A year in the mirror

And by a year, I mean a year's worth of anime!
I could do some self reflection here about the year that's past in the next few days, but I'll actually do that when the year passes. I turned 28 last Tuesday, and rather than dwell on my feelings about important things, I'd like to talk about my hobby(?) of 15 or so years of watching weekly anime. So, let me take you back to January of this year.

I'd gotten my placement for Japan up in Sendai just on the western outskirts. They didn't have a school for me, so I was kind just there as far as I knew. Which was cool, whatever, I thought that might mean I'd get to have a few weeks to learn the city before actually starting my new job. at the same time, Chainsaw man had just finished the anime and I was eager to catch up with the Manga (I'm still current to this day).
Anime that started airing in Winter 2023 (that I watched) were:

• DanMachi season 4 part 2
• Trigun Stampede
• Nagatoro season 2
• Misfit at Demon King Academy Season 2
• Vinland saga Season 2
• Pokemon: aim to be a master (ash epilogue)
• Bonus: left overs from the previous years still airing
• Urusei Yatsura 2022
• Blue Lock
• Eminence in Shadow
• My Hero Academia 6

1) Danmachi 4-2
Alright, honestly? the previous half of this season ended on a particularly sour note for me. it was dumb, predictable, and the dark tone they were going for was shattered when you realize that consequences aren't actually a thing in this show. This season, however, with our two leads trying to survive in a part of the dungeon that would actually just kill them was fun to watch. Meh. Would watch more, but that's generally how I feel about mid tier shounen like Danmachi. It's alright.

7/10, would watch more.

2) Trigun Stampede
This is not a proper adaptation of the mangs, not a continuation of the 90's anime, but a reboot/reimagining of the source material. Knives is actually horrifying as a villain, The animation was stellar, and the story was... okay. Perdictableness isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when they don't really try to hide what they're doing, nor lean into it, it doesn't deliver the punch it's supposed to have. the emotional moments in the later half of the season were meh and I finished the show more for the sake of finishing it than because I wanted to. It's alright,

7/10 would watch more.

3) Nagatoro S2
This is a dumb, ecchi romcom. Nagatoro is just Rainbow Dash with a mean(er) streak. Her friends are all awful, Senpai (who we learn is named naoto, like 20 episodes in) is a loser, and seeing her develop stronger feelings for him while he grows a back bone is delightful. didn't miss an episode and was always happy to see a new one on my feed. It's pretty good.

8/10, would definitely watch more.

4) Misfit S2
Did you really think production issues would make me die? No, but I kind of wish it had. season one of this is a hard core, full throttle power trip fantasy that breaks the boundaries of stupid to the point that it's actually interesting. It was always fun to watch and I was very excited for the second season. Only, half way through, production was halted and set to re air toward the end of summer. That's fun, but we just hit some lore heavy parts, so, it won't be so bad, right? With certain shows, I can recall the plot with a snap of my fingers. for this one, it wanted me to pay attention all the sudden, and I was super duper lost when it came back. Not only that, but the second half of the season just felt like it was dragging on and on. By the time it was over, I was glad because there was nothing more to watch. Misfit is a case of the parody becoming the thing it was parodying, and not making the transition well.

6/10, probably won't watch more.

5) Vinland Saga 2
I have no enemies. This is a slow, character drama about redemption, and holy shit does it deliver. The writing is amazing, Thorfin's growth from the beginning to here is wonderful to watch, and I could only hope to write a character arc this good.

10/10, You should watch Vinland Saga.

6) Pokemon: aim to be a master
A bit of backstory on this one: Ash won the Galar pokemon league and became the pokemon champion. So, knowing that, I was curious to see what the interlude between this and the next season of pokemon starring two new protagonists (more on that later) would be about. If you have nostalgic memories of seeing Brock (takeshi), Ash and Misty (kasumi) together again, then this series will make you smile. It's just a sweet send off for our beloved eternal 10 year old before we say our final goodbye to him. This has nothing for you if you aren't fairly deep into the pokemon anime, but pokemon has been my life for the better part of 25 years. the very first game I ever beat was pokemon yellow, after all.

7/10, do you wanna be a master? (of pokemon) do you have the skills to be NUMBER 1!

7) Urusei Yatsura 2022
A classic series originally made in 1981 redone by the guys behind the 2012 adaptations of Jojo, and Fire Force. I loved the studio and Lum was the original anime waifu, so I wanted to see what this was all about. It was pure fun. Everyone is stupid, the jokes are all pretty great, and they never really retread the same ground very often. This feels like what dragonball was supposed to be, a comedy series featuring humans and 'aliens' (with the heaviest quotation marks possible) interacting in stupid ways. It retains the original setting of 1980's Japan too, and it feels like you should be blasting Tatsuro Yamashita while watching some of the more set piece scenes in this. It's just entertaining, and I am happily awaiting the next season starting next month.

8/10, ai tarinai!

8) Blue Lock
Now, hear me out, what if Soccer was remotely interesting to watch? I know, I know, this is a very hard concept to imagine, but just picture it. compelling, competitive characters all aiming for the throat to be the number 1 asshole soccer champ. Fuck your friendship is magic, I'm a gonna win! That is Blue Lock in a nutshell, and I loved it. It's purely about nurturing talent at the expense of your peers and becoming the best you possibly can in an effort to out shine the rest. I don't give a single damn about sports ball games, but when you give me an anime like this that makes it just as ridiculous as it is fun to watch, then you have my interest. It wasn't like haikyuu in that I didn't have any desire to actually play soccer afterward, but I will absolutely watch as many seasons of this as they want to give me.

8/10, I can't believe I actually enjoyed watching soccer

9) Eminence in shadow
Now, earlier, we talked about a dumb, power trip fantasy series it was fun, up until it got caught up in its own bullshit. This series is also that, but it is not simply caught up in it's own bullshit, we are all caught in its bullshit because Cid Kagenou has a reality stone and doesn't realize it. He is your inner edgy fourteen year old, he doesn't realize it, and anything he makes up turns out to be completely true in this world, and he's the only one who doesn't believe it. The closest comparison I can make to this show would be konosuba, because it is that, stupid and funny, while simultaneously managing to make Cid look like an absolute bad ass, inspite of himself.

9/10, I am ^Atomic

10) My hero academia 6
Everybody likes to get down on MHA, but you know what? I always enjoyed it. The latest season sees the show really let loose the dark undertones that had been in there through out, and man, it blows everything up. what once was safe is threatened or outright destroyed, a reveal shakes the foundation of society, a mistake unleashes a monster, and Midoriya ends up being the only one who can clean up the mess and it's driving him crazy. There wasn't a dull moment this season, and it was definitely one of the best seasons of the show. If the first season is what inspired me to write super, this was the season where MHA entered the Persona arc.

9/10, Go beyond, Plus Ultra!

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In Spring, it was finally time. I quit my job working for Fedex, I packed up all my things, said my goodbyes to everyone, even went and talked to PaulAsaran on my way home from picking up my Visa, and took a 14 hour flight across the world. I learned very quickly that Japanese hotels suck. I learned very quickly that I do not make much money in the grand scheme of things. And I learned very quickly that my Japanese was not as good as I'd hoped it was.

Still, that wouldn't deter my usual habit of watching an episode of anime with every meal I could, so here is what we watched for the spring 2023 season.

• The Heavenly Delusion
• Hell's paradise
• Loving Yamada at lv999
• My Home hero
• The Ancient Magus Bride Season 2-1
• Konosuba - Megumin side story
• Kaminaki
• Mashle
• tonikaku Kawaii 2
• Gundam Witch from Mercury 2
• Demon Slayer Katana village
• Dead Mount Death Play
• Oshi no Ko
• Ousama ranking: treasure chest of courage
• Pokemon Horizons
• Gridman Universe

1) The Heavenly Delusion
Man, they just went so hard on the animation in this show for no reason at all, and it was delightful. What was it about? Not entirely sure. The Show kinda ends without explaining much of anything. the best I can come up with without spoiling what little does get revealed is that the apocalypse happened, these two teens end up traveling together, one has super human strength, the other has a literal fucking raygun, and they are both looking for people. There's also another group of characters who go to a creepy school that is underground, inhabited by strange, not entirely human children. No punches pulled, either. There's a suicude and a rape that happens on screen in this show. It's kinda fucked, but at the same time, I enjoyed my time here. My only real complaint is that it didn't have a satisfying conclusion, and it was anime original, so I can't just go read the manga.

8/10, Dark, seinen goodness.

2) Hell's paradise
From the assistant of the man, the myth, the legend, Tacky fuji-motor, author of Dennis the menace, comes edgy gore fest 2023! Why was this so boring? Why go so hard on the gore? I thought we left this shit behind in 2013 with Akame ga kill? Bleh.

0/10, I dropped it after one episode.

3) Loving Yamada from lv999
When your college girl is an airhead and downbad for an 18 year old pro gamer she met at random and asked to be her pretend boyfriend to spite the guy who dumped her, you get this. It is a wonderful mess centered around a casual online game and the people you can meet like that. It is sweet, it's dramatic, it's fun, and it's satisfying. This is everything I want out of a romance anime and nothing more. Better yet, it's not set in highschool, so it's a bit more relatable for an old man like me.

8/10, why is the level cap 999?

4) My home hero
What if you got mixed up with the mob, but everybody is so incompetent that you manage to get away with it? On the one hand, Ir eally wantedd to like this, Average guy manages to out with the mob, but some of it is just so... blatantly dumb that it defeats the ;oh, look, he did something smart!' feeling they want you to get. It's meh.

6/10, the mob needs an intelligence floor.

5) the ancient Magus Bride
Ancient magus bride first aired in 2019. I thought it was great, made me think back to the days of being in middle school reading card captor sakura, but with a much more serious tone and all around better art. There are so many set pieces in this show that are just fantastic, wall papers-per-second kind of animation that I loved it and wanted to see more. Only, we didn't get more until 2022 when they animated a short arc as a movie. as much as I liked the show, it had been three years, so I said I'd watch it when I could rewatch the first season. Then Season 2 was announced, so I finally went back and did that. The movie arc was solid, Chise taking care of a kid who moves out into the english boonies and maybe almost gets abducted by a not so harmful spirit. Little did I know this was pretty huge foreshadowing for the next season. Season 2 has Chise, a highschool dropout because she sold herself into slavery instead of committing suicide, go to magic college to learn about sorcery and alchemy, the two branches of magic in this world. It's the same good stuff, there's some intrigue with the other students, the animation is always great, and the story is just as good as it always was. It does get pretty heavy and there's a constant thread of self worth permeating the story with this season's major theme being 'choosing your own fate.' a satisfying conclusion to another good season of this.

8/10, will watch more.

6) Konosuba, Megumin side story
This is Megumin's origin story, and it's not even half as funny as regular konosuba was. I dropped it after three episodes. she can't carry on her own as a lead.

0/10, a wimper rather than an E X P L O S I O N

7) Kaminaki (what god does in a world without gods)
This anime was a shit post. Everything is a joke, it never takes itself serously, and oddly enough, that makes it a whole lot of fun to watch when it does become serious all the sudden. Our main character is the son of a cult leader and a hard core atheist because of it. However, in his dad's ritual gone wrong, he's thrown into the sea while trapped in a barrel of concrete, and for the first time in his life, he asks god to save him. he's then isekaied and given a new life in a strange world. Things seem fine as he uses his knowledge to improve the village, until he's taken into town and watches about ten people stand in a row and commit suicide. Things take a nasty turn quick as he challenges this weird display and is set for execution himself. Then he's saved by his god (goddess) who turns out to be a loli. The CG is so laughably bad that you can feel that the animators tried to make it worse than it needed to be. There are scenes that are so over the top and utterly horny that the joke becomes how ridiculous the characters for acting like this, and the show will make sure you get that.

9/10, It had no right to be as good as it was.

8) Mashle: Muscles and Magic
Imaing if Harrypotter was a comedy set around Harry gigachad beef cake Potter, who also happens to have no magic in a magical world. If you can do that, then you get Mashle, or Mash Burndead. This is a very One Punch Man style comedy where the jokes revolve around our main character being so ridiculously strong that he breaks all the established norms. If you like it, you like it, if you don't, you don't. I thought it was funny.

8/10, excited for the sequel next month.

9) Tonikaku Kawaii 2
I forgot I even attempted to watch this. Season 1 was pure sugar, and this was more of that, and I'd had enough.

0/10, too sweet.

10) Gundam Witch from Mercury 2
Oh, Oh, how I lament the days! What an absolute failure of a series this was. I begrudgingly remember how I sang the praises of the first season, even knowing how absolutely turned off I was by the middle of that season. The school setting doesn't work, it feels like the plot goes nowhere for about 8 of the first 12 episodes, and when something finally does happen, the shock value is almost worth the time sunk into watching the rest of the show. and then we go right back to school in the first episode and we have two more episodes of boring bullshit. Episode 3 focuses on Guel Jeturk, the prince who fell from grace and he gets isekaied to the gritty, war torn world of Iron blooded orphans, tries and fails to save a child and watches her die in his arms, vowing to be come someone who can save her in the future. In this one episode, Guel receives more character development than Suletta Mercury does in the entire run of the show. She's practically a static character, and it becomes very apparent toward the end of this season that they didn't know where to go with it.

We have: a secret gundam not mentioned previously even once; a gundam she totally could've ended up in that had been teased several times in the past given to a character who barely appears and is thrown away almost immediately; A giant super weapon that comes out of nowhere, and not the one that's been built up to the entire series, that one is there, this is another one that shows up to throw a wrench in that one; the government is apparently evil even though the whole series has been about the worst sides of the corporate machine; and when all is said and done... nobody suffers any consequences at all. What a waste of my fucking time.

4/10, at least the model kits were good.

11) Demon Slayer: katana village
Speaking of dropping the ball, Demon Slayer returned this year with a lost of cool action and a wet fart. If this were even moderately well animated, nobody would know it exists. It's the most tropey, bog standard shounen series ever. It's the shounen of all time. It made one kibillion dollars in the merchandise. and there were asspulls for all, except the one character I actually wanted to see explored, Mitsuri, who was shafted immediately for emotionless fog boy to fight a jar for three episodes. I hate to say I want to watch more of this because the plot would put you to sleep, but the animation is just so absurdly good that I really do want to see what comes next, just not for the right reasons.

7/10, Nezuko should have died.

12) Dead Mount Death Play
There were two season of this and it just finished a week ago, but I'm just going to say here that this was a cluster fuck and not anywhere near as interesting or well developed as the author's other series, Baccano! and Durarara. Meh

6/10, are you introducing another new character in the last episode, holy shit, stop! We've got like 40 named characters in this already!

13) Oshi no Ko
You're my savior, my true savior, my saving grace~ We open up with a super hard murder mystery to turn into the daily lives of highschool entertainers. If you didn't like Kaguya-sama Love is War, you will not like this. It has an amazing opening four episodes, the drama is great, the who done it lurking in the background is never far away from your mind, and all of this wrapped up in a dying girl's last wish to become an idol. The music was good, I enjoy the characters, the memes are great, and you could not go into any japanese super market without hearing yoasobi's 'Idol' playing over the speakers. Even my elementary school students, who should absolutely not be watching this, would sing the song.

8/10, will watch more.

14) Ousama Ranking Treasure chest of courage
What? You thought this was the second season of Ousama ranking? No, no, this is just the 4koma comics at the end of each chapter animated. It's basically an entire season of filler. Exactly one episode, the very last episode, progresses the plot, and holy shit, that one episode took me by surprise. It was like, what I had hoped to watch the whole time. Ousama ranking has such an interesting world and wonderful characters that actually seeing them do something brought me out of my stupor from the rest of this. And then it ended with a Season 2 announcement.

6/10, The OP was fire.

15) Pokemon Horizons
A guilty pleasure of mine since last year has been watching pokemon. I didn't go all the way back, but I started the sun and moon anime series, and I had been current on that for a long time. Then my brother and his kids started watching pokemon journeys and he kept talking about how good it was, and I caught up on that. Sun and moon had some seriously heavy episodes that showed promise of some incredible writing, and Journeys took that and made it more consistent. Free from Ash, the new series hits the ground running with our protagonist, Fluttershy Liko (where in the hell did they get this name?) getting caught up in a shojo drama around a pendant her gilf grandmother sent her. We have a great cast right off the bat, and Liko herself is a little bland but good natured enough to root for, and Roy is your standard shounen protagonist in someone else's story. It's really Professor Friede who steals the show, being the adult mentor Ash Ketchum we've always wanted. Unlike previous installments of pokemon, there is a cohesive running plot going on in this series involving an ancient hero, a mythical island, and a group of pokemon that defy logic.

Since this is still running and I've been caught up with it the entire time, I'll go through the arcs:

First has us meeting our characters and Liko getting her first pokemon, a dickhead cat. Nyaoha (I have been watching this in japanese and I genuinely can't remember the english name of this pokemon) is a cat that acts like a cat, and she spends the first episode trying to bond with it, until being nearly abducted by a shadowy organization, and then being saved by Friede who was sent by her mother to get her. In this arc, we run from place to place trying to escape from the shadowy organization, the Explorers, until we meet Roy and his unusual pokeball. this is connected to a legend, and during a confrontation with the explorers, a Shiny Rayquaza pops out of it and ventures off into the horizon. We escape and confront the explorers while also searching for the rest of the pokemon that were Rayquaza's partners until it comes to a head when we meet Liko's grandmother so sent her the pendant in the first place.

Joining the crew, Granny helps lead us to meeting more of the six heroes (special pokemon) that the legend traveled with, while also waking our pendant into a clumsy little turtle. we follow the main cast and the explorers while both race to find these pokemon and solve the mystery of terapagos. during this time, Granny discovers something, and after collecting three of the six, Rayquaza showing up to provide the cast with a set of clapped cheeks, Granny takes off to investigate the explorers while the main group continues to search for the remaining heroes.

This is where we leave off, and I have had a great time watching it. It's genuinely good, if has a higher writing quality that most shows out these days, and I come back week to week waiting for more. This is the pokemon series I wish I'd have grown up with.

For it's current two arcs down, 8/10. if the conclusion is even remotely satisfying, it will surely be a 9 or higher by the end.

15) Gridman Universe
This is the very first and still the only movie I watched in theaters in Japan. It had actually released on March 23rd, the day I landed in Tokyo. I wanted to see it, but didn't have a chance until I reached Sendai and had a few hours to myself after I'd checked in with the people who hired me. This was all the best parts of your favorite tokusatsu (re:power rangers style) show in two glorious hours of fanservice. The team ups, the combination, the super hero and the bad guys joining forces to deal with an even greater threat, it was everything you ever wanted. Did I understand what as actually happening? Kinda. My japanese isn't perfect, but I could follow most of it. When it got into nitty gritty, I was totally lost, but this was more of an action flick than anything and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Still need to rewatch it with subtitles or something/10

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Summer was a strange time for me. I have vivid memories of going to the park not too far from my apartment that is basically a mountain with a few paths carved out. It was a wonderful day, everything was as green as it could possibly be from the constant rain around here, and it was nice and cool with a soft breeze. Of course, this was back in May. My actual summer when school was out, the month of august, was hot as balls, I hardly left the house, I was constantly worried about running out of money and not being able to eat since I get lunches from the school which cost about 300 yen a piece, and I was melting in my first Japanese summer.
Still, at least I had my anime. Summer 2023:

• Reincarnated as a Vending Machine
• Undead Girl Murder Farce
• Jujutsu Kaisen 2
• Zom 100
• Jobless reincarnation 2
• Link Click 1 & 2
• FLCL Grunge and Shoegaze
• Golden Kamuy 4

1) Reincarnated as a vending machine
Look, I know, alright? I know what it looks like. I know what it sounds like. This is the dumbest title on the entire list. I've got misfit on here, damn it, and this is still the dumbest title on the list. But, I have no excuses, I enjoyed this a lot. the concept, on its face, is actually super dumb, but when explored seriously, it becomes very creative in how its used. Our main character, who loves vending machines and was obsessed by them, is killed by one and reincarnated as one. He is powered by capitalism and will literally die if he runs out of money, he cannot move, and he can only speak in a few set phrases that a vending machine might have. he has to sell himself to a people who have never seen anything like him, make friends, and communicate, all with the limitations, and can only make himself more useful to them as he earns more money. It's good, alright? I wouldn't be mad about seeing more of this, and one of my favorite Japanese bands, Braido, did the opening song, and it's straight fire.

8/10, came for Bradio, stayed for the vending machine.

2) Undead Girl Murder Farce
Speaking of bad titles... This was my welcome surprise of the season. when there's not too much to watch, I usually go back to previous seasons and see what people said was good that I didn't pick up then. This season was so slow that I picked this up just out of curiosity. Think Sherlock Holmes meets Dracula and the monster-verse. Our main characters are: an immortal head, a maid, and an Oni commedian. The spoiler here is that this story literally contains Sherlock Holmes, and Moriarty is building up a band of monsters to create the ultimate monster. Our trio goes around solving supernatural mysteries in an effort to find the man who turned our Oni into an Oni, and stole the body that belonged to the head. Every monster has their own rules, there is yet another organization that hunts and kills monsters who are opposed to the main characters and Moriarty. I always enjoy Sherlock stuff, so this was right up my alley before I knew he was in it. It's very compelling, the writing is tight, and Tsuguru (oni) and Aya (head) have incredible chemistry.

9/10, very excited for another season.

3) JJK 2
Uh, holy shit, have you seen this yet? Why not? Go watch it. JJK is a masterpiece of animation that may not be topped by anything for some time. Well, I say that, the Reze arc of Chainsaw Man had a movie announced recently, so that might, but for now, JJK 2 has the most impressive animation out there. Where demonslayer is a failure of writing with A tier animation behind it, JJK has it all. Save one thing I was unhappy with, this season gave us everything and more, and I was so excited when it ended that I actually picked up the manga. Watch JJK, please.

10/10, You are my special.

4) Zom 100
The dramatic irony about this show is that the zombie apocalypse saves a man from his life suffering under a black company, a title given to corporations that over work and under pay their staff, even to death, which then suffered production problems because the animators were being overworked and underpaid. That aside, Zom 100 is a fun ride about enjoying the moment and learning how to live. I'd say the show is at its best in the first 8 episodes and begins to fall off a bit toward the end. It doesn't help that the production was halted with three episodes left that just aired a few days ago, but it's whatever. The first episode has some amazing animation, but sadly, it didn't hold up the whole way through.

7/10, Only one, my life.

5) Jobless Reincarnation 2
Look, guys, my dudes, my homies,
Erectile dysfunction is no joke.
Alright, jokes aside, when the main character suffers from ED after a traumatic heart break while being a regular slimeball of a person from the start, you feel bad for the guy. Mushoku Tensei (Jobless reincarnation) is the grandfather of the modern isekai, and lives up to its title since it remains one of the best of them. Rudeus was a shitty person before he died, was abused, a loser, a shut in, and a new chance at life made him really go for it. And after living the dream and actually meeting a girl, she abandons him, and it ruins him. This season is the consequences of that, and the messy relationships that follow. What's nice about this show is that nobody is really a 'good' person. They're all flawed to an incredible degree, the nobles are all perverts, the regular people are scummy, you can't have an isekai without slavery these days, and all these broken people brought together to live life come together to give you the beautiful story of a man finally recovering from his past trauma.

10/10, Genuinely, there has never been a show that made me more happy to see the MC get his rocks off.

6) Link Click 1 & 2
"You watching those chinese cartoons again?"
"No, dad, it's--" Oh. Oh god. He's right!
Link click, or Shiguang Dailiran, is a chinese anime featuring a very unique take on time travel. The first season originally aired back in 2021, but I didn't watch it until the second season had started. The TLDR is that it's great. It doesn't seem like there's an interconnected plot at the beginning, but those first five episodic episodes all come back into the plot in a big way as the story progresses. The long and short of it is that our two main guys have this power where one can look into photos and see the next twelve hours that occur after them, and the other can go into those photos, physically going back in time. The rules are simple. Do not change the past because it can affect the future, and play the part to find out what happened next. A mystery evolves, and save for exactly one part I found very silly, it is played super straight and is an excellent story. A season 3 was announced, so it isn't quite over yet, but season two wraps up the initial main threads nicely.

9/10, you should watch it. The ED is awesome.

7) FLCL: Grunge & Shoegaze
Sigh. I'm glad they announced they aren't making these anymore. yet another set of bad FLCL sequels (Re: Star Overhead exists because I felt like I could do a better job than cartoon network did with their FLCL fanfiction, Progressive and Alternative). Well, Sequel isn't exactly right for these two anyways. They're both three episodes, one is a direct sequel to alternative, and bad, and the other is a direct prequel to the original, and bad. The Shoegaze is bad because it totally drops the ball on the story it was trying to tell. not that that's surprising when you have a total of 60 minutes to tell your story, but it just kinda wraps everything up with a bow in the last ten minutes when the previous fifty were about how messy and weird the world could be. it's totally tonally dissonant and cheapens the entire story by slapping a bandaid on it and calling it done. I didn't like alternative either, so no surprise I didn't like this one.

4/10, bad, but the animation was nice at least.

Remember when people would say 3D=bad when it came to anime about a decade ago? Grunge is why. It looks awful. There are cheap cartoons produced to sell toys that look better than this crap. cough, cough. That said, What Grunge tried to do with it's story actually spoke to me in the same way the original FLCL did. They set out with three stories of three kids who were finding their way on a dying planet. The weirdness comes in the form of one kid being a literal alien that looks like Marvel's the thing. there were a few genuinely funny gags, Haruko acted most like herself in this one than any of the other sequels, and there was a really cool moment in the last episode involving a song called Ruby Ground, which was the only song in the OST not by the Pillows. I just hate that the worst looking one was the only one that, to me, felt like it came close to capturing the spirit of the original. A show like this with a full season to flesh it out and the animation that went into shoegaze would have been awesome. While the other is a disappointment of expectations, this is a disappointment of what could've been.

5/10, I thought the gag where all the yakuza had 'faceless thug' written over their faces was funny.

8) Golden Kamuy 4
So like, production issues are bad, but golden Kamuy is a show unlike any other. you may take that however you will. This season contains a... battle in which two men 'fight' by whipping it out and jerking off in the middle of the street and shooting actual guns at each other... while shooting at each other. The hardest thing to believe about Golden Kamuy is that it's set in reality, when it is strangely realistic inspite of how utterly bizarre it gets. sure, you have stuff like Jojo or Baki where characters are introduced masturbating in jail cells, or having sex to get stronger, and that's all fine and well in the setting loosely based on reality, but then you have this which is just as, if not weirder than those, while also following all the rules of reality with a real, compelling story about an ainu girl chasing after the hidden treasure left behind by her father while racing against the imperial Japanese government and an Edo revolutionary to find the gold. It's actually historical fiction set in about 1910, and that's the weirdest part.

10/10, there is nothing else like it in every sense of the word.

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It's hard to believe that October is already gone. It felt like September was just a little while ago, and now it's December. The months just flew by. I saw the pillows live, I built a Gundam just to show my students, I sent in my transfer request to move to another part of Japan, and it's already been ten days since school went on hold for me. It's crazy that time seems to rush by so fast.
Somewhere in the blur was Fall 2023

• Naoki Urasawa's Pluto
• Dr. Stone New World 1 & 2
• Bullbuster
• Eminence in Shadow 2
• MF Ghost
• Overtake
• Spy x Family 2

-{Still airing}-

• Apothecary Dairies
• Shangri-la Frontier
• Undead Unluck
• Firefighter Daigo
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's end

1) Pluto
If you know Naoki Urasawa, it's probably because you've seen Monster, the 74 episode masterpiece from 2004, or his manga, 20th century boys. If not, Pluto is one of his earlier works, which serves as a sort of prequel to Astro Boy. Adapted as a netflix production, it's eight hour long episodes of hard feels, a strange mystery, breaking the rules of robotics, and blurring the line of what it means to be human. I don't really want to spoil anything, so go watch it. It absolutely deserves your time.

9/10, hatred begets hatred.

2) Dr. Stone New world
The first half of this season aired in the spring, actually, but whatever, we'll just put the whole thing here. I enjoy Doctor Stone. But I couldn't tell you what exactly makes it compelling for me. It's kinda like, the show doesn't do anything in particular wrong, so the quality is always high, and they way they problem solve using real world science is interesting in and of itself. The problems of working back up to modern tech from square one are compelling enough on its own, but then the mystery of the petrification added onto that, what happened and why and the astronomical steps the characters will have to take to get there. It's just fun to watch.

8/10, good show.

3) Bullbuster
Imagine trying to run a company where the current day mech you built is your main selling point. bullets are expensive, running the requires a lot of power, and using it takes days of employee training. While there's a fantastical element of bullbuster, this is a show set in a corporate real world environment trying to solve the problem of monster spawning on an island that needs to be decontaminated. The problems the crew encounters, such as red tape, too much oversight, balancing a budget, trying to find a way to make money with what they have, it's all just too real. If it doesn't depress you for being too relatable, then you might enjoy this workplace mecha drama.

7/10, it's alright

4) Emenince in shadow 2
This is a dumb show where dumb things happen, and I love it. If you liked the first season, it lives up to what it's been doing and continues that.

8/10, I ^{am atomic again}

5) MF Ghost
The mother f-- Okay, that's not what it stands for (maybe), but this is actually a sequel to Initial D, set in the next ten or so years of that. Driving is relegated to mostly a luxury sport when it comes to the combustion engine, and that's what the MFG circuit is all about. Kanata Rivington, student of one Takumi Fujiwara, goes to japan in search of his long lost father after the death of his mother, racing in the MFG in hopes of finding him one day. This is about cars and racing, and it's the most modern incarnation of the franchise. it looks good, and the eurobeat is hot.

8/10, Is that a toyota 86!?

6) Overtake!
So screw the high budget, all the money in the world racing anime, let's get to the real racing anime, where everyone has the same car, and money is a struggle, and a set of tires will run you a grand on their own! Overtake is a series about photographer Madoka and his journey to recover his lost passion for photography when he stumbles into the F4 circuit. (re: you know F1, formula 1, the famous big indy cars. F4 is the amateur/beginner league for F1) He meets a young driver who loses the race, mostly due to his poor, sponsorless team's inability to buy tires for practice runs, and has his passion sparked. He takes a picture of the crying racer which lights a fire under him to try and make his dream real by sponsoring his racing team... until he learns how much it costs. From here, we see their journey and developing friendship/father-son bond to make it, Madoka to recover his passion, our racer to finally stand on the top of the podium again. It gets super real with a crash and the source of Madoka's trauma, but by episode 9, I was already satisfied with the story the show gave me. the last three episodes were just the cherry on top.

10/10, I can't recommend this strongly enough.

7) Spy x Family 2
there is exactly one scene on the bot when Yor is fighting all the assassins that I think about a lot. her breaking the sword and fighting back through the pain just resonated with me, and I don't know why. This is more spy x family. It's comfortable and easy to watch, generally low stakes, cute and fun.

8/10

I don't rate shows that are still airing, so here are my thoughts on what we have so far on the ongoing shows from this season

8) Apothecary diaries
I'm not going to pretend this isn't a chinese inspired soap opera about the emperor's hoes. I'm a sucker for mystery stories, and this is basically an episodic detective show where ancient medicinal knowledge can usually solve a crime. It's pretty good

9) Shangri-la Frontier
JJK might be amazing every episode, but this is the show I look forward to every week. It's just a sweaty darksouls player who makes a habit out of beating the worst, jankiest VR games by his skill and tenacity alone finally giving a really well made game a try, and us experiencing that game with him. It's like what Sword Art Online could have been if a competent person had written it.

10) Undead Unluck
tags: dismemberment, nudity
This show is a lot of fun. A girl born with a power she can't control gets every person she loves killed by touching them and seeing them experience some kind of crazy unlucky event. She's about to kill herself when she's saved by a random naked man. Touching said naked man causes him to experience her unluck, and he is beheaded. However, being immortal, his body just grows right back in front of her eyes. Then, they are chased together by a mysterious organization that wants to kill them. Just as our unlucky heroine had decided to live. Crazy super powers, a unique premise involving a world where 'rules' can be changed, negated, or added, and a fun main dynamic. It's just fun.

11) firefighter Daigo
I don't know why I'm watching this. I liked fire Force and Promare, so when an anime that was about real fire fighters started airing, I thought I might like it too. I'm not sure I do, tbh, but I keep watching it. It's there to watch, I guess.

12) Frieren: Beyond Journey's end.
The battle is over. The demon King has been slain. The party has broken up. However, they make a promise to meet again in fifty years. Our main character is an elf, so that's nothing to her. Just like the ten year journey with her party to slay the demon king. Only, when she returns in fifty years, her human companions have grown old, and even her dwarf companion has become an old man. they take one last trip to see a meteor shower, it's not far, just a few weeks walk away. It's nothing to Frieren.

And then, time takes the hero away. She spent ten years with him. it should've been nothing to her. the blink of an eye in her long, long life. So why is there such a pit in her heart? why is she crying over a single human, she barely knew? She sets out to learn how to value time and the people in her life, and this is the story of what comes after. With its current track record, it will be hard to say Frieren is anything but a 10/10 show when it ends in march. But, I'll reserve my judgement until then. You should be watching Frieren.

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To avoid spending like, five hours writing an entire year's worth of anime reviews in the future, I think I'll do a seasonal wrap up around the end of march, june, september, and december going forward.