Sweet Dreams

 

My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex - Going into this show, I expected it to be trashy fun on the level of My Domestic Girlfriend or Citrus, but this series surprisingly is a somewhat nuanced take on the whole "step-siblings in love" plot. While it does occasionally fall into fanservice, it's not too distracting or over-the-top. I will say that Isana is the best girl, though, so Mizuto really just needs to get over his stepsister Yume and give his best friend an honest chance. ( Spoilers ).

 

RWBY: Ice Queendom -- It was really cool to see RWBY, which started out as an anime-inspired American cartoon, turned into an actual anime, and since Weiss my favorite of the main team, I liked that she was the focus on this filler arc, but I do think this would have worked much better as a movie. You can really tell they had to work to make the storyline stretch over twelve episodes, and that was even with the first three episodes being a recap of the beginning of the original series to catch new viewers up. An interesting experiment that I liked well enough, and I wouldn't necessarily mind seeing more RWBY anime, but I don't know if I'm really dying to see more either, you know?

 

Delicious Party Pretty Cure - Turning Amane, a former brainwashed villain, back to good and having her join the team as Cure Finale did really help with the sense I had about the other girls feeling "off" last cour. I think the creators really learned from the last series, during which I often complained about the other girls being ignored in favor of Manatsu and Laura until the series was almost over. Unfortunately, I also think they've gone too far to the other side, in that Yui, who is supposed to be the main character, feels more like she's in a supporting role. She hasn't gotten much focus at all. And I definitely don't like how Kome-Kome has been a strong focus over the past few episodes. She continues to be more off-putting than cute. It's still a fun series, but, eh. I'm not loving it as much as some of the other Precure series.

 

Rent-A-Girlfriend - Did we really need that super-uncomfortable, lavishly animated scene of Ruka forcing a French kiss on Kazuya at his birthday party? Did we? I know "Fuck Mami" has been a rallying cry for watchers of the show, but I will take Mami (who honestly didn't even do much this season) any day over Ruka, who gets on my last nerve. Other than that, Sumi continues to be cute but utterly pointless, while nothing much changes between Kazuya and his main love interest Chizuru until it's revealed ( Spoilers ). The season finale, in particular, which focused on Chizuru's backstory, was really good and actually makes me more interested than I expected to be about the already-announced season 3. I just wish they had cut out the rest of the season (which amounted to mostly filler anyway) and started the season with the ending arc.

 

Classroom of the Elite - I said this a few seasons ago when My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU got a final season, but if there's been more than a couple of years since installments, it would be REALLY helpful to start things off with a recap episode. The first season of this series came out in 2017, and there are, like, a million characters. Only the most dedicated fans would remember who they all are and what happened in the previous season. That being said, I do remember that I didn't really care much for the first season, and that's pretty much how I feel about the second. It was...fine, I guess. A solid "eh". (I will say that Kushida's reason for going after the main characters was REALLY, REALLY stupid, though. Actually, most of the characters' motives for doing things are stupid, now that I think about it, but Kushida's is definitely the most stupid.)

 

Next season looks to be all about new seasons for shows I already enjoy! In addition to continuing with Delicious Party Precure, I'll be watching the new cours of SpyxFamily (super excited!), My Hero Academia, IDOLiSH7, To Your Eternity, and Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun. That doesn't leave much room to check out new series in my schedule, unfortunately, but I'm potentially interested in:

 

Bibliophile Princess (except that's going to HiDive, so it'll have to wait)

I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming The Final Boss

More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers (not sure yet who's going to stream this)

 

Housing Complex C is an apparently a four-episode horror series that will be airing on Toonami in October, so I'll also check that out.