Crank

It looks like Aoi is not so innocent, after all, and she’s scheming something there. I’m guessing she wants to punish Yukari with Gotou’s hands by making him find out that Yukari has been bullying Satoko.

On the production side, it seems to me that this episode looked more rough than previous ones. I got the impression that some characters were drawn off model

I’m still having surprising amount of fun watching this, but I gotta say, this whole situation with trying to turn magivision profitable would be much more believable if those characters deliberating about it weren’t 6-8 years old. But, I guess, showing a little kid pommeling everyone around makes it funnier

Ellhar is big mad! lol

This has neither rhyme nor reason. Some jokes are funny, but the transitions between serious moments and comedy are really weird, and the whole thing feels just so chaotic. This can be good in moderation, but here it’s so prevalent that I think it hurts this show more than it helps it.

My favorites, probably in this order:

1. Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! ED
2. The Apothecary Diaries S3 OP
3. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners S2 OP
4. Firefly Wedding OP
5. The Apothecary Diaries S3 ED

That’s just from the shows I follow this season. I haven’t seen OPs and EDs from stuff I don’t actively follow, so I might be missing something good here. Student Council Holes hasn’t released the proper OP yet, and given how show looks so far, there’s a chance it will join this list once it’s out.

I continue going through my unwatched movies stack. This week I watched Millennium Actress which turned out to be a film that places a great deal of emphasis on form, and since I’m not a huge fan of a highly artistic approach that tends to push the plot into the background, I didn’t enjoy watching it that much as I thought I would. Though, I will admit that the idea is interesting, and direction is truly excellent. There’s probably plenty of references to Japanese cinema in there, that went completely over my head, and me not being familiar with Japanese live-action cinematography contributed to my reduced enjoyment of the movie. So, objectively, I’m sure it’s a much better movie than my experience with it implies.

I also started watching False Memory – my leftover from the previous season that I overlooked, because it’s donghua, and I generally don’t watch many of these. I got used to Japanese language too much, and very often they don’t have Japanese dub, like in this case. I’m halfway through, and one thing I can say for sure is that they’re really flexing in the animation department. Visually it very much resembles FLCL, although I get the impression that in a way characteristic to Chinese studios, they’re trying to overwhelm the viewer with sakuga too much. I think more toned down approach would work better with this kind of story, and the visuals overshadow the message it’s trying to convey. That said, it’s still somewhat enjoyable. Maybe the ending will change my mind for the better. We’ll see.

I’m afraid you’ll need to wait for fansubs for that kind of luxury. Unfortunately, the subs for this on streaming platforms vary from hardcoded to barely acceptable

I second Unboxious’ recommendation of Ghost in the Shell. You’ve seen Oshii’s movie, so maybe try 2026 version, it’s pretty different in tone, but Major stil remains badass. Also:

• Assassination Classroom – Koro-sensei is quite a role model
• Classroom of the Elite – it’s very edgy, so given that you disqualified Code Geass and Death Note, this might not be to your taste as the MC is that kind of character, just more autistic. Also I’m not sure if I can call this anime good. Somehow I managed to watch a bunch of seasons, but ended up dropping in during the most recent one.
• Saga of Tanya the Evil – Tanya can hardly be called a role model, and we see her struggling a lot, but I cannot deny her competency in what she does if we look at it through the eyes of people around her

I also wanted to mention Jujutsu Kaisen – Gojo is generally a goober, but he’s a menace when he locks in; Amagi Brilliant Park, because it’s a funny take on competency; Lycoris Recoil, because Chisato is such a pro, but it looks like you already watched those

The best episode yet, and coincidentally also the horniest. The jokes had great timing, but the number of boobs on screen must have been quite distracting for the translator, as the episode contained a fair number of errors in the subtitles. You could spot them even without knowing any Japanese. That said, the episode also featured plenty of rather sweet moments, especially involving Terui. The flat-chested demon’s secret is just that she truly loves everyone in the student council. She’s such a sweetheart

Always happy to see more Libra. For a character with such a monotonous voice, she can be pretty funny too. That Karkinos barrier sent me 😂

Looks like next time Lufas will have to face two Heavenly Stars who joined forces, which might make it more interesting and less one-sided than her recent fights. This show can cook when it matters, so I’m hoping for a good fight.

Also, good on Sei for thinking about his crippled friend

As I thought, we’re starting to enter the bullshit territory now
✅ nobody dies
✅ magic power awakening in the crucial moment (x2 !!!)
✅ the power of friendship
✅ nobody dies again
Some people will say that at least there was plenty of tactics involved in winning that fight. And in general I agree, but spending 5 minutes out of 20 minute long episode on showing people sitting in place and listening to a lengthy monologue, that tells them who goes where and does what, is not how you make a chase scene and the following battle exciting. It ruined the pacing this episode had.

They posted on Twitter that this will be a split cour (2nd part in April 2027), after all, not a consecutive run. This might be for the better, because the show is starting to look pretty rough. We even had some of these soldiers sliding down the hill like Garou in OPM S3.

Given what anime has conditioned me to expect whenever someone coughs up blood, I’m starting to get the feeling that Satoko might have a shorter future ahead of her than I had anticipated. Not to mention the very clear metaphor involving fireflies that appeared in this episode. It looks like we’re heading toward a rather dramatic conclusion.

Watch something else? One Piece isn’t the only anime in existence

The headline is misleading, taken out of context, and sounds much more ominous than what was actually said.

Alright, I didn’t plan to watch this, but I binged all available episodes. After seeing Suikoden, and some comments under other episode threads, my expectations were practically nonexistent. So I’m quite surprised to notice this isn’t bad at all, and fortunately it’s more comedic than it is edgy. It gives me some impression of a one-trick pony, but so far it plays it out pretty well. And it’s actually pretty well animated for this kind of story. The direction also feels much better than that other Konami studio show. Hopefully it won’t start dragging in the school arc, like so many other stories that use that setting.

Lorna will save the world, and her only driver will be hunger 🙏

I’ve got many TV series under my belt, but relatively few films, so in the last few days I’ve decided to catch up on some movies I’d missed.

Children of the Sea – it might be the best animated gibberish I’ve ever watched, when it comes to quality of production. The art is absolutely gorgeous, but the plot is chaotic, nonsensical, attempting to be deep, but ultimately ends up sounding like a teenager on weed trying to be profound, yet making no sense whatsoever. IMO it’s only worth watching for the visuals, or if you like to watch movies while being wasted. 4/10

Maquia – it starts with a wonderful concept, and the first half is very good, but in the second part the movie becomes extremely emotionally manipulative, and quite chaotic when trying to deliver on its premise. The film unnecessarily raises the stakes, and the elements introduced in this section hinder rather than help in conveying the point the authors intended to make. Overall, it wasn’t a bad film, but the second half caused my rating to drop from 9/10 to 7/10.

A Kite – it was a weird mix of stupid, laughable, and disgusting. Mostly stupid and disgusting. It’s certainly an experience one of its kind. Never again. I hope the director grew out of his rape fantasies, because Virgin Punk, despite sharing a lot of similarities, is pretty good so far. As for Kite – 2/10

Grave of the Fireflies – I admit that, objectively speaking, it was a good film. However, for some reason this particular style of directing doesn’t resonate with me, and I dislike the fact that Studio Ghibli casts folks from outside the professional voice-acting industry in their films. In my view, the voice acting, much like in Princess Mononoke, was the weakest aspect of the entire movie. I even had to take off my headphones a few times when Setsuko was crying again and again, because my head was starting to hurt. It seems to me that this was one of the factors that significantly contributed to my inability to become fully immersed in the story. This and Princess Mononoke are the only Ghibli movies I’ve seen so far, but if others have similar vibes to these, I might turn out pretty indifferent to studio Ghibli creations in general. 7/10

As for TV series, I decided to drop Overgeared after episode 4. But I watched it subbed, and after that I heard that English dub makes it much better, and oh boy, it really does. I rewatched it dubbed from the start, and it felt like a different show. English cast leans more into comedy, Grid’s VA is having so much fun, and even the dialogue is better (it has slight differences compared to Japanese subs). It lifted my rating from 5/10 to 8/10. It made me start wondering how many times I could have missed a fun dub like this, because I almost always default to watching subbed

it just kinda drops off without really solving anything

IIRC there wasn’t enough source material at the time to create another season. Hopefully, it will get another season eventually, now that we have over 85 chapters, because it was great.

Turns out ED was unfinished, and only now we get this: Pi by Akari Nanawo

Looks incredible

Satoko turned out to be way more interesting and expressive character than I initially thought. The dynamic between her and Gotou is pretty fun to watch. But they kinda overcooked with that son of police superintendent. I can turn a blind eye to this, thinking that we’re seeing him through Satoko’s eyes, and that’s why he’s so creepy that it almost comes across as comical, but I’m not a fan of such practices. Hopefully not all supporting characters will be so simplistic, because in the right environment our MCs could really shine

Me too, Lorna, me too

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All those misunderstandings and Lorna’s obliviousness keep cracking me up. And Elmina needs to survive – her interactions with Lorna are too funny 😄

Overall, this season was quite good, though not quite as strong as the first. From a technical standpoint, I have no complaints – Studio Trigger did a solid job. My only gripe, much like in the first season, is the inclusion of a Polish song in the soundtrack, presumably as a nod to CD Projekt’s Polish roots. In my opinion, it’s terrible, especially if you know the language and can understand the lyrics. Aside from that minor source of cringe, it was excellent.

I know I’ve focused more on what I didn’t like, but all in all, it was a solid season. It just wasn’t as strong as the first, which, for the record, was very close to a 10/10 for me. Falling short of that standard doesn’t make this season bad. It’s just that the first season set the bar incredibly high. I give this season 8/10.

For a show whose main selling point is parodying the “banished from the hero’s party and became overpowered thanks to my ridiculous skill” trope, this episode was far too serious. We only got a few scraps of comedy, and it wasn’t until the final minutes that the series returned to the format that drew me to it in the first place. I hope that future episodes will be more balanced

Choosing palliative care means he probably won’t, unless a miracle happens

But does everything really need to be presented so explicitly and unambiguously? It’s as if the audience were completely incapable of picking up on the clues provided elsewhere. In my view, there were already plenty of hints to realize that Ray is stressed, struggling, and not fighting the way the others do. It’s not exactly difficult to deduce that Romelia noticed the same things during the battle that we, the viewers, did. I don’t think adding that scene would have changed much.

Honestly, being treated like an idiot, having everything spoon-fed to me, is often far more irritating. I believe that adaptations should follow their own rules. You simply cannot translate every single line from the source material to the screen while maintaining a structure that actually works in a completely different medium. From my perspective, anime creators actually make such changes, which could help convey events more effectively on screen, far too rarely. Instead, they cling rigidly to the manga panels, which often results in terrible pacing and uninspired direction. Of course, I’m not saying that Romelia stands out in either direction in this regard; it’s just a general observation of mine. But at the same time, I think this in this case this particular scene was not needed here at all.

As I suspected, this won’t be a top-tier anime in terms of visuals, but it makes up for that in how it presents the story and develops its characters. So far, even the tropes typical for this genre, like some special powers appearing out of nowhere or an evil church, don’t spoil the experience for me. Also, I’m happy that the special skill doesn’t turn Romelia into a powerful fighter, and she’s actually pretty bad with a sword. Her playing a role of a great strategist and leader is more interesting than yet another OP heroine.

The bouncing tits in this episode had a bigger budget than the entire third season of OPM

I wonder if this is another of her lies, or this time this actually means something. And by her does she mean Lufas or the Goddess 🤔

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They really managed to make me feel confused about Dina. I totally don’t understand what game is she playing. And I thought I figured her out at the end of S1…

She was already on the island when he met her, though 🤔

This episode was a bit better than the previous one, but I still have no idea what kind of story the author is trying to tell here. I’m afraid that the creators might be unnecessarily dragging out scenes of psychological abuse inflicted upon the characters to mask shortcomings in the plot. After all, aside from the dramatic opening, not much has really happened so far. And I’m not seeing enough quality to believe that this might turn into a compelling story. So I think I’m out. I might come back if it turns around later, but I don’t have high hopes.