I agree with all points, each of these characters has been fleshed out enough that it’s simple enough to know that Kazuma would take one bad death and instantly NEET himself into a hole as fast as possible… and if anything would somehow get himself in a death softlock where he likely couldn’t progress… but if the story was written in a way where Kazuma was the main protagonist and the various needs to get him moving were placed before him, I believe it’d be many times more enjoyable to watch than the understandably determined Subaru.

If Kazuma wasn’t able to hole up and was plot railroaded on like it sometimes seems Subaru is, I think he’d figure out the best (quick/painless) ways to reset himself and generally move things along at a better clip.

More importantly than that though, his understanding of the death system would lead to WAAAAAAY worse checkpoints. He’s not the kind of guy to act with any care given to consequences when he knows that death is a quick reset away from whatever he does. The actual timeline for Kazuma would be cursed to the point that his actions assuming no consequences would probably be the thing to get him softlocked in a horrible ending of constant death.

I had this conversation with a friend last weekend about how I’d enjoy the show multitudes more if Kazuma of konosuba and Subaru switched places. Not saying Subaru isn’t protagonist material, but saying that growth for him is slow doesn’t begin to describe it.

And for all of Kazuma’s faults, he’s nothing if not a clever schemer.

It is the clear winner this season.

The other podium winners are continuations with large fan bases… Out of this list though, I’m only watching 2 of them.

Though I suppose technically I’ve already watched ranma.

It definitely set out and met what it was attempting to do. I can’t fault it for that. Watching it one episode spaced a week apart it is a glorious reboot. They definitely did more work on the world building aspects. It feels much more like a place that is alive more than the original which was more or less just barren wastes unless plot device.

I tried to split my list genres so there’d be a bit of everything, but I definitely agree with most of yours. My only gripe is trigun.

I understand how they took the source material and completely warped it to attempt to fit a new story and give it a whole new life of its own, and minute to minute the show is fine, it’s when you look at the whole story being told at once that things start falling apart and giant plot holes start showing up. Particularly in the first half of the season. The makers wanted a spectacle more than anything else and they delivered on that.

It was one I watched all the way through to see if they ever managed to even it out… They didn’t. The pacing was terrible, the plot was worse, and the animation was somehow even worse than that. I think most ps1 games had smoother animations for their 3d models.

considering it’s on three different peoples suggested so far, I daresay it’s likely worth a watch.

I generally watch the first episode of every new anime (and have been since the beginning of 2020)… The Vtuber one didn’t especially catch me in that time, but it’s not the first to slip through the cracks. I’ll give it another go.

I’ve only seen oddtaxi from your list. I look forward to checking out the others.

As for worst… I have one in mind but the name escapes me at this very moment. Oh right. Gibiate.