We are a bit more than halfway through the season so far, so I thought it would be a good chance to stop and take stock of what I have been watching and what I think about it. Like a midterm exam if you will.

• The Eminence in Shadow - Really enjoyed the first arc of the season while the second was a bit disappointing to me (a source reader). However, it seems anime-only reactions have been more positive. With five episodes left, this final arc of the season should be able to have the time it needs to make it special.
• Frieren - This is another series in which I am a source reader. The adaptation so far has been really incredible. I cannot say enough good things about this series.
• 100 Girlfriends - Another series for which I am a source reader. So far, I have enjoyed the adaptation. I think they have made some effort to keep the meta-humor in the series. Also, I haven't gone back and checked the early manga chapters, but I don't remember so much fan service in the source.
• Girlfriend, Girlfriend - Another series for which I am a source reader. I personally think this series works better in manga form. Naoya and company are just so exaggerated in print form and with how absurd the story is, I think the over-the-top-ness of the manga helps carry the story better. I find myself getting bored sometimes watching the series in anime form.
• The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch - I started this series in the hope it was just a feel good SOL in a fantasy setting. However, between the opening episodes featuring fan service of a character they repeatedly point out is 16 years old and then the awkward story pacing, I have mostly dropped this series. I have not read the source, but I was able to guess that it was a 4 koma based on how awkwardly told the story is with frequent interruptions and transitions. Apparently not every 4 koma series can get the Bocchi or Tomo treatment.

As always, @ram@lemmy.ca if you would please do the pin/unpin honors.

That is a bit of a reverse harem though with more than one male character interested in Hitomi (senpai from original world, Van, and Allen that I can think of).

They really flew through LN Vol. 3 with these first two arcs. I was really disappointed by the John Smith vs. Alpha fight from last episode. I am hopeful that means they are going to slow down for this final arc of the season (first half of LN Vol. 4).

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I wasn't aware of this limitation in kbin. I made a post about spoiler best practices in light of this. I am not a mod in this community, but I would imagine that similar guidelines would be acceptable here given the complications of federating different platforms.

I wasn't aware of this limitation in kbin. I made a post about spoiler best practices in light of this. I am not a mod in this community, but I would imagine that similar guidelines would be acceptable here given the complications of federating different platforms.

It means putting show spoilers behind Lemmy's spoiler syntax. I have provided an example below. Do note that not every Lemmy app renders spoilers correctly. For instance, the Boost app just doesn't hide spoilers at all. They work on the web interface and in the Jerboa app, but others can be hit or miss. I really loathe the Lemmy spoiler syntax, but I can't really do anything about it.

Example spoiler syntax:

Spoilers Within
Place your spoilery text here.

produces

I am sure others might chime in with suggestions of their own, but based on your comments here are a couple ideas of mine:

• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - If you haven't already seen it, give it a shot. Essentially about cyborg police fighting crime set in a technological future.
• Planetes - This is a more realistic, near-future sci-fi in which our main cast of characters live on a space station and are tasked with removing orbital debris.
• Kino's Journey (either adaptation, though I would probably recommend The Beautiful World from 2017) - This is a bit different as it is an anthology story. So, each episode is usually a self-contained story featuring the titular Kino and their talking, sentient motorcycle Hermes. There are lots of chewy moral dilemmas and morally gray characters for your brain to engage with in this show.
• Cowboy Bebop - I mean, this one is a classic. From the killer soundtrack to the stylish animation, you can't go wrong with a bit of space bounty hunting. This is essentially the show that Firefly was trying to emulate.

It is at least anime-adjacent. The actual definition of anime can get blurry sometimes and debates have been had over whether a show like Avatar the Last Airbender is an anime or not. I am glad that you enjoyed the show! When it comes to a form of media like anime, there are as many different types/genres of anime as there are any other medium, so it can get tough to find something that clicks right away. If somebody asks me for recommendations to start getting into anime, I usually ask them what kinds of shows/movies they already like and then pick anime in a similar genre or with similar themes.

Also, Time of Eve sounds really interesting.

This past week I have not had too much time to watch anime, but managed to keep up with a couple airing shows.

• Frieren once again outdid itself with what is my new favorite episode of its run. It was so good that I rewatched it and made a second top-level comment in the episode thread about it.
• Eminence in Shadow had an interesting episode this past week. As a source reader, my reaction seems to differ a lot from anime-only reactions that I have seen. There were some serious bits of the story left on the cutting room floor from Episode 6 that source readers haven't been happy about. I just hope that they were cut in order to give us something special later in the season like they did at the end of season 1.
• Helck continues its backstory exposition dump. I like backstory as much as the next viewer, but you know what else I also like? Story. About a full third of the show's runtime has been this single flashback sequence explaining Helck's past. I really think that instead of a solid 5-6 episode flashback chunk, it could have been interspersed with the rest of the story (see Frieren for a good example of how to mix backstory and story).

Finally, a bit of a meta comment. If you haven't seen, the lemmy.ml admins decided to remain defederated from the ani.social instance, home of the episode discussion bot. I have thoughts on this, but setting those aside, I just wanted to let people know that the bot is still making posts like before, but over in a different community on the ani.social instance. If your account is on an instance that federates with ani.social, then great! Go check out the community over there and you can see the discussions that happen on those threads. If your account is on lemmy.ml, then you will have to make and use a different account to access that community. That can either be an account on ani.social or an account on an instance that still federates with ani.social.

@ram@lemmy.ca if you would be so kind as to do the pinning/unpinning, that would be lovely. Mod of my heart!

I know I am replying to a bot, but if you are on lemmy.ml the syntax the bot provides above won't bring you to an up-to-date version of the community I linked. Instead, it would only contain content from before the defederation happened. That is why I used a fully qualified url in my comment.

The lemmy.ml admins don't seem to intend on re-federating with ani.social any time soon. I don't know what @chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org (the bot maintainer) intends to do, but I moved my episode discussion contributions over to the home community for the bot here. Note that because of the defederation, you won't be able to use your lemmy.ml account, but will have to use an account either on ani.social or another lemmy instance that does federate with ani.social.

I have opinions on how this has been handled on the part of the ml admins and they aren't positive, but I don't want to fill up this thread with them.

I am sure others will likely chime in as I have not seen it, but looking at ratings on MAL and AniList, it has been extremely well received. Hope you enjoy!