I hope people are settling into the new year and new season of anime well. I have gotten to watch the premiere of a number of shows. Thought I would provide some quick thoughts below.
Delicious in Dungeon - Not fully sold on this one yet, but I am willing to let Trigger cook some more.
Gushing Over Magical Girls - Went into this blind and was really glad I was alone and using headphones.
Chained Soldier - Watched this after Gushing Over Magical Girls and it felt way tamer than I expected so far given the buzz before the premiere. More is probably coming though given the setup.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - Loved seeing Rose and the VA did a great job. I had kind of forgotten a bit of the setup and that Usato was isekai’ed by accident, so it was a good refresher.
I have yet to watch Solo Leveling or start catching up on Apothecary Diaries, so nothing to say about them yet. Two shows that are starting this week that I am looking forward to Tsuikimichi season 2 and Level 99 Villainous Daughter.
@ram@N3DSdude Would one of the mods be able to pin this discussion thread and unpin the old one? Thanks in advance!
I doubt it, though Frieren has had more staying power on the list than past shows that have briefly topped the list. I suspect it might stay on top while the show is airing, but over time I think the MAL userbase will revert to the mean of FMAB #1. I might personally think Frieren is a better show, but when you are talking about shows with thousands and thousands of scores factored in, there is a lot of resistance to change given enough time.
Disclosure: as a moderator of the /c/anime and /c/manga communities on ani.social, I don’t want to try to influence anybody’s decision regarding this as I think there is plenty of space for multiple communities to exist at the same time.
That being said, after the defederation happened and there was clear hostility from the ml admins toward much of this type of content is when I made my account on that instance and started up activity on those two communities. I agree that there is an inherent risk of these communities being purged from the ml instance and that is one of the main reasons I wanted to establish an alternative community that is well established with existing content that users can migrate easily to. Quoting myself from that post:
In any case, I think this issue validates concerns that were raised after the initial defederation happened that the ml admins could come to view any kind of lewd content or fanservice as anathema to their instance. It begs the question if the anime or manga communities on ml are on borrowed time. If the admin’s metaphorical Eye of Sauron passes over their community on a day a lewd clip, key visual, or trailer is posted, that could be it for them.
All that said, the reality is that unless you use an ml account (which you unfortunately posted with), then you can access both communities. I had primarily been using this ml account on lemmy for some time until the defederation happened, and then proceeded to make an account over on ani.social to access that content and drive activity in those communities.
I actually know kind of what happened there. The mod was banned from the ml instance, and when that happens all of the content submitted by the user (and communities created by them) are automatically purged. I don’t know what prompted the ban, so I can’t speak to whether it was justified or not, but that incident is what led me to realize that being banned also removes all of that content as well.
I wrote elsewhere about my thoughts on Tsukimichi season 2. I am a big fan of the source material and agree that the first season was alright at best. I think part of it is that the first parts of the story are probably its weakest, but then the anime was a very mediocre adaptation. So, it was a mediocre adaptation of not great parts of the story which added up to a very generic feeling isekai.
For the second season (which I was surprised to see happen tbh), there is a new studio and they announced it will be 2 cours. So, I am hoping that better source material combined with a renewed investment in the production will add up to a better season of anime this time around. We will see!
At the end of the day though, if the first season didn’t connect with you at all, season 2 probably won’t either.
I have a couple tweaks to the list I posted previously. I plan on watching a handful of shows in the new season:
Definitely watching
Frieren - continuing from last season. Has been absolutely phenomenal so far.
Delicious in Dungeon - A very well-received manga being adapted by Studio Trigger. Say no more.
Villainess Level 99 - I really like the source for this one but thought that it was too niche to ever be adapted to an anime. I don’t expect this to be everybody’s cup of tea, but I hope it is going to be done well.
Tsukimichi Season 2 - I really like the source material for this one and the first season was…alright. The story gets better as it goes and it changed studios for the second season (and got 2 cours for season 2), so I am hoping the animation improves alongside the story.
Apothecary Diaries - This show is continuing from the fall season, but I haven’t actually seen any of it yet. I plan on trying to catch up over this coming winter season so that I can end it being caught up. I actually work professionally in medicine, so I am looking forward to it!
Hoping to watch (time permitting)
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - The source for this one is decent and the beginning couple bits of this story are the best that I am familiar with. So, time permitting, I am hoping to see the best character Rose in anime form.
'Tis Time for Torture Princess - I have read a couple chapters of this manga, but I am curious to see how an anime adaptation will work.
Might pick up depending on reviews
Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! - I have heard good things about the source for this one, but I don’t really know anything about it. I am going to wait to see how well it is received as an adaptation. I might just opt to read the manga instead.
Metallic Rouge - This is an anime original, but it looks awesome. I had to cut it for time, but if it is reviewed super well and another show I am watching is disappointing, I might bump it up into the regularly watching column.
@ram@N3DSdude Would one of the mods be able to pin this discussion thread and unpin the old one that is a couple weeks out of date. It would be appreciated!
tl;dr: the new season’s yaml files haven’t yet been fully merged into the source code (PR here)
@chaorace might want to chime in here as well as the bot maintainer, but I think I know what is going on, but the explanation is going to be a bit technical.
Shinobu is a lemmy-focused fork of the holo project. Both projects use user-curated yaml files that contain all the information for each show. As an example, you can check out Fall 2023’s yaml file here. This winter’s yaml file has not been merged into the holo project yet. There is an open pull request to do so, but it is still open. The reddit mods have clearly already merged these commits since their bot is posting, but Shinobu hasn’t done so yet. Also, the reddit bot is not a straight copy of the source code that is on github, there are clearly some tweaks they do on the backend to do things like pick up shows that shinobu can’t see, but that is a whole other topic.
I suspect that chaorace is waiting for the pull request to close and the new season’s yaml to be merged before adding it to shinobu, but I haven’t spoken with them. For what it is worth, I run a copy of holo on a test lemmy instance I host and by merging the 5 commits in the PR, my local holo was able to make posts for the winter shows (but it doesn’t pick up Classroom of the Elite for whatever reason picked it up after a couple hours).
I was also a bit disappointed with the first episode of Dungeon Meshi. I wrote in more detail over here, but it felt like it wanted to be two shows at the same time (dark with dead sister, light with silly cooking) and it didn’t mesh well. I have only heard great things about the manga, so I expect it to become clearer in tone as it goes, but I am with you just based on episode 1.
Have you read the manga for Hokkaido Gals? I am debating trying to find time to watch it or if I should just dive into the manga instead. It is usually a lot easier for me to find time to fit in a couple chapters of a manga to my schedule compared to a 30 minute block of time for a show.
The full results are here. Anime Corner can be incredibly variable week to week. As a point of comparison, the reddit karma rankings are much more stable usually. This is what they looked like for week 12.
AOTY - Frieren with honorable mention of Oshi no Ko
Worst AOTY - Am I Actually the Strongest?
Most Mid AOTY - Atelier Ryza
If you had asked for my anime of the year prior to the Fall season, it would have unquestionably been Oshi no Ko. However, Frieren’s adaptation has been so excellent over this past season that I am hard pressed not to give it my AOTY. I know Frieren is still airing for a second cour, but it has a full cour’s worth of episodes to compare to other seasonal shows, so I think it is fair for now. I think that Oshi no Ko has definitely left a strong impression on me though and I will always remember the first episode and episode 6 as extremely impactful. Few anime have ever had me as invested in a character’s story as episode 6 of Oshi no Ko did for Akane.
As for my worst anime of the year, this one is tough. I watch my fair share of bad anime so it is tough to pick. I think I will have to award it to “Am I Actually the Strongest?” The show was horribly paced and narratively confused. Large sections of important story were seemingly glossed over almost nothing was explained. Having watched 12 episodes of the anime, I still don’t think I can give any kind of explanation for the MC’s abilities. Just avoid this one, it isn’t so bad it’s good, it’s just bad.
Finally, in my quest to pretend to still be young, I thought I would also give a mid award. This one goes to a show that was so bland and generic that it wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad, it just exists. That goes to Atelier Ryza for me. I have heard that the game series this show was based off of is actually quite good. I have a friend that has played a ton of them and was hyping up the show to me because of it. However, watching the show being unfamiliar with the source at all, it was extremely boring. Things happened extremely predictably. I actually felt that watching the show was like being stuck in an unskippable, long tutorial cutscene in a game. Things were overexplained, drawn out, and the game’s quest -> reward structure was very obvious. There were never really any stakes it felt like. I don’t know if the entire game was adapted or not, but I certainly hope there is more to the game. The show felt like it was adapting just the tutorial levels.
@ram or @N3DSdude if you could pin the new/unpin the old discussion posts, that would be greatly appreciated.
I really like the manga for Tonikaku Kawaii (and several other fluffy romances like it), but haven’t ever really liked any of the anime adaptations of them. I just don’t think it usually translates to the medium well. I often end up bored and the studios don’t put enough effort into the animation or soundtrack to keep my attention that way either.
I have read/watched a lot of bad isekai. Reincarnated as a Sword is not one of them. The premise might be dumb on the surface, but it is executed extremely well. I think part of what makes it work is how the relationship between Master and Fran is a Father/Daughter one. It just kind of makes the whole thing work. I had dropped the manga at one point because I thought it was kind of losing its way, but then found out that the arc I didn’t like was a manga-only filler arc. After I got back onto light novel content, it was the great old Fran/Master journey that I loved.
Really glad they announced a season 2 is on the way.
Rather than writing about what I have watched this past week, I decided to look ahead at the upcoming season of anime and check out shows that looked interesting. My first pass led me to some shows that I am debating watching, but I will likely need to cut this down due to time. I divided it into shows I am familiar with the source and those that I am not.
Familiar with the source:
Frieren will be continuing. Definitely continuing with this one.
Tsukimichi Season 2 - I enjoyed the source for this story and am glad to see it continuing. The story only gets better as it goes. If you thought season 1 was a bit generic, I agree with you. However, the story becomes more interesting as it goes. Not quite sure if the animation might be stepped up for season 2 or not though.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - The opening parts of this story are where it is at its best. So I am looking forward to this show and the character Rose in particular.
Villainess Level 99 - I love the source for this series, but the character is so dense that it turns some off. If they get the humor right in this show, it could be great.
Not familiar with the source:
Solo Leveling - Source readers have hyped this series from long before there was even an announcement of an anime adaptation. I suspect this one is going to be popular, but it might not really be my type of show.
Dungeon Meshi - This one has been a really popular manga and it is being made by Studio Trigger. Worth a look for sure.
Metallic Rouge - I have only seen the poster for this series and I love it. Will check it out more to see if it is worth giving a shot.
'Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess - I have read a couple chapters of this manga, but not enough to really call myself familiar with it. It seems like a fun little series for those times I just want to relax though.
@ram if you would be so kind as to do the pinning/unpinning, it would be appreciated.
Yeah, I was reading the WN for Villainess Level 99 and dropped it shortly after the main arc. It reached a pretty satisfying conclusion and the story after that felt kind of forced, plus I just had too many other things competing for my time.
I think the Helck flashbacks wouldn’t have been as bad if I was bingeing it, but watching week to week, it felt very drawn out. Since the flashbacks have ended, I have gotten more into it again.
As for Girlfriend, Girlfriend and 100GF, I have written before that I think I enjoyed the series more in manga form. I think that Shino is by far the best character in GF, GF though, so you have excellent taste in that department.
Oof, this one lands a bit close to home. Teachers can be amazing, but comments like these with the best of intentions can sometimes hurt given the context of a person’s life.
I love a good romance as well and this season is pretty sparse. Looking at anichart for Fall 2023, I only see three shows with the romance tag. The only one of those I am watching (100GF) is more comedy-focused than romance-focused. That’s pretty light. For comparison, last season there were seven shows with the romance tag.
That’s a good point. When I am making okonomiyaki at my table, it is just for me. I am not making it for the person that sits at the table after I leave. At the very least, I don’t think gyoza vouchers are an acceptable form of compensation in Japan (how do you pay taxes on gyoza?). It’s fun to riff on, but overall I have been really enjoying this series so far.
As for random downvotes, it happens everywhere occasionally. I suspect it is people seeing things they might not like when they browse the “all” feed of their instance rather than “subscribed”. They are just random internet points, they don’t matter at the end of the day.
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Winter 2024 anime calendar (lemmy.world)
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[DISC] Bocchi the Rock! Gaiden: Hiroi Kikuri no Fukazake Nikki — Ch. 12 (mangadex.org)
Top 10 Anime of the Week #12 - Fall 2023 (Anime Corner) (lemmy.ml)
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[DISC] Familial Love - MangaDex (mangadex.org)
Sad one this time. Thanks for reading.
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[DISC] Renge to Naruto! - chapter 3 (mangadex.org)