I see. I'll admit that I've always thought Louis the red deer having fingers as weird. The quirk of the anime setting that I enjoyed was that characters are often born into a role that sometimes doesn't represent them. There's a lot of self discovery,

I was fatigued from generic shounen. I watched Jujutsu Kaisen for 3 episodes and none of them spoke to me story-wise or character-wise. 90% from the shounen genre does not have good complex plot. If I hear that it has exciting plot in later seasons I may pick it back up.

@0GucciRose

Why Beastars?
BEASTARS

As for thoughts on the last episode specifically, I have one comment. Richard's kiss with Henry was censored, but their kiss with Anne was not. Double standards, hmm?

I really like the manga. Some of the character relationships are far stretched, but I like the plot and Richard's growth. So I'm still watching. I'm looking forward to the next cour; I think Richard's next relationship is far better than when he was with Henry.

Yep. The anime has caught up with the manga. It has cut out quite a few things to do so.

I was a little worried about how they were gonna wrap up the series, but overall they did a good job. It's too bad that some of the behind the scenes vampire politics didn't make it into the anime, but there's not much they can do.

JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World is more along the lines of lack of shame for certain atrocities its characters commit (eg cruelty against prostitutes). It's certainly the opposite of hentai though.

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness Nagata Kabi talks a bit about her repression of sexual desires.

If you like My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, My Wandering Warrior Existence does a little more on talking about gender roles in dating/marriage. The English copies just shipped a while ago.

Also, this manga criticizes the setting of by-male-for-male isekai. It's essentially a piece of feminist satire. Considering your age though and the nature of the manga (very explicit telling of women's status and suffering through the isekai sex industry), wait 3 years or settle for the light novel.
JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World
Unrelated to the manga, but it's very interesting to contrast the settings of by-male-for-male isekai, by-male-for-male otome-isekai, and otome-isekai for women. One can argue that even many otome-isekai fall back on traditional roles for women as they try to use marriage and rely on their partners to achieve status, wealth, and happiness.

In order of most to least relevent.
I know just the right manga:
Seibetsu Mona Lisa no Kimi e
It's set in the world where everyone is born genderless and eventually differentiate into a gender during childhood-teenage years. The main character is getting older and older without showing signs of becoming either gender, and explores what it means to be a girl/boy.

Requiem of the Rose King
Richard is intersex. There are some explorations of gender here and there. At one point, Margaret of Anjou muses something like, perhaps the reason that a woman, made from the rib of man, can create from her womb is to take back the power from man. Read the manga, not the anime.

You can probably find traces of queer feminist theory in a lot of ani/manga that involve cross-dressing, or queer romance.
eg. cross dressing character in MaidSama,
androgynous costumes, skate routines in Yuri on ICE.
Most of them don't explore it meaningfully as a focus of the show tho.

Depressing

Yona's development is depressing but rewarding.
Yona of the Dawn

Richard's (based on Shakespeare's Richard III) development is depressing.
I recommend the manga over the anime.
Requiem of the Rose King

Kasane's development is also angsty. So is her beautiful counterpart, Nogiku's.
Kasane

The main character in
Blood on the Tracks
It's basically a psychological horror manga at this point.

Same with Shounen no Abyss
.

Annoying

The main characters in the entire Seraph of the End franchise. They more or less have an angsty childhood, then their characters are focused on the past and never move on from there for dramatic effect.

The manga goes into more depth on the setting, relationships between characters, characters, and the side cast. The anime, of course, has the fight scenes animated and an amazing sound track by Yuki Kajiura. I would emphasize as a manga manga reader that the anime left out some scenes that didn't contribute to the plot, but are very important for fleshing out the characters and as a result create misunderstandings for anime-onlys. For example, they really didn't do Dominique's potential bisexual orientation and Noe's potential attraction to Jeanne justice. The anime has also created misunderstandings about Dominique. You can tell that I'm sad that they didn't represent Domi accurately.
So I highly recommend the manga if you are interested in getting the most accurate story. As others have said, the art is gorgeous. And why not find some samples of the OST on YouTube to listen to while you read?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e4pvuznR7g

@Linkachu
I recommend keep watching Parasyte the maxim

and try:
Rokka Braves of the Six Flowers
OnePunch Man
Mob Psycho 100

I'd say the middle chunk was the most boring part, since the series is about one protagonist's parallel universes and some events are repeated. I spaced out watching it so it wasn't so bad. Definitely not binge-watch friendly. I think that the ending wrapped the series up nicely tho.

And yeah. That's why PH remake was a really sweet dream.

Zhang Zhong Zhi Wu
takes the romantic abusive male lead trope and turns the series into a horror

Aozora to Kumorizora

Since someone recommended Blood on the Tracks, I'll add Happiness by the same mangaka.

A person's face is all it takes to make their life depressing:
Kasane

Harem gone wrong: Shounen no Abyss

This one has an anime rn. Just... read the manga. Requiem of the Rose King

Autobiography of depression and other life struggles: My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness

Really dark ch.70 or so when you get invested and attached to its characters, but also about the hope they find (highly recommend): Pandora Hearts

Ever heard of Dazai Osamu? Uzumaki Spiral into Horror

@R2R
Wow... posting about anime for 92 days consecutively. Nice job! I don't have the perseverance haha.

794

It appears that turning Mikaela into a demon is part of Shikamadouji's plan. It is revealed in the 2nd anime that demons come from vampires, just as Asuramaru was once vampire Asura Tepes, Krul Tepes's brother. Guren and Mahiru have been fighting Shikamadouji for around a decade I think, trying to put a dent in their plan, whatever that is (there's a lot more on Guren, Mahiru, and Shikamadouji in Guren's backstory, Seraph of the End Guren Ichinose Catastrophe at Sixteen or Owari no Seraph Ichinose Guren 16sai no Catastrophe.
Guren and Mahiru attacked and turned Mikaela into a demon through some process, probably so that they can be the first to acquire him as a demon weapon through Yu instead of having Mika falling into Shikamadouji's hands. In response, Shikamadouji sent the demons of the black demon series to capture Mikaela, and Guren's team tries to get to him first.

I'm suspicious about Abel's protection towards Fena. I wonder how much of it is influenced by her mother and/or the treasure trove to which Fena is the key.

Also, last episode, Fena was screaming for her friends who were going to be burried alive in a cave. Where did that person go? Instead, we just get a shoujo who dumbfoundedly says "the tea's fine" and proceeds to feel touched by her captor's kindness like it's supposed to be part of her innocent nature. It doesn't look like she's acting strategically to make her captors lower their guard.

Her character doesn't add up unless a) she didn't care about her dying crewmates in the first place, b) is too naïve despite her harsh upbringing, c) has a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome, or d) is written by the creators to be a passive treasure compass disguised as an interesting innocent heroine.

I would find Fena's reactions cute if the setting is like a shoujo manga where she meets good and handsome men and grows through those encounters. Unfortunately, I have strong reservations here considering the dynamics (captive and supposed to be be-grudged captor).