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The latest anime season wrapped up a little bit ago, but I’ve been slow in getting to the new one, as ‘simul-dubs’ are actually a couple weeks behind.

Konosuba — This series is all the wrongs. And it’s hilarious. I think it helps that I’m watching it with Smudge, and she’s got Phalloide to add comments, but each episode has generally had screamingly funny moments. We weren’t really expecting a second season of this, but the first half especially was really on the mark.

Tales of Zestiria the X — And we get a second season of this. The story has really picked up, and I’ve been enjoying it this season, whereas parts of first season felt more like a chore to get through. I was expecting this to go on for quite a bit longer, but the last few episodes suddenly fell into a final boss climax.

Smudge hasn’t really gotten to trying out anything new from this season, so that’s been largely it. Though recently she introduced me to a few things from previous seasons:

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis — Smudge wasn’t entirely sure I’d like this, but there’s a new/sequel series coming up, so she tried it on me. And I liked it quite a lot. I think I would have gotten thoroughly annoyed with the main character in pretty quick order, but the main plot kicked in in the second half of the first episode, and it drove everything in the rest of the series. Definite recommendation.

Selector: Wixoss — Just recently finished the first storyline, which went two seasons. Take… Madoka Magica and add a CCG as the maguffin. I kind of have to wonder if the creator has ever really played a CCG, as it seems a bit odd. On the other hand, the series stays as far away from the game as a game as it possibly can; it just exists to support the existence of the maguffin. Instead it concentrates on a few characters and the slow reveal of just how messed up the situation is.

Blood Battlefront Blockade — Three Word Title Lotto! The title makes some sense if you stare at it a while, but not really. While does all build to a climatic finale, the first half of the series is more about introducing the cast a bit, and showing just how strange this place is.

And there’s been more Pokemon, but we’ve largely caught up with the collected DVD sets, and the rest is still of fairly scattered availability.

Pokemon XYZ — Well, I’ve seen through the end of the story on this now, and they did a really good job with the wrap up and ending. I’ve also seen the “Legend of XYZ” episode, which was also a really well-done one-off. The final episode still has yet to hit Pokemon TV (grrr), so I’ve seen a horrible fan sub, and it was also good.

Pokemon: Adventures on the Orange Islands — The ‘we need to fill in until there’s more source material to work with’ season. In line with the first part, when it’s on, its good. I definitely appreciate the idea of Ash getting a non-league award to show his progress.

Pokemon: Johto Journeys & Johto League Champions — That last title was way too ironic, considering the bulk of that season is consumed with the trip to one gym. The stories are good, and I definitely appreciate the fact that the three ‘starter’ Pokemon that Ash gets all have their own quirks and problems to work out.

So, another season of anime is wrapping up, and the next one is already starting. I ended up watching a lot of stuff over the last three months.

Planetarian – This surprised me by being just five episodes. But its a very good five episodes, and I highly recommend it. Bring tissues.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan – I’m watching this in the dub, so I’m a bit behind, but the current story has been quite good, especially as we get to see Silver Mask being quite human.

Food Wars – This series is still working for me. Parts of it get overblown, and some of the characters really go overboard into testosterone-laden fight anime land. But, towards the end of the season, Sukihara has discovered a whole new challenge of Man vs Self; what exactly is his cooking about?

Tales of Zestiria the X – I’m also a bit behind here, as I’m watching the dub. This one I run hot and cold on. It’s well done, but… just takes itself way too seriously. And… the switching to completely different story lines every five episodes or so may get wearing. (We’re just about to switch in the next episode; not sure if it’s back to the first one, or if we get a third one next.)

That’s all the new stuff I’ve seen; here’s the older series that I just got to:

Noragami – Japanese contemporary fantasy really is it’s own genre. The ‘main character almost gets killed and is now partway in the spirit world’ start makes me think of the excellent start of Yu Yu Hakusho, but that turned into a boring fight anime after the first arc, while this maintains a focus on the main character, and the tension between her normal life and her friends in the spirit realm. Well, kinda. Her normal life doesn’t get a lot of attention. Actually, if this series makes me think of anything else, it’s Natsume’s Book of Friends.

Snow White of the Red Hair – This was especially nice; it’s been way too long since I’ve seen a shojo manga title get turned into a good series. This is essentially a fantasy romance, and it proceeded just a bit slow for me, but it’s also about an interesting group of characters who are well done, and it doesn’t turn into a love dodecahedron. …I just wish there was a bit less damseling (is that a word now?) of the female lead.

Re: Zero—Starting Life in Another World – We just started this a few days ago, and are about halfway through. Quite good. Yet another otaku gets pulled into a fantasy world… and his main power is having a saved game to start over from after he dies… usually fairly messily and painfully. One of the nice bits it that it pays attention to the effect this has on him.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad – Smudge and I definitely liked the original Magi series, and have been hoping for more of it. Well, this prequel didn’t give us the continuation of all the dangling plot threads we wanted, but it was a good story about the start of one of the major secondary characters. I’d still like more Magi, but I’ll settle for more Sinbad.

Voltron: Legendary Defender – Another modern reboot, this time through Netflix. I had problems with it at first, as the characters were too whiny and incompetent. A lot of the beginning stuff was really unbelievable to me. (Really, one of the lions is hidden on Earth, sending out energy to be tracked down, and no one else noticed?) Once past that, it got a lot better and really fixed a lot of problems the original series had. New Allura? A+! “Form Blazing Sword” not the solution to every problem? A+! (In fact, the idea that each lion can contribute its own special weapon is a great.)

Little Witch Academia: Enchanted Parade – A second short film of Little Witch Academia? Sign me up! I’d say it’s not quite as good as the first, but it stands on its own well, and tells a different story. I’m looking forward to the announced TV series.

Fairy Tail – I’ve now seen through the first part of the Tartaros arc, but have paused because Funimation has a big gap in the dub on their streaming service near the end of the next plotline.

Girl Meets Bear – The name is a complete misnomer: they don’t meet, they’ve known each other since they were little. It was a very fun series, but the first episode sets up for a character arc that never happens. And as a result, Machi is never allowed to grow as a character, and it holds the series down, despite some good comedy.

Pokemon – So, with playing lots of Pokemon Go, Smudge has been watching this, and I’ve caught pieces of it (I’m now going back and slowly filling in gaps). You know, its really annoying, since it’s almost impossible to get a hold of a complete series without going to an illegal site. Anyway, given the age group it’s aimed at, it’s good more often than it’s bad (Smudge is right, Ash is a lot more likable in the recent stuff). The first episode is effectively a buddy film between Ash and Pikachu, which worked for me. And there’s some interestingly done scenes, like the transition from the Game Boy game to the Poke-match at the beginning of the first episode. Smudge also showed me Pokemon Origins, which is an interesting retelling of the original game, and the Hoopa and the Clash of the Ages movie, which had a very solid plot. That last is definitely recommended.

And a couple of ‘tried, but didn’t stick with it’ series:

Amanchu! – By the creator of Aria: The Animation, which I enjoyed. You can tell: the girls tend to wear the same design of dress. But, after one episode, it hadn’t done anything for Smudge and I. I have the feeling it could easily have gotten better over the next few episodes, but we didn’t give it the chance.

Thunderbolt Fantasy – It’s a really interesting production, using puppets and some special effects. But Smudge was having trouble following the action, and the fastball down all the typical Eastern-fantasy tropes wasn’t cutting it for me. (I kind of feel like this wasn’t live action purely because Mifune’s no longer with us to do the samurai character.)

Ah, winter break and a season of anime wrap up at the same time! Again, I didn’t have anything I was actively watching from previous seasons carry forward into this one.

Haikyu — Smudge watched the first series of this a year ago, and she talked me into watching it and the new series when it restarted. It’s good; volleyball is not a sport that I ever got into (well, that’s almost all sports), but it’s very well done, with good characters.

Utawarerumono: The False Faces — Our group really enjoyed the original series, and I was looking forward to this one. The beginning was fine, and started looking like there could be a good story, but then the second half turned into a bunch of character introductions, and tying into the first series. It looks like there’ll be another season, and I hope the plot gets into gear.

Beautiful Bones — It wasn’t until about episode 3 that Smudge became impressed with this one, and had me start watching it. And it certainly does get better as it goes along, and they start dropping some of the overly-dramatic touches.

Heroic Tale of Arslan — I’m still not caught up to this, but I’ve seen partway through the second season now, and I’m continuing to like it. I do wish the novels would come over here though.

One-Punch Man — Smudge recently went for Hulu’s new commercial free subscription, and immediately found this. It’s a very silly superhero farce, and I’ve only seen about half of it so far, but it’s been very good.

And another season of anime has basically wrapped up. Pretty much nothing carried over from last season for me.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches — This one suddenly showed up in the middle of the season on Crunchyroll, and has 2014 copyright…. Anyway, this turned out to be my favorite of the season. It’s over after one season, but told a fairly tight story. I think it got a little messy in places, I’m not entirely happy with where it ended up, but it’s what the story needed. Anyway, Yamada is something of a ‘tough guy’ who managed to get into a better high school and is having trouble with the culture shock. And then he discovers a power to swap bodies with a kiss…. (And the voice actors do a very good job of being someone else.) Of course, there’s much more to it than that, and Yamada finds himself getting entangled with more and more people as the show goes on.

Plastic Memories — This was a nice little relationship anime. I wasn’t sure it could really carry for a full season, but it did quite nicely. In the near future, there are fully human-seeming androids; however, after nine years their memory fills up, and the android is recycled…. This is about the department at the company that makes them that retrieves them once the nine years are up.

Food Wars — Because, Japan. More high school antics; but this is at an extremely tough, top-end, culinary academy. There’s cooking, cooking contests (with plenty of Iron Chef references), and… shall we say, orgasmic appreciation of good food. Very silly, but has some good writing. This is continuing, and it’s nice to see the main character starting to realize he’s not quite as good as he had thought….

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? — Okay, I tried this fully expecting to come out of the first episode going, ‘yep, I can ignore that’, with an outside chance of it being a great farce. Wrong on both counts. It has more than just background elements of harem anime that get in the way, but most of the time, it’s a very good coming of age story. I do hope it returns, there’s obviously more to say.

Amagi Brilliant Park — I only found out about this one late, so I’ve only seen a few episodes so far. Amagi is an amusement park that employs magical creatures from another world (apparently true of most parks in this world), but is run down and hasn’t made a profit in years. They’ve called in high-school student Seiya to run the park in response to a prophesy. So far, he’s scarily competent….

Gunslinger Stratos — This had a good first episode, and then went downhill fast. It looks like it was picking up again mid-season, but I haven’t been bothered to watch any more.

And then on the older series side of things:

Fairy Tail — I’m still enjoying this, but I’ve come up to end of the first series, and I’m waiting for the second series dub to start showing up on the streaming service. Why did they halt in the middle of a plotline?!

Natsume’s Book of Friends — The group of us is still watching this on Anime Night, but that’s slowing down due to scheduling conflicts; we may move Anime Night soon. Anyway, we’ve seen through the first series, and the very beginning of the second series, which is just as good so far.

The latest anime season finished up a little over a week ago, and I’ve been remiss in saying what I thought about it. Overall, I didn’t watch as much stuff, …though the number of episodes may have stayed about the same.

Sword Art Online II — This season was billed as a set of shorter stories, and it didn’t disappoint. As expected, the first story finished up with episode 14, and then the next one was a recap of the previous season. *sigh* Though it was told from the perspective of the new character, which gave it some interest. After that, there was a very nice story arc featuring a return to much of the earlier cast with a quest in Alfheim that leads to questions about how ‘real’ a virtual world is. This theme also underlies the second and final story that was very well done. Overall this is as good as SAO has been since the original story.

Log Horizon II — It’s been a little odd having both “stuck in a MMO” series going this season. But Log Horizon also had a very strong season, with a nice worldbuilding story that also explored Shiroe and Akastsuki at the same time. The worldbuilding just gets better the more you see. Better yet, it’s still going, with some plot threads that need returning to, while SAO II is done.

Yowapeda — It started as such a nice sports/geek series. But as it continues, it keeps dragging itself out more and more, and and is falling right into teenage shonen tropes. I still watch it in the hopes that the current tournament plot will end someday, but I can’t recommend it.

When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace — I’ve only seen about 2/3d’s of this, since Smudge hasn’t been liking it as much (but she laughs anyway). And, it is all in the humor; there are parts of a larger plot in there, but the characters have been purposefully kept out of it.

Over on watching older things, Smudge has gotten me into Fairy Tail. It is in the same brand of long-form shonen fight anime that I generally have no patience for, but this one is holding me. Part of it is that the humor works. Part of it is that the testosterone level is lower than in the others of its type (sure, Natsu charges forward into fights a bunch, but that’s because he likes to fight, not because he’s an overagressive posturing twit… most of the time). Part of it is that it has kept a decent, if slightly slow, pace. I liked the beginning of One Piece, and then it slowed down, and I tossed it. Fairy Tail, after 50 episodes, is still going through distinct story lines without dragging them out to two or three times its deserved length.