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Bonestorm

Trade with me for Bonestorm or go to hell! (I'm not just being mean its a quote from the show)

BONUS. Management of a Novice Alchemist
https://myanimelist.net/anime/49849/Shinmai_Renkinjutsushi_no_Tenpo_Keiei
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 6.60/10
Best Character: Sarasa Feed

(I couldn't find the OP for this one either)

Premise: Sarasa Feed has trained to become an alchemist in the hopes of having a successful business someday. However, due to a lack of funds, she must start with a run-down shop in a small town.

The Good: Management of a Novice Alchemist is a fantasy anime about a girl who starts an alchemy shop. It had a similar feel to the Atelier video games (though I've only finished one of those so I'm hardly an expert). Sarasa needs to balance her income and expenses, gather ingredients, craft new products, and battle monsters. She also has to get to know everyone in town, and she quickly befriends a girl named Lorea to help run the shop and two gatherers named Iris and Kate. Some parts of this are close to cute girls slice-of-life, but it also has serious monster battles and business dealings. I enjoyed the overall vibe of this anime. Each episode ended with a screen tallying her cashflow, and it was fun following along with her successes and failures.

The Bad: Personally, I felt that Sarasa was too overpowered. I'm a big fan of characters having different strengths and contributing in their own way, but Sarasa was a one-woman army. In addition to her alchemy skills, she also had infinite magic, business acumen, and she's an expert swordsman. Iris and Kate should've been the warriors of the group, and it would've been nice if Lorea was the more business-minded one. Instead, Sarasa was the one doing everything. It didn't ruin the anime or anything, but it was definitely disappointing for me.

Overall: Management of a Novice Alchemist was fun and a nice anime to watch. Still, for me it'll end up being either a high 4/10 or low 5/10, meaning it was solidly below average. I enjoyed seeing Sarasa run a business, and the characters were all decent. She was just too overpowered for my tastes, which undercut a lot of the tension and made Iris and Kate especially feel superfluous. It was a nice anime, but definitely not anywhere near my favorite of the season.

Jingle

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Now for the thrilling conclusion of me briefly considering whether I'm interested in Winter 2023 anime

Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister- this is the second anime next season where a guy gets turned into a girl against his will. This time it's a perverted guy who gets transformed because of a mad science experiment. I have zero faith this concept will be handled tastefully, so I won't watch it.

Farming Life in Another World- another isekai harem farming fantasy adventure. I learned my lesson after this season's Farm-Skills anime and won't watch this one.

Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte- the description for this confuses me. I guess people from the real world are communicating with a dating sim hero to try and change the outcome of the game? I appreciate the pun in calling the villainess Lieselotte, but other than that this doesn't interest me. I'll wait for that yuri villainess anime.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire- this one combines next season's trends! It's a concept that really sounds like an isekai but it isnt, and it involves a guy turning into a girl. I'll probably skip this one.

My Life as Inukai-san's Dog- a guy gets turned into a hot girl's dog. This is probably someone's fetish, but it isnt mine so I'll skip it.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague- a guy with ice powers works an office job and has a crush on a coworker. You know what, this actually sounds like it could be fun. I'll try it out.

Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible- this sounds like a cute story of a shy boy befriending a girl. I'll check it out

Spy Classroom- a spy girl who failed her exam gets some sort of hopeless assignment. This could be good, but I think I'll wait and see what reception it gets. The 'harem' tag on MAL makes me wary.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten- generic slobby main dude gets cared for by wish-fulfillment hot girl, ugh. I'll definitely skip this.

Tomo-chan is a Girl- tomboy girl tries to make her crush realize she's a romantic option. I dunno, I guess I'll check this out but I'm not excited about it.

Anime I'll check out, ordered by excitement:
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea
Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari
The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague
Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible
Giant Beasts of Ars
The Fire Hunter
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady
Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement
Tomo-chan is a Girl
Mou Ippon
Buddy Daddies

Eleven anime sound interesting enough, which is good, but a lot of those still feel pretty meh. Way too much quasi-isekai fantasy junk next season.

Bonestorm

Time for an airing anime nobody cares about!

BONUS. I've Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills
https://myanimelist.net/anime/51128/Noumin_Kanren_no_Skill_bakka_Agetetara_Nazeka_Tsuyoku_Natta
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 5.89/10
Best Character: Ruri

(I couldn't find the OP or ED, but you aren't missing much)

Premise: Al Wayne has maxed out his farming abilities and unlocked a unique skill that gave him a huge stat boost. Now he needs to help battle strong monsters even though he'd much rather be working in his fields.

The Good: Farm-Skills (I'm not writing out the whole title) is a fantasy anime. It isn't an isekai and it isn't set in a video game, but everyone has stat screens they can open to see their level and exp, so I dunno. Maybe anime has just gotten so lazy as a medium that they can't even bother going through the motions of isekai-ing the protagonist anymore. In any case, this anime wasn't very good. The nicest thing I can say is that at least it wasn't bad as it could've been! I didn't hate any of the characters. The action and animation were passable. Al's focus on being a farmer rather than an adventurer was occasionally charming.

The Bad: Al claimed he was a farmer first and an adventurer second, but you wouldn't be able to tell if he didn't keep saying it. Most of the plot was just him going on boring adventures fighting goofy monsters. There was an awful running gag where orcs kept trying to have sex with him, ugh. While most of the girls were decent, they were all dragged down by being in a harem for such a boring protagonist. I also really hated how Al was described as super-powerful, but he also struggled against most enemies. The show should've picked one or the other and stuck with it. It was hard to take any tension seriously when I kept wondering why Al couldn't just smoke the bad guy in one punch like he had in previous battles.

Overall: Farm-Skills is a typical bargain-bin fantasy anime. That was what it set out to be, though, so I can't hold that against it. The one to truly blame is me for watching it in the first place. There just weren't very many other anime to choose from this season! Maybe I should've watched Reincarnated as a Sword instead. In any case, at least Farm-Skills wasnt terrible. It'll rank a low 3/10 alongside forgettable junk like How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, but at least it isn't a 2/10 alongside The Master of Ragnarok. Al's love for farming was just barely charming enough to be mildly entertaining.

Jingle

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Bonestorm

If you mean expectations from before I started the thing at all (as opposed to starting something, realizing I hate it, but forcing myself to finish it anyway) then I actually don't do this very often. With anime, for example, I've watched plenty of shows I expected to be mediocre, but it takes more than that for me to dislike them. All the ones I disliked are ones I had high hopes for!

BONUS. BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense
https://myanimelist.net/anime/38790/Itai_no_wa_Iya_nano_de_Bougyoryoku_ni_Kyokufuri_Shitai_to_Omoimasu
Winter 2020 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 7.55/10 S1
Best Character: Honjou Kaede/Maple
Recommended by: @WhiteLens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS8YwJ9FIrY

Premise: Honjou Kaede starts playing a new VR MMO, and she puts all her stats into defense so that she won't get hurt. This, along with a lucky combination of skills, winds up making her character Maple one of the strongest in the game!

The Good: Bofuri is an action comedy set in a video game fantasy world. The setting reminded me of Sword Art Online, and it was nice exploring a VR MMO like that without any life-threatening stakes. Maple is just having fun playing the game. There's always something new to find in New World Online. It would be a lot of fun to actually play a game like this where players can stumble across quests or dungeons that bestow wholly unique skills or gear. I loved the sense of discovery when Sally found that underwater dungeon early on, and of course Maple encountered so many things it became a running joke.

The comedic moments in Bofuri were usually pretty great. Maple and her friends are all good people having fun. Maple herself especially always got a laugh out of me when her kindhearted friendliness contrasted with her latest game-breaking skill. The events were also a neat way to keep the story flowing. The one where players hunted for coins was my favorite. This wound up being just a nice anime that was a lot of fun to watch.

The Bad: While the game in Bofuri looks like it would be fun to play regardless, I feel like the balance could use some work! People would eventually get tired of a small handful of elites hogging all the special skills and unique events to themselves. Each new superpower that Maple found felt less and less special, like they were just another to throw in the pile. This first season didn't go too far with it, not quite, but I'm worried the second season might if the trend continues.

Overall: I'm glad I finally watched Bofuri. I'm at the point where I tend to skip past shows that look like yet another generic isekai. That means I miss out on gems like this that aren't actually isekai at all! Maple was a fun character, and it was always interesting seeing her explore the world and use new skills in creative ways. The other characters she met were good too. The game was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing what would happen in it. Thanks for recommending this, WhiteLens! It'll probably wind up in the lower half of my top 100, a solid 7/10. I'm looking forward to seeing where the upcoming second season takes Maple next.

Jingle

Bonestorm

Jingle

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BONUS. March Comes in Like a Lion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31646/3-gatsu_no_Lion
Fall 2016 (22 episodes), Fall 2017 (22 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.39/10 S1, 8.94/10 S2
Best Character: Hayashida Takashi
Recommended by: @changmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKWqPXkLgzY

Premise: Kiriyama Rei became a professional shogi player in middle school, and now he faces intense pressure to succeed despite his own self-doubts. Luckily, he befriends the Kawamoto family, three sisters who provide an uplifting presence in his life.

The Good: March Comes in Like a Lion is a drama anime about shogi. It mostly follows Rei, exploring his past traumas, his present mindset, and where he hopes to go in the future. I thought he was an interesting character. His family situation forced him to try become independent as soon as possible just so he could escape it. This left him with mental scars, which is an obvious detriment in a mental game like shogi. It often became difficult to watch, but this was still a very realistic depiction of depression. Still, my favorite things about this anime were the lighter parts. The Kawamoto sisters were (usually) happy and fun. My favorite character was still Rei's supportive teacher, Hayashida. He was a good dude, and easily the funniest character. The production values in this were also very high quality, and the animation was relentlessly unique. Even when I didn't enjoy parts of the story, it was at least still visually striking.

The Bad: While I found Rei's inner turmoil interesting and realistic, and the lighter parts with the Kawamoto family were good, there were large sections of this anime that didn't appeal to me at all. I never cared about shogi. I just couldn't follow the flow of the matches. Whether a character won or lost seemed 100% tied to their mental state, so very little effort was spent trying to make the game itself entertaining. I had a similar complaint when I watched The Queen's Gambit awhile back, though, so maybe stories about these kinds of games just aren't my thing. They certainly lack the fun visual element something like Chihayafuru has with the card-smacking!

Other than that, March Comes in Like a Lion was just too dramatic and bleak for me. I really hated Rei's evil stepsister Kyouko, like every time she was onscreen the show became awful. Gotou, her abusive lover, was somehow even worse than she was. Every time they appeared, the Crunchyroll comments would have someone saying "wow, I really sympathize with Kyouko/Gotou now" and... that never happened for me. Everything they did, and everything I learned about them, just made me hate them more. There was also a long plotline in the second season that I can only describe as miserable. Shows like this are why I'm wary of the iyashikei tag on MAL. It's supposed to stand for 'healing', but large parts of this anime hurt me instead.

Overall: I cant claim that March Comes in Like a Lion is a bad anime. The visual flair was great and the writing was clearly intricate and well thought out. Sadly, most of it just didn't appeal to me. I liked Rei, and I enjoyed the uplifting supporting characters like the Kawamotos or his teacher. I never felt invested in the shogi, however, and most of the drama was too much for me. I can see why this would resonate with other people, but it wasn't my thing. Still, I'm glad that I watched it! Thanks for the recommendation, changmas. This will most likely get a low ranking, but it'll be in good company alongside other beloved anime like Violet Evergarden and Sound Euphonium. That whole section of the ranking is full of shows that seemingly everyone loves except for me, so I'm most likely the crazy one.

Bonestorm

Deadline for recommendations: January 1st

Just in case there are any stragglers waiting to pick an anime! That's the day Monster will hopefully become available, and I should be done pretty much everything else by then except maybe the Funimation ones (I want to do those last so I can hopefully squeeze in a few other anime during the free trial. I'll finally be able to finish Classroom Crisis!)

With airing anime beginning to end, I'm going to be able to start doing a write-up every weekday, including one later today. I'll probably miss the Monday/Tuesday after Christmas, but other than that they should be daily until the ranking ends in mid-January. Thank you for your patience while I continue to finish recommendations!

Sceptilesolar posted...

As an unofficial recommendation, considering the shows you've liked, have you thought about trying a season of Precure? I'm about halfway through Tropical-Rouge as my first season and it's fun. Good main characters (especially Laura), good jokes, monster of the week fights are still entertaining.

I remember someone suggested a Precure to me a few years ago, but I don't remember which one. I'm definitely interested in giving it a try, I'd just need to do some research on it first. I don't know which order to watch in (or if they're all standalone and it doesn't matter)

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Creature

Continuing my look into next season's non-sequel anime

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement- another isekai, but it at least sounds different from most. Girl can move between real world and isekai world, trying to make money. Eh, what the hell, I'll at least check it out.

Buddy Daddies- MAL has nothing written about this, but it's a PA Works original so I'll at least check it out.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady- surprisingly, this isn't an isekai. It's two girls living together researching magic. Could be fun yuri-bait, I'll check it out.

Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World- a bunch of bitter reject adventures try to make money. This is also surprisingly not an isekai, that's great. Anime has finally realized you can just have a fantasy world, a Japanese dude doesn't need to transport there. Anyway, this could be fun as a comedy, but that isn't one of the tags on MAL so this will probably be all bleak and serious. I'll wait and see what reception it gets.

Kaina of the Great Snow Sea- set in a world of eternal snow and giant trees, sounds cool. It's also about two girls from different places meeting and getting to know each other, which sounds great. This is easily the one I'm most excited for so far

Chillin' in my 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army- average guy moves to village and it turns out he's actually super strong! This also apparently isn't an isekai but it may as well be for how basic that idea is. I'll skip it.

The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World- ultra powerful teen hero saves the world then retires and goes to school, but there's a conspiracy of some sort. That sounds okay I guess, but I'm not a huge fan of ultra powerful heroes. I'll skip this and wait to see what reception it gets.

Handyman Saitou in Another World- handyman isekai, and proof they're fast running out of unique ideas. I'll skip this.

Akayashi Triangle- guy gets turned into a girl by a spirit. This has the ecchi tag so I can already guess it'll be full of weird fanservice and not much else. I'll skip this one.

The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World- another power-fantasy isekai, ugh. I'll skip this one too.

Anime I'll check out, ordered by excitement:
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea
Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari
Giant Beasts of Ars
The Fire Hunter
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady
Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement
Mou Ippon
Buddy Daddies

I'm really excited for Kaina because it has a neat fantasy world concept. I'm significantly less excited about everything else so far. Lots of non-isekai fantasy shows, which is nice, but where are the cute girl comedies? Mou Ippon is about judo girls, maybe it will be cute. I'll finish the rest of the shows another day

EDIT: Oh, Kaina isn't about two girls. Oh well. In my defense, Kaina sounds like a girls name. I'm also not looking super deeply at any of these.

Bonestorm

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Bonestorm

Creature

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Why are you skipping sequels?

Either I've seen the earlier seasons and already know if I want to watch it or not, or I haven't and all I'd have to say is "oh another season of this". It's a lot more exciting to look at the all-new shows!

This is absolutely a week or two early, but I'm dying of boredom at work so I started looking at Winter 2023. I'm skipping sequels (and video games, sorry Trails and Nier), starting from least members on MAL.

UniteUp- a male idol anime with literally nothing written in the description on MAL. I'll skip this one.

Mou Ippon- girls in a judo club. I'll probably give this a try at least, I'm always down for another cute girls club anime, but I'm not especially excited about judo.

Technoroid: Overmind- another male idol anime with a description that mostly just confused me. I'll skip this one.

Giant Beasts of Ars- humans and gods and giant monsters? Plot description is a bit vague, but I'll give it a try.

The Fire Hunter- a fantasy world where people need to hunt fire spirit monsters for warmth. Sounds like it could be neat, I'll give it a try.

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale- a girl wants to be a Silver Sugar Master. I... don't know what that is. In any case, she buys an enslaved fairy to be her bodyguard. I'm not sure what to make of this one, it sounds intriguing and unique but it could also be terrible. I'll wait and see what reception it gets.

Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari- at last, the continuation of the Monogatari series! Sadly, this isn't actually that. It's a fantasy about spirits inhabiting objects. I usually like this kind of story, so I'll give it a shot.

Revenger- assassins try to get to the bottom of assassination plot. I dunno, this sounds kind of generic and boring.

Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill- the first of what I'm sure will be many isekai anime next season. This one is about a guy with a food skill who impresses a powerful being. I dunno, I'm guessing this will probably just be food porn, so I'll probably skip it.

Anime I'll check out, ordered by excitement:
Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari
Giant Beasts of Ars
The Fire Hunter
Mou Ippon

I'll do more another day. None of these have blown me away so far.

Bonestorm

From what I've read elsewhere, apparently that new villainess anime is an actual yuri story. Like, main girl is openly a lesbian, it isnt just confined to subtext like it usually is. That makes me excited for it. I'm still waiting for a great yuri anime that has actual romance (unlike Adachi and Shimamura) and isn't a toxic nightmare (like Citrus). Here's hoping the literal villainess is a nicer person than Mei...

In other news, I finished Romantic Killer recently, and I thought it was pretty good! It used plots typical to the genre to set up a lot of fun moments, and Anzu was a great character.

Creature

(This came out recently, so it counts as an airing anime! I'll try to finish a real recommendation this week too)

BONUS. Romantic Killer
https://myanimelist.net/anime/52865/Romantic_Killer
Fall 2022 (12 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.17/10
Best Character: Hoshino Anzu

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1gJM9-d6OM8

Premise: Unlike most high school girls, Hoshino Anzu only cares about video games, chocolate, and her beloved cat. She has no time for romance, at least not until a strange wizard named Riri steals her three joys away and forces her into a real-life dating sim!

The Good: Romantic Killer is a romantic comedy. What makes it unique is that Anzu knows that's the genre her life has turned into, and she refuses to go along with it. She was perfectly happy just lazing around playing games and eating chocolate. Anzu becomes enraged when Riri steals it all away and thrusts her into a real-life dating game. The annoying little wizard starts altering reality to force romantic encounters with hunky boys. However, in addition to being put off by how manipulative this is for herself and the guys involved, Anzu refuses to go along purely out of spite.

Romantic comedies are hit-or-miss for me. My #1 anime is one, but there are also a bunch that were too dramatic that I didn't like. Thankfully, Romantic Killer is one of the fun ones. It mostly uses the genre expectations to set up funny or cute moments. It helps that Anzu is such a great character. Her violent fury towards Riri was usually hilarious, and I loved all the jokes where she saw a typical romance plot coming and did her best to avoid it. She refused to get involved in any dumb drama, and I appreciated how aware she was that the guys were essentially being manipulated against their will. Whenever she interacted with them normally, though, Anzu was always a friendly and genuine person. She definitely won me over! As for the boys, Tsukasa was my favorite. He and Anzu had a fun dynamic with lots of cute moments as they grew closer.

The Bad: There was one dramatic arc in this that wasn't as bad as it could've been, but it still felt unnecessary and was easily my least favorite part. Beyond that, Riri was a bit too annoying sometimes. He was designed to be, and it set up a lot of great moments where Anzu yelled or smacked him. He was still a bit much at times.

Overall: Romantic Killer used romantic comedy plots and expectations in ways that were always a lot of fun. It had cute moments with minimal drama, which is perfect for someone like me who hates the misunderstandings that often plague the genre. Anzu was an amazing character who was always true to herself, and I liked her a lot. Riri could get annoying at times, but he was never bad enough to drag things down too much. Overall, this was a nice anime. Like the recommendations, I'm not giving airing anime a score or ranking just yet, but this will most likely end up a 7/10 and rank near My Dress-Up Darling, another great rom-com that avoided the usual pitfalls of the genre.

EDIT: Whoops, I linked to the MAL page for Beastars for a few minutes because that was the one I copied for the format. Fixed now

It feels like there's a different villainess anime every season now. I should check one out someday, see if they're any good

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Creature

Bonestorm

I got partway through episode 14 of Psycho Pass and now I'm going to drop it. It was genuinely intriguing early on, but starting with episode 11 it became so fucking stupid, and it just keeps getting worse. The scene in 14 where mask guy beat a woman to death with a hammer while a whole crowd watched, and even enjoyed the spectacle was so gross that I immediately stopped watching. This show is beginning to incorporate all of the worst aspects of a lot of my most hated anime. It had the shitty pointless shock value of Gantz or Inuyashiki, literally my bottom two. It also had a society where the flaws are just so blatant that I can't accept that it could really exist in any capacity. It reminded me of Death Parade in that regard. Both it and Psycho Pass were clearly about exploring flaws in a broken system, but it doesn't work for me when the flaws are super obvious. I mean, why even bother exploring it when the flaws are this blatant? What's the big theme here? Don't trust a computer with judging life and death? Okay, I promise I won't. I just can't get invested or enjoy any of this.

@HBJDubs
Sorry for the bad feelings for one of your favorite anime. I still appreciated the recommendation! I just have a very low tolerance for this kind of feel-bad shock value. You can feel free to recommend something else, if you want, and I hope I haven't offended you. Like I've said before, not every show can appeal to everyone. Psycho Pass just really wasn't for me.

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Creature

Bonestorm

Creature

Sumo Santa

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Bonestorm

Creature

Sumo Santa

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Bonestorm

I won't finish a recommendation this week, I was an idiot and started Psycho Pass alongside Code Geass and I'm nowhere near finishing either. I am slowly working through them, though!

Since the final ranking won't be done until sometime in January now, I wanted to ask if people would be interested in me doing write-ups for the ten currently airing shows that I'm watching. Then I could include them in the final ranking as well. They'll start finishing over the next few weeks.

MartinFF7 posted...

Being it's got 74 episodes, I'll need a 2nd person to join me in nominating it.

Maniac seemed willing to recommend Code Geass too. Unless there's something else Maniac decides on, I could put him under Geass and LotM could join you on Monster (which he said was his preference). It isn't coming to Netflix until the 1st, though, so it'll probably be one of the last ones I watch!