heavenly_pearl | Entries tagged with my hero academia

The Apothecary Diaries - Whoa, there was some dark stuff in the first half of this season, but the second half goes even darker...and it's so, so good! I think the part where Loulan ( Spoilers! )Also, yay, Maomao finally knows who Jinshi really is, although neither of them know who he really REALLY is. Could have lived without him attempting to force a kiss on her twice in the last episode, though. Ugh. At least both times they were interrupted. Anyway, thrilled that another season has already been confirmed!

Anne Shirley - Oh, my childhood! I loved the Anne of Green Gables series growing up. It's because of Anne that I came to believe that Anne-with-an-e was the prettier, more elegant spelling (even though my mother and sister use the plainer Ann as their middle name), and I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint my love of red hair to Anne Shirley as well. Needless to say, I'm loving this anime so far! Granted, it's probably been at least thirty years since I last read the books, so I can't really speak to how faithful an adaptation this anime is, but they've kept all the most iconic scenes that I remember: Anne breaking the slate over Gilbert's head (obviously!), Diana accidentally getting drunk, Anne trying to dye her hair, etc. The animation is just beautiful as well, looking like something out of a storybook! All in all, with the world seemingly going mad, this show has been my happy place every week (even with a few sad moments), and I'm so, so glad this is continuing for another cour.

Black Butler - I don't really get the point of the five-minute recaps that began a couple of the later episodes -- surely if there wasn't enough canon material for an episode, they could have added a filler scene or two instead of a totally unnecessary recap -- but other than that, the Emerald Witch arc was another fantastic cour, revealing a big twist that I had been spoiled about beforehand but which still managed to come off as a surprise. ( Spoilers! ) I also really liked Sieglinde and Wolfram, and I'm curious if we'll continue to see them in future arcs. I assume so, since Ciel took them back to England with him? We'll see. I believe the manga is getting close to the end, so hopefully we'll get another cour fairly soon.

Kowloon Generic Romance - I really loved the retro look of this anime, which was the perfect way to accentuate the running themes of nostalgia and wanting to live in the past. I also liked the way it explored the idea of "identity". I just wish the mystery was a little more...hmm, concrete, I suppose? We learn "what" happened and mostly "why", but the logical "how" is pretty much completely ignored in favor of a more symbolic, psychological approach -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not really what I was expecting. I don't think it helped that the manga is still ongoing but about to end, so they had to rush the ending of the anime to fit into the one cour they were given (presumably with notes from the mangaka about what was planned). It probably would have made more sense to wait until the manga actually ended to make the anime, or else plan for a movie or another season to properly wrap things up, but I get why there would be no guarantee of that, so they felt they had to do it all at once. That all being said, I still really liked this show! I just think it needed more episodes to go from great to amazing.

Witch Watch - Cute and funny, and gets bonus points for an unexpected figure skating backstory (although loses some points for the use of a magical disability cure). The characters are a lot of fun as well. I really appreciated the fact that even though Nico's spells often cause trouble, it's not because she's a bad or stupid witch. To the contrary, her spells often work TOO well! It's more of a "be careful what you ask for" type of thing. Also, as opposed to a certain other show further down this list, the relationship between Nico and Morihito is more along the lines of what I'm looking for in a good friends-to-lovers type story, even if romance isn't a heavy part of the show. Happy this is continuing for another cour!

You and Idol Precure - Just in time for Pride Month, Pretty Cure brought us what may be the franchise's first official queer couple in Meroron and Purirun. Like, I don't know really see how you could interpret their relationship any other way? Some may try to downplay it by pointing out that Meroron calls Purirun "Sissy", and they are technically siblings since all the fairies are born out of the same tree (similar to Ail and An from Sailor Moon), but, still, Meroron constantly says she loves Purirun and acts like a jealous girlfriend whenever she thinks Purirun is paying more attention to Uta than to her. Heck, even Meroron's Precure form is called Cure Kiss! It seems pretty clear to me that Meroron is romantically in love with Purirun, although I suppose it's debatable if Purirun feels the same (or is possibly in love with Uta instead -- which, still, gay). That all being said, I always do get annoyed when the fairy characters start getting more attention than the main Precures, so as ground-breaking as their relationship may possibly be, I'm not exactly loving the current focus on Meroron and Purirun. (Doesn't help that I find them both kind of annoying, tbh.) Hoping the show will get back to focusing on Uta, Nana, and Kokoro soon!

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes - I love the original My Hero Academia, so it's fun to see some of the older heroes we know fight in this prequel spinoff. It took me a while to warm up to new characters that make up the main cast, though. It wasn't until Makoto joined the group (so to speak...she's not a vigilante, but she knows their secret and helps out behind the scenes) around midway through the cour that this series started gelling for me. I love Makoto! Too bad Koichi, the main character, isn't all that interesting, especially compared to Deku from the main series. He really is just a generic nice guy -- in fact, his first name as a vigilante hero was literally Nice Guy until he changed it to The Crawler instead -- with a rather boring Quirk of being to slide around fast. Even when it came to defeating the main villain of this arc, he and Pop Step really didn't do anything at all, which was a strange plot choice, if you ask me. Yeah, Knuckleduster had the more personal connection to the villain, but you'd expect the main character to at least be a part of the first major "boss" fight!

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? - *sigh* Is it too much to ask for a really good friends-to-lovers romance anime? Every time I'm excited when I see one on the seasonal list then end up disappointed when I actually watch it. What sucks is that this show did some things well. The main characters do have good chemistry, and Yu's dream of opening a shop to sell flower accessories is something rather novel for a male teenage character. But, oh my god, Himari could get on my last nerve! She's so emotionally manipulative, constantly flirting and being salacious toward Yu only to turn around, laugh at him, and say "Just kidding!" when she's obviously not. Honestly, I didn't really like any of the characters in the show aside from Yu.

Lazarus - It's interesting, because when this show started airing on Toonami, I was coincidentally in the middle of rewatching my favorite Shinichiro Watanabe anime, Carole & Tuesday, and I gotta say...Lazarus does not come out well in comparison. What's worse is that there was a lot of buzz about Watanabe wanting to be his masterpiece, so it's so strange that it feels so...I don't know how to describe it. Not really disjointed... Random maybe? The premise of a ragtag group being tasked with finding the location of a brilliant doctor so he can make an antidote for a drug he created that's due to kill everyone who used it (including himself) in 30 days should be exciting and high states, yet none of the characters act with any sort of urgency. The way they run the investigation feels like they have all the time in the world. Then when we finally find out the whole backstory...eh. It's definitely no Cowboy Bebop, that's for sure! At least the fight scenes looked great?

Go! Go! Loser Ranger! - *sigh again* Gah, this series! Like the first cour, this part started off pretty strong with an interesting time loop mission that focused on a small group of characters made up of Fighter D's new teammates. I thought that was going to be the formula going forward, going on missions that let us get to know the characters better, but again, it did the same thing as the first cour, going into an extended battle arc with the full cast of characters -- and. there. are. just. way. too. many. of. them. It also feels like plot points are missing, if that makes sense? Like, it's skipping stuff that I assume was in the manga? There's just something weird about the pacing that made everything even more confusing.

Next season looks to be a season of watching sequels for me. In addition to continuing with Anne Shirley, Witch Watch, and You and Idol Precure, I'll be watching the second seasons of My Dress-Up Darling (yay!) and DAN DA DAN (didn't watch the simulcast of the first season, but I've since caught up and I'm looking forward to more), the third cour of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun (glad we didn't have to wait too long this time!), and the fourth season of Rent-A-Girlfriend, which will hopefully continue building on the good will earned during last season's surprisingly touching cour (but I have my doubts...). I'd also like to check out Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus since I watched and liked the first season of Rascal, but I haven't seen any of the three sequel films yet, so I'm guessing I'd be lost. (Oh, it looks like Crunchyroll does at least have the first movie. I'll have to put that on the watch list.) I'm not sure about brand new shows. The only one that really caught my eye was The Summer Hikaru Died, but that's on Netflix, so it'll have to wait until I decide to subscribe again. Guess I'll have to see what looks good in the ANN preview guide.

Kimi ni Todoke - The decision for this new season after so many years to be broken up into five double-length episodes instead of the usual 12-13 normal episodes is a bit baffling, but that was pretty much my only real complaint with the cour. Otherwise, it was just as lovely and charming as the previous seasons. I still can't believe we actually got more of the Kimi ni Todoke anime! And hopefully it does well enough for Netflix to invest in more, since we still haven't gotten to the end of the manga. At least we finally got to Sawako and Kazehaya's first kiss animated, but, come on! I want more!

Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF - Hallelujah! At the end of this cour, we FINALLY got to a new arc that was skipped over in the first anime adaptation. To be honest, I kinda understand why they skipped over it. Not because it's bad -- in fact, I really liked it! -- but because it's more focused on world-building and exploring the tension between the church and villages who still cling to pagan ways, rather than the economics and money-making schemes that have been at the center of the other arcs. It would have made a strange choice to end the first anime on such an arc, but, fortunately, it was just announced that this new adaptation is getting another season, so as a bridge between seasons, the new arc works just fine. Looking forward to more in the future!

My Hero Academia - Last cour I said I didn't mind when MHA went into non-stop battle mode because the fights were easy to follow and fun to watch. This cour, however, things have become kinda confusing with all the separate battles. It doesn't help that the show keeps going back in time to show what was happening while something else was going on. I also don't think it was necessary to bring back literally EVERY single character that ever appeared on the show. (That may be an exaggeration, but seriously? They even brought back ( Spoiler ), two minor comic relief villains who decide to come fight for the good guys?) Deku should be the star of this final battle, but he's pretty much gotten lost in the shuffle because there are just so many characters also fighting. That being said, there were a lot of awesome moments as well. The entire Todoroki family coming together to defeat ( Spoiler ) was a particular highlight that left me in tears. And there are still a few more episodes left to go, so hopefully the series will stick the landing.

Mission: Yozakura Family - Again, just a fun, entertaining show about a wacky family of spies. I do wish the show had focused a little more on Taiyo and Mutsumi's romantic relationship, but otherwise, I can't think of much to say about it!

Twilight Out of Focus - I have to admit I was super-surprised that the main couple of Mao and Hisashi got together so quickly, unaware at first that this BL show was actually more of an anthology series. The first four episodes focus on Mao and Hisashi, the "friends-to-lovers" roommates. The next threee follow Jin and Ichikawa, the "rivals to lovers" directors. Lastly, Yoshino and Rei, who are basically the "opposites attract" couple, also get three episodes, with the last two episodes going back to finish Mao and Hisashi's storyline with a (very) minor focus on the other two couples. To my surprise, my favorite couple was actually Jin and Ichikawa. Friends-to-lovers is usually my thing, so you'd think I'd like Mao and Hisashi's story the most, but they got together so quickly that I didn't really get to enjoy them long enough as friends. They're also not the most interesting characters. (Actually, Hisashi's backstory as a victim of ( Spoiler ) could have been interesting to explore, but the show seemed reluctant to really dive into his character and how he felt about it, mostly sticking to Mao's POV. Considering that it's a fairly light-hearted show, I can see why they wouldn't want to go too deep into the subject, but in that case, why even include it in the first place?) Jin and Ichikawa, on the other hand) are much more dynamic characters and have the best chemistry of the three pairs. I also loved the little "twist" connecting their pasts. Anyway, I enjoyed the series! I just kinda wish they had stuck to one couple for the entire cour. I think all of the romances would have been better developed if they had more time.

SHY - Unlike the first season, which was broken up into several different arcs, this new season focuses on only one long arc, introducing the ninja, Ai. Though I liked the arc and Ai is a great character who I hope sticks around longer, I'm not sure it really needed to be quite so long. I admit part of my disappointment with the length is that Iko, being the only "normal" person in the main cast, obviously had to be left behind when Teru and the others went into battle, only showing up in the first couple of episodes and the last. Considering her friendship with Teru is one of the main appeals of the show for me, I really wish we could have seen her more! But it was nice to see Teru stepping into a leadership role, and the hints about the first superhero of Japan are intriguing.

Wonderful Precure - You know, this season might finally be winning me over a little. Or maybe I've just gotten used to the weirdness. I don't know. Don't get me wrong, I'm still not a fan of the premise and it's definitely one of my least favorite Precures so far, but this cour didn't bug me as much as the earlier ones. I think the fact that they haven't been shown going to school in a while helps. Also, the villains behind the possessed animals have finally appeared, and they actually have a pretty sympathetic reason for disliking humans, so I'm kinda interested in where they will go with it.

Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture - This Code Geass spinoff sequel is based on the series of alternate timeline movies that came out after the main series (in which ( Spoiler ) lives), but you don't really need to be familiar with them to watch Roze since it focuses on a new cast with only cameo appearances by the characters from the original series (and Akito of the Exiled). (I didn't even know Crunchyroll had the movies until I had already watched the first couple of episodes, so I'll get around to watching them eventually.) That being said, Roze basically comes across as a pale imitation of the original show, even copying some of the same story beats. The new characters aren't particularly memorable either aside from Roze and Ash (although I quite liked Natalia). The main issue, however, is that the series was originally broken up into four three-episode movies, causing some weird pacing issues that probably would have worked a lot better if the series had been allowed to be the normal 24-episode series it clearly should have been. It's a decent enough watch, but, eh, not really necessary viewing unless you're a mega fan of the franchise.

Delico's Nursery - This series kinda came out of nowhere. It just suddenly appeared on Crunchyroll a few weeks into the season, right around the Olympics when most of the series I was watching went on hiatus, so I decided to give it a shot since "hot guys taking care of children" is another one of my weaknesses. The "hot guys" in question are a group of investigator vampires at the Vlad Agency, tasked with solving a series of murders connected to the last remaining "true" vampire (called TRUE OF VAMP, otherwise referred to by the unfortunate portmanteau of TRUMP), but their recently-widowed leader Dali Delico is more focused on raising his two young sons after their mother's death than looking for clues. After complaints from the other agents, he decides to combine his job and parental responsibilities by having all the other fathers on the team bring their kids to work. It's a bit of a weird premise, but the kids are cute, and the series's take on vampires is actually pretty unique. (Aside from the immortal TRUMP, the rest are mortal and don't seem to need to drink blood to survive, although they can control people by biting them.) Unfortunately, the show seems to be rather a troubled production. It actually was supposed to start at the beginning of the season like all the other shows but got delayed, and now they've only aired six episodes, going into repeats until the second half of the cour starts at the beginning of the fall season. (Not sure why they didn't just wait until fall in the first place!) That doesn't sound promising, but, eh, we'll see what happens

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used To Be Archenemies - With a title like that, I was expecting a magical girl show with a bit of SenShi vibes. The actual show, however, is a romantic comedy series of half-length episodes (about 12 minutes), and Byakuya (the magical girl) and Mira (the evil lieutenant) have pretty much nothing in common with any of the SenShi pairings. I did like how far from stereotypical the two magical girls are - Byakuya is a near-emotionless orphan who only really cares about making enough money to survive, while her friend Hibana looks cute, but is super violent and drops F-bombs every other word -- and the budding relationship between Byakuya and Mira is pretty sweet. I just wish there were less ecchi moments. Byakuya's humanoid cat "mascot", in particular, is just awful, basically acting more like her pimp than a guardian or mentor, constantly sexually harrassing her and trying to get her to do dubious jobs. It doesn't help that Byakuya looks super young, especially next to Mira, who appears to be in his early 20s. She's living on her own (well, with her mascot) and doesn't go to school, so it's possible that she's an adult (and the fact that one of the jobs we see her do appears to be a hostess in a hostess club seems to indicate that), but Hibana is said to be 15 and I believe they were once classmates (although she was possibly an upperclassman), so who knows? In any case, if you want to watch a show about literal enemies becoming lovers, then I recommend the excellent Love After World Domination from a couple of years ago instead.

Oh, and of course I watched the Sailor Moon Cosmos movies. The first one had weird pacing issues, which considering that the manga version of this arc also has weird pacing issues isn't surprising, but I enjoyed the second movie more than I thought I would. For me, the manga never really properly conveyed the epicness of the battle against Galaxia, but I actually got that "epic" feeling during the movie. It was also fun to see characters like Sailor Heavy Metal Papillon finally animated. I just love her design. It's a shame they didn't get to use her in the original anime. She's one character I've always wanted more of.

Though this past season was rather sparse, the fall season looks to be rather jammed pack with shows I want to watch. Obviously I'll be continuing with Wonderful Precure, Delico's Nursery, and the last few episodes of My Hero Academia. There are also a lot of sequels this season -- so many that I'll probably put most of them on the back burner for now. I definitely plan to watch the seventh(!) season of Natsume's Book of Friends and the second season of After School Hanako-kun, but the rest (Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Saga, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, and Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-) can wait for a less packed season. As for new shows, Nina the Starry Bride, 365 Days to the Wedding, and Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii are on my must-watch list. There's also the 4 episode horror anime Uzumaki that just started airing on Toonami, just in time for Halloween. This isn't the first time Toonami has done the miniseries thing in October, but Uzumaki's catching a LOT of buzz online, so hopefully it'll be better than the dud that was 2022's Housing Complex C.

Sound Euphonium - It's a shame we didn't get to hear the band play as much as we did in the first two seasons, but otherwise, I absolutely loved this cour and the focus on Kumiko, who struggles to figure out what she wants to do after she graduates high school while also having to compete against a talented new transfer student who also plays the euphonium for the chance to play the soli with Reina at Nationals in the band's new contest piece. Also, no need to mention that the animation is still absolutely gorgeous!

Black Butler - Black Butler has one of the strangest release schedules I've ever experienced with anime. The first season is mostly true to the manga (apparently, I've never read it myself) until the ending, which is anime original. Then Season 2 is competely anime original and made essentially to undo the ending of the first season, which killed Ciel off. They went back to following the manga with Season 3 (Book of Circus), but the next two manga arcs were covered with a 2-episode OVA (Book of Murder) and a movie (Book of the Atlantic). Now seven years after the movie's release, it's back with a Season 4, covering the Public School Arc. If any series could really use a reboot, I'd put Black Butler at the top of my list at this point, but I actually really enjoyed this arc. In fact, it may be my favorite arc so far! It was nice to see Ciel interacting mostly with people around his own age for a change, and thankfully, there was very little creepy sexualizing of Ciel this time around. The last episode hints at the next arc, so hopefully it won't be too long before we actually get another season!

Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF - It's been a long time since I watched the first adaptation of Spice and Wolf, but I'm struck by just how similar this new adaptation is to the old one, to the point where I'm wondering why they didn't just make a sequel to the original if the intention is (presumably) to adapt the full novel series? Literally the only major change I've noticed is that the new series starts with a flash-forward scene. Other than that, it's basically the same exact show with new animation and music. That being said, it's still a great show! If you've never seen the first series, I definitely recommend checking it out. Lawrence and Holo are absolute masters at the art of flirtatious dialogue, and even a subject as dull as economics becomes positively riveting when those two are involved. If you have seen the first series, though... Eh, you can probably just skip this first cour and just pick it up once it gets to new material. If it ever gets to new material. (It's continuing into next season for a total of 25 episodes, which is the same length as the original series, so I'm not really sure what the overall plan is.)

Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again - This series does not put its best foot forward with the first episode, in which their teenage granddaughter (and her mother, but she's a daughter-in-law, so it's not quite as weird) gets the hots for her suddenly-young grandfather (who she knows is her grandfather). It's hard to tell whether we're supposed to believe Mino's just joking around, or if she actually serious. Fortunately, it's never mentioned again beyond the first episode, and Mino soon gets her own age-appropriate, not-related love interest. That's a good thing, because the rest of the series is a genuinely touching and sometimes bittersweet look at a loving, happily married couple getting a second chance to be young again and make the most of the time they have left together.

Laid-Back Camp - A change in animation studio means the show looks a little different than it did before, featuring a lot of hyper-realistic backgrounds that are likely actual filtered photographs, but at heart, it's still the same cute show about cute girls having fun while going camping. What more can you ask for?

My Hero Academia - The FOUR episodes of recap that started this cour were excessive and pretty pointless, but once it got back to the actual story, the show has been on fire (for the most part)! Good thing, too, since this is the start of the final batttle, the climax of the entire series. Normally I tend to get bored whenever there's too much fighting going on in a show, but My Hero Academia is one of the few series that can hold my interest even through back-to-back battles, thanks to how easy it is to follow along with what is happening and how cool and inventive everybody's powers are. I just wish ( Spoiler ) got to stick around a while longer. Yeah, her power was super OP, but it's a shame that she got killed off so soon after her introduction. At least she went out in a blaze of glory. I also almost completely forgot that there was supposed to be a traitor in Deku's class since it hasn't been mentioned in ages, so the revelation of their identity seemed kinda random and anti-climatic, but in hindsight, who it is makes sense, and the reason why they started working for All-For-One is very sympathetic, allowing them a chance for redemption.

Mission: Yozakura Family - Could have really done without the annoying big brother with the sister complex, but otherwise, this was a really cute and funny show about an ordinary teenage boy who "marries" (by way of an old family tradition that's probably not legally binding) his best friend/crush and becomes a member of a wacky family of spies.

A Condition Called Love - This show starts with an interesting premise. Hotaru loves her family and her friends, but believes herself to be aromantic, incapable of falling in love with anyone. (Of course she doesn't actually use that term, but it feels like an appropriate label for her, at least at first.) Hananoi, on the other hand, is the complete opposite, with absolutely no friends and distant family. For him, the ONLY thing that matters is romantic love, to the point where he seems to have no real personality of his own, since he's always trying to conform himself to his latest girlfriend's tastes. Obviously, he doesn't have the most healthy view on love, and even though it makes sense why he has such issues when you learn his backstory, it's easy to see why a lot of viewers find him creepy and stalker-ish at first. The thing is, while Hananoi does change little-by-little over the course of the series, the show has Hotaru decide she's in love with him way too early in his (re)development. When she confessed her love for him around the midway point, I was left wondering, "Why?" At that point, she still didn't know much about him, and what "changes" he'd gone through were so small that his grandmother basically had to tell Hotaru (and the audience, by extension) what they were. There were some cute moments between them, and I appreciated how much focus was put on the importance of communication (even if they didn't really do much with the idea, and Hananoi is still keeping a huge secret from her by the end of the show), but, really, there needed to be more time spent on developing Hananoi's character earlier in the series before they turned their trial relationship into a real one. That would have made it a much more compelling romance.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger! - This show started off really strong, but started losing me when Fighter D began impersonating a cadet and a lot of new characters were introduced at once right before a fairly boring battle tournament set in a parking garage, of all places. There just wasn't any time to learn or care about any of the other cadets before they started fighting, so those episodes were a bit of a drag to get through. It picked up a little near the end, but, still... Just too many characters introduced way too fast.

Vampire Dormitory - Ah, this show... It's kind of a trainwreck, to be perfectly honest, and I rolled my eyes more than a few times at how dumb the characters are and how idiotic the plot is, but...it's still pretty fun to watch? Like, in a "it's so bad, it's good" kind of way? Yeah, it's definitely no Shakespeare, but if you turn your brain off, it's an entertaining enough soap opera. Just don't think too much while watching it. Seriously, just don't.

Wonderful Precure - Still not really feeling this new Precure series, but I am glad focus has, at least for the moment, shifted mostly away from Iroha and her dog, Komugi to Mayu and her cat, Yuki, who are frankly much more interesting characters. The conflict between Yuki, who only cares about keeping Mayu safe and believes Iroha and Komugi are putting her in danger by being friends with her, and Mayu, who understands how Yuki feels but also wants to help her friends and the possessed animals, is really well done, and at least Yuki/Cure Nyammy is willing to do some actual fighting. I just don't get this insistence the show has with Komugi and Yuki attending school in their human forms. They're animals! They don't know how to read and write! Or at least they shouldn't, but it seems all logistics are just glossed over to put them in school uniforms.

Unnamed Memory - There are hints of a good story here. Too bad this anime has little interest in actually showing us that story, instead settling for basically summarizing the source material. Even for someone not familiar with the original light novels like me, it's obvious the show skips over a lot in favor of hitting the highlights. Things just happen with no warning and little explanation, almost forcing people to check the comments on Crunchyroll for spoilers to understand what actually happened. A lot of anime are created as extended commercials to get viewers to check out the original source, but in this case, it feels more like the show was aimed toward people who are already fans of the novels...except I can't imagine those fans being very happy with this kind of adaptation, either. Somehow, though, it's getting another season? 0.o Why? I mean, it's not outright terrible, but... (Actually, the last episode of the season was probably the best one of the series and basically resets everything, so maybe a second season could do a better job...but, eh, I'm not in any rush to watch it.)

Next season, I'll be continuing with Spice and Wolf, My Hero Academia, Mission: Yozakura Family, and Wonderful Precure. I also plan to watch the new season of SHY, but as for new shows... Honestly, nothing's really piquing my interest except maybe Twilight Out of Focus. Normally, that would be a bad thing, but with Sailor Moon Cosmos finally coming to Netflix in August, along with a third season of Kimi ni Todoke (so excited for both!), I've decided to subscribe to Netflix for a few months and catch up with some of the exclusive series I've been wanting to see there, like Delicious in Dungeon, My Happy Marriage, Romantic Killer, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, and the second season of Tiger & Bunny.

Current Mood: blah

Happy Easter if you celebrate!

Here's my review of the winter anime season:

A Sign of Affection - This was by far my most anticipated show of the season. I've been reading the manga and loving it, so I was thrilled to find out that it was getting an anime. I'm happy to say, the anime adaptation did the manga justice! Beautifully animated, and the romance is just so sweet. Some might argue that it doesn't portray Yuki's deafness 100% accurately -- she is a little too good at lip-reading, for example, although she still has trouble sometimes -- but I think it did a decent enough job.

The Apothecary Diaries -- Still love Maomao, still love this series! So glad another season has already been announced. As for this cour, it was nice to get some backstory about Maomao's family. What I find interesting is how the show at first makes you think Lakan is likely a bad guy who did something awful to her mother and that's why she doesn't like him, but the actual truth is far more tragic and sympathetic as far as he's concerned.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - I was a bit concerned when the show got to the first-class mage licensing exam that took up the majority of the second cour's run-time. I love the show for its slice-of-life traveling vibes, not because of its action and battle scenes (even though they do tend to be quite good when they happen), but I shouldn't have worried. While I do think too many episodes were spent on the exam arc and I really missed Stark, who didn't have much to do, not having the ability to do magic like Frieren and Fern, it still was an enjoyable change of pace with some fun new characters. That being said, I really have my fingers crossed that we get more of this show in the future and that we return to focusing on the main trio again as they continue their travels. (And maybe bring Sein back to make them a quartet again. He left the party way too soon!)

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy - I always get a chuckle whenever I read the full title of this series because Rishe's seventh life has not been easy-going and carefree so far in the least. She can't help herself, though. Whenever she sees someone in trouble or a problem to be solved, she can't resist involving herself -- and that's part of the reason why Arnold is so charmed by her. (It should be noted that even though Arnold is the "Worst Enemy" referred to in the title, they never had a truly personal hatred toward each other. (I don't think they even met in most of her lives.) It's just that the war he started ended up killing her, either directly or indirectly, in her six previous lives, and she's hoping to avoid that fate this time by preventing the war from happening in the first place.) The two of them have a fun chemistry together, and Rishe is just all-around awesome, using the knowledge she has gained over her many lifetimes to not make only her life, but everybody else's life, better.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House - This was a nice little supernatural romance. Nothing really special, to be honest, and the story felt a bit rushed, but I enjoyed it. With a title that references a "demon prince", I have to admit that I went in expecting Himari's love interest to be one of those jerks with a heart a gold that are so popular, so I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely gentle and kind Aoi turned out to be. More sweet boys like Aoi and Itsuomi (from Sign of Affection) as love interests, please!

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! - I feel the same about Cherry Magic; it's a nice BL romance, but nothing makes it really stand out as amazing, even with the wacky premise of 30-year-old virgins getting the ability to read people's minds. (Well, other than the fact that it ends with Adachi and Kurosawa actually ( Spoiler! ) That's rare for even het romances in anime!) I did find the romance between the two co-worker leads really sweet and one of the most healthy I've come across in BL, though I was far less interested in the beta couple, Adachi's romance novelist friend and a young deliveryman/aspiring dancer who delivers his packages. Their romance just always seemed kinda...random and forced? Like, I genuinely can't think of a single thing they have in common other than they like cats, and they don't really have any kind of chemistry at all. One other thing that bothered me is the characters' eyes. I'm not usually one to nitpick animation errors, but whenever a character was supposed to be making eye contact with someone else, sometimes it appeared they were looking somewhere off to the side instead. Not a huge deal if it only happened every once in a while, but it was pretty much a near constant thing in the middle episodes, and I found it rather distracting.

Wonderful Precure! - I've been known to be a fan of human characters who turn into animals (*cough* Helios and most of the characters in Fruits Basket), but I'm a bit more iffy about animals turning into humans, especially if they're supposed to be just ordinary Earth animals. Last series (which ended well, btw!), there was Tsubasa/Cure Wing, a Puni Bird from Skyland who could switch between bird form and human form. That worked for me, since Puni Birds don't actually exist and he possessed very human-like intelligence (in fact he was the "smart" one of the group), but this season of Pretty Cure has the gimmick of regular Earth animals turning into humans in order to transform into Precures, and... Well, I'm iffy about it. It doesn't help that Komugi/Cure Wonderful acts very much like the puppy she actually is even in human form, making her seem like a cute toddler in a teenager's body, just with a more advanced vocabulary. (Again, last season, we had actual toddler Princess Ellee temporarily aging up to a teen to become Cure Majesty, but she didn't still act like a toddler when in that form.) It's just...iffy. Also, it's strange that so far Wonderful and Friendy (Komugi's human owner and fellow Precure) haven't used any offensive attacks against the possessed animals, instead trying to calm them down by other means. I mean, I get that they might want to avoid accusations of animal cruelty and stuff like that, but at this point, I don't really get the point of why Precures are needed if they aren't actually going to fight? At least give them human foes who are controlling the animals to battle, or something like that. (Yes, I know magical girls don't have to fight and do battles, but that's what Precures do! They're fighter magical girls!) In general, I just think the whole premise of this season is a bit of a mess, but maybe it'll get better next cour when more Precures join the team.

Blue Exorcist - It's really kind of ridiculous how many years pass between seasons of this series. First season aired in 2011, second in 2017, and finally a third in 2024! Thankfully, it was pretty easy to get back into the story despite the long break, and I liked that we finally got to explore Izumo's backstory. She's not always the most easy character to like, but knowing what she went through, it's not hard to understand why she finds it so hard to trust people.

The Witch and the Beast - I've been trying to think of what other anime this show reminds me of, and it just hit me: Witch Hunter Robin. Which should have been obvious since both shows are basically about hunting witches, duh. I really liked the world-building and beautiful character designs of TWatB, but the actual story... It's good, I guess, but the (mainly) two-episode arcs devoted to each case don't really help you get into the overall plot. (Which, again, was a complaint many people had with WHR, which was even more episodic in the first half.) It doesn't help that one episode was delayed (production issues?) and that the leads Guideau and Ashaf essentially disappear for one early arc, focusing on a different pair from the Order of Magical Resonance who have not been seen or mentioned since. Maybe they'll have more importance in a later storyline, but at the moment with what has been adapted so far, their arc feels like something that should have been an OVA, not a part of the main series. In any case, I came to actually really love Witch Hunter Robin once the meat of the main plot got started, so maybe the same will happen with this show, if it ever gets a continuation. The potential is there.

Next season, I'll be continuing with Wonderful Precure! and a bunch of new seasons of shows I already like: Sound Euphonium, Laid-Back Camp, Black Butler, and My Hero Academia. There's also the Spice & Wolf remake, which I'm really curious about. As for new shows, Tadaima, Okaeri sounds like it would be right up my alley...if it wasn't omegaverse. Omegaverse is just not my thing at all, but if it mainly focuses on the dads taking care of their kid and not so much on any of the stuff related to how that kid was actually conceived, I might give it a try. I definitely am interested in watching A Condition Called Love, Unnamed Memory, and Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again, though.

Current Mood: sleepy

Time for the Winter Anime Review! Although, before I do that, I forgot to put my usual look back on the fanfiction I've written in the previous year in my year-end post, so here are the links to those on my Tumblr if anybody's interested:

Traditional Questionnaire

And I did something new and wrote individual posts on each of last year's fics. You can find all the tagged posts here.

Now, onto the anime reviews!

Buddy Daddies - I've said it before, but I have such a weakness for series about unexpected men needing to take care of a small child, and this show has TWO! Definitely my favorite of the season. I just loved watching the two of them learn how to care and eventually love Miri, and while I don't necessarily ship them in a romantic sense, I do adore the idea of Kazuki and Rei being queerplatonic partners (especially since I get major aroace vibes off Rei). My one real gripe about the show is that I just don't buy Kazuki as a hitman. Rei, it makes sense. He was literally born into the business, trained to be an assassin since he was a child, but beyond a throwaway line about him turning out the way he did because his parents abadoned him as a child, it's never really explained why Kazuki decided to become a hitman. (Spoilers for Spy X Family: ( Spoilers )) He's much more suited to being a stay-at-home father or a chef (( Spoilers )) than a killer, and while it is acknowledged that Kazuki isn't that great at being a hitman, that still doesn't explain how and why he is one other than that's the premise of the show. (Honestly, I could have lived without the whole hitman angle altogether. It makes the show sound too much of a ripoff of Spy X Family, and I was much more interested in their every day lives than their jobs.)

Trigun Stampede - The original Trigun was one of my favorite shows when I first started watching anime, but it's probably been at least 15, maybe even 20 years since I last watched it, so I was able to come into Stampede with pretty fresh eyes. First off, the CG animation is absolutely stunning. It's probably one of the best looking anime I've seen, period. I also thought Knives was a much more interesting and complex character than he was in the original and was given a much better reason for wanting to kill all the humans. And the twist? Well, I won't say anything more about that... So which series do I like better? I'd say the characters are more endearing in the original, and I really enjoyed the mix of comedy and drama, but the new series has a tighter, more gripping plot that touches on some really fascinating questions. They're both great in different ways, and I'd recommend both! (And for those who were reluctant to check out the new series because of no Milly, again, I don't want to spoil anything...but I'm looking forward to the next season!)

Delicious Party Pretty Cure/Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure - I found the ending of Delicious Party to be rather lackluster, to be honest, but Soaring Sky is off to a really strong start! Like with the last series, they're taking their time adding Pretty Cures to the story, with the third just making his debut in the ninth episode -- and, yes, that "he" isn't a typo. For the first time, a boy is going to be one of the main Cures! (I believe there have been male Cures in previous seasons I haven't seen, but it seems they only had small roles.) The fourth Cure is also going to be another first for the series, an adult (albeit only an 18-year-old)! We've already met her "civilian" identity, and she seems like she'll be a fun addition to the group whenever she awakens. Then there's Sora and Mashiro, the first two Cures, who already have a super close friendship that I actually wouldn't be all that surprised turned romantic based on all the subtext between them. Now, would they really dare go that far with a Pretty Cure series? I don't know, but, again, their chemistry is so strong that anything seems possible...

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady - Mmm, I have conflicted feelings about this one, despite it getting a lot of high praise in ANN's season wrap up. The animation is beautiful, Anisphia and Euphyllia are interesting characters, and their (absolutely unambiguous) romance is great, but I found the plot and world building fairly weak. Despite Anisphia being the "Reincarnated Princess" referred to in the title, the fact that she used to live in the "real" world is mentioned only, like, three-ish times? We learn absolutely nothing about her previous life other than that she always wanted to fly, and you can be forgiven for forgetting this is technically an "isekai" series due to how little her reincarnation affects the plot. Take that aspect out of it, and very little would change. Also, there's a lot of talk about the kingdom needing to change, but it's never really shown why? There definitely were some corrupt nobles, but with what little screentime is given to the commoners, none of them seem particularly unhappy or displeased with how the country is run, so it was hard to really care about the political stuff. (Really, it comes across more like the only reason why the change is needed is because neither Anisphia or her brother Algard want to be queen/king...) I think it really would have helped if Anis and Euphie interacted with more commoners besides their maid, Ilia. (And I guess Lanie kinda counts?) Still a really good show that I enjoyed, but I wouldn't call it a great one.

My Hero Academia - Well, that was depressing...and I don't mean that it a bad way. After all, it's hard to be hopeful after all the big losses from last cour. Poor Deku really goes through it, forcing himself to leave the school and fight mostly on his own in order to protect his friends, but I'm glad the class managed to ( Spoilers ).

BOFURI - This is just such a fun, relaxing series, even with all the battles. If that seems like a contradiction...well, it kinda is, but seriously, after all the "stuck in a video game" series with dire, real-world consequences, it's just nice to watch a bunch of people simply having fun playing a VR game where nothing's really at stake besides winning events. I do wish they showed a little more "real-world" stuff like the first season did -- as with Magical Revolution, you could almost forget they are just playing a video game -- but that's my only real complaint...well, other than all the delays. They delayed an episode one week in the middle of the season, and now the last two episodes have been delayed, too. I'm not sure if the delays were production problems or COVID-related, but definitely a bit disappointing.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl - I was really expecting to love this show. "Friends-to-lovers" is one of my favorite tropes, so Tomo-chan should have been a slamdunk...except I shipped Tomo more with her upperclassman from Karate Club, Misaki, than her actual best-friend-turned-love-interest, Jun. I don't know... Maybe it was the fact that Tomo and Jun tend to hit each other a lot that tended to turned me off? It's not exactly abusive (and I believe they intended the violence to be seen as comedic), since they're both in the Karate Club and they're pretty evenly matched, but it was a strange dynamic that didn't really work for me. Also, I got tired of Tomo trying to force herself to be more girly so that Jun would see her as a love interest pretty quickly, especially since it's clear from the start of the series that ( Spoilers ). I did really enjoy Tomo's friendship with Misuzu and Carol, though, and I have to admit, there were some pretty hilarious moments. Jun even managed to win me over a bit by the end...but I still would have preferred her with Misaki.

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun -- The Harvest Fest arc really did take up way too much time, but at least it ended with a pretty good conclusion. These last two cours really have been the weakest of the series, unfortunately. Next up, assuming it gets another season (which I'm almost certain it will), seems to be another festival, but this one is going to be centered on music, which I think will be a lot of fun!

Bungo Stray Dogs - I wish there weren't such long breaks between seasons of this series. (The last season before this aired in 2019, although there was the series of non-canonical Wan! shorts in 2021.) With so many characters and factions, it can be difficult to remember who everybody is, what faction they belong to, and what their Gifted power is. That being said, I did really love that this season started with a mini-arc devoted to Ranpo's backstory, since he's one of my favorite characters. It was also a bit heartbreaking to learn about Yosano's backstory, too. And, hey, the next cour is set to begin this summer, so not a long wait this time!

To Your Eternity - A third season has already been announced, although I'm not really sure where it will go when I felt the end of this cour wrapped things up really well. (Based on the brief flashforward we saw at the very end, ( Spoilers ), which could be...interesting.) Anyway, this series never really got back to greatness of its first few arcs, but I still enjoyed this cour, even though I felt like Fushi ( Spoilers ) kinda cheapened the earlier, heart-breaking deaths.

IDOLiSH7 - Only three episodes aired to end the last cour -- still not sure why; I assume COVID-related -- so not much to talk about other than I really hate Ryo and think his reasons for doing such awful things is one of the stupidest motives I've ever heard for a villain. (Basically, ( Spoilers ) Yes, that's seriously why he decided he hated all idols and wants to destroy them, no matter the cost.) Next season (if there is one) seems like it will focus on Nagi, my second favorite (after Yamato) member of IDOLiSH7, so hopefully that will be fun, but I'm not looking forward to Ryo sticking around...

As for next season, it's once again sequel-heavy. In additon to continuing with the new Pretty Cure, I'll be checking out the second seasons of MIX, The Ancient Magus' Bride, TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You, and Birdie Wing -Golf Girls' Story- (which I actually just finished catching up with, so great timing). There's also Dr. Stone: New World, but since I assume Toonami will get that, I'll just wait to watch it on there. When it comes to new series, I'm most interested in Skip and Loafer, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, and A Galaxy Next Door, but might also check out Yuri Is My Job!, Ao no Orchestra, and My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999, depending on early reviews and which shows Crunchyroll actually gets.

This was another pretty great season of anime! I really enjoyed almost everything I watched, with one exception.

SPY x FAMILY: Still love, love, love! This cour was perhaps slightly weaker than the first with a lot that could be considered "filler" (though very fun filler!), but this show has really shot to the top of my favorites, not just this season, or even this year. I'm talking about all-time! Well, I probably would still say Kaleido Star is my ultimate favorite, but seriously, I haven't fallen for a show like this since...well, Kaleido Star! I even bought an Anya Mini Figuarts figure during Crunchyroll's Black Friday sale (although I'm still waiting for them to actually ship it... Gotta give them props for not only giving everyone affected by the back-up free express delivery upgrades, but also a $25 off coupon!). So happy that another season has already been confirmed, along with an anime-original movie!

Bocchi The Rock! - This was not on my initial list of shows to watch this season, but the good reviews it got during ANN's preview guide convinced me to give it a try, and I'm so glad I did! I tend to love series about people forming a band, and this one was no exception. So, so hilarious, and Bocchi's social anxiety was very relatable, but not to the point where it felt cringy like in some shows I've watched. (I'm thinking specifically of It's Your Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular (or whatever it's called).) The music scenes were also really well done, feeling realistic for a new, relatively inexperienced band.

Raven of the Inner Palace - I always love a good historical fantasy shoujo, and bonus points if it involves the supernatural, so Raven was right in my wheelhouse. I loved watching Shouxue gradually opening up to other people (especially her love interest, Emperor Gaojun), and the character and costume designs were beautiful, even if the animation itself was nothing special. I also thought the mythology in the show was really well-done and interesting. Definitely hoping for another season!

My Hero Academia - It's battle time! Pretty much the entire cour was taken up by an epic stand-off between the heroes and the League of Villains, and I was quite surprised by how well it managed to keep my interest throughout the entire arc without any real breathers. I actually somehow managed to keep unspoiled about Dabi's true identity, so I really enjoyed the reveal and the effect it had on Endeavor. The one part I hated, though, was when ( Spoiler ). Having her moment to shine essentially stolen by a male character just left a bad taste in my mouth...

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun - I'm a huge fan of this series, but I have to admit, this cour seemed a bit weaker than the past cours. I just wasn't all that interested in the Harvest Festival hunting, and it's a shame that Iruma, Asmodeous, and Clara were separated into different groups. Their friendship is the real heart of the show, and while I guess it's nice to let Iruma interact with some of the other characters more, I just don't care much about Lead, who is his partner during the hunt. It's still a pretty good cour, but, yeah, not the best, at least in this half of the season. Another cour is following into the Winter season, so hopefully things will pick up!

IDOLiSH7 - On the other hand, IDOLiSH 7 redeemed itself a little from the last cour, which I found a bit lackluster. This cour still isn't quite as good as the earlier seasons, and I'm just not interested in ZOOL at all, but it was cool to see TRIGGER try to reestablish themselves after a scandal led to them being dropped by their label, and of course, the music is always great, especially Re:Vale's "Esperanza". Interesting that they're taking a month long break, then actually finishing the cour in February with the last four episodes. They certainly ended this week's episode with quite the cliff-hanger!

Delicious Party Precure - Still fun, still cute. I don't really have much more to say!

I'm the Villainess so I'm Taming the Final Boss - With a title like that and a similar premise, comparisons to My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead To Doom are inevitable, but they're actually fairly different once you get past the surface. For one, Aileen has it way more together than Bakarina, being smart, cunning, and ambitious (traits that unfortunately get her labeled a "villainess"). Also, while Next Life goes the harem route, with all of Caterina's friends falling in love with her regardless of gender while she's mostly oblivious to their romantic intentions, Aileen's pretty set on Claude, the title "Final Boss", once they fall in love. Unfortunately, while Aileen herself is a great character, the story she's thrown in...is not the best. It's not horrible or anything, but the pacing is rather fast, and I don't think her romance with Claude is all that well developed.

To Your Eternity - I feel a bit like a broken record saying this, but while this cour wasn't as great as the beginning few arcs, it was a lot better than the last arc that ended the first season. While Bon started off annoying, he grew on me as the arc went on. I'm not sure how long this cour is supposed to be, but it does seem like it's going to run into the next season, which makes sense considering it started later than most shows.

Housing Complex C - This four episode mini-series was...not good. Way too confusing with too many red herrings, and for supposedly being a horror series, it wasn't very scary at all? Yeah, a definite dud.

And now my annual ranking of my top ten favorite anime of the year! For the past couple of years, this list has tended to include a lot of sequel cours, but there were actually a lot of fantastic new series this year. Of the sequel series, only Kaguya-sama made the list! (Well, and I guess The Case Study of Vanitas also counts since it started last year, but I didn't watch the first part until this year when Crunchyroll started streaming it.)

1. Spy X Family

2. My Dress-Up Darling

3. Bocchi The Rock

4. Love After World Domination *

5. Dance Dance Danseur

6. Kaguya-sama: Love is War Ultra Romantic

7. Raven of the Inner Palace

8. Sasaki & Miyano *

9. The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting

10. The Case Study of Vanitas

* Denotes series I didn't watch simulcast, but picked up later.

As for next season, I'll be continuing with Delicious Party Precure, Iruma-kun, To Your Eternity, and IDOLiSH7 when it resumes, as well as the new seasons of Bungo Stray Dogs, BOFURI, D4DJ, Tsurune, and the new remake of Trigun, assuming Crunchyroll gets them.. That really doesn't leave much room in my schedule for new series, but the ones that have caught my eye are The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess, Tomo-chan Is A Girl!, and Buddy Daddies. Man, next season is stacked! I'm...not really sure what I'm going to do! *laughs* Some of the returning series might actually have to wait, because I'm particularly interested in Tomo-chan Is A Girl! and Buddy Daddies.

After a jam-packed spring, the summer anime season was a bit lacking. On a positive note, that did give me time to catch up with spring's Love After World Domination, which I absolutely loved! As for this season's shows:

The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting - Give me an anime about some unexpected guy forced to take care of a cute little kid who wins over his heart, and I'm there. I do wish it had been a little harder for them to bond at first because Kirishima adjusts to babysitting Yaeka way too easily, IMO, but otherwise, it's just a cute, heartwarming series with the occasional dark moment (because it is the Yakuza). My favorite of the season!

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)

Raven of the Inner Palace

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.

Current Mood: blah

Before I get to this season's reviews, some exciting news -- I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister is pregnant with her second child, due in April. It came as a shock to pretty much everyone since my nephew is already seven-and-a-half. (He'll be eight by the time the baby is born, as long as they don't arrive too early.) Everyone thought for sure he was going to be an only child, but surprise!

Anyway, onto the reviews!

The aquatope on white sand - In a season where I mostly just followed continuing series and sequels, this was the only new series that managed to catch my eye, and I'm so glad I checked it out. Though it's continuing into next season, based on this first cour, I'd say this has the potential to be one of my favorite series of the year. The animation is just gorgeous, the characters are great, and the storyline is poignant. The only thing I didn't particularly care for was the random visions people got at the aquarium, a plotline that never really went anywhere, at least in this first half.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X - I could have done with a lot less forced kisses on the parts of Geordo and Keith (and did they really need two more kidnappings arcs?), but otherwise, it's always a pleasure to spend more time with Bakarina and her ever-growing harem (shout-out to Nicol's spotlight episode, which was absolutely gorgeous), even if there wasn't much of a plot to speak of now that she's "won" the game. But, what's this? There's a Fortune Lovers II? And a Villainess movie has been announced? Game on!

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! - This show just makes me smile! The amusement park storyline was a lot of fun and allowed some of the less popular characters from Iruma's class to stand out more. Also, Iruma and Ameri went on an adorable date! I'm not sure if Iruma actually understood it to be a romantic date or not, but it was still really sweet and cute. Glad this is getting another season!

IDOLiSH7 - Y'all know how much I loved the first two season of IDOLiSH7, so I was expecting to love the new season, too. Unfortunately, even though the story finally focused on the backstory of my favorite member of the group - Yamato - the way his arc played out was somewhat dull, with a conflict that could have been solved in a couple of episodes if he would have just talked to others. (And the choking scene was just...weird.) The second half of the cour picked up a bit, but overall, I'd say it was just pretty good, not great. Still looking forward to second half of the season next year, though!

My Hero Academia - After the endless training fest of the last cour, it was nice to see the show focus back on other things. Even though there was still some training with Endeavor at the beginning of the cour, most of the first arc focused on Endeavor trying to atone for his abusive behavior toward his family, which I thought was handled reasonably well. I liked that it was acknowledged that it was okay for his children not to forgive him, even though he was genuinely regretful. Some scars are just too deep. The second part of the cour turned into My Villain Academia, which was an interesting twist! I've never been too interested in the villains, admittedly, but seeing their backstories did make them a bit more sympathetic.

Tropical-Rouge Precure - Nothing much to say that I haven't said already! It's a fun, but silly, show, and Laura is still the best part of it. I do wish they would focus on the other Pretty Cures beside Laura and Manatsu, though. I can't even remember the other girls' names most of the time. Sango... Yeah, see? (Asuka and Minori -- those are their names! I knew they started with an A and an M, at least.)

To Your Eternity - While the first cour was fantastic, the second cour was a lot weaker, focusing on just one arc (for the most part). I'm still not sure why they decided to animate it now, considering it wasn't even a full cour. Since another season has already been announced, I think it would have made a lot more sense to wait to do this arc then and finish it in less episodes. I just don't think the Jananda arc needed six episodes to be told, especially if they had no real intention of focusing on all the other kids. The last episode, centered on Pioran, was excellent, though, and I am hoping the new season returns back to the greatness of the first cour.

Fena: Pirate Princess - Okay, so Aquatope wasn't the only new series I checked out. I almost forgot that I'm watching Fena on Toonami, which kinda says it all, doesn't it? It's a shame, because there was definitely potential in the premise and it looks beautiful, but the characters just aren't that interesting. Granted, I'm a few episodes behind due to watching on Toonami, so maybe the second half of the series will improve?

As for the Fall season, I'll be continuing with Aquatope and Tropical Rouge Precure (and Fena on Toonami), and I plan to check out the second season of Restaurant To Another World, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, takt op Destiny, and Platinum End. I was interested in PuraOre! Pride of Orange when I heard it was going to be about a girls' ice hockey team, but apparently it is actually a combination of hockey/idol show and the reviews haven't been great, so I think I'll give it a pass. It's on Funimation, anyway. I also intend to watch the new season of Demon Slayer, but I'm assuming that will be picked up by Toonami again (maybe once Fena ends), so I'll just wait.

Current Mood: excited

Long time, no see! I'll hopefully get around to posting a new Merchandise Round-Up soon -- I've got some really cool stuff to show off! -- but for now, let's talk about the winter anime season. At the moment, I'm just going to focus on the shows I watched on Crunchyroll. I've just started a two week free trial at Funimation so I can marathon through the four shows that really interested me this season (Sk8 the Infinity, Skate-Leading Stars, Horimiya, and 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team), which means I haven't really watched enough to form an opinion on them yet. I'll probably edit this post later with my thoughts when I finish.

Sk8 the Infinity: This is what I meant about making a sport exciting when talking about the surfing anime below. I don't care about skateboarding at all, but, dang, those races were thrilling and cool! Also loved the friendship between Reki and Langa, but ADAM is a world-class creep. Best show of the season by far.

Skate-Leading Stars: Y'all already know how much I love figure skating, so, to be honest, this show wasn't a hard sell for me. *laughs* I did have to turn off my brain a little bit to watch it, though, because the jumps were just so ridiculous. Apparently everybody can do quads in this world, even a guy who quit the sport as a novice in singles and decided to come back years later to compete as part of a skate-leading team. He even tried a quint at one point and landed a quad axel/quad toe loop/quad loop, which is just...impossible. Buuuut, even though I was annoyed that the teams wore the same costumes for both their short and free programs and wished they had showed more of the programs, what skating they did show was well animated, and I just really enjoyed it. No, not as good as Yuri!!! on Ice, but still a fun watch.

Heaven's Design Team - This was probably my favorite of the season -- fun and educational! After almost every episode, I ended up hitting Wikipedia to learn more about the animals featured. I wish they had decided they were going to use the localized English names from the manga for the characters from the start instead of suddenly switching three episodes in when I was just getting used to the Japanese names, but that's my only real complaint.

Horimiya - The first half of this series was fantastic! But starting around the halfway mark, when the titular couple started dating, it seemed to lose its way a little. Apparently a lot was cut from the manga in order to make the whole series fit into a single season, and it showed. I still really enjoyed it for the most part, but Hori became kinda unlikeable with her unreasonable possessiveness and her pushing an obviously uncomfortable Miyamura to beabusive to her in public as part of her masochistic kink
I really think the show would have worked better with another season and more chances to show the good side of their relationship, along with exploring some of the side characters more. (I especially liked the love triangle between Yuki, Tooru, and Sakura.)

Tropical-Rouge! Precure - I don't think I've ever seen such a HYPER magical girl lead. Manatsu can be a bit much to take in at times, but it's fun and colorful, and Laura the mermaid is kind of a wicked delight. It's only been a few episodes so far since it started mid-season, but I'm enjoying it!

2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team - This show really wasn't what I was expecting, which seems strange to say when it's clear from the title that it's a volleyball anime. I just wasn't expecting it to focus so much on volleyball? Especially based on the first couple of episodes. I thought it would focus more on Hajima working to become a better person and team player when his bullying of one of his old teammate resulted in said teammate trying to commit suicide (not a spoiler, BTW), which he does, somewhat, but... It's hard to explain. It doesn't help matters that it turns out thesuicide attempt was actually faked, seemingly absolving Hajima of most of his guilt.Anyway, it was a good series, but I couldn't help feeling that it didn't know what it wanted to be, if that makes sense?

Quintessential Quintuplets - I really enjoyed the first season, so I was looking forward to watching this continuation. Unfortunately, the pacing just felt...off almost all season, and the girls (especially looking at you, Ichika) backstabbing each other to try to win Futaro's heart was disappointing when they mostly avoided that in the first season. There were still some good parts, but, eh, I was left underwhelmed.

WAVE - Let's go surfing!! - Though I tend to enjoy sports anime, even for sports I don't particularly care for, this show really did nothing to make surfing seem exciting. Don't get me wrong; it's not terrible. It's a nice enough show, and I give it props for genuinely surprising me bykilling off one of the main characters early in the series in a surfing accident, but we didn't even find out for certainhe was deaduntil the second-to-last episode. There was really no reason to make it a mystery for the audience, many of whom were hopinghe was alive after allaccording to the comments at Crunchyroll. EDIT: Wait! I wrote this review before actually watching the final episode, and it turns outhe actually is alive? Or maybe he was supposed to be a spirit or a ghost?I don't know! They never really explained why he decided to go surfing during a storm either, when he knew how dangerous it could be. Now I'm really curious and want a second season! Or at least to see the movie this series was apparently based on.

Bungo Stray Dogs Wan! - A series of amusing shorts based on Bungo Stray Dogs, it was good, but mostly forgettable aside from the episode that turned most of the cast into pre-schoolers with Dazai as their teacher. Hilarious!

The spring season is looking to be REALLY good, with lots of sequels to series I already enjoy. Of course I'm going to continue with Tropical-Rouge! Precure, as well as the new seasons of Fruits Basket, Zombie Land Saga, My Hero Academia, and Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun. That doesn't leave much room for new shows, but Those Snow White Notes, The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent, Bakuten!!, and Farewell, My Dear Cramer have all caught my eye. Guess I'll just have to see which ones land on Crunchyroll to help me decide!

Current Mood: geeky

Long time, no post! Here's a wrap-up of the last anime season:

I'd say it was a pretty good season overall. A lot of what I watched was continuations from the fall season – Chihayafuru, My Hero Academia, Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun, and Ahiru no Sora (which is continuing into spring as well) – but I really enjoyed the new shows I picked up.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken – If you haven't already watched this, do yourself a favor and just do it. Seriously, it's fabulous, and I have a feeling it will definitely make my Best Series of the Year list. It's just so imaginative and passionate and…really, really, really good!

Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It – Awkward title aside, this actually was a pretty cute and funny romance! I was a little worried at first that all the experiments they did would become repetitive and that it might have worked better as a short, but they actually managed to keep things fresh most of the time.And the main couple actually kissed and confessed at the end!That can be surprisingly rare sometimes…

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard – It's hard to put my finger on why I liked this show so much… I just did! Even if it did rely a whole lot on coincidence and the "cases" weren't all that interesting, I liked the characters, and I've always been a little fascinated by gemstones.

Haikyu!! – I was really looking forward to this after absolutely loving the first three seasons, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. I mean, it was still great, but the first half when they're focusing on the two training camps was kinda dull. Things are picking up now that they're actually at Nationals, though! Too bad we have to wait until summer for the next part.

For next season, it looks like it'll be another season of continuing shows. I'll be continuing with Ahiru no Sora, Idolish7 Second Beat, the new season of Major 2nd, and most importantly, the second season of Fruits Basket! (Finally into the part where the old anime left off – so excited to see it animated!) That doesn't leave a lot of room in my schedule for new stuff, and a lot of the shows I did want to watch (the second season of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (so annoyed Crunchyroll didn't get this since they have the first season!), Arte, Tamayomi, and Wave, Listen to Me!) aren't streaming on Crunchyroll, but Woodpecker's Detective Office, Sing "Yesterday" For Me, and My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! have caught my eye.

Gonna try to post a Merchandise Round-up soon. It's been a while since I did one, and I've got some pretty cool stuff to show off!

Current Mood: mellow

I promised a review of the 2019 fall season, so here it is!

Chihayafuru - So, so happy that this series finally got a continuation! Still as good as ever, and I"m glad I rewatched the first two seasons over the summer, so things are still fresh in my mind.

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun - Is it weird to call a show about a school for demons wholesome? Because that's really the word that best sums up this surprising little show. I pretty much just picked it at random because I wanted to watch at least one Halloween-appropriate show this season, but I actually loved it, even if it was clearly made with younger viewers in mind. There's still enough to keep adults (and those young at heart) entertained.

My Hero Academia - Maybe not the best season of MHA so far, but even just an "okay" MHA season is still really good, and it is picking up steam after a bit of a slow start. I enjoyed the addition of All-Might's old sidekick to the cast and learning more about Kirishima.

Ahiru no Sora - I do really love the fact that a shonen protagonist is inspired by his mom instead of his dad for once, but some of that good will is squandered by the fact that all the boys in this show are such pervs... Really not necessary. Ah, well. If you ignore that, it is a pretty good sports series with some great jokes and fun characters.

And, actually, I just realized all four of those shows are carrying over to the winter season -- how in the world did I manage that? *laughs* That doesn't leave much room in my schedule for new shows, but based only on summaries, I might check out Smile Down The Runway, The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, and Science Fell In Love, So I Tried To Prove It, depending on who picks them up for streaming. Oh, and the new season of Haikyu! is a must see as well.

And my picks for the Top Ten Series of 2019 are.... *drumroll*

1. Fruits Basket

2. O Maidens In Your Savage Season *

3. My Roommate Is A Cat

4. Chihayafuru (3rd Season)

5. given

6. The Promised Neverland

7. Kaguya-sama: Love is War

8. Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

9. My Hero Academia (Fourth Season)

10. Dr. Stone **

* Didn't watch the simulcast since it was on HiDive, but I got a free one month subscription with my Sentail Filmworks Black Friday order, which allowed me to finally see it. Absolutely loved it! Well worth a watch.

** Watching the dub on Toonami, so I'm a few episodes behind, but I've liked what I've seen so far enough to feel it deserves to be on the list.

Current Mood: okay

Welcome to 2020! I meant to make a post before the end of the year, doing my usual year-end fanfiction reviews and making a list of my top fifty favorite anime of the past decade, but, oops, I forgot! Well, better late than never, right?

First off, Top 50 Favorite Anime Series Of The Decade!

1. Yuri!! On Ice (2016)

2. Fruits Basket (2019)

3. Shirobako (2014)

4. My Love Story!! (2015)

5. Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (2016)

6. Bakuman (2010)

7. Space Brothers (2012)

8. ReLife (2016)

9. Oh, Maidens In Your Savage Season (2019)

10. Chihayafuru (2011)

11. Sailor Moon Crystal (2014)

12. Card Captor Sakura Clear Card (2018)

13. Tiger & Bunny (2011)

14. Bloom Into You (2018)

15. My Roommate Is A Cat (2019)

16. Yamada’s First Time (2010)

17. A Place Further Than The Universe (2018)

18. Yona of the Dawn (2014)

19. Zombie Land Saga (2018)

20. Death Parade (2015)

21. Your Lie In April (2014)

22. Major 2nd (2018)

23. Sound! Euphonium (2015)

24. Amagi Brilliant Park (2014)

25. Snow White With The Red Hair (2015)

26. Haikyu! (2014)

27. The Promised Neverland (2019)

28. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (2014)

29. Hinamatsuri (2018)

30. Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits (2018)

31. Orange (2016)

32. Given (2019)

33. Free! (2013)

34. Recovery of a MMO Junkie (2017)

35. Ancient Magus’ Bride (2017)

36. Sakura Quest (2017)

37. Love Stage!! (2014)

38. My Hero Academia (2016)

39. School Babysitters (2018)

40. Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2019)

41. Hanasaku Iroha (2011)

42. How To Keep a Mummy (2018)

43. Interviews With Monster Girls (2017)

44. Idolish7 (2018)

45. Flying Witch (2016)

46. Kiss Him, Not Me (2016)

47. Another (2012)

48. Bunny Drop (2011)

49. Tanaka-kun is always listless (2016)

50. Golden Time (2013)

Honorable mentions go to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Kimi ni Todoke - From Me To You, Natsume's Book of Friends, and Kobato. I only counted series that started between 2010-2019, so these didn't make the cut, despite airing partly between those years.

Now, fanfiction reviews! I answered three different year-end review questionnaires on my Tumblr, so I'm just going to link to them instead of copy and pasting. This entry is already getting long enough!

Set One
Set Two
Set Three

My review of the fall anime season and my choices for the Top Ten Anime of 2019 will be posted sometime in the next few days...hopefully.

Current Mood: hopeful

I'm back! Well, technically I've been back for a couple of weeks, but after six weeks of no Internet, I've been busy trying to catch up with everything I missed in the meantime. Among those things, the fall anime season. Two of the series I started out watching on Crunchyroll -- Dr. Stone and Fire Force -- are now airing on Toonami, so I ended up just completing three series this season, only one of them actually new and not a continuation from last season.

Fruits Basket - Still loving and can't wait for it to pick up again next year, though to be honest, I'm a little surprised I haven't cried as much as expected to. I'm thinking it's the same thing that happened with Sailor Moon Crystal in that I've read the manga (and watched the first anime) so many times that I've become a little desensitized to it. Doesn't mean it's not amazing, though! I particularly enjoyed the rewrite of Ritsu's introduction, which I thought was an improvement over both the anime and the first anime. Uotani's backstory was also wonderfully done. I actually did cry at that!

given - Picked this up mainly because I usually enjoy anime about bands, but I loved it. It's BL, but it's good BL. Like, seriously. And Mafuyu's song in episode nine? Incredible. I'm not usually the type to rewatch scenes over and over again, but I think I've watched the concert at least four or five times so far.

Mix - I enjoyed this series, but the ending arc where they're playing in the tournament seemed kinda lackluster, mainly becausenobody seemed to be taking the games too seriously. In fact, when the Meisei team finally lost, nobody seemed that torn up about it, which is weird for a sports anime. I suspect it's because the author is playing the long game, not wanting them to actually achieve their goals until later in their high school careers, but there could have been at least some tension.
Ah, well. The manga is still ongoing, so I do hope we get another season eventually. I did like the series overall.

Next season, I'll definitely be watching the new seasons of My Hero Academia and Chihayafuru, and I'm thinking about checking out Ahiru no Sora and Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun, but that's all has caught my eye so far.

Current Mood: geeky

Fall was a pretty good season, anime-wise.

Zombie Land Saga - I never expected to love a show about zombies so much, but Zombie Land Saga is downright hilarious with just the right amount of absurdity and heart. Plus, the idea of zombie idols is kinda brilliant. I thought IDOLiSH7 was going to be my favorite idol anime of the year, but this show surpassed it. I'm really hoping it gets a second season. It ended at a good point, but the final scene was definitely a sequel hook.

Double Decker! Doug & Kirill - This show started off really strong, but lost a little steam near the end, although I still really enjoyed it. And I have the say, the character designs were simply gorgeous!

Tsurune - Tsurune started airing a little later than most of the shows this season, so it still has a few episodes to go, but if you were a fan of Free!, then you'll probably also like this show, which is basically an archery-version of Free! Not that that is a bad thing in my book. Archery isn't quite as exciting as swimming, but Masa is really hot...

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san - It's always been a bit of a dream of mine to work in a bookstore, so it was fun to watch this series and see what it is like. Some of the customers that showed up were hilarious. I also enjoyed picking on all the censored mentions of real-life companies and manga series.

Ace Attorney - Decent season, I guess, but suffers from the same issue as the second half of the first season in that Mitsurugi was barely in it. I just can't really get into these other prosecutors.

Sword Art Online: Alicization (continuing) - Word of warning: Episode 10 is really tough to watch. Even censored... Well, it's disturbing. But the overall storyline so far is pretty good, and I'm looking forward to where it will go. I think this series is supposed to last for several seasons, which is pretty rare nowadays.

As for next season, I'll be continuing with Alicization, of course, and I'll probaby catch up with the second season of Mob Psycho 100 once I finish watching the first season on Toonami. Looks like there's a new season of B-Project, too. New shows that look promising are Domestic Girlfriend, Promised Neverland, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunōsen, and Dōkyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. Hopefully Crunchyroll will get at least some of them.

And now, for my Top Ten Series of 2018! There weren't any series this year that I would rate a perfect ten, but I think all of these are worth checking out.

* means I didn't watch the show while it was airing but picked up later due to good buzz.

1. Zombie Land Saga
2. Major 2nd
3. A Place Further Than The Universe *

4. Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card
5. Hinamatsuri *
6. My Hero Academia
7. School Babysitters
8. IDOLiSH7
9. The Ancient Magus' Bride
10. Double Decker: Doug and Kirill

How did seven years pass by without me noticing I never posted "To Be By Your Side" over at Archive Of Our Own? (For that matter, how has it been seven years since I wrote that story? It doesn't feel that long ago!) I could have sworn I did, but apparently I didn't. So, I've rectified that oversight, for anybody who may be interested.

Speaking of fanfiction, I have some news that may make a few people happy... ,I've been writing again! Yeah, it's been over two and a half years since I finally finished "Melting Ice" and declared myself in semi-retirement, but I've really been missing fanfiction lately. Maybe I was just burned out when I decided to stop, or maybe this is just a fleeting burst of inspiration... I don't know. I do know that I'm about two-thirds finished with "Friends With Benefits", a sequel to "Blood On His Hands" that I started a little before I decided to quit, and that I'm contemplating between continuing with two Sailor Moon stories after I'm finished. If given a choice, which would you rather me write?

"Metamorphosis", a kinda-prequel-but-not-really to "To Be By Your Side" about how Helios became priest of Elysion in the first place.

or

"Stolen Dreams", a story about (a grown-up, obviously) Chibiusa being seduced by an incubus who wants revenge against Helios.

I'm leaning toward "Metamorphosis" at the moment, but I was further along in "Stolen Dreams" before the break, so it might be easier just to finish that one.

Anyway, I'M NOT PROMISING ANYTHING, but maybe you'll see some new stuff from me in a few months? (I've already decided I'm not going to start posting anything until a story is done. I reserve the right to quit again at any time.)

Now... Summer Anime Review time.

Eh, there's not much to review, though. The continuations of "Major 2nd" and "My Hero Academia" were great, the new season of "Free!" had way too many new characters but was still pretty fun to watch, and I'm watching the "Attack on Titan" dub on Toonami, so I've only watched a few episodes of the new season so far. Not really enough to have a real opinion yet. The only brand new show I watched this season was "Holmes of Kyoto", which I really enjoyed a lot. Don't let the title fool you. The main characters do solve mysteries, but most of them aren't very interesting and it's not really what the show is about. It's actually more of a romance, and I enjoyed the characters.

I haven't actually had a chance yet to decide on what I'll watch this upcoming season, so I'll let y'all know later.

Current Mood: hopeful

It was a good season, although I'm disappointed that Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku didn't end up on Crunchyroll. I guess I can just get the manga that just came out in English anyway.

As for the rest:

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card - Loved it! Yeah, most of the episodes were filler and the ending wasn't very conclusive, but I'm like 95% certain that we'll get another season when the manga is closer to actually ending, so it didn't bother me that much. I just enjoyed seeing all these wonderful characters again!

My Hero Academia (continuing) - Seriously keeps getting better and better!

Major 2nd (continuing) - There were actually two baseball anime this season, and of the two, this one seemed more suited to my taste, so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did because I totally loved it. There's something almost nostalgic about it, even though it's set in the modern day. Maybe because it's a sequel to an older manga series, Major? But absolutely no knowledge is needed to enjoy 2nd, since it's focused on the kids of the main characters of the original series.

Comic Girls - Yet another "cute girls doing cute things" type of show, but it really was cute! A little more fanservice-y than these shows tend to be, but it didn't bother me. Still really funny and, well, cute!

Idolish7 - Just a few episodes carried into this season (although there was a small break in between), but, yep, definitely the best idol show I've seen. I'm happy to hear the news that there's going to be another season!

Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory - I was really looking forward to this, and it was pretty good, but it definitely didn't need a recap episode every fifth episode. It was also a bit disappointing that most of the season focused on new (though pretty interesting) characters instead of my old favorites. It ended at a weird point as well (probably because of the recaps), so fingers crossed we'll get more at a later date. I want to see the end!

Cute High Earth Defense Club HAPPY KISS! - This sequel series introduced a new group since the old group graduated in the OAV. I liked the new characters okay, but the original group had more chemistry and more distinct personalities. Still, a pretty fun show!

Darling in the FRANXX - Eh. It started off pretty well last season, but definitely lost steam along the way. Didn't help that there were a couple of episodes that consisted of the seiyuu just talking about the show instead of an actual episode. I believe one of the seiyuu was diagnosed with a serious illness during taping which might explain why that happened, but the show had bigger problems than that...namely that the whole backstory just didn't make much sense and the leads lost pretty much all their personality when they became an official couple.

As for the summer season, there are slim pickings when it comes to new shows. I'll be watching the continuations of My Hero Academia and Major 2nd and the new seasons of Free! and Attack on Titan, but the only new series that has caught my eye is Holmes of Kyoto. Oh, well, I guess it'll give me a chance to watch some of my backlog, which is nice.

Current Mood: dorky

I actually haven't finished this season yet, but I've watched enough to say that I really liked everything I watched...with one notable exception.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card - This was my most-anticipated show this season, and it absolutely lived up to the hype for me! Love, love, love it! The animation may be a little slicker and the guys may no longer have those ridiculously broad shoulders that were so popular in the 90s, but otherwise it doesn't feel like any real time has passed between this sequel and the original series. They even got most (maybe all?) of the original cast back and reused a lot of the same background music from the first series. My only real complaints so far are that the actual cardcapturing hasn't been very exciting and I have no idea if the second movie is supposed to be canon or not. (The show itself can't even seem to make up it's mind!) Those are pretty minor things, though.

School Babysitters - Oh, my, word, this series was seriously the CUTEST! I could have lived without the older brother who hits his little brother, slap-stick-style, and the kinda-creepy teenage boy who gets nosebleeds because he thinks babies and toddlers are just so cute, but if you ignore those two problematic things, this show is just full of the WAFF-y goodness.

IDOLiSH7 - I've watched a few idol shows over the past couple of years. They were usually pretty good, but nothing memorable. This show, however, I could actually see myself buying to rewatch if it continues to be this good. It's genuinely funny and touching, the music is great, and the guys' personalities are developed enough that I can actually remember their names (most of the time)!

The Ancient Magus' Bride - I don't think this second half was quite as strong as the first half, but I still really liked it...with the caveat that I have yet to watch the final episode. I've heard that a lot of people feel like the ending was rushed since the anime caught up with the manga and they had to do an anime-original ending. Unless it's, like, Kare Kano bad, though, I don't think it'll ruin how I feel about the rest of the series, which was great.

March comes in like a lion - March's pacing has always been a little disjointed, but I think the fact that the show went on break for a couple of weeks while the Olympics were airing made it feel more disjointed than usual. Still good, though.

DARLING in the FRANXX - This was not on my original to-watch list, but it sounded kinda interesting when I checked out ANN's Preview Guide, especially since mecha series aren't very popular nowadays. It's pretty good so far, but I don't see it becoming, like, Evangelion/Rah-Xephon/Full Metal Panic-good. We'll see.

Maerchen Maedchen - This series... Well, I'm not sure what really happened. The production was apparently very troubled, leading them to take two weeks off to improve the quality of episode 9. That meant they had to end with episode 10, even though it was meant to be a twelve-episode series. I haven't actually watched those two episodes yet, but just knowing what happened, that can't be good. It wasn't even that great in the first place, despite having quite an interesting premise (magical girls based on fairy/folk tales). What a shame.

As for next season, I have sooooo much I want to watch, I'm not sure I can fit everything in my schedule! I'll definitely be watching the continuations of CCS: Clear Card, IDOLiSH7, and FRANXX, as well as new seasons of My Hero Academia and Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory (*squee* finally more FMP!). Brand new shows I might check out if available for free streaming are: Tada Never Falls in Love, Comic Girls, Devils' Line, Piano no Mori and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku. I want to watch Lupin the Third: Part 5 and Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online, but I think I may wait and see if they're picked up by Toonami first since Toonami aired previous seasons of those shows. I'm on the fence on Steins;Gate Zero... I liked the original series well enough, I guess, but I'm not in any rush to watch more. I'll probably save it to watch at a later date.

One series I WON'T be watching, despite my usual compulsion to complete a series, is Tokyo Ghoul:re. I forced myself to watch the first two seasons that aired on Toonami and hated almost every minute of it, so, nope, not going to torture myself any longer. Gonna cut my losses and stay far, far away!

Current Mood: sleepy

After a pretty blah summer season, I'm happy to report that the fall season was much, much better!

Recovery of a MMO Junkie - This series wasn't even originally on my radar, but after reading the reviews of the first episode during ANN's Preview Guide, I thought it sounded interesting and gave it a shot. I'm glad I did! It was nice to see an anime romance centered on people around my age for once, and it was just really cute and funny. Loved it!

Anime Gataris - This is more along the lines of what I wanted last season's Gamers to be - a show about a geeky subject that focuses almost completely on said geeky subject, instead of romance. And the last few episodes? Crazy, but in the best meta way.

The Ancient Magus' Bride - I've always been a little tempted to pick up the manga for this series, but I have to admit that the initial premise turned me off a bit. Thankfully, the anime allowed me to check the story out for free. Even though the premise is a bit problematic, it is actually handled pretty well, and I love how well-researched all the obscure magic stuff is. Also, some of the scenes were just stunning. Continuing into next season.

March comes in like a lion - This new season was much stronger than the previous seasons. I liked that it didn't focus so much on shogi tournaments and more on the characters, especially the sisters. Hina's bullying story, in particular, was quite moving. I think this is continuing?

Kino's Journey - the Beautiful World - - I watched the original series that came out about ten? fifteen? years ago and remember really liking it, but this sequel/remake was just okay. The Kino in this series is almost a different character than the one I remember.

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life - I really wish this series had focused more on the title "Apartment Life" instead of lead character Yushi's boring school life. Honestly, I'm not sure what the point of having him live with a bunch of yokai and learn magic was when it rarely affected the plot...

Love is like a Cocktail - It was cute. Basically all you can say about a three minute short!

Black Clover - I was watching the Japanese version, but when Toonami announced they were going to air the dub, I decided to stop and switch over to the English version, so I'm way behind. Toonami hasn't even gotten to the episode where I left off yet. Still, considering how incredibly ANNOYING Asta's seiyuu's voice is, I don't mind. The episodes I did see were pretty good, though.

And my ranking of My Top Ten Anime of 2017:

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (2nd season)
Sakura Quest
Recovery of a MMO Junkie
Natsume's Book of Friends 6 - I actually didn't watch this when it was simulcast because I needed to watch all the previous seasons first, but I really loved the whole series.
Anime Gataris
The Ancient Magus' Bride
Tsudere Children - This was another show I didn't watch when it was first airing, but checked out later due to good buzz.
My Hero Academia (2nd season)
Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga (2nd season)
Love Tyrant
March comes in like a lion

Not much has really caught my eye for next season other than Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card. (So, so excited! And I just bought the first manga volume, too.) Other possible picks are: Gakuen Babysitters, Marchen Madchen, and Takunomi. Maybe Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls since I watched the first season way back when.

Happy New Year!

Current Mood: cold

I have to say this season was pretty...lackluster. Granted, several of the shows I really wanted to watch ended up on stupid Anime Strike, meaning I couldn't watch them, but it seems like I wasn't missing much from what I've heard. The best shows this season were continuations of series I already liked -- Sakura Quest, My Hero Academia, and Hell Girl (well, at least the six new episodes we got). Even they weren't quite as good as the previous seasons, though.

Thoughts on the rest:

Gamers! - The parts where they actually focused on gaming were fantastic, but, oh, my, gosh, the way all the characters would misinterpret pretty much anything related to romance (often in the stupidest of ways) drove me nuts! And, unfortunately, the romantic plots took up most of the show. I really wish the romance had been handled better, because the show actually was pretty funny with a good cast of characters, but...argh! Too many misunderstandings! Still, probably my favorite of the "new" shows.

Restaurant to Another World - Good, but VERY repetitive. I don't necessarily mind formulaic shows, but when each episode is cut into two acts that have basically the same simple plot, just with different characters, it's a bit much. The best episodes were the ones that broke the formula, especially the ones that focused on Aletta (the demon waitress). I will say that all the food looked and sounded delicious, though!

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life - This show should have been better than it was, but the pacing was really weird in the beginning, and it didn't really become interesting until a certain item was introduced halfway through the season. Even then, I still wouldn't call it great...just a little better than the first few episodes.

18if - I actually wasn't going to watch this after reading the Preview Guide at ANN, thinking it wasn't really my kind of show, but then I came across a .gif of the figure skater who stars as the "witch" of the fifth episode. Well, of course I had to check it out after that! (Learning that characters are figure skaters -- even if they're just minor or one-shot characters -- is a great way to get me interested in a show/movie/book. Led me to checking out Ginban Kaleidoscope, Yuri on Ice, Tiger & Bunny, Diamond Daydreams, Kaleido Star, The Cherry Project, Sugar Princess...probably a few others I can't think of at the moment.) The verdict? It turns out my original instinct was right. Some of the episodes were good, but others were pretty bad, even downright nonsensical. (Each episode had a different director, all who apparently were told they could do whatever the heck they wanted with their episode.) Even the figure skating episode was kind of a let down.

Oh, well, at least the new season looks much more promising. If they have a free legal stream, I'd like to check out Black Clover, Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World (second season), Classicaloid (second season), Ancient Magus' Bride, Anime-Gataris, and March Comes In Like a Lion (second season).

Current Mood: disappointed

I haven't actually finished any of these yet, but I'm close enough to give my overall thoughts.

Sakura Quest - My favorite this season! It reminds me a lot of Shirobako, another favorite of mine, since it focuses on a group of five female friends, and I think it was actually animated by the same company, too. The adventures of a rural town tourism board aren't quite as exciting as the workings of an anime company, but it was still a lot of fun, and I think the main characters are actually a little more interesting and developed than Shirobako's. This is continuing for another season, so I'm looking forward to more!

My Hero Academia - This season had a bit of a slow start, but once the sports festival began, and especially the battles, it was fantastic! I especially liked that some of the more secondary and minor characters were developed more. I actually remember most of their names and powers, now! Another one that is continuing for another season.

Kado: The Right Answer - The CG in this was just gorgeous (at least when not used on the actual characters)! It also has a rather interesting, thought provoking premise. It reminds me a bit of the movie Arrival, which I actually just watched for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Love Tyrant - This show won't be for everybody. It's a parody anime, and the humor is kind of dark at times. Still, I found it quite funny and amusing. Also, the opening song is SUPER catchy. Everytime I watch it, it makes me just want to dance!

Tsuki ga Kirei - The best words to describe this show are pleasant and nice. Not the most exciting or interesting show out there, but not a bad way to pass the time. (My favorite parts of the show were actually the mini-shorts after the credits focusing on the minor characters, who I wish had more of a role in the main show.)

Attack on Titan - Since I watched the first season dubbed on Toonami and was used to the voices, I decided to watch the second season on Toonami as well, so I'm still a few episodes behind. What I've seen so far, though, has been really good, with some genuinely shocking revelations.

As for next season, my definite plans (if available on a free streaming site) are to watch the continuations of Sakura Quest and My Hero Academia, the new season of Hell Girl, and new series Welcome to the Ballroom and Love and Lies. On the maybe list are Restaurant to Another World, Yokai Apato no Yuga na Nichijo, DIVE!!, 18if, Vatican Miracle Examiner, Princess Principal, and Gamers!. I want to check out the ANN Preview Guide before making any definite decisions on those, though.

EDIT: Argh, stupid Amazon Strike with the ridiculous double paywall got Welcome to the Ballroom and Hell Girl. There goes my two most anticipated titles! (Atlhough after recently hearing some things about the Ballroom manga, I was a little less excited.) Seriously, though, this sucks! I wouldn't necessarily mind buying an occasional monthly subscription to binge the shows they have, but I'm not going to also pay for Prime in order to do so. Well, I hope some of my maybe titles turn out to be good...

Current Mood: blah

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heavenly_pearl

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