This Just Anime!

Long titles are the trend now in case you didn't know. This is our normal powercast though, you probably know how it goes by now. We're gonna rank all the new and returning titles this season, we're gonna put them in a less than arbitrary tier system, and then we're gonna pick one or two  from each tier to talk about in a little more detail and maybe figure out why they landed where they are. As always these rankings are pretty likely to change over the course of the season, so you can stay up to date over on instagram if you're curious about how your favorite show is doing. 

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We actually mean it this time we do have a slightly shorter episode for y'all this week. We're still in awe of the most recent episode of Jujutsu Kaisen so we wanted to dig into it a little bit. Does the show deserve the hype? Is season two stacking up how we want it to? Some shit went down this week so you bet we gotta talk about it. We're getting all up in there and unpacking it for the first of probably many times over this 24 episode run. From there we're taking a look back at last season's bold Nailed It predictions before repeating the same cycle of tomfoolery for Summer 2023 and making our buy it or deny its for the season. 

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No for real though, it's actually not bad. The Summer season can be kind of a mixed bag aside from big flashy shonen titles, but we're pleased to report there's a little bit of something for everybody this season. We're not going to  be able to hit every new show this season for first impressions, but we've highlighted a couple that might be worth your time for good or maybe more nefarious reasons. No matter how you slice it there's plenty to watch this summer whether your jam is lovesick high schoolers, or badass battle dudes there's a lot to like in new series. Returning titles also get a couple of nods, the season is a little less stacked than some recent ones but with the return of Jujutsu Kaisen and Horimiya along with a few other big names rest assured your favorites are bringing it as well. 

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All jokes aside, Oshi No Ko was really damn good, but so were a bunch of other shows this season so we're gonna tell you about em. You probably know how it works at this point, we're gonna go through our rankings for the season, highlight the top 5 new and returning series and then give you the bullet points for the rest of them. From there we've got our awards to hand out, some recognizable categories you might see in another awards thing, and then a bunch of categories we made up because we felt like it. This spring had a lot on offer, and definitely something for everyone, so if you want to talk about your favorite titles one last time before being buried by the summer rush then this is the place to do it!

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As you may or may not know Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village arc just concluded with its hour long epic finale episode for the season. We've talked a lot about it this season, but we're summarizing our thoughts here as well as getting into some good details about the finale itself, so spoilers are inbound you have been warned. Before we can get to that though, we've got a sneak preview at the summer season. We've got a whole bunch of really great looking returning series, cough cough Jujutsu Kaisen, as well as others to be stoked for, and a handful of new titles we're getting hyped for. There are some pretty strange looking shows to look forward to as well so come along as we figure out what's got us excited or maybe just confused.  

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Hey We've got a whole bunch of news dropping this week and  Cory is particularly excited for both personal and podcast related things, so listen in to find out what. We got new Persona news, Misfit of Demon Kin Academy, Rascal Boy Does Not Dream of Various Things, as well as a whole slew of new premieres announced and feature length finales to boot. From there we're diving into anime villains and what makes them good. We've had kind of an ongoing discussion about shonen action series so we wanted to look at how to do an antagonist well and what we value in our bad guys. Finally Nick made a game you can play along with at home this time, Guess My SR is back and this time we give the quotes before the answer. Cory did decently for once so see how you stack up!

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Spring is pretty rapidly drawing to a close and we've been eating pretty good this season. We've had a lot of solid shows to keep up on, but this episode is largely dedicated to shows that maybe still had the jury out on them or maybe didn't get the hype they deserved. We're still talking about some of the big names this season like Hell's Paradise and Demon Slayer but we're also revisiting some of those titles that may have slipped under the radar or quietly faded into obscurity as the summer season closes in. As always this is our somewhat biased opinion, but it you're in your mid season slump and looking to catch up on something between episodes of Rokudo's Bad Girls or whatever the hell else you're watching then hey we got you covered fam. 

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We have sort of a Yuri double feature for you this week as we'll be talking about Yuri is My Job which definitely counts and Mobile Suit Gundam Witch From Mercury which in our opinions should also kind of count at least for the purposes of naming this episode. Both of  these titles have left quite an impression on us this season so we're doing a deep dive to figure out just why GWitch is so appealing to us. From there rather than just talk about Yuri is My Job we're taking a look at Studio Passione as a whole. They're a super small studio with only 25 employees or so, but they've cemented a reputation for having a couple of decent titles under their belt as well as a plethora of maybe indecent ecchi shows, but is there more there than just jiggle physics? Maybe we had this studio all wrong.  

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Power Rankings are done and we can breathe a brief sigh of relief. This week on the show we're going in depth on Oshi No Ko, the new idol show that is taking the internet by storm and demanding a great deal of our attention. A lot of people are pretty hype on this show, but we're particularly interested in its portrayal of the idol and entertainment industry in general as well as what separates it from all of the other idol type shows that have come before it. From there we get into Nick's personal gripes with Demon Slayer or maybe just hero type shows in general, is he being crazy or does he have a point? You be the judge. We're also celebrating the return of Golden Kamuy and Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible both of which suffered a delay but are finally back. We've also got a funny little hacking incident featured on this last week's one big thing. 

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It may seem weird to jump straight from first impressions into the Powercast, but whatever we're doing it and there's nothing stopping us. This season has some absolute banger new titles, and enough heat in the returning section to really demand all of our free time. There are a ton of shows to watch this season and at least half of them are pretty good. With the likes of Oshi no Ko and Demon Slayer there's truly something for every kind of anime fan and we are all eating good this spring. It might be time to finally get a Hidive account if you don't already have one though, because 2/3 of the top new titles aren't on Crunchyroll. We've got a stacked season ahead of us, so if you're looking for recs we've got you with our usual one sentence summaries and a few deep dives thrown in as well. 

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