Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [Week 30]

Summer has settled into a bit of a groove. So, here is where shows that I have been watching currently stand:

Really Enjoying

• Oshi no Ko - Been enjoying this arc, but it might not be for everybody.
• Alya - probably the biggest surprise of the season for me. It's been a lot of fun.
• Love is Indivisible By Twins - Big guilty pleasure show full of drama, like a love triangle should be.
• Pseudo Harem - just a half hour of two people flirting.

It's Been Good

• Tower of God - Second season has been quite a big change from the first, still adjusting.
• Dungeon People - After a strong open, this show has settled down into more of a SOL, but I am hoping that they keep some intensity.
• Nokotan - This show has tons of humor, but it doesn't always land for me. Plenty still does though.
• Spice and Wolf - Continuing from last season, this show has been moving pretty slow, but still keeping up with it.

Let's See Where This Goes

• Isekai Quality Assurance - Willing to give this one some more time to see what they do with the premise.
• Dahlia - First couple episodes have felt like a prologue, so willing to see what happens now that we are through that. The animation has been pretty poor though.

Probably Going to Drop

• My Wife Has No Emotion - Sometimes you win the adaptation roulette, and sometimes you don't. This one didn't for me, so I will probably just stick with the manga.
• Plus-Sized Elf - Yeah...they cranked the fan service dial to 11 when they adapted this, and I think it is probably just too far for me. There just isn't enough there to keep me coming back each week.

I've started watching the following:

1. Wistoria: familiar plot and setting, but interesting with good animation and better music than expected. With fantasy school settings, I always struggle with the school's disregard for their students' safety. It's often just a given like it's supposed to be like that and not really expanded upon or explored why it's like that, which feels like a copout or as a cheap way to create tension.
2. SHOSHIMIN: pretty fun, but a bit vague right now. The 21:9 aspect ratio feels a bit pretentious. Curious to see where it'll go.
3. Alya: fun haremish romcom. MC is not a spineless husk, which is a surprise given the many other harem romcoms.
4. Makeine: a fun twist on the love triangle romcom. Surprisingly another MC that's not a spineless husk.
5. QA in Another World: I kinda felt obligated to watch this due to my profession (software tester). It's alright. Please don't call testers debuggers though.
6. Mayonaka Punch: really fun and engaging characters. Feels like good ol' PA Works.
7. Vtuber Legend: very fun. I used to be way into Vtubers during COVID (still am, but don't have much time for it sadly), and this anime captures the feel of it very well.
8. NieR Automata part 2: good shit. Good adaptation too. Quite a few changes and additions, but very welcome ones. They keep it interesting for people who played the game. It's also a big step up production wise compared to the previous part.
9. Senpai is an Otokonoko: heartfelt, though it feels like it's moving a fair bit faster than the webcomic. VA casting is perfect. Bit too much reliance on chibi.
10. Dahla in Bloom: decent. Feels like it only just started. This show doesn't know how to do shadows and it bothers the hell out of me.
11. Suicide Squad Isekai: it's aight. It flows a bit weird and doesn't really have an anime feel to it. This Harley Quinn is such good best girl material though.
12. 2.5D Seduction: I prefer the manga, but it's good. Some don't like the reduced nudity, but I don't really mind. That wasn't what made me enjoy the manga anyway.
13. Continuing Spice & Wolf from last season. Might wait until this arc's over and start binging though. This is my least favourite arc. Not because it's bad, but because of how it makes me feel.

Dropped:

1. My Deer Friend Shikonoko: banger of an OP, but the actual anime gets old fast. Feels quite a bit 'random equals funny'. The brainrot isn't funny enough to justify it.
2. Pseudo Harem: not doing it for me, especially in full 24 min episodes. Works better in manga form imo.
3. Plus Sized Elf: exaggerates the source material while not doing it justice.

Want to watch:

1. Monogatari: need rewatch first
2. The Elusive Samurai

Maybe I'll pick up some more along the way too.

Completed a couple of shows

Mob Psycho 100 Season 3

Nice conclusion to the series. I especially liked the insert song Exist.

The story isn't special or anything. It is well-executed though, enough for me to enjoy it.

Overall, I rate the entire series 8 / 10.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

I was drawn in by the corporate dystopian premise. Also, David is a likeable protagonist.

The similarities to Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and Witch from Mercury makes this a non-Gundam Gundam series to me, which I usually like.

Unfortunately, it suffered from the poor communication trope (or whatever it is called), which reduced my enjoyment of it.

Good enough to keep me entertained. 7 / 10

Weekly ranking roundup:

1. Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: Days With My Stepsister
2. Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Oshi no Ko
3. Anime Trending - Weekly Winner: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.

Some big movers over at AC this week with Elusive Samurai and Monogatari both making big jumps up the chart. This week also saw a big drop off in reddit karma for Nokotan as the second episode only got ~1/3 as much karma as the premiere. I can't remember the last time I saw such a huge change between episodes 1 and 2. Even the first season of Oshi no Ko, episode 2 was only about 1/2 of the episode 1, which was the biggest change that I remember off the top of my head.

I finally finished 86 a couple of days ago. I don't think I've seen many military fantasy stories but I enjoyed it. I think the worldbuilding was done really well and the characters feel real. I also liked how it didn't firmly establish how a character really is and kept some of that ambiguity where people don't fully understand their own feelings and never really do. I'll pick up the LNs sometime. Maybe in a few months because I wanna finish reading the new volume of MagiRevo and the rest of CotE.

I should start commenting here more often. I only really come to this sub when I want to discuss new episodes or find recommendations but it's not like I have so little time I can't even discuss the stuff I clear off my backlog.