At this point in time, the Winter seasonal shows have either wrapped up or are airing their finale this week. So, I wanted to hear your thoughts on shows you watched this season. Shows you liked, disliked, were surprised by, disappointed by? Let those opinions rip!
Like always, this thread can also be used for general discussions, recommendations, and questions. So, if you haven’t been watching any seasonal shows, but instead want to talk about the finer points of Fushigi Yuugi, that is fine too.
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).
I usually watch slice-of-life series, but this season, I’ve had way more action and drama than I set out to watch. I’m a sucker for isekai, slice-of-life, slice-of-life isekai, though I feel like it isn’t reflected on the shows I watched for this season.
My top picks for this season are Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san [Mr. Villain’s Day Off] and Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita [The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash].
Disappointment for this season is Sasaki to Pii-chan [Sasaki and Peeps].
Worthy of special mention (warning) is Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu [Fluffy Paradise].
With that, here’s my thoughts of the anime I’ve watched this season.
Finished, or about to be finished series
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto [The Apothecary Diaries]
I didn’t really expect much from this series, mostly because of the raves it got. I was pleasantly surprised though.
The characters and the writing are good. The “worldbuilding” is good too, giving us a well-fleshed-out view of the time and place the story is set. If there’s one complaint I’ve got about this series, it is that at some points, the plot seems to be pushed along by some deus-ex-machina. I wouldn’t mind a series where nothing much happens, but this isn’t that kind of series.
Sasaki to Pii-chan [Sasaki and Peeps]
Its premise and the impressive first episode impressed me. However, it ended up being a mixed bag for me.
On one hand, I liked how the main character isn’t an overpowered protagonist blasting his way through his problems even though he has the means to, but on the other hand, his methods didn’t translate on-screen as well as it might have had in theory. He’s set up to be this masterful negotiator, but despite efforts to showcase this, it fell flat. The real-world intrigue as well as the other-world politicking also wasn’t developed well enough too.
This series might have fared better as a 2-cour season, though having more episodes to play with might just make its pacing problems even worse. All in all, I was disappointed in this one. It gave a promise of a good premise, but its botched execution just squandered it.
Chiyu Mahou no Machigatta Tsukaikata [The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic]
Having already read the manga (but forgot until after watching the first episode), I just wanted to see how they adapted their source material. It’s okay, I guess?
The characters could have been written better for the anime though. Despite some effort, they still felt flat and stereotypical. The MC, most especially, felt to me as if he’s just being strung along the story, even despite declaring that he’s willingly staying and committing to the path that lays ahead of him.
Also, I felt that the title is a clickbait. I’ve encountered some discussion as to what the title meant, but I don’t really buy into any of them, even though I think one of them makes a lot of sense.
Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsu suru [7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!]
To be honest, I don’t even know what I expected when I started watching this one. I don’t know what I wanted out of this title, and I don’t know what to do with what I got.
It isn’t terrible, but I didn’t really care enough about the characters to care about what happens to them. I finished it, if only to sate my curiosity. Perhaps I’m just not the target market for this kind of series.
Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu [Fluffy Paradise]
Came in for the slice-of-life fluffiness, came out horrified by the fluffy
redactedimplications.If somehow I can turn back time and warn myself about this series, I wouldn’t be sure if I want to warn myself. This series seems so innocent and fluffy, but the implications of what the MC is trying to do, which she fully believes in, is just horrifying.
Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san [Mr. Villain’s Day Off]
This series is the fluffiest of all the series I’ve watched this season and is my favorite of all of them. If you’re looking for a quick relaxing watch before going to bed, or a palate cleanser after watching something horrifying, then this is a good series to watch. Just don’t binge it all in one sitting, I guess, as that’d likely cause a diabetic coma.
The characters here are as flat as a pastel drawing on paper, but I think that’s part of its charm. There are character backstories here and there, but these serve as a contrast to the scenes we do see being played out.
Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa Ura-Boss desu ga Maou dewa Arimasen [Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord]
This series is unexpectedly cute. Really cute. Almost rivaling Mr. Villain’s Day Off in sugar content. That the MC is overpowered means of mass destruction that can flick the story’s big bad boss away is just the cherry on top.
Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita [The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash]
I didn’t even expect this series to have an anime adaptation. However, the source material of this is so good, I am glad it got an adaptation. As for the adaptation itself, it didn’t disappoint. In fact, I liked the anime better than the manga, or the webnovel. With that, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s my second most favorite this season. It just lost to Mr. Villain’s Day Off due to this one having more melancholy drama and a bit of action.
Series that will continue until the end of the next season
Shangri-La Frontier: Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su [Shangri-La Frontier]
Went in for the VRMMO Isekai shit, stayed for character hijinks.
This is probably one of my guilty sins of this season. I just enjoyed the mix of action and character interaction between the MC, his bunny girls, his bunny daddy, and his playmates.
Dungeon Meshi [Delicious in Dungeon]
I walked into this expecting a nice laid-back slice-of-life series, perhaps of a restaurant inside a dungeon, with stories from the different adventurers stopping by for a bite. However, I am not complaining about what I got, not one bit(e).
While the premise of this series reeled me in, and it certainly didn’t disappoint, the characters gave me a pleasant surprise. They’re deeper than I expected them to be, with their motivations and backstory giving their shenanigans a bittersweet vibe to it. Except Senshi. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got a surpisingly dramatic backstory as well.
Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu 2nd Season [Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Season 2]
I’ll get one thing out of the way first: I enjoy trash isekai. I watched the first season of this series, and I liked it. This season is also okay. I guess.
EDIT:
Forgot a series, some editing.
I tried ordering the series by airing date according to my MAL list, but ehh…
Perhaps bold the anime titles or something. It’s hard to read at the moment😅
Huh, I tried formatting them as headings. I’ll edit it. Thanks for pointing that out.
I kind of like how they turned out when you made them a header and then made them code formatted. The coloring adds a bit of flair to the titles! Like the textual equivalent to spirit fingers.
Thanks! I had to do something to make the titles stand out since it’s just a huge wall of text otherwise. I also can’t be sure how it’d be rendered in other Lemmy frontends so, yeah! glad it turned out okay.
Alright, you made me super curious about Fluffy Paradise. I had completely passed by that show because I thought it just looked like a cutesy animal thing. However, you write about it like it is Madoka or something twisted like that. Also, I have seen a couple people talking about Weakest Tamer, so I might add that to my “watch sometime when I get a chance” list.
My warning backfired then. It’s actually just a cutesy animal thing with a lot of unfortunate implications baked in (and totally unintended at that).
Fluffy Paradise spoiler
The MC wanted to build a reservation where all the sentient animals (the orcs, the kobolds, and others she’s gathering), pushed out of their natural habitat, would live, with the full knowledge that they can and will be hunted by adventurers within this reservation. Sure, the adventurers looking to hunt these guys would also be in danger, but the MC’s plan is essentially a country-sized safari.
It is treated in-story as a good thing, with the sentient animals being blissfully unaware of the implications. They even look forward into settling this new land (which as of the last episode, hasn’t yet been procured yet!).
I watched the show precisely because it looked like a cutesy animal thing, but yeah~ that certainly colored my opinion of it.
Ah, ok. I understand now. I can certainly see how that has dark implications that you wouldn’t expect based on the previews.