The Anime Thread

So I was ordering some stuff last night, and lo and behold I discovered that there's going to be something of a double-whammy of show releases next month.

Releasing on the same day on Blu-Ray? The first seasons of My Dress-Up Darling AND More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers. They couldn't, like, pace the releases out, oh no. They just HAD to release them both on the same day. LOL

Oh well, at least I should be getting season 1 of Eminence in Shadow this week.

Oh wow! Two of my fav shows! Did you see this on Amazon? Did they say how much $$$?

Yeah, on Amazon. Unfortunately I can't remember the prices for each offhand. And I think I saw a listing for the latest DanMachi season coming out later in November as well.

A Play Through of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life is proving to be surprisingly very good. Taichi just wants to play & relax in game while drawing as little attention to himself as possible. As of this last episode, all of that is now down the drain lol. He’s no longer anonymous and I can see his new found notoriety causing him all kinds of trouble ahead.

So a couple of fun spooky bits for the day.

First, ANN has an article compiling images from manga and anime artists/shows celebrating the day. The Kitagawa illustration is particularly neat (and no, I'm not just saying that because I'm expecting my next volume of My Dress-Up Darling to arrive today lol).

Happy Halloween From the Anime World! - Interest [2023-10-30] - Anime News Network

Secondly? Well, can you imagine what might happen with a crossover between Overlord and The Eminence in Shadow, especially if Cid and Ains swapped bodies in the process?

The Overlord x Eminence in Shadow SD Crossover Anime Is Now a Thing That Exists - Interest - Anime News Network

Haven't watched it, but how can you not love that kind of setup?

Love it!

No actual date yet, but next year...

Oshi no Ko Anime's 2nd Season to Air in 2024 - News - Anime News Network

I am so looking forward to this

Joker.
Harley.
Waller.
Deadshot.
Clayface.
King Shark.
Peacemaker.

All in a very manic looking isekai anime. What's not to love?

So Crunchyroll seems to have a full schedule come the winter season.

Crunchyroll Announces Release Schedule for Winter 2024 Anime Season - News - Anime News Network

Well some shows have started wrapping up.

The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy tried it's best, I think. It had some hints of story that could have been interesting to dive into, but it just seemed to stay at surface level and didn't really go anywhere. And the stuff they did introduce didn't really get delved into to make me want to see more or learn more. The action scenes were at best okay, but it ended up a little stiff and dull. As for characters? Well, I'm having a tough time remembering character names right now (even though I watched it this morning), and let's just say the Demon Sword Master of the title is no Anos Voldigoad.

At best it was something to watch, but overall kinda generic and forgettable. It can fill some time but it's not really one I'd go out of my way to recommend.

So two more finished up for me.

First, The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent was a great bookend to the first season. I still chuckle that Sei never seemed to realize that she seemed to be surrounded by hot/cute guys all the time, but the relationship between her and Albert progressed nicely as a result so I can't really compain there. They also expanded on an interesting idea or two (what happens to Sei after the bulk of her Saint work is done) and I may have been reading into it a bit but it almost seemed like the friendship between Elizabeth and Aira (the other girl summoned along with Sei) might have been developing into a little more (hard to tell since they weren't the focus of the series, but there was some surprising blushes between the two in some interactions). If you liked the first season you're in for more of the same goodness.

Also, The Eminence in Shadow finished. Whoa what a ride this season! So much action, more of the great misunderstandings between Shadow and his Garden that still somehow managed to work out in his favor, new and interesting characters to bounce around with and even a beach/hot spring/swimsuit episode thrown in for good measure.

And the ending? Wow! Ties in perfectly with some info shared in the episode and perfectly sets up for the just-announced film coming.

The Eminence in Shadow Series Gets Anime Film - News - Anime News Network



Can't wait to see the questions that came up in the end segment of the finale get answered with this.

Welp. today concluded one of my favorite animes this season "Tearmoon Empire". It is about a selfish princess, Mia Luna Tearmoon, who, is given a second chance as her 12 yo self after being executed at age 20. It is a very good anime, full of so many misunderstandings Ain Ool Gown would be impressed.

I recommend Tearmoon Empire to watch.

I agree, it was a good anime, Just finished it yesterday

Two more finished for me.

The Faraway Paladin's new season was a really good one. It's bound to give folks some serious LOTR vibes (I know I had them myself lol) but I think they made it their own and told a really good story in the process. The action scenes were top notch and there are some surprising reveals (especially at the end). My only real complaint was from early on in the show, and that it really helps to sit down and watch the first season right before the second because they dump you right back into the world without a real recap episode. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you liked the first season.

Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me also finished up. It was a surprisingly thoughtful show, despite what you see in the opening song. The "experienced" part was with the female lead Runa, who is revealed to have something of a body count, shall we say. With past boyfriends she went to bed with them right away because that's what she thought she should do while dating. Ryuto, however, wants to get closer emotionally to her before doing anything like that, and that's where the show goes from there.

Overall the show was decent and at times very sweet, but I think a lot depends on how you take/view Runa. Her naivete is very much a part of who she is, but she can come across as way too trusting or downright dumb if you forget that's a central part of her character. It gets especially tough when it comes to some of the conflict resolution in the show, so it's tough to tell if it's bad writing or just a character who takes what she's told at face value a LOT.

I liked it enough to keep watching, as some of the story beats were surprising and the rest of the cast adds some decent flavor. But as I said, I think a lot is going to come down to how you interpret Runa and her actions. I'd say give it a shot to see what you think, but I know it won't be for everyone.

I'll post my recap after I watch the last episode, but they've already annnounced that The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is going to be getting a second season.

Color me psyched, which should tell you something about how the recap is going to sound.

And once again, I had two more shows finish up.

100 Girlfriends did finish up, and what a fun ride it was. Going by the premise, this show could have (and in some ways probably should have) been a complete train wreck. A harem comedy where the protagonist has to successfully have 100 girlfriends and if he doesn't, the girls who fall for him may well face a grim fate? So much could have gone wrong with that.

But it's a show that's VERY funny, well into the "bonkers" category of comedy, and that helps tremendously. The girls themselves fall into archetypes (if not stereotypes) but are still decently developed and stand apart from each other well. And most importantly, the softer moments between Rentaro and his ladies are all very sweet and heartfelt. It's a balancing act that really shouldn't have worked, but by golly they made it work.

I'm looking forward to the next season, if for no other reason than to see if it's four or five new girlfriends being added to the mix (depends on which ladies you count as potential girlfriends featured in the closing credits). But as the title of the last episode said, only 94 to go. LOL

The newest season of Girlfriend, Girlfriend also finished. This season we got a little heavier dose of Mirika (who was Milika in the first season, I think, gotta love name pronunciation shifts in some anime) but also Saki's friend Shino, who it was revealed also had feelings for Naoya. Mirika was an absolute nightmare at times this season, with the "spike everyone's food and kidnap Naoya" pattern happening, and it really made me wonder why any of them (especially Naoya) would tolerate it at all.

Shino's character arc was very well done, though, and even though she keeps having the "accidental perv" moments with Naoya (gotta wonder if she was doing it subconsciously) it was a very bittersweet and tender story told.

Overall I liked the season, but I think a lot will depend on how well one can tolerate Mirika and her actions, as they really did cross the line multiple times. If you liked the first season you'll probably like the second.

Since my shows of choice for this season have wrapped up and I had the day off and some extra time, I sat down and watched the "Reincarnated as a Slime" movie Scarlet Bond.

The story told is a great one, introducing another survivor of the Ogre village who gets the name Hiiro. Unfortunately his reunion with Benimaru and the gang (childhood friends) comes after he attacks Geld and the Orcs without knowing what has happened since the attack. And the story goes on from there.

Overall I thought it was a decent film (yes, it runs at feature length, just under an hour and fifty minutes). When things get straightened out between Hiiro and the residents of Tempest, you get many of the gags we got from the last season (i.e. "That's Veldora?!" "He's friends with Milim?!") and they still land. But you also get a decent story of intrigue about what's happening in the country that Hiiro serves and their queen. Plus you can tell they had some money to spend, because the fights and animation overall is really top notch.

The only possible knock against the movie is one that I read in a review and have to agree with: that the threat introduced doesn't really come across as a real threat because of Rimuru. It's set after the last season, so Rimuru is in full-blown Demon Lord mode now. In the review there's an argument made that Rimuru can come across as irresponsible in dealing with the antagonist and could have done a lot more to contain the havoc and damage. It probably would have gotten in the way of the story they were telling with Hiiro and the queen, so I can understand to an extent why they made those choices, but it is a fair argument to make.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Scarlet Bond - Review - Anime News Network

Overall I liked it, though, and I think if you liked the show it's probably going to be a like for you as well.

Jujutsu Kaisen S2 wrapped up yesterday and they already announced the next season/arc. I feel bad for the animators lmao.