Comment on Summer Anime Season Wrap-up and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 40]
esc27@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
- Re: ZERO - I feel like the amnesiac Subaru part went on a bit too long, but that just made his full return work all the better. This part is the perfect payoff for the setup from earlier. The show is very character driven and seeing each character get their moment and how well they all work together has been excellent. Each part needs the other to really work so 4/5 for this part, 5/5 for the season as a whole.
- Though I Am an Inept Villainess - Wow. I held off on this one until recently. I had a feeling it could be good, and was not disappointed. 5/5
- Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life - Surprisingly one of my favorites. Started kind of mid, but the humor grew on me and it remained well consistent and became one I looked forward to each week. 4/5
- Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her - I really enjoyed this one. Good characters, decent plot, not too long, the lack of romantic progress seemed natural… I really like how Haruki was animated. How in public she presented properly but in private was completely relaxed and how that relaxed state started blending into her public life. 4/5
- Kaiju Girl Caramelise - My favorite first episode of the season and the season generally held up. I’ll never get tired of how they superimposed the girl and kaiju roars together. 4/5
- Mushoku Tensei - Just finished binging the new season. While I could still do without “certain aspects” of the series, the world building, character development, and plot progression all continue to be excellent. This cour had a good mix of call backs, send offs, and built up well to a new turning point. 4/5
- Daemons of the Shadow Realm - Paused this one for a bit then binged back to catch up. It remains solid. I’m not sure how the new faction will play out but I do like how neither of the original two factions are clearly in the right. 4/5
- Rich Girl Caretaker - This one was a lot of fun early but kind of lost some of that fun as it focused more on the harem character arcs. 4/5
- Goodbye, Lara - I appreciate the different style of the animation and the refreshed take on the little mermaid. Especially the fish out of water parts. But the ending was a let down. I was not even invested in the (non)romance. The story itself just sort of was done. The lore made no sense. nothing wrapped up cleanly. the last scene was almost completely out of context with the rest… 3/5
- Ascendance of a Bookworm - I’ve not read the source, but even I can tell something is off with the pacing. Plot elements seem to come from nowhere, 50 things happen all at once then it slows down for one event… etc. But somehow it still held up enough. 3/5
- Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! - A little disappointing. Some of the plot ordering was odd, and the overall animation was limited, but it was fun enough. 3/5
- Victoria of Many Faces - Short but I enjoyed it. Kind of felt like it was holding back like we never saw all of what the characters could do. But it told a story and finished at a good stopping point. 3/5
- The Duke’s Son Claims He Won’t Love Me, Yet Showers Me with Adoration - I’ve watched about half of it. Pleasantly basic. To the point I’ve watched there is no major conflict, no major drama. Kind of refreshing in a way. 3/5
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance - A fairly generic sci-fi super powered human battle series with Nanoha bolted in for some reason. It was not great but watchable, still not sure what the point of it was… 3/5
- The Insipid Prince’s Furtive Grab for The Throne - The least bad of the generic adventure series, and the only one I did not drop. It didn’t do anything to chase me away but didn’t really do anything special either. 3/5
- The Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power - Entirely forgettable. As in I forgot it existed multiple times though the season. Watchable but nothing special. 3/5
- Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky - Dropped. I watched one episode, looked it up to see if there was any critical discussion about how it handled blindness, saw where it was heading and dropped it immediately. Some shows seem to be designed to just wallow in sadness, and this one looked like that. 3/5
- From Overshadowed to Overpowered: Second Reincarnation of a Talentless Sage - Dropped. I expected trash but the first episode was surprisingly decent. Should have dropped it when the MC added a plot convenient slave girl to his party. Finally dropped it when there was a multi episode conflict with a grotesquely over exaggerated cartoon evil character… Then skipped forward through the last few eps. it’s meh. 3/5
- The Villager of Level 999 - Dropped. First story arc was mildly interesting as the characters were introduced. Then the second arc turned into some sort of pointless gold grind to unlock the next part of the plot. 3/5
- The World’s Strongest Rearguard - Dropped. another dropped adventure series. Started somewhat interesting but the harem bit was way to much and the story nonexistent. 2/5
- I Became a Legend After My 10 Year-Long Last Stand - Dropped. Another trash adventure story. I liked it at first. The general concept (mc becomes powerful after using a cheat skill to grind a demon lord boss wave) was interesting and I liked how he was actually supported and respected by the town authorities (rare for these stories) but then the story makes a throwaway magic chicken a critical plot point… and that was just more stupid than even I can handle. 2/5
- I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day - Finally dropped… The scenario, characters, and suggested plot were fine, it just didn’t do anything. About midway through, after an ocean of death flags, a side character dies, then the rest of the series is dominated by sad flashbacks. It was blatantly trying to be emotionally manipulative and failing at it. 2/5
- The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System - Dropped early. I found it literally unwatchable. To much recycled footage and panning. 1/5