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Fell behind on several series from last season, some I’ll finish, some will just be in the queue forever. Starting this season behind as well…

Finished:

Apocalypse Hotel - 5/5 - My favorite new series for the season. Just a wonderful mix of creative situations, crazy, heartfelt, character development, etc. The show had range but never lost itself and ended well.

A Ninja and Assassin Under One Roof - 5/5 - My other favorite new series for the season. I put Apocalypse hotel just over it, but this is the one I want more of and will likely watch again in the future. One of the best opening episodes in a while. It hit a bit of a rough patch early but recovered (and those episodes work better with the later context.)

Apothecary Diaries - 5/5 - Remains excellent. This part fell a bit short of expectations compared to the novel, but may also have been the most challenging part to adopt (lots of political world building and interconnected plot threads all pulled together at once.)

The Unaware Atelier Meister - 3/5 - Seemed to have potential, enjoyable enough, but also rather forgettable.

I’m an Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire - 3/5 - Trash, but watchable, especially for the brief bits of mecha and space fleet battles.

Killing Slimes 300 Years - 3/5 - I remember really enjoying the first season. Watchable, but the slice of life bits aren’t always my thing. I think what made the first season for me was the steady drip of new, interesting characters. This season, starting with an established cast, had less of that.

Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl - 3/5 - First have was enjoyable. Interesting premise, avoided several harem tropes. But once the initial story bit was done and the love interests confessed, it sort of turned into filler and I lost interest.

Unfinished but plan to continue:

Once Upon a Witches Death - Seems like a good show overall. The serial nature and lack of focus on the overall plot made it less compelling to keep up with.

Aharen-san - I remember loving the first season, not sure why I started skipping this one, so will probably pick it back up.

Dropped:

Witch Watch - Watched a few episodes. It has its good moments, but too many annoyances. Might give it a second look.

Summer Pockets - Watched the first episode, was interested, but not hooked

Kowloon Generic Romance - Watched the first episode, was interested, but not hooked

Too-Perfect Saint - Watched a bit, read the first two light novels, they were fine. Don’t feel the need to continue the anime.

Brilliant Healer’s new Life - Read a few of the light novels. Too much of the stuff I didn’t care for, not enough plot or character progression. First few episodes were fine, but I never planned to finish it.

The Beginning After the End - Watched a few episodes, picked up the light novels, got burned out on the plot escalation.

This Season, First Impressions

Secrets of the Silent Witch - Excellent start. Better than expected. Really looks like the people making the anime have read and care for the source. Hopefully it keeps up, especially once it gets into the actual story.

Reborn as a Vending Machine - Picks backup where it left off. Seems to be beyond the light novels now. I’m not sure about this demon load subplot, and I don’t know that the novelty of the series can sustain the story. But maybe.

Plenty more in the queue, some I’m sure will be excellent.

30% might be high. I’ve worked with two different agent creation platforms. Both require a huge amount of manual correction to work anywhere near accurately. I’m really not sure what the LLM actually provides other than some natural language processing.

Before human correction, the agents i’ve tested were right 20% of the time, wrong 30%, and failed entirely 50%. To fix them, a human has to sit behind the curtain and manually review conversations and program custom interactions for every failure.

In theory, once it is fully setup and all the edge cases fixed, it will provide 24/7 support in a convenient chat format. But that takes a lot more man hours than the hype suggests…

Weirdly, chatgpt does a better job than a purpose built, purchased agent.

TotK felt more empty to me, but that’s probably a combination of already knowing the map and lacking Kass.

Avowed was very mid. I enjoyed it enough, but nothing about it was particularly brilliant or terrible.

Maybe by Christmas I’ll be interested, but for now the switch 2 is just a fancy new restaurant that only serves a few pricy side dishes alongside food I can enjoy anywhere else in town.

Wow, they really went all out on this episode. Best and highest production value since the first.

Is it even possible to “play” that game anymore? Last I tried, it took 30 minutes of clicking through inane dialog before I could move, only to trigger more dialog.

Early impressions:

Good:

• A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof - Wow, just wow. I had no expectations for this, the title sounded like it could be fun. But no, the animation, style, humor, timing, everything was awesome. I watched it twice. If the rest of the series keeps up with this first episode it will be a classic, but I’ve been let down before…
• Apocalypse Hotel - Really enjoying this so far. The setting is fun and the mix of humor, whimsy, and a touch of melancholy, work for me. I love how alien the alien actually was, and the conflict within the robots of both expecting to break down working for people who will never return and remaining optimistic that more guests will come.
• Aharen-san - I forgot how much fun this one was. The animal crossing joke went too long, but otherwise it has picked right up and the new character is a great addition to the cast
• I’ve Been Killing Slimes… - First half of the first episode was rough, but then it picked back up to what I remember from the previous season. Fun, low stakes, comfy show.
• The Too-Perfect Saint - Anime has been good so far and an improvement over the light novels. Hopefully that continues.

TBD:

• Once Upon a Witch’s Death - I like the overall settings, concept, etc. but the complete lack of urgency from a character which a ticking time clock on her life is just off-putting. I’m still not sure what to make of it. It sort of feels like an overly drawn out intro to a wandering/travel anime.
• Summer Pockets - I’ve enjoyed it so far, but few anime like this keep my attention for long. Seems like something always ruins the story.
• Witch Watch - First episode was rough, second was much better. Too early to get a feel for this one. Needs a little more chemistry within the cast and a little less slapstick, but that should develop over time.
• The Unaware Atelier Meister - I generally enjoy this sort of silly humor and unaware op main characters, but it has declined a bit from the first episode and I’m not sure how long the same jokes will work.
• The Gorilla God’s Go-To-Girl - I did not have high expectations for this, but it has been pretty good so far. The humor works, the harem aspect is not being forced to hard (yet…), the main character is fun.
• The Beginning After the End - I always enjoy the overpowered baby trope… Using the main characters new life to force reflection on his past and slowly unwinding that story while moving through the present, can work well or blow up. Hopefully this one continues strong.
• Kowloon Generic Romance - I’m at least one episode behind… Been awhile since I watched a mind screw style anime. Done well it could be excellent. Hopefully the underlying mystery is more profound than what has been implied so far.

May Drop:

• The Brilliant Healer… - First episode was a mistake (skip it) second was much better, but I don’t have a lot of hope for this one.
• Anne Shirley - I’m an episode or so behind. Not really familiar with the source even though it may be one of the most commonly adopted stories ever… Seems pleasant and fun, not sure it will have much of a plot.

Dropped:

• The Shiunji Family Children - Watched part of it without any prior knowledge, and even before the “plot” something about it just was annoying and unlikable to me. Then I find out it is a technically not incest sibling romance story from the same person as Rent-A-Friend and it all made sense.

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Wow, this might be the most I’ve enjoyed a series premiere since spy x family. Hope it holds up.

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I hope this is well written and lands at a satisfactory conclusion. Seems like it has a lot of potential. The memory theme is strong, especially with the goldfish. the bit about how that area is supposed to be nostalgic hinting that it could even be staged. Then that brief flash to a ruined version of the tea house. So many hints and hopefully a bit of misdirection.

Random superlatives:

So Stupid it Hurt - Bogus Skill “Fruitmaster”
I wanted to like this one, and stuck with it way to long. Finally dropped it when the utter dumbness of the characters and story starting to cause me actual pain. 2/5

Most Improved from Launch - Magic Maker
The first few episodes were mid tier at best and I nearly dropped it, but that turned a few episodes in and it developed into a fairly decent show. 3/5

Top of the heap - Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time
There were a bunch of adventure themed anime with isekei and harem themes this season, and I think this was the best of the bunch. Still fairly average, but the one I’d most like to see more of. 3/5 (Runner’s up: Middle aged Online Shopper and Left my a-rank party)

Better as a Light Novel - I May be a Guild Receptionist…
I don’t think this adapted well to anime. The novels are very episodic and a bit repetitive without a lot of substance, and the anime just highlighted those problems. 3/5

Best Returning - Solo Leveling
This is very, very close between Solo Leveling, Apothecary Diaries, and Re:Zero, but I give the edge to Solo Leveling. Each episode was satisfying and while it is a power fantasy, it does that very well. Re:Zero was a bit fragmented (partially due to scheduling/production) and did not end nearly as strong as the last season, and Apothecary Diaries, while still excellent, is mainly setting things up for later. All three 5/5

Most Surprising - Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf
Knowing nothing about this, I expected something more lewd and fanservice like. Way, wrong! This was wonderfully wholesome. Somehow it managed to balance both the light adventure aspects of the fantasy world with the reverse isekai cultural discovery aspects of the Japan side. Maybe the best new show of the season. 4/5

Most Disappointing - Zenshu
This looked like it could be something really special. The art, theming, concept, etc. were all solid. The plot, just wasn’t meaningful in any way, at least not before I dropped it. 3/5

Yep. The frame story, character designs, etc. seem interesting, but the sob story of the day was cliche and predictable. Hopefully it will develop beyond this and have more range, but I’m not optimistic.

Logitech has gone from one of the best tech brands to essentially garbage. The hardware might still be ok, but their software is crap, and those comments about selling a mouse subscription…

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The light novels are very formulaic and the anime does nothing to smooth it out. The meta plot does progress and the anime should end in a decent spot, but yeah, the slice of life overtime moping gets old, fast.

I’ve been enjoying the game and seem to be close to the end. I actually like that it is not overly complicated. Makes it easier to pick up for an hour or two and just play.

My problem is the inconsistencies. At times it acts like it wants to be a deeper game and at times it is just mindless action. Feels like they cut a lot of planned content and just smoothed it over. For example, both unique weapons and armor can be upgraded with materials you find and purchase, but only weapons allow upgrading the unique stat itself, and its only a single choice between two options. It seems almost pointless. They should have just dropped that system entirely or expanded it to be more meaningful.

Late in the game are two choices that feel meaningful and appear to influence the map and story. Great, except, where was this for the entire first half of the game? So many choices just seem to be for flavor that when one actually has consequences it is jarring.

Then there is stealth. The game has a stealth mechanic and skills to buff stealth attacks. However, the moment you attack from stealth, every enemy in range is aggro’d to your location and stealth is no longer possible. Stealth is effectively just a first hit damage bonus. Again, it seems like they planned to make stealth a thing, then either cut it or could not make it work, but left parts of it in the game.

Illusions… The game has several, fairly trivial elemental obstacles. Most can be dealt with in several ways. Tangled vines can be burned with fire skills, certain throwables, or a companion ability. Same for electric switches, freezable bars (to shatter them), etc. All except illusions. Those can only be cleared by a specific companion ability, which means late in the game you are either forced to use that companion or give up on anything behind illusions. There is even a spot in the throwables UI that looks like it could be for an extra item type, but I’ve yet to find something to fill it. Maybe in the last area…

Overall I do like the game, but no way is it worth $70.

When the news first broke, I assumed Russua was behind the ceasefire and had already pulled Trumps strings to their advantage.

Now I’m wondering if this administration might be too incompetent to be corrupt.