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I don't understand, or maybe don't wanna understand the mixed reception Elusive Samurai has gotten, I could certainly make an effort to try put myself on the shoes of those that did not like it, but I'm afraid they would be too tight on the toes of someone who has so much praise for this one.

Starting for its subjects and the way it chooses to approach them. The anime finds itself in a very weird position, I could hardly call it a Shounen with a good conscience, as it has no trouble of pushing into more mature themes only to pull you out with a ... not so innocent sense of humor, that at no moment I felt subtracted from each other. The anime also expects of the audience some minimal knowledge of the historical period in which it passes, the relationships between vassals and lords and the obligations and social expectations of the different classes.

Continuing on subjects, it also has one of the most interesting takes on religion and spirituality I've seen in any medium, here ­- historical Japan, is not quite so, as it is inhabited by demons and deities. Their existence never being explained keeps a mysterious vagueness
and unpredictability that maintains a sense of wonder as they show themselves through the story. Speaking of which, paralleling certain elements of Shinto's mythology like putting excrement in someone's seat and giving them vomit to eat, we have humor that is very bodily and visceral, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I do like some cannibalism and an eye and ear having a relationship so intimate many here would cry in envy, when done in good taste, of course. It also reminded me of epics like the Gita, specially when it comes to the relationship between Yorishige and Tokiyuki.

Another point of emphasis are the villains. Here is definitely a point of contention to be found, as the anime exchange psychological depth for theatrical extravagance, where we can infer their personality and nature at a glance. That makes each one of them memorable and at times charismatic, even in their limited screen time. I wish we can have other mature storytelling that follow this same route. The only exception to this rule is the main antagonist Takauji, a man that is at once full of charisma and innocence, and despite of himself, carries from the start a mysterious ominous force. Despite that the main conflict is never simply put as a fight between good and evil.

I tried to organize my notes the best I could, hope they are clear enough and it is my wish that you can see The Elusive Samurai, at least a little, with the same eyes I did.

Out of all the post-isekai anime we're getting lately The Eminence in Shadow is certainly the one that marks most checkbox out of the bunch. It's straight face-humor just hits right as it impeccably weave critiques to the established Isekai tropes in a way that is not only funny, but also a little horrifying.... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Starting from zero, it's been quite some time since I felt so disorientated when watching the first episode of an Isekai, coming into this with no further information I was feeling disoriented as the first episode continue playing and I had no idea the direction it ... was taking, it gave me no ground to stand on. Meanwhile, it all felt a little off, they anime never fully commit to the indecorum of breaking the fourth wall, but at points the characters would speak in a very artificial way as if they're aware of tits existence, giving the impression they performed that same trope a handful of times. That creates a nice fun tension in the anime as Cid, our most deluded character, who gives up his very life to chase a far-fetched fantasy that can never be realized based on the tenuous and elusive idea of becoming the Eminence in Shadow, is also the one closer to the truth. As his prize, instead of dying Cid is reborn in world that at times seems like the product of his own fanciness, where under the distorting light of the moon he shapes this world according to his whims. Ignorant to the truth that this reality is just a distillation of all the crappy niche Isekai he grew up with.
All that to say that the Eminence in Shadow reaches its peak at episode 5. By this time all these elements had enough time to build on each other and crate one of the most fun, action packed and surreal sequence I've watched. Ending with the words that will forever be engraved in my soul I AM ATOMIC. Everything after that, is just a reiteration and recycling of the same idea in increasingly uninteresting ways, not to say it doesn't have its moments, but all it had to say was already said.

I don't particularly think Undead Unluck excels on any of the core elements I look for when I'm watching an anime. It has average visuals and animation, a few interesting characters that are rather quirky than deep, and despite its story constantly hinting something more interesting it wastes its times going over already established points with exhausting flashbacks and overplaying emotional bits to the point it sometimes becomes comical. With all these faults point out we may well conclude that what made me like it so much and excited to watch it every single week may well be irrational, but it's something worth it elaborate ... on, since it is this same feeling that made me like animes like Fairy Tail and Black Clover so much.
Undead Unluck has that perfect balance between earnest and fun that its so hard to find in shonens. It is fun and lighthearted enough that as an adult I can glance over and happily suspend my disbelief when necessary, but it is also told with sincerity enough, maybe even exaggerated, that the characters, their actions and consequences matter and I very much care and feel invested on them.

Way back, when I first watched Made In Abyss S1 I remember being taken aback by the first episodes. I loved that mysterious dark world colored by the childish glee and optimism of our protagonists, contrating nicely with the cruelty and horrors of the abyss. As the journey went on, however, a great part of that magic was gone, pace was a great problem, and the journey in the direction of the final layers wasn't as fun and adventurous as I had imagine. it was only at he end of the season that what I have felt started to return. Season 2 has none ... of those problems.
Finally, having arrived at the 6th layer, we discover that things are weird, to say the least, we find a city inhabited by creatures that lack a human body but have human-like intellect, a weird currency system and weirder behavior, and as we uncover the mysteries of this place instead of leaving us satisfied as our sense of curiosity is sated, as a good detective series would do, the opposite happens: things become even more weirder and mysterious. And for me that's the selling point of Made In Abyss. It creates a magical world like no other a thousand times more gruesome and visceral. It discards its naivety and idealism to affirm the primordial fact that what is unknown may hide not only delights, but unimaginable horrors, that our dreams have the power to create nightmares, that no matter what we do we will never truly understand this world,and despite these very truths Riko, Reg and Nanachi still move on with unwavering glee and optimism.

Mappa proves once again that the quality ceiling of an anime is not limited to its source material. In a certain way Jujutsu Kaizen's was a god's blessing for them: a widely popular Shounen whose chapters looks increasingly more like a rough draft than some finished work. That is the blessing, it gives the the room necessary direction and animation to go ballistic.
Season 2 is the pinnacle of how creative a Shonen anime be: we get crazy shots, use of different animation styles, and interesting storytelling devices all working in the service of the source material. We get characters and their personality expressively ... flashed out, the relationships that give the weight necessary to the story is also comfortable put there, also, I'm not left half confused every time a character give some long winded explanation about some technique that will never appear again, so things flow nicely.
Juicy, fatty, rare. JJK S2, by having all the meat the manga lacks, elevates the series to a new level.

Despite the whole beating around the bush simulator thing I did like the course this first cour of Mushoko Tensei season 2 took, and although everyone's arms are sore and can't lift up anymore I'm at least happy with the outcome of the most painful and wince educing teenage romantic comedy someone can watch in the 21st century. If that all sounds somewhat bitter-suit that's because it is.
First things first, I have to give credit where credit is due, this is not the first time Mushoku Tensei decided to take an unpredictable path when compared to its counterparts. There is a true commitment ... to make the most realistic portrayal of a used-to-be-loser who has to reconcile his previous and current lives problems, even if at the cost of the patience and good will of some viewers, I know a lot of anime fans can't help but feel annoyed when issues that seem solved previously resurface again, but that's just how life is. Here things are even worse, after our boy Rude had just lost his virginity on the previous season I expected a slight more confident slight less awkward protagonist going for the big leagues and doing some crazy magic vfx, but nothing could be farther from the truth, being unable to maintain even his sense of humor we get a few years of slump. I had only pity and contempt for the guy.
At this point we get on all that was not great about Mushoku Tensei, the first few episodes feel extremely dry and hard to warm up to, yes it is winter, but our monotone directionless protagonist seems to be accompanied by a likewise direction which makes the few emotional highs and battles climax which could remedy some of that fall flat on their feet. A good direction can save a lackluster animation: emphasis on facial expressions and va on emotional moments, a variety of interesting angles on battle scenes with lower budget and dialogue-heavy scenes, all of this was lacking in this cour.
So, would I recommend you watch it? I can only speak for myself when I say yes, but I'm also someone that don't mind the tone of the humor used here, if that's something that might throw you off I would say do not watch it and save the world the possible creation of dozen of topics complaining about it.

I love Jigokuraku's manga. It starts as a stroll on a eerie island full of bizarre creatures and mysteries and slowly evolves into fun fast-paced adventure that plays out of its character's chemistry, keeping non-stop pace until the end. You're thrown into an island full of enemies, you need to find this elixir you don't even know is real and in front of you are these beautiful, semi-imortal beings and behind you come a crew of executioners and ninjas, and they all want your head.
I don't like Jigokuraku's anime so much. I feel like I'm being thrown from character's exposition to character's exposition (with ... a few scenes of subpar action in between) where they will reiterate their resolve one more time until the next scene comes and its put into doubt again. I know people don't change instantly, our resolutions will always be put into doubt when new situations arise, and all these scenes are also present in the manga, I just take issue with how it is executed here. It's like Mappa sometimes try to "fill in" the material they're adapting. It worked perfectly for Jujutsu Kaizen, but not so much here in Jigokukuraku (or for that instance Chainsaw-man) making these character expositions longer or more serious does not add to the source material, it removes one of its essential elements, its rythym.

Mob Psycho III is a deserving conclusion to the series. What may be seem as disappointing and boring season for some, is the height of Mob's and the series maturity. This anime went all the way from "boy with psychic power dealing with psychic shit" to "boy that happens to have psychic powers trying to live life the best he can, sometimes psychic shit happens, tho". That's seem by how much the focus is shifted from the use of those powers, fearsome psychic villains and spirits to the day-to-day life, dealing with mundane questions of growing up, love and friendship. More than the other ... seasons, Mob psychic power's are not only an outlet to give us amazing action sequences, but are posed as an issue where their own validity and existence is put into question.

Long story short: Jigokuraku is a well-executed manga.
Main cast of characters are fun and have great chemistry built up in a believable way. Solid world-building where we're always been revealed more at the right moments where it serve a purpose of either establish information which will be used by a character in the future or to advance the plot, no info-dumps. Villains so consistently conceited they'll have a smug on their face even as their draw their last breath, I admit this may be a turn off to some, but you just need to learn to love it. An almost flawless pace where things ... get pretty chaotic and crazy, but never spiral out of control, Jigokuraku was able to impress me to the end with its pretty idiosyncrasies and deservingly perfect ending.

It would deeply pain me to give Ousama Ranking any score smaller than 10, as it has everything I look for in an anime. The deceptively child-like simple art-style is downright gorgeous with beautiful watercolor backgrounds and allows for both charming character designs and a very fluid animations that gives shine to key emotional scenes. The story at first is almost like a fable from a child's book, its power comes for its simplicity and archetypical patterns, which is then layered with dark fun twists which would make for a perfect self-contained story. Unfortunately what makes it less than perfect is not being that, the ... world-building and characters background combined with a convoluted and drawn out plot in its second half makes the pace of the anime suffer and takes some of Bojji's charms away, while the unresolved plot threads leaves a bitter-sweet taste of incompleteness in the mouth. With that said Ousama Ranking is more than great, with a solid story, better than almost everything out there, and incredibly captivating characters. The sweet part of its end is the promise of more Bojji and Kage's adventures in the future.