The Gene of AI ep1: A more traditional sci-fi series examining what it means to be human in a world of artificial lifeforms and physical enhancements. The main things pulling this show down are the cheap animation and the designs which are so simple that they almost look CG - which could be an artistic choice, given the subject matter, but 'this would probably look better in book form' isn't the kind of vibe that I want to have when watching an animated show! Still, I appreciated the more thoughtful writing in a season full of so much laziness. Speaking of which...
Reign of the Seven Spellblades ep1: I thought this looked horrible from the screenshot on Crunchyroll and that it would be another of those dumb 'guy goes to magic school and gets slapped by the local redheaded tsundere before revealing that he's actually super-strong' shows, but somehow it ended up as a massive Harry Potter rip-off instead. And in a way that's neat, because people who grew up with and loved Harry Potter now have a way to watch its weird off-brand anime cousin safe in the knowledge that they're not giving a penny to someone whose views are abhorrent. Unfortunately I was never really into the series so I have to rely on there being more to continue with Reign of the Seven Spellblades, and the plot about a crazy magic samurai girl from Asia - sorry, Azia - blithely picking her way through lessons with Harry and his buddies felt a bit too much like OC-insert fanfic to capture my imagination. The incredibly lazy worldbuilding in having everyone point out where they are from on a map which is exactly like our real-world map with a few landmasses removed was particularly facepalm-worthy.
Most Heretical Last Boss Queen ep1: It's another villainess otome game parody written by someone who has evidently never picked up an otome game in their life. This one is particularly annoying as the art style and cheap-but-cheerful animation are quite good, and had the creator had enough imagination to write it as its own story instead of a parade of tropes and narration it might have been a decent watch as a straight fantasy in its own right. The heroine is reincarnated and of course doesn't even spend a single second mentioning her old life thereafter, because it's simply a plot device to explain why she knows the characters and their futures from the outset. In a world where people literally have precognition. It could have been replaced by the lead suddenly getting horrible visions of the future if she didn't change her ways and nothing meaningful would change other than the potential for the script to include some actual suspense. I don't really understand why the weird otome game she apparently played obsessively devoted so much of its time to scenes taking place before the main character was even introduced - because the lead is very specific in that she's seen the scenes before, rather than them being 'extra content' not shown in the original game. And I also don't understand why the staff have such contempt for their viewers that they feel they have to over explain every single thing rather than showing what's going on and letting the viewer figure it out. In the end it's another low-effort copy-paste villainess series. A shame; there were glimmers of potential.
Fate/Strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn ep0: Fate is one of those weird series where I realised at some point that I don't actually like it very much, but I check in now and then just to see if the latest spin-off is as good as Fate/Zero (to date the only Fate content which I actively enjoyed). Crunchyroll got me with a decent thumbnail of Gil so I gave this lengthy introduction episode a go and found it... not too bad. I have absolutely no idea what is going on and only a passing understanding of most of the characters' roles in the convoluted (to a casual Fate viewer) plot, but some of the characters are quite lively and I have high hopes for this particular author to capably juggle the broad cast, even if they're the usual grab bag of grumpy old wizard dudes and petite girls. The designs are weird as they're attractive yet kind of dead-eyed at times. I'll probably drop it if the most interesting characters (the two servants who clashed) bow out early but it might be worth watching at least a little more when it becomes available. Listening to Seki Tomokazu arrogantly gliding around is always my favourite part of this series.
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