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A Nobody's Way Up to an Exploration Hero ep1: Well, the show itself was as uninspired as its title. The scenario is largely cribbed from Solo Levelling; the hero is an ordinary, modern day boy who delves into a real-world dungeon with limited success, killing the same weak slimes over and over for a small income while staff monitor his progress via security cameras. His friends wisely gave up on the dungeon part of the 'dungeon theme park' in the middle of town two years ago but the hero persisted, apparently for honourable reasons which have only been hinted at so far. Anyway, eventually he finds a magic card which lets him summon a female Servant, who is a cute super-powered dungeon pet girl who calls him her master and relies on him to order her around so that he can level up faster. He'll get a second pet girl in the next episode, it seems, but the show hasn't given me any real reason to want to continue; it's not offensively terrible, just lacking in imagination in pretty much every aspect of its setup.

VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream ep1: As advertised, the cute-as-a-button heroine is a streamer with an agency contract and a virtual avatar, but she isn't really popular until she accidentally broadcasts a night of drunken, horny ranting to her audience without realising. I found it disorientating that all of the VTubers apparently look (and dress) exactly like their avatars; presumably it's just to make the show easier to follow but it also made it weird when the anonymity is part of the appeal. On the plus side, there's a lot of bouncy energy and attention to detail in the show and I can see fans of the idol streamer industry getting a lot out of the ridiculousness on display. There's a lot of referential humour here covering online culture, drinking, anime and gaming, but I found the in-world streams just as tedious as watching real VTubers (sorry) so I won't be continuing to watch.

Wistoria: Wand and Sword ep1: A Harry Potter 'inspired' tale of a talented swordsman at a magic school where non-mages are considered to be subhuman. There's no trace of originality anywhere in sight - every single character feels as though they've been imported from another show - but it's so well-produced and handsome that I can forgive Wistoria a lot of its creative sins, including an over-reliance on characters awkwardly reminding one another how their own world works and people picking on the lead for absolutely no reason. It's unoriginal but it's capably made unoriginality, and for that reason I'd say that the fantasy/school crowd will probably enjoy this good-looking romp. Coming so soon after Failure Frame it almost felt like high art.

SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary ep1: The incoherent description on Crunchyroll didn't set my hopes high but this everyday school mystery-solving show - which is very reminiscent of Hyouka - was a good watch. I still find the leads' aspiration to be thoroughly normal quite dull but I'm sure there's a backstory there which will come out later, and the animation direction, while massively overblown for the amount of story on show, is very impressive. I think I felt more emotional resonance from the extremely simple destruction of food at the end of the episode than I have from all of the melodramatic magic-hurling nonsense this season so far; sometimes, simple things done well can be effective enough on their own.

R
 
Mayonaka Punch episode 1 Out of this world.

Shy 2nd Season episode 14 Runaway.

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf episode 15 Stories of old.

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible episode 2 Teleported.

Special A episodes 2-13
 
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MAYONAKA PUNCH ep1: Another show about streamers, this time featuring a traditional YouTuber who gets cancelled and fired when she assaults her co-hosts (who are, awkwardly, also her housemates). She's a bit of a narcissist so she immediately tries to strike out on her own without so much as an acknowledgement of her past mistakes, but when she finds herself struggling she ends up crossing paths with a thirsty vampire. Which in turn leads to an unlikely team-up to give her new channel a boost in popularity. The vampire girl is good fun but the lead is quite annoying, so I couldn't really get into the story as long as I was supposed to be rooting for her. It's a very lively, dynamic show, though, with a good set of opening credits. My partner is going to continue with it so I guess I'll find out what happens next whether I want to or not!

Plus-Sized Elf ep1: This is exactly the kind of show that all of the promotional materials promised, for better or worse. It's super dumb and it doesn't care. I'm not into this kind of fetishisation or the nascent relationship dynamic so I'm out, but it's honest about what it is and I guess shame-fuelled weight gain comedy is a step above some of the toxic awfulness the isekai genre often falls back upon. Though it's sad that it is.

Pseudo Harem ep1: I don't have any strong feelings about this. It did not hold up well at all against Shoshimin (for being a school series about a boy/girl combo) or Twilight out of Focus (for being a school series with acting themes), and I felt quite bored watching it in spite of how hard one of my favourite female seiyuu was working to carry the story. It always breaks my immersion when a romantic comedy (or regular romance show) has one character who is the perfect fantasy - in this case, it's the female lead, who is an aspiring actress who bounces between archetypal roles to delight her new buddy - while the other is a bland nobody, which is very much the case here. It's really hard to see why she's putting in so much effort for him but at least their dynamic is relatively healthy, with both characters comfortable enough to say no to one another and nothing weird going on. There's no actual plot so the series relies on the central dynamic for its appeal, and unfortunately that isn't really doing anything for me.

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies ep1: I watched this right after Pseudo Harem and the central dynamic works so much better; everyone is attractive and the stupid plot is pitched just right to tickle me. It's a parody in a long line of similar shows exploring the idea of a villain falling for one of their enemies; while the magical girl theme is very 'classic Sailor Moon' there are nods to other genres and magical girl tropes along the way. The lovely designs, dorky humour and short runtime (it's a half-length episode) make this a fun diversion rather than a slog so I think I'll keep watching as it airs.

No Longer Allowed in Another World ep1: Another parody, this time of the oversaturated isekai genre - and this one doesn't hold back in some of its snarkier genre commentary. I have mixed feelings about framing all of the jokes around suicide when the central character is an actual person who died in (some people's) living memory; Bungo Stray Dogs has the same schtick but this feels a lot darker because the entire story revolves around the lead's depression. At the same time, having a lead who is intelligent, accomplished, independent - and most of all has actually lived a little - really does wonders for the tired isekai formula, even if he's essentially just a grouch for the bulk of his screentime. The cynicism feels more earned when the lead is older and genuinely world-weary, and I was surprised by how watchable this ended up being.

R
 
I was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince
What's with that outfit. Just my humour.

7th Time Loop
Wasn't sure about this one but the MC is rather likeable and I want to know how she's going to move forward.

Seirei Gensouki
Good set-up. Angry young man.

All episode 1.
Based on what I've watched, I think I'm going to enjoy these.
 
Rosario + Vampire (English) - Episode 1 - 13 (Complete)

I've been watching this with a friend for the past few days as she watched this a lot when she was younger and wanted to show it to me. This was a fun ecchi comedy series, very silly but has that 2000's era charm, liked it quite a bit.

We'll start S2 next time we hang out for a few days.
 
Day's with My Stepsister Episode 2-3

Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest Episode 1

 Mission: Yozakura Family Episode 14

Shy Season 2 Episode 14

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 15

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible Episode 2

Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 1
 
Angel Cop - Episodes 1 - 6 [Final]

I last saw this on VHS in the 90's and while I remember liking it my memory of it was a little hazy. I really enjoyed watching it again, it's a solid violent action anime with a decent plot. I watched the uncensored subtitles because I've read so much about it and I'll admit that premise is kinda odd! Discotek have done an amazing remaster and each of the episodes looks fantastic, there is also a very informative extra that explains the background to the original context of the OVA.

Grendizer U - Episode 1

Well, this was very dull and looked horrible with it.

Space Emperor God Sigma - Episodes 2 - 4
 
Orgun said:
Angel Cop - Episodes 1 - 6 [Final]

I last saw this on VHS in the 90's and while I remember liking it my memory of it was a little hazy. I really enjoyed watching it again, it's a solid violent action anime with a decent plot. I watched the uncensored subtitles because I've read so much about it and I'll admit that premise is kinda odd! Discotek have done an amazing remaster and each of the episodes looks fantastic, there is also a very informative extra that explains the background to the original context of the OVA.

Grendizer U - Episode 1

Well, this was very dull and looked horrible with it.

Space Emperor God Sigma - Episodes 2 - 4
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I’m looking forward to going back and watching those subs. On the day I watched it, I was feeling more in the mood for manga 90s dub with all the stupid swearing. Great series dubbed even if the OG sub has its issues.
 
A bit of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs for relaxin, then Chillin' in My 30s After Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army after getting fired. I enjoyed it, but I have some serious questions about what Malika is, and how strong their kid is going to be. My pet theory is she is half-demon and little Gran is destined to take over the world.
 
Ayla Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian episode 2 Super spicy.

Oshi no Ko 2nd Season episode 13 Give and take.

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 2 episode 1 The indirect route.

The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human episode 3 Two choices.

Stars Align episodes 5-12 (Complete. It’s a damn shame the production got cut short as this anime ends very abruptly and showed promise.) 3.5/5

STRAIN: Strategic Armored Infantry episodes 1-4
 
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