It can’t really be anything else - not only is it following a formula - it’s following the same formula Initial D used, with only a few updates (like the droning commentary being supplied by professional race announcers rather than random guys standing by the side of the road). But it’s doing a fine job all in all of following the admittedly proven formula, so that’s okay.

And speaking of Initial D, this episode of MF Ghost did have one moment of pure awesome, when the announcers are reminiscing about Takumi - the protagonist of Initial D and the mentor of the protagonist of MF Ghost - and I suddenly realized that I could faintly hear Rage Your Dream - the immortal ED of Initial D Stage One - playing in the background.

I do have one issue with the series - an ongoing one - and this’ll give me a chance to kick it out of my brain. The whole “but his car’s so underpowered” thing, which was central to Initial D and thus central to this as well, is already plainly asinine, since the two dominant cars so far, other than his, have been a Porsche Cayman and an Alpine A110. So every time someone starts rattling on about how he can’t win unless he gets a more powerful car to compete with the Ferraris and Lamborghinis, I have to fight the urge to shout at the screen.

They are literally a pair of movies. They’re set in a near future in which the existence of parallel universes has been proven and a new field of science has grown up around them. The protagonist’s life branched radically at the point of one choice he made as a child, leading to two notably different futures. Relatively early in his life the two parallel universes briefly overlap, then much later, and by design, they do again. The two movies tell the story of those events, one from the point of view of one timeline and the other from the other. So whichever movie you watch first (I watched them in the order I listed them above), you see the life of that version of the protagonist, and only get the bits of the other version that you can pick up from the times when they overlap. Then with the second movie, you get all of the context behind all of those bits you picked up in the first movie, plus that protagonist’s interpretation of the events of the overlaps. It’s technically intriguing, but it’s also touching and thoughtful, as you see the profound effects seemingly simple choices can have on lives. I really enjoyed them.

A lot of what I like about it is that Uka is an unusually accurate portrayal of social anxiety (something with which I’m all too familiar). Most portrayals don’t get it right (the Bocchi the Rock adaptations are especially bad, but that’s another rant for another day), presumably because the people writing it haven’t actually experienced it, so they’re just sort of guessing. But Honey Lemon Soda nails it with Uka.

But the thing that I really appreciate about it - it’s often compared to Kimi ni Todoke, and I can see the similarities, but Kimi ni Todoke gets it all entirely wrong. Shouta treats Sawako one of two ways, alternating between being overly considerate and being awkward and avoiding her, and both of those are awful ways to deal with social anxiety, since the first is demeaning and the second is only what you pessimistically expect. With Honey Lemon Soda though, Kai forces himself into Uka’s life just enough to get her attention, then just sort of points her in the right direction and waits for her to sort things out for herself, while making sure that she knows that if she really needs saving, he’ll be there, but other than that, she’s pretty much on her own. And that’s perfect - it’s enough of a goad to keep her going, and enough security to give her the courage she needs, but without making her his focal point, which would just make her feel pressured. And the whole thing is neatly summed up when Serina - Kai’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend who’s introduced as a suspected love rival - says that the difference between them is that being with Kai made her weaker, but it makes Uka stronger. And it does.

And it was brutal and frightening and sad, and oddly, stubbornly optimistic, and very, very good. I liked pretty much everything about it (even the ending, which is a montage of scenes presumably from events from the manga, and a pretty significant timeskip). A particularly notable thing about it to me was that the animation and the sound were both very good, but I only noticed them from time to time because I was so caught up in the characters and the story. That’s the way it should be IMO.

It’s about a naively earnest and determined girl who had basically been the grown-up to her irresponsible mother, right up until her mother took off with her boyfriend, and dumped Iroha off on her grandmother - a cold and domineering taskmaster who runs a hot spring inn. It’s pretty much pure SOL, with very little ongoing plot to speak of, but as should be the case with SOLs, the characters and their interactions and growth more than make up for it. I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The only downside so far is that the OP of the first cour is so far up into high-pitched little girl voice range that it makes my ears hurt, but that’s what skip is for.