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A Sign of Affection episode 1 Walking together.

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga episode 38 Confidence.

Detective Conan episode 1109 A concerning note.

Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange episode 13 Matters.

Mashle 2nd Season episode 13 Parasite.

Solo Leveling episode 1 Trapped.

Kodocha episodes 86-102 (Complete. Whilst the series could be tonally overbearing in the first half it was rarely dull, and made for a solid watch and worthy license rescue by Discotek.) 3.5/5

Koihime†Musou
episodes 1-5
 
Spy x Family Season 2 (English Dub) Episode 36

A Sign of Affection Episode 1 This is going to be an intriguing watch.


Tales of Wedding Ring's (Uncensored) Episode 1 Fate.

The Dangers in My Heart Season 2 Episode 13 Helping hand.

The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids Episode 1 Expulsion and Encounter.
 
Corpse Princess (Shikabane Hime) episodes 1-7: Interesting if bloody evil monster killer series. So many baddies turning up. Are they located on the Hellmouth? Can anyone be trusted?

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor episodes 1-6: Most of the cast are OK and there's a fair amount of humour, but I just want to punch Tylor (as do a number of his subordinates). Be interesting to see if they can sustain it for the full 26 episodes. At least I've finally made a start on my Mystery Boxes!
 
Corpse Princess (Shikabane Hime) episodes 1-7: Interesting if bloody evil monster killer series. So many baddies turning up. Are they located on the Hellmouth? Can anyone be trusted?

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor episodes 1-6: Most of the cast are OK and there's a fair amount of humour, but I just want to punch Tylor (as do a number of his subordinates). Be interesting to see if they can sustain it for the full 26 episodes. At least I've finally made a start on my Mystery Boxes!

I thought Corpse Princess was ok, and I LOVED Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Tylor himself very much so but also just the show in general, I loved the English dub too, for me it's one of the best anime comedies and one of my favourite pre-2000/vintage anime, I thought the series' philosophy was unique and interesting and the show really helped me cheer up when I watched it. But to each their own - I hope you think it was worth whatever 20% of this year's mystery box price is when you have finished it! ;)
 
I started checking out new series for the Winter 2024 season over the weekend. I've especially been waiting anxiously for the second cour of The Apothecary Diaries, my favorite show of last year, and since Raven of the Inner Palace the previous year. As you can tell, I'm a sucker for Romance and Shoujo stuff, and of course Isekai, lol.

The Apothecary Diaries ep 13
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic Ep 1
A sign of Affection Ep 1.
Tales of Wedding Rings ep 1
The Demon Prince of Momochi House ep 1
Sasaki and Peeps ep 1

And later today I'll be watching:

Shangri La Frontier ep 14
Banished from the Hero's Party ep 14
7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! Ep 1.
 
Still not making much progress in adding things to my watchlist this season though a couple have earned second episodes.

Tales of Wedding Rings ep1: My partner has been a fan of the manga for a while now but thought that I would find the anime adaptation dull because 'nothing much happens until it gets going later on'. Surprisingly I didn't find it that bad, even though the animation is cheap-looking and I'm not a big fan of the inconsistent art. It's effectively another daft isekai story about a plain guy being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the hero actually chooses to be there by making an impulsive decision on his own, which is - tragically - novel, and in spite of his infuriating inability to speak his mind at pivotal moments he does seem reasonably motivated. Since it's a harem show its long term appeal is going to depend on the girls he collects, so I'll give it another episode and see how I feel next week.

Blue Exorcist s3 ep1: It's been so long since I last watched this show that I can hardly remember anything about what was going on, so I laughed when they made fun of the lead having trouble as well. The first episode was mostly devoted to explaining the setting and what went before for the sake of confused people like me which was nice. I'll give it another episode; shounen stuff doesn't do much for me these days but I like the cast and the way that this season is shaping up, I'm likely to have free time on my hands.

The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids -A Tank with a Rare 9999 Resistance Skill Got Kicked from the Hero's Party- ep1: Every bit as rubbish as its title implied. It's got everything: a hero unfairly ousted from a successful party, stupid combat which wouldn't make any sense outside of a videogame, zero-effort worldbuilding, a subhuman female slave with no clothes, disloyal former friends who happen to be hot girls, arbitrary RPG-style stats and rankings, an obsession with the power of the Identify spell and at least half a dozen underage-looking girls in the opening. Everyone has one character trait at best. It was unimaginative dross from start to finish and a chore to watch. Also, who lets their backstabbing ex-friend take their only sword and then signs up for guard duty without acquiring at least some kind of weapon first?

Solo Leveling ep1: There's been a lot of hype for this one but I had mixed feelings; the production values were great, which made it a lot more watchable than most of these 'idiot would-be adventurers grind a dungeon to make a living' shows, and the modern day setting with (so far) minimal badly-written RPG nonsense made it more interesting than most. It feels as though the staff actually cared about the content this time. On the other hand, however, the premise isn't very inspiring and the super-weak main character is lame to watch, though of course that's likely to change in the coming episodes. Probably not one I'll continue unless I stumble upon some spoilers for awesome twists later on, but if you want to watch just one of these shows then this is a strong contender visually so far.

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! ep1: A different take on the usual 'villainess' nonsense as the titular villainess hasn't done anything especially evil so far on-screen, and at least this one doesn't bother pretending to masquerade as an otome game. The heroine keeps reliving the last few years of her life and dying early so due to a series of improbable coincidences (fuelled by her increasingly ridiculous built-up knowledge of what happens during the period she's repeating) she ends up engaged to the sexy evil guy who killed her in the previous loop. Some of the gags are quite funny, intentionally or otherwise, and the designs aren't bad. I don't think it really needed seven time loops for her to try to do things differently, and she doesn't really try to do anything significant to change her fate - she mostly passively lets the plot come to her like a bad D&D player. But it's far from being the worst show of its kind. There's potential here.

R
 
After School Dice Club
Episodes 4+5
I always amused at anime's ability to make me enjoy sports and activities I have no interest in.

Hell's Paradise
Episodes 8+9
Since Mamiko Noto voices the wife of the MC, I watched

Aika R-16
Japanese Cast interviews.
I love the way they take the questions seriously.
"Panties shown in a pleasant way and the beauty of friendship"
 
Banished From the Hero's Party I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2 episode 1 Sacrifice.

One Piece episode 1089 News of the world.

Shangri-La Frontier episode 14 Combining.

Koihime†Musou episodes 6-12 & OVA (Complete. An underwhelming series - I checked out the other seasons and they didn’t appeal either.) 2.5/5

K-ON! (Rewatch)
episodes 1-12 & OVAs (Complete. It had been a while since my last watch of this, and it’s still a favourite.) 4.5/5
 
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Hurrah, I am starting to enjoy some of these first episodes now that the painful ones are out of the way.

A Sign of Affection ep1: This might end up being too dull for me to keep up with each week but for now I am quite enjoying this relaxed shoujo romance about a deaf girl and the curious boy who catches her eye. While nowhere near as severe as the lead's I have hearing problems myself, so the subject matter is particularly interesting from that angle. It's always good to see how other people get around communication problems in a world which very much assumes that hearing is the norm and of course, it's good to raise awareness of people with different lived experiences. (I also like seeing signing depicted in media in general and often wonder why we aren't all given introductions to at least BSL at school.) It's difficult to know where it will go from here but the first episode was pleasant enough to hold my interest with its soft palette and endearing cast. I'm hoping that she gets to reach out to him and help him too later on rather than the central drama revolving solely around her deafness.

Mr. Villain’s Day Off ep1: The first episode felt like familiar ground after having read Sarah's reviews of the manga for this site; a creepy alien invader serenely passes the time on Earth when he's not plotting the planet's destruction, and over the course of his days off he steadily falls in love with human culture (as well as some of our native animals). My partner complained that the subject matter is very similar to the recent Kawaisugi Crisis (impressive; I'd forgotten I even watched the first episode of that!) but it seems that Mr. Villain's manga came out first. It's another series pitched at a slightly older demographic and the style of humour is quite funny; I rather enjoyed the first episode. It helps that the malevolent Mr. Villain is genuinely pretty cool (and the expanded cast seems fun too).

R
 
7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! Episode 1 Do over.

Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2 Episode 1 Sacrifice.

Fluffy Paradise Episode 2 Pacts.
 
Corpse Princess (Shikabane Hime) episodes 8-13: I still don't trust any of these Buddhist monks. And I can't wait to find out who the cat really is (it's like that talking skull in Le Chevalier D'Eon)

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
episodes 7-14: I'#m getting strong Martian Successor Nadesico vibes from this show, from the visuals to the characters. One big difference so far is none of the ship's characters has died or suffered any trauma. I do like how Tylor seems to be able to charm virtual women to the point of system malfunction. There's a skill we might need soon, eh Alexa?
 
Momotaro: Sacred Sailors
The Spider and the Tulip


I've had the Anime Ltd boxset sat on the shelf for far too long and I've been meaning to watch this for ages. I love historival films like this and they are fascinating films, especially Scared Sailors which offers a very interesting insight into the WW2 era Japanese mindset, but also how both films portray Westerners and non-Japanese nations in general. The accompanying booklet by Jonathan Clements is equally fascinating and insightful as well. I'm really glad they have been recovered and archived and an absolute bonus that they are available in full HD.

Golden Warrior Gold Lightan - Episodes 31 - 33
 
I showed my mother the new Cour 2 episode of The Apothecary Diaries last night, and the first episode of Sign of Affection, and then we continued on with Made In Abyss, she finished episodes 8-11 last night, but couldn't stay awake to see the fate of Mitty, so we'll try again another evening...
 
The Boy and the Heron (English) - Movie (Complete)

This was definitely an interesting movie. I could see it was a very metaphorical film. For the most part I understood it but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little lost at times (doesn't help that I've had a headache all day but that's not the films fault). I feel I need a re-watch to fully get the film which I've seen thrown around a lot. Still a good time though overall, is definitely on the lower end of Miyazaki's movies for me though but considering I still liked it quite a bit, it goes to show the quality of all his works. And like I said, after a re-watch, I may understand it better and appreciate it more.

Non-Anime

What If...? (Season 2)
- Episode 6
 
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