Current watches

[Arakawa]

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I found that accentuates the horror of it all. It honestly reminds me of Now and Then, Here and There in that aspect. The gut punches just keep coming, and you can't tell when your supposed to relax. Even when something awful isn't happening the anticipation becomes a constant stressor overshadowing everything. Its almost a relief when shit does happen.

True. At the same time, if it was wall-to-wall grimdark in same vein as (as far as I know) Berserk, I would not have gotten as far into it.

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Interesting points of comparison for this series are HP Lovecraft ("she told us about the mysterious ring of light on the seventh layer that few have seen" seems like a very Lovecraft way of foreshadowing something).

And probably Worm. Honestly Bondrewd's setup and manner of operation reminds me a lot of Cauldron, if not as well explained. Supposedly in the background there is unspecified bad stuff that happens every 2000 years that Bondrewd wants to figure out how to mitigate, but it's not clearly stated how his work could help in the slightest. His only on-screen scientific accomplishment is to use human sacrifice to create furries. Then again, this kind of pointlessly cruel and dumb flailing around to try to discover the most basic rules of something is exactly similar to Cauldron's research efforts. It seems like the sort of research program that leads to 'oh well, let's stop Abyss from eating the world by building another tower of praying skeletons to soak up the bad juju and kick the can down the road for another 2000 years'.

It's of course a matter of visual medium that the horrible triggering stuff in Made in Abyss elicits a completely different reaction to that of Worm where readers are like "enh these are bad dudes but not as nasty as the other dudes we were dealing with a few chapters ago".

Likewise Roadside Picnic (the novel, not the 'Stalker' video games). The common point here is a Death Zone full of unexplainable dangerous stuff that kills you instantly & some useful gizmos that the different world governments want. But in both cases people exploring the Zone are doing it because of a somewhat-improbable belief that right in the middle of the Zone is something so inexplicably wonderful that it's worth crawling through all the horrific mess to get to it.

And Dante's Inferno is another really obvious one. So far I see a bit of a pattern in that they encounter increasingly more damned people as they descend, and they tend to overcome the obstacles not by being badass but by being moral/compassionate. IMO saving Nanachi fits into that pattern as well.

My favourite thing to contemplate is that Ozen is probably

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seriously frustrated because she would like to take her Last Dive at some point, but at the moment that implies leaving behind Bondrewd as the unchallenged top authority in charge of cave raiding efforts.

[Merc]

Just came back from watching Belle at the cinema.

Showing was pretty empty, didn't have to be around other people. Think there were basically 4 others watching it, all sitting in different rows from me. Always nice in these times.

Movie is basically an anime re-interpretation of Beauty & The Beast, where there is a VR setting and the titular Belle is a traumatized girl who lost her ability to sing in the real world after losing her mother, but finds she can sing in the VR setting and she ends up becoming a hit sensation worldwide. And then she meets another person's avatar, a dragon-like creature known only as The Beast. You can guess some of the story elements, it IS a tale as old as time after all, but the story does a lot of good work re-imagining other elements of the story so while you can definitely see the elements of Beauty & The Beast, it also tells its own story and can stand on its own. Wonderful music, some really good animation, and the characters felt fun to watch.

A few bad storytelling cliches though like the Hollywood "Zoom in! Enhance!" trope (and a couple of others that might be a bit more spoiler-ish), but still an anime movie I think I can recommend.

Going to go watch Sing A Bit of Harmony tomorrow as well, hopefully that's as good a movie.

[Dracos]

Bleh, wrote a chunk here.  Accidentally pressed a button and blew it away.

Oh well.  Been watching crunchy roll

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 - new season is nicely colorful action.  Broken up into little mini-arcs focusing mostly on the more powerful demon hunters.

jujutsu kaisen - vastly better naruto trio and teacher setup.  Flawed, action packed, and delightful.

Land of Leadale - Isekai OP silliness.  Not good but watching.  Main character lacks purpose and initiative and even true joy at not being a hospitalized cripple.

Ranking of Kings - my favorite whimsy of the moment.  It's a subversive fairy tale around a deaf cursed young prince.  Highly recommend.  It's childish but very much not for children.

[Merc]

Going to go watch Sing A Bit of Harmony tomorrow as well, hopefully that's as good a movie.

Good movie as well. I think I enjoyed Belle overall more, but Sing A Bit of Harmony had me laughing at parts of it since it was more of a slice of life/comedy instead of a more drama/coming of age story like Belle. Both were pretty much musicals, and very strongly depended on the use of the musical components in their stories.

[Arakawa]

A few bad storytelling cliches though like the Hollywood "Zoom in! Enhance!" trope (and a couple of others that might be a bit more spoiler-ish), but still an anime movie I think I can recommend.

Hosoda's films seem to have an established pattern of doing slightly nonsensical things with technology. And plot consistency. (I enjoyed Girl Who Leapt Through Time but man, not thinking about the plot holes in that one takes effort.)

The one that really breaks my mind is the "math problem" in Summer Wars consisting of nothing more than a bunch of hexadecimal and "Please solve this!"

[Merc]

Yeah, definitely stuff you need to really suspend disbelief for, but overall still an enjoyable experience seems right way to describe the movie. I've actually not watched his movies before, but saw a few trailers and am kinda curious to see others.

[Anastasia]

Binged on anime over the past...week? Week and a half? I haven't done that in a long time. It's way easier these days thanks to streaming services.

Ayakashi Triangle: 6.5/10. Fun show at first, but feels shallow and got hit with coronavirus related delays. Ninja boy gets transformed into a ninja girl by a hostile spirit, shenanigans ensue. Childhood friend has a thing for him and doesn't seem to be slowed down by things such as a gender swap. May be the Sahara in human form. Anyway, I watched four episodes and liked it, but I came back after the delay and episode five didn't keep my attention. May give it a try once it's finished.

Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout: 9/10. It's like a twisted buddy movie where the duo gets isekaied, one gets turned into a super hot girl and the other gets super powers and stats to protect her. It's a comedy that cares about the characters and builds them, particularly the main duo. I watched the entire season and loved it, would watch a second season. Fun, well done show that knows what makes it work. Recommended for anyone who would enjoy an isekai parody.

Tomo-chan Is A Girl: 9/10. So after that I looked up something current and lighthearted, so here we are. Guy likes girl. Girl likes guy. Both are childhood friends and the girl is a total tomboy. Shenanigans ensue. The formula itself isn't unique, but the depth given to the characters shine. The main four in particular grow on you quickly as the two stars figure out their relationship. Typical fare made far better by quality. It's only 9 episodes in but I'm looking forward to the last 3-4.

Saving 80,000 Gold In Another World For My Retirement: 4/10. So I wanted to like this one. An isekai where the heroine's power is to teleport between worlds, including her modern day home. So adventure over in episode 1, right? Nah, she decides to become a merchant and sell modern goods in a medieval world. I like the ideas here but the execution fell flat for me. The heroine didn't do it for me after a few episodes, the noble family she attached to annoyed me and overall the concept didn't gel. Not terrible as much as a taste mismatch.

Gundam: Witch Of Mercury: Postponed/10. After a lot of fantasy I checked in on Gundam. Saw episode 0 of this. It's a nicely animated space epic with darker overtones. However, I quickly realized I wasn't in the mood for darker anime. For that matter I wasn't in the mood for Gundam's typical commentary on war, violence and weapons. I'll come back to it when my mood fits it. It has potential.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire: 8/10. So back to isekai. So an old king dies and asks to be reborn in a new life. He is as a girl - Okay look. It's not my fault! Cor recommended this one to me, so blame him or Japan. Anyway, only 5 or so episodes in but I've enjoyed it. Rating's tentative due to that but it has some signs of moral complexity. Hoping it stays interesting.

[Corwin]

Utena Gundam is amazing. Totally recommend it!

[Anastasia]

Utena Gundam is amazing. Totally recommend it!

I'll see about getting to it sooner or later. Still on a fantasy bender.

The Magical Revolution Of The Reincarnated Princess And The Genius Young Lady: 9.5/10. It's an isekai that barely mentions being an isekai except for a few references early on and a mid season plot point. One part anime, one part shoujo, one part yuri and one part political drama. I like the writing and the characters a lot, as well as the sense of consequences for everything that happens. The show does a good job of making the heroine feel like she earns her powerup/isekai cheat ability by the time she gets it.

Up through episode 10, will see how it ends but it should be good. I can sort of guess what's going to happen but it might surprise me.

[Anastasia]

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (Season 1): 10/10. A romantic comedy based around a guy and girl scheming to get the other confess first. Deftly written and dubbed, funny and tightly written stuff. Some of the best anime I've watched in a long time. It's a ton of fun and I'd recommend it to anyone. It gets bonus points for a crazy dub that really goes for the gold. I love the narrator.

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (Season 2): 9/10. Still great, but it loses a bit for stretching out the premise too far. They got away from season 1's strengths and hurt themselves by a lack of progress. I really think they should've had them finally get together in some over the top way and explore it from there rather than string viewers on.

Midway through season 3, going to finish the festival arc tonight or tomorrow and see how that hits me. Also, the narrator's right that Hayasaka's the best.

[Anastasia]

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (Season 3): 9/10. Still incredible. See season 2's review, that's close enough to this one to get to the point.

I'd even put the entire 3 seasons as 9.5/10, they're really great stuff. I'd rec this to anyone who likes anime at all. It's constantly funny, the dub is amazing and the season 3 rap episode was worth everything until then by itself. Highly recommended.

It'll be tough for anything to live up to Kaguya-sama's character work. Ironic that despite the main characters getting so much deft work, a semi side character (Hayasaka) ended up my favorite by a mile.

[Ebiris]

Kaguya's probably my top-rated anime ever. It's so consistently funny and the animation goes so unnecessarily hard to really elevate itself over the manga - I remember first discovering it because of a Super Eyepatch Wolf video where he described it as a 'Non-Battle' Battle Anime. It's like what Death Note did with the 'eat a potato chip' bit but it goes beyond just unnecessarily complex/detailed animation into all kinds of stylistic shifts that play with the medium and accentuate the comedy beyond what could be put on a page. Not to mention musical bits like the rap episode.

Season 3 is let down a bit by Ishigami just kinda becoming a bit of a smothering presence. It's pretty obvious he's the creator's favourite character.

[Anastasia]

It is really good. Not top for me, because at the end of the day, I got a bit exasperated by it all. You two like each other, just say it already. At some point it went from amusing to amusing and exasperating, which cost it a point. That's probably why Hayasaka is my favorite character. I can relate to her long suffering attitude towards Kaguya's denials, and even when the others annoy me, she usually dishes things straight. (If there's any reasoning to the dub narrator calling Hayasaka best girl besides comedy, I wonder if that's it? The dub narrator certainly shares some exasperation with her.)

I ended up with a solidly neutral opinion of Ishigami at the end of the day. I'd agree he got overplayed in season 3, but there was enough amusement there to stop it from taking points off.

I can see why Kaguya-sama would be someone's favorite. I can respect that choice. It just isn't my favorite due to personal taste.

What is my favorite anime? I'd have to sit down and think about it. Something 90s like Ranma? Sailor Moon? DBZ? Something more modern instead? Have to think about that.

[Anastasia]

She Professed Herself Pupil Of The Wiseman: 4.5/10. So an MMO becomes real and a guy finds himself now in the form of a cute girl - yeah, I swear this is real and not just mashing cliches together. Anyway, dude's a summoner and summons stuff. Starts terrible and rises to respectable average-ness. It's your standard isekai fare. The premises aren't terrible, but I feel like budget issues (the animation is rough) really hamstring it. Still, it at least finds some heart and episode 8 was good. The rest? Eh. It's very much the first chapter of a much longer story.

I also really like the dub's voice for Mira (The MC). It just works for the role.

My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex: Incomplete/10. I saw an episode of this, it's the premise that a former couple become stepsiblings. They don't get along and the vibe I got is that it's gonna be focused on that. It feels like a decently executed romcom, but something about the two personalities in play doesn't pique my interest. I'll try this again later, this might be a case of wrong show at the wrong time.

[Anastasia]

So Magical Revolution and Tomo-chan finished their seasons up today. Going to spoiler this since it's last episode talk.

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Magical Revolution ends up with an 8.5 as I disliked the final episode. I'm glad it had a happy ending, but the way they handled the fight didn't sit right with me. I found it really anti climactic and unrewarding, particularly with the way Anis' dragon powers got completely blown away by Euphie.

For a character who has an entire gimmick of scraping out what she can? That didn't sit right with me. It's for the best that Anis lost but that wasn't much of a showing by her at all. I wanted to see more out of Anis rather than a brief clash and then Euphie goes all glowy and blasts her away. Maybe getting hung up on power levels and the duel misses the point of the episode, but it is what it is.

Time constraints are doubtlessly part of the problem as well. This could've used a 13th episode.

As for Tomo-chan? We-huh, wait, there's a 13th episode? Irony. Okay, hold off on this one but it's still been great. 8, 8.5 or 9/10 feels right. Depends on if the last episode ties up nicely or not.