Hi everybody! I hope that you have been able to sort out your winners and losers for the season so far. As we head into the next week, many shows are going to be on episode 3 at this point. This means many of them might not get a discussion post if people haven’t commented on the episode 2 thread.
Please use this thread as a dumping ground for all your anime questions, thoughts, recommendations, etc.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
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Out of town and busy for a few weeks, so fell behind during the winter finish and spring start. This’ll be a catch up post for all of these. Would it be better to post in the respective threads, even though they’ve kinda passed on to obscurity? I dunno.
Winter anime roundup: really great season. I had low expectations going in, and it ended up being so much better.
Finished:
- Frieren - Excellent. This cour dragged a little in the first half, as it introduced so, so many new characters that each needed time to develop. But it finished strong and was super high quality throughout. May not be my AOTY, like the first cour was for 2023, but still phenomenal.
- Delicious in Dungeon - Excellent. Wow this show is really going somewhere. I love the characters, the animation, and the story is intriguing. This is my top recommendation lately for recent great anime. Must watch for Spring.
- Apothecary Diaries - Excellent. Not quite as engaging as cour 1, but still great. I felt like some of the reveals later on felt too much like a twist for the sake of it, and that we were mislead earlier on. Still very worth watching though.
- The Dangers in my Heart - Very good. I didn’t engage quite as much as the first season, mostly because the MC lost a lot of his personality and became more generic. But it’s still one of the best depictions of high school romance, for me. For anybody curious, yes, this show gets dramatically better than the first two episodes of season 1. MC is mostly an unlikeable edgelord at the very beginning, but becomes much more interesting quickly.
- Solo Leveling - Very good. I’m an easy sell for these types of shows, and this one is particularly good. Good characters, high stakes, great action, satisfying progression. Just wish more were out so I could binge more quickly. Feels like too little happens with one episode (or less…) per week.
Trying out based on end of season rankings and recommendations:
- Villainess Level 99 - A few episodes in and this is so, so much better than I would’ve expected. Genuinely funny yet heartfelt. Definitely finishing.
- 7th Time Loop - Couple episodes in and really like MC, the premise, and curious about where it’s going. Give it a couple more for sure. That first episode covered a ton of ground!
- A Sign of Affection - One episode in and probably give a couple more.
- Sasaki and Peeps - Pending.
- The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - Pending.
Spring look forward: a few I’m interested in, but not many stand outs. A lot that I’d need to catch up on.
- Delicious in Dungeon S1C2 - Must watch. No idea where it’s going from here. Super good.
- Mushoku Tensei S2C2 - A mildly guilty pleasure, but we’re finally getting to the point that it’s a lot less difficult to defend. Rudy has grown a ton, we’re seeing a lot of payoff for years of toil, and I really like a lot of the characters. I’m hoping the adaptation keeps at the super high quality of the previous seasons.
- Spice and Wolf - Remake. I actually watched the first episode of the original recently and didn’t know this was coming. I’ll probably try this out instead.
- That Time I Reincarnated As A Slime S3 - I’m pretty behind, somewhere in S2. Might try to catch up.
- Konosuba S3 - I’m way back in S1. Not totally in, but probably give it another try to see if it clicks, since it’s apparently popular and they keep making it.
- Demon Slayer S? - Also behind. Might catch up, but already feeling too stacked.
- My Hero Academia S7 - Several seasons behind. Unlikely to catch up. It just felt so padded and unnecessary.
- X-men ‘97 - Yea, I know, not anime. But I’m still really excited about it. This is my childhood coming back, and the first 5 episodes have gone so hard. Very curious where it’s going.
I had similar feelings about the winter season. I wasn’t expecting too much, but it had more than I was expecting. I was also surprised by Villainess Level 99, even as a fan of the source material. The animation budget was obviously very limited, but they did an excellent job capturing the humor in the series, especially with some great VA work for Yumiella. Something tells me that Ai Fairouz is going places…
X-men ‘97
I had missed this, so thank you for bringing it to my attention. What a blast from the past.
This past week saw the return of Konosuba (officially). It was great to have the gang back together again. I enjoyed the Megumin spinoff series, but the group chemistry between these goofballs is just so great.
I have continued to enjoy Bartender as a chill out before bed series. I have also been impressed by the visuals in both Go! Go! Loser Ranger! as well as Reincarnated as the 7th Prince. Time will tell if these studios can keep it up over the course of the season. I feel scarred from Zom 100 still…
Overall, I am not watching as much anime this season compared to last, which is letting me do more meta things for the community. This has meant lots of bug fixes for rikka, updating and cleaning up the wiki, and finally selecting and creating clips to post.
I currently have 15 different webms in my folder that are ready to upload, but I am going to try to space them out so that I am not just spamming the community. I will upload the next one on Tuesday. If you have read this far, then you can have some input as to what will be next. Cast a vote below for the clip you want to see next (three chosen at random from my folder):
This has meant lots of bug fixes for rikka, updating and cleaning up the wiki, and finally selecting and creating clips to post.
Thank you for that!
Finally got the opportunity to binge the rest of Apothecary Diaries. The second half of it is a 10 / 10 too, as expected.
Glad to know that a second season has been confirmed. Can’t remember if it was the same for Frieren though.
Nothing official for Frieren yet, but it is all but guaranteed given the enormous success it has had both in- and outside Japan. I am hoping to find time for Apothecary Diaries this season since my watch list is pretty light. I am trying to wrap up some loose ends from last season still.
I think we may be headed for our first 0 comment shows to be booted off the island…
Not naming names, because I do hope some of them go away…
Hi all! I just wanted to provide a quick meta notice that I have enabled rikka to make posts using the poster art as an image for a discussion post. I am just going to leave this option on for a single day to see how people like it or not. I understand that with the many different clients, frontends, and display options that people can use to view this community, it might display in ways that some people like while others don’t.
So, this is just a test, and I would be very appreciative if people could provide some feedback about if they like it or not. Also, I am absolutely able to swap out the image for a submitted screenshot in the discussion thread. So, feel free to continue doing so!
Watched a few more 1st eps:
- Date A Live V: surprisingly decent episode. Honestly, likely due to Kurumi’s involvement. This anime would be dead without her. Music’s still pretty strong. DAL has some good themes. Weird ED choice though, as the visuals seem to be massive spoiler.
- Mysterious Disappearances: that was a fun 1st ep. Interesting premise and seemingly fun characters. I think I’m already down bad for Sumireko. I also like both the OP and ED.
- Kaiju No.8: decent 1st ep. I like that the MC isn’t a high schooler for a change. I’m a bit worried this’ll turn into a pretty standard battle shounen though, but hopefully I’m wrong. Don’t care at all for the ED. Such a generic pop song.
Potentials for dropping:
- Gods’ Games We Play: I think I complained about it in the last thread, but the MC is so boring. It makes a lot of the rest boring too. The anime also seems like it’s stuck in 2012. I will give it 1 more ep.
Still want to pick up/try:
- Konosuba
- Blue Archive
- Misfit Demon King
- Girls Band Cry
- The Fable
- Highspeed Etoile
Not sure how realistic that is alongside all the other I’m watching but oh well.
Other comments:
- Hibike! Euphonium is still strong. I want to see more.
- Astro Note: don’t know how to feel about this yet. It’s a bit surreal.
- Yuru Camp: for some reason, the vibe is a bit off compared to last seasons.
I’m very torn about watching Yuru Camp S3. The movie felt like a very good conclusion for the animation for a good while.
Hm, I haven’t even watched that one… I probably should. But from what I gathered this season takes place before the movie? Don’t quote me on that though. I could be very wrong
It should take place before the movie.
I mentioned last week that I am in charge of putting forth proposals for a little makeshift anime club with a couple friends, and now that everything’s out, my anime tasting menu is finalized (from which we’ll likely pick 2 or 3):
- Astro Note - captures a retro aesthetic without needing to be tied to the baggage of the past, and manages to be sincere without taking itself too seriously
- Bartender - none of us are big drinkers, but the healing genre is strong with this one and we all love a comfy time
- Spice & Wolf - I’ve been a bit underwhelmed so far, but it’s interesting enough and if my friends latch onto it I’ll have an easy time actually finishing it, which I would like to do either way.
- Tonari no Yokai - this one is delivering big time on both its slice of life elements and its dark mystery plotline
- Whisper Me a Love Song - very cute romance, plus it’s gay
- Wind Breaker - excellent action and very fun characters. Definitely my favorite of the season thus far, but it might just be that it’s delivering on a lot of my personal favorite tropes (specifically: kind-hearted delinquents, lovable weirdos, friendship via punching, and non-romantic tsunderes)
notable other anime:
- Dungeon Meshi - my friends and I are carrying this over from last season and I’m so excited for more every week
- Kaiju No 8 - I passed along this recommendation which I am not going to be able to follow myself due to a sensitivity to gore and body horror
Stuff that didn’t make the cut but I’m still following (for now):
- Appraisal Skill - hasn’t hooked me yet, but I’m curious
- Banished Former Hero - what can I say, I love a good powerpoint
- Train to the End of the World - has some good ideas, but I’m not sure how well it can execute them
- Unnamed Memory - it’s a bit hard to tell where this is going
- Vampire Dormitory - look, everybody has their own anime slop they can’t help but slurp up, and this is mine
- Yatagarasu - episodes 1 and 2 were so different in content and quality I’m not really sure what to expect yet
I think Train To The End Of World has been great so far with its Galaxy Express/Petit Prince story structure.
Episode 3 was great, but episodes 1 and 2 i found to be largely very slow and bogged down by dialogue. If it does more short story type episodes with the different stations I’ll be happy to see more, but I’m just not sure which parts we’ve seen are indicative of the overall quality, if that makes sense.
This type of show is like an anthology.
Even though we have the same characters every episode, they’re thrown into new settings that are thinly disguised parables for something about the human condition that the writer is trying to say.
Galaxy Express 999 and Le Petit Prince both lean into pathos, with GE999 laying it on especially thick with its soundtrack.
The 3rd episode is also pathos, but it’s much more subtle.
The mushroom people are just falling over and dying, but they just accept their fate, and in denial proudly saying that they’re living life to its fullest, although there’s little evidence of that.
The only thing I can see is they just continue living on, knowing they’re doomed, not even pausing to pick the dead off the street.
So you what does that correspond to in real life? Nothing too obvious. Maybe a type of person that the writer doesn’t like?
edit: Or maybe some Japanese social criticism that I’m not aware of?
