Summer 2023 anime

Synduality is a mass of generic tropes, but handled fairly well, with decent animation and a solid aesthetic. Probably wouldn't watch normally, but I am a bit desperate

Helck... I liked the manga, but the screamy humour just isn't working for me in animation

So I guess I'm watching Yohane, Murder Farce, Zom 100, Jihanki, and Synduality this season. At least fall looks better

Edited by Hylarn on Jul 11th 2023 at 9:32:09 AM

Initial Reactions: Bungou Stray Dogs S5
And we're back, continuing from the turmoil from S4... The OP is a headbanger as expected of Granrodeo, the ED is as expected of Luck Life, and Ranpo being badass is always welcome! Can't wait to see how far this'll go because at this rate, it might catch up to the manga...

First Impressions

• Helck: If you're gonna have the title of your show be the name of the main character, then he better be captivating. And Helck is damn fun to watch, crashing onto the scene as he declares that he wants to wipe humanity out, with the most cheerful smile on his face. His OP antics are a riot, but it's the intrigue that holds your attention. Why does he hate humanity? What happened to his brother? And what do the angels have to do with it? The manga has been on my radar for a while now, and this first impression did not disappoint. Definitely continuing.

- - - -

I take back what I said about My Happy Marriage. These people have supernatural powers and there’s evidently some sort of Super Breeding Program going on. Now that’s more in my wheelhouse.

Edited by fillerdude on Jul 12th 2023 at 9:29:54 AM

Tonikaku Kawaii: Joshikou-hen was pretty funny. Good continuation for the series. And with Kaguya apparing we may have some interesting developments.

P.S.: On unrelated not, I continued watching Mahotsukai no Yome. There is a chance I will catch up before S2 part 2 airs.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Jul 12th 2023 at 10:23:55 AM

First Impressions

• Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence: More romcom-y than I expected. The preview made it seem like the saint would be brattier, but she's just a cute anime girl trying to make the guy she likes notice her. Cute, if a little too vanilla. Trying until episode three.

Also dropping The Dreaming Boy Is A Realist. It's trying to be like Bunny Girl-Senpai or Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki but it doesn't even hav a fifth of either series' writing chops. I still maintain the main character somehow got brain damage. And somehow he becomes the go-to adviser for a bunch of people? I'm not buying that.

Initial Reactions: Spy Kyoushitsu S2
Hmmm, at least I can understand most of what happened here now! Let's hope that proves true for the rest of the episodesm though I'm not expecting much...

And that ends my list for the cour! I think I'm gonna like this season more than Spring!

Edited by thuse on Jul 14th 2023 at 1:04:09 AM

First Impressions

• Hataraku no Maou-sama: This is technically the start of part 2 of season 2, so it makes sense that this is sort of a breather episode after what happened at the end of part one. Still a bit sad how much of a downgrade this is compared to season 1, but I'm just glad the story is getting continued at all. There's a lot of lore waiting to be explained and this seems like the cour where we'll be getting all the juicy answers. Continuing
• Spy Classroom: OF COURSE it returns with another strangely timed flashback. I guess the episode would be more acceptable to viewers who enjoy the CGDCT antics of the girls, but for me, it mostly regurgitated information we already knew. The only new thing is Annette's mysterious backstory. Guess it's her spotlight arc next. Continuing

P.S. Undead Girl Murder Farce might actually be the best anime airing this season. Really strong second episode, too.

Spy Spy Kyoushitsu part 2: unlike you I atually prefer this show as a silly comedy over it trying to be a serious spy drama. Also, this time they are at least started with an actual plot (even if it took the minot prt of the episode).

And for me it also seems to be all for this season: 5 shows, more than I planned but less than I could have picked.

I mean I’d like it as a silly comedy if it was actually good comedy, which it isn’t, really.

Tastes differ. I like their antics personally.

Sure, I was only talking about my opinion as well.

First Impressions

Link Click: Quick recap of season one, and then it hits the ground running with a martial arts bout with a psycho killer with a nasty power, a genuinely surprising death after an obvious fakeout, and caps it all off with quite the tantalizing cliffhanger. Really glad to be able to follow this weekly now. Definitely continuing

And with that, I think everything is airing. My current frontrunners, in terms of personal enjoyment, are Mushoku Tensei, Link Clock, Undead Girl Murder Farce, Zom 100, AI no Idenshi, Reign of the Seven Spellblades and the vending machine isekai. Pretty solid slate of shows.

Edited by fillerdude on Jul 14th 2023 at 7:06:26 AM

Generally prefer to keep negative opinions to myself, since spreading negativity doesn't really help anybody, but this topic deserves doing it (but I will mix some positivity as well):

How can Gohands fumble so hard an anime adaptation of a great manga (the girl I like forgot her glasses) while also doing a good adaptation of a good manga (the masterful cat is depressed again) during the same season?

Decided to wait a week to see if after filling both episodes 1 with excess, to see how the series would actually develope in a full episode, and I'm astounded to my geniune reaction: I was grimacing to an anime I had waited for since it was announced, while I had a dopey smile for the one I was maybe going to watch until the last minute.

And then it dawned on me, whoever is in charge of "glasses girl" doesn't get the appeal of the series, while the contrary is true for "Depressed cat". The most obvious example is with the main male characters of the series: They made poor Komura loud and annoying, when he is supposed to be a sweet cinnamonroll, who is a little bit awkward, but as likeable as Mie, and as much of a source of "sugar" in the fluffy manga; meanwhile, they rightfully recognize Yukichi is the best character, so they give him a good voice that accentuates his personality (grumpy, dry, a bit stand-offish but caring and nice), as well as enhancing the scenes when he talks.

This last bit is exceptionally important, since those moments aren't from the regular manga, but instead extra chapters; but since they recognized that these bonuses are some of the best parts of the series, were included and given extra care and attention, imporving the series as a whole. To me this says they care about "depressed cat" beyond showing off they can do good 2D and 3D, which I can't say for "glasses girl". I still have a problem with "cat" having muted colors, but it's nowhere as close as my problems with "glasses".

If anyone has anything positive to say about "glasses girl" beyond graphics, please share, so I maybe I can re-examine a little, and not feel as bad as I'm feeling while writting this.

• Too long, didn't read version: "cat" good, "glasses" bad, me sad.

Edited by Shadow-Whisperer on Jul 14th 2023 at 10:48:19 AM

That sounds like a totally subjective thing, as someone who hasn't read the Glasses manga, I like Komura and Mie and how they interact. Everything you said they should be, I think that they totally hit. I think it just might be expectations hitting too far from what you'd prefer, but as its own thing I think it's fine.

I'm still watching the Depressed Cat while I dropped Glasses after the first episode, which says everything about my impressions for both series. I definitely did not like the leading couple in Glasses.

To me, thats the nice writting shining through, despite the roughness of the adaptation, and the fact that positive reactions like yours or things like "this anime is so sweet, its giving me diabetes" are rare than they should be, and instead people talking abou Gohands being Gohands, and genuinely dropping it already ( thanks for providing an example), means something is wrong with this adaptation.

An aspect that I haven't mentioned yet is the artstyle, that is causing problems, since they haven't included the multiple levels of chibiness (not sure if this is the correct word) the characters display in the manga, since most of the time the characters are an additional degree of small and cute, with full body illustrations reserved for special moments; this in turn, makes some dialogue that originally was dorky due to Komura being smol, appear off-putting with the normal Komura, as well as making the fact that Mie forgets her glasses harder to swallow for a lot of viewers (which is just seen as a silly thing in the manga).

A comparison to help exemplify the problem is "The Dangers in my Heart", which also has a manga where the characters most of the time are smol, but the anime keeps them on their large forms. The difference is that they recognized that such a change affects the vibe of the series, so they adapted it accordingly, putting greater enphasis in the emotional aspect of the characters while keeping the bigger jokes, yet downplaying the minor ones to keep a consistant tone (for those who haven't read it, the original manga of "Dangers" is funnier, with more minor gags). By not doing that with "glasses", I feel the humor (their attempts to up the jokes with visual effects can also fall flat and worsen the problem of Komura being annoying in tis version) and sweetness can be lost for people, which is a shame.

Something up with Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou Deshita: I officially cannot unsee Charlotte as Anya (from Spy x Family) now... Them having the same seiyuu is one thing, but Atsumi Tanezaki voicing her in an almost similar tone to her just makes it too uncanny!!

Zombie 100 is killing it. I like all the small changes the anime made in order to emphasize the sentimentality, or the awesomeness, of certain scenes. In particular I think they did a great job of introducing Shizuka. Having her use a remote camera to keep watch of her surroundings and having an escape vehicle ready better characterizes her as a “logical” type of survivor. Also love that they pulled some material from a bonus chapter to sort of give episode 2 a dual perspectives layout: 100 Things to Do Before Becoming A Zombie and 100 Things to Do to Avoid Becoming A Zombie.

Edited by fillerdude on Jul 16th 2023 at 7:11:29 AM

I wonder if they will adapt the extra chapter that revealed that the couple Akira befriended survived.

Heretical last boss queen is driving me bonkers because the longer I think about how this in universe otome game could work, the more it feels like it doesn't. The story also seems kind of confused in regards to treating certain characters sympathetically.

Watched the first episode of Zombie 100/Bucketlist of the Dead.

If nothing else, the pilot episode is one of the single greatest anime pilot I've ever seen, EVER. Hell, the pilot alone would be a pretty great short anime film in itself.

I heard nothing but bad things about the recent chapters of the manga, though, so I'm gonna wait a bit more.

How exactly were they bad?

The series has definitely gotten a bit more cartoony over its runtime, I would say, and it can be formulaic if you binge it (we've gone half a chapter without a zombie attack, sudden zombie from a hidden corner in 3... 2...) I think if you're going into it looking for a serious zombie story you're going to be disappointed. Zom 100 does the whole "the zombies are an environmental hazard" thing more than most, and what it's actually about is goofy people savoring what it means to be alive and the pursuit of happiness.

Edited by RedSavant on Jul 20th 2023 at 6:56:40 AM

There’s definitely that one arc which sucked, but other than that I’d say the tone and quality have been more or less consistent.

Succinctly put. Zom 100 is a goofy ass story about friends hanging out.

I'd be curious which arc you mean, since I don't know if I would say I think one has sucked so far. But overall, yeah. If you're willing to lean into its core tenets (which are "you only have one life! And I want that life to be one where I've done X!" and then rabbit punching you in the back of the skull with feelings about mortality and what's important to you) then you'll have a fine time with Zom 100.

Above all else I would say it's earnest, and if you approach it with the same mindset you'll probably be won over.

Edited by RedSavant on Jul 20th 2023 at 8:09:32 AM

The one where some jerks try to have zombies invade the village Akira's parents live in. YMMV, of course! I did think it sucked but not to the point of ruining the series.

And again agreeing with what you said. Zom 100 embraces the escapist fantasy aspect of the zombie apocalypse genre.