Anime

Hana wa Saku, Shura no Gotoku
I didn't really have high expectations of this, but the first episode did a good job with the animation supporting the poems, so I kept watching. Sadly, the entire series was setting up for a championship arch that didn't actually appear. Instead, the climax/resolution of the last episodes introduced a bunch of new characters and some family drama that would have needed 5 episodes to properly explore, so it just fell flat. They introduced plenty of interesting characters for a cool qualifier event or something, I just wanted Hana to read more poems. That's what hooked your viewers, it's what sets you apart, so use it.

Medalist
Really solid, punchy animation. Well choreographed action. Wormies.

Blue Box
Love how it combines a sports story with a romance story without compromising on either. All likeable characters getting into believable drama and it never feels like the writing is stalling, every episode develops the characters and story in an interesting way. And outside of the romance, I love to see Taiki train hard, play good badminton and beat strong rivals.

Finally finished my Winter 2025 list

• Bang Dream! Ave Mujica: My biggest surprise this season. It was a bold move to incorporate psychological horror into a girl band anime, and they have done a great job. They do a great job with the composition, timing, and soundtrack to keep us on the edge each time the band clashes. You wouldn't know where they will take you each episode. They were brave enough to write a broken band descent into madness and believe they could still garner fans for the real-life counterpart. There were some issues with the pacing, otherwise, it would easily have been a 9/10 for me. I won't stop glazing it. 8/10
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2: They did a great job translating the joke to anime form, same with season 1. The overall animation is rather inconsistent, though, for some scenes they did an amazing job animating it (karaoke eps), others have awkward layouts and inconsistent form. They did a great job making sure the impactful moment still got a great animation. 7/10
• Blue Box: I don't have much to say. Mostly only follow it because I read the manga. Same with 100 gf, it has the same issues with its animation. The last 3 episodes were amazing 7/10

Random superlatives:

So Stupid it Hurt - Bogus Skill "Fruitmaster"
I wanted to like this one, and stuck with it way to long. Finally dropped it when the utter dumbness of the characters and story starting to cause me actual pain. 2/5

Most Improved from Launch - Magic Maker
The first few episodes were mid tier at best and I nearly dropped it, but that turned a few episodes in and it developed into a fairly decent show. 3/5

Top of the heap - Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time
There were a bunch of adventure themed anime with isekei and harem themes this season, and I think this was the best of the bunch. Still fairly average, but the one I'd most like to see more of. 3/5 (Runner's up: Middle aged Online Shopper and Left my a-rank party)

Better as a Light Novel - I May be a Guild Receptionist...
I don't think this adapted well to anime. The novels are very episodic and a bit repetitive without a lot of substance, and the anime just highlighted those problems. 3/5

Best Returning - Solo Leveling
This is very, very close between Solo Leveling, Apothecary Diaries, and Re:Zero, but I give the edge to Solo Leveling. Each episode was satisfying and while it is a power fantasy, it does that very well. Re:Zero was a bit fragmented (partially due to scheduling/production) and did not end nearly as strong as the last season, and Apothecary Diaries, while still excellent, is mainly setting things up for later. All three 5/5

Most Surprising - Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf
Knowing nothing about this, I expected something more lewd and fanservice like. Way, wrong! This was wonderfully wholesome. Somehow it managed to balance both the light adventure aspects of the fantasy world with the reverse isekai cultural discovery aspects of the Japan side. Maybe the best new show of the season. 4/5

Most Disappointing - Zenshu
This looked like it could be something really special. The art, theming, concept, etc. were all solid. The plot, just wasn't meaningful in any way, at least not before I dropped it. 3/5

I was really busy IRL, so the list of shows that I could try out, much less follow, was pretty mimimal, by mine own standards:

Finished:

• Re Zero - Good as usual. The writer is so good at "How does Subaru get out of this?"
• Shangri La Frontier - Sunraku's such a great protagonist, and the supporting characters are so good.
• Bureaucrat to Villainess - I really enjoyed this the whole way through. Wholesome anime of the season.
• Solo Leveling - Action anime of the season. Some standard plot problems, like waiting until people start dying before he takes action, abandoned love interests, unchecked power creep, etc. but overall enjoyable.
• Zenshuu - Interesting concept, but it didn't quite work for me. Animator/mangaka meta shows have been done better. For a show that's supposed to be FUBU animators, the sakuga wasn't super great. Supporting characters were annoying or turned out to be useless.

Dropped:

• Beheneko - Good fanservice but felt shallow
• Ameku Takao - I liked the idea, but direction needed to be better.
• Dr. Stone - I'm not having fun with this anymore.

I Think I Missed Out:

• Apothecary Diaries - I really should watch this.
• Medalist - Sounds like a good show.
• Izure Saikyo no Renkinjutsushi - Started 1-2 episodes but got crowded out. I might check out a few more episodes before actually deciding what I think of this.
• Magic Maker - Again 1-2 eps, then got crowded out.
• Trillion Game - Crowded out. I have some time invested in this show, so I should finish it...
• Welcome To Japan Ms. Elf - Some people really enjoyed this.
• 100 Girlfriends - Sounds like a blast, but romance isn't my bag.

Okitsura: Educational brainrot. I live for this kind of humor

Zenshu: Sakuga merchant. Carried the show harder than Demon Slayer did.

Blue Box: Very well-written and beautiful love polygon story. Props to Chinatsu's VA.

Silly awards time!

• Best dragon award: From Bureaucrat to Villainess. There was actually a decent amount of competition for this one this time, but cute little dual-elemental dragon won.
• Originality in hairstyling award: Zenshu, of course. With The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer as runner-up, because that elf with the afro (elfro?) was . . . memorable.
• Bad CGI horse award: Aparida. Unless I'm confusing it with the very similar Fugukan. The horses in that one episode were memorably bad, but the show itself is not very memorable at all. (And I seem to be using the word "memorable" way too much.)
• Rub-a-dub-dub award: Beheneko. I am in awe of how they managed to shoehorn a bath scene into every single episode, even if it was taking place entirely in a dungeon. Evidence that this is a show that knows it shouldn't take itself seriously, I guess.
• General hygiene award: Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time. I dropped this a couple of episodes in, but was impressed that they directly tackled one of my top-ten reasons for not wanting to be isekai'd into a fantasy world: the flush toilet, or the lack thereof.
• Cognitive dissonance in costuming award: Ubel Blatt. Sorry, guys, but grimdark + scanty women's combat outfits that protect nothing has been a combination that won't fly for at least the past thirty years. Go watch Berserk about a dozen times for some pointers on how to do it right.

For this season, I watched:

• Dr. Stone Science Future: I'm disappointed. On paper, there are lots of fun and exciting moments, but the whole reason for why things are happening is so... vague and weak. It feels like conflict for the sake of conflict and that's puts a downer on everything for me. It makes me question why all good moments need to happen to begin with and any resolve to the conflict feels meaningless by extension.
• Apothecary Diaries: great. Just as good as season 1. Absolutely love it. Maomao is a joy.
• Overtime Guild Receptionist: such a disappointment. It had a fun concept, but it just turned into a generic fantasy anime with a gimmicky character trait. The serious plot felt very tacked on and didn't jive with the gimmick at all. The amazing animation of the OP is wasted on the show.
• Bureaucrat Villainess: I haven't seen the final ep yet, but I had a lot of fun with this one. Kenzaburo as Grace is so fun.
• Sakamoto Days: fine. Enjoyable enough. Fairly typical shounen.
• Ameku M.D.: meh, some fun parts but the latter part in particular became a bit of a drag. Also seemed to be a troubled production with how the quality declined episode by episode.
• Zenshuu: dropped after 4 and a half eps. I was immensely disappointed when it turned out to be an isekai and Natsuko's powers were just deus ex machinas. Particularly the isekai bait and switch like it's Madoka Magica really soured my opinion. I actually groaned when it did that. If it hadn't done that, maybe I wouldn't have been as disappointed and would've kept watching it.
• Welcome to Japan Miss Elf: just like the manga, I couldn't bring myself to care. Dropped it around the same moment I dropped the manga (sand monster thingy). The fantasy side of things just wasn't very interesting, even though it took up the majority of screen time.
• NEET Kunoichi: pretty much dropped from ep 1.

I still want to watch Flower and Asura, I Have A Crush at Work, Re:Zero and Orb.

Meanwhile, I'm rewatching RWBY from volume 1. I had dropped it at volume 5 when it came out, but was interested to see if I still liked it. Currently at volume 3. Volume 1 and 2 are still fun, albeit a bit cringy, but that has its charm. Not sure how much of that is nostagia talking though.

Edit:

As requested in the post body, here's my hot take:

there's no need to be particularly on guard for recency bias.

On the other end of the time-based bias spectrum, we have rosy retrospection (a.k.a. nolstagia).

By discounting recency bias so strongly, we end up being biased towards older shows.

Just leave things be and the biases would cancel out.

So if a recent anime is good, there's no need to hold back - just acknowledge that it is good.

Edit 2:

Parking thoughts here for next week

Past Seasons

Peak is back on the menu with Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-

It is yet another anime that is good in multiple aspects - animation, story, etc.

It felt like a crossover of Violet Evergarden and Terminator 0,

It is not without its flaws though.

For example, in episode 2:

I also don't vibe with the songs despite this being a music-focused anime.

Honestly, these are minor flaws. Plus, the other aspects of the anime are so good that they made up for the flaws.

On a side note, this anime felt especially relevant with all the discussions around AI (even though they are simply narrow intelligence at the moment). For example, we had this recent post in our community. I sense that some people can fit in with Toak - and I don't mean the moderate faction.

One last point before I wrap things up: I have watched enough anime that Tanezaki Atsumi voice-acted in that I can recognise her by voice.

In a nutshell, this anime is top tier. 10/10

This Season

In the end, I only watch 4 anime to completion this season (Apothecary Diaries is still ongoing).

Apothecary Diaries season 2

I kinda ruined it for myself by reading ahead with the manga, which means that I'm watching a suspense show without the suspense. I should be more patient next time.

Otherwise, the production value is still up there, so it's still top tier in my book.

Re:Zero season 3

This season of Re:Zero is just not it for me.

I realised that I enjoyed the previous seasons so much because of:

• very emotional moments

• how Subaru turn the situation around against all odds

With how predictable things get, it gets boring.

I don't think I will be continuing with the next season of Re:Zero.

Zenshu

It had a very slow start, such that I almost got bored enough to drop it. Thankfully, one of the later episodes turned it around.

IMO the last part of the show was good, but not great. It's entertaining, but I could have explored anime from past seasons instead.

Medalist

I have gushed over this anime before, but that's because it's just that good. It's quality is on par with other top anime and it has so many touching moments.

I gave the top contender for my anime of the season a good run for its money, but in the end I still went with the other anime for AOTS.

To use Tsukasa's analogy: Medalist is like a taiyaki with consistently high production value, always looking good but with fewer standout moments. The other one is like a strawberry shortcake with clear peaks.

For me, the memorability of a series at its best wins out. And unfortunately for Medalist, its last episode was essentially just setting up for a sequel.

Regardless, it's still so good that it's joining my 10s, making it the first sport anime to do so.

100 Girlfriends season 2

This right here is my anime of the season.

This adaptation doesn't just follow the source material - it elevates it.

A couple of episodes look somewhat rough, likely because the anime staff is stretched real thin, but the standout moments / episodes more than make up for it. My favourite has got to be episode 6, which has everything - top tier comedy, emotional moment, character development and fantastic animation.

I can only hope that the studio announces a sequel.

Things I watched this season, in no particular order:

• Apothecary Diaries Season 2 - So far it's been just as good as season 1; I find myself looking forward to every new episode. Glad to see it continuing into the spring.
• Kill la Kill - I'm 8 episodes in and while some of the "jokes" go too far for my taste I can see why a lot of people got hyped about this show.
• From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated! - I watched the first episode. It was fun, but it didn't hook me.
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2 - As with Season 1 this was a near-perfect adaptation of a really fun manga. I really hope this gets a third season because my favorite character hasn't even been introduced yet. It's certainly popular enough, but managing the voice actors is going to get impractical at some point.
• Medalist - This was the surprise anime of the season for me. Anyways, rehashing what I've said on it in other threads: at the start of the show I was really worried about the CGI skating from a studio that isn’t known for amazing CGI, but in the end it ended up working really well! Maybe it helps that they usually only had to make the skaters look good in isolation; during tournaments they're skating around the middle of a big, otherwise-empty rink after all. The way Inori and her coach Tsukasa play off each other is incredibly charming, and the anime staff did a great job of capturing the facial expressions from the manga. It’s also amazing how a sports anime can feel like it has more dramatic stakes than something action-based. Maybe it’s the very real chance of failure. Maybe it’s just because it feels more grounded and realistic. Either way, nothing sucks me into the next episode like one of the characters getting ready to do a difficult jump in a tournament and everyone is watching to see what they’ll do and speculating whether they can actually do it and then the “next episode” button appears and I just can’t resist pushing it. Looking forward to the recently-announced Season 2.
• Blue Box - This is probably the first time I've thought an anime was too beautiful. The manga had a more grounded look to it, whereas in the anime everything is lit up with specular highlights everywhere. It can feel a little over-the-top. Still, that's my only complaint (and it's one that very few people seem to share with me). Overall it was a great adaptation of one of my favorite romance manga (and my favorite shounen romance manga). The first season in isolation is a little sad, but I anticipate that the recently-announced second season will get us far enough to make things cheerful again.
• Terror in Resonance - I know a lot of people really liked this one, but I didn't care for it. It's unclear to me why "terrorism" was the only answer for the main characters (and especially for one in particular). That whole chess airport sequence was just plain dumb.
• Akiba Maid War - Everything everyone said about this anime was true. Great stuff. If you want a cute yakuza drama comedy look no further.

Edit: I completely forgot there were two other shows I tried:

• Zenshu - I can't forgive them for the bait & switch, especially knowing that they said it was an isekai in the Japanese description but not the English one. Only watched 2 episodes.
• I Have a Crush at Work - The first episode gave me the impression that the whole anime is basically just the same joke over and over so I didn't watch more of it after that. Hopefully I'm missing something and it's actually better than that.

It’s been a wild few months, y’all. Fell behind and never posted a Fall 2024 wrap up, so I’m just doing it all now. Here’s a combined Winter 2025 and Fall 2024 set: 

Winter 2025 wrap up

Watched current releases: 

• Zenshu - Surprise hit of the season for me. Incredibly creative animation throughout, good story, great characters. I think the finale could have been slightly workshopped, as it didn’t quite land for me as hard as I thought it would, but overall excellent. Easily on my short list for best of 2025. Teetering between 9 or 10/10 for me.
• Solo Leveling S2 - I had slightly lowered expectations for this for some reason. Maybe I was just expecting a second season slump or maybe it would draw out major plot points to milk more content. Nope: this was ridiculously fast paced and plowed through major reveals and moments so fast that it was hard to keep up. There were a lot of build up moments in between, while starting to introduce a lot of new characters and beginnings of a bigger plot that felt a bit rushed and less exciting. But overall I loved it. 9/10.  

Watched past seasons: 

• Kaiju No 8 - Holy crap that was sooo much better than I expected! I’m not sure why I thought this wouldn’t work for me, but it kept me super engaged throughout and action was nuts. One of my favorites of 2024. Definitely will check out future seasons. 9/10. 

Dropped (from any season): 

• Shangri-La Frontier - Tried first episode and it really didn’t click with me. Strongly disliked MC. Likely done. 
• Guild Receptionist … - Watched 1/2 of season and dropped. Characters feel too archetypal and rigid, with no growth or feeling. Not interested in bigger plot and initial premise ran thin very fast. 
• Sakamoto Days - Watched 3 episodes I think. It’s just fine. I want to click more with the characters, but something isn’t flowing well. I dunno. 
• You And Idol Precure - Watched 1 episode from a recommended list. Super not vibing with me. 
• Momentary Lily - Watched 1 episode from a recommended list. Really didn’t like the characters or the animation style. 

Eventually watch from this season: 

• Apothecary Diaries S2 - Watched a couple episodes before I realized this wouldn’t be complete this season. It’s excellent, but I’ll wait until it’s all out to watch at a quicker pace. 
• 100 Girlfriends S2 - I like the meta and over-the-top absurdity, but really struggle with some of the problematic content. Maybe 1/2 through season? I’ll probably finish S2, but I’m guessing I won’t follow to S3. 
• Fruitmaster … - My guilty watch of the season. I know it’s not great, but I’ll defend it that it’s not trash! About 2/3 done. 
• Castlevania Nocturne S2 - Most of the way through and enjoying this a lot. Nocturne S1 was just okay for me and this is a big step up. I loved the OG S1-2 and these aren’t quite at that level. 
• Medalist - Not typically my thing but it’s so highly rated that I should give it a try. Unfortunately, it’s trapped in Hulu jail. I’ll subscribe sometime this year for a month or two to catch up on a bunch I’ve missed out on the last couple years. Just really annoying to subscribe to both D+ and Hulu. 
• My Happy Marriage S2 - Tried an episode of S2 and I’m close to dropping it. I find the politics difficult to follow and the main premise frustratingly overdone. I think the initial premise was way more fun and different and could have been a compelling short anime. I’ll probably give it another couple episodes. 
• Beastars S3 - Waiting until the full season is out later this year. 

Fall 2024 wrap up:

Watched current releases: 

• Dan Da Dan - Easily my favorite of the season and on my short list of favorites for 2024. Wild story, awesome animation, great voice acting, just incredibly produced. I do have some significant complaints about plot points that almost made me nope out. Despite that, this is easily a top tier for the year. 9/10. 
• Ranma 1/2 - I grew up watching OG, and wasn’t convinced this needed to exist. I was pretty interested after 1/3 of the season, but fell off again towards the end. I feel like the content is kinda dated and feels like an artifact of the time. I wasn’t ridiculously impressed by the animation quality, and they were going for a manga-style that didn’t vibe with me. It’s good, but I unfortunately didn’t love it as much as the OG, which I’m sure wouldn’t hold up today either. 7/10. 

Watched past seasons: 

• Wistoria Wand And Sword - Not top tier, but surprisingly solid. Animation is fun, characters decent, world is kinda interesting. It’s a good B tier imo. 7/10. 

Dropped (from any season): 

• 365 Days To Wedding - Tried a couple episodes. Didn’t click. I think I didn’t like either of the two main characters much and found it hard to relate. 

Eventually watch from this season: 

• Re:Zero S3 - Watched intro “movie” episode. It’s decent, but I’d forgotten so much context that it was hard to care too much. Decided to wait until the whole season is out before binging. 
• Orb … - Tried one episode. Not sold on it, it feels really dark and not so fun. I’ll probably give it a good try now that it’s all out. 
• Dragon Ball Daimo - I’d like to watch all the Dragon Ball shows eventually, but have never watched any. I think I’m going to participate in the OG rewatch that just started. 
• Is It Wrong … S5 - I sorta liked the first couple seasons. Might get to this eventually. 
• Blue Box - Not my typical thing but it’s reviewing well, so I’ll give it a shot some day. Probably try now that the full season is out. 
• Arcane S2 - Not anime. Only watched some of it. It’s excellent, but I need to be in the right mood to totally appreciate it.

I'll get to the winter anime in a bit here.

First, I started last week watching Scum's Wish, and not to put too fine a point on it, I fucking hated it. I can't remember the last time I hated an anime this much.

It started out well enough, and I was interested in spite of the fact that the set-up invited drama and heartbreak and a fair bit of unpleasantness.

What I didn't expect though was that halfway through they were going to just abandon the FMC entirely - one of the few decent human beings in the cast - and completely shift the focus to a gross, nasty slut and the two pathetic cucks vying for her entirely non-existent affection. It didn't even feel like an actual story - it was more like just a set-up for an NTR doujin series.

The only bare saving grace of the whole thing was that after wasting the second half of the season on the nasty cumbucket and her pathetic simps, it finally returned to Hanabi - the original FMC - long enough to throw her a vaguely hopeful open ending. Though they couldn't even manage to do that without sticking the bitch in the scene, apparently so she could remind us that she's a bitch in both the Japanese sense of the word and the American one.

So after that, I really needed a pallete cleanser, and I didn't even dare gamble on something - it had to be something that I knew would wash the stink of that slut out of my mind. And as it turned out, I didn't watch one thing, but an episode here and there of lots of things.

Some of the highlights:

Episode 4 of the first season of Sword Art Online - The Black Swordsman. That's the introduction of Silica and Pina, and it's just a pleasure from start to finish and one I rewatch often.

The final episode of 86 - brings tears to my eyes every single time. It's just one of the most touching and beautiful things I've ever seen.

Episode 1 of Gurren Lagann - it's solid all the way through, but mostly I watch it for Yoko's entrance, which is one of the greatest ever.

YuruYuri episode 5 - Ayano goes to Comiket. It's worth it just to see Chitose discover the world of yuri doujins, but Ayano is especially cute too.

Little Witch Academia OVA 1, which has become my most recent obsession, and at this point I've lost track of how many times I've watched it.

And a few other things here and there, plus some of my favorite opening and ending themes.

And now we get to winter anime, since once I'd finally fixed my mood, it was time to catch up on them.

There were three that I watched last season:

Zenshu. - started off strong, as an almost deconstruction of an isekai, and with amusing bits of all sorts of genres mixed in (I never got tired of her mahou shoujo style transformation). It bogged down at about the 1/2 to 2/3 mark, but finished fairly strong. I liked it all in all.

Guild Receptionist - started off a bit slow, other than the sheer awesomeness of Alina kicking boss ass, but built up nicely for a while and looked really promising. But then it sort of floundered for a while, and ended a bit weak. Too much focus on Alina hating overtime and not enough on her coming to terms with her past and her feelings about adventuring and about making herself vulnerable to other people.

Honey Lemon Soda - I thoroughly enjoyed this, and ended up rewatching the entire series. Yes - it's trite and cliched and sappy, and most of the drama got settled too quickly and easily, but I just don't care. I liked it.

An awful lot of it is that most anime depictions of social anxiety rely on personality tics and gimmicks to sort of represent it, but never actually depict what it actually feels like. Honey Lemon Soda nailed it with Ishimori though - I couldn't help but cheer for her, because I recognized so much of what she felt. And the dynamic between her and Miura was unusual but believable and effective - he has just the personality that's actually best suited for dealing with someone like Ishimori - fundamentally kind but not conciliatory, and relentlessly honest but not cruel.

And at the moment I'm early in Noragami Aragoto. Broadly I can already guess much of what's going to happen, but a lot of the charm of Noragami is the character interactions, so that's okay.

Alright, I am in the process of catching up on things. Here are my thoughts on what I watched this season:

• Guild Receptionist - Strong opening but struggled as the season went. It really felt like one of those series that had a great concept, but the author couldn't really figure out how to keep it interesting.
• Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf - I had a great time with this show this season. It was just such a nice, comfy vibe.
• 100 Girlfriends - I haven't watched the finale yet, but this show remains as unhinged as ever. Some great fun this season.
• Bureaucrat to Villainess - Similar to Guild Receptionist, this show started stronger than it finished. The ending in particular was a "read the manga" ending that didn't really feel satisfying at all.
• Apothecary Diaries - Glad this is continuing. The first half of the season feels like a lot of setting things up, so I hope we start to get more answers in the second half.
• Ameku M.D. - I ended up dropping this and I don't think I am going to pick it back up. It just wasn't really scratching either the mystery itch nor the medical drama itch.
• My Happy Marriage - I dropped this partway through the season due to time, but I intend on finishing it. I was really enjoying this season, but it seems like there might have been some production issues indicated by the season finale being delayed.

I also wanted to make a bit of a meta post this week to call out the newly started Dragonball rewatch over on !dragonball@ani.social. They are planning on watching the original Dragon Ball together and it just started this week! Now is the best time to join in the fun!

Shoutout to @Biskii@ani.social for organizing this, and for also finding/fixing a bug with rikka's codebase!

Weekly ranking roundup:

1. Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Re:Zero
2. Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Solo Leveling

Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.

Solo Leveling ran away with the reddit karma this past week despite falling to third on the AC chart. I think there is one more week of AC rankings for the winter season, but I don't remember exactly how they draw the line. Next week's chart will also have most of the season finales on the reddit chart.