Midseason Musings

Hello, and welcome to an unscheduled, random post from Amun!  As we reach the halfway point of one of the most hyped seasons in recent memory, I wanted to check in and see which shows have met expectations, which have disappointed, and if there are any gems in the crowded field.  Without further ado, here’s my take on the shows I’m watching this season!

Not Caught Up With

I’ll admit, I’m behind on two very high profile shows for very different reasons: Mob Psycho and Bleach.  I always do this with Mob Psycho – get bogged down at the beginning, catch up in the middle, then binge the end.  So I’m not surprised that the season starts off slowly – I’m gradually catching up (and I heard the recent episode was mind-blowing).  I’m not worried, I just haven’t gotten to watching it yet.

Bleach is a vastly different story.  I wildly overestimated the season’s performance from the first episode.  It reminded me of everything I loved about Bleach – the next episodes reminded me of all the things I didn’t like.  What we have here is the premise of every single Bleach filler arc: a group of people is mistreated by Soul Society (usually unfairly), they seek revenge, then end in tragedy.  Seriously – that’s the plot of pretty much every Bleach movie, every filler arc, etc.  The main story with Aizen (and the afterstory, which I’m alone in enjoying) were more interesting, since the story showed the slightest signs of depth.  The Quincies are clearly more important than the other maligned groups, but at its heart – this is a filler arc.  And it’s fine, the action’s been fine, the villains are…whatever, there’ve even been some significant deaths, blah blah.  I just am not jumping over myself to watch it straight away every week, and that seems unlikely to change.  Thousand Year War?  More like Thousand Year Bore.  In all seriousness, Bleach is best when it’s developing the main cast – not introducing new mustached villains.  I just hope there’s some semblance of character development, rather than just more scowling Ichigo.  Then again, I’m a few episodes back, so maybe it gets better.  Unlike Mob, I’m not expecting much.

The Okay

B-tier shows stand out like a sore thumb this season. Shinmai Renkinjutsushi and Hero’s Party are the main two (I’m not including the farmer isekai and the ninjas, since I dropped those on episode 1).  I would say those are at the bottom of the seasonal barrel and probably not worth the viewing time.  I’m still watching them, but I’ll probably drop them in a week or two.

A step above them are some titles that I really expected to be better.  Marimashita has fallen into a school tournament arc after barreling through a fairly interesting section of the manga – kind of a shame.  Now, it’s an interesting tournament, don’t get me wrong, but I expected a bit more from the 3rd season (especially after the quality from the second).  Still not bad, and not in danger of being dropped, but I just hoped it would shine a bit brighter.

Uzaki-chan is Studio ENGI’s main franchise, and it’s….okay.  This season’s dived deeper into our heroine’s family, which is fine, I guess.  The ceiling isn’t that high here, but the gags have stayed pretty decent, and there are hints of progress on our flagship, so I guess I’ll stay along for the rest of the season.  It’s not terrible (especially by ENGI’s standards), but it’s facing tough competition this season.

Finally, topping off this category – and I’m going to get flamed for this – is Spy x Family.  Yes, you read that correctly: I have Spy x Family in the mediocre group.  Mind you, it’s at the top of the group, but this season has not held my interest.  So far the highest stakes are….grade school midterms.  Be still my beating heart.  The domestic life gags have been the redeeming aspects of this show, as I just am not captivated by a slice of life with a telepathic little kid.  And it’s sad, because I think there’s incredible potential with the super-power family (the dog is the best boi though).  I’m staying with it, but man, I just haven’t gotten the stakes or the power-creep that I would have expected by now.  And Yor is criminally underused.  I think there should be twice as many Yor episodes and half as many Anya.  Loid is solid and is the main interesting aspect, but even his relationships haven’t been explored any further beyond some weird anxiety about the future of this facade.  I just think there’s a ton of unrealized potential – that may change, but right now, I can’t help but wish for more.

The Better-Than-Expected

Three titles round out this category (with the final one bridging the gap to the “fantastic” tier).  First up is Reincarnated as a Sword.  Dead to rights this should have been a by-the-numbers isekai adventure.  Instead, it’s a warmhearted adventure with yes, a little bit of power fantasy and some cat ears.  Okay, it’s not perfect, but it looks loads better than it has any right to, and I’ve rather enjoyed the progression.  Is it blatantly obvious with the plot density of paper?  Of course.  But sometimes, shows don’t have to be earth-shattering or change your perspective on life.  Sometimes they can just be fun – and Reincarnated as a Sword squarely hits the mark there.

Let’s talk about a show I don’t really have much to say about: Do It Yourself.  It’s cute, fun, enjoyable, has nice characters, and is utterly forgettable after this season.  Will I watch it all?  Absolutely.  Will I remember its existence?  Nope.

One of the biggest surprises of the season for me is a show I roundly mocked in first episode awards – Eminence in the Shadow.  First of all, just about every episode is a different genre (until they seem to have settled into the school life as of late).  This is self-aware, fully embraced scum.  But it does it with such an intentionally heavy hand that you can’t help but laugh and enjoy it.  Come on – “I.  am.  Atomic”?!  I died of cringe…but also had a good chuckle.  This is the extremely rare case of “so bad that it’s good.”  Now, I fully expect it to fall apart (or into familiar troupes) in the second half, but what do I know?  I expected it to fall apart in episode 2, and here we are.  If you haven’t watched past episode 1 (and can stomach the ridiculousness), I’d say give it a few.

The final entry of this exceeding of expectations (and really, belongs in the upper echelon of the season) is the resurgent My Hero Academia.  Gone is the school (except in flashbacks).  This is My Hero ALL OUT WAR.  Harry Potter was low stakes compared to these high schoolers, my goodness.  What we have here is the culmination of the previous season’s collision course of One for All and All for One – I just honestly didn’t expect it so soon (I guess we have had quite a few seasons though).  The battles, the losses, the advances, different tactics – this is good stuff here.  I feel as though the animation isn’t as insane as it has been in seasons past, but there’s still plenty of time left.  Really one of the better seasons so far, although I do kind of miss the smaller scale of high school life.

The Best

Two shows for me are absolutely slaying it this season.  One I fully expected, and the other I did not see coming at all: Chainsaw Man and Bocchi the Rock.

Chainsaw Man, of course, came in with sky high expectations.  I highly recommend reading Aidan’s posts for the perspective of a specialist in the subject matter.  I am not – I knew absolutely nothing of it before this season.  I came in expecting similarities to Dorohedoro, but the comp I’ve really made halfway in is Jujutsu Kaisen (possessed main character, the whole parts of the body that give devils strength, etc.).  I think JJK probably has better action and animation (the CGI can look a little clunky in Chainsaw), but I don’t think anyone would disagree that JJK’s writing is an inch deep.  I’ve been very surprised at how well Chainsaw Man is handled (given the subject matter and the silly name) – the titular character, who screams shallow every chance he gets, feels surprisingly real to me.  That’s how Denji would act if these circumstances actually happened.  I think when dealing with fantastical settings, characters must act believably to sell the entire story.  And that’s what Chainsaw Man has done through the halfway mark – I can see the outlines of what makes this series special.  Surprisingly, the premiere was the worst looking episode of the season – everything else has looked pretty good.  The CG still doesn’t provide the fluidity of something like JJK, but the characters and story more than make up for it.  I understand the hype, and I can safely say that – so far – Chainsaw Man has lived up to the lofty expectations.

The final show that’s taken me by absolute surprise is Bocchi the Rock.  There could not be a summary for a show that I would be less interested in.  I can count on one hand the number of musical shows I’ve enjoyed (pretty much just Zombieland Saga – and even then, just season 1).  We have the cringiest lead of the season (yes, even beating out Eminence in the Shadow).  The central “gimmick” is about guitar playing, which I really could care less about.  And yet…I’m completely enthralled.  I am cheering on this silly box of mangos to show the world how great she can be.  I’m fully invested in this random high school band, which has about the same chance of succeeding as I do of sprouting wings and flying.  This is the mark of excellence – when you pull in non-fans (or even, I’ll admit, slight haters) of the genre.  Right now, this is my anime of the season, and I fully expect to see it finish out the second half with gusto.

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That’s what I’m watching this season so far.  What do you think?  Am I too hard on Spy x Family?  Am I off my rocker for liking Eminence in the Shadow?  I’d love to hear your comments!  I’ll be here, lurking around until DanMachi resumes in January ^_^.