I'm not having a very good time this season. All the best stuff seems to be coming this weekend.
I'm Quitting Heroing ep1: The story of an overpowered hero who saved the world (the 'world' appears to be a single country) and didn't receive any thanks for it, so in a fit of pique he ditched everything he knew and tried to apply for a job under the Demon Lord. Unfortunately, she's still a little annoyed about being beaten and we're told that he thinks there's more to her conquest than mindless slaughter, so he has to resort to kissing up to her lackeys instead. All of whom remember him from their own past defeats. The fantasy trappings barely conceal the metaphors for corporate disillusionment in the modern world and if I never hear the annoyingly amorous underage-looking catgirl baddie gurgle in excitement again I will count myself lucky. The biggest problem with this show is that the lead is such an unlikeable jerk that I don't care about his past or his hackneyed attempts to work his way up through the ranks of his former enemy's army. He's a jerk to everyone long before his decision to switch sides - his former allies were mocked for being less naturally skilled than he was, warriors were mocked for not 'mastering every single weapon in the world', the Demon Lord's generals were mocked for poor strategy even after indulging him in a request for a job interview - and there isn't even the tiniest glimmer of anything more to his personality than that. He's so horrible that he makes the Demon Lord's army look friendly and welcoming, which completely muddies the waters of the show's entire premise. The world-building makes no sense because it's abandoned any time there's an opportunity for a sight gag of little pie chart printouts explaining why the bitter hero would be the best new recruit ever. It's possible to make shows about horrible characters entertaining but for me, at least, this one doesn't manage it.
The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody ep1: Ugh. The start of this series feels like a very close retread of Mushoku Tensei (even down to the shy elf girl childhood friend) except there's a bolted-on preamble where he tells - rather than shows - us how much of a badass he was in his past life. So much of a badass, in fact, that he failed to maintain any worthwhile friendships because he was too superior (read: unlikeable) to form lasting bonds and decided to reincarnate on what appears to be a whim. It's an interesting idea which falls flat right from the moment it's introduced because it's so blindingly obvious - the storytelling isn't subtle - that everyone around him is a cardboard cut-out and his real problems come from within, not his reputation. Also, it's all been done multiple times before and the animation kind of sucks, which makes the comparison to other, better-animated shows more damning. The staff just don't seem to care already - not a great sign in the first episode! - as people randomly move around between cuts and the backgrounds don't seem to mesh with what's actually happening in the narrative. Is the lead's new house in the village of the show's Japanese title, or in the middle of nowhere as it appears in some of the establishing shots, or in the heart of a reasonably large town? The director doesn't seem to know or care, placing it randomly in the countryside and in the middle of a busy town according to the scene. There's a moral in here about how hard it is to make friends and work through introverted awkwardness, but there's so little creativity on show that I don't really care. And of course, despite being a 'typical nobody' he's a peerless martial arts and magic master before hitting puberty. It was also a little unappealing when the lead laughed off the future-elf-girlfriend's cute habit of running into the forest to massacre/bully (the threat level is unclear when they don't have exaggerated thirsty goblins on camera) ordinary-looking bears with magic as 'blowing off steam by killing monsters'. The only character who acts like they have a brain is the mellow elf dad who has about three lines and nothing to do. I didn't like this formulaic stuff the first dozen times I saw it and this take doesn't add anything new to the mix.
Deaimon ep1: Thank goodness, a show with a bland-looking male lead with a chip on his shoulder who... isn't a sarcastic, bitter bully! This is a more mature take on the whole 'finding myself' genre that the last show failed at so badly, where the people act like actual human beings and participate in conversations instead of monologuing to themselves. Our lead ran out on his family business to follow his dreams and when that fell apart, he returned to find that his family had taken in an abandoned child who ended up behaving like a much better heir than him. Rather than whining for the whole episode, the lead starts trying to help out and gradually gets to know the usurper a little better. The main character is a dork and while the 'older male looks after a young girl' concept isn't unique, the first episode managed to set things up for plenty of meaty character drama later on. It helps that the aforementioned family business is a wagashi shop, so we get treated to loving anecdotes about the beautiful traditional sweets in between the interpersonal stuff. Not sure whether it's a keeper but I appreciated that it managed to be interesting.
R