Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 11 Posted July 11 (edited) Secrets of the Silent Witch is turning out to be a good show. I will continue watching. Edited July 11 by Hikaru Ichijo SL Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 12 Posted July 12 Been a long day... let's see what Crunchyroll's found anything in the Summer '25 simulcast season that's actually worth watching. New Saga has a new episode today... Spoiler ... and like the previous one, it's nothing worth watching. New Saga is as unimaginative as its title. It's the very picture of the oxymoronic term "Generic Fantasy". It's a fantasy story so dull and unimaginative that I repeatedly caught myself tuning it out to focus on literally anything else before I even made it to the OP. The animation itself is actually reasonably high quality. The story is just so... vacant... that it feels impossible to engage with. The protagonist, whose mind time-traveled back to three years before the Demon invasion, is now setting out to become The Hero so that he can be better prepared for the invasion when it comes. Despite this, much of the episode is spent on generic Jealous Girlfriend Nonsense because his sudden dramatic change of behavior is mistaken for a sudden attempt to impress another girl and then he meets his girlfriend from the bad future and calls her by her secret name. Tedious in the extreme. I'm strongly considering dropping this one. Betrothed to My Sister's Ex has a new episode... which I am feeling MUCH more enthusiastic about! Spoiler Ahhhh... there's the inevitable twist to Count Kyros. J-Romance stories almost always go for the same one when it comes to "Prince"-type characters who aren't the Upper-Class Twit. He'll be the child of a mistress, a concubine, a second wife after a divorce and remarriage, or a wife of lower social status if the setting has polygamy. Either way, he's inevitably the child of The Homewrecker who may or may not be accepted himself, but his mother definitely won't be. Kyros's obligatory child-of-a-mistress childhood trauma was that the Duke's legal wife actually liked him but committed suicide when he was named heir due to her having failed to bear a son, apparently over the insult to her honor... and as an adult he's looked down on for being of mixed heritage. Pretty standard stuff. He worked his way up to earning a peerage on his own merit instead of inheriting his father's estate. We get to see the chain of events that led to the lethal case of mistaken identity from last episode, with Kyros not understanding that the Baron was such an absolute moron that he was using his younger daughter's birthday party to try and arrange a marriage for her older sister. You really feel for the poor guy, who is literally running around the entire estate looking for Marie. His enthusiasm is downright adorable... as is his desperation to clear up the misunderstandings between them. Shame Marie keeps making it worse. She is so determined to believe that she's just a Replacement Goldfish for her sister that she doesn't believe a word he says about the mistaken identity that started all this. Apparently her own father sent here there to "comfort" him for the night, expecting her to be sent home after. Still fun, I have a feeling this one's going to be my favorite for the season. Secrets of the Silent Witch also has a new episode... Spoiler ... which is basically a trauma conga line for Monica, as she's forced back into the school life she so detested due to her social anxiety. Because she's so quiet, the only person who's willing to talk to her is the daughter of a wealthy man who bought his way into a Barony. She's immediately pretty useless as an undercover agent, since she can't even get close to the person she's meant to be protecting without having a nervous breakdown. She even manages to get mistaken for an assassin and roughed up by the prince's bodyguard. (It seems her social anxiety is due to abuse she endured as a child.) 4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said: However, as much as I enjoyed the first part of the story centering around Pardis, I still enjoyed, I think in equal part, the latter part of the story involving Marley and the wider world, as it informed the viewer of what lay behind what's been happening to them the previous five years or so as well as adjacent machinations and goings-on in the present. I don't think the totality of the story would have been as satisfying had they only focused on Paradis, as equal parts fun and depressing it is, without providing some back and adjacent story to answer the whys and whos of what lay behind the sudden titan infestations, who Grisha Jaeger really was, where did Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt come from and why were they there, etc, etc. There was a plethora of questions raised in the first couple chapters and had they just ended the series like that without providing answers, I personally don't feel like it would have been as satisfying overall. For what it's worth, when I read (and later watched) Attack on Titan I felt that the sense of mystery surrounding the Titans and the Titan Shifters and the foreboding that went with it was an essential part of the story. It was the very embodiment of Nothing is Scarier. (I am admittedly a great big fan of horror as an art form so my bias is going to be on full display here...) The idea that the world within the Walls was all there was of civilization made the entire rest of the setting into one massive liminal space. The sense of isolation within desolation and oppressive emptiness of the world was the fuel for a great sense of horror and foreboding throughout the first half. This was made doubly effective by the Titans themselves. Normally seeing a person on the horizon in such an isolated space is cause for great relief. Attack on Titan turned that on its ear and made it cause for terror. Anything remotely person-shaped outside the Walls is a Monster that will Eat You without a moment's hesitation. Not knowing where the likes of Ymir, Grisha, Reiner, or Annie came from helped maintain that sense of mystery and oppressive horror. Was there some other, isolated city out in that vast desolation? Did the Titans have a civilization? Are these monsters really as mindless as they appear or was there malice behind them? These mysteries helped keep the story engaging. IMO, the Big Reveal that history as it was known to the protagonists was one huge lie, that the world of Attack on Titan was largely similar to ours in terms of its geography, culture, and technology aside from the existence of the Titans, and that the rest of the world was not only not utterly desolate but positively thriving really fatally punctured the horror with mundane explanations and real world familiarity. The only thing that remained mysterious was the Titans themselves, and that was demoted to essentially "just magic". Spoiler It initially struck me as quite silly that the world map for Attack on Titan was just a modern map of Earth rotated 180 degrees. Then I realized it was 100% on purpose, and in service of yet another World War II Germany reference. The Marley Empire controlling the African continent and portions of Europe is pretty inconsequential, but Paradise... Paradise is Madagascar. A location multiple antisemitic European governments including France, Poland, and Germany entertained as a possible place to forcibly resettle European Jews to unsuitable or unproductive land under several variations of what's known as The Madagascar Plan between 1878 and 1940. 4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said: As to Eren being easily forgiven, I agree. He was an a-hole of the first order and deserved to be vilified for the monster that he became. I think Zeke's and Willy's plan, although terrible, too, was at least possibly coming from a place of contrition. It's a shame that Mikasa didn't pop out of her spell and kill Eren when he told her that he'd hated her most of their lives- whether he actually meant it or was just saying it to create distance between himself and her, the bastard had it coming. Alas, it came too late, but I thought it poetic that Mikasa was the one to deliver the coup de grace, even if she STILL felt affection for him. He got off too easy. The show is definitely a study, perhaps a dark caricature, of real history, some of the absolute worst of humanity's capital-E Evil, to borrow your phrase. To my mind, however, we must always be reminded of that evil lest we repeat it, be it in literature or art, and as an artform, I think anime is an apt vehicle, although perhaps it needn't be so blatant. The Japanese have their own demons to bear from WWII and it's notable that they weren't portrayed at all harshly compared to the Marleyans who symbolize the Nazi Regime. Indeed, they were merely portrayed as simply opportunistic money grubbers, with Azumabito showing a little contrition for how her people have acted. Make of that what you will. Eren being a completely unrepentant heel for the entire second half of the story really was a poor creative choice, IMO. I know it's that kind of story, but it'd have been nice to see some progression or the idea that he was at least struggling with what he felt was his preordained destiny to destroy the world. Instead, he just kind of flips from a tyke bomb who hates the Titans with a thoroughly understandable passion to a Misanthrope Supreme and Omnicidal Maniac all at once. Spoiler Considering the real world parallels, that the Eldians are typically presented as unrepentant monsters and the only prominent "good" ones are the ones who want to wipe their own people out for the sake of the world... well... the implications are unfortunate to say the least. It would have been nice to see more of a moral spectrum besides just "awful person" and "extremely awful person"... Quote
Big s Posted July 12 Posted July 12 As far as Attack on Titan, it was and probably still my favorite anime of this millennium. I don’t think there’s even a close second. But I do have to say that the stuff before discovering that there were other nations was the better part of the show. I still liked it, but there’s a frightening thing about not knowing where your monsters come from. Kinda like with Alien or Predator. Once you find out then it’s not a scary. But unlike a lot of sequels to Alien or Predator, I still really liked the later episodes of Attack on Titan Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 12 Posted July 12 Oh boy, more "Adventure slop"... The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses is back... Spoiler ... and it should have stayed away, as bad as it is. What an absolute mess. I'm inclined to suspect the mangaka is a big One Piece fan, because he draws women the same way Eiichiro Oda does. That is to say, often barely dressed at all and with such an extreme hourglass figure that you have to wonder if he understands that women have internal organs too. The series tries to extract itself from fanservice long enough to get into Toto's motivations to be a hero, which as it turns out are just to gain the confidence to talk to people in light of how he keeps accidentally frightening people by being huge, loud, and covered in scars. It veers right back into fanservice immediately thereafter though with the girls lewding the low-level slime monsters in the first dungeon they visit. The demon girl's plan to assassinate him is to summon a high-level slime that he can't punch to death, so when punching doesn't work he vaporizes it by shouting loudly instead. This really is basically just One Punch Man: Fantasy Edition with excessive fanservice. Scooped Up By an S-Rank Adventurer has a new episode... Spoiler ... and it opens on a recap of the protagonist failing to grasp that he's being fired for not doing his job as a white mage. We get to see the protagonist's future party on the job without him, and they don't really seem to need the help either. They take out a bandit camp the size of a small town in the space of a single afternoon without any assistance while barely breaking a sweat. This series, like so many of its ilk, is left incredibly frustrating to watch because the writers seem to believe that they can build tension by either making the protagonist humble and self-effacing to the point of absurdity (as in, they refuse to recognize that they are abnormally powerful despite all evidence to the contrary) or simply so dimwitted that it never occurs to them to check and see what the normal/average amount of power someone in their position should have is. This series is doing both at once, with Lloyd both assuming without evidence that he is merely normal or even substandard compared to other white mages and refusing to accept it when top-ranked adventurers REPEATEDLY point out that the things he thinks are trivial displays of beginner skills are actually Beyond The Impossible displays of power and skill. Watching him constantly whine that he's not good enough when everyone's jaws are constantly on the floor over how amazing he is is just obnoxious. It doesn't do anything for the story, it's just filler. Quote
Stampeed Valkyrie Posted July 12 Posted July 12 waaaaaay too much on the plate this season. So I will stick with the Rascal does not dream series for this post. It appears as is this season is going to cover books 10-13, starting with Lost Idol, then Nightingale, Student, and Finally Santa Claus. TBH these are not the strongest arcs of the series by a long shot. In the first 2 episodes your introduced to all the main characters except for maybe 1 that will complete these books, some in passing and others directly. Its possible that this might actually be a better medium then the novels for telling the story.. which would be interesting. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 13 Posted July 13 Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter has a new episode... and it's probably going to be the first series I drop this season. Spoiler Everything about Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter feels profoundly half-assed. It's a harem series that wants to pretend that it's a regular fantasy series. This is a problem, because it's not well written enough to be compelling as a fantasy series or a harem series. The setting hasn't really been developed at all thus far. Neither of the two main girls has been developed at all either. They're pretty much interchangeable, both being squeaky-voiced lolis of similar height, build, and appearance whose only real role in the story is seemingly to have an intense crush on the protagonist immediately on meeting him and for no adequately explored reason. Much of the story is just excuses for them to do generic cutesy crap like pout at him, cling to him, or get vocally possessive of him and jealous of their other having his attention despite them being nobles and him being a commoner. There's no story here. At least, none worth watching. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 13 Posted July 13 Starting a new one... Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl. Spoiler Seems pretty cutesy from the OP and general art style... but judging a book by its cover is seldom productive. The main girl, who hasn't been named yet, speaks excellent English. Turns out her VA is an American, Sally Amaki, who was also in Tomo-chan is a Girl! and is the VA for Kiriko in the game Overwatch 2. The English in this is actually very good all around... Renji, a part-timer at a Tokyo game centre, takes pity on a young foreign girl he sees losing for hours at the same claw machine and wins her a stuffed koala. In so doing, he has unwittingly endeared himself to 13 year old Sally Baker, a British girl whose family recently moved to Japan and who is still learning Japanese. The two of them spend some time boding over a shared love of video games and their mutual struggles with the language barrier. Thus starts a slice of life (romance?) comedy about these two oddballs and their struggles with the language barrier and cultural differences between England and Japan. The games in the game centre have quite a few references and homages scattered about. My favorite being the rail shooter that's clearly House of the Dead but with characters that are just as clearly Jill and Wesker from the first Resident Evil. After one episode, it feels like light "feel good" sort of entertainment. Nothing deep or complex, just people having fun together and learning about each other. If I had to sum it up in a short punchy remark... "It's a vibe". A very cheerful, upbeat vibe at that. Another new one... See You Tomorrow at the Food Court. Spoiler Right off the bat, this series manages to effectively communicate we're doing an odd couple sort of slice of life comedy thing with an outwardly prim and proper young lady and her gyaru friend as they hang out together in a food court and talk about whatever random stuff enters their heads. Random it most assuredly is... the first part of the first episode has them talking about social media and other incidental stuff. The second part has them having a debate on the meaning of intelligence and extraterrestrial life complete with references to Gundam 00 and 2001: a Space Odyssey and veers into plans for the future and a hypocritical complaint about girls chatting about nothing and an accusation that the one changes topics like a stand-up comedian. Between the general weirdness, the constant non-sequiturs, and the shortform stories it reminds me a lot of Azumanga Daioh. Quote
DewPoint Posted July 13 Posted July 13 I've fallen behind. Finally started watching Frieren. I basically agree with everyone: last season was pretty meh overall. Now its sequel season! Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 13 Posted July 13 My Dress up Darling was so good again. Gojou is such a good person. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 14 Posted July 14 So... Turkey! Time to Strike is a thing that exists. The first twenty minutes of this series are a "What do you mean it's not awesome?" girls sports anime about bowling, in a similar vein to Iwa-kakeru! and Birdie Wing... with a very unsuccessful school bowling team of five girls having one member quit because they're always losing, a match to attempt to persuade her to stay on the team, and then it starts getting weird. Spoiler Lightning strikes a mysterious artifact in an open excavation where a bookstore is being torn down nearby, causing some kind of magical resonance between the artifact and the main girl's bowling ball. She and the rest of the team are pulled down the lane in midair by the glowing bowling ball and find themselves on the edge of a battlefield in the Sengoku period. The only thing I can say to this is "What." I do not get it even a little. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 14 Posted July 14 I watched the 2nd episode of Game center girl. I find this show really cute. Lily is so weird in a good way. Quote
Big s Posted July 14 Posted July 14 3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: The only thing I can say to this is "What." I do not get it even a little. What’s there not to get? Magical bowling balls happen. Sometimes they’re possessed by a dead father, like in Mystery Men and sometimes the marble within resonates with the ancient past when artifacts are struck by lightning. Seems pretty common and the reason I stay away from bowling alleys. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 15 Posted July 15 Caught the latest episodes of Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl, See You Tomorrow at the Food Court, and started a new series Ruri Rocks. Pretty happy with all three, TBH. Spoiler Most interested in Ruri Rocks, which is shaping up to be another unconventional edutainment series... this time about mineralogy. The titular Ruri is a high schooler who learns from her mother that the same kind of crystals she was looking at in an accessory she wanted to buy can be found in nature near their home, and goes out crystal hunting. She bumps into a geology grad student named Nagi, who helps her find some quartz and geodes and starts educating the newly minted rockhound on geological science. NGL, I am 100% certain there is going to be a large percentage of the audience watching this one because Nagi is STACKED. She has a fairly realistic build for a girl who works on dig sites and such, but they definitely put a lot of effort into drawing attention to her figure. 6 hours ago, Big s said: What’s there not to get? Magical bowling balls happen. Sometimes they’re possessed by a dead father, like in Mystery Men and sometimes the marble within resonates with the ancient past when artifacts are struck by lightning. Seems pretty common and the reason I stay away from bowling alleys. Ah yes, the ever-present threat of magical bowling balls. How could I forget? 😆 Spoiler I just want to know why the hell lightning striking some artifact elsewhere caused a bowling ball to create a time warp to the sengoku period! Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 15 Posted July 15 A Couple of Cuckoos Season 2 started. I liked season 1 well enough. But come on another girl shows up. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 16 Posted July 16 Turkey! Time to Strike is back... Spoiler ... and it's right back into the Sengoku period. They got over having a freshly decapitated head land next to them really quick. Then they almost get sexually assaulted by a group of soldiers...? Bandits...? I'm gonna go with bandits. Then they get rescued by a soldier. They are really, really padding this out by having the nerdy girl have to say the same thing like four times before anyone in the group will understand or retain it. Once they do, they accept that they've time-traveled quite easily. The main girl has the memetic survival instincts of a lemming. She has to be constantly reminded to keep her head down, to not draw attention from soldiers or bandits, and to not rush off to rescue a captured soldier from bandits armed with nothing but an offensively bright hair color. We're using bowling metaphors to describe the need to save some rando from bandits who were going to rape them to death earlier. Swell. Somehow this insane argument drives at least one of the girls to joyful tears. For some reason they don't want to say "bandits", so they keep calling them "NBs"... and now all I can think of is Shinichi Watanabe's self-insert character NB from Tenchi Muyo! GXP. A show nearly as insane as this one... So... they're fighting with bowling balls. How they got a bowling ball to flip five feet into the air from the ground in mid-roll is perhaps an exercise best left to whatever's in the writer's medicine cabinet. Wow, that girl is STRONG. She just picks the soldier they rescued up and takes off with him like he weighs nothing at all. This guy is completely nonplussed by having been rescued by five girls, many of whom are apparently stronger than him, who are all dressed in an extremely odd and inappropriate manner for the time. Wasn't this supposed to be a bowling anime? Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 16 Posted July 16 I can no longer tell if New Saga is just badly written or if it's actively taking the piss. I'm undecided as to whether that marks an improvement in its writing or not... the protagonist certainly seems to be about as bored with the business of becoming The Hero as I am of watching it, and is actively trying to speedrun the process to the point of rudeness. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 16 Posted July 16 57 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said: I can no longer tell if New Saga is just badly written or if it's actively taking the piss. I'm undecided as to whether that marks an improvement in its writing or not... the protagonist certainly seems to be about as bored with the business of becoming The Hero as I am of watching it, and is actively trying to speedrun the process to the point of rudeness. I agree with you. I wonder if I will even stick with it. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 17 Posted July 17 Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant seems to have run out of ideas a mere three episodes in. Spoiler The series seems to be falling into a rather dull story loop of introducing a new "adventurer" who is both obnoxious and useless, having them essentially set up shop in the protagonist's restaurant, and then go on an adventure that their arrogance and/or idiocy inevitably turns into a disaster that the protagonist then has to rescue them from while in a literally paper-thin disguise (he's just wearing a bag on his head). They don't seem to actually learn from any of it, they just hang around being obnoxious. I'm tentatively moving this one to my "best skipped" pile. Picked up a new series, Solo Camping for Two, which I'll give a whirl later alongside Hotel Inhumans and Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 17 Posted July 17 I have no idea where water wizard is going. I am not sure I like this show. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 18 Posted July 18 The Water Magician is going where the vast majority of isekai stories have gone before. Spoiler By which I mean, "Straight to the generic Adventurer's Guild" to become an Adventurer, get his Guild ID, and be assigned a Rank that is treated as equivalent to a Power Level that he will quickly raise to the maximum so that an objective third party officially declares him to be a Total Badass in a way that he can show off without immodest boasts. There's no actual reason for such a game-like contrivance as an Adventurer's Guild to exist in this setting. It's simply a nearly obligatory trope thanks to it being popularized in some of the genre's most successful titles and their many copycats, to the point that bleeds over into non-gameified-world isekai stories and standard j-fantasy. The obvious next step is that our protagonist here is going to go on a rank-appropriate adventure that will go Off The Rails in a spectacular way and create an opportunity to really show off in an obscene manner, which will get him promoted several ranks. Lather, rinse, repeat until he's at the highest rank and inevitably becomes seen as some kind of national strategic asset. New Dandadan today too... Spoiler ... they finally beat the Mongolian death worm that was, for some reason, living underneath a town in Japan instead of in Mongolia. Kinda dragged on a bit... Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 18 Posted July 18 Silent Witch was okay today. But Monica and her speaking issues can get a bit annoying. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 18 Posted July 18 Secrets of the Silent Witch had a pretty decent episode today. Spoiler She solves the mystery the prince set her to solving in the previous episode without using any magic. Simple deductive reasoning and observation. She geeks out for a bit over the math involved before having her parade rained on, but gets to review the student council's budget reports as a reward because she's too good at math not to put to work as the new treasurer. There are some inklings of a greater conspiracy involving someone using mind control magic, but thus far nobody's seemingly aware of it yet. More and more people seem to be taking the initiative to snap her out of her stuttering and verbal deadlocks, which makes her a bit easier to tolerate as a protagonist too. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 19 Posted July 19 Migraine meds are a hell of a sleep aid... lol Anyway, caught the latest episode of Betrothed to My Sister's Ex. It's still adorkable. Spoiler Marie's refusal to admit she had an abnormal/abusive upbringing is basically the only thing keeping the plot going, though. It is occasionally frustrating that she keeps falling into the same decision paralysis with basically everything she's asked to do and the idea that she can't even conceive of the idea of having preferences is a bit silly... but without that the story would come crashing to a halt with a happy marriage pretty much right away. Also started Solo Camping for Two. I'd initially pegged this one as an edutainment series shilling for a particular sport or hobby like Iwa-kakeru or Let's Make a Mug Too. Instead, the series seems to be shaping up to be a comedy about a 30-something camping enthusiast who just wants to be left alone in peace and the dojikko-moe girl who keeps disrupting his quiet enjoyment of nature. Spoiler The first episode essentially sets the scene with an experienced solo camper setting up his campsite and then going off to take care of some things, and returning to find some random woman getting undressed in front of his fire. Turns out a disaster-prone idiot named Shizuku decided to go solo camping with no experience and screwed up in every way imaginable. After some back-and-forth between them involving her doing the cooking, he reluctantly agrees to let her stay at his campsite for the night. She then tries to blackmail him into teaching her how to safely go solo camping. The second episode starts with her friends being appropriately horrified that she's going out camping alone and point out the dangers of a young woman going out alone like that. They're also shocked that she's going camping with a guy she just met and barely knows. Appropriate reaction is appropriate. The speed with which they pivot to simply assuming he's her Secret Boyfriend is a bit weird though. For his part, the protagonist Gen definitely makes it clear he wants nothing to do with her and resents her presence. Her insistence on going with someone who clearly does not like her or want her around feels a bit... unsafe? Unwise? She also seems unclear on the meaning of "solo" and expects him to do most of the actual work. She's shocked when he tells her to pitch her tent herself and even throws a tantrum about it. She's so inept that it takes her the entire rest of the day just to get her tent up. The animation quality throughout is pretty poor too. At times, it looks like a series from fifteen or twenty years ago. What little story it has thus far seems to consist mainly of its protagonist Gen alternately scolding and lecturing the much younger Shizuku for being chronically unprepared and bewilderingly incapable of handling even the most basic tasks. When he's not doing that, he's repeatedly explaining to her that he doesn't want her around and that he goes solo camping to be alone. All in all, very little entertainment value in this one... unless you really get off on depicting generation gap "comedy" depicting the younger generations as spoiled, selfish, lazy, and pathologically stupid. Quote
Stampeed Valkyrie Posted July 19 Posted July 19 (edited) did someone let out all the hot air of the summer 2025 anime season already? so many flops. Gonna keep talking about bunny girl, as nobody else is posting about it. So Episode 3 just wrapped, and I don't know what the heck I just watched. Without sounding too bombastic this might be the worst adaptation of a novel I have ever seen. Apparently in less then 2 episodes they wrapped Vol 10 Lost Idol. I'd like to rename this arc lost viewer as it writes off Zukki as someone of no import even worse then the Sister Venturing out movie did. Edited July 19 by Stampeed Valkyrie Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 19 Posted July 19 Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter has joined the list of titles I'm dropping this season. Spoiler This series is so thinly written that it feels almost disingenuous to say that it has a story or characters. Even after watching four episodes of Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter, I could not for the life of me tell you what the story is about... because the series doesn't seem to have one beyond the excuse plot of "help my daughter pass this magic test for magic school". It wants to be a harem anime, which at least explains why its protagonist (whose name I'm unable to remember) is so generic and lacking in personality. He's a blank slate for the viewer to project themselves onto. The girls, however, are equally vacant. Both main girls at this point have no personality or character traits beyond "crushing on the tutor", both are squeaky-voiced lolis who sound so similar it can be hard to tell who's talking in any scene with both of them, and the only real role both of them seem to have is to throw themselves at the protagonist begging for praise and PG-13 physical affection. There is an unintentionally funny moment around 15 minutes into the episode where it becomes clear that both of the main girls are so incredibly, phenomenally stupid that the two of them can't recognize the titular Duke - who is one's father and the other's employer - up close when all he has done to disguise himself is put on a pair of sunglasses. He doesn't change his voice or his hair or his jewelry. He even uses the ducal family's signature supreme spell, something known only to him and his immediate family, and they're still unable to figure it out despite knowing and saying aloud that only the Duke should know that spell. There's a limit to how stupid you can make a protagonist before the audience starts to wonder how that character has survived as long as they have... and this series is firmly on the wrong side of the line. (Also, "perfectly symmetrical violence never solves anything.") It's not as out-and-out creepy lolicon bait-ish and criminal feeling as Strike Witches, but it definitely leaves me ready to assume that the original light novel's author is more than a bit creepy when it comes to teenage girls. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 20 Posted July 20 I am losing hope in Witch Watch. I liked the show to begin with. But too many other men in the house. I find them annoying. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 21 Posted July 21 The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses is another addition to the list of titles I'm dropping this season. Spoiler Aside from the fact that its creator's taste in women seems to run to the anatomically improbable, it's a series with exactly one joke: The protagonist imagines saying/doing something suave, charming, and confident... but can't, and then immediately passes out the minute a woman talks to him or touches him in even the most platonic context imaginable. Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer is also joining the drop list. Spoiler I'm gonna go one further and coin a term for shows like this... "ego slop". Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer does not have a story. What it does have is a vague excuse plot that functions mainly, if not exclusively, as a string of scenarios where the overpowered-but-generic audience surrogate main character near-effortlessly resolves whatever the problem or threat du jour happens to be so that all of the other characters can fulfill their one and only function of heaping praise on the main character for being so awe-inspiring, amazing, and incredible that nobody could ever hope to equal them. It's basically the same formula as the standard isekai slop series where Random Loser A or Generic Nobody A gets Truck-kun'd into an alternate j-fantasy RPG world where they can effortlessly be a badass and have a harem of admiring fangirls because they now have godlike stats or a cheat-tier skill that makes them so overpowered nothing can really threaten them... just without the isekai elements. Ruri Rocks is a lot more fun and interesting, despite being edutainment. Spoiler The new episode sees Ruri visit Nagi's office at the university, where she learns that she's been credited as a contributor on the paper Nagi wrote about the out-of-place pyrite they found in the previous episode. Ruri then unintentionally dragoons Nagi into actually cleaning her office, leading to the discovery of an old map under a filing cabinet that sends them off to explore a disused magnetite mine and discovering a large deposit of fluorite. Along the way, they talk about the properties of bismuth and how bismuth can be melted down and recrystalized easily, and about what makes certain rocks like fluorite glow under UV light. It's clear the art department on this one likes their girls EXTRA THICC. Even Nagi's undergraduate assistant is drawn that way. Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl had a pretty good episode today too. Spoiler Lily ends up not getting a wink of sleep before her "date" with Renji, on account of pounding what is clearly a bland name Red Bull right before bed. Renji is shocked to find she wanted to go to another game centre for the date and even more shocked when she shows up looking like a fresh corpse after the energy drink kept her up all night. They try a VR game based on that koala she's so obsessed with, during which she falls asleep and has an elaborate romantic fantasy about Renji saving her from the enemies in the game. He ends up having to carry her home. Part 2 has Lily visiting her friend Aoi's place, only to discover that Aoi is Renji's little sister, then sneaking into Renji's room to look around. The episode ends with them having forgotten about studying to play video games, because the girls get stuck on an old school Nintendo Hard game on their bland name Switch. Started Hotel Inhumans... Spoiler ... and the first full-blown murder of the series occurs before the 40 second mark and before the first spoken word of dialog. Haven't even gotten to the title card yet, and the killer-for-hire has already been double-crossed by the (implied yakuza) who hired them... so thoroughly (or so poorly drawn) that people seemingly spring into existence out of thin air to corner them. That's followed by a full blown gunfight and car chase AND a flashback to the assassin in question's childhood showing how he was recruited as a contract killer as an orphan. It seems the hotel in question is a place the dying head of the yakuza family told the killer about, where he could find shelter as an assassin. So... apparently the series is titled for a hotel, literally the Hotel Inhumans, which is a venue specifically and solely for assassins and other hired killers? That is a very specific business model. I wonder how that works out for them? Seems like they have a very extreme attitude towards concierge services too, given that they've agreed to find the killer's missing sister for some reason... which leads to a confrontation with the mafia in the hotel's chapel. It's... it's something. I wouldn't say it's something good. The premise seems rather thin. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 21 Posted July 21 Summer Pockets started off so well. Now I am just bored by it. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 23 Posted July 23 Detectives These Days Are Crazy! remains at least mildly diverting. It's more a sitcom/slice of life series about an unsuccessful detective and the weirdos around him than an actual detective series, but at least it's entertaining. Spoiler The most recent episode is pretty much the main cast playing a game of Spot the Detective Story Cliche, with an Incredibly Obvious Setup in the form of a notoriously reclusive host inviting them to a dinner party at his Highly Suspicious Isolated Mansion in classic locked room murder mystery form in time-honored detective story cliche setup clearly based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The setup is mercilessly lampooned. The first "victim" whose scream brings everyone running turns out to be perfectly fine... just an insectophobe who saw a cockroach in the bathroom and screamed. After relating a story about how the killer who murdered the mansion's previous occupants cut the bridge so nobody could escape, Mashiro ends up accidentally breaking the bridge testing it for safety. Everyone is so eager to jump to the conclusion that it's a recreation of the previously described murder scenario that literally nobody listens when they attempt to explain that Mashiro was the one who broke the bridge by mistake. Nagumo just rolls with it to save face and deflects to Mashiro, who launches into a wild tangent that the culprit is someone who was connected to the past incident and Yuu runs with it, accusing one of the other guests of being the culprit. The girl he randomly accuses turns out to be exactly who he wildly guesses she is... and was actually planning a murder to boot as the last survivor of the previous victim's family. It turns out that out-of-left-field accusation startled her into a full confession before she could actually do anything except set a bomb that was supposed to destroy the bridge (but didn't). Yuu's assistant comes and gets them in a helicopter. Only after they get back does Nagumo point out they never saw Kuroi... for Mashiro to point out he was in the background the entire time. The whole story turned out to be a massive misunderstanding/urban legend. Then they play off-brand Pokemon Go... and Yuu's assistant Hana is embarrassed being put on the spot not knowing anything about it. This leads to her drowning her sorrows with Nagumo, apparently being much older than she looks... to the point of being Yuu's equivalent to Nagumo. She ends it by trying to pretend that she's the same age as Yuu and Mashiro out of embarrassment to avoid admitting she's in her late 20's and still looks like a kid. Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 23 Posted July 23 Shield hero is getting interesting. I am a big Atla fan. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 24 Posted July 24 (edited) Toss Solo Camping for Two on the trash fire too. The writing is so consistently bad that I'm vexed that Kodansha was willing to publish the original manga, never mind that an experienced studio like Synergy with actual credentials is wasting its time with it. (Even weirder that it's Synergy doing it... they normally do shounen anime. Their schtick for the longest time was Beyblade!) Spoiler Like so many other titles this season, Solo Camping for Two doesn't really seem to have a story... or proper characters... or a sense of direction... or anything at all to recommend it. This series might almost make sense if it were being presented as hobby edutainment like Iwa-kakeru or Let's Make a Mug Too!, but it's not. It's almost like it wants to be a rom com, but both of the characters are so hideously unlikeable (and the age gap so large) that it doesn't seem at all plausible. I'm fairly certain it's no hot take to say that a writer who thinks a woman blackmailing a man who despises her into hanging out with her using the threat of deliberately making a false sexual assault accusation is an acceptable way for characters to start a relationship needs their head examined and an immediate change of career. As of the most recent episode (#3) it has literally progressed to her actually stalking him. The writing is self-aware enough to understand this point too... since one of the main girl's friends asks the other "In fact, aren't we kind of acting like stalkers?". Yes, you are following him around without his knowledge or consent... you're literally stalking him. There's nothing fun about watching someone only grudgingly tolerate another person's existence in a public setting. It's really, abundantly clear that the main guy absolutely hates this girl's guts and wants nothing to do with her and watching him barely contain his rage and disgust every time she forces her company on him isn't funny. EDIT: I think the animation is actually getting worse. It was bad to begin with, but this episode has some facial animation that looks like it was done by high schoolers... Edited July 24 by Seto Kaiba Quote
Hikaru Ichijo SL Posted July 25 Posted July 25 Silent Witch is actually good show. I like Monica. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 26 Posted July 26 Hotel Inhumans is probably joining my drop list too... Spoiler It really is just a trite series of "tragic" scenarios where a serial killer is undone by irony in the search of some kind of pseudo-profound nonsense moral. The Water Magician is doing exactly what I expected... Spoiler ... we've now seen the first representative of the Big Bad, who are apparently standard horned demons, with the protagonist fighting one to a standstill without trying and doing an awful lot of showing off for the Adventurer's Guild rank-and-file. There's nothing technically wrong with its execution... it's just so incredibly form letter that it's boring, and the last thing a series should do is bore the audience. Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant is warming to its boring, unimaginative theme... Spoiler The way this series is shaping up, it seems like absolutely every adventurer party is full of would-be rapists, murderers, and other ne'er-do-wells. This episode involves the town's top band of adventurers being so evil that they drive one of their junior members to attempt suicide by loading her down so heavily with work, beating her up for saving them in dungeons, and general dickishness. It kind of makes you wonder where they'll escalate to next, since it seems like they're running low on tragic crimes. Dandadan is... still insane. Spoiler This episode's fight is interrupted four separate times... first by a random shinto priest who it turns out is a student of Momo's grandmother's, then by the evil eye in his tighty-whities, then by the alien mantis shrimp (in his pajamas!), then by Momo's grandmother riding the living anatomy class model from the gravity beam of a UFO. This is the kind of series that makes you stop and check that someone hasn't put something in your drink... because it feels more like a hallucination than a story. Secrets of the Silent Witch has a good episode today. Spoiler They finally get to the bottom of the student council's accounting problems. Turns out the council's staff advisor has been embezzling and using mind control magic on the treasurers to cover up his misappropriation of funds. He is defeated by having his own spell reworked and shot back at him, trapping him in a 24 hour dream about being smothered by an endlessly expanding horde of cartoon pigs. Quote
Seto Kaiba Posted July 27 Posted July 27 Seems like I was wise to drop Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter when I did... the series is so lacking in plot that it's trying to fill airtime with a recap episode and audio commentary by the voice cast with only four episodes actually delivered. Kinda feel like if you have so little material you have to deliberately waste airtime in a one-cour series with a recap episode, your story's either too short to be worth adapting or you're doing something very wrong in the production process. Betrothed to My Sister's Ex remains absolutely a-goddamn-dorable as usual. Spoiler Honestly, the best romcoms are the ones where the guy is so absolutely down bad that he can and will start spouting off romantically at the object of his affection at the slightest provocation, to the embarrassment of anyone and everyone within earshot. Count Kyros is one of those, and he completely sells it EVERY time. Quote
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