Summer anime & tv watching!

My annual summer post about the anime and shows I've been watching!~ No spoilers, though read with caution~

First, I've been watching this anime called Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun / Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun because I kept seeing these hilarious gifs on my tumblr feed. This anime SO funny!! Definitely a must watch if you're into stereotypical anime/manga culture and want a good laugh. The kind of humour is similar to that of Daily Lives of High School Boys (albeit less silly) but the animation is really nice and the characters are all so lovable. The story revolves around a high school boy named Nozaki who is very straight-faced, manly and quiet personality (think Takashi from Ouran Host Club), but in actuality he is a mangaka of a popular shoujo manga. But of course, nobody at school believes him. Eventually, he has friends to help him with beta-ing his manga and he even draws inspiration for characters for his manga from his own friends around him. Being a mangaka was always sort of a dream of mine, after having experienced creating a manga adaptation of Lord of the Flies in high school with my class mates. It really is fun drawing and having your friends do the inking and screen toning and then seeing the final product. Being a manga artist is by no means a solo job, you really do need a good team of people to help you otherwise it'd be really difficult! 

I'm also watching the second season of Free!! Free! Eternal Summer picks up where it left off last summer, along with the addition of some new characters (well, two so far, I really hope they introduce more). One being a sort of rival character that is Rin's childhood friend, Sousuke. I think he's quickly becoming my favourite because he's so good looking, and his spirit animal is the whale shark! I love sharks and whale sharks!! >__< Mikoshiba's younger brother, Momotarou is also introduced as Nitori's kouhai and new room mate. This season of Free sort of has a bitter sweet feeling as the boys contemplate what to do after high school graduation, but so far the anime has been light and funny with of course, lots of muscles! I mean, fanservice! 

I started watching Dramatical Murder, which I mentioned in a previous post, but of course it was as expected. It was very similar to the Togainu no Chi anime, which I was excited for because I couldn't play the game so I could get a chance to know the plot/storyline better and see the characters in action. However, the animation turned out to be horrible. The same thing happened with Dmmd, only this time I feel even less inclined to watch it because I have played the game (though I didn't finish it yet... still... ahem). In fact, the animation staff actually apologized for the quality of the third episode. Pretty embarrassing... I didn't watch that episode yet myself but from what I saw posted on tumblr, it was pretty bad... However, I heard that Clear actually sings in the anime, which he never did in the game so I will probably end up watching it. I only finished Koujaku, Noiz and Clear's routes in the game and although Koujaku was my favourite at first, Clear's story really won me over in the end...

I also watched two episodes of another new anime called Tokyo Ghoul. It was alright, but I kept seeing complaints from avid fans of the manga that certain scenes were not handled properly (if at all) so I will probably just stick to catching up on the manga instead. I also sampled Zankyou no Terror, a Noitamina anime that seemed to have an interesting plot. The first episode was kind of weird though so I may or may not continue...

Moving on to TV shows, after Hannibal season 2 ended, I was left with nothing to watch, so my friend recommend Penny Dreadful. The trailer seemed really dark and interesting. The series itself was a lot more twisted than I had anticipated, but I ended up enjoying it more later on as the plot progressed. I really liked their take on Dr. Frankenstein. I also really loved how the setting was in 19th century London. The clothing, furniture and buildings all had this sort of morbid elegance to it. This series does have a bit of nudity and some scenes are really creepy/disturbing so watch at your own risk.

Alas, I have indeed hopped onto the Game of Thrones bandwagon. I kept hearing about it but was too lazy to watch, until a co-worker recommended, saying that it was only ten episodes per season. Little did I know, it was four seasons and therefore I had to plow through 40 episodes, but I managed to do so rather quickly because it was so addictive! I haven't read the books, but I fully understand now why this series is so popular! I never thought I'd see an ending/scene that would rival the gut-wrenching (literally) finale of Hannibal season 2, but it was there. There were some pretty heartbreaking scenes in GoT that made me tear up more than once. My favourite characters so far would have to be Daenerys, Jon Snow, Tyrion and Arya Stark. I can't decide and I picked more than one in case they die in the future because I swear this series is so unpredictable haha. I am very much looking forward to the next seasons!

I'm also catching up on my reading but it's nothing too exciting and I'm having trouble finding the time. What are you all watching/reading? Any more recommendations?

Until next time~!!