Kinda ironic that she's asking for permission to do so.

Odd Taxi

As with any mystery series, do watch it till the end for the payoff / reveal.

Here are my thoughts on some series I have watched recently.

Kaiju no. 8

This is the third anime of the season that I've completed (the other two being Konosuba and Dungeon Meshi). I'm surprised that I did not drop it before the end, given that it is quite a brainless battle shonen. I guess it helped that I cheated by skipping over the boring and filler scenes, and by turning my brain off for the rest of them.

I love the soundtracks though, especially the insert song Never Break Down which played during the climax.

Good enough to get a 5 / 10 from me.

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Solo Leveling

I was planning to ignore this series based on its synopsis and its genres + tags. I decided to give it a go now because of its high rating, and because friends assured me its not battle shonen.

Big mistake, because it's way worse than any generic battle shonen. This series screams wish fulfillment.

I can see how people who are not doing well in their lives can easily project themself onto the protagonist. Like, you are suffering because you drew the short end of the stick and life, and others look down on you. Then you got your big break in life, and yadda yadda yadda.

What takes the cake was

Solo Leveling

the rant he made before dying. That was peak loser behaviour.

It was so frustrating to watch that even skipping scenes and turning my brain off doesn't help, and eventually I dropped it at episode 5.

I'm giving it a 2 / 10. Its only saving grace is that it serves to elevate the top-tier series that I have watched earlier: Odd Taxi, Violet Evergarden, Heavenly Delusion, and 86.

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Mob Psycho 100 (season 1, 2 and OVA)

I decided to try it out since I've heard good things about it. Once I started watching it, some of its art style and humor seemed familiar to me. When I checked, sure enough, the author is also the one who wrote One Punch Man.

It feels like a mix of One Punch Man and Saiki K, combining Saiki Kusuo's psychic powers and desire to be low-key with the flashy battles plus humor of One Punch Man. It's good, but I don't find it as funny as either of them though.

I'm still planning to watch season 3.

On average, it's getting a score of 7.5 / 10 from me - for now.

Same.

In my case, Gundam: Witch from Mercury was the one that single-handedly brought me back into anime after 4?+ years of not watching.

Sounds interesting; I'm in

Exiled 100 Worlds

I enjoyed the novel, but got tired of waiting for new chapters to be released. Gonna wait for it to end first before picking it up again, but my sentiment is the same as yours.

Puberty, an All Boys School!?

Nice; and there's only 16 chapters. Gonna binge it after all chapters have been translated.

Planning to watch

My Wife Has No Emotion - The manga is great

My Deer Friend Nokotan - There's a lot of hype around it, and it seems weird enough

Senpai Is An Otokonoko

Looks like trash

Pretty much any of the generic isekai / harem / battle shonen shows

S

Senshi should be holding his wok

Good enough for me.

Only completed Konosuba and Dungeon Meshi for now.

Too busy to watch many shows anyway.

Previously, I chose Falin.

I'm choosing Laios now. He's just a great guy all around. He reminds me of Harry Potter: he's going to conquer the dungeon because he doesn't seek any riches and such from it.

Not interested in picking the manga up just yet, since we know for certain that the anime is getting a second season.

It's a common fan theory that Rentarou may zing with us, the reader, and this 4th wall break just made it seem much more likely.

Just completed Dungeon Meshi.

I certainly wasn't expecting such fantastic world-building for a cooking show. In fact, it's my first one, since cooking shows usually don't interest me, just like sports / music series.

The main cast of characters are likable too.

Overall, a solid 9/10 for now. Just like Heavenly Delusion, I've got to see more of it before settling on a final score. Glad to know that a season 2 has been announced.

Dungeon Meshi moment:

Yeah, and 151 pretty much confirms the reference

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Thanks for the recommendations!

Can't violate human rights if they are sub-human

Binged some masterpieces towards the end of the week.

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Violet Evergarden

This has got to be the anime with the most number of touching / tear-inducing moments for me. The set-up for some these moments make them quite obvious, but the execution is so good. Plus, Evan Call's music elevate these scenes so much.

I love the ending too. It provided closure, which is important to me.

Overall 10/10, and now one of my favourite series of all times.

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Heavenly Delusion

Such a good post-apocalyptic series, reminding me of Last of Us and Fallout.

spoiler for Heavenly Delusion + Fallout

I especially liked how it slowly showed how the post-apocalyptic world came to be, like in Fallout.

However, unlike Fallout, it never got around to showing the rest of the apocalyptic event. It ended too early IMO. It could really use a second part or season.

I understand that there may be a lack of source material (manga?) at the time of airing, but that's still no good for me. And unfortunately, it looks like the manga is far from complete based on the number of chapters published.

Overall 9/10, though I may bump the score up depending on any future seasons.

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86

Other viewers have probably pointed it out already, but this is basically a Gundam series.

There are so many parallels to various Gundam series

spoiler for 86 + Gundam SEED + Gundam 00 + Iron Blooded Orphans + Witch from Mercury + Violet Evergarden + Godzilla Minus One

The first part is basically Iron Blooded Orphans. The 86-ed / discarded child soldiers are human debris, and the way Shin pilots his Juggernaut is the same as Mika in Barbatos. Shin wields his pistol similarly to Mika, and is about as stoic too (though his stoicism reminds me more of Setsuna from 00).

Lena took on the princess role that is ever present in Gundam. She is pretty much Miorine from Witch from Mercury, and I liked her so much for it: she has the same righteous sense of justice, is feisty, and most importantly, is a go-getter, willing to put up a fight instead of just waiting to be rescued. And of course both of them have white hair.

In the second part, the specialisation of their mechs are similar to the Gundam meisters in 00, though it is not an exact match. Kurena's role is one of obvious ones, being the sniper like Lockon in Dynames. Anju handles artillery / barrage attacks, which reminds me of Buster from SEED. Theo's speedster mech and superior positioning is like Allelujah in Kyrios. Raiden's unit seems to be a generic one, like the Duel from SEED. And finally Shin is the other obvious one, being the melee specialist like Setsuna in Exia.

Besides the usual "war bad" message that is typical of war series, there's also an emphasis on moving forward like in Witch from Mercury (and recently for me, Violet Evergarden and Godzilla Minus One). Though, Lena took care of Shin's survivor's guild / PTSD in just a few minutes, something that Lacus struggled with for Kira across multiple episodes (which is more realistic TBH).

And lastly, we cannot ignore the class discrimination / racism / xenophobia, a mainstay of most Gundam series. There are probably more similarities that I can't remember.

Anyway, it essentially combines all the good parts of Gundam series that I have watched into one; the grittiness of Iron Blooded Orphans, the all-out war like in Gundam SEED and finally the happy ending of Witch from Mercury. I love it so much.

The only things missing are humanoid mechs (which is a bit of pity due to the lack of opportunity for merch). Also, it has an easier way out of the conflict due to the common enemy for humans unlike in Gundam. These are just nitpicks really.

Other thoughts on 86:

spoiler for 86

There are so many moments I liked. Off the top of my head:

• Lena's uncle pointing out her and her father's hypocrisy in their way of thinking
• Fido's flashbacks
• Fido's revival (yeah it is bullshit plot armour, but I'd rather things not get too tragic)

The most memorable moment for me has got to be the last 4 mins of the whole series. I thought it was going to blue-ball me in the previous episode, so thank goodness for this.

Also, I liked how even the side characters are not one-dimensional (e.g. some commanders appear to discriminate against them simply due to xenophobia, but it turns out they did so for other reasons).

To top it off, the attention to details (and references!) and the soundtracks are phenomenal.

Overall 10/10, another top series of all time for me. Unlike the previous two series, I did not have another good series planned after this, and I wanted to take a break from tragedy-themed shows, so I had post-anime depression / syndrome for a short while. It doesn't help that the light novel is incomplete, because I prefer to binge all of it.

Luckily for me, I noticed that a recent mech movie is available.

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Gundam SEED Freedom

Like others pointed out, this movie is much needed fan-service and closure for old SEED fans.

It's really pretty much the Gundam SEED I enjoyed, but with better animations that do not get reused.

spoiler for Gundam SEED Freedom

There's a bit of unnecessary melodrama, with Kira regressing to being a whiny bitch who lost faith in Lacus, but that punch from Athrun makes up for it.

Also, it ended up focusing more on the romance aspect more than I expected, but I don't think it's a bad thing.

Like 86, I can't name just one moment to be the best:

• how to miss every shot
• the best strategy is to charge straight ahead
• Shin can't be mind-controlled because he's literally no thoughts, head empty
• Athrun prevents mind control by showing (soft) porn
• Mu and Murrue
• Lacus stopped being a damsel in distress, and used her SEED mode to great effect

Overall 9/10, such a satisfying conclusion to the series as a whole.