So i did this while back on akp and people seemed to like it. I meant to do it before so it would been more of first impressions, but i have been lazy and now the season is gearing towards the end. Maybe it's better this way, i have more clear image of the series at least ^^
Also before starting, I think this season has been probably best season I have followed in history of anime and i'm just overwhelmed how good the shows are. And it's not even that there is generic stuff, i think most of the popular and good ones this season are actually quite fresh and don't follow boring tropes. Idk if i will just end up recommending everything, but i will at least try to say why sth is great and who i would recommend it to.
The Rising of Shield-hero / Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
So shield hero is probably the most watched series of this season, which isn't that surprising. It's another addition to trending isekai-genre (basically irl human gets spirited away to fantasy world and becomes hero) and what seemed to closely follow tropes of that genre turned itself around a bit with a plottwist middle of first ep which was delicious. This is somewhat darker addition to the genre which is refresshing, but I would actually have liked it to see go darker, regardless of the start i think it mellowed more regular disgraced hero story when i would have loved to see full on anti-hero action with bit more ruthlessness and cunning from protagonists part. Maybe it will get to that later on, it has time to evolve and i'd actually love to see it getting darker rather than lighter. It is still pretty enjoyable show so far, but there is still some fear of it just repeating itself and becoming boring (for me). I will have to give it some minus for falling into some waifu tropes too, been there seen that, yawn. Also I'd say some themes amount slavery can be uncomfortable to some, just for warning. 7 (Good) / 8/25 eps
The Promised Neverland / Yakusoku no Neverland
This is actually horror so despite it first seeming bit wholesome and happy, it's not. I don't usually like horror that much, but this is more of thriller, mystery with some detective action and mind games. There is little to no gore, violence levels are low, there isn't darkness or jump scares, not that regular stuff, but still it keeps the suspense up and makes you nervous. Without wanting to spoil plot too much, it's bunch of kids living in happily in orphanage when one day they find about secret that changes everything. It's simple anime, but executes well and there is nice plottwists even without lot of action actually happening. 9 (Great) / 8/12 eps
Dororo (2019)
Dororo is remake of 60s Dororo anime and Ozamu Tezuka's manga, it looks pretty different, there being exactly 50 years between the two. Not only the look also the story is being reimagined quite lot which has turned out to be good choice- they are making it better. Ozamu, being often dubbed as godfather of manga, is usually known from his stories for kids like Astroy Boy and that's how i have known his stuff too, but this is definitely adult one with darker themes.
Dororo is basically samurai anime with some horror and supernatural themes, that don't go overboard with it, but rather stay within historical japan's demon and fantasy lore. It feels really authentic to that time period not only in story, but also in terms of how it's drawn, what the backgrounds look what colors is being used, it's nice. As for story, it's story of young samurai whose father made deal with demons to give the boys limbs and organs before he was born to them in order to become great warlord. The boy survived, got what he miss replaced by prosphetic and is now in journey to recover what was stolen from him from demons and his father.
I have fell in love with this story quite lot, the premise is quite simple, but i feel like it's pretty emotional and there is quite lot of emotional stuff too not only from main character Hyakkimaru (lol Dororo isn't the main character), but from others too. It gets really dark at times, and wholesome at others. I also like how it's readaption of 60s manga and anime. However they recently gave this ep count of 24 and that's actually half more than I expected, I thought they were going for regular 12-13 eps. It has been really good so far, but I hope they don't drag it on and that it won't become boring. 9 (Great) / 8/24 eps
Kaguya-sama: Love is War / Kaguya-sama wa Kukurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen
God i hate long nonsense names like that, why couldn't they just name this Kaguya similarly as Dororo or sth.. Anyways this show was nothing i expected at first. I was expecting less comedy focus for some reason, but the whole show is practically skits. The eps are divided to different skits too so the plot is bit choppy, but still there, this is choice i was first very against, but now i'm in terms with.
So what is this about? Practically it's about two people who are too proud and full of themselves to confess their love to each other so they try to plot another to confess first. Despite their outer appearances of school elite they both are just dorks. The humor is the main thing about this one, it's quite hit and miss, but when it hits it hits, some skits have been comedy gold. So if you are into rom-coms and what to see bit different dynamic between main couple than usual give it a try. 7 (Good) / 7/12 eps
Manaria Friends
This one is pretty weird one and i have to say bit of disappointment. The eps are short, around 14 mins and there is almost no plot, it's practically fanservice of girls being cute and possibly gay together. The premise of school where both humans and human-like monsters can study sounded pretty interesting and animation turned out being really good, but due to lack of plot I can't say this one is good watch. 5 (Average) / 6/10 eps
Star of the season (as well as anime world): Mob Psycho 100 II
In order to catch up with Mob Psycho I started with first season, the one currently ongoing being second. Ended up loving first season and wondering why the fuck i didn't watch it before and thinking season 2 would continue with same stuff. Expect it didn't- it got better. I have noticed that I get easily bored with some animes, having good start, but then falling to predictable and mundane courses. But with Mob and especially this season you have been bombared with stuff, twists, emotional package, character growth, character relationships, just non-stop to extent it's almost exchausting. My heart was literally beating out of my chest during last ep i watched and it was just thinking the ep through whole evening, eventually had to spoil myself about next ep cause I couldn't find until next week without going crazy. And I think it will just get more emotional and better from here when it heads to season finale.
Bit of background of the man behind this: Mob Psycho is based on ONE's web manga of same name. ONE's story itself is interesting, briefly he was unemployed so he made this web manga One Punch Man for hobby despite not really knowing how to draw. It caught eye of one mangaka that asked if he could redraw it as manga and so he did, it was made into anime based on that manga and gained huge following and popularity. Mob Psycho is ONE's second web manga, he has improved a lot (still not your regular manga) and Mob Psycho's anime is this time based on his manga directly which does show, but in good way. The animation of this series is just mindblowing, the art style can be bit lot for some (it's not your usual pretty boys), but I wouldn't say it's ugly by any means. I think they really took the best out of ONE's manga when turning it to anime.
So the story. Mob, the main character, is 14 year old schoolboy who is not particularly good in anything expect that he's extremely powerful psychic. That doesn't make him happy though, since he sees that behind his psychic talents of telekinesis and such, he is practically nothing so with some encouragement he decides to starts bettering himself, focusing on improving things he feels he lacks. He works with Reigen, self-claimed psychic, to banish evil spirits, joins clubs and gets some friends, meets some bad guys and well just regular things anime boy does, but despite that it's nothing like your regular anime.
I think best of Mob has been how it handles the characters and their relationships. There is lot of growth within characters, and the relationships between characters and how those affect the actual characters get main stage. I don't think any character really follows popular tropes either, like they aren't stereotypical and they are pretty nuanced. Other than that I think the story is pretty much about personal growth. 10 (masterpiece) / 8/13 eps.
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Yup, i had to lot to say about Mob Psycho like I thought, i have been thinking it a lot lately (still fucked over the 8th ep) and it does go to fav animes, probably in top 10 not sure yet about top 5 let's wait until this season finishes ^^
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I'm also continuing SAO: Alicization which has kept itself interesting, Slime anime which i'm getting bit bored with (sorry Ben), Radiant that just finished but was bit all over the place could have been made better and Run with the wind which is finally being good after being boring.
Also before starting, I think this season has been probably best season I have followed in history of anime and i'm just overwhelmed how good the shows are. And it's not even that there is generic stuff, i think most of the popular and good ones this season are actually quite fresh and don't follow boring tropes. Idk if i will just end up recommending everything, but i will at least try to say why sth is great and who i would recommend it to.
The Rising of Shield-hero / Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
So shield hero is probably the most watched series of this season, which isn't that surprising. It's another addition to trending isekai-genre (basically irl human gets spirited away to fantasy world and becomes hero) and what seemed to closely follow tropes of that genre turned itself around a bit with a plottwist middle of first ep which was delicious. This is somewhat darker addition to the genre which is refresshing, but I would actually have liked it to see go darker, regardless of the start i think it mellowed more regular disgraced hero story when i would have loved to see full on anti-hero action with bit more ruthlessness and cunning from protagonists part. Maybe it will get to that later on, it has time to evolve and i'd actually love to see it getting darker rather than lighter. It is still pretty enjoyable show so far, but there is still some fear of it just repeating itself and becoming boring (for me). I will have to give it some minus for falling into some waifu tropes too, been there seen that, yawn. Also I'd say some themes amount slavery can be uncomfortable to some, just for warning. 7 (Good) / 8/25 eps
The Promised Neverland / Yakusoku no Neverland
This is actually horror so despite it first seeming bit wholesome and happy, it's not. I don't usually like horror that much, but this is more of thriller, mystery with some detective action and mind games. There is little to no gore, violence levels are low, there isn't darkness or jump scares, not that regular stuff, but still it keeps the suspense up and makes you nervous. Without wanting to spoil plot too much, it's bunch of kids living in happily in orphanage when one day they find about secret that changes everything. It's simple anime, but executes well and there is nice plottwists even without lot of action actually happening. 9 (Great) / 8/12 eps
Dororo (2019)
Dororo is remake of 60s Dororo anime and Ozamu Tezuka's manga, it looks pretty different, there being exactly 50 years between the two. Not only the look also the story is being reimagined quite lot which has turned out to be good choice- they are making it better. Ozamu, being often dubbed as godfather of manga, is usually known from his stories for kids like Astroy Boy and that's how i have known his stuff too, but this is definitely adult one with darker themes.
Dororo is basically samurai anime with some horror and supernatural themes, that don't go overboard with it, but rather stay within historical japan's demon and fantasy lore. It feels really authentic to that time period not only in story, but also in terms of how it's drawn, what the backgrounds look what colors is being used, it's nice. As for story, it's story of young samurai whose father made deal with demons to give the boys limbs and organs before he was born to them in order to become great warlord. The boy survived, got what he miss replaced by prosphetic and is now in journey to recover what was stolen from him from demons and his father.
I have fell in love with this story quite lot, the premise is quite simple, but i feel like it's pretty emotional and there is quite lot of emotional stuff too not only from main character Hyakkimaru (lol Dororo isn't the main character), but from others too. It gets really dark at times, and wholesome at others. I also like how it's readaption of 60s manga and anime. However they recently gave this ep count of 24 and that's actually half more than I expected, I thought they were going for regular 12-13 eps. It has been really good so far, but I hope they don't drag it on and that it won't become boring. 9 (Great) / 8/24 eps
Kaguya-sama: Love is War / Kaguya-sama wa Kukurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen
God i hate long nonsense names like that, why couldn't they just name this Kaguya similarly as Dororo or sth.. Anyways this show was nothing i expected at first. I was expecting less comedy focus for some reason, but the whole show is practically skits. The eps are divided to different skits too so the plot is bit choppy, but still there, this is choice i was first very against, but now i'm in terms with.
So what is this about? Practically it's about two people who are too proud and full of themselves to confess their love to each other so they try to plot another to confess first. Despite their outer appearances of school elite they both are just dorks. The humor is the main thing about this one, it's quite hit and miss, but when it hits it hits, some skits have been comedy gold. So if you are into rom-coms and what to see bit different dynamic between main couple than usual give it a try. 7 (Good) / 7/12 eps
Manaria Friends
This one is pretty weird one and i have to say bit of disappointment. The eps are short, around 14 mins and there is almost no plot, it's practically fanservice of girls being cute and possibly gay together. The premise of school where both humans and human-like monsters can study sounded pretty interesting and animation turned out being really good, but due to lack of plot I can't say this one is good watch. 5 (Average) / 6/10 eps
Star of the season (as well as anime world): Mob Psycho 100 II
In order to catch up with Mob Psycho I started with first season, the one currently ongoing being second. Ended up loving first season and wondering why the fuck i didn't watch it before and thinking season 2 would continue with same stuff. Expect it didn't- it got better. I have noticed that I get easily bored with some animes, having good start, but then falling to predictable and mundane courses. But with Mob and especially this season you have been bombared with stuff, twists, emotional package, character growth, character relationships, just non-stop to extent it's almost exchausting. My heart was literally beating out of my chest during last ep i watched and it was just thinking the ep through whole evening, eventually had to spoil myself about next ep cause I couldn't find until next week without going crazy. And I think it will just get more emotional and better from here when it heads to season finale.
Bit of background of the man behind this: Mob Psycho is based on ONE's web manga of same name. ONE's story itself is interesting, briefly he was unemployed so he made this web manga One Punch Man for hobby despite not really knowing how to draw. It caught eye of one mangaka that asked if he could redraw it as manga and so he did, it was made into anime based on that manga and gained huge following and popularity. Mob Psycho is ONE's second web manga, he has improved a lot (still not your regular manga) and Mob Psycho's anime is this time based on his manga directly which does show, but in good way. The animation of this series is just mindblowing, the art style can be bit lot for some (it's not your usual pretty boys), but I wouldn't say it's ugly by any means. I think they really took the best out of ONE's manga when turning it to anime.
So the story. Mob, the main character, is 14 year old schoolboy who is not particularly good in anything expect that he's extremely powerful psychic. That doesn't make him happy though, since he sees that behind his psychic talents of telekinesis and such, he is practically nothing so with some encouragement he decides to starts bettering himself, focusing on improving things he feels he lacks. He works with Reigen, self-claimed psychic, to banish evil spirits, joins clubs and gets some friends, meets some bad guys and well just regular things anime boy does, but despite that it's nothing like your regular anime.
I think best of Mob has been how it handles the characters and their relationships. There is lot of growth within characters, and the relationships between characters and how those affect the actual characters get main stage. I don't think any character really follows popular tropes either, like they aren't stereotypical and they are pretty nuanced. Other than that I think the story is pretty much about personal growth. 10 (masterpiece) / 8/13 eps.
--
Yup, i had to lot to say about Mob Psycho like I thought, i have been thinking it a lot lately (still fucked over the 8th ep) and it does go to fav animes, probably in top 10 not sure yet about top 5 let's wait until this season finishes ^^
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I'm also continuing SAO: Alicization which has kept itself interesting, Slime anime which i'm getting bit bored with (sorry Ben), Radiant that just finished but was bit all over the place could have been made better and Run with the wind which is finally being good after being boring.