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I should really just watch Kaguya-sama but I've started trying everything else out so I'll finish.

RPG Real Estate ep1: It's a full-length series about an estate agency in an RPG world, where all of the staff are cutesy girls. The RPG references are minimal so far; there are faux-Medieval designs everywhere but at the same time, the lead wheels modern-looking luggage around and everyone acts like renting a place to live works the same way it does in contemporary cities. Characters have 'character classes' which supply all of their life skills in convenient bundles rather than developing unique quirks like actual people (unlike the writer, I don't count 'likes to take off her clothes in public' as a personality trait). They have already reeled off most of the obvious gags about the premise by the end of the first episode so I'm not sure where it's going from here - I'm guessing the answer is 'nowhere' and the entertainment value comes from watching the four identical girls with different hair colours joking about one another, rubbing their friends down in the bath and eating cake. I'll pass.

BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls' Story- ep1: At last, somebody managed to take a bunch of elements I don't care about and still inject the show with enough life that it was entertaining from start to finish! Birdie Wing sounded like generic, tedious trash from its title and thumbnail but it quickly establishes itself as a crazy mishmash of golf, jet-setting, superpowers (?) and ambitious women. There's even a tropey ojou-sama golfer who seems to have been borrowed from a shoujo manga. I don't know much about the sport other than what I picked up dabbling in Minna No Golf many years ago but everyone overreacts and narrates enough that it's easy to follow what's going on, and more happens in this one episode than in most other premieres so far. I can even forgive the golf scenes being full of CG because I don't really care about little white balls and putting greens anyway. The stakes are actually being higher than average for a goofy sports show - there's a subplot about the lead's ties to undocumented immigrants trying to keep custody of the kids they're looking after, hence the need for money - which should be tonally jarring, except that it isn't because the series doesn't push the forced sympathy any harder than that. I might watch some more later. It's nice to find a rare show that doesn't take itself too seriously and Birdie Wing is definitely more about the entertainment value than anything else.

Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost ep1: Conversely, this felt like torture. A full-length episode about a budget clone of Miss Kobayashi who finds a bawling munchkin ghost instead of her own personal Dragon Maid, then takes the better part of twenty-four minutes to do absolutely nothing with the premise whatsoever. It's like a mirror version of Deaimon where the plucky kid with ambitions has been replaced by a whining mini-moeblob and the lead has no presence. All she does is gripe about her boss in a passive, apathetic way and take no action about anything that happens to her. Despite nothing of value actually happening in the first episode, the story darts back and forth in time so haphazardly that it makes Netflix's The Witcher look linear. I'm also not sold on the scratchy, pencil-style outlines; it can look effective when done well but here it just makes everything seem cheaper somehow. The fact that I spent so much time wondering about them is testament to how thoroughly unengaged I was by the actual story and characters. I'm still having flashbacks to the whining child-ghost's irritating voice one day later.

R
 
Girls Frontline (English Dub) Episode 10

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Episode 2 Stalk.

CUE! Episode 13 Group auditions.

Date A Live IV Episode 1 Assist.

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War -Ultra Romanctic- Episode 1 Smartphone blunders.

Love After World Domination Episode 1 Opposing sides.

Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It r=1-sinθ Episode 2 Affection.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life Episode 2 Show-off.
 
Spice & Wolf season 2 episodes 0-6: while I enjoy the series I do think they spent way too much time on the Pyrites story, including one entire episode where nothing seemed to happen.
(also four Godzilla and four Mae West films)
 
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki ep 1
Cute Ninja Girls Doing Cute Ninja Girl Things. The set-up is a little weird, they live in an all female clan and men are constantly derided as dumb, lazy, smelly oafs and the sensei tells them not to go anywhere near them, except our MC has grown a fixation to see what they are like. Even though she seems like one of the oldest she can't be more than 13! I guess it's supposed to be some awkward analogy of puberty. Some amusing moments, so it'll continue for now.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki s4 e1
Kyoto to the West of us,
Tokyo to the East,
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.

Aoashi ep 1
Big fish in a little pond.
Sports show which seems like it'll be a rags to riches story about a kid who's a football genius, but doesn't care about tactics, so I'm also anticipating a lesson in teamwork, etc.
Quite a few still shots, but the little bit of cg action looked smooth enough.

I'M KODAMA KAWASHIRI ep 10
Schedule.

Love After World Domination ep 1
Love at first fight.
Seems like a fun series which will have a poke at super sentai series, so I suspect a lot of the references will go over my head as I've never seen any (I was too old for Power Rangers when that first started here), but I still had a good laugh at some of the ridiculousness of the action.

Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie ep 1
The most unfortunate boy in the world is somehow dating the coolest cutest girl at school. Another in the the bland boy with girl who has a quirk rom-com genre. She is undeniably cool, but we'll see if she can beat Takagi-san or Nagatoro-san. Definitely not as annoying as Uzaki-chan or as quiet as Komi-san.

Time for the big hitters:
SPY x FAMILY ep 1
Definitely seems like it might be worth the hype. Both characters so far seem to have their charm and their interactions were funny and the action was pretty cool.

Kaguya-sama s3 e1
Unplugged, Read, and arm wrestling.
 
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki episode 1 Uncertainty.

Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2 episode 2 Proof.

Shikimori’s not just a Cutie episode 1 Lucky punch.

Spy x Family episode 1 Choices.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki Season 4 episode 1 Dumping.

Bleach (Partial rewatch) episodes 224-226, 230-242
 
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Ya Boy Kongming ep2

The OP for this is utterly ridiculous, it has exactly the same energy as one of the disco-dancing scenes in a Yakuza game. I love it.

My Dress Up Darling ep12 [End]

I certainly did not expect this to be the show that animated the ending of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the absolute madlads.

Spy x Family ep1

Seems like this is going to be a very good adaptation, even having read this part of the manga a couple of times before, it still felt fresh to me. On some level, I would have liked the show to be in black & white though, just to maintain the mid-century spy thriller vibe, but I suppose that was never going to be an option - I do at least appreciate that they've kept the colour palette suitably muted.
 
Rewatched Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart now that I have the US Blu-ray release, the film and its English dub are wonderful, it's magical and unique yet the way it portrays Jack's love for Miss Acacia is painfully relatable, the film is romantic in a way that few films are, there's a mesmerising sequence where tiny little fairies that look like her appear in Jack's imagination and gently move and play with the gears of his heart and gradually fly him floating gently up above where he's lying down and he's utterly immersed and infatuated. I first took an interest in the film as a result of this music video released I believe way back in about 2007:


The song is still a favourite of mine, so beautiful :)

Here's the official trailer for the US Blu-ray release (which contains the English dub and the original French with English subs)


I also found this movie really relatable for it's exploration of Jack's disability, of having a cuckoo-clock heart. That was well handled IMO, better than a lot of films do it, in that he is disabled but the film mostly just focuses on how humanly, deeply in love he is, how delighted he is to be around Miss Acacia, and how much chemistry and romantic/sexual tension they have. Like not that I'm saying a disabled person or any person is not human or less human if they are ace or aro but having seen first hand society's attempts to desexualise the disabled, I appreciated this film greatly for it's portrayal of disabled romance :)

I have started watching Kimagure Orange Road now that my Blu-ray of the TV series has arrived from the US, and I really like that too, I'm partway through episode 9 and I'm digging the aesthetic and characters, I can see why it's considered one of the great 80s anime rom-coms :)

:)
 
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Plunderer
Really enjoyed this. Almost every step of the way the show took unexpected turns. It could've had less of the pervy humour which didn't really work with the rest of the show.

Spider-man No Way Home rewatch
God this film is great. Special features were also a great watch. You could tell everyone had an absolute blast making this film.

Demon Slayer Mugen Train
Still hate the eyes. Great film though. Story was streamlined and well done. The fight scenes were (as expected) truly excellent. Cried a lot towards the end. Great film.

The Girl From The Other Side
Stunning film. Also being in the credits felt way better than it should have lol

The Warped Forest
Bizarre, surreal and very funny. The ensemble cast were great.
 
Mahjong Soul Pon ep1: As I suspected, the 'ep0' special was entertaining enough but there's no really any substance behind these shorts about a mobile game I've never played. I'll drop this now.

Love After World Domination ep1: A goofy comedy about the main hero of a superhero team falling in love with one of the main villains. Except that his crush is mutual right from the start and they're both very silly about it, while trying to pretend to be mortal enemies whenever anyone else is around. It's quite funny in a harmless way. If you're into sentai and/or grew up watching Power Rangers, it will be even more rewarding because it also affectionately pokes fun at the genre in between the lovey-dovey stuff. Not a keeper for me but I appreciated the episode I watched for its lighthearted absurdity.

Don't Hurt Me, My Healer! ep1: I was hopeful that this might tickle me because it's a gag series about a disagreeable dark elf fantasy-style healer; there's plenty of material to work with because the healer role has always been one of the most inflammatory in virtually every online game I've played (though thus far, it seems that this is all being played straight rather than being an isekai or game world). Unfortunately, it missed the mark. Firstly, it's way too long and the jokes are threaded together too sparsely, so scenes drag on for what feels like an eternity before they're played out enough and the 'plot' progresses to the next skit. The main gag is that the healer is a bit of a jerk to her new straight man acquaintance, Alvin the warrior, except that he's not all that charming himself so her rude remarks often came across as perfectly justified. At which point it kind of morphs into one of the 'guy being bullied by a cute girl fantasy' shows that don't really appeal. Half-length episodes (or shorts) would have done the material a world of good, especially if it meant that the characters rattled through the script twice as quickly to keep the jokes feeling fresh (though my viewing partner suggested that even that would be too slow). According to the end credits there's a really good seiyuu cast lined up for the huge number of side characters who didn't get any screen time in the first episode so perhaps it will pick up later. I might revisit if it gets a lot of good press but my attention was definitely wandering during that lethargic first episode.

Tiger & Bunny 2 ep1: Surprisingly, this belated sequel is off to a good start with a first episode which echoes the start of the original just enough to reacclimatise me to its world. I really enjoyed Tiger & Bunny back in the day and it's good to see that the passage of years hasn't - thus far - changed anything too fundamental about the superhero formula. It's always refreshing that most of the cast are adults, even though there are a few hotheads in their ranks. The new characters are reasonably interesting though they haven't done much so far. It's also fun to see which sponsors have vanished and which companies have swooped in to replace them. Still one of the few CG/2D blend series which actually (mostly) works, visually. I'll marathon the first half once I'm caught up on first episodes. Thanks, Netflix.

R
 
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations episode 244 Bound.

Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer! episode 1 Facelift?

Shenmue the Animation episode 10 Talk Talk.

Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs episode 2 Tea party.

Bleach (Partial rewatch) episodes 243-255, 266-268
 
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