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ridley-was-a-cat · 20 days

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Winter 2024 Anime Roundup

Anime of the Season – The Apothecary Diaries

I’ve been hearing about this series since Raven of the Inner Palace aired a while back, and the fans spoke so highly of it that I was dubious of anything living up to the expectations they’d set. Luckily for me, they weren’t exaggerating one bit, and the anime adaptation delivered a story that had me itching to watch the next installment as soon as the episode ended each week.

The story opens with Maomao getting abducted and sent to work in the imperial palace, where she intends to keep her head down and just quietly do her work in the inner palace, only to find a little matter involving poison she can’t resist poking her nose into, leading a powerful young man in the palace to take notice of her. Throughout the story, her desire to mind her business and not get tied up in palace affairs wars with her absolutely insatiable curiosity wherever drugs or poisons are involved, and it leads her in and out of a series of mysteries involving the residents of the palace, changing the course of her life. It was an absolute treat to watch her and Jinshi dance around each other, as Maomao wants nothing to do with the beautiful man all the women fawn over, and he finds her lack of interest in him irresistible, and seeing the way all the seemingly unrelated mysteries built towards a larger conspiracy was immensely satisfying. When you combine all this with an equally colorful supporting cast, a gorgeous color palette, excellent background art, and solid animation, you get the sort of anime you feel lucky to get to watch. 9/10

First Runner-Up – Brave Bang Bravern!

Equal parts sincere and farcical, this series takes all the tropes and homoeroticism of mecha anime and dials them to eleven. It boasts some of the best 3D mecha animation I’ve seen, a star-studded voice cast, and a story with the perfect mix of comedy and action. If you’ve ever clapped your hands and cheered for an over the top robot fight, this is the show for you. 9/10

Second Runner-Up – Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

The entire series is beautifully drawn and animated, with a perfect soundtrack and voice cast to match, and it takes a fantastic, heartfelt story about valuing the connections you make with others and elevates it to another level. A poorly paced exam arc in the second half that takes the focus off the main trio dampened my enjoyment somewhat, but it easily would’ve been my anime of the season in most seasons. 8/10

The Dangers in My Heart S2 – Kyotarou and Anna keep getting closer and closer over the course of this season, and the way they timed the emotional high of each episode to the soundtrack and the title card has me ready to swoon the moment I see the word “karte” written in white on a black screen. A nicely produced romance about a middle school boy and girl pushing each other to be their best selves that I’m really glad I watched. 8/10

Kingdom S5 – Xin and his Fei Xin force are under the command of the ruthless general Huan Yi in this arc, and they rediscover how merciless and inhumane war is as they fight a battle in Zhao territory as part of Qin’s effort to unify China. Xin’s voice actor completely knocks it out of the park here, delivering several emotional speeches with the perfect amount of gravitas. 8/10

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! – I knew when the female lead leapt off a balcony in front of the male lead after being jilted by her fiancé and he immediately fell in love with her that I was in for a good time, and it never let me down. Rishe’s constant scheming that drew on things she learned in her six previous lives, and Prince Arnold’s mix of bewilderment and affection for his unpredictable fiancée, made this one of the best fantasy romance series in years. 8/10

Mr. Villain’s Day Off – The premise of a general in the evil organization fighting the rangers for control of Earth strictly avoiding work on his day off sounds like the setup for a sit-com, but the story it actually settles in to tell is one that quietly highlights the beauty and comfort found in the ephemeral moments of daily life. A relaxing slice of life series that was the perfect capstone to my Sunday evenings this season. 7/10

A Sign of Affection – I have some nitpicks about some adaptation decisions in the anime that made the female lead appear less disabled than she is in the manga, but, on the whole, this was a lovely shoujo romance about a group of young adults doing their best to forge their own path in the world, with some nice production values. 7/10

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! – If you can look past the wild title and premise, and you don’t mind some inconsistent character models or animation, there’s a nice workplace romance in here centered on a group of grown men talking things out and supporting each other as they navigate their messy feelings. (It’s not as funny as the manga is, though.) 7/10

Sengoku Youko – It took me a few episodes to warm up to this historical set fantasy adventure, but once the story got going, with a solid mix of strong character development and the occasional emotional punch to the gut, I was all in. The character designs are unique and expressive, the action is nicely choreographed and animated, and the voice actors really put their backs into some of the more intense moments. 7/10

Undead Unluck – The pacing was a bit of a problem, with some incredibly long recap segments in episodes in the second half, but the chemistry between the two leads – a man who can’t die and a young woman who causes life threatening bad luck to anyone who touches her – made this action series about fighting to stop the apocalypse a really fun time. 7/10

The Witch and the Beast – If you’re like me, and you go weak in the knees for a chain smoking man with bedroom eyes in a long coat, and a messy woman who might get you both arrested when you go out drinking, then this supernatural themed noir is the show for you. Production values are inconsistent over its run, but the writing and voice acting are solid throughout. 7/10

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – A boy getting isekaied by accident when his classmates are summoned to be heroes in another world could easily have been the start of yet another story about an aggrieved loner making it big as an overpowered hero in a fantasy world, but it thankfully subverted expectations and delivered an isekai adventure with a bit of heart and a cast of likeable characters. 7/10

The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil – What appeared to be a gimmicky battle of wits love comedy in the beginning turned into a solid forbidden romance between a demon and an angel with genuinely good chemistry between them. The two leads were easy to root for as they caught feelings for each other while fighting their way through the ridiculous situations they kept landing in. 7/10

The Demon Prince of Momochi House – This is a neither good nor bad anime about a teenage girl inheriting an old house in the woods that serves as a gateway between reality and the spiritual world, and moving in with the mysterious teenage boy and his ayakashi attendants who protect it. The characters are likeable, and the romance is pleasantly cheesy like an otome game, but the rushed pace of the relationship development and the quickly resolved yokai cases just feel like they adapted more manga than the runtime supported. 6/10

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord – Deadpan, autistic-coded Yumiella is a ton of fun as the OP main character in this otome isekai, and she and her love interest make a great couple, but the level grinding wasn’t exciting enough, and the jokes weren’t funny enough to overcome the poor visuals. 6/10

Bucchigiri?! – Hiroko Utsumi directing an original anime mixing old school delinquents with Aladdin and the Lamp sounded like it could be a rollicking fun romp in the style of her previous original, Sk8, but pacing issues led to a repetitive first half, the main character was deeply unlikable, and the rushed ending felt unsatisfying. The art and animation were generally quite good, with some great fight scenes, but the writing needed to be better. 6/10

Solo Leveling – The series is very well produced, with exciting action scenes set to a lively soundtrack, but any time I started to relax and enjoy some nicely animated fights, the main character would come out with some eye-rolling, angsty teen speech about the strong preying on the weak, and it just wasn’t for me. 6/10

Shangri-La Frontier – There’s little to criticize in the production of this VR MMO themed action series. The voice actors gave great performances, the monster fights are well animated, and the art has a distinctive feel to it. Unfortunately, the story just never really grabbed me, the stalker girl really annoyed me whenever she appeared, and the extras at the beginning and end of most episodes felt like padding. 6/10

My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! – An unusual teenage boy with the ability to instantly kill anyone by just thinking about it gets sent to another world with a bus full of his classmates, and the ensuing adventure kept me entertained the whole time, but I can’t quite call it good. The manzai comedy dynamic between the male and female lead was a fair bit of fun as they traveled across the land, poking fun at common isekai tropes. 6/10

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga – I remember really enjoying the first two seasons of this series, and I still love the characters, but this season just never clicked right for me. The opening arc felt rushed through, and the main arc had a cartoonish buffoon of a villain that completely undercut the horror of the story. It wasn’t a chore to watch or anything, but it could have been better. 6/10

Metallic Rouge – Like many others, I had high hopes for this original sci-fi series Bones put out as an anniversary project, but despite the generally solid visuals, the poor writing drags the whole show down, making this one of the biggest disappointments of the season. The incoherent plot fails to come to a point, the dialog is a terrible mix of forced quirkiness and tedious monologuing, and the characters are largely one-note and undeveloped. 6/10

Sasaki and Peeps – The hour-long premiere episode suggested this story about a middle aged salaryman who discovers his new pet bird is a reincarnated wizard from another world might be a fun take on the isekai genre, but the end product felt more like someone playing with their dolls than crafting a coherent story. It continually introduced new characters and new tropes all the way through to the last minute without tying anything together. 5/10

The Fire Hunter S2 – On the one hand, I appreciate how different it is from other series, with unusual character designs and an imaginative fantasy story that isn’t an amalgamation of light novel conventions. On the other hand, though, the production is incredibly rough, and the plot got increasingly hard to follow, making this a bit of a slog by the end. 5/10

Fluffy Paradise – I was basically on board in the first half to two-thirds of the series, when it seemed like a harmless little reincarnation isekai about a girl collecting animal and monster friends, but it completely lost me when it broke out the reservation camps and dead bodies in the last arc. Just a poorly written show that misunderstood its appeal. 5/10

#anime #winter anime 2024 #anime 2024 #the apothecary diaries #brave bang bravern #frieren #the dangers in my heart #7th time loop #mr. villain's day off #a sign of affection #kingdom #cherry magic!#sengoku youko

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5-pp-man · 2 months

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another tierlist because ppl actually liked that first one;

the crème de la crop;

the first 2 eps i thought it was fine, but it didnt really captivate me as much as id hoped. but then ep 3 changed everything for me. i started to think "how could living armour work logically? everything so far has been edible, so this must be too, right?" i actually managed to think of the exact thing that this series did. that really made me realise the worldbuilding in this was something unique, and it only got better and better with each episode. its really managed to captivate me and i look forward to "delicious donderdag" every week :)

ANIME ORIGINAL LETS GOOOO absolutely bonkers show that almost slipped by me because it initially tried to fool its audience into thinking it was a regular dramatic military show. it still is but theres also a giant robot who plays by saturday morning cartoon giant robot rules. if that sounds like tonal whiplash to you, trust me, it is. and its amazing. have i mentioned how homoerotic this one is as well? yeah. originally a tier below this one, but immediately after finishing this post i watched the newest ep. i had to make an exception and edit the list because ep 9 changes everything. i havent been gobsmacked by a show this hard in a while.

(return of the) show(s) that execute their own premise very well;

i havent read the manga for yubisaki to renren so i cant compare, but the quality of this adaptation has been very consistent. you need a little sweet romance every once in a while :) this is one of those series where the characters really grew on me the longer it went on. im always a fan of mixing realistic struggles with romance and this one has been doing it well so far

adaptations that are ok (i read the manga for both of these);

i've been a mashle fan since before s1 aired. and the anime has some good changes and additions here and there! but its not very consistent in terms of quality, it does that shonen thing where the animation quality suddenly spikes for certain action sequences, but it also frequently had a lot of scenes where they recycle shots a lot and nothing interesting happens on the screen for a considerable amount of time. still! its a fine adaptation. and yeah the op for this. blew tf up lmao? very strange to see happen in real time

i actually rlly like the manga for this one. i read the whole thing up until vol.6 before the season started (all that was available back then) and it made me cry multiple times throughout. i was sort of missing that connection with the show, though some of the later episodes still hit. its mostly to do with the animation quality, which isnt that great unfortunately. the voice actors are knocking it out of the park though

wghere am i;

is this show good? i. uh. will you hate me if i say yes...? objectively, i know its not that good. especially in the animation department. but if you like other Umatani shows, you'll like this one. it's got the same brand of goofy reactionary humour mixed with gimmicky tacky characters and crazy stupid plot twists. ive been faithfully watching this one each week and I'm afraid i've become very invested. overscientific indeed

bro you fell off...;

i was so beyond excited for this one. i replayed the op a million times, watched each preview, rewatched multiple episodes. and then. ep 5 happened. and i started to realise. oh this show kind of sucks doesnt it? the pacing of the first ep was great, but the rest? way too fast. it became clear with ep 6 that theyre trying to do a double cour show with half the length, which is why they started hauling ass plot-wise. now. i was an arajin apologist for the longest time. but at that point i honestly started to loathe him. even when he stepped up, his praise still felt sort of unearned. and to top it all off, shindou's motivation sucked so he felt like a lousy antagonist. ep6 was better than 5, but it really made me lose my enthusiasm and hope for the series. and right as we were talking about them probably not having time for a filler ep, ep7 happened. feels like a waste of time to do an ep like that when you've still got a whole 2nd arc to go through. but who am i

it started off pretty good honestly. but then chris went to the hospital and it kind of just dwindled from there. this season does so much with characters that have not even been properly introduced like how am i supposed to care about these people if i barely know who they are. the stuff with finn and leo respectively was good though. but the lore dump? lord help me. also vijay just kind of. exists to be there in the background huh? i would not call him a main character they never give him any attention. wendy had another ep again and he didnt get shit. again. also i think finn was stupid as fuck for not listening to lala but again. who am i. i know we cant destroy high card because we need a show but. cmon man.

i am severely behind on these;

reason why im behind is because most of the eps are a bit heavy so i kept. not watching them. its starting to get rlly interesting though so i'm def gonna catch up this is one of those robo-racism shows so i have to really watch out to see where its going. dont want another marginal service situation...

sorry this is just. a little too boring for me. its charming, sure. but i think this wouldve worked better as something with an 11 min timeslot instead of 23 min. theres just a bit too mu- or well, too little for me to rlly get into this. i think reading it would be more fun for me personally