Still haven't finished Violet Evergarden. It's like I'm saving it or something. I don't know.
SPOILERS BELOW!
Full Metal Panic has been engaging but also aggravating. They picked up with Chidori being kidnapped by Leonard after Amalgam destroys Mithril (or so they think), and Sousuke is more or less on his own and starting from scratch. He winds up in what looks like a southeastern Asian city where there's no law but outlaws. There he picks up with a new Chidori-like new girl named Nami that seems to have Whispered powers as she and her team salvage an old AS unit for robot gladiatorial combat. Sousuke pilots and is able to figure out where the Amalgam guy is, but then they kill Nami and put Sousuke in a coma while he kills the baddies and finds the barest lead on first girl Chidori. It was a real waste, as the new characers were setup as a new crew for Sousuke, but then thrown to the wayside.
Now they're showing Mithril coming back without Kalenin who's seemingly turned against them. So it's a freaking hodge-podge. When it's good, it's good, but it's so scatterbrained that it's annoying to watch. But I guess they're coming to the last ep of the season this week, which likely will be a lead-in to a final season that wraps the storyline from the final light novel.
Food Wars ended slap-dab in the middle of a group Shokugeki between Soma's band of rebels and the Elite 10 of Central, which sucks. It should have continued directly from here, but it's the 24th episode with not nearly enough time to finish out the story arc. But it's been an entertaining arc, particularly if you like Erina (the token well-hootered blonde tsundere) coming around to Soma's side, but the real story is Soma quietly/conveniently becoming a surpassing chef in comparison to the Elite 10. You had to expect it, but the season did a good job building him up without being didactic with it. Unfortunately too many of the fun secondary characters had to sit most of the season out due to the tighter focus, but hopefully they'll all be back soon enough.
High School DxD has again been more of the same. I would say that the art suffered at the expense of better animation quality. I read that it's more true to the original artwork, but if that's the case I preferred the style from the first anime studio. And in a series like this, the art is more important. However, the last battle was satisfying as it moved Issei along in his relationship with Rias. While frustrating from the perspective that he's a perverted relationship dolt (he likes titties in the face but can't make a real move due to being impossibly imperceptive...a common anime trope), it becomes evident that he's purposefully holding himself back on account that he wants to be promoted to a higher rank of devil before professing to Rias, the de facto princess of Hell. Then it becomes frustrating that everyone else is facepalming over his obliviousness while being oblivious to that fact. Which, when viewed long enough, becomes amusing as it becomes a parody of the afore-mentioned anime trope. Plus the battle was satisfying as it actually created a powerful new ally out of the opponent who isn't just some asshole but someone worth cheering for.
Still in limbo on Beatless. Still planning to marathon it, but I'm questioning whether it was worth watching to start with. I may give it a few more watches before making my final estimation. I'm afraid it's following in the footsteps of another show I was big on a while back (RE-Creators) that was pretty interesting on the first half but became a pile of drivel the further it went.
Darling in the Franxx was great, but it fizzled late after going on a left-field tangent: Papa, the leading council for humanity, was infiltrated by a pair of aliens who were trying to assimilate earth in the ancient past and were opposed by the klaxosaur princess. So now they have to fight with the klaxosaurs against these weird alien guys who weren't even hinted at in the first 19 episodes. It's a shame, too, as now they're finishing in a space battle outside Mars while the humans are dying on Earth. It just changed the entire timbre of the series; how it ends will determine if I can ever recommend it.
Seven Deadly Sins....eh, typical shonen fare. The enemies that were hyped up for so long to be nigh invincible are being wasted by Melodias, Escanor, and finally Merlin. It looks like the only question at this point is, did Melodias sell his soul to return to life to fight the Commandments that basically killed him three episodes back? The pacing and characterization of the season has been absolute crap, which takes the already thin storyline (10 demons from ancient days return to conquer the world; can the 7 sins powet up enough to beat them back?) and through spurts, stops, false starts, and completely weak use of characters (Gowther, King, and Diane are essentially useless at this point) took something that could have been highly entertaining and turned it into a drag. They DBZed it.
As for the new season, I'm watching out for a few new shows, but the only ones I've watched thus far are Island (should serve my need for smutty animation) and Hanebado (a rare sports anime for me: high school girls' badminton with higher than usual production values). Too soon to give comments, so stay tuned.
