There are ~400 hours of the Meitantei Conan TV show and ~50 hours of movies though???

Probably the time I watched all 26 episodes of Simoun in a day instead of studying for finals (it was a jam-packed semester and I needed a burn-out day. Plus Simoun is awesome)

Spent way too long trying to remember what an “oger” was in the Eva universe

Hmmm, I’ve seen a lot of bad and mid anime movies (and a number that I even regret, yeah I’m talking 'bout you, third Made in Abyss movie!), but not a lot outside of the usual classics that I’d actually recommend. Redline definitely makes the list, probably also Utena: Adolescence because they went there and I applaud them for that. Other decent movies include Koe no Katachi, Ookami Kodomo, Vampire Hunter D, Interstella5555, and of course the Eva movies. Then there are the movies that I watched so long ago that I don’t know if I’d still enjoy them today, like Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. I used to like Makoto Shinkai’s early movies a lot, but the more of them he released, the more I realized he basically only knows how to make one movie over and over again with aesthetic tweaks, which kinda killed it for me. Also I don’t like Satoshi Kon’s movies very much (unpopular opinion I know).

Sorry for not following the assignment, but nine movies without Ghibli is apparently a tall order for me.

Too bad the spell components are a bitch to get ahold of

Dagashi Kashi has some questionable thigh gaps, but this one from ch 60 is so bad I was compelled to drop everything and post it. I’m still pondering the physics and anatomy necessary to maintain a thigh gap in this sitting position.

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Ten or fifteen years ago I almost certainly would not have found the girls as bland and annoying as I do watching this today. I think a combination of having read/watched dozens of series with similar characters, as well as aging out of the teenage/young adult demographic, made me completely uninterested in these characters… to the point that watching TEW felt like I was unironically “watching it for the plot”: I’m just here for the trains, bizarre setting, and surreal vibe!

This is entirely a matter of opinion, of course. However of the people I know aged 30 and up who watch anime, I don’t think most of them would particularly enjoy the girls, and most likely would shy away from the series specifically because of their presence. That’s generally the type of audience I write reviews for; these reviews are posted to the “Animation and Comics after 30” community first and cross-posted here when relevant. Once upon a time I was into “cute girls find cute things series” (I re-watched Lucky Star at least once), but tastes change as you age, and while some older viewers may still enjoy these characters, I definitely did not.

One series I am really interested in this season is Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction, in part because the teenage girl cast don’t look or act like stereotypical anime girls. Compared to most anime girls, it’s almost as if the manga author pulled an Alien and wrote the characters to be gender neutral, since they often act more how I’d expect teenage boys in anime to act. Watching this series reminds me of watching the live action series Derry Girls: here’s a cast that compared to most media feels like a real-life group of teenagers, awkward and weird. I don’t think the manga quite translates to the animated format, but that’s a topic for a separate review.

I’ll add in that Kino’s Journey was originally a light novel series, キノの旅 (Kino no Tabi). I never actually saw the anime, but really enjoyed the light novels (I read them in Japanese; hopefully the English translation is equally good).

I think Kino is a great series for anyone who enjoys dystopias and social commentary. It’s a bit like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror with its episodic premise of “imagine if there were a society that functioned like [concept of the week]; wouldn’t that be interesting/weird/fucked up?” Definitely not your standard anime/light novel! And yes, the tone of TEW and Kino is completely different; as mentioned in another comment, the similarity is in the setting/premise of exploring different isolated communities that each have some bizarre unique feature.

Thanks, I’ll hop over and see what others said

For sure, the tone of TEW is nothing like Kino (I only read the light novels, but I’m assuming the anime is similarly dark). However I thought the setting hit similar notes: visiting isolated city-state-like communities separated by vast, unpopulated expanses, each dramatically different from the others in some strange, unfortunate manner. I loved this world-building premise in Kino, and was happy to see it again but with a different twist in TEW.

It depends on what your likes/dislikes are when it comes to languages. I much preferred learning kanji to memorizing noun genders and verb conjugations of European languages.

Japanese has significantly fewer sounds than many languages, so homonyms are inevitable. Thanks to kanji this isn’t much of an issue in written Japanese, but spoken Japanese (and Japanese written without the use of kanji) relies heavily on context.

The alternative would be ridiculously long words. Example: the English word “extra” (five letters, two syllables) is pronounced “ekisutora” in Japanese (still five letters, but also five syllables); this is a result of every consonant needing to be followed by a vowel (except for “n” and a short list of compounds like “sh”). Additionally, Japanese only has five vowel sounds, plus a few that you can force out (e.g. “ka” can be slightly modified to “kya” to approximate the “a” sound in “cat”). Japanese also contains fewer consonant sounds than a number of other languages.

I think it slipped under a lot of folks’ radars! “Delightfully silly and educational” is a pretty good summary. It’s also one of the very few “family TV” anime out there: nothing questionable for the kids, nothing obnoxious for the adults, hopefully interesting and engaging all around.

Wait 'til you find out about Yu-Gi-Oh

There’s plenty of Christianity-as-a-source-material media out there. The obvious example is the Narnia series, but LotR was also highly inspired by Tolkien’s faith. Many pre-20th century Western works are based in Christianity (when the world was less secular). It’s fallen out of favor recently so most Christian works that make it big are Evangelical, like the Left Behind series.

As another comment mentioned, there actually is a Bible stories manga/anime, but it’s pretty old.

If those count, we should also toss in Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, Heaven’s Lost Property, Blue Exorcist, and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne.

Or Qwaser of Stigmata! Only issue is that it’s Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but as long as you’re cool with that…

I’m going to second this opinion. You’re not going to find an anime that’s Christian in philosophy/religious doctrine. There are a decent number that use Christianity as a motif or setting however. Chrono Crusade is maybe the closest you’ll get. Or you can go the Maria-Sama ga Miteru direction, which takes place at a Catholic girls school (but all the characters are lesbians, and it aired in an era when the Catholic Church was very anti-LGBTQ so…)

Edit: Kids on the Slope has Christianity (or rather, being a Christian in Japan) as a minor theme, and it’s historical fiction so it might be one of the most accurate portrayals of Christianity in anime.

Saga of Tanya the Evil may be the greatest isekai of all time. Also the complete opposite of a harem. I’m not sure there is any romance in the series at all, actually.