This show is exactly the reason why I go into shows blind. Based on character designs alone I was ready for a yu-gi-oh/digimon/beyblade level of seriousness and the drop when it revealed the deathgame was absolutely stunning. And, as the episode unfolded, the show didn’t stop surprising me. I was watching with a friend and early on mentioned we’d almost certainly get a murder at some point mid-season, and when the one kid pulled out a gun and it turned out we didn’t need to wait even an entire episode to get to that point… perfection. Only topped by the final scene where our main character dies.

So many parts of the storytelling here were baffling, making the plot and action hard to follow at times. The plot itself made so many bold choices I honestly couldn’t tell if it was fully incompetent or if it had something more interesting up its sleeve; after some reflection, I’m pretty sure it’s the former.

Overall, a truly fascinating mess of a show, and I will be back next week. I usually like to give ratings, but this one depends entirely on if there ends up being method or just madness, and only time will tell.

The visuals were absolutely stunning (at least compared to the standard budget BL anime typically get) and both of our leads are cuties, so i think the quality animation and cinematography will be put to good use here. A lot of very classic BL themes and situations in here, but put together in a cohesive way that I think works well, at least so far. The big surprise for me was that our main character figured out his feelings in a mere 20 minutes of screen time, an order of magnitude less than his fellow BL MCs, lol. I’m interested to see where the story goes and anticipate it will be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

Also, because of That One Scene, I ended up looking up the manga to see if it’s 18+, and it sounds like it definitely has sex scenes of some sort. I’m curious how much / if the anime will go there, since BL adaptations typically just kinda skip over those scenes. Either way it should be an enjoyable ride.

I give the premiere a 4/5

I couldn’t get myself to watch this all the way through. The animation looks nice and the voice actors are doing a great job, but the dynamic between our leads just reads as sexual harassment to me. I noped out after it seemed like a few scenes in a row were him deliberately goading her into flirting with him as different fetish archetypes when she was clearly uncomfortable, all under the guise of her practicing her craft. Maybe it gets better, but the main dude gave me the ick so bad I had to stop watching. On top of that, the show had a very 4koma / gag manga style of pacing that I just don’t think works as well in anime form, but that might just be my taste.

I give what I saw of the premiere a 1/5

I don’t expect much from this kind of show (not really my genre) but this was a lot of fun. Both of our leads have strong characterization and their dynamic is fun. I always like when a teenage romance leans in to the awkwardness that comes with that, specifically the characters not really knowing where their own boundaries are. It’s a bit hornier than I would prefer, but not enough to kill the vibe for me. I can only hope that it doesn’t go the harem route, since I typically find those kinds of stories deeply boring.

Overall, I’d give this premier a 4/5 and I’ll definitely be back next week.

Only watched the first episode, and I wasn’t impressed. Seemed pretty standard as far as isekai go, and while the animation was nice, the pacing had a lot of problems, especially in the action scenes. I could definitely see how other people would enjoy this, especially DC/suicide squad fans, but I didn’t.

Overally, I give the premiere a 3/5.

A lot of irl stuff happened to me this past season (beyond just breaking my hand, which is now basically recovered) and I sort of fell off of the seasonal anime train at some point, oops! Anyway, fresh start with the new season, let’s go!

My friends and I did manage to keep up with the shows we decided to watch together, and they were all outstanding (light spoilers for all of them)

I’ve also started watching Odd Taxi, which I bounced off of when it aired (mostly due to the extended sequences of the comedy duo on the radio) but have heard nothing but good things about since. So far it’s a little slow but I’m putting my faith in the good reviews.

So guys who say stuff like “I prefer natural looking girls, not ones with caked on makeup” or “I’d only date a virgin. I don’t want any roast beef” or “no fatties, I only like thin girls” are what? All secretly gay or ace?

ETA: my point is, people do comparisons all the time when talking about how one person is more attractive than another or than most other people (some more mean spirited than others). It often isn’t right or cool, but being mean doesn’t mean you’re not attracted to the person you’re contrasting.

Not really sure about this one so far. The animation was great and Takuma’s characterization was strong (personally I didn’t find his patheticness a turnoff), but the setup just feels very uncomfy to me. I understand that the story is about a classic scifi premise of “can robots love”, but currently it just feels like this man is so lonely that he’s developing an unhealthy attachment to a person-shaped appliance that has run calculations and concluded that reciprocating his feelings will help it complete its tasks better. I understand that the show wants us to see her as a person, and maybe it will give us reasons to do so later, but IMO a textual reading of the first episode doesn’t give me any right now, and the whole situation is giving me horror / black mirror vibes, which kills the light and fluffy vibe they seem to be shooting for (for me).

For just the premiere, I give it a very mixed 3/5. I’ll see how i feel next week and maybe give it another episode.

You seem to be saying no one attracted to women would ever denigrate them? Have you seen straight men before?

Additionally, what about ace/aro people? Het trans people? Cis/het gender-non-conforming people? And the one stated previously that really stood out to me: what about those questioning?

There’s no hard line between Us and Them and trying to draw one only hurts us. If there are people causing problems in these spaces, kick them out, but gatekeeping isn’t the right move here.

I’m pretty sure it’s dysmorphia rather than dysphoria. Dysphoria is rooted in an accurate picture of yourself and dysmorphia in an inaccurate one. If a guy starts going to the gym because the idea of not being able to bridal carry his girlfriend makes him feel unmanly, I’d agree that’s some flavor of gender dysphoria. On the other hand, someone like the liver king thinking he still doesn’t have enough muscle is definitely body dysmorphia.

But I’d agree that (similar to dysphoria) the so-called alphas often have dysmorphia of more than just the body - they worry they come across unmanly in all ways of their presentation, regardless of how much “masculine energy” they’re already putting out.

A friend I’m watching this with pointed out that the lady who got isekai’d with the train is actually a reference to an old 2chan creepypasta post! It’s neat that they’re bringing in modern folktales in addition to older ones.

So, fun story: I go to the hidive homepage and it has a “continue watching” section where I see something I don’t recognize. I check the information they gave me - the episode’s title and description - but those are pretty vague and don’t help. So, I click it, guessing it’ll take me to the show’s page… Nope, it takes me to a page about the episode, with basically the same information as I had before. But there’ll be a link to the main show page there, right? Of course not. So, I go to play the episode, hoping there’s a link in there, and the closest I can find is the back button… that takes me back to the episode page. As far as I can tell, there is literally no path from the continue watching section to a show’s page (I did eventually figure out what show it was after looking for the OP in the episode - it was Dark Gathering)

Also check out this screenie I took of the (4-pixel tall) only place the title is written on Whisper Me a Love Song on the front page (because it’s so small in the splash image)

Oh jeez, that sounds rough. I’m glad you were able to recover, even if it took a while. Luckily mine is just a small fracture in one of my wrist bones, not even displaced or anything, so by now I’m mostly just dealing with building back up my range of motion from being immobilized, though it’s been a rough time because it’s my dominant hand, lol.

I definitely recommend Tonari no Yokai, and ya it’s pretty iyashikei. I think it strikes a similar tone to Natsume’s Book of Friends.

I tend to believe that even if something is bad, it’s fine to be an unashamed fan of the parts that you like, and that you should wear your tastes with pride even if they’re unconventional. Because of that, I don’t think I have any anime I’m actually ashamed of liking.

Well, that’s what I’d like to say, but actually there is one, though it’s a manga rather than an anime. As someone with an extremely low tolerance for ecchi (I’m not attracted to ladies), my one shameful fave is Nana & Kaoru, which is basically softcore porn. I’m honestly not sure how I got through the first few chapters, but once you get into it holy shit the character depth and the way that the ecchi scenes inform and develop the relationship between our leads. It’s so well written, oh my god. But on the surface the whole manga is just boobs, butt, and bondage, and I swear that’s not what I’m there for, lol.

Been MIA for a little while because I broke my hand a little bit and it’s been hard to type. Everything’s looking much better now and I seem to be recovering well, so I’m back!

I showed my friends the sampling platter of anime I’d prepared and they chose their winners pretty quickly, so Tonari no Yokai and Windbreaker are joining Dungeon Meshi in our lineup (definitely the best of the season, IMO)

Meanwhile, I’ve trimmed my own watchlist down to what I think is a manageable size: Astro Note, Bartender, Vampire Dormitory, Whisper Me a Love Song, and Yatagarasu. I’m still trying to stick with Spice and Wolf, but I can feel my motivation failing, so I’ve switched to the dub, which should have a lower motivation requirement (since it doesn’t require reading).

In non-seasonal news, I convinced my family to join me to see Spy x Family: Code White in theaters, and it was a really fun time. I’d heard that the movie was accessible to people who aren’t familiar the show, and my mom can confirm that’s true, lol. Very nice little self-contained story that managed to not feel redundant with the show even though it’s written to be optional, and the animation was amazing as expected. My brother and I had a great time and Mom didn’t resent us for taking her (she’s not into animation and I think only went because she felt bad for me and my broken hand, but still seemed to think positively of it in the end), so that’s a complete win.

Building on this, dropped shows could alternatively be put in their own table hidden in a spoiler tag, so that they’d be there for those looking for them, but the post stays looking a bit more tidy.

Based on his design I was expecting Shoin to be a bit of an asshole, but it’s actually pretty refreshing to see a romantic rival that’s a genuinely good dude. I hope he and Mira stay good friends even after Takumi (I assume) wins the love triangle - their friendship just seems so wholesome.

Episode 3 was great, but episodes 1 and 2 i found to be largely very slow and bogged down by dialogue. If it does more short story type episodes with the different stations I’ll be happy to see more, but I’m just not sure which parts we’ve seen are indicative of the overall quality, if that makes sense.

I like how everyone has a bit of an unexpected twist to their character, and I’m interested to see what makes Umemiya so frightening.

We also caught a bit of a glimpse of the underlying politics of the show, I think, with Hiragi’s comments about patrolling rather than raiding. It reminds me of discussions of community- and consent-based policing, and I wonder if the story will draw more parallels going forward.