What Have You Watched This Past Week That is NOT a Currently Airing Show? [December 28th, 2025]

**COMPLETED**

**Umamusume : Pretty Derby 1st Anniversary Special** A pretty short special. Kinda like a preview for PD S3.

**Umamusume : Pretty Derby S3 (5-13/13)** I guess I’m echoing most sentiments that while this was hype it certainly wasn’t S2 hype. But still I really like Kitasan. She’s very earnest and the kind to push herself. [Umamusume PD S3] >!Though maybe that’s why she peaked early and had to retire (in the show, idk what happened to her irl counterpart). Still it was another emotional end to the season with her winning with it being her last race and the people she’s helped and has helped her supporting her. She’s come a long way despite it only being a season. Still remember her and Dia as young horse girls looking up to Teio and McQueen!<

While I’m glad they’re still around, I kinda wish the senior girls in Spics did a bit more this season. Understand they’re not the focus, but it also felt like they’re just… there.

**Minami-ke S2 (8-13/13)** This is the usual with slice of life shows. Especially when it’s really just about average people living average lives. The more I get to know these people the more enjoyable it is. When I was still unsure of who’s who, especially with their friends, it’s a bit hard to enjoy cos it feels like I don’t know who these people are. But once I got to know Uchida, Yoshino, Touma, Fujioka and what their deals are, it was more fun seeing and anticipating how they’ll react and bounce off each other. Which is exactly what happened in the latter half of this season.

[Minami-ke S2] >!Although, a bit of somber note, it was rather sudden and surprisingly non-ceremonious how Fuyuki had to move and left. Not sure if it was rushed by the author or intentional, but I can appreciate the realism of it. Although, I wonder if he’ll be coming back cos it does feel like he hasn’t done enough as a character!<

[Minami-ke S2] >!Also Haruka didn’t end up leaving for overseas but it was kinda heartwarming how Kana and Chiaki tried to step up so Haruka doesn’t worry. Especially Kana cos she’s a massive gremlin but she loves her sisters and can step up if she wants to. Though I wonder what was the mix up or misunderstanding about Haruka going overseas?!<

**ONGOING**

**Pumpkin Scissors (10-14/24)** Ok with these few episodes, if it keeps up at this rate, I can confidently say this’ll be one of those hidden gems. The plot has gotten less episodic and more connected. We’ve also learnt more and more of the team.

[Pumpkin Scissors]>!The Invisible 9 conspiracy plot was pretty good. Several factions and entities that we’ve known and also just met clash with each other. Our team in the middle of it as the plot reveals itself. Almost has an FMAB vibe to it.!<

**Yuru Camp S3 Rewatch (1-3/12)** Saw some clips and screenshots of this and suddenly missed it. I’ve rewatched S1 and S2 a few times so I thought I’d just skip those and go straight to S3. This’ll be my first rewatch of S3 since I’ve only watched this as it aired. And man, this show is so good at what it does. The vibes are immaculate. Watching this on a carefree weekend evening is a high I’ll keep trying to chase

**THIS WEEK**

From what I understand we’re kinda like switching focus with **Umamusume** to other teams after Pretty Derby S3. While I’m sad we’ll see less of Spica, I’m excited to meet other horse girls

As mentioned earlier, I’m starting to get more invested in the characters of **Minami-ke** and their everyday lives. So just gonna proceed to S3

**Pumpkin Scissors** has been really fun past few eps and there’s more multi-episode arcs. We might be getting into more plot-heavy stuff so looking forward to it.

As much as I want to watch **Yuru Camp S3 Rewatch **, I think I’ll limit myself to only on the weekends, where my headspace during that time will maximise the experience

An archdemin dilemmas(romance) worth the watch

**Chainsaw Man: Reze-hen (Movie)**

Chainsaw man Reze arc was a bit of a surprise considering I wasn’t all that hot on the main anime and my favorite parts of CSM was the Denji/Power dynamic. So for the movie to largely remove this aspect, it was a good result.

That said, an eternal problem that I have with movies, I can’t just get attached within the 90 minutes of a movie to a character. Can’t say this is fault of the movie (unless it butchered the source but I have heard zero complaints on that front from manga readers), just a me thing where I see what was tried with Reze, think that it was fine but can’t push that threshold of thinking it was all that great.

But what was really good, no contest, was the action. Forgot the last time I was that enthralled by action sequences but the movie really had me on the second half. Fun stuff.

Good movie.

**Final rating: 7/10**

Detective Conan. I’m at episode 520 currently

Finished watching **Chi: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite** and that was something alright, and it’s fascinating to me how dual my journey with it started vs how it ended. Had a hard time enjoying it due to the more religious side, but the whole concept of challenging established ideas (as expected) managed to begin winning me over around a quarter of the way through. And I’m so glad that I stayed for one of the more interesting anime I’ve seen all year. The way the idea survived and then how that was tied to what seems to be an alternate timeline/idea was brilliant storytelling. I really enjoyed the changing main characters, especially because their ways of doing things were different. And that was definitely interesting in its own way. I didn’t expect it to be this brutal at times to be very honest, but that too was fitting. Brilliant work and the night sky in this anime being this beautiful is easily the cherry on top.

Saw the movie **Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern** at random. Well, the first movie. Apparently it's a two parter. But I saw it this morning and didn't have time to dive into the second one so I'll probably see it tomorrow. Either way, this part was alright I guess.


Landed on some ninja period piece called **Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou**. But you know, for a series about a war between ninja clans flinging superpowers around wily nilly, it's a lot more of a slow burning candle than what you'd think. Still, couldn't help but feel for the tragic irony in all this. Like Romeo and Julliet, two ninja clans that hate each other for reasons that nobody on either side can even remember exactly why anymore. The next heads in line for each clan are in love and arranged to be wed. Only to have their peace treaty dissolved by "the man in charge" basically and now must fight to the death because the man in charge basically just told them too. And yet neither of the lovebirds even want a stupid pointless fight, yet can't seem to stop it and getting caught in the wake of it kinda just unilaterally happening without them.


It was okay, but that's my overall take on it. It's an okay enough series. I know I've seen other slow burning candle series that I've liked way more. And from looking into it I can see there's a sequel, but I'm not in any particular rush or mood to get to it.


And lastly in a serious case of, "I am too bored and lacking better ideas for things to watch to care...", I sat through **Bucchigiri**. I say sat through specifically cuz I could tell at a glance that this would be something I could easily just have in picture in picture while I do other shit and still be able to get the gist of what's going on cuz really, it's mostly just delinquent fighting series typical yackity yack yack that I've seen outta shit like *Wind Breaker*, only this time with a stupidly oft annoying MC to carry it. Oh and a macho fight obsessed genie, can't forget that. Anytime I noticed that guy's plot/background stuff being elaborated on were the times I did give this more of my attention.

Anime that I watched this week:

Fruits Basket Season 3

In/Spectre

Toradora!

The Too Perfect Saint

Me last week: Tune in next time for most likely the rest of YGO, Transformers Galaxy Force, Undead Unluck, *and* Megazone 23 plus the rest of the pre-rewatch of Jigokuraku, then restarting Jigokuraku for the proper rewatch and still continuing D.Gray-man as well. Should get some more Tensura S3 in this week as well.

Got all that *and more* this week! [](#faito)

---

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters**, episodes 221-224 + **Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions**

I can’t believe I finally finished this show…

[](#wipetears)

It’s certainly been a long time coming, and thank goodness my brain was way more chill with how weird the rules were during Duelist Kingdom compared to when I was a kid so I could stick through to the end. It’s not my favorite YGO (I’d rank 5Ds and the second half of ZEXAL higher), but it *does* live up to its legendary reputation. [9/10.](#goblet1)

Also I know DSOD is more of a sequel to the manga rather than the anime, but I still wanted to watch it now anyways. Was pretty good, the whole concept of Dimension Duels is incredibly cool and all the new monsters looked fantastic. [Also had quite possibly the best “sore wa dou kana” I’ve ever heard](https://files.catbox.moe/jn0ui8.mp4), so there’s that too.

This isn’t the *only* YGO I watched this week, though, because…

**Yu-Gi-Oh! GX**, episodes 45-49

Yeah so it’s been about two years since I last watched an episode from this one lol. [](#kumikolook) It’s very easy for me to push shows (especially ones that are this long) that I’m *not* watching for a rewatch onto the backburner when I’m juggling a bunch of rewatches & seasonals all at once, and that’s what happened here. Finally finishing DM had me wanting more YGO, and this also happened to line up with a massive lull in rewatches (I only have 2 of them at any moment for at least the next month unless something shows up out of nowhere for January that I’m interested in), so I’m finally making time for this again.

Episode 47 was incredibly silly in the middle of all the end-of-arc climax stuff going on, lol.

**D.Gray-man**, episodes 79-85

[My heart this week be like:](#overwhelmed)

**Transformers Galaxy Force**, episode 52

God, I wish Superlink could have had an ending like this one did.

[](#dejected)

But for Galaxy Force itself, that was a great way to wrap everything up! More action-heavy shows should have at least one full episode after the final battle to work as an epilogue to the story. 9/10.

**That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3**, episodes 10-15

I still don’t see what’s “wrong” with this season. I’m enjoying the hell out of all the kingdom-building stuff. [](#nyanpasu)

**Undead Unluck**, episodes 22-24 ~~and also Winter Arc but that counts as currently airing technically~~

Boy am I glad this show got a season 2 announcement right after Winter Arc aired. This series being an incomplete adaptation would have *crushed* me. [](#kumikolook)

One of the easiest 10/10 scores I’ve given out this year. [](#gintamathispleasesme)

**Megazone 23 Part II & Part III**

[…7/10?](#spinning)

**Jigokuraku**, episodes 10-13 (dubbed) + episode 1 (subbed)

Just a few more hours ‘till the rewatch starts! [](#hypeoverload)

**Jujutsu Kaisen 0**

Because this is *totally* a Christmas movie, I decided to use some of my extra free time thanks to having both Christmas Eve & Day off of work to rewatch this on Christmas Eve. I had even more fun with [0 & JJK sequel manga spoilers]>!all of the YutaMaki interactions knowing that they end up canon in the sequel manga!< this time through. Still wish they could’ve used Ichizu as an insert song during the climax instead of as the second ED, though.

**Chainsaw Man Movie: Reze Arc**

So yeah, JJK 0 is what I spent my Christmas *Eve* rewatching, and I decided to continue the MAPPA cinema train by using Christmas *Day* to rewatch this one. Basically, my Christmas present to myself was being able to [collect the one Aki “sore demo” that was in this](https://files.catbox.moe/ub8ti7.mp4) that I couldn’t when I watched it in theaters, haha.

---

[That’s all for this week~](#michaelwink)

[Tune in next time for most likely]>!more D.Gray-man & Jigokuraku for their rewatches, and more YGO GX as I try to get through as much of it as I can while I have the time. Will probably also rewatch 100 Meters when it drops on Netflix this week.!<

Monthly recap 


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- [Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl](https://myanimelist.net/anime/59848/Virgin_Punk__Clockwork_Girl) **(1/1)** 6/10


The latest and easily the best work of **Yasuomi Umetsu** in terms of world building, narrative, characters, and its production quality. It is still just a rule of cool action schlock about mercs, but it's done slightly better than the rest. Sadly, it's only 30 minutes long and serves as nothing more than a set up for a would be bigger narrative. Based on the hour long interview with the cast following the movie's viewing, they're waiting to see how well this does before even beginning to think making a sequel. 


All of this to say, as good as it managed to establish everything needed to tell a full story, said story may never see the light of day, which is 


---
- [A kite](https://myanimelist.net/anime/320/A_Kite) **(2/2)** 5/10


Rule of cool action schlock about mercs with unnecessary hentai rape scenes thrown in.


---
- [Mezzo Forte](https://myanimelist.net/anime/221/Mezzo_Forte) **(2/2)** 5/10


Same deal as **A Kite**, albeit, everything is done slightly better. It's also less rapey, well, kind of.


---
- [Mezzo DSA](https://myanimelist.net/anime/222/Mezzo_DSA) **(13/13)** 5/10


Episodic series based off the OVA. On the plus sides, it fleshes out the characters and has them show growth, fleshes out the setting, and also adds an overarching narrative. The downsides, the episodes focusing on the main cast in order to flesh them out are easily the worse. The overarching plot that is introduced in the beginning of the show gets forgotten about until the very end. The missions are less action packed than in the OVA. The world building is still nonsensical. And lastly, the visual quality took a massive nosedive going from a small OVA film to a 12 episodes tv series. 


It's not horrible, but I also don't see a reason to bother watching this. Just stick to the OVA.


---
- [Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil](https://myanimelist.net/anime/20053/Wizard_Barristers__Benmashi_Cecil) **(12/12)** 5/10


Discount **Witch Hunter Robin** but with lawyers instead of detectives. It begins with our lead starting off her job as a lawyer defending magic users trialed for X and Y, a vocation that she picked after her mother was falsely convicted for a crime she didn't commit, before transforming into a full blown mystery thriller about unveiling a major conspiracy involving not only the case of the lead's mother, but also the world at large.


On the surface, the premise is fine. The issue lies in its execution. Much like every other works by **Umetsu**, the world building is poor. The female lead is a chosen one which kills a lot of the tension since she'll pull a random power up out of her ass when it's convenient for the plot. Some things are left unanswered due to certain plot threads going nowhere. Despite there being a big cast of characters, the show only spends time fleshing out 3 of them. The show tries very hard to be nuanced with its theme of discrimination between normal people and magic users, and for a while, at the beginning, does succeed in achieving that. However, the moment the show really kicks into gear, all of that is gone and everything ends up being very black or white. Gone are the thematic about civil rights. Instead, they are replaced with an antagonist that comes across as a Saturday morning cartoon evil bad guy with poorly written motives, overwriting any progress that had been done up to that point in terms of theme exploration. Also, the series jumps the shark pretty hard at the end, which doesn't help things. 


Because I've already spoken way more than I intended about this IP, and because I can't be asked to go in-depth about spoilers and really dive about every minute parts that makes it a mediocre show (this is an impression after all, not a full on review), I'll just leave this GIF here since it perfectly incapsulate how it goes from a well balanced story to an overly edgy mess. [Spoiler]>!<


Sound design and visuals are fine.


Overall, Wizard Barristers is a marginally better short series than the previous one that **Umetsu** worked on, but it still isn't good enough on its own to recommend. If you want something similar, but done slightly better, just watch **With Hunter Robin**. It has its flaws, but it surpasses this on every metric.


---
- [Galilei Donna](https://myanimelist.net/anime/19367/Galilei_Donna) **(11/11)** 4.5/10


Not counting **Mezzo**'s sequel, this is the first original long formed series that **Umetsu** made. It's a steampunk story about a trio of sisters and their companion going on a globetrotting adventure in order to find a mcguffin, which they need in order to stop a totalitarian energy company from ruling the world. A good idea that ends up being badly done. 


There's plot convenience out the wazoo (especially at the end), no characters matter outside of the youngest sisters. Half of the plot not only happens offscreen, but you're unaware of it until the very end, making the entire thing come off as a retcon. The world building is bad, because of course it is. There's no nuance to anything. etc...


Also, it goes full blown criminal trial in the last episode despite clearly not knowing how a trial works, which is interesting considering that **Wizard Barristers**, a show all about lawyers and criminal cases, would be the next thing **Umetsu** would go on to create a year later.


Not counting the full blown hentai that he's made, this is easily Umetsu worst body of work. I wouldn't advise watching it.


---
- [Kite Liberator](https://myanimelist.net/anime/3323/Kite_Liberator) **(1/1)** 4.5/10


Soft sequel to **A Kite** set in the future. The only thing that carries over is the gun, it may as well be its own thing altogether. Half of it focuses on mercenary female lead, the other is spent on a nonsense sci-fi space horror, with both narrative merging together at the end. 


At its core, it's more of the same. With that said, it is worse than both the original and **Mezzo Forte**. If you're a fan of either, I'd avoid **Liberator** and pretend it doesn't exist.


---
A late merry Christmas and an early happy new year.

For the first time in 6 months, I was finally caught up enough on seasonals to watch stuff that wasn't airing.

I watched all of Milky Subway (highly recommend) and the first 2 episodes of Magi.

**Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu** episodes 8-12 (rewatch) - The hilarious misunderstandings that arise from Sousuke's military mindset, like taking the concept of flirting as a "catch-and-release girl hunt" or wreaking havoc when he brings a bioweapon to school, are still so much fun to rewatch. *Rating: 9.5/10*

**Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid** episodes 1&2 (rewatch) - Getting back to the military sci-fi side of the story is great as always.

Also rewatched some of my favorite episodes from season 1 of **Full Metal Panic** over the holidays!
***
**Oshi no Ko** episodes 14-24 - Although I wasn't as invested in the new characters or the plot that revolves around their current acting project, the second half of the season really picked up once the focus shifted back to the main characters, and the anime did a good job elevating these scenes from the manga. The character development for Aqua, Ruby, Akane and Kana was fantastic. There were a few things in this season I wasn't fond of like the introduction of some [supernatural elements] >!with crow girl,!< and season 2 didn't reach the same heights as season 1 which was near perfect for me, but I still enjoyed it a lot overall and it made me hyped to see what comes next. *Season 1 Rating: 9.5/10, Season 2 Rating: 9/10*
***
**Pokémon Ultimate Journeys** episodes 25-34 - The final tournament is off to a great start, and the fact that most of the characters participating are ones I already liked from previous seasons makes the matches even more exciting.
***
**Gundam Wing** episodes 41-49 - There were hints of a good story here about a group of child soldiers struggling to grasp what they're fighting for and who is their true enemy, but the narrative often came off as being confused about this as well, seemingly switching up the characters' alliances and motivations when the plot demanded another twist. I enjoyed the [final battle,] >!seeing all five Gundam pilots come back together in the end,!< and the scenes with Heero and Relena though, even if the plot kind of lost its way. *Rating: 7.5/10*
***
**Chaika the Coffin Princess** season 2, episodes 6-10 - The ending of this series was a real disappointment. After a cool battle royale plotline that brought all of the major characters together, the final two episodes took a weird turn that dampened my opinion of the whole story. It's unfortunate because there was [some good stuff here,] >!like Toru's battle as a dragoon, Niva refusing to obey the resurrected Emperor Gaz and Chaika ultimately being the one to destroy him once and for all,!< but [when it comes after] >!one of the Chaikas absorbing her "father's" severed pieces under her skirt octopus-style and rebirthing a new incarnation of him,!< I already lost any excitement I had at seeing the conclusion. I don't regret watching because most of the show was pretty good, but I doubt I'll ever want to revisit it. *Rating: 6/10*
***
Next up, more **Full Metal Panic** as always, and finally reaching the conclusion of **Pokémon Journeys**! I'll also be posting a wrap-up of my favorite anime I watched for the first time this year. :)

Rewatch in preparation for 2026.

All seasons of Kaguya-sana Love is War and Oshi No Ko.

Once upon a witch's death.

It reminds me a lot of wandering witch Elena, but Meg is even cheekier. (Basically Elena crossed with Elenas fangirl)

The later episodes also get very dramatic, I was not expecting this given the rather lighthearted tone the show started with despite its setting.

Meg quickly became one of my favourite characters, I dont think I liked anyone as much as her in close to 10 years.

Been watching world trigger for the first time, fun stuff.

I finished season 1 of The Apothecary Diaries and started on season 2. (Up to episode 8 of season 2.)

I watched episode 5 of Bocchi the Rock with some friends. (We are watching it together each week.)

I’m also on a personal goal of watching an episode of Detective Conan (ep 22-28) and Lupin the Third (Part 2 eps 22-28) every day.

**Megazone 23 Part III Episode 2 (Completed)** - See rewatch post for thoughts

**Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Episodes 20 - 23, Season 2 Special (TV series completed)** - I started up the movie as well but only am around 20 minutes into it or so. Some interesting dynamics near the end and disappointed that [Saekano]>!Megumi went back to her original hair length!<, granted I was spoiled about that going in. The special is over the top fan service much like the season 1 special was. It still bewilders me how the protagonist has so many women attracted to him.

**Zenshu Episodes 1 - 4** - I put this on my plan to watch list a while back when it got announced, but somehow never got around to watching it. Finally started it up, expecting to get something like Shirobako with a quirkier main character. Alas, not even half way through the first episode i realize its yet another isekai. While the main character being an animator is cool there is nothing all that special here to differentiate the isekai elements of it.

**Super Dimensional Century Orguss Episodes 1 - 5** - Been a while since I watched an old school full length mecha show (I think SPT Lazyner was the last one) and this one has been on my radar for a while. It is essentially a spiritual cousin of the original Macross with much of the same creative team. Our protagonist is quite the womanizer, providing us arguably the craziest start to a mecha show I've seen where he's with a girlfriend and her father chases him out with a gun, lol. Things go weird after he tries to stop a bomb and suddenly he's pushed to a future point in time where dimensions have combined. Watching this makes me realize just how reliant the mecha genre is on the fish out of water trope. Off the top of my head Baldios, Layzner, Ideon and Dunbine also had this dynamic.

**Valvrave the Liberator Episodes 2 - 4 (Rewatch)** - I know this show is a trainwreck but I'm enjoying this rewatch a lot and think it's really well written and interesting so far, with the occasional bonkers scene. 

I started rewatching *Sengoku Youko* with a friend who hasn't seen it before. It's still as great as it was when I first watched it. Criminally underrated show.

**Love Hina** (eps 18-24, completed) — [Love Hina] >!the show had been keeping this lingering anxiety about whether the protagonist chooses Mutsumi and breaks up with Naru, or chooses Naru and breaks "the promise"… all that to finally reveal he didn’t even remember clearly the girl he made promise with, and chances are there’d been, in fact, more than one girl! Lol. That’s simply perfect, I can’t think of any better way to end the series.!<

I totally loved the way the series concluded — sounds a bit crazy and I absolutely didn’t expect this from a harem comedy, but I find it similar to the way the plot in *Excel Saga* and *Cowboy Bebop* is structured — the first episode establishes a long-running arc that doesn’t look like a big deal at first and gets mostly obscured by short episodic adventures, but closer to the end it resurfaces and resolves in a spectacular way.

So yes, this show rivals *Kämpfer* as my favorite harem comedy and certainly is by far the most recommendable one. The most distinctive thing about this harem in particular is that it doesn’t really have that much rivalry between the girls — you could simply watch it solely for the relationship between the protagonist and the "main" girl and just ignore all the other girls. In other words, I’d say *Love Hina* is not only good as a harem anime, but as a regular rom-com anime as well.

The only thing I’d warn about — yes, the protagonist’s role most of the time is being a punching bag for the main girl, doesn’t matter whether it’s his fault or not, but he gets punched in such an exaggerated, comical way that you shouldn’t take it any seriously.

Also, despite having "ecchi" tag on MAL, there’s actually very little fanservice in this anime (the standards were low back then, huh). Way less thirsty show than *My Dress-Up Darling*, for example. For me it’s not an issue since I watch harems mostly for comedy, not for fanservice. Some of the special episodes, however, make an attempt to make up for that…

**Love Hina Specials** (Christmas Movie, Spring Special, Motoko’s Choice special aka episode 25) — it might be that the anime gods or stars themselves guided me to pick *Love Hina* mid-December since incidentally I’ve got a perfect chance to watch Christmas Special exactly this Christmas 25 Dec 2025, which also marks exactly 25 years since this special aired! It aired on Christmas of year 2000.

In short, the Christmas special is a very-very Christmas’y movie with lots of miracles and lots of romance. It’s really good. If you feel like you didn’t get enough heart-tugging romance while watching the main series, this short movie might totally make up for that. There’s some quite memorable [scenes] >!Naru’s "confession"!<.

Spring special is not particularly notable, basically a short sequel to the main series. Motoko’s Choice special blessed me with more best girl screen time, but otherwise was a bit rushed and sloppy. These two specials have more fanservice, but TBH some of the scenes felt rather forced.

The Big O!

My GF bought me a blueray copy for Christmas!

This week I’ve been watching Yuru Camp Season 1 and 2 and also watched Heya Camp.

What a lovely, calming slice of life anime. Highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t watched it (I know I’m very late myself watching it!)

Finished seaason 1 of to your eternity, after that i started yona of the dawn

**Summertime Rendering EP6-12:**

It's still enjoyable but definitely less interesting now the initial mysteries are no longer mystery.

Angelic Layer!

Furiously binging **Oshi no Ko S1** to try to catch back up to the rewatch currently going on, because I got easily distracted…

I finished **SSSS.Gridman**. An interesting premise, and I liked the kaiju designs. It felt a little hollow at the end though, since [where]>!exactly *are* they? A world/city created by Shinjo? It feels like it's in the computer; maybe if I were more familiar with the Gridman franchise I'd understand better.!<

I moved on from that to **SSSS.Dynazenon**. I liked the human cast and plots more than the robot/kaiju action in this one. Most of the kaiju felt pretty uninspired, and I'm not huge on the whole power rangers robot thing (I'm way more into kaiju). Some more involved fights would have been fun, but they were all kinda basic. But the human plots were interesting, if not all fully fleshed out.

I also watched **Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable!** The chemistry between [the]>!main couple was good, but the other girls felt a little tacked on. The pink-hair girl in particular didn't add much at all to the story. It was frustrating watching the guy kinda fumble at the end too.!< Still, it was cute and I had fun watching it.

Finally, I started **Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt**. The original, with plans to then watch the new series. It's so wildly different from normal anime, but feels exactly like a raunchy take on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim American cartoons. I'm watching this one in the English dub, because I couldn't keep up with the subtitles and still follow what's on the screen. Fortunately it's a good dub.

Amagami SS, heavens design team

I'm continuing **Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World**. It's alright.

Watched the spice and wolf remake. Holo is a new best girl added to the list. It's a wonderful anime and I can't wait for the next season.

MM!

This week I started and finished Chainsaw Man... including the Reze arc movie... It was good, I laughed so much at the funny moments.

Finished **JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012)** this week and....it was a trip. I started it cause I wanted to see what this particular cultural phenomenon was all about. I almost gave up after the first few episodes but I ended up persevering. Didn't love it, didn't hate it either. By the end, it was fun how over the top everything is, how meta. But it was tedious how all of this was in loop for 26 episodes. I kinda wanna venture into the next season but I'm looking forward to new releases right now.


Also finished **Apothecary Diaries S2**. Overall enjoyable. I feel like there was some filler in the middle of the season that I didn't care about. Also, in [the final episodes] >!we hear Maomao's thoughts about how everything plays out, even though it's easy to understand what she's thinking and how she has solved the mystery around the shi clan. It's the timing that annoyed me cause it cut through the tension!<. Also, while the [season finale] >!marks a new beginning for Maomao and Jinshi, I was quite regretful to leave behind Shisui. I don't know whether we'll see her again, but after having the prince and the apothecary girl dance around their issues, Shisui taking her matters into her own hands and acted on a plan felt refreshing. I wish we could see her adventures!<

First off I finished Iruma-kun seasons 1–3 in preparation for season 4 in the Spring. It'd been on my radar for a while and just before a new season airs seemed like the right time to jump in. Incredibly fun show, honestly one of my new favorites. So many great characters I now know and love.

Secondly, I started to rewatch/watch Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. Way back when it initially aired I watched the first cour but it didn't really click with me at the time and I didn't watch the second. Since then I've watched and loved any number of shoujo and since we're going into a season with no newly airing red haired protagonist shoujo (unless I'm missing one) I decided to keep the streak going that we had most if not all this past year.

Finished **Erased** after hanging on that last big cliffhanger (\[Erased\] >!drowning in the car!<) for a week and a half. I had several ideas on where that could go and how the plot as a whole would be resolved, but I never would've guessed the actual ending. Overall I thought the show was incredible. The real ending was a great version of "the power of friendship," which I hadn't really grokked was the message prior to that. Seeing \[Erased\] >!Kayo (and the other girls I guess) still in their friend group and happy in the modern day!< was unexpected but absolutely lovely. I have not watched a show that managed to maintain the kind of adrenaline spikes I kept having during this one in quite a while, and it all felt impeccably written. Easy 10/10

**The Eminence in Shadow**

Gave it a 7. Watching it very interrupted was probably not great for my understanding of the plot elements but I do admire it's commitment to the bit (even if it grates on me occasionally).

Bokuben

I’m in love with the villainess

Holmes of Kyoto

Missed undead unluck last season, 8/10 lil bit chaotic but the animation was amazing characters great concept great, and pacing makes every episode feel like everything’s happening always. Highly recommend if you like pretty colors and chaos

Currently working my way through Haikyu, finished the 2nd season, and will be starting the third soon. Liking it so far, never thought I'd be so gripped by a volleyball anime.

Watched a few more episodes of Gegege from my backlog, then realized I missed the prequel movie release a couple years back… “The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of Gegege”

Binged all of More Then a Married Couple, But Not Lovers last night.

Finally finished code Geass :)

I Started Umamusume: Cinderella Gray Watch 6 Episodes Is Peak

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man: watching. Not bad, not great. I like the MC but the supporting characters are all weak, both in personality and character design. It's yet another isekai that has no vision for what it wants to do besides have the OP protagonist dick around without either committing to a story or being purely episodic.


Happy New Year, here's to another year of anime.

Sanka Rea

I have a Samsung tv with the tv plus app and have been watching a lot of Space Adventure Cobra since it comes on the retro anime channel right before I go to bed most nights!!

It’s the cheesiest 80’s space opera anime but it’s fun and the episodes about the baseball (but if you could murder each other) were some of my favs. I only watch it when it’s on tv so idk really any of the characters outside of cobra but it’s cool to watch some fun old anime!!

Watched Hells paradise in prep for season 2.

Finally got round to watching Erased.

Kakuriyo- Bed &Breakfast for spirits s1. Once I saw they made a s2.

The witch and the best - Really awsome. Slipped past my radar.

To be hero X. My best friend said it was dope. I will admit I'm not used to Donghua and I don't speak any form of Chinese. But I loved it. Which leads me to

Lord of mysteries. Lovecraftian, victorion, gothic mind bending. Loved it.

Moriarty the Patriot - Was on a sherlock/Moriarty binge after Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions.