As a DM myself, I found this origin to Lodoss War interesting and was something that I wasn’t aware of. I haven’t watched the series, but I might have to change that.

This one has caught my attention because the author is an actual doctor. It doesn’t have much of a synopsis in English anywhere I can find. AniList doesn’t have anything, the linked ANN article had just a single sentence, and even Mangadex only has:

Genius female doctor Takao Ameku unravels the “illness” hidden behind such mysterious incidents!

So…I don’t really know what to expect…

I have internet access again, so here is the ranking that I would normally have posted yesterday. Lots of green on the board. Looks like 2.5D and Ranma had some popular episodes. I didn’t get to watch literally anything this past week.

Weekly ranking roundup:

1. Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Bleach: TYBW
2. Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Dan Da Dan

Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.

The karma for Dan Da Dan came back down to a more normal level this week after the high of episode 7. However, don’t mistake that for the show being more normal because it decidedly is not. Bleach is atop the AC rankings this week again, so the world is healing bit by bit.

Happy Thanksgiving week to those of us in the US this week. As befitting this holiday, I am traveling this week and staying with family. My connectivity is going to be extremely limited this week due to my hosts not having home internet and cell signal being near non-existent (essentially living off the grid unless I drive into town).

Why this is relevant to all of you, it means I won’t be able to be as on the ball as normal with things like handling screenshots with rikka or posting as much news. On the good news side of things for me, I am going to be eating delicious food all week. On the bad news side of things for me, I will eat way too much.

One thing I wanted to call out in particular is to make sure you are subscribed to !dandadan@ani.social so that the new episode discussion thread is federated to your instance this week. I will be delayed in posting the link to it in this community on Thursday, so just go ahead and reach it directly. @GordonFreeman@ani.social has done an excellent job with the discussion posts this season, so I want to make sure people can access it even when I will be slow in posting a link to it.

My understanding is that they stopped releasing the show regularly to allow the source to get ahead and finish up. Then, they have really put effort into adapting the end of the story with this TYBW arc. From what I have seen, the production since it has come back has been great.

My disclaimer though is that I stopped watching Bleach years ago (I think it was during the Bount arc?) because I got burnt out on it.

It’s a lot of stupid fun. It’s basically a parody of every harem trope you’ve ever seen. Really good production value as well.

I don’t get the fate series at all…Where do I even begin?

Honestly, same. I haven’t watched it, and, at this point, I’m not sure if I ever will.

In case you haven’t noticed, I changed a setting for the bot so that it posts the poster image for a show when it makes a discussion post. After a couple days, I think it is going pretty well, but I am open to feedback if people hate it for some reason. This is not meant to replace the screenshot submission process in the comments, and I have still been editing those in when people tag the bot.

One technical bug I found from this is that the act of changing the linked image in the post actually breaks the post when viewed from piefed. I opened an issue over there and the problem has been id’d and they are trying to figure out exactly how they want to fix it. So, hopefully that will be fixed soon.

If you aren’t aware, this OVA counts as episode 13 of My Happy Marriage from Summer 2023.

Like always, this show’s art is absolutely gorgeous. We get to see Miyo in a Western-style dress this episode as she puts all her etiquette training to use and mingle with high society at a party. These two seem to be in a really good place after all the drama that happened during the first season, and Miyo seems to have handled all these social interactions with aplomb. @rikka@ani.social

As for the plot, I think it has been too long since season 1 that I would need to go back and refresh my memory to really get what is going on. Some takeaways seem to be that the person that organized the plot against Miyo seems to have been dealt with and this Prince guy has come to apologize. Miyo’s sister is now serving as a maid in another household (I think we saw that last season) and actually cracked a smile after working up a sweat. Miyo’s childhood friend seems to be practicing using a sword. Finally, Hazuki absolutely sucks at making introductions.

I will definitely have to refresh my memory before season 2 shows up. However, I am not sure where season 2 will go if the main antagonist from the end of season 1 was just handled off-screen in an OVA.

The AniList listing is there, but since it is NSFW, it will only show if you are logged in and enable 18+ content.

You got me to check out the AniList 404 page though, and it is really great.

Villainess has been a lot of fun, but I feel like it really grew into its own once it skipped forward in time a bit. It starts out with Alicia so young that setting up a future love interest just feels icky (his behavior is also pretty icky). It’s easier to ignore the age difference when they look closer in age later.

I haven’t seen the original, but remakes are a bit of a touchy subject for people I think. Some work out great. For example, I have seen lots of positive comments about the currently airing Ranma 1/2 remake. Other times, you get a horror story like Berserk 2016. As always, I am hopeful that fans of the original (like you) find something to like in the remake and that it serves as a way to create new fans. Time will tell!

Yes! I loved The Duel so much. The Ninth Jedi was another favorite.

There was a Volume 2! The main difference is that it featured animation studios from elsewhere around the globe instead of Japan. So, it isn’t included on sites like MAL or AniList. Similar to the first season, it has some episodes that are better than others, but I generally prefer the first season between the two.

Haha, yes. I feel like Gill needs to step up his Villainess support game. When Alicia drops a hot line like how freckle-girl had actually judged Alicia by her looks to start with, Gill need to jump in with some supporting applause or shouts. What is a Villainess really, if she doesn’t have a posse to act as a hype crew?

Really fun episode this week. That showdown with Liz and LIz’s freckled lackey was so good. I died when Alicia literally pushed the other girl aside so that she could whisper sweet evils into Liz’s ear. It’s like when Alicia dons all black, she finally learned how to be a proper Villainess (the look is great as well).

And, frankly, she was right to tell off Duke. The dude is pervy as hell. You are a villainess now Alicia! Channel your inner mean-spiritedness and embrace it. 'Tis better to die a hated Villainess than to live as a half-hearted one!

I suspect that Alicia was being influenced in some way in that exchange with Duke. I mean, yeah, he was being creepy as hell, but that is pretty normal for him at this point. She seems to have acted against her will. Like you, I think that it is less likely to be Liz consciously influencing things after this episode. Either she is doing it unknowingly, or there is some game force pushing things back to the game’s story line. However, if that was the case, wouldn’t it have influenced Duke and the handful of others that don’t seem affected by it by now?

Really fun episode with Alicia back and I am looking forward to more direct confrontations with Liz and co. going forward.

I really like her all-black look with the eye patch. It’s like battle armor for the tasteful Villainess.

It’s still confusing, but at least the plot feels like it’s going somewhere.

My thoughts exactly. I don’t really get Beta’s involvement in all of this or what the thorn’s use with regards to Bam will be. Can he make special use of it because he is an irregular? They have said before that Jahad can’t be killed by a regular, perhaps this is why.

As for Novick (I had to look his name up), I think they didn’t want him or Ran on their team in the beginning, but kept them alive due to Bam’s insistence. So, I guess they are now confident enough that Bam is trapped irreversibly that they can dispose of the pieces they kept around to keep him happy.

I also just wanted to note that they had webtoon Daft Punk explain a bunch of rules again this episode that have had absolutely zero impact on the plot. At the end of the day it came down to just fighting, points be damned.