What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

2 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I finished Kyoukai no Kanata is was just ok.

I think it was pretty good,  needed a rewatch IMO in order to bring things out fully.    This is also a series that requires you to watch the movie to tie up certain loose threads.

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

20 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I think it was pretty good,  needed a rewatch IMO in order to bring things out fully.    This is also a series that requires you to watch the movie to tie up certain loose threads.

 

I watched the 2nd movie and it really improved my view of the show.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[Seto Kaiba]

Eh... the winter season is limping to its conclusion.

In the Land of Leadale fails to go anywhere or do anything of interest in its twelve episode run.  It's only really remarkable for its sheer number of orphaned plot threads, with Cayna having essentially forgotten all of the goals she started the story with by about the seventh episode.  It takes no risks, it pushes no envelopes, and it adds nothing to its genre.  The series is, for all intents and purposes, a participation award.  So congratulations In the Land of Leadale.  You showed up.  Didn't do anything, but you showed up.

The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is also wearily crawling to its twelve episode mercy killing with Mattias facing the first enemy in the series to actualy pose a challenge to anyone instead of going down like a chump.  Unfortuately, there's no actual buildup to it so it feels like a combination of Giant Space Flea from Nowhere and a Big Lipped Alligator Moment.  The best they could come up with for an ending was a dark lord whose existence was never so much as hinted at previously.  This series is so scattered and its story so poorly told that it feels like a SparkNotes summary written by an exciteable toddler.

Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department is definitely feeling some arc fatigue with its concept, having abruptly changed gears to do an idol singer episode for no apparent reason other than that Zombie Land Saga was popular when it was being drafted.  The salaryman gags are fine, but there's no sense of direction to the story anymore as of episode 10.

Attack on Titan is... Attack on Titan, which is to say it's still a tedious exercise in darkness-induced audience apathy that's frantically searching for something to hold the audience's attention and coming up empty.  They're definitely bringing across the final arc of the manga as faithfully as possible.  Unfortunately, that means it's padded like a menstruating fire hose and the characters are all unamibguously terrible human beings.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

This weeks Arifureta was so dark and Eri is such a bitch.

[pengbuzz]

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Eh... the winter season is limping to its conclusion.

In the Land of Leadale fails to go anywhere or do anything of interest in its twelve episode run.  It's only really remarkable for its sheer number of orphaned plot threads, with Cayna having essentially forgotten all of the goals she started the story with by about the seventh episode.  It takes no risks, it pushes no envelopes, and it adds nothing to its genre.  The series is, for all intents and purposes, a participation award.  So congratulations In the Land of Leadale.  You showed up.  Didn't do anything, but you showed up.

The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is also wearily crawling to its twelve episode mercy killing with Mattias facing the first enemy in the series to actualy pose a challenge to anyone instead of going down like a chump.  Unfortuately, there's no actual buildup to it so it feels like a combination of Giant Space Flea from Nowhere and a Big Lipped Alligator Moment.  The best they could come up with for an ending was a dark lord whose existence was never so much as hinted at previously.  This series is so scattered and its story so poorly told that it feels like a SparkNotes summary written by an exciteable toddler.

Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department is definitely feeling some arc fatigue with its concept, having abruptly changed gears to do an idol singer episode for no apparent reason other than that Zombie Land Saga was popular when it was being drafted.  The salaryman gags are fine, but there's no sense of direction to the story anymore as of episode 10.

Attack on Titan is... Attack on Titan, which is to say it's still a tedious exercise in darkness-induced audience apathy that's frantically searching for something to hold the audience's attention and coming up empty.  They're definitely bringing across the final arc of the manga as faithfully as possible.  Unfortunately, that means it's padded like a menstruating fire hose and the characters are all unamibguously terrible human beings.

Make you root for the titans then, eh?

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Make you root for the titans then, eh?

Kinda, yeah.

After all, the Titans are the only ones left in the story with a halfway plausible claim to being victims rather than villains.  They're just Eldian convicts from Marley who were sentenced to a fate significantly worse than death: the limited immortality of being trapped in one's own mind as an unaging mindless titan.  Even that's only halfway convincing because a lot of the mindless titans were Eldians like Grisha who wanted to overthrow the vicious, expansionist, titan-using nation of Marley... by restoring the vicious, expansionist, titan-using empire of Eldia.  Knowing that a fair number of the titans are titans because their sole objection to genocidal oppression was not being the oppressor puts a lot of them into "*sshole victim" territory at best.  It's impossible to sympathize with the protagonists when the first thing they did after defeating the titans and making contact with the outside world again was to immediately validate everything Marley and the rest of the world believed about Eldians being inherently evil, bloodthirsty monsters.

The closest anyone gets to heroism in the second half of the series is...

Spoiler

... King Karl Fritz and Zeke Yaeger trying to save the rest of the world via their separate attempts to exterminate their own people.

And that's objectively horrible.

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Kinda, yeah.

After all, the Titans are the only ones left in the story with a halfway plausible claim to being victims rather than villains.  They're just Eldian convicts from Marley who were sentenced to a fate significantly worse than death: the limited immortality of being trapped in one's own mind as an unaging mindless titan.  Even that's only halfway convincing because a lot of the mindless titans were Eldians like Grisha who wanted to overthrow the vicious, expansionist, titan-using nation of Marley... by restoring the vicious, expansionist, titan-using empire of Eldia.  Knowing that a fair number of the titans are titans because their sole objection to genocidal oppression was not being the oppressor puts a lot of them into "*sshole victim" territory at best.  It's impossible to sympathize with the protagonists when the first thing they did after defeating the titans and making contact with the outside world again was to immediately validate everything Marley and the rest of the world believed about Eldians being inherently evil, bloodthirsty monsters.

The closest anyone gets to heroism in the second half of the series is...

  Hide contents

... King Karl Fritz and Zeke Yaeger trying to save the rest of the world via their separate attempts to exterminate their own people.

And that's objectively horrible.

Wow... sounds like "everyone's an a**hole: the series".

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Wow... sounds like "everyone's an a**hole: the series".

It wasn't always like that... that was a development that came with the pivot away from the titans as the story's main antagonists around halfway through the series.

 

Spoiler

Even Attack on Titan's earliest chapters didn't shy away from the fact that the royal government inside the walls was incredibly corrupt.  It was a plot point for several minor characters that the top scoring military academy candidates could opt for a post in the royal guard, which was a coveted, luxurious, do-nothing posting.

The fundamental problem with the entire series concept that caused it to pivot to "humans are the real monsters" is that, as horror story monsters go, the Titans are a one-trick pony.  Their uncanny valley appearance is startling in the short term, but once you get past that the Titans are functionally just standard western fantasy giants minus intelligence.  They're big and they're fast and they eat people.  That's it.  The Titans on Paradise are only a seemingly insurmountable threat because the Eldian refugees on Paradise were a century or so late to the industrial era thanks to King Karl Fritz's laser-guided amnesia.  They're super threatening when all you have to fight them is super-sharp swords, but in the outside world the Titans are nearing the end of their military viability thanks to the introduction of early 20th century-equivalent artillery.

Nothing really drives that point home better than the fact that the Eldian solution to the huge number of Titans on Paradise was to lure them one at a time into a weaponized pile driver and squash them with a huge weight dropped from the top of the wall.

Once things reached that point, the only thing they could do to keep the story going was to introduce more human antagonists and turn the story into an escalating "bigger bastard than thou" contest when they started delving into the backstory of the setting.  The end result of those choices was an extremely unfortunate narrative in which an obvious ersatz Nazi Germany (Marley) reveals to the world its plans for a holocaust of the Eldians with a very Nazi-esque summary of how the Eldian race was the root of all evil before the presentation is ended prematurely by an Eldian surprise attack that validated most of what he said.  You'd think that'd be the setup to an underdog story about the Eldians fighting for survival against a genocidal fascist power, but no... the story reveals that the Eldian Empire really did all those things which Marley accused them of, and that the Marleyans actually missed or glossed over a few major atrocities in their list.  So much so that the reason the Eldians live on Paradise at all, and the reason the Vow of Renouncing War turns any king who acquires the founding titan into a deeply depressed hermit, is because even King Karl Fritz (and later a royal descendant, Zeke) sincerely believe that the Eldians are Always Chaotic Evil and need to be wiped out.  Rather than a principled stand against racist aggression, Eldia's population jump off the slippery slope with such zeal that they swiftly have a reich of their own and, at the present point in the story being adapted, are launching a global genocide using the Wall Titans.

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Seto Kaiba

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finally got back to the 2nd season of Aria and it such a slow show. Nothing really happens.

[Seto Kaiba]

Finally, some good news on the release schedule...

Crunchyroll has the license for The Rising of the Shield Hero S2, Ascendance of a Bookworm S3, Kaguya-sama: Love is War ULTRA ROMANTIC, Legend of Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These: Collision, Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It: R=1-SING, Skeleton Knight in Another World, and A Couple of Cuckoos.  They probably also have Overlord S4.

[TangledThorns]

Started watch 86 on CrunchyRoll but the first season is dubbed only? I couldn't find subtitled. Seriously, CrunchyRoll's app sucks.

[Marzan]

On 3/25/2022 at 8:29 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

It wasn't always like that... that was a development that came with the pivot away from the titans as the story's main antagonists around halfway through the series.

 

  Hide contents

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, Attack on Titan should have ended on that panel when they finally reached the sea. It would have been a logical and satisfying conclusion. The moment they started giving us all the Marley content things fell apart from a narrative perspective for me.

[Scyla]

12 minutes ago, Marzan said:

As far as I'm concerned, Attack on Titan should have ended on that panel when they finally reached the sea. It would have been a logical and satisfying conclusion. The moment they started giving us all the Marley content things fell apart from a narrative perspective for me.

I would agree with that assessment. 
 

I watched the last episode of „My dress up darling „ and it was an awesome season finale. Very enjoyable show. The only weak (part of an) episode was the one where Marin and Gojo went to the beach. For some reason the animation quality was not there. Maybe it was a deliberately choice to better convey motion.

Anyhow, because I fell in love with the show I started to read them manga. I read volume 1-4, 6 and 7 and…

Spoiler

… I feel the manga has too much cosplay and not enough romance in volume 6 and 7.

Like I get that cosplay is interesting and there is a lot to unpack there (like why people cosplay).

But I want them to get going with the romance. Especially since the series established early on that Gojo and Marin love each other. So I though we can skip the whole dance about what they feel for each other and how they don’t deserve each other. But now it feels like that after a 40+ volume manga they get together in the end.

However I’m at a point in my life where I’m much more interested in people in a relationship (and the things they have to deal with) and not how they get together….

…anyhow this is neither here no there.

I also watched the first 21 one episode of Ousama Ranking which is like Game of Thrones, if Game of Thrones was any good.

While being excellent I feel the series has a lot of tropes like situations explode because of dialogue is worded deliberately in an ambiguous way, etc.

Also I feel that…

Spoiler

The whole fight with Ouken overstate its welcome.

He is clearly demonstrating what a force of nature he is as well as establishing a scale of power in this world. He also demonstrates that Bojji, while being the strongest individual in the world, is not invincible.
Ouken being defeated by Bosse not with brute force but wit and cunning showed that Bosse is more than a brute.
I still feel that it could be one or two episodes shorter.

I also find Hillings healing ability overused. Too often people being brought back from certain death which takes the tension and gravitas out of the conflict.

However I have to give the creators of the show (or the mangaka) credit because the characters still suffer consequences for being defeated in battle (just not lethal ones).

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished My dress up darling.  What an awesome show.  I hope there is a season 2.

[Scyla]

4 minutes ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I finished My dress up darling.  What an awesome show.  I hope there is a season 2.

Yeah, it was my favorite show of the season. Hope for more soon.

Currently I’m looking forward to Shield Hero season 2 in April.

[Seto Kaiba]

I'd originally put this one on the back burner because the teaser for it was so incredibly dull, but I've started watching Hakozume (localized as Police in a Pod) and it's a surprisingly charming and relatable slice of life series about the local police in Japan.  If anyone's looking for lighter fare with some actual substance to it, I'd highly recommend Hakozume.  It's currently on Funimation, which means it'll get merged into Crunchyroll in the near-ish future.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

2 hours ago, Scyla said:

Yeah, it was my favorite show of the season. Hope for more soon.

Currently I’m looking forward to Shield Hero season 2 in April.

I can't wait for Tate no Yuusha too.  I am a huge fan of this series.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

So with this season sun setting.. time to do some updates..

My picks for Winter 2022 are a toss up between Princess Connect ReDive even with its over the top feeling like studio Gainax/Trigger ending.     And of course Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru.     Both series kept me entertained the whole time.     I'd love to see more of both which is a possibility with Sono Bisque.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 also is up there,  probably just a little behind the other 2.   I would highly recommend this series if you have not watched the other 2 seasons already.

Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2, Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu, and Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou 2nd Season all have 1 more episode to go before they wrap and I will adress them then.      

 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

1 hour ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

So with this season sun setting.. time to do some updates..

My picks for Winter 2022 are a toss up between Princess Connect ReDive even with its over the top feeling like studio Gainax/Trigger ending.     And of course Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru.     Both series kept me entertained the whole time.     I'd love to see more of both which is a possibility with Sono Bisque.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3 also is up there,  probably just a little behind the other 2.   I would highly recommend this series if you have not watched the other 2 seasons already.

Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2, Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu, and Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou 2nd Season all have 1 more episode to go before they wrap and I will adress them then.      

 

 

I really loved both Princess Connect and Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru.  I never intended to Princess Connect.  I completely skipped the 1st season.  I am glad I decided to watch it in the end. 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

So 2 more series are out of the way,  both I have some mixed views on some good some bad.   

Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu,   Overall I was impressed by this series however towards the end I thought the series really started to falter.   The last episode might be the biggest of these faults.. most likely because they needed to wrap up a story arc that should have probably been a start of a 2nd season and there probably is not one coming which is sad.    While not as rushed of a finale like say Charlotte.. which IMO still holds the record for most amount of cramming in 1 episode,  but even with that said this leads me into the next on my list.

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou 2nd Season,  where to even begin with this series.    While in the end not as bad as I expected it to turn out (referring to my half way summary) I can't in all fairness say it was any good either.   I know this series had quite the following in my viewing group so I managed to stick with it,  and while it got better in the end,  it took less then 2 episodes to squander all it had and return to blah.    The last episode also suffered heavily from a bad case of the crams..   so much so they needed to go back and remind the viewer of what happened in case you blinked and missed it.     The ending was probably the worst that this season had to offer,  I really and I stress this really was hoping that this was the end of this series.    BUT.. they announced an OVA.. huzzah or something.

 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished Arifureta.  Such a funny end.  I really love this show.   I can't wait for season 3

[pengbuzz]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:38 PM, Marzan said:

As far as I'm concerned, Attack on Titan should have ended on that panel when they finally reached the sea. It would have been a logical and satisfying conclusion. The moment they started giving us all the Marley content things fell apart from a narrative perspective for me.

Agreed; I think the story overstayed its' welcome by that point and really just needed to end. As it is now, it's hard to feel any sort of empathy for the characters.

[Seto Kaiba]

23 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Agreed; I think the story overstayed its' welcome by that point and really just needed to end. As it is now, it's hard to feel any sort of empathy for the characters.

Yup... and that, combined with the unrelenting darkness of the story, makes it all but impossible to stay invested in what happens to the characters or the setting.

IIRC, TVTropes likes to call that "Darkness Induced Audience Apathy".

 

 

On a brighter note, the first of the Spring simulcasts have begun to stream on Crunchyroll.  At time of writing, the Spring 2022 season Simulcast offerings there are:

• One Piece
• Boruto
• Dragon Quest: the Adventure of Dai
• Digimon Ghost Game
• Detective Conan
• Ascendance of a Bookworm
• Cue!
• I'm Kodama Kawashiri
• Build-Divide #000000 Code Black
• Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It
• Legend of Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These
• Shadowverse
• Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
• Shenmue the Animation
• Love All Play
• Fanfare of Adolescence
• Mahjong Soul Pon
• ESTAB Life: Great Escape

Following the Funimation merger and the consolidation of Funimation Now and Wakanim into Crunchyroll's service, this is supposedly going to be the largest simulcast season in Crunchyroll's history thus far.

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Yup... and that, combined with the unrelenting darkness of the story, makes it all but impossible to stay invested in what happens to the characters or the setting.

IIRC, TVTropes likes to call that "Darkness Induced Audience Apathy".

Right; sometimes I feel like rooting for the titans at this point.

 

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

On a brighter note, the first of the Spring simulcasts have begun to stream on Crunchyroll.  At time of writing, the Spring 2022 season Simulcast offerings there are:

• One Piece
• Boruto
• Dragon Quest: the Adventure of Dai
• Digimon Ghost Game
• Detective Conan
• Ascendance of a Bookworm
• Cue!
• I'm Kodama Kawashiri
• Build-Divide #000000 Code Black
• Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It
• Legend of Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These
• Shadowverse
• Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
• Shenmue the Animation
• Love All Play
• Fanfare of Adolescence
• Mahjong Soul Pon
• ESTAB Life: Great Escape

Following the Funimation merger and the consolidation of Funimation Now and Wakanim into Crunchyroll's service, this is supposedly going to be the largest simulcast season in Crunchyroll's history thus far.

Yeah...I'm going to need suggestions, as I'm in a bit of a rut with anime watching right about now. Same old same old , with more whiny protagonists than a high school play.

[Seto Kaiba]

4 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Yeah...I'm going to need suggestions, as I'm in a bit of a rut with anime watching right about now. Same old same old , with more whiny protagonists than a high school play.

Isekai is unfortunately still very big, so there's a LOT of that.

Ascendance of a Bookworm is one of the better ones, though... being about a librarian who dies in a tragic book-related accident and is reincarnated in a fantasy world that hasn't yet progressed to the point of bulk printed, easily accessible books and decides that sh*t will not stand.

Overlord is getting a new season soon too, which I rather enjoy though it's a more niche taste since it is a villain protagonist story that deconstructs a lot of standard western fantasy tropes... especially ones related to humans being the default fantasy species.

Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It is a mildly amusing romcom with a heavy comedic emphasis about two members of a university research group who are so bookish and so obsessed with the scientific method that, once they discover they're into each other, they miss the point completely and try to scientifically analyze the phenomenon called "love" by various means and test it empirically.  (It borders on edutainment, since it diverges on occasion into lengthy explanations of the scientific methods used.)

The Rising of the Shield Hero is getting another season, though unfortunately it's past the point where it was an underdog story about an isekai hero butt monkey who gets stuck with a useless superpower until he discovers how to abuse wrong context magic and now he's just a standard overpowered isekai hero.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is an excellent romcom with a similarly heavy emphasis in comedy.  Two very bright students at an elite private school - one rich and talented girl and the school's token clever poor boy who works psychotically hard - are into each other, but refuse to yield the advantage to each other by being the first one to admit interest, so they go to preposterous lengths with conniving plots to corner each other into a confession.

Miss Kuroitsu of the Monster Development Department is also a fun little office comedy, about a researcher working for the corporate front of an evil secret society of bad guys in a tokusatsu hero setting.

Komi Can't Communicate is also good, a fun little comedy/slice of life series about a girl with extreme social anxiety and a guy who tries to help her make friends despite it.

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Isekai is unfortunately still very big, so there's a LOT of that.

Ascendance of a Bookworm is one of the better ones, though... being about a librarian who dies in a tragic book-related accident and is reincarnated in a fantasy world that hasn't yet progressed to the point of bulk printed, easily accessible books and decides that sh*t will not stand.

Overlord is getting a new season soon too, which I rather enjoy though it's a more niche taste since it is a villain protagonist story that deconstructs a lot of standard western fantasy tropes... especially ones related to humans being the default fantasy species.

Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It is a mildly amusing romcom with a heavy comedic emphasis about two members of a university research group who are so bookish and so obsessed with the scientific method that, once they discover they're into each other, they miss the point completely and try to scientifically analyze the phenomenon called "love" by various means and test it empirically.  (It borders on edutainment, since it diverges on occasion into lengthy explanations of the scientific methods used.)

The Rising of the Shield Hero is getting another season, though unfortunately it's past the point where it was an underdog story about an isekai hero butt monkey who gets stuck with a useless superpower until he discovers how to abuse wrong context magic and now he's just a standard overpowered isekai hero.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is an excellent romcom with a similarly heavy emphasis in comedy.  Two very bright students at an elite private school - one rich and talented girl and the school's token clever poor boy who works psychotically hard - are into each other, but refuse to yield the advantage to each other by being the first one to admit interest, so they go to preposterous lengths with conniving plots to corner each other into a confession.

Miss Kuroitsu of the Monster Development Department is also a fun little office comedy, about a researcher working for the corporate front of an evil secret society of bad guys in a tokusatsu hero setting.

Komi Can't Communicate is also good, a fun little comedy/slice of life series about a girl with extreme social anxiety and a guy who tries to help her make friends despite it.

Thanks; much appreciated! I'll check these out and see if any pique my interest/ curiosity.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Wrapped Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2,  the final episode was more or less a capstone,  however 1 very big plot element gets revealed which in hindsight does explain some of the more unique choices earlier on.    With how they put FIN on the last episode pretty much puts a nail in the lid to any additional content getting animated outside of OVAs or a movie. 

My viewing groups big event this weekend was a screening of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.     And probably for the first time since the "idiocy" hit in 2019 pretty much all 24 of us were in 1 location to watch this.     I'll be honest its been a little while since I watched any of this series,  so I had to go back and get a refresher on it.    I thought that this was a pretty good capstone to the First Season and overall I think the movie was done fairly well.     I know nothing of the season(s) after these events and no plan on moving forward unless I get dragged into it.  

 

I'm taking notes on what to check out next season..   Aharen-san wa Hakarenai and Otome Game Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu are apparently on the group viewing list already,  but I don't know anything about either.

 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

6 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

Wrapped Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2,  the final episode was more or less a capstone,  however 1 very big plot element gets revealed which in hindsight does explain some of the more unique choices earlier on.    With how they put FIN on the last episode pretty much puts a nail in the lid to any additional content getting animated outside of OVAs or a movie. 

My viewing groups big event this weekend was a screening of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.     And probably for the first time since the "idiocy" hit in 2019 pretty much all 24 of us were in 1 location to watch this.     I'll be honest its been a little while since I watched any of this series,  so I had to go back and get a refresher on it.    I thought that this was a pretty good capstone to the First Season and overall I think the movie was done fairly well.     I know nothing of the season(s) after these events and no plan on moving forward unless I get dragged into it.  

 

I'm taking notes on what to check out next season..   Aharen-san wa Hakarenai and Otome Game Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu are apparently on the group viewing list already,  but I don't know anything about either.

 

 

I also enjoyed that last episode of Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha.  I hope it is not the end.  You never know with all these older shows suddenly getting new seasons.

[Podtastic]

This is interesting.

Top 10 Most Popular Anime of 2021 Globally, Attack on Titan Ranks First (tvfandomlounge.com)

The final Season part 2 is wending its way to me and there is apparently a part 3 as well.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

1 hour ago, Podtastic said:

This is interesting.

Top 10 Most Popular Anime of 2021 Globally, Attack on Titan Ranks First (tvfandomlounge.com)

The final Season part 2 is wending its way to me and there is apparently a part 3 as well.

wow,  what did they do poll a random middle school?   In all seriousness none of those titles even remotely interest me,  but the shonen jump formula is all the rage.  

Watched the first episode of Shield Hero season 2.    Anyone else forget who the green haired girl was when the season first started.. lol.        And yes there was cringe in the 1st episode so at least its staying the course. 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Crunchyroll is continuing to add new simulcasts to the Spring 2022 season.  The full list now includes:

• One Piece
• Boruto
• The Rising of the Shield Hero (S2)
• Dragon Quest: the Adventure of Dai
• Digimon Ghost Game
• Detective Conan
• Ascendance of a Bookworm (S3, though listed as S4 on their service due to OVAs)
• CUE!
• I'm Kodama Kawashiri
• Build-Divide - #000000 - Code Black
• Date a Live
• Science Fell in Love: So I Tried to Prove It (S2)
• Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story
• Shadowverse
• Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
• The Dawn of the Witch
• Requiem fo the Rose King
• Shenmue: the Animation
• RPG Real Estate
• Aharen-san wa Hakarenai
• Tomodachi Game
• Love All Play
• Healer Girl
• Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost
• The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody
• Fanfare of Adolescence
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs
• Love After World Domination
• Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
• ESTAB LIFE: Great Escape
• BIRDIE WING: Golf Girls' Story
• Mahjong Soul
• Heroines Run the Show
• Skeleton Knight in Another World

 

So far, I'm pretty pleased with the diversity of offerings this season.  There is the usual selection of heavily derivative isekai garbage, but also a much better selection of other genres with more original thought on display as well.  First time in a while that I've found myself bookmarking a bunch of shows all at once.

I finished Police in a Pod a few days back.  It got HEAVY, with the final few episodes involving a manhunt for a pair of sex offenders and one short arc involving the protagonist being traumatized by seeing a child who'd died in a fatal auto accident.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Date A Live IV started and it was such a good start.

[Seto Kaiba]

Gonna rewatch Ascendance of a Bookworm for a refresh on it since the new season is airing.

It's mostly feel-good stuff, and surprisingly well-composed and unconventional for an isekai, so I plan to enjoy the hell out of it.

[Seto Kaiba]

Finished Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department.

For a series with such a strong start and unconventional premise, the ending was pretty disappointingly weak and predictable.  A story that satirizes Japanese corporate culture via a tokusatsu superhero style evil organization's corporate front ending on a plot involving a potential hostile takeover by a foreign investment firm?  The second half feels like a rush to include every (quite real) regional tokusatsu hero/mascot group connected to the series... and oh boy are there A LOT of them.  It kind of stops being a parody and starts playing itself razor-straight right at the end... only reverting back to from after the fight is over and tokusatsu hero is asked to help Kuroitsu remove the (malfunctioning) toku hero outfit she's wearing, ending in his nominal defeat via explosive nosebleed as a response of overthinking her request to help her take it off.

All in all, maybe 7/10?  A really enjoyable start and some terribly relatable plotlines about corporate idiocy, with a weakish ending.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Tate no Yuusha last week was so good as usual.