I really like that this is flipping between Philia’s iyashikei-style romance and Mia’s spy thriller plotlines. They’re both being executed well and the contrast is quite funny.

I was thinking owner as well

I like that we’re continuing to add characters and side stories. This show is just so cozy!

Wasn’t quite sold on this last week, but this episode was SO GOOD. I loved that they didn’t try to explain what the alien was up to and just let them continue to be mysterious.

Very good updates. Thanks for the work you do!

Really depends on your taste. For me it was super boring, but I could see it being funny to someone else.

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:

It seems like they ran out of budget for this episode, but it was kinda funny how they got around it sometimes, with things like the fight noises over top of Sophia’s mostly static reaction face.

Regardless, I’m really enjoying this one. Definitely one of my favorites for the season.

I enjoyed the first episode, but this one i felt was dragged down by the characters just not being very likeable. The action continues to be exceptional, and it seems like the plot is getting rolling, so I’ll give it another episode.

Now that the plot is getting rolling it’s a little underwhelming, especially since it seems like a suicide squad knockoff. It feels a little like no one except our crew of misfits is really taking this “find Skinner” thing seriously, which seems really strange; it’s not like it’s a secret, after all. It also seems strange that hapna was so widely available when it can get you high. Even if it isn’t chemically addictive and didn’t have side effects or overdose risks, you’d still want to keep it pretty well regulated to prevent abuse or like DUIs or whatever, right? And I’m really hoping that they don’t end up ignoring Skinner’s point about trying to save the planet, since it’s really easy for stories to counter “we need to make drastic changes to stop bad things from happening” with “it’s wrong to kill people!” - true, but like, also, we should save the planet from climate change.

I’m glad they revealed Enomoto as the childhood crush so soon. I had assumed it was her, but expected them to drag it out for at least half the season, lol.

It’s interesting having a show explore the differences between romantic and sexual attraction, because society conflates them so much that it can be really confusing to have one without the other (especially for teenagers).

It’s always so fun to see how different everyone’s fighting styles are. They express their personalities so well just in the way their bodies move, and Cloverworks is really showing that off very well.

That new eunuch is definitely Suirei, right?

Also, the talk of getting Maomao onto Jinshi’s side makes it sound like he’s gearing up for a large political struggle - potentially a more direct conflict with Loulan’s father?

I really didn’t enjoy the song this time and it inspired me to actually look up some classical music, since I’ve never really paid attention to who wrote what within the field.

Well, it turns out I just sort of don’t like Mozart’s bright and cheery style and none of his stuff really hits for me, lol, which means I’ll likely be having a bad time whenever Mozart (the character) is taking center stage for an episode. I ended up really liking Beethoven’s stuff (moody and dramatic), as well as Chopin’s (complex and layered). Liszt I liked less, since its complexity felt more like showing off than anything else.

I do find it interesting though that Mozart and Beethoven seem to have swapped vibes from their composer namesakes. Mozart’s music seems largely upbeat, while Beethoven’s feels very brooding, which doesn’t match at all the characters from what we’ve seen.

After being unimpressed last episode, I found this one really engaging… up until they decided to throw in the creepy gay villain trope. I seriously can’t stand that kind of character, and it was sort of surprising after Yaomay appeared to be coded as trans in a fairly positive way (though that might turn out to be incorrect). I really like the ways that the various characters are interacting with the themes of identity and memory, but if there’s gonna be some undercurrent of homophobia I’m not sure I’ll be willing to stick around to see how the mysteries unravel. Might give it one more episode, though.

This seems like a perfectly good CGDCT anime, but I’m not really seeing any substance beyond that. I found Shinon’s antics to be much more annoying than endearing, and while Mako’s social anxiety was likely meant to be relatable and cathartic, but it just stressed me out. For those who like CGDCT, I’m sure this will be a good time, but I don’t think it’ll do much for people outside that audience. I give the premiere a 3/5.

This was surprisingly well animated and directed for a completely unproven studio! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Soigne going forward.

That said, I felt like the story didn’t really justify the level of care that was put in. The source material is a 4koma manga (a 4koma about high school girls helping a mangaka write a 4koma about high school girls, how exciting), and you can really feel it in the story structure. Scenes feel a bit disconnected from each other and there doesn’t really seem like any narrative throughline (like, what happened to trying to recruit another member to save their club?) I guess for some people the comfy vibe could be enough to carry it, because it does execute on that pretty well, but for me, I feel like there are plenty of other shows that get that same vibe but with a bit more substance to them. I give this premiere a 2/5.

This has some interesting ideas and worldbuilding, but I think it really failed in its execution. The action was really lackluster and the characters felt very flat. Overall, I wasn’t impressed. I give the premiere a 2/5.

As expected, the conclusion to the case wasn’t very clever or satisfying, and it feels a little scummy to try and keep people hooked by splitting the episode into reveal for one mystery + start of another, especially if it becomes a pattern going forward. Not going to continue this one, but as a parting prediction, I’m going to say that Satomi definitely did it, though I have no idea how or why.

This went way harder than it needed to, lol. The jokes were a little hit or miss for me, but I ended up really liking the tone they settled into where nothing is taken seriously. The action was also way better than it had any right to be, and I really love that they gave those two ninjas interesting character designs even though they had very limited screen time between introduction and death. I’ll definitely be continuing this one. 4/5.