The Apothecary Diaries, episode 35

Note: My apologies for this being a bit late. Family plans interfered with getting this written in a more timley fashion.

Rating: A-

Jinshi has been contemplating for a while now about revealing the two big secrets he’s been keeping from Maomao: how he’s related to the Emperor (and possibly even which truth to tell on that: the one he’s posing as or the likely actual truth) and that he hasn’t been emasculated. A hunting trip he’s been invited on seems like the ideal opportunity to finally bring one or both matters up. Given that this involves Maomao and given the greater intrigues of the palace, things are not, of course, going to be that simple.

While hunting trips for nobles are hardly an unusual occurrence in pretty much any stratified society, given who’s arranging this one (Loulan’s father), it reeks of a set-up from the beginning. That’s not why (or at least not the main reason why) Jinshi insists on getting Maomao back from Gyoukuyou for the trip, though; he really does seem intent on finally telling her when the time is right, which is necessary because she’s being so willfully oblivious to all the hints she’s seen around him, and he may even realize that. (Sure, he could be wearing a mask all the time so at not to distract others with his beauty – one character in The Story of Saiukoku/ColorCloud Palace did do that for real, after all – but Maomao would normally be way too sharp to accept an explanation like that without questioning it further.) The problem is that the hoops he’s jumping through to obfuscate his identity almost prove to be his undoing.

The exact specifics who who is (literally!) gunning for Jinshi are not clear at this point, but the strong implication is that the men in the forest are connected to Shishou. At the very least, they’d have to be connected to someone wealthy and important to have access to the latest firearm designs, and it seems unlikely that such a sizable and well-equipped party could infiltrate so deep into another lord’s domain without detection. Whatever the case, this is the first time that Maomao has directly and specifically been endangered; even if she’s just collateral damage in taking out Jinshi, the gunmen were undoubtedly shooting at her, too. Perhaps that’s why Maomao doesn’t give him too much grief for the jump off the waterfall. What transpires in the hidden cave is a scenario that would normally be extraordinarily sexually tense in just about any other series, and indeed, it’s clear that Jinshi is finding Maomao alluring to some degree, but the delicate balance that the adaptation strikes between the scene being laden with potential and yet clear that it’s going to be wholly unrealized is a testament to the adaptation’s careful handling of the scene.

But there’s no getting around the scene that follows, when Maomao falls while Jinshi tries to hoist her out of that hole. (And while this may seem to be the scene where the all-important frog plays its role, just wait. That’s next episode.) And there’s no getting around this particular shot:

Pretty sure that’s what you think it is, and yep, Jinshi’s definitely got some explaining to do now. (Honestly, I’m impressed that the animation team had the guts to be that obvious about it.) Given where her leg is and where she was raised, even Moamao can’t ignore that. The beginning of next episode should be juicy indeed!

Among other little tidbits, Basen’s explanation to Maomao in the carriage provides the first real sense of what this nation’s geography actually looks like. (And is this the first time that the nation’s name – Li – has been mentioned?) And kudos to Gyoukuyou for being in her finest teasing form when Jinshi was requesting Maomao back. Also, neat to see Lihaku pop up again; I have a suspicion we’re going to be seeing a lot more of him next episode.

For all that’s transpired so far this season, this is looking to be where the real fun lies.

The Apothecary Diaries, episode 34

Rating: B+

To this point the series has studiously eschewed mystical explanations for anything, always going with the approach of the level-headed Maomao finding the practical explanation for events that may seem supernatural to the uninformed. You’d expected that to continue to be the case with a night where Yinghua drags Maomao to a night of ghost storytelling for ladies-in-waiting. Surprisingly, though, that only partly proves to be true this time around.

That a ghost story would be provided which Maomao can offer a perfectly plausible explanation for does, indeed, happen. It’s not at all uncommon in the real world for supernatural attributions to be applied to restrictions made for practical reasons, such as a forest being forbidden because the locals aren’t sure which foods in the forest are and aren’t poisonous, and sometime important historical details can be buried in tales like these. As Yinghua points out herself, such tales aren’t scary at all once you understand how they could really happened. On the other hand, the tale about the monk saving his own life by chanting sutras sounds like a more classic ghost story, the kind you could probably find some version of just about anywhere in the world. It doesn’t seem to have or need any deeper exploration.

The biggest mystery – and the one which might be the series’ one concession to the genuinely supernatural – involves not one of the stories (at least not precisely), but the circumstances under which the gathering takes place. The possibility that someone “in the know” was up to deadly mischief here can’t be entirely ruled out, as the host’s story sounds too much like some of the circumstances explored in the Empress Dowager’s recollections in the previous episode. However, no mortal motivation for trying to effectively suffocate all the attendees makes any sense here, especially since the attendees seem to come from diverse groups. That Maomao actively avoids contemplating the matter further also suggests that she has no ready explanation here, either. Like with Jinshi’s identity, she seems perfectly content to let this one slide, but for entirely difference reasons.

While the ghost story gathering is the main event, there are a couple of other details here with potential long-term consequences. For the first time since Maomao joined Jade Pavilion, it has new personnel, in the form of a trio of similar-looking sisters from the same village as Yinghua. 34 episodes in does seem like the right time for a cast expansion, and the way at least one of the sisters looks at Maomao (who, admittedly, would be an utterly perplexing person to an outsider) suggests that they may play some bigger role later on. The other is Maomao’s seemingly-innocuous observation about Shisui. These kind of details have a habit of coming up again later on in this series, so I did some checking, and she has the same eye color and hair shade as Loulan, the new Pure Consort. Not out of question that could be a coincidence, and Shisui’s normal personality certainly seems at odds with the disposition of Loulan’s Pavilion, but being this completely two-faced would hardly be out of line for the setting. Also, Shisui didn’t first appear until after Loulan did and her affiliation has not even been hinted at to this point. This definitely bears watching as the story progresses.

So what’s Jinshi so concerned about at the end of the episode? We’ll find out next time in what should be a return to the more plot-driven side of the overall story. And the matter with the frog seen in the OP is approaching!

Special: A Look at Non-Japanese Isekai

Over the past several months I’ve started looking into current isekai stories from non-Japanese sources. That trends in this genre outside of Japan closely mirror what’s going on in Japan is no surprise, though some of these works ape the construction and signature characteristics of current Narou-influenced isekai more than others. Before we get into anime season-ending business (some Spring ’25 titles complete their runs as early as this weekend!), I’ll take this opportunity to do a deeper dive into three titles that have at least some potential to both stand out and appeal to fans of Japanese isekai, though their appeal isn’t necessarily limited to that audience.

Melody of Mana

Author: Wandering Agent

Volumes: 6 (complete)

Overall Rating: B

The initially-unnamed protagonist is a woman in her 20s who lives in modern-day United States. She suffers an accident while spelunking which isolates her from her traveling companions, then discovers a strange pool which seems to result in her death as it imbues her with some kind of energy. Instead she awakens in a wholly new place as Alana, the baby daughter and youngest child of a retired soldier living in the farming hamlet of Orksen in a world that is decidedly not modern or, as she eventually discovers, Earth. At a young age she discovers that she is a bard, which means that she can work magic through the use of song (and, much later on, dance and acting as well). Bards in this world are jack-of-all-trades casters – not the best at combat magic, healing, or enhancement but capable of doing all of them to some degree and specializing in illusion and creation magic. As Alana gradually learns about her magic, it serves her well to survive the many challenges she faces throughout her life, including famine, war, monsters, rebellions, kidnappings, magical catastrophes, politics, parties (no, really – how deadly parties are is practically a running joke in the series), and even school.

This one is labeled as a “progression fantasy,” which means the story almost entirely focuses on Alana and how she very gradually grows into becoming one of her new world’s most powerful figures. We do occasionally briefly see other viewpoints, which help give a sense of bigger events going on beyond Alana’s immediate scope (albeit events which typically at least peripherally connect to her), but while the overall plot might affect the situations that Alana finds herself in, it never guides the story; mostly Alana is reacting to what’s going on rather than being a driving force behind it, and she certainly has no sense of destiny guiding her. She spends significant chunks of the story (especially in the early going) in pure survival mode and, when things eventually settle down for her, goes on to explore the mysteries of magic and the world in general. Occasionally this does force her into sometimes-deadly action, but while this does come in semi-regular doses, it’s not a main focus of the storytelling approach.

The world of this story is clearly heavily-influenced by tabletop RPGs, as the magic of the world falls into types whose strengths align with standard RPG classes: bard magic is versatile but not overly powerful; wizard magic is stronger, faster in combat situations, and more elemental-based; cleric magic is superior at healing and body manipulation; and physical enhancement magic doesn’t involve spellcasting but instead personal buffs which enhance physical capabilities in much the same way that gaining levels in martial classes would in an RPG. The magic system does have some unique quirks, though, and the exploration of these is one of the series’ greatest strengths. Bards can get power boosts from people singing along with them (and those singers don’t have to be magic-users themselves, so this isn’t just typical cooperative casting) and priests, who more proscribe to enclaves than specific gods, are very tightly-regulated and slavishly politically and militarily neutral because the magic which makes them great at healing also makes them horrifying opponents if they go on the offensive. (The setting has records of priests who go berserk single-handedly wiping out entire towns.) The basis for the magic system and how magic items are created – which is explored heavily in the second and third novels in particular – is also quite interesting and carries likenesses to computer programming.

Beyond the magic system, the world-building is more of a mixed bag. Nothing about the monsters which occasionally pop up is terribly novel, and the geopolitical situation is also pretty standard, although the first novel does emphasize more than most the indirect impact that war can have on a country’s populace. The second half of the series innovates more and delves more into the setting’s longer history as it brings into play the much more magitech homeland of the elvish stand-in race and takes several decidedly different twists on standard human-elf interactions. (For instance, elves were the aggressors in interracial conflicts in the past and in more recent centuries have actively sought to mix blood to bolster birth rates and prevent cultural stagnation.) The only other humanoid race which appears in the story is goblins, and then only briefly and in a decidedly different fashion than how they’re used in other fantasy settings.

The isekai aspect of the story, while not a major component, nevertheless maintains its relevance. It can show up in some interesting ways; for instance, that Alana knows a more precise value for pi than her new world knows actually becomes a plot point at times, and her magical research is sometimes influenced by things she knows from standard modern-world education that aren’t common knowledge in this world. As the series progresses, that Alana may not be the only individual from Earth who has ever made it to this world also comes into play in a big way, though, again, it never becomes a dominant story element. Being more mature and worldly as a child also plays a huge role in her surviving early perils.

While the world-building is, on the balance, a strength, and the magic system certainly is, the whole thing wouldn’t work if Alana wasn’t a character who can be easily rooted for. She is smart and quickly adaptive, sassy, full of attitude, and plenty mentally tough without sacrificing believable emotional vulnerability. She is far from overpowered, so she commonly survives more on her wits than on overwhelming opponents and challenges, even in the later stages of the story when she stands among her land’s most powerful casters. While she is shown flirting with bisexuality at one point in the story, she is firmly hetero on the long run; I bring that up to discourage readers from getting their hopes up rather than to indicate it as a negative. In general, the romance aspect, while present in the middle and later stages of the story, is expressed more as simply a part of Alana’s life rather than a focus. The supporting cast around Alana is competently-portrayed and helps flesh out the setting’s bigger picture but is far less memorable; she firmly carries the series on her shoulders.

The series’ one significant negative is the way its last volume is handled. It employs a number of time skips to round out the story of Alana’s life (she dies in the last novel’s final page), and this disrupts the smooth flow the story had going up until that point. The way it skips over some things you’d like to know more details about isn’t very satisfying, either, even if it does help give a fuller sense of a life lived rather than just going into a “happily ever after.” Still, the series is solid enough up to that point that I can give it a firm recommendation overall. I also heartily recommend the audiobook version, which is available for all novels. Reba Buhr (the English voice of Myne from Ascendance of a Bookworm and Karen/LLENN from Sword Art Online: Gun Gale Online) does a fantastic job bringing Alana to life and providing varied voices for other characters.

Adelheid novels:

The Seventh Princess, The Reginnaglar Ceremony, The Shadow of Glory, The Grave of Valor

Author: D.C. Haenlien

Volumes So Far: 4

Rating: B-

An unnamed individual from Earth dies and is reincarnated by an apparently-dark goddess with enigmatic motives into the body of Adelheid von Vuldar, the 7-year-old granddaughter of the Emperor of the Vuldar Empire and thus a potential candidate to inherit the throne. (The first novel’s title comes from her being the seventh of the royals.) Since her mother was an elven princess who died shortly after childbirth, Adelheid is an extremely rare half-elf, one with a petite stature but bewitchingly perfect features and a strong talent for magic. She quickly realizes that she lives in a cutthroat world where all royals are expected to compete for the throne of her militaristic nation; her father’s feeling towards her are mixed and an older half-brother seems to regard her favorably, but potential enemies and intrigues are everywhere, so even despite her young age she quickly sets about building a power base and developing her magic and combat abilities. Over the course of the four currently-available novels, Adelheid ages six years or so as she gathers loyal followers and noble supporters, establishes businesses to give herself an independent economic base, develops a feeder system of future talent, trains in magic and weaponry, makes plays for status in court, undergoes the traditional combat trial of potential imperial heirs (which takes up most of the second novel), and assembles special equipment for herself and her (eventually) knights, all while braving various existential dangers from threats both human and monstrous. Oh, and she eventually awakens as a vampire, too.

Technically that last item is a major spoiler for late in the third novel, but there are enough signs pointing in that direction (her strongest magical talent is a secret talent for blood magic, for instance) that it’s more a “how didn’t this happen sooner” note than a surprise when it finally happens. Even before that point, Adelheid is one of the coldest and most ruthless isekai protagonists you’re ever likely to run across, almost to the point of being an anti-hero. She does care for those who are loyal to her (revenge for the death of a loyal subordinate is a major motivating factor for her in one novel), but she’s not an emotive type and not above cruelty or even psychological torture when crossed. Some of this is a product of her setting, as there are multiple attempts to specifically kill her over the course of the first three novels, so she is still relatable, but this one definitely leans a bit more to the darker side of fantasy than most.

Over the course of the four novels, the world-building, history, and especially cosmology of the setting are well-developed, to the point that there are even brief parts from the points of view of gods (although the gods play almost no direct role in the story themselves). On the downside, this too frequently comes through info-dumps. The magic system is moderately well-developed but doesn’t vary much from standard RPG mechanics concerning tiered/leveled spells and magic item creation. For other RPG parallels, divine magic doesn’t seem to exist as a separate category in this setting, but it does use “auras” to explain the power increases of leveling in martial-types. (The titles of Aura Disciple, Journeyman, Master, and Grand Master roughly correspond in strength to low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier, and top-tier combatant levels in fantasy RPG systems.) Monsters and humanoid races are also mostly fantasy-standard (though there’s no equivalent to halflings, gnomes, orcs, or goblins in the setting), and the existence of dungeons at least has an explanation connected to the setting’s cosmology. The setting also has magitech in its distant past; what happened to that society is a mystery that occasionally pops up past the first novel.

As with Melody of Mana, this is squarely a progression fantasy, although this one has a greater sense of overall plot and Adelheid is guided by an overriding purpose: she must become the next Emperor to ensure her survival. (This becomes especially important after she turns into a vampire, as it’s the only way she can see to keep the truth about her hidden long-term.) The isekai aspect partly follows common progressions and partly doesn’t; Adelheid’s earliest business ventures involve food, especially honey (which it has partly in common with Melody of Mana), but later ones veer into things like concrete. The dungeon aspect is utterly bog-standard beyond the cosmological explanation for their existences. The supporting cast here is stronger and more distinctive than in Melody of Mana, although at least one of the most major supporting characters borders on being over-the-top in characterization.

On the whole, this one isn’t quite as sharp on the writing quality, particularly with its tendency to info dump and, upon occasion, over-dramatize. When it gets really in-depth in its processes, the writing can even get a bit tedious. The audiobook version has a plus of featuring both a male and a female reader, but it tends to get annoyingly elaborate in the way it presents spellcasting (complete with sound effects!). This is – thankfully! – dispensed with when a new reading duo takes over for the fourth novel, but the new duo isn’t quite as adept at doing different voices.

Overall, this one gets a mild recommendation, especially if you’re a fan of political intrigue. While a bit more grounded and detail-intensive than your typical isekai series, it doesn’t in a major way stand out from the pack. The story feels far from finished at the end of the fourth novel (which was published in July ’24), so more should be coming eventually.

A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

Book 1: A Small Town in Southern Illvaria

Author: Acaswell

Volumes So Far: 2 (only the first reviewed here)

Rating: C+

Unlike the other two entries, this isn’t a reincarnation isekai, but rather a straight “hijacked to another world” scenario focused on Alice, a 15-year-old high school student from modern-day Colorado who goes to bed in her room one night but wakes up in the midst of a devastated wasteland, without the faintest clue about where she is or how she got there. The first third or so of the very long first novel (585 pages, or around 27½ hours in audiobook form) involve Alice’s efforts to survive in the wilderness over a long winter before she eventually finds and joins a frontier town on the southern fringe of the country of Illvaria, which is definitely not on Earth. Most of the rest of the novel involves Alice’s efforts to integrate into human society and learn about the new world, especially about how magic works (since she unwittingly survives a very dangerous baptism to become a spellcaster who wasn’t born with her magic) and about the System which guides everything in this world.

Yes, this one is a full-blown LitRPG scenario, with game stats, game-like status screens, classes, levels, class perks, skills, and achievements all being integral to the setting. What distinguishes this one a little is how complete the integration of the game-like components are, to the point that this feels like a deliberate exercise in imagining how one of these game-like worlds would really work in a practical sense. Everybody has and benefits from stats, even down to lowly farmers, obsessing over builds is second nature, and the guiding System is even the basis for the setting’s main religion. There are even classes for things like “Good Husband” and “Good Wife,” and class-based perks rule everything, whether it’s adding special features to clothes, making wagon travel smoother and faster, or detecting lies and criminal activities. Although everyone has mana which seems to be the basis for their stats and abilities, true spellcasting is uncommon but not unknown. Monsters also exist as animals which exclusively feed off mana. Humanoid racial diversity is very limited so far – elves are mentioned but not yet present – but Immortals do exists as rare individuals who have leveled up enough that they have effectively ceased their aging. (The higher-level someone is, the slower they tend to age.)

The other distinguishing feature of this one is how thoroughly it explores the structure of how magic and the System works in this world. As a science-leaning student, Alice is a very curious sort, and so pursues this diligently as her abilities gradually develop, to the point of even looking at the exact mechanics of how mana works with the System to grant skills, levels, and stat increases. The novel is arguably at its most interesting when delving into this and the broader structure of how magic works; all mages have “magic cores” within their bodies which determine which class of magic they can use, for instance, and they aren’t necessarily the standard ones. (An organic mage, for instance, is good at healing and body manipulation/modification, to the point of being able to endure attacks that would be fatal to anyone else.) Everything is very customizable – even magic cores can be customized at the cost of efficiency – and the options seem nearly endless.

But that’s also where one of the novel’s biggest faults comes into play: it winds up dwelling too much on the choices Alice has to make as she advances in skills and levels. Sure, there can be some interest factor in seeing what all options are available at certain levels – you’re not a true tabletop RPG gamer if you haven’t occasionally lost an entire afternoon or evening to doing this for a character you’re building – but watching Alice thoroughly consider her options gets tedious after a while. That Alice’s isekai status primarily comes into play as a top-rarity Achievement and the fact that she has a lower baseline attribute status than the norm for this world (the average person here is superhuman by real-world standards thanks to the System) is a little amusing and an interesting twist, but it doesn’t offset how the writing can sometimes get bogged down by the mechanics.

The novel’s other major flaw is, unfortunately, its protagonist. In isolation, Alice comes across as a cautious, analytical type, which is fine for the situation she’s in. When she finally starts interacting with other people, though, a tendency towards being overly expressive starts to show, to the point of obnoxiousness. Whether this is meant to suggest that she’s possibly neurodivergent is unclear, but it’s more annoying than quirky. Essentially, Alice is compelling entirely because of her situation and not at all because of her personality. Because Alice spends close to half the novel functionally or entirely solo, the supporting cast is somewhat limited, with only four characters – a sponsor, a System priest, an adult mage she travels with on one task, and an enchanter her own age whom Alice trains with and befriends – having much of a presence, though collectively they do partly compensate for Alice’s deficiencies.

While most of the story so far would fall into the “progression” category, there are indicators of a bigger plot that Alice is (unwittingly) just touching the fringes of thanks to her research, one which may have to do with instabilities in the System and definitely involves an organization cast as major potential antagonists. Immortals are also doing investigations which may eventually intersect with Alice’s, and there’s a big mystery surrounding the circumstances which brought her to this world (and what else came along with her) which seems connected to all of this, so this one looks to eventually be more plot-intensive than the other two. While the story does have some action elements, it has distinctly less of that than the other two, and really only a couple of action scenes once Alice is out of pure survival mode.

Overall, this one has just enough potential that I’ll probably check out the next novel, but its flaws are more substantial, and a more run-of-the-mill audiobook delivery tends to bring those out more than hide them.

The Apothecary Diaries, episode 33

Rating: A

Many fans of the novels and manga are eagerly anticipating the upcoming episode explaining why a frog is featured in the OP. For me, though, the most anticipated episode of this cour of the series is this one, the one which dealt most squarely with Empress Dowager Anshi and the previous Emperor. Despite one minor but somewhat important detail being left out, I am pleased to say that the adaptation fully does this part justice.

While there is a mystery here – did the previous Emperor really die of being cursed by Anshi? – the mystery part is by far the lesser and simpler part of this story. Like all of the mysteries in the series, there’s a perfectly mundane solution: The former Emperor unwittingly poisoned himself over time with the yellow paint he used in his paintings. Orpiment (a type of arsenic sulfide) was widely-used in yellow pigment across Europe and Asia (including China) up until the 19th century, but it is also toxic, and that becoming better-understood was a major contributing factor to it eventually falling out of use. If the former Emperor was regularly exposed to it while painting in a closed room over time, how his health eventually deteriorated from it is easily understandable.

But boy, what comes after that gets explained is where the real meat of the episode is. The late Emperor has previously been portrayed as a somewhat addled figure who became Emperor by process of elimination rather than because he was mentally or emotionally suited for it, and that becomes devastatingly clearer as Anshi reminisces upon Maomao discovering the late Emperor’s painting(s). He comes across here as someone who likely was mentally challenged and certainly was an artist at heart; he’s the type who probably would have been happy being left to his painting in some tucked-away pavilion in the Imperial Palace, far away from the court. That he was forced into being Emperor was, ironically, probably the worst thing that could have happened to him. That doesn’t for a minute excuse that was also unquestionably a pedophile, and many knew of it and sought to take advantage of it. The big twist here is that the Empress Dowager, by her own admission, was one of them.

Plenty about this situation could make anyone’s skin crawl: that fathers were deliberately putting their underage daughters in a predator’s path, that no one around the Emperor was discouraging this behavior, or that the girl who seems to be the biggest victim here – the Empress Dowager – put herself before the Emperor knowing full well about his predilections and with deliberate, ambitious intent to entice him. Sure, you could argue that her father was most to blame for setting up the situation under the guise of her being an attendant to a more proper-aged concubine, and perhaps for putting the idea in his daughter’s head, but she clearly acted on her own agency here. It worked, and thus we have the current Emperor.

But Anshi’s too complicated a character to be passed off as just having been a girl of driving ambitions. The way she expresses herself later in her recollections suggests that she was actually disappointed when she aged out of the Emperor’s interest range, though whether that was because she actually felt something for the Emperor is unclear. What is clear is that, even though she originally won him over with her youth, she also hated that aspect of the Emperor. She found it pathetic that he could only talk to little girls and felt disrespected that he would no longer interact with her – and so she essentially raped him to get pregnant the second time, including a full dose of vindictive psychological trauma which may have been the tipping point for him becoming a recluse. In other words, Anshi has some pretty dark skeletons, and that can’t all be explained away as her delivering justice on the Emperor for his predilections. Does it mean that the compassion she’s known for is only a veneer? Not necessarily. Weathering the challenges and dangers she did without becoming two-faced would be nearly impossible. All of this does clearly lay out why she still felt guilty about it even years after the former Emperor’s death, and like Maomao, she’s plenty willing to avoid contemplating an inconvenient truth – i.e., that she did contribute to the Emperor’s decline even if she didn’t actually kill him.

The other interesting aspect here is what, exactly, the Emperor’s hidden painting represents – or, perhaps more precisely, who it depicts as the central figure. Anshi assumes she’s meant to be his mother, the Empress, and it’s a natural assumption given how important a figure she was in his life. But he did previously paint her wearing yellow as a girl, and this mature woman is wearing a vibrant yellow, too. What does it say about the way he saw and felt about Anshi (or at least the impression she made on him) if he was intending that woman to represent the adult Anshi? And what about the symbolism that the woman’s yellow is what did him in? Why Anshi doesn’t even want to think about that is not hard to understand.

The minor missing detail I mentioned at the beginning is the omission of the explanation for why yellow was Anshi’s default color in her younger years. The novel and manga both explain that it’s because Anshi’s homeland was known for its trade in tumeric, a derivative of which is used for yellow pigment. Granted, this is more a curiosity than a necessary detail, but working it in somehow would have been nice. Otherwise the episode does an excellent job of handling its potentially very tricky subject matter.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V episode 15 (season finale)

Rating: A

DanMachi may not always be the best-looking or most flawlessly-animated series, but it has rarely fallen short on dramatic presentation and does better than most when it comes to delivering on its biggest moments. That is no less true for this season finale, which brings to a conclusion the anime’s adaptation of novels 16-18.

And it delivers on not one but two featured action components to round out the War Games. The first is, of course, the final confrontation against Ottarl, with Haruhime’s Uchide no Kozuki boosting all of the challengers, effectively giving the allies three level 7s and and a level 6 against Ottarl. This is a fantastic battle sequence well worth multiple rewatches over time and being considered among the series’s finest action sequences – and given the great efforts this franchise has shown in the past, that’s saying something. The sense of movement and the choreography are both elite-status, allowing viewers to fully be able to follow every move even while marveling at how dynamic it all is. And though Bell is the star here and gets the final blow (sort of), he certainly doesn’t do this on his own, with each of Mia, Ryu, and Hedin playing crucial parts. But no character here has a more important role that Ottarl himself. He is utterly convincing as a powerhouse on all fronts, one who has the battle instincts to match his strength and the fierce determination to fend off all foes that is no less than Bell’s, and yet without feeling over-the-top. And even at the end, he’s more acknowledging that Bell is worthy than fully defeated. Rarely has a DanMachi character more proven his second name – King – than Ottarl does here, for a goddess can’t be saved if the king who guards her can’t be overcome.

The chase scene between Bell and Allen isn’t lacking for tension or impact, either, even if it is quite a bit shorter. This is also nicely choreographed, and again, I love that Bell didn’t do this on his own. Clearly he benefited from some sort of familia synchronization from Lily (this isn’t explained in the novel, either), but Welf getting in the final strike to clear Bell’s path was very satisfying, especially after Welf was thrashed and berated by Allen a few episodes earlier.

For all the action, though, the scene at the top of the tower is nearly as important in a dramatic sense. This is essentially Freya’s last stand as a goddess, and the melancholy musical selection perfectly reinforces how this is as much a defeat of Freya’s crush on Bell as it is a defeat of Freya Familia as a whole. Letting the War Game end on that note, rather than with raucous celebration, was also a perfect choice.

Let’s not understated the important of Freya’s epilogue, either. Who is the real Freya? Even she’s not sure, and she still has a final reckoning with both herself and the denizens of Hostess of Fertility. Again, the musical choices here – a piano version of the opener and the closer – suit the emotional scene perfectly. This arc would not be complete and fully satisfying without this ending – without Freya choosing to continue as Syr under Bell’s watchful eye. (Technically speaking, she’s actually under Hestia’s supervision according to the novels, but that’s a trivial detail.) And that both Hedin and Horn acknowledged this as a positive result in the end is also necessary.

The arc concludes here with some issues left floating; what is to become of the very powerful adventurers in the now-disbanded Freya Familia? Lower-tier members could easily get absorbed into other familias, but what will the top-tier members do? Also, Haruhime really put herself out there with an open display of her Uchide no Kozuki, and there’s no way that won’t draw attention. There’s also the little matter of Ryu openly declaring her love for Bell, too. But all those are issues which can be pushed back into the next novel. (Indeed, novel 19 does, to a degree, address them all.) This arc has ended at least as well as any of the others, and let’s enjoy that for now.

The Apothecary Diaries, episode 32

Rating: B+

Last episode’s mystery with the shrine provide a glimpse into the setting’s broader history. This episode, by contrast, looks at the closer history of the setting by starting to expand on Jinshi’s dream sequence from the beginning of last episode. (In the manga version, that dream sequence comes immediately before the content of this episode, but it does provide a little better – if more indirect – lead-in to the shrine visit.) It does so by focusing more on a character who’s appeared in the background a couple of times but never seen significant attention before: the current Empress Dowager.

But before it gets into the heavier content, it opens with the lighter fare, such as Maomao’s room being reassigned to a storage shed (supposedly as punishment, though it delights her) and Maomao’s encounter with the bug-happy Shisui, for whom some have mistaken her (much more to Maomao’s consternation). This and Maomao using Jinshi’s handkerchief as an information provided provide most of the episode’s requisite dose of humor.

The greatest attention, though, is on the Empress Dowager, who is here named for the first time as Lady Anshi. Though no longer reigning, she’s an influential figure responsible for establishing the clinic, officially ending slavery, and doing away with the practice of making eunuchs. The middle of those accomplishments is arguably the most impactful and yet least complete one; Maomao’s own situation at the start of the series was, for all practical purposes, slavery, and many of the courtesans in the Pleasure District effectively are, too, so the practice is more disguised but still present. Still, it helps depict Anshi as a woman of deep compassion, which contributes to why Maomao seemed a little startled by the question Anshi asked her: did she curse the previous Emperor to death?

This one requires a lot of context to fully understand, and not all of that context is available in this episode. Back during the first garden party in the first season, Maomao flinched upon hearing how young Lady Anshi was when she gave birth to the current Emperor, and while we still don’t get an exact age here, comments in this episode strongly suggest that she may have been as young as 10. Since rumors were flying about the former Emperor being a pedophile, that means Lishu being sent to the Rear Palace the first time at age nine wasn’t just a political arrangement but wholly intended to make her the Emperor’s sexual partner, which is all the more creepy. That apparently wasn’t the former Emperor’s only issue, either, as the dream sequence last episode and some of what’s mentioned this episode suggest that he had other mental issues, too, in addition to being a lifelong Momma’s Boy. That the current Emperor came out normal despite having such a father was no doubt heavily due to Anshi, and the country should venerate her for it.

Unsurprisingly, Anshi’s relationship to the previous Emperor seems to have been a rocky one. Her chief lady-in-waiting here claims that Anshi daily wished for his death, though whether that was just because of his predilections or other factors, too, is unclear at this point. Clearly she got the upper hand on him at some point if she got the aforementioned policy changes implemented, but given his preferences, this also raises the question of how she had a second child by the former Emperor nearly 20 years later. There’s definitely a lot more to this story, which should play out more next episode. For now, the former Emperor’s body being well-preserved also speaks to the mystery about whether the former Emperor really did die of “old age.” I’ve heard that bodies these days don’t decay as rapidly as they used to because of all of the preservatives present in modern foods, so doubtless something along that line is in play here.

In all, it’s a pretty neat set-up for a big mystery, and one that weaves in a lot of setting detail, too. (And let’s not forget that the mystery about who taught Lihua’s former lady-in-waiting about the abortive drug still lingers in the background.) The big details are all great and the artistry looks as sharp as ever, but once again I liked the little details, too, like how Anshi handles Princess Lingli during her meeting with Gyoukuyou. I also appreciated that Anshi is also suggested to be quite clever, as she indicates her intent to talk to Maomao to Gyoukuyou with just a glance and quite probably set up the tea party to have an inconspicuous way to have Maomao filled in about what she wants Maomao to investigate. Despite her seeming gentle nature, she has to be a formidable woman to have come through what she has. The circumstances involved make her another intriguing side character.

The one negative about this episode is that it lays on the ominous and dramatic music uncharacteristically thickly, to the point of overkill at times. Some might also find Jinshi not making a single appearance (is this the first episode where that’s happened?) to be distinctive, too. In general, though, it’s a solidly-executed set-up for what should be the crux of the mystery next episode.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V episode 14

Rating: A-

Appropriately titled “The Warriors of the Goddess,” episode 14 features a lot of dramatic action scenes involving said warriors, but despite the War Games winding down to its final stages, that’s not the main focus or point of the episode at all. Instead, the focus is much more on what motivates those warriors, and that’s plenty interesting enough that I can justify giving this episode a high rating despite my normal disdain for “let’s stretch the battle out” episodes.

Whatever you may think of the Freya Familia elite as characters, one of the most intriguing aspects of them as a group is that they are far from monolithic. Yes, they all love and idolize Freya and place no loyalties above their loyalties to her, and they all were to some degree saved by Freya; Ottarl was picked up off the street, there’s some suggestion that Freya may have bargained sex to free the Gulliver brothers from slavery, and Hedin was a king freed from the perpetual cycle of warfare on his home island. The episode states that Allen and Ahnya lost their family and village to the Black Dragon, so anime viewers can presume that Freya likewise rescued them. (The novel clarifies this.) The anime version is less explicit about Hogni, but he was Hedin’s rival back before Freya took them in, and so can be presumed to be picked up under similar circumstances. (Again, the novels are much clearer on this point.) And yes, all of them – even proud, arrogant Hedin! – want Freya’s love focused on them.

But all of them differ in how they look at Freya, and this is the point where the writing most stands out. Allen idolizes the power she represents and can give him; he cherishes most the domineering aspect of the goddess. Ottarl is the stalwart gatekeeper, the one who cannot acknowledge anyone approaching the goddess unless they prove worthy by him; he seeks not to interpret, only to execute Freya’s spoken will. Hedin, on the other hand, does seek to interpret Freya’s true will, to look at her inner heart and act accordingly. While previous episodes have implied that he is acting this way, in his confrontation with Hogni this episode he finally explicitly lays out how he sees the situation: Freya will never be genuinely happy as long as she’s still a goddess, and her own familia can’t rectify that problem precisely because they idolize her. And, as much as it pains him, he recognizes that Bell can fill that role because he values the girl she is inside rather than the goddess she is on the surface. Everything he’s done this season has been deliberate moves to position Bell for that purpose. That’s something Hogni can appreciate, too, when it’s explained to him. Where, exactly, the Gulliver brothers stand is less clear, though there’s some implication that they may be motivated to protect their savior’s virtue.

One other conflict is afoot here, too: the relationship between Ahnya and Allen. The nature of their relationship comes off a bit thin in anime form compared to the novels, but even the anime has acknowledged for a while now that she was cast aside by Freya and her brother – though, notably, not stripped of the falna which makes her tough enough to delve deep into the Dungeon or take out numerous lower-level members of Freya’s Einherjar. (Canonically, she is a Level 3.) Hogni confronting Allen on Ahnya’s behalf brings out the truth: that Allen asked Freya to kick Ahnya out not because she was incompetent, but because he was worried that the brutal life in Freya Familia didn’t suit her. In one of the episode’s few amusing moments, even Loki Familia’s Bete – who is the character in the franchise most like Allen in disposition – points out that Ahnya wouldn’t be alive, much less living a peaceful life, if Allen actually meant the rhetoric he spews about her. He does still love and care for her as family but is much too prideful to admit it and absolutely won’t let that get in the way of his loyalty to Freya.

Of course, this is a War Game, so the action component is still present. Allen finally gets to show off his special gimmick, the power we see him use in the OP which earns him the nickname of Freya’s chariot. (This is actually an important mythological reference, since Freya’s chariot was traditionally pulled by two cats. Not a stretch to interpret that Ahnya may have been meant to be the other one.) From the anime’s limited depiction, it looks like it allows him to make a power charge across the battlefield. Compared to that, his stand-offs with Hogni and Ahnya are but a scuffle, as is Alfrigg standing back up against the second-stringers. The real fight is the now-four-on-one effort to take down Ottarl. He’s not the strongest in Orario for nothing, as even with newly-arrived back-up from a Level 6 mage and tactician, it’s not enough to do anything beyond wounding him a bit and destroying his armor. But he is the Battle-Swine of Freya; in mythology, Freya was accompanied in battle by the boar Hildisvini (the same name as Ottarl’s sword-enhancing ability), and that boar was the transformed form of a man name Ottar. Never let it be said that original writer Fujino Omori hasn’t thoroughly studied his mythology!

Ultimately, the well-executed action elements provide a nice complement to the heavier but important background elements throughout the rest of the episode. The result is a good-looking episode which also finds a good writing balance and covers the last few bases necessary to set up the finale next week.

Winter 2025 Mid-Season Report, part 2

This half deals with titles which hit either their 6th or 7th episodes during the week of 2/17/25-2/23/25. It also includes the remainder of season 3 of Arifureta, which finished airing during this time frame.

Arifureta s3 episodes 12-16

Rating (these episodes only): B-

After a short delay, the third season of Arifureta finished its run over the last five weeks, bringing to a conclusion both the arc involving the last Labyrinth and the broader quest to create an item capable of allowing Hajime and his classmates (and those from this world who would go back with him) to return to their original world. This run of episodes mostly involves Hajime and crew having to fight their inner demons mostly in isolation, and as a result it features some of this installment’s best character development moments. This is, of course, uneven, as Hajime is still just too perfect, but the other who has the easiest time of it – Shea – feels far less hackneyed, since she’s been confronting herself over the course of her journey with Hajime. Shizuku gets arguably the most interesting results out of it, while Kouki’s frustration and difficulties finally come to a head. By the end, all that’s left is to tie up a few loose ends and collect everyone, but that’s going to include a jaunt to the demon realm to get Eri, and as episode 16’s final shot shows, that’s not going to be trivial. Feels like one more season might wrap this up, and honestly, I’m curious at this point to see how it will end, especially with the improved technical merits holding steady.

Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest

Rating So Far: C

Protagonist Ein may have to work at getting stronger at first, and confidence does remain a bit of an ongoing issue, but this series still suffers from making him too strong too fast. Moreover, it does this not by showing that his Appraiser class is more powerful than expected, but by giving him a major upgrade to his ability, which cuts into any feeling that he’s earned his greater power. (At least him earning his harem members as he gathers Yuri’s “sisters” is taking a little more effort.) Text which doesn’t stay on the screen long enough to be read is a frequently-recurring problem with this one, too. The character dynamics aren’t bad, and the mystery of why one of the World Trees has turned evil (which the main cast isn’t even aware of yet as of episode 7!) is a little interesting, but the visuals are nothing special and too little of any of this feels fresh. It’s struggling to remain compelling and is thus one of my lowest-priority views.

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!

Rating So Far: B+

This may not be one of the best-looking or best-animated series of the season, but it’s easily one of the most fun ones, as the gimmick of a 52-year-old father trying his best to be a villainess works even better that I might have imagined. Watching “Grace” unwittingly slip into “Dad mode” is a regular delight, but so are the flashbacks to all of his family stuff and how that influences what’s going on now. The series deserves special recognition for the clever way that it keeps real-world characters active in the story while Kenzaburo is progressing in the game. Its closer, which I understand is a parody of something that American audiences probably wouldn’t be familiar with, is also special. This one gets a high recommendation.

I Left My A-Rank Party

Rating So Far: B

One of the minor surprises of the season so far is that this straight fantasy series doesn’t suck. The “I left my party under bad terms” premise for a fantasy series has been very hit-or-miss so far in anime, but this one hits by not entirely going the conventional route. Sure, the twist of dungeon delving being magically live-streamed is a bit gimmicky, and the rising villainy of the party protagonist Yuke left behind is completely rote at this point, but the way he works together with a trio of fledgling female adventurers he previously trained has been neat and surprisingly wholesome, with an emphasis placed on them using the lessons he’s taught them about how to be careful and savvy dungeon adventurers. It has not dipped at all into harem antics (yet?) despite being perfectly set up for it and it’s almost entirely avoided fan service, too, despite at least two of the girls having looks which could easily be fan service bait. Episode 7 does take a significantly darker turn, which isn’t bad but has the potential to shake up the status quo, so the only real flaw so far is some inconsistent artistic quality. It’s definitely a better series than its name and blurb might suggest.

I May Be a Guild Receptionist

Rating So Far: B+

I plan to review this one fully at the end of the season, so I’ll limit my comments on it for now. I will say that it’s been the most pleasant surprise so far this season, to the point that it has become my top-priority view in any given week (even over The Apothecary Diaries!) and is the series whose episodes I’ve rewatched the most. Its OP and ED (which the series uses interchangeably) are among the season’s best, Alina is a delight as a veritable goddess of vengeance for the working woman, and her budding relationship with Jade (at left) has become cute. It gets my highest recommendation.

Ishura s2

Rating: B

Maybe eventually this story will get to the actual tournament? So far, it’s still continuing the same pattern it took in the first season: introduce a bevy of colorful characters with even more colorful titles, with only occasional connections being made. There is a sense of timeline progression and hints of broader scheming, but the story still feels like it’s in its preliminary stages. At least most of the characters and vignettes introduced are interesting (although the robot/golem who sounds like a little kid gets obnoxious quickly!), and the design and technical merits are still pretty strong.

Magic Maker: How to Make Magic in Another World

Rating So Far: B

If I had to pick a Most Underappreciated Series for the season to date, this would easily be one of my top two choices. I know some were put off my some early vaguely incestuous vibes, but that hasn’t been a thing going forward in the story and it undercuts just how different this is from a lot of other isekai reincarnation tales. Sion is constructing a magic system from the ground up rather than tapping into an established tradition, and because of that he’s had to work every little aspect of it out for himself over time, rather than become instantly powerful. In recent episodes he’s even gradually starting to get a glimpse of bigger truths, such as a monster that’s only readily visible to someone who has magic or a magic-charged light and an illness which quite probably has magical origins. It also has a harrowing early goblin attack involving one of the scariest goblins you’ll see in any anime series. Action animation is far from the smoothest, and it would be nice see the girls get to do more, but I like the approach that the series is taking with its storytelling and am interested to see where the series goes with it.

My Happy Marriage s2

Rating So Far: A-

This is the other top-level series so far this season. It easily stands among the best looking, matching even The Apothecary Diaries and Orb on its art design and gorgeous costuming, but it’s also managed a fairly compelling plot so far this season, too, including a suitably-intimidating villain and a new female friend for Miyo, who’s still working to fully understand her apparently-prodigious powers. The romance element has also been satisfyingly sweet. In general, this one has been a joy to watch.

Sakamoto Days

Rating So Far: B

Unquestionably this series has some of the best action staging and animation of the season, and the series is a success primarily on that strength. It does, at times, have some effective humor, and the way that Sakamoto’s “Dad bod” is a stark contrast to his godly skills is a constant source of amusement. So is how he fears his cute wife’s wrath worse than any assassin out to kill him. Shin serves well as the audience viewpoint, but later addition Lu has added far less to the mix so far. In general, the writing, plotting, and characterizations all feel pretty ordinary. Because of this, I can’t justify giving it a higher grade, but the series sure is fun to look at.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You s2

Rating So Far: B

This is another show where I can acknowledge that it’s good for its type without personally appreciating it. It definitely has its funny content in its second season episodes, including regular doses of fourth wall-breaking moments, and I’m finally starting to appreciate the zeal with which Rentaro endeavors to make all his girlfriends happy while collecting a few more. The new additions so far this season are little more than walking anime clichés: the Hungry Girl, the Devoted Maid, and most recently the Sports Jock, who is giving strong hits of doubling as the masochist. The cheesy business with the dinosaur-themed women’s baseball players was rather amusing, too. For all its effectiveness, though, I still can’t get much into the series and haven’t found its sheer ridiculousness (including a DBZ parody of all things!) enough to win me over. It’s one of the week’s lowest-priority views for me.

The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World

Rating So Far: B

This one is the other of my two top picks for Most Underappreciated Series this season. In playing its bombastic sentai team style straight, it finds a great balance between mildly serious content and sheer ridiculousness, all while finding a fair number of opportunities for sex appeal. (There’s even a strong suggestion in episode 6 that the two leads actually “get busy.”) Its genius is in getting the logic behind all the sentai team stuff to work, including especially the different ways that Red can power up by forming varying kinds of bonds with others. Doesn’t hurt that leads Red and Teltina have at least some chemistry, either. Hardly highbrow stuff, but definitely worth more of a look than it’s getting.

Übel Blatt

Rating So Far: C

The series is clearly trying to be an edgy, bloody fantasy revenge story. While the set-up is certainly there for it, the execution is sorely lacking, and I’m not sure if the blame rests more heavily on the writing or the direction; probably both. The story doesn’t flow well at all in its early stages, moments that are supposed to be emotionally intense end up feeling unintentionally comical, and despite a number of flashbacks, the story still hasn’t really firmed up yet why the foundational betrayal took place at all. Some of the costume design choices leave a lot to be desired, too, and some of the gimmickry being used to attempt to disguise limited animation looks painfully artificial. The last couple of episodes are a little better, but this series is, so far, nothing more than a wannabe in the realm of revenge thrillers.

Unnamed Memory Act.2

Rating So Far: B-

While its pacing, editing, and general story presentation are still far from flawless, this season is a distinct improvement over the first one in terms of presenting a coherent story. The story flows a bit more smoothly as the fact that Tuldarr never fell, and Tinasha never (technically) became a witch, alters how Oscar and Tinasha meet, what kind of crises they face, and how they gradually start to fall for each other. (Or, more precisely, Oscar is the one who has to be won over this time rather than Tinasha.) While the story has advanced to the point of the two effectively being betrothed by episode 7, some characters who were prominent in the first part never appear (Lucrezia has yet to debut in this timeline), while others play a much bigger role (Valt). The Witch of Silence shows up this time, and the truth behind why Oscar was cursed comes out, and satisfyingly, why this didn’t happen the first time around is made clear: the reasons behind it wouldn’t have made sense without Oscar traveling into the past. I still wouldn’t go as far as calling this a good series at this point, but it’s no longer a bottomfeeder, either.

Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!

Rating So Far: B

A number of other series outshine this one on the artistic front this season, but none – not even Guild Receptionist – beat it out when it comes to Best Couple. (Even if Kazuhiho and Marie don’t want to admit that they’re a romantic couple, they certainly give off that vibe.) The series has maintained a good balance between Modern Japan and Fantasy World elements so far, and I love that they haven’t just ignored the language barrier issue; it’s even been a major plot element at points, especially in the Japan side. In general, though, the series is just a pleasant, adorable view, one whose main flaw is shaky artistic merits.

ZENSHU.

Rating So Far: A-

For most of its run, this has been a series that I acknowledged as good rather than actually appreciated. MAPPA’s visual presentation has been strong, but I’ve found the power-up sequences to be overused, felt that the series at times solved its problems too easily (most notably in the case of Memerun), and made Natsuko’s ability too much of a deus ex machina device. Thankfully, episode 5 showed that Natsuko’s power is not infallible, but episode 7 is what has really both saved and elevated the series for me. It’s a fairly standard flashback-type episode to look at Natsuko’s past, but it’s cleverly done through the lens of how others both perceived Natsuko and experienced their first love towards her – to which she was, of course, completely oblivious. It’s a beautiful irony, since the lack of that is what’s caused Natsuko to hit a creative brick wall, but the visual presentation is handled so well that it may be the best overall episode of any series so far this season. What happens at the end of that episode also sets some intriguing possibilities for where the series will go next. For the first time this season, I’m actually enthusiastic about this one.

That’s it for now! As mentioned above, Guild Receptionist will get a full review when it finishes, and I am expecting at least one or two other special reviews over the course of March in addition to the weekly reviews of The Apothecary Diaries, so keep an eye out for those.

The Apothecary Diaries, episode 31

Rating: B+

The episode titled “The Shrine of Choosing” primarily involves one mystery while also setting up another. Unlike many other mysteries in the series, though, these aren’t life-or-death matters or (necessarily) connected to a bigger plot. Instead, these are mysteries which delves into the history of the setting.

The one that’s being set up for later is actually at the beginning of the episode and involves Jinshi’s dreams back to his early childhood. If we follow previous implications to assume that Jinshi is the current emperor’s actual son rather than younger brother, then the old man would be his great-grandfather and the current Emperor’s grandfather, which would make that man the one who was Emperor at the time of the envoy’s visit more than 50 years ago – in other words, the man who established the capital where it currently is and at least started the building of the current palace. (This is, incidentally, a point which is much clearer in the subtitles than in the English dub for episode 28 due to the way one line by the matron is translated. I will be curious to see if the dub script does something to compensate for that when it gets to this episode.) That dream strongly suggests that he went senile and so was tucked away somewhere on the palace grounds by the time Jinshi was a child, which means there’s a big story afoot there. The golden-looking item in the old man’s hand is also featured in the OP, so it has some later significance, too. But that’s all for next episode; none of that has anything to do with this episode’s post-OP content.

The main mystery involves a building that was briefly featured in the background back in episode 28: the Shrine of Choosing. Here it’s revealed to have once been a test for the nation’s rulers; only one who could successfully pass all the way through to a particular balcony could be substantiated as a worthy ruler. It fell out of that role two generations back due to circumstances causing any question of succession to be avoided, but the building still remains, and apparently the current Emperor has tried it once before; even though he didn’t need to, he still apparently desired the satisfaction of having his right to rule affirmed by tradition. But now he’s got a particularly smart servant girl at his disposal who might be able to solve the mystery that he couldn’t on his own.

Like many of the series’ mysteries, the design of this one is quite clever, as it’s based on an inherited genetic quirk. While color blindness is known in Asian populations, it’s much less common than in Caucasian populations. (That being said, Maomao’s comments about it in this episode are overstating how extreme the difference in frequency is if this is based on real-world data. Caucasian men are only twice as likely to have it as Asian men with the lowest frequency.) And since it can be hidden relatively easily, it not being common knowledge in such a population is believable, even for rulers. That determining the correct path is dependent on having (or at least being aware of) a certain kind of color blindness is a neat trick and an interesting (if imperfect) way to assure a pure lineage and certain degree of political influence.

The setting of the story has always lacked a bit for a deep sense of history, so I appreciate greatly that the second season seems to be emphasizing delving into at the least the recent past of the setting beyond just the last 20 years. I also appreciated the series bringing up the way foundational stories can be used to manipulative both historical and political narratives. Having extra little bits like that regularly worked in helps round out the series further.

Winter 2025 Mid-Season Report, part 1

The Winter 2025 season is wrapping up its seventh week, so it’s time to see how several of its series are doing.

Like with the past few seasons, I am mostly or entirely keeping up with a massive number of series this season (25 this time around), so I am once again splitting this endeavor into two parts to keep it from being too cumbersome a read. The titles in this part are ones which have reached at least their seventh episode of this season by 2/16/25. The second installment will cover titles that are hitting episode 6 or 7 in the period of 2/17-2/23. Neither will include The Apothecary Diaries or the delayed episodes of DanMachi (both of which I’m episode-reviewing separately), and Re:Zero will likely not be included in either since it’s only aired a couple of episodes so far; it will absolutely be covered in the season-ending wrap-up, though!

So without further ado. . .

Beheneko

Rating So Far: C+

The promise of the first episode wasn’t exaggerated: this is a prestige fan service title, with every one of the first eight episodes finding some excuse for defined nudity. It also eventually reveals itself to be a harem series, with no less than three of the ladies having some degree of sexual interest in the cat-presenting MC. (It makes sense in two cases, as blacksmith Vulcan is a cat person and Stella is a reincarnated dragon home Tama defeated. Aria, OTOH, just has some kinks.) If you can deal with that aspect and the possibly-offensive gay stereotype that is Anna, though, then this is a fun RPG-styled fantasy series which requires little mental commitment. Just don’t expect too much for consistent artistic quality, which is the main reason I’m not rating this one higher.

Bogus Skill <<Fruitmaster>>

Rating So Far: C

This one isn’t so much bad as just very, very ordinary. Its biggest mistake is having Light immediately get a super-strong second skill, rather than having to cycle through a few minor ones first. (This does happen later on in the midst of the series’ biggest fight of the first half, and how lame some of the skills are is one of the most interesting occurrences in the first half.) At least it does have some intrigue going on, and the presentation of Ayla’s Appraisal skill as invaluable is a marked contrast to one certain other series this season. This one does have a little bit of fan service (thankfully not involving Ayla) and doesn’t look bad, but there’s just not much here to get excited about.

Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four!

Rating So Far: B-

This one is taking a distinctly different trajectory compared to other isekai titles this season, in large part because Uchimura isn’t personally powerful; in fact, that he has no magic, special powers, or fighting skills at all makes him a major outlier among isekai protagonists. He’s just a businessman, but it’s his business acumen that the Demon Lord needs to grow his kingdom, and the series does a good job of finding ways for him to impress others by applying those skills. Basically, he’s the kind of guy that any major organization needs behind the scenes in order to grow and advance. The bar scenes where he does his personal reflections are neat, too. I could do without the somewhat harem-y lean, though, since at least one of the other generals is clearly romantically interested in him and the other two are gradually showing to be favorably disposed to him, too, and that gives the series a more ordinary feel. Still, it does enough to stand out as different enough in an overloaded field. The explanation for why demons dress so skimpily (it’s partly a fashion statement but not just that) is also a neat touch.

I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic

Rating So Far: C

There are a handful of isekai power fantasy series this season where the protagonist gets stupidly-powerful super-fast, and this is definitely on of them. By episode 7 he’s become betrothed to a princess (in a political marriage), founded his own village, is being pushed to found his own nation, gathered a cadre of powerful followers from assorted races (who all evolve for making familiar contracts with him), and oh, yeah, he has an ancient dragon within him, too – and that’s without factoring in the two pretty girls who are close confidants and wouldn’t necessarily object to him taking advantage of them even though he’s only 12 or maybe 13. Some of the dynamics here aren’t too much different from Farming Life in Another World, but this one doesn’t have half the charm that one does, and even Liam’s explorations into expanding his magic aren’t all that interesting. Coming up with things to keep legitimately challenging Liam is going to be a challenge, as is just finding things that will keep the viewer’s attention. At least it looks pretty decent.

I’m Living With a NEET Kunoichi

Rating So Far: C+

I fail to understand why this series is structured the way it is, as they’re literally airing two half-episodes together, complete with separate OP and ED for each. Why not either combine it into a true full-length episode or else just air each half as a separate episode? Are they using the extra plays of the reduced-length OP and ED to chew up time? (They do seem to be rotating through varying EDs, though.) That issue aside, this one started out as just a silly romp whose humor was mostly rote, predictable jokes that were very hit-or-miss, to the point that my interest in it was seriously flagging. A decidedly more serious turn in episode 6, followed by strong indications of an actual ongoing plot, have contributed heavily to renewing my interest in the series, however. It’s still a low-priority view in any given week, but I’m definitely grading it higher after episodes 6 and 7 (6a/b and 7a/b?) than I would have before.

I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class

Rating So Far: C+

In some senses the marriage gimmick has provided a slightly fresher angle on what is otherwise a bog-standard harem romcom (three girls are now clearly romantically interested in Saito, with Akane being the tsundere, and the end of episode 7 indicates that a potential fourth is incoming), but in other senses it weights the series down, limiting its more free-flowing energy. Doesn’t help that the writing feels like it’s forcing along Akane much more than Saito, either. But the series is being remarkably fan service-light and I can give it credit for at least trying to build more involved character dynamics. Right now it’s one of the two or three series closest to my cut line, so hopefully this newcomer will keep things interesting.

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

Rating So Far: A

Despite killing off core cast members on a semi-regular basis, the series doesn’t miss a beat as it progresses through two time skips to advance the timeline a total of 25 years. That brings the printing press and the Protestant Reformation into play and leads to the story focusing on Draka, a young Gypsy (?) woman whose conviction is tied to money rather than God or heliocentrism but nonetheless finds herself bridging the past and future when she comes upon Oczy’s book. She’s every bit as involving as the series’ previous leads (albeit in a markedly different way) and finds herself in no shortage of philosophical discussions as she interacts with the knights of the Heretic Liberation Front. Welcome returns by a couple of familiar faces are highlights, as is one of the most biting bits of irony ever put into an anime series, and production values on all writing and technical fronts continues to be high. This one will easily compete with The Apothecary Diaries for seasonal honors and will probably again be a top 5 series for the year if it continues what it’s doing so far.

Shangri-La Frontier s2

Rating So Far This Season: B+

This series was the reigning champ of video game play-throughs coming into this season, and nothing which has transpired during this season changes that. The first few episodes wrap up the encounter with Lycagon, and the series doesn’t dawdle long before pushing into the next big unique monster scenario: Ctarnidd of the Abyss, which is implied to be some kind of Kraken. That gives the series an excuse to set out on a boat before transitioning to an underwater scenario in an inverted city and allows for the introduction of a potentially interesting new recurring PC, all while keeping a few familiar faces from the Lycagon affair in the mix. A long-term plot were Rakuro getting invited to a video game tournament outside of SLF also gets thrown in. The series continues to reliably deliver on its action, technical merits, and dramatic OPs.

Solo Leveling

Rating So Far: B

In a season stocked with naked power fantasies, this is one of the purest and most edgelord of the lot. It’s all about Jinwoo being an ultimate badass at this point, and any semblance of a personality he had has largely been lost. That being said, the series does at least execute at a fairly high level, with a strong musical score, well-staged action scenes, plenty of flair, and at least a modicum of intrigue. The twist about Jinwoo’s long-lost father briefly showing up also promises interesting future developments, as does Jinwoo now officially being recognized as Rank S, and the thing about the flying monsters looks like it’s finally more than just foreshadowing. And hey, Jinwoo’s even getting a female groupie, too, in the form of the sexy female S-ranked Hunter! For all its faults, it’s genuinely one of the best series of its type right now.

That’s it for now. Come back next week for part 2!