Animation#
Basically sorted in chronological order of viewing, with multi-season works possibly merged into the first.
Comments can be long if there’s something to say, or short if there isn’t, including ratings that are completely subjective and for fun, with no reference value or comparability.
By the way, sharing some of my favorite OP / ED / videos.
January#
Movie: Laid-Back Camp△: 7/10, slightly different from the leisurely style of this article, but looking forward to the third season in April next year.
Welcome to the NHK!: 8/10, after finishing Yamazaki, I caught up on this work because it was directed by Yusuke Yamamoto and I had seen some reviews of it before. I can't comment much, it's a rather magical realism story about "hikikomori."
Shanghai Story: 4/10, forgot, seems to reminisce about some old local life in Shanghai, overall a work with unclear meaning.
Fictional Inference Season 1 / Season 2: When the first season aired, I had a few episodes left of the last big arc, so I caught up after the second season started. The second season is a collection of three small arcs, all somewhat interesting, not boring, but I forgot the specifics.
I Want to Be a Shadow Master! Season 1 / Season 2: 7/10, not sure why it has a total of 20 episodes, which is not the normal length for seasonal or half-year shows, so it fell into January this year. Among light adaptations, it’s somewhat interesting, but friends who read web novels say the version is behind domestic web novels, which are now writing this as purple clay. Noticed that the character voiced by Yamaguchi is very cute!
Chaotic Duffy Duck: Bought a book on "Meta Animation Studies," and looked at the mentioned work of "meta-animation." I’m very interested in "meta-" or "self-referential" phenomena, which generally involve some kind of "self-reference," discussing animation within animation, a work about animation that refers to animation itself. The content of this work mainly involves the interaction process between the protagonist in the animation and the animator, which is quite interesting.
Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady's Magical Revolution: 8/10, a yuri work similar to the one that exploded in popularity last summer, Lycoris, I don't remember much, but everyone was quite cute. By the way, at that time, I didn't realize that a supporting character was voiced by Yamaguchi.
Suzume's Journey: 8/10, the viewing experience was quite good. The pacing of the plot is tighter compared to Your Name and Weathering with You, conveying richer emotions. The chair performance was very interesting.
Don't Be an Oni-chan!: 9/10, a nearly perfect slice-of-life anime, everyone is very cute. The most memorable parts are the silent performance during the Christmas segment in episode 9 and the animation of the OP and ED.
Kyoukai Senki - The Link of the Arrow: 8/10, I really liked this work, including the first season. Rather than saying I like the show or KyoAni, I prefer the sport of archery chosen for this sports anime. Therefore, the atmosphere of this work is slightly different from traditional sports anime (not discussing its female-oriented aspect, as I'm not the target audience). If I had to say, it has a similar feeling to this season's "Furirin's Funeral," conveying a sense of calm or restraint, which is precisely what this work's archery conveys—a kind of self-discipline, not to defeat others, not to match teammates' pace, but to challenge oneself, pursuing one's own realm. When one's actions are perfect, hitting the target is just a natural result, which is my favorite point about this work. Of course, as a KyoAni work, a memorable episode is the archery part of the girls' group in episode 6, where the archery is interspersed with memories and impressions among teammates, achieving the highest realm of "connection."
Spy Classroom: 7/10. Personally, I think it’s a somewhat interesting work. First, the voice actors; second, some twists in this work are still somewhat interesting, like the first arc having a bit of a narrative twist feeling. Although some plot setups are quite childish, overall, it’s better than not having anything. My favorite arc is the one about Ai-chan, of course not because the voice actor is Miku Ito.
The Case of the Neighboring Angel Making Me a Waste: 5/10, before it aired last December, I spent a week catching up on the first six volumes of the original work, which I really liked the atmosphere of, congratulations on the original work's sales and light novel championship. The animation was basically hard to watch, even pausing for a long time in the middle, and later to fill in some gaps, I finished it at double speed.
Born as a Dog, I'm Very Happy: Not finished, will catch up when I have time. Mainly downloaded to the cloud, and was directly treated as a film and deleted after review, which proves its value as a surface-level work.
NieR: Automata Ver1.1a: Watched episode 1, not that interested in this type, so I dropped it.
Arus's Giant Beast: Watched episode 3, not interested, dropped it.
Kana of the Snow Sea: Watched episode 1, not interested, dropped it.
April#
The Idolmaster: No Logo: 9/10, this year seems to be a big year for Idolmaster animations, with U149 in April and Million Live in October, so I caught up on the Idolmaster series, but I still haven't started playing the pre-ordered Starry Season. This work is undoubtedly a textbook-level work in the idol genre, a very interesting anthology, hand-drawn live performances, my favorite part is the last chapter featuring the lord, although now my mind is full of the lord during the live broadcast of episode 15.
The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls: Watched episode 2, and since there are idol shows every season, I’m waiting to watch something else to change it up before coming back to catch up.
Heaven's Great Mirror: Not finished, couldn't resist looking at the original manga before it aired. The callbacks and the story itself are quite interesting, but I feel a bit face-blind, and as the story gets more complex later, I didn't quite understand it. Of course, I also flipped through it quickly for the viewing experience of the animation. But in the end, it led to watching a few episodes of the animation and then dropping it. For me, it became like Attack on Titan; I know it's great, and I know I would like it if I finished it, but for various reasons, or perhaps due to a lack of a suitable opportunity, I didn't watch it.
Inu-Oh: 8/10, my biggest impression of this film is that after finishing the exam, I went out to eat, went to the cinema to watch it, and then received an offer. I forgot what it specifically talked about, but my biggest impression is that as a "musical," it almost live-performed the entire show. I remember some performances, like the whale in the middle, the final water scene, etc., worth going to the cinema for Yuasa's large-scale performance.
The Lonely Castle in the Mirror: Forgot.
Because I'm Too Afraid of Pain, I Put All My Points into Defense.: Forgot, everyone is quite cute.
Uma Musume: Road to Glory: Forgot, only remember Narita's crying.
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 1 / Season 2: 8/10, the first season aired last April, and I wanted to catch up, then the second season aired in April, so I finished it all. Overall, although the production resources are limited, it performs quite well as a very traditional sports anime. Looking back at 2023, I noticed that there seem to be quite a few excellent sports anime this year. Recalling further back, there are some that are particularly worth mentioning, like January 2021, Uma Musume season 2 and Infinity Skateboarding, October 2020 Climbing!, which had average production but chose the unique sport of climbing. In October 2019, Hoshiai no Sora, which focused more on social phenomena like domestic violence / LGBT, unfortunately was cut short as a half-year series and had no follow-up. The sequel Shokugeki no Soma can barely be counted, and the third season of Chihayafuru in October 2019 may have some other sequels that were missed, possibly because the previous works were too long to catch up on. Returning to 2023, in terms of story background, only Kyoukai Senki still chooses a school and club setting, including the previous decade, which felt like most selections were still school and club-related. However, works like Hoshiai no Sora, Infinity Skateboarding, Birdie Wing season 1 and Overtake! have chosen a broader story background, reflecting that sports anime has become a genre with more narrative possibilities, from focusing on competitions to showcasing efforts, bonds, and characterizations of rivals, leading to richer content. Returning to this work, the first season's unconventional choice of a yakuza x golf story is still quite interesting, although it later returned to the traditional school route. In the second season, additional stories about the two female leads' backgrounds were added, and I have to mention the so-called selling point of this work, "yuri." Personally, I think the relationship between the two female leads is better described with more traditional terms like fated rivals rather than just yuri, but it added some somewhat forced sweetness for the sake of yuri. Beyond the relationship between the two leads, the second season, as a traditional, orthodox sports anime, performed quite well in depicting sports and the protagonists' abilities, the excitement and passion during competitions, and the unexpected twists outside the final showdown, where the two female leads appeared in a cooperative manner, which is a refreshing development. However, the production resources of this work still seem a bit poor compared to others like Uma Musume, KyoAni, etc.
Sword Art Online: The Movie - Scherzo of a Dark Dusk / Prelude to the Dark Dusk: 7/10, I caught up on the first part at home and went to the cinema for the second part. I forgot the rest, just feel that sometimes when watching movies, it’s very strange; during the emotional high points of the fighting scenes, I feel sleepy, but during the transitional dialogue scenes, I feel very awake, not sure why.
Doraemon: Nobita's Sky Utopia: Forgot.
New Stone Age NEW WORLD Part 1 / Part 2: 7/10, followed it all the way to now, the feeling remains the same. The intelligence battles in the Treasure Island arc, the series of preparations, intelligence battles, and twists before getting the petrification ray were very exciting.
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch!: 6/10, after the first season aired in 2020, I bought a Yuna figure, and it finally shipped halfway through the second season, which is a pleasant surprise. The black-and-white bear character design of the female lead has established her high value in my heart.
Youth in Motion: 8/10, a refreshing campus romance and ensemble work.
My Work is a Yuri!: 8/10, although the production is quite average, it can't hide the brilliance of the yuri twist story itself. Looking back now, the most memorable plot is the dual perspective memories of Hime and Mitsuki.
Dangerous Things in My Heart: Forgot. Later noticed that the main character is voiced by Yamaguchi, looking forward to the second season next year.
My Home Hero: 6/10, I read the original work a long time ago, and the intelligence battles in the original are indeed quite brilliant. The only significance of this film is to make you check out the original work.
[My Favorite Child]: 7/10, watched this without any prior knowledge or spoilers, and I have to say the movie's continuous play strategy in the first episode was quite successful, creating a very complete chapter while completing the story's shift. The first time I saw love being cut was quite shocking. The subsequent chapters of current love and the final live performance were also quite good.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: 6/10, to be honest, the first few episodes of the second season felt quite interesting, but later it slowly started to drag, so I won't comment much.
The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls U149: 9/10, after finishing the original Hermes series, continuing with U149 was a very good experience, maintaining the consistently perfect traditional idol anime feel. The anthology of this work is very well designed, with at least the first episode's Alice return, the third episode's live broadcast accident, and the seventh episode's Koharu princess return being some of my favorite episodes.
In Summary, It's Very Cute Season 2: When the first season aired, I finished the manga, feeling the same, but recently I haven't been able to get into similar works.
Neighboring Like the Galaxy: Watched episode 1, didn't feel much, dropped it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Initially, I didn't particularly want to watch it, but I found out it was coming out, thinking it would be a shame not to see it in theaters, so I ended up watching it. It gave me a slight shock of American comic feeling, but like Sword Art Online, I kept wanting to sleep during the fight scenes.
World Dai Star: 8/10, I didn't follow this work during its airing, but caught up when it finished. I played its mobile game for a couple of days during the summer. The setting feels like a haunted filming location reminiscent of Idoly Pride. The most memorable points are its Aladdin and Phantom of the Opera performance effects, which are quite good.
July#
Castle in the Sky: Caught up in the cinema, not sure how to comment.
Special Episode: Sound! Euphonium - Ensemble Competition: 8/10, KyoAni's Euphonium is a perfect score series in my heart from a few years ago, hoping KyoAni can gradually return to form, looking forward to next year's third season animation. By the way, this punching is too addictive, so I’ll put one here.
BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!: 10/10, the only perfect masterpiece in my heart for 2023, the perfect score not only represents a high level of recognition for MyGO!!!!! itself but more importantly, it is a work that is engraved in my heart and hard to forget.
First, some issues. The most intuitive is its inherited 3D modeling; I can only say this 3D from the third season animation, live theater version, and various live MV gives me a very strong sense of deterrence. I don't know how to express it, but every character's model looks like a "ceramic doll" at first glance, with a very stiff, unapproachable sense of alienation, only able to watch from a distance or observe their movements, not able to examine them closely. Fortunately, an important trend in Japanese animation 3D is to make the effects look as much like 2D hand-drawn as possible. This work integrates the advantages of 3D in action performance quite well and also uses 2D to express various close-up shots, and the combination of the two is quite natural.
Following this topic, I have to mention the third episode, which aired in a three-episode block. This choice of the work achieved the benefits of continuous airing quite well. First, when watching the first two episodes, it’s easy to be confused by at least seven main characters appearing, making the viewing experience quite chaotic, which easily deters casual viewers. The third episode tells the story of what happened when CRYCHIC was formed, connecting all the early characters and bringing more familiarity, starting from the third episode, one can begin to understand the distinct personalities of each character. Secondly, the third episode can be considered a standout episode on its own, as it narrates the entire episode from the first-person perspective of Akari, benefiting from the ease of adjusting the camera angles in this work's 3D, creating a very strong sense of immersion. From this episode onward, I have rewatched each episode at least three times after airing.
Then, I can talk about the live performances in episodes 7, 10, and 12. My overall feeling is that both the narrative and the brilliance are top-notch. The live performances themselves are of the highest standard, so I won't comment much on that. Here, I want to talk more about the narrative quality of these live performances, which I think is a unique aspect of MyGO!!!!! as an idol anime, mainly thanks to Ayana's excellent scriptwriting. In the idol anime I've watched, like the Idolmaster series, Love Live series, if I remember correctly, the first season of BanG Dream! and the third season of RAS, their live performances are just a live performance. It’s because we are an idol anime, so we need a live performance, hence there is a live performance; it’s because the live is the predetermined endpoint of a story segment, and the previous plot exists for the live performance, which is the climax and endpoint of the previous plot. However, in watching episodes 7 and 10 of MyGO!!!!!, and the 12th episode, which is also the endpoint of the story, I won't elaborate further. Before episode 7, everyone was in complete disarray, with no tacit understanding or empathy among the five, and internal conflicts still buried within. Because of the initial live performance in episode 7, everyone could feel the cohesion on stage as a community, the audience's cheers offstage, and formally began to become a group, while also exposing the conflicts of the characters, with Akari's shout leading to a shift in mindset and Shouko's complete breakdown. So many stories merged on and off the live stage, not just as a live performance but as a part of the story, presenting the themes of bands, idols, etc., in the best way. The live performance should not be a replaceable tool in the setting but the most important component integrated into the story. Episode 10 is also the perfect confirmation of this concept, this episode is also a highlight for Akari, and I never imagined a live performance could turn into a poetry recital, which is very interesting. Then, the final live performance of Shouko was a logically forced resolution to her issues, and this evaluation is positive, not negative. I strongly oppose the community's emphasis on the so-called "logical" rationality of many stories. My doubts about this are: first, is the logical rationality they articulate truly rational? Does it genuinely empathize with the characters and their environments, or is it merely their own values imposed on the characters? Second, human behavior has never been controlled by some rational logic of intelligence, value judgment, or moral judgment; it has always been a chaotic mix of internal and external factors, constrained by one's intentions, actions, attitudes, cognition, and emotions. This excessive pursuit of logical rationality may completely view the characters in the story as mechanical. Therefore, I believe Akari forcibly pulling Shouko onto the stage and using the five-person live performance to touch Shouko is the most brilliant handling of conflict resolution in this work. Although I am not Akari, Ai, Riki, Neko, or Shouko, I can feel that if I were them in this environment, I would probably make similar choices.
Finally, looking at the story of MyGO!!!!! in the context of fan creations. I want to use this aspect to argue for the brilliance of the story. First, it is undeniable that creating a fan creation ecosystem relies heavily on timing and location, but you cannot deny that if the story itself is not brilliant enough to leave room for imagination, even with the right timing and location, no one can achieve the current state. This reminds me of the recently promoted White Album 2 CODA arc. Just like Maruto, Ayana's excellent script and dialogue skills give this story life.
Here’s my favorite song, "No Way Out."
Lie Game: 5/10, I don't know why I watched this nonsensical work, probably because of these stereotypical beautiful girls. But to be honest, some of the later intelligence battle game designs are still somewhat interesting, but the actual plot performance is quite hard to describe. I can only say that in this genre of intelligence battle games, there are too many excellent predecessors.
My Happy Marriage: 7/10, I caught up on this work later in the second half, and as a refreshing perspective, it’s somewhat interesting to switch up from shoujo manga.
Time Agent Season 2: 7/10, if it weren't for the first season being so good, I would think I was watching "Welcome to the Classroom of the Supreme Ability Doctrine." The overall viewing experience has become somewhat subtle compared to the first season's anthology, as this season attempts to tell a larger story. However, it feels like it hastily used previous settings, relying on brute force to resolve various key points, making the viewing experience somewhat subtle. But I must say that some of the fight scenes in the show were quite enjoyable to watch. I hope domestic 2D hand-drawn animation continues to improve, and if we can produce more quality 2D animations like this, that would be even better.
Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation: 7/10, the pacing of the script adaptation in the first half is terrible, with a clear gap from the first season. My most intuitive feeling is that there is no sense of time flow; each small scene and story might be fine, but when connected, it gives a sense of lost time, which is disastrous for a work with some epic feel. The second half's academy arc feels overall more slice-of-life, above average in quality, but not much impression, so I won't comment further.
Talking About Love with Yamada at Lv999: 6/10, a pure love story in a shoujo manga, but later I also felt I couldn't continue watching, so I patiently finished it.
The White Holy Maiden and the Black Priest: 7/10, the expressions are very cute, but the story itself feels a bit bland, but I still managed to finish it patiently.
The Seven Magic Swords: Watched episode 12, got a bit bored and couldn't continue. It feels less interesting than watching the first few shots of its OP. In the early stages, you can feel its attempt to mimic Harry Potter, but later it still can't escape being a light adaptation, and the original feels like it's written according to classic Japanese light novel standards.
The Boy with Beautiful Dreams is a Realist: Watched episode 4, to be honest, this work has given off a nonsensical feeling since episode 1, completely unsure of what it's writing or its relationship with its title.
AI Electronic Gene: Watched episode 9, will catch up when I have time. A small sci-fi anthology, I can only say it performs around the passing line.
The Person I Like Forgot to Wear Glasses: Watched episode 3 and stopped, maybe I just can't get into pure love themes lately unless there's something else to catch my interest.
The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History's Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants Season 2: Watched a few episodes, and honestly, the serious setting isn't that interesting.
Rei no Kyoukai: Watched episode 2, will continue when I have the chance.
Strange Companion: Black Angel: Watched a few episodes, mainly for 8-bit and Yusuke Yamamoto's direction, but the mecha design isn't very cool, giving a déjà vu of "Fruit Battle Attack," considering catching up when the second half airs.
Zombie 100: Bucket List of the Dead: Watched episode 3, didn't continue. The first episode was indeed very exciting, but it’s currently on hiatus, and I’ll consider watching it again when it resumes.
The Reason I Fell in Love with Her: Watched a few episodes, unsure why I watched it.
Blue Flower: Watched episode 1, a yuri work by Takako Shimura, will continue when I have time.
October#
Girlfriend, Girlfriend Season 1 / Season 2: In this season, with 100 Girls Who Love You So Much as a competing product of the same genre, the disadvantages of this work are very clear, although I still like Ayane Sakura as the lead. First, it overly considers the moral judgments of real society, being too serious, as the male lead and other female characters seem to be very earnest in wanting to "have their cake and eat it too," trying to genuinely integrate "having their cake and eating it too" into so-called society. Of course, this might be the original author's attempt to achieve a comedic contrast, but I feel this effect is hard to convey at a glance. In the context of simplified Chinese, this work might be more lively and could face a considerable "moral judgment." In contrast, 100 Girlfriends handles this aspect better, as it explicitly states in the title and the opening that this work is set in an alternate world, using this setting for comedic purposes, essentially deconstructing the behavior of "having multiple partners," losing the possibility of relating to the real world. Secondly, this work's use of multiple girlfriends for comedy is far inferior to 100 Girlfriends. The latter's detachment from a normal worldview allows for stories like the zombie arc and the incredible twists in episode 10 to stand out. On the other hand, even in comedic works, the slightly serious third episode's personal arcs and the play within a play segments are also quite excellent, as well as the design ideas for the final foreshadowing and twists involving AI classmate, which are quite touching.
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO FEVER!: When it aired, it coincided with the pre-review broadcast, which led to it not being aired at the same time. At that time, there was no complete animation download solution, and watching it on small sites was a bit frustrating, so I didn't follow it. This time, learning from MyGO!!!!!'s advanced experience, I returned to the era of users manually uploading pirated animations, which is quite a novel experience. The content still has the flavor of the first two episodes of PICO, looking forward to MyGO!!!!! and Ave Mujica entering the PICO mini-theater.
Gurenn Lagann Universe: 9/10, as a whole of the Gurenn Lagann trilogy, I give the Gurenn Lagann series a 10/10 perfect score, including Gurenn Lagann and Gurren Lagann, which brought me a lot of emotions. This film continues to maintain the atmosphere of the previous two works, youth x tokusatsu, with the first half featuring the two generations of protagonists reuniting to make dumplings (in a positive sense), Yuta and Rikka's romance, and then the lighthearted campus daily life gradually collapsing, while the second half showcases Trigger's consistently excellent animation, with exhilarating combined tokusatsu battles. My favorite part of this film is the setting of Rikka's play within a play, paying homage to the three-dimensional play of Akane, forming a unique triple callback with this film, especially as Rikka's play within a play changes with the story. Unfortunately, this film is limited by its original goal of serving fans, its length, etc., and does not delve into the play within a play more interestingly or deeply. In terms of performance, I must mention two segments: one is Rikka's swinging on the swing, which is very cute, and the other is the dream sequence, which is the same as the previous two films. Lastly, it's worth mentioning that the two recap films and the Gurenn Lagann Universe, the broadcasts of these three films' radio mini-theaters, are all very cute!
Porco Rosso: Caught up in the cinema. Similarly, I can't comment, but I must say that the animation of the aerial battles was very enjoyable to watch.
The following are still airing, possibly sorted by airing time, except for special notes, but I expect to finish them all.
The Young Lady and the Doorkeeper: One of the three openings of P9, the character design and production are completely unwatchable.
Magic Sword Academy's Magic Sword User: 5/10, just like Passione's romantic FLOPS from last October, it has a retro feel of ten-year-old campus supernatural light adaptations.
The Forbidden Reasoning of Duck Bridge: 6/10, seems to be a reasoning work, but the case designs are basically very childish, and it's hard to understand why it insists on doing a story per episode, which is very shallow. Even with slightly longer arcs like the hot spring inn and planetarium, the case quality is unappealing.
My Favorite is the Villainess: 6/10, sweet.
Star Spirit Resonance: 8/10, beautiful girls gazing at the starry sky together, making rockets, doesn't that sound romantic? My favorite is the OP by Miku Ito, along with the Morse code background sound inserted in the middle.
Uma Musume Season 3: 7/10, it's a pity that it couldn't replicate the success of the second season, and the third season has completely become a fan-oriented work similar to Million Live. Overall, aside from Tokai Teio, the characterization of other supporting characters is not very successful, and the races of Tokai Teio hardly left any impression on me, with too many races being glossed over. Of course, I can roughly feel Tokai Teio's transformation process from the beginning to later, like starting with a less determined feeling and gradually finding her goal through observing her opponents, but the characterization still feels unsuccessful, at least compared to the second season. Secondly, although in the first and second seasons, there was occasionally a sense of disconnection between the post-race live performances and the races, I must admit that the live performances indeed bring up the emotions, and after so long, everyone has basically accepted this setting. However, the fact that this work has not even had a single live performance shot by episode 10 (except for the previous work) is also a significant reason for my disappointment.
16-bit Emotion: Another Layer: 7/10, a very interesting anime related to gal games. Unlike Shirobako, this work focuses more on the story itself rather than educating about the gal industry and production. For example, the time travel at the end of episode 3, the male lead's time travel at the end of episode 7, and the Akihabara changes due to world line shifts in episodes 9 and 10 all suggest that the script seems to want to use time travel settings to write more interesting stories. But unfortunately, these points feel more like simple gimmicks to attract retention rather than developing the plot, with the story primarily focusing on the female lead's passion for game production, friendship, and efforts. Of course, it also contributed to an interesting episode like episode 8, which is somewhat stream-of-consciousness.
GOD.app: God Selection: 7/10, slightly reminiscent of similar battle royale themes, like last year's Platinum End, etc., almost none of which are particularly excellent, so I had low expectations for this work before it aired, and it also responded to that disappointment with a rather poor beginning. First, the 3D brought a high negative addition, and the character designs and models of several main characters can be said to be quite unattractive (why do their school uniforms have to be sleeveless, I can't understand). However, one advantage of this work's 3D is that the small expressions of the female leads, including their actions and gazes, are quite lively and cute, which adds a bonus to offset the disadvantages. Then, the typical male lead design is not very appealing; it seems this work completely abandons building a worldview, the rules of the battle royale game, etc., and just made a few episodes of fighting, completely ignoring the higher demands for world-building and plot in such works, leading to a very poor viewing experience in the first few episodes. However, in the subsequent story development, these shortcomings from the first few episodes seem to have formed a different point of interest. For example, I can no longer fully regard this work as a serious battle royale; instead, it contains two different types of humor, mainly brought by the male lead, and later the addition of the little idol and the doctor allows me to watch this work with a more relaxed mindset. Furthermore, since the beginning was so poor, anything slightly normal feels like a huge improvement, such as in episode 7, where the introduction of the female lead's past creates a rather nice atmosphere of bizarre horror. Lastly, battle royale works mainly need to tell a coherent long story, and using a unit episode format aimed at character development may conflict with this, but the current plot is gradually unfolding, so overall, I am quite looking forward to its future development.
Furirin's Funeral: 10/10, in terms of overall production quality, it undoubtedly represents the works of 2023, good.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3: 6/10, I don't know why I'm still watching this, maybe it's the sunk cost fallacy, but overall it's quite boring.
The Story of You with Zero Experience and Me with Rich Experience: Watched episode 4, basically dropped it, average production, and I can't get into pure love themes anymore.
The Orange Brigade of the Special Search Team: Watched the first few episodes, basically dropped it. First, the recap length of the last episode was quite hard to watch; second, I can't handle this type of theme, it's too heavy. The training in the first arc was fine, but later the actual rescue was a bit hard to watch.
The Homebound Vampire's Distress: 6/10, one of the three openings of P9 this season. If this work could do more yuri slice-of-life like its predecessor, Lycoris, instead of focusing on its typical light adaptation plot, the viewing experience would be much better.
Spy x Family Season 2: 8/10, good.
Liver and Gizzard are Hot Again: 6/10, one of the three openings of P9 this season. If you treat it as a visual voice drama, this work is quite good. The original work attempts to build a worldview and sets up quite a few interesting mysteries, and you can feel that the original has some substance. By the way, both the OP and ED are quite good.
The Story of the Empire of Tiamat: 6/10, an evil noble girl flow, I've only seen one related theme before, and I don't feel particularly interested. This work is barely watchable.
Our Rain Color Agreement: 4/10, the first work of October that surprised me greatly. In its promotion, this work emphasizes its esports theme, but after the first episode aired, the 20-year-old shooting game art style is really hard for today's audience to handle. Of course, aside from the game's 3D level, the 2D part of this film is also far below the passing line. However, around the fourth or fifth episode, it began to reveal its true theme: love and faction struggles. The outrageous development of the faction struggles completely exceeded my expectations for this work, with the sudden appearance of a childhood friend who just developed romantic feelings, and the gradually transforming younger sister from a strong female character into a yandere, actually forming the main points of interest in this work. Therefore, I reluctantly give the entire work a passing score, as the faction struggles are quite enjoyable. The remaining esports part can only be said to be tasteless, and you can skip it.
The Whisper of the Apothecary Girl: 7/10, similar to The Seven Magic Swords, this time the story is set in a Chinese palace. To be honest, I haven't watched any so-called palace drama, but I know it's still a light novel, and the background setting is just a background setting. However, the cat detective is indeed quite interesting.
Overtake!: 10/10, the second work of October that surprised me greatly, as mentioned above, this excellent and not-so-traditional sports anime is very appealing to me. Emotionally, it has similar thoughts to Kyoukai Senki, where racing, especially formula racing, is sometimes more about challenging oneself than defeating opponents. Secondly, this work is an excellent storytelling piece, portraying four richly developed characters: the mentally scarred Mako due to natural disasters, the yearning for the podium from her father, the lucky Haruka, and the unwilling second driver, Demaru. This film showcases the inner journeys of these four characters in an ensemble manner, which is the most appealing aspect for me. Of course, as a racing anime, it's regrettable that the racing competition parts may not be sufficient, but the production is indeed quite brilliant, forming a stark contrast with another racing anime this season, MF Ghost.
MF Ghost: Speed Spirit: 5/10, the art style is too retro and doesn't quite fit the current mainstream aesthetics, but it has Ayane Sakura as the lead voice actor. The only part worth watching in this work is the racing competition; I won't comment on the rest.
The Idolmaster: Million Live: 7/10, not a long-time fan of the Idolmaster series, purely from an animation perspective, compared to No Logo and U149, Million Live's viewing experience is still lacking a lot. First, I still prefer 2D hand-drawn animation; even so, I feel that the 3D of the white group is more visually appealing than MyGO!!!!!; second, there are simply too many characters appearing. Although there are quite a few characters with very distinct personalities, many of them just pass by without leaving much impression, except for Yuriko, voiced by Miku Ito. Additionally, the three core protagonists of this work completely correspond to the three protagonists of the previous 765 Pro, giving a somewhat repetitive feeling as a casual viewer. In contrast, the character-focused anthologies of No Logo and U149 can better showcase each little idol's character traits. However, there are still some memorable parts, like the disastrous audition live in episode 2. I must say that in recent years, related themes have been using disastrous live performances as part of the narrative, like last year's Shine Post episode 2, Kono Oto Tomare! episode 8, and MyGO!!!!! episode 7. Among these, I might prefer Million Live's audition live in episode 2, as its twists and emotions feel more fulfilling.
100 Girls Who Love You So Much: 8/10, as mentioned earlier, a very excellent romantic comedy with outstanding production and story. By the way, both the OP and ED are quite good, especially the prelude of the ED, which I initially thought was a track maker from the indoor genre.
Hades: I've been following too many this season, temporarily dropped it.
Detective Conan: The Black Iron Shadow: Overall, the viewing experience is much better than in previous years (at least better than the previous years of focusing on Amuro and a few others). The first five minutes of the story felt quite tight, with the usual causes and reasoning omitted. Although many twists feel quite forced, the overall experience is still very interesting. The final part was quite enjoyable (as a viewer who enjoys twists). My understanding is that both sides don't care much about the "mouth-to-mouth" significance in love; it's more about the helplessness in a crisis situation, as neither of the two artificial breaths had any hesitation beyond that. While it could have been left out, it was included, and as a dramatic plot point, I think it was successful.
Here’s my TOP3 for 2023:
- BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!
- Overtake!
- Gurenn Lagann Universe (the movie), Don't Be an Oni-chan!, The Idolmaster: No Logo (catching up), The Idolmaster: U149, Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 1 / Season 2, Furirin's Funeral
Light Novels / Manga#
Can Connecting Two People's Bodies and Minds Through Yuru SM?: Good good good.
Dear Me, Filled with Killing Intent: Just casually catching up for fun.
Once a Week, Buying Classmates' Things: Read over 100 chapters of the web version, a very detailed dual perspective yuri work, I like it. The third volume is being released in a few days, and I’ve already reserved the highest tier limited edition.
Before the Submission Deadline, the Progress of Yuri is Particularly Fast: Read one volume, no special impression, sweet.
Dance of the Stars: A combination of apocalypse x idol x yuri, quite interesting, will buy the first two volumes to collect in a few days. I casually did a machine translation with ChatGPT, but I haven't read it; I’ll wait for a proper translation.
Three Days of Happiness: Recently read it, nothing much to comment on, existentialism.
How Could I Possibly Become Your Lover, No Way! (※ Is it not possible!?): Reading volumes 5 and 6.
Ando and Shimamura: Starting to catch up from the beginning.
Games#
Heaven Burns Red: The plot still has a familiar taste, and the development of chapter three is quite interesting, but the dungeons are too tedious, so I quit after a month.
Blue Archive: I really like the plot of Vol 3.
The Etiquette of the Moonlit Girl: Only completed the Luna route, Luna-sama is lovely.
The Early Blooming Black Lily: 7/10, compared to the promoted yuri work, it feels more like a didactic LGBT propaganda piece. In terms of gameplay, the puzzle settings are overly difficult; first, there are a lack of hints, and second, the matching of input content is too strict. The production team seems to have completely ignored the possible inputs of first-time players, leading to a lack of fuzzy matching. In terms of plot, compared to the story between the female leads, as mentioned at the beginning, it feels more like a lecture, as the affection between the female leads is always at maximum from start to finish. The theme of this work leans more towards depicting some external societal oppression on their yuri, which is not what I intended when playing a yuri gal game. Even if this theme is expressed, I can only say it’s not satisfactory. Lastly, I must say that the female lead's Live2D is incredibly cute.
White Album 2 CODA: 10/10, currently at the progress of Yukina's TE. I don't want to and don't have the qualifications to comment too much, but I guess I will take it out to review every winter from now on, as White Album 2 is such a work.