I watched quite a bit of anime last week so it’s back to longer (but hopefully not too incoherent) ramblings.

Currently Airing

Picked up 3 anime that are airing right now:

Chainsmoker Cat felt more depressing than funny at times. Addiction is no joke. But the slapstick humour hits perfectly for me.

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is yet another vanilla romance. I hope the writing is good because so far it hasn’t done much to differentiate itself from all the other vanilla romance stories.

Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia is basically Vinland Saga v2, so I know right away that it’s going to be peak.

With these latest additions, I am now following all seasonal anime with average rating of 80% or higher. I may be missing out on some sub-80%-rating anime though. Any seasonal recommendations based on my taste? https://anilist.co/user/Endmaker/animelist

Past Seasons

I am working my way through Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation now, and have just completed the first season / part. I should be caught up to the latest season before long.

I can see why this is a controversial anime with the icky bits. Personally, those are a nothingburger to me, considering some of my previous watches.

I just find it a pity that people avoid this anime because of the controversial elements. They are missing out on the story, world-building, writing, etc which are honestly solid.

Yes, the protagonist is problematic, but

1. it’s not like they are glorifying it. They made it quite clear that his behaviour is unacceptable (And the protagonist is aware of that too!)
2. these flaws are what makes the character so fascinating. It’s much more engaging to have a flawed character grow over the course of the story as compared to a perfect character who never change.

To elaborate on the second point, compared to anime that come to mind for isekai - Konosuba, Cautious Hero, Re:Zero - Jobless Reincarnation felt like a relatively “vanilla” isekai. It is set in a stereotypical medieval European-style fantasy world - no gimmicks, no parody. But it never once felt like wish fulfillment unlike the seasonal isekai slop.

In extreme cases of isekai slop, the loser protagonist would externalise their faults, blaming everyone and everything but themselves. They were just dealt a bad hand at life. So what do they need to overcome their hardship? A unique cheat just for them! It’s like striking the lottery - completely unearned. The anime would then degenerate into a power fantasy for similar-minded losers to indulge in. There’s no character growth at all!

Jobless Reincarnation is not like this at all. I have seen so much development through flashbacks, internal monologue and dialogue - and that’s just the first cour of season 1! I see no reason for them to buck this trend, so I’m confident that the protagonist would grow even more, which means the story would be continue to be good.

Anyway, I enjoy it a lot, and am looking forward to participating in the episode discussions.

P.S. I’m unsure how best to categorise this anime. Peak drama? Peak politics? I don’t see enough of either at the moment.

P.P.S. I bet half of the village’s kids are Paul’s.

Tanya from Saga of Tanya the Evil deserves a mention.

Let me know if I’m using the labels incorrectly, but this is a textbook example of how libertarians end up aligning with fascists.

The narrator said it best:

Banner nomination:

Singles on Valentines day be like:

@rikka@ani.social

I love Viola as a character.

What she brings to the table for us - the viewers - is cheap drama, but it’s still entertainment value - and I enjoyed it 😈

Ryuuji from Toradora. This is in fact mentioned in the synopsis!

Ryuuji Takasu is a gentle high school student with a love for housework; but in contrast to his kind nature, he has an intimidating face that often gets him labeled as a delinquent.

It’s a fun first episode, but looks like there’s only one joke. I hope it won’t get stale.

I know it’s rather early, but I believe I’ve found my favourite action anime of the season. The aerial combat scenes are sick.

Meta: are there any history buff among us? I wonder how historically accurate the events of this episode are. Is there a real world counterpart to the encirclement of their base?

Banner nomination: girls drinking coffee

I’ve just picked up BanG Dream! YUME∞MITA. It’s CGDCT slice-of-life but the comedy is hitting for me, especially in the latest episode. Also, the story so far reminds me of Ave Mujica, which I enjoyed. I foresee myself watching it to the end.

P.S. It’s only the first week or so of the anime season but I’ve already got a solid contender for my favourite song of the season: Yume Mita’s ending theme Wonder of the Universe. The visuals’ very cute, and as for the vocals and melody, best to give the song a listen!

So meta 😂

Meta: @rikka@ani.social appears to be creating two posts per episode for a number of anime this season.

e.g. post no.1, post no. 2, both for episode 1 of Magi Lumiere

Could this be a bug? Or someone requesting for a thread even though one has already been created?

Peak production value. I love the attention to detail (e.g. the audio when Momiji attacked the mic) and anime-original 4th-wall breaks.

Banner nomination:

@rikka@ani.social

The dark horse / anime of the season for me is My Ribdiculous Reincarnation.

Not gonna lie, my expectations were tempered due to My Deer Friend Nokotan. I was half expecting it to catch some initial attention by being quirky, then fall off by having one-note comedy / plot.

Thankfully, even if a particular reincarnation episode didn’t hit the spot, its creative use of media still managed to keep things interesting.

One thing that surprised me positively is the plot. There is actually an overarching plot, so it’s not just episodic nonsense.

And speaking of plot, there’s one particular episode that stood out in terms of story / story-telling. Fellow viewers should know which one I’m talking about: the curry plate one.

All these factors led to it exceeding my expectations, making it my AOTS.

K-On!

It’s been a while since I last watch it; I should do a rewatch…

watched the main season of SAO

liked the 2nd season but it’s Gun-Gale

That’s good enough IMO. As long as you can recognise some of the returning characters, and not be too lost, you’re good to go!

Also, I should have elaborated in the original comment:

already watched the rest of your suggestions

Glad you have watched the rest!

Here are some that others have yet to mention:

• Vinland Saga
• Attack on Titan
• Release that Witch
• Sword Art Online: Alicization + War of Underworld (you probably have to watch the prequels for context though)

Among those mentioned so far, I can second:

• Gundam
• Violet Evergarden

Hot take, probably: