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Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!
- Thread starter Johnny Unusual
- Start date
There are some kernels of interesting ideas to explore that are novel in the larger isekai genre. But it's mostly moot when those ideas are never close to being fully explored, and in the meanwhile it's surrounded by so much disgusting garbage that it's very much not worth wading into. Nearly every character is irredeemably bad and completely unlikable. And the ones that aren't, exist only to be victimized by those who are.
Purple
(She/Her)
Is that the one that starts with a guy playing a skeleton in an MMO by way of someone who doesn't understand the difference between a player and a programmer and he edits the succubus NPC to be super horny for him and then gets all weirded out that the succubus is horny for him suddenly? And I guess Isekai-ness happens somewhere in there but the show does a terrible job of calling attention to when it actually happens?
Because yeah that one's pretty terrible.
Because yeah that one's pretty terrible.
I enjoyed Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which wasn't as laugh-out-loud as it promised but was surprisingly smart, occasionally very transgressive in mostly good ways, totally disinterested in commercial appeal in a way that I personally find quite appealing, and so powerful it broke the fourth wall and killed a world leader
conchobhar
What's Shenmue?
Yurei Deco was a bust. Not because the answer to the series-long mystery is anti-climactic and unsatisfying — I think it is, but that's not the point — but because the ending is incongruent with the rest of the show.
Anyway, congratulations to Science Saru for their first failure.
So, to elaborate on the finale: the show's big twist is that Phantom Zero and the whole Zero Phenomenon is not some glitch or anything, but an elaborate puzzle — created by the secret leader of the government in order to find their successor. Hack, our deuteragonist, takes them up on the offer, and becomes the new secret leader. Under Hack's directives, the government relaxes its moderation policies: instead of the moderators tightly controlling what people can see on social media, they now fact check claims but otherwise let everything go and allow people to come to their own conclusions. Happy ending!
Problem one: mass surveillance and content moderation was hardly the only problem in Yurei Deco's world. This was a full-blown techno-dystopia: being part of the VR/AR/social-media network is legally mandatory; in most cases, this is achieved with eye surgery; the social network was not just for surveillance, but was also the "circus" to distract the populace from the various problems around them; your social media standing literally determines your worth in life; there are secret police and show trials. None of this is addressed in the finale. Did they forget about their own world, or is the intended takeaway that that's all fine and dandy as long as you can freely tweet?
Problem two: while I agree, philosophically, that censorship is bad, the lightest touch should be used, and people should be trusted to think for themselves… but applying this argument to social media networks is horrifically out of touch. How can anyone possibly look at the last five years of Facebook and Twitter — when these platforms have been used to spread hate speech (and abet genocide), misinformation, disinformation, hoaxes and conspiracy theories, and spur a wave of radicalization — and think that these platforms are doing too much?
It's tempting to assume the writer and/or director are are alt-right dipshits, but I don't think this is actually intended as a political stance. The criticism is too broad, essentially portraying content moderators as Nineteen Eighty-Four's Minitrue; I'd expect a specifically conservative argument to portray "un-PC" views as unfairly silenced, and especially expect something about shadowbanning. Also, the alternative that Yurei Deco comes up with (replacing censors with fact checkers) is literally what the platforms are doing, today. So I think the most likely explanation is that the creators are simply clueless. It's not the only time the show whiffs a metaphor, it's just a shockingly bad whiff.
Problem one: mass surveillance and content moderation was hardly the only problem in Yurei Deco's world. This was a full-blown techno-dystopia: being part of the VR/AR/social-media network is legally mandatory; in most cases, this is achieved with eye surgery; the social network was not just for surveillance, but was also the "circus" to distract the populace from the various problems around them; your social media standing literally determines your worth in life; there are secret police and show trials. None of this is addressed in the finale. Did they forget about their own world, or is the intended takeaway that that's all fine and dandy as long as you can freely tweet?
Problem two: while I agree, philosophically, that censorship is bad, the lightest touch should be used, and people should be trusted to think for themselves… but applying this argument to social media networks is horrifically out of touch. How can anyone possibly look at the last five years of Facebook and Twitter — when these platforms have been used to spread hate speech (and abet genocide), misinformation, disinformation, hoaxes and conspiracy theories, and spur a wave of radicalization — and think that these platforms are doing too much?
It's tempting to assume the writer and/or director are are alt-right dipshits, but I don't think this is actually intended as a political stance. The criticism is too broad, essentially portraying content moderators as Nineteen Eighty-Four's Minitrue; I'd expect a specifically conservative argument to portray "un-PC" views as unfairly silenced, and especially expect something about shadowbanning. Also, the alternative that Yurei Deco comes up with (replacing censors with fact checkers) is literally what the platforms are doing, today. So I think the most likely explanation is that the creators are simply clueless. It's not the only time the show whiffs a metaphor, it's just a shockingly bad whiff.
Anyway, congratulations to Science Saru for their first failure.
Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting was pretty decent aside from the vtuber episode, which was just garbage. They needed to spend more time on Yaeka's second friend aside from the two minutes she got getting introduced and then becoming a friend. Actually, there a lot of "Here's a new character! Moving on..." happening. Thankfully it does a good job of slowly and semi-realistically establishing the relationship between Yaeka and Kirishima. Also, the kids are cute, but not annoyingly cute.
The only other show I've been watching is Devil is a Part-timer and it's like coming back home. It's not a phenomenal anime, but it's that comforting mix of slice of life comedy and adventure.
The only other show I've been watching is Devil is a Part-timer and it's like coming back home. It's not a phenomenal anime, but it's that comforting mix of slice of life comedy and adventure.
I've also been watching that. It's been very whatever. The animation on display is remarkably cheap and lesser quality versus the first show. Which is more than a little disappointing considering that show is now what, over 10 years old? The story is pretty hit and miss for me as well, but that might be because I've read spoilers on how the light novels end and I'm NOT a fan. In fact, how it ends is so bad that it makes everything along the way retroactively worse. Massive spoilers for how Devil is a Part-Timer ends, don't click on these: Maou hooks up with Chiho at the end. For those who don't understand why that would be a problem, she's like 16. Ick
She's 16 when they arrive, and multiple years pass between the time they arrive and the last volume. The first volume alone covers nearly a full year of their time on Earth. She's already nearly 18 by the point the second season ends.
It's actually suggested at a few points that Chiho is older then Emi.
If that's the case, it's not at all conveyed in the show that I can recall, and definitely not how the characters themselves are coded. It's here's the plucky high school teen/cashier at your part time job vs the jaded adult office worker/hero. Even if she ages into adulthood during the course of the show, it's still a borderline grooming fantasy. I wouldn't have any problem with Chiho ending up the romantic pairing if they were just an adult from the get go, despite finding her a very disinteresting/boring entity in the show. But as an educator, I'm extremely skeeved out by some of these shows/comics/LNs that have aspects that very often boil down to "live out your fantasy of dating an underaged teenager!"
How is it a grooming fantasy when it's explicitly written and shown that Maou knows and ignores it? He has actively said that he doesn't want to get involved with people on Earth in that way (though he's fine if Ashiya wants to). He treats her on the exact same level as all of his direct subordinates. You are implying activities on his end that simply do not happen. Chiho is the one who wants to go further, and I think it's disrespectful to both of them to say she has no ability to speak on the matter herself, and can only be seen as a "conquest" of a man.
By this logic, Love Hina isn't a harem. C'mon. Just because some plausible deniability is thrown in there, doesn't mean it isn't intentionally designed for horny guys to wish "boy I wish that were me."
Anyways, speaking of questionable harems, this show is actually looking pretty good:
Purple
(She/Her)
I still just can't get past the rim lighting hair in this. If it was JUST Lum I could maybe accept it as like, "oh yeah they're emphasizing the alienness by giving her weird jello hair" but then you see everyone else and it's just "oh, no, I guess they just don't understand lighting?"
I have to assume it's intentionally evocative of Rumiko Takahashi's art style
Looking forward to this a probably unhealthy amount. UY was one of my major gateways into anime back in the early 90s.
Hmm, wonder if there will be a low-hassle legit way to get this onto my TV or if I’ll need to fire back up the ol high seas pipeline for the first time in years...
Hmm, wonder if there will be a low-hassle legit way to get this onto my TV or if I’ll need to fire back up the ol high seas pipeline for the first time in years...
It's going to be streaming on HIDIVE. It's $5/mo.
Ah, and it looks like you can add that as a channel through Prime, so yeah, probably worth just doing that rather than resurrecting my transcoding streamer setup that tends to break every time the kids decide they like a new CODEC...
Anyway, I watched the final episode of My Stepmom's Daughter is my Ex the other day, and ended up with a lot of thoughts about the show's run. I expect this to be a show most folks avoided, and I don't really blame you. The premise was an interesting one to me, but I would understand folks reading it as sketchier then it is. I'm gonna end up mostly infodumping here, so I apologize.
To begin with, the premise is that our two protagonists, Mizuto and Yume, were dating in their last year of middle school. They broke up after graduation due to an incident that I'll get to later, and as a result their relationship became very strained. Flash forward a year, and now the two of them are step-siblings because their parents got married. This story is of the two of them being forced to confront each other, their feelings, and the reason they broke up, while still hiding that they were in a relationship in the first place because they never made it public.
So, with that said, a fair amount of the series involves your common romcom tropes. We've got an episode where the two of them end up stealing each other's underwear. We've got an episode where Yume intentionally tries to get a rise out of Mizuto by coming out of the bath in just a towel and sitting on the couch next to him. We've got a minor subplot where the two of them kinda-sorta agree to pretend that Yume is a brocon in order to deflect the people in her class that have been trying to get to her through Mizuto.
Actually, I'll just come out and say it: Most of the show is about Yume's unresolved feelings for Mizuto. In general, the dynamic between the two of them feels like Mizuto has accepted and is trying to move past, while Yume thought she moved on but never actually resolved things. Despite this, there's still a sense that something is off with Mizuto. More on this later.
Probably the most interesting thing that the story does is introduce a "romantic rival". I put this in quotation marks because Higashira's position in the group is actually not quite that, despite everything that seems to be happening. At first, it seems like Higashira comes in as the perfect replacement for Yume: Quiet, shy, loves books. And to the others, "the big bap" seems to be points in her favour. However, what ends up being the case is that the two of them are just incredibly compatible friends. Even when the other people in the overall friend circle convince Higashira that she's in love and try to put the two of them together. This attempt falls apart because Mizuto admits he can't let go of Yume just yet, and then... really, nothing happens. They are still friends you would think are dating because that's what media trains you to think about people that are this close. If you've ever thought about why a story couldn't just have two people of the opposite sex be besties, here's a good example of it working.
Also, I love the scene where Higashira talks about wishing she was a boy. Hmm.
If it was just this, I probably would think the series pretty neat just on its own. In fact, this is as far as I got in the light novels; the last arc of the show is actually just past where I last read. I'm gonna have to catch up, because the stuff that happens in the last third is wild.
As I mentioned above, a lot of the story ends up being based on Yume's attempts to understand why she is still hung up over the failed relationship. And through this, she starts to understand and accept why they broke up in the first place. And oh boy, did this hit me hard. See.
While I don't have quite the same as Mizuto, there was enough there that I was kind of floored. The situation that led to their ugly breakup was a mutual misunderstanding about each of them seeing other people. Not in a cheating kind of way, but that's what the jealousy was saying. The final straw was a situation where Mizuto seemed to not understand why what he did was unacceptable, and when he apologized it came across as insincere. In hindsight, this makes sense: Mizuto comes across as someone on the spectrum. He is fairly high functioning, but he still doesn't understand all the social nuance. When it seemed like they made up over the first "seeing someone" matter, he parsed it as a rule that this was acceptable. And when Yume confronted him about a similar situation, he didn't know how to respond. After all, this is the same as what they already said was ok, right? And since he didn't understand why it was bad.
A situation that compounded the matter was that during this time, Yume didn't realize that Mizuto went to his relatives' town out in the boonies for a certain festival. So when one night they were talking and Mizuto had to leave because his phone was dying, Yume was upset because she thought he was at home and was just trying to get out of the conversation. This led to her being less willing to believe Mizuto.
The friend who watched the show with me in my anime group watch really flip-flopped hard on his opinion of the characters. And after watching the finale, it makes sense to me why. There's a subtle inconsistency with how people act, or more specifically how things happen around Mizuto, because of how he has problems parsing social clues. He seems aloof, detached, but also very observant about what those around him want. He seems to want to be distant and yet close to Yume. He pushes hard regarding their separation because he thinks Yume wants it, and so is confused when she seems to contradict this.
tl;dr I came to the light novels because I was interested in an exploration of "What happens if people who were dating and broke up became family through a different method?", and ended up being impressed with a story of a person with ASD navigating romance and friendship. I especially love the whole thing about two ace/aro friends who act like they've been married for years or something, with how comfortable they are around each other. I love this one scene where Higashira and Mizuto are basically laying on each other on the couch reading, and Higashira is just scratching her boobs and Yume is sitting on the other couch going "Fuck off, you both have to be dating. Stop lying to me." It all speaks to me pretty heavily.
Also the parents are adorable and should have been in the show a lot more. And the mom is voiced by the same person who did Mamako in Do You Love Your Mom And Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, and I was very excited about that.
To begin with, the premise is that our two protagonists, Mizuto and Yume, were dating in their last year of middle school. They broke up after graduation due to an incident that I'll get to later, and as a result their relationship became very strained. Flash forward a year, and now the two of them are step-siblings because their parents got married. This story is of the two of them being forced to confront each other, their feelings, and the reason they broke up, while still hiding that they were in a relationship in the first place because they never made it public.
So, with that said, a fair amount of the series involves your common romcom tropes. We've got an episode where the two of them end up stealing each other's underwear. We've got an episode where Yume intentionally tries to get a rise out of Mizuto by coming out of the bath in just a towel and sitting on the couch next to him. We've got a minor subplot where the two of them kinda-sorta agree to pretend that Yume is a brocon in order to deflect the people in her class that have been trying to get to her through Mizuto.
Actually, I'll just come out and say it: Most of the show is about Yume's unresolved feelings for Mizuto. In general, the dynamic between the two of them feels like Mizuto has accepted and is trying to move past, while Yume thought she moved on but never actually resolved things. Despite this, there's still a sense that something is off with Mizuto. More on this later.
Probably the most interesting thing that the story does is introduce a "romantic rival". I put this in quotation marks because Higashira's position in the group is actually not quite that, despite everything that seems to be happening. At first, it seems like Higashira comes in as the perfect replacement for Yume: Quiet, shy, loves books. And to the others, "the big bap" seems to be points in her favour. However, what ends up being the case is that the two of them are just incredibly compatible friends. Even when the other people in the overall friend circle convince Higashira that she's in love and try to put the two of them together. This attempt falls apart because Mizuto admits he can't let go of Yume just yet, and then... really, nothing happens. They are still friends you would think are dating because that's what media trains you to think about people that are this close. If you've ever thought about why a story couldn't just have two people of the opposite sex be besties, here's a good example of it working.
Also, I love the scene where Higashira talks about wishing she was a boy. Hmm.
If it was just this, I probably would think the series pretty neat just on its own. In fact, this is as far as I got in the light novels; the last arc of the show is actually just past where I last read. I'm gonna have to catch up, because the stuff that happens in the last third is wild.
As I mentioned above, a lot of the story ends up being based on Yume's attempts to understand why she is still hung up over the failed relationship. And through this, she starts to understand and accept why they broke up in the first place. And oh boy, did this hit me hard. See.
While I don't have quite the same as Mizuto, there was enough there that I was kind of floored. The situation that led to their ugly breakup was a mutual misunderstanding about each of them seeing other people. Not in a cheating kind of way, but that's what the jealousy was saying. The final straw was a situation where Mizuto seemed to not understand why what he did was unacceptable, and when he apologized it came across as insincere. In hindsight, this makes sense: Mizuto comes across as someone on the spectrum. He is fairly high functioning, but he still doesn't understand all the social nuance. When it seemed like they made up over the first "seeing someone" matter, he parsed it as a rule that this was acceptable. And when Yume confronted him about a similar situation, he didn't know how to respond. After all, this is the same as what they already said was ok, right? And since he didn't understand why it was bad.
A situation that compounded the matter was that during this time, Yume didn't realize that Mizuto went to his relatives' town out in the boonies for a certain festival. So when one night they were talking and Mizuto had to leave because his phone was dying, Yume was upset because she thought he was at home and was just trying to get out of the conversation. This led to her being less willing to believe Mizuto.
The friend who watched the show with me in my anime group watch really flip-flopped hard on his opinion of the characters. And after watching the finale, it makes sense to me why. There's a subtle inconsistency with how people act, or more specifically how things happen around Mizuto, because of how he has problems parsing social clues. He seems aloof, detached, but also very observant about what those around him want. He seems to want to be distant and yet close to Yume. He pushes hard regarding their separation because he thinks Yume wants it, and so is confused when she seems to contradict this.
tl;dr I came to the light novels because I was interested in an exploration of "What happens if people who were dating and broke up became family through a different method?", and ended up being impressed with a story of a person with ASD navigating romance and friendship. I especially love the whole thing about two ace/aro friends who act like they've been married for years or something, with how comfortable they are around each other. I love this one scene where Higashira and Mizuto are basically laying on each other on the couch reading, and Higashira is just scratching her boobs and Yume is sitting on the other couch going "Fuck off, you both have to be dating. Stop lying to me." It all speaks to me pretty heavily.
Also the parents are adorable and should have been in the show a lot more. And the mom is voiced by the same person who did Mamako in Do You Love Your Mom And Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, and I was very excited about that.
What I watched
Lycoris Recoil
What I expected
Cute girls do cute murders
What I got
Cute girls do a good op
Cute girls do cute wholesome character nonsense
Cute girls do cute general nonsense
Cute
go on a date
So this is what happens if you take Yui, Azusa, and Sawako from K-on! And make them counter terrorism operatives.
Good chemistry by and large
I think I've already watched the entire thing a third time over the course of writing this.
Not liking the idea that the only way to kill the unkillable heroine is thru plot, however.
What I enjoyed most
Lycoris Recoil
What I expected
Cute girls do cute murders
What I got
Cute girls do a good op
Cute girls do cute wholesome character nonsense
Cute girls do cute general nonsense
Cute
dudes
So this is what happens if you take Yui, Azusa, and Sawako from K-on! And make them counter terrorism operatives.
Good chemistry by and large
I think I've already watched the entire thing a third time over the course of writing this.
Not liking the idea that the only way to kill the unkillable heroine is thru plot, however.
What I enjoyed most
Mob Psycho 100 is back and it's just as good as it's ever been. Which is really friggin' good. There was a gag in the middle/end of this week's season premier, where Mob and Serizawa get hit hard with the existential crisis and I was right there with them. The pathos in this show is remarkable.
Spy x Family is also back and also just as wholesome, adorable, and entertaining as always. It's like, weaponized cuteness. Anya and her new doggo is simply my everything.
Both shows are strong contenders for OP/ED of the year too. These two shows alone could be the only two shows this season worth watching and it'll be a resounding success of a season as a result.
Spy x Family is also back and also just as wholesome, adorable, and entertaining as always. It's like, weaponized cuteness. Anya and her new doggo is simply my everything.
Both shows are strong contenders for OP/ED of the year too. These two shows alone could be the only two shows this season worth watching and it'll be a resounding success of a season as a result.
So I was poking at HiDive in preparation for UY coming out and... browsing around, regardless of whether it’s directly on their site or through the Prime channel, I’m not seeing any way to tell whether a given show is available subreddit or dubbed or both. Granted I haven’t pulled the trigger on the subscription yet but this seems dumb. Am I missing something obvious?
Also I guess the only way to watch Witch From Mercury legit is on Crunchy huh? Which it seems you can’t get on the Prime player.
ISTG it’s 2022 and I’m still wondering if it’s easier to go back to sailing the seas than just buying shit. I want to pay for shit! I just want it to be trivial to do so!
Also I guess the only way to watch Witch From Mercury legit is on Crunchy huh? Which it seems you can’t get on the Prime player.
ISTG it’s 2022 and I’m still wondering if it’s easier to go back to sailing the seas than just buying shit. I want to pay for shit! I just want it to be trivial to do so!
If you're looking at the series list, it has a Dubbed button on the icon. There's also the Dubs option on the top bar. Also if you are looking at a show's entry, it has an Audio listing for the languages.
Also Witch From Mercury is on Gundaminfo.
It is almost everywhere else in the world except in the US.
Okay I’m now seeing the dubbed tags on the series list pages on the main Hidive page, dunno how I missed that before. I still don’t see the audio listing for individual shows, or any way to see if there’s also a sub option for a dubbed show, but maybe it’s just not showing up when I’m not subscribed and can’t watch the show right now anyway.
Of course. 🙄
Speaking of what shows a service has, Crunchyroll has really kicked into gear the last month or two regarding moving most of Funimation's library over to it. I feel like pretty much every single day, a dozen or two shows gets added. Most in dub & sub, but a few only one of either. A whole lot of classic shows though.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Writing my feels about the new season shows' first episodes again
Reincarnated as a Sword
The Premise
A dude dies and turns into a powerful magic sword. Realizing his buffs can allow him to move by himself, he begins killing monsters to power up until he ends up stuck in the Earth. He is found by a catgirl slave who manages to get free and the two become friends planning to get powerful together.
It Gud?
The first 15 minutes are so are watching the sword flying around murdering monsters and levelling up. Like, aside from a couple scenes of a slave girl suffering, it’s mostly this sword getting really jazzed about his new powers. Yay! Fire magic 10! That… means nothing to me. I don’t remember fire magic 1-9 for comparison. And also… are any of these monsters “evil”? Because he sure kills the fuck out of them without a second thought and with the worst sin being spitting on him or something. It’s insanely repetitive and it feels like someone playing D & D by themselves, fighting, levelling up and then looking at me like I should be as excited by this as they are. I… actually don’t care. I have no investment in this character before you dove into their lust for power and spent most of the episode detailing it. By the time he teams up with the slave, I don’t care about either of these character’s future growth. Powering a character up constantly means nothing if I think nothing of them.
Blue Lock
The Premise
A soccer forward is invited to a special event that he learns has invited pretty much every high school aged forward in the country. While our hero believes in team work, his heart is still aching from his most frequent loss, believing if he shot instead of passed, they could have one. While there, a man tasked with creating a winning Japanese soccer team feels that Japan isn’t lacking for team work but needs something counter to win: a forward of pure ego. Therefore in a radical experiment, he’s going to create a “pure egotist striker” with everyone in heated competition playing bizarre games in a “every man for himself” atmosphere. Will our hero abandon his principles to be #1? Looks like.
It Gud?
It’s… OK, it’s well made for sure. And it’s swinging for the fences in terms of silliness. I don’t want to use the word “edgelord” but it is following a model of edgelord show, in that it’s saying “hey, man, maybe platitudes about teamwork are bullshit.” It’s also a mix of sport and “death game” where the stakes aren’t death but simply you will never be part of the Japanese national team (which would be more of a threat if there weren’t other sports avenues in theory). It’s not super clear morally where this is going; is the character going to find that true victory comes from abandoning old ideas of team work or is he going to dip into blood-thirstiness, only to turn around and try to overcome a toxic mindset. It seems like the former but I did read a previous manga by the same mangaka (which I didn’t realize until later) that WAS a deathgame manga where it really was about “I know we can throw each other to the wolves but we really need to work together on this to overcome our tormentors”, so I could easily see more of a push and pull.
I think I’ll keep with it and it helps that this soccer Squid Game series is leaning into how silly this is with an over-the-top orchestrator of the even and the various competitors. Whether it is a show about a kid becoming a villain or about a kid understanding working together in a deeper way beyond mere platitudes, I’m very curious to see where this one goes.
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
The Premise
A girl is reincarnated at the villainess in a fantasy otome RPG game at the point where she loses her fiancé to the main character. However, realizing accepting her fate will result in her death in the third act at the hands of the main villain, she decides to try to get in good with him to help herself avoid that fate. In doing so, she ends up winning over the demon king, though he has doubts about her motives.
It Gud?
This is my first dive into otome isekai, which is apparently a big thing and my biggest note is that… why is this an isekai? Why is there a backstory that the main character died of what I assume is cancer as a motivating backstory followed by the emotional backstory of her character also designed to lay out her motivations. It feels like it really only needs the latter and I feel it could be excised and it would be the same show. If the writer felt is was essential for her to know her fate, then give her a vision of the future or even go meta and have her be an NPC who learns she’s just a game character and doesn’t want to follow the pre-set rules. It’s the part that bothered me the most (and really is a problem with several isekai where it just adds nothing to the character).
But otherwise, this is actually a not bad as a little show. It’s occasionally funny, though I wished it leaned into the silly humour a little more a la Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. Because when this show does get a little silly, that’s when it is the most surprising and interesting. Our protagonist still makes some villainess moves, like drugging a magic bird, and that kind of stuff is where the show is working. I’m not really interested in the Demon King yet so I’m hoping the comedy pairing will work better as the show goes on but I’m going to stick with this one, I think.
One of the weirdest aspects is there’s a baby Fenrir caught in a beartrap in the middle of the school grounds and… are there just bear traps lying around the school? Or did the nasty students drag it out into the middle of the school to kill it? Also, the scene ends with an open beartrap on the ground… that seems like a real Chekov’s beartrap that I think the series will forget about.
Do It Yourself!
The Premise
Yua Serefu (haha, really?) is an accident-prone teen in a near future tech filled world. After she gets into a bike accident, she gets help from a girl from her school and learns she has a do it yourself club for making stuff. Yua decides to join in order to help the club stay afloat and learn the joys of making things.
It Gud!
I’ve watched a lot of “girls take up a hobby” shows but this one has a lot more visual personality and weirdness than I was expecting. In a good way. I would be happy if it was another variation on “Let’s Make a Mug, Too” but instead, it’s shockingly into world building, in a tech-heavy city with drones in the sky and tiny robot jellyfish in the home. It sets things up thematically for Yua as her bestie is studying an a high class school and has a tech pet while Yua is Earthy, has three animal friends (including a pig in shades) and is covered bandaids. This is a person unafraid to make mistakes and gets hurt a lot.
It's a much more unique show than I was expecting, even though it really sits down and walks you through the pun on the main character’s name. Regardless, tonally it feels slightly closer to a Science Saru show (slightly, don’t get overexcited) than the polished looking series with multi-coloured hair friends than I am used to (although, weirdly, the inside of everyone’s hair is differently coloured than the out. That seems hard to pull off). I’m looking forward to this one.
I Somehow Got Stronger By Raising My Farming Skills
The Premise
The title pretty well covers it. Also, farmer doesn’t want to be badass he wants to farm.
It Gud
No… but it’s not awful. It’s completely inoffensive. And it doesn’t shoe-horn in a reincarnation element. It just takes place in a video game fantasy world where inexplicably the main character finds by grinding on farming, he’s pretty much One Punch Man but he doesn’t want to get involved, he just wants to farm. This isn’t an isekai but it clearly is a light novel and like many of them, one of the themes is breaking out of your “class”. This character is built for fighting but he doesn’t want to and basically needs to be shanghaied into it by the plot.
It doesn’t really do anything new with the idea though, and the comedy isn’t particularly funny. The animation is subpar, particularly in throwing some ridiculous 3D around. Still there are a few bits I enjoyed, like the main character exploding a dragon by throwing a carrot at it. Not enough to keep with it though.
Bocchi the Rock!
The Premise
A young introvert decides to take up the guitar in order to inspire her to start a band and make friends. Three years later, she’s a brilliant guitarist but just as lonely as ever. She does have a strong, internet presence, though, under the name Guitarhero. Eventually, she takes a guitar to school hoping to start a conversation and after school she’s confronted by someone desperate for a band mate. Now she must overcome her social anxiety to be a part of the band… even if she needs to play inside of a box.
It Gud
The shows that on the surface of “cute girls get a hobby” show that I just assumed would be decent fluff has really stepped up it’s game this season. I was surprised at the kind of show DIY was and though in broad strokes I could tell were Bocchi the Rock! was going, I was genuinely surprised that it not only was pretty funny but that the lead voice was great. I’m often not familiar with Japanese voice actors, outside of a few (I know I’m going to get a good, sexy performance from Kenjiro Tsuda and I know MAO is the hardest working actress even though most of what she is in, through no fault of her own, is garbage) but Yoshino Aoyama might join those because she isn’t content to be cute but swing for the fences with some of her wild line reads. It’s glorious.
Overall, it’s already a funny fun, funny journey with a good cast and pretty decent animation. And a really gorgeous looking opening credits sequence. I think it’s already going to be in my year end top 10 for Ops and there’s some strong competition this year. I was worried that this might be a season were there were actually only a couple of notable strong things but getting some surprises from what I initially assumed would only rise to a certain level makes me very happy.
Raven of the Inner Palace
The Premise
In long ago China (don’t ask me the era, as I must confess ignorance on these things), a young man has performed a military coup to become emperor. He soon starts seeking the help of “the Raven Consort”, a consort who doesn’t perform “nightly duties” but in fact has magic powers and even the emperor must concede to her to gain her service. In particular, the new emperor has an urgent question about a ghost, believing that she’s the clue to solving a mystery of his own… one that answering him will allow him to get revenge and remain a just ruler.
It Gud?
Yes…. But it’s a bit of a slow-paced show. I suspect it’s not even a “slow burn”, I just think it’s a show that’s decided on it’s pace and it isn’t breakneck. Not in and of itself bad. It’s also mostly self serious. Not overly so, but while there is some humour to it (the title character’s façade only cracks in the face of yum yums), it’s a quiet, largely laughless show of palace intrigue. And in particular, the kind of palace intrigue is a murder mystery where the detective is a sorceress. It seems like while she has a number of magic powers, the character will have to use her mind to suss out the truth and find out the real reason why this woman died. I’m interested to see if it will be a new mystery every few weeks or if the show will be building multiple mysteries to build a case against the villain who is already defeated and in jail… but the emperor will only have her killed if he can prove her guilt. It’s an interesting idea and I think it could lead to one of more interesting mystery series in a while.
Bibliophile Princess
The Premise
A young woman is courted by a prince (or duke I don’t fucking know. Rich fancyman) to be her fiancé. But he really doesn’t want a fiancé, he tells her. But he will give her a mutually beneficial relationship because he knows she loves books more than anything and he has a huge library. So, she spends her days reading while he does important work. But as time moves on, it seems he might be ready to see someone else… or has she misread the situation.
It Gud
While Raven Consort was a slow-moving series I could get into, Bibliophile Princess… not so much. I’d rather have a woman read books for a half hour than a sword telling me his stats but I found myself at a total difference from this character who is passively moving through life reading books. It’s implying there’s a story happening around her that we haven’t been clued into but in all honesty, I don’t trust that the answer to those mysteries are going to be worth sticking with these rather uncharismatic leads.
I don’t particularly care if this guy turns out to be in love with her and I feel like there’s little momentum on the title character that’s getting me to root for her. I wanted to like it for having the feel of a really old school shojo series but it feels like a rather bloodless series with no passion and a rather limp lead. Like, I was expecting the fact that she’s read everything to matter, like maybe she knows how to sort out problems with the accounting or governing but no, she… just reads. Maybe it’ll get there but it’ll get there without me.
My Master Has No Tail
The Premise
A tanuki comes to the city to play pranks on humans but finds it doesn’t work as well as it used to. Feeling dispirited, she attends a rakugo performance and is captivated and notices the audience has been too. She feels she’s been “tricked” and wants to similarly be a master of trickery… and her mentor isn’t just a rakugo master, she’s also a kitsune and fellow shapeshifting trickster.
It Gud
OK, so… this is a well-made show. It is kind of interesting intellectually because it actually spends some time deep diving into classic rakugo stories. I think the premise is neat and like the idea of comparing the magic of storytelling to trickery and think the idea of supernatural pranksters rebranding as storytellers is really cool. It never really slows down.
And yet, I was kind bored. I don’t think it’s the show’s fault. I do think there’s some stuff that is having a hard time in translation since I think some of the jokes require some understanding of puns and Japanese culture and the subtitles don’t do a lot of handholding. Then the last 3 minutes explains the story we just heard in detail (that is a ding against it). I think this is a good show but I kind of don’t care for it or want to watch anymore. A shame, there’s a lot in here I really do like.
Reincarnated as a Sword
The Premise
A dude dies and turns into a powerful magic sword. Realizing his buffs can allow him to move by himself, he begins killing monsters to power up until he ends up stuck in the Earth. He is found by a catgirl slave who manages to get free and the two become friends planning to get powerful together.
It Gud?
The first 15 minutes are so are watching the sword flying around murdering monsters and levelling up. Like, aside from a couple scenes of a slave girl suffering, it’s mostly this sword getting really jazzed about his new powers. Yay! Fire magic 10! That… means nothing to me. I don’t remember fire magic 1-9 for comparison. And also… are any of these monsters “evil”? Because he sure kills the fuck out of them without a second thought and with the worst sin being spitting on him or something. It’s insanely repetitive and it feels like someone playing D & D by themselves, fighting, levelling up and then looking at me like I should be as excited by this as they are. I… actually don’t care. I have no investment in this character before you dove into their lust for power and spent most of the episode detailing it. By the time he teams up with the slave, I don’t care about either of these character’s future growth. Powering a character up constantly means nothing if I think nothing of them.
Blue Lock
The Premise
A soccer forward is invited to a special event that he learns has invited pretty much every high school aged forward in the country. While our hero believes in team work, his heart is still aching from his most frequent loss, believing if he shot instead of passed, they could have one. While there, a man tasked with creating a winning Japanese soccer team feels that Japan isn’t lacking for team work but needs something counter to win: a forward of pure ego. Therefore in a radical experiment, he’s going to create a “pure egotist striker” with everyone in heated competition playing bizarre games in a “every man for himself” atmosphere. Will our hero abandon his principles to be #1? Looks like.
It Gud?
It’s… OK, it’s well made for sure. And it’s swinging for the fences in terms of silliness. I don’t want to use the word “edgelord” but it is following a model of edgelord show, in that it’s saying “hey, man, maybe platitudes about teamwork are bullshit.” It’s also a mix of sport and “death game” where the stakes aren’t death but simply you will never be part of the Japanese national team (which would be more of a threat if there weren’t other sports avenues in theory). It’s not super clear morally where this is going; is the character going to find that true victory comes from abandoning old ideas of team work or is he going to dip into blood-thirstiness, only to turn around and try to overcome a toxic mindset. It seems like the former but I did read a previous manga by the same mangaka (which I didn’t realize until later) that WAS a deathgame manga where it really was about “I know we can throw each other to the wolves but we really need to work together on this to overcome our tormentors”, so I could easily see more of a push and pull.
I think I’ll keep with it and it helps that this soccer Squid Game series is leaning into how silly this is with an over-the-top orchestrator of the even and the various competitors. Whether it is a show about a kid becoming a villain or about a kid understanding working together in a deeper way beyond mere platitudes, I’m very curious to see where this one goes.
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
The Premise
A girl is reincarnated at the villainess in a fantasy otome RPG game at the point where she loses her fiancé to the main character. However, realizing accepting her fate will result in her death in the third act at the hands of the main villain, she decides to try to get in good with him to help herself avoid that fate. In doing so, she ends up winning over the demon king, though he has doubts about her motives.
It Gud?
This is my first dive into otome isekai, which is apparently a big thing and my biggest note is that… why is this an isekai? Why is there a backstory that the main character died of what I assume is cancer as a motivating backstory followed by the emotional backstory of her character also designed to lay out her motivations. It feels like it really only needs the latter and I feel it could be excised and it would be the same show. If the writer felt is was essential for her to know her fate, then give her a vision of the future or even go meta and have her be an NPC who learns she’s just a game character and doesn’t want to follow the pre-set rules. It’s the part that bothered me the most (and really is a problem with several isekai where it just adds nothing to the character).
But otherwise, this is actually a not bad as a little show. It’s occasionally funny, though I wished it leaned into the silly humour a little more a la Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. Because when this show does get a little silly, that’s when it is the most surprising and interesting. Our protagonist still makes some villainess moves, like drugging a magic bird, and that kind of stuff is where the show is working. I’m not really interested in the Demon King yet so I’m hoping the comedy pairing will work better as the show goes on but I’m going to stick with this one, I think.
One of the weirdest aspects is there’s a baby Fenrir caught in a beartrap in the middle of the school grounds and… are there just bear traps lying around the school? Or did the nasty students drag it out into the middle of the school to kill it? Also, the scene ends with an open beartrap on the ground… that seems like a real Chekov’s beartrap that I think the series will forget about.
Do It Yourself!
The Premise
Yua Serefu (haha, really?) is an accident-prone teen in a near future tech filled world. After she gets into a bike accident, she gets help from a girl from her school and learns she has a do it yourself club for making stuff. Yua decides to join in order to help the club stay afloat and learn the joys of making things.
It Gud!
I’ve watched a lot of “girls take up a hobby” shows but this one has a lot more visual personality and weirdness than I was expecting. In a good way. I would be happy if it was another variation on “Let’s Make a Mug, Too” but instead, it’s shockingly into world building, in a tech-heavy city with drones in the sky and tiny robot jellyfish in the home. It sets things up thematically for Yua as her bestie is studying an a high class school and has a tech pet while Yua is Earthy, has three animal friends (including a pig in shades) and is covered bandaids. This is a person unafraid to make mistakes and gets hurt a lot.
It's a much more unique show than I was expecting, even though it really sits down and walks you through the pun on the main character’s name. Regardless, tonally it feels slightly closer to a Science Saru show (slightly, don’t get overexcited) than the polished looking series with multi-coloured hair friends than I am used to (although, weirdly, the inside of everyone’s hair is differently coloured than the out. That seems hard to pull off). I’m looking forward to this one.
I Somehow Got Stronger By Raising My Farming Skills
The Premise
The title pretty well covers it. Also, farmer doesn’t want to be badass he wants to farm.
It Gud
No… but it’s not awful. It’s completely inoffensive. And it doesn’t shoe-horn in a reincarnation element. It just takes place in a video game fantasy world where inexplicably the main character finds by grinding on farming, he’s pretty much One Punch Man but he doesn’t want to get involved, he just wants to farm. This isn’t an isekai but it clearly is a light novel and like many of them, one of the themes is breaking out of your “class”. This character is built for fighting but he doesn’t want to and basically needs to be shanghaied into it by the plot.
It doesn’t really do anything new with the idea though, and the comedy isn’t particularly funny. The animation is subpar, particularly in throwing some ridiculous 3D around. Still there are a few bits I enjoyed, like the main character exploding a dragon by throwing a carrot at it. Not enough to keep with it though.
Bocchi the Rock!
The Premise
A young introvert decides to take up the guitar in order to inspire her to start a band and make friends. Three years later, she’s a brilliant guitarist but just as lonely as ever. She does have a strong, internet presence, though, under the name Guitarhero. Eventually, she takes a guitar to school hoping to start a conversation and after school she’s confronted by someone desperate for a band mate. Now she must overcome her social anxiety to be a part of the band… even if she needs to play inside of a box.
It Gud
The shows that on the surface of “cute girls get a hobby” show that I just assumed would be decent fluff has really stepped up it’s game this season. I was surprised at the kind of show DIY was and though in broad strokes I could tell were Bocchi the Rock! was going, I was genuinely surprised that it not only was pretty funny but that the lead voice was great. I’m often not familiar with Japanese voice actors, outside of a few (I know I’m going to get a good, sexy performance from Kenjiro Tsuda and I know MAO is the hardest working actress even though most of what she is in, through no fault of her own, is garbage) but Yoshino Aoyama might join those because she isn’t content to be cute but swing for the fences with some of her wild line reads. It’s glorious.
Overall, it’s already a funny fun, funny journey with a good cast and pretty decent animation. And a really gorgeous looking opening credits sequence. I think it’s already going to be in my year end top 10 for Ops and there’s some strong competition this year. I was worried that this might be a season were there were actually only a couple of notable strong things but getting some surprises from what I initially assumed would only rise to a certain level makes me very happy.
Raven of the Inner Palace
The Premise
In long ago China (don’t ask me the era, as I must confess ignorance on these things), a young man has performed a military coup to become emperor. He soon starts seeking the help of “the Raven Consort”, a consort who doesn’t perform “nightly duties” but in fact has magic powers and even the emperor must concede to her to gain her service. In particular, the new emperor has an urgent question about a ghost, believing that she’s the clue to solving a mystery of his own… one that answering him will allow him to get revenge and remain a just ruler.
It Gud?
Yes…. But it’s a bit of a slow-paced show. I suspect it’s not even a “slow burn”, I just think it’s a show that’s decided on it’s pace and it isn’t breakneck. Not in and of itself bad. It’s also mostly self serious. Not overly so, but while there is some humour to it (the title character’s façade only cracks in the face of yum yums), it’s a quiet, largely laughless show of palace intrigue. And in particular, the kind of palace intrigue is a murder mystery where the detective is a sorceress. It seems like while she has a number of magic powers, the character will have to use her mind to suss out the truth and find out the real reason why this woman died. I’m interested to see if it will be a new mystery every few weeks or if the show will be building multiple mysteries to build a case against the villain who is already defeated and in jail… but the emperor will only have her killed if he can prove her guilt. It’s an interesting idea and I think it could lead to one of more interesting mystery series in a while.
Bibliophile Princess
The Premise
A young woman is courted by a prince (or duke I don’t fucking know. Rich fancyman) to be her fiancé. But he really doesn’t want a fiancé, he tells her. But he will give her a mutually beneficial relationship because he knows she loves books more than anything and he has a huge library. So, she spends her days reading while he does important work. But as time moves on, it seems he might be ready to see someone else… or has she misread the situation.
It Gud
While Raven Consort was a slow-moving series I could get into, Bibliophile Princess… not so much. I’d rather have a woman read books for a half hour than a sword telling me his stats but I found myself at a total difference from this character who is passively moving through life reading books. It’s implying there’s a story happening around her that we haven’t been clued into but in all honesty, I don’t trust that the answer to those mysteries are going to be worth sticking with these rather uncharismatic leads.
I don’t particularly care if this guy turns out to be in love with her and I feel like there’s little momentum on the title character that’s getting me to root for her. I wanted to like it for having the feel of a really old school shojo series but it feels like a rather bloodless series with no passion and a rather limp lead. Like, I was expecting the fact that she’s read everything to matter, like maybe she knows how to sort out problems with the accounting or governing but no, she… just reads. Maybe it’ll get there but it’ll get there without me.
My Master Has No Tail
The Premise
A tanuki comes to the city to play pranks on humans but finds it doesn’t work as well as it used to. Feeling dispirited, she attends a rakugo performance and is captivated and notices the audience has been too. She feels she’s been “tricked” and wants to similarly be a master of trickery… and her mentor isn’t just a rakugo master, she’s also a kitsune and fellow shapeshifting trickster.
It Gud
OK, so… this is a well-made show. It is kind of interesting intellectually because it actually spends some time deep diving into classic rakugo stories. I think the premise is neat and like the idea of comparing the magic of storytelling to trickery and think the idea of supernatural pranksters rebranding as storytellers is really cool. It never really slows down.
And yet, I was kind bored. I don’t think it’s the show’s fault. I do think there’s some stuff that is having a hard time in translation since I think some of the jokes require some understanding of puns and Japanese culture and the subtitles don’t do a lot of handholding. Then the last 3 minutes explains the story we just heard in detail (that is a ding against it). I think this is a good show but I kind of don’t care for it or want to watch anymore. A shame, there’s a lot in here I really do like.