What did you all think of this past season? Anything good we missed?
Starting this week, we also have an episode transcription! Marina made this with the help of AI so beware it may have errors. See further below.
Welcome to Kaiseki Anime, where we air new episodes every other week. “Kaiseki” covers currently airing anime, older series seen recently, and other relevant topics for the season. I’m your host, Marina, of the blog, “Anime B&B,” and with me is my co-host Draggle, of the cleverly titled “Draggle’s Anime Blog.”
This week, we review the summer 2022 anime season.
So, it was quite a season, I guess.
Yes, it was there were a lot of shows. I felt like I was just like wading through so many shows that I didn’t really want to drop for some reason. But, there really weren’t that many that I would say stood out above the rest. There was only a few.
I agree. Yeah. So we’ll get to the few that stood out at the end, and let’s start with the garbage that stood out in a different way.
Let’s get it out of the way, right.
Yeah. And of course, as usual, I’m the one who watched the most garbage The first one is Black Smmoner. This was like your standard isekai. Completely forgettable. I think there were some slaves. Let’s pretend it never happened.
I probably already did, given that I think I watched this first episode and I don’t remember.
Yeah, this was like, not especially bad. It’s just so forgettable.
Anyway, the next one is sadly not forgettable because it was so stupid: The Devil is a Part-timer Season Two. This one’s a bit unexpected to find in the trash tier.
You could have boosted it, you know.
Well, I mean, people were anticipating this for years.
“Why isn’t this getting a sequel? I loved it so much.”
Yeah, I mean, look at our most recent episode.
Yeah. Now we know why this was so bad. Especially that farming arc, oh my god, what were they thinking?
“We were laughing at it. Not with it.” If I recall you saying.
Yes. So see our last episode for more thoughts on that. Next one is also only me. This one I originally dropped this, but then I saw Hyoton tweeting about it, and I was like, this is so bad. I have to watch it.
Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World. This is the one which is like actively pro-slavery. The guy goes to another world and he gets a slave. And then he goes and gets more slaves. And one of the main characters is the slave merchant. And as the ending song where he dances and sings of being a slave merchant. This show is fucked up. Oh, and he has lots of sex with his slave which is done in this very steamy supposed to be romantic way. But it is obviously not since she’s a slave.
Yeah, that doesn’t sound very desirable. Or…it just sounds really creepy.
It was really creepy. Yeah. Did you even watch the first episode of this?
I don’t recall. I think just off of the title itself, I’m already turned way off.
Yeah, you probably didn’t watch it. Actually, the title is a bit misleading because like, there wasn’t even a harem. They kind of introduced a second to girl at the last episode or something. And then in the last like two minutes, they introduced four more characters.
Yeah, I’m assuming it’s from the source material, right? Where it covers a lot more ground than this anime.
Yeah. So it wasn’t really a…I don’t know, it should have been called, like Slave Harem in Another World, because they’re all slaves. Yeah, that’s the thing.
Well, I can add some notes to this next one since I did watch I think maybe half of the season?-
Yeah, I am, too. I think I was just interested in this world. I thought it was kind of cool that everyone has these summons that they’ve called and that he was able to get something as high ranking as this…I don’t know much about her, so maybe you can say if she ended up being more powerful, but she seemed to be some super strong succubus.
Yeah, she some super strong succubus. It turned out in the last half that she has some very tragic backstory-
Yeah. Which I thought it was okay until the second half when it got all serious and it tried to be a tearjerker about the big-boobed succubus who keeps hitting on the teenager, and it didn’t really work.
That’s why I was stopping at that point, right? It was actually kind of entertaining with the jokes and the light hearted manner up to that drama in the middle and then I was like no, I don’t want this.
Exactly I enjoyed it when you had like the childhood friend wandering around naked and bumping into stuff and the succubus being a succubus, but then it tried to get all serious, and it’s just, no, please no.
Well, shall we move on then to a tier slightly higher? Although I would argue…I’m not sure if this is actually better, because a lot of these I would consider mediocre / forgettable and I think that being forgettable is actually technically a worse thing than just being trash. At least you remember that trash.
That’s true; although, some of the trash I forgot about it, too. Anyway, first: Couple of Cuckcoos. I was so excited for this show, because I loved the manga. But it’s just kind of boring.
Yeah, I remember your excitement with the first season, right, and then your disappointment at the end of the first season. And then we got the sequel, and you were kind of like, oh, well, I’m not so excited anymore. And I was giving you some hope saying, you know, maybe the drama will ramp up. And it really doesn’t. It just kind of continues in the same kind of boring, slow burn, kind of interest in these three girls.
Yeah, it’s so weird. There’s like no conflict.
Well, there’s like the weird mystery about the brother–does he or does he not exist?
Right? But it’s not like…all the main characters are getting along pretty well.
Yeah. Who likes peace and getting along? How boring!
So who do you think is the best girl?
Oh, shit. Now you’re asking me to remember their names.
You can go by hair color.
Yeah, purple-haired girl, I still like her. I still think that she’s pretty cool.
Okay, she’s the one I like the least.
Oh, well, I also like…is it Erica? The older girl.
Yeah, I still like her. Little sister’s bottom for me.
Yeah, the little sister is above purple for me. That’s how much I hate purple.
Oh, okay, well, it’s not like the show showed us anything that’s hate-worthy.
No, the show just showed us…I don’t know what it showed us.
See? So like, how can I hate her from the anime alone?
Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Well, let’s pretend this never happened. But actually is this…did this end or is this still ongoing? That’s how much I forgot about this show.
It seems like there’s like an opening for another sequel-
It was just so dissatisfying, right? Like there is no real ending. And I think it just implies that they’ll probably make another sequel if there’s enough interest.
I guess I’ll keep reading the manga because I do like that.
Let’s move on to a series that I’m fairly certain you didn’t watch-
-Extreme Hearts. And I think you made the right choice because while it had an interesting setup of like these musicians who end up doing these extreme sports with like the aid of technology to try to get some appeal for a greater audience it really just ended up being kind of a weird blend of sports and idols, which you hate those both. So definitely not for you. The world was kind of interesting with the technology that they use, but then it kind of like just kind of fades into the background and isn’t really that interesting in the long run. And they use these weird AI to like fill in for spots if a music group doesn’t have enough members like if they’re playing a sport like baseball, but it really just kind of lost me after a few episodes and they probably should have dropped it.
Yeah, I dropped it in the first episode. I don’t think I even finished the first episode.
And I’m sure you also didn’t watch the next series: Love All Play.
I put all these together. You know, I knew that these are gonna all be passes. For me, Love All Play was another sports show, and it was another forgettable one that…ah, man, why did I stick with it? I think I kept waiting to see what I love about sports so much was the like conflict, the competition between like players on the same team and across different teams, but it was just so like weak and kind of half assed and the main character was just boring.
Sounds like sports. What a waste.
No, there’s lots of good examples of that including from this current fall season by the way, which we’ll get to later. But we can move on to another one that I’m sad to say…you know, Love Live Superstar…I actually still like it. And there already is a sequel announced and I will watch that. It’s just kind of like that weird in between, you know, sometimes with longer running shows where you have like your first season that you liked a lot. And then you have the second season which tries to like delve a little bit deeper into the different characters and add new characters and then it ends up kind of being the weaker one. And I’m assuming the next one that’s been announced will perhaps harken back to what I loved so much in the first season, but it’s just more of the same.
This is a sequel, a third season with the same love lives not with new low lives?
Yeah, the same characters along with the new ones that were introduced in the second season because like you had your main cast from the first and then, you know, the next year obviously, they have open spots, they have freshmen, right? First years.
So they add in some of those characters. So I’m assuming with the third season, I don’t foresee them needing more characters, but they’ll probably have all the same ones in the third season. But I mean, I still had fun with the show and it was kind of interesting to see the new characters. There was a little bit too much focus spent on some of the first years but I’m guessing that that they thought it was necessary groundwork to set us up for the third season.
There must be like almost as many Love Lives as Fate Go characters now.
Maybe. I think I like this Superstar cast more than any of the other, surprisingly. That’s what’s kept me-
-is that, yeah, I like it better even than the very first, the original Love Live. Just some of the characters I love so much. And then it’s definitely better than…I can’t even remember the other Love Live spin-off. It’s like…takes place in a bigger sort of city school. That one I was not at all interested in.
Oh, is this the one that was like near the beach?
I think this one’s like sort of in a smaller town. I don’t remember where. It feels smaller than the city. I don’t really recall much of a beach. But it has the Chinese girl.
Chinese girl. Is she…she’s like Nico, the crazy one?
Ah, no, not really. I would say her character is pretty different. She’s energetic, and clumsy and silly, but I would not at all describe her as Nico.
Okay. I like Nico. That’s all I remember about the first one.
Well, Keke is significantly cooler than Nico. So, that’s my opinion.
Well, Nico is lame. I agree. But that’s what makes her good. Anyway, the next show sucked. I didn’t even watch it, it was so bad, even though this one is my thing, Parallel World Pharmacy.
I don’t see how you can say it sucks when you didn’t even watch it, Draggle. That’s like extreme bias, there.
I watched the second episode. That’s how hard I tried to like this.
Well, I did just write a review about it for my own blog, but I enjoyed it. I guess like the world set up, the idea of it, but it was ultimately kind of boring and forgettable, just because he can do no wrong which is common among issekai–the all powerful, the all knowledgeable, gifted by the gods to, you know, succeed in this new world. And that’s basically him, except in a benevolent way, right? Because he’s bringing his knowledge of medicine to this world that doesn’t have that knowledge. So that’s cool, I guess. And it had like a final arc that kind of combated, the reemergence of the bubonic plague, and that was kind of scary, especially like with our current experience with COVID. But, overall forgettable.
You didn’t even have slaves.
Thank god for that, Draggle. Don’t even like lament the lack of slaves. Come on.
You better be kidding. We can move on.
Yeah, almost as bad as slavery: Rent-a-Girlfriend Season Two. I’m surprised you didn’t watch this.
I wanted to tell you this, okay? I watched this with KWoo for like a few episodes, but it became so painful every week to watch him go through these cringing motions over and over again that we just couldn’t make ourselves watch another episode. We were never in the mood and so eventually we just were like, yeah, we’re not gonna watch any more of this. It’s just too embarrassing, too cringe worthy and we’ll just ask Draggle to tell us what happened at the end.
I don’t even remember what happened at the end. It was so cringe worthy and embarrassing. I was just like thank god it’s over.
See, you know what, there’s probably gonna be more, isn’t there?
Yeah, and I’ll be there for it in the hopes that…it needs to be more cringey to be memorable. That’s what I think. It just got into this holding pattern of normal cringiness.
See, I can’t stop shuddering. That’s how like grossed out I was by every episode, just his actions, his stupidity. I don’t understand how he can be so stupid and how anybody can like stomach watching him.
I don’t get it either. He shoul just make up his mind. Forget about the stupid Chizuru. Break up with all his whatever, his girlfriends or fake girlfriends, and just make some actual friends. That’s my advice.
Yeah, I could see that, just like start fresh. Try to like focus on yourself instead of trying to live through other people.
Okay. Well, glad to hear I didn’t miss anything.
Yeah, the next one was a big disappointment for me, Shine on! Bakumatsu Bad Boys.
Did you actually finish this, because I’m going to admit something. I got to like the penultimate episode and I just couldn’t make myself finish it. I was just like why did I watch?
I enjoyed the first half and after the first half, I was just like slogging through it, and I just couldn’t make myself finish.
Yeah, you didn’t mess anything. It ended exactly how you predicted.
They joined together. They defeated the bad guy. Everyone said like, oh, I’m so glad we have the new Shinsengumi and then it ended.
Wow. All right. That was like not even like that at the 11th episode, so I’m surprised they somehow like pulled him in by the 12th episode.
Yeah. Anyway, glad that’s over. I thought it would be like Mushibugyo, ’cause the start seemed like that. The first half was kind of interesting.
But then it just became so predictable and none of the characters really grow on you, they just like-
-there’s this wacky guy. He’s…yeah, they didn’t change. Exactly. Well moving on to the comedies. TEPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laughing ’til You Cry. I didn’t laugh until I cried; I’ll just put it like that.
Wait, this is the comedy one, right, where they’re trying to be professional comedians or something?
Yeah, the manzai comedy. I think I told you, I was watching this so that maybe I can understand manzai comedy. I don’t understand manzai comedy still.
What the hell, Draggle? How could you stomach a whole season of not understanding this?
There was like a couple episodes that I liked, actually, to be fair-
-there was one episode where this girl was…she time traveled on the bus over and over again. And she like had to give the right response to the jokes or she would go back in time and have to repeat. And I thought it was kind of funny. Otherwise, yeah, it was very forgettable.
It just I guess isn’t our kind of humor. Or we’re just like not in that culture to understand it, I guess.
Yeah. Like those guys in Odd Taxi who did the humor: did you think they were funny?
So maybe you do get the humor because I didn’t think they were funny.
I think it’s more of like a, I don’t know, aren’t the girls in the Laughing ’til You Cry…they feel younger, and I guess to me less relatable?
Yeah, they’re like in high school or something.
Yeah, I think that’s why it’s like, well, that’s kind of my past and I don’t really find those things kind of funny anymore, and I think with Odd Taxi them being older, and I don’t even remember the specific jokes, but I think it just related to me a little more.
Okay. Okay. Next show: When Will Ayumu Make His Move? I should have dropped it once he told me it was by the Takagi-san author, but I foolishly kept going. And it was exactly like Takagi-san in that it had one joke. And it milked it for 12 episodes and I got bored of it.
I don’t understand how you finished it in the first place. Once again.
Yeah, this one I finished by the power of cooking while watching anime.
This next one, it’s a show that only you wasted your time on.
I didn’t waste my time on it; although-
-it is kind of forgettable. But yeah, The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting was sweet and cute. And I liked the interactions between the main dude and the little girl that he takes care of. Like that was like a nice dose of sugar every week. Was it memorable? Not really. Do they make the yakuza out to be these relatable, lovable guys, which seems to be the trend lately? Yes. But I don’t regret watching it. It’s just not something that I am probably going to remember seasons from now.
Okay, that’s a more positive way to look at it.
Yeah. And I mean, if they add stuff to it, I probably will watch it. Because sometimes it’s nice to just like not think and to just enjoy these heartwarming interactions, right?
Maybe you don’t understand.
Yeah, maybe I don’t have a heart.
You have to have a heart to understand, Draggle.
You should think of the people who don’t have a heart.
Well, we can move on because there really isn’t much else to say, but there’s Yurei Deco which I think you watched, right?
You didn’t watch this one?
Oh, okay. Yeah, I watched it? It sucked.
Do you agree with me putting it here? On forgettable, mediocre?
Actually, I put it there. You hadn’t listed it.
Oh, I must have forgotten. Holy crap.
Yeah, that’s why I thought you didn’t watch it.
I watched it, but I think it was one of the earlier shows to finish. I think it finished like weeks ahead of the other ones.
I think I really enjoyed the world building. The idea of it. The literary references, all of that was fun.
Okay, what was the purpose of the literary references? I still don’t understand how this had anything to do with Mark Twain.
Well, it’s been a very long time since I’ve read any of his works, particularly Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. But if you recall, that was sort of like a commentary on society, and you know living sheltered within that society in a world that’s full of like racism and sexism and violence and I mean you see a lot of that in Yurei Deco, too, right how they have this safe bubble.
Okay, so they’re both commentaries on society. It feels like a bit of a stretch fit, but okay.
What do you mean, you didn’t think Yurei Deco was this gigantic thing about society?
I do, but I think like everything is a commentary on society.
Well, yeah. I think that it’s just like convenient tropes, words, for them to throw about, like they put names like Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer Island. And-
Yeah, I think they just said it because it sounded cool, even though in English it does not sound cool. But yeah.
I mean, it could just be that the author or the writer just really liked these works, and wanted to somehow incorporate it into their own as much of a stretch as it could be. I think that’s fine.
Yeah, I thought it was a stretch. I thought this felt like a show that like a dumb person thought would be smart kind of thing.
I just felt dumber watching this.
What I really kind of wanted was maybe, you know, since I wasn’t gonna do it, but it would be kind of cool if someone who is more intimate with the source materials, or the original materials of Mark Twain, to watch this and give their more detailed opinion on it. That would be kind of cool.
I mean, I’ve read Mark Twain. I don’t think this had much to do with it.
Okay, it’s been too long for me to recall in detail.
It has been some time, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have much to do with Mark Twain.
Either way, I still liked the world. I thought the art style was fun. And I get what they were going for. I just didn’t think that they really succeeded. And it doesn’t feel like much changed by the end for the better.
No, I don’t know. It’s like, I think the idea is that, like censorship is bad-
-but it…I don’t know, it would have been fine if they told this story like 10 years ago. But now that we’ve had like, Trump using social media to spread lots of lies, we’ve had the genocide in Myanmar, I think, it was fueled by the social media. And it just feels like so out of date.
I think it is trying sit, be somewhat relevant with the, you know, how they have the deco and the glasses and the love? Like that’s all sort of present and relative, right, to what we have now with the focus on Meta with augmented and virtual reality and cryptocurrency? That is more relevant. But yeah, I agree on your other points.
Yeah. It kind of just like, skips the, the arguments people have for some sort of moderation.
I really don’t think they had enough time. They tried to cram all these ideas into this short season.
I’m not sure that I’d agree that they had many ideas, but we can leave it at that.
No, I think they did have a lot of ideas or they just sort of like named-dropped, idea-dropped, and then didn’t follow through.
So it all ends up feeling shallow.
Yeah. The next one is a show that I didn’t like.
Yeah, it’s mine, so you can back off because I know how you feel about soccer. So this is the start of the good / recommended section that I totally would recommend to anyone who likes sports, who likes soccer. Specifically, we finally have a good one that I’ve been waiting for for a while. And I thoroughly enjoyed Aoi as he is like growing as a player, his own skills, his natural abilities that are being honed by people who noticed his skills and are showing him how he can best use them. And then how he’s going into this team that is trying to live up to their name because it’s a very famous school, and they are very cutthroat about who they allow on their team. And it was a great season. And I would like to see them have more and we can go on from there before Draggle says anything else rude about it-
We can move on to Classroom of the Elite Season Two, which we’ve both seen.
Yeah, I forgot this show existed, and I was surprised I liked it so much. I loved all the stupid drama, betrayal. Yeah, it was good.
It was fun, but I think, I honestly personally would put it at a little closer to forgettable.
I will never forget you, Classroom of the Elite.
I think the first season was more groundbreaking for me because it felt so unique. The second seasons still feels a little bit more like what we got from the first season. So it’s not as shocking and not something I, you know, remember as much as the original season.
You should have been like me and forgotten the first season.
Well, the vibe was familiar. Like I don’t remember the details, but I was like, oh yeah, I’m not shocked anymore by these kinds of things because these are obviously things that are going to happen in this show.
I was kind of shocked when he was like, “Well, you wanna see my smart plan? I’ll beat the shit out of you with my fist.”
That was the most surprising thing to me this season was seeing how competent he actually was physically.
Yeah. wasn’t expecting that.
Yeah, that was a cool episode. Everything else kind of fades to nothing. To me.
Okay. It does have the problem of being way too complicated. Like that thing with all the different planets? I had no idea what was going on.
None of their tests are really that interesting to me. It’s more like how they react to it that makes it interesting.
I think we’ve talked about before how the the rules of these games are so needlessly complicated that it kind of goes in one ear and out the other.
It does. They need to spend more time on like their bullshit quotes and betrayals, but I still enjoyed it.
Yeah, I mean, I enjoyed it, for sure.
Okay, next show I think is all me. You probably wouldn’t like this one, but let me just describe one of the best scenes. It’s when the new character gets introduced: Sharon the nun. Her nickname is “The Chast.”
You don’t say it like “chast?” You say it like “chased?”
Okay, Sharon the Chaste, if that’s what you prefer. And she she gets defeated via poison, which is delivered by a coating on the main character’s penis.
Yeah, it’s a great show. Highly recommended.
I have nothing to say because I dropped it after the first episode and I don’t want to dilute your praise for Engage Kiss.
Okay, next is It It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season Four. And you might have seen my tweet, he finally picked up a girl in the dungeon.
Which one are we talking about, the mermaid?
Yeah. And she was very happy. She was smiling. I don’t think there was anything wrong about it.
No, KWoo and I were like, wait, we’re finally dungeon diving after like four seasons, you know. Finally! We are spending most of our time in the dungeon rather than up in the main world with all the gods and goddesses. So this was a welcome change for me.
Yeah, I think I like this probably the best of all the seasons so far.
Same. I really thoroughly enjoyed myself. Like I enjoyed the first season. I think that’s what caught my attention is obviously the charm of it, this idea of this world, but they sorely needed to spend more time diving into the depths and showing us what is inside the dungeon. Like why their lives revolve around it. And we finally got that here.
Yeah, this was a big improvement over season two and three for sure.
Yeah, I’m actually excited for a sequel.
Oh, is there a sequel already?
I don’t know. But I mean, how can you just end like that? There’s gotta be more-
-and I’m gonna be there for it.
This one seems pretty popular, so I assume there will be a sequel.
Shall we move on to one that is very heavy?
Yeah, Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun. Honestly, I didn’t like this as much as the first season. I think it became a bit of the same. And also this…well. It’s not the same. I think the problem was it wasn’t enough of the same because they spent all this time in the city. They introduced all these new people. And they kind of put the main characters on the back burner for a little bit.
Well, they were really focusing on the themes of this city, right? And the idea of what it is to be an adventurer, or what it is that they desire. That’s what this entire village is about is their desires. Right? And it’s just…the show is so well crafted. It’s beautiful, and it’s also really fucking depressing. Every single episode weighed so heavily, and I just like thought terrible things about all these people every episode. And yeah-
They made us kill Mitty again.
We watched…every episode there was some…another form of body horror. Like do not eat when you’re watching this show.
No, this one I did not watch while I was cooking.
No. I mean you have to focus, too. I think another thing with Made in Abyss, particularly this season, is that it’s a heavy show, but it also kind of requires your attention. I think if you look away too long, you’re gonna miss very important details.
I also did not watch the show after 6pm.
You just gotta chase it with something light hearted.
I don’t enjoy fun like you do, that’s the problem. Or, no, what do you call it, cuteness?
Oh, yeah, something like…that’s heartwarming. Something that’s healing.
Yeah, I can’t do the heartwarming like you.
Yeah, you need to find a healing series that you can actually stomach.
Yeah, my healing series was Engage Kiss.
So watch Engage Kiss after Made in Abyss.
Yeah, maybe, maybe. I don’t think Engage Kiss is powerful enough to override Made in Abyss.
Made in Abyss is way too strong.
Yeah, but you’re right, like I missed their adventuring. But I did understand I think the importance of this season even though I felt like it was too long.
It was just like too heavy, too long, as interesting as it was, and I am really excited to see them continue on their journey. Hopefully it will not lock them in place like this season did.
Yeah. I was mainly complaining about it, but it was still really good.
Next show, probably only I watched this: My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex. I can’t believe I’m putting this in the good, recommended, category.
Because it sounds horrible. It’s about my stepmom’s daughter is my ex. I thought for sure this would go in the trash title, the trash category, just from reading the title.
After the first episode I saw I definitely would have put it in the trash. But I didn’t continue.
Yeah, but this is actually like a really thoughtful show about relationships and stuff.
Okay. That’s good to hear.
Yeah, it kind of reminded me of Oregairu.
Man, you love that show. You bring that up, I swear, every season.
I do love Oregairu. It’s a great show. Yeah, and this one definitely reminded me of that. Yeah, one of the acts I like best, it’s when the main character…he has a close friend. And she asks him out, and he says no. And then his main love interest, his sister, or step sister, I guess, she’s like, “Oh, you can’t keep being friends with with each other now that this happened.” And then they’re both like, “Oh, why not?” And then they’re best friends. Yeah. Anyway, it was good.
I think you’re gonna have to go alone into this next one as well, Draggle, because I never finished Overlord 3, so I didn’t start Overlord 4.
Oh, really? For some reason, I thought you were a big Overlord fan.
I was for like the first season. The second season kind of wore me down. The third season, I started to lose interest. And I never intended to drop it. I just stalled partway through and I haven’t picked it up again.
Well, you might be happy to know I thought the second and third season were both garbage, but the fourth season was really good. I thought it was actually better than the first season.
Okay, so here’s my important question: do I need to catch up on the previous series to understand and enjoy this fourth season?
No, just forget about that.
Really? Can I like just not watch them at all? Or not finish season three and start with season four and not miss anything?
I think so. You’ll figure out anything you missed. It wasn’t important.
I forget which season it was, they had like this whole long arc about the lizard men.
Yeah, I feel like that was the second…I can’t remember.
That was like the start of when it went downhill. And those lizard men never mattered again.
I liked the lizard men. It just went too long.
Yeah, it was way too long. Anyway, this one…did you remember? Like, there was some kingdom and there was like this fat kid who was plotting to take over. And he had his sister who was like, looked really nice, but she’s secretly like the most evil person in the world.
Okay. Well, you probably saw that. Anyway, this was all about them. And it feels like the main plot is actually moving forward again. And it’s not just like side stories.
Oh, okay. Then I will make this a priority. Like the next time I have a nice bulk amount of time to go back and marathon it.
Yeah, I think you’d like it. The only thing I didn’t like is the main character’s becoming less like a nice guy in a skeleton body, and more just like an evil skeleton.
Yeah. But he still has little bit of his own personality, but it feels like he’s getting overridden by his undead nature, or whatever.
Yeah. I mean, you spend enough time in a different world, maybe he just starts to forget who he used to be.
Yeah, but I still like this show a lot. Yeah, I think you’d like it.
Well, how about this next one? Shadows House second season? Are you still enjoying this one?
Yeah, I am. I don’t think I enjoyed it quite as much as the first but it’s still pretty…going strong I thought.
Yeah, I think if this was the first season we were talking about, I would put this up among the best of the season because I did really love the first season. The second season is very strong. I still greatly enjoyed it. But you’re right. Some of the novelty has worn off. And it’s not as surprising anymore; although, there are some interesting mysteries that are brought up. And obviously the ending is open for a sequel if they come out with one so I’ll watch that as well.
I don’t know what else to say. It was fun, the mysteries. It’s just kind of sad that some of the characters that we liked from the first season are gone or they’re compromised.
Yeah, I think it just felt like things were moving a bit slower than the first season. First season, like, everything’s new. You’re seeing all these developments. This one was more like an extended mystery of who did it kind of thing.
Yeah. And they’re like, introducing us to people throughout the house, other members from, you know, different classes that we hadn’t met before. So that was good to know. But it just doesn’t feel as-
It felt like more of a setup than-
-like we’re still waiting to deliver on all the setup, kind of.
I think that sounds about right, setting up for the third season, hopefully.
Yeah, hopefully. The next one might be the only one we disagreed on.
We both really enjoyed Summer Time Rendering at the start of the season, right? And even partially through the middle.
Oh, start of this season. Start of the first season, I wasn’t too fond of it.
Well, no, because you kept comparing it to Higurashi at the start, which obviously everyone made that comparison. It makes sense, right, given the setup, given the time travel? Yeah. And then when the whole mystery about like the shadows comes about, I think that’s when it starts to become much more entertaining, more unique. And then it, like you said, I’m pretty sure you disliked the constant battles, right?
Yeah. I lost most of my interest in the last third, kind of. Once it started giving the answers about who were the shadows. It just wasn’t very interesting answers, I thought. And then it was too much battling.
I enjoyed the battles myself; although, like you said, they weren’t really surprising anymore. But it was still kind of cool seeing, you know, when they would choose to loop, who would die in which loop. That was all interesting. When they lost Ushio I was kind of concerned until I realized quicker than the main character did what had happened to her. So I think they had a lot of great ideas. The follow through wasn’t the best. The ending was just too happy. It was too convenient.
I agree. Wasn’t as good as Higurashi. Should have had an ending filled with eternal suffering.
Yeah, I think that would have made it more memorable. But I mean, I’m happy for the characters because I liked them. It was just such a nice little bow that they wrapped at the end.
Okay, I hated Ushio. I thought she was dumb.
She’s like permanently in a school swimsuit. Get some clothes.
Well, they explained the whole thing about that.
It takes too much energy to like, think about how difficult it is for her to like grow her hair out, to like repair herself. You want her to come up with some fantastic outfit just to satisfy your boredom? Come on.
That all sounds like a very convenient excuse to have her always wear a school swimsuit.
No, to me it was practical, because it’s like the bare minimum that still keeps her decent but covered and doesn’t expand unnecessary energy.
Well, let’s move on to best of the season, which I’m wondering if you agree with what I have on here.
Really? Okay. So the first one is Call of the Night, which of its vibes alone is like one of my favorites of the season. Like I could just dance and sing around to this music constantly.
Oh, it was a very good, good opening song.
Yeah, well, and the entire vibe of the series.
Yeah. It wasn’t…I’m still thinking about the Kongming opening song? Wasn’t quite that good. But yeah, it was a great vibe. It’s like Bakemonogatari, except it doesn’t overdo it.
What did you think about the ending, though?
That whole conflict at the end with him starting to question…with the introduction of the vampire hunter, right? Where he’s like questioning whether he wants to be a vampire and then whether or not he can actually fall in love. Will they fall in love with one another? And then that kind of thing at the end?
Yeah I thought it was good.
Yeah, me too. I was okay with how they ended it. And I don’t think a sequel is required.
Yeah. Reminds me of Oregairu. Just kidding. I’m saying that only to annoy you.
Let me just like shake you. What about Lycoris Recoil? Does that remind you about Oregairu?
No, that doesn’t remind me of Oregairu at all.
Thank god. Talking about Lycoris Recoil, which is the only other one on best of the season, I fucking loved this show.
Yeah, it’s not the thing I normally like, but it was really good. Super well done. Beautiful animation.
I think it wins out on its writing: the dialogue, the interactions, like showing instead of telling different things. It’s just all really well done.
Yeah, I love like how cheeky Chisato is.
She has like a good mouth on her.
Yeah, and sometimes she’ll just like, have some gesture, too. Not just all talk.
Yeah, she’s got great body language. I mean, all of them do.
I think I was just semi-disappointed by the ending. I don’t know if you feel the same.
I thought the ending was really funny. I liked how, what’s her name, Takina? She was like running up the staircase for 45 minutes and in a big panic while Chisato was sitting there, sipping Cola and sharing an indirect kiss with the bad guy.
Oh, they totally just shrugged that off, right? Like that’s what it was and in any other show they would make a big deal about it being an indirect kiss, but here it’s totally nonchalant. Like whatever, we’re sharing a drink, it’s okay.
I thought it was hilarious.
No, I was just kind of disappointed because like the whole vibe of Majima is that he is like anti-establishment, right, or like anti like how strong of a hold they have, how it’s imbalanced. And how he’d always go for the underdog was his thing. Like he would be on her side if they were the underdog. But honestly, like, nothing changes. Like the ending was cute with the food truck and everything. But everything’s back at status quo, isn’t it?
Yeah, but…I mean that’s pretty much what I expected from a show like this.
I guess. I thought they would address it a little more than they did.
That’s fair, but I’m glad they lived happily ever after in their gay food truck.
The food truck is fantastic. And I would 100% go to it.
Okay, so let’s go ahead and move on to the ongoing shows and some of the other ones that did air that we really didn’t finish or get too far into since some of them were just like dropped all at once.
You can go ahead and start with what you always start with.
Of course, the third best show this season is Boruto, as usual. This one is actually one of my favorite arcs of the whole show. Kawaki, he’s one of the main characters, he is like, Boruto’s age so he’s like a high schooler, he infiltrates elementary school with Boruto’s sister as like his ninja mission. And he becomes friends with the elementary schoolers. And it sounds so dumb, but it’s so good.
Dude, elementary school kids are pretty entertaining, so I believe you.
Yeah, this is a really entertaining arc. And it’s been revealed in the last episode that there’s a traitor among them.
Tell me it isn’t so! Okay, cool.
Yeah. The next one I didn’t watch.
I haven’t either. I’ve only seen I think one or two episodes, but what I’ve seen so far has really excited me. I’d like to really sit down and finish it off. CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS, inspired by the game Cyberpunk. I don’t know if you’ve played it, but I don’t even know if like the storylines overlap at all, or if it’s just set in the same world. But it’s gorgeous. And like in a cyberpunk kind of way, if you know, like the technology, but when it’s all this, like futuristic technology, there’s a lot of waste and trash and poverty, and I think it’s pretty cool. But there’s not much else I can say about it since I’ve only seen a couple of episodes, but I think you should try it.
Okay, interesting. Yeah, all I know that it is I heard about the video game and I heard that it really, really sucked.
On its release. But I think that there have been improvements made since then, that people are now enjoying. Yeah, I don’t think…you don’t need to know anything about the game to enjoy the anime from what I’ve seen.
The next one, Fuuto PI, again, I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, but I have been having fun with it. This is a spin off of the old and popular Kamen Rider. And yeah, and I’ll say I just…I’m kind of having fun. It’s a little sexualized with some of the female characters, but I still kind of like that they’re running around solving mysteries with the power of, you know, their mech suits, and the monsters that they fight.
Do they have any poison delivered via penis?
Ah, they do have some penis jokes.
That’s what I’m in for, yeah.
Yeah, I’m trying to remember the exact phrase where he’s all like you can like eat my…I can’t remember. He’s like an insect, a bug man, where he like says something very suggestive.
Oh. I never even heard of this. It’s an anime?
Cyberpunk is on Netflix. Fuuto PI is an ONA, maybe that’s why again, you haven’t heard of it? You seem to miss out the ones that are only released online. And it looks like it’s on Crunchyroll.
Interesting. Okay, maybe I’ll check it out.
Yeah, I don’t know what the deal with it is. If it just like all came…I think it has been staggered. It just kind of started late because it’s not even done yet. I think the 12th episode comes out in a couple days, which will be the final episode so it had a late start.
The next one, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, a prologue episode, a long episode, came out in July, but it’s kind of here because of when it was released. But it’s really more related to the current fall season, which has a Witch from Mercury series that takes place several years from what goes on in this prologue.
Yeah, and we’ll talk about that next time. But it’s good.
Yeah. It’s very…well, this prologue is very good.
Yeah. Next is Uncle from Another World. This was supposed to air this season, but then they kind of didn’t finish. And now it’s been delayed. So it’s kind of a disaster from what I gather. But I quite like the first five or six or however many episodes there were.
So the series itself isn’t a disaster?
I thought it was pretty good. But the production and planning is a apparently a disaster.
Ah, okay. I only watched I think one or two episodes. I just sort of stalled out with a bunch of other things that had my priority more. And I wasn’t quite sure…I don’t really like the characters maybe is my problem.
I don’t think you’re supposed to like them.
But it’s like really hard for me to watch a show when I don’t like the characters, you know what I mean? Like it’s kind of entertaining the stupid shit that they do. But if I don’t really like them, then I’m not as quickly compelled to want to see what they’re going to do next.
I see. I really love it when I hate the characters.
Like Rent-a-Girlfriend. That was great. Suzaku from Code Geass. One of my favorite characters.
So you’ll finish this when it finishes.
Yes, yes, I’m looking forward to the rest. And the last show is Utawarerumono Mask of Truth. And this one’s still ongoing. Still really good. Looking forward to…I think this is probably the last season.
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