Category: Weekly Summary

Everything is in a loose order this week, so consider this to be my current standings for the season, barring Aidan’s Sengoku Youko!

Bucchigiri – 2 [Wanna Take You On! The Chu Chu Chinese Pepper Steak Train!]

It’s absolutely ridiculous how good Bucchigiri is. Not only is it one of the most expressively animated shows of the season, right up there with Torture Princess, it’s also fun in all the right ways. Sure, I could do without a lot of the butt/gut/tramp stamp/gay jokes, though for that last one if it actually commits to being a gay romance like its hinting I’ll be impressed and accept it. But overall I’m having a great time with it. From Ara’s obsession with Mahoro and trying his best to impress her, first by challenging her brother, then by challenging her brothers rival, all without realizing she’s not into him at all but both of the gang leaders are, is great! And Matakara’s growing despair as his attempts to reach out and reconnect with Ara fail, thinking he isn’t strong enough when in reality Ara is simply no longer the person he thought he was, is genuinely emotional. And to top it all off? The fights just look good. Like… really good. Not in a cartoony, overexaggerated way, I mean watching Matakara and Jabashiri fight it out in the school was some great choreo and full body movement. It feels like Bucchigiri has it all, and I’m absolutely here for it. Plus both the OP and the ED are absolute bangers.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 3” →

Hello everyone! So incase you didn’t notice, this is a pretty big post! Lots of small stuff I’m watching this season that I expect to probably drop but aren’t worth doing full regular weekly blog posts about. Instead I just shoved them in here! So… Look forward to that.

The Apothecary Diaries – 13 [Serving in the Outer Court]

Mao Mao is back! My favorite thing about this episode is that Apothecary Diaries decided to change up the location. I was a bit miffed when she decided to return to the Rear Palace so easily, it felt like a convenient reset after everything that had happened. So to see her wind up in the Outer Court instead, working as Jinshi’s assistant and studying to be a court lady? That was a nice change of pace, and sets the series up well for even more of my favorite dynamic: Jinshi and Mao Mao. Now they have even more opportunities to interact! And that’s just great. Watching Jinshi get so protective of her while she’s dolled up and arriving was awesome, loved that. As for the rest of the show, it also looks like Apothecary Diaries is setting up some sort of political power play with a member of the military, one who will try to use Mao Mao to his advantage? I’m curious where this will go, especially with how wary Jinshi appeared to be of the Military section. So yeah, good episode.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 1” →

Shangri-La Frontier – 13 [Only Resentments About the End of Life Remain]

We got a lore dump episode! Getting some hints as to the creation of the origins of the Seven Colossi, like calling Lycagon “Sooty” implying it was not only someone’s pet but that Setsuna was aware of it’s existence thousands of years ago, as well as some prep for the Wethermon fight. Speaking of Setsuna, we meet Setsuna of Bygone Days, an NPC required for summoning Wethermon and apparently a ghost from a previous civilization. There’s a lot of little hints here about more Shangri-La lore, but what I liked the most was Pencil opening up a bit and getting involved in the game. I really liked how the PKing madwoman has a soft spot for something like this, is still able to get emotionally invested in a game and take it seriously. It’s nice that Shangri-La isn’t forgetting that while this is a game, it’s a piece of media first and foremost, something people can get invested in and can mean special things to the right person. I liked that. I also really liked Sunraku and Katsu’s argument. Hell the relationship between all three of them is just great. They really feel like a group of gamers taking the piss out of each other but still able to be serious and emotionally available for each other when it matters. I guess the best way to say it is that Shangri-La went all in on the emotions this week, and it really worked for me. Plus we got to see Sunraku’s family, which was cool. I swear to god I thought they were all dead or something.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 13” →

Heads up, with some shows coming to an end I’m going to slip some tentative final scores underneath their section. These are very loose, not exact at all, and really more of a general “How I feel” sort of thing. Don’t take them to seriously, most of them, and this post, is off the cuff.

The Apothecary Diaries – 11 [Reducing Two to One]

I KNEW IT! I CALLED IT LAST WEEK! I knew Jinshi was Ah-Duo’s kid. Sure, Apothecary Diaries doesn’t say it outright, but the implication is clear and it’s doing everything short of telling us what happened. That Ah-Duo knew her child would always be playing second-fiddle to the Empress’s kid and so had them swapped. That’s how Jinshi grew up in such an important position despite his young age, why they look so similar. And you know what else? I think Jinshi knows, because he was clearly crying at his mother having to leave the palace, why else would they be having a late-night drink. FURTHERMORE, and this is where I get really conspiratory, I think Ah-Duo killed the Empress’s child, the one now being raised as her own, on purpose. She did it to ensure Jinshi’s place even if they were found out, which they were and that’s why Mao Mao’s father was expelled for not noticing. She didn’t cry for the loss of her son, but because she murdered an innocent child to secure her own child’s future. Do I think Fengming was in on that last bit? No, not really. She probably legitimately thinks she killed Ah-Duo’s son, and has regretted it ever since, that’s why she was so willing to take the deal Mao Mao offered where she kept quiet about the honey in exchange for Fengming coming forward on her own.

Suffice to say, this was all great. I absolutely loved all of this. I’m not normally that interested in politics in anime. But Apothecary Diaries managed to make it really interesting and it presented it just subtly enough that the viewer got the core of what was going on, the important stuff required for the story to continue, while hiding even more just underneath the surface for those paying attention. I really like that, it makes all of these characters so much more compelling. Same with getting the see Jinshi’s vulnerable side, like him and Mao Mao in the shadow of the wall, or just how tired Ah-Duo’s face was in those flashbacks. Some really good characterization from Apothecary Diaries this week. Finally it even sets us up for future plots, such as the implication at the end that Mao Mao’s kidnapping wasn’t quite as “random” as we may have thought. Was it perhaps done on purpose to get her into the rear palace? I suppose we will have to wait and see. Whatever the case though, the conclusion to this political plot has made me a lot more comfortable trusting Apothecary Diaries moving forward.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 12” →

Undead Unluck – 11 [Rio de Janeiro]

First up we once again have Undead Unluck. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, the series has been running on high ever since Spoil, maybe even Gina depending on how you look at it. And while this week is a bit of a slower one compared to previous, the rest of the season has slowed down a long with it. As for what actually happened, it’s a lot of setup for the next arc with a nice sprinkling of romantic progression. A lot of small moments with Andy and Fuko, from time on the beach to picking out nice outfits. It was really nice watching Andy help Fuko feel more confident in herself, pushing her to spread her wings a bit but not forcing her to far out of her comfort zone. Yeah some of the ecchi jokes still haven’t fully gone away, but they’re tinged with something a lot more… wholesome now I feel. That plus their conversation about what it means to be a negator, the options available to those like them and the desire to fight against the shit hand they’ve been dealt, made for an emotionally gripping episode. They’re finding their own reasons for what they do, which is going to be important if they want to fight God.  Beyond that we also met some of our villains for this new arc, Unrepair as well as three others.  We don’t know to much about them yet, but that’s fine, they will be more important. Later for now what’s important is that at least one seems like a dangerous match up even for Andy, meaning we have something to look forward to!

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 11” →

Undead Unluck – 10 [Result]

Starting off, I really enjoyed this weeks Undead Unluck. It wasn’t a big action setpiece, though there was some, nor was it a huge character defining moment. Really all it does is show us exactly what is at stake in this story, what precisely the Union has been working to prevent that has forced them to operate the way they do. It’s just the way that Undead Unluck does it is so god damn good. Sure going through each quest, flying around the round table to focus in on who participated in each, that might have been a bit much and killed the pacing for the first half of the episode. I won’t dispute that, it definitely felt slow. But it was establishing something very important for the episodes climax: Just how important, and world affecting, these quests are, including both their rewards and their penalties. The elimination of all languages on Earth, excluding Negators? The addition of Galaxies to the universe, and all that comes along with that from myths too days of the week and aliens? Not to mention Ragnarok should they fail 2 more times. I don’t know about you, but for me this was where Undead Unluck really hooked me. Where the scope of the series got absolutely ridiculous, beyond just super powered people fighting for no reason. It also helps that David Productions are knocking it out of the park presentation wise. Seriously, I don’t know what Undead Unluck did to earn this kind of adaptation, but I’m glad it did.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 10” →

SpyXFamily S2 – 8 [The Symphony Upon the Ship]

This was good. In fact I’d go so far as to say this was my favorite episode of SpyXFamily this season, maybe of the entire show. It had everything. A badass fight scene where Yor got to strut her stuff against a variety of enemies with their own unique gimmicks, all well choreographed and timed to music with a flashy fireworks backdrop, as well as an emotional and personal internal decision finally letting Yor take ownership of her job. We’ve known why Loid works as a spy for a long time, he wants to prevent a war, sacrificing his chance at a normal life to protect everyone else’s. But Yor has always felt a bit aimless, doing this job to look after a brother that’s already an adult getting by on his own. She herself mentions maybe quitting a few times, making it not feel very important. This episode fixes that. She finally has the chance to look at what she’s doing, steel herself as to the possible consequences, and commit for reasons all her own. And you know what? She’s right. Loid would completely understand, hell he’d probably encourage it and respect her for making the choice. Because it’s basically the same choice he made when becoming a spy. I’ve bitched for a long, long time about Yor feeling like a 3rd wheel in the show, about how she needed an arc of her own. And a couple of you haven’t been too happy about that, feel I’ve been unfair. Well to me, this episode is vindication. This is how good SpyXFamily can be when it has 3 main characters, not 2 and a tag-a-long wife. It was fantastic, and I’m really really looking forward to tomorrows (Or today depending on when this goes up) climax to the arc. Good shit.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 9” →

Undead Unluck – 8 [Victhor]

Woooo Undead Unluck continues to be one of my favorites, even managing to take my top spot this week. There was some jank near the end, sure, but by and large it all looked pretty good with some smart direction. A bit to much red for my taste, but hey they like the colors. As for the content, Shen got to be a badass, kicking around Spoil with Wukong’s mythical staff, before being bodied by Victor. Meanwhile Victor gets to show off the true power of Andy’s Undead ability, abusing it in ways Andy has either never thought to or just can’t. And to top it all off we continue to get these little tidbits about Undead Unlucks world. Things like days of the week not existing, mentions of a “decent lineup this time” whatever that means, all this talk of “rules”. It’s peak Shounen fun, and I enjoy it a lot. David Productions is doing a great job with the adaptation and there are a few more moments I’m really looking forward to seeing animated. Also I really appreciate putting all of Shen’s phrases in Chinese, it’s a nice touch.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 8 + Scott Pilgrim” →

Frieren – 11 [Winter in the Northern Lands]

This was a pretty chill episode of Frieren, which makes sense and is totally fine after the mid-season climax we got in the last 2 episodes. It was all about taking some time to enjoy life, get thanked by the people they saved, see the effects of their actions on those around them as the families finally get the bodies of their loved ones back. Oh and burgers, giant giant burgers. The most interesting thing about the episode I’d say was Kraft, the first elf we’ve met aside from Frieren. With him we get a completely different look at what it means to live for so long, as well as how nonchalant they are about it. Talking about not knowing each other, acting like the past 80 years was “recent news”, and talking about seeing each other again in a few centuries. It was kinda cool. The only thing that felt like a miss for me was their talk of praise, of being desperate for it and finding a way to get it. Kraft looks for it in his Goddess while Frieren got it from her adventuring friends, specifically Heiter. While it’s nice that she puts so much weight behind Heiter’s opinions, I don’t really vibe with this idea that we live our lives looking for praise from others. Maybe it’s just my perspective is different, as I generally only care about if I think something I do is good enough, and while praise from others is nice and affirming it’s not something I seek out. Because of that, Frieren lost me a bit here. Still even with that the passage of time, those 6 months as we slowly see them change in the montage like one by one praying at meals, was nice. Still a very well put together episode.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 7” →

Frieren – 10 [A Powerful Mage]

Ah here it is, here’s the Frieren going ham on some demons that I was looking for last week. Don’t get me wrong, last week was great, there’s just something cathartic about watching a villain get absolutely bodied. And when the entire episode is just buildup to that one moment? Walking us through Frieren’s relationship with her master, Flamme, and Flamme’s complete and utter hatred for demons? How they basically embarrass and belittle themselves as mages by hiding their Mana, typically a status symbol among mages and demons alike, just to shatter the pride of demons every chance they get? Frieren being so petty that she not only waits until the last moment to reveal her hand and crush Aura’s spirit, she also doesn’t even kill her herself? Instead telling her to end it LowTierGod style? It was all so very satisfying, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure it wasn’t the visual spectacle last week was, and if that’s what you were looking for I understand being a bit let down. But for me, last week satisfied all of my “Pretty lights go brr” desires and while week covered my “Compelling characters and narrative go brr” desires. Learning why there are so few elves, the Demon King systematically eliminated them, or the individualism of the demons and how much they prize it, or Lugner’s utter disgust at figuring out what they were doing. It was a good episode, I enjoyed it a lot, as much as I enjoy watching Frieren struggle with the passage of time seeing her clown on some demons is fun to.

Continue reading “Fall 2023 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 6” →