What Anime are you watching?

[B E C K]

I tuned into Dr. Elise just to see if it would do it and it did it: it crossed into so bad it's good territory. Between the extra doses of ridiculous flagellation at the altar of this Mary Sue and the shitty animation, this thing made me crack a smile from beginning to end. It's also continues to feel stupidly padded on to as if the people making this show only got permission to adapt a specific amount of the story and are trying to make the source material streeeeeeeetch as much as possible.

[jonhammstein]

I've been watching Snack Basue. Not much to say about it. It's a gag show that takes place almost entirely in a single room. The art style is extremely simplistic, but at least it allows them to keep the animation consistent.

[B E C K]

I finally caught up on Frieren. It's a show I liked but found myself unable to watch it week by week. It just felt too mellow or something. Now that I've binged, I'm a full-fledged Frieren enjoyerer.... er. This show is so good.

The weakest Beast Tamer Trash anime is kinda surprising me a bit. I'd thought I'd dump this shit but I'm a bit invested. She got rich over pointing out some dead bodies. Hope she don't get robbed.

[B E C K]

I still like Shangrila Frontier but this Wethermon fight at 3+ episodes is a snore.

[jonhammstein]

First episode of Ninja Kamui wasn't bad.

[B E C K]

Watched some eps of Love of Kill. I think it's from last Spring's anime season. What a weird show. Violent killer stalks bounty hunter and both get chased by killers. I don't know what it's trying to be.

Like I knew Spy multiplied by Family was supposed to be a comedy even though I didn't really laugh. But this shows doesn't have enough jokes for that. It doesn't have intrigue or adventure. It's almost like a romcom slice of life featuring a killer and bounty hunter but then doesn't give either of them friends or hobbies or something that would make me care about seeing a slice of their lives to begin with.

It supposedly builds up to something but I didn't care enough to stick around.

[B E C K]

Something's been nagging me about Sign of Affection. Like it feels... fetishy. This dude loves learning languages so much that he's interested in the deaf girl because she's something new for him to learn from. And it still feels that way.

I came across a reddit thread where two people were stating they're from third world countries and the guy in this show reminds them of a creepy expat with a white savior complex. I definitely see it.

Does that ruin the show? I'd say 'no' because the adorable deaf girl carries the show. But it also makes the "romance" feel hollow. As if this dude thinks he's in love when this girl is merely different. And the girl's just got a crush she thinks is love. I'd fully expect this guy to dump this girl once she's too old to be infantilized and he gets tired of sign language.

As much as I dislike the idea of "childhood friend secretly in love with female lead," that guy's a better character. He's grappling with complicated feelings. Like his implied opinion that the deaf girl should just be with other deaf people. Or that he momentarily struggles with doing the right thing and helping a deaf stranger. He's way more interesting than "hot dude travels."

[jonhammstein]

I'm looking at the upcoming Spring lineup, and man, I don't even know. I think I'll just cast a wide net and see what sticks.

[jonhammstein]

[B E C K]

The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases is fuckin' uggo-looking with some real wonk-ass animation. Damn, that's tragic. Or funny, depending on the reason you choose to watch this.

[jonhammstein]

I'm a few episodes into the mage exam on Frieren, and I have to say this is the first time the show has started to lose my interest a little bit. I'm not here for this Naruto-tier shōnen tournament shit. Not to mention suddenly dumping all these new characters onto us all at once, and most of them are featured in the intro so I have to assume at least a few of them end up actually being important, but right now I don't give a fuck about any of them.

It's not enough to make me walk away or anything, I just hope it gets resolved sooner rather than later.

[B E C K]

Yeah, I wasn't jazzed about the mage exam.  I was pleasantly surprised by it in that it ends up overall well-executed even if some parts of it drag a bit. We get some good characters from it, too. But an exam arc in and of itself is about as worn-out and tired as a tourney arc. And this part of the show introduces the worst outfit in the series. This may as well be Julia Roberts' hooker outfit from Pretty Woman. And some peeps on Reddit were all "wut about Laufen tho?"  What about Laufen?  Laufen's outfit doesn't kill my immersion like this shit does.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I'm waiting for the last episode's English dub to finish out Frieren. I watched it week to week, and I was very happy with it.

Dangers of the Heart was a big surprise....I'm not much on school kid romances, but this has been an enjoyable, sweet show. I'd read that the first season was good, so I checked it out, and so I'm halfway through S2. Luckily I have a little more time to finish before Spring hits its stride.

I liked the Banished from the Hero's Party show. It's an actual non-isekai fantasy show about how a guy quit fighting the good fight but turned out to be the guy keeping the team working the whole time. A tired trope, but well-executed in this case. If it dies with S2, it's fine, but I wouldn't mind seeing it continue.

Delicious in Dungeon was entertaining and is still on-going. Another non-isekai fantasy show, this time involving how to survive in dungeons by turning monsters into Japanese staple meals. It's fun.

Spring has a bunch of continuations I'm interested in picking up...KonoSuba s3, Slime-kun s3, Demon King Academy S2P2, Irregular at Magic High School s3. I may even go back and hit S2 of Sound Euphonium seeing as s3 is coming up...it was one of those shows I enjoyed but had a hard time getting back into watching. But my backlog is so ponderous at this point that I'm hoping for a stinker season, as I have shows from last year I haven't put a dent in yet.

[jonhammstein]

One thing I've always applauded Frieren for is its sensibly dressed characters... and then Little Miss Teen Prossy shows up.

Well.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

A character featured (and a tandem feature, at that) in a single episode and an exceedingly minor role in a single arc is hardly a blip on the radar for my part. And it's all the more satisfying when she gets to the third test.

[B E C K]

After being pretty spoiled the last couple of seasons, I'm not really excited about this season at all. The popular continuing shows are not things I was watching and a lot of new stuff looks garbo. I watched Unnamed Memory and it wasn't bad but there was something super dull about it. The same with A Condition Called Love. That one gives a bit more in terms of flaws for the leads but it's just not that exciting. I can't go from Skip to Loafer to this nor more than I can go from 7th Time Loop Villainess to Unnamed Memory. Again, they aren't bad. They just feel watered down and not exciting.

I'm a bit surprised by Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers. My YouTube casting is fucked up again so I just put that show on as a lark to kill some time and got invested in the thing. I jumped over to the manga and was pleasantly surprised. I poured through about 30+ chapters of it. This may very well be the only thing I watch this season. Unless one of you guys spring up a surprise recommendation.

[B E C K]

I watched some of the elf bride one.  It was fine.  That's it.  It was fine.

I also saw some other show, like, the reincarnated aristocat uses his appraisal skill yadda yadda.  It wasn't terrible.  I liked the idea of the appraisal skill, the dad character, and the butler-or-whatever character.  Everything else was poo water.

I finally saw the movie Maquia.  It was a good.  It was free on YouTube dubbed (and might still be free).  But I couldn't take that lead girl's voice and went and watched a Japanese language version instead.

[jonhammstein]

I've come back around on Frieren. It was jarring for me when the show suddenly expanded into an ensemble cast, but I've accepted it now. I have a handful of episodes remaining.

Considering that I had initially wondered what I would even watch this season, strangely enough I ended up following more than a dozen different shows. Not that I'll see them all through to the end, I've already dropped one, but they're mostly managing to hold my interest. Nothing really stands out, though.

I'm glad you regularly talk about which anime movies you've watched here, because that's a total blind spot for me. I'll chell out Maquia.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

KonoSuba S3 is out this year. I saw the first couple episodes in an attempt to figure out why I intended to watch it again. Still working on figuring that shit out. Reincarnated Slime guy S3 is sort of in the same boat.

Elf Bride is nice just because they're both clueless but figuring it out while the rest of the world apparently is out to get them. We'll see where it goes.

I recently got into Mushoku Tensei and was surprised by it. Instead of being transported, the MC transmigrated after death and was reborn with his weird ass NEET memories. Despite the seedy undercurrent of lecherous old bastard in a 10 year old's body, it's been enjoyable. It helps that it looks better than a lot of other stuff out there.

The Level2 Cheat show is similar to other shows I liked, like Chilling in My 30s and Banished from the Hero's Party, but I'll be interested to see how it pans out when the guy basically has a pretty heavy harem a few eps in and isn't really challenged yet.

Dungeon Meshi remains entertaining, but it's taken a dark turn as of late.

I've only watched one episode of Mysterious Disappearances so far. It's mysterious all right, from the off-hand devolution of the MC in age to the fact she can stand up straight with those hooters of hers. But it looks like it might have somewhere it's aiming to go, so, again, we'll see.

I'm still picking up Loser Ranger, Windbreaker, Irregular at Magic School S3 and Misfit at Demon King School S3, but I haven't started watching them yet.

[jonhammstein]

The Fable and Loser Ranger are both on Disney+ in Canada and I'm surprised how much I've been enjoying them. Loser Ranger has an excellent intro/outro.

[B E C K]

I tried out Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master. All eight eps currently available. Court intrigue within a fantasy setting, basically in a land filled with people who turn into giant three-legged crows. Think 12 Kingdoms but on a smaller scale. So, uh... "4 Kingdoms." The interesting thing about this is that this adaptation is supposedly based on the 2nd book of the series, however, the 1st and 2nd book apparently overlap events. So technically, I'd say it's adapting both together. I like it so far. Maybe it'll fumble the ball in the end but right now it's pretty good.

[jonhammstein]

SUMMER ANIME WAIWAI!!!

Dead Dead Demon's has already begun, it's been good so far.

[B E C K]

Suicide Squad's the only one I have any real interest in so far.

I finally saw some of Loser Ranger and it's good. I'm on episode 4 and some of what was going on kinda confused me, like shit was skipped.

I got Merla watching Yatagarasu. She wanted more and I was like, "This is current series. You gotta wait a week." That's the only "bad thing" about not just binging something when it's done, I suppose.

Also, I didn't realize King's Avatar S3 already started. Man. It just gets worse and worse every season. I couldn't even manage to sit through an entire episode. The first season had clear budget constraints but it also had soul. As this story gets more and more animated content, each progressive iteration gets more and more soulless. The OVA was the last good content because it at least tried to tell a single story. S2 was all over the place. With S3, it's even more all over the place. Also, it's been so long I barely remember what's going on. I had to look it up: 2017. Seven years since S1. Weirdly, it gets better animation but in exchange, character designs proceed to look even more generic and same-face that the prior and a story becomes even more meandering. S1 was rushed as hell but at least shit was happening.

[jonhammstein]

I've also found Loser Ranger hard to follow at times, not just plot-wise, but visually as well. I wonder if the original manga is disjointed in the first place, but usually when something is adapted to animation, that's an opportunity to flesh things out. That doesn't seem to have happened here.

And I can forgive shoddy animation if the narrative has me hooked, but recent episodes are testing my limits. Character drawings have become very flat and rushed-looking. And the blandness/monotony of the underground parking garage scenario certainly hasn't helped matters.

[B E C K]

I decided to chell out some of the manga after I caught up on the show. Basically around where episode 8 ended. And, man... Something about the manga feels disjointed. I can't tell what's going on in a bunch of scenes. Also, I usually will read the manga of something and get more clarity on the story and the decisions in what was shown/omitted in an adaptation: this is the first case where I have, like, zero clarity. In fact, I just stopped reading after about fifteen chapters because it lost my interest.

Don't get me wrong: the general concept is still very cool and I'll likely still chell out the show. But the presentation feels sorta jumbled. With the whole parking garage thing... for me, it's that it's basically another "mage exam" arc with mostly kids competing with one another and having some sort of psuedo-schoolyard dynamics. I don't like this type of stuff and feel the story is spending too much time on this bullshit when I just want D and Creepy-Blondie to go steal more weapons.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I recently binged 7th Time Loop, Spirit Chronicles, and the first season of Moonlit Fantasy.

7th Time Loop was surprisingly enjoyable, with the recursive lives issue coming to a head with the girl marrying the man who would become a tyrant emperor who indirectly killed her five times and directly on the sixth. She uses what she learned the first six times to ameliorate the seventh course in the loop. All in all, I hope they continue it.

Spirit Chronicles sports the somewhat less well-worn isekai wrinkle of the earthling's spirit having transmigrated (as opposed to being directly reincarnated) into an existing person. It's still not high cinema, being at its heart a harem anime with an uninterested and overpowered male MC ultimately trying to find his way in this world. It has a certain je ne sais quoi that appeals to me...but I typically enjoy overpowered MC anime.

And speaking of which, Moonlit Fantasy IS a standard isekai sans truck-kun; the guy just basically gets summoned and told by the goddess he's butt-ugly and doesn't want him trashing up the place. So his overpowered ass gets dumped in the wilderness where he befriends demihumans and proceeds from there. It's got a leisurely pace that isn't too fast or too slow, and I've enjoyed the journey thus far. I just started watching season 2, so I hope it doesn't get bogged down with the magic school trope that winds up hamstringing practically every show it factors into.

[B E C K]

Imma start off this post by saying to you guys: please, please watch Yatagarasu. That show's being ignored hard and it's so good.

7th Time Loop was surprisingly enjoyable, with the recursive lives issue coming to a head with the girl marrying the man who would become a tyrant emperor who indirectly killed her five times and directly on the sixth. She uses what she learned the first six times to ameliorate the seventh course in the loop. All in all, I hope they continue it.

I was real happy with that one. Still don't like the hair in it but that's such a minor gripe. Merla actually watched this one, too, and really loved it as well. She has Rishe and Arnold as her cell phone lock screen.


I finally got to see Kin no Kuni, Mizu no Kuni after... after God knows how long. I have no idea what's going on with this picture. It seems like something that should've at least had a dub by now and landed on a streaming service somewhere.

I will say, at two hours, it's a bit too fucking long. It felt like a slog in the middle. I'm not sure what could've been trimmed down to fix this. The music was meh, sounded like music that could go to anything else. The story was okay and at points got interesting but then deflated a bit. I think this story probably could've been a neat six episode OVA series instead of a movie. I'll say 8/10 is fair. Or is that a 4/5? I should be converting the fraction, right?

[jonhammstein]

I acknowledge your appreciation for Yatagarasu, but I could tell at a cursory glance that the show is not for me. I am absolutely allergic to stories where bedroom-eyed nobles flit about their waterside palace and engage in bombastic interpersonal drama. I apologize if that comes across as belittling and/or dismissive, but I just can not with that stuff.

[B E C K]

Here's an Epipen, go watch it. 













I mean, it's also got blood and flying crow people as much as it has drama. But it's fine. I just wanted to put the word out on this show.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Speaking of which, I've watched the first half of the first season of The Apothecary Diaries, and I've found it to be quite good. So, yeah, only six months behind the curve, right?