I was pretty sure that the revive + re-kill day was going to end up having revived Ryuuta, but I wasn't expecting that reveal to happen so quick, nor that no one would react to this revelation with any real amount of surprise. The explanations this episode were at least possible to follow, but it feels like they're doing set-up and reveal so quickly with these "mysteries" that it's hard to even follow what's happening. Because of that, it's difficult to even tell who is on whose side, what anyone's motivation is, and what the reason for any strategy is. But I'm grateful the wackiness is getting turned up via the prime rights, since it reminds me that there is no reason to take anything this anime is doing seriously.
glilimith
I super don't trust Doga Kobo with any anime that has "children" in the name, but I looked it up and it looks like it's actually a different type of weird than I thought (adopted-sibling romance)! Not great, but better than what Doga Kobo's often up to....
Still not really sold on this yet, but I'll give it the full 3 episodes to prove itself. It definitely looks great, but I think it's sort of funny that Mashle, which has a very similar premise but in the form of a comedy, seems to consistently have higher stakes than this show. Like, it looks like the students who got taken out in the dungeon last time who I thought were for sure dead are actually just.... perfectly fine? So the only pressing issue here is "will MC see his girlfriend again" (without answering the question "why does he need to get accepted to and graduate from wizard grad school to be able to see her?")
ok, let's try this one
This is almost certainly the lowest-stakes mystery show I've ever seen. The case of the dry sink is solved! ....and I'm very mad at Kengo about it, lol. I loved that, even as pointless as the mystery was, the show still did the mystery thing of giving us all the little clues before we even knew they were important.
I went into this blind and last episode I suspected we were going to be getting a supernatural twist, but this time I'm leaning more away from that possibility. Either way I'll be curious to learn why these two weirdos have decided to "become ordinary", but I think a lot of the confusing scenes from last episode were symbolic or stylistic rather than literal, though I'm not sure what they all mean yet. For one of them, though, it seems clear to me that the shots of Kobato in place of the perpetrator (which happened in both mysteries) is expressing his process of looking at the mystery through someone else's eyes.
Now, let's see if I can solve the mystery of getting a screenshot to work.... (Edit: so far, no, but I'll give it a few minutes in case lemmy needs to think very hard about it) (Edit 2: I am too ordinary to solve this mystery, I guess)
It's real rough watching the kids deal with the horrors of war, but they seem to be having fun, so i guess it's fine?
I feel like this show is getting slept on and I'm not really sure why. Cloverworks just keeps flexing, mixing and matching different artstyles to create just the right vibe of goofy and serious in a way that looks amazing all the time.
The shadows in this episode were SO distracting. It sounds like the studio outsourced a lot of the animation to a company that may have sub-contracted a studio in North Korea, and so a bunch of work had to get redone last minute, which definitely would explain the rough quality this episode has. Hopefully this will mostly affect early episodes and later ones will be able to get at least some of the time they need to look a bit better, but only time will tell.
As for the actual content, last episode I was worried we were going to lose Carlo before the story actually got started, and it turns out I was right T_T
But it's really funny to me that we're 2 episodes into a romance anime and the main romantic interest still has yet to even show his face. Maybe next time, lol.
Last season I made threads for every show I watched (which is all of them), but this time I figured I'd only make threads for ones I'm actually going to keep watching, so I'm going to dump all my thoughts about the dregs in his thread instead:
The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army Was a Human
Quite bland and uninspired with not a lot going for it. Its politics is at least halfway decent (MC is giving the peasants more rights), but how it gets there is by implying that only humans are capable of empathizing with humans. I've heard that the original story was an isekai and the adaptation replaced real life japan with "a mysterious ancient civilization", which seems to serve no purpose and definitely made things a bit more confusing. 1/5
The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible
This seems like it's aiming for the same tone as last dungeon boonies with the "I think I'm weak but actually I'm strong", but whereas last dungeon boonies was funny and charming, this one is, uh, not. Also, 32 is not "ossan" age. 1/5
Days with My Stepsister
A more realistic take on the step-sibling romance genre. Our leads seem pretty emotionally mature and capable of having adult conversations and not drifting into hormonal drama, which is something I'm typically all for. At times I couldn't help but read the female lead as being on the autism spectrum, with how clearly frustrated she is with most social situations where people don't want to clarify the unwritten social rules, which is always neat to see (even if it's just my interpretation and not canon). The post-credits scene of her struggling to turn off the hall light was also very funny and relatable. All that said, I still didn't really like it, mostly because it was just so painfully slow. I spent most of the episode bored out of my mind begging for something to happen, and nothing ever did. I feel like there's a good story in here, but I don't have the patience to wait for it. 2/5
Red Cat Ramen
The CGI looks terrible in this show, especially the ramen, and it was hard for me to get past that. Some of the jokes worked, but it was just hard to take anything seriously when it looked that bad that often. 1/5
2.5 Dimensional Seduction
After finishing this episode and feeling like there was some probably some censorship at play, I looked up the manga and learned that it was originally basically softcore porn. It seems like the adaptation is trying to get away from that and make it into a normal romance / Dress-up Darling ripoff, but like honestly I don't understand the point of this story if it's not going full horny. The main girl does not at all act like a human person, but rather a porn character, and the plot seems to twist itself into putting them in situations to be horny at each other. And like, if that's what the anime was aiming for, that's not for me but that's fine. But without the nipples and the ass shots and the underboob, I just don't know who this is for? The main characters of this anime would be ashamed to see their story adapted like this. 2/5
A Nobody's Way Up to an Exploration Hero
The setting of this one is a little interesting, with the theme park built around a dungeon that seems to be equal parts tourist attraction and adventurer workplace, but the plot seemed a little weak and generic. My main issue with the show is the two summons the main character has, who both appear to be little girls who are basically his slaves. I normally don't trust anime very much with young girls, but this one especially seemed off, with the first one, Sylphy, calling MC "goshujin-sama" and getting a detailed close-up of her mouth while eating, and then the ED made it clear to me that yes, the audience is meant to find the child summons attractive. I learned later that they changed Sylphy's design from the manga / light novel, where she was still quite short but was proportioned like an adult woman, which makes me wonder what on earth the anime's character designers were thinking. 2/5
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Apart from the CGI rice stalks, this one was actually quite good, as far as set-up episodes go. It set the stakes and goals and characterized the main character very effectively. My issue is that I found Sakuna to be an extremely unlikable brat who I couldn't bring myself to root for. I'm sure that changes over time, but I just sort of can't stand her as she is at the beginning of the story. For those who can, it seems like it'll probably be a fun show. One last small gripe, though: there is a faint bird call in the audio track for a lot of the scenes that was driving me nuts while watching and I haven't heard anyone else even acknowledge and I feel like I'm going crazy. 3/5
I've been trying to figure out what I think is going on with Makoto's gender, and after this episode I'm pretty solidly convinced she's a trans girl. It's hard to read her getting that excited by getting hit on in the street as anything other than gender euphoria.
I really hope the ball goes well, and the fallout from The Handkerchief Incident isn't too bad, but I'm scared for our poor girl T_T
Things are moving a lot faster than I expected, but that can definitely be a good thing since it leaves more room for unexpected twists and turns. I was a little worried we'd end up in a messy rebound relationship situation, but I'm glad their feelings are mutual, even though it doesn't seem like either of them trust that's the case. Also good to see the groomer teacher get told off before he (hopefully) exits the plot forever (though it'd be better if he went to jail).
I absolutely called Suou being his sister last episode when they were texting, but I think I may have trusted too much in their dynamic staying wholesome and familial. Some of her incest jokes were a little too much for me (and, thankfully, it seems that Kuze feels the same). Aside from those moments, though, I'm really enjoying the dynamic they're setting up between the three of them, since it often feels like Suou is having fun bullying her big brother (as is her right) while also encouraging the two of them to be more honest in her own weird way. I don't really understand why he can't just tell Alya that they're not dating and they're just siblings, since that would clear up a lot of this mess, but maybe we'll get that answer eventually.
Also, and this is a small thing, GIVE ME THE HELL RAMEN, PLEASE. I WANT IT, IT LOOKS SO GOOD.
So cute and so comfy. I'm liking this a LOT more than I expected to.