Three months goes by in a flash… a better season than I expected with some good surprises.


3. Jigokuraku: Although its steam let out as the run continued, the action and teasing of lore carried me though, hoping for a genre defining adventure series until about the halfway point where I gave up on that notion. Still fun, and my favorite OP this season.


2. My Home Hero: A sad reminder that very few anime are the complete package of writing and production. MHH was ugly. Sound, acting and story structure were fine, gripping even, but it may have been better suited to be an audio drama, because the severe corner cutting on screen was distracting to watch after a while. Still though, a great cat and mouse, and worth a watch if you want some decent thriller in your anime.


1. Oshi no Ko: Okay, so some can have it all. While I was put off by my foray into the manga, the feature length prologue episode brought all of the strong storytelling to bear and had me absorbed from the outset. What could easily feel like filler or side arcs in lesser shows deftly kept my full attention and kept working toward expanding the meaningful cast and never forgot to remain entertaining among the sea of cynicism. I looked forward to nothing more each week.

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I know someone out there likes special awards!


Yuusha ga Shinda! Gets the ‘dollar store Konosuba brand’ label: Ever since the venerable Konosuba aired, pretenders have cropped up periodically to make light of fantasy and isekai tropes irreverently. Few have succeeded, and this is the latest dropout to add to the pile. While the opening episode(s) had some sparks of (comedic) life, Yuusha quickly ran out of good ideas and began to wallow in some inept story lines devoid of fun or intrigue. The search continues.


Tengoku Daimakyou explores the ‘chilli’n in the apocalypse’ award: A dark horse where the sky’s the limit, and arguably the best positioned show going into its next season, whenever that is. Really good animation lifted the frankly retro character designs to a joy to watch, even if the characters depicted were unpleasant half the time. The two parallel stories worked well, though each one had slower points and the two rarely lined up to create a boring episode, which kept it engaging while wading through the earlier, episodic parts. I easily have the highest hopes for this going forward, and hope that it can continue to be effortlessly interesting… and maybe a little less horny?


Isekai de Cheat Skill o Te ni Shita Ore wa, Genjitsu Sekai o mo Musou Suru: Level Up wa Jinsei o Kaeta gets a C&D letter from Kirito for taking his Gary Stu thunder: Seldom does a story so transparently bend over so far to worship its own main character and shower them with blessings eternal as this does. Fat kid is miserable and bullied because everyone else is attractive, apparently, and isekais to another world to get ripped and invited to an academy of beautiful young people… I can’t. No offense, but this show burns entirely too many calories on its wish fulfillment to even begin to take it seriously. The meta commentary on how broken and miserable the author must be is leaps and bounds more interesting than anything happening in this show.


The Spencer’s gift card is awarded to “Dead Mount Death Play”: While I couldn't bring myself to finish this season, what was there tread familiar feeling ground as an edgy action series. A reverse isekai where the ‘demon lord’ is a fish out of water with the modern japanese criminal underbelly and its superheroes. The story feels forced and its compenents cobbled together, but more importantly, answers were teased without any accompanying satisfaction to tide me over. Maybe I’ll give it another go if another season is announced.


X&Y gets a novelty nod: Escape rooms can be fun to play, but how about as a spectator? That question’s answer may well directly correlate with how much one can enjoy X&Y. There is an underlying mystery going on, but the escape rooms themselves have been dumbed down to fit along with their solutions in short form episodes that didn’t quite satisfy. Still, a worthy experiment from some non-Japanese anime that I hope we continue getting.


Kaminaki Sekai no Kamisama Katsudou gets a stick of laffy taffy: Isekai into a world without spirituality of any form goes against my basic perceptions of reality (I believe man is inherently spiritual and will find something to worship even without formal guidance) and some fanservice jokes. I did enjoy the first episode, but again lacked any hook, and the buzz around this is anything but positive.


Dr. Stone: New World / Mashle / Rokudou no Onna-tachi: Manga all have the “manga shame” tokoban: Three really entertaining shows… that I barely watched because I had already read the source mangas. Feels bad, man. Don’t let that stop me from recommending them to you (Rokudou is ugly as sin, though)!


Kimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato Hen gets the pre-scraped barrel bottom: For Kimetsu to not even place speaks to how weak this arc was. It was so underwhelming, that I kept expecting some late twist to undo the mediocre fights and boring characterization that preceded it, as a course correction if nothing else. Nope. Just more sword cutt-y and trash talk-y with characters I don’t care about. You’ve seen it, so I don’t need to expand on what felt off about this season. Hopefully all of the bad in Demon Slayer is concentrated here so the rest of the series can flourish.


Isekai One Turn Kill Nee-san: Ane Douhan no Isekai Seikatsu Hajimemashita brought its own label, and it’s no liar: Bro-con isekai. Nothing more, and nothing less. Entertaining until the novelty of the degeneracy wears off.


Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story (2nd half) gets a safety helmet for its own good: Nothing else this season has managed to be so effortlessly stupid and earnestly insulting to the sport it both apes and fetishizes in equal measure. Trash, but somehow does not reach the heights of trash that the first season did due to some fumbling of an appropriately bad soap opera drama and rushed ending where they obviously ran out of room for ability scaling an arc too early.


Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu gets the handkerchief of cuteness: Narrowly missing top billing, this was way more entertaining than I gave it initial credit for. Forget the synopsys; it lies. This is a feel good rom-com about a boy who is the object of affection for a girl who is out of his league physically, but mentally, she is a bit of a dope. Nothing new, buy very cute stuff and a little pervy at times, if that is your thing.


Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers was unplugged from the matrix early: I suspect this was eventually revealed to be a simulation, but not having finished it I may never know. A strange fusion of Pro-otaku energy and Studio Trigger style animation without a Studio Trigger budget. Curious, but forgettable.


Megami no Cafe Terrace gets the MSG shaker: Something must have been added to artificially make this much more agreeable than it should have been. Maybe I was in the mood for a traditional harem, but Megami just got off on the right foot somehow and stayed there. It’s not great, but I was never bored or annoyed, and that plus cute girls carried me through the entire season. Strange enough, a character design choice of note is that all of the girls seem to have the exact same body (demonstrated aptly by the OP) which should have been a bigger detraction, but the constant friction and melodrama somehow kept me from giving it too much thought during each episode.


The Marginal Service gets the “Hypnosis Rap Battle” disclaimer: One episode. No more, no less, else the dosage is off resulting in a headache. Trash talking (non)buddy cops with attitude, ugly action, aliens, and a surprising disregard for its own story. Just a bit for laughs, then stop.


Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi o Suru / Skip to Loafer / Otonari ni Ginga / Kanojo ga Koushaku-tei ni Itta Riyuu / Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia / Alice Gear Aegis Expansion all share the “wanted to like” participation trophy: All fair shows lacking a hook to keep me interested. None of these made it past three episodes. Squarely watchable if not at all compelling.


Onward, to the stacked summer lineup!