Another weekly general thread! I know everybody has this time of the week set aside as their favorite, so here it is. Like usual, feel free to use this thread for any kind of anime/anime-adjacent topics you might want to discuss.
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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Oshi no Ko - Finally picked this back up and binged all but the latest episode. I had high expectations and it easily exceeded them. 5/5
Dungeon People - Really enjoying this one. The characters and setting are fun. It doesn’t do anything big and seems a bit simple at a glance, but something about it just clicks for me. 4/5
I Parry Everything - I was on the fence about this one earlier on, but it really hit a stide in the last few episodes. The total absurdity of the situation is hilarious, but I’m not sure that can be sustained in a way that works… 3/5
Slime - First part of this season was largly a bust, but the current arc’s been fun. 3/5
Journey Through another World: Raising Kids - DROPPED. I’m not sure who the target audience for this was but it seems like it is for young children. Very boring. Dropped weeks ago. 2/5
A Nobody’s Way Up to an Exploration Hero - Somehow this show strays into so bad it is good territory for me, but that’s after skipping some of the duller bits. 2/5
Bye Bye, Earth - I really wanted to like this show, but it just refuses to do anything redeemable. The characters are awful. The world building is a disaster. The plot is nonsense. The world itself seems interesting, but is so poorly explored and executed that it is just a waste. 2/5
Dahlia in Bloom - I’m very behind on this, but what I’ve seen was a disappointment. The leads had no chemistry and much of the dialog (in a very dialog heavy story) was dull. (I enjoyed the light novels so the story itself is good…) 3/5
Failure Frame - I’m still on the fence on this one. I generally enjoy the isekei game system thing, but this one hasn’t quite “clicked” with me. 3/5
Nokotan - Extremely hit and miss. Some episodes are gold and some are just meh. The show has a bad tendancy to stretch a joke to far so that it stops being funny. 3/5
My wife has no emotion - Really enjoying this one. Yeah it gets a bit weird at times, but the show owns that and works with it. I really enjoy how Mina’s personality is conveyed with limited facial expressions and at odds with her assumed lack of emotions. 4/5
No Longer Allowed in Another World - The first few episodes were rough, but once it got going this turned out to be surprisingly good. 4/5
Pseudo Harem - The name suggests something trashy, but the show itself is actually incredibly sweet. I’m enjoying it, but it is almost too much at times. 4/5
Quality Assurance in Another World - Solid overall. I enjoy the characters, the world, the goofy dragons, etc. But seems to be lacking something that would take it from good to great. 4/5
The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant - This one falls into guilty pleasure territory. The combination of sweet and absurd just works. 4/5
Ossan Newbie Adventurer - A bit of a rough start, but it has improved as the story moved along and got passed the overly long intro arc. 3/5
The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human - A bit hit and miss. Some of the characters are fun. The story is unremarkable but fine. 3/5
Why Does nobody remember me in this world - I watched through the first arc with the fight against the demons, and just lost interest. Soft dropped. 3/5
Wistoria: Wand and Sword - This one is barely holding my interest. The visuals are good. But the rest of it just feels off somehow. I’d say it is cliché, but I like a lot of cliché shows… 3/5
Spice and Wolf - I honestly forgot this was continuing. I’ll binge it later. Overall I alike and appreciate the show, but it can be exceedingly melancholy at times without enough comic relief to balance that out. I hope that has improved from where I dropped off.
So many things I agree with here, but I think you summed up Dungeon People really well. I have been really enjoying it, but I can’t really point to any single thing it is doing really well. It is just a great mix of things that ends up greater than the sum of its parts.
I am finally back from my vacation! My sleep schedule has been a bit weird as I am getting adjusted to the time zone again, but it’s nice to be in my own bed and to be reunited with my cat. The only downside is that basically as soon as I got back I proceeded to get quite sick. So, the anime backlog persists as I have a hard time reading subs when I am not feeling well.
What I have watched this week has been limited, but here we go:
- Oshi no Ko - Far and away the best show this season of what I have been watching. It has been an absolute treat every week. Sad that it is going on a week break.
- Nokotan - This week’s past episode was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot. A welcome return to form.
- Alya - I have liked this show, but Alya is my least favorite character in it. I have a hard time putting my finger on it, but I find that most of the other characters in the show have more entertaining moments than Alya has.
- Love is Indivisible by Twins - This guilty pleasure continues to deliver. Nobody in this show is happy and the love triangle has expanded to become some other, more complicated shape; and I have really enjoyed the messiness of it all.
I’ve finally caught up to the 7th episode of Monogatari Off Season. I wish the series was more popular but I guess it’s hard to get into for some especially when there’s 100 non-linear episodes prior to Off Season. I realized the weekly rikka thread died so I’ll try to revive that starting later tonight.
I spent most of my free time playing Persona 3 Reload the past few weeks and I’ve been considering watching the anime movies.
Also, it’s typhoon season again so I hope everyone can stay safe.
If you run into issues requesting the thread, feel free to let me know!
Also, the most recent sakugablog post was all about Monogatari and made me wonder how fans were feeling about this season. Glad to hear that people are enjoying it!
Any recs for anime that you think would enjoy a person who liked Shoujo Kakumei Utena?
Mawaru Penguindrum
And Yurikuma Arashi and Sarazanmai. Ikuhara always stays in the same vein.
The most similar anime I can think of that’s isn’t his is Princess Tutu.
Shoujo Kakumei Utena
I’ve heard that Gundam: Witch from Mercury bears a lot of similarities to Utena. I’ve yet to watch Utena myself though.
Witch From Mercury took a lot of cues from Utena
Dear Brother
Fruits Basket (2019)
Bloom Into You
Monogatari series
Kaguya-sama
Aoi Hana
Simoun
Maria Watches Over Us
Shinsekai Yori
Kase-san and Morning Glories
Sailor Moon Crystal
Current releases, following weekly (roughly organized by decreasing interest):
- Oshi No Ko S2 - Finally hit the climax I’d been waiting for. Really nailed it between the last episode and this one, then hooked in for exciting plot progression. Great episode.
- Makeine - Looks like focus is shifting to a new character again, with a new accompanying (excellent) ED. It was a bit of an exposition episode, so a bit less exciting than the last few, but still excellent.
- Pseudo Harem - A bit slower episode for me. Still good.
- I Parry Everything - Caught up this week. It’s great. Tension and scale keeps escalating and the silliness keeps outclassing what I thought was peak absurdity. Characters are very likable and animation is serviceable. Try a couple episodes!
- Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings… - Ya, mostly just finishing because I’ve watched this far. The general conceit of the series feels mostly forgotten, and is largely the type of anime I wasn’t really here for from the beginning.
Watched part of, but not up to date:
- Hell’s Paradise - 10 episodes. Alright I was kinda iffy for a while, but I’ve really enjoyed the last couple episodes. Finally filling in story a bit and setting up an overall plot that is fun and understandable. I’m definitely finishing now.
- Dungeon People - 4 episodes. Got some time to try it out more and it’s excellent. Surprisingly darker than I expected, based on the animation style! But very silly, fun exploration of dungeon crawl tropes, and a low stakes mood. Really nice easy watch that slightly mollifies the gaping hole that finishing Frieren and Dungeon Meshi left.
Agreed on Alya. I feel like the student council plot has completely overshadowed any cute romcom antics between the main pair. At this point, I feel like Yuki is more of a main character than Alya. Certainly, Yuki is trying her best to be the final boss character.
Also, Dungeon People has way exceeded my expectations. I mentioned it elsewhere in this thread, but I can’t really point to any single thing that it does excellently, but it is such a good mix that ends up greater than the sum of its parts.
Completed Terminator Zero and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Terminator Zero
Probably top show of the season for me, tied with Makeine (unless Rick and Morty can pull off a surprise).
First off, I liked how well-animated it is. The first 6 minutes of the show convinced me to watch it, and quality of the animation remained consistently good.
It is its own self-contained story, but it still faithful to the style of the Terminator series. The iconic “dun dun duh dun” is nostalgic.
What I liked the most is
Terminator Zero spoiler
the multitude of plot twists / reveals.
I know that going into time travel + AI sci-fi, a plot twist is to be expected. What I did not expected is the sheer number of reveals:
- Misaki is a cyborg (that’s cool)
- Kokoro is built upon Misaki (ok, removal of Misaki’s core component explains her strange behavior)
- Malcolm came from the future (alright, that explains his nightmares)
- Eiko is Malcolm’s mother (now that’s a surprise)
- IIRC: the Terminator was sent by Kenta (surprise number 2)
I thought that the show would reveal that Reika would grow up to be the prophet, but turns out that didn’t happen.
Overall, it’s really good.
I’ve got to knock a point off due to some annoyances I have with the show though.
For example,
Terminator Zero spoiler
in true HISHE fashion, most of the problems that the characters faced could have been avoided if Malcolm just brought his family with him to the lab and have them stay with him.
So 9 / 10
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
This show is if Steins;Gate was good.This anime is if Subaru (from Re:Zero) at his best got isekai-ed to the world of Steins;GateThis show is what I wish for from a sci-fi of this nature.
We have a capable, mature MC who gets down to it
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai spoiler
and solves the first and titular problem in just 3 episodes. Then he continues his streak for the rest of the phenomenon.
What a chad.
To be fair, Sakuta isn’t with flaws e.g.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai spoiler
when he doesn’t tell his girlfriend of his troubles.
But that’s when Mai would step in and scold him, all the while supporting him. I love their relationship dynamics.
It’s been a while since I studied physics, so can’t comment on how scientifically accurate some of the phenomenons are.
Otherwise, the story and the rest of the characters are great.
The only thing I found the show to be weak in is its soundtracks - none are really memorable to me - but that’s just a nitpick.
One of the best sci-fi anime, and going into my favourites. 10 / 10
Bunny Girl Senpai is fanstastic, and I am glad you enjoyed it! Sakuta is a fantastic MC, and the chemistry with Mai feels so natural, despite all the supernatural things going on in their lives. Have you watched the sequel movies yet?
About the physics, I think that is one of my least favorite parts of the show. I think it goes too far to try to tie the phenomena back to real science. I think it would be better to just lean into the supernatural, but…I am a professional physicist. In talking about the show with non-physicists, it doesn’t really bother them at all, so it is probably just me.
Have you watched the sequel movies yet?
Yeah, they are all great
I think it would be better to just lean into the supernatural, but…I am a professional physicist.
I bet it’s like watching hacking scenes as a programmer.
Recommend anime based on my list
MAL: https://myanimelist.net/profile/mo_lave
I do have a backlog of PTW, but surprise me with some recs and it might skip the line.
You’ve watched quite a bit of anime, so we have a fair amount of overlaps. Unlike me, you are more generous when scoring (no 1s and 2s!) and you have a more diverse taste in anime.
As such, I won’t be able to recommend anime based on a particular theme / genre - unless you have something in mind?
I’ll just point out my favourites that are not in your completed list, though I won’t be surprised if some of them are already in your PTW list.
- KonoSuba
- Saiki K
- Cells at Work!
- Cautious Hero
- The Demon Girl Next Door
- 86
- The Apothecary Diaries
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You - looks like you don’t watch any harem anime; you may want to skip this
- Cherry Magic! - looks like you don’t watch any yaoi anime; you may want to skip this
- Gushing over Magical Girls - looks like you don’t watch any ecchi anime; you may want to skip this
P.S.
Not among my top favourites at the moment, but worth adding to your PTW list if you haven’t done so already IMO; I should have filtered out those that you’ve completed:
Keep in mind that “Gushing over Magical Girls” is often considered hentai or borderline hentai by ecchi standards 😈
Oh yeah, DanMeshi and Apothecary Diaries are indeed in my PTW.
Gushing over Magical Girls - looks like you don’t watch any ecchi anime; you may want to skip this
Good ecchi is hard to come by, and I consider Frieren ecchi (hot take, yes - it’s one of the best in that regard), so you get the idea where my standards are lol.
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
I might watch it alongside Makeine, which of them should I start first?
I might watch it alongside Makeine, which of them should I start first?
They are quite different, so it’s really up to you.
I find that Makeine is very similar to Makoto Shinkai’s works in terms of art style, soundtracks and humour.
I would say the most similar anime to 100 Girlfriends is Gintama, though season 1 is really just a preview of the bullshit to come.
I see. Thanks for the recs!
I saw you had all the Trigun stuff, but not the recent reboot, Trigun Stampede.
Aharen is Indecipherable and Tomo-chan is a Girl are fun RomCom shows.
Golden Kamuy isn’t on your list, but it’s one of my all time favorites that I’ll always recommend.
Anyone know where one can watch “Wagnaria!”? Doesn’t seem to be in any streaming service and was recommended by a friend
I am in the US and I am unable to find an official source. Looks like it used to be on Crunchyroll, but they announced its removal in 2021 (they still have the spinoff). Might be time to don the hat and eyepatch.
I have heard good things about the show, but haven’t seen it myself.
Weekly ranking roundup:
- Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Days With My Stepsister
- Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Oshi no Ko
- Anime Trending - Weekly Winner: Makeine
Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.
Something I have noticed this week is that Makeine continues to perform very well and Wistoria seems to have climbed up all three of the charts.
Rats! Elusive Samurai is a recap episode this week!
Oshi no Ko was a recap as well. I needed my weekly fix, so I went back and rewatched some of my favorite episodes of recent seasons (two Oshi no Ko episodes were included). I am going to write all about it in my post for the next general thread.
Teaser:
- Oshi no Ko (2 episodes)
- Frieren (4 episodes)
- Delicious in Dungeon (1 episode)
