Finally had a bit of time to watch this week. I’m way behind for the season and barely watched anything.

I tried some Chillin Lvl 2 and some Jellyfish Can’t Swim. I think I’m 3 episodes into both. Enjoying both quite a bit.

Did Jellyfish fall off after the first few episodes? I thought it was ranking way higher earlier in the season, but now it’s not even top 10.

I find it interesting that this is titled Turning Point 3. The first two Turning Point episodes had a very obvious Major Event. This one seems much more subtle. Rudeus made a decision to do something directly against the advice of the Man-god, but nothing big has happened yet.

Finally got a bit of time to watch. Wrapped up a couple and making slow progress on a few.

Villainess Lvl 99: Finished. I really enjoyed this one. I think it peaked around halfway, and the ending isn’t quite as strong, but still a great chill and fun story.

7th Time Loop: Finished. Liked this one a lot too. Again, peaked about halfway. The ending felt a bit complicated and didn’t quite land as well as I’d hoped. But still fun and silly and felt like you knew everything was going to turn out fine, even if you didn’t see how.

Mushoku Tensei: Still great.

An episode or two of a bunch of stuff. Jellyfish Can’t Swim At Night, Whisper Me A Love Song, Spice and Wolf, Konosuba S1 (catch up), Slime-San S2 (catch up), Trigun OG (catch up), X-men 97.

Not sure about the hype for Date A Live. I haven’t watched any. Not sure it’s for me. Anybody got a sell for it?

I’m still mostly working my way through leftover winter season shows.

Villainess*2: Mostly through Villainess 99 and 7th Time Loop. Both really great and very much worth a watch. They’re my cozy before-bed shows right now. I love the humor, positivity, confidence, and essentially zero fan service. Super good. Also that Lvl 99 OP is great.

Grandma & Grandpa Young Again: Yeaaaa… I think one episode was enough. I get the humor and it’s fine, but the repeated incest joke was rough on the very first time, and it seemed like it was going nowhere at all.

Fluffy Paradise: 2-3 episodes in. Cute characters, silly story, fun overpowered MC from a slightly different angle. But I find the MC a little grating, especially since she apparently mostly forgot her previous life and is now actually a young child. There’s a background malice to the world that is an interesting contrast, but I don’t think I’ll stick around to see if it pans out.

Wrong Way to use Healing Magic: 3 episodes in. Silly, fun premise in an otherwise pretty generic isekai. I might watch the rest because I like the MC and Rose and it’s a pretty light watch.

Love it! Gives a great look into the season so far and what’s worth a look.

Looks like I really need to catch up with Slime-San and Konosuba to try the new season.

New ones that I’ll probably try out:

• Jellyfish
• Whisper Me
• Kaiju 8
• Spice & Wolf

Definite watch:

• Mushoku Tensei
• Delicious in Dungeon
• Yuru Camp

Oh yea, I saw some of the twitter follower charts and wondered what kind of data that was showing. Like, is popularity the same as quality? I’m sure there’s some correlation there, and maybe the difference isn’t meaningful for our purpose of highlighting current anime for discussion.

I don’t want to add more work for you, since you’re already doing so much. But, as an idea, is there a way to aggregate those in the weekly “what are you watching posts”? I think that’d be a neat point to get more discussion on how they’re doing and what you’re watching at the same time.

It’s a shame the other two charts you listed don’t make a nice shareable jpg per week.

AC definitely has a certain taste. Which is helpful, when I’m looking for, let’s say, what were the popular romance anime of a season.

I don’t remember what other relatively easy to track Top 10’s there are. Does MAL have an easy one to snag? It’d be nice to have a contrasting one to AC.

Out of town and busy for a few weeks, so fell behind during the winter finish and spring start. This’ll be a catch up post for all of these. Would it be better to post in the respective threads, even though they’ve kinda passed on to obscurity? I dunno.

Winter anime roundup: really great season. I had low expectations going in, and it ended up being so much better.

Finished:

• Frieren - Excellent. This cour dragged a little in the first half, as it introduced so, so many new characters that each needed time to develop. But it finished strong and was super high quality throughout. May not be my AOTY, like the first cour was for 2023, but still phenomenal.
• Delicious in Dungeon - Excellent. Wow this show is really going somewhere. I love the characters, the animation, and the story is intriguing. This is my top recommendation lately for recent great anime. Must watch for Spring.
• Apothecary Diaries - Excellent. Not quite as engaging as cour 1, but still great. I felt like some of the reveals later on felt too much like a twist for the sake of it, and that we were mislead earlier on. Still very worth watching though.
• The Dangers in my Heart - Very good. I didn’t engage quite as much as the first season, mostly because the MC lost a lot of his personality and became more generic. But it’s still one of the best depictions of high school romance, for me. For anybody curious, yes, this show gets dramatically better than the first two episodes of season 1. MC is mostly an unlikeable edgelord at the very beginning, but becomes much more interesting quickly.
• Solo Leveling - Very good. I’m an easy sell for these types of shows, and this one is particularly good. Good characters, high stakes, great action, satisfying progression. Just wish more were out so I could binge more quickly. Feels like too little happens with one episode (or less…) per week.

Trying out based on end of season rankings and recommendations:

• Villainess Level 99 - A few episodes in and this is so, so much better than I would’ve expected. Genuinely funny yet heartfelt. Definitely finishing.
• 7th Time Loop - Couple episodes in and really like MC, the premise, and curious about where it’s going. Give it a couple more for sure. That first episode covered a ton of ground!
• A Sign of Affection - One episode in and probably give a couple more.
• Sasaki and Peeps - Pending.
• The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic - Pending.

Spring look forward: a few I’m interested in, but not many stand outs. A lot that I’d need to catch up on.

• Delicious in Dungeon S1C2 - Must watch. No idea where it’s going from here. Super good.
• Mushoku Tensei S2C2 - A mildly guilty pleasure, but we’re finally getting to the point that it’s a lot less difficult to defend. Rudy has grown a ton, we’re seeing a lot of payoff for years of toil, and I really like a lot of the characters. I’m hoping the adaptation keeps at the super high quality of the previous seasons.
• Spice and Wolf - Remake. I actually watched the first episode of the original recently and didn’t know this was coming. I’ll probably try this out instead.
• That Time I Reincarnated As A Slime S3 - I’m pretty behind, somewhere in S2. Might try to catch up.
• Konosuba S3 - I’m way back in S1. Not totally in, but probably give it another try to see if it clicks, since it’s apparently popular and they keep making it.
• Demon Slayer S? - Also behind. Might catch up, but already feeling too stacked.
• My Hero Academia S7 - Several seasons behind. Unlikely to catch up. It just felt so padded and unnecessary.
• X-men ‘97 - Yea, I know, not anime. But I’m still really excited about it. This is my childhood coming back, and the first 5 episodes have gone so hard. Very curious where it’s going.

Only one I haven’t seen mentioned in other responses that I plan to follow is Mushoku Tensei Season 2 Cour 2.

While I’m glad Boy and Heron won the Oscar for more visibility for anime, I definitely would not have picked it. It wasn’t even my favorite anime of 2023 (that was Suzume) and certainly wasn’t my favorite of the nominees. I would have rather Nimona or Across the Spiderverse won. But I apparently don’t understand the Oscar judges, since I disagree with their choices frequently.

I’m actually all caught up with my current seasonal anime! Up to date with Frieren (excellent!), Apothecary Diaries (very good!), The Dangers In My Heart (good!), Delicious in Dungeon (excellent!), and Solo Leveling (good!). This season has turned out great. I’m sad we’ve only got a couple weeks left, but spring has a lot to look forward to as well.

Frieren really turned around the last couple episodes. They’ve been wild and exciting, but still feel so grounded and real.

I’m very curious where Apothecary Diaries is going to end S1. I’m anime only, so no idea where it’s going.

Meta updates sound good to me. Good compromise between the different responses you were getting. Hope the bots aren’t too much work to make and maintain.

Been a good couple weeks. Up to date with Frieren, Apothecary Diaries. Smidge behind on Dangers in my Heart and Delicious in Dungeon. All been really good though.

Saw The Boy and the Heron in theaters. It was good, but I don’t love it as much as some seem to. I personally prefer the more clear narrative and themes of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle. Too much happens in the movie that I felt like was included because it looks cool then hand waived into the plot or world, with zero explanation. Also, a lot of the meta themes and symbolism are too opaque to follow. I heard some interesting discussions afterward, which raised my opinion a few notches, but without that outside knowledge, the movie just doesn’t stand as well on its own. Too spoilery to discuss in detail. Personally, I enjoyed Suzume quite a lot more and would’ve preferred if it’d gotten the Best Animated nomination instead of Boy and Heron. A lot of general American audiences will think “oh this is the best anime of the year, I’ll check it out” and end up thinking “wtf did I just watch”, whereas Suzume would’ve been a better pick.

Caught up on a few current seasonals and enjoying them a good amount. Frieren, Solo Leveling, and Dangers in my Heart have all been good to great. A smidge behind on Delicious in Dungeon and Apothecary Diaries, but all super good.

Started Vinland Saga from the beginning, and realized that I think the Netflix auto summary (which I accidentally read while trying to start the series) spoiled a major S1 plot point because it was teasing S2. But I’ve never watched any of it, so that super sucks.

Finally got to watching Suzume. I really liked it. Your Name is one of my all time favorites, and Weathering With You was good but not great, so it was really nice that this almost got to some of Your Name’s highs for me. I love the magical realism of Makoto Shinkai’s movies. And this one jumped right into it from the beginning in such a way that I had no idea where it was going to go for such a full length movie. Animation was excellent and I found the characters and journey more believable and relatable than Weathering. It’s on Crunchyroll. Strongly recommended if you haven’t made time for it yet!

I’d prefer episode discussion here. I love seeing discussions about an episode I just finished. And it seems like this season we’re seeing a bit more activity? To me, this is the most important content I come here for. Perhaps it’d be okay to be separated, but it hardly feels spammy if it’s only for popular shows that most/many people are watching.

Comment bot seems not worth the effort compared to a google search.

Didn’t even know about the old Wiki. I just google that stuff.

Yea. I kinda get why they’re doing this exam, but also kinda don’t see why Frieren isn’t just “f that” and go anyway. Feels like they’re not making progress towards their goal, which feels meh.

And any episode that heavily features Fern pouting as a plot point (which has been a surprisingly commonly used point) I find a little tedious. Just an IRL thing I find very frustrating too. Modeling poor communication in anime and movies is a pet peeve.

Still enjoying Frieren a bunch though. Just not 10/10 definitive AOTY for this cour.

Caught up on Dangers in my Heart, Frieren, and Solo Leveling.

Honestly… I’m kinda not feeling this season as much. They’re all good, but not super great. Dangers, in particular, I found much more impactful last season. Not sure if it’s production quality, or just where the story is at. Or me…?

Even Frieren hasn’t been hitting the same highs. I didn’t realize the current arc was going to be so drawn out. It still kinda feels like absolutely nothing is happening, but then something really cool happens. I dunno. Maybe winter is getting to me.

Of the three, I think I’m enjoying Solo Leveling the most, so maybe I’m just looking for some dramatic action or something.

Been busy, haven’t watched much. Only thing I really watched the last couple weeks is I finally finished Pluto. It was… fine. I was expecting more, based on the hype. There’s a lot I liked and a lot that should have been cut or changed from the source (in my opinion). The episodes are quite long, the pacing is all over the place, the story progression is flawed, and way too much happens to service the needs of the plot. Still, it was well produced. I liked the animation, style, music, characters, Japanese voice acting. I think it’s about as good as the source could allow. I think this opinion is kinda controversial, so hopefully not offending anybody too much.

Good week.

• Wrapped up Helck S1. It was good. Didn’t end super strongly, but I was satisfied. Overall, it ended up way higher rated than I was expecting and really enjoyed it. It’s silly, but has a lot of heart, and the world is better thought out than I was expecting. I hope they make a S2!
• Frieren still super good. It’s a shame the episodes are only 2 minutes long… or at least they feel that way…
• Solo Leveling finally got to its premise. I’m all about goofy video game life stuff. Enjoying it a lot.
• Apothecary Diaries - slowly catching up. I love the gravitas to everything. Maomao is a gem. I love the very very minimal fan service, considering how often brothels are a major part of the story.
• Pluto - about halfway. I dunno, it’s good, but I also kinda find it boring. I want to like this more than I am. The way the plot is progressing makes it hard to cheer for anybody, or even feel like we’re (as standins for the protagonists) actively learning and doing anything. It feels so reactionary and passive. The world is cool and I like a lot of the characters… but every 15 minutes it’s like oh hey here’s brand new people that are super important and there’s no way you could’ve known any of this.
• Still enjoying The Dangers in my Heart and Delicious in Dungeon a bunch. I’m definitely finishing both of these.

Actually had a decent amount of time this week to watch. Enjoying several of the new shows.

• Delicious in Dungeon - First two episodes were a urprisingly fun and well animated. Had no idea what this was and really liking it!
• Frieren - Still really good. Although I do miss having some small arcs instead of mostly self contained episodes. Feels like things haven’t been moving much lately.
• Solo Leveling - First two episodes were pretty good. Not sure where it’s going. Hasn’t blown me away.
• Apothecary Diaries - Still catching up. Somewhere in first cour, and it’s really good.
• 100 Girflriends - Finished S1. It was okay. I liked the completely absurd moments, and did not at all see some pivotal moments coming, which was fun. But the harem itself is hard for me to care about. I strongly dislike the child-like girlfriends. It’s hard to shake the yuckiness of those.
• The Dangers in my Heart - First episode of S2 so far. I love the vibes of this show. It feels so relatable and touching. This is likely a must-watch for me. I always feel so cozy after one of these.

More happening this season than I expected!

Wait they nuked those weekly threads? Wtf?? There goes about my only meaningful contribution. Guess it’s dead to me. I really like having a history of my thoughts on various shows, and if there’s no trust that it’ll exist in the future, then there’s no point posting.