Welcome to another general discussion thread! Feel free to use this thread to talk about things you have watched recently, questions you have, or recommendations you want to give!
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Early impressions:
Good:
- A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof - Wow, just wow. I had no expectations for this, the title sounded like it could be fun. But no, the animation, style, humor, timing, everything was awesome. I watched it twice. If the rest of the series keeps up with this first episode it will be a classic, but I’ve been let down before…
- Apocalypse Hotel - Really enjoying this so far. The setting is fun and the mix of humor, whimsy, and a touch of melancholy, work for me. I love how alien the alien actually was, and the conflict within the robots of both expecting to break down working for people who will never return and remaining optimistic that more guests will come.
- Aharen-san - I forgot how much fun this one was. The animal crossing joke went too long, but otherwise it has picked right up and the new character is a great addition to the cast
- I’ve Been Killing Slimes… - First half of the first episode was rough, but then it picked back up to what I remember from the previous season. Fun, low stakes, comfy show.
- The Too-Perfect Saint - Anime has been good so far and an improvement over the light novels. Hopefully that continues.
TBD:
- Once Upon a Witch’s Death - I like the overall settings, concept, etc. but the complete lack of urgency from a character which a ticking time clock on her life is just off-putting. I’m still not sure what to make of it. It sort of feels like an overly drawn out intro to a wandering/travel anime.
- Summer Pockets - I’ve enjoyed it so far, but few anime like this keep my attention for long. Seems like something always ruins the story.
- Witch Watch - First episode was rough, second was much better. Too early to get a feel for this one. Needs a little more chemistry within the cast and a little less slapstick, but that should develop over time.
- The Unaware Atelier Meister - I generally enjoy this sort of silly humor and unaware op main characters, but it has declined a bit from the first episode and I’m not sure how long the same jokes will work.
- The Gorilla God’s Go-To-Girl - I did not have high expectations for this, but it has been pretty good so far. The humor works, the harem aspect is not being forced to hard (yet…), the main character is fun.
- The Beginning After the End - I always enjoy the overpowered baby trope… Using the main characters new life to force reflection on his past and slowly unwinding that story while moving through the present, can work well or blow up. Hopefully this one continues strong.
- Kowloon Generic Romance - I’m at least one episode behind… Been awhile since I watched a mind screw style anime. Done well it could be excellent. Hopefully the underlying mystery is more profound than what has been implied so far.
May Drop:
- The Brilliant Healer… - First episode was a mistake (skip it) second was much better, but I don’t have a lot of hope for this one.
- Anne Shirley - I’m an episode or so behind. Not really familiar with the source even though it may be one of the most commonly adopted stories ever… Seems pleasant and fun, not sure it will have much of a plot.
Dropped:
- The Shiunji Family Children - Watched part of it without any prior knowledge, and even before the “plot” something about it just was annoying and unlikable to me. Then I find out it is a technically not incest sibling romance story from the same person as Rent-A-Friend and it all made sense.
- Kowloon Generic Romance - Both episodes I’ve watched have left me saying “that was weird af”, but in a good way. The pacing is less good. I think I might pick up the manga it’s based off of.
- Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux - A solid first episode. Lots of parallels to the start of Zeta Gundam. I’m excited to see where it goes next.
- Witch Watch - A cute series. Wish it were animated a bit better. Super good-looking OP though.
- Yakitate!! Japan - My god. This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I’m only three episodes in but it’s just so dang charming. Want to watch a kid with with the superpower of slightly warmer than average hands create the greatest breads known to man? Want to watch him do it surrounded by a bunch of other crazy characters? This is your show.
Episode 2 of Kowloon made it much more obvious to me that the pacing was lightning fast. I totally agree that it has been super intriguing though. For as fast as they are going, they are still managing to set a good vibe with the setting in Kowloon Walled City.
Now that (almost) all of the anime have premiered, I’m in the phase of cutting down my list to a manageable size and selecting my picks to present to my friends as a tasting menu for what to watch together this season. This time we’ve got two of our three (sometimes four) spots locked in already (Apothecary Diaries and Windbreaker), so the competition will be tough, lol. Currently, the new stuff I’m excited for is Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl, Ninja and Assassin Under One Roof and Too-Perfect Saint, but Moonrise is also looking promising (I’m not a binge watcher, so no spoilers!), and it’s good to have Shoshimin back.
And, as always, here’s my trash pile:
Summer Pockets - 3/5
I swear to god I’ve seen this exact anime several times before but I could not tell you what or when. I go into anime blind, but within a few minutes I knew for sure this was based on a dating sim visual novel and it was going to attempt to make the audience cry, which is a genre I truly cannot stand because it always feels so cheesy and so sloooowwwwwwww. It has great production values and it seems like the visual novel is popular and beloved, but personally I just could not bring myself to care about any of the characters.
Compass 2.0 - 1/5
Extremely bold choice to make a video game adaptation where the characters know that they are video game characters and players interact with them. However, it seems a choice made more out of laziness than a desire to do anything interesting, and they don’t even make up for that with impressive visuals. The entire show feels like a cheap and thoughtless ad for the mobile game and an absolute waste of time.
Compass wasn’t even on my radar until I just saw this comment. Is it so bad it’s funny? Or is it so bad it’s bad? Your description of it makes it sound funny bad.
Really depends on your taste. For me it was super boring, but I could see it being funny to someone else.
Rock is a Lady’s Modesty continues to be a hoot. The second episode was slower but had some great character moments and a lot of humor packed in. I loved Otoha stalking Lilisa around the school.
My wife and I have been binging Apothecary Diaries and are now very nearly caught up. Really enjoying this show a lot. All the mystery and intrigue and just the right about of silliness mixed in, it keeps you on your toes.
Gundam Gqux had a promising start. As a gundam nerd I’m really excited at the idea of an alternate history UC timeline. Tons of fascinating lore bits being dropped in conversation. We don’t know much about our two main characters yet so hopefully that deepens a bit soon. As for the gundam itself, to be honest I’m not a huge fan of its design, but it’s not a deal breaker by any means.
Finally, we sat down to watch Lazarus and found ourselves flummoxed at the language options. Seems that Japanese language with English subtitles is not officially coming to Max for some time. That’s just bizarre. I’m sure we could find it online if we knew where to look, but for now I’m waiting it out.
Great choices! I am also pretty frustrated with the Lazarus situation. I might just wait and binge it after the season if people are liking it. Hopefully the JP audio / EN subs would be available by then as well.
I don’t normally watch currently airing anime - I’d rather binge completed series - but last season I ended up getting sucked into not just one or two, but three of them - Zenshu, Guild Receptionist and Honey Lemon Soda. Now that they’re over though, I planned on going back to not watching current series.
But then last week I happened on a mention of Apocalypse Hotel and read the synopsis… and couldn’t resist. And it was excellent from start to finish, so that’s at least one series I’m going to be following.
Beyond that, I finished up Shinsekai Yori aka From the New World. I’ve bounced off the LN a number of times, so decided ro give the anime a chance, and even it took a while to get going. But it turned out quite good all in all. It’s not an easy watch - not only is it relatively complex and slow-moving - it doesn’t pull any punches. But it was worth it.
But after that, I was drained both mentally and emotionally and wanted something comfy and pleasant, so after a bit of thought, I decided it was time to rewatch Makeine, and it was just as terrific as it was the first time around. It’s just solidly above average in pretty much everything, and Anna is still one of my all-time favorite characters.
Then I bounced around for a bit and ended up watching one that had sort of lurked at the edge of my awareness for years - Aquarion EVOL And that’s one of the most fascinatingly awful series I’ve ever seen.
I actually tried to drop it a few times, but it kept drawing me back in. It was bad, but in mesmerizing ways. It’s a constant barrage of hot blood and pointless drama and insipid pseudo-philosophy and clumsy innuendo and chuuni and giant hams, all forced into a combination of gratingly awkward teen love and sex allegory and super robot model kit advertising. Most of the characters aren’t even characters really - they’re plot devices with legs and hasty backstories, each just reciting whatever collection of tropes is going to move the plot along to the next phase on the way to the hot-blooded, pointlessly dramatic, insipidly pseudo-philosophical chuuni and giant ham conclusion. It was just so bad, but so gloriously and unapologetically over-the-top about it that it sort of worked anyway.
And now I’m casting about for the next thing, without even any clear preferences in mind - just wandering around clicking things and seeing if they hook me.
Oh yeah, Makeine goes really hard and executed a fresh concept very well. The ED1 is a banger and is one of the best of 2024.
I’m actually rooting for Nukumizu and Yanami to end up together because they appear to be the type where they’re happily married and be like “it doesn’t mean I like you! >_<”. Reminds me of this video: Is She Into You?
Top comment from that video:
“Dad how can I tell if a girl like me?”
“Son, I am not even sure if your mother likes me”
The thing I really noted is that if you take Makeine apart and analyze it, it’s mostly standard school rom-com tropes - childhood friends and “homewreckers” and a club and a couple of oddball teachers and a beach episode and a series of festival episodes and an amusement park fake date and so on - but every one of them has just enough of a spin to it to make it new and interesting and specifically relevant. And the characters are the same way - they’re each almost stereotypes, but not quite, because they have individual quirks that lift them above the stereotypes.
It’s just very well done all the way through, and with especially impressive attention to the characters.
And yeah - I’m looking forward to the new season, and cheering for Nukumizu and Yanami. They just have such comfy chemistry.
Getting deeper into the season and I got the opportunity to watch some more shows this past week:
- Apothecary Diaries - More great Maomao/Jinshi moments. Also, nothing better happen to Xiaolan or else… (shoutout to !theapothecarydiaries@ani.social)
- Too-Perfect Saint - Some story rearrangement for the anime has actually helped keep things more interesting past the premiere.
- Rock is a Lady’s Modesty - Episode 2 has kept a bit of a slow adaptation pace, but I am having a lot of fun with this show.
- Slime 300 - More moe fun, but a bit of a noticeable change in style with the new studio. Give me the cute voiced SFX back!
- Kowloon Generic Romance - Really interesting premise and such a vibe. Kowloon Walled City has to be one of the most unique places on Earth to set a story in recent memory. Really enjoyed the first two episodes of this show even if it feels like we are blitzing through the story.
- Ninja and Assassin - I enjoy the manga for this series, but Studio Shaft cranked the production value up to 11 for this adaptation. It went way harder than it needed to.
- Apocalypse Hotel - This is one of those shows that is going to be super chill vibes and then hit you with the feels out of nowhere. Sign me the hell up.
- Gundam GQuuuuuuX - Big fan of episode 1. Not really sure where we are going from here, but it’s got my interest so far (shoutout to !gundam@ani.social)
- Lazarus - This premiere was interesting to me. The animation and especially the OST were great. However, the story doesn’t really hold up to the rest of it for me. Not too sure if I am going to continue with this one.
Past Seasons
I completed Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill over the past week.
It is pretty good for a “trash” isekai. Mukouda is a wimp but is still likeable. Sui is very cute.
It reminds me a little of Dungeon Meshi with its focus on cooking in a fantasy world.
I have got some non-serious nitpicks about the show:
- With how much Fel hunts, the ecosystem should be in shambles.
- They didn’t show us how the characters handle sanitation. With how much food they are eating and no proper toilets / latrine, they should have loads of faeces to let out (especially Fel). We don’t see Mukouda using his Online Shopping skill to deal with this issue.
- We hardly see Mukouda cooking using a campfire despite what the title says.
Season 2 was just announced and I’m looking forward to it.
This Season
The only new real show I’ve picked up so far is Gundam GQuuuuuuX. As is usual for Gundam, an explosive first episode does a good job of getting viewers hooked.
I’ll be monitoring everyone’s comments to see if there’s anything else worth picking up.
For now, I am eyeing Moonrise.
I loved Campfire Cooking and its OP is one that I still listen to regularly. It’s one of those shows where the story is fine, but the production value of the first season was way better than it had any right to be. I have read pretty far into the manga and I think that the anime definitely elevated things in that sense. There is also a whole Sui spinoff manga that I am up to date on (even after eventually dropping the main series) because Sui is just too darn cute.
Weekly ranking roundup:
- Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Witch Watch
- Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Apothecary Diaries
Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.
Seems like Witch Watch really hit the ground running with its premiere on the rankings. It took the top spot on the AC chart and the second highest premiere on the reddit chart. The other show that did well on both charts is Kowloon Generic Romance which had a pretty darn good premiere. Other than those, the charts don’t reallyi align all that much. Time will tell as the season goes how things shake out.
