I was right about this season being oversubscribed for me, although it’s mostly returning older series or moderately amusing trash. In addition to dropping Oni no Hanayome with violent dislike because it was sexist to the point of icky, I’ve dropped about a half-dozen others for boneheaded protagonists, being too comedic for my taste, or just not grabbing me.

If I drop another, it’ll probably be either Heavy Knight (due to motion-sickness and what felt like a third of the second episode being repeated footage from the first), or Red River (although given the age of the source material, I’m willing to give the main character another ep or two to find her brain and backbone and remove them from storage—being isekai’d is a lot more startling when it isn’t in every other manga/anime/light novel you come across).

I’m not sure which is the best of the season for me so far, because I’m torn between Jaadugar and World Is Dancing. They’re both excellent in their own ways. Sparks of Tomorrow is a distant third (after one episode).

Worst piece of trash that I’m still watching: probably Level 999 Villager. It’s actually worse than an isekai, because the world-building makes zero sense.

We’ve checked out quite a few shows at this point. We’ll probably check out some more, but with continuing and returning shows taking up a lot of space on our schedule I doubt we’ll have much room for more. Although I’ll often end up watching some of the trash on my own if it’s funny enough.

Stuff we liked:

• All Works Maid: While at it’s base it’s still a power fantasy, I do find the premise to be a fun enough twist on the formula to be amusing and there’s some decent comedy to boot. Hopefully it doesn’t get stale.

• Chain Smoker Cat: I can’t say that I’ve watched any other anime where a cat girl squats over a toilet and shits her brains out in ep1. So that’s something. Jokes aside, it was pretty funny. ’

• Goodbye Laura: Little Mermaid but Yuri? Sounds good. Also just a solid production all around.

• Grow Up Show: Is it just me or does the MC seem a bit like Megumin from the spinoff? Either way, I’m always down for a cute girls do cute author’s special interest as long as it seems well made.

• Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life: Fun setup and characters so far even if it isn’t particularly original at this point. Hopefully they keep it up.

• Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia: Very different setting and style than we usually get in anime and it was just a solid episode.

• Kaiju Girl: Cute with a fun twist. Hopefully the romance part doesn’t get annoying.

• Kaikigumi: Funny premise. Weird looking character designs. An MC who isn’t the basic default HS guy protag. Also, they described the org as a business. How does one make money scaring people?

• Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games: I’m not into fighting games. Whenever I’ve played one I just button mash. Although I have a friend who’s super into them. (Ironically not part of our anime watching group because he’s usually too busy.) The setup sort of reminds me of “Rock is a Lady’s Modesty”, which we also enjoyed. Like I said, CGDCASI is usually a good time. Also maybe yuri?

• Livid Lady: Seems like it has potential to be good revenge trash. Not that that genre usually turns out any good, but honestly just swapping the protag to a woman makes it more bearable.

• Oh Boy Was I Wrong About Her: Man there have been a lot of childhood friend romcoms recently. They seem to have a fun enough dynamic. I really hope the will they won’t they doesn’t end up being torturous.

• Sparks of Tomorrow: Kyoani doing Kyoani things. Also, as of ep 1, the fall counter is at 6.

Trash that’s worth mentioning:

• Frontier Lord: Wife Speedrun any%.

• Heavy Knight: GOHANDS. We didn’t actually know the studio going into it and I’ve never seen their work outside of videos making fun of them. But something felt off, so I had my suspicions and checked and yup, it’s them.

• Rear Guard: Slave loli speedrun any%. Also, what do they mean this town is only Isekai adventurers? Who the hell runs things in town?

• Villager Lv. 999: Somehow the setting is even dumber and more uninspired than the usual I can’t believe it’s not isekai! So… this is just Japan after magic and monsters showed up and… they just decided to rebuild society in the style of Medieval Europe because… um… coming up with original worldbuilding is entirely beyond the scope of these kinds of writers.

Finished the third season of Chihayafuru today. It was great! Chihayafuru is a sports/romance story about a girl who just wants to play karuta. Karuta is a simple game. A bunch of cards get laid on the floor between the two competitors. A poem is read, and the first player to touch the card with the corresponding poem gets rid of one of their cards. The first person to get rid of all of their cards wins. Sounds like it could get dull, but as with anything where humans are competing against one another it gets intense.

Pros:

• Insane main character. Only has a mind for karuta and breathing. TBH not super confident that she can even consistently remember to breathe.
• Fun supporting cast
• The art, voice acting, etc are all great.
• The romance is usually in the background, but when it bubbles up to the foreground it’s fun and well-written. It never feels like an afterthought.

Cons:

• The anime leaves off at a pretty reasonable spot, but it’s unfinished. I’m guessing it’s about halfway through the manga, though I haven’t found the time to read it yet. Season 3 aired in 2019 though, so there’s still hope!
• You’ll find yourself wanting to play a card game with an incredibly high barrier to entry (memorize 100 classical Japanese poems!) which isn’t even that popular in Japan and which nobody you knows is likely to want to play.

just started the second season of that tech magic magical girl series.

Last week’s premieres

I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day - one of the protagonists is how old? 10? Yeah, not sure if I want to continue this.

The Ghost in the Shell - the story itself wasn’t hard to follow, but the whole episode looked so visually busy it was overwhelming at times. Not completely bought on it just yet (might be due to my falling out of love with cyberpunk some time ago), but it was a prologue, and I’m really digging the art style and this goofy version of Motoko.

Red River - I’m yet to see why shoujosei fans praise this story. The MC is frustrating, but that means she has a lot of room to grow. As for the direction and animation, I wish they left old shoujo alone at this point, it’s a product of its time and they can’t – or don’t want to – do it justice; better focus on adapting modern titles.

My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked - liking it so far. I don’t even mind if the joke repeats itself in many different ways, but there are hints for something beyond that.

Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky - bland. Drop.

Also dropping all three fantasy romances - Oblivious Saint, Kimiai and The Ogre’s Bride - from last week’s drop zone. Any other season I’d probably let my inner raccoon out and go, yay, my trash, but this one offers so many things to be excited and joyful about I’m struggling to justify watching these. Might pick them up again, though, if I’m too bored between seasons.

I watched quite a bit of anime last week so it’s back to longer (but hopefully not too incoherent) ramblings.

Currently Airing

Picked up 3 anime that are airing right now:

Chainsmoker Cat felt more depressing than funny at times. Addiction is no joke. But the slapstick humour hits perfectly for me.

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is yet another vanilla romance. I hope the writing is good because so far it hasn’t done much to differentiate itself from all the other vanilla romance stories.

Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia is basically Vinland Saga v2, so I know right away that it’s going to be peak.

With these latest additions, I am now following all seasonal anime with average rating of 80% or higher. I may be missing out on some sub-80%-rating anime though. Any seasonal recommendations based on my taste? https://anilist.co/user/Endmaker/animelist

Past Seasons

I am working my way through Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation now, and have just completed the first season / part. I should be caught up to the latest season before long.

I can see why this is a controversial anime with the icky bits. Personally, those are a nothingburger to me, considering some of my previous watches.

I just find it a pity that people avoid this anime because of the controversial elements. They are missing out on the story, world-building, writing, etc which are honestly solid.

Yes, the protagonist is problematic, but

1. it’s not like they are glorifying it. They made it quite clear that his behaviour is unacceptable (And the protagonist is aware of that too!)
2. these flaws are what makes the character so fascinating. It’s much more engaging to have a flawed character grow over the course of the story as compared to a perfect character who never change.

To elaborate on the second point, compared to anime that come to mind for isekai - Konosuba, Cautious Hero, Re:Zero - Jobless Reincarnation felt like a relatively “vanilla” isekai. It is set in a stereotypical medieval European-style fantasy world - no gimmicks, no parody. But it never once felt like wish fulfillment unlike the seasonal isekai slop.

In extreme cases of isekai slop, the loser protagonist would externalise their faults, blaming everyone and everything but themselves. They were just dealt a bad hand at life. So what do they need to overcome their hardship? A unique cheat just for them! It’s like striking the lottery - completely unearned. The anime would then degenerate into a power fantasy for similar-minded losers to indulge in. There’s no character growth at all!

Jobless Reincarnation is not like this at all. I have seen so much development through flashbacks, internal monologue and dialogue - and that’s just the first cour of season 1! I see no reason for them to buck this trend, so I’m confident that the protagonist would grow even more, which means the story would be continue to be good.

Anyway, I enjoy it a lot, and am looking forward to participating in the episode discussions.

P.S. I’m unsure how best to categorise this anime. Peak drama? Peak politics? I don’t see enough of either at the moment.

P.P.S. I bet half of the village’s kids are Paul’s.