Spring 2025

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX - On hold for now. Will come back to this someday. My first foray to UC and third to Gundam overall (after Seed and WFM). It's great and I have little complaints to the show.

Witch Watch - Laughed hard because of referential humor. Good enough for me.

The Apothecary Diaries - S2 is much more serious, and it somehow tied the episodic S1 into a grand conspiracy. Having a tinfoil hat was justified there. The past two episodes convinced me to provisionally rate the show a 10.

Rose of Versailles (2025) - I love the musical format. Its OP scene is as iconic and impactful as The Lion King. I'm able to watch this in French. Best MAPPA work. If you think they cooked hard with Zenshu, this one surpasses it. 10/10

Past Seasons

The Orphans of Simitra - No accessible English softsubs. Finally jumped the shark and watched it like a native speaker would. And... I'm pleasantly surprised, really. I think I understand 80% of each episode. It gave me the push to start watching Witch Watch with Japanese CC instead of the English sub—I'm not a fan of the translation style used there.

The book is very short, so the anime introduced a lot of original elements. It managed to put out a cour's worth of slice of life without it being dull. That's something I'm even more surprised with. Unless it disappointed in the episodes I haven't seen yet, a 6.89 MAL rating makes this show criminally underrated.

Train to the End of the World and Tsumasho - Great for most of their runs, only to disappoint with the last episode. The former's recap is the worst I've seen yet.

Backflip - Nice CGI and complements the rhythmic gymnastics routine very well

After the Rain - Handles the age gap romantic attractions well enough

Tawawa on Monday - I mentioned it before, but I really did watch this for the plot. The anime punches well above its weight.

Pokemon original series - It's a slog that I've started since late 2024, but it's okay as a turn-your-brain-off watch. My favorite parts are the Hoenn teases for the eventual Pokemon Advanced series and seeing Team Rocket blast off.

Atri

Summer 2025

Witch Watch - Simply because it's aired in consecutive cours

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity - Has the potential to have insane production values. It's a romance and the staff appeared to pour their love and care in its making based on the trailer. I'm sold.

Spring 2025 wrap up:

I’ve been so busy that I’ve barely watched anything! As an aside, this is [email protected], which is closing today. So I’ve started [email protected] to continue participating. I’m not sure if there’s a better way to link accounts to connect post history. 

Watched current season: 

• None! 

Watched past seasons: 

• Castlevania Nocturne S2 - Not anime. That was surprisingly great. I loved OG seasons 1-2 (especially S2) then OG S3-4 were good-not-great. Then Nocturne S1 was kinda similar, while also having to introduce an entire new cast, and really only got going in like the final episode. But Nocturne S2 I’d say was just a step below OG S1-2. Tons of exciting moments, ridiculously long action sequences, really fun and doesn’t draw out anything too much. I’d recommend it, but kinda only if you’ve watched everything up to now. It really needs Nocturne S1 to work.
• I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate In My Class - It’s fine. There were some great moments mixed with a bunch of tropes. Hard to take too seriously. 

Ongoing: 

• Dragonball - Trying to keep up with the ongoing rewatch but fell behind quickly. Maybe 6 episodes in. It’s great! Way more sexual deviance and inappropriate behavior than I expected, but enjoying most of the characters a ton and the very silly story. 
• Trigun - Verrrry slowly been watching the OG classic. I’m only a few episodes away from the end. Finally some more backstory filling in details! It’s good, but I’m not quite blown away, while something like OG Cowboy Bebop still holds up. 
• Buddy Daddies - 3 episodes in. It’s pretty good. Not sure where the story is going. 

Dropped: 

• Can a boy-girl friendship survive? - Finding main girl insufferable after 3 episodes. Almost dropped after first episode, but gave it a bit more. 
• Re:Zero S3 - Watched a few episodes. I think I’m just too out of the whole series to remember the significance of each characters’ story. The break from S2 to S3 was too long to keep up with how detailed everything is. I think I’ll wait for this show to “finish” (may be a loooong time…) and then rewatch from the beginning to get the whole story. Or perhaps I’ll magically have more free time some day and won’t mind catching up multiple times. 

Eventually watch from this season: 

• Apothecary Diaries S2 - Just waiting for it to finish so I can watch quicker. Looks great. 
• Anne Shirley - Plan to watch with my wife. I think she’d love this if I can convince her to try it. 
• Witch Watch - Watched first episode. Seemed fun. 
• Kowloon Generic Romance - Watched first episode. Seems interesting. 
• Apocalypse Hotel - Lots of positivity about this here and elsewhere. I’ll give it a try. 
• Mobile Gundam SGGUUX - Never watched any Gundam but thought I’d give this a try. 

Plan to watch/try for Summer 2025 season: 

• Dan Da Dan S2 - Must watch. S1 was nuts. 
• My Dress Up Darling S2 - Must watch. Loved S1. 
• Kaiju No 8 S2 - Must watch. Loved S1. 
• Rascal Does Not Dream … - I’ve still never been able to watch the two intervening movies between S1 and the new release. I’d like to watch those first, but not really sure how. 
• Reincarnated 7th Prince … S2 - S1 was a surprisingly fun B tier anime. I’m up for more of that silliness.

Silly Awards Time!

• Toilet Humour Award: Apocalypse Hotel, which was surprisingly good despite the number of times poop came up.
• Most Overhyped: Lazarus, which was an okay popcorn action series but didn't deserve anything like the amount of promotion it got. At least it was better than Fractale.
• Most Deceptive First Episode: Kowloon Generic Romance, whose first episode plays like, well, a generic wallflower x pushy asshole romance setup. Until you hit the very end and realize that it's something else entirely. Runner-up: Yami Healer, whose first episode was just awful, while the rest of the show was okay brain candy. Honourable mention: Once Upon a Witch's Death—I haven't finished it yet, but as of the midpoint it seems to be morphing from tearjerker-of-the-week to having a larger plot that affects more than just Meg and her town.
• Biggest Missed Opportunity to Transmit Lore: Your Forma. Instead of repeating the "amicus robot" blurb at the very beginning of each episode, they could have put different sequences in there each time to provide direly needed explanations about other aspects of the setting. The only way to figure out what "your forma" actually is is to read the series' description blurb on a website; it's never explained inside the show.
• Dishonourable Mention for Harm to Kitties: Your Forma again.
• Most Confusing: Bye Bye Earth, still. The reveal in the next-to-last episode explains some of the weirdnesses of the setting, but not others. A lot of the lore surrounding the swords is still incoherent, for instance.

Past Seasons

I completed two anime over the past week. As usual, top-rated shows do not disappoint.

Grand Blue was good dumb fun. The slapstick humour was on point and got me laughing my ass off many times. I am glad I picked it up right before season 2 airs.

Easy 9 / 10

While watching Girls Band Cry, I had an epiphany: this is, in fact, a sports anime. The "sport" here just happened to be making music.

Think about it, it has all the makings of a sports anime: main characters being heavily disadvantaged, them having tragic backstories, strong rival(s), numerous other obstacles; but despite all that, they persevered.

But if we take it one step further, a lot of these stories of sports teams or bands are typical of start-ups. It's just that the space are they in is sports / music.

Anyway, stories like Girls Band Cry never fail to tug at my heartstrings. Despite being a dumbass, Nina's personality makes me (and everyone else) want to root for her. Same goes for the other band members with their backstories. This show knows how to get you to connect with its characters.

There's not much I can add besides saying that this anime is absolute cinema. 10 / 10

P.S. I enjoyed their songs; now Hokago Tea Time has a challenger. I haven't watch much anime with bands, but my current ranking is as such:

1. Hokago Tea Time (K-On) - Don't Say Lazy is the GOAT. Let's Go and Sweet Bitter Beauty Song are pretty good too
2. Togenashi Togeari (Girls Band Cry) - Void is solid
3. Kessoku Band (Bocchi the Rock) - No songs particularly stood out / fit my taste

(Not including Girls Dead Monster because it has been quite a while since I watch Angel Beats or listened to their songs)

P.P.S. Perhaps it's because I'm obsessed with Umamusume lately, but why do so many of these band names sound like horse names?!

Spring season wrap up:

• mono: A nice slice of life/iyashikei anime. Pretty ambitious debut by studio Soigne. I love how much they mess with the camera perspective. As a sol anime, there were a lot of room to make it more engaging. At times can feel like an advertisement for the places they went to.
• Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi: Another slice of life/iyashikei anime on my watch list. Simple and sweet. A little more relatable than mono but less interesting in the animation department.
• Rock is a Lady's Modesty: Interesting premise with interesting music, though not much in the execution. The animation was pretty standard. The story was okay.
• Witch Watch: Okay as an adaptation. Its animation only slightly above standard.
• Apocalypse Hotel: A fun original. The animation was great. Couldn't predict what would happen each episode. Really sweet and funny at times, hit hard in the feel at other times. I thoroughly enjoy each episode. Would be my AOTS if not for CinGray.
• Umamusume: Cinderella Gray: Hype Machine! My biggest surprise this season. Didn't know much about Umamusume before this, but Oguri's journey quickly make me invested. Each race was beautifully crafted to make it as hype as possible. I wasn't a sport anime fan before this, but now I can't stop rooting for Oguri in each race. The emotional stake and the drama was just top this, especially during the finale. Also, Fujimasa March, my beloved, her alone make it worth to watch.

Excited for City obviously. The Nichijou community is also the City community: [email protected].

Finished Binzume Yousei. It's an old educational anime for children. I don't think I learned anything new but the fairies were cute and the OP is kinda fire. It has one of my favorite oddly specific events: children learning about the cycle of life. It's a wholesome anime, recommended for true moe enjoyers.

This was a decent season! I watched the following:

• Apothecary Diaries: not finished yet, but incredible season, but hard to keep up with due to how many threads there were starting from episode 1 season 1.
• SHOSHIMIN: also really good season. This season focussed more on some larger mysteries, which was a nice change from the 1st season. The 2 leads have great chemistry. Amazing OP.
• Apocalypse Hotel: so much fun. The big cast + setting make for a very entertaining and endearing show.
• Witch Watch: it was.. fine. Nothing that really excited me tbh.
• Catch Me At The Ballpark: surprisingly fun. I do not care for baseball, but loved the vibe and the different characters interacting. Felt a little bit like a PA Works show for me. Speaking of which, I need to watch Food For The Soul.
• NinKoro: also really fun. I'm repeating myself here, but I liked the chemistry between the characters. I also liked how it portrayed an awful occupation as something light hearted. Fucked up, but in line with the characters. Sometimes though, the seriousness of it all shines through. Very clearly a Shaft anime at times with some of the angles and shots.
• From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: also surprisingly alright. The main character actually acts like a reasonable adult. His constant self-deprecation gets a little bit old though. He's regularly outperforming famed knights and adventurers but still thinks he's not that good. For the first part of the anime, it's understandable, but the latter part and especially the last ep it got a little unbelievable. The fights looked very well choreographed and the 3D animation looked good and was well-used.
• Too-Perfect Saint: lovely, but too fast imo, especially near the end.

Put on hold:

• Zatsutabi: nice and relaxing, but nothing special.

Dropped:

• Can A Boy-Girl Friendship Survive: dropped after 6 eps. Cannot stand Himari.
• Shiunji Family Children: dropped after 6 eps. Boring incest-but-not-technically harem.
• Gorilla God's Go-to Girl: really boring reverse harem. The lead is dumb as bricks and the support cast isn't better. Also, for a reverse harem, I feel like the boys have very average looking designs. Then again, I'm not the target audience so who knows.
• Once Upon A Witch's Death: felt like a cheap way to get the audience to cry, which didn't sit well with me.
• Rock Is A Lady's Modesty: dropped after 3 eps. Similar criticism as the manga, but worse. I could not get over the awfully toxic dynamic. Being a musician myself, I can't imagine playing in a band with people like that. Drums and guitar competing in the way they do (or at all, really) in the anime makes no sense either. If you want to be a bad band, not listening to each other and trying to stand out more than the other is a surefire way to do it.

I'm catching up on Gundam GQuuux, but now that I'm 4 eps in, I'm not too sure if I like it. I feel like I'm missing tons of context, it's lightning fast pacing and it's all very superficial still.

I've seen a lot of praise for Umamusume, so I want to check that one out as well.

I have no idea what's going on next anime season yet.

Haven't been following this season as tightly, wanted to watch a few more but was only able to make time for:

• Food for the Soul: Only about half way through but it's such a fun watch, the interactions between the girls are hilarious and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. PA Works continues to surprise me.
• Shiunji Family Children: Started watching this with friends as a drinking game and damn, alcohol can't save this. Still, it's pretty crazy how well animated this is despite how trashy the story can be. Though not gonna lie, there was a part regarding foster parents which I was pleasantly surprised they decide to delve into but I can't say much more than it was somewhat cool.

Can't wait for CITY next season though! Just did a rewatch of Nichijou to prepare for it and I keep forgetting how much this show brightens my day.

Spring season:

• Shoushimin Series Season 2 - loved season 1, but this one was even better and made me appreciate Osanai more. I'll miss her revenge plots.
• Apocalypse Hotel was fantastic. Fun, unpredictable, melancholic at times. Loved everything about it. Yachiyo is easily the best character of the show (of the season even), but I want to give a shout-out to Environment Checker Robot, who was a great addition to the cast.
• Kuroshitsuji: Midori no Majo-hen - one of the best Kuroshitsuji arcs, and my favourite animated arc (so far, I hope, and despite a couple of ridiculously long recaps). Am I finally getting fascinated with Sebastian after all these years? Maybe.
• Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray surprised me. I didn't expect to like it as I tried to watch the first Umamusume a couple of times and couldn't get past episode 2. Will watch Part 2.
• Maebashi Witches - wasn't feeling it in the beginning but it became better with each progressing episode. I love how they navigated each character's arc and the sincerity with which they addressed personal issues and sensitive topics. A pretty little show with a positive message.
• Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi - the cast of characters had a great chemistry. A fun group dynamic made the show enjoyable to watch.
• Ballpark de Tsukamaete! - another good slice-of-life. Thoroughly enjoyed this.
• Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de was fun, but too episodic to my liking. It just made me crave for more interactions between Kageyama and Reiko outside of murder cases (the finale was on the right track with that).
• Aru Majo ga Shinu Made, on the other hand, turned out to be less episodic than I expected and introduced some interesting worldbuilding. The characters were likeable, but the emotional part didn't click with me. It definitely benefitted from being a Tuesday show.

My AOTS is either Shoushimin or Apocalypse Hotel, I can't decide.

The Spring seasonals from my perspective:

• Apocalypse Hotel - I've watched the first 6 episodes so far. Seems fun, will hopefully finish within a few weeks.
• Apothecary Diaries - This has been a good time overall, though there are some parts in recent episodes where it's clear a scene probably worked better in writing than in animation.
• I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! - Watching the main character exist was actively unpleasant for me; I couldn't even finish one episode.
• Kowloon Generic Romance - Seems very interesting. Watched the first 3 episodes but the pacing threw me off so I think I'm going to seek out the manga and read that instead. Might come back to the anime afterwards if I like the manga.
• Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux - This had a banger of an ending. Wild show. Some people might think it's paced too quickly; I personally found it engaging and fun this way. Easily my anime of the season. Wish I could recommend it to everyone, but I'm not sure it's the best choice for those who haven't seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam. wjs018 seemed to be enjoying it for a while though so maybe it's fine.
• Witch Watch - The animation is kinda meh but I love the characters and the goofs are fun. Will continue watching this one into Summer.

As for summer, I have my eye on a few things:

• City - Same mangaka as Nichijou, same studio as Nichijou. Need I say more?
• The Summer Hikaru Died - I don't know much about this but I heard the manga was good and it's being adapted by Cygames so odds are pretty good that it'll be worth my time.
• Dan Da Dan Season 2 - If this is adapting the manga arc I think it's adapting this is the part of Dan Da Dan where you realize that Season 1 was relatively calm and restrained actually. I can't wait.

What I watched this season:

Gundam GQuuuuuux

• This could have needed a few more episodes to flesh out the character more
• As someone who hasn't watched all of the original Gundam stuff, I missed out on a lots of the references and was confused at a few moments
• yuri-bait >:(
• otherwise a very fun watch tbh

Rock is A Lady's Modesty

• super fun throughout!

Apothecary Diaries Season 2

• Loved the intrigue and the increased political scope this season
• Maomao be Maomaoing

To Be Hero X

• The animation is jaw-droppingly beautiful
• The first episodes instantly hook you
• The later stories didn't grab me as hard but I'm gonna watch this to the end

The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom

• This one surprised me!
• I was expecting a run-of-the-mill otome slop story, but what I got was a revenge-plot fuelled by sisterly love
• Mia is best girl
• definitely one of the better otome out there

My spring recap:

• Apocalypse Hotel - easily my AOTS. I just finished the finale and this show stuck the landing and is going to be one that I remember for a long time.
• Rock is a Lady's Modesty - I have yet to watch the finale, but I have enjoyed this a lot. If Bocchi isn't angry or yuri enough for you, then give this show a shot.
• Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire - I can see why this is compared to Eminence in Shadow, but I don't think it was as well executed with some slow periods through the season. The Guide vignettes were usually my favorite parts.
• Slime 300 - I only made it about halfway through the season before dropping it due to time. I am definitely going to finish it sometime though.
• Apothecary Diaries - I have the last couple episodes yet to watch, but the finale it is building up to looks like it will be great. Another excellent season.
• Gundam GquuuuuuX - Despite making the discussion threads for [email protected], I am woefully behind on this show. I feel duty-bound to finish it though. o7
• Kowloon Generic Romance - I ended up dropping this one due to time, but I would be interested in coming back to it at some point. It had a really interesting premise and the KWC vibes were excellent.
• Lazarus - I dropped this after episode 2 and, based on the feedback I have seen elsewhere, I was right to do so.

Edit - Can't believe I forgot to mention these:

• Ninja and Assassin Under One Roof - This was a fantastically produced show that is probably one of the best dark comedies I have seen. It is really messed up and super dark quite often, but always manages to stay funny. It's a weird feeling.
• Too-Perfect Saint - I thought this was a well done adaptation despite the very limited production. If you are a fan of this genre, you could do much worse.

As a meta comment, I believe I have enabled all the shows from last week's discussion thread at this point so that the bot will make threads for them. If you are in need of a refresher of how the bot works, here is the wiki page. For a tl;dr version:

• If the bot doesn't make a post for an episode you want, you can request it by pm. Don't make the thread on your own or it will likely be removed.
• The bot will stop making threads for an airing show when it sees that there were no comments on the previous week's episode. So, if you want to keep a show's threads going, keep discussing it.
• Feel free to tag the bot in the comments with a screenshot that you want to be the lead image. Please no spoilers or NSFW in these images. Also, be patient. This part isn't automated so that I can screen the images. I have to do all the images by hand, so it might not happen for a bit depending on my availability.

This Season

Watched (or will watch) till completion

will only talk about full anime seasons (i.e. no OVAs, no shorts)

Gundam GQuuuuuuX

I see people complaining that the show progresses too quickly. Personally, the breakneck pace means that I didn't have a chance of grow bored of it.

My only "real" complaint is the

Umamusume: Cinderella Gray

Peak story-telling and drama. Never could I have imagined that anthropomorphised horse-racing would get so exciting and emotional.

It definitely deserves to be the highest-rated new anime of the season on tracking sites like AniList and MyAnimeList.

It is also a contender for best sports anime of all time IMO.

Cinderella Gray would easily be the anime-of-the-season for me, if not for another anime airing this season that belongs among the GOATs.

The Apothecary Diaries season 2

I have mentioned a few times that I ruined the viewing experience for myself by reading the manga. But even with this nerf, it still doesn't change how well the story was presented.

One thing I have wondered since season 1 is why its target demographic is seinen. IMO suspense is one of those genres that cater to all age groups and genders.

Season 2 made the reason apparent. Season 1 teased the conspiracies and politics, but season 2 brought them out in full force. It reminds me heavily of Vinland Saga and other Gundam-like shows.

The only reason I have not declared Apothecary Diaries to be AOTS is because it has not finish airing, and I am very particular about the climaxes and endings of shows.

Cinderella Gray had a strong ending, so it has to at least match that.

Notable Drops

i.e. watched more than a few episodes

Witch Watch

It can be pretty funny at times. However, the slice-of-life-focused episodes got too slow and boring for me.

To Be Hero X

It had the potential to be anime of the season with the insane plot twists and conspiracy. Unfortunately, it lost me at the Lucky Cyan arc. A standard superhero rise-to-fame story is too boring for me.

Plan to watch

I have heard good things about the shows below, so I am planning to try one episode out for each of them.

• Apocalypse Hotel
• Ninja and Assassin under one roof
• Rock is a Lady's Modesty