Spring ’22 Preview Guide

Last Update: 4:17 p.m. 4/10/22 Welcome to my version of the Spring 2022 Preview Guide! I expect to cover every full-episode series that will be debuting this season and some but not all of the sequels. (I will cover the continuations of The Rising of the Shield Hero, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Date a Live,Continue reading “Spring ’22 Preview Guide”

Winter 2022 in Review Part 2

Most of the Winter 2022 times have now concluded, so it’s time for the second part of the season-ending wrap-up. The first part featured a review of In the Land of Leadale, so here I will look at some of the other prominent titles of the season and how they turned out. Featured Title: World’sContinue reading “Winter 2022 in Review Part 2”

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 25

Rating: 3.5 (of 5) Duchess Excel Walter always came across as the sharpest and most potentially devious of Elfrieden’s Dukes, and she was the only one to fully scout out Kazuya when he first arrived. After seeing this episode, though, we may have been underestimating her. Saying that she was the single most important personContinue reading “How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 25”

ESTAB LIFE: Great Escape Preview

Streams: Crunchyroll on (normal day uncertain) Rating: 2 (of 5) Technically this is a Spring 2022 season title, but its first two episodes debuted more than a week early, so let’s take a first look. Though he has directed a number of other notable anime titles (Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Planetes, Maria the Virgin Witch), GoroContinue reading “ESTAB LIFE: Great Escape Preview”

Winter ’22 in Review part 1: In the Land of Leadale

The past three seasons I have done season-ending summaries for titles that I watched out. This season I am doing that in two (possibly three) parts between now and the start of the Spring ’22 Preview Guide on 4/1, as there are a few titles I want to talk about in at least a littleContinue reading “Winter ’22 in Review part 1: In the Land of Leadale”

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 24

Rating: 3 (of 5) So the Native Americans long shown in the opener have finally appeared. Only it turns out that they are not associated with the dragons after all, but rather are refugees. In many respects, patterning refugees after a generic Native American motif is loaded with an irony that may or may notContinue reading “How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 24”

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 23

Rating: 2.5 (of 5) To a certain extent, oversimplifying how characters deal with certain problems is a practical issue necessary for anime series (especially fantasy series which work on an epic scale) to function. They simply do not have time to deal with all the minutiae of how grand processes and big story movements workContinue reading “How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 23”

86 special: Episode 21.5

After more than two months off, 86 is finally returning this Saturday (March 12th) and next Saturday (March 19th) for its two-episode finale. So, naturally, that means yet another recap episode precedes it. This time, though, I will begrudge the production team this recap. It does not provide any new content beyond somewhat in-character narrationContinue reading “86 special: Episode 21.5”