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Reincarnated as a Slime - First ep was fine. a slice of life-ish recap to start the season makes sense for a longer running show. Next three were completely pointless. Maybe it gets better after that? I don’t know. This might be where I drop the series. Episodes 1-4. 2/5

Ascendance of a Bookworm - If you told me this season was based on a table of contents or AI summary of a few books, I’d believe you. Anime only and I can still tell that lots of content was missed, skipped, etc., at least I hope the source is more complete… Counting the recap, the MC jumps through three families in just the first episode. I should feel sad for her for being separated from her original family, but they are reunited (somewhat) almost immediately. In one later episode, they had to throw in a brief flashback because they apparently skipped a plot point needed for that episode to make sense. What’s there is good, but rougher than it should be. 3/5

Re: Zero - What’s to say. It’s ReZero. It continues with the same quality and fullness of episodes as in past seasons. It does get a bit much near the end and suffers from being just the first half without any of the resolution. 4/5

_An Observation Log of My Fiance Who Calls Herself a Villainess- Maybe the biggest surprise of the season. The plot is nothing spectacular, just fine. A few twists on the usual isekei villainess tropes. But what made it stand out was the characters. Both leads develop well through the episodes and make the final payoff worth it. Good mix of humor with some later romance. 4/5

Witch Hat Atelier - It is not Freiren, but the quality and care of adaptation is certainly there. The world is beautifully animated, the fantasy setting, style, etc. all solid. I get the impression there is a lot more to the world, its lore, magic, etc. but this first part felt like barely more than an intro. 4/5

My Ribdiculous Reincarnation - The other surprise of the season. It looks like nonsense, and sort of is… but its consistent and purposeful nonsense and that makes it work in a way where many seemingly similar shows fail. 4/5

The strongest job is apparently not a hero or a sage but an appraiser - The generic, popcorn isekei of the season. Looking back, I think maybe it was aimed at younger audiences. I like that it was consistent, did not take itself too seriously, and had a sort of saturday morning cartoon feel. 3/5

Always a Catch! - I really enjoyed it at first, but have not yet finished it. 3/5

Daemons of the Shadow Realm - I’m behind on this one as well but fully intend to finish. 4/5

No. They are going to make us wait 8 weeks.

Re: ZERO - I still love their commitment to maximizing the time slot. Barely flashed the title screen in the first ep. The arc is starting a bit slow, but in a way that makes sense as build up for later. Its nice to scale down to a smaller group of characters for a while and rotate a few in that haven’t been active in a while. It’s kind of funny, I don’t recall ever really liking the first season, but at some point the world building, characters, etc. all built that into a foundation for a show that I do really enjoy. Its holding to my expectations so far.

Always a Catch! - I expected nothing, and the first episode was a bit rough until the end, but this one has been fun.

The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King - I’m not sure about this one yet. The humor and culture shock parts could be good, but the show has not fully resolved the fact that the main character is being held against her will, is being pressured into a relationship she would not have chosen otherwise, and that her homeland appears to be legitimately struggling. It seems to try to justify the situation by making everyone in her past horribly misogynistic…

*An Observation Log of My Fiancee… - I like it more after each episode. I always enjoy twists on the whole otome/villaness concept, and this one has been a lot of fun. The main character’s innocent approach to being a villaness in order to safeguard the game’s plot and see her prince get the good ending, just makes her more endearing, especially when she is clumsy at it and the prince is completely aware…

Snowball Earth - Binged the first three episodes which are essentially the prolog. Enjoyed it well enough, and there is something compelling about the weird way mismatch in its tone. The underlying story seems serious but the elements of the story are bonkers. The eyes and overall design and concept of “Intergalactic Kaiju” seems more at home as a theme park mascot than existential threat, till they kill people… I’m not sure how well it will hold up once the real plot kicks in.

The strongest job is apparently not a hero or sage, but an appraiser - The season’s popcorn isekai. Nothing really wrong with it, but nothing really to it either. Easy to watch. Easy to forget.

Ascendance of a Bookworm - I’ve only watched the anime but the first two episodes felt like someone just story boarded chapter titles. A summary of a summary running through what seems like they should have been bigger events. I mean from the end of the previous season through the beginning of episode 3, Myne was forced to give up her family, moved in with a noble, moved back into the church, saw her family, then moved in with another noble. Thankfully the last episode seems to be the start of a story arc and slowed down a bit.

Daemon’s of the Shadow Realm - Seems solid so far. I like how it sets up the MC to learn about two worlds that were hidden from him. The modern world and the daemon handler/conspiracy stuff. Playing those off each other could work really well. I also like that there seems to be a bigger unfolding story with multiple players and hopefully meaningful motivations…

Witch Hat Atelier - For me, it lives up to the hype. Well maybe not the Frieren comparisons… The seeds are there for something good. I like the look and feel of the world, the story book fantasy elements, even the characters. All the girls are a bit annoying right now, but they are children… and they’ve barely been introduced. I expect them to become more nuanced overtime.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - First episode as a catchup, character refresher was fine. But beyond that the pacing issues from previous seasons continue. The show does a lot of hyping up a plotline, then filling it with fluff, before resolving it near the end of the season. Kind of makes the first halves dull.

Wow. Lesser anime would have stretched this into at least four plodding episodes. This was essentially perfect. Neither rushed nor lagging. Every moment felt important and impactful. Several times I tapped the screen afraid it was about to end only to have half the episode left.

Well, that was disappointing. A series of lackluster scenes forced together. Why break away to show dein again and introduce (poorly) the medicine ban here, that comes up much more naturally later. Use that time to give the leads a bit more screen time together so their relationship seems less random.

The spirals… that was just stupid. Horror, including body horror (which I typically dislike) is an essential part of this. Where are the gyrating spiraling bloody oozing bits from the novels.

What we do get is flum losing a single arm… twice. The scene of her having to cut it off did not land nearly as hard as it should since we had already seen her lose and regain an arm just a moment earlier.

Quick reviews of what I watched before the season starts to close. Not that I have much to say about any of them. A few were great, most were forgettable.

Great:

• This Monster Wants to Eat Me - Easily my favorite this season. The show is very well made, especially how the characters are portrayed. It did have a slow start but that’s just the kind of show it is. Very character and situation driven. Each episode enhances the situation, characters, inherent conflict, etc.
• Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! - Second favorite of the season. The characters have good chemistry, the concept is fun. I enjoyed every episode.

Good:

• Lvl 9999 gatcha… - I did not expect much from this, but it has been surprisingly enjoyable. It has its issues, but the characters are fun and varied, the pacing is not too bad, and there seems to be real world building… alright, I actually picked up the LN for this, and it does have good world building and the plot progression has remained consistent so far.
• A Gatherer’s Adventure in Isekai - I thought this would be a boring, slice of life, travel anime, but something about it works for me. The characters and sub plots are nothing spectacular, but interesting enough and work well together.
• Isekai Quartet3 - Carries on from the others. Always fun to see these different characters interact.

Just Ok: -My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s - I’m not sure why I am still watching this. The current arc is dragging on way to long, the previous elf arc was terrible, there has been little story progression, just hints of a bigger plot.

• May I Ask For One Final Thing? - This just never clicked for me. The concept is fun, and I generally enjoy the whole dumped otome heroine/villaness sub genera, but nothing about the story or the characters works for me.
• The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest - Another over played concept, but it avoids some of the worse tropes. The former party leader does grow up and recognize his mistakes. The MC actually knows he is strong. It’s above average for this sort of anime.
• Dad is a hero, Mom is a spirit, I’m a reincarnator - Dropped, then picked back up and binged through quickly one afternoon when bored… probably should have left it dropped.
• Mechanical Marie - The concept is fun, its just a bit too plain. The romance is barely more than a crush. The humor does not hit often enough.
• The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess - There are a lot of these reincarnated in an otome game with a twist sort of shows. The twist is different enough in this one that it carries the show. I’d have dropped it early on if I did not enjoy seeing the main character constantly flustered trying to deal with the consequences of becoming the villainess in the world of her own childhood dark fantasies.