The Anime Thread

Since the season is coming to a close and new shows will be starting soon, I'll probably be wrapping this up in short order for other recaps and preview impressions. With that said,...

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 9 (#21)

The Basics: Juju and Shinju come back into play to help with the Coffin cosplay, and Gojo has to spend the night at Marin's place.

Manga Related Notes: This brings us to Volume 10 of the manga, covering Chapters 72-74. Minus the usual visual flourishes and minor dialogue changes, this was pretty much another spot-on translation of the manga. They even used a couple of shots that were, once again, seemingly taken straight from the manga when Marin was reacting to Gojo at the end. The main differences I saw had to do with the game (wasn't pixel art in the manga, no pre-game warning shown).

Details (and potential spoilers, you've been warned): So Juju and Shinju are back in the mix! And once again, we get the greatest hits from Juju (in particular her "Yes I exist!" reactions when people say "I didn't think you were real!" in front of her). But we also got to see her big sister side come out, especially during Shinju's reaction to Juju initially saying no to the group cosplay. The expression game on both sisters in that sequence was comedy gold, and Jad Saxton's Shinju performance in the dub was great.

We also got some more seeds of potential drama between Akira and Marin planted, with poor Gojo seeming to get caught in the middle. But then we get to Gojo starting the game and having to spend the night at Marin's because of a train accident, which leads to a shopping trip which leads us to a rom-com staple: the misunderstanding. And oh boy, did Marin EVER misunderstand things. Should make the next episode very interesting, considering how serious Gojo was talking and how seriously Marin was taking his tone. But I do love Gojo's logic (can't sleep over if you don't actually sleep lol).

Random side note: Suzuka and Miyako's reactions and subsequent breakdowns over not being able to see pics of Marin's Rei-sama cosplay were great to begin with, but made that much better with the animation choices by CloverWorks.

Oh my.

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 (#22)

The Basics: Marin freaks out over spending the night with Gojo, Gojo plays Coffin, and Maring waffles about confessing to Gojo.

Manga Related Notes: This episodes sticks with Chapters 75-77 of Volume 10 of the manga, once again sticking pretty close to the manga for the most part. The big change? Gojo's playthrough of Coffin was REALLY able to express how horrifying and disturbing of a game they created for the manga/show.

Details (and potential spoilers, you've been warned): Speaking of Coffin, woof, talk about disturbing. With the manga, it was a lot of text blended together and trying to parse through that could actually shield you from it. But the show? Nope, they didn't hold back, and considering they put a content warning on the game loading screen, I'm surprised they didn't include it again before the episode. Definitely some content that could trigger a person.

And yet, they were able to blunt it quite a bit when Gojo made the call to Suzuka and Shinju giving his impressions of the game and you see the ladies' expressions as he recounts his playthrough. Some much needed levity and humor after all that.

And then there's poor Marin, twisting herself in knots all through the show. First she freaks herself out so much about "spending the night" that she ends up conking out and sleeping till almost noon. Then after the regrets fest over realizing her misunderstanding, she freaks herself out again imagining Gojo rejecting her confession, to the point of bringing herself to tears.

And then Gojo heals most of that imagined rejection by fixing her a dinner that she off-handedly mentioned wanting to have, even though she's still on a diet. But even so, that fear still lingers enough that she can't bring herself to confess that night.

We also get a nice sisterly moment between Shinju and Juju, and a seed for more story.

Random side note: If that's what Marin is like when "weak" because she's depressed, do NOT let her rage at full strength.

Might as well get some of the end-of-season reviews out of the way, at least in part (still have some shows to finish/watch).

A Couple of Cuckoos came back for a second season, and I'm not sure exactly what to feel about it. I liked getting the continuation of the story, but the presentation of the season kind left at least a bit to desire. The animation itself was fine, but even watching week-to-week I had more than one instance of feeling like "did I miss an episode?" when an episode started. I don't know if the new girl to the harem (Ai) was really needed, and they hinted at some kind of major story with an older brother that's in the mix that went absolutely nowhere besides a couple of cryptic cameos. I don't know, like I said it was good to get more story, but I can't say it has me hyped for a potential third season.

Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter was another one that left me a bit mixed. They spent a good few episodes right at the beginning forging the relationship between the tutor (Allen) and the Duke's daughter (Tina), but once the tutor ended up being surrounded by people and women his own age, THAT story and everything that had gone on seemed a lot more interesting, even with the hints of some lost magic being recovered with Allen working with Tina. Lydia, Allen's adopted sister Caren and even Tina's older sister Stella all made for more interesting characters for Allen to bounce off of, and I would have preferred seeing more of their stories with each other. But part of that could be my minor weakness for anime redheads, I guess.



And that's nothing, you should see her mom. LOL It wasn't a bad show overall, but I think it could have been better.

Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer! was more solid. Yes, it's a recent trope that's slowly getting close to the saturation point, but it had a decent amount of humor and action to keep me engaged through the run of the show. My only possible complaint is that the climactic battle with the chimera aboard the airship fell a little flat (maybe they were running on fumes for that part of the production, I don't know) but like I said, it was more solid than most this year.

I had a few clips pop up here and there for The Water Magician, so I gave it a go and pretty much binged the series to finish out my vacation this past week. Another solid show, kind of following in the "slightly clueless protagonist" mold of Lloyd from Last Dungeon Boonies and Zenos from Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows but with more of a edge. Ryo isn't afraid to give his friends crap in a playful way and knows his strengths, but wrong those friends or threaten them? He's not afraid or concerned about starting a war between nations. More interesting than one might think, with good animation and art (backgrounds look like they were painted on canvas).

Finally, there's Dealing with Mikadono Sisters is a Breeze, which was a lot of fun (probably second only so far to this season of Dress-Up Darling). Gorgeous artwork and animation showing a kid who is nowhere near being close to being a prodigy being adopted by a family of prodigies (actress, martial artist, shogi player) and building a family with them. However, in trying to build family with them, he kind of rizzes all three sisters in the process (due in part to his good looks from his prodigy actress mother, due in part to his good hearted actions). I never hesitated when that popped up in my queue, and I may rewatch it to give the dub a shot.

There's only a few anime I've ever been interested in. So it was with great surprise I found out Paranoia Agent is on YouTube! Knowing how fickle YouTube is about stuff, I'd watch it while you can.



PS: I wouldn't have commented if it was recently post since it could have easily gotten a takedown notice. Except the series was posted THREE years ago! So there shouldn't be any guilt involved with viewing it.

Oh man, talk about a blast from the past! That one and FLCL I remember being some of the best "what the heck did I just watch?!" series that Toonami aired back in the day.

Ok, I WILL get to finishing the Dress-Up Darling recap, I swear! LOL But I just gotta say something about one of the new shows for fall, and that's May I Ask for One Final Thing?



Crunchyroll is doing a simul-dub for the show, and the first two episodes are already up in both English and Japanese. It's already been a fun show, with both the physical action AND verbal sparring in the dub being spot on and wonderful to watch. Morgan Laure as Scarlet and Reagan Murdock as Prince Julius are great in their back-and-forth in their roles and really do make the show so far. We're also getting some decent world-building as well, and I do want to see where things go.

Almost there...

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 11 (#23)

The Basics: Gojo and Akira start prep for the Coffin cosplay while Suzuka and Miyako try to surprise Juju with a cosplay, and advice from the veterans is dispensed all around.

Manga Related Notes: This episode covers Volume 10, Chapters 78-79 and Chapters 80-81 of Volume 11. This time around, there was quite a bit of re-arranging of content, as Akira's backstory at the beginning was a later part of her conversations with Gojo, for starters. Not only that, but Gojo and Akira's work came first in the manga followed by Miyako and the girls working with Juju. They kept going back and forth in the anime between the two groups, but both methods worked pretty well for telling the story.

Details (and potential spoilers, you've been warned): So we get to see that Akira didn't have exactly the most supportive mother in the world, and you just end up feeling for her and rooting for her in the flashbacks when she found Suzuka and Miyako after moving from home. We also get to see that Juju does not, in fact, like surprises (even though the stick puppet imagining of her loving it was adorable) and she was having doubts about continuing cosplay. But she got to see a potential future thanks to the experiences and advice of her elders, even if Juju has to remind Suzuka and Miyako to adult better. LOL

We also see that Marin had picked up on Akira's behavior around her, catching Akira talking normal while Marin wasn't there. But did she misread why Akira is acting the way she is?

Random side note: It's nice to know Miyako was able to step aside from the moment and realize the photo shoot might look a little sketchy, even with it being a girl's party and all.

And finally...

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 12 (#24)

The Basics: The Coffin cosplay takes place, and many things are revealed all around.

Manga-Related Notes: This covers Chapter 82 through most of Chapter 85 in Volume 11 of the manga, and BOY were there a lot of notes. Marin's practice confession to her plushie in the beginning of the episode wasn't in the manga, but still downright adorable. In the manga we get to see Amane, Marin and Gojo meet up at the photo shoot with a fun little interaction between Marin and Amane, but I can see why that was cut from the anime. The location of the photo shoot was different as well, as it was set in another apartment building in the manga, not the location used in the show. We also lost a little moment during the photo reviews where Amane is really taken aback by Marin's photos, and Akira having magazines with Marin on the cover was handled differently (and made for a decent joke) in the manga. Also, everything in the show after Juju chastises Suzuka and Miyako about surprising people was anime original content, as the remainder of the chapter and volume sets up for the next story arc.

Details (and potential spoilers, you've been warned): So we finally get the photo shoot, and not only do we get to see that Juju REALLY can't handle horror, we also find out why Akira acts the way she does around Marin. It was really well done and pretty true to the manga (cupid arrow to the chest and all lol) but if I had any complaint about it, it's that they played it a lot closer to the vest in the manga. They dropped a couple hints in the show that weren't in the manga, and it kinda gave away the game. But the reactions were still just as funny in both mediums and Akira's voice actor nailed it. Still, you have to feel for both Juju and Akira, the day was just too much for the both of them.

And so we get to the divergence from the manga, because in the source material Marin was going to confess to Gojo at an afterparty (which didn't take place in the show) but he left so that he could start prep for their next cosplay (hinted at during the closing credit animation). The goodbyes were where things changed up, but it still all worked well to wrap up the season. I did get a kick out of the small cartoon Marin cheering herself on to confess, and the asking for the selfie was a nice way to end things without an actual confession and tie back into Marin wanting a photo of her and Gojo from earlier in the season. And darn it, they took a great selfie together, didn't they?

Final notes: So going into the season, I was encouraged that CloverWorks was coming back and I was blown away by what they did for this season. I didn't have any major issues with how they rearranged the story sequences to fit how they told the story (just about everything was more nitpicky than anything else) and they hit every major story beat from the source material. And the montage at the end recapping two seasons worth of cute rom-com moments between Marin and Gojo was icing on the cake. Everything about this season just worked so very well, and it'd almost be a crime if they didn't do a third season and CloverWorks wasn't involved. I haven't gotten the latest volume of the series (hits the US this month), but we'd still have at least three and a half more volumes of content to work with, so if there's no third season then maybe a movie? Who knows, I'll find out how much material is left when I read the next volume.

Overall? Wholehearted recommendation for this season, can't say enough good things about it.

Well, this is something of a blast from the past.

CLAMP's New Magic Knight Rayearth Anime to Air in 2026 - News - Anime News Network

YES!

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Anime Gets 3rd Season - News - Anime News Network

And here I thought I was done gushing about Dress-Up Darling. LOL

I finally got around to ordering the latest volume (should arrive this week) and there is some encouraging news about how much more material there is to work with. As I mentioned in my last episode review, this season took us through most of volume 11 of the manga. The latest volume released is volume 14, and it looks like there's a volume 15 coming later. So that leaves us with four full volumes and whatever was left in volume 11 to work with for another season.

Unfortunately I have the feeling the wait for volume 15 (spring release of next year) is going to be slightly torturous once I read volume 14.

I LIKE Scarlet!

For me, it's the combination of her elegance, caring and absolute ruthlessness when it comes to giving a deserving person a serious beatdown that makes it fun to watch her.

What's even more fun is the way others have reacted to her beatdowns.



Julius has some competition....?

My new hero!

I LOVE this anime!