Crank

He did struggle with basics of sculpting using magic in season 2, so that tracks

Shu Gabi is the mastermind, isn’t she?
They certainly are trying to point that way, but it could also be a red herring. Either way, that double suicide does feel suspicious without more context

Luca faceplanting cracked me up every time. We’re kind of speedrunning through his and Lara’s relationship, but I hope the rest of the series won’t be that rushed. Up until now the pacing was great.

I like the attention to detail, like the fact they all teleported in an order that seems to correspond to how much mana each person has, with Nanahoshi who doesn’t have any being first, and Sylphie and Rudeus being last. Also Sylphie looking worried more than anything, and clinging to Rudy’s arm, when she’s looking down over the edge, because she has a trauma from falling from the sky. Or how Rudy’s eye lights up with mana in preparation for a fight when he’s asked about man-god.

I wonder what’s up with the white glow under the arch because it wasn’t just Rudy, Sylphie had it too. Does man-god has some influence over her too? We can see some kind of alien looking figure on the relief. What was his role in the story told on the walls of Chaos Breaker? This episode brought us a lot of new questions.

I certainly didn’t expect Nanahoshi’s illness to turn so bad so fast. That was a lot of blood. Was it just because of illness? Or some effect flying fortress has on magic? I hope she survives. She’s one of the more interesting characters in the whole series.

This episode looked better than the last few in terms of visuals, fortunately. It was also top-notch in terms of comedy. The accidental summoning of the nicotine demon had me in stitches. I just hope Yaku will get better. Poor cat is definitely trying

This is shaping up to be one of the best shows of the season, and maybe even the year. This episode was sorely needed and let us recontextualize Lisa’s stance. No wonder she’s so hateful to humans. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t after all she went through over so many years.

At the end we hear Mari punch someone. Did she just think the last time I punched Lara she grew a pair of legs, let’s try again? That’d be so funny

Really nice episode. The prince (emperor? I don’t remember his title) is so easily swayed. Dude saw one dance and was like I don’t hate her anymore, as a matter of fact it might be the opposite right now

That mana when Rudy was performing the experiment gave me a little scare. Feels like holding a demon core with a screwdriver.

It feels that Perugius is a careful one. Nanahoshi says that there’s a limit of 12 guests, and he has 12 servants, probably so that each one can handle a potential enemy or something. Or it was just a joke and Nanahoshi repeated it unknowingly, heh

In the meantime, princess Ariel is casually strengthening ties to the Greyrat family since it looks like an easy way to gain new allies. Rudeus is connected to some ridiculously strong/important people, he just brought a king class mage as his wife, all his friends are some sort of nobles or heroes. And now Ariel is not only friends with his first wife, she is getting closer to Norn too. I wonder what exactly is she scheming

On one hand it’s great to have dialogue that sounds natural, is not catered to the audience, and we just have to figure out what’s going on instead of having everything laid out. But on the other hand they are yapping so much that it’s actually somewhat hard to follow at times

A lot more funny faces this time. I like it more when they commit to the bit instead of making this look serious and inserting a single joke here and there like in some previous episodes

Mizuka is probably fine

Kokoro expressing herself through manga was so hearwarming 🥹

By the way, I want the same phone battery Hikaru has. That thing has endless power

Unfortunately, the visuals in this episode, just as in the previous one, weren’t as good as the first three.

I thought Imoko is always going to play the straight man, but it seems she wasn’t spared either. Poor girl had to deal with enough Yaniko’s habits that she developed a kink

IIRC this covers the same part of the story that Innocence was about. Interesting to see the different approach

I thought this show had a weak start, but every next episode was better than the previous one, and I’m actually starting to like it now. I think a lot of that has to do with parts of OG Reirin personality that were hidden from us up until now. I thought it’s gonna be another show where MC is very one-dimensional, but this episode shows that’s there’s more to her character than that

Agreed. The anime directors rarely understand what makes a story scary. The Summer Hikaru Died was an exception. Mieruko-chan had some really well made scary scenes too, better than most other shows of this kind, but this is a comedy at it’s core, not a full-blown horror

This had me wheezing within the first minute 😆
Finally, after so many years, Land of the Lustrous 2!

Yeah, that’s how I understood this too. Her friend was just getting a new, improved cybernetic ass, but it seems to be the same person we see during the lesbian orgy

I’m noticing a big uptick in the amount of “flavortext” subtitles, there was at least one in each scene. I do wish these were translated but they still represent a lot of information that you’d never be able to read at normal speed. Maybe fansubbers can do them justice.

Commie subs has already picked it up. They publish their version in a day from the release, so it’s not a long wait.

I agree, the first part of the episode looked incredible. I love how silly Fuchikomas are. That weeeee when trying to shoot the guy was hilarious, and so were their deliberations.

On the other hand, we had some heavy philosophical stuff in this episode too. Imagine having a wife, a child, a whole history with them in your head, and then finding out it was all fake. What a blow that must have been. Poor guy. Some solid existentialism during that conversation between Motoko and friends as well. I really like how the comedy, action, and philosophy balance themselves out. In my eyes this makes for a much more convincing image of the world than versions of this story that mostly focus on the bleak, futuristic atmosphere and badassery alone

The part with alcoholic choking on their own vomit was actually just sad. Reminded me of that scene from Breaking Bad.

That’s some quality animation for what basically looks like some yuri.
If I had a nurse like that I’d get hurt on purpose

In the past God used the nutcracker to talk to Tanya, so I guess it brings back some unpleasant memories

This was even better than the first episode. The pacing slowed down, now that we’re past the backstory, and Lara’s breakdown and confusion was portrayed very well. I like how effortlessly they mix some humorous scenes in there. This is very promising.

Looks like Oniyasha is getting one step closed to figuring out what is ‘good’.
On the other hand, Kogane’s disappearance is worrying. He acted as if this was the last time they see each other.

With these latest additions, I am now following all seasonal anime with average rating of 80% or higher. I may be missing out on some sub-80% rating anime though. Any seasonal recommendations based on my taste? anilist.co/user/Endmaker/animelist

The World Is Dancing has been the biggest positive surprise of the season for me. I’m not even into dancing, but the way it is presented in this show is incredible. The team behind this took a very artistic approach and some parts are absolutely hypnotizing. You’ll know what I mean if you watch episode 1 till the end. You liked Wandance and a bunch of newer Cypic shows, and while the style is nothing like Wandance (there’s no clunky 3DCG) it is also an anime about dancing so might be worth trying out

Another show that stands out and you don’t have it on your watching list is Goodbye, Lara. This is an anime original with an art style resembling shows from the 90s. The first two episodes were very promising.

There are some others that might turn out worth watching, but so far these two are the standouts, IMO

This is some neighborhood from hell, haha.
The show still looks great. Everyone will still be talking about the great OP full of cool references, and rightly so, but this episode also features one of the best EDs of the year

Yes. It’s not a sequel or anything. It’s fully standalone from other series/movies. Having that said, it could feel confusing, because they throw you right into action, without explaining much, but I assume that this is just a narrative choice and everything will be explained over time.

Riiight, that kissing magic was totally necessary for the plot 😅 It feels a bit like yurified 86. I kinda hate it when MC is yapping this much, but I think I’ll give it a chance