I haven’t noticed anything funky in the English subs but it’s unfortunately no surprise that they’d be using AI-generated subs for languages with lower viewership.

The teaser trailer opens with a light-hearted moment of Shiori filming a dance video with friends, but quickly takes a dark turn as she becomes trapped in the smartphone world

Oh okay, so this is anime TRON. Except that when the original TRON was made computers were a representation of how cool the future would be. Now smartphones are a representation of how tech companies have leveraged our psychological flaws to trap us in unhealthy relationships with social media, mobile games, etc.

I enjoyed the original Macross so I’ll probably give this a look but unfortunately I expect it to be a depressing time.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

it wasn’t from a studio I was familiar with

Yeah, this came out of nowhere. Previously the studio had mostly done a mediocre job of things so it was a pleasant surprise when the Medalist adaptation ended up being competently put together! That said, now it’s time to also recommend the manga. Season 2 has been announced, which is certainly something to be excited for, but advancing the story isn’t the only reason to read the manga - it’s also worth it because of how great the art is. I mean, look at this portrayal of Hikaru pulling Inori at top-speed, “as if the ice itself were propelling her”:

Seriously, we’re at max expressiveness here:

The skating looks great too!

The Spring seasonals from my perspective:

• Apocalypse Hotel - I’ve watched the first 6 episodes so far. Seems fun, will hopefully finish within a few weeks.
• Apothecary Diaries - This has been a good time overall, though there are some parts in recent episodes where it’s clear a scene probably worked better in writing than in animation.
• I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! - Watching the main character exist was actively unpleasant for me; I couldn’t even finish one episode.
• Kowloon Generic Romance - Seems very interesting. Watched the first 3 episodes but the pacing threw me off so I think I’m going to seek out the manga and read that instead. Might come back to the anime afterwards if I like the manga.
• Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux - This had a banger of an ending. Wild show. Some people might think it’s paced too quickly; I personally found it engaging and fun this way. Easily my anime of the season. Wish I could recommend it to everyone, but I’m not sure it’s the best choice for those who haven’t seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam. wjs018 seemed to be enjoying it for a while though so maybe it’s fine.
• Witch Watch - The animation is kinda meh but I love the characters and the goofs are fun. Will continue watching this one into Summer.

As for summer, I have my eye on a few things:

• City - Same mangaka as Nichijou, same studio as Nichijou. Need I say more?
• The Summer Hikaru Died - I don’t know much about this but I heard the manga was good and it’s being adapted by Cygames so odds are pretty good that it’ll be worth my time.
• Dan Da Dan Season 2 - If this is adapting the manga arc I think it’s adapting this is the part of Dan Da Dan where you realize that Season 1 was relatively calm and restrained actually. I can’t wait.

The new OP is fine, but it’s hard not to compare it with the truly excellent first OP.

But wow is this girl down bad. She makes our female lead look cool-headed by comparison.

Thanks for the links! I didn’t know about the USJ ones; amusing stuff.

I feel like that big long exposition meeting was probably a narrative device that worked better in the original text than in animation. I found myself a little bored at times with this episode.

Exciting! I’ve always been meaning to either read or watch this one, since it’s constantly being referenced.

At least once Zom 100 finally released its episodes they were good. I have hope that it’ll be a solid episode.

Weren’t PS2 and Xbox also much more powerful hardware?

IIRC the manga ended suddenly like that because the mangaka had health issues. This means that this probably wasn’t the ending the mangaka was hoping for either, so maybe there’s hope for an anime-original ending - even perhaps one with significant input from the mangaka. A guy can dream.

Well sure, if it’s just anime boys shouting murder at each other you don’t need to know much. Honestly you could probably get the gist of an episode of generic isekai slop while knowing literally no Japanese words at all. I’m not sure that’s a useful metric though.

If it’s any comfort to you I picked up the Futari Solo Camp manga for similar reasons and after not even being able to finish the first chapter I can say with some confidence you can skip this one.

Edit: I just realized we already had this conversation 6 months ago. Whoops!

This week I finished watching Kill la Kill. It was a lot of fun. Absolutely wild ride. Still, I can’t help but think that Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann executes a similar concept better. I loved Kiryuuin Satsuki though. What a great character.

For this summer I think Dandadan Season 2 and City are the most obvious contenders. I’ll also definitely be taking a look at Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu (rough translation: The Summer where Hikaru Died). It’s not that I’m particularly interested in the concept, but the manga is well-reviewed and Cygames has been absolutely killing it lately so I have a certain level of confidence in their ability to execute now.

Edit: During my lunch break today I finished Super Cub. I liked the music, but I found the characters very boring. They literally introduced the main character by having her monologue to herself about how boring she is. I feel like Yuru Camp did basically the same thing better, though maybe I’d feel differently about it if I cared about motorized scooters at all.

Also, wasn’t the Witch Hat Atelier anime supposed to drop this summer? Do we just not have an exact date yet? That’ll be a must-watch to me.

I’d love to see more G Gundam but it’s hard to imagine them actually doing that. They released a new novel though so maybe…

I just want my HG Nether Gundam kit. Is that too much to ask?! Maybe a HG Cobra Gundam too, and a RG Nobell Gundam to match RG God Gundam?

Honestly besides more Dan Da Dan and Witch Watch I’m not seeing much to get excited over. Was hoping for Season 2 of Skip and Loafer but it seems I’ll have to wait a bit longer for that one.

Oh, of course. I’m not saying it’s easy to produce, or that it should be cheap. From a corporate perspective it hardly matters why it’s cheap though.

I could easily see it happening, especially with how comparatively cheap anime is to produce.

Let’s be honest, Morihito is probably way safer without her help anyways.

Blue Box is pretty wholesome, especially for a shounen romance.