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Akudama Drive
Yet another cyberpunk series, this time from creators of the Danganronpa game series, writer Kazutaka Kodaka and artist Rui Komatsuzaki. Given the minds behind the series it's no surprise it shares a few visual and thematic elements but I feel this is definitely the better anime project. Tomohisa Taguchi's team at Pierrot did a fantastic job in pretty much every aspect. Of particular note is character designer Cindy H. Yamauchi, providing the best adaptation of Komatsuzaki's designs to animation. As with Danganronpa this show also features a memorable cast of exaggerated characters. The protagonist, Swindler is great fun to watch owing to her development and great performance by Tomoyo Kurosawa. Seen quite a few calling this one of 2020's best anime and I'd say that's a fair assessment. Really solid show.

Kinda want to replay Danganronpa now
 
Tenpuru ep1: I completely forgot that I watched this until I checked my history, which probably isn't a good start! It's a bit of a throwback to a simpler era of romantic comedies in which some stupid guy ends up as a fish out of water surrounded by a bunch of female strangers with strange ideas about boundaries, clothing and jumping to conclusions. Basically, it's Love Hina except set at a temple instead of a bathhouse. The recurring gags/(character development?) about the lead's dodgy dad were kind of funny but none of the girls were all that appealing; I don't think I'll bother.

Hero Classroom ep1: Ugh, I was hoping for more when people talked about the fan service but it's just the usual batty, snobbish redhead tsundere being too big for her breeches and then getting taken down a peg or two by an overpowered lead's confidence. The lead isn't that bad (he's actually pretty chipper, compared to most), and that's honestly the best thing about this kind of forgettable 'overpowered teens in a magic school' romp. It's obviously gearing up to set up a twist later but it's all been telegraphed so obviously that I cannot imagine a world where the payoff makes this worth the time.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead ep1: I was worried about this at first, when it looked like a typical dead-eyed NEET show with a zombie flavour, but it ended up being intelligent enough to subvert all of the usual rubbish. The show is entirely carried by the lead's positive attitude and maturity, even though he spends the entire episode going through a slow-burn emotion breakdown. It's sort of damning that the lead's reactions - which are deliberately ridiculous due to the premise - still come across as being more human and believable than the way most of this season's leads have been written. I don't think I'll continue but I'll keep it on my radar and see whether there's space in my schedule later. It was way better than the other two shows in this batch.

R
 
Zom 100 Bucket List of the Dead episode 1.
Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero episode 1.
Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout episodes 1-2.
Fate/Strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn
 
The Dreaming Boy is a Realist ep 2 (dropped)
Just too much of the characters sitting around having long conversations.

Vinland Saga s2 eps 23 & 24 (complete)
A brutal look at the lives of slaves and a fascinating personal journey for Thorfinn. Maybe a little odd to end it at the start of the next arc, especially with the comedic scenes which were a bit jarring after such a heavy season, rather than at the end of the arc they were adapting. So much so that you probably don't need to watch episode 24 until season 3 (if there is one, no announcement like they did at the end of season 1). If there is no season 3 then I suppose it does serve as a bit more of a finale than episode 23 does.
Again the change of studios wasn't particularly noticeable in terms of art and animation.
9/10

Synduality: Noir ep 1
Seems like it could be an interesting sci-fi. In a post apocalypse Earth humans live in defensive cities protected by mecha piloted by a human with the help of an android/AI called Magus. Our MC finds one such Magus when out scavenging, but she could spell trouble.
The creator also wrote Pet Girl of Sakura-sou, Bunny Girl Senpai, and Just Because!
Also seems I might have to watch "elsewhere" as along with the usual Disney+ slight delay on the subtitles there's only the CC version for English!

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses ep 2 (dropped)
They keep making up dumb reasons why she's not wearing her glasses making her look stupid and the male MC is just dumb full stop.
There were some potential sweet moments, but he generally ruined them with stupid inner thoughts.
 
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Re-Kan entire series (rewatch): It's such a unusually cute story of a girl plagued by the spirits of the dead.
Haganai the live movie (rewatch): not as good as I remembered. I think without the watching of the anime series to refresh my memory, the live movie seems a lot more confusing and disjointed.
Ladies vs Butlers episodes 1-3: Imagine my surprise to find when I loaded this onto my Region B player to see no wrong region error message. Enjoyable tale of yet another elite school with my only dislike being the inevitable tiny 19 year old girl, who looks ten, being shown naked . A bit too creepy for me, but I'm enjoying the rest of the cast.
 
Bungou Stray Dogs 5th Season episode 51 Stab.

Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Wander the Dungeon episode 2 Lending a hand.

Undead Murder Farce episode 2 Investigation.

Detective Conan episodes 43, 46, 48-50, 52, 54, Detective Conan Movie 01: The Timed Skyscraper (Film), 57-58
 
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My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 ep1: There's not much to say about this, it's the same half-baked isekai rubbish all over again where an overworked salaryman dies from being excessively hardworking and his 'reward' is to live in a stupid world with stupid rules and pop-up digital status screens which make no sense, hunting weak monsters in exchange for vegetables. He befriends a blushing young girl who quickly becomes dependent on him and probably collects more teenaged-looking girl followers later on, if the opening (and subsequent arrival of the socially awkward, saucily-dressed bunny girl) is indicative. This would suck as a video game and it sucks even more as a fantasy world, and I've seen everything here before. Several times. Why does stuff like this keep getting animated? Who is buying the same rehashed nonsense repeatedly when the genre has content which is actually enjoyable competing with the dross?

Helck ep1: A silly fantasy played out from the (always more interesting) demon perspective, here framed by the mystery of why a goofy, 80s action movie star lookalike is trying to claim the mantle of Demon King in a weirdly orderly tournament. It's no Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun in terms of capturing that retro anime sense of fun but at least it's putting in a proper effort. Helck himself is pretty boring so far (and drawn that way on purpose) but the exasperated demon girl carries the show well enough, and she even has the decency to have found somebody silkily voiced by Ishida Akira to rant at instead of monologuing weirdly or unnaturally explaining the premise of her world to some stranger. It's sad when properly written dialogue punctuated by over-the-top campy explosions comes across as fine art next to the overly-explanatory waffle most shows try to pass off as a script. I thought Helck was 'decent', while my partner declared it easily one of the best shows of the season after having their spirit thoroughly broken by the last couple of batches.

Bungo Stray Dogs s5 ep1: Back straight into the action, this time with some answers to the chaotic mess the squad made in the first part of this arc. It's looking to be another satisfying season of Bungo Stray Dogs so this one goes straight to my queue.

R
 
Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence ep 1
Sweet SoL rom-com from Doga Kobo, and that's all you need to know!

And that's all the first episodes done for this season. Dropped 2 shows already after no improvement in the second episode leaving only 18!

Undead Murder Farce ep 2
Vampire murder mystery.

Rurouni Kenshin ep 2
Standing against oppression.
Still not too sure on this. Kenshin's dialogue, especially, is weird and off putting.

Jujutsu Kaisen s2 e2
Schoolin' bad guys.
 
Soulmate Adventure (Feng Ling Yu Xiu) - Season 1 Complete

It looks like Bilibili is streaming Season 2 with English subs so will start that tomorrow <3

Edit, does anyone know the difference between the VIP and Free episodes on the Bilibili youtube channel?

Both are identical in title and duration, only difference is one is behind a paywall. I'm going to guess the Free episodes are only going to be available for a limited time (maybe a few weeks after airing?) after that they will be pay to watch?
 
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Dropout Idol Fruit Tart
Episode 1
Reasonable start, no controversy, the animation with the end song is full of fanservice. Things to come?

Taisho Baseball Girls
Episode 1
Get those dastardly boys sorted.
Best girl, Anna Curtland, the English teacher. Hope she's in every episode.
Loved the opening and ending songs. I won't be skipping them.
A wee shout out for the tour round Tokyo song at the beginning.
This is going to be great.
 
Jujutsu Kaisen 2nd Season episode 26 Twist and shout.

Rurouni Kenshin (2023) episode 2 Meeting.

Spy Classroom Season 2 episode 13.5 Corral.

The Devil is a Part Timer! Season 2 Part 2 episode 13 Girl’s talk.

Detective Conan episodes 60, 63, 68-70, 72, 75-78, 81-82, 84
 
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Japanese) - Episode 1

Bungo Stray Dogs (Season 5) (Japanese) - Episode 51

Non-Anime

Secret Invasion - Episode 4

Sonic Prime (Season 2) - Episode 1 - 8 (Complete)

Season 2 was a step up from the first, was nice to see Shadow actually get to do something this season. Enjoyable enough but compared to the other animated Sonic media, it is probably still my least favourite unfortunately. Intrigued enough in how the next season will wrap up though.
 
Taisho Baseball Girls
Episodes 2+3
Practice game.
I wouldn't normally post a single show during my Friday binge.
This is so awesome. Funny, nice and the baseball is good. And there's Anna Curtland.🤤 And the lovely Mamiko Noto.
If it helps anyone, I'm able to play it on my regular Sony BDP S3700.
Nattou Nattou, Get your Nattou
 
Squid Girl series 1 (rewatch in preparation for watching series 2): Still sweet and silly fun, full of fishy puns and yet another alien invader thwarted by the awesome power of a teenage girl.

Akiba's Trip complete series: I can't help wondering how the pun works in Japanese. Very silly story of a group of super-powered vigilantes protecting the streets of Akihabara from monsters by stripping the clothes off them. In reality it's a blatant 13 episode love story for the home of otaku culture, with the full support of over 50 local businesses (check the end credits). Each episode is themed on some aspect of the culture, with themes including figure shops, audiophile outlets, a butler cafe, ham radio shops, the famous local restaurtants, becoming an idol, trading card battles etc. I recognised a few of the places from my visits over a decade ago. Enjoyable and a handy guide if you're planning a trip.
 
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