With Apothecary Diaries over and me caught up on the remaining shows, I can finally call an end to Spring and my thoughts on the shows.
Dropped:
Summer Pockets: An adequate adaptation, but I'd rather just read the VN, especially for Reflection Blue content.
Moonrise: The action was stylish, but the characterization and plotting were truly awful. The death knell was the show killing off a barely-established character and then jumping into an extended flashback to try to make that death feel meaningful. It did not work.
Mono: I might go back to finish this eventually, but midway through I felt like I was being bait-and-switched, being promised a show about a high school photography club and getting a bunch of episodes that were just the mangaka's travelogue. Not much photography or the characters I actually liked.
Completed:
Food for the Soul: My favorite of the iyashikei-types from this season. I liked Non Non Biyori, but I liked this even more; the cast dynamics were on point and it was just a really nice time each episode.
Zatsu Tabi: The other chill slice of life I finished from this season. It wasn't too bad as a traveling show, and I found the protagonist very likable. The last arc also made me smile. But it wasn't too notable otherwise.
Ninja and Assassin Under One Roof: Incredible adaptation of a manga I quite like, good job by Shaft. Would love another season. Marin best girl.
Apocalypse Hotel: The best original from this season, no doubt. Pretty much every episode had me very entertained, the only iffy one to me was the initial introduction of the Tanukians, and they integrated into the main cast much better than I expected afterward. Yachiyo has to be my favorite character of any from the season.
Apothecary Diaries S2: Although I liked the first cour, I did not like this cour. The politicking didn't really capture me, and a lot of this revolves around this whole scheme that doesn't make too much sense when you think about it, led by the most comically inept evil lady imaginable.So I didn't buy the stakes. I liked Loulan for the most part, at least, which helps to salvage things, although she would have been better if not working from such a flawed foundation.
Kowloon Generic Romance: I believe this was an anime original ending? It was well executed though, a very fun sci-fi mystery drama type of story. The characters were all good, especially Reiko of course, and I'll need to catch up on the manga soon. The only slight weakness was that from a mystery perspective, there weren't actually all that many big twists as I saw it, but it still worked plenty well from the drama angle.
Gundam GQuuuuuux: Ehh. I never watched the original UC stuff, so I did miss a bunch of things here. Early on it was easy enough to fill in the gaps, but the later plot flew over my head to an extent. Really the show did need to do better with its main trio though. Shuji was a non-character and Machu's motivations often just seemed dictated by the plot. Nyaan was good when the story remembered she existed, which wasn't too often. A small disappointment.
Go Go Loser Ranger!: I like the manga for this a good bit, and should have just dropped this one as soon as I realized they were trying to squeeze in the best arc into it. A very bad adaptation. The first season had some flaws but was ultimately adapting an arc that did drag, so I didn't mind the cuts. This one was a butchery, though.
Slime Taoshite 300-nen S2: I guess I watched this. A bit weaker than the first season, which wasn't exactly an all timer. It had some mildly enjoyable parts. Probably would not watch a third season.
Rock is a Lady's Modesty: Fairly good? It didn't grab me like other band anime did, but it wasn't bad, and I'll be happy to read the manga if translations come out more quickly. It wasn't that well served by the music; it often didn't convey the scene that well, so resorted to using flashy effects to sell the same idea. In that sense, the manga that leaves it all up to the imagination probably does a better job.
Continuing:
Anne Shirley: Glad I picked this up, it's exactly as charming as you'd think. I never experienced Anne before, so it's all fresh to me. She comes off a little strong at first with her wild imaginations, but is more tolerable after that while still being tons of fun. I like the way the setting has progressed, too, with the new characters like the awful little boy coming into the picture.Fun stuff.
Princession Orchestra: It's not as amazing as I had hoped from the premise of Precure-by-way-of-Symphogear, but it's still perfectly solid to keep watching. I do like the main trio and their dynamics, and the songs are mostly good. Kagari is probably the most fun. But a shakeup is probably needed soon.
Witch Watch: Good adaptation, pretty good manga. It never gets amazing but it does steadily, if incrementally, keep getting better, so I'll be glad to continue.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes: This is a split cour, so it's kind of ambiguous where to put it. Anyway, it's not bad. I certainly have better feelings about it than core MHA, and Koichi is much less annoying than Deku. Been good to reexperience.
Quite a good season, though with a few misses. Haven't watched anything from the new season but I'm hoping there will be a hidden gem. I think my watch list is all adaptations of things I already know, so it's not a recipe for a particularly exciting three months.
Just killing time until the world ends.