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regarding-stories · 2 months ago

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Some looking back and some rounding up

So, a while ago I did a selection of series I was watching this simulcast season. And some other stuff. Here are my updated thoughts on several of them - plus more other stuff! Yay, other stuff!

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Dead Dead Demons DeDeDe Destruction

I can say I'm interested where the series is going, but there are two factors stopping me. Following an unfolding catastrophe by itself would already be a downer. But particularly this year, I am really not inclined to watch scenes of cutesy aliens being brutally murdered over and over. First I banned the series from watching at mealtimes, but now, with 11 episodes already watched, I haven't picked it up in quite some time.

GIF by animescreencolle

2.5 Dimensional Seduction

Turned out exactly as I expected it to be - an enjoyable watch all in all, a cute collection of blushing included. I find two downsides with the season:

Unrequited love interest / girl #2 was absent from half the season in spite of being spotlighted in the credits. My guess she was a bit of a filler right from the start, but seldom has a character been sidelined so hard. When she reappeared at the end I actually found she had grown as a character, being some necessary counter-pole to the airhead main girl. (Sorry Ririsa, but your commonsense is entirely absent. The total focus on Ririsa is less surprising when you know (only) her name is in the Japanese title, though.)

GIF by a-titty-ninja

There were... probably two... episodes that were almost entirely composed of internal dialogue that was highly repetitive and stretched out far too long. Yada yada I love all cosplayers. Change of heart. It was tiresome. There's a limit to how much internal dialogue is good in this kind of anime.

I had fun, though.

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines

I thought this would become a harem comedy or at least have some harem vibes, given the narrator-protagonist we follow around is a dude surrounded by girls with widely differing hairstyles and personalities (and he actually tries to help them all).

I'm gladly surprised how much time this show takes to actually follow along the three titular losing heroines, though. It seems to be very willing to explore their struggles - first with their respective love interests, but now also expanding into shy bookworm's struggle to find friendship, acceptance, and a place in the world she can trust.

GIF by senjo

This focus is reflected in the credits sections which vary and focus on the girl currently taking the spotlight. Bonus: The show has some great music.

I still think that inevitably the protagonist's kindness will lead to a second round of falling-in-love trouble, especially given that girl-who-never-stops-snacking seems to already fill the girlfriend role in most aspects.

Still, loving the attention to characters, emotional scenes, some drama, and it being outright charming, funny, and delightful - this is so hard to wait for each week!

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

Ended up watching it, and it's a fun diversion. It actually works quite well as anime!

I still think the MC and his sister are absolute jerks when it comes to pranks. And the time he spent in Russia is even more sidelined than in the light novels.

Pseudo Harem

Now for an entry I picked up late. The basic premise is easy - there's a girl named Rin with a crush on her Senpai in drama club. To overplay her cowardice and blatantly flirt with him she invents a series of characters she portrays based on tropes/stereotypes (Imp-chan, Tsundere-chan, Cool-chan, etc) that her Senpai is absolutely enthralled with - so it becomes their own private thing (and probably a bit of a love language).

It surely helps the character is the most adorable little thing ever and voiced by the same voice actress as Yor in "Spy x Family", lending her this particular quality that is a bit timid and easily lured into blushing embarrassment.

The only downside I see to this series that can make you seriously go "Squeeee!" is that it overly focuses on only two characters and hence is more like a gag-comedy manga in terms of plot than an unfolding story (though it has elements of both). The anime certainly transports the whole thing way better than the original manga which I sampled at random before the show was picked up but I found a bit lacking.

Not sure why Senpai and his family (at least his mom) have constant "I lack sleep" eyes...

Days with my Stepsister

In hindsight, a chore with nothing much happening. Girl who is a loner who only relies on herself becomes stepsibling with boy who is a loner who detaches himself from everything. They fall in love.

Which is what you see mostly not happening for a dozen episodes as you watch them asking themselves questions and denying their feelings. And lots of inner monologue.

(Can't find a GIF for this under the English or Japanese title, so tumblr seems to have spoken...)

The show aims for an elegic, nostalgic quality, but it sometimes feels just slow. It is better, though, than shows that stall the plot with over-the-top drama. I watched it to end, after all. The end of the season is such that I find it hard to relate to her as a character, given how he discovered her feelings way before him. (I get that this is a heavy conflict for her, though.)

Side characters are almost entirely sidelined and mostly there to further what little plot there is between the main couple. And it wins the prize for the worst way to draw eyes in female characters, I thought at times she was having a mascara accident when it turned out it was still part of the eye.

Solo Leveling

Didn't expect that one, huh? I was rather annoyed by the hype, as I sometimes am, and had a preconceived bias about what the show is, well, about.

So glad to be wrong!!

The premise is much better than anticipated. Instead of this being about a game, it's about events unfolding that have game-like characteristics underneath. Except the protagonist is the only one to find that out after many years of this going on and hence in a unique position to improve his station in life - though through a very risky, painful means.

The show is well-paced and gorgeous in general, though also gory and overly dramatic. It pulls it off so well, you're on the edge of your seat rather often. And it manages to pull you in for the ride first.

The main criticism I have of this one is that the human side of the MC is... too passionate, focused, and a bit unconvincing. Come on! There is this girl desperate to go out with you but you're not only too consumed in feeling like a loser to take her up on it when you're failing, you still have no clue when you're succeeding! I don't buy into this level of onesidedness. (I guess the "hero" is destined to be with the ice queen we see portrayed so often. But season 1 has zero contact between them and they live in completely different worlds.)

A very harsh show, gore-wise, and more than a tad cruel. Be prepared.

Haganai - I Don't Have Many Friends

It's hard to have an opinion on this one. I read on in the manga because the show leaves off somewhere in the middle. And I must say, it really really has flawed characters - and displays them in all their misconceptions.

At one point I thought I almost got it - when the manga turned against the whole "rumor" and "reading the mood" and the mood turning on people culture. It was nasty how the group-think blamed one girl for the fact a dude had a stupid crush for her instead of the other girl. Of course she contributed to it - not through encouraging the dude like she was accused of (so she was essentially slut-shamed, I guess), but because her response was so horribly tone-deaf as well.

But when you read the defense her friend conjures on the spot, it's no better. So is the author himself horribly tone-deaf or is he meaning to portray characters that are so strongly flawed? I couldn't decide.

There's more of this - like the male lead thinking this girl attracting so much attention and supposedly super smart (but lacking any commonsense) is some sort of goddess. It's hard to tell if that is his flawed thinking or partially the author's? Because she's very flawed, and in turn the anime constantly makes fun of her - including playing a "moo" sound whenever she runs towards someone because, you know... dare I say it? Cow udders.

So it's a flawed show with a desperate amount of fan service and flawed characters, but I was still interested in where these characters would go. And it can be quite funny and/or sweet at times. It doesn't exactly inspire me to read the light novels, though.

My First Girlfriend Is a Gal

Now here's an anime that had some issues that had little to do with the actual story. Boy asks gal out on a dare and she actually accepts - apparently she had a secret crush? Whatever gets the ball rolling.

What the show does make clear is that she as a person/character is very different from the hyper-sexualized image some guys seem to have of gyarus. It actually mostly is a sweet and rather harmless romance with typical anime hijinks - let's go to the onsen (hot springs), MC gets to see her in a yukata, etc. And in this regard the show does fine.

However, the anime version specifically is turning what probably were very short scenes in the mind of the MC into long "censored" sequences, entertaining - at length! - the exact same mindset the character herself so noticeably disproves. While I only started reading the manga picking up at some point towards the end of the show, I don't see the same there. It nowhere takes as much focus. It's clearly a device the anime makers seem to have come up with.

I also have failed to find so far the story arc the show's only season ended on. The whole late story arc was so confusing in the end, not even I was sure what was supposed to happen between them versus what happened. It was a whole lot of "you should have known better" and "I'm disappointed in you" that I couldn't quite follow.

If you look past the blatant "sex sells" treatment the anime got, you find a nice enough story mixed with very silly and unrealistic hijinks. Not exactly destined for greatness, but it's worthwhile (and quite long-running, actually).

My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex

While I'm watching shows I originally had no interest in, this one turned out to be quite decent. The setup is interesting - boy and girl have a middle school romance between nerdy loners that breaks up when they can't cope with change and the communication needed to keep the relationship up. Shortly after the breakup his dad marries her mother, with neither knowing they used to date.

The show varies between different territories. On the one hand it plays with the lingering feelings, especially hers towards him. A lot of the show's humor and premise is based on this, and frankly, it's quite sweet.

What sold me in the show much more, however, is the introduction of a third character into the equation. Another girl who loves the boy - but most of all she treasures the friendship and connection she has with him - more so than "having to have him" or "being the only one." She just is happy to connect to this person - and a romantic relationship would be a bonus.

First the other girls think she is naive and hasn't admitted her feelings. But in the end, her take on emotions, feelings, and love is more mature than frankly most people's (in the show or outside of it) - including the mother of the newly formed family. Her character seems entirely believable and is an interesting expansion of what characters exist in these kinds of stories. She's also a wonderful combination between clueless and having a deep understanding of what love actually is. Brilliant!

The show then proceeds to portray as much the failed relationship as their current one, highlighting the need for personal growth and going beyond the past. The middle school romance isn't portrayed much at first, but as its realities are laid open, we understand how much of the current situation is rooted in them having been socially inept people - or simply kids growing up.

While doing all of this it's a lighthearted show full of banter and little silly situations, and people trying to guess each other's true motivations and feelings. Which makes it a really good take on the premise.

#anime series #dead dead demon's dededededestruction #2.5 dimensional seduction #makeine #pseudo harem #solo leveling #days with my step sister #haganai #my first girlfriend is a gal #hajimete no gal #My Stepmom's Daughter Is My Ex

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