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Skip and Loafer episode 2 Karaoke.

Tokyo Mew Mew New~♡ 2nd Season episode 14 Whirlwind.

Tomorrow’s Nadja episodes 14-27
 
just want to say this season has been a banger so far, so many good starts to shows
also I've been watching Zeta Gundam and it has got to be the most gundam Gundam that ever gundam'd
particularly enjoyed it when Kamille stopped being a whiny kid for a second, Amuro turned up to show him how to whine properly like the OG he is
 
Adventurer's Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World (English Dub) Episode 12 (Complete)

Lord Marksman and Vanadis (Rewatch) Episode 1-13 & Specials 1-13. (Complete. A decent revisit to what was one of my favourite series from the fall 2014 season.) 3.5/5

Tokyo Mew Mew New~♡ 2nd Season Episode 14
 
Oshi No Ko ep 1
Not what I thought was going to be at all. I'd heard about the first part of it, but I thought it was going to be a comedy. It turns out it's a mystery series. Really long episode just to get to the start basically. It's Doga Kobo, so the art is really nice though.
 
BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defence Season 2 episode 23 Powerful monsters await.

KonoSuba -An Explosion on This Wonderful World! episode 2 Landfill.

Tomorrow’s Nadja episodes 28-41
 
BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Season 2 (English Dub) Episode 22

BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Season 2 Episode 23

KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World Episode 2

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! Episode 2
 
Oshi no Ko
Surprisingly this first 'episode' turned out to be an 80-minute movie. All I knew going into it was: idol show, but different. It certainly lived up to that. Based on the first 70 minutes, this was looking set to be one of my favourite shows of the season, a solid domestic drama/comedy with a unique perspective twist and some hard-hitting straight talk about the business side of the idol industry. Then it underwent an abrupt genre shift in the last few minutes and potentially ruined everything. The last thing I wanted this show to turn into was a murder mystery/revenge thriller. This feels like one of those story-breaking "Ha, gotcha!" character deaths like the ones that ruined Nadesico and I Want to Eat your Pancreas. Unfortunately, by the time we get to the last few minutes that set up the direction of the story going forward, pretty much everything I liked about it was gone.

I'll keep watching for now in case it manages to pull itself back together, but those last ten minutes really dampened my enthusiasm. On probation.
 
KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World ep 2
Familiar.

KamiKatsu ep 2
Beginning from scratch.

BOFURI s2 e11
Working together.

Vinland Saga s2 eps 11 & 12
Offerings and Provocation.

The Ancient Magus' Bride s2 e2
First lessons.

Dr. Stone: New World ep 2
Poser.

Yuri is My Job ep 2
New recruit.
 
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Over the last 2 weeks, I've been watching the first episode or two of shows that sounded or looked interesting. Here are my results so far:

Made the watchlist
Heavenly Delusions
Hell's Paradise
My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch!
Skip and Loafer
Ancient Magus Bride Season 2
Konosuba
Dr Stone
Tonikawa
My Clueless First Friend
Demon Slayer
Insomniacs after School
Vinland Saga
Oshi no Ko
Ranking of Kings

3 Episode Rule in effect
Dangers in my Heart
Mashle
Magical Destroyers
Otaku Elf
A Galaxy Next Door
Dead Mount Death Play

Dropped
My Home Hero
Kamikatsu
Yuri is my job
The Legendary Hero is Dead
My One Hit Kill Sister (I think that's right)
Goddess Cafe Terrace

I was hoping for a quiet season to catch up on older shows.. oh well..
 
I've also seen a bunch of new shows and have an idea where things are going, though I'm always looking out for new stuff to try, I may wait on some until end of season and see what I've missed out on. Let's me binge/catch up on stuff not necessarily on my radar now.

Watching:

Birdie Wing - I've missed this show, it's just a joy to watch.

Heavenly Delusions - What an interesting start this has had, I've enjoyed this a lot so far, there are all sorts of hints that things aren't quite what they seem to be as well. This reminds me a bit of Shinsekai Yori but much nicer quality animation.

Hell's Paradise - Liking this so far. Very much intro so far, but Mappa seem to have done a really good job setting the tone.

A Galaxy Next Door - I was sort of convinced this was going to be too light-hearted for me going in, but the 1st episode at least was pretty charming, I'll give it at least another episode or two.

Demon Slayer - This long intro episode felt like 50% filler 50% story, but the same old quality is there. Once again the comedy stuff doesn't really work for me, but the rest is so damn good that I just power on through and it's always worth it.

Gundam: Witch from Mercury - Fantastic show highly recommend this to novice Gundam viewers.

Vinland Saga - Continuing, this series has had a much slower pace than season 1 but on the whole I've liked it more. I hope we're building to an all out ending of the season though with some more action, give the peace and quiet more weight.

Oshi no Ko - This surprised me, started as one thing, morphed into another. Very nice quality animation, I liked both what it started as and what it's turning into as concepts, so the switch doesn't bother me. Recommend trying it if anyone is on the fence.

Konosuba - This may be my weakest show of the season so far, not because it's inherently bad, but because I think I'm just going off too much comedy focus in general with anime. I don't tend to find much of it that funny but it's probably just my personality as opposed to the show not being funny to most people, I prefer more serious shows with some comedy mixed in.

Ranking of Kings - On my to-do list still.

Dropped:

My Home Hero - I wanted to like this more but the break-neck pacing along with ridiculous scenarios playing out really took me out of enjoying it. I'll keep an eye on reddit and see if this winds up being good in the end.

Yuri is my Job - I was kind of up for this as I like the genre, but there is too much forced drama for me, and the concept of the cafe being some kind of shojo manga setting isn't really my thing.
 
Dr. Stone: New World episode 2 Wants.

Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage episode 1 A little at a time.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 episode 26 Salamander.

Yuri Is My Job! episode 2 Do better.

Tomorrow’s Nadja episodes 42-50 (Complete. Though saccharine sweet in places this was a rather charming series.) 3.5/5

Triage X episodes 1-4
 
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Lordhippos said:
Konosuba - This may be my weakest show of the season so far, not because it's inherently bad, but because I think I'm just going off too much comedy focus in general with anime. I don't tend to find much of it that funny but it's probably just my personality as opposed to the show not being funny to most people, I prefer more serious shows with some comedy mixed in.
Click to expand...
I don't think it's just you in this case. Megumin really isn't working out as a main character. Her awfulness isn't over-the-top enough to be funny compared to Aqua; she just comes across as mean and irritating. That first scene of episode 2 where she bullies Yunyun and steals her lunch, for example. It's too low key to be funny. The only good parts of the show are when Megumin isn't the focus.
 
The Dangers In My Heart ep1: A mean-spirited school 'romantic comedy' which is neither romantic nor funny. A lot of things about this made me uncomfortable in a lot of different ways; it wasn't very entertaining and I kind of hated all of the characters. Pass.

Jigokuraku/Hell's Paradise ep1: No idea whether this is going anywhere special or just going to be a simple action show with a decent amount of style, but I'm in for the premise of doomed superpowered ninja battling it out in unexplored terrain.

My Love Story With Yamada At Lv999 ep1: It's a romantic revenge story with a crazy woman who is so upset over being dumped that she trolls a powerful stranger in an online game before using him as a status symbol to shock her ex. Maybe it will go somewhere later, I don't know, but nothing about the first episode particularly grabbed me. Bleh.

Skip and Loafer ep1: I should like this typical school romance but it doesn't stand out much, and while I might give it a second episode, the characters aren't very endearing. I think the male lead is going to have to carry it as I find the main character's chronic lack of self awareness a bit grating, even though there's plenty of potential here.

The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far ep1: There isn't a single original idea in this isekai reincarnation fantasy, which gave me plenty of time to think about how strange it is that I didn't completely hate it. The reason? The colourful, rounded art style made everything seem a lot more pleasant than normal and nothing was especially edgy. The lead also didn't sarcastically narrate everything for once. I'm not watching any more though. Life is too short for derivative filler shows.

Kizuna No Allele ep1: I don't care about VTubers and was never going to like this but I gave it a try anyway. The CG parts were a waste of time and the story (about somebody who isn't Ai herself?) put me to sleep. Oh well.

KonoSuba: Megumin Edition ep1: Not really my cup of tea. It's also boring that everyone looks so similar (i.e. conventionally cute) when they're already designed to look similar. Pass.

My Clueless First Friend ep1: This sounded great when I read our review for the manga but the anime adaptation hasn't grabbed me at all; it doesn't really seem to be adding much to the experience and the pacing isn't giving the emotional beats much time to breathe. The simple formula could be good (sunny kid appears and stirs things up for a downtrodden bullying victim) but it doesn't feel as though I'm making much emotional connection to anything. It's realistic, but perhaps not the kind of realism that I want to watch for entertainment without a kind of gratification that I'm unlikely to see in this low-key friendship drama. Perhaps it would work a lot better for me as the secondary storyline in a show with a bigger roster of interesting characters.

The Marginal Service ep1: This is super dumb but it knows it, which is always a plus for me. An ex-cop teams up with a bunch of weirdos to deal with secret infiltrators in society. Reminds me a little bit of Tiger & Bunny for its obvious western influences and team/buddy dynamics, as well as the general over-the-top silly moments. I like goofy shows which don't take themselves seriously way better than comedies which try (and fail) to be clever.

I Got A Cheat Skill In Another World And Became Unrivaled In The Real World, Too ep 1: One of too many cloned isekai shows, this time following the formula of having a guy be bullied (is this the season of bullying shows?) by everyone in the most overwrought, clumsily-depicted ways imaginable before he discovers his cheat powers. The gimmick this time (which is in itself unoriginal) is that he continues living his normal life thereafter, so when he becomes a badass all of the bullies have to see how cool and svelte he's become via a series of improbable life decisions. Nobody acts like a real person, even the lead, and in spite of the unrelenting Tragedy of his life none of his superpowers feel earned at all. It's just boring.

The Legendary Hero Is Dead! ep1: My least favourite type of main character in these isekai-ish fantasy shows is the 'wannabe Kyon' sarcastic narrator, and this one is a particularly grating example of the archetype. He's a nasty loser who accidentally takes the place of the hero because of his own stupid shenanigans and then ends up in an adventuring party with his overly-accommodating childhood friend and a couple of walking plot devices. The gimmick is that the lead isn't just a loser impersonating the dead hero, he's also now a zombie too, which sounds a lot funnier than the reality. It didn't help that the recurring gag about the lead fetishising root vegetables kept taking me out of the moment to question why I was wasting my life with such rubbish.

My One-Hit Kill Sister ep1: A guy dies and then his sister follows him into the obligatory isekai afterlife, except that he sucks and she's an all-powerful fighting machine. Where it gets weird is that he insists on taking credit for all of her achievements because he was too much of a wuss to tell the truth early on at the obligatory adventurer's guild when someone gave him a reward he hadn't earned, so the whole thing then becomes about the competent sister having to play second fiddle to the waste-of-space main character, a setup which makes me feel uncomfortable for a whole bunch of reasons. The fact that the sister is also a sexy psycho who loves her brother way, way too much is the final nail in the coffin. Pass.

Summoned To Another World For A Second Time ep1: Another isekai show with its gimmick in the title; the lead is a normal schoolboy who is hiding the fact that he was sent to another world once before. Consequently, when his entire class is summoned to the same place a few years later (in the timeline of the other world), he plays it cool for a while before hooking up with all of his old contacts. The lead was apparently a big deal during his previous adventure and everyone around him turns into a brainless lackey as soon as they know that he's back. I'm not convinced that the central gimmick actually adds anything worthwhile to the plot; it's just a different way to have him be a boring know-it-all like every other lead in the genre. There's an underlying mystery around his old arch-enemy (presumably using a pseudonym like as he did in the past) who is almost certainly somebody else from his school. Zzz.

KamiKatsu ep1: I have a feeling that I'll drop this but it wins a second episode for being such an insane jumble of half-hearted pseudo-horror comedic isekai nonsense that I was way more entertained than by the snooze-fests which came before it. It seems inept and I'm honestly not sure how much of that is intentional and how much is just that it sucks, but even though the lead's Tragic Past was genuinely sad it didn't overdo the drama and made him relatively normal, which was refreshing. And I appreciate that it made fun of how many isekai tropes it ignored. The CG animals are horrible, though. Why would they CG only the most organic-looking stuff in the whole show?!

Dead Mount Death Play ep1: This is an edgy story about a freshly-reincarnated isekai refugee from a fantasy world ending up in a dark, modern-ish Japan dodging assassins, though it's initially kind of ambiguous whether the lead is a good guy or a bad guy. I found the first half really boring since it was mostly showing an epic battle between two people we knew nothing about; without properly understanding the setting I can't appreciate the stakes of a fight scene. The second half then started to lose me in a different way; the lead's story was interesting but the supporting characters behaved unnaturally, and then the climax of the episode seemed to deescalate the threat level too rapidly. There's potential here but it's going to take a lot of positive word of mouth for me to give it another try.

Opus.COLORS ep1: Why does this show look as though it's CG when it isn't? I nearly skipped it and then spent most of the first episode distracted by the weird art style, which I assume is an attempt to help CG effects integrate into the 2D more cleanly except that it just makes everything look kind of bad for no reason. The plot wasn't very interesting and the billions of hot guys kind of blended together for me because everyone was too mild to stand out. If they'd had a daring production team they could have used the premise (about AR becoming a big deal) to show off some really great reference work in the performance scenes. But they didn't, so everything that happened somehow felt as muted and emotionless as the designs.

Rokudo's Bad Girls ep1: Another loser schoolboy accidentally tames/enslaves (yep) the entire female delinquent population of his school/town/region through a plot contrivance (magic) and ends up giving them terrible advice/orders to ruin their own life plans in order to fulfil his own. If I want to watch female delinquents kicking butt I want them to be doing it for their own reasons, not just mindlessly following the advice of a leader who can't even maintain interesting conversations with his nerdy friends. Pass.

Yuri Is My Job! ep1: A title that I was quite interested in checking out and consequently the most disappointed in when I discovered that it wasn't very entertaining. I dislike that the whole thing seems to be a setup for the irrationally-grumpy side characters to dunk on the main character for not understanding things that she has no way of intuiting from their half-baked explanations. And while I know that she needs room to grow into being a better person, the main character isn't relatable at all! I can buy that she'd try to do favours for the others to maintain her image but how empty a life does she lead that she's willing to drop everything and work entire shifts at a cafe with no notice, for no reason at all? I love MariMite and this miserable tribute to its relationship dynamics just left me feeling hollow.

The Cafe Terrace And Its Goddesses ep1: An ungrateful grandson moves back to his dead grandmother's cafe after she dies, only to find that five 'goddesses' are living there and they're not happy about his proposal to evict them. Their brilliant (?) solution to his desire to sell up is to take turns to seduce him in increasingly dumb ways, all so that they can (somehow?) persuade him to let them continue living in the shared house rather than having to move out. I couldn't tell you any of the characters' names and none of their schemes made a lick of sense. A throwback to a simpler time of stupid fan service shows which don't actually go anywhere.

Tengoku Daimakyo ep1: Another where I'm not sure whether I'll stick with this from the first episode (there are a few of these this season, which is unusual for me). I like the efforts at worldbuilding for the futuristic setting and so far the pace is lively, so I'll give it another episode to decide whether I'll finish it.

Magical Destroyers ep1: This premiere made me feel weird because it was like a good show trapped inside a bad show and for a while I couldn't decide which would win out. The plot is ridiculous (systemic oppression of otaku by cancelling all of their hobbies). The little nods and acknowledgements of 90s/00s otaku culture are great. But the characters are awful and nothing makes any sense. A missed opportunity?

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion ep1: Someone did a version of the usual villainess-ish story formula which wasn't stupid, and the results were much more watchable. There is no lazily-written fake otome game nonsense this time; the heroine is reincarnated into a straightforward novel and her motivation (to avoid death) makes her willing to take interesting political risks. I'll give this another episode because it was decent and I like that everyone seems to have agency instead of being a bunch of mindless plot devices.

Birdie Wing s2 ep1: Yaaay, Birdie Wing is back!

R
 
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