Images credit goes to u/DigitalNightmare13 from Reddit

Himeka: original post

Ahko: original post

  • 30 Posts
  • 334 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 10th, 2024
  • Endmaker@ani.socialtoAnime@ani.social•Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 25]English
    1·
    6 days ago

    Past Seasons

    Link Click season 2

    This is one of the biggest disappointment for me, given its high rating and how much I enjoyed season 1.

    In hindsight, I should have seen it coming. I have noticed that whenever a mystery anime involves

    mild spoiler for Link Click

    supernatural / scifi elements, especially when an antagonist has bullshit overpowered supernatural /scifi powers

    I would dislike it. It was just like when I watched

    meta spoiler; multiple popular anime titles; trigger? warning

    Death Note and Steins;Gate.

    Perhaps it’s because it feels very unfair to the protagonist. Perhaps it’s because I suck at playing detective as I follow the show when supernatural elements are involved. Whatever the case, this trope - and by extension, any anime that employs this trope - pisses me off.

    But that’s not all. It was so lame

    Link Click S2 spoiler

    that the villains here are just 3 losers / incels. And in the end, they nabbed one of them in the season finale by…

    drumroll…

    beating them in a fistfight.

    W.T.F. So anticlimatic.

    Now that I’ve recognised that this subgenre of supernatural-mystery is not for me, I’d probably just avoid them in the future - even the popular ones such as

    multiple popular anime titles; trigger? warning

    Tokyo Ghoul and Bungou Stray Dogs.

    Jujutsu Kaisen

    I enjoyed Jujutsu Kaisen way more than I expected.

    I admit that I am biased against battle shounen (I know it’s unjust; sue me) and JJK seems like (is?) a typical battle shounen anime. I thought I would enjoy it as much as Chainsaw Man at best, so I was pleasantly surprised.

    The story isn’t too different from other battle shounen, but I like the characters here.

    Also, even though it isn’t listed with the comedy genre on AniList, it tickled my funny bone. The various comedic moments and Juju stroll segments always aligned with my sense of humour and made me laugh.

    It still has your typical battle shounen tropes that annoy me though, like

    • antagonists who nearly got defeated but managed to escape with a sliver of life
    • ladies can only fight against ladies; dudes only fight dudes. Otherwise it would be sexist or something? I don’t know.

    The only shounen that does not follow this formula off the top of my head is

    meta spoiler; anime title

    Frieren - but can it really be considered a battle shounen though?

    I hope that I would enjoy season 2 as much as season 1. 9 / 10

    P.S. Almost forgot to mention: Todo Aoi is based.

  • Endmaker@ani.socialtoAnime@ani.social•Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 24]English
    5·
    13 days ago

    This Season

    It’s the third corner and Oguri Cap has moved up the pack, breaking into top 10 on both r/anime and AnimeCorner for the first time this season!

    Cinderella Gray episode 9's rank on r/anime: 9

    Cinderella Gray episode 9's rank on AnimeCorner: 9

    There’s only a few weeks left in this season. However, we all know that:

    the real race starts at the fourth corner

    Past Seasons

    Following my rediscovery of Umamusume, I spent last week finishing up the rest of it.

    Season 3

    Unlike other Umamusume series, Pretty Derby S3 felt more like a sequel - of season 2 - than a standalone show.

    It felt like they tried to recreate the magic (and success) of season 2, but IMO they didn’t manage to do it.

    To be fair, season 2 set a high bar - we aren’t getting a backstory like Tokai Teio’s (in real life) anytime soon. Still, they could have went in a new direction instead of trying to replicate season 2.

    I would have given it an 8 / 10, but had to knock one point off - because of annoyances like overusage of reused animation and failed reuse of past gags - making it a 7 / 10.

    P.S. I find it cute (and concerning / weird) that Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond are sleeping with plushies of each other.

    Satono Diamond sleeping with Kitasan Black plush toy

    Kitasan Black sleeping with Satono Diamond plush toy

    Imagine if your best friend / roommate sleeps with a doll of you. Like, WTF!

    Also, just how deep in the closet are they!? At this point, just confess and sleep together??!

    just start dating already

    Season 1

    I decided to give Pretty Season 1 another chance while I am still obsessed with Umamusume.

    It was better than my initial impressions back when I dropped it.

    Thanos: perhaps I treated you too harshly

    I suspect that I got turned off by the trainer as well as the idol concerts in episode 1 the last time I watched it.

    The thing is, like other Umamusume series, it gets better as we progress through the episodes. The characters get fleshed out and there is in fact some drama.

    I liked it more than season 3.

    I think it could have been more moving if they include this IRL lore of Special Week’s jockey, perhaps by incorporating it into the trainer’s backstory:

    horseracing IRL spoiler

    His jockey Yutaka Take had won seven of the Eight Great Classics by 1997, but he couldn’t win the Derby despite racing nine times. Special Week gave him the first Derby.

    (secondary) source: a wiki page on Special Week

    It felt like they did so with Kitahara Jo of Cinderella Gray though, making him more of a character.

    I enjoyed it substantially, so it gets an 8 / 10 from me.

    Oath of BNW (OVA)

    As with most OVAs, - Oath of BNW / BNW’s Promise is more comedic compared the main series. It got me to laugh a few times.

    They tried instilling a bit of drama, but IMO the drama is not very well-developed.

    Nevertheless, I am giving it a 9 / 10 just for

    OVA spoiler

    the 12 billion yen incident

    Final / Overall Thoughts on Umamusume

    I can’t believe I got invested in an anime of horse girls racing each other. This is yet another show that proved that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

    Besides the drama and touching stories, I enjoyed the cute running (no pun intended) gags: “can’t take another bite” while the horse girls were sleeping, “can’t keep up” when the horse girls were overtaken in a race, special drink, …There are too many to name.

    I am looking forward to what’s in store for Umamusume after Cinderella Gray. There’s so much material to work with given how rich the history of horseracing is. There are “older” horses who haven’t receive the limelight (e.g. Vodka, Daiwa Scarlet and Gold Ship from Team Spica), and newer horses IRL (e.g. Almond Eye) who have yet to appear in the anime.

    This (me looking forward) would not have been the case if not for the peak that is Cinderella Gray.

    The way I see it, it invigorated the franchise by drawing new fans in the way Witch from Mercury did for Gundam.

    Imma wrap up my yapping by listing my top-3 favourite horses:

    1. Double Jet (a.k.a Twin Turbo) - I love Turbo’s running style. Why bother with elaborate tactics as a stayer / betweener / chaser when you are so strong that you are way ahead of the others. Truly the embodiment of “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere”
    2. Hachimi (a.k.a Tokai Teio) - very basic pick but Teio’s story is just too good
    3. Oguri Cap - very basic pick but Oguri’s story is simply peak

    Honourable mentions:

    • Gold Ship is too funny and likeable
    • Haru Urara deserves a shoutout for
    horseracing lore

    never giving up, achieving 113 losses out of 113 races by the end of her career. I don’t see this record broken anytime soon just like Teio’s.

  • Endmaker@ani.socialtoAnime@ani.social•Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 23]English
    2·
    14 days ago

    Past Seasons

    I completed a bunch of top-tier anime over the past week.

    Toradora

    After holding it off for so long, I rewatched Toradora yet again so that I can give it a proper rating on AniList (instead of doing so based on vague memories of the show).

    Even after so long, it is still peak drama. The animation quality from pre-2010s held up, as did its soundtrack and artstyle. But what made it stood the test of time is its character writing and story-telling.

    I like how every character can simultaneously be immature and mature. I love how the drama put their relationships through the wringer.

    There’s no doubt that it is getting a score of 10 / 10 from me. Each episode got me hooked and wanting for more.

    The harder test is whether it can enter my top favourites (i.e. top 10). For an anime to make it to my top favourites one vague criterion I have is rewatchability: it must leave a deep enough impression for me to want to rewatch it multiple times. Ultimately, I dropped Belle in favour of Toradora.

    Link Click season 1

    I heard that Link Click shares the same director as To Be Hero X. Apparently, he is a master of plot twists.

    So I know I just had to check Link Click out. And boy, it certainly did not disappoint. I love the non-linear story-telling, as well as good it is at building suspense. The soundtrack Sign helped a lot.

    Most importantly,

    mild meta spoiler for Link Click

    I enjoy how the show waits for you to drop your guard before revealing the twist.

    Also,

    spoiler for Link Click S1 (and S2 maybe?)

    I bet Xiao Shi would end up changing the past to save his friends. My bigger bet is that he ended up finding his parents and either

    1. changed the past to save them
    2. caused his parents disappearance in the first place

    This is peak suspense, well-deserving of a 10 / 10. I will be picking season 2 up real soon.

    Umamusume: Pretty Derby

    With how good Cinderella Gray turned out, I thought I should give the series another chance after dropping season 1 - only one episode in - a while back. Shout-out to @selayar@ani.social for the movie recommendations.

    Also, I inadvertently found out that the series is based on real-life race horses and ended up spoiling myself (probably like many others).

    Road to the Top

    Personally, I find that Road to the Top is quite a standard sports anime. It was a well-made movie. It knows how to get you to empathise with the protagonist’s struggles.

    Normally, there would be more that I would comment on, but it got completely overshadowed by the next one I watched. I actually can’t remember some details of the show (e.g. I forgot Admire Vega’s name and had to check the AniList characters page).

    It’s still really good though, so for now, I’m giving it a 9 / 10.

    Season 2

    This is it. Straight-up the best show I have watched all week. I don’t think I will be able to find a 1-season(12/13 episodes)-long, standalone sports anime that can rival Umamusume: Pretty Derby - season 2.

    I noticed that its rating is higher compared to season 1 and 3, and heard that each season can be watched as a standalone show, so I decided to give it a shot. Its rating was lower than that of Beginning of a New Era though, so I saved what is potentially the best for the last.

    Cinderella Gray may have been the lure to get me hooked, but Season 2 is the powerhouse that truly reeled me into the series proper.

    It's so good

    When it comes to sports anime, I would expect an underdog story - one of a protagonist who’s constantly underestimated (and often ridiculed) by others, but eventually achieve their dream of being at the top through sheer will and effort.

    Pretty Derby did not follow this formula. Instead, it gave us Tokai Teio, this cheery horse-girl who’s in her prime and nigh-unstoppable (neigh-unstoppable? XD)

    Pretty Derby S2 spoiler

    at the start. Then crush her dreams not once, not twice but thrice. Fate is even so cruel as to go after her best friend Mejiro McQueen too.

    She no longer has any title to defend. Her fans may still like her, but they no believe that she can win. She was essentially seen as washed-up.

    But she never gave up.

    Her story reminded me of

    meta spoiler 1

    Ema from Medalist, though unlike Tokai Teio, Ema didn’t have any achievement to her name.

    I thought I couldn’t draw parallels to any other characters till I realised there’s no need to limit myself to sports anime (or even anime).

    meta spoiler 2

    Suletta from the Witch from Mercury started the series as an underdog, then quickly proved herself as the show progresses. By the start of the second season, nobody can dispute that she is the best pilot in the academy.

    Then she started taking Ls after Ls, all the way till the very end of the show, where she pulled off a miracle through pure willpower, determination, grit.

    Notice that the previous paragraph applies to Tokai Teio too.

    A meta similarity is that both are really just high quality commercials:

    meta spoiler 3

    Umamusume’s goal is to draw in more players for their gacha game, whereas Gundam’s is to sell more Gunpla.

    And you know what? It’s working - on me, and on the numerous fans.

    Also, the show-creators definitely knew what they were doing by portraying Teio as a happy-go-lucky, extra cheery girl. It is just like

    meta spoiler 4

    Inside Out. When the most joyful character breaks down, it makes for the most heart-breaking moment.

    In short, Pretty Derby S2 is the most moving show I have seen in the last few weeks. Also, I have lost count of the number of times that I have rewatched that legendary last race.

    You know the score it’s getting: 10 / 10, easily

    Please, stop making this look so easy!

    Beginning of a New Era

    After the peak that is Pretty Derby S2, I had superbly high expectations for Beginning of a New Era.

    I can immediately see why it received such a high rating: its animation is on-par with the best animated shows of all time.

    Unfortunately, I find that Tokai Teio’s story set the bar too high for Jungle Pocket’s to clear.

    I can definitely see the similarity:

    umamusume spoiler

    both are about rehabilitation. Though in Jungle Pocket’s case, it is mental instead of physical.

    However, I prefer Teio’s story.

    It doesn’t mean its not good. I just don’t find it as good as Pretty Derby S2. 9 / 10

    Now that I’ve went deep into the Umamusume rabbit hole, season 3 is next on my list. I may even try season 1 again for completion’s sake.