Fall 2021
Completed
Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru
This was honestly, one of the worst declines for anime I have ever seen in my life - it started off with a semi okay episode in a way that was promising, you have some hardcore magical girls taking out corrupt nobles, there's something to do with assassins, and then it bounces back to before the MC dies - his life as a grizzly badass assassin on earth, until he's reincarnated to save the world from the hero who would inevitably destroy the world and he needs to kill the hero before that happens. That whole aspect of the 'meta' story is actually very interesting - especially when you get glimpses into all the other people the goddess had summoned to the other world (with some failure) as if shes part of some larger technological network of realm management (which is super fun!).
unfortunately the actual main story is... not good. i didn't have super high expectations for this one because of the opening (I didn't like the characters that much), and while I love badass women, I hate when it's badass women in a show that doesn't pass the Bechdel test. Considering the aged, veteran energy we get from the MC before his rebirth, it's almost inconsequential to his actual life - all remnants of his past self seems to be completely gone after he's rebirthed into a good home, being as hot as he is, just with a few extra cheat skills and one goal - to kill the hero. More or less, he grows up as a doctor's kid, moonlighting as an assassin, learns magic and is OP because of the skill set he pick, uses women as he likes, and falls in love with his cousin. I guess.
I mean overall this is just a really, bad show - the MC basically has no consistency across his characterisation from his previous life to the current life, all the women he employs basically actually know they're just being used and manipulated to be in his service (which kinda also proves, hes not that good at it? and is kinda sad?), at one point they both point out that he's regularly going to brothels (which was very kindly only mentioned in passing in the anime) and banging women left and right, but he's still deeply devoted and in love with his cousin, and half of the show was dedicated to just setting up this alternate life he's given himself - to the point where genuinely, a whole ass episode was given to the one side character (who I can only assume the director has an excessive fondness for) and her dark episode where all of her friends get violated and sold off as sex slaves (EXCEPT HER), and of course, he wants her because she has magic, and shes still miraculously a virgin because shes saving herself for the man she loves who's saved her for the sole reason of being able to use her in his future pursuits, and he's also got this whole second life running a cosmetics business, and the show ends without even tracking back to the opening scene of taking down child traffickers - which, genuinely baffles me?? the only action that happens basically happens in the last two episodes with some sort of payoff for all the build up they'd done, but to be honest, it's an unfulfilling and honestly poor show - especially with how jarring and abhorrent it is in the way they treat his love interests, and how honestly, I have no love for the reborn MC, despite the original assassin being so badass.
The more I think about the way women are treated in this specific show is somewhat reminiscent of my feelings for TsukiMichi but even worse - as at least Tsukimichi has genuine feelings of care, whereas this MC genuinely doesn't even care about any of the women in his harem at any point (idk if youre going to emphasize virginity as a point, would you not want to keep your MC pure? double standards.). Anyway, this was kinda shit as a show, and somehow worse with its treatment of women. I would not recommend this, and the friend I watched with also did not enjoy it at all.
Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita
Unexpectedly enough, I enjoyed the heck out of this. The first half of the show is a slow start (it's deceptively labelled as a 'slice of life' but it's really not), and although the anime does end up focusing more on the love life development between Rit and Red Gideon (Red G as he will henceforth be called), the actual action and plot of this show is actually really fun!
The show basically talks about Red G getting kicked out of the Hero's party who will try to defeat the demon lord, and the hero is his sister. They are all given Blessings by the Almighty in this world, and these instincts lead them to follow certain paths in life (eg. the blessing of the Hero means that she experiences no emotions and only a desire to kill and vanquish enemies and demons). Red G gets kicked out of the party because Ares (the sage) thinks that he's holding back the party, and he moves to a little starter town and starts his new life. On the way, the princess from his former travels comes back and moves in with him because she fell in love with him, and just as you think that's all to the story, there's a whole saga about Demon's Blessing, which is a drug that people take which gives them a new blessing, but turns them into maniacs. The plot actually starts to kick in about the second half of the show (fantastic) and all the previous people come back and while it solves some issues (demons and blessings and the nature of the whole world that they live in) it also raises some about the nature of demons, how this one demon keeps coming back, how the demons can wield blades designated for the hero, and honestly, its actually fascinating - it makes me definitely want to read into the world more, and also it lacks the almost, boring and restrictive nature of larger world building that isekai stories often fall into in terms of how the story has to unfold and resolve.
I also find that the women in the show are generally interesting, they lack the one dimensional nature compared to the previous show, and the fact that most of the women are competent and super badass is also a nice and welcome change, even Red G's lover Rit is competent and able to handle some problems by herself (although yknow, not all of them obviously), but overall, I really enjoyed this show - especially the little bits of lore sprinkled in. Although I have a massive problem with the pointless element of romance shoved into the story (especially with the sort of, mood whiplash you get when you go back and forth between lolis murdering people and reviving them, and like, SOL married life), I genuinely would have been happy to cut the SOL elements, and gone straight into the action (as LN readers also reported that the romance aspect was far less prevalent in the original material). Someone said to me their favorite part was the romance, and I'll be honest, they're wrong. The best part is the action, and yknow what, I fucking love Danan as a himbo, I loved pre-insanity Ares, and damn if Shisandan isn't my absolute favorite (this opinion is backed by one other person, therefore it's fact).
Overall, I enjoyed and would recommend this. It definitely suffers from some ughhhh moments (especially in regards to the romance), but it's a fun and interesting watch.
Blue Period
Although I wasn't the most inspired from the first episode, I find this a pretty solid show. The MC is a hardworking student who excels at most things, until one day he stumbles across an artwork that inspires him to create art, and pursue art, and it follows his journey as he gets into art school and.. becomes an artist.
I think this show really demonstrates how people think about art and how art is produced, in Japan especially (which is very different from art creation and art processes in the ~west~), and I found it almost enlightening and fun to see the highly competitive nature, especially with the focus on both composition, technical talent and ideas behind the art, in a way that seems oddly restrictive compared to the process I've experienced. It's an interesting insight - especially into Japanese art school culture.
In addition to that, there's a nice detour they take to examine the identity of the self, the coming of age, and especially with the inclusion of Ryuji, the nonbinary/genderflux character. It talks about their story with a real nuance and care, about liking different genders, about how they present themselves and are seen by other people and themselves, and I really like that they treated the issue with the respect it deserves - and I think for that alone, I would recommend that as a good show.
The other aspects of the show are fine - as our MC just goes through art school and his process of working through his own insecurities to try to find the meaning of what he wants to do and what hes doing, and I think that might appeal to a high schooler, the process of working through sweat and tears and against a competitive nature in order to achieve a goal and a dream - I think it can be inspiring and almost comforting through their own struggles. Although I'm a little past the intended audience bracket, it's still nice.
Super Crooks
This is a Netflix original and was released on another schedule but I've decided to put it here since its technically under 'fall'.
More or less this show was really just garbage - the pacing of the show is actually horrific, with a very sparse and incoherent plot. The Netflix anime seems to be settling into a pattern (eg. Carole and Tuesday/The Great Pretender) of having always some sort of loftier target, and a lot of care being put into the animation and feel of the show, except with very badly written storylines that often don't make any sense and rely more on a pseudo deus ex machina like solution.
I mean the frankly, like horrible pacing of the show aside, and the kinda shitty plot, the world building is probably the most interesting out of the whole situation with the superpowers and the hero networks and that, but the characters in the show are uninspired and well, there's only one woman in the whole show and her only job in the show is to pamper her - frankly - shitty boyfriend (the MC), Johnny. Once you notice how garbage the representation of women is in this, it's really not good.
I also do love Tsuda Kenjiro in mostly everything he does, but to be honest, the transition between his backstory voice to his actual voice was not optimal. Also the backstory and then absolutely never resolving him as a character, also exceptionally poor. I was frankly very disappointed with the show, especially after finding out it was partially based on some source material, so this was a real let down. I wouldn't recommend it.
Isekai Shokudou
Ongoing
Ousama Ranking
Shuumatsu no Harem
There's only one ep. I love it anyway.
Dropped
Takt Op. Destiny
Despite all it's glory with the brand name animation studies, this is really not great. The opening episode is exceptionally dull, with barely any plot and the characters are relatively one dimensional - especially as it's set in the US without any of the actual culture dripping through, it isn't very inspiring or interesting to watch.
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