Current season:

Initially, the only current series I watched was espisode 26 of MF Ghost, which was fine. I don’t expect it to do more than entertain me, and occasionally cynically amuse me with its adherence to the formula, and that’s what it does.

But then midweek, I was browsing back through the thread from last week and noticed that wietach had pointed to Ikoku Nikki as a surprisingly early contender for AOTS, so I gave it a shot. And I agree wholeheartedly. That was easily one of the best first episodes I’ve seen in a long, long time, and it laid the groundwork for much more to come. I loved everything about it - the story, the characters, the art style, the voice acting, the music, the dialogue, the non-linear but seamless timeline, the perfectly placed bits of surrealism… And last week’s episode - the second - was more of the same. It’s just very, very good, and in every respect.

And the first episode of You and I Are Polar Opposites aired, so I got to see that one too. I was sort of both pleased and underwhelmed - I followed the manga from start to finish and this is a faithful adaptation (even the chibified characters are the same), so it doesn’t really add anything for me. But that’s likely a good thing, since the manga was very good, and don’t mess with what works. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read the manga (or who has read it and wants to re-experience it animated) and is interested in a school slice-of-life rom-com (with multiple romances). And I’ll keep watching it for certain - my favorite character (Nishi) hasn’t even appeared yet.

Past seasons:

First up last week was the rest of Hanasaku Iroha, which I started the previous week.

It’s mostly a slice of life, with a bit of romance mixed in, and I was very impressed. The cast is excellent - large and diverse and well fleshed-out. And most of them get at least some development along the way. It’s set at a hot spring inn though, and much of the focus of the series is on the inn itself, which is very old and very traditional and very well-loved, but at this point, not very successful, so the ongoing background is the conflict between the desire to maintain the inn’s beloved traditions at the expense of commercial success or to attempt to update it to hopefully appeal to a broader range of customers, but at the expense of its traditional appeal. Along the way, different characters take different, and sometimes shifting, positions on that. But that’s just the background - the thing that knits everything and everyone together. There’s much more to it too, as the characters interact and grow. And the art and voice work were also very good. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who appreciates SOL.

Then, wanting a change of pace, I watched another episode of Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi - episode 5 of 6 total. It’s a gritty cyberpunk with 45 minute standalone episodes and an overarching plot that’s been slowly playing out (very slowly - the in-universe timespan from episode 1 to episode 5 has been 55 years). Since the episodes are self-contained and long, and tend to be both complex and brutal, I’ve just been watching them one or two at a time for a few weeks now.

Next up I bounced off of Soul Eater. I really wanted to like it, mostly because of the art style, but it’s just so shounen. I made it through the first three prologue episodes hoping it would improve when it got to the story episodes, but I only made it about halfway through the first of them, cringing all the way, and had to give up.

Then I knocked around for a bit, watching a few favorite episodes of favorite series - Apocalypse Hotel 6, Zombieland Saga Revenge 4, Asobi Asobase 4 (I’m laughing just thinking about shogi) - then rewatched Milky Subway for the I-don’t-know-how-manyth time, then finally settled on Jijou wo Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru aka The Clueless Transfer Student is Assertive aka My Clueless First Friend. It was good all in all, though the central gimmick wore a bit thin. And the art style left a bit to be desired. But it was cute and wholesome and amusing, and that’s good enough.

And at the moment, I’m rewatching Trigun Stampede, getting myself oriented for Stargaze. It’s kind of risky, since broadly what I remember is that I enjoyed it in spite of its flaws, so this time around, it’s up in the air whether I’ll be more aware of the things I enjoy or the flaws. We’ll see, but so far so good.

Started watching Golden Kamuy this week so I could get caught up with the new season that’s airing and I’ve got to say it’s a wild time. Shame the first episode having that horrible-looking bear turned so many people away.

Edit: Just watched the first episode of You and I Are Polar Opposites. Not sure how I feel about the story yet, but wow. What a gorgeous adaptation. Also worth noting that the subtitles are well-executed with good typesetting and everything!

2nd edit: Just watched the first couple episodes of Ikoku Nikki. Seems like a good, chill, well-written story with a competent adaptation. Unfortunately the subtitles in the first episode had at least one error and I noticed while watching the second episode that Crunchyroll didn’t bother with typesetting for this one. I guess since it’s not a big shounen thing they don’t care much about doing a good job.

I just finished Ika Musume 2 de geso. It’s kind of impressive how consistent this series is. The format is always the same and the content quality is very consistent from season to season and episode to episode. The only thing is that I liked the first seasons OP end ED much more. The first OP is a banger and the first ED is sung by sanae’s seiyuu itou kanae and she looks really cute in the music video.

I haven’t been able to watch the first episodes of the season as they air because I’ve been travelling over the past week. So here are some anime-related photographs in place of my usual ramblings!

There’s an ad for Oshi no Ko at the Shibuya crossing:

Entrance to Pokemon Center, Shibuya (the interior is crowded af):

Also, here is Kusogaki’s 2025 wrap for my AniList profile:

• the activity stats are useless when activities have been disabled😅
• top tags are very inaccurate; they are based on watch count instead of my ratings

So, I dug back into physical media a bit at the end of the year and managed to scrounge up some copies of older works that I either hadn’t seen or where my copy had issues (like parts of a few episodes skipping due to physical defects on the discs).

One of those I haven’t seen before is To-LOVE-Ru. I don’t know how the hell I never realized this – having seen it pop up in fanart and such for a decade or so… – but the name とらぶる is obviously a transliteration of “trouble” into Japanese. So far, the writing is wonderfully stupid; I’m not expecting much out of this in the story department, but a lighthearted distraction from our extremely depressing reality is not unwelcome right now… I’ve heard the show described as “thinly veiled hentai” before, but even with that description I was still a bit surprised they actually put unobscured female nipples in the first episode. This kind of episodic ecchi harem comedy isn’t something I find bingeable, so I’ll probably be chipping away at it episode by episode for a while when I’m in the right mood for it. Hopefully I get a few good reaction shots out of it.

For upcoming releases, I am planning to watch S2 of Frieren, but given that that’s the kind of thing I expect I’d rather want to binge, I will probably be waiting towards the end of the season to start it.

This season

Fate/strange Fake - I am but a casual Fate watcher, who has seen only Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero and did or did not find it too pretentious to my liking, why am I enjoying it this much? The cast is fun, the priest is somehow annoying but in a hot way, and the blond girl with her knight duo’s dynamic looks interesting. Fun.

In the Clear Moonlit Dusk - I was so afraid the guy would remind me of Itsuomi and I would have to either suffer or drop it, but, luckily, it wasn’t the case (I’m staying optimistically cautious though). I’m pretty sure manga is more gorgeous, but I’ll keep watching for now, since it’s from the author of Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet and Hirunaka no Ryuusei, and I enjoyed both.

You and I Are Polar Opposites – hand-holding in the very first episode? Modern romances know no shame. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this premiere. I liked how supportive Suzuki’s friends were of her. Also, OP reminded me of Shoshimin’s Kaseijin, so I looked into the director. Kyouhei Ishiguro, got to remember this name.

The Daily Life of a Part-time Torturer - watching the cast going on with their daily lives is almost satisfying, though I mostly ignore the torture bits. The boys are cute. The banter is good.

Dark Moon - looks like your standard supernatural reverse harem slop. I’m gonna watch it unironically. For now, that is.

Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You Season 2 - the production is still bad, but at least there is emotion in voices. I’m kinda addicted to this friends circle drama. Maybe I should switch to manga.

I really enjoyed muishishi, bocci the Rock and Spy x family. I’d appreciate some other modern anime recommendations. Thanks. Edit: Thanks for the suggestions.

Winter shows that I have watched so far and my impressions:

• You and I Are Polar Opposites - This premiere was great! I really enjoyed this a lot. I had seen it posted to the manga community a lot, but I am glad I went into this episode blind.
• Chained Soldier S2 - New studio, better quality. Looking forward to more.
• Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers - I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this episode. I was just going to check out episode one for nostalgia sake, but enjoyed it so much, I am planning on trying to keep up with it.
• Tune in to the Midnight Heart - A compelling first episode, but we will see if they can keep it up (or if I can keep making time for it).
• The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind - Super cute. Like super-duper cute.
• You Can’t Be in a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends - This one is a drop for me. I have read most of the manga, and I just found their dynamic more annoying in anime form. In such a stacked season, I need to make some time somewhere.

Watched This Monster Wants to Eat Me. Started off very strong, the premise had me hooked, but it sorta felt like too many episodes were going by with no real development. S1 ending felt kinda anticlimactic, and it sounds like I’ll be waiting a while for any kind of resolution.

Finished Kemonozume last week. I think it’s Masaaki Yuasa’s most underrated work so far but I’ve yet to see all his works. Really love how crude-looking it is and yet it feels very intentional and complete.