This season’s high point was amazing… And not just because everything else was mid or worse. I’m guessing you can guess the high, but what about the rest?
Hit the jump and find out!
The shows that I’m watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics, strikethrough marks dropped shows and (*) marks shows that are watched but not regularly reviewed.
A reminder on my rankings… they’re on a five point scale to coincide with my rankings on Anime Planet. But one 2.5 can often be different from another 2.5, so where needed I supplement them here with verbal comments to clarify.
Bartender Glass of God
Bartender: Kami no Glass
In the end, the whole was less than the sum of its parts. Its inconsistent plot lines weren’t enough to buoy it up and detracted from what might have been a perfectly good episodic series. It would have been ten billion percent better if it had made up it’s mind what it wanted to be and stuck consistently to it.
Final Ranking: 2.0 (Just barely hanging on by the skin of its teeth.)
Almost every season has one show that I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to not watch or to drop early on. Kami no Glass is this season’s prime candidate.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai
After the first three episodes, I was giving Jellyfish my strongest possible recommendation. I was already clearing a space on the podium for it next to Euph and Yorimoi.
Man, did I end up with egg on my face.
It stumbled right in eps 4/5, and never recovered. They kept taking chances… But then the writers/director would take the safe choice and unsatisfying resolutions, or they’d simply pretend they’d never taken the chance in the first place. The last third or so was a particularly muddled mess of half-ass plot developments.
Poor Kiwi – the climactic part of her character arc got about enough effort as the average throwaway/side story. And then they promptly moved on because they were running out of time.
The final ep, was a particular mess. It was filled with deus ex machina and “let’s wrap up everything all undeservedly nice and pretty”. And then they had the gall to end the episode with a ten minute epilogue.
Final Ranking: 2.0
Oh, Jellyfish. What you could have been.
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
Seiyuu Radio no Uraomote
Well, that could have gone better. I could see what they were trying to do… But the writing, direction, and acting could never quite close the sale. This goes double for the all important relationship between Satou and Watanabe. Two tsundere(ish) characters would have been difficult in the best of series.
And it’s most critical fault is that never failed to reach for the sledgehammer when it should have at its most subtle. I kept saying to the screen “I get it already, can we just move on?”.
Final Ranking: 2.0 I’m just floored at how hard they tried and how awesomely they failed.
Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf
Ookami to Koushinryou: merchant meets the wise wolf
I’ll be honest, in a lot of ways this season kinda sucked. In the first half, the staff did not at all seem confident in their material. I can give the director and animation staff a pass, they’re new. But I’ll reserve a stern glance for the VAs because they’re reprising their earlier roles.
But the second half… Yeah, that’s the stuff. That’s what I expected from Spicy Wolf. I won’t say it redeemed itself entirely, but damm it was good. The forest scenes in the final arc were in particular pure awesome sauce.
Current Ranking: 3.5 So close. So effing close to greatness.
(Related note: After last night’s episode, and Holo’s discovery of what Lawrence had been hiding from her… *WOW*.)
My Hero Academia
Boku no Hero Academia
Academia premiered late, is still ongoing, and during the weeks of the Spring Season… Mostly engaged in setting the stage for the Final Battle.
No comment, no ranking.
Laid-Back Camp 3rd Season
Yuru Camp Season 3
This is… a hard season to review. As a manga reader, I’m pleased with what I got to see animated. Especially the chain bridge scenes with Rin and Ayano, and the Chaos Camp arc in mid season. (With it’s insane fourth wall breaking.) And I always knew it would kind of slide out the door at the end without the climactic Big Trip that capped the previous seasons.
I can also see why anime-onlies might feel a little lost. There was quite a bit in the last quarter or so of the season that only makes sense if you’re more caught up with the manga. (Spoilers sweetie!) The studio change did it no favors eithers. The backgrounds were jarring, though the character designs did not bother me. They’re much closer to the manga than the previous season.
In the end, I still eagerly anticipated it each week, and I know others did too. It was still comfy and fun even though it never reached the heights of the first two seasons. And there’s no question I’ll be back if there’s ever an S4. (Which will be a while yet, as it’s nearly caught up with the published material.)
For reference, I rated both previous seasons 4.0 (my trembling on the edge of greatness slot).
Final ranking: 3.5 (The bloom is off the rose, but it’s still a damm fine show.)
Sound! Euphonium 3
Hibike! Euphonium 3
Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin… In some ways, this season frustrated me. But in the end, it was absolutely something amazing. So, let’s just run through the points more or less in the order they occur to me.
For much of the season, I was mildly annoyed at the pacing. They were really speeding along, and important stuff happened kinda offscreen. But I bow my head, because the Kyoani staff was wiser than I. In retrospect, they concentrated on what we needed to see and left it to the informed viewer to fill in the blanks. We didn’t need to see all the practice sessions or performances, I mean we have two seasons worth of that to draw on. Dumping the ‘filler’ meant concentrating on what really mattered.
As the season progressed… My wife and I came to conclusion that Reina is more socially awkward and insecure than we’d previously thought. From that perspective, there’s quite a bit in the previous seasons that now makes more sense.
Watching her bow when Kumiko and Shuuichi were apologizing to the band really brought home how much she was willing to compromise herself… if that gave the band a better shot. (And once again Shuuichi was Sir Practically Not Appearing In This Show.) But then, we’ve also long known how goal oriented she was.
Kumiko was the opposite, but to the same end. It was gratifying to watch how she’d finally learned to stand unbending for something. To actually have a goal and to keep her eyes on the prize. Though it was grating to see Kuroe keep going over the same ground…
The final episode what a thing of pure beauty. If you paid attention, much of the performance (especially the solo part) was framed almost exactly like the finale of S1… This served to drive home how much had changed, but weirdly enough how much was still the same. A theme they repeated several times over the course of this season.
This moment in the finale caught my eye, because the emphasis given to adults in the audience just seemed weird and out of place. A week after the finale aired… a series of tweets revealed the why behind the cut was composed the way it was.
The adults are the Kyoani/Sound Euphonium staffers who lost their lives in the arson attack five years ago. The director of the current season wanted to ensure that their work was honored and that they were present to witness Kitauji’s triumph.
(Dammit, I’m still tearing up, even on my final editing pass.)
And the epilogue, the final frame… I still have no words that don’t seem banal by comparison.
Final ranking: 5.0 No comment. None needed.
For reference, S1 was ranked 4.0, and S2 was ranked 3.5
Whisper Me a Love Song
Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau
Whisper isn’t actually ended… But ever since the narrative focus drifted away from Himari and Yori, it’s become something of a mess. The latter half has been unnecessarily melodramatic.
And even after a two week break, it still has animation problems.
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Honestly, even with Euph and the Yuru Campers, not the best of seasons. But Euph alone more than made of for that… And I’m not saying that just because I’m a Euph fanboy. Life is like that, eh? Already we’re getting deep into the next season and I’m still behind on premieres. (That’ll be by Fri, crossing fingers.)
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And that’s a wrap folks! Drop a comment with your thoughts on the Spring 2024 season or anything else that’s on your mind!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
This is the first I heard about the adults in the Euphonium audience; I briefly wondered but didn’t think much about it. Good lord, I can’t look at that picture straight. That was such a tragedy.
As for the show: It was okay for me, with very high highlights. My problem with music competitions is that I generally don’t care who wins. Interestingly, in the audition I’d have picked Kumiko’s performence: sounded better to me, and also harmonised better with the trumpet.
Similarly, Yuru Camp is just… too familiar to me at this point. I like it, but there are severe diminishing returns for me.
Jellyfish, to me, had a really good first episode, but never lived up to that afterwards. I think, overall I’m a little more positive on the show than you are. Kiui is definitely my favourite character in the show; she rescued a lot for me. But, yeah, there’s plenty of unmined potential. I didn’t really expect a much different ending, to be honest. Anime almost always holds family as an untouchable value.
I was fine with Voice Actor Radio, but I have little to say. And, yeah, Spice and Wolf isn’t quite the old show, but I’m liking it well enough. I personally don’t see much of a difference between the two halves. I’m glad to have the show, but it’s not quite the Fruits Basket level quality remake I’d have liked.
For me, the season was dominated by Dungeon Meshi (best world building in a long while; yup, better than Frieren), Tonari no Youkai san (slightly downwards trend, but still really good), Crow doesn’t Choose the Master (pretty good mythical/historical court intrigue show), and Salad Bowl (the sort of multi character show I tend enjoy). Beyond that we also had Dorei Elf (similar but not as good as the recent Lessons in Naughtiness) and the finale to Shinigami Bocchan. All in all a pretty decent season for me.
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Ah, yes, Tonari no Yōkai-san. The more world-shaking it got, the less interested I was. It should have stuck with the “these are the yōkai in my neighborhood” vibe and not gone so much for the “here I come to save the day!” one. For example, there’s this fun little middle-school romance subplot featuring Rein the kappa and a human boy whose name I forget that gets some side-story references, then most of an episode that sets up more to come, and then is swamped underneath the arrival of the oni plot and forgotten. Maybe next season, if there is one?
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I’m not sure where I stand on this. I found the world-building both interesting and consistent/coherent. But I, too, got less involved with the world-shaking events. The interpersonal stuff was definitely most interesting. What did work for me was the “return” of Mutsuki’s dad, for example, but it sort of need some of the buildup (though not necessarily the high-stakes action drama involved). But, yeah, up close and personal was what the show did best without a doubt.
I’d rank the show a tier below stuff like Natsume Yujinchou or Mokke, but alongside shows like Kamichu or Peto-Peto san.
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I already knew that I wanted to see Natsume’s Book of Friends, but you’ve just added three more series to my “want to see” list. Unfortunately, it looks like none of those three are available for legal streaming. Now to decide if Mokke sounds interesting enough for me to go the route I’ve only gone before with Sugar Sugar Rune.
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Re: Euph
>Interestingly, in the audition I’d have picked Kumiko’s performance: sounded better to me, and also harmonised better with the trumpet.
I picked the first, what I thought Kumiko’s, because I thought it sounded so much better. So *alive*. (I seem to be the only person who thought that.) Turned out that in reality, that was Kuroe’s. So Reina’s anguish really hit home to me.
re: Jellyfish
>I didn’t really expect a much different ending, to be honest. Anime almost always holds family as an untouchable value.
I get that, and you’re exactly spot on. Though it wasn’t the family part I was objecting to so much as how pat it was and how matter of factly it was tossed ungraciously on the table. That’s the whole finale in a nutshell, it just felt unearned.
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Re: Bartender: Yeah. At the end, I was left asking myself what I took away from the series, and the answer was, “Pretty much nothing of note.” It was a nice vehicle to present some ideas about high-end cocktail preparation, but it needed more depth to its characters and their stories.
Re: Jellyfish: I am so very sad at how the early episodes ended up wasted because the pacing wasn’t given proper consideration. Also, someone needed to sit them down and make them decide whether it was going to have a yuri subplot or not.
Re: Spicy Wolf: Still happy with it. And I was watching the earlier adaptation (for the first time!) right up to the midpoint of the current season. I have heard that there are likely to be some differences in this cour due to it being a closer adaptation of the manga, but so far it’s mostly the same which is fine by me. Anyway, very happy with it.
Re: Yurucamp: I’m not a manga reader for it, but it’s exactly what I want to see from the show, still. No notes.
Re: Whisper: A bit of a roller coaster. I came into it with no expectations and was quickly surprised by its quality and interesting characters. Turned out they only really had about six episodes of a story, though, so then they started to explore other characters and add new ones, with uneven results. Then production problems. Hopefully they can pull it off, not flub it like Wonder Egg Priority got done by its delayed ending.
Shows you didn’t watch, part one: Mysterious Disappearances: After the writer got over the distasteful “joke” about the main character having a large chest, this quickly rose in quality. A nice, episodic supernatural mystery show with reasonably good pacing. A major character or two are dropped along the way as their stories are resolved, but it works out in the end and leaves room for further exploration.
Shows you didn’t watch, part two: A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics: A fun, kinda over-the-top reverse isekai, but without too many of the cliches that might be expected. Nice, cheerful, whimsical adventures.
Shows you didn’t watch, part three: Black Butler: Ciel goes to public school and wins the Big Game, plus other stuff happens and Sebastian carries him in his arms almost-sensually. Then Ciel stops the end of the world again with Sebastian’s help. Fans of Black Butler get exactly what they signed up for, and I claim that am not sure if I’m coming back. But, I mean, it’s fun.
I might say something about Urusei Yatsura and Wonderful Pretty Cure!, but nobody else seems to show any interest, and neither series is particularly groundbreaking now.
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Re: Jellyfish: “Someone needed to sit them down” really nails what was wrong with the entire latter 2/3rds of the show… (Not just the yuri plot.) It felt like a first draft, or maybe like they were working out the details as they went along. Nobody ever went back and cleaned it up.
Re: Yuru Camp: That bit about “anime onlies” (which was not meant to be derogative) was based mainly on some things I’ve seen people (particularly Xenodude) say elsewhere. I saw what I took be genuine confusion about the plot and at least some moderate disappointment over the lack of a Big Camp Event at the very end.
Re: Whisper: I think we’re 100% in agreement. First half, just shy of outstanding. Then it went kinda off the rails.
My wife watches Black Butler, and she noped out about 3-4 episodes in.
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Depending on how your wife feels about the Undertaker character in Black Butler, she might want to go back and finish it someday.
Agreed on Jellyfish, for sure. Not the first time I’ve seen an anime produced that way, but for every Eva there’s a dozen like Kamisama ni Natta Hi, and disappointment seems like a common outcome for that production style.
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My best new show for the season was Girls Band Cry. Story, character building, VA performances, songs, and animation quality were all top notch. Its animation was a real stand out and was big step forward in both performance and general 3D animation. It also did what Jellyfish could not, and did not attempt to resolve everyone’s issues by the last episode. If you get the chance I strongly recommend a look. Its a tribute to its quality that it was able to capture a large audience outside of Japan without a major streaming service release backing it. I’m hoping for a second season but Toeii Animation are non-committal at this stage.
Jellyfish’s cookie cutter ending brought the show down a few notches for me. In the end was just cute girls doing v-tuber things.
Finally I will give a shoutout to another show no-one probably watched and that is Highspeed Etoile, which I thought was pretty good in the end. It doesn’t have a lot of overt character development going on, and the star of the show (once you get used to the CGI style) are certainly the futuristic cars (descendants of modern F.1 cars) and the races they participate in. This suits Studio A-Cats economical style of story telling and I found the car races quite engrossing once you work out who is who in the competition. While there a few little plot holes about how the mechanics of their power systems work (Because anime), its not really a major issue. Its just a fun ride watching quite taut car racing grounded in real world F.1 strategy and tactics.
Another standout for me was the release of the latest Haikyu! movie, the long awaited Battle of the Dumpster. Its typical Haikyu, with high quality animation depicting Karusuno’s latest struggle on its way to the top of Japanese high school volleyball. I thought it a little rushed as its hard to get everything into a 100 minute movie but it worked well just the same. There is another movie on the way regarding future matches, though a 5th series would be better as they can do much more with the story and characters in a series than in a shorter movie.
I tried Black Butler as as newbie to the series and only lasted three episodes. It wasn’t bad but wasn’t that good either and its magic academy story etc has been done better elsewhere.
Whisper is an interesting one. I’ve watched a few episodes and thought it okay. Did you know the director walked out after the second or third episode? Apparently after that the studio were putting together episodes with different directors and using what storyboard material the old director had left. It does seem the show has ground to a halt at episode 10 and I guess its anybodies’ guess if it will ever get finished or not.
Salad Bowl was a favorite of mine this season and was able to keep its jokes going until the final episode. I particularly liked the sense of irony Salad Bowl displayed too.
I enjoyed Dungeon Meshi too though I thought it ran out of steam towards the end of its run which featured (for me anyway) a couple of shark jumping moments, when they took the story just that little bit too far and left behind the elements that made the show good in the first place.
All in all it wasn’t a bad season and was rescued from the merely average by the appearance of Girls Band Cry.
Now its on to Summer, the season of the rom-com…
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Where did you hear that about Whisper? My understanding is that the original director had to step down due to “health issues” before the show even got going but was replaced right away and had the same director through its run. It’s based on a manga, so I’m trying to understand what happened with it.
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Looks like Jellyfish is the only show we had in common…
>Jellyfish’s cookie cutter ending brought the show down a few notches for me. In the end was just cute girls doing v-tuber things.
Yeah, “cookie cutter” is the perfect way to put it. The “perfect” capstone on what started so strong and then completely fell apart.
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