Hi newcomers! Welcome!! You might see me around in most/all of the discussion threads for a week or two because I’m the sort of unhinged person who watches everything to start off (it gets trimmed down FAST, lol). Since it seemed to work last time, I’m going to continue to not have rikka make posts for stuff I don’t plan on continuing to watch, and instead review them in these threads.
Even with my hectic summer, I managed to finish my shows before fall started, yay! Here’s my thoughts:
Alya Hides Her Feelings - 6/10
What could have been a strong romance anime sort of devolved into one part harem comedy (why??) and one part student council drama (and no parts romance). I really just wanted them to have an almost kiss or some sort of progress, seriously. The student council stuff was sort of interesting, but it kind of overwhelmed the back half of the season. I guess if/when it gets a season 2 I’ll see how I feel at the time. The two mains are really cute together, but I can’t stand a romance in a holding pattern.
Shoshimin - 10/10
Absolutely incredible, start to finish. The character writing was amazing, the dumb little mysteries were a delight (the charlotte episode was a standout for me), and the big plotline at the end both felt like a culmination and delivered on the excellent mystery writing the series had built up so far, but on a larger scale. The leads parting ways could have ruined the season, but instead it felt natural and I’m excited to see what happens next. While I wait, I might have to finally go check out Hyouka.
Twilight Out of Focus - 7/10
A cute little anime with big ambitions, but falls a little short. I think it’s cool that it tries to be so cinematic when the story revolves around the film club. The problem is that it’s just so cheesy all of the time, lol. I enjoyed watching it (except the third couple, who I hate together), but I don’t know that I could really recommend it. It’s at least nice to have more gay anime that’s not full of consent issues, though.
Yatagarasu - 9/10
How were more people not watching this one?? This was a fantastic show, with some shocking and (mostly) earned twists, that delivers a story better than its source material could. It nails both the little character moments and the broader mysteries, and hints toward future plotlines I’m very sad we may never see in anime form, if this is as unpopular as it looks. Seriously, go watch it if you like imperial court dramas.
Bonus: Odd Taxi - 6/10
My friends and I watched this together (one of us had seen it before and insisted), and after hearing many, many recommendations for it, I sort of expected to be more wowed by it. IDK, I wasn’t ever really attached to any of the characters and it felt like the mysteries weren’t really built up in a way where you’d have that satisfying “oh, if I’d paid more attention I could have figured that out!” moment. The most invested I ever got was the few episodes where I thought Kakihana was about to be killed, but they deprived me of even that small joy, lol. I also felt like some of the twists at the end - Odokawa’s brain damage in particular - ultimately didn’t really matter to the story and felt like a twist for twist’s sake. But I think a biggest problems I had are that I’m both a slow reader and a hater of manzai-style comedy, so to me the dialogue was hard to follow and dull - I found out too late that the anime actually has a dub, which I think would have solved one of those problems, but I’m not sure if it would have fully fixed the show for me. I know a lot of people really like this show, and I’m glad y’all have something you really enjoy, but ultimately I don’t think it’s as good as people build it up to be.
My friends and I are still working through their three picks for this season (otokonoko, dahlia, and elusive samurai) because we run a couple weeks late, but i expect high scores on two of those (sorry dahlia, lol) when we finally finish them.
Good news! Well, maybe good news? It looks like we ultimately don’t know when or what form the new anime will be, but something is in the works.