anime season wrapup · 9:20pm March 30th
I watched three shows to completion this season, and all have their merits, though for vastly different reasons. Honestly, it's difficult to choose a winner. I actually pulled up a random number generator to assign them an order for this blog because they each play well to their disparate strengths and it's hard to do a direct comparison for ranking.
The Witch and the Beast
What’s it about? A modern fantasy about a suave mage and a murderhobo with gender dysphoria who hunt witches.
Should you watch it? Saying "if you value cool fights over deep story" would be doing this a disservice, but it does kind of balance that way.
This show caught me by surprise. There wasn’t much prior hype and I had no idea what it was before watching. I’m glad I gave it a chance. While the characters are effective, we know next to nothing about them, and the narrative is either shallow or still slow to develop. Aside from that, it’s an interesting world, tons of action, good animation, and a unique plot. There’s probably enough manga left for at least another season, and I hope it gets more.
Delicious in Dungeon
What’s it about? On a rescue mission, with supplies running low, an adventuring party learns to cook and eat monsters.
Should you watch it? If you like cooking, slice of life, comedy, action, and drama, in that order.
I had read the manga, and this is a worthy adaptation. The animation is good, though trading detail for fluidity and character. While the quality is great, I wish the pace would move a little faster. We still get plenty of ingenious monster writing and worldbuilding, which is honestly what the plot is really about. You'll probably see this on many people's Anime of the Year lists. The show is continuing into the new season.
The Dangers in My Heart season two
What’s it about? Romcom with a tall ditzy girl and a short edgy guy.
Should you watch it? If you saw season one, absolutely. If you didn't, get started.
My #3 favorite show of 2023, and this second season is even better. Unlike many romcoms, it excels equally at both the romance and the comedy. The characters have a certain affection that you don’t always see in anime. It's adorable, and that's not a word I use lightly. It wouldn’t surprise me if a third season is forthcoming, though it's hard to picture where it will go next now that the couple is official.
What are your picks for the season?
And now down into the manga.
List organized in rough order of my most to least favorite.
Below are those manga that I recommend.
No strong recs this week
Below are those manga that I conditionally recommend.
The Secret Pair
A girl doesn't like romance, she likes food. The scary girl in class feeds her.
Shades of romance, but only barely. Light comedy.
I’m a High School Boy, but I Got Gender-Swapped Into a Gyaru
An introvert saves the life of the God of Gyaru, and as "thanks" she turns him into one and sends him to an all-girls school.
Only one chapter so far. Ecchi.
Ashita No Ashita
Girls flirt. Seemingly not actually a romance, though. An okay comedy otherwise, with some meta moments.
A Story about getting a Haircut after hearing your Crush prefers Short Hair
A girl keeps changing herself based on what she thinks her crush likes.
It's cute, but there isn't much substance.
The boss becomes a cat
Title is plot summary.
Short two-shot. Not much happens.
Granny
An old lady takes revenge on some gangsters that hurt her grandson. Fortunately, she owns a gun shop.
This sure would have been a lot better if it moved with any decent pace. She's after four main people and we only even see two of them in the first thirty chapters.
Below are those manga that I do not recommend.
Maria No Danzai
Torture. First, kids on kids. Second, a mother taking revenge for the former. I didn't read past the first chapter.
We went to a local food festival. At a pastry booth, I was surprised to see anime girls on their sign. Even more surprised that this particular character is from Doki Doki Literature Club:
For the record, the cinnamon bun I tried was 9.5/10.
Still, I wonder about the implications of using Reddit fanart of a notorious, and copywrited, character as your mascot. I'm also doubting it was used with permission of the artist.
mmm, bootleg cinnamon buns
Like all things eventually do, Spice & Wolf has created a vtube channel.
Really excited for more Delicious in Dungeon.
i.redd.it/t39b4yau63ga1.gif
Obviously Frieren was great. Rather liked Witch and Dungeon, too. The Apothecary Diaries was also unexpectedly good. That last one might actually be wrapping up soon. We'll see. But it's not great for my own review blogs when all the best stuff from this season isn't ending yet, and I don't review things until they're complete. Still waiting on this season's dub of Dangers.
Oddly enough, Toonami picked up Zom 100 starting next week, even though the dub's stuck on ep 11 of 13 and has been for a while, plus that ep even came out after a lengthy pause. Did the sub even finish?