I don’t even know if I can say what it is, but Frieren justs hits differently than near anything else I can think of. It just yanks you from sweet and peaceful to dark and intense and back like it’s no thing.

The biggest thing I could say, is that by following Freiren’s perspective, you see what it would be like to be someone near immortal who sees that as normal, and how she starts to understand the timescale of humanity like we’re funny little mayflies with lifespans like a flash in the pan. But as she takes the time to actually get to know humans, she learns that our short lives give us a strengths that elves and demons will never be able to grasp.

It’s a slice of life and a fighting show in one. Characters and the world get really fleshed out, and they feel a lot more like real people. It’s a good balance been cute and fun and some killer battles or competitions. I’d think most people would get hooked right from the first episode, but it really gets to full awesomeness during Ep 3.

I can’t get enough Anya Forger, of course. Those facial expressions! 🥰

Plus she’s so fun, derpy, has a power that is way too OP for her, yet she still manages to help everyone else save the day. And her relationship with Becky, Bond, and Damian are all so adorable as well. I enjoy every moment she’s on the page/screen.

Tama, (O-tama) the dumpling girls from One Piece has also left a mark after catching up with the anime. She’s so innocent, yet brave through so many scary situations, and I liked how she made real friends with the giant beasts of Wano and actually made friends with some of the former Beast Pirates, especially Speed/Horselina.

All the girls from Tomo-chan is a Girl, Do It Yourself, Yuru Camp, Super Cub, and Diary of our Days at the Breakwater I remember loving as well.

So elegant!

Anyone have an easy migration tool they recommend if we want to move/backup our lists to somewhere else?

Is AniList the best similar tracker?

EDIT: All set up on AniList now. Thank you for the help.

Other than Grave of the Fireflies, some others I never see mentioned are Saikano and In This Corner of the World.

There is some good stuff coming up. There is a hostage standoff, Loid’s tragic backstory, and I thought the recent backstory of the school’s teachers was very touching.

I enjoy the family stuff as much as the spy/assassin parts and I liked the movie as it had a good amount of both.

If you want something similar but more action focused, Sakamoto Days anime is starting next month. Perhaps check that out then.

I really enjoyed season 2. I was looking forward to the arc that’s the second half since it came out in the manga.

If you like the show in general, you should enjoy the movie just as much.

Watched Spy X Family: Code White the other night, and was very pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting much, and went in mostly blind other than knowing it wasn’t based on manga content.

Animation looked great, and for a plotline that centered around the family going out for dessert, it turned out to be a very compelling story. It fit in perfectly with the regular anime/manga, and you could watch it wherever you’re at in the series without being lost or it feeling out of place. All 3 MCs got a good amount of story time as well, and a lot of side characters had appearances, so it’s not just an Anya story or Loid, etc.

If you haven’t seen it, but enjoy the show, give it a watch. It was a lot of fun!

I liked them playing a bit with the animation styles in some of the reaction shots. The show feels old and new at the same time, which I’m enjoying.

The animation seemed somewhat improved from last week. I still feel this should have gotten 2 or 3 more episodes, as none of the tension has much time to build before we see the climatic moments.

I’ve been reading Ito’s other works, and I feel a lot is predictable in many of the tales, not necessarily that you always know what’s going to happen and certainly not what it will look like, but more a 1) meet nice character(s), 2) meet the obvious creeper, 3) nice characters discuss the creeper and say nah, they can’t be as creepy as they seem, 4) your anxiety rises as you wait for the reveal, 5) Lovecraftian horror is revealed, 6) the end.

Step 4 is the one that sucks you in, even if it’s formulaic. It gets you invested in what’s going to happen. Without that time for the creepiness to bloom, it just feels like you’re working through the checklist.

I feel there’s some old comment about the CSI type shows where it’s always suspect number 3. You get introduced to some possible people, but if they always went to the first guy and they’re all oh yeah, this is the killer, the end, what’s the point? That’s what this adaptation has felt like to me.

I love a lot of Ito’s ideas, and the art style is great for his stories, but I feel most of the narrative is just there to string the creepy drawings together. I’m cool with that. But with the anime, you’re just on to the next scene before you get time to get creeped by what you just saw.

This was pretty rough. I was already iffy on the first episode, and this episode felt even more rushed and disjointed. It jumps around so much I feel there’s no building that sense of dread.

Not too much up my alley this season, so I watched Shikanoko and Plus Sized Elf.

I have one episode left of Shikanoko. It was unique, and fun for what it is. The songs were great. I enjoyed the antagonism of the whole thing. Would I watch another season? Not sure, but I don’t regret watching this one.

Two episodes of Plus Sized Elf left, but I’ve read the manga. Read it and watched it mainly to see what they’d do with it. At first, it seemed like they were going to actually put more health and fitness stuff in it, but it really fell back to drawn out scenes of slapstick nudity. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but I feel they could have done more with it. Also, many potato puns weren’t translated, so most will miss out on half the jokes. The translation I read had them all, and they were one of my favorite parts.

I will say, I really enjoyed the cast though. They all made the characters as likeable as they were in my head reading the manga. If you’re checking it out more for the curiosity than the nudity, it really isn’t terrible.

Somewhat off topic, but this season being light for me had me repeatedly going back to Delicious in Dungeon even though I was not really enjoying it. The characters were likeable again, but it felt pointless to me watching people eat fake food, though some monsters were really creative. I kept hearing wait until they get back to the red dragon, so I persisted.

Holy heck, did this show flip a switch to awesomeness! The back half of the season was great and I was left wanting more. The plot twists and the surprising backgrounds of the characters and new characters really made things come alive and give a much deeper sense of urgency and delivered much more than the episodic snack of the week format was doing for me.

If I had anything else even remotely exciting, I would not have stuck it out that long.

Looking forward to see what they do with Uzumaki and Ranma. Also see they have a Gintama special movie thing of the Kintama arc coming out, so that should be fun as well.

I haven’t read the manga, which my understanding is what the reboot was following. I watched it now out of curiosity, due to the original anime being one of my main gateways to anime as a whole.

If I hadn’t seen the original multiple times, I probably would have been lost at multiple points in the reboot. Characters seemed to pop up out of nowhere for unknown reasons.

My girlfriend had never seen the original, and she originally wasn’t paying attention as I watched this on my own, but after a few episodes she got pulled into it as well, so it seemed to make enough sense to someone unfamiliar that they’d at least be curious.

I enjoyed it mainly because it got me to think so many new things about one of my early favorite anime universes. It filled in a few gaps I had, such as I liked how we got to spend more time with Project Seeds and learned more about the Plants species and Knives’ overall goals.

It made my list because it exceeded my expectations as I was not looking forward to CGI animation and I was concerned about them “ruining” the story I had in my head, but the animation was beautiful, VA was great, and I think about the universe of the story more than I have in years.

It’s totally subjective what anyone else will take away, but everything else on the list I went into blind, with no expectations. Trigun I came into very biased due to my love for the original, and expected eww to meh, but as a whole, it gave me a great time.

• Supercub
• Cestvs
• Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated
• Aharen Is Indecipherable
• The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting
• Do It Yourself
• Tomo-chan Is a Girl
• Trigun Stampede
• Insomniacs After School (read it but havent watched the anime)
• Love/Hate: Farming Life in Another World
  I’ll agree with OP on Summertime Render and Days at the Breakwater as well!

.

If we’re counting continued in the 20s:

• Golden Kamuy
• Ancient Magus Bride . .

I saw you had all the Trigun stuff, but not the recent reboot, Trigun Stampede.

Aharen is Indecipherable and Tomo-chan is a Girl are fun RomCom shows.

Golden Kamuy isn’t on your list, but it’s one of my all time favorites that I’ll always recommend.

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Finished up Isekai Suicide Squad. Overall, I’m glad I stuck it out with this show through my general malaise, as I don’t think I would have came back to it, but the last couple episodes were pretty great with a lot of cool fights and some hilarious surprises.

The big bad having shrimp cocktail horns was still a bit distracting, but we weren’t supposed to like her anyway. There was a big twist ending that sets up a season 2, and is check that out. The series as a whole may be worth a rewatch for me when I’m in a more receptive mood.

Gave the Rick and Morty Anime a go out of morbid curiosity. I have no idea what the hell I watched. It was just odd in general, and it felt like some kind of prank on the fans.

Rewatched a few more Gintama episodes, and those were still great. It was the handful were Kagura’s Dad came to try to take her back home, and the ones where Sadaharu got massive. Also the Dom Peri contest with the hostess club. Odd Jobs and friends can still get me laughing consistently!

I was happy to hear Sakamoto Days is getting a show. I felt they would get one due to having a similar vibe with SpyxFamily and a bit of MHA/JJK.

Oh cool, I was wondering if this was going to get its own anime.

I picked up the manga after seeing it on the popular reading list. At first it seemed like a Spy x Family clone, but it has become its own thing. It is more like someone had all the characters from SxF, but wanted to make a series more like MHA or JJK. There’s more emphasis on the fights and special superhuman skills of the assassins, there’s assassin school, all kinds of crazy weapons and gear, but still a good bit of silliness. There’s some solid characters, good and bad, and a few good family moments.

With a lot of familiar elements but its own twist on them, it seemed like a good time for this to be picked up.

Elf is better as half-length episodes

Agreed. It’s cute and goofy, but nothing really goes anywhere. It’s the classic sitcom formula where everything ends up back where it started every time, there’s no real plot, it’s just a bunch of jokes, and I just like watching everyone pick on each other.

Apothecary Diaries is on my list so I may have to check that out. The others sound like solid recommendations also.

My gf didn’t seem to get the humor of the old Trigun series. She did get interested in the new one after being in the room with me watching a few eps of that. I was very leary about the remake as the original is one of the first animes I got really into.

I’ve been watching some older 90s movies and revisiting early Gintama again a bit, and it’s been a nice break. I’ve played a bit with emulators recently too. I put Lemuroid on my phone and have been doing a little Tetris and Link’s Awakening. I figured out how to pair a PS4 controller, so maybe I should start bringing that with me. Being able to save anywhere takes out a lot of frustration for me.

I still look forward to the weekly check in here though. I’m surprised the anime scene here is as quiet as it is, so I like to participate to help keep what we do have going. I appreciate all the work you put in here!

I should clarify… I myself do not get the puns, moreso they are quickly searchable, unlike things like puns about kanji or cultural references.

If you’re able to figure them out on your own, you’re well ahead of me! 😁