Witch Hat Atelier was my biggest disappointment of the season, other than Agents of the Four Seasons. After reading comments from people familiar with the manga who said it was a story that could rival Frieren, I was expecting something that would surprise me with its unique approach. But while Frieren paid a lot of attention to portraying characters in a believable way, avoided standard solutions to common tropes, and cleverly used flashbacks to introduce us to the main character’s way of thinking, watching WHA gave me the impression that I’d seen this story a hundred times before.
For the first half of the season the characters came across as very stereotypical, with few exceptions – the happy-go-lucky MC with a sad backstory; the hardworking, edgy perfectionist; the laid-back individualist; the sweet ray of sunshine who’s always cheerful; the talented teacher who always saves the day. Over time, we get to know everyone a little better, but in a way that leaves much to be desired, and while the characters do develop, they do so in a manner very characteristic of the stereotypes they originally represented. There’s nothing surprising here.
At the same time, the whole thing is full of dialogue that doesn’t sound like real conversations between people, but rather as if it were crafted to explain to the audience everything that’s happening on screen – how the world works, what the characters are feeling, and what conclusions they’re reaching. It’s as if the characters were speaking to us instead of to each other. To make matters worse, sometimes I had the impression that the author was trying to cram into the dialogue as much moralizing wisdom as possible, which makes it sound rather artificial. The main character’s attitude is also irritating; she seems unable to learn from her own mistakes or think even one step ahead which always put her in danger, and at times it feels like it’s the only way they push the plot forward.
It’s not all bad, though. I really enjoyed the visuals – the series has nearly cinematic quality and is certainly one of the most beautiful anime of the year. I also like the world in which the story takes place, and in particular the magic system based on drawings.
Unfortunately, the elements I view positively are secondary to me when evaluating the quality of the anime as a whole. For me, the most important are characters and dialogue, and in that regard, I was disappointed. Overall, I give this 6/10

Agents of the Four Seasons got off to a great start. I had high hopes for this series, considering that the writer behind it is the same person who created Violet Evergarden, which is one of my favorite anime. Although it was clear this was going to be a very melodramatic story, that didn’t bother me, since it’s something I actually enjoy. I was positively surprised for the first five episodes, but then the house of cards started to come crashing down. Throughout the entire series, the creators never stop bombarding viewers with material designed to make them feel emotional and cry. While this makes sense in reasonable doses, here it’s served up in such excessive amounts that it becomes numbing. The longer you watch it, the more the series turns into “cryporn”. On top of that, we’re treated to action scenes that, instead of being thrilling and dramatic, look ridiculous because the insurgents, who are our main antagonists in the story, have combat skills on par with stormtroopers, while our main heroes have a tendency to talk on the phone a lot, even when a hail of bullets is raining down on them. It looks comical, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve rolled my eyes. Overall, this was my biggest disappointment of the season. There’s one more episode left, but I think I’ll give this 4-5/10. I liked the visuals and the soundtrack, though. Kensuke Ushio never disappoints.

Kirio Fanclub - The show had its ups and downs, and not all the jokes landed, but when they did it was absolutely hilarious. IMO it was one of the best shows of the season, despite somewhat poor reception at the beginning of the season. I guess some people expected a more typical romcom and got a pure comedy-drama instead, not to mention that comedy is highly subjective. 8/10 from me

Go For It, Nakamura-kun!! - Another fantastic comedy. This season was really carried by comedies, huh. Very funny, very gay, with great production quality. Different ED for each episode was a cherry on the top. Chiaki Kobayashi nailed the role of somewhat crazy, shy, gay MC. I think my only issue with this show, as someone who wasn’t interested in romance, is that only the last episode nailed the balance between romance and comedy. In most other episodes it was either one or another, so some of the episodes were ‘too serious’ for me. Fortunately, there weren’t many of them, so I had a lot of fun watching this show. 8/10

The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short Skirt - Another great comedy with high-quality production. Stylistically, the show reminds me of Trigger Studio’s shows. The development of the relationship between the main characters is portrayed brilliantly here. The series didn’t make me laugh as much as “Go For It, Nakamura-kun!!”, but I think the creators managed to strike a better balance between the gags and the more serious parts of the story. It’s hard for me to say much more, because my main criterion for evaluating comedies is how much they manage to make me laugh, and everyone has a different sense of humor. 8/10

Daemons of the Shadow Realm - this is probably the only non-comedy series that I actually really like this season. It has an original story that’s somewhat reminiscent of gang rivalries, and a great main character who’s got his head on his shoulders. He’s not your typical battle shounen MC who lacks brains and makes up for it with sheer determination in the fight for noble causes. Instead, he displays a more stoic demeanor, he’s level-headed, but he’s not some infallible genius either. It’s like a breath of fresh air, really. It’s not clear where the story is headed yet, and the plot is rather slow-paced, but I like this, because predictability was one of my main complaints about FMA:B (this and FMA were both written by Arakawa). The production quality is very good. The animation looks great, and you can tell a lot of attention has been paid to details. So far, it’s a solid 8/10.

Dandelion - The ending was very cheesy, but the rest was quite fun. It’s by creator of Gintama, and Gintama vibes were certainly there. The ED was great – makes you wanna dance. 7/10

A Hundred Scenes of Awajima - It’s a collection of interconnected, intriguing stories, told in an engaging way with believably portrayed characters, but the fairly similar character designs and the chaotic narrative style at the beginning of the season made it hard for me to follow everything at first, which dampened my viewing experience. I feel like it would be better to watch the entire season in one go, because once some of the characters had managed to stick in my mind, the final parts of the season struck me as really strong. 7/10, but I might change it to 8 after a rewatch

Akane-banashi - Pretty decent season. It improved quite noticeably in the second half once they stopped talking over performances so much. I think the first half suffered from having to explain what rakugo is, etc. I dislike the standard sports anime formula that seems to be applied here, so that certainly affected my score. But overall, the cast was rather fun, and I can’t say I was bored watching this. Production quality was pretty good too. 7/10 from me

Re:ZERO S4 - I’m not sure how to feel about it yet. Some of the episodes nailed the horror atmosphere, and they give you a feeling that we’re back to S1 quality of storytelling, but I’m not entirely sold on this

spoiler

amnesia

arc. All in all, it’s too early to tell, but it’s definitely better than the snoozefest battle shounen arc that S3 was.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime S4 - if you are still watching this, then you know what you’re in for. Can’t say this cour was much better than S3 so far. We’ve got plenty of meetings (obviously), and

spoiler

a generic villain designed only to get mogged by Rimuru.

Very mid.

There’s also like a dozen shows that I dropped, but I don’t feel like mentioning them here. It would only piss some people off, and I don’t want to be overly negative. Generally, after having somewhat high hopes, this season turned out to be quite average.