The moment when Sakuradaimon says that the girl who just went by is a special exception, and Poem’s hair starts slowly rising. 😂

That’s almost reassuring to hear.

I watched the first couple of episodes back-to-back, then the next three or four over steadily longer periods of time, and it’s been a couple of days now since I’ve watched one at all. I enjoy it all in all, but it definitely has felt slow, so I haven’t felt any urgent desire to watch more of it.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing - slow series have their own appeal if my mood is right, and I do like how neatly the mains fit together - it’s easy to see from their personalities how and why they appreciate each other. And I can take my time with it and not be afraid that I’m missing out.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm first few volumes

Thanks - saves me having to wonder if it might’ve been worth it after all.

I’m sure there are people to whom a story that unfolds like that is appealing. I’m not one of them.

Is Yomi no Tsugai your first Arakawa Hiromu anime?

Of course not.

I don’t recall either Fullmetal Alchemist or Silver Spoon opening with a character chopping an entire village’s adults in half while they screamed in agony and their children looked on, sobbing and screaming in terror and grief. And if they had (FMA had its share of broadly similar moments), we certainly wouldn’t have been expected to then sympathize with the person who so eagerly did it.

I mean - we weren’t expected to sympathize with Shou Tucker were we?

…Yamaha-ba…

Yes - that was made pretty clear. And I don’t see how it can possibly be relevant to the brutal and horrific murders of a whole bunch of other people.

I haven’t entirely given up on it, if for no other reason than that Gabby hasn’t reapoeared and hasn’t been mentioned, so I don’t know yet how her and her actions are going to be addressed, if at all.

But everything I’ve seen so far indicates that they’re going to just be sort of swept under the carpet, and she’s going to be treated as not so bad after all, because she must be okay because she won’t kill children (even though she will leave them sobbing next to the corpses of their parents). So I’m not optimistic.

😄 That’d explain it…

Spent the last couple of weeks watching the entire current run of Mushoku Tensei, which was pretty decent, but could’ve easily been better.

On the plus side there’s decent animation and music, an interesting story and good characters. On the minus side, there’s Rudeus’ pre-isekai identity, who hangs around being repulsive for far too long. Not only is that just off-putting in itself - it’s also ludicrous. There’s simply no way that Rudeus could spend 14 years (so far) being Rudeus every moment of every day and still have any connection to that past persona. He would’ve faded into the background a long time ago, but not only has he not faded - he’s still there, making Rudeus leer and say dumbass otaku things at any given moment.

Even that has a plus side though - he’s voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, who therefore also narrates, and there’s nobody whose narration I’d rather listen to.

Really though, I think they could write Rudeus out entirely and I wouldn’t miss him.

Then just recently, because season 2 is currently airing and caught my eye, I started season 1 of The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. I like it well enough, though I’m only about halfway through and the lack of progress is already starting to feel more contrived than natural. It’s going to depend on how they handle that from here. If the focus shifts or something, then it might work, but if it just keeps going with increasingly inexplicable lack of progress, I doubt I’ll last the season, much less a second season.

And at one point or another, for reasons that elude me, I’ve ended up sampling at least 20 series this season , so that’ll have to go in a separate, and spoilered-for-space, post.

Still enjoying this.

The setup is actually sort of simple - both Bertia and Heronia are too focused on playing their assigned roles the way they’re “supposed” to be played, so they try awkwardly to force that, and the result is they sort of suck at it. And that gives Bertia the advantage, because sucking at being the villainess is cute, while sucking at being the heroine is just sort of tedious.

Sooner or later, something has to give, and it’ll be interesting to see how that happens and how it plays out.

Joanna’s a great addition to the cast. I like that Cecil recognizes (and says outright) that her personality is similar to his, so he trusts that she’ll effectively protect Bertia. And he’s right on both counts.

Hm.

Unfortunately, the strongest impression I got from this episode - the thing that most stood out to me - is that Minato’s actually kind of a dick, and I really don’t like him. At all.

Other than that, it was okay, but pretty much every time he appeared onscreen, it ruined it for me.

Definitely The Apothecary Diaries for me. In addition to all of the terrific elements of the series, Maomao is a detective to rival Holmes or Poirot.

Others that I just can’t pass up mentioning:

• Odd Taxi
• Kokkoku
• Hyouka
• Boku Dake ga Inai Machi
• Kaiba
• Paranoia Agent

Yeah - this is a gem. I mostly expected it, since the manga is, but adaptations fail sometimes. Doesn’t look like this one will though.

And the OP is adorable.

I likely switched the names - for some reason I had it in my head that the original had the single syllable and the copy had the extra added syllable.

And yes.

Nao has one very good opportunity - she can continue to exist full time rather than being subject to Sunao’s petulant whims. If that were to happen (by whatever chance), Nao would be free.

But if that were to happen, Sunao would be pretty much screwed - she can’t compete and her spirit would likely be terminally crushed. So I assume that’s relatively unlikely.

A quick side note in all of this - in poking around yesterday to try to learn more about this, I discovered that the original is a light novel, and it won the Dengeki Novel Grand Prize for its year of publication.

I’m hoping, but it’ll be difficult.

Nao is definitely not headed toward a happy ending, and that regardless of any other factors. She’s just miserable and determined to make herself even more miserable.

Sunao could find a happy ending if she had the chance, but as things stand, she isn’t going to get that chance.

But still, I’m hoping, at least for now.

I’m calling it right now - this is the diamond in the rough for this season. Unless it flounders badly, it’s going to be interesting and compelling, and if it keeps up the quality and storytelling it’s shown so far, it’s going to be excellent.

Great episode. I’m really enjoying this.

I love Ore’s stories and how ridiculously over-the-top they are, and the Goddess’s running drily sarcastic commentary.

The fourth wall break when they reused the footage of the reincarnation door was especially amusing.

And I do believe there’s even a bit of romance in the offing, bizarre though that might seem.

All that said, I really think that whoever was responsible for that localized title needs to be fired. And blacklisted.

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That was excellent.

This series has really been very impressive. It’s not breaking terribly new ground, but it’s been solid all the way through - one of those that isn’t a 10 in anything, but is at least an 8 in everything. Every bit of it - the characters, the story, the dialogue, the worldbuilding, the music, the art design, the animation - is at least above average. And at this point, it’s probably the one I most look forward to each week.

And as has been the case for the last few episodes, Nightingale was a highlight of the episode, and not just in her pivotal role earlier in it. I really enjoyed the later scene, just because I so thoroughly enjoy her relationship with Roland. There might be romance in the offing, but I sort of doubt it - I think Anna’s already stolen that spot. The thing that makes Roland and Nightingale’s relationship so special is that they’re so relaxed with each other. In fact, she’s the only person I’ve seen Roland entirely relax around. And it’s just a pleasure to see.

Shame there’s only one more episode. I want to see much MUCH more of this.

I really like the new OP. And I’m pleased to see that the series is finally getting into its groove.

It looks as if almost all of the first cour was background and context and worldbuilding, because the pace has really picked up over the last few episodes. Even though there was very little direct exposition (aside from Yashiro muttering to himself), most of the focus in the earlier episodes was on illustrating various aspects of the world and the people. But now it’s shifting towards pure story, with the characters and the world just left to do their thing with the assumption that we get it now. And definitely to the benefit of the series.

And the girls are coming into their own. One of the things that hooked me in the beginning was the promise of rewarding chemistry, especially between Yashiro and Aki, but just like the bulk of the story, it didn’t really start to click until just the last few episodes.

And I predict that we haven’t seen the last of Ishino. And that’s going to be one of the keys to the background mystery (Aki’s eye is another).

Ahh… that was terrific from start to finish.

I like the OP, and the animation especially. It hits on pretty much every cheesy manga/anime trope in existence. I especially like Sakuradaimon’s instant transition at the end from shounen action hero to shoujo prince.

Poem has some of the greatest blushes ever.

And we met another insane committee member, and I expect we’ll meet more - each being the embodiment of some cheesy trope.

And Mama Poe was all sorts of awesome.