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Still something of a light schedule this season, and of course the dubbed shows are trailing behind a bit.

Haikyuu – Another season with a single set of matches in a tournament. However, writing-wise it’s still all of a piece with the previous season, as a few things finally come together for Hinata. Once again, it’s a pretty small focus for 13 episodes, but the writing holds up.

Journey of Elaina — Smudge and I picked this up at the start of the season, saw most of it… and then introduced it to the guys in the dubbed version, which is just getting started. It’s kind of a magical version of Kino’s Journey, with a fairly episodic format, and some very different tones between stories.

Arte — Renaissance Italy (drawn without reference). Actually, we have a feeling the original manga artist has a decent grasp on Italian clothes and architecture, but the production studio worked entirely from his art. In any case, its a fairly good, if cheaply produced, period piece.

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? — Smudge and I actually saw the Sword Oratoria side story as well as the current third (main) series. The former reminds me a bit of the A Certain… series, with fanservice derailing too many parts of the series. On the other hand, the writing of the latter has really dissolved into incomprehensibility, while this is still pretty good. The main story was a bit better (writing and fanservice), and definitely moves forward some interesting bits of just what’s going on in this world.

Brand New Animal — Dave actually saw this first, so for once the flow of recommendations is going the other way. Personally, I’ve been finding it okay. It is getting better as it goes (haven’t finished yet). It’s been a little all-over writing-wise, which is weakened the show for me, but the overall arc has been coming a lot clearer in the last third, so my enthusiasm is picking up.

Black Clover — The plot is in the periodic ‘power up’ stage that shonen fight anime goes to too often. Outside of that, there’s been some good things, with a look at some of the under-served portions of the kingdom, which had a fairly good climax (I would like to believe that there’s a coherent in-world reason for the strong mana zone in the middle of everything, but so far it seems like it’s just a convenient way to keep the countries separated from each other). More surprisingly, we’ve actually caught up to the current episodes.

New series are starting up, and I’m still finishing up the old stuff, so yeah, I’m still behind on things.

Star Driver — Smudge introduced me to this since was a fairly light season for us. This is largely the team that started Trigger, before they had done so. And indeed its very Trigger in scope. I’m currently deep in season 2, and it’s doing a good job on the character front, while having all the usual giant robots action, and girls in improbable uniforms. It started off reminding me a bit of RahXephon, and I’ve described it as ‘Utena with giant robots’ (it had some of the same ‘ceremonial’ feel to the conflict at the start).

Beastars — This has been on the vague ‘to watch’ list, and we watched it with Baron and Dave, who seem to get a bit more out of it than me. It was certainly well-produced, though the use of mo-cap animation bugged me a bit, especially for the first couple episodes. This is one of those where I kind of wonder ‘just how did this world get to here’, but it is otherwise a well-done world. (With some discordant notes—carnivores are given as universally stronger than herbivores, instead of just better armed. There’s a reason why wolves hunt in packs.) Still, does a great job with presenting internal feelings and doubts.

Cromartie High School — This has been on the ‘to watch’ list for ages, since we saw the first 2-3 episodes on a sample disk. It kind of reminds me of Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast. Stream-of-consciousness writing, limited budget, and random electric guitar wailing for the ending credits. It’s random, sometimes painful, and sometimes screamingly funny.

Flip Flappers — I want to know what the creative team was smoking, and like Abe Lincoln, send some to a bunch of other creators. Smudge and I are most of the way through this, and it’s still really hard to say what I think of it, because it’s all so, so weird. It’s certainly offering up lots of trope-parody salad, but the overall plot is just coming into focus at the very end.

Black Clover — Okay, we’re now through the entire real arc that this has been pointed at all this time, and did a great job of it (and it was a nice example of focus that these long fight-series have problems with). Now, we’re in unknown territory—will it hold together? So far, not bad, and we’ll see how it goes. Since everything prior to this point, the writing just kept getting better, I have hopes for no more than moderate sequelitis.

Thermae Romae — Holy low-budget, Batman! The high concept for the series has a lot of fun to it (cross over the two great hot-soak loving cultures: Japan and the Classical world), so this as been on the to-watch list. Given the… splash… the manga originally made, I’m quite surprised that this is such a low budget show with limited animation that makes Hanna-Barbera look good. Writing has also been all over the place, with some episodes being hilarious, and others just not living up to the high concept.

And of course Smudge and I have re-watched with the guys:

Acca 13 — If re-watching wasn’t a separate section, this would be top of the list. It really is well done, and both Baron and Dave have really appreciated it. I’m also newly thankful that Smudge spotted the soundtrack at Crunchyroll Expo a couple years ago; it’s extremely well done.

I’ve been waiting for the season to finish off, as I have yet to see the end of the latest My Hero Academia season, as the dub is running behind. Or, I guess I’m into the second half already. That explains that.

My Hero Academia — Continuing to be strong, and the Shie Hassaikai bit ended in a combat that was excellently done.

Sword Art Online — Okay, on one hand, this is being very good, and still the best the series has been since the original story. On the other, the number of different complications and such is starting to drag this out. We’re left at another cliffhanger. Catch up to this ahead of the Spring season… and hope we’re at an end.

Pokemon Sun & Moon Ultra Legends — Well, this is odd. The internet exploded a few months ago with the results of the end of the season. But it’s not over here yet. Getting close, as we’re deep in the tournament now. At any rate, the usual good job, and a lot of great character moments.

Food Wars — Okay, this ended well. Not quite as I expected, but pretty close.

Granblue Fantasy — Kind of a pity that this lost the unusual art style of the first season. However, it’s still a good series, and there’s been some good looks at secondary character’s backgrounds. Also: best opening of the season.

Black Clover — Our schedule is still a bit light, allowing me and Smudge to make up some more ground. The Royal Knights tournament… was inventively done, but was still a tournament, and I could do with fewer of those. What’s going on around it has generally been good, and I’m definitely liking Mereoleona.

And then there’s a couple things from this season I’m just now seeing, and a rewatch for Thursday with Baron & Dave.

Ascendance of a Bookworm — This looked interesting near the beginning of the season, and Smudge started me on it a few weeks back. It’s been good, with some nice characters, and a lot of sweetness. I am wondering when we’ll catch up to the framing at the start of the series.

Classroom Crisis — I’m a little surprised this is only about five years old, it feels like it’s been longer. Anyway, this is the current main thing we’re showing the guys, and they’ve been very happy with it. I’m more than happy to see it again too.

Restaurant to Another World — This was the previous series we shared with the guys. I think it took Dave a little longer to get into it, but once he did, he certainly enjoyed it.

Pokemon Advanced Battle — Slowly working through the next DVD set. We’ve hit a major bit of the Ruby/Sapphire plot, which will be interesting to see how it plays out.

No Guns Life — This is the current secondary show with the guys, and I haven’t seen it yet either. I’m fairly happy with it, but they guys are kind of just along for the ride. I do think Baron’s description of ‘pulp written by a teenager in the Appleseed universe’ is very apt. But it’s been pretty fun if you just go with it.