Alright, you know the drill.

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Shows I’ll definitely cover

• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2
• You and I Are Polar Opposites

I enjoyed about 70% of Frieren, so yeah, I’ll watch the sequel. If anything, I know the anime will be gorgeous to behold. After all these decades, Madhouse is still at the top of their game. All I ask for is less action and more contemplation. Just as an example, I was glued to my seat as Fern tailed Frieren in episode three only to find out that her master had bought her a birthday gift. On the other hand, I was bored out of my mind as she and the rest of the exam takers tried to figure out a way to stop Frieren’s clone in episode… honesty, I can’t even remember. All I know is that this was when my attention started to ebb. Look, I can see a pretty light show anywhere. I don’t need that in this anime. And if it the second season luckily doesn’t disappoint, I can go back and rewatch it with the dub. I actually like Frieren’s English VA quite a bit, so hopefully, she gets the opportunity to reprise the role.

I’ve read and mildly enjoyed You And I Are Polar Opposite. I don’t have much faith in the studio doing this adaptation, but they can’t screw up the heroine’s gremlin faces, right?

Suzuki’s expressions just make me laugh.

Is Science SARU doing anything this season? Doesn’t look like it.

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Shows I’m leaning towards covering

• The Holy Grail of Eris
• In the Clear Moonlit Dusk
• Journal with Witch
• The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife
• Wash It All Away
• Tamon’s B-Side

As you might expect, I’m mostly interested in The Holy Grail of Eris for the mystery. It’s not often that the villainess actually gets killed off. It also helps that it isn’t an isekai.

No love triangles in my romance, please. I can’t name a single show that was made better by a love triangle (or a harem). All I want from In the Clear Moonlit Dusk are two characters (hopefully not jackasses) to slowly get to know each other. Similarly, Tamon’s B-Side‘s animation looks quality, but my biggest concern is that it turns into a reverse harem of sorts with the rest of the boy group.

At first glance, Journal with Witch and Wash It All Away both seem too slice-of-life-ish, but hopefully there’s some good character drama mixed in as well.

I bet the Invisible Man will be too embarrassed to even kiss his wife.

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Shows that don’t sound exciting at a glance, but I haven’t written them off completely

• Sentenced to Be a Hero
• ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess 2nd Season
• An Adventurer’s Daily Grind at Age 29
• DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR
• Dead Account
• Hana-Kimi
• Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary
• Kunon the Sorcerer Can See
• SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table
• The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!!
• Mushroom Witch
• The Case Book of Arne
• Scum of the Brave
• Ichigo Aika

Not sure if I’ll check out ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess 2nd Season. I would need to watch the first season, and it’s not dubbed. I might end up being too lazy to do it.

The mystery part of The Case Book of Arne interests me. The vampire part doesn’t.

I’m wary of any show that pairs a grown ass man with a high school girl, so I probably won’t like Scum of the Brave.

Actually, I dunno if Ichigo Aika belongs here or if I should write it off completely. I mean, the stepsis thing is kinda gross, but it’s not like they grew up together…

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Isekai slop

• A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation
• Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord
• Isekai Office Worker: The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter
• Noble Reincarnation: Born Blessed, So I’ll Obtain Ultimate Power
• There Was a Cute Girl in the Hero’s Party, So I Tried Confessing to Her
• Hell Mode
• Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling

A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation and Isekai Office Worker both sound unoffensive but dull.

This genre loves foisting brats with shrill voices on us. Between that and the protagonists being grossly overpowered, I don’t know what’s worse.

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Kicked out of the party slop

• Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None
• ROLL OVER AND DIE

To be fair, it’s usually a guy who gets kicked out of the party. ROLL OVER AND DIE might be somewhat novel if only because it’s a girl this time around. The word “somewhat” is doing some real heavy lifting. Anyway, the fact that she gets sold into slavery makes me cringe, but let’s hope the anime doesn’t try to be too edgy for its own good.

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(Sounds Like) Harem slop

• Chained Soldier 2
• Tune In to the Midnight Heart
• You Can’t Be In a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends!

Wishy-washy anime protagonists are annoying enough to deal with. Wishy-washy anime protagonists who can’t decide who they like are even worse.

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Another unoriginal villainess show

• The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom

I scanned through the Wikipedia page for The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom just to find anything unique about the show. I got nothing. Anyway, I’m surprised there’s only one of these shows this time around. Maybe I missed an anime or two. Oh right, The Holy Grail of Eris should technically count as a villainess show, but its premise actually sounds intriguing.

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Unappealing synopses

• Hell’s Paradise 2nd Season
• Fate/strange Fake
• Darwin Jihen
• Blue Miburo Season 2
• Hell Teacher Part 2
• Yoroi Shinden Samurai Troopers
• High School! Kimengumi Remake
• You Don’t Know Gunma Yet: Reiwa Version
• Hoppe-chan: Sun Oukoku to Kuro Hoppe-dan no Himitsu
• Oshiri Dandy the Young
• My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 2nd Season
• A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans
• The Daily Life of a Part-time Torturer
• Hikuidori

Darwin Jihen sounds like a complete trainwreck. I have neither the time nor the energy to unpack its bullshit.

I will never touch another Fate series for the rest of my life. Even the video games are dull. I really did try to enjoy Fate/Samurai Remnant, but I had to drop it after eight or so hours.

I’m also going to avoid anything that has to do with samurais — anything that would count as a period piece, actually. It’s funny, ’cause I don’t mind video games where I play as a samurai or a ninja. If the gameplay’s good (e.g. Sekiro), then I’m not gonna throw the baby out with the bathwater. But otherwise, no thanks. I think this is because I instantly lose respect for any character who bends the knee to a lord or emperor. Not all respect, but a significant amount. Unfortunately, this sort of thing usually goes hand-in-hand with historical dramas or fantasies. I know you gotta do it or else you get executed or whatever, but I can’t stand it. It’s part of the reason why I still haven’t started the second season of The Apothecary Diaries. Maomao is as independent as a woman can reasonably be in her era, but any sign of deference still rubs me the wrong way.

The Daily Life of a Part-time Torturer sounds distasteful.

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Seen it, don’t care for it

• [OSHI NO KO] Season 3
• Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You Season 2
• Fire Force Season 3 Cour 2

I’ve actually watched the first two seasons of Oshi no Ko. That might seem like quite a bit of investment on my part to drop it now, but I realized that the only plot line I cared about was Aqua finding the man who killed his mother/idol. Everything else bored me to death, and I’m not going to reward the show for wasting two seasons’ worth of my time. It’s also not lost on me that the anime is pretty much a harem where one of the love interests is his own damn sister (who is also the patient he treated in his previous life, which just makes it even weirder…). Last but not least, the series’ own fans made a big stink about the manga’s ending, so that’s basically three major strikes against the show.

I can’t remember how many episodes of Fire Force I’ve seen. I do know I’ve tried the anime. I just think I retained literally nothing about the anime’s plot other than that they have fire powers. Goes to show you how much Fire Force interested me.

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Sequel or spinoff that will require too much catch-up

• TRIGUN STARGAZE
• Golden Kamuy Final Season
• Medalist 2nd Season
• MF Ghost 3rd Season
• JUJUTSU KAISEN Season 3

I’ve watched a grand total of three Jujutsu Kaisen episodes. There’s no chance I would catch up in time over the winter break, and I doubt I would end up liking the show anyway.

I remember enjoying Golden Kamuy when it first aired, but I’m too far behind now to watch the final season as it airs. Maybe I’ll loop back to the series one day in the distant future.

I haven’t watched a sports anime in so long, I almost want to pick one up just to see what they’re like nowadays. But I don’t think Medalist is up my alley. I honestly think the last sports anime I enjoyed was Ping Pong. Christ, where does the time go?