I have a weakness for kindhearted Gal-Girls, so this is the romance show for me this season.

and the fascination with the magic system (B to A+, depending on how well it explains advanced magic).

It’s widely considered one of the best magic systems in all media on par or above with Sanderson’s Mistborn series.

After first ep.: Exceptional adaptation. They did the same thing that Frieren did, where they added so much “between the panels” to elevate the source.

edit after ep 2.: episode 2 was closer to the source since there was more material there that needed less anime original padding. They still managed to give the characters so much personality. I especially love how they managed to translate the manga’s insanely beautiful art panels into animation.

<The Tiny Witch from the Deep Woods> Volume 3 - this time there is a plague, and Siasha is the first time confronted with something she can’t solve herself. Good volume that deals with her having to come to terms with not being able to save everyone.

<Witch and Mercenary> Vol. 6 Part 1 - Another volume of ‘Mercenary and Occasionally Mentioned Witch’. It has a nice and interesting cliffhanger for part 2 though.

<The Fearsome Witch Teaches in Another World: Pay Attention in Class!> Volume 2 - MC visits another country and continues to stunlock everyone with her OP-ness. I hope the next volume will introduce a new mechanic since this is starting to run a bit thin already.

<Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want!> Volume 12 - Another great volume and great conclusion to the arc that started in the last volume.

Interesting comment by the creator:

As a result of pouring absolutely everything from the thirty years I’ve been alive into this project, every last element, from self-harm to drugs, religion, and sex—got flagged during the review process. Each time it happened, the anime staff worked hard to keep the vision intact, insisting: “We absolutely don’t want to let fear of regulation ruin what makes this work compelling,” and they kept pushing. Thanks to that, the NEEDY anime has been coming together in an almost undiluted, straight-from-the-bottle form. Seeing the staff’s passion and depth of understanding, and how strongly they believed that “the concept of NEEDY GIRL has a reason to exist in this world,” and that “there are certain expressions only this work can depict," I’m now fully certain of this project’s value.

When the voice actors performed the scripts I’d written so nakedly and frankly, there were moments when someone, fully immersed, would start crying. In that instant, I realized it: what this work is depicting, in the end, is “human beings.” A lot of people have discussed NEEDY with “the internet” at the center of it all.

As for me, I’m proud to say I wrote out, in the original game, both the sweetness and the bitterness of the internet as I’ve seen it from childhood to the present. And because this is an anime born from that kind of work, of course we have to ask ourselves: “What was the internet, anyway?” Even the title of the new song I made with my friends this time is “INTERNET ANGEL”. After releasing the game, the huge reaction to it connected me, too, to an unspecified multitude across the world. And I was insulted at times, had admiration hurled at me at times, was loved at times, attacked at times. Who on earth are these faceless people? Trends, oshis, faith, sneering cynicism, call-outs and pile-ons, outrage fires, consumption, algorithms, SNS, love and hate, influencers, pop, culture, criticism, subculture, mainstream, illustration, animation.

My conclusion was: “human beings.”

The true nature of the internet is nothing special. It’s simply “a gathering of human beings.” It isn’t anonymity, and it isn’t AI.

Everything there is a collection of individuals: First there are people, and then there is the internet.

At the end of a long history, humanity finally took a small rectangle into its hands and connected, at light speed, with people all over the world. Faced with the first great transformation in human history, many people are tormented by both its merits and its harms. Now, people fear that excessive power so much that smartphones and SNS are being regulated around the world.

That overwhelming electromagnetic field, too, is “human beings.”

Picking at a single word to nail a celebrity to a cross and burn them for it, or elevating a nameless girl—wrapped in two-dimensional aesthetics as she broadcasts her feelings—into an idol to be worshiped… all of it is done by individual human beings, one by one.

The internet’s true nature was human beings.

And so, at the turning point of my mid-life, I had to depict across thirteen episodes everything I’ve experienced of “the truth, the goodness, and the beauty human beings possess,” and in doing so, sublimate that strange youth I spent together with an unspecified multitude across the world into the comprehensive art form called animation.

That comes with immense pain. It also means we can’t avoid including extreme, blunt expressions, and I’m sure countless opinions will fly back and forth. I think that, too, is proof that you are human. When the Taroman film ended on the caption “Taro

Okamoto: Human,” I was overwhelmed, thinking: yes. Exactly this.

Me, and you—we’re not anonymity. We’re not anime icons. We’re not creators, or lurkers, or streamers, or scalpers, or fans, or antis, or Toshiaki, or Nanashi-san.

We are human beings who feel pain.

nyalra

Source

Another one with that old school aesthetic this season.

After the backlash of the last season I didn’t think they would have the balls to do another meeting episode. At some point you have to start respecting this complete disregard of the viewers feedback.

This was something. An anime even. Very creative cinematography but I have absolutely no idea where this is going. My daughter told me that this is probably more aimed at people that have played the game but I had problems following the disjointed episodes even with her telling me what what was and which character did what in the game. Seem to be also very dark since apparently most people get a suicide ending by default. I don’t think this is something for me.

That ice flower scene at the end was beautiful. I’m really interested in the world building here. I found Hinagiku a bit too emotional manipulative for my taste (in how the character was tailored to be laser focussed on invoking the viewers protective instincts) but this episode was great.

Very funny. Made me laugh a couple times.

Finally the show gets the animation quality it deserves. But they are skipping so much that it hurts. By this pace I expect they want to go through the entirety of part 3 in this two cours. A shame really but better than nothing I guess.

Once I’ve got over the second hand cringe it was actually quite funny. It has potential but I’m not sure it will keep my interest over the span of the season.

After the first episode I have no idea where this is going. So far though I didn’t see anything compelling.

Oh the edge… MC is literally cutting himself.

BAU BAU!!!

It’s only been what? 2000 years? Let them cook.

I hope this will be as absurdly over the top as Maid Wars.

Good first episode. You can definitely see Akatsuki’s brand of emotional manipulation at work, but just like in VE it works instead of pissing me off.

Looking forward to the rest of the show.

Exceptional show. Definitely one of those very rare examples of a show that will stay with me and that I will think about in random moments for years to come.

and the character interactions were unlike any others I’ve seen in anime

Check out a show called The Great Passage (Fune wo Amu). No teenage angst in this, but it has similar vibes.

ps: happy cake day.