What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

My Dress up darling was just awesome again yesterday.  I love the other students reactions to Gojo-kun.

[davidwhangchoi]

The first episodes from three Macross TV series are now FREE to watch!

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Shield hero was great today. Way to go Fohl.  Atla is no slouch either.

[Seto Kaiba]

Catching up on a bunch of titles this week... finally got to My Dress-Up Darling S2.  

I'm vexed beyond words that it took so long to get a season two for My Dress-Up Darling.  That one was so popular it's flat astonishing it didn't get green-lit immediately.  My group (re)watched the entire first season before starting the second, and had a great time with it.

Betrothed to My Sister's Ex had another good one this week, it seems our protagonist is finally coming around to realizing that being treated the way her family treated her is nothing remotely approaching "normal" never mind "healthy".  

Spoiler

Oddly, they seem to be set to veer into horror territory with the apparent claim that Marie's deceased older sister Anastasia has somehow come home.  Next episode's teaser looks like we're just straight up doing Psycho with the Shaderan family meticulously grooming and dressing the deceased daughter's corpse.

Secrets of the Silent Witch also had another good episode, with Monica dealing with the practical etiquette classes and predictably freaking out over such niceties as tea parties and formal dances.

[Seto Kaiba]

Ruri Rocks continues to be excellent edutainment.  IMO, it's great that it's not just gushing about mineralogy.  The series frequently delves into the geology behind the formation of the minerals du jour and the scientific method(s) used to identify them and track samples back to a larger vein or deposit.  Most importantly, it shows the pitfalls of taking shortcuts, using sloppy or improper methodology, and making assumptions and shows that even the experts can be wrong if they draw conclusions without all the facts.  It's not just Ruri being on the receiving end of a lecture, she's actively involved and learning and making worthwhile contributions in her own right by thinking outside the box.

(It's kind of making me miss Mythbusters, in a way... particularly in the sense that there's nothing wrong with being wrong as long as you're applying the scientific method and applying what you learn to refine your hypothesis.)

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Wow, My Dress Up Darling was great yesterday.  This show is my favorite this season.

[Seto Kaiba]

My weekly watch group is going back through Tenchi Muyo!'s OVA timeline, since most of our group hasn't seen OVA 4, OVA 5, or Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari.  We just finished OVA 2 last night, and having translated a bunch of Kajishima's doujins and infobooks about the setting it's extra-freaking weird watching it knowing how all the charactes are related and how many tie-ins there are to Dual!, Photon: the Idiot Adventures, and Spaceship Agga Ruter.  

The Summer '25 simulcast season really is just a steaming turd.  So far, I've dropped:

• The Water Magician
• I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability
• New Saga (Dishonorable mention for being the most generic f***ing thing I've ever seen.)
• Welcome to the Outcast Restaurant
• Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra
• Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer
• Lord of Mysteries
• Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth Verse (Dishonorable mention for being a shameless f***ing ripoff of Re:Zero)
• Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter (The worst case of "sameface" this side of Gundam SEED and it feels like the creator belongs on a government watchlist over their prurient interest in tweens.)
• The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses
• Solo Camping for Two (I cannot imagine a worse attempt at a romance plot outside of a Hallmark movie.)
• Detectives These Days Are Crazy!  (Because "comedy" is more than just making funny faces at the viewer several times an episode.)
• Hotel Inhumans
• Turkey! Time to Strike

That's a new frigging record, by an enormous margin.  Crunchyroll's simulcast season page is starting to feel like the front page of the Nintendo eShop.  All shovelware all the time.  The bar was already low thanks to the overabundance of isekai, but it seems like these studios are holding a ****ing limbo contest.

I refuse to even start The Rising of the Shield Hero season 4 because I know it's set past the point where the light novel completely jumped the shark.  Dandadan has gone from being fairly interesting to fairly dull as the cast continues to grow with more and more "quirky" characters being added.  

I'm kind of just showing up for Secrets of the Silent Witch, Ruri Rocks, and Betrothed to My Sister's Ex at this point.

[Duke Togo]

DAN DA DAN S2: this show is hit or miss with me. I want to like it more than I do. 

Clevatess S1:  not caught up with this quite yet, but I am digging it so far.

Gachiakatu S1: don't love the character designs, but Bones and Katsuyuki Konishi got me to check it out. Interesting so far.

Kaiju No.8 S2: another show I want to like more than I do. I kinda want it to be more ridiculous than it is. 

 

Edited August 17 by Duke Togo

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am watching the 2nd season of Aharen-san is indecipherable, I am enjoying it.  Again My Dress Up darling was great yesterday.

[Seto Kaiba]

Had some good episodes of Secrets of the Silent Witch and Betrothed to My Sister's Ex this week.

Dan Da Dan was initially a pretty interesting, but has bogged down so very badly in this "Evil Eye" business that I'm just bored with it.  You can only make a character so stupid until their voice becomes The Most Annoying Sound.  Jin started on the wrong side of that line and he has been tracking steadily in the wrong direction.  Having a redeemable villain is a fairly standard staple of shounen anime and has been forever... but there are some types of villain who AREN'T and trying to pretend that they are is just wasting everyone's time.

Spoiler

Jin was already a moron and a waste of screentime before he got possessed by the literally omnicidal Evil Eye spirit.  Now, his insistence that the malevolent supernatural entity trapped in his body that explicitly and vehemently wants to MURDER ALL OF HUMANITY is really a good person is just stupid and this whole sidequest around finding a way to fight it when they could have just exorcised it and been done with it feels like the most blatant kind of filler.

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I needed a good laugh.  I was glad City the animation was om today.

[Seto Kaiba]

After getting some feedback from some friends following the current season, I decided to give Solo Camping for Two another chance.

I was told that it evolves into a proper edutainment-type story about proper and safe techniques for camping and that is actually true.  There's some actually good and useful info in the later episodes about how to safely split firewood, safely set up a camp stove, how to identify safe campsites, etc.  With a little work, it could actually be an enjoyable series.

Its main problem is that it's an absolutely terrible ambassador for the hobby it's ostensibly promoting.  It doesn't present camping as fun or interesting or challenging in and of itself...

Spoiler

Solo Camping for Two's story doesn't even present any aspect of camping or outdoorsmanship besides setting up one's tent and campfire, sitting on a folding chair between the two, and drinking cheap beer while cooking canned food over the fire.

No related outdoor activities are even mentioned.  No scenic hiking, no kayaking/rafting, no fishing, no outdoor photography, no birdwatching, no astronomy, nothing but just sitting in front of one's tent chugging cheap beer and eating canned food.  The only time we ever see the protagonist do something else is walking to the nearest convenience store to buy more cheap beer and canned food.  The girl who blackmailed him into camping with her with the threat of false rape accusations seems to exist in the story for no reason other than to cook for him and so that he doesn't have to break the fourth wall and address the audience directly when the story starts talking about how to use tools and techniques.  Most of each episode is just watching the two of them eat whatever she's cooked, but the series doesn't give any real information on how to prepare the things she's cooking either.

 

Edited September 4 by Seto Kaiba

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Summer Pockets episode 22 was so sad.  I was bawling the entire time.

[Seto Kaiba]

Betrothed to My Sister's Ex had a really promising start, but it has devolved into a really frustrating and tedious mess.

We're on like the fifth round of "Oops, the main couple are making too much progress we'd better bring up the dead sister again" in just ten episodes.

Spoiler

First it was that she had died in a tragic accident when her coach slipped off the road in the rain and crashed.

Then it was that she died when her coach was attacked by bandits.

Then it was her kid brother's mistaken claim that she was alive and had come home, with the implication that her parents had gone full Norman Bates with their daughter's dead body.

Then it was that the bandits were a lie and she really died by drowning in a river while trying to escape a sexual assault by the coach driver.

Now it's Marie's belief that her sister is still alive and working as a button maker's apprentice in the royal capital because she saw a blonde person from behind at like 600yd from her coach's window.

They have dragged this out SO MUCH that it's stopped being dramatic several rounds ago and is just exhausting to watch... and the excuses the characters use to not just cut directly to the heart of the matter have gotten so incredibly flimsy that it's headache inducing.

Spoiler

And after all that agonizing and delaying and excuse-making and one final make-up session... the sister really is still alive.

 

Edited September 6 by Seto Kaiba

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Marin in My dress up darling is really smitten.  I wish we knew what Gojo thought about Marin.

[Seto Kaiba]

The Summer 2025 simulcast season's drawing to a close.

A lot of the titles I tried this time were pretty mediocre at best, though there are a few excellent standouts.

I'm definitely hooked on Secrets of the Silent Witch.  Enough that I'm eyeing buying the light novel and I really REALLY want a second season from it.

My Dress-Up Darling is having another excellent season, which makes me wonder why it took so bloody long to get it.  Marin and Gojo are just adorkable and I love them.

Betrothed to My Sister's Ex is recovering a bit in the home stretch now that they've finally decided to sh*t or get off the pot when it comes to the sister thing and is finally getting some proper closure.  I wouldn't call it great, but it's head and shoulders above a lot of the rest of the season.

Ruri Rocks is still great edutainment... though it has one of the thirstiest fanbases I have ever seen and it doesn't even have much fanservice.

Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl remains cute and inoffensive to the end.  I kind of wish they did more with the Lily's comically overprotective dad.

 

The Water Magician is worth watching.  Not because it's good, but because it's genuinely impressive how indistinct it is.  It is isekai at almost maximum possible genericness, to the extent that its most distinctive point is how little it has to distinguish itself from the rest of its genre.  It's a fascinating paradox.

 

I had high-ish hopes for Detectives These Days Are Crazy!, but its humor ran out of utility pretty fast and ended up being less a detective parody and more just pratfalls and jokes about how Mashiro's stupid.

Dan da dan started out pretty interesting, but it's honestly not doing anything for me after the Evil Eye got introduced.

I was pretty shocked that See You Tomorrow at the Food Court ended up being just six episodes long.  It was fun in sort of Azumanga Daioh way.  It feels like it should have been a full season.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I concur with the sentiment of mediocrity this season.   There are some standouts..

Dandadan S2 - Its still entertaining.   Not as good as season 1,  however it has its moments.   I need to play catchup only on Ep 9 as of this post. 

Sono Bisque S2 - Ending theme is an earworm..   I am enjoying it even with the amount of content getting cut.   At the speed they are going I am willing to bet the climax is the Haniel cosplay and will probably end as abruptly as they did with the manga.   

Sakamoto Days S2 -  nowhere near as good as S1.   Its not bad,  but as of late the whole plot has gone of the rails.   I am current but this seems like filler to me unless it just ends with no S3.

Shield Hero S4 -  Actually not bad this season,  I didn't think I would keep this going with the general disdain I had going from past seasons.  They are still well off into the weeds at this point with the waves almost forgotten outside a mention a few episodes ago. 

Rascal does not dream of Santa Claus -  meh.   This season is going at a breakneck pace,  anime only viewers god speed.   LN readers.. god speed..  lol

Kijin Gentoushou - I am enjoying it still.   I think this is another title that started extremely strong but started to fizzle out.  It probably will never be super popular but its worth a watch.

Summer Pockets -  I am way behind on this since I picked up the VN.   I don't wanna spoil anything further,  so will address once I finish the game. 

Futari Solo Camp -  pretty meh.   Its another not bad,  but not good either.   Basically a camping promo anime..   

 

And a whole bunch of dropped this season,   probably higher then normal. 

 

 

 

Edited September 14 by Stampeed Valkyrie

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

City the animation was hilarious today. That Shogi match was ridiculous.

[Seto Kaiba]

Summer '25 is wrapping up...

Betrothed to My Sister's Ex had a reasonably satisfying conclusion.  Some good closure for the story after oh-so-much waffling with the evil parents getting their comeuppance for their various crimes.

Secrets of the Silent Witch's penultimate episode is another good one.  I decided to bite the bullet and buy the light novel to get more.

Solo Camping for Two decided to try some actual character development for its penultimate episode, and it honestly fell pretty flat for me.  Mainly because the protagonist has never really had any character traits beyond being an antisocial jerk whose only real interest seems to be driving into the wilderness to drink large amounts of cheap beer and eat canned food like a hobo.

Dan da dan... y'know I've never figured out of it's meant to be DanDaDan or Dan Da Dan... are we really watching an Ultraman monster fight a giant robot Buddha with the Nu Gundam's fin funnels?  You have to admire the audacity, if nothing else, even if it feels increasingly like the series is just throwing random sh*t at the wall to see what sticks.

Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant had a predictably unremarkable ending.  Not bad, but shockingly bland for a protagonist whose whole schtick is cooking.

 

 

 

The Fall '25 simulcast lineup is being announced now too.  https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/seasonal-lineup/2025/9/17/fall-2025-anime-crunchyroll

Still a LOT of generic-sounding isekai titles in the Fall '25 simulcast season lineup.  A Gatherer's Adventure in Another World, A Wild Last Boss Appeared, Campfire Cooking in Another World S2, Dad is a Hero Mom is a Spirit I'm a Reincarnator, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's, Tales of Wedding Rings S2, The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, and The Fated Magical Princess.

Color me surprised that that hot mess Tales of Wedding Rings got a second season.  That was an open air tire fire of a story.

There are some titles of considerable merit and interest though.  A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace seems to be another case of the manga industry documentarizing itself, albeit with a lot less ecchi than last time.  

Let's Play, a series about a video game developer whose first-ever game release is derailed by a terrible review from a famous streamer.  I really want to see where they go with that one.

One Punch Man season 3 promises to be amusing, if nothing else.

Spy x Family season 3... what can I say except "Yes, please and thank you" and doubtless "Please sir, may I have some more?" at the end of the season.

Tojima Wants to be a Kamen Rider promises to be interesting too.  It's the story of a lifelong Kamen Rider fanboy who, armed with a fairbooth Kamen Rider mask, sets out to fight crime.

 

Phrasing is dead.  I stopped cold seeing titles like L'il Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right, Pass the Monster Meat, and This Monster Wants to Eat Me.  

Maybe I just have a filthy mind.  Actually, no... I definitely do... but still.  Phrasing.  That first one's description sounds like the center of a Venn diagram of Rosario+Vampire and Actually, I am... and the second sounds like a series about some relatives of Laios from Dungeon Meals with a couple who are connoisseurs of consuming fantasy monsters.

[Beltane70]

Solo Camping for Two actually continues into the fall season, so this past episode is not its penultimate. 

[Seto Kaiba]

52 minutes ago, Beltane70 said:

Solo Camping for Two actually continues into the fall season, so this past episode is not its penultimate. 

Now that's some disappointing news.

[Seto Kaiba]

Just got back from seeing Demon Slayer the Movie: Infinity Castle.

For better AND for worse, Demon Slayer the Movie: Infinity Castle is a two hour and thirty-five minute long episode of the Demon Slayer TV series.

What I mean to say is that it shares the TV anime's tendency to punctuate its fights with extended flashbacks revealing the backstory of the villain(s) rather than work their history into the story in a more organic way.  It wasn't so bad in the TV anime where those flashbacks were infrequent and maybe 5 minutes or so on average.  Infinity Castle breaks up every fight with at least 2-3 flashbacks and the largest of them (Akaza's) is close on THIRTY MINUTES LONG.  It dragged on so long that I had honestly forgotten the fight wasn't actually over and the immediate resumption of the fight on its conclusion was a bit of a shock.  

UFOTABLE did a fantastic job with the animation as usual.  Its only real flaw is how the massive titular Infinity Castle backgrounds are an endless parade of tan and brown tatami mats, shoji doors, and wooden rails so every room feels identical and the color palette of the film as a whole is a flat brown except for the haori worn by the slayers.

It does kind of show that it's only the first part of a series of films in that most of the characters have nothing to actually do in this portion of the story and get an obligatory line or two at most.  It's really only Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Giyu, Shinobu, Akaza, and Doma who are engaged with the story.  Nezuko's not even in the castle, Inosuke's... Inosuke-ing somewhere, and the rest of the slayers spend the entire film running around aimlessly.  Shinobu's almost an advertised extra herself...

Spoiler

... given that she runs into Doma (Upper Moon Rank 2) and is unceremoniously killed and eaten after a brief fight and a flashback revealing Doma was the demon who killed her older sister.

The series big bad, Muzan, is also barely in the film despite the fact that this is his castle they're fighting in.  Almost the entire thing revolves around Tanjiro and Giyu fighting Akaza (Upper Moon Rank 3), with a minor digression for Zenitsu of all people to have a moment of out-of-character Total Badassery...

Spoiler

... when he runs into the new Upper Moon Rank 6, his former senpai from the Thunder Breathing school, and absolutely hands him his ass with a new Thunder Breathing move he's invented on his own without any of his usual comedic cowardice.

 

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

For better AND for worse, Demon Slayer the Movie: Infinity Castle is a two hour and thirty-five minute long episode of the Demon Slayer TV series.

2.5 HOURS!?!?!? That sounds positively exhausting.

[DewPoint]

I would need a pee break somewhere in the middle of that.  The days where I could go over 4 hours without peeing are long gone.  

[Seto Kaiba]

11 hours ago, kajnrig said:

2.5 HOURS!?!?!? That sounds positively exhausting.

I made the mistake of not checking the runtime when I bought my ticket so I was at an 8:15pm showing too. 🙃

For what it's worth, Demon Slayer the Movie: Infinity Castle was engaging enough that I didn't think "Wow I've been watching this for a long time" and check my watch until the story started to drag in the second act of Akaza's extensive Tragic Backstory™️ at around the film's two hour mark.

I guess it goes to show how much theater seating has improved that I wasn't uncomfortable in the slightest for the entire duration.

 

Is it just me, or have anime films gotten longer?  Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom was two hours, Overlord: the Sacred Kingdom was two and a quarter, and now Demon Slayer the Movie: Infinity Castle at two and a half.  I feel like 90 minutes used to be the standard, or maybe that's just because most of the ones in my collection are compilation movies.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, DewPoint said:

I would need a pee break somewhere in the middle of that.  The days where I could go over 4 hours without peeing are long gone.  

Just go to movies and concerts astronaut style. You could set a new fashion trend and hit up some music  festivals and make sure you always get to keep that next to the stage spot.

Either that or go to the movies Demon Slayer style, but try not to get caught like that other guy. I honestly think he might not have been caught if he didn’t splash on other people at that showing

Edited September 21 by Big s

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

My Dress Up Darling s2 ended. I hope there is a 3rd.  I love that show.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

1 hour ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

My Dress Up Darling s2 ended. I hope there is a 3rd.  I love that show.

I'm abit delayed was doing some traveling..   I enjoyed Season 2,  I honestly expected they would wrap this season considering how fast it was going.    They ended up ending with the Coffin Gathering..  not the Haniel cosplay.   

 

Also wrapped Dandadan,  the final episode was pure win..   no way it ends on that note..  

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Why does Summer Pockets always manage to made me break down.  Today's episode was a tearjerker again.

[Seto Kaiba]

Caught the end of My Dress-Up Darling S2 over lunch.  This is just one of those shows where the season never feels long enough.  

Decided to take another whack at Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra and got quite a bit farther this time.  It really is just Diet Overlord and it's not remotely shy about it either.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Oh no, Tate No yuusha is getting a fifth season. I loved the 4th. But the preview at the end for s5 is filling me with sadness.  Poor Naofumi covered in blood after 

Spoiler

Alta dies.

 

Edited September 25 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[Seto Kaiba]

The Water Magician's season finale was as uninspired as the rest of the series.

It doesn't do anything wrong, per se... but it doesn't really do anything particularly right either.  It's watchable, but it's so bland and insipid that it doesn't make a lasting impression.  It's the plain quaker rice cake of isekai anime.  It can be consumed, but literally anything else is a superior option if you want flavor with your viewing experience.  It's clear the studio wants the series to get a second season as they end on an obvious sequel hook, but I have a feeling this one won't get renewed.

 

I've finished Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra as well.

My first impression was pretty much dead-on.  It's not so much Diet Overlord as Great Value brand Overlord and it's clearly taking a lot of "inspiration" from Maruyama's series to such a degree that most prominent characters are obviously minimally-altered Overlord characters.  Takuto is just Momonga without the loneliness motive and undead complications.  Atou is Albedo in everything but name and Miss Fanservice proportions.  There are even a pair of dark elf twins clearly based on Aura and Mare, but without the crossdressing.

Its one and only innovation on the genre is that each of the multiple "players" who have ended up reincarnating in this fantasy world after death is working with god mode hax from a different genre of game.  Takuto's powerset comes from the 4X game he was the #1 ranked player of.  The unnamed "Demon Lord" draws his forces and powers from what looks to be a Famicom-era JRPG, while another villain appears to be a mercilessly min/maxed NPC villain from a TTRPG.  Quite a bit of the drama in the second half seems to stem from how those different styles of game logic interact and impose on each other.  It could be an interesting premise in the hands of another, better author with a less derivative story and cast.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I watched episode zero of Towa no Yuugure and it has promise. I can't wait for the main series to start.

[Seto Kaiba]

Cultural Exchange with a Game Center Girl's final episode was released today.  It's cute and inoffensive to the bitter end.  Nothing I'd call substantial, but a fun little slice of life series at least.

Ruri Rocks had its finale today as well.  As deep in "thirst trap" territory as the official promotional art and fan art is for this series, I remain obscurely grateful that the series proper has never felt compelled to indulge in it despite the artist's personal preference for dangerously thicc girls being on full display until this final episode. 😆 They visit an onsen to talk about the mineral content in onsen water and how it builds up in pipes, and for the most part make a heroic effort to keep it on topic and avoid anything indecent.  They have to fall back on censor steam in a few spots but there's nothing exploitative.  They switch topics and talk about collecting material from meteorites that burn up in the atmosphere and they wrap up with Ruri contemplating what she might want to do for a career.  All in all, very satisfied with this series.  It was quite a bit of fun.

Thinking of looping back and trying out Clevatess and Uglymug Epicfighter... since it's going to be a bit before the Fall '25 simulcast season really gets going.

That said, the first few titles of the Fall '25 simulcast season have already dropped.  The first episode of A Wild Last Boss Appeared and three episodes of The Fated Magical Princess are available on Crunchyroll.  Neither of them really strikes me as worth watching, though.  The Fated Magical Princess's description reads like it's a copycat series to Tearmoon Empire, and the A Wild Lass Boss Appeared series is another "reincarnated as the game's final boss" series which is overdone to death in the last few years.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

City the animation ended and I was sad. I loved it so much. I loved the musical number.