Sweet Dreams

 

Now, my review of the 2023 fall season of anime. This was actually a packed season, with me watching probably the most simulcasts ever and not even getting to everything I wanted to watch. (I'll have to catch up with My New Boss is Goofy, Power of Hope ~Precure Full Bloom ~, 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, and Tearmoon Empire some other time.) Unfortunately, I picked a couple of clunkers, but most of what I watched was great, including some of my favorite shows of the year!

 

Spy x Family - Still loving this show, and I especially loved that this cour gave Yor the chance to shine! We've seen quite a bit of Loid's work as a spy, but Yor's job as an assassin has usually taken place off-screen, so it was great to see her mission working as a bodyguard to a slain mafioso's wife and son trying to escape the country take center stage in a fantastic multi-episode arc. 

 

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - This is just such a beautiful series. I'm not just talking about the animation -- although it is indeed gorgeous -- but just how it deals with Frieren, an elf who has lived for almost a thousand years, learning to really treasure her time with her human companions after realizing how short their lifetimes really are in comparison to hers. She may regret not spending enough time with (especially) Himmel and Heiter before their deaths, but she's still able to form new bonds with a new group of heroes who join her on her latest journey. I also loved the gentle humor and subtle relationship growth throughout the show, especially between Fern and Stark, who may be falling in love with each other? Really looking forward to more next season!

 

The Apothecary Diaries - Maomao has to be one of my all-time favorite anime protagonists! She just such a little weirdo with her love of poisons, making her the perfect choice to become a taste-tester for one of the emperor's courtesans after she saves the life of said courtesan's child. Her extensive knowledge of poisons and medicines as an apothecary are also helpful when it comes to solving the various mysteries surrounding the imperial court at the behest of Jinshi, a beautiful eunuch who developes a strong attachment to her, much to her annoyance. The mysteries vary in how interesting they are and Jinshi can be a bit much at times, but, really, the main attraction is Maomao herself and her very pragmatic way of looking at the world, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of her next season.

 

Shy: I'm a big fan of My Hero Academia, but it's no secret that the outnumbered female heroes in that show don't really get the development and attention that their male comrades do. So, it's nice that we get this fantastic new superhero show where there are almost an equal amount of male and female heroes (leaning female), and the women are the main focus. I also love how the series focuses more on the characters' emotions, rather than physical strength. In that way, it almost feels closer to a magical girl show in spirit, which is certainly fine by me. But most of all, I just love the sweet friendship between Teru (a.k.a. Shy) and Iko! Glad to hear this is getting a second season.

 

The Ancient Magus' Bride - I still don't think this College Arc is as quite as amazing as the first season, but things definitely picked up in this second half of the second season! Saving Philomela from her abusive grandmother gives Chise the opportunity to show just how much she has grown since the first season, when she was in a similar position as Philomela. My one major complaint is that it's just so dark! And I'm not talking about the subject matter (which obviously is fairly dark), but the actual animation. It was difficult to even see what was going on during the final battle because there just wasn't enough illumination to actually see. People have been complaining about recent TV shows and movies having bad lighting in the name of "realism", but it seems the trend has even moved on to anime. Ugh. Give us light!

 

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You -- First off, I'll say this anime will definitely not be for everyone. Only six of the eventual promised 100 girlfriends are introduced in this cour, but it's unlikely that you'll love all of them, especially some of the...more problematic ones. The first four (the horny one, the tsundere one, the cute mute one, and the smart one) are great! The fifth is absolutely obsessed with making wacky drugs, and thanks to a failed attempt at an immortality drug, she can switch forms between looking like a pre-teen(?) to her actual curvaceous 17-year-old self, which is...ehhh. As for the sixth girlfriend, well... ( SPOILERS ) But...it's still stupid FUN! Like, the whole premise is utterly ridiculous, and you kinda have to just turn your brain off, yet it's genuinely funny and even kind of touching at some points. Take Shizuka, the cute mute girl, for example. Her gimmick of only being able to "speak" by pointing to lines in her favorite historical fantasy book instead of simply writing her own words or using sign language is, admittedly, eye-roll worthy and impractical, but rather than trying to help cure her of her mutism (which her emotionally abusive mother tried to force her to do), Rentarou instead types up said favorite book as a text file (apparently, no e-book version of it existed) so that she can use a screen reader to "talk" instead. That's so sweet! And he's like that with all his girlfriends, because he genuinely loves them all the same. And the girlfriends themselves are all friends with each other with only minimal jealousy to be found. (In the case of Hakari and Kaname, they may actually be a little into each other, too...) Is it the most realistic portrayal of polyamory out there? No, I imagine not (especially considering the whole "love at first sight" thing that happens with all of them), but there's still something really charming about this series. Call it refuge in audacity, I guess!

 

I'm in Love with the Villainess - In my (admittedly limited) experience with watching yuri anime, it's rare for a character to explicitly identify as being gay, so it's refreshing to hear Rae (or Rei, as she was known in her former life before she died and was reincarnated in her favorite otome game) say that she's only attracted to women and doesn't see herself ever falling for a man. It's also a bit heartbreaking to discover the reason why she's so over-the-top and ridiculous when it comes to the girls she likes is because she doesn't expect them to actually return her feelings, so she plays off her love as just a joke, protecting herself from inevitable rejection. That being said, her behavior toward Claire, the "villainess" she's obsessed with instead of the three princes who are supposed to be the main love interests in the game, is a bit...much in the first couple of episodes. (To the point that it counts as legitimate harassment.) Luckily, she does eventually tone down her affection, and it becomes less unwanted by Claire. I do think the middle arc involving a conflict between commoners and the nobles, while probably setting up the reason behind Claire's apparent future execution, was a bit weak and hindered by a totally unnecessary and out-of-the-blue incest plotline, but it wrapped up strong with the final arc. While I hope we get another season since there's clearly more to the story involving the commoners and nobles, if we don't, that's okay, too.At least Claire and Rae become an official couple at the end!

 

Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me - I loved the premise of this series. The "experienced" one is Runa, a girl who has slept with a lot of boys just because she believes that's what a girlfriend is supposed to do, not because she actually wanted to have sex. The "inexperienced" one is Ryuto, a meek boy who asks her out on a dare from his friends and is surprised when she actually agrees. Runa assumes he wants to have sex with her right away like all her other boyfriends, but Ryuto doesn't want her to have sex with him out of a sense of obligation, instead wanting to wait until she wants to have sex with him out of her own desire. What follows is a pretty sweet romance between the two, although I could have lived without some of the drama, especially involving Maria, Runa's secret twin sister who was coincidentally Ryuto's first love. Though they tried to redeem Maria in the latter half of the series and have her and Runa reconcile, I'm not sure it really felt all that earned? Also, the fact that Ryuto's two friends fall for Runa's two galpals is definitely a cliche, although at least the guys are both rejected. ( SPOILERS ) I have a sinking feeling they'll eventually get together in the source material, but this is actually a series I hope doesn't get a sequel. It pretty much ends in the perfect spot for the main couple, and I just don't care about the other romantic storylines, which all kind of suck. 

 

After School Hanako-kun - I didn't realize that this was only going to be a four-episode season of short episodes. At first, it seemed kinda strange that something like this was produced since the original Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun aired about three years ago -- although the timing was good since the last episode was a Halloween episode -- but then it was announced that Toilet-Bound is getting a second season, and suddenly it all made sense! Anyway, cute set of episodes. That's pretty much all I have to say!

 

Girlfriend, Girlfriend - Polyamory seems to be a bit of a trend this season... I somehow forgot that I had watched the first season of this until I was reading ANN's seasonal review guide and realized the premise seemed familiar. That's probably not the most ringing endorsement, but I actually kinda enjoyed the first cour as a semi-realistic look into a type of romantic relationship that we don't see much of in media. The second? Not so much, and it's all due to Mirika. I absolutely can't stand her, and the fact that Naoya comes up with this idiot plan to have her move in with him and the other girls as a way to prove his loyalty to his two actual girlfriends, Saki and Nagisa, by forcing him to constantly refuse her advances (no, it doesn't really make much sense in context either) is just so...so...ugh! And the thing is, she's totally unnecessary! Enough drama is provided by Shino, Saki's best friend who wants Naoya to break up with Nagisa so that he and Saki can have a more "proper" relationship while also secretly being in love with him herself. That's genuinely interesting! I was actually invested in her story line. There's no need for another interloper, especially one who resorts to kidnapping and sexual assault to try to force Naoya to fall in love with her.

 

KAWAGOE BOYS SING - Y'all, this show is dumb, and not even a fun kind of dumb like 100 Girlfriends. It's just so...dumb. Back in school, I was a choir geek, so I thought an anime about a boys' choir would be right up my alley, but it's pretty clear that the writers don't really know anything about how choirs really work. They can't even seem to decide if the characters (who are so bland that the majority are just referred to by nicknames describing their main personality "quirk") are actually in a choir, a glee club, or a boy band. ( SPOILERS )Worst of all, the music kinda sucks. If you're going to do a show centering on music, then the music has to be actually, you know, good for the show to work. 

 

Jujutsu Kaisen - Yeah, this Shibuya Incident arc that manga fans have been raving about is just not very good. I'll say that some of the fights were really well animated -- at the cost of the health of the poor over-worked animators -- but I didn't care about any of it, even when a couple of pretty major characters (including one of my favorites) died. Fight after fight after fight is BORING.

 

Next season, I'll be continuing with the second cours of Frieren and The Apothecary Diaries, along with the end of Soaring Sky! Precure. As for new series, I'm definitely looking forward to Sign of Affection (been loving the manga!) and The Demon Prince of Momochi House. There's a third season of Classroom of the Elite coming out, but to be honest, I'm not in a huge rush to watch that. Maybe if there's nothing else better. Metallic Rouge, 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy, and The Witch and the Beast are other possible contenders.

 

And, finally, my ten favorite anime of 2023! To my surprise, only one returning anime made the list this time, with the rest premiering this year.