Manga

Been in a bit of a manga slump this past month, unfortunately. Part of the problem is that I feel guilty if I don't read in Japanese^[I'm learning Japanese, so the more input I can get, the better. With subbed anime, I can at least feebly argue that I'm getting a small bit of very passive input, but with translated manga the Japanese itself is completely erased, detectable only through cracks in the translation where I can go, "Aha, I bet they're writing around [some difficult-to-translate expression]"], but also if I do read in Japanese it's quite slow going. Hope I'll have more to say next month!

Anime

Seasonal

May I Ask for One Final Thing? (Saigo ni Hitotsu dake Onegai shitemo Yoroshii deshou ka) — MC beats up corrupt nobles with her fists—what's not to love?

This Monster Wants to Eat Me (Watashi wo Tabetai, Hitodenashi) — After getting horror yaoi last season (The Summer Hikaru Died), it's time for horror yuri! I had read the first few volumes of the manga before, but the anime is already past that and ooooooh it's gettin' real juicy in the last few episodes. Probably the show I look forward to the most every week.

With You, Our Love Will Make It Through (Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru) — Cute (and surprisingly spicy!) shōjo romance with a furry love interest. The romance has moved a lot quicker than I expected, and it uses the furries to tackle racism and apartheid—nothing too deep, as of yet, but I've been pleasantly surprised by what it's covered so far. The viewer ratings on this seem to be quite harsh, but I suspect that's at least in part due to the presence of furries and the fact that it's a shojo. I suppose the romance elements aren't particularly groundbreaking, but you cannot tell me with a straight face that this show is worse than

Awkward Senpai (Bukiyou na Senpai), which I'm also watching for some reason (het seinen romance about a senpai and her new kouhai, not awful but not good, animation is baaarely holding together, wouldn't recommend).

A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace (Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu.) — Fairly standard CGDCT workplace yuribait show which follows a mangaka as she navigates her first serialization and her relationships with her editor, assistants, and fellow mangaka. It's not good enough that I'd recommend it unqualified, but if you like that sort of show it'll probably whet your appetite, and I've been enjoying it well enough.

Spy x Family Season 3 — I remember not liking Season 2 quite as much as Season 1 for whatever reason, but I'm really enjoying this one. Lots of fun moments, and we begin to learn more about Loid/Twilight's origin story. Anya continues to be a lil' stinker.

Touring After the Apocalypse (Shuumatsu Touring) — I really, really wanted to like this one. On paper, the premise (two girls on a motorbike journey across post-apocalyptic Japan) should be an easy sell for someone who absolutely adores Kino's Journey (Kino no Tabi) (2003) and Girls' Last Tour (Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou). But in execution...there's just something missing. I can't find any obvious technical faults with it—animation is solid, characters are likeable, world is suitably post-apocalyptic—but it just doesn't spark my curiosity, which is something those other two anime achieved masterfully. It may be a technically better put-together show than Awkward Senpai, but Awkward Senpai is something I'll at least throw on as something to watch while eating, whereas when it comes time to watch Shuumatsu Touring I have to fight the impulse to just watch a YouTube video instead.

Dusk Beyond the End of the World (Towa no Yuugure) — almost forgot about this one because I dropped it within the first few episodes. It showed some real promise with the pilot, but the first regular episode had me raising my eyebrow, and in the second episode slavery entered the picture without any John Brown action in sight, so I cut my losses. We get so few original anime these days, so it's pretty disappointing to see P.A. Works waste the opportunity on this garbage.

Overall, this is a much, much weaker season for me than last season, where I loved almost all the shows I watched, only dropping With You and the Rain (Ame to Kimi to), and even the ones I didn't love I still really enjoyed. But I got another excellent yuri show that seems to be doing really well, so it's not all bad! Please let this be the beginning of a new age of yuri anime...

Non-seasonal

Yuru Camp S3 — sipped on this one here and there over the course of a few months, which I think is a nice way to experience it. Not much to say about it, honestly: it's Yuru Camp. It's cozy. If you liked the other seasons, you'll also like this one. The only negative thing I can really say about it is that, due to the cooking sequences, it's basically Carnism the Animation, but I personally don't find it that off-putting.

Cardcaptor Sakura — Been (re)watching on Blorptube with other Hexbears...damn, this show is so good. Amazing OST—there's so many tracks I want to transcribe and learn I can't figure out which one to start with. Beautiful art style and animation. So many cute outfits and relationship dynamics! If you wanna revisit your childhood, I'd definitely encourage you to come join us Mondays at 6 PM EST/11 PM UTC/12 AM CET!

New Game! — as Erika said elsewhere in the thread, we've finished up Season 1 and are moving on to Season 2! Take note, EgaTae—this is how you do a CGDCT workplace comedy! S2's got another banger of an OP, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Aoba will handle her greater responsibilities (this is a rewatch for me, but I've genuinely forgotten all of the plot).

Your Name (Kimi no na Wa) — watched the Esperanto fandub that Erika hosted, which was an interesting experience! This was (at least) my fourth viewing of Your Name, having seen it in Japanese in theaters once and at least twice in English with other people, so now I've seen it in three languages! Don't really have any others I can compare it to, and I don't speak the language, but by my estimation it was pretty impressive for a fandub. Can't compete with the original Japanese, of course, but it's still a perfectly valid way to watch the movie, and the amount of effort involved to get all the translation, timing, and mixing right is impressive. And holy shit, I'd forgotten just how well the soundtrack meshes with the movie—RADWIMPS absolutely nailed the assignment.

Live Action Adaptations

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko! (Ayaka-chan wa Hiroko-senpai ni Koishiteru) — Very slapstick, but a cute little yuri show—read the manga a few years back on @Cromalin@hexbear.net's recommendation (hope she's doing okay...). I mostly watched this with Japanese subs, flipping over to English subs if I got lost. Only watched Season 1 so far.

Western Animation

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic — We've just wrapped up season 8—only one season to go! My only complaint is that Maud should be in more episodes. Give Maud her own show!!