The positive of a meritocratic media industry: lots to watch
The negatives: viewing it all on release...
There will be stuff I miss it's a given, but been another good season and thankfully no production delays, so without futher adou:
Actually I read the Manga
The Banished Former Hero lives as he pleases: tried reading this a while back....dropped it after 2 chapters because it was bland. The anime ain't different in fact only thing good about it was Outro by AIMI
Chillin in Another World with level 2 super cheat powers: in comparison to the above, THIS is a lot better, lot more light hearted and fun tone (though the MC has a 'rage of quiet man moment) fun op, I realise between this and Eminence in shadow, I may have a thing for voluptuous wolf girls....
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll use my appraisal skill to Rise in the world: before you go 'another Isakai', I'd give this a shot especially if you loved Realist Hero or recruiting in Slime. The MC isn't powerful but can see the talents of others and recruits those talented to improve his domain. Can't praise it enough and one of the best father's in Anime too.
Grandpa and Grandma turn young again: This is concentrated wholesomeness, as couple been together for 70 years thanks to a golden apple on their orchard gain the ability to turn young again, but still retain their grandparent way of living. It's just sweet to watch and makes you happy.
The heavy hitters
Mushoku Tensei jobless reincarnation S2 cour 2: shits hitting the fan again, we had another 'Turning point' episode. It's just the king of Isakai, excellent animation, story and va work like this scene REALLY showing how a person trapped in another world might react thinking there's no way back.
Konosuba, God's blessing on this wonderful world S3: the patron saint of gender equality is back and it's just fun with the gang back together.
Kaiju No. 8: This one you can tell is getting HEAVY investment to be a longer franchise, from the great animation and music, op and ed the story has the right mix of humour, action and character moments to watch
Bartender Glass of Gods: This is apparently one of two old shows coming back this season, they REALLY put their all in the animation quality for this show and it's a perfect nightcap anime, something after a long day at work to turn on and watch
Spice and Wolf: Merchant meets the Wise Wolf: the other returner and making my 'wolf girl' problem worse. They focused hard on animation, va work, music from the op alone it's fantastic to see this return in a proper way
Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc: the quality is still top tier, all that needs to be said on this series.
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime S3: warning the first episodes are mainly talking and meetings to provide set up, THEN you get the payoff and realise 'Rimaru's side is OP as fuck!', good to see it back and hopefully regularly but sane quality as I want to eventually get to see our boy Zegion in his prime...
****Aquired taste ****
Tsukimichi Moonlit fantasy S2 cour 2: I WISH I could put this at the same level as Slime (especially since the manga came out before) but it hasn't been given the same time to establish itself so still aquired taste. Does the same as slime as slow build up but when the MC realises 'oh the goddess isn't looking', shit kicks off FAST lol
Viral Hit: Korea really portraying their schools having a bullying epidemic lol, but in this one a bullying victim learns how to fight thanks to a mysterious YouTube channel and streams his own fights with bullies to earn money.
Re:Monster: this is very early slime in the way the MC is Isakai'd as a monster and gains powers by consuming others but in this one, well...
The Irregular at Magic School S3: The return of the op MC with a sister who's favourite song is 'Sweet home Alabama'. It's enjoyable if you like an OP MC and the this series always have great op and ed
Not seen enough of so first impressions
Wind Breaker: The fight scene in episode one was fantastic alone so I'll try to watch more of it later
I didn't see Black Butler or Train to the End of the World as well as others as didn't have time, but I'd like to DISHONOURABLELY mention The Misfit if Demon King Academy as wtf are they doing with the CGI!?! I stopped watching after the production issues last time but holy crap I have no intention of picking it back up if they go Seven deadly Sins level of bad in animation!
Mushoku Tensei is elite. I need to catch up on the anime, but ever since I read LN15 one of my missions in life is to survive until it gets animated in season 3.
Haven't had much time for stuff this season. Definitely overjoyed at Spice and Wolf being back. I sincerely hope this adaptation can go the distance.
Other than that I've only watched the first 5 episodes of Lv2 yuusha or whatever it's called. Very generic isekai but the voice leads are the same as Louise and Saito from Zero no Tsukaima as well as the leads from Shakugan no Shana so it is taking me back down memory lane. I love Rie Kugimiya's voice.
I like Mushoku Tensei but the main character has rather nonsensical reactions presented as sensical and free of bad consequences through the magic of Scenarium. ( If you care about that, spoiler ahead. )
Such as : getting in a fight with his father because his rosy re-teling of his journey back to human continent got his father mad at him for ''having fun'' while he had no idea if his own mother and siblings were dying after the great catastrophe... ( that was unfair ).
So he felt guilty for that. Reaction : While his mother is still missing and likely in atrocious conditions or dead, go chillax at some magic university collecting a harem and having some pet projects with all his free time. Chase some pussy from his childhood because he's obsessed with getting his dick to work, and buy a mansion for the two of them.
But it's totally okay, because his tutor's death has been postponed at a convinient time for him to prevent 2 seconds before the death blow after 2 years working on his dick and leisure tenure without significant workload at magic university.
Oh and 5 minutes away from his new pregnant wife he's taking engagements for dungeon-crawling with another woman who is dropping so many visual and physical contact cues of sexual desire it's becoming a public embarassment in the party.
I expect full-blown Scenarium ''mom's still alive and planing to ditch your wife and future kid for hobby dungeon-crawling is cool''. Will my expectations be subverted? I actually want to find out. The show's still enjoyable.
To each their own I guess, but seeing as literal years have passed since the teleportation incident, it's not irrational for Rudeus to go off and do his own thing once he completed the journey home. He felt guilty about being too absorbed in his own predicament to think to ask around and search for clues about her whereabouts.
But this is primarily for actions he didn't take in the first several months to a year after the incident. By the time he gets into it with his father, the trail is cold. There's not much point in continuing to search without any leads.
Not to mention the whole fiasco with Orsted, and then all the shit that went down with Eris. Volumes 6 and 7 were very well done in my opinion and to me his actions felt very believable; it was easy to sympathize. Haven't watched past season one as far as the anime adaptation is concerned, but I've heard they picked up where it left off as far as quality is concerned.
I won't make any references to what you can expect going forward; just strap in and enjoy the ride. And pray for season 3 where the best volumes will be adapted.
The flawed character following what he felt like doing instead of what seemed like the moral duty, I don't have much of a problem with the author for that. How other characters react to that however, seems a bit weird. Especially Paul.
Main Characters don't have to be perfect. They very rarely should be perfect. So we can complain about it on an Internet forum. Cheers.
The dodging all consequences with Scenarium as if it was a ''fake timed'' videogame quest but it's actually a trigger event no matter how long you take ( common in fiction but usually less jarring, felt like Roxy and the dungeon spent weeks in suspended animation untill Main Character triggered the ''rescue from the jaw of death'' event ), I roll my eyes... and keep watching because I like the show.
I admittedly forget what the anime included and what it didn't, but in the novels it goes a lot into Paul's thoughts on the whole thing. He had a burst of anger that he regretted after the fact. Basically in his mind Rudeus is this genius prodigy and he should have been able to take care of himself while looking for his mother. But then he realizes that it's expecting way too much of a little kid especially given the kind of land he was teleported to.
Regarding the rescue from the jaws of death thing, you really make me want to get into [insert spoilers here]. All I'll say is that there is a bit more to that than meets the eye. Now whether you find the explanation to be swallowable or not is another thing entirely. Personally, I liked it as it was woven very well into the overarching main conflict of the story. Season 3 cannot come soon enough...