I was letting the AI do all the work in my NG+ playthrough of Super Robot Wars Y, so I had a lot of time in recent weeks to actually watch these shows as opposed to just listening to the dub in the background.
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
I’ve seen three episodes. I didn’t go into this show completely blind. Like a lot of people, I’ve seen a few pages from the manga floating around social media. In small doses, they seemed amusing. But even back then, It was difficult to imagine how you could spin a few depressing, cynical jokes into a full blown series. Watching the anime confirms that suspicion. The show just isn’t as consistently funny as it needs to be. I might smile once or twice during an episode, but it hasn’t elicited an actual laugh just yet. Maybe in a shorts format, Uramichi could’ve worked, but not 13 standard length episodes.
86
I’m through five episodes. So far, it looks like a lot of care and effort went into this series. At the same time, however, the story feels like it’ll have more than its fair share of heart-wrenching moments, so I find it hard to binge. Listening to a dying soldier begging his comrade not to forget him is not exactly what I’m looking for while grinding in JRPGs. Kinda ruins the mood a bit, y’know? The Final Fantasy Tactics remaster is coming out soon, and fighting back tears is the last thing I need when trying to unlock teleport. And yet, the show is almost too quality to ignore.
My biggest complaint so far is that the sound mixing is terrible. At least for the dub that I’m watching. The dialogue is incredibly quiet, so I turn the volume up to hear it. Then the action comes roaring in and blasts my eardrums out. It doesn’t help that I have trouble sleeping, so I’m often binging these shows after midnight.
As an aside, I haven’t spoiled myself on anything except the cat. I needed to know if it was still alive in the future. I ain’t putting in all that effort into watching the show if the cat dies.
Jujutsu Kaisen
I watched two episodes. Meh. That’s all I’ve got so far. I know another season is coming up, so I’m trying to see if I can vibe with the show. At the moment, I’m leaning towards no, but I need to watch a few more episodes to confirm this gut feeling.
The Apothecary Diaries
I finally finished the first season, and my interest honestly waned towards the end. Unfortunately, I just like crime investigations, so maybe I should be watching a mystery instead. When Maomao is investigating why and how someone died, I’m there 100%. I listen to every spoken word. All the intrigue with the concubines, however, bore me to tears. All the family drama with Lakan and her mother? Equally dull. The internal politics of the court? So not my jam. As a result, I wonder if I should push onwards into season two.
It also doesn’t help that I’m not buying into the romance. I felt nothing when Jinshi princess carried Maomao at the end of the season finale. I’m not rooting for them as a couple mostly because, well, I think Jinshi is unappealing. I get why he can’t be direct about his feelings, because he’s hiding his identity as well as the fact that he’s not a eunuch. But all the clinginess and jealousy are huge turn-offs. Would his behavior fly if he wasn’t so attractive?
The Dangers in My Heart
I did try to watch this show (I think) earlier this year. I initially stopped because I didn’t like Kyotaro’s personality (yes, I know he mellows out afterwards). What drove me to come crawling back? Well, I was looking through Hidive’s catalogue recently. I wanted to find anything to watch if only because I was paying for the subscription, so I may as well squeeze some value out of it. Sunk cost and all that. I already saw Insomniacs After School. Loved it. The Eminence in Shadow? I think I watched/listened to half a season just to realize I was absorbing none of it. I had no clue what the story was about other than the protagonist having a bunch of devoted followers. I’ve already seen both seasons of Oshi no Ko. Not a fan. I wanted a thriller. Instead, I got boring shit about doing a stage adaptation of a manga. Chained Soldier? If I need titillation, I’ll just go look at porn. I was seriously racking my brain over what to watch on Hidive. As a result, I figured I’d give this show another shot. I think I’m up to episode eight now? I like Hidive’s video player in general, but it doesn’t do a very good job of keeping track of where I last left off.
Maybe if I saw this show before every other recent romance series, I’d be more into it. Unfortunately, however, it suffers from the fatigue I have towards awkward male characters in general. They’re in my anime, they’re in my movies, they’re in my books, they’re everywhere. I’m sick and tired of seeing poorly socialized boys stumble through even the most basic social interactions. A person should not be expected to sit through multiple “Is she actually waiting for me? No way!” scenarios in a single lifetime. The fact that I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this exact situation is beyond the pale.
There, is, however, an interesting moment about midway through the first season. Kyotaro realizes that he can no longer stand it when other boys ogle Anna, but he doesn’t understand why his stance has changed. Well, duh. You’ve spent time with her, so you see her as a person and not just an object. But that doesn’t stop him from still ogling her every now and then. Is he a hypocrite? A little. But we’re only human. What we do, however, is try to have some self-awareness. When we do fumble, we quickly correct ourselves and look for ways to prevent it from happening again.
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
Just something stupid and light-hearted to mindlessly consume. 86, Demon Slayer, and to some extent, even The Apothecary Diaries can be heavy on the feels. I wanted Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan to cheer me up, but its humor is too inconsistent. On the other hand, watching Clara try her damndest to be sexy and completely failing is actually kinda amusing.
Frieren
This technically isn’t on my backlog, but I felt like including it anyway. I’ve already seen the entirety of Frieren, but I found myself watching the first few episodes again for no particular reason. Before I knew it, I had binged through everything but the mage certification arc. It’s such a great show… until it’s not. I would put the first eighteen or so episodes against almost any other anime. They’re that good. I just hope when season two eventually comes out, we’ll get more heartfelt reflection and contemplation, and less pew pew action elf. “Well y’see, Frieren is a great mage, but her weakness is that she can’t sense mana when she’s in the middle of–…” Ugh, just kill me. Wake me up when they stop droning on and on about how magic works. I literally do not care. All the silly spells like the breakdancing rock golem are a billion times more interesting to me than anything destructive.
Also, the idea that demons have intelligence, but they’re all irredeemably evil kinda bugs me.
Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary
There are a lot of feel good couples to choose from, e.g. Momo and Okarun from Dandadan (barring that cliffhanger in the season finale), Marin and Gojo from My Dress-Up Darling, etc. But for me, the most interesting couple in 2025 has to be the duo from this show. The guy is relatively harmless if somewhat inept at reading the room sometimes (yay awkward boys!). But the girl might actually be the scariest girlfriend you could ever hook up with (not that you’ll be doing any actual “hooking up”). Certainly, consent is crucial to every relationship. But I’ve never seen a fictional character respond to an unwanted kiss by spending the next few episodes meticulously planning the utter destruction of their significant other’s ego. Damn, girl, just break up with him. Anyway, I might write more about this series.
Just one final note: I kinda stopped watching Demon Slayer for now. When I last left off, the boys and Nezuko need to hitch a ride on a train, but I haven’t found myself in the mood for a whole ass movie.
