Yeah, watching all these shows makes me wanna scream out in despair as well.
Dimension High School Ep. 1
The sillier a show tries to be, the more boring it becomes. A talking rock turns a bunch of guys into poorly-animated anime characters. A Sphinx then challenges our heroes to a battle of wits. What for? For the sake of the world, of course. Zany, right? Nah. Just dull as hell. Each and every single character is over-acting on purpose, because for some reason, they mistake this for humor. I don’t give a shit about the riddles, and there’s barely even a story here. Needless to say, I’m not going to bother watching another episode.
P.S. No wonder we all want to be anime. Our “hot boys” are actually goofy-looking in real life.
Egao no Daika Ep. 2
It turns out wars are messy. Who woulda thunk it? In fact, people even die in wars — people who are important to us! But I think maybe that’s the problem that I have with the “sudden twist” in this week’s episode. First, I guess it qualifies as a twist. After last week’s episode, I had a feeling that something bad might happen, but I’d be lying if I said I knew for sure that Joshua would bite it. Second, we’ve seen anime characters survive much, much worse. But to be fair, reality isn’t anime, and getting your stomach punctured is pretty bad. Pretty, pretty bad. Last — and this is perhaps my biggest quibble — don’t you feel as though they killed him off a little too fast? His death is a surprise to be sure… but it isn’t a punch-to-the-gut surprise. I hardly know this guy nor Yuki, so I can’t help but just kinda shrug. I don’t think “Well, in war, that’s wut happens!” is the emotion that the show wants us to feel. Rather, I think we’re supposed to feel devastated for the princess. But if I’m gonna be honest, once the dust settled, I was like, “Eh… ooh, we finally get to meet Stella!”
Oh man, you wanna know what would be really cool, though? If Joshua’s death is a hoax. Imagine if the military knows that it’s dealing with a soft-hearted, peace-loving princess, so they’ve conspired to break her heart in order to have her go all-in on the war effort. How messed up would that be? No, I don’t actually think the story would go that far (Joshua would never agree to it), but I dunno… I think that’d actually be one helluva twist.
Endro Ep. 1
Within the first four minutes of the episode, Yusha and her party/friends have already managed to defeat the Demon Lord. Roll credits.
Show’s over, right? Nah, it turns out they screwed up and ended up sending the Demon Lord into the past. The Demon Lord now has the perfect plan to defeat his mortal enemy: become her teacher at Adventure School and expel her. That’s… kind of a clever premise, isn’t it? I know this is a comedy, but this might be amusing. Unfortunately, the fun stops here. For all the stupid things to happen, our Demon Lord got turned into a bog standard anime loli:
Kinda looks like a mini-Satania, actually. And even though Mao (the Demon Lord’s new name) still intends on expelling Yusha, I can already imagine our heroine and her friends eventually winning Mao over with the power of anime friendship. What a shame. No amount of jokes at the expense of JRPG tropes will probably be enough to salvage this anime.
Grimms Notes The Animation Ep. 1
Kinda boring. In Grimms Notes, fairy tales are meant to play out the same way over and over and over. For example, one child becomes Red Riding Hood, so she goes and visits her grandmother, gets eaten by the big, bad wolf, and is finally saved by the brave hunter. Afterwards, another girl becomes Red Riding Hood, and the story just repeats itself… forever? Until the end of time? Is this really a life worth living? Anyways, all we’re told for now is that “Chaos Tellers” are going from stories to stories, twisting them with evil intent. So instead of the big, bad wolf being the bad guy, it’s actually Red Riding Hood this time. Kinda. We’ve given the classic fairy tale a small twist, and it’s that the little girl is scared of losing her mother. She’s afraid that her mother will marry the brave hunter and abandon her. And as a result of her insecurities, this allows one of the evil Chaos Tellers to possess her. Alright, you can already predict how this is going to work. Our heroes go from fairy tale to fairy tale, learn what they’re all about, discover the twist, then beat the bad guy. Rinse and repeat. Sprinkle in some generic JRPG baddies and there you have it. It’s not a good start when your story is formulaic right from the get-go.
The only slightly eyebrow-raising thing about Grimms Note is the gender-swapping. The main character is a guy by the name of Ex, but in order for him to jump into battle, he has undergo a magical transformation that turns him into Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She (he?) then proceeds to fight with a rapier where the guard is actually a teacup. Likewise, a girl on the team magically transforms into Robin Hood. This gimmick isn’t enough to save the show, but I guess it’s kinda quirky?
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka Ep. 1
Our heroine Asuka wants to get out of the mahou shoujo game, because cute monsters literally chopped up her parents and delivered their body parts to her in boxes. When she sees a harmless mascot in the streets, she can’t help but get triggered. It’s like the show simultaneously wants me to take it seriously and not seriously.
This is why I never bought into the whole “being a magical girl is nothing but pain and suffering” nonsense. Oooh, we’re so clever by turning a genre on its head and just injecting sadness into your brain. You think you’re just going to fight cute monsters?
We also have terrorists!
And more body parts stuffed in boxes!
A woman in a mini-bikini for some reason!
C’mon, this is embarrassing. At this rate, the show’s going to cut itself on its own edge.
W’z Ep. 2
It seems more and more like W’z is a bit too attached to its predecessor Hand Shakers. After escaping from the Ziggurat with Haruka, Yukiya bumps into Koyori the very next day. Who’s Koyori? Beats me, but I’m told that she’s the heroine from Hand Shakers. Where is her partner, a.k.a. the hero of the last series? Shrug. Koyori used to be able to enter the Ziggurat, but no more. So instead, she hopes that Yukiya can help her. Her big sister and some guy are still missing in the alternate dimension, and Koyori wishes to see them again one day. Ah, therein lies the problem. Since I never watched Hand Shakers, I have no clue if this Nagaoka and Mayumi-nee are even worth saving. Afterwards, Haruka teases Yukiya for having a crush on Koyori, which is just bad news. I mean, if W’z takes place ten years after Hand Shakers, the woman would have to be in her mid-20s, right? She’s probably with the hero from the previous series, right? So good luck with that, kid.
Plot-wise, we still don’t know much. People want to steal Yukiya’s ability, because he can enter the Ziggurat as he pleases. That’s, uh, about it, really.
Quick & Dirty Weekly Rankings (That You Should Totally Take Seriously)
- Mob Psycho 100
- Dororo
- Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai
- Yakusoku no Neverland
- Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
- Go-toubun no Hanayome
- Domestic na Kanojo
- Kemurikusa
- Egao no Daika
- Boogiepop wa Warawanai
- Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Girly Air Force
- Endro
- Sword Art Online – Alicization
- W’z
- Meiji Tokyo Renka
- Doukyonin wa Hiza Tokidoki Atama no Ue.
- Grimms Notes The Animation
- Ueno-san wa Bukiyou
- Dimension High School
Moe Sucks 
Ever since Madoka, the so called “deconstruction” of mahou shoujo genre has become somewhat the norm now. I am honestly sick of them, even though unlike you, I quite like Mahouka. I find it kinda disgusting that most of them overuse violent, gore or disgusting stuff to try to be “smart” and turn their nose up at older mahou shoujo manga/anime. It’s just like the trend in comic during the 80/90, when comic writer tried to be mature by become dark and edgy on a very surficial level. Mahou Shoujo Site, Selector something WIXXOS or whaterver…they have nothing in mind but “tortured little girls are hot now”, they’re disgusting and exploitative in my opinion.
What’s wrong with older mahou shoujo, I must ask, that so many writer, especially those who aimed at elder male demographic kinda look down and mock them? Mahou shoujo is a genre mostly for young girls and sometimes boys. They teach the children about friendship, about good triumphs over evil, about bravery, about working hard to make the world better place. What’s wrong with it?
Sorry for the long rant. I guess I just want to say, I am very, very sick of the genre, and I am waiting for it to pass.
Mahouka or Madoka?
Dear god, Madoka. The lack of sleep due to overwork is affecting my brain.
I figured, but I thought it was funny.
Asuka — Seems like another reconstruction that thinks it’s a deconstruction. None of these shows will ever be Madoka, no matter how much gore and depression they shoehorn in.
Grimm — I actually like the theme, and the music was pretty good. Execution was awful though. Talk -> Talk -> Talk -> Fight. And those ‘yell out my attack name’ animations are pure cringe. Would be more compelling if they were going around freeing the people from the endless cycle instead of maintaining it, as if it was supposed to be a good thing. Burn those stupid books.
Egao no Daika — I’m hopeful that Josh’s death will have a meaningful impact, but for now I’m chalking it up to a summoning ritual upon the altar of the edgybois — that shadowy segment of the viewership that heaps full-throated endorsements upon any show that makes a blood sacrifice within the first 3 episodes.
Why are the Empire and Kingdom fighting in the first place? Neither side has resources. This solves nothing. Clearly they should be cooperating to advance agricultural tech instead. This war seems exceptionally silly, unless there’s some grimdark, genocidal ‘less mouths to feed’ policy at play behind the scenes.
They’ll soon be replaced by people praising anything with yuri elements, real or imagined.
The thing about a lot of Madoka’s appeal at least for me and from what I’ve seen(aside from cute girls) was easing you into the atmosphere and setting, getting the audience a little attached to the first characters before introducing the tragedy, and even then it wasn’t a constant parade of gore, torture or rape like some of the series blatantly inspired by it. And madoka isn’t the first to address dark themes with magical girls(and too many think this only involves painful death). It reminds me of how a lot of evangelion clones missed parts of it’s mass appeal and zeroed in on aspects that ended up making them forgettable instead.
I think the premise of Grimm is interesting until it revealed it’s just about keeping people’s lives in an endless cycle of absurd, rigid plots. The villains are already sympathetic. It is cool the show doesn’t make a big joke/fetishistic deal of the guy becoming a magical girl like some others.
And where is wataten?
21 shows, huh. Not your best effort, ha! I salute it nonetheless good sir.
My ranking:
1. Mob Psycho
2. Neverland
3. Dororo
4. Kaguya
5. Boogiepop
6. Domestic Girlfriend
7. Shield Hero
A lot of online outrage over that last one, which I thought was over-the-top. They’re probably upset about the false rape accusation. I personally found the MC’s unabashed assholery mildly amusing, so any stupid shit to try justify that was fine in my book. Pretty boring episode though, not sure the show will hold my attention long term.
Mob is such a lovable little dude, but he has a lot of growing up to do. I’m glad I gave this show a chance, One Punch Man put me off it for too long.
1-4 I’ll likely keep watching to the end. What about you?
Nothing that I flat-out love. Just stuff that has potential.
Shield Hero being another dirty slave owner is worse than a false rape accusation.
>”I guess this is why everyone wants to be anime”
And haven’t you also noticed a massive increase in random genderswaps in anime? I think it’s from so many otaku watching the anime girls living romanticized perfect lives for so long that it became their ideal, and they want to become them, or to at least self-insert as the anime girl. I even think it has made some people question in real life what gender they want, therefore anime is probably making Zoomers progressive.
I haven’t gotten a lot of these yet! I’ll have to check!