Sweet Dreams

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.

 

ReLIFE - This was definitely my favorite show of the season! It was really funny, and I loved the chemistry between all the characters (although Kariu could be kinda annoying at times). I'm hoping that we'll get another season of this eventually since it's a bit strange to endin the middle of Arata's "ReLIFE" (and the source web manga is still ongoing), but at least it otherwise stopped in a good place (similar to the Fruits Basket anime).

Sweetness & Lightning/Momokuri - I'm listing these two together because they're both super-duper cute and adorable. Of the two, I did prefer Sweetness & Lightning (my second favorite of the season), but Momokuri was also a lot of fun, even if the female lead was a bit of a stalker.

Orange - I really liked this series, but I have to admit feeling frustrated at points with Naho,who kept saying and doing the wrong things despite her future self telling her what to do. Then again, if she followed her future self's instructions to the letter (heh), there wouldn't be much of a story, so I guess it's fine. Still, a very touching show.

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! LOVE! - You know, I think this season was even more ridiculous than the first one...yet I liked it even more!

91 Days - Pretty good gangster series. I think I would have liked it a little more if I felt more for the characters, but the only one I was attached to was poor Corteo. Still, the plot had some surprising twists.

Planetarium - I'm not really sure what to say about this series. At only five episodes and no real plot, it felt kinda...pointless, yet I still enjoyed watching it.

B-Project - Too many pretty boys to really get to know all of them in only twelve episodes -- I couldn't even remember the names of most of them -- and the ending kinda came out of nowhere, but the music was really catchy and I enjoyed the music industry setting.

Ace Attorney - Like I said about the first season, I found this series entertaining enough as somebody who had never played the games before, but nothing amazing. (And I didn't like this second season quite as much as I liked the first, probably because the prosecutor guy was missing until the final case.)

D-Gray-man HALLOW - Kanda is one of my favorite characters in this series, so it was nice to finally get some backstory on him, but compared to the first series where everything felt a little too drawn out, this arc felt like it had way too much going on.

As for the upcoming season, I can't wait to watch Yuri! On Ice. So, so, so, so, so, so excited! I'm actually really tempted to buy a subscription to Crunchyroll so I don't have to wait a week to watch, but, eh, Christmas is coming up soon, so I need to save my money. The second season of Sound Euphonium is also a must-watch, and based on the preview guide at ANN, I'll probably check out Izetta: The Last Witch, March Comes In Like a Lion, Magic-Kyun! Renaissance, and ClassicaLoid.

Now that the summer anime season is over (for the most part; The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan has a weird amount of episodes and will cross over into next season, although it's still the same cour), I'll give my thoughts on the shows I watched.

Sailor Moon Crystal - Love, love, love the second half of the series! A definite improvement on the somewhat mishandled first half, which was helped by not making any huge changes to the manga plotline. I still think the new musical version of this arc is my favorite, but a lot better than the old anime, with the nonsensical and badly-handled break-up and stupid attempts at a MotD plot when that kind of plotline doesn't really work with the arc. Just one more episode left! (Got my fingers crossed that a new season will be officially announced soon. I need the Dream arc animated!)

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works - I wish they hadn't taken a break between the first and second halves of this show. I absolutely loved the first half, but by the time the second half started airing, I had forgotten a lot of what happened, so there were some definite moments of confusion on my part. (I get the feeling that it would have been helpful to be more familiar with the original VN during this part as well.) For the first time, I understand why sometimes there's a need for recap episodes. I would have benefitted from one at the start of this season! I was also disappointed by some of the things that happened to Rin and Saber and how they reacted to those things, which seemed out of character to me. I still enjoyed the show, though, and think it's one of the most gorgeously animated shows I've ever seen.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying - More of the same, really. Nothing much else to say, although I actually really liked the final episode. That was my favorite of the entire series.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! - Technically a continuing series, but since I watched both seasons back to back, I'm counting it as a new one. Anyway, I LOVED the first season and thought it was hilarious, but the second season isn't quite as good, IMO. I mean, I still really liked it and all, but for most of this season the relationship between Hachimon, Yui, and Yukino was kind of strained, which put a damper on a lot of the humor I enjoyed from the first. Plus, the "cases" they work on aren't as fun and were way drawn out. Seriously, how many episodes did they spend on planning the Christmas event with those annoying people from the other school who just liked to talk and wouldn't make any actual decisions about anything? I just looked it up -- five. freakin'. episodes. Three episodes too many, if you ask me. One episode to establish how annoying those people were and one episode for somebody to stand up and tell them to start taking things seriously...that's all that was needed. (Okay, so Hachimon and the others learned a lot of good lessons during this arc, too, but still...five. freakin'. episodes.)

My love STORY!! - If I had to sum up this series in one word, it would be...ADORABLE! Seriously, it is impossible to watch an episode of this show and not end up grinning like an idiot by the end. It's just so sweet and fluffy and heartwarming and...well, adorable! I do wish that Yamato (the main female character) was a more developed character -- you can basically describe her in three phrases: really nice, likes to bake, and finds Takeo very, very sexy -- but other than that, I have no real complaints. (And since the show is continuing into next season with a second cour, maybe Yamato will get more development later on.) My favorite of the season!

Sound! Euphonium - This show makes me wish my sister and her husband were anime fans, because I think they would really like it, too. (They're both junior high/high school band directors.) I'm no band geek -- I was a choir nerd instead -- but the music talk comes across as being mostly realistic, and the characters look like they're actually playing the instruments correctly. Being a Kyoto Animation show, there's no real need to point out that the animation is gorgeous, but...well, the animation is GORGEOUS. I also quite enjoyed the characters. It ended in a great spot, but I definitely wouldn't mind if we got a second season of this!

The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato - This is an AU version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, based on the movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. I liked the original MoHS well enough, but I think I actually like this version more. Granted, the plotlines are nothing special -- the first few episodes are just your typical Christmas/Valentine cliche fests -- but the characters are more likeable, especially Haruhi Suzumiya herself, who loses her more...sociopathic qualities (like molesting poor Mikuru all the time, although she does do some boob-groping during the hot springs episodes) while still remaining mostly true to her original character. Plus, it's really fun to pick up the allusions made to the original series.

Amagi Brilliant Park - Technically, this was from a couple of seasons ago, but it never got picked up for legal simulcast for some reason. Crunchyroll finally got the rights this to it season, so I'm counting it as part of the summer season. Anyway, love, love, love this show! The humor was great, and again, Kyoto Animation, so it looked fantastic. Sure, it would have been nice to get a new season of Full Metal Panic (by the same author), but I loved ABP just as much as FMP, so I'm not complaining. (Okay, one complaint: When is CR going to get the rights to the 13th episode? From what I understand, it's not a necessary episode -- everything wrapped up nicely in Episode 12 -- but I still want to see it!)

So it was a pretty successful summer anime season! (And I haven't even watched the Heroic Age of Arslan yet. Never got around to it, but it's on my list.)

Not much has caught my eye next season, though. I definitely want to watch Snow White of the Red Hair (Akagami no Shirayuki-hime), and Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers might be worth a shot, but that's about it aside from new seasons of series I've already watched before (Hetalia and To-LOVE-Ru). Oh, and I'm kinda interested in Gangsta., but I'm super on the fence. Might just wait until the end of the season and see what the general opinion is.