Current watches

[Anastasia]

Frieren is remarkably truthful to what I've seen in the manga so far and just as stirring.

Yeah. It's MVP of the season and probably the year for me (with the proviso that I wasn't into Oshi No Ko, which is the other big hit I can think of). No other series this year comes close to how deftly it's written.

As for what I'm watching this season?

Frieren >>>>>> 16 Bit Sensation = I'm In Love With The Villainess > I Shall Survive Using Potions > Tearmoon (dropped for now) > My Daughter Left The Nest And Returned An S Rank Adventurer (dropped).

Frieren is amazing and gets better every episode. 16 bit sensation is great and hits a lot of fond points for me, but it's not fair that it's facing off against Frieren. Villainess is a lot of fun every episode and Rae's English VA knocks the role out. Potions is watched mostly to see how silly it gets.

I gave Tearmoon a shot, it started super strong but I dropped it recently after it devolved into school shenanigans. What a waste of a strong premise. I'll wait for a backlog and a rainy day to marathon it and see if it pulls up. I never got back to S Rank, too many other good things this season and it wasn't doing it for me.

I feel like 16 bit or Villainess would be angling for my top spot in any other season. Frieren isn't fair competition.

[Anastasia]

Frieren >>>>>> 16 Bit Sensation = I'm In Love With The Villainess > Berserk Of Gluttony > I Shall Survive Using Potions > Tearmoon (dropped for now) > My Daughter Left The Nest And Returned An S Rank Adventurer (dropped).

Season's pretty much firmed up, I'll talk about things once it's done. Really good season for the high points. My only real complaint is that Tearmoon started so strong and fizzled out. Berserk of Gluttony's a recent addition, it's not all that great otherwise but Roxy and Fate together are great.

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I'm also not in love with Villainess touching on more serious political issues. In most shows this would be excellent depth, in this show I feel it's a distraction from the main draw.

Also I'm not sure how 16 bit's gonna end, but I'm eagerly awaiting that.

[Anastasia]

Final seasonal rankings:

Frieren >>>>>> 16 Bit Sensation > I'm In Love With The Villainess > Berserk Of Gluttony > I Shall Survive Using Potions > Tearmoon (dropped) > My Daughter Left The Nest And Returned An S Rank Adventurer (dropped).

Frieren's amazing. It's like you take an emotionally stunted elf, reflect on how a race that lives for millenia deals with humans and mix it together with lots of genuine pathos, a slow pace and genuinely skilled writing. The show's a constant treat and it's my anime of the year without any question. So glad this goes through Winter '24.

16 Bit Sensation got weird. Really weird, in that trippy 90s anime sort of way. I think that might be the point as it's a nostalgia fest, though it does address current issues like AI. Really fun show that hit me in my weak points, even if I felt it slightly overreached. I think it could've used one more episode and defter plotting for

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the bits where Konoha wears a plugsuit ripoff. The action in particular there could've used some tweaks, as well as some better plotting for tension.

Villainess was an amazing show that I thought got weaker whenever it moved away from Raye troll-romancing Claire. When it was playing that for laughs, real emotions or even reflecting on Raye's homosexuality (a surprisingly nuanced take for anime, far better than not talking about it or only a surface level exploration), it was great. When it got more serious, I felt the plot tended to stumble. I wasn't thrilled with the execution of the mid season climax or the last three episodes.

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Lene's story didn't quite click for me, nor did the intrigue around it. This wasn't a big deal, I still enjoyed it but it wasn't the show's strongest part.

Where it fell apart was Manaria. If Frieren won best anime of the year, she won most disliked character of the year for me and it's not close. Her entire gimmick was unpleasant start to end, I disliked almost everything she did and only wanted her to go away. The routine of trying to break up Raye and Claire and act like she's doing them a favor by helping them deal with their emotions. No I'm good, not buying it, try next door.

This seriously dragged down the show for me and turned a 9/10 into a 7/10 bordering on a 6/10.

Berserk Of Glutton is typical shonen/system stuff. I'm merely fond of Fate and Roxy. I won't defend this one, it's basically if someone took Hungry Hungry Hippos, realized they were missing all the white balls and substituted in all the you lose money cards from Monopoly in as a replacement. It's fun enough for what it is and Fate losing stats slows him down slightly. Honestly, the stats hardly matter overall.

Potions? Eh. I watched it because the isekai power it granted was broken and stuck with it. Heroine's like if one of those fanon Nabiki Tendos with a heart of gold got isekaied, but the fanfic author remembered she still was Nabiki Tendo.

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New season's starting so not much there yet, but I did see season one of Banished From The Hero's Party. No, I'm not writing the entire title out. Fun show, particularly because it has a romance between two adults that moves at a decent pace.

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Rit came in and it was clear right off she wanted Red. No bones about it, made constant moves forward and it was reciprocated in short order. I'm not going to lie, I thought they were going to wake up in bed together in episode 3 when they started drinking. Rit had made some decisions and she was gonna get her man. Still, they're a great couple and I'm glad they're engaged by the end of season one.

I also don't agree with Ruti's decisions in the final episodes. Do I have all the sympathy in the world for her? Yeah, I do. Doesn't mean the demon invasion goes away. I have some fairly deep moral and philosophical issues with Ruti's choice, but it's complex and I'm about 80% sure the series will end up pulling the 'oh look, our God-shaped stand in for God is evil' as Japan tends to do. I don't blame her and I might even do the same thing in her situation, but- anyway, disagreements are disagreements.

To spoiler episode one of the second season, I'm not thrilled a new hero has shown up. I feel like it robs Ruti's choice of it's weight and consequences, both good and bad.

Also, is it me or was there a lot of barely censored nudity that felt like buy the DVDs bait?

[Dracos]

We need more Apothecary Diaries.

MaoMao is going to poison.

Will the master strategist take her?

I really enjoyed the manga so far so am glad it is having a pretty faithful anime.  It's the story of a young alchemist who has a little too much obsession with poison getting kidnapped to work as a servant at the emperor's harem palace (The court where the concubines live) in a pseudo-japan setting.

It's a romance story at its heart, with murder mysteries as the main conveyance as Maomao is unnaturally good at puzzling through obscure situations.  Maomao's adoptive father, unknown father, and mother all have entanglements into the higher echelons of the country that are well buried.  The male guardian of the concubine's (who maomao decides is obviously a eunuch) notices the brilliant girl around and starts pulling her into little puzzles, loving how she reacts.