>>41890
Root beer also pairs really well with vanilla ice cream. Quite a treat under the reign of Summer's oppressive heat!

>>41890
We have sarsaparilla in the US too, but it's not the same thing as root beer, it's closer to birch beer.
We also have a drink called Moxie that's probably the closest thing to chinotto based on your description of it.
I swore off soda years ago, but I used to like all of those.

>>41909
I can't taste the difference between birch beer and root beer. If you're able, could you describe how their tastes differ?

>>41910
Birch beer is less sweet and has more of a slight mint flavor.

I just stick with only Japanese 2D media for the most part. I like Japanese culture more than the other two anyway, so of course I prefer their media. Someone who calls themselves an otaku but only consumes either Korean or Chinese media isn't an otaku. I'm sure both cultures have their own name for geeks/maniacs, but they aren't otaku.

There's also personal reasons for why I don't like Korean/Chinese media.
Webtoons have an annoying layout and seem to have very similar stories of either medival fantasy isekai (although that's just a trend in 2D media in general nowadays) or some flavor of 50 Shades only with rich korean women instead of men. To be fair I'm not very familiar with webtoons so maybe my assumption about them is wrong. I'm just basing my thoughts on what I was recommend to read.
Last manhua I read either the publisher or government stepped in, story got censored heavily, and then eventually was put on hiatus.
That fear of a series spontaneously dying at any moment because of government interference keeps me from reading more manhua.
Although I don't mind Korean or Chinese fan artists, in fact for a lot of series I enjoy they're the ones mostly keeping those fandoms afloat.

The art found in webtoons often looks cheap in my eyes.

I enjoy non-japanese media, but I find it hard to apreciate chinese and korean stuff, at least their animation and comic industries. I will give you two examples from my childhood. One is a chinese cartoon about a little carp, I find this work full of "soul" because despite being completely foreing it was able to deliver a strong impression, left a good memory in me. I can't tell without a rewatch if it was influenced by anime or not, probably yes at some degree but despite this it feels original, it has its own personality and tone. The other is a korean cartoon, also from my childhood. I remember enjoying it to some degree, but in retrospective, it's just a plagiarism of various monster tamer works like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc. It's not original at all, it's just a mere mockery of a nonster taming anime it has no personality of its own. I find this to be the norm with chinese and korean animations, videogames and comics. Genshin Impact looks like an uninspired cashgrab, many manwhas are ugly and have retarded plots. China and Korea both have a great filmaking industry, I would say even better than modern Japan, so I don't understand why their animation have to copy so agressively anime/manga styles.

My observations from dabbling in it a bit:
Chinese animation isn't so bad when they aren't settling for all-CGI production. Both seasons of Link Click have been gorgeous, for example. There seems to be some legitimate talent for animation over there. Not a lot, but some. The voice acting ranges from lackluster to awful, and Chinese not being the easiest language to listen to doesn't help. Japanese dubs are becoming more common, though.
I can't think of any Korean anime at all. There's a reason they had to swallow their pride and get Japanese studios to adapt Tower of God and Solo Leveling for them.
Manhua, manwha and webtoons are all horrible on average compared to manga. The list of good series between them would be very short. Probably microscopic if you can't tolerate anything that's BL or BL-adjacent. Most of their comics are all the worst qualities of Narou-kei amplified to infinity.
I don't go out of my way to hate Chinese and Korean stuff without giving any of it a chance, but their industries are less developed than Japan's and it's reflected in the average quality of their series. It's more difficult to find the good stuff, so I don't blame anyone for not trying.

Honestly I bet it would be full of little bits of electronics that I tend to lose and need to replace. And some socks.
Also I lost a vehicle in my teenage years - how big of a box are we talking about here?

My whole life to be honest

Can I get my time back?

My old gameboy advance with like 40 games in a gameboy backpack. And my old bionicle figures too.

>>41779
Who the heck can afford that?

I have a cat.

>>41785
I like small birds.

I has a rainbow sloth plushie

>>41628
>because they likely only have their own in mind
How does giving bad advice fit into this?

Judge people by their actions, and don't waste your time and sanity thinking someone is a better person than what/who they are showing you. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

Trust your gut over everything else.

>>41778
Understood. I give people too much benefit of the doubt.

>>41629
Not them, but I agree to an extent.
A lot of advice that is valid to mostly everyone regardless of their current context is often not particularly useful advice, as it tends to gloss over whatever particulars are causing the person desiring advice to be in their undesirable position. In my life, this is often the advice I get when speaking to someone of good intention and higher status when asking for advice, unless there is a reason for greater context on both parties (mutual hobby, association, etc.)

So if someone in a position of power over you offers you advice that panders to your insecurities/weaknesses without a readily apparent reason, it is safe to assume they offer that advice with the idea it would be useful or neutral to them for you to take it.

I think sex scenes in this context are seen as a capstone for many: it's an expression of upmost love and trust between two people, and it consummates the efforts of the protagonist and reader, especially if the path to get there was arduous.

>>41824
This is really what it comes down to. I don't understand why there seems to be such opposition to it.

>>41825
>>41824
I feel like there are better ways to represent it, especially since many sex scenes don't havea much thought or work put into them. I understand the point you are trying to make but I feel it is a very lazy way to do that and the effort would be better spent putting together a more unique scene with the girl, since many sex scenes in the are very similar. This has sorta gone off-topic from OP's original point though. I will say I don't really see much of this type of stuff in moege, nor do I see much fetish stuff, it is typically reserved for more "mature genres".
It's like how seinen and josei are more likely to have the heroine be promiscious or have other type of filth in it like rape, whereas shsoujo is typically more pure, but sometimes an author makes a crappy story.

>>41826
You're overlooking another component. Tied to the emotional aspect of love is the physical side, which sex scenes satisfy in addition to the former. Again, it's the culmination of love and desire with the character that the reader and protagonist doggedly pursued.
Plus, they don't have to be lazily written, that's just what the writers feel they can get away with; it's not necessarily the result of having ero-scenes.

>>32079
Technically, yes, but YouTube comments were never known for their quality.

In some ways yes, in other ways no.
On the one hand they can get by on easy mode using google and bots to solve all their questions, cheat on their tests, order whatever they want, and find anything they want including things that they aren't supposed to have access to like porn. It's convenient and easy, but that also makes people lazy, weak minded, and leaves them helpless the moment you cut the internet connection.
It also seems to be over stimulating people. With so many options, it's hard to focus on any one thing. It's hard to hold the attention of anyone growing up with all this constant noise.
They don't know what to believe or what to trust with information being piled onto them, which really screws them up. This also robs them of shared experiences with people of their own age, due to people being so divided. But that's a bit of a different matter.
Just look at how miserable and depressed they all are. They have a million of voices telling them what to think and do and how to live, with no idea which ones to trust, a million lives to compare their own to. A million distractions they can't indulge in without neglecting the most of everything else out there. The internet should have a hard age limit, and I'm talking like 18+ to use it. Minors aren't supposed to consume alcohol or Tabaco because it can cause physical issues with a still developing body. Why isn't the same consideration given to their mental health?
The writing is on the walls but no one wants to acknowledge the inconvenient truth, that it's all doing far more harm than good for those who aren't mature enough to handle it.

>>41689
I think a curated network should be created in the case of the general internet being age restricted, for educational purposes. Kids whose parents heavily regulate their computer usage end up computer illiterate.

>>41689
So youre saying we have to restrict and monitor access to the most powerful tool the free people of this planet have ever seen because of the possibility of a trivial threat to the well-being of children?

Which government agency did you say you were with again?

>>41708
What about all the Japanese artists?

>>41709
I guess they're fine, but I'd still be willing to lose them if it meant getting rid of everyone else on the site.

>>41712
This seems like an absurd stance to take if you passionately enjoy 2D media created in the 21st century. Think of all the mangaka, the animators, the writers, the illustrators, the musicians, the voice actors, the game developers, etc. who would be gone.
Hell, even Tohno has a Twitter account. >>41151 What would happen to TC?

>>41718
Obviously we'd hire a necromancer and have him reanimate tohno. Can't have him enjoy the boundless wonders of the afterlife while we suffer in our meatsacks.

>>41583
>complaining about the lead character in some cyberpunk work being a police officer
Seriously? That would discount Blade Runner too.

edit: Armitage III too. Cops are a common occupation for cyberpunk protagonists, so whoever that was doesn't know what they're talking about.

Post edited on 18th Jul 2023, 4:54pm

>>41584
Exactly! It annoyed me a lot which is why that kind of opinion stuck with me for so long. I don't understand it at all.

>>41254
I loved cyberpunk when I was younger.
The funny thing us that even though cyberpunk tends to be dystopian in nature, the actual reality we're in is shaping up to be much worse in some respects than most of the cyberpunk media you saw 30, 40 years ago.

>>41259
My favorite PKD book is Valis, which explores in great detail the philosophical and religious ideas which underpin his cyberpunk books, but contains only trace amounts of science fiction.

>>41254
I feel kind of indifferent about cyberpunk as a genre these days, because really we're basically living a world with much of what was imagined in cyberpunk media in the past. I mean, we're not at the level of cyborgs or brain-in-a-vat level of tech. But you could easily write a cyberpunk narrative set in the modern world.

You should try watching some stuff from the noir genre OP. I really like series directed by Shuko Murase myself. I also just finished the first season of Psycho-pass, and it was phenomenal

>>29589
New anime season is best? I agree.

>>29589
>The first week or two of every anime season are great
I really enjoyed the first season of Demon Slayer. It was honestly the first series I've seen in a while I thought I could marathon if I actually wanted. But it really fell off afterwards, and I haven't bothered to catch up with the Swordsmith Village Arc

>>29589
>the psychedelic guide to preparing...
>flip flappers
I wonder if these two downloads were related.

Feels like just yesterday I was looking forward to the first episodes of new shows and now they're on their 7th or 8th. Time slips away too quickly.

>>41233
We fuckin died to the japs in the first round and we will NEVER make an appearance again! STRAYA MATE!

>>41242
How's them subs coming along?

Hot coffee solves everything

I wanna go somewhere cold. Move to a place that actually has 4 seasons instead of this depressing shithole where it's always hot. It's middle autumn and is just like a hot summer day, I am shirtless, underwearless, using only very short and thin shorts that are so loose and tiny that they leave my genitals exposed and the fan is a top speed and it's still impossible to stand the heat. It's my limit, every year this shithole gets hotter I can't take this anymore.