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Apr 3, 2024
Where to start on this one?

This was the kind of series that had a lot going for it from the outset, at least from my perspective. The fact that this was an anniversary passion project from Studio Bones (one of my favorite studios), the excellent artwork, the sci-fi elements (those black holes really pop), a pretty strong OST, not to mention the whole premise feeling like some crazy mash-up between Blade Runner and Accel World. The models for the various members of the Immortal Nine and the designs of Neans are striking. Unlike many who watched this in the early stages, I found being thrown ...
Apr 3, 2024
Mixed Feelings
Not a bad start by any means, though it took a little while to solidly get going for me. Speaking as someone who has read Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, it certainly hasn't hit as hard as that series did, but it's planted opportunities to do a great deal more.

It's not so much that the series is slow, but rather that it lacked an identity beyond its worldbuilding and basic establishment of its core cast. From there, it just became a series of fights that slowly built on those identities before a couple of big moments started to shift the momentum. The series has been ...
Apr 2, 2024
I liked this season quite a bit. I think it was a little more consistently solid than Part IV by having a plot that felt like it very naturally built on itself over the course of the season, though it notably lacked the stylized animation that made that series pop as well as the layered plots. Its best episodes didn't quite rise to the level of the best that series had to offer, either. What this series did have was some solid emotional investment. In particular, how this series portrayed the dynamic between Fujiko and Lupin was absolutely excellent, and making that the core of ...
Mar 31, 2024
This is the kind of show that, on paper, should come off as just fun, popcorn entertainment with little to distinguish it. The stakes in this show are low: to excel at an MMORPG. There have been plenty of anime that used that premise, but raised the stakes by locking the gamer into the game with greater or lesser costs of death (e.g. Sword Art Online, .hack//sign, Log Horizon), and this is hardly the first instance of a gamer playing with a unique choices with their character to surprising effect (e.g. Bofuri, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online). Sure, this one has the neat ...
Mar 30, 2024
I liked season 1 of this show a lot, but season 2 made me fall in love with this series. Sure, it's the same characters as the first season, but you get to see more than the beginnings of a relationship here. There may not be the grand confession between Ichikawa and Yamada, no publicized relationship, but they are fundamentally in a very different place throughout this season, past the earliest misunderstandings and, at times, poor comprehension of their own feelings. Instead, we find ourselves diving into the relationship as it builds in ways that oscillate between subtle and dramatic, but they all left me ...
Mar 30, 2024
I haven't read the manwha for this series, so I don't have much of a point of comparison beyond seeing a few splash panels out of context. So I only knew the basic premise going in, and while there are definitely some strong aspects, one of those is not the series' narrative. This series is, at its core, a very basic power fantasy where the lead goes from zero to hero, literally becoming hot and talented overnight.

But it's not really fair to take that out of its context, especially as this series featured one of the best starts of the current season, putting Sung Jin-Woo ...
Mar 30, 2024
Yes, this series is still a joy to watch. Yes, it’s still the same basic joke of largely being Saitama in Hogwarts, now with a little bit of its own identity due to anti-no magic sentiment. No, that premise has not gotten tired and played out, even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If anything, I’m enjoying myself more now than I did in season 1.

I chalk a lot of that up to spectacle and scale. Things have gotten significantly more ridiculous as Mash and company face down tougher opponents with lower odds of success. Mash is forced to push himself that much further, ...
Mar 29, 2024
This is such a frustrating series. The premise both felt like it was written specifically to appeal to me and repulse me. The former because, as someone who commonly takes on the healer role in online games but still likes to throw hands as a healer, the entire concept of a "wrong way to use healing magic" felt more personally investing. The latter because it's as basic isekai as isekai premises get: three students (because of course they need high schoolers) get summoned to a fantasy world because they have to save the kingdom, one of whom just ends up coming along for the ride ...
Mar 29, 2024
This one got off to a rocky start, but as it has continued, it has become very endearing.

Generally, I’ve got issues with stories that send a character on an adventure for poorly explained reasons. We’re thrust into a world where we are told that having stars is fundamental to survival, as they go towards a given skill for a given individual. That’s fine, but the series seems to both buy into this premise way too much and way too little simultaneously.

It buys in way too much because Ivy lacks stars and is exiled and pursued with murderous intent for it, mainly built on ...
Mar 28, 2024
My pick for the most surprising anime of the season. I found myself loving this one for a variety of reasons, but first, I’ve got to talk about that premise:

Top Gun with aliens invading a la Independence Day but giant robot Kamina from Gurren Lagann comes to save the day.

That sounds like a mess, and while it kind of is, this is a show that revels in the mess. It leans in hard as the robot Bravern diagetically blasts his theme music from its cockpit (projecting his opening animation background behind him like a boss), proclaims that his pilot Isami is its soul mate, ...


It’s time to ditch the text file.
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