It's a dire season, folks. I've been suckered into watching a terrible isekai show just because there's nothing else.

New Shows

Zenshuu

The aforementioned terrible isekai show. Every episode is 20 minutes of insipid isekai plot and then 90 seconds of an homage to better anime. Expectations are low.

It's a pity that originals being helmed by Kimiko Ueno have been turning out poorly (see also Astro Note), since she's one of my favorite anime screenwriters whenever she's doing work on adaptations or other shows. Check her resume; she wrote all the best episodes of Space Dandy, Little Witch Academia, BNA, Carole & Tuesday, Metallic Rouge, and the ongoing Pokemon Horizons.

Returning/Continuing Shows

Dragon Ball Daima

It's been fine, though I'm actually enjoying it, which is more than I can say about the Extruded-Dragon-Ball-Product that was Super. Still hilarious that Daima doesn't bother to acknowledge Super at all, even outright contradicting it.

The Toriyama influence (rest in peace) feels genuine, mostly due to the high concentration of stupid/childish gags, and I'm cool with that. Goku's using that power pole, Vegeta went SSJ3, they fused Majin Buu and a Saibaman to make Majin Duu. What more could you ask for?

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

This got way bigger than I think anyone really expected. There's something to be said for a show that consistently hovers in between 3 and 4 stars in every aspect while hitting a broad range of genres and appeal.

Based on what I remember from the manga, Season 2 is going to be a bit more meandering and unfocused than Season 1, but I like episodic adventures so I'm good with that.

Beastars "The Final Season" Part 1

Little else reaches the heights of insanity that Beastars does, even in this fundamentally different form. As a manga reader, this was my favorite chunk of the story, featuring a particularly large amount of slice-of-life shenanigans. Thus I cannot fully approve of the cuts made to squeeze the story into an anime, even if they're doing the best they can.

Pokemon Horizons

As has been the running theme with Horizons, I find the plot episodes helmed by Dai Sato intensely boring and all the dumb slice of life episodes to be the best parts; almost every episode by Kimiko Ueno has been solid gold.

I don't find myself missing Ash at all, but I do miss the Alola crew from Sun & Moon. Horizons has pointedly avoided having any notable characters from The Ash Years return on screen and I wonder how they'll handle that going forward, especially if the info from the big PokeLeak a while back ends up being true.

Tokusatsu

Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger

This has one episode to go as I write this. I'm comfortable saying that it's been a lovely time. In all the time I've been watching Super Sentai, none have been as consistently good and enjoyable as Boonbomger.

Some of that might be the rebound of the failed experiment that was King-ohger, but King-ohger never had a line as unhinged as, "The Hashiliens are the second coming of the Black Ships."

Kamen Rider Gavv

I briefly wrote on this around when it started, and still stand by what I said then, but I will admit that Gavv has turned out a lot better so far than I thought it might.

The actual plot and characters bubbling underneath are some of the best the franchise has had in years (aside: one must always grade on a curve knowing these are shows for children). While the candy theming is still intensely obnoxious, as a proponent of Kamen Rider Gaim, I begrudgingly must admit that the inherent tension of a serious plot juxtaposed with a ridiculous aesthetic is part of the draw. It lets me say with a straight face, "Kamen Rider Gavv pumped whipped cream all over his sister until she exploded, killing her instantly".

The Backlog

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

To my great shame, this is the first GITS media I've seen. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, though I'm running into the problem of having experienced 20 years of cyberpunk media that came out after SAC. At least now I know what's up with that Laughing Man icon I've been seeing all this time.

The most striking thing about this type of speculative fiction is that the writers are all so much more ambitious with the future tech than anyone in reality would be. As we know, the dystopia is already here and it's so much shittier and more mundane than we thought.

Planetes

I can see how this series became the blank check that let much of its staff move on to making stranger, more unhinged works. There's nothing quite like Planetes; like I noted, GITS still has a foot in action movie spectacle even in its slower episodes, while Planetes feels more grounded.

I wish it spent a bit more time actually digging into the intricacies of the job rather than heading into somewhat melodramatic character drama territory, but, well. I can't blame anyone for that either.

#anime #tokusatsu