An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride Enjoyed this overall. One of several new shows that exceeded my initial expectations. It got a bit stale about midway through with just the two main characters, but additions in the second part helped flesh it out. One of a few shows I really hope to see more of. It felt like it was just getting started by the end. 4/5

A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics This one was fun. Reminds me a lot of Hinamatsuri (although clearly different and not quite as good.) 4/5

As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World Yet another show that exceeded expectations. The basic premise seems kind of lame, in that the protagonist doesn’t really do anything directly, and looks/acts/is a child for duration of the season… But somehow it works. The cast is fun and have good character dynamics, the meta story seems meaningful and there is slow but real progress, and a few episodes were quite meaningful. 4/5

The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases I completely forgot this one existed until making this list. Dropped it early. Seemed ok at first but didn’t really do anything to keep my interest. 2/5

Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers Eh. I want to like this one but the characters and humor didn’t land for me. 3/5

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc I’ve enjoyed the story and the world and of course Ufotable elevates the whole thing. Not a major mover of the plot or meaningful fights, but I assume that is coming soon enough… 4/5

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability Dropped after the first episode and I regret going that far. Something about the weird sexualization combined with the rest of the show was just intolerably creepy to me. 1/5

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3 To be honest I feel like both main arcs went just a little too long, but KonoSuba is always fun. 4/5

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Part 2 The show is well done, the story is complex and rich. Some episodes and plot lines are best in season, but I can never shake the feeling that it will suddenly veer off into gross and or controversial territory. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to give it 5/5. so 4/5.

Mysterious Disappearances Probably my second favorite new show of the season. The fan service bits can be a bit much at times, but that sort of thing does tend to go well with horror… The short story arcs, meta plot, characters, way new characters become relevant later, etc. all worked for me. 4/5

The New Gate I like the characters more than level 2 cheat and there seems to be more happening. But so far no real meta plot and no real reason to keep watching other than inertia. 3/5

Re:Monster Some bits early on were concerning… but overall I’ve enjoyed how different it is from other shows. The monster angle, consistent (and quick) pacing, seeing all the evolutions, base buildup, etc. Not a sophisticated show, but unique enough. 3/5

Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf I never did see the original, but I knew this one was very hyped up, and I see it. The characters have awesome chemistry. The world and stories are great as is the production value. It is just so oppressively melancholy, especially the last two story lines. 4/5

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included This one was fun. Similar to a lot of other shows, but the humor did land for me. 4/5

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 Sigh, I was very much looking forward to this only for half the season to be a table read of PowerPoint slides half of which were quickly dealt with once the show actually started going. Sort of feels like they either planned a two disc Blu-ray set where no one watches the first disc or were desperate to save money. The last episode was similar in content, but so, so much better. Instead of the cast literally sitting at a table barely moving, we had smaller meetings with the characters actually moving and reacting to each other. 3/5

Train to the End of the World Wow, just wow. The characters, production, pacing, plots, metastory, theme music… everything was exceptional. The show became absolutely insane at times and yet still made sense in a bizarre way and never really lost itself. Easily my favorite of the season and possibly the year. 5/5

Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- Season 2 Sigh x2, Season one was a great surprise when it aired and I really enjoyed rewatching it earlier this year. The first part of this cour wasn’t too bad either, but something went wrong with the second part this season. The story pacing turned to trash, and what in theory should have been climactic moments for the whole school/teacher arc fell flat in part because the main cast spent entire episodes standing around looking bored while the world was on fire. 3/5

Unnamed Memory This show really felt like it should have been good. The setting, mood, and initial impression of the characters was all fine, but no as it progressed, the way they acted was just maddening. I dropped it early, checked comments off and on and from what I read it never got better. 2/5

Vampire Dormitory A trainwreck, in the sense that I can tell the show is not good, but something about it keeps drawing my attention anyway. 2/5

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Sigh, I’m just now realizing that the whole point was to contrast how Makoto’s students succeed on their own merits vs the purple coats who relied on the goddess.

I mean it was obvious they showed up just to fail and make his students look better, but the meta plot about over reliance on the goddess vs personal effort needed more focus.

Actually that would have helped with the elites in the box as well. Faith in the goddesses protection would explain their calm. Imagine the headmaster telling Makoto off, then the purple coats failing, then the headmaster turning back to Makoto to accept his aid. Really would have helped to push the slowly developing narrative about Makoto standing in as an alternative to the goddess.

The writing and pacing for the last three episodes has been pretty poor. It really feels like they are dragging things out to fill episodes. And not just the pacing of the plot as a whole but individual scenes. Monsters just appeared and started eating people yet you see various characters just standing around chatting casually. The students are face to face with one and it just sits there calmly while they discuss the situation. One character is given 10 seconds to use a magic arrow, then they discuss their plan for 15 seconds… no sense of urgency, danger, intensity, etc. no emotion.

(I think it would have helped if the show did more to build the students up, especially as individuals, and maybe that’s the case for the source, but for what should be a pivotal scene, I have no idea what that archer girls name is or why she matters.)

We get one cutaway to the demons for some reason, and rather than discuss something relevant to the current episode that would add to the intensity of the moment (e.g. something about the mutants or their plans for the city, or some foreshadowing about that) they discuss the rings we already knew they had and already assumed would be improved on but seemingly have no relevance to the current events.

Logically the rings would have then mattered in the focus story (e.g. being used to keep local authorities from using the goddesses blessing against the monsters), but no, that scene seems to only exist to tease the audience with the real plot while we are forced to sit though whatever this current mess is.

After two downer episodes in a row I’m losing patience with the show. Something about the pacing and story composition just isn’t working for me. Seems like a lot of the focus in the last two episodes was on the students, but the show never really game me a reason to care about them other than their association with Makoto. Meanwhile all the more interesting storylines get teased then showed aside for a predicable tournament arc.

This might end up being one of those shows best watched all at once after the season ends…

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Many years ago a coworker received some unintelligible spam. Seemed like it was probably written in non-English characters then something screwed up the encoding. The only text we could make out was “world family mountain day”

After watching this episode, I’m convinced that email was from a cult.

I’m not sure what unholy collection of fetishes this show is designed for and I don’t want to know.

Yumiella really needs a foil, someone to point out or contrast her power and dorkness. Early on that was everyone, but by the end that roll with the cast generally getting used to her, that role would once fell to Alicia.

LN Alicia reacted the way things in the game should have been. She blamed Yumiella for setting traps in the dungeon because the “real” yumiella would do so. She backstabbed Yumiella’s because the real yumiella was the final boss. With Anime Alicia retconned into a generic kindhearted heroine, that role was lost, and I feel like it made the show dull.

What really bugs me is I think they could made this work better, if only they had used the “will of the game” more. Introduce it early. Have it speak up through Alicia and play more of the role removed from anime Alicia. Better yet, introduce it as a voice in Alicia’s head and do some foreshadowing…

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Weird. LN4 is the one that made me hate Alicia. Comparing that version of the character to the anime is just jarring.

Apothecary Diaries is doing one LN per cour so far, but that story has enough for each volume to carry a cour…

5/5 - Apothecary Diaries - wow, the last few episodes have been perfect. The characters are the strongest part of the story and the anime is doing a great job of reflecting their depth.

5/5 - Frieren - I was a little disappointed in the first part of the exam, but now that the new characters are more established, I’m enjoying the second part.

4/5 - 7th time loop - I really enjoyed the light novel and this adaptation seems excellent. The writing is not to the level of Apothecary Diaries, but well above average for light novels. Strong characters and a good use of the past lives gimmick. I especially like how Rishe has to adapt to changes from the past timeline and cannot just trust her past knowledge to work outright.

4/5 - Weakest Tamer - the story is low and deliberate but somehow I’m not getting bored. I think it does a good job of making the mundane meaningful to the characters.

4/5 - Villainess 99 - another good adaptation. The anime does a good job of showing what a lovable dork Yumiella can be.

4/5 - Solo leveling - I’m a sucker for rpg elements in stories, so this has been fun so far. Pacing is a bit slow for my tastes, especially with some of the forced cliffhangers, but that is getting better.

4/5 - Shanghai-La Frontier - still enjoying this one, the last arc has been good, just far to long. Almost feels like this one would be better with hour long episodes.

3/5 - Tsukimichi - the hero focus episodes were annoying (but understandably necessary) and the season started slow, but it is now reminding me of all I liked in the first season and thankfully seems to have escaped the season two curse that ruined a lot of other anime…

3/5 - Sasaki and Peeps - picked this one up recently and really enjoying the goofy randomness.

3/5 Instant Death - seems like a good adaptation. The story was so crazy that seeing it animated makes it somewhat more sensible. And seeing proud, OP, characters get effortlessly killed of never gets old, at least not in this story…

3/5 - Fluffy Paradise - I did not expect much from this one, but it has been fun so far. Still concerned about the whole monster ranch concept though

Close to dropping:

Demon prince of Momochi house - I like the yokai, house stuff. But overall am about 50/50 on this one.

Wrong way to use healing magic - I wanted to like this one but nothing about it is compelling to me.

On hold: Sengoku, and Torture Princess - I watched the first episode of both, but have not felt compelled to continue

Dropped:

Strongest Tank - I wanted to like this one but no. Far too much fetish/harem material for far to little plot.

To watch: Dangers in my heart - enjoyed the first season, but not sure I finished it. Hopefully it gets less repetitive

Brave Bang Bravern - I’ve seen this one talked up a lot

Banished from the hero’s party - I watched the first season, so I guess I should check it out…

Unwanted undead adventurer - another that seems to have a positive buzz

I loved all of the Miyazaki films except The Wind Rises, which I found to be awful and boring. So I’m kind of afraid to watch this one. Is it more like his earlier work or more like the wind rises?

Best: I honestly cannot decide between Oshi no ko, Frieren, and Apothocary Diaries. Each is excellent but in different ways.

Worst… Maybe the fruit of evolution. The first season had a quirky dumb sense of humor that made it work, but what little I saw of season two was just bad.

Core implosion did not disappoint, but I hope the next one is bigger.

This was just OK. The underlying story and world is good enough to carry the adaption, but the pacing was awful. Crawling at times, literally fading to black to skip foward at others. Moments that seemed pivotal and important were all but skipped though (the whole dragon bit which sets up the plot for the rest of the story…)