At this point in time, the Winter seasonal shows have mostly either wrapped up or are airing their finale this week. So, I wanted to hear your thoughts on shows you watched this season. Shows you liked, disliked, were surprised by, disappointed by? Let those opinions rip!
Please feel free to use this thread as a normal weekly discussion thread as well! Anything that would normally be in the weekly discussion thread any other week is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
This seems to be a sort of consensus already on this thread - I’m following more anime this season than I think I ever have before.
For me, the best of the season has been Journal With Witch, no contest. That’s not so much a reflection of the competition though as it is just that it’s that good. I was also very impressed by You and I Are Polar Opposites. I didn’t expect a whole lot from it since I’d already read (and loved) the manga and figured it would pale in comparison, as so many adaptations do. But it not only managed to keep everything good about the manga - it added notably good animation, music and voice acting. That’s the way it should be, but cynically not what I expect.
Most of the rest of the series that I’ve followed have been good enough that I’ve continued to follow them, but not really outstanding, and unfortunately that’s included Frieren, which is still good, but nothing close to as good as the first season was. But that’s also included some series for which good enough to follow is an accomplishment in and of itself - things like Scum of the Brave, Roll Over and Die and Shiboyugi, all of which have been, if not masterful, at least better than I would’ve expected.
All in all, it’s been a solid season. The only things I dropped were Trigun Stargaze and Gnosia (and in hindsight, I could’ve dropped Champignon Witch without missing out on anything) - everything else has at least been worth watching. Mostly though, this will go down in my personal history as the season of Asa and Makio and Journal With Witch - quite possibly my new all-time favorite series.
And my watch record for last week, spoilered for space:
Started the week off quickly and impressively. On last week’s thread, Crank mentioned Kensuke Ushio, and since I don’t pay very close attention to soundtracks (other than noticing when they’re especially good), I didn’t recognize the name. But after googling, I found that he had done a surprising number of soundtracks that I remembered being impressed by. And there were of course also things I hadn’t seen and things I hadn’t even heard of, so I checked out some of those, and especially the ones I hadn’t heard of, just because I love discovering hidden gems.
And among the things I found that looked at least promising was a movie - Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru). So I tracked it down and watched it that evening, and it was wonderful. The characters are charming, the story is sweet and very satisfying, the soundtrack is terrific and the artstyle is amazing. I just loved everything about it (and especially the artstyle). So then I watched it again.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I followed a recommendation from that to Josee to Tora to Sakana tachi (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish), which was probably even better all in all, though somewhat differently. The artstyle and soundtrack were both straightforward and unexceptional, but the story was very, very good. Instead of just falling into a love relationship that could be summed up in a montage, as was the case with Words Bubble Up, the protagonists in this one - Tsuneo and Josee - had to work at it and overcome a lot of difficulties. But that just made it all the more rewarding (even if the climactic moment was a bit ridiculously contrived).
Next up I rewatched the current three episodes of Release That Witch, just because it’s caught me off guard by seeming better than I expected, and I always see better the second time through. And my opinion stands - it’s really quite good and it’s only barely scratched the surface so far. If it lives up to the world it’s in the process of building (and I see no reason why it wouldn’t), it should be well worth watching.
Then for whatever reason (I suspect just as a notably broad and extreme change of pace), I decided to indulge in some trash, and after poking around a bit, ended up with World’s End Harem, which was awful, and not in a good way. The characters were awful (and especially Reito, who’s quite possibly the single worst anime protagonist I’ve ever seen), the story was awful, the music was awful - even the ecchi was awful. It didn’t even manage to be decent trash.
So then, still in the mood for trash but unwilling to gamble again, I switched to one that I watched the first season of a year or two ago and was pleasantly surprised by the fact that underneath the trash was a surprisingly good battle royale - Queen’s Blade. And the second season was much like the first - sultry girls in bikini armor (or less) and a pretty much permanent male gaze camera angle, and behind that a solid and engaging battle royale plot fleshed out with loads of political intrigue, bitter rivalry, raw emotion, ambition, redemption, hope, tragedy, grief, well-staged fights, and even some decent comic relief. That’s the way trash should be.
Current:
Release That Witch - as already noted, it was surprisingly good, which inspired a rewatch of the three episodes up to now, which remained surprisingly good.
Shiboyugi - the final episode, and it was… okay. It left a lot of unanswered questions (including some that I thought would obviously be answered in this episode) and even introduced some new questions. But I still enjoyed both this episode and the series all in all (enough that I’m currently reading the LNs).
MF Ghost - At least they’re finally back in the cars again. And so far there’s been no confirmation that this is the last episode of the season, so maybe we’ll even get to see the end of this race without having to wait until 2028.
Roll Over and Die - just as I expected, the sort of weak and stupid Flum from last episode was a plot device to put her friends in danger so that she then would be spurred to go do some righteous asskicking to rescue them. And some righteous asskicking she did. And there’s more to come, and I’m so there for it.
Champignon Witch - Shame about this series. It started out promising - Luna was an interesting character and her situation was intriguing, but as soon as Lize was introduced, it went sharply downhill and never recovered. His story is vague and uninteresting and as a character he’s mostly just tedious. Granted that that’s not just a poor characterization - he’s tedious in-universe (and in fact, Gustave commented on exactly that in this episode). But that doesn’t make it any more interesing, or even tolerable. And after spending the latter 2/3 of the series just endlessly repeating the same tedious loops with Lize, the series ended on… repeating the same tedious loop yet again. All in all, it was just disappointingly mediocre.
Frieren - Finally, an episode that actually felt like one of the earlier Frieren episodes - the ones that made me fall in love with the series in the first place. Comfort food for the soul.
Scum of the Brave - this was just a genuinely good episode, all the way through. And even better yet, it wasn’t just good in and of itself, but as a part of the broader story. I fell into this series in the first place not so much because of what it was as because of what it seemed it could work out to be - it just seemed to have a lot of potential. But then it stubbornly failed to live up to that potential. Until now. It finally feels now like it’s coming together and becoming what it seemed it could be, and just in time for the second cour of the season.
You and I Are Polar Opposites - at this point, it’s pretty much just a given that each episode is going to be terrific, and this one was no exception. I especially enjoyed Nisshi and Yamada, but all three couples had their moments.
Journal With Witch - this was such a gratifying episode. It still had those terrific bits of brilliant insight, but the context was different, since the characters have grown so much over the past year. And notably characters plural. Not only has Asa changed, but so has Makio (and there was a great moment when you could see Makio suddenly realizing, and being pleased by, how much she’s changed). I’m just so happy for them all.