I'm in for 5 shows for now to start, we'll see how many make it the full distance but seems promising.

Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance - I am a stupid die-hard who remains a fan of the franchise in spite of the fact that everything post StrikerS has only been okay at BEST. Still, episode 1 gives me some hope. I also binged through the Nanoha EXCEEDS manga in preparation, which takes place right before the anime. My only complaint is that base on Shiina's design, it seems this is going to kind of preempt StrikerS in this continuity given the couple of notable things she's yoinked from Teana's design.

Sekai Saikyou no Kouei (World's Strongest Rearguard) - I'm an existing fan from the LN and Manga. It seems like standard average isekai harem slop, and in some aspect it is, but it executes as a very JRPG dungeon crawler. This isn't high art but it's a comfortable series I have a lot of fondness for, so I'm hoping it's a good adaptation.

Tai-Ari deshita. ~Ojou-sama wa Kakutou Game Nante Shinai~ - To riff on a previous season, it's Fighting Games as a Lady's Modesty, but actually tagged GL.

Youjo Senki II - Been waiting awhile to see more of this. This season should be interesting as it's moving into more of the arc of her going to have to come to terms with the fact that this is an unwinnable war for the Empire, no matter how well she does.

The Ghost in the Shell - Manga fans have apparently finally been happy, as this adaptation should hew closest to that version of the Major. I'm keeping an open mind as someone who loved Stand Alone Complex.

>The Ghost in the Shell - Manga fans have apparently finally
>been happy, as this adaptation should hew closest to that version of
>the Major. I'm keeping an open mind as someone who loved Stand Alone
>Complex.

It doesn't just hew close. It's practically a line-by-line adaptation of the first chapter and a bit of the manga.

Wait shit Nanoha EXCEED is getting an anime?! WOO!

And Worlds Strongest Rearguard?! I've been reading that for years!

The Ghost In The Shell's first episode was really dense, especially in the first three minutes, but I suspect you aren't supposed to be trying to read all of that live in one go. The first episode is basically the entire first chapter (plus the prologue pages), so I'm left to presume the rest of the ten episode series is going to be about one chapter per episode.

If there's one thing wrong with stuff written by Masamune Shirow, it's that his things are very *dense* and thus the pacing is....at times a bit wonky. His ideas really kind of benefitted from Mamoru Oshii's deliberateness, (which everything post original movie built off of) but Oshii's approach also took away quite a lot of the Major's personality in the process. And I mean, it worked? It gives the full cyborgs this kind of inhuman philosophy and outlook to everything that humans do, which is kind of really interesting but at the same time is....not really that fun.

I enjoyed the LN for World's Strongest Rearguard but I've been disappointed so far by the anime adaptation. It doesn't seem to be very animated and I was tuning out by the end of the first episode

Tefuda ga Oome no Victoria is something I liked in LN and is working well in the anime. It's a shoujo, and the set up is not unlike SpyXFamily: a secret agent adopts a little girl and establishes a found family. However, its not a comedy and our protagonist Victoria isn't on a mission: she's retired and in hiding.

Dogulwang aka Tomb Raider King seems promising. The setting is similar to solo levelling but our protagonist got a do-over rather than a power up. I looks like it'll tap into the same Korean fantasy of 'one man versus the giant institution'.

All Works Maid is the other main winner for me so far: it's the classic "villainess" isekai, except the protagonist is the heroine - she, the prince and the villainess are ALL reborn into a game, but she knows nothing of it and follows her past life's goal to be the 'Greatest Maid in the World!!' while the prince and villainess are very worried that the heroine isn't there to save the world from the dark lord.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-11-26 AT 05:54 PM (EDT)
 
>I enjoyed the LN for World's Strongest Rearguard but I've been
>disappointed so far by the anime adaptation. It doesn't seem to be
>very animated and I was tuning out by the end of the first episode
>

I can't say anything good about the animation, but that just means it isn't great. As for the plot, they spent a lot of effort front-loading the LitRPG aspects. I'm hoping it picks up in episode two.

>
>Tefuda ga Oome no Victoria is something I liked in LN and is working
>well in the anime.
>

argh it's out i missed the first episode thanks for the review must go watch after replying

>
>Dogulwang aka Tomb Raider King seems promising.
>
>It looks like it'll tap into the same Korean fantasy of 'one
>man versus the giant institution'.
>

Yes, it seems like it's drawing from all the Korean tropes that Solo Leveling used. Still looks fun.

>
>All Works Maid is the other main winner for me so far:
>

I'm loving this one. She's a totally overpowered character, and she uses it to disguise herself, and create a few hundred Melody Wave₁ clones₂ just so she can clean things up. Oh, and to hunt for wild bird meat.

Peter Eng
--
1: ("Amy? Are you all right?" "Fine, Rory...just a touch of nervousness for some reason.")
2: ("Option two: Clone me.")

I've written about a couple of these before in the LN thread on another mutual site, so semi-reposting thoughts now that they're relevant again

>I enjoyed the LN for World's Strongest Rearguard but I've been
>disappointed so far by the anime adaptation. It doesn't seem to be
>very animated and I was tuning out by the end of the first episode

:snicker: For this one people observed that there was animation at one point when Kyouka was on screen. Hopefully they were just saving budget this episode.

>Tefuda ga Oome no Victoria is something I liked in LN and is working
>well in the anime. It's a shoujo, and the set up is not unlike
>SpyXFamily: a secret agent adopts a little girl and establishes a
>found family. However, its not a comedy and our protagonist Victoria
>isn't on a mission: she's retired and in hiding.

It's josei as hell, not shoujo. In fact, it's so pure josei that I occasionally struggled to be interested as I'm not strictly the target audience for that. I enjoyed the first volume enough back in the day but the second volume after it came back kind of started losing me.

>All Works Maid is the other main winner for me so far: it's the
>classic "villainess" isekai, except the protagonist is the heroine -
>she, the prince and the villainess are ALL reborn into a game, but she
>knows nothing of it and follows her past life's goal to be the
>'Greatest Maid in the World!!' while the prince and villainess are
>very worried that the heroine isn't there to save the world from the
>dark lord.

This one I read the first volume for and tapped out. It's fine but it's whole gimmick is butterflies/very long chains of coincidences changing big things over and over and I just didn't think it was very artful in what it was doing and didn't really care for that as a plot device. An anime adaptation might smooth that over but I'm already watching enough this season that I'll just pass for now.

So far, I'm not sure I have anything outstanding that hasn't been mentioned already.

However, I dropped Iron Wok Jan so forcefully, it should have dented my desk.

The first few minutes are very Tell, Don't Show. They introduce the entire kitchen staff in what feels like name-dumping. This restaurant is supposed to be the best in its area, but they skim over that with a brief mention.

And then, the protagonist comes in and is an asshole.

This may be one of those shows that gets better, but I didn't have it in me to stick around.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

The big problem with IWJ (the second ep isn't much better than the first) is that while it's interesting from a historical perspective and the animation on the cooking is well done, Jan himself is so annoying that despite the attempt to give him some depth by adding past trauma, you sort of check out when he starts cackling and fast-forward to the food porn.

Basically, IMO, the later anime FOOD WARS did it better, at least for most of that run. And not just because of the fan-service... I simply cared more about the characters.

I forgot about Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You. This is about as iyashikei as it gets. Sasaki is an overworked man who relies on the smile of Yamada, a cashier at the local supermarket, to lighten his load.

Then, one night, he arrives too late and Yamada's gone, so he goes for his second-best stress relief in a cigarette. Except nearly the entire neighborhood is a no-smoking area, with the exception of the supermarket loading dock.

That's where he meets Tayama. She dresses like a delinquent, and has no problem with him sitting there and smoking for a while. At least, not after she confirms that he doesn't keep going to Yamada's line to be a pervert.

And so, we watch them talk, with Sasaki either unaware or deliberately not realizing that Tayama is Yamada.

Half the season was released early as mini-episodes, which is part of why this one slipped my mind - it feels like watching reruns.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.