I just watched the raw for Hokuto no Ken: Kenou-gun Zako-tachi no Banka.

It’s a parody of the exploding minions from Hokuto No Ken, in a short weekly format, like Ganglion, and it could really use some subtitles.

The animation is… moving manga stills in powerpoint style, but the voice acting is decent.

Hopefully some small group like le même can pick it up

This season I know I’ll be watching Frieren, Trigun, and Hell’s Paradise. Maybe more? I am unsure what to try at this point.

When it comes to Frieren, I have mixed feelings. I loved the early parts of the show and the quieter episodes. The longer running battle arcs were less interesting to me.

Trigun Stampede was another show I struggled with. I come from the 98 anime as my point of reference, and I have tried and failed to read the manga on a few occasions. With Stampede, I found myself wanting to see more of the silly lighthearted Vash before immediately diving into the sad interior. But alas, the show had other plans. I am going to stick Stargaze out however because I’m still curious where things are going.

In non-current season anime, my wife and I picked up My Dress-up Darling on a whim. It’s been hanging out on my list for a while and we were looking for something fun having finished up Ruri Rocks (a show I loved btw). It’s obviously very full of fan service, and don’t get me wrong I’m here for that too, but I also like the positive vibes. It’s very heart warming and funny so far.

None of the shows I am planning on watching this season have started up yet, but there are a couple shows from this past year that I had gotten partway through that I managed to finish. In no particular order:

• Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

I knew I was going to like this show, so I was not surprised when I ended up really liking it a lot. I both loved and hated the ending. From a philosophical perspective, it was excellent, but from a narrative perspective it was a bit underwhelming. At the end of the day, this is a series that will stick with me for a long time. It was a remarkable journey into human curiosity, the motivational power of faith, the nature of knowledge, and the miracle of the written word.

• Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

I wrapped up the back half of this season after dropping off earlier in the year. It was my first ever Gundam series and I felt like I was able to keep up with the first half of the show ok. However, leading into the conclusion, I definitely felt my lack of knowledge impacted my enjoyment. Characters suddenly showed up and were referring to events from parallel timelines/universes that I had little to no knowledge of. In the end, I felt like I would have appreciated if the story stayed smaller in scope and just focused on the main trio. The space combat did look incredible though.

• My Happy Marriage - Season 2

I powered through the end of this season…but I can’t say it was a great use of my time. The peak of this show was the first major arc of season 1. Since then, it has been fairly disappointing (even if it remains as beautifully animated as ever). The climax of this season basically amounted to the MC unlocking a bunch of new powers off screen and then using them to kindly ask the main antagonist to stop doing bad things. I don’t know if there is source material being skipped over for time, or if the story is just structured very poorly (probably a mix of both), but I kept waiting for some of the magic that the show started with to come back. It never did. I will say though that the villain for this season was great and truly terrifying. However, the season ends their arc so unceremoniously that it feels like such a huge letdown.

• KonoSuba - Season 3 OVAs

These were great. I especially loved the second of these two episodes that features another adventuring party that more or less mirrors our protagonists. I had somehow forgotten about these being released this past year, so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to indulge in some more KonoSuba. It was also a nice reminder of how much I really liked the OP for this season.

Here’s my list from @alphacyberranger@sh.itjust.works’s season schedule post

• Freiren S2
• Oshi No Ko S3
• Jujutsu Kaisen S3
• Jigokuraku/Hell’s Paradise S2
• Fire Force S2 cours 2
• Tis Time For Torture, Princess S2
• Demon Lord’s Daughter Is Too Kind
• The Daily Life of a Part-Time Torturer
• Medalist S2
• MF Ghost S3 (for those with acquired tastes)
• Sentenced To Be A Hero
• My Hero Academia: Vigilantes S2
• Roll Over and Die/“Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omouna” to Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai

Looking at tracker data from this past weekend:

It looks like Kizoku Tensei is getting a lot of interest, even though it looks like standard isekai trash, and reviews are coming back with questionable production values.

Majutsushi Kunon wa Mieteiru is also getting slightly more interest and better reviews. The main characters, i.e. Kunon and the maid, seem to be enjoyable, and the show is funny, according to reviews.

Sentenced To Be A Hero/Yuusha-kei ni Shosu hit it out of the park with nearly double the already-successful numbers of the 2 shows above.

This Season

2026 is off to a great start in the form of peak anime Kaguya-sama and Watanare.

Some of the funniest chapters from Kaguya-sama anime were adapted; I laughed quite a bit. Watanare felt a tad more tame than before, but I still enjoyed it. Overall, I’d say both studios delivered.

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I have also checked out Tamon’s B-side. The first episode felt ok, but the hook isn’t strong enough at the moment. I will give it a few more episodes but I won’t be surprised if I end up dropping it.

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What I did drop is Sentenced to be a Hero.

It’s a nearly-hour long episode of unnecessary edginess. Much of the runtime is spent on the protagonist spouting “badass”, asshole-ry lines. His two sidekicks are idiots who are there just to be gag characters.

Throughout the episode I was wondering when they are going to start giving the context so that I can start understanding the plot, but in the end it’s the same old “evil authority frames MC, now MC is out to take on the whole world” premise seen in so many of such shows.

I hear people praising its animation, but a gold-plated piece of shit is still piece of shit. Without at least a decent story, no amount of production quality can make up for it.

Perhaps the story gets better in later episodes, but I don’t have the confidence that it will. Dropped with prejudice; at most 2 / 10.

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Outside of this season

I have been putting it off for the longest time because I am no good with sad / depressing stories, but I finally got around to watching Takopi’s Original Sin. It felt heavy for sure, but it wasn’t as sad as I expected it to be.

Now that I have seen it for myself, I can understand the praise it has gotten. The characters and story are very well-written, and definitely not run-of-the-mill.

I love the main theme and messages this anime is sending. (e.g. ignorance is not bliss; the world is not so black and white) If not for how heavy this kind of anime is, I would love to watch more of these.

Instant 10 / 10.

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I also watched 100 meters. This is yet another mature story with well-written characters.

In the end, the core message is a common one i.e. do something for the love of it, instead of the accolades surrounding it, but the execution / story-telling is so well-done.

I’d give it at least an 8 / 10, maybe a 9 / 10.

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Lastly, I am finally all caught up on Pokemon: Horizons, making it the longest-running anime I have ever watched (until I finish UC Gundam for good).

It is certainly cute, but even discounting the cute moments, it has a story that is good enough to keep me hooked. I also find the main cast very likable.

Heck, even the antagonists

pokemon horizons spoiler

are atypical. In this anime, they actually have two factions within the evil organisation!

That’s not something I often see outside of political series like Gundam and Gundam-likes.

I am not without complaint towards Pokemon: Horizons though. For example, the main trios’ second pokemons were severely neglected, Roy’s Wattrel criminally so. Certain parts of the story also required a heavy suspension of disbelief on my end. But since this is just a kids show, I’d just close an eye and let it slide.

All in all, I enjoyed it a lot, enough to watch 120+ episodes of it and to give it a 9 / 10.

Edit: When I think about it, this is anti-drugs propaganda for children.

The only new thing I’ve watched so far is the first episode of the third season of MF Ghost, which was pretty much exactly what I expected.

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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.

The rest of the things that interest me this season - so far, Frieren season 2, Trigun Stargaze and You and I Are Polar Opposites - have yet to air.

I’m also very much looking forward to the movies of All You Need is Kill and Milky Subway

As far as past season watches go:

I started the week off with a fascinating pair of movies - Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e aka To Every You I’ve Loved Before and Kimi wo Aishita Hitori no Boku e aka To Me the One Who Loved You.

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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.

Then I knocked around for a bit and damned if I didn’t end up watching Honey Lemon Soda again. That’s the fifth time now. I had no intention of watching it - I was just browsing, waiting for something to jump out at me, and came across it, and smiled, and went ahead and clicked on episode 1, and that was pretty much that.

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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.

Then, refreshed with a dose of comfy, familiar fluff, I dove into a series I’ve been wanting to watch, when the time was right, for years - The Promised Neverland.

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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.

And I’m currently in the middle of a very nice series I just stumbled across - Hanasaku Iroha.

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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.

Finished Hana yori Dango. It was delightfully messy and super fun to watch. I really liked the female characters. Tsukushi is an amazingly strong main heroine, Tsubaki is a great sister and adult, and Shigeru’s personality makes her a good friend. Also, it’s truly pretty aesthetic-wise. I’m all about seasonals, but I get where the nostalgia for old art-styles is coming from.

This Season

• Sentenced to Be a Hero – instant drop. I was quite baffled to see such an overwhelming positive reception of its premiere around the net. I’m glad people have something to enjoy and look forward to though, it’s simply not for me.
• Tamon’s B-Side – I’ve read a couple of chapters after the adaptation announcement to see what to expect, and so far so good. Utage’s obsession with Tamon is what I’m here for. Can I also get a second season of Eripiyo fangirling over Maina?
• Hana-Kimi – It would have looked so good if it was adapted in its time.
• Ikoku Nikki – I think it’s the earliest in the season I get my AOTS contender.

Excited for fate/strange Fake and JJK. I need to catch up on Frieren, keep hearing it’s great.