The Anime Thread

This looks very interesting, I tthink I will watch this one

Finally, the conclusion!

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...are-you-the-only-one-who-loves-me-ova/.163508

Oresuki was a great show and I'm glad to see the conclusion is getting streamed, and on all the major anime streaming services no less. I haven't watched it yet, but the Funimation app lists the runtime at about an hour and ten minutes.

Oooh, we're getting all fancy now.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...ter-on-4k-blu-ray-disc-on-december-22/.164069

Not only are they releasing the Akira remaster in December, a week before Akira gets the video release Funimation is releasing the Blu-Ray edition of Paranoia Agent.

Truly some holiday-themed releases there. LOL Great gift ideas for the anime fan in your life, though.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Climax finished up this week.

Wow. Just wow.

If you've followed the show in the first two seasons, watching this season is a must. An absolute must. There's the usual comedy along with resolutions to character arcs and some really great payoffs. Granted, how satisfying some of those resolutions are can depend on which character pairings one might ship, but there are resolutions nonetheless. I won't say anything about what happens, but the last two episodes of the show alone are well worth watching. The second-to-last episode alone shows how effective anime can be in showing character drama and interaction.

No hesitations or caveats. I recommend this one wholeheartedly.

I absolutely loved this season, as you said it is a must see anime.

The series as a whole could easily be used as a template of how to do romantic comedy/drama shows well, but they knocked it out of the park with this season.

And from the mildly controversial side of things (there was some uproar over her appearance, I guess?) it looks like Uzaki-chan Wants To Hang Out! is getting a second season.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...nts-to-hang-out-anime-gets-2nd-season/.164477

The first season just ended (haven't watched the last episode yet) so I can't give an assessment of that season, but so far it's been okay but not really a stand-out show. Maybe I'll have a different opinion once I see the last episode, but I can't really say the thought of a second season has me psyched up.

We'll see.

Hmmm. Rent A Girlfriend ended, but there is a second season already announced.

It's a tough one to call. The main character is a train wreck most of the time, but at the same time you see him growing and (more importantly) wanting to grow into a better person as the show goes on. But at the same time, he regularly falls into some of his worse habits, and any growth either gets stifled or is set back. So in that regard it can be a slightly frustrating watch at times.

Especially with the last episode, but I think that was done as much to keep a status quo of sorts going into a second season.

I think the biggest challenge is that we hear a LOT of the main character's inner dialogue and hear where he's coming from and such, but it's not the same with the girls in the show. The reasons why most of the female characters in the show are doing what they are doing is not expressed nearly as much, and the one who does get some explanation is done mainly through an ending song showing her past.

It's not a bad show, but getting through it means getting through some of the more cringe-worthy actions and behaviors of the main character. I just hope we get more of the point-of-view of the female characters in the show for some additional perspective and to round out the characters more.

Worth a check, I guess. I'm definitely more interested in a second season of this than a second season of Uzaki-chan, if that means anything. LOL

English dub trailer.

Two other shows finished up, The Misfit of Demon King Academy and Monster Girl Doctor.

Demon King Academy was actually kind of fun. The show got a little info-dump heavy in the last couple of episodes but otherwise it was pretty entertaining. Even though the main character Anos is VERY much a wish-fulfillment kind of character (super duper overpowered and always has a plan) they managed to keep him from being boring and made it fun to watch his plans (and his counters to those who tried to stand against him in some way) play out. There's some cheesy stuff in the show, I won't deny that. But I enjoyed watching the show, and if you liked shows like The Irregular at Magic High School that have OP main characters you might like this one. It probably could have used a little more time or a couple more episodes to avoid the info-dump episodes, but it's not too bad.

Monster Girl Doctor was what I'd call mostly harmless fun. It takes a lot of cues from Monster Musume, including some fan service moments, but for the most part it doesn't go too far. Unless you count some of the interactions between Dr. Glenn and the attendants of the lead centaur Tisalia. That gets a little...interesting, even though everyone involved remains clothed.

Overall it's pretty tame, though. Glenn usually has his hands full with the cases he encounters and they offer a different way of world-building (we usually get some background on the monster girls he's treating/diagnosing as he does his work). If I have one complaint about the show, it's a minor one that was never really explained: why Sapphentite (Glenn's lamia assistant at his clinic) isn't allowed to pursue a more...physical relationship with Glenn. More than one of the monster girls are pretty aggressive in that regard, and it's never said why their mentor forbids Sapphentite from doing the same.

Oh well, like I said, it's a minor quibble. It's no Monster Musume, but that's okay as the show does its own thing reasonably well. It's not really a standout show, but if you like monster girls at all it's worth a look.

The misfit Demon King was one of my favorite anime this season

Okay, quick update on Uzaki-chan, it's pretty much what I figured. Just kinda ended, nothing significant happened. It's not a bad show, but it is just kinda....there. Not anything I could wholeheartedly recommend, but there are worse things to watch.

Other bit, though? They started off the fall season with a BANG! Usually releases get paced out a bit over the first week, but within a few days we had the Inuyasha sequel, the next seasons of Irregular at Magic High School and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, Tonikawa: Over The Moon for You, Burn the Witch, and a ton of other shows all get released.

Funimation alone had 11 different shows release on their streaming platform between October 1st and today (the 4th). And even though a couple of them are shared with other streaming platforms (I think Yashahime is being streamed on all the platforms) that's a ton of shows to release over a four-day span.

Could be a busy fall for folks, and I don't envy those who do reviews of seasons.

Okay, with all the big name stuff in the fall season, I think there's a fun little sleeper on Funimation and that's Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle.

The setup? The princess of a peaceful kingdom gets kidnapped by a Demon King in an attempt to destabilize the peace of the realm. The twist? She has nothing much to do other than sleep, so the show follows her plans and the actions she takes to get a good night's sleep.

And she does not mess around. LOL

I won't say much more about what happens, but the aesthetic goes full in on cute (her main guards are Teddy Demons lol) and it knows how to execute some great comedy. Looking forward to more episodes.

Couple fun bits of news, they've announced a second season for Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It AND a third season for Kaguya-sama: Love is War!

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...ied-to-prove-it-anime-gets-2nd-season/.165317

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ne...love-is-war-anime-gets-3rd-season-ova/.165571

As for shows this season? So far I'm watching the third season of DanMachi (I'm using the shorthand from now on, hate having to type "Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls..." every single time LOL) and the new season of The Irregular at Magic High School for older shows. Both have been pretty good so far and really engaging.

New stuff for me includes:

• I'm Standing on 1,000,000 Lives-Kind of a weird "thrown into a video game-like world" show with a peculiar sense of humor. Seems like there's a little more lurking under the surface with the characters, hope they explore it well.
• Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You-A romantic comedy, very interesting so far. The comedy is working well (the maids introduced in the fourth episode are fun) and there are some interesting hints about there being something more-than-meets-the-eye to our heroine.
• Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle-Already talked about that one in my last post. LOL
• Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World-Potential star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of an ages-long war. Downside? They lean REALLY heavy into the typical tropes you might see in such a story in anime, including hints that the two probably met as kids without realizing it. If you can get past that, though, I think there might be a little more to the story. Hopefully they got the majority of their tropes out of their system in the first few episodes.
• By The Grace of the Gods-I'll be blunt with this one: it's fluff. LOL An overworked salaryman from Japan dies and gets reincarnated in a fantasy world and spends his first few years there learning to tame and make new kinds of slimes. There's been no real threats so far, the slimes are cute and varied, he's on very good terms with both the gods that sent him there AND the noble family he encountered and helped in the first episode and seems to have a very cute blonde-haired girl enamored with him. But it's not a bad show and probably good as a palate cleanser of sorts if you indulge in too much darker/grim content.

Quick Tenchi update.

Two more of the episodes of the new series have dropped (the latest just last week) and it's continued to be entertaining for me. It's very much a story of how Kenchi came to be who he is in the War on Geminar series, but there's been some fun along the way. I've still got to try to do some digging on yet MORE characters to get some background (if it's out there) but a couple of the takeaways:

• If given the chance, Fuku from the GXP series WILL throw someone in the water. As is, grabbing them, spinning around multiple times and sending them flying through the air into the nearest body of water.
• The latest episode has a hilarious callback to a scene early in this series involving summoned monsters.
• There may have been some development in Tenchi's relationship status with the ladies in his circle, as ***SPOILER WARNING*** he ends one episode asking all of them if he can make a selfish request. The next episode starts with a lot of sparkling in the morning sun among that group and Ryo-Ohki getting embarrassed when Kenshi sees them and asks Ryo-Ohki if something good happened. LOL
• Seeing one of Kenshi's first serious training runs goes a long way in explaining why he was so skilled in the War on Geminar series. If that was typical of his training, it's no wonder no one could lay a finger on him on Geminar.

There's more I could go into, but I feel like that covers a lot without delving more into spoilers.
Now to go do some research....

Boy, did I fall down the cabbit hole. LOL

Found myself a Tenchi Muyo wiki on Fandom, and it's rather extensive.

Tenchi Muyo Wiki | Fandom

I found just about all the answers and info I could have hoped for in regards to characters popping up in the current OVA series, with even a bit of info on Jovia.

Cliff notes version: this OVA series is bringing in a lot of characters and history from many of the spinoff novels (GXP novels and the Paradise War series in particular), so it might not hurt to either read up on some of that stuff beforehand or keep the wiki handy when someone pops up and makes you say, "Wait, who's this person?!"

But the worst part for me? I'm an info junkie of sorts, so diving into that wiki meant following one link, followed by another, and then another, and so on..... It's been fascinating to learn how the original creator has managed to tie in just about all of his work into the Tenchi universe in some way, shape or form. Even Photon: The Idiot Adventures has links.