Rindis.com

So another season started around the beginning of the month, but I barely noticed the summer season ending because my watching is so out of synch there was only two things that ended on me, and one of those I was watching about a year late.

Megalobox II: Nomad — I often don’t pay attention to the nomenclatures around separate seasons as its all still one big story. But this one really is a sequel story, with a very different feel and tone. It’s also that rare thing: a sequel that’s better than the original. We’re still working our way through the ending parts, but it has been truly excellent so far.

Great Pretender — We’re currently in Case 4, and it’s still being a great ride, though it has gotten overall more serious and a bit darker in tone. Overall, its’ a great series, with great art and writing, and manages to be witty straight through while presenting all these high-stakes capers.

World Trigger — This is a long series; I’m at episode 40, which is just nearing the end of the ‘first series’ (with the third one just starting). With a fairly slow start, this has really grown on me as its a well-balanced handling of typical shonen tropes and solid world-building. It’s not as flashy as many (and I think the budget might be a bit low), but it has a much more substantial foundation, and very good characters.

Beastars — We’re midway in the second season now, and it is another case of the sequel being better than the original, though it’s not as radical a change in story.

My Hero Academia — This is the main thing that finished up and told me the season was over. The last part was all diving into things that had happened earlier, but there was just now enough context for them to make sense in the overall plot. It ended up doing a great job exploring several of the main recurring villains’ backgrounds and motivations, while ratcheting up the tension for the big showdown to come—next time.

Star Trek: Lower Decks — Thanks to a borrowed blue-ray disk, we’re getting to watch this. We’re not that many episodes in, but the writing is definitely picking up as the characters get settled. The entire thing is a bit of a love letter to The Next Generation, with references all over the place.

Log Horizon — This one sat on the ‘to watch’ pile for a while as Smudge was sure we must have missed something in between the latest season and the previous. I’m pretty sure we didn’t, but the start was pretty jarring. It has been too long, and the first storyline was feeling fractured, either because we forgot things, or the series skipped a novel while trying to get to current content (or both!). Once over that hurdle, it was a good season, and it eventually touched on just about all the main unresolved threads. None of them actually resolved, but there was a good story concluding the season which also advanced things a bit.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime — I’m still getting caught up on this, there’s about a half-season to go. I think I might be caught up to the dub. At any rate, it continues to do well, though the power levels are truly of E.E. “Doc” Smith proportions.

Pokemon Journeys — This is the definite bottom of the list. We’re only watching it when we have time after going through everything else, and that’s because it’s just not that good. I do feel it has been picking up some as we get into the tournament prep, which is giving more of a longer arc goal. But… we’re still at two focus characters, and they’re feeling a bit bland.