Rottcodd

This series just keeps getting better. The foundation of it is all built on misunderstandings, which are often handled poorly in anime, but these make sense, and they interconnect and overlap in a way that makes for a great story. And the characters keep revealing new layers that also all make sense - they don't feel like contrivances, but simply like the sort of details you discover only after you've gotten to know a person fairly well.

Looking forward to more.

It's kind of strange because that's such a common trope, but it completely caught me off guard in this one. Chokki-chan just doesn't seem like the jealous type.

Though she has changed a lot since the start, and maybe that's the exact point.

If you're interested, the manga goes into much more detail about the history between the sisters.

This series wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it is if it didn't have such a great supporting cast.

Crunchyroll is never going to solve the problem because Crunchyroll is the problem.

Spent part of last week trying to slog my way through Kimi no Iru Machi. I had watched the first episode years ago and thought it looked promising, but had since forgotten the title, though the memory of seeing the episode came back to me from time to time. I finally stumbled on it last week and thought that was serendipity. But it wasn't.

More than anything else, I just couldn't work out how it was that a love polygon had built up around a guy who was such an asshole. He's one of those maddening prideful and self-absorbed male romance leads - thankfully more common in anime's past than its present - who, when he's assailed by the predictable doubts, insecurities and embarrassments of young romance, gets angry and takes it out on the girl. I made it through about four episodes and just couldn't take him any longer.

After poking around a bit, I learned that the anime is a notoriously awful adaptation and the manga is supposedly MUCH better, but I'm not sure I care enough to bother. I'm going to no longer try in vain to remember the title of that anime I just vaguely remember about the guy who moves to Tokyo to pursue the girl who he was sure was the one until she suddenly and inexplicably dumped him, and that's good enough.

As for current stuff:

I'm dropping Nippon Sangoku, sort of. I like it a lot and still plan on watching it, but it's just so packed with intrigue and secrets and is such an unusual universe that I'm not enjoying it episodically as much as I know I would binging it, so I'm going to do that when the season's over.

Akane Banashi is looking like it's going in an unfortunate direction. I don't want to drop it, mostly because I really like Akane herself and the rakugo setting is interesting, but part of the initial appeal was the whole idea of Akane dedicating herself to rakugo at least in large part so that she could get good enough and influential enough to at least figuratively kick the ass of that bitter old prick who expelled her father. But it's looking now like they've just waved the magic wand of incoherent storytelling to transform the bitter old prick into a sweet old guy who just has an undeserved bad reputation, and I can only guess that that's so that the story wouldn't effectively reach an end with Akane's revenge, and will instead settle into a shounen sports style cycle of mini-arcs of new challenges and new challengers with never an end in sight. And that won't hold my interest.

The Ramparts of Ice keeps loading on more and more complication, as this sort of loose group of friends morphs into some sort of love... circle? It sort of reminds me of Kokoro Connect in that it seems that everyone is in love with someone who's in love with someone else who's in love with someone else who's... Except it's thankfully better overall, mostly because the characters are intriguing and complex rather than just fill-in-the-blank stereotypes. I'm really enjoying it.

The Klutz and the Skirt is still a treat. It's just consistently cute and funny and it looks great, so it's just a pleasure to watch.

My Ribdiculous Reincarnation is a pleasure too. It actually pains me to type out that godawful localized title, but the series, aside from that, is a barrel of fun.

Agents of the Four Seasons still has too much unrevealed for this late in the season. At this point, I'm hoping that it's going to keep going at the same pace and get a second season, or better yet a second cour, because the alternatives are that it's going to accelerate to an info-dump end or it's going to just peter out, and I'm enjoying it and don't want that to happen.

The highlight of the week for me, as it has been for most of the season really, was An Observation Log of My Fiancee Who Calls Herself a Villainess. It starts with tropes, but most of the tropes are either lampshaded or defied, the characters, and Bertia especially, are very engaging, it looks great, and it makes me laugh and keeps me interested to see where it's going.

Madoka.

Even after all these years and rewatches, it can still draw me in. And Magia still sends chills up my spine.

That was one of the funniest silences I've ever seen.

Sincerity - the characters are essentially honest about their feelings. They might be confused or insecure or reserved or even terrified, but they're not dishonest.

Consideration - in the end, no matter how frightened or doubtful or awkward they might feel, the other person matters most. Though it's not an anime (yet), that's the thing I like most about Only I Know and the MMC Waku. He goes through all of those standard panicky reactions - the doubt and insecurity and questioning and fear - and then he steels his resolve, and does whatever he thinks will be best for the FMC Oura, because her well-being matters most to him

Growth - the characters can't be perfectly attuned and matched right from the start or there's no story. They have to grow into their roles, and if they don't, then there's still no story (though it takes much longer). One of my favorite moments in Honey Lemon Soda is when Serina - the MMC Kai's ex who's introduced as a potential rival - remarks that the biggest difference between her and the FMC Uka is that being with Kai made her weaker, but it makes Uka stronger.

Genuine problems with genuine solutions - similar to the need for character growth, there must be problems along the way that they have to, and do, overcome. All I ask is that they be genuine problems that those people might genuinely face - not asinine contrivances that just happen because that's the way some dumbass wrote it - and that they be realistically settled through sincere efforts - not just deus ex machina'ed out of existence after the drama has been judged to have gone on long enough.

It strikes me that I've sort of drifted away from "themes"....

In the purest sense of the word "cathartic," absolutely 86. There's nothing - literally nothing, in any media - that's ever touched me the way the last episode of that series does.

Honorable mentions:

In a similar sense, Akudama Drive. It's especially rewarding because with the vividly over-the-top beginning, it doesn't feel like that's the way it's headed, but it is.

In a milder sense, Honey Lemon Soda. There's just something about that series - to me, it's far better and more satisfying than any of its better-known rivals.

In a similar vein to that, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, which as a bonus is visually stunning too.

In a somewhat different sense, the original OVA of Little Witch Academia. It just sweeps me up from the very first frame and doesn't let go until the last.

And in the more traditional sense, say what you might about the series as a whole, but Sword Art Online S01E03 - The Red-nosed Reindeer - is beautifully touching, as is the entire Mother's Rosario arc.

The fujoshis did though.

I'd definitely second 86. When I really want a solid dose of catharsis, there's nothing that even begins to compare with that last episode. I can't even think about it (or, for instance, write about it) without it bringing tears to my eyes.