Winter 2026 Preview Guide

Last Update: 1/10/26 at 4:12 p.m. EST Welcome to my seasonal Guide! The debut schedule can be found here. I expect to cover every full-episode series that will be debuting this season and is available in streaming form, including many of the sequels/returning series. The ones I will NOT be covering (because I’m not caughtContinue reading “Winter 2026 Preview Guide”

2025 in Review: The Best and Strangest of the Year

As we say good-bye to 2025, it’s time to take a look at the year as a whole rather than just the highlights of individual seasons. 2025 may have broken the record set in 2024 for anime titles either debuting or airing new seasons, as by my count over 210 non-kiddie titles made the schedule.Continue reading “2025 in Review: The Best and Strangest of the Year”

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 11 (season finale)

Episode Rating: A- Series Rating: B+ We’ve seen this franchise do massed battles featuring all of the characters for its climaxes three times before (including the movie), so how can the franchise mix that up? By making the climactic battle a musical, of course! Technically this is just following up from episode 10, where ClassContinue reading “Isekai Quartet 3, episode 11 (season finale)”

The Apocalypse Files #3

Episode 12 was clearly the series’ final episode, so it’s time for one last look at all of the strangeness and a general look back on the series as a whole. While there’s more natural splendor to experience here, the real highlight of the episode is something that fans have been longing for almost sinceContinue reading “The Apocalypse Files #3”

Special: Isekai in Audiobooks 2

Back in March I did a look at non-Japanese isekai stories based on their audiobook versions. Audiobook listening has since become an almost daily activity for me (and a staple on lengthy drives), and I have continued to mix a fair number of non-Japanese isekai series in among audiobooks of light novel series. Hence it’sContinue reading “Special: Isekai in Audiobooks 2”

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 10

Episode Rating: B It’s finally time for the music festival! This being Isekai Quartet, naturally the performances weren’t going to go off without the final boss showing up and a fight breaking out. It’s so expected at this point that hardly anyone in Class 2 even seems fazed by it. In fact, they take itContinue reading “Isekai Quartet 3, episode 10”

The Apocalypse Files #2

When I did the first installment of this exercise a few weeks back, I was half-jokingly making a reference to the classic TV series The X-Files with the title. After Touring After the Apocalypse episode 11, though, I have to take the reference more seriously. One of the key underlying implications of The X-Files wereContinue reading “The Apocalypse Files #2”

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 9

Rating: B+ The appeal of Isekai Quartet is heavily predicated on clever callbacks and sly applications of lore from its components series, so few things in the franchise truly count as plot twists. The revelation that the prize for the upcoming music contest might be one of the mysterious buttons which brought most of theContinue reading “Isekai Quartet 3, episode 9”

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 8

Rating: B- With all of the isekai groups trapped in a modern school setting, the series was bound to get around to one of the great and most crippling distractions of the modern world sooner or later: addictive online and/or mobile games. While this episode features an MMORPG, this is an issue doubtless familiar toContinue reading “Isekai Quartet 3, episode 8”