Submitted 1 week ago by wjs018@ani.social to anime@ani.social
Fall season and the year of 2024 is drawing to a close. Most shows have either wrapped up this past week or are wrapping up this week. So, let’s talk about it! Did anything surprise you? disappoint you? exceed your expectations? Of course, more general topics are still welcome just like any week.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Since I’m not watching anything this season and instead browsing through the past:
First up last week was Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo (2019), which was… not good. At all. It was sort of promising at first - the initial setup was intriguing if a bit derivative - but it fell flat almost immediately and never recovered. The biggest problem - I don’t know if it traces back to the LN or was just part of the adaptation - is that the writer(s) appear to have understood the idea that it’s good to have characters who grow and change, but didn’t get the bit about the changes having context and following a recognizable progression. So what we get are characters who are seemingly arbitrarily assigned traits, then at some later point, they’re essentially arbitrarily assigned different traits.
Next was Nisemonogatari (2012), which was… kind of dull really. It’s all the same gimmicks as Bakemonogatari, but at this point, they’re wearing a bit thin for me. And try as I might, I just detest Senjougahara.
Then came a surprising gem - season 2 of KonoSuba (2017). I liked season 1 well enough, but it just didn’t quite come together entirely for me. And season 2 didn’t look promising, since the first thing I noticed was that it has just about the worst art I’ve ever seen. It looks like it was done cheap and fast by amateurs. But then I discovered (the surprising bit) that pretty much every other aspect of the season was stellar - great stories, great characterization (most notably, they took the edge off of Kazuma’s assholery - in the first season there were too many times when it was unwarranted and too extreme, but in the second season, it was better timed and proportioned), and more genuine laugh out loud moments. And both the opening and closing themes are terrific.
And finally, after bouncing off of a few things, I ended up rewatching Akudama Drive (2020). The first time through I was initially intrigued but not particularly impressed, then slowly came to enjoy it more and more and was very impressed by the end. I wanted to see if it held up to a rewatch though, since I wasn’t sure if it was genuinely that good or if I was just swayed by the contrast between my initial reaction and expectations and what it turned out to be. And I’d say it really is genuinely that good. It’s not flawless by any means - it has some plot holes and some notably forced bits, but all in all, it just really is very good. And Swindler - the main character - is plain awesome.
season 2 of KonoSuba
Konosuba is one of those rare anime where the sequels are better than the 1st season.
Oh man, now you get to watch the Konosuba movie, my favorite piece of Konosuba media. I also agree that season 2 is really where the show hit its stride.
As for bakemonogatari (and subsequent -gataris), I have bounced off that series a couple of times now. I can’t really put my finger on it exactly, but I sympathize with you in that it hasn’t really grabbed me. It might just be one of those series that you either click with or you don’t.
Yeah - the movie’s next up on my list. At the moment, I’m wading through season 5 of Star Trek Lower Decks.
The thing with season 2 of KonoSuba - in retrospect, I can’t even quite pin down what made it so much better than season 1. There were some notable bits (like the introduction of Yunyun, who makes me laugh pretty much without fail), but really it seems that it’s just that every part of it was kicked up a notch. Or at least everything other than the embarrassingly awful animation, but I stopped noticing that for the most part.
And yeah - the Monogataris. At some point, I’m going to watch Nekomonogatari Kuro, since it’s a prequel and fills in the part of the story that’s repeatedly flashed back to in Bakemonogatari, and then I suspect I’ll be done with the series. I don’t really dislike it - it’s just sort of tedious and pointless.
It might just be one of those series that you either click with or you don’t.
It definitely is
I endeavor to watch exactly two seasonal anime at a time. I feel incredibly lucky that those are Dandadan (hyped and delivered) and Negative Positive Angler (underrated, sleeper hit).
Yep, those were 2 of the best this season
You chose really well this season!
This past week has been super busy for me. I have been hard at work to wrap up some year-end projects, working on the year-end awards for anime, manga, and light novels, and then I got sick to top it all off. So, I am sad to report that I haven’t gotten to watch any anime from this past week; literally zero. The backlog grows ever larger…
I made a separate thread completely devoted to the year-end awards voting. Go check it out! I have always kind of had a soft rule to not have more than two threads pinned to the community at a time because I feel like it pushes the fresh content too far down the page. However, if there is any time I can break that rule, it is when there is an election going on.
Finally, to talk a little bit about actual anime, there was one piece of anime news that I really enjoyed this week, but I didn’t end up making a whole post about it: Chained Soldier cast Kana Hanazawa to play Ren Yamashiro. I have been reading the manga a bit past where the first season of the show ended, and Ren’s character will be an interesting one to see portrayed on the screen. Getting Kana Hanazawa to play Ren is just perfect. She’s already warmed up for the role after her portrayal of Alexia Midgar in The Eminence in Shadow.
Now that I’m mostly caught up, time to issue this season’s silly awards . . .
Best Dragon Award: The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor, but only for Rave and only because the competition was the lackluster Good-bye Dragon Life. I could have done without several other aspects of Do-Over Damsel, although it never quite tipped over the line into “drop this right now” territory for me.
Guilty Pleasure Award: Maou 2099. Not brilliant or deep, but there’s enough there to make it excellent beer-and-popcorn entertainment.
Blandest of the Year Award: Ao no Miburo, by a narrow margin over Good-bye Dragon Life. Uninspired historical about a painfully earnest youth (worse than the lead from Mecha-Ude) who gets involved with the Shinsengumi during the lead-up to the Meiji Restoration. I don’t know why they’re making two cours of this. Looks especially bad with Orb, another plain historical that is quite brilliant, running at the same time.
They Only Told Us Half the Story Award: Nina the Starry Bride. Pretty much none of the main plot strands were tied up at the end of the season, and I haven’t heard that there’s going to be a second.
Nastiest Protagonist Award: Wajutsushi, hands down. That they managed to make this series work despite Noel’s personality amazes me.
This is the first season where I have had no less than three series drop out in the middle—Delico’s Nursery I expected to finish at that time, and Re Zero seems to have been planned (although I hadn’t been paying enough attention to be aware of it), but I’m still not certain what happened with Haigakura.
Every year at around this time, I re-watch an older series that I thought was pretty good at the time I first saw it. Most of them have held up, although I occasionally draw a dud like .hack//sign. This year, I picked Concrete Revolutio (24 eps, made by BONES, aired 2015-2016), an odd little show that I’ve always considered the anti Boku no Hero Academia (which premiered around the same time), although damned if I could remember any details of the plot before this refresher.
The time is the late 1960s. The world is full of superheroes and supervillains of every possible origin: aliens, time travellers, legendary monsters, people from other dimensions, mutated humans, and cyborgs and robots created by various governments for their own purposes. Our protagonists work for a Japanese government bureau that’s charged with protecting superhumans from forces that would oppress them, while most of the rest of the government is trying to do what you would expect the government to be trying to do when there are potential new military toys wandering around loose. Our main character longs to be a hero of justice, but against a background of corrupt institutions, violent protests, government coverups, and the general public acting in ways that aren’t in their own best interests, what is justice, and what is a hero?
So why does no one remember this show anymore? First of all, the story jumps back and forth a lot in time (especially near the beginning), making it a bit difficult to follow. They do put up year/month labels during time skips, but that’s less helpful than it could be because they’re using Showa Era years with a made-up era name, not the standard Gregorian Calendar years, so it takes a while to pin down that their “year 20” is 1945.
Another reason is the visual aspect of the show. The background designs are best described as “quirky”. Most of the shading is done in coloured polka-dot screen tone, not standard cel shading. The result is vibrant but peculiar, and can sometimes get a bit overwhelming.
(The third reason, if you need one, is that it isn’t as straightforward a story as BnHA. Lots of shades of grey, lots of compromises, lots of Lawful Evil. People making horrible mistakes, or letting the end justify the means. It’s difficult to find anyone in this mess that you can cheer for without reservation all the way to the end.)
Fall 2024 is probably one of the weakest season in recent times.
Here are my scores for series that I have completed:
With the exception of Re:Zero Season 3, I have dropped every other anime that I picked up this season.
Yeah, Fall has been pretty weak, especially if you just look at new shows rather than season 2+ shows. Orb, Dan Da Dan, and NegaPosi Angler are probably my favorites of the season.
This was a very weak season for me. Of the 14 shows I started off with:
I’m still planning to watch Orb and Magilumiere.
The ones I ended up watching in full were:
Orb, Dan Da Dan, and NegaPosi Angler were the three shows for me from this season. I watched some others, but I haven’t really looked forward to those episodes as much as these three. If I had to put a fourth in there, it would probably be Villainess That Goes Down in History. However, that one had some problematic stuff and episodes tended to hit or miss. Part of what helped that show for me is that it was basically the only show coming out on Tuesday, as opposed to like the 5 shows that came out on Thursday.
Villainess That Goes Down in History.
This one I’d dropped in favour of the manga. The animation was pretty poor and didn’t add much otherwise.
had some problematic stuff
It does, but it’s not nearly as bad as Do-Over Damsel.
I watched Joshiraku and Ichigo Mashimaro. Joshiraku is decent. Not as sharp and artistic as its brother anime Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. The ED is very popular but the op is the real banger in my opinion. Ichigo Mashimaro is amazing. They don’t make slice of life like that anymore. Wonderful art style. Effective humor, quite dry. The show feels very effortless. Only negative point is that Nobue is kinda sus.
You were quite off topic because neither of those is close to the last season. But thanks for the suggestions!
Ichigo Mashimaro
I wasn’t familiar with this one, but a quick look and it looks cute af. On the list it goes…
I just realised there wasn’t a single discussion thread for “Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online” - Season 2. Not anything exceptional but it’s a lot of fun if you like guns.
also the twist in the last epsideo really has me excited for S3, maybe it might actually get some depths.
Haven’t watched a lot of shows this season, but by far my favourite (excluding carry-overs) was “Orb: On the Movements of the Earth”. So glad it will continue seamlessly into the next season.
What I didn’t quite get this season was the hype around “Dan Da Dan”. I thought it was decent, but I kind of had to push through it. Certainly wasn’t anticipating the new episodes like with Orb. Not sure I’ll continue S2.
And last Is “It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?” - Season 5 is still on my will-definitly-watch list. Probalby gonna wait for the season to finish and then binge it.
Orb is fantastic. I am a couple episodes behind right now. I mentioned this last week, but because of how busy/tired/sick I have been recently, I have held off on watching it. The show is too good for me to half-ass watching it. That show is deserving of my full attention.
I think Dan Da Dan has benefited tremendously from an otherwise pretty weak season of new shows. Sure, Re:Zero and Danmachi might have been great (I have heard, I don’t watch either), but those shows have the previous seasons as a barrier of entry that Dan Da Dan doesn’t.
wasn’t a single discussion thread for “Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online” - Season 2
There was for the first few eps, but I guess it didn’t get enough interaction and got dropped by the bot as a result. I certainly dropped it. It was quite boring. There was little reason to care about anything that happened. I dropped it at the surprise mechanic.
Weekly ranking roundup:
Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.
Last week I remarked on Blue Lock ascending to the #2 spot on AC’s chart. This week, they completed the run up the table and actually managed to unseat Bleach to take #1.
Unboxious@ani.social 1 week ago
Things I watched or tried to watch from this season:
Endmaker@ani.social 1 week ago
I watched Gundam RFV without having watched anything else from the UC timeline and thought the story was fine.
I guess the show is the way it is because of its intended audience - i.e. someone without much knowledge of Gundam, given that it aired on Netflix.