Winter 2024 anime

Could also be a case of trying to make a character seem more impressive by having everyone else be idiots. In this case, just knowing basic tank strats is enough to make you a genius.

It's a pretty typical case of making Lowest Common Denominator work out, by kneecapping the rest of the setting so the protagonist looks better by merit of his very minor credentials.

The recent episode of Sengoku Youko... DAMMIT!! I'm in tears!! Shakugan dead, and in her place, twins born and named after her! I must be dumb for not seeing this coming!! And now, I'm heartbroken at the loss of one of our dearest...

I'd been away from Hi-Dive for awhile, but came back to give Chained Soldier a try. From the first episode, my initial reaction is - Okay, so this is High School DxD, but going all-in on the master/slave relationship of the leads. And all the character archetypes are here - The dragged-into-weirdness guy and the reluctant-but-probably-eventually-will-develop-genuine-feelings mistress, the team member who who's totally excited at the prospect of having a guy around, the one who immediately hates/distrusts him because he's a guy, and the tiny moe one (who I hope is rarely played for fanservice, or preferably NEVER.)

I don't really mean those as negatives - we're Tv Tropes users, we tend to notice these things. And I'd be lying if I said I came into this expecting "innovation in anime" or anything anyway.

Don't worry, Nei is never played for fanservice. Everything she's involved in is wholesome.

Been kinda keeping up with Season 2 of Banished from the Hero's Party.

I think I'm the only one who wasn't all that hyped when Van got completely shut down and almost killed by Ruti with a single punch. Anyone thought the same?

Edited by JG98 on Mar 1st 2024 at 3:50:50 AM

I enjoyed the scene, personally. Guy had it coming.

He totally did, but I can't shake the nasty feeling that the new hero was made as much of an asshole as possible in order to make Red and Ruti look better by comparison, and justify Ruti's Refusal of the Call.

To be perfectly honest, I was siding with Theodora at the end of Season 1.

On Van the Hero: It seems a bit uncharitable to say "this guy is just a jerk" considering that he was raised to be monk or something, we're repeatedly told about and shown that the "blessings" come with varying strength impulses up to and including full-blown free-will over-ride compulsions AND between these things his expressed beliefs are pretty much his actual beliefs. Now it may be that his "blessing" isn't "Hero" or "Champion" or whatever it was called that Ruti definitely had, especially in view of the fact that characters repeatedly question it and then kinda shrug because the have no way to test it. Like, he could be operating under the compulsion of the Dark Messiah Blessing, or the Fake Ultimate Champion Blessing, or the Purge Heretics Blessing or something like that. Combined with his upbringing that apparently didn't leave him any scope for questioning it, he seems, for all his destructiveness, as much a victim as a villain (okay, well maybe not AS MUCH).

On a thematic level he is also a much better foil to Ruti than Ares was, though I realize Ares may have been intended to be more a foil to Red.

You make a fine point, still the fact remains that Van can't be allowed to keep up what he's doing and needs to be stopped somehow. And I mean really stopped, not just make him somebody else's problem like the protagonists seem to want to do.

This is kinda my problem with this series - I feel like it's running on Protagonist-Centered Morality.

Man I really can say I like everything about Bucchigiri!?!….except Arajin. Even more than I have previously I think he really needs a reality check thrown in his face when Mahoros. Blatant. Statements. On how much she doesn’t like him. At least with Matakara he misunderstood that Arajin was a coward who abandoned him when he was a kid and simply assumed they stopped hanging out afterwards cause he proved himself weak and Arajins continued cowardice and refusal to admit what really happened until he finally did. Mahoro has blatantly been clear that she has nothing but disdain for Arajin.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Mar 9th 2024 at 3:04:20 AM

Sounds pretty annoying to watch a series about an idiot being a simp, even if the stuff around him is interesting.

What to do when the protagonist is the broken piece of the machinery?

Man, I find Gushing Over Magical Girls to be such a wasted opportunity. I like the some of the ideas it presents, the idea of someone being blackmailed into evil by the mascot, pointing out how magical girl villains are pretty sexy and seductive, the magical girl parody stuff. The Tres Magia have cute designs. The idea of the girls actually being genuine lesbians and having that be seriously explored? That's good too.

But everything else? First off, them being 14 is so gross. If you're going to have a show that's all about teenagers learning about sexuality and BDSM age 'em up to 16-18 at least. And apart from the Tres Magia the main designs just suck. Baiser is the least offensive (there's still things I'd change, but at least it looks like some semblance of a magical girl outfit) but the other girls look like they forgot to put on part of their clothes (Leopolt's is the worst, looking neither magical girl nor like fetishwear, it genuinely looks like she forgot to put on pants in the morning). It's not sexy or cool, it's gross. And don't you love to see another Psycho Lesbian. One step forward, two steps back.

It sucks because, again, good ideas, stupid/bad execution. I know it's an ecchi series but there's ways to make things tastefully sexy and this just isn't it at all.

Edited by PhiSat on Mar 9th 2024 at 7:32:44 AM

Arajin continues to drag down his series, yes. Matakara should have been the lead.

Oh yeah, the costume designs for the villains are terrible. I don't know if people are supposed to find them sexy, they're just dumb.

I would say that Arajin is the Takemichi (Tokyo Revengers) of this series, but even then, Takemichi is more noble...

I don't know if I know what a "tastefully sexy" ecchi looks like.

...Honestly? Keijo. Its over the top of course, but as far as I remember, nothing full-on sexually explicit. And I think the main characters are all at least 18, at least in what the anime covers.

That's... Probably the best you're gonna get. Most other ecchi, even the less explicit ones, are probably gonna fall outside of most definitions of "tasteful" considering the usual age range of the characters.

Anyway, I haven't really paid much attention to Gushing About Magical Girls. Chained Soldier got my attention.

Edited by diddyknux on Mar 10th 2024 at 4:44:28 AM

Light Magic and the Hero aka Light Academy.

So, I think the most recent episode busts several theories about what is going on while giving serious weight to others.

Spoilers through ep 10 of Light Magic and the Hero.

So, I think all the "Yumiella is the time travelled future Demon King" theories are super-dead. She obviously had perfect opportunity to kill or cripple our girl Alicia, and not only didn't do that, she helped her get massively massively more powerful. So unless those 'second demon king who is the demon of light' theories are true (nope), and darkness user Yumiella is working for that hypothetical second demon, it's clear she isn't the demon king, or one of his underlings or anything like that.

Instead, what I think is going on is as follows- the fight we get a brief glimpse of at the start of the series is the Future, or A Future. Specifically the future Yumiella is from. What's glaring about it is that Patrick is absent and Alicia and the 3 musketeers killing or at least exploding Yumiella. My guess is that Patrick, Yumiella, Alicia and the musketeers fought the demon lord and either almost or totally defeated him, but Patrick was killed outright. Then with his last vile breath the demon somehow exploited the grief in Yumiella's heart to possess her, combining her considerable power with his remaining power, and Alicia, Ed, Oz, and Will were forced to kill her to stop the demon from destroying the world/opening the Hellgate/whatever.

Here's where it gets really complicated- either some interaction between the magic, or the wish in Alicia's heart, or whatever plot contrivance sends Yumiella back in time to very shortly before the Alicia arives at the Academy. At this point she's a bit traumatized and still recovering mentally from her boyfriend's death, and being exploded by her best friend- which is how she recognized Alicia on sight despite apparently never having met the girl. What the latest episode shows us is that she isn't actually quite alone in her time travelling. While she probably got most of her memories (and obviously all of her and the Demon King's combined powers), it's clear now that Alicia also got some future knowledge- but for her for whatever reason, this manifests as purely subconscious impulses to do thing Future Alicia knows Present Alicia needs to do to stop the apocalypse. I suspect that similar but weaker effects are at play with Patrick, Ed, Oz, and Will. Whether their antagonism is a carry over from the earlier (not first, getting to that in a minute) timeline, or just that the only thing sent back was "Yumi is now an enemy" is probably not something we'll get this season if ever.

Finally on the time travel front: Alicia says the fugue state is what made her got to the academy, so that may mean that an earlier timeline had her stay home and thus not be well positioned to stop the demon king from obliterating everyone, so she might be double or more time travelled.This also explains Yumi-ko's awkward reaction to Alicia's comment about their age- Yumi is actually several YEARS (at least) older.

Now, I know a LOT of people are going to say this is all just Yumiella apologism, and I see where they're coming from after she so coldly toyed with Patrick at the dance only to rather loudly declare (though not directly to his face) that he could never be good enough for her- but I feel it does a good job of resolving that behavior with her behavior when that awesome CGI dragon was introduced- which, frankly I wonder how they had the budget to make something so skin crawlingly viscerally horrifyingly REAL looking on their budget- props to the art team though, if I had the slightest fear of reptiles I'd have ahd to stop watching the show, since her actions towards him arise out of a mix of comradery ad/or romantic love and traumatic experiences involving his death- she's still terrified to get close to him again. And while at first it doesn't seem so, it also (mostly) explains Yumi-ko calling herself a battle robot: the writers giving some foreshadowing about Alicia being "programmed" to do things by her future self, and perhaps it's also pointing to the idea that the heroes encountered robots somewhere on their quest to defeat the demon king.

Final Reactions: MofuNade
It was cute and fluffy, though nothing else. I could probably attribute this to having known about Barbie first and drawing parallels from there, but that's just hindsight...

Final impressions for Hikari no Ou: It’s only held together by prayers and string, but you can sense the team behind it tried their best to tell the story, and I can respect that ambition. The underlying story is quite interesting; I was right about the setting being science fiction. Unfortunately this is also a story that relies heavily on mysticism and mystery, and the woeful production often undermined that, leaving us with a show that’s half a painfully straightforward tale, and half a disjointed mess. So I didn’t enjoy it per se, but overall I’m glad it exists. Always like seeing stuff that’s a little different from the typical mould.

• Ishura: This really felt like it needed more episodes. Not only would it make all the introductions feel less crammed into the first half of the show, we'd also get to see a bit more of the 700 characters, especially the most interesting characters who all get to die in their first fight. As it is, there's definitely some interesting stuff going on here, but it's not the easiest thing to keep track of when there's so many people to follow and little time to really get to understand most of them. Animation for the fights was pretty good, though! Plenty of political intrigue and all that going on, too, basically a lot of stuff to suggest that the light novel would be a pretty good read. Also, S2 is announced, but I know I'll have completely forgotten what little info I've retained so far by the time it comes out, so I probably won't end up watching it.

Final Impressions for Ishura:

Ishura is something which I expected to run purely on the Rule of Cool. Gather the impossibly badass, have these duke it out, and enjoy the fireworks. A simple but strong formula.

However, this show confidently proves it has more meat on the bone. The character introductions were a tad unwieldy, but for the most part they do a solid job at establishing the so-called shura and setting down plot threads. And there’s a lot of to chew on, from Fantastic Racism to political intrigue to the enigma that is the identity of the True Hero and Demon Lord. It’s a story that rewards viewers who keep track of who’s who, what they’re doing, and all the small details. I’m a sucker for a good Ensemble Cast, and I loved what they did here.

If you only wanted to see the powerful creatures fight each other, well, don’t fret, there is no shortage of carnage. We get everything from tense and meticulously animated 1v1 sword duels, to an all out assault from a bloodthirsty wyvern battalion. The shura do not hold back in flaunting their ludicrous skills, because they know the enemy is just as strong as they are.

This whole season is technically only the prologue, so I’m glad that the producers had the sense to not stop here, and promptly announced season two. Maybe we’ll finally get to that vaunted tournament. Or maybe not. Either way, I await with bated breath.

Final Reactions: Sokushi Cheat
My cares likely died at the sound of Yogiri saying, "die"...

Final Impressions

• Sasaki and Peeps: Anything goes in Sasaki and Peeps. The spirit of a sage reincarnated as a sparrow? Sure. A secret organization of espers keeping the nation's physics under control? It's there. Murderous magical girls? Why the hell not. Mind you, these plot elements did not fit snugly together at all, but I rather enjoyed embracing the chaos. The finale throws even more elements into the mix, turning the show into an even messier jumble of tropes. Which isn't good, per se, but it's rather entertaining.
• Frieren: Journey's End: It is difficult to describe my feelings towards this anime, in that it was simultaneously impressive and underwhelming. It is, without a doubt, a good show, but it rarely resonated with me. The story is well-crafted, yes, but it often means that analyzing how its mechanisms will function was easy. The story almost always develops in the way I expect it to. Nevertheless, Frieren is Very Good. Madhouse spared no expense in breathing life into the manga's pages. Most will remember the grand displays of magical might, but I would argue that the animation was strongest in the quiet moments. The colors, direction and framing all help wistful emotions permeate each moment, lending a weight that the soul can feel sinking in. Frieren's own character arc can hit hard. I especially love how she started experiencing the passage of time at the same tempo as Fern and Stark. Overall, while it's not going to become one of my personal favorites, Frieren: Journey's End does deserve to be called one of the best anime ever made. Here's hoping our elven mage's journey will continue on the broadcast.

Edited by fillerdude on Mar 22nd 2024 at 2:45:36 AM

So, I'll do the same:

Sousou no Frieren was greeat. It resonated with my taste. If not for Apothecary Diaries it would have been my favorite show of the last to seasons. I am a bit annoyed how much more popular it is considering inferior storytelling but I can understand it. Endcredits hint we are getting more and I heard a movie could be more fitting for the next story arc but we'll see.

Sasaki and Pi-chan was decent. I actually think they did a good job mixing out all of the different plots for it. It was far from great storywise but consistent at least. And yeah, Shizuka was best girl. Mine main grip is lower than average animation, though. I heard Silver Link had it pretty bad lately so they took a lot of shows and outsource as much as they can.

Final Impressions

• Pon no Michi: The funny part is that it's more about cheating/trolling with mahjong rather than playing it properly. Which is kinda what this show wants to say: as long as everyone is having fun, then it's alright to scrap the rules and run wild. The enthusiasm of the core posse is certainly infectious!
• Firefighter Daigo: A great look into the firefighting scene. There's dramatic embellishments here and there, some of which made me laugh from how over-acted they were, but it's all forgivable in the name of driving up the stakes. The main team gets into some truly harrowing situations that had my stomach flipping. My main critique would be that the tritagonist, Yuki, gets massively sidelined as her peers devoured most of the screentime. Especially unfortunate since she's so closely tied to the inciting incident of the whole plot. Recaps also started eating up more and more of the runtime in later episodes. There's also a lot of unanswered questions, particularly the disaster hinted at since the cold open of the pilot, which is probably because these 23 episodes were only the prologue. And I'm not sure we're getting more, so, uh.
• Undead Unluck: This would have been a perfect adaptation if not for the unnecessarily high number of recaps, which is supposedly so they could end the anime with the Autumn arc. A little annoying, because otherwise David Production elevates the incredible source material to even greater heights. Their trademark bass line underscores a lot of this series' wham reveals, and the action scenes somehow become even more chaotic, yet at the same time, easier to follow. It's sad that UU didn't seem to make a lot of waves, but from what I hear this seems to have been a passion project of sorts, so fingers crossed.