Anime

This Season

Hot Take 1

Possible lukewarm take, given its surprising popularity:

Comparing based on just the first 3 (edit: now 4) episodes, I am enjoying There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless... the most out of the airing anime that I'm following.

This is despite it being a stacked watchlist, with entries like:

• Dan Da Dan
• My Dress-Up Darling
• Rascal does not Dream of Santa Claus
• Grand Blue

The plot and characters feel kinda trashy, but it's so entertaining. Personally, I find that it gives off similar vibes to A Complicated Sibling Relationship 4-Koma. It's like a dumpster fire on a rollercoaster.

Hot Take 2

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is my third drop of the season.

It's not like it is bad or anything. However, an anime has to stand out from the rest if it wants to keep my attention.

4 episodes in, it has the same cookie-cutter, standard, vanilla plot typical of most other romance anime (e.g. The Dangers in My Heart). Once you have seen one, you have seen them all.

An amazing execution could have make up for its ordinary premise, but with a slow-burn romance that takes forever to develop, I got bored out of my mind. I'd rather spend my time watching past top-rated anime.

Past Seasons

I finished watching 3 amazing anime last week, all deserving of a score of 9 / 10.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin

I think this may be the best entry point into UC (i.e. mainline) Gundam.

All the other Gundam anime throw you into the war right away, then reveal the politics driving the war bit by bit.

The Origin did a 180 on the above formulae, showing the politics first, and various events in chronological order in the lead-up to war.

Doing so takes the focus away from the cool robots and instead be in-your-face with its core message: war is bad.

It helps that it has a relatively short runtime, compared to the 50 episodes of a typical Gundam anime.

The revenge subplot reminds of Vinland Saga. In their quest for revenge, the vengeful caused so much collateral suffering. All it does is maintain the cycle of hatred and violence.

BanG Dream! Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast -

This anime is a band anime just like how Grand Blue is a diving anime. (In case you haven't watch Grand Blue, it is not really about diving.)

My experience with Umamusume: Pretty Derby season 2 tells me that it is possible to jump straight into the "sequel" if its story is only loosely connected to its prequel. This heuristic worked; I was able to follow the story despite dropping BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! after the first few episodes.

Most importantly, Ave Mujica was able to keep me hooked and wanting for more. There are so much twists and drama (though it can get quite edgy at times). With its focus on the entertainment industry, I find that it is way more similar to Oshi no Ko than any other music anime.

Regarding the characters, those girls need serious psychiatry aid / therapy / counseling.

I was finding it odd that the girls' parental figures are rarely shown given some of the their circumstances. They should have been the first level of support. Turns out,

just like in Oshi no Ko.

No doubt these kind of events happen in real life and these anime are being meta about it. Unfortunately, this kind of drama is so captivating.

Thankfully, this anime is fiction (I hope).

Apocalypse Hotel

I'm not sure how to describe this anime, except that it is very good. It does a bit of everything and does them well.

It reminds me heavily of Frieren. I guess viewers who want more of Frieren sans the fight scenes would enjoy Apocalypse Hotel.

Plan-to-watch

I am going to start watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The thing is, I would rather binge a show, or at least finish up a plotline by watching a few episodes at once.

How should the episodes be split up?

For example, I would consider Frieren episodes 18 to 28 to be an arc, and episode 23 to 26 to be a mini-arc within this arc.