Quick reviews of what I watched before the season starts to close. Not that I have much to say about any of them. A few were great, most were forgettable.
Great:
- This Monster Wants to Eat Me - Easily my favorite this season. The show is very well made, especially how the characters are portrayed. It did have a slow start but that's just the kind of show it is. Very character and situation driven. Each episode enhances the situation, characters, inherent conflict, etc.
- Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! - Second favorite of the season. The characters have good chemistry, the concept is fun. I enjoyed every episode.
Good:
- Lvl 9999 gatcha... - I did not expect much from this, but it has been surprisingly enjoyable. It has its issues, but the characters are fun and varied, the pacing is not too bad, and there seems to be real world building... alright, I actually picked up the LN for this, and it does have good world building and the plot progression has remained consistent so far.
- A Gatherer's Adventure in Isekai - I thought this would be a boring, slice of life, travel anime, but something about it works for me. The characters and sub plots are nothing spectacular, but interesting enough and work well together.
- Isekai Quartet3 - Carries on from the others. Always fun to see these different characters interact.
Just Ok: -My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's - I'm not sure why I am still watching this. The current arc is dragging on way to long, the previous elf arc was terrible, there has been little story progression, just hints of a bigger plot.
- May I Ask For One Final Thing? - This just never clicked for me. The concept is fun, and I generally enjoy the whole dumped otome heroine/villaness sub genera, but nothing about the story or the characters works for me.
- The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest - Another over played concept, but it avoids some of the worse tropes. The former party leader does grow up and recognize his mistakes. The MC actually knows he is strong. It's above average for this sort of anime.
- Dad is a hero, Mom is a spirit, I'm a reincarnator - Dropped, then picked back up and binged through quickly one afternoon when bored... probably should have left it dropped.
- Mechanical Marie - The concept is fun, its just a bit too plain. The romance is barely more than a crush. The humor does not hit often enough.
- The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess - There are a lot of these reincarnated in an otome game with a twist sort of shows. The twist is different enough in this one that it carries the show. I'd have dropped it early on if I did not enjoy seeing the main character constantly flustered trying to deal with the consequences of becoming the villainess in the world of her own childhood dark fantasies.
In my part of the US they seem to be rare in houses but common in churches, at least Methodist churches.
Four candles for the Sundays before Christmas. Most have purple candles for three Sundays but one pink one typically lit on the third Sunday. Most also have a more prominent, central, white. christ candle that is lit for Christmas eve services and Christmas day. Some churches then remove the wreath but continue lighting that candle until later in the church year.
Typically a family will be asked to light the candles for each service and recite a reading.
The candles/days are usually themed: Hope, peace, joy, then love. Sometimes they are associated with characters from the story. E.g. pink being Mary's candle.