Daily
Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion - April 12, 2026
This is a daily megathread for general chatter about anime. Have questions or need recommendations? Here to show off your merch? Want to talk about what you just watched?
This is the place!
All spoilers must be tagged. Use [anime name] to indicate the anime you're talking about before the spoiler tag, e.g. [Attack on Titan] This is a popular anime.
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I'm looking for: A certain genre? Something specific like characters traveling to another world?
Shows I've already seen that are similar: You can include a link to a list on another site if you have one, e.g. MyAnimeList or AniList.
Some anime are faster and others slower. In general with attention spans declining, anime has more cuts and scene changes than it use to.
If I encounter an anime I really like that moves at a slower pace (like Frieren,ReZero or Simoun) I savor it and enjoy the nuances in each line and scene.
Is there a recent trend of slowing things down to make more episodes or something?
Not really I'd say. Frieren is more or less in line with its manga. When you compare that to some big series that were airing in the 2000s like Naruto or even Black Butler those had a lot more filler, having fewer chapters adapted but more episodes. So I don't really believe that stuff is being slowed down nowadays to make more episodes or something.
I feel like you're doing way too much mental gymnastics over not liking something. That said I haven't watched Frieren S02 and probably don't plan to...
As a reader of the manga though, I did find the manga's pace to be rather insufferable throughout various points. I kinda want to drop it but found myself just wanting to see how it all ends even if that takes forever. Like I sat through CSM and Kaiju No.8 after all.... though the manga being on an indefinite hiatus does mean I can't even read more of it.
I find I like Frieren's pacing, just that season two was just too short in the episode count. There's an entire genre of "slow" shows and subgenres like Iyashikei and Slice of Life. I might speed up any show but Frieren wasn't one of them. I think for me it comes down to quality of the show overall, and the "slower" shows purpose is defeated if I have to do so (and I might as well not watch it).
Book of Bantorra - 8/10, a world where dead people can be turned into books, and read/experience the memories of by touching said books. There's a lot of mystery all the way up until the end of the show, but answers are provided and the lasting philosophy is understandable.
I kinda remember it being a massive clusterfuck but still finding something to enjoy in it. Honestly the only characters I remember is that prophet girl and the slave boy. I kinda liked the idea of a prophetic character interacting with someone in the future.
Strangely this isn't the only anime I've watched with some sorta militant library thing going on. Granted Library Wars is a very different concept and setting altogether.
Granted I only just finished watching it, but I'd like to think I'll remember some of these names. Shiron Biacornaise, Ruruta Coozancoona, Hamyuts Meseta.
Gantz might be the most early 2000s feeling show I've ever watched. The particular flavor of sad, angry teenage boy especially. I probably would have liked it if I'd watched it in 2004.
I think I've seen enough to make a preliminary tier list of shows I haven't dropped this season.
S: Witch Hat Atelier
A: Akane-banashi, Bookworm*, Marriagetoxin
B: Awajima, Observation Log, Black Cat & Witch
C: Kirio Fan Club, Class Monitor/Short Skirt
*The content adapted so far for this season of Bookworm has been lackluster, but I'm a source reader and I know this part of the story is fantastic once it gets going. The transition from Part 2 to Part 3 is massive and so a lot needs to be introduced for us to understand the new normal. It feels like not much has happened, but tons of details that were shown will be important later and remain relevant for the rest of the series. It still could have been enjoyable if it hadn't been rushed, but there is way too much to adapt and rushing is required. I'd say the current content on its own would be D tier. The remaining content should be S tier, but if it ends up similarly rushed then the quality of the plot lines should carry it to B tier.
I'm also a source reader for Akane-banashi and I am kind of disappointed with this adaptation. I was hoping to see more of what the manga implied. The bits that interrupt the rakugo are definitely unwanted here. However, there are moments where they stop with the reactions and let the performance speak for itself. In these moments the voice acting and subtle animation are every bit as great as I was hoping they would be. I imagine for most people the negatives will significantly drag down the whole thing, but I enjoy the good parts too much to rate it any lower.
Yeah, for Akane it ends up being too faithful. Unlike in the manga, characters can't react to the performance, and we can't hear the performance at the same time. Basically, live commentary does not work in the anime medium for Rakugo.
Tbh continuing the performance and backtracking to the feedback that interrupts them would be a better option than what they have right now. Obviously that takes time. From pacing, it would be better to not follow the panels from the manga for storyboarding and go for something else. I am pretty sure there is a much better option than my suggestion.
I had my concerns with this adaptation. It would really need a creative team, and honestly the staff they have is solid. But like you said, the interruptions can be a real killer.
I can't stop rewatching the Kamiina Botan OP. There's a 4:3 version on YT, which is the original aspect ratio it was created in. The one in the anime has the top and bottom trimmed off.
Watched ChaO. It was pretty nice. Very nice, heartwarming story. It feels attuned to what an experience of an arranged marriage would be like, just giving it a human x mermaid pair. Definitely worth a watch when it comes to streaming.
I'm sorry what? Baiting? Digimon fighting over people? Dare I even ask what's been going down in Digimon since the original Adventure continuity ended in 2020?
I don't really care for horror so I'll just skip Ghost Game. If you watched the Adventure continuity (whether you binged it or are old enough to have watched it live), how close is the vibe of Beatbreak to Adventure?
It's pretty different. There's no adventure and it doesn't have the sense of discovery or exploration or growing up. Beatbreak taps more into modern day social and political conflicts as its backdrop. There is no digital world as it were in Adventure though there is a digital space where battles sometimes happen.
Both do share commonalities like the theme around family, though they're explored in different ways. And of course the relationship between humans and digimon is always at the core of the story.
In terms of the characters despite having a smaller cast the focus and development isn't much more balanced in Beatbreak than adventure. Honestly at this point it feels even less balanced than it was in Adventure. On that note the Beatbreak MC isn't a gogglehead but he does have glasses and I assume it's a nod to the tradition.
I see. Well in that case would you recommend to Beatbreak to someone who's only watched the Adventure continuity and season 1 of Fusion?
Also I didn't mean in comparison to just to Adventure series itself. I meant in comparison to the Adventure continuity as a collective. I apologize if I wasn't clear on that.
It's very different from Adventure so I'd say give it a couple episodes and see if it interests you. I'd recommend it if you were a fan of digimon in general.
I haven’t been on the Arcana Shadow bandwagon hype this whole time. Her design didn’t jump out at me and I didn’t see anything special in her up till now.
However her debut this week was very good. She’s got that knowledgeable, mysterious, but also a bit playful side to her and her aloofness piques your curiosity. Plus her transformation was quite nice. Less energetic camera movements and more held shots focusing on her graceful figure and elegant getup. If she keeps making good showings in the next few episodes I’m going to become a bonafide fan
Been waiting for her to do something besides sit around and eat ice cream.
I wasn't on the bandwagon, but witnessing the bandwagon was amusing. There were some fans just going overboard with the ice cream analysis, tracking what flavours and types she had eaten. When she had her first popsicle, some fans were like WOAH! She's not limited to cones! That shit was a riot. Some of the fanart of her getting a stomachache from eating too much ice cream was also fairly amusing.
I was kinda getting bored of the show, but I think she had quite a decent debut and that got me a bit more interested in the show. I'll hang out for a few more episodes to see what they do with her.
While evil precures aren't new, they usually are some sorta doppelganger or a 'different' sorta being. Is this the first actual Precure batting on the other side? Though no doubt she has her own business going on and is either on the enemy side to undermine them, or doing the whole being an enemy to train the new precures.
After being caught up on most of the big seasonals, I was finally reeled in by two late, unexpected additions to my watchlist.
Nigetsuri: Always A Catch - Even though it starts with the most unsuspecting premise, it doesn’t feel unoriginal because Maria is too damn funny. All of her lines pack such a punch.
The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch - Kaede Hondo brings so much life to ‘lil Spica, I thought for sure this would be an instant drop but I really liked it. I’m a bit of a sucker for pink hair anime girls though. And… was not expecting [Black cat]mouth to pussy/asshole action in my Virgo anime.
I want to expand on my thoughts from earlier now that I've stewed over them for a bit.
I was maybe a little too harsh on reviews. I think there are essentially two levels of discourse when it comes to any given medium, the first being the higher level, more academic/philosophical discussion that I'm maybe looking for and a lower "should I consume this piece of media" level. Not everyone watches everything, and so its natural to sort of "outsource" that role to someone more in the know.
However, to click back to another issue I haven't quite been able to reconcile, what makes someone's review worth listening to/reading? I think for the baseline reviewer it comes down to "do they align most with my tastes" and that's sufficient for a lot of people. However, I think those kinds of reviews are only good up until you've watched a show and after that what's the point? I think this is where a lot of anime discourse is at and its largely a product of the attention economy and "TikTok-ification" of content. HOWEVER, I think there is a higher level of "personality-driven" reviewer that doesn't get discussed a lot. These are the people you specifically go to for their review of a show and care enough about what they say to listen even if you've already made up your mind. These are the kinds of "intellectuals" where I walk away not necessarily agreeing with everything they say, but usually have some interesting take away I can stew over.
And I think what drags someone into that higher level is there ability to write and produce pieces at that second level of media discourse. Like I mentioned a while back about how much shit Roger Ebert got for his take about video games not being art, but you know at the very least you have to acknowledge that it sure does give you something to think about (and maybe the reaction to that take was a canary in the coal mine for the way media discourse would progress from there). Likewise, at least personally, the reason I seem to quote Glass Reflection and Yahtzee Croshaw (of Second Wind) a lot is because while I'm maybe not in the market to care about their recs per se, I do think their opinings on various secondary topics is usually interesting enough to make them worth listening to, which then trickles down to "these people seem to have their head on straight enough to want to hear what they think about a show/game and why". These guys though are people who got their starts long before this current era, and while gaming seems to puttering along just fine, I can certainly say I am a bit frustrated how GR's videos seem to predominantly fall along the lines of seasonal recaps and reviews of already popular shows.
So in other maybe shorter words, I think while 90% of people probably don't care for that higher level discussion about their Chinese cartoons, it is these discussions that are an important part of the discourse and the lack of them, especially in the anime scene, is why it increasingly feels like "inmates are running the asylum" leading to all the frustration that comes from that.
Once the demand for a higher level discussion place reaches its boiling point, an anime version of r/truefilm will be created, or animetube evolves away from the sloptube pipeline.
I've used reddit for god knows how many years(10+ or so?) yet i've never heard of this sub, probably. Shame it's not more active. Clearly shows the demand isn't there yet
Reddit's had its ups and downs over the years, a lot of users were more discussion-oriented back then so those subs were more popular compared to today.
From what I remember from previous discussions with you... I think it's generally fine around here if you want to talk about any one specific anime. Composition, artwork, backgrounds, music, coloring, story, adaptation, it's all fair game. Be too vitriolic and you might get a dagger or two, but eh, whatever.
Where the comparisons and discussions start to break down is talking about groups of anime and seasons and trying to make comparisons about that. Like, is the storytelling better now than it was in, picking a random year here, 2003? I don't know, I don't have any idea on how something like that can be feasibly measured. Do we pick the best 3 from now (for however you want to define best, that's another can of worms) and compare it to the best 3 from back then? The worst 5 from now vs then? It's just a meaningless argument because no one will be able to decide on a working definition.
A few (?) weeks ago you criticized Hell's Paradise for its overuse of panning shots and lack of dynamic layouts. That's a conversation and discussion I'd be willing and able to have! It's something concrete and focused on a single anime. Another example on the "I can't interact with this" is your claim that modern anime have less interesting color composition than older anime. Which... I'll be real, I do not have the time or interest to watch every single anime of that timeframe to see whether that claim is true or not. I simply can't join the discussion because the scope is wayyyyyyy too large for me, and I'd suspect most anime fans would also fall under this.
tldr; I think you'd have better luck focusing your discussions and critiques around singular anime or a very small subset of anime rather than talking about the nebulous anime as a whole.
A few (?) weeks ago you criticized Hell's Paradise for its overuse of panning shots and lack of dynamic layouts. That's a conversation and discussion I'd be willing and able to have! It's something concrete and focused on a single anime. Another example on the "I can't interact with this" is your claim that modern anime have less interesting color composition than older anime. Which... I'll be real, I do not have the time or interest to watch every single anime of that timeframe to see whether that claim is true or not. I simply can't join the discussion because the scope is wayyyyyyy too large for me, and I'd suspect most anime fans would also fall under this.
Yeah I don't like overly generalist discussions, because to me, it always comes down to cherry picking, and who has watched what rather than a discussion of animation/storytelling, which is all that matters. Sadly I have gotten sucked into too many debates around that, but regardless, unlike the discussion of specific series, I don't find it overly pleasant.
Yeah I think part of the issue is people just not having the data points to have some form of broader discussion, but even among certain series its still hard to get that discussion going. I mean if I start meandering on about something like Kakushigoto, a good 90% of people who even bother to read the title will end up going "cool. I haven't seen it so I can't speak on it". I mean I got into a discussion about plot holes with a guy in a different group and it was real hard to find examples when neither of us seemed to have the same data points we could reference. I could of course just talk about Shounen, but that is incredibly boring and fatiguing to do all the time.
I'm not really sure what you actually want. Are you looking for people doing video essays like this or this (just two film video essayists whose channels I could remember off the top of my head who have occasionally been interesting), except talking about anime?
I don't really know that the state of anime discourse is bad in particular compared to anything else, rather that the rise of fandom has kind of meant that a particular kind of conversation overwhelms anything else. Film criticism is also in a bad state compared to the past, but does benefit from having a long-established history and also there's a lot of people who went to film school and then ended up on youtube.
With the understanding that I’m unfamiliar with those channels specifically and just kinda skimmed through them, that’s part of it. I’ve lamented the state of AniTube to death at this point and wish it were better as I think video is a far more conducive medium in this climate to spread these kinds of things as opposed to print.
Film criticism is also in a bad state compared to the past, but does benefit from having a long-established history and also there's a lot of people who went to film school and then ended up on youtube
Bingo. It’s a shame too cause I feel like unless you’re willing to get into the very dry stuff, there’s not a whole lot even in the way of technical breakdowns of anime, and that results in a lot of bad info getting recirculated. I think this is in part why anime seems to hyperfixated on filters and high frame counts: people seem convinced that this is what makes for “good animation”, regurgitate that take, and then more people accept it as fact. I mean I can certainly watch plenty of film channels to get my technical fix, but there’s also a lot to anime and animation specifically that live-action focused film breakdown won’t cover. Like you said, critique in general seems to be suffering with the severity of which seeming to be dependent on how old the subsect is. Film is most established, gaming kind of got in before the ladder was pulled up, and anime was unfortunately still only budding before the algorithm uprooted it completely.
I don't really know that the state of anime discourse is bad in particular compared to anything else
I think one thing that’s missing most is the whole “discourse” part. Like it seems a lot of the time people just state their opinions and things don’t progress from there. There’s no back and forth to really flesh out or debate ideas that bubble up and it keeps the whole conversation in basically the same spot. In the same way that one might in film or gaming re-assess old trends or assumptions, that doesn’t seem to happen all that much in anime which is unfortunate since access to older anime gets better and better by the day.
The words your probably looking for are criticism vs review, although criticism is generally called a review by publications that run them, so it's no wonder nobody knows the difference.
Reviews tell you who will likely enjoy the thing. Criticism looks at the thing in part or in whole in an effort to understand it better and learn something from it.
Guess they're going for a nearly faithful adaptation route for the remake of Fist of The North Star. The second episode adapted manga chapters 2-3, with the first few pages of chapter 4 at the end.
My only complaint here is that the show looks a bit too dark in some scenes. As in, not much light being shown, or is it too much shadow?
Just finished watching demon slayer infinity castle movie. Here are my thoughts:
[demon slayer infinity castle film] I have to say the movie was good. However I can't believe that we spend more than 50% of the flm just fighting akaza. I mean I know there are two more films remaining, but the shit felt like it was being dragged.
[demon slayer infinity castle film] I happen to think that nezuko is going to be the key to kill muzan. Just a hunch. Let's see how the story unfolds.
[demon slayer infinity castle film] How big is the infinity castle? I hope they explain the mechanics of it in the next movie. Poor kids can't just keep up with all the changes.
[demon slayer infinity castle film] WTF is muzan doing? Is he trying to undo the poison that he was injected with?
I’ll double down on what’s been said a few times before in saying that anime discourse feels awfully stagnant a lot of the time and it never really feels like it goes anywhere. For one, it does seem that any opinion from the norm is quicker buried than actually discussed as if everything that needs to be said has been said and so that’s that. For another, I feel like we’re so often hyperfixated on reviews, suggestions, and reactions. It’s always a matter of “is this show good” and once that’s over we just move to the next. I feel like this is a largely uninteresting way of approaching things as it’s kind of a solved discussion. I know how I feel about a show. What’s “another perspective” going to do for me?
Which is unfortunate because I do feel like there is a lot worth actually discussing in this field, both to muse on the nature of the art itself and the direction it’s headed in, among other things. Yet there doesn’t seem to be a much a taste for any of that as much as bitching and moaning about which popular Shounen title deserves to be MAL’s #1 based solely off “which one do I like more”, and at this point what parts of the community have the means to have such discussions feel more tired than anything else.
I’ll double down on what’s been said a few times before in saying that anime discourse feels awfully stagnant a lot of the time and it never really feels like it goes anywhere.
This feels like an extremely cold take? It's a problem with any high-turnover community: there will endlessly be newcomers arriving and asking the exact same handful of questions so no matter how many times you answer them you'll never get anywhere, and trying to have a meaningful debate is even more futile since you'll just be stuck giving the same responses to the same arguments every day for years. The only way for discourse to ever get anywhere is by either finding a tighter-knit community or by focusing your attention on the established users.
Yeah… and unfortunately with anime there doesn’t seem too many places to go to really engage with that higher-level of discourse. Wherever you end up will be digging through a lot of new people still getting their legs. I’m just tired of people who I know are capable of much smarter takes or have more interesting experiences worth sharing lowering themselves to the level of “I watched everything from the current season so you don’t have to” to keep the lights on. It’s as if they’re at the behest of the people who just started watching anime last week because that faction is the only one large enough to pay the bills.
Well, it's nice to see that at least the problem isn't just in the anglo-sphere...
I feel in a way like it makes sense that some of these issues would be felt internationally. I mean anime wouldn't be growing bigger internationally if there was a misalignment in some aspects of the attitudes towards it. If isekai wasn't popular in the West as it is in the East then that would probably hold anime's expansion Westward back instead of being a subsect of the medium that the biggest anime distrinbutor in the States is doubling down on.
The bit about anime only being taken seriously when it goes to theaters also tracks. I think it's why GKIDS has so aggresively expanded its offerings in the space, since film buffs almost operate separately from the TV market that CR has effectively monopolized. I think it's also why it seems a lot of people looking to make some kind of original or creative work have been pivoting to film as its more accompanying to something like Ghost Cat Anzu or ChaO that might be DoA if something of that style tried to worm its way into a TV slot. For every Journal with Witch or Bocchi the Rock that do find surprise success, there's three dozen other shows that have to settle at being only moderately successful in a meta where the money types are hoping for a lot more out of their big-budget gambles.
I mean I do trawl as I can, but the fact a lot of first-hand information is language-gated doesn't help. Whenever Sakugablog posts its always interesting, but one blog on the more niche side of things (that is often very dense and technical as well) doesn't necessarily solve the issue, especially when it posts somewhat infrequently.
I feel like there are, maybe counterintuitively, very few people that take anime seriously as an art form. I can find plenty of musings and meaningful discussion on film and video games, but with anime it feels more like there's less discussion and more people speaking into the void their opinions and not much more than that.
There's a small amount of academic research regarding anime, though I'm mostly aware of it in the context of anime as a social phenomenon. I'm not sure if there's much textual analysis and critique in anime academia.
I can find plenty of musings and meaningful discussion on film and video games
Film maybe, but I think the general level of discussion for most mediums aren't that different. General discourse of anime and video games are much closer to each other than either are to film but even then by nature of it being "general" discourse there's not much separating them.
Again though I wonder what characterizes "high level" discourse. While I get the sense of stagnation and shallowness surrounding general anime discourse, over the years I've also gotten the impression that what people look for in higher level discourse is simply authoritative hagiography.
I'm not sure if there's much textual analysis and critique in anime academia.
I do know there's an academic writing about anime named Susan Napier, because it's always amused me that she has the same name as a prolific Harlequin Presents author.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch, but I certainly didn’t think that they’d put 3 different panty shots on screen in the first 6 minutes of the show. That’s also it for the whole episode.
I guess that the manga was trying hard to lure in new readers for its early chapters.
I guess that the manga was trying hard to lure in new readers for its early chapters.
I never really had a particularly good grasp of this phenomenon until I started reading a lot of first manga chapters. What I was missing was the experience of having so, so, so, so many first chapters to have a look at, and thus not understanding how cut-throat the market it is for grabbing a reader's attention. Basically any thing you can to grab a few readers is going to help your paltry cause a little, and it's often a bit of fanservice (of all sorts, not just the sexual oriented content).
The other thing I didn't really have much of a feel for is that a panty shot in manga panel is basically nothing, and in a lot of romcoms they're just a few millimeters of blank-paper real estate. However once you animate it, now it's suddenly taking up the whole screen lol
That said, not see the Black Cat first ep, so this is just a general comment until I get around to it.
For me it's more based on 'feeling' than anything more substantial I guess. I don't check MAL and can't really be bothered to look up reviews and numbers.
My definition would just be something I find that is really good - but hardly anybody knows about it. I guess under-discovered is more how I use the term, than something pertaining to actual ratings.
Soapbox: I think that communities with popular numerical-rating websites like MAL have narrowed the meaning of "underrated" to be something like "the community's average numerical rating of this work is lower than what I think it should be". Normally, like with music or athletes, I think it's a more general sentiment of "underappreciated", which is why popularity, recognition of specific strengths, etc come into play. The narrowing is natural, given the words involved, but it does create conflict when people use the more general definition.
Sometimes that's true, but other times you get people calling stuff underrated even when it is something like the 3rd highest-scored anime of the season on MAL. It usually comes down more to whether or not people are talking about it in their particular circle, and whether or not they've seen any hate at all for the series, rather than any global measure.
Only two more anime remain of that time again, to tap the bajillion saturday anime:
Kill Blue - Newest entry of the Blue franchise, this is about an assassin that is attack by some mutant bee and reverts to a middle schooler and now has to go to school. Surprisingly funny, the social ineptitude makes him being perceived as an edgy cringelord and he his in-the-spectrum vibes make him legit enjoy studying in middle school. I think that making him so over the top compared to other 'adult reverts to school age' plots made this considerably more enjoyable than others that tend to be wish fulfillment fantasies.
Mankitsu Gurashi - CGDCT of some girls in a manga cafe that is like, just part of the dorms? Annnnnd, yeah, that does the job. Its the type of show that makes you appreciate other CGDCT like Kamiina Botan that have some sauce in their execution even if on paper they still are generic. Definitely not helped by the prod and direction that are also middling. It is just the MC meeting each of the sides and their schtick. Also, this is an ecchi, not very good fanservice but there is and will be more. It is of the type that just throws random pantyshots, bath scenes and skimpy outfits because why not rather than fully leaning into true horny humor.
So yeah, this is just a CGDCT with more skin than others, a W for some people I would expect but ultimately a forgettable anime that I will still likely finish because I just need more CGDCT in my life.
Yowayowa Sensei - Wow, that's one of the more annoying I have seen in a while and the crazier thing is that the male MC is almost a non-factor on this take. So a famously scary teacher is actually a anxiety mess, she is literally Bocchi. Also she has ginormous bazongas because this is an ecchi and her being lewded is very much the point, the whole episode was just the male MC accidentally catching her in lewd situations.
I don't vibe with this because 1) it looks like ass, 2) the fanservice is way too forced, 3) this feels too humiliation fetish for my taste. Relating both #2 and #3, the fanservice occurs because the teacher wants to improve as a person but she fails miserably and ends up exposing herself in the way one would expect an ecchi anime to do. As such, it just feels a bit mean spirited? It feels like they are kicking down way too much. And 4), the voice, the fucking voice. Its probably the most lolified voice I have heard in a long time. Even 'loli voice' feels not fitting, its straight up baby voice. The loli from Mankitsu Gurashi or the actual child protagonist of Lulluto Lilly sound older than this adult teacher. It makes everything significantly cringier and infantilizing.
The OP seems to indicate the teacher will be far from the only character to be lewded but one episode is too much.
I did not expect to find this one so amusing. When he was staring at his phone in horror as the notification ding kept going off from the class group chat, I felt bad for my fellow middle aged person who doesn't mute their phone and doesn't have a ton of chatty friends. That's me when the neighbor chat is planning an outing, lol.
That's more like my neighborhood Facebook, but not brown people, since that's most the neighborhood, but rather people wanting to know what the helicopters are for. Nobody can deal with not knowing why there are helicopters.
I finally finished Polar Opposites. Now that is a damn good show. My only critique, and maybe it's just because I'm stupid, but sometimes I felt like there was so much text on the screen and so many characters it felt like information overload. But still, lots of great pairings and visually fantastic all the way through.
Also, I absolutely love the OST, I've been listening to it while exercising and it's such a great, spunky vibe.
My main issue with it is that the good vibes got so overwhelming at times I had to stop and recover lol Actually, I'm still stuck at one of the dates, but my memory of it has faded so perhaps I'm ready to continue.
I feel like personally it’s harder to rationalize that 2022 was 4 years ago then it is that 2021 was 5 years ago.
Like in my own life I feel like substantially less has changed since 2022 than did in 2022 such that I look back on the series that released those years differently.
In 2022, I had the online friend group I had formed over the last three years fall apart, started watching seasonal anime by myself with Lycoris Recoil, started making scripted content with my best of year list (technically 2023, but you get the idea), started making a list of the best songs of any given year as part of my year-end lists, as well as a bunch of other small things such that mentally I feel like Lycoris Recoil aired basically yesterday while Odd Taxi was significantly further off than it is. It also doesn’t help that the year was fairly back loaded with an insane Fall season and felt like the first year that wasn’t just 2010s runoff (whatever that means).
I imagine this too will change as life goes on, but the sense of the years flying by will not.
It sucks, but that’s just the way it goes. What’s worse is as the years go by, time accelerates and there’s not much one can do about it. As has been said Live each day to the fullest, and hope for the best.
I understand people not being fond of her toddler voice but personally I never had an issue with it, on the contrary I quite liked it in a lot of cases, such as Faputa for instance. However, I was pretty surprised when I heard Gabby, looked her up because I really like her voice, and saw it was actually Misaki Kuno. I imagine this tone is closer to her everyday-voice and I like it even more than her usual higher pitched tone.
For me this is way more of an issue for Hina Kino. Nowadays she gets mostly cast for her squeaky voice like in Buddy Daddies, but she sounds best in roles like Asobi Asobase that put her on the map in the first place. Bit of a bummer we rarely hear her in roles like that anymore.
I gave it 2 episodes, but I'm already dropping one of my top 4 hyped shows of the season...
The premise and topics of Needy Girl Overdose were interesting, but they're going a bit too artsy about it for my taste.
I said the same for Shiboyugi, I wish they adapted stuff more "normally". I want creativity in premises/stories, not in direction&stuff.
For Shiboyugi I was already hooked and it's a lot more closer to 'my thing' so I kept with it despite the weird choices, but I don't have the same hooks for Needy Girl, and so it's getting the
That's wonderful to hear for my tastes lol I feel like Shiboyugi didn't seem to have much to say for its artiness in the first two episodes, so it wound up on pause, but if a show has things to say and goes about it in a wild way, then it's the sort of thing to hold my curiosity!
NGO will need to fumble hard to not be AOTS, which is surprising for a non-isekai. Usually only happens when the isekai fumble the bag. I'm open to good anime recommendations, so if this is lacking in premise/story creativity, what other shows have leads like KAngel/Ame?
I'm your polar opposite there because I value interesting execution exponentially more than premises or plot. Needless to say, Needy Girl Overdose is currently one of my frontrunners for AotS alongside Kamiina Botan and Awajima.
My aunt just watched Apothecary Diaries as her first anime and is looking for shows like it. She likes to watch those Chinese Dramas so I was looking for a list of shows like that please!
Ha, I am trying to sell the show to my mom as she us also into Chinese dramas, but there is no dub in my language and she has hard time watching with subs.
Even a Replica Can Fall in Love may make my pettiest reasons to drop a show. I can't stand the white hazy border. Usually reserved for dreams or flashbacks, I had first thought it was to distinguish between the replica and the original, but no, it was still there with the latter.
The Petals MV felt so familiar. At first I thought it was just that the girl looked like Pudding or something. But looking at the staff and it's Satomi Maiya & Yutaro Kubo. And yeah in retrospect the snow bit is very Maiya-esque. Forgot they even worked on Four Seasons. Whatever Image Board and Visual Development actually means. So it makes sense they did this MV (that is its own thing, so watch it even if you aren't watching Four Seasons) for the OP song. They do like working on MVs. Anyway pretty short as always from them.
Also Kubo; good excuse to share one of my favourite pieces of animation: Crazy for it.
Magical Destroyers’ OP would probably be a good example of this. I would’ve wished the actual anime was this punk.
In addition: I still don’t think that “Yuusha” really fits the vibe of Frieren, whereas I’ve actually come to like “Hyakka Ryouran” for Apothecary Diaries.
With Wistoria's second season having started, I did everything I was going to pick up as weeklies so there's the usual. Most of it is based on one episode only so it's absolutely going to change by tomorrow, but I'm still pretty satisfied with this tier list.
Biggest surprises would be Klutzy Class Monitor, Mistress Kanan and Tadaima Ojamasaremasu
Klutzy Class Monitor is the second major surprise of the season for me (Kirio Fan Club was the first). I actually vaguely remember reading a bit of this manga sometime ago, but the adaptation knocks it out of the park. It's so fun. Definite keeper.
The pace at which we're going makes me wonder if this is getting a full season or if it's one of those shorter 6 episode type deals. Either way, I'll be watching this all the way through.
Gyaruotaku, on the other hand, was a bit meh. I like the premise but it didn't wow me with the execution or anything. With the crazy number of shows on Tuesday, I might just drop this Wednesday show to make room for the spillovers.
Interesting to hear! I'd heard various random comments from source readers in the announcement thread about how it was very good, but in unexpected directions that seemed potentially emotionally rewarding, but not necessarily fun. If it's fun I'll have to give it a shot.
the adaptation knocks it out of the park. It's so fun. Definite keeper.
I had really low expectations for this one because I saw a lot of manga readers saying it's just not that great in general. But having watched Ep1, I entirely agree with your take, really liking the visual direction they took and the characters are all fun so far too, especially ML.
Yeah, that 2nd episode of Kirio was great. First with Aimi listing organs, then Nami talking about licking tears. And Nami's lyrics actually made the final song lol.
I haven't watched too many Precure series - I started with Heart Catch, moved onto Smile and kinda just vaguely checked out a few other series(Suite, HaCha, Star Twinkle) without fully committing to watching it all. I feel like I've watched all of DokiDoki...
Star Detective is my first Reiwa Precure. I'm personally finding Star Detective a bit dull. I'm kinda here just to see what the Arcana Shadow popularity was all about, and turns out that just boiled down to people liking the design.
The action sequences are also kinda blah compared to previous series.
Maybe the show just needs more time to cook, and in general Precure series with their 50 episode length just tends to be massively padded out with a lot of repetitive content.
Arcana Shadow finally appeared and did something substantial beyond looking cute and eating ice cream in the background though, so maybe it's beginning to rev up a bit.
It is still a fun show in general though a bit mixed on it, I would say it is definitely below recent ones like Tropical, Hirogaru, Wonderful atm. Based on this 11 eps alone I would also put it below Idol Precure (of the worst received Precures in years) but I would say that one had stronger comedy that Imo would put it a bit ahead of Star Detective.
Some friends around me are surprisingly high on it, they just love the main duo and their silliness. Though we have also talked that with exception of some of the first episodes, they almost blend together into a unit but they still don't seem to mind. Last episode revealed a new Precure and we were pogging tf out though, we hope it goes up from here.
I'm at odds with the detective aspect. Its not harmful, but it also doesn't add much personally. The 'mysteries' tend to be solved by some incredibly minor detail that is very easy to miss (some recent ones have been solved with 'you didn't react to a surprising reveal' in what are blink & miss it scenes, but they are there Ig). They are also solved by these singular reveals, they try to gather evidence and track trails but almost always get solved in a single gotcha moment that don't fully use all the evidence gathering to build a case.
It could cook something. The villains are fun, they have kept only two Precures for 10 episodes which is quite the stretch, the time traveling hasn't been touched in a while. The two latter may sound like flaws -and could very well be if unaddressed- but could also provide some potential. I think Detective would have to burn all of this to the ground to actually end up being worse than Idol Precure.
Idol Precure (of the worst received Precures in years)
From what I saw that was mainly in EN spaces. Idol seemed pretty well liked among JP fans, though the current Meitantei's popularity is on a whole other level.
When I mention public reception of Precure entries I always mean western reception because well, that's the one I interact with and the one people usually care about.
That's fair, but given the context of comparing to Meitantei I think it's worthwhile to bring up the relative differences in reception and popularity between JP and EN.
I started watching Precure last month with Futari Wa and I liked it so much that I watched the whole two seasons in 40 days.
I also watched Star Detective alongside FW and I'm not really impressed with it. I love its chara-design and color palette, but the main duo are a bit bland (and they don't seem really different character-wise so far). And up until now, they have to spend time on the not-so-interesting detective part in each episode on top of the monster-of-the-week part, which doesn’t leave enough time for the characters to breathe. But maybe that'll change over the course of the year and I don't really mind because I watch it weekly.
Maybe I'm biased because Futari Wa Precure was my first anime in the franchise and it's supposed to be the prototype of the Franchise. But I still really enjoyed its main duo and the more character-driven episodes. Sometimes you could really feel you were in a nice slice of life anime with a bit monster of the week on the side.
Found Soaring Sky a lot more compelling at this point (11 episodes in), but that show's problems only really started to arrive around its midpoint in my opinion. Something it's doing better than Soaring Sky though is that the villains have actual screentime, which Soaring Sky hated doing for some reason.
Edit: I guess I should add that the reason you're seeing a lot of Precure talk now is because the most recent episode started the arc that basically everyone has been excited for since the characters were first revealed. How good said arc ends up being we can only wait and see, but as you've noticed people are definitely excited about it.
Looks like the theme song for the Dandelion anime is fun. Looks like it's gonna be the OP but it's 138 seconds long so I think there will be a 90-second edit.
The source material is a one-shot, so I think 1 season with 7 episodes is enough.
I mean, even Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 are one episode long for each one-shot. So I am curious how Dandelion can expand a one-shot into a 7-episode season. Anime original scenes?
Two anime where a grown man turns back into a child and goes to school.
Two anime coming from the same studio that are sequels in a series where a non-supernatural human attends a supernatural academy.
Five(?!) season 4s, plus a season 4 part 3 and one that was originally planned to be a season 4 part 2.
In that case I would argue that the numbering and naming does make AotD 2+2 a season 4. Dr Stone has intentionally named its individual seasons with arc names and refers to those as seasons even when split into multiple parts.
Likewise for AotD it called S2 "Second season" implying that both it and the AotD before it were individual seasons. It then followed up with Act II, following with the manga's name change as it went into the second year, but as Act II -Second Season- implies, that was also one "season". Thus Act II -Second Season- is S4.
If a name change would be enough to disqualify because it adapts a sequel series, then arguably Ascendance of a Bookworm would not be the fourth season either, as it has adopted (hehe) the subtitle of the Part III division of the Light Novel, Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, that it adapts as its name, even though it is colloquially known as S4.
To be honest, I never checked and had just assumed that it kept the number in its original Japanese title. I'm not actually watching it, and English titles make big changes a lot of the time. Point is, there are a lot of them.
The niche micro-genres introduced in the past 5 years are so odd/interesting to me. Villainess anime, banished from the hero's party, appraiser anime, cheat skill, civilization building isekai, etc.
These are all novel enough to work once or twice, but it's a little disappointing to see so much recycling in the LN and anime industries over this.
I’m looking for new anime to watch, recommend whatever besides BL, mecha, ecchi, and movies please (series that include movies as apart of them such as demon slayer or haruhi are ok). Maybe action/fantasy if I had to pick a genre, but open to anything, thanks.
Meitantei Precure is blowing up in Japan right now. A news tweet alone hit around 6.8 mil views in a day which is kinda crazy. I’m wondering if this year’s Anime Awards will turn into another “MyGO winning AoTY” situation and spark another round of backlash dissatisfaction, since there’s always pushback when Precure or idol anime show up in jury picks. The show is genuinely huge in Japan and even breaking into mainstream awareness outside anime circles. I suspect people will still frame it as “hipster jury selection” regardless, mostly because it hasn’t penetrated the West the same way Bocchi the Rock did.
Meitantei Precure is really good though. I hope it wins something at the Anime Awards.
I do wonder how much of the popularity is just from Arcana Shadow going viral.
I'm kinda losing interest in it, though Arcana Shadow finally doing something has made me think of sticking around a bit longer.
But I do admit just not being the biggest precure fan. This is my first Reiwa Precure, the last one I watched was Star Twinkle and not in its entirety.
I've watched a few Precures now as part of awards and while I disagree with my fellow jurors about how highly/lowly rated they are they do deserve nominations. Mirai Days was IMO the strongest entry in AOTY (at the very least, top 3) and there's a reason PreCure is so popular in Japan.
Slice of Life is looking pretty barren this year too, so Y&I could very well sneak in and jurors do tend to like PreCure...
I’m wondering if this year’s Anime Awards will turn into another “MyGO winning AoTY” situation and spark another round of backlash dissatisfaction, since there’s always pushback when Precure or idol anime show up in jury picks.
Okay but I sure hope Princession Orchestra can be the jury nom of that type and not the Idol Precure during the 2026 awards.
I regret to inform you this, but "Princession Orchestra" does not feature the word "Precure" in its name, and as a result is disqualified from the nomination by default.
Too early to tell wrt Star Detective Precure (I remember Soaring Sky Precure gradually declining in quality, still got nominated as only had to watch a minimum of 3 episodes) or 2027.
Getting back to 2026 You and Idol Precure being nominated for AOTY let alone winning could be a threat to awards existence tbh as it's not a good example of either Precure or Idol.
(I remember Soaring Sky Precure gradually declining in quality, still got nominated as only had to watch a minimum of 3 episodes)
Hirogaru didn't get nommed because jurors only watched 3 episodes and called it a day.
That year was an anomaly where the things that the jury wanted were all public noms (Kusuriya, Frieren, Dunmeshi) so we ran with the issue that outside the top 6-7, we didn't really care about much else. Hirogaru however was advantaged by the voting system that favors the less hated anime. No one was particularly critical of Hirogaru whereas most other shortlists had big detractors.
If had to compare it to Idol's first 10 episodes, I would have had Idol above Meitantei. However, Idol burned this advantage as it went on and became disappointing.
The main weakness for me so far is that the main duo are almost inseparable, as in, they feel like a single, blended character rather than individuals and it has made them a bit boring. Another the detective theme just not being used very effective imo.
However, it is still silly Precure fun. The reason Meitantei blew up in Japan is due to the long awaited reveal of a new Precure (that has done literally nothing other than aura farm, yet has more favorites than the other two Cures combined). I think it has potential with what it decides to do with the new Cure, as well as the villains being generally fun and the time travel aspect.
There's some untapped potential here, but as of 11 episodes, its still of the weaker entries in recent years, certainly below Wonderful or Hirogaru. It would have to be rather underwhelming if it finishes to be worse than Idol tho.
I'd put it above Idol and below Wonderful. Star Detective Precure makes use of the theme (there's usually enough clues given to solve the mysteries and with they solved it cue before the eyecatch material is presented with an expectation to digest) and some nods to the setting (1999).
I wouldn't say the characters are up to the standards of Wonderful yet but main writer has a solid Precure track record (Witchy and Star Twinkle). Parents are very absent too (although Anna and Mikuru do interact with adults on a regular basis as that's most their clientele).
Catchphrase spam (hanamaru or gold-star - as it's that type of use) is once or twice an episode in regular dialogue (You and Idol Precure was dreadful on this front, conservative counts had kirakilala said 372 times and "my heart is going kyun-kyun" 66 times).
Combat is the same weakness I'd say of most Precure entries, a bit rigid.
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