Pour one out for the recent high sea purge, though they've already been mirrored so these sites are like Kane from C&C with how much they resurrect..
Anyway good season overall, a surprise standout and one that gave my brain a vaction. Disclaimer as always, haven't seen EVERYTHING so will miss stuff, key ones is The Elusive Samurai and Pseudo Harem, I am only human (for now, come on cybernetics!) so some slip the net and not caught up on everything, without further ado:
Actually I read the Manga
A journey through another world: Raising kids while adventuring: this is just good male role model vibes where a guy Isakai'd becomes the caring older brother to two orphaned young saiyans, just a pallette cleanser show
Why does nobody remember me in this world: Humanity had a war with magical beings, won and live in peace but some a hole flipped the table and reset the world to where Humanity didn't have the hero that turned the tide, with everyone forgetting him but our MC so becomes the one that needs to help turn the tide in this war. It's ok but nothing big budget.
Failure Frame: I became the strongest and Annihilated Everything with low-level spells: WARNING, heavy use of cgi, it's actually used quite well but I know this is a turn off for some. The main thing that keeps my interest in the series is the MC as going in you thing 'another beta guy exiled for weak abilities but turns out they're cracked' but no he had a psycho switch in him the whole time and he can manipulate, kill no hesitation. Plus while everyone else lusts over the main girl, he's 'revenge first, pussy later' when she actually gives him the green pass.
continuing from previous season
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime S3 cour 2: I prefer this festival arc as you get more characters coming in, more development in Tempest and character development all round
The heavy hitters
No longer allowed in another world: following the example of Ya boy Kongming, this takes author Osamu Dazai and Isakai's him and like the original, he just REALLY wants to die. Thought it'd be a bit of a one trick joke but damn did this have great characterisation. Episode 8 was a masterpiece to itself.
Oshi no Ko S2: still top tier quality exploring the entertainment industry and while the opening not as good in my opinion to Season one, still a banger.
Sussy Sisters (should've included Oshi no Ko on this)
Days with my stepsister: actually just a very good story about two strangers now having to live with each other and understand their feelings in this new dynamic.
Alya sometimes Hides her feelings in Russian: Our main girl is a tsundere who says her true feelings in Russian as she's in Japan so who there knows Russian? Our MC so he got a girl acting cold in public but saying in Russian how she'd like to toss him down and french kiss him. Also his sister a bit of a freak.
Aquired taste
Wistoria - wand and sword: from the mind behind Black Clover, this is very well animated story as the one guy that can't use magic in magic school but literally built different. I put it here though as the MC might turn people off as though he can go badass, his whimpy scenes can be annoying.
My dear friend Nokotan: Welcome to the deer world motherfuckers! Everything is deer and you will be deer too hahaha! (This written by 1 braincell, rest of brain took a vaction). Studio Wit KNEW what they wanted with this series and the fact that intro song was as catchy as hell BEFORE it even released, you see why they put their full effort into this than Suicide Squad, speaking of which..
Suicide Squad Isakai: I kinda got bored and dropped it, just ok and other than the Morri ed, it's just average.
The Strongest magician in the Demon lord's army was a Human: liking the story, a human raised in secret by the best magican in the demon lords army and wants to make a world where both humans and demons can live in peace but has to hide his human identity as well as resistance from both sides.
Tower of God S2: this is an improvement over season 1 but still lacking in some explanation and development to get higher, a bit more work and it'll be a lot better.
Vtuber legend: How I went Viral after forgetting to turn off my steam: this is the most ACCURATE portrayal of vtubers in ANY media, so much so I think they watched a vtuber and just went off that. Growing hypothesis, they were watching Bao the Whale just toned down the gooning for the anime...
My wife has no Emotion:welcome to what happens when western women get too bad, we go for the robots. It's light hearted and at least he's simping fir the robot not an ethot.
That's the list of what I have at least viewed, didn't watch the second part of Nier Automata as the delay killed the buzz for me to watch it so on the back burner.
Names for anime series sure have gotten long-winded...
My favorite name-wise is still...
The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History's Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants
Yeah.
First season was a decent popcorn show but second season fumbled the ball pretty hard and I dropped it.
"my comment about light novels titled with exact plot points has become a meme" the anime, based on the light novel
The Elusive Samurai is pretty damn good so far. A shogunate vassal family is betrayed and massacred. The son escapes and runs in to a priest who thinks the kid will someday unify Japan. It's not an out and out revenge story, though, there is a lot more going on. It's not historically accurate but it does have historical figures as characters, the MC being one. The animation is fantastic.
Putting a few ops and eds here you might want to keep in your music files from this season:
Wistoria op
Failure Frame op
My deer friend Nokotan op
No longer allowed in another world op and ed
Days with my stepsister ed
Tower of God op and ed
My wife has no Emotion op
Oshi no Ko op and ed
The Strongest magician op
Suicide Squad Isakai ed
Wistoria - wand and sword is just store brand Mashle, there I said it.
Don't get me wrong though, I still watched it.
Yes but I like it. There is room enough in my anime queue for both.
The localizers for Alya are atrocious both in terms of messing up puns you can hear and adding zoomer slang that's clearly not what's being said, but it's still very good.
So watch sub only then? As that's the version I watch and I've had no problems.
In fact the only issue I've had is realising Russian can sound very alluring coming from a female voice...
I meant the subbed version, do I look like a dubtard?
Ugh, this is why we need a return of fansubbing. It's all just rips from crunchyroll now...
To be fair to them, if they say the 3 best dubs are FMA brotherhood, Black Lagoon and SAO Abridged then they are redeemable lol
No? That's retarded. SAO is shit and the abridged is just a parody of shit, he voice acting is still bad. Black lagoon is funny dubbed, at least - but there were a couple of shows in the 90s and early 00s that actually had GOOD dubs, like cowboy bebop where the dub is considered the outright better version.
The last one was a semi joke but the abridged even in parody corrects EVERYTHING wrong with the original SAO to the point of being a superior product. I love the fact the MC is just a straight up asshole and the female lead ain't a damsel but a psychotic yandere that is foiled by the menu screen.
I haven't watched Alya yet but even in subs they are sneaking in zoomer/reddit-tier "trash.
Oops wrong response, anyway haven't noticed so might be different subs released like that happened with My deer friend Nokotan
there are already a few posts praising The elusive samurai, so I won't go too far into it. it's very good, but the tonal whiplash can be jarring. the show has a tendency of going from borderline Looney tunes comedy to extremely dark and tragic scenes and back within a few minutes.
Oshi no Ko S2 ED was so good I went out and downloaded the entire discography of Hitsuji Bungaku.
How was the animation in Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga nai? I read the manga and I thought it dropped off super hard around the 40 chapter mark. Plus I've been watching so much other stuff I just didn't have the time.
Other things to have watched this season:
Continuation of Spice and Wolf. Absolute peak plus they covered an arc that was skipped in the first anime adaptation.
Shinmai Ossan Boukensha, Saikyou Party ni Shinu hodo Kitaerarete Muteki ni Naru. or The Rookie Middle-Aged Adventurer Was Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party to Become Invincible. The title really says it all. Pretty decent action, first 2 episodes had me worried they would milk the whole shtick of the MC thinking he's weak when he's actually OP but they moved on from that real quick.
Make Heroine ga Oosugiru. Absolutely gorgeous animation. If you like harem romcom this is a must watch. Probably still good even if you don't.
No, I Parry Everything is the show that did that this season.
Yeah I heard they fumbled that HARD whereas the two cptlightning mentioned are on my to watch list when I get time.
Meh, I enjoyed it.
Elusive Samurai is pretty good. It's marred by CG in a few episodes, most egregiously during a couple episodes with a focus on horseback archery, but the majority of the time it's very high quality 2D animation, with some incredibly fantastic sequences here and there.
And the OP and ED are both very fun.
It's probably my favorite new show this season.
Thanks for this, been primary manga recently because I found animes moving too slowly for my tastes. Your lists have been great for finding other gems, and getting a succinct summary is harder & harder with review sites being tainted by left bias.
Some of my own manga re-reads & new discoveries,
Martial Arts & Military:
(current reread) Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi / History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi by Matsuena Shun - gem from 2002, up there with Bakku & Hajime no Ippo as a great 2nd-tier martial arts manga under DBZ
Records of the Mystic Gardens by Trick Garden - Chinese Xianxia cultivator martial arts. page flow isnt aids, loved the style - killed off by CCP inner security before its time.
Girls' Frontline //Dolls' Frontline by Mica Team, Miharu (壬覇流) - kino gun girls manga with a anime out based on the gacha game. always had a solid story, i'd reccommend it.
Ramia-Yana, Hero & Demon Lord Chronicles by TheGoldenSmurf - fantasy by a guy who does a great style like One Punch Man, if you like curvy musclewoman & OPM in a fantasy setting, try this.
Ragna Crimson - solid fantasy, dragon-demon slaying
Slice of life / Sports:
Dogsrred by Noda Satoru - sports manga on Japanese High School Hockey and classic rise to the top. made by the guy who did Golden Kamuy.
Super no Ura de Yani Suu Futari / Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You by Jinushi - adult slice of life romcom between a salaryman and cute supermarket clerk afterhours
Hitman // Weekly Shonen Hitman by Seo Kouji - story of a manga editor and the artists he manages in a high speed way
I'll be honest, with the amount of manga/manwha and a bit of manhua i read, tempted to do just a give me a story/genre you're looking for and I'll give out some recommendations post.
Especially since a lot of them are becoming anime like the last big announcement was Omniscient Readers Viewpoint, it's only a matter of time till Teenage Mercenary becomes one too.
I still would love an Adaption on some older Manga. 20th century boys would be amazing for example.
Reincarnated as a Slime is pretty great. Still only at season 1 but I love these OP main characters. If there's one thing I cannot stand it's when a single fight drags out over half a season. Looking at you Re:Zero!
Alya sometimes Hides her feelings in Russian is also pretty neat. Kinda cutesy wholesome and the art style is pretty.
I got too much of a "current-year vibe from Days with my stepsister, especially when they started going on about how gender is discriminatory and how men should be allowed to wear women's clothing and all that.
No longer allowed in another world and Failure Frame seem promising but I've been putting them off until the whole season is out.
You REALLY won't be disappointed with No longer allowed in another world, as I said E8 is a masterpiece but I just love how the MC cuts through the bullshit by not being scared (welcoming it even)to die
Failure Frame, as I said beware of heavy cgi use but if you get past that, you'll enjoy how this MC just kills with paralysis and poison without mercy.
Yea, No longer allowed seemed interesting because the MC is .. different.
IMHO the CGI in Failure Frame is atrocious. Looks like one of the early 90s CGI cartoons on TV. Animation is incredibly stiff and cheap. Story seemed interesting enough to give a try though.
Haikyuu! is probably the champ here.
One entire season is just one volleyball match.
I really enjoy the Vtuber one, it's hilarious and as you stated probably the most accurate media about vtuber ever. The whole tech behind it with live 2d models etc is actually really what it's like. Also also I feel the need to state it: the show always has a different ending sung by one from the cast, I really enjoyed those and it shows me that they put a lot of love into the show(not to mention money).
Only one of these I watched was the Slime one, watched around 5 or 6 episodes around 2 years ago, thought it was boring and bounced.
Each to their own, I enjoy the world building and characters more than anything else, especially when characters like Diablo come in
Forget the carcinization hypothesis, I want more settings where things evolve to become more human-like.
Slime has really slowed down since season 1. It's all politics and managerial stuff now. I'm still watching it in hopes that it'll pick back up but it's really a different show at this point.
I can spoil you on future arcs or not, up to you.
I would prefer to go in completely blind, for better or for worse.
That's why I asked, there's some REALLY big stuff coming plus some interesting new characters very soon after the festival arc we are in.
I gave it 18 episodes cuz I was bored and had nothing else to do. Not worth it, a lot of people I talk to who enjoy it say it's all just building up and it's the "introduction" and it gets good later... I seem to remember the "it gets good after" argument with games and it's honestly same here: if it's good after many many seasons why bother?
Isekai shit and an anime adaptation of a perfectly fine and playable game that no one asked for.
Literally the only thing in this list that has the slightest bit of interest is the deer comedy.
Any time a fantasy genre starts throwing around videogame mechanics the author deserves a swift kick in the balls.
I don't watch anime, so posts like these give me an idea of what's happening in modern media outside of my little bubble (I mostly stick with older films, Danish mystery-thrillers, Hong Kong action flicks, and South Korean crime-dramas).
Most of these seems like it's a lot of isakai stuff, which is not really my thing. But judging from the comments, most here seem to think Elusive Samurai is good, so I might keep an eye on it.
Def. give it at least a glance, if it weren't for the other bangers this year it could easily snag Anime of the year. Feels like every year there's more and more modern classics that instantly achieve said status by virtue of having people work on it that actually do love the source material.
It's also because a lot of the authors are using anime to correct mistakes in the original work, in 'it'd be better like this' not a 'make it lame and gay' way.
For example, in the recent Bleach TYBW, the original author added scenes into the anime to make it flow better compared to the original work. There's still a lot of passion and it's just the chappy streaming sites that are slowing down a lot of it getting released.