had been given an advantage, he had CHOSEN to TAKE the test before it happened and proceeded afterwards. This is the greatest point. Baam had went in with his own meager strength, with no care for himself, while Rachel flat out rejected the idea.

This entire sequence gives me a very clear image of a person that has been living a life being thrown around by everyone. Living a life of unfairness. It is very common for a person living such a life to start to feel like others should have it like that too. She could not comprehend that Baam beat the test on his own. The fact that he even passed was a huge shock to her. The child that was bellow her all this time, has now, in an instant, surpassed her. She felt betrayed by Baam. She just felt extremely VULNERABLE. Haedon used this. He used this moment to take control and told her that there was a way to for her to reach the starts and set her up with a team.

Baam had told Haedon why he was going up. Haedon used this entire situation to his advantage and presented Rachel with a way to go up, while using her to make Baam chase after her. An incredibly sinister plan.

Proceeding to 2F, over the course of S1, we have seen constant glimpses of jealously starting to develop in Rachel. She said how Baam had everyone around him, while she had no one. Well, she did, but for some reason she could not accept Baam. The fact that she abandoned Baam to enter the tower before finding out about the inside situation shows that the boy was not of the same importance to her. Becoming the heroine was far more important. She had been numb to the emotion of feeling loved and simply couldn’t feel herself as a fulfilled person.

Ryun then gave her the grand offer of throwing Baam off the bubble to go up. This is the breaking point. Ryun told her that if she wanted to keep going up, she had to throw him off. She didn’t give her the choice. Maybe she wasn’t confident that Baam could bring her up. If she had faith, she would not have accepted that offer. She lacked the trust in him. Or maybe there was a different reason… One strong argument is that she really did feel that Baam was too nice of a person to keep going up. That he did not belong in this place and so she thought that by throwing him off, she would make him stop going up and he could live his own happy life. And finally, one last possible case and the one that I believe in personally: Rachel was told of the whole plan. Of how Baam would chase her as she went up, of how throwing him off would just be fuel. And after all that she still agreed to do it. I am basing this on the fact that Yura said that he has to keep chasing them. I do not think that that sentence was meant to be a secret of Yura and something that she has been keeping a secret from Rachel. She also knows that he is a slayer nominee and all. I feel like she knows it all and still lets it continue, because FUG told her that that is how she will reach her stars. She has now completely started to reject everything for the sake of her goal.

This was followed by her later cutting Dan’s legs, which has been implied as her jealousy of his ability to run. To have an advantage over him. This lead into her following conversations with Khun, which are super important.

One such conversation was at the Dallar Show game, when they did their coin flip. Thing is, Khun is a very smart guy who can read people really well. I feel like he had “cracked” Rachel as a person and came up with the idea that she has a sort of inferiority complex. The coin game has his making direct fun of her for being weak. He had told her how it was only a game of luck at which she could have a chance, but kept believing that she couldn’t have even that. The key here is that she agreed to ALL THREE rounds. She had become provoked by Khun’s words. In my opinion, she had confirmed all that Khun has been saying by accepting those rounds. She had really felt inferior and wanted nothing else more than to shut him up and win. She had not been winning for her entire life and wanted to start changing that. However, she could not see any ways of becoming strong herself and so used others to achieve strength. One theory that can be made is that she did not pick any of those people and that none of them follow her specifically. It’s possible that they all just follow FUG and she is just told to them as being an extremely important person, but not given the full reason. FUG has a goal of slaying the royalty and promised her the wish at the top for going along with their plan. She is just a cog to drive Baam up, but doesn’t care, because she will get her wish. However, this does not change the fact that she keeps getting provoked by Khun and making mistakes because of it.

Finally, we have our most recent chapter where she kills Arkraptor and later reflects upon in. Now when it comes to Arkraptor, it’s clear that she was not expecting him to run at her. She was not really completely ready to kill him. It all happened on impulse. And so the following chapter with her hands shaking and her hallucinating “having blood on her hands” is saying that she had not experienced murder before. She had slit Dan’s legs, but killing a person is an entirely different thing. The fact that she tried to control those hands and hide it all from Yura can easily be interpreted as her REJECTING this feeling and saying that murder is fine. You see, Rachel was still nothing more than a girl who had a pretty ****** life and then was offered a chance to turn it around. She was never a murderer. She was just following others. Heck, people argue how she thought she tricked Khun and all, but it can easily be argued that this was part of Ryun’s plan. She had told her to push Baam off and then when Khun offered to get her up, told Rachel to go with him. Once it was time to get **** rolling, they orchestrated Khun getting separated and grabbed Rachel back. You see where I am going with this? Rachel has been a pawn from start to finish, it’s just that while being a pawn, she has been allowed to do some small maneuvers and has made some small tricks happen. To be honest, it could be argued that other FUG members designed all of those plans too. Like, maybe Hoaqin told em to trace back their steps in chapter 226. The argument CAN be made.

So, from all these sequences we can now make a pretty good, albeit still theoretical, picture of her character. She is nothing more than a girl who has been jealous of others having better lives and has been granted a chance to have a better life herself and got so obsessed with this goal that she started rejecting EVERYTHING. Starting with Baam and ending with her own sense of morals and humanity in general. This tower has CORRUPTED her. And THIS is where the story of ToG suddenly gets a very strong meaning.

This “wish” that you can get fulfilled. This is the thing that drives people to madness. To savagery and to the rejection of their very humanity. A human should not have a way to gain anything they want by stepping on others. It is exactly what creates monsters in the psychological sense. Rachel is an example of such a person.

In my opinion, such a narrative is absolutely amazing and would greatly fulfill one of the main ideas of the story. It is why I have trust in my take on the character. Other theories, while having some sense, would simply not have the same level of impact as a narrative. It would not have the same amount of value. SIU is an author that wants to express a lot of complicated ideas about what it means to be an individual and a human being. He tries to tell the tale of how morals are of the upmost important and by reading his blog we can even see that SIU is exactly that type of warm person that wants to spread these ideas. My take on Rachel would fulfill this narrative in full and also allow to express others characters very well going forward. This is my argument for how I see Rachel.

Within the Tower – Hoaqin & Parallels with Rachel

Now taking all that about Rachel, let’s look back at Hoaqin.

We can instantly notice that they both share a very similar motivation in JEALOUSY. Rachel is feeling inferior and is jealous of the people around her that are showered by attention, love and respect, while Hoaqin is driven by his jealousy for his Father who has everything. The way they came to this point is very different, but the motivation is very similar. They are both made to feel inferior and are doing everything to fight that.

However, while Rachel is unable to achieve anything great by her own, Hoaqin has all the specs needed to do anything from the start.

Hoaqin has the capacity to achieve his goal on his own and so the moment he entered the tower, he started to put everyone else down bellow him and use them to become stronger.

Rachel, on the other hand, can only achieve her goal by relying on the tower’s “wish”. She is not strong and has to be taken up.

Now here one of the many parallels that is very interesting is how Rachel is a victim of the Tower’s temptation in the wish, while Hoaqin is motivated by surpassing his father. Rather than climbing the tower, Hoaqin had his entire country play and so there is this contrast of how Hoaqin is not chained down by the “wish”. Hoaqin can look at the regulars and laugh, for he sees them as idiots chasing a dream in a designed structure, while he is just there to kill a person and become all-powerful.

Another huge point is how Rachel is still in the process of letting go of her humanity, while Hoaqin has already spent enough time to become completely numb to it. He is already a person that does not care for any individual other than himself.  This set of panels  is where we see the conclusion.

The point here is that Hoaqin is already at a point of no return. He has reached such a point where he can no longer see the world in a different way. He has completely given up his humanity and can only live by the rules set up by the Tower. The rules of the strong stepping on the weak.

However, Rachel has just now stepped into this territory of no return. She has now committed the act of murder – the most heinous act imaginable to a human. While Hoaqin has already murdered enough to not care anymore and see people as tools, Rachel just got here and so it’s an interesting situation to see how she ends up coping with the problem and if Hoaqin will react towards her. I feel like these two characters are very similar in this respect, with Hoaqin just having had the tools to take it all the way himself and actually doing it, while Rachel was supplied all the help and has only now stepped into that territory.

Conclusion

Rachel and Hoaqin represent everything that is wrong with the Tower. The later represents what monster can bore out of this horrible place, while the former is a look at this transformation happening in front of us. Greed, jealously and inferiority are all parts of these two characters and so it is very fitting that SIU has matched them together.
Also, in case you all didn't know Jump is on break this week.
 
MrWavez said:
Where the hell is OP
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All of Jump is on break this week. Next release will be 12/22 then 1/3 or earlier for the scans since they come out before the magazine so, dates may change a bit. Then it should be back to it's normal schedule
 
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