I'm rewatching Shimoneta which was way ahead of its time.

This is the most seasonal anime I've been watching in ages.

There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless... (a.k.a. WataNare) - oh hell yeah, you know I'm eating up that yuri goodness. It's not high art, but it's very fun and one of the shows that I look forward to the most each week.

Bad Girl - more girlfail yuri. Yes please.

The Summer Hikaru Died (Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu) - Compelling BL horror show set in the Japanese countryside. I won't say more, since I don't want to spoil anything, but if that sounds remotely interesting you should definitely check it out.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity (Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku) - Very cute romance which dispenses with a lot of the things I dislike about romance anime. Both of the lead characters are precious cinnamon rolls. What's not to love?

Ruri Rocks (Ruri no Houseki) - This one is the sleeper hit of the season for me. I hadn't heard any hype about it, but when I was scrolling through the anime schedule it caught my eye, and I'm glad that it did. The show features a mineralogy grad student introducing the main character to the world of geology and pulling her down the rabbit hole. It's gorgeously animated, and the author's love for the subject is really shines through (from what I've read, the author studied mineralogy in university and taught high school science). Watching the show will actually teach you some basic mineralogy, which I've found fascinating, and seeing Ruri's pure-hearted joy in learning about the world around her really makes me want to dive deeper into my own passions.^[I should mention that there is a fair bit of Anime Bullshit™ in terms of character designs and some lingering camera shots, which become apparent even in the first episode. It hasn't detracted from the show for me, especially since it really is just the camera and not any gratuitous scenarios, at least thus far, but it's enough that it would definitely raise some eyebrows in a general audience.]

See You Tomorrow at the Food Court (Food Court de, Mata Ashita.) - Not much to say about this one, tbh. Entirely dialogue-driven show with a nice dynamic between the two main characters, but I wouldn't say it's a standout. It's also only 6 episodes, though, so not a major commitment.

My Dress-Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru) Season 2 - My hetslop guilty pleasure show. Yes, there's a lot of fanservice, but the main characters are both really charming and I enjoy learning about the craft of cosplay. Plus, you can tell that there's so much love being poured into this production, and all those extra touches elevate this adaptation beyond the source material.

Turkey! - Is it a great show? No. But it's not terrible, and the premise is so silly that (so far) I'm still compelled to keep watching it.

I ended up dropping With You and the Rain (Ame to Kimi to). It's a cute show, but there's such little substance to it that I just didn't feel motivated to keep watching it after the first few episodes.

I'm also sort of paused on CITY THE ANIMATION. It's incredible for what it is (wacky non-sequitur comedy supported by gorgeous over-the-top KyoAni sakuga), but I think I tend to bounce off of pure comedy shows. There are exceptions (Asobi Asobase comes to mind), but a similar thing happened with Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan where I gradually fell off about halfway through even though I was enjoying it well enough. It's just hard to sustain my interest over an entire season without that emotional throughline.

As for non-seasonal shows:

Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater (Houkago Teibou Nisshi) - was put onto this one by our very own Erika and I'm quite enjoying it! I'm a sucker for CGDCT focused on a niche hobby, and it's nice to learn about fishing without any actual fishies being harmed.^[...yeah, I know the production team almost certainly went on some fishing trips for research purposes...]

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 2 - I watched the first season when it aired as well as a few eps of this season, but I dropped it back then for whatever reason. All of the recent excitement about the world release for the game piqued my interest, and I'm glad I returned to this because it's a lot of fun. What's not to like about hype horsegirl races and top-tier idol music?

K-On! - I've been participating in the watchalong on Blorptube and goddamn, I forgot how good this show was. Of course it's legendary, and I rated it 10/10 when I first watched it, but I'm sure everyone's had the experience of going back and watching an old favorite only to realize it didn't hold up. K-On! is the opposite of that for me—I appreciate it even more now since it's spawned so many copycats and yet still stands as one of the greatest works in its genre. Doesn't hurt that the music absolutely slaps.

Zeta Gundam. It's really good

Started DanDanDan, just the first episode. I'm really intrigued, and I feel like the main characters are more like the kinds of teenagers you see in real life than in most anime.

I um... Broke down and consumed all the {animated Shen Yun|Apothecary Diaries} light novels, and then the translations web novel that followed, over the course of like a week. Idk why I like that show so much but it hooked me.

Past couple nights I had some time to kill with Netflix and I watched Uncle from Another World. Thought it was pretty funny slop; it's one of those 'oblivious to the obvious harem' isekai situations so there is some "accidental" fanservice.

Dandadan, reading and watching.

Chainsaw Man, Fujimoto is killing it.

Hajime No Ippo chapter 1500 came out today. Morikawa is a wild man.

Oh, the other day I got bored and caught up on the New Boruto. It's got a kind of DBZ feel to it, I might keep reading it for a bit.

I thought there was something else but I can't remember what it was.🤔🤷

Will it continue being questionable? Almost certainly lol.

Nisemonogatari is actually the peak of questionable fanservice. It is much more tame in later seasons.

Finished this month w/ mom:

• Cells at Work: Code Black had a very good finale.

Continuing alone:

• I'm In Love With The Villainess (Wataoshi) still isn't a top-tier favorite, but its Gay Antics are starting to endear themselves to me.

Continuing w/ mom:

• Neon Genesis Evangelion (12/26 eps)
• Ojamajo Doremi (29/51 eps)
• Steins;Gate (9/24 eps)
• Squid Girl season 2 (6/12 eps)
• The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan (9/16 eps)
• Samurai Champloo (23/26 eps) — I'd completely forgotten that the "Baseball Blues" episode had its own special ending theme, but I've been listening to it non-stop since we saw that episode. Very catchy, very groovy!

No progress since last month (watching alone):

• The Shaman King reboot didn't really catch my attention, but I'll get back to it after finishing Wataoshi.

No progress since last month (watching w/ mom):

• The Boondocks season 3
• Revolutionary Girl Utena we decided we'd get back to after finishing something else.

Started this month w/ mom:

• CITY the ANIMATION had a good first episode, but we haven't continued it since then, I guess because we already have so many other things we're watching. We're truly drowning in options.
• I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level season 2 has been pretty good thus far, we're three episodes in. I honestly didn't realize how much I missed Slime 300. This season is animated by a different studio, but I can't really tell the difference, and the studio curiously doesn't have a Wikipedia article nor any anime credits other than Slime 300 season 2.

Manga:

• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken — I finished the first volume with my mom and we weren't super impressed with it. It's a story about anime production so it works better as an anime.
• The Demon Girl Next Door — this is the manga we're reading together now that we've finished Eizouken. We have only seen the anime before, and the manga volume we're reading is a few volumes after where the show left off. So between that, how long it's been since we saw the show, and how this show/manga already strikes me as having too many characters, worldbuilding thingies, and plot points for a magical girl parody yonkoma... We've been kinda confused thus far. But it's still nice to see the characters again in any case.
• Ranma ½ Norwegian translation — I'm nearly done with volume 4, which I think is where the reboot anime has left off (although season 2 is coming soon, right?). So it'll be nice to move on to Ranma stories I haven't heard since I watched the '80s anime, which is starting to be a while ago.
• Sailor Moon Esperanto translation — I'm nearly done with the parts of the manga which have been translated. It's been nice.

I've also been taking volume 2 of The World of Narue with me to work lately but I haven't actually started reading it yet. I did read the first volume a while back, and I thought it was decently entertaining at the same time as it was kinda trashy (pantyshots, y'know).

After learning about the recent Mangadex DMCA thingy I found another site to download manga from, and downloaded Norwegian translations of (a few pages) of two Precure manga, and the Russian translation of Cardcaptor Sakura. These aren't things I've actually read this month, although I have read parts of them previously.

Blorptube:

• Once Upon a Time... Life — We recently finished this one. It was decent.
• SPARKLE ON RAVEN: The Life of DrillGirl — Since I'm feeling a little burned out on Barillé shows, I'll be showing this tomorrow instead. I've seen the first episode and some reviews, and it looks promising, albeit pretty short. Episode 6 is still in production. A week after SPARKLE ON RAVEN I'll be showing My Jungle Book, Your Year, which I saw at least part of many years ago. Part of my reason for showing "fanime" on Blorptube is because I've lately been thinking of trying to make my own.
• K-ON! — Garg has been showing this one lately, and I'm certainly enjoying seeing one of my favorites again. This is my third time watching K-ON! overall, but my first time watching it subbed, and for that matter my first time watching it in 4:3 format. I'm also glad to see our friend AernaLingus tuning in. We're more or less done with season 1, there's just the "extra" episode and the season 1 OVA episode before we move on to season 2.
• Delicious in Dungeon — Garg has also been showing this one lately. I saw the first two episodes I think, but I wasn't super impressed with it compared to the hype it got, so I don't know if I'll bother tuning in tonight. Maybe it just caught me at a bad time, or maybe the premise just doesn't work for me.
• LOOK BACK — Clara showed this one recently. It's a short but very good movie. It's very clearly partially based on the KyoAni arson attack of 2019, which I found striking.
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic — I don't think I normally include this in these threads. As I have been doing for several months now, I've been showing a few episodes of MLP:FiM every Saturday. More recently I've started to spice things up by also queueing a special "TV☆3SIS" intro before the episodes, as well as trailers for the episodes we'll be watching next week along with a Soviet "DON'T FORGET TO TURN OFF YOUR TV" message, once we've finished all the episodes. The chat seems to find it entertaining, and I'm impressed at my ability to consistently make the episode previews the day before on zero sleep. In any case, this coming Saturday we'll be finishing season 5, so that'll be fun. We're now officially over midway through FiM, and on the whole I'd say it's been nice. I'm reminded of all the reasons I fell in love with the Horse Cartoon to begin with, at the same time as it's now easier to see all of its flaws (manely that it's full of liberal brainworms).

Serial Experiments Lain

Wanted to watch because I’ve heard it’s a very foundational work in the realm of like cassette futurism cyberpunk aesthetic, which I love.

What keeps me watching, however, is the fact I have no fucking clue what is going on lol

Watching Dandadan as it airs, still enjoyable despite its well-discussed flaws. I take this as a sign that I have terminal anime brainpoisoning

Slowly making my way through Space Brothers. It's fine but it's also very much a TV anime, with plenty of recycled shots or long, panning holds that really drags down the pacing. Also things like having a character whisper something to another character that the audience can't hear, to set up a mystery, but then later in the same episode they flash back to the whisper and it's not even anything useful or dramatically relevant, it was just a way to stall for like 20 seconds twice. Partway into S2 I started watching at 1.5x speed and it feels much better. Music's nice, a shame that they only have like 4 tracks.

E: Forgot, reading Chainsaw Man, last chapter was

For currently airing anime I'm keeping up with Watanare, The Summer Hikaru Died, and City. I'd recommend the last two to pretty much anyone. Watanare is probably not for general audiences lol. I also finally got around to watching Serial Experiments Lain. It's really interesting so far. I wonder if Subahibi was inspired by it? I'm seeing a lot of parallels.

been very a weak anime time for me. i started a bunch of seasonals but haven't continued most of them for time reasons. i still have some seasonals from past season and i don't want to drop them but they are acummulating. for non seasonals, just started a Digimon Adventure (1999) rewatch but i'm still on the first episodes so i don't have an opinion yet. i do have a list of series i want to start watching soon so maybe next thead i do have some interesting opinions.

short opinions on the seasonals:

City the animation: great show, very funny but i need to space out the episodes or it stops being funny (same happened with nichijou)

the summer hikaru died: amazing mystery/romance gay show. loving everything about it (except the opening. i hate it!)

Kaoru hana wa rin to saku: already fan of the manga, and probably the only het manga i read, but still one of the best romance stories i have read. characters are good and the situations and problems are actually addressed by discussing them instead of the usual miscommunication tropes. anime adaptation is capturing well the story although i find it a bit lacking in general. nevertheless is still great

i also have been trying donghua and it has been a very interisting surprise. i will probably start overconsuming it as soon as i can, since anime has been a bit of a downer recently

To Be Hero X: probably one of the best animated works i have ever seen. superheros struggling with public opinion-based powers really gives some very unique stories to tell. animation is not only incredibly good but also is used as a storytelling tool that doesn't shy away of exploring different styles to communicate different things. the musicalisation is also really well done. the whole setting is quite introspective and the characters feel complex and extremely relatable. i was never fan of the super hero settings but this one is so interesting to see and analize that i'm craving many more like this one.

The All-devouring Whale: pokemon in ancient china sounds already interesting and the series succeed at making it better. it tends to fall lots into comedy and common tropes but has some great relationship building moments and battles are creative enough to stay interesting. animation is really gorgeous and the whale is hyper cute and i need a whale plushie.

Seasonals baby. Just read:,

The Golden Sheep it was short and mostly okay but the message was too underdeveloped for me

Desperate for more weeklies as all my favs ended

New Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is the only show this season I'm watching right now. It remains pretty fucking hilarious, and the soundtrack is especially good.

Still reading 100GF, it remains funny.

Seems like Tis Time for Torture Princess is winding down, which is sad but the ending seems funny so far.

I got this little device that connects to the PC and makes the sound output better so I watched the OG Ghost in the Shell movie to test it, it's been 10 years since I saw it, maybe more, then I watched the sequel (not as good), and then started re-watching the SAC series. The OG movie and the series still hold up. If I keep going I'll probably hop over to Frieren or Mushishi. There's been new Mushishi stuff released since I watched it a long time ago. Maybe I'll get some other ideas from this thread.

I heard Yuri!!! On Ice is good? I've seen City the Animation brought up in the last few weeks.

Mushishi. Just finished the first series and started the second a few days ago. It's shot up to one of my favorite animated shows of all time. Simply incredible. Also just started Zetta Shounen which has a great heartwarming but melancholic kind of feel...and it's strange, feels an Anime with Twin Peaks vibes.