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It’s time to review what I’ve been watching over the last three months again. As always, this is given in rough descending order of recommendation, though there’s nothing here I don’t recommend; they’ve all been worth watching.

The Owl House — We’ve just finished off season two. The build up to the Day of Unity was really well handled, and it brought together a large number of separate arcs. Now, we’ve got the wreckage to deal with, and we’re shunting over to another pair of arcs that have largely been on hold.

MHA: Vigilanties — Me and Smudge are now into the second season. This is a new story with the same characters, though we just got through a multi-episode flashback to the start of Eraserhead’s career. That was good on its own right, but it did halt the ongoing story. I can forgive that, especially since one of out themes here is how he comes to be teaching at UA in five years. Meanwhile, the main story has been good, if not, so far, as special as the first story. We still have time before it all needs to come together at the end, and we’ll see how that goes.

Kipo In the Age of Wonderbeasts — Me and Smudge are now mid-third season, and it has continued to be well done and well-paced. “Who holds a dance in a war?” “…Kipo.” The characters continue to be great, and the main story is proceeding without getting stuck or becoming too headlong and breathless.

She-Ra — And we did it. Me and Smudge got through the end of the series just before it got pulled from Netflix. Smudge feels it ends entirely too abuptly, and indeed they wrap things up with indecent haste at the very end. Other than that, everything short of the denouement itself, is handled well. There’s definitely some good subtle character arc bits with Adora during the end.

To Your Eternity — We’re still in the middle of the latest series. I was really uncertain of the very modern-day shift for the setting. However, the plot has been developing nicely, and we’re getting an interesting story.

May I Ask For One Final Thing — The author was getting a lot off her chest (fists?) when she wrote this. It looks like we’re headed for an examination of what an isekai story looks like from the other side (i.e., the natives’ viewpoint), but that’s not the main point. The main point is an elegant lady getting to beat up a bunch of over-privileged nobles.

Shadows House — Smudge and I saw the first episode when it came out, and decided to hold it for the guys. We’ve finally gotten to watching it and it is being good. There’s a lot of questions, and I doubt we’ll be anywhere near answers when the series finishes up. But the atmosphere is well done, and a diverse cast of characters has been introduced.

Blood Blockade Battlefront — We are now halfway through the second season (& Beyond) with the guys, and they are enjoying it. I had forgotten that it had a bunch of smaller stories exploring the secondary characters, and that has been very nice.

Pokemon: Horizons — I think we just hit part four of Search for Laqua, and the ‘legendary six’ have finally been collected. It’s been a mixed bag getting there, but the episodes directly after that have been good.

Maya and the Three — I’ve only seen about four episodes so far, so it’s just getting going, and we haven’t even assembled the ‘three’ yet. I don’t entirely like the character design style, but I certainly do respect it. It is certainly a fun production, and back in the style of bridging American and Hispanic culture that these days we need more of again.

Full Dive — I am not bothering with the full name. The high concept is a big expensive MMO that failed because it was entirely too realistic. This isn’t a deep look into game design, but they certainly understand how a lot of that would work out. It’s a farce played for laughs, and is doing a good job at it. The series is certainly better than it looks.

As usual, I’m running a bit late on this compared to the ‘actual’ anime season. And I did finish a few things about two weeks ago, which makes a pretty good season changeover point for me. As always, these are listed in rough descending order of recommendation.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu — Smudge and I finished showing this to the guys a couple months ago, and they really enjoyed it all the way through. It’s a great two-part drama series with good characters, and a great ending.

Apocalypse Hotel — This just started up in the Thursday schedule with everyone. As to be expected, the guys are enjoying it quite a lot. The series manages to take a fairly grim high concept, and shove most of that to the side for a series with a lot of heart and hope, and is excellently done all the way through.

One Piece — Smudge had no problem talking Baron into trying the live action series. Dave seemed unsure for the first episode, but the following week he had obviously read up on things, and was really into it for the remaining eight episodes. It’s one of the best jobs ever translating a comic/animation to live action, and has very strong mutually supporting plot and character arcs.

The Owl House — We’re now a decent chunk into the second season, and it continues to be popular with everyone. We all certainly recommend looking it up and giving it a watch. We’ve certainly gotten into a wider plot that leverages a few background elements that had been seen but not explained.

Togepi’s Original Sin — Woo, this was a brutal show. An alien with wonderful abilities comes to Earth and lands right in the middle of a horrible mess of kids with really screwed up lives. And he’s just not equipped to understand what’s going on, with all his attempts to fix things run into the messy complications of life. Very well done, and just six episodes.

From Bureaucrat to Villainess — I finished this up early on. It really needs another season, as there’s a lot to go. But, it’s a lot of fun, as the main character is a good father, and is bringing a culture of efficiency and politeness to a game’s role of ‘snobby antagonist’… and failing utterly at that last.

Sakamoto Days — Unfortunately, season two really leans hard on the assassin side of things, ignoring the high-premise of the series (I note that Ruroni Kenshin also suffered from this from the middle of the first season on). Still great wacky characters, and we’ve been introduced to some new ones, but the unique charm is gone. And we end right as the story looks to shift gears and possibly get good again.

Pokemon: Horizons — Smudge and I missed that there was more for a bit, as part two, The Search For Laqua, gets a separate entry. We’ve seen the first chunk of it, and it isn’t as good. This is a two-punch of a school arc that took away all the interesting adult characters, and concentrating on terastallization, which is the gimmick for Gen 9. Thankfully, the overall plot is picking back up, but with the gimmick still stealing air out of the room. (And it just looks ridiculous.)

Once again, a new season of Anime has started, and I’ve barely noticed, because my viewing habits are largely out of step with releases. As always, my listing is generally from best to worst, though I haven’t seen anything I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed.

Arcane — We finished this up a couple months ago, and they wrapped up the series extremely well. The entire two-season story comes around and… just about everyone gets what they wanted. Even, maybe especially the ones that die, still get something of what they want.

The First Slam Dunk — I’m not into sports, but you can have good stories around sports, and I’ve watched a few sports anime over the years. This blows them all out of the water. This is a prequel to the main Slam Dunk series as a long, excellently paced movie that operates on two parallel plot lines, and does everything very well.

Lower Decks — With everything else out of the way on Thursdays, the four of us are finally starting in on the third season of Lower Decks. The production team really blends episodic and continuing arcs effortlessly, and shows a better love for the franchise than most of the other productions (which are still good).

Carol & Tuesday — This also finished up a bit ago for us, and ended extremely well. Really well polished overall plot. I don’t really have anything to say that didn’t say before, but do see this and Shinichirō Watanabe is still worth paying attention to.

Delicious in Dungeon — This is the Thursday slot that finished up the most recently. It was just as good the second time around, and Baron and Dave really enjoyed it. I know Dave was uncertain for quite a bit, but definitely got invested.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu — Smudge and I have finally gotten around to showing this to the guys, and we’re about three episodes in. We’d forgotten the first episode was extra long, but was certainly well worth it, and they’re really enjoying the show.

Shangri-La Frontier — It’s incredible that I’m listing this sixth, because the series is continuing to be very good and there’s been seasons where this would easily be the top listing for me. We’ve got an entire situation going on in-game, and we’re… taking a break for a tournament in a completely different game? And, it works. The characters are all wrapped up enough in this that this side arc is important in it’s own right, and the pacing is keeping these balls in the air successfully. But, now we’re on hiatus with a cliffhanger. Argh.

Sakimoto Days — This is the series I think a lot of people thought of when hearing the premise of Way of the Househusband. Certainly, it’s what I was thinking of. Househusband wasted it’s high concept potential, but Sakimoto does a very good job with a cast of quirky characters navigating daily life of assassins without killing anyone.

Apothecary Diaries — Also an excellent series pushed down by a lot of other great titles. I’m early in the third series, and it’s just as good as the earlier ones. These have a habit of tying more together at the end than you expect, and I’m seeing some hints of it here.

Re: Zero — So, the latest adventure starts with a whole series of save game reboots, but hasn’t touched that for a while. Not that things aren’t supremely dangerous, but the plot isn’t abusing the series special twist to get there, which is nice.

NieR Automata — Recently started the second half of this with the guys, and it is continuing to be surprisingly good. Really unsure where we’re going to end up at this point, as the plot is just getting us to hitting bottom.

Beastars — Just started this last week, so I’ve only seen the first episode of the third/final season. Continuing to get darker as the characters deal with the wreckage of the second season.

Pokemon: Horizons — I think Smudge and I have just hit the end of the first year of episodes. Still being a very strong series, with a number of good characters. We’re both going to miss Liko’s grandmother.

Solo Leveling — Okay, ‘real life with RPG mechanics’ has become it’s own genre. Personally, I don’t like a lot of details on how that’s working; notably “fixed” power levels and a near complete disregard to skill and tactics making difference (skill has started getting acknowledged). I don’t care for the ‘technology is completely useless against monsters’ trope either. At the very least, go with the MSPE quote, “A full clip from an AK-47 won’t stop a vampire, but it sure will slow one down.” Over on the actual plot side, it has been interesting and good, so writing is making up for poor setup.

Sword of the Stranger — Somewhat typical samurai adventure with occult motivations to the bad guys. In many ways, a somewhat simple story in movie format, but very well done. Don’t rush to see it, but do see it.