Winter 2022

Honestly, this was a pretty underwhelming season - it was all pretty mediocre which led to me, not really finishing most of these and having to go back, but we're trying to get some shit done with the time I have. I honestly feel terrible about taking so long to actually finish these, so I just put a lot of them under the unfinished pile, which I will hopefully update when I do finally get around to finishing them (if ever). 

Finished 

Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to 

This was definitely THE stand out show of this season for me- with two salaryman friends at the appalling age of 32, and one of them being turned into his ideal girl with magical powers as a hero in another world. The premise is great, its fun, the comedy hits right, and the pacing of the show is also really great. I loved all the characters and had a lot of fun with it. Although the sort of 'love confession' in the first episode never really comes back in any serious manner, the development of their relationship has that almost queer-baity aspect, but jinguuji is almost most likely gay, and tachibana spends most of the show as a straight man trapped in a woman's body, and finds himself being charmmed by jinguuji, so that whole gender/sexuality junglejuice is definitely in the mix, but i like how unorthodox it is.  

I recommend this - nothing to say because I found it a great show. Also ! totally wanna know what else happens in the show now.  

Kenja no Deshi no Nanoru Kenja 

Man I don't know what what to say about this? Look, it wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. Basically the MC of the show was one of the main big players in this MMORPG as one of the nine wise men, but due to an accident when he was customizing his character, he went from being a dumbledore/gandalf summoner to a loli. his actual character name is danblf. anyway, despite the promise of plot in this show, it's really just a bunch of side quests with the MC trying to discover bits and pieces of the world, but plot threads are raised and thrown away on a whim. The pacing of the show as a whole is weird, each episode feels more episodic than anything, and despite the promise of greater world building, it's just not there. also, watching this on normal speed is... unbearably slow. also a lot of people did not enjoy the repeated jokes about the MC needing to pee. 

i can say that the content of the show was not entirely, undigestable, throughout the whole slew of whatever it is they decided to make, but it was not entirely inspirational. I wouldn't really recommend it - but I guess I did sort of enjoy that they had a gender flipped MC which felt low key quite shouneny for a ""female"" lead. I can't really recommend this show either way tbh. 

Shuumatsu no Harem 

Damn lmao what a fucking show. So this is based off a manga which is finished, but it actually has another sequel too (if you wanna follow up on it), but this is really fucking fun. This actually originally had one episode that aired last season but somehow was pushed back to Winter, so I'm just gonna put this here because it finished airing this season. 

Basically the show is that all men have died due to a virus called the MK (man killer) virus, and there are a few men in japan who have survived because their chronic condition has somehow saved them from being susceptible to the virus. The leads are all the guys who had the condition and were frozen for safety reasons and after a few years, they were defrosted to sort of, repopulate the world? Due to the scarcity of men. Our man MC is a boring dude who had the hots for his osananajimi and has like, minimal science background but he decided that he's going to forgo all baby making to find his osananajimi and find a cure/vax for the virus - which is the main focus of the show. The other mains are this one guy whos just a massive chad and baby making his way through his life, and another white haired guy who is hilariously beautifully edgy, who wakes up from his life from being bullied and is taken to a high school facility where all the girls are just there to seduce him. from there he kinda gets mindbroken and turns into this edgy power fantasy play MC who basically fucks any girl he wants, including getting revenge on the girls who used to bully him, and fucking his idols and also the teacher he had a crush on, and like, is basically high on the power trip that he's had from his previous life of being an unlikeable bottom feeder, to one of the only men in the world (aka. very valuable). IMO, this whole edgy white hair man storyline that basically unfolds in parallel to the boring prude MC is actually one of the funniest, more enjoyable parts of the show when you really get the contrast - although i'd say I kinda prefer the white hair fantasy play MC. He also gets artificially aged up in the later episodes once the drama kinda kicks in, which is fun. I also think this story is actually kinda fucking dark - the anime skips this but there is a whole arc where one of the guys whos saved is stolen by the rebel alliance and when he had a loveless marriage and a kinda shit job and when he wakes up he gets branded and raped by women, and it's kinda interesting that the whole arc exists in this show - again - staunchly in comparison to the puritan MC. A lot of people also complained that the MC kinda just makes the show boring, and I have to admit, he's definitely not my favorite part of the show, but I think the contrast of all the main men in the story is interesting. Also hilarious that it's a show about literally 5 men in a world of all women and the men are still written as the most interesting characters. ha ha. 

The general story with the MC obviously also hints at the circumstances - the political play between the hidden men in the story, the obsession with baby making and repopulating the world, who released the MK virus/if it was man made in the first place, and all the other drama happens at some point in the show - including edgy white hair guy, who's handler is actually trying to negotiate her way to the top - and all the corruption and lies that come behind the circumstances where we find ourselves in the story. I honestly was unexpectedly interested in the story, rather than just the tongue in cheek appeal of the unabashed tits and porn. 

despite the kinda meh animation quality and voice acting, this was just a fucking fun ride and like, unexpectedly interesting. I did follow bits of the manga and probably will continue to - it's just fuckin fun. 

Ryman's Club 

Okay so I didn’t start off watching this one but because I was convinced by someone else I decided to give it a go. I was actually admittedly pleasantly surprised by this one - it was definitely not a show that was on my radar (I don’t care for badminton) but despite being an anime original, which usually are awful for plot consistency, this is pretty fantastic. Especially when it nails the ending. 

You've got Enoki Junya as the MC whos part of some corporate company which has like, salaryman sport clubs - though shout out to them making a sport anime but for older people with full time jobs and real life obligations damn - he gets kicked out of his old company and recruited into a new one and he makes improvements and progress in both his sport and work life with this new development in his life. Some of my favorite moments in the show are definitely the themes that they touch upon, like, getting over old traumas, rebuilding your life or choosing a new direction or thinking about what to pursue when you start to get older,  balancing work and personal interests or your health and body - I'd say the one episode arc where they reintroduce a guy who put badminton aside for the sake of his family and being allowed to pick it up as an interest I think was really a nice story arc. I think the emotional powerfulness of his guilt towards what he's supposed to do and what he wants to do was a really lovely moment. 

That said, I do think the one weakness of the show was that they really did not have a lot of time at all to attribute to actually fleshing out and building a lot of the characters in depth as people, but rather navigating their personalities through problems that show up - and a lot of the time it doesn't really say too much IMO. eg. depsite our MC clearly being shown to have trauma and being quite blunt and a little scared, it's hard to really identify too much more about the MC, or really get a good sense of his relationship with his senpai besides the sense that they're getting along better. Also the asspull moment at the end of the show where they ended up having a connection the whole time was, uh, not my favorite lol. Probably the least favorite part of the show for me. Also on a scale of 0-10, this show really isn't very queer baity at all, because the characters really aren't very fleshed out imo. 

That said, this is a solid badminton show, and for an anime original, it's a consistent and enjoyable watch. 

Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu 

I mean this was… fine I guess? The general premise of this show is just a guy who's a prince who, is a lazy genius. He acts like he has no idea and is just bullshitting his way through life but then also everything always ends up going his way perfectly. He's also the prince of a relatively small country and the show basically goes through like diplomatic/warfare/political happenings and how he navigates it. 

All in all, it's a...  boring show to me in that nothing really feels like its happening. I think sometimes you have a show like Tomodachi Game where everything is super high stakes but it always works out and its enjoyable to see exactly how it turns out, but in this case, it feels like we're being told its very high stakes but it also has very little impact on our MC, and the way it unfolds and the way he always seems to relax after it being like 'heheh i had no idea!' was honestly kinda grating to me - I think its the conflict in presentation of the MC that just did not do it for me. Also there's like a vague romantic subplot that happens with the MC and his bodyguard who happens to be an oppressed race that is also never expanded on in depth in the show, and then the other princess who he went to school with but again, nothing happens with the other love interests because he only likes his bodyguard lady. 

I mean there is definitely a plot there that talks about the gradual expansion and the political manoeuvring of this guy, but I feel like a lot of it gets lost in the other side plots that also do not seem to matter? The more I think about this show, the more I dislike it, I cannot remember anything that I actually liked, although I feel like it was vaguely enjoyable when I was watching it. I'd say if you wanted more of the political strategy angle, you can try Genjitsu/Realist Hero, although this is definitely more a fantasy, where as Genjitsu is far more 'isekai' in its tropes, whereas this one tries to focus more on a native examination - although there's only so much you can do to rope people in when its engaging with a world that hasn't been explained, and trying to worldbuild with having a story and relationships to develop leads to a lot of loose threads. 

I can't really say anything nice about this show as it's not entertaining (to me), or comedic, but at least it does finish and tie up all the more interesting plot points it tries to raise, and does a good job and conveying a general gist of the story its trying to tell, which i think is good enough to at least finish. 

Leadale no Daichi nite 

This is a female lead isekai and it's honestly I wasn't super impressed with the premise but it does end up giving a little bit of fun. This one is about this lady who wakes up in her avatar in this RPG game she plays and shes really high level and basically just travels the world and how it's changed (200 years time skip) since she's been in the game. She also is one of the highest level OP characters in the game, and she technically died before being reincarnated, and tries to figure out the answers. It just so happens that literlaly half of the most important people in the kingdom are her 'children', and she goes around trying to make a new life in this world. 

I think a lot of things in this show are pretty fun, the general vibes of this show are way more laid back and relaxed than Kenja no Deshi, and I enjoy that even though the MC is forced into some pretty stereotypical female roles (the focus on family in some of these shows is really heavy), I like that she kinda spends most of the actual show just fucking around and being super powerful. It was fucking weird tho that she spent SO much time in the game just beating up and threatening her family though? But I really resonated with the background of the character enjoying the world of Leadale because she was hospitalized, and it's kinda what gives me a really sense of connection to the MC. Also I think the general comedy of this show is fun enough, it's definitely not perfect but there are some cute moments here and there - i personally really loved the introduction of other player characters towards the middle of the show which I think made it much more fun. Also, the catboy butler. Yeah. Good. Great. I'd say the thing I actively really disliked about the show was the introduction of the adopted girl from the fishing village for sure - I actually found it actively annoying to have the girl be forced into a semi relevant role into the story of the MC, especially when she goes around after having been horribly traumtized by the entire fucking massacre of her village being turned into zombies into having this like, upscale life with the most powerful person in the world and just going along with it. Idk I think there was a whole fuckin can of worms there that should have been dealt with that really wasn't, and it really annoyed me. Also the fucking pacing of some of the story gets a little weird by cutting and speeding up parts towards the end, but it's not so terrible that its unwatchable. 

Overall, I liked just how fun and relaxed and laidback and non fanservicey this show was - its a nice break from the male dominated harems sometimes, and although I was not interested in finishing this show I ended up kinda being glad that I did. Again, sans the weird kid plotline that takes up the whole back part. 

Unfinished 

Sasaki to Miyano 

I would like to finish this. This is definitely a more slow paced, more shounen ai wholesome anime, but fuck me if the fudanshi/BL jokes don't hit right. I don't mind this show on 2x but I find it just a little slow for me. 

Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja 

Okay I tried really hard to finish this but I literally did not give enough of a fuck. The anime according to source readers actually fucked up a lot of the pacing of the story, and like, it shows. It's just a stereotypical show about a powerful guy being reborn and like, underestimated, and everyone hates him because he's so hot, and he has like, two sexy girls in his harem with him.

I literally thought this was the show were he ends up grooming like this one girl to be his best friend/love interest but I must have confused it with another show (Shijō Saikyō no Dai Maō, Murabito Ē ni Tensei Suru)- but that's literally how generic this show was. I can't recommend it - even on 2x I struggled to watch this. 

Fustal Boys 

Your average, subpar sports anime with meh animation and a boatload of tropes. 

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou 2nd Season

God I know it's trashy fun but I cannot physically take anymore shit harem with edgy white haired guy and the vampire loli I'm sorry I'm too old to waste my time like this. 

Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2

After the whole polyamorous reveal and I think a suggestion that he does end up sexing everyone actually makes me physically repulsed and like, generally uninterested. Like what else of the story do you have to tell? Idk I'm started to feel weirdly disillusioned by second seasons for isekais - especially once you start to feel that the author is taking everything in this power fantasy actually SERIOUSLY, and its earnestness in telling a fucking trashy personal fantasy feels stupidly self gratuitous and I can't stand it.