It was nice to see Alicia actually acting like an antagonist.

Also the timing at the end got a laugh from me:

“No, Alicia said all that for my benefit.”

😮 … 😟 … 😠 “Alicia Williams!”

Knowing what I know about why the emperor’s wife’s age is important, I can see that they’re trying to build it up into a mystery that we will slowly unravel, but without that knowledge it definitely seems like just a running gag

I have no knowledge outside what’s been shown in the episodes, but I think it’s fairly obvious that the age is some specific condition from his curse (or similar thing). At the same time, the age gap is definitely pandering to a specific audience. The author knows exactly what they’re doing, it doesn’t matter if there is some in-story pretense. For better or worse, this is the story they wanted to tell.

Jill did establish that their relationship should be platonic, which is nice. Hopefully that’s not just a front. The fact that the Jill is mentally older does help make it a little less gross (but at the same time, it feels like the author is trying to make an excuse for degeneracy).

Huh, I set my expectations pretty low after the first episode, but this episode was interesting. The emperor is hiding some aspect of his curse, which sets up some intrigue that probably isn’t going to be resolved right away.

I wasn’t expecting the FMC to be able to throw a ship. This show seems like it’s going to be a FMC power fantasy (both with physical power and intellectual prowess), which I think I’ll quite enjoy.

Yep, the age gap passes the realm of strange and lands in incredulous. I’m not actually sure how much older Duke is, 5 years? Most of the comments on MAL are saying that Duke is way out of line.

Episode 1 dropped heavy hints, so it’s not so surprising. Reincarnation romance is almost always going to be a little hairy, just not usually in this way.

Makeine is more like Alya in that they romantic comedies. Makeine is heavier on the comedy, with a heavy reliance on failed-romance to drive the comedy/plot forward. Alya has a more prominent non-romantic drama plot that runs alongside the romance/flirting. Both feed a bit into a basic male sexual fantasy (Alya more so, but episode 2 of Makeine had a pretty unnecessarily spicy scene).

Days with my Stepsister is more of a romance / coming-of-age story without much comedy and I feel like it doesn’t excessively feed into a sexual fantasy. There’s like 1 exception early-ish in the season, but even that kinda felt like the main purpose was to shake up the story, rather than getting the viewers horny.

but if you believe AC

Every time I see an AC ranking with shows I’ve watched I’m reminded that I shouldn’t trust AC.

An 86 minute start to the season. You gotta love it. There was a lot of setup, a half-dozen story threads started (or maybe a full-dozen), but they got to a very impactful scene at the end and left us with a good hook.

Absolute banger, highlight of the summer 2024 season.

I liked season 3’s talking around a table more than season 2’s talking around a table, for the most part.

But if things finally shake out in the next season, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Ossan Newbie Adventurer

I just binged this show on a whim and I had a great time. It’s rather generic and the animation was not great, but it was charming and funny. By the end I was invested and that last fight was a ride. Though I probably wouldn’t have liked it as much if I didn’t binge it.

Hmm, it’s not so clear to me what the obvious loophole is. There’s 2 reasonable loopholes that come to mind, but neither strike me as something that Akane would so viscerally react to. (This is not an invitation to explain, as that invites spoilers-camouflaged-as-theory.) The abstract visual does bias me slightly towards one explanation.

Also, the guy at the end… I almost laughed. Maybe that’s intentional, I can’t tell.

I just realized the title of the show is a play on Ningen Shikkaku 🤦.

I got a chuckle out of the middle one.

The middle one I could find somebody mention online before the episode came out, the other two don’t show up at all. So the middle one I think is from the LN, the other two might be anime original (or maybe just not funny enough to post online). I have a feeling these are just referencing LNs this time. The cover arts feel inspired as well.

• クラスの１軍女子に、赤スパ投げられてます！
• 借りた部屋にJKが付いてきたけど、食費が高くてもう限界です。
• 銀河皇帝の娘さんは、丁寧な暮らしを望んでいる。

4. Engage Kiss
5. Silent Witch
6. 86
7. WORKING!!
8. This one is apparently in the novel, so it’s probably not a direct reference to an A-1 anime.
9. Vividred Operation
10. Kaguya-sama
11. Persona
12. Watakoi

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2173684

There’s so much going on in this episode, lots of jokes. I liked the cafe scene with Yanami.

Ah, friends. Of course. Friends.

looks at the genres on MyAnimeList

Genres: Fantasy, Slice of Life

Little did I expect that this anime is about 2 asexual people becoming friends.

It was great to see he finally getting his moment, to see him pulling that move from the Tokyo Blade manga out of nowhere and making the crowd go wild.

It’s always nice to see the underdog succeed with hard work and dedication. And in this case, it’s an underdog story for a side-character that began back in the previous season, so it has more impact compared to if Melt was introduced for this arc.

If this was real, Melt’s sword kick & flip performance would be absolutely insane to watch, compared to his previous acting. I guess the show shows this with the Sweet Today’s author’s initial dumbfounded reaction.

I really like the mix and comedy and drama that this anime creates. Somehow the comedy punchlines to the drama scenes make the world feel more grounded.

The way Wolf resolved the situation with Emilia and Tobias, by inviting Dahlia out, felt strange and unnatural to me. Tit-for-tat, I suppose. It did show how Wolf was immediately able to see the twisted game that Emilia was playing and was also immediately able to resolve it, while still getting implicit consent from Dahlia in the process.

And then the follow-up scene where they both geek out about magic tools, establishing that their personalities match quite well.

Oof, the sentimental part at the end hit me. 🥲 Watching again, I think the animators did an excellent job of displaying the emotions here, despite feeling like the animation has a tight budget.

Also, is that meat-wrapped fruit that I spot? I know this is a fantasy world, but even fantasy has its limits… (Allegedly Italians eat melon wrapped with prosciutto, but I refuse to believe this.)

Note that some shows have had their episodes delayed/postponed due to the Olympic broadcasts happening. So, there might be more green on the chart this week than normal due to that.

Notably Wistoria’s Wand and Sword and My Hero Academia Season 7 were delayed. Additionally, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 2 just dropped from 5th to 24th. Altogether leaving 3 spots open in the top 10 this week.