It’s time for a new general discussion thread! Hot takes, recommendations, questions, cautionary tales, all of it is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
The season’s picking up a little bit now, which is nice, but I’d like to take a moment to dump my reviews for all the stuff that didn’t get threads and I won’t be continuing:
Beheneko
This anime ended up being even bolder and more horny than I had imagined, and was more direct about its bestiality as well. Even so, it seemed like it had basically nothing else to offer, and it didn’t seem like it was willing to go far enough to satisfy the people who are into That Kind of Thing, so I gave it a 1/5. It sounds like I’ve since been proven wrong and it is willing to escalate, so hopefully y’all get the fantasy RPG version of Inukai-san’s Dog that you dreamed of
Bogus Skill [Fruitmaster]
OP power fantasy wish fulfillment slop with no particular strengths. It was very frustrating to watch the main character realize he can eat as many skill fruits as he wants and then not eat any of the giant pile he had sitting in his living room. I give it a 2/5. Also, I’ve heard that a more accurate translation of the title would be “Nutmaster”
Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time
Extremely dull and painfully slow. It briefly teased that something interesting was going to happen when it cut to the heroes who were supposed to be summoned, but that scene lasted about 90 seconds and at the end of the episode they revealed it was a flash forward to a year in the future, so we probably won’t get more for a while. I give it a 1/5 and will probably never think about it again. The spider was very cute and good, though (until it talked).
Headhunted to Another World
I could feel the lack of budget in basically every scene of this anime, and that’s sort of impressive when the concept mostly calls for diplomacy scenes. The soundtrack also stuck out to me at a couple points as being the wrong tone for the scene. There’s just so little effort put in that it drags down what I’m sure is a perfectly fine story - if this seems interesting, probably check out the manga. 2/5.
Sorairo Utility
Sports anime is very much not my thing, same with CGDCT, but this was nice. It sort of bothered me that the main character goes around trying to find something she can be “the main character” at and “unlock hidden skills” or whatever, and no one thinks to sit her down and say, like “you have to make your own story by finding something you want to develop skills at”, but maybe we’ll get there. Overall, not great, but good enough. 3/5.
Sorairo Utility might not be my thing, but it at least is the kind of project that I like to see getting made. It was originally a single episode OVA that somebody out there believed enough in to turn around and produce into a whole show. I love the big name adaptations as much as the next person, but I like to see these more original, passion type projects as well.
Absolutely, I love to see original anime and wish there were a lot more! I actually will be watching a couple more episodes of it, since I like to give a little more leeway to new IP, but I don’t anticipate it actually sticking on my list past that since it’s such a genre anime that is not my genre (but anything can happen, since it’s anime original, lol)