Yep that time of the year, you know how it goes, I'm one guy so haven't watched everything and some things just aren't for me so feel free to mention ones I miss, go into detail about the ones I mention or if you think Disney and DC do it better currently, without futher adou:
Actually I read the Manga
My Instant death ability is overpowered: I'd actually stick to the manga for this one. The anime isn't bad but they've skipped A LOT that misses out how truly broken he is like killing an interdimensional monster that can ear realities or literally killing judgement day that heaven surrendered.
The good shit
Shangri-la Frontier season 2: Holy shit do FZMZ know how to make a good intro. The majority of this season is just ONE boss fight but fucking hell does this boss make a FromSoftware look nice! Still highly recommended
Mashle Season 2: so happy this is back, especially with an MC who's solution is basically apply punching till the problem is solved. While the outro is good I DARE YOU not to not to bop to the intro!
Solo Levelling: THEY DIDN'T FUCK IT UP! In fact they seem to be adding here and there to improve it, similar to Bleach TYBW. I would add the intro to your gaming playlist if you gotta get your grind on.
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: this one caught me by surprise, fantasy in a world of magic and labyrinths, a low ranked adventurer finds a secret path, runs into a dragon, dies but comes back as an undead. It's really good, got great pacing, character development and a solid intro and a very somber, melodic outro
Classroom of the Elite S3: welcome back to a series with more head games than an ex with schizophrenia. Even the intro tries to put you in your place!
Aquired taste
Tsukimichi Moonlit fantasy S2: the goddess in this makes me appreciate Aqua more... not only did she ditch our boy on his looks, she then kidnapped a girl with a princess complex and a bully victim now thanks to his power rapist tyrant to be heroes instead! Fortunately our MC is getting more powerful naturally he might be able to bitch slap her personally soon..
Villainess level 99: I may be the hidden boss but I'm not the demon lord: another villianess story but told if WE were there as you know we'd power gain the SHIT out of an isekai world!
Banished from the Hero's Party S2: I liked this series for it's slow pace but deep character development and in season 2 we see how Ruti COULD have ended up if she didn't have her brother!
First impressions, didn't really have time to consistently watch but gave episode 1 a view
Gushing over magical Girls: Our girl lives in a world with magical girls protecting her city, dreams to be one, when a magical mascot offers her powers she accepts only to turn out it was for the bad guys and she has some S&M/bondage kinda powrs! There is an uncensored verson...
Brave Bang Braven: I'm kinda annoyed I DIDN'T watch this consistently, its like if JoJo went mecha! Over the top bravado, over the top fights, a soundtrack the CHARACTERS hear playing constantly, it's just fun.
That's my list as already did over 3000 words lol, Honorable mention to Blue Exorcist and The wrong way to use healing magic, just ran out of time so on watch later list.
On the it's alright side, The Strongest tank's labyrinth Raids and Hokkaido Gald are super adorable. They aren't bad, but it's something you can watch in the background than dedicated viewing.
Anyway, enjoy discussing your favourites or any I missed, I'm going to catch up on Brave Bang Braven as I feel like I did it a disservice putting it off!
First, some additions (although you did briefly mention two):
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic: Similar (in my response) to Unwanted Undead Adventurer in that it's a bit of a surprise, and deeper than it seems on the surface. More comedic, but still has some nice characters and fun scenes. Bogs down a little, but all in all much better than you'd think based off how it presents.
The Witch and the Beast: Surprised this wasn't on your list. Great animation and overall quality, and unique structure, where it tells a bunch of different stories with different characters.
Delicious in Dungeon: Haven't gotten too far into this one, so won't say much, but this was another big name one for the season.
Metallic Rouge: Another nice surprise. Cyberpunk is, bizarrely, a rather underutilized genre at present. Of recent ones, I can mainly think of this, Edgerunners, Synduality Noir, and Akudama Drive. Anyway, Metallic Rouge has some great characters and an interesting setting.
Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!: One of the cuter romance/slice of lifes in a while, in my opinion. Also a great OP.
Ninja Kamui: Firstly, the character's name is Joe Logan which, with Japanese pronunciation is Joe Rogan. Ninja Joe Rogan runs around murderizing people. Fairly simple concept, but a lot of room for growth still, and the 'revenge' story is also not one of the more common anime tropes.
To respond to yours:
Having not read the magna...yeah, the anime is alright, but feels a little disjointed. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Better stuff out there by far, but not a bad watch either, and some funny elements. Meh.
I love when a song is so good or unique everyone just unanimously agrees "yeah, this is it." You can't mention Mashle without mentioning the song. Heck, you can barely mention this season's anime/songs without mentioning it. BLING BANG BANG BORN indeed.
It's good!
Good summation. Started off good, seems to only be getting better.
As you say, an acquired taste. Not bad, and I am enjoying it, but feels a little muddied. Not the most well put together show, but still fun.
Personally I enjoyed S1 much better, but I should catch up with more of S2. But it didn't grip me, and was a bit disappointing.
Good for the drama surrounding it if nothing else. I haven't seen it, but looked at some of the comments. Funny to see people who seem like leftists start calling everyone else pedophiles. Not my type of show, but the people raging about it are funny at least.
Nice. I think this is the only one I haven't at least heard of; I'll have to check it out. Looking forward to it.
Thanks for the list!
I knew I left one off! Metallic Rouge, caught the first episode of it.
It was very 'look than tell' as the description revealed more than the first episode lol but could tell the quality.
Yeah The Witch and the Beast passed me like Brave Bang Braven ALMOST did, have to check out the first episode, see if it clicks.
Yeah, it develops some of it slowly, which I'm personally a big fan of when it comes to cyberpunk; atmosphere and setting are very important, so if it's slow it introduce all the surrounding elements it keeps you guessing while keeping you immersed in the world.
Honestly, I've been super impressed in general with specifically the tone/feel of anime this season. A lot of shows have just been nailing it. Undead Adventurer, Metallic Rouge, Witch and the Beast, Ninja Kamui, and to a lesser extent Solo Leveling just feel great.
Do at least two. It tells different stories, so the second episode is from a different angle than the first one.
Nice review, in additon to it here are some others airings that I'm watching too. I'm liking Saski and Peeps, pretty low key sorta isekai. And idk why but I have a huge soft spot for The Weakest Tamer. Its just refreshing to see all of these good adults step up to help this little kid who is facing a ton of shit on her own for the early part. Its just incredibly wholesome.
I also begrudgingly gave Shield Hero season 3 a shot the other night and darn it, its pretty good so far. I'm only 5 episodes in but it has been worth it to me. I had given up in it last season.
I should check those out.
Yeah, I'm finally catching up. Watching S1 again at the moment, and really enjoying it.
Re: shield hero. I barely got through the second season but I'm glad I picked it back up for season 3.
Yeah, I only watched one or two episodes of S2, and it wasn't doing much for me. I'll have to get through it when I get there again. On the bright side, S1 is excellent, and I get an excuse to watch it again.
You should in general! Don't forget that Eris pads her chest. Repeat this every single time you have wrong thoughts about our goddess Aqua and you will be fine! Oh by the way, can I have an autograph? :)
Now, enough larp.
Gushing over magical girls is amazing, it's even lewder than the manga and hilarious to boot. Sadly, the "official" subs are garbo. You have sus etc, you know the drill insert the nagatoro rant here.
I am honestly surprised solo leveling turned out great. The animation is not as top of the line as Frieren(which was mind blowingly beautiful in some parts) but serviceable. Honestly the first Korean Manga they did justice.
You asked for the Nagatoro rant? Enjoy https://files.catbox.moe/vf3jj8.m4v and a gif I extracted from it once https://files.catbox.moe/g036w0.gif
Still the greatest rant of all time.
Nobody mentions Apothecary Diaries?
Sad.
Probably same reason as Frieren in that it's ongoing.
That at it seems to have more niche appeal than some mentioned.
The last Anime I watched was Ranking of Kings, and I thought it was excellent, I really hope they bring it back.
Did you only watch the first season or did you also watch the second season as I know a lot of people missed it?
I watched the 1st, I heard the second season was just side story, I love the characters so I might check it out later
Overpowered Instant Death Ability really sucks. The anime is all over the damn place and is hard to follow, and gets so ridiculous even discounting MC points his finger and says "shi-ne" and they drop dead.
Chained Soldier, AKA, Slave of the Mato Defense Corps has been alright. I've been curious about the Hybrid side of the story, which is what should be in focus right now. And I'm sure there's going to be at least one girl someone will enjoy.
As a manga reader, the hybrids get pretty shafted in terms of screentime and importance so I wouldn't get your hopes up unless the anime makes major changes. After the current arc their existence becomes mostly one page jokes every now and then.
But that's also inevitable because one or two short arcs later the Lords of Thunder one begins and that one is literally plural volumes per on each one and we are like half done there, so they might play a larger role in the future (as they tie into the greater overarching plot that sometimes gets reminded of).
They cut WAY too much out of Instant death one, they don't fully show how he LITERALLY is the end. Forget Death, he can end concepts and reality if he wanted to.
Like there's a part when he's falling, he was going to kill gravity but then EVERYONE would die so just kills his momentum to land safety!
And here I thought you were a weeb with some taste.
Let it not be said there isn't enough anime.
Only thing I'll ask on this is, is there an uncensored version lol.
It does.
But don't let the premise and initial episodes fool you. This isn't an ecchi comedy, its a legitimate battle series that uses fanservice as the fill in between the fights.
The weeb -> simp pipeline is too strong already, we really don't need to dwell on weird femdom fetish themed anime.
If you think its femdom, then you really don't know anything about it.
Literally every single battle ends with the female being forced into embarrassing and degrading positions to "reward" him for his help. His "slavery" condition grants him a literal ultimate power over them all.
The entire first couple episodes is breaking a bunch of matriarchy loving feminists of their notions of supremacy and power.
Tying into the current situation, left this seperate from the rest, still not seeing any wokism infecting anime at least at the original story or sub level.
With the push to accept gay marriage through the legislature, maybe it's too soon to see that but been reading more manga too and still haven't seen it and one where I might have said possibly kinda goes against what leftists push. With FF7 rebirth tanking in Japan it still shows they aren't buying it domestically.
Just means we need to crush them in the west before they get a chance to infect.
There have been more brown/darker brown colored characters in a variety of different anime the past few seasons. Which from my understanding is meant to be black to the Japanese, right?
It hasn't impacted the story or anything like that yet. I hope it isn't a sign. It is just something I've been noticing as of late more and more.
Depends as both tanned and gyaru are a thing, the former you can tell by tan lines when they wear something while the latter also has very flashy clothes as it's to get attention.
You get the odd black guy here and there but a lot of the time they get murked on as criminal fodder for the MC.
The FBI agent in Ninja Kamui is definitely black, but it's also set in America, so at least that's an excuse. Also, Adult Swim is involved.
The best/most depressing part of Ninja Kamui being set in America is that the first episode has a more appreciative and down-to-earth wholesome representation of rural Americana than any wholly American show has had in over a decade.
Right?
Something super meta about it too. I won't go into details because spoilers, but if you've seen the first episode, you know.