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.

>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.

In the second episode, they even do a version of.... That Scene. The one that's been redacted from further printings.

My wife, who loves the manga (for a while her online name was MajKusanagi) was very happy with it.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

>In the second episode, they even do a version of.... That Scene. The
>one that's been redacted from further printings.

The one with the note from Shirow in the margin that said something along the lines of, "I made this an all-girl orgy because I didn't want to draw some guy's butt. My God, this is getting crass." ?

:)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

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.

>>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.

They're pacing it a touch differently with regard to Victoria's backstory in the anime, which I think is a good story. In the LN, it's very much from her internal perspective so of course readers know her motive when she thinks about it.

In the anime, there are hints so far, but we know much less than we did at this point of the LN IIRC. It doesn't detract from the plot and gives more mystery, which is very useful for this sort of show.

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.

I've listened to a read-through of The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System. I liked it. It should have been great.

I am becoming worried about Studio Gohands, because they've been using so much filler and recapping (let's recap something that happened five minutes ago!) that I don't know if I've gotten three episodes of plot at this point. I'm pretty sure it isn't up to four episodes worth.

Maybe they'll pick up the pace as the series goes on.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Yeah, the problem with being inexpensive yet producing SO MUCH SO QUICKLY is that it becomes unsustainable for a full 26 episodes. They did longer shows, like Seitokai Yakuindono, but also those were much, much, much simpler productions, without the usual....Gohandsiness.

That said, the manga at least doesn't exactly have a zippy progression either. It's actually possible they're not so much saving money as they are *filling out time* because they don't have the time to do multiple chapters but doing only one only accounts for like two thirds of an episode.

>
>That said, the manga at least doesn't exactly have a zippy progression
>either. It's actually possible they're not so much saving money as
>they are *filling out time* because they don't have the time to do
>multiple chapters but doing only one only accounts for like two thirds
>of an episode.
>

That could explain it. I have no idea how much the read-through abridged the story, so it's possible the reader trimmed some of the fat, resulting in better pacing.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>
>Maybe they'll pick up the pace as the series goes on.
>

I meant to mention this, but they eventually have full episodes without egregious recapping. This makes the fact that this is a two-cour start feel more like a promise than a threat.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Dara-San of Reiwa (Or Reiwa's Dara-san): a landslide prompts two siblings to go out exploring their local cursed/haunted mountain and find a very large (in several ways) six-armed half-snake ghost monster lady. Hijinks and (past) tragedy ensue! -- I started reading the manga for this one about 13 hours ago, quickly decided to watch the anime up to where I've read. It's really good! Though better as the original manga, the anime has skipped or rearranged some things that it then *immediately* references and shows the effects of and for the life of me I don't know why they'd do that.

I've been enjoying this one as well, I just wasn't confident enough to recommend it early on.

Peter Eng
--
"Can you make a beam?"

Though I Am an Inept Villainess surprised me.

It's making the most of its premise - Shu Keigetsu, the villainess, pulls a body swap, and the essential goodness of Reirin comes through in spite of having Shu's reputation to go with Shu's face.

For me, the fun part is watching Reirin just do things. She has a healthy body! She can garden! She can dance! All-nighter to make sure her lone handmaiden has a beautifully embroidered robe? Sure, because this body can take it!

I'm impressed that she offered to reverse the swap when Keigetsu complained of how hard it was to do anything. I know I wouldn't have that as my first thought.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

In the books she's very often:

"I should give the body back, although... No, that would be bad, it's her body, but... Oh this is so tempting but I have to do the right thing! I have to."

Okay, I was totally not expecting to like Keigetsu this much. It's more of a "this poor little puppy needs a forever home after being mistreated" like, compared with Reirin's "I am learning to appreciate life yay!" likeability, but still.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-17-26 AT 07:58 PM (EDT)
 
I've been bored, and it's almost the end of the season, so I figured I'd grab and binge a bunch of the seasons new shows. Here's what I've got so far;

The Ghost In The Shell ended as strong as it started, the whole thing an excellent and faithful adaptation of the manga, broadcast standards allowing. There's some controversy about Israel and Syria being renamed in the show, with everyone apparently blaming Amazon and saying that the LatAM dub was the only one that was true to the manga, but being true to the manga doesn't make it true to the anime. Accurate subs and dubs is all I want, personally, and they say "Goranto" in Japanese, so that's what I want it to say in the english scripts. It's not even that far off, 'Goran' is a japanese way of saying 'Golan', as in the Golan Heights, where Israel is. Anyway, good stuff, 10/10 show, I watched the subs.

The Worlds Strongest Rearguard I've watched all that's out so far (11 episodes) and it's pretty good. If it hadn't been brought up that there wasn't a lot of animation, I wouldn't have noticed - I seldom do, unless I've seen it mentioned and I'm looking for it. It's shocking though how little actual animation there is even in 80's and 90's OAVs; The art style and details hid it all. Take a good close look sometime, and you'll see that a lot of those examples of super detailed amazing animation you see highlighted, particularly tech-wise, are really just static cels being jiggled, slid over one another, is almost entirely lighting, or the actual animation only taking up like a fifth or less of the frame, and thus much cheaper, easier, and faster to animate. It's when cels slide over each other poorly that most people actually take notice. Anyway, been reading the manga for absolute ages, this is pretty good, solid 8/10 I'd say, they'd have to really shit up the landing to lower that score.

The Frontier Lord Begins With Zero Subjects, just started episode 5, As others, been reading the manga for years now, so far it's been pretty faithful to the source as I know it (These adaptations are never of the manga, they're of the Light Novels that the Manga also adapt, so there's bound to be differences. Too early to give it a proper score yet, not even at the halfway point of what's out. Watch this space, perhaps~

Dara-San of Reiwa Been watching this one weekly, and some minor quibbles aside (WHY in the heck did they skip that entire chapter, then go on as if it was always there? What could they possibly be saving it for?) I've been digging the hell out of it. It's weirdly hornier and less so than the manga original - There's a bit less dirty talk from Kaoru in the anime, and fewer pin-up cut-ins, but Dara-san's got....Let's say a bit more anatomy than she does in the manga. Another solid 10/10.

I plan on watching All Maid Works and Girls Don't Play Fighting Games in the next day or two, and finishing up what I've started as I'm able

UPDATE: Finished what's available of Frontier Lord, as expected, it's good stuff! Solid 8/10, maybe higher

Just finished the first episode of All-Works Maid, and god, I love it when somebody is so monomaniacally hyperfocused on a thing that they completely disregard common sense in favor of their autism. (I'm a bit less enthused about the ones where people should know better but just keep misunderstanding simple concepts - it's probably easier to do so in Japanese, because of the many ways to say the same concept, but after the fifteenth time it's often just annoying.) Melody absolutely (mostly) knows better, she just does not care, and I'm here for it. I am forced to wonder just how long they can string this out for though...I've read and watched so many of these that fizzled out thirty or forty chapters in because the author couldn't sustain the premise.

>(I'm a bit less enthused about the ones where people
>should know better but just keep misunderstanding simple
>concepts - it's probably easier to do so in Japanese, because of the
>many ways to say the same concept, but after the fifteenth time
>it's often just annoying.)

In the original English dub of Son of Godzilla, there's a scene where one character explains to another where the name of the kaiju Kamacuras came from. It's a giant praying mantis, and the name is built from the kanji for "giant" and "mantis", but in Japanese they're pronounced differently when made into a compound like that than they would be on their own, so it makes sense that someone would have to explain it.

In English... not so much, but the dub scriptwriter and (standard-issue incredibly wooden) VAs played it absolutely straight, leading to the utter gem of an exchange,

"We call that one Giant Mantis."

"Eh? What's that? Giant Mantis?"

"Yes sir! It's a combination of the words for 'giant' and 'mantis'."

"Aha, Giant Mantis! That's very clever!"

That absolutely disintegrated the late Derek Bacon. Later dubs changed the monster's name to "Gimantis", which is still pretty weak but not as funny. :)

>I've read and watched so many of these that fizzled
>out thirty or forty chapters in because the author couldn't sustain
>the premise.

Jeez, man, I hate authors who do that.

... what? what are you all looking a--

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>
>Jeez, man, I hate authors who do that.
>
>... what? what are you all looking a--
>
>--G.
>

*swat*

Fly buzzing around your head.

Seriously, though: Yes, you have done that. But you aren't writing for pay, just for the love of the creating. I have a few people on Royal Road that I'm annoyed with because they started an interesting series, stubbed it to put out a book via Amazon, and then stopped. I'm still waiting, hoping that they get their game together, and that I still remember enough of the story if they do, but on some level, I'd rather they just left everything viewable than reaching for the money and crashing out.

People who are writing manga? They shouldn't be starting if they don't have some way to end the story. I get the impression that the life of a manga is precarious even when it's popular, so people who write it should be keeping possible exits in mind like they expect to be canceled in twelve months.

As far as this place goes, I imagine that it doesn't help that your co-creators come and go, leaving you with their half-finished story arcs as well as your own. But you're still trying. You might not be Kurt Busiek in terms of fame and pay, but Busiek has left half-finished stories behind him for various reasons, including cancellation, corporate collapse, and health problems that make me wonder if somebody's cursed him - which sounds a bit like your life writ larger, in my opinion.

Anyhow, you get a little more slack, at least from me.

Peter Eng
--
I'm still waiting for that definitive volume on the N-Forcer that Busiek promised when the last Astro City volume ended, which was pre-COVID. *websearch* Holy hells, that was 2018.

It's one reason I try to have a complete outline for a story before I write it, because otherwise I am likely to stall out, unsure where it will end.

I may change the end in the process of writing but if I don't have one in mind then... there probably won't be one.

>It's one reason I try to have a complete outline for a story before I
>write it, because otherwise I am likely to stall out, unsure where it
>will end.
>
>I may change the end in the process of writing but if I don't have one
>in mind then... there probably won't be one.

I've tried it both ways. Neither seems to work out, except in relatively rare cases.

If I had to blame something, I'd blame the fact that my childhood introduction to continuing narrative fiction was American superhero comics, which rarely end--unlike most manga/anime series.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'd say there's a difference between 'fizzling out because they couldn't sustain the premise' and expanding it wildly the way you all did. You didn't suddenly pull out a tournament arc, or a school enrolment, or a demon lord or something like that just because you couldn't keep going with the 'holy shit anime characters come to life this rocks'.

(And before anyone says, 'that happened later', that was *organic* tournament arc, school enrolment, and demon lord events!)