Haven't really had the brain space to pick up anything from this season yet, but I did watch two anime films yesterday in the theater: Chainsaw Man: Reze's Arc and The Colors Within.

CSM: I didn't like S1 much. I thought it was okay at best. But this film was incredible. Denji is much more human here and Reze is just incredible. She really stole the show. The pool scene everyone raves about deserves all the praise it gets. Visually it's a big upgrade too imo. More vibrant and better movement. And man, that soundtrack was so good. Kensuke Ushio doesn't fail to deliver. If this is how the rest of CSM is going to be adapted, I'm all for it.

The Colors Within: the theater I went to ocassionally has anime film showings outside of the release schedule, and they showed this one this time. Great movie as expected of Naoko Yamada, also with a great soundtrack by Kensuke Ushio. Bit of a tonal whiplash to see it right after CSM though haha.

I have watched ARIA The Origination Picture Drama, ARIA The Origination sono choppiri himitsu no basho ni and ARIA The Avvenire. Aria always delivers. I only have 2 films left. I think I will save them for a bit later. I don't want to rush a series like ARIA, I want to luxuriate in it.

I have been super busy irl with work, so I haven't really gotten a chance to watch anything this past week. I think that is partly because of how busy I have been and partly because nothing this season has really grabbed me. I have enjoyed some series, but nothing has made me try to absolutely jam it into a packed schedule. As an example, Campfire Cooking is one that I continue to enjoy, but I have already read past season 2 content in the manga. So, I know what is going to happen, and it will always be there for me in the future. Touring After the Apocalypse is the one I am probably most engaged with this season, but it's not the kind of show that makes me really prioritize it when I am busy.

This season is going to stand in stark contrast to next season though. Winter 2026 looks crazy stacked. I just did a quick scroll through the Anichart page and there are at least 6 that I am way more excited about than anything this season.

Current season:

May I Ask For One Final Thing? is still going strong, and last week's episode was one of the best yet. We're coming into the meat of the story. And meanwhile, Gnosia, in what has become a worryingly predictable move, just added more characters and more game mechanics in lieu of any sort of actual plot progress. I'm still holding out hope that this constant moving of the mystery goalposts has some in-universe meaning, but I suspect more strongly all the time that it's just crappy writing.

Past seasons:

Finished up Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, which I really enjoyed all in all. It never quite came together into a satisfying whole, but it was a pleasant journey with some very odd but surprisingly well-rendered characters.

Then I watched Kokoro Connect, which was sort of the opposite in a way - an immediately interesting plot hook, but only so-so execution, and specifically because the characters were disappointing. They didn't feel organic and fully fleshed out, but more like sort of hasty and disjointed contrivances - like the writers just filled each role in the story with a set of somewhat arbitrary characteristics - "insert manipulative nice guy poseur here" or "insert genki girl with a dark secret here," and then never quite managed to bring them to life.

Then next was a long-time TBW resident - Anohana - which hooked me so hard that I ended up watching it all the way through in one sitting, which is something I haven't done for quite a while. It was mesmerizing - so rich and so sad and so raw, and the story unfolded so relentlessly, yet somehow gracefully. I'm not sure I'd say I "enjoyed" it, but it was very, very good, and it'll definitely stick with me.

And I'm not sure what's next - some sort of change of pace. I gave Soul Eater a shot - I love the art style and have long wanted to finally watch it, but coming off of the storytelling of Anohana, that tedious shounen action story loop just didn't work at all. I think I want something that's relatively well plotted, but with a minimum of drama and tragedy, and nothing's really grabbed me yet.

I watched Nyaight of the Living Cat and I really liked it and hope they can make (an)other season(s). I think the mix of retro parody + post apocalyptic survival full of references, great music and cats made my days after work. I just noticed their webpage and I'm listening again the vibes of The Yellow Monkey and X-Japan.

It's been all Boku no Hero Academia the past few weeks because my wife is trying to catch up with the latest season, and I'm watching along as much as I can. I think we're close to the finishing the last season before the current one.

Bang Dream: It's MyGo!!!!! may have some rough animation and VA work, but its narrative climax with the Utakotoba scene in Episode 10 hits very hard in the feels...

So I always leaned toward fantasy and sci fi with anime. I mean honestly for most media. I watch some slice of life and enjoy it but it was sorta a lesser. Im starting to realize though that the fantasy and sci fi that has a slice of life feel is what I like more. Like friren or such. As opposed to this guy fights this guy every episode. So I guess what im saying is I like slice of life more than I gave it credit for. I like this one about a tall athletic girl who basically is super concious of her size in relation to femininity. This has sorta rearranged my priority now as I always like fantasy over sci fi. So its like fantasy/sliceoflife, scifi/sliceoflife, sliceoflife, fantasy/simple, scifi/simple. Sorry I can't think of what to call the writing style where the characters don't have as much depth so used simple.

Past Seasons

Been watching plenty of short, standalone Pokemon anime. Their production quality is top-notch.

Hisuian Snow - Reminds me of How To Train Your Dragon, but somehow I couldn't really get into it. Perhaps it's because the protagonist didn't have enough interaction with Zorua / Zoruak. 7 / 10

Twilight Wings - Apparently it serves as backstory for one of the latest gen games or something, but I did not play them so I didn't get any of the references or easter eggs. Still a wholesome watch though. 8 / 10

Paldean Winds - This one felt like it has more of an overarching plot compared to Twilight Wings. I enjoyed it more. 9 / 10

Dragonite and the Postman - This right here is my favourite of the lot. I like this story most - perhaps because the stakes here are higher (but tbf the stakes were low across the board). The visuals are stunning. I also find it cool how they change from the modern artstyle to an older-looking one during flashbacks. Instant 10 / 10

With how good modern Pokemon anime turned out to be, I thought I'd check Pokemon: Horizons out. But it has 100+ episodes, so looks like I won't be touching it for a while.

I also tried Code Geass but dropped it after 5 episodes. It has many elements of Gundam which I usually like: warfare, politics, discrimination / classism, friends-turned-enemies. Heck, it is even similar on a superficial level with the Char clones, Lacus clone and mechs.

The problem is with the main characters.

The way Lelouch behaved is just like Light from Death Note, which makes him so dislikable. Had his cause not been just, I would be gladly cheering for his downfall like I did for Tanya in The Saga of Tanya the Evil. But that's not the case. So now I can't really root for / against him.

Suzaku on the other hand is a stereotypically dumb protagonist. I get some of the logic in what he's saying, but his naivety is too much for me to handle.

With such dislikable main characters, I'd naturally dislike the show. 2 / 10

I won't discount resuming it if people tell me that the story becomes that great later on.