Author: Lenlo

Hoshikuzu Telepath

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Konohoshi Umika is a high-schooler who is very bad at communicating with others. Feeling almost like an alien trapped on Earth with nowhere to belong, one day she meets a girl who claims to be an actual alien!

Had this just stuck to the girl really really liking aliens then it could have been cute. Instead though Telepath decided to go full social ignoramus, missing even the most basic of social ques with an equally ridiculous secondary girl. This is like Bocchi the Rock all over again, except while both handle their subject of socially challenged kids poorly, one was at least spectacularly animated and produced. Don’t get me wrong, Telepath looks fine, better than a lot of things airing this season actually. But it’s also not the best. It also doesn’t help that while watching it I had to check multiple times to see how close we were to the end, making a 20 minute episode feel like an hour. Maybe I’m just not built for these social outcast shows where the outcasts are always depicted as cute girls with no actual issues and yuri-bait non-romance. Still, I’ve seen enough friends rave about it that I’m willing to accept this is a me thing more than anything else. After all, I praise Bocchi in this very post and I didn’t like that either. Probably just not my thing, if your looking for socially inept children interacting than you will probably have a good time here.
Potential: 5%

Kawagoe Boys Sing

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The story is about the Kawagoe School Boys Choir Club and their instructor, a former orchestra conductor named Haruo Hibiki. The club members’ personalities clash, but Haruo helps them grow together through singing, as they aim for the nationals of the Boys Choir contest.

Ok this might come across as rude, but no matter how good the singing is, the Engrish just completely ruins it for me. Were they singing in Japanese, or had actual English singers like the My Hero Academia Culture Festival, everything would be fine. But as a native English speaker, it makes all of the music sound discordant and amateurish. Pair that with a generally rather annoying teaching and a generic plot and I’m not really feeling any of it.
Potential: 0%

What”s Left

With that we come to the awkward point in the season where there are only 3 shows left to cover and none of them come out anytime soon. So what do we do? Dr. STONE I’m obviously going to be covering, I love it and I want to continue to give it love. But what about Dog Signal and Kusuriya? Well this is my plan. I’m going to wait until both are released, give them their own preview post, and then once all are out I’ll drop the seasonal awards. Between now and then though I’m going to continue the season as normal, posting about the shows I’m watching when I have the time to write them up. I’m also going to try and bring back the Weekly Update, just so y’all can see a bit of what I’m watching outside of my main coverage. Hope everyone enjoys that, I want to spread the content around a bit and this is the best way I can see to do that. Thanks for reading and see y’all throughout the season!

I Shall Survive Using Potions!

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Nagase Kaoru, a 22-year-old office lady, suddenly finds herself reincarnated in another world. To help her survive in this new world, a being that amounts to its god gives Kaoru a younger body and… the ability to make insanely overpowered potions?! The reincarnated Kaoru must use her knowledge and cheatery to survive!

Why is this entire cast just legal lolis? Why is it an isekai when it has no reason to be? Why are we drugging said lolis already? Why does this show exist at all? Seriously skip this, just watch The Apothecary Diaries instead. I know it hasn’t aired yet but I can already tell that it’s going to be the better potion/medicine show. It’s kind of funny to be honest, how this season backloaded all the terrible shit. For a while there I was feeling pretty good about this season.
Potential: To Many Loli’s

Tearmoon Empire

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Twenty-year-old Princess Mia of the Tearmoon Empire, often scorned as the “selfish princess,” was executed by guillotine in a rebellion. Next thing she knew, she awoke in her own twelve-year-old body, with her own blood-stained diary that she kept before she was beheaded sitting next to her pillow. Given a second chance at life, Mia decides to rebuild the empire. For the sake of Tearmoon’s future? To save the people from starvation? For all the soldiers who lost their lives in the civil war? No! Everything she does in this life is for the sake of avoiding the guillotine! “F-For me, this should be a piece of cake!” Thus the useless, cowardly, self-serving princess brings about miracle after miracle in her great struggle to save herself in this altered-history fantasy.

Here we have another weird time travel show sending our lead back into their own past. It’s kind of cute how the MC has absolutely 0 intention of saving her kingdom/people, focused entirely on avoiding her own death. And it is decently well produced. But… I just can’t get into it. We’re at the point in the season where I’ve seen what else is on offer and this just doesn’t do it for me. Maybe if you’re looking for a show about a bratty girl learning to be a better person through osmosis you’ll get some enjoyment out of it. But for me there are better girls, better time travel stories, and better plots to be found in this season.
Potential: 5%

Protocol: Rain

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The story centers on Shun Tokinoya, a second-year high school living with his mother and younger sister. After his father’s death in an accident and his sister’s injury, he quit the game he was passionate about, and now works at an esports café called “FOX ONE.” He spends all his time studying and working part-time while hanging out with his childhood gaming friends. Suddenly, he learns that “FOX ONE” has a huge amount of debts. In order to repay the debts, Shun and his friends aim to win the “Xaxerion Championship” and win the prize money. With a sense of guilt, Shun jumps back into the world of online games, and is confronted by Bakuretsu-kun, who used to play the game with him.

I’ll say this for Protocol, as shit as the game looks, PS2 graphics and everything, this is one of the first “Video-game” anime I’ve seen that actually bothered to create a game people might actually play. Like they got the movement down, the poses, the first person perspective. It’s budget CS 1.6. And its depiction of fixing/caring for machines? Not bad. Is that enough to sell/watch an entire show off of? Of course not. But it’s something I can respect and praise. Maybe, if we’re lucky, that will translate into a passion for E-Sports across Protocol’s entire run. Sadly that isn’t enough to get me past a pretty basic “Hobby trauma” story and one-note characters, plus the weak production outside of the game itself. If you have a thing for E-Sports maybe give it a try and see if it clicks with you? I wouldn’t expect much out of it though.
Potential: 1%

Butareba -The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig-

Short Synopsis (Anilist): An unappealing otaku awakens in the body of a pig after he passes out while eating raw pig liver. Pig finds himself in the company of Jess, an innocent girl who can read people’s minds, and she accepts him despite his boorish thoughts… although she does plan to eat him. When Jess is in danger of succumbing to a dark destiny, can Pig save her using only his quick wits, wisdom, and refined sense of smell?

This is about pig-fucking. No I’m not joking, it’s literally just a hot girl lusting after an Isekai protagonist reincarnated as a goddamn pig. She has a collar and everything too. There’s not really much to say beyond that. This show is garbage. It’s literally pig-fucking garbage. Do not watch it. I wish I hadn’t.
Potential: Don’t Fuck a Pig.

A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Another dimension that continues to taint our world, the Shadow World. Humanity is faced with the worst calamity, known as the Shadow Labyrinth. In spite of their desperate attacks, Desir Herrman and his friends lose their battle to the Destruction Dragon, Boromir Napolitan, and the world comes to an end. When Desir is convinced of his end, he opens his eyes… to find himself 13 years in the past. Desir has gone back in time to the enrollment ceremony of Hebrion Academy, the top school for mages in the Empire.

This is the point in seasonal previews where I start to get tired of watching the same shlock over and over again and just get really blunt about things. So here goes: The CGI dragon sucks, nothing about it is particularly visually appealing and I’m just sort of done with school settings. Returner is basically Ragna Crimson, what with its time travel, memories and OP MC, except far less edgier. Maybe to some that’s a bonus. But to me it takes the only bit of teeth, the only thing that made Ragna possibly worth watching, and… scrubs to clean. There’s no meat to this. We have better revenge shows, better time travel shows and better fantasy shows all in this very season. I don’t see why you’d watch this.
Potential: 0%

My New Boss is Goofy

Short Synopsis (Anilist): After his power-tripping boss broke his spirit and his health, Momose leaves his job for a new job in sales at an advertising agency. However, on the very first day of his new job, Momose is unable to move due to a stomach ache caused by his past traumas. “What should I do if my new boss also abuses his power?”

Goofy Boss is cute. There’s no better way to put it other than that. From the looks of things this doesn’t appear to be a romance of any kind, no BL, just a workplace fluffy comedy with some hot guys. I can appreciate that. Adult problems, adult situations, adult characters. No high or middle school bullshit. The main issue as I see it is that this isn’t my kind of humor. It’s a more inept kind, where the humor comes out of situations going slightly wrong, in a harmless way of course. Some might also be disappointed that there isn’t any romance, as a lot of the jokes seem to imply it in some way. I know at least one person that feels like Goofy Boss is a little yaoi-baity. Still if what you want is whole fluff anime, I think Goofy Boss is a middle of the road pick for you this season. Just not something I’m personally going to watch.
Potential: 20%

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Three years into her life as a shut-in, vampire Terakomari Gandesblood (Komari for short), awakens to find she’s been appointed as a Commander in the Mulnite Imperial Army! The thing is, her new unit consists solely of belligerent ruffians who revolt against their superiors at the slightest hint of weakness. Although Komari hails from a line of vampires as powerful as they are prestigious, her refusal to drink blood has made her the picture of mediocrity—scrawny, un-coordinated, and inept at magic. With the odds stacked against her, will the help of her trusty (and slightly infatuated) maid Vill be enough for this recluse to blunder her way to success? Or will Komari rue the day she ever left the safety of her room?

What are these hairstyles? Why are there a bunch of random beast-people. Are these even vampires if they don’t have fangs, live normal life spans and can stand in the sunlight? Everything about this screams soulless cash grab. Yet even though they set this up to be a “legal-loli” scenario they can’t even do that right because our lead is 15 goddamn years old. I mean fuck, they even gave her a damn womb-tattoo. Out of every premier I’ve watched this season this is perhaps the most unappealing, dull, weeb-bait show I’ve seen yet.
Potential: 0 beat-boxing Vampires/10

SPY x FAMILY Season 2

Short Synopsis: The second season of SPY×FAMILY.

You know what this is. It’s SpyXFamily’s 2nd season, one of the biggest shows of the last year. Either you checked out Season 1, loved it, and have been looking forward to this for a while or you didn’t and you won’t be jumping into this late regardless. Personally? I’m going to watch it for its production if nothing else. SpyXFamily was consistently one of the most well produced shows of its season and I see no indication of that changing now. Readers have also assured me that Yor actually gets to become a character this season, which from the looks of things is true since this next arc is all hers. This is a big plus in my book. While Anya’s antics are still fun, as are Loid’s reactions to them, Yor was one of the more disappointing parts of previous seasons. If SpyXFamily delivers on that, as well as maintaining its overall quality from the previous season, it should be a good time.
Potential: 75%

Goblin Slayer S2

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The second season of Goblin Slayer.

This was a surprisingly relaxed start for Goblin Slayer. It opened on a bit of a recap of Season 1, mostly showing us how dangerous goblins are and reminding us of the rape tendencies. Beyond that though there was a shocking lack of action and goblin murder. Instead it was a lot of character interaction, reminding us who these people are and their relationships with each other, as well as introducing a new character to the party. The idea seems to be using him to set us back to square one a bit, to remind us how dangerous they are before Goblin Slayer is allowed to live up to his namesake. Honestly I’m not sure how engaging of an idea this is. The main draw of the show is watching GS go full Dark Souls on some goblins, seeing the inventive and strategic ways he takes out a nest. The Priestess might be able to show us some of that as she wrangles a party of rookies, but will it really be the same? I’m not sure. Suffice to say, much like Season 1 I’m going to keep an eye on it for the occasional epic Goblin Slayer moments, but other than that I’m not expecting much from it.
Potential: 25%

The Kingdoms of Ruin

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Witches once blessed the human race with wisdom and peace. But the Redia Empire’s “Gear Expansion” brought about a culture of science that far surpassed magic, and witches were viewed as enemies impeding the progress of civilization. Thus began the witch hunts. One human named Adonis, who was raised by a witch named Chloe, swears revenge against the human race that took his beloved mentor from him. What salvation can be found at the end of a bloodbath fueled by utter despair?

Kingdoms of Ruin is, in my eyes, a pretty standard edgy sci-fi/fantasy show. The blend of technology and magic is, as always, more interesting than your standard high-fantasy Tolkienian world of elves and orcs. And I’m always down for a revenge plot where our lead is just/almost as bad as those he is fighting. That’s why it’s such a shame it had to go full public sexual assault/rape/brutalization with it. Had it just stuck to killing her, a standard revenge story, it could have walked that line of edge. Instead it jumped right over it and was a bit much. Still, if Kingdoms of Ruin can pull it back a bit, can actually do something marginally interesting with its lead, I could maybe vibe with it. I don’t expect it to, nothing about it says “Intelligently written” to me, but hey. I’ll give it one more. If I remember.
Potential: 10%

Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Ryuuto Kashima is the school’s gloomy introvert, and he’s got a crush on Runa Shirakawa, the popular girl. After losing a bet to classmates, he confesses his feelings to Runa one day. Shocked and secretly just as inexperienced as Ryuuto, Runa agrees to date him. The relationship grows between two people who are as similar as they are different. Will their young love blossom? Time will tell!

This is the most cookie cutter “Dweeb guy hot girl” style of romance out there. I got to the end of the episode and didn’t care a lick for any of the characters and arguably couldn’t distinguish them from any other “blond school idol and dweeb” pair out there. Seriously, these two are just knock off Bisque Doll clones! I want to say you can find better versions of this exact premise in this very season, but I can’t actually think of one. At the very least there are far better romances. The only saving grace you might be able to get out of it is that it actually pulled back on going full ecchi. Like it opened on an offer to get laid and backed off. I couldn’t believe it! If you’re looking for a trash romance this season you can’t do much worse than Our Dating Story. Luckily even with the issues it has it isn’t the worst romance I’ve ever watched the pilot of, so maybe you’ll get something out of it.
Potential: 0.001%

Undead Unluck

Short Synopsis (Anilist): All Fuuko wants is a passionate romance like the one in her favorite shoujo manga. Unfortunately, her Unluck ability makes that impossible. But just as Fuuko hits rock bottom, Andy sweeps her off her feet—literally! Now she’s become Andy’s unwilling test subject as he works to find a way to trigger a stroke of Unluck big enough to kill him for good. However, when the pair discovers a secret organization is hunting them, it puts Andy’s burial plans on hold.

Undead Unluck is in that sad position where everyone, from the author to the audience, knows the opening is kind of shit. Seriously the first few chapters, what will become the first 3 episodes probably, of Undead Unluck are like a completely different show from the rest. How do I know this? Because I read it, and the first few chapters were terrible, yet here I am still current on it. The same can be said for the anime. So many of the early issues are still here, from shitty ecchi gags and loads of sexual assault to cringey dialogue and Andy just being a jackass. This was all expected. What wasn’t expected was for it to actually look good?! And I don’t just mean “Above average”, I mean Undead Unluck had some of the best looking scenes of any premier so far. It’s not nearly as consistent as Frieren of course, but the entire anime-original opening scene in the snow, or everything at the airport, or all of the closeups? Did they abduct someone from Studio Shaft? Because that’s what it feels like. I had really low expectations for Undead Unluck’s opening few episodes, and while some of that was justified, it legitimately surprised me and has given me some hope for the rest of its runtime. Because the hints of what it will become, the moments of genuine care between Andy and Fuuko, were still there. And they were good.
Potential: 60%

The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The Yuzuki family consists of four brothers: Hayato, Mikoto, Minato, and Gakuto. The eldest son, Hayato, happily lives every day to the fullest. There are tears, laughter and excitement at home, at school, and in the neighborhood!

Yuzuki Family is basically the definition of “Wholesome fluff”. A family of 4 brothers living together after their parents pass away, there’s no real drama or darkness or depression behind it, just some brotherly conflict at worst. As such, the main thrust of the show is more about the middle child wanting to be seen as dependable more than anything else. Of wanting to pull their own weight in the household rather than be babied. It’s a solid enough feel good show. If that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for, I think Yuzuki Family is probably the best you can find this season. Personally though, I’d have preferred if it was focused more on the eldest brother’s troubles looking after his siblings rather than the middle child’s insecurities. That’s probably because I myself am an eldest child, and looked after my own siblings growing up, so that’s what I connect with the most. Because of this, I wasn’t really able to get into it. Still, it looks like a solid entry into the genre. Just make sure you get solid subs.
Potential: 30%

UNDER NINJA

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Ninjas still exist in Japan today. They number around 200,000. The ninja organization NIN (National Intelligence of NINJA) is not controlled by the civilian government, with its elite members performing assassinations and sabotage in secret. There is an organization that opposes NIN: UN (Under Ninja). Ninja versus ninja: What lies waiting at the end of this shadowy feud?

Under Ninja was surprisingly dense, in a good way for me. While we didn’t get any fights or real displays of ninja prowess, we instead got what is basically the day in the life of a low-tier nobody with the promise of said fights down the line. And you know what? That day in the life was kind of interesting. Lazing around at home, practicing homemade blow darts, hanging out with his housemates, figuring out and doing preparation for a job without leaving the home. I was surprisingly engaged by what should have been a bunch of nothing. But something about how matter of factly Under Ninja presents its world, its characters, piqued my interest. This isn’t to say it’s perfect, I detest its potty/dick humor, the overall structure of the episode jumping back and forth in time was confusing and I’m not terribly interested in this organization or ranking system the ninja seem to have. If Under Ninja could just stay a low-ranker surviving in this cutthroat world with what few jobs come his way, I could see this being a hidden surprise. I don’t really expect it to stay that way but still, I’ll give it a few more episodes, it’s earned that at least.
Potential: 40%

16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Short Synopsis: Konoha Akisato is an illustrator that loves beautiful girls and bishojo games. Her dream is to become a super-popular illustrator, so she is working hard at a bishojo game production company, but reality isn’t that kind… With the golden age of social network games in full force, Konoha’s company isn’t doing well, and she works as a sub illustrator, spending her days painting the backs of random background characters until she is mysteriously transported to the year 1992!

16bit is just dull. The idea is cute, a girl loves making bishoujo games but is stuck in a failing industry in a dead-end job. She gets a lucky break, finds some classics for cheap in an old shop, before getting teleported 30 years back into the past where she will most likely work in the golden era of her beloved genre. The only problem is that 16bit fails to make me interested in bishoujo games, in any way whatsoever. I’m not asking that it makes me fall in love with them. That’s not something you can do in a single episode. But it does need to make me interested, to make me believe why someone else could love them how our lead does, to present an argument about why they are special. And it just doesn’t do that. So it ends up failing for me on the most basic of levels.
Potential: 0%

KamiErabi GOD.app

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The ultimate battle royale for divinity has begun. High schoolers must use their unique powers to compete against each other for the coveted title “God.” But as each brawl becomes more vicious than the last, alliances are formed and betrayals take place. Who will emerge victorious and claim their godly throne?

For the first ½ of its runtime KamiErabi is kind of… bad. It looks like shit, the designs are shit, the world is shit and the story is pretty damn run of the mill. I mean seriously, a death game with magic powers to determine who is going to be the next god? How many times have we seen this before? And why do all of the character designs look like strippers with those sleeveless shirts? The one saving grace it had was how wrong the world felt, and even that got ruined by our MC randomly jacking it to his crush. I was ready to write this show off. Then the 2nd ½ happened and… Well I still think it’s kinda bad, just over the top edgy bullshit. But at least it looked a slight bit better? It got a lot more visually stylized, some cool colors, and the stupid power system made its appearance? KamiErabi still isn’t good, and I doubt it ever will be. At least it’s not “Dear god why did this get made” bad. Instead it’s just regular “I won’t watch this” bad.
Potential: -5% (So its still below 16bit)

Paradox Live THE ANIMATION

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Saturated in hip hop culture comes the birth of a new movement known as “Phantom Live ”. Each of the artists have a metal accessory known as “Phantom Metal” which chemically reacts to the wearer’s emotions to produce an image, setting a magnificent stage for enthusiastic youths. With legendary club “CLUB paradox” hosting the mysterious Paradox Live, four teams: BAE, The Cat’s Whiskers, cozmez and Akanyatsura each receive an invitation to participate, each with their own genre of music in a race to the top. Each of the four teams go into the competition for a reason. As the competition heats up, so do the unimaginably large motives each of them hides…

I really really want to shit talk Paradox Live. It’s a boy band idol show about a bunch of hot guys in a music tournament. We get some of these every year and 90% of them are shit. And if I’m being honest, Paradox Live is probably just as shit as the rest. The odds it’s the one decent combat idol show of the year is low. And yet… It isn’t 0. Paradox Live is up there with some of the best looking shows of the season. From the effects-ridden performances, which might be to much for some but hey it’s an idol show just deal with it, to some really good expression work, Paradox Live just looks… good. On top of that, it seems to have some darker undertones mixed in with something sinister going on in the background. The main thing holding it back is just how hit or miss the music is. I get it, music is subjective. But in this case I wasn’t a fan. Rap and hip hop just aren’t my genres, so if that’s going to be the main style of the show then it’s going to have to be a pass for me. If you do like those though I think Paradox Live might be a good time for you.
Potential: 40%

Bullbuster

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Mysterious creatures have been terrorizing an island, forcing locals to flee their once-thriving home. With government funds lacking for monster eradication, Tajima purchases the only construction company left and transforms it for the task. Thankfully, the brilliant Testurou Okino and his new robot, Bullbuster, come to their aid. But the team is on a tight budget. Can they save the island?

Bullbuster was, as kindly as I can put it, fine. It’s a more lighthearted take on mecha kaiju battles. The world isn’t at stake, mankind hasn’t been pushed to the brink, it’s just a run-down company dealing with overgrown rats on an island until the infestation is cleared out. Will it have some drama? Probably. Are people at risk of dying? Supposedly but I don’t believe it. Is it fun? A little. I can also say that the production seems solid. The giant rat things and mechs look fine, clearly CGI but it’s not the worst I’ve seen and the characters are at least 2D. There’s even some cool animation in there of a guy playing the drums! Yet nothing about it made me go “wow”, nothing really drew me in and got me invested enough to care, or even just to watch a 2nd episode.
Potential: 25%

I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Allen Crawford is a misanthropic sorcerer known as the “Dark Lord.” When he comes across Charlotte Evans, a noblewoman exiled on false charges, his memories of being betrayed three years ago come rushing back. He decides to teach Charlotte about all the pleasures, vices, and joys of naughty living. Can a broken heart be mended with riotous living? These two are bound to find out!

Surprisingly enough, as deceptive as the title may be, this isn’t actually an ecchi piece of shit. In fact it’s much more wholesome than that, with the Demon Lord saving a wrongfully banished noble lady of a neighboring nation and endeavoring to teach her how to have some fun with her life. Eating sweets, hanging out, all the stuff she didn’t get to do before. I assume it will eventually become ecchi bullshit, the name just lends itself to that. But if Crash Course can dodge that, dodge some great meta plot “Stop the demon lord/evil king” and stick to cute wholesomeness, it might actually not be a waste of your time. Personally I won’t be watching it, this isn’t my thing. But for people who just want to unwind after a day at work and pick up something relaxing? Well this is a valid option, at least for now.
Potential: 15%