Anime Thigh Thread II

[Yunru]

Yandere Dark Elf anime ep 5 Made me laugh when the catgirl on phone showed the 3 girls from gushing over magical girls.
Its quite a good easter egg.

[Pendulous]

Yandere Dark Elf anime ep 5 Made me laugh when the catgirl on phone showed the 3 girls from gushing over magical girls.
Its quite a good easter egg.

I'm trying to figure out what's more unrealistic. Three girls, two of them not human, traveling from another universe to reality, or a woman immediately getting an executive job, and another immediately becoming a popular streamer.

[En Sabah Nur]

Courting/dating period should be 18 months max. That's a year and a half to figure out if you have the same values and goals and to have some common experiences together. This is not hard. If he hasn't talked to you about marriage by then, he's not interested in marrying you. He's not going to go all in on you, and is content with the current situation where he doesn't have to commit. Women also tend to lose interest in a relationship if children don't come of it.

In response then, I have to ask, are you married with kids? Is this your experience with dating/marriage/her losing interest if you don't get her pregnant?

'cos I gotta say, I know couples who have been together more than double that initial 6.5 years and they're neither married nor have they had kids. Yet they're just as happy together now as they've always been.

And speaking of the 6.5 years, its Pokémon... I'm sure they'll get married when they're ready, and it'll be a vibrant, joyous affair.

Buahahaha kudos for that setup to bait another unhinged take out of him.

Certainly not my intention.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished season 2 of My Happy Marriage, which seems to be the end of the show.

Overall a fine show. Nothing offensively bad about it. Characters are pleasant enough. I liked how it was about matriculating a romance during the story rather than waiting until the end. I liked the grounded feel and tight scope. A military coup attempt happens but it only involves a few dozen soldier at two walled compounds and is not overdramatized. Low body count. Anime (and fiction in general) has a tendency to try to make their conflicts as grandiose as possible with everyone being super emotional, but here the people who are put on the back foot keep their cool and there is not over the top shouting. The villain was neat in how he was not powerful, but instead relied on his ability to distort people's senses and confuse them, but people if they are confident enough can continue attacking and hurt him.


The caveats are that the show is not amazing. It's just okay. I found it preferable compared to whatever else new is available but it's not my first recommendation for anime. The most obvious deficiency is ofcourse is that it is a modern lookimg anime, namely the soulless photorealistic backgrounds that look copy pasted like you see in every other anime from the past 15 years. The early modern Japan setting has looled great before in the gorgeous backgrounds of Rurouni Kenshin, Sakura Wars, Ghibli movies, Pokemon, Inyuasha, etc. This does not stand up with them. The other main issue is that the show could have used some trimming. The protagonist has a lot of long drawn out and repetitive monologues or dream scenes. However the show is only 24 episodes max so it's not a dealbreaker like watching those absurdly lengthy Korean or Chinese live action dramas.

Also, the soundtrack was utterly forgettable, and weirdly there were no Japanese soundimg instrumemts. It's just samey Western orchestras and grand pianos. I did appreciate that tgere was no bo.bast and the use of silence for a more mundane realistic feel.

I liked that a few guys from the Blessed Communion walked into a festival with their banners and began advertising magic powers for anyone who wants to join.




I overall liked Arata, but I was frustrated by the creator's decision to have him be a little too fixated on Miyo at times. When they were walkimg across that roofed walkway and he stopped to to put his hand on her shoulder, I just wanted him to keep walking.

The villain's plan/motives were not well constructed IMO. He is sympathetic in how he is an atomized middle aged man who has been unable to find fulfillment/joy in life, but I was not convinced on his fixation on Miyo. It was also strange how the ghost of Miyo's dead mom invades a dream space to reach out to Usui, and then the two of them are together in the afterlife.

It is weird how the old Mikado looks so villainous but is then never dealt with. I get the feeling that prince Takaihito was not on good terms with the Mikado and that the latter may have been a threat, in which case the Mikado would need to be sidelined or eliminated.

The message about how the female soldier Jinnouchi should not be discriminated against did not fit the realistic tone, and was poorly constructed. Every single woman in the series was treated realistically and physically vulnerable, including Jinnouchi. She only got scouted because she was one of the rare few born with mild magic powers. It would be unreasonable for muggle women to join the military and be treated the same as men.

Where does the Kudo family's wealth come from? Do they rent out land to farmers? Kiyoka retires from the military to be with Miyo but it doesn't seem like he has any other job lined up. Maybe he could take up woodworking but I doubt that would pay the for the land taxes and for the servant.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Sakura Wars: Ouka Kenran

The aesthetics are ofcourse great. From the cel painted color palette to the backgrounds and the designs. I really liked how the streets of Ginza look in this rendition, alive with people and cars going everywhere, policemen walking the streets and dircting traffic in a time before stoplights, the contrast between people in traditional kimonos standing next to steampunk technology, and so on. The Kouma demons also look monstrous and threatening here.

The OVA series makes the world/community of Ginza feel friendly and inviting. The townsfolk are very helpful, and seem to know that there is a squad of mech pilots. They are warned to evacuate in preparation for the airship hangar opening up, and they are all excitedly looking forward to it, climbing onto roofs with their friends and children to watch the Soaring Whale take off. We also see the regular army being helpful, supporting the Flower Assault Troop from the back.




I like how in animation, a mech gets hit and then a geyser of steam erupts, which helps sell that the character has been "injured" beyond just visible gashes and plate crumples. It's like a flavorful version of a biomech "bleeding".

My complaint is that on a technical level, the OVA can feel a little too fast at times. It covers a period of several years, but at some points they are jumping years from one shot to the next without any break, so it's easy to miss and lose track.





Sakura Wars TV show

I am currently 6 episodes in. I could not find a subbed version of this show (I am used to the voices from the first two SW games and the prior OVA series), so I am watching the English dub. This show has a reputation for being very different in feel from the source material, being directed by the guy who would go on to make Serial Experiments Lain.

Quality aside, the characters just don't sound like themselves. Jenny Larson's Sakura actually sounds pretty decent and is sympathetic. Commander Yoneda's English voice along with the direction of the show recharacterizes him from being a very helpful mentor and commander who takes care of the group and was always there for his people, into being more a distant and self-interested higherup. Maybe it's the combination of the show Yoneda turning his back to Sakura and Ogami when they come to him asking for help and the dismissive voice acting. I did particularly like how Ogami is voiced in English along with how the director depicts him. The gags at his expense that were in the game and in the first OVA series are gone, and he sounds much more serious and authoritative.

Iris' characterization is also changed. In the original games, she is a bubbly young girl who likes everyone, and is a little snarky at times. But here she is extremely quiet, doesn't seem to talk to anyone, does not make jokes or comments, and declares that she hates Sakura. For some reason she feels older. It's strange.

Next there is the change in the aesthetic of the streets of Ginza and the technology. Unlike the game and the prior OVA, the streets of Ginza seem to be deserted. This may be either a budget issue and/or a directorial choice to make the world feel more lonely and vulnerable when you have small characters running out of cover into into large open spaces alone. The lower class sections of Ginza look a lot less appealing. Also, the army is using what appears to be latter mid 20th century electric equipment with power amplifiers and power stations and bright computer screens, and they are able to get live camera feeds. Instead of being driven out on army tracks to practice in an empty plain, instead the characters sit while wearing VR/splinter cell headsets to do computer simulations. The game had computer screens too but they were much more primitive, being mostly black with green laser lines, and used sparingly. And the prior OVA had no screens at all. Yoneda had to read messages printed in morse code from a telegram. So overall the TV show feels more like a cold war era anime like Gasaraki, and not as unique.


Ouka Kenran examples


Ryuutarou Nakamura's TV series


The world/community of the TV show feels atomized and hostile. None of the townsfolk are even aware of the mech unit and panic when the Hexmechs show up. The regular military does not work with the Assault Troop, and there seems to be a competition over who gets to handle each engagement.

One thing I do like about the TV show is that we get to see the regular committee meetings between Yoneda and the sponsors of the Flower Division, as he tries to justify what he is doing with their money and shows off his work and makes future promises. It does help make Yoneda feel more like he is just as important as Ogami is. If Yoneda doesn't do his thing then the whole project gets axed. However, once again there is a difference in characterization. In the games we know of three supporters of the Flower Division: Sumire's grandfather who is the patriarch of Kanzaki Heavy Industries and builds the mechs, Count Hanakouji who gives money, and then later Navy Minister Yamaguuchi. Those three were helpful and completely supportive of the heroes and very friendly. Whereas here, only Count Hanakouji seems to believe in the program, Kanazaki and Yamaguuchi are absent, and everyone else seems to be a much more distant investor. It seems that Yoneda and Hanakouji are always trying to keep them from pulling out.




It is strange how both the prior OVA and especially this TV show single out Maria and make her out to be hostile towards Sakura, almost an antagonist. Maria in the original game started out a little distant, and throughout both games could be pointed towards people, but she was always a real friend who was just looking out for everyone and never antagonistic. But in the OVA she tries to leave Sakura behind while Maria and her clique march off to fight the Koubu alone (as opposed to bringing their new teammate along and trying to introduce her to mech combat), and in this TV show Maria drives Sakura out of the Troop. Worse, she then makes a shocking accusation that Sakura was an out of towner who was visiting the "slums" to have a tryst. I don't know if this was an English dub thing that did not exist in the original, but I could never imagine a game or OVA character making such an awful and careless remark (both accusing someone of adultery, and writing off their next door neighbors as people unworthy to fight to protect).




It is a little disconcerting to see that Yoneda barking order to 30 young ladies in uniforms lined up chanting their spirit magic on a Hexmech part, almost as if they are not individual people but instead replaceable cogs in a machine/fodder. It goes against the feel of the franchise IMO. The other girl supporters of the Flower Division in the games were never treated like that.




It is jarring that we get a couple episodes of Sakura struggling to learn the controls to the Koubu. And then Ogami steps into the prototype Koubu seat and pilots it masterfully down tight corridors and use the robot arm to deftly turn a wheel, all on his first try without having ever practiced before.

It is sad that the distinctive designs of the Hexmechs have been replaced by these more forgettable Evangelion looking things. The Hexmechs in this show having internal organs is interesting. Are they flesh and blood Kouma demons stashed into a suit of armor?

I liked that we got to see Kayama and the Moon Division detectives that were introduced in SW2 reinserted into this adaptation of SW1. It helps make the world feel larger, and also adds tension seeing the detectives coming into close proximity with the demons without any mech armor to protect them.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished the first Sakura Wars TV show. It was overall good. The visuals are ofcourse excellent, but I was disappointed by the change to the designs of the enemy Hexmechs. I liked the subdued tone. It is strange that the heroes seemed to kill just as many Wakiji on foot as in a mech with no casualties, defeating the point of why the humans transitioned into using big suits of armor in the first place. It is also odd that, there is a flashback to Reni and Orihime training in the predecessor Star division... five years ago, but Reni and Orihime look exactly the same back then as they do today. I was caught offguard by Yoneda's death, the heroes having to flee and blow up the theater, and then the amusement park being burned down, and then entire districts of the capital being razed, which made the cartoony final confrontation jarring.




I do not like what the anime did with Yoneda. It made him into a bad leader and makes you question how he got promoted to general. Despite Ogami's clear success in destroying all Hexmechs that appear without any casualties, and doing as well as possible against villains who can teleport away or become intangible, Yoneda demands that Ogami come up with a formation with no further instructions. Ogami comes up with ideas and then Yoneda rips them up in front of Ogami wordlessly. Ogam is a fresh navy ensign, not an experienced land specialist like Yoneda. Yoneda for some reason doesn't guide Ogami and just keeps demoralizing and berating him, leading to Ogami pushing on his pilots groping for some sort of results.

And then when Yoneda finally says what he wants (Sakura channeling her spirit energy into the other Koubus... why Sakura? Iris has far and away the most spirit energy, and is not proficient in melee combat. She should be at the center of the formation with Sakura at the front), he continues to give Ogami the cold shoulder. Never satisfied. He also rebuffs Ogami when he asks about that suspicious demon leader when Yoneda knows that Satan is Yamazaki, who designed the mechs that Ogami's people are piloting. This is a massive vulnerability! Ogami should know about this! But no, once again just rebukes. Yoneda seemed to have acted the same way towards Yamazaki in the flashbacks, giving his ideas the cold shoulder. TV Yoneda just seems like a terrible leader.

[Yunru]

Yandere elf EP 9 ---- Hah, they added Nanachi from made in abyss cosplayer in background --- those animators are true degenerates

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished watching the Sakura Wars franchise anime.




Sakura Wars: Goka Kenran

As usual, the aesthetics are stellar. We are back to the world depicted in Ouka Kenran where you have steampunk technology integrated into the streets of Ginza, and the locals know about and cheer for the mech squad.

However, there is some headscratching messaging at the end.

Spoiler: 

Oddly, the first episode has an American mafian purchase a remote controlled mech that was deployed in Europe during WW1. This seems to violate the premise of Sakura Wars, which is that Japan had just invented mechs, and they only work because they are powered by spirit energy. Presumably the Hexmechs used by demons also only work because of spirit energy too. And then the Kohran episode had a muggle buy a commercial construction mech from Kanzaki Heavy Industries. So just anyone can pilot a mech now? Why does the military need to track down young civilian girls? They can just hand mechs to their muggle men soldiers.




The episode about Kohran dressing up as Red was pretty fun.




The two part finale episode muses about the life and destiny of women to become wives and mothers, and comes to some wonky conclusions. Yoneda and Sakura's mother are anxious that Sakura is grown up now, and that these are the last days they might be spending with her, as she will soon get married and leave. We also get new lore from Yoneda about how a person's spirit power declines as they get older, so to Yoneda it makes more sense for Sakura to get married and to have children while she can rather than to grow old and useless. But then at the end, Sakura declares that the Flower Troupe is her family and is where she wants to be. Once again we have Japanese popcult fiction that tries to ignore reality while proclaiming power of friendship in-the-moment sentimentality.




It had just occurred to me that - except for Sumire and Orihime - the father of every single mech pilot heroine in the Flower Troupe is either dead (Sakura, Maria, Kanna, Kohran, possibly Reni) or absent/doesn't care (Iris, possibly Reni). So Yoneda is effectively being a stand-in father for these girls, though sadly for all of them except for Reni and Iris he got them way too late to change their behaviours.

This new tidbit of lore seems to contradict the backstory, in which Yoneda (who appears to be at least 60 years old) was fighting with the Anti-Kouma Corps of spirit warriors as recently as five years ago in 1918.

Kayama appears to be stationed in Sendai, an hours long train ride away from the capital? He is possibly a base commander there? Strange for the Moon Division aka the spies to be located so far away from the headquarters when the demons are almost exclusively attacking in the capital. The only explanation I can think of is that for his valiant defense of the theater during chapter 10 of SW2 - and perhaps due to a lot of army officers being discharged following minister Kyogoku's attempted coup - Kayama got promoted and reassigned from being a Moon Division operative to being a commanding officer of a backup base outside of the capital. And then by the time of SW5 he is some sort of international liason for the anti-demon project.

Are Kayama and Kaede becoming a thing?




Since Orihime's father Mr. Ogata is fluent in Italian and has been to Italy before, his Italian wife has finally been allowed to visit him in Japan, and Mr. Ogata is in on the secret about the mech unit, maybe he could be recruited into the project and sent abroad to Italy as a liaison and to set up an troupe there too.

Kanna didn't get an episode.

The finale ending song was pretty great.




On to the movie!

Sakura Wars The Movie

Wow. The first flub in the franchise. It’s not an irredeemable movie, but it is hard to believe that the same people responsible for writing most of the franchise up until this point also made this.

Spoiler: 

Before talking about the story, I will touch on the aesthetics. The movie makes good first impressions with the atmospheric intro showing the lively and detailed streets of Ginza during the Christmas season at night. It has that “serious 90s anime movie” feel like Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 2, Jin Roh, etc. The lavishly detailed lobby of the theater, the cool shot of the masked villain, etc.

The biggest issue visually is the use of 3D CGI for the mechs, and for the flesh and blood Koumas. It just does not look good. They had the budget for these extremely detailed backgrounds. They could have afforded good looking 2D mech and creature animation. There are conceptually cool action scenes like when the heroes fight flying enemies while on tightropes, but the 3D CGI just butchers the execution and makes for a dull watch. Another issue with the 3D CGI mechs is that they hardly take any battle damage. The most we get is seeing a few dents in Ratchet's mech at the end, but we don't get anything like in the prior shows with 2D drawn mechs where you had arms and pauldrons being blown off, wires being ripped out, the chest cavity being torn open, etc, which helped sell the forces involved and the peril the heroes inside were in.





Now for the story. Sadly, the movie makes the typical franchise movie mistake of thinking it has to be some sort of painfully by then numbers end of the world action plot. If you have seen a Star Trek or a Pokemon movie or a Gundam AU movie then you know what to expect.

The biggest issue is that at about three points, the story leaps from one plot state to another without properly leading into it. Maria arbitrarily decides to break house arrest and break in and enter a Douglas Stewart warehouse. Now yes the girls would be displeased about losing their job to automatons, but at this point they have no reason to suspect DS is evil. At another point, the rest of the girls just arbitrarily decide to break their house arrest and steal their Koubus from the army. Etc. The movie does not do a good job stringing together the actions of the heroes.

The next biggest issue is the main villain, Brent Furlong. He does not make sense and is ineffective as a villain. He is an American CEO who in his very first scene declares that he wants to rule Japan. We then find out that he is trying to sell experimental autonomous drone mechs to the Japanese military as a replacement for manned Koubu mechs to battle against demons. The whole thing just sounds absurd. If he wants power, then it would be easier to try to grab control at home in America. It does not make sense for him to take Yoneda and Hanakoji hostage and/or to sic his drone army on the Theater, as this would immediately make the Japanese military come after him, and maybe the Americans too if he couldn't beat the Japanese and had to flee. So he just trashed his fabulous wealth and connections. He also spends almost all of his screentime staring out of a highrise window, and never converses with the main heroes. So he is disinteresting onscreen.




The committee that was supporting the Flower Troop program for the past three years seems to just turn on a dime and wants to disband and instead buy Brent Furlong's experimental autonomous weapons. What? First, these are experimental prototypes that have not been adopted by any other military, not even Furlong's home country of the USA, which is already in the process of reestablishing the Star Division (aka manned mech squad) in New York. None of these Japanese leaders ask the obvious question of "why hasn't Furlong sold these weapons to his own country first?".

Second, it is presumptuous to disband a proven, working Flower troop that has steadfastly defended your capital for the past three years (and also saved the committee from Army Minister Kyogoku's attempted coup) in favor of new, experimental, untested weapons built by a foreigner, especially when they are autonomous and could secretly be loyal to him instead of you.

Even if the committee likes the unmanned drone idea, you would think that they would commission Kanzaki Heavy Industries to produce them domestically, rather than send Japanese money to an overseas rival. In prior installments, the committee were sometimes antagonistic, but they were never stupid.




It is also strange that Navy Minister Yamaguuchi does not appear to be present, even though SW2 had him filling in as one of the Flower Troop's supporters after some left.




The most interesting thing about the movie is the new character of Ratchet, an American mech pilot who was the captain of the first ever Assault Troop, the Star Division, which got disbanded. She is reviving the Star Division in New York, but wants to enlist as a rank and file soldier in the successful Tokyo Flower Division to gain experience. However, Flower captain Ogami is absent, and Maria has not resumed her prior status as leader, so there is no interaction between captains. Also, Ratchet’s two former subordinates Orihime and Reni are here. Reni initially runs away from Ratchet, but we never get a followup on that. Yoneda early on insinuates that the original Star Division was actually disbanded due to Ratchet somehow, but again that is never followed up on. So we have teases that Ratchet may have done or has been accused of doing something, but we never get to see what it was.








At the end of the movie, during a play, Ratchet goes off script and starts having a breakdown and confesses to Sakura (and the rest of the Flower Troop) that she held bitterness in heart for being the first Assault Troop captain, but lost her squad, and lives in ignominy as Ogami later became the decorated and beloved captain (who again she doesn’t get to rub elbows with in this movie). So she looks at the Flower Division with resentment. She then admits that she was in league with Brent Furlong. The confession is interesting, but I am confused as to how she could have been a betrayer. At no point did she take hostile/subversive action towards the Flower Troop. I don’t think she ever communicates anything to Brent Furlough either, so she could not have leaked information. So the only thing to forgive is the hardness of her heart which had not visibly manifested as any wrong. (EDIT: she may have known that Brent was going to raze a portion of the city and kill hundreds of people in a false flag operation to promote his new drones). But if she really was working for Brent, then why? What would she have to gain from him replacing manned mech squads with autonomous ones? Was she just trying to spite those who surpassed her/stole her spot?








The Flower Troupe characters then say that they "forgive" Ratchet, when Ratchet has not wronged them. But if Ratchet was in league with Brent Furlong, then she may have been aware that he was going to raze part of the city and kill hundreds of people in a false flag operation to promote his new drones, in which case Ratchet might be a co-conspirator to mass murder, or at the least guilty by inaction since she did not warn the Japanese about the bombs. So Kayama and Ogami ought to arrest her anyway. And Ogami could not in good conscience allow Ratchet to leave for NYC to captain a new Star division now knowing that she willingly worked with demons and a wannabe dictator.






Ratchet gets treated poorly by this franchise. Spurned by her former subordinates in this movie, and her mech gets incapacitated right before the final battle so she can only stand and watch. Then in Sakura Wars 5 set in New York, she is only captain and playable in the prologue chapter, her mech gets beaten up again, then abdicates leadership of the new Star Division Troop to Shinjiro, and spends the rest of the game as an office lady. Her romance route requires a NG+ save. She doesn't appear on the box cover of SW5, and she rarely appears in art that shows all three troops together (Tokyo + Paris + New York), while every other pilot including - all three of the other original Star Division subordinates: Orihime, Reni, and Subaru - appear in those illustrations. She really did live in ignominy.



Miscellaneous

Reni's birthday has come around again after the first time in SW2, so four years must have passed since the start of SW1. And yet, Iris looks exactly the same as she did back then.

When Brent Furlong merges all of the Kouma into a huge, giant demon mech, why doesn't the navy battleship offshore (which had just blown up Furlong's warehouse of drones) blow up the stationary gigantic enemy robot?

Where does Ratchet sleep in the theater? By SW2, all of the rooms on the first and second floors are taken. Is she sleeping in the Rose Division's old room down in the basement?

Is the demon lieutenant Patrick from America like Brent? If so, then why does he look like the other Japanese demon villains in this franchise? Or is he a Japanese demon who went overseas, met Brent, took on an English name, and then returned with Brent back to Japan? How does Patrick know to draw a Japanese character/letter on a mech to disenchant it? Why would a powerful demon be working for a human? The demons - called Kouma - in this franchise are the vengeful spirits of the dead who envy want to spite the living. How does helping Brent take over a country fulfill the goals of the demons? Was Patrick planning on taking control of Brent's drone army (which have Kouma stuffed into them) and using them to cause as much destruction as possible? Why not do so as soon as Brent mass produced a whole warehouse of them?

Sumire OVA

Sumire's voice actress, Michie Tomizawa, had said that she wanted to spend more time with her family. Apparently this was interpreted as her wanting to retire from stage and voice acting. Sakura Wars was a huge franchise in Japan at the time, so an OVA was created to retire her character Sumire. She wound up returning to the stage a few years anyway, and reprises Sumire in the 2020 anime.

Surprisingly, Michie Tomizawa is a Christian, perhaps the only Japanese Christian entertainer I know of besides the Piccolo voice actor, Toshio Furukawa. (The Trigun/Kekkai Sensen author Yasuhiro Nightow is sometimes brought up, but apparently he once said that he does not follow any religion. ).

Spoiler: 

I find this OVA to be sad, not because of the Sumire story, but because it heralds the end of quality Sakura Wars animation and the beginning of the dark age of anime. The contrast between this anime and the prior two OVAs and even the TV show is a night and day quality drop. Not just in visuals but also in directing. This OVA has one funny gag with Kanna crying her eyes out and one memorable shot with Sumire and Ogami hugging over her badly composited 3D CGI Koubu, and that's all that is worth writing home about the OVA. The following OVAs are pretty mediocre, both visually and story wise.

The in-universe rationale for Sumire's retirement does not make much sense. So apparently Sumire's spirit energy drops during on battle, rendering her trapped inside an inoperable Koubu whilist surrounded by enemies. Frightening for sure. But then Sumire just decides that's it, she's getting "old" (60+ year old Yoneda was fighting Kouma on foot!), and her spirit powers are declining and she can't fight anymore. What? The spirit energy and how it correlates to mech use does not appear to be well understood, so perhaps it was just a fluke or some phenomena that they don't understand yet. The obvious thing to do is do more tests, maybe consult some wise masters, try to use magical relics or concotions, maybe adopt a training regimen, etc. But she just gives up, which feels out of character for Sumire given how eager she was to pilot the Koubu (produced by her family's company!) and be a great hero, and ofcourse to be with her friends.

Even if Sumire can't or doesn't want to be in the cockpit anymore, she could still be valuable to the Troupe. She could train new pilots. She could still act as a liason between the Flower Division and Kanzaki Heavy Industries. She could still act on stage and help out back at the theater while everyone else deploys, maybe help out in the command room manning a console. And she would still be with her friends, and her beloved Ogami. It just seems very out of character for her to want to leave the theater entirely and go be an office lady for Kanzaki.

Sakura Wars: School of Paris

The mediocre art continues. I tried to cherry pick the few decent shots, but the moment-to-moment show looks unappealing. The worst part is the sterile and poorly composited 3D CGI mech fight which looks like some embarassing direct-to-video Western cartoon that you would see stores sell to moms. The 3D CGI also means you get a lengthy exchange of blows but nobody gets their cockpit caved in, their sword warped by the tremendous stress forces, pauldrons being blown off, etc. It's like watching two action figures be bumped into each other. The setting of Paris in this OVA looks slummy and unattractive compared to Tokyo in the prior series.

Spoiler: 

As of this time, Sakura Wars 3 has not yet received a fan translation patch. There is a translation on Gamefaqs, but I don't want to be darting my eyes back and forth between two windows to play a 30+ hour long VN/SRPG. So I am unacquainted with these characters. My impression is that like SW5's cast, they are too cartoony rather than feeling like real fleshed out people like most of the Tokyo cast. Erica is super ditzy and clueless, Glycine talks about how the nobility must protect the weak, Coquelicot is Rosita aka super zany girl running around everywhere and doing dumb stuff. Hanabi seems well adjusted by gets barely 30 seconds of screentime. So the only sane people around seem to be Ogami, Lobelia, and the two theater overseers of Grand-Mere and Sakomizu. I would prefer my mech units to feel more professional.

Lobelia appears to be the third character in the franchise after Iris and Kyogoku who is so unusually powerful that she can channel her spirit energy at range, rather than just through whatever melee weapon or mech she is touching.

The black cat statues with the amber colored stained glass and the art noveua black metalwork is pretty neat. The purple hue of the auditorium gives it a fantasy feel.

Is Glycine's noble family from France? How then did they survive the French Revolution? Even if they fled and had villas outside of France, their mansion in France would have been confiscated, no?

It is absurd that the anime tries to make Lobelia out to be some sort of revered "holy" whore who invites random men off the street to her room to stay there overnight, but she hasn't had sex with any of them.

Example of the aforementioned shoddy 3D CGI mech fight.

Sakura Wars: New York (2007)

A sequel to the Sakura Wars V game. Supposedly the story was actually supposed to be in the game itself, but was cut due to development constraints.

Spoiler: 

The aesthetics continue to be mediocre. New York is drawn as colorless grey blocks, not a romantic location you want to be in and fight for like Tokyo. This was also an issue in the SW5 game too but at least there was a little bit of charm in running around following up on townsfolk while good jazz music played. The 3D CGI mechs look like cheap toy commercials. And there is no interesting visual directing or storyboarding.

The story is odd. The immortal Tutankhamun is released from his tomb in 1922 and then wanders the world, eventually winding up in New York by 1928, where he wants to reestablish his kingdom and bring about world peace by removing emotions from everyone, so there can be no hate and envy that would lead to conflict between people. Meanwhile, Shinjiro's mom shows up and begins dressing her son in drag, and the girls start pressuring him to play Cleopatra in an upcoming play. The crossdressing Shinjiro (dressed as Ms. Peppermint, who you ran around sometimes in the game) bumps into Tutankhamun, who takes an interest in him because he reminds him of his dead wife. Shinjiro decides to play the role of Cleopatra for Tutankhamun.




The main plot is actually pretty intriguing and kept my attention. Tutankhamun is probably amongst the best Sakura Wars antagonists I have seen, feeling like a real person rather than some unfathomable cartoon demon. I did like how the OVA helped clarify/cement NYC's folklore identity in the Sakura Wars franchise. In SW5, it was a little confusing that you were defending New York from supernatural forces... and all of them were Japanese warlords (and we already had the Tokyo Flower Division games about fighting Japanese themed enemies), as opposed to fighting local American myths or legends or historical figures like the Loch Ness monster, Sasquatch, Thunderbird, the ghost of Benedict Arnold, etc. This OVA goes with the idea that America has used its immense wealth and strength to pilfer treasures and magical relics from around the world and host them in museums. That makes NYC pretty a high danger zone if there are so many magical relics concentrated here, and the creators can use whatever cultural theme or designs or lore they want without having to leave the old cast behind and create a new assault division and town in some other location.




(Oda Nobunaga, the villain of Sakura Wars V)


There were some comedic gags that landed. However, I found that the non-Tutankhamun story stuff to be an overall drag. There are also strange overtones with how Shinjiro is treated, not really with his interactions with Tutankhamun but with how the other Star Division girls treat him. Gemini, Diane, Cherion, and Subaru are constantly treating him as if he is a young lady. It was funny the first one or two times it happened in SW5 but here it is nonstop and just becomes weird.

This also ties into my issue with the Sakura Wars V game, which is that the NYC Star Division cast is overall not very likeable or believable like the Tokyo Flower Division. The Flower Division was grounded right off the bat with three older people in Maria, Kanna, and Sumire. Sakura had her act together. Iris was the only particularly young feeling character and didn't act too outlandishly. The only zany, cartoony character was Kohran. And then SW2 added two more grounded characters with Reni and Orihime, the latter was lively but never felt like a cartoon caricature. And then you also had Commander Yoneda and vice-commander Ayame/Kaede. The group overall felt competent and believable as a mech squad.

Meanwhile, the NYC Star Division's cast feels like it is mostly made up of cartoon caricatures, and not real people (Diane the ditzy fujoshi fangirl, Gemini who is ditzy and incompetent, Cherion who gets uppity a lot, Subaru acts competent but does not look the part), let alone competent people who would be given expensive equipment by a committee and then fly out and successfully destroy the enemy. Mr. Sunnyside can be mature at times, but usually came off as just a funny guy. The competent vice-commander Ratchet got immediately shipped off to Berlin at the start of this OVA. And the support office lady girls are also much less professional than the three Flower Division support crew. So as a mecha anime, the cast are not very enjoyable to watch.



It was very disappointing that Ratchet was sent away at the very beginning of the OVA, never to be seen again. So that's the totality of the character, huh. Very unfortunate.


Shinjiro being turned on seeing a woman breastfeed her child. Hrm maybe you should take mom's advice and marry one of those girls enamored with you, Shinjiro!

Shin Sakura Wars (2020)

Wow. I went in expecting this to be maybe forgettable given that nobody talks about this show, not even /m/, but I didn't expect it to be actually bad on multiple levels. Not just aesthetics. I don’t mean to sound like a pedantic nitpicker like CinemaSins or Mr. Plinkett, but this isn’t minor stuff. This show is so incongruent with Sakura Wars, that the name slapped on here feels like false advertising. And the actual technical execution of the writing is awful! It's like whoever wrote this didn't give a hoot and just threw slop at the wall and clocked out to collect his paycheck. I don't claim Sakura Wars was ever a super ultra realistic mecha series, the original batch of stories did try to take things seriously. Those shows requiring a little bit of suspension of disbelief is not a license to churn out nonsense. I want my time back.

Spoiler: 

This show is an anime TV show sequel to the 2019 Shin Sakura Wars game. The game was originally announced to have a PC steam port releasing later on, but that never happened so the game remains a PS4 exclusive. This show was animated by Studio Sanzigen, which did the prerendered 3D CGI anime cutscenes for the game and Fire Emblem Three Houses. Hidenori Matsubara is no longer drawing the final character arts (from this tweet, it sounds like the devs came up with different character designs in house and then asked him to illustrate the final one, like with Enami Katsumi for some Trails games). The character designs are by several different manga and JRPG artists (Tite Kubo of Bleach, BUNBUN of Sword Art Online LN covers, Yukiko Horiguchi of K-ON, a Persona artist, etc).

We are back to having a romantic setting with Tokyo. It is bright and sunny, there are majestic and colorful buildings, well dressed people walking around, and now a lot of gilding. The interior of the theater now has some visually interesting steam pipes here and there. However, it is still fundamentally a modern anime with the usual issue of sterile looking backgrounds (lots of blocky copypasted houses in the background), and the weird compositing that makes it feel like you are looking through a milky filter. Comparing the interior shots of the theater with the old anime illustrates a night and day difference, as in this show a vast dark interior space inexplicably looks like it is being illuminated by the sun. Overexposure.

I rummaged through my screenshots folder to make some quick comparisons. I know that these are not 1-to-1 but I hope this illustrates my point about the technical decline in artistic quality, since some numbskulls deny that modern anime looks worse.


The theater auditorium. 2020 anime vs Ouka Kenran vs the 2000 anime series.


Theater at night. Top: 2020 anime vs Ouka Kenran. Bottom: 2000 anime series, movie, and Goka Kenran.


The amusement park of Hanayashiki. 2020 anime vs Ouka Kenran vs 2000 series.


Tokyo's tallest tower at the time, Ryounkaku. 2020 anime vs Ouka Kenran.



Senso-ji temple in Asakusa. Above is 2020 anime vs Ouka Kenran. Below is movie vs Goka Kenran



A couple examples of poor city backgrounds.


Then we have the 3D CGI models of the characters and the mechs. 3D CGI in anime is almost always unattractive and this show is no exception, but at least this is one of the least worst instances of it. Compare the 3D CGI characters of Ajin, Sidonia, Blame, etc, which look even worse. The 3D CGI mechs in this show are probably the best implementation of them in the franchise yet, but don’t look as good as the prerenders in the games like SW2, and ofcourse 2D animated mechs.

There is little visually interesting directing/storyboarding.

I like the design of the Mugen mechs, and Kaminsky's huge airship, which looks like a knockoff of the airship from the second Pokemon movie.



Story

In the backstory of the 2019 Shin Sakura Wars game, there was apparently a humongous world wide demon invasion, and all of the old characters went MIA while fighting. Sumire is the only OG character left, now acting as the commander of the Tokyo Flower Division. So the pilots here are all new. The squad captain is now a tall young man named Kamiyama, who brings home a young girl from Russia named Clara, immediately causing consternation amongst his squad.




After a dull exposition dump, we find out that Clara is a member of the Moscow Combat Revue, who were apparently blown up a few days ago. Said Moscow Revue then almost immediately show up over Tokyo in their humongous flying castle airship/battleship to take Clara back. Captain Kamiyama apparently left right after dropping Clara off to go to Europe, so his girl squadmates refuse to release Clara.

Once again, we have another lackluster, juvenile feeling main cast. Azami in particular feels the most cartoony, as she wears a ninja-maid outfit and constantly talks about ninja village laws. The rest of the squad isn't as offensive but are utterly disinteresting. Hatsuho seems like a diluted rehash of Kanna from the original Tokyo Flower Division. Anastasia has an unrealistic grey hair color. I do like that we finally got an engineer character.

Now on a moment to moment basis, the show is sufficiently enjoyable up until around episode 6. However, the wonkiness of the story begins to mount.

If the Moscow Revue were thought to have been wiped out overnight, then every other Revue in the world should be on red alert fearing that they might be the next to go, maybe even dispersing to try to mitigate another decapitation strike. Kamiyama and Sumire are not fearful for their people at all.

Next, a humongous airship flies over Japan and into the capital unannounced. People then descend from the airship saying that they are the Moscow Revue. This is insane. An airship of that size could easily bomb districts or snipe key installations, and would have incited the home islands defense force before they arrived over the theater. The Moscow Revue would either need to have suddenly shown up in a much smaller airship, or on civilian transports.




The new Flower Divisions girls accept Kaminsky's claim at face value that he is the captain of the Moscow Revue and that they survived (having a huge battleship is a proof so this can be forgiven, but we will get to that later). But if the girls believe that these people are the Moscow Revue, then their adamantly refusal to hand the Russian girl over to her people does not make sense. Kamiyama did not tell the girls not to keep Clara a secret no matter what, or to distrust the Moscow Revue, or to beware imposters, or anything. He just brought her because apparently her team died. And the Flower Division has not even known Clara for a day. There is no reason to start getting uppity and bodyblocking Clara’s people when they reach for her. Now we seasoned watchers know that the Moscow Revue are the antagonists, and then later on it gets revealed that they are imposters and the actual Moscow Revue are indeed all dead. But like with Maria inexplicably deciding to break into the Douglas Stewart warehouse in the movie, the characters in that world at this time do not know that, so this is a nonsensical leap in logic.

(As an aside, the original Flower Division games and anime depicted the Flower Division having to act as a more realistic military organization, being beholden to a committee that makes mandates, finding sponsors, and having to work with the Japanese military, etc. Yoneda gets questioned for adding new pilots and when Reni gets injured, so the committee seems to be very involved and keeping track of what is going on. But here, a huge battleship shows up over Tokyo demanding their little girl Clara back, Sumire says no, the airship just sits there for days, and no Japanese higher ups come knocking on Sumire’s door asking what is up with this girl and why she is so important. We don't see any committee discussing how to get rid of the airship hanging overhead).

Kaminsky should have been outted as an imposter within a couple hours of telling Sumire that he is the captain of the Moscow Revue. The Japanese authorities are going to be worried about that airship floating overhead, and Sumire would be the first to give them a name. All it would take is for Japan calling up Russia about their airship flying overhead, or for someone from the Russian embassy in Japan asking about the airship only to be told that it is theirs, and then the game is up. The Russians say that they never built that airship and whoever is on it is an imposter. Several days later, people around the globe watch a livestreamed duel between the Tokyo and the "Moscow" Revues and their mechs. There would have to be many Russians seeing this (and other mech pilots who had met the Moscow Revue), and they would see on TV that Kaminsky and Clerya claiming to be the leaders of the Moscow Revue are most definitely not. The Russian government would be immediately tipped off about these imposters and be contacting Japan.





The first half of the anime is an average, forgettable 5/10 affair. Not bad. There is a couple funny gags, but there is little worth writing home about here, and your time would be better spent watching a better show or reading a good book.




The second half starting at episode 7 is when the story starts becoming bad. The story is so painfully by the numbers you can predict the exact plot beats that will happen and the speeches each character will give. Litigating every example would be a waste of my time, so I will just touch on the big stuff as how this relates to being a part of the Sakura Wars franchise.

It is revealed that the little Russian girl Clara is actually a half human half demon hybrid artificially created by a scientist, in the hopes of “being the bridge to reconcile human and demon kind”. And then the sword lady Hakushu reveals that half of the “kids” at her orphanage are actually demons, but oh look how everyone gets along and how promising this is for the future! This is a total jumping the shark moment. It feels like one of those Hollywood movie adaptations or remakes where you have new writers come in with no prior understanding or love of the franchise and just trample over what came before to implement their own vision.






The entire premise of Sakura Wars is that evil, malevolent otherworldly beings called demons are savaging mankind. The lore we got is that demons are either the ghosts of people in the past who died discontented or manifestations of their negative emotions, similar to the monsters in FF10’s world. They are hostile abominations. They are not another “race” or nationality of people like elves or dwarves or klingons. Now in SW2 we did have a fun, somewhat human feeling demon villain with Kongou, but at the end of the day he’s erupting in the middle of a town square siccing hexmechs on trams and stalls trying to cause as much death and destruction as possible. ”Peace” or “reconciliation” or whatever such notions were never an option In SW1, 2, and 5, or all of the other anime prior this. Tutankhamun was a living human who never truly died and came back as a demon like Oda Nobunaga, so he doesn’t count.

Kaminsky uses his airship’s laser cannon to nuke a mountain near Tokyo as a show of force, and then declares every nation in the world has 24 hours to disband their militaries or he will start blowing up cities. Outlandishly, we hear many of the European countries are considering surrender. Utterly preposterous. Maybe Japan would surrender because Kaminsky is hovering over Tokyo, but his airship is very slow. The other nations still have time to try to get him. They have fast flying battleships. They could form a coalition fleet and assail Kaminsky’s slow airship from multiple directions and blow him out of the sky before he got out of Japan. He can’t laser them all down before they get him. The NYC Revue also has a rocket that can reach orbit, evading the firing angle and tracking speed of the cannon. (EDIT: in the final episode, a coalition of airships do show up to blow up Kaminsky, but again this should have been the first thing the nations were doing).





Miscellaneous

The intro scene in which Kamiyama in his Mugen accosts a Russian train in the middle of the wilderness far from civilization is a first for the franchise. How much fuel can the Spirit Armors carry? Previously, Spirit Armors only ever deployed within a city by a special train or an airship, or were airdropped by an airship at the beach vacation inn in SW2. My impression was that they could not travel afar or last long without support. So was Kamiyama flying his mech around in Russia on some sort of airship?




In episode 1, a large army of flesh & blood Kouma demons begin invading Tokyo. I don't think there has been a demon force this large since the final act of SW2 when Army Minister Kyogoku unleashed an army he had been building up in secret, or the final chapter of SW5. In both cases, the enemy were too numerous and the division opted to move past them and try to decapitate the enemy leader. Where did these demons come from? And why are the demons sending easily chopped up flesh & blood demons again instead of more durable Hexmechs like they used to? Anyway, despite these being fleshy demons, there are so many of them that this onslaught should be causing the Flower Division to panic as they would be quickly overrun. Five Wakiji erupting in town and wrecking neighborhoods was a big deal that required all hands on deck in the TV show, but here this invasion is treated as if it was whatever and is done in 2 minutes with zero casualties or visible damage to the town.




It is also odd that in third episode, the same type of huge demon that Kazuma had to use the Pandaemonium Regalia and sacrifice his life to defeat in the backstory of SW1 appears, but is just episodic fodder easily dispatched and forgotten about.

It is odd that the Moscow Revue have what appears to be brightly lit, floating holographic screens. They look like they are from a futuristic sci fi anime like Aldnoah Zero, rather than the early 20th century/steampunk setting of Sakura Wars. There are other oddities here like the aforementioned global livestreaming, Kamiyama making video conference calls to Sumire's command room on a big screen (previously messages could only be heard over the radio, or had to be delivered by a letter, or meeting people in person), Kamiyama having a smartphone, the sirens in town now being replaced by LED screens, etc. It erodes a lot of Sakura Wars' unique identity.




Bottom: comparison of Ginza District demon warning sirens. 2020 anime vs Ouka Kenran vs 2000 anime series.


Kaminsky somehow lands his humongous flying castle airship in Tokyo’s bay and submerges it underwater without anyone noticing, even though Tokyo has millions of people in it and there would be many townsfolk, fishermen, dock workers, military guards, etc looking in the direction of that huge airship at any given time, even at night. Did none of the IJN ships sitting offshore have no one on watch? Also, in Sakura Wars 2 we find out that the Tokyo theater has a special radar that can detect spirit energy, not just demons but anything giving off spirit energy like the Pandaemonium Regalia. The Japanese would absolutely be able to detect a huge amount of spirit energy coming from Tokyo's bay, and if there is nothing that can be seen on it and no patrol boats bump into something cloaked on the surface, then the only explanation can be that it is coming from something at the bottom of the bay.




Kaminsky somehow built the world’s largest and most technologically advanced airship in the middle of nowhere and in complete secrecy.




Kaminsky has somehow managed to invent fully autonomous sci fi robots, a first for the series. In Goka Kenran, the WW1 mech was not autonomous but manually controlled from a distance over the radio. In the movie, Brent Furlong was stuffing Kouma demons into robot suits, so they are not real robots either but actually fancy suits of armor. The Hexmechs created by the demons are either demons stuffed into suits of armor, or suits of armor animated by magic.

Another issue is that you have the swordsman lady Hakushu singlehandedly fighting many large demons on foot and even outperforming the Spirit Armor mechs. Again, the premise of the franchise is that fighting on foot led to too many casualties, so the mechs were invented, which in turn led to the demons deploying mechs of their own to keep up with the escalation. The Anti-Kouma Corps was ravaged fighting against one single large demon, and taking out a Wakiji hexmech on foot should be a herculean feat. Hakushu is simply too powerful for this franchise. She either should have been given a mech too, her she should be running around trying to find and stab Kaminsky while everyone holds off his forces.




There are other issues, but I can't be bothered to pick them out anymore.

TL;DR I recommend watching the first four Sakura Wars animes: Ouka Kenran, the 2000 TV series, Goka Kenran, and the movie. They have good aesthetics and stories. You will have a great time. Play the games first, ofcourse. Ignore everything after the movie unless you played the fifth game and wanted to see what the cut storyline was.


I checked out the first couple episodes of MHA Vigilantes and Apothecary Diaries. I dropped both. They were both aesthetically mediocre and boring to watch. The main character in Vigilantes is a pathetic pansy and the heroine is detestable. The main heroine in Apothecary Diaries is dull to watch, feels like a man, and makes some crass jokes.

[Pendulous]

About time for Spring to end, so a wrap up it is:

Best new show of the season - Food For The Soul - This season saw a return of the slice of life genre that has been unusually absent lately. Food For The Soul is the most complete one that also doesn't stray from its purpose. Some of the best music, easily the best cast. Fitting, PA Works knows how to make original series (see Aquatope, Sakura Quest, Shirobako).

Biggest disappointment - Mono - I expected so much from the author of Yuru Camp. This just felt like some glorified spinoff series, given how much the cast appears, and the setting is also in Yamanashi. The high schoolers have zero personality and are never even the focus of the anime. Instead, it shifts immediately to the weird manga author, who the girls follow as she takes random trips for "inspiration". This was supposed to be about photography? But it's clearly not. Aesthetically, it's not even in the same universe as Yuru Camp. Music and visuals are completely forgettable. Speaking of trips:

ZatsuTabi - What a yawnfest. A whole lot of dialogue is a travel brochure and history lesson. At least I didn't have expectations for this one.

Second biggest disappointment - Witch Watch - It's not a bad show, but it was hyped up before the season and I fell into it. A solid cast, but it's just kind of repetitive and rarely actually funny. I don't mind a "nothing happens" or "romance that goes nowhere", but it needs to give something in the meantime.

Once Upon a Witch's Death - Another show that kind of loses the plot, but in this case, it's not really a problem. The year deadline seems to just be a setting more than a plot device. I really like Meg the gremlin. And through her, the show doesn't get as melodramatic as you'd expect. There's still emotional arcs, but it doesn't seem forced.

Aharen-san season 2 - One-note characters that got old in season 1, doing nothing different. Shows like this are often carried by the ensemble cast, usually a friend group surrounding the main couple. Something like Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie. Unlike Shikimori though, the rest of the cast is completely forgettable.

Apothecary Diaries season 2 - Feel like this keeps getting delayed. In any case, to me the show's strength is telling a story through mini-events. No more than two episode arcs that all build into this world. This really long arc that has been going on just doesn't fit.

Anne Shirley - Speedrunners taking notes on how to make something so abridged it makes zero sense.

The ecchi trifecta - Yandere Elf was the only one that held my interest. I know these are just supposed to be gooning bait, but like, I want actual characters too to be entertained. This one at least tries and makes a fun little cast for a short series. Also, if these are for the horny, Makina-san can't even do that. Early on we see her body, naked and damaged. After that, it's really hard to see her as human, and all I can see is like half a boob.

Rock Is a Lady's Modesty - How did the princely girl turn out to be the girliest and also the best character? Maybe the other three are just too toxic for my taste.

Biggest surprise - The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl - Yeah I might be the only one. It's effectively a shoujo romance where the main love interest is the worst choice (seriously girl, the dog guy is right there). But I like the twist that goes into it. And a girl who doesn't really want the power she has, waffling on when to use it and if it's worth it.

Summer time:

Sequels - Dandadan, Dr. Stone, Dress-Up Darling, Shield Hero, 7th Prince, A Couple of Cuckoos. Though that last one is gonna be rough. I get it confused a lot with "More Than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers", so I'll probably be confused watching it.

More slice of life - Bad Girl, City the Animation (though I couldn't get into Nichijou, I have no expectations for this one), See You Tomorrow At the Food Court, Turkey, Solo Camping for Two, Ruri Rocks, Cultural Exchange With a Game Centre Girl (the only one confirmed for a dub, I hope Sally Amaki, who plays the British girl, does it in both languages again)

That just leaves Secrets of the Silent Witch, and Busu ni Hanataba wo, a more traditional romance.

Oh, I'm almost done with Blue Box, and it's lived up to the hype. It's a character romcom first, sports show second, but that's ok. My only complaint is that I'd like to see more of the other sports. Each of our main three characters plays a different one, but the focus is always on badminton. I don't think I've seen a single moment of gymnastics, and basketball has been a bit of an afterthought. I also hope we get a bit more about Kyou. Kinda feel bad for him right now. He's always there coaching Taiki in his life, but we don't really anything about him.

[Yunru]

I guess i will do the same:
Yandere Dark Elf: She Chased Me All the Way From Another World! 5/10 ... its fine, but fells watching more slice of life, than yandere trying to murder the competition
Go! Go! Loser Ranger! 2nd season 8/10 -- there is a bit of weird time skipping, but it gets fixed later. The show its very...wtf just happened.
Sword of the Demon Hunter 9/10 -- storywise pretty good ...i would say its better than demon slayer in some areas
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 9/10 --- original academi dragged on and on, but this version is much better
Current one piece 7/10 -- well we finaly got kuma backstory
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX 3/10 -- some timetravel magic non-sense....still better than a bitch from mercury tho
Teogonia 10/10 -- very good worldbuilding and there is a bit of isekai, but very little. Eat or be eaten type of show.
The Apothecary Diaries 2nd Season 8/10 --- i guess the story is now in finishing state and a lot of short backstory are now connected to main story
Pokemon Horizons: The Series 5/10 --- i guess villans are at least capeable for once
I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 8/10 --- pretty decent comedy
Once Upon a Witch's Death 9/10 --- i guess MC kinda carrys the show
The Beginning After the End 7/10 --- a bit different type of isekai, but its decent. Kinda ends when story probaly starts to get good tho.
The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows 6/10 -- its not a revenge type of healer anime type for once
I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My lvl season 2 4/10 -- eh its fine
From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone 7/10 -- its something different for once in fantasy anime (mc is not as op as the parry guy tho)
The Unaware Atelier Meister 5/10 --- pretty much HE DID WHAT type of commedy

Also it seems like Aldnoah.Zero: Ame no Danshou - The Penultimate Truth kinda finishes the season 2 story with OVA version.