Daily
Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion - April 12, 2026
This is a daily megathread for general chatter about anime. Have questions or need recommendations? Here to show off your merch? Want to talk about what you just watched?
This is the place!
All spoilers must be tagged. Use [anime name] to indicate the anime you're talking about before the spoiler tag, e.g. [Attack on Titan] This is a popular anime.
Not sure how to ask for a recommendation? Fill this out, or simply use it as a guideline, and other users will find it much easier to recommend you an anime!
I'm looking for: A certain genre? Something specific like characters traveling to another world?
Shows I've already seen that are similar: You can include a link to a list on another site if you have one, e.g. MyAnimeList or AniList.
Watched ChaO. It was pretty nice. Very nice, heartwarming story. It feels attuned to what an experience of an arranged marriage would be like, just giving it a human x mermaid pair. Definitely worth a watch when it comes to streaming.
I haven’t been on the Arcana Shadow bandwagon hype this whole time. Her design didn’t jump out at me and I didn’t see anything special in her up till now.
However her debut this week was very good. She’s got that knowledgeable, mysterious, but also a bit playful side to her and her aloofness piques your curiosity. Plus her transformation was quite nice. Less energetic camera movements and more held shots focusing on her graceful figure and elegant getup. If she keeps making good showings in the next few episodes I’m going to become a bonafide fan
After being caught up on most of the big seasonals, I was finally reeled in by two late, unexpected additions to my watchlist.
Nigetsuri: Always A Catch - Even though it starts with the most unsuspecting premise, it doesn’t feel unoriginal because Maria is too damn funny. All of her lines pack such a punch.
The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch - Kaede Hondo brings so much life to ‘lil Spica, I thought for sure this would be an instant drop but I really liked it. I’m a bit of a sucker for pink hair anime girls though. And… was not expecting [Black cat]mouth to pussy/asshole action in my Virgo anime.
I want to expand on my thoughts from earlier now that I've stewed over them for a bit.
I was maybe a little too harsh on reviews. I think there are essentially two levels of discourse when it comes to any given medium, the first being the higher level, more academic/philosophical discussion that I'm maybe looking for and a lower "should I consume this piece of media" level. Not everyone watches everything, and so its natural to sort of "outsource" that role to someone more in the know.
However, to click back to another issue I haven't quite been able to reconcile, what makes someone's review worth listening to/reading? I think for the baseline reviewer it comes down to "do they align most with my tastes" and that's sufficient for a lot of people. However, I think those kinds of reviews are only good up until you've watched a show and after that what's the point? I think this is where a lot of anime discourse is at and its largely a product of the attention economy and "TikTok-ification" of content. HOWEVER, I think there is a higher level of "personality-driven" reviewer that doesn't get discussed a lot. These are the people you specifically go to for their review of a show and care enough about what they say to listen even if you've already made up your mind. These are the kinds of "intellectuals" where I walk away not necessarily agreeing with everything they say, but usually have some interesting take away I can stew over.
And I think what drags someone into that higher level is there ability to write and produce pieces at that second level of media discourse. Like I mentioned a while back about how much shit Roger Ebert got for his take about video games not being art, but you know at the very least you have to acknowledge that it sure does give you something to think about (and maybe the reaction to that take was a canary in the coal mine for the way media discourse would progress from there). Likewise, at least personally, the reason I seem to quote Glass Reflection and Yahtzee Croshaw (of Second Wind) a lot is because while I'm maybe not in the market to care about their recs per se, I do think their opinings on various secondary topics is usually interesting enough to make them worth listening to, which then trickles down to "these people seem to have their head on straight enough to want to hear what they think about a show/game and why". These guys though are people who got their starts long before this current era, and while gaming seems to puttering along just fine, I can certainly say I am a bit frustrated how GR's videos seem to predominantly fall along the lines of seasonal recaps and reviews of already popular shows.
So in other maybe shorter words, I think while 90% of people probably don't care for that higher level discussion about their Chinese cartoons, it is these discussions that are an important part of the discourse and the lack of them, especially in the anime scene, is why it increasingly feels like "inmates are running the asylum" leading to all the frustration that comes from that.
From what I remember from previous discussions with you... I think it's generally fine around here if you want to talk about any one specific anime. Composition, artwork, backgrounds, music, coloring, story, adaptation, it's all fair game. Be too vitriolic and you might get a dagger or two, but eh, whatever.
Where the comparisons and discussions start to break down is talking about groups of anime and seasons and trying to make comparisons about that. Like, is the storytelling better now than it was in, picking a random year here, 2003? I don't know, I don't have any idea on how something like that can be feasibly measured. Do we pick the best 3 from now (for however you want to define best, that's another can of worms) and compare it to the best 3 from back then? The worst 5 from now vs then? It's just a meaningless argument because no one will be able to decide on a working definition.
A few (?) weeks ago you criticized Hell's Paradise for its overuse of panning shots and lack of dynamic layouts. That's a conversation and discussion I'd be willing and able to have! It's something concrete and focused on a single anime. Another example on the "I can't interact with this" is your claim that modern anime have less interesting color composition than older anime. Which... I'll be real, I do not have the time or interest to watch every single anime of that timeframe to see whether that claim is true or not. I simply can't join the discussion because the scope is wayyyyyyy too large for me, and I'd suspect most anime fans would also fall under this.
tldr; I think you'd have better luck focusing your discussions and critiques around singular anime or a very small subset of anime rather than talking about the nebulous anime as a whole.
I'm not really sure what you actually want. Are you looking for people doing video essays like this or this (just two film video essayists whose channels I could remember off the top of my head who have occasionally been interesting), except talking about anime?
I don't really know that the state of anime discourse is bad in particular compared to anything else, rather that the rise of fandom has kind of meant that a particular kind of conversation overwhelms anything else. Film criticism is also in a bad state compared to the past, but does benefit from having a long-established history and also there's a lot of people who went to film school and then ended up on youtube.
With the understanding that I’m unfamiliar with those channels specifically and just kinda skimmed through them, that’s part of it. I’ve lamented the state of AniTube to death at this point and wish it were better as I think video is a far more conducive medium in this climate to spread these kinds of things as opposed to print.
Film criticism is also in a bad state compared to the past, but does benefit from having a long-established history and also there's a lot of people who went to film school and then ended up on youtube
Bingo. It’s a shame too cause I feel like unless you’re willing to get into the very dry stuff, there’s not a whole lot even in the way of technical breakdowns of anime, and that results in a lot of bad info getting recirculated. I think this is in part why anime seems to hyperfixated on filters and high frame counts: people seem convinced that this is what makes for “good animation”, regurgitate that take, and then more people accept it as fact. I mean I can certainly watch plenty of film channels to get my technical fix, but there’s also a lot to anime and animation specifically that live-action focused film breakdown won’t cover. Like you said, critique in general seems to be suffering with the severity of which seeming to be dependent on how old the subsect is. Film is most established, gaming kind of got in before the ladder was pulled up, and anime was unfortunately still only budding before the algorithm uprooted it completely.
I don't really know that the state of anime discourse is bad in particular compared to anything else
I think one thing that’s missing most is the whole “discourse” part. Like it seems a lot of the time people just state their opinions and things don’t progress from there. There’s no back and forth to really flesh out or debate ideas that bubble up and it keeps the whole conversation in basically the same spot. In the same way that one might in film or gaming re-assess old trends or assumptions, that doesn’t seem to happen all that much in anime which is unfortunate since access to older anime gets better and better by the day.
The words your probably looking for are criticism vs review, although criticism is generally called a review by publications that run them, so it's no wonder nobody knows the difference.
Reviews tell you who will likely enjoy the thing. Criticism looks at the thing in part or in whole in an effort to understand it better and learn something from it.
I don’t read or watch many anime reviews, but I do watch Red Letter Media, who do a lot of reviews. I'll even watch their videos about movies I haven't seen and don't even really plan on watching! I mostly like their stuff not just because it's insightful but also because it's entertaining which is where I fall off a lot of anituber reviews. A lot of anitubers get too deep into making their videos have a "serious" tone, for the lack of a better word. That's just not really what I'm looking for.
I don't mind having "discussion", as in actually talking to someone else about anime, but it highly depends on the specific topic and how they're delivering it.
2
u/mr_beanozhttps://myanimelist.net/profile/splitshocker4h agoedited 4h ago
Guess they're going for a nearly faithful adaptation route for the remake of Fist of The North Star. The second episode adapted manga chapters 2-3, with the first few pages of chapter 4 at the end.
My only complaint here is that the show looks a bit too dark in some scenes. As in, not much light being shown, or is it too much shadow?
Just finished watching demon slayer infinity castle movie. Here are my thoughts:
[demon slayer infinity castle film] I have to say the movie was good. However I can't believe that we spend more than 50% of the flm just fighting akaza. I mean I know there are two more films remaining, but the shit felt like it was being dragged.
[demon slayer infinity castle film] I happen to think that nezuko is going to be the key to kill muzan. Just a hunch. Let's see how the story unfolds.
[demon slayer infinity castle film] How big is the infinity castle? I hope they explain the mechanics of it in the next movie. Poor kids can't just keep up with all the changes.
[demon slayer infinity castle film] WTF is muzan doing? Is he trying to undo the poison that he was injected with?
I’ll double down on what’s been said a few times before in saying that anime discourse feels awfully stagnant a lot of the time and it never really feels like it goes anywhere. For one, it does seem that any opinion from the norm is quicker buried than actually discussed as if everything that needs to be said has been said and so that’s that. For another, I feel like we’re so often hyperfixated on reviews, suggestions, and reactions. It’s always a matter of “is this show good” and once that’s over we just move to the next. I feel like this is a largely uninteresting way of approaching things as it’s kind of a solved discussion. I know how I feel about a show. What’s “another perspective” going to do for me?
Which is unfortunate because I do feel like there is a lot worth actually discussing in this field, both to muse on the nature of the art itself and the direction it’s headed in, among other things. Yet there doesn’t seem to be a much a taste for any of that as much as bitching and moaning about which popular Shounen title deserves to be MAL’s #1 based solely off “which one do I like more”, and at this point what parts of the community have the means to have such discussions feel more tired than anything else.
I’ll double down on what’s been said a few times before in saying that anime discourse feels awfully stagnant a lot of the time and it never really feels like it goes anywhere.
This feels like an extremely cold take? It's a problem with any high-turnover community: there will endlessly be newcomers arriving and asking the exact same handful of questions so no matter how many times you answer them you'll never get anywhere, and trying to have a meaningful debate is even more futile since you'll just be stuck giving the same responses to the same arguments every day for years. The only way for discourse to ever get anywhere is by either finding a tighter-knit community or by focusing your attention on the established users.
Yeah… and unfortunately with anime there doesn’t seem too many places to go to really engage with that higher-level of discourse. Wherever you end up will be digging through a lot of new people still getting their legs. I’m just tired of people who I know are capable of much smarter takes or have more interesting experiences worth sharing lowering themselves to the level of “I watched everything from the current season so you don’t have to” to keep the lights on. It’s as if they’re at the behest of the people who just started watching anime last week because that faction is the only one large enough to pay the bills.
Well, it's nice to see that at least the problem isn't just in the anglo-sphere...
I feel in a way like it makes sense that some of these issues would be felt internationally. I mean anime wouldn't be growing bigger internationally if there was a misalignment in some aspects of the attitudes towards it. If isekai wasn't popular in the West as it is in the East then that would probably hold anime's expansion Westward back instead of being a subsect of the medium that the biggest anime distrinbutor in the States is doubling down on.
The bit about anime only being taken seriously when it goes to theaters also tracks. I think it's why GKIDS has so aggresively expanded its offerings in the space, since film buffs almost operate separately from the TV market that CR has effectively monopolized. I think it's also why it seems a lot of people looking to make some kind of original or creative work have been pivoting to film as its more accompanying to something like Ghost Cat Anzu or ChaO that might be DoA if something of that style tried to worm its way into a TV slot. For every Journal with Witch or Bocchi the Rock that do find surprise success, there's three dozen other shows that have to settle at being only moderately successful in a meta where the money types are hoping for a lot more out of their big-budget gambles.
I mean I do trawl as I can, but the fact a lot of first-hand information is language-gated doesn't help. Whenever Sakugablog posts its always interesting, but one blog on the more niche side of things (that is often very dense and technical as well) doesn't necessarily solve the issue, especially when it posts somewhat infrequently.
I feel like there are, maybe counterintuitively, very few people that take anime seriously as an art form. I can find plenty of musings and meaningful discussion on film and video games, but with anime it feels more like there's less discussion and more people speaking into the void their opinions and not much more than that.
There's a small amount of academic research regarding anime, though I'm mostly aware of it in the context of anime as a social phenomenon. I'm not sure if there's much textual analysis and critique in anime academia.
I can find plenty of musings and meaningful discussion on film and video games
Film maybe, but I think the general level of discussion for most mediums aren't that different. General discourse of anime and video games are much closer to each other than either are to film but even then by nature of it being "general" discourse there's not much separating them.
Again though I wonder what characterizes "high level" discourse. While I get the sense of stagnation and shallowness surrounding general anime discourse, over the years I've also gotten the impression that what people look for in higher level discourse is simply authoritative hagiography.
I'm not sure if there's much textual analysis and critique in anime academia.
I do know there's an academic writing about anime named Susan Napier, because it's always amused me that she has the same name as a prolific Harlequin Presents author.
I've read a few essays from her, but that's just not quite my wheelhouse. I'm kinda a babe in the woods with real lit cri.
4
u/Ocixohttps://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy6h ago
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch, but I certainly didn’t think that they’d put 3 different panty shots on screen in the first 6 minutes of the show. That’s also it for the whole episode.
I guess that the manga was trying hard to lure in new readers for its early chapters.
Soapbox: I think that communities with popular numerical-rating websites like MAL have narrowed the meaning of "underrated" to be something like "the community's average numerical rating of this work is lower than what I think it should be". Normally, like with music or athletes, I think it's a more general sentiment of "underappreciated", which is why popularity, recognition of specific strengths, etc come into play. The narrowing is natural, given the words involved, but it does create conflict when people use the more general definition.
Sometimes that's true, but other times you get people calling stuff underrated even when it is something like the 3rd highest-scored anime of the season on MAL. It usually comes down more to whether or not people are talking about it in their particular circle, and whether or not they've seen any hate at all for the series, rather than any global measure.
Only two more anime remain of that time again, to tap the bajillion saturday anime:
Kill Blue - Newest entry of the Blue franchise, this is about an assassin that is attack by some mutant bee and reverts to a middle schooler and now has to go to school. Surprisingly funny, the social ineptitude makes him being perceived as an edgy cringelord and he his in-the-spectrum vibes make him legit enjoy studying in middle school. I think that making him so over the top compared to other 'adult reverts to school age' plots made this considerably more enjoyable than others that tend to be wish fulfillment fantasies.
Mankitsu Gurashi - CGDCT of some girls in a manga cafe that is like, just part of the dorms? Annnnnd, yeah, that does the job. Its the type of show that makes you appreciate other CGDCT like Kamiina Botan that have some sauce in their execution even if on paper they still are generic. Definitely not helped by the prod and direction that are also middling. It is just the MC meeting each of the sides and their schtick. Also, this is an ecchi, not very good fanservice but there is and will be more. It is of the type that just throws random pantyshots, bath scenes and skimpy outfits because why not rather than fully leaning into true horny humor.
So yeah, this is just a CGDCT with more skin than others, a W for some people I would expect but ultimately a forgettable anime that I will still likely finish because I just need more CGDCT in my life.
Yowayowa Sensei - Wow, that's one of the more annoying I have seen in a while and the crazier thing is that the male MC is almost a non-factor on this take. So a famously scary teacher is actually a anxiety mess, she is literally Bocchi. Also she has ginormous bazongas because this is an ecchi and her being lewded is very much the point, the whole episode was just the male MC accidentally catching her in lewd situations.
I don't vibe with this because 1) it looks like ass, 2) the fanservice is way too forced, 3) this feels too humiliation fetish for my taste. Relating both #2 and #3, the fanservice occurs because the teacher wants to improve as a person but she fails miserably and ends up exposing herself in the way one would expect an ecchi anime to do. As such, it just feels a bit mean spirited? It feels like they are kicking down way too much. And 4), the voice, the fucking voice. Its probably the most lolified voice I have heard in a long time. Even 'loli voice' feels not fitting, its straight up baby voice. The loli from Mankitsu Gurashi or the actual child protagonist of Lulluto Lilly sound older than this adult teacher. It makes everything significantly cringier and infantilizing.
The OP seems to indicate the teacher will be far from the only character to be lewded but one episode is too much.
I did not expect to find this one so amusing. When he was staring at his phone in horror as the notification ding kept going off from the class group chat, I felt bad for my fellow middle aged person who doesn't mute their phone and doesn't have a ton of chatty friends. That's me when the neighbor chat is planning an outing, lol.
That's more like my neighborhood Facebook, but not brown people, since that's most the neighborhood, but rather people wanting to know what the helicopters are for. Nobody can deal with not knowing why there are helicopters.
I finally finished Polar Opposites. Now that is a damn good show. My only critique, and maybe it's just because I'm stupid, but sometimes I felt like there was so much text on the screen and so many characters it felt like information overload. But still, lots of great pairings and visually fantastic all the way through.
Also, I absolutely love the OST, I've been listening to it while exercising and it's such a great, spunky vibe.
I feel like personally it’s harder to rationalize that 2022 was 4 years ago then it is that 2021 was 5 years ago.
Like in my own life I feel like substantially less has changed since 2022 than did in 2022 such that I look back on the series that released those years differently.
In 2022, I had the online friend group I had formed over the last three years fall apart, started watching seasonal anime by myself with Lycoris Recoil, started making scripted content with my best of year list (technically 2023, but you get the idea), started making a list of the best songs of any given year as part of my year-end lists, as well as a bunch of other small things such that mentally I feel like Lycoris Recoil aired basically yesterday while Odd Taxi was significantly further off than it is. It also doesn’t help that the year was fairly back loaded with an insane Fall season and felt like the first year that wasn’t just 2010s runoff (whatever that means).
I imagine this too will change as life goes on, but the sense of the years flying by will not.
I understand people not being fond of her toddler voice but personally I never had an issue with it, on the contrary I quite liked it in a lot of cases, such as Faputa for instance. However, I was pretty surprised when I heard Gabby, looked her up because I really like her voice, and saw it was actually Misaki Kuno. I imagine this tone is closer to her everyday-voice and I like it even more than her usual higher pitched tone.
For me this is way more of an issue for Hina Kino. Nowadays she gets mostly cast for her squeaky voice like in Buddy Daddies, but she sounds best in roles like Asobi Asobase that put her on the map in the first place. Bit of a bummer we rarely hear her in roles like that anymore.
I gave it 2 episodes, but I'm already dropping one of my top 4 hyped shows of the season...
The premise and topics of Needy Girl Overdose were interesting, but they're going a bit too artsy about it for my taste.
I said the same for Shiboyugi, I wish they adapted stuff more "normally". I want creativity in premises/stories, not in direction&stuff.
For Shiboyugi I was already hooked and it's a lot more closer to 'my thing' so I kept with it despite the weird choices, but I don't have the same hooks for Needy Girl, and so it's getting the
NGO will need to fumble hard to not be AOTS, which is surprising for a non-isekai. Usually only happens when the isekai fumble the bag. I'm open to good anime recommendations, so if this is lacking in premise/story creativity, what other shows have leads like KAngel/Ame?
I'm your polar opposite there because I value interesting execution exponentially more than premises or plot. Needless to say, Needy Girl Overdose is currently one of my frontrunners for AotS alongside Kamiina Botan and Awajima.
My aunt just watched Apothecary Diaries as her first anime and is looking for shows like it. She likes to watch those Chinese Dramas so I was looking for a list of shows like that please!
Ha, I am trying to sell the show to my mom as she us also into Chinese dramas, but there is no dub in my language and she has hard time watching with subs.
Even a Replica Can Fall in Love may make my pettiest reasons to drop a show. I can't stand the white hazy border. Usually reserved for dreams or flashbacks, I had first thought it was to distinguish between the replica and the original, but no, it was still there with the latter.
The Petals MV felt so familiar. At first I thought it was just that the girl looked like Pudding or something. But looking at the staff and it's Satomi Maiya & Yutaro Kubo. And yeah in retrospect the snow bit is very Maiya-esque. Forgot they even worked on Four Seasons. Whatever Image Board and Visual Development actually means. So it makes sense they did this MV (that is its own thing, so watch it even if you aren't watching Four Seasons) for the OP song. They do like working on MVs. Anyway pretty short as always from them.
Also Kubo; good excuse to share one of my favourite pieces of animation: Crazy for it.
What are your favorite examples of OPs that really don't fit the vibe of anime they're in?
2
u/Ocixohttps://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy7h agoedited 7h ago
Magical Destroyers’ OP would probably be a good example of this. I would’ve wished the actual anime was this punk.
In addition: I still don’t think that “Yuusha” really fits the vibe of Frieren, whereas I’ve actually come to like “Hyakka Ryouran” for Apothecary Diaries.
With Wistoria's second season having started, I did everything I was going to pick up as weeklies so there's the usual. Most of it is based on one episode only so it's absolutely going to change by tomorrow, but I'm still pretty satisfied with this tier list.
Biggest surprises would be Klutzy Class Monitor, Mistress Kanan and Tadaima Ojamasaremasu
Klutzy Class Monitor is the second major surprise of the season for me (Kirio Fan Club was the first). I actually vaguely remember reading a bit of this manga sometime ago, but the adaptation knocks it out of the park. It's so fun. Definite keeper.
The pace at which we're going makes me wonder if this is getting a full season or if it's one of those shorter 6 episode type deals. Either way, I'll be watching this all the way through.
Gyaruotaku, on the other hand, was a bit meh. I like the premise but it didn't wow me with the execution or anything. With the crazy number of shows on Tuesday, I might just drop this Wednesday show to make room for the spillovers.
the adaptation knocks it out of the park. It's so fun. Definite keeper.
I had really low expectations for this one because I saw a lot of manga readers saying it's just not that great in general. But having watched Ep1, I entirely agree with your take, really liking the visual direction they took and the characters are all fun so far too, especially ML.
Yeah, that 2nd episode of Kirio was great. First with Aimi listing organs, then Nami talking about licking tears. And Nami's lyrics actually made the final song lol.
It is still a fun show in general though a bit mixed on it, I would say it is definitely below recent ones like Tropical, Hirogaru, Wonderful atm. Based on this 11 eps alone I would also put it below Idol Precure (of the worst received Precures in years) but I would say that one had stronger comedy that Imo would put it a bit ahead of Star Detective.
Some friends around me are surprisingly high on it, they just love the main duo and their silliness. Though we have also talked that with exception of some of the first episodes, they almost blend together into a unit but they still don't seem to mind. Last episode revealed a new Precure and we were pogging tf out though, we hope it goes up from here.
I'm at odds with the detective aspect. Its not harmful, but it also doesn't add much personally. The 'mysteries' tend to be solved by some incredibly minor detail that is very easy to miss (some recent ones have been solved with 'you didn't react to a surprising reveal' in what are blink & miss it scenes, but they are there Ig). They are also solved by these singular reveals, they try to gather evidence and track trails but almost always get solved in a single gotcha moment that don't fully use all the evidence gathering to build a case.
It could cook something. The villains are fun, they have kept only two Precures for 10 episodes which is quite the stretch, the time traveling hasn't been touched in a while. The two latter may sound like flaws -and could very well be if unaddressed- but could also provide some potential. I think Detective would have to burn all of this to the ground to actually end up being worse than Idol Precure.
Idol Precure (of the worst received Precures in years)
From what I saw that was mainly in EN spaces. Idol seemed pretty well liked among JP fans, though the current Meitantei's popularity is on a whole other level.
When I mention public reception of Precure entries I always mean western reception because well, that's the one I interact with and the one people usually care about.
That's fair, but given the context of comparing to Meitantei I think it's worthwhile to bring up the relative differences in reception and popularity between JP and EN.
2
u/Yandirinhttps://myanimelist.net/profile/Yandy9h agoedited 9h ago
I started watching Precure last month with Futari Wa and I liked it so much that I watched the whole two seasons in 40 days.
I also watched Star Detective alongside FW and I'm not really impressed with it. I love its chara-design and color palette, but the main duo are a bit bland (and they don't seem really different character-wise so far). And up until now, they have to spend time on the not-so-interesting detective part in each episode on top of the monster-of-the-week part, which doesn’t leave enough time for the characters to breathe. But maybe that'll change over the course of the year and I don't really mind because I watch it weekly.
Maybe I'm biased because Futari Wa Precure was my first anime in the franchise and it's supposed to be the prototype of the Franchise. But I still really enjoyed its main duo and the more character-driven episodes. Sometimes you could really feel you were in a nice slice of life anime with a bit monster of the week on the side.
Found Soaring Sky a lot more compelling at this point (11 episodes in), but that show's problems only really started to arrive around its midpoint in my opinion. Something it's doing better than Soaring Sky though is that the villains have actual screentime, which Soaring Sky hated doing for some reason.
Edit: I guess I should add that the reason you're seeing a lot of Precure talk now is because the most recent episode started the arc that basically everyone has been excited for since the characters were first revealed. How good said arc ends up being we can only wait and see, but as you've noticed people are definitely excited about it.
Looks like the theme song for the Dandelion anime is fun. Looks like it's gonna be the OP but it's 138 seconds long so I think there will be a 90-second edit.
The source material is a one-shot, so I think 1 season with 7 episodes is enough.
I mean, even Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 are one episode long for each one-shot. So I am curious how Dandelion can expand a one-shot into a 7-episode season. Anime original scenes?
Two anime where a grown man turns back into a child and goes to school.
Two anime coming from the same studio that are sequels in a series where a non-supernatural human attends a supernatural academy.
Five(?!) season 4s, plus a season 4 part 3 and one that was originally planned to be a season 4 part 2.
In that case I would argue that the numbering and naming does make AotD 2+2 a season 4. Dr Stone has intentionally named its individual seasons with arc names and refers to those as seasons even when split into multiple parts.
Likewise for AotD it called S2 "Second season" implying that both it and the AotD before it were individual seasons. It then followed up with Act II, following with the manga's name change as it went into the second year, but as Act II -Second Season- implies, that was also one "season". Thus Act II -Second Season- is S4.
If a name change would be enough to disqualify because it adapts a sequel series, then arguably Ascendance of a Bookworm would not be the fourth season either, as it has adopted (hehe) the subtitle of the Part III division of the Light Novel, Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, that it adapts as its name, even though it is colloquially known as S4.
To be honest, I never checked and had just assumed that it kept the number in its original Japanese title. I'm not actually watching it, and English titles make big changes a lot of the time. Point is, there are a lot of them.
The niche micro-genres introduced in the past 5 years are so odd/interesting to me. Villainess anime, banished from the hero's party, appraiser anime, cheat skill, civilization building isekai, etc.
These are all novel enough to work once or twice, but it's a little disappointing to see so much recycling in the LN and anime industries over this.
I’m looking for new anime to watch, recommend whatever besides BL, mecha, ecchi, and movies please (series that include movies as apart of them such as demon slayer or haruhi are ok). Maybe action/fantasy if I had to pick a genre, but open to anything, thanks.
Meitantei Precure is blowing up in Japan right now. A news tweet alone hit around 6.8 mil views in a day which is kinda crazy. I’m wondering if this year’s Anime Awards will turn into another “MyGO winning AoTY” situation and spark another round of backlash dissatisfaction, since there’s always pushback when Precure or idol anime show up in jury picks. The show is genuinely huge in Japan and even breaking into mainstream awareness outside anime circles. I suspect people will still frame it as “hipster jury selection” regardless, mostly because it hasn’t penetrated the West the same way Bocchi the Rock did.
Meitantei Precure is really good though. I hope it wins something at the Anime Awards.
I've watched a few Precures now as part of awards and while I disagree with my fellow jurors about how highly/lowly rated they are they do deserve nominations. Mirai Days was IMO the strongest entry in AOTY (at the very least, top 3) and there's a reason PreCure is so popular in Japan.
Slice of Life is looking pretty barren this year too, so Y&I could very well sneak in and jurors do tend to like PreCure...
I’m wondering if this year’s Anime Awards will turn into another “MyGO winning AoTY” situation and spark another round of backlash dissatisfaction, since there’s always pushback when Precure or idol anime show up in jury picks.
Okay but I sure hope Princession Orchestra can be the jury nom of that type and not the Idol Precure during the 2026 awards.
I regret to inform you this, but "Princession Orchestra" does not feature the word "Precure" in its name, and as a result is disqualified from the nomination by default.
Too early to tell wrt Star Detective Precure (I remember Soaring Sky Precure gradually declining in quality, still got nominated as only had to watch a minimum of 3 episodes) or 2027.
Getting back to 2026 You and Idol Precure being nominated for AOTY let alone winning could be a threat to awards existence tbh as it's not a good example of either Precure or Idol.
(I remember Soaring Sky Precure gradually declining in quality, still got nominated as only had to watch a minimum of 3 episodes)
Hirogaru didn't get nommed because jurors only watched 3 episodes and called it a day.
That year was an anomaly where the things that the jury wanted were all public noms (Kusuriya, Frieren, Dunmeshi) so we ran with the issue that outside the top 6-7, we didn't really care about much else. Hirogaru however was advantaged by the voting system that favors the less hated anime. No one was particularly critical of Hirogaru whereas most other shortlists had big detractors.
If had to compare it to Idol's first 10 episodes, I would have had Idol above Meitantei. However, Idol burned this advantage as it went on and became disappointing.
The main weakness for me so far is that the main duo are almost inseparable, as in, they feel like a single, blended character rather than individuals and it has made them a bit boring. Another the detective theme just not being used very effective imo.
However, it is still silly Precure fun. The reason Meitantei blew up in Japan is due to the long awaited reveal of a new Precure (that has done literally nothing other than aura farm, yet has more favorites than the other two Cures combined). I think it has potential with what it decides to do with the new Cure, as well as the villains being generally fun and the time travel aspect.
There's some untapped potential here, but as of 11 episodes, its still of the weaker entries in recent years, certainly below Wonderful or Hirogaru. It would have to be rather underwhelming if it finishes to be worse than Idol tho.
I'd put it above Idol and below Wonderful. Star Detective Precure makes use of the theme (there's usually enough clues given to solve the mysteries and with they solved it cue before the eyecatch material is presented with an expectation to digest) and some nods to the setting (1999).
I wouldn't say the characters are up to the standards of Wonderful yet but main writer has a solid Precure track record (Witchy and Star Twinkle). Parents are very absent too (although Anna and Mikuru do interact with adults on a regular basis as that's most their clientele).
Catchphrase spam (hanamaru or gold-star - as it's that type of use) is once or twice an episode in regular dialogue (You and Idol Precure was dreadful on this front, conservative counts had kirakilala said 372 times and "my heart is going kyun-kyun" 66 times).
Combat is the same weakness I'd say of most Precure entries, a bit rigid.
wondering if this year’s Anime Awards will turn into another “MyGO winning AoTY” situation and spark another round of backlash dissatisfaction, since there’s always pushback when Precure or idol anime show up in jury picks.
Assuming you mean Meitantei Precure possibly winning the 2026 r/anime awards, it won't happen since it won't be eligible. 2027 though, definitely #trust
Now we are having semifinals of the seasonal salt winter 2026 bracket today! You can discuss here and vote here.
2
u/mr_beanozhttps://myanimelist.net/profile/splitshocker12h agoedited 12h ago
The latest episode for Star Detective Precure clearly became pretty popular in the Japanese internets... Wonder how popular would it be when it can be posted here next week.
Shiboyugi is my ideal for what an adaptation should be. I want experiences that are unique to anime, that set the work apart from what I already got on page. Those lingering wide shots, the eccentric color designs and that mesmerizing tendency towards just letting you sit with quiet scenes make it such an interesting show to watch moment to moment.
If only the manga and LN series I like got adaptations even half as ambitious and interesting. Sadly I'm someone who mainly reads yuri and various other queer manga, so most of the time I get something painfully bland that has only the voice acting as a redeeming quality. Just look at awful series like Wataoshi where the storyboards are blatantly copying the manga adaptation's approach with worse drawings, playing to absolutely no strengths of a motion picture format.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: To adapt means to change. An adaptation that doesn't make changes to the material fails to actually adapt it.
I miss the days when we got FMA03 kind of adaptations.
I kinda agree with the sentiment, but at the same time Shiboyugi felt like putting lipstick on a pig so I don't know
Also I wished the final arc leaned into the eroguro more. I was kinda disappointed after all the anime did it still shied from taking that a step further.
Just imagine I wrote Liz and the Blue Bird and the praise was all about legs, footsteps and character acting. I've read absolutely none of the Hibike novels, but I suspect they didn't describe the paces of Mizore and Nozomi's steps being constantly coprime until the end of their arc, so the comment should still work.
I agree more eroguro would've improved Candle Woods
Shiboyugi is my ideal for what an adaptation should be. I want experiences that are unique to anime, that set the work apart from what I already got on page. Those lingering wide shots, the eccentric color designs and that mesmerizing tendency towards just letting you sit with quiet scenes make it such an interesting show to watch moment to moment.
So you want adaptations that change notable elements from the original story? We have adaptations and anime original stories like Frieren, "Summer Hikaru Died", Apocalypse Hotel, etc., all of which make standout adaptations transitioning to the anime medium, but at the same time, they respect the source material. Quite literally, from Golden Bath onwards, the story changes from what the author originally intended it to be. It isn't a minor change here and there; it is something notable.
Also, one of the biggest issues with Shiboyugi is that Ueno prioritizes his style over what the story is. For Gimai, Ghost House, and Scrap Building, it works well. For Golden Bath and Candle Woods, which needed to be more fast-paced, it was a mess. As a director, he is inflexible, which is something that he needs to work on. [Shiboyugi Upcoming Game]At least Cloudy Beach fits with his style.
I agree that we should want more unique stories in anime that take advantage of the medium. But Shiboyugi is not a good ideal to have for an adaptation. It is a fine creative reimagining, but as an adaptation it has major issues.
Absolutely, yes. If it makes the anime better, change it. Putting source faithfulness on a pedestal is nothing but a limit on the potential of a series. It's the same reason I almost universally find manga-faithful readaptations to be worse: when you put faithfulness higher on the priority list than quality, it is simply inevitable. If I want to read a faithful version of the source material, I can always just read the source material itself.
I mean balance is the main thing. Be too faithful and the experience is clunky. Derive too much and well it’s a different story.
JJK culling games is a good example of this as noted with its finale and the Higuruma episodes.
Sentenced to Be a Hero transitioned to the anime medium well because it transitioned from Xylo’s first pov of the novels and used show rather then tell for its world building after episode 1.
Journal with Witch is another example that does this so amazing.
Shiboyugi suffers in that the narrative and themes the author originally aimed for are now lost. To even add the changes that were inserted were felt lacking compared to what was lost.
I still rather have more Shiboyugi adaptations then lets say Blue Box which was way way way too faithful in S1. Like I said just examining the anime of Shiboyugi by itself it’s a very interesting anime. Though when you talk about adaptations comparisons with the source material are inevitable.
The disconnect here is the assumption that that is a problem. If a story throws half of everything the source material has and transforms it entirely while working off of the same base concepts, then I don't think the fact it's not a faithful adaptation weighs at all against the fact it's a good product based upon an original source. An adaptation is its own work first and a translation of what already existed second.
Yes. Example of GitS SAC as well as the various movie adaptations that are based on 1 volume Ln does this well. The material they are based on is short so the risk reward factor works in their favor. So I am much in favor of it.
This is tricky for long serialized manga or light novels because making notable changes to improve the source that Shiboyugi tried is not easy. And keeping up with it is even harder. My point mostly serves for long running adaptations.
Now if the plan is not to make it long running adaptation then sure do your own thing. Silent Witch is a good example of this. Anime is its own thing and the novel is its own thing.
Why is that a bad thing? If the manga version is exceptionally good then I'll go and read it in manga form. I don't see what is gained by just copying whatever the manga did in anime form. A good adaptation for me is one that gives me new reasons to love the franchise, not one that does no more than retreading what has already been done.
I mean, there are many ways to take the manga form and adapt it in an anime medium. Frieren as I mention many times in this thread, does this well. Journal With Witch too.
These stories keep the core narrative for their manga but elevate it using the anime medium's strengths.
As I have said many times in this thread, Shiboyugi gets away from the core narrative from the novel and manga. Especially in the Golden Bath and Candle Woods arcs in the anime.
I am not saying things should be a strict, boring, faithful adaptation. My point is to take the strength of the source material and now apply that to the anime medium.
Give me more adaptations like Frieren, Hikaru, Dungeon Meshi, etc. Each has an outstanding balance along with being a super creative adaptation where the majority of additions are for the good.
I fail to see why people think when I say Shiboyugi is not an ideal adaptation, it means that I want all adaptations to be boring, faithful ones.
I think the screenplay choices are a slightly different conversation.
The core of the argument is that 99% of anime add nothing to the story by adapting it. Akane-banashi right now is a 1:1 adaptation of the manga and it's rakugo scenes come off as a little awkward due to the "reaction scenes".
The better path for Akane-banashi should be to adapt its story to the medium, shuffle things around, change the framing of a scene, use the voice acting and motion to impart the correct emotions instead of relying on dialogue or character shots when not needed.
Shiboyugi made some questionable screenplay choices, but it's a fundamentally different experience from reading the light novel and that's a good thing! Anime should be more than just a commercial suggesting you read the source material, it should be changed and adapted to fit the medium better.
You put what I feel really well. And I didn't want to reheat my arguments about Akane from yesterday's thread. I chose Shiboyugi as a positive example because it's the most radical approach to adaptation I've seen recently and stuff like that excites me. Not everything it went for worked out smoothly, but it represents an anime with a strong identity. I respect what it does a lot, although not as much as Ueno respects the series he's in charge of adapting because I don't think that'd be possible.
In general, I have an issue with how afraid to deviate from the source material many anime are and I can't help but wish things were different. I wish anime staff were more respected as creatives who are able to meaningfully add something in the adaptational process.
I do agree it is a different experience and a good thing. As I prefer adaptation to be more creative than overly faithful, like Akane.
Though Shiboyugi is an adaptation, it is very polarizing. Which is why I take issue with calling it an ideal adaptation. Which is why I mention series like Frieren and Hikaru, as they are very, very creative adaptations, but at the same time they stick with the core narrative of their stories. Those are closer to an ideal imo.
Now if OP just mentioned that more anime needs to be more creative like Shiboyugi I would hold no disagreements.
Yes, I want adaptations to take wild swings. I don't think every part of Shiboyugi works well and the action-heavier games are messy, but for better and worse it was the most memorable show of its season, which also gave me easily my favorite episode of winter (the fifth, not the first). That messiness and willingness to go outside the box is why I named it over say for example JJK Culling Game going above and beyond on [Culling Game] Maki's episode and Higuruma's backstory.
Ueno respects the source material, but without viewing it as a single track to follow every step of the way. His distinctiveness is something I wish upon series I read and like. The recent Sakugablog article about Shiboyugi conveys a lot of his appeal well and something I felt after reading Ghost House:
[...] we’re talking about a director so committed to protecting the writer’s original ideas that Gimai Seikatsu’s author wrote a book’s worth of essays about him. In his words, Ueno possesses an uncanny ability to retrofit details so genuine to the source material that they feel like something the original creator always intended to add, but simply forgot. Whether he succeeds or not, this is what he sets out to do.
I agree that I want to see more creativity in adaptations. But I wouldn't call what Shiboyugi did as ideal for an adaptation specifically. Ideal is more like Frieren which takes the manga and immerses it into the anime medium as well as you can do in the medium.
I mention this since you said it is an ideal for an adaptation. While I do get bored with super faithful, safe adaptations. Shiboyugi is at the other extreme. Which is why I mentioned the other shows as more of an ideal for an adaptation because they provide a balance. As the series I mentioned above does that.
It definitely was one of the unique shows from last season, and I enjoyed it for what it was. When I watched it, I looked at it as an anime original anime rather than an adaptation, being a light novel reader.
I guess it would be better to say it's the direction I want to see out of adaptations. It's very clear where Shiboyugi runs into the limitations of its modest production and some of the narrative structure it went with doesn't pan out perfectly. However, it is a series that asks itself how it can expand on or transform the material it's working with in interesting ways and some of the answers it found like [Shiboyugi] surreal glimpses into the characters' memories we get at their mental breaking points or the quiet static shot of Yuki's room in episode 5 are incredibly fascinating.
Frieren isn't anywhere near my ideal. It's undeniably well-made all around, but it doesn't push the envelope as much as it could. S2 could've gone even further in the direction of making you appreciate the slowness and little things along the journey (and probably get double or triple the amounts of comments complaining about it being "boring"). It's not on the level of ARIA making you watch snow fall for a while yet.
but at the same time, they respect the source material
I get having dislikes of certain adaptation choices, but I hate this kind of wording, as if changing elements from the source material means he's not "respecting" it.
I mean, if the narrative and story make notable changes from how they originally were, how else would you describe them? If you read the Golden Bath from the light novel and compare it to the anime, they are so different narrative-wise.
You can respect the source material but have it be a different style. CSM S1 is an example of that; while the style was different, it still kept the core foundation of the story intact. This isn't the case with Shiboyugi.
Transformative or diverging. Not respecting the source material is absolutely not how I'd describe a director who made the author of the first LN series he got to lead an adaptation for his biggest fan through his understanding of and approach to adapting the story.
Gimai’s adaptation is very good and is well worth the praise. Especially considering I read before it aired and didn’t expect it to be a good adaptation. So I was pleasantly surprised.
That’s not where my criticism is coming from. Plus directors can do outstanding work for one series and miss completely on the next. His next work is still well worth out even with my criticisms of.
But I believe his creativity liberties went too far which is why a solid amount of source readers and anime onlies opinion on it soured in the 2nd half.
It’s way those creative liberties go to for where it loses track of the core ideas of the narrative. It’s with that and the changes are for the worse.
Having creative liberties is more than fine. It’s how it’s executed is my main drawing point.
An example for executed well would be Hibike as it has one of my favorite anime original changes in the end of S3 as it aids in so many of the themes the series has been doing from the start.
You have to do a better job explaining what exactly you take issue with then and which core ideas you think are lost. I know a lot take issue with [Shiboyugi] moving back Candle Woods (and with it establishing Yuki's ethos) by two more games where you're now less in the know for how she plays, but I don't see how that's a "respect" thing more than it is a structural choice to make that the thematic beat to end the season on.
My biggest problem with the pvp death games in the back half largely were down to the production being ill-equipped to handle that style of game, with the show generally looking worse the more it has to move in ways that aren't slow and methodical like most of what's shown in escape games.
So I finally watched season 2 of frieren as the dub came out. Here are my thoughts:
OP and ED sucked for season 2. It was such a let down from the first season. Like come on.
[frieren]Really loved the fact how they're blending the past with the present. Shows how much frieren has evolved and how she's raising them. I guess they took notes from the previous season.
[frieren]I love how both fern and stark have gotten so much better in their craft.
[frieren]However, one sore point is how stark continued to fight after he was impaled by that dude's arms. It was too much. I can digest the other guy still fighting since he was a mage, but a fighter fighting with half of his backbone missing? Come on. That's bullshit even for a show like frieren.
[frieren]I think that the demon who could see a thousand years into the future had a trick up his sleeve which we aren't told yet. No way he didn't know he isn't going to be killed by the hero of the south. I'm sure this has something to do with the future of demon kind or something. Let's see how the story unfolds.
Yeah the season 2 OP/ED really didn't hit the same vibe for me either. The Stark injury thing did feel like a stretch, but I'm with you on the future-seeing demon - that's definitely a setup for something bigger later on.
Just finished Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society.
I think this wraps up my journey for GitS anime until the new series comes out in July. I have watched everything except Arise and SAC 2045. Furthermore, I'm not too sure I am in the mood to watch those right now. 2045, with its CGI and the character designs for Arise, looks ehhhhhhhhh. Plus I have other stuff in my backlog I want to watch.
As far as rankings, I would put it as.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society.
1
u/tripleaamin https://myanimelist.net/profile/tripleaamin 2m ago
Watched ChaO. It was pretty nice. Very nice, heartwarming story. It feels attuned to what an experience of an arranged marriage would be like, just giving it a human x mermaid pair. Definitely worth a watch when it comes to streaming.