Anime Thigh Thread II

[Yunru]

Onimaii - Potentially problematic. A couple laughs, but questionable decisions, making him as young as he is, and the idea of the "magic" switching his sexuality. Otherwise it could be wholesome.

Reincarnated Princess - Good start, isekai yuri hype. Chisato from Lycoris got sent to another world it seems.

Tomo-chan - Tomo's friend the standout character. Good start, but I have a bad feeling it will be repetitive.

Well Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement is pretty decent. Also has a original start for isakai and its not *forced to be there* or *died* to enter another world.

[bals]

ano-sama's new va doesn't give him the same flair. also felt like there was way too much going on in the first ep

also haven't realized that i've only posted like twice in the past two years

[Pejo]

Only done a couple so far.

Farming life in another world: was alright and a bit curious where it will go. I’ll give it three episodes but most likely will drop.

Nagatoro: more of the same old degenerate shit. Will see if it can change anything up

[Yunru]

The Fruit of Evolution season 2 realy loves to overuse Jojo references (not that i mind).

[paxen]

*dips toes into thread waters*

I can't get Bocchi out of my head. Exquisite mix of good music, fun characters, a painful but wholesome depiction of social anxiety.

They did some ridiculousness with the music scenes, like recording multiple versions of songs to show the varying performance of the band, and filming all the concert scenes with actors, scanning that into 3D models then rotoscoping on top. And also they managed to blend the 2D characters so well with the near-realistic background style that you hardly notice that it's two completely different styles.

[Pejo]

Bocchi was pretty good, and delivered on all sides, definitely an upgrade on the standard slice of life. I’ve learned that I clearly don’t have the social anxiety others do because people were relating very hard to this show. Definitely an 8-9 show for me.

Looking back at last year, the one popular one I couldn’t get into but I should probably retry during this season since there isn’t much to watch is Ya Boy Kongming! I know nothing of history so don’t have any attachment there. I did like the OP and the animation was good. May work better for me as a binge

[Pendulous]

Watched Misfit of Demon King Academy season 1 to prepare for season 2, though I am willing to wait on English. It was better than I expected. I enjoy the dichotomy between Anos being this commanding demon lord but also being a great friend and kind of a mama's boy. Also picked up a lot more seasonal shows.

Bofuri S2 (2 episodes): Pretty consistent with season 1. Animation is still great. They seem to be speedrunning these level openings though.
The Magical Revolution of Yuri Isekai (5 episodes): I don't like Skooma-fueled Anis. Too serious and doesn't feel like herself.
Tomo-chan (5 episodes): Started off meh, but getting better. Misuzu is still the best character.
The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World (2 episodes): I like that he picked a commoner slave girl to be his companion. Could make for some interesting happenings.
The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World (2 episodes): Seems and probably is generic as hell.
The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague (2 episodes): Fuyutsuki is best girl of the season material. Like the workplace setting, and hopefully we'll see more yokai descendants. It's like Interviews with Monster Girls for adults.
The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten (4 episodes): Boy that title is misleading. But I do like this open relationship they have, not being so embarrassed by things you might see in other trope-y romances. Could be the best romance of the season.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale (2 episodes): Good potential, but moving very slowly.
Ningen Fushin (2 episodes): Good idea, worried about execution. Also moving pretty slow so far.
Saving 80,000 Gold (2 episodes): Another with an interesting idea but we'll see. Was probably the isekai I was most looking forward to this season outside of the obvious one in Magical Revolution.
Onimai (4 episodes): Started out rough, but really seems to be a very wholesome emotional ride. I guess some of the humor would be different, but you could have probably just pulled this off with a younger and older sister and the younger sister being a shut-in anyway.
Kubo-san (4 episodes): Every scene has me vaguely remembering it from the manga. Could be good, but somewhat bland. Better than Takagi at least.
Trigun Stampede (2 episodes): So from what I understand, the reason people are down on this is because the remake took out a character completely (so far). Since I have no frame of reference, I don't care, and I'm having a good time. Steampunk and desert settings generally aren't my thing (but Final Fantasy 12 exists), but I'm interested in seeing more of how this world works and why it's so depressing. You know, in a show that's kind of a comedy.

[Yunru]

Revenger Ep5 --- OK i did not expect that Nio is not a boy or a girl, but both (shemale) and it was part of a circus freak show.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished Last Exile.

I will start off with the positives. In spite of the 3D CGI, the show looks cool. Airships with people manning observations towers looking around with binoculars. People shouting down brass tubes. People aiming signaling lamps at each other to communicate in morse code. Airship battles. The Silvana crew look good in their black uniforms and Alex looks great in his black coat. You also have airships plunging through clouds and creating "splashes".

The story conflict is also a little more original than your usual fantasy/adventure anime. Instead of the tiresome "plucky rebels vs evil empire" setup, you see the empire and the nomadic barbarians team up to fight the guild, which has a monopoly on clean water while everyone else is drinking filthy water and nations are disappearing off of the face of the earth because of drought. The first few episodes do make the series look promising. The English dub was also pretty good and had some funny moments. Worth watching up until episode 12.


The Silvana looks great.

Now the bad and ugly. Rule of cool is no substitute for the fundamentals of storytelling: proper pacing and scene tension, coherent plotting, and so on. The show was okay up until the Silvana's first battle with the Urbanus, at episode 12. After that, the show begins to break down.

• Characters we were supposed to take seriously as adult military officers begin acting like indecisive, bratty children, and you have to wonder how these people managed to survive as an outlaw airship on a secret mission for the emperor while being pursued by guild fleets.

• The show goes with an indirect exposition approach but does not adequately convey the fundamentals of the setting to the viewer. For example, there is an important place called "the Grand Stream" that airships are constantly dipping in and out of, but the viewer never understands how the Grand Stream works or where it is until the final episode. Much of the show's conflict is derived from the guild having control over airship engine technology and a large percentage of the plot is dedicated to figuring out how to circumvent that, but it's not apparent to the viewer why the characters don't have control over their own engines. It doesn't become apparent until the last few episodes the engine compartments of all airships are sealed off and contain guild personnel who have machineguns and they crash the ship if anyone tries to enter and takeover the engine room. It is never explained why the two countries of Anatory and Disith are at war each other, and it gets even more confusing when the true nature of the setting is revealed at the end of the show (why would a nation on one side of the hourglass try to invade the other sides? The logistics of your invasion and occupation would depend entirely on one chokepoint, the Grand Stream, and could be easily foiled, not to mention the difficulty of trying to occupy a populace with a completely different culture and values). Etc.

• The mystery boxes are not paid off in a timely manner, and eventually have unsatisfying reveals, or aren't revealed at all.

• Things happen for no apparent reason. Why are there thousands of people evacuating onto rockets in the middle of nowhere, that then launch and crash? No clue. Why is Alvis and Exile so important? No clue. Why isn't the Guild doing anything to stop the Alliance when they are clearly massing for an attack? Why did Luciolla put on the suicide ring? No clue. Why does the Silvana's crew trust Dio and Luciolla with a mission to fight the guild, even though they haven't renounced the guild and still walk around wearing guild uniforms? Why was the Maestro able to control Exile without Alvis or the last stanza? Why does Alvis have the power to control Exile anyway? If Exile was a colony ship, then shouldn't everyone on the planet be descended from the colonists and should be able to control Exile? Why was Exile covered in a shell and floating around in the Grand Stream in the first place? And so on.

• Miscellaneous stuff like a character dies and other people cry over his death... and then that character inexplicably comes back with no explanation. There is a love polygon (the MC and four girls) that never resolves. Contrivances like the Silvana's vice-captain turning out to be the imperial princess.

When you add all this up, the story becomes really incoherent and difficult to follow. The only other anime I can recall with this level of "I don't know why things are happening, to the point that I have to go to google to find to rationalize the plot" was Evangelion, and even then that show was more coherent.

[Yunru]

Benriya Saitou-san, Isekai ni Iku Ep 5 --- what the F.......

[Yunru]

Kaiko sareta Ankoku Heishi Ep 7 --- Skyrim

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I have finished Made in Abyss Season 2.

The first half was fine, when they were exploring the village of hollows, like a low production value Spirited Away arc. Then you hit the second half of the season and every episode is an overly long winded soliloquy. The ending of the season is also disatisfying, as the protagonists don't get to recruit any new characters, and the mass murderer gets off scott free. Putting aside the morality of cannibalism when the only other option is to die, the vast majority of the villagers weren't even alive when Iryuumi was cannibalized, and yet Faputa killed them too.

As an aside, this season was really gross. No, I don't find watching a child be used as a sex slave to be entertaining. Watching the cute little critter poop on the floor is not entertaining. Watching a toilet lick the butt of a girl - while imaginative - is not entertaining.





Crest of the Stars

I finished the first two seasons and watched a little bit of season 3 before dropping it. It follows two junior officers and their small ship as they take on lesser assignments during a galactic war, such as patroling recently capture star systems for enemy scouts or escorting supply convoys. The show's space battles are differentiated from other series in that almost all of them take place in hyperspace with unique rules. The outlandish character designs dampens the seriousness of the story, though. Had the show gone with more mature character designs like LoGH, maybe I would have liked it more. The show was fine until they went to the prison planet in season 3. I just didn't care about the prison leaders and the prospect of watching a whole season about them was a turn off.

[Yunru]

SO Isekai Ojisan Ep 13 is finaly here

[Yunru]

Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka wo Tamemasu Ep 11:
Pretty much this --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjhPjZJiEHU -- but on smaller scale

[Pendulous]

Not all shows are done, but Winter is winding down, so time for reviews. Probably the most anime I've watched in one season. Not working certainly helps with that, but a lot I picked up, dropped, and just kept up with just because. Nothing particularly stood out as amazing. Next season has a hundred sequels, Dangers in My Heart looks wholesome (watch the trailer, it doesn't sound like it but it is), an alien girl obsessed with cats (sure beats whatever the hell Urusei Yatsura was trying to do), workplace yuri, a romcom with kids, a romcom with boobs, and romance with gaming.

Saving 80,000 Gold - I should like this more. The reason I say that is because Mitsuha is so much like Yuna from Kuma Kuma Bear. There's something about an isekai where the protagonists aren't just nice guys who want to help (See: Problem Children, and to a lesser extent, The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent, and Reincarnated as a Sword, which I finished recently and found fairly underrated. Glad it's getting a season 2).I guess the main reasons are the music really sets the tone better in Kuma, and it has much better emotional moments. Plus, Yuna actually grows as a character, where Mitsuha seems to be stuck in her goal.

Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World/The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World - Reason I lump these two together is because they both seem to suffer from the same problems. Both have good interesting ideas, but just never really do anything with them. Iceblade has some similarities to My Hero Academia even. A super power that has to be restrained, while his, um, superiors, hang around and keep an eye on him, including his mentor. I even like the "main girl" Amelia, charismatic and doesn't seem to fall under typical tropes. I like the fact she even gets trained by Ray, who pushes her very hard.. But I don't know. With a name like "The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World", you expect some type of plot to advance, but it really doesn't. And speaking of names, "Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World", except they're low level adventurers who go on random tasks and call it a day. And after each character gets through their backstories, nothing really seems to happen.

Onimaii - Better than I expected. Funnier than I expected. More wholesome than I expected. it certainly tows the line between wholesome and questionable, but it just makes it more realistic. There' no way to avoid certain...things, when it comes to this story. I guess part of why I like it to is that it has that ReLIFE kind of thing.I wouldn't pass up that opportunity to go back and being given a second chance.

Tomo-chan is a Girl - Pretty good. Like a lot of these types of shows, the main cast wasn't nearly as entertaining as the supporting cast. Which is unfortunate since it seems like the supporting cast had less and less screentime as it went on and started to focus on Jun and Tomo. Misaki never seemed like he was around too. Carol and Misuzu were a better pair than anything.

The Magical Reincarnation of the...it's the yuri isekai ok? - Really good, but that last arc was pretty weak. I cam here for Anis' antics, not politics and classism. that said, couldn't have been a better ending. Did not expect Anis to admit to being isekai'd. Might be the first time that's happened. Although I still haven't seen anything that would make her being reincarnated actually relevant. Supposedly that comes later. But we got our kiss, and we got our new hope of Anis figuring out how to become immortal so they can be together literally forever.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten - Also good, if a bit repetitive. I like that it breaks a lot of romcom tropes, with the two characters being pretty open with each other in terms of affection. Some ok character growth too. And the harshest yet nicest takedown of the season.. Nothing specific to say, just cute.

The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World - Out of the generic fantasy/isekai/reincarnation type shows, this one seems to have gotten the highest ratings. And yet, I can't remember a single thing about it. I like the idea of the lead trying to keep a low profile, but he doesn't. Like the other two, plots seem to be random and not leading anywhere. I like the idea of the servant being super strong though.

The Misfit of Demon King Academy 2 (5 episodes) - More nonsensical and confusing than season 1. Just a lot of mumbo jumbo words used that mean nothign and yet also mean something they never bother explaining.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague - Might be my favorite romance of the season. It's just chill, pun intended. It's like romance iyashikei, and that's all it needs to be.

Edit: The Fruit of Evolution season 2 - Season 1 was dumb fun, and just felt like it knew what it was. Season 2 started off like it might be more of the same. But it just feels like the plot wrapped up when Seiichi got to the school and reunited with Karen. After that, it just got stupider and stupider and stupider. Like it went from self-aware to trying too hard to be random. I'm one of those people who can often find enjoyment from the "bad and generic" isekai (honestly excited for Smartphone season 2), but this, this is just no.

[Gutler]

Gotta say my 2 favorites from winter season are onimai (completely different from what i thought it was gonna be but in a good way) and Campfire cooking in another world.

[Pendulous]

Gotta say my 2 favorites from winter season are onimai (completely different from what i thought it was gonna be but in a good way) and Campfire cooking in another world.

I still need to watch Campfire Cooking. And Mou Ippon (it's ok, we got judo arc in Nagatoro). I'm following Eminence in Shadow's dub so I'm not done with it, but it's better than I expected. Although it's really hard to follow the different girls and their names. They all just kind of blend together, except for the regular girl Alexia.

[icedwarrior]

The only thing that I have to add to this discussion is that Nagatoro remains top-tier and was easily my favorite of the season.

[Pejo]

So a few anime finished this week.

DanMachi - 8.5/10. Really enjoyed the arc. Big focus on Ryu.

Tomo-Chan - 8/10. Rom-com about a girl whose a tomboy who falls in love with her best friend. I ended up liking it a fair bit, even though there are slow times. And it has an actual ending.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague - 8/10. Holy fuck, this is a very slow one but is cute in its own way. Amazing art. It is extremely low stakes and there are very few adult romance.

Angel next door spoils me rotten - holy hell this is a slow anime but it ended up being really relaxing for me by the end. Not sure the ending was worth all that lead up to it but I don’t regret it. 7/10

Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady - 8.5/10. This one starts really strong and is a fantasy show about an Isekai girl born into a world of magic, but without magic. Solid action, solid stakes, good comedy, really cute girls. A bit of a slower episodes near 7-9 but damn, nailed that ending.

Spy Classroom - I made it through most of this but since new season is starting, I’ll just stop. It was fine. Similar to Assasination Classroom but without the larger story / gripping character stories. Cute girls though. 6/10

Demon King - only 6 episodes out. Quite a bit all over the place with wtf is supposed to be happening yet I was still entertained. 7/10

Nagatoro - definitely the same thing. I haven’t finished this one yet but will probably continue during next season. 7/10

Kubo-San - only 6 episodes out but it continues soon. This one had a big hill to climb for me to get interested as everyone compared it to Takagi and Takagi is my favorite one of these shows. It ended up being real cute. She has a nice bit of aggressive to her without being Nagatoro aggressive. 8.5/10 so far.

Love is War movie - I loved it. I wanted to go see it in theater but got lazy, but after seeing it, it would have been a great one to see there. The animation was top notch, I really enjoyed the music, and the humor was excellent. Only one real complaint is I wanted to see more from Ishigami - I think I understand the ending but I needed it a bit more spelled out for how dumb I am.

[paxen]

I liked Tomo-chan, but the Kaguya-sama movie released this weekend and I just binged the entire thing a couple of weeks before that, so Tomo falls a bit flat in comparison. Contrary to other opinions I liked Tomo best, but that's mostly because I felt that mizuzu/carol/jun were weak copies of kaguya/chika/miyuki respectively...

In the end I enjoyed Tomo-chan. A good show, but not a great one.