Oshi no Ko - Finally picked this back up and binged all but the latest episode. I had high expectations and it easily exceeded them. 5/5

Dungeon People - Really enjoying this one. The characters and setting are fun. It doesn’t do anything big and seems a bit simple at a glance, but something about it just clicks for me. 4/5

I Parry Everything - I was on the fence about this one earlier on, but it really hit a stide in the last few episodes. The total absurdity of the situation is hilarious, but I’m not sure that can be sustained in a way that works… 3/5

Slime - First part of this season was largly a bust, but the current arc’s been fun. 3/5

Journey Through another World: Raising Kids - DROPPED. I’m not sure who the target audience for this was but it seems like it is for young children. Very boring. Dropped weeks ago. 2/5

A Nobody’s Way Up to an Exploration Hero - Somehow this show strays into so bad it is good territory for me, but that’s after skipping some of the duller bits. 2/5

Bye Bye, Earth - I really wanted to like this show, but it just refuses to do anything redeemable. The characters are awful. The world building is a disaster. The plot is nonsense. The world itself seems interesting, but is so poorly explored and executed that it is just a waste. 2/5

Dahlia in Bloom - I’m very behind on this, but what I’ve seen was a disappointment. The leads had no chemistry and much of the dialog (in a very dialog heavy story) was dull. (I enjoyed the light novels so the story itself is good…) 3/5

Failure Frame - I’m still on the fence on this one. I generally enjoy the isekei game system thing, but this one hasn’t quite “clicked” with me. 3/5

Nokotan - Extremely hit and miss. Some episodes are gold and some are just meh. The show has a bad tendancy to stretch a joke to far so that it stops being funny. 3/5

My wife has no emotion - Really enjoying this one. Yeah it gets a bit weird at times, but the show owns that and works with it. I really enjoy how Mina’s personality is conveyed with limited facial expressions and at odds with her assumed lack of emotions. 4/5

No Longer Allowed in Another World - The first few episodes were rough, but once it got going this turned out to be surprisingly good. 4/5

Pseudo Harem - The name suggests something trashy, but the show itself is actually incredibly sweet. I’m enjoying it, but it is almost too much at times. 4/5

Quality Assurance in Another World - Solid overall. I enjoy the characters, the world, the goofy dragons, etc. But seems to be lacking something that would take it from good to great. 4/5

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant - This one falls into guilty pleasure territory. The combination of sweet and absurd just works. 4/5

Ossan Newbie Adventurer - A bit of a rough start, but it has improved as the story moved along and got passed the overly long intro arc. 3/5

The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human - A bit hit and miss. Some of the characters are fun. The story is unremarkable but fine. 3/5

Why Does nobody remember me in this world - I watched through the first arc with the fight against the demons, and just lost interest. Soft dropped. 3/5

Wistoria: Wand and Sword - This one is barely holding my interest. The visuals are good. But the rest of it just feels off somehow. I’d say it is cliché, but I like a lot of cliché shows… 3/5

Spice and Wolf - I honestly forgot this was continuing. I’ll binge it later. Overall I alike and appreciate the show, but it can be exceedingly melancholy at times without enough comic relief to balance that out. I hope that has improved from where I dropped off.

I am finally back from my vacation! My sleep schedule has been a bit weird as I am getting adjusted to the time zone again, but it’s nice to be in my own bed and to be reunited with my cat. The only downside is that basically as soon as I got back I proceeded to get quite sick. So, the anime backlog persists as I have a hard time reading subs when I am not feeling well.

What I have watched this week has been limited, but here we go:

• Oshi no Ko - Far and away the best show this season of what I have been watching. It has been an absolute treat every week. Sad that it is going on a week break.
• Nokotan - This week’s past episode was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot. A welcome return to form.
• Alya - I have liked this show, but Alya is my least favorite character in it. I have a hard time putting my finger on it, but I find that most of the other characters in the show have more entertaining moments than Alya has.
• Love is Indivisible by Twins - This guilty pleasure continues to deliver. Nobody in this show is happy and the love triangle has expanded to become some other, more complicated shape; and I have really enjoyed the messiness of it all.

Any recs for anime that you think would enjoy a person who liked Shoujo Kakumei Utena?

Completed Terminator Zero and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

---

Terminator Zero

Probably top show of the season for me, tied with Makeine (unless Rick and Morty can pull off a surprise).

First off, I liked how well-animated it is. The first 6 minutes of the show convinced me to watch it, and quality of the animation remained consistently good.

It is its own self-contained story, but it still faithful to the style of the Terminator series. The iconic “dun dun duh dun” is nostalgic.

What I liked the most is

Terminator Zero spoiler

the multitude of plot twists / reveals.

I know that going into time travel + AI sci-fi, a plot twist is to be expected. What I did not expected is the sheer number of reveals:

• Misaki is a cyborg (that’s cool)
• Kokoro is built upon Misaki (ok, removal of Misaki’s core component explains her strange behavior)
• Malcolm came from the future (alright, that explains his nightmares)
• Eiko is Malcolm’s mother (now that’s a surprise)
• IIRC: the Terminator was sent by Kenta (surprise number 2)

I thought that the show would reveal that Reika would grow up to be the prophet, but turns out that didn’t happen.

Overall, it’s really good.

I’ve got to knock a point off due to some annoyances I have with the show though.

For example,

Terminator Zero spoiler

in true HISHE fashion, most of the problems that the characters faced could have been avoided if Malcolm just brought his family with him to the lab and have them stay with him.

So 9 / 10

---

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

This show is if Steins;Gate was good.

This anime is if Subaru (from Re:Zero) at his best got isekai-ed to the world of Steins;Gate

This show is what I wish for from a sci-fi of this nature.

We have a capable, mature MC who gets down to it

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai spoiler

and solves the first and titular problem in just 3 episodes. Then he continues his streak for the rest of the phenomenon.

What a chad.

To be fair, Sakuta isn’t with flaws e.g.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai spoiler

when he doesn’t tell his girlfriend of his troubles.

But that’s when Mai would step in and scold him, all the while supporting him. I love their relationship dynamics.

It’s been a while since I studied physics, so can’t comment on how scientifically accurate some of the phenomenons are.

Otherwise, the story and the rest of the characters are great.

The only thing I found the show to be weak in is its soundtracks - none are really memorable to me - but that’s just a nitpick.

One of the best sci-fi anime, and going into my favourites. 10 / 10

Current releases, following weekly (roughly organized by decreasing interest):

• Oshi No Ko S2 - Finally hit the climax I’d been waiting for. Really nailed it between the last episode and this one, then hooked in for exciting plot progression. Great episode.
• Makeine - Looks like focus is shifting to a new character again, with a new accompanying (excellent) ED. It was a bit of an exposition episode, so a bit less exciting than the last few, but still excellent.
• Pseudo Harem - A bit slower episode for me. Still good.
• I Parry Everything - Caught up this week. It’s great. Tension and scale keeps escalating and the silliness keeps outclassing what I thought was peak absurdity. Characters are very likable and animation is serviceable. Try a couple episodes!
• Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings… - Ya, mostly just finishing because I’ve watched this far. The general conceit of the series feels mostly forgotten, and is largely the type of anime I wasn’t really here for from the beginning.

Watched part of, but not up to date:

• Hell’s Paradise - 10 episodes. Alright I was kinda iffy for a while, but I’ve really enjoyed the last couple episodes. Finally filling in story a bit and setting up an overall plot that is fun and understandable. I’m definitely finishing now.
• Dungeon People - 4 episodes. Got some time to try it out more and it’s excellent. Surprisingly darker than I expected, based on the animation style! But very silly, fun exploration of dungeon crawl tropes, and a low stakes mood. Really nice easy watch that slightly mollifies the gaping hole that finishing Frieren and Dungeon Meshi left.