Lurker > Robazoid

Thanks for checking around. I only really know of one website for manga so I'm kind of limited. Ah well, plenty of other stuff for me to read that doesn't have troll uploads. I read all of Engaged to the Unidentified on this website and it was fine

I tried reading the Unnamed Memory manga. In addition to some translations that are the exact opposite of what they should be (or so I assume, otherwise nothing about the premise makes any sense, at one point she actually says she can break the curse and just... no you can't???), I swear to god the uploader edited one panel in chapter two to insert a poorly drawn meme face. I'm starting to think Unnamed Memory is cursed! It's resisting my efforts to enjoy it in any format.

I'd consider buying the actual legal releases, but I already impulse bought the entire manga for A Condition Called Love today and should probably save my money.

EDIT: I refuse to believe this background face was in the original manga

https://imgur.com/a/jA7pB35

I was always scared of pirating things personally because I don't have a VPN or whatever and I'm paranoid about being the one in a million to get taken to court, but my "fuck Disney+ and their close-captioned subtitles" hatred finally overpowered my fear. Along with downloading Undead Unluck, I also got the first four episodes of Mission: Yozakura Family. I got caught up on that, because apparently I wasn't watching enough this season...

Yozakura Family is pretty good so far! In my current season ranking, I'm comfortably putting it in the "Amazing" section. I like the two main characters. Their relationship is cute. It has a decent cast of side characters too with the crazy family members. I'm enjoying the over-the-top spy training and all the shenanigans that come with it.

Then again, I'm a sucker for comedic spy stories like this. I think I was the only one here who even watched Spy Classroom, for example, and I loved that too. Add in some cute low-key romantic elements like Yozakura Family has, and this anime really appeals to me.

Ok here are my brief thoughts for the bottom ten shows I'm watching this season

-A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics has been growing on me quite a bit. While it isn't anywhere near as good of a comedy as Hinamatsuri, it has a similar vibe with magical weirdos bumbling around the modern day. A lot of its better moments are thanks to the knight Livia and her homeless misadventures. She's great, and she's been getting a lot more focus than I expected. The one episode where she wound up in a cult was some A+ goofball shenanigans. I'm enjoying the princess Sara being a detective too. Each episode feels better than the last, and I'm excited to see if that trend continues.

-Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included is a pretty generic harem comedy, but it has been improving with each episode too. The best decision it made was focusing less on the angel. Towa is the worst girl they've introduced so far. She's just there to fulfill the "sexy caretaker" fantasy, which is boring. The main guy's coworker is a lot more fun with her tendency to take everything to extremes. My favorite is still the regular school friend Tsumugi. She has a crush on the main dude but now she's competing with a literal angel. It's funny watching her struggle to wrap her head around that crazy situation and futilely try to convince herself that she still has a chance.

-Astro Note is way below the other two slice-of-life comedies, but it's not bad. All the characters having wildly different art styles is occasionally absurd enough to be funny on its own. I also like the talking dog who has to pretend to be a regular dog. Honestly, the worst aspect of this show is the two main leads. The chef guy's only character trait is that he likes Mira, and I don't know why because she barely feels like a character at all aside from her cluelessness. Maybe the whole sci-fi aspect will go somewhere eventually. I at least don't mind watching this one every week.

-Kaiju No. 8 is getting a lot of hype, which makes me think this anime just isn't for me. I liked the first episode because it focused on disposing of kaiju bodies. Once the main guy transformed, though, the whole thing suddenly turned super generic. Now he's in a testing arc that feels like the exact same thing as My Hero Academia's testing arc only with lamer characters and way more boring abilities. I don't like that the main guy's central motivation is impressing his judgmental childhood friend. The comedic moments aren't working for me at all either, it just makes him seem pathetic. I wouldn't call Kaiju No. 8 bad, but it definitely hasn't won me over yet.

-As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill etc is fine as far as isekai go, but that still puts it pretty low in the season overall. I like the premise of the main dude gathering talented individuals to carry him through an inevitable period of turmoil... but the actual recruitments have been pretty boring. I'm beginning to worry the entire season will be little more than a prologue to a much more interesting story that's never actually told. Overall, everything about this is fine. I like the characters well enough. I'm just disappointed at how long it's taking to get to anything interesting.

-Unnamed Memory is my biggest disappointment of the season. Episode one introduced a story with a lot of potential for the main couple to slowly grow closer. Episode two was already showing cracks in the quality of the adaptation as it skimmed past introducing its entire cast of secondary characters and jumped right into a fantasy monster fight I didn't care about because it had no buildup. Then the third episode happened and all my hopes for this adaptation evaporated. This anime is taking what's probably a good story and zooming through it so hard that everything about it is falling flat. The only nice thing I can say about it is that it at least isn't as bad as these next four.

-Gods' Games We Play gave me some hope in the first episode when the two main characters played an interesting variation of Memory, like it was a neat way to introduce them to each other. Then the second episode was a poorly animated game of hide-and-seek where there was no hiding or seeking, main dude just won with bullshit cheat powers. All my hopes for the show instantly disappeared, and the next two episodes were somehow even worse. This kind of high-stakes game story requires the author to be a clever, and very little so far has demonstrated that they're capable of that.

-Oblivion Battery is a baseball anime that, in my opinion, fails on every level. For the most part it tries to be a comedy... but the main comedic focus is on the most juvenile jokes imaginable. Lots of jokes about nipples, poop, and pornography. In the latest episode, the guys all met one character's mother and the big gag there was that she called them all loser virgins. Lady these kids are less than half your age. They're freshmen in high school, they're like fifteen. Calling them virgins isn't funny, it's just creepy and weird that your mind even went there. Oh, and there are bits about baseball too I guess. That aspect isn't handled well enough to be memorable next to the onslaught of bad jokes.

-Grandma and Grandpa Turn Young Again had an absolutely terrible first episode where half the jokes were about everyone in the family wanting to bang their sexy grandparents. Thankfully, the incest angle pretty much disappeared after... but that makes me wonder why the hell this series chose to introduce itself like that. A disappointing number of jokes still boil down to "grandma and grandpa are hot now", but at least their grandchildren don't want to have sex with them anymore. Instead, it's just turning into a mediocre comedy. It isn't offensive, but it doesn't have much going for it either.

-Highspeed Etoile is baffling. Like, after four episodes, I have no idea what this anime is even trying to be. The races are boring, just ugly CGI and cars driving in circles with absolutely no effort to try and make it exciting. A lot of the time it doesn't even focus on the races, though, and those parts are somehow even worse. Two of the four episodes were pretty much the exact same thing, the main girl Rin runs into one of the most famous racers ever and she's such a braindead moron that she doesn't recognize them so they just kind of hang out. This feels like a story that should be focusing on her as a prodigious talent. Someone who, despite her quirks, will come to dominate the world of racing. If that's where the story is actually going to go, I hope it starts soon because so far it just seems like Rin is a shitty racer. She's gotten dead last in every race and the racing season is half over. I hate her so much. This has a 4.84/10 on MAL and that still feels way too high.

MartinFF7 posted...

I'm looking for a permanent ongoing trade partner for Kaguya. The trade will be my H2 save since I already have an H1 deal in place. If anyone's interested, let me know.

I could do Kaguya for 7th Time Loop (and I'll be switching to Frieren once 7th inevitably goes out). It would also be my H2

We're far enough into the Spring season that I want to talk again about what I'm watching in the hopes of swaying others to watch/avoid them. I'm caught up on everything, which means three episodes minimum. This doesn't include sequels becuase, I mean, Laid-Back Camp and Duke of Death are great. Anyone who's seen their previous seasons already knows that. Since I'm watching twenty anime, I'll split it in half and do ten today, ten tomorrow. I'll try to keep my thoughts brief. Going from best to worst:

-A Condition Called Love is shaping up to be one of my favorite romances ever. Finally, an anime about the difficulties of dating. I love how the two leads are flawed in such realistic ways. The main guy Hananoi goes too far and has a lot of off-putting behaviors, but he's not an abusive asshole. The main girl Hotaru doesn't really know what love is, but she's not stupidly clueless. She's trying her best to understand their weird relationship. It's occasionally sweet, occasionally creepy, and always messy. I love it... but, obviously, this dynamic wouldn't work for everyone! I don't have to look very hard across the internet to see people going "main dude is a walking red flag" and I'm just like "that's the whole point of the show you morons". Then again, I really hated an anime like My Little Monster where the main dude regularly abused the main girl, and I bet fans of that show would say "that's the point" about it too. Different romances appeal to different people, I suppose.

-Tonbo has been a lot of fun so far. It was tough to pick my #2 between this and Jellyfish, but this is winning at the moment. As a sports anime, it's doing a great job at bringing me into the world of golf in ways that are fun and genuinely interesting. Still, my favorite thing about it is Tonbo herself. She's always so energetic and happy, but with some sadness in her past to give her depth. Her reluctant mentor/surrogate father relationship with Igaiga is also being handled super well.

-Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night is shaping up to be a really special anime. I love everyone in the main cast. They each have things from their past that they're struggling to overcome, and they have a fun group dynamic when they're together. The music aspect is being handled really well. More than anything, though, it's the storytelling and production values that are bringing it all together. Every episode so far has managed to enthrall me in ways that few other anime have.

-Tonari no Yokai-san has been such a pleasant experience. I'm a sucker for this kind of setting, a slice-of-life quiet mountain community with hints of the fantastic scattered all around. The worldbuilding has been consistently impressive at weaving the yokai into regular society. It's also doing a great job at sprinkling in darker or more serious elements without ever going too far with it.

-Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master is a great royal court political intrigue show. There are a lot of competing factions and people within those factions. After four episodes, though, I think I have a handle on all the major players. I'm excited to see where the succession crisis story goes... but I'm also enjoying the four ladies competing to become the next empress. Setting aside their role in the overall plot, it's fun watching them snipe at each other with backhanded comments.

-Wind Breaker isn't shaping up to be anything groundbreaking, but's doing a good job at being a delinquent fighting anime. I like the characters they've introduced so far, especially main dude Sakura. He's mostly your standard edgy tough guy, but I like the other half of him that gets flustered from kindness. The animation during the fights has been solid and kept them interesting to watch.

-Whisper Me a Love Song has the unfortunate luck of competing with A Conditon Called Love this season, but I'm still enjoying it. I've had significant issues with most of the other yuri romance anime I've seen, so I'm glad this seems to be avoiding the pitfalls those other shows fell into. Yori and Himari are good characters who are really cute together. I'm enjoying watching their relationship develop.

-The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio has had its ups and downs. I like the "frenemy" dynamic the two main characters have, and it's doing a good job at being realistic about the competitiveness of the industry. Some aspects have veered too far into melodrama for my tastes, though. I'm excited to see their relationship develop, but I'm also really worried about where some other plotlines might go. I feel like this could fall pretty far in my ranking if it goes a direction I don't like.

-Train to the End of the World has a lot of aspects that appeal to me, which makes me sad that I can't rank it higher. I like the weird setting and the dynamic between the four girls... at least most of the time. At other times they act like unbelievable morons. One recent story decision also infuriated me. I'm hoping they reverse it somehow because otherwise it'll ruin the entire story's tone. I guess I'm ranking this under the assumption that it'll improve in the future. The last two episodes kinda sucked.

-Mysterious Disappearances has been interesting so far. I'm a sucker for supernatural mysteries. I like the main girl, and I'm intrigued by the strange brother/sister duo she's teaming up with. Considering the amount of fanservice elements this show has, I've also been pleasantly surprised that it's handled kinda tastefully. I enjoyed the one mystery they've gone through. Whether it rises or falls in my ranking will depend on the quality of the future mysteries.

I'll talk about the bottom ten shows tomorrow just to avoid one gigantic post, but here's my overall season ranking at the moment.

AMAZING
A Condition Called Love
Tonbo!
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
Tonari no Yokai-san
Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

GOOD
Wind Breaker
Whisper Me a Love Song
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
Train to the End of the World
Mysterious Disappearances

FINE
A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics
Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included
Astro Note
Kaiju No. 8
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill etc

BAD
Unnamed Memory
Gods' Games We Play
Oblivion Battery
Grandma and Grandpa Turn Young Again
Highspeed Etoile

I haven't seen MyGo yet and love Odd Taxi but I didn't want to risk killing a BanG Dream anime.

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!

No danger of me dropping it, I'm definitely enjoying it! That's a good idea too about giving it more focus and using the season episodes as stopping points. It'll definitely help motivate me

I've started the earliest shows in my seasonal watch project. I'll probably always have a few going simultaneously, but for the most part I'm working forward in time.

-Legend of the Galactic Heroes, I'm slowly making my way through. Sorry for the slow progress Martin, it's a long anime! I'll probably post more detailed thoughts when I reach something that feels like a natural midpoint.

-Revolutionary Girl Utena is really intriguing but tough to binge because parts of it make me sad. I barely even know what's going on, I just feel so bad for Anthy. Her rat friend Chuchu is my favorite character. It's also nice to finally see what everyone was talking about back when Revue Starlight was airing, there sure are a lot of parallels between the two shows.

-Lost Universe is a lot of fun so far! There's something about some of these older anime that can make them really charming. Like, the older art style really enhances the absurdity somehow. I mean look at this, it's great.

https://imgur.com/a/iigkZIO

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Topical.

https://youtu.be/IQe6z02M9OY?si=ZOlY1L6qwvvJJ0QE

I was a bit sad that video glossed over the close-captioned subtitles, because that's my big problem with Disney+. It mostly focused on people not realizing shows exist because Disney doesn't promote them, but, pfft, I'm a big anime fan who checks MAL every season. That isn't a problem for me!

...Then partway through the video he mentioned a sequel to The Tatami Galaxy that came out in 2022 that I've never heard of. What the fuck? I even watched The Tatami Galaxy in 2022, how did I not know about this?

I'm not sure if anyone else will be interested in this, but I'm sharing it anyway! Back when I finished my 400th anime, I mentioned that what I've seen is heavily skewed towards more recent years. Only 31 were from 2010 or earlier compared to 73 from 2018 alone. Well, I wanted to try and balance that a little.

I've put together a list of one anime per season, and I'm going to start at the beginning and slowly make my way through it. It goes primarily from 1999 to 2023, but I couldn't find anything for Summer 2000 (there were only five new anime that season I mean wtf) and there were two seasons in 2018 where I've already seen pretty much everything. I substituted those with one anime per year from 1998, 1997, and 1988 to reach a total of 100 anime. I would've gone back further but there simply weren't that many shows debuting per season in the 90s and very few are available on streaming.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t_nYA59DR6AsZJvCk8l1AiuPRnF9jE0l6IWUqzAdatA/edit#gid=0

I'm only counting the debut year for anime with more than one season, but obviously I plan to watch everything once I get to them. It was rough finding shows for a few of these seasons. I'm going to have to go to Tubi of all places to watch "Arjuna" for Winter 2001. Still, a lot of anime that people recommended I download are on this thing, so thank you to everyone who helped me fill it out! I'll accept any criticism of my choices or suggestions for changes if anyone cares to look into it. I'm excited to watch most of these, though. A lot of them are anime I always wanted to watch but never got around to.

I won't exclusively watch things from this list. There are still a handful of shows I'm halfway through and need to finish, plus I may still watch the occasional random anime. I'm excited to get started on this project, though!

Man, after episode 3, I'm really close to moving Unnamed Memory into the "bad" column. From what I've read elsewhere, it's really rushing through the source material and excising all the things I'd actually want to see. There weren't any good character moments to develop their relationship, so everything feels hollow and unearned. I get the sense that there's a good story in there somewhere, this adaptation just isn't telling it.

This was my most anticipated anime of the season, too. After this and Momochi House last season, it's like my most anticipated anime is always cursed.

This topic is filling up so I made the next one, as I said I would when we healed the schism. I don't mind making them, but anyone who doesn't block or get blocked can make them too. Someone who's been here longer than me should also probably make the coveted #300 once we get there.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80754271

UshiromiyaEva posted...

You are definitely misremembering how exactly that all went down towards the end of season 2.

Yeah that could be, it's been a few years. I'll probably rewatch Sound Euphonium at some point before continuing the series, maybe I'll like it more then. There have been a few shows in the past that benefitted greatly from a rewatch. Sometimes it helps to know what's coming.

I watched the first two seasons of The Duke of Death and His Maid and I'm caught up on the currently airing third season. It's about a guy who lives with a sexy maid who constantly flirts with him, but he has a curse that kills anything he touches to they can't get together. The anime is like 50% fanservice and 50% dumb comedy. That's why I was surprised to enjoy it as much as I did! It's not high art or anything, but I had fun with it. The animation is all CGI, which I'm guessing would turn a lot of people off. I didn't mind it though. It had a consistent style that really grew on me.

The premise is vaguely similar to another "sexy maid flirts with guy" anime from a few years ago, "The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious". I absolutely hated that one, it had one awful joke that it told over and over, plus it was creepy watching an adult sexually tease a literal child who was mostly just confused. By comparison, "The Duke of Death and His Maid" handled the concept a lot better. For one thing, it had way funnier jokes. The duke's sister Viola in particular was hilarious. I loved the segments where she came over to visit. She always brought such an energetic, chaotic vibe. The large cast of side characters were all fun too.

Still, the main thing this anime did right was the romance. Sure, a lot of jokes boiled down to the maid flashing some skin to fluster the duke. Their relationship has a lot more going on beyond that, though. While the duke often protests the maid's behavior, it's clearly a dynamic they both enjoy. It was cute whenever they let their real feelings slip out and talked about a potential future together. They each care so deeply for the other. It made me want to root for them to find a way to break the curse.

Anyway, I'll talk more about this once the third (and final?) season ends. The first three episodes of it have been good so far. Hopefully it stays that way!

UF8 posted...

oh i decided to do a runthrough of all the bad isekais a couple of days ago just to see if there's any worth continuing

It definitely looks like I made the right choice by only trying that Appraisal Skill one. It isn't super great but it sounds better than any of these.

I checked the Youtube channel I watched Tonbo on and now the videos are blocked in my country, lol. It was nice while it lasted. Of course now I'm hooked, so I'll have to figure out Amazon Prime after all. I haven't watched a video there in years and apparently now they have ads? I hope it isn't too awful.

Anyway, I said a bit ago that I was done picking up new shows this season. It turns out that I lied! Here's my early impressions on two more that I caught up on over the weekend:

-Wind Breaker was getting good reviews, so I decided to check it out. I skipped it early on because it sounded kind of generic, I mean a delinquent guy getting into fights at his new school isn't exactly revolutionary. Still, it's been pretty enjoyable so far! I expected the main dude to be an angry edgelord, and he totally is, but I like the other side of him where he gets all flustered whenever someone treats him with kindness. The other guys have all been fine characters too. More than anything though, the fight scenes have been super well-animated and lots fun. The production values really lift the whole anime up, plus it's doing just enough unique things to make the otherwise generic premise come alive.

-YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master sounded like yaoi bait based on the MAL description. I mean it's literally just a short paragraph that only talks about a prince who gets a boy servant and they form a, quote, "strange" relationship. I skipped this early on based on that. Nothing against yaoi, I'm just not into dudes. Thankfully, I read elsewhere what the anime is actually about. It's about an interesting fantastical court full of political intrigue! I guess it could potentially turn yaoi later, but I kind of doubt it since one of the big plot points is that there are four royal ladies competing to be the next empress. Forget the prince and the servant, I'm having fun just watching these ladies snipe at each other with backhanded comments. One of the four candidates admits she's only there to get drunk and enjoy the show.

There's a lot of info-dumping and worldbuilding. Like, a lot. Three-legged shapeshifting ravens, a country split in four each with their own lords at different levels, various court factions... everyone has their name and role displayed when they first come onscreen and I still had trouble keeping track of everyone. I imagine that would turn a lot of people away. However, I'm enjoying Yatagarasu so far. I like this style of political intrigue. It helps that it has an interesting central conflict where a younger prince is being chosen as heir over a seemingly more qualified older brother. The servant boy Yukiya has been a relatable main character, too. I'm glad I decided to give this show a chance. It's easily in the upper half of the season so far.

Dangers

There are only three or four saves left by my count, but I'm trading for Dark Gathering if someone wants to help me out. I can save now.

7th Time Loop

Beastars

I know that the golf anime is part of some sort of NFT thing, but I don't care as long as the show itself is good! It's not like the story is about NFTs or anything. I don't think anyone on that island even owns a computer.

It turns out the new golf anime, Tonbo, is getting slowly added to some random Youtube channel (I think legitimately? I dunno, it didn't seem like a pirate channel or anything). It's a week behind Amazon, but I don't have easy access to Prime Video anymore so it's good that I can watch it here.

Anyway, the first two episodes were actually really good! After Highspeed Etoile and Oblivion Battery both crashed and burned, it's nice to have a decent sports anime this season. A former golf pro, fleeing something from his past, moves to a rural island and meets a young girl who is surprisingly good at golf. So far, Tonbo is kind of a mixture of Birdie Wing (making ridiculously tricky shots despite limited clubs) and one of those "reluctant mentor" shows where a guy gets a kind of surrogate daughter. It looks like it'll be a cute and fun anime with occasional feels. After two episodes, it's already shaping up to be one of my favorites of the season.

In addition to everything else I'm watching, I'm trying to catch up on sequel seasons in anime I've fallen behind on.

I finished the third season of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was as good as the first two seasons It essentially had one big arc rather than multiple shorter ones. It also spent a lot of time on the secondary characters in the Misfit class. I mean I like all of them too, but my favorites are Ameri (who barely got any focus) and Iruma himself, who didn't get his usual spotlight. There were entire episodes where he didn't show up at all. Still, I don't want to put S3 down too much! I still like the setting, and the story does a great job at mixing comedy into the various demonic school situations. Unlike the previous seasons, S3 also never got super serious. The few episodes where this show got dramatic were always the worst, so it was nice to have it be lighthearted and fun the whole way through. So S3 was a step down, but only slightly. I hope it gets another season in the future.

You need a few more tiers so spiders and most other bugs can be well below every other type of creature. Almost no one likes spiders or shit like mosquitos.

The only bugs people like are honeybees, ladybugs, and maybe certain kinds of ants.

Mushishi

GameFAQs

I used to have a rule that I needed to watch three episodes before dropping something no matter how awful it was, but I stopped doing that last year. Yuri is my Job was one I dropped after one episode because I knew it 100% wasn't for me. I also tried watching The Eccentric Family, an older PA Works anime, but I got such bad vibes from it that I dropped it after one episode too. Like, these people ate the main tanuki guy's father and he didn't seem to care and was also very blas about them wanting to kill and eat him too. I nope'd right out of that one because I felt like it would just make me angry. Hated the main girl. I was proud of myself for stopping that show after one episode.

I doubt I'll ever be the type to drop a lot of anime, though. If anything, I might go back and actually finish a few I have dropped. Urahara, Beatless, and Psycho Pass deserve another chance. When I drop a show, I want it to be special. I want it to mean something! If I can slog through trash like Highspeed Etoile, that means dropped shows like Gantz are on a whole other level of bad.

But if I drop them, that means the anime defeated me!

Dennou Coil

More first episode impressions!

-Kaiju No. 8 was okay. Awesome production values, plus I'm a kaiju fan so the setting is cool. The worldbuilding aspect of workers coming in after to clean up the corpses is neat, and I'm kinda sad that won't be the focus of the show. As for the main dude and what the show will actually be about, this first episode wasn't enough to sell me on that yet. I mean he only just transformed at the very end, I feel like this could still go a bunch of different ways. I'll have to watch a few more to give it a fair ranking.

-Whisper Me a Love Song was good too! I have a bad track record with yuri anime. Usually I'm hopeful at the start but then they descend into shitty melodrama (I'm in Love with the Villainess, Citrus) or simply never go anywhere (Adachi and Shimamura). Still, I'm going to keep giving them a try until I find the one for me! The two leads in this are good characters and cute together so far. I'm taking the risk of getting my hopes up again.

Anyway, this is everything I'm going to follow (for now). I'm fully caught up on everything except episode two of Highspeed Etoile, I couldn't bring myself to watch it yet. I'll probably write more about each of the shows a bit further into the season when the ranking has solidified, but this is it for now.

Potential to be Great
Laid-Back Camp S3
A Condition Called Love
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
Unnamed Memory
Train to the End of the World
Tonari no Yokai-san
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio

Fine I Guess
Whisper Me a Love Song
Mysterious Disappearances
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill etc
Kaiju No. 8
A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics
Astro Note
Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included

I Should Probably Drop These But I Won't
Oblivion Battery
Gods' Games We Play
Highspeed Etoile
Grandma and Grandpa Turn Young Again

7th Time Loop

Dark Gathering

Mushishi

OBLIVION WING
+3 Flareon
+2 Spiritomb
+1 Burmy
-1 Toedscool
-2 Hatenna
-3 Bewear

ELECTRIFY
+3 Veluza
+2 Phanpy
+1 Nidoking
-1 Dondozo
-2 Froslass
-3 Garganacl

The second episode of A Condition Called Love really solidified it as my favorite of the season (not counting sequels, Yuru Camp S3 is too good). It's, like, 80% a super cute romance and 20% a super creepy romance. Those two distinct parts are meshing surprisingly well and I am here for it. My reaction at several points was essentialy "Aww, how sweet... wait, what the fuck". It's great! Plus it's doing what I've always wanted romance stories to do. It's actually examining what it means to be in a relationship with someone. I know it's still early, but this is shaping up to be one of my favorite anime romances ever.

More first episode impressions

-Mysterious Disappearances was neat! I wasn't sure what to expect from this after reading the premise, but what it wound up being was weird in a fun and interesting way. Main girl has a relatable internal conflict with how she's growing older while her dreams remain unfulfilled. I also want to learn more about her mysterious coworker. He's clearly got a lot going on, to the point where I wonder why he's working at a random bookstore... though, my current theory is that he's there just to appreciate how hot the main girl is, and hey I can't blame him for that. I'm liking how it handled the supernatural stuff, at least so far. Not sure if the rest of the season will hold up, sometimes these weird mystery anime flare out by the end, but right now I'm excited for it.

-The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio was pretty great too. I like the two main girls and their dynamic with each other. It's a relationship that seems difficult to get right. Both girls had to be likable in some ways to get the audience to care about them, but also unlikable in other ways so that it'd make sense for them to hate each other at first. I was kinda worried they'd screw it up, but so far I think they're doing a good job. There was a moment at the end of the first episode that really sold it for me. I guess I'll spoiler tag it if anyone cares about super early spoilers for this comedy idol show. After Yasumi tripped her to jolt her out of her nervousness, Yuhi threatened to lodge a formal complaint... and for a second Yasumi is legitimately freaked out because she isn't sure if Yuhi will really do it or not. Then it turns out Yuhi is just embarrassed and Yasumi goes right back to teasing. I really liked that hostile uncertainty they have towards each other, even as they're clearly growing slightly closer.

The other thing I want to mention about Voice Actor Radio is that I recognized who was voicing the two main girls instantly. They sound different in their day-to-day life, but when they're in actor mode, well, I've been hearing those voices for years! They also voice two characters in BanG Dream, Kokoro and Kanon. For those of you don't know BanG Dream, those two are in the same happy-lucky-smile-yay band and they're two of the sweetest, friendliest girls ever. My only worry now is that I don't know if I can suspend my disbelief to the point where I can accept that Kokoro and Kanon are enemies!

Watched the first episode of Oblivion Battery, a baseball anime about a superstar catcher who gets amnesia. When I read the premise for this, it sounded like a hardcore sports anime similar to Blue Lock or something. It turns out that it isn't like that at all. What it actually is, at least so far, is a terrible comedy. The amnesia guy has seemingly reverted to the mindset of a three-year old and spouts nothing but the most juvenile jokes. I lost count of how many jokes he made about nipples and none of them were funny. His friend, a superstar pitcher, also has the personality of a piece of cardboard. For good measure, they also threw in a boring normal guy. This is our main cast and I don't like any of them. I really hope amnesia dude becomes less insufferable as this goes on, and maybe they'll introduce a few characters to add some actual spice to this cast. I went into this thinking it couldn't be worse than Cinderella Nine, but so far it's way, way worse.

Anyway, here's my season ranking so far. Gods' Games We Play fell really hard after episode 2, Train to the End of the World had an amazing episode 2 and rose a bit, and Unnamed Memory debuts pretty high! For as much as I dislike the bottom four, this is still shaping up to be a decent season.

Spring 2024 Ranking so far
-Laid-Back Camp S3
-A Condition Called Love
-Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
-Unnamed Memory
-Train to the End of the World
-Tonari no Yokai-san
-As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World
-Astro Note
-A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics
-Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included
-Oblivion Battery
-Gods' Games We Play
-Highspeed Etoile
-Grandma and Grandpa Turn Young Again

TORMENT
+3 Venomoth
+2 Krokorok
+1 Porygon
-1 Nosepass
-2 Kartana
-3 Quaxwell

PSYCHO CUT
+3 Mareep
+2 Spectrier
+1 Clobbopus
-1 Xerneas
-2 Golurk
-3 Sawk

First episode of Unnamed Memory completed, it seems like it'll be pretty good! I didn't like the prince's whiny friend who contributed absolutely nothing aside from begging to turn around, but I have to assume he'll be getting less screentime from here on out. Both the prince and the witch were great, and I'm excited to see more of them together. This is the show I was most excited for going into the season, and it hasn't disappointed me so far.

MartinFF7 posted...

And also don't watch the "next episode" previews at the episode's end, not worth it ever and REALLY not worth it in a few situations. Some episodes don't have ending song so gotta be more prompt in the episode skip, lol.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try not to get spoiled! It looks like the episode thumbnails on Hidive are all the same picture of the two leads now, so at least I won't need to worry about that.

Mushishi

@MartinFF7 I started watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes after all. I figured out how to view more episodes on Hidive (with the jankiest workaround imaginable, god that website sucks now) and I confirmed they have the whole series. I'm pretty sure the second season they have listed there are the two Gaiden seasons, whatever those are.

Still, I started with the first movie, Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars. It was conveniently uploaded to Youtube, as is the second movie which I'll watch tomorrow. My understanding is that the second movie is an extended remake of the first two episodes of the show. Everywhere I've looked said to watch the two movies, then go straight to episode 3 and continue from there.

The first movie was fine. I definitely like sci-fi space battles, and it had lots of nice looking shots of the fleets. The two main dudes are cool too, though at the moment Reinhard is significantly cooler. Yang is held back by his side's leadership being absolute morons. Yang kept going "hey do this really obvious smart thing or everyone dies" and then his dumbass commanders go "nah, we're doing the stupid thing instead". I hope that dynamic doesn't last very long into the actual series because I'm tired of it already. Reinhard's commanders are morons too, but he's at least mostly in charge of his own forces unlike poor Yang. I have absolutely no idea what these two sides are fighting for, but right now I'm Team Empire! Let's crush that lousy Alliance.

Anyway, I'm not sure how long this behemoth of a show will take me to finish or how often I'll post updates as I go. I just wanted to let Martin know that I have finally begun watching it.

After episode two of Gods' Games We Play, I sadly have to admit that I was giving it too much credit after the first episode. The first actual game was super mediocre. This is going to fall in my seasonal ranking quite a bit.

I only had time for one episode this morning, I should've watched the Train one instead!

MartinFF7 posted...

It's time!!!

I looked up LotGH on Hidive, but man this website sucks now. I can't even scroll over further than 20 episodes on the series page, it just stops loading new ones there. I also can't figure out why it has two seasons listed. Maybe it's just split arbitrarily in half or something, but the first episode of S2 is "The Hero of El Facil" and that doesn't appear to be an episode title in the series according to Wikipedia. They've made it impossible to tell if they have the full series or what that second season even is.

Tell you what Martin, I'll watch LotGH right away if Hidive ever gets its act together and becomes easier to navigate! I should've watched it earlier before they ruined themselves. If only I'd known.

On another note, Ghost Hound was my 400th anime! In honor of that milestone, I want to share some fun stats I compiled while I was bored at work. This is a list of the 400 shows I've completed at least one season of sorted by their debut year. I feel like I've watched a decent amount, but the anime from 2010 and earlier only adds up to 31 shows, or less than 10%. Clearly I need to diversify a little and watch more older anime.

1995 - 1
1998 - 1
2002 - 1
2003 - 2
2004 - 1
2005 - 2
2006 - 3
2007 - 4
2008 - 5
2009 - 4
2010 - 7
2011 - 9
2012 - 13
2013 - 17
2014 - 16
2015 - 20
2016 - 22
2017 - 33
2018 - 73
2019 - 16
2020 - 15
2021 - 17
2022 - 41
2023 - 62
2024 - 15