Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion - January 25, 2026

I like today's *place*. I like anything *Girls und panzer*. It's one of my many, many defects.

What I like less is *Bubblegum crisis*, which I finished yesterday. Or rather, I liked the premise (4 women who form the core of the mercenary/bodyguard Knight Sabers group), but its execution was somewhat messy. Like, I'd have appreciated it if we got a bit more background on the setting, the girls (how'd they come to form this group?) and why "boomers" are this big of a problem, yet still legal, et cetera.

Strangely enough, it was the very last episode which was probably the best in showing how the group operates, but still not nearly enough.

If ever there was a story which was a prime candidate for a "remaster" or just a complete redo, this is it.

When y'all finish an anime that you really loved, do you usually follow it up with like a palate cleanser anime before getting into the next thing you expect to be good? Like something you know is gonna be kinda trashy entertainment? I realized I've been doing that for a while now where I finish a 9 or 10/10 anime and I don't wanna start the next show I expect to be great, because I don't want to judge it unfairly. So I just do like a 6/10 isekai or something instead. Something that's gonna be entertaining enough but also not something that I'll ever be disappointed by.

I am still surprised that they choose to remaster the first arc of Dragon Ball Super before moving on to release the brand new episodes. Granted, the TV version is kinda scuffed when you compare it to the movie, but it's still a surprise to me.

Did someone break into the place or was it having a wild party? [](#spinning)

Personally I don't really need more Dragon Ball. Daima was fine, Broly pretty neat and I haven't bothered with the Super tv series in general. But man that [40th Anniversary Special Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPa8C2WYTw) does make me a bit emotional. Like many it was such a huge part of my childhood. Running home after school to be on time for the new episode (that by that time was years old, but new for me). Trying to get better at drawing (which was just a very short phase but well). Mock fighting with the other boys. So seeing the major moments brought back some memories. Also wasn't expecting Hans Zimmer music instead of just Cha-La Head-Cha-La or something.

Why has MyAnimeList started putting a bunch of producers at the top of the staff lists? It used to be the director was always first. Makes it harder to find the people I am interested in and the 4 on the summary page useless.

It would be nice if there was a setting to prioritise the positions I look up the most.

I'm half way through __Bokurano__ (2005) and WTF? who comes up with these stories? If you watch it you have to go blind and stick at least through episode 3, although the pitch sounds absolutely boring, then decide if it's worth or not. Reminds me of Summertime Rendering a bit...

What's going on with Crunchyroll's "Skip Recap"? Shit actually skips new content. Are these automatically placed before the intro plays regardless of if the content is new or not?

[**I bet it is**](#seasonalpout)

Mushoku tensei author [elaborates](https://x.com/i/status/2015294514290917798) on Rudeus views on slavery

[](#azusalaugh)

[This](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/e015026eba21.jpeg) is a [skating](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/b17e7fc9b745.jpeg) anime.

Can someone recommend me a nautical anime?

Or really anime anime where huge bodies of water are a big part of the story.

I've already watched Aria.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya was a blast! It was a really fun watch and I think it captures 2020s entertainment/streaming/gaming culture well, and the VR stuff didn’t feel too overblown. But what really blew me away was the animation. Anime movies always have better production values and Studio Colorido has a style that’s always appealed to me, but both the character animation and action sequences blew me away. Absolutely gorgeous looking movie, it had so much energy in every frame. Definitely worth the watch.

Girls und Panzer (und Koala) spotted, upvote deployed.

I swear it feels like I got airdropped into You and I are Polar Opposites as Tani-kun. Its a really funny show but at the same time makes me want to die and I feel like the mangaka stalks me from how much I relate to him.

Tales of wedding rings season 2 has been kind of disappointing and im the prime audience for this show.

[](#thoughtful)

I’ve been trying to figure out why I can’t get into *Hajime no Ippo* the same way that I did *Ashita no Joe* for weeks now, and I think I might have finally cracked it.

The obvious bit is that I think Ippo is just less interesting as a protagonist and never feels (at least through where I’m at) like he’s got skin in the game quite like Joe does.

The less obvious bit, and the one that I’m just kind of realizing is that *Ippo* talks *way* too much. Watching over a fight and there’s always someone talking, whether it’s Ippo’s inner monologue or the commentator. I guess the Joe commentator sucks more at his job, but it is often in the silence when it’s just two guys slugging one other or staring off in the distance that the show speaks the most. This goes beyond the ring and into the general storytelling, as *Joe* doesn’t need to explain everything and is fine having extended sequences of just our MC walking through the world. Part of the allure of Joe too is that which doesn’t get said, and how you come to understand his character without necessarily needing it spelled out to you verbally. Like, without spoiling, there’s just so much in that final fight that is conveyed without need for dialogue and it’s that caliber of writing that I feel is missing from *Ippo*.

It’s not necessarily a condemnation of *Ippo* per se. I still do like *Hajime no Ippo*, but I *love* *Ashita no Joe* and for now that’s what I’m going with as to why.

Shows I should probably drop:
- Adventurer's Daily Grind
- Jack-of-All-Trades


Shows I haven't dropped yet:
- Adventurer's Daily Grind
- Jack-of-All-Trades


The first has Veronica, who is S-tier, but also [has] >!an underage succubus!< plotline. The banter is barely keeping me here, but may not for long.


The latter reminds me of the A-Rank Party show a while back (which I dropped), except the students here aren't praising every minor thing he does as though it were some miracle only he can do.


I don't know, maybe I'm just in the mood for some trash.

I'm amused that the Medalist episode I downloaded yesterday had the Hulu exclusive branding, but Hulu hasn't posted it on their site yet for whatever reason. I have to pirate something licensed by a service I subscribe to to get access to it. Capitalism!

The decline in quality of OPM in season 3 is so sad, I had such high hopes for it

I’m almost afraid to say it, but I might like [Medalist’s new OP](https://youtu.be/-hPpXrlgncE?si=OWB8cmeLmt1OS8Qs) even more than the first one. This feel-good vibe doesn’t only fit the show very well, it also puts a huge smile on my face.

That synchronised dancing segment in the second half is especially neat. Seriously, how did CG suddenly get *this* good in anime? I can barely differentiate it from traditional 2D animation anymore.

Before I dive into Reincarnated as a slime, does it have fan service like konosuba or moshuko tensi, I couldn't make it through 3 episodes of those 2. 

Started watching Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches as I finished The Big O, and wow it wasn't like anything I expected. From the name I thought it was going to be some harem with a dude attracting the eye of seven witches for whatever reason, but it is actually completely different as of three episodes in, and seems to feature Yamada-kun kissing his male class mate as often as he does the two girls to \[Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches\]>!trigger the body swapping phenomenon...!< Hopefully it stays an interesting supernatural comedy and doesn't turn into the standard harem tropeyness later on.

I forgot how terrible the dubtitles for Medalist are, I may just take the one week hiatus and wait for the fansubber to release which I'm told also said would be doing S2. They seemed to keep a steady gap of one week from the official releases.

I'm going to need to prioritize the stuff in my Plan To Watch list. There's stuff in there I added like 5 years ago because it seemed slightly interesting. And stuff I've been actively looking forward to, like the second cour/season of Cinderella Gray that I was waiting for it to finish before binging it.

I don't feel like waiting another 5 days to add something that's a foregone conclusion anyway, so now that almost all of my winter anime have released at least one episode, I can post a ranking:

A:
You and I Are Polar Opposites

A-:
Sentenced to Be a Hero
Trigun Stargaze

B+:
Hell's Paradise S2
Shiboyugi (bordering on B, but it seems to be improving)
Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider cour 2

B:
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk
Fire Force S3P2
Kaya-chan Isn't Scary (bordering on B-)

B-:
The Daily Life of the Immortal King S5

C+:
Gnosia cour 2 (bordering on B-)

Reserving judgment still:
Tune in to the Midnight Heart

Hasn't/haven't started:
Frieren S2
Love Through a Prism
Medalist S2

damn, Sanda is _really_ bad and the more I watch the worse it gets.

It could be a decent coming of age story, it could be small arcs of handling trauma and exploring the issues of "protecting" children, it could be a combat anime with a weird gimmick, but instead is a complete mess with no focus

I'm not particularly squirmish about romance in anime, but this one goes out of the way to make it uncomfortable, so instead of having a normal kid that wants to have normal relationships of his age in conflict with an adult alter ego that wants nothing to do with that, the show blurs the line and explicitly calls out that yes, the 60 something is kissing the 15yo but it's ok because reasons.

The characters almost have meat to them, in particular the main girl starts off strong, with clear goals and the will to chase them, but as the show progress she's more and more portrayed as a confused child that does things because she's whimsy, and not because she's an actual person - which could be the _point_ of the show and something to be explored, but the show gets distracted with...razor sharp skis? and guns?

There is an interesting show to be made about learning to balance protecting children, letting them fall on their faces and scolding them, and sure, throw some guns and immortal freaks in there, and I think that could be a really good show. Sanda is not it.

My disappointment to my fellow jurors ain't stopping me from enjoying good anime like the movie **Cosmic Princess Kaguya**. Another retelling of the Princess Kaguya story, now in a futuristic setting.

So during the first hour of this movie I was already calling one of the best movies in years, that hour is really, really fun. Iroha is this grindset student that lives along, is permanently sleep deprived, works like two jobs and constantly exhausted. Then she meets Kaguya, the alien from the moon who becomes this hyper-genki girl and together become a streaming pair with Kaguya as the star. Their chemistry is great, and I was constantly laughing my ass this first hour, great duo. And my god, the character animation man, its incredible. Its the most expressive anime I have seen in years. I usually like to take screenshots of funny faces and got to the point where I had to pause and use my frame-by-frame tool to get as many as I could but that would have tripled the runtime of the movie so I just had to stop. But it looks so, so good along with great voice acting. With the great comedy and animation I was already seeing myself in awards 2026 shilling this, but there is still more to this.

There's the setting that did throw me and my friends offguard because we went into this pretty blind, we didn't know this was the future and didn't give much thought to the first scene. So its 2030, which is not very far into the future so ofc the world looks pretty much the same. But then they also have deep-dive VR contacts which like, feels like a gigantic technology leap?? Dunno why we got so fixated on this but it was really funny to joke about how the world looks the exact same but someone poured a bajillion dollars to research VR contacts. There was also a really quick scene of this guy holding RBG chopsticks and we just popped off saying this is what the future looks like lmao. Err, but anyways, this is just a world where deep-dive games like SAO are a thing and we see the girls play Fortnite and League of Legends, very cool.

Then there's the plot. I haven't touched on the duration, but this is almost two hours and a half, that's a chonky movie. As I said, the first hour was great, but then I looked at the timer and was like "there's no way it keeps this up, what do they even want to do with 90 more minutes". I mean, did we *reaaally* need the 15 minute LoL fight? It looked great but I kinda spaced out from how long it was dragging. I don't know if it is my brain being tired at 2am but the movie felt slowed down considerably from that first half into the second, I just wasn't feeling it the same.

Then it got to the climax of every Kaguya story, with its own tweaks ofc. [So]>!Kaguya is leaving so we have the whole drama of her leaving. There's also this weird time-travel thing going on about Yachiyo arriving 8000 years in the past and became the slug that is in her shoulder, so its like, all of Kaguya, Yachiyo and the slug are Kaguya. Also, Yachiyo is actually bamboo shoot connected to a machine. Uhhh, I may need to rewatch those last 30 minutes, it got a bit convoluted especially watching this at 2am.!<

So, I historically do poorly with non-franchise movies, I have only like 5 movies above a 7/10 that don't belong to franchises. I thought this could be another exception given how much fun I had in the first hour but it started to falter from there. I will probably rewatch, its worth of it. But for now I will give it yet another comfortable **7/10**.

Still big recommend.

Caught up on Tamon after hearing the hype.


This show, does in fact, slap.

Could you recommend me a new anime?

My prior favorites are Berserk, Hellsing, Fate Zero, FMA Brotherhood, Bleach, and Jojo

Need something to watch

My favourites are Hunter x Hunter, FMAB, Code Geass, AOT, Apothecary Diaries, 86, Bleach, Fruits Basket but I'll watch pretty much anything

The way that Guilty Crown does its "fan service" scenes is so true to the tropes that it becomes genuinely funny. The MC's towel drops, he semi-accidentally grabs a boob, he looks up a skirt - there are a few seconds of silence as the girl looks shocked and disturbed. Then there is a loud, high pitched, perfectly delivered "IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" followed by a flustered, blushing apology, a perfectly delivered slap, and then we transition to a new scene where everyone pretends nothing happened. This is how they teach you to write one of these scenes at the academy. Textbook.

In many other similar ways, this anime fits the idea I had of the medium before I got really into it back in 2024. The way the protagonist behaves, the scatterbrained, unfocused plot, the ridiculously silly jargon... It's all there.

Hello, does anyone know where I can watch Medalist Season 2? I watched season 1 on Hulu but they don't seem to have Season 2 for some reason. I'm in the United States. Thanks in advance

Watched the first episode of Shiboyugi. It's very pretty, but the subject matter may not be for me. I may give it one more episode, we'll see.

I think that the "recommendation" feature on MAL is really underrated. It has helped me discover so many anime I wound up loving that I probably wouldn't have watched otherwise.

For example, it was by going through the recommendation tab on the Tsuki ga Kirei page that I found Just Because (9/10), 5cm/s (10/10), Tsurezure Children (9/10), Orange (10/10)

Similarly, the Narutaru recommendation page lead me to School Days, which, in turn, lead me to White Album 2 and Scum's Wish, and, I'm sure, eventually, Higurashi and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.

It kinda doesn‘t sit right with me to just whip out my 1st 10/10 of the year when it’s still only fucking january, but **Ikoku Nikki** makes it harder to resist with each passing week, damn.

Need something to watch. It's my first attempt at getting into anime (nothing against anime i just don't watch a lot of TV in general) I find the fighting stuff a bit corny though honestly so anything outside of that im game for.

I’ve been watching Akuyaku Reijou wa Ringoku no Outaishi ni Dekiai sareru recently. Honestly, even if it's not a masterpiece, it has more 'soul' and better character chemistry than many generic high school romances we see every season

I’m currently catching up on some great romance titles. Does anyone have updates on a possible Season 2 for Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion or 7th Time Loop? The chemistry between Raeliana & Noah, and Rishe & Arnold was just top-tier. I really hope we don't have to wait forever for sequels

After a few additions and a few drops, I think I'm settled on my list of anime for this season: Frieren, Journal with Witch, Medalist and Tamon-kun

It's a much smaller list than I was anticipating, but I'm happy with it.

I missed the JJK movie in theaters. Can I still watch the current season or will I have missing context?

Watching more than ~10 anime per season feels like such a bad trade off IMO. You may miss the occasional underrated gem but there's really never that many anime worth seeing in one season compared to the amount of older 10/10s you haven't personally seen.

Ikoku Nikki and Seihantai back to back really helps with those sunday evening blues

[](#feelingloved)

I came into this season expecting nothing and thinking it'll be a backlog season but it's started off strong and has heavy hitters already.

My favorite [frame](https://imgur.com/a/inuu-xRBjXpr) & scene from Inu-Oh. You can audibly hear the katana being readied to unsheathe in the background, poised to strike Inu-Oh if he defies the shogun. God, I wish drama and cinematic storytelling like this were more common. The last time I remember getting this kind of raw drama was in Maquia, the scene where Leilia lashes out in her chamber after her lover dies and she’s forbidden from seeing her own daughter.

[I love this creature](https://i.imgur.com/MZfNr01.png)

Lol, Dan Da Dan has the Jennifer Lopez Anaconda as a move

Man medalist s2 episode 1 still not on Hulu. Normally I would look at other sources but I was planning to watch it dubbed with my mom :/

bro why is there unironic powerscaling in COTE subreddit lmao

dont these guys just compete in test scores and sports?

I need a show just about the Hayashi band from Dan Da Dan

Watching the Short Film noms, and *First Line* is my kind of anime, but *Mamiko's Poop* is just such absolute cinema that I have to give it my vote.

What a wild two minutes. I have no regrets.

Wait. Fuck. *Bottled Insects* is also a banger. I will need to take a breather after that though.

Gotta stop watching good anime. Just reminds me how inadequate I am as an artist and how I don't have the time to ever fix that.

Or I just go to sleep and get back to *One Piece* in the morning. That'll numb my senses.

I found that I really enjoy happy but sad anime with a female mc. Does anyone have some recommendations? Something similar to any of these:

A Place Further Than the Universe

Hibike! Euphonium

Suzume

Cosmic Princess Kaguya

Revue Starlight

The Aquatope on White Sand

Girls Band Cry

Ancient Magus Bride

Iroduku: The World in Colors

The Beast Player Erin

Is [this anime](https://myanimelist.net/anime/40595/Kimi_to_Boku_no_Saigo_no_Senjou_Aruiwa_Sekai_ga_Hajimaru_Seisen) (Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World) worth watching for the blonde waifu alone. Like does she have lots of scenes in the show?

Man. I am giving Villainess is Adored one more episode before dropping. I read a ton of OI but this so painfully uninteresting. If the light at the end doesn’t give it a good twist I am out.

I've not managed to drop a single series so far in the season... Kunon is now amusing enough that it is no longer at risk, Mayonaka's male lead is amusing enough to keep watching and Kaya is sympathetic and adorable enough to compensate for being not very suspenseful or thrilling for.a horror anime. The only one remaining at risk for now is the utterly mid Dead Account, that seems determined to hit every possible battle anime cliche it can possibly fit in. And even that series doesn't relly have me feeling I am wasting time watching it, at least not yet.

[removed]

Hello /r/anime, a new daily thread has been posted! Please follow
[this link](/r/anime/comments/1qnc0t3/anime_questions_recommendations_and_discussion/) to move on to the new thread
or [search for the latest thread](/r/anime/search?q=flair%3ADaily&restrict_sr=on&sort=new).

[](#heartbot "And don't forget to be nice to new users!")