Fall season is rapidly approaching! It’s time to start looking ahead to the next season and thinking about what is worth watching vs. what isn’t. This is also the official thread where I will watch for shows that you mention and will enable threads for those shows to be made by our resident bot, @rikka@ani.social.
Meta update: The discussion threads for Dan Da Dan are going to be run over in !dandadan@ani.social by @GordonFreeman@ani.social. So, rikka will not be making threads in this community. Instead, rikka will be making posts directing people over to the corresponding thread in that community.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
The summer’s been a bit busy, so I’ve unfortunately fallen off some of the stuff that I meant to watch and fallen behind on the rest, but I think things are actually settling down now.
For our weekly anime time, my friends ended up picking:
- Senpai is an Otokonoko - an absolutely beautiful look at the complexity of figuring out gender and sexuality with some truly gut-wrenching depictions of transphobia and homophobia, both direct and indirect.
- Elusive Samurai - stunningly animated action (Cloverworks is doing the thing they do) and it has made us hopeful that some of the historical figures might finally get english language wikipedia pages (we keep complaining that there are no resources to look at about how close this comes to the real story, lol)
- Dahlia in Bloom - a bit of the odd one out because it, um, looks terrible and the story is a bit rough as well. We’re enjoying the slow-burn romance (it’s a bit too slow for me, tbh) and pointing at all the weird animation quirks (we were SHOCKED when, after episodes of making fun of horse animation errors, we got an up-close shot of a horse and learned that this world had 8-legged horses the whole time and they didn’t tell us, so those were not errors after all)
- Odd Taxi - I slept on this when it came out because the dialogue felt really stilted to me and I couldn’t get my brain to focus on what was being said, but one of my friends insisted, so here we are. It’s definitely gotten better in the dialogue department, but I don’t really see why people call it a masterpiece, at least not yet. We’ll see.
As for my own shows, I had to make some cuts and I’m still a bit behind on it all, but I’m watching:
- Yatagarasu - This one keeps surprising me with its weird twists, lol. The big one two-thirds of the way through made me go read the manga (I may try to find translations of the novels as well), and I learned that the anime blended the first two novels together into a single story (they cover the same time period, but different characters, as I understand it), and I think the story was much better for it. The manga’s pacing, at least on the ladies’ side of the story, was really janky and the tone felt all wrong.
- How to Become Ordinary - Why is this so cinematic?? I really like all the subtle character moments in this show and the extreme low stakes of (most) of the mysteries.
- Twilight Out of Focus - as far as BL anime goes, it’s fine. It’s sort of endearing how seriously it takes itself and how artsy it’s trying to be, but I don’t know that it works that well.
- Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian - I really liked this as a romance at the start of the season, but I’ve become more disinterested as it’s (predictably?) become a harem anime. I’ll probably finish out the season, but if there’s no romantic progress, I won’t be back for a season 2.
As always, I’m going into the season as blind as possible, though I am tentatively hyped for Ranma 1/2.
Also, I’m not sure if this counts as the new season (or as anime, since it was sort of a slideshow), but here’s my thoughts on the first(?) fall show:
Murai in Love
It only escaped the extreme creepiness of its premise by being painfully dull in all aspects. I’m not one to complain too much about animation quality (I’m watching Dahlia In Bloom this season), but the writing and direction were the things that really dragged it down. I could barely force myself through it (I have my pride as a Watcher of Every Anime, even if it’s meaningless), and it didn’t get even a single nose exhale out of me, let alone a laugh. The one good thing I have to say is that J.C.Staff know how to make pretty people and the ninja guy is definitely pretty. 1/5
Looking ahead to next season, it’s a bit light for me. I’ve been watching a lot (for me), so might chill a bit and maybe catch up on other stuff. Or maybe I’ll follow the charts and try out whatever bubbles up. I dunno! But I’ll definitely be watching:
- Re:Zero S3 - I’ve liked the previous seasons quite a lot.
- Ranma 1/2 - I grew up on OG Ranma 1/2 and have watched most of it. I loved it. I’m really hoping this is good, especially since some of the content is going to be pretty dated. But I at least feel confident it will be as well produced as possible since it’s being made by MAPPA. I’m kinda sad so few others are mentioning this. Maybe I’m too old haha…
Current releases, following weekly (roughly organized by decreasing interest):
- Oshi No Ko S2 - Decent start to a new arc. Several good moments.
- Makeine - This mini arc didn’t hit as hard for me as some of the others, but still enjoyed it.
- Pseudo Harem - Great episode again. This couple is adorable.
- I Parry Everything - Still good. I think there are more episodes, but it feels pretty wrapped up?
- Dungeon People - Caught up this week. Sometimes a bit hit or miss, but still enjoying throughout.
- Days With My Stepsister - Caught up this week. I have mixed feelings on it. It’s verrrrrry slow and deliberate. Sometimes this lands well, but a lot of the time I’m waiting for anything to happen. The characters are likeable and their feelings seem realistic. It’s decent, and I’ll at least finish this cour. I don’t know if there will be more.
- Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings… - I’m gonna finish this season, but I probably won’t follow future seasons.
Watched part of, but not up to date:
- Wistoria - 5 episodes. Good animation, great action, and fun story. Probably finish.
As I said in last week’s thread:
Whew, Fall 2024 looks stacked with good shows!
I’ll be anticipating:
- Re:Zero S3
- Uzumaki
- Blue Lock S2
- Dandadan
- Shangri-La Frontier Season 2
- SAO: Gun Gale Online II
- Mechanical Arms
- Trillion Game
Maybe:
- Acro Trip (because riffing on magical girls)
- Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite (because Madhouse)
- MF Ghost 2nd Season (because racing)
- Magi Lumiere (based on y’all’s recommendations)
Planning to watch Dan Da Dan and Blue Box
Everyone is hyped about Dandandan, so I might give it a try as well
