It’s been awhile, and while my youtube keeps pushing forward you probably noticed I haven’t really been writing. This isn’t so much me caring more about the youtube than the blog, it’s that I’ve been dealing with a lot of health issues and truck issues and when dealing with that kind of stuff it’s just easier to sit there talking to myself than having to think and type out an entire post. There’s a huge difference even mentally between having something worth writing and putting idea to text and, well, playing video games and saying stuff while I do so it’s something a lot simpler to throw together as well. Plus, my carpal tunnel has been worse so typing can start hurting with how much I tend to write, but as I’ve said plenty I have not and am not giving up on the blog, it’s just been even harder to do anything for than usual. I also tend to enjoy typing more when it’s teaching the truth of things to people than talking about anime, though I suppose that’s been true for like a decade now but it’s gotten stronger with time.
It’s excuses but all that is to say I’m still around, it’s just been difficult to write compared to doing mostly a bunch of virtual farming. Because of how long it’s been though, I felt like I should get SOMETHING up and since I never even did my picks post (though I did do a video one…which I had even written afterwards into text for the blog, I kind of completely forgot to ever upload it as right around then is when more issues had popped up) I figured I’d go over my thoughts of the season now that it’s over.
As usual, these are in no real order…actually, they’re in alphabetical because it’s how they’re listed on my watchlist on anilist. I only watched 6 shows, but actually for me in the past few years that’s not bad. I remember the days when I’d be keeping up with 15 or more airing shows at once, but it wasn’t hard to see that the past ~5ish years I’ve barely kept up with even 2 or 3 shows, so we’re trending upwards.
A few of these have a final episode to go, so if anything big happens that ruins them or makes them better in that last ep I’ll just make an update in the comments and at the bottom of the post later.
Hataraku Maou-sama (Season 2)
The first season from awhile back is something I’ve always been really fond of and MgRonalds has ALWAYS been my very favorite fake-McDonalds for whatever reason, so I was very excited to see this happening even with lower quality art from a different studio and overall different team. At first, I wasn’t really liking it too much – it was fine but it was a little too focused on elements I didn’t care for even in season 1. Instead of focusing on the comedy and characters it was actiony and in some ways that does stay true – but I feel like they get at least a lot more on track as the show goes on. The addition of a cute toddler was fun and seeing the relationship between Chiho and Maou was fun – but what came as a huge surprise to me, one I loved of course given they were my two favorite characters, was this sudden romantic situation between Alciel and the exceptionally cute Rika. I do feel like the show got sidetracked again though in the second half almost right after getting back to it’s roots, while it remained more fun than the first half it started being these weird pointless travel stories for some reason. MgRonalds got closed to renovate and so did the apartments…so the cast just kind of meanders around to random locations for random irrelevant side-story things to happen, and it feels kind of stupid. Not to mention this doesn’t actually cover the rest of the story even though it’s completed on paper, in fact it feels like an early part of a larger story, so it’s kind of ehhh okay.
Hoshi no Samidare
While it’s still on-going, I figured it counts for ‘up to now’. I was so fucking excited about this as Lucifer & Biscuit Hammer was and still is one of my very favorite manga. It’s been a very long time since I touched it but it was always special to me for some reason and getting an anime this much later was unbelievable. A lot of people were disappointed with this early on, and I get why, but I think there maybe was an issue of not knowing how much funding they had – before they officially stated an episode count anywhere the pacing was REALLY fast. The manga isn’t actually that long but they were still cramming 3-5 episodes of content into 24 minutes for the first 6 or so episodes up until the episode count came out to be 24 so I feel like the staff also weren’t sure if they had time to spend or if they had to jam everything in asap. Since then the pacing has really cooled and it’s feeling much better. If you stopped I’d recommend either hopping back in and knowing it gets better or at least (probably better regardless) going and reading through the manga. I heard a lot about how the animation was terrible or something but as far as I can tell after nearly 1,200 anime under my belt this looks totally normal and these complainers have just no experience with the medium and no clue what the fuck they’re talking about. I really like it and the longer it’s gone on the more it feels like the manga – and for the record the dog guy stuff happens pretty fast in the manga too, it’s kind of on purpose to subvert the usual qualities of that type of arc – not that it makes it better/worse, I just think it’s worth mentioning.
Jashin-chan Dropkick X (Season 3)
It’s more Jashin-chan! One of my favorite characters for some reason that I’ll never understand, and yet least sexual to me while being naked all the time, is back – this time with Hatsune Miku and her original voice actress to make things even more fun! Every episode I ended up looking forward to Miku appearances, but other than that it was just more fun silly Jashin-chan.
Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari
Tied with Hoshi no Samidare for my favorite of the season, watching a yakuza care for a loli was exceptionally enjoyable. The chemistry between the two was wonderful and so sweet throughout, the MC and his femboy second in command are fun together as well, and while it has some issues it never fucks up in a way that ruins that focus on the sweet bond between Yaeka and Kirishima. My biggest problems with this are the always looming (but luckily mostly irrelevant) edgy-factor in this really korean looking character edgelord who, well, just acts fucking edgy all the time for like 15 seconds an episode out of sight of everyone else. The one time he actually got involved barely mattered though, but I guarantee if this gets another season or if the manga goes much further then shit with him probably ruins it by being a typical anime/manga where “we have this great thing going BUT NOBODY IS ENJOYING IT BECAUSE…BECAUSE I JUST DON’T THINK THEY ARE OKAY?! WE NEED TO ADD MORE FIGHTS AND DRAMA, THE PRODUCER/EDITOR SAID SO!”.
My other arguably bigger problem with the show – but another that didn’t damage it much – is that Kirishima never genuinely grows. They talk about how he’s softened up, changed, become tame…and yet the show just magically had that happen in the very first episode. He NEVER has a hard time dealing with Yaeka, NEVER has a different personality to him, NEVER behaves in some other way aside very rarely in some flashbacks and one episode where he ALMOST breaks after she gets hurt and he almost kills someone over it. That’s it. The very second he is tasked with caring for Yaeka in episode 1 he already is the same exact way he is by episode 12, yet everyone throughout the show talks about how much he’s changed since becoming her babysitter. It made his journey fucking stupid because there isn’t one when it is somewhat the point of the series.
Oh, there was one other thing; the character designs in this show are fucking lazy shit. No, don’t get me wrong, they are GREAT designs themselves, it’s that they are rehashed for everyone else. EVERY character in this entire show is literally just copy pasted Kirishima, Yaeka’s yakuza boss dad, the femboy yakuza, or the same white-haired impossible to not mix-up bad guy character design they used for every ‘antagonist’.
Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn’t have huge hopes for this to begin with but it ended up still kind of letting me down, it just got boring because it spread itself too thin. The concept is fun but instead of focusing primarily on what they introduced as the ‘main’ group they focus on like 15 different comedy girl groups as well as their interactions all with some mediocre humor and one of the worst openings ever made. I really enjoyed some of the character designs (I love the blue ‘main group’ girl’s mouth and a lot of the other girls are very cute) and seiyuu work, but the writing was too focused on having a million girls to give every single viewer a chance to have like 5 favorites for their specific tastes. Even idol shows and team based things like Garupan don’t stretch themselves that far, especially not without some thought to balancing it. None of the show is realistic either and by that I simply mean I thought they’d be, you know, telling jokes – but almost all the comedy comes from outside of that concept. They are almost NEVER telling jokes and it’s just a slice of life with ~60 different main characters who happen to be going through slightly comedic situations/conversations. It’s not terrible, but I didn’t even bother finishing it, about halfway through I just kind of dropped it without even noticing I had.
Tokyo Mew Mew New
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the original Tokyo Mew Mew but it’s been a very long time. Tokyo Mew Mew New is a surprisingly fun and modern feeling version of the classic style of mahou shoujo and it works really well for what it is. The girls are all cute, even the ones that you may dislike at first grow on you pretty fast, the voice actors for the mew mew’s all appear to be completely new and most do a fantastic job, and the animation is nice. It’s cute, it’s fun, and it’s simple but still keeps you interested and entertained at all times. My personal favorite mew mews are bu-ling (pudding) and Ichigo who I like way more when she has her hair down at work and in her cat girl form.
And that’s already everything! It’s not the best post to ‘come back’ with, and I’ll probably go right back to quiet for awhile for the same reasons I explained earlier being on-going, but hopefully it’s nice to see a new post finally for the few people who have stuck around and be a sign that I really am going to keep up with this even if at a slower pace for awhile.
24 Frames Per Second 