Rottcodd
@Rottcodd@ani.social
- Comment on [Episode] "Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na" to Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai - Episode 10 discussion 21 hours ago:
Yow.
Had a pretty good idea what Ink’s secret was, but that was still hard to watch.
Flum spent entirely too much time being weak and weepy and stupid, and I can’t believe she decided that getting a towel for Milkit was a higher priority than listening to what she had to say.
Two more episodes to at least tie up a few of the loose ends…
- Comment on [Episode] MF GHOST Season 3 • MF Ghost 3rd Season - Episode 11 discussion 21 hours ago:
Much though I’ve dogged on this series the past couple of weeks, I have to say that it was great to see Kitahara get a chance to shine. I knew she had it in her.
Shame we’re going to have to wait until 2028 or so to see the end of this race…
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- Comment on [Episode] SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table • Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu. - Episode 10 discussion 1 day ago:
Yow. Yeah, this has been a bad one, and we didn’t even see most of it - just the results. And now it’s down to Yuki and the psychopath and self-evidently Yuki survives, but I have no idea how.
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- Comment on [Discussion] Steins;Gate Is Still Influencing Sci-Fi Anime 15 Years Later 3 days ago:
I think the key is that I hadn’t realized, or even teally considered, how much of it hinged on wish fulfillment not as a way to handwave the science and move the story along, but as a way to do a sort of end run on Okabe’s defenses and force him to confront himself. So even though I did appreciate the later parts of it, I didn’t appreciate the parts leading up to that.
And oddly, wish fulfillment puts me in mind of one that I’ve found myself mostly alone in appreciating - Maebashi Witches. A lot of what impressed me about it is that it explores the idea that having ones wishes fulfilled might turn out to not be what one actually needs, or even particularly actually should want.
The first and most notable difference is that it’s not through a brash, self-absorbed otaku, which immediately sets my teeth on edge, but through cute girls doing cute things, which I’ll always welcome.
Huh…
- Comment on [Discussion] Steins;Gate Is Still Influencing Sci-Fi Anime 15 Years Later 3 days ago:
I just had the tragically uncommon experience of reading a response that neatly and concisely outlined and supported a viewpoint contrary to my own, and did so without even hinting that the fact that my own is contrary is a sure indicator of the inferiority of my mind/morals/education/genitalia. So thanks for that.
And considering that viewpoint, I can see how it is that an anime that started with a character who to me is nothing but fingernails on a chalkboard, then built a story around him out of pseudoscience, wishful thinking and macguffins, could impress and even touch someone else even as it left me - a snide, cynical background character in Japanese fiction archetype terms - entirely unimpressed and untouched.
So thanks for that too.
- Comment on [Episode] Release that Witch • Fangkai Nage Nüwu - Episode 2 discussion 3 days ago:
Huh…
I stumbled across the first episode of this the other day, entirely by chance, and was intrigued and watched it and was impressed (and cynically amused by the pro-capitalist messaging).
I didn’t even consider the possibility that there might be a thread here for it though.
A lot of the reason I ended up watching it is that it’s one of the very few times that I’ve come across a donghua and not been immediately put off by the story, the animation or both. Though an isekai, which is far from my favorite genre, it looked promising (and the pro-capitalist messaging looked cynically meta-amusing), and the animation looked to be both relatively traditional, instead of creepy CGI, and with relatively high production values. That was enough all by itself to give it a shot.
Even with that, I was sort of pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first episode, and this episode just that much more so. This actually looks like it could be pretty good just on its own merits.
And it’s good timing too - this season started with an unusual number of promising anime, but most of them have turned out to be disappointing, so I was just about ready for something interesting to follow.
- Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 11] 3 days ago:
Unfortunately, I get exactly what you’re saying about Kotoyama but I discovered it backwards. After reading this I was so impressed I went back and read Dagashi Kashi, and… yeah … he improved a lot between the two.
- Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 11] 4 days ago:
I stumbled on and caught up with the manga just as it was starting to wind down to the end, and really enjoyed it.
It’s a sort of odd thing - at first glance, it seems quirky and edgy, with the loner boy meeting a vampire and most everything happening at night, but if you dig a bit deeper, it’s really surprisingly vanilla - in a lot of ways, it’s just a young romance between an awkward boy and a genki girl, neither one of which has any real experience. But it’s not even just that - it’s surprisingly high quality vanilla. The characters and their interactions are very well done and the whole thing works really well.
And then there’s an entirely additional layer of vampire intrigue and horror on top of that, and it too is notably well done, and incompatible though they might seem, the intrigue and the vanilla romance mesh together surprisingly well.
Unfortunately though, the ending leaves a lot to be desired. Kotoyama notoriously can’t or won’t commit to a specific ending, and that’s the case with this one too. And as if it wasn’t bad enough that the original ending was unsatisfyingly open, he then did a timeskipped epilogue that somehow managed to still be unsatisfyingly open.
Still though, all in all I was very impressed.
- Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 11] 4 days ago:
With occasional breaks for new episodes of stuff, I spent most of the week watching season 2 of The Apothecary Diaries. It was predictably very good. First off, even in a series notable for great music, the first cour OP stood out as especially good.
Other Highlights:
I love watching Gyokuyou tease Jinshi. She’s a terrific character all around, but that’s when it really shows through. Jinshi tries so hard to balance acting as befits his position and hiding his personal interest in Maomao, and she sees right through him and keeps him constantly flustered, but always with a generous spirit and a twinkle in her eyes.
It’s amusingly appropriate that Maomao is unfazed by Jinshi and even by the Emperor, but is intimidated by Hongniang and Suiren. She knows that Jinshi in particular is mostly bluster and is a softie at heart, but Hongniang and Suiren, nice though they might be most of the time, rule their respective households with iron fists and are not to be crossed. It’s nice to see Xiaolan growing as a character. She could’ve just been a passing background character, but they invested time and effort into her, and Maomao came to really appreciate her just as a human being, and she blossomed rewardingly. And the ice scene was horrifying and sad and sweet and wonderful - a beautiful emotional journey (and something that you know all three of them will remember fondly for the rest of their lives). I want to see more of Lishu in the future. She desperately needs to be rescued - she’s sweet and earnest and kind and doesn’t even begin to deserve the way she’s treated. I love that Maomao doesn’t understand cats, even though she’s so much like one herself. Maybe that’s why though. I’m very impressed that I didn’t figure out Loulan’s secret - they did a good job with that reveal. I like Lihaku more all the time - he’s one of the few people, and the only male character, who just treats Maomao like a normal person. The scene at the stronghold was particularly good, because that was a desperate and strange situation and he had to violate his orders to go along with her, but he just listened to her, recognized that there were gaps in her story, decided to trust her anyway, and went on his way. No muss - no fuss - he just did what he did because she’s his friend. Jinshi’s scar is going to build character, and I assume that’s exactly why it was given to him.As for current stuff:
Shibouyugi - not what I expected - Candle Woods apparently isn’t going to be brutal because it was designed that way, but because one of the players has gone rogue.
MF Ghost - They still haven’t even started the race. This is the one part where they’re very definitely not following the Initial D formula, and to the detriment of this series. Initial D covered an entire stage in Takumi’s career in each season - multiple races, lots of background, lots of side stories. MF Ghost can’t even manage a single race in a season. It’s just too slow and too drawn out, and much though I love cars and road racing, it’s not holding my attention.
Roll Over and Die - another oddly effective mix of genres and moods, from Milkit’s face and Flum’s adorable jealousy to Ed and Jonny and… enough said about that. Unfortunately, this episode really drove home the point that this can’t help but be basically just a promotion for the LN series, since there are far too many loose threads to even begin wrapping anything up by the end of the season. I’ve still enjoyed it though.
Champignon Witch - The vagueness isn’t going away. I presume that what we’re seeing in the anime is a condensed version of the full story, and they’re skipping a lot of background, because it sort of feels like trying to watch a movie by watching a single scene, then skipping ahead randomly and watching another scene. The scenes themselves are generally good, but the whole thing just isn’t coming together into a cohesive story.
Frieren - Details aside, this could’ve been the second episode of any shounen action arc ever.
Trigun Stargaze - Dropped.
Gnosia - Dropped.
Scum of the Brave - we still don’t know what’s going on, but it was telling that Yashiro obviously has some ideas about exactly why he ended up seemingly saddled from out of nowhere with King Arthur’s daughter, his old mentor’s daughter and an oddly highly skilled and ruthless third girl. That ties in neatly with his ability too - at all times really, he’s much more aware of what’s going on than he lets on.
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk - Probably my favorite episode so far - Kohaku is coming to terms with the fact that he’s completely new to interacting with a woman he actually cares about and Yoi is coming to terms with the fact that a man could actually care about her, so they’re shifting from a glib sleazeball trying to put the moves on a naive girl who happened to catch his eye to two absolute beginners trying to sort out this love stuff together. And that made their aquarium date pleasantly sweet and wholesome.
You and I Are Polar Opposites was absolutely adorable. The birthday cake scene in particular put an even bigger dopey grin on my face than the series normally does.
Journal With Witch - I’ve been sort of spoiled by this series - though it was still well ahead of pretty much every other anime ever, this episode seemed a bit light on profound revelations about the human condition. Mostly it was filling in some gaps and presumably laying groundwork for things to come. And unfortunately, the things that most stood out for profundity were mostly centered around the growing divide between Emiri and Asa. I really dread seeing how that’s going to play out. On another note though, at this point I’d say it’s 100% guaranteed that there’s going to be at least a second season.
And I picked up a new series - a Chinese ONA called Fangkai Nage Nuwu Chi Dub aka Release That Witch, which is interesting in its own right, and potentially even more meta-interesting. It’s an isekai with a modern man who spontaneously takes over an adult prince of a sort of medieval kingdom with real witches, and decides to release a seemingly genuinely nice person who also happens to be a witch and who was scheduled to be executed on the condition that he gets to hire her to work for him. Then (according to the synopsis) he, with her help and the help of more witches that he hires along the way, ends up touching off a sort of magic-based industrial revolution in this previously insignificant kingdom, which brings them power and wealth, and the attention of aggressive neighboring kingdoms. So it’s shaping up to potentially be something of a Chinese paean to capitalism, which I find deliciously amusing.
And at the moment, I’m about halfway through a rewatch I’ve been threatening to do for years now - an enormous, sprawling, steampunk/gothic epic from two decades ago - Trinity Blood. It’s sort of cheesy, but it’s undeniably stylish (and has a terrific OP - Dress (Bloody Trinity Mix) by BUCK-TICK) and is a mostly engaging story set in an intriguing and detailed universe. Sadly, the author died before he could finish the story, so instead of getting the hopefully satisfying ending it deserved, it just sort of goes along until it suddenly stops. Still though, I remember enjoying it all in all, so we’ll see if that holds true this time too.
- Comment on [Chapter] Harumination - Vol. 1 Ch. 5 - MangaDex 4 days ago:
First End of Goldfish Kingdom, then Harumination gets picked up too?
Dare I hope for Kodama Maria Bungaku Shuusei?
- Submitted 4 days ago to manga@ani.social | 1 comment
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- Comment on [Chapter] My Life Turned Around: After Being Cheated on and Falsely Accused, I Ended up Being Adored by the Most Beautiful Girl in School - Vol. 2 Ch. 7.2 - MangaDex 5 days ago:
It’s sort of a weird read just because it’s so unrealistic, but at the same time, it’s so cathartic to watch karmic retribution consistently strike with pinpoint accuracy. It’s the way the world should be.
- Comment on [Episode] You and I Are Polar Opposites • Seihantai na Kimi to Boku - Episode 9 discussion 5 days ago:
That was probably the most adorable episode yet.
- Comment on [Episode] In the Clear Moonlit Dusk • Uruwashi no Yoi no Tsuki - Episode 9 discussion 5 days ago:
Same here, more or less.
I felt a bit of a twinge when he first started crawling across the couch, but it didn’t hit me as hard as it has in the past - I’m finally fairly confident that he’s not going to start pawing her any moment now. And his monologue while they were hiding was perfectly timed - it was fairly obvious that he didn’t know what to do with Yoi since he’d never felt the way he does about her with anyone else, but he hadn’t quite put it into words yet.
Their aquarium date was pleasantly sweet.
- [Chapter] My Life Turned Around: After Being Cheated on and Falsely Accused, I Ended up Being Adored by the Most Beautiful Girl in School - Vol. 2 Ch. 7.2 - MangaDexmangadex.org ↗Submitted 5 days ago to manga@ani.social | 3 comments
- Comment on [Discussion] Steins;Gate Is Still Influencing Sci-Fi Anime 15 Years Later 5 days ago:
Am I the only one who thinks that Steins;Gate is overrated?
Maybe it’s because I grew up reading science fiction and it’s always been my favorite genre, and time travel one of my favorite sub-genres, but I just found it to be sort of shallow and tedious. That and something that is unfortunately all too common in anime, unnecessarily bogged down with an intensely irritating MMC. I’ll give it credit for an interesting climax, but to me, it was too little too late.
- Comment on [Chapter] I Started Working a Housekeeping Job and Ended up Being Liked by the Family of the Most Beautiful Girl in School. - Ch. 12 - MangaDex 6 days ago:
Yeah - this really reminded me of Ice Princess, and I agree. There’s something charmingly gentle and innocent about this sort of set-up. It’s as if the romance is almost secondary - they grow together and form bonds as people, and then that sort of morphs into romance.
And the younger siblings are central to all of that - not only do they provide a reason for the mains to spend time together - they generally pick up on the growing romance before the mains do, and then encourage it.
- Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 10] 1 week ago:
Yeah - I liked it all in all. It’s not as stylish as Elfen Lied, but it’s a more tightly focused story. I think I’m going to end up reading the manga sooner or later, because there was a lot of background that was only really hinted at in the series, and the manga of Elfen Lied was worth reading for just that reason (even though it sort of bogged down at about the 2/3 mark) - because it filled in all the background details the anime skipped.
- [Chapter] I Started Working a Housekeeping Job and Ended up Being Liked by the Family of the Most Beautiful Girl in School. - Ch. 12 - MangaDexmangadex.org ↗Submitted 1 week ago to manga@ani.social | 2 comments
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- Comment on [Episode] "Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na" to Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai - Episode 9 discussion 1 week ago:
I was starting to wonder about Milkit’s face. Now we know.
And it’s a bit more certain that Ink has some deep dark secrets, but she still hasn’t admitted it.
I didn’t expect that turn of events with Jonny and Ed at all, but that’s part of what I appreciate about this series - it doesn’t hold back.
I’m beginning to suspect that overall this is going to be more of a teaser for the light novels than anything else. There are just too many irons in too many fires for there to be any significant resolution of much of anything by the end of the season.
And at this rate, I’m going to have to take some time off from anime to read my growing list of light novel series (this one, Apothecary Diaries, 86, Shibouyugi, Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Kumo Desu ga Nani ka…)
- Comment on [Episode] SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table • Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu. - Episode 9 discussion 1 week ago:
Ah… so it looks like the reason this game is remembered as a bad one is because one of the players - a psychopathic killer and Moegi’s mentor - went rogue.
And the horror’s just starting.
- [Chapter] Houkago Kitaku Biyori / Journey Home After School - Ch. 52 - Let's Enjoy the Sports Festival - MangaDexmangadex.org ↗Submitted 1 week ago to manga@ani.social | 1 comment
- [Chapter] Starting Today, We're Childhood Friends - Ch. 163 - Childhood Friend and Silky-Hair Senpai - MangaDexmangadex.org ↗Submitted 1 week ago to manga@ani.social | 1 comment
- [Chapter] Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! - Vol. 13 Ch. 105 - Jahy-sama and Say It Sooner - MangaDexmangadex.org ↗Submitted 1 week ago to manga@ani.social | 1 comment
- Comment on Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 10] 1 week ago:
Started the week off gently bouncing off of Love Through a Prism. I was very impressed, but just wasn’t quite in the mood for period romance set in a London art school. I’ll come back to it when my mood is right.
Instead I ended up catching up with In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, which is a strangely stressful shoujo romance between a princely girl who’s never had a boy interested in her before and an ikemen who doesn’t just look like a self-absorbed player but actually is a self-absorbed player. It’s sort of working out to a standard-communication-failure-getting-in-the-way romance - it’s just that instead of turning into a stammering idiot every time they get close to expressing their feelings, he turns into a glib sleazebag. It feels like it’s going to work out in the long run - that just as with any other romance of the type, they’re going to overcome their difficulties and succeed. It’s just sort of unpleasant (though it does make me appreciate awkward, stammering MMCs more, because now I know it could be worse).
The latest episode of Playing Death Games was mostly setting up for the Candle Woods game, which has already been mentioned in an earlier (later in the timeline) episode, and somberly noted “That was a bad one.” And it’s already heading that way. But I had the feeling that there were nuances in the episode that I was missing, so next up I rewatched the earlier episodes, then watched the latest one again, and picked up on some more stuff. And yeah - the next episode is going to be brutal.
The latest episode of MF Ghost was dull. I really wonder what they’re thinking - at the rate it’s going, they’re only barely going to be able to start the next race before the season runs out, and we’re going to have to go another few years before we’ll even get to see the finish of this race. Then they’ll maybe just barely manage to start the next race by the end of that season. At this rate, the cast and crew are all going to die of old age before anything really noteworthy happens.
The latest episode of Roll Over and Die, on the other hand, was great. The genre mix was on full display, as it shifted seamlessly from Ink being all cute and wholesome (though somewhat disturbingly perceptive, especially considering the fact that she’s blind) to Flum and Milkit making out (off-camera) to Ottilie brutally torturing one of Dein’s henchmen to Sara coming over to meet Ink and have a pleasant dinner with everyone. It seems that the genre-hopping shouldn’t work, but somehow it does.
The latest episode of Champignon Witch was pretty good. It feels like it’s finally moving a bit, but overall it still feels sort of oddly vague. There’s the deadly serious overarching goal that was introduced early on, but aside from that, it seems that everyone is just sort of stumbling along with no clear direction or goal (other than Claude, but he’s such an asshole that he’s more of a hindrance than a help).
Then, at loose ends over the weekend, I poked around for something older to binge, and ended up on Tamako Market, which was excellent. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It’s one that I’ve long been sort of familiar with, but I had the impression it was just going to be sort of generic SOL/CGDCT. It really stands out from the crowd though, with great characters, great writing and terrific little bits of almost mundane surrealism. The basic set-up reminds me fairly strongly of Soremachi (to the degree that I’m pretty sure that’s not a coincidence), but Soremachi was much better as a manga (because Shaft is incapable of subtlety), and Tamako Market does a much better job of capturing that feel in an anime.
And while I’m on the subject (though this was actually a bit later in the week), I also watched the sequel movie Tamako Love Story, which was pretty good all in all, with a few dashes of excellent.
The latest episode of Frieren was mostly discouraging for me. It looks for all the world like the introduction to a shounen action story loop, complete with a brief look at the final boss. And the little bit we got to see of the main characters was awful - as if they were just sort of wedged in place because the outline had instructions here and there that said things like “Insert appearance by Fern here.” I wonder how many episodes they’re going to spend on this. And if they finally finish it up, then immediately show a sneak preview of the next boss, I’m probably done with Frieren. Turning something that started out as sublime and beautiful as Frieren into just another shounen action perpetual motion machine should be a crime.
I had a hard time even putting together enough interest to bother watching the latest episode of Trigun Stargaze and made it through about five minutes and realized I just didn’t care and wasn’t interested in watching the rest of it, and turned it off.
Gnosia had a chance to redeem itself with this real ending, but I didn’t expect it would, and it doesn’t look like it will. It’s a shame the series wasn’t written by somebody who had a genuine understanding of multiverse theory, causation or time paradoxes.
Scum of the Brave appears to be laying a foundation for something later on, but there isn’t enough detail yet to make any judgments. It’s still holding my attention at least.
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk is moving in a good direction - Kohaku is starting to get a handle on his worse impulses and specifically because he sincerely cares for Yoi and doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable, so at least it doesn’t feel like it’s going to turn into a hentai any minute now. And it looks like he’s about to get some competition, which will hopefully be a shock to him, and make him that much more determined to treat Yoi as she deserves.
You and I Are Polar Opposites was great as usual - Suzuki’s mom was especially good. And something’s brewing between Taira and Azuma. Shame we didn’t get any Nisshi this week though.
And Journal With Witch (I love that the week ends on the highlight) was brilliant, even by its own lofty standards. The constantly switching timeline and characters really served to drive home the fact that the awful things Asa believes are so unfair are things that pretty much everyone goes through in one way or another.
And at the moment, I’m a little over halfway through a series I’ve bounced off of repeatedly over the years - Gokukoku no Brynhildr. I knew I was going to watch it sooner or later - I just was never in quite the right mood until now. And it’s about what I expected from Lyn Okamoto - a bit drama, a bit harem, a bit intrigue, a bit evil scientists, a bit romance, a bit ecchi and a bit brutal tragedy.