#I tried to shade it like op but idk if I did very well

[dreamer-of-all-time]

Pre horrors Dreamer babysitting boo boo

@how-to-fail-at-ship-jumping-au

I know I haven't been able to interact a whole lot recently, but I've enjoyed every second of this.

[reilleclan-blog]

I just thought of this, but why did I scrolled through an old post about Sasuke and Naruto having their "bond" symbolize through their headbands and I thought yeah that's a nice post but then the person under the picture decided to put something like "funny how they don't wear their wedding rings" (like maybe it's not that deep) but like why put down other peoples ships. after i thought about why a man may not wear a ring// a lot of times in society "society" it's usually something the woman cares about because the man is supposed to buy it, and again men don't care for it a lot of times in media as well is mostly a thing women care about. It's very rare to see a man caring about the ring. Men buying a ring is mostly to make the woman happy and 9 times out of 10 the man doesn't even care about it because to them wedding getting married is usually a "womanly" thing and/or "not necessary"

(So yes, they may not wear their rings but that doesn't mean they don't love their wives.. In Boruto Sasuke asks Sakura if that was something she wanted Sakura was fine without a ring but Sasuke wanted to give it to her... this is from the boruto manga it was Sasuke investigating the scientists that was controlling the dinosaurs . I can't remember the name) i personally don't care for Naruto and hinata's relationship they are cool. I don't have any hate or love towards them.

(That's why honestly when I was playing rdr2 I was super surprised John cared about marrying Abigail properly with a whole ceremony. It was sweet to see but it feels very rare to ever see lol)

(This is me talking about the OP) So yes I did agree with you but also you didn't need the whole snarky comment against Sasuke Sakura and Hinata Naruto. Let people be happy with said ships. I don't understand why people like to put down ships

(yes u can say I took offense b/c I personally like Sasuke and Sakura together their relationship is shown even more in "Boruto manga" but yeah I love them together, but I don't throw shade at ppl that like Naruto and Sasuke being together as well. Idk why it be feeling like a lot of "straight" girls be weirdly obsessive over two men being gay so much so that women would decide to be misogynistic in the process. Like please we can all ship and be happy. I hate when ppl pin the other shippers against one another , it feels so unnecessary lol. These are all fictional characters btw. The internet not even real like just calm down)

ship laugh love

(Also I used text to speech for this so I apologize if this kinda doesn't make sense I tried re organizing some of the stuff I said lol. I'm so scatter brained that's just how I am. I usually don't bother trying to re arrange what I say. Also no shade to said posters' post I just had this on my mind at 2am. It's something that I just decided to talk about)

[askblackleg-sanji]

//tagged

I’ve been tagged by 3 diff people with 3 diff sets of questions (and then realized I tech didn’t have to answer all 3 but already did lol) so Imma do this all under 1 post to prevent spamming yo clean and sparkly dashs aight (but also because it’s super long). Thanks for tagging, these are always fun to do :D :D

Tagged by @ask-the-new-soul-pirates​

What’s your favorite car? Both make and model? oh god I’m not very knowledgeable in cars... Teslas seems pretty darn dope tho, aesthetically and functionality wise. I also really like to think about my carbon footprint so any car that puts that into consideration is gr8. Aesthetic wise, I seem to really like how BMWs and Audis look x’D

Any dream house you may have? I think because I live in the Bay Area I gave up any hopes of ever owning a house and never thought about this LOL However, I do enjoy houses with a big kitchen (what a coincidence this is coming from a Sanji blog) and for the main bedrooms to be on a separate floor from the living room.

If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do? Well first I would panic the fk out because 1 day isn’t very long. Then I’d go stuff myself with all my favorite foods and go into a food coma and peace out just like that. (tbh idk I don’t like thinking about dying it’s scary)

Favorite cartoon? atm, Bob’s Burgers

What’s your typical genre of music you listen to? Kpop, trending music on the radio ..honestly I’m not too picky in terms of genre, if a song sounds good to me I’ll put it on replay.

Any recent movie you saw? If so, what? The last movie I watched was Logan when it came out.. that was def a while ago. Edit: jk I watched Wonder Woman and fell asleep during it AHAHAHArip

Do you believe in Cod? I don’t like fish.

Pirates or Marines? Piratez (unless we’re talking about Fujitora)

If you could be in any anime universe, which one and why? Pokemon, who wouldn’t want to have a fluffy Arcanine to cuddle with.

What is a good place to go to in your city? If you enjoy a good hike surrounded by trees like myself, go hike Mt. Davidson.

Ever been in a d&d campaign? If so, any interesting things happen? I had to look up what D&D was :’D

Tagged by @ask-scarhook

Where do you live? San Francisco!

Do you have phobias?  I forget what that phobia is called- when something have a bunch of holes in them NO sldflaskdfj;ljkflgksdjf I just shuddered thinking about it

How many languages do you speak? English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and some basic Japanese :) 

Favorite One Piece ship?  Thousand Sunny is home, ZoSan is pretty gr8 too.

Do you have any mental health problems?  I have not been clinically diagnosed with one :0c

Mouse or Tablet? If I’m doing design, mouse; if I’m doing illustration, tablet. 

Cats or Dogs? Doggos 

What is your favorite memes? I’m pretty indifferent.. All of them are quality trash 

What is your favorite magical word? "TADA” (idk LOL)

Tagged by @ask-sleepy-swordsmen

What language do you think is the prettiest, even if you dont know the language, by sound alone? I love how Korean sounds ;w; Also Italian sounds pretty nice too =w=

Do you have allergies? If so, what are they? I’m sure I have some sort of skin allergy because when I was little I would break out in something like hives and the itching would keep me up at night, it was really unpleasant. There were times where it got so bad that even my tongue felt like it was swelling up xD I haven’t experienced such breakout past 7th grade though thankfully. However if I get scratched, the scratch mark would turn swollen? Like I can draw on my skin and the lines would come back up red and swollen a few moments later :’D

Do you like, or know about, digimon? The only thing I know about digimon is DIGIMON RUMBLE ARENA 2. I would always play with Gabumon because he turns into freaking robo-dog-wolf Metalgarurumon who shoots canons and destroys everyone. 

What is your favorite thing about one piece? The tiniest details come back and smack you in the face 10293847023 chapters later; how intricate the entire OP universe is and how everything is somehow connected is quite fascinating. Also not every thing there is black/white, there’s a lot of grey areas.

What is your singer or band of choice that you listen to for comfort? BIGBANG or MAROON 5 they are my life. 

Who’s your favorite one piece character and why? I did that character ranking thing a while back. I’ll take this chance to talk about Chopper. I see Chopper as my spirit animal as he expresses a lot of emotions that I’d probably feel the same about but instead would keep under my RBF XD. I like that he’s always trying his best to help others. I like that he tries to be modest, his knowledge and skills shows through based on his actions. He might not be the most offensive but that’s ok because his support skills are just as vital to the crew. He’s timid but sucks it up and takes a stance when the time calls for it (as someone who is socially anxious I think that’s really admirable). And of course he’s a cute lil shit.

What is your favorite non-anime show? Runningman, Bob’s burger

Do you prefer the cold or the heat? Whatever weather is in San Francisco

If you could either enter the world of your favorite anime or have your favorite anime character come to reality and be your friend/family/significant other, which would you wish for and why? As much as I love them, I don’t think I’d want any of my favs to my friend/fam/SO. 

What is your favorite color? At the moment I am very much into any shades of the combination: Red/White/Blue

Have you ever experienced true hate or true love? I have yet to experience such strong emotions.

[elizabethschoices]

Endless Summer, Book 2, Chapter Two: My Thoughts

We start the chapter off by packing our things to rescue Diego, Raj, and Grace. MC puts the idol Michelle found into her bag, because for some reason we should take it? Quinn pops her head in our room to inform us that everyone is ready to go and waiting on MC down in the lobby, and then she asks us if we’ve got everything we need, because it’ll be a while before we return.

I can’t wait to get outta here.

That gives Quinn a sad face, but MC simply says there are too many bad memories attached to the place. This whole group is gonna need a shitload of therapy. The game stresses again how it’s hot outside, and MC states it’s December. You’re also on an island?

Jesus Christ, what the hell is the point of this option, PB? 

SHE’S LITERALLY WEARING A TANK TOP AND BOOTY SHORTS AS IT IS

This game irks me sometimes.

Quinn and MC head out, and the whole group starts traveling out into the Western Rainforest.

Again, it’s being stressed how hot and humid it is on the island. And what the fuck has it been the rest of the time you lot have been there? Fuckin’ snowy and breezy? The group complains a little more about the heat, and then shit gets wonky.

We see visions as clear as day, then MC recovers from her headache and it seems that none of the group took notice to it.

But she did! I like Iris.

Quinn proceeds to say the thing and MC is all ‘woah wtf’ and asks Iris how she knew Quinn was going to say that.

Jesus fuck it’s like driving cross-country and entering different time zones but not as simple.

Great, now we’re in Groundhog Day.

MC wants to warn the rest of the group about this, but then Iris tells her not to.

Fucking hell, why is MC so god damned special. We gotta do this on our own.

Estela then brings to our attention a fallen tree that can act as a bridge over the river, and so we all line up single-file, which makes me kind of question this prompt:

But for shits and giggles I guess we’ll cross the river with Michelle.

I don’t even know how but Michelle says she just lost a contact lens. Like, was it in your eye and it just fell out? Or did she have them like, packed away or something and one fell? I overthink things.

Can I help you look? I’m blind in one eye and can’t see out the other, but dammit I’m helpful!

Well fuck you too, bitch.

Jake points out some kind of clearing or whatever, and I honestly don’t remember ‘cause I was only half paying attention. MC can either go to the beautiful place with Jake or Estela, and my happy ass is with one Sean Gayle, so I’ll stick with the group.

We catch up with the group and approach an ancient, eroded stone pillar.

MY FUCKIN’ BOYFRIEND, THAT’S WHO

<3 He’s so sweet!

Sean comments on how hot it is (not as hot as you bby) and says he wishes he’d have jumped in the river. I wish he did too; he’s got a white shirt on. >;)

MC says she’d have liked to see him fall in, and then this man must be my soulmate ‘cause he read my damn mind.

He tells us about how in sophomore year, he blew out his knee and a big part of the rehabilitation for it was swimming. He said it really calmed down and centered him. What a cutie.

And then shit gets wonky again and we’re back at the riverbank.

lmao i do not learn how have you not figured this out pb

We get to choose who we cross the river with again. I guess we’ll choose Michelle again? Idk what to do here. Last time we offered help, she told us off, but saying good luck finding it sounds kinda douchey to me. I guess we’ll just offer our help again. Can I help you look?

For some reason, this time she says yes, but under the condition that we say she never asked for any help. We get down on the ground with Michelle and look around for her missing lens, and just as Michelle is ready to give up, MC finds it! And then we get the dialogue of us saving her life that we saw with our headache vision thing.

MC finds something else in the grass.

That would be a shotgun shell, Meech.

Here’s Jake with all the specifics on it.

Jake says it’s pretty heavy firepower, and that his old black-ops squad used them. How old is Jake?

Jake and Estela are again looking out at the lake, and we can either go to the lake (I don’t wanna pay diamonds) or we can stay with the group. We’ll stay here. We approach the pillar again. I want another kiss, so I’ll talk to Sean again.

Okay, I got my kiss. Now it’s time for business. The time loop resets. Michelle is sad now? Or maybe she was always sad. I wasn’t paying close attention. We’ll cross the river with Michelle again. She just gets mad at us again and we go away. Hm, maybe that meant we shouldn’t have bothered with her. This time we’ll talk with Craig at the stone pillar.

He’s complaining about the heat and wants a break, but Jake says that we have to push through because we need to continue the search while it’s still daylight. Craig insists, stating that there’s shade over by the stone pillar. Let’s all take a quick break.

Everyone sits down and Aleister throws his bag aside as he slumps against a tree. Maybe we should talk to him when the loop resets?

Craig leans again the pillar and it starts to fall. MC shouts for Aleister to move out of the way, and while he does manage to get out of the way, his bag is crushed by the pillar. Aleister says there wasn’t much in his bag, but there could have been.

The time loop resets again and this time, we’ll talk to Aleister.

Aww, that was cute!

MC is hardly able to keep her balance on the tree.

He’s an ass, but that made me laugh.

He explains that the trick to him not losing his balance is that he has basically nothing in his bag, so it’s not screwing with his mind, nor is it actually affecting him physically.

We’ll talk to Craig again, only this time we’ll keep up the pace. Craig says he hates us and then the loop resets. I guess we’ll walk with Zahra. 

She’s talking about how she’s not an outdoor person, and while MC encourages her that she can make it, Zahra just gets pissy at her. She then starts to slip off of the bridge. Letting her fall would probably bring forth some good results, but I’ll grab her. She thanks us for saving her, and then asks if we want money or something. Um, no?

Dammit, I knew I should’ve let her fall.

Once the loop resets, I walk with Zahra again and let her fall.

She sarcastically thanks us for the help, and then asks for someone to help her out of the river because there’s something glowing at the bottom of it. Our source for the time loop, maybe?

MC and Craig help her up and ask what the thing was. She has no idea, but isn’t a good enough swimmer to grab it. But I know who is!

<3

We’ll talk to Sean again. I get my kiss again and then MC asks Sean to hop into the river to grab the thing Zahra saw. My helpful, handsome, sweet boyfriend obliges.

Y’all don’t even know all the dirty things that went through my mind.

My babe jumps in and comes back up with something I feel like we’ve seen before.

MC says nothing is happening as she touches it, but there is still come kind of energy coming from it. She tries to destroy it, but when the group asks why, she simply says she’s got anger issues because otherwise, she’ll fuck some shit up.

I snorted.

My best guess would be to maybe have Aleister put it in his bag, or simply have it where his bag is when Craig knocks down the pillar.

The loop resets again, only this time we have the crystal orb in hand. We’ll walk with Aleister. Again, he teases us for our balance, and then we ask if he’ll carry the orb for us. He’s surprised to see it, but then asks why he should carry something for us.

He’s adorable, honestly. We talk to Craig and let us all take a quick break.

Once the pillar crushes Aleister’s bag, the screen flashes white. We destroyed the source of the time loop and can now move the fuck on. Aleister apologizes for our orb being broken, but MC doesn’t care.

She’s cute too.

We start to move on, and MC looks at the broken orb. She’s getting a sense of deja vu from it. Sean then distracts us (because that’s hard for him to do) and points at some gold sparkling in the trees.

Great, another idol.

Even better, diamond option.

... Get me that idol.

Sean scales the tree, and apparently the tree grew around the idol, but Sean tugs on it hard enough to get it out and hand us the idol. Once we touch it, another scene happens and I’ll provide screens on a separate post, assuming nobody else has done so, as I’m very far behind.

After we snap back to reality (”Oh, there goes gravity!”) Sean asks is MC is alright, and she’s so overcome with emotion that she simply hugs him, glaring at the Catalyst Idol over his shoulder.

Lila calls out to MC and Sean to make sure they don’t fall behind the rest of the group. She says that the Watcher’s home is just over a ridge we’re approaching. We join the group again and hear horns blowing.

Everybody starts running and we find where the Watchers live.

Everyone is stunned by the tree village, and the horns blast again. A group of Watchers are escorting someone, his hands bound.

Glo up.

Until next time!

[lia-nikiforov]

Fall 2016 Anime: Last impressions

What, me? Posting something that’s not Yuri on Ice? Did I wander to the wrong blog? Oh right, this isn’t supposed to be a Yuri on Ice blog to begin with, oops.

After a very shitty semester and my Mom’s and sister’s vacations messing up with my anime watching schedule (plus a shitty vicious cycle of not watching anime to work on thesis-not working on thesis because stressed from not watching anime), I finally finished catching up with Fall anime, barely on time before Winter begins (I know some winter shows have premiered already, but none that interest me. Rakugo’s on today though!!!!). So here’s a rundown of the best and worst of this most fruitful Fall season. If there’s a gif it means I forgot to take a screenshot of the last episode whoops.  (worst to best my dears, you know how this goes)

Dropped:

Shuumatsu no Izetta: I really tried. Even after the stupidity of episode 4 put me to sleep, I tried to give it a second shot, but episode 6 was literally everything that is wrong with modern anime and ugh, please release me from this hell. Of course having a strong female character was too progressive for a yuribait show, you just had to make her have insecurities about her normal-sized boobs (vs everyone’s ginormous) and dedicate 25 entire minutes to show that she’s actually a real girly girl that likes pie. Ugh. And I didn’t even mention how stupid the “Izetta’s secret might be revealed” plot element was. That was some garbage writing if I ever saw one. Most of what I’ve read after dropping it seems to indicate it was the best choice

3gatsu no Lion: I’m confused with this show. The production values make it very attractive to watch. There is a harsh and interesting story and character drama happening. Episode 5 was particularly great, and some of the storytelling devices are implemented brilliantly. But for some reason I can’t bring myself to care? I don’t know. The more I see the three sisters, the more the scenes with them bore me to death. I found the idea of watching episode 6 terribly not-compelling so I decided to put it in the back burner and wait out. Maybe I’m just incompatible with this mangaka (I really hate HachiKuro). People seem to be loving it, so maybe I’ll give it another shot at a later date.

Touken Ranbu Hanamaru: This was my biggest disappointment of the season because episode 2 was so good. It tickled all my rekijo bones in the best way. But then it just… nothing ever happened? Also the way all the sword boys gush about how much they love the (invisible but obviously audience-proxy) “Master” is way too transparent and took me out of whatever little interesting character dynamics might be going on. What could be an interesting theme –the swordboys having regrets about not protecting their past owners and being tempted to fix it- is wasted in a “it’s okay, I have a new master now!”. Even with my fujoshi goggles there was little of interest because the boys were so infatuated with the Master I couldn’t even enjoy any of it. Held out until episode 9 and just couldn’t be arsed for more. Maybe the more serious ufotable show will be better?

Nanbaka: I don’t know what went wrong with this mangaka that suddenly decided to turn a perfectly fine comedy into a Very Serious battle shonen thing? Especially mid-arc? The New Year tournament had revitalized the show, I was having a load of fun with it, but then it suddenly turned all dark and serious and nonsensical? The only thing tempting me to go back for the last three episodes is Hajime, he’s a champ. But yeah, the shift in tone was too drastic and kind of spoiled the show for me because I was loving it exactly as it was. It didn’t need the drama. Some people seem to be liking the new direction but ehhhh… idk. If I have time.

The worst:

17. DAYS: It was hard to choose which of these two was gonna be the poop prize winner, but in the end, given how much I struggled to even sit through the last couple of episodes, I guess DAYS takes it. Honestly seldom have I seen a show so infuriatingly ruined by “protagonist no jutsu” i.e. things just happen because a dude is the main character. Kimishita scored three completely bananas goals in that game (bless his heart I love him), but Tsukushi gets all the credit for earning the free kicks and second balls and shit and he’s the one credited as the “hero” of the game. It’s amazing that such an insufferable protagonist is part of a show with an otherwise endearing supporting cast. Now will my love for Mizuki and Kimishita be enough to pull me into watching season 2? Tune in some time next year to find out! (spoiler: most likely no unless it comes out on a boring season)

16.Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku: I called this show the winner of the “Showed its cards too early Award” since episode one, but boy I didn’t expect it to continue doing the exact same thing over and over through its entire run. At some point it became a very unsurprising formula of showing a character’s tragic backstory at the start of the episode to fabricate last minute sympathy to make up for lack of proper characterization, only to have the character in question murdered in increasingly distasteful ways. I always knew best girl Top Speed wasn’t long for this world, but the way they handled it was gratuitously vicious. Couple that with a barrage of villains, none of which were remotely compelling or had any interesting motivations, a poor man’s Kyubey, a protagonist that is even more infuriatingly passive than Madoka herself (at least in this aspect, MahoIku surpassed its intellectual mother), and a resolution that basically says this whole thing served no purpose whatsoever and you’re left with just a feeling that you could’ve done something better with your life. I never expected grandeur from this show, and in fact I guess it turned out to be about as bad as I could’ve expected it to be, but that doesn’t really erase how terribly dissatisfying the ending was. I guess that’s one weakness that Dark Magical Girl shows have yet to overcome. 

Normally a “the meh” section would be here, but I dropped all those shows for lack of entertainment and time, so we’re skipping straight to

The okay

(I liked these shows but none of them changed my life and I was severely tempted to drop them at least once)

15.Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: I have rather complicated feelings about this show. The writing has improved immensely since the second half of S1 and they’re doing a fascinating job at working the different shades of moral grey. Mika’s sick relationship with Orga continues to keep me on my toes. But with only 12 episodes left I’m still not entirely sure of where this is going, and most importantly, it stinks of tragedy and there seems to be a general lack of joy in both characters and story, so I always go to watch it with little enthusiasm and maybe a bit of anxiety.

14.Girlish Number:  This one turned out way better than I expected it to be, although perhaps for different reasons than most. Usually when I hatewatch something, it’s for the pleasant schadenfreude I get out of seeing something continue to fail miserably week after week (see Sailor Moon Crystal or Mayoiga). In that sense, I wasn’t hatewatching Girlish Number but boy was I getting schadenfreude about seeing the exploitative producer go on a downwards spiral and the shitty LN anime adaptation turning up a complete failure. But because this was the source of my enjoyment, the finale was, to say the least, dissatisfying. If the show had ended with Chitose getting a proper comeuppance and landing different jobs (in non-shitty-LN-anime) that forced her to climb her way back up instead of trying to have  sudden fabricated popularity, while Kuzu got his ass fired that would’ve been cool. But the “Oh I ended loving this production” ending was ehhhh. It felt the show ended going milquetoast on its criticism of the industry. Criticized the seiyuu idol units but still had the seiyuu sing the OP and ED criticized the cheap swimsuit fanservice but still had a swimsuit episode etc. I mean they went really damn hard on the industry, so it was weird and a little frustrating that they didn’t go the whole way, given how they’d already guaranteed to lose the buying audience anyway.

13.Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari: It’s hard to explain what went wrong with this one because, if you asked me, I’d say I really liked it overall. But the key problem is perhaps that I adored the first two episodes so deeply and then somewhere in the middle it kind of floundered and went in a different direction than what I expected –which isn’t inherently bad, mind you- but it’s weird that there’s so little actual udon in the show when they’re in the title. The finale was good in idea, but I feel it failed to make the emotional landing, and that they capped it off to be a sort of commercial for Kagawa prefecture was just… weird. So uh, it was a good show but definitely didn’t live up to the promise of the first few episodes.

12.Uta no Prince-sama Legend Star:  For me, this and Magikyun are basically tied, because, although I have more love for Utapri due to how long it’s been around and how I’ve grown so endeared to the characters, I can’t say Magikyun did anything worse or better. But anyway Utapri! Revolutions had me losing a little of my love for the franchise, but Legend Star was really great! The music improved drastically and we got some truly neat character arcs. The Otoya arc was surprisingly good. It’s sad to see they’ve fully committed to shitty CG dancing though ): But oh well, the Quartet Night song was great and there’s even more anime coming because Broccoli does like printing money after all. Almost forgot to mention it, but Haruka is hardly relevant this season and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I’ll also say I didn’t particularly miss her.

11.Magic-Kyun Renaissance:  I’ll say this about Magikyun, it was less dumb than I expected given the title. I mean it was super dumb, but it could’ve been dumber. It was also a lot of fun, had neat visuals and surprisingly good songs? I feel it could’ve ended in episode 9 because it doesn’t feel like the new resolution in ep 13 actually added anything of note to the story or the characters, but it was okay. It’s harmless dumb entertainment and that’s what I wanted it to be. 

The good

10.Flip Flappers:  It’s always great to see passion projects like this, even if they don’t always stick the landing. In the gayest anime season, FliFla gave us a lesbian visual spectacle that was among the best animated experiences of the year. While narratively it blooped a little in the last third and became a weird Eva-ish nightmare, it sorta kinda worked out at the end, although definitely didn’t live up to its initial dreamy potential. And it was very lesbian, although I feel it was lowkey creepy lesbian since Papika is somehow an adult??? I think they explained some things too much and left others glaringly unexplained. Some weird things happened in that production that hindered its potential, but it’s still a fascinating series to look at, even if you don’t dig the character dynamics (which are adorable but in the end didn’t do much for me). Could’ve done with 100% less creepy robot though     

9.Classicaloid: I’d call Classicaloid the Bungo Stray Dogs (season 1) of the Fall because while it wasn’t what I wanted or expected, it managed to grow on me. I was on the edge of dropping it because the wacky one-note humor wasn’t working for me at all, but with the introduction of Schubert and the slow drip of answers to our questions of what is even happening in this show, it became notoriously more fun. Definitely the strongest moments of the show are when we get to see the Classicaloids having flash backs to their past lives (the episode about Beethoven and his loss of hearing was particularly brilliant) and while I still mostly have no idea of where this is going at all, they’ve definitely got me hooked wanting to know what Bach is even planning.

8.Drifters: This might have gone even higher up the ranks if not for all the homophobic and sexist jokes ugh. But I guess it’s a testament to how entertaining it is that I watched it all through and would still watch the upcoming second season (or maybe it’s a testament to what a good job it did in tickling my very specific rekijo bone). The characterization of Nobunaga in particular is absolutely brilliant, and the little nuances in the interactions between characters of different time periods are fantastic. Cool action sequences and interesting strategizing and politicking. But I reckon this isn’t something that’s gonna sway the non-history buffs. Also ew the sexist and homophobic jokes. The show has great comedy without that, please don’t be so gross Hirano.

7.ALL OUT!!: It had a bit of a slow start, but once it started picking up with the practice matches and developing the team, it’s just gotten exponentially better! Especially since the addition of the coach. DAYS could learn a thing or two about how it isn’t necessary to make the inexperienced main character the sudden “hero” of the team to make for a compelling sports story. That said I still do not understand about 75% of how rugby works at all, but the endearing cast and the passionate games make up for it. Also the horrible hair. Definitely looking forward to where these kids will go in the second half.

The excellent

6.Fune wo Amu: This is a case of me one-sidedly having expectations that a show can’t live up to and thus I don’t enjoy it as much as I could. Which is no fault of the show itself and it is in fact one of the best anime of the season (arguably the year). It does fail on the entertainment department, but compensates with beautiful craftsmanship and a wonderful portrayal of human feelings and relationships. While it wounded up being Very Heterosexual (and the main couple develops in a rather cold and questionable manner, but hey, the wife wasn’t forced to give up her dreams to become a housewife. A+ for progress! ) the portrayal of Majime’s camaraderie with Nishioka (and Nishioka’s very great relationship with his gf!) was really the heart of the show, and just for that it’s absolutely worth the watch.

5.Natsume Yuujinchou Go: I think it’s rather telling to the quality of the season overall that Natsume Yuujinchou somehow fell just slightly above the middle of the pack. I do feel this season of Natsume was weaker than the previous ones, but to be honest I can’t quite pinpoint why. Maybe it didn’t feel like we reached a new milestone in Natsume’s development or in learning about Reiko –in fact, it feels we learned conspicuously little about Reiko this season-, although the final episode and the Touko episode were notable highlights. With a sixth season already in the works, I have little else to say other than, even when it’s not in top form, this is still among the best one could ever hope to get from anime

4.Bungo Stray Dogs 2: Remember how season 1 was good but not what I wanted it to be? Well, season 2 wasn’t exactly what I’d originally hope BSD would be about but it sure as fuck was fantastic! Starting with the flashback episodes to Dazai’s time in the Port Mafia and the story of Oda Sakunosuke, to the introduction of the American writers and the follow-up with Kyouka and Atsushi’s arcs as well as Akutagawa (!!!!) it was a genuinely amazing season that completely justifies watching the first one even if you weren’t entirely convinced about it at first. My only gripe is the lack of Kunikida, but this season showed that Dazai is the lynchpin of this series and he fulfills that role to perfection. I loved loved loved this season and I hope we get more of this series.

3.Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable: While it floundered a little in the second cour (seriously I was happy Shigechi died, he was an awful character), it picked itself right back up in the third and the battle against Kira –who is an astonishingly amazing villain- was just week after week of blood-pumping excitement and fun. Not every episode was perfect, but the package as a whole is fantastic. At moments it felt more like Kishibe Rohan’s Bizarre Adventure, but even that was okay because every member of the cast was so great. You can see the passion David Production has for this franchise, and I’m hoping they’ll continue adapting it. While Joseph is still Best JoJo, I think part 4, with its incredibly strong cast and creative set up might be my favorite arc so far.

2.Haikyuu 3: vicky’s probably gonna hate me for this but If I’m honest, the Shiratorizawa match wasn’t my favorite in the manga. I love the development Tsukki got through it and I commend Furudate for how brilliantly he’s been working in making these characters grow in such satisfying ways. But Shiratorizawa, and Ushijima specially, is the epitome of OP rival and that’s something that’s never really worked for me. It felt like the Rakuzan game in Kurobas, there were moments in which it felt that it just never ended. And I was worried about how they were going to work it into ten episodes. I think it’s a testament to the anime team that they managed to make it not actually feel like 10 episodes, and that they’ve made this one of the most exciting matches to watch in all of Haikyuu. It was truly spectacular and I can’t wait for S4

THE BEST

1.Yuri!!! on ICE: Joke’s on you, this was a Yuri on Ice post all along!! Even if my conflicted feelings about the ending had been sourer and heavier, I would have no doubt that this is the best show of the season (and the year). It’s taken me a while, but after having chewed on my feelings for a couple of days (while fighting the denialists with all my might) I’m even more confident about it. I don’t even know what more praise I can rain on this beautiful, beautiful show that has literally saved me so many times during this really difficult trimester and I am ever so grateful to its creators for giving us such a beautiful gift in such dark times. Now please end our suffering and confirm a season 2, because just like Victor and Yuuri can’t live without each other (canon!) I can’t live without them anymore ;---;

What a strong season this was! A high note to end an otherwise shitty year! Thanks everyone for following this nonsense blog and I hope this new year brings us all more beautiful anime (and less menstrual cramps for me). Winter shows I’m watching premiere literally today so I’ll skip the “anticipation” rundown and go straight to my watchlist in a couple of weeks.  As always, I’ll be happy to hear which were your favorite and least favorite shows of the season, but I know y’all never answer to my questions ;----;