glilimith

Regardless of caring about Jinshi's feelings, it seems clear that the emperor recognizes Maomao's usefulness and probably understands that she'd be much more effective with the power and access she'd be granted if she became the emperor's sister-in-law, lol.

Went through all the OPs EDs for this season (and tried not to be too biased against the shows I didn't end up liking, lol). Here are my favorites:

OPs

• Bureaucrat to Villainess has a lot of energy and expresses its emotions very well
• Fruitsmaster goes way harder than it has any right to, considering the quality of the show itself. This is one of those OPs that can trick someone into wasting time watching a show that doesn't deserve it
• Apothecary Diaries delivers yet another amazing OP, which my light novel reading friend says is full of interesting visual references we'll understand later. It also has wet Jinshi
• Medalist conveys the motion of skating really well and makes me wish I enjoyed the show, lol
• Sorairo Utility uses colors and cuts to match the bounciness of the melody really well and the whole thing has a fun vibe

EDs

• Bureaucrat to Villainess does a really fun after-work karaoke
• Honey Lemon Soda does a good job giving the vibe of hanging out with friends taking dumb pictures
• Medalist reflects the more childish side of the main character with a cute little dream
• Solo Leveling constructs a very sinister vibe that gives the impression of a much more psychological/thriller type thing than the impression I have of the show itself (I only watched a few episodes). Not sure how well it matches, but the ED in isolation is great
• Red Ranger gives a view into a little what-if that has a very comfy vibe

Notable Non-Favorites

• Anyway I'm Falling in Love with You and Honey Lemon Soda have strikingly similar OPs?
• You and Idol Precure's ED has some pretty impressive CGI animation
• Apothecary Diaries' ED feels like exactly the kind of AMV that Jinshi himself would make, lol
• Yami Shibai's ED confuses me greatly

I really like the character arc they're setting up for Kazuhiho where Marie's excitement about Japan is helping him engage with real life more and eventually have more hobbies than just sleeping.

Also, as someone who lives on a fault line, the two reactions to the earthquake seemed pretty true to life, lol. Marie's reaction was a bit over the top, but visitors definitely get pretty freaked out when we get an earthquake that makes locals go "oh, huh".

Since this season seems fairly light and pretty heavily weighted towards the weekends, I've decided to supplement with other shows from my backlog to watch in between:

• Sasaki & Miyano - This is based on one of my favorite manga of all time, but I skipped the anime when it came out because I was so disappointed by the BL budget and sort of weird pacing. But going back in knowing its flaws, I'm able to enjoy seeing my boys fall in love all over again. It's not the perfect adaptation I would have dreamed of, but it's still that same story I love so much.
• Revenger (not to be confused with Tokyo Revengers) - I was pretty busy during the season this came out and ended up not being able to continue basically any of the shows I'd wanted to, but this was one I was pretty excited for. It's about feudal Japanese catholic assassins who only take on clients who are looking for revenge, and all of the characters have silly anime weapons that they use in pretty brutal ways, like the kid who uses a kite where the string is covered in bits of broken glass. I think so far it's balancing well its edgy tone and its goofy elements, where it's fun and not meant to be taken too seriously. I've seen a lot of bad reviews, though, so maybe it is supposed to be taken seriously and I'm the only one laughing at seeing a man pray to the virgin Mary for the souls of the people who he just killed with a sheet of gold leaf.

I'm glad Shin got a chance to shine this episode. Last time I was worried the kids would get sidelined too much, but it seems I was wrong, lol.

The resolution this episode felt sort of unearned. It seemed like we were being lead to believe that this A Tale of Perishing was deeper and more complex than the simple movie that existed in the real world, but then the solution to a philosophical disagreement was just a handsome anime boy and a musical number. And normally I'd be all for that, but that fixing Memmeln's nihilism felt like a cop-out. Though I did still appreciate the handsome anime boy and musical number.

I think it's really cute how long distance travelers leave those flower offerings. It's easy to imagine how if you lived in that world you'd start to notice things like "oh, someone must have come through here from [wherever] recently" when passing by one of those statues.

I'm not really a gundam fan, or a fan of space operas in general, but I was recommended this when it first started and I really enjoyed the first half. I felt like the corporate setting gave a suitable dystopian feel for the meaty drama about kids dealing with the sins of their parents, and I was fully on board. But, somewhere in the second half I feel like it all got a bit lost. The plot became more complicated and the themes got a bit muddled, and I sort of stopped engaging with anything except the emotional threads of the characters, who continued to be very well written. Overall, even though it was enjoyable, it felt like it had a lot of wasted potential.

And I agree, not woke enough: not anti-capitalist enough and not gay enough. (But, to be fair, I'd say that about most things, lol)

That seems like it might be what they're going for, but my problem with it is that we haven't seen her actually engage with this idea very much. What is it she likes about this old movie? All we've seen from her is her complaints about it (QJ being useless, Destiny causing problems for no reason, etc). The things she draws to resolve the conflicts also seem like they should tie in to those themes because they're ideas pulled from other anime, but she doesn't engage with any of them as a fan either. It'd go a long way if we got some flashbacks of her watching or fangirling about the stuff that inspired her, or really anything that shows us how excited she used to be about animation.

TBH, I feel like Zenshu's biggest strength right now is that it has a lot of space for viewers to bring their own ideas and themes related to artistic endeavors and insert them into the story, which I can understand being enjoyable for some people, but for me that just ends up feeling like they forgot a big piece of the heart of the story.

It's a bit of a weak season for new shows, but I put together a tasting menu of 4 anime for my friend group to consider watching together: Zenshu, Welcome to Japan Ms Elf, Okitsura, and Sakamoto Days. Unsurprisingly, they didn't take to any of them enough to change our original plans, so our list is still Apothecary Diaries, My Happy Marriage, and Hanako-kun.

The animation this week was pretty rough.... hopefully it'll be better next time.

Especially with her role in the eisaa, I'm even more convinced that Hina is observant enough to know fully what's going on and is trying to be a subtle wingman for her bff's obvious crush. I'll be curious how she plays this with Teru trying to confess to her.

I truly do not understand what this anime is trying to accomplish and am fascinated by how ambitious it is visually while being seeming devoid of any meaningful themes (so far?). I think I'm willing to stick around for the rest of this show to see if it ends up developing into anything meaningful, but at this point I seriously doubt it.