I know, I know … running horribly late again.
I’d started writing this a few weeks into the season and then ran out of steam, so it sat for quite a while as a draft. Unfortunately (?), you’ll probably be able to tell the stuff I wrote after I got back to it as those descriptions are, admittedly, much more terse and compact. At least take the fact that I’m still watching those series as some indication of … something?
Standard boilerplate:
- I have a paid subscription to CrunchyRoll (and Netflix), so I don’t have access to shows on other streaming srevices. Yes, I know I’m missing other stuff, but – this is a hobby, not my job.
- The listing of shows within each category does not indicate any sort of preference for one over the others. It’s typically just the order in which I was reading them from my Watchlist.
Quick Internal Links
- Continuing Shows
- Returning Shows
- The Romance / Rom-Coms
- The Isekais
- Action-ish / Fantasy
- Reincarnation / Life “Reboot”
- Slice-of-Life
- “Other”
- On Hold
- Music!!!
- The Clear Winners
Continuing Shows
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF – According to most sources, this season covered one of the “big” / important arcs of the story – what amounts to a bit of a market-manipulation economic “battle” between Lawrence and a guy who believes Holo to be indentured servitude and tries to buy her out. I’ll admit I wasn’t focused enough on the main story to follow all of the market nuances of the arc. Doesn’t matter, honestly, as the biggest part through the whole story is the watching the clearly growing feelings both main characters have for each other. Even if I wasn’t “properly” following the plot-line, it’s definitely still worth watching.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime – Ah … more boardroom meetings, but building up to a huge monster-hosted festival for all of the humans to show them “No, really, we’re the nice monsters!” Too much sarcasm? Yeah, probably. Don’t get me wrong, please! Slime is still an awesome show, and I love it. I do sort of miss the earlier seasons, though, when the main focus was Rimuru figuring everything out. He’s definitely hitting what I think of as the “Superman dilemma” though. (I’m aware that isn’t the “correct” term for it, but it’s the label my brain slapped on it.) Basically, as with Superman – he’s sooo powerful that writers need to keep inventing more and more powerful enemies or else the stories become boring. [And you wondered why the character keeps getting a reboot regularly, huh… now you know.]
Returning Shows
The Cáfe Terrace and Its Goddesses – It’s baa-aack! Yep, those five stacked and gorgeous waitresses at the small cafe along with the owner (Hayato) who isn’t quite sure he wants a harem. But that’s ok because, this season, he started out with competition – the evil business guy who hated Hayato’s (now deceased) grandmother. Business guy started a competing cafe, complete with five poor imitations. Said cafe immediately fails (for numerous reasons). [The business guy, for supposedly being successful, clearly doesn’t seem to have the first idea of how to actually drive competition out of business.] Hayato, being the soft-hearted idiot he is, steps in to help, rescuing the other cafe (and its “goddesses”) who, of course, all immediately also fall in love with him. “Hijinks ensue!” I’m still reading the source manga, so – you do the math. of course I’m still watching this!
Tower of God – I honestly didn’t remember all of the deep details of the first season of this one (well, beyond Kenjiro Tsuda voicing one of the “main side characters”). For me, his voice is instantly recognizable. The character he voiced is barely in this season but that’s all right. There seem to be a whole bunch of new characters being introduced (I think? … maybe just reintroduced). I do recall being rather lost from the first season but generally enjoying the show (action scenes and the sense of “ok, what the hell is going on here???”), so I’m still there.
SHY – The most appropriately named Japanese super-hero is back. We also get a sort of ninja-like (not) super-hero. The ninja is a good guy, but she’s seemingly just as powerful as the “real” supers with the magic bracelets. (No! This ISN’T Madoka!) Also the first major arc has Shy needing to be a team lead when going up against yet another “big bad”, which is interesting as it plays very much against her type. Still a fun watch, although somewhat less … riveting? … than S1.
The Romance / Rom-Coms
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines – The male protagonist is extremely aware of the structure of Light Novel (and manga / anime) romance stories. There is typically a “winning heroine” and one or more “losing” ones. He has the unfortunate timing to watch (first episode) when one of the losing heroines does, indeed, get told she’s liked “only as a friend”. Noticing him, she uses him for emotional support in the moment and sponges food and sweets off of him just then. As part of her paying him back over time (daily lunch preparation), they start growing closer. At the same time, other “losing heroines” wind up gravitating closer to him and we get to watch a lot of these stories swirling around. This is really good and my short description here simply doesn’t do it justice.
Pseudo Harem – This one is just sooooo sweet. The title is absolutely dead-on regarding this show. There isn’t an actual harem, but the female lead (Rin Nanakura, voiced by Saori Hayami) is a method actress in the high school drama club and the guy she’s quickly fallen in love with has had the fantasy of having a harem. So, Rin gets to use her talents and takes on various trope-like characters (all of which are easily recognizable from EVERY romance and rom-com story), such as “Tsundere-chan”, “Imp-chan”, etc. We’re only halfway through the season, but it’s clear they both feel the same way and are moving past the “are they / aren’t they?” sort of dancing around which is typically present for (sigh) multiple seasons. It’s cute and heartwarming and the voices of the various “personae” comes through clearly.
Love is Indivisible by Twins – Twins (female protagonists) have childhood next-door friend (male protagonist). The two girls have different likes, etc. – one is more sporty and athletic, while the other is an otaku. Both (of course?) wind up falling in love with the boy. So far, he’s dated (and stopped) dating both of them, but the story is on-going. It’s sweet, sort of, but with some interesting undertones (one of the twins asked him to be her boyfriend mainly as a tactic to get her sister to act on her own feelings, but then she wound up falling for him anyway).
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian – Semi-typical romcom where the female lead (Alya) lived in Russia for many years. So, she expresses her attraction to the male lead by speaking Russian. What she doesn’t realize / remember is long ago, he had a (girl) friend he learned Russian from and he remembers how to understand it. There is, of course, a strong implication the girl from his youth was Alya or Alya’s sister. There’s a somewhat slow burn here of the developing relationship between them and how they are both coming to recognize it. A bunch of this show has an overly complex and convoluted storyline, but it’s still watchable. Plus, I’ll admit it – I am (too?) easily hooked on rom-coms.
The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies – This has a LOT of “Love After World Domination” x “Mr. Villain’s Day Off” vibes. The evil guy battles the magical girl regularly, but then, in the first episode, while not working, he comes across her (unknowingly), discovering she is actually penniless and, basically, starving. She is being horribly used (and there’s a bunch of implied abuse) by her familiar. [Ah, there’s the Madoka vibes…] Evil guy promptly develops a soft spot in his heart for her and starts caring about and for her – in her non-magical-girl form. Of course, this overflows into “work” (including one episode when she’s been kidnapped and needs to be tortured, but he’s the one in charge of it – and everything that’s said in the torture chamber is recorded for the “higher-ups”). It’s sweet and cute and I’m a sucker for stuff like this. The only downside is that all of the episodes are short, lasting barely 15 minutes. I really wish there was more of it each week, although I suspect that’s due to it having a very short manga run (3 volumes according to the wiki page). [And I just discovered his was due to the death of the mangaka in March 2015, leaving the series unfinished. 😭]
The Isekais
Quality Assurance in Another World – Another “death game” sort of isekai(-adjacent?). Only, this time, it’s the official testers who are stuck in the game. The main character is, seemingly, the only tester who’s still taking his job seriously – reporting bugs and not using “cheat mode” to do anything he wants to. Somehow, an NPC escapes with him from the “doomed village” she was from and joins him. He also runs into other testers who are, let’s not mince words here, the absolute worst – abusing the game world and the NPCs which inhabit it. This one is just different enough to keep me watching it.
No Longer Allowed in Another World – This one is great! Truck-kun gets official recognition as the vehicle (pardon the pun) by which heroes are specifically summoned to another world. In this case, however, the main character (a Japanese author, strongly implied to be Osamu Dazai in the mid-1900s) was in the middle of committing a double-suicide with his lover when he was interrupted by the untimely appearance of Truck-kun. Unfortunately, he remains steadfast in his desire to remove himself from existence. He spends most of his time in the new world consuming poison and otherwise actively putting himself into dangerous situations. The “main” storyline seems to have started within the last few episodes, however, as his real power is revealed. There are many other heroes who’ve been summoned and have taken care of the main threat but they are all, by and large, turning into power-crazed horrors – worse than the demons they were summoned to banish. The author’s power, though, is the ability to write a story about them (individually) and conclude that they are no longer needed – which forces them out of the isekai (note the title of the show). Loads of fun and definitely an interesting twist on the whole isekai trope.
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells – “It’s ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero‘ … but with less slavery!” Ok, not quite, but it’s still right on that level. At least the constant degrading abuse the protagonist needed to deal with (in the new world) doesn’t seem to exist here, so I’m still watching it.
Action-ish / Fantasy
Bye, Bye, Earth – This one is just plain strange. The protagonist is the only human in the entire cast, while the rest are all humanoid / anthropomorphized animals, magic exists, swords need to be “grown” and the “god” is a two-headed being that would give H. R. Giger nightmares. I can honestly say I don’t really understand what’s going on, but suspect that may be due to being entirely too sober? For some reason, though, I’m enjoying it anyway? Maybe I’m just liking the fight scenes? Dunno.
The Elusive Samurai – The second historical (or history-“adjacent”?) show this season (with the other being “No Longer Allowed…”). In this case, it’s based (loosely?) on the story of Hōjō Tokiyuki whose family was betrayed and slaughtered when he was a child. In the story, he wasn’t particularly interested in “samurai stuff”, but he is almost supernatural at hiding and evading (like, this kid could win every game of “Tag!” simply because he’s un-tag-able). [Think of the movie “Tag“…] With the help of a priest who has some level of fore-telling abilities, Tokiyuki forms a group of other youngsters who will help him reclaim his birthright. The action scenes in this one are dynamic and exciting and very well (I think) thought out. The chase scenes are crazy good. Absolutely worth watching!
The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human – Pretty much as described in the title (“Thank you, Japanese Light Novel titles for telling me what the story is about!”). It also has, as expected, massive harem elements (from the demon lord / lady all the way down to his maid). Protagonist is massively overpowered, but it’s kinda fun to watch? I’ll admit the main draw on this one is that the OP song (“Ctrl-C”) is an absolute BANGER. (See Music!!! below.)
The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible – Middle-age guy in fantasy world decides he wants to be an adventurer, proceeds to undergo Training From Hell (“No, no – it’s fine! If you die, so long as we get to your body quickly, we can just resurrect you!”) in flashbacks. The first episode where he utterly curb-stomps EVERYONE, all the while being completely sure they’re so much stronger than him, is funny and what got me to keep watching. Humor hasn’t really died down, although it’s now turned into a “Fetch the <N> McGuffins” story with side-quests.
Reincarnation / Life “Reboot”
None this season
Slice-of-Life
Mayonaka Punch – Disgraced video creator (“It’s not Youtube!”) is lusted after by a lesbian vampire (yes, you read those words correctly), but the only way the human will give herself to the vampire is if they can start a new not-Youtube channel and reach a million subscribers. This also involves her moving into the vampire house and joining the other vampires living there. This group is one of the most misfit collection of semi-failures I’ve ever seen. But … all of them have significant backstories which got them to where they are now, and the story explores a lot of those (providing humanizing elements for even the vampires). Add in a semi-serious look at how the videos are created / edited and it’s both interesting and sweet.
Days with My Stepsister – Right, let’s get past the difficult part first. This is definitely not the typical “hey – we’re not related, so it’s ok if we &*($, right?” Indeed, his one is difficult to decide between “rom-com” and “slice-of-life” as it has strong elements of both. If anything, it’s much more about both of the main characters being suddenly thrust together due to their parents’ remarriage and needing to learn who this other person in their life is. Yūta (the step-brother) helps Saki (the step-sister) to improve her grades and the entire ongoing interactions leaves her unsure of her feelings for him. Yes, there’s a definite slow migration towards more romantic elements, but it is slow, rather the than typical (on-screen) mad rush there. It’s a refreshing change of pace and extremely pleasant to watch.
“Other”
VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream – A VTuber, as the title says, stays live-streaming after intending to turn it off. She proceeds to get very drunk (still live) and says a whoooole bunch of extremely lewd things about her fellow VTubers. She passes out and wakes up the next morning to realize how much she’s potentially messed up. However, her agency turns around and tells her, “Nah. The publicity you got from this is awesome! Keep it up!” So, of course, she does. Not only does she continue with this less-than-pristine behavior, but this sense of “Eff it, just go with whatever!” infects some of the other VTubers she works with, leading to hilarious results. I am absolutely unable to watch this show without being ready to pounce on the pause button, because they show “stream comments” and the like and those things scroll fast. My watch-time on any given episode is probably at least 1.5 times the actual episode length, just from needing to pause every minute (or more frequently) to read what has flashed on to the screen. This show is FUNNY!!!
SHOSHIMIN: How to become Ordinary – This is sort of a detective show wrapped up in … something else. The main characters are all, by their own admission, very much not ordinary, but they also are pretending they’d like to shed that and (as the title says) become ordinary. Speaking (myself) as someone who very much is also not ordinary, I certainly have, at times, understood that desire. But, ultimately, the act of becoming ordinary would mean discarding too much of “me”, and it wind up just not being possible. So, too, for these characters. They’re unable to get rid of their own special quirks (whether it’s the ability to think through complex mysteries, or dogged determination, or anything else), and that’s what keeps the story moving along,
Ramen Akaneko – “Akaneko” means “Red Cat”. The main setting for this show is a ramen shop, which is staffed and run entirely by … talking cats – including the back-room noodle maker … who is a tiger. They need a human employee, however, because they can’t brush themselves (to get rid of as much of the excess cat hair as possible). Each episode is sliced into small sequential stories with a couple of closing scenes (at the end of the entire episode) as interstitial little set-pieces. The entire show is just charming and one of the cats is voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda (see also Tower of God, above).
My Deer Friend Nokotan – You know about this show. You may not know ANYTHING about anime, but, nevertheless, you probably know about this show. Why, you ask? Because you’ve probably seen “the dance” 👉. It’s funny (at times), and cringe-worthy pretty much all the time. So – Why can’t I stop watching it???
On Hold
TASUKETSU -Fate of the Majority- – Very strange sort of “death game” type story which has (inexplicably?) gone on hold from being shown after episode 5. It’s still on my list, so I’ll resume watching it when it resumes being broadcast. I was somewhat on the edge for whether to keep watching it or not (as, once again, this is a packed season), so it’s convenient that it’s taking a breather. [And, in the intervening time since I first wrote that, it’s returned.] Very possible it’s getting dropped shortly after I finish this post.
Music!!!
Ramen Akaneko: (opening), “Akaneko”, by Wednesday Campanella.
Strongest Magician…: (opening), “Ctrl C”, by Kohta Yamamoto.
Elusive Samurai: (opening), “Plan A” by Dish. There’s also an awesome music video for this song! Watch it over there. 👉
Magical Girl / Evil Lieutenant: (ending), “Itsumo Futari ga īi ne” (It’s Nice That the Two of Them Are Always Together), いつも二人がいいね, by Yūki Ono and Mai Nakahara.
Days with My Stepsister: (opening), “Tenshi-tachi no Uta” (Song of the Angels), 天使たちの歌, by Fhána.
The Clear Winners
Rather than trying to call out the shows I think are absolutely outstanding in each description, here’s a quick list. Think of these as the “If you can only watch a few, go for these!” list. I won’t get into the details on the whys for each one (beyond what I described above), but these are the ones definitely worth checking out. List is purely alphabetical.
- Days with My Stepsister
- Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines
- No Longer Allowed in Another World
- Pseudo Harem
- VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream
Tied For Second
And, if you have a bit more time beyond just those few, here’s others I think are definitely worth having on your own watchlist
- Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
- My Deer Friend Nokotan
- Ramen Akaneko
- The Elusive Samurai
- The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible
