With the last handful of titles for the Winter 2024 season having now aired, let’s take a summative look at what worked well and what didn’t this season. Because of the high volume of titles I managed to follow this season, covering every one of them here would make this post cumbersomely long. Hence IContinue reading “Winter 2024 Wrap-Up”
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The Apothecary Diaries, episode 24 (season finale)
Episode Rating: A Overall Series Rating: A After the dramatic events, revelations, and symbolism of last episode, there was really only one final climax possible for this series, but that doesn’t make Lakan discovering and then picking Fengxian as the courtesan he’s going to buy out any less moving or satisfying. He’s intuitive enough toContinue reading “The Apothecary Diaries, episode 24 (season finale)”
8 Lessons From Frieren
With its 28th episode, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ends its initial run. By any reasonable metric, it has been a huge hit on both sides of the Pacific, to the degree that it not eventually getting further animation is inconceivable. (My guess is that we’ll see more late next year.) I could write a fullContinue reading “8 Lessons From Frieren”
The Apothecary Diaries, episode 23
Rating: A The Apothecary Diaries is undeniably Maomao’s series, though Jinshi has increasingly had his viewpoint represented of late. That makes episode 23 a major aberration, since not once during the episode is Maomao’s perspective used. However, despite our adorable little freak being limited to what essentially amounts to a supporting role, and despite theContinue reading “The Apothecary Diaries, episode 23”
The Apothecary Diaries, episode 22
Rating: A- Though he’s hardly one of the more likable characters in the series, Lakan is still an intriguing one. He’s ferociously smart and a superior judge of character and ability (last episode strongly implied that he is responsible for Lihaku being where he is, for instance), which allows him to maintain a high positionContinue reading “The Apothecary Diaries, episode 22”
Winter ’24 Mid-Season Round-Up, part 2
In Part 1 last week, I covered series that have not been getting episode reviews at Anime News Network. In this installment, I will be offering my take on series that I am following that are getting week-to-week coverage. In most cases, these are the season’s more popular and/or noteworthy productions, so it’s not aContinue reading “Winter ’24 Mid-Season Round-Up, part 2”
The Apothecary Diaries, episode 20
Rating: A The Incident may be over, but the mysteries surrounding it aren’t, and as this great follow-up shows, they may not be for quite some time. Jinshi has always given the impression of having far more on his plate than Maomao was ever aware of, and this episode only codifies more clearly how broadContinue reading “The Apothecary Diaries, episode 20”
Winter ’24 Mid-Season Round-Up, part 1
Really, this should have been started last week, when the earliest-starting series were first hitting episode 7s, but sometimes real life intrudes. Anyway, I have plenty of time this week and next for some extra writing, so let’s take a look at how a bevy of series this season that I’m not actively episode-reviewing areContinue reading “Winter ’24 Mid-Season Round-Up, part 1”
The Apothecary Diaries, episode 19
Rating: A+ This episode represents the biggest dramatic peak in this part of the story. It is the culmination of everything that has happened so far this season and some details going back to last season, too, all bound together into one grand scheme, one greater even than the schemers who are active parts ofContinue reading “The Apothecary Diaries, episode 19”
The Apothecary Diaries: Episode 16
Rating: A- Another episode, another mystery for Maomao, but this time it’s a longer one – taking up nearly the whole episode – and doesn’t involve the cause of harm or death, but rather the aftermath of it. In other words, the mystery is a puzzling will. One slight beef I’ve always had with mysteriesContinue reading “The Apothecary Diaries: Episode 16”
USA Anime 