Winter 2024 anime

Final Reactions:
Nozomanu Fushi: It was ... ok, I guess. I would say nothing much outstanding, but good for Rentt that he was able to evolve into a vampire...
Sasaki to Pii-chan: Certainly liked it more than the above due to mixing genres! Though poor Otonari-san...
Momochi-san: Actually ok, as someone who has seen Kakuriyo could attest...
Undead Unluck: Kudos, but I'm probably not gonna catch up to the manga...
Megumi no Daigo: Kyuukoku no Orange: Much love for the fire department, and much drama! Sure, I'll take it!
Blue Exorcist S3: Favorite Part of the Shimane Illuminati arc: Izumo's backstory because of how fucked up that ended up becoming, Gedouin's death, and the Shima reveal. Can't wait for S4, more info of which coming soon!!

Edited by thuse on Mar 24th 2024 at 12:02:52 AM

Final Impressions

• Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen: This is probably the most interesting arc of the series (owing to Shima being a double agent) and the adaptation is competent. Which is what Ao no Exorcist is in a nutshell, a competent battle shonen. Enjoyed it as a refresher, but going forward I will probably stick to the manga.
• Apothecary Diaries: Lets you experience all the thrilling intrigue of the royal palace of ancient China, without having to endure the usual trope of the hapless damsel being bullied by people above her station. Because thankfully, Maomao can hold her own against the snooty elite, thanks to her decisiveness and intelligence. I'm always looking forward to what she'll do next. Helping the whole pack is the writing, which is so sharp it can cut steel. There's always two or three layers to every line of dialogue, resulting in conversations where the participants have slightly different takeaways from what is being said. The various mysteries in the show are intricate as well, and I'm not only talking about the cases Maomao has to solve, but also the lore hidden beneath the floorboards of the palace. We're only a quarter of a way through the year, but I daresay Apothecary Diaries is already a frontrunner for my AOTY.
• Yubisaki to Renren: You know how they say that the grass is greener on the other side? Well, the "other side" is probably Itsuomi, who is the greenest freaking flag I've ever seen. I would be begging for him to date me, except I don't want to step on Yuki's adorable little toes. I've only known her for twelve episodes, but I will incinerate anyone who tries to harm the girl. They're so cute, and they're so cute together, especially with how sincere their attraction is each other. I also loved the in-depth portrayal of deafness (even tackling topics like delayed-onset hearing impairment!) and sign language. I think one of the side couples is rather underbaked, but overall, this is one love story that deserves some of your affection.

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto was great, my favorite show of the last two seasons. Once again, I may be biased as I love the L Ns but it was just great overall adaptation (I could nitpick about some minor explanations being omitted but all of the anime additions really enchanted the story). I am super exited that S2 got greenlit for the next year as it should be even better.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Mar 23rd 2024 at 1:24:42 AM

Hey, neat. Apparently a second season of Chained Soldier's confirmed already. Maybe that'll make Sentai decide to dub season one... Probably not though. I have no idea how they decide what gets a dub and what doesn't.

Edited by diddyknux on Mar 23rd 2024 at 3:06:44 AM

Final Reactions:
Frieren: Definitely enjoyed watching this, especially with the setting, the music, and Stark's comedic moments!
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto: The same goes with this! The mysteries were pretty cool, and the dymanics were fun! Can't wait for S2 next year!!
Saikyou Tank: The same cannot necessarily be said for this though. It feels all over the place...

Surprisingly, Sasaki and Pi-chan also got a second cour.

Gushing over Magical Girls is on pace to be the only new show debuting this season to get over 100k Twitter followers while it was airing and it's also around the Top 5 area in reddit's weekly karma tracking threads. By all metrics that I can observe, this show has been more successful than it was expected to be.

Nature is healing.

Final impressions for Banished from the Hero's Party Season 2:

- A total waste of time that honestly added nothing to the plot. Van and Lavender were poorly written villains.

x3

Controversy (Because the cast is so young despite the sexual situations they're put in.) and being a fanservice show'll do that. Didn't watch it myself but hopefully it'll get a new season for those who did enjoy it.

Final Impressions

• 7th Time Loop: Rishe hard carries this show with her many talents and eccentricities. She's a ball of chaos that keeps throwing people for a loop. Which is a good thing, because the dudes around her are splotches of paint drying on a wall and you need to shake them up so they can radiate a little personality. I honestly don't think the show made a good case for how Riche started falling for her fiancee; in fact I think the main dynamic would have been more intriguing had she not fallen for the prince at all, while the prince is so obviously into her. There's also a niggling feeling that Rishe is a mite too competent at everything, but I'll take a hypercompetent airhead over a dull distressed damsel any day of the week.
• T'is Time For Torture, Princess: There was a commendable effort to switch things up, but ultimately there's like three styles of jokes that got reused way too much. I'm glad the princess got to enjoy the childhood she missed, at least.
• High Card: Had so many cards in its hand, and didn't know how to make decent plays out of any of them. It somehow squandered a significant number of episodes on useless chaff, while rushing through the important stuff, with only asspulls linking together bits of plot. Worse, this season lacks much of the frenetic action of the first, replaced by dragging, empty conversations. It is also rife with poor attempts at characterization and drama, which results in the cast looking like idiots. Could have been a fun, superpowered buddy cop show, but they insisted on building this grand house of cards, without a clear blueprint in mind. Well behold, how easily the whole thing topples over.
• Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru: Just a silly romcom about an angel and devil trying to seduce each other into betraying their respective factions. Predictably they start actually falling for each other, so they start making their battle of wiles more personal, but unfortunately their budding feelings also make them dumber. Haha. Their bickering reminds me of 90s era romcoms, but the give and take is more balanced, which I appreciate. It's not exactly prime entertainment, but I did enjoy this quite a bit more than I thought I would.
• Synduality Noir: It did a great job at driving the plot forward in a way that the viewers feel there's progress every episode. At the same time, the show also knows when to loosen up and let the characters goof off, which helps warm up to them more. The story isn't anything to write home about, but it does the job, especially considering it's more of a tie-in to a video game. The 3D animation was on point, too. Like little to no jank, and all the action sequences were smooth and dynamic. I was not a fan of the mech designs, but the way they zipped around, spraying lead everywhere, was darn cool. Overall, it's nothing fancy, but very satisfying.

Final Reactions:
High Card S2: Definitely way more packed than the last season! Still reeling over the fact that Apple was TILT who was Finn's brother... Can't wait for EP 25 along with more stuff soon!!
Warumono-san: It was relaxing and a fun watch! Will go ahead and read the manga.
Himesama Goumon: A fun and wholesome watch! Can't wait for S2!!
Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: It was so-so. Patrick ended up being my favorite though!

Edited by thuse on Mar 26th 2024 at 11:59:09 PM

Sasaki and Peeps: Really liked the protagonist and his approach to problem solving. Not so keen on the female cast for reasons discussed earlier. Review up at my blog.

Your protagonist can be a middle aged man but the girls have to be high school or younger, because reasons. Even if one of them is literally a government agent. And the Really 700 Years Old pipsqueak barely counts as an exception.

Well, duh, nobody watches anime to watch a bunch of OLD LADIES (read: Any woman older than 19) do stuff.

Final Impressions

• Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Yumiella hit level 99 for all her stats except common sense, and that combined with her awareness that her current world is based on a video game results in her acting in strange, funny ways. Sometimes Yumiella can be too dense in order to force a joke, but otherwise it's fun to see her legitimately confused about why people aren't risking their lives to level grind. Only thing is if you don't find Yumiella an amusement, then there's really not much point to watching this show. The world feels even less defined than your typical isekai/otome anime.
• 30-sai made Doutei da to Mahou Tsukai ni Narerurashii:: Who'd have thought that a story that starts with a tired virginity joke would end up becoming this wholesome love story? Kurosawa and Adachi do have a low-key seme-uke dynamic, but Kurosawa always realizes when he has to hold back his advances, and Adachi has the sass to bite back when needed. I implore other BL anime to take notes, this is how it's done.
• Classroom of the Elite S3: Has the same problem as the previous two seasons: it's a series centered around battles of wit, but there's hardly an ounce of cunning to be found. Especially now that the system itself is compromised and people can cheat while the supervisors stretch the concept of plausible deniability. Regarding the third season specifically, it feels like it was more about the shipping wars than the classroom wars. Everyone wants a piece of Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka officially asking Kei to go out with him seems like an awkward punchline to a joke that started like 20 episodes ago. I still don't understand why people seem to dig this series so much, but we do also have to consider that this adaptation is supposedly significantly cut down.
• Gushing Over Magical Girls: Notorious for the ecchi and the awful wardrobe choices, but go past those and there's a genuinely funny show to enjoy. What makes it work is that the bawdiness works in service of the story and comedy, rather than being a separate selling point. In particular, Utena grows from being gloomy and withdrawn to being more confident and outgoing, thanks to learning more about herself. Read: discovering her kinks. Unleashed, uninhibited Magia Baiser crosses so many lines, she's a riot. And she's not the only one growing from getting in touch with her degeneracy. This season ending on Azure powering up by accepting her masochism is the icing on the cake.
• Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage: Significant improvements across the board. i always thought the way this series has approached socialization as a video game of sorts has always been somewhat cringy, and turns out, the series agrees. Tomozaki has developed enough to push back against some of Aoi's ideas, realizing that maybe there are some things he shouldn't be trying to min-max, that the "golden route" isn't always the best approach. There's still some cringiness here and there, but they're easier to accept as dramatic embellishments compared to before. I think there's also been an uptick in animation and direction quality (my standout being Mimimi's surprise swerve from fakeout confession to real confession), so it's relied less on explicit exposition to convey the characters' thoughts. The show has basically acquired a little nuance, which the first season was lacking. Stand tall, Tomozaki. You can't be called bottom-tier anymore.

Edited by fillerdude on Mar 27th 2024 at 5:30:01 AM

Final Reactions:
Classroom of the Elite S3: It was ok in the sense that it is as usual for the series. Favorite Part: probably the part where Yamauchi gets kicked out...
Cherry Mahou: TAKE MY GODDAMN MONEY!! This has been a hell of a ride! I especially loved Kurosawa chasing after Adachi to Nagasaki, Tsuge ennabling Minato to pursue dancing at the time Minato was about to throw it away, and all the scenes where Fujisaki is seen simping for our main couple!! I would absolutely agree with Fujisaki in saying that KUROADA IS FOREVER!! I WILL get into the manga; I WILL get into the compilation movie coming later in the year, and I WILL continue to sing my praises with my wallet for the foreseeable future!

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e S3: eh. And I liked it a bit (the3se two seasons were way better than the first one), especially considering new shopws of the season that I watched were unimpressive (it was still carried by Frieren and Kusuriya). As anime-only watcher for the most part I was fine with the cuts. Though, I am not sure I will watch another season as I heard "year two" nopvels are worse and also author started pushing Horikita as the main heroine to much (I personally just don't like her even if she got less dumb during the story).

I would have finish the season already but Metallic Rouge has 2 more eps to go (I was a bit busy with work today to watch the latest one), so not yet.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Mar 27th 2024 at 6:14:03 AM

High Card S2: I’m inbetween Fillerdude and Thuse comments on it. Definitely not as good as Season 1 or as action packed, but I still enjoyed it. I do see a proper conclusion in a S3 especially with the fallout with The Monarchy and how there’s still playing cards out there.

Definitely think they could give the one guy who was using his Card for good his card back as well. LARPING as a superhero he was, but the whole Lala reveal of the backstory showed he was using the Cards exactly as they were intended.

Also saddened that Apple Links was Finns brother. Expected he was just a member or BURST acting on his behalf. Not that TILT really was a Yandere Brocon.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Mar 27th 2024 at 7:13:11 AM

Apple Links secretly being Tilt was so damn funny.

Final impressions for Bang Brave Bang Bravern: The biggest surprise of the winter season, exploding right out of the gate by plopping the super robot Bravern into a relatively more grounded, real-robot universe. The giant metallic oaf utterly flabbergasts everyone, between operating outside conventional physics via the power of "courage", to his weirdly sensual spiels about "combining" with a certain ace pilot. The show seamlessly switches between poking fun at the super robot genre and paying heartfelt tribute to it, and whether you're laughing at the jokes or cheering for the badassery, you're having a grand time. The mysteries behind Bravern and the Deathdrives also make you want to find out what the hell is going on, and despite a rushed ending the answers we got are mostly satisfying. It's a weird-ass anime in all the right ways. It points a finger at the over-the-top transformation sequences, laughs at how overblown they are, then declares "BUT IT'S SO COOL RIGHT?!" And damn right, it's COOL.

Edited by fillerdude on Mar 28th 2024 at 7:22:17 AM

MahoAko: Ended up getting the manga for this, which says a lot about how much I enjoyed this...
Saijaku Tamer: Of all the new fantasy anime of this cour, this is one of the ones I liked the most, mainly due to the possible tears from seeing Ivy's journey so far! She must be proected at all costs!
Chiyu Mahou: The other new fantasy anime I liked this cour! Good luck on your journey, Usato!

Final Impressions

• Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita:: I vibed with this story at the beginning, with our protagonist Ivy being cruelly cast out of her hometown and having to survive on her own with nothing but her meager talents and occasionally her past life (evidently reincarnated from the modern world) speaking as a voice in her head. Then the stars start aligning for her a little too perfectly, which culminates in the last leg of the show having Ivy dismantle a syndicate with the help of her slime buddy who somehow asspulls the ability to filter evil people from the good. Oh and Ivy is apparently the only person to think about, say, setting basic traps, in a room full of hardened adventurers and officers. Baffling route for the story to take, especially when you consider how it clashes with the tranquil wanderlust of the parts before it. My personal pet peeve about the anime: the monster-taming aspect is severely underused. Ivy only tames two monsters, both of which have uninspired designs, and one is mostly shoved to the background. The other one is the aforementioned slime, which could have developed the ability to, say, slip through gaps or something, but instead nonsensically becomes an evil-ness detector. What do slimes even have to do with that?
• The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic: It's always nice when an isekai shaves away the dumber tropes. Usato has a rare type of magic, but he still has to train hard to be useful. The two other people that got transported with him don't get sidelined, plus they're friendly instead of haughty. And the people in the fantasy world are (mostly) competent and reasonable. These sound like basic things that stories should be getting right anyway, but alas, that is the state of the subgenre. I also quite enjoyed the action, which wasn't bombastic per se, but you could still appreciate the impact of every blow. What can I say, the wrong way of using healing magic is apparently the right way of making decent isekai.
• Snack Basue: The staff and patrons of this bar hold the kind of random, uninhibited conversations you expect to hear from tipsy folks, but dialed up to eleven. Expect anything from job interviews interrupted by muggings, to manifestations of unicorn-shaped inner thoughts, to invasions from characters from Not Dragon Quest. So, uh, actually, maybe don't expect anything. It's off-kilter in just the right ways to tickle my sides. However, I do think they overused a certain character, who mainly exists to be a desperate, hormonal butt monkey for sex jokes. That got predictable after a while. But everything else was a riot! Some skits had me clutching my stomach from laughter; only Bravern came close to matching that level of comedy this cour.

Edited by fillerdude on Mar 29th 2024 at 11:13:33 AM

I actually didn't know The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic was an isekai until reading your summary there.

Woo, procrastination. For the completed shows:

• Frieren: One of the heavy-hitters for this season, and an axcellent adaptation of a great manga. I can't think of any real complaints here, everyone is just so loveable, the action scenes went ridiculously hard, there's a ton of neat interactions and world-building... the only part that felt like a bit of a waste was Sein not being a permanent addition to the party, which isn't really an anime-only issue, so. The exam arc showcased a lot of fun new people that have their own dynamics going on, like grandpa Denken or the two tsundere girls, not to mention what mages are generally capable of... and how little they accomplish when dealing with Frieren or Fern's basic AF spells. Also, love the second OP and both versions of the ED, they're just beautiful songs.

• The Apothecary Diaries: The other big show of the past two cours, The Adventures of Drugremlin was highly entertaining throughout - and serves as a very needed refresher of events, given how occurences tend to be so closely linked to whatever the grand scheme is. Maomao's a delightful protagonist, devoted to her medicinal interests and fully aware of her position in the palace. Life is unfair, but oh well, she has poison to gleefully ingest for science. Again, not really much to complain about here, just some nitpicks that are mostly shared with how the manga depicted things. I'd say the anime handled her reaction to Lakan's name better, but it still implies far more hostility and hatred than she ultimately feels towards him, so that's still weird. I also just do not care for Jinshi and any possible hints at romance between him and Maomao, and the longer she continues to be drugsexual, the better on that front. Also, Season 2 confirmed for this one, so that's great.

• Banished From the Hero's Party S2: It was alright, more or less as good as the first season. We still get a bit of Rit and Red stuff, but now with Ruti trying to be a totally normal person in the background. "Luckily", the creepy weirdness the OP implies is more or less contained to Ruti and Tisse's focus episode, otherwise there's like, two scenes total where Ruti goes full brocon, and one of those times led to an actually funny bit, so... yay I think? I kinda figured that Van would be redeemed and change his ways for the better, though I did also expect Lavender to be actively corrupting him, not... coddling him purely out of love I guess. Not a bad outcome, I just wanted to see Ruti beat him up a bit more than what we got. But hey, setting continues to have that neat thing going with its' Blessings. Even the Assassin guild exists more to help people with that Blessing not turn into murderous psychos, I don't think anything else I've seen has went with that angle. In the unlikely event this got a 3rd season, I'll probably stick around for it.

• Tis Time for Torture, Princess: Either some events got shuffled, or the manga's a bit more diverse with its' scenarios than I remember. Either way, it's a decent time if you're a foodie, or just love OOT reactions from cute girls. I'm just glad that Best Dad Hell Lord got to have one of his best showings at the very end, that's probably my favourite chapter. Having him go on a whole-ass adventure fighting wildly-escalating 'threats' in some isekai world while Princess sleeps was great to see animated. There's not a whole lot to say about this show, but having read the manga, this ended up more enjoyable than I expected.

• The Foolish Angel Dances With the Devil: It's a stupid romcom with stupid leads who do stupid things stupidly and it's fun. Nice to revisit the early stuff again, Lilya truly was the best girl from the very beginning, huh. I guess a particular resolution I wanted to see again happens a bit later on, but for now... Zwei sure was there, I guess. The show excelled at the comedy and that was always a delight to experience, I can only hope for a continuation so we can see this get progressively more unhinged. Oh, right, and to see Akutsu and Lily's romance develop I guess, that's a thing too.

• Gushing Over Magical Girls: A pretty good adaptation, I think. It sure did prioritise the lewd over the battles in basically every instance, and a few times had really questionable BGM choices, but... hey, the animators knew what they wanted to do and went for it, goddamn. And even outside of that, it captured Enormeeta's dynamics well enough, I think. Kiwi is just down bad for Utena. Also, even with Hidive's uncensored version... boy was I not aware of how much you can get away with showing, is this what blindsided Funi a few years ago with that Interspecies Reviewer thing? At any rate, should this get a continuation... seriously, up the production values for the fights, they're genuinely great.

• The Weakest Tamer: It was... fine, I guess? It certainly had a strong start, but yeah, ending the whole thing with a child being the only one capable of outsmarting and bringing down some shadow organisation sure was a decision. It's yet another isekai show where the 'isekai' part has less than zero bearing, and only serves to have Ivy hear random chimes and somehow get a full, expositional sentence out of it for pure convenience. Honestly, the show was a lot more compelling when Ivy was paranoid about any connection she made with people instantly being shattered if they learned she was starless, but even from the first village she wandered into, it felt like absolutely no one would give a shit about that. Which... yeah, we learn that Ivy's village sucks hard and essentially traumatised her about that, but it kind of gives off this feeling that you need to pay absolutely no attention to any setting detail for things to make sense. It's not really a bad show, if you're looking for cute and fluffy adventures, I guess this fits the bill well enough. It's just a shame that the start was so good.

And for the ongoing ones.

• Delicious in Dungeon: It's been a fun enough ride so far, but that whole thing about the party taking their sweet-ass time to reach Fallon never stopped bugging the hell out of me. Then it turns out she really did get ingested during all the dilly-dallying, good job folks. But, y'know, putting that minor little quibble aside, the show's creativity is pretty fun when it comes to monster cuisine, and since that blatant ticking clock is no longer an issue, the rest of this show should be much more enjoyable.

• Sengoku Youku: Another great show I've been enjoying greatly, the show's already went places I didn't quite expect. Tama's adorable, Jinka's a loveable prick and Shunsuke could do with a hug right about now, probably. Hopefully the next couple cours keep this up, I have to see where things go from here.

Phew. Last couple shows air sometime tomorrow, and that's this season for me. Ended up dropping quite a few shows this go around, and left out a couple more that I really had nothing to say about. Frieren and Apothecary were the definite highlights

Interspecies Reviewers was at least partially a kneejerk reaction. I've heard the anime is way more explicit then the manga, but that doesn't change the fact that Funimation was fine with shows like Valkyrie Drive Mermaid, where the girls powers' are activated by reaching orgasm, and for that they even did the OVA shorts (dubbed even!), which are basically only kept from being hentai by the lack of netheregions being shown.

But yes, you can get away with showing pretty much everything as long as the crotch area isn't shown or drawn in (like, sometimes shows will have full nudity down there, but with no anatomy) And if its covered, they basically can be almost fully detailed.